Multi-use p53 sensor

Scientists have made a synthetic gene circuit that senses lost or mutated p53, the tumor suppressor most commonly mutated in human cancers, and can be programmed to trigger a range of outputs, including expression of a cellular suicide switch or a reporter gene. The authors see an application for the circuit in p53-mutant acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), as well as in drug discovery screens and diagnostics.

Wild-type p53 is a transcription factor and tumor suppressor that can prevent cell cycle progression and induce apoptosis when cells become cancerous. Over 50% of human cancers harbor deletions or loss-of-function mutations in p53. ...