Date Published: June 25, 2020
Publisher: Archway Publishing
While working independently as a pre-med student at Cleary University, the
soon-to-be physician, Mary Austin, discovers a remarkable, non-toxic drug
that could offer tremendous hope to cancer patients. Her work is headed for
publication in a top medical journal until a drug company begins
negotiations with her bosses from which she is mysteriously excluded.
Amid egregious sexual harassment, Mary’s materials are blatantly sabotaged.
As death threats follow and her work becomes impossible, she is accepted at
Whitehead College of Medicine despite evidence that her bosses tampered with
her application process. After becoming a pediatrics resident, she shares
her story with her beloved mentor, Dr. Daniel Taylor, who allows her to
temporarily leave her residency training to reproduce the work. Her joy
turns to sorrow and then determination when she learns that Dr. Taylor is
battling terminal pancreatic cancer. Even as a chain of events prompts the
sabotage of Mary’s drug stock and leaves her seemingly without any choice
but to permanently leave academic medicine, the story of her drug is not
over yet.
In this novel inspired by a true story, after a young cancer researcher
discovers a breakthrough drug that could change chemotherapy, the drug
industry suppresses the breakthrough and transforms her life and career
forever.
Excerpt
The Camera Aversion of Scientists
If you want to see a lab empty out like the place is on fire, get a camera.
Almost everybody who works in labs is camera shy. This can be a problem if
you’re in that large majority and land in a prominent lab where the
university (or even local media crews) might be around on a regular basis
depending on what’s been discovered. These poor guys, who are just
trying to do their jobs, want to film scientists doing science, but the
problem is that almost all of the scientists want to run away.
One postdoc I remember even hid in the lab’s “hot room”
to avoid a news crew. That’s the term for the room where all the
radioactive materials are stored— very safely, really; there’s
little to no risk to going in that room despite its off-putting appearance.
The university’s radiation safety staff inspects those rooms
regularly, and nobody’s allowed in there without knowing what
they’re doing.
But the door has those giant radiation warning signs on it, and my
colleague correctly guessed that the camera people sure as hell
wouldn’t follow him there.
…That guy in the hot room stood around for almost an hour with
nothing to do, until he was sure the crew was gone. Having successfully
avoided appearing in the video, he went back to work and faced nothing but a
bit of ribbing from the rest of us.
About the Author
Mary Austin is the pseudonym for a physician who, in order to publicize a
suppressed discovery in cancer research, had to sacrifice first her academic
career, then a career as a board-certified pediatrician, and then her
personal safety. She would do it again.
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