Tel Aviv University researchers use tiny ‘molecular scissors’ to target aggressive metastatic cancer cells.
Israeli scientists have developed a cutting-edge nanotechnology system that can destroy cancerous cells in mice.
The Tel Aviv University team of researchers pioneered a treatment method that is so precise, it is almost as if tiny molecular scissors were being used to kill the cancer.
“We developed a delivery system for these molecular scissors that can specifically reach tumor cells while leaving normal cells intact,” Dr. Daniel Rosenblum, a postdoctoral fellow from the Laboratory of Precision NanoMedicine at the Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research at Tel Aviv University, told The Media Line.
“By cutting their DNA in specific genes that are responsible for cell division or cell survival, we basically neutralize them and they die from the treatment,” he said. “The system we developed is based on the Cas9 CRISPR protein in a [messenger] RNA format.”
“We envision that we can simply inject [the treatment] into the body and because of the GPS they can find their way to the tumor,” Anna Gutkin, a doctoral student in the laboratory, told The Media Line. “We encountered several hurdles in the development of this technology but it’s exciting to work on this. It really opens new avenues for us to develop novel therapies.”