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This week on Healthwatch, we're talking about recent research advances. One discovery could lead to new treatments for cancer. Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas have created a way to identify which compounds activate immune system cells. The new technique can scan up to millions of compounds to determine which ones activate dendritic cells that search for cancerous or infected cells and then alert the immune system.
Dr. Akira Takashima, the UT Southwestern dermatologist who led the project, says the new technique is more time and cost effective, as well as more sensitive, than previous screening techniques.
One day, dendritic cells may be important for developing cancer vaccines that mimic the body's natural immune response or turn on failed immune responses for fighting disease.
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October 2005
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