Complexity Digest 2008.22 - 10.01

29-May-2008

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Cell 'Organs' Get Plastic Upgrades, New Scientist Bookmark and Share

Excerpts: Meier says the artificial organelles would also work in other human cells, opening up the possibility of a new cancer therapy that tricks diseased cells into poisoning themselves from the inside out.

An advanced chemotherapy technique involves giving patients a harmless "prodrug" that only becomes toxic in the presence of a particular enzyme. This enzyme bonds to an antibody that seeks out cancer but ignores healthy cells - this means the drug will only become active around cancerous cells.