Cancer Drug Found; Scientist Annoyed

sporkme writes "A scientist was frustrated when the compound she was working with (called PPAR-gamma) destroyed her sample of cancer cells. Further research revealed that the substance was surprisingly well suited as a cancer treatment. Lab test results on mice resulted in the destruction of colon tumors without making the mice sick." Quoting: "'I made a calculation error and used a lot more than I should have. And my cells died,' Schaefer said. A colleague overheard her complaining. 'The co-author on my paper said, "Did I hear you say you killed some cancer?" I said "Oh," and took a closer look.' ... [They found that the compound killed] 'pretty much every epithelial tumor cell lines we have seen.'" Update: 02/15 17:27 GMT by KD : As reader CorporalKlinger pointed out, PPAR-gamma is a cellular receptor, not a compound; and this news is not particularly new.

Comments

A science teacher once told me

[Trails]

"Most important discoveries are not accompanied with a 'Eureka!', rather with a 'Hmmm, that's odd....'"

Amazingly not a dupe.

[Grendel Drago]

How odd; I was all ready to yell "DUPE!", but this isn't yet another DCA story. So, for this one, we have that it kills human tumors in vitro, and mouse tumors in vivo. We don't know if it's safe to give to humans. (Maybe we do; I haven't pulled the research paper yet.) Ah, well. Here's a picture of the molecule if anyone wants it.

Scientist Vs Researcher

[TobascoKid]

Seeing as the move to get people to call crackers crackers and not hackers never worked, I really doubt trying to get people call researchers researchers is every going to take off, especially as all researchers are, by definition, scientists anyway.

Anyway, why will changing the name stop ill-qualified challenges? One researcher in one branch of science could still challenge another researcher in another branch.

Re:Scientist Vs Researcher

[Bloke down the pub]

all researchers are, by definition, scientists anyway.

Great news - I'm researching ancient Greek, but I always wanted to be a scientist really.

Re:Scientist Vs Researcher

[Maximum Prophet]

This had bothered me since 8th grade English class when I was told that we were going to do research, and I envisioned white lab coats and studying things that had never been done/seen before. What a letdown it was when the teacher told us we were going to spend our time in the library studying what other people had done. Let's put the "re" back into research. What you are doing is true research, what scientists do is original search. (ok, they have to do a lot of research first to see what's already been done before they start to do the original stuff)

Re:Tag Article Thusly:

[Phisbut]

I saw this quote somewhere :

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not "Eureka!" but "That's funny ..."

It applies quite well here.

Re:PPAR-Gamma is a cellular receptor, not a compou

[pclminion]

So you're saying I shouldn't find out about things on Slashdot because I could just look in one of a billion scientific journals? Oddly enough, I think most Slashdot readers aren't hardcore scientists and don't spend their time reading scientific journals (seeing as WE CAN'T without paying subscriptions). So if we don't read it here, where SHOULD we read about it? I haven't seen this in the mainstream news.

Quit being an elitist asshole.

The headline is accurate, too

[iamacat]

The scientist is still annoyed, because the compound is already patented, and thus will not be profitable as a cancer drug. Therefore, they will work on making another, possibly more toxic or less effective, formula rather than pushing for a human trial.

Re:The headline is accurate, too

[nanoakron]

Where the fuck do you get your cynicism from?

Yeah, that's right - all cancer researchers are only out for a quick buck and fuck every possible cure that gets in their way.

Yeah, cancer researchers are holding back the true cures until we pay them enough.

Yeah, cancer research laboratories don't employ people suffering from cancer themselves. It's only the lay public that suffer from cancer, not scientists and stuff.

You fucking retard.

Re:Typical science

[Atraxen]

I'm really wary of this either/or approach. We need both! To use an analogy - an army with either only front line troops or logistics/occupation forces will hold no new ground. The pure research folks push forward the front, and the integrated science and engineering folks make the connections that solidify the progress made to date. There's space enough for all of us (being a basic scientist myself who also crosses the line into looking for applicability).

Re:Moo

[Zugok]

Scientist is a discipline of thinking, researcher is role. I would think the correct title would be scientific researcher.

Debate and flame.

Re:Not sure how to feel

[mlyle]

The tanning agents are being researched because they have the possibility of preventing a heck of a lot of cases of skin cancer-- by protecting people against the sun BEFORE damage occurs. Also, people might go outside to tan themselves less with an alternative.

(But even if you're going to the beach, there's a benefit and prevented skin damage by taking this first, other than your boner showing through your swim trunks).

So, it's not quite so silly, eh?