Evolution Research Could Revolutionize Cancer Therapy

Evolutionary trees reveal the relationships between organisms, or cells, by tracking the divergence between their genetic sequences.

Molecular evolutionary trees compare DNA sequences to see how they diverge from each other. Evolutionary biologists usually employ such trees to track how organisms are related to one another. How humans are related to other primates, for instance, how primates are related to other mammals and how mammals are related to other animals. Usually, evolutionary trees rely on DNA from organisms that are not extinct and try to extrapolate back to an ancient and unknown common ancestor.

Now that technology and computing power enables scientists to sequence the DNA of many cells, Townsend and coworkers had the insight to apply this evolutionary paradigm to primary tumor cells and secondary...