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5112396 tn?1378017983

Google, Biogen team up for multiple sclerosis research

Biogen (the makers of Avonex, Tysabri, Tecfidera, Rituxan, Pelgridy and the clinical trail I'm on) and Google (their Google X division) have teamed up to research certain aspects of MS. It appears to be aimed at gathering data on the disease's advancement with a view to hypothesising why the disease course varies so radically, though the exact terms haven't yet been laid out. I'll be watching this one.

I found the press release on MS-UK.org's website, but they cited SFGate themselves, so I'll link to the article referenced.

http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Google-Biogen-team-up-for-multiple-sclerosis-6043902.php

"The goal is to explain why the disease progresses differently from patient to patient, said Rick Rudick, Biogen’s vice president of development sciences."

That Rick Rudick is the former head of the Cleveland Clinic's MS programme, so they've brought in some heavy hitters. Obviously this is not something done from an altruistic perspective on Biogen's part, and the approach of seeking out a commercial partner versus an academic partner is addressed in the article. I'm a bit wary of this, but I acknowledge that exploring new modalities for research funding is likely a reality these days. Interesting stuff.
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5112396 tn?1378017983
I agree, the article was wanting. I spent a fair amount of time trying to track the announcement back to the best, least removed source and all roads seemed to lead there, unfortunately. But this was at 6 in the morning, so it's entirely possible my research skills were a bit dulled by the hour. I'm not at my best then either.

In lieu of a better write up, it's very much filed away in the 'interesting. Make note of that' portion of my brain, rather than the 'exciting!' part of my brain.
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Avatar universal
Thanks for this. I read the article and found it rather unimpressive, but am hoping that that's the fault of the publication and not the concept. The article is poorly written and contains misstatements about MS, leading me to conclude that the author spent all of 5 minutes on the piece.

Still, the overall plan and aim of the research seems grandiose and unrealistic. They want to understand and halt disease before it gets worse, or words to that effect. Well wow. Speaking specifically of MS, they want to stop it in its early stages so the outcome is less dire for many people. The thing is, though, that hundreds of thousands of MSers, maybe a lot more, don't get a diagnosis in the early stages. So in my view, finding better diagnostic measures would be a more desirable  and more realistic goal. The best goal of all would be to identify the exact causes of MS, because only then will a cure be possible.

Guess I'm on my soapbox here, or maybe it's just too early in the morning.

ess
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