DMMC Course: TECHNIQUES & STRATEGIES IN MOLECULAR MEDICINE

1215-1300 Tuesday 11 December 2007, Panoz institute, LTEE2, TCD

Molecular therapies - false hope or the future of medicine?

Dr Ruth Foley (Institute of Molecular Medicine, TCD)

Molecular medicine has allowed the identification of new targets and new approaches to treat human disease. The lecture will focus on some of these strategies, including targeting signal transduction pathways, use of monoclonal antibody based approaches and the numerous gene therapy strategies that are currently being evaluated. An overview of the different methodologies will be presented and the current situation on the clinical application of these approaches will be considered. Focusing particularly on cancer therapies as a model system, the advances and challenges of the different approaches will be presented and discussed.