"In the body...In the lungs...A dendritic cell awaits the inevitable..." A blond woman in a snug red top and blue shorts opens her eyes. "Intruder alert!" Her hands grabs a green reptilian creature, and she promptly fells him with a SMACK and witty one-liner. Two men with white beards rush to her side. "Beta, what's happening?" one asks. "We've got visitors, Alpha-1," she replies.
The woman is interferon beta, who was joined by alphas 1 and 13. They are the army that protects the body from outside invaders, this time a tentacled, green influenza viral peptide. The drama is captured on the pages of a new comic book called "Interferon Force," published by PBL Interferon Source, a Piscataway, NJ- based biotech that sells - not surprisingly -interferon products.It's a strange scene to play out on the pages of a comic book, to say the least. Jaleel Shujath, who edited...
Lab Bratz
Howard Young
columnistNew York Times Magazineblogger. "It looks like a kind of novelty marketing," he says, in which companies try is to put their name on something new to catch a potential consumer's eye for a few seconds longer than something else. The company has also created a MySpaceThe Scientistmail@the-scientist.comThe Scientisthttp://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/53452/http://www.interferonsource.comhttp://labbratz.comicgenesis.com/http://ccr.cancer.gov/Staff/staff.asp?profileid=5711New York Times Magazinehttp://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/05/magazine/05wwln-consumed-t.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/05/magazine/05wwln-consumed-t.htmlhttp://www.myspace.com/interferonforce

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of

Receive full access to more than 35 years of archives, as well as TS Digest, digital editions of The Scientist, feature stories, and much more!
Already a member?