Stephen Davies Update

[ineedmyelin]

Post #562 on 1/15/2009. The last constructive post by Davies. This was nearly 3 years ago. Safe to say he's not going to provide any information to the constituents that funded part of his research.

I vote to close.

I second that emotion.

Dr Davies and decorin = cushy job, excellent salary, years and years of job security thru endless research like MP.

Dr. Young and the meager-est of shoe string budgets has trials well under way.

[eks]

CONGRATULATION Schmeky!!
It must feel awesome! Vindication! Your campaign to discredit Dr. Davis & punish him for duping us poor crips has paid off! That sticky that ate at you, that taunted you day and night will now fade away into obscurity. We've been saved! You're such a hero man. I hope you can finally begin to heal from the deep mental anguish it caused you. So brave.

[Schmeky]

eks,

Not at all. SCI research dollars are precious. I would hate to see a newly injured person, with limited resources, donate to a dead end.

[Charles Hansen]

Wow, what is it with this thread that inspires such hatred?

I second that emotion.

Dr Davies and decorin = cushy job, excellent salary, years and years of job security thru endless research like MP.

Uhh...

Not quite. Dr. Davies was "headhunted" from Baylor when the Anschutz family (a very rich Colorado family) chose to make their legacy with a very large donation to the University of Colorado Medical Center (CUMC, with the first two letters transposed so as not to be confused with the University of California).. The CUMC did all sorts of things with this money, such as building a first rate research/teaching hospital. Other things they did were to hire people that they felt would make a name for the CUMC, including Dr. Davies.

He was given a nice lab with nice equipment, but nothing extravagant. Schmeky has been there. He can tell you that it is probably a few thousand square feet. There are about 10 or 12 people working there, mostly grad students along with a few volunteers. His office is smaller than mine, about 8' x 10'. It does have a nice view on the corner of the 9th floor. I can't say how he came to get the corner office, but he doesn't strike me as the kind of guy that would make that a part of the negotiation package.

He received enough seed money to operate for about two years before he would have to go knocking on doors with his grant applications in hand. He tells me that roughly half of his time is spent trying to raise money to keep the lab going. That's "cushy"???

Dr. Young and the meager-est of shoe string budgets has trials well under way.

"Meagerest of shoe string budgets? Have you seen the budget for Dr. Young's lab and compared it with Dr. Davies' lab? I didn't think so.

For starters, why don't you ask Dr. Young how much money his lab receives from this website? Please note that I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with this website. Quite the opposite. It is a very valuable tool for thousands of people with SCI's.

But just like eBay was in the right place at the right time and dominates that market, Care Cure was in the right place at the right time and dominates its market. Go ahead, ask Dr. Young how much this forum generates for Rutgers.

And while you're at it, why don't you ask what results have been achieved with these trials? A friend just sen an e-mail a couple of days ago that a team of researchers in Switzerland injected 20 million human stem cells at the site of the injury. The result? Two of the people regained sensation from their chest down to their navel. A third patient reported no gains of any sort.

Personally, I am not really interested in regaining feeling down to my belly button. I want to walk again. I want to pee again. I would love to even poop again, but a bout with food poisoning left me with an ilesostomy, so that is not in the cards. Buy hey, I could definitely go for some sex again. These experiments are mildly interesting but that's about it, at least for me.

eks,

Not at all. SCI research dollars are precious. I would hate to see a newly injured person, with limited resources, donate to a dead end.

And so Schmeky, are you now able to tell us which treatments will lead to a cure and which treatments are just dead ends? Because if that is the case, the NIH should put you in charge of allocating the funds for SCI research.

[quadfather]

But just like eBay was in the right place at the right time and dominates that market, Care Cure was in the right place at the right time and dominates its market. Go ahead, ask Dr. Young how much this forum generates for Rutgers.

Charles,

Just as you claim others here are speaking from a limited base of knowledge, your statement above proves that you are doing the same.

CareCure was not "in the right place at the right time". It began as SpineWire, then became CanDo. Tons of great content were lost when those sites went bust (in the dotcom heyday, no less). Look at the insane amount of invaluable content is here, for free, with no strings. There are 1,001 ways to promote, market, solicit for funds. That is not the intent behind CareCure.

[quadfather]

CONGRATULATION Schmeky!!
It must feel awesome! Vindication! Your campaign to discredit Dr. Davis & punish him for duping us poor crips has paid off! That sticky that ate at you, that taunted you day and night will now fade away into obscurity. We've been saved! You're such a hero man. I hope you can finally begin to heal from the deep mental anguish it caused you. So brave.

eks,

You must be a delight to spend time with.

[ineedmyelin]

Wow, what is it with this thread that inspires such hatred?



Uhh...

Not quite. Dr. Davies was "headhunted" from Baylor when the Anschutz family (a very rich Colorado family) chose to make their legacy with a very large donation to the University of Colorado Medical Center (CUMC, with the first two letters transposed so as not to be confused with the University of California)..

I dont hate dr davies, i'm just very disappointed in him and have stopped donating to his lab.

Fact is Dr Young has trials underway and this Nov we will know more about the patients that were injected. dr davies will still be in his 8' x 10', corner office doing research. Dr Youngs findings (good, bad, indifferent) will add to a ever growing knowledge base. This will allow Dr Young to continue with his current trials or move on to different type of trial.

Even Geron went from just lab research and into human trials, unfortunately they stopped the trials but will still monitor the trial participants. dr davies is still in his 8' x 10', corner office doing research.

StemCells Inc. came onto the scene, announced and started their trials and just this week announced some preliminary findings. dr davies is still in his 8' x 10' corner office doing research.

To each his own but I dont see dr davies moving his research out of the lab and into human trials any time soon.

I hope Dr Silver doesn't get stuck in an endless cycle of research on chase. As i understand it, chase has been around for quit a while and reasonably very well understood in its many forms. Between Dr Silvers "chase" and "pten" research it want be long til decorin becomes obsolete. I hope Dr Silvers starts trials within next year. I'm sure dr davies will still be in his 8' x 10' corner office doing research.

Miami project, well what can you say ................... millions and millions thru decades of donations, fund raisers and where are? Schwan cells, really, now they've been leap frogged by StemCells Inc.

I understand stand very well that todays discovery just cant be injected into a human being overnight. I respect a scientist that isnt reckless and does everything to prove safety before moving to human trials. The scientists that continue to dot the "i" and cross the "t" over and over and over again with no reasonable updates much less a timeline as far as when human trials may start. I would love to be very wrong about dr davies.

[Charles Hansen]

Just as you claim others here are speaking from a limited base of knowledge, your statement above proves that you are doing the same.

CareCure was not "in the right place at the right time". It began as SpineWire, then became CanDo. Tons of great content were lost when those sites went bust (in the dotcom heyday, no less). Look at the insane amount of invaluable content is here, for free, with no strings. There are 1,001 ways to promote, market, solicit for funds. That is not the intent behind CareCure.

You are right that I know nothing about what went on ten and twenty years ago. I was injured six years ago and only discovered CareCure about four years ago.

I agree that there is an insane amount of valuable content here and that it is free.

All I asked is how much money does Rutgers received from donations to CareCure. So far, nobody seems to care enough to give an answer. But when someone starts some sob story about Dr. Young doing wonderful research with the "most meager of shoe-string budgets", I don't buy it. I would bet that quite a lot of money comes in through CareCure every year. How is it allocated? I've no idea. But I would be very surprised if Dr. Young didn't receive a substantial portion of it, and probably much more than Dr. Davies receives from his grants and other fund raising.

But none of that really matters. What we all want is a cure. And the thing that I don't understand is that the people posting on this forum seem far more interested in human testing with near zero results than in testing on animals with outstanding results.

Maybe the animal results simply won't translate to humans. Or maybe some researchers are going to conduct primate studies before moving from rats to humans. I certainly don't have the answers.

But all of the people here pissing on Dr. Davies for whatever perceived shortcomings they come up with isn't going to do a bit of good to get anyone out of our chairs. The only way that it could would be if Dr. Davies was receiving a disproportionately large share of all of the funding monies and wasting it on fast cars and loose women, while the truly dedicated researchers couldn't get any funding because all the money was going to Dr. Davies.

I am pretty sure that this is not the case.

[Charles Hansen]

eks,
You must be a delight to spend time with.

When I first was injured, a good friend of mine who is a professional "life coach" of sorts said that I had to keep in mind two things:

1) You're f_cked.

2) You need to develop a new way to relate to your sons (7 and 10 at the time).

That was probably the best and most honest advice I have ever received from anybody regarding my SCI.

Eks seems to realize the absurd reality of the situation we're in and strives to make light of it. Schmeky seems to be on some vendetta for reasons that escape me.

So yes, when it comes down to it, I think spending time with Eks would be delightful. Schmeky, I'm not so sure about.

[Christopher Paddon]

I think a lot of what you say makes sense only I'm not sure you can tell from someone's posts whether you'd like to spend time with them. I know your remark was tongue in cheek but I thought I'd make the point anyway.

[Schmeky]

Mr Hansen,

I have nothing against you, however, you remind me of the people that believe auto related fatalities are the fault of autos. The person responsible for the demise and eventual fading into obscurity of this thread has little to do with me. I have no clout.

That rests squarely on someone's else's shoulders. If this community does not hold researchers accountable, who then, the researchers themselves?

That's all I have to say about this.

[Scaper1]

Wow, what is it with this thread that inspires such hatred?

...

And while you're at it, why don't you ask what results have been achieved with these trials?These experiments are mildly interesting but that's about it, at least for me.

Maybe if you bothered to read anything here other than this thread you could answer both your questions.

[Buck503]

That rests squarely on someone's else's shoulders. If this community does not hold researchers accountable, who then, the researchers themselves?

That's all I have to say about this.

I appreciate the effort you put into holding them accountable.
When I joined this forum, I thought you were too hard on some
of the researchers. How wrong I was.

I don't have an opinion of Davies because I don't think he's
sapping any significant amount of resources from promising
research. He can do whatever he does for an eternity, as
far as I'm concerned.

[JenJen]

Mr Hansen,

I have nothing against you, however, you remind me of the people that believe auto related fatalities are the fault of autos. The person responsible for the demise and eventual fading into obscurity of this thread has little to do with me. I have no clout.

That rests squarely on someone's else's shoulders. If this community does not hold researchers accountable, who then, the researchers themselves?

That's all I have to say about this.

Thank you my friend.

As a community we have to admit there are some charismatic researchers who disappoint us in the end. Some are well-intentioned and sincere and their theories simply do not pan out. Some are snake oil salesman. It's important that we ask hard questions, hold those responsible accountable and LISTEN critically. As a community, we need to allow room for hard questions without falling on each other and tearing each other apart.

[Charles Hansen]

I have nothing against you, however, you remind me of the people that believe auto related fatalities are the fault of autos. The person responsible for the demise and eventual fading into obscurity of this thread has little to do with me. I have no clout.

Hi Schmeky,

I think you must have confused with some other poster. I simply said that I thought that there are other people that would be more enjoyable to spend time with than you. But I could be wrong -- I often am. Your avatar with the naked sunbather is amusing, but so is Eks' pun about his magnificent "coq" (French for rooster).