Loma Linda University - Priorities Yearbook (Loma Linda, CA)

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RESEARCH he Institute of Experimental Medicine is the formal department in the clinical division which deals exclusively in research problems. The Institute is directed by Robert E. Hoyt, Ph.D., Milton Gielhaug Levine, Ph.D., and a small corps of research techni- cians complete the full-time staff. A research com- mittee studies recommendations for proiects and de- cides which are likely to be most fruitful considering equipment and funds available. The Institute is housed in the ground floor of the clinical laboratory building. lt possesses the major and expensive research equipment owned by the College and makes it available to other staff members for their studies. Pride of the department is the new elec- tron microscope. Considerable time has been needed to learn the techniques of use and interpretation. One of the proiects in the otfing is the study of bacterial morphology, especially of the relation of the capsule to virulence. A laboratory for study of virus diseases is planned which will be dependent on use of the electron microscope. Recent work has developed a method for arriving at quantitative prothrombin values in the blood. A method for determining pregnancy in humans by ovulation in the South African toad, Xenopus laevus, has been studied and found to have several ad- vantages over the conventional Friedman test in rab- bits, including earlier reading of the test and re-use of the animals. Several papers have been published Hoyt und Levine at the electron microscope. Most work is done by photomicrography Technician Helen Turner prepares o specimen for examination under the electron microscope

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ff-it 1 'i l work easier and more successful, and adds years to his own life as well. And if he is a patient, bringing great gift or small, he at once thanks those who have worked to make him well and seeks to lessen the suffering of those for whom he has come to feel new sympathy. If he is a parent, he protects the future of his children against the terrors which have beset him. And all of this makes business sense. The research scientist is by common knowledge an unselfish person whose devotion is such that he asks only to be fed and clothed in return for the vast treasures he dis- covers. What the giver buys is truly priceless, for the cost is in no way commensurate with its value. The fashion for some time has been to grant funds for specific proiects, the giver thereby deciding what is important in science and medicine, or which path . 3 - 2 l . t Virgil O. Parrett, M.D., in the tiny Papanicolaou laboratory shows radiology resident Paul Freeman a vaginal smear which picked up an early carcinoma of the cervix is likely to lead to a reward. This interest in direct results is understandable and the motive excellent. And yet the giver may thereby seriously limit the use- fulness of his money. For answers to specific questions are often found in the study of general problems. Each of the many byways and diversions revealed in pure research may be more rewarding than a round dozen answers to apparently urgent single questions. Pure research as we use it here refers to curiosity followed by an adventurous man. Pure research is uninhibited by prohibitions and is disinterested in the answers. It is as different in its results from special research' as dawn is from the accidental crisscross of many flashlights. Instead of a confusing iumble of iso- lated important and unimportant obiects all equally brilliant and totally unrelated, we have the gradual illumination of a whole field in which landmarks be- come visible and their relations to one another and to the less import-ant obiects become clearer. Into such a morning, medicine advancing slowly and cautiously, perhaps stumbling occasionally, may go with courage, for pitfalls are discovered and the main road certain. Progress in medicine is the child of progress in all sciences. Progress in medicine is the work of all ele- ments in a civilization and will be no more vigorous than the civilization. The scientist devotes himself to the clearest thinking and the most intense application of which he is capable. The citizen contributes tools and frees the scientist from the pursuit of food and shelter to follow the more exacting pursuit of knowl- edge. T15

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'a F . 'si Be ,v .Hr V. 3 1 . QE' , . Alf ta-streptococci, about 25,000 diameters enlarged. Standard microscopes are limited to about IOOOX Hemophilus influenzae, about 2'I,000X by department workers. Work continues on projects already underway. Apart from the Institute, individual stat? members who desire to work on research projects are given grants for supplies, equipment, and technical labor by the College or by the Alumni Research Foundation. The magazine Life and Health has donated 525,000 to be administered by the College for research work. In Loma Linda several staff members including Ola K. Gant, Ph.D., Lawrence Ashley, Ph.D., and Mervyn G. Hardinge, M.D., are working on problems. Ray- mond A. Mortenson, Ph.D., is continuing his work with tracer elements and the Geiger counter. ln Los Angeles at the Hunterian Laboratory, Harry Davis, M.D., is supervising experimental animal surg- ery. Roger Barnes, M.D., and R. T. Bergman, M.D., are studying methods of ureteral transplantation. George Johnstone, M.D., is continuing his thoracic surgery on calves in his attempts to find methods of developing collateral circulation of the coronary vessels. Lester Morrison, M.D., has been provided with a laboratory at the Los Angeles County General Hospital and has been granted funds to study cholesterol metab- olism. Other workers are being similarly aided. Students and faculty members take considerable pride in the work of the Institute and of those studying independently of it. All of us are anxious to see this early flowering increase so that CME can do its share to advance medical knowledge. Ni 117