Remote control using heat-triggered gene switches published in ACS Synthetic Biology

Our work on engineering thermal gene switches for spatial and remote control of transcriptional activity in mammalian cells using pulses of heat was published in ACS Synthetic Biology! Congrats to Ian and the team!

Read the entire manuscript here.

Summary | Genetically engineered T cells have the potential to cure patients of cancer. Yet after they are infused into recipients, we lack the ability to control their activity throughout the body including at disease sites. Here we genetically engineer T cells to allow them to be remotely controlled using pulses of heat localized by laser light. This could improve the precision of T cell therapies for cancer.
Press Coverage | Georgia Tech Research Horizons “Remote-control shoots laser at nano-gold to turn on cancer-killing immune cells” | ASME “Precisely targeting tumors with cancer fighting T cells” | Medical News Today “This ‘genetic switch’ could help fight cancer” | Science Daily | Controlled Environments |  Phys.org | EurekAlert! | Nanowerk | Nanotechnology Now | Medgadget “Remote-controlled signal activates T cells for cancer immunotherapy”