Reversing Cancer Cells to Normal Cells... KAIST Develops New Technology

Professor Jo Gwanghyun's Team Publishes Research Paper on Reversible Colon Cancer Treatment Core Technology
in Advanced Science

A foundational technology that treats cancer by reverting cancer cells to a state similar to normal cells without killing them has been developed by a domestic research team.

The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) announced on the 22nd that Professor Kwanghyun Cho's team from the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering developed a foundational technology for reversible colon cancer treatment that transforms colon cancer cells without killing them, restoring them to a state similar to normal colon cells and enabling treatment without side effects.

Schematic diagram of the research results. Provided by KAIST

Currently, all anticancer treatments aim to eliminate cancer cells. Such treatments have fundamental limitations, as cancer cells develop resistance and recur, or normal cells are also destroyed, causing side effects. Professor Cho's research team focused on the observation that normal cells regress along the normal cell differentiation trajectory during the process of becoming cancerous. Based on this, the team developed a technology to create a digital twin (virtual model) of the gene network related to the normal cell differentiation trajectory. They then conducted simulation analyses to systematically identify master molecular switches that induce normal cell differentiation and demonstrated through molecular cell experiments and animal tests that applying these switches to colon cancer cells normalizes the cancer cell state.

The research team explained that the significant implication of this study is the potential to develop reversible cancer therapeutics by applying this technology to various other cancer types. Professor Kwanghyun Cho said, "The fact that cancer cells can be transformed into normal cells is an astonishing phenomenon," adding, "This research achievement proves that it is possible to systematically induce this transformation."

Supported by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Research Foundation of Korea, this research outcome has been transferred to BioRevert Inc. for use in developing reversible cancer therapeutics. The study, involving Dr. Jeongryeol Gong, doctoral students Choonkyung Lee, Hunmin Kim, and Juhee Kim from KAIST, was published online on the 11th in the international journal Advanced Science.