Conference Presentation
Programming Medicine
- 40% of the global population is anticipated to receive a cancer diagnosis at some point in their lives.
- Cell therapy's future growth depends on programming cells with increasing sophistication to target a broad spectrum of cancers beyond current limitations such as leukemias.
- Gene therapy is projected to expand to a wider range of diseases, moving beyond biologically contained conditions like blindness, as delivery vehicles and editing precision improve.
- Engineered microbes for microbiome therapy are envisioned to sense inflammatory conditions, release anti-inflammatories, and utilize termination mechanisms like kill switches to self-eliminate after disease episodes.
- Successive generations of "living medicines" are predicted to become increasingly sophisticated, effective, and applicable to a wider range of diseases.
- These advanced engineered living medicines are expected to facilitate the discovery of cures for specific conditions including leukemia, inherited forms of blindness, and phenylketonuria (PKU).