Research for a life without cancer

One of the reasons for the high aggressiveness of glioblastomas is their remarkable adaptability. A team led by scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), HITBR*, and the Wellcome Sanger Institute, Cambridge, now describes in Nature how glioblastoma cells switch between different states. At the same time, the researchers identified a key factor that, acting as a guardian of cell identity, limits this adaptability. A second, a companion paper published simultaneously in Nature shows that, despite their great diversity, glioblastomas follow a surprisingly similar developmental pathway.