A type of cancer called diffuse midline glioma (DMG) grows on the brain, specifically on the thalamus, brainstem, or spinal cord. Surgery in those areas is impossible because it's so dangerous, and patients diagnosed with DMG have a 1% survival rate. But a breakthrough is giving these patients more time.
The new drug Modeyso was developed with the aid of fireflies. Dr. Joshua Allen has been exploring how our bodies' own immune system fights cancers, and inserted the firefly gene for bioluminescence into human genes known to fight cancer to study their behavior. When the body's cells become cancerous, these genes are activated and made cancers glow and easier to see. The study of how such genes are activated led to the new drug. Some DMG patients that were given nine to twelve months to live have survived months or even years longer after the new treatment. Read how all that came about at Popular Science. -via Damn Interesting
