Tag Archives: irb

Flies with colon cancer help unravel genetic keys to disease in humans

“The breakthrough is that we have generated cancer in an adult organism and from stem cells, thus reproducing what happens in most types of human cancer. This model has allowed us to identify subtle interactions in the development of cancer that are practically impossible to detect in mice with the current technology available,” explains the biologist Andreu Casali, Associate Researcher at IRB Barcelona and leader of the Drosophila project. …

Wasp venom used in new therapy for breast cancer

Despite there currently being a wide variety of compounds against cancer, they all have serious side effects. Furthermore, tumours are capable of becoming resistant, limiting this type of treatment. …

Insight on cell migration, movement of cancer cells

Jordi Casanova, head of the "Morphogenesis in Drosophila" lab at IRB Barcelona and CSIC research professor, and Gaëlle Lebreton, postdoctoral fellow in the same group, have published a study performed using Drosophila melanogaster in the Journal of Cell Science. This work reveals that in a multiple movement, a single cell can act as the leader and can drag the rest with it. The scientists have studied the tracheal development of Drosophila in vivo and describe the morphological characteristics of the leading cell and provide molecular details about how it drives the movement. "Cancer researchers are keen to know how cells are organized to achieve migration and to form new capillaries to feed an expanding cancerous tumor," explains Gaëlle Lebreton, first author of the article. …