Supreme Court Decision Will Bring the Benefits of Personalized Medicine to More People

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LOUISVILLE, Ky.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

The Supreme Courts decision today to invalidate patents on human genes changes the landscape of Personalized Medicine, making it possible for more patients to benefit from genetic testing while substantially lowering the cost of that testing.

PGXLs mission is to advance Personalized Medicine for the improvement of peoples lives, says Dr. Roland Valdes, Jr., President of PGXL Laboratories. This opens the door for PGXL Laboratories and others to provide a greater diversity of tests in the very near future.

The BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes that were the subject of this case indicate a predisposition to breast and ovarian cancer. It was a BRCA1 test that convinced Angelina Jolie to undergo pre-emptive mastectomy.

The tests have been expensive, costing as much as $3,000. Putting BRCA1 and BRCA2 in the public domain will lower that cost by increasing availability and competition. In addition, unencumbered access to the genes will enable laboratories to innovate new and more cost-effective ways to analyze and interpret the gene.

The case is Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, 12-398

ABOUT PGXL

PGXL Laboratories is a pioneer in the application of genetic testing to personalized medicine. It was the first lab CLIA-certified specifically to perform pharmacogenetic tests, and the first to bring to market a combined CYP2C9/VKORC1 panel to diagnose susceptibility to warfarin adverse drug reactions. Along with its clinical practice, PGXL performs contract research for manufacturers of pharmaceuticals and medical equipment.

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Supreme Court Decision Will Bring the Benefits of Personalized Medicine to More People

10,000th Graduate Receives Medical Doctor Degree at Ross University School of Medicine Commencement Ceremony

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MIRAMAR, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

History was made at the Ross University School of Medicine (RUSM) commencement ceremony on June 14 when the Schools 10,000thgraduate was awarded a medical degree. The graduation was held at the Bank United Center in Coral Gables, Fla.

One alumnus, keynote speaker Dr. Oleg Gusakov (05), shared his experience treating victims after the Boston Marathon bombings on April 15. Following his first instinct, the off-duty anesthesiologist rushed to Boston Medical Center, where he works, to join the healthcare team helping victims. It looked like a war zone, he said. But it felt good to be part of a team saving lives. This was the moment when all the hard work and long hours you have spent getting there really made sense.

Dr. Gusakov, 35, a native of Latvia, graduated from RUSM with high honors. He is an instructor of anaesthesiology at the Boston University School of Medicine and the clinical director of the Menino Pavilion, department of anesthesiology, at Boston Medical Center.

In the Class of 2013 approximately 1,100 students were eligible to graduate, and about 600 participated in the event, representing 44 U.S. states, seven Canadian provinces, and dozens of countries of origin.

Dr. Joseph A. Flaherty, dean and chancellor of RUSM, told the graduates, You are a class of achievers, of resilience, of true grit; you are the doctors who will go the extra mile and will sit down and talk to your patients and their families. You are the wave of the future of medicine -- as medicine becomes increasingly more scientific and technical, it will require a more personal and humane group of practitioners. That is the wealth of diversity and experience that you bring.

RUSM students begin their journey to become physicians on the schools campus in Dominica, located in the West Indies. Students complete a rigorous program of study in the basic sciences. The campus features a cutting-edge anatomy and medical imaging laboratory, as well as a simulation center where students begin to develop clinical skills. Students then complete their medical education by taking core and elective clinical rotations in teaching hospitals primarily in the United States.

For the 2012-13 academic year, more than 740 RUSM graduates obtained residency appointments in the U.S. and Canada, a record number for the school. RUSM students also achieved a 96 percent first-time pass rate on Step 1 of the United States Medical Licensing Examination, based on institutional reporting for the calendar year 2012.

In an effort to continually enhance the experience of its doctors-in-training, RUSM is moving forward with the implementation of a multi-million dollar campus master plan. This includes a 47,500-square-foot student center on the Dominica campus, which will house a library, study space and other rooms for teaching and learning. It will be the most prominent building on campus. RUSM will also construct a new preparatory school and day care facility in the coming year.

About Ross University School of Medicine

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10,000th Graduate Receives Medical Doctor Degree at Ross University School of Medicine Commencement Ceremony

Mayo Medical School gets $1 million grant

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Posted: Friday, June 14, 2013 9:30 pm

Mayo Medical School gets $1 million grant

Mayo Clinic has been awarded an American Medical Association, Mayo Medical School, five-year, $1 million grant to better prepare medical students in Rochester, Arizona and Florida "for the fast-changing world of health care."

More than 80 percent of AMA-accredited medical schools applied for the grant program. Eleven were selected.Mayo and Arizona State University are expanding Mayo's medical school to the Phoenix metropolitan area, the clinic announcement says.

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Mayo Medical School gets $1 million grant

Loyola’s Medical School Welcomes DREAM Act Applications

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Newswise MAYWOOD, Ill. Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine is the first medical school in the nation to announce that it is accepting applications for admission from undocumented immigrants in response to President Barack Obamas Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

As a medical school built on Catholic and Jesuit values we have a tradition of reaching out and encouraging the growth and development of future doctors from all walks of life, said Linda Brubaker, MD, dean and chief diversity officer of Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine.

The DREAM Act enables qualified undocumented immigrants to receive a two-year, renewable authorization to remain and work in the United States. Criteria to obtain DACA status include arrival in the U.S. before age 16, current age under 31, specified levels of education or military service and an absence of felony conviction or problematic record of misdemeanors.

The decision to consider applications is a conscious step to help fill a void in the medical community. The United States is facing a significant shortage of physicians. In addition, large portions of the population are underserved by current distribution and demographic profiles of physicians.

DREAMers represent a previously untapped source of qualified and diverse talent that will enrich the medical education environment, the medical profession and lives of patients, Brubaker said.

Mark Kuczewski, PhD, director of Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicines Neiswanger Institute for Bioethics and Public Health, also believes this is a beginning step in meeting a major public health disparity access to care.

We believe these students will help broaden the diversity of the physician workforce. This will benefit not only the many patients who one day these physicians will serve, but also our entire student body. This will help all our students better understand the variety of cultures and people they will be treating, Kuczewski said

For media inquiry, please contact Evie Polsley at epolsley@lumc.edu or call (708) 216-5313 or (708) 417-5100.

The Loyola University Chicago Health Sciences Division (HSD) advances interprofessional, multidisciplinary, and transformative education and research while promoting service to others through stewardship of scientific knowledge and preparation of tomorrow's leaders. The HSD is located on the Health Sciences Campus in Maywood, Illinois. It includes the Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing, the Stritch School of Medicine, the biomedical research programs of the Graduate School, and several other institutes and centers encouraging new research and interprofessional education opportunities across all of Loyola University Chicago. The faculty and staff of the HSD bring a wealth of knowledge, experience, and a strong commitment to seeing that Loyola's health sciences continue to excel and exceed the standard for academic and research excellence. For more on the HSD, visit LUC.edu/hsd.

-LOYOLA-

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Loyola's Medical School Welcomes DREAM Act Applications

Mayo Medical School Receives AMA Grant to Speed Change in Medical Education

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Released: 6/14/2013 11:00 AM EDT Source Newsroom: Mayo Clinic

http://www.mayoclinic.org/news2013-rst/7539.html

Newswise ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Mayo Medical School has been awarded a grant from the American Medical Associations Accelerating Change in Medical Education program to develop a curriculum to better prepare students for the fast-changing world of health care. The medical school, with operations at Mayo Clinic campuses in Minnesota, Arizona and Florida, will receive $1 million from the AMA program over five years.

Mayo Medical School Dean, Sherine Gabriel, M.D., credits the schools selection in part to its work with partners across Mayo including Mayo Clinic Health System, Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery, Office of Population Health Management and Quality Academy, and organizations such as Arizona State Universitys School for the Science of Health Care Delivery, the High Value Healthcare Collaborative and Dartmouths Center for Health Care Delivery Science.

This award allows us to create a new model of undergraduate education that will prepare future physicians to better care for their patients and themselves and to lead in transforming American health care, Dr. Gabriel says.

Mayo Medical School is working with Arizona State University (ASU) to expand Mayos medical school to the Phoenix metropolitan area. Students at all Mayo locations will have the option of completing an ASU masters degree in the science of health care delivery as they earn Mayo medical degrees. The masters degrees components include social and behavioral determinants of health, health care policy, health economics, management science, biomedical informatics, systems engineering and value principles of health care.

The health care landscape is changing so quickly, and we need to ensure that medical education keeps pace, says Michele Halyard, M.D., vice dean of Mayo Medical School. We are eager and ready to implement the transformative changes needed, such as the science of health care delivery degree, with ASU to respond to the future needs of patients.

Mayo Medical School enrolls 50 medical students each year. It received 4,327 applications for those spots last year. The Arizona expansion will allow additional students to enroll. The medical school is integrated with medical practice and research at Mayo Clinic.

The AMA grant program drew proposals from more than 80 percent of AMA-accredited medical schools. Eleven were selected to receive $1 million grants over five years. AMA wants to establish a learning consortium with selected schools to rapidly spread best practices to other schools.

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Mayo Medical School Receives AMA Grant to Speed Change in Medical Education

Scientists at UMass Medical School identify neurons that control feeding behavior in Drosophila

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Public release date: 14-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]

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

WORCESTER Scientists at the University of Massachusetts Medical School have developed a novel transgenic system which allows them to remotely activate individual brain cells in the model organism Drosophila using ambient temperature. This powerful new tool for identifying and characterizing neural circuitry has lead to the identification of a pair of neurons now called Fdg neurons in the fruit fly that decide when to eat and initiate the subsequent feeding action. Discovery of these neurons may help neurobiologists better understand how the brain uses memory and stimuli to produce classically conditioned responses, such as those often associated with phobias or drug tolerance. The study appears in the journal Nature.

"For any organism, the decision to eat is a complex integration of internal and external stimuli leading to the activation of an organized sequence of motor patterns," said Motojiro Yoshihara, PhD, assistant professor of neurobiology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and lead author of the Nature study. "By developing genetic tools to remotely activate individual brain cells in Drosophila, we've been able to isolate a pair of neurons that are critical to the act of eating in fruit flies. More importantly, we now have a powerful new tool with which we can answer important questions about the function and composition of neural circuitry."

To isolate the neurons responsible for sensing food and initiating the complex feeding program in Drosophila, UMMS scientists had to develop a method of studying the behavior of freely moving flies while targeting and manipulating individual neurons. To accomplish this, Dr. Yoshihara expressed temperature activated genes in random neurons in more than 800 Drosophila lines. Placing these genetically modified flies in a small temperature-controlled chamber, he was able to active these genes by increasing and decreasing the ambient temperature. This, in turn, activated the corresponding neurons.

Under wild conditions, when a hungry fly comes in contact with food it ceases motion and executives eight basic motor functions resulting in the consumption of the food. When the temperature in the chamber was increased, Yoshihara and colleagues were able to isolate a single Drosophila line which exhibited these eight motor functions, even in the absence of food or other stimuli. Subsequent experiments revealed that the feeding mechanism initiated by activating the transgenes was being controlled by a single pair of neurons in the fly's brain. Furthermore, these feeding (Fdg) neurons were responsible for synthesizing cues about available food and hunger, and using them to start the feeding mechanism.

"Our results showed that these neurons become active in the presence of a food source for the fly, but the response was contingent on whether the animal was hungry," said Yoshihara. "This means that these neurons are integrating both internal and external stimuli in order to initiate a complex feeding behavior with multiple motor programs."

Yoshihara believes this discovery will provide researchers with a powerful new tool for isolating, analyzing and characterizing aspects of the brain's neural circuitry and studying how information is integrated in the brain. In the future, Yoshihara plans to use the Fdg-neurons to study the biological basis of classical or Pavlovian conditioning. Doing so, he hopes to uncover how memory integrates stimuli to illicit a conditioned behavior.

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This work was supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grants MH85958, and the Worcester Foundation (to M.Y.), and the summer program of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science/National Science Foundation (to T.F), and a Japan Science and Technology Agency CREST grant (to K.I.).

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Scientists at UMass Medical School identify neurons that control feeding behavior in Drosophila