UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center Magazine Winter 2018 | Page 17

research update
Shaping the “magic bullet”:
How UAB scientists
helped usher in a new
era of precision medicine
B y M AT T W I N D S O R
It sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie: Researchers take ordinary soldiers, train
each one to seek and destroy a single enemy, then replicate them millions of times over
to create an unstoppable clone army. That’s one way to visualize what happens when
scientists make monoclonal antibodies. These powerful medical weapons don’t get
much attention outside the research community, but they’re an indispensable part of the
new era of precision medicine. They’ve already revolutionized treatment of cancer. And
throughout their long and fascinating history, fro m the 1970s to the present, UAB Cancer
Center researchers have played a leading role.
# K N O W U A B C C C
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U A B . E D U / C A N C E R
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