© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Toxicology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
Bringing Biomarkers to the Masses: An Elegant Approach to Discover Potential Biomarkers of Vascular Injury
Toxicology and Safety Assessment, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 900 Ridgebury Road, Ridgefield, CT 06877
1 For correspondence via. Fax: +203 798 5797. e-mail: rstachle@rdg.boehringer-ingelheim.com.
Received August 28, 2007; accepted August 28, 2007
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One of the greatest criticisms of scientists is that many do a poor job conveying the importance of their work to the public. My graduate professor used to say that one should be able to take their research project and "tell a story that even your Grandmother could understand." This statement was certainly not meant as a derogatory comment toward all of the grandmothers in the world. This was his "not-so politically correct" way of saying that we all need to think about a concise story, devoid of scientific jargon, to describe our research to the public. We have all had projects where the layperson's description was difficult to develop because of the complexity or proprietary nature of the work. However, the development of biomarkers of toxicity is one of the areas where the complexity of the science can be readily distilled to a concise story highlighting that one