All diseases are cellular diseases: Dr Siddhartha Mukherjee

Renowned oncologist, cancer researcher and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Dr Siddhartha Mukherjee’s latest book The Song of The Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human was unveiled by Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Executive Chairperson, Biocon and Biocon Biologics Ltd, at an event at the Museum of Art & Photography (MAP), here on Wednesday.

The book unveiling was followed by a fireside chat between Mazumdar-Shaw and Dr Mukherjee.

The author spoke about the exciting and evolving field of gene and cell therapies, which are a group of technologies that are promising to revolutionise medicine through their potential to heal incurable diseases. He also spoke about the future of modern medicine and its transformational potential in helping humanity enjoy longer and healthier lives.


Dr Mukherjee said, “The Song of the Cell understands life at the level of its most fundamental unit: the cell. We are entering a new century of the cell. The fundamental questions in biology and in medicine today can be answered through a better understanding of cells and cell biology."

Our new-found ability to manipulate cells and thereby change their properties is also opening new frontiers in medicine, he said.

"I wrote this book because I felt these ideas needed to be communicated to the public at a level that they can understand," he said.

All diseases are a consequence of a cellular disfunction and hence, all diseases can be considered to be cellular diseases, he said.

Mazumdar-Shaw said, “The Song of the Cell is a chronicle of how scientists discovered cells, how they began to understand cell biology, and are now using that knowledge to usher in changes through biomedicines."

Dr Mukherjee brings his own experience as a scientist, and a doctor in telling this story of cells, which are the basic structural and functional units of every living organism.

"It inspires the reader to delve deeper into the mysteries of cellular science. It also inspires the reader to hope for a better future as greater understanding of cellular science is helping unravel the diseases that still afflict us and our ability to treat them. I believe it should be a prescribed textbook in every high school," Shaw said.

Mazumdar-Shaw and Dr Mukherjee are the co-founders of Immuneel Therapeutics, a clinical stage startup involved in cell and gene therapies, and personalised immunotherapy for patients in India.

The company is working on bringing treatments like CAR-T therapy to cancer patients in India at a time when the country is witnessing a dramatic increase in cancer cases.

CAR-T therapies, previously not available in India, have shown promising results for patients who have exhausted all other means of treatment in a range of blood cancers.

These therapies are available internationally at more than $350,000 per dose. The startup wants to increase the access to cell-based immunotherapies for cancer patients in India.

It wants to provide affordable access to this therapy.

At his book launch, Dr Mukherjee recalled the story of the first girl to undergo CAR-T therapy in the world, who celebrated her 18th birthday recently.