A STEP IN THE WAR AGAINST CANCER
In 2011 the U.S Company, A mgen invested $14 million in the Munich medical research company Micromet and a year later they bought the start up for $1.16 billion. They then brought the company’s chief scientist, Peter Kufer, to the U.S. and he continued to work on the special antibodies he was creating. The antibodies in question were created to fight to fight cancer. In describing how they work, Peter Kufer began by talking about T-lymphocytes. These are immune cells that float in our blood stream and that search for and destroy cancer cells and structures that are infected with a virus. They are highly efficient at eliminating virus-infected cells, but are less good at killing cancer cells. Normal antibodies have two different “attachment” arms. Both bind to the same invasive antigen/protein. The antibody fastens to the molecule or virus and marks it for destruction. Kufer’s group created a special antibody, each of whose arms...