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High Unmet Needs in Therapeutics to Spur Growth in the Market for Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery, According to New …

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San Jose, California (PRWEB) January 20, 2014

Follow us on LinkedIn Pharmaceutical industry represents one of the early beneficiaries of advancements in nanotechnology. Nanotechnology holds the potential to dramatically alter the fields of drug delivery, drug discovery, in vivo imaging, in vitro diagnostics, tissue engineering and implants. Of all the areas of nanomedicine, drug delivery remains the most researched and commercialized areas for nanotechnology in medicine. Nanoscale delivery systems hold potential to reduce undesirable effects of medication while improving therapeutic efficacy. Advancements in this area is expected to result in re-investigation of molecules whose development was earlier shelved due to lower pharmaceutical activity but were known to be biologically active. Also, nanoscale delivery systems can help improve efficacy of certain drugs that are already on the market.

Business interests in the application of nanotechnology is fast rising, driven by rising intensity in research work in this area and growing competition within the general drug delivery technologies. The pharmaceutical industry is witnessing increasing demand for novel drug delivery technologies, as companies seek to minimize drug side effects, reduce quantity of costly active therapeutic agents, and endeavor to differentiate their products from competition as well as from commoditization. In this regard, nano-milled/nano-sized/nano-crystallized products and nanocarriers, such as liposomes, among other approaches are providing a new set of tools to address these issues. Nanomaterials provide novel functions and features that are not delivered by other drug delivery technologies. In addition to enhancing therapeutic efficacy and improving safety profile of existing drugs, nanotechnology has the potential to deliver an all important means of developing next generation drugs. The ability of dendrimers and micelles to act as imaging agents as well as therapeutic agents is a significant progress in this direction, assisting clinicians in imaging as well as treating tumors.

Nanotechnology-based drug delivery is being seen as a revolution in protein and gene therapy, for delivering biomolecules such as DNA and siRNA, enabling researchers to overcome several hurdles that are found in these therapies using conventional delivery systems. Given the harm caused by chemotherapeutic agents to healthy tissues alongside diseased cells, there is growing interest and efforts to deliver anti-cancer agents directly to tumors, using nanotechnology based delivery systems. In addition, efforts are underway to develop oral formulations of various therapeutic agents. While several drugs delivered orally breakdown in the stomach, nanotechnology-based drug delivery is being explored to ensure smooth passage of a medication through the stomach such that they enter the intestines and are absorbed by the intestinal walls and passed on to the blood stream.

As stated by the new market research report on Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery, the United States represents the largest market worldwide. Growth in the country is driven by various factors such as a strong pharmaceutical industry with robust expertise in related sciences, high focus on R&D, and narrowing drug pipelines of major pharmaceutical companies, among others. Asia-Pacific led by China is forecast to grow at the fastest CAGR of 70% over the analysis period. China is making rapid strides in the area of healthcare and pharmaceuticals. In recent years, the country has made healthcare improvement a domestic priority, with a special focus on introducing advanced medical technology. Nanocrystals dominate the market worldwide, supported by shorter development time and lower cost of production. Nanocarriers, such as liposomes, dendrimers and micelles are expected to witness strong growth in the coming years.

Major players covered in the report include Access Pharmaceuticals Inc., Alkermes PLC, Aquanova AG, Camurus AB, Capsulution Pharma AG, Celgene Inc., Flamel Technologies SA, Lena Nanoceutics Ltd., NanoBio Corporation, and NanoCarrier Co. Ltd., among others.

The research report titled Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery: A Global Strategic Business Report announced by Global Industry Analysts Inc., provides a comprehensive review of market trends, drivers, challenges and strategic industry activities of major companies worldwide. The report provides market estimates and projections in US dollars for all major geographic markets including the United States, Canada, Japan, Europe (France, Germany, Italy, UK, Spain, Russia and Rest of Europe), Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Rest of World. Product segments analyzed for the global market include Nanocrystals and Nanocarriers.

For more details about this comprehensive market research report, please visit http://www.strategyr.com/Nanotechnology_in_Drug_Delivery_Market_Report.asp

About Global Industry Analysts, Inc. Global Industry Analysts, Inc., (GIA) is a leading publisher of off-the-shelf market research. Founded in 1987, the company currently employs over 800 people worldwide. Annually, GIA publishes more than 1300 full-scale research reports and analyzes 40,000+ market and technology trends while monitoring more than 126,000 Companies worldwide. Serving over 9500 clients in 27 countries, GIA is recognized today, as one of the world's largest and reputed market research firms.

Global Industry Analysts, Inc. Telephone: 408-528-9966 Fax: 408-528-9977 Email: press(at)StrategyR(dot)com Web Site: http://www.StrategyR.com/

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High Unmet Needs in Therapeutics to Spur Growth in the Market for Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery, According to New ...

The Practicing Parent: Pros & cons of stem cell banking

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Umbilical cord stem cell banking can be expensive and controversial, but Jamie and Ben Page decided to bank their daughter, Harlow's stem cells just in case.

"We had heard about cord blood banking and talked about it a lot and thought let's just go for it and have it just as a backup," Jamie Page said.

They did need it. Harlow had cancer in her uterus.

"On the ultrasound they immediately saw that there was a mass in her abdomen about the size of a grapefruit," Page said.

After a year of chemo, the tumor was gone. Doctors wanted to keep it that way.

"So, when the doctors found out we actually had her own stem cells, they were very excited," Page said.

Oncologist Elaine Morgan says those stem cells helped Harlow.

"I think that her umbilical cord cells were used as a boost to her own cells when we harvested her to have adequate cells for reconstitution," Dr. Morgan said.

Dr. Morgan does not advocate private cord stem cell banking at birth to be saved for a healthy baby's later use, because it's not clinically useful and it's expensive.

The Pages paid almost $2,000 for the initial banking fee, plus an extra $125 per year.

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The Practicing Parent: Pros & cons of stem cell banking

More Local News

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(WFLA) When Judy Loar, 68, could not bear to walk any longer due to excruciating pain in both of her knees from degenerative joint disease, she did what most people in her condition do, she went in for a surgical knee replacement.

After being released, Loar found out her knee cap had been set incorrectly.

Going through surgery again to fix her other knee was not an option, so Loar started researching other alternatives to ease the agony of bone-on-bone friction caused by her condition.

"I really did my research, because I knew I could go through another major surgery," said Loar who became a patient of Dr. Dennis Lox.

Dr. Lox is the founder and medical director of Tampa-based Florida Spine and Sports Medicine Center, and one of the world's leading doctors specializing in using stem cell therapy as an alternative to successfully treat debilitating injuries or conditions.

Loar describes the procedure as painless, with no down time.

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Matt Wallaert, Behavioral Scientist for Bing Skypes with Westwood Students – Video

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Matt Wallaert, Behavioral Scientist for Bing Skypes with Westwood Students
Matt Walleart Skypes with the 2nd period Intro to Computer Science class with teacher Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher and her students. They talk about behavior ...

By: westwoodschools

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Matt Wallaert, Behavioral Scientist for Bing Skypes with Westwood Students - Video

Researchers measure minuscule particles with ‘tiny diving boards’

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Suspended nanochannel resonator (SNR), a high precision instrument, can now measure masses of particles as small as one millionth of a trillionth of a gram, say MIT researchers.

Researchers from MIT can now measure masses of particles as small as one millionth of a trillionth of a gram.

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The suspended nanochannel resonator (SNR), a high precision instrument devised by researchers, can determine the mass of particles with a resolution better than an attogram one millionth of a trillionth of a gram, according to a press release by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

With the help of the SNR, researchers can now determine the mass of minuscule-sized viruses, protein aggregates, and other naturally occurring and engineered nanoparticles (a nanometer is one-billionth of a meter), which were earlier difficult to measure due to their small size, according to the findings that were published in a paper for the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Now we can weigh small viruses, extracellular vesicles, and most of the engineered nanoparticles that are being used for nanomedicine, said Selim Olcum, one of the paper's lead authors.

The SNR builds upon the suspended microchannel resonator (SMR), an earlier technology developed by Scott Manalis, an MIT professor of biological and mechanical engineering.

The SMR was used to track cell growth and measure density of cells, according to the MIT press release.

The SMR consists of a fluid-filled microchannel in a tiny silicon cantilever, a beam secured at one end. The particles are made to flow through the channel, one by one, and the mass of the particles changes the vibration frequency of the cantilever.

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Researchers measure minuscule particles with 'tiny diving boards'

Nobel Prize winner shuns ‘luxury journals’

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By Queena Lee-Chua Philippine Daily Inquirer

Last Dec. 10, Randy Wayne Schekman, an American cell biologist at the University of California, Berkeley, with James Rothman and Thomas Sdhof, accepted the 2013 Nobel Prize for Physiology.

The scientists were awarded for their work on machinery involving vesicle traffic, a major transport system in our cells.

But Schekman announced he would no longer be publishing in the most prestigious scientific journals in the world, such as Nature, Science and Cell, even though their publication of his papers was among the bases for his getting the Nobel.

Calling the publications luxury journals, Schekman accuses them of promoting the flashiest work, not the best.

He likens the publishing culture to that of Wall Street and says that just as huge undeserved bonuses damaged banking and finance, the prestige associated with publishing in luxury journals damaged the culture of research and science as a whole.

Like fashion designers who create limited-edition handbags or suits, [luxury journals] know scarcity stokes demand, so they artificially restrict the number of papers they accept, Schekman says in the British Guardian.

Schekman also says the so-called impact factor, the number of times research papers are cited in subsequent studies, is a deeply flawed measure.

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Anti-Aging Medicine

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Extend and expand your health and life span. Get more out of now and your future!

Anti-Aging Medicine

Both Anti-Aging medicine and current medical practice are attempting to increase life span and improve the quality of human life. Anti-Aging medicine tends to be more proactive and utilizes cutting edge approaches

As we age multiple hormone abnormalities develop and can be diagnosed clinically and through extensive lab work (evidence-based medicine). These abnormalities can cause weakness, fatigue, loss of libido, and decreased ambition and productivity. Growth hormone deficiencies are diagnosed through blood work. If there is a true deficiency, various natural supplements are prescribed (without injections) and subsequent clinical and lab reassessment is done.

Specific emphasis is placed on male and female menopause. Inwomen.natural therapeutics andbio-identical hormonesare used to increase the good estrogen and decrease the potentially carcinogenic (cancer-causing) bad estrogens. Inmen, clinical deficiencies in testosterone or its precursors or situations in which testosterone deficiencies arise from age-related conversion of testosterone to estrogen are treated with natural therapeutics. Only when all natural attempts to correct laboratory abnormalities have not obtained optimal results will other therapies will be utilized, eg. injections, gels, creams, etc.

Hormonal Causes of Aging Science has now documented that several important anabolic (body building type) hormones decrease in a predictable fashion,.

Bioidentical Hormonereplacement therapy (synthetic or nonsynthetic hormones that are identical in chemical structure to hormones produced naturally.) has many advantages such as:

(Wepfer, S. RPH, Int. J. Pharm. Compounding, vol. 5 No. 6, Dec 2001, pp 10-12)

Womans Health Initiative Study Why did a study on estrogen derived from pregnant horse urine and synthetic progesterone reveal negative results? Source: estrogen was derived from the urine of pregnant horses and included unnecessary forms of estrogen found only in horses. The progesterone utilized was a synthetic compound.

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Anti-Aging Medicine

Vet-Stem, Inc. is Proud to Announce Its 10,000th Animal in 10 Years of Stem Cell Therapy

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Poway, California (PRWEB) January 18, 2014

The leading Regenerative Veterinary Medicine Company, Vet-Stem, Inc., is proud to announce that its regenerative stem cell therapy has been used to treat 10,000 animals in the last 10 years of offering tissue processing services to veterinarians. Vet-Stem was founded in 2002, seeking to discover a successful treatment for horses with potentially fatal injuries to tendons and ligaments.

Dr. Robert Harman, CEO and Founder of Vet-Stem has spoken at many human and veterinary conferences sharing the results of real treatments. He has also authored or co-authored numerous peer-reviewed papers on stem cells as well as written book chapters on stem cells.

In 2003 Vet-Stem signed a worldwide exclusive license for adipose-derived (fat derived) stem cell technology for veterinary application, and the first horse was treated. Shortly after, the first dogs were treated with Vet-Stem Regenerative Cell Therapy. Vet-Stem started providing stem cell banking to their clients from the beginning so that cells could be stored for future use. By August of 2005 500 horses had been treated. Vet-Stem had effectively introduced a new, natural, injectable treatment to the equine and small animal veterinary industry that could serve as an alternative to euthanasia for some conditions.

By April 2006, 1000 animals had been treated using Vet-Stem cell therapy, including the first cat. Another milestone was the first ever randomized double-blinded placebo-controlled multi-centered study that was published reporting that using Vet-Stem processing, intra-articular injection of adipose-derived stem cells into the hip joint of a dog decreases patient discomfort and increases patient functional ability in relation to arthritis.

Only nine months after formally launching a Small Animal application, over 1,000 dogs had been treated for orthopedic conditions. At the same time Veterinary Therapeutics published a peer-reviewed study on the use of stem cells for treatment of chronic osteoarthritis in the elbow of dogs. The clinical trial reported significant improvement in lameness, range of motion, and functional ability in dogs treated with Vet-Stem Regenerative Cell Therapy.

Although the large majority of animals treated have been horses, dogs and cats, Vet-Stem has provided services for exotic species as well. The U.S. Navy, Office of Naval Research, awarded Vet-Stem a contract to engage in a collaborative study of stem cell biology in marine mammals in 2009. From this, the first peer-reviewed article was published showing successful isolation of stem cells from dolphin fat. Several media outlets featured a story on a panther from the Tallahassee Museum who received stem cell therapy by Vet-Stem for arthritis of the elbow in 2011. After the therapy he was able to stand up and scratch on his favorite tree with both front paws.

I started Vet-Stem in order to help horses with career ending injuries to their tendons and ligaments but so many more animals have been saved from a life of pain or even from euthanasia. I feel privileged and excited to be a part of this therapy that has changed how veterinary medicine is practiced as well as contributing to changes in human medicine, Robert Harman, DVM, CEO and Founder of Vet-Stem, Inc.

About Vet-Stem, Inc. Vet-Stem, Inc. was formed in 2002 to bring regenerative medicine to the veterinary profession. The privately held company is working to develop therapies in veterinary medicine that apply regenerative technologies while utilizing the natural healing properties inherent in all animals. As the first company in the United States to provide an adipose-derived stem cell service to veterinarians for their patients, Vet-Stem, Inc. pioneered the use of regenerative stem cells in veterinary medicine. The company holds exclusive licenses to over 50 patents including world-wide veterinary rights for use of adipose derived stem cells. In the last decade over 10,000 animals have been treated using Vet-Stem, Inc.s services, and Vet-Stem is actively investigating stem cell therapy for immune-mediated and inflammatory disease, as well as organ disease and failure. For more on Vet-Stem, Inc. and Veterinary Regenerative Medicine visit http://www.vet-stem.com or call 858-748-2004.

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Vet-Stem, Inc. is Proud to Announce Its 10,000th Animal in 10 Years of Stem Cell Therapy

MRHFM and the FDA Support Personalized Medicine for Mesothelioma

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St. Louis, MO (PRWEB) January 17, 2014

Also called individualized or customized medicine, personalized medicine is an innovative subcategory of medicine that the FDA has recognized as topic of focus for treating diseases such as mesothelioma cancer. According to Harvard Medical Schools Partners Healthcare Center for Personalized Genetic Medicine (PCPGM), personalized medicine is the ability to determine an individual's unique molecular characteristics and to use those genetic distinctions to:

Individualized diagnosis, treatment, and prevention are crucial to the fight against mesothelioma and other types of cancers, said Neil Maune, partner at MRHFM. With the FDAs support, we hope that more funding and wide-spread information about personalized medicine for patients will be accessible in the United States.

In a 61-page report titled "Paving the Way for Personalized Medicine: FDA's Role" that was published on the FDAs website in October 2013, the organization states that it plans to help further personalized medicine by focusing on advanced regulatory science. Thanks to this commitment, a number of breakthroughs in genetic research have made it possible for researchers to target specific genetic mutations, which will help lead them to new and more effective mesothelioma treatments. While a traditional approach to mesothelioma treatment may very well be effective in some cases, researchers say that if treatment is more individualized based on the patients unique, specific traits, it will fulfill its purpose to better diagnose an individual's disease, reduce adverse reactions, and increase the chances of a positive outcome following treatment. You can find more information on mesothelioma treatment options at http://www.mesotheliomabook.com.

This individual approach to treatment will also minimize or eliminate the need to participate in experimental treatments and ease patient fears based on the idea that a personalized treatment path offers more promise than a one-size-fits-all approach to treating mesothelioma.

The law firm of MRHFM focuses exclusively on mesothelioma cases and works to educate the public about the mesothelioma industry and advancements in treatment for mesothelioma cancer. The law firm advocates for mesothelioma research also offers a free book about mesothelioma titled 100 Questions & Answers About Mesothelioma that is available for request online at http://www.mesotheliomabook.com.

About Maune Raichle Hartley French & Mudd, LLC Maune Raichle Hartley French & Mudd, LLC is a mesothelioma law firm based in St. Louis, MO. With offices across the country, their size and exclusive focus on mesothelioma cases allows them to represent clients through the process as quickly as possible and maximize their clients recovery. The attorneys at MRHFM have represented thousands of victims exposed to asbestos. The firm has 29 attorneys across the country, 16 investigators, 7 client service managers, and additional support staff including paralegals and legal assistants. For more information about Maune Raichle Hartley French & Mudd, LLC, visit http://www.mesotheliomabook.com.

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MRHFM and the FDA Support Personalized Medicine for Mesothelioma

Audio-Digest Foundation Announces the Release of Family Practice Volume 61, Issue 41: Topics in Otolaryngology

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Glendale, CA (PRWEB) January 17, 2014

Audio-Digest Foundation Announces the Release of Family Practice Volume 61, Issue 41: Topics in Otolaryngology.

The goal of this program is to improve diagnosis and management of gastroesophageal reflux symptoms and sensorineural hearing loss. After hearing and assimilating this program, the clinician will be better able to:

1. Identify patients with reflux symptoms who are candidates for upper endoscopy. 2. Counsel patients with reflux symptoms about lifestyle modifications. 3. Select appropriate dosing of proton pump inhibitors and/or H2-blockers for treatment of reflux. 4. Use strategies to effectively communicate with patients with hearing loss. 5. Discuss consequences of hearing loss and recommend treatment options.

The original programs were presented by William D. Chey, MD, Professor of Medicine, H. Marvin Pollard Institute Scholar, Director, Gastrointestinal Physiology Laboratory, and Co-Director, Michigan Bowel Control Program, University of Michigan Health System, Ann Arbor, and Sarah Sydlowski, AuD, PhD, Audiology Director, Hearing Implant Program, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH.

Audio-Digest Foundation, the largest independent publisher of Continuing Medical Education in the world, records over 10,000 hours of lectures every year in anesthesiology, emergency medicine, family practice, gastroenterology, general surgery, internal medicine, neurology, obstetrics/gynecology, oncology, ophthalmology, orthopaedics, otolaryngology, pediatrics, psychology, and urology, by the leading medical researchers at the top laboratories, universities, and institutions.

Recent researchers have hailed from Harvard, Cedars-Sinai, Mayo Clinic, UCSF, The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, The University of Kansas Medical Center, The University of California, San Diego, The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine, The University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and many others.

Out of these cutting-edge programs, Audio-Digest then chooses the most clinically relevant, edits them for clarity, and publishes them either every week or every two weeks.

In addition, Audio-Digest publishes subscription series in conjunction with leading medical societies: DiabetesInsight with The American Diabetes Association, ACCEL with The American College of Cardiology, Continuum Audio with The American Academy of Neurology, and Journal Watch Audio General Medicine with Massachusetts Medical Society.

For 60 years, the global medical community of doctors, nurses, physician assistants, and other medical professionals around the world has subscribed to Audio-Digest specialty series in order to remain current in their specialties as well as to maintain their Continuing Education requirements with the most cutting-edge, independent, and unbiased continuing medical education (CME).

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Audio-Digest Foundation Announces the Release of Family Practice Volume 61, Issue 41: Topics in Otolaryngology

The Mercury News Interview: Dan Yates, founder and CEO of Opower

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After selling Edusoft, the educational software company he founded, to publishing giant Houghton Mifflin in 2004, Dan Yates went on a yearlong road trip from Alaska to Argentina. The trip inspired him to think about energy conservation, and he decided to dedicate his next venture to preserving what's left of the planet. In 2007, with his longtime friend Alex Laskey, he founded Opower, which combines behavioral science, data analytics and customizable software that helps utilities help their customers save energy.

The privately backed company has contracts with several of the nation's leading utilities, including PG&E, and recently signed a business partnership with Tepco, the largest utility in Japan. Opower says it saved more than 3 terawatt-hours (TWh), or 3 billion kilowatt-hours, of energy as of the end of 2013, which the company says is equivalent to removing more than 450,000 passenger vehicles from the roads for a full year.

Opower's headquarters are in Arlington, Va., but 210 employees work out of its growing San Francisco office; the company also has offices in London and Singapore. This newspaper recently met with Yates in Opower's San Francisco Street office. His comments have been edited for length and clarity.

Q One of Opower's first products is a "Home Energy Report" that is mailed to customers. It shows how much energy you save compared with similar homes, tracks your electricity and gas usage over the past 12 months and gives three quick tips on how to save energy further. I'm a PG&E customer and I get Opower's statements. But we live in a pretty energy-efficient household: We had a full energy audit of the house done, we have an efficient heating system, we have a Nest thermostat. There's not much more that we can do to reduce our energy use, and to be honest, I don't think the Opower reports influence my behavior all that much.

A I believe it. Most of the people who get our reports are really high energy users, and we get less savings from really efficient people. Everyone says that the reports don't influence their behavior, but we see about a 2 percent reduction in energy consumption. That doesn't sound like a lot, but for the utility in aggregate, that's huge. The average American spends only about six minutes a year thinking about their energy use. We've also found that when utilities turn off our program, there's a drop-off in the savings. From the utility's perspective, we've become a huge part of their portfolio. We're one of their most compelling options for hitting their energy-efficiency goals. We are plucking the lowest-hanging fruit, but today only 10 million homes actually get our energy reports. That's 10 million out of 120 million homes in the United States. There's a lot of room to grow.

Q The crux of Opower is behavioral science, and how you message that to different market segments. How has the thinking around that evolved as the company has grown?

A The monthly Home Energy Report that you get in the mail is our first product; we now have five products in the market. We've learned that "normative comparisons," as they say in behavioral science nomenclature, is a very powerful lever. But it's one of just many behavioral methodologies. We've learned to say "You've lost $300 this year by not doing XYZ" instead of saying "You could save $300" because it turns out that loss language is more effective. We have three energy tips on the back of each statement, and these work because they feel authoritative. We've done tests, and when we've switched to beautiful pie charts that are personalized, we see a 10 to 15 percent reduction in the energy savings. But that's just the report. We have a suite of products, including automated calls, mobile apps and a partnership with Honeywell. We do predictive high-bill alerts, and call you in advance of a high bill.

Q So which utilities are really on the ball in terms of embracing the Opower platform?

A PG&E, National Grid in Massachusetts, Baltimore Gas & Electric which is part of Exelon, E.ON in Europe; we just announced Tepco, the largest utility in Japan. We have contracts with 90 utilities, and we have deals with utilities that cover 40 percent of the households in the United States.

Q Opower isn't your first rodeo; you started Edusoft, built it and sold it. This time around, how does this feel to you personally, in terms of exits? Are you determined to keep Opower a stand-alone company?

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The Mercury News Interview: Dan Yates, founder and CEO of Opower

Opower CEO Dan Yates, on saving power for the people

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After selling Edusoft, the educational software company he founded, to publishing giant Houghton Mifflin in 2004, Dan Yates went on a yearlong road trip from Alaska to Argentina. The trip inspired him to think about energy conservation, and he decided to dedicate his next venture to preserving what's left of the planet. In 2007, with his longtime friend Alex Laskey, he founded Opower, which combines behavioral science, data analytics and customizable software that helps utilities help their customers save energy.

Dan Yates, CEO of Opower ( ERIN SCOTT PHOTO )

The privately backed company has contracts with several of the nation's leading utilities, including PG&E, and recently signed a business partnership with Tepco, the largest utility in Japan. Opower says it saved more than 3 terawatt-hours (TWh), or 3 billion kilowatt-hours, of energy as of the end of 2013, which the company says is equivalent to removing more than 450,000 passenger vehicles from the roads for a full year.

Opower's headquarters are in Arlington, Va., but 210 employees work out of its growing San Francisco office; the company also has offices in London and Singapore. This newspaper recently met with Yates in Opower's San Francisco Street office. His comments have been edited for length and clarity.

Q: One of Opower's first products is a "Home Energy Report" that is mailed to customers. It shows how much energy you save compared with similar homes, tracks your electricity and gas usage over the past 12 months and gives three quick tips on how to save energy further. I'm a PG&E customer and I get Opower's statements. But we live in a pretty energy-efficient household: We had a full energy audit of the house done, we have an efficient heating system, we have a Nest thermostat. There's not much more that we can do to reduce our energy use, and to be honest, I don't think the Opower reports influence my behavior all that much.

A: I believe it. Most of the people who get our reports are really high energy users, and we get less savings from really efficient people. Everyone says that the reports don't influence their behavior, but we see about a 2 percent reduction in energy consumption. That doesn't sound like a lot, but for the utility in aggregate, that's huge. The average American spends only about six minutes a year thinking about their energy use. We've also found that when utilities turn off our program, there's a drop-off in the savings. From the utility's perspective, we've become a huge part of their portfolio. We're one of their most compelling options for hitting their energy-efficiency goals. We are plucking the lowest-hanging fruit, but today only 10 million homes actually get our energy reports. That's 10 million out of 120 million homes in the United States. There's a lot of room to grow.

Q: The crux of Opower is behavioral science, and how you message that to different market segments. How has the thinking around that evolved as the company has grown?

A: The monthly Home Energy Report that you get in the mail is our first product; we now have five products in the market. We've learned that "normative comparisons," as they say in behavioral science nomenclature, is a very powerful lever. But it's one of just many behavioral methodologies. We've learned to say "You've lost $300 this year by not doing XYZ" instead of saying "You could save $300" because it turns out that loss language is more effective. We have three energy tips on the back of each statement, and these work because they feel authoritative. We've done tests, and when we've switched to beautiful pie charts that are personalized, we see a 10 to 15 percent reduction in the energy savings. But that's just the report. We have a suite of products, including automated calls, mobile apps and a partnership with Honeywell. We do predictive high-bill alerts, and call you in advance of a high bill.

Q: So which utilities are really on the ball in terms of embracing the Opower platform?

A: PG&E, National Grid in Massachusetts, Baltimore Gas & Electric which is part of Exelon, E.ON in Europe; we just announced Tepco, the largest utility in Japan. We have contracts with 90 utilities, and we have deals with utilities that cover 40 percent of the households in the United States.

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Opower CEO Dan Yates, on saving power for the people

Genetic Medicine – The University of Chicago Department of …

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The Section of Genetic Medicine was created in May 2005 to both build research infrastructure in genetics within the Department of Medicine and to focus translational efforts related to genetics. I am proud to have been chosen to lead this new section. My expertise is in quantitative human genetics with a long-standing research program focused on understanding the genetic component to complex phenotypes, including diabetes (MODY, type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes), asthma and related phenotypes, psychiatric disorders (autism, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorders, Tourettes Syndrome, and schizophrenia) and speech disorders such as stuttering. Yves Lussier M.D., a talented physician scientist with substantial expertise in medical informatics and bioinformatics, joined the section in January 2006 and is already building his research program. Among his research interests are systems medicine and phenomics. In the summer of 2006, two new faculty will join our section with diverse but complementary research interests in genetic and genomic science.

Among the first of the initiatives in which the Section of Genetic Medicine has contributed in is beginning the Translational Research Initiative of the Department of Medicine (TRIDOM ) sample collections. Protocols have been approved for sample collections in Department of Medicine outpatient clinics, and initial efforts are underway in several of the clinics to collect samples. The early efforts have been very rewarding nearly 70% of patients offered the opportunity to participate in the studies have agreed to do so! If we can continue to achieve high participation rates as we increase the number of clinics in which samples are collected, we will indeed have a very rich sample resource for Department of Medicine scientists to tap for their research needs. Look for more information about TRIDOM protocols and other resources available through the Section of Genetic Medicine on this website in the future.

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Genetic Medicine - The University of Chicago Department of ...