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CRISPR tech selectively shreds cancer cells, including "undruggable" cancers

innovativegenomics.org

41–50 of 239 posts

Re: CRISPR tech selectively shreds cancer cells, including "undruggable" cancers

#41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After we launched our startup, we had all sorts of folks reach out to sell their GTM services. I went with one group from Vietnam that would make engagement bait Reddit questions with some accounts, and advertise our product in the comments section with others. It was expensive but it worked

Reddit is a huge danger to society. There's no doubt that subs about specific non political (and non popular) topics are hugely beneficial, the overall damage the echo chambers do still outweigh these benefits.

The way the voting system works at Reddit encourages group think and bubbles. All it takes is five more down votes than up votes and a comment or post essentially disappears from view. It's a design that actively avoids debate.

Re: CRISPR tech selectively shreds cancer cells, including "undruggable" cancers

#42
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So we're waiting for the Apple of the medical world to take a bunch of preexisting things to be applied together in a way that makes the whole much more valuable than the pieces. Or we need all of the individual lions to come together to make the Voltron?

We already had this. It was called Theranos.

I'm not sure what this comment is trying to say. Theranos was a company build from the ground up on fraud. Apple, for all its faults, is provably at the forefront of technology used in personal computing devices.

Re: CRISPR tech selectively shreds cancer cells, including "undruggable" cancers

#44
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So we're waiting for the Apple of the medical world to take a bunch of preexisting things to be applied together in a way that makes the whole much more valuable than the pieces. Or we need all of the individual lions to come together to make the Voltron?

We already had this. It was called Theranos.

I don't know if we "had" something called Theranos. In fact, I believe that was the subject of a couple of lawsuit because we didn't.

Re: CRISPR tech selectively shreds cancer cells, including "undruggable" cancers

#46
post #38

Over on reddit people were debating whether cancer should be cured since it disproportionately affects rich people and it made me realise how far reddit has fallen. It's just a botnet now to manipulate elections.

I would imagine the charitable characterization of that discussion is much closer to “awesome, this will mean the Peter Thiels and Elon Musks of the world will live to 150 while both me and my children will be dead long before this trickles down to regular people” vs. “we shouldn’t cure cancer”.

[flagged]

Re: CRISPR tech selectively shreds cancer cells, including "undruggable" cancers

#47

CRISPR is an extremely overhyped approach which found a marketing engine via popular science. There is 1 FDA approved CRISPR therapy as compared to 7 for AAV and 7 for Lentivirus. Counting all viral vector therapies that have been approved, we’re sitting at 19 approved therapies versus 1 for CRISPR. I think CRISPR ideas in a lab are just an easy way into the mainstream press, but viral vector delivery is the real fut…

Viral vector delivery is indeed harder to sell with PopSci, what with movies like "I am Legend".

Re: CRISPR tech selectively shreds cancer cells, including "undruggable" cancers

#48

CRISPR is an extremely overhyped approach which found a marketing engine via popular science. There is 1 FDA approved CRISPR therapy as compared to 7 for AAV and 7 for Lentivirus. Counting all viral vector therapies that have been approved, we’re sitting at 19 approved therapies versus 1 for CRISPR. I think CRISPR ideas in a lab are just an easy way into the mainstream press, but viral vector delivery is the real fut…

Viral vector delivery is indeed harder to sell with PopSci, what with movies like "I am Legend".

Great first half of a movie, by the way. Up there with Sunshine for "Sit down for a great hour-long ambiance".

I usually end Legend after the mannequin trap, and end Sunshine after the transit of mercury.

Re: CRISPR tech selectively shreds cancer cells, including "undruggable" cancers

#49

Can anyone point to some resources about how cancers might adapt to CRISPR treatments?

Same problem with chemo and radiation. A tumor may start off with a single cancerous mutation, but by the time it spreads there may be several. Once the cell repair machinery has been broken, the cancer cells are prone for more mutations.

Chemo, radiation, and CRISPR will kill everything it can reach that is susceptible. That leaves everything that was unreachable or resistant behind to start growing again.

Kill cancer cells is easy. Killing ONLY cancer cells is very hard.

Re: CRISPR tech selectively shreds cancer cells, including "undruggable" cancers

#50

CRISPR is an extremely overhyped approach which found a marketing engine via popular science. There is 1 FDA approved CRISPR therapy as compared to 7 for AAV and 7 for Lentivirus. Counting all viral vector therapies that have been approved, we’re sitting at 19 approved therapies versus 1 for CRISPR. I think CRISPR ideas in a lab are just an easy way into the mainstream press, but viral vector delivery is the real fut…

You're correct about CRISPR Cas9. The off-target affects are difficult to manage.

The paper describes Cas12a2. This is a different mechanism with discovery origins in - of all things - agriculture. It does not attempt in any way to reprogram cells. It uses a guide protein to locate a specific mutation with exacting precision and, when it activates, unleashes total destruction of the cell.

The implications of Cas12a2 on undruggable conditions that exhibit known driver mutation profiles is profound.

Source: I have personally funded novel research based on Cas12a2 for an undruggable condition I have. I have personally seen my condition "cured" in vitro using this technology and it left all of my WT cells unharmed. Some of the researchers I've funded are co-authors in the paper linked. I am a layperson in this field (I'm a SWE, not in biotech), but I am happy to answer questions.

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