This man just might save your life one day…
“Biomiko at the microscope, singling out cancer cells. On the right, doing what he likes best: “Moving water from one place to another.”
There’s a slight chance I might loose all my clients from the medical profession with this article, depending on how accurately I reproduce the information I was given. But this was a really exciting thing, so I have to tell you about it. Hope my memory serves me well 
When driving back from my trip to Poland last week, where I once again had a wonderful time, I decided to stop over in Dresden, Germany for a few days to visit my friend Miko, or Biomiko as he is sometimes called. A true mad scientist if ever there was one, and a wonderful person too. This man is doing research into cancer therapy at the world-famous Max Planck Institute. A splendid thing, you’ll agree. His research is centered, if I remember well, around finding the genes that repair DNA when it gets damaged. Apparently, DNA in our cells is constantly getting damaged, as a natural part of living. When it isn’t repaired, the cells can become cancerous, and ultimately they can develop into a tumor. So Miko’ is trying to determine the genes (humans have around 20.000 genes) that are there to repair DNA. This knowledge might be useful one day to cure or prevent cancer. When I asked him what he actually spends his time on at work, he told me: ”Moving water from one place to another. With a pipet.” Actually it isn’t only water, but a water-based solution containing molecules which enables to turn off a single gene. After turning off this single gene, Miko checks if it is involved in DNA repair. Well, my respect is his. Three cheers for Biomiko!
But what really got me excited was what he told me over some good German beer: Bespoke medicine! Clever marketing hoax of a strange tailor? No sir!
The idea is that treatment can be made to be far more effective when the cure has been made to suit the individual patient, with regards to his metabolism and physiology. How great that would be! YOUR cure, not just some generic pill-out-of-a-box, or a game of shoot-the-bad-cells. And this, according to Miko, is the future of medicine. Well, we all know that despite the miracles that are worked in hospitals nowadays, and despite the enormous advancements that are being made in the world of science and medicine, there are still far too many cases where a patient, regrettably, can not be cured by the treatments that are available. So let’s hope bespoke medicine becomes a reality soon.
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