The National Institute of Health wants to know if you want Down syndrome research funding

The NIH has decided to gather info (Request for Information or RFI) regarding an interest in Ds research, data base and bio bank.  They want to receive responses by April 1, 2011, in order to decide if there is enough interest to move in that direction.  We feel this is clearly a move in the right direction and would love for you to send your email of support.  You can write your own or simply modify the wording in the first sentence....As a friend(uncle, relative, etc) of a child with Down syndrome who has five siblings, .....  

FYI, the majority of individuals with Ds start with Alzheimer-like symptoms in their 40s.  This will dramatically impact the entire family and there is currently a human clinical trial being conducted on just this topic.  Of course the majority of funding is through private donations, so to have the support of NIH in funding Ds research more fairly (currently Ds is the most common genetic chromosomal abnormality, yet it is funded by far the lowest) hopefully more breakthroughs will be found to improve cognition and delay the later loss.

 If you do write an email please send to:   dsrdrfi@mail.nih.gov and cc: nihresponse@globaldownsyndrome.org   with subject:  RESPONSE TO NIH DOWN SYNDROME RESEARCH DATABASE & BIOBANK RFI

Please pass along to anyone else who may be willing to send an email. 

Down syndrome may cure cancer

Yes, that is what I said. Read this post at Vive Christus Rex about what researchers at Boston Children's Hospital have done.
"Dr. Sandra Ryeom and colleagues at Children's Hospital Boston discovered that at least two proteins found in the extra 21 chromosome of Down syndrome could be instrumental in fighting Cancer."
She states on her website,
"One of the major projects in my lab has been to understand the role of a specific gene, the Down syndrome candidate region-1 gene or DSCR1, in protecting individuals with Down syndrome from cancer. This past year, we have used mouse models to validate our hypothesis that three copies of the DSCR1 gene, as is found in Down syndrome individuals with 3 copies of genes located on chromosome 21, does in fact help suppress the growth of tumors. Using transgenic mouse models and molecular and cell biological techniques, we also now know that DSCR1 blocks the formation of blood vessels (angiogenesis) that would nourish the cancer cells allowing them to grow into large tumors. Therefore, the extra copy of DSCR1 acts to prevent tumor growth in Down syndrome individuals. We are currently focusing on determining whether the DSCR1 gene product can be used as a therapeutic option to prevent tumor growth in the non-Down syndrome population."
Dr Roger Reeves who is also researching with the mouse model of Down syndrome at Johns Hopkins has known this for some time. He alluded to this at his talk for NDSS at NYU this summer.
Here is a summary of his presentation from the NDSS website.
As part of the inaugural event of the National Down Syndrome Society's Education Series, Dr. Roger Reeves spoke on the topic of 'New Frontiers of Down Syndrome Research.' Dr. Roger Reeves is Professor in the Department of Physiology and a Core Faculty Member of the McKusick-Nathans Institute for Genetic Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He earned his B.S. from Bowling Green State University in Ohio and his Ph.D. at University of Maryland, doing his thesis research at the National Cancer Institute. He went to Hopkins as a post-doctoral fellow in 1983 and began working on gene expression in Down syndrome almost immediately. He is noted for his contributions to the study of gene dosage effects using animal models to understand pathogenesis and human genetic studies to identify genetic modifiers that contribute to more or less severe presentation of Down syndrome. His laboratory is studying a possible therapeutic approach for DS features that occur in the brain. He recently discovered the basis for the reduced frequency of solid tumors in people with trisomy 21 and is using a pharmacologic approach based on this observation to reduce cancer incidence in all people.

Add this to the growing list of reasons why the 90% abortion rate of our beautiful children is an international tragedy. Perhaps God would have given us a cure for cancer much sooner if we had taken them seriously enough to let them live, and do this research to save their lives decades ago. When will the National Institute of Health give these researchers a fair share of it's funding to continue these projects which have the potential to help large populations?
Rep Cathy McMorris Rodgers was with the Congressional Down Syndrome Caucus, pressuring the NIH to give some of it's stimulus package funding to such worthy projects.

My first article in the National Catholic Register

Is a compiliation of the latest research being done for treatment of Trisomy 21 or Down sydnrome. I also mention the crucial discovery of the cause of Trisomy 21 by my patron saint, Dr. Jerome Lejeune. It's entitled, Down, Not Out.

Would you like to participate in research regarding opinion about disabilities?

Go to my post over at Cause of Our Joy to read about the research and sign up.

Sam Brownback obtains the Right kind of stem cell funding!

Kansas senator and Republican presidential candidate Sam Brownback recently voted against the 2008 spending bill for the departments of Labor, Health and Education because the measure has a provision that would overturn President Bush’s limits on funding new embryonic stem cell research. However, Brownback was successful in getting language in the bill funding an institute that conducts research using adult stem cells. Brownback successfully got language for a $500,000 grant to S. 1710 for the Midwest Institute for Comparative Stem Cell Biology. The institute is part of Kansas State University and primary looks at stem cells from human and animal umbilical cord blood. It has shown promise in experiments as treatments for Parkinson’s and breast cancer, said institute co-founder Mark Weiss, according to a CQ report. The earmark would double the institute’s funding, Weiss said. “That would be awesome if we could get some federal support. We’ve really been inching along here and that would help us take it to the next level.”
President Bush has promised to veto any Congressional spending bull that overturns his limits on taxpayer funding of abortion or embryonic stem cell research
LifeNews.com