These are images of miniature organs (organoids) derived from stem cells of the intestine, and grown together with CRISPR engineered cancer organoids. This platform allows us to directly compare normal intestinal stem cells with pre-malignant adenomas.

The Yilmaz lab studies the effects of diets on normal intestinal stem cell function as well as tumor initiation. This image encapsulates our ability to directly observe differences between the behavior of normal intestinal stem cells and cancer cells. We can watch in real time as tumor cells compete with normal stem cells for nutrients.