• Question: How many cures have you found? And what are they?

    Asked by Freya <3 to Linda, Claire, Franco, Koi, Mark on 13 Jun 2016. This question was also asked by 768parf33.
    • Photo: Linda Anagu

      Linda Anagu answered on 13 Jun 2016:

      My dear, none, but I will certainly get there.

    • Photo: Franco Falcone

      Franco Falcone answered on 18 Jun 2016:

      @Freya
      Science is a collective effort and not a case of ‘one person finds one cure’. This might have been the case a few centuries ago, as with Robert Koch or Louis Pasteur, but even their work was footed on knowledge acquired by others. Whoever in the end manages to find a cure for any disease (and nowadays it’s going to be one or more teams of researchers, rather than a single person), his or her success is based on all the knowledge that has been accumulated thanks to the efforts of all scientists.

      Ideally science is not about egos, it is about teamwork, about being part of a large effort to make our world safer and healthier, and this is why communication in science is one of its most important aspects. You cannot work on your own and tell no one, your findings have to be published and made available to other scientists and to the general public, and in this century there is a strong trend towards open science worldwide, which I fully endorse.

    • Photo: Mark Booth

      Mark Booth answered on 18 Jun 2016:

      Hi

      I find that a walk in the woods is a great cure for feelings of stress – something to do, I think with the idea that the colour green combined with bird-song tells you that all is well with the world.

    • Photo: Arporn Wangwiwatsin

      Arporn Wangwiwatsin answered on 18 Jun 2016:

      Hi Freya,
      I absolutely agree with what Franco said about science being collaborative efforts and the discovery of cure is a result of accumulative knowledge.

      And similar to the cure that Mark found 😉 I would like to add that taking a slow deep breath is also a great cure for feeling nervous and anxious.

    • Photo: Claire Bourke

      Claire Bourke answered on 20 Jun 2016:

      Hi Freya,
      it would be amazing to cure something, but Franco is right that that would be far far more than a one person job as every ‘cure’ is a huge challenge to outwit infections that have evolved to specialists at infecting us! My work benefits from all of the researchers before me who have discovered things and I hope that my discoveries will be helpful for the next scientists and, by all adding a small piece ti the puzzle, we will get closer to curing diseases.

      My ‘puzzle piece’ is to try and understand how existing treatments that are already being used affect the immune system and to identify ways that we could improve our natural immune defenses against infections so that we are better able to stop it from happening in the first place.

Comments

  • Photo: Claire

    Claire commented on :

    Wow, I wish I had managed to cure something – that is a big but exciting challenge. A lot of what I do looks at how we can use medicines that already exist to improve protection from infections. For example, one of my projects is looking at whether antibiotics used to prevent infections in people who are sick with HIV might also limit inflammation, which can cause lots of damage. I’ve also looked into how a treatment for schistosomiasis (a drug called praziquantel) can be used to boost the immune system and limit infections by new worms. We can see improvements, but still no cure (yet) unfortunately!