Of all the challenges in medicine, none may be more maddening than the gap between new discoveries by scientific researchers and effective therapies for treating sick patients. Closing that gap takes more than money, but without money, the gap never will close.
Last week, the Danforth Foundation provided fresh gap-closing fuel — a $10 million gift to support research into neurological disorders at Washington University’s Hope Center. The money is dedicated to “translational research,” which specializes in figuring out how to turn new discoveries into usable treatments. It is an area that is chronically underfunded.
The Danforth Foundation grant was the week’s second major research funding announcement involving Washington University. On Monday, Arch Coal, Peabody Energy and Ameren Corp. announced a $12 million gift to fund research into so-called clean-coal technology. Arch and Peabody, two of the nation’s largest coal companies, hope to make St. Louis a national center for studying sustainable coal technology.

Scientific research is one of the region’s biggest economic engines. In 2007, Washington and St. Louis universities received more than $395 million in research funding from the National Institutes of Health alone. Millions more go to help fund the work at the Danforth Plant Science Center and other regional institutions.
The two gifts announced last week will help fuel remarkable research being conducted here. It includes investigating the possibility of environmentally sustainable uses of America’s most abundant energy source — coal — and unraveling neurological disorders such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease), Alzheimer’s disease and multiple sclerosis.
More importantly, they fuel hope for a better future.