How a child made scientists think of cytokines as knobs instead of switches
An unusual case of a rare anemia is opening scientists up to a new way of thinking about how to adapt and employ cytokines, messenger molecules of the blood and immune system, as tools for treatment — tools that are more analog than digital — and to illustrate the promise of precision medicine. Cytokines are workhorses of a vast messaging network used by the blood and immune systems. These proteins influence all manner of activity in these systems, from inflammation to resolution, cell production to cell death. Conventional wisdom has held that cytokines are “digital,” in that they either bind to a cellular receptor — triggering a cascade of signals within the cell — or they don’t. If a mutation prevents perfect binding, no cascade. There is no middle ground. But maybe there is. A rare case of a rare disease has led an international research team headed by Broad Institute of Harvard...