Stanford researchers develop molecule that forces cancer cells to kill themselves
The researchers' recently published study describes a way to re-activate apoptosis in mutated cells, which would amount to forcing cancer to self-destruct through a bioengineered, bonding molecule.
Every day, billions of cells in the human body die thanks to a natural process known as apoptosis. When apoptosis doesn't work by design, cells get cancerous and can cause a life-threatening illness. Now, researchers at Stanford University are working on a novel way to treat, and possibly kill for good, a specific type of cancer.
This new discovery from Stanford is amazing man. If they can really reverse cancer cell behavior by triggering natural cell death, that could change the way we treat cancer. More hope for all cancer patients
The researchers' recently published study describes a way to re-activate apoptosis in mutated cells, which would amount to forcing cancer to self-destruct through a bioengineered, bonding molecule.
Gerald Crabtree, one of the study's authors and a professor of development biology, said he had the idea while hiking through Kings Mountain, California, during the pandemic period. The new compound would have to bind two proteins which already exist in the cancerous cells, turning apoptosis back on and making the cancer kill itself.