• Question: Would you possibly be able to cure cancer in the upcoming future?

    Asked by talha to Marcus, Alex on 17 Jun 2014.
    • Photo: Marcus Johns

      Marcus Johns answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      I’m not sure that the work that I’m currently doing would be able to cure cancer. Cancer is a very complicated disease and there are many different types, which aren’t caused by the same problem. Whilst chemotherapy and radiation are effective at dealing with cancers they are very generalised therapies and don’t target specific cells, leading to the death of healthy cells as well as the cancerous ones.

      One day there may be drugs that target specific cancer cells only. Whether these drugs could be put into a material, such as the ones that I’m making, in order to get them to the site of the cancer and to stay there could possibly be investigated. However, I don’t think it’ll be me that does this as it isn’t my area of expertise.

    • Photo: Alex Lyness

      Alex Lyness answered on 18 Jun 2014:

      Hey talha,

      I’m not currently working on curing cancer. As Marcus says, it is really complex set of diseases and our best approaches are; earlier detection/diagnosis using imaging and screening equipment (MRI, Ultrasound, etc), better chemotherapy drugs to prevent cancer growing and better surgical and radiotherapy techniques to kill and remove tumours.

      I’m working across three different areas at the moment hoping to cure 1) a genetic skin disease, 2) Type I diabetes and 3) spinal injuries and defects.

      From these, the device I’m working on for skin disease should be used on to real patients early next year and make their lives better. The other two devices will take a while longer.

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