Environmental Medicine News

The News Review:

- Business English The marketing of medicine to calm fears
- 1-stop center upgrades regional cancer care
- Fossils 2007: The golden age of dinosaurs
- Defense Expert Says Clarkson Committed Suicide
- ‘MISSING LINK’ STEM CELLS MAY SPEED RACE FOR CURES
- Charles River Laboratories, Inc. at Jefferies Healthcare Conference -…

Business English The marketing of medicine to calm fears
ftd.de - Jun 27, 2007
It is co-operating with research to test whether a double dose is more effective. Its most radical step is to encourage companies to buy pandemic stockpiles of Tamiflu directly rather than relying on national health systems. The nature of a flu pandemic may remain unclear, but Roche has already turned Tamiflu into a profitable part of its business.

1-stop center upgrades regional cancer care
Seattle Times - Jun 27, 2007
For $64 million, Everett’s regional hospital has become a “destination stop” for cancer care, hospital officials say. A tomotherapy machine, which mixes CAT scans with radiation treatment for greater precision, is among the state-of-the-art equipment housed in every part of the building, and doctors now have the luxury of sending patients to the main floor to explore nontraditional therapies that include naturopathy, hypnosis, acupuncture and massage. As she settles in for another 20 minutes while the medicine that’s supposed to kill her cancer begins to fill her IV tube, a cheerful Durrant seems intrigued as Newton explains the new services the cancer center will be offering… The result was a 100,000-square-foot building with a 489-slot parking garage. While the hospital now is seeing about 100 patients a day, the capacity exists to increase that to 150 daily. Included in the building is almost $11 million in new radiation-oncology technology, as well as larger treatment rooms, more changing rooms and about 150 pieces of art to brighten halls and treatment rooms with an array of warm nature scenes conveying a calm, Northwest feel. “Now it’s almost one-stop shopping,” said Dawn Dickson, a social worker in the cancer center’s patient support-services department. She works in the “holistic hall” where integrative medicine and counseling are offered. “Because it’s all in one building, now the doctors will feel better about sending patients to other services available here in the building. A time of changeCancer treatments have changed drastically in recent years, says Jean McMahon, executive director of the hospital’s cancer program, and patients’ attitudes, wants and needs also have changed.

Fossils 2007: The golden age of dinosaurs
The Independent - Independent - Jun 27, 2007
“They are so delicate that they could only be made by an animal whose body was supported by water. There were also ripple marks in the sandstone, indicating that the water was up to three metres deep,” he added. Conventional studies of the fossilised remains of dinosaurs, whether bones, skin, eggs or tracks, can yield only so much about the true nature of these creatures. Computers, medical scanners and other modern analytical tools have allowed scientists to go much further into dinosaur behaviour. John Hutchinson, of the Royal Veterinary College, University of London, has carried out a detailed mathematical study of how Tyrannosaurus rex, the greatest of all land carnivores, managed to move at speed. He concluded from biomechanical calculations of its bone structure - which he fed into a series of computer models - that T. rex would have been front heavy and could manage no more than a “leisurely jog” at a top speed of 15mph… We see an inner ear, the organ of balance, that is associated with a much smaller, more agile animal. rex is a gigantic animal and we might have expected its inner ear to be more like that of diplodocus,” said Professor Lawrence Witner, of the Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine. “This may show that T. rex had a heightened sense of equilibrium and balance and was able to employ relatively rapid turning movements of its eyes and its head,” Professor Witner said. Fossilised bones can also tell scientists how the biggest dinosaurs managed to grow so big - they did not just grow continually throughout life, but experienced an adolescent growth spurt.

Defense Expert Says Clarkson Committed Suicide
Billboard - Jun 27, 2007
Vincent DiMaio, a physician with a specialty in forensic medicine, spent more than an hour giving jurors an impressive history of his credentials and a professorial lecture on the science of analyzing gunshot wounds before attorney Christopher Plourd asked for his conclusion on the manner of Clarkson’s Feb. “She died of a self-inflicted wound,” said DiMaio. “There is no objective scientific evidence that anyone else held the gun. Everything else is speculative… Everything else is speculative. The physical evidence is consistent with her having the gun and her having discharged the gun. “He said the proof was in gunshot residue and blood on her hands as well as the nature of the wound in her mouth. “She’s got blood on her hands, gunshot residue on her hands, an intra-oral wound. Ninety-nine percent, it’s suicide,” DiMaio said. DiMaio said that since the 1970s he has performed thousands of autopsies, analyzed the manner of death in criminal cases and in his entire career has seen only three homicides with intra-oral wounds. CM8ShowAd(”Middle”); DiMaio, the former chief medical examiner in Dallas and San Antonio and author of scholarly books and treatises on gunshot wounds, said there may be speculation about motivations of a suicide victim but he suggested only science could tell the true story.

‘MISSING LINK’ STEM CELLS MAY SPEED RACE FOR CURES
New York Post - Jun 27, 2007
Laboratory mice have long been a favourite model for human disease but researchers have been frustrated by the fact that human and mouse stem cells behave very differently. Now scientists think they may have cracked the problem. INSIGHTTwo papers published in the journal Nature show that when mouse stem cells are derived from the innermost cell layer — or epiblast — of a week-old rodent embryo they are in many ways almost identical to human ones. "Ultimately, we have to admit that mice aren't humans," Pedersen told reporters. "But we now have a much better model than we previously had. "Up until now, scientists have grown embryonic stem cells from the blastocyst, a very early-stage embryo not yet implanted into the womb. The new cells are taken after implantation.

Charles River Laboratories, Inc. at Jefferies Healthcare Conference -…
Free with registration - Fair Disclosure Wire - AccessMyLibrary.com - Jun 27, 2007
We took a number of cost-reduction actions in the second quarter of 2006, predominantly in the preclinical area, and that has reaped benefits in terms of some of our key margins. And we have been introducing new products, such as the PTS, our Portable Test System in the In Vitro product line, and new services in the Discovery area, preconditioning opportunities for our customers. Our core is lab animal veterinary — lab animal medicine and science, regulatory compliant preclinical services, and we do have a growing expertise in Phase I. Just to quickly look at our segments for 2006, revenue is 51% Preclinical and 49% RMS. And on an operating income basis before corporate allocations, 55% is from RMS and 49% is from Preclinical. The worldwide RMS market is approximately $1 billion, of which Charles River is the number-one provider at approximately 50%. So we like to say we sell essentially one of every two animal models globally.