Book excerpt: What causes multiple sclerosis? When will there be a cure? Dr. Howard Weiner has spent nearly three decades trying to find answers to the mysteries of multiple sclerosis, an utterly confounding and debilitating disease that afflicts almost half a million Americans. Curing MS is his moving, personal account of the long-term scientific quest to pinpoint the origins of the disease and to find a breakthrough treatment for its victims. Dr. Weiner has been at the cutting edge of MS research and drug development, and he describes in clear and illuminating detail the science behind the symptoms and how new drugs may hold the key to "taming the monster." From the "Twenty-one Points" of MS--a concise breakdown of the knowns and unknowns of the disease--to stories from the frontlines of laboratories and hospitals, Curing MS offers a message of hope about new treatments and makes a powerful argument that a cure can--and will--be found.