Page 34 - Buzz Magazine - Issue No 2 Winter 2021 | University of Rochester

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WHAT’S A KEY LESSON YOU’VE LEARNED
FROM SCIENCE?
F IV E MIN U TE S W I TH Scientists have to be comfortable with uncertainty.
Stephen Dewhurst Experiments fail. Discoveries upset our
preconceived theories. New technologies come
Vice dean of research at the School of Medicine along and radically change the way we do our
and Dentistry and the interim vice president for
University research work. In science, we have to be okay with “I don’t
know” as well as admitting when we are wrong.
HOW DOES RESEARCH IMPROVE PATIENT CARE? Research is never done and there is always
All the medicines we have today are the result of more to learn.
research—period. Without research, we wouldn’t WHERE DOES THE BEST SCIENCE COME FROM?
have insulin for diabetics, drug therapies for Science is like life—you can’t do it alone. It’s
cancer patients, treatments for people with HIV/ essential to have a table around which many
AIDS, and more. This is true for the COVID-19 different perspectives and areas of expertise can
vaccines, too, which are based on decades of sit and have their voices be heard. Physicians,
basic research in infectious disease and RNA statisticians, biologists, computer scientists, and
biology, areas in which the University excels others all need to work together; we also need to
and has played a lead role. Research directly include diverse voices that offer a breadth of ideas
translates into better patient outcomes. and different ways of approaching a question. The

result is better, more interesting science.

33 | UNIVERSITY OF ROCHES TER BUZZ MA G AZINE