I've reaped the rewards of years of hard work this month by speaking at a congressional briefing and attending the Udall centers meeting followed closely by the PDF 50th anniversary symposium. In the last 3 weeks I've listened to the top researchers in the country and also in person to Braak. Two members of pipeline are attending the FOX scientific symposium, a first, and two of us are attending the FOX round table in Cleveland next week.

I would never discourage anyone from trying something but will be very surprised if it turns out to be something just out of line in our skeleton.

Baby boomers are the "chemical generations". We have been exposed to everything under the sun plus we experimented ourselves. We are all different. And, to quote Braak, we are always changing, we are dynamic. Rats and monkeys are different. If I were to pick five words that dominate the research right now they'd be[my opinion]:

alpha synuclein
genetics
non-motor symptoms
parkinson models
parkinson biomarkers

There is no cure in sight. Gene therapy researchers are working hard at it. We can all help ourselves by watching who does what research and always question if it is necessary. The body is like the Bible. the more you learn, the more you realize you don't know.

I 'm going to leave the stem cell advocacy to others as it's too big a battle and the money isn't in it either yet. I think adult cell companies like Brainstorm or Dr. Cady at Bradley U. in Illinois - people who are getting adult cells to act like neurons and even produce GDNF should be strongly supported, not because of the moral issue, but because it is now just starting to look a little promising and should be heavily funded. The "list" of suggested adult and cord cell treatments was a lie. But the recent research does show some promise.

I think other groups and illnesses will press on for what they need - such as spinal cord injuries. But, personally, I'm going to stick to monitoring the research, watching the clinical trials, and creating a new paradigm that will change the face of medical care permanently.

If we just communicate with the medical research community, share information and work as a team.....Guaranteed, we'll do better at teamwork than our incompetent congressmen who are unable to negotiate their way out of a paper bag.

I'm not saying the battle over cells should not be continued. I just dont have time to concentrate on something that is a very long way off. The more they learn about cells, the more they realize how complicated they are.

But. as Dr. Ole Isaacson says, you need to have cells to be able to be cured or treated.

Our generations got screwed. GDNF would have done it until something better came along. Same old song. I am seriously thinking of having my permanent resting site engraved with, "I told you so- you a--h----".

Hmmm, anger, emotion - must be the steroids in the epidureal shots I just got.That and watching the DVD of Transformers that just came out for two days. It's a cool movie!