The science field doesn't really work like this, does it? You'd think if he definitively proved a particular thing there wouldn't be any animosity about it toward HIM. I can understand being pissed your funding gets cut off and irritated a thing you've been pursuing for years turns out to be a wild goose chase. But are the punitive measures alluded to in that last paragraph normal?
edit: Also wouldn't a "kill switch" be counterproductive with flu and other environmentally persistant diseases? Isn't the point of vaccinations that we train our body to fight the disease? I suppose in emergency situations you'd want to kill the virus outright, but I don't think being able to kill an arbitrary viral outbreak excludes the need for vaccinations and other public health programs.
To me, that sounds so much like the output of a journalist's nearest-cliche algorithm that it's impossible to say whether there's any truth in it, or how much.
"One binds to viral double-stranded ribonucleic acid, a type of molecule found in all viruses."
Goddamnit, no it isn't (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virus#Baltimore_classification). Some viruses contain DNA, not RNA, in the capsid. The proposed treatment acts on dsRNA made after the virus has entered the cell, and the only hope of it working on DNA viruses is if sufficient dsRNA is produced during transcription of the viral genome (I'm not convinced—the citations for this in Rider's paper are weak).
EX: D+T fusion = 2 protons + 3 neutrons one of which does not get to stick around and 17.59 MeV worth of energy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Deuterium-tritium_fusion.s... (The diffrence in energy comes from the conservation of momentum. ~1/4th the mass needs to go ~4x as fast to have the same momentum which takes ~4x the energy {e=v^2 x m=(4)^2 x (1/4)=4}.)
That is so awesome. :D
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_fluorescent_protein [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GloFish
This is a bit of a tangent, but I admire anyone willing to follow through on what the facts tell them rather than switch gears in order to ensure better career mobility.
I think the biographical info here is fascinating though!
On the other hand, Nathan Wolfe http://www.gvfi.org/wolfe/ , virus expert, believes that if all viruses were wiped out, humanity would not last long at all. If this drug were excreted or discarded into water supplies, we may begin destroying our viral population, with unintended effect.
Still, leads one to wonder what more highly targeted applications could be created. Parasites, specific bacteria, etc. Exciting times.
The article mentions the two active "tags" and what they do, but not the context and effect: kill infected cells to stop further infection.
This could be pretty important work to make gene therapy much safer.
A single dose of dimerizing drug, given
to four patients in whom GVHD developed,
eliminated more than 90% of the modified
T cells within 30 minutes after
administration and ended the GVHD
without recurrence.I invoke the law of unintended consequences. A fine example would be "so sorry it killed test subject 1337, apparently that particular genetic mutation in his DNA looked like a disease."