Our body fat may turn out to be a secret weapon in our everlasting fight against cancer. A new study released this week suggests that fat cells can be engineered into a treatment that literally starves out tumors.

Liposuction and plastic surgery aren't often mentioned in the same breath as cancer. But they are the inspiration for a new approach to treating cancer that uses engineered fat cells to deprive tumors of nutrition.

Scientists at UC San Francisco have pioneered a groundbreaking approach to fighting cancer using engineered fat cells. By transforming ordinary fat into high-energy beige fat using CRISPR, they created a cell type that voraciously consumes nutrients — outcompeting and starving tumors.