The virus that causes cold sores can be modified to also fight cancer.

On Monday night, Professor Kevin Harrington spoke to a busy audience at the Albion pub for the Pint of Science festival, which celebrates the fantastic breadth and depth of modern scientific research.

Professor Harrington is one of our research team leaders here at the Institute of Cancer Research in London, and he was talking about using viruses to treat cancer – an innovative technique which is delivering amazing benefits to some cancer patients.

In an entertaining talk, Kevin explained scientists have known for nearly 100 years that viruses can lead to cancer, and as early as the 1880’s, a surgeon called William Coley experimented with bacteria and infectious agents to fight cancer.

Coley saw that some cancer patients with infections fared better after surgery than patients without infections, which he thought could be harnessed to form a…