Mps1 sends condensin II off to work T he kinase Mps1 has a long todo list during mitosis, and Kagami et al. identify yet another responsibility: promoting chromosome condensation. The condensin I and condensin II complexes prompt diffuse chromatin to scrunch up into mitotic chromosomes. Condensin II gets a head start on its partner, but researchers still aren’t sure which enzymes switch on cond...

C ancer cells have long been known to have higher rates of glycolysis than normal cells, a phenomenon named the Warburg effect after its discoverer Otto Warburg (1). Enhanced glycolysis is thought to allow cancer cells to survive the hypoxic conditions they experience in the center of solid tumors. But Mikawa et al. reveal how damaged cells switch off glycolysis as they enter senescence and sho...

Anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) cancer immunotherapy targets angiogenesis but development of resistance in patients is common. In this issue of Cell, Croci et al. identify a complex set of mechanisms by which galectin-1 prolongs cell-surface retention of VEGF receptor 2 (VEGFR2) and stimulates VEGF-independent tumor angiogenesis.