La famiglia relaxing
at the Mariners versus Orioles game in Camden yards. Go M’s and for that matter
Go Hawks!
The year started and ended for me with trips to Amsterdam.
In January I spoke at a chromatography event (www.scm-7.nl)
about our surface acoustic wave nebulization (SAWN) technology being
commercialized by Deurion, LLC of Seattle (www.deurion.com).
This company was set up in 2011 by me and Pat Langridge-Smith of Edinburgh. Its
built around technologies developed as part of the RASOR consortium in Scotland.
Unfortunately, the highly successful RASOR consortium has no web footprint
outside of a mention on Pat’s website; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIRCAMS.
Dave’s Subaru buried
in Baltimore’s snow where the year started with a heck of a lot of snow. Not as
much as Boston, but a lot.
In January Amsterdam was freezing cold, wet and overcast and
in December the weather was different only in that it was not yet freezing. This
last time I visited to speak at the Professorial inauguration of longtime
friend and colleague, Garry Leander Corthals, at the University of Amsterdam; http://hims.uva.nl/shared-content/events/symposia/2015/12/casa-seminar.html.
The Dutch take very serious the appointment of Professors as the inaugural
lecture was given from the pulpit of the local church. It was a bit like an
American church wedding in that the family was escorted out after the new
Professor and then the attending Professors and then the general audience were
allowed to leave. Even the after event had a line in waiting to speak to the
new Professor just as we have for the bride and groom.
December 2015 with
Garry and Dave preparing for his inaugural address at the Academisch-cultureel centrum at SPUI 25
in Amsterdam (www.spui25.nl).
By midyear it was once again time for the annual Mass
Spectrometry in Biotechnology and Medicine Summer School in Dubrovnik, Croatia
(www.msbm.org). For me this is like Christmas
in July because by July – just like December – I’m usually mentally exhausted
and need a bit of a break. Most of the effort to set the event up takes place
in the first couple of quarters of the year. So by the time we arrive most of
the preparation is done leaving some time to relax with colleagues and the
students. It is though still a bit chaotic with 45-50 participants and two
dozen faculty. However, this year we had close to a record number at nearly 60
participants which was a bit much logistically. We managed, but having around
45 is some how a much easier number to organize food and exams and excursions
for. Next year will be the tenth version of MSBM, but it hasn’t been held every
year until recently. The first was held way back in 2001 in September. I was in
Korea on 11 September that year and intending to fly to Croatia for the first
MSBM. Was just as well because I could not come back to the US any way for
about another week. At that time Dubrovnik still had the scars of war with many
homes in the old town still having large holes in their red tile roofs from the
bombs lobbed from the adjacent hill into the city.
Above is the view from
across the harbor in Cavtat looking out from Hotel Croatia, which is just to
the South of Dubrovnik and much less crowded making it a better getaway than
Dubrovnik.
At work the year ended with establishment of a Baltimore
based company, Pataigin, LLC, set up with long time microbiology collaborator
Robert Ernst to commercialize technology to more rapidly identify bacteria
direct from specimen. In 2016 we plan to add more intellectual property to
address needs in development of vaccine adjuvants and anti-inflammatory
therapeutics. Erik Nilsson, whose origins are in the ethnic Swede-Finn minority
of Finland, has been busy in 2015 running both Deurion and Pataigin from
Seattle and at least for the moment does not seem sorry our paths crossed, but
he has been over run with work by these startups. Without someone like Erik who
has made a career of starting companies neither startup would be possible as I
don’t have time to do it and legally can’t as a Professor at a state owned
University.
David with nearly a
year’s worth of hair in attendance at his maternal great grandmother, Reba Roberts Robinson's funeral.
While in Finland in early April seven hours ahead of
Baltimore I had a text from Donna that she and David were in the emergency
room. Appendicitis they thought, but I suggested it might be from Crohn’s. A typical
emergency room story followed in that they were ignored for hours and hours and
hours. Finally an MRI showed it was not appendicitis but lesions from Crohn’s
threatening to rupture. Doing so would mean septic shock could set in quickly
which is often fatal. So, while they suffered hours of being ignored, I cut
short my trip to Turku and headed home. It would be my 55th birthday
on 2 May before surgery would remove a foot a his small intestine too riddled
with lesions to heal even after nearly a month on a pic line as his only form
of nutrition. If you wonder what a pic line is then see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peripherally_inserted_central_catheter.
David rollin round da ER
A couple months after surgery and in Seattle for the Summer
he started humira. This treatment, which we worried about being too powerful and
dangerous, has proven to be a miracle drug. With the TNF-a under control he became a new person reborn
from years of being inflamed putting on 30 lbs by end of Summer. This Fall has
seen him enjoy being at Towson University and doing very well in an economics
program after having to go through medical withdrawal the prior Spring.
The Goodletts formerly
of Montgomery, Alabama reunited at Cecil Lewis’ wedding in June.
Actually on his 19th birthday on 27 April while
at the end of his pic line therapy, the 2015 Freddy Gray riots ensued. As we
live in the heart of the city, cars and stores were burned and looted within a
mile of our house. Closer still – within a few blocks – if you only count
looting. Richard Sherman had the prior year railed against use of the word
thugs to describe his legion of boom, but Baltimore’s black Mayor did not
hesitate to describe those trying to destroy the city as thugs. As usual very
few bad actors caused most of the problems and the same can be said for the
police in the Freddy Gray and other cases. Most police do their jobs well with good
intentions while being overworked and underpaid. Most police departments are
dealing with the ramifications of Reagan’s dismantling of the mental healthcare
system.
The Milwaukee chief of police has summed up the difficult
problems several times in the last year better than I can. If you care to read
about it you can do so here http://www.headlinepolitics.com/police-chief-goes-lack-coverage-black-black-crimes/
and/or here http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/caused-dramatic-tipping-point-deadly-shootings/.
No matter where, after many generations of social disparities implementing
solutions is difficult. There is actually no shortage of solutions, nor good
people trying to help, but cities like Baltimore lack an appropriate tax base
to implement solutions. The parts of the city worst hit in April are the same
parts that have never recovered from the riots of 1968 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltimore_riot_of_1968).
That was the beginning of the end of civility in Baltimore. Today, its common
to hear people screaming epithets at each other in person on the street or into
their phones. So its no wonder that Baltimore’s murder rate has sky rocketed
this year along with Milwaukee’s and Chicago’s and other formerly great cities.
Graham R and David M
Goodlett at the wedding of their first cousin Cecil Lewis’ in Alabama.
Both boys once again spent a significant part of their Summer in Seattle. David working for a friend's catering business and Graham for a friend's construction business. Graham, now 18, is doing better than well in his
international baccalaureate program at Baltimore City College High School. In
short, he has excellent grades and SAT scores. His interest in body building
and a detailed weight lifting program have led him to an interest in
metabolism; the differences between individuals and outcomes for the same
training effort and food consumed. As such he is considering studying chemistry
and or biochemistry at University. While he has and will apply to a number of
schools (Univ of WA, Northeastern, Johns Hopkins, and UM College Park), he is
most interested in UM College Park where he and I spent a day in September
touring campus. His lifting and dieting plan (he weighs all his food to
precisely calculate nutritional content)
has him now at about 14% body fat capable of benching 235 lbs at 5’5” and 154
lbs. By contrast, at 5”6” and 152 lbs I have about 20% body fat and can't bench
235 lbs! Don’t want to either. Looks heavy!
Graham benching 235 lbs.
In hindsight it seems Donna spent much of the year repairing
this old house. A ruptured sewer pipe on the outside back wall had to be
replaced. A rotten old wooden door to the basement needed to be replaced. The
gate to the patio had to be replaced. The koi pond had to be drained and cleaned.
A dead willow tree had to be removed. The sprinkler system in the patio had to
be repaired. The chimney for the living room had to be cleaned, but to get it
to where we can use it is another $5000 that we don't want to spend at the
moment. The shared wall in the back of the house needs to be repaired as brick
and mortar in many places are in danger of coming down on us when dining
outside, but the neighbor is so far reluctant to spend the money. Me too, but
its my head that its gonna fall on. So we may have to pay to repair it
ourselves. C’est la vie!
Donna’s constant
companion and sleeping buddy when I’m away Trixie in what use to be my chair.
Outside of being Mrs Handyman and driving the boys, neither
of whom has a driver’s license (C’mon guys!!!), around town she more or less
started and ended the year well relaxing with friends in Seattle. In February I
needed to be in San Francisco for an NIH (www.nih.gov)
review meeting. So, she went along as far as Seattle where we spent a few days
visiting friends. Then in September I needed to be in Vancouver BC for an
international meeting (www.hupo.org) and she
spent an entire week there with me joining for a few days at the end of the
week to visit friends and Deurion which is located on the University of
Washington campus in Fluke Hall which houses an incubator for startups. Seattle
had the driest Summer ever recorded this year but I feel sorry for all those
(20,000) folk who have just arrived to work for Amazon because that was no
normal Summer. I can remember Summers that lasted no more than one month –
August. My last graduate student, Lucas Monkkonen, graduate from the University
of Washington this year. So, the only ties there now are our friends and
Deurion.
View of the Space
Needle in February from the Chihuly (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dale_Chihuly) glass exhibit.
Happy Holidays from
the Baltimore Goodletts: Dave, Donna, David and Graham!!!
