A Topically Applied Skin Lotion That Modifies Your Genes
Hand Cream A new class of nanoparticles inside skin lotion could penetrate the skin for gene therapy. Kristen Bonardi Rapp via Flickr Future genetic therapy could be as simple as applying a topical lotion, with nanoscale compounds soaking through your epidermis to tweak your DNA. This new class of nucleic acid structures could guard against some types of skin cancer, according to researchers at Northwestern University. Despite its tendency to dry out or burn in the summer sun, human skin is an incredibly tough barrier, preventing all kinds of invaders from entering the body. While a skin cream can be a useful way to target certain skin-related disorders, it can only go so deep. This new breakthrough from Amy S. Paller and Chad Mirkin at Northwestern combines chemistry and dermatology to break on through. It uses agglomerations of nucleic acids, each about 1,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. When...