![\"Medically](\"https:\/\/scitechdaily.com\/images\/Medically-Accurate-Cancer-Cells-Rendering.jpg\")
<\/a>EMBL researchers have created a new AI tool that uses a \u201cmolecular laser tag\u201d approach to identify cells capable of revealing the earliest origins of cancer.<\/strong><\/p>\n The human body depends on accurate genetic instructions to keep its cells working properly. Cancer begins to form when these instructions become disrupted. As genetic mistakes build up over time, cells can lose their normal limits on growth and start multiplying in an uncontrolled way. Chromosomal abnormalities \u2013 numerical and structural defects in chromosomes \u2013 are often one of the earliest changes that push healthy cells toward becoming cancerous.<\/p>\n Researchers in the Korbel Group at EMBL Heidelberg have created a new AI-based tool that gives scientists a way to closely examine how these chromosomal abnormalities develop. The insights gained from this approach may eventually clarify some of the earliest steps that lead to cancer.<\/p>\n \u201cChromosomal abnormalities are a main driver for particularly aggressive cancers, and they\u2019re highly linked to patient death, metastasis, recurrence, chemotherapy resistance, and fast tumor onset,\u201d said Jan Korbel, senior scientist at EMBL and senior author of the new paper, published in the journal Nature<\/em>. \u201cWe wanted to understand what determines the likelihood that cells undergo such chromosomal alterations, and what\u2019s the rate at which such abnormalities arise when a still normal cell divides.\u201d<\/p>\n The connection between abnormal chromosomes and cancer has been considered for a long time. More than 100 years ago, German scientist Theodor Boveri proposed, based on his microscopy observations, that irregular chromosomal content in cells plays a role in driving cancer formation.<\/p>\n However, spotting these abnormalities has long been difficult because only a small number of cells show them at any moment, and many of those cells either die on their own or are removed through natural selection (or are killed off). Researchers traditionally had to look for these cells by hand through a microscope, and they could collect only a few at once for more detailed study.<\/p>\nWhy Chromosomal Abnormalities Are Hard to Study<\/h4>\n