Medicine Zurich research team makes gene scissors invisible to the immune system
Zurich researchers have developed a cloak of invisibility for gene scissors. This allows the gene scissors to switch off genes undetected by the immune system.
20.11.2025, 09:53
SDA
This simplifies the search for cancer therapies, ETH Zurich announced on Thursday.
Using the Crispr/Cas9 gene scissors, scientists can produce tumor cells in which a different gene is deactivated in each case. These cells are then transplanted into mice to find out which genes influence the growth and spread of cancer. In this way, the researchers are looking for new treatment options for cancer.
The problem: components of the gene scissors are recognized as foreign by the mice's immune system and attacked. As a research team led by Nicola Aceto from ETH Zurich showed in a new study in the journal "Cell", this distorts the results.
To solve the problem, the researchers have now developed a kind of invisibility cloak that makes the gene scissors invisible to the immune system. The invisibility cloak works by changing the components of the gene scissors so that they no longer appear foreign to the immune system
In initial tests, the researchers discovered factors that promote the development of metastases in mice.
