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August 28, 2025 - GTU Office of Press and Public Relations
Scientists at Gebze Technical University have discovered that Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans), a microscopic worm, can distinguish between healthy and cancerous cell environments. According to a new study published in microPublication Biology, these tiny organisms are able to sense chemical signals secreted by cancer cells and change their direction accordingly.
Prof. Elif Damla Arısan from the Gebze Technical University Institute of Biotechnology, together with her research team members Rıdvan Aziz Ayaz and Deniz Yozlu, has demonstrated that C. elegans shows distinct reactions when exposed to media derived from cancer cells. This behavior suggests that the worms could serve as a low-cost, biological “early detection sensor” in the future.
“C. elegans can detect chemical cues in its environment through specialized receptors,” explained Prof. Arısan. “In our study, we observed that when these cues originated from cancer cells, the worms’ behavior changed. This represents a promising step toward detecting cancer through simple and non-invasive methods.”
This discovery is significant because current diagnostic methods for cancer are often expensive, complex, and reliant on advanced technology. In contrast, C. elegans is inexpensive, easy to cultivate, and widely used as a practical model organism in research. Thanks to these qualities, it could contribute to the development of accessible cancer screening methods, particularly in regions with limited resources.
The full study, titled “Caenorhabditis elegans Exhibits Selective Chemotaxis to Cancer Cell–Conditioned Media”, has been published open access in microPublication Biology (DOI: 10.17912/micropub.biology.001618). |