Mitosis or apoptosis (life or death)

Our laboratory has invested much time and effort in developing an experimental model of how human cells can divide even when they have damaged DNA.  The efforts are beginning to pay off.  Recently we found that when cells enter mitosis with damaged chromosomes, they can inactivate apoptosis.  Perhaps this should not be too surprising because mitosis should cause all the alarms to sound (loss of contact, changes in organelles, DNA everywhere).  The rub is to know if cancer cells use this as another mechanism to survive.  We are now examining the pathways that might provide survival.  A new area for us, which was illuminated by our model and a pharmacological approach.