CRISPR identifies novel drug targets for multiple cancer types

Researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute (London, UK), EMBL-EBI (Cambridge, UK), and GSK (Brentford, UK) have used CRISPR to reveal the gene fusions that are essential for growth of cancer cells. They have also identified a new gene fusion that presents a novel drug target for multiple cancers, including brain and ovarian cancers. Their results have been published in Nature Communication. Gene fusions play an important role in the development of cancer and are the result of the abnormal joining of two different genes. They are currently used by doctors to discover the type of cancer, prognosis and what drugs are...