Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita
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MAPPING STEM CELL RESEARCH: TERRA INCOGNITA is a Peabody-winning documentary about renowned stem cell biologist Dr. Jack Kessler and his daughter Allison. When Dr. Kessler was invited to head up the Neurology Department at Northwestern, his research initially focused on using embryonic stem cells to help cure diabetes. However, when Allison was injured in a skiing accident and paralyzed from the waist down at age 15, Dr. Kessler decided to begin looking for a cure for spinal cord injuries using stem cells. Through Kessler's story, the film examines the constantly evolving interplay between the promise of new discoveries, the controversy of modern science and the resilience and courage of people living every day with devastating disease and injury.
Peabody Awards
"In Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita, filmmaker Maria Finitzo puts a human face on a polarizing, highly politicized subject, stem-cell research."
Citation
Main credits
Kessler, John A (on-screen participant)
Kessler, Allison (on-screen participant)
Finitzo, Maria (film director)
O'Brien, Michael (editor of moving image work)
Simpson, David E. (editor of moving image work)
Sutcliffe, Jan (editor of moving image work)
Morrissette, Jim (director of photography)
Sommer, Ines (director of photography)
Other credits
Editors, Michael O'Brien, David E. Simpson, Jan Sutcliffe; directors of cinematography, Jim Morrissette, Ines Sommer; editors, Michael O'Brien, David E. Simpson, Jan Sutcliffe.
Distributor subjects
Stem Cell Research; Neurology; Public Health,Medicine; STEM; Technology and SocietyKeywords
Dialogue Transcript
TERRA INCOGNITA:
THE PROMISE AND PERIL OF STEM CELL RESEARCH
TEXT
“Chicago, 5:30 AM"
DR. KESSLER (V.O./TEXT ON COMPUTER SCREEN)
A few short years ago, it was rare to meet someone who knew what I meant when I said I was a stem cell biologist. Now, virtually everybody's heard about stem cells and has an opinion about them.
ANNE GRAHAM LOTZ
…because, embryos are tiny little human lives, and to destroy…
TOM DELAY
…what level of respect and dignity ought this government grant defenseless, unburdensome…
WOMAN (V.O.)
…while supporters argue that such research could eventually lead to cures for debilitating diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and diabetes…
PRESIDENT BUSH
...we should not use public money to support the further destruction of human life…
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O./TEXT ON COMPUTER SCREEN)
It would be encouraging if these opinions were based on a substantial increase of public awareness of the biology of stem cells.
BEARDED MAN
We call upon the president not to reduce human life
BEARDED MAN (V.O.)
to laboratory rats, to stand for what is right…
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
Instead, I find the political battlefield in which the biology seems almost irrelevant.
FATHER TAD
You create a human being who you then intentionally destroy…
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
This would not really matter, if the rhetoric were not so hot…
REPRESENTATIVE MICHAEL
…Every single person here was also an embryo…
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
…or if the stakes were not so high. Stem cell biology
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O./TEXT ON COMPUTER SCREEN)
will revolutionize the practice of medicine.
WOMAN ON ETHICAL REQUIREMENTS (V.O.)
It is our duty
WOMAN ON ETHICAL REQUIREMENTS
to bring hope to the sick and the disabled, not to bind the hands
WOMAN ON ETHICAL REQUIREMENTS (V.O.)
of those who can bring them hope.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
My entire career as a neurologist has been devoted to devising techniques
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O./TEXT ON COMPUTER SCREEN)
for repairing the damaged nervous system.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
You might suppose that what upsets me the most about the stem cell controversy is that political obstructions threaten this lifelong quest. You would be wrong.
DR. JACK KESSLER
Hey sweetie!
TEXT
A film by Maria Finitzo
editors Michael O'Brien, David E Simpson, Jan Sutcliffe
directors of cinematography, Jim Morrissette, Ines Sommer
associate producer, Justine Nagan, executive producer, Gordon Quinn
Terra Incognita: The Promise and Peril of Stem Cell Research
DR. JACK KESSLER
Okay, look at my hands like this, okay—can you do that?
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
Do that.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
Jack Kessler is the Chairman of the Department of Neurology at Northwestern University.
DR. JACK KESSLER
Good. Okay. So we'll put a little bit to the test. Can you do this?
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
I was really trained to go into business.
DR. JACK KESSLER
Tell me, how many quarters in a dollar?
PATIENT
Four.
DR. JACK KESSLER
Good. How many nickels in a dollar?
PATIENT
Twenty.
DR. JACK KESSLER
Good.
TEXT
Dr. Jack Kessler
DR. JACK KESSLER
Every single morning when my father was shaving I would be there with him, he'd go through his profit and loss statement.
DR. JACK KESSLER
How many nickels in a dollar thirty-five?
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
But I also…
PATIENT
Twenty-seven.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
…wanted to do more with my life
DR. JACK KESSLER
Good. Excellent. You’re good with numbers, huh?
PATIENT
Yeah.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
I wanted to be able to change other people’s lives.
DR. JACK KESSLER
Good. Look up, look up for me. Actually has pretty good up-gaze, doesn’t he? Look down.
DR. JACK KESSLER
While I was in college I became fascinated with the concept of medicine. You know, the idea you can make a difference.
DR. JACK KESSLER
Good…and….who’s the president?
PATIENT
Bush.
DR. JACK KESSLER
Is he a good president?
PATIENT
Depends on your policies I guess.
DR. JACK KESSLER
Who was president before Bush?
PATIENT
Uh…the ladies man.
WOMAN
The Ladies Man?! (laughs)
DR. JACK KESSLER
Do you think you can walk for me? Let me see you stand up.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
What keeps you going? If you help somebody, you can go home, and go to bed, and put your head on the pillow, and say, “Well, today was worth living because at least I did something good.”
DR. JACK KESSLER
Well, let's go back downstairs so we can discuss our findings, okay?
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
For me, everything starts with family. And anything I can do to help somebody with a problem in their family,
DR. JACK KESSLER
that touches me right down inside where it counts the most, because I know what it means.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
I had three sons. I had always wanted to have a daughter. When my daughter was born, you know it was sort of like that, you know, one thing in life that you don’t have and suddenly somebody gives you the thing that you absolutely wanted the most. Then when she was growing up I would constantly just tell her, you know, how much do I love you? And she knew the answer was more than anything else in the whole world. And that's how I felt about my daughter.
DR. JACK KESSLER
Just—ahh. I guess there is, sort of nothing in the world more important. Which is why…
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
…which is why I don’t like to talk about the accident.
ALLISON KESSLER (V.O.)
I was skiing in Connecticut,
TEXT
Allison Kessler
ALLISON KESSLER
messing around on some jumps. One wasn’t really built that properly. I went off of it; I landed on my back.
ALLISON KESSLER (V.O.)
2-12-L1, spinal cord injury.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
I was an expert in Stem Cells, I knew about growth factors, I knew about development in the nervous system, I've been thinking about regenerating the nervous system my whole career, but this was a very individual problem. I really knew nothing about spinal cord injury except what I'd read in passing. I really knew nothing about the problems, the regenerating of axons.
DR. JACK KESSLER
The day of the accident, I decided, that's what I was gonna do.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
So I started thinking, “Alright, how can I take stem cells and think about using them to repair a spinal cord.”
ALLISON KESSLER (V.O.)
When I first got hurt, like, my boyfriend’s family, every time something would come out,
ALLISON KESSLER
they'd call me and be like, “Oh like have you heard about this new thing?” And I'm kind of like, “Don’t get your hopes up.” Like it's not, you know, right now, there's not going to be anything that can help me. You know, ten years from now, maybe.
ALLISON KESSLER (V.O.)
But am I gonna wake up everyday and be like, “Oh, is today the day?” No. Because if I live my life waiting for that to happen, I would miss everything going on now.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
So the very first thing I had to do was make certain that I educate myself. The first nine months were cognitive, mental.
NOISE OFF-SCREEN
(Crashing noise)
DR. JACK KESSLER
Oh, that sounded great. We have a new $150,000 laser and I hear boom, so I got a little bit worried.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
Then it took me about five or six months to get the equipment, uh, the things that I thought were necessary. Then I had to begin to bring people into the laboratory whose whole focus was going to be the spinal cord injury project.
DR. JACK KESSLER
I have a lot of things that we should chat about.
ALLISON KESSLER (V.O.)
He wishes that he could speed up the process.
DR. JACK KESSLER
Alright, about another hour, hour and half?
ALLISON KESSLER
He's only been working on this since I got hurt, you know, in the back of his mind, hey, what if he got started on this years ago--instead of doing something else.
LAB WOMAN
Yeah, the yaliza came with a positive control.
DR. JACK KESSLER
And did that work?
LAB WOMAN
Well, it did and it didn’t… (laughs)
DR. JACK KESSLER
No.
LAB WOMAN
Okay, well, to use your expression…(laughs)
DR. JACK KESSLER
That's not my expression.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
This becomes an obsession.
DR. JACK KESSLER
As a stem cell biologist I find it appalling.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
It becomes the driving force in life.
DR. JACK KESSLER
…and politically motivated federal policies have impeded stem cell research. As a father, I am both outraged and heartbroken that politics and irrational fears of new technologies are depriving my daughter Allison of the possibility of walking again.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
There is no clinical dissociation from this; this is a very personal issue now.
ALLISON KESSLER (V.O.)
I think it always has been personal to him. He always wanted to be able to help people.
ALLISON KESSLER
And the fact that, you know, I got hurt and he couldn’t fix me, just doubles the fact that he feels like he should, and he can't.
DR. JACK KESSLER
And my daughter gets mad at me. Uh, she really does, you know, “Get over it, Dad.” You know, she's just, “Come on.” You know, that's, “That's done and get over it.” She's right. And, but, it's there's, just this…dagger, doesn’t go away.
DR. JACK KESSLER
Hey, you're supposed to wait for your birthday…aren't you supposed to wait to--? I thought you just decided you're gonna wait for your birthday.
MARILYN KESSLER
Who said? I didn’t say I was gonna wait.
DR. JACK KESSLER
Come on, you have to wait!
MARILYN KESSLER
I said this is for my birthday!
NARRATOR (V.O.)
Jack's wife Marilyn is also a doctor at Northwestern University.
DR. JACK KESSLER
But I'll give it to you in ten days.
MARILYN KESSLER
Yeah, it's not from you, it's from Justine.
DR. JACK KESSLER
I know. I'll give it to you in ten days.
MARILYN KESSLER
Thanks.
DR. JACK KESSLER
He's remarkably savvy, Agassi.
ALLISON KESSLER
That's why he can still play.
DR. JACK KESSLER
Mmhmm.
TELEPHONE RINGS
Brring!
ALLISON KESSLER
Ugh, Hello? Hey Giles, what's up? Can I give you a call later?
DR. JACK KESSLER
What are you doing?
ALLISON KESSLER
Texting.
DR. JACK KESSLER
(laughs)
ALLISON KESSLER
Explaining why I hung up.
DR. JACK KESSLER
Why you're not talking?
ALLISON KESSLER
Yeah. What time is dinner?
DR. JACK KESSLER
Five, ten minutes.
ALLISON KESSLER
Alright.
DR. JACK KESSLER
And she's making ravioli with white sauce.
ALLISON KESSLER
What's in it?
DR. JACK KESSLER
I don’t have a clue; ask her.
ALLISON KESSLER
If you're making a white sauce, why would you put tomatoes in a white sauce?
MARILYN KESSLER
It's just in it for color.
ALLISON KESSLER
Why, then why do it? If it's just gonna annoy me, why do it? Just to make it look better?
MARILYN KESSLER
It makes it look nicer.
ALLISON KESSLER
We’re eating it!
MARILYN KESSLER
That's right.
ALLISON KESSLER
Why does it have to look nicer? Why'd you-- (laughter)
MARILYN KESSLER
I'm moving!
DR. JACK KESSLER
I'd hate to say, I'd have to agree with her, Marilyn.
MARILYN KESSLER
Give me a break!
MARILYN KESSLER (V.O.)
All the kids take after me in some ways and after Jack in other ways.
ALLISON KESSLER
I woulda rather just have butter on it and make your own red sauce for Dad and Mom.
MARILYN KESSLER (V.O.)
She is exasperating in the same way that he is exasperating to me.
ALLISON KESSLER
Eww.
DR. JACK KESSLER
Sorry.
ALLISON KESSLER
(Laughs) It just got all over her jacket!
DR. JACK KESSLER
Sorry about that, dear.
MARILYN KESSLER (V.O.)
And she laughs because I call her Ja-Allison.
TEXT
Dr. Marilyn Kessler
MARILYN KESSLER
When she gets me upset (laughs). I start to say, “Jack” and I switch it midstream to “Allison.”
MARILYN KESSLER
When does school start?
ALLISON KESSLER
Classes start the 20th; registration is the 17th.
DR. JACK KESSLER
Just out of curiosity, why did you decide not to major in bio?
ALLISON KESSLER
Because you have to take more math.
DR. JACK KESSLER
Well, that's why?
ALLISON KESSLER
I have one more math course. If I did bio I think I'd have to take two more.
DR. JACK KESSLER
It's prerequisite for both med school and vet school, isn’t it?
ALLISON KESSLER
I'm not going to med school.
DR. JACK KESSLER
That's fine with me (laughs).
ALLISON KESSLER
Then why mention it's a prerequisite for med school?
DR. JACK KESSLER
Excuse me: it's a prerequisite for vet school.
ALLISON KESSLER
There you go.
DR. JACK KESSLER
Ok?
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
A few short years ago, I did everything I could to shun any kind of newspaper related things, public appearances that weren’t scientific ones.
DR. JACK KESSLER
Hi, good to meet you.
WOMAN
Nice to meet you.
DR. JACK KESSLER
As soon as we have our first real treatment that works, the pressure will become overwhelming.
MAN
Well hopefully it'll help my son. We have been praying.
DR. JACK KESSLER
I think prayer is fine, but I think research is what's gonna get us the answers.
MAN
Oh, yeah, yeah.
MAN
He's right.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
And I really
DR. JACK KESSLER
was more content to do my work, take care of my patients, and that was my life. And this was sort of thrust upon me.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
If I didn’t step up to the plate and do it, who's gonna do it?
ANNOUNCER MAN (V.O.)
Please join me in welcoming
ANNOUNCER MAN
Dr. Jack Kessler
DR. JACK KESSLER
Thank you all for coming tonight. So a good place to start. What exactly is a stem cell? A stem cell is a cell that has three characteristics. First of all, it can divide indefinitely. It's the only cell, other than a cancer cell, that has that capacity to divide forever. Number two: it is capable of self-renewal. That means it can make identical copies of itself forever and ever and ever. And of coarse the third characteristic that makes them so unique is they're capable of then changing, or differentiating, into all the different cell types that make up the body. These are beating heart cells, that came from the embryonic stem cells. And I think it's impossible to not look at this and just be in awe that we would be able to take these cells and for people that have heart attacks, regenerate tissue in the heart.
WOMAN IN AUDIENCE
Isn't one objection using aborted fetuses? And a second using fertilized eggs from in-vitro, and then the third the cloning issue.
DR. JACK KESSLER
Right. So we don't use aborted fetuses…
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
The hardest part is the frustration,
DR. JACK KESSLER
because I think there's a misconception in many people's minds about what exactly is used to create embryonic stem cells.
DR. JACK KESSLER
If you see it in a dish then that's not a human being. It can't be a human being unless it is implanted in a uterus. Okay, there is no possibility whatsoever. None.
DR. JACK KESSLER
They're not embryos in the sense that most people would think about embryos. It's a blastocyst, a small little ball of cells, that has no possibility of ever becoming a human being, unless it were implanted in a woman's uterus.
DR. LAURIE ZOLOTH (V.O.)
All living things are made of cells.
DR. LAURIE ZOLOTH
Cells are the basic unit of structure and function for living things. So he thought they were like little rooms, and the little rooms were like cells, in a monastery.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
Dr. Laurie Zoloth, a bioethicist at Northwestern University, is one of Jack's colleagues.
STUDENT
What's your dog's name?
ZOLOTH’S DAUGHTER
Rosie.
STUDENT
Rosie?
NARRATOR (V.O.)
Her students have come to her home for a class in religion and bioethics.
DR. LAURIE ZOLOTH
Human embryonic stem cells only come from what stage in the embryo? Very, very early. How many days? After fertilization? Did anybody remember?
STUDENT
Three to five?
DR. LAURIE ZOLOTH
Three to five. Perfect.
TEXT
Dr Laurie Zoloth
Center for Bioethics, Science and Society
Northwestern University
DR. LAURIE ZOLOTH
So the first question of bioethics and human embryonic stem cells is the question called moral status. What are these embryos? What's their moral status?
STUDENT
Well, from a Catholic point of view, the moment of conception is when the egg is fertilized, and so these are people with souls.
DR. LAURIE ZOLOTH
And if you are a believing Catholic, this would be murder. And that has to be respected; it's slowed the process; it's made us think carefully about what we have to do.
TEXT
Northwestern University
DR. JACK KESSLER
I'm gonna impose on you all a little bit, on our journal club. Because I want to discuss the article I'm writing for the Tribune. I titled this “The crusade against stem cell research.” The question is should I be more explicit in addressing religious objections?
STUDENT
One of the points that they bring up in religious discussions is that there's life from the moment of conception, and all that.
DR. JACK KESSLER
And one of the points I was trying to get through here is that they confuse the difference between fertilization and conception.
STUDENT
I don't know if there is unanimous agreement on that; that conception is the moment where it is implanted as opposed to where the fertilization happens.
DR. JACK KESSLER
Well, would somebody go next door and pull a dictionary?, seriously. We'll see what it says.
STUDENT
Yeah.
DR. JACK KESSLER
We don't ever speak of in-vitro conception.
STUDENT
Yeah.
DR. JACK KESSLER
We speak of in-vitro fertilization. They're separate issues. Conception, what does it say?
STUDENT
“The formation of a zygote capable of survival and maturation in normal conditions.”
DR. JACK KESSLER
An in-vitro fertilized egg is not capable of surviving and maturing in normal conditions.
DR. LAURIE ZOLOTH
Okay, Islamic group, what's the standard guideline in Islam?
STUDENT
For when moral status is achieved?
STUDENT
I believe it's after forty days when the bones have knit.
DR. LAURIE ZOLOTH
When the bones are knit, very very good. Okay, Jews, the Jewish group, what do you think their moral status would be?
STUDENT
It has none essentially.
DR. LAURIE ZOLOTH
Right, Because it's not in a body.
STUDENT
Right.
DR. LAURIE ZOLOTH
And it's within the forty days. Like water, so most theorists agree that the moral status is at least extraordinarily diminished. Now the ones at Northwestern are all made from lines from left over embryos. Does that make it easier for you to think about? Than if you were making new ones up? What do you think?
STUDENT
Well, I think it does, I think the idea that, if you don't use them for research you’re gonna be throwing away human life, I think changes the entire issue. Um, because, if you believe in this high regard and high respect for life, then, isn't healing life worth doing?
DR. JACK KESSLER
Should I say, “Whatever happened to the Christian concept of helping other human beings and our obligation to do that,” or is that--
STUDENT
I don't think you have to invoke it as a Christian concept. It's also a Jewish concept.
STUDENT
Yeah, it's a universal concept.
DR. JACK KESSLER
Well, it is a universal concept, and maybe I'll say that. I'll say it, “concept universal to all religions.”
TEXT (BEING TYPED ON COMPUTE SCREEN)
concept that is virtually universal to
DR. LAURIE ZOLOTH (V.O.)
In this case, what is the right act,
DR. LAURIE ZOLOTH
And what makes it so?
DR. LAURIE ZOLOTH (V.O.)
This is history still being made and this ethics still being written.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
Alright, now this is really the exciting time now because at the end of these two months, we should have a very good idea about
DR. JACK KESSLER
how we can inject the cells with the gel, what the gel is going to do by itself, and how each of our individual cell lines behave.
VICKI
What I need then is, I'm a flow-chart kind of person.
DR. JACK KESSLER
Well that's wha—
VICKI
I need to know exactly what you're thinking because—
VIBHU
So—
VICKI
I don't know want to be surprised like two weeks into it, “Oh, we have twenty animals; we can't do this because we don't know that and then, well, now what?” and frantically scramble it together.
VIBHU
So—
VICKI
I don't frantically scramble well.
DR. JACK KESSLER
Okay. We think our long-term strategy is going to be the cells in the gel.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
Vicki and Vibhu are the graduate students who will work on the spinal cord injury project. So what are they up against? What happens in a spinal cord injury?
DR. JACK KESSLER
Think of a spinal cord as being like a telephone cable. And you have all the cells up in the brain that somehow have to communicate down to all the cells at the bottom of the spinal cord. And it does it with all these wires, or axons, that go up and down, and they've been cut.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
And the formation of the scar is one of the big problems of spinal cord injury because you form this scar. And fibers that are trying to grow down the spinal cord literally meet a blockade and can't grow through it.
VIBHU (V.O.)
So right here is the site of injury.
DR. JACK KESSLER
So, you can see the injury site.
VICKI
Right.
VIBHU
Yes.
DR. JACK KESSLER
And then you can see there's a gleal scar forming above and below. So what I was saying is obviously we want to have Joe here to help see if we can suppress the astrocytes. But we have to have something here, for a scaffold. Which is why my concept was, we've got our injury site like that, and get in the gleosis there. So my thought was, we inject the gel there, we inject the gel there, and the idea is that we're going to get infiltration in the gel like that and infiltration in the gel like that. And I mean, we've gotta fill that with gel, that's critical. Or, it isn't gonna work.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
The need for the gel came about because Jack knew that embryonic stem cells alone would not be enough to regenerate spinal tissue. And here's why: for nerve cells to regenerate, they need to send out long fibers called axons. These axons need a scaffold upon which to grow. Normally, the scaffold is provided by material surrounding the cells in the body called the extra-cellular matrix. But in an injury, the extra-cellular matrix is damaged. Jack knew he would have to reconstitute it in order to heal a broken spinal cord, and this is where the gel comes in, a nano-engineered material created by one of Jack's colleagues at Northwestern.
DR. SAMUEL STUPP (V.O.)
The material could be contained in a bottle and you would look at it and you would not be able to differentiate it from a bottle of water.
TEXT
Dr. Samuel Stupp
Prof. Of Materials Science, Chemistry & Medicine
Northwestern University
DR. SAMUEL STUPP
But dissolved in that water are molecules that we make that are programmed to come together into nanostructures.
DR. SAMUEL STUPP (V.O.)
When you expose it to living tissues that triggers the self-assembly of the molecules and they transform into a gel.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
What's unique about the gel is that once it's injected, it then self-assembles to form a scaffold that will allow axons to grow down the spinal cord. Many people have devised scaffolds to enable stem cells in other tissues to re-grow.
DR. JACK KESSLER
But the problem is they can't really be used in the nervous system, because you'd have to disrupt the nervous system to get them in. The beauty of this material is it can
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
be injected as a liquid.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
In an earlier experiment published by Stupp and Kessler's lab, a customized version of the gel stimulated neural stem cells in a petri dish to develop into neurons within one day. The next step is to look at what the gel will do in a spinal cord injury, using mice as the animal model.
VIBHU (V.O.)
So, our plan is, under anesthesia, we'll be giving mice
VIBHU
spinal cord injury. Twenty-four hours later, we will
VIBHU (V.O.)
inject the animals either with gel or glucose into the injury site. Every week we will evaluate the mice to see if there is any improvement in their ability to move around. Nine weeks after the injury, we'll inject the animals with a dye.
VICKI (V.O.)
We inject the dye and have it travel down the axon. And then you can see the axons in the spinal cord itself. So that's how we're going to do our regeneration studies, is by looking at the axons and seeing if it grows into the lesion or through the lesion.
VIBHU
Alright, there's A, that has to be sacked.
VICKI
Yes.
VIBHU
Tomorrow.
VICKI
Tomorrow? You want--we'll do it tomorrow?
VIBHU (V.O.)
Two weeks after this, the mice will be sacrificed, and the cords dissected out, and we have tissue now for analysis.
VICKI
So, if I don't do anything else, this will take me ninety days.
VIBHU (V.O.)
I analyze them for the gleoscar; Vicki analyzes them for regeneration.
VIBHU
I had that protocol I wanted you to look at. See if you can make any sense of it.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
If you really look for people who make a difference in science,
DR. JACK KESSLER
it's people who are absolutely committed to what they are doing.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
Vicki wanted to do this. She wanted to do it more than she wanted to do absolutely anything, and she was prepared to make a huge sacrifice. She's very bright.
DR. JACK KESSLER
She came to my laboratory with no skills at all in a laboratory.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
So, we had to train her in tissue culture skills, we had to train her in molecular skills, we had to train her in the animal model. And, she had to take her course work and is continuing to take her course work that allowed her to be a graduate student.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
Before coming to Kessler's lab as a Ph.D student, Vicki worked at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago as a physical therapist.
PHYSICAL THERAPIST
That was excellent. Do you want a pillow, or are you okay?
PATIENT
No, this is good like this.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
Once a month she takes a break from the lab and goes back to mentor new therapists.
PATIENT
…a little bit dizzy. It seems like ever since I got the halo off I get dizzy. And a lotta time it's just when I lay down. Sitting up ain't as bad as laying down. I don't know why.
VICKI (V.O.)
I've always been interested in working with patients with neurological traumas.
PATIENT
It's kind of awkward.
VICKI
Six to one, half a dozen.
PATIENT
Yeah.
VICKI (V.O.)
You can make such a huge difference in their lives.
PATIENT
Just last week I changed over, and now I can use a hand control.
VICKI
That was very, I was very impressed.
PATIENT
Yeah.
TEXT
Matt, a father and husband
MATT
I was, uh, I fell at work. And, ah, I cracked, I broke, I must’ve landed on my head and cracked C2, an upper neck injury I guess. One, two, three.
PHYSICAL THERAPIST
Keep pushing. Keep pushing. Keep pushing. Keep pushing. Keep pushing.
VICKI (V.O.)
You can help them use the muscles that they have control of, and move their body and get dressed and all that kind of stuff. Which is very important.
MATT
See, I told you I was taller than you.
VICKI
(laughs)
VICKI (V.O.)
But there's no real regeneration that's occurring. When the brain says, “Okay. Leg move now,” are we getting those fibers through?
PHYSICAL THERAPIST
Try to push your heel down, instead of lift your toes up.
MATT
I don't want to turn my toe that way.
VICKI (V.O.)
And then also, if you step on a surface, you have to know where your leg is in space.
MATT
Oh…wow.
PHYSICAL THERAPIST
It's a little harder that way.
MATT
Yeah.
VICKI (V.O.)
And so I really wanted to work on a cure for spinal cord injury.
DR. JACK KESSLER
Whoa, that's fantastic!
VIBHU
It's right where it should be. This one is clean in one and two…
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
Vibhu happens to have that very fortunate confluence of being committed, hardworking, and very bright. He was also experienced. He had done other kinds of research.
DR. JACK KESSLER
Where do we stand with that construct?
VIBHU
Yeah, so I figured out, and you're gonna get upset about this, but I figured out—
DR. JACK KESSLER
Oh, great.
VIBHU
--the reason why that cloning didn’t work.
DR. JACK KESSLER
Why?
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
So, honestly, I wanted to grab him as fast as I could and get him into the lab, because he'd be a jewel, and he is a jewel in the lab.
VIBHU
I had only two overhang. I know. I…figured it out over dinner last night.
DR. JACK KESSLER
Okay, that's okay, fine.
VIBHU
I, I've berated myself enough over this.
DR. JACK KESSLER
It's okay, we just lost, two months, that's all.
VIBHU
(laughs)
DR. JACK KESSLER
Alright, I'm sorry. I'm only kidding; at least we figured it out. You know, as long as we solved the problem we're…
VIBHU (V.O.)
When I left Bombay to come to Northwestern, I knew two things.
VIBHU
One, that I was interested in neuroscience, and that I wanted to work on a project that had clinical relevance.
VIBHU
So this is one month post-injury, so I have the entire cord.
VIBHU (V.O.)
I wasn't necessarily thinking about spinal cord injury. But it just seems like it is a problem that has intellectual involvement that keeps me thinking all the time. But at the same time it has a direct relevance that I think is so immediate that you can see it and sort of imagine a future where this won't be.
VIBHU
And I like that.
CLOCK RINGS
Riiing!
FRIEND
I had my first real college experience this morning, I was really hung over from the…
ALLISON KESSLER
And trying to write a paper.
FRIEND
And wrote a paper.
ALLISON KESSLER
Nice.
FRIEND
I was like, yeah, I'm in college.
ALLISON KESSLER (V.O.)
Before I got hurt, I played every sport under the sun. I rode for ten years; I figure skated for about the same amount of time; I played hockey for a few years. Lacrosse was my favorite sport. I played soccer.
ALLISON KESSLER
Crew I was never involved in before. So it was a new thing.
COACH
Make sure you get a good feel for the head wind. Because that's what you're gonna have almost certainly tomorrow. And look carefully as you turn around to get in the upstream side. And then come up the green buoys.
ALLISON KESSLER
Okay.
COACH
Okay. Let's get it out.
ALLISON KESSLER
And up and over heads. Up, split, watch the rigors on the other boat. You're good now.
ALLISON KESSLER (V.O.)
I have three older brothers so I'm used to guys. I guess I'm more comfortable around a large group of guys than a large group of girls. They make fun of me a lot, but that makes me feel happy because it reminds me of my brothers.
ALLISON KESSLER
This side, because we're launching the other way.
CREW MEMBERS
Ah ha ha! Yes!
ALLISON KESSLER
I'm a smart one. Yeah. That's why you're the rower and I'm the captain.
ALLISON KESSLER (V.O.)
The coxswain really is like a mini-coach that travels with the team.
ALLISON KESSLER
Prepare for the buoys, our blades are over the buoys now.
COACH
Body steady Eric, don't over-reach, good.
COACH (V.O.)
Allison is the coxswain of this crew. She's one of five on our varsity squad this year. The coxswains are
TEXT
Harry Parker, Coach, Harvard Crew Team
COACH
responsible for steering the boat. That's their first, first responsibility, maneuvering it. So they have to have a good sense
COACH (V.O.)
of how to get in position.
ALLISON KESSLER
Two. Nice clean sharp row now. Good Placement with the blades. Coming to the first bridge.
COACH (V.O.)
But they also are the general in the boat and they give the commands, they give the directions, for
ALLISON KESSLER
long and together here
COACH (V.O.)
when to run through the workout.
ALLISON KESSLER
Alright we're straight here now.
COACH (V.O.)
and in race situations.
COACH
They’re the motivator.
ALLISON KESSLER
Two to bill, let the rate come up with this one now. One, follow the stroke. Two, here we go. Ten to sure to fold now.
ALLISON KESSLER (V.O.)
It's a great feeling, being out in the water; winning a race is fabulous.
COACH
Get clear of the crew on your left. Make sure…
COACH (V.O.)
This is a good crew, in the club [muffled]. They should be very competitive.
ALLISON KESSLER
Eight, nine, ten.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
Vicki and Vibhu are now several weeks into their experiment. They have sacrificed the mice and are ready to analyze their spinal cords.
VICKI
This is a good example of how the spinal cord’s actually set up in the mouse. Here is the thoracic area, where we do the lesion, and here is the lower thoracic area.
VICKI (V.O.)
I wish we could do it on plants instead of animals, but you just can't. There's just no way of getting around it. So that's the part I like the least.
VICKI (V.O.)
So we removed the spinal cords yesterday, and then overnight we put them in what we call sucrose-fix, which helps with the preservation of the cord and the morphology of the cord. Today, basically, what I'm doing is I’m freezing down the spinal cords. Freeze them each down separately in these little criomolds.
VICKI
Okay, I think we're ready for the liquid nitrogen.
LIQUID NITROGEN SIZZLING
Sizzle!
VIBHU (V.O.)
I'm looking for dying cells and I'm looking for the gleal scars.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
What we're trying to do with the spinal cord injury project is not evolutionary; it's revolutionary. I mean we're really trying to take a very big major step. It's not, “Eureka!” like the way people sometimes think about science. It's a complicated puzzle.
VICKI
I have to mark my orientation.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
And we're putting in one piece at a time. And that's just the way it has to work. Everybody dreams that they're the person who's lucky enough or smart enough to be the person that puts the last little piece in place. But to get these things done requires a whole building to be built first, brick by brick by brick.
VICKI (V.O.)
I'll take the cryostat and I'll make one slice. And then I'll bring it into a forty-well plate and then touch the tissue into that well. And then
VICKI
do that over and over and over again
VICKI (V.O.)
until the whole thing is sliced.
VICKI
Oh! Something bad just happened. Eww! What is going on?
VICKI
Hi.
VIBHU
Hello.
VICKI
I have a problem. Everything was going fine, and then suddenly, this whole piece chipped off.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
The hardest part of what we do is the anxiety and the frustration.
VICKI
Have you ever had this before? I checked that. That's locked, that's locked.
VIBHU
Yeah, I've had that happen once.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
It's very easy to think things done, and very hard to actually go do them in the laboratory.
VIBHU
I'm just cutting out the gouged part. Trim this part off.
VICKI
Yeah.
VIBHU
And then just remount it.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
Patience is just something that you just have no choice; you have to have it.
VICKI
Arghh. Alright, well…
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
Whether it's a change in our daily routine
DR. JACK KESSLER
or a change in the way we think about the entire world,
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
change is always difficult to deal with. And science does change the world. It forces us to begin to think about how we're going to live our lives in a different way. There was a time when it was considered heresy to say that the earth was not the center of the universe…
MAP VENDOR
This is basically the earliest acquirable map of the western hemisphere.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
…When it was considered heresy to say that the world was not flat. That's what maps kind of remind you of; you see things changing.
DR. JACK KESSLER
This is magnificent.
MAP VENDOR
Yeah.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
At some point somebody reported that you could sail around California and California became an island in the 1600s. Even though they had it right in the 1500s. In those days everybody believed that that was the reality. And the same thing is true now with a lot of issues with stem cells. Where there are myths being told about stem cells; where people firmly believe things that just simply aren't true. And we have to change attitudes.
DR. DALE KAUFMAN
How's his magnesium? It's okay? Two point one? And they're gonna do it? It's all set?
DOCTOR
I think they came in for it.
DR. DALE KAUFMAN
I should keep going to IR?
DOCTOR
Yeah.
DR. DALE KAUFMAN
What's this one? This is the guy with the seizure, yeah?
NARRATOR (V.O.)
During the course of our filming, the daughter of one of Jack’s colleagues from the hospital breaks her neck in a diving accident.
DR. DALE KAUFMAN
It's perfect; it goes along with the seizure.
DR. DALE KAUFMAN (V.O.)
It is like my worst nightmare, I mean,
TEXT
Dr. Dale Kaufman, Northwestern Memorial Hospital
DR. DALE KAUFMAN
no case in the emergency room affected me as much as seeing the young spinal cords, and the families. I always had this thing like, I almost like avoided the families because they seemed so … hopeful, and I felt like I knew, it wasn't hopeful.
DR. DALE KAUFMAN
Rogers. Hope you're feeling better?
PATIENT
Much better.
DR. DALE KAUFMAN
You're good?
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
Dale came to talk with me, and was of course facing a lot of issues that I had already faced and dealt with. Pragmatic issues.
DR. DALE KAUFMAN
Oh, that's much better.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
Dealing with insurance, dealing with the hospital.
DR. DALE KAUFMAN
You had the x-ray, right?
PATIENT
Yeah.
DR. DALE KAUFMAN
Try one more time.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
And a lot of the emotional issues that I faced.
DR. DALE KAUFMAN
Good.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
His were more difficult.
DR. DALE KAUFMAN
Yeah, that's great.
DR. JACK KESSLER
Carrie had a much more significant injury than my daughter.
DR. DALE KAUFMAN (V.O.)
We got a call at about two in the morning.
DR. DALE KAUFMAN
It was Carrie's boyfriend, and he said Carrie had an accident.
CARRIE KAUFMAN (V.O.)
We were swimming late at night. I dove in, I remember hitting my head.
DR. DALE KAUFMAN
I don't remember everything he said, he said
PAM KAUFMAN
“But she's fine.”
DR. DALE KAUFMAN
Yeah, I mean, “But she's fine.” And I said, “What do you mean she's fine?”
CARRIE KAUFMAN (V.O.)
And then I remember trying to come up out of the water, and
CARRIE KAUFMAN
not being able to, and thinking, “That's interesting, ah, I can't, I can't really move.”
CARRIE KAUFMAN
Sit down.
DR. DALE KAUFMAN (V.O.)
I said, "Can she move her legs?"
DR. DALE KAUFMAN
He said no. Can she move her arms? He said no.
CARRIE KAUFMAN
Everything is fine here.
CARRIE KAUFMAN (V.O.)
I maintained my composure under the water for forty-five seconds.
CARRIE KAUFMAN
Of course nothing has changed.
CARRIE KAUFMAN (V.O.)
It did feel like a really long time. A friend of mine pulled me out of the water.
CARRIE KAUFMAN
Close window.
CARRIE KAUFMAN
Then I said, "I'm not okay."
CARRIE KAUFMAN (V.O.)
It was a C-5 spinal cord injury. First I didn't actually realize the permanence of it.
CARRIE KAUFMAN
And then of course I didn't want to realize the permanence.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
Several months after her injury, Carrie visits Jack’s lab.
CARRIE KAUFMAN
Hi.
DR. JACK KESSLER
How you doing?
CARRIE KAUFMAN
Good, how are you?
DR. JACK KESSLER
I'm doing okay. Any trouble getting here?
CARRIE KAUFMAN
A little.
DR. JACK KESSLER
Are you getting around?
CARRIE KAUFMAN
Yeah. This is my friend Julie.
DR. JACK KESSLER
Hi. I'm Jack Kessler.
JULIE
Nice to meet you.
DR. JACK KESSLER
Nice to meet you. We'll start out right where things are most controversial. I'll show you what people call, it's called somatic cell nuclear transfer. Sometimes it's called therapeutic cloning. Come in and I'll show you.
CARRIE KAUFMAN
Okay.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
Somatic cell nuclear transfer right now offers what looks like the best scientific way
DR. JACK KESSLER
for us to be able to achieve the goals of what we're trying to do.
MICHAEL
Hello.
DR. JACK KESSLER
This is Michael.
CARRIE KAUFMAN
Hi Michael.
DR. JACK KESSLER
Come on around Carrie, I want you to explain to them exactly what you are doing. She may want to go by here Michael, so maybe it will be easier for her to get over here by the screen.
MICHAEL
Okay.
DR. JACK KESSLER
In the process of somatic cell nuclear transfer you start out with an egg cell. And it doesn't have to be a fertilized egg. I think a lot of people have a misconception. It can just be an unfertilized egg cell.
MICHAEL
So, this is a mouse egg. And we first have to remove the nucleus.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
You would go in and take the nucleus out, that's the part that has the DNA that makes us what we are.
DR. JACK KESSLER
Very good.
MICHAEL
So you can see it.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
So now we have an egg cell without a nucleus.
DR. JACK KESSLER
And then you would take the nucleus out of the cell that you took from your patient
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
and put it into the egg cell.
DR. JACK KESSLER
That's the process of somatic cell nuclear transfer, from beginning to end.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
You then let that cell divide until it forms a blastocyst and then you use that little ball of cells to create an embryonic stem cell line
DR. JACK KESSLER
that has your patient's DNA in it, it matches them perfectly.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
However, somatic cell nuclear transfer using human cells currently presents technical problems and, once again, more controversy.
FILM STRIP NARRATOR (V.O.)
Cloning, for those of you unfamiliar with biology…
BROADCASTER (V.O.)
Cloning has long been the stuff of science fiction.
WOODY ALLEN
We're going to attempt to clone the patient directly into his suit, and that way, you know, he'll be completely dressed.
BROADCASTER (V.O.)
…process that gave birth to Dolly the sheep…
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
I'm often asked, isn't that the same technique that were used to create Dolly the sheep? Couldn't this potentially be used to clone human beings?
BROADCASTER (V.O.)
…but human cloning, for the therapeutic purpose…
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
I know no stem cell biologist who has any interest in cloning human beings.
DR. JACK KESSLER
There are compelling scientific, social, moral, and ethical reasons not to clone human beings. That should be made illegal.
DR. JACK KESSLER
Do you have a Mac or a PC?
CARRIE KAUFMAN
A PC.
DR. JACK KESSLER
PC. Yeah, me too. You watch Michael doing this, so you've seen the first half And now this is the second half, where he's taking the nucleus out of a different cell, and you see it there? And he's putting one back in. Boom.
CARRIE KAUFMAN
So that little dot.
DR. JACK KESSLER
That little dot that just went in was the nucleus. That's got all the DNA in it. And so the idea will be that when it comes time for us to work to regenerate Carrie's spinal cord we would take a cell, maybe one of the skin cells or maybe a blood cell, we would take the nucleus out of that, and out it into the egg cell, and use that to make a stem cell line we can use therapeutically. And then it matches her body perfectly.
JULIE
So there's no…no…
DR. JACK KESSLER
No rejection. The genes are just exactly right for her body.
CARRIE KAUFMAN (V.O.)
Visiting the lab was a stressful day. When I
CARRIE KAUFMAN
start to think about stem cell research
CARRIE KAUFMAN (V.O.)
And what it could do, it makes it hard for me to be content in my wheelchair.
DR. JACK KESSLER
Maybe it's easier to come in this way.
CARRIE KAUFMAN (V.O.)
I don't think about being able to walk, because
DR. JACK KESSLER
Come on in.
CARRIE KAUFMAN
that's really hard to imagine.
JULIE
You can tell me if you want it focused more and I can turn the knob.
LAB TECH
If you can see, she will be able to see.
CARRIE KAUFMAN
Okay.
CARRIE KAUFMAN (V.O.)
I can't use my hand at all; I can just move my arm around.
DR. JACK KESSLER
Move her forward a little but--Okay, just move straight forward. Let her get in.
CARRIE KAUFMAN (V.O.)
So regenerating my spine a little bit, even if it could give me the ability to use my hand, it would change my life.
CARRIE KAUFMAN
Anything would be possible if I could just use my hand again. It's like a short-term stem cell goal or something.
DR. JACK KESSLER
Those cells that you're looking there can become any organ in the body.
DR. LAURIE ZOLOTH (V.O.)
If you could heal a spinal cord injury, how could you not want to do such a thing? Why the controversy? Maybe the stem cell research is so important to us, because it really is about core issues.
DR. LAURIE ZOLOTH
What does it mean to be human, what does it mean to be free, and what does it mean to confront the suffering of others? What must I do about the suffering of others?
FATHER TAD (V.O.)
Suffering is not an easy thing for any of us to process. It's an existential moment for each of us, and as we watch others who we love, suffering, it's an incredibly hard thing.
TEXT
Rev, Tadeusz Pacholczyk, Ph.D. National Catholic Bioethics Center
FATHER TAD
The question becomes, are there some kinds of cures that simply cannot ever be pursued, because they require that we do something that is intrinsically evil?
DR. LAURIE ZOLOTH (V.O.)
Can we make the world? Can we change nature? Can we use cells or groups of cells and these five-day embryos? Can we use them, create them, merely for research?
DR. LAURIE ZOLOTH
What should matter to us, I believe…
NARRATOR (V.O.)
With the controversy surrounding stem cell research growing, Laurie Zoloth and Jack Kessler work together to educate the public.
DR. LAURIE ZOLOTH
It is not religion versus science. It's one interpretation of Catholic moral theology and fundamentalist Christianity against many other religious voices and science. And we live in a country that needs not to choose one religious perspective but needs to hear all voices, and this has been true in many…
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
Every religion I know of tells us that it's our job to help people who are suffering,
DR. JACK KESSLER
to help people who have misfortune. That's what this is all about.
DR. LAURIE ZOLOTH
Is it hubris, or false pride, to intervene in our human reality of frailty and suffering and death and try to end it?
FATHER TAD (V.O.)
I am convinced that the question of the meaning of suffering is central to being human. We
FATHER TAD
actually grow during those trying times, and we're changed, and changed for the better in mysterious ways. Not to say that suffering itself is good, because it isn't. But that it offers, by passing through it, some very positive outcomes.
DR. LAURIE ZOLOTH
What makes me human is not my suffering, what makes me human is my yearning to heal. And that's a very big difference between us, and our colleagues in Catholic moral theology.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
Being alive involves suffering.
DR. JACK KESSLER
My daughter suffered a lot. But I think it's our job to try to alleviate suffering. And, the fact that we can't make it all go away doesn't mean that you don't try to make it go away. And if you see somebody in pain it's your job to try to help them. I'm a physician. First and foremost, my job as a physician is to try to alleviate suffering. And I absolutely reject anybody who would tell me that it's wrong to try to alleviate suffering.
ALLISON KESSLER
Hi, what do you have?
WOMAN
It's a baby sparrow, I think with a broken leg.
ALLISON KESSLER
Oh, is this the one where you were fifteen minutes away?
WOMAN
Yeah.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
Allison has a summer internship at the New England Wildlife Center.
ALLISON KESSLER
Did your--your cat jumped on him?
WOMAN
No, other birds are attacking it.
ALLISON KESSLER
Oh.
ALLISON KESSLER (V.O.)
Clearly I want to be a vet. I'm a very animal person, I sympathize with them.
ALLISON KESSLER
Ope, that leg's fine. Oh, and that one's completely shattered.
ALLISON KESSLER (V.O.)
If I see a little injured animal, you know, I want to take care of it.
ALLISON KESSLER
Morning, turkeys. Get 'em! Get the worms!
ALLISON KESSLER
There were a few things that I was kind of worried about. Like, if I were to actually be able to do it. And, I had a phobia of needles. Which, I still do if the needle's coming at me.
INTERN
Yup, good. And then that's gonna go sub-Q. Have you done sub-Q?
ALLISON KESSLER
Sub-Q on them?
ALLISON KESSLER (V.O.)
Pretty much my first day it was like, “Here's the needle, give the shot!”
ALLISON KESSLER
Like right there?
INTERN
Yeah. And shoot it in kinda fast, you know once you know you're in, cuz it stings a little bit. And make sure you don't go through the other side cuz it's pretty…
ALLISON KESSLER
Oh, I'm sorry, it stings!
INTERN
Okay, good, your first sub-Q.
ALLISON KESSLER
(laughs) Swallow! (laughs)
INTERN
He's point-eight.
ALLISON KESSLER (V.O.)
It's a lot of fun being here and knowing that a lot of animals that probably would have died, we get to take care of.
VICKI
Veggie fajita with the hot salsa and the corn.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
Several weeks into the experiment, work on the spinal cord project is progressing.
DR. JACK KESSLER
Hi Chris.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
Jack's hypothesis that the gel might help some of the problems associated with spinal cord injury appears to be correct.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
We've shown that we can safely inject it
DR. JACK KESSLER
into the spinal cord of the injured animals, that it gels, that it fills up the cavities, and that the animals improve functionally, they can walk better after we've done the gel.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
Both control and gel injected animals received identical injuries and were evaluated post injury at the same level.
VIBHU
Zero being the lowest score, which means it cannot move its hind limbs at all. It's completely paralyzed. And twenty-one being the score that a normal mouse would get.
TEXT
Control group animal: score 7
VIBHU
It starts off with a spasm. And keep focusing on the hind limbs. And there, it pulls it in and pushes it back out again. And it does it on the other side too. But as you can see the mouse is not using this for any functional movement. Now compare that to an animal that gets a BBB of nine.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
The animal that received a nine was treated with gel.
TEXT
Gel-injected animal: score 9
VIBHU
Not only is it using it for movement, its putting weight on its hind limbs. And it's pushing off as it moves across. And you can see that she can lift up her butt, actually. She can push off and weight on her hind limbs. So even though a seven to a nine may not seem like a big difference, functionally, it's a huge difference. So this is encouraging.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
Although encouraging, it was not enough to prove that the gel was actually causing regeneration. In order to do that, they had to be able to actually see the axonal tracts. And in order to see them, they had to stain them. But Vicki's technique of staining the spinal cord sections kept causing the tissue to break.
VICKI
A little piece broke off of it. And I don't know if it's our fixation protocol or if it's just my technique, or lack thereof of technique, but if I need that cord for following this axon then I'm out of luck. I mean it's all for not. So what I'm going to try instead is to go straight from the cryostat to the slide, and then I'm doing all the staining in these plastic mailers.
VICKI (V.O.)
We're gonna have, God willing, axons that are going to stain blue.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
Vicki desperately wanted it to work, couldn't get it to work; was very, very frustrated.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
Each month students in Jack's lab present their work to the entire lab. It’s Vicki's turn.
VICKI
We'll see if anybody has any brilliant suggestions. More importantly, are we having pizza?
STUDENT
No, no.
VICKI
We're not?! So there's gonna be a lot of hungry, therefore crabby…
STUDENT
Angry…
VICKI
…angry people yelling at me.
STUDENT
Angry, loud. Angry, hungry lab people.
VICKI
I can't take it.
STUDENT
They'll be thirsty for you blood.
VICKI
I don't want it! I don’t want it! I'm gonna die.
VICKI
So I tried the floating sections and although I got decent staining, the cord would literally disintegrate. So, I decided to just mount them straight on the slide. And after doing that, I really got absolutely no staining at all.
STUDENT
Why do you think it makes such a difference? It's so thin it shouldn't matter.
VICKI
It shouldn't, but yet it does. So, my new plan then, and I talked, more likely—
DR. JACK KESSLER
It's just that we don't want this to be the stumbling block in acquiring our last piece of data we need for the paper, you know.
VICKI
No, I'm with you. I should get one of those. Anyway, so that's it.
DR. JACK KESSLER
So, some technical problems, the most important one to solve is the tract tracing. We just have to have that to convince people.
VICKI
I agree. I'm on your team.
DR. JACK KESSLER
Okay. Good, we're in agreement then. Okay, Kumar, you're next week.
ANNOUNCER (V.O.)
Number thirty-two now, coming through weak. This is a coxswain's race people and you're seeing it right now.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
It is the day of the head of the Charles race, one of the crew season’s most important competitions.
ALLISON KESSLER
Hey, guys, someone rowed our boat yesterday. So check your feet.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
It's a two-day event.
ALLISON KESSLER (V.O.)
One thousand different crews. I mean, people come from all over the world.
ALLISON KESSLER
Everyone ready?
ALLISON KESSLER (V.O.)
High schools, colleges. Singles, doubles, quads. My parents will be coming this weekend, although their plane gets in an hour before the race starts. Hopefully they'll make it.
DR. JACK KESSLER
So she headed off already. I gather they're the second boat off this morning.
FEMALE VOICE OFF-SCREEN
Yeah, they're second boat off.
DR. JACK KESSLER
They've got fifty boats going…three a minute. So they send them off twenty seconds apart.
ALLISON KESSLER
Near the starting line, one, two, three, move on it now, four, we’ve got overlap, five, six, right on their asses, they're about three strikes in front of us now! That's it, starboard side ten, now, here we go! One, two, three, four, steady it up!
DR. JACK KESSLER
Steady them up!
ALLISON KESSLER
Five, inside of them now, six…
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
She has all the right traits…
ALLISON KESSLER
...seven, our bow is on their stern. Eight, let's go! Nine, stand up and move.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
She's got a big mouth, she doesn't mind yelling. She's very competitive. Yeah, she's a fighter.
ALLISON KESSLER
Take it from them.
DR. JACK KESSLER
That boat that's in front of them is moving across in her course. She's gotta find a course now, where she can pass it.
ALLISON KESSLER
That's it, there they are, see their puddles, lets go past them now.
DR. JACK KESSLER
So, she's probably going to make a shot for them right as they come under the bridge.
ALLISON KESSLER
...up, seven…
DR. JACK KESSLER
The other boat is doing something it shouldn't do, it's cutting across.
ALLISON KESSLER
Cocksend! Do not cut us off! Down to twenty-nine, we've got to bring it up now, guys.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
It's not often that parents really learn a lot from their children, but I've learned a lot from Allison.
ALLISON KESSLER
…eight, keep it moving! Nine, two more strokes.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
Allison has really truly healed herself. She's just absolutely intent on living her life, and making the most out of her life.
ALLISON KESSLER
Nice job, boys.
ALLISON KESSLER
I was on the buoy and he was out here, and when we come to the bridge, he goes like this, right in front of us...
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
I wish I was as strong as she was. I'm not.
ALLISON KESSLER
So now we're coming up this way, right? But then he weaved back to try to get the…
CREW MATE
And then he noticed….
DR. JACK KESSLER
I watched him cut you off twice; it was pretty annoying.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
Maybe it's about being a parent,
ALLISON KESSLER
…His buoy, his oars, never passed me…
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
I think most parents would tell you that, if I could somehow put myself in that chair, and have her walking, I would do it.
ALLISON KESSLER
…passed you a penalty, you do, oh yeah…
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
It's something you never accept.
CARRIE KAUFMAN (V.O.)
I used to always love to just sort of doodle, and make stuff. I used to have all these creative outlets, it was a big thing for me, you know, decorating things, and…
PAM KAUFMAN (V.O.)
She's who she always was, resilient, always the mediator. In her core
PAM KAUFMAN
That's who she is.
CARRIE KAUFMAN (V.O.)
I've always loved music. I played percussion and piano in jazz band. I would fall into the category of
CARRIE KAUFMAN
band nerd is, I think, what it's called.
PAM KAUFMAN (V.O.)
A lot of band kids came to visit her one evening, right after her injury, and there
TEXT
Pam Kaufman
PAM KAUFMAN
was lots of talk about music, and she just turned to me, the kids were all talking and she turned to me, “You know, I think it will be okay if I don't walk, as long as I can play the piano again.”
DR. DALE KAUFMAN
It's a bargaining thing.
PAM KAUFMAN
Right, exactly, she was bargaining.
CARRIE KAUFMAN (V.O.)
Bob is my younger brother. He great. He's always really helpful. He's the go-to guy for fixing anything, even my chair.
CARRIE KAUFMAN
And that's the part that you have to tape. Or does the pen go on top? No, the pen goes on the bottom. I need to request my transcript from Madison. And, uh, they don't believe it's me on the phone, and my mother isn't good enough to sign.
PAM KAUFMAN
Just one of the many bureaucracies we find ourselves in.
CARRIE KAUFMAN
I have to practice my signature, like eight times before I do it. But this is a pretty cool splint. Okay. I'm ready. I'll just get tired after this. I peaked.
PAM AND BOB KAUFMAN
(laughing)
CARRIE KAUFMAN (V.O.)
I would like to be able to do things for myself. It's pretty infuriating to completely depend on whoever is around, just because I have to.
CARRIE KAUFMAN
There, that's good.
DR. DALE KAUFMAN
That's good.
PAM KAUFMAN
Works for me.
CARRIE KAUFMAN
Works, period.
PAM KAUFMAN
Alright gang, we're eating.
CARRIE KAUFMAN
At the restaurant last night, I had to pull up to the corner of the table, and eat…
PAM KAUFMAN
Right at the table?
CARRIE KAUFMAN
At the table. Betsy had grouper.
PAM KAUFMAN
And Adam had…?
CARRIE KAUFMAN
Steak.
PAM KAUFMAN
Did he know that it's a seafood place?
CARRIE KAUFMAN
Can I have parmesan?
PAM KAUFMAN (V.O.)
She's very willing to work towards being content the way she is…
PAM KAUFMAN
…and I haven't come to that place.
CARRIE KAUFMAN (V.O.)
I think it's been the hardest on my parents. It's so hard for them to see me, struggle, but it's not really a struggle, it just takes me longer. And I feel like they need to trust that I'm going to be able to manage things.
ABC NEWS ANCHOR
Good evening. We start with a clash of religion, science and politics.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
The debate over stem cell research heats up when the House of Representatives defies President Bush, voting to relax restrictions on funding for stem cell research.
PRESIDENT BUSH (V.O.)
The use of federal money, taxpayers’ money, to promote science, which destroys life in order to save life
PRESIDENT BUSH
is, uh, I'm against that. And therefore, if the bill does that, I will veto it.
FEMALE ANCHOR (V.O.)
Soon it will be the Senate's turn to vote on the bill the House approved last week. The showdown that has Republicans at odds…
MALE ANCHOR (V.O.)
Republican leaders who were fighting each other…
ABC PUNDIT 1
When did your life start?
ABC PUNDIT 2
Well, Sam, I'm a lot more concerned about when my life is gonna end.
MICHAEL J. FOX
I'm one of the million involuntary experts on Parkinson's disease in the United States. Battling its destructive nature as we wait for a cure…
CBS NEWS FOOTAGE (V.O.)
President Bush returned from his Camp David weekend ready for an historic showdown with Congress.
PRESIDENT BUSH
This bill would take us across a critical ethical line…
ABC NEWS ANCHOR
…pitting those who believe the research can save life…
MARY TYLER MOORE
Embryonic stem cell research is truly life affirming.
ABC NEWS ANCHOR (V.O.)
…against those who believe it takes life. Not much room for middle ground.…
PRAYING MAN
…but behold it Lord, we know it all together, go perpetually behind and before and lay your hand upon me.
FATHER TAD (V.O)
This is a question as great, in fact,
FATHER TAD
greater, than the question of slavery that this country once faced.
FATHER TAD (V.O.)
…and it required a civil war before it could be brought to the point that justice and fairness were finally seen. I don't know whether that's the kind of thing that's kind of thing we'll have to talk about in the future…
FATHER TAD
when we talk about questions like embryonic stem cell research.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
Nine months after the House passes the Stem Cell Research Act, it goes before the Senate. President Bush has threatened to veto it should it pass.
SENATOR DICK DURBIN
We face an historic vote today, on stem cell research. This is a vote that millions of Americans are watching…
SENATOR ORRIN HATCH
I do not question that an embryo is a living cell, but I do not believe that a frozen embwe-, embryo in a fertility clinic freezer constitutes human life.
SENATOR DAVID VITTER
Mr. President, a human embryo is a human life, I believe that to the core of my being…
DR. LAURIE ZOLOTH (V.O.)
Whatever we decide, we can't stop
DR. LAURIE ZOLOTH
moving ahead in the course of history.
SENATOR CHARLES SCHUMER
This administration is not pursuing what most Americans want, but following the dictates of the narrow few.
SENATOR ARLEN SPECTER
A century from now, we will look back--people will look back--in amazement that we could even have this debate, where the issues are so clear-cut.
DR. LAURIE ZOLOTH (V.O.)
So now, the question is, are you going to go ahead with American voices and American funding?
DR. LAURIE ZOLOTH
Or are you going to do it with the Americans absent from the discourse?
SENATOR HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
We are losing ground instead of doing what Americans do best, leading the world in innovation, ingenuity, ah, new ideas.
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE
Any senators wishing to change their vote, if not, the yeas are sixty-three; the nays are thirty-seven. The bill passes.
TEXT
In July 2006, President Bush exercised the first veto of his presidency on The Stem Cell Research Act.
RESEARCHER
This is how we fix things here.
VICKI (V.O.)
Sometimes I think to myself, what am I doing, why did I even go back to school, maybe I'm not helping spinal cord injury by doing this research thing. If I weren't in the lab right now, struggling to get the staining to work, I could be affecting someone's life directly.
VICKI
Good job.
VICKI (V.O.)
I think that, doing research, I can understand what my patients went through more,
VICKI
Give it a little push-push-push.
VICKI (V.O.)
…because you do the same thing over and over and over again, like a transfer or staining. It's kind of the same thing, it's something you really want to work, and you really want to get it done, and you do it over and over and just never get anywhere.
VICKI
Now walk your left elbow towards your hip.
VICKI (V.O.)
We have patients that a lot of times their transfers don't work.
VICKI
let me see you walk yourself forward, and then have you get on your right elbow.
VICKI (V.O.)
Then finally one day, you don't know what you did differently, but somehow you did it differently.
VICKI
One, two, three. Good.
VICKI (V.O.)
and it works.
VICKI
Now what you might want to do is try to shimmy your shoulders to get your butt back in the chair a little bit. Good, good, good. Fabulous.
MATT
Shit.
VICKI
And you did all that. I didn't help you.
MATT
Not bad.
VICKI
Not bad at all. (Laughs)
VICKI (V.O.)
Sometimes, courage is a quiet thing. You just keep trying.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
After weeks of trouble-shooting, Vicki has gone back to her original method of trying to stain axons.
VICKI (V.O.)
The whole process is just a little more complicated
VICKI
But if that's the way it's going to work, that's totally the way I'm going to do it, I have no problem with that.
CARRIE KAUFMAN
I registered for my classes--well, a counselor registered for me.
DR. DALE KAUFMAN
How often do you have to go down?
CARRIE KAUFMAN
Probably three days a week.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
Carrie has gotten into De Paul University. She is hoping to live on campus.
DR. DALE KAUFMAN
Have you heard anything about the dorm?
CARRIE KAUFMAN
It's whenever accessible housing opens up. And then I would to check it out, like apartment style it would probably be.
DR. DALE KAUFMAN
It's pretty scary for me to think you’re doing this.
CARRIE KAUFMAN
Yeah, well, me too, but, I think the dorm is a good transition. It's time.
CARRIE KAUFMAN (V.O.)
I don't think we're in the same place with things...I think I've moved forward, which I guess makes sense…
CARRIE KAUFMAN
because I don't have a choice, you know.
CARRIE KAUFMAN (V.O.)
How am I going to do it? That's the big question, just go right into it I think. I'm gonna start commuting to Lincoln Park.
CTA ANNOUNCER (OFF-SCREEN)
Priority seating is intended for elderly and passengers with disabilities. Your cooperation is requested.
CARRIE KAUFMAN (V.O.)
I know it's hard for them to think about me moving out, but I'm so isolated. When I start to think about the logistics it is scary, because I will need a lot of help.
CARRIE KAUFMAN
How are you?
TAXI DRIVER
Fine, how are you today?
CARRIE KAUFMAN
Good.
CARRIE KAUFMAN (V.O.)
But, I'm 22. I shouldn’t be living at home, or don't want to be anymore. I want to go to school, be around people.
BOY
What?
CARRIE KAUFMAN
Nothing. What's the graph paper, what class?
BOY
Math. I've never had graph paper, so I've gotten points taken off on every homework assignment.
CARRIE KAUFMAN
(laughs)
CARRIE KAUFMAN (V.O.)
And I'm still not exactly sure how it's going to work, but I know people do it all the time, and I know that I'm a pretty responsible person, I'll figure out how to do it, and…
TEACHER
As the United States runs short of nurses, senators are looking abroad.
CARRIE KAUFMAN (V.O.)
I have always been interested in psychology. I'm interested in doing counseling for people with disabilities.
TEACHER
Carrie.
CARRIE KAUFMAN
Well, it's just such a double standard how we, like, can pick and choose which kind of immigrants we want, and then…
CARRIE KAUFMAN (V.O.)
I gotta say, being Dr. Kaufman kind of appeals to me too.
ALLISON KESSLER
So we are now in old Harvard yard, and this is the oldest part of the campus right here. 1970 was the first time that there was a coeducational graduation from Harvard. There is still a Radcliff yard. That actually is where the admissions office is for Harvard. So you have to go through Radcliff to get to Harvard.
TOUR GROUP
(laughs)
ALLISON KESSLER
Any other questions, ah, we're going to head towards the Science Center.
ALLISON KESSLER
I only have one year left of college. So that's sort of the point when you're sort of like, it's start to make decisions about what you're gonna do, I mean I have to look for a real job, which I've never done before. Even things like this, this is my first dinner party, this is the first time I've ever, like, cooked a full meal. Okay, get some tomatoes. This is my roommate’s butter.
ALLISON KESSLER
I guess I was thinking that if I have the skills, and the resources, and the drive to go to med school to be a rehab doctor, I feel like I could do a lot of good with it. And I would have a unique perspective. The cake is done.
ALLISON KESSLER (V.O.)
And I do have the sort of insight in my own experiences that it would be helpful for other people.
ALLISON KESSLER
I can't believe I have to look up eggs; that's just wrong. But you can't see when it's done. Cake, you can look at it, and it looks done. Eggs. Eggs.
ALLISON KESSLER
Cheers to my mother who taught me to make schnitzel and drink champagne while doing it. Not out of a plastic glass, but—
FRIENDS
(laughing)
ALLISON KESSLER
At home, you know, my parents worked all day, and dinner was the time when everybody sat down. That why I think it's so cute that they're all setting the table, we are each others’ family while we're here, and it's cute. I like it. Cheers!
FRIENDS
Cheers!
ALLISON KESSLER
Now we can eat.
FRIEND
What don't you like about them?
ALLISON KESSLER
I don’t know, I just really don't like tomatoes.
ALLISON KESSLER (V.O.)
I've had a couple jobs, you know, I have had life experiences, broken up with people, dated other people, learned a lot in different classes. I've been traveling by myself to other parts of the world.
ALLISON KESSLER
Keller do you want tomatoes? Because that doesn’t have tomatoes in it.
ALLISON KESSLER (V.O.)
And I guess that 's sort of what I want my dad to realize, is that…
ALLISON KESSLER
It's gonna be okay (laughs).
ALLISON KESSLER
How's the grown up table doing?
FRIENDS
Oh, we're doing really well. How's the kiddie table?
ALLISON KESSLER
It’s good.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
Vicki has finally gotten her staining technique to work. She has spent the last 12 weeks tracing axons, in order to measure how much regeneration has occurred. She has one last spinal cord to go.
VICKI
These are all the sections of the spinal cord, and I take every single section and then I pull them up on this slide, and I line them up, so that the lesion is in the same place. And then, trace an axon through this slide. So now I can move from this section and then go to the next slice. Continue tracing the axon, and on and on and on. So what I do is I count them, how many fibers come up to a lesion, how many go into the lesion, how many go like 25% of the way into the lesion, 50%, 75%, and how many go all the way through the lesion.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
Throughout the entire experiment, both Vicki and Vibhu have been blind to which animals receive gel, and which received only glucose.
VICKI
This is the last spinal cord , so if there are a lot of tracks that go through the lesion, and it's a control animal, then we've have nothing to publish. But if it is a gel-injected animal, and there's lots of tracks going through the lesion, then that's good. I will e-mail the information to Jack, and he'll do the statistical tests on it. He will probably do it immediately, as soon as he gets it, he's pretty juiced up about it.
VICKI
I'm sending it.
VIBHU
Okay.
VICKI
So we'll see if he comes running in here.
VIBHU
He was here ten minutes ago.
VICKI
Looking for me?
VIBHU
Mmhmm.
VICKI
Yeah, I'm sure he is. Ohhh!
DR. JACK KESSLER
Hey, let me show you the statistics.
VICKI
It took you like a whole minute (laughs).
DR. JACK KESSLER
Come on, it's fantastic.
VICKI (V.O.)
Vibhu and I tend to be a little more cautious, I think, than Jack. When we get good data, it just needs to sink in a little bit, before we totally get juiced up about it. Like, Jack,
VICKI
immediately gets all, big smiles, and you know, hands waving and eyebrows going crazy.
DR. JACK KESSLER
I mean it's incredible, it's incredible. That's what the graph looks like. The gel ones, two of them grew all the way through out the other side. That's just incredible.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
The data revealed that the mice injected with gel did much better than the control mice. 80% of the axons in the gel-treated animals entered the injury site, and about a third of the axons grew all the way through to the other side.
DR. JACK KESSLER
It actually works.
VICKI
Who would have thunk it.
DR. JACK KESSLER
Hooray!
VICKI and VIBHU
(laughing)
VIBHU (V.O.)
The first thing that I thought about, and I kid you not, was like,
VIBHU
he's gonna ask us to do more experiments now, for sure. We know that there is a second round coming up.
VICKI
…yeah, but…
DR. JACK KESSLER
Now, there's another experiment we have to do now guys. We want to try it with the other treatments. Try it with your stem cells, and try it with your robogramming. And most of all lay a tract down for the motofibers to descend.
VICKI
That wasn't our plan.
DR. JACK KESSLER
I know, our revised plan.
VICKI
Let's use the cells that we've engineered to secrete different factors—
DR. JACK KESSLER
I mean, my concern—
VICKI
to see whether or not this is even a feasible thing, and then the next round of graduate students you have can use all kinds of different things.
DR. JACK KESSLER
Well, I'll repeat what I said, you know, we have a winner now, it's not just a, it really is to your benefit to take this and run now as fast and hard as you can, because it doesn't come along that often. What we also have to think about now is how we're going to scale up.
VICKI
Meaning…
VIBHU
I don't like that phrase at all…
VICKI
Scale up (laughs). What does scale up mean exactly?
DR. JACK KESSLER
What I though we would do is, get some animal spinal cords, yeah, from a meat packing place, and optimally probably swine would be the best match size, but it could be bovine. And try some injections. You know, that's something that could be interdigitated timewise with everything else.
VIBHU
(laughs) Interdigitated timewise… there are…
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
They spend hours and hours at the bench, day after day, week after week, and they've been working at it so long, it's almost just a relief that the experiment is over. So what I really have to do is …
DR. JACK KESSLER
put it in perspective for them. This is a success that no one else has yet really been able to do, and certainly, at least with a technique
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
that no one has ever used before. They know that intellectually, but they don't know it in their heart. And they don't know it in their heart because they haven't failed enough times.
DR. JACK KESSLER
when a success comes along I've learned to enjoy it.
MARILYN KESSLER
Here you are grandpa! Happy Fathers’ Day!
DR. JACK KESSLER
A bowling ball?
SON
Sounds like you might pull it off.
DR. JACK KESSLER
What do you think it is? Do you think it could be a tie?
SEDONA
Yeah.
DR. JACK KESSLER
You think so; well let's see if you're right. Sedona thinks it’s a tie. Whoa, good guess Sedona.
ALLISON KESSLER
Do you wear pink?
DR. JACK KESSLER
I guess I do now.
DR. JACK KESSLER
You are not working.
ALLISON KESSLER
Yes I am.
DR. JACK KESSLER
You're taking a course.
ALLISON KESSLER
I'm working 24 hours a week.
DR. JACK KESSLER
What are you doing?
ALLISON KESSLER
I'm working in the [muffled] office. $10/hour.
DR. JACK KESSLER
What are you working in the what?
ALLISON KESSLER
The information office. And I'm volunteering at the rehab hospital, and I'm taking a course, AND I'm taking the MCATs. How is that not enough to do for the summer?
SON
And she's writing a short story.
ALLISON KESSLER
And I'm writing a short story. How is this not enough?
DR. JACK KESSLER
Are you gonna write that short story?
ALLISON KESSLER
I already wrote the rough draft, and I got an A in the class for it .
DR. JACK KESSLER
That was a Harvard A; it doesn’t count.
ALLISON KESSLER
Yes it does.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
Shortly after submitting their paper, Jack and his team have received word the journal Science has declined to review it. Another journal is interested, but has asked for additional experiments.
VIBHU
It's just been one frustration after the other, so…
DR. JACK KESSLER
Alright, well.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
The people that looked at our findings had quite a number of suggestions of
DR. JACK KESSLER
things that would be necessary to convince a skeptical world.
VICKI
First of all, we need these separate….
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
So Vicki and Vibhu are at the point now, of finding confirmatory evidence using additional techniques, to show that they really regenerated fibers in the spinal cord.
DR. JACK KESSLER
I think you can go back in and inject it lower in the cord and see if you can get them to extend.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
This paper will be published in a good journal. There's no question the data are very good data, very solid data.
VICKI
But I think, again, this is going to tell us, give us a clue to that and then we can decide…
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
There's what you dream, what you hope, and what you plan.
DR. JACK KESSLER
What I dreamed of course was that we would do these procedures and we would have mice jumping out of the cage. What I had hoped is that we would get what we did.
VICKI
So the plan? Good?
DR. JACK KESSLER
We have a plan, that's good.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
And my job and my role is to be upbeat. Not unrealistic, upbeat enough to tell them it's okay.
MARILYN KESSLER
Going my way?
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
We haven't cured spinal cord injury.
DR. JACK KESSLER
You know, we won a battle, we didn't win the war yet.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
It may even be this battle will turn out to a battle that wasn't important for winning the war. You never know that. No one treatment is going to solve these very complicated problems.
DR. LAURIE ZOLOTH (V.O.)
There's been a sobering reconsideration
DR. LAURIE ZOLOTH
of how fast the pace will go.
DR. LAURIE ZOLOTH (V.O.)
…It's just as important to see what doesn't work. And what roads are the wrong ones, as to only find the right roads. And if it wasn't, it wouldn't be science. One of the things I think is very important in thinking about this work is, it might not work. There's no certainty; it's an exploration. That is why it is Terra Incognita. It is new landscape.
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
Our job is to discover the truth, when we stray from the path, and we go the wrong direction, it's a self-correcting process. Our goal is to try to cure disease.
DR. JACK KESSLER
…never had any double vision…
DR. JACK KESSLER (V.O.)
That's what this is all about. Each day we get just that little bit closer, incrementally. To me the question, when is it going to happen, is not the right question. As long as you're prepared to take small steps. And see that you're making progress you know eventually you'll get there.
ORIGINAL MUSIC
Joel Diamond
MUSICIANS
Jack Bashkow - Flute and Oboe
Joel Diamond - Piano and Clarinet
Karen Waltuch - Strings
ADDITIONAL MUSIC
John Keltonic
SOUND
Rich Pooler
Byron Smith
Zak Piper
Matt Vogel
ADDITIONAL SOUND
Juan Rodriguez
Michael Kranicke
Steve Clack
Adam Singer
ADDITIONAL CAMERA
Jason Longo
Slawomir Grunberg
Stan Staniski
Justine Nagan
POST PRODUCTION TECHNICAL SUPERVISOR
Jim Morrissette
POST PRODUCTION ASSISTANT
Zak Piper
Liz Kaar
NARRATION RECORDING
Experimental Sound Studio
SOUND MIX
David E. Simpson
KARTEMQUIN STAFF
Justine Nagan
Zak Piper
Gordon Quinn
Joanna Rudnick
Leslie Simmer
BOOKKEEPING
Yvonne Afable
ANIMATION & OPENING CREDITS
Sol FX Design Chicago
INTERNS / PRODUCTION ASSISTANTS
Ahnna Lee
Amadi Jordan-Walker
Beckie Stocchetti
Brendan Kirwin
Bryce Goodman
Chad Owen
Charle Luckett
Danielle Krudy
Dorian Anderson
Ellen Wohlberg
Fouzia Najar
Ivana Stolkiner
Katie Weber
Kevin O’Dowd
Kirsten Johnson
Matt Wittmer
Meghan McGillen
Michael Carney
Rich Simpson
Ryan Gilbert
Sara Wagley
Sari Gezler
Shana East
Susan Hanrahan
Tobiah Gaster
Todd Lillethun
ARCHIVAL IMAGES
Conus Archives
The Uffizi Gallery
ABC
CBS
CNN
CSPAN
Media Process Group
NBC
WiCell Research Institute, UW Madison
SPECIAL THANKS TO THE INDIVIDUALS AND FAMILIES WITHOUT WHOSE HELP AND PARTICIPATION THIS FILM WOULD NOT BE POSSIBLE
The Kessler Family
The Kaufman Family
The Zoloth Dorfman Family
Vicki Tyssling-Mattiace
Vibhu Sahni
Tony Valukas
THANKS TO
Active Voice
Center for Social Media
Chicago Transit Authority
The Christopher Reeves Paralysis Foundation
DePaul University
Dr. Samuel Stupp
The Economic Club of Chicago
Fairmont Hotel Chicago
Fertility Centers of Illinois
Harvard University
Institute for BioNanotechnology In Medicine
IVS Clinics
Legal Sea Foods
Martayan, Lan, Augustyn, Inc.
The National Institute of Health
New England Wildlife Center
Northwestern Memorial Hospital
Northwestern University
Peter Jaszi
Prentice Women’s Hospital
The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago
Richard B. Arkway, Inc.
Shaw’s Supermarket
Steve James
Steve Whisnant
St. Margaret Mary Church
THIS FILM WAS SUPPORTED BY GRANTS FROM
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
The National Endowment for the Arts
The Sundance Institute Documentary Fund
The Illinois Arts Council
The Illinois Humanities Council
The Black and Fuller Fund
The Daniel Heumann Fund
PRODUCED IN ASSOCIATION WITH
The British Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
SBS-TV Australia
A Production of Kartemquin Educational Films, Inc. which is solely responsible for its content.
©2007 Kartemquin Educational Films.
All Rights Reserved.
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