St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine scientists show how ZFTA-RELA fusions hijack developmental programs to drive a type of pediatric brain cancer.

During cell division, chromosomes must attach correctly to microtubules to ensure they are evenly distributed to daughter cells. The enzyme Aurora B kinase maintains this balance by breaking faulty attachments while stabilizing correct ones. Researchers found that microtubules actively guide the enzyme Aurora B by reshaping the proteins that bind to them. The results redefine microtubules as active regulators of cell signaling, helping cells detect faulty chromosome attachments and prevent abnormalities in the number of chromosomes, a hallmark of cancer.

Prostate cancer affects one in five Australian men, making it the most common cancer in the country. Now, researchers at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research have produced the world’s most detailed cellular ‘atlas’ of early-stage prostate cancer, revealing the earliest changes that lead to the disease.

Gladstone Institutes, a nonprofit biomedical research organization, has secured more than 105,000 square feet of future laboratory space in a newly constructed building at 1450 Owens Street in San Francisco, empowering its scientists with the tools and environment to create medicines of the future. The new building is one block from Gladstone's 200,000-square-foot headquarters, which houses more than 600 scientists across 32 labs.