{"id":694,"date":"2015-05-21T14:03:43","date_gmt":"2015-05-21T18:03:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/phenogeno\/?p=694"},"modified":"2015-05-26T13:45:45","modified_gmt":"2015-05-26T17:45:45","slug":"on-scientists-and-boxers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/phenogeno\/2015\/05\/21\/on-scientists-and-boxers\/","title":{"rendered":"On scientists and boxers"},"content":{"rendered":"

I just ran into an article in Boston Globe on how John Quack enbush is planning to fight cancer by boxing.<\/a><\/p>\n

Anyway to fight cancer should be a good thing. What provoked me in this article is the quote:<\/p>\n

\u2018I know a lot of people think I am crazy doing this. But I think what we\u2019re doing is a metaphor for what patients go through.\u2019<\/p>\n

John Quackenbush, physicist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and new boxer<\/cite>\u00a0<\/address>\n<\/blockquote>\n

No John, hopefully you will never know what patients go through and comparing training and a three round boxing match with another amateur to the suffering cancer patients and their families go through is offensive.<\/p>\n

Perhaps try a three months daily bout with Mike Tyson, assuming he does not feel like knocking you cold in the first second of the match.<\/p>\n

I would like to propose that Boston Globe covers Arthur Pardee <\/a>at Dana Farber, \u00a0an inspiring scientist not an amateur boxer-scientist. \u00a0 Arthur is 94 years old. But he is still thinking about cancer and the knowledge he produced and catalyzed inspires us daily. I am also told\u00a0he shows up in his office at Farber<\/span>. He also plays the cello. I think it’s a great story to cover.<\/p>\n

Arthur Pardee is a humble scientist who made countless and seminal contributions<\/a> to biology and cancer research.<\/p>\n

So let me convert my indignation into a potentially useful suggestion.<\/p>\n

I propose crowdfunding a new campaign for understanding cancer and relevant physiology in honor of Arthur Pardee.<\/h3>\n

We can stand up to cancer on his shoulders to catalyze the quest for understanding, preventing and curing cancer. He is a living inspiration to all of us.<\/h3>\n

I am personally pledging a $1000 to start this campaign, not to mention many work hours and infinite passion working on \u00a0computational biology of human disease.<\/p>\n

I do appreciate the effort by John. I know him well and he typically does what he can to contribute. However, I think we need higher aims for inspiring the science and medicine of cancer than the \u00a0boxing metaphor. Arthur is the best example of aiming higher.<\/p>\n

The campaign we need is for a better understanding: “Know Your Enemy”.<\/p>\n

From Wikipedia, The Art of War<\/a><\/p>\n

“So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss.If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose.\u00a0<\/span>If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are a few examples how better understanding leads to novel ideas and clinically viable solutions.<\/p>\n

Cancer and Restriction Point<\/a><\/p>\n

Cancer Hallmarks<\/a><\/p>\n

Tumor Suppression<\/a><\/p>\n

Gleevec<\/a><\/p>\n

Attacking Cancer Weaknesses<\/a><\/p>\n

Precision Medicine<\/a><\/p>\n

Predicting Drug Targets in Cancer<\/a><\/p>\n

Monitoring Drug Response in the Tumor\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Reprogramming Cancer Stem Cells<\/a><\/p>\n

Cancer Drivers with Systems Biology<\/a><\/p>\n

Immune Therapy<\/a><\/p>\n

Cancer Risk<\/a><\/p>\n

Breast Cancer Risk<\/a><\/p>\n

Cancer Prevention<\/a><\/p>\n

Cancer and Sugar<\/a><\/p>\n

Cancer Panels for Precision Medicine<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The only thing we want to fight is ignorance, apathy and lack creativity. \u00a0It will take all we can manufacture to stand-up to cancer.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I just ran into an article in Boston Globe on how John Quack enbush is planning to fight cancer by boxing. Anyway to fight cancer should be a good thing. What provoked me in this article is the quote: \u2018I know a lot of people think I am crazy doing this. But I think what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8782,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/phenogeno\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/phenogeno\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/phenogeno\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/phenogeno\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8782"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/phenogeno\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=694"}],"version-history":[{"count":50,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/phenogeno\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":883,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/phenogeno\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694\/revisions\/883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/phenogeno\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/phenogeno\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/phenogeno\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}