We were beginning to develop methods to find the causes of ...



Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., the director of the National Institutes of Health who may be best known for leading the Human Genome Project (HGP), gave the commencement address at Southern Methodist University’s 102nd all-University Commencement ceremony Saturday, May 20, 2017. “Many of you know him, as I do, from his books and other writings on his personal faith in God as the foundation of his confidence in the work in discoveries through the scientific method. He’s a great scientist and a great communicator. …”Francis Collins: “…I was particularly attracted to the field of genetics because here is a part of medicine that was digital. There was math here. You could do such with DNA, and that’s what I’ve enjoyed doing ever since. …Collins talked about how he became a medical doctor and a researcher at the University of Michigan. “We were beginning to develop methods to find the causes of human illnesses that had been obscure, and that was an amazing ride. Collins said that in 1992, he was asked to lead the Human Genome Project, and even though his mom didn’t want him to become a federal employee, he disobeyed her. (LAUGHTER) Collins explained how he became project manager of 2,400 scientists in six countries working together on the human genome, and became director of the National Institutes of Health, and “was incredibly privileged to be given that opportunity.” (2009)Collins described himself as the director of the “largest supporter of biomedical research in the world—the National Institute of Health, which we think of as the National Institutes of Hope.” (APPLAUSE) “And I get to preside over this amazing engine of discovery at a time of unbelievable scientific promise. …“Neuroscience is just at an amazing place. We’re going to figure out how the human brain works in the next 10 years, not just in a general way, but in a very specific way. “How do those circuits in your brain do what they’re doing right now? How do you lay down a memory and retrieve it? We’re going to figure that out. “The consequences of that for understanding diseases like autism and schizophrenia, and Alzheimer’s disease are going to be enormous. ...”Collins then talked about ‘regenerative medicine, and how great that would be to regenerate organs. (APPAUSE)Genomics is the future of medicine, according to Collins.It has become “an opportunity to take apart the causes of illness across many different kinds of categories, and puts us in a position where all of us can pretty soon be able to take advantage of that in planning our own health care maintenance and managing any illness that come along, moving away from one-size-fits-all medicine to something that’s about the individual, which we now call ‘precision medicine.’ ….“And later this year, if you’re interested in becoming part of a national experiment in how to use that information in the best possible way, you can sign up for a program called All Of Us. All Of Us will ask a million Americans to take part in a long term study of how studies of environment and inheritance can teach us what really are the causes of illness and what to do about it. And that’s something that we’ve never had the boldness to try before, and we’re going to do it! And we’re going to see what we can learn. …”THIS WAS COLLIN’S ADVICE TO THE GRADUATES“First of all … you all are going to need to be prepared for dramatic change. …Whatever the field is that you are in, you’re not going to be able to quite imagine what it looks like in 10 or 20 years, I promise you that. …”Collins predicted that everyone in the room would eventually have their genome sequenced “Be prepared for dramatic change. Don’t fight it off. Embrace it. … “Second point, your path is not always going to be smooth.” Collins related how twenty years ago, a graduate student in his own laboratory had “actually been fabricating data. He knew what the answer ought to be to an experiment, and when it didn’t quite work, he made it look like it did. This had gone on for many months. …It resulted in the need for a very public disclosure, a front page story in the New York Times, a retraction of multiple papers that had data in it that we could not verify. For a scientist to be in the midst of a circumstance where you’re responsible for something that was not true, and not true just because you misinterpreted the data, but because you made it up, is about the lowest point that one can have. “And that for me was a learning experience about how never to be so confident in yourself that you’re really sure of anything around you. You have to be a skeptic, but you also have to take responsibility. And we did, and that led to, I think, an opportunity to educate a lot of other scientists about how easy it is for these things to happen. I was very public about it at the time as I’m not being with you.”Collins predicted that “tragedies will happen in your life.” He talked about premature aging, which has a genetic cause, and he said he’s determined to find a cure for the disease. Collins’s third point: “Clarify, all of you, your definition of success.” Collins suggested that the graduates read the book, Road to Character, by David Brooks. Instead of accomplishments, they should be focused on their character. There is much too much focus on our resumes. “Character has to be built on some foundation. What’s your world view? …What is your why?”Collins related how he once believed that all truth could be explained through science. Then when treating the dying, he was faced with the question, “Doctor, what do you believe?” “And I was shocked to find out that in fact that the evidence in favor in the existence of God is a lot more compelling than the evidence against.”According to Collins, atheism is the “least defensible” position. He talked about his “path to a richly satisfying faith.” God helped him see that “science could actually be a form of worship.”Collins said that “God could actually be found in the laboratory.” During a missionary visit to Nigeria, Collins was awakened to the importance of agape love between individuals. Finally, Collins reminded the graduates to have fun, and he broke into song. ................
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