Skin cells reprogrammed into cancer-killing stem cells

Can one’s own skin hold the key to treating deadly brain cancer?

“We wanted to know if these reprogrammed brain stem cells would find cancer cells and if they could deliver medication. They do, and they can. This is the first time this technology has been used to treat cancer.”

Professor Shawn Hingtgen and his team at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy are using the newest version of a Nobel Prize–winning technology for the first time to build cancer-killing stem cells that hunt down and mop up the remnants of invasive brain tumors, promising a new and more effective treatment for glioblastoma, a cancer with very low survival rates.

Read the complete Carolina Story…

This is story number 109 in the Carolina Stories 225th Anniversary Edition magazine.

The Eshelman Institute for Innovation is made possible by a $100 million gift from Fred Eshelman to accelerate the creation and development of ideas leading to discoveries and transformative changes in education, research and health care. To learn more about the EII’s impact, visit unceii.org/impact.

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