Science
Related: About this forumCharting Her Own Course - Elizabeth Blackburn
SAN FRANCISCO Scientists are trained to be skeptics, and Elizabeth H. Blackburn considers herself one of the biggest. Show her the data, and be ready to defend it.
But even though she relishes the give and take, Dr. Blackburn admits to impatience at times with the questions some scientists have raised about one of her ventures.
Its just such a no-brainer, and yet people have such difficulty understanding it, she said.
At issue is a lab test that measures telomeres, stretches of DNA that cap the ends of chromosomes and help keep cells from aging too soon. Unusually short telomeres may be a sign of illness, and Dr. Blackburn, who shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in medicine for her work on telomeres (TEEL-o-meers), thinks measuring them could give doctors and patients a chance to intervene early and maybe even prevent disease. A company she helped found expects to begin offering tests to the public later this year.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/09/science/elizabeth-blackburn-molecular-biologist-charts-her-own-course.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130409
phantom power
(25,966 posts)That is a completely separate issue from telomere research, which is very fruitful.
But as a medical business... she's proposing that I pay for an expensive test that -- if it tells me I've got short telomeres -- puts this vague negative cloud over me, and yet tells me exactly nothing about what, if anything, might be wrong.
My immediate reaction was "here's a thing that insurance companies will latch on to as a way to jack up people's premiums or deny them coverage, but that won't provide any tangible medical benefit to actual patients"
groovedaddy
(6,229 posts)SoLeftIAmRight
(4,883 posts)Talks about way to increase the length of your telomeres.
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