Johns Hopkins Medicine announces collaboration with Healthways |  |
- Johns Hopkins Medicine announces collaboration with Healthways
- A 'friend' request from al-Qaida
- Personalized gene therapies may increase survival in brain cancer patients
- KalVista and JDRF form research partnership for novel treatment of diabetic eye disease
| Johns Hopkins Medicine announces collaboration with Healthways Posted: 09 Jan 2012 05:00 AM PST ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Building on the success of recent Hopkins research showing obese participants were able to lose significant weight and keep it off for two years using telephone coaching and a specially designed website, Johns Hopkins Medicine is collaborating with Healthways to help bring the innovative weight-loss program to many more who could benefit from it. Hopkins and Healthways, a global health and well-being improvement company, have developed Innergy TM, a commercially available version of the call center-directed weight-loss program pioneered and studied by Lawrence J. Appel, M.D., a professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The results of the study were published in November in the New England Journal of Medicine. Under the agreement between Hopkins and Healthways, Hopkins will advise Healthways on the design and implementation of Innergy, continuously evaluate the program, and oversee future enhancements. Several Hopkins faculty members will also serve on Innergy's scientific advisory board. Healthways will be responsible for the sale and delivery of Innergy to physicians and health systems, employers, health plans and governments. Healthways is a provider of specialized programs to help people maintain or improve their health and well-being and, as a result, reduce overall health care costs. This collaboration with Healthways reflects our commitment to providing health solutions to the marketplace that are solidly based on the best science, says Patricia M.C. Brown, president of Johns Hopkins HealthCare, the managed care and population health arm of Johns Hopkins Medicine. Through our participation, we will be advancing the objectives of Johns Hopkins Medicine to foster intellectual discovery, develop innovative care delivery models and improve human health. Obesity is an important and growing public health problem in the United States, where one in three adults is obese and thus at increased risk... http://www.rxpgnews.com    |
| A 'friend' request from al-Qaida Posted: 09 Jan 2012 05:00 AM PST ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Hackers invading databases is just the tip of the iceberg in online terrorist activity: International terrorist organizations have shifted their Internet activity focus to social networks and today a number of Facebook groups are asking users to join and support Hezbollah, Hamas and other armed groups that have been included in the West's list of declared terror organizations. This has been shown in a new study conducted by Prof. Gabriel Weimann of the University of Haifa. Today, about 90% of organized terrorism on the Internet is being carried out through the social media. By using these tools, the organizations are able to be active in recruiting new friends without geographical limitations, says Prof. Weimann. Over the past ten years, Prof. Weimann has been conducting a study of encoded and public Internet sites of international terror organizations, groups supporting these organizations, forums, video clips, and whatever information relating to global terrorism is running through the network. According to Prof. Weimann, the shift to social media, and especially Facebook and Twitter, has not bypassed the terrorist organizations, who are keenly interested in recruiting new support in the new media's various arenas - Facebook, chat rooms, YouTube, Myspace, and more. The social media is enabling the terror organizations to take initiatives by making 'Friend' requests, uploading video clips, and the like, and they no longer have to make do with the passive tools available on regular websites, he notes. Facebook's popularity is being utilized by the terror organizations and besides recruiting new friends, they use this platform as a resource for gathering intelligence. A statement originating from Lebanon has reported that Hezbollah is searching for material on the Israeli army's Facebook activity, while many countries such as the USA, Canada and the UK have instructed their soldiers to remove personal information from this... http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
| Personalized gene therapies may increase survival in brain cancer patients Posted: 09 Jan 2012 05:00 AM PST ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Personalized prognostic tools and gene-based therapies may improve the survival and quality of life of patients suffering from glioblastoma, an aggressive and deadly form of brain cancer, reports a new University of Illinois study funded by the NIH National Cancer Institute. We confirmed known biomarkers of glioblastoma survival and discovered new general and clinical-dependent gene profiles, said Nicola Serao, a U of I Ph.D. candidate in animal sciences with a focus in statistical genomics. We were able to compare biomarkers across three glioblastoma phases that helped us gain insight into the roles of genes associated with cancer survival. Glioblastoma is a complex, multifactorial disease that has swift and devastating consequences, Serao said. Although some genes have been associated with the presence of glioblastoma, few have been identified as prognostic biomarkers of glioblastoma survival and fewer have been confirmed in independent reports. You can't just find one gene that is related to this cancer and fix it, he said. This is one of the aspects of our research that makes it unique. We were able to look at several genes at the same time and relate our findings to this cancer. Using genomic information from more than 22,000 genes, Serao took this huge piece of information and began slicing away at it, one gene at a time, until he ended up with a group of genes related to brain cancer. He studied different survival variables, including length of survival from birth to death, from diagnosis to death, and from diagnosis to progression of the cancer. We studied different variables, but they were complementary, and allowed us to learn more about those genes, he said. We understand that some genes have much more impact in cancer than others. And we also discovered that some genes only appeared in one variable, so they were specific for a given phase of cancer. This study not only evaluated genes influencing survival, but... http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
| KalVista and JDRF form research partnership for novel treatment of diabetic eye disease Posted: 09 Jan 2012 05:00 AM PST ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Southampton, UK and New York, USA 09 January 2012 - KalVista Pharmaceuticals (KalVista) and JDRF have formed a research partnership focused on a novel approach being developed by KalVista to preserve vision and slow the progression of diabetic eye disease. Diabetic eye disease is one of the most common and most serious complications in people with type 1 diabetes (T1D). JDRF will provide up to $2.2 million in milestone-based financial support and research expertise to KalVista. The goal of this partnership is to advance KalVista's lead pre-clinical candidate, a plasma kallikrein inhibitor, into human proof-of-concept clinical trials and to generate clinical data that would highlight its potential as an entirely new approach to treat diabetic macular edema (DME). DME is a leading cause of visual loss for people with T1D that involves swelling of the retina, which can lead to blurred vision and blindness. Plasma kallikrein is an enzyme (a serine protease) that has been identified as a potential therapeutic target in people with diabetic retinopathy. Research has shown that it contributes to increases in blood vessel leakage and thickening of the retina. Previous JDRF-funded studies led by one of KalVista's co-founders, Edward Feener, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Joslin Diabetes Center, demonstrated that plasma kallikrein is increased and activated in the vitreous fluid of people with DME . This data suggests that chronic activation of plasma kallikrein increases blood vessel inflammation and permeability by generating the production of a hormone called bradykinin, which causes blood vessels to dilate or enlarge. Plasma kallikrein inhibitors are believed to reduce retinal vessel leakage by suppressing the chronic and excessive production of bradykinin. Diabetic eye disease is a high priority research area for JDRF. Our support of Dr. Feener's academic research over the years at the Joslin... http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
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