BiotechMashup

In a recent study, researchers demonstrated that conditional small RNA molecules can effectively kill lab-grown human brain, prostate and bone cancer cells in a mutation-specific manner. The treatment separates the "diagnosis" and "treatment" aspects of chemotherapy, so a cell is killed if -- and only if -- it is diagnosed with a mutation.

(Centenary Institute) Researchers at the Centenary Institute in Sydney have discovered a potential future treatment for prostate cancer -- through starving the tumour cells of an essential nutrient they need to grow rapidly. Their work, with human cells grown in the lab, reveals targets for drugs that could slow the progress of early and late stage prostate cancer. The research has been funded by the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and Movember.

Researchers have engineered a fundamentally new approach to killing cancer cells. The process uses small RNA molecules that can be programmed to attack only specific cancer cells; then, by changing shape, those molecules cause the cancer cells to self-destruct.

Children and young people who are diagnosed with bone cancer could benefit from better treatment in the future, thanks to new research that is testing a theory that 'friendly bacteria' can be used to kill bone cancer cells.

Prostate cancer that has become resistant to hormone treatment and that does not respond to radiation or chemotherapy requires new methods of treatment. By attacking stem cell-like cells in prostate cancer, researchers are working on a project to develop a new treatment option.

(Lund University) Prostate cancer that has become resistant to hormone treatment and that does not respond to radiation or chemotherapy requires new methods of treatment. By attacking stem cell-like cells in prostate cancer, researchers at Lund University are working on a project to develop a new treatment option.

(DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) Berkeley Lab researchers have shown that normal breast cells help defend against cancer by producing the protein interleukin 25 to actively and specifically kill breast cancer cells. This important new finding points the way to a new therapeutic target for breast cancer treatment.

Researchers are using hydrogels -- less than 100 nanometers in size -- to sneak a particular type of small interfering RNA into cancer cells. Once in the cell the siRNA turns on the programmed cell death the body uses to kill mutated cells and help traditional chemotherapy do it's job.

A new finding by researchers in Singapore makes a unique method of cancer treatment now feasible. Their work offers new insight on how to tap on the properties of p53, the "guardian of the genome," to kill cancer cells more effectively while sparing normal cells.