We all are excited and anxious for the clinical trials to begin as
soon as possible. As a person who has lived with type 1 for more than
10 years and whose mother has lived with type 1 most of her life, I
too wish the trials could begin as soon as possible.

However, Drs. Faustman and Nathan must do their due dilligence as
researchers before they begin the human clinical trials. As I'm sure
you know, curing NOD mice is very different from curing humans. Do
you want people with type 1 -- especially children, who already must
deal with this horrendous disease -- to be involved with a clinical
trial that is not well planned or executed? There are good reasons
why FDA has standards and structures in place governing human
clinical trials, and our inpatience is not a reason to jump over
them.

As you mention, the automation process takes time (and money), but it
is necessary before starting the work in humans. Dr. Faustman has
been extremely busy creating the blood assay and working with the
mice WITHOUT the automation -- imagine how hard it would be to handle
large numbers of humans in clinical trials without that automation!
When I donated to her lab, she could only do something like 2 blood
draws a day because they didn't have the staff to process the
samples. Automation will make processing larger quantities of blood
possible. In addition, you know that not only the community of people
with diabetes, but also the autoimmune community if not the whole
world, will be waiting with baited breath for every report of
progress in the clinical trial, and the automation will help that
along.

I know I and many others are thankful that we heard of Dr. Faustman's
research when we did -- even though it was not as early as you in
2001 -- because knowing that it is progressing (even at a slower pace
than we all would like), gives us hope. I'm going to have diabetes
until 2008 whether I like it or not. At least now, I can have some
hope for a cure until then, and I have more motivation to take good
care of myself and my blood sugars so that I can be in great shape to
see the day when I can be cured.

Dr. Faustman's research has made a lot of progress since 2001, and I
am confident that her team has used every minute of that time as
effectively as they could. For that, and for what she is working to
do, I think she deserves our gratitude and praise, not bitterness
that it didn't come sooner.

Jenny Haliski
Moderator, NathanFaustmanTrials
JoinLeeNow Captain, Washington, D.C.

--- In nathanfaustmantrials@yahoogroups.com, "stilltypeone"
<stilltypeone@...> wrote:
>
> I can't believe trials won't begin until 2008, what?
> I first contacted Dr. Faustman in July of 2001, shortly after her
> publication in the JCI. At that time she was hopeful that human
> clinical trials would begin in 2003! Obviously that did not
happen.
> Here we are in 2006, and now clinical trials won't begin until
2008!
> Why?
> Some have said that it is because the "automation process" needs to
be
> developed. My response to that is, she "cured" over 250 mice
WITHOUT
> the "automation" equipment. Can she not test her theory without
this
> equipment?
> Is her goal to develop automation equipment used to count bad t-
cells,
> or to cure disease?
> I am sorry and ashamed that I ever contributed my hard earned
dollars
> to this work.
>