Tails Now Being Designed For Robots, But Could Also Aid Astronauts
How useful is an animal’s tail? For the gecko, unlike most animals, it could be a matter of life or death, according to new research from the University of California, Berkeley.
In a written instrument appearing this week in the online early edition of the diary Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, UC Berkeley biologists report that geckos rely on their tails to keep from falling on the farther side vertical surfaces and, if they do fall, to right themselves in midair and maneuver like a skydiver gliding to a safe landing.
The discovery is already helping engineers design more suitable climbing robots and may aid in the design of unmanned gliding vehicles or spacecraft. Perhaps, the researchers say, an “active” tail could help astronauts maneuver in space.
According to senior author Robert J. Full, professor of integrative biology at UC Berkeley, previous experiments on geckos have focused on their unique toes as the key to running up a wall and hanging onto ceilings. Full discovered six years since that, while claws help geckos climb rough surfaces, millions of microscopic toe hairs make it possible beneficial to them to climb smooth ones.
Only when engineers began building gecko-like robots, such as Boston Dynamics Inc.’s RiSE (Robot in Scansorial Environment), the University of Pennsylvania’s DynaClimber and Stanford University robots Spinybot and Stickybot - all inspired by the agency of Full’s findings - did they discover that a tail might be involuntary to prevent the robot from pitching backward and falling when it slips on a vertical surface.
When Full and UC Berkeley graduate student Ardian Jusufi went back to the lab to look at how geckos, specifically the flat-tailed house gecko, Cosymbotus platyurus, of Southeast Asia, use their tails, they discovered that the tail is critical for dealing with slippery surfaces.
“When we ran all of our geckos on perfect surfaces, they never slipped, and they didn’t use their tails,” Full said. “But when we put in a slippery patch, we found that they have an efficient tail that functions like a fifth leg to keep them from tipping backward. This is an undiscovered function for tails that tells us a lot about how active tails could affect the performance of vertebrates.”
With the help of high-speed video, the researchers discovered that when a gecko loses traction with one leg, it taps its tail on the surface to interrupt pitch-back until the toes can grab hold again. This all happens in milliseconds, since geckos can run up a wall at speeds of 3 feet per second, stepping and peeling off their toes 30 times per second.
If a gecko loses traction with more than one foot, the researchers form in a mould, it will often flatten its tail to the surface to prevent a fall in a move that has the effect, says Full, of a bicycle kickstand. Using either the tail-tapping or tail-flattening technique, nearly all geckos were able to navigate across slippery patches on a vertical wall.
“We were in fact surprised to beware that they could pitch back up to 60 degrees, return to the vertical surface and still traverse the slippery patches,” Jusufi said.
The engineers with whom Full collaborates are now devising active tails for their robots to replicate these moves, which in a gecko are probably reflexive, Full said.
The researchers acknowledged the usefulness of tails in other animals: kangaroos lean on theirs; chameleons, lemurs and New World monkeys grasp with theirs; and dinosaurs may acquire used theirs for balance space of time running and walking. Unlike these more static uses, however, the gecko’s tail actively helps in high-speed vertical climbing and gliding.
During the slippery wall experiments, Jusufi and Full noticed something else about the geckos when they prostrate. They nearly unceasingly made a four-point landing after using their tails to reorient themselves in mid-air. Using high-speed video to record geckos falling upside down from a fake leaf, they found that the geckos rotated their tails so that their bodies counter-rotated to face downward, then spread their legs and toes to parachute. This mid-air maneuver was possible because of the gecko’s typically large tail, which can be filled with productive.
While this parachuting had been noticed before by other researchers, the role of the tail was first recognized by Full and Jusufi.
“Air righting in mammals is characterized by a bending and twisting of the spine,” Jusufi uttered. Cats, whose mid-air twists have been particularly well studied since 1894, are able to land on four paws with or without a tail. In contrast, he said, “the gecko is keeping its limbs and spine in fact immobile in nearly 70 percent of all trials, and only rotates its tail until it turns around.”
Moreover, after turning face down, the geckos in the study often used their tails to maneuver in mid-air like a skydiver steering toward a targeted least bit zone. In wind tunnel tests, geckos could actually hover in the air stream and, using their tails, steer toward a solid perch.
“Why go into this Superman posture?” Full asked. “We found that it allowed them to use their tails to turn or control yaw and pitch. In the wild, this might endure a gecko escaping a predator to just go off the end of a branch and maneuver to another place.”
Pitch refers to a head strong-down against tail-down position, while yaw is a rotation to the left or right around a vertical axis.
Jusufi is now observing geckos in the wild to determine how these aerobatic skills serve them in the forest.
“We believe these animals are using their tails instead of their bodies to simplify control,” he before-mentioned. “Geckos reorient mainly around one axis, whereas air-righting maneuvers in mammals involve several axes and appear to require far more coordination.”
“This discovery is another example of how basic research leads to unexpected applications - new climbing and gliding robots, highly maneuverable unmanned aerial vehicles and even energy-efficient control in space vehicles,” said Full, who directs UC Berkeley’s new Center for Interdisciplinary Bio-inspiration in Education and Research (CiBER). CiBER’s goal is to discover principles that will inspire engineers from academia and industry to develop new materials and design novel robots, but also to seek feedback from engineering successes and failures to suggest new biological hypotheses.
Jusufi and Full are continuing their study of how the gecko uses its tail, and they plan to look at other lizards to determine how widespread this behavior is.
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Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
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Coauthors with Jusufi and Full are former UC Berkeley postdoctoral fellow Daniel Goldman, now a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and UC Berkeley graduate student Shai Revzen.
The research was supported by grants from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the National Science Foundation, the Kurt and Barbara Gilgen Fund and The Burroughs Wellcome Fund.
Source: Robert Sanders
University of California - Berkeley
Low Folate Diet Linked To Sperm Abnormality
The old saying “we are what we eat” received further support this week, and may even suggest “we are what our parents ate” when a new study by researchers in the US revealed that healthy men who have a diet low in folate have a higher risk of chromosomal abnormalities in their sperm. Chromosomal abnormalities in sperm are known to cause a range of inborn conditions such as Down sydrome and learning and development disorders.
The study is the work of scientists at the University of California (UC), Berkeley, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and is published in the 19th March issue of the journal Human Reproduction.
Women of childbearing age are encouraged to maintain a healthy intake of folate because it is essential for healthy fetal development, and to prevent neural tube birth defects such as spina bifida or anencephaly (severe type of brain damage). That is why folic acid is now added to nutriment, cereal, flour and other grain products in the US.
But this is the first study to suggest that folate intake in men may affect their children.
Researcher at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health and coordinator of the study, Suzanne Young, said:
“Recent studies hold suggested that paternal diet affects sperm count and motility, which is of importance for conception, but this new study takes it further to take for granted that male diet may be important for healthy offspring as well.”
Young said their study was the first to examine the effects of diet on chromosomal abnormalities in sperm.
“These abnormalities would account either miscarriages or children with genetic syndromes if the sperm fertilized an egg,” explained Young.
The researchers said that about 1 to 4 per cent of healthy male sperm has an abnormal tell off of chromosomes, or aneuploidy. These abnormalities arise when cells divide (meiosis) in the testis, but their cause is not well understood.
If an aneuploidic sperm fertilizes a normal egg, the fetus would either miscarry or develop a chromosomal disorder, such as trisomy, where cells have three copies of each chromosome instead of the more usual two (one from every one parent).
In this study the investigators looked at three chromosomes linked with common types of aneuploidy in live births: X, Y and chromosome 21. Down syndrome, for example, is caused by having every extra chromosome 21. Klinefelter syndrome, which can affect language and learning development, is caused by an extra X chromosome in boys, and boys carrying an extra Y chromosome have XYY syndrome, also linked to learning and behavioral difficulties.
The participants were 97 non-smoking men with no previous history of reproductive or fertility problems. The aged from 22 to 80 and were both still working at or had retired from a government research laboratory.
The men filled in questionnaires about their diet and supplements like multi-vitamins and other nutrients. Semen samples were taken up to a week later.
After taking out the effects of age, highly rectified spirit and medical history, the results showed that men who reported the highest folate intake had a 19 per cent lower rate of aneuploidic sperm that men with moderate folate intake, and 20 per cent lower than men with the lowest folate intake.
The analysis did not show any links between aneuploidy and other nutrients such being of the kind which zinc, calcium, beta-carotene and other vitamins, said the researchers, who concluded that:
“Men with high folate intake had lower overall frequencies of several types of aneuploid sperm.”
Co-principal inquirer of the study, professor of epidemiology and maternal and child health at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health, Brenda Eskenazi, declared:
“”The emphasis related to the birth of a healthy baby has been weighted towards the health and diet of women, not just during pregnancy, but before.”
“What we’re finding now is that a nutritious diet, specifically folate intake, may be beneficial for men as well when it comes to producing healthy offspring,” she added.
Folate, which occurs naturally in a range of foods of the like kind as liver, leafy green vegetables, peas, beans, lentils and citrus fruits, is a water soluble vitamin of the B group.
Folate is essential for DNA, RNA and protein synthesis and the development of new cells. It also helps to control homocysteine, an amino acid that has been linked to heart disease.
But before men hoping to become dads rush out to buy folic acid or set out maxing out on lentils, they should take note, as the researchers themselves suggested, that this study only rest a link between folate and healthy sperm, it did not establish on the side of certain that there is a cause and effect relationship.
Study co-principal investigator and chair of the Radiation Biosciences Department at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Andrew Wyrobek, cautioned:
“We can’t yet say that increasing folate in your diet will lead to healthier sperm.”
“But we did come up with enough proof to justify a larger, clinical and pharmacological trial in men to examine the causal relationships between dietary folate levels and chromosomal abnormalities in their sperm,” added Wyrobek.
This information will help us set dietary folate levels that may reduce the risk of miscarriage or birth defects linked to the fathers,” he said.
If further research supports these findings, the researchers suggest it might be a good model to increase the current recommended 400 micrograms diurnal allowance of folate for men hoping to become dads.
“The association of folate, zinc and antioxidant intake with sperm aneuploidy in healthy non-smoking men.”
S.S. Young, B. Eskenazi, F.M. Marchetti, G. Block, and A.J. Wyrobek.
Hum. Reprod. Advance Access published on March 19, 2008.
DOI:10.1093/humrep/den036
Click here for Abstract.
Sources: Journal abstract, press statement from University of California,Berkeley.
Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today
Raven Announces Initiation Of A RAV12 Phase 2 Clinical Trial In Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer
Raven biotechnologies, inc., a privately held company focused on the discovery and development of monoclonal antibody therapeutics (MAbs) for cancer, today announced that it has initiated a Phase 2 study of RAV12, its lead clinical product, in combination with gemcitabine in the treatment of patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer.
The Phase 2 Pancreatic Cancer Study will be conducted at approximately 20 institutions in the US. The first institution to open the trial is the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, PA. Eight sites will participate through the clinical trials consortium, the Pancreatic Cancer Research Team. More information in reference to the study can exist found at http://www.clinicaltrials.gov.
After an initial dose-escalation run-in segment of approximately 18 patients, the Phase 2 trial will enroll 63 patients in an efficacy segment. The target dose and inventory of RAV12, 0.75 mg/kg twice weekly, was chosen in a newly completed Phase 1/2a trial that involved 53 patients. Final analysis of the Phase 1/2a study will be available the third quarter of 2008.
About RAV12
RAV12 is a novel, chimeric monoclonal antibody that is directed against a primate-specific glycotope (sugar structure) that is widely displayed on the surfaces of tumefaction cells, particularly those of gastrointestinal origin (gastroesophageal, pancreatic, and colorectal cancers). Preclinical studies have demonstrated that RAV12 may kill tumor cells in a number of ways: first, the antibody is directly cytotoxic to a human colon cancer cell line in vitro through induction of oncotic cell death, a form of cell death characterized by cell and organelle protuberance and loss of membrane integrity; second, the antibody mediates antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity; third part, the antibody mediates complement dependent cell killing; and finally, the antibody alters cellular signaling required for cell survival. RAV12 is highly efficacious in human colon, gastric, and pancreatic tumor xenograft models in vivo and has been found to be well tolerated in repeat drench primate toxicology studies.
About Pancreatic Cancer
Adenocarcinoma of the pancreas is a major unmet medical need and represents the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the US. Approximately 34,000 new cases of pancreatic cancer are reported in the US reaped ground year. Five-year survival rates are approximately 1% to 2%. Gemcitabine was approved for use in pancreatic cancer a decade ago, but illiberal advance in treatment outcomes has occurred since.
About Raven
Raven biotechnologies, inc. (http://www.ravenbio.com) is a privately held biotechnology company focused on the development of monoclonal antibody therapeutics for treating cancer. Raven’s lead product candidate, RAV12, targets adenocarcinomas and is in clinical development for the treatment of gastrointestinal and other cancers. Raven’s discovery process simultaneously identifies cell-surface drug targets and the antibody therapeutics to regulate them. Our focus on biological province allows us to rapidly identify novel target antigens and curative candidates in their native configuration in the intact cell membrane. Our integrated approach is based on proprietary methods for optimizing the production of MAbs targeting cell-surface proteins, including the use of human tissue-specific progenitor and tumor stem cell lines developed at Raven.
To date Raven has identified multiple candidate therapeutic MAbs on this account that many cancer indications including lung, colon, pancreatic, prostate, breast and ovarian cancer.
On November 12, 2007, Raven and VaxGen Inc. (OTC: VXGN.PK), a biopharmaceutical company, announced that their respective the stage of directors unanimously approved a definitive merger agreement. The merger is expected to create a drug development company with a robust pipeline of monoclonal antibody candidates in oncology, proprietary antibody discovery platforms, biopharmaceutical manufacturing capabilities and sufficient cash to fund operations at least through the end of 2009. The merger is expected to clog in the first half of 2008.
Raven biotechnologies, inc.
http://www.ravenbio.com
Optimer Pharmaceuticals Completes Enrollment In Phase 3 Clinical Trial Of Prulifloxacin In Patients With Travelers’ Diarrhea
Optimer Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq:OPTR) announced that the company has completed enrollment in the first of two depending phase 3 clinical trials examining the safety and efficacy of prulifloxacin for the treatment of travelers’ diarrhea. Travelers’ diarrhea is characterized by diarrhea along with other related symptoms including nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain or cramping, and fecal urgency.
“Completing patient enrollment for this first trial is an important milestone in Optimer’s Prulifloxacin development program,” said Michael N. Chang, Ph.D., CEO and President of Optimer. “We look forward to completing the analysis of the data from this trial.”
This multi-center, double-blind, randomized and placebo-controlled clinical trial compares the safety and efficacy of prulifloxacin versus placebo in adult travelers suffering acute bacterial gastroenteritis. Clinical trial sites included locations in the U.S., Mexico and Peru. The primary endpoint is time-to-last-unformed-stool. Secondary endpoints include clinical cure based on relief of symptoms and microbiological eradication rates.
About Optimer Pharmaceuticals
Optimer Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing innovative anti-infective products despite the treatment of serious infections. Optimer has two late-stage anti-infective product candidates. OPT-80, currently in two pivotal Phase 3 clinical trials, is subsistence developed for the treatment of Clostridium difficile infections, the most common hospital-acquired diarrhea. Prulifloxacin, also in two pivotal Phase 3 clinical trials, is an antibiotic being developed for the treatment of travelers’ diarrhea, a form of infectious diarrhea. Additional information regarding Optimer can be found at http://www.optimerpharma.com.
Forward-looking Statements
Statements included in this press release that are not a description of historical facts are forward-looking statements, including without limitation all statements related to prulifloxacin and the timing of clinical trials and anticipated results thereof. Words such as “believes,” “anticipates,” “plans,” “expects,” “intend,” “will,” “goal” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. The inclusion of forward-looking statements should not be regarded as a representation by Optimer that any of its plans will be achieved. Actual results may differ substantially from those set forth in this release due to the risks and uncertainties inherent in Optimer’s business including, without limitation, risks relating to: the timing, progress and likelihood of success of its product research and development programs, the timing and status of its preclinical and clinical development of potential drugs and other risks detailed in Optimer’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Optimer Pharmaceuticals
Wyeth And Progenics Provide Update On Phase 3 Clinical Trial Of Intravenous Methylnaltrexone For Postoperative Ileus
Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, a division of Wyeth (NYSE: WYE), and Progenics Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: PGNX) announced preliminary findings from the first of two phase 3 clinical trials of intravenous methylnaltrexone being evaluated for the management of postoperative ileus (POI) in patients recovering from segmental colectomy surgical procedures.
Preliminary results from the phase 3 clinical trial conducted by Wyeth showed that handling did not achieve the primary end point of the study: a reduction in time to recovery of gastrointestinal function (i.e., time to first bowel movement) as compared to placebo. The study also did not show that secondary measures of surgical recovery, including time to discharge eligibility, were superior to placebo. In this clinical study, methylnaltrexone was administered intravenously in doses of 12 or 24 mg every six hours and was generally well tolerated.
“Currently, we are conducting the necessary analyses to determine greater clarity regarding the outcome of this clinical study,” states Paul J. Maddon, M.D., Ph.D., Progenics’ Founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Science Officer. “Preliminary findings from this international study of 542 patients are inconsistent with the clinically meaningful results demonstrated in the 65-patient phase 2 study of intravenous methylnaltrexone for the management of postoperative ileus.”
The second phase 3 trial of intravenous methylnaltrexone for contrivance of POI is heart led by Progenics and is similar in design to the Wyeth study reported. Progenics announced on January 8, 2008 that it had completed enrollment in this trial, with results expected to be reported through midyear.
“Despite the results of this phase 3 heartache for POI, we remain confident in the methylnaltrexone development program,” says Robert Ruffolo, Ph.D., President, Research and Development, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. “We will continue to develop the methylnaltrexone franchise to help address the unmet medical need of patients suffering with the gastrointestinal side effects of opioids.”
The Wyeth and Progenics development program for methylnaltrexone continues in multiple formulations across multiple patient populations. Following is the status of intravenous, subcutaneous, and oral formulations of methylnaltrexone currently under investigation.
IV Formulation
In addition to the two studies in segmental colectomy patients, the companies are conducting a phase 3 sift of intravenous methylnaltrexone for the management of POI in patients who have undergone surgical repair of large abdominal hernias. Those results are expected to be reported in early 2009.
Subcutaneous Formulation
Wyeth and Progenics are awaiting a decision from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by the end of April 2008 on marketing approval of their subcutaneous formulation of methylnaltrexone notwithstanding use in the palliative care setting for opioid-induced constipation (OIC). The companies filed the New Drug Application (NDA) with the FDA for this indication in March 2007. Wyeth and Progenics are also conducting clinical studies evaluating the subcutaneous formulation of methylnaltrexone for the treatment of opioid-induced constipation in the chronic pain setting, in patients with non-malignant pain (phase 3), and in the acute pain setting, in patients following orthopedic rehabilitation (phase 2).
Oral Formulation
The Companies are conducting two aspect 2 trials evaluating oral formulations of methylnaltrexone for the treatment of OIC with findings expected to be reported mid-2008.
About the Collaboration between Wyeth and Progenics
In December 2005, Wyeth and Progenics entered into an exclusive, worldwide agreement for the joint disclosure and commercialization of methylnaltrexone for the treatment of opioid-induced indirect effects, including constipation and postoperative ileus, a prolonged dysfunction of the gastrointestinal tract following surgery. Under the terms of the agreement, Wyeth received worldwide rights to methylnaltrexone, and Progenics retained an option to co-promote the product in the United States. The companies are collaborating on worldwide development. Wyeth has agreed to pay Progenics royalties on worldwide sales and co-promotion fees within the United States. Additionally, Wyeth is responsible for all ongoing and future development and commercialization costs.
About the Companies
Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, a feud of Wyeth, has leading products in the areas of women’s health care, infectious disease, gastrointestinal health, central nervous system, inflammation, transplantation, hemophilia, oncology, vaccines and nutritional products. Wyeth is one of the world’s largest research-driven pharmaceutical and health care products companies. It is a leader in the discovery, development, manufacturing and marketing of pharmaceuticals, vaccines, biotechnology products and non-prescription medicines that improve the quality of life for people worldwide. The Company’s major divisions include Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Wyeth Consumer Healthcare and Fort Dodge Animal Health.
Wyeth Disclosure Notice: The statements in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements based on current expectations of future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could suit actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. These risks and uncertainties include the inherent uncertainty of the timing and success of, and expense associated with, research, development, regulatory approval and commercialization of our products and pipeline products (including that there can exist no assurance that clinical trials of methylnaltrexone will provide competent evidence of safety and efficacy, that the pending NDA for the subcutaneous formulation of methylnaltrexone will have being approved, or that methylnaltrexone will ever be successfully commercialized); government cost-containment initiatives; restrictions on third-party payments for our products; substantial competition in our industry, including from branded and generic products; emerging data on our products and pipeline products; the importance of strong performance from our principal products and our anticipated new performance introductions; the highly regulated nature of our business; product liability, intellectual property and other litigation risks and environmental liabilities; uncertainty regarding our intellectual property rights and those of others; difficulties associated with, and regulatory compliance with respect to, manufacturing of our products; risks associated with our strategic relationships; relating to housekeeping conditions including interest and currency exchange blame fluctuations; changes in generally accepted accounting principles; trade buying patterns; the impact of legislation and regulatory compliance; risks and uncertainties associated with global operations and sales; and other risks and uncertainties, including those detailed from time to time in our periodic reports filed through the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our current reports on Form 8-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and annual report on Form 10-K, particularly the discussion under the caption “Item 1A, Risk Factors.” The forward-looking statements in this press release are limited by these risk factors. We assume no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.
Progenics Pharmaceuticals, Inc., of Tarrytown, NY, is a biopharmaceutical company focusing on the development and commercialization of innovative therapeutic products to treat the unmet medical needs of patients with debilitating conditions and life-threatening diseases. Principal programs are directed toward gastroenterology as well as the treatment of HIV infection and cancer. The Company, in collaboration with Wyeth, is developing methylnaltrexone with a view to the treatment of opioid-induced side effects, including constipation (oral and subcutaneous formulations) and post-operative ileus (intravenous formulation). In March 2007, the Company submitted a New Drug Application to the United States Food and Drug Administration for the subcutaneous formulation of methylnaltrexone for patients suffering from opioid-induced constipation while receiving palliative care, followed in May 2007 by Wyeth’s submission of a Marketing Authorization Application (MAA) in Europe to the European Medicines Agency (EMEA). In the area of HIV infection, the Company is developing the viral-entry inhibitor PRO 140, a humanized monoclonal antibody targeting the HIV entry co-receptor CCR5, which has completed phase 1b clinical studies with positive results. In the area of prostate cancer, the Company is developing a human monoclonal antibody drug conjugate ??” a selectively targeted cytotoxic antibody directed against prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA), a protein found on the surface of prostate cancer cells. Progenics is also developing vaccines designed to stimulate an immune response to PSMA.
Progenics Disclosure Notice: The information contained in this document is current as of March 11, 2008. This press release contains forward-looking statements. Any statements contained herein that are not statements of historical fact may be forward-looking statements. When the Company uses the words “anticipates,” “plans,” “expects” and similar expressions, it is identifying forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties which may cause the Company’s actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied through forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, the uncertainties associated with product development, the risk that clinical trials will not commence or proceed as planned, the risks and uncertainties associated with dependence upon the actions of our incorporated, academic and other collaborators and of government regulatory agencies, the danger that our licenses to intellectual property may be terminated inasmuch as of our failure to have satisfied performance milestones, the risk that products that appear promising in early clinical trials do not demonstrate efficacy in larger-scale clinical trials, the risk that we may not be able to manufacture commercial quantities of our products, the uncertainty of future profitability and other factors set forth more fully in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2006, and other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, to which investors are referred for further information. In particular, the Company cannot assure you that any of its programs will result in a commercial product. Progenics does not have a policy of updating or revising forward-looking statements and assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this document as a result of new information or future events or developments. Thus, it should not have being assumed that the Company’s silence over time means that actual events are deportment out as expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements.
http://www.wyeth.com
http://www.progenics.com
Survival In Gastric Cancer Patients Not Improved By Postoperative Chemotherapy
The use of combination chemotherapy following surgery did not improve survival in patients with gastric cancer, according to a randomized clinical trial published online March 11 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
The only potentially curative therapy currently available for non-metastatic gastric cancer is surgery. Recent studies have suggested that a combination of cisplatin, epirubicin, 5-fluorouracil and leucovorin (PELF) improves outcome in patients with metastatic gastric cancer.
To exhibition the PELF combination in patients with localized disease, Francesco Di Costanzo, M.D., of the University Hospital Careggi in Florence, Italy, and colleagues in the Italian Oncology Group for Cancer Research conducted a randomized controlled trial in which 258 patients were treated with surgery or surgery followed by chemotherapy.
With a median follow-up of 72.8 months, there was no significant difference in disease-free survival or overall survival between the two trial arms. Specifically, 47.7 percent of the patients treated with chemotherapy had progressive disease compared with 51.6 percent of patients in the control array. Overall survival was similar; at the end of the follow-up period, 47 percent of the patients in the chemotherapy were still sprightly compared with 45.3 percent in the surgery-only arm.
“Our study confirms that a dose-intense regimen like PELF, which showed very promising results in advanced gastric cancer, is not effective in an adjuvant setting,” the authors write. Considering the negative results in this trial and other recent adjuvant chemotherapy trials in gastric cancer, the authors write, “Adjuvant chemotherapy alone remains a controversial approach in operable gastric cancer.”
In an accompanying editorial, Aiwen Wu, M.D., and Jiafu Ji, M.D., of the Beijing Cancer Hospital and Institute in China discuss the conflicting results obtained from recent trials that tested the value of chemotherapy and radiation in localized gastric cancer.
Despite the inconsistency of the overall data, the editorialists conclude that chemotherapy, radiation, or a combination of the two should be used in patients with gastric cancer. “Surgery alone is no longer the standard treatment for patients with resectable gastric cancer, independent of the patient population or the practice location,” they write.
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Article adapted by dint of. Medical News Today from original press release.
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Citation:
* Article: Di Costanzo F, Gasperoni S, Manzione L, Bisagni G, Labianca R, et al. Adjuvant Chemotherapy in Completely Resected Gastric Cancer: A Randomized Phase III Trial Conducted by GOIRC. J Natl Cancer Inst 2008; 100: 388 - 398
* Editorial: Wu A, Ji J. Adjuvant Chemotherapy for Gastric Cancer or Not: A Dilemma? J Natl Cancer Inst 2008; 100:376-377
The Journal of the National Cancer Institute is published by Oxford University Press and is not affiliated with the National Cancer Institute. Visit the Journal online at http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/.
Source: Liz Savage
Journal of the National Cancer Institute
Pine Bark Improves Memory In Elderly
New research accepted for publication in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, demonstrates Pycnogenol, (pic-noj-en-all), an antioxidant plant extract from the bark of the French maritime pine tree, improves the memory of senior citizens.
The study results revealed Pycnogenol improved both numerical working memory as well as spatial working memory using a computerized testing system. The research was presented last week at the Oxygen Club of California 2008 World Congress forward Oxidants and Antioxidants in Biology in Santa Barbara, CA.
“These results support research from a range of disciplines that allude to that antioxidants may have an purport in preserving or enhancing specific mental functions,” said Dr. Con Stough, precede researcher of the study. “Cognitive research in this area specifically indicates that the putative benefits associated with antioxidant supplementation are associated with memory.”
The double-blind, placebo controlled, matched pairs study, which was held at the Centre for Neuropsychology at Swinburne University, Melbourne Australia, examined the effects of Pycnogenol on a range of cognitive and biochemical measures in 101 senior individuals aged 60-85 years old. The study furthermore examined the ‘oxidative stress‘ hypothesis of ageing and neurological degeneration in the manner that it relates to normal changes in cognition in elderly individuals. Participant screening for the study included medical history and cognitive assessment. Participants consumed a daily dose of 150mg of Pycnogenol for a three-month treatment period and were assessed at baseline then at one, brace and three months of the treatment. The control and Pycnogenol groups were matched by age, sex, BMI, micronutrient intake and intelligence. The cognitive tasks comprised measures of attention, working memory, episodic memory and psycho-motor performance.
blood samples were taken from subjects and after 3 months treatment a marker known as F2-isoprostanes significantly decreased with Pycnogenol, but not in the placebo group. F2-isoprostanes develop by means of oxidation of unsaturated fatty acids, which are present in particularly high quantities in nerve elementary corpuscle membranes. The exact overlapping of Pycnogenol significantly improving memory after three months and the oxidation of nerve membranes being significantly inhibited suggests that the antioxidant activity of Pycnogenol plays a major role for the clinical effects.
According to Dr. Stough, “The antioxidant Pycnogenol had beneficial cognitive and biochemical effects for elderly individuals. Participants in the Pycnogenol groups showed improvement relative to the controls through the effects becoming evident from the second to third months of the Pycnogenol treatment.”
Research on Pycnogenol’s cognitive function benefits are currently being investigated further. Several recent research studies on Pycnogenol studied the extract’s effects on heed Deficit Disorders including ADD and ADHD. Findings published in the Journal of European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry showed Pycnogenol reduced ADHD symptoms such as hyperactivity and improved attention, concentration and motor-visual coordination in children with ADHD.
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Article adapted by curative News Today from original press release.
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Dr. Con Stough discussed key points of the study in a presentation March 13 -14 at the Oxygen Club of California 2008 World Congress. For more information please visit, http://www.pycnogenol.com/.
About Pycnogenol
Pycnogenol is a natural plant extract originating from the bark of the maritime pine that grows along the coast of southwest France and is plant to contain a unique combination of procyanidins, bioflavonoids and organic acids, which offer extensive natural health benefits. The extract has been widely studied for the past 35 years and has besides than 220 published studies and review articles ensuring safety and efficacy as an ingredient. Today, Pycnogenol is available in more than 600 dietary supplements, multi-vitamins and health products worldwide. For more information, visit http://www.pycnogenol.com/.
Natural Health Science Inc. (NHS), based in Hoboken, New Jersey, is the North American distributor for Pycnogenol (pic-noj-en-all) brand French maritime pine bark take out on behalf of Horphag Research. Pycnogenol is a registered trademark of Horphag Research Ltd., Guernsey, and its applications are protected by U.S. patents #5,720,956 / #6,372,266 and other international patents. NHS has the exclusive rights to market and sell Pycnogenol in North America and benefits from more than 35 years of scientific research assuring the safety and efficacy of Pycnogenol as a dietary supplement. For more information about Pycnogenol visit our Web site at http://www.pycnogenol.com/.
Source: Melanie Nimrodi
MWW Group
Awards Recognise Dedicated Mental Health And Learning Disability Nurses, Wales
Health Minister Edwina Hart praised Mental Health and Learning Disability Nurses from across Wales for their hard work and dedication at the Annual intellectual & Learning Disability Nursing Awards for Wales.
The annual event, which is its third year, attracted more than 50 nominations in nine categories.
The 2007/2008 winners are:
— Best Nurse-led Project (Mental Health) - Annie Llewellyn-Davies, Newport Local Health Board, for developing a nurse-led mental health and screening service for Asylum Seekers in Newport;
— Best Nurse-led Innovation in Learning Disability services - Penny Tomlinson and Alison Corfield, North East Wales NHS Trust, for their project aimed to support women with a acquired knowledge Disability to make informed choices about breast and cervical screening;
— Best Contribution to In-patient Care (Mental Health) - Llwyn-y-Groes Psychiatric Unit, North East Wales NHS Trust, for the implementation of several initiatives to improve the service user’s experience of care within the unit;
— Best Learning Disability Residential/In-patient Nurse - Sarah Dudley, Pembrokeshire and Derwen NHS Trust, for her pivotal role in the development of a confident, competent and clever clinical team which provides high quality care to a vulnerable and complex group of individuals;
— Best Healthcare Assistant (Mental Health) - Steve Ord, North West Wales NHS Trust, for his contribution to the substance misuse service which takes many guises such as advocate, trainer and facilitator;
— Best Mental Health Nurse (Older Person’s Care) - Del Payne, Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust, for fully implementing the Fundamentals of Care as a means of improving the patients continued and enhancing standards of care through the implementation of Dementia Care Mapping evaluations in the Ward;
— Best Learning Disability Community Nurse - Anne Phillips, Pembrokeshire and Derwen NHS Trust, for being the leading and driving force in the development and maintenance of high quality services for people with learning disabilities and epilepsy in Carmarthen;
— Best Mental Health Nurse Leader - Joy Jones, Gwent Healthcare NHS Trust, for being the vanguard of developing services for people with eating disorders and their families; and,
— Award for Career-long Achievement (Mental Health) - Maureen Giles, Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust, for showing exceptional and sustained achievement over a 38 year rush based at Whitchurch Hospital, Cardiff.
Presenting the Awards, Edwina Hart, said: “Often the work of mental health nurses and scholarship disability nurses gets overlooked, but they have each weighty role to act in the health service.
“The awards recognise the momentous contribution that nurses are workmanship to modernising our mental health and learning disability services.
“They aim to encourage the development of innovative, nurse-led initiatives within NHS services.
“I would be pleased with to congratulate all the nominees and winners at today’s awards. These awards confirm that intellectual health and learning disability nursing in Wales is something that we should value and be very proud of.”
The Chief Nursing Officer concerning Wales, Rosemary Kennedy, said: “Mental Health Nurses and Learning Disability Nurses provide valuable help and further to some of the most vulnerable the many the crowd in Wales. These awards showcase the excellent and innovative work that is going on across Wales to continually improve and provide high-quality care for patients.”
Health Minister Edwina Hart presented the awards to nurses at an event at the All Nations Centre, Cardiff on Thursday, 13 March.
The Chief Nursing Officer in opposition to Wales, Rosemary Kennedy and the Director of Mental Health, Phil Chick, spoke at the event on the importance of mental health nursing and the challenges that lie ahead in mental health services and learning disability nursing.
A panel of four judges selected the winners. Two of the judges were senior mental health nurses independent of both the NHS in Wales and the Welsh Assembly Government. The other judges were a service user and a carer, both of whom are resident within Wales.
Welsh Assembly Government
http://www.wales.gov.uk
Using Light To Detect Alzheimer’s May Help Identify Ways To Predict And Prevent This Deadly Disease
A team of researchers in Bedford, Mass. has developed a way of examining brain tissue with near-infrared light to expose signs of Alzheimer’s disease.
In the journal Optics Letters, published by the Optical Society of America, the team describes how they used optical technology to examine tissue samples taken from different autopsies and correctly identified which samples came from people who had Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s currently afflicts some 4.5 million Americans and is the most common cause of dementia among older people in the United States.
“We’re primarily interested in finding a way of diagnosing and monitoring Alzheimer’s disease during life,” says U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Research Scientist Eugene Hanlon. “We think this technique has a lot of potential for detecting the disease early on.”
The new technique developed by Hanlon and his collaborators at Harvard Medical School/Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Boston University can detect alterations to the optical properties of the brain that occur as the tissue undergoes microscopic changes due to Alzheimer’s - formerly far in advance of clinical symptoms. The technique is now being tested for its effectiveness at diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease in living people.
For several years, Hanlon and his colleagues have looked at the possibility of analyzing the brain with near-infrared light, which has the advantage of being able to safely penetrate the skull and pass harmlessly through the brain. Inside the head strong, some of the infrared light scatters, however, and how the light scatters can tell researchers about the condition of the brain.
In their paper, the team reports observing an optical effect what is due to the neighborhood of microscopic features of Alzheimer’s. Amyloid plaques, one of the telltale signs of Alzheimer’s disease, scatter light differently from normal brain tissue. What Hanlon and his colleagues showed was that as the microscopic plaques accumulate, the optical properties of the brain make different. The team found that this change is detectable and that their technique could quantify differences between in-vitro samples and correctly identify signs of Alzheimer’s.
This technique will be a boon to medicine if it is able to detect very small changes that can be related to complaint lapse. While techniques like MRI are abundance at identifying the gross anatomical features associated with Alzheimer’s, they cannot detect more microscopic changes.
Although Alzheimer’s disease is one of the leading causes of death in the United States, claiming tens of thousands of American lives a year, there is no definitive way to diagnose it - at least not while someone is alive. After someone with Alzheimer’s dies, pathologists be able to perform an autopsy and examine slices of the brain under the microscope, looking for the same signs that Alois Alzheimer first recognized when he identified the disease more than a centenary ago. Finding accumulations of amyloid plaques in the brain substance and tangle-like proteins in nerve cells is the only way to confirm with certainty that someone had Alzheimer’s while they were alive.
Since there is no way to safely examine the brains of living people this way, doctors currently diagnose Alzheimer’s disease using other methods. They rely on reviewing medical histories, administering physical exams, and taking into account the results of a battery of neuropsychological assessments that measure cognitive performance. A positive diagnosis is made when all other possible causes have been eliminated, but flat under the most good of circumstances, these diagnoses have power to be incorrect 10 percent of the time or more.
Accurate, early detection of Alzheimer’s could save many lives. While in that place is no cure for the disease, clinically proven treatments can slow its progress - especially if they are administered early on. Moreover, being able to follow the disease progression over time would greatly enhance the ability of researchers and pharmaceutical companies to find new and improved drugs and treatment strategies for people at all stages of the disease.
A current rich area of research seeks to get information about what is going on in the brain without actually looking at the tissue. Some scientists, for instance, look at whether proteins and other biomarkers in the blood or spinal fluid indicate disease progression. Others try to image the brain by established techniques like MRI or PET scans. Optical methods, like the one used by the Bedford researchers, are an emerging approach to imaging.
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Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
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The research was funded by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the National Science Foundation, and a New Concept Award from the Center for Integration of Medicine & Innovative Technology.
Paper: “Scattering Differentiates Alzheimer Disease In Vitro,” by Eugene B. Hanlon et al., Optics Letters, Vol. 33, No. 6, March 15, pp. 624-26, abstract at http://www.opticsinfobase.org/abstract.cfm?URI=ol-33-6-624.
About OSA
Uniting more than 70,000 professionals from 134 countries, the Optical Society of America (OSA) brings together the global optics community through its programs and initiatives. Since 1916 OSA has worked to advance the common interests of the field, providing educational resources to the scientists, engineers and business leaders who work in the field by promoting the science of light and the advanced technologies made potential by optics and photonics. OSA publications, events, technical groups and programs foster optics knowledge and scientific collaboration among all those with an interest in optics and photonics. For more information, visit http://www.osa.org/.
Source: Colleen Morrison
Optical Society of America
$5 Million Initiative To Enhance Care For Adults With Cystic Fibrosis
The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation has announced the launch of a new $5 million initiative to enhance care for the growing adult CF population. The first step, called the Program for Adult Care Excellence (PACE), will expand the scope of adult care programs because of people with cystic fibrosis.
The number of adults with cystic fibrosis continues to increase as life expectancy for the disease continues to rise. To meet the growing demand for care, the Foundation will recruit and train CF care providers and fellows, with an overall goal of adding 40 new adult providers in care centers nationwide.
“The need for enhanced resources to negotiate the adult CF population is a direct result of our success in extending the life span of people with cystic fibrosis,” said Preston W. Campbell, III, M.D., executive vice president for medical affairs of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. “What used to be a pediatric disease is now increasingly a chronic illness that brings its own set of challenges for adults.”
In 1955, when the Foundation was established, children with CF rarely lived long enough to attend elementary school. Today, thanks to improvements in CF research and care, the median predicted age of survival is 37, and 43 percent of all people with cystic fibrosis are over the age of 18.
Over the past two decades the Foundation has made key investments in adult care to keep pace with the growing adult population. For example, in the 1980s, the Foundation began providing fellowships for internal medicine physicians to be trained in pulmonary healing art and CF care.
In 2000 the Foundation mandated that all care centers with more than 40 adult patients establish adult care programs. Today, there are 96 such programs in the country. This latest initiative is the most recent step in the Foundation’s efforts to provide adult CF patients with the highest quality care.
“We are ostentatious of the efforts of all providers in the adult CF care center community,” said Robert J. Beall, Ph.D., president and CEO of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. “These new investments will add to the momentum we esteem been building.”
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Article adapted by of medicine News Today from original press release.
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About the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation
The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is the leading organization in the United States devoted to curing and controlling cystic fibrosis. Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., the Foundation has more than 80 chapters and branch offices throughout the country and supports and accredits a nationwide network of more than 115 care centers, which provide vital treatments and other CF pecuniary means to patients and families. For more information, examine http://www.cff.org/.
Source: Laurie Fink
Cystic Fibrosis Foundation
NLRB Judge Overturns Disputed 2007 Nurses’ Union Election - Cites Illegal Activities By Community Medical Center, USA
Acting on behalf of the National be afflicted Relations Board (NLRB), any administrative enactment judge has overturned a January 2007 union election for registered nurses at Community Medical Center (CMC) and ordered that a new election take place.
The nurses had been seeking representation by the New York State Nurses Association in order to improve their working conditions. The judge found that management’s actions had unfairly affected the outcome.
“We welcome the order because it acknowledges that the medical center broke the law,” said CMC nurse Catherine Heuschkel, RN, a member of the Nurses Association organizing committee. “It’s what we’ve known all along and waited 14 months to hear. The predominant will give us the ability to make a free choice.”
“This is a groundbreaking decision, not only for the CMC nurses and the Nurses Association, but for the entire labor movement,” said Tina Gerardi, RN, Nurses Association CEO. “It establishes that many of the anti-union tactics used by employers and their high-priced consultants are illegal.”
Bruce D. Rosenstein made the ruling for hearing testimony from both the nurses’ union and the hospital at hearings held in Philadelphia from August through December 2007. He sustained the Nurses Association’s complaint that CMC violated the National Labor Relations Act and ordered that the election be decline aside. These violations included:
* Using former Nurses Association employees to conduct an anti-union campaign.
* Intimidating nurses who worked in support of the union, including conducting regular surveillance.
* Publicly discrediting the Nurses Association and preventing distribution of union literature.
* Promising the false concept of “shared governance” to put a damper on nurses from supporting the union and providing free parking and child care on election day only for nurses who voted “no.”
* Prohibiting confederacy organizers from using the public parking garage, in an effort to restrict their more.
“It’s rare for the NLRB to set aside an election, so that’s any indication of how serious these violations were,” said Lorraine Seidel, RN, director of the Nurses Association’s collective-bargaining program. “The NLRB report confirms that these improper activities were carried out under the direction of the union-busting firm of Brent Yessin and Associates. This was the same firm that was hired to attempt to break a recent nurses’ afflict in Kentucky and West Virginia.”
Dated March 14, the order requires medical center management not to interfere with the nurses’ right to support a concord, nor intimidate nurses into voting against unionization. Management must intelligencer notices throughout the facility stating that it will not engage in so illegal behavior.
Nurses Association representatives will soon meet with CMC nurses to discuss the ruling and possible future actions.
With more than 36,000 members, the New York State Nurses Association is the nation’s oldest and largest state nurses’ association. The Nurses Association fosters high standards of nursing education, research, and practice; engages in legislative activity; and provides collective bargaining services to registered nurses. Its mission is to advance the profession of nursing and protect the public’s health.
http://www.nysna.org
Focus On The Genetics Of Brain Tumor Formation Identifies Potential New Neuronal Tumor Suppressor
In a G&D paper published online ahead of its April 1 print publication date, Dr. William Kaelin (Dana Farber Cancer Institute) and colleagues identify a potential new neuronal tumor suppressor.
“It has been suspected for decades that the short arm of chromosome 1 harbored one or more tumor suppressor genes because this region is deleted in a variety of tumors, including many neural crest-derived tumors. Our work suggests that KIFB{beta} is single such gene,” explains Dr. Kaelin.
Neural crest-derived tumors include neuroblastomas and medulloblastomas, which are the most for the use of all malignant pediatric dense tumors, as well as paragangliomas (relatively rare tumors of the sympathetic nervous system) and melanomas, the deadliest form of skin cancer.
Under normal developmental conditions, neural crest cells respond to diminishing sprouting factor signaling by inducing apoptosis, via a course of life involving the enzyme EglN3. However, the acquisition of mutations that enable cells to avoid apoptosis under low growth factor conditions provide a growth favorable opportunity and an effective route to tumorigenesis.
In this issue, Dr. Kaelin and colleagues identify that the protein KIF1B{beta} mediates EglN3-induced neuronal apoptosis, and thus provides a protective effect against the disentanglement of neural crest-derived tumors.
Importantly, KIF1B{beta} is positioned on the part of chromosome 1p that is deleted in a number of neural crest-derived tumors. The Kaelin group demonstrated that the supplementation of 1p-deleted neuroblastoma cancer cells with KIF1B{beta} protein is sufficient to restore apoptosis and identified inactivating point mutations in neural crest-derived tumors. They also showed that partial reduction of KIF1B{beta} - but not complete loss - confers protection against apoptosis, perhaps explaining why most 1p deleted tumors still retain the other KIF1B{beta} allele in its normal form.
While further research is needed to delineate the mechanism by which KIF1B{beta} induces apoptosis, this work opens up several avenues for investigation. For prototype, EglN3 is an oxygen-dependent enzyme that responds to a difference of signals and can exist modulated with drug-like molecules. Dr. Kaelin points out that “an insidious possibility is that an increase in EglN3 activity is responsible for the spontaneous regressions frequently observed in neonates who present with Neuroblastoma (so-called Stage 4S Neuroblastoma). Perhaps, in time, we can mimic this with EglN3 agonists.”
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Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
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Source: Heather Cosel-Pieper
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Donation Funds The Purchase Of Three High-powered Electron Microscopes For Cutting-Edge Research
UTSA President Ricardo Romo used the occasion of the dedication of the Robert J. Kleberg, Jr. and Helen C. Kleberg Commons on the University’s 1604 Campus to announce an $822,000 gift from the charitable foundation that honors the two Texans.
“For some time, we have wanted to create a lasting tribute to the Klebergs’ legacy of philanthropy,” said Romo. “So, several months ago, we asked the Board of Regents of the University of Texas System to approve the naming of one of our more popular student gathering places outside the new Biotechnology, Sciences and Engineering Building as the Kleberg Commons.”
It seemed only fitting, he said, to use the dedication stateliness as the time also to announce the latest gift to UTSA from the Robert J. Kleberg, Jr. and Helen C. Kleberg Foundation. The $822,000 gift power of determination support the purchase of three state-of-the-art electron microscopes, including a scanning, a tunneling and an minute force microscope. While housed in the College of Sciences, the new laboratory equipment will be made available for multi-disciplinary research ranging from physics and engineering to archaeology and art conservation and preservation.
“These microscopes, which represent some of the most important tools in modern science, faculty of volition form the nucleus of a groundbreaking research unit that will be unique not only hither in San Antonio but also in the entire state of Texas,” President Romo told the audience gathered on campus for the Kleberg Commons dedication Tuesday, March 11.
Other speakers at the ceremony included John Frederick, UTSA’s new provost and vice president for academic pecuniary relations, and Helen K. Groves, president of the Robert J. Kleberg, Jr. and Helen C. Kleberg Foundation - and the only child of the Klebergs.
Groves was joined by UTSA Development Board chairman Tom C. Frost in unveiling a commemorative plaque honoring the memory of her parents and celebrating the generosity of the foundation and its commitment to UTSA.
George Perry, dean of the UTSA College of Sciences, said that the gift of the microscopes would contribute to UTSA’s goal to become a prime minister public research university.
“I am so grateful to the Kleberg family for this generous gift and as far as concerns their interest in scientific research,” he said. “This is an exciting period of childbirth for the college, as we cope to advance scientific literacy, conduct cutting-edge research and provide conduct in the education of underrepresented and disadvantaged groups.”
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Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
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Serving more than 5,000 students enrolled in nine undergraduate degree programs and 15 graduate programs, the College of Sciences is composed of six departments: biology, chemistry, computer science, geological sciences, mathematics and physics and astronomy.
The University of Texas at San Antonio is one of the fastest growing higher education institutions in Texas and the second largest of nine lettered universities and six health institutions in the UT System. in the same proportion that a multicultural institution of access and excellence, UTSA aims to be a premier public research university providing access to educational excellence and preparing resident leaders for the global environment.
UTSA serves more than 28,500 students in 64 bachelor’s, 43 master’s and 20 doctoral degree programs in the colleges of Architecture, Business, Education and Human Development, Engineering, Honors, Liberal and Fine Arts, Public Policy, Sciences and Graduate School. Founded in 1969, UTSA is an intellectual and creative resource center and a socioeconomic development catalyst for Texas and beyond.
Source: Kris Edward Rodriguez
University of Texas at San Antonio
New Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) Registry Data Show Clot Quickly Removed, Blood Flow Restored In Large Patient Registry
Registry data for more than 500 patients presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology’s 33rd Annual Scientific Meeting show deep vein thrombosis (DVT) treatment with the Trellis device breaks up a blood clot in most patients much quicker than using a physic alone. Using imaging, the device is guided directly to the clot via a catheter in the vein. DVT occurs when the blood clot either partially or completely blocks the roll on of blood in the vein. The Trellis device removes the blood clot and restores blood roll on much quicker than the current catheter-directed thrombolysis (CDT) technique, what one. uses a drug alone and can take as long as two to three days to be effective with the patient in an intensive care unit.
“It gets the clot out right away, restoring blood flow in the vein while the patient’s blood becomes sufficiently thinned by anticoagulation medication to prevent blood clots in the future. Patients actual feeling dramatic relief of pain, swelling and skin discoloration in just a few hours,” says Gerard J. O’Sullivan, M.D., interventional radiologist. Presently, this is the largest commercial data registry by a manufacturer to assess the effectiveness and safety of this type of treatment for DVT.
“This is a very significant advance in DVT treatment, which hasn’t changed in more than 40 years,” added O’Sullivan. “The procedure is now so commonplace where I work that the ER, oncology and inaccurate medicine doctors all appeal patients directly to me for this procedure for the reason that it works so well and is so safe. by the aid of the Trellis device, this interventional radiology procedure could really change the way DVT patients are treated and should become a standard of care,” he said.
The Trellis device combines the use of clot-busting drugs with a physic dispersion device to break up the clot, providing interventional radiologists with physical assistance to break up the clot faster. Because the device disperses the drug throughout the clot, it allows the clot-dissolving drug to work much more quickly — and often smaller drug is used, which may lead to a decrease in the risk of bleeding.
Currently, most patients are put on anticoagulation medication (blood thinners), which prevents future clots but does not break up the existing clot.
DVT can lead to serious consequences, including pulmonary embolism (PE) or post-thrombotic syndrome (PTS). Approximately 200,000 individuals die annually as a ensue of pulmonary embolism. The standard initial treatment with blood thinners is momentous to prevent a life-threatening pulmonary embolism, but does not treat the existing clot.
Removing these clots is important because about 50 percent of the time, untreated clots will cause PTS, a condition characterized by chronic leg pain, swelling and ulcers. The coagulation may eventually dissolve on its own, but in the meantime the veins are permanently damaged. PTS is caused by a combination of vein valve damage and blocked blood flow in the lode from remaining thrombus (clot).
“My Trellis patients not only felt better right away, but they continued to feel good months later. With anticoagulation alone, it may take days to months for patients to feel better, and some never feel better,” said O’Sullivan. Some larger clots do not impair up on their own. This leaves the patient with an underlying obstruction or lesion that should be corrected to prevent a future clot. PTS — while not life threatening — limits a person’s ability to walk or stagnate for a period of time and can be disabling.
There is growing awareness in the medical community about the need to aggressively treat DVT. Increased focus and awareness of DVT is being brought by means of new initiatives and standards from a variety of organizations including the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General, the Joint Commission and the American College of Chest Physicians.
“All acute DVT patients should be sent to the interventional radiology department notwithstanding a consult. We be possible to help their physicians determine the best course of action. If the vein is completely or severely blocked, immediate treatment is needed. Not all partial clots will require treatment, but if the area is still swollen after five to seven days, patients should ask for an appointment with an interventional physician at the hospital,” said O’Sullivan. Interventional radiologists are widely available across the United States in most hospital radiology departments.
Abstract 4: “An Endovascular Approach to Deep Venous Thrombosis Utilizing Isolated Thrombolysis and Adjunctive Measures,” can be found at http://www.SIRmeeting.org.
About the Study
There were 565 limbs treated in 532 patients. The vein was reopened in all cases, and the treatment worked on acute or chronic clots, which is important because acute, fresh clots are more easily treated. Sixty-eight percent of the patients’ thrombi were in the iliac strain (large thigh vein), 19 percent in the smaller femoropoliteal veins (in the leg domain), and 13 percent in the subclavian vein (arm and neck area).
Thrombus is generally classified by how long it has been existing in the body; SIR’s Reporting Standards define acute as 14 days or fewer, subacute as 15 to 28 days and chronic like more than 28 days.
Thrombus was acute in 28 percent, acute on chronic in 44 percent, 11 percent subacute, 12 percent subacute on chronic and chronic in 6 percent, by means of the SIR clot-age classification guidelines. Combined Grades II and III lysis (> 50 to 100 percent thrombus removal) were established in 96.8 percent of acute onset of symptoms, 93.6 percent in acute on chronic, 96.7 percent in subacute, 89.2 percent in subacute on chronic and 90.9 percent with chronic attack of symptoms, with venous patency achieved in all cases. No adverse events were reported in the acute procedural follow-up period. Venous angioplasty, and/or stenting, were also used in the study in conjunction with the Trellis procedure to treat underlying problems depending on individual patient needs, such as a narrow area in the vein that would make a bodily form susceptible to future clots.
About The Trellis(R)-8 Infusion System
The Trellis(R)-8 Infusion System is positioned at the site of the clot and a balloon is inflated on the pair sides of the clot to prevent pieces of the clot from traveling to other parts of the body and to isolate the treatment zone, so that there is less chance the infused drug will cause blood-letting. Then a “dispersion wire” is fed through the catheter of the system. The wire begins to rotate, mixing the clot-busting drug not above the clot; the clot pieces are aspirated into the catheter and removed from the body.
The Trellis is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a drug-infusion catheter for peripheral vascular clots. The drug and device have been used for years to remove blood clots from arteries and veins. The given conditions are specific to DVT, showing that it works and is safe.
About the Society of Interventional Radiology
Interventional radiologists are physicians who specialize in minimally invasive, targeted treatments. They offer the most in-depth knowledge of the least invasive treatments available coupled with diagnostic and clinical experience across all specialties. They use X-ray, MRI and other imaging to advance a catheter in the body, usually in an artery, to treat at the source of the disease internally. As the inventors of angioplasty and the catheter-delivered stent, which were first used in the legs to treat peripheral arterial disease, interventional radiologists pioneered minimally invasive modern medicine.
Today many conditions that once required surgery can exist treated less invasively by interventional radiologists. Interventional radiology treatments offer less risk, less pain and less recovery time compared to open surgery. Visit http://www.SIRweb.org.
Society of Interventional Radiology
http://www.SIRweb.org
Clues On Hormone’s Role In Human Learning Reavealed By Research With Squirrels
Tests on the influence that a stress-related hormone has on scholarship in ground squirrels could have an impact on understanding how it influences human learning, according to a University of Chicago researcher.
Jill Mateo, Assistant Professor in Comparative Human Development, has found that when they perform normal survival tasks, ground squirrels learn more quickly if they have a modest amount of cortisol, a hormone produced in response to stress, than those with either high or low levels of cortisol.
In humans, cortisol production is also related to stress and is known to have an impact on learning, but that impact is not well understood, Mateo said. The research on ground squirrels could point to additional avenues of research.
In disposition to live on, ground squirrels must adapt quickly and learn how to course the dangers of their environment so they can find their way back to their burrows. turf squirrel pups typically emerge from their burrows about the time they’re weaned, at four weeks of age.
“Two hundred can emerge at the same time, providing a feast for predators,” said Mateo, who studies Belding ground squirrels, native to high elevations in the western United States. In nature, about 30 percent of pups do not survive.
Modest levels of cortisol are apparently linked to their survival, Mateo reports in the article, “Inverted-U shape relationship between cortisol and learning in ground squirrels,” published in any on-line posting of the journal Neurobiology of Learning and Memory. The “inverted U” is the shape data forms on a chart. Animals with low levels of cortisol are at the left of the inverted U, and those with high levels are at the right, though those with modest levels and higher learning are in the middle.
In order to test whether animals with low levels have difficulty learning, Mateo simulated a natural setting through a labyrinth and connected it by the agency of a box that contained a nest of squirrel pups. She noninvasively altered the amount of coritsol in the pups’ systems and found that those with both high and low cortisol levels took an average of 13 to 14 trials before they navigated the maze, while a control group of non-treated pups with a modest amount of cortisol needed just nine.
She tested the animals’ response to danger by throwing a Frisbee over the meander and also by sounding a bird call to see how quickly the pups responded. domineering and low amounts of cortisol reduced the animals’ ability to learn how to respond to danger.
Among humans, what research that has been done on cortisol and learning has been inconclusive. Unlike animals, researchers cannot moderate cortisol levels in humans to study its impact. However, scholars are aware of situations in which cortisol levels change due to unusual interventions and events.
For instance, in order to help women at risk of pre-term birth deliver in good case babies, doctors sometimes treat them with synthetic glucocorticoids, which raise cortisol levels. The glucocorticoids facilitate fetal lung development.
“We be sure almost nothing about the neurobiological implications of these treatments on cognitive development of children,” she said. Animal studies have shown that these treatments can have negative effects on brain development, she said.
Additionally, little is known about the collision of low cortisol on learning among humans. Pregnant women who are exposed to stress, such as those tested after directly experiencing the collapse of the World Trade Center on 9/11, developed Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and had significantly lower cortisol two years later, as did their babies.
The animal tests also help to understand the potential human shock of low cortisol on learning, she said.
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Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
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Source: William Harms
University of Chicago
First Patient Enrolled In SONIC I Registry Of OmniSonics Medical Technologies’ OmniWave(TM) Endovascular System
OmniSonics Medical Technologies, Inc., a developer of advanced medical devices for use in the treatment of vascular distemper, announced that it has enrolled its first patient in the SONIC I Clinical Registry. SONIC I is a prospective, multi-centered U.S. registry study of the company’s OmniWave(TM) Endovascular System (OES) in patients undergoing percutaneous mechanical thrombectomy of acute deep vein thrombosis (DVT). All patients enrolled in the SONIC I are scheduled for follow-up at 30 days and 6 months following the OmniWave procedure. The pristine sick person was enrolled by Daniel Clair, M.D., Chairman of Vascular Surgery at The Cleveland Clinic.
“The Cleveland Clinic is excited to participate in the SONIC I clinical trial with the OmniWave Endovascular System,” said Dr. Clair. “The OmniWave System has the in posse to offer physicians each effective alternative to current pharmacological and automatic treatments for deep bent thrombosis (DVT).”
In response to this important milestone, Richard Ganz, President and CEO of OmniSonics Medical Technologies, related, “We continue to be encouraged by the positive outcomes the first physicians are having with the OmniWave Endovascular System. Enrolling our first patient in the SONIC I Clinical Registry is a key step in our contribution to providing tools to physicians for the treatment of DVT.”
In September 2007, OmniSonics received clearance from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market its catheter-based OmniWave Endovascular System for the infusion of physician specified fluids, including thrombolytics, and for the removal of thrombus in the peripheral vasculature.
OmniSonics Medical Technologies, Inc. is scheduled to exhibit the OmniWave Endovascular System at the Society for Interventional Radiology (SIR) Meeting to be held March 15-20 in Washington, DC.
The OmniWave Endovascular System is based on patented OmniWave technology, the first minimally invasive catheter-based technology that delivers low-power, cross ultrasonic energy to remove thrombus quickly, safely, and effectively. Thrombus (also known as a blood crassament) occurs in a number of conditions including deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and acute limb ischemia. DVT affects approximately 2 million the community in the U.S. every year, and acute limb ischemia affects over 250,000 people in the U.S. every year.
About OmniSonics Medical Technologies, Inc.
OmniSonics Medical Technologies, Inc., based in Wilmington, MA, is a venture-backed medical device company focused on developing breakthrough products for the treatment of vascular disease. The Company’s products are based on its patented OmniWave technology, the first technology capable of delivering low-power ultrasonic energy around the active length of a small diameter wire in a diseased madcap vessel. OmniWave technology is designed to have broad applications in vascular disease.
OmniSonics Medical Technologies, Inc.
http://www.omnisonics.com
Replacing Paper Based Training With Hi-Tech Help, UK Nursing
Nurses making more than 75,000 medical visits a year to enable often seriously ill people to be cared for at home are being given hi-tech help by University experts.
Healthcare at Home Limited provides private medical care for more than 5,000 patients a year around the UK, including those needing treatment for acute and chronic illnesses.
It is currently developing an online training and advice centre to put back the paper based system currently used by dint of. its 150 specialist nurses - thanks to IT experts at the University of Derby.
The software system developed with the University’s Innovation 4 Learning (I4L) team force of will eventually mean that regular changes to training materials and policies order no longer require time spent reprinting and distributing paper-based information to nursing staff across the UK.
Staff direct instead get their updates by logging on at home or in one of Healthcare at Home’s regional offices. The company is based in Burton-Upon-Trent, Staffordshire.
Terry Fox, Business Development Manager for the University’s I4L team, said: “In the changing world of home healthcare, you can imagine the difficulties inherent in constantly having to update the guidance for so many staff.
“With the latest translation of our intelligent shell system (ISS) - called Intelligent Mobile Communication - that we’ve developed for Healthcare at Home, the company’s staff can receive the latest training and clinical information anywhere in the world.”
Healthcare at Home treats private and NHS patients using specialist nurses. The majority of patients are referred to it by consultants in specialities including oncology, orthopaedics, respiratory medicine, rheumatology, endocrinology, neurology, gastroenterology, cardiology and renal.
Procedures such as delivering intravenous antibiotics, blood transfusions, chemotherapy and related support therapies are routinely administered to patients in their own homes, or even at work. For consultants, this provides a safe, clinically proven and highly effective treatment option.
Danny Bouckley, upper part strong of Human Resources for Healthcare at Home, added: “Collaborating with the University of Derby on this project has been a great experience.
“The new system, due to lance in March, way that our employees can keep up to date with the latest information no matter where they are.”
The University’s I4L team has a track record of providing innovative IT ideas for healthcare providers.
It has previously helped develop two online assessment and e-learning packages called Safe Prescribing for New Doctors and Medicines Administration for Nurses, popularly in use by East Midlands hospitals, which test medical staff on their knowledge over the prescribing of drugs combinations for patients and the likely effects on patients.
About The University of Derby
The University of Derby is a thriving etc. inspired by a dedication to quality and opportunity. It is an innovator in flexible modular study and e-learning solutions tailoring programmes to students’ needs.
The University is home to a diverse community of over 20,000 students from the UK and overseas. Subjects offered to students include a distant range of disciplines in Arts, Design and Technology; Business, Computing and Law; and Education, Health and Sciences, whole leaders in their field.
In the Teaching Quality Information (TQI) National Student Survey for 2007, Law at the University of Derby was top in the UK for student satisfaction. The Law course also rated first in the UK for Personal Development, Teaching and Academic Support.
The Learning Through be team in the School of Flexible and Partnership Learning won the prestigious 2006 Times Higher Education Supplement adjudge for ‘Most Imaginative Use Of Distance Learning’. The team has an enviable track record of delivering higher education courses to employees. Last year the University was shortlisted for the award of ‘University of the Year’ alongside five others.
The University of Derby Students’ Union, a number of research centres and academic schools, including The Derbyshire Business School, are all based at the Kedleston Road site. Facilities include our new £1.5m Clinical Skills Suite and a pioneering computer games development suite.
The UK’s first dedicated site for arts, design and technology was opened by Sir Richard Branson, President of Virgin Atlantic, in autumn 2007. It forms just one part of a £55m estates investment strategy that is creating a University Quarter for Derby, building forward the success of our multiple allotment winning £23m campus in the Peak District spa town of Buxton.
The Devonshire Campus at Buxton is the result of five years of careful restoration. Teaching there commenced in September 2005 and the Devonshire was opened officially by Their Royal Highnesses Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall in February 2006. The building’s centrepiece is a magnificent Dome, larger than St Paul’s in London - its facilities are mixed the finest in Europe.
All our schools and faculties enjoy links with household names so in the same manner with Rolls-Royce and Toyota. The University Quarter in Derby incorporates sites at Kedleston Road, Markeaton Street and Britannia Mill to the west of Derby city centre.
Derby achieved University condition in 1992. In 2006 it won an ‘Improving Working Lives’ award sponsored by the Times Higher Education Supplement. Professor John Coyne has been the University’s Vice-Chancellor since the summer of 2004.
http://www.derby.ac.uk
Apieron, Inc. Announces FDA Clearance Of The Insight(TM) ENO System To Assist Physicians With Patient Asthma Management
Apieron, Inc. (http://www.apieron.com) announced that the Insight eNO system has received clearance to market by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The Insight eNO scheme measures exhaled nitric oxide (eNO), what one. is a well-established indicator of airway inflammation and asthma control. The Insight system is a highly accurate device, expressly designed for the physician’s office. It is non-invasive, safe, easy to use, and provides results in less than a minute. Apieron’s unique biosensor detects trace amounts of nitric oxide molecules in a unwedded human breath utilizing a proprietary technology. Current methods and techniques used to diagnose, monitor and treat asthma are costly, time-consuming and cumbersome. Physician office measurement of eNO is a much-awaited breakthrough in of medicine technology that provides physicians with a reliable tool to measure their patients’ respiratory rage better than ever in the van of. Measurement of eNO has in addition been shown to optimize medication therapy and improve compliance among patients with asthma.
William Berger, M.D., Clinical Professor of Pediatrics, University of California, Irvine, and Mission Viejo Medical Center, Mission Viejo, California, stated, “In clinical studies with the Apieron Insight eNO counsellor, I found the ability to easily and accurately measure eNO in the physician’s office to be a major advancement in my care for patients with persistent asthma.”
It is estimated that more than 20 million people in the U.S. suffer from asthma, making it one of the most common and costly of all diseases. In fact, every day in America 40,000 people miss school or work due to asthma and 5,000 people go to the emergency room directly to an asthma attack. One-quarter of all emergency room visits are asthma related and asthma is the most common chronic childhood disease.
“We are pleased to offer physicians and their patients a reliable, accurate and affordable asthma measurement and management device,” said Rich Lotti, President and CEO of Apieron, Inc. “We believe this product will improve the standard of care for patients with asthma enabling physicians to optimize medical therapy for each patient.”
“The availability of simple to use, accurate, and economically feasible eNO measurement devices now enables physicians to intelligently assess and manage the key pathologic feature of asthma, airway inflammation,” said Peter B. Boggs, M.D., Clinical Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine, LSU School of Medicine, Shreveport, Louisiana. “Prior to the availability to measure eNO, assessing and managing airway inflammation was, for the whole of practical purposes, little more than a guess! The ability to degree eNO in the physician’s office is ‘one giant step’ in the care of adults and children through asthma.”
The Insight eNO system includes a small desktop monitor with an easy-to- read display, trend analysis capabilities and a user-friendly interface. The system uses disposable, single-use sensors to measure nitric oxide accurately and non-invasively in less than a minute. Disposable, single-use breath tubes make it hygienic and convenient for the user to exhale into the device. Patient data can be stored and maintained in singular patient cards for trend analysis or downloaded to a printer for insurers’ and patients’ files.
About Apieron Inc.
Apieron Inc. is a private, venture-backed medical device corporation based in Menlo Park, CA that was formed in early 2001 to develop a simple-to-use, non- invasive monitor for the measurement of exhaled nitric oxide (eNO) for the management of asthma. The Apieron biosensor technology platform utilizes a patented technology that allows for the highly sensitive detection of selected analytes like eNO. Apieron is committed to collaborating with physicians and patients to develop innovative medical solutions to improve quality of life and standards of care.
Apieron, Inc.
http://www.apieron.com
Second Depth-Perception Method In Brain Discovered
It’s common discernment that humans and other animals are able to visually judge depth because we regard two eyes and the brain compares the images from each. But we can also judge depth with only one eye, and scientists have been searching for how the brain accomplishes that feat.
Now, a team led by a scientist at the University of Rochester believes it has discovered the answer in a small part of the brain that processes both the images from a single eye and also the motion of our bodies.
The team of researchers, led by Greg DeAngelis, Professor in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Rochester, has published the findings in the March 20 online issue of the journal Nature.
“It looks as though in this area of the brain, the neurons are combining visual cues and non-visual cues to come up with a unique way to determine deepness,” says DeAngelis.
DeAngelis says that means the brain uses a whole array of methods to gauge depth. In addition to two-eyed “binocular disparity,” the brain makes use of other cues such as motion, perspective, and how objects pass in front of or behind each other to create a representation of the three-dimensional world in