Cancer genes silenced in humans

This is a neat article depicting how actualy nanoparticles or nanobots are actually being used to deliver a lethal blow to cancer cells, with the first human trial being a success of no side effects. By sneaking into the cell, it evades the immune system and delivers the siRNA or the silencing RNA into the cancer cell.

The nanobot is being delivered by a research team at the California Institute of Technology headed by Mark Davis. The team has discovered a safe mechanism for delivering RNAi sequences into the cancerous cells. Ribonucleic acid interference (RNAi) attacks specific genes in the malign cells and disables functions inside, killing them.

The bots are about 70 nanometers of two polymers and a protein which will attach to the surface of the cell. They are designed to carry the siRNA to deactivate the production of a certain protein and starving the cell to death. Also, once the job of the nanobot has been accomplished, the nanoparticle will break itself down and get eliminated by the body through urination.

I feel like our nanobot projects in class are actually becoming a reality.

Source:
http://media.caltech.edu/press_releases/13334