Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
On 5 November, Texas residents will decide whether to sustain CPRIT[*], the second largest public source of cancer funding in the United States after the federal government. At stake is its generous support for 123 tenure-track faculty like [Francesca] Cole, who investigates cancer and DNA repair. Most scientists use fruit flies or zebra fish, but she could afford to build a large team that probes DNA repair using more sophisticated—and expensive—animal models: 25 different genetically modified mice strains. "The CPRIT investment made a huge difference to my research success," says Cole, who has since won a prestigious New Innovator Award from the National Institutes of Health.
Texas residents appear likely to approve the ballot initiative, which would give CPRIT another $3 billion through bond sales; a recent poll found that two-thirds of voters support it. Yet some dissent remains from fiscal conservatives. State Senator Charles Schwertner (R) told the Austin American-Statesman in January that although CPRIT's goals are "unquestionably noble," funding cancer research is not a role for state government. He introduced a bill to have CPRIT become a self-sufficient agency, but it failed to advance.
[...] After a smooth first few years, a scandal broke out in 2012 over a $18 million incubator award to MD Anderson that had not undergone scientific peer review. That, along with concerns that politics was skewing grant decisions, prompted CPRIT's chief scientific officer, Nobel laureate and biochemist Alfred Gilman, to resign in protest, along with most of its scientific council and many grant reviewers. After more problems led to a 10-month hold on new grants and a governance overhaul, the agency got back on track.
CPRIT has awarded more than $2.4 billion for 1447 awards split among clinical and translational research, recruitment, basic research, training, and prevention. It has supported shared resources such as bioinformatics facilities and advanced microscopes. The agency touts its practical impact, saying 36 cancer companies have used its money to launch, grow, or move to the state. They, in turn, have raised more than $3 billion from investors. A recent analysis commissioned by CPRIT concluded that the money it pumps into the economy generates $1.4 billion in annual economic activity and supports 10,000 jobs. And one "immediate" result of CPRIT's $250 million in prevention grants has been cancer screening and other services for 320,000 Texans a year, Willson says.
doi:10.1126/science.aaz8812
[*] CPRIT: Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 17 2019, @10:40PM (10 children)
How do these people still have jobs? Replication rates are at like 10%:
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/07/plan-replicate-50-high-impact-cancer-papers-shrinks-just-18 [sciencemag.org]
https://www.nature.com/news/biotech-giant-publishes-failures-to-confirm-high-profile-science-1.19269 [nature.com]
https://www.nature.com/articles/nrd3439-c1 [nature.com]
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0014488611002391 [sciencedirect.com]
And what did they learn? That "cancer is many diseases"? Maybe it seems so complex because at least 90% of what they believe is wrong?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 17 2019, @11:25PM (9 children)
Sure, keep it up with letting these people have zero accountability. Have fun dying of cancer and going bankrupt paying for worthless treatments.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 17 2019, @11:50PM (8 children)
$1 trillion wasted each year:
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2752664 [jamanetwork.com]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by c0lo on Friday October 18 2019, @01:26AM (7 children)
Gone down the drain. In Big Pharma/health insurers's pockets + hospital admin costs.
But you want to punish the publicly funded research for the sins it didn't commit [theconversation.com], right?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 18 2019, @02:50AM (6 children)
$28 billion per year in wasted research: https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1002165 [plos.org]
And how is producing unreproducible junk results the fault of anyone but the researchers doing it, deciding where the funding goes, and reviewing it?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday October 18 2019, @04:31AM (5 children)
if you think at success as "an outcome that will result in $$$$", anyone rational will appreciate research as a very risky endeavour with a low rate of success (you just try to get to know some "known unknown" - have little idea if you'll get it to the end or not).
If you define success to include "we went there, we failed to find what we though we'll find, but we did this and that", most of the research should be classified as successful.
"Producing unreproducible junk" is garbage, I grant you that.
But part of the fault stays with the irrational people shouting "but muh funds, I wanna see some $$$ outta them!!11oneone1! Or else..." because it creates the situation in which the only way to do research is to fulfill unreasonable expectations and get something "positive" to be able to continue researching.
You now the behaviour? Resembles pretty much the way you are frotting at the mount now, it's likely you carry a part of this fault too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 18 2019, @05:37AM (4 children)
No, I did this research. These people have no idea what they are doing. The entire thing is set up to obstruct you and make you as incompetent as possible. Fire them all, start over from about 1950, and you'll have a cancer cure in 10 years.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday October 18 2019, @06:10AM (3 children)
What is this research that you did?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 18 2019, @07:00AM (2 children)
Medical research.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday October 18 2019, @07:14AM (1 child)
What stopped you from researching and discovering a cancer cure in 10 years then?
(it seems to me there's a hint of sour grapes coming from your direction. But maybe I'm mistaken)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 18 2019, @02:32PM
Regarding cancer, I literally was stopped by the department chair from publishing on it since it wasn't my "topic". But even where it was my topic everything is set up to be an obstacle to doing a good job. The people who just quickly produce crap and move on are those that advance.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 17 2019, @11:28PM (1 child)
How do those perverts, pedophiles, and deviants stay out of prison? They only want to keep the money for their sex tours to Thailand...
What the hell is the matter with people? Lock the fuckers up!
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 18 2019, @01:17PM
Some people wont be happy until every road is a toll road.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 19 2019, @06:56PM
i'll be voting against this stupid shit. you can prevent cancer by not contaminating the air, water, food supply, shooting it into yourself via vaccines, and not eating all the wrong shit while sitting on your fat ass all day. you're welcome. no charge.