A Protein Killer Could Treat All Cancers, and Possibly All Illnesses
145 replies, posted
[QUOTE=Wyvers;24290479]EXACTLY my first thought, it seems kind of too good to be true.
It's ok though, if anyone is gonna be prepared for a zombie apocalypse it's facepunch![/QUOTE]
Of course, because Facepunch generally doesn't have a userbase that goes outside often enough to contract an airborne disease.
Birthing limits.
Problem solved.
[QUOTE=Sickle;24290456]They make more money off of the chemo and rad because it has to be applied like every week or so.[/QUOTE]
No. That is not how the market works. Your "argument" fails to apply to every single technological advancement in human history.
The Scientists could always sell their discovery to a trust worthy pharmaceutical company. Or manufacture it themselves. It doesn't have to fall into the hands of a company that will overprice/not sell it unless the scientists themselves decide to be greedy and sell out.
[editline]12:12AM[/editline]
Actually, just checked. Alnylam Biotech, the company that made this is a pharmaceutical company that only produces RNAi Medicines. Meaning, unless a company decides to buy out Alnylam, they'll most likely produce it themselves and sell it at a fair price.
[url]http://www.alnylam.com/About-Alnylam/index.php?gclid=CLjfjt-r06MCFQtN5wodUyLwtQ[/url]
[QUOTE=Callius;24322264]Which is split into hundreds of companies, if one of these companies can practically monopolise their market share with a new wonder drug, they would.[/QUOTE]
The top three drug companies reported 34 billion dollars in PURE PROFIT last year.
This could totally be turned against humans.
[QUOTE=Prefan;24322716]I personally am worried about this. I mean, its great that cancer could be cured, along with every single other disease known to man; but is it really necessary? We will have a massive population boom, because the entire balance of people dieing from disease, people dieing from old age, and people being born would be screwed up.[/QUOTE]
You act as though humanity will do nothing.
We NEED to overpopulate. We need to make it clear to the world that overpopulation will be the death of everyone and colonizing off world is necessary.
The concept of conserving is utterly ridiculous when every night the sky opens up and reveals an entire galaxy of raw materials.
In related news, this tech could theoretically mend telomeres. So DNA is effectively comprised of two protein chains attached to one another right? Telomeres are the proteins on the end of the chains that keep them attached to each other. As you grow older these break apart until finally your DNA begins to unravel and you are no longer able to replace dead cells. We have a name for this: Old age.
Theoretically if you could change the code of a cell, you could reconstruct the telomere chain and get a cell to reproduce a copy which hasn't suffered any degredation. Effectively giving you back the cells you had as a child.
I think anyways. Who the fuck actually knows.
I still miss my Aunt, It's nice to hear that we're another step closer to Treating cancer :gbsmith:
Holy shit, I find it hilarious how FPers are always pointing at stupid people and saying "Look how stupid they are!" when they're really not any better.
Cures disappearing after they're announced? Ever heard of clinical trials you donkey? It takes a long time, a really fucking long time. Because if they get some test results and decide to put it on the shelf and some bad shit happens that didn't show up due to an insufficient amount of tests, the company that put it up are going to get sued into the abyss.
Cures will fuck with their profits? Certainly will. What's to stop some other company that isn't in the pharmaceutical business from grabbing the cure, selling it and running all of the other pharmaceutical companies into the ground whilst getting a gargantuan profit from all the people that will be buying from them? It has just as much of a chance as your crazy ass conspiracy theories that no company is going to put up a cure because they make too much profit from their treatments. You guys act as if all of the companies are run by robots with a burning hatred for humans. Guess what? Chances are, they have families. And they probably also have some members of their family that have died from cancer. You guys take movies too seriously.
[QUOTE=GunFox;24290800]Hi I'm nanotech.
I did this several months ago.
[url]http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62K1BK20100321[/url]
Unlike your pedestrian fat coating, I require no such protection. I am ignored by the human body and break down naturally into my base components after my job is completed.
I have no side effects and virtually no upper limit to how many you can use. The more you inject, the more effective I am.
My potential extends well beyond cancer as I can be programmed to effectively target any type of cell in the human body.[/QUOTE]
I know I'm going to be a zombie OMG person when I say this but, you do realize nanotech could potentially reanimate a corpse, right?
[QUOTE=Sprocket Shit;24331826]
You guys act as if all of the companies are run by robots with a burning hatred for humans. Guess what? Chances are, they have families. And they probably also have some members of their family that have died from cancer. You guys take movies too seriously.[/QUOTE]
*sigh* I thought we were past this.
Again publicly traded companies MUST PURSUE MAXIMUM PROFIT AT ALL TIMES. They are OBLIGATED TO BY THEIR SHAREHOLDERS. The shareholders OWN THE COMPANY. The guys in charge simply RUN THE COMPANY. If they fail to deliver profits, they get fired. I'm sure their families will appreciate them getting fired!
Again, I'm not saying cures have actually been suppressed. But the framework is there for it to easily occur.
[editline]01:22AM[/editline]
[QUOTE=MrAfroShark70;24331839]I know I'm going to be a zombie OMG person when I say this but, you do realize nanotech could potentially reanimate a corpse, right?[/QUOTE]
It could also bring about the end of ALL LIFE (not just most) on the planet.
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_goo[/url]
Successfully mastering nanite technology will be both the single greatest and most dangerous achievement of all time. The dangers will dwarf nuclear fission. It will dwarf even nuclear fusion.
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;24290306]Source: [url]http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-07/rx-every-disease[/url][/QUOTE]
Only thing is, if this this RNAi 'missfires' and starts targeting the body's RNA preventing necessary peotiens from forming, then what?
I doubt this will cure every disease, but they are working on it... Though if the 20 different medical companies got together and liased, i'm sure we'd all be living cancer-free lives by now.
[QUOTE=GunFox;24331893]*sigh* I thought we were past this.
Again publicly traded companies MUST PURSUE MAXIMUM PROFIT AT ALL TIMES. They are OBLIGATED TO BY THEIR SHAREHOLDERS. The shareholders OWN THE COMPANY. The guys in charge simply RUN THE COMPANY. If they fail to deliver profits, they get fired. I'm sure their families will appreciate them getting fired!
Again, I'm not saying cures have actually been suppressed. But the framework is there for it to easily occur.[/QUOTE]
Oh ok, so the shareholders are the robots with a burning hatred for humans. Got it.
[QUOTE=Sprocket Shit;24331935]Oh ok, so the shareholders are the robots with a burning hatred for humans. Got it.[/QUOTE]
No, the shareholders are detached. The company itself doesn't matter. The shares themselves are simply a resource. A currency to be bought and sold.
This is the fundamental problem with how business is done.
They're just robots? No burning hatred?
is there a tldr version? im tired
[QUOTE=Sprocket Shit;24332066]They're just robots? No burning hatred?[/QUOTE]
Nah, just people. Greedy and ignorant.
[QUOTE=Ender_Wiggin;24332077]is there a tldr version? im tired[/QUOTE]
The robot shareholders whom are detached just want money so they suppress all cures to keep you sick so they can use their treatments on you which make them money.
[QUOTE=Sprocket Shit;24332115]The robot shareholders whom are detached just want money so they suppress all cures to keep you sick so they can use their treatments on you which make them money.[/QUOTE]
That's interesting.
hay wate,.....
[QUOTE=GunFox;24332102]Nah, just people. Greedy and ignorant.[/QUOTE]
So the stacks of cash they make are so thick their evil beady eyes can't see through them? and the money stacks are in such number that they block all the doors of their mansion, and all the theater sized televisions, and all of the computer monitors in their said mansion?
[QUOTE=GunFox;24331893]It could also bring about the end of ALL LIFE (not just most) on the planet.
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_goo[/url]
Successfully mastering nanite technology will be both the single greatest and most dangerous achievement of all time. The dangers will dwarf nuclear fission. It will dwarf even nuclear fusion.[/QUOTE]
Welp, I'm wrong
[QUOTE=Sprocket Shit;24332156]So the stacks of cash they make are so thick their evil beady eyes can't see through them? and the money stacks are in such number that they block all the doors of their mansion, and all the theater sized televisions, and all of the computer monitors in their said mansion?[/QUOTE]
Good job missing the point.
He's saying that the companies pursue maximum profit at all times, which is true. A cancer cure, unless a huge magnitude more expensive than chemotherapy and other conventional treatments, would NOT make as much profit as the pharmaceutical companies are making now. It's not them being purposely [I]evil[/I] (since people usually survive chemo just fine and it isn't literally making them drop dead), it has to do with them pursuing the most profitable enterprise.
Man this better not turn out like the thing from The Andromeda Strain that cured everything but if you stopped taking it you'd friggin die.
[QUOTE=Earthen;24290596]Corporations aren't as evil as you, in your angst-filled rage, might think[/QUOTE]
False.
[QUOTE=James*;24292243]P
Of course this is a possibility, but it's where brand power comes in.
Why hasn't coke been overtaken by cheaper copycats?[/QUOTE]
Not with pills, Generics are the same as Brand name pills except minor differences like the shape or color of the outer coating of the pill.
[editline]02:23PM[/editline]
[QUOTE=Dan The Man;24296681]That's not really how it works. They don't "become resistant". Natural selection means that some of the bacterium will be resistant to the antibiotics naturally and if they survive and breed with others that are also resistant, they slowly become more resistant. Finishing a course of antibiotics does not guarantee ridding yourself of bacteria either. If there are resistant bacterium present in your system and they survive then the infection becomes more dangerous.[/QUOTE]
:raise:
Bacteria don't "breed", they reproduce asexually through division.
[editline]02:36PM[/editline]
I'm like 2 days late with this post.
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