Enzyme-blocker promises to reduce cardiovascular disease

Scientists have identified an enzyme that promotes heart disease--and found a molecule that blocks the effects of [the enzyme] ACAT2 (so far, it works in mice). "In studies of genetically altered mice that do not produce ACAT2, levels of atherosclerosis are 85 percent lower than animals producing ACAT2."

Talk about discovering an exciting piece of the heart disease puzzle. These new results, presented today at the American Heart Association’s Sixth Annual Conference on Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, seem to hold the promise of conquering the genetic programming that sets people up for heart disease.

Amen, and where to next?

Let the U.S. compete on stem cell--but not play God

It tooks guts, but a committee of highly respected science and technology experts has taken a stand--the National Academies has basically endorsed stem cell research and issued detailed guidelines for investigators. Fortunately, they haven't sidestepped the really sticky parts:

"The guidelines allow for the possibility of making various types of animal-human hybrids, called chimeras. But such experiments would face close scrutiny by the new review boards, and some experiments should be completely off-limits, the report declares. Injection of human embryonic cells into monkey or ape embryos to make primate chimeras would be banned, as would the creation of any human-animal chimera in which a human-like brain would be likely to develop.
Any chimeras that have the biological potential to make human sperm or eggs should not be allowed to breed, the report adds, to prevent creation of a human embryo in an animal's womb."

The hope is that U.S. researchers can now collaborate across states and organizations with widely varying rules and regulations, despite the lack of overriding federal regulation.

Congratulations to the National Academies for their courageous effort. The world is not going to ignore or "go slow" on this type of research, so the U.S. can ill afford to leave this area of knowledge untapped.

Kansas needs to make up its mind

I don't think you can have it both ways. Even as the state seeks greater funding for bioscience through its new Kansas Bioscience Organization, the state's Board of Education is once again taking up the debate again on whether evolution is a legitimate scientific concept or they should be teaching what many call
"intelligent design" (a concept many scientists view as repackaged creationism) which says that evidence exists to prove the universe was designed by a higher power.

There's no way this ultra-conservative approach is going to co-exist happily with the ever-more-far-out discoveries that science is making which naturally lead to such radical procedures as in vitro fertilization and pre-implantation genetics, let alone the craziness that could be involved with MEMS, particle science, and more.

It seems like a strange argument. I just can't see how you can argue that the discoveries of science are part of the universe--whether a higher power created it in one piece or as an ongoing process.

New hope for Alzheimer's in Gene Therapy

Early limited human trials are looking hopeful for using modified genetic material to help Alzheimer's patients.

"The tissue was modified in the lab to express nerve growth factor (NGF), a naturally occurring protein that prevents cell death and stimulates cell function. In surgeries that took place in 2001 and 2002...the genetically modified tissue was implanted deep within the brains of the eight patients..."

Admittedly, 8 isn't much of a test population, but the cognitive improvements were so encouraging that "a new Phase I/II study using direct NGF gene delivery to the brain, thereby eliminating the need for grafting cells, is currently underway at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago..."

Another one of the miracles science is discovering every day. For those who just lost a loved one to this mysterious disease that so ravages both patient and family, this news may be hard to hear. But 'tis ever the way. We learn things too late for so many--and just in time for others.

Ohio's hot with VC--and without

Not being a gambler, I like to put my money where I can at least pretend I have a reasonable chance of a decent return. Venture capitalists aren't any different. They like the sure thing as much as the next guy.

Which is why Ohio should be happy to hear the news that Crain's Cleveland Business reported today. BioEnterprise, the bigshot bio aggregator, so to speak, in Ohio just conducted a report and they're saying Ohio's looking good. "Ohio bioscience companies have raised $42 million this year, only $8 million behind Minnesota's, which is seen as a Midwest leader in bioscience activity. Though I gotta tell ya, we still look pretty pathetic next to Massachusetts where the bio community collects, on average, $288 million.

Crain's reports: "Ohio companies receiving venture capital during the first quarter were Axiomed Spine Corp. of Beachwood with $18 million, Ventaira Pharmaceuticals of Columbus with $13 million, Cleveland BioLabs with $5.9 million, and Imalux Corp. of Cleveland with $4.4 million."

But this isn't the whole story in Cleveland. Ohio might be even happier when they talk to a couple of people like Mike Burke of Trek Diagnostics and Arnon Chait over at Analiza. They're going great guns pretty much venture-capital-free.

You go, guys. That's Entrepreneurialism with a capitalist E.

Posted to BlogCritics

Bioscience meetup

NEOBio, the umbrella organization for Northeast Ohio bioscience people, kicked back into life this week with a gathering hosted at Thomson, Hine's downtown offices. Representatives from the student world (Ph.D. candidate Gurkan Bebek, L)and from hot bio companies like Analiza (Arnon Chait) joined host Steve Goldberg (R) of NEObio to see what everyone else has been up to since the last big meeting hosted by Orbital Research several months ago.



As usual, it was one of the best networking events that takes place in this area. A lot of people who care passionately about their work, sharing their challenges, finding out what's new, and thinking up new ways to work together...a far cry from groups that get together just to beat each other up for business. NEObio is more about building relationships. I like that.

No more film?

It makes sense. Digital technology is fast replacing everything from film photographs to taped music. The Disney studios are saying that the movie theater format is next to go:

"I'm referring to digital cinema. In today's world you go to a theater to view a piece of 35-millimeter film that uses an intense light source behind it to project onto a big screen. The notion of shipping, warehousing, reclaiming, restoring, and destroying reels of film will one day, potentially sometime in our lifetime, become obsolete.

This will happen in favor of a digital system where everything from the way the camera captures the image, through the method the content is edited and cut into a final product, to the manufacturing process for distribution, which will most likely occur on DVDs, distributed through satellite or another form of terrestrial distribution. [It's] all to be determined. It will have a dramatic impact on supplier relationships and infrastructure supporting all that supply chain. "

Applications for scientists and researchers and physicians are sure to precede those of the entertainment industry.

Help with small business health insurance

The folks in Illinois have caught on to a good idea. Guess the Chicago Chamber people have been talking to the Cleveland Council of Smaller Enterprises about how big you can get when you're the only game in town for hundreds of small business owners who sometimes find the burden of health insurance costs prohibitive to making a living.

"Illinois is putting together a clearinghouse of resources and a consortium to help small businesses buy health insurance. The effort was boosted by a $75,000 grant from the state to the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce to study the needs of small-business firms and the benefits of grouping companies into large pools to improve insurance buying power and preserve jobs." St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Hope this works out for them. Chicago's my hometown and I'm surprised it's taken them this long. But maybe small business owners aren't quite as pressed there--since the city has so many people to patronize them that making a living might be a bit easier there.

Laugh your way to health? Yep.

Since laughter’s good for the soul, it’s no surprise that it's good for the body, too. And now researchers at the University of Maryland have given us a physiological reason to believe it. Experimenting by measuring blood pressure after people watched either sad or funny movies, they found that laughter, like exercise, expanded the funny-movie-watchers’ blood vessels, whereas the stressful movie watchers actually had reduced blood flow. target=blank>"It was a pretty dramatic difference," Miller said.

The researchers also speculate that laughter triggers the release of endorphin which fights the negative effects of stress hormones—and could thus be a valuable preventive treatment. They say this isn’t yet positive evidence but, like claims that laughter boosts the immune system, the proof is getting closer.

Hospital competition cranking costs

Unlike a lot of industries, competition doesn't lower costs in healthcare. As hospitals calculate the revenue potential for each area of service, many of them--some of them serving the same group of constituents--rush to buy the right equipment, attract the right practitioners, create the marketing materials and the advertising blitz, even expand facilities, and so on. And the cost of healthcare--already a source of shame for our country--jacks itself up even higher.

In enlightened Oregon, legislators are considering a bill that "would require hospitals to demonstrate a need for offering a new service to avoid wasteful duplication and to rein in the cost of health care."

How many oncology or cardiology departments do we need in a single county? First we need to know how many cancer patients it takes to support a single operation in a year--and then how many cancer patients the county has. Simple math--that unfortunately has little to no effect on the reasoning that gets hospitals taking the "me, too" approach to services. And patients suffer because procedures performed by doctors who don't get to do them very often are often more dangerous.

What's the answer? Sharing? Partnering? Having a centralized service for referrals? But then there's that old political game that kicks into high gear. Answers are easy to come up with--they're just hard to execute. After all, we're dealing with fear--the fear of not having enough. It's a powerful force.

Constitutional issues with tax incentives?

Every state in the US wants successful businesses generating jobs in its own backyard. Now Minnesota's JOBZ program is getting sued for offering tax-incentives to encourage business owners to stick around and grow at home. Some accuse the program of allowing development officials to set tax policy.

Who should decide who gets tax advantages and who doesn’t? Who knows? But with tax and other incentives already being used extensively by so many cities, states, and countries—-North Carolina’s RTP runs a sophisticated marketing program to lure folks there—-it seems like biting the hand that feeds you to fault the guys working to bring in new business. The problem arises when sweetheart deals that may have lost revenue for city schools or other projects, end up not working out—when the star company jumps ship anyway or doesn’t fulfill the promise that the deal was based on.

While new business is always good, many business owners--in Northeast Ohio for sure--would agree it wouldn’t hurt use some of that incentive money to help some of the homeboys and girls grow a little easier.