Five students in the Wake Forest University School of Medicine Ph.D. program in molecular medicine have recently won awards for their research. The training program is one of the first in the country to provide clinical training to doctoral students who are studying the biology of cells and molecules.

The overall objective of the program is to educate future investigators in research that translates to human disease, said Charles McCall, M.D., professor of molecular medicine. These awards attest to the program’s success.

The training program is one of two molecular medicine programs in the country funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to train four students a year. Of 35 students currently enrolled in the program, six have been supported by the training grant and nine have been awarded individual fellowships from the NIH or other organizations.

This program focused on translational research before the concept was developed nationally, said McCall, referring to an effort by the NIH for the nation’s scientists to focus on rapidly translating knowledge from the laboratory to the bedside to benefit patients. It meets a major objective of the new Roadmap Program of the NIH.

The awards will pay for the students to complete the research phase of their training. The goal of their projects is to apply the latest knowledge of molecular medicine, the science of exploring what goes wrong at the cellular level, to better define the cause or treatment of disease.

Students are taught by both physicians and basic scientists from a variety of fields, including internal medicine, biochemistry, regenerative medicine, surgery, neuroscience, genetics, microbiology/immunology, and cancer biology.

The program includes two years of classes and three years of research with an established scientist. Before beginning the research phase of the program, students have an eight-week clinical rotation and a semester-long class in human physiology and disease. For example, a student whose laboratory research will focus on diabetes accompanies endocrinologists on hospital rounds and discusses actual cases, seeing the problems that patients face.

It is unique for doctoral students to get this type of clinical training, said Kevin High, M.D., co-director of the program. It is nearly impossible to impart the impact of one’s research by reading printed materials ?C they learn to understand the context of disease, the impact the disease has on physical, mental and social function, and the applicability of the research they are doing.

In the Molecular Basis of Human Diseases course, students examine actual case scenarios, including the symptoms presented by the patient, results of the physical examination, and diagnostic results, including x-rays and other scans, biopsy results, and laboratory tests. Group discussions focus on physiology and the molecular mechanisms of health and disease. Once the diagnosis is revealed, students learn more about treatments and how they work, how to design clinical research studies to test new therapies, and the gaps in current knowledge within the field.

The program, which began in 1998 under the direction of Floyd Ski Chilton, Ph.D., is co-directed by High, an infectious diseases specialist, and Linda McPhail, Ph.D., a biochemist.

The training program admits four to seven new students each year. Its goals include educating biomedical scientists who can move efficiently and productively between basic science and clinical settings and who can develop novel molecular approaches to treat human disease.

The recent award winners are:

* Lan Coffman, $40,000 from the American Heart Association (AHA) to study the formation and growth of blood vessels that supply tumors.

* Dawn Delo, $126,500 from the NIH to pursue a cardiovascular regenerative medicine project.

* JaNae Joyner, $40,000 from the AHA to study pregnancy-induced blood pressure.

* Manisha Nautiyal, $40,000 from the AHA to study enzymes involved in muscle wasting.

* Jill Wykosky, $125,000 from the NIH to develop anti-cancer drugs to target cells of the most deadly type of brain tumor.

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Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center is an academic health system comprised of North Carolina Baptist Hospital and Wake Forest University Health Sciences, which operates the university’s School of Medicine. U.S. News & World Report ranks Wake Forest University School of Medicine 18th in family medicine, 20th in geriatrics, 25th in primary care and 41st in research among the nation’s medical schools. It ranks 32nd in research funding by the National Institutes of Health. Almost 150 members of the medical school faculty are listed in Best Doctors in America.

Contact: Karen Richardson

Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center Continue reading →

The radioactive carbon-14 produced by above-ground nuclear testing in the 1950s and ’60s has helped researchers determine that the number of fat cells in a human’s body, whether lean or obese, is established during the teenage years. Changes in fat mass in adulthood can be attributed mainly to changes in fat cell volume, not an increase in the actual number of fat cells.

These results could help researchers develop new pharmaceuticals to battle obesity as well as the accompanying diseases such as high blood pressure and diabetes.

A new study by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientist Bruce Buchholz – along with colleagues from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden; Humboldt University Berlin, Foundation of Research and Technology in Greece; Karolinska University Hospital; and Stockholm University – applied carbon dating to DNA to discover that the number of fat cells stays constant in adulthood in lean and obese individuals, even after marked weight loss, indicating that the number of fat cells is set during childhood and adolescence.

Carbon dating is typically used in archaeology and paleontology to date the age of artifacts. However, in this application, which appeared in the May 4 early online edition of the journal Nature, the scientists used the pulse of radiocarbon to analyze fat cell turnover in humans.

Radiocarbon or carbon-14 is naturally produced by cosmic ray interactions with air and is present at low levels in the atmosphere and food. Its concentration remained relatively constant during the past 4,000 years, butatmospheric testing of nuclear weapons from 1950-1963 produced a global pulse in the amount of radiocarbon in the atmosphere, Buchholz said.

In the new study, Buchholz analyzed the uptake of carbon-14 in genomic DNA within fat cells to establish the dynamics of fat cell turnover. Approximately 10 percent of fat cells are renewed annually at all adult ages and levels of body mass index.

Neither fat cell death nor its generation rate is altered in early onset obesity, suggesting a tight regulation of the number of fat cells in obese adults.

“Fat cells change in size but no one had ever measured fat cell turnover,” Buchholz said. “An increase in cell size means it can hold more mass.”

Obesity is increasing in epidemic proportions in most countries and poses a public health problem by enhancing the risks for cardiovascular diseases and metabolic disorders such as type 2 diabetes. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the prevalence of overweight and obesity has increased sharply for both adults and children since the 1970s. Data from two National Health and Nutrition Examination surveys show that among adults aged 20-74 years the prevalence of obesity increased from 15 percent (in the 1976-80 survey) to 32.9 percent (in the 2003-04 survey).

The two surveys also show increases in overweight children and teens. For children aged 2-5 years, the prevalence increased from 5 percent to 13.9 percent; for those aged 6-11 years, prevalence increased from 6.5 percent to 18.8 percent; and for those aged 12-19 years, prevalence increased from 5 percent to 17.4 percent.

In the Nature study, the team first found that there was a direct correlation between the measures of fat mass (measured from body mass index (BMI) and fat cell volume in subcutaneous fat, which represents about 80 percent of all fat, and visceral fat.

In a study of 687 adults, the researchers found that number of fat cells increases in childhood and adolescence, but levels off and remains constant in adulthood. The group looked at whether the number of fat cells changes under extreme conditions such as drastic weight loss by radical reduction in caloric intake, such as through bariatric surgery. The treatment resulted in a significant decrease in BMI and fat cell volume; however, it did not reduce the number of fat cells two years after the surgery. Similarly, significant weight gain (15-25 percent) over several months in non-obese adult men resulted in significant increase in body fat volume but no change in number. Subsequent weight loss back to baseline resulted in a decrease in fat cell volume but no change in the number of fat cells.

“If you are overweight and you lose weight, you still have the capacity to store lipids because you still have the same number of fat cells. That may be why it’s so hard to keep the weight off,” Buchholz said.

Overweight and obesity result from an energy imbalance – eating too many calories and not getting enough physical activity. Body weight is the result of genes, metabolism, behavior, environment, culture and socioeconomic status. “This work may give us new ideas of how to deal with the diseases that go along with obesity,” Buchholz said.

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Founded in 1952, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is a national security laboratory, with a mission to ensure national security and apply science and technology to the important issues of our time. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is managed by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration.

Source: Anne Stark

DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Continue reading →

Scientists have blocked harmful immune cells from entering the brain in mice with a condition similar to multiple sclerosis (MS).

According to researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, this is important because MS is believed to be caused by misdirected immune cells that enter the brain and damage myelin, an insulating material on the branches of neurons that conduct nerve impulses.

New insights into how the brain regulates immune cell entry made the accomplishment possible. Washington University scientists had borrowed an anti-cancer drug in development by the company ChemoCentryx simply to test their theories.

“The results were so dramatic that we ended up producing early evidence that this compound might be helpful as a drug for MS,” says Robyn Klein, MD, PhD, associate professor of pathology and immunology, of medicine and of neurobiology. “The harmful immune cells were unable to gain access to the brain tissue, and the mice that received the highest dosage were protected from disease.”

ChemoCentryx is now testing the drug in Phase I safety trials. The study is published in The Journal of Experimental Medicine.

Klein and her colleagues discovered a chemical stairway that immune cells have to climb down to enter the brain. Immune cells that exit the blood remain along the vessels on the tissue side, climbing down from the meninges into the brain where they can then cross additional barriers and attack myelin on the branches of neurons.

“The effect of immune cell entry into the brain depends on context,” Klein says. “In the case of viral infection, immune cell entry is required to clear the virus. But in autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis, their entry is associated with damage so we need to find ways to keep them out.”

The stairway is located on the tissue side of the microvasculature, tiny vessels that carry blood into the central nervous system. The steps are made of a molecule called CXCL12 that localizes immune cells, acting like stairs that slow them down so that they can be evaluated to determine if they are allowed to enter the brain. Klein’s lab previously discovered that the blood vessel cells of the microvasculature display copies of this molecule on their surfaces.

Klein also found that MS causes CXCL12 to be pulled inside blood vessel cells in humans and mice, removing the stairway’s steps and the checkpoints they provide. In the new paper, she showed that blocking the internalization of the molecule prevented immune cells from getting into the brain and doing harm.

Work by another lab called Klein’s attention to CXCR7, a receptor that binds to CXCL12. She showed that the receptor is made by the same cells in the microvasculature that display CXCL12. They watched the receptor take copies of CXCL12 and dump them in the cells’ lysosomes, pockets for breakdown and recycling of molecules the cell no longer needs.

“After it dumps its cargo in the lysosome, the receptor can go right back to the cell surface to pull in another copy of CXCL12,” Klein says. “There likely exists an equilibrium between expression and disposal of CXCL12. Some of the proteins expressed by the immune cells in MS patients affect CXCR7 expression and activity, disrupting the equilibrium and stripping the steps from this immune cell stairway we’re studying.”

Klein contacted researchers at ChemoCentryx, who were developing a blocker of the CXCR7 receptor as a cancer treatment. When they gave it to the mouse model of MS, immune cells stopped at the meninges.

Klein also found that immune factors could cause microvasculature cells to make more or less of CXCR7, ramping up or down the number of steps on the chemical stairway. She is currently investigating additional immune factors that impact on CXCR7 activity within the blood vessel cell. Whether a given factor promotes or suppresses the receptor may also differ depending upon what part of the brain is being considered.

“One of the biggest questions in MS has been why the location, severity and progression of disease varies so much from patient to patient,” Klein says. “Getting a better understanding of how these factors regulate immune cell entry will be an important part of answering that question.”

Cruz-Orengo L, Holman DW, Dorsey D, Zhou L, Zhang P, Wright M, McCandless EE, Patel JR, Luker GD, Littman DR, Russell JH, Klein RS. CXCR7 influences leukocyte entry into the CNS parenchyma by controlling abluminal CXCL12 abundance during autoimmunity. The Journal of Experimental Medicine, Feb. 7, 2011.

Funding from the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society supported this research.

Source: Washington University in St. Louis Continue reading →

UnitedHealth Group on Thursday announced fourth-quarter earnings of $1.2 billion, in part because of the recent acquisition of PacifiCare Health Systems and business from Medicare prescription drug plans, Reuters reports. Revenue increased by 47% from a year earlier to about $18.16 billion, the company said. Enrollment in Medicare prescription drug plans totaled 5.74 million as of the end of the fourth quarter, and enrollment in commercial health plans totaled 28.5 million, an increase of 200,000 from the third quarter, according to UnitedHealth (Reuters, 1/18). In addition, UnitedHealth reported that enrollment in Medicare Advantage plans increased by 260,000 in 2006. UnitedHealth had estimated that enrollment in Medicare Advantage plans would increase by 190,000 in 2007 but on Thursday reduced the estimate by half (Forster, St. Paul Pioneer Press, 1/19). UnitedHealth also reported that the company medical care ratio, a measurement of medical costs as a percentage of premiums, in the fourth quarter improved by 1.2 percentage points from the third quarter to 79.9% (Reuters, 1/18). For 2006, UnitedHealth reported earnings of $4.17 billion (AP/Houston Chronicle, 1/18). The fourth-quarter results included $50 million in cash and noncash charges related to issues with the company stock options program, and the 2006 results included a $100 million charge. UnitedHealth did not report per-share earnings or year-to-year or quarter-to-quarter comparisons because of the unreliability of past earnings statements (Wall Street Journal, 1/18). UnitedHealth reaffirmed 2007 earnings estimates of between $4.7 billion and $4.75 billion (Phelps, Minneapolis Star Tribune, 1/18).

“Reprinted with permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved. Continue reading →

The Indian Parliamentary standing committee on health and family welfare recently released a report urging the government to provide HIV-positive people who have developed resistance to first-line antiretroviral drugs with access to second-line antiretrovirals, the Statesman reports (Statesman, 9/4).

National AIDS Control Organization Director-General Sujatha Rao in April said the second-line drugs, which can cost 12 times as much as some older drugs, will be provided after NACO meets its goal of providing first-line antiretroviral treatment to 100,000 people in the country. According to Rao, the government in April was providing about 67,000 people with access to first-line drugs, and between 3,000 and 4,000 new people are added to the program monthly. She added that based on these numbers, NACO could meet the 100,000 treatment target by December 2007. Second-line antiretrovirals cost $239 per person monthly, compared with $239 per person annually for first-line medications (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 4/19).

The committee in its report said about 3,000 to 5,000 people who receive drug access through NACO have developed resistance to first-line drugs, adding that the government’s decision to provide second-line treatment access after 100,000 people receive first-line drug access is “insensitive and inhuman.” According to the committee, NACO has not fully utilized the seven billion rupees, or about $172 million, allocated for the 2006 to 2007 fiscal period. Actual expenditures reported as of Feb. 15 were 5.8 billion rupees, or about $141 million. The committee said that this spending shortfall will hinder efforts to control the spread of HIV in the country. The committee also noted that efforts to establish sexually transmitted infection clinics, targeted interventions and new schools to provide HIV/AIDS education have not been realized. The committee said that falling short of such goals will have “grave future implications” (Statesman, 9/4).

Reprinted with kind permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved. Continue reading →

Loyola University Chicago will break ground for the Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing Center for Collaborative Learning from 4-6 p.m., Saturday, April 9, at the health sciences campus at 2160 S. First Ave., Maywood, Ill.

“We plan to build on Loyola’s long-standing commitment to the Catholic-Jesuit mission and its leadership in education and research through the development of this new facility,” said Father Michael Garanzini, SJ, president, Loyola University Chicago. “This building will allow us to improve health, advance science and ensure excellence in patient care in the future.”

The center will be adjacent to the Stritch School of Medicine. Phase I of this initiative will be complete in fall 2012. This includes: a 180-seat lecture hall; an integrated learning environment featuring an electronic health sciences library; a light-filled atrium for studying; a caf?© set among gardens where students, faculty and staff can gather; nursing classrooms and administrative offices. This phase also features a state-of-the-art clinical simulation center with a six-bed virtual hospital and home-care environment. Here nursing, medical and health-science students will learn in a team-based environment how to better care for patients.

“Collaborative care means better care for patients,” said Vicki A. Keough, PhD, RN-BC, ACNP, dean, Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing. “This facility will foster a cohesive learning environment where students work together to improve patient care.”

Faculty will replicate patient-care scenarios in the clinical simulation center. This will allow students from various disciplines to hone their technical, communication, critical-thinking and decision-making skills under the supervision of experienced professionals.

“The clinical simulation center allows students to apply the knowledge they gain in the traditional classroom setting with risk-free care,” said Richard L. Gamelli, MD, FACS, dean, Stritch School of Medicine. “This educational approach distinguishes our graduates from others in the marketplace, because it more effectively prepares them for authentic patient-care challenges.”

Planning for Phase II of this project is under way. This will include another building with additional classrooms for junior and senior nursing students.

“This is an exciting time for the Niehoff School of Nursing and the Stritch School of Medicine to come together in close proximity to the hospital,” said Paul K. Whelton, MB, MD, MSc, president and chief executive officer, Loyola University Health System. “This educational structure will allow us to fully equip the next generation to meet the increasingly complex needs of health care.”

Source: Loyola University Health System Continue reading →

A new imaging technology may hold the key to not only stopping heart attacks in their tracks but also preventing them for ever occurring. For the first time, researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have shown the use multi-detector computed tomography (CT) imaging along with a novel contrast agent know as N1177 can detect dangerous, high-risk plaque which cause heart attack and stroke. The findings, published in the May issue of Nature Medicine and available online April 8, may help physicians diagnosis a heart attack before the attack occurs.

High-risk plaque is characterized by their cellular and biologic structure. High-risk plaque rich in macrophages or cells can rupture, eventually causing a heart attack or stroke. Early identification of high-risk plaque in coronary arteries may be useful to prevent cardiac events but one major hurdle in detecting high-risk plaque is the lack of an imaging modality that allows physicians to see the composition of dangerous plaque, explains study author Zahi A. Fayad, PhD, FAHA, FACC, Professor of Radiology and Medicine (Cardiology) and director of the Translational and Molecular Imaging Institute at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. “Coronary CT imaging has advanced the diagnosis and prognosis of heart disease,” says Dr. Fayad. “But, what if we had the opportunity to prevent a heart attack from happening? This modality may allow us to do just that.”

A team of researchers led by Dr. Fayad tested an iodinated nanoparticulate contrast agent called N1177 for the detection of macrophages in an animal model with 64-slice CT. High-risk plaque in this animal model contained high levels of macrophages which are similar in size and content to human coronary plaques. Researchers compared the enhancement of macrophage rich plaque after the injection of N1177 and a conventional CT contrast agent. The enhancement of the macrophage rich plaque after the injection of N1177 was significantly higher and specific inside of the vessel wall than after injecting the conventional CT contrast agent.

“We were amazed at these results. The introduction of N1177 allows us for the first time to look directly at the coronary arteries and pinpoint these dangerous, heart attack causing plaque,” said Dr. Fayad.

“N1177 had successfully progressed through Phase 1 clinical trials for use as a cancer staging agent,” said Don Skerrett, chief executive officer of NanoScan Imaging, LLC, and provider of N1177. “The unique properties of N1177 make it a versatile agent with a range of applications including: intravenous administration for the assessment of atherosclerosis and identification of vulnerable plaque, inhalation delivery for improved lung cancer staging and subcutaneous delivery for assessing cancerous extension into lymph nodes.”

The Mount Sinai researchers also believe this development may have broader clinical implication. “N1177-enhanced CT will be helpful for diagnosis and prognosis of disease states. In the future, this technology may allow for the targeting of macrophages to specifically dispense therapeutic agents to disease tissue.”

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About the Mount Sinai School of Medicine

Located in Manhattan, Mount Sinai School of Medicine is internationally recognized for ground-breaking clinical and basic-science research, and innovative approaches to medical education. Through the Mount Sinai Graduate School of Biological Sciences, Mount Sinai trains biomedical researchers with an emphasis on the rapid translation of discoveries of basic research into new techniques for fighting disease. One indication of Mount Sinai’s leadership in scientific investigation is its receipt during fiscal year 2005 of $174.1 million in research support from the NIH. Mount Sinai School of Medicine also is known for unique educational programs such as the Humanities in Medicine program, which creates opportunities for liberal arts students to pursue medical school, and instructional innovations like The Morchand Center, the nation’s largest program teaching students and physicians with “standardized patients” to become not only highly skilled, but compassionate caregivers. Long dedicated to improving its community, the School extends its boundaries to work with East Harlem and surrounding communities to provide access to health care and educational programs to at risk populations.

About NanoScan Imaging

Located in Lansdale, PA, NanoScan Imaging (nanoscanimaging) was founded in August 2005 to manage the clinical development of N1177. N1177 is a water insoluble, iodinated nanoparticle contrast agent which is used to improve the clinical utility of computed tomography (CT) in diagnosing and managing many cardiovascular diseases and cancers.

Contact: Mount Sinai Press Office
The Mount Sinai Hospital / Mount Sinai School of Medicine Continue reading →

Two newspapers on Tuesday examined cost issues related to Medicare. Summaries appear below.Los Angeles Times: The Times examined how as many as 10,000 Medicare beneficiaries nationwide are having difficulty obtaining intravenous immune globulin treatments after CMS reduced reimbursement rates for doctors and hospitals that provide the service. The situation illustrates “how hard [it] is” to reduce Medicare costs without hurting beneficiaries and potentially raising health care costs in other areas, the Times reports. IVIG is used to treat a number of conditions that affect the immune system and nerves. Until last year, Medicare reimbursed providers using a formula based on the equivalent of list prices for the treatment. However, in an effort to cut costs, CMS changed to a new payment formula based on an average of actual sale prices. Providers now say the reimbursements do not cover the cost of providing the treatments, and many have dropped the service. In response to a letter from the government’s Advisory Committee on Blood Safety and Availability warning that many beneficiaries were having trouble obtaining services, CMS has approved a new administrative fee for doctors and hospitals providing IVIG treatment, but the providers say it still does not cover costs. As a result, some patients are reducing the number of treatments they receive or are turning to less-effective, alternative treatments. For some, their conditions have worsened, possibly raising costs for Medicare, according to the Times. HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt said at a recent congressional hearing that officials “understand” the problem and are “going to resolve it” (Alonso-Zaldivar, Los Angeles Times, 2/28).

Wall Street Journal: The Journal examined an effort by the Bush administration to allow Medicare beneficiaries to take ownership of certain medical supplies after renting them for a specified period of time. According to the Journal, Congress this month approved a provision in the fiscal year 2006 federal budget mandating a “rent-to-own” rule under which Medicare home care beneficiaries can “take title” to their rented hospital beds after 13 months. The change is intended to reduce Medicare costs by eliminating rental payments. The Bush administration hopes to apply a similar rule to oxygen equipment. The change would allow Medicare in effect to “buy” the equipment for beneficiaries, who would be expected to “bargain for services” such as oxygen supplies and maintenance, the Journal reports. The change could save billions of dollars on the one million beneficiaries for whom Medicare currently provides oxygen therapy services, the Bush administration says. “Republican-friendly medical-equipment and homecare suppliers” that rent equipment to Medicare are “angered” by the proposal and say the Bush administration is placing too much faith in the ability of the health care system to adhere to a free-market ideology and the ability of frail beneficiaries to bargain for their care, the Journal reports (Rogers, Wall Street Journal, 2/28).

“Reprinted with permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . ?© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved. Continue reading →

Patrick Sullivan, MD has received a 2010 Distinguished Investigator Award from NARSAD for a comparison of genetics in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

His project is one of 15 selected out of 170 proposals submitted by researchers worldwide. Each project will each receive $100,000 annually in support of one year of research.

Sullivan, who is Ray M. Hayworth and Family Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry at the UNC School of Medicine and a member of the Carolina Center for Genome Sciences, has identified four families that are affected by schizophrenia and/or bipolar disorder and will perform DNA analysis to try to identify variations and genetic links to psychosis. Two families are from northern Sweden and the other two families are from southern Spain, in Andalusia. All have an unusually high number of affected family members. Sullivan will employ methods that will allow him to study rare genetic variants, including changes in the copy number of genes.

Once candidate pieces of DNA are identified, Sullivan and his team will sequence the DNA from subset of cases and compare any possible sequence variations with unrelated samples. Findings should contribute to the continuing effort to identify genes associated with schizophrenia to improve understanding, diagnosis and treatments for disorders that have psychotic symptoms.

Other members of the research term for this project are Danyu Lin, PhD, Dennis Gillings Distinguished Professor in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, Wei Sun, PhD, Yun Li, PhD, and Ann Collins, PhD. Wei Sun and Yun Li are assistant professors of biostatistics in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health who also have appointments in the Department of Genetics in the School of Medicine. Ann Collins is a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Genetics.

NARSAD, formerly known as the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD), has adopted the business name “NARSAD, The World’s Leading Charity Dedicated to Mental Health Research” to reflect the broader funding interests of the organization. In addition to funding research about schizophrenia and depression, NARSAD funds research such as childhood psychiatric disorders, bipolar disorder, and anxiety disorders.

Source
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine Continue reading →

Summaries of coverage related to e-health appear below.
Blogging: HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff are the first two members of President Bush’s Cabinet to start blogging about issues that affect their departments and to “occasionally sound off on criticism of their policies,” the AP/USA Today reports. Leavitt in his blog, secretarysblog.hhs, has written about SCHIP and defended Bush’s veto of the reauthorization and expansion bill. “The drama around vetoes and overrides are just the way Washington conducts a conversation and debate,” Leavitt wrote. Leavitt said his blogging experience so far has been positive. According to Michael Delli Carpini, dean of the Annenberg School for Communications at the University of Pennsylvania, a benefit of the blogs is that they allow people to interact with government officials, but readers are “seldom going to get a different point of view or an inside story” because public officials usually are promoting policy rather than offering honest reflections on issues, AP/USA Today reports (Sullivan, AP/USA Today, 10/22).

Medicare prescription drug benefit: A coalition of consumer, union, business and other groups in an Oct. 16 letter to chairs and ranking members of the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means committees called on Congress to require all Medicare drug benefit prescriptions be issued electronically by 2010, CQ HealthBeat reports. The committees have jurisdiction over the issue. The letter notes that e-prescriptions could prevent 1.9 million adverse prescription drug events over the next 10 years and save the program billions of dollars, even after providing physicians with funding to implement the new technology and to provide training. The letter’s authors also advocated for annual incentives to physicians who e-prescribe equal to 1% of their allowed Medicare payments. Groups that signed the letter include the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, Aetna, the HR Policy Association, Consumers Union, Families USA and the AFL-CIO (CQ HealthBeat, 10/19).

Reprinted with kind permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved. Continue reading →