Health Meaning

While survival rates for many cancers have improved over the years, brain cancers often remain stubbornly insensitive treatment. Now, researchers are turning to genetic and knocked on a genetic mutation that can be used to distinguish the most deadly brain cancers. The discovery could help doctors diagnose more precisely these devastating tumors.

The most common tumor of the brain, glioblastoma, is also the most deadly. These tumors occur in two forms: primary, in which patients suddenly develop very large and malignant tumors, and secondary glioblastomas, which start as smaller tumors, less aggressive in the brain. Last fall, scientists reported an interesting difference in the genetics of these two tumor types. A particular mutation showed in secondary tumors ( Science , September 4, 08, p. 1807). Patients with the mutation also seem to have a better prognosis than those without it.

The researchers, led by D. Williams Parsons of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and Hai Yan of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, was intrigued because the gene is not previously been implicated in cancer. The gene, called isocitrate dehydrogenase-1 ( IDH1 ) encodes an important enzyme in the cellular metabolism. The researchers decided to sequence more brain tumors to check what types of mutations occurring in the gene IDH1 and their impact on cancer cells.

They sampled the DNA of 445 brain tumor which had been removed from patients at different stages of development. Of these, 170 carried a mutated form of a IDH1 or its cousin gene IDH2 . Most mutated tumors were either secondary glioblastomas and other tumors, less aggressive, confirming the work of last year, the researchers report online this week in The New England Journal of Medicine . Above all, each tumor with a mutant gene had a change of simple letter at about the same location on the gene, which may make it easier to use as a biomarker because it is relatively easy to spot.

Next, the researchers found that in the brain cancer cells in the laboratory, the enzymes that usually produce energy was virtually inactive in the mutant cells relative to normal cells HDI - suggesting that these cells do not metabolize energy as efficiently and have less to develop on. Despite the results of the paper Science and this, Yan said the mutation may not actually be to protect patients. It could just be signaling tumors to grow, but not as aggressive as in primary glioblastomas - but its function is far from clear at this time. This is important because the two types of tumors may look very similar under the microscope, says pathologist Roger McLendon Duke, who also participated in the research. Test for the IDH mutation could allow doctors to diagnose more accurately the disease, Yan said.

Whether the findings will lead to new treatments is not known at this stage, says cancer biologist William Hahn of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, in Boston. But just using the mutation as a diagnostic tool would be a boon for the treatment of brain cancer, he said. "We are all hoping that we will have molecular markers to distinguish between tumors that will do well or poorly"

Relate website.

• http: / /www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/1164382

The Washington Post said Obama will make the Monday.

deCODE Genetics, the Icelandic company that made a name for himself with his work of personalized medicine before running into a financial pit mud, tried to be optimistic today about his future. At present, it has just enough money to survive in the summer.

But the company says it is restructuring its debt and new investors lined up to channel some money if necessary. DeCODE has focused on two categories of products: new drugs, including drugs, and the diagnosis of Alzheimer potential. In terms of diagnosis, he has six tests on the market, based on research in Iceland, designed to measure the risk of diseases such as heart attack and prostate cancer. Because the tests are already providing income and are likely to provide more fairly quickly, the company said, summarizing the financial results of 08 that he shift focus and resources available to them.

"deCODE is in a very difficult place for now," said Kári Stefánsson, CEO. There are five months, it was the same point. The company was suddenly million short of dollars when Lehman Brothers, which had managed his money, dissolved, but earlier this year, managed to access these auction rate securities and sell them for about $ 12 million to continue function.

US National Institutes of Health has released its highly anticipated draft guidelines for the research funded by the federal government on stem cells. The draft regulation would allow research only on human embryonic stem cells derived from surplus embryos that fertility clinics planned to discard. The work on cell lines made from embryos created for research purposes would not be eligible for funding.

More details to come.

(Editor's note: original title of this object, "Obama plays his cards on stem cells" has been changed since it was the decision of the NIH on the lines to allow research, not the White House.)

US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new details on the case of swine flu in the United States. The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report ( MMWR ) sending supporting evidence earlier that the virus is spreading from human to human, adding six cases to the two discovered earlier. The six cases were revealed at a press conference Friday, April 24, but the MMWR provides more details about each case.

The federal government has opened the door to research on embryonic stem cells, and is now to determine what ethical chains to join. But researchers in California are worried that the expected limits could still cause aggravation if they do not fit the standards of their own funding agency, the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). Issues involving both the consent and the source of the embryos are under discussion.

Scientists say that the draft rules enacted by the National Institutes of Health, 17 April will put some lines, including scientifically valuable cell lines approved under the Bush administration -out limits. The NIH project requires written by couples state that they were informed of the "alternatives" before giving their embryos. Often couples are said other options orally, but it is not part of the written informed consent, said Geoffrey Lomax, senior officer for medical and ethical standards at CIRM. The institute noted that its rules have the seal of approval of the National Academy of Sciences and the International Research Society for Stem Cell.

"As the leading provider of research funding on human embryonic stem cells in the world, CIRM's interest to ensure that the rules of the NIH comply with medical and ethical standards of CIRM," the institute said in a draft declaration. If the federal government put excessive eligibility bar, CIRM said, "some scientifically important lines can not qualify." One way to avoid the problem, he says, is for the NIH to consider "grandfathering" in established lines that might not otherwise qualify. The CIRM statement also recommends the creation of a register of "consistent lines."

Everybody needs to be in line as far as possible, the draft declaration emphasizes, to eliminate confusion and red tape that would otherwise ensue in studies of a mixture of federal funding and state. While it is possible to have consistency in the consent procedures, there will always be a gap between the federal and state rules regarding the source of stem cells, because scientists federally funded will still not be allowed to derive new cell lines. this involves the destruction of an embryo, which is prohibited by the Congress by the so-called Dickey-Wicker amendment that prohibits the use of federal funds for research on embryos. One reason for the creation of CIRM was to allow scientists to produce new cell lines, including the controversial method called research cloning and yet unproven, or nuclear transfer of somatic cells.

The new working group is expected to report by the end of May in a long time to NIH to be careful before issuing final guidelines in early July.

CIRM board should approve the creation of a working group to assess the NIH draft guidelines at its 2-day meeting this week.

detailed preparation plans developed over the past five years have been a boon for officials struggling against the swine flu. But not everyone is reading from the same page, as shown at press conferences held today in the United States, Sweden and Switzerland. In part, this is because as useful as preparedness plans may be, "the microbes do not read the plan, and you need to move away from relatively short time plan after the first day," said Richard Besser, acting director of the Centers for Disease control and prevention.

As CDC, the World Health Organization in Geneva, and the European Centre prevention and control (ECDC) in Stockholm made clear, the country- and even states and cities in diseases custom-countries are making answers to their homes. Perspectives differ on containment strategies, including school closures, travel restrictions, and airport screenings . decisions vary as to when to report cases. and many localities were still limited, if any, the opportunity to test the new virus causing the epidemic. There is even a debate on whether to call the epidemic "swine flu" or not, with WHO and other renaming less catchy "H1N1 virus," and some calling it the "Mexican flu".

More countries will get to stick their fingers in this pie because the virus spreads rapidly. laboratory confirmed cases to 236 from 148 yesterday; and three other European countries have joined the list: the Netherlands, France (with a probable case), and Switzerland. Peru and Costa Rica are now areas of influenza, too. Even a member of the security team of President Barack Obama is suspected of catching swine flu during a recent visit to Mexico with the President. Because of this spread, Angus Nicoll, program manager of the flu ECDC, said today that it is "inevitable" that WHO will increase the alert level of the pandemic phase 5-6 and "it is just a question of when it will happen" But wHO said the situation has not changed. "There is nothing which suggests epidemiologically today that we should go to the Phase 6, "said Keiji Fukuda, WHO's assistant director general for health security and environment, in a briefing

" There is a backlog of several thousand specimens to be tested, "Fukuda said.

Thanks to some additional tests, the number of confirmed cases in Mexico jumped to 97 from 26, but the number of deaths remains at 7. officials expect these numbers increase as the backlog is cleared.

meanwhile, senior health officials from various countries try to coordinate disease surveillance and with each other, to spend hours a transnational conference calls even then that quibble separately on details such as travel restrictions (considered unnecessary by the CDC and WHO, but recommended by some countries), and the importance of antiviral drugs. Identify any case, is also a priority, as determining when to limit social gatherings, such as Mexico did. "Countries are looking very hard for outbreaks" and governments "prepare business continuity plans," said Nicoll. This means considering what types of businesses or government operations could be briefly closed as the courts, and which ones, such as shipping of food, must remain open.

another source of confusion is the value of computer models to predict the trajectory of the virus. Besser said CDC used models to discuss issues such as closing the value of borders but stressed they had their limits. "Like many modelers you have, you will have the number of estimates," he said. Nicoll said that at this stage, we do not know enough about the virus to model reliably. Although this has not prevented "everyone at this stage" to look for data modeling, he noted.

Meanwhile, US Vice President Joseph Biden caused a stir earlier today when he said he would not travel by plane or subway, contradicting the advice of his boss and prompted the quick clarification of Mr. Biden's office.

Health Ministers of the European Union met in Luxembourg today about the response outbreak, while another meeting was underway in London to discuss whether vaccine manufacturers should spend efforts to produce a vaccine against the swine H1N1 rather than seasonal influenza vaccine an extremely difficult call given the uncertainties about H1N1 and how dangerous it is, and is likely to become.

CDC, the race to sequence the virus from those infected, said it is seeing "slight changes" in its genetic makeup, but Besser said, scientists of agency do not know what that means.

A review of the long-awaited scientific evidence relating to the investigation of the 01 attacks of anthrax letters finally take off. The study, to be conducted by the National Academies, will check the validity of scientific techniques used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to solve the case. What the study will not, as stated in the official description of the academies of the study is to issue a verdict if US Army researcher Bruce Ivins was indeed guilty of the crime, as concluded by FBI officials.

The FBI has been under pressure to disclose its full case against Ivins since July 29, 08, when the researcher commits suicide. The death prevented a trial and prompted accusations from some quarters that the FBI hounded an innocent man to a tragic end. FBI officials responded with press conferences detailing some of the facts of the case, including the scientific methods used to trace the anthrax in the letters to a flask under the burden of Ivins at the US Army Medical Research Institute infectious diseases in Frederick, Maryland. At a hearing last year before the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee in September, FBI Director Robert Mueller announced that the agency will ask the academies of veterinary science behind the conclusion.

The FBI will pay academies $ 879,550 for the study, which should take up to 15 months. A statement from the task of academies, the fields of scientific evidence to consider include, but are not limited to:

1. genetic studies that led to the identification of potential sources of B. anthracis recovered from letters;

2. Analysis of four genetic mutations that were found in evidence that are unique to strains of a subset of Ames cultures collected during the investigation;

3. Chemical studies and meetings that examined how, where, and when the spores may have been grown and, where appropriate, additional treatments, they were subjected to;

4. Studies of recovery of spores and bacterial DNA from samples taken and analyzed during the investigation; and

5. the role that cross-contamination might have played in the picture of the evidence.

...

The committee will not, however, make an assessment of the probative value of the scientific evidence in any specific component of the investigation, prosecution or civil litigation and not offer views on the guilt or innocence of any person (s) in connection with the 01 B. anthracis mailings, or any other incidents B. anthracis.

As another day passes with the World Health Organization (WHO) not declaring that the swine flu outbreak is a full pandemic -scale, more questions are surfacing about why this novel H1N1 has not spread as easily in European and Asian communities such as the USA, Mexico and perhaps Canada. During press conferences held today by WHO and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), officials have suggested that the virus was widespread in the Americas before it is detected, making it almost impossible to confine. Europe and Asia, by contrast, had a heads-up, and countries have closely monitored travelers returning from North America, with many infected people and their close contacts on antiviral drugs and to force some patients stay in isolation.

WHO and CDC note that the daily event that they have provided have many limitations, because they tend to pick the most serious cases first. CDC said it is now more interested in trends that the number of specific cases. But the numbers are still counted, and as of today, WHO reported that there were over 5,0 confirmed cases in 30 countries, almost 0% were in Mexico and the United States.

Nikki Shindo, who is leading the clinical team of the Global Programme of WHO influenza, said each country responds according to its own plan and resources. "European countries, which are mainly importing the cases, have resorted to very aggressive antivirals," Shindo said. "Maybe in Asia, because of the experience with SARS and H5N1 avian infection, they would like to hold a higher level of security and preparedness and prevention in relation to this outbreak of H1N1. " In North America, Shindo noted, treatment with antiviral medicines is largely reserved for severe cases and those who are more at risk of the virus because of other problems or underlying health of pregnancy.

Shindo said that no data can still prove that antivirals work against this new H1N1 virus to diminish the seriousness of studies and the spread of the disease, but a test tube have shown that the virus can resist no to drugs.

Anne Schuchat, acting Deputy Director of the CDC for science and public health, in particular stressed the need for pregnant women receive antiviral, noting that there have been 20 confirmed cases and one death in this group. Schuchat said CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report publish data on those cases in pregnant women "fairly quickly".

Add two months the production schedule of a vaccine against the virus causing the swine flu, says an advisory group to the World health organization (WHO).

It may be mid-July before the manufacturers have the "seed stock" appropriate to start making the vaccine against the new flu (H1N1), according to a report published online today from a WHO working group on vaccines met by teleconference May 14 the report shows a crude form of seed stock will probably be ready at the end of the month, but 1-2 weeks of testing in animals will be required. manufacturers typically require 1 to 2 months more to find the most dynamic strains that produce the most virus surface proteins, which are the main ingredients in a vaccine. the group has warned that too fast " could lead to vaccine into production with low growth potential strains', as happened with a strain of H5N1, the avian flu. "Using an A (H1N1) growing evil could reduce the global supply of a vaccine (H1N1)," the group warned.

On May 1, Marie-Paule Kieny, Director wHO's initiative for vaccine research, predicted that the seed stock would be ready "in mid or late May." Kieny, who spoke at a press conference, said "the reality is that from the time the potentially pandemic virus is identified, it takes between 4 to 6 months to have the first doses of vaccine out of the factory and available to immunize people"

work group's report does not respond when a final product will probably exist, but estimated 4.9 billion doses "could be produced. over a period of 12 months after the start of the large-scale production" the group noted that this would require using "dose formulations sparing most", which means adding boosters called adjuvants to vaccines; Vaccines against influenza approved in some countries, including the United States, do not use adjuvants. But four European countries have recently secured GlaxoSmithKline they would buy more than 100 million doses of a vaccine against it is considering making the new H1N1 strain with an adjuvant.

The working group "was premature" to start shopping -scale producing the vaccine and also stressed that although WHO is facing up to the outbreak of a phase 5 alert to phase 6, indicating a large-scale pandemic, that "does not automatically mean that the wHO recommends that manufacturers should switch to seasonal influenza a (H1N1) production."

Leprosy has been with us much longer than we thought. In a new study, researchers report the discovery of a skeleton 4000 years in India with the devastation characteristic of the disease. The discovery pushes back the origins of leprosy at least 1500 years and gives clues on how the disease spread worldwide.

Until now, the earliest evidence widely accepted for leprosy was from South Asian texts dating from the 6th century BC, which refer to the characteristic numbness in fingers and toes of sufferers. Leprosy begins by attacking the skin and peripheral nerves, but may eventually eat its way into the bone. Final skeletal evidence earlier of Egypt in the 2nd century B.C.E. The Vedas, the sacred writings of Hinduism, mention what could be leprosy in the late second millennium B.C.E.

Now it seems that the Vedic texts were accurate. A team of Indian and American scientists reports online today in PLoS ONE find signs of leprosy in a skeleton buried there about 4000 years in northeast India.

The skeleton was found at a site called Balathal Rajasthan excavations. There, a settlement of people lived copper-work in stone or mud brick huts and grew barley. The bones were buried in the ashes of cow dung in an enclosure with thick stone wall on the edge of the colony. Radiocarbon dating shows the skeleton, a man in his late 30s, was buried between 2500 and 00 B.C.E. Although the skeleton was fragmented, the researchers found that the erosion and pitting of the bones around the nose and cheeks, and in the ribs, vertebrae and limbs. The loss of bone around the nose and the destruction of the nasal spine is a characteristic of leprosy, say the authors, led by anthropologist Gwen Robbins from Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina.

The authors say they could exclude the other most likely explanations for the state of man, namely, tuberculosis or a bone infection. TB involves osteoporosis in the spine; there was no sign of the death of bone tissue caused by infection.

The report highlights where leprosy appeared and how it found its place in the world. A genomic analysis in 05 suggested ( Science NOW, 12 May 05) that the disease could have the first broadcast with the emergence of modern humans in East Africa; Other researchers have suggested more recent origins. The authors emphasize the notion that leprosy appeared in the 3rd millennium BC, perhaps in India, urbanization and trade routes have increased, because the close contact between humans is necessary for the transmission of the disease .

Ron Pinhasi, a biological anthropologist who studies paleopathology at University College Cork in Ireland agrees with this interpretation. "The case ... Balathal fits our scenario and is an important contribution to current knowledge," he said.

This article has been updated with a list of other countries with similar bans and a statement the Department of Health and Human services (HHS) .

The International AIDS Society (IAS), which portrays the biennial international event that attracts more than 20,000 participants, said he plans to hold the gathering 2012 in Washington, DC But before it holds throughout the conference the United States, the federal government needs to change a law that forbids people with HIV from entering the country.

IAS moved the 1992 conference in Boston to Amsterdam because the US government instituted the ban; the conference did not take place in the country since. "This long-standing law, which is contrary to all scientific evidence and the principles of human rights, is one of the weakest points of the US in HIV policy," the president said IAS Julio Montaner in a statement.

the US Congress repealed the law in July 08, but the US Department of Health and Human services still has HIV on the list of communicable diseases that . input bar the international AIDS conference has been held in Washington, DC, in 1987.

Eight other countries have a similar ban on HIV immigration: Brunei, China, Oman, Qatar, South Korea, Sudan, UAE and Yemen.

in a statement to ScienceInsider, HHS said it presented "a project notice the development of rules to implement this change" Office of management and budget for review.

Note :. This article has been corrected and updated to include more information on the projects

The US National Cancer Institute will help the Chilean Ministry of Health has set up a register bank and cancer national tumor, as well as assist in breast cancer studies and gallbladder cancer. NCI announced the company yesterday, after representatives of the two countries signed a letter of intent. Collaboration may include the sharing of research material and work together on cross-border projects; there is no money involved. Chile is the first of five Latin American countries - Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Uruguay -. Who officially signed to work with the NCI on cancer research

The NCI focus not provide money, but expertise in different areas to help a country such as Chile get a cancer registry soil, said Jorge Gomez, director of the Office of Latin American cancer program development at NCI. "It is really them" to fund the projects, he said, NCI and is in discussions with them to determine the amount of money they can spend.

Scientifically, Gomez believes much can be learned. For example, a country like Uruguay has made cancer control cervix, while other Latin American countries havent, but why remains a mystery. In addition, five Latin American participants are interested in getting the help of NCI to develop molecular profiles of breast cancer in their patients, which could unravel how breast cancer varies among populations, and the best way to treat it.

Correction: Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Uruguay have not yet signed agreements of collaboration with the NCI on cancer research. They are expected to do so later this summer.

BEIJING -China may have strict quarantine procedures in the world to limit the spread of the influenza A H1N1 as I discovered first hand today.

I'm Asia science editor . My family and I lived in Beijing for nearly 2 years. Earlier today, we got on a flight to London from Beijing Capital Airport, via Amsterdam. I had taken part in the World Conference of Science Journalists in London last week and my family and I visited relatives in the UK.

In response to the pandemic, an advice of the medical team for each international flight arriving in China and scans each passenger with an infrared thermometer. We landed, assuming that all was well. But at a counter where passengers are turning in medical reports, we were stopped on the side and said that our younger son, Quinn, who is 6 had a slight fever and would be tested for the virus of a process that take "one hour or three."

My wife was allowed to go home with our eldest son, while Quinn and I donned masks and were escorted past gawking other passengers, a backdoor and taken by ambulance-driver was dressed head -to-toe in a biological suit at a hospital downtown. We entered a makeshift isolation ward outside the hospital and a nurse wearing a surgical gown, face mask and goggles, locked the door from inside. It was a few minutes before 11:00 local time.

Quinn and I had our own room. A wall fan was whirring, but the room has no air conditioning and it was roasting. We were whomped night flying, and lounged lazily on the beds. After an hour, a nurse came and brought us a simple, takeaway Chinese lunch. Soon after, a pediatrician came and rubbed Quinn throat to test for the virus.

We waited in the afternoon for the results. If the test is positive, we would be sent to another hospital and quarantined for at least a week, and the rest of my family and other passengers on our flight would be sent to one of the local hotels that are looped to exclusively servants in quarantine. I did not expect this result, Quinn had no symptoms of the flu outside the fever. Over time, and a nurse brought us dinner, I was growing anxious. But in the end, around 19:30, we were given the green light and released from confinement.

I understand China's desire to limit the spread of influenza A, both to buy more time to prepare a vaccine and to limit the possibility that the virus mixing with avian flu much more deadly endemic to the region. It seems to work for now. Next flu season in the northern hemisphere, all paris are off.

In the House of Representatives spending panel today approved an increase of $ 942 million for the National Institutes of Health that would bring its budget $ 2010-31300000000. This boost of 3.1% is about double what President Barack Obama requested. According to the Representative David Obey (D-WI), Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, the new money would also be in 27 institutes and centers of the NIH. (Details of the spending bill is not yet available.)

The request of the president included a 5% increase for cancer research at NIH, including a boost of 3.6 % to the National cancer Institute. Labor, health and social services, education subcommittee "reject [ed] The targeted funding approach to administration and ensur [ed] all institutes and centers receive funding to offset the inflation of biomedical research, "the press release said Obey.

biomedical research groups have welcomed the decision of the panel, the first step in a budget process long. "We are very happy. We are pleased to see that not only is it more than the president requested, but [Obey] does not intend to allocate funds for a specific disease, "said Carrie Wolinetz, spokeswoman experimental biology of Federation of American societies. FASEB has been said that the bill also rejects an additional $ 19 million for autism research that the president asked.

Malaria fighters nightmare appeared in the western Cambodia. Parasites with resistance to the most effective drugs in the world. The new discovery is a blow to hopes that humanity could eliminate the disease in the coming decades. It also highlights, say the researchers, the urgent need to fight against muscular malaria along the Thai-Cambodian border and more action around the world against the misuse of drugs against malaria.

Artemisinin, derived from the plant Artemisia, is a key tool in the global fight against malaria. It kills malaria parasites especially quickly, which gives them less chance to develop resistance. As a bulwark against the resistance, doctors combine artemisinin-based drugs with a second drug, such as mefloquine, so that any parasites that are beyond treatment are killed by the other.

In Cambodia, however, the use of artemisinin-based drugs without saving a second drug is widespread. Many people rely on local drug dealers who sell pills one at a time - many of them counterfeit, says Duong Socheat of the National Centre for Parasitology, Entomology and fight against malaria in Phnom Penh. The incomplete treatment is the perfect recipe for the development of resistant strains, he said.

Scattered reports of cases of artemisinin-resistant malaria began to appear in the region over the past decade, and the researchers carefully watched for signs that resistant strains can be striking. Socheat, with Arjen Dondorp of Mahidol University in Bangkok and other colleagues took a look more closely at the situation. They studied 40 patients with malaria in Pailin, western Cambodia and compared them with 40 patients in Wang Pha in northwestern Thailand, a region where artemisinin-based therapies are known to be effective.

In an article to be published tomorrow The New England Journal of Medicine , the team reports that it took much longer for the drugs to clear parasites from the blood of patients Pailin - a median of 84 hours compared to 48 hours in Wang Pha. The rapid clearance is the mark of artemisinin, "the situation is very worrying," says Dondorp. Although the double blow of the combined therapy can even cure patients, allowing parasites to survive a day or two sheets of therapy "very vulnerable to the continued development of resistance," he said, which could lead to even more dangerous strains.

Another article in the same issue with evidence of resistance: Socheat, Harald Noedl Medical University of Vienna, and Wichai Satimai the Ministry of Public Health in Nonthaburi, Thailand, reported that in laboratory tests, parasites patients in Cambodia and Thailand are less susceptible to artemisinin that are parasites of patients in western Thailand and Bangladesh.

Carlos Campbell of the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health in Seattle, Washington, who was not involved in either study, said in a commentary accompanying the results leave no doubt that there is resistance artemisinin in western Cambodia. The World Health Organization has already begun an intense campaign in the region to contain the emerging threat by first intensive treatment all cases of malaria in the region and try to eliminate the use of monotherapies based artemisinin. Even if this campaign succeeds, Noedl said it is only a matter of time until resistance develops elsewhere. "It happened once and it can happen again," he said.

A new type of technology has sequenced the human genome in a month and reagents is less than $ 50,000, according to a report released today in Nature Biotechnology . But this step, the quick cheap genomes does not mean the end for large sequencing centers.

human genomes produced to date all need many instruments operated in parallel and cost up to $ 500,000 per genome, said Stephen Quake, a biophysicist at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, and founder of Helicos Biosciences of Cambridge, Massachusetts. The HeliScope Single Molecule Sequencer is the first instrument of commercial single molecule sequencing, so called because it does not require the production of millions of copies of target DNA for analysis. Instead, the DNA is cut into small pieces and mounted at very high densities in a flow cell where a highly sensitive camera monitors step by addition of the base step for each sequencing reaction.

The demonstration provides "plug and play" a sequencing closer to reality step, in which individual laboratories will be able to do what is now done primarily in large sequencing centers. "This is the main party of the outgoing Helicos machine," says Jeffery Schloss of the National Institute for Research on the human genome in Bethesda, Maryland.

However, the machines cost $ 1 million. That's several times the price of other sequencing machines, says Schloss. Although these machines hint at a future where individual laboratories sequencing large genomes, Schloss stresses that the main centers continue to play a role in improving technologies and their uses and to develop analytical tools for genome projects

Photo credit:. S. Quake / Stanford

A leading prostate cancer researcher was sued by a biotechnology company for making false statements about a biomarker to detect prostate cancer, according to a surprising story in Pittsburgh. Tribune-Review yesterday

article indicates that in 01, Robert Getzenberg and the University of Pittsburgh has claimed to find a prostate cancer biomarker called EPCA-2 that its patented University . This led to the formation of a company, Onconome Inc. to develop and market. Getzberg became a consultant to the company. But now Onconome, based in Redmond, Washington, Getzenberg continues in federal court for the presentation of scientific results over 6 years "have been and are imaginary," the trial would have said. Getzenberg is now at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.

Early clinical trial results suggest that children healthy older under 9 will likely need two doses of vaccine against swine flu, but those between 10 and 17 can be obtained with a single stroke, US health officials announced today.

In studies sponsored by the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), 8 to 10 days after receiving a dose of 15 micrograms of inactivated vaccine that contains protein of the new H1N1 virus 76% of older children had an antibody response "robust". But in children aged 3 to 9 years old, the same immune response was observed in 39% of children vaccinated, and it fell to 25% in children 6 to 35 months. Anthony Fauci, director of NIAID, said at a press conference that the vaccine behaves very much like the vaccine against seasonal influenza, which requires even a second dose in young children because their immune system less mature. "Overall, this is very good news for the vaccination program, both with regard to the supply of the vaccine and its potential efficacy," said Fauci.

As explained Fauci, antibody researchers expect answers to continue to climb for 21 days, the central points of end studies. The trials, involving 0 children, found no significant difference in antibody responses to 15 micrograms or 30 micrograms of the vaccine. The percentage of people who have a strong antibody response indicates whether a second dose is needed, but no strict off cut exists, and recommendations may change if the conflicting data surface before the vaccine becomes widely available in mid-October. The results of older children closely match the initial results with the new H1N1 vaccine in adults. No studies have reported severe side effects.

A small amount of the vaccine will be available in early October for people considered at high risk of suffering from serious diseases of the new H1N1 virus, but it will be a live attenuated product. No data yet exist on the effectiveness of the vaccine against swine flu, although Jesse Goodman of the Food and Drug Administration of the United States said at the press conference that "it is likely that younger children can need a second dose. "

in what clearly pose a logistical challenge for parents and health care providers, younger children will ideally receive two doses of vaccine against seasonal influenza, spaced 21 days apart, and as two doses to swine flu. Anne Schuchat, director of the National Center for immunization and respiratory diseases at the US Centers for disease Control and Prevention, said vaccines against influenza inactivated seasonal and swine can be administered simultaneously, but there are concerns about giving the two versions of and inactivated living products simultaneously. She advised parents of young children to begin to give them the seasonal vaccine, which is widely available now. "This will be a complicated flu season," said Schuchat.

descendants of Queen Victoria males were hit by poor health. The son of the British monarch of the 19th century Leopold, Duke of Albany, died from blood loss after he slipped and fell. His grand-son Friedrich bled to 2 years; grandchildren son Leopold and Maurice, 32 and 23, respectively ages. The affliction commonly known as the "royal disease" spread like Victoria's heirs married into royal families across Europe, decimating the thrones of Britain, Germany, Russia and 'Spain. Based on the symptoms, modern researchers concluded that the royals have suffered from hemophilia - a genetic disease that prevents blood clotting - but there was never any concrete evidence. Now a new DNA analysis on the bones of the last Russian royal family, the Romanovs, indicates the Royal disease was indeed hemophilia, a rare subtype known as hemophilia B. name

Hemophilia prevents proteins known under the name of fibrin scab on a cut or blood clots to stop internal bleeding. Even minor injuries can lead to bleeding that lasts for days or weeks and can be fatal. The disease is recessive and is carried on the X chromosome, which means that men are more likely to develop, while women generally act as carriers and have no symptoms.

This was the case with Prince Alexei Romanov, Tsar Nicolas II's son, grand-son of Queen Victoria and heir to the Russian throne. From a young age, Alexei was prone to prolonged bleeding, and her family feared he would not make it through the first month of life, says Evgeny Rogaev, a geneticist at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester. The disease did not kill Alexei, however: He was killed at age 13 in 1918, and the rest of the Russian royal family after the Russian Revolution. Earlier this year, Rogaev and colleagues reported that according to DNA analysis, the bodies of two children found near the murder site were those of Alexei and his sister Maria. They also confirmed that the other bodies near the site belonged to the remains of the Romanov family. But Rogaev wanted to solve the final puzzle Romanov: Do they really have hemophilia

He and his colleagues analyzed the DNA fragments of royal bones, this time looking for genetic markers of 'haemophilia?. The most common type of the disease, hemophilia A, represents about 80% of cases of hemophilia and is caused by a mutation in a gene called F8 , which encodes a protein involved in the blood clotting. They do not find the mutation. Rogaev then went in search of a rare form of the disease, hemophilia B, which implies another gene F9 . This time, the team found a mutation in F9 , which would have inhibited coagulation, in the bones of Alexei, his sister Anastasia, and their mother Alexandra.

The results, published online today science indicate that Alexei had hemophilia B and actually his mother and Anastasia were carriers of the disease, on the previous speculation. They also confirm that other cases of "royal illness" in the family line were hemophilia, Rogaev said, because they all shared a common genetic heritage. The last carrier of the disease in the royal family was Prince Waldemar of Prussia, who died in 1945.

The disease affected not only the Romanov family, but also probably Russian history, Rogaev said. fragile state of his mother Alexandra Alexei encouraged to keep close company with the Russian mystic Rasputin, who claimed to use healing magic. "There was no medicine to that point," said Rogaev. "She tried to do everything that is possible." According to some historians, when Rasputin used his close relationship with the Romanovs to influence bureaucratic business his favor, the public has grown increasingly suspicious of the regime, perhaps hasten the revolution.

Katherine High, a hematologist who studied blood coagulation at the Philadelphia children's Hospital, said the mutation found in Romanov bones corresponds to an established genetic profile known to cause hemophilia B, further in supporting the conclusions of Rogaev. Tracing this model to the royal family and its history of the disease is "very interesting and exciting," she said.

people affected by the disease of today should be delighted to see as more of hemophilia B stage the shadow of a common type, pediatrician says hematologist Paul Monahan, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. "Now it is clear that it has had a huge impact on Western history."

The prospect that Americans receive the vaccine against swine flu in time to protect this second wave of American epidemic continues to dim. with pandemic showing "widespread activity" in 47 states-six more than a week ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now concedes that many people will be infected before they have a chance to get vaccinated. "The vaccine will come too late for many," said CDC Director Thomas Frieden told a press conference this afternoon. But he noted that the third wave of the disease can occur next winter, when that there should be enough vaccine available.

last week, Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC National Center for immunization and respiratory diseases said 28 milion to 30 million doses could be ready to the end of October, an adjustment to the significant decrease of over 40 million that Health and Human services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius predicted three weeks earlier. Although Frieden declined to new projections for the weeks and months to come, even those 28 million now seems unlikely. in the last 7 days the number has increased slightly from 11.4 to 16.1 million doses.

Frieden, who called the delays " extremely frustrating, "said manufacturers of the increasing difficulty of the virus used to make the vaccine. "Even if you yell at them, they do not grow faster," he said.

Nicole Lurie, assistant secretary for preparedness and response at HHS explained the delays Science Insider greater detail, noting that the government was something of a weather storm unforeseen problems. HHS contracted with five companies to manufacture vaccines. One, MedImmune makes a live but weakened version of the virus, which is another method for manufacturing the slain release. MedImmune has provided the product close to the scheduled time, but it does not contract for 12.8 million doses of the order of 251 million. The other four companies-CSL Biotherapies of Melbourne, Australia; Sanofi Pasteur of Lyon, France; GlaxoSmithKline London; and Novartis of Basel, Switzerland-have had different problems.

For proprietary reasons, Lurie would not name the problems of delay to each manufacturer, but said "a company was too optimistic" in its forecast of delivery to HHS. Initially, all inactivated vaccine manufacturers had problems with the "test of strength" used to ensure that 15 micrograms of influenza antigens are present in each dose. Once this has been fixed, said Lurie, the company lost 20% to 35% of antigen during the "recalibration". Unfortunately, Lurie said, the company did not notify HHS of the problem. "They thought they would compensate by getting them to return, but they know us," she said. "When we heard the problem, it was over and there was nothing we could do , which is a shame because we could have helped. "

After Columbus Day on 12 October, HHS has learned about the delays to two of the other companies. He needed a new production line for filling doses in individual syringes. "Get new production lines with prefilled syringes was very slow," Lurie said. The third company had "major problems of production" Lurie said that she could not describe in detail for proprietary reasons. Essentially, they had trouble making "acceptable" vaccine that did not contain an immunostimulant called an adjuvant, which is used in many countries but not the United States.

the final company wanted to provide his country with the vaccine before shipping products to the US, which would start the Lurie said next week. it did not identify the company but the CSL of Australia said earlier it would provide his country before exporting the product.

in response to questions about safety, Frieden said at a press conference that these companies use the same methods to make the new H1N1 vaccine they use each year to 100 million or more seasonal doses of product. But if they have so much experience making product, why so many snafus with the vaccine against the pandemic? "Almost every flu season, something goes wrong," said Lurie, noting that she was referring to manufacturing, not security.

Although Frieden explicitly refused to make predictions about future supply of pandemic vaccine, Lurie said that HHS says the state health officials later today that the Government expects to have another 10 million doses available next week. in the following weeks, projections now that manufacturers will provide 8 million to 10 million doses per week But Lurie concluded with a warning that became the mantra for the US government during this pandemic. ". It is difficult to predict a week "

With reporting by Martin Enserink .

While world attention focuses on the new H1N1 virus causing the swine flu pandemic, H3N2, seasonal flu strain has emerged in many countries of Asia is outstanding and some variants can outfox the seasonal vaccine in use. "We saw that the H3N2 virus were wide enough circulation in some countries there," Keiji Fukuda, special adviser on pandemic Director General of the World Health Organization, said at a conference press today.

The H3N2 strain is one of three in vaccines against seasonal influenza. But if the H3N2 strain in circulation is significantly different from that used to make the vaccine, the vaccine may offer less protection and more people become ill than usual. "For the current H3N2, we do not have such studies, so I can not tell you right now the extent the current seasonal flu vaccine protects against the H3N2 virus," said Fukuda.

However, some early China indicators suggest that the main circulating H3N2 there may be a lag with the vaccine strain. the H3N2 used in the seasonal vaccine is called subtype Brisbane. Shu Yuelong, director of the National Center Chinese flu in Beijing, said Science Insider in an email that, according to recent isolates their studies there, the "majority of the H3N2 virus is the virus of Perth-like." Shu noted that the Centre has no data to estimate the effectiveness of the seasonal vaccine against this subtype.

new H1N1 virus accounts for over 99% of subtyped isolates from August 30 in the US, Nancy Cox, chief of the influenza division at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said science Insider in an email there 10 days. But she said that 17% of the H3N2 subtype that they were Perth-like.

generally moves H3N2 from East Asia to Europe and the United States, but Shu said it is too early to know whether the Perth-like subtype outstanding will significant inroads in the West or reduce the effectiveness of the seasonal vaccine. "Personally, I think it is too simple to [draw] this conclusion," warned Shu. "We need more data."

a group of researchers proposes a radical approach to halt the HIV / AIDS: Go on a spending spree. Pour over $ 60 billion in treatment, massive prevention campaigns and condom distribution over the next five years, instead of distributing money slowly over 2 decades, as currently planned, will stop effectively the spread of the disease, according to a new model.

More than 33 million people worldwide are living with AIDS. The problem is particularly pronounced in South Africa and Zimbabwe, where up to 28% of the population is infected with HIV. The strategy of the World Health Organization to fight against the problem in developing countries focuses on "universal access" to HIV services. This includes treatment of infected people with antiretroviral drugs, counseling risk groups on safe sex, and mount advertising campaigns that inform people about the dangers of the disease.

Governments, non-governmental organizations and charities spend about $ 9 billion years these efforts, even if they have much more to them. "Current plans are to hold the majority of the money in reserve and go slowly," says infectious disease modeler Robert Smith? University of Ottawa in Canada (the question mark is part of his name) . "There is a tendency for people to be careful when there is a lot of money involved." the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, for example, has made the fight against HIV / AIDS a priority, but spends only $ 3 billion per year, a small fraction of its total endowment of $ 60 billion.

instead, Smith? argued that if the aim is to stop the spread of disease, then the fastest way would be to spend all the money pledged by private donors, countries and NGOs right now and outgun the epidemic before growth of the population and the number of new infections balloons out control.

in determining whether such a strategy would be effective, Smith? and colleagues developed a model for the eradication of HIV / AIDS. The model divides the world into regions and predicts the number of new cases based on the demographics and epidemiological parameters, including infection rates, the number of people treated, and resistance to antiretroviral drugs. If the rate of HIV infection can be reduced by three-fifths, the team reports today in a supplement to BMC Public Health , the prevalence of AIDS will start to decrease. "This does not mean zero cases," Smith? warnings, "but it can be a tipping point where the fight against AIDS is gaining unprecedented scale."

The strategy would not be cheap. The reduction in the HIV infection rate by three-fifths, there should be every person infected with HIV on antiretroviral drugs, education campaigns and widespread awareness, and make condoms available to every man on the planet. All these tactics are in play, "but not enough," says Smith?. The total cost would come to $ 63 billion over 5 years. Governments, NGOs and charities the money to them right now, Smith said,? they are just not spending fast enough

"I think this is a good example of utopian modeling," says epidemiologist Myron Cohen of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill. . But it gives the false impression that a solution to the HIV / AIDS is just a matter of spending money, he said, and this could discourage the development of new treatments and vaccines.

Susan Allen, public health specialist at Emory University in Atlanta, says that donors could get more for their money by focusing on high-risk groups such as heterosexual couples in Africa, rather than test and treat everyone at once.

A researcher at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) in Frederick, Maryland, contracted fever also known as tularemia, USAMRIID officials announced today. The disease is caused by bacteria Francisella tularensis , one of several biosafety level 3 pathogens that scientists are working with at USAMRIID. The researcher, a woman working on a project to develop a vaccine against the disease is "recuperating at home and responds well to antibiotics," according to a press release issued by the institute.

The rabbits, rodents and other animals harbor the microbe. Nearly 0 cases of tularemia in the United States are reported to the Centers for annually Disease Control and Prevention; most of them are caused by tick bites and flies and the handling of animals infected with the disease. The disease can also be contracted by inhaling airborne bacteria in the laboratory.

"We want to reassure Frederick and Fort Detrick communities that this disease is not spread from person to person," USAMRIID Commander John P. Skvorak said in a statement. "Our immediate concern is to ensure that our employee receives appropriate medical care. Second, we are working to determine how it may have been infected and to ensure that no one else was hurt. laboratory acquired infections are rare, but if they occur, we need to review our procedures to minimize future incidents. "

A newly developed search tool called a table Reactome, which aroused widespread interest biologists, is under intense fire by the scientists who say the description of the device in the October issue 9 of science includes reactions "impossible" chemical and makes little sense. The publication drew immediate attention because the table promises to set the functions of a myriad of enzymes and probing the metabolism of bacteria and other cell types.

Last week Science recognized rage, the online publication of an "Editorial Expression of Concern" in which, notes the editor of the magazine, Bruce Alberts that "serious questions have been raised about the methods and data presented." "It was so obvious that the chemistry was flawed," said biochemist Laura Kiessling of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, editor of ACS Chemical Biology .

While acknowledging serious mistakes in the description of methods used to create the chart Reactome - which required the synthesis of thousands of compounds representing cellular metabolites and other enzyme substrates, connecting them to a fluorescent dye, and set them on a glass slide - corresponding author of the study stand behind the camera. "We are confident in the results and technology. Many researchers have used the table without problems, "says Manuel Ferrer Institute (CSIC) Spanish National Research Council of Catalysis in Madrid.

According to Ferrer, at the request of Science, CSIC will investigate his laboratory and investigation will take place in the laboratories of collaborators in Germany and the UK. He says the Nobel prize Richard Roberts of New England Biolabs and other researchers have also agreed to carry out blind tests to verify that the network operates Reactome. Roberts confirmed this, noting that he recently visited the laboratory in Madrid and came away "impressed" after first thought Reactome Table "was too good to be true."

In private conversations and online postings, chemists began to express skepticism about the range Reactome soon as it describes it was published, noting several significant errors in the initial figure representing its creation . Some also wondered how a relatively unknown group have synthesized many complex compounds. Dismay increased when the additional line hardware providing additional information on the synthesized compounds was not available as promised. "We failed to put in the time. The data is quite large," said co-corresponding author Peter Golyshin the University of Bangor in Wales, a microbiologist whose team included bacterial samples analyzed by the laboratory Ferrer.

Science has also come under fire. "It was great no taken examiner [the errors]," says Kiessling Ferrer said that the reviewers of the paper has not raised major questions about the chemical synthesis methods described,. Chief editor of the magazine, Monica Bradford, recognized none of the lead reviewers of the paper was an organic chemist synthesis. "We do not have evidence of fraud or workmanship. We are concerned about the inconsistencies and asked the institutions of the authors to try to sort all this by examining data and laboratory original notes, "she said.

Ferrer said he assumes responsibility for all errors and apologizes. "I understand the disappointment of science and science readers" Yet some chemists, including those who have requested clarification from authors are not convinced by additional data that has since been displayed and explanations offered so far. many colleagues "think it must be fraud. I'm trying to keep an open mind, "says chemical biologist Ben Davis of the University of Oxford, UK, who wrote a skeptical critical section table Reactome ( registration or subscription required ) of the Faculty of 1000 Web site. "But it is clear that there are many unexplained elements."

Concerns over the future governance continue to shake Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), the highest rated, but an institution research in financial trouble in Houston, Texas. Last week, after merger talks with Rice University nearby collapsed, reports surface of the leaders of the BCM want to join forces with Baylor University (BU) in Waco, Texas. (Both have been linked in the past but divide it 41 years ago.) The proposal of the Protestant BCM faculty Baptist University could slow research in areas such as stem cells. The unrest follows a new setback for BCM-federal crackdown on school management of conflicts of interest.

The stated mission of Baylor University is "to educate men and women ... by integrating academic excellence and Christian commitment." News last week of a possible meeting of the two Baylors provoked a protest letter to the acting president of BCM, William Butler, and the BCM board chair. Over 400 BCM faculty and staff, students and old signed the online petition, which warns that "religious ideologies that permeate in all university policies BU can affect both scientific progress and culture at BCM, particularly regarding issues such as evolution, embryonic stem cells, and sexual orientation. "

in an email this morning, Butler said that" this is not a merger ... but rather a strengthening of our longtime affiliation with Baylor University. "Any agreement" will ensure that BCM maintains its independence and especially its scientific and academic freedom, "he wrote. But some professors of the medical school doubt that a firewall might work. researcher embryonic human stem cells Zwaka Thomas, who signed the petition, said "it makes no sense to me" BU that would form an alliance without imposing its values ​​on BCM. Otherwise, he said, "What is the point?" According to Waco Tribune-Herald , an agreement could be discussed at a meeting on January 27 BCM board.

Meanwhile, medical school is dealing with another headache. The National Institutes of Health has "serious concerns about the compliance of the BCM" with the rules on the management of conflicts of interest of investigators funded by the NIH, according to a letter last week from the NIH to Senator Charles Grassley (R- IA). the NIH review came after Grassley questioned the supervision of the school more than $ 34,000 that pharmaceutical companies paid BCM cardiologist Christie Ballantyne for work involving cholesterol-lowering medication Vytorin. NIH asked BCM to document he managed potential conflicts for each new grant and review documents for NIH grants active in 04.

"We have been and continue to work directly with the NIH on this issue and we are confident that we meet all the suggestions that have been made and any request for additional information, "said BCM science Insider in a statement.

director is planning the National Institutes of Health Francis Collins to lead his ship to institute a "big biology" at the expense single investigator grants? It was the fear of some in the community of biomedical science Monday when Collins discussed the budget request by President Obama for a 3.2% increase to $ 32 billion for NIH in 2011. But others NIH observers say look closely at the budget proposal suggests that Collins' words are just turning.

Since his first day on the job last August, Collins has repeatedly stressed its five "themes" for NIH: high-throughput technologies, translational science, reform of health care, global health and invigorating biomedical research. This week, Collins put his money where his mouth is. The portfolio of each NIH institute was "mapped against the five themes," he said, with larger increases for priority areas.

Collins also said that because the research highlighting that tends to be funded by contracts and centers, NIH came short of money to maintain its investigator-initiated grants R01 bread and butter more known collectively grants in the form of research grants (RPGs). In 2011, the NIH plans to fund 199 the number of such grants, which are the mainstay of basic research laboratories. The same reasoning appears in the Ministry of Health and the summary budget document of Human Service (see page 40.)

Many possibilities that will advance scientific topics NIH Director can better be accomplished through other mechanisms research, such as contract research and development for comparative efficacy studies or research centers for high-throughput genomic technologies and others. Therefore, the NIH estimates that will support new and competing RPG 9.052 in fiscal 2011, a decrease of 199 below the level estimated for 2010, excluding Recovery Act funds. The total number of RPG fund for 2011 should be 37,001, an increase of 195 over fiscal 2010 non-recovery levels Act.

This appears to confirm concerns among some scientists that Collins, who led the Human Genome Project, would favor large projects on science from the bench. Scientists "live and die by R01," said a political analyst Biomedical who would not be quoted by name. "We originally thought the five themes were a stump speech. Now it seems to be politics."

But NIH is really cutting back on RPG? According to Howard Garrison, guru of the budget of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, the slight decline in new grants has little to do with a change in priorities. Most of them can be charged to a 2% increase in size grant good news for beneficiaries squeezed by inflation in recent years. The rest probably due to the vagaries of the grants revenue: prices may be 3 to 5 years in length, so the number that expires and free money for new grants varies each year. Overall, the number of RPG is rising, and the amount of money for their $ 17.1 billion in 2011, is up 3.2%, in line with the overall budget of the NIH.

So why the rhetoric of Collins? "A lot of it is packaging," says Garrison. Collins probably wants to send a message to Congress that he make things happen at the NIH. And in any case, the budget proposal of the president does not mean -chose because Congress usually ends up giving more NIH that requests for President.

SAN DIEGO -When Louise Brown was born July 25, 1978, she began an era. the first "test tube baby" is a mother herself now, and she was joined by millions of others born with the help of in vitro fertilization (IVF). at a press conference this morning at the annual meeting of the American Association for the advancement of Science (which publishes Science NOW), infertility specialists talked about whether people who were conceived by in vitro fertilization may be healthy.

"Basically, the children are fine. It's not like the kids have extra arms or extra heads or anything," says Carmen Sapienza, a geneticist at Temple University in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania. But nothing is older than their early 30s, and the vast majority are aged under 20, so they had no time for long-term health problems arise.

one source of concern is that so many IVF babies have low birth weight. children conceived through IVF are more likely to weigh less than 2.5 kg are that babies conceived naturally. This is not only because that so many IVF babies are twins or other multiple births; the same is true for single babies This could cause future problems because of low birth weight babies often have health problems. long term. they are more likely to be obese, have diabetes and have high blood pressure when they are 50, for example.

In this spirit, Sapienza and colleagues examined the genes that may play a role in these conditions. They examined the genes involved in glucose metabolism and insulin, for example, to see if there is a difference in how these genes are expressed in children born of IVF and children who were conceived naturally.

The result? 5% to 10% of these genes, DNA methylation patterns, which affect how genes are expressed, are different between IVF and non-IVF children. There is no way to know if this is because of the technology used to produce IVF babies or if the difference has something to do with the problem of infertility underlying the parents. It is also unclear whether these differences in gene expression will translate into health differences. But he suggests that IVF children are unique to a certain level.

"In my view, more data is better," says Sapienza. "People get angry" about the data that sounds like an attack on IVF. But if it turns out that children who were conceived by IVF have a higher risk of, say, colon cancer, he said, it would be useful to tell them to get tested earlier.

The 10th edition Albany Medical largest US price biomedical-will go to three scientists who have conceptualized the human genome project: Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health; Eric Lander, founding director of the Broad Institute of Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and David Botstein, director of the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics at Princeton University. The three share the prize of $ 500,000. Collins is prevented by strict ethics provisions NIH to receive his share of the money; it also can not point to his favorite charity. So what happens to it is the price of Albany map.