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Australian Story: Oct 3

Is it because there is a public holiday in Sydney that Australian Story is repeating an episode?

Is it because there is a public holiday in Sydney today that Australian Story is repeating an episode tonight?

Revisit the journey of two Australian scientists and one of medicine’s holy grails – finding a way to treat cancer without toxic side effects and avoiding drug resistance.

Four years ago Dr Jennifer MacDiarmid and Dr Himanshu Brahmbhatt sparked worldwide interest with a revolutionary new technique to deliver chemotherapy.

Animal trials have since produced spectacular results and now the scientists are hoping to move onto human trials in 2012.

But the trials are dependent on financing and this is proving difficult for the researchers as they are struggling to maintain control of the company they founded in 2001.

The remarkable personal story behind this breakthrough in cancer treatment was first revealed on Australian Story on August 6, 2007.

Dr MacDiarmid and Dr Brahmbhatt had been working on a disease in sheep at the CSIRO in the early 1990s when one of their colleagues was diagnosed with lung cancer.

The day before he died, their colleague urged them to start working on a cure for cancer. They began that very night, and initially focused on plant extracts which might have an effect on cancer cells.

A few years later, their CSIRO boss, Sir Malcolm McIntosh announced that he had terminal kidney cancer. They began treating him with the plant extracts and were so encouraged by the results, they decided to leave the CSIRO to set up their own company.

Eventually they developed a new idea to deliver anti-cancer drugs in a way that avoice the need for chemotherapy. The technique targets the cancer with a nano-cell called an EVD, or Engeneic Delivery Vehicle.

Since being written up in the international medical journal Cancer Cell, the breakthrough generated enormous interest.

8pm Monday on October 3rd ABC1.

3 Responses

  1. I am concerned Dr Jen has the champas standing upright, not lying down allowing the cork to stay moist. The champas will explode in the cupboard. Please tell me someone told them. All those papers will be soaked and sticky only good for ants.
    A friend’s mother-in-law did it with a magnum and her kitchen was soaked, the ceiling the floor the walls.

  2. School holdiays in various states? The executive for Aus Story is in Brisbane, so whether Sydney has a holiday may not be a factor. Shrinking budgets mean a quote of repeats? As with 4 Corners and Compass and Catalyst a number of buy ins littered through the year’s schedule?

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