RE: [DIYbio] Looking for a direction

> -----Original Message-----
> From: diybio@googlegroups.com [mailto:diybio@googlegroups.com] On
> Behalf Of Andy
> Sent: Wednesday, April 10, 2013 2:21 PM
> To: diybio@googlegroups.com
> Subject: [DIYbio] Looking for a direction
>
> I am in the navy and am looking at going to college for Bioengeneering
> when i get out. My goal is to find a cure for cancer through
> Bioengeneering and genetics. I am looking for some guidance a
> direction if you will, on where to go. I have been reading and
> researching what people have done and what I would like to do. I have
> read in one book that there is a group in Whales that has actually come
> up with a drug free "cure" by way of the body, using proteins to signal
> "suicide" in the cancer cells. After reading this I started to realize
> that finding a "cure" isn't the actual problem that I would be facing.
> The true problem would be keeping the cure out of big blockbuster
> cooperation's hands while making it cheap and accessible to the
> general public at as little cost as possible. To do something like
> that a person would have to perfect the process of multiplying the
> results with as little effort as possible. I don't know where to
> begin...any ideas?

Make the thing first, then worry about accessibility. Once it exists there
are any number of ways to go about making it more available, and those
options will be more practical as biotechnology access spreads and ignoring
IP protections on biotechnology becomes economically ever more viable. Until
then, get the horse in front of the cart.

On methodologies, mole rats of the naked and blind varieties are possibly a
better place to look rather than whales. There are existing research groups
investigating the mechanisms that keep these animals cancer-free, and so
there will be places to sign up and help work on the issue when you have a
degree in hand.

http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2012/11/the-mechanism-of-blind-mole-rat-c
ancer-immunity.php
http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2011/03/revisiting-naked-mole-rats-and-th
eir-lack-of-cancer.php

There's also WILT in the SENS catalog of potential therapies if you're
feeling ambitious.

http://sens.org/research/introduction-to-sens-research/nuclear-mutations

The next 20 years of the cancer mainstream look very much like a matter
focusing on targeted therapies using the immune system and/or nanoparticles
and/or viruses, however. Methods of detection are the thing, and it looks
likely that there will be some 80/20 combinations of marginally
cancer-associated cell surface markers that enable a targeted therapy to
reliably enough kill off cancer cells in preference to normal cells. The
important part of that process is finding the marker combinations, as there
are any number of viable ways to kill cells in the lab today without harming
their neighbors.

So the robust 80/20 "cure for cancer" in 2030 will be some combination of
targeted therapies based on overlapping cell surface marker detection
protocols that between then cover near all of the cancer space. How fast and
well that all comes to pass depends on how many broad and useful markers for
cancer cells turn out to exist. e.g.:

http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2013/03/more-on-cd47-as-a-potentially-bro
ad-cancer-therapy-target.php

Reason

--
-- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups DIYbio group. To post to this group, send email to diybio@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to diybio+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at https://groups.google.com/d/forum/diybio?hl=en
Learn more at www.diybio.org
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "DIYbio" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to diybio+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to diybio@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/diybio?hl=en.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.