“Watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat,” is the old magician’s line, a sleight of hand designed to amaze and entertain us. But what if such tricks were real? What if, for example, you could transform a mouse’s immune system into a human one?
That is what they’ve done at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company known for creating treatments using monoclonal antibodies. Their “magical mice,” as CEO Dr. Leonard S. Schleifer calls them, can be triggered to produce a variety of human antibodies, which are combined into “cocktails” and tested for their efficacy against various diseases. A recent article profiles a Rapid Response Team that has created one for COVID-19. If successful, it will reduce the severity of the disease or even prevent it.
Most of us, hearing of such a feat, can’t conceive of how it’s done. How do you turn a mouse’s immune system into a human’s? But such mystery does illuminate an important truth about productive acts: they require the application of specialized knowledge. The 8,100 employees of Regeneron, for example, must possess extensive knowledge which, to be used, depends on great coordination.
Sometimes the necessary knowledge and action are hard-won; sometimes, less so. But when successfully acquired and applied, especially across years or even generations, the productive result can seem astonishing.
Or just like magic.
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