Immune therapy shows promise for asthma, heart disease—and even ageing
Making treatment quick and affordable will be the challenge
IN 2010 AN American girl called Emily Whitehead developed a form of leukaemia that is usually terminal. She was five years old. Two years later, she became the first paediatric patient to be offered a form of treatment called CAR-T, in which the body’s immune system is reprogrammed to attack cancerous cells. The treatment worked. A documentary film about her journey, released in 2022, was called “Of Medicine and Miracles”.
This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “When T-cells attack”
From the September 28th 2024 edition
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Elon Musk is causing problems for the Royal Society
His continued membership has led to a high-profile resignation
Deforestation is costing Brazilian farmers millions
Without trees to circulate moisture, the land is getting hotter and drier
Robots can learn new actions faster thanks to AI techniques
They could soon show their moves in settings from car factories to care homes
Scientists are learning why ultra-processed foods are bad for you
A mystery is finally being solved
Scientific publishers are producing more papers than ever
Concerns about some of their business models are building
The two types of human laugh
One is caused by tickling; the other by everything else