How premalignant cells can sense oncogenesis, halt growth
Since the 1980s, scientists have known that mutations in a human gene called RAS are capable of setting cells on a path to cancer. Today, a team at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) publishes experiments showing how cells can respond to an activated RAS gene by entering a quiescent state, called senescence. CSHL Professor Nicholas Tonks and Benoit Boivin, now a University of Montreal Assistant Professor, co-led a team that traced the process in exquisite detail. …