SEPTEMBER 20, 2007

A Marine Corp Marathon Story

The charming couple you see here is myself (GENMED Lab Mom) and the handsome love of my life, Peter Pichaske. When he is not busy editing newspapers, or being a dad, or waiting on me hand and foot, he's training for the 10K Marine Corp Marathon Run to raise money for the Foundation to Eradicate Duchenne. This is the third annual 'Feet for Fed' Marine Corps Marathon Run. Peter ran an entire marathon the first year, then took a break the second year so I could train for and run the second marathon and now he's training again, this time for the third annual Feet for FED Marine Corps Marathon, the 10K run.

Please support Peter. The money he raises for FED will fund research to find a treatment and help thousands of children who have this genetic disease. (Click on this link to back Peter in his run). FED 'SUPPORT A RUNNER WEB PAGE (CHOOSE PETE PICHASKE !)l

Our 25 year old son (A Quarter Century Old TODAY!) has duchenne muscular dystrophy. Petey was diagnosed 20 years ago when he was four years old. How much a treatment will help him we cannot know. But it won't help him or the next kid without pumping money into research. (Below guests at 'Dining Away Duchenne', a FED fundraiser earlier this week.)

This week I met a charming woman, Carolyn Morrison, mom to John John Boom, a kid with an ice cream cone smile. She, John John's dad and about 40 others have teamed up to run the Marine Corps Marathon with Feet for Fed. So far, they have raiseed $100,000! They believe in doing something to make a difference. Click on this link to find their web page. John John Boom MC Marathon Web Page

lab word of the day (from www.answers.com)

Fundraising: ( ok - ok - it's not a lab word but it's relevant!!) The organized activity or an instance of soliciting money or pledges, as for charitable organizations or political campaigns.

quote

And now, a quote from my son.

It’s eating at me slowly but
slow turns into fast.
Tell me there's more to life than a
bleak and wretched path
that twists n an abyss
collapsing in the black
It’s laughing loud at the fact I’m caught in a trap.

caught in a trap...

"Burn Plan" by Pete Renzi

email me at GenMedLabMom@gmail.com

SEPTEMBER 5, 2007

GENMED LAB TOUR

By the time you read this article, summer will be unofficially over and the House will be back in session. That’s right, the House – as in Congress.

Last Wednesday, I was privileged to meet a group of people who are the underpinnings of the place: congressional staffers. They came to Children’s National Medical Center for a tour and get together with folks from the lab. These particular staffers and the representatives they work for have been staunch supporters of muscular dystrophy research.

Before the tour Joel Wood and Eric Hoffman spoke about finding a treatment for muscular dystrophy, its cost, and what the research community has done thus far. Joel is a father of a boy with duchenne and President of the Foundation to Eradicate Duchenne. Eric is my boss and the Director at the lab.

Joel told our visitors about his son, James; how when James was two, he was diagnosed with duchenne and how he, Joel, went on a mission to fundraise and garner government support to find a treatment.

Luckily for Joel and the muscular dystrophy community, around the time James was diagnosed, Eric moved his lab to Washington DC, to Children’s. It was then that Joel and Eric met. That was seven years ago and they have been working in sync ever since.

The resulting synergism between research and funding put the breath of life back into muscular dystrophy research, which had been languishing without the bolus of money that was needed to push forward.

After Joel spoke, Eric explained what the lab is doing to develop a treatment and how we spend research funds towards that end – not only the grants we receive from NIH and DoD but a pool of government funds that support the best muscular dystrophy projects around the country.

Besides the staffers, some parents of children with muscular dystrophy where on the tour, including Dave Heil, whose son, Alex, has duchenne. He and Joel Wood started FED together.

Eric showed our guests around the lab, describing the research we do and pointing out the equipment our scientists use. One piece of equipment, the Affymetrix Gene Chip analyzer, measures the kinds and levels of genes expressed at different time points, for instance before and after a drug is given to a child with duchenne. This helps us understand on a genetic level what drugs may be effective in treating duchenne. We ended the tour with a look at the proteomics room, where lasers reveal the composition of proteins.

Then the piece de resistance, Eric showed the group what we think is the best good hope at present for children with duchenne. We saw two, side-by-side film clips of the Japanese duchenne dogs, one that had been treated with a Morpholino cocktail and a littermate who had not. The difference was impressive; the untreated dogs limped along while the treated dog scampered about. The scientific data backs up what the film revealed.

Finally, there came the elbow rubbing and noshing, And wow, what a nosh! Josef, the chef from Tosca, the amazingly good Italian Restaurant on Capitol Hill, catered the hors d’oeuvres and wine gathering. Although researchers and staffers come from different worlds, they had no trouble keeping up a lively flow of conversation.

After it was over, I ducked back into the lab to get some work done. I went home feeling good about the research that I am proud to support.

QUOTE

“Experience is not what happens to you, it is what you do with what happens to you.” Aldous Huxley

LAB WORD OF THE DAY (The Free Dictionary by Farlex)

DNA chip - a microchip that holds DNA probes that form half of the DNA double helix and can recognize DNA from samples being tested.

LAB MOM