Highly read on www.cell.com in March

Boosting the levels of a tumour-suppressor protein in mice makes them smaller and more metabolically efficient, as well as resistant to cancer.

Pier Paolo Pandolfi at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts, and his colleagues genetically engineered mice to have additional copies of Pten, a gene that is mutated or deleted in many cancers. The mice are smaller than normal because they have fewer cells. When injected with a carcinogen, the animals developed tumours later than controls.

The transgenic mice burn energy at a higher rate. Cells from these mice consume less glucose than normal mouse cells but generate more ATP — the energy molecule created during cellular respiration — indicating a more efficient metabolism.

Increasing levels of the PTEN protein could offer a therapeutic approach to preventing both cancer and obesity.

Cell 149, 49–62 (2012)