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Updated: Jun 21, 2026

Isolation of Stem-like Cells from 3-Dimensional Spheroid Cultures
Published on: December 13, 2019
Endocytosis, asymmetric cell division, stem cells and cancer: unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno
Maximilian Fürthauer1, Marcos González-Gaitán
1Department of Biochemistry, University of Geneva, Sciences II, CH-1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland. maximilian.fuerthauer@unige.ch
Abstract:
Carcinogenesis can be initiated in adult stem cells, suggesting that tumours arise as a consequence of stem-cell dysfunction. In the fruitfly, cancer arises in stem cells that fail to undergo asymmetric cell division. In flies and mammals, a specific regulation of the endocytic trafficking machinery allows stem cells to self-renew and generate the differentiating cells required to form and maintain mature organs. We review recent findings suggesting that an understanding of the relationship between endocytosis, asymmetric cell division, stem cells and cancer will be crucial to unravel the cell biological basis of tumourigenesis.
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