{"id":230750,"date":"2026-02-06T21:12:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T03:12:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/02\/scientists-use-rna-nanotechnology-to-program-living-cells-opening-a-new-path-for-cancer-cure"},"modified":"2026-02-06T21:12:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T03:12:26","slug":"scientists-use-rna-nanotechnology-to-program-living-cells-opening-a-new-path-for-cancer-cure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/02\/scientists-use-rna-nanotechnology-to-program-living-cells-opening-a-new-path-for-cancer-cure","title":{"rendered":"Scientists use RNA nanotechnology to program living cells, opening a new path for cancer cure"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ax4uv4Sm4w8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Scientists at Rutgers University\u2013Newark have developed a first-of-its-kind RNA-based nanotechnology that assembles itself inside living human cells and can be programmed to stop propagation of harmful cells. The findings, recently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-025-67817-y\" target=\"_blank\">published<\/a> in <i>Nature Communications<\/i>, represent a major breakthrough in biomedical research. The researchers are now in the midst of testing the technology on human cancer cells as a potential cure for the disease but have not yet finished the study or published results.<\/p>\n<p>This nanostructure technology, which was tested in human cell cultures, can be used as a molecular tool for biomedical research and therapeutics. Because it can be <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2022-10-rna-based-tool-illuminate-brain-circuits.html?utm_source=embeddings&utm_medium=related&utm_campaign=internal\" rel=\"related\">customized<\/a>, it has the versatility to target multiple detrimental genes and proteins simultaneously.<\/p>\n<p>The work was led by Professor Fei Zhang of the Rutgers-Newark Department of Chemistry and Professor Jean-Pierre Etchegaray of the Department of Biological Sciences at Rutgers-Newark, along with an interdisciplinary team of researchers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scientists at Rutgers University\u2013Newark have developed a first-of-its-kind RNA-based nanotechnology that assembles itself inside living human cells and can be programmed to stop propagation of harmful cells. The findings, recently published in Nature Communications, represent a major breakthrough in biomedical research. The researchers are now in the midst of testing the technology on human cancer [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-230750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-nanotechnology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230750\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}