Many years ago in 1990, there was a scientist working away in a lab suffering terribly from gender dysphoria. They hid it by working too hard and ignoring themselves. They worked on making monoclonal antibodies and made one called FMC-63. It stood for Flinders Medical Centre and was the 63 to be characterised and published. Not knowing what to do with it, a new technology of antibody engineering was used to make it into a mouse/human chimera. That worked and was published.

It was the era when antibodies were starting to be used therapeutically and the scientist was asked if they wanted to put a patent on the antibody. As they were pretty angry with the system and had a philanthropic nature they said no. The sequence can be open source.

A number of years later they were contacted by a large lab in the USA and asked if they could use the antibody to make a thing called a CAR-T cell for treating non-responsive acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. They readily agreed. The single chain Fv portion of FMC-63 was engineered into this new drug and in clinical trials it worked. Children who would have otherwise died from non-responsive ALL were cured.

The concept was expanded and in 2017 the new wave of CAR-T cell therapies was approved by FDA and today was named by Nature as the therapy breakthrough of 2017.

While the scientist claims no credit for the discovery of CAR-T or the hard work that went into it they did make the reagent that helps them work and they gave that knowledge and reagent freely to the scientific community.

The scientist continued to struggle with gender dysphoria and one day it became way too much, fortunately they found help and eventually transitioned and she became a very happy woman.

Although she always had a regret, well she has many, but one was never having children. Today she realised that she has many children. All of the kids who were cured of non-responsive ALL by CAR-T therapy using the construct from FMC63 that she created in 1990.

I will let you guess her name as she has a sip of champagne to celebrate.

Cheers

I think whom ever this scientist is, deserves a great deal of gratitude and good old fashioned slap on the back(not too hard) and a hearty "well done!"...along with the obligatory champagne and chocolates  I am certain there will a huge amount of love sent their way.

Excellent! Well done

What a moving story. I would be willing to bet that no person who would excoriate her for pursuing happiness by addressing her gender issues has done anything as profound or of more value to the human race.

It would also not surprise me to learn that since then she had continued to give selflessly of herself to help others who are also desperately working to find their own way through gender dysphoria.

She deserves our heartfelt thanks. It would be an honor to know such a person. If we only knew who she is...

Stephanie

Heartwarming story Cindy:)

Bari Jo

Who ever this (fashionably and on-trend) masked crusader is, she deserves more than a sip of champagne!

Your selfless dedication and commitment to the mental and physical wellbeing of others is truly heartwarming.

Congratulations. X

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That scientist ought to be quite pleased with herself.

Wow. 

Saving lives, and then improving the quality of life.  Sometimes our best work isn't known until years later - or it takes years to understand what the path is to living the best possible life.

Nature.com requires a subscription, but the Year in Review section provides an article summary.  Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in 2017: Immunotherapy for ALL takes the world by storm.

This certainly illustrates how science relies on many.  A few may get credit, but their accomplishments always build on the work and discoveries of so many others.

Cindy you are certainly a gift to the world and us.  Well done. 😀
Paige 😀

I think that scientist should be pretty darned proud of herself, and should enjoy that sip of champagne.  And if her philanthropic nature had motivated her to continue helping thousands of other people after her own transition, then I would say she deserved another sip of champagne.

That is one awesome, selfless human that humbles us all.

 Oh hell Cindy,
 
   Anyone can tell you have greatness in you. I certainly have been impressed with you lady. And I have to thank you for the personal help you have been to me.
   Know you had an integral part in these developments has to be AWESOME ! Kudos Cindy.

Hugs,
   Laurie

That's incredible! What a story and you must feel so proud [emoji4] your hard work paid off!

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