Muddied by Mutations, or Drugs, Cell Signaling Can Herald Cancer

The quality of a cell signal, not just its strength, can determine whether a cell will follow a path toward cancer. This finding, which emerged from optogenetic interrogations of both healthy cells and cancer cells, stresses the importance of signal timing, or rather, the ability of cells to “hear” signals distinctly enough to respond appropriately. Unfortunately, mutations that affect signaling molecules can muddy a cell’s signal processing abilities. Also, drugs that dampen c