At a Maine clambake, about 2008
The Marsha Rivkin Center for Ovarian Cancer Research has
released the names of their 2016 awardees, so it is time for me to extend my
series of Profiles in Research Excellence.
I hope my choices appreciate being selected (there are ten of them now):
not a promotion, not tenure, not more money, and precious little publicity –
but maybe better than nothing.
There were three Scientific Scholar awards this year, and
all of them sound promising. I chose Dr.
Pepin because his work involves something called Mullerian Inhibiting Substance
(MIS), and for several years I have been running on references to this stuff
and promising myself to look it up – and never have. Thus, I reasoned, by selecting Dr. Pepin I
would be forced to come to terms with MIS.
Well, as you might have guessed, I was very quickly in over my
head. Here is what I know, or think I
know.
Mullerian tubes were first described by a German scientist
of the 19th century, named – of course – Muller. They are present in embryos and, in females,
develop into the uterus, etc. In males
they must be “suppressed”, and are thus bathed in a hormone called MIS. So, what on earth does this have to do with
ovarian cancer?
Well, very often initial chemotherapeutic treatment results
in a deep remission which may last for many months, or even years. However, all too frequently the cancer
returns. It appear that some cells –
sometimes referred to as cancer stem cells – are resistant to chemo. However, Pepin and his colleagues have given
reason to believe that these stem cells will succumb to a stiff dose of
MIS. If they, too, are wiped out the
cancer is, by God, cured! How MIS does
it work, and how Pepin’s group manage to beef it up to lethal levels, are of
course beyond me. If MIS therapy really
works, and if it had been in existence 10 years ago, the lady at the top of the
page might still be alive.
David Pepin, PhD, was originally educated in Canada. He is now attached to Mass General (teaching
hospital for Harvard), perhaps as a post doc.
He is working under the supervision of a well-known cancer doc, Patricia
Donohoe. From his picture he is young,
bright-eyed and bubbling over with energy.
MRC gave him $60,000, and I am sure he will spend it well.
Hi Myrl,
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to personally thank you for giving me a chance. This fellowship allowed me to further my work on ovarian cancer which now helped me secure research funds from the Department of Defense for the next 5 years, to try and bring this treatment to patients. It means I can now start off my career working on this disease as a new junior professor at Harvard. So it really makes a different for us researchers, and I hope I can pay the favor back and make a difference for the patients and the family members who donated time and effort and tears to the cause.
David
Judging from this Comment Dr. Pepin, in addition to being intelligent, hard-working and well educated, also is a very nice young man. It continues to encourage me that people of his obvious abilities and prospects choose to devote their working careers to the battle against cancer. I can’t imagine a better path through life; I wish I had taken it. So, David: Give 'em Hell!!
ReplyDelete