MRI tracks stem cells in the heart.

Now for the first time, researchers have tracked the stem cells in mice using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) from their bone marrow origin to the injured site. This opens up the possibility of finding some therapeutic treatment to direct these cells after a heart attack.

 

Mesenchymal stem cells, or MSCs, are found in the bone marrow and can differentiate into certain cell types. They have been detected around heart injuries following a myocardial infarction (heart attack), but whether they come to regenerate heart tissue or to promote healing is still under debate.

 

Using a series of MRI scans, Tom Hu and colleagues at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, GA, have tracked MS’s in a sample of mice. The researchers first transplanted into the bone marrow a few hundred thousand MSCs that had been labeled with both iron-oxide (a molecule that essentially shades out the MRI signal) and a special protein that fluoresces when exposed to blue light. The team then operated on all of the mice, inducing a heart attack in one group. Over the following days, MRI scans showed a gradual darkening around the site of injury in the heart attack group, which was presumably due to the arrival of the labeled MSCs. The researchers validated this migration with fluorescent microscopy.

 

The goal now is to devise a way to attach an MRI-sensitive marker to MS’s in humans who have suffered a heart attack. This would allow doctors to more closely study these cells, and perhaps devise treatments that can control their migration.

 

For more information: www.aapm.org

 

Source: American Association of Physicists in Medicine

Vasovist MRI contrast the future continues

 

LEXINGTON, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–July 1, 2008–EPIX Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:EPIX), a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing novel therapeutics through the use of its proprietary and highly efficient in silico drug discovery platform, announced today that the New Drug Application (NDA) for its novel blood pool magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) agent, Vasovist (gadofosveset trisodium) was resubmitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on June 30, 2008.

If approved, Vasovist will be the first contrast agent approved for marketing in the United States for use with MRA, a non-invasive modality for imaging blood vessels. In 2007, there were approximately 1.3 million MRA procedures performed in the United States using contrast agents.

We look forward to continuing to work with the FDA to bring Vasovist to market in the United States, said Michael G. Kauffman, M.D., Ph.D., chief executive officer of EPIX. Throughout the appeal process for Vasovist, we worked closely with the FDA and the resubmission is a culmination of the work done by our team at EPIX. We remain hopeful that we will achieve approval for Vasovist by the end of 2008 and are focused on executing our strategy to monetize our interest in this valuable asset.

About Vasovist(R)

Vasovist is an injectable intravascular contrast agent designed to provide improved imaging of the vascular system through magnetic resonance angiography imaging (MRA). Vasovist has been approved for marketing in 33 countries, including all 27 member states of the European Union, Switzerland, Turkey, Australia and Canada. The marketing rights to Vasovist are held by Bayer Schering Pharma in Europe and by Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals in the United States and Canada. Both companies are part of Bayer AG. Vasovist is currently marketed in Canada and 18 European countries, including Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, all Nordic countries, the United Kingdom and Switzerland.

New MRI contrast agents

Berlin, July 8, 2008 –The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Bayer Schering Pharma’s magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agent Primovist® (gadoxetate disodium) for the detection and characterization of liver lesions in adults with known or suspected focal liver disease. The product will be marketed in the United States under the name EOVIST®; it is currently marketed as Primovist outside the U.S. and as EOB Primovist in Japan. It is the first organ-specific MRI contrast agent to be approved in the U.S. for over a decade. Bayer plans to make EOVIST available to customers in the U.S. in the summer of 2008.

“Primovist not only offers the unique benefit of being able to simultaneously detect, locate and distinguish various types of liver lesions, but also helps to guide and follow-up on treatment decisions, as it enables radiologists to identify even tiny pathological liver lesions,” said Dr. Gunnar Riemann, Member of the Board of Management of Bayer Schering Pharma AG, responsible for the company’s Business Units. “Bayer is now in the unique position of offering Primovist for diagnosing patients with liver cancer and Nexavar for treating hepatocellular carcinoma – the most common form of liver cancer.”

More info here

Contact

• Doreen Schröder
  Telefon: +49 30 468-11399
  Fax: +49 30 468-16710
• E-Mail

Words of wisdom

The hours of folly are measured by the clock; but of wisdom, no clock can measure. – William Blake

Pathway PV™ Atherectomy System

Pathway PV™ Atherectomy System

The Pathway PV™ Atherectomy system is designed to treat the entire spectrum of disease found in the PAD patient. Our system has expandable, rotating scraping blades with aspiration for preemptive removal of both hard and soft plaque. The Pathway PV™ Atherectomy system provides simple set-up and easy operation to maximize effectiveness and minimize procedure time.

Video

The Pathway PV™ Atherectomy System is not yet approved for sale and is subject to FDA 510(k) clearance.

 

Pathway Medical Technologies said Tuesday that it has raised $24.5 million in venture capital from existing investors — money geared to help the firm launch its first commercial product later this year.

The latest cash influx brings the total raised by the Kirkland-based medical-device maker to about $80 million, Chief Executive Tom Clement said. The company’s newly padded war chest should last it until revenue starts coming in from sales of its system for clearing out arterial plaque.

“We shouldn’t need another round of investment in the next year and a half, if that,” Clement said.

Pathway seeks to market a device to treat peripheral-arterial disease by sending a catheter with rotating blades up an artery to bore through accumulated fat and vacuum the debris away.

The device, under review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, is to be used in patients’ legs to improve circulation and prevent amputations. It could be an alternative to surgery and other methods, which include widening blood vessels and costly laser catheters that burn plaque away.

Pathway’s main rival is Fox Hollow, of Redwood City, Calif., which sells the SilverHawk, a catheter to remove plaque from peripheral arteries.

Wow look at that pikachu

Researchers led by Takahisa Furukawa, M.D. & Ph.D. of Japan’s Osaka Bioscience Institute have named a protein that they discovered after the Pikachu character from Nintendo‘s Pokémon game and anime franchise. The “Pikachurin” protein plays a role in the efficient transmission of kinetic vision information from the eyes to the brain, so the researchers named the protein after the Pokémon character known for its fast moves. The researchers expect that the discovery will help advance the treatments for retinitis pigmentosa, a major hereditary cause of blindness.

AUTISM AWARENESS

This application can be found on Facebook. When you get your friends to sign up, you help raise money for Autism, its that easy! Welcome to Facebook’s Autism Awareness Application. Autism is a critical issue that affects millions of families around the world. Help us raise much-needed funds and awareness by adding the Autism Awareness Application to your Facebook profile.How does this Application work? As an Autism Awareness member, you can participate in various online activites to help raise money for Autism research, treatment, and awareness. You can also connect with other people who are interested in Autism related issues. Click here to invite your friends to join our community.

Ways to Help: Download the Autism Awareness bar to help raise money for autism research, treatment, and awareness. Download is quick, easy, and free, and there is absolutely no spyware or adware. Every time you search the web, Yahoo! will donate a few cents to Autism Awareness. Every time you make a purchase online, a % of what you spend will be donated to Autism Awareness. Testimonials:”Autism Solution Center, Inc. (ASC) is thrilled to partner with FreeCause on the Autism Awareness Application. Autism has risen to epidemic proportions and is a national emergency that must be addressed immediately. We are grateful to FreeCause for providing ASC an awareness and fundraising vehicle that has the opportunity to reach millions, and hopefully change millions of lives in the process as well. THANK YOU FREECAUSE!” –Laura Corby, Founder and CEO, Autism Solution Center, Inc.

Quote of the Day

Ethical axioms are found and tested not very differently from the axioms of science. Truth is what stands the test of experience.

Einstein Quote of the Day

Michael Savage doesn’t know Sh*t about Autism

In response to the comments, AFLAC, Budweiser, Cisco, Direct Buy, Home Depot, Sears, Radio Shack announced they would stop advertising on Savage’s show.

 

What Can Be Done

Comments can be sent to WOOD Radio expressing frustration that the station continues to air Michael Savage’s show. Comments can be addressed to:

• Tim Feagan, General Manager – timfeagan@clearchannel.com
• Angela Vuyst, Program Director – avuyst@woodradio.com
• Michael Breimayer, Assistant Program Director – mbreimayer@woodradio.com
• WOOD Radio’s phone number is 616-459-1919

It is worth noting that comments delivered via email or in writing will be logged in the station’s “public file” which is used by the FCC when deciding whether or not to renew the station’s license.

Michael Savage’s show can be contacted at:

• Email: michaelsavage@savage-productions.com
• Phone: 1-800-449-TALK (8255)

This guy is a real piece of work. I mean I am no book of knowledge but he is just a complete ignoramous. Consider his coment he made about children with autism.

“In 99% of the cases, it’s a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out. That’s what autism is. What do you mean they scream and they’re silent?” Savage said last week in remarks that lit up the Internet over the weekend.

“They don’t have a father around to tell them, ‘Don’t act like a moron. You’ll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz.’”

(I’m glad he’s not a brain surgeon)

Holly Robinson Peete and Rodney Peete, whose 10-year-old son Rodney Jr. suffers from autism, are not keeping quiet.

“We find it shocking that the individuals who name-call and pass judgment on families like ours have had zero experience with the disorder,” the couple said in a statement.

He also responded to the criticism on his radio show Monday, saying, ” Do you want to live in a world where one statement that offends somebody could cost you your career? There is no definitive medical diagnosis for autism. None.”

This is the comment that really bothered me the most!! Why? This wind bag has over 8 million listeners every day and even if half of them believe this crap then he is hurting people.

There is so much information available about Autism on the web here are a few places to start

http://www.autism-society.org/site/PageServer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autism

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/autism/detail_autism.htm

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/autism.html

http://www.autismspeaks.org/

http://www.autism.com/index.asp

http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/autism/complete-publication.shtml

http://apps.facebook.com/autismawareness/index.php?skip=1

MRI studies have shown that many major brain structures are implicated in autism. This includes the cerebellum, cerebral cortex, limbic system, corpus callosum, basal ganglia, and brain stem. Other research is focusing on the role of neurotransmitters such as serotonin, dopamine, and epinephrine.

Dr. Piven and colleagues performed MRI scans on 2-year-olds — 25 control toddlers and 51 toddlers with autism — and found that the toddlers with autism had generalized enlargement of gray- and white-matter cerebral volumes, but not cerebellar volumes (Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2005;62:1366-76).

In that same study, they examined retrospective, longitudinal head-circumference data from birth to age 3 years in 113 children with autism and 189 local control children and found that in the children with autism, head circumference appeared normal at birth, but the rate of growth began to increase significantly more than in the control children at around 12 months of age.

In a third type of research, Lonnie Zwaigenbaum, MD, and colleagues at McMaster University, in Hamilton, Ontario, reported that infants with autistic siblings who went on to develop autistic spectrum disorders themselves already had defining behavioral features of autism at 12 months of age (Int J Dev Neurosci. 2005;23:143-52). Source

Mirror-neurons & autismThere has been new research done into the area of these mirror cells and Autism. Ever since autism was identified It has been a struggle to find out what causes it. We know It can be inherited, but the enviroment may also play some part. In people with autism their main signs are lack of eye contact and absence of empathy. They may also have problems understanding metaphors, sometimes taking them literally. Another very unusual behavior is an extreme dislike or complete aversion to certain sounds or noises that sets off bells in their heads

to contact michael savage e-mail him here

 michaelsavage@savage-productions.com

NIH awards $33million to NCRR for state of the art research equipment.

NIH Awards More Than $33 Million to Fund State-of-the-Art Research Equipment E-mail this page

The National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), announced today that it will provide $33.3 million for 20 High-End Instrumentation (HEI) grants to fund the latest generation of advanced research equipment. Awarded to research institutions nationwide, these one-time grants, which support the purchase of sophisticated research equipment costing more than $750,000, offer extraordinary potential to impact a wide variety of biomedical research in many disease areas.

“Innovative biomedical research requires frequent access to the newest and most advanced technology,” said NCRR Director Barbara Alving, M.D. “High-performance equipment provides NIH-funded researchers with new discovery tools enabling a new generation of data and a new dimension of information. Tools such as these play key roles in the study of disease and the fundamental mechanisms of biological function, ultimately leading to new advances and treatments for diseases.”

High-End Instrumentation awards enable the purchase of breakthrough new technologies and one-of-a-kind research tools, opening up new avenues for biomedical research. In this round of awards, NCRR is supporting the purchase of two nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometers, which are designed to view 3-D protein structures and complexes. For example, the University of Wisconsin – Madison will purchase a unique integrated liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry, and NMR system, currently unmatched at any other academic facility in the United States. This system combines three different technologies into a single powerful analytical platform useful in metabolic profiling, biomarker discovery, and studies of natural products and molecular interactions.

In addition, two high-powered electron microscopes, such as the one to Florida State University (FSU), will be supported through these awards. With its award, FSU will purchase a top-of-the-line, robotic electron microscope capable of rapid 3-D imaging of frozen specimens, enabling researchers to see the intricate interactive mechanisms of individual proteins and molecular machines within living cells. Capable of remote operation 24 hours a day, this critical research resource will provide scientists in the Southeast with an important tool to facilitate research in heart disease, hypertension, cancer, and HIV/AIDS.

Also, four more awards will support biomedical imagers that allow for noninvasive imaging at the molecular level. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh, for example, will benefit from the latest hybrid imaging technology — a new system that combines positron emission tomography (PET) with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) into one hybrid system. Immediately benefitting 11 NIH-funded research projects as a shared resource, this new technology offers physicians and radiologists new ways to investigate the progression of certain types of brain cancers and a variety of neurological studies, providing insight into Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. Another award will support the University of Minnesota in its purchase of an MRI and magnetic resonance spectroscopy scanner equipped with an ultra-high magnetic field for in vivo studies of animal models. The first of its kind in the nation, this innovative imaging system will offer improved sensitivity and resolution, providing scientists a critical resource to better understand a variety of brain diseases.

Other HEI awards provide for the purchase of four high-resolution mass spectrometers that allow access to the newest analytical techniques to advance the knowledge of human diseases; two supercomputers that rapidly process vast quantities of data; two cyclotrons for producing new probes for noninvasive imaging at the molecular level; and many other types of specialized equipment.

To qualify for a HEI award, institutions must identify three or more NIH-funded investigators whose research requires the requested instrument. These grants provide a maximum of $2 million each. Institutions are expected to provide an appropriate level of support for associated infrastructure, such as building alterations or renovations, technical personnel, and post-award service contracts for instrument maintenance and operation.

For more details on the 2008 HEI awardees, visit www.ncrr.nih.gov/hei_2008.

More information about the HEI program, including eligibility requirements and application guidelines, is available at: www.ncrr.nih.gov/hei.

NCRR, a part of NIH, provides laboratory scientists and clinical researchers with the resources and training they need to understand, detect, treat and prevent a wide range of diseases. NCRR supports all aspects of translational and clinical research, connecting researchers, patients, and communities across the nation. For more information, visit www.ncrr.nih.gov.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) — The Nation’s Medical Research Agency — includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

Souce