Comments on: Biologists engineer algae to make complex anti-cancer ‘designer’ drug

By: asiwel

asiwel — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 03:10:51 +0000

I definitely agree that this is extremely important. Not sure, but I suppose that producing a drug using algae that is identical to an expensive, already approved and patented, pharmaceutical … results in a “generic” form of the drug … and so all of these breakthroughs await, what?, 14 years of patent protection? Or perhaps the drug company can just license the procedure and start cranking out the medicine “inexpensively” until then while still charging the same – to “recover” its R&D costs. On the other hand, R&D for new drugs can begin here with this sort of new technology and/or synthetic biology. Then those costs might not be so high, the time to market shorter, and the cost to the consumer much less.

By: asiwel

asiwel — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 18:24:38 +0000

Well .. looks that way. IE8 is just too old-fashioned, I guess. Sorry about that.

By: asiwel

asiwel — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 18:21:48 +0000

Ha, recently I have been using FIREFOX browser. It would be embarrassingly funny if this “spellchecker” I mentioned is a feature of the browser and not the website!

By: asiwel

asiwel — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 18:18:26 +0000

I’m not particularly worried about errata but I do appreciate spell-checking and I have begun to notice that this KurzweilAI Comment box of late seems to have been given an automatic, as-you-type, SPELLCHECKER now. YEA!! and Thank You! (Funny, the spellchecker thinks KurzweilAI is not a proper word :-} Now, next, the submitter needs to be able to edit the comment (say for 3 minutes) after it has been submitted. And while on this unrelated subject, what does “Awaiting Approval” mean? For some comments but not for others? And furthermore, one of those little up-or-down VOTE boxes used by various chat sites and discussion boards that readers can click on might help discourage some of the miscellaneous incendiary rhetoric of late on the site.

By: Editor

Editor — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 05:02:12 +0000

“she makes many small mistakes”: I’d appreciate knowing about them

By: Editor

Editor — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 05:00:55 +0000

Thanks. I just revised it to read: … “produce what has been a complex and expensive human therapeutic drug…” — more clear?

By: Bri

Bri — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 04:05:39 +0000

That’s it! Up against the wall! Shall I get the Pink Floyd album out? Maybe you have a cat of nine tails whip handy? Maybe you wouldn’t mind if I check out your work and point out in a nit picky way, any small errors you make, and if your flawless we’ll make a bronze statue of you and worship it. If you actually want to keep tabs on her you’ll see she makes many small mistakes. I don’t see any reason to focus on them. Instead I focus on the prodigious output of informative articles. Let’s try to be more constructive, not deconstructionist. I’m sure if she spent more time proof reading these little anomalies. I’d rather she spent her time on more valuable activities.

By: Bri

Bri — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 03:51:08 +0000

This is an under appreciated article. What these researchers have achieved will open up a whole new era of drug production. It will stream line the time and reduce the costs considerably. Designing proteins specific to a persons genome is the future of medicine. This will make that an affordable reality. It’s a pleasure to read of this breakthrough. Algea have the potential to produce innumerable compounds at an unbelievably low cost.

By: Dennis R.

Dennis R. — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 01:17:18 +0000

Dear editor,
“to produce a complex and expensive human therapeutic drug used to treat cancer.”

Should that be INexpensive?

By: Gorden Russell

Gorden Russell — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 16:58:07 +0000

This is a great development. Just providing a vaccine for malaria would be great enough…but to stimulate bone and neuron growth is greater still.