In pursuit of the elusive stem cell
How does the body renew itself? How do cancer cells use the same or similar processes to form tumors and spread throughout the body? How might we use those processes to heal injuries or fight cancer? A new research program at MIT is tackling fundamental biological questions about normal adult stem cells and their malignant counterparts, cancer stem cells. Launched last spring with support from Fondation MIT, the MIT Stem Cell Initiative is headed by Jacqueline Lees, the Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Professor of Cancer Research, professor of biology, and associate director of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. Other founding members of the initiative are Robert Weinberg, a professor of biology, Whitehead Institute member, and director of the Ludwig Center at MIT; and Omer Yilmaz, an assistant professor of biology. Rare power Normal adult stem cells have been defined for more than a half-century. Relatively rare, they are undifferentiated cells within a tissue...