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Cells use a complex network of connections to make a constant array of decisions about their surrounding environment: Is it time to grow? Is it time to change into a different type of cell? When a cellular component or connection is missing or defective, disease takes hold.

Two teams – including one from the Broad Institute, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine – report surprising discoveries about head and neck cancer biology in back-to-back papers published in Science.

Today, the cancer samples we have been following will go from tangible pieces of tissue to something a bit more abstract: invisible strands of pure DNA. In the process, the samples will be whirled and spun through laboratory machinery, incubated over night, and washed repeatedly with different chemical substances. The final product of all of this will be large droplets of clear liquid at the bottom of tiny, plastic Eppendorf tubes.

The liver is a critical and intriguing organ, and our understanding of it continues to evolve to this day. As reported in a paper published earlier this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Broad and MIT researchers teamed up to put artificial liver tissue to the test (read the news story here and Project Spotlight here).