The role of federal programs in the transfer of biomedical technology.
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Artificial Organs↗
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Results for “Technology Transfer”
Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.
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Gene therapy for Parkinson's disease: review and update.
Gene transfer technology is under exploration to find therapies for the treatment of Parkinson's disease (PD) and other neurodegenerative disorders. The technology of genetic transfer can also be used as a neurobiological tool to understand the role of various genes in animal models of neurodegeneration. We describe the general approaches to gene therapy for neurodegeneration, with specific attention to commonly used methodologies. Current gene therapy models for PD are then described in two parts: genetic transfer of the biosynthetic enzymes for dopamine synthesis, and genetic transfer of the genes encoding neurotrophic factors protective for dopaminergic neurones. Future strategies for the genetic treatment of PD, such as the introduction of genes to prevent apoptosis or to detoxify free radical species are also discussed. Limitations of current approaches, such as the length and regulation of transgene expression, as well as strategies to overcome those limitations, are emphasised where possible. Gene therapy remains a promising but as yet theoretical approach to the treatment of PD in humans. However, current results in animal models predict eventual therapeutic applications.
Journal Article↗
The potential role of community-based registries to complement the limited applicability of clinical trial results to the community setting: heart failure as an example.
BACKGROUND: Clinical trials do not represent community settings, making widespread implementation of evidence-based medicine problematic. New heart failure treatments are an example, as results comparable to those of clinical trials have not been observed in the community. Alternatives to clinical trials could provide useful complementary information. OBJECTIVES AND METHODS: To review the clinical trials and community experiences in heart failure management by searching Pubmed with key words "observational studies," "clinical trials," and "heart failure," to present the preliminary results of a community-based heart failure registry as a complementary database, and to assess the potential value and limitations of the registry approach. RESULTS: Recent advances in the treatment of heart failure led to guidelines using clinical trial evidence as the rationale for transferring newer therapeutic technologies to the community practice setting. Implementation of such guidelines is slow, reflecting concerns over applicability of clinical trial results to the community setting. A community-based registry of beta-blocker treatment for heart failure showed outcomes comparable to those of clinical trials, despite significant differences between physicians and their patients in these settings. CONCLUSION: Registries can complement clinical trials to expedite technology transfer to the community setting.
Adrenergic beta-Antagonists↗
[Experimental approaches for gene therapy modification of vascular remodeling].
The active process of vascular remodeling involves changes in several cellular processes like cell growth, cell death, cell migration, and extracellular matrix production or degradation. The recent development of in vivo gene transfer technology has created a powerful new tool for the study of vascular remodeling by providing methods to overexpress or to inhibit specific local factors which are believed to contribute to the process of structural changes within the vasculature. The following overview describes recently published studies which investigated the effects of gene overexpression or inhibition on the process of vascular remodeling. The technology of gene transfer provides the opportunity for the development of novel therapeutic strategies such as gene replacement, gene correction, or gene augmentation, thus paving the way for gene therapy as treatment for vascular disease.
Animals↗
[Information exchange via internet--possibilities, limits, future].
Today, the exchange of information in the Internet is dominated by the WWW and e-mail. Discussion groups like mailing lists and newsgroups also permit communication in groups. Information retrieval becomes a crucial challenge in using the Internet. In the field of medicine, three more aspects are of special importance: privacy, legal requirements, and the necessity of transferring large amounts of data. For these problems, today's Internet doesn't provide a sufficient solution yet. Future developments will not only improve the existing services, but also lead to fundamental changes in the transfer technologies: Safer data transfer is to be ensured by new encrypting software together with the planned transfer protocol IPv6. Introducing the new transfer mode ATM will lead to better and resource saving transmission. Computer, telephone and TV networks will grow together, resulting in convergence of media.
Forecasting↗
Academic research: policies and practice.
The Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 allowed universities in the US to own and manage inventions obtained using federal funds. This Act laid the foundation for university technology transfer activities in most major research universities of the country. Consequently, the interaction between universities and industry has increased, and so has the sophistication in university intellectual property management. UIC's model for managing its intellectual property is efficient and successful, and is the one increasingly used by university technology transfer offices. The model deals with all aspects of UIC's intellectual property: disclosure, protection, marketing, negotiating and licensing, as well as intellectual property provisions in UIC's research agreements, material transfer agreements, option agreements, licensing agreements and others. In a pioneer effort, UIC has developed a policy on contracts for collecting natural product samples for drug discovery which includes royalty sharing and other important provisions. Accompanying this policy we have also drafted a standard contractual agreement for collectors.
Authorship↗
Transfer of technology from statistical journals to the biomedical literature. Past trends and future predictions.
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the speed of the transfer of new statistical methods into the medical literature and, on the basis of current data, to predict what methods medical journal editors should expect to see in the next decade. DESIGN: Influential statistical articles were identified and the time pattern of citations in the medical literature was ascertained. In addition, longitudinal studies of the statistical content of articles in medical journals were reviewed. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Cumulative number of citations in medical journals of each article in the years after publication. RESULTS: Annual citations show some evidence of decreasing lag times between the introduction of new statistical methods and their appearance in medical journals. Newer technical innovations still typically take 4 to 6 years before they achieve 25 citations in the medical literature. Few methodological advances of the 1980s seem yet to have been widely cited in medical journals. Longitudinal studies indicate a large increase in the use of more complex statistical methods. CONCLUSIONS: Time trends suggest that technology diffusion has speeded up during the last 30 years, although there is still a lag of several years before medical citations begin to accrue. Journals should expect to see more articles using increasingly sophisticated methods. Medical journals may need to modify reviewing procedures to deal with articles using these complex new methods.
Forecasting↗
Advances in vector-mediated gene transfer.
Clinical applications of gene transfer technology initially targeted the treatment of inherited monogenetic disorders and cancers refractory to conventional therapies. Today, gene transfer approaches are being developed for most tissues and for multiple disorders including those affecting quality of life. The focus herein is eventual application of gene transfer technology for the management of organ-directed autoimmunity. A specific example is presented: Sjögren's syndrome and localized salivary gland gene transfer. The status of relevant pre-clinical gene transfer studies is reviewed, with an emphasis on use of adenoviral and adeno-associated viral vectors. Current limitations of effective organ-directed gene transfer are also discussed.
Adenoviridae↗
In vitro fertilization and embryo transfer: medical technology + social values = legislative solutions.
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Advisory Committees↗
Transfers reach nurses and their patients.
Understand how technology transfer works, how it applies to health care, and how you can get the most out of the transfer process.
Diffusion of Innovation↗
Development of a software for the design of custom-made hip prostheses using an open-source rapid application development environment.
The present work describes a technology transfer project called HIPCOM devoted to the re-engineering of the process used by a medical devices manufacturer to design custom-made hip prostheses. Although it started with insufficient support from the end-user management, a very tight scheduling and a moderate budget, the project developed into what is considered by all partners a success story. In particular, the development of the design software, called HIPCOM Interactive Design Environment (HIDE) was completed in a time shorter than any optimistic expectation. The software was quite stable since its first beta version, and once introduced at the user site it fully replaced the original procedure in less than two months. One year after the early adoption, more than 80 custom-made prostheses had been designed with HIDE and the user had reported only two bugs, both cosmetics. The scope of the present work was to report the development experience and to investigate the reasons for these positive results, with particular reference to the development procedure and the software architecture. The choice of TCL/TK as development language and the adoption of well-defined software architecture were found to be the success key factors. Other important determinants were found to be the adoption of an incremental software engineering strategy, well suited for small to medium projects and the presence in the development staff of a technology transfer expert.
Computer-Aided Design↗
Advances in livestock nuclear transfer.
Cloning and transgenic animal production have been greatly enhanced by the development of nuclear transfer technology. In the past, genetic modification in domestic animals was not tightly controlled. With the nuclear transfer technology one can now create some domestic animals with specific genetic modifications. An ever-expanding variety of cell types have been successfully used as donors to create the clones. Both cell fusion and microinjection are successfully being used to create these animals. However, it is still not clear which stage(s) of the cell cycle for donor and recipient cells yield the greatest degree of development. While for the most part gene expression is reprogrammed in nuclear transfer embryos, all structural changes may not be corrected as evidenced by the length of the telomeres in sheep resulting from nuclear transfer. Even after these animals are created the question of "are they really clones?" arises due to mitochondrial inheritance from the donor cell versus the recipient oocyte. This review discusses these issues as they relate to livestock.
Aging↗
Use of the BRET 7TM receptor/beta-arrestin assay in drug discovery and screening.
To perform functional cell-based screening assays on seven-transmembrane (7TM) receptors, also known as G-protein coupled receptors, at least three distinct assays are currently needed to screen for G(alphas), G(alphai/0) or G(alphaq/11) signaling receptors. Therefore, there has long been a desire for a universal screening assay that could be used to screen all 7TM receptors independent of their signaling pathway. The receptor/beta-arrestin interaction is common to virtually all 7TM receptors. Therefore, an assay based on this interaction should achieve just that. Bioluminescence resonance energy transfer technology can be used to measure the receptor/beta-arrestin interaction in living cells but due to various technical and biological reasons, the use of the technology for compound screening has been limited. The recent development of beta-arrestin mutants that significantly improve the assay signal, in combination with new improved instrumentation, has transformed bioluminescence resonance energy transfer technology from being a highly specialized research tool in molecular pharmacology to a more drug screening-friendly technique that is useful in an industrial setting.
Arrestins↗
Skin graft survival in genetically identical cloned pigs.
Nuclear transfer technology allows for the reprogramming of somatic cells, and the production of embryonic stem cells and animals that are genetically identical in terms of nuclear DNA to the parental somatic cell. It is assumed that these products of nuclear transfer technology will be immunologically compatible to each other in spite of the fact that there are data that show differences in the expression patterns and phenotypes between animals produced by nuclear transfer. We have produced a series of cloned pigs from embryonic fibroblasts. Microsatellite analysis was used to confirm that the clones were genetically identical. Skin transplants were performed to assess immunological reactivity. Skin transplants between genetically identical cloned pigs were accepted, whereas third party grafts were rejected. Histological analysis of the grafts showed edema and mononuclear cell infiltrates in the recipient's skin in rejected grafts and not in grafts that were accepted. Our data supports the notion that genetically identical cloned pigs are immunologically compatible.
Animals↗
Genetic engineering within the adult brain: implications for molecular approaches to behavioral neuroscience.
Currently, the most popular technology used to modify the molecular makeup of the nervous system is through germline modifications of early embryos. This allows to construct gene 'knock-ins' (gene overexpression) or 'knock-outs' (gene deletions). This technology leads to gene additions or deletions from the earliest developmental stages. This can potentially lead to compensatory genetic changes. The technology to achieve inducible and cell-type-specific changes in gene expression in transgenic animals has been established. However, it is not yet possible, to reliably turn a particular gene 'on' or 'off' exclusively in adult animals. Alternatively, the use of gene transfer technology in fully mature animals could overcome many of these shortcomings. Gene therapy is the use of nucleic acids as drugs, and uses gene transfer technology to genetically engineer adult animals. Viral and nonviral vectors have been modified to serve as vectors for nucleic acid sequences of interest. Thus, over the last two decades, methods have been developed to deliver particular nucleic acids directly to target tissues. Further technological advances allow delivery of transgenes or antisense mRNAs directly to predetermined cell types, as well as their delivery under the control of inducible promoter elements. Combined transgenic (i.e., germline modifications) and viral vector technology will also be very powerful in allowing the genetic modification of selected neuronal populations in adult animals. In this review, we discuss the potential of gene delivery to the brain to analyze the effect of genetic engineering of particular neuronal groups on behavior, as well as recent developments and applications of newly engineered vector systems to allow transgenesis within nervous structures of adult animals.
Animals↗
Gene therapy in the cornea.
Technological advances in the field of gene therapy has prompted more than three hundred phase I and phase II gene-based clinical trials for the treatment of cancer, AIDS, macular degeneration, cardiovascular, and other monogenic diseases. Besides treating diseases, gene transfer technology has been utilized for the development of preventive and therapeutic vaccines for malaria, tuberculosis, hepatitis A, B and C viruses, AIDS, and influenza. The potential therapeutic applications of gene transfer technology are enormous. The cornea is an excellent candidate for gene therapy because of its accessibility and immune-privileged nature. In the last two decades, various viral vectors, such as adeno, adeno-associated, retro, lenti, and herpes simplex, as well as non-viral methods, were examined for introducing DNA into corneal cells in vitro, in vivo and ex vivo. Most of these studies used fluorescent or non-fluorescent marker genes to track the level and duration of transgene expression in corneal cells. However, limited studies were directed to evaluate prospects of gene-based interventions for corneal diseases or disorders such as allograft rejection, laser-induced post-operative haze, herpes simplex keratitis, and wound healing in animal models. We will review the successes and obstacles impeding gene therapy approaches used for delivering genes into the cornea.
Animals↗
Nitric oxide synthase gene transfer as a tool to study biology of endothelial cells.
During the past decade, the development of gene transfer technology provided a powerful and facile tool that afforded the genetic modification of vascular endothelial function. This development has coincided with molecular cloning and extensive accumulation of knowledge concerning the role of nitric oxide synthase isoforms in vascular homeostasis. Experimental evidence continues to accumulate that in vivo adenovirus-mediated gene transfer into the vessel wall is a very useful technique in studies designed to characterize function of a given gene or protein. In this review, we will use nitric oxide synthase gene transfer as a paradigm to illustrate how gene transfer technology can be used to address key issues in the vascular biology of endothelium.
Animals↗
Genome research: fulfilling the public's expectations for knowledge and commercialization.
This article provides a historical perspective for the patenting of gene sequences and describes the fundamentals and evolution of patent law. It summarizes federal technology transfer law and policy and assesses the impacts of patenting on academic research. The patentability of gene sequences is then considered along with potential impacts that published sequence data may have on obtaining patent protection for downstream products. Industry's position on gene patenting is summarized and perspectives from the emerging public record on these issues are presented. The article discussing points at which the filing of patent applications and the licensing of patents may be appropriate. It concludes that technology transfer policies for genome research must be adopted carefully so that they remain viable in a time of rapid technological change.
Animals↗