Cancer Breakthrough at MIT

It took them 16,000 tries, but MIT scientists have finally identified a chemical that selectively targets cancer cells, a possible breakthrough in creating new treatments. “We now have a method that researchers anywhere in the world can use to find agents that can kill cancer stem cells and potentially treat cancer,” Piyush Gupta, a researcher at the Broad Institute and co-author of the study told Bloomberg. The chemical compound, salinomycin, works like a smart bomb, picking out stem cells that turn into cancer and destroying them. Next up is further testing on animals.