(Podcast Interview with Ronald W. Davis, PhD, Director OMF Scientific Advisory Board; Director Stanford Genome Technology Center)
Let’s say you’re a biomedical researcher looking for a place to make your mark. You find out that there is still a major disease that affects more than 2 million people in the US, and we still know virtually nothing about this disease at the molecular level. Wouldn’t that stand out?
It certainly has to today’s guest, Ron Davis, who is also a father searching for answers for his son. Ron has been the Director of the Stanford Genome Technology Center for decades. He collaborated on the first DNA microarray and made a major contribution to the Human Genome Project. For five years now, Ron has directed his comprehensive skill set in bioengineering–and his vast connections–to work on a cure for ME / CFS, or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, a disease which has ravished his son, Whitney Dafoe.
With no funding from the NIH so far (he says they’re not good at starting things), Ron is working to characterize the disease at the molecular level. A new device developed at his center that he calls a “nano needle” could enable the first definitive diagnostic test for patients with CFS.
The history of this disease is of patients desperate with hope but always facing a major stigma. Many medical professionals are still not on board with diagnosing a patient with CFS. Ron says this stigma and lack of interest by the research community has created a big chance.
“This is a tremendous opportunity. Here’s a major disease which at the molecular level you don’t know anything about. This has got to be the last disease like this.”
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