If you like to keep track of a lot of different websites (professional journals, medical news, etc.) and you’ve hesitated to get into RSS, I don’t blame you. Until now, it’s had a very techie-oriented way of presenting itself and many of us don’t have time to navigate that kind of interface. As a result, you may not even know how incredibly useful RSS can be.
Now comes our friend Google introducing a new desktop software that’s going to revolutionize your workday.
Read my opinion here. Read the article itself here.
The ethical argument’s been raging for a couple of years now. With all the miraculous things scientists can do with stem cells–especially the fresh, eminently moldable embryonic stem cells (the use of which cause outrage among many traditional religious groups)–it’s been a sore spot that the U.S. has banned use of them if they come from embryos–even ones that are going to be destroyed anyway because they’re “extras” from in vitro fertilization efforts.
And I was just remarking on how changing the way you think about something often leads to dramatic discoveries. It reminds me of the time I was writing a white paper on the subject of asthma–everything I was learning led me to think of the research as both a puzzle and a map. Fortunately, Valdis Krebs who created the mapping software sold at www.orgnet.com helped me create a map that even the doctors were amazed to find clearly demonstrated how current medicine was attacking the problem at a certain place on the map–whereas the client’s research was attacking it at a point one step earlier on the map.
Dreaming down a different path this time means that now there’s a way to use embryonic stem cells without crossing the ethical border. What a miracle–for future beneficiaries of the therapies–and also for U.S. scientists.
The concepts of responsible coporate practices and ethics in business take on new and deeper meanings when we realize how much smaller the planet grows every day–evidence indicates most of the pollution in these salmon came from Asia. Read more about PCBs here.
And I don’t think I need to give a reference to prove how much we don’t want pesticides and flame retardants in our bears, our salmon, or our fellow human beings.
Fortunately, scientific discoveries themselves are neutral, no matter why they got funded. It’s the uses to which a discovery or development is put that imbue it with moral or ethical value.
So even though the government is passing out $4.1 million in SBIR funds for research on a single potential source of anti-terrorist activity–identifying anthrax currently requires days-long lab tests–that will help medical facilities perform tests faster and in greater quantities, the company says the research will eventually prove “useful for key clinical and industrial applications including flu testing and detection of pathogens in food.”
The funding is going to a company called Genomic Profiling Systems Inc. (even the company name evokes thoughts of defensiveness) to “enable prototype development of an automated portable MultiPath(TM) instrument and consumable test cartridges designed for rapid, high capacity, easy to implement emergency diagnostics.” Expected to be significantly faster and more sensitive than standard commercial strip tests, this item could well control the spread of a virus–like keeping an epidemic like bird flu from turning into a pandemic.
Not surprising. Based on my observations of friends and family over the years, it seems unfair but it happens that as we age, so-and-so easily keeps a fairly trim figure while so-and-so somehow can’t keep the midsection from spreading. I remember years ago asking one woman who was well over 40 how much she exercised to keep her figure. Her answer was, “I don’t. And my mother was like this til she died at nearly 80, and she never did either.”
Well, here it is. Scientists have now discovered a gene variation that’s linked with better mobility for older individuals who exercise. That means you may not even be able to exercise to keep yourself moving because the genetic code dictates you’ll have difficulty walking. And like the guy who for years after a first hear attack sticks religiously to a fat-free, no-salt, no-sugar vegan diet in an attempt to reverse heart disease–but then has another heart attack–you might feel you’ve gotten a raw deal.
And if the world were anything like what we all recognize as “fair,” you’d be right.
“Antigene agents recognize genomic DNA when its guard is down. Single-stranded DNA is exposed momentarily when RNA polymerase initiates transcription by opening an approximately 20-base-pair segment of double-stranded genomic DNA, resulting in a transcription start-site structure called the ‘open complex.’ Antigene agents of complementary sequence interact with one of the open complex’s single DNA strands, causing transcription and gene expression to be blocked. Because every gene has a transcription start site, the technique may be widely applicable. So far, Corey and coworkers have been able to inhibit the expression of nine genes (of nine tested) in cancer cells.”
Another avenue of investigation that may one day lead us to where we can eliminate the prehistoric and cruel approach to treating cancer that we call chemotherapy.
The headline hit me like a ton of bricks. Instead of the horrors of chemotherapy–which yields only a poor prognosis anyway in these cases–researchers have found that transplanting stem cells borrowed from a close relative gives kids with acute lymphoblastic leukemia a much better chance of maintaining remission.
Yes, it has to be given during a period of remission and there are other conditions. I’m not up on every research alleyway that’s being explored, but it seems to me this is a new way of thinking about cancer treatment.
This is how doors open–when we start dreaming down different paths. Read more here.
The Ohio group BioEnterprise has ramped up its activities recently–publishing a glossy magazine about the state’s bio-enterprises and issuing regular reports on how the state is doing vis-a-vis other midwest states. This month the news is that Minnesota, Ohio and Missouri are ahead in the second quarter.
Let’s hope that our bio-promoters and governments will be wise and take into account the long-term health of the biosciences in the state as well as who’s the most popular today. Just as U.S. corporations are at last answering the call to think of the long-range “health” of their companies as just as important as near-term profits–the Japanese have seen it this way for decades–so too, in the race to win the most bioscience business, a balanced view is critical.
So many good stories (about race-related stroke survival odds, acupuncture for tension headaches, a powerful new treatment against HIV)–too many to repeat here, so take a look at MedPage Today. It’s a news service that emails you about regular news (you can even specify which news by specialty) and sends a special email when there’s breaking news.
Just got notice that Bush has signed a bill that will allow people to report medical errors confidentially and yet protect doctors from liability. Sounds like it might stir up some controversy. I think it makes sense to LIMIT liability for errors–after all, there isn’t a human being who doesn’t make errors–and perhaps set up a mediation service that would help patients and doctors circumvent the normally hideous mess of litigation. It’s the lawsuit-pushing contingent that plays such a huge part in the cost of malpractice insurance–and therefore, the cost to deliver medical care.
Stumbled on this item I’d marked back in February to write about (somehow got lost in the avalanche of email–and then clicked a wrong combination of keys and lost the whole post.