Penn Statediscovery kills all types of cancer cells in lab tests

I've quoted an announment from 2005 below.  It appears that they've been working on this for at least 7 years, so maybe they are getting close to figuring out how to use this...

UPI NewsTrack (Consumer Health); 06/22/2005 

HERSHEY, Pa., June 22 (UPI)

A common, harmless virus has been found to kill cancerous cells affecting the cervix, breast and prostate within days, Penn State University researchers say.

"Our results suggest that adeno-associated virus type 2 (AAV2), which infects the majority of the population but has no known ill effects, kills multiple types of cancer cells yet has no effect on healthy cells," said Dr. Craig Meyers, professor of microbiology and immunology at the Penn State College of Medicine. "We believe that AAV2 recognizes that the cancer cells are abnormal and destroys them."

Though similar in design and effectiveness to some gene therapies, Meyers and his team did not modify the AAV2, but left it in its natural form, and therefore, it would not be classified as a gene therapy.

The study was presented this week at the 24th annual meeting of the American Society for Virology at Penn State.

Copyright 2005 by United Press International

I'm guessing the only way to raise money for a specific researcher is to donate to them directly.  Anyone have any idea how much money a single Komen walk brings in or rather use to bring in?  It's what put me off when I learned only about 25% went to research.

One way to donate to this specific lab is to donate to Penn State U, specifically stating where the money is to be used. That way you still get the tax write-off if you need it, and the money goes to the type of research you want to support. I do this with my old alma mater, specifying a certain scholarship fund and a couple of programs that I want to support - write the check to the "University Foundation" and use the form or send a letter with it to indicate what I want done with that contribution.



I teach microbiology, and the adenoviruses have been used as carriers for genes and other types of immunotherapy, so this could be a real step in the right direction, although there are so many types of breast cancer that I suspect it will probably be helpful for only a few, much like the new vaccine trials are only for Her2+ tumors. All this is very exciting, and it would be great to find some "cures" that aren't worse than the disease itself!

You should be able to donate directly to the school and it's tax deductable.  State what use it should go to (probably not to the luxury new gym that's being built for spoiled undergraduates).

In general, NIH/Darpa does good scientific vetting.   So, a project with NIH/Darpa funding is probably got solid science behind it.