%0 Journal Article
%T A model worth considering?
%A Gregory A Petsko
%J Genome Biology
%D 2006
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/gb-2006-7-12-121
%X Based on his track record, it might be unwise to bet against him. Multiple sclerosis didn't prevent him from a successful business career with the Boston Consulting Group and several Silicon Valley startups. That wouldn't make him the first businessman who thought he could apply the principles of corporate management to a new area (government is a favorite one), not by any means. But Mr Johnson doesn't want to run a state, or even a city. He wants to change the way cures for diseases are found.In 2003 he left business to start the Myelin Repair Foundation. The origins and progression of multiple sclerosis, which is thought to be an autoimmune disease, are mysterious and unpredictable, but the hallmark of the disease is the destruction of the myelin sheath that surrounds the axons of nerve fibers of the central nervous system. The resulting scar tissue (sclerosis) gives the disease its name. When Scott Johnson heard about myelin, he decided that the fastest route to a cure for multiple sclerosis was not to focus on the causes of the disease but rather to find a way to repair the damaged myelin. Hence the name of his foundation, and its goal.Having decided that, the question then became how best to get there. Johnson looked at existing models for what is now often called translational research and decided that none of them was very efficient. "In traditional medical research, numerous individual scientists work in relative isolation, often in competition, focused on their specific field of expertise. With little or no collaboration, discoveries are transferred by publication, resulting in sequential investigations and greatly expanding the length of time necessary for validation and translation to further drug development and clinical trials," he says. He came up with a different model.The Myelin Repair Foundation set about finding a way to accelerate the basic science necessary to achieve its goal of licensing at least one myelin repair drug target by 2009 that would
%U http://genomebiology.com/2006/7/12/121