Philippe Frank, PhD

#CellBiologist interests in #Cancer and #Cardiovascular disease, #immunoanalysis, cell-based assays and clinical trials
🇪🇺 🇨🇦 🇫🇷

[BIGBEN @fwBen_]

Last night I came home from an eight-hour shift, sorting bills, when he walked in.
“I need $300.”
“No.”
“You have money.”
“I have money for the mortgage.”
I told him starting next month he contributes or he doesn’t live here. He said I sounded like his father. Then: “If you tell me no again, I swear you’re going to regret giving birth to me.”

[Eric Topol @EricTopol]

The pronounced and early reduction of hs-CRP, biomarker of inflammation, with Ozempic in the big heart disease trial https://t.co/d3k7El797W

[Les Électrons Libres @lel_media]

https://t.co/w4r599eg1j

[The New York Times @nytimes]

Breaking News: The FDA has blocked publication of research that found widely used Covid-19 and shingles vaccines were safe. https://t.co/P4ZNeIfvPV

[Truth Matters @politicsusa46]

For anyone who would like to hear Mark Carney’s outstanding Davos speech in full here it is. This is what true global leadership looks like.

Canada should be immensely proud today, because they are leading the fight back when others dare not.

🎥 TikTok - https://t.co/BExGV2YIDq

[Dr Toudou @DrToudou]

DERMATOSE NODULAIRE CONTAGIEUSE BOVINE

Bon. Vous me faites chier. Faut que je retourne au charbon. C‘est le bordel sur les réseaux là.

On va expliquer 2-3 trucs parce que toute cette histoire, c’est juste que personne n’a rien compris à la maladie.

[Rafik Smati @RafikSmati]

Pendant que les députés débattent de nouvelles taxes dans leur bulle de médiocrité, voici ce qui s’est passé ces derniers jours dans le monde :

- Amazon licencie 30 000 personnes à cause de l’intelligence artificielle.

- Google annonce une percée majeure dans la fusion nucléaire.

- Apple s’allie à SpaceX pour connecter ses iPhones aux satellites Starlink, annonçant peut-être la fin des opérateurs télécoms.

- OpenAI lance Atlas, une interface qui va rendre les agents intelligents accessibles à tous.

- Le premier robot humanoïde grand public, Neo, arrive sur le marché.

- Et Nvidia, première capitalisation du monde (que nombre de députés ne connaissent sans doute même pas), vient d’atteindre 5 000 milliards de dollars de valorisation et emploie désormais 80 % de millionnaires (n’en déplaise aux adeptes de la lutte des classes…).

Eh oui : pendant que le monde avance à la vitesse de la lumière, la France débat du montant des taxes et fait des dictées à l’Assemblée. Tous les députés ne sont bien sûr pas comme ça, mais une majorité semble vivre hors du temps. Ce n’est pas seulement un décalage, c’est une tragédie nationale.

Nous sommes en train de rater la plus grande révolution de l’histoire humaine.

Il est temps de sortir du métaverse fiscal et de revenir dans le monde réel.

[jean-dominique merchet @jdomerchet]

Mario Draghi a raison : l’Europe doit devenir un État (fédéral). Comme l’Allemagne et l’Italie qui se sont unifiées au 19e siècle. Si nous ne le faisons pas (et je crains que nous ne le fassions pas), nous allons nous effacer très vite de la scène mondiale.

[Gérard Araud @GerardAraud]

Il y a dans l’histoire des périodes où la raison se tait et où prospèrent les passions et les émotions. La peur et la haine réveillent les pires instincts. La modération et la retenue sont vues comme des faiblesses. Les faits n’ont plus d’importance. Nous y sommes.

[Richard Hanania @RichardHanania]

An inspiring scientific story that shows what is on the line in our political debates.

In a world-first medical breakthrough, a baby named KJ Muldoon recently became the first person ever treated with a completely personalized CRISPR gene-editing therapy crafted just for him.

The baby had been diagnosed with a genetic condition called CPS1 deficiency, which meant that KJ couldn’t break down ammonia in his body, which is a byproduct of protein metabolism. This meant doctors had to restrict the amount of protein he could have, limiting the intake to just enough to grow. This meant he was malnourished, and still at a high risk of brain damage or death.

But in an unprecedented race against time, scientists and doctors in Philadelphia rewrote what was thought possible in medicine.

A team of scientists developed a one-of-a-kind CRISPR-based treatment tailored to KJ's unique DNA.

Most gene therapies take years to develop, often aiming at common conditions affecting many patients. But this time, scientists condensed the process into six months, building a therapy that exists only for one child.

The treatment used lipid nanoparticles to deliver three doses of CRISPR components directly to KJ's liver. The goal was to correct the genetic error that inhibited his ability to metabolize ammonia.

When KJ received his first shot, he was at the 7th percentile of weight for his age. The doctors had to tell the parents that they had no idea what his reaction would be, or if it would even work. But everything seems to have worked out well. Now KJ is at the 40th percentile of body weight. He may still need a liver transplant, but the prognosis is hopeful.

We could celebrate this as a great human achievement, and leave it at that. But I write about politics and public policy, and we should not fail to learn from this story.

Unfortunately, we have an administration that is at war with nearly everything that made this innovation possible: immigration, federal funding of science, big pharma, and, in the form of MAHA, even medical science itself.

Let's start with immigration. Here are the names of the doctors and scientists mentioned in the NYT coverage of the story

Kiran Musunuru
Rebecca Ahrens-Nicklas
Fyodor Urnov
Sadik Kassim
David Liu

Of five names, only one is old stock American.

Another scientist mentioned is Peter Marks, although he didn't work on this research. Marks wrote an editorial accompanying the research paper, arguing that the treatment used "eventually could also be used for more common genetic disorders like sickle cell disease, cystic fibrosis, Huntington’s disease and muscular dystrophy."

Dr Marks oversaw gene-therapy regulation at the FDA before leaving over RFK's war against vaccines.

The scientists who accomplished this feat rave about the system that made it possible.

The result “is a triumph for the American peoples’ investment in biomedical research,” Dr. Urnov said.

The researchers emphasized the role government funding played in the development.

The work, they said, began decades ago with federal funding for basic research on bacterial immune systems. That led eventually, with more federal support, to the discovery of CRISPR. Federal investment in sequencing the human genome made it possible to identify KJ’s mutation. U.S. funding supported Dr. Liu’s lab and its editing discovery. A federal program to study gene editing supported Dr. Musunuru’s research. Going along in parallel was federally funded work that led to an understanding of KJ’s disease.

“I don’t think this could have happened in any country other than the U.S.,” Dr. Urnov said.

Those who worked on saving KJ were proud, Dr. Urnov said.

“We all said to each other, ‘This is the most significant thing we have ever done.’”

Remember, these debates are not theoretical. It matters that we have a free market system in which corporations can make money, an immigration system in which the most qualified people in the world can come here and work on the most important questions facing humanity, and a regulatory regime in which real scientists rather than conspiracy theorists and cranks have power. All of this is being threatened today.

[Philippe Frank, PhD @Philippe_Frank]

@arousseaumd Félicitations Adrien !

[Philippe Frank, PhD @Philippe_Frank]

@SahooDaisy Congratulations Daisy.

[Inserm UMR 1069 N2COx @Inserm_N2C]

Une publication de @Philippe_Frank @CaroGoupille "Is cholesterol a risk factor for breast cancer incidence and outcome?" @InsermGrdOuest @UnivTours @CHRU_Tours avec nos collaborateurs @crctoncopole @INRAE_Tlse @IBMM_Balard
https://t.co/J4CvrwNSu5

[Lori Shemek, PhD @LoriShemek]

Scientists at MIT developed a form of magnesium called Magnesium L-Threonate that boosts brain levels quickly & efficiently. It is the only magnesium that can cross the blood-brain barrier.

A study of adults with cognitive impairment reversed brain aging by nine years.

[Philippe Frank, PhD @Philippe_Frank]

@benoitbruneau Toutes mes condoléances, Benoit, à toi et à toute ta famille.

[Andrea Cercek @AndreaCercek]

Very proud of our study published in @NEJM. 100% clinical complete response with dostarlimab alone in mismatch repair-deficient locally advanced #RectalCancer. No radiation or surgery! @ASCO #ASCO22 @MSKCancerCenter https://t.co/sZypoHBtj7

[Philippe Frank, PhD @Philippe_Frank]

Cancer-killing virus injected into human for the first time in new clinical trial
#CancerResearch
#Cancertherapy
https://t.co/7XOZYKkoPz

[Nature Portfolio @NaturePortfolio]

A study published in @Nature reveals the effects of obesity on immunological disease in mice. https://t.co/yegm18W11N

[Carole Chatelain @carolechatelain]

#Ukraine️ fait partie des pays phares pour les essais cliniques. Avec la guerre,les patients perdent l'accès aux traitements pour maladies graves (cancer, sclérose en plaques...). Enquête et témoignages par @CoralieLemke .https://t.co/aDfnjgeTy0

[Cohérence @coherence_e]

« Chaque génération se croit vouée à refaire le monde. La mienne sait pourtant qu’elle ne le refera pas. Mais sa tâche est plus grande. Elle consiste à empêcher que le monde se défasse. »
Albert Camus.