But cancer cells’ chromosomal disorder remained an in-your-face oddity – a common thread in 90 percent of cancers. Everyone knew it was there; no one was sure why or what it meant.
For decades, a classic conundrum in science stymied research into this phenomenon: Were the aberrations the cause of cancer, or simply a sign that things had already gone haywire in the cell? Back then, chromosomes weren’t easy to add or remove, so scientists searching for answers had to rely largely on intriguing correlations.
To do full-scale chromosome engineering, Jason Sheltzer, a cancer biologist at Yale School of Medicine, and his team had to deploy a CRISPR hack. First, they inserted a gene from the herpes virus onto a cancer cell’s extra chromosomes. Initially, they chose chromosome 1q, which is one of the first to gain or lose extra copies during the development of breast cancer.Article content
But it may point toward a different way to target cancer in the future. Genetic understanding of cancer has led to therapies that target specific mutations that drive its progression. But cancer is a wily foe and often develops resistance to any one therapeutic approach.Article content