Penny Dacks

Why I celebrate science…

For Frances Letts, my grandma, lost to dementia.

For Pamela Bunte, my sister-in-laws mother, lost to multiple systems atrophy.

For Rocky Hoff, my best friend’s father, lost to frontotemporal dementia.

For Toby Levy, my husband’s grandmother, lost to vascular dementia.

For Marina Cholanian, a friend and brilliant neuroscientist who happens to have epilepsy.

Years ago, I decided to dedicate my career to science because medicine still had too little to offer these people. There are so many unanswered questions and we need the answers to conquer these diseases. And we can conquer these diseases. After 6 years of PhD training, 1 year of postdoctoral training, 5 years at the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, and now at the American Epilepsy Society, I am intimately aware of the frustrations, challenges, and roadblocks on the paths to cures.

We can conquer these diseases if we work together and strive to be better. Government-funded scientists cannot do it alone, often lacking the training and resources to take a discovery all the way to the clinic. Industry scientists cannot do it alone, lacking the incentive to invest in high-risk innovation, particularly for those cures that cannot promise large profits. There are ways to improve the system to make the research more efficient and effective. The scientists that I have met along my journey have a commitment to helping patients and to seeking truth that gives me hope and courage. And when I kiss my children goodnight, I do so with the knowledge that one day, when it is their time to grow old, medicine will have answers for them. I will not give up.

Penny Dacks
Morgantown, West Virginia