Back in October, Wayzata.com told you about Wayzata High School Student Brandon Law being featured on a Channel 12 newscast for his role in fighting brain cancer. Now another local media outlet, Plymouth Magazine, has picked up on his story. Law volunteers his time working in the University of Minnesota lab as part of a team to fight cancer.
Here is an excerpt:
Law is currently part of a team at the University of Minnesota working to find a cure for cancer.
“This is basically a job for me, but I don’t get paid,” he says. “I spend, sometimes, 10 hours a day at the lab on weekends.”
The research focuses on using a patient’s own immune system to defeat cancerous tumors of the nervous system. In theory, scientists can extract cells and prod them to express certain genes and become embryonic-like, at which point they could be easily converted into other types of cells. In this case, the cells would be “morphed” into the original tumor cell. The tumors are subsequently incorporated into immune system cells from the patient’s own blood. When this mixture is injected back into the patient’s body and teaches the immune system to recognize cells as harmful, destroying them.
In essence, Brandon is helping create a potential cancer vaccine. And he’s not just cleaning Petri dishes or timing experiments, either. Brandon is a big part of the project.
The article continues to detail Law’s experiments, his commitment to the projects, his applications for college, and how ahead of the curve he is for only being 17 years old.
To read the full article, visit this link: The Kid Helping Cure Cancer
Thanks to Christine Marcelo for bringing this to our attention.
Stay tuned to Wayzata.com, your Wayzata High School student fighting cancer leader.
