Re: Protein antifreeze

From: Doug Jones (random@qnet.com)
Date: Sat Jan 15 2000 - 20:37:30 MST


Jeff Davis wrote:
> >TAPETŪ (Tumor Amplified Protein Expression Therapy), Vion's core platform
> >technology, are highly attenuated bacteria that, in preclinical
> >studies, have demonstrated preferential replication in tumors compared to
> >normal tissues.

<chuckle> So they're breeding bugs that go, "Mmmmm, cancer cells, yum!" I
*like* it...

Set a thief to catch a thief, sorta. I suppose they found the preferential
replication in tumors by a selective breeding technique (variation and
selection), but added the chemotherapy genes directly. Best of both
worlds- elegant!

Those bugs will be *damn* hard to maintain at a good level of preparedness,
unless expression of the tumor killing protein can be switched on & off by
a separate chemical signal. Without this, the in vitrio cell growth setup
would kill the host tumor cells before a large batch of bacteria could be
grown.

--
Doug Jones
Rocket Plumber, XCOR Aerospace
http://www.xcor-aerospace.com



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