Early Risers.

[iL Dottore]

I mentioned that I would look into the "anti-cancer vaccine" featured in a number of newspapers last week and try and convert the science and medicine into lay language & concepts.

 

Here we go!

 

Basically it involves taking tumour material, identifying the neoantigens (proteins that are only produced by cancer cells and are recognized as such by the immune system) specific to that patient's cancer, creating a mRNA vaccine like treatment specific for a patient and injecting that treatment into that patient, boosting the patient's immune system's ability to recognise the cancer cells (cancer cells are very good at "hiding in plain sight" from the immune system). Moderna, BioNTech, Genetech and Merck Sharp & Dohme are amongst the companies involved in this research.

 

The press release from BioNTech is informative (https://investors.biontech.de/news-releases/news-release-details/three-year-phase-1-follow-data-mrna-based-individualized). And I quote the relevant passage:

 

"About iNeST (individualized Neoantigen Specificimmuno Therapy)
iNeST immunotherapies are investigational individualized cancer therapies tailored to a specific patient’s tumor. They contain unmodified, pharmacologically optimized mRNA encoding up to 20 patient-specific neoantigens, identified using real-time next-generation sequencing and bioinformatic neoantigen discovery. Neoantigens are proteins that are produced by cancer cells that differ from the proteins produced by healthy cells and are recognized by immune cells. The mRNA is encapsulated in BioNTech’s proprietary intravenous RNA-lipoplex delivery formulation which is designed to enhance stability as well as enable targeted delivery to dendritic cells. By analyzing each patient’s tumor, BioNTech is able to identify the cancer mutations that may act as neoantigens. Each individual cancer vaccine encodes for neoantigen candidates with the highest likelihood of helping the immune system recognize the cancer".

 

But... BUT it must be noted, these are NOT monotherapies, the various trials also give the patient anti-cancer therapies at the same time (like check-point inhibitors such as pembrolizumab), most, but not all, are small (Phase II) studies; most of the patients, but not all, in these studies tend to have significantly advanced cancers.

 

This paper at ASCO ( https://meetings.asco.org/abstracts-presentations/238530) may be one of the studies referred to in the newspapers last week (and was the only study I found - admittedly after a very quick search of the ASCO website - that is in Phase III and is also treating early-stage cancer [Stage II, IIIA, or IIIB (N2) Non Small Cell Lung Cancer: NSCLC]).

 

As promising as this sort of therapy is, it's a long way from being a standard of care.

 

Hope that this helps.

 

iD

 

[iL Dottore]

On 04/06/2024 at 13:36, iL Dottore said:

Besides, have you never had the desire to ride the open road, heading towards California through the Wild West, astride your chopped hog, biker chick on the pillion and the wind blowing through your hair? (OK, scratch that last bit).

 

On 04/06/2024 at 14:07, polybear said:

"Did you lock the back door?  We'd better go back and check....and have you cancelled the milk.....WATCH THAT CAR!! AND SLOW DOWN - we're not in a race....."

 

Now make it his & hers Yamaha Niken's thru' the Alps and you'll have my undivided attention.....

Methinks that The Bear protests too much...

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Not done a lot today, hay fever has confined me to barracks. Emptied the washing machine and tomorrow I've got half a dozen pairs of jeans to wash, will have to keep an eye on the weather as there is no room indoors for drying them.

[Ian Abel]

HUMP day, already they murmored...

 

Yesterday the Mrs and Jemma made a Costco run, whilst I toiled and had Whitney for company. Jemma stayed for dinner and a drink.

 

Today, the Mrs is off to check up on the other two grand-dogs, as Wednesday is her day for the noon-time duty.

Later after another continued toil-for-tokens we will have Whitney back for a few days, Jemma off to Milan this time.

 

Weather varied, rain on and off the last day and this morning early, 13c and cloudy first thing, 23c and showers later.

 

Carry on. 

[polybear]

5 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

Good afternoon from a warm and sunny Charente.  It must be summer as a field of barley has been harvested nearby. However the sunflowers and maizecare only about a foot high.  A lot hot done yesterday, 3 loads of washing were dried and both cars washed p, us some trimming.  We then had a walk round the village to try and find where Beth had left a cardigan.  The last stop was the 93 Yr old Belgian widow.  Politeness said that we had to have a beer with her.  12% Bush was produced.  That visit took longer than planned.  This morning the ironing g has been done interrupted by taking Beth to Physio.  Now there is grass to be cut and the Volvo to be cleaned inside. 

 

Jamie

 

But did you find the Cardy?  We need to know.....

 

4 hours ago, Peter Kazmierczak said:

I must admit I was very impressed by Tesco arranging these red thingies to fly over whilst I went shopping an hour or so ago...

 

Wow, every aircraft in the RAF Serviceable and airborne at the same time.....

 

46 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

 

Methinks that The Bear protests too much...

 

Bear is nothing if not open-minded......

[Grizz]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

 

Methinks that The Bear protests too much...

 

 

31 minutes ago, polybear said:

Bear is nothing if not open-minded......

Yeah but that is not the actual question that needs to be answered @polybear……the question is not whether you are open minded or not….

 

the question is….is your pillion companion “Open Minded????”

 

…now that IS the question…..😎😎😎

 

Love Grizz 

Edited June 5 by Grizz
S

[polybear]

Bear here....

 

Another day of fun at the Warehouse - which of course included the aforementioned freebie sossie roll provided by Bear's Chauffer 🤣  Huge Tick awarded.

Sadly the Boss wasn't in today - some Bozo decided to run into the back of her car on the A1.  .  Fortunately she was ok (as was he) but spent 5 hours at A&E getting her neck checked out, followed by another 2 hours on the phone to the Insurance....

 

Bear spotted the following donation in the overflow Warehouse - a donation:

 

 

 

- I had a quick look - it appears to be completely unused at first glance; it'll end up on the Hospice Ebay Shop.

 

There was also this little snippet of information in the Warehouse Sorting Room - that's a lot of bags to go thru', sort and direct to the most appropriate outlet:

 

 

Bearing in mind there's probably no more than half a dozen working in there every day (some of whom are Volunteers - and also some may only do half a day as well) that's some going.

 

Unfortunately when Bear got home I discovered that the only clean din din plate left in the cupboard** was.....The Pizza Plate!! Yahooooooooooooooo......

 

(**There *may* have been clean plates waiting to be unloaded from the dishwasher - but we'll skip that bit....)

 

ION....

 

This from the BBC News website:

 

"A woman has been charged with assault after a banana milkshake was thrown over Nigel Farage.

Victoria Thomas Bowen, 25, is due to appear at Colchester Magistrates' Court on Tuesday, 2 July charged with assault by beating and criminal damage, Essex Police said."

 

Oh good.  Stupid C0w.

 

Bear gone....

Edited June 5 by polybear

[Gwiwer]

3 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

Are meat pies REALLY that unknown outside the UK and Australia?

 

 

Not as common or ubiquitous in the UK as they are in Oz. It’s more a northern thing - pie shops down south are pretty rare. 
 

Food hygiene laws differ too. You can’t keep pies (or anything else) luke-warm on a UK counter. They must either be served hot or cold. Some Aussie ones are red-hot with gum-searing tongue-burning contents inside a concrete-hard crust. Others are just about edible. To improve their taste red sauce was invented. The better pie shops don’t charge extra for it but most do. 
 

Australian law requires a minimum of 25% meat in a “meat pie”; the UK requires half that and less still if if the total weight is 100g or less and / or it is a “meat and something else” pie. Such as chicken and leek. 
 

You pays yer money ….. 

[pH]

3 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

… identifying the neoantigens … creating a mRNA vaccine-like treatment specific for a patient …

 

Those are the clever bits!

[The White Rabbit]

7 hours ago, polybear said:

 Bear had a Team Greggs Sossie Roll earlier…. hard to beat in This Bear’s Book…..

 

I had a wild boar sossie roll (with a few 'extras') - went down well. Much shorter and fatter - yes, yes, OK, that's the roll, not me - than the Greggs version. More money but rather more meat. I'll try and do a snap next time. On the subject of [excessive] food preparation time, I reckon sausage rolls are quick and easy to do, there's not much fiddling about and if you get decent pastry (dare I say even including the better ready made stuff) and good quality sausagemeat from a good butcher, Robert can be your mother's brother with very little fuss or time. The challenge can be leaving some to cool and have cold, not scoffing the lot! 

[PupCam]

4 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Do I detect a hint of envy over Peter Fonda's long, flowing locks Puppers Old Bean???

 

Not even close 🤣   

 

And now a confession:

 

Not being a "Film Buff" I've never seen Easy Rider and I wouldn't recognise Peter Fonda  (clearly I didn't) if I tripped over him.     

 

Some people are very precious about their appearance both natural and applied, some aren't.    Did I worry when the young, handsome, slender, racing snake physique and long flowing hair of my youth vacated me to be replaced by the rather more ample, hairless mature and shall we say rugged body I inhabit today?   No.  So guess which camp Puppers lives in?       I'm very much a "Like Me or Lump Me" kinda Puppers whether that be with hair or without so no need for envy.

 

Still, your comment gave me a mighty fine chuckle, lucky I didn't have a mouthful of coffee at the time! 👍

 

ION

 

Another thrash was thrashed.  Well, it was a nice afternoon for it.    I went for the reverse Pupershire TT course with an extra flourish today.   It did of course include the almost mandatory chug into Shuttleworth and out the other side to see if there was anything interesting parked up or happening.    Sadly it was all rather quiet with I think just a visiting Jodel close by the fuel pumps.

 

Part of the Puppershire TT course runs down the "Back Road" aka Southill Road which runs parallel to the track bed of the old Hitchin to Bedford line.   

 

 

Without wishing to appear to be a Film Buff; that bit of track was used to film the sequence in "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines" where Terry Thomas lands on the train which then goes into a tunnel, that tunnel being Old Warden tunnel, now the home of bats not trains sadly.   

 

Of course two of the key aircraft that featured in the film, The Bristol Boxkite and the Avro Triplane can still be seen just over the fields at Shuttleworth and, if you are very lucky, on certain occasions can be seen in the air.   Although replicas built especially for the film they are now historic aircraft in their own right and jolly fine they are too.   Here they are flying at the September 2009 evening display, last flight of the day in the twilight.   Absolutely marvellous and not a navigation light between them!    I recall it seemed darker in reality!

 

 

TTFN

[Coombe Barton]

... resits, student who hasn't passed says they’re desperate to meet me. They weren’t so desperate to meet me during teaching as they only turned up for three out of twelve sessions. ...

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2024/06/05/hunt-in-the-frame-universities-decline-resits-and-admin/

[jamie92208]

On 05/06/2024 at 19:24, polybear said:

 

But did you find the Cardy?  We need to know.....

No that is still a mystery.  I've had to wash another Cardy today so that SWMBO has one for Bournemouth.apparently mine wasn't right. 

 

Jamie 

Edited June 6 by jamie92208

[New Haven Neil]

Evening - where did the day go?

 

@TheQ Thanks for the clip, funnily enough that was what we were doing this morning!

 

 

The next one down of the bin wagon going through the crossing gates was scary though.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

The weather has been very mixed all day, I’m glad I decided to stay inside. Before I began my unspecified pottering (@Chrisf) Sheila asked me to frame the prints she bought when we were at Chatsworth recently. We’d got a couple of frames with prints in hung in our bedroom, but the prints that were inside the frames had faded. So it was just a case of dismantling the pictures, cleaning the frames and glass, then putting the new prints into the frames, job done and brownie points earned at the same time! 

 

After that, I decamped to the workshop and carried on with the small locomotive I’m working on. I tested the modified cylinder block and it worked really well. But 1.5mm was a bit too much of an extension, so I did the second cylinder with 0.8mm square rod and that was perfect, so I replaced the 1.5mm rod from the first cylinder with some more 0.8mm rod. At this point I called it a day, as I had an appointment at the exclusive hairdressing salon that is Vidal Baboon (aka Sheila) for a hair cut this afternoon, so I needed to come in a bit earlier than usual. 

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[Barry O]

Well,it stayed drive with a bit of sun today but the very thin wind was very cold.

 

Leeds women batted first.. 163 for 6 from 30 overs in 2 hours.

 

Lunch was tomato soup and a roll, then jacket spud with chilli and cheese.. very nice.

 

Fresh fruit salad was eaten as well.

 

Then... Bangor all out for 13.. some excellent bowling and fielding gave the Bangor ladies no easy runs.

 

Back home a coffee and then off down the Railway Club, then back home to try and get warm.

 

Baz

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Been catching up on the housework though it seems to be catching up on me. There's a pile of jeans to be washed, Today's washing is all racked up and drying. Now to tackle Farcebook.

[Erichill16]

Evening All,

A bit more paperwork done but the majority of the day was spent walking with the dogs and not mil.

Decided to do a walk we don’t usually do as it tends to be waterlogged in places most of the year but today we fancied our chances. It wasn’t too bad and I managed to take this picture. It’s not far from my last picture from a couple of weeks ago.

In times past EM1 (class 76) locos would be seen using this section of line. To the right, about 1/4mile away was West Silkstone Junction which marked the top of the Worsborough incline. This section of the Woodhead route carries on for a couple of miles until Penistone is reached. Part way along this section the other branch of the woodhead route from Sheffield would trail in at the site of Barnsley Juntction. At the former Huddersfield junction the line bears left and onwards to Huddersfield while the former Woodhead route carried almost straight on.

ok, enough history so goodnight.

[Gwiwer]

6 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

 

 

Is that what is meant by the term "pimp my ride?" 

[Gwiwer]

Bother.   And other words expressing frustration which I cannot use here.  

 

Off I went to club this afternoon.  Via our Friends in Camborne in order to collect supplies.  I muddled around and drank tea.  I chatted and muddled around a bit more.  I used mild muddly-curses at bits which didn't want to play nice.  And then I packed up and came home.  

 

A couple of hours later when my phone made the "You Have a New Message" noise I reached for my reading glasses in order to read it .............

 

.......... and discovered they were still in the club room which is 20 miles away.  

 

 

 

 

And there they can stay until my next visit because I am not burning 45 miles-worth of petrol just to recover them.  I'll use the spare pair which are not prescription but are good enough.  

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[TheSignalEngineer]

On 03/06/2024 at 08:14, Barry O said:

He missed D Day bur went to Arnhem instead...

My Dad missed the actual D Day as he was a Redcap escorting troops and supplies from assembly areas to the dockside to get them onto the right vessels. He followed on four days later, being involved in battles around Caen. His main task was advancing with the front line marking the routes that were safe for those following to use. He too took part in Operation Market Garden, being involved in the capture of Eindhoven and trying to break through to Nijmegan. After being bogged down during the winter they crossed into Germany, at which point he was transferred to the Indian Army in preparation for advancing on Japan. After the bomb was dropped he remained in India for about 18 months, being involved in trying to keep civil order in Calcutta during the riots there in 1946. On returning to England due for demob in 1947 he was asked to stay on and offered a promotion but he declined as the job was to run a police unit in Palestine. He considered that the situation there was far worse than India.

 

[monkeysarefun]

3 hours ago, PupCam said:

Terry Thomas lands on the train which then goes into a tunnel, that tunnel being Old Warden tunnel, now the home of bats not trains sadly.   

 

 

Is that early Edwardian power station from around the 52 second mark heritage listed?

Edited June 6 by monkeysarefun

[jjb1970]

Getting ready for my next efforts in the struggle to  reduce emissions. I fly off to Frankfurt tonight for a meeting in Bonn, Monday I fly from Frankfurt to Tokyo, returning to Singapore on Saturday then Sunday I fly to Copenhagen en route to Malmo for meeting at the World Maritime University. The Frankfurt and Tokyo flights are Air China and using Thai to Copenhagen. I think it's a bit ridiculous flying Asia-Europe-Asia-Europe-Asia over two weeks to pontificate about emitting less but chest la vie.

 

The one I am not looking forward to is Bonn, it's an adjunct to a UNFCC meeting, the main meeting is this week but there's a maritime only meeting Saturday and Sunday, oh joy. I hate the UNFCCC bubble, it's 50% virtue signalling and empty promises on one side and excuses not to do much on the other. Not that I am cynical or anything,  as you all know I am not a cynical person. I usually manage to avoid that particular circus and graciously allow colleagues to enjoy the opportunity, it's good development for them (I am very generous like that) but it was demandedI go this time.

 

I often wonder how much a little sensitivity might help. I  completely get why those from developing countries object to being harangued by countries which got rich making the problem and in most cases still emit way more per capita.