Biomedical Breakthroughs:  30 year old Technology Helps Create Cervical Cancer Vaccine

Utilizing recombinant DNA technology developed in the 1970s a group of researchers funded by Merck have reported that they developed a vaccine for certain forms of the human papilloma virus which causes many types of cervical cancer.  As many as 225,000 lives could be saved globally each year.

"In trying to develop a vaccine, the researchers chose as their target HPV-16, the leading cause of cervical cancer. They made the vaccine by splicing a viral gene into yeast so that the yeast would produce a protein normally found in the outer shell of the virus. The protein, also called a virus-like particle, is the vaccine. It cannot cause infection, but it sparks the patient's immune system to make antibodies that fight off HPV-16."

It takes time for technologies to be adopted and utilized, especially in the medical industry.  However, if this is what is possible using techniques developed 30 years ago, what will be the potential set of solutions brought forth by the Whole Biochip.

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