{"id":237301,"date":"2026-05-17T06:04:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T11:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/05\/scientists-recruit-red-blood-cells-to-deliver-genetic-cargo-with-instructions-to-kill-cancer"},"modified":"2026-05-17T06:04:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T11:04:10","slug":"scientists-recruit-red-blood-cells-to-deliver-genetic-cargo-with-instructions-to-kill-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/05\/scientists-recruit-red-blood-cells-to-deliver-genetic-cargo-with-instructions-to-kill-cancer","title":{"rendered":"Scientists recruit red blood cells to deliver genetic cargo with instructions to kill cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/scientists-recruit-red-blood-cells-to-deliver-genetic-cargo-with-instructions-to-kill-cancer.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Scientists have developed a way to turn the body\u2019s own immune cells into cancer-fighting agents\u2014without removing them from the body\u2014by using red blood cells to deliver genetic instructions. Current CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) therapies typically involve collecting a patient\u2019s T cells, genetically modifying them in the laboratory, and then reinfusing them in a process that can take weeks. The new strategy aims to bypass that step.<\/p>\n<p>In a study published in Science Translational Medicine, researchers at Westlake Laboratory of Life Sciences and Biomedicine in Hangzhou, China, report that they used engineered erythrocytes, or red blood cells, to carry messenger RNA\u2014mRNA\u2014that reprograms myeloid cells into tumor-targeting cells inside the body.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEngineering myeloid cells with chimeric antigen receptors\u2014CARs\u2014holds great therapeutic promise,\u201d writes Dr. Xiaoqian Nie, lead author of the investigation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scientists have developed a way to turn the body\u2019s own immune cells into cancer-fighting agents\u2014without removing them from the body\u2014by using red blood cells to deliver genetic instructions. Current CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) therapies typically involve collecting a patient\u2019s T cells, genetically modifying them in the laboratory, and then reinfusing them in a process that [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":707,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1902,11,412],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-237301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bioengineering","category-biotech-medical","category-genetics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237301","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\/707"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237301\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}