| By Jose Latour | Tuesday, February 11, 2003 |
Man, when I sniff a story, my instincts can really kick in at times. (-: In the January 2003 issue of Prevention Magazine (hey, leave me alone, I'm 41, I've subscribed and I have no apologies) I came across an article describing the work of Dr. Janet Yamamoto, a professor of pathobiology at the University of Florida's College of Veterinary Medicine (http://www.vetmed.ufl.edu). The article immediately caught my eye for several reasons, some of which you folks already know:
Anything Gator perks my ears up.
Anybody with an international name perks my ears up.
The College of Veterinary Medicine at UF is where our first formidable rottweiler, Rommel, had state-of-the-art eyelid surgery years ago, allowing him to see again and forever earning the school a place in my heart.
The article said something that was absolutely flabbergasting, only because it was tucked in the very back of the magazine: Dr. Yamamoto developed a vaccine made available in veterinary clinics in July of 2002 which protects cats from developing feline AIDS. According to the article, it is the first time that any type of vaccine to protect any type of animal immunodeficiency viral infection has been approved for commercial use by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Now, folks, I'm no scientist, but it doesn't take a great deal of logic-leaping to understand that if this amazing woman has found a way to create a vaccine for the feline version of AIDS, we are getting awfully close to doing something similar with the human version of the disease...
The article indicated that feline AIDS shares many biological similarities with the human version of the virus, HIV. In both cases, the virus infects the "T" cells and breaks down the immune system, slowly causing the infected individual to fall victim to any number of infections. Needless to say, I had to find out who this Dr. Yamamoto was, so I did what any intrepid reporter would: I picked up the phone.
Being a good scientist, she was in her office, just where she was supposed to be at 4:10 on a Friday afternoon, tapping away on her keyboard, just like me. She was somewhat amused at who I was, what I was doing, and what I wanted, but was sweet as sugar and willing to share her story. Like all immigrants - er, as you will see, "semi-immigrant" in this case - it was an interesting one worth sharing with all of you.
Dr. Janet K. Yamamoto was born in Tokyo to a Japanese father and a Japanese-American mother. Her mother, like so many of the Japanese-Americans living in the U.S. during the tragic World War II years, lived in a wartime internment camp, one of the horrific humiliations to which U.S. citizens of Japanese decent were subjected. However, when Janet was born in Tokyo, her folks took her to the U.S. Embassy, where she was given a U.S. passport, in addition to the Japanese one already issued to her. So Janet K. Yamamoto was born in Tokyo, a U.S. citizen, another one of us convoluted, ethically mished-moshed sorts... roots from all over, a little American, a little of that... a citizen of the world, in this very special case making contributions to the entire world.
If you want to see this amazing woman's CV, you can look her up on the Internet, but let me just warn you, it's a humbling read. After reading it I was like: "damn... what have I been doing with my time...?" (-: It suffices to say that her list of awards and honors includes a whole bunch of patents and other stuff the rest of us generally don't have on ours... (-;
I wish I could've seen her face, but I could tell from the smile I could feel over the phone that Dr. Yamamoto is a kind-hearted person whose pursuit of AIDS research is triggered by a genuine desire to alleviate suffering, not only in animals, but in people. I have absolutely no doubt that her work in veterinary research will have colossal implications toward the cure of AIDS in human beings. As I was finishing up my brief telephone conversation with her, she said to me:
"Don't write anything bad, now..." and laughed.
Now, Dr. Yamamoto, do I sound like the guy who interviewed Michael Jackson? (-: