I anticipated some degree of difficulty in locating a Biomedical-related piece of recent news but I was pleasantly surprised to discover that this area of the scientific world is very much alive and thriving. There were many, many results and I had sift through a lot of interesting material. One that particular caught my eye was this one http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=09021413-engineers-create-intelligent-molecules-that-seek-and-destroy-diseased-cells
Basically, the gist of the article is that researchers have been trying to fight cancer and other diseases by bioengineering molecules to recognize harmful ones and destroy or mark them while leaving healthy ones alone. The molecules are designed by manipulating RNA, which give scientists a good degree of control over them. The ongoing goal is to allow these molecules to mark and manipulate cells to induce a certain behavior, such as immune system response, in order to fight diseases. One of the major problems with this technology is that there are unwanted side effects due to inaccuracies or unforeseen consequences created by the targetting molecules. Specifically, this article discusses Professor Christina Smolke's presentation to the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) and her latest work on creating accurate and "smart" molecules. I think that this is a perfect article for showing one of the many areas of Bioengineering that one can focus on and the impacts that this field has on the whole medical and scientific world in general.
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