Kevin Kamenetz
Stem Cell Symposium
October 6, 2011
Ladies and Gentlemen, it is a privilege to be here with all of today at the Maryland Stem Cell Symposium. Before I go any further, thanks to Dr. Dan Gincel, Director of the Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund as well as everyone on the Maryland Stem Cell Commission (including Baltimore County’s two members, Dr. Suzanne Ostrand-Rosenberg and Brenda Crabbs) for working to make today’s symposium a reality.
Everyday, names such as Alzheimer’s, cancer, and ALS, inspire fear and dread in neighborhoods across Baltimore County, throughout America, and across the world. These names represent horrifying diseases, many of which have been plaguing humanity for centuries, but for many families they represent something far more simple – the loss of hope.
Many of the medical challenges that face us today seem insurmountable, particularly for those of us who are not doctors or scientists. However, it is incumbent upon us to remember that even when things appear bleakest, we are never without hope. For throughout human history, we have turned to the scientific community and medical professionals to overcome emerging threats to public health. The 17th century scientist and author, Francis Bacon, described the need for innovation in medicine when he wrote, "As the births of living creatures at first are ill shaped, so are all innovations, which are the births of time. Surely every medicine is an innovation, and he that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils, for time is the greatest innovator."
Barely sixty years ago, polio terrorized families across this country. In 1952, this country experienced the worst polio outbreak in its history. Of the 57,600 cases reported that year 3,100 died and 21,200 were left with some form of paralysis. By 1961, less than ten years later, there were only 161 reported cases of polio in the United States. Today, it has been virtually eradicated.
That welcome outcome was not an overnight miracle, but the result of years of hard, painstaking work by innovative scientists who persistently pushed the boundaries of medicine in order to develop a vaccine for a virus that had plagued humanity since the time of ancient Egypt.
Things have changed a great deal since the days that mothers and fathers stayed up at night worrying how to protect their child from exposure to polio. But while many of the challenges that today’s medical and scientific communities face are new, they are also hauntingly familiar. Here and across the world, diseases which we do not fully understand still threaten to destroy lives. And while we have tools and knowledge at our disposal that doctors sixty years ago could hardly have dreamed of, we must retain that same spirit of innovation and determination that drove them.
Stem cell research is one of the most promising avenues of medicine today. Stem cell therapy has the potential to dramatically change the way that we treat human disease.
In 2006, Governor O’Malley established the Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund to promote this burgeoning field of study throughout the state. Baltimore County has been a home to new ideas and innovation throughout our history and we are honored to host to this event at Towson University. Symposia such as these are invaluable opportunities for the brightest minds in our state to gather together and collaborate.
The field of stem cell research is still a relatively young one and there is much that is unknown. As you move forward today, it is fitting that we recall the words of the great Dr. Jonas Salk: "Hope lies in dreams, in imagination, and in the courage of those who dare to make dreams into reality." As we speak, there are countless individuals facing diagnoses that have robbed them and those that love them of hope. Continue your research and use your imagination and your courage to restore their hope, and make their dreams a reality.
