File a patent on T-cell discovery
FANTASTIC news from Cardiff University, a discovery that opens up the possibility to treat a wide variety of cancers; more specifically, the research team at Cardiff together with their collaborators have identified a specific type of T-cell that lab tests have shown can cure lung, skin, blood, colon, breast, bone, prostate, ovarian, kidney and cervical cancer in animal test models.
If I understand the technology correctly, this type of T-cell has been isolated from an animal’s blood, possibly modified, then grown in significant numbers outside the animal body (meaning in a specialised lab) and thence reintroduce in elevated numbers back into the animal to cure cancer in that animal.
So there is that caveat, what works on rodents modified to mimic human cancer patients may not, even after intensive research effort, work in human cancer patients.
Put another way, having a cure for cancer in mice is great news for mice, but is not particularly useful if it doesn’t work in humans!
But the ultimate goal remains to isolate this specific type of T-cell from a cancer patient’s blood, possibly modify them, then multiply in significant numbers outside the human patient and thence reintroduce the cells in larger numbers back into the patient to cure the patient of cancer. And repeat this process with other cancer patients.
This is all great news, but hopefully a MABs-type fiasco is not in the works here, wherein the past British discovery of Monoclonal Anti-Bodies led to the creation of tens of thousands of jobs, just not in the UK – all because a patent application was not filed covering the MAB discovery.
American biotech companies grew fat off the unprotected British discovery. (Inter alia, MABs are used to diagnose a plethora of diseases in human patients as well as animal pets.)
But I can’t believe a patent has not been filed on this latest T-cell discovery.
Wales is crying out for jobs – so why not create some here?
Christopher Wood (Born in Cardiff ) Arlington, Virginia, USA