Longevity science

Scientists from the Manchester Collaborative Center for Inflammation Research (MCCIR) have discovered why a particular cancer drug is so effective at killing cells. Their findings could be used to aid the design of future cancer treatments.

Professor Daniel Davis and his team used high quality video imaging to investigate why the drug rituximab is so effective at killing cancerous B cells. It is widely used in the treatment of B cell malignancies, such as lymphoma and leukaemia — as well as in autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis.

A medical treatment that uses stem cells derived from bone marrow has just been approved in Canada.

The drug, Prochymal, has already been used to treat children for a type of immune disease arising during bone marrow transplantation.