STB-MR89
     THE MASONIC MEDICAL
      RESEARCH LABORATORY

             one of

       "MASONRY'S WINDOWS
          TO THE WORLD"



RW. and Dr. Charles Antzelevitch
       Executive Director
    and Director of Research



R.W. Ronald P. Kamp
Director of Development
   and Communication



  Freemasonry can and should be proud of its charitable good works.
Many of our concordant bodies support specific projects. Shriners
heal crippled children and give new life to burns victims through
support of the Shrine Crippled Children's Hospitals and Burn Units.
The Northern Jurisdiction of Scottish Rite has long made Schizophre-
nia Research its major charitable activity while the Southern
Jurisdiction supports two hospitals and sponsors an Aphasia Pro-
gram geared to help children with language disorders. Knights
Templars support an Eye Foundation and Royal Arch Masons nationwide
contribute to research into auditory perception disorders in
children. The list goes on and on.

  Helping crippled children walk, retuming speechless children to
society or giving the gift of sight through cornea transplant sur-
gery are not medical miracles. They represent the culmination of
numerous basic research studies which pieced together provide the
foundation for major advances in medicine. Antibiotics, pacemakers,
and organ transplants have greatly improved our quality of life. All
of these life saving and health improving advances have become a
reality because of basic biomedical research.

  Basic research in the biomedical sciences involves fundamental
studies into life processes where the major goal is to obtain an
understanding of living organisms. This is the purest form of
research which strives to provide the most complete understanding of
the function of cells, tissues and organs in both normal and
diseased states.

  Today doctors replace whole organs, vaporize tumors with lasers,
create test tube babies and clone genes. Scientists and doctors
have just begun to treat obstructed arteries with drugs, lasers
and angioplasty. These technological advances may make coronary
bypass surgery obsolete by the 21st century. Many kidney and other
organ transplants performed today would not be possible were it not
for the anti-rejection drug cyclosporin, developed as a result of
basic research conducted on a fungus from the soils of Norway. Open
heart surgery would not be possible today without the thousands of
discoveries provided through basic research into how blood clots,
how the heart beats, or how antibiotics combat infection.

  The beauty of basic research is that it goes where no man has gone
before, the uncharted frontier of medical science. Scientific
breakthroughs occur everyday in laboratories all over the world,
some go unnoticed while others receive much acclaim. Every
experiment provides answers or pieces of a puzzle which, when
finally assembled, provide the foundation for treatments and
cures. This is the type of research conducted at the Masonic
Medical Research Laboratory in Utica, New York.

  The Masonic Medical Research Laboratory's history dates back to
1947 when the Grand Lodge of New York under the leadership of
Grand Master Gay H. Brown created the Masonic Foundation for Medical
Research and Human Welfare. In its early years the foundation
allocated nearly $1.5 million to research programs dedicated to the
elimination of rheumatic fever.

  In 1954, M. W. Raymond C. Ellis, during his term as Grand
Master, conceived the idea of a medical research laboratory sup-
ported by the Craft. Dedicated to basic research the Masonic
Medical Research Laboratory would embody the very essence of the
Fraternity's charitable good work. In June of 1958, Raymond C.
Ellis' dream became a reality.

  Since its founding, the Masonic Medical Research Laboratory has
gained intemational prominence as a medical institute, espe-
cially in the area of heart disease. Over the past 30 years, it has
earned a reputation as one of the finest biomedical research insti-
tutes of its size worldwide.

  The Laboratory's largest research program deals with the problem
of heart disease, especially as it applies to abnormal heart
rhythms, known as cardiac arrhythmias. Experimental cardiologists
at the Laboratory have contributed importantly to delineation
and discovery of a number of mechanisms that contribute to life
threatening disturbances of heart rhythm. Most recently, they
have demonstrated major differences in the electrical activity of
the inside and outside muscle of the heart, (ventriclar endocardium
and epicardium), a finding that may enhance our understanding of
some forms of cardiac arrhythmias and a number of previously
unexplained phenomena observed in the ECG of patients. These find-
ings also help to explain the different sensitivities of the
inside and outside muscle of the heart to ischemic injury as occurs
during a heart attack. Moreover, these studies have shown for the
first time that medications may exert very different effects on
these two types of heart tissue, thus opening the door for a new
line of pharmacological investigation.

  Recently initiated studies by scientists in our Cancer Program may
help explain the primary cause of atherosclerosis and the role of
fish oils in preventing lesions in the arteries. This disease is
responsible for most deaths due to coronary and other artery
disease (ex. heart attack and stroke). Recent studies suggest
arteriosclerosis, a major killer of Americans, may in fact be a form
of tumor that affects the lining of arteries, although the
initiation and progression of the disease is clearly influenced by
other factors, including hypertension, cholesterol and fats.

  These researchers have also shown that benzo(a)pyrene, a common
environmental pollutant and a carcinogenic component of cigarette
smoke, can contribute to atherosclerosis leading to stroke and
heart attack.

  Researchers in the Hypertension Program have recently embarked
into immunological investigation as to the cause of hypertension.
There appears growing evidence that the immune system may contribute
to the disease. Recent studies suggest that in some cases the body
may be treating its own blood vessels as foreign material and
initiating a chronic allergic reaction to them. This type of
autoimmunity may explain some characteristics of
hypertension.Scientists in the Gerontology Program are currently in-
vestigating the accumulation of cadmium, iron, and aluminum in the
body as a function of age. They have demonstrated large
accumulations of these metal ions with advancing age.

  Cadmium is known to be associated with cancer formation and high
blood pressure. Research has shown that excess iron may cause anemia
rather than reduce it. Aluminum has been suspected to be linked to
Alzheimer's in animals; the findings are not definitive with
respect to humans. Aluminum has also been linked to osteopc-rosis
or brittle bones, a common affliction of the elderly. Research
continues to find a way to neutralize the effects of these
substances in the body.

  Fear of AIDS and the misconceptions about the disease continue to
affect dwindling blood supplies and have heightened the need for a
blood substitute. Investigations at the Laboratory are working to
develop a blood substitute that will have all the properties of a
plasma expander but will also be capable of transporting oxygen.
This substitute consists of hemoglobin extracted from blood and
subsequently complexed with starch. This technique produces a
freeze-dried product which can be reconstituted by adding water.
It is designed to be free of infectious agents such as AIDS and
hepatitis viruses, will not have to be blood typed and will have a
shelf life of several years. Application of this blood substitute
could improve memory, drug effectiveness and oxygen transport in the
elderly. More importantly, this development could lead to
personalized freeze dried blood.

  How different our lives would be if men like Pasteur, Fleming,
Salk or Barnard, to cite just a few examples, had not dedicated
themselves to science or had not been provided the resources to
carry out their work. Today pasteurization, penicillin, the polio
vaccine and open heart surgery are taken for granted. Smallpox,
polio, pneumonia, rheumatic fever and a long list of other
diseases are no longer the terrible cripplers and killers they
once were. Biomedical research has made these advances possible.

  Just as the carved stones that comprise the cathedrals of Europe
represent the proud past of Operative Masonry, the charitable good
works of Speculative Masonry provide our legacy for the future.
Each in their own way radiate the Light of Masonry around the globe.
Our Masonic heritage beckons us to leave this world a better place
than we found it. What better way for the Craft to accomplish this
goal than through the support of "MASONRY'S WINDOWS TO THE WORLD".


For further information, please write to:

   Masonic Medical Research Laboratory

            2150 Bleecker St.

         Utica, NY 13501 1787

(315) 735-2217



