An anchor cell (red) pushes through the basement membrane (green) that surrounds it. Some cells are able to push through the tough basement barrier to carry out important tasks--and so can cancer cells, when they spread from one part of the body to another. No one has been able to recreate basement membranes in the lab and they're hard to study in humans, so Duke University researchers turned to the simple worm C. elegans. The researchers identified two molecules that help certain cells orient themselves toward and then punch through the worm's basement membrane. Studying these molecules and the genes that control them could deepen our understanding of cancer spread.