Archive for May 15th, 2012
U.S. sets 2025 goal to tame Alzheimer’s
May 15th, 2012 | 
Author: The U.S. says it will seek an effective treatment for Alzheimer's by 2025, as it faces an aging population and spiraling health costs.
Testing a Drug That May Stop Alzheimer's Before It Starts
A clinical trial of Crenezumab, made by Genentech, will focus largely on people in a large Colombian family who are genetically destined to suffer from the disease but who do not yet have any symptoms.
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Patient groups are increasingly taking research into their own hands
Patient advocacy groups and foundations are becoming more involved with research and drug development, and the trend may become the norm, writes David Shaywitz, an adjunct scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. "The costs and uncertainties of medical product development are becoming so prohibitively high that many drug companies may strategically elect to pursue conditions for which the development path has already been relatively de-risked, and where much of the advance work has been done," he writes…"it's hard to imagine a more powerful, compelling, and impassioned force for good than courageous patients."
Yep, this is what we’re trying to do here in Chicago right now — get one more good clinical trial done & finally get UVA1 approved for lupus by the FDA.
Texas executed the wrong man, probe finds
He was the spitting image of the killer, had the same first name and was near the scene of the crime at the fateful hour: Carlos DeLuna paid the ultimate price and was executed in place of someone else in Texas in 1989, a report out Tuesday found.
Even "all the relatives of both Carloses mistook them," and DeLuna was sentenced to death and executed based only on eyewitness accounts despite a range of signs he was not a guilty man, said law professor James Liebman.
Liebman and five of his students at Columbia School of Law spent almost five years poring over details of a case that he says is "emblematic" of legal system failure.
DeLuna, 27, was put to death after "a very incomplete investigation. No question that the investigation is a failure," Liebman said.
Less Testing in ER for Children With Non-Private Insurance
Children with public insurance or no insurance were less likely to receive diagnostic testing and interventions at emergency departments than those with private insurance, a U.S. study found.
First Gene Therapy Successful Against Aging-Associated Decline: Mouse Lifespan Extended Up to 24% With a Single Treatment
A new study consisting of inducing cells to express telomerase, the enzyme which — metaphorically — slows down the biological clock — was successful. The research provides a "proof-of-principle" that this "feasible and safe" approach can effectively "improve health span."
Vogue’s fashion editors calls for “healthy” body image
Nineteen international editors from fashion magazine Vogue have jointly agreed to a pact where they they will only work with "healthy" models.