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“According to the National Cancer Institute, neuroendocrine tumors are more easily treated and less aggressive than other pancreatic tumors, but advances in biotechnology could soon make it possible for gene therapy to block the production of certain proteins which are thought to promote their growth,” Rohrlich reports. “While the day-to-day tools that go into making such fantastical ideas a reality may be another day at the office to a researcher, to the average person, the science involved in developing cures seems more akin to science fiction.”
Rohrlich reports, “Today’s ‘lab rat’ is a technological marvel — and also happens to be, in most instances, what is called a ‘knockout mouse.'”
Full article here.
I am in the pharmaceutical business, and we are on the verge of some truly incredible medical treatments. Some diseases are just a few years away from being history. Granted, some things can never be cured. (Anti-Apple idiocy, Cramer huckerism, etc)
@pablorph: +1
Interesting. I tried to get a Summer job at Jackson Lab in Bar Harbor, ME, when I was in high school.
Mighty Mouse?
Oh dear God. This is news? Lab rats are not “almost” treatments. Anything that looks promising in a lab rat is years away from human trials, and even then the likelihood of a cure is low. What garbage tying his story to Steve Jobs’ speculated medical issues.
@bizlaw — yeah, im a scientist in the regulatory field, and i would caution not to get your hopes up. this is sort of a feel good piece for research, which i am all for, but to say that it could save steve, (in any relatively short amount of time) is really speculation, at best. anyway, they need to exhaust “standard of care” treatments on steve first.
Knockout mice and transgenic mice (when a disease-related gene is inserted into the mouse) are valuable research tools that provide important insights into diseases. However, there is usually a very long road from determining the phenotype of a knockout or transgenic mouse to advances in knowledge that can assist in drug development, which itself is a very long process. Despite the description in the article of the mice as “humanized”, drugs that are safe and effective in mouse models of disease are not always safe or effective in humans. Part of the reason is that very few mouse models of disease are faithful recapitulations of the human disease. Another is the slight differences between homologous mouse and human genes. That is, even though the mouse gene for a particular protein may be 95% similar to the human gene, a particular drug may have different effects on the proteins they encode.
Knockout mice are important, but they are just part of a larger story. I’m more excited about our increasing ability to monitor changes on nearly all the components of a system (”omics”) and to meaningfully evaluate those systemic changes. It is one thing to note that a knockout mouse has more of less of the known hallmarks of a particular disease. It would be more valuable to understand every pathway that is altered in specific tissues, and how those pathways relate to the overall disease process, and what parts of those pathways would be optimal for pharamcological intervention.
Listened to a talk last week by an MD who’s research in mice from 20+ years ago is just now translating into clinical practice. The pace of biomedical breakthroughs is generally very slow.
This is ghoulish and speculative- in fact, downright insulting and ignorant.
We don’t know all the facts about Steve, and simply reporting stories that have no basis in fact is an invasion of his privacy and an unfortunate catalyst in provoking it.
Leave the poor guy alone already and do as he asks, respect his privacy. Rumors are just that, rumors….
I’m sorry, but for the most part the corporate mentality of the pharmaceutical industry is not to cure disease at all – it is only to treat it.
Cures are mostly found by public institutions.
Find a cure and you have a limited life product, but find a myriad of treatments instead and you have a product for a lifetime.
@pablorph
Of course cures aren’t realistic, why would the pharmaceutical companies ever want to cure anything? Endless ‘treatments’ are much more profitable.
Let’s see.
2 simple examples:
Smallpox http://www.stanford.edu/group/virus/pox/history.html
and
Before penicillin was discovered (not invented), a leading cause of death was infection. Now, we take antibiotics for granted. (That is a cure.)
Now, I could go on…..
Hmmmm, for diabetics the discovery if insulin was life-saving. A tremendous read is “The Discovery of Insulin” by Michael Bliss. Every person should read this book, not just diabetics, and especially look at some of the photos of conditions of diabetics prior to the use of insulin. Truly Incredible!
And more…. but that is enough for now. Unless you want more?
PS.. for those of you cynical of the purposes of the pharmas, next time you need a medication just tell the doc no. (“My blood clot will dissolve on its own.” or “Nah, my kidney will suddenly start putting out normal again.”) Or, go look in your medicine box and throw everything out.
Right….thought so.
PS
Stuart and Necromancer I am sure you work for free too. Would you please call me, I need some work done.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” /> Big smile. @ 256-555-1212 extension ez$
And we need to eliminate crime, why not death penalty? We need to eliminate greed, get rid of all the lawyers.
Heck, why not just get rid of all the evil then we wouldn’t clergy, lawyers, police, judges, courts, government. And on. Oh well, one day.
(Sarcasm off)