I sat next to the Chinese woman and stared out the salt-streaked window at the white-capped waves, conscious of the slight pitch and roll of the ferryboat. She was a Ph.D. biologist who headed a lab devoted to pharmacological research for treatment of dermatological disease.
“Thirty years ago,” she continued, “we treated the pain of rheumatoid arthritis with almost no thought to attacking the disease at the root of the problem—autoimmune inflammation. Now we have mapped the biochemical cascade of the inflammatory response—cytokines, prostaglandins, interleukins, complement—and we are in the process of designing drugs to block these agents to prevent tissue destruction. It is all so fascinating.” more»
Brian T. Maurer has practiced pediatrics as a Physician Assistant for thirty years. His "Marginal Notes" column appears periodically in the Cell2Soul Blog. The title "Marginal Notes" is taken from a quote by Henry David Thoreau: "I love a broad margin to my life."