一篇题为《Coffee could one day switch cancer therapies on and off》的报道（日期为2026年3月1日）来自Earth.com，描述了德克萨斯州农工大学（Texas A&M）生物科学与技术学院（IBT）在Yubin Zhou领导下将咖啡因与CRISPR-Cas化学遗传学（chemogenetics）结合的研究。研究者目标是先对细胞进行预编程，再通过小剂量、可测量的化学输入去切换细胞行为。Zhou课题组在该领域已有180篇以上论文，开发了用于癌症、糖尿病及慢性病研究/潜在治疗的CRISPR与化学遗传系统。
该系统在细胞内引入三种模块：一个纳米抗体、一种匹配伴侣蛋白和CRISPR编辑工具。约20毫克（mg）的咖啡因，来自咖啡、巧克力或苏打饮料，可作为触发信号。咖啡因及其代谢物如可可碱(theobromine)可促使纳米抗体与伴侣蛋白结合，从而激活CRISPR并执行细胞内编辑。该触发在动物实验中有效，激活窗口仅为数小时，约为机体代谢咖啡因所需时间，从而实现时间可控。该过程可逆：免疫抑制剂rapamycin可使蛋白解离并停止进一步编辑，因此该系统可实现“开启-关闭”而非单向启动。
该策略可整合到免疫T细胞和CAR-T细胞中，临床上按需增强或抑制其抗肿瘤“激进性”，并具有可精确调控的特性。该平台同样可能用于胰岛素等治疗性基因表达；Zhou团队将咖啡因响应型纳米抗体称为“caffebodies”。除胰岛素外，其可扩展至调节影响免疫反应与代谢通路的分子。Zhou指出，该思路核心是将“已知药物”与常见食物成分（如咖啡因）转用为全新的细胞与基因治疗“控制信号”，为临床提供一种更安全、可逆、可复位的调节方式。
A March 1, 2026 report from Earth.com described a Texas A&M Health Science Center / Institute of Biosciences and Technology study led by Yubin Zhou that combines caffeine with CRISPR-Cas chemogenetics. The group’s aim is to preprogram cells in advance and then switch cell behavior with a small, measured chemical input. Zhou’s group has published more than 180 papers and has refined CRISPR and chemogenetic systems for studying and potentially treating cancer, diabetes, and chronic disease.
The engineered cells carry three inserted components: a nanobody, its partner protein, and the CRISPR machinery. Around 20 milligrams (mg) of caffeine from coffee, chocolate, or soda is used as the trigger. Caffeine, along with metabolites such as theobromine, induces nanobody–partner binding, which activates CRISPR and enables gene modification inside cells. In animal experiments this trigger worked, and the activation window was only a few hours, roughly matching body caffeine metabolism, giving tight temporal control. The system is also reversible: rapamycin, an immunosuppressant, can separate the paired proteins and halt further editing, creating a true on-and-off control rather than one-way activation.
The approach can be integrated into immune T cells and CAR-T cells, allowing clinicians to make them more or less aggressive against tumors while maintaining controlled timing. Zhou said the platform is modular and fully tunable. It also has potential for therapeutic outputs such as insulin; his team calls the caffeine-responsive nanobodies “caffebodies.” Beyond insulin, it may be adapted to control other molecules that regulate immune and metabolic pathways. Zhou argued this strategy repurposes well-understood drugs and common food-derived molecules as precise control signals, suggesting a practical route toward safe and reversible, clinically tunable therapies.