Monthly Archives: March 2012

Research and Markets: Nanotechnology Market Forecast to 2014

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Dublin - Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/8f3c56b6/nanotechnology_mar) has announced the addition of the "Nanotechnology Market Forecast to 2014" report to their offering.

In the coming years, nanotechnology is set to play a pivotal role in various industry segments. The evolving technology has already influenced a large number of industrial segments, and the economic activity generated from it has been high in magnitude and wide in scope. The nanotechnology-based products, which have had a huge impact on almost each industrial sector, are now entering the consumer market in a big way.

As per the findings of our latest report, increased applications of the technology in sectors like electronics, cosmetics, and defense, would propel the growth of the global nanotechnology market, which is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of about 19% during 2011-2014.

According to Nanotechnology Market Forecast to 2014, electronic companies are finding new ways of incorporating nanotechnology into consumer products like music systems and mobile phones in order to improve their processing capabilities. Similarly, the technology could help improve cosmetics by changing their physical properties.

We also observed that the use of nanotechnology in defense technologies provides enhanced performance at lower cost. Besides, the budding technology has revolutionalized dental care as it decreases the healing time and improves the Osseo-integration during dental implant. Our report discusses in detail these application areas and the key market trends.

Though nanomaterials would continue to dominate the nanotechnology market in the coming years, nano devices, comprising nanolithographic tools for manufacturing the next generation semi-conductors, are estimated to grow at a much faster rate than nanomaterials in near future.

The crucial country-level analysis, included in the comprehensive research, identified that the US is the world's most prominent nanotechnology market and will continue to enjoy the biggest pie of the global industry in the years to come, despite developing economies like China, Korea, India, and Brazil investing huge sums in the nanotechnology R&D. Our report elaborates the application areas and regulatory environment relating to nanotechnology in these countries, along with the patent analysis.

Companies Mentioned:

- Altair Nanotechnologies Inc.

- Nanophase Technologies Corporation

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Research and Markets: Nanotechnology Market Forecast to 2014

New Guidelines Issued for Red Blood Cell Transfusions

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Based on Research by UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Physician

Newswise New Brunswick, NJ -- The transfusion of red blood cells is a common treatment in clinical practice. However, the level at which they are transfused varies based not only on a patients health, but also is determined by what the administering physician deems appropriate. Today, the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB) has issued new guidelines, published in Annals of Internal Medicine, recommending that transfusion of red blood cells be considered at a hemoglobin threshold of 7 to 8 g/dL for stable adults and children. This recommendation to use a restrictive approach not only saves blood, but also reduces the costs related to unnecessary transfusions.

A systematic review of published research determined that a restrictive approach to red blood cell transfusions would provide the best clinical outcomes for patients without causing harm, said Jeffrey L. Carson, the Richard C. Reynolds Professor of Medicine at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, who chaired the guideline committee and is the first author of the guidelines found at: Red Blood Cell Transfusion: A Clinical Practice Guideline From the AABB (http://www.annals.org/content/early/2012/03/26/0003-4819-156-12-201206190-00429?aimhp). It is important however that physicians consider other clinical conditions when determining transfusion levels to ensure patient safety.

The AABB recommendations four in all are based on the systematic review of research published from 1950 to 2011 which examines the proportion of patients, both adult and children, who received any red blood cell transfusion for medical or surgical reasons, and the number of red blood cell units transfused. The guidelines also recommend a restrictive transfusion approach for patients with preexisting cardiovascular disease but indicate that it is unknown when transfusion should be given to a patient hospitalized for a heart attack. The fourth guideline recommends that the patients symptoms, in addition to hemoglobin levels, be considered when determining transfusion levels.

Dr. Carson was the study chair for the Transfusion Trigger Trial for Functional Outcomes in Cardiovascular Patients Undergoing Surgical Hip Fracture Repair, known as FOCUS, the results of which were published in December 2011 in the New England Journal of Medicine. The results of FOCUS contributed to these guidelines as did two previously published systematic reviews of research by Dr. Carson and colleagues.

Dr. Carson developed the guidelines along with specialists in cardiology, pediatrics, critical care medicine, trauma and anesthesia who formed a 20-member panel of experts.

About UMDNJ-ROBERT WOOD JOHNSON MEDICAL SCHOOL

As one of the nations leading comprehensive medical schools, UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School is dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in education, research, health care delivery, and the promotion of community health. In cooperation with Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, the medical schools principal affiliate, they comprise one of the nation's premier academic medical centers. In addition, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School has 34 other hospital affiliates and ambulatory care sites throughout the region.

As one of the eight schools of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey with 2,800 full-time and volunteer faculty, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School encompasses 22 basic science and clinical departments, hosts centers and institutes including The Cancer Institute of New Jersey, the Child Health Institute of New Jersey, the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine, the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, and the Stem Cell Institute of New Jersey. The medical school maintains educational programs at the undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate levels for more than 1,500 students on its campuses in New Brunswick, Piscataway, and Camden, and provides continuing education courses for health care professionals and community education programs. To learn more about UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, log on to rwjms.umdnj.edu. Find us online at http://www.Facebook.com/RWJMS and http://www.twitter.com/UMDNJ_RWJMS.

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New Guidelines Issued for Red Blood Cell Transfusions

Principal expects school medical clinic will be busy

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Principal expects school medical clinic will be busy

John Hopkins consider opening a Medical School in Malta

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John Hopkins Medicine, one of the top medical institutions in the United States, is exploring the possibility of opening a Medical School in Malta to offer medical courses to local and foreign students. John Hopkins Medicine is considering buying St Philips Hospital which can house up to 120 beds but as that will not be enough to provide the wide range of patients needed for a proper medical education, an arrangement would have to be reached with Mater Dei Hospital and the Medical School of the University of Malta to provide access to at least another 100 patients.

The University of Malta resisted a similar attempt by the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland (RCSI) to open an international medical school in Malta. RCSI also needed access to Mater Dei Hospital for its medical students. The University of Malta had proposed the opening of another medical school together with St Georges University of London but this proposal got nowhere. While RCSI were ready to invest in Malta, St Georges did not have the money to do so.

Last May the Ministry of Health commissioned John Hopkins Medicine International (JHI) to carry out a systems revue and needs assessment at Mater Dei Hospital with the aim of enhancing hospital efficiency to continue to improve access and the quality of service delivered to Maltese patients.

The Maltese government had said that this is in line with its stated objective that Malta should become a healthcare centre-of-excellence for the Mediterranean region within the wider context of Vision 2015.

Government had been also considering contracting John Hopkins Medicine International to manage Mater Dei Hospital but has given up the idea as the management fee was going to cost 10 million a year.

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John Hopkins consider opening a Medical School in Malta

Sitting Too Much May Boost Odds of Dying

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People Who Spend a Lot of Time Sitting May Be Up to 40% More Likely to Die From Any Cause, Study Finds

March 26, 2012 -- Don't take this sitting down, but spending too much time in a chair is bad for your health -- really, really bad.

New research published in the Archives of Internal Medicine shows that people who spend a lot of time sitting may be up to 40% more likely to die from any cause, compared to people who don't sit as long.

The study tracked nearly 222,500 Australian adults for about three years. During that time, people's odds of dying dovetailed with how much time they spent sitting.

Compared to people who spent less than four hours per day sitting, the odds of dying were:

Our findings add to the mounting evidence that public health programs should focus not just on increasing population physical activity levels, but also on reducing sitting time, the researchers write.

Alpa V. Patel, PhD, has published studies on the health risks associated with too much sitting. She is an epidemiologist at the American Cancer Society in Atlanta. We are continuing to demonstrate time and time again in different populations that there is something real to the association between sitting time and reduced longevity.

What's so bad about sitting for long periods? That's not totally clear. But exercise and movement do have a positive effect on blood fats called triglycerides and other heart risks, and improves blood pressure, Patel says.

Her advice: Sit for five fewer minutes per hour. Small changes can have a big impact," she says.

Technology may fight that. It's given us fewer reasons to move, says David A. Friedman, MD. He is the chief of heart failure services at North Shore Plainview Hospital in Plainview, N.Y.

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Sitting Too Much May Boost Odds of Dying

Integrative Medicine Classes Help Breast Cancer Survivors Recover

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By Leland Kim on March 26, 2012

Breast cancer survivor Helen Robillard closes her eyes as she gently rotates her arms clockwise. Her movements are measured and deliberate; her breathing slow and purposeful.

She studies qigong (pronounced chee-gung), an ancient Chinese practice of aligning breath, movement and awareness for healing and exercise, including through this class at the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine.

Its a very relaxing class, so you really learn to slow down, Robillard says during a break. It allows me to focus on my movements, where my hands are, where my feet are and its stress reduction.

Diagnosed with breast cancer in the summer of 2009, Robillard added qigong and other integrative medicine classes at Osher to the standard recovery regimen after several rounds of chemotherapy sapped her strength.

Im building little muscles in my legs that help in my balance, she says. I can close my eyes at points and be off somewhere else. I can focus and be aware of my movements. It adds to my awareness of how I can relax when Im stressed.

Margaret Chesney, PhD, director of the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, left, and Donald Abrams, MD, a UCSF oncologist, review a report on the state of integrative medicine in America.

That focus and relaxation are key aspects of integrative medicine.

This kind of program allows you to exercise in a comfortable, soft, not strenuous way, and will allow almost anybody to participate, said Joseph Acquah, OMD, a licensed acupuncturist at the Osher Center. Its very soft; its gentle. Its calming. You get to use your mind and body at the same time and theres a focus which is always good for health.

The term integrative medicine didnt exactly roll off peoples tongues when UCSF established the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine in 1997. UCSF Chancellor Emeritus Haile Debas, MD, then dean of the UCSF School of Medicine, with support from the Bernard Osher Foundation created a center that would test the effectiveness of complementary medicine through research, as well incorporate the best of these strategies into professional education and patient care.

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Integrative Medicine Classes Help Breast Cancer Survivors Recover

Sanofi-Regeneron drug lowers cholesterol up to 72 percent in study

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By Bloomberg News

An experimental drug from Sanofi and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. lowered patients so-called bad cholesterol by as much as 72 percent on top of Lipitor in a company-funded study.

(Last year, French drug maker Sanofi bought Genzyme Corp. of Cambridge for $20.1 billion.)

The medicine, one in a class of drugs targeting the PCSK9 gene, reduced patients average LDL cholesterol levels to as little as 34 milligrams per deciliter after 12 weeks in the mid- stage study, presented today at the American College of Cardiology meeting in Chicago. Less than 100 mg/dL is considered optimal for LDL, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Its a wow study, said James McKenney, the trials lead investigator and chief executive officer of National Clinical Research, a Virginia-based company that runs studies. Instantly youre seeing all those patients you could not get to the level youd like for them to be at, now you have a medicine that unquestionably can.

About 25 percent of US adults 45 and over take cholesterol-lowering statins, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Statins include pills such as Pfizer Inc.s Lipitor, the worlds best-selling medicine in 2010 with revenue of $10.7 billion. Almost a third of statin users dont get enough of a benefit, leaving them more vulnerable to heart disease and in need of additional therapy, McKenney said in a telephone interview.

The 183-patient trial, funded by Paris-based Sanofi and Tarrytown, N.Y.-based Regeneron, produced results reminiscent of the cholesterol-lowering advances achieved by statins two to three decades ago, McKenney said. Patients for whom statins work can see their cholesterol reduced by as much as 50 percent, lowering heart risks, he said.

Amgen Inc., in Thousand Oaks, Calif., New York-based Pfizer, and Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based Merck & Co. are also developing treatments targeting PCSK9, said Chris Raymond, an analyst with Robert W. Baird & Co. in Chicago. The gene creates a protein that disrupts the ability of liver cells to remove bad cholesterol from blood, enabling it to accumulate.

The study presented today evaluated five doses of Regeneron and Sanofis medicine, dubbed REGN727 or SAR236553, compared with a placebo. It found that 50 milligrams of the drug injected once every two weeks lowered LDL cholesterol by 40 percent, while 300 milligrams dosed every four weeks reduced LDL by 48 percent. The most-effective dose was 150 milligrams injected every two weeks, shown to lower LDL by 72 percent.

Patients took Lipitor at doses of 10, 20, or 40 milligrams for at least six weeks before starting the study, and still had LDL levels higher than 100 mg/dL. All groups continued taking Lipitor throughout the trial. Those on placebo -- Lipitor with no additional therapy -- had an LDL decline of 5 percent.

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Sanofi-Regeneron drug lowers cholesterol up to 72 percent in study

Supreme Court Bounces Myriad BRCA Gene Patent Case Back to Appeals Court for Review

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By a GenomeWeb staff reporter

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) The US Supreme Court is sending the most high-profile gene patenting case to date, focusing on Myriad Genetics' breast and ovarian cancer tests, back to a lower court for reconsideration in light of its decision last week to invalidate patents held by Prometheus Laboratories.

The decision to remand the case back to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which last year decided that patents Myriad has licensed and used related to the isolated gene sequences in the BRCA 1 and BRCA2 genes are valid, means that the Prometheus decision could influence or impact the case, though the effect of that case is unclear, as it centerd on different types of claims than the Myriad litigation.

The case against Myriad was brought by the Public Patent Foundation, American Civil Liberties Union, the Association for Molecular Pathology, and others who filed the suit in 2009 claiming that patents cannot cover natural phenomena and that Myriad's patents, and others like them, will hinder genetics research and keep some people from receiving the personalized medicine tests and second opinions.

Myriad has held that its patents have not hindered science, that is has not impeded research, that the pricing of its BRACAnalysis tests are not prohibitive, and that most insurers cover them. Additionally, the company also says that there are other options for people seeking second opinions.

Those assertions may not mean much if the Supreme Court at some point decides that isolated DNA is not patentable, but the CAFC in its ruling in August 2011 decided that Myriad's patents covering isolated DNA are eligible under Section 101 of the US Patent Act.

That decision in part overturned an earlier ruling from the Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York, which decided that isolated DNA was not much different from gene sequences found in nature and therefore is not patentable.

"While, this case should not have any direct impact to Myriad and its operations because of our extensive patent estate, it has great importance to the medical, pharmaceutical, biotechnology and other commercial industries, as well as the hundreds of millions of people whose lives are bettered by the products these industries develop based on the promise of strong patent protection," Myriad Genetics President and CEO Peter Meldrum said today in a statement.

"Thus, we are prepared to vigorously defend the patent claims granted to Myriad by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and believe that we will be successful," he said.

The plaintiffs, led by ACLU and PUBPAT, have suggested that the Prometheus decision could impact the CAFC's second look at the Myriad case, and are holding to their core argument about the special status of genes in the natural world.

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Supreme Court Bounces Myriad BRCA Gene Patent Case Back to Appeals Court for Review

Myriad gene patent ruling sent back to lower court

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By James Vicini

WASHINGTON | Mon Mar 26, 2012 7:58pm BST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday set aside a ruling that said Myriad Genetics Inc could patent two genes linked to breast and ovarian cancers, and ordered further review by a lower court in light of a conflicting ruling in a similar case.

The Myriad case has been closely watched by the biotechnology industry, with some insiders suggesting that a ruling against gene patenting could have a devastating effect on future innovation.

That includes the fledgling field of personalized medicine, which depends on genetic tests, such as those developed by Myriad, to match patients with specific therapies.

The justices delayed any action on the ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that Myriad has the right to patent two human genes, known as BRCA1 and BRCA2, that account for most inherited forms of breast and ovarian cancers.

The Supreme Court ruled last week in a separate case involving medical diagnostics that companies cannot patent observations about a natural phenomenon. On Monday, it asked the lower court to revisit the Myriad case to view how it may or may not relate to that decision.

The move is expected to delay a verdict in the Myriad case by as much as several years. In the case of the individual company, that may give it enough time to benefit from the use of its contested patents. Shares in Myriad rose over 3 percent.

"Our intellectual property consultant could potentially see a scenario where the case doesn't move its way back to the Supreme Court for another 2 to 3 plus years, keeping the BRACAnalysis franchise safe from competition," said Junaid Husain, a research analyst for Dougherty & Co.

Women who test positive using Myriad's gene test, called BRACAnalysis, have an 82 percent higher risk of developing breast cancer and a 44 percent higher risk of ovarian cancer in their lifetimes. Such tests could help determine a future course of therapy.

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Myriad gene patent ruling sent back to lower court

Supreme Court throws out human gene patents

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The Myriad case has been closely watched by the biotechnology industry, with some insiders suggesting that a ruling against gene patenting could have a devastating effect on future innovation.

The Supreme Court ruled last week in a separate case involving medical diagnostics that companies cannot patent observations about a natural phenomenon. On Monday, it asked the lower court to revisit the Myriad case to view how it may or may not relate to that decision.

The move is expected to delay a verdict in the Myriad case by as much as several years. In the case of the individual company, that may give it enough time to benefit from the use of its contested patents. Shares in Myriad rose over 3 percent.

"Our intellectual property consultant could potentially see a scenario where the case doesn't move its way back to the Supreme Court for another 2 to 3 plus years, keeping the BRACAnalysis franchise safe from competition," said Junaid Husain, a research analyst for Dougherty & Co.

Women who test positive using Myriad's gene test, called BRACAnalysis, have an 82 percent higher risk of developing breast cancer and a 44 percent higher risk of ovarian cancer in their lifetimes. Such tests could help determine a future course of therapy.

The appeals court by a 2-1 vote had ruled the genes isolated by the company could be patented because Myriad is testing for distinctive chemical forms of the genes, and not as they appear naturally in the body. The dissenting judge said the genes could not be patented just because they were isolated from the body.

The patents granted to Myriad give the company the exclusive right to perform the genetic tests. The appeals court in its ruling in July also found that Myriad's method for screening potential therapies can be patented.

The appeals court had overturned a ruling by a federal judge in New York that the genes could not be patented.

HOW BIG A HURDLE?

Michael Yee, biotech analyst for RBC Capital Markets, said the Supreme Court not taking up the case on Monday was positive for the biotechnology industry.

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Supreme Court throws out human gene patents

New Field of Chemistry Has Potential for Making Drugs Inside Patients — and More

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EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE: Monday, March 26, 2012, 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time Note to journalists: Please report that this research was presented at a meeting of the American Chemical Society

A press conference on this topic will be held at 6 p.m. Eastern Time, March 26, 2012, in the ACS Press Center, Room 15A, in the San Diego Convention Center. Reporters can attend in person or access live audio and video of the event and ask questions at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/acslive.

Newswise SAN DIEGO, March 26, 2012 The traditional way of making medicines from ingredients mixed together in a factory may be joined by a new approach in which doctors administer the ingredients for a medicine separately to patients, and the ingredients combine to produce the medicine inside patients bodies.

Thats one promise from an emerging new field of chemistry, according to the scientist who founded it barely a decade ago. Carolyn Bertozzi, Ph.D., spoke on the topic bioorthogonal chemistry here today in delivering the latest Kavli Foundation Innovations in Chemistry Lecture at the 243rd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS). More than 15,000 scientists and others are expected to attend the meeting, being held here through Thursday and featuring almost 12,000 reports on new developments in chemistry and related sciences.

Bertozzi explained that the techniques of bioorthogonal chemistry may fundamentally change the nature of drug development and diagnosis of disease, so that the active ingredients for medicines and substances to image diseased tissue are produced inside patients.

Suppose a drug doesnt reach diseased tissue in concentrations high enough to work, Bertozzi said, citing one example of the potential of the new chemistry. Maybe it is an oral drug that doesnt get absorbed very well into the blood through the stomach. You can imagine a scenario in which doctors administer two parts of the molecule that makes up the drug. The two units reach diseased tissue in large amounts or get absorbed through the stomach just fine. Then they recombine, producing the actual drug in the patients body. Bioorthogonal chemistry is chemistry for lifeliterally!

Bertozzi explained that bioorthogonal chemistry opens the door to creating new proteins, fats and sugars directly inside living cells without harming them. The field emerged from her frustration in the late 1990s with the lack of tools available to see sugars on the surfaces of living cells. Chains of these sugars, called glycans, sit on the surfaces of cells in the body and control the doorways through which different molecules enter. When a disease-causing virus enters and infects a cell, for instance, proteins on the virus's surface attach to certain glycans.

To do that, we had to come up with a chemical reaction that would be really selective, only targeting the sugar of interest and the fluorescent probes that we delivered to it, said Bertozzi. The chemicals also couldnt stick to other biomolecules that the researchers didnt want to see.

That turned out to be a tall order, indeed. We pulled all of our big textbooks off the shelves and flipped through them to see if there was something out there that fit our criteria, she said. Those criteria were essentially the conditions inside a living cell or living organism such as a mouse a reaction that could occur in water at pH 7 and at 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. The reaction also couldnt interfere with all the other biomolecules in a cell or organism that keep it alive.

It was a pretty restrictive set of conditions that a traditionally trained organic chemist like me never had to work within, she explained. Thats because these types of reactions are usually performed in very clean, dry test tubes and flasks under conditions that the chemist can control. A living cell or organism, with all its water, proteins, fats, sugars and metabolites is very messy and uncontrollable by comparison.

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New Field of Chemistry Has Potential for Making Drugs Inside Patients -- and More

Wiley-VCH and ACES to launch organic chemistry journal rooted in Asia

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Public release date: 26-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Jennifer Beal physicalsciencenews@wiley.com 44-012-437-70633 Wiley-Blackwell

Weinheim, Germany -- Wiley-VCH, part of the scientific and technical publishing business of John Wiley & Sons, Inc., and the Asian Chemical Editorial Society (ACES) today announced the launch of the Asian Journal of Organic Chemistry, the second pan-Asia society chemistry journal after Chemistry An Asian Journal (2010 Impact Factor: 4.188), launched by ACES and Wiley-VCH in 2006.

ACES is an association of 13 chemical societies in Asia and the Pacific region (the Royal Australian Chemical Institute Inc., the Chinese Chemical Society, the Hong Kong Chemical Society, the Chemical Research Society of India, Himpunan Kimia Indonesia, the Chemical Society of Japan, the Korean Chemical Society, Institut Kimia Malaysia, the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry, the Singapore National Institute of Chemistry, the Chemical Society Located in Taipei, the Chemical Society of Thailand, and the Chemical Society of Vietnam). For the publication of the Asian Journal of Organic Chemistry, ACES is joined by the Korean Society of Organic Synthesis.

The Asian Journal of Organic Chemistry (www.AsianJOC.org) will publish strictly peer-reviewed primary and secondary research in all aspects of organic chemistry. The first issue will appear in print and online in Wiley Online Library in the autumn of 2012 and will be published monthly thereafter. The Asian Journal of Organic Chemistry is a sister journal of the European Journal of Organic Chemistry, which is published by Wiley-VCH and ChemPubSoc Europe, the sister organization of ACES in Europe.

The Editorial Board is co-chaired by Sung Ho Kang from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (Daejeon), Keiji Maruoka from Kyoto University, and Deqing Zhang from the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Beijing), whose combined and extensive expertise in organic chemistry reflects the broad scope of the Asian Journal of Organic Chemistry. In a joint statement, the Co-Chairs said, "Until now, the top international organic chemistry journals have been either American or European; the Asian Journal of Organic Chemistry is the realization of a dream for organic chemists in Asia".

Among others, Nobel Laureates Ei-ichi Negishi (2010), Akira Suzuki (2010), and Ryoji Noyori (2001) support the new journal as members of the Honorary Board. Kang, Maruoka, and Zhang are joined by a host of distinguished organic chemists on the Editorial and International Advisory Boards to ensure that the Asian Journal of Organic Chemistry is of the highest possible standard.

"The launch of the Asian Journal of Organic Chemistry reflects the extraordinary and continuing growth of the organic chemistry community in Asia" said the President of ACES, Youngkyu Do (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology). "The opportunity to bring this to the global stage in a focused, high-quality publication is exciting" he added. Koji Nakanishi, a prominent member of the organic chemistry community and member of the journal's Honorary Board, remarked that: "In view of the surge in contributions from Asian countries, the launch [of the Asian Journal of Organic Chemistry] is wonderful".

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Wiley-VCH and ACES to launch organic chemistry journal rooted in Asia

Chemistry in one dimension offers surprising result

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"Chemistry on the nanometer scale often appears to be different compared to chemistry in the normal scale and carbon nanotubes provide ideal conditions for studies of reactions in nanospace," says Alexandr Talyzin, docent at the Department of Physics, Ume University.

The standard approch to make chemical recations inside of single walled carbon nanotubes, SWNTs, is to fill the inner space with molecules (e.g. fullerenes, thus forming so called peapods) and make them react with each other.

The nanotube walls will then protect the encapsulated molecules from outer space and make reactions with molecules and atoms outside the tube impossible. Once the SWNTs are filled with C60 molecules there is not enough space for hydrogen molecules to go in. That was the common opinion when the research groups started their experiments a few years ago.

But their experiments leave no doubt, hydrogen does actually penetrate into peapods and react with fullerenes. The evidence is rather direct, when the temperature and pressure of hydrogenation is taken to extreme values the fullerene cage collapses completely and large hydrogen molecules are formed. This was confirmed both by Raman spectroscopy and high resolution TEM.

The study provides one more example that chemical reactions in nanoreactors are not always the same as in normal conditions. In three-dimensional structure molecules can react with their neighbours in all possible directions, up, down, right, left etc.

"Inside of carbon nanotubes fullerene molecule have only two neighbours, lets say to the right and to the left. Similarly, the reaction with hydrogen is also limited to one-dimension," says Alexandr Talyzin.

A great advantage is that even single molecules inside of SWNTs can be observed using high resolution electron microscopy, something extremely difficult for bulk powders, he adds. High quality images collected at Aalto University allowed the scientists to observe not only hydrogen induced collapse of C60, but also hydrogen-driven coalescence of molecules into chain polymers and tubules.

"What we learned is a rather general result for nano-chemistry. Now we have direct evidence that molecules inside of SWNts can be reacted with gases. It opens enormous possibilities for synthesis of novel hybrid materials and chemical modification of encapsulated molecules and materials," says Alexandr Talyzin.

More information: Hydrogen driven collapse of C60 inside of SWNTs is published on line in Angewandte Chemie, http://onlinelibra 946/abstract

Provided by Umea University

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Chemistry in one dimension offers surprising result

NIH director to Cambridge biotechnology executives: Coming years won’t be easy

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By Robert Weisman, Globe Staff

CAMBRIDGE -- Despite strides in medical technology, the biotechnology industry faces mounting challenges ranging from reduced research funding to uncertainty over reimbursements to a shift in pharmaceutical companies focus from drug discovery to mergers and marketing.

That was the unsettling prognosis delivered Monday at the annual meeting of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council by Dr. Francis Collins, who heads the National Institutes of Health, and speakers on a panel taking the temperature of a business in transition.

Estimating that 83 percent of the $30.9 billion NIH budget in fiscal 2012 will bankroll outside research at academic medical centers and elsewhere, Collins told about 500 state biotechnology executives that a rather large chunk of that comes to Massachusetts. When measured by per-capita spending, he said, Massachusetts blows away California and every other state that receives research money from the NIH.

Collins said the NIH directly supports 432,000 medical research jobs across the country. But he warned that the inflation-adjusted purchasing power of that funding has fallen 20 percent since 2003 even as China, India, and Europe have boosted their research outlays.

If America wants to see its economy continuing to grow, this is a very important area to be pushing forward, Collins told the audience at the Royal Sonesta Hotel.

Along with his warnings, Collins did offer some reasons to be optimistic about the biotechnology industrys future. He cited the importance of groundbreaking new drugs such as Kalydeco, the recently approved cystic fibrosis treatment made by Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc., based in Cambridge. He also noted that advances in technology have dropped the cost of sequencing a human genome from $100 million in 2001 to under $10,000 today. And he said the NIH is working with the Food and Drug Administration and the Pentagons research arm to load cell types on microchips to screen for safe and effective drugs.

But other speakers cautioned that the biotechnology industrys drive for innovation is being increasingly threatened by the shrinking federal budget, a growing reluctance of big drug companies and private investors to finance early-stage research, and the slow pace of US regulatory approvals as profitable blockbuster drugs lose patent protection.

Juan Enriquez, managing director of Boston venture capital firm Excel Venture Management, said theres a price to pay for regulators failing to act swiftly -- or at all -- on new drug applications. The pipeline is eroding, he said. There are less biotechs able to get an initial public offering that is successful at the same time that the costs are going up and up.

Another problem for industry is that, with insurance payers reluctant to reimburse for new medicines, only about three in 10 approved drugs generate enough money to recoup the cost of their development, said Steven C. Gilman, chief scientific officer at Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc. in Lexington. Pricing reimbursements have become a relatively big deal that you cant wait until after approval to start thinking about, he said.

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NIH director to Cambridge biotechnology executives: Coming years won’t be easy

Turning kitchen gadgets (and more) into low-cost lab equipment

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Replacing the Osterizer as standard lab equipment

By Kate Rix

Lina Nilsson, Tekla Labs founder. KAP STANN PHOTO

Imagine a research laboratory relying on little more than old phonographs and kitchen blenders. This is what Lina Nilsson, a post-doctoral researcher in the bioengineering lab of professor Daniel Fletcher, saw in Bolivian labs, inspiring her to develop alternatives to expensive laboratory equipment.

After a year in Asia and South America visiting labs that lacked the basics, Nilsson and a team of engineering colleagues brainstormed about how to develop low-cost, accessible tools that could produce research-grade results. They created protocols for making do-it-yourself laboratory equipment, along with detailed how-to blueprints available for free online.

The team evolved into Tekla Labs, a cooperative of ten partners from Berkeley Engineering and UCSF. Their idea won first place for social entrepreneurship in the 2010-11 Big Ideas @ Berkeley contest.

A lot of basic equipment is really expensive, but it doesnt have to be, says Nilsson. She adds that while many charitable organizations make contributions to labs in developing countries, most donated equipment consists of larger and more costly machines.

A sample rotator designed and built by Berkeley student Anthony Fernando for Tekla Labs. LINA NILSSON PHOTO

Each semester, Tekla Labs researchers help individual students build equipment. They also team up with Engineering World Health on a DeCal (student-run) course that tasks undergraduate students with designing inexpensive product prototypes. In one case, a student was sent to Radio Shack for supplies to build a magnetic stirrer; she returned with a light-switch circuit box, which ended up serving quite nicely as housing for the stirrer.

Where the outlet would have plugged in we placed the speed dial, Nilsson says. The core requirement is that the parts must be cheap and easy to find. My lab has four magnetic stirrers and they cost $250 and up. We built one for $30 that runs off a battery.

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Turning kitchen gadgets (and more) into low-cost lab equipment

Sterling Student of the Month

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Senior Naomi Lopez, 18, is one of Sterling High Schools January Students of the Month. Her mother is Veronica Jaramillo, 38, and her brother is Elias Moreno, 9; they live in Sterling.

Favorite class: AP U.S. history. Its rigorous, and theres always something to read.

Top teacher: Susan Lawson, AP literature. Shes relatable, and she really cares about teaching us to become better readers and writers.

Extracurriculars: Tennis, I used to cheerlead. I played soccer freshman year.

After graduation: I want to major in biochemistry or molecular biology. I want to be a cosmetic dermatologist, a facial plastic surgeon or a pathologist.

Paycheck: I work off and on at Karlins Hallmark in Sterling. I was seasonal this year. I like it. Its really festive in there.

Best friend: Dahley Vinson. Shes funny, witty. She knows how to listen.

Favorite musical group: Empire of the Sun.

Favorite actor: Vincent Cassel.

Favorite movies: Black Swan and When Harry Met Sally.

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Sterling Student of the Month

NIU chemistry professor receives grant from National Science Foundation

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Submitted March 26, 2012 4:02PM

NIU Professor Tao Xu, who has developed a promising nanoscience research program in solar energy conversion, is getting a grant from the National Science Foundation. NSF has awarded the chemistry and biochemistry professor, who lives in west suburban Lisle, with a prestigious Faculty Early Career Development grant of $400,000 over the next five years in support of his research and teaching efforts. | Submitted by NIU

storyidforme: 27984965 tmspicid: 10105310 fileheaderid: 4658715

Updated: March 27, 2012 1:12AM

NIU Professor Tao Xu, who has developed a promising nanoscience research program in solar energy conversion, is getting a big boost from the National Science Foundation.

NSF has awarded the chemistry and biochemistry professor with a prestigious Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) grant of $400,000 over the next five years in support of his research and teaching efforts.

CAREER awards support junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research.

This award is a tribute to the quality and productivity of Dr. Xu and his research group, said Jon Carnahan, chair of the department of chemistry and biochemistry. Were very proud of Taos accomplishment.

Xu, of Lisle, also is affiliated with NIUs Institute for Nano Science, Engineering, and Technology. His research group is working to develop potential solar cells of the future.

Because of environmental concerns related to nuclear and fossil-fuel-based energy, people are demanding clean alternative energies that can help build up our power grids, Xu said. Solar cells are quite safe, but we need to enhance their overall efficiency and affordability. To accomplish this, our group is trying to gain a better understanding of the fundamental processes at work in solar cells.

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NIU chemistry professor receives grant from National Science Foundation

Anatomy of a failed school district

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Posted: Saturday, March 24, 2012 12:00 am | Updated: 6:58 pm, Fri Mar 23, 2012.

Bayfield Over 300 miles from the never-ending debates in Madison over how to help struggling schools, in a small, largely impoverished district along the edge of Lake Superior, Liz Woodworth ran unopposed for a spot on the Bayfield School Board this spring.

Woodworth isnt just another parent. She and her husband, Jeff Kriner, are both teachers; she in nearby Ashland and he in the same district that Woodworth will help run. Kriner, in fact, has served as everything from a co-president of the local Bayfield Education Association to a teachers union negotiator and spokesman who appears before the School Board.

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The Anatomy of an Art Exhibition

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The Challenge: Create art for an exhibition to be shown during a visit to the School of Fashion by Jean Paul Gaultier.

The Participants: Fashion Illustration students in FSH 102, 112, 640, 371 and Fashion Merchandising students in FSH 320 Interpreting and Reporting Fashion Students

The Deadline: Mid-March

What goes into creating a mixed media exhibition using large-scale artwork? Create a meaningful activity and fill the task with a collective purpose while giving the project to fashion students and you will find out.

When the semester started, School of Fashion Executive Director Gladys Perint Palmer and Director Simon Ungless gave illustration students an opportunity to shine. Please create large scale mixed media work that will showcase the point of view of a fashion student in the School of Fashion. Work with each other using research about Jean Paul Gualtier from the Interpreting and Reporting Fashion class to help you get inspired. You have six weeks to complete the work and hang the show.

The first step was to form groups and this started the first week of school. Students met each other, collaborated and brainstormed ideas, and began the semester on a high note. What a great way to begin collaborating (a life long pursuit for a fashion student). Fellow students names were soon learned, interesting work began, and the excitement started to build.

Assisted by the students from Hersha Steinbocks FSH 320 class, the illustration classes began to receive research on a weekly basis. This helpful material allowed the creativity to be informed by extensive knowledge of Jean Paul Gaultiers work.

A group of students brainstorming and creating a mock up to present to the class. L-R: Clifford Grant, Rigo Garcia, Thomas Murphy, Isabella Sen, and Brandon Kee work on their presentation.

Following the initial project guidelines, students began working on drawings that would show a larger than life scale of their weekly workshop assignment. Combining curriculum and a special project proved to be no problem for the motivated students.

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Pocket Brain app offers searchable 3D atlas of the brain

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Users can navigate eight layers of brain anatomy, view cross sections and nerve pathways, insert notes, and peruse clinical findings.

The app includes 30,000 neuroanatomy words.

Of all the subjects best taught in 3D, anatomy has got to be up there. And when it comes to human anatomy, the brain is arguably the most complex organ, if not system, of them all.

So it's fitting that 3-year-old medical education app publisher eMedia out of Ireland is adding the Pocket Brain app to its suite of 3D Pocket Anatomy offerings. (First came the body and the heart.) For $19.99, the interactive app for iPhone and iPad renders the old-fashioned textbook pretty close to obsolete.

A few particularly inspired features: the 3D rotating brain includes nine layers to explore; relevant clinical cases; easy note insertion; various quizzes; and more. And because all content lives in the app itself, no Wi-Fi or 3G is required.

Clearly designed with medical and nursing students in mind, Pocket Brain may also serve as the ideal "I'd like to kill some time" tool for those of us who get our thrills memorizing things we're only ever really tested on during trivia night.

The app's developers enjoy a sense of humor, too. Check out their teaser below, aptly choreographed to "If I Only Had a Brain."

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Pocket Brain app offers searchable 3D atlas of the brain