Genome Editing and the Future of Personalized and Targeted Cancer Medicine

Many human diseases, including cancer, have their etiology in genome alterations. Completion of the human genome project and the development of next generation sequencing technologies with single cell resolution will lead to routine complete genome mapping of cancer patients in the future. Genome editing is based on unique properties shared by mega-nucleases, zinc-finger nucleases, transcription activator-like effector nucleases, and the CRISPR/Cas9 system and their ability to generate cuts in the human genome at specific targeted sites thereby allowing replacement of defective DNA with a corrected sequence. Although still in its infancy, these technologies have the potential to revolutionize medicine and patient care.

Molecular Cancer is excited to present a series of original research and review articles related to genome editing and reprogramming.

This collection has been peer reviewed by the journal's Editorial Board.