Promising research for Alzheimer's et al.

Neurology
Researchers have found compelling evidence that certain neurodegenerative diseases such as "mad cow" disease, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's may be significantly caused by a simple physical change in a normal protein called prion that's found in all mammals so far examined. The newfound ability to make synthetic varieties of the prion protein allowed experimenters to see that "misfolding" a certain part of the protein causes it to turn into the infectious variety of itself.

The Science Daily article does a good job of explaining this breakthrough research. It goes on to say that they believe this misfolding occurs in everyone, but normally the misshapen proteins are cleared away in the brain. Next question: why doesn't the clearing happen in some brains?

Listen in on Harvard Bioscience's growth plans

Harvard Bioscience's CEO is presenting at a conference this Thursday August 5. He'll talk about
the company's plans to grow by acquiring, by partnering and my innovating. If you don't plan to attend the R. W. Baird conference in New York, you can still listen to the presentation through the HBIO website at http://www.harvardbioscience.com/ or at http://www.wsw.com/webcast.rwbaird7/hbio

White cell count may predict prognosis after heart procedures

Cardiology
White blood cell counts after catheterization and other heart procedures may be a predictor of long-term survival rates, according to a recent report in the American Journal of Cardiology. Such procedures, including angioplasty and stenting, are traumatic to the body, and the body's natural response to trauma is to increase white blood cell production.

If you're like me, your first reaction to this might be, oh, brother, you've traumatized me big-time and now you're going to tell me I'm not going to live much longer anyway...

But long-term this discovery could mean that doctors would know much more about how to tailor treatment after heart procedures in order to keep people optimally healthy.

Nano-spiked cosmetics on hold in England

Two of England's respected scientific societies feel there are too many unknowns and the toxic potential is great enough to warrant approving the sale of cosmetics laced with nanoparticles. The the U.S. FDA has a less restrictive policy.

"Preliminary experiments in animals have found nanoparticles capable of moving into and damaging the lungs, brain and other organs. And while some nanomaterials may be able to neutralize poisons in soil or groundwater, others appear environmentally toxic themselves."

The joint report expresses enthusiasm about the possibilities of nanotechnology but cautions strongly that both sides of the story must be investigated thoroughly before moving ahead with individual applications.

Ultrasound on arterial studies

Neurology
A new application for ultrasound. Compared to digital subtraction angiography, results were good just using 3D color-coded duplex sonography to see where the vertebral artery originates. To assess hardening of the vertebral artery (stenosis) , investigators recommend combining with circulation tests, reports the Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine. The test saves time and doesn't require injecting the patient with iodinated contrast agents.

 

Singapore gets new anti-cholesterol drug

Channel News Asia reports what's being called an epidemic of high cholesterol in Singapore. Current anti-cholesterol treatment calls for at least two separate doses of medications that contain statins which block production in the liver and keep the intestine from absorbing it. Unfortunately, statins can give people aches and it doesn't help their livers much. The new drug Vytorin is a single pill combination that doesn't have those side effects, and it hasn't yet been approved in the U.S.

This plying people with too much good food is probably not going away anytime soon. Bioscience will be the salvation for so many of our self-inflicted ills.

New biosensor will detect "germs"

Innovative Biosensors Inc., a Washington area company, has set out to create a device that manipulates biosensors from the human immune system to detect certain types of bacteria, viruses and proteins, according to a Washington Post article today. Depending on the reagent inserted, it will be able to find traces of pathogens such as anthrax or E. coli and will be especially useful in spotting respiratory viruses and contagious bacteria in the operating room.

Given the tough job of keeping patients from catching new stuff in the hospital, this is an exciting idea.

I can just envision a day when members of the public will be walking around with these things. At a gathering the other evening a bunch of us were enjoying the music and when I looked down the table, I noticed all the technology laid out--cell phones, beepers, digital records, digital cameras, etc. Looked like our modern equivalent of the old westerns where the card player hauls out his six shooter and lays it on the table to let the other guy know he's serious.

"My tech is bigger'n yourn"--so watch for an addition to the lineup soon: the personal bacteria-spotter device.

So what's the "real" reason?

Neurology
In Taiwan people who drink tea--black or green, even a little bit--have much lower blood pressure than those who don't, according to a note in the International Herald Tribune. And they're also much more likely to smoke, drink alcohol, eat salt, and eat fewer vegetables. Does it ever feel like you're searching for a needle in a haystack with your experiments--and that the hay looks suspiciously like a pile of needles?

New genetic clue to breast cancer

Endocrinology
The healthy version of BRCA1  gene blocks estrogen signalling that can encouarge breast cancer cells to grow. When the gene is mutated, the blocking function is lost and tumors can grow unchecked--which suggests that drugs can be developed to imitate the blocking function. Written up in July issue of Molecular and Cellular Biology, one hope (according to a Medical News Today article) is to create a better way to help handle menopausal symptoms without increasing the danger of breast cancer.

Dosing women with estrogen is a popular way to mitigate the symptoms of menopause. So to a certain extent, this research is helping us solve one of the problems we created by our choice of treatment. Hopefully researchers will also be working out how to help prevent breast cancer in all women.

This just in: Overeating is bad

Endocrinology
A recent test done by SUNY-Buffalo endocrinology experts had normal-weight adults fast overnight and then eat a McDonald's Egg McMuffin, a Sausage McMuffin and two servings of hash-brown potatoes--not at all an unheard-of amount of carbs and calories and fat for an American meal.

Compared to a control group who had only a 10-ounce glass of water after the fast, "the calorie-laden breakfast increased levels of free radicals, C-reactive protein and nuclear factor-kappa B, a protein that triggers the release of inflammatory chemicals."

When you eat like this, your body is in an inflamed state for several hours, says the Kansas.com article. Then if you eat another lots-of-bad-stuff meal, you prolong the condition.  Inflammation contributes to a higher risk of heart attack and stroke.

As if we needed more evidence that our fast-food lifestyle is dangerous to life...

Netherlands medical center to use microarray research

The Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam (serving 3 million people) is implementing the use of Affymetrix microarray technology for every area of research. The goal is to take genetic and genomic research that is consistent and reproducible--as required for clinical trials--and translate it into clinical tools to improve patient care.

Weight affects fertility

As more women delay childbearing, fertility issues get more attention. Besides the usual--you guessed it--cautions to avoid smoking, alcohol, drugs and caffeine, some specialists now say that extremes of weight (either too low or too high) affects estrogen levels and ovulation, which can make it more difficult to control the menstrual cycles as is required for certain types of fertility treatments, including in vitro fertilization.

Mountain sickness lesson for asthma

I see this on a Swiss team of pulmonary experts investigating acute mountain sickness and think of the research that's been done that links this sort of oxygen exchange problem with asthma.

"...acute mountain sickness and the pronounced fall in oxygen saturation were not related to nocturnal breathing disturbances such as reduced or irregular and periodic ventilation, but more likely to impaired gas exchange in the lungs. "

Asthma is such a stealer of the quality of life. It would be great to see the findings of this article applied to that research.

We're not the only ones who need to lose weight

In ten years the English have tripled their rates of Type II diabetes--and expect the trend to continue. A new study, to the tune of a million English pounds, is being conducted through the University of Bristol (and others) to test how much better patients will get by increasing exercise levels. One of three groups of newly diagnosed Type II diabetics will begin wearing monitors to gauge how much exercise they get each day. The study will compare results for those treated with dietary advice alone, dietary plus exercise, and the "usual care" routine.

A friend goes to a holistic treatment guy who has managed to get her off lifelong allergy medicines and out of decades-long chronic pain. One of the secrets is reducing sugar to an absolute minimum. And she says how incredibly hard that is--because almost everything that goes through any processing at all gets corn syrup or some derivative added to it. That's everything from bread to soups--let alone the obviously sugar-laden items on our shelves.

This makes sense--because it's hard to believe the incredible rise in obesity is due simply to the fact that people all over the world are eating so much more than ever.

Northeast Ohio determined

Like so many regions that finally realize the economic impact of the bioscience industry, much passion from many people has gone into wanting to make Northeast Ohio attractive to those organizations. Now, according to a Plain Dealer article today, somebody's putting the money where the talk is.

Congratulations to these four (all but one of which are consortia of other organizations) for receiving money from the Fund for Our Economic Future (itself a collaboration of more than 50 different funding organizations in the region):

• BioEnterprise (includes Case Western Reserve University, the Cleveland Clinic, and University Hospitals)


• JumpStart Inc. (the merger of CWRU's Enterprise Development Inc. NEOpreneur Inc. (a NorTech group), and NEOpreneur Exchange and is supposed to support promising entrepreneurs and start-up companies in the region)


• NorTech (stands for Northeast Ohio Technology Coalition and replaced Cleveland Tomorrow's Technology Leadership Council and is intended to promote science and technology businesses)


• Team NEO (the Greater Akron Chamber, Stark Development Board, Lorain County Chamber of Commerce, Regional Chamber, Cleveland Tomorrow and the Greater Cleveland Growth Association fosters a regional approach to economic development)

Thanks to the Plain Dealer for explaining who all these groups are; the rapid shapeshifting of power and influence centers in the region has been hard for some of us to track. But any way you look at it, this is a lot of firepower to aim at a goal. If it can overcome issues about regionalism and sharing--which a healthy dose of funding may go a long way towards solving--the region is well positioned to take a lead in the battle to be a star arena for bioscience.

Too much medicine?

We tend to focus too much on giving medicine when we don't have all the information about why the body is behaving in certain ways. Here's more on why it's not good to give hypertensive medication to people who've just had a stroke (from the July 27 issue of Neurology).

The body has the wisdom of the ages. Listening carefully, we can learn better how to honor that wisdom.

Obesity treatment news--and a question

Neurology

This article talks about a new approach for treating obesity. When I read this my ears perked up.

Leptin triggers production of the active form of a peptide – áMSH – in the hypothalamus (controls hunger and metabolism). Researchers say this peptide, or small protein, is a powerful messenger that tells the brain to burn calories. Then we get into another peptide that works on the pituitary gland, which talks to the thyroid which then spreads the word to ask the body's cells to produce more energy.

The reason I was so intrigued--never mind that I'd love to learn why it's so hard to lose weight--was the "peptide" part. Read a book a couple of years ago by a fairly well known researcher called Candace Pert who (if I remember this correctly) confirmed the existence of neuropeptides (click, click, there's that word) as the (stay with me here) place where emotions reside.

This is another one of those eerie moments where hard science and pscyhology collide. (And if we're not careful, we might find religion in there somewhere, too.) Anyhow, the players on this one are pretty impressive: Brown Medical School and Rhode Island Hospital and Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Africa gets R9.5 million for research partnership

The African continent is ravaged by deadly diseases, yet in 20 years no new preventive medicines have been developed. Now researchers there are partnering with the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCCTP) to hasten evaluating and testing therapeutic and preventive medicines for malaria, TB and HIV and Aids. The hope is that new medicines will be developed and that investigators and institutions in Africa will have acquired new systems for continuing testing on their own in the future.

I had the privilege of editing the 2002 Annual Report of the GLOBAL FUND to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. It would be so nice to think that I had some small part in helping this partnership happen.

Delivery compound has multiple uses

Endocrinology

Insmed, a biopharmaceutical company located in Virginia's Biotechnology Research Park, makes a proprietary delivery compound of insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) bound to its primary binding protein, IGFBP-3. Administered by injection, it's amazingly versatile; it can:  improve blood sugar levels and reduce insulin use in diabetics, improve muscle rebuilding and reduce inflammation in burns, and improve functional recovery and bone mineral density in hip fractures. SomatoKine(R) is now in Phase III clinical trial to help kids with a severe growth disorder--and results are positive.

Insmed's website has a page where you can get information on licensing, partnering or developing a research collaboration with them.

China eyes embryo biotechnology

The debate on how to get ahead in bioscience rages.

An article in today's Chinese People's Daily Online says scientists are being told to look for the area where they can take the lead. A professor at Connecticut State University, Yang Xiangzhong urged attendees at a conference in Beijing to focus on embryo technology and cloning. He told them that Americans are going slowly in this area because of ethical and religious disapproval and thus their research is done largely with animals, while China has the advantage of being able to conduct human therapeutic cloning.

Oh, and today's Washington Post announces that proponents of stem cell research are entering the political fight for the White House.

IBM software to aid medical research

IBM has just announced a new software solution that "enables research institutions and biopharmaceutical companies across the world to integrate, store, analyze and better understand genotypic and phenotypic data for medical research and patient care."

The gist of it is that they capture--and de-identify (a new word for the modern security-conscious HIPAA age)--data from existing hospital and research systems, store data from healthcare institutions and diagnostic labs, then centralize it all to yield the opportunity for research on steroids.

Expand to Europe

Thanks to a tip from an internationally known economic development guru Don Iannone of EdFutures located in Northeast Ohio, we've added a link in the Resources area. When you click on "News and Tips for Locating in Europe" you'll be taken to a site called Techlocate where you can find, oddly enough, news about and tips for locating your life science company--or a branch thereof--in Europe. Imagine...

Bioscience "Connectors" speak

Hoping to post here an automatically updated list of the interviews we conduct with people who make connections. They'll be appearing on another site, but I'd like you to be able to link from here. So I hope to get the Atom feed from that site , but right now it's getting too late to think that much.

Anyway, here are the first two interviews: Mike Burke of Trek Diagnostics, and Steve Goldberg of NEOBio.

Device entrepreneur seeks connections

Northeast Ohio entrepreneur, Wayne Urban,  has done his homework for a couple of years to get this medical device invention off the ground. This truly home-spun, grassroots effort is introducing a product that fills a real need: a sling that holds up your leg when you've been injured and can't stand on it. Makes a lot of sense to podiatrists.

As founder and CEO of his company, LS Products, LLC, Urban did all the investigative research to learn how to get the FDA approval, the manufacturer producing a prototype, etc. "We have demonstrated it, exhibited at medical tradeshows, been featured on TV, and been written up in newspapers.  We are adding several sales reps, but we feel we need to reach many more people now," says Urban. 

What better way than to connect through the companies of NEOBio and beyond. Check out their website.

Reducing need for bypass

This is really cool. A new stent that can be put in during angioplasty has been designed to prevent the troubling re-narrowing of arteries that seemed always to happen after the procedure. It's coated with a drug that prevents the restinosis.

Fewer people living additional healthier years without having to have their chests cut open...that's what the promise of bioscience is about.

Perspective

The federal government last year distributed $30 billion for highways, $75 billion for weapons systems, and $26 billion for medical research, says a Boston Globe article. Looks like among places to put money that generate local jobs, commerce, and taxes, curing disease comes in last. 

Here's an idea for sharing knowledge

Tomorrow Purdue University is hosting a full-day conference-that's totally free and open to the public--on how bioscience and nanotechnology can be linked. Speakers from Purdue, Northwestern and U of I will talk about current research and discuss how universities can network on this subject.

Oh, and it's got some heavy-hitter sponsors: Purdue’s Bindley Bioscience Center, Birck Nanotechnology Center, the Network for Computational Nanotechnology (funded by the National Science Foundation), and the Institute for Nanoelectronics and Computing (funded by NASA).

What've they got?

German biotech supplier Eppendorf chose Connecticut as the place to build a new manufacturing facility. What areas were considered and rejected?

The CEO of Eppendorf, which is based in Hamburg, Germany, gave these reasons for the choice:  "The Enfield site is closer to the company's markets, has certain unspecified logistical advantages and less exposure to fluctuations in the currency exchange rate."

Gene therapy delivery method proves out

Researchers have found a delivery method for gene therapy that reaches all the voluntary muscles of a mouse – including heart, diaphragm and limbs – and reverses the process of muscle-wasting found in muscular dystrophy. Delivered by simple injection, the virus goes only for muscle cells and does not trigger the immune system. Results will appear in the August issue of Nature Medicine.

Deadline near for grants for technology in radiology

SCAR, the Society for Computer Applications in Radiology, research grants are open to residents, fellows, and faculty in departments of diagnostic radiology, radiation oncology, or nuclear medicine, as well as graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in imaging informatics or biomedical engineering. Residents, fellows, and students must conduct their projects under the guidance of experienced investigators. Recipients do a paper that might be presented at the SCAR Annual Meeting and published in the Journal of Digital Imaging.

Deadline for grant applications for 2005 is September 7, 2004.

Indiana bio hotspot

Paragon Medical, Inc., a medical-device supplier, is undertaking a $50 million expansion that’s expected to provide 300 jobs within five years and boost job prospects in northeast Indiana. The maker of surgical instruments, implantable components and instrument delivery systems for medical device manufacturers in hip, knee, spine, trauma and sports medicine sells directly to orthopedic equipment manufacturers such as Johnson & Johnson and Zimmer.

With about 300 workers at its 110,000-square-foot Pierceton operation, this sounds like a company worth investigating...

Late news: here's a great article about how Paragon is succeeding from the FortWayne.com website.

Selling healthcare

If you're in the business of marketing for the healthcare industry (if you own a medical device or other type of bioscience company, this could be valuable), and your budget can bear a $5700 hit, here's a class for you, "Strategic Marketing for the Health Care Industry." The promo says: "Learn innovative strategies, insights, and methods for exceptional results in healthcare marketing..."

Sounds a bit like a crash-MBA course for medical marketers (though it's clearly a prohibitively expensive proposition for a startup or smaller enterprise). It's brought to you by The Medical Marketing Association (MMA) in combination with the Health Industry Management Program at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

The course will be held at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL this September 19-24.

One of the big services MMA offers members is the ability to post unlimited numbers of jobs to its website. And there's the hope--that your company keeps growing and keeps needing to hire more people. Membership is around $200.

Bio outsourcing to India

England's National Health Service (free medical care to all) may get some competition from--surprise--outsourcing to India. Some English companies are considering exporting services such as testing and analyzing blood and urine samples, while some English citizens are finding they can get less expensive, faster in-person services such as surgical procedures (and that's with airfare included).  Some are reporting that the medical staff are nicer there, too.

What lessons can the bioscience community learn from outsourcing that other businesses are learning? Is the fragile nature of any new-to-midlife company similar to the fragile personal economy of the individual consumer--who is both personally attracted by WalMart-esque lower prices and yet in the bigger picture often hurt by the loss of jobs they represent? What are the alternatives to crying foul? How else can we think about this trend? Because as sure as there's an Internet, the trend's unstoppable.

Introducing...BioMedNews.org

The bioscience industry faces many of the same challenges as other industries: hard-working entrepreneurs struggling to make it on their own--often afraid to talk to others for fear of competition, stealing employees, etc. But because of the scarcity of resources, it may be that acknowledging interdependence is even more important for those in the bioscience area. So much of what goes on in your area of science will depend on what's happening in mine, and so on. If you can no longer employ this well-trained chemist, maybe I can. Perhaps a collaborative effort will net greater funding than a single company could expect...

In an effort to change the status quo, Bob Schmidt of Cleveland Medical Devices in Northeast Ohio teamed up with others nearly a year and a half ago to start trying to get members of the sciences connected in this area. The hope was that developing relationships among people in the industry--leaders and players alike--would help change the feelings of isolation.

The resulting organization, fledgling NEOBio, is "dedicated to building a strong bioscience community. It works to foster conditions that favor networking, education, and collaboration," according to Steve Goldberg, one of the co-founders Schmidt worked with.

But perhaps even more poignantly he said, "People want to help each other, but Americans are afraid to say 'I need help.'" 

"The risks of starting out in bioscience are incredibly high. The passion of the people who do try is immeasurable—they truly care about saving lives or improving the quality of life. That’s why they hang in there through the really tough challenges."

We introduce this publication as a contribution to those dedicated people and hope that it will help make a difference.