The Beautiful Cure: The New Science of Human Health

"Immunology is notoriously hard for non-specialists to understand, as the joke you mentioned at the beginning of this interview reminds us. Fortunately, despite being in the midst of a glittering career in immunology, Daniel Davis has found the time to introduce us to this world with this book. The text unfolds like a thriller , admitting us into the minds of the protagonists as they strive to push the boundaries of understanding forward. The author allows the tension to build, withholding the answers, so that we share the puzzlement, uncertainty and suppressed excitement of the search until the moment of discovery. It was exciting for me; and I already knew the answers! The Beautiful Cure explains the importance of the relationship between the ancient innate immune system and the adaptive immune system which evolved later, conferring the power of immune memory—the basis for all successful vaccination. Although it all makes sense in the end and combines into a beautiful whole, the truth was very far from obvious until late in the twentieth century, and we share the uncertainties, the frustrations, and the battles to succeed. The bitter rivalries and resentments among eminent players is part of his compelling picture. There are no guarantees of glory—certain key figures in the history of immunology die without seeing their discoveries win through. In one tragic moment a dedicated scientist dies just days before his work is recognised with a Nobel Prize . “The author allows the tension to build, so that we share the puzzlement, uncertainty and suppressed excitement of the search until the moment of discovery” Davis describes major discoveries in the therapeutic power of custom-built antibodies which are transforming the development of new drugs in the 21st century. He explores biochemical connections between the mind and the body’s response to disease. And then he leads us through the fascinating field of restraint, inhibition, and forbearance in the immune system, a crucial web of mechanisms that was discovered, discarded, then rediscovered after a revolution in the tools we use to reveal and define immune phenomena. After this epic scientific journey, Davis rounds off the book with an account of how, for more than half a century, immunologists have been striving to harness the power of the immune system against cancer. What better place to read about the dawning of success than in the final pages of this lucid, thrilling tale. This is a very promising new area. The German company BioNTech was founded in 2008 specifically to develop immune-based cancer treatments. Cancer cells often have abnormal surface molecules not found on healthy cells, but for various reasons the immune system doesn’t attack them. The BioNTech idea was to create vaccines containing these molecules, teaching the immune system to attack cells with abnormal markers. In this way, immunotherapeutic treatments for melanoma and prostate cancer were developed. The cancer markers are encoded in messenger RNA (mRNA) to ensure the body makes a strong immune response, as if dealing with invading germs. When COVID-19 appeared, early in 2020, BioNTech quickly adapted their mRNA technology to make the spike protein of coronavirus, exploiting their existing vaccine production system in what might be seen as the most successful small business decision of the 21st century! This strategy is complementary to the promising breakthroughs in cancer immunotherapy described in the final chapter of The Beautiful Cure . Earlier in his book, Davis details the ways in which the immune system shows restraint, inhibition, and forbearance to protect normal cells and processes in the body. In a chapter titled ‘Future Medicines,’ he explains how these restraints can be switched off in a highly selective manner in patients with tumours, unleashing the power of the immune system against cancers such as melanoma. The secret is to disable or ‘block’ key off-switches on the surface of immune cells. The medicines which do this are known as checkpoint inhibitor drugs and they seem to work well in a proportion of patients. In the future there may be scope for combining mRNA therapeutic cancer vaccines with checkpoint inhibitor medicines to maximise the effectiveness of anti-tumour immunity."