CRISPR Precision therapy to break cancer cells

In 10 seconds? Researchers used gene-editing technology to target unique mutations in cancer cells and then kill them while sparing healthy cells. This is another step toward reducing the harmful side effects of current cancer therapies and cutting tumor growth.

Gene editing again, what is it? Relax, it’s not some evil eugenics scheme and it could do wonders for cancer patients one day. We are talking about CRISPR (pronounced “crisper”), or rather CRISPR/Cas9, a revolutionary technology used to edit DNA (genome editing), that has boomed in recent years. Let’s back up a step to fully appreciate its importance for a moment. Over the last few decades, scientists have identified many specific problematic mutations that occur in our DNA and had long searched for methods to either fix them or kill the cells that harbor them. If you have followed our Cancer 101 series, you’ll know that this could be very useful against cancers. But there was always a big problem.