Tumor Angiogenesis Explained in Plain English - Neatorama

One of the way scientists try to combat cancer is to selectively disrupt angiogenesis, the process by which blood vessels form to support the growth of the tumor cells.

Biotech company Amgen launched a spiffy new website with 15 gorgeously rendered animations explaining the process of angiogenesis as it relates to vascularized tumor in plain English.

You don't have to be a molecular biologist to appreciate the "Fantastic Voyage"-like animations - and you may learn something cool about cancer biology!

Not to be missed: Link - via Wired Science

This is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen on any medium. No sarcasm.

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The imagery is stunning, but this is far from plain English. I could watch it all day!

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I'm training to be an oncologist and it is so wonderful to see the biology so elegantly rendered. It's such a powerful tool and there needs to be more of these types animations to educate future scientists as well as the public at large. A few years ago a media lab at Harvard produced a similar video along these lines:

http://www.studiodaily.com/main/technique/tprojects/6850.html

The lab also has a version of video with narration instead of music so to explain what is going on.

http://multimedia.mcb.harvard.edu/anim_innerlife_hi.html

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Yeah, I'm quite familair with tech lingo and such, but this is not 'normal english' by a long mile.

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Wow! Fascinating and stunning. I have long practiced visualization techniques to stay healthy - imagining T-cells and B-cells and macrophages devouring and attacking any cancer cells in my body. Now I now what they actually look like.

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The graphics are lovely. It's not possible to draw everything accurately and have it make sense to everyone; the animators did a good job picking and choosing how and what to illustrate.
Word of caution, though, to all those who think think the modulation of angiogenesis is 'the key to cancer'--pay attention to the phrases such as 'may be'. It really 'may be', but those are also the things that are definitely not guaranteed.

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