How Hungry Fat Cells Could Someday Starve Cancer to Death
31st December 2025
Researchers at UC San Francisco used the gene editing technology CRISPR to turn ordinary white fat cells into “beige” fat cells, which voraciously consume calories to make heat. The work is funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH).
Then, they implanted them near tumors the way plastic surgeons inject fat from one part of the body to plump up another. The fat cells scarfed up all the nutrients, starving most of the tumor cells to death. The approach even worked when the fat cells were implanted in mice far from the sites of their tumors.
The approach’s reliance on a common procedure could speed its use as a new form of cellular therapy.