Oxysterols modulate the Hedgehog signalling pathway by binding a novel site on the membrane protein Smoothened, which may offer new options for the treatment of cancers linked to this pathway.

, Rajat Rohatgi at Stanford University School of Medicine and co-workers in the US, UK and Singapore—including Sigrid Nachtergaele (Stanford) and Daniel Whalen (Oxford) as joint first authors—provide new insights into the regulation of Smoothened by oxysterols, a class of naturally occurring compounds, and suggest new options for the pharmacological modulation of Hedgehog signalling (