Observing live energy production by malignant cells

To be able to function, cell mitochondria import "fuel" using a carrier, the Mitochondrial Pyruvate Carrier (MPC). In order to determine whether the MPC is still functional in malignant cells, the team of Professor Jean-Claude Martinou, at the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, has just developed a biosensor to measure its live activity. The biologists observed that the MPC displays a very low activity in tumor cell lines, with respect to healthy cells. They then treated the cancer cells...