Ron DePinho, Professor of Department of Cancer Biology, Division of Discovery Science at MD Anderson Cancer Center, shared on LinkedIn:
“Breast cancer driver genes found by screening chromosome aberrations in vivo. Aneuploidy may be the haystackn but hidden within it are the genetic needles that actually drive cancer.
Using an elegant in vivo CRISPR–KOALA platform, investigators screened approximately 3,750 genes within recurrent chromosome-arm gains and losses in basal-like breast cancer, identifying 81 previously unrecognized drivers.
Remarkably, altering a single dominant driver could eliminate the selective pressure to acquire the corresponding aneuploidy. Most hits were not evident in cultured cells, underscoring a central lesson: cancer genes do not act in isolation the tissue microenvironment helps determine their function.
A powerful strategy for converting complex chromosomal abnormalities into actionable biological targets. Given the push to do away with mouse studies, I find it hard to imagine that such studies could be done ex vivo.”
