Washington: Scientists have developed a new DNA-based logic circuit which they say can identify and kill cancer cells without harming the healthy ones. The researchers, who developed the cell-level diagnostic system, said it could be used for drug screening or perhaps for disease treatment, killing tumors while leaving healthy cells alone.The circuit, they said, works like any other logic circuit: It analyses multiple inputs and makes a decision.In this case, the circuit really consists of genes that detect up to five cancer-specific molecules and their concentrations. When all five of those characteristics are present, the circuit makes a positive determination, and then it triggers cell death, they reported in the journal Science. “The bio-computer combines the factors using logic such as AND and NOT, and only generates the outcome, namely cell death, when the entire calculation with all the factors results in a logical TRUE value,” lead researcher Yaakov Benenson, of Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, said in a statement. Read Full: Now, a biocomputer to find and kill cancer cells, Video Share Link:DP World
Friday, 14 October 2011
Now, a biocomputer to find and kill cancer cells
Washington: Scientists have developed a new DNA-based logic circuit which they say can identify and kill cancer cells without harming the healthy ones. The researchers, who developed the cell-level diagnostic system, said it could be used for drug screening or perhaps for disease treatment, killing tumors while leaving healthy cells alone.The circuit, they said, works like any other logic circuit: It analyses multiple inputs and makes a decision.In this case, the circuit really consists of genes that detect up to five cancer-specific molecules and their concentrations. When all five of those characteristics are present, the circuit makes a positive determination, and then it triggers cell death, they reported in the journal Science. “The bio-computer combines the factors using logic such as AND and NOT, and only generates the outcome, namely cell death, when the entire calculation with all the factors results in a logical TRUE value,” lead researcher Yaakov Benenson, of Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, said in a statement. Read Full: Now, a biocomputer to find and kill cancer cells, Video Share Link:DP World
