The Jacks Lab is analyzing lung tumors' evolution by measuring structural changes to chromatin—the mix of proteins, DNA, and RNA that makes up cells’ chromosomes that can alter gene expression. In work published by Cancer Cell, researchers showed that these epigenomic modifications can characterize the progression of cancer cells from early stage to later, more aggressive stages. They also identified a transcription factor—a molecule known as RUNX2—that influences metastasis in these evolving cells. Looking at both mouse and human tumors, the team found that elevated levels of RUNX2 are associated with increased tumor cell aggressiveness, suggesting that it could be used as a biomarker to predict patient outcomes.