Simple slime molds can mimic the sophisticated movement of human cancer cells if they find themselves on a sticky surface.

Dictyostelium discoideum is a single-celled organism usually known for moving like a shapeless blob. When the environment gets particularly adhesive, these simple creatures transform into a flat, fan-shaped mode that was previously thought to be exclusive to complex animal tissues. This mesenchymal movement is the same high-adhesion strategy that human cells use to heal wounds or spread cancer throughout the body. The discovery reveals that the genetic toolkit for complex cell migration is billions of years older than we realized. Evolution did not invent these movement styles for humans, but rather repurposed ancient tools from our single-celled ancestors. This simple slime mold now serves as a perfect model to study how to stop metastatic cancer cells from crawling through the body.