An interesting hypothesis in the evolutionary genetics of treating infections and cancers is that if the therapeutic agent does not directly target the pathogen or tumor, then the pathogen or tumor will be less likely to evolve resistance to that agent. While...
There is probably no more canonical example of the relevance of evolutionary genetics to clinical medicine than sickle cell disease. The relevance of the sickle allele, in heterozygous form, at the beta-globin locus for resistance to falciparum malaria was published...
Among human pathogens, Streptococcus pneumoniae holds an especially prominent place in the history of biomedical investigation. Griffith (1928) described the transforming principle, a soluble substance released by dead, virulent pneumococci that could render...
Arguably, the most exciting trend of the last decade in chemotherapy for tumors based on traditional small molecule agents is the use of drugs that target specific protein kinases that participate in signaling pathways crucial for tumor growth (Solit and Sawyers,...
In the early years of the last century, Paul Ehrlich coined the term “magic bullet” to indicate a therapeutic agent that targeted an infectious agent or tumor with exquisite specificity (Schwartz, 2004). He was inspired by his work with antibodies to imagine a future...
