Human beings and the roundworm C. elegans have more in common than you’d expect. Thanks to a common ancestor more than 700 million years ago humans and roundworms have a similar hormone to drive and regulate growth. By activating or deactivating this hormone scientists can stimulate or stunt the growth of the worms. This is shown by researchers from the Functional Genomics and Proteomics Group at KU Leuven (University of Leuven), Belgium.