yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

Finding a Cancer Killer | Breakthrough


2m read
·Nov 11, 2024

NARRATOR: Working out of the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. June has been developing a new technology to leverage the immune system's T-cells to fight and kill leukemia in mice. [squeaking]

CARL JUNE: Yeah. I have been through a long journey. So I was a physician. And then gradually, I came to the conclusion that I could probably help more people through my scientific laboratory efforts than actually seeing people one at a time in a clinic. And I tell my family now that my MD stands for mouse doctor.

NARRATOR: The immune system protects you from outside invasion. If a virus, bacteria, or fungus slips into your body, the immune system responds with a coordinated attack that kills the invader, and only the invader, leaving your body intact. [chittering] This is a T-cell. This immune cell's job is to kill infected cells before they cause more damage. In theory, T-cells can be extraordinarily potent against leukemia. But there's one problem. Since cancer is effectively part of your own body, the immune system sometimes ignores these rogue cells, allowing the cancer to spread unchecked. June and his team have worked tirelessly to find a way to get the immune system to recognize and destroy all of the cancer cells in the body.

CARL JUNE: The therapy we're developing is multidisciplinary. It involves leukemia specialists. David Porter is known around the world for his treating various kinds of leukemia. It involves immunology expertise, viral vector design expertise, and then the cell culture expertise that Bruce Levine knows more about than anyone in the world, I'm quite sure. OK. I'm a professor in cancer gene therapy. And I direct the Clinical Cell and Vaccine Production Facility. And what we do is to develop, manufacture, and test cell and gene therapies to fight cancer using the patient's own immune cells that have been genetically targeted to cancer. [humming]

A CAR T-cell is a T-cell that is genetically modified in a way that allows it to see and recognize a cancer cell. A "CAR" stands for chimeric antigen receptor. It's a molecule that is synthetic. We can put it into an immune cell and genetically change the immune cell to express the CAR molecule. That function of binding activates the T-cell. And it allows it to become active, to become a killer cell, and to kill the leukemia. [explosions] [yelp] [belch] [explosion]

More Articles

View All
5 Habits Of The Sigma Male
I’m sure that you have heard of the alpha and beta males at some point in your life. In popular culture, these terms, based on the alphabet, are used to describe male personality types. An alpha male can be considered the man at the top of the dominance h…
LICK DOOR KNOBS! ... IMG! #36
The best way to play horseshoes and Rihanna’s butt sings a song. It’s episode 36 of IMG! Mankind has come a long way, but this concept for an alarm clock that slowly shreds money until you wake up and stop it is genius. Less genius is this guy. Kid, kid, …
Remembering John Glenn: See Footage of His Legendary First Orbit of the Earth | National Geographic
Into the soft light of this Florida, Don emerges. Friendship 7 makes its debut to the day of its destiny. The Mercury Atlas stands long, waiting to depart this earth—a quarter of a million pounds of rocket, with thrust equal to three and a half million ho…
Peter Lynch: Avoid These 10 Investment Mistakes
This is a very important rule. This is a very, it’s one of the key rules: the stock doesn’t know you own it. Remember that you could be a miserable person; you could have, uh, you know, never helped anybody, never done anything right, had 67 spouses, neve…
How Eating Venomous Lionfish Helps the Environment | National Geographic
Fortunately, lion fish is an invasive species that actually tastes good. On a weekly basis, I’m getting calls from a number of places throughout the country, really asking when the next time is we’re going out to go hunt lion fish, cuz they need fish for …
For parents: setting a daily learning schedule for learners ages 2-7
Hi everyone! If you’re already here for the Structuring the Day webinar from Khan Academy Kids, thank you so much for joining. We’re going to get started in just a minute when folks have had time to join. Thank you! Hi, my name is Sophie, and I’m from th…