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- I have dedicated most of my life
to finding new techniques,
in the discovery and tracing
of small molecules and compounds
to better understand medicine and physiology.
And I think history has taught us that
often when presenting new ideas to communities,
one can be met with hesitancy, skepticism,
and even hostility.
Luckily for me, I had a partner,
a man who joined me in this scientific adventure
and together we gave birth to and nurtured
these radical ideas that eventually caught on.
But I doubt the ultimate acceptance of these ideas,
would've been possible without Dr. Berson.
- [Saul] Saul.
- I'm sorry.
- You can call me Saul.
- Oh, Roz. Nice to meet you.
- Dr. Straus sent me to on here to take a look at your work.
I would've gotten here sooner,
I must have passed by your room five times
before I realized this was you.
I've never seen a scientist work
out of a janitor's closet before.
- Well, when life gives you lemons.
- May I?
- Sure.
The process is rooted in my training
and understanding of radio isotopes.
The Bronx VA is one of the few medical centers
to back this kind of radio isotopic methodology,
paired with hydrodynamic flow
chromatographic electrophoresis.
And what was your area of study?
- Internal medicine.
- I see.
Ah, basically when you bind gamma radioactive isotopes,
with known quantities of antigen,
it may become possible to detect
extremely small bloodborne molecules.
- Like insulin.
- That's right.
- Hey Mary, I think we should postpone the Boston trip.
Something big just came up.
- Through the years, Saul and I together,
and now I alone,
have enjoyed time spent with our professional children.
The young investigators who trained in our lab,
and who are now scattered throughout the world.
It's important to ensure that discoveries like ours,
are not the last and that we continue to cultivate
and nurture these radical ideas, that may one day,
not just be instrumental in the understanding,
diagnosis, and treatment of diabetes, but the cure.
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- We are really appreciative of the efforts
and the expertise of individuals like Rosalyn Yalow,
who did this trailblazing work with diabetes and insulin,
and kind of set the stage for the work that we're doing now.
I recall various situations where people would see me
and kind of already assume what my trajectory looked like.
I recall walking into the guidance counselor's office
and university college was off the table.
Didn't even wanna talk about it.
I noticed that your hair is always done.
Do you like doing hair?
Do you wanna become a cosmetologist or something like that?
That wasn't where I was headed.
As a vascular surgeon,
I work with individuals who have diabetes.
That could lead you to having a major amputation.
I recall a couple years ago, meeting a veteran and his wife,
and they came to our vascular surgery clinic
because of a concern about pain in his foot.
- I wasn't getting no blood down there.
My feet cold, as ice, man.
I couldn't even sleep.
And then I just couldn't take it no more.
- He could barely walk around.
He couldn't go to church with his family.
He couldn't do all the things that he wanted to do.
We took a look at him
and found that he had peripheral artery disease.
He also happens to be diabetic.
We offered him a minimally invasive procedure
to improve his blood flow.
- Dr. Alibi did that surgery on me, man, that saved my life.
- Thankfully, that was successful.
And we were able to prevent
a lower extremity amputation in him.
Since then he has been on top of the world.
- Yeah, I'm 78 years old.
I feel great.
- Black and brown individuals
have higher rates of amputation, which is true.
What I'm trying to investigate,
is if there's something that we can do
to improve their blood flow,
and then maybe even save their legs.
The work that Dr. Brewster is doing
is looking at veterans who get to the point
where you unfortunately do have to have the major amputation
and he is studying their mesenchymal stem cells,
so he can develop novel therapeutic agents
to treat individuals before the amputation.
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- We know veterans have a higher proportion of diabetes
than our non-veteran population.
The impact of diabetes on our veterans is huge.
Diabetes speeds up our aging.
And so our blood vessels get older
than our bodies would be otherwise.
The risk of not having enough blood flow to heal a wound,
and the risk of major amputations are very high.
We're really dedicated to keeping the limb attached
and to doing preservative health.
If they do need an amputation,
to make that amputated limb as functional as it can be.
When a decision has been made for amputation,
we collect the tissue that's otherwise discarded
at the time of the operation,
and we get to look at that muscle.
We get to look at the fat,
and we get to look at the bone marrow
and then collect those cells,
look at their regenerative capacity.
Are there limitations
in the diabetic mesenchymal stem cells?
And if there are, can we repair those in culture,
for delivery back to patients with diabetes as the end goal?
These mesenchymal stem cells
already know how to repair the body.
They already know how to bring in the immune cells
that are going to help regenerate the body.
And all we have to do is get them there
in a way that they're ready to work.
And if we can do that, you're going to have a game changer
in the care of the body, because we're basically
overriding pathology and bringing regeneration.
- They're doing this to help veterans behind them,
to hopefully prevent them losing their legs.
- Doctor came to me and asked me
would I donate my foot,
after they amputated to stem cell?
And that I, I told 'em yeah, man,
if you can find it, let me know why,
so I can look out for my other foot.
The day after they released me from the hospital,
I drove myself home.
I don't want nothing to stop me.
That stem cell, that's gonna help somebody else,
where they don't have to go as far as I had to go.
- Some of that work that Rosalyn Yalow did,
has now been kind of evolved into the work
that Dr. Brewster is doing.
We do hope that a lot fewer veterans
will lose their legs in the future.
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- Those visions will bring forward
innovative ideas and therapies
that will push the envelope forward
and bring better healthcare to our veterans.
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