Inventor of the Day: Leo James

I’d like to help bring back an almost-forgotten word: the word “inventor,” being a person taken for granted by economists and politicians yet without whom our lives would be very much worse.  Or, to put it positively, a person who by ingenuity or imagination produces a new means by which human life is made better—demonstrating the fundamental role that reason plays in furthering human life.

This post then is the first in an occasional series on this blog of inventors who’ve improved, or will improve, our lives.

Our inventor of the day today is Leo James and his team at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, Massachusetts (demonstrating that it doesn’t matter where in the world an inventor lives), who have discovered a means whereby human cells infected with bacterial and viral pathogens may be treated—something not previously thought possible.  Their work “profoundly advances the understanding of how antibodies work, opening the door to potential advances in how doctors treat infectious diseases.”

PS: As an exercise for the reader, ask yourself why I’ve labelled this post with the tags “Intellectual Property” and “Ethics.”