'Big Bang' model of tumor growth provides view into how to stop cancer before it starts

LOS ANGELES -- For the first time, Keck Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) cancer researchers have traced the origins of colorectal cancer cells, finding important clues to why tumor cells become "good" or "bad," with the potential of stopping them before they start.

The scientists employed a "Big Bang" model of human colorectal cancer growth similar to the theory that the universe started from a single point and exploded outward. The team was led by Keck faculty researchers Darryl Shibata, M.D., professor of pathology, Keck School of Medicine of USC and Christina Curtis, Ph.D., M.Sc., assistant professor of medicine and genetics at Stanford University and adjunct assistant professor, department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine of USC.

"It's like going back in time," said Shibata. "The history of each tumor is written in its genomes. To prevent tumors, you want to see what happened early on and how to stop their first cell divisions."

By taking samples from opposite sides of colorectal tumors, the researchers reconstructed the first few divisions, which took place when the nascent tumors were too small to even detect. The tumor starts were abnormal, with a burst of new mutations. Moreover, even from the start, many cancer cells expressed the abnormal mobility or intermixing of cells that would allow them to eventually invade and metastasize in the body. By contrast, tumor cells destined to form benign adenomas did not intermix, indicating that some tumors are "born to be bad."

Understanding which tumors will kill and which ones are harmless is critical to patients making decisions about tumor removal and surgery, Shibata said.

The next step is to further explore what happens at the genesis of tumor cells, which Shibata and Curtis are currently studying. Curtis will also look into whether other cancers behave the same way as the colorectal cancers.

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The research, "A Big Bang model of human colorectal tumour growth," will be published Monday, Feb. 9, 2015 in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Genetics.

Other USC researchers on the study include Andrea Sottoriva (now at the Institute of Cancer Research), Zhicheng Ma (now at Stanford University), Matthew P. Salomon, Junsong Zhao, Paul Marjoram, Kimberly Siegmund, and Michael F. Press. Researchers from the CHA Bundang Medical Center, University of California, San Francisco, and Queen Mary University of London also contributed to the research.

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Keck Medicine of USC researchers trace origins of colorectal cancer tumor cells

AURORA, Colo. (Feb. 18, 2015) - Researchers have found a potential new target for treating asthma, according to a study led by researchers at the University of Colorado School of Medicine at the Anschutz Medical Campus and published in the journal Nature Communications.

About 10 million Americans and more than 300 million people worldwide have asthma. The most common therapies now used with asthma patients address airway muscle contractions triggered by inflammation, but those treatment results are often temporary or incomplete.

In the article in Nature Communications, Christopher Evans, PhD, associate professor of medicine at the CU School of Medicine, and his co-authors propose targeting other factors related to the overproduction of mucus, an often overlooked factor that causes breathing problems associated with asthma.

Specifically, Evans and his colleagues found that the protein Mucin 5AC (Muc5ac) plays a critical role in airway hyperreactivity, a characteristic feature of asthma that makes it difficult to breathe. In experiments with mice, the scientists found that genetic removal of Muc5ac eliminated airway hyperreactivity.

"The role of mucus as a cause of asthma has been misunderstood and largely overlooked," Evans said. "We found that it is a potential target for reducing obstruction in asthma."

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The research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the American Heart Association and the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America. Ten of the authors listed on the article are faculty at the CU School of Medicine.

About the University of Colorado School of Medicine

Faculty at the University of Colorado School of Medicine work to advance science and improve care. These faculty members include physicians, educators and scientists at University of Colorado Health, Children's Hospital Colorado, Denver Health, National Jewish Health, and the Denver Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The school is located on the Anschutz Medical Campus, one of four campuses in the University of Colorado system. To learn more about the medical school's care, education, research and community engagement, visit its web site.

Contact: Mark Couch, 303-724-5377, mark.couch@ucdenver.edu

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CU School Of Medicine researchers offer new target for treating asthma

Study upends common belief that prescription drugs are prime culprits in causing liver failure

IMAGE:This is David Goldberg, assistant professor of Medicine and medical director of Living Donor Liver Transplantation at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania view more

Credit: Penn Medicine

PHILADELPHIA - Drug-induced acute liver failure is uncommon, and over-the-counter medications and dietary and herbal supplements -- not prescription drugs -- are its most common causes, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The findings are published in the current issue of Gastroenterology.

One of the most feared complications of drugs and medications is acute liver failure, traditionally associated with a greater than 50 percent chance of dying without a liver transplant. Drug-induced liver injury, known as hepatotoxicity, is the second most common reason drugs are withdrawn from the market, behind cardiac toxicity, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The Penn authors, however, say this is based solely on abnormal liver tests, not actual liver damage. The real risk of acute liver failure that the researchers calculated was 1.61 per million people per year.

"Despite widely publicized cases of drug-induced acute liver failure related to acetaminophen and other medications, there are, until now, no studies to specifically evaluate the incidence of acute liver failure arising from drug-induced liver injury in the broader population," says senior author Vincent Lo Re, MD, MSCE, assistant professor of Medicine in the division of Infectious Diseases and assistant professor of Epidemiology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

Lo Re and his team, including lead author, David Goldberg, MD, MSCE, assistant professor of Medicine and medical director of Living Donor Liver Transplantation at Penn, set out to uncover the incidence and outcomes of drug-induced acute liver failure in the United States through the analysis of data from an integrated healthcare system that is representative of the broader U.S. population.

They looked at data from Kaiser Permanente Northern California between January 1, 2004 and December 31, 2010, to assess the true impact of acute liver failure in the U.S.

Among the 5,484,224 patients evaluated, 62 were identified with acute liver failure, nearly half of which were drug-induced. Acetaminophen was implicated in 56 percent of cases, dietary/herbal supplements in 19 percent, antibiotics in 6 percent and miscellaneous medications in 18 percent.

Despite hepatotoxicity being the second most common cause of drug withdrawal from the market, acute liver failure, the most severe form of liver injury, from prescription drugs was rare, the team found. "We discovered that 75 percent of acute liver failure cases resulting from prescribed medication use were derived from over-the-counter products such as acetaminophen or herbal supplements," says Goldberg. "Prescription medications are an exceedingly rare cause of acute liver failure."

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Penn study: OTC medications and supplements are most common causes of drug-induced liver failure

WSCS 2014: REGENERATIVE MEDICINE FOR AGING: MAKING REJUVENATION COMPREHENSIVE NOT COSMETIC
Presenter - Aubrey de Grey, PhD, SENS Foundation.

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WSCS 2014: REGENERATIVE MEDICINE FOR AGING: MAKING REJUVENATION COMPREHENSIVE NOT COSMETIC - Video

Dr. Mercola Dr. Finkelstein Talk About Slow Medicine
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2015/03/05/slow-medicine-chronic-disease.aspx?x_cid=youtube Natural health expert and Mercola.com founder ...

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Dr. Mercola & Dr. Finkelstein Talk About Slow Medicine - Video

NLM and the Internet (National Library of Medicine, 1994)
This short video chronicles the National Library of Medicine #39;s introduction to, and use of, the internet via Gopher, MOSAIC, and other early internet-driven resources for information search...

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NLM and the Internet (National Library of Medicine, 1994) - Video

Medicine and Mistrust Grandville

The world of my parents, and that of their children, dramatically improved in the latter half of the twentieth century as modern medicine introduced an array of effective vaccines and antibiotics, writes Jerome Groopman, reviewing On Immunity by Eula Biss in the March 5, 2015, issue of The New York Review of Books. When the Salk vaccine against the polio virus became available I was inoculated, along with my siblings. The idea of preventing or curing dreaded infectious diseases naturally, relying on the body alone, hardly entered our minds.

Eula Biss is one of many parents for whom the decision to inoculate a child, in 2015, is not so simple. We fear that vaccination will invite autism or any one of the diseases of immune dysfunction that now plague industrialized countriesdiabetes, asthma, and allergies, she writes. We fear that the hepatitis B vaccine will cause multiple sclerosis, or that the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine will cause sudden infant death. We fear that the combination of several vaccines at once will tax the immune system, and that the total number of vaccines will overwhelm it.

In the era between Jerome Groopmans vaccination and Eula Bisss indecision, The New York Review has published many articles on what Groopman, considering the origin of Bisss anxieties, calls our culture of suspicion, the widespread unease with expertise and mistrust of authority that complicates relations between doctors and patients. A selection of these articles is presented below.

Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet and the author of Health Wars: On the Global Front Lines of Modern Medicine, examines the shortcomings of institutionalized medicine in two essays, one on compromised medical research, and another on The Doctors Plague, the biography of a Viennese doctor whose discovery that colleagues were unwittingly spreading infection saved the lives of patients, but alienated him from the medical establishment.

In his review of The Creative Destruction of Medicine by Eric Topol, Arnold Relman questions whether advances in medical technology will produce better healthcare, or a wealth of useless information and wealthier technology executives.

Among several articles written for The New York Review on the practices of the pharmaceutical industry, Marcia Angell has advocated for reforms to curb corporate influence on the US Food and Drug Administration, in her review of Reputation and Power by Daniel Carpenter, and investigated the insidious influence of money on academic expertise and the integrity of practitioners, in an omnibus review of books on the subject.

Many of the contributions to The New York Review by Richard C. Lewontin have adopted a perspective skeptical of scientific claims to absolute truth and unbiased objective knowledge. In two such reviews, Lewontin writes on the political context of scientific progress, and the conflicted role of science in a world of believers.

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Medicine and Mistrust

IMAGE:Michael Mullen, M.D., is an assistant professor of Neurology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and director of Penn's Comprehensive Stroke Center. view more

Credit: Penn Medicine

PHILADELPHIA- Stroke is one of the leading causes of death and disability in the United States, but access to rapid EMS care and appropriate stroke care centers with the ability to deliver acute stroke therapies can drastically mitigate the debilitating effects of a stroke. A population-based approach to health planning would prevent disparities in access to specialized stroke care, says new Penn Medicine research. Their evaluation of access to stroke centers in the U.S. found that even under the most optimal conditions, a large proportion of the United States population would be unable to access a comprehensive stroke center within 60 minutes. The study is published in the current issue of Neurology.

In 2003, a system of designation of stroke care centers was initiated by The Joint Commission. The tiered approach designated acute stroke-ready hospitals, primary stroke centers (PSC) and comprehensive stroke centers (CSC) in order of increasing resources and capabilities. While certification of PSCs began in 2003, certification of CSCs did not commence until 2012, and were not yet in place at the time of this research.

"We sought to demonstrate how mathematical modeling can inform the strategic development of the U.S. network of stroke centers by stimulating the conversion of PSCs into CSCs," says lead author, Michael Mullen, MD, assistant professor of Neurology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and director of Penn's Comprehensive Stroke Center.

Mullen and his team obtained population counts and geographic data from the 2010 Neilson-Claritas Census Estimations. Access to hospitals was calculated by ground and air transportation with the hospital that would contribute the maximal population access selected as the first CSC. Using the team's proprietary algorithm, CSCs were added in an iterative matter that would offer the greatest ground and air access for the surrounding population to a maximum of 20 CSCs.

As of December 31, 2010, there were 811 PSC-designated hospitals to which 66 percent of the U.S. population had 60 minute ground access. The team's analysis found that after the addition of up to 20 CSCs per state, 63.1% of the U.S. population would have 60 minute ground access to a CSC. And, averaging across states, the median population with 60-minute ground access to a CSC was 55.7%, but there was significant variability across states. Incorporating air ambulance transport into the model showed that median population with 60-minute ground or air access to a CSC was 85.3%, but variability across states persisted.

Their analysis also found that median ground access in the stroke belt states, including Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee, was worse, with a median of 32 percent of the population with 60-minute ground access versus 59 percent in non-stroke belt states.

Even with the most optimally located CSCs throughout the country, the team found that roughly one-third (37 percent) of the US population, 114 million people, would be unable to access a CSC by ground transportation within 60 minutes. Allowing for air transportation improved access, researchers report, but in one-quarter of the U.S., less than 60 percent of the population had ground OR air access to a CSC.

"Our results highlight the need for population-based planning for developing systems of care," says Mullen. "Given finite resources, it is critically important to locate CSCs in a way that maximizes population access."

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Penn Medicine analysis: One-third of Americans do not have access to stroke center within 1 hour

MEDICINE HAT, Alta. - A curfew remains in place for a southern Alberta woman convicted of murdering her parents and younger brother when she was 12.

The woman's defence lawyer asked a judge at a hearing in Medicine Hat on Tuesday to release her client from the restriction that is in effect between 11:30 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. Mondays through Thursdays.

But Justice Scott Brooker ruled to hold off on any change.

Defence council Katherin Beyak said outside court that the curfew is to be re-examined Aug. 20 once the woman has been living on her own for a few months.

"Right now there is still some supervision in the placement that she's in and she'll be moving to a situation where there won't be any supervision at all," Beyak said.

Chief Crown prosecutor Ramona Robins said the woman's case workers agree with the judge that it would be helpful to keep the curfew in place for a while longer.

"She's being moved to a more independent setting and he thought ... the curfew would assist ... to make sure that she was still complying and responsible."

Progress reports suggest the woman is at the lowest possible risk to reoffend, Robins added.

The woman can't be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. She was convicted as a teen along with her then-23-year-old boyfriend Jeremy Steinke of first-degree murder in the stabbing deaths of her family in their Medicine Hat home in 2006.

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Medicine Hat Woman Who Killed Family Has To Remain Under Curfew: Court

(March 5, 2015) - Gender equality has not yet been achieved in science, medicine, and engineering, but The New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF), through its Initiative on Women in Science and Engineering, is committed to making sure progress is made. NYSCF convened the Inaugural Meeting of its Initiative on Women in Science and Engineering (IWISE) Working Group in February 2014, where the group put forward seven actionable strategies for advancing women in science, medicine, and engineering, and reconvened in February 2015 to further develop the strategies.

NYSCF began this initiative after an analysis of its own programs. "We found that the ratio of men and women in our own programs was OK but it could certainly be improved," said Susan L. Solomon, CEO and Co-Founder, of NYSCF. "We wanted to take action and actually make tangible progress, so we brought together many of the leading men and women who have already committed time, energy, and resources towards this problem."

Today, the recommendations were published in Cell Stem Cell. They were divided into three categories: direct financial support strategies, psychological and cultural strategies, and major collaborative and international initiatives. The group chose to highlight the most high-impact and implementable strategies from a larger list developed during the meeting. They also sought to promote promising, long-term initiatives that will require significant collaboration among multiple stakeholders with the aim of connecting potential partners.

"Advancing women in science and medicine is of critical importance to the academic and research enterprise in our country," said Dr. Marc Tessier-Lavigne, President of Rockefeller University. "This paper is important as it not only brings attention to this key issue but also outlines creative strategies that can help break down barriers to gender equality in science."

Changing financing structures, embedded cultural norms, and tying funding to gender balance to enact real change are the pillars underlying the seven strategies recommended by the Working Group.

"The brain power provided by women in science is essential to sustaining a thriving US society and economy. It is time to move beyond just lamenting its loss and embrace the actions called for in this timely report," Dr. Claire Pomeroy, President, the Lasker Foundation and a member of the IWISE Working Group.

The seven strategies include:

1) Implement flexible family care spending 2) Provide "extra hands" awards 3) Recruit gender-balanced external review committees and speaker selection committees 4) Incorporate implicit bias statements 5) Focus on education as a tool 6) Create an institutional report card for gender equality 7) Partner to expand upon existing searchable databases of women in science, medicine, and engineering

The IWISE Working Group reconvened in February 2015 to continue to work on the Institutional Report Card for Gender Equality. The paper published today includes the proposed Phase 1 Institutional Report Card, and the group plans to release the Phase 2 report card once finalized.

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Achieving gender equality in science, engineering and medicine

The most complete and trusted visual compendium of emergency medicine with 1500 full-color illustrations looks great on iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. No internet connection needed to view the full app. It is all ready for quick image and information retrieval. This app is easy to navigate, allowing you to browse the contents, find topics in an alphabetical index, or even search the entire app for words in the text or image captions. You also have the ability to bookmark and add notes to any chapter or image. You can also change the text size for easier reading.The Atlas of Emergency Medicine is the ultimate visual guide to the diagnosis and treatment of common and uncommon conditions encountered in the Emergency Department. Filled with 1500 crisp, clear full-color images, this essential clinical companion is logically organized by organ system and then by problem, making it a practical quick reference for medical students, residents in training, new graduates preparing for their certification exam, the practicing physician, and instructors. The Atlas of Emergency Medicine features a streamlined presentation with clear, concise text and an unmatched collection of diagnoses-speeding images. The images are accompanied by brief, high-yield descriptions of clinical problems.4 STAR DOODY'S REVIEW of the book on which this app is based:"This is an excellent study aid, especially for visual learners....This atlas is perhaps the most comprehensive source of high quality emergency medicine images available....This book is outstanding. I used it just before my in-service exam and found it a delightful way to solidify the information with images, which greatly increases the chance of recall."--Doody's Review ServiceCheck out http://www.usatinemedia.com to learn more and watch a video demo of this app narrated by Dr. Richard P. Usatine.This interactive app is based on the full content of The Atlas of Emergency Medicine, 3rd Edition by McGraw-Hill.Authors:Kevin J. Knoop. MD, MS, Director, Professional Education, Naval Medical Center, Portsmouth, VA; Assistant Professor of Military and Emergency Medicine, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MDLawrence B. Stack, MDAlan B. Storrow, MDR. Jason Thurman, MDDisclaimer: This app is intended for educational reference only. If you find yourself in an emergency situation, contact a physician.Developed by Usatine Media, LLCRichard P. Usatine, MD, Co-President, Professor of Family Medicine, Professor of Dermatology, University of Texas Health Science Center at San AntonioPeter Erickson, Co-President, Lead Software Developer

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The Atlas of Emergency Medicine

"I'm launching a new Precision Medicine Initiative to bring us closer to curing diseases like cancer and diabetesand to give all of us access to the personalized information we need to keep ourselves and our families healthier.We can do this," said President Obamaduring the 2015 State of the Union Address.

On Friday, President Obama is expected to elaborateonthePrecision Medicine Initiative, which he first introduced during last week'sState of the Union Address. Obama will ask Congress for $215 million to help get the projectoff the ground.

Theassociate director for science at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policyexplained, "Precision medicine is about moving beyond [the] one-size-fits-all approach to medicine and, instead, taking into account people's genes, their microbiomes, their environments and their lifestyles."

If the budget is approved, right off the bat it will mainly focus on cancer research and treatment. There are four major players in the initiative which would receive that $215 million.

First, the National Institutes of Health would get the lion's share $130 millionto help create a database totrackdata of about 1 million volunteer donors.

"Now, that will of course include genomic sequencing. But it will also include things like lifestyle, things from their medical records, use of personal health devices, all sorts of things. So it's a really comprehensive project," explained a reporterfor CNBC.

$70 million would go to the National Cancer Instituteto help discover if there aregenetic factors that lead to cancer.

The Food and Drug Administration would receive $10 million to create structures to better deal with personalized medicine and fast-track breakthroughs.

Lastly, $5 million is expected to go tothe Office of the National Coordinatorfor Health Information Technology tocreate a better technological systemfor the new incentive.

At least four large pharmaceutical companies including Illumina, which heavily focuses ongenetic sequencing are expected to attend a White House event Friday where more information willbe released.

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Obama to outline new personalized medicine plan

EDM Artist ALIA Launches Kickstarter Campaign For Music Project "Feminine Medicine"
EDM Artist ALIA Launches Kickstarter Campaign For Music Project "Feminine Medicine" Feminine Medicine is an electronic music album and stage show that is a platform to bring more women #39;s...

By: SanDiego Evidence

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EDM Artist ALIA Launches Kickstarter Campaign For Music Project "Feminine Medicine" - Video

Traditional Chinese Medicine for Cats and Dogs
Use the principles of Chinese Medicine to help your dog or cat live a healthier, longer life.

By: Dr. Angie Krause

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Traditional Chinese Medicine for Cats and Dogs - Video

Loon Medicine
I be acting crazy n stuff, healing my own self!

By: SmoothCinnamonX

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Loon Medicine - Video

George #39;s Marvellous Medicine Review

By: Marton Manor Primary School

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George's Marvellous Medicine Review - Video

Siddha Medicine - Tribute To Dr.Stanley Jones
Go to http://www.siddhaphysician.com to know more about Dr.Stanley #39;s ongoing projects in Siddha Medicine. This video is a tribute to Dr.Stanley Jones for his selfless service to the development...

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Siddha Medicine - Tribute To Dr.Stanley Jones - Video

Bad Medicine (Originally Performed By Bon Jovi) (Full Vocal Version)
Bad Medicine (Originally Performed By Bon Jovi) [Full Vocal Version] Paris Music 2013 Paris Music Ltd Released on: 2015-03-02 Composer: DESMOND CHILD Composer: JOHN F BONGIOVI ...

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Bad Medicine (Originally Performed By Bon Jovi) (Full Vocal Version) - Video

Medicine Metaphysics: Practical Applications (2 of 2)
EBTV presents host Evita Ochel (http://www.evitaochel.com) and featured guest Dr. Larry Malerba, D.O. (http://www.spiritsciencehealing.com) in a dialogue about the limitations and biases of...

By: Evita Ochel

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Medicine & Metaphysics: Practical Applications (2 of 2) - Video

Let #39;s Play: ZombiU (Wii U) - Part 9: Refuel the Generator and Find Medicine for Vikram
Find Medicine for Vikram is a sub-mission in Refuel the Generator.

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Let's Play: ZombiU (Wii U) - Part 9: Refuel the Generator and Find Medicine for Vikram - Video