Midwest states vie for top honors in bioscience race

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.

Like a company that sprints to the short-term revenue finish line by sacrificing customer service and employee satisfaction, a too-intense focus on who's ahead can lead governments to trade too high, give up too much that they can't pay back later.

But at the start, it's good to prove yourself a worthy competitor--and it's nice to see that Ohio's promoters have finally stepped up to the plate.

Some exciting studies--and Bush signs rule about medical errors

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.

Test turns into promising new weapon against HIV

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.

Sigh.

Anyway, Australian scientists discover that the HIV peptide-coated blood cells they wanted to test with, actually had a vaccine effect--greatly boosting immune response in monkeys and mice.

New promise and hope for holding HIV and other chronic infections at bay.

Comin' and goin' with coumadin

Over-60 folks with heart conditions are often prescribed coumadin, a blood thinner/anticoagulant that's supposed to help prevent blood clots and thus supposedly lessen the risk of heart attack. Now comes research written up in the Archives of Internal Medicine saying that if you're a good candidate for coumadin, you're not only twice as likely to have a blood clot, but you're also three times as likely to have a major hemmorrhage--and these kinds of medications can increase that risk. Read the stats
here. Just ain't no winnin' the game clean.

And then I think of the restrictions you must put on yourself when you're taking coumadin--my dad had quadruple bypass at age 70 and lived a much-toned down life until 80, I honestly don't know how I'll feel about it if somebody tells me one day that I have to take it for the rest of my life.

A little history of this drug:

"Coumadin (warfarin) was invented at the University of Wisconsin in 1949. It was initially used as a mammalian pesticide since excessive anticoagulation will produce bleeding leading to shock and death. Most current pesticides use a slightly different chemical that has a time release characteristic rather than a one dose effect. However, this drug has been used extensively since the early 1950's in humans for anticoagulation. Close monitoring is required with the use of this drug to ensure that the right dose is administered. This drug interferes with Vitamin K. Consequently, any change in Vitamin K intake can change the dosage of coumadin. I couldn't find a history of the animal pesticides. However, it is manufactured by Dupont: # 302-992-5000. They are usually very helpful."

Many doctors seem convinced that coumadin is benign, but as those who dislike the idea of taking drugs for life have probably already intuited, it's more likely that with coumadin we're actually being given a choice between two equally serious dangers.

Engineered tissues got big boost in quality control

The idea of engineering tissues that can replace whole body parts is pretty new. Someone I know who suffers from rheumatic-fever-induced mitral stenosis is pretty darn anxious for them to hurry up and perfect it before she's put on the calendar for valve-replacement surgery. Current replacement options include only pig valves or mechanical ones. These new engineered ones are grown straight from the adult patient's own cells. You still have to undergo the surgery, but the resulting replacement is a lot more likely to work without problems--IF it's perfectly grown.

Now a scientist has perfected a much more powerful and effective way to examine these growing tissues for imperfections--the new technology gives a much better 3D image than MRI and costs a whole lot less ($1.5 million for an MRI machine, $15000 in material costs for the new approach).

This discovery also bodes happier days also for folks who need skin grafts and new blood vessels. Thank heavens for the dogged scientist who eats, sleeps and hangs out in the lab relentlessly pursuing his or her dream. We all win when the dreams come true.

Why dope nanocrystals? In the end, to make your life easier

"Doping" is the term invented by nanoscientists to refer to the process of sticking a foreign substance (impurity) onto a nanocrystal and letting the crystal grow around it. Who cares? Well, apparently you "dope" a nanocrystal so you can make it do more things. Scientists have discovered a way to get doping to work better with certain metals like manganese:

C&EN: Latest News - Doped Nanocrystals: "the advance could allow properties of nanocrystals to be engineered for numerous applications ranging from solar cells to future 'spintronic' memory devices, in which information is carried by electron spin in addition to electrical charge."

Yes, says the Navy, we will be able to use these doped crystals to build improvements in certain "reconfigurable logic" elements.

I was stumped by the terms so checked around. I guess if you're not an engineer, you might not know that "reconfigurable logic devices" includes things like room-temperature superconductors and quantum computers--and that "by designing and making stacks of different materials -- some with layers only two to three atoms thick -- researchers can create devices that have novel properties. The spintronic GMR head, for example, has boosted the disk-drive industry."

In other words, doping a nanocrystal for spintronics means you and I will have faster instant-on computers, digital cameras, cell phones, etc. I, for one, am psyched about speeding up the digital camera--how many absolute classic photos have you missed because of the delay on yours?

Newsflash: Death is not popular--neither is long-term care

Not surprisingly, physicians and scientists who work with terminal cancer patients and others nearing death have a hard time finding funding to conduct research. The obstacles to creating regular placebo studies are significant: you don't have much time because the patients don't live long enough; you can't deny a dying person something that would help (to make the control group) because it wouldn't be ethical; you can't find many sources for funding because nobody wants to fund dying research--curing diseases is much more attractive.

Now comes the federal government offering long-term care insurance as an employee benefit. And guess what? It's not very popular either. The article talks about how many decisions have to be made about where and how you'd be satisfied with long-term care, but the truth is, most people just don't want to face the idea of their prolonged enfeeblement or that of someone they love.

Like buying a burial plot and/or funeral service ahead of time--it probably doesn't spark the urge to pull out your wallet. With regular life insurance, we at least know for sure it's going to happen some day, but in the long-term care arena, we battle with the superstition that just by buying it, we might be inviting it to happen.

But if the federal government leads the way on this, maybe more of us can be persuaded to think that far ahead, give up some spendable cash today and invest in this potential protection for ourselves and our families. It'll depend in part on how happy the federal employees are with their new benefit.

Half-hearted rule to fight polluted air in national parks

This is depressing.

"There is little doubt haze is a major problem in many of the nation's most treasured places - haze reduces natural visibility distances by as much as 25 miles in the eastern United States and 90 miles in some western parks."

Guess I didn't realize that pollution has spread so far. This new rule was jammed into place to meet some deadline and environmentalists say it's pretty worthless. Gives polluters tons of leeway--which means we can count on the pollution to continue.

"The facilities covered by the rule each have the potential to emit more than 250 tons a year of visibility impairing pollution, including fine particulate matter (PM2.5), sulfur dioxides, nitrogen oxides and some volatile organic compounds."

Oh, and let's not even think about what this crud does to your lungs...

Better hurry out and visit your nearest national park before you can't find it anymore in the smog.

Is it news to change your stand on stem cells?

I guess if you're the surgeon general, you can make a case for it being news. But I gotta wonder if the reporters don't get tired of writing about how some well-known so-and-so said one thing publicly and then suddenly appears to have changed his-or-her position on some important issue. Surgeon Frist changes his stance in the stem cell fight, writes Ceci Connelly in the Washington Post.

In the stem cell debate, nobody who has any designs on keeping a) a political position, b) a moral position "above the fray," or c) a position that wants/needs government or other funding, can afford to come out in favor of using embryonic stem cells--no matter what they really think.

Sure makes for dull and repetitive reporting.

Kids who snore more likely to have behavior issues

This is huge. How many little children--especially boys--are being dosed with drugs to take care of what's been getting called a disease (ADHD)? There's mounting evidence that a lot of hyperactive behaviors can be attributed to poor sleep.

In this study researchers followed a couple of hundred kids and families. The link between early snoring and later hyperactivity was powerful indeed--all snoring kids were twice as likely to have behavior issues, but boys were four times more likely to do so. \

Substance abuse counselors have known for years that some of the irrational inappropriate behaviors of addicts during non-drugged times can be attributed at least in part to the poor quality of sleep--alcohol and other drugs disturb brain patterns, alter the order and length of sleep cycles, and often interrupt sleep. Anxiety, depression and other emotional issues can all be brought on by poor sleep.

How many kids are we dosing with Ritalin et al. and how many adults with Prozac and other antidepressants when all they might need need is a good night's sleep?

Nano for food brings new responsibilities

So now we can use silver (silver?) to preserve food. That and other amazing nano ideas are detailed in this Ziff Davis report on the latest in nanotechnology says

."Finely milled silver, with particles mere microns in diameter, can attack the RNA of microbes, preventing them from reproducing..."

Apparently, tests with cut strawberries and a vegetable were very successful. The implications are promising--imagine being able to preserve fresh fruit and get it to places in the world that can't grow it? Or keeping food fresh for soldiers? I'm sure whatever they come up with, it'll beat the hell out of the old C-rations our fathers had to suffer through during World War II.

But the cautions are many. Ingesting silver along with your strawberries and cream could involve a host of unknown consequences. And the next concern that hit me was that preserving the substance of a food doesn't necessarily mean you're preserving the nutrients unaltered and/or undiminished.

Wow, the learning curve on nano stretches from here to far on the other side of the lives of most of us today. It's almost as if we were back in the times when pasteurizing came along. We're just babes in this new exciting and dangerous stretch of woods. But babes or not, we've got to bring along very adult attitudes as to how we'll use the amazing powers we discover.