MicroRNAs in cancer: from developmental genes in worms to their clinical application in patients

Several discoveries have paved the way to personalise cancer medicine and a tremendous gain of knowledge in genomics and molecular mechanisms of cancer progression cumulated over the last years. Big stories in biology commonly start in a simple model system. No wonder microRNAs have been identified as regulators of embryonic development in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. From the first identification in worms to the first-in-man...