A Productive Example of Industry And Academic Cooperation

Abstract

Submitted for publication May 19, 2009 Accepted for publication May 20, 2009 From the Francis Weld Peabody Society, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Ronald Arky, Charles S. Davidson Distinguished Professor of Medicine, Francis Weld Peabody Society, Harvard Medical School, 260 Longwood Ave, Boston, MA 02115. Email: ron_arky@hms.harvard.edu. Published as a Rapid Electronic Article in Press at http://www. endocrine practice.org on June 2, 2009. DOI: 10.4158/EP09144.CO © 2009 AACE. James Howard Means had no reservations—he readily accepted the small gift from Edward Mallinckrodt, Jr, a scion of the St. Louis chemical manufacturing company, a faithful Harvard alumnus who served on the board of overseers at the college and a friend of Fuller Albright, a colleague of Means who was at that time chair of medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital. The modest gift of $5000 was to establish a laboratory for the detection of iodine levels in the blood, a much needed facility to complement Ward 4, the hospital’s clinical research unit. With the availability of that laboratory, the story of iodine deficiency was reaffirmed and the consequences of thyroid dysfunction, goiter, and mental retardation were amplified. Two young investigators, John B. Stanbury and Sidney H. Ingbar, were on the scene at the time of the Mallinckrodt gift—both had their careers affected and both played direct roles in the global affront on iodine deficiency. Stanbury was a founding member and first chair of the International Council for the Control of Iodine Deficiency Disorders and traveled extensively to iodize food and water. Ingbar did likewise. Both are responsible for the worldwide decline in goiter. While most of us recognize Stanbury and Ingbar as renowned editors, teachers, and mentors and superb researchers, their contributions to world health, stimulated by a token gift, reveal that a small donation, even if it smacks of conflict, goes a long way.