Health Meaning

A case of California court seems to want to test whether the National Football League can be held responsible for the care of former players suffering from dementia. Growing evidence suggests that head injuries on the ground may contribute to cognitive and emotional problems later in life.

After years of speculation about the promise of vaccines against cancer as a way to use the immune system against the tumor, States STATES will soon see its first cancer vaccine hit the market. earlier today the US Food and Drug Administration announced that it gave the green light for Provenge, a treatment for advanced prostate cancer that has spread to other parts of the body. the vaccine is designed to operate by extracting the patient's own immune system cells from the blood and exposing them to a protein called prostatic acid phosphatase in the laboratory. When the cells are reinjected they stimulate T cells to attack the patient's tumors.

Provenge, made by the biotechnology company Dendreon, is one of a wave of new therapies against the extraordinarily expensive cancer in tests clinics, extended survival only modestly. Patients who got it lived about 4 more months, nearly 26 months in total, than those who did not go, but, say business leaders, is still more than any other therapy was successful for this disease in a randomized trial. The vaccine is given in three injections; each costing $ 31,000, for a total treatment tab of $ 93,000, the company said today.

A number of other anticancer drugs, such as Avastin and Tarceva, cost tens of thousands of dollars a year and help patients live a few weeks or a few more months. The modest benefit in part reflects the enormous challenge of treating metastatic disease that is poorly understood and difficult to combat. New treatments are also more expensive to manufacture. Provenge executives say they already have a big bet, breaking ground on two manufacturing facilities even before the treatment was approved. In the first year of production, they still expect the demand exceeds supply of vaccines.

When a German scientist accidentally pricked herself with a needle containing the Ebola Zaire virus last year, scientists from around the world tried to determine what the best course of action would be. Finally, she agreed to an experimental Ebola vaccine that has been shown in animals to provide about 50% protection, even when administered after exposure to the virus. And she lived

But now scientists say they have something better for these mishaps :. A new therapy that, in laboratory studies, offered complete protection to cynomolgus monkeys when administered daily for nearly a week after injection Ebola otherwise be fatal. The new treatment, which will be reported online tomorrow The Lancet , could also be used in Ebola outbreaks, the researchers say.

Although Ebola outbreaks are quite rare, macabre symptoms- including high fever, bleeding and vomiting, and the rate of up to 0% mortality have captured the worldwide attention and helped propel the virus on the list of potential bioterrorism threats.

lead author of the new study, virologist Thomas Geisbert of Boston University School of Medicine, who worked on the Ebola virus for over 20 years, said that drug development has been slow and difficult. An anticoagulant that Geisbert helped test against the virus was received with great enthusiasm when he presented the results 7 years ago because it was the first time a drug had much impact and deaths but not reduced in monkeys by a third party.

For the new study, Geisbert and colleagues have used extracts of so-called small interfering RNA (siRNA), which can tinker with the replication of a virus. These siRNAs are considered a great promise against viral diseases, but a key issue is that they break down easily inside the body. To avoid this, the team packed siRNA inside particles called stable nucleic acid-lipid (SNALPs). Developed by Canadian biotech company Tekmira Pharmaceuticals, these particles are supposed to protect the drugs and help them reach the cells infected by the Ebola virus. In a study published in 06, the group showed that Geisbert SNALPs containing siRNA targeting a protein called Ebola L polymerase completely protected guinea pigs infected Ebola death.

But primates are much more vulnerable to Ebola, so in the current study, the group added two more siRNA. They injected cocktail intravenously in three monkeys to 30 minutes after exposure to the virus, then 1, 3 and 5 days later; two of them survived. In a group of four macaques that received the treatment 30 minutes and one day, two, three, four, five and six after the exposure, all survived.

Geisbert said more work is needed, for example, to determine the optimal dose and contribution to the overall effect of all three siRNA. That treatment also works after the animals get sick really remains to be seen as well; which is difficult to test in monkeys because animals die very quickly after infection, he said.

Nevertheless, the study is an important proof of concept, said Heinz Feldmann, an Ebola researcher at the National Institute of Allergy and Rocky Mountain Laboratories of Infectious Diseases in Hamilton, Montana. The new treatment offers the best protection ever seen when administered after exposure to the virus, he said.

Feldmann helped developed the vaccine given by the German researcher. But he said that the new treatment will probably be preferred, not only because it is more efficient, but also because, unlike the vaccine, it is not based on a replicating virus livestock. These vaccines always raise additional safety concerns.

It is important to Geisbert and other compounds now being tested and developed, Feldmann said, so the treatment is on the shelves the next time a researcher or health worker himself spades. "It's been a year since the accident in Germany, and we still do not have anything," he said. "We are in a terrible situation."

The complicated treatment regimen and that treatment must begin shortly after exposure may limit the use of the compound of Geisbert in remote areas in Africa where Ebola outbreaks occur. However, Feldmann, who worked in several of these epidemics, hope the treatment can be used as well. the current strategy is to take care of patients as well as possible and break the chain transmission by preventing others from infection. "as an MD, I would do something for the patient as well," he said.

The Defence Ministry today cut the ribbon on a new center for the diagnosis, treatment and study of traumatic brain injury and post -combat psychological problems, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The $ 65 million National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE) in Bethesda, Maryland, will be part of the new WalterReedNationalMilitaryMedicalCenter.

The center will be able to accommodate up to 20 inpatients when it opens this fall. It features a state-of-the-art neuroimaging equipment and advanced virtual reality systems to be used for diagnosis, rehabilitation and research.

"In terms of what is all there in one place, there is no such place else on Earth, much less in the military system," said James Kelly the neurologist tapped to head the new center. Kelly is on leave from the University of Denver Colorado School of Medicine, where he is professor of neurosurgery and physical medicine and rehabilitation.

Kelly said a major focus of research at NICoE will be the potential interaction between mild traumatic brain injury and PTSD. Soldiers exposed to an explosive blast or a blow to the head often have some of the same symptoms as those who witness a traumatic event, said Kelly. There is also evidence that some of the same brain regions involved in PTSD are particularly vulnerable to physical injuries, said Kelly. "There may be some overlap ... we do not fully understand."

The disease most Alzheimer (AD), researchers agree that the disease began ravaging the years of the brain, or even decades before the first symptoms appear oblivion. New criteria, proposed yesterday at the International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease in Honolulu, would shift diagnosis early in the course of the disease. A major motivation for the capture AD in its earliest stages is the belief that treatments will be more effective then.

The recommendations, developed by researchers working groups organized by the National Institute on Aging and the Alzheimer's Association, is based on recent research with neuroimaging and other biomarkers that appear to pick up the first signs of the disease. The recommendations define full of Alzheimer's disease more accurately and create two new diagnostic categories to describe the early stages of the disease.

The first is a "preclinical AD" designation would require three criteria: proof of the β-amyloid accumulation (the peptide suspected to be the culprit in neurodegeneration) from PET scans brain or fluid samples of the spine, or neuroimaging evidence of spinal fluid samples of synaptic dysfunction or early stages of neurodegeneration, and signs of subtle cognitive decline. This preclinical designation is not intended for clinical use, for research only, including clinical trials of drugs to prevent entire AD.

The second designation is used clinically "mild cognitive impairment (MCI) due to AD" Patients who meet the criteria for this diagnosis do not show a significant decline in memory and other cognitive functions. but would still be reasonably able to function independently. the proposal contains recommendations for clinicians on how to use neuroimaging and fluid biomarkers cerebrospinal to determine if the impairment is due to AD or a nascent another cause, although it recognizes that research in this area is ongoing.

"We are finally now developing tools to detect AD pathology in the brain and predict cognitive decline," Michael Weiner said the Alzheimer's researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, who was not involved in drafting the recommendations. Weiner said the new recommendations are "a very important step" that will help the development of drugs to prevent AD and help families by giving them more time to plan for the care of a loved one with the disease.

A new experiment at the University of California (UC), Berkeley, which was to analyze the genomes of new students into legal trouble. Academics who came up with the idea, including UC Berkeley geneticist Jasper Rine, saying they wanted to create an educational experience that would illustrate the risks and benefits of personal genome analysis. But health officials of the state told the university this week that the sequencing plan and analyze the DNA of individual volunteers would be a form of non-approved medical practice, according to the reports of San Jose Mercury News . (GenomeWeb and Nature has good coverage on the backstory and why scientists are interested.)

Rine and dean of the University of Berkeley biological sciences Mark Schlissel, disagrees with the Ministry of Health. They argued at a state hearing meeting Tuesday that the restrictive rules on medical practice should not apply to research. But Rine said yesterday that although the University will collect and analyze DNA as expected, it will not disclose individual results to students.

through the low, please. Omega-3 fatty acids, a main component of fish oil, are known to be powerful anti-inflammatory agents. Now researchers think they know how the acids block this immune response. They also found that omega-3 can help fight against diabetes in obese mice, pointing the way to potential therapies in humans.

To understand how omega-3s curb inflammation, Jerrold Olefsky, an endocrinologist at the University of California, San Diego, and colleagues trawling the data on a family of proteins called G protein-coupled receptors , which can bind to a number of different fatty acids. One of these receptor-GPR0- "jumped right out," said Olefsky. The group Olefsky found on immune cells involved in inflammation, as well as in mature fat cells, and they noted that it seemed bind to omega-3.

to confirm the link, the team doused mouse immune cells containing GPR0-with omega-3 fatty acids. This "closed nearly all inflammatory pathways," said Olefsky. "It was a very powerful effect."

The researchers also genetically mice to lack the GPR0 receptor changed. They then fed the mutant mice and normal mice a diet high in fat. both groups became obese and developed a form of mouse diabetes scientists have long suspected a link between inflammation and diabetes linked to obesity. and indeed, when the team completed the regime Olefsky fatty food with a heavy portion of omega-3 fatty acids enough to double the concentration of omega-3 fatty acids in normal mice mouse blood experienced a reduction of their diabetic symptoms. the rodents remained obese but they found a certain sensitivity to insulin, which means they do not need as much insulin to take up glucose and burn it to produce energy. in fact, the supplemented diet worked too although the fight against insulin resistance that the drug against the common Avandia diabetes, the team reports in the September 3 issue of cell . The mutant mice remained diabetic regardless of how much they consume omega-3, stressing the importance of the GPR0 receptor.

"The results are preliminary but exciting," says Nader Moniri, a pharmacologist at Mercer University in Atlanta. "For the first time, we will link inflammation to GPR0." Moniri stresses that GPR0 receptor also appears in the intestinal cells, where it appears to regulate a hormone that pushes the pancreas to release insulin. this means there are two ways in which GPR0 could influence diabetes, making it a nice target drug, he said.

Olefsky suggests that the GPR0 receptor is the primary means by which the inflammation of omega-3 control, but recognizes that there may be other mechanisms. for example, digestion breaks omega-3 fatty acids shorter fatty acids. Some data suggest that they may also influence inflammation, but not through GPR0, he notes.

Olefsky will also not go as far as to recommend that people take fish oil pills to ward off inflammation and diabetes. "We have never worked with people about it," he said, "so we have no idea how omega-3 fatty acids much a person would have to take."

Today the two sides in the legal battle about whether federally funded research on human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) is both legal registered their opposition to the University of California demand (UC) this week to become a party to the lawsuit, the first university to do.

In submissions to the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, plaintiffs, two researchers studying adult stem cells, support the UC has not justified why it should be allowed to join this late stage, over a year after initially pursued seekers. The Department of Justice, which defends the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Department of Health and Human Services, said that although the CPU "is a valuable and important perspective to offer," making it a party to the case more invite universities to weigh and slow down the call. instead, advocates of justice suggest that UC should submit an amicus (friend of the court) supporting the government's position . both sides say the interests of unified communications are adequately represented by the government.

at 10 am on Monday 27 September, the court of Appeals will hear oral arguments on whether the court should make a living longest of August 23 preliminary injunction from a district court stopped the hESC research for more than 2 weeks.

See our full coverage of this issue.

Stem cells researchers in Boston and Stockholm facing a strange and uncomfortable situation last week: scientific fraud accusations from an anonymous email sent not only for researchers in question but also to other leading biologists of stem cells, several scientists and journalists journals. In response, the journal in which one of the documents was published, Nature , contacted some of those on the original list to make a case for the scientific veracity of the paper. In the other case, scientists themselves have reacted, and the newspaper, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ( PNAS ), decided that no further action is necessary.

For Konrad Hochedlinger of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, it was a bad start to the week: Just after 6:00 last Monday, he and many others received an unsigned e-mail from a practically untraceable address, stemcellwatch@yahoo.com, highlighting what he said "appears to duplicate images and embryos used in a manuscript Nature published in 09." The e-mailer went on to detail misconduct claims, saying 3C, Hochedlinger and his co-authors used two pictures of the same embryo while claiming they were different.

"I was very shocked and upset that this anonymous email was sent and copied to half of the world of stem cells and the [ Boston ] Globe and Nature cell and science , "says Hochedlinger. Unsure how to respond, he began compiling images to show that he had photographed two different embryos, including an original photo that showed both in the same image. "We have evidence quite clear that these accusations are baseless," he said.

Nature declined to comment on the case but said the journal Hochedlinger subsequently emailed some of those copied on the e-mail with original images Hochedlinger had provided. The scientists said they either ignored the mail or seen clear differences in the two embryos.

On Friday 22 October, the group resurfaced again, this time charging a paper on stem cells in PNAS published in 09 contained duplicate images, pointing to the figure 5A. Contacted by Science about e-mail, one of the corresponding authors, Thomas Perlmann of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, said that the images are of triple immunohistochemical staining, thus in effect from the same set of cells "displayed as double staining for clarity."

Perlmann did not stop there. In a reply sent on Sunday to those on the email list stemcellwatch he and the second corresponding author, his colleague Karolinska Johan Ericson, gave a detailed refutation of the charges. They also noted that a sentence stating that the pictures were taken from triple immunohistochemistry was deleted from the original manuscript to save space. Perlmann said PNAS Editor Randy Schekman decided no published clarification is needed.

At the end of his note, and Perlmann Ericson wrote: "We regret that these serious allegations were made anonymously, we strongly believe in the concept of open and transparent communication on. alleged errors in the data published "the elusive e-mailers, who claim to belong to a group called the Stem Cell Research Watch group, responded to an email from Science saying they are "a group of students majoring in biology and often discuss documents that are taught in the classroom." they do not sign their names or say where they were based, and did not respond to a following email to request additional information.

Contrary to what appears here, PNAS working to publish a correction to the legend of the figure in question.

for the first time, a study has shown that anti-HIV pill can protect uninfected people from contracting the AIDS virus through sex. The eagerly awaited results show that a drug already approved can reduce the transmission rate by almost half, which could provide a powerful new tool in the fight against the AIDS epidemic. "It's a game changer," said one of dozens of clinicians who participated in the study, Kenneth Mayer of Fenway Health in Boston. But experts say that the success also raises a dizzying array of complex issues on the human behavior, resources, risks and public health.

the strategy, called pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, was tested in 2,499 uninfected by HIV and transgender women men who have sex with men. half of the group received a placebo. in the treatment group, the transmission dropped by 44%, despite the fact that many study participants in the trial frequently skipped doses. When researchers analyzed a small subset of individuals who received the treatment, not the placebo, they found an amazing protection rate of 92% among people who had detectable levels of drug in their blood to say, among those who took the drug regularly.

About 30 studies on the prevention of large-scale HIV have failed, making these results that much more encouraging. The new study, called the Prophylaxis Initiative, or iPrEx pre-exposure, cost $ 43.6 million and was conducted in six countries between July 07 and December 09. "The results of the iPrEx study are extremely important and provide solid evidence that PrEP can reduce HIV acquisition among a segment of society that is disproportionately affected by HIV / AIDS, "said Anthony Fauci head of the Institute National allergy and infectious diseases (NIAID) in a conference call for the press held yesterday. NIAID provided two thirds of the funding for the study, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation covered the other third.

as reported online today in the New England Journal of Medicine, the study recruited extremely high risk people to be infected with HIV : participants reported an average of 18 sexual partners in the last 12 weeks, and 60% said they had unprotected receptive anal intercourse in this time. Everyone received regular advice on how to reduce their risk of being infected, as well as condoms and treatment for other sexually transmitted infections. At the end of the trial, 36 of the 1,251 people who received a pill containing a combination of two anti-HIV medicines, tenofovir and emtricatbine (co-formulated as Truvada and made by Gilead of Foster Science City, CA), was infected. Among the 1,248 people who received placebo pills, 64 were infected.

Robert Grant, a virologist at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), led the study, which took place in Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, the US, Thailand and South Africa. "I am delighted that we have shown clear evidence that oral Truvada added protection to [men who have sex with men] receive comprehensive prevention," says Grant. "There is a strong result." Although some researchers fear drug resistance could surface or that people might increase their rates of risky behavior because they believed the protection of the drug provided or problem was observed in the study, he said.

But Grant emphasized that the results relate only to men and transgender women who have sex with men; Other studies are underway to evaluate PrEP among heterosexual men and injecting drug users and women.

Many AIDS researchers are not involved in the study said Science they are impressed with its rigor and statistically significant results. But they fear how the strategy will work in the real world. Although participants reported taking the drugs about 0% of the time, the researchers suspect was accurate because drug levels in blood studies. "The questions that remain are more behavioral than biological," said Robert Schooley, a virologist at the University of California at San Diego (UCSD). Grant of UCSF suggests that membership in the plan may have been low because people do not know whether the drug worked or if they received a placebo. Truvada did not cause serious side effects, but many people have complained of nausea and headache, which may also have affected the membership. Grant provides for a follow-up study to explore these and other questions.

the results come on the heels of a successful conclusion of the widely celebrated supposedly CAPRISA 004 trial in south African women, who this was reported that a vaginal gel laced with tenofovir reduces 39% of infection. "this means that more CAPRISA we have crossed the Rubicon," said Mayer, who led one of the two iPrEx sites in the United States . "Antiviral Chemotherapy works, no doubt."

A major difference between the iPrEx and CAPRISA trials is that the gel is an experimental product and are not on the market. Truvada, however, is a popular anti-HIV treatment, and may be prescribed for "off-label" by any doctor. But it remains unclear whether insurance companies will pay for this off-label use; costs run from $ 11 per month for a generic version to nearly $ 1,000 a month for products manufactured by Gilead.

Gilead says he wants to have frank discussions "" with the US Food and Drug Administration and other stakeholders before it decides to seek licensure for as Truvada preventive. "We have, I think, a very interesting discussion about the potential risks and benefits associated with this type of modality, and I think that will govern what we choose to do so," says Howard Jaffe, president of the Gilead Foundation, a nonprofit launched by the company to help poor communities to combat HIV and hepatitis B and C.

This new success of prevention also raises fundamental questions about how to spend the money to better counteract the AIDS epidemic. "for a country that has not yet reached the level of care in terms of supply antiretovirals to save people's lives, I think it will be some time before we would start using ARVs orally for prevention, "said Salim Abdool Karim, an epidemiologist at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa, who co-directed the CAPRISA study.

Another thorny ethical question is whether studies of vaccines and other prevention with men who have sex with men should now use Truvada as a placebo, which clearly offers more benefits than the standard dummy preparation. Fauci said NIAID will now examine this issue in all prevention studies they have planned or underway.

Schooley of UCSD, echoing many of his colleagues, warns that only preventive person by himself can prevent HIV, which infects people in different ways in a variety of conditions. "People looking for one intervention to the impact of the epidemic are the same as those who want a single battle to end the war in Afghanistan," says Schooley. "But it is quite clear the most powerful tools we have right now are drugs."

A baby could have the eyes of his mother, but the mother's DNA in the child's blood, less during pregnancy. Researchers have now used this DNA test for genetic diseases before birth. The technique could enable doctors to perform prenatal screening from only one of the mother's blood sample.

prenatal check for chromosome abnormalities and genetic diseases is common. Doctors capturing fetal cells for DNA analysis using amniocentesis, which draws some of the fluid in the womb, or chorionic villus sampling, which picks a placental tissue extract. Of course, both tests slightly raise the chances of miscarriage, prompting researchers to seek alternatives. In 1997, chemical pathologist Dennis Y. Lo, now at the Hong Kong Chinese University, and his colleagues discovered a rich vein of fetal DNA, well, the veins of the mother. About 10% of the DNA fragments floating in the blood of the mother is from the fetus to die placenta or fetal cells. Clinical tests capitalize on this DNA to detect the baby's gender and whether the mother and child have incompatible Rh blood groups, which can lead to fatal complications. But the difficulty of distinguishing the maternal DNA to fetal DNA has prevented researchers to develop tests for testing for most other genetic diseases.

To overcome this problem, Lo and colleagues applied advanced DNA sequencing techniques, which can quickly sequence large amounts of DNA, billions of DNA fragments into a blood sample from a pregnant woman. Using DNA samples from a woman and her husband, the team analyzed 00,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms, change a letter in the genetic code that reveal where the DNA of the parents differs. With this information, researchers first determined that the blood of the mother carries the whole genome of the fetus and the baby DNA inherited from each parent.

The team then tested the approach on a pregnant woman in an obstetrics clinic. The woman and her partner each carried a defective copy of the gene for part of hemoglobin, which predispose the fetus to ß-thalassemia, which can lead to severe anemia. The team tests showed that the baby did not ß-thalassemia, but was a carrier, receiving a mutated version of the gene from the father and a normal mother. Analysis of the DNA of the baby obtained by chorionic villus sampling, whose mother had also suffered, confirmed the diagnosis. "We worked on the principle and made the first non-invasive genetic analysis of a fetus from the mother's blood," said Lo, whose team presents its findings online today in Science Translational Medicine .

Several obstacles stand in the way of widespread use of analysis of fetal DNA, however. On the one hand, the type of DNA sequencing used in the study is too expensive for clinical trials, although most researchers believe the cost to fall in the coming years. The results are also very complex and difficult to interpret, notes geneticist Diana Bianchi reproduction of the Tufts School of Medicine at Boston University. "It is a brilliant proof of concept study, but it is not ready for clinical application."

Yet many researchers are impressed. "I think it's a beautiful piece of work," says molecular geneticist Arthur Beaudet of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. "It is an important step in the direction to show the ability of this approach," adds Mark Evans, an obstetrician gynecologist and geneticist at the School of medicine Mount Sinai in New York City. molecular biologist Sinuhe Hahn university women Hospital in Basel, Switzerland, says that the approach should allow fetal DNA tests for a variety of other genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis and Tay-Sachs disease. "in essence, you have the whole genome of the fetus for you."

A 1998 paper linking autism to vaccines, which triggered a panic about the vaccination of children continues today, was based on falsification of data, according to a survey conducted by a journalist British Medical Journal ( BMJ ) has spent years reviewing research original. In a harsh editorial that called the paper "fraudulent" BMJ editors recommend other publications of the main author, gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield, be examined because "past experience tells us that misconduct research is rarely isolated behavior. "

the survey, by journalist Brian Deer, focuses on allegations of medical records of changes for the 12 children in the study. Among other things, it loads that preexisting symptoms the children had been "minimized" to build a case that they had a serious reaction to the measles-mumps-rubella. Medical "folders can not be reconciled with what was published" in the Lancet journal where the study was published, kite written in what is billed as the first of a series in BMJ .

the report is another strike against research already retracted, which was led by Wakefield. A 02 study failed to reproduce the results; British General Medical Council has spent 2.5 years of education and a year ago concluded that the conduct of Wakefield was "dishonest" and "misleading". The Lancet retracted the paper and Wakefield lost his license to practice medicine in the UK.

While the latest allegations go further, it is unclear what practical impact they will have. An anti-vaccine activist who co-founded one of the most vocal groups that links autism to vaccines, Generation Rescue, took on CNN waves yesterday when the BMJ investigation was released, to defend link and argues that other studies have reported. "To represent that science has been done about it and we should spend is simply untrue," said JB Handley. It seems that for now, little can change.

The fallout continues from a decision to stop the controversial trials of cancer at Duke University last year: in an article today letter Cancer reports that the US Food and Drug administration (FDA) audit data on the tests. Duke genomics center headed by a researcher on the forefront of cancer, Joseph Nevins, was dissolved, though a Duke spokesman said the decision was already in the works and is unrelated to the audit of the FDA.

There is a long and winding history that goes back several years initial requests from both biostatistician at MD Anderson Cancer Center. They expressed concerns about the science behind genetic predictors of cancer developed by two researchers from Duke oncologist Anil Potti and Nevins. After biostatistician contacted the Duke scientists and newspapers that published their work, Duke began tests based on technology, the use to assign patients to different treatments. In summer 2010, The letter Cancer reported that Potti had padded his resume and claimed he was a Rhodes Scholar when it was not. He resigned, and the tests were discontinued. Several documents describing the technology have recently been retracted.

But the story is not over. Letter Cancer has published a series of documents, including some that reflect the uncertainty about the role of the FDA in regulating these technologies, which use patterns of genes in tumors predict how a patient will fare.

The Institute of Medicine, meanwhile, held a series of meetings to discuss how technologies such as these are used in clinical trials.

Staphylococcus aureus is a difficult bug to kill. The bacterium is responsible for more American deaths each year as HIV / AIDS, partly because it is rapidly developing resistance to antibiotics. Scientists have struggled to understand how it ticks, but the researchers believe they may have found a way to conquer S. aureus by blocking its ability to perform a critical task :. recycling

Recycling is so important that even bacteria do. They cut the RNA plans necessary for protein design and assemble them in new directions. Researchers have known for over 20 years how the so-called gram-negative bacteria such as Escherichia coli degrade and recycle their RNA. But the process for gram-positive bacteria such as S. aureus is remained uncertain.

In the new study, researchers led by Paul Dunman, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Rochester in New York, the identified genes that were more active when S. aureus recycled quickly RNA. Blocking the activity of a protein known as the RNPA arrested recycling, indicating that the team Dunman had found a key enzyme.

The discovery of EPS is important Dunman said, because it provides a new target for antibiotic development. If bacteria could not recycle its RNA, two major problems arise. First, Dunman said, the bug would waste energy by following the instructions obsolete and turning RNA into proteins, there is no need. More importantly, it would run out of raw material with which print instructions, grinding everything in the cell to a sudden stop. "If you can stop the enzymes involved in this process with a small molecule or chemical," says Dunman, "this chemical may be an antibiotic."

To this end, the team screened nearly 30,000 small molecules to identify compounds that inhibit the action of RNPA. the researchers found that 14 did the trick, but a molecule called RNPA1000-was particularly effective against S. aureus . RNPA1000 killed cells all 12 main strains of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), a major scourge of hospitals in the United States and elsewhere. It is also effective against strains resistant to antibiotics, gram-positive Streptococcus pneumoniae S. pyogenes and Enterococcus faecium , which cause diseases of meningitis to cardiac infections.

the team showed RNPA1000 that can stimulate the activity of antibiotics already on the market, but they do not yet know how. The chemical also kills S. aureus biofilms, which are a frequent cause of infection of the implanted catheters and other medical devices and are notoriously resistant to the action of antibiotics.

The drug worked in mice, too. Half of S. aureus mice infected recovered from their infections when treated with RNPA1000, while none of the untreated mice did, the team announced today online PLoS Pathogens .

RNPA1000 showed some toxicity when applied at high doses in human cells, so that the group seeks Dunman compounds closely related to RNPA1000 that can still prevent RNPA but without the side effects toxic.

Moreover, said Dunman, bacteria will eventually develop resistance against antibiotics, no matter how methodically selected. RNPA1000 is no exception, he said, "but the frequency [of resistance] in a laboratory environment is extremely, extremely low." This means that the bacteria must RNPA1000 resistance develop slower than other antibiotics.

Robert Daum, director of MRSA Research Center at the University of Chicago in Illinois, called the "creative" study and said it offers a new way to target the epidemic of MRSA. "What is important about this for me is not necessarily that work very could be the answer to the problem," he said, "but we look at how this bug does its dirty work in patients and how can we prevent this . "

A decision by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) leaders to abolish one of the agency's institutes ran into little opposition today a key advisory board. A member of the board of directors asked if his fellow panelists should consider whether it is wise to abandon the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR). But officials from the NIH and the chairman of the board brushed her question aside.

NIH leaders decided in December to abolish NCRR partly because of a clinical research program which constitute 40% of the budget would go to a new National Centre for the Advancement of Science Translational. The rupture proposed NCRR attracted hundreds of comments from researchers concerned with the fate of their programs, if they are moved to other institutes. Many, including an NIH institute director, asked why these programs can not stay together in a small NCRR.

Today, the Scientific Review Board of Management (SMRB), which was created by Congress to provide advice on the structure of NIH, met for 1 ½ hours by teleconference to hear updates on these two changes, the creation of the new center, which SMRB recommended, and the NIH plan to simultaneously dismantle NCRR. It features animal models of programs for major instruments to support minority institutions.

Given the "fair bit of anxiety out there" about NCRR split and that "the elimination of a center is also great change that the addition of a new, "SMRB should undertake" a true study in depth if NCRR should be essentially eliminated? "asked Thomas Kelly SMRB member of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York City. And NIH considers the "possible simple approach and less disruptive" to let the remaining 60% of its programs intact within NCRR?

NIH deputy director Lawrence Tabak responded that its internal working group on NCRR concluded that if they were to start again, they would probably not NCRR program group in the same institute. Instead, the working group liked the idea of ​​"creating new scientific opportunities" by putting the programs "more optimal juxtaposition programs" in other institutes.

Whether SMRB should study the issue more closely, Tabak said his working group did what the board would do, namely, he undertook "extensive consultation" with the scientific community through teleconferences, meetings, and review web site. (most of this took place after the NIH submitted a proposal to abolish NCRR the Department of Health and Human Services in December.)

comments Tabak seemed meet President SMRB Norman Augustine, who said Tabak "provided a sound response." The only other member SMRB expressing concern was Gail Cassell of Eli Lilly, who warned that the comparative medicine programs should stay together. (They are together in a new unit Tabak said infrastructure will be located in the NIH director's office.)

Neither there were major objections to break NCRR for eight public oral submissions. Instead, several patient groups welcomed the reorganization. Amy Comstock Rick of Parkinson scientific scolded Action Network "argue about matters of organization." If NIH wants Congress to give an increase, the community must present a "united front," she said.

The Congress may still want to influence the reorganization, however. Several senators have questioned the plan, as well as a staff member for a House of Representatives panel expenditures to approve the budget for the NIH reconfigured.

full reviews of Thomas Kelly are below.

I will couple points I want to ask you a question and perhaps raise a general discussion.

The first concerns the fact that I'm sure you're aware, there's a fair bit of anxiety out there in the scientific community about the redistribution of all NCRR programs and I understand it essentially means eliminating NCRR which is of course a major structural change to NIH. And I guess I raise a point of discussion potential since it is such a major structural change to NIH, eliminating a center is also great change that the addition of a new, and I do not think has SMRB had a very long and deep discussion. I guess the really talked working group at some length, but we have certainly not give the same kind of in-depth analysis we have done for the question NIDA and NIAAA [merging NIH's two substance abuse institutes].

So the question is whether it would be appropriate for the SMRB to undertake a genuine thorough study whether NCRR should be essentially eliminated. So a kind of general question. The other is the question of whether it was given by the fact that the only thing that should be removed from NCRR for the new center are CTSAs I think there seems to be a simpler and less disruptive approach would was to leave all other programs in place in NCRR instead of distributing them. And I wondered if this plan of action was envisaged.

Ritsuko Komaki, 67, grew up in Hiroshima after the atomic bombing there. Her experience led her to become a radiation oncologist, and she now works at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, the treatment of lung cancer. Komaki was minutes from landing at the main airport in Tokyo when the earthquake struck last week.

Science talked Komaki after she returned to Houston. The conversation has been modified for brevity and clarity.

Q: I understand you just returned from Japan. Can you tell me about it

R.K:. Yes. I left here [Houston] Thursday. I had to give a lecture on Saturday morning in Tokyo therapy [about] radiation in lung cancer early.

Our flight was supposed to land here in Narita [Narita International Airport, about an hour's drive from Tokyo] March 11 at 3:20 so Friday. Around 3 am the earthquake. Continental Airlines agent announced that we are unable to land at Narita Airport because the airport was closed due to the earthquake.

Nobody mentioned how [it was].

They said we have to land somewhere - they turned around, very near Narita there was a base, a base of the Air Force. We landed [there].

We were there almost 1 hour.

Then they said we're going to Nagoya Airport. It was after 19 pm We landed there.

There was no Continental agents, and nobody knew - people who are on the aircraft about 260 people, they did not know what to do.

Q: What did you do

R.K :. Fortunately, I have my older sister living in Nagoya, it has been there 40 years. My elder sister is a veterinarian. She said.. "Well, you can come to my house" I took a taxi

When I arrived at his house, he was 1:00 Then I realized what is happening because I watching television.

She told me that this is one of the largest earthquakes they had.

And while I was there, they n 'have as a mild earthquake of grade 3, but Nagoya is in and they do not get much of the tsunami. they were very lucky.

While I was watching television, this nuclear plant exploded, number 1.

I have not had much time to sleep or anything. I'm just totally surprised what happens. They reported the tsunami swept villages. and then they showed the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear. ... they have problems with the cooling system. ... they had to relieve the pressure by opening the valves and steam came out with cesium.

Cesium 30 years half-life I started thinking oh my God, this is going to happen. This looks like a story of Chernobyl.

Then they started talking about number 3, its danger, and number two, they tried to inactivate.

Q: What happened then

RK: I really wanted to go to Tokyo this morning, Saturday morning at 10 hours to give my speech. I kept calling and calling - Continental Airlines, Nippon airlines. No one answered.

I ended up calling the organizer in Tokyo. She said, "We have problems here, one that [comes] will have a very small meeting and for the love that we do not want you to come. We still have earthquakes and it might be too dangerous to come right here." The train between Nagoya and Tokyo had been arrested.

Q: What did you do after that ?

R.K :. I could not go to the meeting. But I saw all the details [on TV], really terrible, terrible deaths ... [kept] upward.

But my main concern was the explosion of the nuclear plant, the amount of radiation the people who live around the area will have, and I really think they have to get out.

Since I grew up in Hiroshima, I knew how long it would take to get rid of these radioactive materials. The incidence of cancer in Hiroshima and is up from just the regular cities. They have much higher leukemia, thyroid cancer, breast cancer, stomach cancer, prostate cancer, bladder cancer.

Q :. It seems that what is happening now is for you to think back to growing up in Hiroshima

R.K :. Yes. This is a kind of coincidence. It's a disaster. They should let people know exactly what will happen, the delayed effects [of radiation exposure].

Q: Do you think the atomic bombings of Japan during World War II affect the way people now react to nuclear disasters

RK: experience of the atomic bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki - the only thing they have is the fear of radiation [even as therapy]. Radiotherapy [for cancer] treatment is not popular in Japan.

Q: You have family in Japan, yet your sister

RK: My younger sister, she still lives in Hiroshima, and my older sister, she lives in Nagoya. They do very well.

Q: Do you have plans to return to Japan?

R.K :. Yes. I meetings in June to Sendai. I just received an email [saying] they are planning to have this meeting, but they say they could postpone the date. The airport has been cleared.

Like the leaders of the White House promised the weekend, the 2011 finance bill agreed by Congress and White House last Friday savings biomedical large cuts.

Details released today indicate that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) would receive $ 30.7 billion, or $ 260 million below the level of 2010. The cut of 0.8% includes $ 210 million spread over all the 27 institutes and centers of the NIH and the principal's office, and $ 50 million from an account buildings. (Adding a 0.2% across-the-board cut in all non-defense agencies, the total reduction will be about $ 300 million, said David Moore of the Association of American Medical Colleges.) By contrast , a project of the House earlier, HR 1, would have reduced the budget of the NIH of $ 1.6 billion to $ 29.5 billion.

Contrary to the proposal by the House earlier, the bill does not contain the language rather than by research groups that would have required NIH to support a number of new subsidies to a minimum funding level . Bill does not mention not the Cures Acceleration Network (CAN), a drug development program created by law to reform health care last year. But NIH needs money to get started CAN as part of a new center for translational research. It is possible that the NIH will request funds when it shall submit detailed spending plans next month, said Jennifer Zeitzer of Experimental Biology Federation of American Societies.

Moore said that given the House earlier proposal and overall reductions in other agencies in the bill, "the end result for the NIH to be regarded as relatively good news. Research is sure people will be disappointed is being cut, but in the current budgetary climate, it could have been much worse. "But while Zeitzer said his group is" satisfied ", she noted that many lawmakers urge further cuts in 2012 budget now before Congress." It will be a short-term relief, "she said about the agreement of 2011.

the bill terminates a few dramatic days last week when scientists in Bethesda, Maryland, the NIH campus, were preparing for a possible shutdown of the federal government. the researchers running clinical trials planned to stop enrolling new patients, and permissions were planned for all but about a quarter of the 19,000 staff of the NIH, who were considered "essential" for patient care and maintain pets and cell lines. NIH has also planned to shutter ClinicalTrials.gov and PubMed abstracts database.

researchers this morning confirmed that the former national Football League player Dave Duerson must be afraid when he shot himself in the abdomen in February, killing the 51 who played for several teams as security. An autopsy study found that the brains of Duerson was riddled with classic signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a form of brain damage that becomes a growing concern among athletes in violent contact sports. The shape of the Duerson suicide was apparently carefully chosen to preserve his brain as he had texted his family that he wanted the organ to be examined at the Boston University Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy (CSTE).

At a press conference there today, the researchers reported that there was evidence of moderately advanced CTE in several brain regions of Duerson, including the frontal cortex, the amygdala and hippocampus, which are involved in impulse control, mood, memory and other cognitive functions. "Dave Duerson had classic pathological CTE and no sign of another disease," neuropathologist and CSTE co-Ann McKee told the press conference. McKee noted that there is evidence suggesting CTE predispose to suicide, although how remains unclear; a colleague called "a problem of the chicken and the egg," explaining that CTE can cause problems in life that encourage suicide rather than specifically promote suicidal behavior by altering brain function.

collisions that cause concussions and even fewer strikes appear to stimulate the development of CTE. At the press conference CSTE co-director Chris Nowinski, a former college football player and professional wrestler, urged youth football coaches to carefully control how many violent contact, it is in practice to reduce the total number of visits. "It is incredible that we have pitch counts [in youth baseball] to protect the ligaments of the elbow, but we do not count how many times [young football players] hit the head to protect their brains," he said.

A major goal of CSTE is to develop methods to diagnose and monitor CTE during life. Only then Co-director Robert Stern CSTE noted, researchers can assess ways to prevent brain damage or reverse it. Groups use brain imaging to compare the young athletes and veterans of the NFL to control groups, for example. Others seek to cerebrospinal fluid proteins or other biomarkers that could reflect the occurrence or progression of CTE.

Southern California investor Jonathan Thomas and cardiologist turned entrepreneur Frank Litvack was appointed to lead the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). A person elected by the board of the Stem Cell Institute at its meeting on June 23 will replace real estate developer Robert Klein, who led the 04 ballot initiative that created CIRM and served as the first and one chair.

During the tenure of Klein, the agency has had its share of controversy, but also received praise for the construction of infrastructure for the growing field. A report in December 2010 by outside scientists concluded that a major priority for the agency in the future should be reflected these gains in basic science into therapies. Klein was to finish his term in December, but after a rocky appointment process failed to produce a viable candidate, the CIRM board reelected Klein for a term of six months until a replacement could be found.

Three of the four State officials responsible for the appointment of a president appointed Thomas, founding partner at Saybrook Capital in Santa Monica. In his letter of appointment, State Treasurer Bill Lockyer wrote that: "Mr Thomas experience as a banker of public finance investment, lawyer, board member of various government agencies, and member of Board of crippled children Society of Southern California, and its training, education and interest in biology and medical sciences, makes him uniquely suited to fulfill the role. "

State Controller John Chiang resisted the trend, Litvack appointment, he praised a" unique combination of skills "and experience as a clinician, researcher and entrepreneur. Litvack is currently a partner or chairman of several medical technology companies. "Dr. Litvack knows from personal experience what it takes to develop new medical technologies and move them through the regulatory process for the adoption in the market, "Chiang wrote in his letter of appointment.

Autism is also puzzling to scientists because it is heartbreaking for parents. Some patients function well despite some behavioral quirks, while others are profoundly disabled. The dozens of "suspicious genes" are scattered among different types of the disease and appear in only a handful of patients. Now, shifting the focus from genes to proteins they produce, the researchers identified a denser network that can help reveal how autism develops. The finding may also lay the framework for the development of new treatments, even for very different types of the disease.

The inspiration for a network of protein came from research geneticist Marc Vidal of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Brookline, Massachusetts. Vidal had mapped the first of these networks-later known as interactomes in the wake of the Human Genome Project. "The Human Genome Project gave us a parts list," says Vidal. "By studying how proteins interact, we could see how the parts are assembled."

The proteins that work together inside cells sometimes physically touch each other;. often, many of them also link to some core proteins that play a key role in a particular biological process a resulting relationship diagram may look like a ball Koosh interconnection lines radiating from one or more platforms (see photo).

in a study published in 06 cell , and Huda Zoghbi Vidal, a neurobiologist at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, teamed to show unsuspected interactions between proteins produced by the mutated genes in a number of movement disorders known as ataxias name. the fact that the "protein products" genes seemingly unrelated work actually all referred to a common process through which the different types of ataxias occur.

In the new study, Zoghbi and her colleagues studied the interaction of proteins in the complex disorder of autism. The researchers used protein "bait" of more than two dozen known autism genes, fishing in a pool of human DNA to other proteins that interact with bait. If the proteins bind to each other through repeated testing, it is a sign that they cooperate in a biological process, and not just to jam together.

Using more sensitive screening methods, researchers eventually have "taken" over 500 proteins that form connections with 26 bait protein and interacted with each other.

The fact that so many proteins interact with protein bait 26 indicates that these original proteins play a key role in a complex process that has not been apparent in the genes "suspects". Since these genes are from different types of autism, the process alluded to what may be a common feature.

The emerging pathway is probably a problem that occurs at the synapse, the contact point between neurons, Zoghbi said. It has long argued that autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders can result from poor connections at these junctions, but the possibility of a yarn highlighted by the complex interactions related to protein-common autism is encouraging said Zoghbi. His team presents its findings online today in Science Translational Medicine.

Two proteins called TAIL and TSC1, which are involved in very different syndromes related to autism who are not thought to be related, proved 21 to be connected by other proteins. In addition, when the researchers checked their network against the DNA of patients with non-syndromic, or "stand-alone" autism, they found abnormalities involving three network genes. Both findings suggest that different types of autism may share a common pathway, even when they occur in single or separate syndromes, something that was not clear while watching the genes.

These common pathways are promising targets for drug development, said Zoghbi. "Our interactome is only a first step, but it could lead to a framework to study new genes and to test new drugs."

"interactomes like this one do all the genes of debate over the much more sophisticated environment, "adds Vidal, who was not involved in the current study and mapped a network involved in the predisposition to breast cancer in 07." to understand how genes lead to disease, interactomes give us the best of both worlds. "

investor southern California The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) elected Jonathan Thomas to be its next president. Thomas will succeed Robert Klein, the real estate investor that led to the desire to create the public agency funded and led to his first 6 years. CIRM board faces a decision between Thomas and Frank Litvack, a cardiologist and medical device entrepreneur. According to the California Stem Cell Report blog, the vote was 14 to 11.

In his remarks before the vote of the Board, Thomas stressed his experience in finance as an essential qualification for the position.

With California in an unspecified financial crisis, CIRM may have to find sources of funding other than government bonds that have enabled it to provide to date $ 1.25 billion in grants and loans for research on stem cells, Thomas said. Thomas noted that it was a major premed biology at Yale University before turning to finance, and said he had always hoped to return to biology if the right opportunity arose. "This is an opportunity," he said.

In what may be a futile exercise, representing Diana DeGette (D-CO) this week reintroduced his bill that would codify 09 political restrictions easing of the Obama administration on federal funding of research on human embryonic stem cells. She also found a Republican to replace earlier Cosponsors Bill Mike Castle (R-DE), who lost a bid for the Senate last fall: Charlie Dent (R-PA). Dent said The Hill that "this area of ​​research is important to find breakthroughs in a number of areas."

A previous version of DeGette bill passed Congress twice but was vetoed by then-President George W. Bush. the bill should not go anywhere in the Republican-led House, however. in any case, if the exact same bill as before, as says his spokesman, it would not resolve a conflict that Circuit judge US Royce Lamberth said exists with the Dickey-Wicker law. This law prohibits federal funding for research that destroys embryos. Lamberth, who ordered a temporary ban on federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research last August an appeals court overturned later, should make a final decision on the issue this summer.

most people would probably rather be tall than short. But there is a downside to the height: tall people are more likely to develop cancer. A study published online today in The Lancet Oncology believes that this relationship is in women with many types of cancer and across socioeconomic levels. The researchers studied the effect of 17 types of cancer, breast cancer, leukemia, 9 years among 1.3 million women participating in a long-term U.K. health study. The risk of cancer increased by 16% with every added 10 centimeters high. The risk was similar when data were combined with ten previous studies on cancer and height in men and women in Europe, Asia, Australia and North America. The adult size of the European population increased by 1 centimeter per decade since 100, and this could increase the incidence of cancer of 10% to 15%, say the researchers. Why be bigger makes them more vulnerable to cancer people are not known, however. One possibility is that the hormones that cause children to grow also stimulate the growth of cancer cells.

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A new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that the new rate HIV infection between 06 and 09 remained stable in the country for all but one group: young, black men who have sex with men (MSM). The CDC study cited the most sensitive technique used yet to determine that each year about 50 000 people are infected, which is consistent with previous estimates. But among bisexual men between 13 and 29 black and gay, the incidence increased 48% to 6,500 cases in 09. "We are very concerned about this trend," said CDC Director Thomas Frieden during ' a press teleconference this afternoon.

the new CDC data, published today in PLoS oNE , show that the MSM of all ethnic groups represented 61% of new infections United States in 09. Next came heterosexual transmission (27%), the main mode of spread in most of the world, injecting drug use (9%). the use of powerful prophylactic antiretroviral drugs has reduced the number babies will be infected by their mothers that this channel was included in the "other" category, which represents less than 1% of the total impact.

Joseph Prejean HIV incidence and CDC case surveillance emphasized that black men (which she also characterized as African Americans) do not indicate more risk behaviors than other MSM. "We do not have all the answers on what may be driving this trend," said Prejean. But he and his colleagues offered a long list of possibilities, including more HIV in the network of people they sex with higher rates of other sexually transmitted infections as the ease of transmission of the AIDS virus and stigmatization deeply rooted in their communities on homosexuality and the disease itself.

in overall, men and black women had 7.7 times the rate of new infections documented in white in 09. Latinos were 2.9 times higher incidence than white this year. "HIV remains one of disparities for the most egregious health for African Americans and Latinos, "said Prejean.

Since 1994, 25 states have provided CDC with information on newly diagnosed HIV infections. But these data not distinguish between people who have been recently infected and those who had fed the virus for years. However, CDC has used these prevalence data, combined with cases of AIDS (which had been reported since 1982), to estimate the impact. With the advent of new techniques that use antibodies to HIV levels to assess how long a person has been infected, CDC in 04 began giving money to selected locations for the impact monitoring.

Although the current analysis uses actual incidence data, it extrapolates information from 16 states and two cities to produce an estimated number for the entire nation. CDC researchers explain in their PLoS ONE paper how they adjusted their model to get the best estimates.

Many premature babies suffer from bleeding in their brains still developing. Even when the bleeding stops, another condition of life in danger can strike hydrocephalus, which occurs when the fluid to keep the brain healthy built because it can not drain properly. For decades, doctors have known that were related hemorrhage and hydrocephalus, also known as "water on the brain", but they were not sure why. A new study suggests that the answer lies in a lipid that is common in the blood, but can also severely disrupt the structure and brain function when present in large quantities.

hydrocephalus affects about one in 1,500 babies, and treatment is imperfect. the doctors implant usually a shunt to drain cerebrospinal fluid from the brain and spinal cord. Shunts fail over time, however, and monitoring surgeries are sometimes necessary. the state itself can also cause neurological problems life. the roots of hydrocephalus remain cloudy, but for those that are related to brain bleeds, the assumption was that the blood-clots necessary to stop bleeding-blocked roads razor-thin through which cerebrospinal fluid must travel to exit the brain. "We have assumed for 100 years it was just a mechanical block," says James McAllister II, a neuroembryologist at the University of Utah School of Medicine in Salt Lake City, who was not involved in the work Recent. "Everyone thought you dammed the narrow channels."

A group based at the Scripps research Institute in San Diego, California, recently began to suspect something else was at work. for years, Scripps neuroscientist Jerold Chun had studied embryonic brain and how certain fats in the blood of the mother and the embryo affect its development. He and graduate student Yun Yung has developed a way to inject one of these lipid lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) in the ventricles of the brain of fetal mouse When they did, they saw something surprising.. Each embryo that got the injection was born with hydrocephalus

researchers have experienced before injecting the blood into the brain of animals to mimic bleeding, and had indeed observed the appearance of hydrocephalus. But they had not isolated the specific molecular components of blood as the key. To determine if the LPA was he, Chun and colleagues repeated mouse brain injections with only red blood cells. (APL is in the plasma component of blood). This did not cause hydrocephalus, but the injection of plasma made in some animals. And genetically remove specific LPA receptor prevented the blood of the inducing condition.

In a final experiment, the group gave the animal a compound that prevents the LPA to bind to its receptor on brain cells of mice just before they were injected with hydrocephalus inducing LPA. These mice remained healthy, the researchers report today Science Translational Medicine .

Why LPA have this effect? "It's almost like a drug overdose," says Chun. LPA receptors are all on neural progenitor cells, which go to form neurons and other cell types in the brain of a young. When a flood of LPA strikes, "it leads them to do things they would not do." This results in changes in brain structure as a form and movement of cells from which they are supposed to be, including those lining the ventricles and help control the flow of fluid.

hydrocephalus researchers, who have long been frustrated by the slow progress of the field, are enthusiastic. "It really blew me away," says McAllister work. "This is the first time that we recognized that there are bad things in the blood that can affect cells" and cause hydrocephalus.

Although the work has been done only in mice and should be confirmed, there is hope that it will be. the LPA receptor is expressed in the brains of human fetuses, as in mice, and in the same types of neural progenitor cells. "This is good news," said Pat Levitt, a neuroscientist at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. "Is it a conclusion as will be linked to the human condition? ... I think in a case like this, it is fair to say yes."

Equally exciting is the discovery provides a clear path to therapy. Although there is no LPA receptor blocker on the market at the moment, proteins fall into a class that is usually covered by the drug. In theory, a compound like this might be given to premature babies from birth in an effort to prevent hydrocephalus should bleed a brain occurs, or for pregnant women whose fetuses are at risk because of hydrocephalus bleeding. Chun The group began to study the cerebrospinal fluid and other human samples, to see what the PLA is doing there.

National Institutes of Health (NIH) of the controversial plan of director Francis Collins to launch a new translational biomedical research center received a phone thumb today in a white House announcement on scientific initiatives. NIH also deployed a project early to planned center, promising up to $ 140 million over 5 years to develop a chip for predicting the toxicity of drugs.

The drug chip will be developed in a partnership to include NIH, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and DARPA - the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency - which is known for the financing of risky research. Collins said the first cooperation of this kind will try to combine types of human cells, such as cells of the liver and kidneys, which can represent physiological systems and "talk to each other" on a chip that will be used to predict whether a drug will be careful. Researchers will try to grow cells in three dimensions rather than a flat layer because it is a better way to model how a drug will act in human tissues. The project "is really ambitious," says Collins.

DARPA this week started soliciting proposals for its part, which will focus on engineering. Half of NIH funding, which can involving intramural and extramural researchers come from the joint director of the Fund.

the drug chip will be a project of the National Center for the advancement of translational sciences (NCATS), which got a mention when President Barack Obama signed a new law on patents. the white house has also touted a new low licensing agreement cost to help startup companies license the inventions of NIH and FDA research intramural.

Several senators asked whether NCATS is necessary, and representative Denny Rehberg (R-MT), chairman of a key spending committee House of representatives, said NIH should not seek the director of NCATS up Congress gave its approval. Undaunted, NIH this week has put an advertisement for the post. It is "a potential administrator of a potential center," says Collins. Failing to plan ahead, he said, "would not be responsible."

The NCATS funding remains uncertain, however. The new center is not in a draft law called home project continuing resolution that would extend funding for government agencies for 7 weeks after the end of fiscal 2011 on October 1. But the center could be included in a bill in 2012 spending a panel to examine the Senate Tuesday. Collins said NIH is also optimistic about an omnibus bill called the financing of all agencies in 2012, which could be adopted in the coming weeks. "I remain very optimistic that we will eventually be able to start NCATS beginning of fiscal 2012," said Collins.

Meanwhile, the uncertain fate of the National Center for Research Resources, which will dissolved if and when NCATS is created, left a lot to ask. the councilors were informed this week that they should be ready to return for the next meeting of the institute in February, said board member Mark lively Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. and NCRR staff members still do not know if they will change jobs in a few days. "It is a puzzle. In two weeks, in theory, they must report to a new boss, "said animated.

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that a "safe injection site" in Vancouver, which aims to counter the spread HIV can continue to operate, providing a place for people to inject drugs under medical supervision and without the threat of arrest.

The federal government, including the Minister of Health had argued in court that the installation of the province sanctioned, called Insite, has to close because it violated the country's laws regarding possession and trafficking of controlled substances. "The effect of denying the services of Insite to the population it serves and the correlative increase in the risk of death and injecting drug users illness is grossly disproportionate to any benefit that Canada might derive from presenting a uniform stance on the possession of drugs, "the court wrote in its unanimous decision.

the "fabulous decision" opens the door to further discussion, including the ability to open multiple sites and even provide pharmaceutical grade opiate users, said Julio Montaner, director of the Centre of Excellence HIV / AIDS in Vancouver, which supported Insite since its inception in 03. "the federal government said abstinence is the best approach, and the court said if you stop the supervised injections, you kill people," said Montaner. he added that if his son was addicted to heroin, he wanted to stop using, but if he could not, "I'll tell next best thing is to reduce the harm."

Studies have shown that Insite has reduced overdose deaths and the risk of being infected with HIV and has also led to an increased use of drug treatment programs. Insite has kept its doors open for legal challenges and for now will continue to operate under an "exemption" laws on the control of federal substances.

The bleak outlook for the financing of biomedical research is causing much anxiety to $ 30.7 billion National Institutes of Health (NIH). In an unusual gesture candid this week, the NIH has described some of the hard choices in detail and reached out to the scientific community for advice on how to keep afloat the laboratories of researchers it funds.

In a post on his blog yesterday Rock Talk, NIH Deputy Director for Extramural Research Sally Rockey says the NIH budget has been essentially stable since 04 and that the agency is facing "a continuation of this trend or perhaps even declining budgets "in the years to come. "As we consider how to continue to fund biomedical research in circulation during periods of austerity, we are evaluating various options, including looking closely at how we manage the resources of the NIH," she wrote.

A related slide deck sets out various options. So far, the NIH allowed rate-the proportion of grant applications considered success that receive funding to "bottom out", which means "do nothing but let the system corrects itself, "says a slide. (in 2011, the probable success rate has slipped well below 20% for the first time.) Slides describe other options that could help stretch NIH money more further and support the success rate. These include limiting the number of grants or total amount of money an investigator can receive, by cutting the size of grants, or capping the size of salaries that can be paid with an NIH grant.

To see how these actions would help, NIH has included interactive graphics. For example, if NIH has limited the number of fellowships to three (some investigators now have six or more), it would free up $ 111 million, enough to fund 264 more new subsidies and increase the success rate 20.6% to 21.1%.

Some, if not all of these options may be controversial. For example, last week, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and other groups took a stand against the reduction of the highest salaries in grants of $ 199,700 to 165,300 $, as proposed by the draft the House of representatives the draft spending bill. AAMC argued that the reduction in ceilings "disadvantages" of the most productive scientists and discourage physicians to pursue research. And a recent report from a panel of expenses Senate warned that "continuing to nick away" at a rate of success or size of the Price "will inevitably have a negative impact."

Rockey encourages researchers to comment on his blog or by e-mailing: NIHResourceManagement@nih.gov

The development of a vaginal gel that can cut the risk of HIV infection in a woman over 50% has was one of the few unqualified victories amid a decade of setbacks in research against HIV / AIDS. Tomorrow, the husband and wife team of researchers who proved the effectiveness of the gel will receive the first prize Olusegun Obasanjo of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS) at a ceremony in Nairobi, Kenya.

"Quarraisha and I are humbled and honored to be the recipient," South African epidemiologist Salim Abdool Karim said Science INSIDER, referring to his wife, Quarraisha Abdool Karim. "Women are the main victims of the HIV epidemic in southern Africa. Tenofovir gel is the first HIV prevention technology to enable them to directly control their risk of HIV infection. "

The award is named for the former president of Nigeria. Malik Maaza physicist the LABS-iThemba National Research Foundation of South Africa and member of ASA, said Obasanjo has set up $ 5 million of his own money and his gift "was highly scrutinized by noble minds and member senior capable of ASA before acceptance. "the prize money of $ 5,000 carries extra meaning of being a science prize by and for Africans, he said.

As part of a series of measures to support the life sciences sector countries, the UK is planning to increase researchers' access to medical patient data and funnel £ 180 million ($ 280 million) to a new fund designed to help transform basic science into marketable treatments, Prime Minister David Cameron announced today. The movements also include £ 50 million ($ 78 million) to a London-based "cell therapy technology and innovation center", and £ 60 million ($ 93 million) to develop the secure system that would allow researchers to access to anonymised patient data from the National Health Service (NHS).

NHS plans to amend its constitution to allow patient data to be open to researchers by default, with an option to opt-out for individuals. The ability to take advantage of NHS data will be a boon for Research UK said Mark Walport, Director of the Wellcome Trust. The more patients that are involved in the research, more public interest, it said in a statement, adding that a patient once told him, "give my anonymous data is the most painless thing I can do to help others get better. "

Some have raised privacy concerns about the data access level, which is why the British government will hold a public consultation on the idea before proceeding, but Leszek Borysiewicz, Vice-Chancellor Cambridge University, also applauded the proposal. "Most people believe that information they give their doctor is used to improve health services to all. This is part of the contract within the NHS. Some people are quite horrified when [they] find you are not able to access this information. If you have a condition, I'm not even allowed to look at the database to find what you might be approached about a trial you could benefit from this, "said the former head of the Medical Research Council UK. "I am delighted that he is [Cameron] to start the debate. It is long overdue for us to have this discussion. Maybe the company will decide they do not like. But what you can not have is endless committee after the committee after year committee after year debate the issue and do not put it in the public domain. "