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Cancers have many tumor-suppression mutation, researchers analyzed more genotypes of lung cancer tumors using CRISPR-Cas9-a powerful gene-editing tool that can replace, modify, or delete genetic sequences inside organisms to create multiple, genetically distinct tumors in the lungs of individual animals. Each sequence functions as a heritable genetic barcode, and as each cancer seed cell divides, growing into a tumor, the number of barcodes also multiplies.
Now, instead of having to painstakingly cut out individual tumors, the scientists could take an entire cancerous lung, grind it up, and then use high DNA sequencing and computational analysis to very precisely determine how big a tumor is by counting how often its barcodes pop up. By tallying different barcodes, scientists can compare tumor sizes.
The combination of CRISPR-Cas9 and DNA barcoding could allow scientists to replicate in the lab the kind of genetic diversity observed in cancer patients. The team’s hybrid technique could also prove valuable for cancer drug testing. Pharmaceutical companies could test a drug on thousands of tumor variations simultaneously to see which ones respond to treatment.
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