Cells in ears can be reprogrammed to improve hearing.
Now, a research team in South Korea is reprogramming cancer cells found in the colon. Using a digital twin, they analysed how genes in colon cells are connected and how healthy cells become cancer cells.
Several molecules, they discovered, function like a kind of lever, which is flipped when cells mutate. In simulations and trials with mice, they realised cancer cells could be deactivated if these molecules were eliminated.
Nearly reverting back to normal cells. The process would allow cancer to be reversed and cells to be retained, rather than killing them through chemotherapy or radiation treatment.
Elsewhere, work is underway to starve the cancer cells in brain tumours.Â
