From Lab to Pharmacy Extra Credit Assignment – 10 points possible
Go to National Public Radio (NPR) Science Friday and listen to an interview from July, 2010, called, “From Lab to Pharmacy,” with Harold Varmus, director of the National Cancer Institute. NPR may have reorganized their archive. Look for “Harold Varmus returns to Politics” at
1. Dr. Varmus shared the Nobel Prize in ______for his studies on ______.
2. Dr. Varmus is the director of the National Cancer Institute, and formerly the director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He talks about being glad to have left the NIH because the NIH is composed of ______each with a budget and director of their own, so he was not able to make any meaningful budget decisions.
3. He talks about the basic biological and clinical opportunities that have lead to the discovery of some 10 genes with a role in cancer before he and Ira segue into a discussion on genomics. He explains why he thinks it is naïve to ask, “when will we cure cancer?” Saying that, “cancer is united ______
4. In discussing “genetically-informed therapy or medicine,” he says that characteristics perceived only through molecular biological techniques differentiate one similar cancer from another. He goes on to explain this means genetic testing on the ______to compare it to ______from the ______
5. While discussing “longevity genes,” Dr. Varmus says that a misleading aspect of this topic is that we don’t know what the role of that marker is for the individual versus ______because what is true for the ______may not be relevant,
or directly relate to, the individual.
6. In talking about stem cell research, Dr. Varmus presents a theory about cancer. Previously, it was believed that when a patient had a tumor regrow following surgery, radiation or other therapy, it was because some cells had remained after treatment. The new theory posits that cancers may be seen like an “organ” and there may be ______that repopulate the cancer.
7. After talking about how funding decisions are made, Dr. Varmus sums up why Basic Science Research investments are so important. He talks about how cancer is a disease of how the fundamental machinery of the cell goes wrong. By this, he means how ______
______
Dr. Varmus talked about a drug called “Gleevec” saying it is a triumph of genetics. Gleevec is one of those rare “miracle” drugs. In 1998, during the Phase 1 clinical trials, patients with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML), who had not responded to any other treatment, showed dramatic, lasting improvements. Go to the NCI to read a FAQ on Gleevec and answer these last three questions. This link is always a challenge. If you can’t get the original article, try:
This link is to a Smithsonian article that is not the original article, but has a lot of interesting information:
8. What makes Gleevec different from other drugs? ______
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9. This FAQ was produced in 2001, when Gleevec was still new on the market. What research questions remained to be answered at that time? ______
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10. What is the Philadelphia Chromosome and how does it relate to CML?
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Notes: If you can’t access the Gleevac FAQ, try using your search engine (GOOGLE, for instance) to search for the “story of Gleevac.”
You may also try copying and pasting this address into your browser: