In November of 2017, Kelly Kicking Cancer again visited the Peak Center, this time to speak with Dr. Mauro Ferrari, president and CEO of Houston Methodist. Dr. Ferrari is a most gracious and hospitable man, who warmth and manner immediately made me feel at ease. I presented Dr. Ferrari with a Kelly Kicking Cancer nested bat set in recognition of his advanced work on fighting cancer. Dr. Ferrari recognized the set of nested bats as a metaphor for a cancer-fighting technique spearheaded by Houston Methodist. Using nanotechnology, larger nano particles deliver ever smaller nano particles across various natural barriers in the human body until the final nano particle delivers the coup de grace to individual cancer cells. We moved over to his wall of awards and accomplishments where he intended to find a place for the bats. This wall was covered with awards, and pictures of Dr. Ferrari with more than a few Nobel Prize winners and dignitaries. Despite his many magnificent medical achievements, Dr. Ferrari is a truly humble man.
We spent about an hour talking about our personal experiences with cancer and the direction of current cancer research. He related some of the recent successes The Peak Center has had in using nanotechnology to cure cancer, not just put it into remission. Papers on this will be forthcoming sometime in the near future.
An unexpected treat was to meet with Dr. Baskin, the head of neurosurgery at The Peak Center. In 30 minutes, he gave me a rapid fire update on everything his team has accomplished since our visit in June, 2017. They have added several new members to the staff, including a nanotech expert who in just four months completely re-engineered the mitochondrial smart bombs and the nano syringes to make them more effective. His staff has now mapped the complete genome of the GBM cells, looking for and finding the genes that control the uptake of energy in the GBM cells. This is going to be used to kill GBM by starving them of energy.
