Last December, Human Genome Sciences (HGS) of Rockville, Maryland, announced that it had applied to start phase I clinical testing of myeloid progenitor inhibitory factor-1. This compound, according to HGS, may allow oncologists to treat cancer patients with far more potent doses of chemotherapy. Screened from 300 full-length genes, this human protein has been shown in preclinical trials to “shield haematopoietic progenitor cells in the bone marrow from the effects of a number of chemotherapeutic agents used to treat all major cancers”. HGS thinks the factor works by inhibiting proliferation and differentiation of these cells. Company chairman William Haseltine believes this to be the first genomics-derived therapeutic candidate to enter clinical testing. It will not be the last.
Not far from HGS, on the campus of the National Institutes of Health, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) has created a programme to advance the use of genomics and other technologies in diagnosing and treating cancer. When Richard Klausner, now in his third year as NCI's director, joined the institute he took a broad look at its research funding and asked what could be done differently. According to his assistant, Robert Strausberg, five areas had little or no investment, so were all ‘rescued’ via the institute's bypass budget. These were cancer genetics, developmental diagnostics, detection technology, preclinical model development, and interfacing basic and clinical research (so-called translational research).
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