Miniguts and MicroRNAs

Researchers studying the molecular details of how tumours grow within the body are faced with a challenge. Because it’s not really possible to peer inside a patient in this way, scientists have to use laboratory models. Either they can look at flat layers of human cancer cells living in plastic Petri dishes, which don’t accurately reflect the three-dimensional nature of a bulging tumour, or they can look at tumours growing in animals, which may not fully reflect what’s going on in human cancers. One solution is to make three-dimensional ‘miniguts’ (top and bottom left), created by allowing bowel cells to grow floating in liquid rather than sat on plastic. Using this technique, researchers have discovered that bowel cells lacking a small fragment of RNA called microRNA 34a – a molecule related to DNA – bloat into tumour-like spheres (right). Figuring out why this happens could point to new cancer treatments or prevention.

Written by Kat Arney

Kat Arney

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Dr Kat Arney is an award-winning science writer, broadcaster and public speaker, and is the founder and Creative Director of First Create The Media.

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• Images from work by Pengcheng Bu and colleagues
• School of Elecrical and Computer Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
• Image copyright Elsevier 2016
• Published in Cell Stem Cell, February 2016