Two weeks ago, I boarded a 747 to travel to Beijing, China in order to speak at the 2009 International Congress of Antibodies. Within minutes of hitting the runway, we were greeted by a crew of officials wearing surgical masks and wielding thermometers. The fever analysis was performed as part of an effort on behalf of the Chinese government to ensure that neither I nor my fellow travelers had the swine flu. Luckily I was cleared and proceeded to my hotel which was also the site of the Conference. Before checking into my room, I had to get my temperature checked yet a second time by the hotel staff. I wasn’t opposed to the routine screenings since, at the time, if anyone on my hotel floor had the swine flu the entire floor would be quarantined.

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If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants a pile of driftwood.

Hello readers!  Suffice it to say I’ve been missing in action for several months.  For much of the time I’ve been traveling.  Some of you may know that I just got back from China where I gave a speech at the International Congress of Antibodies. That will be the subject of my next post when the video of my speech is ready. In the meantime, I finally have time to give you an update of what I was up to before I left for Beijing…just to keep things in chronological order.

Several months ago I travelled to Vancouver Island to stay with Paul’s brother and his wife. It was wonderful to be surrounded by nature again! We took hikes through 200 year old forests and climbed gnarled driftwood on the beach. It was the first time I’ve sat around a bonfire since getting sick. I even got to take a horseback riding lesson and stayed on the horse!

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On Monday, I returned from the 6th International Congress on Autoimmunity held in Porto, Portugal. You can watch my presentation here.

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Though the human genome was fully sequenced in 2001, the most promising work in genomics has just begun and not even in the study of human DNA. Human cells are outnumbered by bacterial cells by a factor of ten to one, and, as the rest of this site alludes to ad nauseam, there is strong reason to believe that bacteria are to blame for many of the chronic diseases from which humans suffer. Genetically speaking, we know relatively little about bacteria that persist in humans. The field is ripe for advances.

Colorful representations of sequenced genomes adorn the walls at JCVI.

You may wonder how a researcher can view and understand a particular bacterial genome. On their own, they cannot. Progress in genetics is a group effort, and requires partnering with one of the handful of heavyweight institutions in the world that have developed resources allowing for genome interpretation. Several such institutions exist in the US. The NIH has bacterial protein sequencing tools at its disposal. The Broad Institute at MIT as well as the Washington University Genome Sequencing Center have also developed tools that allow for genome sequencing.

Many would argue though that the Institution most on the bleeding edge when it comes to genome sequencing technology is the J. Craig Venter Institute, formerly known as TIGR. Headed by transformative iconoclast and entrepreneur J. Craig Venter, the Institute is a non-profit research center that was founded in 2006. It has facilities in Rockville, Maryland and La Jolla, California and employs over 400 people, including Nobel laureate Hamilton Smith.

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Note: Much of the information included in this piece was derived from two articles published in the May 28th edition of Nature News, a resource published by the medical journal Nature

Even those of us who live under rocks have heard of the Human Genome Project, a massive international scientific research project the aim of which was to understand the genetic makeup of the human species. Its primary goal was to determine the sequence of chemical base pairs which make up DNA and to identify the approximately 25,000 genes of the human genome from both a physical and functional standpoint.

The goal of the Human Genome Project was to understand the genetic makeup of the human species.

A working draft of the genome was released in 2000 and a complete one in 2003, with further analyses yet to be completed and published. Meanwhile, a parallel project was conducted by the private company Celera Genomics. Most of the sequencing was performed in universities and research centers from the United States, Canada and Great Britain.

Most researchers would agree that the Human Genome Project was launched in order to answer the long-standing question, “Who am I?” The goal was to identify and sequence every single human gene. By doing so, many researchers were certain they would uncover causes for most of the chronic diseases that plague humankind. At the project’s start, scientists were faced with a multitude of unknown sequences to decipher and understand. Surely such sequences would offer up answers to disease, and specific genes would be found that would correlate with specific illnesses. In a Gattaca-like environment, people would then be informed early in life that they had “the gene” for MS or “the gene” for breast cancer. Scientists would work fervently to identify and change the expression of such disease-causing genes, finally developing enough gene therapies to eradicate human disease. The above scenario has an abiding appeal, largely because the idea that our genes dictate our health is so temptingly simplistic.

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In 1997, this engineer from the Detroit area was diagnosed with sarcoidosis and began Autoimmunity Research Foundation’s Marshall Protocol in order to kill the chronic bacteria causing the disease. But suddenly things took a turn for the worse. A rapidly growing tumor was detected in his bladder and a cancer diagnosis was made. Armed with the knowledge that his bladder cancer was an inflammatory disease likely also caused by chronic bacteria, he decided to use the Marshall Protocol to treat his cancer as well. This allowed him to avoid several standard cancer therapies that may actually harm the immune response. Today his sarcoidosis has largely resolved and he’s been cancer free for over a year. Meet Gene Johnson.

Why did you start the Marshall Protocol? How did you hear about the treatment?

In 1997 I was working as an engineering manager for an automotive equipment supplier in the Detroit area. At 56, I was in the best shape of my life and was age group competing in distance running (ran two marathons), biathlon/duathlons (run-bike-run), and state sponsored track and field events. What I was soon to realize was that you can be in excellent physical shape and still not be healthy.

I hadn’t suffered from a cold or flu for years. However, that changed in October when everyone in the office, including myself, became ill with what seemed to be a bad chest cold. It ran its course after about two weeks for everyone except me. I continued to suffer from a bad cough and fatigue. Finally, I went to see a doctor. A chest x-ray showed that I had non-caseating granulomas in the lymph nodes. The presence of the granulomas was later confirmed via mediastinoscopy biopsy and I was officially diagnosed with sarcoidosis. It was a good news/bad news situation. The good news was: “You don’t have cancer”; the bad news was: “You have an idiopathic disease that has no known cause and thus no treatment or cure.” In retrospect, I realize the office flu was just a precipitating event that weakened my immune system to the point where my sarcoidosis finally became apparent.

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