Any update from MIT?

Just a thought… if we setup a funding entity, perhaps we can kill two birds with a Change.org petition that alerts people to it… a title something like “Potential Virus Killer Underfunded at MIT”??

“perhaps whatever has the greatest commercial potential”

Of course, your assertion accurately fits the appearent reality, but if it is reality, then we have a larger issue to address. I just finished a great book entitled “A Second Opinion” by Dr. Relman (former editor of the NE Journal of Medicine) where he lays out cogent plans for healthcare but also makes the point that it used to be about just that, healthcare, not profit. That is not to say doctors/researchers/nurses shouldn’t make a comfortable living, but it can’t be that they practice medicine because they want to be wealthy.

The bottom line, as I see it, is that from the point of view of today’s poor business environment in this country, it makes more financial sense to keep people alive but suffering than to cure anything. I am not asserting the “conspiracy theory” that there is a cure for cancer and its being hidden; I’m simply asserting that pursuing cures may not make business sense for the very companies who have the resources to do so.

There is even a personal experience that makes me wonder though…I started my work because I had an idea while studying and sent it out to a few professionals in the field. I an unexpected “you may be on to something here” followed by a good deal of help. I just had an idea and a few months later I co-author an article on a paper I wrote that gets published… then, without explanation, everything goes silent. Weird at the least . Maybe after a few months they learned something that told them it wouldn’t work… but if they did, they never mentioned it.

http://blog.readingthinkingandwriting.com/?p=411

For me, the heart of this lies in what it means to be a healthcare provider be it a doctor or a pharma exec. You cannot truly provide healthcare if profit is your goal. You can provide healthcare and earn profit, but if it is what drives you, people will suffer because it isn’t possible to objectively do your job.

This needs to change in my opinion.

Thank you

Please, spread the word by passing along the link to this invaluable post Doug has written. We can use it as a center until we have something established. Perhaps we can start a NFP and put up a web site. Please post if there is interest as I would be happy to help in either or both.

-Scott
http://www.synapticsynthase.com

I am one of the co-founders of Microryza.

https://beta.microryza.com/

And this is precisely the kind of project we are looking to host.

It seems that there are now a number of options for continuing the work and providing new funding. However, if none of them work out, I would love to explore the option of hosting it on Microryza. If only to help out fellow researchers. I did research in miRNA systems for 8 months at the University of Washington, and seeing this is truly exciting.

Doug – if you’d like to contact me, feel free to shout at denny@microryza.com.

I’ll call Lincoln Lab tomorrow and post what I learn here…

-Scott