Monthly Archives: May 2012

VHA IMPERATIV(TM) Gives Hospital Leaders Holistic Performance Improvement Advantage

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IRVING, TX--(Marketwire -05/15/12)- As health care leaders struggle to manage myriad new payment models and other demands associated with health care reform, the need for enterprise-wide visibility and the synthesis of clinical, operational and financial data has become a critical business requirement. To deliver this level of insight, VHA Inc., the national health care network, has developed VHA IMPERATIV, an enterprise-wide performance management solution to be unveiled and demonstrated at VHA's annual Leadership Conference in Denver, Colo., May 20-23.

Powered by analytics, expert advisory services and industry-leading best practices, the concept for VHA IMPERATIV was originally conceived through a collaboration of member hospitals in the VHA network. The VHA IMPERATIV roadmap includes sophisticated data analysis across the entire continuum of care that is considered integral to managing population health on a broad scale.

"Our 1,500 hospital members find that they must balance the complexities of emerging payment models and other health care reform changes with the need for continued superior clinical care and patient experience within a cost effective and patient-centric model. To support this, we've built a comprehensive, multi-dimensional solution designed to help each hospital achieve its performance improvement objectives. This solution meets each member where they are today in their transformation journey and guides them where they need to go moving forward," said Steve Miff PhD, senior vice president for VHA IMPERATIV. "Given today's pressures, this holistic, data-driven and collaborative approach allows health care leaders to quickly make well-informed decisions that will significantly improve their overall performance."

IMPERATIV componentsMiff explains that the sum is greater than the whole of its parts, with VHA IMPERATIV components, including: Advisory servicesVHA IMPERATIV is differentiated from other hospital performance improvement tools by a critical element to success: the human touch. VHA's expert advisors work with subscribers to synthesize opportunities and recommend performance improvement strategies based on factual information from multiple data sources throughout the enterprise. AnalyticsVHA IMPERATIV employs integrated data from clinical, financial and operational domains, combined with proven strategies, to deliver the insight to support current and emerging population-based payment models. VHA IMPERATIV building blocksVHA partners with Thomson Reuters and UHC to provide hospitals with industry-leading clinical and operational benchmarking data in an additional subscription-based service called VHA IMPERATIV Advantage. VHA IMPERATIV Advantage provides all the service of the foundational offering plus more detailed analytics, robust data and advanced advisory services. VHA partnered with Thomson Reuters and UHC to include their powerful clinical and operational database systems into VHA IMPERATIV Advantage. VHA IMPERATIV Advantage incorporates clinical data tools CareDiscovery and CareDiscovery Quality Measures from Thomson Reuters and UHC's Clinical Data Base and Resource Manager, along with the operational data system from Thomson Reuters, ActionOI.

Thomson Reuters and UHC are recognized leaders at managing complex healthcare data and combing it with powerful analytics to uncover every opportunity to improve the efficiency and outcomes of healthcare services. Building upon existing relationships, these new collaborations unite information assets with the power of analytics, expert advisory services and industry knowledge to help hospitals improve their operational, clinical and financial performance.

KnowledgeMoving beyond data, VHA IMPERATIV leverages the VHA Leading Practice Blueprint library of more than 150 leading clinical and patient-centered practices including clostridium difficile, hand hygiene and urinary tract infections to help hospitals achieve CMS' Partnership for Patients improvement objectives as well as emerging national quality and cost improvement requirements on metrics such as 30-day readmission, care coordination, value analysis, reprocessing, inventory management and the patient centered medical home (PCMH).

Peer-to-Peer collaborationIn addition to data capture and analysis, VHA IMPERATIV encourages peer-to-peer networking and collaboration by expanding existing regional and national knowledge-sharing opportunities, which help to facilitate members' adoption of best practices. VHA advisors are available every step of the way to aid members in evaluating, prioritizing and identifying performance improvement opportunities.

To schedule a VHA IMPERATIV demonstration at the VHA Leadership Conference in Denver, contact Maxine Levy, 972.830.7845, mlevy@vha.com. For additional information on VHA IMPERATIV, visit http://www.vha.com/VHAIMPERATIV or call 800.842.5146 or 972.830.0626.

About VHA Inc. Based in Irving, TX, VHA Inc. is a national network of not-for-profit health care organizations that work together to drive maximum savings in the supply chain arena, set new levels of clinical performance, and identify and implement best practices to improve operational efficiency and clinical outcomes. Since 1977, VHA has leveraged its expertise in analytics, contracting, consulting and networks to help members achieve their operational, clinical and financial objectives. In 2011, VHA delivered record savings and value of $1.8 billion to members. VHA serves more than 1,350 hospitals and more than 30,000 non-acute care providers nationwide, coordinating delivery of its programs and services through its 15 regional offices. VHA has been ranked as one of the best places to work in healthcare by Modern Healthcare since the publication introduced this list in 2008.

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VHA IMPERATIV(TM) Gives Hospital Leaders Holistic Performance Improvement Advantage

Accretive Health Initiates Panel of Health Care Policy Experts to Establish National Standards for Health Care …

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CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Accretive Health, Inc. (NYSE: AH - News) announced today that prominent health care and policy leaders have agreed to convene to develop a process for implementing national standards for how hospitals and other providers interact with patients regarding their financial obligations.

This process will create first-of-kind national standards for understanding expected charges, available resources, counseling, billing and payment procedures regardless of the ability to pay. An independent accreditation process will accompany the new standards, providing patients with assurance that they will be treated compassionately and fairly.

The group will identify and select an independent non-profit Standard Development Organization (SDO) to conduct a collaborative process among practitioners, patient advocates, and other interested parties. Once concluded, the group will advance the identified standards to a national accrediting organization.

Accretive Health initiated this process in order to provide clarity and consistency among providers and, as a result, help ensure a more uniform and transparent experience for patients as hospitals work to become more financially stable and bring down the cost of care.

The following noted health care and policy leaders have agreed to serve as independent conveners of the process:

CHAIRMAN

Michael O. Leavitt Former Secretary of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, three-term governor of Utah and former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. He is currently the founder of Leavitt Partners, which specializes in the health care field, and has led numerous large public and private collaborations.

ADVISORS

Tom Daschle Former U.S. Senator from South Dakota, former U.S. Senate Majority Leader, served three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives and is a respected health care thought leader. He is currently a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and a member of the Health Policy and Management Executive Council at the Harvard School of Public Health.

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Accretive Health Initiates Panel of Health Care Policy Experts to Establish National Standards for Health Care ...

Gov. Patrick promises health-care cost containment

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Gov. Deval L. Patrick told Boston business leaders this morning that by the time he returns to speak to them again next year, Massachusetts will have the best health-care cost-containment system in the country to match what he said it has already, the highest access rates to medical care in the nation.

Lawmakers will pass some combination of bills put forward by the chief executive, the House and the Senate, he said. And he is confident the result will be an improvement, whatever the mixture of ideas turns out to be, despite jabs the states health-care system may have received in the presidential race.

The question for me is not whether there is a role for government. The question is, what is the role for government, Patrick said to a packed Seaport Hotel audience of members of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. Just as the public and private sectors came together to solve health-care access, we are going to find a solution together to containing health-care costs. We have already shown we can, the problem is how we can sustain it for the next decade and beyond.

The governor was greeted warmly by chamber President and CEO Paul Guzzi, who put continuing health-care cost reform front and center as the top issue for his members and the business community in general.

He praised Patrick for his willingness to hear the concerns of businesses and to work with them on health care and other issues.

We have enjoyed a working relationship which we think has been very, very productive, said Guzzi.

Patrick said many of the solutions to the states health-care improvements and cost containment will come from the hospitals, doctors and others working in that industry itself, all of whom have the closest knowledge of their own industry.

I am proud of the strong partnership we have built and am certain we will reach a good legislative conclusion together in the next few weeks. And I have no doubt that the future of health care as a business in Massachusetts is bright, he told his audience. We have challenged each other to make a big change. Thats what we do in Massachusetts. I know we can accomplish this. My confidence comes from the undeniable fact that, working together with many of you in this room, we have addressed problem after tough problem that had been talked about and yet left unsolved for decades.

And while the governor was received well by the business crowd, there were voices who expressed concern over problems yet to be resolved in the legislation.

Lynn Nicholas of the Massachusetts Hospital Association rose to challenge Patricks assertion that health-care costs might even be able to drop below the level of growth for the state economy in general.

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Gov. Patrick promises health-care cost containment

Local health care leaders plan obesity summit

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In the 1940s, almost half of all adults smoked in this country. By 2010, that percentage had been more than cut in half, thanks to public health campaigns, the reduction of smoking advertising and the banning of smoking in restaurants and many public buildings.

Today, almost two-thirds of adults in Lancaster County are overweight or obese. A third of children also are overweight or obese. Together, they total more than a quarter of a million people here.

Local health care leaders are hoping that what happened to tobacco will happen to obesity and weight issues in the coming decades.

"I have hope because there are a lot of parallels with what happened with tobacco 40, 50 years ago," said Alice Yoder, a Lancaster General Health official who is coordinator of the Lighten Up Lancaster County Coalition. "The surgeon general put out a report. Things that were needed went in place. A lot of public awareness had to go on."

"I think obesity should be everybody's concern," said Steve Batchelor, director of wellness services for Ephrata Community Hospital.

Next week, more than 300 business, health care and community leaders will gather for a summit on the state of health in Lancaster County.

Berwood Yost of Franklin & Marshall College will present the results of a 2012 community health assessment, highlighting statistics on local residents' access to health care; their health behaviors; maternal and infant health; sexually transmitted diseases; substance abuse; and rates for diseases such as cancer, heart disease and stroke.

Lancaster General and Ephrata Community Hospital helped fund the study, as did a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The group also will hear Gretchen Van Wye of the New York City Department of Health discuss how that city has tried to reduce obesity.

And it will hear a panel, including representatives from a health care provider, an employer, an insurer and a public agency, talk about the best practices for improving a community's health.

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Local health care leaders plan obesity summit

Schizophrenia’s core genetic features proposed

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Researchers may be closing in on diseases inherited component

Web edition : 1:40 pm

Schizophrenias elusive genetic roots may finally be within grasp. A new, wide-ranging effort has uncovered a set of DNA signatures that are shared by people with the disease consistently enough that the set can be used to reliably predict whether someone has the disease. If replicated, the results may point out ways to diagnose schizophrenia and suggest new targets for treatment.

By analyzing a battery of 542 genetic variants, researchers could predict who had schizophrenia in a group of European Americans and African Americans. The confirmation of the result in people of varying ancestry suggests that the set of genes truly does detect the core features of the disorder, scientists report online May 15 in Molecular Psychiatry.

Genetic studies in psychiatry tend to produce initial excitement but are then not reproduced in independent populations, which is the most important proof that a finding is solid and real, says study coauthor Alexander Niculescu of the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis.

Niculescu and his colleagues created their gene panel by assessing a slew of earlier studies on schizophrenia: Data from humans and animals on gene variation and gene behavior all fed into the teams analysis. If a gene popped out of several different datasets, the reasoning went, it is probably important to schizophrenia. Niculescu compares this method called convergent functional genomics to an Internet search: The more links to a web page, the higher it comes up on your search list.

After sifting through all of this data, the team identified some top candidates, some already known to be related to schizophrenia (DISC1, a known culprit, sits at the top of the list) and a handful that have never before been linked to the disease.

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Schizophrenia’s core genetic features proposed

Genetic test identifies eye cancer tumors likely to spread

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Public release date: 14-May-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Jim Dryden jdryden@wustl.edu 314-286-0110 Washington University School of Medicine

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have developed a genetic test that can accurately predict whether the most common form of eye cancer will spread to other parts of the body, particularly the liver.

In 459 patients with ocular melanoma at 12 centers in the United States and Canada, the researchers found the test could successfully classify tumors more than 97 percent of the time.

The study will appear in an upcoming issue of the journal Ophthalmology, but is now online.

"When the cancer spreads beyond the eye, it's unlikely any therapy is going to be effective," says principal investigator J. William Harbour, MD. "But it's very possible that we can develop treatments to slow the growth of metastatic tumors. The real importance of this test is that by identifying the type of tumor a patient has, we can first remove the tumor from the eye with surgery or radiation and then get those individuals at high risk into clinical trials that might be able to help them live longer."

Harbour believes the test should allow ocular oncologists to quickly evaluate the risks associated with particular tumors and to begin treatment the moment they can detect any spread of the cancer.

Melanoma of the eye is relatively rare, diagnosed in about 2,000 people in the United States each year. Advances in treatment have allowed surgeons to preserve patients' vision, but when cancer spreads beyond the eye, it often is deadly.

About a decade ago, Harbour, the Paul A. Cibis Distinguished Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, began using gene expression profiling to monitor the activity of thousands of genes in and around ocular melanoma tumors.

"At the time, we were surprised to see that based on these gene expression profiles, the tumors clustered into two groups that corresponded, almost perfectly, to patients whose cancer spread and those whose cancer was confined within the eye," says Harbour, who directs Washington University's Center for Ocular Oncology. "Tumors with a class 1 gene expression profile, or 'signature,' very rarely spread, but those with a class 2 profile frequently develop into metastatic cancer."

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Genetic test identifies eye cancer tumors likely to spread

Given number of inheritors, donor sperm carries risk of genetic harm

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In households across the country, children conceived with donated sperm are struggling with serious genetic conditions inherited from men they have never met: heart defects, spinal muscular atrophy, neurofibromatosis type 1 and fragile-X syndrome the most common form of mental retardation in boys and others.

Donated eggs pose a risk as well, but the threat of genetic harm from sperm donation is arguably much greater. Sperm donors are no more likely to carry genetic diseases than anybody else, but they can father a far greater number of children: 50, 100 or even 150, each a potential inheritor of flawed genes.

Sharine and Brian Kretchmar of Yukon, Okla., tried a number of medical treatments to conceive a second child.

After a depressing series of failures, they were advised by a doctor to find a sperm donor. For more than a year, the Kretchmars researched sperm banks and donors. The donor they chose was a family man, a Christian like them, they were told. Most important, he had a clean bill of health. So the Kretchmars jumped in. After artificial insemination, Sharine Kretchmar became pregnant, and in April 2010, she gave birth to a boy they named Jaxon.

But the baby failed to have a bowel movement in the first day or so after birth, a sign to doctors that something was wrong. Doctors returned with terrible news: Jaxon appeared to have cystic fibrosis.

"We were pretty much devastated," Sharine Kretchmar said.

Genetic testing showed that Jaxon did carry the genes for cystic fibrosis. Sharine Kretchmar, 33, had no idea she was a carrier and was shocked to discover that so, too, was the Kretchmars' donor.

His sperm, they would discover, was decades old, originally donated at a laboratory halfway across the country and frozen ever since. Whether it was properly tested is a matter of dispute.

Experience not unique

Sadly, the Kretchmars' experience is not unique.

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Given number of inheritors, donor sperm carries risk of genetic harm

Berkeley Trains "Harmless" Viruses to Harvest Human Kinetic Energy

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Viruses act as tiny piezoelectric generators

Viruses, tiny chunks of protein and nucleic acid, have long plagued mankind and its evolutionary ancestors before it. But thanks to the wonders of modern genetic engineering, researchers believe they have finally been able to instill a beneficial purpose in these deadly pests.

I. From Pest to Power

A team of researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory -- one of 16 U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratories -- has created a special breed of virus that undergoes self-nanoassembly to form tiny piezoelectric generators -- machines which harvest mechanical energy (vibrations or pressure) to directly produce electricity.

The special "bug" is the M13 bacteriophage, a rod-shaped virus that only infects bacteria (such asE. coli bacteria)-- not humans.

Faculty researchersSeung-Wuk Lee, Ramamoorthy Ramesh, and Byung Yang Lee selected the virus due to its tendency to self-assemble into nanofilms, given its rod-like shape. The viruses tightly pack "like chopsticks in a box" and are easy to grow by the millions given a small supply of host bacteria.

II. Refining the Virus

But the effect was too weak to be of use. So the researchers spliced a quadruplet of negatively charged amino acids into one of the coat proteins. The results was a larger voltage gradient across the coat. The researchers also tested stacking films of the modifed viruses to see how thick they could layer the viruses in order to get the maximum effect.

When pressure was applied to the film a 400 millivolt, 6 nanoampere current was put off. That's about a quarter of the voltage of an AAA battery, albeit at a far smaller current. Still it was enough to power a '1' to show up on a low-power liquid crystal display.

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Berkeley Trains "Harmless" Viruses to Harvest Human Kinetic Energy

Scientists Make Groundbreaking Discovery Of Mutation Causing Genetic Disorder In Humans

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Hamamy syndrome is a rare genetic disorder which is marked by abnormal facial features and defects in the heart, bone, blood and reproductive cells. Its exact cause was unknown until now. The international team, led by scientists at IMB, have pinpointed the genetic mistake to be a mutation in asingle gene called IRX5.

This is the first time that a mutation in IRX5 (and the family of IRX genes) has ever been discovered in man. IRX5 is part of a family of transcription factors that is highly conserved in all animals, meaning that this gene is present not only in humans but also in mice, fish, frogs, flies and even worms. Using a frog model, the scientists demonstrated that Irx5 orchestrates cell movements in the developing foetus which underlie head and gonad formation.

Carine Bonnard, a final-year PhD student at IMB and the first author of the paper, said, "Because Hamamy syndrome causes a wide range of symptoms, not just in newborn babies but also in the adult, this implies that IRX5 is critical for development in the wombas well as for the function of many organs in our adult body. For example, patients with this disease cannot evacuate tears from their eyes, and they will also go on to experience repetitive bone fractures (Annex A) or progressive myopia as they age.This discovery of the causative gene is a significant finding that will catalyze research efforts into the role of the Irx gene family and greatly increase our understanding of human health, such as bone homeostasis, or gamete formation for instance."

"We believe that this discovery could open up new therapeutic solutions to common diseases like osteoporosis, heart disease, anaemia which affect millions of people worldwide," said Dr Bruno Reversade, Senior Principle Investigator at IMB. "Thefindings also provide a framework for understanding fascinating evolutionary questions, such as why humans of different ethnicities have distinct facial features and how these are embedded in our genome. IRX genes have been repeatedly co-opted duringevolution, and small variation in their activity could underlie fine alterations in the way we look, or perhaps even drastic ones such as the traits seen in an elephant, whale, turtle or frog body pattern."

Only a handful of people in the worldhave been identified with Hamamy Syndrome making it a very rare genetic disorder. Rare genetic diseases, usually caused by mutations in a single gene, provide a unique opportunity to better understand more common disease processes. These "natural"experiments are similar to carefully controlled knockout animal experiments in which the function of single genes are analyzed and often give major insights into general health issues.[2]

Prof Birgitte Lane, Executive Director of IMB, said, "Understanding how various pathways in the human body function is the foundation for developing new therapeutic targets. This is an important piece of research that I believe will be of great interest to many scientists and clinicians around the world becauseofthe clinical and genetic insights it brings to a large range of diseases."

Notes for editor: The research findings described in this news release can be found on Nature Genetics's website under the title "Mutations in IRX5 impair craniofacialdevelopment and germ cell migration via SDF1" by Carine Bonnard[1], Anna C Strobl[2], Mohammad Shboul1, Hane Lee[3], Barry Merriman[3], Stanley F Nelson[3], Osama H Ababneh[4], Elif Uz[5],[6], Tulay Guran[7], Hulya Kayserili[8], Hanan Hamamy[9],[10]& Bruno Reversade[1],[11].

[1] Institute of Medical Biology, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore, Singapore

[2] Division of Systems Biology, Medical Research Council National Institute for Medical Research, London,UK

[3] Department of Human Genetics, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA

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Scientists Make Groundbreaking Discovery Of Mutation Causing Genetic Disorder In Humans

Paradigm-shifting publishing format for scientific research

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Public release date: 14-May-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Sophie Mohin smohin@liebertpub.com Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

New Rochelle, NY, May 7, 2012 In direct contrast to the increasingly cumbersome and frustrating current model for authoring, editing, reviewing, and publishing scientific literature, Kondziolka et al. have developed an interactive knowledge network, called World Science, that will radically change how scientific knowledge is written, published, and shared. This breakthrough in scientific publishing is featured in an article in the inaugural issue of Disruptive Science and Technology, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. To request a copy of the article "A Knowledge Network for Authoring, Reviewing, Editing, Searching, and Using Scientific or Other Credible Information," please contact journalmarketing1@liebertpub.com.

"We believe this new interactive network sets up, for the first time, what we think is the next century of credible information communication across the world," says Douglas S. Kondziolka, MD, MS, FRCS, Peter J. Jannetta Professor of Neurological Surgery and Radiation Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh & UPMC.

By including multiple elements of knowledge engagement, users, readers, and reviewers can easily examine papers with intuitive and user-friendly tools. On a broader scale, all of the contributors, reviewers, and publishers become part of an integrated knowledge network that focuses on increasing the flow and sharing of scientific information worldwide.

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About the Journal

Disruptive Science and Technology, a breakthrough, highly innovative, peer-reviewed journal spearheaded by Editor-in-Chief Alan J. Russell, PhD, Highmark Distinguished Professor, Carnegie Mellon University, cultivates, harnesses, and explores how existing paradigms can be changed to improve human health, well-being, and productivity. The Journal provides a multimedia platform and forum for ideas and opportunities, promotes breakthrough science and engineering, facilitates the innovator-market relationship, and accelerates the transition from bench to society. Bold, transparent, and resistant to limitations driven by protection of the science and engineering status quo, Disruptive Science and Technology provides the first destination for those seeking to publish game-changing results that have the capacity to alter the way we live. For complete journal details, please visit the Disruptive Science and Technology website at http://www.disruptivescience.com.

About the Publisher

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Tissue Engineering, Human Gene Therapy and HGT Methods, and Rejuvenation Research. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 70 journals, newsmagazines, and books is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. website at http://www.liebertpub.com.

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Paradigm-shifting publishing format for scientific research

Cutting-edge device controls acute inflammation

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Public release date: 14-May-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Sophie Mohin smohin@liebertpub.com Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

New Rochelle, NY, May 7, 2012The body's natural inflammatory response is an essential reaction to injury and infection. When acute inflammation escalates out of control, such as in sepsis, it causes nearly 10% of deaths in the U.S. and more than $17 billion in healthcare costs each year. A group of researchers have developed a groundbreaking biohybrid device that can control acute inflammation to prevent sepsis and other related life-threatening complications, as described in an article in the inaugural issue of Disruptive Science and Technology, a new peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. For a copy of the article "A Biohybrid Device for the Systemic Control of Acute Inflammation," please contact journalmarketing1@liebertpub.com.

"A device like this has the promise to be the 'Goldilocks' of inflammation to be that 'just right' modulation of inflammation," says Yoram Vodovotz, PhD, Department of Surgery, University of Pittsburgh.

This is the first report of a device in essence an auxiliary organ that can reprogram the inflammatory response at the whole-organism level. It represents a foundational concept and design that can accommodate cells genetically modified in an infinite variety of ways and that can be engineered and tailored to meet many different clinical applications.

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About the Journal

Disruptive Science and Technology, a breakthrough, highly innovative, peer-reviewed journal spearheaded by Editor-in-Chief Alan J. Russell, PhD, Highmark Distinguished Professor, Carnegie Mellon University, cultivates, harnesses, and explores how existing paradigms can be changed to improve human health, well-being, and productivity. The Journal provides a multimedia platform and forum for ideas and opportunities, promotes breakthrough science and engineering, facilitates the innovator-market relationship, and accelerates the transition from bench to society. Bold, transparent, and resistant to limitations driven by protection of the science and engineering status quo, Disruptive Science and Technology provides the first destination for those seeking to publish game-changing results that have the capacity to alter the way we live. For complete journal details, please visit the Disruptive Science and Technology website at http://www.disruptivescience.com.

About the Publisher

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Tissue Engineering, Human Gene Therapy and HGT Methods, and Rejuvenation Research. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 70 journals, newsmagazines, and books is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. website at http://www.liebertpub.com.

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Cutting-edge device controls acute inflammation

Unclean Hands at the Gill Tract?

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The battle over the future of Albany's Gill Tract has tapped into multiple, deep-seated conflicts that perennially dominate Bay Area politics, from land use and development to food ethics. But in one area, the roots of disagreement are potentially very deep: biotechnology and its uses.

Genetic engineering has been a topic of intense debate since its emergence in the early 1970s when scientists developed methods to cut and paste fragments of DNA, creating genetically modified organisms GMOs. Some claim that GMOs represent a dangerous leap in the technological manipulation of life. Critics also point out that GMO research products benefit large corporations, producing proprietary crop varieties designed to promote industrialized models of agriculture, at the expense of small farmers and the public. Proponents, meanwhile, contend that genetic engineering is simply a new tool that could, if responsibly applied, enable humanity to better provide for the common good.

The East Bay encapsulates the entire debate like no place else. UC Berkeley and many of its spin-off companies are on the cutting edge of biotech. This university-led academic-industrial combine has arguably done more to promote the genetic engineering of food crops than any other cluster of institutions. Paradoxically, the Bay Area is also an epicenter for GMO opposition. It's no wonder, then, that the issue has lurked in the background of the recent farm occupation in Albany.

While saying they respect the academic freedom of the current crop of UC researchers who utilize the Gill Tract, and even inviting these researchers to continue their work alongside them, organizers of the farm occupation have expressed concern with the University of California's wider links to agribusiness corporations. Perhaps due to these criticisms, a few of the researchers who use the Gill Tract in their experiments have fired back. They said their work, and, by association, UC's research program at the Gill Tract, isn't connected to the biotech industry's profit motives, nor the genetic engineering of food crops.

In an interview with Albany Patch shortly after the occupation began, Damon Lisch, a UC researcher who uses the Gill Tract in his studies, characterized his work as having nothing to do with the agenda of corporate agribusiness. "Basic research using corn as a model is different than making GMO corn to improve profits for Monsanto," he said. In another Albany Patch article, UC researcher Sarah Hake said her research "is not to create new products (such as in genetic engineering)," but rather, "to understand basic processes in plant biology." Most recently, Chronicle columnist Chip Johnson quoted UC researcher George Chuck, who is a member of Hake's lab team, as saying that research at the Gill Tract is not funded by large oil and other corporate concerns.

But are the GMO-free claims of UC's researchers true? Is research at the Gill Tract by UC's scientists purely a public service, unconnected to corporate profits?

A survey of biotechnology patents that cite the research of these outspoken scientists shows that some of their research has, in fact, resulted in the production of GMO technologies. While UC's researchers might not be conducting GMO trials at the Tract directly for Big Agribusiness, some of their findings have been heavily cited by private sector researchers who are developing transgenic crops for their corporate employers. In fact, Lisch, the most outspoken researcher opposed to the Gill Tract occupation, is a co-inventor of a patent that is directly applicable to GMO research.

Lisch is a named inventor of one biotechnology patent owned by UC, "Genetic functions required for gene silencing in maize." The patent claims to solve a problem, known as "transgene silencing," faced by developers of GMO corn. In addition, the UC Office of Technology Transfer markets the techniques described in Lisch's patent to biotechnology companies so they can use these methods in their GMO development operations. According to the UC's Office of Intellectual Property and Industry Research Alliances website, the patent's "applications" are relevant to the "genetic engineering of corn." UC's Office of Technology Transfer says it's university policy to keep the names of corporations that are licensing a specific technology confidential, so it's not clear who is using Lisch's patented research findings to develop GMO corn.

Researcher Chuck's insistence that his work at the Gill Tract isn't funded by industry might be technically true, but his research has also been patented and marketed, not by UC, but by a private biotechnology company called DNA Plant Technology Corporation, which was headquartered on San Pablo Avenue in North Oakland during the 1990s, giving researchers physical access to UC's resources, including the Plant Gene Expression Center in Albany. DNA Plant Technology's intellectual property holdings were bought by the Bionova Holding Corporation in the mid-1990s. Bionova markets numerous GMO plant varieties, and has "major technology relationships" with Monsanto and UC, according to the company's website.

The academic research of UC's Gill Tract scientists also serves as an important building block in private industry's biotech efforts. A search of the US Patent and Trademark Office's online database reveals more than a dozen patents or patent applications that cite Hake's research. One patent that cites Hake's corn research involves inserting genetic material from another life form from outside the plant kingdom. The owner of the patent is DeKalb Genetics Corporation, a subsidiary of Monsanto. Lisch's research is also referenced in patents involving the genetic manipulation of food crops by Pioneer Hi-Bred, a subsidiary of DuPont.

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Unclean Hands at the Gill Tract?

New journal on disruptive science and technology launched by Mary Ann Liebert Inc. publishers

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Public release date: 14-May-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Sophie Mohin smohin@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

New Rochelle, May 14, 2012Disruptive Science and Technology, a new groundbreaking, peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers, has officially released its inaugural issue. Spearheaded by Alan J. Russell, PhD, Highmark Distinguished Career Professor, Carnegie Mellon University, the Journal presents new and innovative results and thorough syntheses and analyses focused on front-line concepts that will improve the way we live. Papers in the inaugural issue explore new paradigms in scientific publishing, treatments for sepsis, and temperature regulation, as well as advances in vaccine development, microfluidics, and nanodiamonds. The inaugural issue is free on the Disruptive Science and Technology website at http://www.disruptivescience.com.

"Our main focus is to publish world-class papers that challenge the status quo and bring about new innovations and discoveries that will better our lives," says Dr. Russell. "Disruptive Science and Technology provides a custom-designed forum for the publication of breakthrough science and engineering that has the capacity to dynamically improve our society."

Offering original articles accompanied by personal video interviews with authors, the Journal provides an up-close-and-personal view into the extraordinary discoveries presented by developing a direct relationship between reader and author. Readers will become participants in a unique multimedia platform that allows for dialog among a community of top academic scientists, corporate innovators, business leaders, and futurists who provide unique and fascinating views on the science and technology that will shape our future. The Disruptive Science and Technology editorial board is comprised of a group of renowned experts and opinion leaders in innovation, science, health, technology, and business. The complete multidisciplinary editorial board can be viewed on the Journal website at http://www.disruptivescience.com.

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About the Publisher

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Tissue Engineering, Rejuvenation Research, and Human Gene Therapy. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 70 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. website at http://www.liebertpub.com.

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. 140 Huguenot St., New Rochelle, NY 10801-5215 Phone: (914) 740-2100 (800) M-LIEBERT Fax: (914) 740-2101 http://www.liebertpub.com

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New journal on disruptive science and technology launched by Mary Ann Liebert Inc. publishers

Gene Therapy Extends Mouse Lifespan

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33054641 story Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday May 15, @08:17PM from the boosterspice-before-i-get-old-please dept. Grond writes "ScienceDaily reports, 'Researchers at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre have demonstrated that the mouse lifespan can be extended by the application in adult life of a single treatment acting directly on the animal's genes. Mice treated at the age of one lived longer by 24% on average (PDF), and those treated at the age of two, by 13%. The therapy, furthermore, produced an appreciable improvement in the animals' health, delaying the onset of age-related diseases like osteoporosis and insulin resistance and achieving improved readings on aging indicators like neuromuscular coordination.' Notably, the therapy did not cause an increase in the incidence of cancer." You may like to read: Post

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Gene Therapy Extends Mouse Lifespan

First gene therapy successful against aging-associated decline: Mouse lifespan extended up to 24% with a single …

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ScienceDaily (May 14, 2012) A new study consisting of inducing cells to express telomerase, the enzyme which -- metaphorically -- slows down the biological clock -- was successful. The research provides a "proof-of-principle" that this "feasible and safe" approach can effectively "improve health span."

A number of studies have shown that it is possible to lengthen the average life of individuals of many species, including mammals, by acting on specific genes. To date, however, this has meant altering the animals' genes permanently from the embryonic stage -- an approach impracticable in humans. Researchers at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), led by its director Maria Blasco, have demonstrated that the mouse lifespan can be extended by the application in adult life of a single treatment acting directly on the animal's genes. And they have done so using gene therapy, a strategy never before employed to combat aging. The therapy has been found to be safe and effective in mice.

The results were recently published in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine. The CNIO team, in collaboration with Eduard Ayuso and Fatima Bosch of the Centre of Animal Biotechnology and Gene Therapy at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB), treated adult (one-year-old) and aged (two-year-old) mice, with the gene therapy delivering a "rejuvenating" effect in both cases, according to the authors.

Mice treated at the age of one lived longer by 24% on average, and those treated at the age of two, by 13%. The therapy, furthermore, produced an appreciable improvement in the animals' health, delaying the onset of age-related diseases -- like osteoporosis and insulin resistance -- and achieving improved readings on aging indicators like neuromuscular coordination.

The gene therapy consisted of treating the animals with a DNA-modified virus, the viral genes having been replaced by those of the telomerase enzyme, with a key role in aging. Telomerase repairs the extreme ends or tips of chromosomes, known as telomeres, and in doing so slows the cell's and therefore the body's biological clock. When the animal is infected, the virus acts as a vehicle depositing the telomerase gene in the cells.

This study "shows that it is possible to develop a telomerase-based anti-aging gene therapy without increasing the incidence of cancer," the authors affirm. "Aged organisms accumulate damage in their DNA due to telomere shortening, [this study] finds that a gene therapy based on telomerase production can repair or delay this kind of damage," they add.

'Resetting' the biological clock

Telomeres are the caps that protect the end of chromosomes, but they cannot do so indefinitely: each time the cell divides the telomeres get shorter, until they are so short that they lose all functionality. The cell, as a result, stops dividing and ages or dies. Telomerase gets around this by preventing telomeres from shortening or even rebuilding them. What it does, in essence, is stop or reset the cell's biological clock.

But in most cells the telomerase gene is only active before birth; the cells of an adult organism, with few exceptions, have no telomerase. The exceptions in question are adult stem cells and cancer cells, which divide limitlessly and are therefore immortal -- in fact several studies have shown that telomerase expression is the key to the immortality of tumour cells.

It is precisely this risk of promoting tumour development that has set back the investigation of telomerase-based anti-aging therapies.

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First gene therapy successful against aging-associated decline: Mouse lifespan extended up to 24% with a single ...