Unearthing New Cancer Treatments From Fungi, Gene Editing Tool Built Specifically For It

Researchers have spent decades and billions of dollars sequencing animal and crop genomes, but fungi have historically been the forgotten middle child of genomics, only noticed when they’re ruining bread or colonizing toes. “This neglect is kind of remarkable considering how fungi have shaped modern medicine,” says chemical and biomolecular engineer Xue “Sherry” Gao. “From the serendipitous discovery of penicillin to cholesterol-lowering statins, we owe many recent breakthroughs in longevity to fungal chemistry. But despite...