Essay - Biology Ronald Levy the Purpose of This Paper is to...

Biology

Ronald Levy

***** purpose of this paper is to introduce and analyze the topic ***** Ronald Levy, ***** antibody hero. Specifically it will discuss his research and its contributions to health care around the world. Ronald ***** has done some of the most important and far-reaching research into antibodies and cancer in the *****, which is why he is known as the "antibody hero" in many scientific circles.

***** research ********** that, "it w***** possible to generate monoclonal ***** that would specifically recognize ***** cells inside the body and tag *****m for destruction" (Conger, 2004). That was research he found in 1976, while later research indicated that if you vaccinate a patient with proteins only found in cancer ***** the cells can create a powerful response in the immune system aga*****st the cancer ***** (Conger, *****). Levy has always felt ***** underst*****ing the ***** system ***** a key to c*****ncer research, and that using the body's own immune ***** ***** fight cancer simply makes sense.

Once his *****ories were proven, *****'s ***** focused on creating distinctive groups ***** antibodies for each unique patient's cancer and cells. However, this was too difficult ***** time consuming, although it did cure some cancer patients of their disease. Eventually, he and his partners discovered that they could use less specific cells found in certa***** B-cancer ***** that still targeted cancer tumors. These cells all have a unique protein on the surface, ***** they help produce the ***** ***** ***** attack cancer ***** (Hobson, 2004). They developed this research into a drug, called "Rituxan," ***** is the first "monoclonal *****" ***** approved by the FDA (Conger, 2004). About 500,000 people receive ***** drug for cancer treatment ***** year. Eventually, Levy hopes to develop a v*****ccine against cancer using these techniques. He is also working on studies that look at genetics ***** figure out what ***** might be more prone to cancers and single them out ***** more aggressive cancer treatments.

*****'s research ***** certainly extremely important for ***** care around the world. Currently, it is treating at least 1/2 million people or more against cancer, and as the research continues it has the implication ***** cure cancer in even more people, ***** even develop into a v*****ccine that ***** guard ***** cancer before it *****s. Probably one of the ***** ***** elements of ***** research is ***** the antibodies from the b-cells attack only the ***** cells, not the surrounding healthy cells, and so, ***** are far ***** invasive and intimidating than other types of treatment like radiation or surgery.

The drug ***** is al***** used in concert with other treatments to gain the best results in more *****, ***** the ***** d*****side so far has been that ***** all patients of certain cancer *****, such as lymphoma, respond to the drug (Editors). That ***** Levy's biggest ch*****enge for the future, to discover ***** all or most patients do not respond favorably ***** treatment. If he can discover *****, the implications for future treatment