杏吧原创

FOR the first time, researchers have transformed a healthy human cell into a
cancer cell by tweaking a few key genes.

杏吧原创s studying tumour cells have no way of knowing all the different
mutations that make them divide uncontrollably. But Robert Weinberg and his
colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have turned a human cell
cancerous by making it express three genes that they know are switched on in
tumours (Nature, vol 400, p 464).

鈥淣o one has ever been able to make a human cancer cell with a defined set of
genes before,鈥� says Weinberg. He hopes this will help researchers figure out how
mutations interact to govern a tumour鈥檚 growth, and how the cells respond to
drugs.