You can't get there from here: the tortuous road to basic research.

Abstract

Basic researchers are on the defensive as pressures increase for them to translate their findings into palpable amelioration of the human condition. Yet recognition of the need and importance of practical applications hardly leads to a quick consensus about solutions; indeed, some proposed solutions appear to threaten the practice of basic science, especially those that favor focusing less on curiosity-driven research and more on application-oriented "quick-fix" research. Whatever solutions are developed, they must not weaken the basic science approach, which is essential. To illustrate this opinion, the author discusses one field of biomedical research, the various attempts to treat human cancers, specifically breast cancer. Such attempts have been launched in the face of an almost total ignorance of why cancer cells grow uncontrollably. For that reason, the author and many others believe that the best hope for breakthroughs in cancer treatment lies in greater understanding of the molecular and genetic mechanisms responsible for cell growth. The record shows that the knowledge only recently gained about these mechanisms came unexpectedly from several areas of curiosity-driven research having no apparent connection with the problem of human cancer. No one could have planned those investigations in a way that could anticipate, let alone guarantee, the important insights into cancer that resulted. Also, because these cell-growth mechanisms are used for other biological processes in the body, research on cancer cells often has yielded understanding about other non-malignant diseases (e.g., aspects of autoimmune disease, diabetes, hypertension, and nerve-cell dysfunction).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)