Immune-cell transplants from an extraordinary strain of mice that resists cancer can pass this trait to mice that aren’t as lucky, according to a new study.
Seven years ago, Zheng Cui and Mark Willingham of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., and their colleagues discovered a peculiar male mouse. The researchers, who were studying tumor growth, had injected this mouse and others with lethal doses of cancer cells. While the other rodents developed fast-growing tumors, the mouse, known as number 6, remained healthy. “We thought we’d made a mistake,” says Willingham.
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