What field would you study for PFS research?

General Discussion
#1

During trying times, I like to think about how I could change my life to help others going through my same plights.

I was just thinking, hypothetically, what would i need to do to change my career to be something that could help pfs sufferers. If this is something that we are all still going through years down the road, then we will definitely need medical specialists that are sympathetic to pfs.

My background is I have a BA in Biology, have been a high school science teacher since undergrad. I’m pretty out of practice in my deep science knowledge to be honest, but if there is one thing I was good at, it was hunkering down and studying and doing pretty well on exams.

Let’s say I wanted to take my life in this totally different direction, what field would I go into? Molecular biology? Neurology? I’m sure it’s difficult to even speculate when we are unsure of the cause of this. But are there any thoughts?

Would I need to be a doctor? Or get a PHD to do research? To get into a program, I would probably need to work on an online masters degree first to get better recommendations and refresh my knowledge.

Thinking about this stuff, even if it is something I don’t end up doing, makes me feel better than just being sad (and contributing to the foundation of course). BTW, I had the same ideas in college thinking I was going to do OCD/Depression research, but I never ended up going down that field, so take this conversation for what it is worth.

#2

Hi. I think you have a great idea.

A doctorate in molecular biology, bioengineering, or a similar field, should put you in a position of being able to help with the PFS problem in some capacity. I’ve been taking biotech courses to get to the level of at least being able to understand and communicate some of the mechanisms involved in drug side effects and corresponding research. …It has helped greatly.

I wish you luck if you do decide to take this path

#3

Not sure if this is directly related but for me, the most interesting field of research would be to try and identify the root cause of our problem. There has to be at least ONE THING that we all have in commun… a broken enzyme, chromozome, hormone, or whatever. And as of today, nobody knows what it is. Alot of people do blood tests, which sometimes show signs of issues, but it’s nothing compared to the actual side effects.

How about a brain scan (CT scan)? If all of our hormones seem ok, the problem has to be somewhere else. I wonder how far we can push the medical tests, but clearly no one was able to pin point the exact root cause. So everything we are trying is probably worthless. It’s like trying to treat cancer if you lived in 1850.