Medical Forum

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The board will be without this weekend.

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Medical Forum needs a new moderator.
PM me and I will get in touch with admin to turn it over.

PoemStone.

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SRCL. Stericycle, Inc. Launches New Customer-Centric Website
Site Aligned International Image with New Customer Features
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/stericycle-inc-launches-customer-centric-210000355.html

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Meningitis: What You Need to Know
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/meningitis-know-204000963.html

MASON, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

The following is an opinion editorial by Dr. Barry Malinowski, Medical Director, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Ohio:

By now you’ve likely heard or read headlines about the latest outbreak of meningitis that has led to, at latest count, 15 deaths and more than 230 illnesses, seven of those illnesses in Ohio. Should you be worried? Not unless you’ve had a steroid shot in your spine to treat back pain in the past four months. Here’s the difference between this latest outbreak and meningitis in general:

Meningitis is a disease caused by the inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord known as the meninges. Meningitis typically results from a viral infection, although the cause may sometimes also be a bacterial infection. The severity and treatment of meningitis differ according to type and symptoms, which is why it’s is important to know the specific cause of meningitis.

While viral meningitis is serious, it’s rarely fatal for people with normal immune systems. Bacterial meningitis, however, is one of the most serious and life-threatening forms. There are a number of strains of bacterial meningitis, among them the highly contagious meningococcal meningitis. This strain commonly occurs when bacteria from an upper respiratory infection enters the bloodstream, and it affects mainly teenagers and young adults who are sharing close quarters like college dorms and military bases.

This latest outbreak is caused by the rarely seen fungal meningitis, which is not contagious like the bacterial or viral forms. Fungal meningitis can develop after a fungus spreads through the bloodstream from somewhere else in the body, or as a result of the fungus being introduced directly into the central nervous system. In this case, the patients received back injections with a steroid medication suspected to be contaminated by a fungus. The potentially contaminated medication was shipped starting May 21, 2012, and recalled on Sept. 26, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Signs and symptoms of fungal meningitis may include fever, severe headache, nausea, sensitivity to light, altered mental status and stroke. According to the CDC, symptoms have been appearing between one and four weeks after patients received the shots. If you believe you or someone you know may be as risk for having contracted fungal meningitis, please contact a physician right away. Fungal meningitis is treated with high-dose antifungal medications, usually given intravenously in a hospital.

This latest fungal meningitis outbreak is an unimaginable tragedy for those affected and their loved ones. But the situation also represents the expanse and limits of the modern way in which we acquire news, through real-time media outlets and constant updates from the Internet and social media. It also signals an opportunity to further connect people with credible resources such as the CDC for the latest information about health matters that may or may not affect them. Learn more at the CDC website.

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NABI. Nabi Biopharmaceuticals Sets Record Date for Cash Dividend
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/nabi-biopharmaceuticals-sets-record-date-202232837.html

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TFX. Teleflex Launches “Never Settle” Brand Campaign at AVA Conference to Celebrate ARROW® Technologies and the Hard-Working Clinicians Who Use Them
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/teleflex-launches-never-settle-brand-210000379.html

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Mother's Touch Could Change Effects of Prenatal Stress
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121016173130.htm

ScienceDaily (Oct. 16, 2012) — Scientists at the Universities of Liverpool, Manchester, and Kings College, London, have found that mothers who stroke their baby's body in the first few weeks after birth may change the effects that stress during pregnancy can have on an infant's early-life development.

Researchers world-wide have been studying whether stress in pregnancy can lead to emotional and behavioural problems in children for many years. Attention is now moving towards how parents might alter these effects after birth. Researchers are aiming to improve understanding of the issues to help enhance information services for pregnant women and their partners.

Scientists believe that stress in pregnancy can have an effect on an infant in later life by reducing the activity of genes that play a role in stress response. Studies of early care-giving in rats have found that high levels of mothers' licking and grooming their pups soon after birth can increase the activity of these genes and may reverse the effects of prenatal stress on their offspring.

Some studies suggest that impacts of prenatal stress on an infant's development can be either positive or negative depending on the type of environment a child encounters. It is thought that some children may experience the effects through being more prone to high levels of fear or anger.

The team at Liverpool, Manchester and London followed first-time mothers from pregnancy through to the first years of their children's lives as part of Medical Research Council (MRC) funded research, The Wirral Child Health and Development Study.

It showed that links between symptoms of depression in pregnancy and subsequent infant emotions of fear and anger, as well as heart rate response to stress at seven months of age changed by how often a mother stroked their baby on the head, back, legs and arms in the early weeks of life. The results suggest that stroking may alter gene activity in a similar way to that reported in animals.

Dr Helen Sharp, from the University of Liverpool's Institute of Psychology, Health and Society, explains: "We are currently following up on the Wirral children in our study to see if reports of early stroking by their mothers continue to make a difference to developmental outcomes over time.

"The eventual aim is to find out whether we should recommend that mothers who have been stressed during pregnancy should be encouraged to stroke their babies early in life"

The study is published in the journal PLOS ONE

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New Blood-Vessel-Generating Cell With Therapeutic Potential Discovered
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121016173127.htm

ScienceDaily (Oct. 16, 2012) — Researchers at the University of Helsinki, Finland, believe they have discovered stem cells that play a decisive role in new blood vessel growth. If researchers learn to isolate and efficiently produce these stem cells found in blood vessel walls, the cells offer new opportunities in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, cancer and many other diseases.

The study will be published Oct. 16, 2012 in the online journal PLOS Biology.

The growth of new blood vessels, also known as angiogenesis, is needed in adults when repairing damaged tissue or organs. Unfortunately, malignant tumours are also capable of growing new blood vessels to receive oxygen and nutrients. In other words, the treatment of diseases would benefit from two types of methods: ones that help launch the process of angiogenesis and ones that make it possible to prevent the process. Medications that prevent the growth of new blood vessels have already been introduced, but their effectiveness and long-term efficacy leave much to be desired.

For more than a decade, Adjunct Professor Petri Salvén from the University of Helsinki has studied the mechanisms of angiogenesis to discover how blood vessel growth could be prevented or accelerated effectively. He has examined the birth and origin of endothelial cells, which form the thin layer that lines the interior surface of blood vessels. Endothelial cells are necessary for new blood vessel growth. Where do these highly diversified cells come from? Can their production be prevented or increased?

For a long time, it was assumed that new cells in the blood vessel walls of an adult originate in the bone marrow. In an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) in 2008, Salvén's research team showed that such stem cells were not found in bone marrow.

Now Salvén is ready to reveal where these mysterious stem cells originate. His team's new study will be published in the PLOS Biology journal on 16 October 2012.

"We succeeded in isolating endothelial cells with a high rate of division in the blood vessel walls of mice. We found these same cells in human blood vessels and blood vessels growing in malignant tumours in humans. These cells are known as vascular endothelial stem cells, abbreviated as VESC. In a cell culture, one such cell is able to produce tens of millions of new blood vessel wall cells," Salvén explains.

"Our study shows that these important stem cells can be found as single cells among ordinary endothelial cells in blood vessel walls. When the process of angiogenesis is launched, these cells begin to produce new blood vessel wall cells."

The effects of new endothelial stem cells have also been tested in mice. The results show that the growth of new blood vessels weakens and the growth of malignant tumours slows if the amount of these cells in the organism is below normal. Correspondingly, a high number of new blood vessels quickly emerge where new stem cells are implanted.

Identifying stem cells among other blood vessel wall cells is challenging and time-consuming. Salvén and his team managed to identify a few molecular surface structures that make it easier to trace these stem cells. However, the efficiency of the identification process needs to be enhanced.

"If we can find more molecules that are characteristic of the surface structure of these rare cells, it is possible that we can increase the efficiency and accuracy of the cell isolation process by more than tenfold. This would enable numbers that are sufficient for cell transplant treatments for humans," says Salvén.

Plenty of potential treatment applications

"The identification and isolation of an entirely new adult stem cell type is a significant discovery in stem cell biology. Endothelial stem cells in blood vessels are particularly interesting, because they offer great potential for applications in practical medicine and the treatment of patients," says Salvén.

If an efficient method to produce endothelial stem cells can be developed, they will offer new treatment opportunities in situations where damaged tissue or diseases call for new blood vessel growth or where the constriction or dysfunction of blood vessels deprives tissues of oxygen. These cells also offer new opportunities for developing medications that seek to prevent new blood vessel growth in malignant tumours.

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Cold Viruses Point the Way to New Cancer Therapies
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121016162830.htm

ScienceDaily (Oct. 16, 2012) — Cold viruses generally get a bad rap -- which they've certainly earned -- but new findings by a team of scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies suggest that these viruses might also be a valuable ally in the fight against cancer.

Adenovirus, a type of cold virus, has developed molecular tools -- proteins -- that allow it to hijack a cell's molecular machinery, including large cellular machines involved in growth, replication and cancer suppression. The Salk scientists identified the construction of these molecular weapons and found that they bind together into long chains (polymers) to form a three-dimensional web inside cells that traps and overpowers cellular sentries involved in growth and cancer suppression. The findings, published Oct. 11 in Cell, suggest a new avenue for developing cancer therapies by mimicking the strategies employed by the viruses.

"Cancer was once a black box," says Clodagh O'Shea, an assistant professor in Salk's Molecular and Cell Biology Laboratory, who led the study. "The key that opened that box was revealing the interactions between small DNA tumor virus proteins and cellular tumor suppressor complexes. But without knowing the structure of the proteins they use to attack cells, we were at a loss for how these tiny weapons win out over much larger tumor suppressors."

O'Shea's team studied E4-ORF3, a cancer-causing protein encoded by adenovirus, which prevents the p53 tumor suppressor protein from binding to its target genes. Known as the "guardian of the genome," p53 normally suppresses tumors by causing cells with DNA damage -- a hallmark of cancer -- to self-destruct. The p53 tumor suppressor pathway is inactivated in almost every human cancer, allowing cancer cells to escape normal growth controls. Similarly, by inactivating p53, the E4-ORF3 protein enables adenovirus replication in infected human cells to go unchecked.

Two years ago, O'Shea discovered that E4-ORF3 clears the way for adenovirus to proliferate by deactivating genes that help the cell defend itself against the virus. "It literally creates zip files of p53 target genes by compressing them until they can no longer be read," she explains.

E4-ORF3 self-assembles inside cells into a disordered, web-like structure that captures and inactivates different tumor suppressor protein complexes. Horng Ou, a postdoctoral researcher in O'Shea's laboratory, says E4-ORF3 is unusual. "It doesn't resemble any known proteins that assemble polymers or that function in cellular tumor suppressor pathways," he says. "Most cellular polymers and filaments form uniform, rigid chains. But E4-ORF3 is the virus's Swiss army knife -- it assembles into something that is highly versatile. It has the ability to build itself into all sorts of different shapes and sizes that can capture and deactivate the many defenses of a host cell."

In collaboration with scientists from the National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research at University of California, San Diego, led by Mark Ellisman, the center's director, O'Shea's team used new techniques to reveal the ultrastructure of the remarkable polymer that E4-ORF3 assembles in the nucleus -- something that previously had proven difficult since the polymer is effectively invisible using conventional electron microscopy. "What you see is the E4-ORF3 polymer bending and weaving and twisting its way through the nucleus," she says. "It does appear to have a single repeating pattern and creates a matrix that captures several different tumor suppressors and silences p53 target genes."

Initially, E4-ORF3 forms a dimer, made up of only two subunits. In this form, E4-ORF3 largely ignores its cellular targets. The researchers theorized that when E4-ORF3 assembles into a polymer, however, it binds to tumor suppressor targets far more aggressively. To test this theory, they genetically fused E4-ORF3 polymer mutants to lamin, a cellular protein that assembles intermediate filaments that provide stability and strength to cells. They showed that the lamin-E4-ORF3 fusion protein assembled into cylinder-like superstructures in the nucleus that bind and disrupt PML, a protein complex that suppresses tumors.

The Salk findings may help scientists develop small molecules -- the basis for the vast majority of current drugs -- capable of destroying tumors by binding and disrupting large and complex cellular components that allow cancer cells to grow and spread. Understanding how viruses overcome healthy cells may also help scientists engineer tumor-busting viruses, which offer a new and potentially self-perpetuating cancer therapy. Such modified viruses would destroy only cancer cells, because they could only replicate in cells in which the p53 tumor suppressor has been deactivated. When a cancer cell is destroyed it would release additional copies of the engineered viruses, which would seek out and kill remaining cancer cells that have spread throughout the body.

Engineering these viruses requires disabling the ability of the E4-ORF3 protein to inactivate p53 in healthy cells -- otherwise, the virus could destroy healthy cells as well as cancer cells. At the same time, E4-ORF3 has certain important functions in allowing the virus to replicate in the first place, so it can't be completely removed from the virus's arsenal. Thus, the Salk researcher's work on understanding the protein's precise structure, functions and interactions is crucial to engineering viruses in which E4-ORF3's abilities have been precisely modified.

Other researchers on the study were Witek Kwiatkowski, Katherine Blain, Hannah Land, Conrado Soria, Colin Powers, James Fitzpatrick, Jeff Long and Senyon Choe from the Salk Institute; Thomas Deerinck, Andrew Noske, Xiaokun Shu and Roger Tsien of the University of California, San Diego; and Andrew May of Fluidigm.

The work was supported by the National Institutes of Health, American Cancer Society, Sontag Foundation, the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, and Anna Fuller Foundation.

[PoemStone]

Lupus Research Institute Awards First $1 Million Private Sector Research Grants to Uncover the Root Causes of Lupus That Can Drive to a Cure
Distinguished Innovators Initiative Investigates Fundamental Causes of Autoimmunity in Lupus Bringing Broad Application for Other Diseases
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/lupus-research-institute-awards-first-181500659.html

NEW YORK, Oct. 16, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The Lupus Research Institute (LRI) today announced the first $1 million research grants given to lupus investigators by a private research organization. The LRI Distinguished Innovator Initiative was created to address the current lack of treatments in development that could arrest or reverse the disease. The first privately funded awards of this scale in lupus, it challenges the international scientific community to pursue highly promising new ideas on the fundamental causes of lupus that can lead to a cure.

The two Distinguished Innovator recipients, Drs. Ann Marshak-Rothstein at University of Massachusetts Medical School and Greg Barton at University of California, Berkeley, independently zeroed in on one family of proteins called Toll-like receptors as key triggers of the body's devastating autoimmune attack on itself that characterizes lupus. Because TLR proteins are essential in fighting any infection, how the body loses control over their activity is a fundamental question in immunology. Finding the causes of lupus, the prototype for autoimmune disease research, could have broad implications across a wide range of illnesses affecting millions.

Which Toll-like receptor is responsible?
Dr. Marshak-Rothstein's research group was the first to propose that the TLRs could have a primary role in lupus by turning on the immune system to attack the body. Recent animal studies found that one TLR, TLR7, has a harmful role, while another, TLR9, has the opposite effect helping to protect against lupus.

Building on that work, Dr. Marshak-Rothstein is developing a highly innovative experimental approach to pinpoint which specific TLR is mainly to blame for causing lupus in humans. This experimental approach also promises to reveal new targets for therapies that could prevent or arrest lupus.

Dr. Marshak-Rothstein noted, "Support from the LRI will enable us to extend our analysis of the cell components recognized by TLRs in mice to TLR activation in human cell populations, and allow us to identify those patients most likely to respond to therapies directed at blocking specific TLRs."

Why Don't TLR's Harm Healthy People?
Also focusing on TLRs as prime suspects, Dr. Barton seeks to solve why TLRs cause a problem in people with lupus but not in healthy people. His work will determine if the reason the lupus immune system begins to attack its own DNA might lie with proteins inside immune cells whose job is to control TLR activity. Dr. Barton anticipates proving that lupus patients have defects in these control proteins that allow TLRs to mistakenly switch into action.

Dr. Barton's study seeks to pinpoint the earliest errors made by the lupus immune system and suggest new treatments to correct them. His investigations also have broad implications for autoimmune disease, infectious disease and beyond. The new knowledge generated by his work could even inform vaccine design against infectious diseases or cancer.

"In the last few years, we have started to learn how the immune system regulates TLRs," said Dr. Barton. "The next challenge, and the focus of our work, is to determine whether differences in these processes can explain why certain people develop lupus while others do not."

Stellar First Year for New Distinguished Innovator Award Initiative
The LRI received applications for the first privately funded $1 million grants from many of the world's most renowned scientists as well as rising young investigators with great promise for contributing their talent to uncovering the causes of lupus. Rigorous peer-review was conducted by a team of LRI's scientific advisors and 12 of the world's leading lupus experts.

"We were enormously impressed by the quality of the submissions and the two from Drs. Barton and Marshak-Rothstein stood out as offering the best possibilities for key insights," noted world-leading immunologist Dr. William Paul, LRI Scientific Advisory Board Chairman and National Academy of Sciences member. "With these Distinguished Innovator awards and existing annual Novel Research Grants, the LRI continues to pursue a strategy of funding the most innovative and novel research that has had unprecedented success in driving new answers in a complex disease state. Their work over the past decade has provided the basis for this transformative research initiative to look for the fundamental causes of lupus that can drive to a cure and the means to prevent lupus."

About Lupus
A complex autoimmune disease, lupus affects over 1.5-million Americans, primarily women.

About the Lupus Research Institute
The Lupus Research Institute (LRI), the world's leading private supporter of innovative research, pioneers discovery and champions scientific creativity to find solutions to lupus.

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STE. STERIS Corporation and NeuroLogica Announce Collaboration

Companies to provide integrated intraoperative solutions
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/steris-corporation-neurologica-announce-collaboration-143000408.html

http://stockcharts.com/c-sc/sc?s=STE&p=W&yr=1&mn=0&dy=0&i=t38280577426&r=1350416143032

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Non-Coding Antisense RNA Can Be Used to Stimulate Protein Production
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121016084940.htm

ScienceDaily (Oct. 16, 2012) — While studying Parkinson's disease, an international research group made a discovery which can improve industrial protein synthesis for therapeutic use. They managed to understand a novel function of non-protein coding RNA: the protein synthesis activity of coding genes can be enhanced by the activity of the non-coding one called "antisense."

To synthesize proteins, the DNA needs RNA molecules serving as short "transcriptions" of the genetic information. The set of all these RNA molecules is called "transcriptome." In the human transcriptome, along with around 25 thousand sequences of coding RNA (i.e. the sequences involved in the synthesis process), an even larger number of non-coding RNA sequences can be found. Some of these RNAs are called "antisense" because they are complementary to sequences of coding RNA called "sense" (the pairing of a sense and an antisense RNA can be seen as a zip).

The RIKEN Omics Science Center has previously discovered that many of the protein coding genes have corresponding antisense RNAs. A study published in Nature, coordinated by a group of SISSA researchers in Trieste, Italy, has now found that a particular type of antisense RNAs stimulate the translation of the protein coding mRNAs that they overlap to. This is in sharp contrast with the current belief that antisense RNAs are universally associated to negative regulation of protein translation.

Most of the mammalian genome is transcribed producing non-coding RNA. The RIKEN FANTOM projects have earlier demonstrated that the largest output of the genome is constituted by non-coding RNAs. More than 70% of the mRNAs are associated in cells with non-coding antisense RNAs, which are usually thought to negatively repress transcription or translation.

In an exceptional collaborative study based on RIKEN FANTOM sense-antisense cDNA clones, the consortium (including SISSA and the RIKEN Omics Science Center) has found a class of non-coding antisense RNAs that do the contrary of what is currently known: enhance translation of mRNAs with which they are pairing. The researchers identified this function studying the antisense of the mRNA of Uchl1, a mouse gene involved in brain function and neurodegenerative diseases. The team, using bioinformatics and data-mining at RIKEN, has also discovered that the antisense of Uchl1 RNA is not a single case but instead is the representative of a larger class of mammalian antisense RNAs, which function is to increase translation. This is the first report of an antisense RNA that increases protein production, which works both in mouse and human cells and is predicted to have similar function in other organisms.

The mechanism to stimulate translation is based on increased association of mRNAs with ribosomes, which is mediated by a SINEB2 element, a repetitive sequence in the antisense of Uchl1 RNA, which is placed in an inverted orientation in the non-coding RNA. The specificity is given by a short antisense RNA sequence that hybridizes with the initial part of the protein encoding mRNA.

Why is it an important discovery?

Very little used to be known about "long, non-coding" RNAs and this new research sheds light on some of these molecules. "We focused on one gene, Uchl1, whose mutations are linked to some hereditary types of Parkinson's disease," stated Stefano Gustincich, Professor at SISSA. "We have seen that the non-coding antisense RNA matched to this gene is made up of two fragments, the real antisense fragment matching with the sense RNA that codifies the protein and the SineB2 sequence. The antisense fragment has the function of a 'lock' into which the key of the coding RNA specific for that gene is inserted, while the other one has a stimulating function on protein synthesis."

If you change the antisense fragment with the analogous of another gene, the SineB2 sequence maintains its stimulating function on the new gene. "This is important," explained Gustincich "because it means that the action of sineB2 could be used to stimulate protein production for therapeutic use -- any protein -- in industrial synthesis processes."

"We are delighted to see that there is one more function for long non-coding RNAs," says Piero Carninci, Team Leader at RIKEN OSC. "Since the initial discovery that the majority of the genome produces so many non-coding RNAs, there has been a general skepticism related to the possible function of these RNAs. This is a milestone study identifying a novel class of non-coding RNAs which have a key regulatory function, enhancing protein translation. Additionally, this function is mediated by repetitive elements, so far generally considered the 'junk' fraction of the genome, suggesting that the concept that most of the genome is 'junk' should be revisited. After all, there may be function embedded in any part of the genome, which we do not yet understand."

RIKEN and the RIKEN venture company TransSINE Technologies are committed to exploit commercial applications of this specific structure of the antisense RNA.These RNAs, called SINEUPs, can be engineered to stimulate translation of other proteins, by changing the overlapping antisense region to target any protein of industrial or therapeutic interest. Initial target proteins will include therapeutic proteins, like antibodies or other soluble factors, as well as other basic studies to understand gene function by overexpression of proteins. RIKEN believes that this work can be broadly used.

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New Ways of Eating Fruit
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121016084930.htm

ScienceDaily (Oct. 16, 2012) — Fruit must be an essential part of our diet. Experts recommend eating at least five servings of fruit and vegetables a day. However, the reality is quite different, since we are witnessing a gradual decline in consumption, especially among children. This is one of the reasons that made a team of Valencian researchers develop new products that could promote fruit consumption.

The main drawback affecting the stability and useful life of fruit is its high water content. So the scientists studied the best way to obtain more durable products that conserve most of its properties. For this they applied the techniques of lyophilisation, also called freeze-drying, and spray drying.

Grapefruit, kiwi and strawberries are the first fruits the researchers have turned into powder ready to sprinkle on other foods or as a functional ingredient in juices, purees, milk or tea. Another product they have presented is dried fruit slices that are perfect for a healthy snack. This is a new way to enjoy fruit with all its natural taste without losing its nutritional benefits.

According to Nuria Martínez Navarrete, researcher at the CUINA group from the Universitat Politècnica de València, fruit consumption is so low because fresh fruit only lasts a few days and this clashes with our current lifestyle that in many occasions prevents us from shopping daily, and because of this we consume more processed products that are long-lasting and easy to prepare. This tendency could change thanks to projects such as this one, as soon as the results are transferred to food companies.

"We are working with grapefruits, kiwis and strawberries. Grapefruit is a citrus fruit with great nutritional and functional value but its consumption is very small because, among other reasons, it is very bitter. Meanwhile, strawberries are a seasonal fruit. In powder, however, would open more markets" says Nuria Martínez. "We chose kiwis because of its high vitamin C content, an especially labile component that has enabled us to strengthen the result for the study of the impact of the technologies applied in the functional value of fruit."

The research results show that freeze-drying conserves the bioactive compounds that are responsible for the beneficial effects that grapefruit has on our health and also maintains its antioxidant property. According to the researchers, per 100 grams of fresh grapefruit, between 10 and 15 grams of powdered grapefruit are obtained. Half of this dose could flavour a serving of salad, for example, or if we add 85 millilitres of water we would be drinking the juice of half a grapefruit.

Another product the Universitat Politècnica de València is working on is dried fruit snacks, mainly of grapefruit and 'lulo', a typical fruit from Colombia whose acidity prevents consuming fresh. As part of a cooperation project with a Colombian University, the researchers plan to apply their discoveries to other Colombian typical products. The project also includes a part of nutrition information to help improve the diet of the local population.

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Link Between Creativity and Mental Illness Confirmed in Large-Scale Swedish Study
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121016084934.htm

ScienceDaily (Oct. 16, 2012) — People in creative professions are treated more often for mental illness than the general population, there being a particularly salient connection between writing and schizophrenia. This according to researchers at Karolinska Institutet, whose large-scale Swedish registry study is the most comprehensive ever in its field.

Last year, the team showed that artists and scientists were more common amongst families where bipolar disorder and schizophrenia is present, compared to the population at large. They subsequently expanded their study to many more psychiatric diagnoses -- such as schizoaffective disorder, depression, anxiety syndrome, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, autism, ADHD, anorexia nervosa and suicide -- and to include people in outpatient care rather than exclusively hospital patients.

The present study tracked almost 1.2 million patients and their relatives, identified down to second-cousin level. Since all were matched with healthy controls, the study incorporated much of the Swedish population from the most recent decades. All data was anonymized and cannot be linked to any individuals.

The results confirmed those of their previous study, that certain mental illness -- bipolar disorder -- is more prevalent in the entire group of people with artistic or scientific professions, such as dancers, researchers, photographers and authors. Authors also specifically were more common among most of the other psychiatric diseases (including schizophrenia, depression, anxiety syndrome and substance abuse) and were almost 50 per cent more likely to commit suicide than the general population.

Further, the researchers observed that creative professions were more common in the relatives of patients with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, anorexia nervosa and, to some extent, autism. According to Simon Kyaga, Consultant in psychiatry and Doctoral Student at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, the results give cause to reconsider approaches to mental illness.

"If one takes the view that certain phenomena associated with the patient's illness are beneficial, it opens the way for a new approach to treatment," he says. "In that case, the doctor and patient must come to an agreement on what is to be treated, and at what cost. In psychiatry and medicine generally there has been a tradition to see the disease in black-and-white terms and to endeavour to treat the patient by removing everything regarded as morbid."

The study was financed with grants from the Swedish Research Council, the Swedish Psychiatry Foundation, the Bror Gadelius Foundation, the Stockholm Centre for Psychiatric Research and the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research.

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Neuroscientists Find the Molecular 'When' and 'Where' of Memory Formation
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121015151155.htm

ScienceDaily (Oct. 15, 2012) — Neuroscientists from New York University and the University of California, Irvine have isolated the "when" and "where" of molecular activity that occurs in the formation of short-, intermediate-, and long-term memories. Their findings, which appear in the journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, offer new insights into the molecular architecture of memory formation and, with it, a better roadmap for developing therapeutic interventions for related afflictions.

"Our findings provide a deeper understanding of how memories are created," explained the research team leader Thomas Carew, a professor in NYU's Center for Neural Science and dean of NYU's Faculty of Arts and Science. "Memory formation is not simply a matter of turning molecules on and off; rather, it results from a complex temporal and spatial relationship of molecular interaction and movement."

Neuroscientists have previously uncovered different aspects of molecular signaling relevant to the formation of memories. But less understood is the spatial relationship between molecules and when they are active during this process.

To address this question, the researchers studied the neurons in Aplysia californica, the California sea slug. Aplysia is a model organism that is quite powerful for this type of research because its neurons are 10 to 50 times larger than those of higher organisms, such as vertebrates, and it possesses a relatively small network of neurons -- characteristics that readily allow for the examination of molecular signaling during memory formation. Moreover, its coding mechanism for memories is highly conserved in evolution, and thus is similar to that of mammals, making it an appropriate model for understanding how this process works in humans.

The scientists focused their study on two molecules, MAPK and PKA, which earlier research has shown to be involved in many forms of memory and synaptic plasticity -- that is, changes in the brain that occur after neuronal interaction. But less understood was how and where these molecules interacted.

To explore this, the researchers subjected the sea slugs to sensitization training, which induces increased behavioral reflex responsiveness following mild tail shock, or in this study, mild activation of the nerve form the tail. They then examined the subsequent molecular activity of both MAPK and PKA. Both molecules have been shown to be involved in the formation of memory for sensitization, but the nature of their interaction is less clear.

What they found was MAPK and PKA coordinate their activity both spatially and temporally in the formation of memories. Specifically, in the formation of intermediate-term (i.e., hours) and long-term (i.e., days) memories, both MAPK and PKA activity occur, with MAPK spurring PKA action. By contrast, for short-term memories (i.e., less than 30 minutes), only PKA is active, with no involvement of MAPK.

The study's other co-authors were Xiaojing Ye, a postdoctoral fellow in NYU's Center for Neural Science, Andreea Marina, an undergraduate at UC Irvine at the time of the study. The research was conducted at NYU's Center for Neural Science and UC Irvine's Center for Neurobiology of Learning and Memory.

This work was supported by grants RO1 MH 041083 and RO1 MH 081151 from the National Institute of Mental Health, part of the National Institutes of Health, and a grant IOB-0444762 from the National Science Foundation.

[umiak]

they have silk worm farms....have to hire an arachnologist.

[umiak]

sounds beautiful, only not on your face

[PoemStone]

Spider eggs drift on the wind in autumn in strands of the silk.

[umiak]

i like the visual--Gossamer (spider silk), very fine spider silk used for ballooning or kiting by various species of spiders

[PoemStone]

UpDated FDA Calendar StocksDivaBio Bin iBox.
http://investorshub.advfn.com/StocksDiva-Bio-Bin-16112/

[PoemStone]

JAZZ. Jazz Pharmaceuticals Completes Sale of its Women's Health Business to Meda
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/jazz-pharmaceuticals-completes-sale-womens-201500628.html

[PoemStone]

A spyder silk farm. hmmm.. Know the word gossamer?

I happen to be allergic to one or another spyder's silk thread.
Or likely it was the eggs.

I got some on my hands & face one time & my cheek and an eye blew up
red like I had a spider bite. It went down in two days.
Doctor said there was no hole so it was contact dermatitis.

The strands you may see flying in the air in the autumn
carrying very tiny eggs to land in a garden or pumpkin patch somewhere.

I've seen poeticly, 'gossamer in the night shade home'.
Common language: spyder silk in the pumpkin patch ..home

[PoemStone]

ICUI. Revenues grew 6.5% to a record $81.4 million

Diluted EPS increased 26% to $0.82

The Company Raises Full Year 2012 EPS Guidance Range and Lowers Full Year Revenue Guidance Range
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/icu-medical-inc-reports-third-200000045.html

[PoemStone]

LMAT. LeMaitre Vascular to Sell Directly to Swiss Hospitals
LeMaitre Vascular to Sell Directly to Swiss Hospitals
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/lemaitre-vascular-sell-directly-swiss-191500902.html

[PoemStone]

NPSP. New Data From REPLACE Study Show Initiation of Bone Remodeling for Natpara®-Treated Patients with Hypoparathyroidism

-- Bone data from REPLACE along with results from eight-week RELAY study presented at American Society for Bone and Mineral Research Annual Meeting --
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/data-replace-study-show-initiation-153000193.html

[PoemStone]

CEXID. CDEX Inc. Successfully Completes Financial Restructuring and Emerges With Strong Balance Sheet and Growth Capital
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/cdex-inc-successfully-completes-financial-151531513.html

[PoemStone]

Thanks, umiak!

[umiak]

In Cancer Care, Cost Matters
By PETER B. BACH, LEONARD B. SALTZ and ROBERT E. WITTES
AT Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, we recently made a decision that should have been a no-brainer: we are not going to give a phenomenally expensive new cancer drug to our patients.

The reasons are simple: The drug, Zaltrap, has proved to be no better than a similar medicine we already have for advanced colorectal cancer, while its price — at $11,063 on average for a month of treatment — is more than twice as high.

In most industries something that offers no advantage over its competitors and yet sells for twice the price would never even get on the market. But that is not how things work for drugs. The Food and Drug Administration approves drugs if they are shown to be “safe and effective.” It does not consider what the relative costs might be once the new medicine is marketed.

By law, Medicare must cover every cancer drug the F.D.A. approves. (A 2003 law, moreover, mandates payment at the price the manufacturers charge, plus a 6 percent cushion.) In most states private insurers are held to this same standard. Physician guideline-setting organizations likewise focus on whether or not a treatment is effective, and rarely factor in cost in their determinations.

Ignoring the cost of care, though, is no longer tenable. Soaring spending has presented the medical community with a new obligation. When choosing treatments for a patient, we have to consider the financial strains they may cause alongside the benefits they might deliver.

This is particularly the case with cancer, where the cost of drugs, and of care over all, has risen precipitously. The typical new cancer drug coming on the market a decade ago cost about $4,500 per month (in 2012 dollars); since 2010 the median price has been around $10,000. Two of the new cancer drugs cost more than $35,000 each per month of treatment.

The burden of this cost is borne, increasingly, by patients themselves — and the effects can be devastating. In 2006, one-quarter of cancer patients reported that they had used up all or most of their savings paying for care; a study last year reported that 2 percent of cancer patients were driven into bankruptcy by their illness and its treatment. One in 10 cancer patients now reports spending more than $18,000 out of pocket on care.

Which brings us back to our decision on Zaltrap. In patients with advancing, metastatic colorectal cancer, the new drug, approved by the F.D.A. in August and jointly marketed by Sanofi and Regeneron, offers the same survival benefit as Genentech’s Avastin, which works through a similar molecular mechanism. When compared with the standard chemotherapy regimen alone, adding either medicine has been shown to prolong patient lives by a median of 1.4 months. Major clinical practice guidelines, like those from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, agree that Zaltrap is no better than Avastin in this setting. (Full disclosure: Two of us, Dr. Bach and Dr. Saltz, have been paid consulting fees by Genentech.)

But Avastin costs roughly $5,000 a month: very expensive in its own right, yet less than half of Zaltrap’s price tag. And while the side effects in both drugs are roughly equal, doses of Avastin generally take less time to administer than those of Zaltrap, which makes Avastin more convenient for patients.

Consider that colorectal cancer is typically diagnosed in older individuals and the cost issue becomes starker still. Many patients are on Medicare and living on fixed incomes. And because Medicare requires patients to co-pay for cancer drugs, 20 percent of the cost of drugs like Zaltrap and Avastin is passed on — absorbed either by supplemental insurance or by the patients themselves.

To put these percentages in perspective, an older colorectal cancer patient without extra insurance would have to pay more than $2,200 out of pocket for a month’s treatment with Zaltrap. That’s greater than the monthly income for half of Medicare participants.

Once you take all this into account it may seem surprising that the decision to exclude Zaltrap from our hospital’s formulary was a hard one to make. But because our medical culture equates “new” with “better” so unequivocally, a decision like this one can seem out of place at a leading cancer hospital

Political rhetoric today is similarly slanted. Our refusal to adopt this remarkably expensive therapy risks being labeled “rationing,” not rational.

This political climate also helps explain why the Affordable Care Act precludes Medicare from changing its coverage or payment amounts based on cost comparisons like the one we have outlined, even when two drugs appear to work equally well. And it is probably why neither presidential candidate has addressed runaway cancer drug prices.

But if no one else will act, leading cancer centers and other research hospitals should. The future of our health care system, and of cancer care, depends on our using our limited resources wisely.

The current level of spending on health care, estimated to be $2.8 trillion this year, is already too high. The growth rate in health spending is unsustainable.

Of course, we know our decision about Zaltrap will not meaningfully address these larger problems. Projected United States sales of Zaltrap in 2013 are less than $150 million, or 0.005 percent of all dollars spent on health care. Our use would account for a very small percentage of even that number.

But it is a step in the right direction — one of many we need to take.

The writers are doctors at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Peter B. Bach is the director of the Center for Health Policy and Outcomes, Leonard B. Saltz is chief of the gastrointestinal oncology service and chairman of the pharmacy and therapeutics committee, and Robert E. Wittes is the physician in chief.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/15/opinion/a-hospital-says-no-to-an-11000-a-month-cancer-drug.html?_r=0

[umiak]

Going to charge 500/gr for spider silk

[umiak]

New industry, spider farms.

[PoemStone]

Good morning Forum.

[PoemStone]

From StocksDiva. BIO-Drugs Facing FDA-Approval
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=77798081

Santarus SNTS (NASDAQ)
Drug/indication: Uceris for ulcerative colitis
Approval decision date: Oct. 16

Impax Labs IPXL (NASDAQ)
Drug/indication: IPX066 for Parkinson's disease
Approval decision date: Oct. 19

United Therapeutics UTHR (NASDAQ)
Drug/indication: Oral Remodulin for pulmonary arterial hypertension
Approval decision date: Oct. 26

Cornerstone Therapeutics CRTX (NASDAQ)
Drug/indication: Lixivaptan for hyponatremia
Approval decision date: Oct. 29

Exelixis EXEL (NASDAQ)
Drug/indication: Cabozantinib for medullary thyroid cancer
Approval decision date: Nov. 30

Alexza Pharmaceuticals ALXA (NASDAQ)
Drug/indication: Adasuve for agitation due to schizophrenia
Approval decision date: Dec. 21
This is Alexza's third attempt at Adasuve approval.

Aegerion Pharmaceuticals AEGR (NASDAQ)
Drug/indication: Lomitapide for dyslipidemia/hypercholesterolemia
Approval decision date: Dec. 28

Biogen Idec BIIB (NASDAQ)
Drug/indication: BG-12 for multiple sclerosis
Approval decision date: Dec. 28
BG-12 would be Biogen's first pill for multiple sclerosis.

NuPathe PATH (NASDAQ)
Drug/indication: Zelrix for migraine
Approval decision date: Jan. 16, 2013
This is NuPathe's second attempt at Zelrix approval.

Sanofi and Isis Pharmaceuticals ISIS (NASDAQ)
Drug/indication: Kynamro for hypercholesterolemia
Approval decision date: Jan. 29, 2013

Raptor Pharmaceutical RPTP (NASDAQ)
Drug/indication: RP103 for cystinosis
Approval decision date: Jan. 30, 2013.

Celgene CELG (NASDAQ)
Drug/indication: Pomalidomide for multiple myeloma
Approval decision date: Feb. 10, 2013.

Dynavax DVAX (NASDAQ)
Drug/indication: Heplisav for hepatitis B prevention
Approval decision date: Feb. 24, 2013

[PoemStone]

Harnessing Spider Silk For Use In Biosensors, Lasers, Microchips
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/251442.php

Spiders use their silk to catch lunch. Now physicists are using it to catch light. New research shows that natural silk could be an eco-friendly alternative to more traditional ways of manipulating light, such as through glass or plastic fiber optic cables. Two teams independently exploring possible applications for the material's photonic talents will present their latest breakthroughs at the Optical Society's (OSA) Annual Meeting, Frontiers in Optics (FiO) 2012, being held week in Rochester, N.Y.

Biomedical engineer Fiorenzo Omenetto of Tufts University in Boston will discuss his group's work fabricating concoctions of proteins that make use of silk's optical properties for implantable sensors and other biology-technology interfaces.

Physicist Nolwenn Huby at the CNRS Institut de Physiques de Rennes in France will talk about her team's use of pristine, natural spider silk to guide light through photonic chips - technology that could give birth to silk-based biosensors and medical imaging devices for use inside the body.

Both groups hope their work will lead to medical advancements that take advantage of the optical properties of silk. One of the strongest fibers in nature (the dragline used by spiders to form the structure of their webs is stronger, pound for pound, than steel), silk is biocompatible, biodegradable, and extremely hardy. Produced naturally by spiders and silkworms, it is a renewable resource. Added to these benefits is the more recent discovery that silk is a gifted manipulator of light, which can travel through silk almost as easily as it flows through glass fibers.

Though it may not be the best material in every one of these categories, the combination of talents is what makes silk such an attractive material to study, Omenetto explains. "There are materials that can do one of each, or a few of each," he says, "but seldom all of each."

Silk-based 'plastics' for implantable devices

In their efforts to exploit silk's optical merits, Omenetto's team is developing silk-based materials that look like plastic, but retain the optical properties of pristine silk. One of the advantages of these materials is that they can degrade and be reabsorbed by the body. A sensor or tag made of silk protein could be implanted - at the site of a fractured bone, for example, to monitor healing - and merely left to dissolve. Once its purpose had been served, the silk tag would harmlessly fade away.

Omenetto is currently investigating a range of questions, from fundamental to commercial, and they go beyond implantable optics. His team recently won an INSPIRE grant from the National Science Foundation to create electronic components that are compostable. He has developed and tested a blue laser made from silk fiber-doped materials that is not only biodegradable but also uses less power to induce lasing than the acrylic materials that are commonly used. He is also exploring the possibilities of using silk to integrate a technological component with living tissue. "We're thinking of how to scale up [production], how to interface with current technology," Omenetto says. He hopes some of the more "gadget-like" fruits of his labor will be commercially available within the next five to 10 years.

Guiding light with real silk

Silk-doped composites are the subject of Omenetto's talk at FiO, but the optical merits of pristine silk will be the subject of Huby's. Her team is experimenting with pure spider silk as a relatively inexpensive and ecologically friendly way to manipulate light within photonic chips.

As a light guide, silk works in a way comparable to the more commonly used glass microfibers that carry light within a chip; but silk comes out of the spider ready to use, whereas glass microfibers have to be heated to high levels and carefully sculpted at great expense. Huby's silk is collected by a group of molecular spectroscopy experts led by Michel Pézolet of Université Laval in Quebec, then integrated into circuits at her team's lab at Rennes. To her knowledge, this is the first time the optical properties of pristine silk have been exploited.

By integrating real spider silk into a microchip, the researchers found that silk could not only propagate light but could also direct light, or "couple" it, to selected parts of the chip. Huby hopes this work can be used to create biosensors that could detect the presence of a molecule or the activity of a protein: as light waves passed through a blood sample, for example, the molecules would change the properties of the light wave in an observable way.

The next step for Huby's team, she says, is to see what biologists and medical professionals need and then create devices they can use. Besides making biosensors, spider silk could also provide a light source for taking pictures inside of the body. Natural silk is only five microns in diameter, less than a tenth the width of a human hair. A pristine fiber of spider silk, which is so thin and strong, could carry light into the body through a very small opening, providing less invasive ways to do internal imaging or even chemical diagnoses using spectroscopy, which is the analysis of matter based on its interaction with light.

As a spokesman for silk's status as the material of the future - he gave a TED talk on the subject last year - Omenetto believes these recent successes will help more people become excited about the potential of this remarkable material.

"I like to think we threw a big stone in the pond," Omenetto says. "And hopefully the waves will continue."

[umiak]

That would have been a good Q for the presidential debates.

[PoemStone]

MJNA video chart.
[Clay Trader]

[PoemStone]

Video. What Are the Medical Costs to the VA?
http://www.bloomberg.com/video/popout/306m6iuFQZyTCOC9qUWUcA/00:10

[PoemStone]

NPSP. Bloomberg. NPS Jumps as FDA Staff Backs Risk Plan for Bowel Drug
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-12/nps-jumps-as-fda-staff-backs-risk-plan-for-bowel-drug.html

rose the most in about 21 months after a Food and Drug Administration staff report showed the company’s lead experimental drug candidate may have a clearer path to U.S. regulatory approval.

The drug, Gattex, helps patients with short-bowel syndrome absorb nutrients, weaning them off a time-consuming intravenous nutrition program, the staff said today ahead of an Oct. 16 meeting of FDA advisers who will vote whether to recommend approval. NPS jumped 19 percent to $10.86 at the close in New York, the biggest single-day gain for the Bedminster, New Jersey-based company since Jan. 31, 2011. NPS has advanced 65 percent this year.

The FDA staff said it would support NPS’s risk-management plan for Gattex, which would be targeted to specialty physicians who understand the dangers associated with the drug, including tumor growth. The staff also suggested additional educational materials for prescribers emphasizing the key serious risks. The FDA is scheduled to make a final decision on Gattex by Dec. 30.

“The agency does not believe that access to Gattex for SBS should be restricted or require elements to assure safe use,” FDA staff wrote, referring to short-bowel syndrome.

Revenue Estimate

NPS, which reported about $101 million in revenue last year, may see peak annual sales from Gattex reach $350 million if it’s approved, Francois Nader, the president and chief executive officer, said in a telephone interview. The drug is meant to increase the ability of short-bowel syndrome patients to absorb nutrients and replace intravenous nutritional support given 10 to 12 hours each day, which has been the standard treatment for the past 40 years, Nader said.

“Giving them one day of freedom a week is a life-changing event, or two or three,” he said.

The medicine would be used in fewer than 10,000 patients, Nader estimates.

Short-bowel syndrome is the result of conditions such as Crohn’s disease or trauma that requires much of the small intestine to be removed, causing a reduced ability to absorb water and nutrients.

NPS has proposed prohibiting prescribing Gattex for cancer patients and those who have had the disease in the past five years, Nader said. As many as 20 percent of short-bowel patients had their small intestines removed because of cancer and it’s unclear how many may have had the disease recently, he said.

Clinical Trial

Three people in a clinical trial of Gattex got cancer and two died, NPS said a year ago. They were among 566 participants who have received the drug in various trials, NPS said in a statement.

An analysis of the trial of 34 patients that took Gattex for one year found eight patients reduced their dependency on intravenous nutrition by three days a week, 13 patients decreased it by two days and 18 were free a day each week from the process, according to the statement.

The advisory committee will discuss whether the results are clinically meaningful. European regulators concluded in May the reduction in intravenous nutrition requirements was meaningful, FDA said.

NPS shares the rights to sell the drug in Europe with Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. (4502), based in Osaka, Japan. NPS plans to sell Gattex on its own in the U.S., Nader said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Anna Edney in Washington at [e-mail]

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reg Gale at [e-mail]

[PoemStone]

More Than Just 'Zoning Out': Exploring the Cognitive Processes Behind Mind Wandering
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121011162148.htm

ScienceDaily (Oct. 11, 2012) — It happens innocently enough: One minute you're sitting at your desk, working on a report, and the next minute you're thinking about how you probably need to do laundry and that you want to try the new restaurant down the street. Mind wandering is a frequent and common occurrence. And while mind wandering in certain situations -- in class, for example -- can be counterproductive, some research suggests that mind wandering isn't necessarily a bad thing.

New research published in the journals of the Association for Psychological Science explores mind wandering in various contexts, examining how mind wandering is related to cognitive processes involved in working memory and executive control.

Inspired by Distraction: Mind Wandering Facilitates Creative Incubation

Benjamin Baird, Jonathan Smallwood, Michael D. Mrazek, Julia W. Y. Kam, Michael S. Franklin, and Jonathan W. Schooler

You might be driving home from work, taking a shower, preparing ingredients for dinner and, suddenly -- "Eureka!" -- you have a new insight into some problem or situation. Anecdotes tell us that people often have these kinds of creative thoughts while engaged in unrelated tasks, but researcher Benjamin Baird and colleagues wanted to subject the phenomenon to scientific scrutiny. The researchers designed an experiment in which they asked participants to perform an Unusual Use Task (UUT), listing as many unusual uses for an item as possible. The participants were then split into four groups -- one group was asked to perform a demanding task and a second was asked to perform an undemanding task. The third group rested for 12 minutes and a fourth group was given no break. All participants then performed the Unusual Use Task again. Of the four groups, only the people who performed the undemanding task improved their score on the second UUT test. Participants in the undemanding task reported greater instances of mind wandering during the task, which suggests that simple tasks that allow the mind to wander may increase creative problem solving.

Published online August 31, 2012 in Psychological Science

What Mind Wandering Reveals About Executive-Control Abilities and Failures

Michael J. Kane and Jennifer C. McVay

While mind wandering might lead to creative insights, involuntary mind wandering can also take us away from the important activities and tasks at hand. In this article, Kane and McVay discuss the relationships among working memory, task-unrelated thoughts, and task performance. Using both laboratory-based and daily-life assessments, research has shown that people with lower working memory capacity are more likely to mind wander, at least during demanding tasks. This propensity to mind wandering may partly explain why people with lower working memory capacity are also more likely to make errors. Kane and McVay argue that involuntary mind wandering can provide psychological scientists with a unique window into aspects of the mind's mechanisms for cognitive control, including how, when, and for whom these mechanisms fail.

Published in the October 2012 issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science

The Persistence of Thought: Working Memory May Help to Maintain Task-Unrelated Thinking

Daniel B. Levinson, Jonathan Smallwood, and Richard J. Davidson

Our working memory acts as a sort of mental workspace that allows us to juggle multiple thoughts simultaneously, but what role does it play in mind wandering? Does working memory inhibit or support off-task thinking? Psychological scientist Daniel Levinson and colleagues decided to put this issue to the test. They asked volunteers to perform one of two simple tasks -- either pressing a button in response to the appearance of a certain letter on a screen, or simply tapping in time with one's breath -- and compared people's propensity to drift off. In both tasks, people with higher working memory capacity reported more mind wandering during the tasks, even though their performance on the test wasn't compromised. But when the volunteers were given a comparably simple task that was filled with sensory distractors, the relationship between working memory and mind wandering disappeared. These results suggest that working memory may ultimately reflect underlying priorities, enabling off-topic thoughts when we don't have many other things to keep in mind.

Published in the April 2012 issue of Psychological Science

Rest Is Not Idleness: Implications of the Brain's Default Mode for Human Development and Education

Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, Joanna A. Christodoulou, and Vanessa Singh

While moments for reflection may be hard to come by, some research suggests that the long-lost art of introspection -- from mind wandering to focused reflection -- may be an increasingly valuable part of life. In this article, psychological scientist Mary Helen Immordino-Yang and colleagues survey the existing scientific literature from neuroscience and psychological science, exploring what it means when our brains are 'at rest.' Immordino-Yang and her colleagues believe that research on the brain at rest can yield important insights into the importance of reflection and quiet time for learning.

Published in the July 2012 issue of Perspectives on Psychological Science

[PoemStone]

Spotting a Trend in the Genes: Three Genes That Cause Cancer and Disease in Humans Also 'Paint' Spots On Butts of Fruit Flies
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121012143746.htm

ScienceDaily (Oct. 12, 2012) — Spots on the butts of fruit flies are really, really small. But what a researcher and his graduate student are discovering about them could be gigantic.

Thomas Werner, assistant professor of biological sciences at Michigan Technological University, and his PhD student, Komal Kumar Bollepogu Raja, have discovered that three genes that cause cancer and disease in humans also "paint" the spots on the fly's body. This discovery could enable researchers to study how those genes work in fruit flies and apply that knowledge to treating cancer in people.

"The last common ancestor of man and fruit flies lived about 600 million years ago," says Werner. "All the genes needed to build a body were already present in that ancestor, and today we still share virtually all of our body-building genes with fruit flies. This is why we are able to study human diseases like cancer in fruit flies."

Werner and Raja are interested in how DNA encodes body forms and patterns in animals. They use color patterns as a model.

They've made strong connections between developed spots and three genes, all of which have cancer- and disease-causing counterparts in humans. Thus, the abdominal spots of this tiny fruit fly could be a great model for understanding genetic pathways that cause cancer.

"We are looking here at proto-oncogenes, which are cancer genes that cause disease when they are active in an uncontrolled manner," Werner explains. "Both humans and flies have them, and in flies they learned to paint black spots on the abdomen."

This reveals that old genes can learn new tricks; they just need to become part of a new genetic pathway, like, in this case, adding designer patterns to a boring garment. "And you get your evolutionary novelty without having to invent new genes," Werner says.

Werner's been down this research road before. He introduced stripes onto the spotted wings of fruit flies ("from a leopard to a zebra"), showing that a certain cancer gene is sufficient to induce pigment patterns on Drosophila wings, and landed on the cover of Nature, one of the leading scientific journals in the world. The magazine's cover hangs in his office.

"Now we want to use our new methods to find out how the abdominal pigment pattern is generated, and how it is encoded in DNA," says Raja."

The genes that seem to paint the pigment spots on the abdomen are important for other reasons, Werner says. Some of them have additional roles in defining the head-to-tail axis in animals and are crucial for the proper development of the vertebrae in humans. If these genes misbehave during the development of the human embryo, gross disabilities or embryonic death will occur.

"Many diseases like cancer and vertebra-related disabilities are caused by the 'misbehavior' of genes, when they are expressed at times and places or in amounts they are not supposed to be," Werner says. "Our work focuses on understanding how the cancer- and disease-causing genes in the fruit fly are regulated, and how they regulate their downstream target genes."

The biggest promise for the future, however, involves those three "bad" genes. By studying them, Werner and Raja believe they can identify targets for gene therapies against cancer and genetically inherited developmental defects.

Targeting these genes when they start misbehaving could lead to happier and healthier tomorrows for many people: a grand result from research on miniscule flies.

[PoemStone]

MRK. Merck Researchers Present BMD Data from a Phase II Study of Odanacatib, Merck’s Investigational Cat-K Inhibitor for Post-Menopausal Osteoporosis
Odanacatib Significantly Increased BMD Following Prior Alendronate Treatment
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/merck-researchers-present-bmd-data-161500788.html

[PoemStone]

Multicolored Probes Target Cell Wall Synthesis In The Arms Race With Bacteria
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/251392.php

An international team of scientists led by Indiana University chemist Michael S. VanNieuwenhze and biologist Yves Brun has discovered a revolutionary new method for coloring the cell wall of bacterial cells to determine how they grow, in turn providing a new, much-needed tool for the development of new antibiotics.

Discovery of the new method is expected to broadly impact both basic and applied research tied to understanding, controlling or preventing bacterial cell growth in specific environments, said the two scientists in IU Bloomington's College of Arts and Sciences.

"Understanding the mechanisms controlling bacterial cell growth and shape is of tremendous importance in any area where we seek strategies for controlling bacteria, be it for the eradication of pathogens from the human body or the improvement of bacterial growth in bioremediation and industrial processes," VanNieuwenhze said. "Now, with the development of this one-step method to identify the zones of growth in bacterial cells, we have a dramatically improved toolkit to understand the basic mechanisms of bacterial growth that will directly enable the development of antibacterial strategies."

The paper, "In situ Probing of Newly Synthesized Peptidoglycan in Live Bacteria with Fluorescent D-Amino Acids," was published online in Angewandte Chemie, the journal of the German Chemical Society and one of the highest-ranked chemistry-specific journals of original research in the world.

In the paper, the authors describe the first direct and universal approach for labeling peptidoglycan, the mesh-like polymer of unusual peptides and sugars that form the cell wall in diverse bacteria. The new method exploits the tolerance of cells for incorporating unnatural D-amino acid-based fluorescent dyes of various sizes and functionalities. The researchers found that these nontoxic dyes preferentially label the sites where the peptidoglycan is synthesized, enabling fine spatiotemporal tracking of cell wall dynamics.

"This method will also enhance our understanding of how bacterial growth is influenced by environmental changes, for example during the development of the human body or as a result of pollution in an environment," Brun said. "Until now, there have been limited ways to visualize active sites of cell growth, and no methods to assess microbial activity exactly where it occurs. Here we have a rapid, simple and universal strategy for direct observation of when and where living bacteria build their cell wall. I like to use Steve Jobs' famous quote when describing this method to my colleagues: 'It just works!'"

"We have synthesized dyes of different colors that we can use to see what part of the cell grew at different times," said graduate student Erkin Kuru, the lead author of the paper. "If we add dyes of different colors at different times during bacterial growth, the cell wall acts almost like a tape recorder for the morphological changes the cells go through during the respective time of exposure to the dyes. As a result, the final picture of the multicolored bacterial cell tells us what part of the cell grew and by how much at the respective time of exposure to the dyes. It's like making a movie of the life of a cell in multicolor."

The researchers found that the new dyes seem to work with any bacterial species, making them a powerful tool for uncovering how a variety of bacteria grow. The new reagents are also expected to allow scientists to make very selective modifications to bacterial cell surfaces that have different functions, in turn allowing for the development of a battery of new diagnostic and therapeutic probes. Furthermore, the affinity of bacteria for unnatural D-amino acids is also expected to pave the way for design and synthesis of novel D-amino acid-based antibacterials.

"Cell wall synthesis is the major target of current antibiotics," VanNieuwenhze said. "There has always been an arms race with bacteria because they constantly develop resistance to antibiotics, so new ones are always needed. We see this as a powerful new tool in that arms race because the cell wall is an excellent target for antibiotics."

[PoemStone]

Welcome Seel as assistant moderator.

[PoemStone]

Animals' Microbial Communities Linked to Their Behavior
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121011162152.htm

ScienceDaily (Oct. 11, 2012) — New research is revealing surprising connections between animal microbiomes -- the communities of microbes that live inside animals' bodies -- and animal behavior, according to a paper by University of Georgia ecologist Vanessa O. Ezenwa and her colleagues. The article, just published in the Perspectives section of the journal Science, reviews recent developments in this emerging research area and offers questions for future investigation.

The paper grew out of a National Science Foundation-sponsored workshop on new ways to approach the study of animal behavior. Ezenwa, an associate professor in the UGA Odum School of Ecology and College of Veterinary Medicine department of infectious diseases, and her coauthors were interested in the relationship between animal behavior and beneficial microbes.

Most research on the interactions between microbes and their animal hosts has focused on pathogens, Ezenwa said. Less is known about beneficial microbes or animal microbiomes, but several recent studies have begun to explore these connections.

"We know that animal behavior plays a critical role in establishing microbiomes," she said. "Once they're established, the microbiomes then influence animal behavior in lots of ways that have far-reaching consequences. That's what we were trying to highlight in this article."

Bumble bees, for example, obtain the microbes they need through social contact with nest mates, including consuming their nest mates' feces-a not uncommon method for animals to acquire microbes. Green iguanas establish their intestinal microbiomes by feeding first on soil and later on the feces of adult iguanas.

"There are a lot of behaviors that animals might have that allow them to get the different microbes they need at different points of their lives," Ezenwa said.

Microbes, in their turn, influence a wide range of animal behaviors, including feeding, mating and predator-prey interactions.

One recent study found that fruit flies prefer to mate with others that have microbiomes most similar to their own. Another found that African malaria mosquitoes were less attracted to humans who had a greater diversity of microbes on their skin, possibly because certain microbes produce chemicals that repel these mosquitoes.

Other studies have focused on understanding the mechanisms by which microbes influence behavior.

"Recent experiments have been able to assess the molecules that are involved in communication between microbes in the gut and the brain of mice, showing that microbes are associated with shifts in things like depression and anxiety in these mice," she said. "There are huge implications in the role these microbes play in regulating neural function."

Ezenwa's own work involves investigating how social behavior and interactions between organisms might increase their likelihood of acquiring parasites and pathogens. She is starting a new project examining animal behavior and microbiomes in relation to infectious disease.

"As in the example of the bumble bees, behavior might control the microbes an animal acquires, and those microbes might then influence the animal's vulnerability to pathogens," she said.

The authors conclude that it will take a combination of molecular and experimental approaches to answer questions about the complex interactions between microbiomes and animal behaviors.

"This is a new, emerging topic that's worthy of much more investigation," Ezenwa said.

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The Worst Noises in the World: Why We Recoil at Unpleasant Sounds
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121012112424.htm

ScienceDaily (Oct. 12, 2012) — Heightened activity between the emotional and auditory parts of the brain explains why the sound of chalk on a blackboard or a knife on a bottle is so unpleasant.

In a study published today in the Journal of Neuroscience and funded by the Wellcome Trust, Newcastle University scientists reveal the interaction between the region of the brain that processes sound, the auditory cortex, and the amygdala, which is active in the processing of negative emotions when we hear unpleasant sounds.

Brain imaging has shown that when we hear an unpleasant noise the amygdala modulates the response of the auditory cortex heightening activity and provoking our negative reaction.

"It appears there is something very primitive kicking in," says Dr Sukhbinder Kumar, the paper's author from Newcastle University. "It's a possible distress signal from the amygdala to the auditory cortex."

Researchers at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at UCL and Newcastle University used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine how the brains of 13 volunteers responded to a range of sounds. Listening to the noises inside the scanner they rated them from the most unpleasant -- the sound of knife on a bottle -- to pleasing -- bubbling water. Researchers were then able to study the brain response to each type of sound.

Researchers found that the activity of the amygdala and the auditory cortex varied in direct relation to the ratings of perceived unpleasantness given by the subjects. The emotional part of the brain, the amygdala, in effect takes charge and modulates the activity of the auditory part of the brain so that our perception of a highly unpleasant sound, such as a knife on a bottle, is heightened as compared to a soothing sound, such as bubbling water.

Analysis of the acoustic features of the sounds found that anything in the frequency range of around 2,000 to 5,000 Hz was found to be unpleasant. Dr Kumar explains: "This is the frequency range where our ears are most sensitive. Although there's still much debate as to why our ears are most sensitive in this range, it does include sounds of screams which we find intrinsically unpleasant."

Scientifically, a better understanding of the brain's reaction to noise could help our understanding of medical conditions where people have a decreased sound tolerance such as hyperacusis, misophonia (literally a "hatred of sound") and autism when there is sensitivity to noise.

Professor Tim Griffiths from Newcastle University, who led the study, says: "This work sheds new light on the interaction of the amygdala and the auditory cortex. This might be a new inroad into emotional disorders and disorders like tinnitus and migraine in which there seems to be heightened perception of the unpleasant aspects of sounds."

Most Unpleasant Sounds

Rating 74 sounds, people found the most unpleasant noises to be:
1.Knife on a bottle
2.Fork on a glass
3.Chalk on a blackboard
4.Ruler on a bottle
5.Nails on a blackboard
6.Female scream
7.Anglegrinder
8.Brakes on a cycle squealing
9.Baby crying
10.Electric drill

Least Unpleasant Sounds

•Applause
•Baby laughing
•Thunder
•Water flowing

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Steroid Lawsuit Filed Against New England Compounding Company (NECC) by Meningitis Lawyers
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/steroid-lawsuit-filed-against-england-011000709.html

MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Attorneys Fred Pritzker, Elliot Olsen and Ryan Osterholm have filed a lawsuit against New England Compounding Pharmacy, Inc., dba New England Compounding Center, (NECC) on behalf of a woman (Plaintiff) who had methylprednisolone acetate, a steroid produced by NECC, injected into the epidural space in her lumbar spine on August 1, 2012, at MAPS Pain Clinic in Edina, MN. The suit was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota.

On October 7, 2012, Plaintiff was informed by the Minnesota Department of Health that her injection of methylprednisolone acetate, a steroid, was part of a lot that had been recalled by NECC for potential contamination with Aspergillus or Exserohilum. As of October 12, 2012, the CDC has identified 185 cases of fungal meningitis in 12 states, including 14 deaths, associated with injections of recalled NECC methylprednisolone acetate.

Experiencing symptoms of meningitis, including headaches and neck pain, on October 8, 2012, the Plaintiff went to the emergency room at St. Francis Hospital in Shakopee, Minnesota. While hospitalized, she received a CT scan, IV medications for pain and anxiety, and a lumbar puncture (spinal tap), a painful procedure where a large needle is placed into the subarachnoid space in the spinal canal of the low back and fluid is withdrawn from the space with the syringe.

The steroid lawsuit seeks money damages in an amount exceeding $75,000.00.

The complaint filed in this case alleges that NECC sold pharmaceuticals in bulk in 2011 and 2012 despite the lack of a license to do so and in violation of federal law. It also alleges that the company produced and sold methylprednisolone acetate steroid products that were adulterated with Exserohilum and Aspergillus, dangerous pathogens that can cause illness and death.

“We are representing other patients who had epidural spinal injections of methylprednisolone acetate made by New England Compounding Center,” said Pritzker. “NECC had a duty to sell steroid medication that was safe to inject into patients. Because it did not, the company should be held accountable, and civil lawsuits like the one we filed today are meant to do that.”

Pritzker, Olsen and Osterholm are attorneys with PritzkerOlsen, P.A., a national product safety law firm that represents clients throughout the United States. The firm has obtained some of the largest verdicts and settlements in product liability cases, including a recent $40,000,000 recovery for clients injured by another medical product. Pritzker and Olsen also successfully represented the family of a woman who died from a medication made by another compounding pharmacy in a wrongful death lawsuit. Attorneys Pritzker, Olsen and Osterholm can be reached regarding a meningitis lawsuit at 1-888-377-8900 (toll free). More steroid meningitis lawsuit information can be found on their website www.pritzkerlaw.com. The firm has offices in Minneapolis, MN.

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Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP Encourages Investors Who Suffered Substantial Losses Investing In Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated To Contact the Firm
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/faruqi-faruqi-llp-encourages-investors-133000502.html

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SSRX. 3SBio Inc. Announces Results Of 2012 Annual General Meeting
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/3sbio-inc-announces-results-2012-

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NASA's Ironman-Like Exoskeleton Could Give Astronauts, Paraplegics Improved Mobility and Strength
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121012141957.htm

ScienceDaily (Oct. 12, 2012) — Marvel Comic's fictional superhero, Ironman, uses a powered armor suit that allows him superhuman strength. While NASA's X1 robotic exoskeleton can't do what you see in the movies, the latest robotic, space technology, spinoff derived from NASA's Robonaut 2 project may someday help astronauts stay healthier in space with the added benefit of assisting paraplegics in walking here on Earth.

NASA and The Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) of Pensacola, Fla., with the help of engineers from Oceaneering Space Systems of Houston, have jointly developed a robotic exoskeleton called X1. The 57-pound device is a robot that a human could wear over his or her body either to assist or inhibit movement in leg joints.

In the inhibit mode, the robotic device would be used as an in-space exercise machine to supply resistance against leg movement. The same technology could be used in reverse on the ground, potentially helping some individuals walk for the first time.

"Robotics is playing a key role aboard the International Space Station and will continue to be critical as we move toward human exploration of deep space," said Michael Gazarik, director of NASA's Space Technology Program. "What's extraordinary about space technology and our work with projects like Robonaut are the unexpected possibilities space tech spinoffs may have right here on Earth. It's exciting to see a NASA-developed technology that might one day help people with serious ambulatory needs begin to walk again, or even walk for the first time. That's the sort of return on investment NASA is proud to give back to America and the world."

Worn over the legs with a harness that reaches up the back and around the shoulders, X1 has 10 degrees of freedom, or joints -- four motorized joints at the hips and the knees, and six passive joints that allow for sidestepping, turning and pointing, and flexing a foot. There also are multiple adjustment points, allowing the X1 to be used in many different ways.

X1 currently is in a research and development phase, where the primary focus is design, evaluation and improvement of the technology. NASA is examining the potential for the X1 as an exercise device to improve crew health both aboard the space station and during future long-duration missions to an asteroid or Mars. Without taking up valuable space or weight during missions, X1 could replicate common crew exercises, which are vital to keeping astronauts healthy in microgravity. In addition, the device has the ability to measure, record and stream back, in real-time, data to flight controllers on Earth, giving doctors better feedback on the impact of the crew's exercise regimen.

As the technology matures, X1 also could provide a robotic power boost to astronauts as they work on the surface of distant planetary bodies. Coupled with a spacesuit, X1 could provide additional force when needed during surface exploration, improving the ability to walk in a reduced gravity environment, providing even more bang for its small bulk.

Here on Earth, IHMC is interested in developing and using X1 as an assistive walking device. By combining NASA technology and walking algorithms developed at IHMC, X1 has the potential to produce high torques to allow for assisted walking over varied terrain, as well as stair climbing. Preliminary studies using X1 for this purpose have already started at IHMC.

"We greatly value our collaboration with NASA," said Ken Ford, IHMC's director and CEO. "The X1's high-performance capabilities will enable IHMC to continue performing cutting-edge research in mobility assistance while expanding into the field of rehabilitation."

The potential of X1 extends to other applications, including rehabilitation, gait modification and offloading large amounts of weight from the wearer. Preliminary studies by IHMC have shown X1 to be more comfortable, easier to adjust, and easier to put on than previous exoskeleton devices. Researchers plan on improving on the X1 design, adding more active joints to areas such as the ankle and hip, which will, in turn, increase the potential uses for the device.

Designed in only a few years, X1 came from technology developed for Robonaut 2 and IHMC's Mina exoskeleton.

NASA's Game Changing Development Program, part of NASA's Space Technology Program, funds the X1 work. NASA's Space Technology Program focuses on maturing advanced space technologies that may lead to entirely new approaches for space missions and solutions to significant national needs.

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Molecular Basis of Infection of Tick-Transmitted Disease Uncovered
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121012141558.htm

ScienceDaily (Oct. 12, 2012) — Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine researchers have identified the "keys" and "doors" of a bacterium responsible for a series of tick-transmitted diseases. These findings may point researchers toward the development of a single vaccine that protects against members of an entire family of bacteria that cause disease in humans, domestic animals and livestock.

Survival for many bacteria is dependent on their ability to invade human or animal cells. And it needs to be done in a very precise fashion. Bacteria use a specific set of "keys" on their surfaces to unlock specific "doors," or entryways into their host cells.

By understanding how these bacteria invade cells, researchers are able to identify potential targets to block the spread of infection, and from there, develop safe and effective vaccines.

In the study, now published online and appearing in the November (Volume 80, Issue 11) issue of the journal Infection and Immunity, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology, researchers reported that a protein called OmpA on the surface of Anaplasma phagocytophilum is important for invading host cells. Anaplasma phagocytophilum is an Anaplasmataceae bacterium that infects humans to cause granulocytic anaplasmosis. It is the second most common tick-transmitted disease after Lyme disease in the United States, and it also is found in Europe and Asia.

The team also identified the particular sugar residue on the surfaces of host cells to which OmpA binds.

"In other words, we identified both a key and door that together promote Anaplasma phagocytophilum infection," said lead investigator Jason A. Carlyon, Ph.D., associate professor and a George and Lavinia Blick Scholar in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology in the VCU School of Medicine.

"These findings are important because our data also establish a direction for development of a single vaccine that protects against members of an entire family of bacteria that cause disease in humans, domestic animals and livestock," he said.

According to Carlyon, the region of OmpA that mediates infection is shared among other Anaplasmataceae bacteria.

Experts have seen a steady rise in the incidence of human infections caused by tick-transmitted bacterial pathogens in the past several years. Many tick-transmitted bacterial pathogens are considered "emerging pathogens" because it was only recently discovered that they infect humans. Moreover, evidence suggests that many of these infections go unrecognized, signifying that the prevalence of human diseases caused by Anaplasmataceae pathogens is even higher, said Carlyon. Livestock infections carry a significant economic burden, costing the U.S. cattle industry $100 million per year, he added.

Researchers in Carlyon's lab are presently refining their understanding of how OmpA promotes infection and testing its efficacy in protecting against infection by A. phagocytophilum and other Anaplasmataceae members.

The findings of the VCU-led study were also highlighted in a commentary that appeared in the same issue of the journal, authored by two experts in the field, including Guy H. Palmer, DVM, Ph.D., director, Creighton chair and Regents professor in the Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health at the Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine, and Susan M. Noh, Ph.D., also with Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine.

For this work, VCU has filed a patent. At this time, U.S. and foreign rights are available, and the team is seeking commercial partners to further develop this technology.

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Blood Cells May Offer Telltale Clues in Cancer Diagnosis
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121012141842.htm

ScienceDaily (Oct. 12, 2012) — Postdoctoral Research Fellow Devin Koestler is a biostatistician at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. He develops and applies statistical methods to large volumes of data, seeking new approaches for understanding disease, cancer in particular. Koestler and his colleagues are investigating the potential use of white blood cell variation as a diagnostic, predictive, and research tool in the study of non-blood cancers.

"There is promise here for a new diagnostic tool," says Koestler. "What we show here is not ready for immediate clinical utility, but I think it is on the right path."

Koestler is working in the Quantitative Biomedical Sciences program with Professors Margaret Karagas and Jason Moore. His focus is the development of computational and statistical tools for investigating the process of DNA methylation.

In methylation, a molecule known as a methyl group (chemically CH3 -- three hydrogen atoms and one carbon) attaches itself to the DNA. When this occurs, the DNA function can change dramatically. An example might be the methyl group blocking the expression of a tumor-suppressing gene.

Koestler is the first author on a paper with Karagas and a host of colleagues from Dartmouth, Brown University, Oregon State University, the University of Minnesota, and the University of California. Its subject is methylation in leukocytes (white blood cells) and their association with cancer in tissues and organs other than blood, such as bladder or ovarian cancers.

"When we have an illness or a disease, that does something to our immune system," Koestler explains. "It responds by providing whatever cells are necessary to combat that threat. In the blood, the leukocytes supply that immune response."

Methylation has been studied in biopsied cells from cancer patients, in comparison to cells of cancer-free individuals. "Those studies have compellingly shown there are very striking differences in methylation patterns between cancer and cancer-free subjects," Koestler says. "This brought us to also look at patterns of methylation in blood."

The new studies, in which Koestler took part, showed differences in methylation patterns in the leukocytes of cancer patients versus cancer-free individuals. There are different types of leukocytes, referred to as subsets, each of which exhibits its own signature methylation pattern. The proportions of these identifiable subsets shift, depending on the kind of disease they may be combating.

Using data from studies of ovarian, bladder, and head and neck cancers, the researchers demonstrated statistically significant correlations between the specific cancers and the methylation signatures that characterize leukocyte subsets.

"What made our study unique is that we had the methylation data on the individual leukocytes themselves, enabling us to connect the dots, and better understand the mechanisms underlying the results from previous studies."

Analyzing the relative proportions of the leukocyte types in the blood sample can help predict the onset of a particular cancer or identify and diagnose a cancer in progress. The alternative of sampling a patient's blood is far preferable to undergoing an invasive surgical biopsy.

The advantages of using methylation patterns to assess proportions of white blood cell subtypes in cancer research extend beyond the bedside to the lab bench. Archival blood samples frozen and stored at some time in the past can now be used as research material, whereas existing methods typically require fresh blood samples with intact cells to assess white blood cell subtypes.