Danger Dust

Some cancers and chronic inflammatory diseases are treated with immunotherapies. These stimulate the patient's immune system to recognize and destroy tumor cells. To improve such therapies, researchers are looking for mechanisms involved in triggering an immune response.

Now, researchers have discovered such a mechanism in an unexpected place: they have found that the centromeres—the areas of chromosomes that are particularly important for cell division—are directly linked to the immune system. Based on this, further helpful molecules can be developed.