Eat here, get gas & worms.

It's the kind of message that would never make it on one of those huge superhighway exit signs. But we were traveling at a more leisurely pace on a small, two-lane road through the fisherman's paradise of northern Minnesota when we came upon the town of Osage (pop: 453) and this descriptor of K&T's Pub & Grub.

While unlikely to win any marketing awards, the message was a straight-forward way to describe the essentials that most travelers on that road were looking for. Deep in the heart of walleye country, with no other towns or gas stations for miles around, food, gas, and worms were precisely what was needed.

I thought of K&T's when I read all the research progress described in these pages. There are frequent references to our research "journey"--complete with roadmaps and milestones. We've had to take some back roads and detours, and occasionally reached some dead ends. But along the way we've come across our own Osages with their unexpected--but essential--findings, critical for the next leg of our MS journey.

Think of the "essentials" we've discovered in just the last decade: there is a genetic predisposition for MS; there is an environmental (probably viral) trigger; there is a gender bias and sex hormones surely play a role; there are dozens, possibly hundreds of genes to target for drug therapies; there are ways to turn off the immune system; and the nervous system can be prompted to repair itself!

With every funded research project come opportunities and discoveries--some as unexpected as gas and worms at a pub--that are essential to the next series of discoveries. On this journey, we piece together every answer, collecting the obvious--and the less than obvious--to assure that we're prepared to catch the really big one--the cure!

That's what's on my mind. What's on yours?

Joyce Nelson

President & CEO 

The National MS Society

700 Broadway, Suite 810

Denver, CO 80203

or e-mail [e-mail]