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IOM Panel's Comparative Effectiveness Report Includes Pregnancy Prevention Measures
The U.S. should conduct research to compare the effectiveness of innovative programs aimed at preventing unintended pregnancy, according to a report issued Tuesday by a congressionally convened Institute of Medicine panel, the New York Times reports (Meier, New York Times, 7/1). The recommendations state that these strategies should include "over-the-counter access to oral contraceptives or other hormonal methods, expanding access to long-acting methods for young women, [and] providing free contraceptive methods at public clinics, pharmacies or other locations" (List of Priorities, IOM, 6/26). The report lists 100 health topics that should be prioritized as the Obama administration seeks to increase cost-effectiveness in medicine. The federal stimulus package passed earlier this year allotted $1.1 billion for comparative effectiveness research into different ways of treating certain conditions and addressing various health care issues. According to the Times, the report is a first step in an expansive effort by the administration and health experts to direct medical practice toward scientifically proven treatments, rather than a provider"s personal opinion or a medical product company"s promotional claims. Harold Sox, co-chair of the IOM panel that wrote the report and the editor of the Annals of Internal Medicine, said that based on public comments, the panel decided it was important to include pregnancy prevention and other public health issues in its recommendations (Meier, New York Times, 7/1). The report also recommends that researchers compare different comprehensive care coordination programs, such as the medical home model and chronic disease management, especially in communities known to have health disparities (Simmons, HealthLeaders Media, 6/30).
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New Ovarian Transplant Technique Could Expand Use Of Procedure To Preserve Fertility
Two recent advancements in ovarian transplant techniques could potentially expand the availability of the procedure for women seeking to avoid fertility problems as they age, researchers reported Monday at a meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology, the AP/Yahoo! News reports. According to the AP/Yahoo! News, ovary transplants traditionally have been performed on women with cancer as a method of preserving fertility after chemotherapy or other treatments that can affect the reproductive system. The procedure involves removing the ovaries before treatment and re-implanting them after treatment is complete. Because only a handful of these procedures have been successful, ovarian transplants have been an option only for women with serious diseases. However, as more women delay having children until their 30s or 40s, researchers say the new techniques, in theory, could make it simpler for healthy younger women to have an ovary removed, frozen and then re-implanted later in life when they are ready to have children.The first study examined how many eggs were lost or preserved in fresh and frozen ovarian tissue of 15 young women prior to the start of cancer treatment. According to the study, there was no difference in the quantity of eggs in the fresh tissue and in the ovaries frozen using a new ultra-fast technique. The study found that about 50% of a woman"s eggs were lost using the traditional, slow-freezing methods of preserving the ovaries.The second study reported on a new surgical technique to restore an ovary"s function after transplantation. For the study, Pascal Piver of Limoges University Hospital and colleagues divided the transplant process into two separate procedures in an attempt to more quickly re-establish blood and hormone supplies to the ovary. In the first procedure, the researchers performed a graft of small pieces of ovarian tissue to prompt blood vessels to grow. They performed the ovary transplant three days later. The technique was successful in a woman who lost fertility because of treatment for sickle cell anemia.Sherman Silber, director of the St. Louis Infertility Center in Missouri and a researcher for the first study, said the new techniques "could dramatically expand our reproductive life span." He added, "This is not an experimental procedure for cancer patients anymore. The question is whether more women should be able to have this option" (Cheng, AP/Yahoo! News, 6/29).
News of the day
Misdiagnosis Of Disorders Of Consciousness Still Commonplace
A sixteen-month study of consensus-based diagnosis of patients with disorders of consciousness has shown that 41% of cases of minimally conscious state (MCS) were misdiagnosed as vegetative state (VS), a condition associated with a much lower chance of recovery. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Neurology have demonstrated that standardized neurobehavioral assessment is more sensitive than diagnoses determined by clinical consensus.
Diagnostics

Genetically Engineered Bacteria Compute The Route

US researchers have created "bacterial computers" with the potential to solve complicated mathematics problems. The findings of the research, published in BioMed Central"s open access Journal of Biological Engineering, demonstrate that computing in living cells is feasible, opening the door to a number of applications. The second-generation bacterial computers illustrate the feasibility of extending the approach to other computationally challenging math problems. A research team made up of four faculty members and 15 undergraduate students from the biology and mathematics departments at Missouri Western State University in Missouri and Davidson College in North Carolina, USA engineered the DNA of Escherichia coli bacteria, creating bacterial computers capable of solving a classic mathematical problem known as the Hamiltonian Path Problem. The research extends previous work published last year in the same journal to produce bacterial computers that could solve the Burnt Pancake Problem. The Hamiltonian Path Problem asks whether there is a route in a network from a beginning node to an ending node, visiting each node exactly once. The student and faculty researchers modified the genetic circuitry of the bacteria to enable them to find a Hamiltonian path in a three-node graph. Bacteria that successfully solved the problem reported their success by fluorescing both red and green, resulting in yellow colonies. Synthetic biology is the use of molecular biology techniques, engineering principles, and mathematical modeling to design and construct genetic circuits that enable living cells to carry out novel functions. "Our research contributed more than 60 parts to the Registry of Standard Biological Parts, which are available for use by the larger synthetic biology community, including the newly split red fluorescent protein and green fluorescent protein genes," said Jordan Baumgardner, recent graduate of Missouri Western and first author of the research paper. "The research provides yet another example of how powerful and dynamic synthetic biology can be. We used synthetic biology to solve mathematical problems; others find applications in medicine, energy and the environment. Synthetic biology has great potential in the real world." According to Dr. Eckdahl, the corresponding author of the article, synthetic biology affords a new opportunity for multidisciplinary undergraduate research training. "We have found synthetic biology to be an excellent way to engage students in research that connects biology and mathematics. Our students learn firsthand the value of crossing traditional disciplinary lines." Notes: The faculty mentors of the undergraduate research team are Dr. Todd Eckdahl and Dr. Jeff Poet, of Missouri Western State University, and Dr. A. Malcolm Campbell and Dr. Laurie Heyer of Davidson College. Solving a Hamiltonian Path Problem with a bacterial computer Jordan Baumgardner, Karen Acker, Oyinade Adefuye, Samuel THOMAS Crowley, Will DeLoache, James O Dickson, Lane Heard, Andrew T Martens, Nickolaus Morton, Michelle Ritter, Amber Shoecraft, Jessica Treece, Matthew Unzicker, Amanda Valencia, Mike Waters, A. MALCOLM Campbell, Laurie J. Heyer, Jeffrey L. Poet and Todd T. Eckdahl Journal of Biological Engineering (in press) http://www.jbioleng.org/ Charlotte Webber BioMed Central


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