The development of new research tools can often add impetus to a slow-moving area of research. The concept of synthetic lethality — that the mutation of two genes individually does not kill a cell, but mutation of both of these genes does — was first mooted by Stephen Friend and Lee Hartwell in 1997. In a review on page 689, William Kaelin discusses how the availability of RNA interference technology to perturb gene function, together with the ability to perform large-scale genomic screens, has allowed synthetic lethal genes to be identified and exploited to discover new targets for anticancer drug development.
Established models in cell culture monolayers or soft-agar assays do not recapitulate the structural organization or functional differentiation of glandular epithelium in vivo. Another new tool — 3D epithelial culture systems — is proving valuable for modelling cancer genes in epithelial cancers in a structurally relevant context. This model is discussed, using breast cancer as an example, by Jayanta Debnath and Joan Brugge on page 675.
