Lifting the Veil of Secrecy Surrounding Development of New Medicines
Samir Brahmachari, Ph.D., director-general, CSIR
An unlikely effort is underway to lift the veil of nearly-total secrecy that has surrounded the process of developing new prescription drugs for the last century, scientists said today at the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS). The upheaval in traditional practice would make key data available to college students, university professors, and others in an open, collective process.
Called open-source drug discovery, the new approach involves an online community of computer users from around the world working together to discover and develop much-needed new drugs. It could lead to inexpensive drugs to treat a wide variety of diseases, including tuberculosis and malaria, that claim a huge toll in developing countries.
Scientists from government, industry, and academia are presenting a dozen reports on this topic during a special symposium entitled “Open-source Drug Discover” at the ACS meeting.
Open-source drug discovery is a movement as well as an evolving program. The Open Source Drug Discovery (OSDD) Consortium, for instance, is a worldwide scientific community of more than 3000 people from 74 countries that was launched in 2008 by India’s Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the country’s largest research and development organization. People can participate in the program by logging into a Web site: www.osdd.net
“I believe this is the way to go about not only drug discovery, but it may be a way of doing science in the future,” said OSDD Project Director Samir Brahmachari, Ph.D. “Everybody can contribute.” (more…)
21st Century Roadmap to Make America the World’s Healthiest Nation
Denis Cortese, MD, Emeritus President and CEO, Mayo Clinic and Director, Healthcare Delivery and Policy Program, Arizona State University.
A Commission of national health care experts convened by the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress (CSPC) has unveiled a roadmap and integrated approach that will put “health” back into our nation’s health care system as well as address key opportunities following passage of health care reform legislation.
The Commission on U.S. Federal Leadership in Health and Medicine: Charting Future Directions is releasing its second report, A 21st Century Roadmap for Advancing America’s Health: The Path from Peril to Progress, emphasizing a comprehensive spectrum of actions to build a 21st century system that will make America the healthiest nation in the world. Already, the CSPC Health Commission’s proposals have helped shape new Federal initiatives and are reflected in recent health reform legislation.
Commission Co-Chairs, Rear Admiral Susan Blumenthal, MD (ret.), and Denis Cortese, MD, say that, despite passage of historic health care reform legislation, no one has fully focused on the next steps necessary to ensure that all Americans gain maximum value out of our current health care system, nor have all of the key elements necessary to improve the health of the nation been addressed. The United States spends over 17 percent of GDP on health care—nearly twice as much as any other nation—but ranks only 49th on life expectancy, and Americans get the right treatment only 55 percent of the time.
“Health care delivery in the U.S. remains in crisis,” said Cortese, Emeritus President and CEO, Mayo Clinic and Director, Healthcare Delivery and Policy Program, Arizona State University. “Americans are paying far too much on health care delivery, especially when compared to the outcomes, safety, service and access we obtain in return. Simply put, low value health care in the U.S. is the result of the lack of a national and rational system for delivery of reliable high quality care. In order to enable the evolution of such a system we need to find ways to consistently pay for value.” (more…)
Surgeon Re-attaches Teen’s Arm After Boating Accident
College student Kristen Kilpatrick is again riding horses after Dr. Joseph Borrelli, chairman of orthopaedic surgery, successfully re-attached her arm, severed in a 2009 boating accident.
Kristen Kilpatrick could see the whirling propeller approaching after her fishing boat lurched forward, plunging her into the cold lake.
“The motor creates this weird funneling and it just sucks you in. I just curled up into a little ball,” the Texas Christian University sophomore recalled. On a May 2009 weekend whim, she and friends had gone to the lake on her family’s ranch near Hico, located southwest of Stephenville.
The engine was brutally unforgiving.
“It was like a huge freight train coming at you. I thought to myself, ‘I can’t believe I’m going to die at age 18,’” Ms. Kilpatrick recalled.
The collision shot her to the lake’s bottom before she resurfaced. The prop had torn through her right arm, which hung limp, barely attached.
Friends – including a nursing student – dialed 911 instantly. They then stopped the bleeding and wrapped her injured arm as they waited for help to come for the 100-mile flight to Dallas.
“I heard the paramedics report ‘amputee.’ At this point I’m crying, ‘I’m not going to have an arm,’” Ms. Kilpatrick recalled. “As I go into the operating room, I repeat to every person I see, ‘Please tell me I’m going to have my arm.’” (more…)
Cyberinfrastructure for Comparative Effectiveness in Cancer Research
CYCORE principal investigator Kevin Patrick, M.D. (far left) with fellow investigators from UC San Diego and M.D. Anderson in front of Calit2's Atkinson Hall on the UCSD campus.
Nearly four decades after President Richard Nixon declared a “War on Cancer,” the disease still claims the lives of 560,000 Americans every year, despite an annual expenditure of $5 billion by the U.S. government on research to battle it.
Although much progress has been made since Nixon’s call to action in 1971, cancer research is made increasingly difficult by the vast amount relevant data, which is only increasing as scientists discover new drugs and interventions and continue to evaluate their relative benefits, risks and costs.
Now researchers from the University of California, San Diego division of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) and the UCSD School of Medicine have been awarded $2.6 million over two years from the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute (NCI) to prototype a cyberinfrastructure that would allow scientists to collect and interpret data from a variety of sources to compare the effectiveness of preventative measures, drugs, treatments and interventions.
The Cyberinfrastructure for Comparative Effectiveness Research (CYCORE) project for cancer research will be scalable, open-source and user-friendly. CYCORE will aggregate data from clinical trials, patient medical records, self-reported and objectively monitored social and behavioral data, data on cancer outcomes from regional cancer registries, and cost-benefit analyses. (more…)
China a Rising Star in Regenerative Medicine Despite World Skepticism of Stem Cell Therapies
Technicians prepare with umbilical cord blood for national stem cell industry in Tianjin, north China, Aug. 29, 2009. (Xinhua/Liu Haifeng)
Chinese researchers have become the world’s fifth most prolific contributors to peer-reviewed scientific literature on clock-reversing regenerative medicine even as a skeptical international research community condemns the practice of Chinese clinics administering unproven stem cell therapies to domestic and foreign patients.
According to a study by the Canadian-based McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health (MRC), published today by the UK journal Regenerative Medicine, China’s government is pouring dollars generously into regenerative medicine (RM) research and aggressively recruiting high-calibre scientists trained abroad in pursuit of its ambition to become a world leader in the field.
And its strategy is working: Chinese contributions to scientific journals on RM topics leapt from 37 in year 2000 to 1,116 in 2008, exceeded only by the contributions of experts in the USA, Germany, Japan and the UK.
The accomplishment is all the more astonishing given that China’s international credibility has been and still is severely hindered by global concerns surrounding Chinese clinics, where unproven therapies continue to be administered to thousands of patients. (more…)
New Research Could Advance Field Critical to Personalized Medicine
John F. Deeken, a pharmacogentic researcher at Lombardi.
It’s the ultimate goal in the treatment of cancer: tailoring a person’s therapy based on his or her genetic makeup. While a lofty goal, scientists are steadily moving forward, rapidly exploiting new technologies. Researchers at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center report a significant advance in this field of research using a new chip that looks for hundreds of mutations in dozen of genes.
The goal of personalized medicine is to determine the best treatment and the optimal dose carrying the fewest side-effect, especially as new drugs are discovered and treatment options increase. Variations in our genes encode proteins, which impact how a drug is metabolized or taken in by the cells. This directly impacts the drug’s effectiveness and the kinds of side-effects that may be caused by its toxicity.
“Currently, available genotyping tools test only a few genes at a time,” explains John F. Deeken, a pharmacogentic researcher at Lombardi. “With a new chip called DMET, as many as 170 genes can be examined for more than a thousand variations. This type of turn-key testing, if validated, could eventually replace highly-specialized, time-consuming and labor-intensive testing — thus allowing more institutes the opportunity to pursue genotyping and pharmocogenetic research. That alone would be a significant development for our field and for expediting the research many of us believe is the future of medicine.” (more…)
Patient Undergoes First Robot-Assisted Surgery for Removal of Lung Tumor
Dr. J. Michael Dimaio with Craig and Kim Harrison. (UT Southwestern)
When Craig Harrison found out he would be the first patient in North Texas to have robot-assisted lung-tumor surgery, an operation performed at UT Southwestern Medical Center, he wasn’t nervous at all.
“I know most people would’ve been, but I was actually excited about it,” Mr. Harrison said. “I had a rare chance to help other people.”
Dr. J. Michael DiMaio, associate professor of cardiovascular and thoracic surgery at UT Southwestern, performed the groundbreaking surgery using the DaVinci system, a four-armed robot controlled by the surgeon via a joystick. The DaVinci provide a wider array of surgical manipulations within a smaller incision than are available in traditional thoracic surgeries.
“A lot more procedures are now done with smaller incisions, which decreases pain and the length of hospital stays,” Dr. DiMaio said. “The robot offers easier access to the lung, with more flexibility and rotation than standard tools.” (more…)
Spices Halt Growth of Breast Stem Cells That Fuel Cancer Growth
Breast cancer cells
A new study finds that compounds derived from the spices turmeric and pepper could help prevent breast cancer by limiting the growth of stem cells, the small number of cells that fuel a tumor’s growth.
Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center have found that when the dietary compounds curcumin, which is derived from the Indian spice turmeric, and piperine, derived from black peppers, were applied to breast cells in culture, they decreased the number of stem cells while having no effect on normal differentiated cells.
“If we can limit the number of stem cells, we can limit the number of cells with potential to form tumors,” says lead author Madhuri Kakarala, M.D., Ph.D., R.D., clinical lecturer in internal medicine at the U-M Medical School and a research investigator at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System.
Cancer stem cells are the small number of cells within a tumor that fuel the tumor’s growth. Current chemotherapies do not work against these cells, which is why cancer recurs and spreads. Researchers believe that eliminating the cancer stem cells is key to controlling cancer. In addition, decreasing the number of normal stem cells – unspecialized cells that can give rise to any type of cell in that organ – can decrease the risk of cancer. (more…)
Study Suggests Adult Stem Cells May Help Repair Hearts Damaged by Heart Attack
Adult stem cells may help repair heart tissue damaged by heart attack according to the findings of a new study to be published in the December 8 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Results from the Phase I study show stem cells from donor bone marrow appear to help heart attack patients recover better by growing new blood vessels to bring more oxygen to the heart.
Rush University Medical Center was the only Illinois site and one of 10 cardiac centers across the country that participated in the 53-patient, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase I trial. Rush is now currently enrolling patients for the second phase of the study.
Researchers say it is the strongest evidence thus far indicating that adult stem cells can actually differentiate, or turn into heart cells to repair damage. Until now, it has been believed that only embryonic stem cells could differentiate into heart or other organ cells. (more…)
Scientist Begins to Unravel What Makes Pandemic H1N1 Tick
Dr. Richard Scheuermann, professor of pathology and clinical sciences at UT Southwestern Medical Center. (UT Southwestern Medical Center)
As the number of deaths related to the pandemic H1N1 virus, commonly known as “swine flu,” continues to rise, researchers have been scrambling to decipher its inner workings and explain why the incidence is lower than expected in older adults.
In a study available online and appearing in a future issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a UT Southwestern Medical Center researcher and his collaborators in California show that the molecular makeup of the current H1N1 flu strain is strikingly different from previous H1N1 strains as well as the normal seasonal flu, especially in structural parts of the virus normally recognized by the immune system.
Prior research has shown that an individual’s immune system is triggered to fight off pathogens such as influenza when specific components of the immune system – namely antibodies, B-cells and T cells – recognize parts of a virus known as epitopes. An individual’s ability to recognize those epitopes – spurred by past infections or vaccinations – helps prevent future infections. The challenge is that these epitopes vary among flu strains.
“We hypothesize that older people are somewhat protected because the epitopes present in flu strains before 1957 may be similar to those found in the current H1N1 strain, or at least similar enough that the immune system of the previously infected person recognizes the pathogen and knows to attack,” said Dr. Richard Scheuermann, professor of pathology and clinical sciences at UT Southwestern and a co-author of the paper. “Those born more recently have virtually no pre-existing immunity to this pandemic H1N1 strain because they have never been exposed to anything like it.” (more…)
New Evidence That Dark Chocolate Helps Ease Emotional Stress
Scientists report that dark chocolate may help ease emotional stress. (Wikimedia Commons)
The “chocolate cure” for emotional stress is getting new support from a clinical trial published online in ACS’ Journal of Proteome Research: Gut Microbiota, and Stress-Related Metabolism in Free-Living Subjects. It found that eating about an ounce and a half of dark chocolate a day for two weeks reduced levels of stress hormones in the bodies of people feeling highly stressed. Everyone’s favorite treat also partially corrected other stress-related biochemical imbalances.
Sunil Kochhar and colleagues note growing scientific evidence that antioxidants and other beneficial substances in dark chocolate may reduce risk factors for heart disease and other physical conditions. Studies also suggest that chocolate may ease emotional stress. Until now, however, there was little evidence from research in humans on exactly how chocolate might have those stress-busting effects.
In the study, scientists identified reductions in stress hormones and other stress-related biochemical changes in volunteers who rated themselves as highly stressed and ate dark chocolate for two weeks. “The study provides strong evidence that a daily consumption of 40 grams [1.4 ounces] during a period of 2 weeks is sufficient to modify the metabolism of healthy human volunteers,” the scientists say.
“Metabolic Effects of Dark Chocolate Consumption on Energy, Gut Microbiota, and Stress-Related Metabolism in Free-Living Subjects” - http://pubs.acs.org/stoken/presspac/presspac/full/10.1021/pr900607v
3-D Software Gives Doctors, Students a View Inside the Body
Iowa State's Eliot Winer and James Oliver have developed technology that turns flat medical scans into vibrant 3-D images that can be shifted, adjusted, zoomed and replayed at will. The technology is now being marketed and sold by a startup company called BodyViz.com based at Iowa State's CyberInnovation Institute. (Bob Elbert/Iowa State University)
James Oliver picked up an Xbox game controller, looked up to a video screen and used the device’s buttons and joystick to fly through a patient’s chest cavity for an up-close look at the bottom of the heart.
And there was a sight doctors had never seen before: an accurate, 3-D view inside a patient’s body accessible with a personal computer. A view doctors can shift, adjust, turn, zoom and replay at will. Software that uses real patient data from CT and MRI scans. Software doctors can use to plan a surgery or a round of radiation therapy. Software that can be used to teach physiology and anatomy. Software that puts virtual reality technology developed at Iowa State University to work helping doctors and patients, teachers and students. Software that’s now being sold by an Ames startup company, BodyViz.com.
Two-dimensional imaging technologies have been used in medicine for a long time, said Eliot Winer, an Iowa State associate professor of mechanical engineering and an associate director of Iowa State’s Virtual Reality Applications Center. But those flat images aren’t easily read and understood by anybody but specialists. (more…)
New Imagining Technique Could Lead to Better Antibiotics and Cancer Drugs
Bacteria produce many small molecules as both communication and warfare with other bacteria, but until new imaging techniques were recently developed, scientists only saw a small fraction of them, according to Dr. Paul Straight, Texas AgriLife Research scientist. In the center of this graphic is a photograph of two colonies of bacteria. On either side are images in false-color made with a mass spectrometer showing some of the molecules that are produced. At the top of the graphic are representations of the molecules. (Graphic by Jeramie Watrous, University of California, San Diego)
By Robert Burns
A recently devised method of imaging the chemical communication and warfare between microorganisms could lead to new antibiotics, antifungal, antiviral and anti-cancer drugs, said a Texas AgriLife Research scientist.
“Translating metabolic exchange with imaging mass spectrometry,” was published Nov. 8 in Nature Chemical Biology, a prominent scientific journal. The article describes a technique developed by a collaborative team that includes Dr. Paul Straight, AgriLife Research scientist in the department of biochemistry and biophysics at Texas A&M University in College Station, Dr. Pieter Dorrestein, Yu-Liang Yang and Yuquan Xu, all at the University of California, San Diego.
“Microorganisms encode in their genomes the capacity to produce many small molecules that are potential new antibiotics,” Straight said. “Because we do not understand the circumstances under which those molecules are produced in the environment, we see only a small fraction of them in the laboratory.” (more…)
People With Less Education Could Be More Susceptible to the Flu
People who did not earn a high school diploma could be more likely to get H1N1 and the vaccine might be less effective in them compared to those who earned a diploma, new research shows.
The University of Michigan study looked at a latent virus called CMV in young people, and the body’s ability to control the virus. Previous studies have shown that elderly people with less education are less successful at fighting off CMV, but this is the first known study to make that connection in younger adults as well, said study co-author Jennifer Dowd, who began the work while in the Health and Society Scholars program at the U-M School of Public Health.
Previous studies have shown that high levels of CMV antibodies make it tougher for the elderly to fight new infections like H1N1, and hampers the body’s immune response to the flu vaccine. The U-M findings suggest that lower socioeconomic status may make it tougher even for adults of all ages to fight new infections and may make the flu vaccine less effective.
“We’re showing that the ability to keep CMV under control varies by income and education even at much younger ages, and this could have implications for the ability to fight new infections like H1N1 for all ages, not just the elderly,” said Dowd, now an assistant professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at Hunter College. Allison Aiello, assistant professor of epidemiology at University of Michigan SPH, is co-author. (more…)
Computerized Support Keeps Prominence of Name Brand Drugs at Bay
Electronic alerts persuade clinicians to switch from costly drugs to generic brands.
Simple computerized alerts can help curb the impulse to prescribe unnecessarily expensive, heavily marketed drugs, according to a study in the August issue of Journal of General Internal Medicine. The study found that when clinicians received computerized alerts, which compared medication brands, they changed 23.3 percent of prescriptions for four heavily marketed sleep medications to comparable generic equivalents.
The alerts provided links to supplementary information, including supporting evidence for the recommendations, specific co-payment information and patient educational materials about sleep hygiene and insomnia. They were triggered when a new prescription for a heavily marketed drug appeared in the electronic health records system.
“Prescription drugs remain a key component of health care expenses, totaling more than $216 billion per year. If we can reduce unnecessary prescriptions for high-priced, heavily marketed drugs that are prescribed, we can directly lower some of the high costs associated with health care,” said Robert J. Fortuna, M.D., M.P.H., a senior instructor of Pediatrics and Internal Medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center. (more…)
Yoga Exercises Boost Heart Health
Heart rate variability, a sign of a healthy heart, has been shown to be higher in yoga practitioners than in non-practitioners, according to research to be published in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Medical Engineering and Informatics.
The autonomic nervous system regulates the heart rate through two routes - the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. The former causes the heart rate to rise, while, the parasympathetic slows it. When working well together, the two ensure that the heart rate is steady but ready to respond to changes caused by eating, the fight or flight response, or arousal.
The ongoing variation of heart rate is known as heart rate variability (HRV), which refers to the beat-to-beat changes in heart rate. In healthy individuals HRV is high whereas cardiac abnormalities lead to a low HRV. (more…)
Biofield Therapies: Helpful or Full of Hype?
Biofield therapies, which claim to use subtle energy to stimulate the body’s healing process, are promising complementary interventions for reducing the intensity of pain in a number of conditions, reducing anxiety for hospitalized patients and reducing agitated behaviors in dementia, over and above what standard treatments can achieve. However, longer-term effects are less clear. Dr. Shamini Jain, from the UCLA Division of Cancer Prevention and Control Research, and Dr. Paul Mills, from the University of California, and the Moores Comprehensive Cancer Center in San Diego, US, publish their review1 of the science behind biofield therapies online this week in Springer’s International Journal of Behavioral Medicine.
A significant number of patients use biofield therapies – Reiki, therapeutic touch and healing touch – despite very little research proving that they work. These techniques have been used over millennia in various cultural communities to heal physical and mental disorders. They have only recently been under the scrutiny of current Western scientific methods.
In a detailed review of 66 clinical studies looking at biofield therapies in different patient populations with a range of ailments, Jain and Mills examine the strength of the evidence for the efficacy of these complementary therapies. They show that overall, published work on biofield therapies is of average quality – in scientific terms. (more…)
Scientists Awaiting the Mutation of H1N1
John Tudor, Ph.D., a microbiologist at Saint Joseph’s University.
Infectious disease experts are awaiting an infinitesimal event of momentous importance: the mutation of the novel H1N1 influenza virus. “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization are constantly monitoring the virus as it spreads,” says John Tudor, Ph.D., a microbiologist at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, “but there is no way to predict where, when or if mutation will occur.”
Scientists do know how the virus can mutate. “The mutation, or antigenic shift, would occur in a cell when it is infected with two different strains of the H1N1 virus,” says Tudor. “When this happens, a reassortment of genetic information may end up in a single virus particle, making a new strain, which may be more or less virulent than the original.”
Though known as “swine” flu, Tudor notes this may be a misnomer. “Analysis of the genome indicates it contains genetic fragments from Asian and European pigs as well as birds and humans of unknown source. Since the origin of the genetic elements came from four sources, it’s called a quadruple reassortment virus.” (more…)
Mobile Lab Allows Researchers to Study Air Quality & Health Effects
MSU professor Jack Harkema is seen atop AirCARE 2, his team's second mobile lab to study air pollution and its damaging health effects.
A new mobile air research laboratory will help a team of researchers led by a Michigan State University professor better understand the damaging health effects of air pollution and why certain airborne particles - emitted from plants and vehicles - induce disease and illness.
Jack Harkema, a University Distinguished Professor of pathobiology and diagnostic investigation in the College of Veterinary Medicine, will deploy the new 53-foot, 36,000-pound center - dubbed “AirCARE 2″ - throughout southern Michigan, including metropolitan Detroit.
“The mobile laboratory allows us to analyze ‘real-world’ pollution in communities that may be at risk,” he said. “We can study why certain ailments, such as asthma, cardiovascular disease and even obesity, may be more pronounced after exposure to particulate air pollution.” (more…)
Focused Ultrasound Could Revolutionize Medical Care
Neal F. Kassell, M.D., a professor at the University of Virginia's School of Medicine.
Most Americans have never heard of magnetic resonance guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS), yet it is a technology that promises to revolutionize medical care around the world.
“We’re at the same point with focused ultrasound as we were with diagnostic MRIs several decades ago,” says Neal F. Kassell, M.D., a professor of neurosurgery at the University of Virginia’s School of Medicine and an internationally-known proponent of focused ultrasound research and development. “Back in the 80’s, no one knew about MRI. Today, just about everyone has either had one or knows someone who has had an MRI. That’s how commonplace it is.”
Kassell believes that MRgFUS - the technological marriage of magnetic resonance imaging and focused ultrasound - may be the most important therapeutic development since the scalpel. That notion will soon be explored by dozens of his colleagues from nine specialties who will engage in a robust program of research projects and clinical trials at UVA’s new Focused Ultrasound Center, which was dedicated on September 14.
Specialists performing research at the UVA center will represent a wide range of disciplines, including anesthesiology, biomedical engineering, gynecology, neurology, neurosurgery, oncology, radiology, radiation oncology surgery and urology. Within coming months, their research will focus on using MRgFUS to treat brain, breast, prostate, bone and liver tumors and conditions such as epilepsy, stroke, chronic pain, Parkinson’s disease and essential tremor. (more…)
Researcher Uncovers Potential Key to Curing Tuberculosis
Reuben Peters is leading the team of scientists from Iowa State; the University of Illinois; and Cornell University, that is attempting to find ways to minimize tuberculosis. The group had their research published in the Aug. 28 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, and their research is also scheduled to be the cover article in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society. (ISU photo by Bob Elbert)
Researchers at Iowa State University have identified an enzyme that helps make tuberculosis resistant to a human’s natural defense system. Researchers have also found a method to possibly neutralize that enzyme, which may someday lead to a cure for tuberculosis.
Tuberculosis is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis and is a contagious disease that is on the rise, killing 1.5 to 2 million people worldwide annually.
Reuben Peters, associate professor in the department of biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology, is leading the team of scientists from Iowa State; the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; and Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, that is attempting to find ways to minimize the disease. The group had their research published in the Aug. 28 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, and their research is also scheduled to be the cover article in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society. (more…)
U.S. Needs Nearly $200 Million More on Climate-Related Health Research
Kristie Ebi testifying before the US Senate on climate change and public health, April 10, 2008.
A recent commentary suggests that the U.S. should spend roughly $197 million more than it currently does to research the impact of climate change on public health.
The analysis found that the U.S. spends about $3 million in federal funds on research related to the health impacts of climate change, says Marie S. O’Neill, one of the commentary co-authors. This isn’t nearly enough to adequately address the public health issues related to global warming, the group concluded.
The commentary’s lead author was Kristie Ebi, a University of Michigan-trained epidemiologist and expert on climate change and public health, who is an adjunct professor of Environmental Health Sciences. The article was inspired by another study, mandated by Congress, that assesses the importance of global climate change on health, also led by Ebi. During their research and in preparing testimony for Congressional hearings on the topic, the team realized that the U.S. is woefully underfunding climate change health-related research. (more…)
Dispersed Research Teams Successfully Operate Multiple Biomedical Robots
Trauma pod operating suite. (SRI International)
Using a new software protocol called the Interoperable Telesurgical Protocol, nine research teams from universities and research institutes around the world recently collaborated on the first successful demonstration of multiple biomedical robots operated from different locations in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. SRI International operated its M7 surgical robot for this demonstration.
In a 24-hour period, each participating group connected over the Internet and controlled robots at different locations. The tests performed demonstrated how a wide variety of robot and controller designs can seamlessly interoperate, allowing researchers to work together easily and more efficiently. In addition, the demonstration evaluated the feasibility of robotic manipulation from multiple sites, and was conducted to measure time and performance for evaluating laparoscopic surgical skills. (more…)
New Biology Initiative Offers Potential for ‘Remarkable and Far-Reaching Benefits’
Biobased products and catalysis research is helping PNNL deliver technologies to private industry and government customers to reduce reliance on foreign oil and gas supplies.
A report released today by the National Research Council calls on the United States to launch a new multiagency, multiyear, and multidisciplinary initiative to capitalize on the extraordinary advances recently made in biology and to accelerate new breakthroughs that could solve some of society’s most pressing problems — particularly in the areas of food, environment, energy, and health.
The report was requested by the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and U.S. Department of Energy, which asked the committee that wrote the report to look at how best to build upon recent scientific developments such as the Human Genome Project.
Advances in many technologies have allowed biologists to observe life at levels of detail that were once thought impossible. Interpreting the vast amounts of data being generated by these innovations and developing practical solutions to major challenges will require collaboration among scientists and engineers from many disciplines. And despite the potential of these recent advancements, the committee said that the design, manipulation, and prediction of complex biological systems needed for practical applications are “well beyond current capabilities.” (more…)
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