Failure, ingenuity, and change: Stories of setbacks in medical research

On September 26, 2023, in collaboration with the Journal of Trial and Error, we organized a lunch lecture on failure, ingenuity, and change during the Grand Round at the Wilhelmina Children's Hospital. This was the first lunch lecture in the series Scientific Failure and Uncertainty in the Health Domain. 

Dealing with and learning from mistakes

During the lunch lecture, we had the opportunity to hear engaging presentations from Berent Prakken and Kors van der Ent, followed by an interactive Q&A session. Both speakers shared their personal experiences with failure. In the past, there were promising developments in treating autoimmune diseases, including efforts like peptide immunotherapy for rheumatism, but these efforts did not transition successfully to clinical application, which led to the establishment of the Eureka Institute for Translational Medicine. Similarly, the failure to develop a new drug for Cystic Fibrosis resulted in the formation of Fair Medicine, a company dedicated to fair medication, after pharmaceutical partners withdrew despite ongoing efforts to create an affordable treatment.

Speakers

• Prof. dr. Berent Prakken is Professor of Pediatric Immunology, Vice Dean, and Director of the Education Center at UMC Utrecht, as well as a renowned expert in autoimmune diseases.
• Prof. dr. Kors van der Ent is a pediatrician, Professor of Pediatric Pulmonology, and chair of the Child Health Program.