A cure for all ills?

The annals of medical science are littered with claims of breakthroughs and "cures" that failed to live up to expectations. But with the revolutionary technique of RNA interference, we seem to have a genuine candidate for the title of a cure-all treatment. It promises treatments for cancer and viruses, as well as a radically new approach to tackling inherited diseases. In the latest work on RNAi, scientists have shown that it is effective in the treatment of laboratory animals with a degenerative brain disease. Let us hope that this is not another false dawn and that the excitement of the scientists can be converted into real cures.

The annals of medical science are littered with claims of breakthroughs and "cures" that failed to live up to expectations. But with the revolutionary technique of RNA interference, we seem to have a genuine candidate for the title of a cure-all treatment. It promises treatments for cancer and viruses, as well as a radically new approach to tackling inherited diseases. In the latest work on RNAi, scientists have shown that it is effective in the treatment of laboratory animals with a degenerative brain disease. Let us hope that this is not another false dawn and that the excitement of the scientists can be converted into real cures.