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We were able to get these Niemann-Pick
patient cell lines from Coriell.

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And so these cells are actually really
useful because they allowed us to

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really understand what Ebola needs,
in terms of NPC1.

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We're really using the virus as a tool to
teach us about exactly how NPC1

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moves around in the cell in order to do
its job, for example, what the structure

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of NPC1 looks like as a molecule.

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Having the structure of it would allow you
to develop better drugs

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to preserve its function.

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We're doing this from
this virus-centric view,

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but I think that this general knowledge
that we would learn about NPC1

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and how it works, by really using the 
virus could provide information

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that would be useful for other scientists
that are trying to develop therapies

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to treat Niemann-Pick disease.

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And so in fact we have a collaboration
with a scientist at Mount Sinai,

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Yiannis Ioannou, who works on NPC1
and Niemann-Pick disease,

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where they're looking for drugs to make
NPC1 better.

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But in the process of finding those drugs,
they also found drugs that make it worse.

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And so we're taking those off his hands
and using them for Ebola.

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And so if we go looking for drugs that
make NPC1 worse,

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we may also find ones that make it better,
and we can give them to other people.

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We're hoping that the work we do will
benefit, you know,

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the work that's going on to treat
Niemann-Pick disease,

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in just the way that the work that's being
done to treat Niemann-Pick disease

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has already benefited the work that
we're doing.