Top 7 in Cancer Biology

A snapshot of the most highly ranked articles in cancer biology and related areas, from Faculty of 1000

Written byBob Grant

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New lung cells in early anaphaseNATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH

1. The genome shuffle

In some cancers, chromosomes are broken apart and stitched back together, resulting in tens to hundreds of spontaneous genomic rearrangements, contravening the model of slowly accumulating point mutations and more subtle chromosome rearrangements. The process, dubbed "chromothripsis," occurs in at least 2-3 percent of all cancers, across many subtypes, and is present in 25 percent of bone cancers.

P.J. Stephens, et al., "Massive genomic rearrangement acquired in a single catastrophic event during cancer development," Cell, 144:27-40, 2011.

2. Chromosome segregation key

Getting chromosome segregation right during mitosis is crucial to accurate cell division, and this delicate orchestration depends on the proper formation and localization of the kinetochore, a protein complex normally formed in the cell's centromere. New research shows that two ...

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Meet the Author

Bob Grant
From 2017 to 2022, Bob Grant was Editor in Chief of The Scientist, where he started in 2007 as a Staff Writer. Before joining the team, he worked as a reporter at Audubon and earned a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University. In his previous life, he pursued a career in science, getting a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology from Montana State University and a master’s degree in marine biology from the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Bob edited Reading Frames and other sections of the magazine.
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