Dr. Seldin anything new on the horizon that you see as a alternative or a supplement to
this type of uh process uh there's a lot of research using stem cells going on uh in fact
one of the things that we're doing with stem cells is studying some of the other Amyloid
diseases and we're starting to develop models using stem cells for the type of Amyloidosis
that comes from the liver not the bone marrow there's a very active research program at
the Boston University Medical Campus uh developing stem cell models for many types of diseases
so we work closely with that research group uh we work closely with many different uh
groups uh at the medical campus to uh improve treatment one of the things that actually
in terms of the A Amyloidosis is really thinking about how we go after the the proteins that
are deposited in the organs itself so the things that we've spoken about so far really
are uh targeting the factory inside the bone marrow with chemotherapy we also would like
to target the protein deposits themselves and so we work with biophysicists biochemists
on the structure and folding and misfolding of those proteins and small molecule approaches
to attack them we've developed an animal model using uh genetically engineered mice and we're
starting to look at treatments that will go after the proteins themselves that would be
a huge benefit to patients if we could kind of do two things at once or in some sequence
go after the factory go after the deposits and then really have a chance of really clearing
the whole disease from the body wow Dr.Sanchorawala I think that you know that newer treatments
the noel agents which have been developed in the treatment of Myeloma also have been
shown to have significant efficacy in patients with Amyloidosis and i think those treatments
are going to be either a single agent or in combination with other chemotherapy agents
are going to be uh you know I think very very beneficial and you know a step forward in
the treatment of this disease Dr. Seldin something you brought up a moment ago the union as I
see it between Boston Medical Center and Boston University School of medicine tell us a little
about that from a patients perspective it's a wonderful thing well from our from every
perspective it's a wonderful thing you know we have a campus in the south end of Boston
we've got a hospital we've got a school of public health we've got a dental school we've
got a medical school we've got a graduate school and we have uh very uh that uh geography
facilitates collaboration between basic researchers and clinicians and the hospital and I think
that's really one of the bases of success of our program that you know the research
component of this started you know in the laboratory at the medical school and once
breakthroughs got to a certain place where we could start to offer treatment to patients
it was very easy for us to set up a clinical program and a transplant program and we hope
it is seamless to patients they you know there's a lot going on behind the scenes to develop
new treatments and support patients through their uh treatment and you know uh and I think
it's a a a a great uh organization that the both the school and the hospital uh work together
so well on supporting our program This excerpt is brought to you by the Massachusetts School
of Law