Lexicillin QD

Freelance medical writing, editorial and consulting services

The purpose of this blog is to feature my work in producing medical media for various outlets, including the Web.

Expanding wind farm energy in Oregon

Having just finished Tom Friedman's Hot, Flat, and Crowded, I've been especially interested in the growing field of alternative energy technology.

John is a friend of my who lives in Oregon, and decided to take a trip out to a wind farm under construction in Hay Canyon. This is an international effort, including the involvement of parrent companies based in Spain and India.

This is from a press release describing the project:

Iberdrola Renewables (Portland, Oregon), formally known as PPM Energy, has started construction of the $170 million, 100-megawatt (MW) Hay Canyon windfarm near Wasco, Oregon. Iberdrola Renewables is a subsidiary of Iberdrola S.A. (MCE:IBE) (Bilbao, Spain).

Parts for these wind turbines are being supplied by Suzlon Energy, based in India.

John shot a series of videos that I'm posting on YouTube:

Kripula Center for Yoga Health, Stockbridge, MA

Kripula Center for Yoga Health, Stockbridge, MA
Originally uploaded by BKMD

My sister sent these two photos from her phone, showing the change in weather at this seminar in Massachusetts.

NY York Cancer Consortium Annual Developmental Therapeutics Symposium

This is the agenda for this Friday's New York Cancer Consortium Annual Developmental Therapeutics Symposium:

8:10-8:15 AM  Introductory Remarks

Joseph A. Sparano, MD

The Epigenome as a Therapeutic Target     

Session Chair: Ari Melnick, MD

8:15-8:45 AM   Epigenomics in Disease Pathogenesis

John Greally, MD

8:45 AM - 9:15 AM  Therapeutic Targeting of the Epigenome

Ari Melnick, MD

9:15 AM - 9:45 AM  Clinical Application of Epigenomic Therapy 

Guido Marcucci, MD

9:45 AM- 10:00 AM  Panel Discussion

10:00-10:15 AM  Coffee break

New Therapeutic Targets     

Session Chair: Franco Muggia, MD

 

10:15-10:45 AM   c-Met Inhibitors

Joseph P. Eder, MD

10: 45-11:15 AM   HSP and Aurora Kinase Inhibitors

Kapil Bhalla, MD

11:15 AM – 11:45 AM  Hot Stuff in the CTEP Pipeline

Jamie Zwiebel, MD

11:45 AM-12:00 PM Panel Discussion 

12:00 PM – 1:00 PM   Lunch and Overview of NYCC Portfolio

Clinical Trial Designs     

Session Chair: Joseph A. Sparano, MD

1:00–1:45 PM   Scott Walder Memorial Lecture

   The Phase II Trial: Resource or Relic?

James Doroshow, MD

1:45 - 2:30 PM   Adaptive Trials Designs: Past, Present, and Future

Donald A. Berry, PhD

2:30-2:45 PM    Panel Discussion

2:45-3:00 PM    Coffee break

Highlights of 2008 AACR Meeting     

Session Chair: John Leonard, MD

3:00-3:45 PM    Translational and Novel Therapeutics - Solid Tumors

Eric Rubin, MD

3:45-4:30 PM    Translational and Novel Therapeutics -Hematologic Malignancies

Janice Gabrilove, MD

4:30 – 4:45   Panel Discussion

Meeting Adjournment

Disqus commenting system test

Will it blend?

The most flavorful science

This is what I found on my way to a conference as I walked down 3rd Avenue here in NYC. The Food Emporium at 1175 Third Ave. @ 68th Street had a Valrhona rep there who was providing samples of their Grand Cru chocolate bars.

I bought the Caraibe (Caribbean 66%), Abinao (African 85%), Guanaja (South American 70%) and Araguani (Venezuela 70%). My new favorite is the Abinao.

I became aware of Valrhona when I attended a lecture sponsored by the American Chemical Society last October, and Harold McGhee who wrote On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, suggested I go for this brand.

How cacao becomes chocolate

  Cacao beans 
  Originally uploaded by BKMD

Last October, I attended an event sponsored by the American Chemical Society at the Institute of Culinary Education. The topic was "Chemistry of Chocolate."

Harold McGee, author of On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, lectured on the process of turning a cacao pod into edible chocolate. 

Within the cacao pod are the beans surrounded by a sweet pulp. What happens is that these pods are broken open and thrown into a pit where the beans allowed to sit in the pulp as it naturally ferments.

The first photo shows 4 cacao beans. The two on the left are covered with mold. As the pulp of the cacao seed pod surrounding the beans ferments and produces acids that seep into the beans and change it chemically.

The ones on the right have been dried and are now ready to be processed into chocolate.

The next photo shows a cross section of the beans. After drying (right), you can see that the material in the bean is more homogeneous and compact.

Then, according to the Wikipedia:

After fermentation, the beans are dried, cleaned, and roasted, and the shell is removed to produce cacao nibs. The nibs are then ground and liquified, resulting in pure chocolate in fluid form: chocolate liquor. The liquor can be further processed into two components: cocoa solids and cocoa butter.

Brookhaven scientists use PET scanning to study kinetics of salvia divinorum

At the Brookhaven Nat'l Labs, scientists are using PET scanning on adult baboons to study the increasingly popular recreational drug salvia divinorum. The lead author of the study to be published in the journal NeuroImage, Jacob Hooker, says that "This is probably one of the most potent hallucinogens known."

Videos on YouTube are showing that when this drug is smoked, it produces a hallucinogenic high lasting a few minutes.

From their Web site:

Within 40 seconds of administration, the researchers found a peak concentration of salvinorin A in the brain - nearly 10 times faster than the rate at which cocaine enters the brain. About 16 minutes later, the drug was essentially gone. This pattern parallels the effects described by human users, who experience an almost immediate high that starts fading away within 5 to 10 minutes.

This drug is currently legal in most states, but "[n]umerous states have placed controls on salvia or salvinorin A - the plant's active component - and others, including New York, are considering restrictions."

The article "Pharmacokinetics of the potent hallucinogen, salvinorin A in primates parallels the rapid onset and short duration of effects in humans" is currently in press at the NeuroImage Web site.

The abstract mentions that the psychoactive component of this drug, salvinorum A,  is a "uniquely potent agonist at κ-opioid receptors," and has the potential for therapeutic uses.

Ipilimumab: Bristol-Myers, Medarex cancer drug delayed

Ipilimumab, the fully human antibody that binds to CTLA-4 (cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen 4), is in clinical trials for the treatment of advanced melanoma, but Reuters is reporting:

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co and Medarex Inc  said Friday they will delay seeking approval of their experimental treatment for advanced melanoma after U.S. health regulators requested additional data on the biotechnology drug.

Because of this, an approval application will not be submitted this year.

The epigenome as a therapeutic target

Epigenetics is certainly a hot topic when it comes to discussing the future of cancer therapy using biologics. For those interested, a review article was published in the NEJM last month.

It's one of the topics to be discussed at the upcoming New York Cancer Consortium (NYCC) Third Annual Developmental Therapeutics Symposium to be held May 16th here in NYC.

Basically, epigenetics is the study of variations in gene expression not due to changes in the base sequence of DNA, even though it's effect can be inherited. The most striking example is when you look at identical (monozygotic) twins. Early on in life, the genes expressed by each twin are similar. If they are raised in different environments or have different lifestyle choices e.g., diet and smoking, this expression pattern can change so that eventually one twin might be more susceptible to cancer than the other. So far the markers for this change in expression are DNA methylation and histone modification. (The histones are the protein spools around which DNA is wrapped.) Hypomethylation of DNA in colon cancer has been known since 1983.

 

Last Friday, I attended NYCC's annual review of symposia by the various cancer societies. The presenters reviewed papers studying the DNA hypomethylating agents azacytidine and decitabine which already have FDA-approval for treatment of myelodysplastic syndrome. The histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor vorinostat is being tested for other uses besides cutaneous T-cell lymphoma.

Monday I was at the New York Blood Center where they hosted a conference on umbilical cord blood banking. "Ex Vivo Expansion of Cord Blood Products" was the title of the talk by Ronald Hoffman, MD who is a professor at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Director of Myeloproliferative Disorders Research Consortium. He talked about his efforts in trying to expand the volume of the typical umbilical cord blood unit by prompting these cells to replicate without differentiating into mature cells. Currently, it requires two units to transplant an adult who is being treated for leukemia or other blood disease. This additional unit complicates things since there has to be some matching done against the recipient's immune system.

Hoffman found that he could expand the number of stem cells, as identified by various surface markers, but they didn't work was well in engrafting in the recipient as the the primary cord blood unit. His hypothesis was that somehow the critical genes were being silenced by epigenetic factors. To counteract this, he used chromatin modifiers: a DNA hypomethylating agent and histone deacetylase inhibitor to reverse the possible silencing. He found better results in engraftment with this experimental treatment.

Once I get a chance to read more on his published results or inteview him directly, I'll be able to talk more in detail in a later post.

New York Blood Center: treating hematologic diseases with umbilical cord transplant

I'm just starting to catch up with blogging about the various conferences I've been attending.

Last Friday I attended the annual New York Cancer Consortium review of the recent American Society of Hematology, and San Antonio Breast Cancer, and America Society of Clinical Oncology symposia. (I'll get to that in a future post.)

Yesterday, I was at the New York Blood Center's one-day conference on the current research being performed with umbilical cord blood, which is supplied via their public cord blood bank, the oldest and largest in the US.

The reality is this: last year, there were 4 million births, and in 99% of the cases, the cord blood was discarded as medical waste.

The parents to be do have the option of banking the infant's cord blood with a private bank. This could cost up to $2,000 for the collection procedure, and up to $200 per year for storing the sample. The American Academy of Pediatrics doesn't recommend this unless there is a family member who has a hematological disease and therefore might benefit if the match is close.

The New York Blood Center provides a public blood banking service where the sample is collected, analyzed for immunological markers, and then stored. These units are either used for research or used for transplantation depending if a close match can be made with the recipient.

The limiting factor now is the sample size. The success of a transplant is dependent on the recipient's weight. Right now the average cord blood unit is about 50 mL, or enough to transplant a 50 kg (110 lb patient). If the average adult with leukemia is to be treated, they need to be transplanted with two units of umbilical cord blood cells, which makes matching even that more difficult, and presents other problems.

The push is on to develop a technique where a lab could take a small umbilical cord blood sample and expand it ex vivo. This means finding the right culture techniques to allow the stem cells to reproduce without producing mature cells so that you can produce enough volume to transfuse an adult with a blood disease. The first researchers who can come up with a reliable technique will change the landscape of how these diseases are treated.

As of now, the 8/8 HLA-matched bone marrow transplants remain the gold standard, but with umbilical cord stem cells, there is less stringency with HLA matching, plus it can be done faster. Currently, it takes several months to prepare a bone marrow donor specimen. With cord blood it's just a matter of thawing the sample and then infusing into a patient through a catheter in the chest.

There is also the possibility that cord blood has some anti-leukemic properties, that is NK (natural killer) cells have been shown to attack leukemic cells. There is also lower graft-versus-host disease with cord blood stem cells.