The adult human gut has a staggering surface area of 220 square metres. Exploration of its biochemistry and cell development promises to increase knowledge on the exceptional role of the gut in tumour development.
The inner lining of the human gut not only digests and absorbs nutrients, it comes into contact with the external environment in the form of pathogens, for example. The GUTENCODE (Decoding the transcriptional networks controlling the adult Drosophila midgut compartmentalization) project has investigated the fruit fly gut for the biochemistry involved in possible tumour development.
Further details: The surprisingly intricate human gut