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

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

[operagost]

Actually, I bet it was supposed to be an Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulatorrrrrrr...

Re:Terrible article, facts wrong

[ShrapnelFace]

Your point is well taken. In fact, it's a well known fact that it is widely held opinion that a high dosage of radiation, administered across most of the Middle East, could very well resolve some of the problems we are having with terrorism. Turns out that Terrorists are like Cancer, and if we'd only administer radiation treatment, we'd be free of the problem and in full remission.

Re:Asimov

[jamie]

Modding /. staff down means you won't be getting mod points again for a very long time...

To the contrary -- when I saw someone modded me Redundant, I went back and checked, and in the 4 minutes it took me to paste in my Asimov quote, others beat me to it. So the moderator was exactly correct. I put another Redundant on myself because I deserved it.

And the code I'm working on this week will ensure that that moderator -- who modded the same as an admin, before the admin -- will get more influence in our system in the weeks to come, not less :)

OK, now I will click Submit, and then mod myself Offtopic, which this comment clearly is!

Re:The headline is accurate, too

[LeDopore]

What we need here is a new incentive program for therapy discovery. In a blog post of mine I've outlined a way we could reward researchers for discovering cures, not just for finding new patentable molecules.

Take a look and see if you can find any holes in my idea, and leave comments either here or on the blog if you have any more ideas.

Thanks!