IU on its way to fulfilling a Grand promise

(Bloomington) Herald-Times

An update issued last week indicates Indiana University’s Precision Health Initiative is well on its way to fulfilling its promises.

This is one of IU’s Grand Challenges, in which the university pledged an investment of up to $300 million to address some of the world’s most pressing problems. No problem was too immense for the university to tackle, so this one targeted nothing less than curing a type of cancer and a childhood disease, among other things.

Ambitious, yes. But why place limits on what the university can do for the state and society at large? Why not think big?

About $120 million has gone toward the Precision Health Initiative, which has pledged over a decade to cure one cancer and one childhood disease, as well as develop ways to prevent one chronic illness and one neurodegenerative disease.

In fact, IU is working on three cancers in all.

One of the curative therapies is for triple negative breast cancer and the other for multiple myeloma.

Triple negative breast cancers currently have no targeted therapies for this specific tumor, according to the American Cancer Society.

Multiple myeloma is a cancer of plasma cells, which are found in bone marrow and are an important part of the immune system.

The childhood disease targeted is pediatric sarcoma, another cancer in which malignant cells multiply in soft tissues of the body such as tendons and muscle.

The chronic illness under scrutiny is Type 2 diabetes, once called adult-onset diabetes. It’s a chronic condition that negatively affects the way your body uses sugar (glucose).

The neurodegenerative disease is Alzheimer’s, of which IU researchers hope to slow the progression.

Thirty-three new researchers have been recruited from across the country to work on these challenges.

For Hoosiers who don’t always consider the huge impact of high-level research on their lives, these selections should resonate. Each of these diseases is common, and it’s likely a majority of Hoosiers have been touched by one or more of them.

IU President Michael McRobbie said addressing prevalent health issues was chosen because of IU’s “deep research expertise in each of these diseases through the IU School of Medicine” and other health-related strengths on the Bloomington campus.

“It starts with the idea that we have the right expertise and some of the country’s top researchers in these diseases that we believe will help make these incredible goals a reality,” he said.

The two other Grand Challenges are related to similarly massive issues — preparing for environmental change and addressing the opioid epidemic. They, too, are issues affecting Indiana residents on a regular basis.

This is huge and important work, and well worth the effort and investment.