TRAPping telomerase within the intestinal stem cell niche

Adult intestinal stem cells (ISCs) reside at the crypt base, where they continuously proliferate to maintain homeostasis of the intestinal epithelium. As a result of a lifetime of cell division, these LGR5 + ISCs face the combined risk of genomic mutations and telomere attrition. In this issue of EMBOJ, Schepers et al (2011) examine whether ISCs employ telomerase expression and asymmetric chromosome segregation to protect their genome.