Word: biotechs
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...most straightforward approach to fighting Alzheimer's plaques is to target their main ingredient, a protein called beta amyloid. Last summer scientists from Elan Pharmaceuticals, a biotech firm located in Ireland, reported that they had developed a vaccine that could shrink the plaques--at least in mice. Here the idea is to prime the immune system to treat amyloid proteins just as it would any foreign invader and target them for destruction. The concept is somewhat counterintuitive, since most researchers believe that at least part of the damage in Alzheimer's disease is caused by the immune system's overreaction...
Those sequences are so useful, in fact, that researchers started tapping into the data long before they were complete. Scientists at drug firms, biotech companies and university labs have taken literally hundreds of baby steps into the era of genomic medicine using an impressive array of powerful new tools: DNA chips and microarrays that let scientists see at a glance which of thousands of genes are active in a given tissue sample; sophisticated software that can organize gigabytes of genetic data; huge databases of genes, disease-tissue samples and mRNA--the molecules that initiate the actual construction of working proteins...
These sorts of tightly focused studies are already beginning to make cancer treatment more effective. Last year physicians approached the Maryland biotech company Gene Logic for guidance. They had a patient with esophageal cancer--an especially lethal type--so they wanted to find the best therapy in a hurry. Would radiation be appropriate? What about chemotherapy? And if so, which type? Or perhaps it made sense to go right to one of the new experimental antiangiogenesis medications that cut off a tumor's blood supply...
With $70 million in long-term funding from the late biotech entrepreneur Wallace Steinberg, TIGR (pronounced tiger) finally gave Venter freedom to do what he wanted. But there was a hitch. First crack at any genes it decoded went to the nonprofit institute's commercial partner, Human Genome Sciences, led by former AIDS researcher William Haseltine...
...dignified enough to carry off a cigar. Get with the times, already, and stub out that stogie. Sure, you're going to have to find something else to do with your extra cash, but that shouldn't be too tough. Gordon Gekko might have advised looking into biotech...