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Augmenting Immunity I: A few years ago, a very good friend was diagnosed with leukemia. I asked him if I could take a look at the research on his behalf, and I found a team in Spain that had successfully cured some patients by amplifying their own immune response. Unfortunately for us, it was a bit too late, too experimental, and too far away to be of use, and he passed away. Today, the outright cure of leukemia victims has become the greatest success in what we at SNS have come to call "augmented immunity." In fact, AugI (to differentiate from AI) is now widely perceived to hold the greatest promise for efficacious cancer treatment (and often, cure), as well as for a litany of previously untreatable autoimmune diseases. From this perspective, AugI is one of the most exciting areas in modern medicine, offering daily breakthrough research papers and a very long list of new startups. On the dark side, AugI has also killed patients during clinical trials; obviously, there is much yet to learn about how it works (or doesn't) and its proper application per patient genome and disease variants. For all these reasons, it seemed the perfect time to do a deeper dive into this fascinating and productive area of medical research and major advances in treatment, and to share a few insights with our members about new companies and treatments, their promise and limitations, and what may happen next. |
