Friday, May 27, 2011

Grant of $1.3 Million to Support the Development of Rabbit Virus for Cancer Treatment


Grant of $1.3 Million to Support the Development of Rabbit Virus for Cancer TreatmentThe Health Research Council of New Zealand had provided a $1.3 million grant to support the treatment, being developed by the Southern District Health Board Oncology Research Unit and the University of Otago Medical School.
The research is believed to refine the figures that have marked the Southland with maximum number of bowel cancers and aimed to draft policies to enhance the treatments along with a modified virus that had destroyed the rabbit population.
Chris Jackson, SDHB consultant Medical Oncologist while addressed a meeting of Freemasons and the public at the Southland Masonic Centre, on Tuesday, and notified that during the 1990s, the virus for rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD) had decimated the rabbit population in New Zealand, particularly in the regions of Central Otago.
However, the latest treatment involves the mechanism of bioengineering in which the drained shell of the virus called virus-like particles (VLPs) is used to stimulate the body immune system against the cancer.
The involved attaching tumor-associated proteins to the VLP shell like "a tail" to stimulate the cancer immune response in order to target the terrible disease, cancer. "There's room for hope and a lot of room for optimism, but there's a need for a new direction”, he added further.

Sourced from here.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Terence Blacker: Standing up for rabbits' rights


Concern for animals has a slightly unfortunate political pedigree. Hitler was tender-hearted towards pets. Alan Clark, famously sensitive to the plight of animals, was once asked if his concern extended to humans; "Curiously not," was the answer. The BNP likes to boast about its firm line on animal rights. Nick Griffin's party-political fireside chats see him with a cat – strangely of mixed race – curled up on his lap.
Yet I am almost certain that it was not a sudden lurch towards fascism that convinced me that the RSPCA's current campaign was not an entirely ridiculous idea....

Read more, from the Independent.