Posted by Robin Harrison on June 02, 1999 at 11:47:11:
It's intriguing to me that the same rote complaints about how 'poor DRI (or UMinn) has been dissed' keep appearing from a variety of individuals who presumably have nothing in common other than their enthusiastic support of these research entities. I do not find these complaints to be credible, and given that they all seem to lead back to one of two research entities and/or researchers, it becomes difficult after so much of this for me not to question the credibility of the cause/entity/researcher(s) being championed as well.
The fact is, Ricordi and his predecessors - Mintz and Alejandro to name two, have been at it for years. DRI grew from a couple of guys doing islet transplant research on dogs at University of Miami to a multi-million $$$ independent research facility. Ditto for Sutherland at UMinn, tho he has not established an institute outside of the halls of academia to my knowledge. With the almost constant paucity of funding for diabetes cure research, I don't see how anyone in their right mind can complain about this little clique of researchers having been shortchanged. A Medline search from 1966 to present using the keywords _'Hayek A' OR 'Mintz DH' OR 'Ricordi C' OR 'Sutherland D'_ returned some 671 hits. Tho I'm sorry about the great hurdles that must be overcome to get funding for cure research, it appears to me that these renowned researchers have managed to consistantly maneuver themselves to the top of the funding heap over the past two decades or more. It is doubtful to me that all of this published research was financed solely from the pockets of the researchers.
Tho I have my own criticisms of JDF, I am sick of this sour grapes complaint about the Harvard Islet Center getting funding when it shoulda gone to DRI (or UMinn). Doesn't or didn't Ricordi sit on JDF's scientific review board? Guess what? The world of diabetes research does not begin and end in a Miami, Minnesota, CA triangle. Boston is a hot bed of biotech research - old names in islet research like Scharpe, Lacey (and didn't I read the Weirs?) and new young mavericks and upstarts in cell research and transplantation like Melton's Ontogeny and Diacrin.
When money is tight, it's not difficult to be mad when someone else gets what one thinks they want or deserve for their favorite purposes. But, I personally have no respect for this whiney propaganda. If DRI or whomever thinks they've got the greatest thing going since sliced bread, then by all means, they should establish a research center 10X the order and magnitude of the Harvard Center. If that can't be done, then maybe a few folks need to set their egos outside on the doormat, learn how to work with the situation as it is, and count their blessings to date. I'm sure a lot of diabetes researchers would sell their souls to get the sort of NIH funding devoted to the anti CD40 ligand trials, a large chunk of which DRI and UMinn is receiving. Imagine if those who didn't get the NIH research grants stopped their own work to convene a kangaroo court on TIF ... I appreciate the fact they haven't.
Amazing to me that whenever a Day of Hope event occurs, researchers and research organizations that have had funding and research opportunities that are the stuff made of dreams become poor little stepchildren. Last year it was Soon-Shiong and Vinik. I wonder who we'll get next year?
Robin - sick of the friggin' hype