THE FRED HUTCH NEWSLETTER

Enjoying a Michigan Autumn

With her brother Richard, niece Rebecca, and several Hunsinger boys

What looks like a bald-headed walrus surfacing in her lap actually is your faithful correspondent

 

I don’t get the Ukraine.  It is a poor country, engaged in a civil war.  Its people speak a Slavic language, written in Cyrillic script.  And yet I have more “hits” from Ukraine that fror any country other than the United States.  Twice as many Ukrainians ostensibly read my blog as do citizens of all English-speaking countries combined, again excusing the United States,.  What gives?  Obviously there aren’t dozens or hundreds of Ukrainian citizens avidly consuming my blog.  Some computer algorithm is doing the “reading”.  What ever can it be looking for?

The Fred Hutch newsletter is out, and you can read it by clicking on https://bay172.mail.live.com/?tid=cm1fAI-XxZ5BGUuWw75af65g2&fid=flinbox. 

There are several important articles in this issue.  One describes how Hutch scientists have developed a “tumor paint” which somehow will cause tumor cells to glow.  This should make it easier for surgeons to detect all the places where a spreading tumor is lodged.  The molecule that allows this was isolated from, of all things, a scorpion!

Another significant bit concerns the “Angelina Jolie effect”.  As you probably know, this prominent movie star went public about her troubles with breast cancer and urged women at elevated risk to get tested for the BRCA gene mutations.  Apparently since she did this, the number of women complying has doubled.  Good for her!

There are, of course, the usual pleas for money.

Several other articles in this edition of the Newsletter deserve mention, but my shingles hurt and I’m going to swallow two pills and take a nap.