Science Progress ◼ ◼ ◼
Harvard Medical School ◼ Tracing paths to better medicine
What a Relief: Agents Target Cause
of Airway Constriction
Approved
by the Food and Drug Administration in 1998, a new kind of asthma medication
became the first to ease attacks by inhibiting substances actually involved
in airway constriction. Based on decades of research by K. Frank Austen and
others, the therapy grew out of work on a mysterious compound produced by
the lungs in allergic reactions.
Velcade: First in a New Class of Cancer
Drug
The
proteasome inhibitor bortezomib (Velcade), effective against multiple myeloma
and other cancers, emerged from the study by Alfred Goldberg and colleagues
of cellular protein degradation. They were not initially looking for a
new cancer therapy.
From Square 1 to Peru-15: The Pursuit of a Cholera Vaccine
Since
nature comes with no user manual, limiting infection through a vaccine
may mean breaking down the infectious agent into its critical parts and
key mechanisms. Then it has to be reengineered to safely stimulate immunity.
John Mekalanos has led this work on the cholera bug. The resulting vaccine
is now in clinical trials and promises benefit to millions of people.