Immunity from the test tube
Scientist: creation of "immunity in vitro" will be a revolution in medicine
The scientist spoke on Tuesday at the 38th Annual Congress of the Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS-2013). Lerner spoke about the basic principles of creating such "immunity in vitro".
"If the human body is able to produce about a hundred million antibodies, then the artificial "immune system" will produce about a hundred billion antibodies," Lerner noted. According to him, with the help of genetic engineering, it will be possible to "design" antibodies that do not exist in nature with unique, predetermined properties, and aimed at treating certain diseases.
Lerner added that approaches to disease prevention will also change. "There will be opportunities to create, for example, a universal flu vaccine," the scientist said.
Lerner directs the work on the creation of so-called monoclonal antibodies, much more diverse than the human immune system is capable of producing. Thanks to these works, medicines have been created against some autoimmune diseases, in particular rheumatoid arthritis.
Under Lerner's leadership, approaches were developed in the 1980s to create large sets (libraries) of antibodies and quickly search among them for antibodies that bind to a specific "target" molecule. In 2012, Lerner and colleagues proposed a new method for producing antibodies based on their "production" in mammalian cells simultaneously with the synthesis of "target" molecules in the same cells. This approach allows scientists to find out much faster which antibodies from the library are bound by a particular molecule.
In recent years, Lerner has been called one of the possible candidates for the Nobel Prize.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru10.07.2013