Op-ed: How California’s Prop 29 will boost state’s economy

by on April 26, 2012 at 1:23 pm | 2 Comments
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Kristiina Vuori, M.D., Ph.D., Sanford-Burnham’s president and director of the Institute’s NCI-designated Cancer Center (Photo by Nadia Borowski Scott)

Kristiina Vuori, M.D., Ph.D. (pictured here) and Sherry Lansing co-author a U-T San Diego op-ed piece in support of Proposition 29, the California Cancer Research Act.

In today’s issue of U-T San Diego, Kristiina Vuori, M.D., Ph.D., Sanford-Burnham’s president and director of our National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center, and Sherry Lansing, chair of the University of California Board of Regents, former CEO of Paramount Pictures, and co-founder of Stand Up to Cancer, co-authored an op-ed piece that explains exactly how passage of Proposition 29, the California Cancer Research Act, would both save lives and benefit the state’s economy.

They wrote:

In addition to saving lives and lowering health care costs, passage of Prop 29 will help stimulate the state’s economy by creating and saving jobs in California. The biotechnology industry has been a shining example of stability and growth in our state over the past several decades, and is an area we should be turning to now to help our state recover from economic decline.

Today, California is home to several of the most vibrant life-science research clusters in the world, including 10 of the country’s 66 NCI-designated cancer centers (more than any other state in the nation). The San Francisco Bay Area boasts the oldest and largest biomedical cluster in California and is a world leader in biotechnology. San Diego is known for its biopharmaceutical and medical diagnostics companies, while Orange County has a reputation for medical device inventions and Los Angeles is the place for cutting-edge cancer research and patient care.

As of 2009, the biotechnology industry employed nearly 270,000 Californians. And that number jumps to more than 783,000 jobs when we include everyone employed in academic research, biopharmaceuticals, diagnostics, medical devices, laboratory services and other supporting industries.

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Sanford-Burnham experts talk about why Americans are fat

by on January 6, 2012 at 10:11 am | 0 Comments
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Fireworks over the Sydney Opera House

Fireworks over the Sydney Opera House

New Year’s resolutions and dieting seem to go hand-in-hand. Setting a personal goal to lose weight and exercise more may jump-start the New Year but “February frustration” can derail even the most determined. Scientists in Sanford-Burnham’s Diabetes and Obesity Research Center recently shared their expertise on the causes of weight gain and the metabolic challenges that make it so hard to keep off the extra pounds. Their insights on genetics, diet, metabolism and lifestyle were included in a four-part series called “What’s making Americans so fat?” that ran in the Orlando Sentinel beginning January 1. Medical reporter Marni Jameson spoke with national obesity experts to compile a list of 40 reasons for why 60 percent of U.S. adults are obese or overweight.

“It’s not gluttony, and it’s not lack of willpower,” says Dr. Steven Smith, scientific director of the Florida Hospital – Sanford-Burnham Translational Research Institute for Metabolism and Diabetes. “No scientist in the field will say the problem is strictly one of willpower,” he says. “It’s a result of the way our genes are interacting with an environment that is stacked against them.”

Here’s an excerpt of how the experts weighed in:

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The threat to San Diego’s cancer research centers

by on November 10, 2011 at 1:52 pm | 0 Comments
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http://beaker.sanfordburnham.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/CancerCenterv2.jpg

http://beaker.sanfordburnham.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/CancerCenterv2.jpg

As the U.S. Congress’ “Deficit Supercommittee” faces a November 23 deadline to cut the national deficit, the directors of San Diego’s three National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated cancer centers explain why federal funding is so important to cancer research and to the local economy:

Much of San Diego’s cancer research is supported by federal funding—particularly by NCI and its parent agency, the National Institutes of Health. This support is crucial to San Diego’s economy—our city is home to the most geographically dense life-sciences research cluster in the world. From 2008 to 2010, San Diego topped every other county in the state in the amount of funding received from the NIH. In 2010, this meant $1.3 billion entered the local economy.

Read the editorial, co-authored by Sanford-Burnham’s President, Dr. Kristiina Vuori, the Salk Institute’s Dr. Tony Hunter, and UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center’s Dr. Thomas Kipps, in the San Diego Union-Tribune:
The threat to San Diego’s cancer research centers

Virtual tumor biopsies?

by on October 24, 2011 at 12:56 pm | 0 Comments
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Dr. Masanobu Komatsu, associate professor at Sanford-Burnham

Dr. Masanobu Komatsu, associate professor at Sanford-Burnham

If you have cancer today, finding out how advanced the tumor has become often requires an invasive biopsy and precious time to prepare and analyze cancerous cells in the lab. Sanford-Burnham’s Dr. Masanobu Komatsu sees another way to rapidly diagnose what’s happening deep inside you.

Someday, he envisions, your doctor will simply administer a solution of nanoparticles that contain a fluorescent dye and a chemical address that helps them home to the tumor cells in your body. The dye will have unique physical properties that enable imaging inside the tissue. A laser device will then beam infrared light into the tumor site, exciting the fluorescent dye that has accumulated in the cancer cells. A computer monitor will display an image of the tumor with cell-by-cell resolution.

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A scientist’s life: 10 things Carl Ware has done

by on August 26, 2011 at 11:42 am | 0 Comments
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Dr. Carl Ware (Photo by Nadia Borowski Scott)

Dr. Carl Ware (Photo by Nadia Borowski Scott)

Meet Dr. Carl Ware, director of our Infectious and Inflammatory Disease Center. The San Diego Union-Tribune gives us a glimpse of what he has experienced throughout his life: surfing, hitchhiking, meeting Chuck Berry … and Alzheimer’s disease.

Read A Scientist’s Life: 10 Things Carl Ware Has Done.

Developments to Watch: New frontier in Alzheimer’s disease

by on August 24, 2011 at 10:26 am | 0 Comments
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Dr. Evan Snyder (right) interviews Dr. Stuart Lipton in Medscape's "Developments to Watch"

Dr. Evan Snyder (right) interviews Dr. Stuart Lipton in Medscape's "Developments to Watch"

Medscape, a physician-oriented website run by WebMD, visited Sanford-Burnham’s La Jolla campus this summer to record interviews with researchers from both Orlando and San Diego for a new online video program called Developments to Watch. The talk show-like discussions are hosted by Dr. Evan Snyder, who directs the Stem Cells and Regenerative Biology Program at Sanford-Burnham. The first episode, A New Frontier in Alzheimer’s Disease, is now available. In the video, Dr. Snyder speaks with Dr. Stuart Lipton, director of the Del E. Web Neuroscience, Aging and Stem Cell Research Center, about his work on Alzheimer’s disease. They discuss what new findings—and potential treatments—are on the horizon and how they might impact patients.

A user name and password are required to access Medscape, but the site and content are free. New installments will be added monthly.

Watch the video, then come back here to let us know what you think!

For more about our research on Alzheimer’s disease, check out these blog posts:
Getting to the root of Alzheimer’s disease
Diagnosing Alzheimer’s Earlier
New Partnership Targets Brain Conditions
Safely Treating Alzheimer’s Disease
Saying NO to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Diseases

Perspectives on a drug discovery lab

by on August 2, 2011 at 11:31 am | 0 Comments
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Paul Diaz (center), with a few Reed lab coworkers, including Claire Hou (left), Juan Rong (right), Craig Tamble, Sarah Shawgo, and Dennis Sun (back row).

Paul Diaz (center), with a few Reed lab coworkers, including Claire Hou (left), Juan Rong (right), Craig Tamble, Sarah Shawgo, and Dennis Sun (back row).

Paul Diaz, director of operations in the laboratory of Dr. John Reed, recently shared his passion for his work in Lab Manager Magazine:

The privilege of conducting research dedicated to finding cures for human diseases is one reason Paul Diaz starts his workday with enthusiasm.

“The life of a scientist can be stressful, but in what other profession does it seem like someone is paying you to indulge in a guilty pleasure?” says Diaz. “I wake up and can hardly wait to see the latest results and make the next discovery.”

Read more about the Reed lab’s research, Diaz’s role, and his management tips in “Perspectives on a Drug Discovery Lab.”

Why are we so fat?

by on July 11, 2011 at 2:33 pm | 0 Comments
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New report shows the percent of the population considered obese has increased over the past two decades.

New report shows the percent of the population considered obese has increased over the past two decades.

A new report released by the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation held dire news about the state of America’s obesity epidemic. The report, aptly named “F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America’s Future 2011,” revealed several eye-opening statistics. Here are a few:

• Twenty years ago, no state had an obesity rate above 15 percent. Now every state does.
• Today, 12 states have obesity rates over 30 percent. Four years ago, only one did.
•  Since 1995, diabetes rates (long associated with obesity) have doubled in eight states. Then, only four states had diabetes rates above six percent.  Now, 43 states have diabetes rates over seven percent, and 32 have rates above eight percent.

To understand why the nation’s weight problem has ballooned over the past two decades, obesity researchers are increasingly looking to our environment. The Orlando Sentinel interviewed obesity expert Dr. Steven R. Smith, Sanford-Burnham professor and scientific director of the Translational Research Institute for Metabolism and Diabetes (TRI), a collaboration between Florida Hospital and Sanford-Burnham. He said:

“Our genes haven’t changed that much in thousands of years, but we have seen a rapid change in the environment, and that has interacted with our genetic propensity toward obesity.”

Read more in How fat is America? New report gives nation an F.

Coming soon: Medscape’s “Developments to Watch”

by on July 1, 2011 at 7:08 am | 0 Comments
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Dr. Evan Snyder (right) interviews his colleague, Dr. Steven Smith, on the Medscape set.

Dr. Evan Snyder interviews his colleague, Dr. Steven Smith, on the Medscape set.

Last week, Sanford-Burnham’s Fishman Auditorium, on the Institute’s La Jolla campus, was transformed into a temporary television studio. It was hardly recognizable under the bright lights and set dressing. Medical website Medscape recorded interviews with three Sanford-Burnham researchers for a new video series called “Developments to Watch.” The talk show-like discussions were hosted by Dr. Evan Snyder, who directs the Stem Cells and Regenerative Biology Program at Sanford-Burnham. Dr. Snyder is both a medical doctor who regularly sees patients and a scientist who conducts research in his own lab – the perfect person to help explain how discoveries made today might one day help patients.

Medscape is part of the network of sites run by WebMD. With this newest video series, Sanford-Burnham scientists will be providing expert commentary and information to help keep Medscape’s audience – primary care physicians, specialists and other health professionals – up-to-date on the latest medical research and what it means for their patients.

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Flash mob against cancer

by on June 29, 2011 at 9:51 am | 0 Comments
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Signaling nanoparticles (blue) can locate a tumor, then set off a chemical reaction that attracts a mob of drug-delivering nanoparticles (pink) to the site. (Image by Gary Carlson)

Signaling nanoparticles (blue) draw in a mob of receiving nanoparticles (pink) to target tumors. (Image by Peter Allen, UCSB)

Researchers have been working for decades to develop nanoparticles that deliver cancer drugs directly to tumors, minimizing the toxic side effects of chemotherapy. However, even with the best nanoparticles, only small amounts of the treatment actually reach the tumor. Scientists at MIT, Sanford-Burnham’s Center for Nanomedicine at the University of California, Santa Barbara and the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) may have found a way to attract treatment-laden nanoparticles to tumors. Think of it as a therapeutic flash mob.

The team designed a delivery system in which nanoparticles home in on a tumor and then call in a much larger second wave of nanoparticles to dispense an anti-cancer drug. This communication between nanoparticles, enabled by the body’s own biochemistry, boosts drug delivery to tumors more than 40-fold in mouse models. The study, which was led by MIT’s Dr. Sangeeta Bhatia and received significant contributions from Sanford-Burnham’s Dr. Erkki Ruoslahti and UCSD’s Dr. Michael Sailor, was recently published online in the journal Nature Materials.

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NeuroMap wins Entrepreneur Challenge

by on June 27, 2011 at 11:22 am | 0 Comments
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NeuroMap was founded by (left to right): Daniel Norton, Dr. Alexey Terskikh, Dr. Dmitriy Sivtsov and Dr. Andrew Rabinovich. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey, courtesy of San Diego Union-Tribune)

NeuroMap was founded by (left to right): Daniel Norton, Dr. Alexey Terskikh, Dr. Dmitry Sivtsov and Dr. Andrew Rabinovich. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey, courtesy of San Diego Union-Tribune)

By Peijean Tsai

When a person is diagnosed with depression, pinpointing the right treatment is typically a trial-and-error process that frustrates both doctors and patients.  Chronic symptoms interrupt everyday life while the patient seeks an effective remedy.

To address this challenge, NeuroMap, an early-stage company, is developing assays using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to accurately predict how individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD) will respond on a personal level to medications, such as selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs), the most commonly prescribed antidepressants.

“Some will have to go for months or years to find the right drug, and that’s what we’re trying to eliminate,” says Sanford-Burnham’s Dr. Alexey Terskikh, who founded NeuroMap with Dr. Dmitriy Sivtsov, a psychiatrist at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine, computer scientist Dr. Andrew Rabinovich and Daniel Norton of UCSD’s Rady School of Management.

This novel concept – personalized  depression therapeutics based on Sanford-Burnham technology – is what catapulted NeuroMap to win first prize earlier this month at the 5th Annual UCSD Entrepreneur Challenge’s Business Plan Competition, one of three contests the organization holds each year. The competition was judged by professionals from San Diego’s technology and entrepreneurial communities and presented before a public audience. The honor also awarded the startup company $57,000 in cash and entrepreneurial services, which Dr. Terskikh says will help move the company forward with its efforts to secure funding from government and private sources.

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Building translational research

by on May 26, 2011 at 3:25 pm | 1 comment
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Dr. Steven Smith and Dr. Stephen Gardell leave their marks on the new TRI building.

Dr. Steven Smith and Dr. Stephen Gardell sign the new TRI building.

The  Translational Research Institute for Metabolism and Diabetes (TRI), a collaboration between Sanford-Burnham and Florida Hospital, is one step closer to opening its research facility. The 54,000 square-foot building recently reached its final height, and a special ceremony was held during which researchers gathered to sign one of the interior columns. Construction to enclose the building will now begin.The TRI, which studies diabetes, obesity and the metabolic origins of cardiovascular disease, will  help bridge the gap between the scientist’s laboratory and the patient’s bedside. The TRI will unite scientists, clinicians and advanced technologies to spur translational research and rapidly create new, more effective treatments.

“We are witnessing an epidemic of obesity and diabetes in the United States,” said Dr. Steven R. Smith, scientific director of the TRI. “The main goal of the TRI is to generate new knowledge to improve lives through innovative research. By ‘topping out’ the TRI, we are one step closer towards developing Orlando as a medical destination.”

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A different kind of dorm room

by on May 19, 2011 at 5:00 am | 3 Comments
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This calorimetry suite will be an important tool in the new Translational Research Institute facility, opening January 2012 (rendering by Flad Architects)

Calorimetry suite in the new Translational Research Institute facility, due to open January 2012 (artist's rendering by Flad Architects)

Obesity negatively affects the entire body – no organ system is left untouched. It increases a person’s risk of type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, depression, certain cancers and many other conditions. If the current trend of expanding waistlines continues, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that at least one in five Americans will be diabetic by the year 2050.

The goal of the Translational Research Institute for Metabolism and Diabetes (TRI), a collaboration between Florida Hospital and Sanford-Burnham, is to alter this course by translating basic scientific discoveries in the laboratory to usable information and products that improve the diagnosis and treatment of human diseases – especially obesity and diabetes.

“At the moment, there is a big gap between what we know and what we want to know about human metabolism, obesity and diabetes. Our ultimate goal in translational research is to bridge that gap,” says Dr. Steven R. Smith, TRI’s scientific director and professor at Sanford-Burnham. “As basic researchers continue to unravel the molecular underpinnings of these diseases, TRI will be conducting proof-of-concept experiments to validate new drug targets and test new therapies for safety and efficacy.”

When it opens in January 2012, the TRI’s new three-story facility in Orlando, Florida will contain a research clinic, imaging technology, a biorepository for sample collection and storage, and several other resources for metabolic studies. But the facility’s highlight will be the calorimeter rooms – small dormitory-style rooms outfitted with a bed, treadmill and toilet. These whole-room calorimeters will allow the TRI staff to measure fat and carbohydrate oxidation and energy expenditure as a person goes about his or her normal life – sleeping, eating, walking, etc. As the patient exercises on the treadmill, scientists will be able to measure his or her oxygen consumption and calories burned without using invasive tubing or sensors. This approach will provide superior comfort – and therefore generate more accurate data – during exercise.

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A medical revolution

by on May 18, 2011 at 8:04 am | 1 comment
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Nanoparticles, like this micelle, may be the future of medicine. (Image by Peter Allen, UC Santa Barbara College of Engineering)

A syndicated article that recently appeared in the Orlando Sentinel, the Los Angeles Times and other outlets described several revolutionary technologies that will change medicine in the coming decade. In particular, the piece highlighted how new genomic technologies can personalize treatment to individual patients; how robotic surgery will help surgeons perform complex procedures on people thousands of miles away; and how new classes of diagnostic tests will allow physicians to discover diseases earlier, when they are most treatable.The article included insights from Dr. Ranjan Perera, associate professor at Sanford-Burnham’s Lake Nona campus, and Dr. Jamey Marth, who directs the U.C. Santa Barbara–Sanford-Burnham Center for Nanomedicine. Dr. Marth is particularly excited about nanomedicine’s potential to enhance both diagnosis and treatment:

“Today’s scientists work at the molecular and atomic level with nanoparticles, to harness these biomachines that detect and bind to diseased cells. The nanoparticle then fuses with that sick cell and delivers its cargo — drugs or imaging agents.”

Read ‘Revolution is at hand’ for breakthroughs in medicine.

Where will new medicines come from?

by on May 16, 2011 at 5:00 am | 0 Comments
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http://www.rejuveskinclinics.com/before_after_photos.html

National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland

In December 2010, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced a plan to create a new center, known as the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), to speed development and testing of novel diagnostics and therapeutics aimed at a wide range of human diseases. In a recent opinion piece published in Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), Dr. Henry I. Miller, policy fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, argues against NCATS, claiming that drug development is better left in the hands of private pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.In a rebuttal published online May 13, Sanford-Burnham CEO Dr. John Reed picks apart Dr. Miller’s argument, explaining why the public sector must participate in the search for new medicines and how NCATS will further catalyze these efforts. According to Dr. Reed, private companies are increasingly reluctant to fund the crucial early stages of pre-clinical development – the research necessary to “translate” promising discoveries made in laboratories into potential therapeutics ready for testing in human clinical trials. He writes:

“This situation leaves us with the aptly named “Valley of Death” – the large research and funding gap that sets federally-funded basic researchers (those of us in non-profit research institutions, academia, hospitals and federal laboratories) on one side and the pharmaceutical industry on the other. Few companies are able to reach far enough backward to bridge that gap – the costs and risks are just too high for organizations that are responsible for delivering financial results to their investors and shareholders. Enter the NIH’s newly proposed center for translational sciences – just the shot in the arm basic research needs to reach forward across that valley.”

For more, read “NCATS Could Mitigate Pharma Valley of Death“, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News, online May 13, in print May 15, 2011.

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