Mice Genetically Engineered to Be Immune to Certain Breast Cancers

Mice have now been genetically engineered to be potentially immune to certain forms of breast cancer, according to researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Researchers are hopeful that this development will bring them closer to the development of drugs that can block the spread of breast cancer in humans.

Researchers targeted a protein linked to half of all human breast cancers, creating mice that lacked the protein that tumors need in order to grow, according to the study published in the journal Nature.

The mice were bioengineered to resist cancer by being made unable to express the protein cyclin D1, a protein that regulates cell growth. The findings showed that eliminating the protein in mice prone to certain breast cancers may help to keep them cancer free.

Other sources: Nature, AP