New 'molecular computers' find the right cells: A laboratory breakthrough in cell targeting may improve the safety of cancer-killing CAR T cells

New nanoscale devices, made of synthetic proteins, have been designed to target a therapeutic agent only to cells with a specific, predetermined combinations of cell surface markers. They operate on their own and search out cells they were programmed to find. The hope is that they might guide CAR T cancer therapy, and other treatments where precision is critical, through a sort of molecular beacon.