May 5, 2020
Dr. Reid is Chief Scientific
Officer and President of EpicentRx and discusses their groundbreaking work.
He explains
Dr. Tony Reid obtained his PhD
in biochemistry and his MD at Stanford and actually built the
foundation of his present work during his graduate efforts there.
He begins by explaining how viruses work. For example, adenoviruses
have various manifestations that target certain cell types such as
lung or gut cells.
EpicentRx has taken that characteristic and engineered a
virus to attack and kill cancer cells without harming other bodily
cells. In addition, the virus alters the immune system so other
cancer cells can be seen and treated effectively. Rather than using
virus research to create
antiviral medication, they've used it to create anticancer
medication.
Dr. Reid explains the process
more closely, how after detecting molecular switches that told a
virus to infect lung tissue, they knocked that signal out so it
wouldn't be able to infect lung tissue, and ended up with a
weakened virus. They went in and sequenced the virus and made very
small, deliberate changes so it would infect cancer cells.
He discusses the intricacies in more detail, the studies they've
done, and says they've already gotten FDA approval and hope to
release the medication and engage in antitumor activity this
year.
He finishes by addressing the coronavirus and says his company is actually working on an antiviral medication, more specifically a vaccine that will be successful for the general public but also for immune-suppressed and compromised individuals such as cancer patients.
For more, see the company's website at http://www.epicentrx.com/.