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the_ignored
SFN Addict
2562 Posts |
 Posted - 08/30/2009 : 08:58:40
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From a news article here.
In her modest lab in the institute, housed in a rundown building, a line of immobile bloated ticks could be seen lined up with straws under their heads.
The small amounts of saliva captured that way was reproduced many times over in yeast vats so that tests could be carried out on lab rats with cancer.
The results have been more than promising.
"If I treat every day for 14 days an animal's tumor, a small tumor, this tumor doesn't develop -- it even regresses. The tumor mass shrinks. If I treat for 42 days, you totally eliminate the tumor," the scientist said. |
Bad news: Not enough money for further tests, it seems. Even though, it'll be years before it can get to clinical trials but at least we have some hope.
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>From: enuffenuff@fastmail.fm
(excerpt follows):
> I'm looking to teach these two bastards a lesson they'll never forget.
> Personal visit by mates of mine. No violence, just a wee little chat.
>
> **** has also committed more crimes than you can count with his
> incitement of hatred against a religion. That law came in about 2007
> much to ****'s ignorance. That is fact and his writing will become well
> know as well as him becoming a publicly known icon of hatred.
>
> Good luck with that fuckwit. And Reynold, fucking run, and don't stop.
> Disappear would be best as it was you who dared to attack me on my
> illness knowing nothing of the cause. You disgust me and you are top of
> the list boy. Again, no violence. Just regular reminders of who's there
> and visits to see you are behaving. Nothing scary in reality. But I'd
> still disappear if I was you.
What brought that on? this. Original posting here.
Another example of this guy's lunacy here. |
Edited by - the_ignored on 08/30/2009 08:59:41
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 08/30/2009 : 17:15:38 [Permalink]
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One problem with developing drugs from natural sources is the fact that pharmaceutical companies are loath to invest in anything they can't patent. They seem to be at a very early cell culture stage. It's not yet possible to know if their tick saliva will cure cancers in living organisms -- much less people -- without harming them. I hope someone gives these researchers some funding so they can find out.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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marfknox
SFN Die Hard
USA
3739 Posts |
Posted - 08/30/2009 : 17:27:48 [Permalink]
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| Wow! I hope the news of this will help with obtaining funding for more research. Very encouraging research so far. |
"Too much certainty and clarity could lead to cruel intolerance" -Karen Armstrong
Check out my art store: http://www.marfknox.etsy.com
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Simon
SFN Regular
USA
1992 Posts |
 Posted - 08/30/2009 : 20:50:34 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by HalfMooner
One problem with developing drugs from natural sources is the fact that pharmaceutical companies are loath to invest in anything they can't patent. They seem to be at a very early cell culture stage. It's not yet possible to know if their tick saliva will cure cancers in living organisms -- much less people -- without harming them. I hope someone gives these researchers some funding so they can find out.
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Nah... They are ways around that.
You isolate the molecule, stick a pretty group at the end, that does little but looks pretty and voila a brand new molecule for you to patent! |
Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
Carl Sagan - 1996 |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 08/30/2009 : 21:03:52 [Permalink]
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Beyond what Simon said, you can't patent tick saliva, but you can patent the method of using tick saliva to treat cancer. After all, the lead researcher has already applied for a patent.
The idea that natural things can't be patented as treatments for disease is a crock. The reason that most of them are unpatentable is that they've been around for decades or centuries, thus failing to be new.
Of course, it also depends on the patent examiners. If it's new to them, it might get patented. Like how using a particular microprocessor operation to put a blinking cursor on the screen got patented many years after it had already been in use. It takes court cases to revoke such patents. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 08/30/2009 : 21:53:14 [Permalink]
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And then another company sticks a different group on the end of the molecule, and patents that. Or another company comes up with a different way to use the drug to treat cancers. At best, things are a little less straightforward in terms of technology ownership, and drug companies prefer to have no outstanding legal questions after they invest research dollars. Still, what you guys say gives me greater hope that this new approach will be pursued.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Ticks vs Cancer? First round: Ticks!
