Gene therapy is our big hope for the future in cancer research.
Genes are the blueprints of life which control every aspect of a cell's behaviour. So forward-thinking scientists are trying to devise ways of putting 'useful' genes into cancerous cells to stop them in their tracks. Scientists at the Gray Laboratory have engineered a switch which turns on a gene, producing toxins. As the message can be localised specifically to the tumour, the gene therapy only kills the cancer cells and avoids damage to the surrounding normal tissue. This idea will make our system useful for treating those cancers already treated routinely with radiotherapy.