In previous posts, I discussed, respectively, the use of selection to generate an antibody of potential value in treating influenza A virus infections (1) and the relevance of protein dynamics to the evolution of protein function (2). A recent paper in Science (3) offers evidence suggesting that internal protein dynamics play a crucial role in [...]
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It has been roughly fifty years since the humoral immune response was first conceived of as a compelling example of evolution via selection of individual cells on a time scale that is short relative to standard organismal evolution (Talmage, 1957, Burnet, 1957; reviewed by Forsdyke, 1995). Multiple lines of evidence supportive of this concept were [...]
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We usually consider medicine as a predictive scientific endeavor, as methodical in application as noble in purpose. But for some diseases, such as schizophrenia, the first treatments showing any effectiveness, including lithium, chlorpromazine, and even electroconvulsive therapy, were discovered entirely by accident. After the discovery of the first antipsychotic treatments, a period of allegedly rational [...]
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