Microphysiological systems will revolutionize experimental biology and medicine

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

2-Sep-2014

Contact: John P. Wikswo john.wikswo@vanderbilt.edu 615-343-4124 Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine

The Annual Thematic issue of Experimental Biology and Medicine that appears in September 2014 is devoted to "The biology and medicine of microphysiological systems" and describes the work of scientists participating in the Microphysiological Systems Program directed by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and funded in part by the NIH Common Fund. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are collaborating with the NIH in the program. Fourteen of the research teams supported by the program have contributed papers and represent more than 20 institutions, including Baylor College of Medicine, Columbia University, Cornell University, Duke University, Johns Hopkins University, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northwestern University, Nortis, Inc., the University of California, Irvine, the University of Central Florida, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Texas Medical Branch, and Vanderbilt University.

Dr. John P. Wikswo, founding Director of the Vanderbilt Institute for Integrative Biosystems Research and Education and Editor of the Thematic Issue, explains in his introductory review that microphysiological systems (MPS) often called "organs-on-chips" are interacting sets of constructs of human cells. Each construct is designed to recapitulate the structure and function of a human organ or organ region, and when connected in an MPS, they may provide in vitro models with great physiological accuracy for studying cell-cell, drug-cell, drug-drug, and organ-drug interactions. The papers in the Thematic Issue describe the ongoing development of MPS as in vitro models for bone and cartilage, brain, gastrointestinal tract, lung, liver, microvasculature, reproductive tract, skeletal muscle, and skin, as well as the interconnection of organs-on-chips to support physiologically based pharmacokinetics and drug discovery and screening, and the microscale technologies that regulate stem cell differentiation. Wikswo notes that the initial motivation for creating MPS was to increase the efficiency and human relevance of pharmaceutical development and testing. Obvious applications of the technology include studies of the effect of environmental toxins on humans, identification, characterization, and neutralization of chemical and biological weapons, controlled studies of the microbiome and infectious disease that cannot be conducted in humans, controlled differentiation of induced pluripotent stem cells into specific adult cellular phenotypes, and studies of the dynamics of metabolism and signaling within and between human organs.

In his commentary for the Thematic Issue, Dr. William Slikker Jr., Director of the FDA's National Center for Toxicological Research, writes "The goal [is] to accomplish this human-on-a-chip capability in a decade a feat somewhat equivalent to the moon shot of the 1960s and, like landing man on the moon, simulating a human being from a physiological/toxicological perspective may indeed be possible. But even if ultimately it is not, a great deal of fundamental biology and physiology will be elucidated along the way, much to the benefit of our understanding of human health and disease processes."

Dr. D. Lansing Taylor, Director of the University of Pittsburgh Drug Discovery Institute, says "The Thematic Issue brings together the leaders of the field of Human-on-a-Chip to discuss the early successes, great potential and continuing challenges of this emerging field. For complete success, we must integrate advances in multiple technical areas, including microfluidics, stem cell biology, 3D microstructures/matrices, multi-cell engineering, universal blood substitutes, and a variety of biological detection technologies, database tools, and computational modeling for both single and a combination of organ systems. Success will be transformative for basic biology, physiology, pharmacology, toxicology and medicine, as well as the new field of quantitative systems pharmacology, where iterative experimentation and computational modeling of disease models and pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics are central. The focus is to create physiologically relevant, robust, reproducible and cost-effective tools for the scientific community."

Dr. Danilo A. Tagle, NIH NCATS Associate Director for Special Initiatives, adds "This special issue highlights the exciting and rapid progress towards development of MPS for drug safety and efficacy testing. Much progress has been achieved in the two years of the program, and these articles describe the efforts by an outstanding group of investigators towards realizing the goal of fully integrated 10 organ systems. There are tremendous scientific opportunities and discoveries that could be had in the future utility of these tissues/organs on chips."

Dr. Steven R. Goodman, Editor-in-Chief of Experimental Biology and Medicine, agrees. "We are proud to publish this Thematic Issue dedicated to "The biology and medicine of microphysiological systems." Dr. John Wikswo is to be congratulated for assembling an exceptional group of researchers who are leaders in the field of MPS and the many uses of this exciting technology. MPS has the potential to revolutionize experimental biology and medicine. Because of the great importance and promise of organs-on-chips and MPS technology, it has now become a major area of emphasis for the Systems Biology category of Experimental Biology and Medicine."

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Microphysiological systems will revolutionize experimental biology and medicine

SMFM releases paper on activity restriction in pregnancy

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

2-Sep-2014

Contact: Vicki Bendure Vicki@bendurepr.com 540-687-3360 Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine

WASHINGTON, Sept. 2, 2014In a new guideline, the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine has recommended against the routine use of bed rest in pregnancy.

"There is no evidence that bed rest improves outcomes", says Anthony Sciscione, DO, director of Delaware Center for Maternal and Fetal Medicine and one of the co-authors of the guideline. "However, there is evidence that bed rest can be harmful for moms, babies, and families."

About one in five women are placed on bed rest during their pregnancy. Surveys have shown that both ob/gyns and maternal-fetal medicine specialists prescribe activity restriction and bed rest, even though most of the physicians surveyed do not expect that doing so will actually improve pregnancy outcomes.

Restriction of activity in pregnancy is also known as "bed rest," or "modified bed rest" and has been recommended for a number of potential complications such as preterm (before 37 weeks gestation) contractions, a dilated cervix from preterm labor, a short cervix, preterm premature rupture of membranes (water breaking before 37 weeks gestation and before the onset of labor), elevated blood pressure, preeclampsia, inadequate growth of baby, placenta previa, risk of miscarriage, multiple gestations (e.g. twin pregnancies), and others.

In the guideline, the Society points out that bed rest has not been shown to reduce the chance of preterm delivery in women either at risk or already experiencing preterm labor. One study found that preterm birth was more common in women already at risk of preterm birth when they were placed on any type of work or non-work related activity restriction, both at home and in the hospital. There is also no data indicating that activity restriction is of benefit for any obstetric condition.

Inadequate growth of the baby is often attributed to problems with blood flow to the placenta and activity restriction or bed rest is often prescribed in an effort to improve placental blood flow. Again, studies fail to show a benefit to this practice.

While there is no evidence the bed rest improves outcomes, there are several potentially harmful side effects. It's widely known though that extended periods of activity restriction can result in muscle and bone loss. This "deconditioning" happens to pregnant and non-pregnant individuals. Changes can occur after only a few days of immobility and there is not a lot of information on the full impact these changes have in pregnant women.

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SMFM releases paper on activity restriction in pregnancy

Medical School Admissions: Requesting A Letter of Recommendation | Kaplan Test Prep – Video

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Medical School Admissions: Requesting A Letter of Recommendation | Kaplan Test Prep
The Pulse is Kaplan #39;s monthly series for pre-meds. In this video, our experts share advice on how to request a letter of recommendation for medical school ad...

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US-Malaysia medical school collaboration collapses

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A dispute with Johns Hopkins University in the United States, ostensibly over frequent late payments, has led to a termination of the American institutions partnership with Perdana University Graduate School of Medicine in Malaysia, both sides have confirmed.

Although the two sides are still disputing how much money is owed, Perdana in Malaysia has said it is intending to announce a collaboration with another leading top tier US university in due course, after an agreement was apparently signed on 11 August.

According to a separate statement from Johns Hopkins Medicine International, the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine provided advisory and consulting services to Academic Medical Centre, or AMC which owns Perdana to help develop Malaysias first private teaching hospital and private medical school offering a US-style curriculum.

Lindsay Roylance Rothstein, Johns Hopkins director of marketing and communications, said in the statement by email to University World News that these services were delivered from November 2010 to July 2014, providing guidance and advice to the Perdana University Graduate School of Medicine, or PUGSOM, and assisting in teaching and in the initiation of the school.

However, we reached the difficult decision to end the existing relationship and agreement with AMC and we sent official notice of that decision to AMC on March 17, 2014.

We took this action because payments required under the agreement for the services provided by Johns Hopkins and its faculty were frequently received late and at the time the agreement was terminated, Johns Hopkins had not been paid for more than 12 months of work.

But there appears to be disagreement over the arrears.

Perdana, in its own statement released last Monday 18 August, said AMC had paid US$34.199 million to Johns Hopkins on behalf of Perdana.

It said US$5m was paid towards the Swami Institute for International Medical Education established at Johns Hopkins University, and a further US$29.199 million as part of the affiliation and collaboration agreement.

The last payment made to Johns Hopkins was US$2 million on 7 May 2014, Perdana said in its statement, adding: AMC and Johns Hopkins are in dispute over whether any further sums are payable and the failure of Johns Hopkins to address the many grievances of AMC and Perdana University.

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US-Malaysia medical school collaboration collapses

Family Files Lawsuit Against the School District of Philadelphia for Allegedly Failing to Provide Medical Care After …

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Philadelphia, PA (PRWEB) September 02, 2014

The family of a 12-year old girl who died allegedly because her school had no nurse and did not take her to the hospital, has filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Civil Action No. 14-5046, seeking compensation for her death. The suit names as Defendants the City of Philadelphia, the School District of Philadelphia, W.C. Bryant Promise Academy, the schools Principal and a teacher.

Laporshia Massey, a sixth grade student at Bryant, allegedly had a known, pre-existing medical condition, asthma. This condition required her to use medication at times to control her symptoms. According to court documents, on September 25, 2013, while at school, Massey began to have trouble breathing, exhibiting signs of an asthma attack.

On the date of the incident, the elementary school did not have a nurse on duty. The complaint states, The absence of a nurse from the school on that date was the result of policy decisions by Defendants. According to the complaint, Students, including Decedent Laporshia Massey, were not permitted to possess and or use prescribed medication at the school without the supervision of a nurse.

Laporshia allegedly informed her teacher of difficulty breathing, to which the teacher responded, be calm, noting that there was no nurse on duty. Defendants kept the student at school despite her worsening condition and visible distress. The complaint alleges Defendants neglected to contact emergency medical services at any time.

It is maintained that, upon arriving home, Massey was rushed to the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia by her father. Medical records indicate she suffered respiratory arrest en route to the hospital. Hospital staff were unable to revive the child. The official cause of death was determined to be acute exacerbation of asthma.

Plaintiff alleges that defendants acted with deliberate indifference to medical needs, including not rendering medical assistance to the Decedent, not having any qualified staff present at Bryant to render necessary medical care, and not calling an ambulance or taking Laporshia to the hospital.

The family seeks compensatory and punitive damages from each defendant, namely the School District of Philadelphia, for their negligence and wrongful conduct resulting in the decedents severe suffering and untimely death.

The Plaintiffs are represented by the Marrone Law Firm, LLC in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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Family Files Lawsuit Against the School District of Philadelphia for Allegedly Failing to Provide Medical Care After ...

Taste & See – Week 2 | Guest Pastor Lon Williams, Liberty Church, PA – Video

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Taste See - Week 2 | Guest Pastor Lon Williams, Liberty Church, PA
The Crossing Church: http://www.crossing-church.com/ Contribute to Life Change: https://crossing-church.logosconnect.com/ Taste See - Week 2 | Guest Pastor Lon Williams, Liberty Church, PA.

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The Liberty Brothers Talk about HAARP, Chemtrails,etc. – Video

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The Liberty Brothers Talk about HAARP, Chemtrails,etc.
If you are like us, you notice that the skies we look up to no longer seem to be the skies we grew up with. From the crazy, never before seen weather happenings, to the constant Chemtrails...

By: The Liberty Brothers Radio Show

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