{"id":236986,"date":"2026-05-12T14:10:44","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T19:10:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/05\/hidden-cell-message-route-could-shift-cancer-research"},"modified":"2026-05-12T14:10:44","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T19:10:44","slug":"hidden-cell-message-route-could-shift-cancer-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/05\/hidden-cell-message-route-could-shift-cancer-research","title":{"rendered":"Hidden cell \u2018message route\u2019 could shift cancer research"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/hidden-cell-message-route-could-shift-cancer-research.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A team at Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah (the U) has uncovered a previously unrecognized molecular mechanism by which cells send signals to one another\u2014an insight that could help researchers better understand how cancers form and, over time, inform new treatment strategies.<\/p>\n<p>In the study, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41594-026-01800-z\" target=\"_blank\">published<\/a> in <i>Nature Structural &amp; Molecular Biology<\/i>, the researchers focus on the <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/news\/2025-07-cancer-hedgehog-protein-hidden-weakness.html?utm_source=embeddings&utm_medium=related&utm_campaign=internal\" rel=\"related\">Hedgehog signaling pathway<\/a>, an essential communication system in human development that is frequently disrupted in cancer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCell signaling is like a conversation happening constantly inside our bodies,\u201d says Benjamin Myers, Ph.D., investigator at Huntsman Cancer Institute, associate professor of oncological sciences at the U, and senior author of the study. \u201cWe uncovered a new way that this pathway transmits signals at the molecular level\u2014and that opens the door to new ways of thinking about how these messages go wrong in disease.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A team at Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah (the U) has uncovered a previously unrecognized molecular mechanism by which cells send signals to one another\u2014an insight that could help researchers better understand how cancers form and, over time, inform new treatment strategies. In the study, published in Nature Structural &amp; Molecular Biology, [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-236986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236986\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}