Researchers Target Specific Genes, Reduce Cancer Cells

Editor's Choice Main Category: A report published on July 18 in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics describes a new approach to fighting cancer. Researchers have located a new type of ultrasensitive genes that seem to control the way cancer expresses itself (cancer-associated phenotypes). It is possible that the growth and survival or tumors and other disease-causing agents may be thwarted if drugs are developed that can target these genes. Dr. Patrick Tan, M.D., Ph.D. (associate professor of Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore) and colleagues looked through genetic data in cancerous and healthy tissues to find genes that did not vary much during their expression, or were "tightly controlled." If the same genes were found in both tissue types, the researchers focused the search for genes that were more tightly... [read full story]