Biological Computer Identifies And Kills Cancer Cells
A new study, published in Science, describes a multi-gene synthetic circuit that can distinguish between cancer and non-cancer cells, after which it can target the cancer cells for destruction. Through recognizing five intracellular cancer-specific molecules, the circuit is able to accurately identify cancer cells, which, after detection, are destroyed.Finding the right combination of molecules was challenging. Looking among microRNA molecules, which are post-transcriptional regulators, the researchers were eventually able to find one miRNA combination that was typical for HeLa, or cervical cancer, cells. The combination is made up out of five specific miRNAs, and is sufficient to identify HeLA cells among healthy cells (see figure 1). read more