Health · Medical Research · 12 hrs ago
MIT team develops a way to engineer cancer-fighting cells inside the body
MIT researchers have developed a method to turn natural killer cells into cancer fighters inside the body.
The approach uses tiny particles made from fatty molecules to deliver messenger RNA, which tells the cells to make proteins that identify and attack diseased T cells.
The engineered cells, called CAR NK cells, could target some cancers and autoimmune conditions involving harmful T cells.
This matters because CAR T-cell treatments can be difficult to use against diseased T cells: the engineered T cells may attack one another.
Natural killer cells are a different type of immune cell, so they may avoid that problem.
Current CAR T treatments require cells to be collected, modified and grown at a specialist facility, while the new method could reduce the time, cost and complexity of making such therapies.
The researchers' study was published in Nature Biotechnology, but the information available does not say when or whether the approach will be tested in patients.
MIT researchers developed a technique to engineer natural killer cells into cancer-fighting cells directly inside the body.
The approach uses tiny particles made of fatty molecules to deliver messenger RNA instructions to the cells.
The instructions tell natural killer cells to produce proteins that help them identify and eliminate diseased T cells.
The method could reduce the time, expense and complexity of manufacturing personalized immune cell therapies.
Researchers say the approach could eventually be used against cancers and autoimmune diseases involving abnormal T cells.
- Who
- Researchers at MIT developed the technique.
- What
- It delivers genetic instructions to natural killer cells inside the body, prompting them to target diseased T cells.
- When
- The research was published on November 8, 2026.
- Where
- MIT.
- Why
- The approach aims to make immune cell therapies easier to produce and administer and could target diseases involving abnormal T cells.
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This story does not have a timeline yet.
- Research institution
- MIT
- Target immune cells
- Natural killer (NK) cells
- Genetic instructions
- Messenger RNA delivered by tiny fatty-molecule particles
- Publication
- Nature Biotechnology
- Published
- November 8, 2026
What people are saying
The manufacturing challenges with CAR NK cells are significant. The idea here is you can deliver a nanoparticle that will modify your own NK cells with a CAR construct and teach them to attack tumor cells