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Scientists at the ӳý of MIT and Harvard have discovered that a mysterious class of large RNAs plays a central role in embryonic development, contrary to the dogma that proteins alone are the master regulators of this process. The research, published online August 28 in the journal Nature, reveals that these RNAs orchestrate the fate of embryonic stem (ES) cells by keeping them in their fledgling state or directing them along the path to cell specialization.

In cancer, tumors aren’t uniform: they are more like complex societies, each with a unique balance of cancer cell types playing different roles. Understanding this “social structure” of tumors is critical for treatment decisions in the clinic because different cell types may be sensitive to different drugs. A common theory is that tumors are a hierarchical society, in which all cancer cells descend from special self-renewing cancer stem cells. This view predicts that killing the cancer stem cells might suffice to wipe out a cancer.

Ben Ebert is as fluent in the care of patients with blood disorders as he is applying the latest genomic technologies in his laboratory at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and with colleagues in the ӳý’s Cancer Program. It’s all part of the same mission for Ben—to understand blood disorders and cancers at the genetic level to find ways to end the suffering of people with these illnesses.

Every drop of DNA derived from a patient’s tumor is precious.

Mark Puppo and Kristin Anderka are highly aware of how much time and effort has been devoted to each of the samples they are examining today. As you will see in the video below, they take great care in handling each sample and all of the chemicals in their section of the laboratory.

Robots and the fleet of professional scientists who make sure the machines do their job in high-throughput screening may seem far afield from a fishing expedition. But that may be the best metaphor to explain how researchers at the ӳý and elsewhere trawl for chemical compounds that might lead them to a new understanding of human biology.