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Nature 396, 23-24 (5 November 1998) | doi:10.1038/23825

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Telomeres:  Bumps on the road to immortality

Robert A. Weinberg1

In contrast to normal cells, which double only a limited number of times in culture, almost all malignant tumour cells can double indefinitely. Telomeres — specialized structures at the end of chromosomes — seem to be central molecular determinants of this immortality trait, and their role is addressed by Kiyono et al. 1 on page 84 of this issue.

  1. Robert A. Weinberg is at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, and the Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA.
    e-mail: Email: weinberg@wi.mit.edu