November 17, 2004
IF WE STILL HAD STAKES SHE'D BE COOKING ON ONE (via Robert Schwartz):
I BEG TO DIFFER: A Diabetes Researcher Forges Her Own Path to a Cure (GINA KOLATA, November 9, 2004, NY Times)
Dr. Denise Faustman thinks she has a shot at curing diabetes.
She has published one significant scientific paper after another on
the disease. She has succeeded in curing it in mice, something no one
else has accomplished.
But when Dr. Faustman, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard,
went looking for money to finance the next stage of her research,
testing the ideas with diabetes patients, she could find no backers.
Pharmaceutical companies turned her down. So did the Juvenile Diabetes
Research Association.
Her approach was criticized, even though in the past, said her boss,
Dr. Joseph Avruch, chief of the diabetes unit at the Massachusetts
General Hospital, "most of the things she found turned out to be
true."
Only the support of Lee A. Iacocca, the former chief of Chrysler, who
said he wanted to see diabetes cured in his lifetime, has allowed her
to pursue her goal. He mounted an $11 million fund-raising campaign
and wrote a $1 million check to start the fund.
The reason for the resistance, Dr. Faustman and some colleagues
believe, was simple: her findings, which raise the possibility that an
inexpensive, readily available drug might effectively treat Type 1 or
juvenile diabetes, challenge widespread assumptions. Many diabetes
researchers insist that a cure lies instead in research on stem cells
and islet cell transplants.
Dr. Faustman's story, scientists say, illustrates the difficulties
that creative scientists can have when their work questions
conventional wisdom and runs into entrenched interests. But if she is
correct, scientists will also have to reconsider many claims for
embryonic stem cells as a cure for diabetes, and perhaps for other
diseases.
"I wish Denise well, and I flat out hope she's right," said Dr. Mark
Atkinson, a diabetes expert who directs the Center for Immunology and
Transplantation at the University of Florida College of Medicine. "But
the environment she's trying to move this forward in is so much like
kids in a sandbox, whipping sand around. It's hard to see with so much
sand in the air."
With many foundations and universities competing for research
financing, and with the heated politics of stem cell research, it is
no surprise, Dr. Atkinson said, that disputes can sometimes become
vitriolic.
In addition, he said, the field has been whipsawed by false hopes.
And folks wonder why there's so little dissent from scientific orthodoxy? Posted by Orrin Judd at November 17, 2004 4:30 PM
Of course the JDF doesn't want to fund it. It's cured, what's their purpose???
Posted by: Sandy P at November 17, 2004 4:39 PMPromising, but curing anything in mice isn't always a precursor to an effective human treatment.
As for dissent, it's always a battle in any field of human endeavor; the advantage scientists have when dissenting is that success cannot be argued with.
Even if you're the only one who believes, a reproducible voila ! will win hearts & minds overnight.
I'm reminded of the <fe>warm reception</fe> that Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis received from the medical community when he suggested that doctors should wash their hands before examining patients.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis
Posted by: Roy Jacobsen at November 17, 2004 5:59 PMScientific funding is too centralized. I suggest a system where taxpayers allocate $0.50 each to one of a list of approved funding non-profit agencies -- credential thousands of agencies, and let new ones enter as long as they meet some suitable standards of professionalism -- and let the agencies create their own funding mechanisms. This would take Congress out of the appropriations business and create more diversity in funding sources. It would also encourage scientists to do a better job marketing their work, and make it easier to get rid of the deadwood living off past reputations.
Posted by: pj at November 17, 2004 6:40 PMSorry, meant to say $50, which I think is about what the current federal appropriations work out to.
Posted by: pj at November 17, 2004 6:41 PMPJ: Why stop there? Why don't we each get to appropriate every tax dollar we send in (local, state & fed)? Within 2 years, the only departments left in government would bet the stuff that the majority really care about.
Posted by: John Resnick at November 17, 2004 7:35 PMI sent this in because of the quote:
"Many diabetes researchers insist that a cure lies instead in research on stem cells . . .
Dr. Faustman's story, scientists say, illustrates the difficulties that creative scientists can have when their work questions conventional wisdom and runs into entrenched interests. But if she is
correct, scientists will also have to reconsider many claims for embryonic stem cells as a cure for diabetes, and perhaps for other diseases."
Those of you who are really interested in the science should read the articles. Her experiments have been fantastically elegant. If she can cure diabetes, she has a lock on a Noble prize.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at November 17, 2004 10:18 PMP.S. If you think she desevers $50 send it in. Do it today. Lee Iacocca put a Million Dollars to fund this research, Join Lee Now.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at November 17, 2004 10:24 PMJohn - I support that too - I'd like to see Bush's faith-based initiative evolve into one where taxpayers allocate their taxes directly to charitable organizations.
Posted by: pj at November 17, 2004 10:32 PMSomebody favorably portrayed in The New York Times is not a dissenter.
Posted by: Joseph Hertzlinger at November 18, 2004 1:32 AMIf your pancreas producers zero insulin (like mine), no drug is going to cure that.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at November 18, 2004 9:01 PMHarry at your age it may be tough. Her approach uses the your bodys own mechanisms to restore the pancreas' ability to produce insulin. use the link in the second comment in the stem cell story below to read the whole NYTimes story. Also check out the Join Lee web site.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at November 18, 2004 9:54 PM