The best things in life aren’t free. Example? Research. It takes time, equipment and brilliant minds to come up with solutions. But it eventually pays off. Detecting cancer used to be by a, “Do you feel something?” method. Leprosy was a one-way ticket to far-away-and-not-so-nice destinations. For years people were terrified to go to pools because of polio.
Because of research, machines have been created to detect the smallest sign of cancer in the breast. Leprosy is a ghoulish memory of the past. And thanks to research, polio is almost as rare as smallpox. Oh, smallpox has almost been officially eradicated thanks to research. Forgot to mention that.
But again these success stories didn’t happen by accident. It took money to fund the effort. That’s why Emy Lou and Jerry Baldridge need a big old thank-you note. They just presented a $1-million gift to support Children’s Medical Center Research Institute, a joint venture between Children’s Medical Center and UT Southwestern Medical Center to “make significant improvements in children’s lives.” It’s the largest donation to the not-for-profit pediatric hospital.
Dr. Sean Morrison
Dr. Sean Morrison, director of the Children’s Research Institute explained the goal of the Institute is to discover the therapies of tomorrow for children.
“We will take innovative approaches to make transformative discoveries — discoveries that will change scientific fields and yield new approaches for treating disease. We will integrate teams of leading scientists and outstanding physicians whose skills are rarely found in a single laboratory.”
According to Emy Lou, “When we heard about what the Children’s Research Institute could accomplish, the potential there seemed so great that we felt compelled to donate and say, ‘Go for it.’”
The hope for the program is to eventually “lead to new ways of promoting the regeneration of damaged tissues, and even to more effective ways of treating cancer.”
Photo courtesy of Children's Medical Center Research Institute
