Researchers at the University of Cambridge said Thursday they have found that a drug originally developed to treat leukaemia can halt and even reverse the debilitating effects of multiple sclerosis (MS). In trials, alemtuzumab reduced the number of attacks in sufferers and also helped them recover lost functions, apparently allowing damaged brain tissue to repair so that individuals were less disabled than at the start of the study.
Althought this is obviously overwhelmingly fantastic and amazing news, I find it a bit ironic that in spite of the billions of dollars spent each year on research into various diseases, the greatest discoveries are some how inevitably accidental as a result of research into something else.
Penicillin—a fungus that grew on one of Alexander Fleming's discarded culture dishes and was seen to stop the spread of bacteria—is probably the most famous example, but the list is vast and varied: the benefits of Viagra were discovered by researchers trying to treat the heart condition Angina; a blood test that can detect breast cancer was discovered by a doctor tracing enzymes in the brain; the pacemaker was invented as a gadget to record irregular heartbeats; the smallpox vaccine (and the concept of vaccines in general) was discovered when a milkmaid was observed to be immune to the virus because of her exposure to cowpox.
I'm just waiting to hear that the cure to cancer is found by scientists looking into a better way to bleach a butthole.
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