The promising field of cancer nanotherapies provide a perfect example of why government spending on science is good for business -- and, ultimately, for people.
Several years ago, the National Cancer Institute made nanotechnology a centerpiece of its promise to eliminate suffering and death from cancer by 2015. Though the timetable was unrealistic, the promise of cancer nanotech -- molecules designed to detect and destroy cancerous cells -- was real.
The NCI poured money into cancer nanotech training and research. At the time, experiments were largely restricted to animals; as of today, at least 48 clinical trials are ongoing, many already in Phase II. When I reported yesterday on drug-infused nanoparticles that stopped mouse liver and kidney cancers from spreading, some commenters why I was still covering animal research.
"The field has been quietly progressing," said David Cheresh, a University of California, San Diego pathologist and co-author of that study. "What happened is that the National Cancer Institute supported this area. They assembled teams at various universities, including my own. That money directly allowed us to do this work."
Such basic research, said Cheresh, "is not something that industry would necessarily do. They're not going to support the kind of research that the government would for bringing this to fruition. But they'll capitalize on the discoveries we make. Those will be taken into the private sector, because we do discovery but aren't in a position to do a scale-up and the pre-clinical studies. That has to come from the private sector."
Cheresh mentioned Kereos, a young biotechnology company currently testing a therapy similar to the one he tested on mice. "They wouldn't have done what they did without early-stage government support," he said. "The smaller biotechs all come from the academic world. The founders there came from Washington University. The government supports the scientists at the academic centers," and big pharma and venture capitalists take over from there.
Image: A cancer drug-laden nanoparticle, courtesy of Dr. James Baker, University of Michigan Nanotechnology Institute
See Also:
- Drug-Infused Nanoparticles Stop Cancer From Spreading
- Experimental Drug Makes the Immune System Revolt Against Cancer
- Top 5 Viable New Cancer Treatments
- Testing the Toxicity of Nanoparticles
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