Appearing to breathe like a real dog, a toy called Perfect Petzzz intrigued Darlene McCord enough to buy it. McCord sat on her couch with the stuffed animal on her lap in her downtown Iowa City condo one night and was struck by how relaxed and comforted it made her feel. Then an idea popped into her head.

“The kids at the hospital need one of these,” the 64-year-old Iowa City woman thought.

A few days later, she drove to University Hospitals with 47 of them in her trunk and gave them to a hospital official. For about two years now, there has been an open-ended agreement courtesy of McCord and her husband, Jim: all pediatric cancer patients and children in with other serious and chronic illnesses receive one — along with batteries — “so when mom and dad go home, they still have something there with them.”

The McCords don’t necessarily set out to help, it just happens. They become passionate about causes, and when they see a need, now that they are able to, they give and give. The couple is most supportive of biomedical research. After all, Darlene McCord is a biochemist, and her research in skin and wound care generated the assets they now have.

Darlene McCord developed the brand Remedy, which is the current sales leader in wound care products for hospitals, long-term care facilities and nursing homes, according to company McCord Research’s Web site.

Redox and Cell Cycle lab research scientist Dr. Ehab Sarsour discusses results from a Real-time PCR (Polymerase chain reaction) system, which is used to measure gene expression, with Darlene McCord on Tuesday at the Medical Education and Research Facility in Iowa City.

The McCords have supported biomedical research at the University of Iowa for a few years now. They recently committed $2.3 million to aging and wound healing research, among other aspects of the gift. This translates to two scholarships and four fellowships, plus their mentors.

Rebekah Bartelt, 25, of Charles City, is a third-year UI graduate student studying how cells respond to skin wounds. She received a $20,000 scholarship.

“It frees up a lot of resources for our lab in general. It frees up money from other sources,” Bartelt said. “It increases the possibilities for what I personally can do and for the lab.”

The enthusiasm Darlene McCord brings when checking in on the research “rejuvenates” Bartelt’s own passion for her work, she said.

The McCords give back their earnings to support the research of students like Bartelt. Darlene McCord points to the decline in support from National Institutes of Health, a prominent agency for scientific research funding, to about 17 percent of requests.

“Our young researchers at UI are today’s pioneers, and no one is funding them. We are falling behind in science. No one is funding areas that are tomorrow’s cures. This country wasn’t built on safe dollars,” she said. “From the moment they get a Ph.D, they get rejected and rejected and rejected.”

Libby Slappey, a development officer at the UI Foundation, met Darlene McCord in January 2007 and has worked with the McCords on some of their gifts.

“I think the best word that describes them is passionate. They are as passionate about Hawkeye football as about the Buruli ulcer,” Slappey said. “We could not ask for finer supporters.”

The McCords had been living in Nevada until a few years ago, but had been traveling to Hawkeye football games for 20 years. Jim McCord, 70, has three UI degrees, he said.

A few years ago, Darlene decided to buy a condo in town as a gift to Jim for when they came for sports, but she connected with the research community here and decided she wanted to move permanently.

Their passion for Hawkeye sports manifests in contributions to the UI spirit squad, which includes dancers, cheerleaders and Herky because “they aren’t considered athletes so they aren’t funded, yet they are working year round at all these events,” Darlene McCord said. They also contribute to Hancher Auditorium and the UI rowing team.

“There is a common thread to our giving. They are all young people –scientists or kids with Buruli ulcers or athletes. These are all young people who are putting in a special effort,” Darlene McCord said.

However, they don’t direct all their money to Iowa. They have started a project called the Buruli Ulcer Project, which aims to treat and cure a skin ulcer that mainly affects children in poorer countries. For $15, the condition can be treated if caught in early stages. Left untreated, it causes painful and visually stigmatizing open sores and even death.

The McCords have started a Pennies Have Power fund to support treatment in West Africa. They also fund research at UI to study treatment methods and researchers at Michigan State University and University of Tennessee to discover a cure.

The McCords hope their contributions are seeds for future research and that they inspire others to realize they can support specific endeavors.

“When you make more money than you need, what do you do with your abundance? You can buy yachts and planes or you can put money in areas you believe in,” Darlene McCord said. “The cures may come long after we’re gone, but what a legacy.”

IOWA CITY, Iowa (November 17, 2008) –The McCord Research Foundation (www.mccordresearch.com), today presented the Aquatic Entomology Lab at Michigan State University—commonly referred to as the Merritt Lab—with a grant for $143,000.  The grant will help the Merritt Lab continue its mission to study and identify the causes and routes of transmission of  Buruli ulcer, a skin disease prominent in many parts of Africa.  A portion of the grant will also be used to develop education and family support programs aimed at teaching families how to identify and seek medical intervention for the ulcer in its early stages.

The McCord Research Foundation grant enhances the funding provided by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) Emerging Infectious Disease section to conduct a five year study investigating possible links among biting aquatic insects, water quality, landscape and Buruli ulcer transmission in Ghana.  The NIH grant was awarded to Michigan State University, with a subcontract awarded to the University of Tennessee.

“Buruli ulcer is a devastating disease affecting thousands of children throughout west Africa, particularly in Ghana,” said Dr. Richard Merritt, Professor of Entomology, Department of Entomology, Michigan State University. “The McCord Research Foundation’s generous grant will help to support research into how this horrific disease is transmitted.  It will also allow us to work with staff in the country itself to establish an education program assisting parents to identify the presence of the ulcer in their children.  We’re hoping to eliminate the stigma associated with Buruli ulcer and get families to take action early, reducing the often painful suffering and isolation that goes along with contracting the disease.”

“We are honored to fund the excellent work Dr. Merritt and his team are undertaking with regard to Buruli ulcer” said Darlene McCord, Ph.D., FAPWCA, of the McCord Research Foundation.  “This disease ruins entire families’ lives, and the more we know about it, the better chance we have of stopping it.  I have already invested my own research energy into creating a topical wound care product that can effectively treat and heal the ulcer once it’s established.  My hope is that my treatment will become obsolete, and that no child will have to suffer the physical and social hardship associated with contracting Buruli ulcer,” she continued.

The bacteria responsible for Buruli ulcer—Myocobacterium ulcerans—is a genetic cousin to the one that causes leprosy and tuberculosis.  Like leprosy, patients with Buruli ulcer can develop painful and unattractive sores on their body that can eventually cripple and even kill them.

More common in children then adults—about 70 percent of those with the disease are younger than 15 years old—Buruli ulcer mainly affects children in poor, rural areas.  If left untreated, the ulcer can spread and painful scar tissue develops.  The disease also destroys the social and emotional lives of school-age children because they are isolated from family and friends.  Most aren’t even allowed to attend school, due to their condition.

“The McCord Research Foundation grant will help ensure that Dr. Merritt, his students and other researchers have the resources needed to continue their work to eradicate Buruli ulcer,” said Jeffrey Armstrong, dean of the Michigan State University College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.  “This partnership between MSU and the McCord Research Foundation will have a tremendous impact on the quality of life in communities throughout Africa. It represents how universities and foundations can work together to effectively address a health crisis in ways that no one organization can do alone.”

About the Merritt Lab
The Aquatic Entomology Lab at Michigan State University, better known as the Merritt lab, is a group of undergraduate and graduate students, as well as post-doctoral and research associates, who study and research the ecology of aquatic insects under the direction of Dr. Richard Merritt.  The Merritt lab functions under the Department of Entomology at Michigan State University, where Dr. Merritt recently served as Chairman from 2002-2008. Mollie McIntosh, a postdoctoral research associate, and Ryan Kimbirauskas, a Ph.D. graduate student, are members of Dr. Merritt’s team, committed to researching Buruli ulcer.

About McCord Research Foundation
Established in 2008, the McCord Research Foundation is the philanthropic arm of McCord Research, supporting programs and causes close to the heart of  McCord Research founder, Darlene McCord.  The Foundation currently funds activities in three areas: athletics at the University of Iowa; research fellowships in the University of Iowa biosciences department; and independent labs working on researching Buruli ulcer.   The Foundation’s unique Pennies Have Power program utilizes the fundraising skills of children helping children, by empowering gradeschoolers to raise money to help Ghanaian children suffering with Buruli ulcer .  To find out more about how your school or group can get involved with Pennies Have Power, go to www.mccordresearch.com.