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Genomics research in the UK--the social science agenda.

We sketch the development of UK genetics and genomics research, and emphasize the UK's key role in the international genetics and genomics research community. We highlight in particular the part played by the UK's Research Councils and other funders. With the move from genomics to post-genomics research, the field is diversifying, and interdisciplinarity becomes increasingly important, as traditional disciplinary boundaries become blurred, or break down, in the face of newly emerging sciences. We consider the changing nature of health and ill health in the developed and developing world, and questions about the complex nature of the relationships between genes and the environment, and their future implications for human health and human populations. We describe the ESRC's activities, stressing the importance of both the social, ethical and legal issues raised by these emerging disciplines, and of public engagement. Finally, we link the data handling and analysis issues raised by these emerging sciences, with other new research areas, in particular the UK's e-Science programme.

Biological Specimen Banks↗

Allerton III. Beyond livestock genomics.

Throughout the Allerton III Conference, several consistent research needs were identified across scientific disciplines. First, additional basic research is needed to identify genomic mechanisms and novel genes/proteins in a variety of tissues under different conditions. Second, expansion of the infrastructure of the scientific community is needed. This can best be accomplished by additional competitive grants programs for training grants, program project grants, and multidisciplinary research projects. Third, the need for improved tools for animal bioinformatics was emphasized. Fourth, competitive grants programs for extension/outreach efforts and application of genomic technologies to production systems are needed. Finally, efforts to publicize and document the benefits of animal genomics for improved human health and animal production systems to members of Congress and the general public should be enhanced.

Agriculture↗

Invention and business performance in the tissue-engineering industry.

Tissue engineering is a young and interdisciplinary scientific discipline but it offers exciting opportunities to improve the quality of health care for hundreds of thousands of patients. Lured by its potential, several start-up companies, pharmaceutical corporations, and medical device enterprises alike are investing heavily in this sector. Invention is a key driver of competition in this sector. In this study, we aim to explain the variation in inventive output across the different firms in the sector. Our major premise is that firms that forge alliances will be able to tap into the expertise of their partners and thus improve their chances of inventive output. We further argue that alliances that enable technology acquisition or learning will enhance the inventive output of firms more than other kinds of alliances. We measure the inventive output of a company by the number of patents filed. On the basis of a preliminary analysis of seven companies, we find support for the hypotheses. We also argue that, to achieve commercial success, firms need to manage time to market (through alliances or otherwise), have a global outlook, nurture their financial resources, and attain critical mass through mergers.

Biotechnology↗

From psychotherapy to e-therapy: the integration of traditional techniques and new communication tools in clinical settings.

Technology is starting to influence psychological fields. In particular, computer-mediated communication (CMC) is providing new tools that can be fruitfully applied in psychotherapy. These new technologies do not substitute for traditional techniques and approaches but they could be used as integration in the clinical process, enhancing or making easier particular steps of it. This paper focuses on the concept of e-therapy as a new modality of helping people resolve life and relationship issues. It utilizes the power and convenience of the Internet to allow synchronous and asynchronous communication between patient and therapist. It is important to underline that e-therapy is not an alternative treatment, but a resource that can be added to traditional psychotherapy. The paper also discusses how different forms of CMC can be fruitfully applied in psychology and psychotherapy, by evaluating the effectiveness of them in the clinical practice. To enhance the diffusion of e-therapy, further research is needed to evaluate all the pros and cons.

Combined Modality Therapy↗

Gene therapy for the treatment of brain tumors using intra-tumoral transduction with the thymidine kinase gene and intravenous ganciclovir.

Malignant brain tumors are responsible for significant morbidity and mortality in both pediatric and adult populations. These common tumors present an enormous therapeutic challenge due to their poor outcome despite radical surgery, high dose radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Survival of patients from the time of diagnosis is measured in months and recurrence after treatment is associated with a life expectancy of weeks. In an attempt to improve this grim prognosis of patients with malignant brain tumors (both primary tumors and secondary metastasis from systemic cancer such as melanoma, lung and breast cancer), we have developed a novel approach to the therapy of brain tumors. This approach makes use of recombinant DNA technology to transfer a sensitivity gene into a brain tumor. This is achieved by direct injection of the tumor with a cell line actively producing a retroviral vector carrying a gene conferring drug sensitivity to the tumor. A retroviral vector is a mouse retrovirus genetically engineered to replace its own genes with a new gene. Such vectors are capable of "infecting" mammalian cells and stably incorporate their new genetic material into the genome of the infected host. The producer cell is an NIH 3T3 cell that has been genetically engineered to continually produce retroviral vectors. The new gene is incorporated into the genome of the tumor cells and expresses the protein which is encoded by the new gene. This protein (the herpes simplex virus enzyme thymidine kinase, HS-tk) sensitizes the tumor cells to an antiviral drug (ganciclovir, GCV) which is a natural substrate for HS-tk. The enzymatic process induced by GCV leads to death of the cell expressing the herpes TK activity, i.e., death of the tumor cells. Since the HS-tk enzyme which is normally present in mammalian cells has very low affinity for GCV, systemic toxicity related to this mechanism is not observed. This type of in vivo gene transfer has several unique features. First, these retroviral-vectors will only integrate and express their genes in cells which are actively synthesizing DNA. Therefore, surrounding non-proliferating normal brain tissue should not acquire the HS-tk gene and will remain insensitive to GCV. Second, all of the transduced tumor cells (and retroviral vector producing cells) will be killed by the host immune response and/or GCV treatment eliminating potential concern about insertional mutagenesis giving rise to malignant cells. This is the first clinical attempt to treat malignant tumors in human beings by in-vivo genetic manipulation of the tumor's genome.

Adult↗

Temporary insanity?

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Biomedical Research↗

The essence of telehealth readiness in rural communities: an organizational perspective.

This paper examines telehealth readiness from an organizational perspective and explores the essence of telehealth readiness among four domains, namely, patients, practitioners, the public, and organizations in rural Canadian communities. Because readiness is a necessary requirement for the successful implementation of an innovation, it is important to identify and ensure core factors of readiness before costly investments are made. The findings presented here derive from a qualitative phenomenological research approach involving semistructured telephone interviews with four key informants (respondents). The data identified four categories of readiness in an organizational setting: core readiness, engagement, structural readiness, and nonreadiness. Understanding organizational readiness within rural and remote communities is an important step for the successful implementation of telehealth services into existing systems of health care.

Attitude↗

Systemic capacity building: a hierarchy of needs.

'Capacity building' is the objective of many development programmes and a component of most others. However, satisfactory definitions continue to elude us, and it is widely suspected of being too broad a concept to be useful. Too often it becomes merely a euphemism referring to little more than training. This paper argues that it is more important to address systemic capacity building, identifying a pyramid of nine separate but interdependent components. These form a four-tier hierarchy of capacity building needs: (1) structures, systems and roles, (2) staff and facilities, (3) skills, and (4) tools. Emphasizing systemic capacity building would improve diagnosis of sectoral shortcomings in specific locations, improve project/programme design and monitoring, and lead to more effective use of resources. Based on extensive action research in 25 States, experience from India is presented to illustrate how the concept of the capacity building pyramid has been put to practical use.

Community-Institutional Relations↗

Road safety in less-motorized environments: future concerns.

In the last three decades, the incidence of traffic crash fatalities and injuries has been reduced significantly in the high-income countries but not in the low- and middle-income countries. The traffic patterns in the former are not only different but are also less complex than those in the latter. Traffic in low-income countries comprises a much higher share of vulnerable road users and so vehicles, roads and the environment have to be designed for their safety. Solutions for such problems are not readily available and very innovative work needs to be done around the world to arrive at new policies and designs. In addition to crashworthiness of vehicles, transportation planning, exposure control, intelligent separation of non-motorized traffic on major roads, and traffic calming are likely to play a much more important role.

Accidents, Traffic↗

Triplet nucleotide removal at random positions in a target gene: the tolerance of TEM-1 beta-lactamase to an amino acid deletion.

The deletion of amino acids is one of the evolutionary mechanisms by which nature adapts the function of proteins. A simple method has been developed that mimics this event in vitro by introducing a deletion of exactly three nucleotides at random positions in a target gene. The method involved the engineering of the mini-Mu transposon to introduce a recognition sequence for the restriction enzyme MlyI. The new transposon, MuDel, was capable of efficient insertion into a target DNA sequence. To determine the efficacy of the method, the bla gene that encodes the TEM-1 beta-lactamase was used as the target and a small library containing 22 different sequence variants was created. Of these 22 variants, 8 were identified that conferred resistance to ampicillin on Escherichia coli. Each of the TEM-1 variants possessed a distinct ampicillin minimum inhibitory concentration, ranging from 500 to >10,000 microg/ml. Sequence analysis revealed that active TEM-1 variants contained deletions not just in loops but also helices, and included regions known to be involved in catalysis, antibiotic resistance and inhibitor binding. This new technology is transferable to most genes, permitting an extensive analysis of deletion mutations on protein function.

Amino Acid Sequence↗