Research on Diseases

[SRHBRU]

After reading some fairly recent articles in science, I have been inspired to learn

more about the research being done to fight what seems like a whole range of diseases.

Please read these articles from MIT news. I would provide the link but they aren't posting correctly.

 

1) Getting to the roots of genetics (04.17.12)

2) New drug could cure nearly any viral infection (08.10.11)

3) A glow of recognition (12.14.11)

What do you think of their methods?

-Computational techniques to understand genetic diseases

-Combining dsRNA-binding protein with another protein to cause apoptosis to stop cancer growth

Do you think theses methods will yield successful results?

In terms of understanding and remedying current diseases like cancer, hiv, schizophrenia, and other diseases?

(This is my first time using a forum to post a topic. Sorry if its not good).

Edited May 25, 2012 by SRHBRU

[CharonY]

HIV, maybe. Vaccines may become a reality (even if they do not offer perfect protection), and currently the progression of the resulting disease is relatively well controlled.

Universal virus cure is very hypothetical at this point. It works in culture (afaik) but it is a big difference to have real clinical value.

 

Schizophrenia: not a chance. We do not even have established a foundation of what it comprises of. Cancer has similar issues. Also, as they are not not diseases caused by an identifiable external agent (usually) but most likely due to normal bodily functions plus confounding factors, a remedy does appear highly unlikely. It is not that that we can simply remove something foreign from the body (such as a virus or bacterium) and suddenly turn healthy.

 

Regarding genomics, there are gazillions of bioinformatical approaches used to investigate genomes. However, the real stumbling block is less the bioinformatics tools, but the biological knowledge on which they are built on. Or knowledge on some very basic aspects are lacking. Or rather, our total knowledge, while impressive, is still but a drop in the ocean of biological complexity. Biofinromatics can e.g. help us search or predict patterns, but they do not tell us what the biological consequences of these patterns might be.

[SRHBRU]

If your interested in reading what I am referring to in my post, see these articles from MIT news.

 

1) http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/profile-kellis-0417.html

 

2) http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/antiviral-0810.html

 

3) http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/fluorescent-chemical-detectors-1214.html

 

They are fairly recent articles so I wonder how much they have accomplished since they were published.