The Role of BrightFocus Foundation in the Discovery of Bexarotene's Potential Therapeutic Value

Dr. Gary Landreth: I think the foundation has been extraordinarily important in providing

0:14

support for projects that are really focused on fundamental mechanisms there. What the

0:23

foundation has done has been incredibly important, particularly for supporting young scientists

0:29

and projects which would not garner support yet from the NIH or other agencies.

0:37

The contribution of the foundation to the enterprise is absolutely critical. I think

0:42

we all in the business, we all think this is one of the most important organizations

0:49

that supports the core mission

0:51

Dr. Paige Cramer: Cost is associated with these trials, with these phases phase one,

0:56

phase two, phase three are astronomically expensive,

0:59

Dr. Landreth: This is a very expensive business to use animal models of the disease takes

1:04

a lot of money, it takes a lot of time. And since these are models of aging, and we have

1:09

to basically work to six months in a year in advance, so the students have to plan their

1:13

experiments will then generate the animals long time before they formed the experiments.

1:20

The foundation operates at very critical juncture by supporting projects that are higher risk

1:28

and generally with Junior investigators who may not have been as competitive at the national

1:34

level this niche is really, really important and I and the foundation is absolutely critical

1:42

to the national effort in figuring out how this disease works.

1:47

Dr. Cramer: It works and that those experiments and those ideas are really what will drive

1:53

the field forward. Fortunately for the later lab, Gary has been very much a recipient of

2:03

the foundation’s support and that's allowed us to really combat some interesting questions

2:08

and some interesting hypotheses and to really, we believe, find new things about the disease

2:14

that may be very important later on.