Devices that inject electrical signals directly into nerves may soon restore movement to people who have lost the use of an arm or leg.
Read Full Article at New Scientist - Paralysed limbs revived by hacking into nerves
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Family Genome Study
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By sequencing the genomes of three patients with rare genetic disorders, and comparing them with genetic information from unaffected family members, two studies have managed to narrow down the causes of the diseases.
Between them, the analyses bring the number of individuals who have had their full genomes sequenced from seven to twelve.
A team led by David Galas of the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, Wash., sequenced the genomes of a family of four in which the two children had extremely rare genetic disorders--Miller syndrome and primary ciliary dyskinesia1. Miller syndrome causes facial and limb abnormalities, and primary ciliary dyskinesia prevents hair-like structures in the respiratory tract from removing mucus. The results were published online March 10 in Science.
By comparing the genomes of the children with those of the unaffected parents, the team was able to pinpoint the specific recombinations of parental genes that led to the diseases, and eliminate other parts of the genome that previous studies had associated with the disorders. The researchers conclude that just four genes underlie the two diseases.
Read Article Here: Scientific American
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One of the better-kept secrets about the massive clinical research hospital at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Md., has been tucked away for half a century in Wing D of a building that dates to 1953. That is about to change.
The Pharmaceutical Development Section (PDS) is a corps of 20 chemists, pharmacists, pharmacokineticists and technicians who make investigational agents for many of the 1,500 clinical research studies running at any given moment at the NIH's Clinical Center. It is not a drug-discovery group, but rather a team of experts who churn out custom-made pills, vaccines, intravenous drugs and capsules, and even ointments and creams, for NIH investigators when the investigational agents they need aren't available.
Twenty-first century technology and government-mandated manufacturing standards have outpaced the equipment and capacities of the group's old, 743-square-metre workspace. But, if all goes according to schedule, in early June it will move seamlessly into a new, $12-million, 1,115-square-meter drug-making facility--a warren of rooms seven years in the planning that is tailor-made for the group's purposes.
The PDS's new digs are a reservoir of state-of-the-art machinery and minus 80 ºC freezers; high-efficiency particulate-absorbing filters populate the ceiling; and highly purified watercirculates through stainless-steel pipes that cost over $1,000 per meter. There are meticulous controls on air temperature, humidity and pressure. The facility's layout and structural materials are geared to maximum cleanliness--right down to the easily-scoured, porous epoxy floors."
Elsewhere in Science: Why NASA picked Florida - CSMonitor.com
Image via Wikipedia"[W]hy did the National Aeronautics and Space Administration choose Florida as the nation's launchpad? It's all about the state's location, explains Fred Marschak, an astronomy professor at Santa Barbara City College in California.
From the beginning, NASA needed beachfront property. Early rockets dropped debris, shed spent booster packs, and sometimes exploded. Better to have these scraps and missteps plummet into the ocean than onto American towns.
Plus, blasting off over the Atlantic has an added bonus. "Our Earth rotates eastward," Mr. Marschak says. When space shuttles launch in the same direction, "the Earth gives us a push." This planetary effect is similar to why it's easier to swim with the water's current rather than against it.
NASA also wanted a southern state because the rotational push is strongest along the equator."
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Acne drug prevents HIV breakout
Image via WikipediaJohns Hopkins scientists have found that a safe and inexpensive antibiotic in use since the 1970s for treating acne effectively targets infected immune cells in which HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, lies dormant and prevents them from reactivating and replicating.
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Sunday, March 14, 2010
Miami's Phillip Frost to head generic drugmaker - Business - MiamiHerald.com
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Phillip Frost, a Miami physician-entrepreneur, was chosen as chairman by generic drug giant Teva.
Generic drugmaker Teva Pharmaceutical Industries said Tuesday it has appointed Vice Chairman Dr. Phillip Frost to serve as chairman of its board. The world's largest generic drugmaker by revenue said Frost, a Miami physician-entrepreneur, will replace Moshe Many, who had been serving as interim chairman and will now serve as vice chairman.
Frost, a dermatologist, has developed and sold two major Miami healthcare companies. He took over Key Pharmaceuticals in 1972 and sold the firm to Schering-Plough in 1986 for $600 million. Frost pocketed $100 million from the deal.
In 1987 he started Ivax, which Teva purchased in 2006 for $7.6 billion, which earned Frost $1.2 billion in cash and stock. Frost had served as vice chairman of Teva's board since 2006. He also serves as chairman and CEO of Opko Health, a specialty pharmaceutical company, and as chairman of Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services, both Miami companies, and Prolor Biotech, which is based in Israel.
Miami's Phillip Frost to head generic drugmaker - MiamiHerald.com
Saturday, March 13, 2010
University of Miami Stem Cell Success
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MIAMI- Dramatic findings have been released by a University of Miami Miller School of Medicine researcher on the first human clinical trial to test a stem-cell based treatment for heart attack patients. The phase one trial was designed to determine the safety and efficacy of infusing adult human mesenchymal stems cells intravenously in patients within days of a myocardial infarction, or heart attack, to lessen damage to the heart muscle.
Fifty-three patients, who had suffered a first heart attack within one to ten days, were enrolled at ten medical centers across the United States beginning in February 2005. In the trial, sponsored by Osiris Therapeutics of Baltimore, Maryland which provided the cells, patients were randomized to one of three doses of stem cells, and each dose was compared with placebo. The occurrence of treatment-related serious adverse events was evaluated at six months, and efficacy was assessed using echocardiography.
“Over the six month follow-up period the stem cell treated patients had lower rates of side effects such as cardiac arrhythmias, and they had significant improvements in heart, lung and global function,” said Joshua Hare, M.D., professor of medicine, director of the Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute at the Miller School of Medicine, and lead author and principal investigator for the entire study. “Echocardiography showed improved heart function, particularly in those patients with large amounts of cardiac damage.”
The study findings were presented today at the American College of Cardiology’s Innovation in Intervention: i2Summit being held in New Orleans.
“This trial offers a distinct advancement in the field of stem cell-based treatments by providing safety and efficacy data for a unique and promising type of stem cell to treat cardiac damage,” said Dr. Hare. “It’s important to note that this study is very early, and, as in other disease categories, we must expand trials to determine the real world application of stem cell therapy to fight heart disease.”
As a cell-based therapy, mesenchymal stem cells have a number of unique advantages: they can be taken from genetically distinct donors, are easy to prepare, and have a tendency to collect within injured areas. In animal models, this type of stem cell not only homes to regions of cardiac damage, but reduces the infarct size and improves ejection function – the portion of blood that is punted out of the heart as a result of a heartbeat, and a primary indicator of the heart’s health.
This year an estimated 700,000 Americans will suffer a heart attack, and despite the best care many will go on to develop congestive heart failure from the muscle damage caused by the heart attack. The promise of stem cell therapy in reversing or preventing that damage provides a significant benefit in an area of unmet medical need.
ISCI - Joshua M. Hare, M.D.
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Joshua M. Hare, M.D.Director, Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute,Chief, Division of CardiologyAt the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Dr. Hare is the Director of the Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute, the Chief of Cardiology and the Louis Lemberg Professor of Medicine.
Dr. Hare received his B.A. at University of Pennsylvania and his M.D. at Johns Hopkins University. He was a Research Fellow at Harvard University.
Divining the Right Drug
Image via WikipediaA new device may take the guesswork out of prescribing an antidepressant that works, by Allison Bond
"[M]ore than two thirds of patients with depression have no luck with the first medication they are prescribed and must also endure the withdrawal effects that come with discontinuing a drug before trying a new one. . . . A new technology, however, may bypass this ordeal by gauging very early in a treatment regimen how well a drug is working based on the patient’s brain waves.
The technology, called quantitative electro enceph alography (QEEG), measures a person’s brain-wave pattern with EEG and then compares it with a database of normal samples to detect abnormal function. In a study published in the September 2009 issue of the journal Psychiatry Research, scientists used QEEG to record brain activity in subjects with major depressive disorder before they began treatment, after one week on an antidepressant and after eight weeks on the drug—the period it takes such drugs to achieve full effect. Changes in the QEEG readout after just one week of medication predicted 74 percent of the time whether patients would experience either a recovery or a remission of symptoms by the end of eight weeks."
Laboratory Research Resources - Research Resources - Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami
Laboratory Research Resources - Research Resources - Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami
Laboratory Research Resources
* Resources listed in red text are being planned and will be available soon
Resource Types | Available Resources (with affiliation where appropriate) |
| Biostatistics | |
| Biorepository | |
| Bioinformatics and Computing | |
| Comparative Pathology | |
| Electron Microscopy (EM) |
|
| Flow Cytometry and Cell Sorting | |
| Freezer Facility | |
| Freezer Program | |
| High Content Screening |
|
| Histology |
|
| Imaging (analytical, confocal, light, stereo, etc) |
|
| MRI Resources (for animal & tissue) | |
| Molecular Analysis & "Omics" Technologies |
|
| Monoclonal Antibody Resources | |
| Pharmacokinetics (SCCC) |
|
| Phosphoimagers | |
| Transgenic and Gene Knockouts |
|
| Veterinary Resources | |
| Viral Vectors |
|
| X-ray Crystallography | |
| Other |
ScientificAmerican.com: New Hope for Battling Brain Cancer
Studies suggest that stem cells sustain deadly tumors in the brain—and that aiming at these insidious culprits could lead to a cure
May 2006 Dwayne Berg woke up on a gurney in a Seattle emergency room, an IV in his arm and a team of doctors and nurses working him up. The last thing the 42-year-old financial executive could remember was running on a treadmill at his gym, part of his regular fitness regimen. He had suffered a seizure and tumbled off the machine, and although he had not hurt himself in the fall, doctors had asked for an MRI scan of his brain to see if they could find a cause for the seizure.
They did, and the news was not good: the scan showed a large mass in the left frontal lobe that turned out to be a malignant glioma, a brain cancer that is almost invariably fatal. Berg underwent standard treatment: an operation to remove the tumor, followed by chemotherapy and radiation to eradicate any cancer cells that might remain.
They did, and the news was not good: the scan showed a large mass in the left frontal lobe that turned out to be a malignant glioma, a brain cancer that is almost invariably fatal. Berg underwent standard treatment: an operation to remove the tumor, followed by chemotherapy and radiation to eradicate any cancer cells that might remain.
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