Features

How Cancers Evolve Drug Resistance

Circadian Rhythms Influence Treatment Effects
The Literature

Extra Centrosomes Can Drive Tumor Formation in Mice
Mice engineered to overproduce the organelles involved in cell division spontaneously develop malignancies.

Scientists Successfully Transplant Human Leukemia Cells into Mice
While studying the progression of healthy cells into cancerous ones, researchers discover a way to engraft human blood cells into animals.

Starvation Response Triggers Melanoma Invasion
Through similar mechanisms, amino acid depletion in culture and cytokine activity in the tumor microenvironment prompt cancer cells to metastasize.
Profiles

Location, Location, Location
Since first proposing that a cell’s function and biology depend on its surroundings, Mina Bissell continues to probe the role of the extracellular matrix.
Scientist to Watch

Angela Brooks: Splicing Specialist
At the University of California, Santa Cruz, the researcher combs the cancer genome, looking for weaknesses.
Lab Tools

Gel Scaffolds for Delivery of Immunotherapies
Using biocompatible polymers to carry cancer immune therapies directly to the tumor

Tracking the Evolutionary History of a Tumor
Analyzing single cell sequences to decipher the evolution of a tumor
Reading Frames

How Will Cancer Research Fare Under Trump?
The new administration has not yet made its intentions clear.
Foundations

A History of Screening for Natural Products to Fight Cancer
In the middle of the 20th century, the National Cancer Institute began testing plant extracts for chemotherapeutic potential—helping to discover some drugs still in use today.
Bio Business

Making CAR T-Cell Therapy Safer
Following a spate of patient deaths in clinical trials testing modified T cells for the treatment of cancer, researchers work to reduce the treatment’s toxicity without sacrificing efficacy.
Contributors

Contributors
Meet some of the people featured in the April 2017 issue of The Scientist.
Editorial

Hitting It Out of the Park
Cancer can be as evasive and slippery as a spitball, but new immunotherapies are starting to connect.
Speaking of Science

Notable Science Quotes
Eugene Garfield, the cancer moonshot, employee genetic testing, and more
Freeze Frame

Caught on Camera
Selected Images of the Day from the-scientist.com
Notebook

Streakers, Poopers, and Performers: The Wilder Side of Wildlife Cameras
Human visitors to camera traps display, well, human behavior.

Cooking Up Cancer?
Overcooked potatoes and burnt toast contain acrylamide, a potential carcinogen that researchers have struggled to reliably link to human cancers.

Record-Setting Corn Grows 45 Feet Tall
A plant breeder succeeds in growing a huge maize plant thanks to a known mutation and a few environmental tricks.

ACS Statistics Reveal Continuing Declines in Cancer Mortality
Despite an overall decrease in the number of US cancer deaths, some cancer types are on the rise, and disparities remain between genders and ethnicities.
Critic at Large

Opinion: More Biomarkers Needed for Cancer Immunotherapy
Measuring PD-L1 levels was a great start. Now we need to quantify more protein biomarkers, assess the tumor mutational landscape, and examine immune cell signatures, too.
Modus Operandi

Targeting Tregs Halts Cancer’s Immune Helpers
New monoclonal antibodies kill both cancer-promoting immunosuppressive cells and tumor cells in culture.
News Analysis

Lipids Take the Lead in Metastasis
Researchers find diverse ways that the molecules can regulate cancer’s spread.