News
Litter size relates to cancer risk; body mass and longevity do not
Why are some species of mammals more vulnerable to cancer than others? It's an important question since the answers may guide us to new understandings of cancer development in humans. In a careful analysis of 42 years of necropsy data from San Diego Zoo and Safari...
Bird size with dinosaur-level cancer defences: can evolutionary lags during miniaturisation explain cancer robustness in birds?
Fascinating preprint by ACE members E. Yagmu Erten, Marc Tollis, Hanna Kokko: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.22.345439v1 An increased appreciation of the ubiquity of cancer risk across the tree of life means we also need to understand the more robust...
Capturing Cancer with Music
This is an application, called Hyena, for hearing how cancer (and cancer therapy) works. While there is an overwhelming complexity in the science and medicine of cancer, the essence of the disease can be heard and understood when it is translated into music. Here you...
Watch Patient Advocate describe her work with ACE
Chevas has been a patient advocate with ACE since it started. Find out why she loves her role!
ACE members help in response to COVID-19
ASU’s Biodesign clinical testing lab team has developed an automated system to test for COVID-19 using just plain saliva samples. It is testing hundreds of people daily from around the state. Two ACE doctoral students have been lending their expertise for months...
Revenge of the Somatic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80vc4G0ipi8&feature=youtu.be Watch this wonderful, fun video to the rap music of Baba Brinkman from his 2016 album, "The Rap Guide to Medicine" which was partly funded by Arizona State University! Read the story of the video...
When, why and how clonal diversity predicts future tumour growth – New research paper from ACE team member, Rob Noble
First published: 04 July 2020 in Evolutionary Applications https://doi.org/10.1111/eva.13057 Authors: Robert Noble, John T Burley, Cécile Le Sueur, Michael E Hochberg Intratumour heterogeneity holds promise as a prognostic biomarker in multiple cancer types. However,...
Conversation with Athena Aktipis, Tuesday, May 26th, 9 am AZ time/ 12 pm EST
'Evolution in the flesh: How cancer cells evolve to cheat the foundations of multicellular cooperation and what this means for cancer treatment and prevention.' It's sure to be an interesting event - why not join in! Sign up here for the meeting...
ACE Intern wins PhD place at Johns Hopkins to study genetics
"I've learned such a lot from ACE about how research works and how to go through the research process. I've learnt you can't always trust every result; you have to make sure that you can prove it" says Kenna Sherman. Congratulations to Kenna Sherman who has just been...
Beating Cancer by Outsmarting Cells – Listen to Athena Aktipis on BUY Radio
Originally aired 2 April 2020. Hear the interview.
Events
Cancer and Embryo Development Workshop, 17-18 January 2020, Tempe
It has been known for some decades that there is a deep link between tumorigenesis and embryo development. Many of the hallmarks of cancer are also hallmarks of early-stage development: angiogenesis, hypoxia, cell motility, tissue invasion, stemness. It has even been...
Coffee at Beyond: The Multicellular Symphony – Cooperation, conflict, cancer and chimeras across the tree of life
3pm January 27 2010, Biodesign Auditorium Dr Steffi Kapsetaki Open to all.
Public Lecture: From Fish to FOMO
ACE, The Center for Evolution and Medicine, and the Biodesign Institute are delighted to host Dr. Barbara Natterson-Horowitz for a public lecture on Thursday, January 16, 2020, 5 - 6:00 pm. The talk, titled From Fish to FOMO: How Social Media and the Ancient “Biology...
KJZZ Interview with Athena Aktipis and Carlo Maley – Cactus Garden and Cancer Adaptive Therapy
KJZZ’s Mark Brodie talks to Athena Aktipis and Carlo Maley in the cancer cactus garden at ASU. They discuss how strangely-formed, crested cacti (fasciated) not only look amazing but are reminiscent of cancer, reminding us that that the disease is present in all multi-cellular life. Aktipis and Maley’s research is pointing the way to clinical trials of ‘adaptive therapy’ for metastatic cancer, whereby ‘nicer’ cancer cells are deliberately kept alive to keep the ‘nasties’ in check – a potentially more effective treatment than aggressive chemotherapy.
View Public Lecture by Susan Rosenberg PhD – Why Cancers (and Infections) Beat Us and How to Turn the Tables, Apr. 25th
Outwitting cancer’s ability to evolve drug resistance requires a deep grasp of the mechanisms of evolution. A recent discovery that cells can control their own mutations looks set to transform cancer therapy.
