Jim Parsons To Narrate Discovery’s ‘First In Human’ Medical Research Docuseries
Discovery Channel has greenlighted medical research docuseries First In Human: The Trials of Building 10 with The Big Bang Theory’s Jim Parsons as narrator and executive producer. The three-part documentary series, produced by McGee Media, begins airing on Thursday, May 18 at 9 PM on Discovery.
Directed by Emmy winner John Hoffman (The Alzheimer’s Project) and executive produced by Hoffman and Emmy winner Dyllan McGee (Teddy In His Own Words), First in Human gives viewers unprecedented access inside the National Institutes of Health’s Building 10, the largest hospital in the world devoted solely to research where some of medicine’s riskiest and most critical research is done. Previous trials in the building led to the development of modern chemotherapy treatments, the first treatments for HIV/AIDS, and the first successful gene therapy.
First in Human explores the lives of the doctors, researchers, and patients who together make progress possible in this cutting-edge testing ground. The docuseries represents the first time cameras have embedded in Building 10 and followed first in human patients throughout their entire trial. The unique access is the product of Hoffman’s nearly twenty years of filmmaking in partnership with the NIH on projects such as The Alzheimer’s Project and The Weight of the Nation.
“NIH’s Building 10 has given generations hope when they need it most,” comments Rich Ross, Group President, Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, Science Channel, and Velocity. “We are proud that the NIH has invited Discovery inside their doors for an unvarnished look at how these brave men and women work hand in hand with their doctors and technologists to seek cures to the most confounding diseases that exist.”
“Because of the very nature of first in human trials, most of the patients who enter Building 10 to enroll in them are remarkably unique: all standard care out in the world has failed them,” says Hoffman. “What was most powerful about embedding in Building 10 and following these trials was observing how the doctors and patients came to rely on each other in a true partnership to advance medicine.”
“I know that everyone who watches First in Human will feel the same sense of pride I did when I discovered this incredible institution that our country created,” said Parsons. “I hope viewers will share the sense of gratitude and awe that I felt when learning about the human beings who bravely put their lives in the hands of some of our most innovative scientists and doctors as they search together for the medicines and cures that give all of us fuller, longer lives. This is truly the story of how we, as human beings, function: both at an elemental level and at our most profound.”
First in Human: The Trials of Building 10 is produced by McGee Media for Discovery Channel. The series is produced by John Hoffman, Beth Wichterich, and Michael Epstein; executive producers Dyllan McGee, Jim Parsons, Todd Spiewak, and Eric Norsoph; producer, Jon Bardin; supervising producer, Stacia Thompson; senior editor, Adriana Pacheco; director of photography, Simon Schneider. For Discovery Channel, supervising producer, Jon Bardin.
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