FROM: NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Exploring the unknown frontier of the brain
James L. Olds, head of NSF's Directorate for Biological Sciences and the Shelley Krasnow University Professor of Molecular Neuroscience at George Mason University describes why and how NSF-funded researchers are working to understand the healthy brain
April 2, 2015
To a large degree, your brain is what makes you... you. It controls your thinking, problem solving and voluntary behaviors. At the same time, your brain helps regulate critical aspects of your physiology, such as your heart rate and breathing.
And yet your brain--a nonstop multitasking marvel--runs on only about 20 watts of energy, the same wattage as an energy-saving light bulb.
Still, for the most part, the brain remains an unknown frontier. Neuroscientists don't yet fully understand how information is processed by the brain of a worm that has several hundred neurons, let alone by the brain of a human that has 80 billion to 100 billion neurons. The chain of events in the brain that generates a thought, behavior or physiological response remains mysterious.
Why the big mystery? The brain is the most complex known biological structure in the universe. When researchers do figure out how it works, they will accomplish perhaps the greatest scientific achievement in recorded human history.
The search for a theory
Neuroscientists all over the world are working to develop an overarching theory of how a healthy brain works. Similar to the way the Big Bang theory offers one possible explanation for the cosmos and helps guide research on the origins of the universe, a theory of healthy brain function would offer a possible explanation of how the brain and the entire nervous system work and would help guide neuroscience research.
A theory of healthy brain function may also help to explain how injuries and diseases disrupt brain function and thereby help researchers identify new directions for research on traumatic brain injuries and brain diseases.
More knowledge about healthy brain function may also help inspire the development of smart technologies that mimic some of the human brain's unparalleled capabilities. If supercomputers--which can each annually consume millions of dollars' worth of electricity as well as huge amounts of cooling water--could match the brain's energy efficiency and processing power, their massive energy consumption would plummet, and science and innovation would leap forward.
Neuroscientists have made some progress toward understanding the brain. They have identified brain regions that regulate particular functions, including speech and motor function, and they can recognize structural and functional changes that occur in the brain throughout an animal's life span.
More recently, neuroscientists have developed game-changing tools for visualizing and analyzing parts of the brain in unprecedented detail. These tools provide the first detailed glimpses of the brain and are thrusting neuroscience forward, much as the first powerful telescopes provided the deep glimpses into the universe and thrust astronomy forward many years ago.
BRAIN Power
Building on these and other recent innovations, President Barack Obama launched the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies Initiative (BRAIN Initiative) in April 2013. Federally funded in 2015 at $200 million, the initiative is a public-private research effort to revolutionize researchers' understanding of the brain.
A co-leader of the initiative, the National Science Foundation (NSF) is working to reveal how a healthy brain works. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology, bionic limbs and laser eye surgery were all grounded in early NSF-funded fundamental research, and fundamental research on the healthy brain may lead to equally profound advances.
NSF will spend about $48.48 million on awards in 2015 supporting the BRAIN Initiative, part of approximately $106.44 million in awards we will provide for all "Understanding the Brain" research across a range of neuroscience and cognitive science topics. With that support, our research teams are tackling the mysteries of the brain from varied angles.
For example, NSF is funding collaborations among:
Computer scientists, cyberinfrastructure experts and biologists to create a cyberinfrastructure to store and manage the huge volumes of data--"Big Data”--generated by brain studies. (For some perspective, consider that if nanoscale images of one human brain were stored in a stack of 1 terabyte hard drives, the stack would reach to the moon, or beyond!)
Engineers, materials experts and physicists to develop new materials needed to invent new probes for monitoring and manipulating the brain.
Physicists, mathematicians and computer scientists to build models that can help reveal and predict the complex neural activities that drive thoughts and behavior.
Social and behavioral scientists and physicists to improve the resolution of functional magnetic resonance imaging of the brain to help explain how social and physical environments alter the brain.
Biologists, physicists, chemists and engineers to study the nervous systems of many species, from simple organisms to complex vertebrates.
In addition, NSF awarded $10.8 million in Early Concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGERs) to 36 teams--most of which are collaborative and multidisciplinary in nature--to support the development of new technologies that will help answer a critical question: How do circuits of neurons generate behaviors and enable learning and perception?
An EAGER team from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine is improving a new kind of microscope to simultaneously view individual neurons firing in two or more different regions of a brain at the same time. This microscope will enable researchers to see in detail, for the first time, how different areas of the brain team up to process information.
Taking an entirely different tack, researchers at the new $25 million NSF-funded Center for Brains, Minds & Machines at MIT are investigating human intelligence and the potential for creating intelligent machines. As researchers learn how to build those machines, they will likely also advance humanity's understanding of human intelligence.
Big innovations from basic research
If history is any guide, these and other fundamental brain-research projects will have important applications. For example, researchers around the world are currently studying diseases such as post-traumatic stress disorder, Parkinson's disease and schizophrenia with a powerful new tool called optogenetics.
Optogenetics, which was developed with partial funding from NSF, enables researchers to selectively turn on and off individual neurons in living animals by exposing them to light. The development of optogenetics was made possible, in part, by earlier NSF-funded research on light sensitivity in algae that was conducted purely out of curiosity about the survival strategies of algae and without any knowledge that it would eventually be pivotal to the seemingly far-flung field of brain research. (Optogenetics is explained in a short video, Biodiversity: A Boon for brain research.)
Viewers of the 2014 World Cup saw another important application of fundamental brain research: The first kick of the games was performed by a person with paraplegia wearing an exoskeleton. The development of this exoskeleton built upon NSF-funded research on how neurons are involved in motor learning--research that began nearly twenty years ago.
Across government and across the nation, hopes are high that additional, fundamental neuroscience research will lay the groundwork for continued advances that will help society take additional strides forward.
-- James L. Olds, National Science Foundation
-- Lily Whiteman,
Showing posts with label MEDICAL SCIENCE. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MEDICAL SCIENCE. Show all posts
Saturday, April 4, 2015
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Sunday, February 8, 2015
THE GENETICS OF ALZHEIMER'S
FROM: THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Uncovering Alzheimer's complex genetic networks
Researchers from the Mayo Clinic use NSF-supported Blue Waters supercomputer to understand gene expression in the brain
February 3, 2015
The release of the film, "Still Alice," in September 2014 shone a much-needed light on Alzheimer's disease, a debilitating neurological disease that affects a growing number of Americans each year.
More than 5.2 million people in the U.S. are currently living with Alzheimer's. One out of nine Americans over 65 has Alzheimer's, and one out of three over 85 has the disease. For those over 65, it is the fifth leading cause of death.
There are several drugs on the market that can provide relief from Alzheimer's symptoms, but none stop the development of disease, in part because the root causes of Alzheimer's are still unclear.
"We re interested in studying the genetics of Alzheimer's disease," said Mariet Allen, a post-doctoral fellow at the Mayo Clinic in Florida. "Can we identify genetic risk factors and improve our understanding of the biological pathways and cellular mechanisms that can play a role in the disease process?"
Allen is part of a team of researchers from the Mayo Clinic who are using Blue Waters, one of the most powerful supercomputers in the world, to decode the complicated language of genetic pathways in the brain. In doing so, they hope to provide insights into what genes and proteins are malfunctioning in the brain, causing amyloid beta plaques, tau protein tangles and brain atrophy due to neuronal cell loss--the telltale signs of the disease--and how these genes can be detected and addressed.
In the case of late onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD), it is estimated that as much as 80 percent of risk is due to genetic factors. In recent years, researchers discovered 20 common genetic loci, in addition to the well-known APOE gene, that are found to increase or decrease risk for the disease. (Loci are specific locations of a gene, DNA sequence, or position on a chromosome.) These loci do not necessarily have a causal connection to the disease, but they provide useful information about high-risk patients.
Despite all that doctors have learned in recent years about the genetic basis of Alzheimer's, according to Allen, a substantial knowledge gap still exists. It has been estimated that likely less than 40 percent of genetic risk for LOAD can be explained by known loci. Furthermore, it is not always clear which are the affected genes at these known loci.
In other words, scientists have a long way to go to get a full picture of which genes are involved in processes related to the disease and how they interact.
The Mayo team and their colleagues had been very successful in the past in finding genetic risk factors using a method that matched individual differences in the DNA code--single-nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs, to phenotypes--the outward appearances of the disease. In particular, the Mayo team focused on identifying SNPs that influence expression of genes in the brain. However, they now hypothesize that the single SNP method may be too simplistic to find all genetic factors, and is likely not an accurate reflection of the complex biological interactions that take place in an organism.
For that reason, the Mayo researchers have recently turned their attention to investigating the brain using genetic interaction (epistasis) studies. Such studies allow researchers to understand the effects of pairs of gene changes on a given phenotype and can uncover additional genetic variants that influence gene expression and disease.
The process involves the analysis of billions of DNA base pairs (the familiar C, G, A and T) to find statistically significant correlations. Importantly, the search is not to discover simple one-to-one connections, since these have largely been found, but to study the interaction effects of pairs of DNA sequence variations.
Solving a problem of this size and complexity requires a huge amount of computational processing time, so the researchers turned to the Blue Waters supercomputer at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA).
Supported by the National Science Foundation and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Blue Waters allows scientists and engineers across the country to tackle a wide range of challenging problems using massive computing and data processing power. From predicting the behavior of complex biological systems to simulating the evolution of the cosmos, Blue Waters assists researchers whose computing problems are at a scale or complexity that cannot be reasonably approached using any other method.
Allen and her colleagues used Blue Waters to rapidly advance their Alzheimer's epistasis study through NCSA's Private Sector Program, which lets teams outside of academia access the system.
Instead of requiring as much as a year or more of processing on a single workstation or university cluster, the research team was able to do each analysis on Blue Waters in less than two days.
The researchers conducted three sets of analysis to investigate brain gene expression levels in a group of individuals without Alzheimer's, a group of individuals with Alzheimer's and then a combined analysis of both groups together. To date, these analyses have been completed for the almost 14,000 genes expressed in the majority of the brain samples studied.
Through their work with collaborators at NCSA and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (including Victor Jongeneel and Liudmila Mainzer), the Mayo team overcame many of the challenges that a project of this scope presented.
"The analysis of epistatic effects in large studies, such as ours, requires powerful computational resources and would not be possible without the unique computing capabilities of Blue Waters," wrote project lead Nilufer Ertekin-Taner from the Mayo Clinic.
"The Mayo Clinic project is emblematic of the type of problem that is beginning to emerge in computational medicine," said Irene Qualters, division director of Advanced Computing Infrastructure at NSF. "Through engagement with the Blue Waters project, researchers at Mayo have demonstrated the potential of new analytic approaches in addressing the challenges of a daunting medical frontier."
The team reported on their progress at the Blue Waters Symposium in May 2014. Allen and her colleagues are currently processing and filtering the results so they can be analyzed.
"Recent studies by our collaborators and others have shown that both the risk for late onset Alzheimer's disease and gene expression are likely influenced by epistasis. However little is known about the effect of genetic interactions on brain gene expression specifically and how this might influence risk for neurological diseases such as LOAD," said Allen. "The goal of our study is to address this knowledge gap; something we have been uniquely positioned to do using our existing data and the resources available on Blue Waters."
-- Aaron Dubrow, NSF
Uncovering Alzheimer's complex genetic networks
Researchers from the Mayo Clinic use NSF-supported Blue Waters supercomputer to understand gene expression in the brain
February 3, 2015
The release of the film, "Still Alice," in September 2014 shone a much-needed light on Alzheimer's disease, a debilitating neurological disease that affects a growing number of Americans each year.
More than 5.2 million people in the U.S. are currently living with Alzheimer's. One out of nine Americans over 65 has Alzheimer's, and one out of three over 85 has the disease. For those over 65, it is the fifth leading cause of death.
There are several drugs on the market that can provide relief from Alzheimer's symptoms, but none stop the development of disease, in part because the root causes of Alzheimer's are still unclear.
"We re interested in studying the genetics of Alzheimer's disease," said Mariet Allen, a post-doctoral fellow at the Mayo Clinic in Florida. "Can we identify genetic risk factors and improve our understanding of the biological pathways and cellular mechanisms that can play a role in the disease process?"
Allen is part of a team of researchers from the Mayo Clinic who are using Blue Waters, one of the most powerful supercomputers in the world, to decode the complicated language of genetic pathways in the brain. In doing so, they hope to provide insights into what genes and proteins are malfunctioning in the brain, causing amyloid beta plaques, tau protein tangles and brain atrophy due to neuronal cell loss--the telltale signs of the disease--and how these genes can be detected and addressed.
In the case of late onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD), it is estimated that as much as 80 percent of risk is due to genetic factors. In recent years, researchers discovered 20 common genetic loci, in addition to the well-known APOE gene, that are found to increase or decrease risk for the disease. (Loci are specific locations of a gene, DNA sequence, or position on a chromosome.) These loci do not necessarily have a causal connection to the disease, but they provide useful information about high-risk patients.
Despite all that doctors have learned in recent years about the genetic basis of Alzheimer's, according to Allen, a substantial knowledge gap still exists. It has been estimated that likely less than 40 percent of genetic risk for LOAD can be explained by known loci. Furthermore, it is not always clear which are the affected genes at these known loci.
In other words, scientists have a long way to go to get a full picture of which genes are involved in processes related to the disease and how they interact.
The Mayo team and their colleagues had been very successful in the past in finding genetic risk factors using a method that matched individual differences in the DNA code--single-nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs, to phenotypes--the outward appearances of the disease. In particular, the Mayo team focused on identifying SNPs that influence expression of genes in the brain. However, they now hypothesize that the single SNP method may be too simplistic to find all genetic factors, and is likely not an accurate reflection of the complex biological interactions that take place in an organism.
For that reason, the Mayo researchers have recently turned their attention to investigating the brain using genetic interaction (epistasis) studies. Such studies allow researchers to understand the effects of pairs of gene changes on a given phenotype and can uncover additional genetic variants that influence gene expression and disease.
The process involves the analysis of billions of DNA base pairs (the familiar C, G, A and T) to find statistically significant correlations. Importantly, the search is not to discover simple one-to-one connections, since these have largely been found, but to study the interaction effects of pairs of DNA sequence variations.
Solving a problem of this size and complexity requires a huge amount of computational processing time, so the researchers turned to the Blue Waters supercomputer at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA).
Supported by the National Science Foundation and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Blue Waters allows scientists and engineers across the country to tackle a wide range of challenging problems using massive computing and data processing power. From predicting the behavior of complex biological systems to simulating the evolution of the cosmos, Blue Waters assists researchers whose computing problems are at a scale or complexity that cannot be reasonably approached using any other method.
Allen and her colleagues used Blue Waters to rapidly advance their Alzheimer's epistasis study through NCSA's Private Sector Program, which lets teams outside of academia access the system.
Instead of requiring as much as a year or more of processing on a single workstation or university cluster, the research team was able to do each analysis on Blue Waters in less than two days.
The researchers conducted three sets of analysis to investigate brain gene expression levels in a group of individuals without Alzheimer's, a group of individuals with Alzheimer's and then a combined analysis of both groups together. To date, these analyses have been completed for the almost 14,000 genes expressed in the majority of the brain samples studied.
Through their work with collaborators at NCSA and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (including Victor Jongeneel and Liudmila Mainzer), the Mayo team overcame many of the challenges that a project of this scope presented.
"The analysis of epistatic effects in large studies, such as ours, requires powerful computational resources and would not be possible without the unique computing capabilities of Blue Waters," wrote project lead Nilufer Ertekin-Taner from the Mayo Clinic.
"The Mayo Clinic project is emblematic of the type of problem that is beginning to emerge in computational medicine," said Irene Qualters, division director of Advanced Computing Infrastructure at NSF. "Through engagement with the Blue Waters project, researchers at Mayo have demonstrated the potential of new analytic approaches in addressing the challenges of a daunting medical frontier."
The team reported on their progress at the Blue Waters Symposium in May 2014. Allen and her colleagues are currently processing and filtering the results so they can be analyzed.
"Recent studies by our collaborators and others have shown that both the risk for late onset Alzheimer's disease and gene expression are likely influenced by epistasis. However little is known about the effect of genetic interactions on brain gene expression specifically and how this might influence risk for neurological diseases such as LOAD," said Allen. "The goal of our study is to address this knowledge gap; something we have been uniquely positioned to do using our existing data and the resources available on Blue Waters."
-- Aaron Dubrow, NSF
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
CYRAMZA APPROVED BY FDA FOR TREATMENT OF STOMACH CANCER
FROM: U.S. FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION
For Immediate Release: April 21, 2014
Consumer Inquiries: 888-INFO-FDA
FDA approves Cyramza for stomach cancer
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Cyramza (ramucirumab) to treat patients with advanced stomach cancer or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma, a form of cancer located in the region where the esophagus joins the stomach.
Stomach cancer forms in the tissues lining the stomach and mostly affects older adults. According to the National Cancer Institute, an estimated 22,220 Americans will be diagnosed with stomach cancer and 10,990 will die from the disease, this year.
Cyramza is an angiogenesis inhibitor that blocks the blood supply to tumors. It is intended for patients whose cancer cannot be surgically removed (unresectable) or has spread (metastatic) after being treated with a fluoropyrimidine- or platinum-containing therapy.
“Although the rates of stomach cancer in the United States have decreased over the past 40 years, patients require new treatment options, particularly when they no longer respond to other therapies,” said Richard Pazdur, M.D., director of the Office of Hematology and Oncology Products in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “Cyramza is new treatment option that has demonstrated an ability to extend patients’ lives and slow tumor growth.”
Cyramza’s safety and effectiveness were evaluated in a clinical trial of 355 participants with unresectable or metastatic stomach or gastroesophageal junction cancer. Two-thirds of trial participants received Cyramza while the remaining participants received a placebo. The trial was designed to measure the length of time participants lived before death (overall survival).
Results showed participants treated with Cyramza experienced a median overall survival of 5.2 months compared to 3.8 months in participants receiving placebo. Additionally, participants who took Cyramza experienced a delay in tumor growth (progression-free survival) compared to participants who were given placebo. Results from a second clinical trial that evaluated the efficacy of Cyramza plus paclitaxel (another cancer drug) versus paclitaxel alone also showed an improvement in overall survival.
Common side effects experienced by Cyramza-treated participants during clinical testing include diarrhea and high blood pressure.
The FDA reviewed Cyramza under its priority review program, which provides an expedited review for drugs that have the potential, at the time the application was submitted, to be a significant improvement in safety or effectiveness in the treatment of a serious condition. Cyramza was also granted orphan product designation because it is intended to treat a rare disease or condition.
Cyramza is marketed by Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly.
For more information:
FDA: Office of Hematology and Oncology Products
FDA: Approved Drugs: Questions and Answers
FDA: Drug Innovation
NCI: Stomach Cancer
The FDA, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, protects the public health by assuring the safety, effectiveness, and security of human and veterinary drugs, vaccines and other biological products for human use, and medical devices. The agency also is responsible for the safety and security of our nation’s food supply, cosmetics, dietary supplements, products that give off electronic radiation, and for regulating tobacco products.
Saturday, April 12, 2014
HHS SAYS U.S. POPULATION GETTING HEALTHIER
FROM: DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
HHS announces progress in disease prevention and health promotion
The nation’s health is improving in more than half of the critical measures that are known to have major influence in reducing preventable disease and death, according to a new report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Healthy People 2020 represents the nation’s current 10-year goals and objectives for health promotion and disease prevention. Twenty-six specific measures—in categories such as access to care, maternal and child health, tobacco use, nutrition and physical activity—were identified as high-priority health issues. These Leading Health Indicators (LHI), if addressed appropriately, have the potential to significantly reduce major influences or threats on the public’s health that cause illness and death.
“The Leading Health Indicators are intended to motivate action to improve the health of the whole population. Today’s LHI Progress Report shows that we are doing just that,” says Dr. Howard Koh, Assistant Secretary for Health. Koh also notes that with the full implementation of the Affordable Care Act, we can expect to see more improvements across these indicators.
There are 14 health indicators that have either been met or are improving in this first third of the decade, including:
Fewer adults smoking cigarettes;
Fewer children exposed to secondhand smoke;
More adults meeting physical activity targets; and
Fewer adolescents using alcohol or illicit drugs.
While progress has been made across several indicators, the LHI Progress Report highlights areas where further work is needed to improve the health of all Americans. There are 11 Leading Health Indicators that have not shown significant improvement at this point in the decade, and 1 indicator where only baseline data are available.
Friday, February 21, 2014
CDC SAYS FLU SEASON HARD FOR YOUNGER PEOPLE
FROM: CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION
CDC Reports Flu Hit Younger People Particularly Hard This Season
Vaccination lowered risk of having to go to the doctor by about 60 percent for people of all ages
This influenza season was particularly hard on younger- and middle-age adults, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in today’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. People age 18-64 represented 61 percent of all hospitalizations from influenza—up from the previous three seasons when this age group represented only about 35 percent of all such hospitalizations. Influenza deaths followed the same pattern; more deaths than usual occurred in this younger age group.
A second report in this week’s MMWR showed that influenza vaccination offered substantial protection against the flu this season, reducing a vaccinated person’s risk of having to go to the doctor for flu illness by about 60 percent across all ages.
“Flu hospitalizations and deaths in people younger- and middle-aged adults is a sad and difficult reminder that flu can be serious for anyone, not just the very young and old; and that everyone should be vaccinated,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. “The good news is that this season's vaccine is doing its job, protecting people across all age groups."
U.S. flu surveillance data suggests that flu activity is likely to continue for a number of weeks, especially in places where activity started later in the season. Some states that saw earlier increases in flu activity are now seeing decreases. Other states are still seeing high levels of flu activity or continued increases in activity.
While flu is responsible for serious illness and death every season, the people who are most affected can vary by season and by the predominant influenza virus. The currently circulating H1N1 virus emerged in 2009 to trigger a pandemic, which was notable for high rates of hospitalization and death in younger- and middle-aged people. While H1N1 viruses have continued to circulate since the pandemic, this is the first season since the pandemic they have been predominant in the U.S. Once again, the virus is causing severe illness in younger- and middle-aged people.
Approximately 61 percent of flu hospitalizations so far this season have occurred among persons aged 18-64 years. Last season, when influenza A (H3N2) viruses were the predominant circulating viruses, people 18 to 64 years accounted for only 35 percent of hospitalizations. During the pandemic season of 2009-2010, people 18 to 64 years old accounted for about 56 percent of hospitalizations.
Hospitalization rates have also been affected. While rates are still highest among people 65 and older (50.9 per 100,000), people 50 to 64 years now have the second-highest hospitalization rate (38.7 per 100,000), followed by children 0-4 years old (35.9 per 100,000). During the pandemic, people 50 to 64 years also had the second-highest hospitalization rate. Note that hospitalization rates are cumulative and thus will continue to increase this season.
Influenza deaths this season are following a pattern a similar to the pandemic. People 25 years to 64 years of age have accounted for about 60 percent of flu deaths this season compared with 18 percent, 30 percent, and 47 percent for the three previous seasons, respectively. During 2009-2010, people 25 years to 64 years accounted for an estimated 63 percent of deaths.
"Younger people may feel that influenza is not a threat to them, but this season underscores that flu can be a serious disease for anyone," said Dr. Frieden. "It's important that everyone get vaccinated. It's also important to remember that some people who get vaccinated may still get sick, and we need to use our second line of defense against flu: antiviral drugs to treat flu illness. People at high risk of complications should seek treatment if they get a flu-like illness. Their doctors may prescribe antiviral drugs if it looks like they have influenza."
People at high risk for flu complications include pregnant women, people with asthma, diabetes or heart disease, people who are morbidly obese and people older than 65 or children younger than 5 years, but especially those younger than 2 years. A full list of high risk factors and antiviral treatment guidance is available on the CDC website. More information about flu vaccine and how well it works also is available.
Flu Vaccine Best Tool Available
In the flu vaccine effectiveness (VE) study, CDC looked at data from 2,319 children and adults enrolled in the U.S. Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness (Flu VE) Network from December 2, 2013 to January 23, 2014. They found that flu vaccine reduced the risk of having to go to the doctor for flu illness by an estimated 61 percent across all ages. The study also looked at VE by age group and found that the vaccine provided similar levels of protection against influenza infection across all ages. VE point estimates against influenza A and B viruses by age group ranged from 52 percent for people 65 and older to 67 percent for children 6 months to 17 years. Protection against the predominant H1N1 virus was even slightly better for older people; VE against H1N1 was estimated to be 56 percent in people 65 and older and 62 percent in people 50 to 64 years of age. All findings were statistically significant.
The interim VE estimates this season are comparable to results from studies during other seasons when the viruses in the vaccine have been well-matched with circulating influenza viruses and are similar to interim estimates from Canada for 2013-14 published recently.
While flu vaccine can vary in how well it works, vaccination offers the best protection currently available against influenza infection. CDC recommends that everyone 6 months and older get an annual flu vaccine.
“We are committed to the development of better flu vaccines, but existing flu vaccines are the best preventive tool available now. This season vaccinated people were substantially better off than people who did not get vaccinated. The season is still ongoing. If you haven’t yet, you should still get vaccinated," said Dr. Frieden.
CDC Reports Flu Hit Younger People Particularly Hard This Season
Vaccination lowered risk of having to go to the doctor by about 60 percent for people of all ages
This influenza season was particularly hard on younger- and middle-age adults, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in today’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. People age 18-64 represented 61 percent of all hospitalizations from influenza—up from the previous three seasons when this age group represented only about 35 percent of all such hospitalizations. Influenza deaths followed the same pattern; more deaths than usual occurred in this younger age group.
A second report in this week’s MMWR showed that influenza vaccination offered substantial protection against the flu this season, reducing a vaccinated person’s risk of having to go to the doctor for flu illness by about 60 percent across all ages.
“Flu hospitalizations and deaths in people younger- and middle-aged adults is a sad and difficult reminder that flu can be serious for anyone, not just the very young and old; and that everyone should be vaccinated,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. “The good news is that this season's vaccine is doing its job, protecting people across all age groups."
U.S. flu surveillance data suggests that flu activity is likely to continue for a number of weeks, especially in places where activity started later in the season. Some states that saw earlier increases in flu activity are now seeing decreases. Other states are still seeing high levels of flu activity or continued increases in activity.
While flu is responsible for serious illness and death every season, the people who are most affected can vary by season and by the predominant influenza virus. The currently circulating H1N1 virus emerged in 2009 to trigger a pandemic, which was notable for high rates of hospitalization and death in younger- and middle-aged people. While H1N1 viruses have continued to circulate since the pandemic, this is the first season since the pandemic they have been predominant in the U.S. Once again, the virus is causing severe illness in younger- and middle-aged people.
Approximately 61 percent of flu hospitalizations so far this season have occurred among persons aged 18-64 years. Last season, when influenza A (H3N2) viruses were the predominant circulating viruses, people 18 to 64 years accounted for only 35 percent of hospitalizations. During the pandemic season of 2009-2010, people 18 to 64 years old accounted for about 56 percent of hospitalizations.
Hospitalization rates have also been affected. While rates are still highest among people 65 and older (50.9 per 100,000), people 50 to 64 years now have the second-highest hospitalization rate (38.7 per 100,000), followed by children 0-4 years old (35.9 per 100,000). During the pandemic, people 50 to 64 years also had the second-highest hospitalization rate. Note that hospitalization rates are cumulative and thus will continue to increase this season.
Influenza deaths this season are following a pattern a similar to the pandemic. People 25 years to 64 years of age have accounted for about 60 percent of flu deaths this season compared with 18 percent, 30 percent, and 47 percent for the three previous seasons, respectively. During 2009-2010, people 25 years to 64 years accounted for an estimated 63 percent of deaths.
"Younger people may feel that influenza is not a threat to them, but this season underscores that flu can be a serious disease for anyone," said Dr. Frieden. "It's important that everyone get vaccinated. It's also important to remember that some people who get vaccinated may still get sick, and we need to use our second line of defense against flu: antiviral drugs to treat flu illness. People at high risk of complications should seek treatment if they get a flu-like illness. Their doctors may prescribe antiviral drugs if it looks like they have influenza."
People at high risk for flu complications include pregnant women, people with asthma, diabetes or heart disease, people who are morbidly obese and people older than 65 or children younger than 5 years, but especially those younger than 2 years. A full list of high risk factors and antiviral treatment guidance is available on the CDC website. More information about flu vaccine and how well it works also is available.
Flu Vaccine Best Tool Available
In the flu vaccine effectiveness (VE) study, CDC looked at data from 2,319 children and adults enrolled in the U.S. Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness (Flu VE) Network from December 2, 2013 to January 23, 2014. They found that flu vaccine reduced the risk of having to go to the doctor for flu illness by an estimated 61 percent across all ages. The study also looked at VE by age group and found that the vaccine provided similar levels of protection against influenza infection across all ages. VE point estimates against influenza A and B viruses by age group ranged from 52 percent for people 65 and older to 67 percent for children 6 months to 17 years. Protection against the predominant H1N1 virus was even slightly better for older people; VE against H1N1 was estimated to be 56 percent in people 65 and older and 62 percent in people 50 to 64 years of age. All findings were statistically significant.
The interim VE estimates this season are comparable to results from studies during other seasons when the viruses in the vaccine have been well-matched with circulating influenza viruses and are similar to interim estimates from Canada for 2013-14 published recently.
While flu vaccine can vary in how well it works, vaccination offers the best protection currently available against influenza infection. CDC recommends that everyone 6 months and older get an annual flu vaccine.
“We are committed to the development of better flu vaccines, but existing flu vaccines are the best preventive tool available now. This season vaccinated people were substantially better off than people who did not get vaccinated. The season is still ongoing. If you haven’t yet, you should still get vaccinated," said Dr. Frieden.
Saturday, December 14, 2013
3-D PRINTED REPLACEMENT PARTS FOR THE HUMAN BODY
FROM: NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
3-D printed implants may soon fix complex injuries
Researchers adapt technology for 3-D printing metals, ceramics and other materials to create custom medical implants designed to fix complicated injuries
December 12, 2013
In an age where 3-D printers are becoming a more and more common tool to make custom designed objects, some researchers are using the technology to manufacture replacement parts for the most customized and unique object of all--the human body.
With funding from the National Science Foundation, a husband and wife duo--materials scientist Susmita Bose and materials engineer Amit Bandyopadhyay--are leading a team of researchers at Washington State University to create implants that more closely mimic the properties of human bone, and can be custom-designed for unusual injuries or anatomy.
"In the majority of cases, results are fantastic with off-the-shelf implants," Bandyopadhyay says. "However, physicians come across many patients in which the anatomy or injury is so unique they can't take a part off the shelf. In these unique situations, the surgeon becomes a carpenter."
Using a technology called Laser Engineered Net Shaping (LENS®), these new implants integrate into the body more effectively, encouraging bone regrowth that ultimately results in a stronger, longer lasting implant.
Parts on demand
In the LENS® process, tiny particles are blown into the path of a laser and melted. The material cools and hardens as soon as it is out of the laser beam, and custom parts can be quickly built up layer by layer. The process is so precise that parts can be used straight off the printer without the polishing or finishing needed in traditional manufacturing.
Implant manufacturers using this strategy could simply start with a CT scan or MRI and use that to make a 3-D model of the injury. A consultation with a physician would determine where the problem was and how to repair it.
According to Bandyopadhyay, "the most exciting part is it doesn't take months. Within a few hours the first iteration of a design can be done. It then takes another five to six hours to manufacture it. As long as the physician is connected to the Internet, within three days he or she can have a custom, patient-specific implant in hand."
There is a real need for these sorts of solutions for people with complex injuries, such as victims of traffic accidents or natural disasters.
Making the best even better
Not every implant needs to be custom manufactured. In most cases, surgeons can choose a standard-size implant based on the anatomy of the patient.
The standard materials for weight-bearing implants--titanium or stainless steel--are well-tolerated by the human body. Nevertheless, these metals have different properties from the bone they replace. Although bone seems stiff and solid, it in fact has some "spring" and millions of microscopic pores.
Because a metal implant is much stiffer, the surrounding bone doesn't have to support as much weight as it normally would. This is a significant problem with today's implants. Bones weaken and break down when they aren't properly exercised.
LENS® can be used to make parts out of many different materials, including metals and ceramics. Unlike many traditional manufacturing processes, LENS® allows different kinds of materials to be easily combined into a single part. The heating and cooling processes are so fast that the component materials don't react with one another to create unexpected materials or properties.
"Once we built confidence that the properties of LENS®-manufactured implants were the same as standard implants, we then focused on materials that were difficult to manufacture, like tantalum. We can make a tantalum implant or coating in less than 15 minutes, even though its melting temperature is over 3000 degrees Celsius," Bandyopadhyay says.
Tantalum is non-irritating and can directly bond to hard tissue like bone. This gives researchers like Bandyopadhyay greater control over how implants interact with the body.
A metal core can be coated with a thin ceramic layer, for example, so that new bone is more likely to grow and bond with the implant. And because LENS® builds a layer at a time, implants can be manufactured with structures that are difficult to make using traditional techniques. They can have pores in the center but be solid at the edges, or have texture on the surface to help bond with bone or other biological materials.
Porous structures are particularly challenging to make using traditional manufacturing, yet they are potentially critical in making implants that more closely mimic natural bone. The LENS® process allows implants to be manufactured with microscopic holes for bone to grow into and attach. The holes have the added benefit of making the metal part less stiff and more like the bone it replaces, also helping the bone grow.
When bone grows into an implant, it forms a strong bond between the two and makes the bone less likely to degrade. The less the bone degrades, the less chance a replacement might be needed.
Wave of the future
Early in development the greatest challenge was to show that the material produced using the LENS® process showed similar mechanical and physical properties compared to standard implants. Over time, the technology has matured to a level where it is reliable enough to become commercially feasible.
Bandyopadhyay expects that by 2020 custom-designed and manufactured implants will become commonplace.
According to Bandyopadhyay, "Biomedical device companies have invested heavily in this research and are setting up 3-D printing facilities. The FDA approved its first 3-D printed device last year."
-- Katie Feldman, AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow and National Science Foundation, Directorate for Engineering
Investigators
Susmita Bose
Amit Bandyopadhyay
3-D printed implants may soon fix complex injuries
Researchers adapt technology for 3-D printing metals, ceramics and other materials to create custom medical implants designed to fix complicated injuries
December 12, 2013
In an age where 3-D printers are becoming a more and more common tool to make custom designed objects, some researchers are using the technology to manufacture replacement parts for the most customized and unique object of all--the human body.
With funding from the National Science Foundation, a husband and wife duo--materials scientist Susmita Bose and materials engineer Amit Bandyopadhyay--are leading a team of researchers at Washington State University to create implants that more closely mimic the properties of human bone, and can be custom-designed for unusual injuries or anatomy.
"In the majority of cases, results are fantastic with off-the-shelf implants," Bandyopadhyay says. "However, physicians come across many patients in which the anatomy or injury is so unique they can't take a part off the shelf. In these unique situations, the surgeon becomes a carpenter."
Using a technology called Laser Engineered Net Shaping (LENS®), these new implants integrate into the body more effectively, encouraging bone regrowth that ultimately results in a stronger, longer lasting implant.
Parts on demand
In the LENS® process, tiny particles are blown into the path of a laser and melted. The material cools and hardens as soon as it is out of the laser beam, and custom parts can be quickly built up layer by layer. The process is so precise that parts can be used straight off the printer without the polishing or finishing needed in traditional manufacturing.
Implant manufacturers using this strategy could simply start with a CT scan or MRI and use that to make a 3-D model of the injury. A consultation with a physician would determine where the problem was and how to repair it.
According to Bandyopadhyay, "the most exciting part is it doesn't take months. Within a few hours the first iteration of a design can be done. It then takes another five to six hours to manufacture it. As long as the physician is connected to the Internet, within three days he or she can have a custom, patient-specific implant in hand."
There is a real need for these sorts of solutions for people with complex injuries, such as victims of traffic accidents or natural disasters.
Making the best even better
Not every implant needs to be custom manufactured. In most cases, surgeons can choose a standard-size implant based on the anatomy of the patient.
The standard materials for weight-bearing implants--titanium or stainless steel--are well-tolerated by the human body. Nevertheless, these metals have different properties from the bone they replace. Although bone seems stiff and solid, it in fact has some "spring" and millions of microscopic pores.
Because a metal implant is much stiffer, the surrounding bone doesn't have to support as much weight as it normally would. This is a significant problem with today's implants. Bones weaken and break down when they aren't properly exercised.
LENS® can be used to make parts out of many different materials, including metals and ceramics. Unlike many traditional manufacturing processes, LENS® allows different kinds of materials to be easily combined into a single part. The heating and cooling processes are so fast that the component materials don't react with one another to create unexpected materials or properties.
"Once we built confidence that the properties of LENS®-manufactured implants were the same as standard implants, we then focused on materials that were difficult to manufacture, like tantalum. We can make a tantalum implant or coating in less than 15 minutes, even though its melting temperature is over 3000 degrees Celsius," Bandyopadhyay says.
Tantalum is non-irritating and can directly bond to hard tissue like bone. This gives researchers like Bandyopadhyay greater control over how implants interact with the body.
A metal core can be coated with a thin ceramic layer, for example, so that new bone is more likely to grow and bond with the implant. And because LENS® builds a layer at a time, implants can be manufactured with structures that are difficult to make using traditional techniques. They can have pores in the center but be solid at the edges, or have texture on the surface to help bond with bone or other biological materials.
Porous structures are particularly challenging to make using traditional manufacturing, yet they are potentially critical in making implants that more closely mimic natural bone. The LENS® process allows implants to be manufactured with microscopic holes for bone to grow into and attach. The holes have the added benefit of making the metal part less stiff and more like the bone it replaces, also helping the bone grow.
When bone grows into an implant, it forms a strong bond between the two and makes the bone less likely to degrade. The less the bone degrades, the less chance a replacement might be needed.
Wave of the future
Early in development the greatest challenge was to show that the material produced using the LENS® process showed similar mechanical and physical properties compared to standard implants. Over time, the technology has matured to a level where it is reliable enough to become commercially feasible.
Bandyopadhyay expects that by 2020 custom-designed and manufactured implants will become commonplace.
According to Bandyopadhyay, "Biomedical device companies have invested heavily in this research and are setting up 3-D printing facilities. The FDA approved its first 3-D printed device last year."
-- Katie Feldman, AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow and National Science Foundation, Directorate for Engineering
Investigators
Susmita Bose
Amit Bandyopadhyay
Friday, September 27, 2013
HHS ON DIABETES RESEARCH
FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Fruits of the diabetes research
From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.
Like sweets? Fruits are sweet, and a study indicates these sweets can lower the risk of diabetes. At the Harvard School of Public Health, researcher Qi Sun saw signs of this in data from 1984 to 2008 on more than 187,000 people.
He compared people who ate at least two servings a week of certain whole fruits – particularly blueberries, grapes and apples – with people who ate less than one serving a month. The fruit eaters had a 23 percent lower risk of diabetes.
So Sun says:
“We recommend people to increase consumption of whole fruits intake to facilitate prevention of type 2 diabetes.”
The study in the journal BMJ was supported by the National Institutes of Health.
Learn more at healthfinder.gov.
HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.
Fruits of the diabetes research
From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.
Like sweets? Fruits are sweet, and a study indicates these sweets can lower the risk of diabetes. At the Harvard School of Public Health, researcher Qi Sun saw signs of this in data from 1984 to 2008 on more than 187,000 people.
He compared people who ate at least two servings a week of certain whole fruits – particularly blueberries, grapes and apples – with people who ate less than one serving a month. The fruit eaters had a 23 percent lower risk of diabetes.
So Sun says:
“We recommend people to increase consumption of whole fruits intake to facilitate prevention of type 2 diabetes.”
The study in the journal BMJ was supported by the National Institutes of Health.
Learn more at healthfinder.gov.
HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.
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