理工英语读写教程–周一-34节

Best class I have seen for all my life!!

Just as interesting are the developments in cell engineering—the process by which living cells from the immune system can be engineered to specifically target diseases—that offer a far more precise therapeutic solution than our current approach of carpet-bombing the entire body with drugs. New CAR-T cell therapies have made it possible for us to re-engineer human T Cells to specifically target certain proteins associated with cancer, offering a far more effective treatment of the disease than chemotherapy.

But perhaps the most interesting development is the extent to which we have managed to improve our understanding of proteins—to the point where we are now able to design proteins from scratch to perform a particular function.

Armed with this knowledge, scientists in the University of Washington have been able to design a protein that fits into a particular viral niche that would prevent the flu virus from entering the cells of its victims. Similar experiments are proceeding apace in engineering proteins that will break apart gluten molecules in food to help people with gluten allergies, or block the toxin that causes botulism.

These sorts of engineered cells are like programmable drugs. We will eventually be able to design them to have logic so that we can tell them where they have to go in the body, and what they have to specifically target. This will fundamentally change the way in which diseases are treated, allowing us to develop micro-cures that are specifically targeted at what ails us individually, rather than our current technique of applying generic drugs that have been developed based on the symptoms and response of a broad sample of the patient population. Combined with advances in human diagnosis, we are moving from broad-based diagnosis and therapies to much more targeted treatments that look to specifically cure the ailment of each individual.