In case you missed it, last week there was a huge announcement concerning the study of “junk” DNA. The reported findings were astounding and offered not only a glimmer, but a million watt strobe, of hope that someday scientists might learn why one person gets cancer (or rheumatoid arthritis), and someone else doesn’t. You can read the New York Times article (with additional links) here.
I have to say that every revolutionary scientific discovery has been met with controversy and skepticism, and this one is no different. (Read the Forbes rebuttal here.)
Let me tell you, I want this to be true. I really, really want there to be an “off” switch to RA. Given all the pills and injections and stretches and ice packs and rest I do just to try to keep it at bay, I’d do 10 or 100 or 1000 times that effort if I could just friggin’ stop the disease.
We all know there are no easy answers and even now, just a few days after the announcement, lines are being drawn in the scientific community dividing the believers and the nay sayers. Like any great discovery (or announcement thereof), it will take time — no doubt decades — for the truth to be known.
But what I do know is that the investigation of this potentially revolutionary DNA study will yield amazing discoveries. When I look back at the acknowledgment of the early AIDS/HIV cases and how much we’ve learned about the immune system because of it, it’s astounding. Now we have the opportunity to examine the effect that so-called “junk” DNA has on a multitude of chronic, deadly, and debilitating diseases.
I don’t think you can have progress without controversy, so I am heartened by the amount of turmoil this announcement has caused. It is only right that something of this magnitude be examined and explored. And if it is true (prayers said, fingers crossed, lucky penny in my pocket), then maybe that examination and exploration will yield some answers and some real cures for what ails us.
I am hopeful, for all of us, that we are on the verge of one of the greatest medical findings of the age.
Thanks for checking in.
I had missed this! Thank you so much for the link.
I share your excitement and hope. And, god knows a closet full of wire hair balls would fit right in at my place….
It would be utterly incredible if they found an “off” switch for RA. And for MS, and autoimmune asthma and type one diabetes… utterly. I hope the naysayers are wrong. Thanks for sharing the links to the stories.
Also, glad to read that the AC is working, the cable is working, and drying out the Underside is proceeding. I’m glad that you won’t have to deal with torn-up floors at the same time you’re coping with a torn-up (and stitched back together) shoulder, Carla. Just be careful of the wavy floors and don’t trip…
I’m hopeful too. I think that because of the huge level of funding, there is huge pressure to release positive results to the press and get more huge funding coming in, which is bad, bad, BAD for science … but having said that, and accepting that maybe the announcement was overly positive, that doesn’t negate the fact that something’s going on with at least some of that ‘junk’ DNA, and it could be useful!
It’s going to be a long time coming because apart from anything else, we don’t know which genes turn on many of these disease, and there could be more than one gene involved, but we can hope for us and for coming generations!