A virus that kills cancer: the cure that’s waiting in the cold
September 5, 2012
Oncolytic viral therapy uses genetically-modified viruses to destroy cancer tumors (credit: NBCI)
Professor Magnus Essand has developed a virus that may kill cancer cells, The Telegraph reports.
Cheap to produce, the virus is exquisitely precise, with only mild, flu-like side-effects in humans. But Ad5[CgA-E1A-miR122]PTD is never going to be tested to see if it might also save humans, due to lack of funding.
Comments (15)
by Peter the printer
Just what’s needed, save more humans from natural nature’s controls, expand the human race, extend human life, kill the planet faster still.
by Saberjim
Let’s see how you feel about this when you or a loved one develops a malignancy.
by Geffrard
kill the planet faster? err i think you got it backward…during four billion years that planet have exist it have faced and survive many catastrophic disasters (volcano eruptions, major earth quake, several ice age and other global climate changes, and not to mention many asteroid/meteor attacks). as george carlin said we, the human race, are the ones that are fucked. The planet will keep one rotating as it always had and we’ll just be remembered as another failed experiment of mother nature as new species are sprout up to replace us
by the voice of reason
Are you kidding??? Who wants a cheap cure for cancer? How would we make money of the suffering of others? What we really need is expensive complicated treatments that prolong the suffering so we can pay everyone in the corporation enough to buy a new sports car. Oh, and it can’t be the cure because that would a problem for our long term finacial goals.
by Christopher Thomas
Somebody here mentioned kickstarter and previously I’d heard great things about indiegogo being used to raise money for a Telsa Museum from “the oatmeal” a popular online comic.
I think with the power of the internet and people here who are interested to help we can do this without the big pharma or the cancer charities to control funding, we can do that ourselves.
I’ve started a indiegogo campaign here: http://www.indiegogo.com/uppsala-cancer-research
and I’m wondering whether there are any donations, If you look around the net, you’ll find my name associated with this, originally I tried to kick start funding and was shut down by the university, so I’m now on my second attempt, I spoke with magnus and thomas the guys from the university on skype yesterday and they are truely motivated and overwhelmed by the response they’ve got.
They are great people and we should support them!
go donate now!
by Amit
Cancers are of different types. No one cure will work for all. Therefore, it makes sense to invest in different research possibilities.
by Jack
Why is the institution he is a professor at not funding this, and if it is promising I find it hard to believe that VC’s are not jumping all over this. Something smells fishy here.
by Bruce Wright
The problem is that there are far more promising ideas than there is money to fund research into them, or good people to run the studies. (It’s not much good throwing people at a problem who don’t have the proper background to do the research).
Once we get strong AI, things could get VERY interesting very quickly, because both of these problems will likely be solved in a single blow.
by Satan
Any cure for cancer will turn us all into zombies! don’t you guys watch movies?
by Phillfrog
Yeah, just get on kickstarter. I hear there’s a market for cancer cures.
by Giulio Prisco
I am wondering whether Essand’s modified virus could be produced in DIYbio labs.
by Frank
He who has a thing to sell and,
goes and whispers in a well,
is not so apt to get the dollars as,
one who climbs a tree and hollers.
by Starheart
Kickstarter has been used to crowdfund all matters of things; why not use it to sponsor legitimate biotech research as a huge middle finger to Big Pharma?
by graham caldwell
richard branson never mind going to space use your wealth and give magnus essand some.
by Bri
If I were Sir Richard Branson I wouldn’t invest a dime in cancer cures. At this point it’s a horse race. There are so many ways that we are about to cure cancer any of them might win. Out of all the choices available I’d invest in genetic modificatios. That’s what’s going wrong. That’s what needs to be fixed. Any of the others might “win” the race but they have more potential to alter something else. Space is the best bet for Sir Branson. He has the avionics and ground terminal expertise. Space has tremendous potential for tourism and commerce.