media.ccc.de: MRMCD2026 - Transgressing cell type boundaries: This is how we get cancer

https://media.ccc.de/v/2026-690-transgressing-cell-type-boundaries-this-is-how-we-get-cancer

For as long as biologists have known about cells they have noticed that there are many cell types and have tried to categorise them. Here I will give a short introduction into how these cell type classifications have historically happened, how novel techniques turned some fields upside-down and how that lead to an improved understanding of how cancer is formed by breaking out of these cell type boundaries.

Ever since Robert Hooke published *Micrographia* and coined the term 'cell', biologists have been obsessed with categorising cells. For a long time they did this based on how they look and then, as molecular biology improved, based on some, often superficial, concept of what they do. This typically led to very discrete categories of cell types. Lately these discrete categories have been turned on their heads in many fields by improved sequencing techniques allowing for a much better understanding of what a cell is actually doing. As biologists have discovered that not everything fits into a neat box they have come up with wild ideas and concepts for what cell types are. The historically grown nature of cell types has unfortunately also caused some rather confusing nomenclature.

On the other hand, the improved understanding of cell types has also lead to a much better picture of cancer and how cancer manages to break out of these boundaries.

Aada

https://talks.mrmcd.net/2026/talk/XDCLUG/

#mrmcd26 #ScienceandEducation

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