Bleeding for HIV research

I got an email from a friend yesterday asking for some of my blood to use in growing a stock of HIV (I don't have HIV, but the virus needs white blood cells to use as "food" to grow in the lab). This is not the kind of email you get everyday, but it is one of the things I enjoy about being in medical research: opportunities to participate in research at both ends of the spectrum, as both a scientist/health professional and as a patient/study subject. I recently went to a lecture and had lunch with Dr. Barry Marshall, winner of this year's Nobel Prize in medicine. He drank a culture of H. pylori bacteria to show that it was involved in causing stomach ulcers. One of my professors, Dr. Ellen Vitetta was among the first volunteers to receive the polio vaccine as a child, and she is now developing vaccines of her own to protect against ricin toxin (a study which I participated in as a volunteer). Craig Venter used his own DNA in Celera's sequencing of the human genome. The Nurses' Health Study has identified many of the dietary and lifestyle risk factors for developing cancer, heart disease, and other chronic conditions in women. All of these are examples of healthcare providers engaged in a kind of "research solidarity" with patients. The general public, however, plays the most vital role in medical research. They do this by supporting research financially through taxes and charitable contributions, as well as physically by serving as volunteers in clinical trials. For information about finding a clinical trial you can be involved with in your area, check out www.clinicaltrials.gov

social networks

I finally got around to setting up a myspace account yesterday. I had heard about friendster and xanga and had set up profiles with orkut (taken over by Brazilians, and some Iranians), hi5 (lots of porn solicitation), and facebook (my school not represented), but didn't really get much out of it, so I was reluctant to mess with yet another social networking site. I think I might actually get some use out of this one because there are lots of people there that I actually know in the real world and there is a critical mass of users across a relatively broad range of social groups (although not very many over age 30). This critical mass idea is eloquently elaborated in The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. Gladwell identifies "connectors", "mavens", and "salesmen" as serving unique roles in social networks. It would be cool if there was a feature that let you look at your myspace network topology. A great book on network topology is Linked by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi. This book introduced me to the work of Mark Granovetter and the "strength of weak ties" as well as elaborated on the science of "six degrees of Kevin Bacon". Incidentally, some of my coworkers were playing this today and said they heard Osama bin Laden could be linked to Kevin Bacon perhaps via earlier interviews with western journalists. If anyone can confirm this I'd love to hear about it!