A fake beauty spot could one day warn you of cancer. The implant, made of genetically engineered cells, has been designed to detect developing breast, prostate and colon cancers when they are only a few millimetres in size.
of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and his colleagues made this implant by genetically altering human skin cells so that they would become darker in colour when exposed to rising calcium levels. A rise in calcium in the blood is , because nearly all breast, prostate and colon cancers release substances that break down bones, releasing calcium.
The team programmed these skin cells to respond to rising calcium by producing the skin pigment melanin. They then put these cells into microscopic capsules and implanted these into the skin of mice that had been injected with breast or colon cancer cells.
Advertisement
Within a few weeks, the implants had grown darker in all eight mice whose tumours raised their calcium levels. The implants did not change colour in mice injected with a different kind of cancer for comparison.
If used for people, the capsules would probably need replacing every six months to a year, says Fussenegger. And if a black spot appears, it wouldn’t necessarily mean a person had cancer – raised calcium levels can also be caused by kidney problems and other conditions.
