LiveScience.com - Cell Division Reversed in Possible Path to Cancer Treatment: "One key to advanced life is cell division. Cells divide millions of times every day to sustain the life and growth of a single human.

But out-of-control cell division can fuel cancer. Now scientists have for the first time reversed the process of cell division, a breakthrough that could eventually lead to treatments for cancer and other disorders. They gained control over a protein responsible for division, then halted and reversed the process. Duplicate chromosomes were sent back to the center of the original cell, an event once thought impossible.

'Our studies indicate that the factors pointing cells toward division can be turned and even reversed,' said lead researcher Gary Gorbsky of the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation. 'If we wait too long, however, it doesn't work, so we know that there are multiple regulators in the cell division cycle. Now we will begin to study the triggers that set these events in motion.'