Long haul holidays are now becoming commonplace and many of these exotic locations have huge numbers of equally exotic human parasites. We thus have to act now and produce new weapons through our high technology in the developed world. Perhaps a more pressing problem at home resides in the resistance produced by cancers by chemotherapeutic intervention. The same selection pressures produce resistance in cancer cells as seen in bacteria and parasites and for the same reasons we need to identify new weapons and targets. The Natural Drug Discovery Laboratory, in collaboration with the Department of Oncology at Queen's, has just initiated a new programme of research in an attempt to identify novel weapons and targets in the treatment of a variety of cancers.
Early tests look favourable, with experiments on breasttumour stopping the growth.
Targeting would appear to be the key whereby treatments could be developed with no sideeffects. Biomedical research and the quest for new drugs from nature are highly active and productive research themes in Queen's and we believe that the unique multi-disciplinary interactions between clinicians and scientists from the University, industry and the NHS, will produce many exciting developments in the coming years.