How Chinese medicine can help boost fertility | Medibank
Current figures estimate one in six couples experience difficulty conceiving. Whether this is due to an underlying medical condition (think polycystic ovaria...
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How Chinese medicine can help boost fertility | Medibank - Video
Science Behind the Medicine and Medical Advances: Hereditary Cancers
We will explore the discoveries of Vanderbilt #39;s biomedical and engineering labs. Some of these discoveries we may see in our doctors #39; offices very soon. Expe...
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Science Behind the Medicine and Medical Advances: Hereditary Cancers - Video
Life as a family medicine resident: North Memorial
Meet Trent, a family medicine resident at North Memorial Hospital.
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Newswise Three of North Americas top experts in addiction medicine, research, prevention, diagnosis and treatment have published a Viewpoint in the October 23/30 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in which they find that many in the medical community fail to diagnose and treat substance use disorders, in part because of the failure to educate physicians about addiction medicine. They note that a substantial number of diseases are caused by substance use disorders, and that American hospitals are clogged with patients suffering from the primary and secondary results of these disorders. A new training pathway, however, will help address this problem.
The article was authored by Evan Wood, MD, PhD, FRCPC, Professor of Medicine, Division of AIDS, Canada Research Chair in Inner City Medicine, University of British Columbia; Jeffrey H. Samet, MD, President, American Board of Addiction Medicine (ABAM) and The ABAM Foundation and Professor of Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine; and Nora D. Volkow, MD, Director, National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).
The authors note that, new therapies (for addictions) have the potential to create a momentous shift in society, whereby addiction is seen primarily as a health issue amenable to prevention and treatment, through the application of evidence-based tools. They point to new understandings about the neurobiology of addictive disorders, which have contributed to the development of new medications for a number of addictions, as well as the existence of behavioral interventions that have been demonstrated to help reduce the use of some addictive drugs.
Despite the availability of these evidence-based prevention and treatment strategies, only a small fraction of individuals receive prevention or treatment consistent with scientific knowledge about what works, says Dr. Samet.
Currently, few physicians screen, intervene or refer, because they have not been educated about addiction medicine in medical school, nor trained in residencies. Until the establishment of the American Board of Addiction Medicine in 2007, one barrier to this training has been the lack of an addiction medicine subspecialty for primary care physicians. A subspecialty of addiction psychiatry exists within the field of psychiatry, however, this does not address the issue of primary care training. While there are excellent addiction psychiatry fellowships, there are no addiction medicine fellowships for other physicians pursuing primary care and other specialties among the 9,262 Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education accredited U.S. programs that are currently training 119,588 residents.
There is a remarkable gap between the science of addiction medicine and the care that patients actually receive, according to Dr. Wood. Ultimately, this stems from the fact that investments in research have not been coupled with strategies to adequately train physicians to deliver evidence-based care. For example, only about 10% of people with an alcohol addiction received recommended care, and evidence-based interventions for smoking cessation were similarly low.
Recent reports have found that most treatment for addiction in both the U.S. and Canada was provided by laypersons, who although supportive, have neither the mental health nor medical training required to effectively provide evidence-based care.
Failure to treat substance use disorders leads to worse outcomes in many diseases that result from substance abuse, such as HIV, lung disease, hepatitis and chronic pain, say the authors. The deficiency in addiction medicine training also contributes to the improper management of pain and to the epidemic of prescription opioid addiction, as these medications are both overprescribed and underprescribed.
To meet the need for properly trained medical doctors, The ABAM Foundation has accredited 19 fellowship programs in academic medical centers across North America to train physicians in addiction medicine. The Foundation plans to establish additional fellowship programs.
More than 3,000 physicians have been certified in addiction medicine by ABAM over the last few years. These physicians have demonstrated that they have the knowledge and skills to provide prevention, screening, intervention and treatment related to substance use disorders and addictions. ABAM-certified physicians also participate in Maintenance of Certification (MOC) activities, which ensure that they maintain competence in addiction medicine throughout their careers.
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The Future Of Medicine
An interview with billionaire, pharmaceutical inventor, and entrepreneur Patrick Soon-Shiong, Chairman and CEO, NantHealth. A look at what he #39;s been quietly ...
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Science Behind the Medicine and Medical Advances: What We Know About Autism
We will explore the discoveries of Vanderbilt #39;s biomedical and engineering labs. Some of these discoveries we may see in our doctors #39; offices very soon. Expe...
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Science Behind the Medicine and Medical Advances: What We Know About Autism - Video
SAN RAMON, Calif., Oct. 22, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- RSC Bay Area would like to announce the graduation of Dr. Carmelo Sgarlata from the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine (AzCIM) Fellowship. Dr Sgarlata is the first board-certified reproductive endocrinologist to complete this prestigious program that now has over 1000 graduates.
Launched in 1997 by integrative medicine pioneer Andrew Weil, MD, the AzCIM fellowship is a 1,000-hour, two-year distance-learning program for physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants.
"We're excited to have Dr. Sgarlata as part of this competitive and intensive program of study," said Tieraona Low Dog, MD, director of the fellowship. "He showed a deep commitment to medicine and patient care in his personal statement and application and I'm fully confident that this two-years of additional training will give Dr. Sgarlata the tools to excel in integrative medicine and become a leader in the field."
Dr. Sgarlata is focusing on the use of integrative medicine to help patients become pregnant. "We know that 30-50 percent of patients undergoing fertility treatments are using some form of dietary supplements or CAM treatments," says Dr. Sgarlata. As an integrative medicine specialist Sgarlata is trained to examine scientific data and patient history to determine which treatments provide the best opportunity for a successful conception and pregnancy.
"The foundation for one's health is a combination of lifestyle, genetics and environment," says Dr. Sgarlata. "There may be no more important time for optimal health for both women and men than when planning on and becoming pregnant. Proper nutrition, the use of appropriate supplements, the utilization of mind-body techniques such as MBSR, yoga and acupuncture can all enhance fertility and work alongside conventional medical treatments."
For more information on integrative medicine treatments at Reproductive Science Center of the Bay Area, please visit RSCBayArea.com/patients/integrative-medicine. For real-time updates, follow Dr. Sgarlata on Twitter @Dr_Sgarlata.
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Emerging Practice of Integrative Medicine Paving New Ways in Treating Infertility
Newswise NYU School of Medicine announced today that Danny Reinberg, PhD, professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, and head of the Reinberg Lab at NYU School of Medicine, has been elected a member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM). Seventy new members and ten foreign associates were named during the IOMs 43nd annual meeting on October 21, 2013. Dr. Reinberg is NYU School of Medicines 10th faculty member inducted into the IOM.
Dr. Reinbergs election into the IOM reflects the combination of intellect, effort, creativity, and excellence evident in his groundbreaking work and contributions to science and medicine, said Robert I. Grossman, MD, dean and CEO of NYU Langone Medical Center. We congratulate Dr. Reinberg on receiving this extraordinary honor.
Dr. Reinberg is a leading expert in the fields of eukaryotic transcription and epigenetics. He and his collaborators have made fundamental discoveries uncovering the details of the intricate process of transcription during which information from DNA is transferred to RNA that directs protein production. In the field of epigenetics, the study of how genes are activated or deactivated by modifications to chromatin, changes in gene expression that can be passed on to future generations, his group has made major inroads including showing how transcription from genes are activated or inhibited based on modifications to the histone proteins that fold the DNA into open or closed structures. These features are epigenetic, because they affect the DNA structure, not the DNA sequence (genetic). Yet, these modifications are also passed on to future cell generations ensuring that the identical pattern of gene transcription is maintained.
Dr. Reinbergs forte is in the purification of the numerous array of individual proteins to identify exactly how they operate, alone and in conjunction with their partners, to work to ensure the correct transcription process occurs in the test tube. Over the years, his group detailed the required, fundamental steps in the transcription process, and their biological relevance in the cell. In an advance in the field, his group chartered the transcription process from more complex DNA in the form of chromatin, the spool-and-thread combination of DNA wrapped around histone proteins that mimics the intricate state of DNA in the cell.
The various, naturally occurring modifications to the histone proteins within chromatin lead to distinct assemblies/structures of the DNA making it either accessible or not to the transcription machinery in the cell and are key to dictating the cells precise transcription program, which lead to how cells develop to become different tissues of the body. His findings advanced our conceptual knowledge of the workings of the factors responsible for these modifications, how these modifications set the DNA structure, and why losing the integrity of this process can result in diseased states.
To study how these histone modifications set a program of transcription that distinguishes the behavior of a whole organism, Dr. Reinberg and collaborators focused on an experimentally approachable model organism, the ant. In 2008, Dr. Reinberg and his team attained a grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to study features of chromatin (epigenetic differences) amongst distinct members of a colony of ants. As a result of the groundbreaking collaboration led by Dr. Reinberg, the Ant Genome Project sequenced the entire genome of two ant species and is in position to examine the epigenetic blueprints in ants that may provide clues to longevity, aging and behavior in humans.
Among his accolades, Dr. Reinberg was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS) 2012 Class of Fellows and was the recipient of the HHMI Collaborative Innovation Award. He also received an NIH Merit Award and a Junior Faculty Research Award and a Faculty Research Award from the American Cancer Society. Dr. Reinberg has co-authored more than 230 works in journals that include Nature, Science, Cell, Genes & Development, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, among others, and co-edited an authoritative textbook on epigenetics. He received his doctorate in molecular biology from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Throughout his career, Dr. Reinberg has made seminal contributions to our understanding of epigenetics and the mechanisms through which our genetic makeup evolves, said Dafna Bar-Sagi, PhD, vice dean for science and chief scientific officer at NYU Langone. He continues to exemplify the passion for discovery that is the mark of the best scientific minds. We are thrilled to congratulate him on this latest, well-deserved honor.
Established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences, IOM is recognized as a national resource for independent, scientifically informed analysis and recommendations on health issues. Election to the IOM is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine, and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service. New members are elected by current active members through a selective process that recognizes individuals who have made major contributions to the advancement of the medical sciences, health care, and public health.
The newly elected members raise IOM's total active membership to 1,753 and the number of foreign associates to 120. With an additional 93 members holding emeritus status, IOM's total membership is 1,966. IOM's charter ensures diversity of talent among the Institute's membership by requiring at least one-quarter of the members to be selected from fields outside the health professions, such as engineering, social sciences, law, and the humanities.
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Danny Reinberg, PhD, Elected Member of Prestigious Institute of Medicine
Milestones in Medicine: Dr. Walid Maani at TEDxJU
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TED...
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Newswise The University of Chicago Medicine contributed more than 21 percent, or $254.1 million, of its operating expenses in fiscal 2012 to improve the health of the South Side and the broader Chicago area, according to its recently published second annual Community Benefit Report.
For the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2012, the amount of uncompensated care, unrecoverable patient debt, and charity care, among other community investments, rose 7 percent over the year-ago level of $237.1 million. The report outlines ways the institution has provided services, programs, medical education, research and other support to the community.
This increase in the universitys commitment to the community came amid expenditures to complete the new $700 million Center for Care and Discovery and an extremely competitive period in health care, ushered in by implementation of the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA) and consolidation in the Chicago market.
This report highlights our dedication to the community in which we work and live, and it is as much a point of pride for the institution as are our medical and scientific breakthroughs and our commitment to patient care and safety, said Sharon OKeefe, president of the University of Chicago Medical Center. I thank faculty, nurses, students and the rest of the staff for their ongoing commitment to our community.
Uncompensated care totaled $122.5 million, reflecting $90.2 million in losses under Medicare and Medicaid, government-sponsored insurance plans that reimburse health care providers at lower rates than the actual cost of care. That figure included $20.3 million in charity care and $12 million in forgiveness of patient debt. In addition, the University of Chicago Medicine contributed $81.7 million toward medical education not covered by tuition or grants and $48 million for medical research to help advance patient care.
The report also cited the Center for Care and Discovery, which opened in February 2013, for the economic impact it had on the South Side and beyond over the four-year construction project. The $700 million new hospital pumped more than $570 million into the South Side and beyond, according to the annual publication, Of the total available construction contracts open for bid, 48 percent, or almost $210 million, went to women- and minority-owned enterprises.
In all, 2,755 workers helped to build the new 10-story, 1.2 million-square-foot hospital, providing $124 million in wages and other benefits into the pockets of workers, 25 percent of whom lived on the South Side. After construction was completed, about 300 new employees were hired to work in the new hospital.
The Community Benefit Report also introduced the University of Chicago Medicines Community Health Needs Assessment, an initiative to identify unmet health needs of residents in surrounding neighborhoods as part of requirements of the ACA.
The study, a collaboration with the Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council, examined health status, demographics, socioeconomic factors and barriers to care in a dozen ZIP codes from 35th Street to 119th Street and east of Western Avenue. The report identified access to health care, diabetes, obesity, asthma, and colorectal and breast cancers as health care priorities for adults and children.
A plan is under way to address these health needs, including leveraging current programs and services.
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MEDICINE PARK, Okla_ It's almost trout season again in Medicine Park. Come November 1st, Medicine Creek will once again be stocked and ready for fishermen.
Medicine Creek is Oklahoma's newest trout fishing area. The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife plans to restock the Creek about every two weeks, until the season ends March 15th.
Trout are not native to Oklahoma, so these fish will be shipped in from Private Trout Hatchery out of Nebraska sometime in the next few days. Trout can only be stocked in Medicine Creek in the wintertime, because they are a cold water fish.
"This trout area and the trout that are stocked provide an additional fishing opportunity here in Oklahoma that we wouldn't normally have," Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Fisheries Biologist Ryan Ryswyk said.
Right in the middle of Medicine Park, with shopping and restaurants just steps away, Medicine Creek a unique setting for a fishery. Ryswyk said it's a nice blend between the outdoors and a semi-urban environment.
"It's a different setting than our other trout areas, so we hope to bring in people that might not normally have trout fishing," Ryswyk said.
This is Medicine Park's second year to have trout season, and Ryswyk said they had great success last year. This year, they're hoping for the same.
"It does get cold in the middle of the trout fishing season, but that doesn't mean the fish aren't biting," Ryswyk said. "They're still out here to get caught, and people catch plenty of fish when it's really cold."
They'll be stocking the creek every two weeks until March 15th, but no matter when you come, they'll be plenty of fish to be caught. The trout area runs from the base of Gondola Dam all the way down to Highway 49.
"There is excellent bank access the whole way," Ryswyk said. "There are sidewalks along the creek in some areas that are even wheelchair accessible."
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Newswise University of California, San Diego School of Medicine researchers Joseph G. Gleeson, MD, Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and professor of neurosciences and pediatrics, and Richard D. Kolodner, PhD, professor of medicine and Ludwig Cancer Research scientist, have been named new members of the Institute of Medicine (IOM), considered among the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine.
Gleeson and Kolodner were among 70 new members and 10 foreign associates announces today at the IOMs annual meeting, bringing total IOM membership to 1,966 worldwide. Forty-six UC San Diego faculty members, current and emeritus, are IOM members.
Joseph Gleeson
Gleeson is principal investigator at the Center for Brain Development, a laboratory that seeks to understand the genetic basis of brain diseases such as mental retardation, epilepsy and autism using genetic tools. He is also director of the UC San Diego Neuroscience Core, co-director of the Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program and a member of the Institute for Genomic Medicine at UC San Diego.
He is also a member of the Child Neurology Society, the Society for Neuroscience and the American Society for Human Genetics, and has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Child Neurology, Human Molecular Genetics and Journal of Pediatric Neurology.
Gleeson earned his undergraduate degree in chemistry at UC San Diego and his medical degree at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. He came to UC San Diego in 1999. Among his awards and honors are the Klingenstein Fellowship Award in the Neurosciences, a Searle Scholar Award and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Clinical Scientist Award in Translational Research.
Richard Kolodner
Kolodner, professor in cellular and molecular medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine and UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, has made seminal contributions to understanding the connection between DNA mismatch repair the ability of cells to fix genetic errors in DNA and cancer.
He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (2000), the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (2008), the American Society for Microbiology, the Genetics Society of America and American Association for Cancer Research. He has served on numerous advisory and review boards, including the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Cancer Institute and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Scientific Review Board.
Among his awards are the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Morse Research Award, the Charles S. Mott Prize of the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation and the Landon-AACR Prize for Basic Cancer Research.
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Two UC San Diego Researchers Elected to Institute of Medicine
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
21-Oct-2013
Contact: Christine Somosi Christine.Somosi@case.edu 216-368-6287 Case Western Reserve University
Derek Taylor, PhD, a member of the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, has been awarded the prestigious New Innovator Award by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIH awards this grant to scientists proposing highly innovative approaches to major contemporary challenges in biomedical research, under the agency's High Risk-High Reward program.
"Only the absolute top notch scientists compete for this award, which undergoes intense review by leaders at the NIH," stated Stanton Gerson, MD, Asa and Patricia Shiverick- Jane Shiverick (Tripp) Professor of Hematological Oncology, director of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center and director of the Seidman Cancer Center at UH Case Medical Center. "Derek continues to excel as a cancer scientist at Case Western Reserve. I have been impressed with his continuous innovative approaches to fundamental questions in cancer. Telomere research is critical since this process is central to how cancer continues to grow and outlive normal cells."
Taylor is an assistant professor, Department of Pharmacology, at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, and a member of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center. He received the New Innovator Award to support his research on the induction of cancer cell death by selective DNA misincorporation.
Taylor's laboratory studies chromosome stability. His lab is particularly interested in telomeres, the specialized structures that cap and protect the ends of chromosomes. Dr. Taylor's research also focuses on a special enzyme, telomerase, which interacts with telomeres to contribute to chromosome stability. As telomerase is upregulated in the majority of human cancers, the Taylor lab is investigating how to use its unique mechanism to deliver toxic compounds to cancer cells selectively.
Taylor's research will use telomerase as a "Trojan horse" to deliver toxic drugs exclusively to cancer cells. The results obtained from the proposed experiments could lead to an entirely new, and more successful, method for treating a diverse set of human cancers.
The New Innovator Award initiative, established in 2007, supports investigators who are within 10 years of their terminal degree or clinical residency, but who have not yet received a Research Project Grant (R01) or equivalent NIH grant, to conduct exceptionally innovative research.
Taylor is the only scientist in Ohio to receive a 2013 New Innovator's Award.
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Case Western Reserve School of Medicine scientist wins prestigious NIH New Innovators Award
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
21-Oct-2013
Contact: Jennifer Walsh news@nas.edu 202-334-2138 National Academy of Sciences
WASHINGTON The Institute of Medicine (IOM) today announced the names of 70 new members and 10 foreign associates during its 43rd annual meeting. Election to the IOM is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service.
"It is an honor to welcome our highly distinguished colleagues to the Institute of Medicine," said IOM President Harvey V. Fineberg. "These individuals have inspired us through their achievements in research, teaching, clinical work, and other contributions to the medical field. Their knowledge and skills will deeply enrich the IOM."
New members are elected by current active members through a selective process that recognizes individuals who have made major contributions to the advancement of the medical sciences, health care, and public health. A diversity of talent among IOM's membership is assured by the Institute's charter, which stipulates that at least one-quarter of the membership is selected from outside the health professions, for example, from such fields as the law, engineering, social sciences, and the humanities. The newly elected members raise IOM's total active membership to 1,753 and the number of foreign associates to 120. With an additional 93 members holding emeritus status, IOM's total membership is 1,966.
The Institute of Medicine is unique in its structure as both an honorific membership organization and an advisory organization. Established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences, IOM has become recognized as a national resource for independent, scientifically informed analysis and recommendations on health issues. With their election, members make a commitment to volunteer their service on IOM committees, boards, and other activities. Projects during the past year include studies of the benefits of including physical activity in the school environment, direct health outcomes of sodium intake, regional variations in Medicare spending, child abuse and neglect in the U.S., improved delivery of cancer care, the commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking of minors in the U.S., post-deployment needs of Iraq and Afghanistan service members, gun violence research priorities in the U.S., and the international problem of illegitimate and substandard medications.
Newly elected members of the Institute of Medicine are:
Newly elected foreign associates are:
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Institute of Medicine Elects 70 New Members, 10 Foreign Associates
Newswise PHILADELPHIA Seven professors from the Perelman School of Medicine have been elected members of the Institute of Medicine (IOM), one of the nation's highest honors in biomedicine. In addition to their appointments in the School of Medicine, the new inductees also hold positions within the School of Arts and Sciences, the School of Nursing, the Scheie Eye Institute, and the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania, and The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
The new members bring Penn Medicines total to 68. The newly elected members raise IOM's total active membership to 1,753 and the number of foreign associates to 120. With an additional 93 members holding emeritus status, IOM's total membership is 1,966.
Established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences, IOM has become recognized as a national resource for independent, scientifically informed analysis and recommendations on health issues. With their election, members make a commitment to volunteer their service on IOM committees, boards, and other activities.
The new Penn IOM members:
Charles L. Bosk, Ph.D., is professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care, Perelman School of Medicine; professor of Sociology, School of Arts and Sciences; and senior Fellow, Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics. His first book, Forgive and Remember: Managing Medical Failure, published in 1979, is a seminal work within not only sociology but also medicine and is often required reading for surgical residents. He is the author of numerous publications including All God's Mistakes: Genetics Counseling in a Pediatric Hospital and What Would You Do? Juggling Bioethics and Ethnography. His research areas are medical sociology and the professionalization, deviance and social control and field methods of research. His current projects focus on the ethics of research and on medical mistakes in the guise of patient safety. After receiving a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Investigator Award for his project Restarting a Stalled Policy Revolution: Patient Safety, Systems Error and Professional Responsibility, Dr. Bosk has become an authoritative voice in academic and policy debates about professionalism and patient safety. Bosks wide-ranging influence has been acknowledged in his appointments to the Hastings Center Panel on the Ethics of Patient Safety, the Hastings Center Task Force on Ethics and Effectiveness in Total Quality Improvement, the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities Taskforce on Guidelines and Standards in Clinical Ethics, the AHRQ Task Force on Patient Safety, the Committee on Patient Safety at the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, and as a visiting professor at various medical schools.
Phyllis A. Dennery, M.D., F.A.A.P., is professor of Pediatrics; director, Newborn Services, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania; and chief of the Division of Neonatology and Newborn Services at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. She holds the Werner and Gertrude Henle Endowed Chair in Pediatrics. She is also president of the International Pediatric Research Foundation. Her research is focused on oxidative stress-mediated neonatal lung gene regulation and on the biology of lung injury and repair. She runs a National Institutes of Health-funded laboratory and has published her findings in numerous highly respected, peer-reviewed journals. Her clinical interests are in neonatal jaundice, bronchopulmonary dysplasia and the long-term consequences of prematurity. She is a member of the editorial boards of numerous scientific journals, and is associate editor for the journal Free Radicals in Biology and Medicine, as well as for Pediatrics, where she oversees the State of the Art series. Dr. Dennery has received many awards, including the Andrew Mellon Fellowship, the Alfred Stengel Health System Champion Award from the Perelman School of Medicine, and the Mentor of the Year Award from the Eastern Society of Pediatrics. In 2010, she was appointed to the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Advisory Committee on Infant Mortality. She received her medical degree from Howard University College of Medicine; completed her residency at Childrens National Medical Center and a fellowship in Neonatology at Rainbow Babies and Childrens Hospital.
Jeffrey A. Drebin, M.D., Ph.D., is chair of the Department of Surgery at Penn Medicine, and the John Rhea Barton Professor of Surgery. A graduate of Harvard Medical School, Dr. Drebin continued his surgical training at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Drebins research has contributed significantly to the understanding of the genetic origins of cancer. His classic work with monoclonal antibodies directed against the HER2/neu protein provided the scientific foundation for the evolution of targeted therapeutics for cancer and the led to the development of the first generation of targeted monoclonal antibody drugs for the treatment of breast cancer. His research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense and the Burroughs-Wellcome Fund. He is currently the co-Principal Investigator on a $22 million dollar clinical and translational dream team award from the Stand Up to Cancer Foundation for innovative studies in pancreas cancer. His many clinical interests include pancreatic cancer, acute and chronic pancreatitis, the use of new technologies to manage liver tumors, disorders of the bile ducts, and management of gallbladder disease. Dr. Drebin has published more than 100 peer-reviewed research papers, book chapters and reviews and is co-inventor on two patents related to the treatment of cancer with monoclonal antibodies. He currently serves on the Board of Scientific Advisors of the National Cancer Institute, is Vice-President of the Society of Surgical Oncology, President-Elect of the Philadelphia Academy of Surgery, and Past-President of the Society for Clinical Surgery.
Gideon Dreyfuss, M.Sc., Ph.D. is the Isaac Norris Professor of Biochemistry & Biophysics and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. He received his B.Sc. in chemistry and physics from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem; his M.Sc. in biochemistry, summa cum laude from Tel-Aviv University, Israel; and his Ph.D. in biological chemistry from Harvard University. He was a Helen Hay Whitney postdoctoral fellow at MIT. Prior to his present position he was a professor at Northwestern University and an Established Investigator of the American Heart Association. Dreyfuss laboratory is interested in post-transcriptional gene regulation and its central mediators, RNA-binding proteins and non-coding RNAs. His research defined the principal nuclear RNA-binding proteins (hnRNP proteins) and their roles in mRNA biogenesis, transport, translation, and disease. The laboratory also discovered the SMN (survival of motor neurons) complex and its unexpected function in assembly of snRNPs (non-coding small nuclear RNAs-protein particles), the subunits of the cells mRNA splicing machine. Insights from this work advanced understanding of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a neurodegenerative disease caused by SMN deficiency, and prospects of its therapy. The Dreyfuss laboratory is also pursuing its recent surprising discovery of a fundamental new step in gene expression protection of nascent gene transcripts from pre-mature termination, a U1 snRNP function (named telescripting), and its potential role in cancer, cell proliferation, and activation of immune cells and neurons. Dr. Dreyfuss is a Member of the National Academy of Sciences and of the European Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Karen Glanz, Ph.D., M.P.H. is a Penn Integrates Knowledge (PIK) Professor and George A. Weiss University Professor, professor of Epidemiology and Nursing in the Perelman School of Medicine and in the School of Nursing, and director of the Center for Health Behavior Research. She is also a Senior Fellow in the Leonard Davis Institute. Previously the Charles Howard Candler Chair at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, she earned her undergraduate, public health, and doctoral degrees from the University of Michigan. Dr. Glanz's research bridges public health and social science disciplines and focuses on nutrition and obesity, skin cancer prevention, tobacco control, and cancer screening. Her pathbreaking work integrates theory and research methods from social and behavioral sciences into public health and medicine. Her research on nutrition environments began before the current obesity epidemic emerged, and almost a decade ago, she developed internationally used tools to measure nutrition environments. She has tested and disseminated effective multi-level cancer prevention strategies and refined measurement and methods, including validating self-report measures of sun exposure and protection. Glanz was named a Highly Cited Author by ISIHighlyCited.com, in the top 0.5% of authors in her field over a 20-year period and has influenced generations of scholars and students through her edited textbook, Health Behavior and Health Education: Theory, Research and Practice (in its 4th edition), which is widely used to teach applied theory in the U.S. and internationally. She is a member of the federally appointed U.S. Task Force on Community Preventive Services and a senior editor of Social Science and Medicine.
Joan M. OBrien, M.D., is the George E. de Schweinitz and William F. Norris Professor of Ophthalmology, chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and director of the Scheie Eye Institute at the Perelman School of Medicine. She previously served as professor and vice chair of Ophthalmology and director of the Ocular Oncology Division at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF). Dr. OBrien received her medical degree from Dartmouth Medical School and completed her residency training in ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School and a fellowship in oculoplastic surgery and oncology at UCSF. Her research fellowships were in immunology at the Harvard Medical School and in molecular ophthalmic pathology at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and the Whitehead Institute of MIT. She specializes in the treatment of ocular tumors, including retinoblastoma, ocular melanoma, conjunctival malignancies, ocular metastases, and ocular and CNS lymphoma. Her research focuses on the genetics of eye disease, including retinoblastoma, melanoma and glaucoma. With nearly 200 publications, Dr. OBriens work has recently appeared in Nature, the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association and the Journal of Clinical Investigation. She has received numerous honors, including a UCSF resident teaching award, the Champion of Diversity award, a Physician-Scientist Award from Research to Prevent Blindness, a Career Development Award from the American Association for Cancer Research, and an Honor Award and a Senior Achievement Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology. Dr. O'Brien also has a long history of research support from the National Cancer Institute for clinical trials and the National Eye Institute for basic science investigations.
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Institute of Medicine Elects Seven New Members From Penn Medicine
MARLBOROUGH, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. (ACT; OTCBB:ACTC), a leader in the field of regenerative medicine, announced today that its chief scientific officer, Robert Lanza, M.D., will be delivering a Keynote lecture at the World Conference on Regenerative Medicine being held in Leipzig, Germany October 23-25th. The Conference is considered one of the world's largest and most influential events in stem cells and regenerative medicine, and provides a platform that brings scientists with an academic, clinical and industrial background together. Dr. Lanzas Lecture, entitled ES and iPS Cells Moving into the Clinic, will take place at 9:00 a.m. at the Congress Center Leipzig.
The World Conference will, as in past years, encompass a broad range of topics in regenerative medicine from biomaterials to biomarkers as well as regulation and stem cell technologies. The organizers expect more than 1,000 attendees and hundreds of papers with ground-breaking scientific insights and new results. Furthermore, the conference will host a large exhibition where international researchers and biotechnology companies can demonstrate the reach of current technologys translation and the implementation of research in products. In addition to Dr. Lanzas Keynote Lecture, the Conference will include presentations on cell and immunotherapy, stem cells, cell and tissue engineering, biomaterials and tissue interaction, models of regeneration, molecular mechanisms of regeneration, diagnostic and imaging of regeneration, and regulatory affairs.
About Advanced Cell Technology, Inc.
Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. is a biotechnology company applying cellular technology in the field of regenerative medicine. For more information, visit http://www.advancedcell.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
Statements in this news release regarding future financial and operating results, the relevance and applicability of clinical trials in animals to studying the effect of products in humans, future growth in animal and human research and development programs, potential new applications of and expanded indications covering our technology, the effects of donorless sources of stem cells on potency and the risk of communicable diseases in the manufacturing context, the existence and size of potential or existing market opportunities for the company, the effect of the companys products on the medical needs and quality of life of pets, and any other statements about the future expectations, beliefs, goals, plans, or prospects expressed by management constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any statements that are not statements of historical fact (including statements containing the words will, believes, plans, anticipates, expects, estimates, and similar expressions) should also be considered to be forward-looking statements. There are a number of important factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements, including: limited operating history, need for and limited sources of future capital, failures or delays in obtaining regulatory approval of products, risks inherent in the development and commercialization of potential products, reliance on new and unproven technology in the development of products, protection of our intellectual property, and economic conditions generally. Additional information on potential factors that could affect our results and other risks and uncertainties are detailed from time to time in the companys periodic reports, including the Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the three months ended June 30, 2013. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, opinions, and expectations of the companys management at the time they are made, and the company does not assume any obligation to update its forward-looking statements if those beliefs, opinions, expectations, or other circumstances should change. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, opinions, and expectations of the companys management at the time they are made, and the company does not assume any obligation to update its forward-looking statements if those beliefs, opinions, expectations, or other circumstances should change. There can be no assurance that the Companys clinical trials will be successful.
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ACT’s Dr. Robert Lanza to Deliver Keynote Lecture at the World Conference on Regenerative Medicine
OTTAWA, ONTARIO and TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Oct 21, 2013) - Stem cell and regenerative medicine experts from around the world will physically and virtually come together in Banff, Alberta, when Canada's premier stem cell research event - the Till & McCulloch Meetings (T&MM) - takes place October 23-25, 2013.
"Canada and Europe chose the same dates to host their most significant regenerative medicine events and we're utilizing technology to bring the two conferences together," explains Drew Lyall, Executive Director of the Stem Cell Network. "While our European colleagues won't get to enjoy the beauty of Alberta, they will benefit from hearing some thrilling science, produced in Canada."
A novel technology discovered in Dr. Peter Zandstra's lab, which has the potential to improve the viability and success of cord blood stem cell transplantation, will be featured during a live broadcast to the World Conference on Regenerative Medicine in Leipzig, Germany, on October 24 at 8:45 a.m. Dr. Zandstra (University of Toronto and CSO with the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine) has received the 2013 Till & McCulloch Award for having published the year's most influential peer-reviewed article by a stem cell researcher in Canada.
Other highlights include the following:
October 23 at 12:20 p.m.
The conference will premiere and showcase a series of short, animated videos about basic concepts in stem cell research narrated by world-renowned stem cell scientists. The videos are produced by Ben Paylor, a PhD candidate in experimental medicine at the University of British Columbia, and Mike Long, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Toronto, who engaged award-winning animator David Murowsky and Emmy-nominated composer James Wallace to create the signature animations and music featured in the videos. The three videos are targeted at youth of high school age or older. More details about the videos and the award can be found here: http://bit.ly/15GBOsw.
October 23 at 2:10 p.m.
An afternoon plenary session will focus on current research in cell therapy. The session will include presentations by Dr. Duncan Stewart (Ottawa Hospital Research Institute) on lessons learned in bringing cell therapies to the clinic. He will focus on his recently launched stem cell clinical trial for the treatment of acute heart attack, as well as offer overviews of Canada's strategy for stem cell research going forward and the emerging regenerative medicine technologies market.
"The regenerative medicine market is poised to experience explosive growth in the near future, based on the increasing number of clinical trials, deals, IPOs [initial public offerings] and partnerships happening globally," says Michael May, CEO of the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM). "Canada's leadership in the field of regenerative medicine is already well known, and it is with events and collaborations like the Till & McCulloch Meetings that we will continue to build a strong infrastructure for future growth in Canada. The fact that this year's conference has engaged 39 industry sponsors - more than twice the number that participated last time - is an indication of just how far we've progressed in a short time."
The Till & McCulloch Meetings, formerly the Stem Cell Network's Annual Scientific Meeting, was renamed in 2012 to acknowledge its expanded focus to include the broader field of regenerative medicine and the business focus of commercializing stem cell- and biomaterials-based products and therapies. In addition to excellent science originating from Canada, Japan, China, Israel, Europe and the United States, the conference will feature industry networking meetings and international efforts to share resources to accelerate progress in commercializing new discoveries.
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International Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Community Convenes in Banff, Alberta
School of Medicine PhD White Lab Coat Ceremony
Case Western Reserve University August 23, 2013.
By: case
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CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Foundation Medicine, Inc. (FMI) today announced that results from a 24-month, multi-institution collaboration demonstrating the analytic validation of its cancer genomic profiling assay, FoundationOne, were published in the current online edition of Nature Biotechnology.1 FoundationOne is a comprehensive, next-generation sequencing (NGS) based test used to characterize all classes of molecular alterations (base substitutions, short insertions and deletions (indels), copy number alterations and select rearrangements) across 287 cancer-related genes from routine formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) clinical specimens. The publication also describes clinical application of this assay across 2,221 consecutive patient cases.
Comprehensive genomic testing is becoming critical to deliver the most effective care for patients with cancer. However, analytic validation of NGS-based tests presents a challenge to clinical application due to the fact that thousands of potential variants may be detected, and most have no gold standard with which to compare. This publication is the first to apply and extend the guidelines established by the Next-Generation Sequencing: Standardization of Clinical Testing (Nex-StoCT) workgroup2 to validate a clinical sequencing-based assay for cancer, therefore setting the standard for validation of targeted NGS in cancer.
Clinical cancer care is undergoing a fundamental shift toward treating patients based on the specific molecular drivers of their disease, and a sequencing-based diagnostic assay that comprehensively and accurately characterizes the genomic alterations occurring within an individuals tumor is essential for the implementation of this therapeutic strategy, stated Lajos Pusztai, M.D., co-director of the Cancer Genetics and Genomics Research Program at Yale Cancer Center and co-author of the study. This study is instrumental in establishing the technical validity of next-generation sequencing in the clinic and enables the practice of precision medicine wherein the molecular characterization of a patients tumor informs the patients individual treatment.
Foundation Medicine assessed the accuracy and precision of FoundationOne using reference samples of pooled cell lines and hundreds of clinical cancer specimens with diagnostic testing results generated by established clinical assays. FoundationOne was found to be highly accurate in identifying genomic alterations, including sensitivity greater than 99% for detection of base substitutions, 98% for detection of insertions and deletions, and greater than 95% for detection of copy number alterations, while maintaining greater than 99% specificity. Application of FoundationOne to 2,221 clinical cases revealed clinically actionable alterations in 76% of tumor samples, three times the number of actionable alterations detected by other currently available diagnostic tests. Alterations are defined as clinically actionable if linked to an FDA approved targeted therapy in the tumor under study or another solid tumor, a known or suspected contraindication to a given therapy, or an open clinical trial for which the alteration confers patient eligibility.
FoundationOne was proven to have the sensitivity and specificity required for routine clinical practice, and it identified more than three times the clinically actionable alterations that are identifiable using a collection of six commercially available and commonly used diagnostic tests, including the other most common NGS-based tests. This comprehensive approach directly translates into more treatment options for patients, said Michael J. Pellini, M.D., president and chief executive officer of Foundation Medicine. We believe this study establishes the standard for analytic performance that is required for patients with cancer to benefit from the clinical application of next-generation sequencing of their tumors.
About Foundation Medicine
Foundation Medicine (FMI) is a molecular information company dedicated to a transformation in cancer care in which treatment is informed by a deep understanding of the genomic changes that contribute to each patients unique cancer. The companys initial clinical assay, FoundationOneTM, is a fully informative genomic profile to identify a patients individual molecular alterations and match them with relevant targeted therapies and clinical trials. Foundation Medicines molecular information platform aims to improve day-to-day care for patients by serving the needs of clinicians, academic researchers and drug developers to help advance the science of molecular medicine in cancer. For more information, please visit http://www.FoundationMedicine.com or follow Foundation Medicine on Twitter (@FoundationATCG).
Foundation Medicine is a registered trademark, and FoundationOneTMis a trademark of Foundation Medicine, Inc.
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