Health Meaning

A former employee at the National Accelerator Laboratory SLAC in Palo Alto, California, was arrested Monday for allegedly destroying at least 4000 samples of protein crystals by removing from cryogenic vessels in the laboratory and let them out to thaw. Documents published by the FBI estimate that it will cost $ 500,000 to replicate and process the lost samples.

The FBI says Silvya Oommachen, 32, a former lab assistant, admitted she slipped into the lab on July 18 and empty containers, leaving behind three post-it, the San Jose Mercury News reports

she signed a as his alter ego "X Black" and the other referred to a sexual act and the date and time of the crystal samples proteins were sabotaged, according to the affidavit.

by Mercury News written special agent quick Matthew FBI in an affidavit that Oommachen had a bad relationship with his supervisor and felt overworked and, earlier this month -ci she was fired for leaving his work.

researchers affiliated to the Joint Center for Structural Genomics (JCSG) have been using x-rays produced by synchrotron Stanford Radiation Lightsource to study samples as part of their efforts to match gene sequences with protein structures and developing simplified methods for determining the three-dimensional structures of proteins. The samples are not irreplaceable, but it will take time, effort and money to replace them, said Ian Wilson, principal investigator JCSG. Wilson said that JCSG scientists will meet in the near future to decide how to proceed, "You can not imagine that someone would do something like that, and I do not know how to protect yourself against it, quite honestly," added- he.

Note :. This article has been corrected to indicate that the number of samples was destroyed at least 4000, not 3500, and that Oommachen was fired in July, not June

More than two dozen pathologists have left the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) in Washington, DC, to form a new company that will offer the same pathology consultation services as the 150-year-old institute.

AFIP expected to be completed by 2011 under a federal plan to close more military bases across the country, including the campus Center Walter Reed Army Medical where AFIP is located. The company, which AFIP Laboratories originally called and American International Pathology (AIP) Laboratories after a protest from officials of the institute was renamed, will be headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland, and will begin activities next month.

Evan Farmer, the company's director and a former comrade AFIP says The Washington Post as the objective of the company is to provide a new home for expertise the institute. But the AFIP officials say a new mandate from the Congress-Joint Pathology Center, administered by the Department of Defense, replace the institute after its closure.

An increasing number of influenza experts in the United States are concerned that the wave of the swine flu started to hit the country may peak before a vaccine can do much good, a news story in today's edition of science explains.

On October 15, the US government expects to receive the first batches of a vaccine to thwart the new H1N1 virus causing the pandemic. But this is just as many experts now believe the virus spread can peak in the country. Since it takes about 2 weeks to build immunity after vaccination and there will be a limited quantity for at least a month or more, the vaccine may have little impact in the United States this fall. "This shift in potential timing could significantly diminish the usefulness of vaccination for mitigating the epidemic and could put many at risk of severe disease," predicted the Presidential Council of Advisors on Science and Technology in report of the White House issued August 24

On the good news front, many scientists were afraid that the vaccine against the new H1N1 virus would need two doses to build substantial immunity would mean further delays in the time required to protect the population and twice as many products. But clinical testing of new vaccines against H1N1 published online yesterday by The New England Journal of Medicine show that a single dose can trigger high levels of antibodies in adults. No data are yet available for testing in children, who generally much less robust immune responses to the vaccine against seasonal influenza and require a second dose.

As another document released yesterday, this one in Science Express, once again underlines the widespread use of a vaccine could have a powerful impact against the H1N1 virus, s it arrived early and was widely used. Biostatistician Ira Longini of the University of Washington, Seattle, and colleagues show that the vaccine should be at least 70% of the population, starting with children first, to significantly impede the spread. But Longini, a flu modeler noted, also suspects that the pandemic now spread across the United States as children return to school may peak in mid-October.

Longini and others noted that the pandemic accurately reflects the one that hit the United States in the fall of 1957. If this happens, Longini said in an e-mail notes, "given the plan production and distribution of current vaccines, we will be too late to affect the epidemic. "this is precisely what happened to the vaccine effort in 1957.

with the new pandemic H1N1, the vaccine effort began almost immediately after the virus was isolated in late April. "in May, it seemed that we were in good shape with the vaccine," noted Longini. "There seemed have time. "But now the time seems to be short rapidly.

Next winter in the Southern Hemisphere, vaccines against influenza should not be designed to protect against the seasonal H1N1 strain the pandemic strain H1N1 has replaced, according to the World health Organization (WHO) recommendations issued today.

Because guidelines explain the seasonal strain caused some homes since the discovery of the strain of swine flu last April.

WHO is therefore recommended that vaccine manufacturers get the seasonal H1N1 virus from formulations that also contain an H3N2 strain and a type B strain Brisbane. One possibility is that vaccine manufacturers will simply replace the virus fell with the H1N1 pandemic strain in a new trivalent product. Or countries may decide to use a monovalent vaccine, which protects against the pandemic strain and a bivalent product designed to work against H3N2 strain and Brisbane. Strategic Advisory Group of WHO experts will discuss these issues at its meeting in late October. WHO will not make recommendations for future vaccines against influenza in the northern hemisphere until February next year.

(This article was originally titled "WHO Simplifies vaccine against influenza for Sourthern Hemiphere" and has been corrected.)

As the availability of the vaccine against swine flu is increasing steadily, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is intensifying its efforts against a growing sense of complacency in the country about the pandemic.

At a press conference today, Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said that 76 children in the US have died of the new H1N1 virus because area in April. She compared this with the last three flu seasons in the country, which recorded between 46 and 88 deaths in this age group. "It is only the beginning of October," Schuchat said. "Of course, the flu season often will last all the way until May."

The flu is now widespread in 37 states, up from 10 states last week, Schuchat said. "We believe that the vast majority of people in a given community are vulnerable or susceptible to the virus," she said. she stressed that the vaccine may in once protect individuals against infection and reduce the chances that they will spread the infection to others. limited amounts of vaccine became available on Monday.

Schuchat downplayed the news yesterday that New York and other cities may have high levels of immunity against the virus because they have been hit hard in the first wave in the spring. "We are far too early to know if the disease it will happen again, "Schuchat said. "We looked at about 50 different cities to see if places that had homes in the spring now see increases. In many of them, we see increased disease. So it can not be on the same street where the patients were, but I think it is much too early for us to be certain about that second or third wave. You know, I would be as happy as anyone if New York City is no more sickness, but I really believe that vaccination is the best way to reduce the chances that everyone in New York will get sick. "

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, revealed reassuring data from clinical trials that test the impact of the vaccine against seasonal influenza H1N1 product .

"We are pleased to report that the vaccine, when administered at the same time, do not affect the immune response to one of these," Fauci said.

on a related note, Schuchat addressed a Canadian report that showed the seasonal vaccine increased the risk of being infected with swine flu and one from Mexico that showed precisely the opposite conclusion. Schuchat said CDC conducted four separate analyzes that address these issues in the American people. "None of them are increased or decreased risk of H1N1 disease associated with exposure to the vaccine against seasonal flu," she said.

As of yesterday, the United States had 6.8 million doses of vaccine against H1N1 and was the ship to the States in response to requests.

a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit challenging the policy of the Obama administration lifted restrictions on the use of federal funds to study human embryonic stem cells. Christian groups had sued the National Institutes of Health in August, arguing on behalf of themselves and embryos that guidelines on stem cells NIH violate the prohibition against using federal funds to create or destroy human embryos. According to Bloomberg, Judge of the US District Court Royce Lamberth ruled yesterday in Washington that the groups had no standing because the Supreme Court of the United States found that embryos are not persons under the law, the unborn child has no constitutional right to life. The history of the AP said the judge also rejected the argument that the guidelines would reduce the number of embryos available for adoption

(Credit: NIST).

The same cells that ravage the cartilage of patients with rheumatoid arthritis also carry the disease from one joint to a new study suggests. work points to several ways to stop the spread of this debilitating disease.

Rheumatoid arthritis usually appears in only one joint at first, but it often spreads in much the body in a few years. The autoimmune disease destroys cartilage padding between the bones and causes inflammation in the joints, causing severe pain and lack of mobility. It differs from osteoarthritis, which is the long term wear and tear of the padding in the insulated joints

Scientists had known that certain types of fibroblasts -. Cells that help bind wounds and build the connective tissue that supports other cells - are responsible for damaging cartilage, said Elena Neumann, a molecular biologist at Justus-Liebig University in Bad Nauheim, Germany. These rheumatoid arthritis synovial fibroblasts (WASR) appear in the fluid within the joints and secrete enzymes which break down cartilage.

To determine whether human cartilage WASR could spread arthritis from joint to joint, Neumann and colleagues implanted under the skin of mice genetically modified to not reject tissue from a different species. On a sidewall, the mice were healthy, normal cartilage; on the other, they received abundant with human cartilage WASR.

After 60 days, the WASR invaded and damaged the cartilage healthy in most mice, reports online this week in team Nature Medicine . The mice that received healthy cartilage in both flanks showed little damage, as did mice that received fibroblast patients with osteoarthritis of the implants, which does not spread from one joint to .

To show that WASR had traveled in the body (and are not just, for example, set walking distance by another secretion), scientists have dissected the 20 mouse organs. They found little evidence of WASR in most of the internal organs, but they found a high concentration in the spleen. This is an important index, Neumann said, because the spleen filters blood cells from the bloodstream. When the team examined 40 other mice with RASF / cartilage implants, he found WASR human blood about half, which strongly suggests that WASR use the bloodstream to invade the rest of the body.

How do WASR into the bloodstream in the first place? As metastasis of tumor cells, the team found, fibroblasts can wiggle through the cells that line and protect blood vessels.

The Neumann's team found no WASR in the joints of mice, as is seen in patients with arthritis. Neumann suspect WASR can invade the cartilage if it already has small nicks or other tiny openings resulting from wear. This probably explains why it takes years for rheumatoid arthritis to spread among humans.

Scientists could develop a treatment for arthritis by preventing WASR to invade the bloodstream, traveling around in the blood, or jumping from the blood into healthy tissue, said Neumann. These treatments may not prevent rheumatoid arthritis from occurring in a patient, she said, but they would stop its spread to other joints.

There is a document "very important" and "very thorough" said James Woods, a microbiologist at the University of Midwest Downers Grove ,, Illinois, who studied the migration of WASR "fibroblasts which were active, they are generally considered a resident [i.e., nonmobile] this paper cell is changing that mentality. ". Develop a cure, he said, "will certainly be a challenge, but knowing the right target cell to go after is a critical first step." In the future, he said, the ability to invade the cartilage WASR could even be turned to the advantage of medicine by reprogramming, perhaps with gene therapy, to provide protein that heal the articulation instead of demolishing it.

Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) announced today that it has asked the Food and Drug Administration a trial using embryonic stem the retinal pigment epithelial cells derived from cells to treat Stargardt macular dystrophy, a congenital eye disease. ACT, which has almost disappeared under several times in recent years, may now be about to make the first trial of the nation therapy embryonic stem cells, says Scientific Director General Robert Lanza. Geron Corp., which earlier received permission to administer oligodendrocytes derived progenitor cells to treat spinal cord injury, has been mired in delays and can not begin his trial until the end of next year.

Lanza said eye disease is a good place to start with such cell therapies because the eye does not reject foreign tissue, so no imunnosuppressive drugs are needed. Stargardt because it is an "orphan disease" without treatment, he said he should get an expedited FDA review. In the coming months the company also hopes to apply for permission to test the cells on macular degeneration.

Does oseltamivir, better known as Tamiflu, to prevent complications from influenza, as pneumonia and influenza? We are no longer safe, the Cochrane Collaboration, an international group that produces reviews of the medical literature, said in an article published online by the British Medical Journal (BMJ) last night. Last year, the Cochrane Collaboration has issued a much more positive about the benefits of the top-selling drug. The problem, said the panel of four members who wrote the new review, is that Roche, the manufacturer of Tamiflu, has failed to make full eight public studies underlying the earlier verdict.

The question of Tamiflu effectiveness is timely because governments have invested billions to get drugs to prepare for a flu pandemic. The new study does not directly address its role in the treatment of H1N1 swine flu, though; it deals with the effectiveness of Tamiflu against the seasonal flu. The document is part of a huge package posted by BMJ last night. In addition to the review itself, there is an article documented how the panel arrived at its conclusions by Peter Doshi, a doctoral student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology program in history, anthropology , science, technology and society, which is listed as one of the four authors of revision as well. A BMJ staff writer, Debra Cohen, told the story in another article that also uncovered alleged irregularities in the way of the past oseltamivir studies were conducted and written, there including the use of writers ghosts. The newspaper also published a short Roche response, an item reply with extended point in which the company addresses each of BMJ 's concerns, and an editorial BMJ E ditor Fiona Godlee and Director Mike Clarke Cochrane Collaboration. BMJ 's survey was conducted in conjunction with the Channel 4 Britain, which aired a film on the controversy last night.

What happened? Here's the short version:

The team, led by Chris Del Mar from Bond University in Australia, launched an update of the Cochrane review in 08 at the request of the National Health Research Institute UK in August. Just a few weeks ago, the team had received an email from a Japanese pediatrician, Keiji Hayashi, who questioned the validity of one of the documents relied on by the revision of 08. This document - published in 03, Laurent Kaiser Hospital Cantonal Geneva as the first author was a meta-analysis of 10 trials sponsored by Roche oseltamivir. Only two of them had been published in journals, peer-reviewed, Hayashi stressed; the other eight were unpublished or published only in abstract form. Hayashi challenged the Cochrane team to "evaluate the 8 trials rigidly."

According to the account of Doshi, panelist Tom Jefferson, the first author of the study in 08 and the only member of this group was also involved in the new analysis -asked the authors of the article Kaiser send data over the eight trials. When they could not, Jefferson contacted Roche to get the information. The company said it would make available studies, but only if Jefferson signed a confidentiality agreement also contained a clause "not to disclose ... the existence and terms of this Agreement." Apparently Doshi wrote Roche "is not only to keep her hidden data, but also to hide the fact that he was VALIDATION people by a secret clause."

the team found that unacceptable, and after a bit e -mails more back and forth, he decided to exclude the Kaiser meta-analysis of its reconsideration. They were left with a total of 20 trials that together have allowed the conclusion that Tamiflu was "modest efficacy against the symptoms of influenza in healthy adults "and that it" might be considered optional to reduce the symptoms of seasonal flu, "but that" lack of good data has undermined previous findings for the prevention oseltamivir for flu complications. independent randomized trials to resolve these uncertainties are needed. "

The experience has left four members with serious doubts about the way the Cochrane Collaboration does its business." The reviews have endorsed the conclusion that oseltamivir reduces complications such as pneumonia and bronchitis by implicitly confident that unpublished data were verifiable, "Doshi wrote. "This confidence now seems naive."

In response point by point James Smith Rock, international medical leader for Tamiflu, Roche said that now publishes all of its clinical trials, but it was not standard procedure in the industry it are 7 to 10 years. "At the time, it was considered that the studies that have been published (2 abstracts and full manuscripts 2) accurately reflect the benefits of the drug," Smith wrote, "and that additional studies provided little new information and would be unlikely to be accepted for publication by most reputable journals. "

Smith adds that the supply of data under a confidentiality agreement is" commonplace within the scientific community to ensure responsible use of data, "and said that group UK 'Medical Research Council (MRC) recently agreed to such a deal. But the paper does not explain why the existence of the transaction itself needed to remain a secret.

Roche also denies most of the allegations in the instance of story-characteristic of Cohen, that the authors of Roche sponsored studies were pressured by the company marketing people to talk the importance of flu. Roche recognizes that medical anonymous authors have been involved in at least one of the documents, but the company says that it was common practice at the time, prior to the so-called good practice guidelines published effects 03.

Whether the blow to Tamiflu image is permanent remains to be seen. If the MRC group that has access to the complete database Roche is working on a same view and believes that the eight studies were conducted properly, it could reach a different conclusion.

Researchers have developed a new blood test to diagnose and predict the severity of graft against host disease (GVHD), a complication often fatal that strikes people who have received a bone marrow transplant for cancer or other conditions. The test could help doctors decide quickly patients who need critical treatment.

GVHD is the equivalent of organ rejection syndrome in bone marrow transplant patients. The disease begins when the immune cells in the bone marrow of the donor recognize the recipient's cells as foreign and launch an attack. The initial clinical symptom is often a rash, which sometimes makes it difficult early diagnosis. But if allowed to progress, the disease can damage internal organs and proves fatal in 30% to 40% of cases. Outside the relapse of a person's disease, GVHD is the leading cause of death for patients who received a bone marrow donation

Due to the severity of GVHD, clinicians often start the treatment. - In high doses of steroids to suppress the immune response - in the absence of a diagnosis of concrete. But this preventive strategy can also be dangerous, increasing the risk of infections and may increase the risk of relapse in cancer patients. "There is a feeling that we overtreating some patients and other undertreating," said pediatric oncologist and co-author James Ferrara, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

To facilitate early diagnosis, Ferrara's team took weekly samples of plasma from patients who had received a bone marrow donation They compared levels elafin. - anti-inflammatory protein produced by the body in response to GVHD of the skin - 10 patients who had developed the disease and 20 patients who did not. on average, elafin levels in patients developing GVHD of the skin have been three times higher, the researchers report online today in Science Translational Medicine .

Next, the researchers divided 159 patients with the disease in two groups with --those higher than the mean plasma concentrations of elafin and those with lower average levels - and then the long-term survival of each group. After 12 months, three times as many patients in the high elafin group had died from GVHD and its complications in the group with low elafin. "In the future, hopefully a clinician may be able to test Elafin levels of a transplant patient with a rash decide to start treatment," said Ferrara. If, as the researchers suspect, elafin of the levels increase before symptoms develop GVHD, it might also be possible to identify patients at risk who do not have a rash.

hematological oncologist Corey Cutler of Harvard Medical School in Boston noted that GVHD can often be diagnosed just by careful examination of the rash, but a more definitive diagnostic test would be welcome. "If this test could predict the onset of GVHD before the rash develops, it could be extremely valuable," he said.