Killing a Cancer Cell from the Inside Out

Researchers at MIT and Switzerland’s ETH Zurich have found a way to program cells to determine whether they have become cancerous, and if they have, to order their own suicide. The new technology, described in the Sept. 2 issue of Science, offers the possibility of designing cell-death-inducing programs specific to any type of cancer, which could effectively kill tumors while leaving healthy tissues unharmed. To create their tumor-killing program, the researchers designed a logic circuit — a system that makes a decision based on multiple inputs. In this case, the circuit is made of genes that detect molecules specific to a type of cervical cancer cell. If the right molecules are present, the genes initiate production of a protein that stimulates apoptosis, or programmed cell death. If not, nothing happens. Because the genes used to create the circuits can be easily swapped in and out, this approach could also yield new treatments or diagnostics for many other diseases, according to Ron Weiss, an MIT associate professor of biological engineering and one of the leaders of the research team. “This is a general technology for disease-state detection,” he says.

9/2/2011, Anne Trafton, MIT News Office