Category: facebook

January 21 2020, 23:57

Yesterday, in the Nature journal, British scientists (the real ones, from Cardiff) published an interesting article. They managed to assemble T-lymphocytes that can bind to almost all types of cancer.

The technology itself is not new. CAR-T therapy involves implanting specially engineered lymphocytes with chimeric receptors targeted at a specific type of cancer and individual.

In this case, it seems they created a “universal soldier” that works across a broad range of target molecules.

This has always been a rather expensive procedure, up to 1 million dollars, partly because it requires fine-tuning. The novelty—seemingly a discovery—is only the first swallow.

It will be interesting to observe.


preview

Genome-wide CRISPR–Cas9 screening reveals ubiquitous T cell cancer targeting via the monomorphic MHC class I-related protein MR1 – Nature Immunology
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41590-019-0578-8

January 21 2020, 01:53

I have always been amazed – why on earth should we know and remember when someone like the hypothetical Pushkin was born if the school years of all these luminaries went relatively unnoticed in history, and some even began writing closer to their life’s twilight.

For “practical” purposes, it’s sufficient to remember for about a decade when this or that author was in their prime, and who their contemporaries were (especially in the same location), and what significant events were happening around them (especially in the same location). It’s never and nowhere important whether Pushkin was born in 1799 or, say, five years later (unless you are a Pushkin scholar, of course). Yet, in school, we had to learn all these dates for some reason.

To me, it seems far more important to remember that Pushkin’s brightest works came within 15-17 years starting around the era of the Decembrists and Nicholas I, around which time there was also war with the Persians and Turks and the Caucasus in general, and that young Lermontov and Gogol were loitering somewhere nearby. That’s it, unforgettable. And no need to remember any dates.