Word: destroyer
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...like Russell are disguising and manipulating common microbes so that they will do good instead of harm. After all, nothing is better than a virus at evading the body's immune defenses and breaking into a cell. And nothing is better than a bacterium at producing deadly toxins that destroy a cell from the inside. "We can make a good anticancer agent," says Russell, "by harnessing and channeling these destructive powers...
...doctors treating allergies and infectious diseases. The idea was to expose patients to small quantities of partly disabled microbes to jump-start their immune system. But cancer researchers have taken the approach one step further, turning microbes into tiny Trojan horses that can sneak into tumor cells and destroy them from within. "There is a good probability that microbe approaches will be part of the arsenal of the future," says Kenneth Kinzler, a cancer researcher at Johns Hopkins Hospital's Kimmel Cancer Center who is working with the clostridium bacterium. "We're betting...
...course, a virus has to reach its target to destroy it, and that means surviving the defensive armies of a formidable opponent: the immune system. "Blood is a pretty hostile environment for the viruses," notes Russell. "The name of the game is to dodge the immune defenses for a few hours and give the viruses enough time before the immune system gets in and stops them." His group is perfecting two approaches: 1) temporarily distracting the immune system with drugs that suppress it and 2) cloaking the virus in a protective protein coat that renders it invisible to immune cells...
...transformed B cells as cancer alarm bells. By customizing EBV-infected B cells with proteins specific to certain cancers, they could grow killer T cells in the lab that are trained to fight those specialized B cells. The T cells would then be able to find and destroy malignant cells as if they were just another cell infected with a virus...
...just when it seems almost ready for prime time, the Net is being buffeted by forces that threaten to destroy the very qualities that fueled its growth. It's being pulled from all sides: by commercial interests eager to make money on it, by veteran users who want to protect it, by governments that want to control it, by pornographers who want to exploit its freedoms, by parents and teachers who want to make it a safe and useful place for kids. The Canter-and-Siegel affair, say Net observers, was just the opening skirmish in the larger battle...