Tailoring access to high cost, genetically targeted drugs

Assessment of real cost effectiveness, with data linked to individual health outcomes while protecting patient privacy, is an essential challenge we need to meet

Who wants to live forever?

For millennia, human civilization has been fascinated with overcoming death. Immortality, eternal youth or at least the prospect of reaching biblical age have had a strong lure for religion, art and popular beliefs. Life after death, which is, in essence, eternal life, is the one central element of nearly all religions since Ancient Egypt. If we believe the Old Testament, some of the patriarchs lived for several hundreds of years. In the medieval ages, the fountain of youth was a popular myth, often illustrated in paintings, such as Lucas Cranach's The Fountain of Youth (Fig 1). And society today has not lost its fascination with immortality, as seen in Hollywood movies such as the Highlander films (1986–2000), The 6th Day (2000) or Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), and novels such as H. Rider Haggard's She. But for the first time, modern science may provide the knowledge and tools to interfere with the ageing processes and fulfil this age-old dream. This possibility has triggered an intense debate among scientists and ethicists about the potential of anti-ageing therapies and their ethical and social consequences. Given that anti-ageing therapies could dramatically change the social fabric of modern societies, it is quite astonishing that these debates have neglected the views of the larger public.

The regulatory challenges in engineering a safer tipple

David Nutt asks two very important questions. Can we make alcohol safer? Can we use pharmacology and neuroscience to engineer a safer alternative to alcohol? The answer to the first question is clearly ‘yes’. We can make alcohol safer by encouraging drinkers to consume less alcohol per occasion. That goal can be accomplished by imposing lower taxes on lower alcohol beverages or a volumetric tax on alcoholic beverages (Babor et al., 2003).

Strong and weak lifespan extension: What is most feasible and likely?

Recent advances in biomedical science indicate that it may eventually be possible to intervene in the biological process of human ageing. This paper overviews the current state of the science of lifespan extension and promising future directions. It is uncertain whether 'strong' lifespan extension - the extension of human life beyond the maximum 122 years so far observed - will become a reality. It is more likely that cumulative effects of numerous scientific and biomedical advances in the treatment of common disease will produce 'weak' lifespan extension - the extension of average life expectancy. The practical application of molecular, genetic and nanomaterials research may also lead to advances in life expectancy. It is not too early to begin to consider the policy implications of either form of lifespan extension.

What does the community think about lifespan extension technologies? The need for an empirical base for ethical and policy debates

Objectives: This paper examines public understandings of possibilities for increasing life expectancy, interest in taking up lifespan-extending interventions, and motivations influencing these intentions. Methods: Structured interviews were conducted with 31 adults, aged 50 and over. Results: Participants believed that technological advances would increase life expectancy but questioned the value of quantity over quality of life. Life in itself was not considered valuable without the ability to put it to good use. Participants would not use technologies to extend their own lifespan unless the result would also enhance their health. Conclusions: These findings may not be generalisable to the general public but they provide the first empirical evidence on the plausibility of common assumptions about public interest in 'anti-ageing' interventions. Surveys of the views of representative samples of the population are needed to inform the development of a research agenda on the ethical, legal and social implications of lifespan extension.

Focusing in on structural genomics: The University of Queensland structural biology pipeline

The flood of new genomic sequence information together with technological innovations in protein structure determination have led to worldwide structural genomics (SG) initiatives. The goals of SG initiatives are to accelerate the process of protein structure determination, to fill in protein fold space and to provide information about the function of uncharacterized proteins. In the long-term, these outcomes are likely to impact on medical biotechnology and drug discovery, leading to a better understanding of disease as well as the development of new therapeutics. Here we describe the high throughput pipeline established at the University of Queensland in Australia. In this focused pipeline, the targets for structure determination are proteins that are expressed in mouse macrophage cells and that are inferred to have a role in innate immunity. The aim is to characterize the molecular structure and the biochemical and cellular function of these targets by using a parallel processing pipeline. The pipeline is designed to work with tens to hundreds of target gene products and comprises target selection, cloning, expression, purification, crystallization and structure determination. The structures from this pipeline will provide insights into the function of previously uncharacterized macrophage proteins and could lead to the validation of new drug targets for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and arthritis. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Actitudes hacia la Enfermedad del Alzheimer según el género y la edad de adultos colombianos

La enfermedad de Alzheimer (EA) es la demencia más frecuente y su prevalencia continúa en aumento tanto en Colombia como en el mundo. Esta investigación tuvo como objetivo explorar si las actitudes hacia la EA varían según la edad y género de 450 personas adultas colombianas. Se realizó un estudio exploratorio de corte transversal en el que se aplicó un cuestionario autodiligenciado. Se encontró que efectivamente hay algunas diferencias según la edad y el género en el componente cognoscitivo (creencias y conocimiento) y conductual (intención conductual y conducta) de las actitudes; y diferencias según el género en el componente afectivo. Se concluye que los conocimientos sobre la EA son escasos, que la tristeza es la emoción predominante hacia la EA y que es un tema de interés en el que predomina la idea de que afecta especialmente la memoria. Se discutieron los resultados reconociendo que esta es una aproximación inicial a las actitudes hacia la EA.

Technology confidence in early stage development of medical devices

Innovation is a critical factor in ensuring commercial success within the area of medical technology. Biotechnology and Healthcare developments require huge financial and resource investment, in-depth research and clinical trials. Consequently, these developments involve a complex multidisciplinary structure, which is inherently full of risks and uncertainty. In this context, early technology assessment and 'proof of concept' is often sporadic and unstructured. Existing methodologies for managing the feasibility stage of medical device development are predominantly suited to the later phases of development and favour detail in optimisation, validation and regulatory approval. During these early phases, feasibility studies are normally conducted to establish whether technology is potentially viable. However, it is not clear how this technology viability is currently measured. This paper aims to redress this gap through the development of a technology confidence scale, as appropriate explicitly to the feasibility phase of medical device design. These guidelines were developed from analysis of three recent innovation studies within the medical device industry.

Australian and New Zealand untapped biotechnology opportunities

Focuses on biotechnology opportunities in Australia and New Zealand. Increase in investments into the Australian and New Zealand biotechnology sector; Rank of Australia among biomedical research and development cost-effective countries; Application of New Zealand's biotechnology research in fields such as forestry and human healthcare.

Survey commentaries and analysis on Singapore biotechnology international alliances and Singapore biotechnology boom in 2010

The article presents survey commentaries and analysis on biotechnology international alliances and biotechnology boom in Singapore in 2010. The survey revealed that the government and other key government industries are not keen in investing money in areas such as agricultural biotechnology, vaccine production, natural medicine, alternative therapeutics and plant biotechnology which have economic future globally. Most stakeholders expect international alliances and biopartnering with Singapore. They identified that the industry's strengths are biomedical and pharmaceuticals.

Survey commentaries and analysis on Singapore biotechnology venture capital, intellectual and property regulatory law

The article presents survey commentaries and analysis on biotechnology venture capital, intellectual and property regulatory law in Singapore as of April 2006. The survey revealed that the financial sector and venture capitalists lack the ability to evaluate and understand biotechnology. Some major concerns for stakeholders are the lack of experience in the litigation of cases by Singaporean law firms and the lack of strategic management of portfolios for biomedical and pharmaceutical companies and the government. Stakeholders cited the need for Singaporean laws to be amended to accommodate developments in medical devices, herbal medicine, some biological areas and pre-clinical and clinical trials.

Public, Private and University Collaboration: Applying a Retrospective Study of the Central Massachusetts Bio-Medical Cluster, Cluster Project Summary for Mosakowski Institute

Three Clark faculty members are studying the development of the Worcester Biotechnology Cluster for any lessons it might hold for current efforts to catalyze the growth of a sustainable energy/green jobs cluster in Worcester or elsewhere. Mary Ellen Boyle (GSOM), Jennie Stephens (IDCE/ESP), and Jing Zhang (GSOM) have conducted extensive in-depth interviews and combed the literature of cluster development to produce several articles and working papers.