Researchers from Tuft University discover that cancer can not only be stopped in its tracks, but the growth of these tumours can be reversed as well.

With researchers making the discovery that our cells and genes are sensitive to light, the field of optogenetics came into being. Optogenetics has been effectively used to treat a variety of medical conditions and now, even though it is still in its infancy, optogenetics is all set to take on our biggest nemesis: cancer.

Scientists from the university of Tufts have successfully used optogenetics to not only prevent but even reverse the growth of tumours in cells.

The experiments entailed injecting frog’s embryos with genes that produced light sensitive ion channels in tumour cells which when exposed to blue light for a sufficient duration of time, typically 1 day, and adjust their electrical signals, the tumours vanish.

However, a surefire way to cure cancer is still to be reached. The researchers aren’t yet clear whether this method will work for humans. The percentage of success they have had with this method is roughly 30%.

Nevertheless this discovery is huge. Michael Levin, who co-author of this project, opines that it could take a decade before the “bioelectrical code” can be made more practicable in a real world scenario.

Nonetheless the fact that optogenetics even worked against cancer is extremely promising. Perhaps, one day, cancer patients will have to just bath in this blue light and rid themselves of cancer.