New CRISPR technique selectively destroys cancer cells
Original: CRISPR tech selectively shreds cancer cells, including "undruggable" cancers
Why This Matters
Breakthrough could enable treatment of previously untreatable cancers
Researchers at UC Berkeley's Innovative Genomics Institute developed a CRISPR-based chromatin shredding technique that selectively destroys cancer cells carrying mutations found in nearly half of all cancer cases, including undruggable cancers.
Scientists at the Innovative Genomics Institute at UC Berkeley, UC San Francisco, and Gladstone Institutes, along with collaborators at University of Utah and Utah State University, published research in Nature demonstrating a novel CRISPR-based approach called RNA-triggered chromatin shredding. The technique targets cancer-specific mutations found in tumor suppressor proteins, which normally prevent cancer development at the cellular level. When these proteins malfunction, cells lose critical defenses against cancer. The innovative method can selectively eliminate cancer cells carrying mutations present in nearly half of all cancer cases, including those considered undruggable by traditional therapies.