(Key points: Glycobiology, which is a branch of science studying sugar chains, is one of the most promising directions in helping us conquer cancer. This is one of few fields where I put my energy and passion.)
My friend in Harvard may wonder why I was so talkative and asked so many questions when we met. Though he moved away a long time ago, I gave him calls every holiday. The reason is simple: he is a glycobiologist, the scientist who study biological role of sugar chain. This is a tightly knit research community. In the circle everybody knows each other well because even nowadays, there is no great interest in this particular field. For every project glycobiologists proposed it is tough to get a good result because of the very nature of sugar chain: sticky and very complex. Even facilitated with many modern and powerful tools like mass spectrometry, it is still a much difficult task to pursue.
But it is sugar chain showing a great promise in fighting cancer. When scientists like a Canadian team did it right, the results were astonishing. Every doctor knows if we could figure out the mechanism of how cancer cells spread around, cancer is really not a big deal. To grasp blood vessel wall it is sugar chain helping metastatic cancer cells do this most important step to survive.
Sugar chain, it is sugar chain having the magic power in helping us cure cancer. I bet a good Ruth Steakhouse meal (Ribeye, no wine) with anyone that within next ten years drugs developed from sugar chain related molecule or enzyme inhibitor will have much more successful and effective effect in cancer than drugs from other hot fields nowadays like apoptosis and angiogenesis. Waite a minute, I already start worrying that I may never need to cook myself again and pay the restaurants a dime if there are enough people taking the bets.
(This article is the sixth in a series of “the Brand New Mindset for Cancer” essays. It is published on 9/3/2011.)
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