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Cells that start to die, then change their mind

Qurexa Editorial Team19 September 20267 min read 0 0
Cells that start to die, then change their mind

What happened

Scientists have found cells that begin the process of dying, stop partway through, and then go on to help rebuild damaged tissue. The research comes from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel and was published in September 2026 in the journal Nature Communications. The work was led by Dr Tslil Braun. To understand why this is surprising, it helps to know about programmed cell death. Cells in the body do not simply wear out. Many are deliberately destroyed, on instruction, in a tidy and controlled process called apoptosis. It is how the body removes cells that are damaged, no longer needed, or potentially dangerous. It happens constantly, in everybody, and it is essential. The assumption has long been that once a cell begins this process, it is committed. The machinery starts, and the cell dies. The Weizmann team found a group of cells that do not follow that rule. These cells start down the path toward programmed death, and then recover. The researchers named them DARE cells. What happened next was the striking part. Rather than simply surviving, the DARE cells multiplied rapidly and replaced nearly half of the damaged tissue within 48 hours. The experiments used fruit fly larvae. The team revisited a classic experiment from the 1970s, in which fly larvae exposed to radiation went on to grow functional wings despite the damage. That old result had never been fully explained. The DARE cells appear to be the explanation.

Why this matters

There are two ways to read this finding, and they point in opposite directions. The hopeful reading concerns healing. If the body contains cells capable of surviving a death signal and then driving rapid repair, understanding how they do it could matter for treating serious tissue damage. Regenerating tissue after injury is something medicine is not yet good at. The less comfortable reading concerns cancer. Many cancer treatments work precisely by triggering programmed cell death. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy damage cancer cells and push them into apoptosis. The treatment tells the cell to die, and the cell obeys. But if some cells can start that process and then pull back from it, that is a route by which a cancer could survive treatment. It could help explain something oncologists see regularly and find frustrating: a tumour that responds well to treatment, appears to be gone, and then returns months or years later. The idea that cells might return from the brink of death is not brand new. Researchers have described it before and given it a name, anastasis, from the Greek for resurrection. What is new here is identifying a specific population of cells that do it and showing what they then go on to do. Both readings lead to the same practical conclusion. This is a mechanism worth understanding, whether the goal is encouraging it in a wound or blocking it in a tumour.

What the evidence actually says

This is important research, and it is also early research. Both things are true. The experiments were done in fruit fly larvae. Fruit flies are a long-established model in biology, and a great deal of what is known about how cells work was discovered in them, including much of the early work on programmed cell death. The basic machinery is genuinely similar across species. But a fruit fly is not a person. Findings in flies frequently do apply to humans, and frequently do not. The history of biology is full of both outcomes. Confirming that DARE cells exist in mammals, and then in people, is necessary work that has not been done yet. The 48-hour figure, with nearly half of damaged tissue replenished, comes from these fly experiments. It should not be carried over to human healing. The cancer implication is, at this stage, a reasonable hypothesis rather than a demonstrated finding. The researchers have shown a mechanism by which cells can survive a death signal. They have not shown that this is what happens when a human cancer resists chemotherapy. That is a plausible and important next question, not an answer. It is worth being blunt about this, because research of this kind is often reported as though a treatment were close. Nothing here is close to a treatment. There is no drug, no trial and no therapy arising from this work today. What there is, is a clearer picture of something the body does that was not previously understood, and a credible explanation for a 50-year-old puzzle about irradiated fruit flies growing normal wings. That is how most real progress in biology happens. Slowly, and by explaining odd results that nobody could account for.

Practical advice

There is nothing to act on here medically, and it is worth saying that clearly, because research about cancer and regeneration attracts a lot of misleading claims. If you are having cancer treatment, nothing in this study changes it. It does not suggest that current treatments do not work. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy remain effective for many cancers, and this research is about understanding why they sometimes do not, so that they can be improved. Be cautious about anything sold on the back of headlines about cell regeneration or reversing cell death. Supplements and clinics marketed with this kind of language are not connected to research like this, whatever they imply. If you want to follow the science properly, papers in Nature Communications are open access, meaning anyone can read them without paying. The abstract at the start of a paper is usually understandable even without a scientific background, and it is more reliable than most coverage of it. A general habit that serves well with any science story: check whether the research was done in cells, in animals, or in people. It is usually stated, though often near the end. Fly and mouse studies are valuable, but they sit a long way from the clinic, and that distance is the single most useful thing to know when judging how excited to be.

What to know

Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science have identified cells, which they call DARE cells, that begin the process of programmed cell death, survive it, and then help rebuild damaged tissue. In fruit fly larvae, these cells multiplied quickly and replenished nearly half of the damaged tissue within 48 hours. The finding explains a puzzling experiment from the 1970s in which irradiated fly larvae still grew working wings. The work was published in Nature Communications in September 2026 and led by Dr Tslil Braun. The same ability could have a darker side. Many cancer treatments work by triggering programmed cell death, so cells that can pull back from it might survive therapy and contribute to cancers returning. That remains a hypothesis rather than a proven finding. This research was carried out in insects. It does not yet apply to human medicine and has produced no treatment. Sources: ScienceDaily, "Scientists discover cells that cheat death and rebuild damaged tissue", 17 September 2026, https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/09/260917003722.htm ; Nature Communications, Weizmann Institute of Science study led by Dr Tslil Braun, September 2026, https://www.nature.com/ncomms/ ; Vanguard News, "Cells that cheat Death: New clue to why some cancers return", September 2026, https://www.vanguardngr.com/2026/09/cells-that-cheat-death-new-clue-to-why-some-cancers-return/ This article is for general information and is not medical advice. If anything here relates to your health or your care, speak to a doctor, pharmacist or other qualified healthcare professional.

#cell biology#regeneration#cancer research#Nature Communications#Weizmann#science

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