From Kerry: Having had a Grandfather, an Uncle and very close friend all die of cancer, I thought this story was well worth highlighting. Not only because of its potential for humankind, but also because Aussie scientists have been at the forefront of yet another major medical breakthrough. Thanks to the News Corporation website for the material.
AUSTRALIAN scientists are hoping to cure leukaemia, asthma and rheumatoid arthritis after their breakthrough discovery of how to stop killer blood cells growing.
The team has unlocked the secrets behind the protein which controls the way the blood cancer cells spread when it is damaged – and have found a way to stop its deadly process.
Work is now starting to design a drug to prevent the damaged proteins operating, effectively stopping the cancer as well as asthma and inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis.
After spending a decade uncovering the structure of the receptor protein, which sits on the surface of white blood cells, lead researcher Professor Michael Parker, of Melbourne’s St Vincent’s Institute, said scientists could now build a drug to attach itself to the protein and stop it sending messages into the cells telling them to multiply unchecked.
The Sydney Benedictine Experience ’08 is coming up in November and you are most welcome to join us. I have already registered and am very much looking forward to my return visit to this outstanding retreat weekend.
This month, things will be a little different to the norm. We will still enjoy times of structured corporate prayer, but we are going on a "visit to the monastery" in a virtual sense. At some point through the day, we’ll be running the movie Into Great Silence on the big screen in the Chapel where, in three hours, you will experience the silence and power of an entire year of monastic rhythm at the Grande Charteuse, the mother house of the Carthusians.
Well, after nearly two years of successfully operating the Wind Farm Podcast via iTunes, for some unknown reason, they decided they could no longer read our podcast’s feed.