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PWP News and Resources – February 14, 2009

Senator seeks way around state’s embryonic stem-cell research ban
Capital Journal, South Dakota / Published/Last Modified on Friday, Feb 13, 2009 - 06:05:27 am CST Bob Mercer

PIERRE — The sponsor of legislation that attempts to totally repeal South Dakota’s ban against using human embryos for stem-cell research said Thursday he didn’t intend to leave the practice totally unrestricted. Sen. Ben Nesselhuf, D-Vermillion, said he now wants to rewrite the measure so that research could be conducted using only the 21 existing stem-cell lines that are eligible for federal research aid under President Bush’s 2001 directive. South Dakota’s ban has been in effect since 2000.


Intense light ‘could detect Parkinson’s’
A light as bright as a million-watt bulb could help detect the early stages of Parkinson’s Disease, according to scientists.

Telegraph.co.uk / Last Updated: 2:51PM GMT 14 Feb 2009

A team from Keele University, in Staffordshire, are using a “super-microscope” to spot changes in brain cells before the disease destroys them. Dr Joanna Collingwood, told the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in Chicago, that the technique could allow patients to receive treatment sooner.


Molecules self-assemble to provide new therapeutic treatments
EurekAlert / Public release date: 14-Feb-2009, Northwest University

Researchers in the laboratory of Samuel I. Stupp at Northwestern University have an interesting approach for tackling some major health problems: gather raw materials and then let them self-assemble into structures that can address a multitude of medical needs. At the core of the research are peptide amphiphiles (PA), small synthetic molecules that Stupp first developed seven years ago, which have been essential in his work on regenerative medicine. By tailoring these molecules and combining them with others, the researchers can make a wide variety of structures that may provide new treatments for medical issues including spinal cord injuries, diabetes and Parkinson’s disease.


Problems in the cell’s energy factories power new ideas on disease and aging
ScienceNews / By Laura Beil, February 28th, 2009; Vol.175 #5 (p. 20, February 14, 2009

Today, scientists suspect that millions of people may be suffering from mitochondria gone awry, in more subtle but nonetheless insidious forms. Evidence suggests that malfunctioning mitochondria could explain Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, cancer and other consequences of aging. Given the organelle’s core function in the body, some think mitochondria might even be the biological epicenter of aging itself: If you live long enough, all your cells might experience a kind of energy crisis. “I strongly believe that mitochondrial metabolism is the key to aging,” says Hemachandra Reddy of Oregon Health & Science University in Beaverton.


Parkinson’s Vaccine in the Works
HealthNewsDigest.com / By The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Feb 13, 2009 - 5:23:58 PM

HealthNewsDigest.com) - HOUSTON – Researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston have received a $325,000 award from The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research to develop a vaccine for this progressive neurological disorder that affects about a million Americans. Rowen J. Y. Chang, Ph.D., left, and Chuantao Jiang, M.D., Ph.D., both with the Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases (IMM), a part of the UT Health Science Center at Houston, received one of seven drug development awards funded through a special one-time academic funding track of the foundation’s Therapeutics Development Initiative. The program seeks to leverage academic scientists’ increasingly sophisticated approaches to drug development for Parkinson’s disease.

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