Monthly Archives: October 2012

NASA must reinvest in nanotechnology research, according to new Rice University paper

Posted on by

Public release date: 16-Oct-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: David Ruth david@rice.edu 713-348-6327 Rice University

The United States may lose its leadership role in space to other countries unless it makes research and development funding and processes -- especially in nanotechnology -- a renewed and urgent priority, according to a new paper from Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy.

The paper, "NASA's Relationship with Nanotechnology: Past, Present and Future Challenges," investigates how NASA has both guided and defunded cutting-edge nanotechnology development since 1996 at its own research facilities and in its collaborations with university scientists and laboratories. The research was conducted by a team at Rice that included Baker Institute science and technology policy fellow Kirstin Matthews, current Rice graduate student Kenneth Evans and former graduate students Padraig Moloney and Brent Carey. The paper sheds light on a broad field that holds tremendous potential for improving space flight by reducing the weight of spacecraft and developing smaller and more accurate sensors.

This area of research, however, saw a dramatic cutback from 2004 to 2007, when NASA reduced annual nanotechnology R&D expenditures from $47 million to $20 million. NASA is the only U.S. federal agency to scale back investment in this area, the authors found, and it's part of an overall funding trend at NASA. From 2003 to 2010, while the total federal science research budget remained steady between $60 billion and $65 billion (in constant 2012 dollars), NASA's research appropriations decreased more than 75 percent, from $6.62 billion to $1.55 billion.

The authors argue that the agency should restructure, refocus and strengthen its R&D programs.

"The United States currently lacks a national space policy that ensures the continuity of research and programs that build on existing capabilities to explore space, and that has defined steps for human and robotic exploration of low-Earth orbit, the moon and Mars," Matthews said. "With Congress and the president wrestling over the budget each year, it is vital that NASA present a clear plan for science and technology R&D that is linked to all aspects of the agency. This includes connecting R&D, with nanotechnology as a lead area, to applications related to the agency's missions."

The authors said that to effectively engage in new technology R&D, NASA should strengthen its research capacity and expertise by encouraging high-risk, high-reward projects to help support and shape the future of U.S. space exploration

"Failure to make these changes, especially in a political climate of flat or reduced funding, poses substantial risk that the United States will lose its leadership role in space to othercountries most notably China, Germany, France, Japan and Israel that make more effective use of their R&D investments," Matthews said.

###

View post:
NASA must reinvest in nanotechnology research, according to new Rice University paper

New hope for leukemia patients

Posted on by

Kochi, Oct 15 (UNI)

Amrita Centre for Nanosciences and Molecular Medicine, part of the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre has claimed to have discovered a potential cure for drug resistant leukemia.

Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML) responds well to a drug named 'Imatinib', however, when drug resistance sets in, which is in about 20-25 per cent of the cases, the patients has little chance of survival, a press release said here today.

Drug resistance was due to certain point mutations in the leukemia cells as a result of which the cells find an alternative pathway for survival, preventing the drug from killing the cancer cells, it said.

The Centre has developed a nanomedicine which had shown significant ability to kill the drug reststant cancer cells.

The nanomedicine was developed over the past three years and has shown success in in-vitro (or cell line based) studies, it added.

The Centre was now conducting animal trials or pre-clinical studies of the drug, it said, adding that it is expected that if pre-clinical trials are successful the new nano medicine can be submitted for clinical trial after approval from the government.

This was the first such discovery in the world of nanomedicine that effectively solves the problem of severe drug resistance in blood cancers.

The senior scientists involved in the research and development was Dr Manzoor Koyakutty, Professor and Dr Shantikumar Nair, Centre Director and Dean of Research.

Clinicians from the hospital who are involved in the research are Dr Pavithran, Dr Neeraj and Dr Prabhu. The PhD student who has worked on this as part of her PhD thesis is Archana Ratnakumari, it added.

See the original post:
New hope for leukemia patients

Fake med student forged ID – university

Posted on by

The University of Auckland's medical school says it is "reasonably sure" a fake medical student did not deal with hospital patients.

An investigation has been launched by the university to figure out how a student managed to pose as a medical student for two years.

The dean of the Medical and Health Sciences Faculty, John Fraser, said it was unclear whether the student got through the doors of Auckland Hospital.

"We understand that he assigned himself to a group, but whether he actually was there, on site, and engaged with the patients, we are reasonably sure that didn't occur," Professor Fraser told TVNZ.

The man also forged a student identification badge, which he was seen wearing.

The man, yet to be named, had even fooled his family into thinking he was training legitimately to be a doctor.

Starting out as a health science student and failing to get into medical school, he took part in second and third year medical studies and was involved in human cadaver dissection.

Prof Fraser said the man deceived everyone in the class and his fellow, legitimate, students were feeling betrayed and angry.

"We had a formal meeting with students yesterday, their reaction was not surprisingly hurt and upset and there was some degree of anger.

The university's medical programme head Warwick Bagg said the bogus student would be referred to the appropriate health services to help him.

Read more:
Fake med student forged ID - university

Cedar City pushing to establish osteopathic medical school

Posted on by

The Cedar City Office of Economic Development wants to establish a school of osteopathic medicine in that community.

It says it is beginning the groundwork to open the school in what it describes as a joint effort of community leaders, business leaders, educators, health professionals and interested residents and students.

The economic development office says it is consulting with Colorado-based Rocky Vista Universitys College of Osteopathic Medicine to help it establish a school. Rocky Vistas first class of physicians graduated in May 2012.

In the United States, there are two types of licensed physicians that practice medicine. Most physicians hold the M.D. or Doctor of Medicine degree. Osteopathic physicians hold the D.O. or Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degree. The medical training for an M.D. and D.O. is virtually indistinguishable. D.O. physicians are licensed to practice medicine in all 50 states, with a large percentage going into primary care.

Copyright 2012 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Continued here:
Cedar City pushing to establish osteopathic medical school

UMass Medical School Building Earns LEED Silver

Posted on by

Tuesday, October 16, 2012, 10:49am

The Ambulatory Care Center (ACC) at the University of Massachusetts Medical School's Worcester campus has earned LEED Silver certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, the first building in the school's history to achieve such status.

The ACC opened in June 2010, and after a detailed review of the building's design, construction and operational data, the Green Building Certification Institute verified the LEED Silver certification on Sept. 20. Built by the Medical School in collaboration with its clinical partner the UMass Memorial Medical Center, the 253,000-square-foot ACC is home to a mix of patient-care, clinical research and educational activities.

"We are pleased to have earned this important certification for the new building," said Terence R. Flotte, MD, the Celia and Isaac Haidak Professor in Medicine, executive deputy chancellor, provost, dean of the School of Medicine and professor of pediatrics and microbiology & physiological systems at UMass Medical School. "It is only fitting that facilities like the Ambulatory Care Center, that are designed to improve human health are respectful of the health of our environment."

LEED stands for "Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design" and is a third-party certification system created by the USGBC for "green building" construction and renovation projects. It's regarded as the premier certification program for sustainable construction in the country.

To meet the high standards required for LEED Silver certification, numerous sustainable features were integrated into the ACC. For example, the building's design and orientation helps prevent solar heat gain, thereby lowering the need for mechanical cooling. The building has a white roof to diminish the "heat island effect" and reflect rather than absorb heat; a tight exterior building envelope with tinted, reflective, and insulated glass; and an east-west building orientation to minimize the number of south-facing windows.

Water use in the ACC is approximately 30-percent less than a conventional building because of automatic low-flow/low-flush plumbing fixtures. Electricity consumption is reduced by sophisticated controls for heating, cooling and lighting. A special "commissioning agent" was brought in to oversee the design and installation of the mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems to insure they were the most efficient possible given the use of the building, and are functioning as expected.

Payette of Boston was the architect for the ACC; Consigli Construction of Milford was the construction manager and general contractor.

Read more:
UMass Medical School Building Earns LEED Silver

Lupus Research Institute awards $1 million to University of Massachusetts Medical School faculty

Posted on by

Public release date: 16-Oct-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Jim Fessenden james.fessenden@umassmed.edu 508-856-2000 University of Massachusetts Medical School

WORCESTER, MA The Lupus Research Institute (LRI) has named University of Massachusetts Medical School Professor of Medicine Ann Marshak-Rothstein, MD, one of two recipients of the first LRI Distinguished Innovator Awards. Created to provide outstanding scientists with support to conduct novel research into the fundamental causes of lupus, the $1 million Distinguished Innovator Award was established to address the current lack of treatments for lupus and aims to provide new directions toward a cure or prevention.

"Support from the LRI will enable us to extend our analysis of the cell components recognized by toll-like receptors in mice models to toll-like receptor activation in human cell populations, and allow us to identify those patients most likely to respond to therapies directed at blocking specific toll-like receptors," said Dr. Marshak-Rothstein.

Systemic lupus erythematosus is a chronic and often disabling autoimmune disease in which the human immune system becomes hyperactive and attacks normal, health tissues. As a result, no two cases of lupus are alike. Symptoms may affect many different body systems, including joints, skin, kidneys, blood cells, heart, and lungs. Some people develop kidney problems, for example, while others suffer from premature heart disease, strokes or lung inflammation. There is no known cause or cure for lupus and no new treatments have been approved for the disease in 50 years, and the treatments currently available can often be toxic and more damaging than the disease itself. Estimates indicate that more than 1.5 million Americans have lupus.

Marshak-Rothstein's research group was the first to propose that toll-like receptors (TLR) a class of proteins that play a key role in the innate immune system could have a primary role in lupus by turning on the immune system to attack the body. Because TLR proteins are essential in fighting any infection, how the body loses control over their activity is a fundamental question in immunology. Finding the causes of lupus, the prototype for autoimmune disease research, could have broad implications across a wide range of illnesses affecting millions. Recent studies found that one TLR, TLR7, has a harmful role, while another, TLR9, has the opposite effect helping to protect against lupus.

Building on this work, Marshak-Rothstein is developing a highly innovative experimental approach to pinpoint which specific TLR is mainly to blame for causing lupus in humans. This experimental approach also promises to reveal new targets for therapies that could prevent or arrest lupus.

"Members of the toll-like receptor gene family have been clearly implicated in the development of systemic autoimmune diseases such as lupus," said Marshak-Rothstein. "These studies will further provide a high throughput system for testing TLR-based inhibitors and thereby identify appropriate TLR-based therapeutic targets."

The LRI received applications for the Distinguished Innovator Awards the first privately funded $1 million grants for lupus research from many of the world's most renowned scientists as well as rising young investigators with great promise for contributing their talent to uncovering the causes of lupus. Rigorous peer-review was conducted by a team of LRI's scientific advisors and 12 of the world's leading lupus experts.

"We were enormously impressed by the quality of the submissions," noted world-leading immunologist Dr. William Paul, LRI Scientific Advisory Board Chairman and National Academy of Sciences member. "With these Distinguished Innovator Awards and existing annual Novel Research Grants, the LRI continues to pursue a strategy of funding the most innovative and novel research that has had unprecedented success in driving new answers in a complex disease state. Their work over the past decade has provided the basis for this transformative research initiative to look for the fundamental causes of lupus that can drive to a cure and the means to prevent lupus."

Go here to read the rest:
Lupus Research Institute awards $1 million to University of Massachusetts Medical School faculty

When leaving your wealth to your sister's sons makes sense

Posted on by

ScienceDaily (Oct. 16, 2012) To whom a man's possessions go when he dies is both a matter of cultural norm and evolutionary advantage.

In most human societies, men pass on their worldly goods to their wife's children. But in about 10 percent of societies, men inexplicably transfer their wealth to their sister's sons -- what's called "mother's brother-sister's son" inheritance. A new study on this unusual form of matrilineal inheritance by Santa Fe Institute reseacher Laura Fortunato has produced insights into this practice.

Her findings appear October 17 in the online edition of Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

"Matrilineal inheritance is puzzling for anthropologists because it causes tension for a man caught between his sisters and wife," explains Fortunato, who has used game theory to study mother's brother-sister's son inheritance. "From an evolutionary perspective it's also puzzling because you expect an individual to invest in his closest relatives -- usually the individual's own children."

For decades research on the practice of matrilineal inheritance focused on the probabilities of a man being the biological father of his wife's children -- probabilities that lie on a sliding scale depending on the rate of promiscuity or whether polyandrous marriage (when a woman takes two or more husbands) is practiced.

Of special interest has been the probability value below which man is more closely related to his sister's children than to his wife's children. Below this "paternity threshold" a man is better off investing in his sister's offspring, who are sure to be blood relatives, than his own wife's children.

In her work modeling the evolutionary payoffs of marriage and inheritance strategies, Fortunato looked beyond the paternity threshold to see, among other things, what payoffs there were for men and women in different marital situations -- including polygamy.

"What emerges is quite interesting," says Fortunato. "Where inheritance is matrilineal, a man with multiple wives 'wins' over a man with a single wife." That's because wives have brothers, and those brothers will pass on their wealth to the husband's sons. So more wives means more brothers-in-laws to invest in your sons.

The model also shows an effect for women with multiple husbands. The husband of a woman with multiple husbands is unsure of his paternity, so he may be better off investing in his sister's offspring.

"A woman does not benefit from multiple husbands where inheritance is matrilineal, however," Fortunato explains, "because her husbands will invest in their sisters' kids." Family structure determines how societies handle relatedness and reproduction issues, Fortunato says. Understanding these practices and their evolutionary implications is a prerequisite for a theory of human behavior.

Read the rest here:
When leaving your wealth to your sister's sons makes sense

SAGE® Labs, Ekam Imaging, Inc. Partner to Develop Preclinical Imaging Assays to Screen Therapies of Neurodegenerative …

Posted on by

ST. LOUIS, Oct. 16, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Sigma-Aldrich Corporation (SIAL) today announced that Sigma Advanced Genetic Engineering (SAGE) Labs, an initiative of Sigma Life Science, and Ekam Imaging, Inc. have partnered to develop a suite of preclinical services based on the advanced translational power of genetically engineered rat models from SAGE Labs and Ekam's expertise in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology. For more information on SAGE Labs, visit http://www.sageresearchmodels.com.

Unlike the fMRI studies currently performed in drug development that require anesthetized, unconscious animals, Ekam Imaging's fMRI translational technology produces detailed maps of a conscious animal's brain activity, a state that much better represents the human condition.

"The rat models created by SAGE Labs have been genetically modified to reflect patient-relevant mutations and exhibit highly relevant, robust phenotypes. The combination of these rats with Ekam's imaging platform presents a transformative opportunity for translational neuroscience programs. Ultimately, these types of studies will lead to better drugs targeting neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases," said Edward Weinstein, Ph.D., Director of SAGE Labs.

"Probing the brain functions of a conscious animal, specifically in rats which are prized by the neuroscience community for intelligence and complex social behaviors, produces data that is much more representative of a potential therapy's effects on human processes," said Mark Nedelman, MS, MBA, President and CEO of Ekam Imaging.

Nedelman's company is currently producing a detailed map of neural activity in SAGE Lab's Pink1 gene knockout rat, which SAGE Labs generated for The Michael J. Fox Foundation to model Parkinson's disease. The Pink1 gene knockout rat exhibits delayed-onset motor deficits, a key phenotype of Parkinson's disease in humans.

Sigma and Ekam plan to publicly launch services specific to SAGE Labs' neuroscience rat models in early 2013.

Cautionary Statement: The foregoing release contains forward-looking statements that can be identified by terminology such as "more precise," "unambiguously," "curtail," "rapidly" or similar expressions, or by expressed or implied discussions regarding potential future revenues from products derived there from. You should not place undue reliance on these statements. Such forward-looking statements reflect the current views of management regarding future events, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. There can be no guarantee that preclincal imaging assays or related services will assist the Company to achieve any particular levels of revenue in the future. In particular, management's expectations regarding products associated with preclinical imaging assays or related services could be affected by, among other things, unexpected regulatory actions or delays or government regulation generally; the Company's ability to obtain or maintain patent or other proprietary intellectual property protection; competition in general; government, industry and general public pricing pressures; the impact that the foregoing factors could have on the values attributed to the Company's assets and liabilities as recorded in its consolidated balance sheet, and other risks and factors referred to in Sigma-Aldrich's current Form 10-K on file with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Sigma-Aldrich is providing the information in this press release as of this date and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

About Sigma Life Science: Sigma Life Science is a Sigma-Aldrich business that represents the Company's leadership in innovative biological products and services for the global life science market and offers an array of biologically-rich products and reagents that researchers use in scientific investigation. Product areas include biomolecules, genomics and functional genomics, cells and cell-based assays, transgenics, protein assays, stem cell research, epigenetics and custom services/oligonucleotides. Sigma Life Science also provides an extensive range critical bioessentials like biochemicals, antibiotics, buffers, carbohydrates, enzymes, forensic tools, hematology and histology, nucleotides, amino acids and their derivatives, and cell culture media.

About Sigma-Aldrich: Sigma-Aldrich is a leading Life Science and High Technology company whose biochemical, organic chemical products, kits and services are used in scientific research, including genomic and proteomic research, biotechnology, pharmaceutical development, the diagnosis of disease and as key components in pharmaceutical, diagnostics and high technology manufacturing. Sigma-Aldrich customers include more than 1.3 million scientists and technologists in life science companies, university and government institutions, hospitals and industry. The Company operates in 38 countries and has nearly 9,100 employees whose objective is to provide excellent service worldwide. Sigma-Aldrich is committed to accelerating customer success through innovation and leadership in Life Science and High Technology. For more information about Sigma-Aldrich, please visit its website at http://www.sigma-aldrich.com.

Sigma-Aldrich and Sigma are trademarks of Sigma-Aldrich Co, LLC registered in the US and other countries. SAGE is a registered trademark of Sigma-Aldrich Co. LLC.

Visit link:
SAGE® Labs, Ekam Imaging, Inc. Partner to Develop Preclinical Imaging Assays to Screen Therapies of Neurodegenerative ...

Carnegie Institution and UMass Medical School granted broad US Patent related to RNA interference

Posted on by

Public release date: 16-Oct-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Tina McDowell tmcdowell@carnegiescience.edu 202-929-1120 Carnegie Institution

Washington, D.C.The Carnegie Institution for Science and the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) have been granted United States Patent 8,283,329, entitled, "Genetic inhibition of double-stranded RNA." The patent, issued on October 9, 2012, is broadly directed to the use of RNA interference (RNAi) to inhibit expression of a target gene in animal cells, including mammalian cells.

The process by which RNA, the cellular material responsible for the transmission of genetic information, can silence a targeted gene within a living cell was discovered in 1998 by Carnegie's Andrew Fire, (now a professor at Stanford University) and Craig C. Mello, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, Blais University Chair in Molecular Medicine and distinguished professor of molecular medicine and cell & developmental biology at UMass Medical School. The duo received the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology and/or Medicine for this work.

Already a powerful research tool used to isolate and identify genes and their function in the laboratory, RNAi holds the promise of shutting down disease-causing genes in humans and has broad implications for the development of new treatments and drugs for a range of diseases, including cancer. Researchers around the globeincluding UMass Medical School and the Carnegie Institutionare investigating novel methods for synthesizing and delivering RNAi molecules able to turn off disease-causing genes to human cells. According to the patent, the double-stranded RNA (ds-RNA) responsible for the RNAi process may be either synthesized by the animal cell, or otherwise provided to the cell, in an amount sufficient to inhibit expression of the target gene.

The single-stranded RNA molecule is commonly known for its role in shuttling the genetic code contained in DNA from the cell's nucleus to its ribosomes where proteins are made, and for making sure that the proteins are correctly constructed to perform their functions in living organisms. In RNAi, the first strand of double-stranded RNA molecule has the ribonucleotide sequence that matches the nucleotide sequence in the targeted gene (also called sense); the second strand of RNA has a complementary sequence to that in the target gene (called antisense). When introduced to an organism, the double stranded RNA degrades a specific messenger RNA (mRNA) molecule, which disrupts the message-carrying process and inactivates the gene, essentially halting the progression of an invading viral infection or, for example, tumor growth.

"We are very pleased that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued this broad patent for the groundbreaking work of Dr. Mello and Dr. Fire," said James P. McNamara, Executive Director of the Office of Technology Management of the University of Massachusetts Medical School. "RNA interference is a tremendously promising tool with enormous potential for treating disease. Our hope is to see the further advancement of the RNAi field toward novel therapies in the public interest."

"We are very pleased that the patent office has granted a patent of the present scope for such a fundamental advance," said Richard A. Meserve, president of the Carnegie Institution. "The research exemplifies what Andrew Carnegie sought to accomplishto benefit humankind."

The current patent is the most recent of several patents resulting from this work.

###

Read more:
Carnegie Institution and UMass Medical School granted broad US Patent related to RNA interference

Two-gene test predicts which patients with heart failure respond best to beta-blocker drug

Posted on by

ScienceDaily (Oct. 16, 2012) A landmark paper identifying genetic signatures that predict which patients will respond to a life-saving drug for treating congestive heart failure has been published by a research team co-led by Stephen B. Liggett, MD, of the University of South Florida.

The study, drawing upon a randomized placebo-controlled trial for the beta blocker bucindolol, appears this month in the international online journal PLoS ONE. In addition to Dr. Liggett, whose laboratory discovered and characterized the two genetic variations, Christopher O'Connor, MD, of Duke University Medical Center, and Michael Bristow, MD, PhD, of ARCA biopharma and the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, were leading members of the research team.

Dr. Stephen Liggett, who joined USF just four months ago to lead the University's Center for Personalized Medicine and Genomics, was a senior author of the paper.

The analysis led to a "genetic scorecard" for patients with congestive heart failure, a serious condition in which the heart can't pump enough blood to meet the body's needs, said Dr. Liggett, the study's co-principal investigator and the new vice dean for research and vice dean for personalized medicine and genomics at the USF Morsani College of Medicine.

"We have been studying the molecular basis of heart failure in the laboratory with a goal of finding genetic variations in a patient's DNA that alter how drugs work," Dr. Liggett said. "We took this knowledge from the lab to patients and found that we can indeed, using a two-gene test, identify individuals with heart failure who will not respond to bucindolol and those who have an especially favorable treatment response. We also identified those who will have an intermediate level of response." The research has implications for clinical practice, because the genetic test could theoretically be used to target the beta blocker to patients the drug is likely to help. Equally important, its use could be avoided in patients with no likelihood of benefit, who could then be spared potential drug side effects. Prospective studies are needed to confirm that bucindolol would be a better treatment than other classes of beta blockers for a subset of patients with health failure.

Dr. Liggett collaborated with medical centers across the United States, including the NASDAq-listed biotech company ARCA biopharma, which he co-founded in Denver, CO. This genetic sub-study involved 1,040 patients who participated in the Beta-Blocker Evaluation of Survival Trial (BEST). The researchers analyzed mortality, hospital admissions for heart failure exacerbations and other clinical outcome indicators of drug performance.

"The results showed that the choice of the best drug for a given patient, made the first time without a trial-and-error period, can be accomplished using this two-gene test," Dr. Liggett said.

The genetic test discovered by the Liggett team requires less than 1/100th of a teaspoon of blood drawn from a patient, from which DNA is isolated. DNA is highly stable when frozen, so a single blood draw will suffice for many decades, Dr. Liggett said. And since a patient's DNA does not change over their lifetime, as new discoveries are made and other tests need to be run, it would not be necessary to give another blood sample, he added.

This is part of the strategy for the USF Center for Personalized Medicine and Genomics. The discovery of genetic variations in diseases can be targeted to predict three new types of information: who will get a disease, how the disease will progress, and the best drug to use for treatment.

"In the not too distant future, such tests will become routine, and patient outcomes, and the efficiency and cost of medical care will be impacted in positive ways. We also will move toward an era where we embrace the fact that one drug does not fit all," Dr. Liggett said. "If we can identify by straightforward tests which drug is best for which patient, drugs that work with certain smaller populations can be brought to the market, filling a somewhat empty pipeline of new drugs."

Follow this link:
Two-gene test predicts which patients with heart failure respond best to beta-blocker drug

2-gene test predicts which patients with heart failure respond best to beta-blocker drug

Posted on by

Public release date: 16-Oct-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Anne DeLotto Baier abaier@health.usf.edu 813-974-3303 University of South Florida (USF Health)

Tampa, FL (Oct. 16, 2012) -- A landmark paper identifying genetic signatures that predict which patients will respond to a life-saving drug for treating congestive heart failure has been published by a research team co-led by Stephen B. Liggett, MD, of the University of South Florida.

The study, drawing upon a randomized placebo-controlled trial for the beta blocker bucindolol, apprears this month in the online international journal PLoS ONE. In addition to Dr. Liggett, whose laboratory discovered and characterized the two genetic variations, Christopher O'Connor, MD, of Duke University Medical Center, and Michael Bristow, MD, PhD, of ARCA biopharma and the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, were leading members of the research team.

The analysis led to a "genetic scorecard" for patients with congestive heart failure, a serious condition in which the heart can't pump enough blood to meet the body's needs, said Dr. Liggett, the study's co-principal investigator and the new vice dean for research and vice dean for personalized medicine and genomics at the USF Morsani College of Medicine.

"We have been studying the molecular basis of heart failure in the laboratory with a goal of finding genetic variations in a patient's DNA that alter how drugs work," Dr. Liggett said. "We took this knowledge from the lab to patients and found that we can indeed, using a two-gene test, identify individuals with heart failure who will not respond to bucindolol and those who have an especially favorable treatment response. We also identified those who will have an intermediate level of response."

The research has implications for clinical practice, because the genetic test could theoretically be used to target the beta blocker to patients the drug is likely to help. Equally important, its use could be avoided in patients with no likelihood of benefit, who could then be spared potential drug side effects. Prospective studies are needed to confirm that bucindolol would be a better treatment than other classes of beta blockers for a subset of patients with health failure.

Dr. Liggett collaborated with medical centers across the United States, including the NASDAq-listed biotech company ARCA biopharma, which he co-founded in Denver, CO. This genetic sub-study involved 1,040 patients who participated in the Beta-Blocker Evaluation of Survival Trial (BEST). The researchers analyzed mortality, hospital admissions for heart failure exacerbations and other clinical outcome indicators of drug performance.

"The results showed that the choice of the best drug for a given patient, made the first time without a trial-and-error period, can be accomplished using this two-gene test," Dr. Liggett said.

The genetic test discovered by the Liggett team requires less than 1/100th of a teaspoon of blood drawn from a patient, from which DNA is isolated. DNA is highly stable when frozen, so a single blood draw will suffice for many decades, Dr. Liggett said. And since a patient's DNA does not change over their lifetime, as new discoveries are made and other tests need to be run, it would not be necessary to give another blood sample, he added.

Read the original here:
2-gene test predicts which patients with heart failure respond best to beta-blocker drug

Nanoparticles seen as gene therapy advance

Posted on by

Published: Oct. 16, 2012 at 8:30 PM

EVANSTON, Ill., Oct. 16 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they've discovered how to control the shape of nanoparticles that can move DNA through the body to treat cancer and other diseases.

A gene therapy technique utilizing nanoparticles is significant in that it does not use a virus to carry DNA into cells, as some gene therapy strategies relying on viruses have posed health risks, researchers at Northwestern University and John Hopkins University reported.

"These nanoparticles could become a safer and more effective delivery vehicle for gene therapy, targeting genetic diseases, cancer and other illnesses that can be treated with gene medicine," John Hopkins material science Professor Hai-Quan Mao said.

Mao, who has been developing non-viral nanoparticles for gene therapy for a decade, said a major breakthrough is the ability to "tune" the particles in three shapes, resembling rods, worms and spheres, which mimic the shapes and sizes of viral particles.

The nanoparticles carry healthy snippets of DNA within protective polymer coatings and are designed to deliver their genetic payload only after they have moved through the bloodstream and entered the target cells, prompting the cells to produce functional proteins that combat disease.

More here:
Nanoparticles seen as gene therapy advance

Gene Linked to Kidney Failure

Posted on by

Reported by Julielynn Wong, MD

A single gene may shed light on why more than half of transplanted kidneys fail in 10 years, a new study found.

The study of nearly 4,500 European transplant recipients, some whom were followed for 20 years, found kidneys with one version of the gene were 69 percent more likely to fail, sending patients back to dialysis and a transplant waiting list.

But with a wait list 74,000 names long and only17,500 kidneys donated annually, doctors wont be excluding any organs based on the gene variant just yet.

We just dont have enough donor kidneysto go around now, said Dr. Michael E. Shapiro, associate professor of surgery at New Jersey Medical School/University of Medicine and Dentistry New Jersey, who was not involved in the study. So wecouldntexclude such kidneys based solely on genetic variation.

The study authors are unsure why the gene variant is linked to a higher risk of kidney failure after a transplant, but they suspect it might have to do with the anti-rejection drugs needed to prevent the immune system from attacking the new organ. Those drugs can cause kidney failure if they accumulate in high levels, they said.

But because kidneys are such a rare and valuable resource, even those more likely to fail in the long run will continue to be transplanted. The alternative is dialysis, a process that artificially filters blood, according to Dr. Stanley Jordan, medical director of the Kidney Transplant Program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, who was not involved with the study.

And dialysis has its drawbacks.

We know that remaining on dialysis has a very high mortality rate, as high as 20 percent per year for some patients, said Jordan.

Dialysis costs roughly $85,000 per year, compared with $19,000 per year for a working transplanted kidney, Jordan said, citing a 2011 report on the United States Renal Data System website. But the cost of treating a failed kidney transplant can be as high as $230,000 in the first year, with Medicare usually bearing the brunt of these costs, he added.

Original post:
Gene Linked to Kidney Failure

On the apparent horrors of requiring high school students to take chemistry.

Posted on by

Theres a guest post on the Washington Post Answer Sheet blog by David Bernstein entitled Why are you forcing my son to take chemistry? in which the author argues against his 15-year-old sons schools requirement that all its students take a year of chemistry.

Derek Lowe provides a concise summary of the gist:

My son will not be a chemist. He will not be a scientist. A year of chemistry class will do nothing for him but make him miserable. He could be taking something else that would be doing him more good.

Bernsteins post is a slurry of claims about chemistry, secondary education, and the goals of education more generally with respect to human flourishing in other words, the kind of thing I need to take apart for close examination before responding.

So, thats what Im going to do here.

Lets start with Bernsteins account of the dawning of the horror:

I discovered that my 15-year-old son must suffer through a year of chemistry because a Committee of Ten academics was assembled in 1892 in order to standardize the curriculum (hows that for a bad idea?) and recommended that chemistry, among other subjects, be taught to everyone everywhere.

Bernstein is right that tradition is not in itself a good reason to require that all high school students take a year-long chemistry course. On the other hand, tradition is not in itself a good reason to assert that a year-long chemistry course is a wrongheaded requirement.

The author proceeds to make noises acknowledging that he is glad that someone in our society is doing chemistry, what with all the goodies it delivers to enhance our modern lifestyles. He even writes:

[M]y very own mother, who if I am lucky will never lay eyes on this article, is a chemist, and believes that chemistry is the most noble of human pursuits and doesnt understand how I, a former philosophy major, was able to eke out a living.

Read more here:
On the apparent horrors of requiring high school students to take chemistry.

‘Panda ambassador’ hopefuls compete in D.C.

Posted on by

A few had panda jewelry. Some drew the black and white bears on their name tags. Others sported attire that one might expect from semifinalists in a contest to become a world panda ambassador, or Pambassador.

Ashley Jaeger, 23, a bioengineering researcher at the National Institutes of Health, had black-and-white panda-colored nails and panda-patterned shoes.

I thought it was fun and kind of something to set me apart, she said.

Jaeger is one of 24 semifinalists one from Brazil, the rest from the United States competing in Washington at the Omni Shoreham Hotel on Tuesday and Wednesday for a chance to spend a year as a global envoy for wildlife conservation.

Four finalists will be selected Wednesday afternoon to spend nearly a month at the Chengdu Panda Base in China, working to introduce the bears into the wild. Later, the four will compete in Chengdu against 12 other finalists from Britain, Singapore and Chinato be named one of three globe-trotting pambassadors.

Those unofficial diplomats will receive a $20,000 stipend which could buy a lot of bamboo in tough economic times and will visit pandas around the world while promoting conservation at the community level. There were 45,000 online applications worldwide for the honor.

The competitions sponsors, the Chengdu Panda Base and the San Francisco-based nonprofit organization WildAid, are using pandas as the adorable public face of wildlife conservation and endangered species. The contest started in 2010, but it did not take place last year.

WildAid Executive Director Peter Knights said that in the conservation business pandas with their cute faces and scruffy fur are far more appealing as spokescreatures than, say, sharks.

A lot of animals dont have that going for them, Knights said. The panda is an icon for many endangered species.

Giant pandas are among the rarest animals in the world, according to the National Zoos Web site. About 1,600 live in the wild. Another 300 are in zoos and breeding centers around the world, mostly in China.

Link:
‘Panda ambassador’ hopefuls compete in D.C.

Envisioning novel approaches for eye disease: 'The new medicine' at UC Santa Barbara

Posted on by

Public release date: 16-Oct-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Shelly Leachman shelly.leachman@ia.ucsb.edu 805-893-8726 University of California - Santa Barbara

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) By growing new retinal cells to replace those that have malfunctioned, scientists hope to one day create and fuse entire layers of fresh cells a synthetic patch akin to a contact lens as a treatment for age-related macular degeneration, the top cause of visual impairment among people over 60.

Such is the goal of an elite research team at UC Santa Barbara, which aims to advance the novel therapy out of the lab and into the clinic by way of regenerative bioengineering. With stem cells also showing great promise for diabetic retinopathy, the same group is taking a similar approach to this condition the leading cause of blindness in younger adults.

Based at UCSB's Center for Stem Cell Biology and Engineering, the two projects are being pursued in tandem, in a new, five-year endeavor funded by a $5-million gift from philanthropist Bill Bowes, founder of biotechnology giant Amgen. With the development of cellular therapies as its goal, the Garland Initiative for Vision named for Bowes' mother, who was a physician and Santa Barbara native will position the campus to propel its ocular innovations toward clinical trials.

"UC Santa Barbara is honored by the visionary and generous philanthropy of Bill and Ute Bowes in establishing the Garland Initiative. We are deeply grateful for their longstanding leadership and dedication to advance critical research in ocular diseases," said Chancellor Henry T. Yang. "This gift expands the impact of the Bowes' earlier inspirational gift to establish the Ruth Garland Professor and Co-Director of the Center for Stem Cell Biology and Engineering, and will fuel new discoveries and further strengthen the outstanding work of our faculty conducting interdisciplinary research in bioengineering and biomedicine.

Asked what inspires him to give, Bowes, Amgen's first chairman and the still-active founding partner of Silicon Valley-based U.S. Venture Partners, said, "For me, philanthropy is the best use of resources, by far. I've come to respect UC Santa Barbara as a very important technological institution. My firm has used Santa Barbara technologies to start companies, and that has enabled me to get a pretty good look at what's going on down there. My respect level has been going up and up and up over the years. That's all it takes.

"I put UC Santa Barbara in a small cadre of institutions that I have respect for and work with and support that includes Caltech, UCSF, Stanford, and Harvard," Bowes added. "The people at UC Santa Barbara and the technology there are ripe for a program that makes some real accomplishments in the vision field."

A stem cell dream team of renowned researchers all directors of the UC Santa Barbara stem cell center will lead the Bowes-funded project. They include Dennis Clegg, a professor of molecular, cellular, and developmental biology, and co-principal investigator of the California Project to Cure Blindness; Neuroscience Research Institute research biologist Peter Coffey, director of the London Project to Cure Blindness; James Thomson, professor of molecular, cellular, and developmental biology at UCSB, and director of Regenerative Biology at the University of Wisconsin's Morgridge Institute for Research; and H. Tom Soh, professor of mechanical engineering and of materials, associate director of the California NanoSystems Institute, and a 2010 Guggenheim Fellow in engineering.

The Garland Initiative will tackle age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy with biology and engineering two of UCSB's core scientific strengths.

Read this article:
Envisioning novel approaches for eye disease: 'The new medicine' at UC Santa Barbara

New Zealand aids drug delivery research at IIT Bombay

Posted on by

Media Release

New Zealand aids drug delivery research at IIT Bombay

MUMBAI, 16 October 2012 Drug delivery research in India will advance with help from New Zealand, with the gift of a highly advanced qNano system to Prof. Rinti Banerjee from the Department of Biosciences & Bioengineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Mumbai.

New Zealand nanotechnology company Izon Science gifted the instrument to accelerate advancement of research in the area of nanoparticles for drug delivery. The qNano provides the highly accurate information required to aid development of drug delivery systems that could deliver cancer drugs directly to the tumor. The gift recognises the path-breaking technology platform and drug delivery mechanism award winning Prof. Rinti Banerjee has developed.

The qNano system was presented to Prof. Banerjee by Hans van der Voorn, the Executive Chairman of Izon Science. The function held at IIT Bombay was attended by Hon Steven Joyce, New Zealands Science and Innovation Minister, as part of his visit to India with a delegation of New Zealand education and aviation companies. Acting Director of IIT Bombay, Prof. R.K. Malik and Prof. N.S. Punekar, Head of Department of Biosciences & Bioengineering were also present at the occasion.

Prof. Banerjee is the winner of numerous awards for her work including most recently the prestigious National Award for Women Bio-scientists by the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India.

Her group works in the area of nanomedicine. Her group focuses on development of non-invasive carriers for delivery of drugs using specifically engineered nanoparticle technologies.

At present the technologies are being developed for therapy in cancers, respiratory diseases, ocular diseases and malnutrition. Several technologies developed by her group have been patented and have shown promising effects in in vivo animal models. Prof. Banerjee is keen to collaborate with industrial partners for further translation of these technologies.

Gavin Young, New Zealands Trade Commissioner and Consul General in Mumbai says, Its great to see a New Zealand company helping researchers in India at the forefront of new research frontiers. New Zealands focus on science and innovation is something we share with India.

Izon Sciences Hans van der Voorn says, Were very pleased to be contributing to Prof. Banerjees very important research work into controlled release drug delivery. This research could lead to the development of high value added products that could really make a difference to peoples wellbeing worldwide, as well as to the Indian economy.

View post:
New Zealand aids drug delivery research at IIT Bombay

NZ aids drug delivery research at IIT Bombay

Posted on by

Drug delivery research in India will advance with help from New Zealand, with the gift of a highly advanced qNano system to Prof. Rinti Banerjee from the Department of Biosciences & Bioengineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Mumbai.

New Zealand nanotechnology company Izon Science gifted the instrument to accelerate advancement of research in the area of nanoparticles for drug delivery. The qNano provides the highly accurate information required to aid development of drug delivery systems that could deliver cancer drugs directly to the tumor. The gift recognises the path-breaking technology platform and drug delivery mechanism award winning Prof. Rinti Banerjee has developed.

The qNano system was presented to Prof. Banerjee by Hans van der Voorn, the Executive Chairman of Izon Science. The function held at IIT Bombay was attended by Hon Steven Joyce, New Zealands Science and Innovation Minister, as part of his visit to India with a delegation of New Zealand education and aviation companies. Acting Director of IIT Bombay, Prof. R.K. Malik and Prof. N.S. Punekar, Head of Department of Biosciences & Bioengineering were also present at the occasion.

Prof. Banerjee is the winner of numerous awards for her work including most recently the prestigious National Award for Women Bio-scientists by the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India.

Her group works in the area of nanomedicine. Her group focuses on development of non-invasive carriers for delivery of drugs using specifically engineered nanoparticle technologies.

At present the technologies are being developed for therapy in cancers, respiratory diseases, ocular diseases and malnutrition. Several technologies developed by her group have been patented and have shown promising effects in in vivo animal models. Prof. Banerjee is keen to collaborate with industrial partners for further translation of these technologies.

Gavin Young, New Zealands Trade Commissioner and Consul General in Mumbai says, "Its great to see a New Zealand company helping researchers in India at the forefront of new research frontiers. New Zealands focus on science and innovation is something we share with India."

Izon Sciences Hans van der Voorn says, "Were very pleased to be contributing to Prof. Banerjees very important research work into controlled release drug delivery. This research could lead to the development of high value added products that could really make a difference to peoples wellbeing worldwide, as well as to the Indian economy.

"This gift is a sign of our commitment to building business and research relationships in India. Half of our global sales already come from Asia and we see India as a very important market going forward."

Prof. Banerjee says, "I am thankful to Izon Science, New Zealand for presenting me with the qNano which is a state-of-the art piece of equipment renowned for its precise measurements of nanoparticle sizes and concentrations. I am very excited that qNano will help us in accelerating our translational efforts in nanoparticle based drug delivery for affordable therapies in cancers and other diseases worldwide."

Here is the original post:
NZ aids drug delivery research at IIT Bombay

Metabolic melodies

Posted on by

Prof. Kevin Aherns musical lilt to his biochemistry lectures is a hit with Oregon State students

Its a Tuesday morning, and Kevin Ahern is entertaining a room full of college students in an introductory class to biochemistry and biophysics with a voice that carries and a lesson that is positively lyric.

The class is full of young students, many of them in the second week of their first year of college. They have many reasons to be nervous; their course work is among the most difficult at the university. But Ahern, a senior instructor of biophysics and biochemistry at Oregon State University, has found a way to calm jittery.

Music.

After brief announcements and role call during which Ahern proves that he knows his class of about 50 students by name and face he projects song lyrics on an overhead screen that contain words like ribosome and DNA.

Then, without hesitation, he begins to sing the scientific lyrics to the melody of America, the Beautiful and the class follows his lead.

This is Metabolic Melodies, one of Aherns unconventional teaching methods to cut through the anxiety that new students often feel when first entering his class.

Ahern, who jokingly claims the title of frustrated musician, began writing the melodies in 1990.

I originally conceived of the melodies because biochemistry itself is a pretty scary subject for students, he said.

Metabolic Melodies have made a big enough impression on the student population that Ahern often has students enrolling in his courses because of the songs.

View original post here:
Metabolic melodies

Healthy Helpings: Understanding the nutrition facts label

Posted on by

The nutrition facts label provides us with a great amount of information. But what good is that information if we don't understand it?

The first place to look is at the serving size. This number is important because the amount of nutrients and calories for every product is based on one serving. Servings per container shows how many servings are in an entire package. Be sure not to confuse the entire package as one serving.

Below the serving size, the number of calories per serving is listed. Calories measure the amount of energy that comes from a single serving. Some products also list calories from fat, or how much energy is coming directly from fat. If you are trying to reach or maintain a healthy weight, this section will be helpful. Balancing the calories you consume with the calories you burn during activity is important to managing a healthy weight. To lose weight, you must burn more calories than you consume; to maintain a healthy weight, you must burn equal amounts of calories that you consume.

After looking at the serving size and calories per serving, it is important to look at the nutrients the food contains. Nutrition facts labels list macronutrients such as fat, carbohydrates and protein, as well as micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals.

The nutrients that are listed closer to the top of the label should be limited. These nutrients include total fat, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol and sodium. Excessive amounts of these nutrients can lead to chronic health conditions. The nutrients that are listed in the lower half, such as vitamins, minerals and fiber, should be consumed more often. These nutrients can help decrease the risk of chronic diseases.

Listed on the right side of the food label are percentages that represent how much of the daily requirement for a nutrient is in one serving of the product. For example, if a nutrition label lists 10 percent for vitamin A, that means one serving provides 10 percent of the total amount of vitamin A needed each day, based on a 2,000-calorie diet. You will see that trans fat, sugar and protein do not have a percentage listed, because no recommended intake has been established.

To help you understand the percent daily value a little better, use this quick guide: 5 percent daily value or less is low; 20 percent or more is high. Look for foods that contain close to 5 percent for saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium and contain close to 20 percent for vitamins, minerals and fiber.

Finally, it is important to be aware of the ingredients that a product contains. At the bottom of the label is a list of ingredients in descending order by weight. A product contains larger amounts of the ingredients listed at the top of the ingredient list. Those listed near the bottom are used in smaller amounts. Nutrition facts labels are required to list common allergens such as wheat, egg, soy, milk, nuts or fish.

Nutrition facts labels provide a lot of information that explains what and how much a particular food contains, but the information is useless unless we know how to interpret it. Using this information will not only help you understand what is in foods, but it will also help you to make healthier choices.

Kelly Marsteller is a clinical outpatient dietitian at Memorial Hospital. Healthy Helpings is a column written by nutritionists in York and Adams counties.

More:
Healthy Helpings: Understanding the nutrition facts label