This week in originality

From CuringDeath.com:

"A promising new line in anti-cancer therapy by blocking the molecular motors involved in copying genetic information during cell division is being pursued by young Dutch researcher Dr. Nynke Dekker in one of this year's EURYI award winning projects sponsored by the European Science Foundation (ESF) and the European Heads of Research Councils (EuroHORCS). Dekker and her team are trying to stop tumor development by interfering with the molecular motors that copy DNA during cell division. This will cut off the genetic information flow that tumours need to grow, and could complement existing cancer therapies, while in the longer term bringing the promise of improved outcomes with greatly reduced side effects."

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

This summer I am researching oxidative stress at a lab owned and operated by Sloan-Kettering in New York City. When I'm not commuting, I divide my time between doing productive work and waiting.

Lab work requires its own form of patience. Cells never quite grow as quickly as you would like and experiments unavoidably incur periods of waiting. Rushing a procedure or juggling two experiments never seems to work out as planned; it's best to work with a patient trepidation to avoid losing a day's data.

The work is good. I'm trying to figure out a way to reverse the resistance that most cancer lines build up to chemotherapeutics. After chemo does its initial damage, the drug is often broken down into reactive oxygen species, as a secondary effect, that can cause the same if not more damage to the cell. Because of the high mutability of cancer cells, they can often have a natural immunity to this oxidative stress. If only one cell of a tumor survives the damage from chemo because of this resistance, the tumor will regrow with an unfortunate immunity to the same drug.

Goals (from easiest to hardest):
Must figure out how immunity develops.
Must figure out how to reverse immunity.
Must create drug to enhance existing cancer treatments.
Must cure cancer.