Word: interferon
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...what promises, what dazzling things to come?a new alchemy that may one day turn the basest of creatures into genetic gold. That alchemy is already capable of making new drugs like the antiviral agent interferon, a possible weapon with which to attack cancer. In the future, it may produce vaccines against hepatitis and malaria; miracle products like low-calorie sugar; hardy self-fertilizing food crops that could usher in a new "green revolution"; fuels, plastics and other industrial chemicals, out of civilization's wastes; mining and refining processes to relieve Malthusian anxieties about a future without sufficient raw materials...
...exploit this amazing-and, in some eyes, dangerous-new technology. Only lately has their firm, Genentech Inc.. begun to turn a profit. But its prototype bacterial factories have been extremely busy. They have already produced half a dozen different substances, including insulin, human growth hormone and interferon, the antiviral agent being investigated as a cancer cure. Genentech (pronounced jeh-nen-tek) has also paid off handsomely for Boyer (his initial investment: $500). Offered publicly last October, its stock shot up within 20 minutes to $89 a share from an initial price of $35. Even near year...
...research of Harvard scientists? For a while the answer seemed to be yes. President Derek Bok floated just such a proposal last month. The centerpiece of the plan was a gene-splicing technique, developed in the labs of Molecular Biologist Mark Ptashne, that can be used to make interferon. In the future, sale of interferon and other genetically engineered products could bring in millions of dollars, so the idea of creating a company to develop and eventually market such products seemed attractive to the managers of Harvard University's $1.6 billion endowment. But as campus debate ensued, the faculty...
...that grants of promotion or time off for company-connected professors might be seen by colleagues as commercial favoritism. The potential for conflict of interest was obvious this month as the University of California went to court to protest that cell lines from its labs, also capable of creating interferon, had been turned over to commercial companies without the permission of the university's researchers...
These techniques have eased the way for all sorts of gene splicing. By the insertion of appropriate new genes, bacteria have already been "taught" to produce interferon, the antiviral substance that helps the body ward off disease, as well as human insulin. In the offing: gene-replacement therapy for genetic ailments, the creation of new types of plants and industrial enzymes, possibly even an understanding of cancer...