At the Boundary

Along the journey from one cell to the billions that make up a baby, cells specialise to form different organs, such as the gut, brain, liver and skin. Even within one organ, there can be different types of tissue, such as the small and large intestines within the gut. It’s essential that cells know and remember which of these compartments they belong to, in order to keep things functioning properly. This gets ‘forgotten’ in cancer as a tumour invades the tissue around it. This image shows cells in a fruit fly’s gut, used as a model for the human version, with the green patch highlighting cells belonging to one type of tissue against a backdrop of different cells. The boundary between them is controlled by a ‘messenger’ signal called Wnt, which is faulty in many human bowel tumours – something that scientists are now trying to target with new cancer drugs.

Written by Kat Arney

Kat Arney

Writer

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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• Image from work by Ai Tian and colleagues
• Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA
• Image originally published under a Creative Commons Licence (BY 4.0)
• Published in PLOS Genetics, February 2016