I think that in the next five years, we are going to see a lot more of the biologics being used. What these biologics really do is target certain types of proteins produced by these lymphokine genes that are important in triggering inflammation. We are now understanding some of these natural chemical processes that occur in the body that cause inflammation. We are developing technology and methodology that will specifically target certain parts of the immune system. When we give a patient one of these drugs, it doesn't automatically mean that the entire immune system is suppressed, as when we sometimes give someone Prednisone or cortisone.
Prednisone suppresses inflammation in a blanket fashion.
What this type of technology has enabled us to do is to specifically target certain aspects of the immune system in such a way that we are using natural chemicals rather then artificial agents. With this machine, if I'm interested in a particular gene out of all the billions of genes that exist in an individual, I can specifically look at one gene and produce large quantities of that gene in about one or two hours. We can then study in action, we can introduce it into cells, we can modify it, we can see how it does what it does. We can see how it produces some of the pathological effects seen in patients with scleroderma. For example we can look at one of those lymphokine genes in a highly specific fashion.