I found this first from Scienceroll. Have a quick look at newly redesigned pubmed website.
Archive for the ‘Research’ Category
New Pubmed (Redesigned)
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009Poll – is swine flu major threat to United kingom
Sunday, August 9th, 2009I have recently started a poll to find web users thoughts about swine flu threat to United Kingdom at medinews website. So far 7 votes are recorded four people saying yes and three saying no. This poll though only has small numbers it shows proportion of awareness among web veiwers. It will be interesting when there are more votes to accurately tell what web users think.
Pubmed on tap for Iphone
Monday, July 20th, 2009
This application for iPhone or iTouch helps you to access Pubmed search for scholarly articles on move. This application is developed by Serhy Duminsky. You can download it from iTunes. You can download lite version with limited functionality here.
More screenshots
pubmed on tap
for more iphone medical software
EFORT country wise abstract presentations
Friday, June 12th, 2009I recently attended EFORT conference at Vienna, Austria. There is something interesting I noted about countrywise abstract submission. Note below the ranking based on submissions.
Total submissions 3478
1. United Kingdom 1169(33.6%)
2. Italy 235(6.8%)
3. Germany 228(6.6%)
4. Greece 191(5.5%)
5. Spain 182(5.2%)
6. Austria 159(4.6%)
7. Turkey 142(4.1%)
8. France 99(2.8%)
9. Switzerland 83(2.4%)
10. Japan 82(2.4%)
………………………….
23. India 23(0.7%)
………………………….
China none
It is interesting to note high proportion of abstracts from UK compared to other European countries in European congress.
Statpages
Tuesday, December 30th, 2008I found this useful website which contain links to various statistical programmes and tutorials.
link to statpates website
Chandrayaan – Moon craft
Thursday, October 23rd, 2008Congratulations to ISRO on successful launch of low cost (80 mill dollars) high quality moon probe in to space. I think this achivement will trigger more interest in young Inidans to be involved in science and technology and be successful. Jai Jawan Jai Kisan Jai Vigyan
Brk enzyme a new drug target for aggressive breast cancer treatment
Wednesday, August 27th, 2008A team of scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has just published research identifying an enzyme called Brk that may serve as a target for future drugs developed to fight ErbB2-positive tumors. ErbB2 is a member of a family of enzymes called receptor tyrosine kinases — cell-surface molecules that goad cells into proliferating when they sense growth cues in the environs of cells that express them. It turns out that the over-production of ErbB2 in breast cancers is due to a gene mutation that results in the accumulation of multiple copies of the erbB2 gene.
Other genes that undergo such “amplification” due the duplication of DNA segments include brk, which is the gene that instructs cells to manufacture the enzyme Brk. This enzyme is absent in healthy cells but is found at high levels in a majority of breast cancers. As some of these cancers also over-express ErbB2, the CSHL team wondered whether the offending genes, erbB2 and brk, are mutated in tandem, or “co-amplified.” This idea in turn raised the possibility that the proteins encoded by these genes are also co-activated and feed into the same proliferation-promoting pathway.
Aside from hurrying along tumor progression, Brk was also found to diminish the effectiveness of ErbB2-inhibiting drugs on tumor growth. Brk-inhibitors might also be useful on their own or as combined with ErbB2 inhibiting drugs. The CSHL scientists speculate that these drugs might fight tumors that never react to or become resistant to ErbB2-inhibitors.
Hyaluronic hydrogels – new alternatives to demineralized bone matrix
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008Hyaluronic hydrogels developed by Carnegie Mellon University researchers may provide a suitable scaffolding to enable bone regeneration. The hydrogels, created by Newell Washburn, Krzysztof Matyjaszewski and Jeffrey Hollinger, have proven to encourage the growth of preosteoblast cells, cells that aid the growth and development of bone.
Currently, physicians are able to treat patients with damaged bone tissue, like those who have bone fractures that fail to heal, using demineralized bone matrix, a biological material obtained from cadavers. Demineralized bone matrix is rich in growth factor proteins which signal bone cells in the area to multiply and form complex bone tissue, while other proteins in the matrix regulate the activity of the growth factors. Demineralized bone matrix is in limited supply, and because it comes from a human donor, there is a risk of transmitting viruses to the recipient.
Members of the Washburn lab have been developing synthetic alternatives to demineralized bone matrix. In the work being presented today, they created a flexible hydrogel using biologically active and degradable hyaluronic acid. Hydrogels, which are considered to be the state-of-the-art in tissue design, are made from polymers that swell in water to form a gel-like material. They interact with growth factors much like demineralized bone matrix does, providing scaffolding for bone cells to proliferate and form new tissue. The researchers found that, in vitro, the hydrogels promoted cell proliferation, differentiation and mineralization of pre-osteoblast cells.
Further research by the group has created a hybrid hydrogel that incorporates a nanogel structure. This new hydrogel promotes the differentiation of cells, much like the hyaluronic acid gel while also releasing nanogels in a controlled and targeted manner. The researchers hope that this structure could be used to partner tissue engineering with gene therapy.
Promise in development of AIDS vaccine – Phase I clinical trial shows encouraging outcome
Saturday, August 16th, 2008The results of the trial of an MVA-based AIDS vaccine candidate (TBC-M4), which was conducted in Chennai, indicated that the vaccine candidate had acceptable levels of safety and was well tolerated.
The proportion of volunteers whose immune systems responded to the vaccine candidate suggests the candidate holds promise. The trial was done using two doses of the candidate vaccine. After three injections, 82 percent of the volunteers who received a low dose and 100 percent of those who received a high dose registered immune responses to the vaccine. The 100 percent response rate is greater than that seen with the majority of AIDS vaccine candidates tested in humans to date. However the strength and diversity of these immune responses were modest. It may be possible to boost the immune response, if this vaccine is used in combination with other candidate AIDS vaccines.
The Phase I clinical trial was initiated in January 2006 at the Tuberculosis Research Center (TRC), an Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) institute in Chennai, and was completed in February 2008. This trial was conducted under the aegis of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Government of India—through the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO)—and the not-for-profit International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI). YRG CARE, based in Chennai, collaborated with TRC to mobilize the community around the Phase I trial.
About the Phase I MVA-based (TBC-M4) AIDS vaccine trial
The trial was a double blind, dose-escalation, randomized, placebo-controlled trial, which was initiated after receiving all necessary regulatory and ethical clearances. The objectives of such a Phase I trial are to evaluate the safety of the vaccine candidate and to gather preliminary results of immune responses induced by the candidate. The total duration of the trial was approximately 24 months. The volunteers recruited for this trial were 32 healthy, HIV-uninfected men and women between 18 and 50 years of age, from all socio-economic strata. Three intra-muscular injections of TBC-M4 or placebo were administered to the volunteers.
Latest Alzheimer’s drug update – Dimebon from Medivation Inc
Thursday, July 31st, 2008Dimebon from Medivation Inc showed some promise in treatment of Alzheimers disease. The results of the research showed that it improves cognition, memory and ADLs (activities of daily life). The effects of the drug seem to last for 18 months as per research.
