BRANDING CANCER STEM CELLS: Discovery of a hot new intestinal cancer ste...

Grant Larson
P. 2
Mr. Matheiu                The origin of cancer cells: could they be from stem cells?
21 October 2013

(http://www.yourekascience.com/Branding_Cancer_Stem_Cells.html)
Summary:
      The video above describes the recent discovery of certain stem cells being the producers of the rapid reproducing cancer cells that create tumors in the body. These particular stem cells can copy themselves and produce many more rapidly producing cancer cells. Scientists isolated a protein called DCLK1 found in some normal stem cells, but also primarily in the cancerous intestinal stem cells that produce rapid reproducing cells which lead to intestinal tumors. They conducted an experiment using the cells in the intestines of mice and a blue marker which they used to track the DCLK1 as the cells reproduced. Their goal was to find the origin of the rapid producing cancer cells which could possibly find a more effective therapy that has less of a chance of a reoccurring tumor than chemo. This is because chemo kills the rapidly producing cells, not the stem cells that they originate from.

Relevance:
      This subject is related to cell reproduction and cancerous cells/tumors. It is also related to the scientific method. The scientists propose a question, which leads them to form a hypothesis, which in this case was: where do fast reproducing cancer cells come from? which leads to: well, they might come from stem cells. From there, scientists run an experiment and make a series of observations which was the blue dye experiment and observing where the blue dye marker showed up. After they come out with results, they are lead to asking another series of questions like: how can I eliminate the stem cells as a treatment?