Traditionally, it has been held that a central characteristic of stem cells is their ability to
divide asymmetrically. Recent advances in inducible genetic labeling provided ample …

How can tissues generate large numbers of cells, yet keep the divisional load (the number of
divisions along cell lineages) low in order to curtail the accumulation of somatic mutations …

Most tissues in metazoans undergo continuous turnover due to cell death or epithelial
shedding. Since cellular replication is associated with an inherent risk of mutagenesis …

Asymmetric division of stem cells results into two unequal daughter cells, only one of which
resembles the parent stem cell. A new study provides genetic evidence in Drosophila …

Epidermal and intestinal tissues divide throughout life to replace lost surface cells. These
renewing tissues have long-lived basal stem cell lineages that divide many times, each …

Accumulating evidence suggests that many tumors have a hierarchical organization, with
the bulk of the tumor composed of relatively differentiated short-lived progenitor cells that are …

Asymmetric stem cell division leads to another stem cell via self-renewal, and a second cell
type which can be either a differentiating progenitor or a postmitotic cell. The regulation of …

Listen to an interview with Sean Morrison on the stem cells podcast Much has been made of
the idea that asymmetric cell division is a defining characteristic of stem cells that enables …

Most adult tissues consist of stem cells, progenitors, and mature cells, and this hierarchical
architecture may play an important role in the multistep process of carcinogenesis. Here, we …

In multicellular organisms, cells cooperate within a well-defined developmental program.
Cancer is a breakdown of such cooperation: cells mutate to phenotypes of uncoordinated …