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Divide or Die?
29 September 2016

Divide or Die?

Some people call it luck, others call it destiny; whichever way you see it, success is often down to being in the right place at the right time. This is as true for cells as it is for people. Researchers investigated how location affects potentially cancerous cells. Studying developing fruit fly wings, they created mutant cells lacking the genes that prevent tumour formation. These cells behaved differently depending on their position within the tissue. In so-called 'hotspots' they rampantly divided but elsewhere they died. Cells in hotspots were structurally different in several ways. One difference, revealed by electron microscopy and shown here falsely coloured, was the presence of many more protrusions (red) extending from the base of cells in these regions. Uncovering whether such differences in tissue architecture produce tumour hotspots in mammalian cells is next on the agenda.

Written by Lux Fatimathas

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BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

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