Cancer proof mice

[Sasq]

White blood cells from a strain of cancer-resistant mice cured advanced cancers in ordinary laboratory mice, researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine reported today.

"Even highly aggressive forms of malignancy with extremely large tumors were eradicated,"

squeak

[Marshmallowman]

I am thinking you have put in the wrong link, unless programing in Open sours smalltalk Squeak cures cancer

[Sasq]

link fixed

[Marshmallowman]

That does sound very promising.

Though should we be worried that we are breeding an army of cancer resistant super mice

[KvHagedorn]

Sounds like this might be the miracle breakthrough to cure cancer. Amazing.

[Sasq]

I think its got a long way to go, but it could prove to be the right path. As soon as they work out the mechanisim by which it works, it is hopefully just down to glueing the pieces together

[NetSnake]

I think its got a long way to go, but it could prove to be the right path. As soon as they work out the mechanisim by which it works, it is hopefully just down to glueing the pieces together

I just read the full text. I doesnt look like a very long way to go...

Considerable work together with several collaborative groups has already been performed to identify the gene mutated in these resistant mice; however, this task is complex and still requires further work. Other strategies to identify the altered molecular pathways include analysis of the genes expressed by purified populations of immune cells, comparing normal mouse cells to those from resistant mice before and after challenge with cancer. Preliminary results of those experiments are very encouraging.

I would be surprised if it was just one gene and it probably isnt. Anyway, from the way they talk about their future plans i'd say they have all the basic experiments done (Edit: probably microarrays, related "gene fishing" techniques and polymorphism analyses on known genes to be important for tumor infiltration and killing). Expect a Nature/Science pulbication and an announcement around PS3 launch period

Thats for the isolation and characterization of the gene(s) involved and for a few in vitro experiments on human cells.
Then exploiting this for human cancer treatment wouldnt be that hard (considering we are talking about blood cells) the only problem is that there is no way to know if those gene(s) are going to work in humans as well as they work for the mice....