The paper:
B.A. Weaver et al., "Aneuploidy acts both oncogenically and as a tumor suppressor," Cancer Cell, 11:25–36. (Cited in 70 papers)
The finding:
Beth Ann Weaver, a cell biologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, showed that mice with lower levels of centromere protein E (CENP-E), a motor protein that sorts chromosomes during mitosis, had higher rates of abnormal chromosome numbers, or aneuploidy. CENP-E–deficient mice also had more spleen and lung tumors but, surprisingly, had fewer liver tumors.
The controversy:
Weaver's group claimed that aneuploidy was the sole culprit in altered tumor formation rates, but CENP-E might have other effects, too, says Robert Benezra of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. "You can never be sure that you are only inducing aneuploidy," he says. The Mayo Clinic's Jan van Deursen agrees: "The claim that this is the best model for aneuploidy is a little bit overblown."
The look back:
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