A team of scientists affiliated with the led by the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center and School of Dentistry, identified a mechanism by which head and neck cancer cells subvert adjacent normal tissue, allowing small clusters of cancer cells to burrow beneath the healthy tissue.

The protein made by the ASH1L gene plays a key role in the development of acute leukemia, along with other diseases. A team from the University of Michigan has developed first-in-class small molecules to inhibit ASH1L’s SET domain.