Health Meaning

The prolonged saga of Judy Mikovits, the lead researcher who tied a mouse retrovirus to chronic fatigue syndrome (SFC), yet another dizzying round decision.

Just over one month after the shooting Mikovits, the Whittemore Peterson for Disease Neuro-Immune Institute (WPI) 4 November filed a lawsuit against his former director of research. According to WPI after Mikovits ended September 29, she mistakenly removed notebooks laboratory and kept other proprietary information on her laptop and flash drives and personal e-mail account. WPI, a nonprofit organization that is based on the campus of the University of Nevada, Reno, also won a temporary injunction prohibiting Mikovits to "destroy, remove or alter" one of the files or data related.

Mikovits lawyer, Lois Hart, said that his client can not talk to the media about the case, but strongly denies any wrongdoing. in an e-mail to Science Insider, Hart stressed that "the integrity of Dr. Mikovits goes to the bone."

Hart refuted the charges against his client in a letter on November 4 at WPI lawyer who appeared on the CFS-related websites. (Hart said she did not release the letter, but checked its contents Science Insider.) "All allegations of theft, embezzlement, data source and various intellectual property, and articles are incorrect and misleading, "Hart wrote.

the complaint filed by WPI focuses on laboratory notebooks kept by Mikovits and his assistants, which she stored in a locked drawer. WPI was a representative of the company that manufactured the desktop to open the drawer after his shot and the statements of complaint and found that "Cahiers were absent." The lawsuit, which alleges breach of contract and misappropriation of trade secrets, says "Mikovits had the only key to the locked drawer in his office."

The Hart rebuttal letter to the lawyer argues that WPI Mikovits was not in his office when she received the phone call that told him she was arrested and she returned never at the institute. "A number of people have keys to the office and laboratory, including administrative staff, laboratory staff and the guard," wrote Hart. "The concern of your customer as to the location of these laptops, and intellectual property should be directed elsewhere. "

Mikovits worked for WPI since its creation in 07. Created by Annette and Harvey Whittemore, whose daughter CFS, the institute also studies fibromyalgia after Lyme disease and Gulf War illness. The data Mikovits "absconded with," WPI alleged in court documents, could harm future efforts of the Institute. "Without these materials, WPI's ability to continue its important research to find a cure for this terrible disease affecting more than 4 million Americans each year is severely hampered," the complaint states. It argues that the information and invention that Mikovits Proprietary Agreement signed stipulates that WPI possessed the books she and others created in the laboratory.

Robert Charrow, a lawyer at Greenberg Traurig in Washington, DC, who specializes in cases involving scientific research, says academia and industry have different standards about retaining their researchers own portable computers and data. Although Charrow stresses he does not know the details of this case, he said the industry generally prohibits researchers to take data with them. "In academic institutions, researchers are requested or required to provide a copy of their equipment and data to the institution, and they can keep a copy for themselves," says Charrow. "This is how it is usually done and that is why there are no more pee games."

Mikovits and colleagues made the following international headlines online publication Science October 8, 09, an article in which they stated that they found a recently discovered retrovirus dubbed XMRV mouse in the blood of 67% of CFS patients they examined. Several subsequent studies, including one that participated in WPI, could not replicate the finding. a separate study, also published in Science provided evidence that XMRV was accidentally created in a laboratory experiment with mice and questioned whether it even infected humans. Science 's editor in chief Bruce Alberts published a concern Editorial expression about the veracity of the document May 31 Science later published a partial withdrawal of the original group paper Mikovits after a laboratory that contributed to mean a contaminant ruined results.

Second Judicial District Court of Nevada will hear a preliminary injunction against Mikovits November 22.

the next time a "stomach flu" you sprint to the bathroom, take heart: a vaccine could be on his path. Based on the results of a new clinical trial, the investigational vaccine is very effective against a strain of norovirus-bugs that may be responsible for over 0% of the collectively known digestive disorders such as gastroenteritis.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, noroviruses cause about 21 million cases of vomiting and diarrhea in the United States each year. In developing countries, infections cause about 0,000 deaths per year in children under 5 The virus is transmitted mainly through food, water or dirty hands that have been contaminated with the stool of an infected person . Norovirus is often called the "cruise ship virus" Outbreaks are common in confined living quarters, including military bases and hospitals Nursing homes are hot spots as well, the virus is a particular threat. for the elderly.

the development of a vaccine has been a research challenge. "noroviruses can not be grown in culture and do not infect laboratory animals," says clinical virologist Robert Atmar's Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. A breakthrough came in the early 190s, when Norwalk virus, a strain of norovirus, was cloned in the laboratory of molecular virology Mary Estes, also at Baylor. Estes found that when a certain key protein of the virus has been produced in cultured cells, the protein itself assembled 'particles' viruslike (VLPs) which may produce a strong immune response in laboratory animals. The discovery led LigoCyte Pharmaceuticals of Bozeman, Montana, to license and develop its own line of VLPs that mimic the structure near enough to wake up the immune system of the body against the virus of the virus but do not contain material that allows the virus to reproduce.

A vaccine VLP-greatly reduced both the rate of infection and the severity of symptoms, as shown by the clinical trial conducted by Atmar, Estes, researchers LigoCyte, and three other test centers. Ninety healthy volunteers received either the vaccine or placebo as a nasal spray in two doses three weeks apart. Participants were then admitted to one of four test hospitals, where they drank a powerful viral decoction and waited.

Approximately 80% of the placebo group was infected by the virus (as measured by the antibodies in their blood), but only about 60% of the vaccinated group did. He developed symptoms in 69% of the placebo group, but in only 37% of the vaccine group. The symptoms in the vaccinated group were also less severe and developed more slowly. (The 20%, uninfected subjects treated with placebo were probably immune to the previous exhibition, Atmar said.) The results of the test are presented today in The New England Journal of Medicine .

"This study is a proof of concept, the first to show that a vaccine can be effective against norovirus," Atmar said. Other studies, he said, are needed to monitor the success the vaccine in a home setting or a military base less controlled nurse, for example. Atmar added that if the vaccine protects against more than one strain of norovirus is still unknown. LigoCyte is conducting a trial of an injected form vaccine that works against two different types of virus.

virologist January Vinje CDC called the results encouraging news study. "it is a very safe vaccine as it does not contain viral genetic material," said -he. "A good next step would be to see if the vaccine generates enough of an immune response to provide protection in the elderly," he added, noting that the vast majority of outbreaks occur in long-term care facilities.

One year after councilors made the proposal and after months of controversy, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) obtained a new translational research center. The final step came just before Christmas, when President Barack Obama signed a bill $ 1000000000000 2012 expenses Dec. 23 that includes the NIH funding. The bill also introduces the National Center for the Advancement of Translational Sciences (NCATS) -backed by the NIH Director Francis Collins, who will aim to push the basic discoveries more quickly to the clinic "reengineering" the process drug development.

The creation of NCATS disturbed the biomedical research community in part because the reorganization dismantled the National Center for Research Resources, that had many devoted followers. Some industry leaders also feared that the NIH funding would tilt away from basic science to drug development, which they say academic scientists are not suited to do. Many scientific leaders in the industry still feel that way, said Roy Vagelos, former CEO of Merck. "The generation of new knowledge is crucial" for drug discovery, Vagelos said. "If academia continues to do so, nobody will."

NIH press release acknowledges this concern, promising that the basic research report and applied to the NIH "will not be disturbed" by the creation of NCATS.

NCATS supporters, meanwhile, are delighted that NCATS is finally real. Amy Comstock Rick, CEO of Action Network Parkinson's disease, said his group is not too concerned about the language in the bill on spending indicating that NCATS can not fund clinical trials that go beyond a certain stage. "I am quite sure they can work inside "she said.

The $ 575 million NCATS will start as a collection of existing programs transferred from NCRR and other institutes. The only new program-the $ NCATS Cures Network received only 10 million Bill on spending, far less than lawyers as Rick had hoped for acceleration. But that should be enough to start, Rick said. She is also excited by the plans for the NCAT Advisory Board that will include industry groups and representatives of patients. "It's a new kind of advice," she said.

A note to Collins to staff announcing the creation of NCATS accidentally went six days earlier. This note also announced temporary leaders NCAT: the acting director will be Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health; the Acting Deputy Director Kathy Hudson will, NIH deputy director for science, education and politics. NIH began searching the first director of NCATS this fall.

In the first published results from a clinical trial using human embryonic stem cells, two legally blind patients who received an injection of hESC-derived cells in one eye have experienced no adverse side effects and seem to have slightly better vision. Although the result is preliminary, it is an important step in the hESC field in trouble.

Since their discovery 13 years ago, hESCs have shown great promise for the treatment of diseases, but they were also pursued by security issues and ethical concerns, as deriving cells often destroyed human embryos. In the only ongoing clinical trials of hESC, the biotechnology company Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) of Marlborough, Massachusetts, derived from a type of cell called retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), which supports the light-sensing photoreceptor of the retina. Collaborators at the University of California, Los Angeles, then used these cells to treat a woman who has the dry macular degeneration and a woman in her 50s who has macular dystrophy Stargardt, an inherited disease rare. Researchers injected 50,000 RPE cells suspended in a solution in the retina of an eye of each patient.

Four months after receiving the treatment, patients have not developed tumors or abnormal growths that have sometimes been observed in animals receiving hESC-derived cells, reports the online team today The Lancet . Patients who have received immunosuppressive treatment for 12 weeks to prevent their body from attacking the cells, also showed no inflammation or other cells for signs of rejection.

The researchers detected RPE cells in the patient's eye to Stargardt's disease, but not in the patient with macular degeneration. However, the vision of two women seemed to improve, particularly in patients with Stargardt. She went to see the movements of the hand just to be able to read some letters on an eye chart. The authors caution, however, that the measurement of small visual improvements is difficult and they can not say with certainty that the changes are not the result of immunosuppressive drugs or a placebo effect.

"There is a long time to come. It is gratifying to finally see years and years of research results to the bedside," said Robert Lanza, CEO of ACT.

Other hESC researchers welcome the report, but caution that the study was very small and designed only to test the safety of the procedure. "This is an important step that will provide tremendous encouragement on the ground and [that] promises hope for many families," stem cell researcher George Daley of Harvard Medical School in Boston wrote in an email. "But ceux- these are still very early days and we have much to learn about the safety and efficacy of this new treatment before it can claim success. "

Peter Coffey of the Institute of University College London of Ophthalmology, is working on a similar treatment for macular degeneration, said the results of the security seem "very good". an immune response is less likely in the eye and in other sites in the body, and animal studies have suggested that treatment of the PRT should be safe. But "you never know until you go into the clinical setting," says Coffey. He declined to comment on the effectiveness of treatment up that the trial is completed.

Coffey is part of a trial sponsored by the pharmaceutical company Pfizer pending approval in the UK who drag a patch of hESC-derived RPE cells under the retina instead of injecting them into a liquid suspension. "We think this will work better" because the RPE cells naturally form a single layer of cells, like a carpet, said Coffey.

The ACT test continues: Employees in the UK treated a third patient on Friday. The company plans to inject different cell doses in a total of 12 patients in each trial. "Things will accelerate" now that the treatment appears to be safe, says Lanza. If the trials go well, the company will then seek to treat younger patients who should receive further treatment.

Proponents of hESC research were devastated last November when Geron, the California biotech company that was conducting the first trial using cells derived hESCs to treat injuries of the spinal cord, announced that he interrupted the trial for financial reasons. At the time, the treatment appeared safe, but the company has not seen signs of improvement in patients. Geron always follows the five patients he treated, but has not yet released any results.

The heart disease has long been rated the leading cause of death worldwide. Known as the silent killer, he tracks his prey from conception to adulthood, often striking without warning. A new study suggests that one of the risk factors can begin even before birth, showing how low oxygen in the uterus or fetal hypoxia can impair heart later in life.

fetal hypoxia can be caused by a variety of factors. Mothers living at high altitude, smoke or develop diabetes during pregnancy may starve their oxygen embryos. When fetal hypoxia is prolonged, the heart and the vessels of the embryo change: The walls of the heart and aorta grow thicker, and blood vessels may become less sensitive to signals to relax, making it difficult for blood to flow. Previous research had suggested that these modifications, even if they help the unborn baby survive, are rampant in adulthood, increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease.

But it is not clear how this happens. Physiologist Dino Giussani and colleagues at the University of Cambridge in the UK hypothesized that hypoxia promotes injury in the uterus caused mainly by stress when the low oxygen molecules creates a highly overload reactive called free radicals.

To test this idea, the team conducted an experiment with four groups of pregnant rats: two sets undergoing hypoxic pregnancy and two controls. To create hypoxia, they placed pregnant rats in a room that kept their oxygen levels to 13%, rather than the norm of 21% for the majority of their pregnancy. Some rodents (those in one of two groups and hypoxia in one of the two control groups) received vitamin C water daily to its antioxidant effects.

When puppies are born, the researchers noted significant differences between the groups. Rats born to the hypoxic pregnancy without treatment with vitamin C showed a thickening of the walls of the aorta up to 170% above normal and molecular markers of disease, an increase such as increased protein heat shock the heart, cardiac oxidative stress signal. When the puppies have grown to adulthood in about 4 months, their hearts pumped always harder and faster than normal, which in the long term is a known predictor of eventual heart failure. The pups also showed blockages in their major arteries, just as people in development of cardiovascular diseases are. These changes are not visible in the offspring of newborns and adults hypoxic pregnancies treated with vitamin C, reports the online team today PLoS ONE .

Giussani said the results show that fetal hypoxia programs at both the heart and circulation in adulthood by oxidative stress in the womb. "Although the link between adverse conditions during pregnancy and cardiovascular disease in later life, has been established for many years," he said, "which explains the link had remained an enigma."

The research is "fascinating," says physiologist David Barker of the University of Southampton in the UK and Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, who some consider the father of fetal origins of the field of adult diseases, an offshoot of the so-called development programming. Much of the emphasis in the past has been on long-term consequences of nutrition. The work of the team of Giussani, he said, "highlights the importance of one of the other challenges that the human fetus is facing, which is getting enough oxygen." Adds John Challis from the University of Toronto in Canada, "These results are very interesting taking us several steps forward. ... Now that we understand the mechanism, we are much closer to being able to intervene. " A leading researcher in development programming, Challis said that this study opens the door to thinking about the fight against fetal hypoxia in humans with antioxidant treatment.

Giussani agreed that the ultimate goal is to identify a clinical intervention to prevent heart disease. He is quick to add, however, that vitamin C may not be the antioxidant of choice for the man because of its effects on the human fetal tissue has not been well studied. The next step, he said, is to take research on the human level, specifically looking at the high altitude effect of pregnancy, where there is less oxygen in all the uterus and heart conditions later in life.

Members of an advisory council biosecurity of the US government offer a range of reactions the news they are invited to take a second look at two controversial studies of influenza. Some have not spoken publicly about the issue, which sparked a global debate on biosafety in relation to scientific freedom. And many skeptics say that the new magazine will reverse their opposition to fully publish the methods and results of the two experiments.

The following comments come after months of rapid-fire developments in the search for the H5N1 flu controversy. It started last year when the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) recommended that two scientific teams remove key details of the documents submitted to Science and Nature that describe how researchers did the bird flu H5N1 more transmissible between mammals, may provide a plan for starting a pandemic. The risks posed by the research outweigh the potential benefits, 23 voting members of the committee have unanimously concluded, after what they described as hundreds of hours of discussion. The voting members of NSABB are mostly scientists from a wide range of disciplines and institutions, including universities and companies. (There are also 18 non ex-officio voting members of federal agencies.)

The researchers and journals have agreed to follow the recommendation of NSABB, provided that the US government comes with a mechanism to share these details with bona good researchers and experts in public health. The case has attracted much criticism, however, with some scientists saying the redactions went too far, and other supporting research should not have been carried out first.

Then, in January, influenza researchers, including leaders of the two research teams, Ron Fouchier of Erasmus Medical College in the Netherlands and Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin, Madison announced 60-day moratorium on many types of studies on the virus. This moratorium, currently set to expire March 20, was designed to ease tensions and public concerns, and allow time for the international discussion of the issue.

Last month, the World Health Organization (WHO) convened a group mainly composed of experts from the flu for two days in Geneva to discuss the studies. Many of the 22 people at the WHO meeting, however, rejected the findings of NSABB and argued that the documents should be published in full. This meeting included talks by Fouchier and Kawaoka, who presented "new data" and, in the case of Fouchier, "clarified the oldest data," according to Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of the National Institute of Allergy health and infectious diseases, which funded both studies. Fauci, who attended the meeting in Geneva, says the group also asked the researchers to revise and resubmit their manuscripts NSABB.

Fauci announced that the US government asked NSABB to review new manuscripts, February 29 during a round table in the early morning on the H5N1 controversy organized by the American Society for Microbiology ( ASM) in Washington, DC NSABB "needs a chance to see all the data that we saw in Geneva ... and a little time to talk," said Fauci science Insider .

The reconsideration request apparently took many members NSABB and Washington policy makers by surprise. Sources familiar with the plan say the NSABB meeting tentatively scheduled for later this month could last two days. He also hopes to include presentations by Fouchier and Kawaoka, so the NSABB members could speak to them "to face-off", unlike teleconferences that characterize most previous discussions studies of influenza.

President NSABB Acting Paul Keim of Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, who moderated the discussion ASM, declined to speculate on how the panel might display the new versions of both studies. But " NSABB recommendations can clearly be modified in the future, "said Keim." We can not go back and change this if this is the best course of action. "

the meeting of the ASM also included a detailed presentation by Fouchier of transmission and apparently fired fatality data from its Science manuscript. in general, Fouchier said the data showed that the version of the H5N1 virus has been designed, however press reports, non-lethal when inhaled by the animals and do not spread "like wildfire" in the air. (Kawaoka had publicly said earlier that his version of the transmitted virus mammal was not lethal in ferrets.)

Following the meeting of the ASM Science Insider has attempted to contact all 23 voting members of the NSABB. Seven have agreed to e-mail, interviews, with several noting that they spoke for themselves, not NSABB phone or in person. They included:

David Relman Professor of Microbiology and Immunology and Medicine, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, California

"my bottom line: Fouchier began with a very disturbing and sometimes fatal virus to humans and appears to have improved its transmissibility through breathing Nothing in these last days change these facts, [and] not my assessment. risk-benefit ratio. for me, the most important question about [Fouchier's] transmissibility in the ferret model is the direct comparison of the starting strain (wild-type H5N1) and the strain (s) engineering. and the latter is / are transmitted via [respiratory] route than the first. " Kawaoka of the document "has also provided clear guidance on how to improve the transmissibility of H5N1," he writes, and other issues, such as virulence and lethality, were less important.

Susan Ehrlich, retired judge and assistant professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston

"I heard nothing new so much as a different focus at the meeting of ASM could be expected, however, for two reasons: hundreds NSABB members, especially those who working group members have spent hours discussing these manuscripts after. having considered, and it was a public meeting. and of course, none of us has yet seen the revised manuscripts, I have no doubt will be examined with a completely open mind, remembering that the first thought of each of us is that scientific research should be free and complete statement, a point highlighted in each of several reports of NSABB and more specifically in the framework proposed in June 07 to monitor the dual use of life sciences research: strategies to minimize the potential misuse of research information. "

" keeping in mind that I did not read the revised manuscripts, I have some concerns. Dr. Fouchier said the ferret response during the meeting, but the biggest problem is the transmissibility. H5N1 is certainly a dangerous virus, and it has now been made more. Its host range has been extended. search on the modified virus was performed at the same level of biosecurity that research on the virus from the mother. These concerns are at the base of my thoughts on the communication of this research in the context of the responsibility of the NSABB the public should have an accident (bioerror) or a deliberate misuse of incident (bioterrorism), and so i want to continue to proceed with caution. "

Stanley Lemon, Professor of medicine and Microbiology and immunology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

"the main concern was the acquisition of the virus by aerosol transmission capacity in a mammal. "

Lynn Enquist, professor and chair, Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, New Jersey

" My message to take away the House. The two groups have experiences that are on the "seven experiments of concern" described in detail in the report Fink [lerapportde03nationalAcademies Biotechnology Research in the Age of Terrorism: Confronting the Dual Use Dilemma ] and our own recommendations. they not only changed the host range of a dangerous pathogen, they also changed its mode of transmission. "

" All other differences in methods or new work or clarified on virulence in ferrets, does nothing to change those facts. "

" While there is no doubt that the work must be done to study the H5N1 virus, and the debate to date has shown the need for further work is, these new derivatives are new entities with unknown consequences if they move into the ecosystem. "

" How does it work on these new agents do? How many laboratories should work along these directions? How should this work will now be communicated and in the future? These are some of the central issues in my opinion. "

"The NSABB should not make these decisions or to review details of the science. We have called attention to the fact that these experiences are looking for dual-use concern."

Arturo Casadevall, chair, Division of Infectious Diseases, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, New York

Casadevall noted that he went into the original NSABB discussions of both documents thinking 'science should be free and nothing should be redacted, but then it became clear to me that there was almost no public good in [publishing] . details "Now he says:" I'll go to the next meeting with an open mind and listen to all this process is supposed to be deliberative and this process is one in which you can think through it and change your mind. .. "

But" the key issue for me is the transmissibility. unless Ron [Fouchier] stands up and he says it is not transmissible from mammal, "Casadevall is unlikely to reverse its opposition to the complete publication. "Having transmissibility is a new feature for H5N1," he added, noting that "this virus has the ability to recombine and we have no idea what will come out." He sees the virulence and lethality of new viruses designed as "mini-debates" that are less important. "We must be very careful. We are dealing with an organization that we know can cause pandemics and can kill many people. And we know we do not have immunity to H5. I recommend caution. "Casadevall also noted that" I am from Cuba. I know something about redaction. "

Michael Osterholm, director of the Minnesota Center of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

"the information I saw [on 29 February] nothing changed the underlying issue of concern for NSABB, and that was the question of transmissibility. broaden the host range of a dangerous pathogen is one of anything [seven types of experiments identified as raising dual use concerns by the Fink Report]. ... I did not see that fundamentally changes nothing about the NSABB position. ... I am very confident that the criteria that we used for calling for the drafting of this document based on the question of transmissibility was simple and I am not convinced that the more conversation face-to-face would make a difference. "

Michael Imperiale, Professor, Department of Microbiology and immunology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor.

"What Ron [Fouchier] is saying now is not what was in the paper. We were led to believe by the paper that aerosol transmission is also deadly." it also said it was news to him that the mutated virus does not spread between ferrets through aerosol as easily as seasonal strains, as Fouchier showed at the meeting of the ASM "This has not really come to me in the newspaper, "he said. "I do not see this kind of comparison."

Again, it is uncertain of the new information will influence his thinking about drafting. "Based on the bare minimal facts, from what I ' heard Fouchier Wednesday, I'm not sure it would be serious. The lethality in ferrets is the same as the starting virus and now it can be transmitted. "Specifically, noted Imperiale :." If the virus from H5N1 is injected intratracheally in ferrets, it kills What [Fouchier's] does is modified so that it is more fecal-oral spread, but aerosol it injects that intratracheal, and it kills. . So it is just as lethal, more now it can be spread by aerosol. You have a virus that kills X percent of humans it infects. based on the ferret data, we would expect to kill same exact percent of men, and now it can be transmitted from human to human. Obviously, I have to see this revised document, but I do not know that this changes anything. "

Imperiale said, in the end, there's just too much uncertainty to take the risk of publishing the details of the experiments. "given the uncertainty, I say go with the precautionary principle. And you wait until you can get rid of this uncertainty. If you deleted, n is not a permanent action. If you leave out is permanent. "

PARIS- We are not alone. Every human being is teeming with billions of microbes that inhabit our guts, our skin, mouth and nose, and our reproductive organs. Scientists call this the microbiome, and in recent years the human microbiome International Consortium has mounted an intense research effort to understand its critical role in health and disease.

But two key programs that helped start this area are coming to an end, and monitoring efforts need to be put in place. It is also unclear if the industry regulators, government, or the public are willing to take ideas microbiome in the clinic. This was the news this week in Paris than 650 researchers gathered for the third annual meeting sponsored by the human microbiome International Consortium, whose members include the National Institutes of Health (NIH), European Commission (EC) and the main health organizations and the science of France, Japan, Canada and several other countries. Both programs microbiome NIH and the EC, which provided $ 140 million million, and $ 27, respectively, in the last five years, are in their stages of sunset at the moment, and the community is waiting new on the future financing of the two sides of the Atlantic.

If the scientific progress made to date is any guide, then there is a lot of justification for such extended financing, according S. Dusko Ehrlich, a molecular biologist at the French INRA research agency and coordinator MetaHIT, the EC-funded program microbiome. "We are now able to not just look at the data, but begin to interpret," Ehrlich said Science Insider. "We see promising avenues for the future", including exploration conclusions that higher degree of biodiversity of microbes in the human body is positively correlated with good health, while low diversity is often correlated with poor health.

Lita Proctor, coordinator of the financed project NIH human microbiome (PGH), added that the field is now mature enough to start having discussions on data, including whether the request controversial that humans can be classified into three different "enterotypes" based on their profiles microbial is valid. "at first, we were just focused on the methodology," said Proctor Science Insider, "but now we have debates on different ideas and perspectives."

regarding the financing of ongoing NIH, Proctor said the agency is currently intense talks with the research community microbiome and internal debates on whether to launch a "HMP2" next year. Proctor said the decision will probably be made this summer. And during the roundtable ending the meeting, Proctor describes what the renewed program would likely focus on: bioinformatics and software tools to manage sequencing microbiomes; large-scale, high-throughput testing to analyze the composition of the human microbiome; and animal models, maybe some researchers have begun to use to see the health effects of experimentally changing the composition of the microbiome.

On the European side, Ehrlich said he hopes MetaHIT, which will expire in 3 months, will continue in some form. "The scientific community expects the EC to call for new proposals in July," said Ehrlich. "Everyone would be very surprised if there were not funded microbiome research, from the signs we get . "

Indeed, the positive atmosphere for microbiome research continues in Europe has helped to attract industry to the research effort, as evidenced by the presence in the final panel of senior three French companies. Danone food conglomerate, pharmaceutical company Mérieux Institute, and a new startup called microbiome Enterome

Pierre Bélichard CEO Enterome, said participants at the meeting that his company is particularly interested in operating the microbiome research to create "biomarkers" for various diseases. and Christian Bréchot, vice president for medical and scientific affairs at Merieux (and former director of biomedical research agency INSERM version NIH France) emphasized the importance of academic researchers patent their results if the microbiome research is to realize its full commercial potential.

In the US, however, the industry has been slow to get involved, according to Proctor, although companies like global health care company Abbott Laboratories and baby food producer Gerber Products Co. now show interest.

But some serious obstacles in translating research base microbiome in clinical trials could come from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned Richard Sharp, Director of Research in Bioethics at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, one of the world's largest private medical centers. "The FDA has adopted a largely conservative position on such clinical trials," said Sharp during his presentation of the panel. "They are coming with huge levels of regulatory burden in many cases, and it could become a major obstacle."

Indeed, Sharp said during the meeting the patients who come to the Cleveland Clinic for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease express concerns about these approaches, which might include the use of probiotics, the consumption of live microorganisms to treat intestinal and other diseases. "Many patients are concerned about the handling of their gut microbiota," said Sharp, adding that "they see this kind of study through the prism of genetically modified foods. They fear that the manipulation of the gut microbiome could lead to irreversible effects. "

Sharp also urged the research community microbiome and funding agencies, to start making awareness greater public to counter the statements often "grossly misleading" made by the companies that sell probiotic products, including claims that probiotics can cure cancer and treat autism spectrum disorders. "most of what people know about this area of ​​research comes from these retailers, "said Sharp. "We should not rely on these companies to make the first messages about this area of ​​research."

on Friday, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a radioactive compound to assess people with cognitive impairment of Alzheimer's disease. The drug called Amyvid, binds to amyloid plaques, the calling card of Alzheimer's disease in the brain. When administered before a PET scan, Amyvid allows doctors to see if amyloid began to build. A negative test reduces the likelihood of cognitive problems a patient is due to Alzheimer's disease, the FDA said in its letter of approval, but a positive test does not necessarily confirm a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease .

The compound was developed by Avid Radiopharmaceuticals, which was acquired by Eli Lilly and Company in 2010. Last year, a committee of the FDA decided to hold off on the Amyvid approval pending more convincing evidence that different doctors constantly read the scans. Lilly then developed an online training course for neuroradiologists to ensure consistent readings.

Amyvid was used in the research, including clinical trials, for years, said Michael Weiner, a neurologist at the University of California, San Francisco, and lead investigator of the disease neuroimaging initiative Alzheimer. The compound will be a powerful tool for clinicians when used in combination with other diagnostic tests, said Weiner. But there are potential drawbacks, too. "There are a lot of concerns. It might be overused in general, it could be misused and there will be false diagnoses, both false positives and false negatives," says Weiner "The medical community will have to develop its own standards on how to use it. "

an advisory committee met yesterday to consider the design of the national study of Special Education (NCS) is strongly came in favor of an option: the the study should recruit children from a geographic sample that represents the entire US population. But if the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will go with this plan is not yet clear.

Proposed by Congress 12 years ago, NCS aims to enroll 100,000 pregnant women and monitor the health of their babies from birth to 21 years In February, the NIH announced that because the original plan to recruit women to certain addresses in 105 counties was too expensive, he revised the design to cut 15% from the $ 193 billion budget NCS. Instead of recruiting women a probability sample of the population of the United States, the NIH said it might rather find women by physicians participating in the health care system, a so-called convenience sample of providers.

This proposal has attracted the concern of many researchers and questions of Congress. Those who perform pilot studies in 40 centers "vanguard" who have registered thousands of women were also alarmed to learn that some sites would soon be transferred to a new contractor.

At yesterday's meeting of the advisory committee and ad hoc advisers in Bethesda, Maryland, Alan Guttmacher, director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), which oversees the study, said that the NIH was looking for "a thoughtful exploration, people informed" of various sampling strategies NCS Director Steven Hirschfeld then stated that the role of 105 counties has not yet been decided.: "We still do not know what places will be in the sampling frame or not."

During the one-day discussion, committee members and others warned about the dangers of a convenience sample of suppliers. "I am very wary of a convenience sample, regardless of how it can be," said Edward Sondik, director of the National Centers for prevention of the Center for Health Statistics and control of diseases. He said a sample that does not represent the geographical diversity of the country could miss important environmental exposures that affect health. based on health care organizations could also leave out certain groups such as immigrants and undocumented workers poor, others said. (a dissenting member is coming of Jeffrey Krischer committee of the University of South Florida, Tampa, who suggested that the results could be "weighted" to reflect the entire population. )

Several people also expressed concerns about the NIH plan to save money by relying on electronic health records providers. Because the methods vary, there will be "problems" even with simple measures such as the height of a young child, warned member of Bruce Gelb committee of Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.

Others have noted that the NIH has spent several years (and around $ 460 million to more than $ 750 million spent to date on NCS) strengthening relations with hospitals and communities the pioneering websites 40. "Certainly, we should try to use part of the investment," said the epidemiologist Michael Bracken of Yale University, an observer of the meeting.

Bracken was among the 28 investigators of the vanguard of 40 sites many of them spoke at the meeting, which provided the Advisory Committee an alternative plan that suppliers random samples in counties 105. the plan sets out the ways of conducting the main study in a budget of $ 3 billion by cutting biological samples and testing and enroll fewer preconceived women.

Guttmacher said after the meeting that the consensus was clearly in favor of a probability sample. "I think the thing was overwhelming that came from the discussion," said Guttmacher Science Insider. But NIH plans to seek greater involvement of federal statisticians and others before making a decision. "It is not an" either-or ". We must find an exact design at this point, "said Guttmacher.

NIH hopes to have more concrete proposals of the Advisory Committee meeting in July. The agency aims to issue requests for proposals for the study principal before the fiscal year ends on September 30.

Jennifer Culhane of the University of Pennsylvania and children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) said Science she Insider NIH not believe seriously considering retaining counties 105. "much of this [meeting] is theater," Culhane said, pointing to a recent NIH document prepared for Congress suggesting that he has already decided on a convenience sample . once the two centers vanguard led by CHOP close, she added: "I am planning to be 100% of it and I participated in this study for over 10 years.".

A psychiatrist whose failure to disclose the drug's corporate income contributed to a furor over conflicts of interest in research biomedical has just received its first national Institutes of Health grant (NIH) in 3 years.

lax reporting of Charles Nemeroff of $ 1.2 million less in payments from pharmaceutical companies to his employer, Emory University, and similar payments to other academic psychiatrists prompted a Senate inquiry 07. Nemeroff resigned as chairman of psychiatry at Emory, and the NIH suspended a grant of $ 9 million he held for a study of depression. In December 08, Emory was forbidden to apply for NIH funding for 2 years.

A year later, Nemeroff moved to the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine in Florida. This has prompted concerns because the ban on Emory NIH grants did not move with him. (Fueling the flames was a telephone call in which the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) Director Thomas Insel apparently assured the University of Miami medical school dean that Nemeroff could seek NIH funding if it has moved.)

NIH requested input on how to handle this situation in a revision of its rules of conflict of interest, but in the final rules issued last summer, he has not addressed specifically.

Now Nemeroff is back in the lap of researchers funded by the NIH. According to the NIH grants database, it received a $ 401.675 per year, 5-year R01 grant from NIMH to study "psychobiological risk factors for PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder]." The study examines the genetic risk factors and does not appear to involve testing drugs.

The prohibition of 2 years by Emory would have expired anyway. But Paul Thacker, a former staff member for Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) who led the Senate inquiry, said NIH itself had the power to impose a ban more. "It shows they are not really serious about the problem," said Thacker.

YOKOHAMA, JAPAN -For more than a decade, stem cell therapies have been touted as offering hope for those who suffer from genetic and degenerative diseases. The promise took a step towards reality last week with announcements here at the annual meeting of the International Society for Research on stem cells (ISSCR) that both groups progressing to human clinical research, one putting the focus on a rare genetic neurological disease and the other for vision loss in the elderly.

StemCells Inc. of Newark, California, reported encouraging results from an initial human trial using human neural stem cells to treat Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease (PMD). PMD is a progressive and fatal disease in which a genetic mutation inhibits the normal growth of myelin, a protective material that surrounds nerve fibers in the brain. Without myelin, nerve signals are lost and the patient, usually an infant suffers degenerating motor coordination and other neurological symptoms. In his presentation, Ann Tsukamoto, StemCells Vice President for Research, said the company chose to test its approach to neural stem cells on PMD because there is currently no cure for the condition and a diagnosis can be confirmed by genetic testing and MRI. "This creates an opportunity for early intervention when it can best help."

The company has created highly purified neural stem cell banks that are isolated from adult neural tissue. Injected into rodents, the cells do not form tumors; instead, they migrate through the animal brain, where they differentiate into different types of neuronal cells, including cells that create the myelin that protects nerves. When neural stem stems were injected into mice, they showed "robust registry and migration, new myelin formation," said Tsukamoto.

The company now sponsored an initial safety test the strategy in four infants with PMD. in each patient, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, 75 million transplanted neural stem cells in each of the four sites in the brain and followed this with immunosuppressive therapy so that the recipient would not reject foreign cells. no safety concerns were raised during the trial, Tsukamoto reported. in addition, the MRI taken 18 months later showed the formation of new myelin around axons and clinical observations of patients reported that their motor functions remained stable or enjoyed modest gains. The company is now planning larger trials. Tsukamoto said that if the treatment is effective, it could lead to treatments of neural stem cells for multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy and Alzheimer's disease.

In a second speech at the meeting, cell researcher stem Masayo Takahashi Biology of RIKEN Centre for Development in Kobe report on progress in the preclinical work her wet targeting group degeneration age-related macular (AMD). In AMD, the cells of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) of the retina that supports the eye cells that detect light wear, and there is also the growth of abnormal, leaky blood vessels under the retina . These conditions lead to an impairment of vision in the central part of the eye. The strategy proposed by the group is to surgically remove the problematic blood vessels and replace the damaged RPE cells with new RPE cells derived from a patient own cells. Using a known cellular reprogramming process, researchers take skin cells of a patient, be converted into the so-called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, which can differentiate into all cells in the human body. They then transform these iPS cells into RPE cells and form them into sheets in the laboratory. Since iPS approach uses the patient's own cells, they avoid the need for immunosuppressive drugs.

The RPE cells generated by the team Takahashi shows the pattern of the structure and expression of genes characteristic of human RPE cells authentic. Injections of the cells into mice triggered no tumors, it was also reported, and the cells survived for more than 6 months when transplanted into monkeys. The research team has not tested directly whether the transplanted RPE cells improved the vision of the animal. But Takahashi noted that some people with AMD had transplanted RPE cells from the periphery to the center of them, improving their central vision. She hopes to have all necessary authorizations for research involving humans within a year.

Earlier this year, scientists from the University of California, Los Angeles, and Advanced Cell Technology of Marlborough, Massachusetts, reported in The Lancet on safe and successful use RPE cells derived from human embryonic stem cells rather than iPS cells to treat a different type of AMD in a limited number of human patients. Takahashi predicted that in the future, choosing from different stem cell therapies will "depend on the target disease and the status of the host."

The positive results reported in The Lancet paper presented at ISSCR will help the field "to grow," said Fiona Watt, stem cell researcher UK Cambridge Research Institute Cancer Research. And George Daley, a scientist on stem cells at Harvard Medical School in Boston, is even more optimistic. Noting the progress reported at the conference this year, he said, "Wait until next year in Boston, "the site of the 2013 meeting ISSCR.

* This article was corrected on June 21 original caption refers only to insert the image. the legend has been corrected to describe the bigger picture.

A US federal court has found that stem cell therapy offered by a Colorado clinic meets the definition of a regulated drug. The decision could stimulate repression US Food and Drug Administration on other clinics offering treatments of adult stem cells are not tested in the United States.

The company, Regenerative Sciences Inc. in Broomfield, Colorado, uses stem cells extracted from bone marrow of a patient to treat bone and joint injuries. The company says that its treatment is a medical procedure and not subject to federal oversight. But in a suit in 2010 seeking to block the company to sell the treatment, the US government argued that because science regenerative stem cells are more than "minimal manipulation" and reagents for use that cross state lines, the cells are a biological medicinal FDA regulated.

On July 1 decision 23 (the first time by New Scientist ), the US District Court for the District of Columbia in Washington, DC, agreed that "the product of cultured cells is a drug "under federal law.

The decision could have implications for stem cell clinics in Texas. In April, the Texas Medical Board approved the first policy of the State to supervise the treatment of experimental stem cells. Critics said the policy would allow doctors to avoid scrutiny. But an official of the board, showing the current suit against Regenerative Sciences, said state rules were necessary because of the uncertainty of the FDA authority to regulate stem cells.

CellTex, a stem cell bank in Sugar Land, Texas, involved in the treatment of Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) with his own stem cells last summer, also said its cells that it provides are not an experimental drug. In June, however, the FDA found problems with the CellTex manufacturing process and describes its product as a biological drug.

University of Minnesota bioethicist Leigh Turner said the court decision this week "is particularly important given that we are seeing in the United States the proliferation of clinical stem cell procedures of marketing," many of which "appear to be push the quackery of stem cells, "he said.

Science regenerative CEO Christopher Centeno said New Scientist that the company plans to appeal.

NEW DELHI -On Monday India opened a laboratory of $ 12 million government-backed, whose mission is to create a new vaccine against HIV. The Translational Research Laboratory vaccine against HIV, which aims to recruit about 30 scientists, is integrated within the Institute of Science and Technology of translational health facility of $ 0 million in development on the outskirts of New Delhi. It will work with the New York-based International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI); operating costs will be shared equally.

India has the third largest global burden of AIDS, despite the fact that "HIV infections have decreased by 56% during the last decade, from 270,000 in 00 to 0,000 in 09 "said Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad of India. He says there is a desperate need for a vaccine against HIV.

"The design of a new vaccine against HIV broad spectrum will be the mandate of this new laboratory," said Margaret G. McGlynn, CEO of IAVI. It can be done, she said: "Researchers have long known that, after several years of infection, a minority of people with HIV produce antibodies that can neutralize a broad range of HIV variants" The goal is to find. an antibody broad spectrum suitable for this purpose. McGlynn said the plan is to make and test a vaccine in India, she says is "properly placed with its scientific talented workforce, the well-established pharmaceutical industry and a huge commitment from the government. "

Health officials worldwide are on alert after the discovery of a new virus in two patients with pneumonia. The agent belongs to the coronavirus group, which includes several cold virus, but the virus that causes SARS, a serious disease that has killed more than 700 people in a global epidemic moving fast in 02 and 03 before be contained.

the first known patient in the new incident was a 60-year-old from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, who died of pneumonia in July; her case was reported by Ali Mohamed Zaki Soliman Fakeeh Hospital in Jeddah on ProMED, a list of e-mail on emerging infections, September 15. Yesterday, Health Protection Agency UK (HPA) reported that a man 49 years old Qatari, who had traveled to Saudi Arabia and is being treated in an intensive care unit in London, is infected with the same virus. Several other cases are reportedly under investigation; it is not known if the virus can be transmitted between humans or the size of a threat he may pose to public health.

Science Insider spoke to Ron Fouchier, a virologist at Erasmus MC in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, who have sequenced the genome of the virus and found that the Saudi and Qatari patients most likely are infected by the same virus. Questions and answers were written for brevity and clarity

Q:.? What do you think we're dealing with

RF: For now, all we know is that one patient died and another is terribly ill. Other cases are under investigation, but as far as I know they have not been confirmed. So for now, we're just assuming that there were two individual infections, probably some animal reservoir. They were 3 months apart, which is too long for one another infected. I can not speculate on that

There are now six known human coronaviruses. one of them is SARS, but four cause colds and are quite harmless. So we will keep both feet on the floor and do not blow this out of proportion

Q:.? How your laboratory will be involved in this case

RF: We participated in the discovery of several viruses, including other coronaviruses, and recently, we published an article in PLoS oNE describing a test for the whole family of paramyxoviruses. So when Dr. Zaki had cultivated an unidentifiable virus from one of his patients, he emailed me, mainly because he wanted us to test for paramyxoviruses, and then he sent us the virus. I asked him if he had tested for coronaviruses, it has not yet done. There is a test developed by [the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] which tests for all known coronaviruses. So while the virus was on its way to our laboratory, Dr. Zaki discovered it was a coronavirus. But it does not have the facilities to the sequence of the virus, so that what we have done here.

When he posted the conclusion on ProMED, there was a patient in intensive care in London, so the HPA immediately began looking for a coronavirus as well, and that is positive income . They sent us the sequence of a very small PCR [polymerase chain reaction] fragment, only 0 nucleotides, and except for one nucleotide, it was identical to our virus. Of course, you need to sequence the entire genome, but on the basis of this we can assume that we are dealing with the same virus. Meanwhile, we have sent the complete genome and the virus itself to the UK, so they can determine if it is really

Q:.? Why did you think it might be a coronavirus

RF: We always think coronavirus. ... Flu, paramyxovirus and coronavirus are the most obvious candidates when you have a serious respiratory infection

Q:.? Will you study this new virus

RF: Yes, we do. We wrote a case report with Dr. Zaki on this first case and are working on the annotation of the complete genome, we will write such a paper as well. But of course, we need to start doing animal experiments. At first, we thought it was an isolated case in Saudi Arabia; Now that the virus has resurfaced in London also, I think we need to become a little more aggressive.

First, we'll see if the animals sick of this virus. You can isolate a patient of a virus, but it does not mean that they died of it; to show that causes the disease you need to fulfill Koch's postulates. That's what we did for SARS, and it is what we hope to do here; we have applied for emergency ethical approval. The most obvious animal species to this virus are mice, ferrets, and perhaps monkeys. We must see what we can get approval for.

The University of Tokyo today rejected the researcher who claimed to have achieved what would have been the first world trial the treatment of human patients with cells created from their own induced pluripotent stem (iPS). The researcher Hisashi Moriguchi, later admitted at a press conference that the initial application of the injection of cardiac muscle cells derived from iPS cells into the hearts of five patients was false, but maintained the procedure was performed on one patient at a Boston hospital in mid-2011.

"On October 19, the University of Tokyo has initiated a disciplinary dismissal Hisashi Moriguchi, a project scientist at the university hospital," reads a press release sent by e-mail reporters and posted this afternoon Japan time. He explained that the school's use of work rules call termination "in the case of severe damage to the honor or credibility of the university."

"It was conduct unbecoming a member of the faculty of this university, and he was treated strictly" wrote Fumio Isoda, executive vice president, in a statement accompanying. He added that the incident was regrettable and said an ongoing investigation would "clarify the facts as soon as possible."

Although investigations are ongoing, the scale and nature of the problem is becoming clearer. Moriguchi was the corresponding author of two papers online Exchange Protocol Nature Group website, ovarian tissue cryopreservation and cover another direct reprogramming describing human liver cancer cells using chemicals. Both contributions initially made several co-authors, but notes on the Exchange Protocol website indicate that as of Wednesday, all co-authors had requested that their names be removed. One of those, Taro Okitsu school Keio University of Medicine in Tokyo, said exchange protocol that has not participated in the study, according to the online edition of the English language The Yomiuri daily .

Another co-author on the Exchange protocol contributions Chifumi Sato, who studies liver diseases and health promotion at Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) could also face disciplinary action . The Commission of Inquiry concluded that TMDU Sato knew that his name was used on Moriguchi papers even though he did not check the data, according to comments made to the press by Ikuo Morita, a university trustee oversees research. "This behavior is inappropriate for a researcher," the Asahi Shimbun Article online quoted Morita as saying after a Thursday night committee meeting.

for more than a century, Egyptologists have puzzled over the mysterious disappearance of Ramses III in 1155 BCE According to the records of tests kept on the judicial Papyrus of Turin, an assassin murdered the Pharaoh during a bloody palace coup. But was it really the case, and if so, who led the plot? A new study published today in BMJ shows that Ramses III died violently after conspirators slashed his throat and reveals that one of the alleged ringleaders, son of Ramses Pentawere, may have later been strangled . The research team came to these conclusions after analyzing the two samples of DNA and CT scans of two mummies: Ramses III (with linen bandage, top right) and a young unidentified man previously found with him in a Cache at Deir el Bahari. The unidentified 20 (arrows pointing to the tablet unusual skin folds) have proven to be a son of Ramses: He seems to have been strangled (also highlighted in the analysis by the overinflated chest) and buried with goatskin, a PELT that the ancient Egyptians deemed ritually unclean and thus dishonor brand befitting a murderer. Sitting on a throne has long been a perilous undertaking, it seems.

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biomedical research community will lose one of its long-time champions with the upcoming retirement of Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA). Saturday, Harkin announced he would not seek a sixth term in November 2014, ending a 40-year career in Congress.

Harkin, 73, is currently chairman of the Senate committee that sets funding levels for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He also chairs the committee that oversees federal policies on health, education and labor. Harkin has teamed up with his then counterpart Republican, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, to earn a doubling of the 1998 NIH budget in 03. He also led an effort to Specter and include $ 10.4 billion for NIH in the packet 09 stimulus.

"Harkin obviously has been a consistent and very good champion for NIH and for medical research. So his decision not to run again is a huge loss," said Ann Bonham, Scientific Director Association of American Medical colleges in Washington, DC "for years, he and Specter essentially traded the championship to and fro. They both looked after very deeply about NIH and made it a priority regardless of the funding picture, "says Jennifer Zeitzer, legislative analyst with the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.

With Specter, Harkin also sponsored legislation in the 00s that have expanded federal funding for research on human embryonic stem cells. In 1992, he helped create a research program for breast cancer at the Ministry of Defence, doubling the funding for research for the disease.

Harkin was elected to the House of Representatives in 1974 and won a Senate seat in 1984. Everything Harkin has satisfied the scientists, however. In the 190s, Harkin has pushed Congress to create an NIH office for alternative medicine, citing its own success in taking bee pollen for allergies. The office attracted controversy scientists who said it funded non-scientific studies of marginal medical treatments. In 1998, Congress raised the office center and appointed a new NIH director under which the center was less vague. But the $ 128 million National Center for Complementary Medicine and alternative continues to annoy some observers of the NIH.

Harkin's departure at the end of 2014 will leave a vacancy for the unofficial title of chief booster NIH, Zeitzer said. A candidate is Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), who chairs the full appropriations committee. Although this position will keep him busy, Zeitzer predicted that the NIH, located in the state of Mikulski, "will be a priority for her."

the prospect of surgery while not fully "in" may seem like the stuff of horror movies. But a thousand patient remembers moments of awareness under general anesthesia, the doctor evaluate. Memories are sometimes neutral images or sounds of the operating room, but sometimes patients report being fully aware of the pain, terror and immobility. Although surgeons carefully monitor vital signs such as pulse and blood pressure, anesthesiologists have no clear signal as to whether the patient is conscious. But a new study finds that the brain can produce an early warning signal that consciousness returns-that is detectable by an electroencephalography (EEG), the recording of neuronal activity via electrodes on the skull.

"We have known since the 1930s that brain activity changes significantly with increasing doses of anesthetic," says corresponding author of the study, Patrick Purdon anesthesiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. "But the monitoring of a patient's brain with EEG has never become common practice."

in the early 190s, some anesthesiologists began using an approach called (BIS) bispectral index, where the readings from a single electrode connected to a device that calculates and displays a unique number indicating where the patient's brain activity falls on a scale of 100 (fully conscious) to zero (a "flatline" GET ). While between 40 and 60 is considered the target range for unconsciousness. But this index and similar are only indirect measures, Purdon says. in 2011, a team led by Michael Avidan anesthesiologist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, found that monitoring the BIS index was slightly less successful in preventing awareness during surgery of the measurement method exhaled anesthetic base nonbrain- in the patient's breath. Among the 2861 patients treated with BIS index, seven had memories of the surgery, while only two of 2852 patients were analyzed everything souvenir breath.

Despite this, Purdon and colleagues expressed hope that "unconsciousness signature" in the brain could be found. Last year, the team worked with three epilepsy patients who had electrodes implanted in their brains to surgery to reduce their seizures. Recording from single neurons in the cortex, where consciousness is thought to reside, the researchers gave patients an injection of propofol, an anesthetic. They asked volunteers to press a button every time they heard a voice, recording the activity of neurons. Loss of consciousness, defined as the time when patients stopped pressing, immediate was 40 seconds after injection. As immediately, neurons groups began to issue a slow oscillation characteristic, a kind of undulation in the electric field of the cells. Neurons are not completely inactive, but bursts of activity took place only at specific points in this oscillation, resulting in activity incompatible brain cells.

The next step was to see if the same signature can be detected on the outside, with an EEG. Purdon and his team recruited 10 healthy volunteers "go under" very slowly with propofol: Anesthesia was delivered gradually as the drop-off process was not 40 seconds, but nearly an hour. Every 4 seconds, the volunteers pressed a button in response to clicks or words, including their names, until they reached unconsciousness.

At that time, the researchers report today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , EEG readings showed a similar activity to that seen in study of patients with epilepsy. Alpha waves, associated with relaxation and drowsiness, increased loss of consciousness, as did the even slower, "low frequency waves." Both business models began to decline with the return of consciousness.

The researchers also found a unique pattern of the transition period. During the transition in and out of unconsciousness, waves almost canceling: The highest point or "peak" of alpha waves are produced at "trough" of low frequency waves. This combination, called the model "trough-max" can be read on an EEG and can be the early warning signal that the patient returns to consciousness. When the patient is deeply unconscious, motive "peak-max" in which the strengths of the two types of waves occur together, can prove to be a reliable sign that the patient is out.

" There is a rigorous, elegant study, "says Avidan." the trough max model may well prove to be an early warning signal. "he cautions, however, that the volunteers were healthy and did not undergo actual surgery, so further research in surgical patients are needed to confirm the results.

March 26, a 73 year-old from Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE, has died at the Klinikum Schwabing, a Munich hospital. It was the 11th known death related to infection by the novel coronavirus (Sxy), a pathogen that was first reported in September 2012 and aroused significant interest to researchers. Overall, officials have reported 17 cases of infection Ncov.

Clemens Wendtner, Professor of Medicine and Associate Medical Director at the University of Cologne, is a doctor at the Munich hospital. Science Insider Wendtner asked how the case was handled and why he thinks the patient may have been infected with one of his racing camels. Questions and answers were written for brevity and clarity

Q:.? Why does the patient get treatment in Germany and why did he come to the Klinikum Schwabing

CW: We are one of the seven reference centers for infectious diseases in Germany; Klinikum Schwabing has a unit for highly infectious patients, and one of the first SARS patient was treated here in 03. This particular patient was treated in Munich for multiple myeloma, who had been diagnosed in 09. he flew to Germany on a frequent basis for chemotherapy and even stem cell transplantation in a private center

While in Abu Dhabi, his condition deteriorated and his hematologist deal here in Munich asked steal for a closer look. the family also wanted to be transferred to him. At this point, we knew he had lung problems, but we were not aware of any coronavirus test; this has not been done in the United Arab Emirates

Q:.? When did you suspect it might have the virus

CW: When we examined his condition and had his medication list; he had even begun to [the influenza drug] Tamiflu, but her condition did not improve. So we said: "Maybe it's a good idea to check for the coronavirus." So we made a bronchoalveolar lavage [a procedure to sample fluid from the lungs,] and sent the material to the laboratory of Christian Drosten at the University of Bonn; This is the German reference laboratory for the new coronavirus. The results came back March 23. At this point, the patient's condition was very bad

Q:.? Did you take special care when you knew he was infected to prevent further infections

CW: This was done from the beginning. We are trained in infectious diseases of difficult situations, so what we do when we do not know what happens. He was in an intensive care unit and placed in special isolation; staff use special precautions, such as 3M masks. We also tested the staff for the virus, but no one was positive

Q:.? How many people did you test

CW: We had a group of about 60 people, not just staff. ... The patient flew in a private jet, and we planned the crew members and four parents who came with him. But we did PCR testing only for people who had symptoms like cough and flulike symptoms. There was less than 10 thereof, and all were negative. The others have been on screening for surveillance, but if they develop symptoms, they are not tested

Q:.? Ask these precautions have now finished

CW: Yes

Q :. Is it worrying that some patients altogether with the new coronavirus have sought medical treatment in Germany and the UK? With SARS, you saw people who infect others on plans or seeding new homes in countries where they arrived.

C.W :. This virus is not in the same category as SARS in terms of risk of spread. But a point is very valid: Screening tests, especially in the [Arabian Peninsula], are underdeveloped. Therefore, there may be a greater number of undetected cases. I was approached by U.A.E officials. they were worried about this first case, because most of the cases were in Saudi Arabia, and they are very interested in getting tests implemented in their countries. We will help them, in collaboration with the Drosten professor at Bonn

Q :. . "Ruling family" The German tabloid Bild said the patient was a "sheikh" from a

CW: Well, to Bild , the truth is not their biggest concern. ... He is a wealthy Abu Dhabi, fail. He has the money to hire a Learjet and get treatment in Germany. But it is not a member of the royal family

Q :. You have said in interviews that he has been infected by contact with a camel. What is the evidence for that

C.W:. So far, there is only circumstantial evidence. The patients in camel races. One of them fell ill and was very weak; the patient was in close contact with the camel, the camel and the evening was very ill, the patient developed flu symptoms. Three days later, he was in a medical unit in Abu Dhabi. There is another family member who was also in close contact with the camel, he also got sick, but we could not keep up with this gentleman.

We are really interested to find the missing link, for perhaps a material -some blood, some stools of this camel. Professor Drosten may send one of his fellow scientists in Abu Dhabi. We will also help the U.A.E. . Consulate in Munich

Q: So the UAE is ready to cooperate in this ?

CW: Yes, they understood that it is in their interest to get a better understanding of how the disease could spread from animals to humans

Q: is this still the camel alive

CW:. Yes, at least he was alive a few days ago

Q: When this investigation start?

CW :. As you can imagine, we are very interested in solving this problem, so it would probably happen in the next two days

Q: Have you heard of other camels Abu Dhabi or UAE get sick

CW: no, I do not have information about it. Even the consulate could not tell me. But maybe they did not pay attention to before. This just emerged as a problem, so they can have a look at more closely in the future

Q:.? Have you made a patient's autopsy

CW: We would have liked to get some hardware, but as you can imagine, it is very difficult in [the patient's] Culture to get any kind of autopsy. Thus, the family refused and we did not insist.

Alien? Subhuman primate? deformed child? Mummified fetus? The Internet is buzzing about the nature of "Ata", a weird 6 inches long skeleton featured in a new documentary on UFOs. A scientist from Stanford University, who boldly into the fray now put to rest doubts about what species belongs Ata. But the mystery is not over.

The story began 10 years ago, when the tiny remains were reportedly found in a pocket in a ghost town in the Atacama Desert, Chile. Ata ended up in a private collection in Barcelona; Producers of the film Sirius locked on the strange mummy as evidence of extraterrestrial life.

Last fall, immunologist Garry Nolan, director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Proteomics Center for Immunology systems at Stanford in California, Ata heard from a friend and contacted the filmmakers, offering to give them a scientific reading on the specimen. They asked him to give it a shot.

Among the apparent anomalies, Ata sports 10 ribs instead of the usual 12 and a severely deformed skull. "I asked our unit neonatal care how you analyze it would take. They had seen this kind of syndrome before? "Nolan said. He was taken to the pediatric radiologist Ralph Lachman, co-director of the International Registry Skeletal dysplasia at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California." He literally wrote the book on pediatric bone disorders, "says Nolan. Lachman was blown, Nolan recalls. "He said, 'Wow, this is like nothing I've ever seen before" "

To study the specimen, Nolan looked for evidence in the Ata genome. He first assumed the specimen was tens or hundreds of thousands of years old Atacama Desert may be the place driest in the world, while Ata could have been preserved for eons. He has consulted experts who extract DNA from bones denisovan, a European Asian parent Stone Age Neanderthals. There is evidence that their protocols are not required. "The DNA was modern, abundant, and high quality," he said, indicating that the specimen is probably a few decades.

To the dismay of UFO hunters, this is decidedly Ata world. having mapped over 500 million readings to a reference human genome, which is equivalent to 17.7 times coverage of the genome, Nolan concluded that Ata "is human, there is no doubt about it subject. "in addition, B2 haplotype-a sample class of mitochondrial-DNA reveals that his mother was from the west coast of South America. Chile, which is

Meanwhile, after examining X-rays, Lachman found that skeleton Aka development, based on the density of the epiphyseal plates knees (growth plates at the ends of long bones found only in children) appears surprisingly equivalent to a 6 to 8 years. If this holds up, there are two possibilities, says Nolan. One, a long shot, is that Ata had a severe form of dwarfism, was born as a little man, and lived up to that calendar age. To test this hypothesis, it will try to extract hemoglobin from the sample of bone marrow and compare the relative amounts of fetal hemoglobin proteins against adults. The second possibility is that Ata, the size of a fetus of 22 weeks of age, suffered from a severe form of a rare rapid aging disease, progeria, and died in the womb or after birth premature.

Nolan hasn 't yet turned up results for genes known to be associated with progeria or dwarfism. It is intensifying for mutations by sequencing and further casting a wider net. Another possibility is a teratogen: a toxic defect inducing birth along the lines of thalidomide. Nolan plans to analyze tissue using mass spectrometry in search of toxic substances or metabolites. But reports of a handful of other Tom Thumb size skeletons Russia and elsewhere Nolan leaning towards a genetic explanation.

At least one expert has taken, but more prosaic allow the human specimen. "This seems to me a human fetus badly dried and mummified or stillborn premature," says William Jungers, a paleoanthropologist and anatomist at the Medical Center Stony Brook University in New York. He notes that "barely ossified and immature elements" of hands and feet, and the suture metopic wide open, where the two frontal bones of the skull meets the forehead. "genetic abnormalities are not obvious, probably because there is not one," he said . Nolan said that the number of ribs and densities of epiphyseal plates remain a mystery; while it is open to the hypothesis of the fetus, he thinks the jury is still

the analysis is Nolan went viral this week. besieged as he was by the media circus, he does not regret getting involved in debunking a claim of alien life. "I am delighted with the result," he said. Once the testing is complete, he said, he will present his findings in peer review. The other application Nolan debunks is that Ata is a hoax. X-rays clearly show they are real bone, complete with arterial shadows, he said. "You could not just pretend," he says, adding with a laugh, "unless you were a stranger."