We gasped our way through the liveblog. We brought you news of the specs and the software and everything else. But now it's time to take a deep dive into the Xbox One, Microsoft's next-gen console, and what it might mean for Earth's living rooms. Engadget was given exclusive access to the hallowed labs at the heart of this project and to the engineers who made it happen. We got to play with prototypes of the hardware and to discover firsthand whether Kinect 2.0 really can tell if we're winking. Read on past the break and we promise to spare you no detail.
May 22, 2013 ? Harvard physicists have developed a novel technique that can detect molecular variants in chemical mixtures -- greatly simplifying a process that is one of the most important, though time-consuming, processes in analytical chemistry.
As described in a paper in Nature, post-doctoral researcher David Patterson, Professor of Physics John Doyle and Dr. Melanie Schnell of the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science (CFEL) in Hamburg, Germany developed a system that relies on finely-tuned microwave fields to identify molecular variants apart, and to determine how much variant is in a mixture.
The ability to tell such variants apart, researchers said, is critical because many chemical compounds exist in two forms, each of which is a mirror image of the other. Such molecules are called chiral, from the ancient Greek for hand, and are often described as being either "right-handed" or "left-handed."
Knowing whether a molecule is right- or left-handed, scientists say, is important, because each type of molecule behaves differently in chemical reactions. Much of biology, for example, is predicated on the idea that amino acids are "left-handed," while sugar molecules are "right-handed."
"The 'wrong' sort of a compound can function completely differently in an organism," explains Schnell, who leads an independent Max Planck research group for structure and dynamics of molecules at CFEL. "In the best case it is just ineffective. In the worst case it is toxic."
The challenge, however, is that telling the two variants of a chiral molecule apart is no easy job.
A common way to discern between them is to shine linear polarised light through them. While one variant will turn the plane of polarisation to the left, the other will turn it to the right. The problem with that method, researchers say, is that it produces rather weak effects, and can only be used on liquid samples, and it can be difficult to use on samples that contain a mixture of many different species.
"It's an extremely common situation to have a mixture -- say a blood sample, or something from a complex chemical process -- that contains a left-handed version of some compounds and a right handed version others -- for example, left handed alanine along with right handed citric acid. Optical polarimetery really struggles with such a situation -- if there's more than about 3 compounds, it's pretty hopeless. We hope our technique will provide a tool which can produce a complete analysis of such a mixture."
In contrast, the method developed by Patterson, Doyle and Schnell, by comparison, relies on what is called the electric dipole moment of each molecule, or the way each interacts with an external electric field. As a consequence of their mirror-image construction, molecules rotate in opposite directions when certain microwave fields are applied -- and this results in a signature which tells if the molecules are left or right handed.
To measure the dipole moment of molecules, the team used microwaves.
Researchers fed a gaseous sample into a chamber, then cooled it to -226 degrees Celsius. As the cold gas interacted with a precisely-tuned microwave fieldwhich caused the molecules to spin and give off their own microwave radiation. By monitoring those emissions, researchers are able to tell whether the molecules are right- or left-handed.
The researchers tested their method using the organic compound 1,2-propanediol, and were able to reliably differentiate between the two variants, but also determine the ratio of variants in a mixture by finely-tuning the microwave frequency.
"We can soon measure mixtures of different compounds and determine the enantiomer ratios of each," explains Schnell. In a next step the researchers plan to apply the technique in a broadband spectrometer at CFEL that could then measure the ratios in other mixtures of substances.
In the longer run, the method opens the exciting perspective to develop a technique for separating variants -- a technique that, if successful, could be of great interest to a number of industries, particularly the development of new pharmaceuticals.
NEW YORK (AP) ? NBC went out of the company and out of the country to find a president for its news division, on Monday naming the first woman to hold the top job.
Deborah Turness, former editor of ITV News in Britain, replaces Steve Capus, who resigned earlier this year, and will begin her new job in August.
Turness will take over a news division bruised by the "Today" show losing its long-held dominant position in the morning to ABC's "Good Morning America." NBC's flagship "Nightly News" broadcast still tops the evening news ratings, but anchor Brian Williams recently saw his "Rock Center" newsmagazine abruptly canceled after less than two years on the air.
"It is quite simply the greatest imaginable honor to be named as the next president of NBC News," Turness said.
In NBC's new management structure, she reports to Pat Fili-Krushel, head of the NBC Universal News Group, as do MSNBC President Phil Griffin and CNBC President Mark Hoffman.
Fili-Krushel was not immediately available for comment. She said in a statement that Turness is "very familiar" with NBC News through a partnership the two networks have.
Turness, who is 46, became editor of ITV News in 2004, the first woman and youngest person to hold that job. Often overshadowed by the state-funded BBC, ITV is Britain's largest commercial television network. ITN, which is 40 percent owned by ITV, is Britain's top commercial news producer. Turness joined the company in 1988 as a news producer and worked for four years during the 1990s in the company's Washington bureau.
"Deborah epitomizes everything that is best about ITN, inspiring our newsrooms with her ideas, enthusiasm and energy," said John Hardie, CEO of ITN. As editor of ITV News, Turness was in charge of news coverage and business operations.
The morning will no doubt be her top priority upon joining NBC. The decline of "Today" is a major blow to the company's pride and bottom line. Women dominate the show's viewership and the ham-fisted replacement of anchor Ann Curry with Savannah Guthrie last year tore at the show's popularity. It has not gone unnoticed that men supervised the show during its turnover.
Within the next two years, Turness will likely be responsible for choosing Matt Lauer's successor on "Today" should the long-running anchor decide to leave.
"Nightly News" still has a comfortable lead in evening news ratings over ABC and CBS. But Turness will probably face lingering morale issues related to the cancellation of "Rock Center" after being bounced around the network's prime-time schedule.
___
Associated Press writer Raphael Satter in London contributed to this report.
May 21, 2013 ? Children who have suffered maltreatment are 36% more likely to be obese in adulthood compared to non-maltreated children, according to a new study by King's College London. The authors estimate that the prevention or effective treatment of 7 cases of child maltreatment could avoid 1 case of adult obesity.
The findings come from the combined analysis of data from 190,285 individuals from 41 studies worldwide, published this week in Molecular Psychiatry.
Severe childhood maltreatment (physical, sexual or emotional abuse or neglect) affects approximately 1 in 5 children (under 18) in the UK. In addition to the long-term mental health consequences of maltreatment, there is increasing evidence that child maltreatment may affect physical health.
Dr Andrea Danese, child and adolescent psychiatrist from King's College London's Institute of Psychiatry and lead author of the study says: "We found that being maltreated as a child significantly increased the risk of obesity in adult life. Prevention of child maltreatment remains paramount and our findings highlight the serious long-term health effects of these experiences."
Although experimental studies in animal models have previously suggested that early life stress is associated with an increased risk of obesity, evidence from population studies has been inconsistent. This new study comprehensively assessed the evidence from all existing population studies to explore the potential sources of inconsistency.
In their meta-analysis, the authors were able to rule out specific factors which might explain the link -- they found that childhood maltreatment was associated with adult obesity independently of the measures or definitions used for maltreatment or obesity, childhood or adult socio-economic status, current smoking, alcohol intake, or physical activity. Additionally, childhood maltreatment was not linked to obesity in children and adolescents, making it unlikely that the link was explained by reverse causality (i.e. children are maltreated because they were obese).
However, the analysis showed that when current depression was taken into account, the link between childhood maltreatment and adult obesity was no longer significant, suggesting that depression might help explain why some maltreated individuals become obese.
Previous studies offer possible biological explanations for this link. Maltreated individuals may eat more because of the effects of early life stress on areas of the developing brain linked to inhibition of feeding, or on hormones regulating appetite. Alternatively, maltreated individuals may burn fewer calories because of the effects of early life stress on the immune system leading to fatigue and reduced activity. The authors add that these hypotheses will need to be directly tested in future studies.
Dr Danese adds: "If the association is causal as suggested by animal studies, childhood maltreatment could be seen as a potentially modifiable risk factor for obesity -- a health concern affecting one third of the population and often resistant to interventions.
He concludes: "Additional research is needed to clarify if and how the effects of child maltreatment on obesity could be alleviated through interventions after maltreatment has occurred. Our next step will be to explore the mechanisms behind this link."
Early-life traffic-related air pollution exposure linked to hyperactivityPublic release date: 21-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Keith Herrell Keith.Herrell@uc.edu 513-558-4559 University of Cincinnati Academic Health Center
CINCINNATIEarly-life exposure to traffic-related air pollution was significantly associated with higher hyperactivity scores at age 7, according to new research from the University of Cincinnati (UC) and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.
The research is detailed in a study being published Tuesday, May 21, in Environmental Health Perspectives, a peer-reviewed open access journal published by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, an institute within the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The research was conducted by faculty members from the UC College of Medicine's Department of Environmental Health in collaboration with Cincinnati Children's. Nicholas Newman, DO, director of the Pediatric Environmental Health and Lead Clinic at Cincinnati Children's, was the study's first author.
"There is increasing concern about the potential effects of traffic-related air pollution on the developing brain," Newman says. "This impact is not fully understood due to limited epidemiological studies.
"To our knowledge, this is the largest prospective cohort with the longest follow-up investigating early life exposure to traffic-related air pollution and neurobehavioral outcomes at school age." Scientists believe that early life exposures to a variety of toxic substances are important in the development of problems later in life.
Newman and his colleagues collected data on traffic-related air pollution (TRAP) from the Cincinnati Childhood Allergy and Air Pollution Study (CCAAPS), a long-term epidemiological study examining the effects of traffic particulates on childhood respiratory health and allergy development. Funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, CCAAPS is led by Grace LeMasters, PhD, of the environmental health department. Study participantsnewborns in the Cincinnati metropolitan area from 2001 through 2003were chosen based on family history and their residence being either near or far from a major highway or bus route.
Children were followed from infancy to age 7, when parents completed the Behavioral Assessment System for Children, 2nd Edition (BASC-2), assessing attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and related symptoms including attention problems, aggression, conduct problems and atypical behavior. Of the 762 children initially enrolled in the study, 576 were included in the final analysis at 7 years of age.
Results showed that children who were exposed to the highest third amount of TRAP during the first year of life were more likely to have hyperactivity scores in the "at risk" range when they were 7 years old. The "at risk" range for hyperactivity in children means that they need to be monitored carefully because they are at risk for developing clinically important symptoms.
"Several biological mechanisms could explain the association between hyperactive behaviors and traffic-related air pollution," Newman says, including narrowed blood vessels in the body and toxicity in the brain's frontal cortex.
Newman notes that the higher air pollution exposure was associated with a significant increase in hyperactivity only among those children whose mothers had greater than a high school education. Mothers with higher education may expect higher achievement, he says, affecting the parental report of behavioral concerns.
"The observed association between traffic-related air pollution and hyperactivity may have far-reaching implications for public health," Newman says, noting that studies have shown that approximately 11 percent of the U.S. population lives within 100 meters of a four-lane highway and that 40 percent of children attend school within 400 meters of a major highway.
"Traffic-related air pollution is one of many factors associated with changes in neurodevelopment, but it is one that is potentially preventable."
###
LeMasters, Patrick Ryan, PhD, Linda Levin, PhD, David Bernstein, MD, Gurjit Khurana Hershey, MD, PhD, James Lockey, PhD, Manuel Villareal, MD, Tiina Reponen, PhD, Sergey Grinshpun, PhD, Heidi Sucharew, PhD, and Kim Dietrich, PhD, were co-authors of the study.
Funding was provided by NIEHS and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Early-life traffic-related air pollution exposure linked to hyperactivityPublic release date: 21-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Keith Herrell Keith.Herrell@uc.edu 513-558-4559 University of Cincinnati Academic Health Center
CINCINNATIEarly-life exposure to traffic-related air pollution was significantly associated with higher hyperactivity scores at age 7, according to new research from the University of Cincinnati (UC) and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.
The research is detailed in a study being published Tuesday, May 21, in Environmental Health Perspectives, a peer-reviewed open access journal published by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, an institute within the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The research was conducted by faculty members from the UC College of Medicine's Department of Environmental Health in collaboration with Cincinnati Children's. Nicholas Newman, DO, director of the Pediatric Environmental Health and Lead Clinic at Cincinnati Children's, was the study's first author.
"There is increasing concern about the potential effects of traffic-related air pollution on the developing brain," Newman says. "This impact is not fully understood due to limited epidemiological studies.
"To our knowledge, this is the largest prospective cohort with the longest follow-up investigating early life exposure to traffic-related air pollution and neurobehavioral outcomes at school age." Scientists believe that early life exposures to a variety of toxic substances are important in the development of problems later in life.
Newman and his colleagues collected data on traffic-related air pollution (TRAP) from the Cincinnati Childhood Allergy and Air Pollution Study (CCAAPS), a long-term epidemiological study examining the effects of traffic particulates on childhood respiratory health and allergy development. Funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, CCAAPS is led by Grace LeMasters, PhD, of the environmental health department. Study participantsnewborns in the Cincinnati metropolitan area from 2001 through 2003were chosen based on family history and their residence being either near or far from a major highway or bus route.
Children were followed from infancy to age 7, when parents completed the Behavioral Assessment System for Children, 2nd Edition (BASC-2), assessing attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and related symptoms including attention problems, aggression, conduct problems and atypical behavior. Of the 762 children initially enrolled in the study, 576 were included in the final analysis at 7 years of age.
Results showed that children who were exposed to the highest third amount of TRAP during the first year of life were more likely to have hyperactivity scores in the "at risk" range when they were 7 years old. The "at risk" range for hyperactivity in children means that they need to be monitored carefully because they are at risk for developing clinically important symptoms.
"Several biological mechanisms could explain the association between hyperactive behaviors and traffic-related air pollution," Newman says, including narrowed blood vessels in the body and toxicity in the brain's frontal cortex.
Newman notes that the higher air pollution exposure was associated with a significant increase in hyperactivity only among those children whose mothers had greater than a high school education. Mothers with higher education may expect higher achievement, he says, affecting the parental report of behavioral concerns.
"The observed association between traffic-related air pollution and hyperactivity may have far-reaching implications for public health," Newman says, noting that studies have shown that approximately 11 percent of the U.S. population lives within 100 meters of a four-lane highway and that 40 percent of children attend school within 400 meters of a major highway.
"Traffic-related air pollution is one of many factors associated with changes in neurodevelopment, but it is one that is potentially preventable."
###
LeMasters, Patrick Ryan, PhD, Linda Levin, PhD, David Bernstein, MD, Gurjit Khurana Hershey, MD, PhD, James Lockey, PhD, Manuel Villareal, MD, Tiina Reponen, PhD, Sergey Grinshpun, PhD, Heidi Sucharew, PhD, and Kim Dietrich, PhD, were co-authors of the study.
Funding was provided by NIEHS and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
BEIRUT (AP) ? An international aid organization is appealing for more funds to help Syrian refugees in Lebanon and Jordan, saying warmer weather will increase health risks due to lack of shelter, water and basic sanitation.
Oxfam says it needs $53 million dollars to improve access to water and proper sanitation for Syrian refugees. So far the aid group has received $10.6 million dollars.
The Britain-based group said in a statement Monday that diarrhea and skin infections have already been noted among refugees in Jordan and Lebanon. The two countries host the bulk of 1.5 million Syrians who have fled the civil war at home, seeking shelter in neighboring countries.
Oxfam says it needs the funds quickly as temperatures are expected to soar in the region in the coming weeks.
(Reuters) - A massive storm front swept north through the central United States on Sunday, hammering the region with fist-sized hail, blinding rain and tornadoes, including a half-mile wide twister that struck near Oklahoma City. News reports said at least one person had died.
By 9:30 p.m. Central Standard Time, more than two dozen tornadoes had been spotted in parts of Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas and Illinois, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and local news reports. Hail stones, some as large as baseballs, were reported from Georgia to Minnesota, the NOAA said.
Fox News reported that one person was killed in Shawnee, Oklahoma, east of Oklahoma City.
Police in Shawnee could not immediately be reached to confirm the report.
Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin declared 16 counties of the state disaster areas, according to Jerry Lojka, a spokesman for the state emergency management department.
By late Sunday, power outages were being reported in several Oklahoma counties, according to the Tulsa World newspaper.
Meteorologists had been warning for days that a powerful front was expected to blast through the region, spawning potentially destructive twisters. The extreme weather is expected to continue on Monday, National Weather Service advisories said.
National Weather Service offices across the region issued one urgent warning after another, throughout the afternoon and into the evening.
An extreme weather system stretching from north Texas to Minnesota had been building for hours on Sunday when the day's first tornado touched down near Wichita, Kansas at 3:45 pm Central Standard time, according to a weather service alert.
Just after 6 p.m., the Norman, Oklahoma office posted a Twitter alert on a tornado about to strike Pink, a town on the edge of Oklahoma City.
"Large tornado west of Pink!" the post read. "Take cover RIGHT NOW in Pink! DO NOT WAIT!"
The storm prompted an unusually blunt warning from the central region of the National Weather Service, which covers 14 states.
"You could be killed if not underground or in a tornado shelter," it said. "Complete destruction of neighborhoods, businesses and vehicles will occur. Flying debris will be deadly to people and animals."
Pat Slattery, National Weather Service spokesman for the U.S. Central region, said the advisory was part of a new warning system being tested after a violent tornado that struck Joplin, Missouri on May 22, 2011, killing 158 people and injuring hundreds.
Slattery said the new advisory was reserved for severe tornadoes with the potential to form into "supercell" storms, which produce powerful winds and flash flooding. Supercells are considered to be the most dangerous of four categories of storms because of the extreme weather they generate.
A recent National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration assessment of the Joplin storm found that "when people heard the first tornado warning, they did not immediately seek shelter. They looked for a secondary source to confirm the tornado," Slattery said. "That got some people killed."
(Reporting by Chris Francescani and Ian Simpson; Editing by Theodore d'Afflisio, Richard Chang and David Brunnstrom)
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Ray Manzarek, a founding member and keyboardist of 1960s rock group The Doors, died on Monday at age 74 , the group's manager said.
Manzarek died in Rosenheim, Germany, following a battle with bile duct cancer, the band said in a statement.
(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Cynthia Johnston)
AGA Research Foundation Research Scholar Awards advance the work of promising gastroenterologistsPublic release date: 19-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Rachel Steigerwald newsroom@gastro.org 301-272-1603 American Gastroenterological Association
Bethesda, MD (May 19, 2013) The American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Research Foundation is pleased to announce its 2013 research scholars. This year's honorees are outstanding young gastroenterologists working toward independent careers in gastroenterology, hepatology or related areas, and with this award, their research time will be protected.
"These young researchers are the future of our field. AGA is committed to supporting young scholars who are paving the way for promising research developments and new therapies," said Nicholas F. LaRusso, MD, AGAF, chair of the AGA Research Foundation. "This year's honorees have embarked on their extraordinary research careers and demonstrate exceptional promise, and we look forward to seeing what they will accomplish with the help of this funding."
The 2013 AGA research scholars are:
Edaire Cheng, MD, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas; Eosinophilic Esophagitis Fibrogenesis.
Barham Abu Dayyeh, MD, MPH, Mayo Clinic, Rochester; Gastric and Hypothalamic Functions in Human Satiation.
Hamed Khalili, MD, MPH, Massachusetts General Hospital; Oral Contraceptive Use in the Etiopathogenesis of Crohn's Disease.
AGA is also pleased to announce the AGA Institute President's Research Scholar honoree, a new award that will be presented every two years to an applicant of exceptional merit:
Carol M. Aherne, PhD, University of Colorado, Denver; Epithelial Netrin-1 Controls CD4 Th1 T Cell Trafficking to the Inflamed Intestine.
The prestigious Research Scholar Awards provide $90,000 per year for two years (total $180,000) to the honorees to support their research. The goal of the Research Scholar Awards is to guarantee the perpetuation of strong science through the encouragement of young physician investigators and, ultimately, to improve patient care through digestive diseases research.
These extremely competitive awards ensure that bright, young scientists devote their careers to advancing the field of digestive health through research. Awards are based on the qualifications of the candidate, the quality of the candidate's research proposal and the commitment of the candidate's institution to support the required protected time for his or her research and adequate laboratory space.
The Research Scholar Awards program was launched in 1984 to provide crucial early support to investigators who show promise in academic gastroenterological research. The program's premise recognized that resources awarded early on could provide a stable platform from which future research funding would be derived. During and after their time as an AGA research scholar, recipients have made important contributions to the field of gastroenterology, and many former award recipients have gone on to hold distinguished appointments in major medical institutions in the U.S. and Canada.
The 2013 scholars were chosen by the AGA Research Awards Panel, a distinguished national advisory committee chaired by M. Bishr Omary, PhD, MD, professor and chair of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Members of the committee include leading gastroenterologists from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA; Mayo Medical Center, Rochester, MN; Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, NY; Stanford University School of Medicine, CA; University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; among others.
###
About the AGA Research Foundation
The AGA Research Foundation, formerly known as the Foundation for Digestive Health and Nutrition, is the cornerstone of AGA's effort to expand digestive disease research funding. Since 1984, the AGA, through its foundations, has provided more than $40 million in research grants to more than 700 scientists. The AGA Research Foundation serves as a bridge to the future of research in gastroenterology and hepatology by providing critical funding to advance the careers of young researchers between the end of training and the establishment of credentials that earn National Institutes of Health grants. Learn more about the AGA Research Foundation or make a contribution at http://www.gastro.org/foundation.
About the AGA Institute
The American Gastroenterological Association is the trusted voice of the GI community. Founded in 1897, the AGA has grown to include 17,000 members from around the globe who are involved in all aspects of the science, practice and advancement of gastroenterology. The AGA Institute administers the practice, research and educational programs of the organization. http://www.gastro.org.
Follow us on Twitter @AmerGastroAssn. Become an AGA fan on Facebook.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
AGA Research Foundation Research Scholar Awards advance the work of promising gastroenterologistsPublic release date: 19-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Rachel Steigerwald newsroom@gastro.org 301-272-1603 American Gastroenterological Association
Bethesda, MD (May 19, 2013) The American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Research Foundation is pleased to announce its 2013 research scholars. This year's honorees are outstanding young gastroenterologists working toward independent careers in gastroenterology, hepatology or related areas, and with this award, their research time will be protected.
"These young researchers are the future of our field. AGA is committed to supporting young scholars who are paving the way for promising research developments and new therapies," said Nicholas F. LaRusso, MD, AGAF, chair of the AGA Research Foundation. "This year's honorees have embarked on their extraordinary research careers and demonstrate exceptional promise, and we look forward to seeing what they will accomplish with the help of this funding."
The 2013 AGA research scholars are:
Edaire Cheng, MD, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas; Eosinophilic Esophagitis Fibrogenesis.
Barham Abu Dayyeh, MD, MPH, Mayo Clinic, Rochester; Gastric and Hypothalamic Functions in Human Satiation.
Hamed Khalili, MD, MPH, Massachusetts General Hospital; Oral Contraceptive Use in the Etiopathogenesis of Crohn's Disease.
AGA is also pleased to announce the AGA Institute President's Research Scholar honoree, a new award that will be presented every two years to an applicant of exceptional merit:
Carol M. Aherne, PhD, University of Colorado, Denver; Epithelial Netrin-1 Controls CD4 Th1 T Cell Trafficking to the Inflamed Intestine.
The prestigious Research Scholar Awards provide $90,000 per year for two years (total $180,000) to the honorees to support their research. The goal of the Research Scholar Awards is to guarantee the perpetuation of strong science through the encouragement of young physician investigators and, ultimately, to improve patient care through digestive diseases research.
These extremely competitive awards ensure that bright, young scientists devote their careers to advancing the field of digestive health through research. Awards are based on the qualifications of the candidate, the quality of the candidate's research proposal and the commitment of the candidate's institution to support the required protected time for his or her research and adequate laboratory space.
The Research Scholar Awards program was launched in 1984 to provide crucial early support to investigators who show promise in academic gastroenterological research. The program's premise recognized that resources awarded early on could provide a stable platform from which future research funding would be derived. During and after their time as an AGA research scholar, recipients have made important contributions to the field of gastroenterology, and many former award recipients have gone on to hold distinguished appointments in major medical institutions in the U.S. and Canada.
The 2013 scholars were chosen by the AGA Research Awards Panel, a distinguished national advisory committee chaired by M. Bishr Omary, PhD, MD, professor and chair of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Members of the committee include leading gastroenterologists from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA; Mayo Medical Center, Rochester, MN; Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, NY; Stanford University School of Medicine, CA; University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; among others.
###
About the AGA Research Foundation
The AGA Research Foundation, formerly known as the Foundation for Digestive Health and Nutrition, is the cornerstone of AGA's effort to expand digestive disease research funding. Since 1984, the AGA, through its foundations, has provided more than $40 million in research grants to more than 700 scientists. The AGA Research Foundation serves as a bridge to the future of research in gastroenterology and hepatology by providing critical funding to advance the careers of young researchers between the end of training and the establishment of credentials that earn National Institutes of Health grants. Learn more about the AGA Research Foundation or make a contribution at http://www.gastro.org/foundation.
About the AGA Institute
The American Gastroenterological Association is the trusted voice of the GI community. Founded in 1897, the AGA has grown to include 17,000 members from around the globe who are involved in all aspects of the science, practice and advancement of gastroenterology. The AGA Institute administers the practice, research and educational programs of the organization. http://www.gastro.org.
Follow us on Twitter @AmerGastroAssn. Become an AGA fan on Facebook.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
This article originally appeared on Martha Stewart Weddings.
Once you attach "black tie" to your Big Day, it changes things a bit. Suits get fancier. Dresses get dressier. But a formal affair is no reason to spin stuffy music, so we've picked 10 tunes that go along with a black tie evening, from cocktail hour to the last dance.
1. "I Get a Kick Out You" - Frank Sinatra No matter your feelings on jazz, you've gotta have Frank playing at some point. This upbeat pick is a little less predictable than "The Way You Look Tonight," but let's be honest, you can't go wrong with anything sung by Old Blue Eyes.
2. "Your Easy Lovin' Ain't Pleasin' Nothing" - Mayer Hawthorne The feel-good horns and lively melody on this throwback make it a no-brainer soundtrack to cake-cutting.
3. "L-O-V-E" - Natalie Cole Sure, you may have sung this one in grade school as you were learning to spell, but that doesn't mean it won't have toes tapping during cocktail hour.
4. "Suit & Tie (feat Jay-Z)" - Justin Timberlake Sometimes a song choice just writes itself. JT's latest offering is fun, funky, and infectious on the dance floor.
5. "Not Even The King" - Alicia Keys This "we're-rich-in-love" ballad makes a sweet first dance song, and its piano backdrop and simple-and-sweet vocals are begging to be played at a sophisticated soiree.
6. "You're All I Need To Get By" - Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell One of the best duets of all time. Period. The verses start out at a simmer and build into a chorus that'll have your guests happily singing along.
7. "Fever" - Beyonce Peggy Lee made this diddy famous in the '50s, and in this sultry version, Queen Bey coos along to its signature snaps.
8. "They Can't Take That Away From Me" - Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald It's impossible to ignore Ella in this category, and on this track, she and Louis Armstrong list off reasons for loving each other. Awww...
9. "It's Only A Paper Moon" - Nat King Cole This jazz standard is a cocktail hour must that -- warning! -- might prematurely start a dance session before the floor opens officially.
10. "Fancy" - Drake, T.I., Swizz Beatz Save this hip-hop anthem for later in the evening -- once grandma has turned in for the night -- because, really, who among us, after a few glasses of bubbly at a formal event, can resist a chorus that cheekily asks, "You fancy, huh?"
More from Martha Stewart Weddings:
How to Pose for Wedding Photos
Dos and Don'ts of Wedding Registries
Real Weddings We Can't Stop Gushing Over
The Most Unique (and Beautiful) Cakes Ever
Click through the slideshow below for great first dance songs.
All I Want Is You -- U2
A Sunday Kind Of Love -- Etta James
Birds of a Feather -- The Civil Wars
Can't Help Falling In Love -- Ingrid Michaelson
Got To Get You Into My Life -- The Beatles
Halo -- Beyonce
Halo -- The Cure
Harvest Moon -- Neil Young
I Love How You Love Me -- Camera Obsucra
If I Were A Carpenter -- Johnny Cash & June Carter
Daydreaming -- Breathe Owl Breathe
I'm So Glad -- Royal Wood
Into The Mystic -- Van Morrison
Islands In The Sun -- Feist and The Constantines
I Will Wait -- Mumford & Sons
L-O-V-E -- Michael Buble
My Love For You Is Real -- Ryan Adams
No One's Gonna Love You -- Band of Horses
Offering -- The Avett Brothers
Slow Show -- The National
Storybook Love (From "The Princess Bride") -- Willy DeVille
Sweet Disposition -- The Temper Trap
That's How Strong My Love Is -- Otis Redding
The Beat Stuff -- Hannah Georgas
The Luckiest -- Ben Folds Five
Tupelo Honey -- Van Morrison
Two For The Road -- Bruce Springsteen
Wild Horses -- The Rolling Stones
You Are The Best Thing -- Ray LaMontagne
Your Rocky Spine -- Great Lake Swimmers
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(Reuters) - Federal investigators on Saturday searched for the cause of a rush-hour train crash in Connecticut that injured dozens of people commuting home from New York City, three of them critically.
More than 60 people were hospitalized Friday night after an eastbound commuter train derailed and collided with a westbound passenger train near the Connecticut suburb of Fairfield.
Eight people remained hospitalized on Saturday, three in critical condition, Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy said.
The collision of the Metro North trains forced Amtrak to shut down service indefinitely between New York and Boston.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators arrived at the scene on Saturday to determine the cause. There had been construction and repair work going on in the area and one question was whether debris was on the track.
"They can't rule anything out," said Malloy, adding that he wanted investigators to complete their work as quickly as possible so the busy commuter rail line could be reopened.
The eastbound train was headed to New Haven, Connecticut, when it collided with the train bound for New York's Grand Central Station.
Metro North is a commuter railroad serving the northern suburbs of New York City. It is operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, a New York State agency. Fairfield is about 50 miles north of New York City.
The rail line serves a major corridor between Boston and New York and thousands of commuters use it every business day.
(Reporting by Karen Brooks and David Bailey; Writing by Greg McCune; Editing by Doina Chiacu)
Many businesses have turned to Internet marketing as their preferred marketing method. You can learn a lot by studying what those other guys are doing via marketing. With the right marketing tactics, in fact, you can become successful in any genre. Keep reading to find out how you can get more out of your Internet marketing with email.
Watch how your brand is discussed online, then use this type of language in your advertising copy. By speaking with them in terms they understand, you can better connect with them. When you use the right vernacular for your brand messaging it can connect better.
Don't delete stuff that hasn't yet worked. What did not work at one time, may well work in the future. People are still learning new things about the Internet so they just might not be ready for what you have to promote. Don't sink extra time and money into ideas that aren't working, but hang onto them in case they become viable down the road.
You can do Internet marketing in several ways; one of the easiest ways is to put ads on the Internet. You can achieve this by using Google's AdSense. For your effort and the reasonable cost, this is one of the best bargains around.
It seems impressive when people see that you have profiles on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and a bunch of other social networking sites, but you need to keep adding information to make your profiles stay fresh. When profiles are not updated regularly, people start to view them as being spam.
To advertise your product, you should create a sort of FAQ. Be truthful in your questions and answers, but portray your business in the best possible light. Just be sure to avoid making it look like an advertisement by going overboard with product suggestions.
Many people are skeptical of information they read in advertising. Like Pavlov's dogs, people have been trained to be suspicious of an advertiser's honesty. Don't mislead people in any way about your services or products on your website. Try using before/after pictures, testimonials and reviews. Don't claim that your product or service does something you're not able to prove. You should be respectful of your customers and provide them with quality content. Always be polite and develop good relations with your customers. You will get a great reputation and gain customers to do business with for a long time.
Know how to code HTML tags. HTML tags serve to indicate how important various content is within your website. Search engine spiders use tags to determine the purpose and relevance of your site. You need to be sure to put extra emphasis on the keywords that are very important to your business.
Use high resolution images to showcase your products on your website. A clear and crisp graphic of your product will be appreciated by your customers. Include a "customer image" section on your website. Before and after shots can be an effective selling tactic.
Try not to give up. When you feel discouraged, remind yourself that success may be just around the corner. Have everything prepared before you start selling. Oftentimes, Internet marketing requires consistent and painstaking work. Keep your focus on your end result and realize that your hard work will pay off.
Are you searching for some way to do online marketing? If your customers have a viable reason to give their email, they will. This in turn will grow your email list. Organize contests and give away free products to keep people interested. It is much easier to get people's email addresses if you offer them a chance at a tempting prize.
Offering visitors to your website something that they can't get elsewhere encourages more visits to your site. Offer quality information such as articles, videos, pictures, podcasts, games and anything else your audience might be interested in. If you have a niche that no one else does, you will have great success.
Direct marketing should not be overlooked as a complement to the marketing system for your Internet site. Contact customers by fax, phone, or email and tell them about your specials and services. A lot of the needed information can be acquired by consulting the actual yellow pages or the phone books available online.
Consider what customers might have in mind when they seek out your site. If you can cater to their expectations for your site, you will notice a sharp upturn in sales and duration of site visits. Also do not be afraid to solicit objective opinions from customers. You might also consider soliciting feedback from friends, family members or online forums. Take notes and try to make the necessary changes to your site and strategy.
The tips in this article outlined some different techniques that may help you with your business. Once you understand these tips, start applying them to your business. This experimentation could point you towards important improvements you can make to your business strategy. What is important is that you continue learning and be fearless about trying new schemes.
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May 16, 2013 ? Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have discovered that DNA "linker" strands coax nano-sized rods to line up in way unlike any other spontaneous arrangement of rod-shaped objects. The arrangement-with the rods forming "rungs" on ladder-like ribbons linked by multiple DNA strands-results from the collective interactions of the flexible DNA tethers and may be unique to the nanoscale.
The research, described in a paper published online in ACS Nano, a journal of the American Chemical Society, could result in the fabrication of new nanostructured materials with desired properties.
"This is a completely new mechanism of self-assembly that does not have direct analogs in the realm of molecular or microscale systems," said Brookhaven physicist Oleg Gang, lead author on the paper, who conducted the bulk of the research at the Lab's Center for Functional Nanomaterials.
Broad classes of rod-like objects, ranging from molecules to viruses, often exhibit typical liquid-crystal-like behavior, where the rods align with a directional dependence, sometimes with the aligned crystals forming two-dimensional planes over a given area. Rod shaped objects with strong directionality and attractive forces between their ends-resulting, for example, from polarized charge distribution-may also sometimes line up end-to-end forming linear one-dimensional chains.
Neither typical arrangement is found in the DNA-tethered nanorods.
"Our discovery shows that a qualitatively new regime emerges for nanoscale objects decorated with flexible molecular tethers of comparable sizes-a one-dimensional ladder-like linear arrangement that appears in the absence of end-to-end affinity among the rods," Gang said.
Alexei Tkachenko, the CFN scientist who developed the theory to explain the exceptional arrangement, elaborated: "Remarkably, the system has all three dimensions to live in, yet it chooses to form the linear, almost one-dimensional ribbons. It can be compared to how extra dimensions that are hypothesized by high-energy physicists become 'hidden,' so that we find ourselves in a 3-D world."
Tkachenko explains how the ladder-like alignment results from a fundamental symmetry breaking:
"Once a nanorod connects to another one side-by-side, it loses the cylindrical symmetry it had when it had free tethers all around. Then, the next nanorod will preferentially bind to another side of the first, where there are still DNA linkers available."
DNA as glue
Using synthetic DNA as a form of molecular glue to guide nanoparticle assembly has been a central approach of Gang's research at the CFN. His previous work has shown that strands of this molecule-better known for carrying the genetic code of living things-can pull nanoparticles together when strands bearing complementary sequences of nucleotide bases (known by the letters A, T, G, and C) are used as tethers, or inhibit binding when unmatched strands are used. Carefully controlling those attractive and inhibitory forces can lead to fine-tuned nanoscale engineering.
In the current study, the scientists used gold nanorods and single strands of DNA to explore arrangements made with complementary tethers attached to adjacent rods. They also examined the effects of using linker strands of varying lengths to serve as the tethering glue.
After mixing the various combinations, they studied the resulting arrangements using ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy at the CFN, and also with small-angle x-ray scattering at Brookhaven's National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS, http://www.bnl.gov/ps/nsls/about-NSLS.asp). They also used techniques to "freeze" the action at various points during assembly and observed those static phases using scanning electron microscopy to get a better understanding of how the process progressed over time.
The various analysis methods confirmed the side-by-side arrangement of the nanorods arrayed like rungs on a ladder-like ribbon during the early stages of assembly, followed later by stacking of the ribbons and finally larger-scale three-dimensional aggregation due to the formation of DNA bridges between the ribbons.
This staged assembly process, called hierarchical, is reminiscent of self-assembly in many biological systems (for example, the linking of amino acids into chains followed by the subsequent folding of these chains to form functional proteins).
The stepwise nature of the assembly suggested to the team that the process could be stopped at the intermediate stages. Using "blocker" strands of DNA to bind up the remaining free tethers on the linear ribbon-like structures, they demonstrated their ability to prevent the later-stage interactions that form aggregate structures.
"Stopping the assembly process at the ladder-like ribbon stage could potentially be applied for the fabrication of linear structures with engineered properties," Gang said. "For example by controlling plasmonic or fluorescent properties-the materials' responses to light-we might be able to make nanoscale light concentrators or light guides, and be able to switch them on demand."
Additional authors on this study include: Stephanie Vial of CFN and the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory in Braga, Portugal, and Dmytro Nykypanchuk, and Kevin Yager, all of CFN.
This research was funded by the DOE Office of Science (BES), which also provides operations support for the CFN and NSLS at Brookhaven Lab.
CANNES, France (AP) ? Emma Watson is reveling in her post-"Potter" freedom at the Cannes Film Festival, relishing a Valley Girl role far from her wise-beyond-her-years Hermione.
The 23-year-old "Harry Potter" actress stars in Sofia Coppola's "The Bling Ring," which premiered Thursday at the French Riviera festival. The British actress plays a celebrity-obsessed, thickly accented Los Angeles teenager who, with a group of friends, burgles Hollywood stars such as Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan.
At Cannes, Watson told reporters that while she remains proud of her work on the "Potter" films, they now feel long ago.
"I'm not trying to run away from it," she said. "I've just had an amazing three or four years. I'm really re-enjoying having the chance to transform into new roles and work with new creative people."
"The Bling Ring" is based on a Vanity Fair article about the true story of teenagers who robbed celebrities like Paris Hilton and Orlando Bloom while they were out at premieres and other events. The character Watson plays, Nicki, is modeled on Alexis Neiers, who starred in the reality series "Pretty Wild."
Watson said she watched American TV shows like "The Hills," ''Keeping up With the Kardashians" and "The World According to Paris" to prepare for the role.
"It'd be very easy for Nicki to feel like a parody," Watson said. "Somehow I had to understand and empathize with her and that was really biggest challenge, second to getting the accent down. It's quite a specific dialect."
Since the "Harry Potter" films concluded in 2011 with the second part of "Deathly Hallows," Watson has gravitated to more adult films, including last year's coming-of-age tale "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" and Darren Aronofsky's Biblical epic "Noah," which recently finished shooting. She also makes a cameo as herself in this summer's "This is the End," an apocalyptic comedy.
"For Emma, it was, I think, really interesting to see an actress that you've seen in other things really transform into a completely difficult character," Coppola said.
Young actors often treat Cannes as a coming-out-party, a place to introduce themselves on a more artistically-minded stage. Watson shined with enthusiasm for her experience with the improvisation-friendly Coppola.
"I could work in a way that was a lot more loose than I was used to," said Watson. "I'm used to really having to stick to my lines because a lot of people know them by heart."
___
Follow AP Entertainment Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jake_coyle
Earlier this week we reported on how Backupify was closing down TweetBackup, a free service to back up your Twitter account that it acquired in 2010; now we have confirmed that, as we'd heard, this is part of a bigger plan at the company to phase out consumer services altogether, as Backupify focuses its efforts on paid services for enterprise customers. From today, it will stop accepting new sign-ups for its free tier of back-up services for personal files. It is also discontinuing by the end of this year support for certain sites, including Facebook personal profiles, Blogger, Picassa and Flickr.
Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office via AFP - Getty Images
Akein Scott, the first suspect arrested by New Orleans police in a shooting at a parade Sunday.
By Erin McClam, Staff Writer, NBC News
New Orleans police said Thursday that they had arrested a second suspect in a shooting rampage that left 19 people injured at a Mother?s Day parade.
Police identified the suspect as Shawn Scott, 24. His brother, Akein, was arrested late Wednesday and ordered held Thursday on $10 million bond. Each faces 20 counts of attempted murder, police said.
Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas said four other people were arrested and charged with harboring the brothers.
The wounded at the parade included two 10-year-old children, a boy and a girl. Surveillance footage captured a man stepping into the street, opening fire on the crowd and running away.
On Monday, Serpas named Akein Scott as a suspect, flashed a photo of him and warned: ?We know more about you than you think.? He said Scott had previous arrests on gun and drug charges and was free on $15,000 bail.
The victims were marching in what is known as a second line parade, common in New Orleans: A brass band plays while marching in the streets, while a ?second line? of people follows the band, celebrating.
The parade was two blocks long and included about 400 people. The crime scene was a mile and a half from the heart of the French Quarter and near the Treme neighborhood, the centerpiece for the HBO series of the same name.
This story was originally published on Thu May 16, 2013 11:58 AM EDT
First prospective trial shows molecular profiling timely for tailoring therapyPublic release date: 15-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Karen Mallet km463@georgetown.edu Georgetown University Medical Center
Patients were willing to undergo additional cancer biopsy to seek out best treatment for their tumor type
WASHINGTON A clinical trial has shown that patients, and their physicians, are eager to jump into next-era cancer care analysis of an individual's tumor to find and target genetic mutations that drive the cancer. Results of the study, CUSTOM, are being presented at the 2013 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology years before investigators thought they would be ready.
CUSTOM is the first completed prospective clinical trial that used genetic analysis alone to assign cancer treatment for patients with one of three different cancers.
"We expected it would take five years to enroll 600 patients into CUSTOM. But in less than two years, 668 patients were recruited," says the study's lead investigator, Giuseppe Giaccone, MD, PhD, associate director for clinical research at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center.
"This was a surprise to all of us, especially since patients with advanced cancer who already had biopsies needed to undergo an additional biopsy for the study. But we found patients and their doctors are quite interested in this type of personalized medicine. They know that the molecular profile of the tumor is important," says Giaconne, who is also director of clinical research for the MedStar Georgetown Cancer Network, a regional oncology affiliation between MedStar Health and Georgetown Lombardi.
CUSTOM has proved to be a model for more efficient clinical trials, he adds. It showed that patients want to participate in this kind of research, and that it is feasible to do extensive genetic testing on a tumor biopsy in a timely manner in this case, taking only two weeks to complete. It also demonstrated that it is safe to take new biopsy from patients with advanced cancer to provide the tissue needed for the analysis.
One of the other endpoints of the study, however, was not achieved. Researchers discovered that, in many cases, they did not have enough patients with rare cancer mutations to provide an accurate statistical analysis of response to novel drugs, says Giaccone.
Giaccone led the clinical trial while at the National Cancer Institute where he was the Chief of the Medical Oncology Branch, before he joined Georgetown in January. Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University also participated.
CUSTOM enrolled patients diagnosed with advanced stage non-small cell lung cancer, small cell lung cancer or thymic cancer. Researchers used next-generation sequencing, which was novel at the time, to look at almost 200 genes. From this, patients were assigned to different treatment groups based on genetic mutations or amplification.
Results from the largest group patients with non-small cell lung cancer had either an EGFR or a KRAS mutation, and results showed that those with EGFR mutations had a very high response to the drug erlotinib. "This is nothing new; we essentially confirmed what was already known," Giaccone says. But they also discovered that patients with KRAS mutations did not benefit from the single agent investigational drug selumetinib, which is being studied for use in a number of cancers, including non-small cell lung cancer.
Results for the patients with small cell lung or thymic cancers were inconclusive, primarily because the investigated mutations were rare not enough patients had specific mutations to adequately test response to therapy. "When we started the study, we didn't know how frequently the mutations occurred," Giaccone says. "Now we know that many mutations represent only 1 to 2 percent of patients and to do this right, you need to screen thousands of patients. That is only possible with a global study that involves, potentially, hundreds of institutions.
"The CUSTOM trial demonstrates both the feasibility of the approach for common mutations that it is possible to have a real-time genetic analysis that guides treatment as well as the difficulty of studying treatment for rare mutations," he says.
###
The Intramural Program of the National Cancer Institute funded the study. Giaccone reports having no personal financial interests related to the study.
About Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center
Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of Georgetown University Medical Center and MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, seeks to improve the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of cancer through innovative basic and clinical research, patient care, community education and outreach, and the training of cancer specialists of the future. Georgetown Lombardi is one of only 41 comprehensive cancer centers in the nation, as designated by the National Cancer Institute (grant #P30 CA051008), and the only one in the Washington, DC area. For more information, go to http://lombardi.georgetown.edu.
About Georgetown University Medical Center
Georgetown University Medical Center is an internationally recognized academic medical center with a three-part mission of research, teaching and patient care (through MedStar Health). GUMC's mission is carried out with a strong emphasis on public service and a dedication to the Catholic, Jesuit principle of cura personalis -- or "care of the whole person." The Medical Center includes the School of Medicine and the School of Nursing & Health Studies, both nationally ranked; Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, designated as a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute; and the Biomedical Graduate Research Organization (BGRO), which accounts for the majority of externally funded research at GUMC including a Clinical Translation and Science Award from the National Institutes of Health.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
First prospective trial shows molecular profiling timely for tailoring therapyPublic release date: 15-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Karen Mallet km463@georgetown.edu Georgetown University Medical Center
Patients were willing to undergo additional cancer biopsy to seek out best treatment for their tumor type
WASHINGTON A clinical trial has shown that patients, and their physicians, are eager to jump into next-era cancer care analysis of an individual's tumor to find and target genetic mutations that drive the cancer. Results of the study, CUSTOM, are being presented at the 2013 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology years before investigators thought they would be ready.
CUSTOM is the first completed prospective clinical trial that used genetic analysis alone to assign cancer treatment for patients with one of three different cancers.
"We expected it would take five years to enroll 600 patients into CUSTOM. But in less than two years, 668 patients were recruited," says the study's lead investigator, Giuseppe Giaccone, MD, PhD, associate director for clinical research at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center.
"This was a surprise to all of us, especially since patients with advanced cancer who already had biopsies needed to undergo an additional biopsy for the study. But we found patients and their doctors are quite interested in this type of personalized medicine. They know that the molecular profile of the tumor is important," says Giaconne, who is also director of clinical research for the MedStar Georgetown Cancer Network, a regional oncology affiliation between MedStar Health and Georgetown Lombardi.
CUSTOM has proved to be a model for more efficient clinical trials, he adds. It showed that patients want to participate in this kind of research, and that it is feasible to do extensive genetic testing on a tumor biopsy in a timely manner in this case, taking only two weeks to complete. It also demonstrated that it is safe to take new biopsy from patients with advanced cancer to provide the tissue needed for the analysis.
One of the other endpoints of the study, however, was not achieved. Researchers discovered that, in many cases, they did not have enough patients with rare cancer mutations to provide an accurate statistical analysis of response to novel drugs, says Giaccone.
Giaccone led the clinical trial while at the National Cancer Institute where he was the Chief of the Medical Oncology Branch, before he joined Georgetown in January. Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University also participated.
CUSTOM enrolled patients diagnosed with advanced stage non-small cell lung cancer, small cell lung cancer or thymic cancer. Researchers used next-generation sequencing, which was novel at the time, to look at almost 200 genes. From this, patients were assigned to different treatment groups based on genetic mutations or amplification.
Results from the largest group patients with non-small cell lung cancer had either an EGFR or a KRAS mutation, and results showed that those with EGFR mutations had a very high response to the drug erlotinib. "This is nothing new; we essentially confirmed what was already known," Giaccone says. But they also discovered that patients with KRAS mutations did not benefit from the single agent investigational drug selumetinib, which is being studied for use in a number of cancers, including non-small cell lung cancer.
Results for the patients with small cell lung or thymic cancers were inconclusive, primarily because the investigated mutations were rare not enough patients had specific mutations to adequately test response to therapy. "When we started the study, we didn't know how frequently the mutations occurred," Giaccone says. "Now we know that many mutations represent only 1 to 2 percent of patients and to do this right, you need to screen thousands of patients. That is only possible with a global study that involves, potentially, hundreds of institutions.
"The CUSTOM trial demonstrates both the feasibility of the approach for common mutations that it is possible to have a real-time genetic analysis that guides treatment as well as the difficulty of studying treatment for rare mutations," he says.
###
The Intramural Program of the National Cancer Institute funded the study. Giaccone reports having no personal financial interests related to the study.
About Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center
Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of Georgetown University Medical Center and MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, seeks to improve the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of cancer through innovative basic and clinical research, patient care, community education and outreach, and the training of cancer specialists of the future. Georgetown Lombardi is one of only 41 comprehensive cancer centers in the nation, as designated by the National Cancer Institute (grant #P30 CA051008), and the only one in the Washington, DC area. For more information, go to http://lombardi.georgetown.edu.
About Georgetown University Medical Center
Georgetown University Medical Center is an internationally recognized academic medical center with a three-part mission of research, teaching and patient care (through MedStar Health). GUMC's mission is carried out with a strong emphasis on public service and a dedication to the Catholic, Jesuit principle of cura personalis -- or "care of the whole person." The Medical Center includes the School of Medicine and the School of Nursing & Health Studies, both nationally ranked; Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, designated as a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute; and the Biomedical Graduate Research Organization (BGRO), which accounts for the majority of externally funded research at GUMC including a Clinical Translation and Science Award from the National Institutes of Health.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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Public release date: 21-May-2013
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Earlier this week we reported on how 