Features
How Cancers Evolve Drug Resistance
Anna Azvolinsky | Apr 1, 2017
Researchers unravel the sophisticated ways cancers evade treatments, including immunotherapies, designed to destroy them.
Neoantigens Enable Personalized Cancer Immunotherapy
Stephen P. Schoenberger and Ezra Cohen | Apr 1, 2017
Tumors’ mutations can encode the seeds of their own destruction, in the form of immunogenic peptides recognized by T cells.
Circadian Rhythms Influence Treatment Effects
Jyoti Madhusoodanan | Apr 1, 2017
Across many diseases, taking medication at specific times of day may make the therapy more effective.
Contributors
Contributors
Contributors
Meet some of the people featured in the April 2017 issue of The Scientist.
Editorial
Hitting It Out of the Park
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
Notable Science Quotes
Eugene Garfield, the cancer moonshot, employee genetic testing, and more
Freeze Frame
Caught on Camera
Caught on Camera
Selected Images of the Day from the-scientist.com
Notebook
Streakers, Poopers, and Performers: The Wilder Side of Wildlife Cameras
Streakers, Poopers, and Performers: The Wilder Side of Wildlife Cameras
Human visitors to camera traps display, well, human behavior.
Cooking Up Cancer?
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
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
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
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.
News Analysis
Lipids Take the Lead in Metastasis
Lipids Take the Lead in Metastasis
Researchers find diverse ways that the molecules can regulate cancer’s spread.
Modus Operandi
Targeting Tregs Halts Cancer’s Immune Helpers
Targeting Tregs Halts Cancer’s Immune Helpers
New monoclonal antibodies kill both cancer-promoting immunosuppressive cells and tumor cells in culture.
The Literature
Starvation Response Triggers Melanoma Invasion
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.
Extra Centrosomes Can Drive Tumor Formation in Mice
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
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.
Profile
Location, Location, Location
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
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
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
Tracking the Evolutionary History of a Tumor
Analyzing single cell sequences to decipher the evolution of a tumor
Bio Business
Making CAR T-Cell Therapy Safer
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.
Reading Frames
How Will Cancer Research Fare Under Trump?
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
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.