Carl June stumbles over the question when asked by the interviewer. We do want to cure cancer, he says, and sometimes it's hard to think that you might actually succeed. June, along with Stephan Grupp, developed a method to use a modified HIV virus to destroy leukemia cells.
Fire with Fire is part of the GE Focus Forward branch of Solve for X talks and follows one case study of a girl named Emma with leukemia. Grupp explains that his trials are for terminal patients and used only as a last resort.
Emma's leukemia had already recurred twice, and her family was searching for the miracle cure and willing to try anything. T cells were taken from Emma's body and genetically modified to recognize and destroy tumor cells.
The team used the HIV virus to infect healthy cells and fight the cancer. That statement doesn't seem intuitive, and a smile creeps across June's face when the director describes the process. The virus has been engineered so that it can no longer cause disease.
June says that the modified immune cells are serial killers, each having the ability to kill around one thousand tumor cells. Because of this drastic treatment method, Emma first became very sick before she started on a path to recovery.
Fire with Fire is a short film as much as it exists as a Solve for X talk. Ross Kauffman directed the film, and it is presented for dramatic effect along with education. We get a set of heroes to root for, an unbeatable enemy and a horrible setback before the third act.
Carl June has worked with the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute since 1999, and this is truly his life's moonshot project. The T cell project was two decades in the making and started receiving publicity in early 2013. The presentation here is an incredibly inspiring way to show science and engineering changing the world for the better one patient at a time.