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Micrus Endovascular Announces Positive DeltaPaq Microcoil Study Results
Micrus Endovascular Corporation (NASDAQ:MEND) announced that study results presented recently at the 10th Congress of the World Federation of Interventional and Therapeutic Neuroradiology (WFITN) demonstrated that the DeltaPaq™ microcoil"s proprietary design appears to improve the uniformity of coil distribution within a cerebral aneurysm and the degree of microcoil packing in the aneurysm dome and neck, which may reduce the risk of aneurysm recurrence. Bernard R. Bendok, M.D., Assistant Professor of Neurological Surgery and Radiology, Department of Neurological Surgery of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and Matthew Gounis, Ph.D., Director of the New England Center for Stroke Research at the University of Massachusetts, served as principal investigators for the Micrus-sponsored in vitro study.
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2009 Dr. Paul Janssen Award For Biomedical Research Won By Axel Ullrich
Johnson & Johnson has announced that Axel Ullrich, Ph.D., director of the Department of Molecular Biology at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Germany, whose discoveries have led to novel cancer therapies including Herceptin® (trastuzumab) , is the winner of the 2009 Dr. Paul Janssen Award for Biomedical Research. An independent committee of world-renowned scientists selected Dr. Ullrich, who on September 8 will receive a $100,000 prize during a ceremony in Beerse, Belgium.
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Opinion Pieces Discuss Criticisms Of Supreme Court Nominee Sotomayor
Two opinion pieces recently responded to criticisms of Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama"s nominee to the Supreme Court.~ Raina Kelley, Newsweek: The "discussions about whether ... Sotomayor was chosen just because she is a Hispanic woman drive me nuts," Newsweek columnist Kelley writes. She continues, "Yes, the fact that she"s a Latina makes a difference in what she brings to the bench, but let"s not overlook the fact that she"d be qualified for the job even if she were a white man." Citing Sotomayor"s experience as a Second Circuit Court of Appeals judge for more than a decade and her educational qualifications as a graduate of Princeton University and Yale Law School, Kelley writes that "we can assume that she has at least some of the appropriate skills to be a Supreme Court justice." She adds, "But when she sits down for those hearings in front of the cameras and the country, the lingering question will still be, "Did she get into all those great schools just because of her race?"" Kelley writes, "It"s infuriating to me that a woman as competent as Sotomayor will have to prove she deserves her nomination while a white-male colleague with the same resume can skip that step and go straight to his judicial philosophy." According to Kelley, "It is time for our hallowed institutions to look like the country" they serve. She notes that "white males have gotten the jobs over at the Supreme Court 96% of the time," concluding that "the assumption that they"re naturally the best candidate for everything, and we"re doing anyone else a favor if we give them a desirable job, is a bit much" (Kelley, Newsweek, 5/29).~ Kathleen Parker, Washington Post: "Even without the help of all those foot soldiers who blast out late-night memos, any sentient being could have predicted the reaction" last week to the nomination of Sotomayor, syndicated columnist Parker writes. She adds, "Within minutes" of the announcement, "a dozen other e-mails tumbled through the hatch enumerating all the reasons Sotomayor was a terrible pick: affirmative action, identity politics, the Ricci [v. DeStefano] case, double standards, racism, sexism." She continues, "Although her judicial record has raised some legitimate concerns, Sotomayor isn"t so easily characterized as the radical liberal that some on the right have suggested. She has ruled favorably toward abortion protesters and unfavorably toward minority plaintiffs." In reference to Sotomayor"s 2001 comments that her experiences as a Hispanic woman might help her reach a ""better conclusion than a white male who hasn"t lived that life,"" Parker asks, "Could a white man get away with saying something comparable about a Latina? Of course not. After Latinas have run the world for 2,000 years, they won"t be able to say it ever again either." Parker continues, "For now, the hot winds of punditry could use a little chill," concluding, "Calling Sotomayor a sexist and racist, far from being fair, is an irrational rush to judgment unbecoming ladies, gentlemen, scoundrels and scholars" (Parker, Washington Post, 5/31).
Cardiovascular

Airway Spheres Created By Duke Scientists To Study Lung Diseases

Using both animal and human cells, Duke University Medical Center scientists have demonstrated that a single lung cell can become one of two very different types of airway cells, which could lead to a better understanding of lung diseases. From this single "basal" cell, a small, squat stem cell that divides to replenish the lung lining layer, scientists created 3-D hollow spheres that were lined inside with both ciliary and secretory cells. This 3-D model can be used to study dynamic processes underlying lung diseases, including cancer, said Brigid Hogan, Ph.D., chair of the Duke Department of Cell Biology and senior researcher of the study, which was published in PNAS Early Edition. "Now that we have this 3-D model and information about the gene expression "signature" of basal cells, we are in a strong position to see what happens when lung-cell behavior goes awry," Hogan said. "We might, for example, be able to activate an oncogene (a cancer-causing gene) or other factors to see how lung cancer might develop in the airways. Amazingly, almost nothing is known about lung basal cells, which are so important to health and make up nearly a third of the cells in the human airways." Normally, basal stem cells maintain the airways by turning over slowly into new ciliated cells and secretory cells. Ciliated cells resemble waving brooms that sweep along particles and distribute secretions that are needed in the airways, and secretory cells provide the antibacterial and lubricating secretions. These two types of cells are neatly arranged in equal proportions in healthy lung airways. However, when lungs are affected by maladies like cancer, chemical damage, cystic fibrosis or asthma, the balance of these cells can be thrown off. By learning the role these basal cells play in maintaining the airway tissue, the scientists were able to create an entirely new way to study them. "We put a lot of effort into developing this model, so that we and other groups can test the ability of individual airway progenitor cells to divide and differentiate under defined conditions," said lead author Jason Rock, Ph.D., a postdoctoral associate in the Duke Department of Cell Biology. "Now we can change the culture conditions to investigate mechanisms that underlie pathological conditions, including chronic asthma and cancer." The work was a collaboration of cell biologists, Mark Onaitis, M.D., of the Department of Surgery at Duke University Medical Center, and Scott H. Randell, PhD., of the Cystic Fibrosis/Pulmonary Research and Treatment Center at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. The scientists isolated basal cells, set each separately in a gel suspension, and observed the cells growing into a hollow sphere as they divided. Analysis shows that the basal cells remain on the outside of the sphere, while inside the hollow was lined in an equal arrangement of cilial and secretory cells, as in nature. "This basal cell is making daughters, which are polarized and retain their orientation so that they will form a structure with luminal (airway lining) cells on the inside," Hogan said. "Only about 5 percent of the basal cells we isolated and put into gel formed these spheres; perhaps these are the ones that are normally ready to leap into action when they are challenged." After painstakingly sorting individual green fluorescent mouse basal cells from the other lung tissue cells, the scientists studied the genes expressed in these mouse cells using microarray technology. They found more than 600 genes preferentially expressed in the basal cells compared with the other cells. "We found that many of these genes are similar to genes expressed in stem cells in other tissues," Hogan said. "We think these genes are helping these cells to stay "quiet" and keep them from dividing until they get the right signal." The researchers also found that one gene expressed in the basal cells encodes a surface receptor, also found on human lung basal cells. "This meant we were able to use a labeled antibody against this receptor to efficiently extract human lung basal cells to create the human bronchospheres for study," Hogan said. Other authors included Emma Rawlins, Yun Lu, Cheryl P. Clark, and Yan Xue of the Duke Department of Cell Biology. This research is supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Early Career Grant and a Parker B. Francis Fellowship. Mary Jane Gore Duke University Medical Center


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