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Biology of aging research goal: Defeating Death – California Life Company (Calicolabs.com), A Billion-dollar Longevity Lab, since 2013, GOOGLE cofounder and CEO Larry Page, formation of a new Alphabet entity is using consumer genetics and genealogy firm Ancestry’s forest of family trees

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

 

Conclusion – “Don’t smoke, and don’t go to war.”

Humans have more control over how long they live than their genes do. It’s all the other things that families share—homes and neighborhoods, culture and cuisine, access to education and health care—that make a much bigger difference in the set of numbers that might one day grace your tombstone.

Analyzing the pedigrees of more than 400 million people who lived and died in Europe and America going back to 1800 was that although longevity tends to run in families, your DNA has far less influence on how long you live than previously thought. The results, published Tuesday in the journal Genetics, is the first research to be made public from the collaboration, which ended quietly in July and whose terms remain confidential.

“The true heritability of human longevity for that cohort is likely no more than seven percent,” says Ruby. Previous estimates for how much genes explain variations in lifespan have ranged from around 15 to 30 percent. So what did Ruby uncover that previous studies had missed? Just how often amorous humans go against the old adage that “opposites attract.”

For example, you might choose a partner who also has curly hair, and if the curly-haired trait winds up being somehow associated with long lifespans, this would inflate estimates of lifespan heritability passed on to your kids. Same thing for non-genetic traits like wealth, education, and access to good health care. People tend to choose partners in their same income bracket with the same terminal degree, both of which are associated with living longer, healthier lives.

Calicolabs.com – NEWS

Genetics Society of America press release on Calico paper titled, “Estimates of the heritability of human longevity are substantially inflated due to assortative mating.”Nov 6, 2018

AbbVie and Calico Announce Extension of Groundbreaking Collaboration June 26, 2018

Calico Scientists Publish Paper in eLife Demonstrating that the Naked Mole Rat’s Risk of Death Does Not Increase With AgeJanuary 25, 2018

C4 Therapeutics and Calico Enter Strategic Partnership to Discover Novel Therapeutics Based on Targeted Protein DegradationMarch 23, 2017

Daphne Koller Named to FiercePharma’s “Fierce Women in Biopharma 2016” ListOctober 13, 2016

Calico Appoints Daphne Koller as Chief Computing OfficerAugust 17, 2016

The Jackson Laboratory and Calico to Investigate Basic Biology of AgingApril 26, 2016

David Botstein receives the Double Helix Medal from Cold Spring Harbor LaboratoryNovember 9, 2015 | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

AncestryDNA and Calico to Research the Genetics of Human LifespanJuly 21, 2015

Cynthia Kenyon named one of the “15 Most Amazing Women in Science Today”July 20, 2015 | Business Insider

Calico enters into agreement with the Buck Institute to conduct research into the biology of aging and to identify potential therapeutics for age-related diseasesApril 28, 2015

Calico licenses technology from acclaimed UCSF laboratoryMarch 31, 2015

Calico and QB3 announce partnership to conduct research into the biology of aging and to identify potential therapeutics for age-related diseasesMarch 24, 2015

Broad Institute and Calico announce an extensive collaboration focused on the biology of aging and therapeutic approaches to diseases of agingMarch 17, 2015

Art Levinson to receive National Medal of Technology and InnovationOctober 3, 2014

UT Southwestern researchers discover novel class of NAMPT activators for neurodegenerative disease; Calico enters into exclusive collaboration with 2M to develop UTSW technologySeptember 11, 2014

AbbVie and Calico Announce a Novel Collaboration to Accelerate the Discovery, Development, and Commercialization of New TherapiesSeptember 3, 2014

Google announces Calico, a new company focused on health and well-being (Google News)September 18, 2013

SOURCE

https://www.calicolabs.com/

Science luminaries speak at Breakthrough Symposium – Livestream available

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

Article ID #259: Science luminaries speak at Breakthrough Symposium -Winners of 2019 Breakthrough Prize Will Lead Discussions on Cutting-Edge Research with Inspiring TED-Style Talks. Published on 11/6/2018

WordCloud Image Produced by Adam Tubman

UPDATED on 11/7/2018

Angelika Amon wins 2019 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences

Four other MIT researchers to receive New Horizons Prizes in math and physics; two alumni win Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics.

Anne Trafton | MIT News Office
October 17, 2018

Angelika Amon, an MIT professor of biology, is one of five scientists who will receive a 2019 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, given for transformative advances toward understanding living systems and extending human life.

Amon, the Kathleen and Curtis Marble Professor in Cancer Research and a member of MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, was honored for her work in determining the consequences of aneuploidy, an abnormal chromosome number that results from mis-segregation of chromosomes during cell division.

The award, announced this morning, comes with a $3 million prize.

“Angelika Amon is an outstanding choice to receive the Breakthrough Prize,” says Tyler Jacks, director of the Koch Institute and the David H. Koch Professor of Biology. “Her work on understanding how cells control the decisions to divide and the effects of imbalances in chromosome number has helped shape how we think about normal development and disease. Angelika is a fearless investigator and a true scientist’s scientist. All of us in the Koch Institute and across MIT are thrilled by this news.”

Two MIT alumni, Charles Kane PhD ’89 and Eugene Mele PhD ’78, both professors at the University of Pennsylvania, will share a Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. Kane and Mele are being recognized for their new ideas about topology and symmetry in physics, leading to the prediction of a new class of materials that conduct electricity only on their surface.

SOURCE

http://news.mit.edu/2018/angelika-amon-breakthrough-prize-life-sciences-1017

 

Complete List of 2019 Winners Breakthrough Prize

Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences Breakthrough Prize

  • C. Frank Bennett and Adrian R. Krainer – Ionis Pharmaceuticals and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
    Citation: For the development of an effective antisense oligonucleotide therapy for children with the neurodegenerative disease spinal muscular atrophy.
  • Angelika Amon – Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Howard Hughes Medical Institute
    Citation: For determining the consequences of aneuploidy, an abnormal chromosome number resulting from chromosome mis-segregation.
  • Xiaowei Zhuang – Harvard University and Howard Hughes Medical Institute
    Citation: For discovering hidden structures in cells by developing super-resolution imaging, a method that transcends the fundamental spatial resolution limit of light microscopy.
  • Zhijian “James” Chen – University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Howard Hughes Medical Institute
    Citation: For elucidating how DNA triggers immune and autoimmune responses from the interior of a cell through the discovery of the DNA-sensing enzyme cGAS.

Breakthrough Prize In Fundamental Physics

  • Charles Kane and Eugene Mele – University of Pennsylvania
    Citation: For new ideas about topology and symmetry in physics, leading to the prediction of a new class of materials that conduct electricity only on their surface.

Breakthrough Prize In Mathematics

  • Vincent Lafforgue – CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research, France) and Institut Fourier, Université Grenoble Alpes
    Citation: For ground breaking contributions to several areas of mathematics, in particular to the Langlands program in the function field case.

Special Breakthrough Prize In Fundamental Physics

  • Jocelyn Bell Burnell – University of Dundee and University of Oxford
    Citation: For fundamental contributions to the discovery of pulsars, and a lifetime of inspiring leadership in the scientific community.

Press Release From: Breakthrough Prize Foundation
Posted: Sunday, November 4, 2018

Winners of 2019 Breakthrough Prize Will Lead Discussions on Cutting-Edge Research with Inspiring TED-Style Talks

 

WHAT:          The 2019 Breakthrough Prize Symposium, held the day after the Breakthrough

Prize Awards ceremony, will feature both current and former laureates leading TED-style talks on cutting-edge science research initiatives and the significance and future of scientific discovery.

Topics include abnormal chromosomes and their role in cancer and potential use as a therapeutic target; exploring radio bursts and what’s going on in the stars; algebraic geometry and the Langlands Program; and discussing RNA splicing as a target for the next generation of precision medicines.

Dr. Jennifer Doudna, 2015 Breakthrough Prize Laureate and leader in the CRISPR revolution, will present “Recoding Life: The Future of Genome Editing.”

The event will conclude with three cross-disciplinary panel discussions between laureates past and present, about broad philosophical subjects around science and technology.  The topics of this year’s discussions include: ‘Is there (intelligent) life in the Universe?’; ‘What are the limits of science?’; and ‘Is time travel possible?’.

For a detailed schedule of the program, visit https://breakthroughprize2019.berkeley.edu/  

WHEN:        Monday, November 5, 2018

                     Pauley Ballroom, MLK Student Union

UC Berkeley

The presentations will be streamed live via YouTube (see program for URLs) and Facebook Live. 

Breakthrough Prize Laureate Talks

9:30AM – 5:00PM PST

Evening Cross-Disciplinary Panel

5:30PM – 7:00 PM PST

 

SCHEDULE

 

BREAKTHROUGH PRIZE LAUREATE TALKS

 (9:30AM – 5:00PM PST)

10:30 AM – Abnormal Chromosome Number: it’s Role in Cancer and Potential as a Therapeutic

Angelika Amon, 2019 Laureate

10:55 AM – Envisaging the Emergence of Quantum Topological Matter     

Charles Kane, 2019 Laureate

 

11:20 AM – Recoding Life: The Future of Genome Editing              

Jennifer Doudna, 2015 Laureate

11:45 AM – Some Open Problems in Algebraic Geometry and the Langlands Program

Vincent Lafforgue, 2019 Laureate

12:10 PM – RNA Splicing as a Target for the Next Generation of Precision Medicines       

Adrian R. Krainer, 2019 Laureate

1:35 PM – Biomaterials and How They Will Change our Lives        

Robert Langer, 2014 Laureate

2:00 PM – Imaging the Invisible in Living Organisms –– Current State of the Art and Future         

Xiaowei Zhuang, 2019 Laureate

2:25 PM – The Winding Road from Topological Insulators  

Gene Mele, 2019 Laureate

2:50 PM – Inflammation 2030 – Modern Disease Caused by an Old Flame 

James Chen, 2019 Laureate

3:45 PM – Seeking a Computer-free Proof of the 4-Color Theorem

Ian Agol, 2016 Laureate

4:10 PM – Genetic Medicines: Present and Future   

Frank Bennett, 2019 Laureate

5:00 PM – Radio Bursts!  What’s Going on Amongst the Stars?

Jocelyn Bell Burnell, 2018 Laureate

BREAKTHROUGH PRIZE PANEL DISCUSSIONS

(5:30 – 7:00PM PST)

Is there (intelligent) life in the Universe?

Featuring Jocelyn Bell, Astronomy, 2018 Laureate; John Hardy, Neuroscience, 2017 Laureate; and Kim Nasmyth, Molecular Biology, 2018 Laureate

Astronomers have been looking for life beyond Earth for decades, but have so far found nothing. But the recent discovery that almost all stars probably host planets may have changed the game. How likely are we to find primitive life? How hard is it to get from cells to brains? And why have we not seen evidence of civilizations?

What are the limits of science?

Featuring Andrei Linde, Theoretical Physics, Cosmology – 2012 Laureate; Gary Ruvkun, Molecular Biology, Genetics, 2015 Laureate; and  Xiaowei Zhuang, Biophysics, 2019 Laureate

 

Science has shown us a universe more and more distant from our familiar world: at microscopic and cosmic scales, at the dawn of time and remote stages of evolutionary history. But is this process limitless? What are the furthest and smallest physical and biological objects we can see? Can we ever know what happened at the moment of the Big Bang? And how far back can we retrace the origin of life on Earth?

Is time travel possible?

Nima Arkani-Hamed, Theoretical Physics, 2012 Laureate; Daniel Harlow, Theoretical Physics,  2019 Laureate; Daniel Jafferis, Theoretical Physics,  2019 Laureate; and Aron Wall, Theoretical Physics, 2019 Laureate

 

Time travel is a staple of science fiction, but how does mainstream science see it? Is it forbidden by the laws of physics? And if not, could it ever be a practical possibility? And do scientists even agree about what time is?

MEDIA OPPORTUNITIES: All events are free and open to the media, but seating is limited. Please RSVP to Kristen Bothwell /kbothwell@rubenstein.com / 212-843-9227; or Emily Gest / egest@rubenstein.com / 917-690-7823.

The Breakthrough Prize Symposium partners include Stanford University, the University of California, San Francisco, and the University of California, Berkeley.

The Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences honors transformative advances toward understanding living systems and extending human life. The Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics honors the world’s best mathematicians who have contributed to major advances in the field. The Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics recognizes major insights into the deepest questions of the Universe.

For more information on the Breakthrough Prize, visit https://breakthroughprize.org.

// end //

SOURCE

http://spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=53322

CRISPR – The Business and Legal Aspects of IP Development, Volume 2 (Volume Two: Latest in Genomics Methodologies for Therapeutics: Gene Editing, NGS and BioInformatics, Simulations and the Genome Ontology), Part 2: CRISPR for Gene Editing and DNA Repair

Patent on Methods and compositions for RNA-directed target DNA modification and for RNA-directed modulation of transcription was awarded to UC, Berkeley on October 30, 2018

  •  site-specific modification of a target DNA and/or a polypeptide associated with the target DNA, a DNA-targeting RNA
  •  genetically modified cells that produce Cas9; and Cas9 transgenic non-human multicellular organisms.

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

 

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United States Patent 10,113,167
Doudna ,   et al. October 30, 2018

Methods and compositions for RNA-directed target DNA modification and for RNA-directed modulation of transcription 

AbstractThe present disclosure provides a DNA-targeting RNA that comprises a targeting sequence and, together with a modifying polypeptide, provides for site-specific modification of a target DNA and/or a polypeptide associated with the target DNA. The present disclosure further provides site-specific modifying polypeptides. The present disclosure further provides methods of site-specific modification of a target DNA and/or a polypeptide associated with the target DNA The present disclosure provides methods of modulating transcription of a target nucleic acid in a target cell, generally involving contacting the target nucleic acid with an enzymatically inactive Cas9 polypeptide and a DNA-targeting RNA. Kits and compositions for carrying out the methods are also provided. The present disclosure provides genetically modified cells that produce Cas9; and Cas9 transgenic non-human multicellular organisms.


Inventors: Doudna; Jennifer A. (Berkeley, CA), Jinek; Martin (Berkeley, CA), Chylinski; Krzysztof (Vienna, AT), Charpentier; Emmanuelle (Braunschweig, DE)
Applicant:
Name City State Country Type

The Regents of the University of California
University of Vienna
Charpentier; Emmanuelle
Oakland
Vienna
Braunschweig
CA
N/A
N/A
US
AT
DE
Assignee: The Regents of the University of California (Oakland, CA)
University of Vienna (Vienna, AT)
Charpentier; Emmanuelle (Braunschweig, DE)
Family ID: 1000003617643
Appl. No.: 15/138,604
Filed: April 26, 2016

SOURCE

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=10113167.PN.&OS=PN/10113167&RS=PN/10113167

SAVE

UC Berkeley team awarded second CRISPR-Cas9 patent

 

“Today’s news … represents yet another validation of the historic and field-changing breakthrough invented by scientists Jennifer Doudna, Emmanuelle Charpentier, and their team… The patent announced today specifically highlights the CRISPR-Cas9 invention’s ability to edit DNA in any setting, including within animal and human cells. It also highlights its utility in several formats across both dual-RNA and single-RNA configurations, useful for therapy for genetic diseases and for improving food security.”
— Edward Penhoet, special adviser to the UC Berkeley chancellor, tells Axios

The details: According to the patent, the compositions can be used in animal or human cells, and can work as either 2 separate pieces of RNA or a single piece of RNA.

  • Penhoet says the new patent covers 2 RNA components that together form the “DNA-targeting-RNA,” with one that targets the particular sequence of DNA needed to be edited and the other that binds with the Cas9 protein.
  • This follows another patent given to UC Berkeley in June on methods to use CRISPR-cas9.
  • The patents cover the composites used by CRISPR-Cas9 within human, plant, animal and bacteria cells.
  • Both allow the use of strands of RNA “that can be shorter than naturally-occurring RNA components. This allows them to be more easily used and, therefore, is a form often preferred,” Penhoet says.

Go deeper:

SOURCE

https://www.axios.com/uc-berkeley-awarded-crispr-cas9-gene-edit-patent-5a533f22-929d-4e7d-83fe-0a73ebeb4538.html

NHLBI decision to halt Heart Stem-Cell Study (CONCERT-HF trial) due to concerns about Anversa’s Animal Studies, not due to any Data generated by the Clinical trial itself, no compromised patient safety by trial

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

Doubts about Anversa’s work arose in the early 2000s after other researchers failed to replicate his findings and questioned whether cardiac stem cells existed2,3,4.

Paper of Former HMS Prof. Withdrawn, Clinical Trial Paused after Harvard Requests Retractions

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2018/10/31/medical-school-paper-retracted/

NHLBI NEWS

Statement

Statement on NHLBI decision to pause the CONCERT-HF trial

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health, is pausing the CONCERT-HF trialexternal link, which involves patients with chronic heart failure. Recent calls for the retraction of journal articles in related fields of cell therapy research have raised concerns about the scientific foundations of this trial.  While none of the articles in question derive from the CONCERT-HF trial itself, the NHLBI convened CONCERT-HF’s Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) out of an abundance of caution to ensure the study continues to meet the highest standards for participant safety and scientific integrity. Informed by the DSMB recommendations of October 25, 2018, the NHLBI is pausing the trial. While the DSMB did not have any participant safety concerns, this pause enables the DSMB to complete its review.

The safety of all clinical trial participants is paramount to NHLBI. NHLBI will honor its commitment to CONCERT-HF participants and continue the follow-up protocol during this pause for all participants who have already been treated in the study. Participants are being notified of the status of the trial and how to request additional information.

The CONCERT-HF trial seeks to determine whether c-kit+ cells, either alone or in combination with mesenchymal stem cells derived from the bone marrow, are safe and benefit patients with chronic heart failure, who have very limited treatment options. Despite significant medical and surgical advances, patients with heart failure continue to experience a low quality of life and about half of them will die within five years of receiving a diagnosis.

The scientific basis of CONCERT-HF is supported by a body of evidence in several preclinical models in a number of studies in a variety of laboratories and was reviewed by a Protocol Review Committee (PRC) independent of the trial. The cell therapies that CONCERT-HF is testing are under an investigational new drug (IND) designation which is overseen by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The cells are produced by an accredited laboratory independent of the clinical sites. In addition, as part of standard oversight of clinical trials, the DSMB routinely reviews and monitors CONCERT-HF to ensure participant safety and that the study continues to ask compelling scientific questions with implications for patient care.

The DSMB’s review will be conducted as expeditiously as possible and will inform NHLBI’s future actions that will ensure the highest standards of participant safety and scientific integrity.

SOURCE

https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/news/2018/statement-nhlbi-decision-pause-concert-hf-trial

References

  1. Quaini, F. et al. N. Engl. J. Med. 346, 5–15 (2002).
  1. Murry, C. E. et al. Nature 428, 664–668 (2004).
  1. Balsam, L. B. Nature 428, 668–673 (2004).
  1. Nygren, J. M. et al. Nature Med. 10, 494–501 (2004).

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Bioinformatics Tool Review: Genome Variant Analysis Tools, Volume 2 (Volume Two: Latest in Genomics Methodologies for Therapeutics: Gene Editing, NGS and BioInformatics, Simulations and the Genome Ontology), Part 1: Next Generation Sequencing (NGS)

Bioinformatics Tool Review: Genome Variant Analysis Tools

Curator: Stephen J. Williams, Ph.D.

Updated 02/07/2021

Updated 11/15/2018

The following post will be an ongoing curation of reviews of gene variant bioinformatic software.

The Ensembl Variant Effect Predictor.

McLaren W, Gil L, Hunt SE, Riat HS, Ritchie GR, Thormann A, Flicek P, Cunningham F.

Genome Biol. 2016 Jun 6;17(1):122. doi: 10.1186/s13059-016-0974-4.

Author information

1

European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge, CB10 1SD, UK. wm2@ebi.ac.uk.

2

European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge, CB10 1SD, UK.

3

European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge, CB10 1SD, UK. fiona@ebi.ac.uk.

Abstract

The Ensembl Variant Effect Predictor is a powerful toolset for the analysis, annotation, and prioritization of genomic variants in coding and non-coding regions. It provides access to an extensive collection of genomic annotation, with a variety of interfaces to suit different requirements, and simple options for configuring and extending analysis. It is open source, free to use, and supports full reproducibility of results. The Ensembl Variant Effect Predictor can simplify and accelerate variant interpretation in a wide range of study designs.

Rare diseases can be difficult to diagnose due to low incidence and incomplete penetrance of implicated alleles however variant analysis of whole genome sequencing can identify underlying genetic events responsible for the disease (Nature, 2015).  However, a large cohort is required for many WGS association studies in order to produce enough statistical power for interpretation (see post and here).  To this effect major sequencing projects have been initiated worldwide including:

A more thorough curation of sequencing projects can be seen in the following post:

Icelandic Population Genomic Study Results by deCODE Genetics come to Fruition: Curation of Current genomic studies

And although sequencing costs have dramatically been reduced over the years, the costs to determine the functional consequences of such variants remains high, as thorough basic research studies must be conducted to validate the interpretation of variant data with respect to the underlying disease, as only a small fraction of variants from a genome sequencing project will encode for a functional protein.  Correct annotation of sequences and variants, identification of correct corresponding reference genes or transcripts in GENCODE or RefSeq respectively offer compelling challenges to the proper identification of sequenced variants as potential functional variants.

To this effect, the authors developed the Ensembl Variant Effect Predictor (VEP), which is a software suite that performs annotations and analysis of most types of genomic variation in coding and non-coding regions of the genome.

Summary of Features

  • Annotation: VEP can annotate two broad categories of genomic variants
    • Sequence variants with specific and defined changes: indels, base substitutions, SNVs, tandem repeats
    • Larger structural variants > 50 nucleotides
  • Species and assembly/genomic database support: VEP can analyze data from any species with assembled genome sequence and annotated gene set. VEP supports chromosome assemblies such as the latest GRCh38, FASTA, as well as transcripts from RefSeq as well as user-derived sequences
  • Transcript Annotation: VEP includes a wide variety of gene and transcript related information including NCBI Gene ID, Gene Symbol, Transcript ID, NCBI RefSeq ID, exon/intron information, and cross reference to other databases such as UniProt
  • Protein Annotation: Protein-related fields include Protein ID, RefSeq ID, SwissProt, UniParc ID, reference codons and amino acids, SIFT pathogenicity score, protein domains
  • Noncoding Annotation: VEP reports variants in noncoding regions including genomic regulatory regions, intronic regions, transcription binding motifs. Data from ENCODE, BLUEPRINT, and NIH Epigenetics RoadMap are used for primary annotation.  Plugins to the Perl coding are also available to link other databases which annotate noncoding sequence features.
  • Frequency, phenotype, and citation annotation: VEP searches Ensembl databases containing a large amount of germline variant information and checks variants against the dbSNP single nucleotide polymorphism database. VEP integrates with mutational databases such as COSMIC, the Human Gene Mutation Database, and structural and copy number variants from Database of Genomic Variants.  Allele Frequencies are reported from 1000 Genomes and NHLBI and integrates with PubMed for literature annotation.  Phenotype information is from OMIM, Orphanet, GWAS and clinical information of variants from ClinVar.
  • Flexible Input and Output Formats: VEP supports input data format called “variant call format” or VCP, a standard in next-gen sequencing. VEP has the ability to process variant identifiers from other database formats.  Output formats are tab deliminated and give the user choices in presentation of results (HTML or text based)
  • Choice of user interface
    • Online tool (VEP Web): simple point and click; incorporates Instant VEP Functionality and copy and paste features. Results can be stored online in cloud storage on Ensembl.
    • VEP script: VEP is available as a downloadable PERL script (see below for link) and can process large amounts of data rapidly. This interface is powerfully flexible with the ability to integrate multiple plugins available from Ensembl and GitHub.  The ability to alter the PERL code and add plugins and code functions allows the flexibility to modify any feature of VEP.
    • VEP REST API: provides robust computational access to any programming language and returns basic variant annotation. Can make use of external plugins.

 

Watch Video on VES Instructional Webinar: https://youtu.be/7Fs7MHfXjWk

Watch Video on VES Web Version training on How to Analyze Your Sequence in VEP

Availability of data and materials

The dataset supporting the conclusions of this article is available from Illumina’s Platinum Genomes [93] and using the Ensembl release 75 gene set. Pre-built data sets are available for all Ensembl and Ensembl Genomes species [94]. They can also be downloaded automatically during set up whilst installing the VEP.

References

Large-scale discovery of novel genetic causes of developmental disorders.

Deciphering Developmental Disorders Study.

Nature2015 Mar 12;519(7542):223-8. doi: 10.1038/nature14135. PMID:25533962

Updated 11/15/2018

Research Points to Caution in Use of Variant Effect Prediction Bioinformatic Tools

Although we have the ability to use high throughput sequencing to identify allelic variants occurring in rare disease, correlation of these variants with the underlying disease is often difficult due to a few concerns:

  • For rare sporadic diseases, classical gene/variant association studies have proven difficult to perform (Meyts et al. 2016)
  • As Whole Exome Sequencing (WES) returns a considerable number of variants, how to differentiate the normal allelic variation found in the human population from disease-causing pathogenic alleles
  • For rare diseases, pathogenic allele frequencies are generally low

Therefore, for these rare pathogenic alleles, the use of bioinformatics tools in order to predict the resulting changes in gene function may provide insight into disease etiology when validation of these allelic changes might be experimentally difficult.

In a 2017 Genes & Immunity paper, Line Lykke Andersen and Rune Hartmann tested the reliability of various bioinformatic software to predict the functional consequence of variants of six different genes involved in interferon induction and sixteen allelic variants of the IFNLR1 gene.  These variants were found in cohorts of patients presenting with herpes simplex encephalitis (HSE). Most of the adult population is seropositive for Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV) however a minor fraction (1 in 250,000 individuals per year) of HSV infected individuals will develop HSE (Hjalmarsson et al., 2007).  It has been suggested that HSE occurs in individuals with rare primary immunodeficiencies caused by gene defects affecting innate immunity through reduced production of interferons (IFN) (Zhang et al., Lim et al.).

References

Meyts I, Bosch B, Bolze A, Boisson B, Itan Y, Belkadi A, et al. Exome and genome sequencing for inborn errors of immunity. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2016;138:957–69.

Hjalmarsson A, Blomqvist P, Skoldenberg B. Herpes simplex encephalitis in Sweden, 1990-2001: incidence, morbidity, and mortality. Clin Infect Dis. 2007;45:875–80.

Zhang SY, Jouanguy E, Ugolini S, Smahi A, Elain G, Romero P, et al. TLR3 deficiency in patients with herpes simplex encephalitis. Science. 2007;317:1522–7.

Lim HK, Seppanen M, Hautala T, Ciancanelli MJ, Itan Y, Lafaille FG, et al. TLR3 deficiency in herpes simplex encephalitis: high allelic heterogeneity and recurrence risk. Neurology. 2014;83:1888–97.

Genes Immun. 2017 Dec 4. doi: 10.1038/s41435-017-0002-z.

Frequently used bioinformatics tools overestimate the damaging effect of allelic variants.

Andersen LL1Terczyńska-Dyla E1Mørk N2Scavenius C1Enghild JJ1Höning K3Hornung V3,4Christiansen M5,6Mogensen TH2,6Hartmann R7.

Abstract

We selected two sets of naturally occurring human missense allelic variants within innate immune genes. The first set represented eleven non-synonymous variants in six different genes involved in interferon (IFN) induction, present in a cohort of patients suffering from herpes simplex encephalitis (HSE) and the second set represented sixteen allelic variants of the IFNLR1 gene. We recreated the variants in vitro and tested their effect on protein function in a HEK293T cell based assay. We then used an array of 14 available bioinformatics tools to predict the effect of these variants upon protein function. To our surprise two of the most commonly used tools, CADD and SIFT, produced a high rate of false positives, whereas SNPs&GO exhibited the lowest rate of false positives in our test. As the problem in our test in general was false positive variants, inclusion of mutation significance cutoff (MSC) did not improve accuracy.

Methodology

  1. Identification of rare variants
  2. Genomes of nineteen Dutch patients with a history of HSE sequenced by WES and identification of novel HSE causing variants determined by filtering the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that had a frequency below 1% in the NHBLI Exome Sequencing Project Exome Variant Server and the 1000 Genomes Project and were present within 204 genes involved in the immune response to HSV.
  3. Identified variants (204) manually evaluated for involvement of IFN induction based on IDBase and KEGG pathway database analysis.
  4. In-silico predictions: Variants classified by the in silico variant pathogenicity prediction programs: SIFT, Mutation Assessor, FATHMM, PROVEAN, SNAP2, PolyPhen2, PhD-SNP, SNP&GO, FATHMM-MKL, MutationTaster2, PredictSNP, Condel, MetaSNP, and CADD. Each program returned prediction scores measuring likelihood of a variant either being ‘deleterious’ or ‘neutral’. Prediction accuracy measured as

ACC = (true positive+true negative)/(true positive+true negative+false positive+false negative)

  1. Validation of prediction software/tools

In order to validate the predictive value of the software, HEK293T cells, deficient in IRF3, MAVS, and IKKe/TBK1, were cotransfected with the nine variants of the aforementioned genes and a luciferase reporter under control of the IFN-b promoter and luciferase activity measured as an indicator of IFN signaling function.  Western blot was performed to confirm the expression of the constructs.

Results

Table 2 Summary of the
bioinformatic predictions
HSE variants IFNLR1 variants Overall ACC
TN TP FN FP Total ACC TN TP FN FP Total ACC
Uniform cutoff
SIFT 4 1 0 4 9 0.56 8 1 0 7 16 0.56 0.56
Mutation assessor 6 1 0 2 9 0.78 9 1 0 6 16 0.63 0.68
FATHMM 7 1 0 1 9 0.89 0.89
PROVEAN 8 1 0 0 9 1.00 11 1 0 4 16 0.75 0.84
SNAP2 5 1 0 3 9 0.67 8 0 1 7 16 0.50 0.56
PolyPhen2 6 1 0 2 9 0.78 12 1 0 3 16 0.81 0.80
PhD-SNP 7 1 0 1 9 0.89 11 1 0 4 16 0.75 0.80
SNPs&GO 8 1 0 0 9 1.00 14 1 0 1 16 0.94 0.96
FATHMM MKL 4 1 0 4 9 0.56 13 0 1 2 16 0.81 0.72
MutationTaster2 4 0 1 4 9 0.44 14 0 1 1 16 0.88 0.72
PredictSNP 6 1 0 2 9 0.78 11 1 0 4 16 0.75 0.76
Condel 6 1 0 2 9 0.78 0.78
Meta-SNP 8 1 0 0 9 1.00 11 1 0 4 16 0.75 0.84
CADD 2 1 0 6 9 0.33 8 0 1 7 16 0.50 0.44
MSC 95% cutoff
SIFT 5 1 0 3 9 0.67 8 1 0 8 16 0.50 0.56
PolyPhen2 6 1 0 2 9 0.78 13 1 0 3 16 0.81 0.80
CADD 4 1 0 4 9 0.56 7 0 1 9 16 0.44 0.48

Note: TN: true negative, TP: true positive, FN: false negative, FP: false positive, ACC: accuracy

Functional testing (data obtained from reporter construct experiments) were considered as the correct outcome.

Three prediction tools (PROVEAN, SNP&GO, and MetaSNP correctly predicted the effect of all nine variants tested.

Updated 02/07/2021

InMeRF: prediction of pathogenicity of missense variants by individual modeling for each amino acid substitution
Jun-Ichi Takeda Kentaro Nanatsue Ryosuke Yamagishi Mikako Ito Nobuhiko Haga 2Hiromi Hirata Tomoo Ogi Kinji Ohno in NAR Genomics and  Bioinformatics. 2020 May 26;2(2):lqaa038.doi: 10.1093/nargab/lqaa038. eCollection 2020 Jun.

Abstract

In predicting the pathogenicity of a nonsynonymous single-nucleotide variant (nsSNV), a radical change in amino acid properties is prone to be classified as being pathogenic. However, not all such nsSNVs are associated with human diseases. We generated random forest (RF) models individually for each amino acid substitution to differentiate pathogenic nsSNVs in the Human Gene Mutation Database and common nsSNVs in dbSNP. We named a set of our models ‘Individual Meta RF’ (InMeRF). Ten-fold cross-validation of InMeRF showed that the areas under the curves (AUCs) of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) and precision-recall curves were on average 0.941 and 0.957, respectively. To compare InMeRF with seven other tools, the eight tools were generated using the same training dataset, and were compared using the same three testing datasets. ROC-AUCs of InMeRF were ranked first in the eight tools. We applied InMeRF to 155 pathogenic and 125 common nsSNVs in seven major genes causing congenital myasthenic syndromes, as well as in VANGL1 causing spina bifida, and found that the sensitivity and specificity of InMeRF were 0.942 and 0.848, respectively. We made the InMeRF web service, and also made genome-wide InMeRF scores available online (https://www.med.nagoya-u.ac.jp/neurogenetics/InMeRF/).

Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33543123/

ADDRESS: A database of disease-associated human variants incorporating protein structure and folding stabilities
Jaie Woodard Chengxin Zhang Yang Zhang in J Mol Biol. 2021 Feb 1;166840. doi: 10.1016/j.jmb.2021.166840.

Abstract

Numerous human diseases are caused by mutations in genomic sequences. Since amino acid changes affect protein function through mechanisms often predictable from protein structure, the integration of structural and sequence data enables us to estimate with greater accuracy whether and how a given mutation will lead to disease. Publicly available annotated databases enable hypothesis assessment and benchmarking of prediction tools. However, the results are often presented as summary statistics or black box predictors, without providing full descriptive information. We developed a new semi-manually curated human variant database presenting information on the protein contact-map, sequence-to-structure mapping, amino acid identity change, and stability prediction for the popular UniProt database. We found that the profiles of pathogenic and benign missense polymorphisms can be effectively deduced using decision trees and comparative analyses based on the presented dataset. The database is made publicly available through https://zhanglab.ccmb.med.umich.edu/ADDRESS.

Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33539887/

PopDel identifies medium-size deletions simultaneously in tens of thousands of genomes

Abstract

Thousands of genomic structural variants (SVs) segregate in the human population and can impact phenotypic traits and diseases. Their identification in whole-genome sequence data of large cohorts is a major computational challenge. Most current approaches identify SVs in single genomes and afterwards merge the identified variants into a joint call set across many genomes. We describe the approach PopDel, which directly identifies deletions of about 500 to at least 10,000 bp in length in data of many genomes jointly, eliminating the need for subsequent variant merging. PopDel scales to tens of thousands of genomes as we demonstrate in evaluations on up to 49,962 genomes. We show that PopDel reliably reports common, rare and de novo deletions. On genomes with available high-confidence reference call sets PopDel shows excellent recall and precision. Genotype inheritance patterns in up to 6794 trios indicate that genotypes predicted by PopDel are more reliable than those of previous SV callers. Furthermore, PopDel’s running time is competitive with the fastest tested previous tools. The demonstrated scalability and accuracy of PopDel enables routine scans for deletions in large-scale sequencing studies.

Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33526789/

Other articles related to Genomics and Bioinformatics on this online Open Access Journal Include:

Finding the Genetic Links in Common Disease: Caveats of Whole Genome Sequencing Studies

Large-scale sequencing does not support the idea that lower-frequency variants have a major role in predisposition to type 2 diabetes

US Personalized Cancer Genome Sequencing Market Outlook 2018 –

Icelandic Population Genomic Study Results by deCODE Genetics come to Fruition: Curation of Current genomic studies

Cardiac Medical Devices Pioneer, Earl E. Bakken, Medtronic Co-founder, the developer of the first external, battery-powered, transistorized pacemaker, died at 94 on 10/21/2018 in Hawaii

 

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

Article ID #258: Cardiac Medical Devices Pioneer, Earl E. Bakken, Medtronic Co-founder, the developer of the first external, battery-powered, transistorized pacemaker, died at 94 on 10/21/2018 in Hawaii. Published on 10/22/2018

WordCloud Image Produced by Adam Tubman

Earl Bakken was born to Florence and Osval Bakken on January 10, 1924, in Minneapolis. After serving as a radar instructor in World War II, Bakken earned a degree in electrical engineering at the University of Minnesota.

In the late 1950’s, Bakken developed the first external, wearable, battery-powered, transistorized heart pacemaker, and commercialized the first implantable pacemaker in 1960. Medtronic grew rapidly from there; today its medical products and devices improve the lives of two people every second.

Earl with five-year-old pacemaker recipient Lyla Koch in 1984

Image Sourcehttp://www.medtronic.com/us-en/about/news/celebrating-earl-bakken.html

 

CELEBRATING EARL BAKKEN

Legendary Medtronic co-founder passes away in Hawaii.
 
Earl Bakken, Co-founder, Medtronic, died at 94

Image Sourcehttp://www.medtronic.com/us-en/about/news/celebrating-earl-bakken.html

The business struggled, but while servicing medical equipment, Bakken and Hermundslie built relationships with doctors at university hospitals in Minneapolis. There they met C. Walton Lillehei, a young staff surgeon who would later become famous for pioneering open-heart surgery. Following a blackout in the Twin Cities that caused the death of an infant, Lillehei asked Bakken to come up with a solution. He responded by adapting a circuit described in Popular Electronics magazine to create the first external wearable, battery-powered pacemaker, replacing the large, alternating current-powered pacemakers that were in use at the time.

The original Medtronic "Garage Gang" poses in front of Medtronic Operational Headquarters in Fridley, Minnesota.

The Garage Gang

Standing: Dale Blosberg, Norman Hagfors, Earl Hatten. Seated: John Bravis, Earl Bakken, Louis Leisch

They expanded services to other medical technology. Then in 1960, the first implantable pacemaker was implanted in a human patient. Bakken and Hermundslie reached a licensing agreement with the inventors, giving their small company exclusive manufacturing and marketing rights to the device, and Medtronic took off.

“Earl always had a vision of healthcare of not being about devices, about drugs, but about restoring people to full health,” said former Medtronic CEO Bill George. “And so from the very start he was focused on not implanting a device, but enabling people to live a full active life and he delivered that point of view to all Medtronic employees through The Mission.

A lifelong aspiration came true for Bakken in 2013, when Medtronic Philanthropy launched The Bakken Invitation to honor people who received medical devices, and who made an impact on the lives of others, through service and volunteerism. Bakken, who in his later years became a medical device patient, with a pacemaker, coronary stents and insulin pump, was fond of asking patients what they planned to do with their gift of “extra life.” Each year Bakken met with the honorees. “Their stories are a powerful reminder that we can all give back-no matter our current situation,” he said after meeting them in 2014.

Earl poses with recipients of the Bakken Invitation in 2013.Earl with Bakken Invitation recipients in 2013

Every year in December, Medtronic employees gather to mark another Bakken inspiration — the employee holiday program. The company invites patients from all over the world to share their stories of how medical technology has improved their lives. Hundreds of employees fill the Medtronic conservatory for the event, while thousands of others listen or watch via Medtronic TV.

Three Scenarios for the Scaling up Potential of LPBI Group’s BioMed e-Series: Lights on Intellectual Property Growth Capacity and the Business Potential of the Venture

Author: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

 

From: Aviva Lev-Ari <avivalev-ari@alum.berkeley.edu>

Date: October 20, 2018 at 10:36:21 AM EDT

To: Gail Thornton <gailsthornton@yahoo.com>, “Dr. Larry Bernstein” <larry.bernstein@gmail.com>, Stephen J Williams <sjwilliamspa@comcast.net>

Cc: Marcus Feldman <mfeldman@stanford.edu>, rmandahl@gmail.com, Justin MDMEPhD <jdpmdphd@gmail.com>, Tilda Barliya <tildabarliya@gmail.com>, “Dr. Irina Robu, PhD” <irina.stefania@gmail.com>, “Dr. Raphael Nir” <rnir@sbhsciences.com>, “Dr. Dror Nir” <drornir0305@gmail.com>, Dee Sag <demet.sag@gmail.com>, Sudipta Saha <sudiptasaha1977@gmail.com>

Subject: Re: Dr. Laura Carfang from SurvivingBreastCancer.org interested in your Voices project

 

Dr. Larry, Dr. Williams, Gail

 

I wish to thank Dr. Williams for exposing to SurvivingBreastCancer.org

Our Series E: Parient-centered Medicine, Volume One: Voices of Patients, an e-Book on patients personal experiences with invasive surgical procedures, chiefly, cancerous organ excision and open heart surgery.

This Volume one is unique and please all read again the Preface, Introduction, Summary and Epilogue. Read in the follwoing link:

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/biomed-e-books/series-e-titles-in-the-strategic-plan-for-2014-1015/2014-the-patients-voice-personal-experience-with-invasive-medical-procedures/

and

Co-Editors: Dr. Larry H. Bernstein and Gail Thornton

 

As Editor-in-Chief, I made the selection of the editors and envisioned the following unique features of this e-book:

  • Commissioned Gail to conduct interviews with Patients and to author articles that provide primary patients accounts. One article of Gail is on a cardiac patient, the rest on several cancer types, non on Breast Cancer
  • Gail, as Volume Co-Editors suggested to conduct interviews with Hospital CEOs around the Globe, I.e., Singapore, Switzerland, US: CA, NJ
  • Commissioned Dr. Larry to contribute articles on “The MD as a Cancer Patient”
  • Identified another “MD as a cancer patient”, Finding My Voice: A Laryngectomee’s Story
  • Identified two authors, for cardiac patients experience, one with open heart surgery, the other about a cardiac medical device in usage

As such, Series E: Volume One is a very distinctive e-Book. Gail Thornton and myself discussed marketing the e-Book in Cancer Treatment Centers in the US. The e-Book is priced for patients as e-readers ($49, 824 pages vs $75 or $115 for volumes of 2,000 – 3,000 pages or more)

I personally, planned this volume to be an e-Book widely marketed and read by the public at large. The other 15 volumes are of interest to the public, they are primarily for the Heath Care sector professionals, policy makers in Heath Care, Science and Research Administrators, Scientists, the entire GLOBAL and American Medical community.

Our BioMed e-Series Plan: SIXTEEN volumes to be completed in July 2019 and reach the Milestone of EXIT and ownership transfer in 12/2019 to 12/2020, time frame.

Dr. Lev-Ari gave Series E its Title and the Titles to Volume 1,2,3,4 in this e-Series. That was the case with all other four e-Series: 

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/biomed-e-books/

  • Series A: Cardiovascular, six volumes, 

Content Consultant, Dr. J.D. Pearlman

  • Series B: Genomics, two volumes, 

Content Consultant, Prof. M.W. Feldman, Stanford University

  • Series C: Cancer, two volumes, 

Content Consultant, Dr. L.H. Bernstein

  • Series D: Metabolomics, Immunology, Infectious Diseases, 

Content Consultant, Dr. L.H. Bernstein

  • Series E: Patient-centered Medicine, four volumes

Content Consultant, Dr. L.H. Bernstein

 

This e-mail is about an organization, I.e., SurvivingBreastCancer.org expressing interest to support 

—–>>> A NEW e-BOOK, in Series E, Volume One: Patient Voices

To focus on the VOICES of Survivors of Breast Cancer as 2nd Edition to Volume One.

This volume, if produced, will be #17.

  • The initial 16-Volume BioMed Series did not plan on 2nd Editions to each Volume.

 

In light of SBC INTEREST, I see three Scenarios:

 

Scenario #1 limited LPBI Group involvement beyond LPBI Group Intellectual Property:

SurvivingBreastCancer.org (SBC) is given by fiat for being .org LPBI Group’s permission to use our methods in e-Publishing. They choose the Editor and they produce by their Editor and writers of their choice a volume IN THE IMAGE of Series E, Volume One 1st Edition. 

Here we own two IP assets

1.1 MIRROR IMAGE OF THE e-Table of Contents (eTOCs) of Volume One 1st Edition

1.2 The Curation methodology and all Formats, as perfected in 16-volume BioMed e-Series

Scenario #2 more involvement by LPBI Group

2.1 All of mentioned in #1 Scenarios

and

2.2. Dr. Williams provides SBC with a Bibliography in descending date of publishing of ALL Breast Cancer articles in the Archive of pharmaceuticalintelligence.com – all 5,400 articles in the Journal Archive are 100% IP of LPBI Group.

 

Scenario #3 LPBI Group becomes a BUSINESS PARTNER for SBC on the production of LPBI Group’s BioMed e-Series, Series E, 

Volume One 2nd Edition on VOICES of Patients of Breast Cancer Survivors

 

Other Options using LPBI Group Intellectual Property – very attractive proposition for potential transfer of ownership, aka, EXIT

  • eTOCs of Series E, Volume One, 1st Edition
  • The methodology of Curation and all Formats
  • Bibliography in descending date of Publication of articles on the CANCER TYPE from LPBI Group’s Archive of pharmaceuticalintelligence.com

Collaboration and Partnership with Patient Advocacy Foundations to support the following: Scaling up “Digital Library” Options on VOICES of Patients by TYPE of CANCER

  • Volume One 3rd Edition on VOICES of Patients of Prostate Cancer Survivors
  • Volume One 4th Edition on VOICES of Patients of Lymphomas and Leukemias
  • Volume One 5th Edition on VOICES of Patients of Lung Cancer 
  • Volume One 6th Edition on VOICES of Patients of Brain, Head and Neck Cancers
  • Volume One 7th Edition on VOICES of Patients of Pancreas, Liver and Biliary System Cancers
  • Volume One 8th Edition on VOICES of Patients of GI and Colonrectal 
  • Volume One 9th Edition on VOICES of Patients of Skin Cancers
  • Volume One 10th Edition on VOICES of Patients of Myelomas (Bone), Sarcomas and rare 
  • Connective tissue cancers
  • Volume One 11th Edition on VOICES of Patients of Kidney and Bladder Cancers and the GU system
  • Volume One 12th Edition on VOICES of Patients of Reproductive Organ Cancers: Ovarian, Cervical and Testicular 

BioMed e-Series 16 volumes could have TEN Editions each, Aviva can specify all these e-Book Titles on behalf of a Publisher(s).

  • 160 new titles. For a PUBLISHER, this is a gold mine.

SAME, as these Options for NEW Editions for Series E, Volume One, LPBI Group will draft Options for NEW Editions for

  • Series A – six volume times TEN Editions per Volume
  • Series B – two volumes times TEN Editions per Volume
  • Series C – two volumes times TEN Editions per Volume
  • Series D – three volume times TEN Editions per Volume
  • Series B – four volumes times TEN Editions per Volume

Thank you

Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

Editor-in-Chief, BioMed e-Series

http://PharmaceuticalIntelligence.com

Director & Founder

Leaders in Pharmaceutical Business Intelligence (LPBI) Group

Study Finds that Both Women and their Primary Care Physicians Confusion over Ovarian Cancer Symptoms May Lead to Misdiagnosis

Reporter: Stephen J. Williams, Ph.D.

This post discusses the recently released “The Every Woman Study” conducted by the World Ovarian Cancer Coalition.  For full PDF of the study please click here: WOCC-Every-Woman-Study-Summary-Report-Oct-16

The findings are summarized nicely in the NPR article from Joanne Silberner below but just want to list a few takeaways from the study

  1.  Ovarian Cancer, while not the most common cancer in women, is still one of the most deadly malignancies.  A major reason for this is the inability to catch the disease in its early, and most treatable stages.  Much work is being done on early detection (a few posts on this area from this online journal are given at the end of this post for reference)
  2. The symptoms of ovarian cancer closely mimic symptoms of gastrointestinal distress and disorders and many times these symptoms are overlooked by women as benign, temporary issues and may be mis-self diagnosed.  In addition, if mistaken for common gastrointestinal discomfort or gynecologic discomfort (cramping)  women may self-medicate with over the counter agents which mask the symptoms of ovarian cancer
  3. certain lessons can be learned from the experiences in other countries regarding access to healthcare and diagnosis. For instance

Looking at the key findings of the study it becomes clear that countries have significant potential to
learn from each other:
• Women in Germany had the shortest time to diagnosis, but much less access to
specialist clinicians that are key to successful treatment.
• Women in the UK have almost universal access to specialists but the lowest
proportion of women diagnosed within a month of visiting a doctor.
• Women in Japan had one of the shortest times to diagnosis, but very little access to
genetic testing, and were least likely to get the emotional support they needed.
• Women in the USA were most likely to wait more than three months before
consulting a doctor about symptoms, but most likely to receive genetic testing.
• Women with ovarian cancer in Hungary were most aware of ovarian cancer before
their diagnosis, but were much less likely to be offered surgery to treat their disease.

 

In summary it appears there are three key areas needing to be addressed with regard to improving early reporting of symptoms of ovarian cancer

  1. information and awareness of symptoms by BOTH women and their physicians
  2. family risk assessment programs are very important to make women aware of their risks and needs for screening
  3. access to specialist treatment is important in the early diagnosis and treatment of this disease

 

Learn the Symptoms

Symptoms (from the Sandy Rollman Ovarian Cancer Foundation)

Historically ovarian cancer was called the “silent killer” because symptoms were not thought to develop until the chance of cure was poor. However, recent studies have shown this term is untrue and that the following symptoms are much more likely to occur in women with ovarian cancer than women in the general population. These symptoms include:

  • Bloating
  • Pelvic or abdominal pain
  • Difficulty eating or feeling full quickly
  • Urinary symptoms (urgency or frequency)

Women with ovarian cancer report that symptoms are persistent and represent a change from normal for their bodies. The frequency and/or number of such symptoms are key factors in the diagnosis of ovarian cancer. Several studies show that even early stage ovarian cancer can produce these symptoms.

Women who have these symptoms almost daily for more than a few weeks should see their doctor, preferably a gynecologist. Prompt medical evaluation may lead to detection at the earliest possible stage of the disease. Early stage diagnosis is associated with an improved prognosis.

Several other symptoms have been commonly reported by women with ovarian cancer. These symptoms include fatigue, indigestion, back pain, pain with intercourse, constipation and menstrual irregularities. However, these other symptoms are not as useful in identifying ovarian cancer because they are also found in equal frequency in women in the general population who do not have ovarian cancer.

 

In addition there are serum biomarker tests which have shown useful in the screening for ovarian cancer however these tests have their caveats and not generally suggested for whole population screening due to number of false postitives which may occur (these tests will be discussed in further posts)

Serum biomarker tests include:

 Taken From NPR at https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/10/21/658798956/report-women-everywhere-dont-know-enough-about-ovarian-cancer

Report: Women Everywhere Don’t Know Enough About Ovarian Cancer

Colored scanning electron micrograph of dividing ovarian cancer cells.

Steve Gschmeissner/Science Source

new study of women with ovarian cancer shows that ignorance about the condition is common among patients in all 44 countries surveyed. And that ignorance has a cost. The disease is more treatable, even potentially curable, in its early stages.

The women’s answers also suggested their doctors were ignorant. Many of them reported that diagnosis took a long time and that they weren’t referred to proper specialists.

The study was based on an online survey of 1,531 women who had been diagnosed with the cancer and was conducted by the World Ovarian Cancer Coalition, a nonprofit support group between March and May of this year.

Ovarian cancer is the eighth leading cause of cancer in women, according to the World Health Organization. Nearly 300,000 women will develop it this year. The World Ovarian Cancer Coalition estimates that one in six will die within three months of diagnosis and fewer than half will be alive in five years.

Prior to their diagnosis, two-thirds of the women surveyed either had never heard of ovarian cancer or were familiar with the name but didn’t know anything about the disease.

 

Other articles related to Ovarian Cancer on this online Open Access Journal Include:

Model mimicking clinical profile of patients with ovarian cancer @ Yale School of Medicine

New Findings in Endometrial Cancer: Mutations, Molecular Types and Immune Responses Evoked by Mutation-prone Endometrial, Ovarian Cancer Subtypes

Good and Bad News Reported for Ovarian Cancer Therapy

Efficacy of Ovariectomy in Presence of BRCA1 vs BRCA2 and the Risk for Ovarian Cancer

Testing for Multiple Genetic Mutations via NGS for Patients: Very Strong Family History of Breast & Ovarian Cancer, Diagnosed at Young Ages, & Negative on BRCA Test

Ultrasound-based Screening for Ovarian Cancer

Warning signs may lead to better early detection of ovarian cancer

Epigenetics, Environment and Cancer: Articles of Note @PharmaceuticalIntelligence.com

Early Diagnosis [Early Detection Research Networks]

 

Nomination for 2018 Yidan Prize, recognition in the field of MEDICAL education: development of curation methodologies for scientific content – 2018 Nominee, Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

 

March 31, 2018

Yidan Prize for Education Development recognizes innovative ideas that tackle pressing challenges in the field of education.

Nomination for recognition as means in tackling challenges in the field of MEDICAL education, the

“Sixteen Volumes in Medicine and Life Sciences” in the LPBI Group’s BioMed e-Series, an initiative of innovative ideas and development of curation methodologies for scientific content.

 

Yidan Prize 2018 Nominee Aviva Lev-Ari

(Form ID : D181569) www.yidanprize.org

 

Judging Criteria

 1. Sustainability

The books are online topics in medical science, diagnostics and therapy that are maintained by updating the chapter material in the Biomed e-series directly pertaining to the chapter content that is directly available from the e-series online. The Chapters are compiled from detailed review of the available literature, and the content of each book is related to current concepts researched and coordinated for the published work. One of the Research Categories: Interviews with Scientific Leaders includes in its growth plan the option of Podcasts which is an Audio Media component to supplement the video media component which is used extensively in the BioMed e-Series

How we accomplish the Sustainability goal:

  • Online continuing updates are made to articles in the Journal
  • Each e-Book has an abbreviated electronic Table of Contents which consists of LIVE LINKS for each article in an e-Book to the article in the Journal. eReaders of the e-Books clicks on the link and get the most updated State of Science for each topic in the e-books.
  • Journal Ontology is a relational and hierarchical knowledge base allowing for expansion of the content creation process on these two dimensions and is not limited to these two. For example: One of the Research Categories: Interviews with Scientific Leaders includes in its growth plan the option of Podcasts which is an Audio Media component to supplement the video media component which is used extensively in the BioMed e-Series.

2. A Future-Oriented Vision

Cutting edge research is the content of a research reservoir that allows for the creation of up-to-date content, and which supports new developments as they arise. The cutting edge concepts are reviewed in concordance with timely conferences on topical material. These conferences are also recorded and conveyed in the related documents. Since 2013, International leading Breakthroughs in BioTechnology Conferences are covered in Real Time by Dr. Aviva Lev-Ari on PRESS Pass.

How we accomplish the Future-Oriented Vision goal:

  • The Intellectual Property Vault (N= +5,200) has the potential of being used for creation of New Titles for New e-Books. It is a reservoir of Ideas in the form of Research Categories populated by Scientific Curations
  • Online reach is growing and is driven by cutting edge subject matters added on a continuous basis to the Intellectual Property Vault
  • Innovations in Drug Discovery and Drug Delivery are covered in Real Time, on average up to 12 per year
  • See Section
  • In 2018, the list of International leading Breakthroughs in BioTechnology Conferences that will be covered in Real Time by Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN includes the following, as confirmed on 1/2018, more will be confirmed in during 2018:

AI & Machine Learning in Clinical Trials, APRIL 12, 2018 PFIZER INNOVATION RESEARCH LAB – CAMBRIDGE, MA

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2018/04/02/ai-machine-learning-in-clinical-trials-april-12-2018-pfizer-innovation-research-lab-cambridge-ma/

2018 Annual World Medical Innovation Forum Artificial Intelligence April 23–25, 2018 Boston, Massachusetts, Westin Copley Place

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2018/01/18/2018-annual-world-medical-innovation-forum-artificial-intelligence-april-23-25-2018-boston-massachusetts-westin-copley-place/

12th Annual US-India BioPharma & Healthcare Summit, May 8, 2018, Marriott Cambridge

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2018/01/18/12th-annual-us-india-biopharma-healthcare-summit-may-8-2018-marriott-cambridge/

The 14th Annual Personalized Medicine Conference, November 13 – 15, 2018, Joseph B. Martin Conference Center, HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL, Boston

http://www.personalizedmedicinecoalition.org/Events

 

 3. Transformation

  • We Focus on Transformative subject matters:
  • Examples: We published e-Books on
  1. Regenerative and Translation Medicine
  2. Next Generation Sequencing in Genomics (work-in-progress)
  3. Epigenetics, Genetics and Genomics
  4. Precision Medicine & Voices of Patients

These contents are timely and among other material are subject to periodic updating. The reports are subject to a rigorous process of investigation, up-to-date reporting, analysis, and interpretation. The curation is done by experts with a perspective on the field allowing for the creation of the scientific CONTEXT that unifies the concept evolution with the breakthrough presented at hand and the future implications to be anticipated.

How we accomplish the Transformation goal:

  • Methodology of Curation is Transformative as a Medium for written scientific communication: Synthesis, Analysis and Interpretation
  1. Experts, Authors, Writers add their depth in thinking on subjects to the breath of materials selected by their expertise to be forming new curations or updating existing ones
  2. It is transformative in its capacity to accelerated diffusion of scientific innovations process, the curation is done by experts with a perspective on the field allowing for the creation of the scientific CONTEXT that unifies the concept evolution with the breathrough presented at hand and the future implications to be anticipated. In an analogy, it is an expressive medium for creative exposition of multiple combinations of Past, Present, Future tenses in grammar, when the presentation is on the continuous process of discovery.

 

4. Innovation & Creativity

The content available provides commentaries on each Volume’s Contribution to Medical Education by L.H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN. In addition, it provides a knowledge architecture that features Innovative ideas that tackle pressing challenges in the field of Medical Education. Content includes methodology development for: Curation of Scientific Findings by Experts; Actual Curations, “Mapping” the Medicine Disciplines; Exposition of the Scientific Frontier in Five Specialties in Medicine, and then also pressing challenges in the field of Medical Education such as the Digital Information Explosion in the fields of Life Sciences and Medicine; and finally the Pursuit of Excellence in Content Creation by Curation Methodology for Medical subject matters in multiple areas of the Health Care field.

How we accomplish the Innovation goal:

  • Seven factors are presented in Section F, below.

 

The Body of Work

 

A.         Publication of the BioMedical e-Books e-Series, 2013 – Present

B.         BioMedical e-Books e-Series: Multiple Volumes in Five e-Series with Commentaries on each Volume’s Contribution to Medical Education by L.H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

C.       electronic Table of Contents (eTOCs) of each Volume in the SIXTEEN-Volume BioMed e-Series

D.        Innovative ideas that tackle pressing challenges in the field of Medical Education: Knowledge Architecture

 

D1        Methodology Development for Content Creation targeted at Medical and Life Sciences Education (Curation of Scientific Findings by Experts)

D2        Methodology Development for Scientific Inquiry in Medicine: Case Studies in a Medical Specialty – Application of the Methodology of Curation to Case Studies – Published as a Book, 2015

D3        Methodology Development for Mapping the Medicine Discipline for Education

D4        Methodology Development for Exposition of the Scientific Frontier in Five Specialties in Medicine

(D4.1, D4.2, D4.3, D4.4, D4.5).

 

E.         Innovative ideas that tackle pressing challenges in the field of Medical Education: Digital Information Explosion in the fields of Life Sciences and Medicine

 

E1        Open Access Scientific Journal Launch in Biomedicine and Site Statistics:

+1.3 Million eReaders and eSubscribers

E2        Journal Ontology for Knowledge Architecture – +600 Categories of Research

E3        Intellectual Property Vault: Knowledge Base of +5,200 Scientific articles applying the Curation of Scientific Findings Methodology

E4        Scientific Agora: Multi Scientific Comment exchanges between e-Readers Scientists and LPBI’s Scientists/Experts/Authors/Writers

E5        Real Time (RT) Press Coverage of Leading Conferences in BioMedicine: RT Methodology and the Archive

E6        Impact of E5 on E3

F.      Innovation & Creativity Demonstrated in the Pursuit of Content Creation by Curation Methodology for Medical Education. For us perfection of the application process of curation methodologies in Medicine is a pursuit of excellence in the creation of content in Life Sciences and in Medicine.

 

F1        What was accomplished in five years by Development of the Curation Methodology

F2        Method Selection of the Open Access Journal Publishing Medium

F3        Selection of electronic Books vs Hardcover or Softcover type of product

F4        Examples of Creative Article Titles

F5        Examples of Creative eTOCs

F6        Examples of Hierarchical Ontologies created by Experts/Authors/Writers for selected Categories of Research with +500 Articles

F7        Articles of Note in selective Research Topic @PharmaceuticalIntelligence

 

G.         Editor-in-Chief’s Roles and Accomplishments

G1        Curation Methodology Development

G2        Content Creation and Key Opinion Leader (KOL) Recognition

Editorial & Publication of Articles in e-Books by Leaders in Pharmaceutical Business Intelligence: Contributions of Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/10/16/editorial-publication-of-articles-in-e-books-by-leaders-in-pharmaceutical-business-intelligence-contributions-of-aviva-lev-ari-phd-rn/

G2.1         Volume of Articles in the Journal and in the 16 Volume-BioMed e-Series

G2.2         Digital Presence

G2.3         Digital KOL Parameters

 

G3        Team building: Editors and Expert, Authors, Writers

G4        Book Title Generation and Cover Page Design

G5        Style Setting: Instruction manual for Journal, Articles, Books

G6        Annual Workflow Management of Multiple eTOCs – Multi-year Book Publishing Scheduling Plan, 2013 – Present

 

Justifications for Yidan Prize Nomination

Overview

Dr. Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN has launched in 4/2012 the PharmaceuticalIntelligence.com an Internet-based website as an educational Open Access Online Scientific Journal. On 10/2012 Dr. Lev-Ari, launched a BioMed e-Series of electronic Book in Medicine and Life Sciences which use the Kindle Direct Publishing platform for book publishing by Amazon.com.

The books having evolved for six years from specifically identified topics in Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, including molecular biology, genomics, pharmaceutics and pathophysiology. There have been a number of contributors with the necessary professional competences. The books have been organized into five series that include cardiovascular, genomics, proteomics, pharmacotherapy, cancer and carcinogenesis, infectious disease and immune mechanisms. In addition to these basic disciplines for study there are also important deliberations on the history of medicine and physiology and a focus on the impact of disease on human experience in three books of Series E: Patient-centered Medicine.

The work involved in the writing took many hundreds of hours of study and preparation. These sources have considerable electronic readership (+1.3Million) and have a potential for growing use in teaching of medical students, advanced undergraduate and graduate students in Medical Sciences. Currently, two e-Books are used in curriculum development in Medical Schools in the US. An outreach plan for Deans of Medical Schools and Oncologists and Cardiologists in the Community Hospitals and Clinics is in the making.

The Yidan Prize is awarded for outstanding contributions to education. In this respect the contributions of PharmaceuticalIntelligence.com current and authentic documents is deserving of consideration. Nomination is submitted for recognition as a means in tackling challenges in the field of MEDICAL education, and especially the “Sixteen Volumes in Medicine and Life Sciences” which are LPBI Group’s BioMed e-Series, an initiative of innovative ideas and development of curation methodologies for scientific contents. The BioMedical e-Books e-Series, 2013 – present, includes Commentaries on each Volume’s Contribution to Medical Education by L.H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN. In addition, there is supporting material for an understanding of the role played by electronic Scientific Publishing in mastering the continued progress in Medical Sciences for the electronic exposition of the process used in new scientific content creations. These topics are fully covered in the BioMed e-series. Volume Two in Series A is dedicated to the Curation methodology of scientific findings.

A.    Publication of the BioMedical e-Books e-Series:

  • Cardiovascular,
  • Genomics,
  • Cancer,
  • BioMed: Metabolomics, Infectious Diseases, Immunology,
  • Patient-centered Medicine

 

This is the link to Amazon.com, Kindle Store’s Page for the 13 volumes published till 12/30/2017

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=Aviva+Lev-Ari&rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3AAviva+Lev-Ari

These are the links to Amazon.com, Kindle Store’s Page for each volume

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DINFFYC

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B018Q5MCN8

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B018PNHJ84

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B018DHBUO6

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B013RVYR2K

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B012BB0ZF0

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B019UM909A

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B019VH97LU

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B071VQ6YYK

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075CXHY1B

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076HGB6MZ

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078313281

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078QVDV2W

B. BioMedical e-Books e-Series: Multiple Volumes in Five e-Series with Commentaries on each Volume’s Contribution to Medical Education by L.H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

Series A: e-Books on Cardiovascular Diseases

 

  • Cardiovascular Diseases, Volume One: Perspectives on Nitric Oxide in Disease Mechanisms.On com since 6/21/2013, 895 pages

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DINFFYC

 

Series A. Cardiovascular Diseases: Volume 1. Nitric Oxide

Commentary by L.H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP

This volume addresses the essential role of nitric oxide in vascular stress, which includes hypertension and atherosclerosis. Nitric oxide is only one of several substances that have a key role in vascular stress, but the role is large. It has three isoforms, each of which has a special place in organ system development. Nitric oxide has a specific role in oxidative stress that is generated by mitochondrial function, and it is essentially kept in equilibrium. When equilibrium is disrupted, there is a succession of events that leads to cell death and organ dysfunction. This volume elaborates on the consequences of nitric oxide in generalized vascular and in cardiac specific disease.

This book is a series of articles delineating the basic functioning of the NOS isoforms, their production widely by endothelial cells, and the effect of NITRIC OXIDE production by endothelial cells, by neutrophils and macrophages, the effect on intercellular adhesion, and the effect of circulatory shear and turbulence on NITRIC OXIDE production. The essential role of NITRIC OXIDE is seen widely in organ function and in disease development.

 

Commentary on Volume’s Contribution to Medical Education

by Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN 

This is the only book on the clinical implications of Nitric oxide on all human body biological systems that covers the biochemistry, the physiology and the pathophysiology representing the frontier of medical science in a clinical context.

 

  • Cardiovascular Diseases, Volume Two: Cardiovascular Original Research: Cases in Methodology Design for Content Co-Curation. On Amazon.com since 11/30/2015, 11039 KB

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B018Q5MCN8

 

Series A. Cardiovascular Diseases: Volume 2. Cardiovascular Original Research: Cases in Methodology Design for Content Co-Curation

Commentary by L.H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP

This volume addresses ORIGINAL Research via Content Curation by experts using critical thinking process & interpretation over open access networks, offering better organization and visibility of critical information useful for innovations in academic, clinical, and industrial research.

The main subject of this volume is an elaboration of the methodology for content curation of scientific and more specifically medical literature. It advances a five step process for the curation of the content.
The first evaluation is a review of the affordable care act and the cost of care for cardiovascular disease. The healthcare system needed changes because we have the most costly system, are endowed with advanced technology, and we have inexcusable outcomes in several domains of care, including, infant mortality, and prenatal care – but not in cardiology.

It goes on to consider the conditions that exist in the evolution of cardiovascular disease, among which are not all genetic, but more generally related to calcium signaling and metabolic events that arise during aging. These events have relevance to generalized vascular disease and to cerebral and renal vascular diseases. The material covered includes calcium homeostasis, vascular metabolism, lipid metabolism, conduction disturbances and cardiac dysrhythmias, myocardial infarction, and renal insufficiency.

Curation is an active filtering of the web’s and peer reviewed literature found by such means – immense amount of relevant and irrelevant content. In doing good curation, one does more than simply assign value by presentation of creative work in any category. Answers to specifically focused questions comes from the hard work of many in laboratory settings creatively establishing answers to definitive questions, each a part of the larger knowledge-base of reference.

 

Commentary on Volume’s Contribution to Medical Education

by Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

In this volume the power of co-curation is harnessed in the format of case studies in Interventional cardiology, Cardiac Medical Imaging and Cardiac Surgery. Unique focus on evolution of stent technology, hybrid operating rooms and outcomes of cardiac surgery compared with interventional cardiology: PCI (stenting) vs CABG (Open Heart Surgery). Primary care physicians in the community find the research findings very useful. The case studies contain material for Curriculum development.

 

  • Cardiovascular Diseases, Volume Three: Etiologies of Cardiovascular Diseases: Epigenetics, Genetics and Genomics. On Amazon.com since 11/29/2015, 12333 KB

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B018PNHJ84

 

 

Series A. Cardiovascular Diseases: Volume 3 –address the topics of Etiologies of CVD: Epigenetics, Genetics & Genomics

Commentary by L.H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP

These are matters of great interest and have made considerable progress in the last 30 years with respect to cause, risk and biomarkers, and therapies – both surgical and pharmacologic.

Volume 3 is a comprehensive review of recent Original Research on Cardiovascular Diseases: Causes, Risks and Management and related opportunities for Targeted Therapy. It is a rich source of research literature on the genomic influences in cardiovascular disease etiologies. These have variable influence on the etiologies of atherosclerosis, microvascular disease, plaque formation. However, the context is multivariable and includes the environment, dietary factors, level of emotional stress, sleep habits, and the daily activities of living for affected individuals.

 

Commentary on Volume’s Contribution to Medical Education

by Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

 

Volume 3 covers Epigenetics, Genetics & Genomics of Cardiovascular Diseases. In one volume a comprehensive exposition of ALL the etiologies for heart disease are analyzed for the cause, the risk, the biomarkers, the determinant vs the life style and diet controllable factors in disease evolution. This is the first book to cover comprehensively Epigenetics consequences.

This volume is used by a Medical School in Philadelphia for curriculum development purposes.

 

  • Cardiovascular Diseases, Volume Four: Regenerative and Translational Medicine: The Therapeutics Promise for Cardiovascular Diseases. On comsince 12/26/2015, 11668 KB

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B019UM909A

 

Series A. Cardiovascular Diseases: Volume 4 Regenerative and Translational Medicine: The Therapeutics Promise for Cardiovascular Diseases

Commentary by L.H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP

Volume 4 is largely concerned with cardiovascular diseases, Translational Medicine (TM) and post TM as it concerns Regenerative & Pesonalized Medicine (R&PM) in the context of translational medicine and remodeling concepts leading to electric signal conduction, congestive heart failure and myocardial hypertrophy. It further considers protein targets that have been undruggable because of structural features as future pharmaceutical targets. It also discusses tight junctions and ion transport, critical for conduction and excitation contraction coupling. It extends the discussion to cardiomyocyte specific kinases and its role in oxidation related atrial fibrillation. Other PMs are S-nitrosylation and deacetylation, and signaling with oxidative stress that are disrupted in cardiac disease.

 

Commentary on Volume’s Contribution to Medical Education

by Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

The curation methodology enables the authors/curators to develop one volume that covers the state of science on Regenerative (Stem Cell Implantation) and Translational Medicine (from animal studies to first in Man, clinical trials) with a focus on the Therapeutics Promise for Cardiovascular Diseases. This volume provides latest material for coving these two fields in the classroom. The electronic Table of Contents of the book can serve as a course layout. This book edifies PCP in the community about the frontiers of clinical trials and innovations on Regenerative (Stem Cell Implantation)

 

Work-in-Progress

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/biomed-e-books/series-a-e-books-on-cardiovascular-diseases/volume-five-pharmaco-therapies-for-cvd/

 

Work-in-Progress

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/biomed-e-books/series-a-e-books-on-cardiovascular-diseases/volume-six-interventional-cardiology-and-cardiac-surgery/

 

 

Series B: Frontiers in Genomics Research

 

  • VOLUME 1: Genomics Orientations for Personalized Medicine. On comsince 11/23/2015, 11724 KB

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B018DHBUO6

 

Commentary by L.H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP

 

What is the Future for Genomics in Clinical Medicine?

Author: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP

 

Series B: Frontiers in Genomics Research

 

Series B, VOLUME 1: Genomics Orientations for Personalized Medicine

After the completion of the HGP in 2003, the work was ripe for accelerated discovery, and we have seen new issues in the years since the human genome project (HGP) and ENCODE, and more recently, the 2004 International HapMap project, and 2005 GWAS.  This is because there is a now a confluence of circumstances relating to the practice of medicine, the education of physicians, the communication between physician and patients changing from what is referred to “god handing down an edict” to evidence-based medicine.  This is also complicated at a time that we have a national state-by-state implementation of a remodeled Medicare and Medicaid plan based on the program already successful in Massachusetts.

In the reorganization, there will be more regional hospital, academic and clinic consolidations, and even possible statewide organizations, movement of patients from inpatient beds sooner with a high skill level of outpatient support, greater concentration of physician staffs aligned to PHO type arrangements, and a need to fill PCP gaps with qualified Advanced Nurse Providers.

All of this is happening now.  This is a realignment to meet the needs of the Payor (Fed, HMO, Big Insurance), with tighter margins per stay and critical decisions about capital needs and depreciation, at the same time, required to meet a higher risk of performance standard.  Eric topol refers to the need to education of this generation of physicians in Personalized Medicine.  But that has never been so easy for those advanced in their careers, and even bright new entries into the profession are faced with productivity guidelines.  It is an assignment that will be a new challenge for the Pathology profession, just as the student lab was long ago replaced by the laboratory, with microbiology, blood bank, hematology, chemistry and immunology, to which was added molecular testing.  It will be a very challenging undertaking compared to past experience, and it will be a very big adjunct to microscopy, while imaging technology, in the hands of radiology, is undergoing a parallel transformation.

We derive the following major points from what has been presented in this work:

Genomics will become a key component integrated into patient-care, preventive-medicine, and what is going to become a standard of practice for personalized medicine, or individualized-care of a patient defined by individuality, culture, and personal goals for treatment outcomes.  A personal goal may be a likely or unlikely point of view in the eye of the observer:

  • Let me live with my illness, but relieve my pain
  • Give me a realistic time to prepare for dying so I can tie up loose ends
  • A cure would be a gift if there adverse effects are minimal

The expanded view of this expectation resides in a more accepting view of what lies ahead and of what is behind.  The choice before us lacked clarity in the past.  The view was limited, and might still be for some with an unfulfilled life, whether imposed or chosen.

The medical requirement that supercedes all others is:

  1. Clinical medicine context … clinically guided
  2. physician/patient relationship  … not a consumer relationship
  3. First do no harm… directly related to priority for care
  4. must know significance … disease recessive traits ..
  5. can we offer anything?

common complex diseases…

  1. both genetic & environmental factors
  2. not inherited in predictable ways
  3. gene-gene interactions
  4. variants usually account for a small amount of risk

examples where both clinical assessment and genomic personalized medicine are expected to realize potential real concordance are:

  1. macular degeneration
  2. alzheimer’s disease
  3. colon cancer

The increased benefit to the pathology-diagnostic imaging -surgical-oncology team is seen as

  1. tailoring treatment though genomic guidance:
  2. microscopic doesn’t dictate treatment
  3. determine choice of treatment
  4. drug reactions may be avoided

Medical Gutenberg

Eric Topol refers to the “Medical Gutenberg” in a recent lecture in the Medscape series “Creative Destruction of Medicine”.  He says ” If we go back to the 1400s and the printing press invented by Johannes Gutenberg, you know how transformative that invention was. The high priests were no longer the only ones who could read; the ability to read books was unleashed to the public. Many years, many centuries have passed since those times, but here in the 21st century we’re getting consumers — the public — to read medical stuff.”  He goes on that “now we’re moving from information asymmetry to information parity. This really sets up a unique experience, but it won’t [happen] for all consumers because they’re not all going to want to learn to read and get into this [medical information]. But who has the most vested interest in one’s health if it isn’t that individual, that patient?”
That’s Medical Gutenberg. That’s the opportunity that lies ahead with digital medicine — shifting that information and data to the patient requiring the guidance, knowledge, and experience from physicians.

A Tale of Two Nominal Super-Drugs.

A Success Story?  Perhaps too early to know.  New York Times reported on March 19 , 2013 that Amgen, had met the primary goal of a Phase 3 clinical trial in patients with advanced melanoma, with 16 percent of the patients in the trial who had the treatment, called talimogene laherparepvec, or TVEC, experienced a significant shrinkage of their tumors that lasted at least six months compared with only 2 percent of the patients in a control group.  TVEC is a herpes simplex virus modified in such a way that it replicates in fast-growing cancer cells but not healthy ones, and it also contains an implanted gene for GM-CSF (colony stimulating factor), a protein that stimulates the immune system.  When the the replicating viruses cause the cell to burst, freeing the virus and the GM-CSF in the presence of tumor components, it elicits a systemic immune response that can kill cancer cells throughout the body.  Recall that this is a late-stage response, and a long term disease free survival is not determined.

A Failure.  {Marker for NSCLC Chemo Response Doesn’t Hold Up. by Crystal Phend, MedPage Today, March 20, 2013}  A DNA repair biomarker thought to predict benefit from platinum-based chemotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) doesn’t actually do that good a job.  The problem is both technical and due to the inability of the assay to distinguish the key form of the protein for DNA repair. The ERCC1 protein expression level didn’t predict a boost in overall survival (OS) from adjuvant cisplatin (Platinol)-based chemotherapy compared with observation alone in two clinical trials (P=0.23 for interaction). There was no effect seen in the ERCC1-negative group, which was the basis for proposing the protein as a predictive biomarker.

Why is that significant surprise?  The inability of the assay to distinguish the key form of the protein for DNA repair, the group reported in the March 21 issue of the NEJM.  The antibodies do not have adequate discrimination for therapeutic decision making regarding cisplatin-containing treatment in patients with NSCLC, which requires the specific detection of the unique functional isoform of ERCC1 — ERCC1-202.  There are three other isoforms of ERCC1 (excision repair cross-complementation group 1) protein that aren’t critical in fighting the cytotoxic effect of platinum chemotherapy.

So here we have it.  It’s not yet, far from the worst of times, but equity barriers remain for a time.  The science is critical important, and the implementation of good science can reap huge benefits in time.

New Recommendations for Genetic Reporting
GENNewsHighlights  Mar 22, 2013

Finally, there is now emerging a standard of care for providing and reporting of genetic information. The American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) released landmark recommendations on the handling of incidental findings in clinical genome and exome sequencing.This was published within days of completion of this work.  It is only the beginning of a process expected to go through many revisions.

http://www.genengnews.com/gen-news-highlights/new-recommendations-for-genetic-reporting/81248136/

A minimum list of genetic conditions, genes, and variants that laboratories performing clinical sequencing should seek and report to the physicians that ordered the testing—regardless of the original reasons for which the test was ordered.

In assembling this list, the Working Group prioritized the disclosure of disorders where:

  • Preventative measures and treatments exist
  • Patients might not experience symptoms for a long period of time
  • The genetic mutations are well recognized and known to have a strong link of causation

Examples of diseases recommended for disclosure include rare hereditary cancers and rare heart diseases that could result in sudden cardiac death.

According to Robert C. Green, MD, medical genecist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard, laboratories are looking for guidance on how and what should be communicated to clinicians when results are analyzed. These recommendations will allow a small percentage of families to learn unexpected but potentially life-saving information about an illness they may have never suspected they were at risk for.”  The Working Group did not recommend giving patients the choice of whether or not their physician would receive results from the list of recommended incidental findings. This makes sense in the realization that the actual strength of the finding is uncertain.   The Working group also recommended that adult-onset conditions on the list be reported, perhaps with the expectation of life-style modification for prevention.

 

Commentary on Volume’s Contribution to Medical Education

by Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

This volume covers in 21 chapters all the material representing the Frontier of Science in Genomics Orientations for Personalized Medicine. There is no one domain in Medical Education more in need for contents for teaching Medical students than GENOMICS and how this fields applies to Personalized Medicine and Precision Medicine. This volume represents a response for that need in Medical Education.

 

VOLUME 2: Latest in Genomics Methodologies for Therapeutics: Gene Editing, NGS & BioInformatics, Simulations and the Genome Ontology

Work-in-Progress

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/biomed-e-books/genomics-orientations-for-personalized-medicine/volume-two-genomics-methodologies-ngs-bioinformatics-simulations-and-the-genome-ontology/

 

Series C: e-Books on Cancer & Oncology

 

  • Volume 1: Cancer Biology & Genomics for Disease Diagnosis. On comsince 8/11/2015, 13744 KB

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B013RVYR2K

 

 

Series C, Volume 1: Cancer Biology and Genomics for Disease Diagnosis, 2015.

Commentary by L.H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP

This book elaborates the worldwide prevalence of cancer as a leading disease. It defines cancer and it discusses the cancer metastasis process. This is essential for medical students and for those undergraduates who have a premedical curriculum with intent on a medical career. In the first chapter there are some interesting presentations about cancer prevention, and a discussion about cancer genetics by James Watson. The genome has been a dominant theme in cancer research for decades following the elucidation of the genetic code and the RNA mediated translation of the code in protein synthesis by the rough endoplasmic reticulum. It discusses melanoma and prostate cancer, which are different. It also considers the role of diet in cancer.

The metabolic pathways that drive cancer is an ongoing investigation. Cancer was first identified in leukemia by Rudolph Virchow, and the discovery of Hodgkin’s lymphoma by Dorothy Hodgkin was another landmark. Chapter 2 begins with differences between cancers, and the tendency for rapid growth and proliferation. There is also a presentation on the mole rat, free of cancer, and of the zebrafish. The work of Otto Warburg in 1924 was monumental. Warburg elucidated the dependence of cancer cells on anaerobic glycolysis and considered cancer to be a fundamental disruption of oxidative metabolism. This work was in part subsumed by the discovery of the genetic code, leading to an emphasis on cancer genetics. However, there has been a resurgence of research on the metabolic events that characterize the Warburg effect.
Furthermore, it poses the question of differences in cancer cell growth, and there is discussion of the stem cell.

Chapter 3 is a significant work on the genetics of cancers. There is a discussion of DNA and the types of cancer, and of JUNK DNA, and the elucidation of complexity in cancer. Then there is the issue of intratumor heterogeneity. Several gastrointestinal types include hepatocellular, pancreas, gastric and salivary, and then breast cancer is discussed. Chapter 4, concerned with epigenetic as well as genetic factors in cancer cell development. Chapter 5 is the metabolism of cancer, which returns to the importance of mitochondria and energy metabolism. It also gives attention to a role of nitric oxide. Chapter 4 elaborates on gastrointestinal (colon and pancreas) and breast cancer, genetics, the BRCA mutations, and tumor progression.

Part 2, Chapters 5 and 6 are concerned with the introduction of specific drugs for cancer cell types. These include breast, gastric, colorectal, kidney, prostate, ovarian, melanoma and leukemia. Chapter 7 elaborates on targeted therapy for specific types of cancer using genomics to identify cell types. This is currently important in developing a personalized medicine.

 

Commentary on Volume’s Contribution to Medical Education

by Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

Each chapter covers another aspect of the molecular biology of cancers and carcinogenesis. The basic science is presented for Health professionals in training, while it covers all the aspects of life sciences applicable for clinical education: dysfunctional processes and pathophysiological outcomes.

 

  • Volume 2: Cancer Therapies: Metabolic, Genomics, Interventional, Immunotherapy and Nanotechnology in Therapy Delivery(Series C Book 2). On com since 5/18/2017, 5408 pages

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B071VQ6YYK

 

Series C, Volume 2. Cancer Therapies: Metabolic, Genomics, Interventional, Immunotherapy and Nanotechnology in Therapy Delivery

Commentary by L.H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP

This e-Book is a comprehensive review and interpretation of recent Original Research on Cancer Therapies: Metabolic, Genomics, Interventional, Immunotherapy and Nanotechnology in Therapy Delivery written by Experts, Authors, Writers. The results of Frontier Original Research are gaining value added for the e-Reader by the Methodology of Curation. It may be of special value to both pre-medical undergraduates and medical students, and would be of even greater interest to those who are in an internship in oncology. This is an outstanding follow up on Volume 1, which deals with the basic science that underlies our current knowledge of cancers and carcinogenesis. Volume 2 presents the options available and under development for modalities of therapy.

The first chapter echoes vol 1 in that it is concerned largely with the basic mechanism of cancer evolution, which includes such content as cell growth and regulation, genomics and epigenome, siRNA, and CRISPR/Cas9, which is content that is rapidly expanding, immunity and epigenetic expression.

The second chapter is a detailed consideration of the Warburg effect and the relationship of the glycolytic reliance of the cancer cell to impaired mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation. It also describes the isocitrate dehydrogenase isoenzyme that is associated with malignancy. There is also the phenomenon that the level of oxidative impairment is related to the rate of proliferation. Finally, it introduces the mechanism of autophagy, the cell death pathway. The impairment of the cancer metabolic identity impairs autophagy, which is related to the term cancer cell “immortality”. It goes on to introduce the concept of personalized medicine based on the fact that cancer cell types have specific identities and development histories. The remaining content gives a thorough examination of specific cancer types.

 

Commentary on Volume’s Contribution to Medical Education

by Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

This e-Book is the ONLY multidisciplinary comprehensive review and interpretation of recent FIVE Original Research areas on Cancer Therapies: (1) Metabolic, (2) Genomics, (3) Interventional, (4) Immunotherapy and (5) Nanotechnology in Therapy Delivery

From a Medical Education perspective, the contents in Volume 1 and Volume 2 is organized for teaching the Frontier of Science on Cancer: Volume 1: the basic science and Volume 2: the Frontier in Oncological Therapeutic Options.

Nowhere is to be found content interpretation as the ones covered in the following two original 360 degrees curations:

  • Warburg Effect Revisited – 2

Writer and Curator: Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2015/03/30/warburg-effect-revisited-2/

·       Immune-Oncology Molecules In Development & Articles on Topic in @pharmaceuticalintelligence.com

Curators: Stephen J Williams, PhD and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2016/01/11/articles-on-immune-oncology-molecules-in-development-pharmaceuticalintelligence-com/

 

Series D: e-Books on BioMedicine – Metabolomics, Immunology, Infectious Diseases

 

  • Metabolomics

VOLUME 1: Metabolic Genomics and Pharmaceutics. On Amazon.com since 7/21/2015, 13927 KB

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B012BB0ZF0

 

  • The Immune System, Stress Signaling, Infectious Diseases and Therapeutic Implications

VOLUME 2Infectious Diseases and Therapeutics

VOLUME 3The Immune System and Therapeutics

(Series D: BioMedicine & Immunology) Kindle Edition. On Amazon.com since September 4, 2017, 3747 pages

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075CXHY1B

 

Commentary by L.H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP

Series D consists of 3 volumes which contributes to our understanding of metabolism, infectious disease mechanisms, and the immune response. This is essential for our grasping the potential for drug development based on targeting the immune response, and for targeting specific infectious organisms based on interference with essential metabolic pathways. This is of great value for the pre-medical and medical student as well as for postgraduate physicians. Infectious diseases are common worldwide, considering bacterial and viral pathogens. The bacteria have the capability of developing resistance. The viruses have the capability of developing immune resistance to varying degrees, most notable being influenza. This leads to the following alternatives being to block essential pathways of microbial metabolism, which may be followed by a metabolic bypass that constitutes drug resistance. The three volumes are as follows: Metabolic Genomics & Pharmaceutics; Infectious Diseases and Therapeutics; The Immune System and Therapeutics.

 

Commentary on Volume’s Contribution to Medical Education

by Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

 

Volume 1: Metabolomics and Microbiome represent the Frontier discoveries between Metabolism, Genomics and Human Immune system. We pioneered in 2015 the publication of the first book on that subject matter containing contents for Medical Education.

Volume 2: Infectious Diseases contains the disease mechanism of Bacterial Infection, Viral Infection, Fungal Infection and Allergy-related Infections. The Therapeutics for each type of infection covers the FDA Approved Drugs for Infections and Infectious Diseases: Bacterial Infection, Viral Infection, Fungal Infection and Allergy-related Infections, 1995 – 2016. Thus, this book becomes a Handbook of therapeutic options per Pathogen classification type. It lands as contents for teaching and curriculum development in this critical domain of PUBLIC HEALTH.

Volume 3: Immune system and Immune response consists of clinical perspectives on the basic science of Immunology. Without the clinician interpretation of this complex body of knowledge the contents would have been left in the domains of basic Biological Sciences: Bacteriology, Virology, Parasitology and Allergy. The Therapeutics explanation coupled with Immune Response types is the roseta stone for Treatment of the immune system, where a failure to identify the treatment may lead to life threatening conditions and failure of the immune system by succumbing the host to pathogen persistence and its survival leading to host’s death. We have included a chapter dedicated to immunotherapy in Cancer. The contents for teaching and curriculum development in this critical domain provide explanations for adoption of Precision Medicine paradigm for advancement of patient-centered medicine.

 

Series E: Patient-Centered Medicine – LINKS to e-Books & Cover Pages for Volumes 1,2,3,4

 

  • Volume 1: The VOICES of Patients, Hospitals CEOs, Health Care Providers, Caregivers and Families: Personal Experience with Critical Care and Invasive Medical Procedures. On com since 10/16/2017, 826 pages

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076HGB6MZ

 

Commentary by L.H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP, 

Book Co-Editor and contributor of articles on Cancer as a Patient and Physician

This volume is divided into three parts: perceptions of care, the voice of cancer survivors, and the voice of open heart surgery survivors.  This is quite difficult because of variation in patients’ ages, outlooks, chronicity and type of condition, and adverse effects of treatments.  The best that we can do is look at a small number of narratives.

Perceptions of care are determined by a number of important factors that are dependent on the individual and on the physician, and on the treatment conditions.  The individual factors include, but are not limited to patient social status, linguistic factors, cognitive skills and level of education, and communication skills of the care providers.  The facilities can be a factor not easily ranked, although that is always a matter for debate.  The voices of cancer survivors are presented for both cancer and cardiovascular surgery.  These are quite variable and are highly dependent on the specialty treatment organization.

This volume of contributions has focused on the patient’s response to treatment, the expected response to pharmacotherapy, immunotherapy, and radiation therapy.  The discussion also entails the difficulties in going beyond diagnosis to a grasp of long term survival.  In examining the patient perspective, the patient and the physician have to be in concert with realistic expectations of toxicities, exacerbations, and the possibility of a decline into cachexia.

Individual experiences with cancer, heart disease, and debilitation

It is true in medicine and healthcare that the patient comes first. This calls for a respect for the patient’s best concerns. In the United States (USA), this might be an unusual statement given the great diversity we have as a people.  Nevertheless, integration of communities takes time, economic disparities separate individuals and communities within communities, and there are religious and cultural values that divide one person from another. In this respect, families matter, and families may be divided.

There is a range of individual, social and chronic conditions that engage all of us.  On the one hand there is the end of life experience.  We grow old, but how do we grow old?  In the case of cancer, we see that it inflicts pain and suffering at any age.  The death of a child is experienced by the parents.  Cancer requires some combination of surgery, postoperative chemo- or immunotherapy with local radiation. The chance of recurrence is not small, so the question is always when and how it will be reasserted.

The situation with heart disease is not quite the same.  We might like to just be lost in the night, but we don’t have choices.  We are also faced with combined chronic systemic conditions, and the heart, kidneys, brain, and lungs are fed by a vascular system.  Consequently, it raises the likelihood of multisystem failure.  In this situation the possibilities are unclear. The patient with end stage renal disease may go on dialysis in clinic or terminally at home.

The situation is most impressive at the patient end of the process.  I still remember a woman of color who had experienced emotional distress and ended several marriages in divorce before she entered the “metropolitan” hospital in my medical school years and was found to have a sudden increase in blood pressure related to a rare adrenaline secreting adenoma of the Organ of Zuckerkandl.  She had no visitors during her hospital experience.  That was also a time when schizophrenia was not understood, and it also brought shame to a family.

Then there are myths to dispel. When a young woman got pregnant, it was a personal and a family crisis.  This is still a situation today that has been highlighted by a juncture disclosed in a presidential contestant interview about whether an abortion, considered a moral issue by the church, is punishable.  It also was stated that it would necessitate a return of “back-alley” abortions.  It reminded me of the autopsy I performed as a resident on a woman who had pyelonephritis leading to end stage kidney disease.  I am a triplet with a sister two years older than myself, and I only learned late in life that my mother had had an aborted pregnancy to alleviate the strain it would place on the family, my father earning a meager living.  There is no easy way to conclude this than to say that to the patient, medicine is highly personal.

 

Commentary on Volume’s Contribution to Medical Education

by Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

Case studies is a method used in Medical Schools for decades. This Volume is very unique by the following aspects: (1) Primary method of data collection was REAL TIME INTERVIEWS conducted by a professional Medical Writer with several stackholders in health care:

Patients, Hospitals CEOs, Health Care Providers, Caregivers and Families.

This volume is the first in a four-volumes e-Series on Patient-Centered Medicine. There are narratives by Patients and there are accounts by Health Care Providers. This volume is unique in the body of existing literature on the subject matter, in the exposition effort to incorporate in tandem, the VOICES of Patients on their Personal Experience with Critical Care and Invasive Medical Procedures. We provide the Personal views of Hospitals CEOs, Health Care Providers, Caregivers and Families in conjunction with the voices of the Patients.

This Volume represents PRIMARY RESEARCH attained by two methodologies:

One, Personal Interviews conducted by the volume Co-Editor, Gail S. Thornton, with Patients and their families facing the diagnosis of a serious medical (not Terminal) illness requiring a major surgery.  Ms. Thornton conducted interviews with Hospitals CEOs and other leaders of several Health Care Providers in the US and in other countries.

The other, Personal Accounts and Testimonies of Patients are written by themselves. Some are MDs diagnosed with Cancer, had undergone invasive surgeries as an organ excision, some underwent Open Heart Surgery.

This Volume is AUTHENTIC as has been told by Patients, Hospitals CEOs, Health Care Providers, Caregivers and Families, therefore it represents outstanding Teaching material for Medical Students in training.

This volume is used by a Medical School in Philadelphia for curriculum development in Patient-center Medicine.

 

  • Volume 2: Medical Scientific Discoveries for the 21st Century & Interviews with Scientific Leaders. On com since 12/9/2017, 2862 pages

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078313281

 

  • Volume 3: Milestones in Physiology: Discoveries in Medicine, Genomics and Therapeutics. On com since 12/27/2015, 11125 KB

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B019VH97LU

 

Commentary on Volumes 2 & 3 by L.H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP

Volumes 2 & 3 are of special interest to high school and college students who major in chemistry, molecular biology, or pre-medical studies as well as medical students and postgraduate physicians.

Volume 2 begins the first chapter with a very engaging history of great medical discoveries in much of the 20th century. It traces the discoveries with an emergence of infectious disease followed by endocrinology, including diabetes and pancreatic insulin, and the neuroendocrine axis. As the century develops there are new questions and new solutions, but answers lead to new questions. A large body of Nobel Prize discoveries is laid out and a historical map emerges that connects discoveries in a discovery family. An example of this is the identification of the virus that causes influenza by Opie which is a trigger for the search for the genetic code by Pauling and by Watson. The discovery of the nucleotide sequence of DNA produces a mechanism and the x-ray crystallographic picture. DNA leads to RNA. RNA leads to protein synthesis. The physiology is accompanied by the structure of the cell, which again leads to many related functions.
In addition, there is ever more complexity in the discovery of special types of RNA, such as, inhibiting RNA and silencing RNA. In addition, the discovery of the mechanism of protein synthesis leads to a distinction between the smooth and rough endoplasmic reticulum, after which the cell death mechanism is realized. This has new implications for repair mechanisms and for degenerative diseases as well as for cardiac and vascular response to nitrosative and oxidative stress (Inflammatory and oxidative and nitrosative stress pathways underpinning chronic fatigue, somatization and psychosomatic symptoms), atherosclerosis, and diabetes mellitus. In addition, there is a significant coverage of the expanding knowledge of pharmacology and therapeutics, including nanotechnology, and translational medicine.

Volume 3 continues where Volume 2 left off. It traces the development of clinical chemistry and methods of biological discovery. It begins with a history of infectious diseases, and the therapeutic tie is to immunology, which are both of cellular and antibody nature. A science of immunology developed first with the production of antibodies and the discovery of antisera, which is related to both transfusion reaction and vaccination. It continues further into specific proteins, such as oxygen binding hemoglobins and myoglobin, and this is the path to proteomics. Proteomics considers the structure of protein, protein aggregation, and misfolded protein, such as prion. This leads to a new concept of protein-protein and protein-lipid interactions. The chapter also covers genomics and epigenomics. All of this has been central to the development of modern pharmaceuticals.

 

Commentary on Volume’s Contribution to Medical Education

by Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

Medical discoveries covered in Volume 2 and Breakthroughs in Physiology are covered in Volume 3. Development of Companion Diagnostics and newly emerging tools for Lab Tests and evidence-based diagnosis are presented. The historical perspectives provided are vital for Medical student development of a longitudinal horizon understanding of the key trajectories that have led to and are leading innovations and progress in Medicine. All Life Sciences students and Historians of Medicine and of Life Sciences, will benefit greatly from a Clinician’s and Pathologist’s perspectives as developed in Volume 2 and 3.

 

  • Volume 4: Medical 3D BioPrinting – The Revolution in Medicine, Technologies for Patient-centered Medicine: From R&D in Biologics to New Medical Devices. On com since 12/30/2017, 1005 pages

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078QVDV2W

 

Series E, Volume 4: Medical 3D BioPrinting – The Revolution in Medicine

Commentary by L.H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP

This volume is focused only on the emerging field of 3D medical discovery and its impact on teaching physicians and surgeons, surgical procedures and on potential pharmaceutical applications. It is resident in medical devices and applications at the micro- and the macro- scale. The chapters that follow provide insight into how this development will fuel new drug development, diagnostics, and joint or tissue replacement. This would have applications in joint replacement, burn and trauma surgery, and even possibly cancer treatment.

The potential implications of Nanoscribe’s Photonic Professional GT point to much more important developments then micro-replicated artifacts and figures. This printing technology is being used to develop advanced medical practices that will help with previously difficult processes such as delivering drugs via micro-robots, targeting specific cancer cells, and even assisting in difficult eye operations.

We have covered a broad range of topics in medicine, surgical repair, anatomical presentation and teaching, diagnostics, and even pharmaceutical development. In order to achieve this level of progress the dependence of 2D visualization had to be supplanted by 3D images, even at the molecular level. Examples of this at the macro level are organ replacement, tissue grafts, and introduction of organoids. Examples of this at the micro level are MEMS and sensors in their design, prototyping and manufacturing. In addition, there is an impact on drug development and targeting, nanotechnology, and in drug delivery, and organ transplants (heart, kidney).

The previous series of articles showed a remarkable development of techniques involving tissue and organ remodeling or replacement, a new scale of pharma engineering, an increasing load of FDA approved bioengineering products, the development of biological glue, the application of DNA to polymer engineering, and a new scale of funding for bioengineering. This is the beginning and the continuation of a new age of medical bioengineering.

 

Commentary on Volume’s Contribution to Medical Education

by Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

 

While reading this book title few times, Medical 3D BioPrinting – The Revolution in Medicine, Technologies for Patient-centered Medicine: From R&D in Biologics to New Medical Devices, one realizes that we are facing in 2018, the 4th Revolution in Medicine and in Medical Education. The Gray’s Anatomy ATLAS

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Gray%27s+Anatomy

is been replace in EVERY Medical School with 3D Printed Anatomical models – the teaching of Anatomy has been revolutionized FOREVER. In Academic Hospital, in Operating Rooms, prior to heart, kidney, lung, liver, and every other organ the CT scan is translated into a 3D Printed Organ for the surgeon to examine the anatomy before the surgery. Tissue repairs for burns, injury, plastic surgery – all are using hydrogels and synthetic materials produced by 3D Printing.

To teach medical students about the Medical 3D BioPrinting – The Revolution in Medicine, one needs a book curated by Clinicians, Scientists and Engineers, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078QVDV2W

Is our solution in publishing the FIRST book on the topic that covers ENGINEERING aspects, Biomaterials and Medicine applications for development of new Biologics and of New Medical Devices using the 3D BioPrinting technology.

 

C.      electronic Table of Contents (eTOCs) of each Volume in the SIXTEEN-Volume BioMed e-Series

Review of the eTOCs of each of the 16 volumes provides an opportunity for e-Readers EDIFICATION on subject matter completeness of content coverage, innovations in content inclusion, content presentation modalities and future directions in research.

See collection of links to eTOCs for 16 Volumes:

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2017/12/12/biomed-e-series-16-volumes-electronic-table-of-contents-of-each-volume/

 

 

D.   Innovative ideas that tackle pressing challenges in the field of Medical Education

 

Key challenges in the field of Medical Education are:

  • Information Explosion – we address it by the Innovative Idea of the Curation Methodology
  • High Rate of Information Obsolescence – we address it by two approaches:
  1. The innovative idea of the Open Access Journal Model and by
  2. Real Time UPDATES to the online article repository in the Journal from which articles are selected for inclusion into e-Books.

 

These two approaches minimize the High Rate of Information Obsolescence while offering maximal access to the knowledge published in the Journal 

Our response to the pressing challenges in the field of Medical Education, include the following:

 

D1        Methododlogy Development for Content Creation targeted at Medical and Life Sciences Education

Curation of Scientific Content @Leaders in Pharmaceutical Business Intelligence (LPBI) Group, Boston

Author: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2016/08/15/curation-of-scientific-content-leaders-in-pharmaceutical-business-intelligence-lpbi-group-boston/

 

D2        Methodology Development for Scientific Inquiry in Medicine: Case Studies in a Medical Specialty – Application of the Methodology of Curation to Case Studies in Cardiology – Published as a Book, 2015

Cardiovascular Diseases, Volume Two: Cardiovascular Original Research: Cases in Methodology Design for Content Co-Curation. On Amazon.com since 11/30/2015

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B018Q5MCN8

 

D3        Methodology Development for “Mapping” the Medicine Discipline in the CONTEXT of Health Care for Education Purposes 

Our DOMAINS in Electronic Scientific Media

I.   Pharmaceutical: Biologics, Small Molecules, Diagnostics

II.  Life Sciences: Genomics and Cancer Biology

III.  Patient-centered Medicine: Focus on #1: Cardiovascular, #2: Cancer, #3: Physiology: Metabolomics, Immunology

IV.  Biomedicine, BioTech, and MedTech (Medical Devices)

V.   HealthCare: Patient-centered Medicine and Personalized/Precision Medicine

 

These are the multiple-volume FIVE e-Series in Medicine and Life Sciences:

 

All e-Books are written by Experts, Authors, Writers. The results of Original Research are gaining value added for the e-Reader by the Methodology of Curation. The e-Book’s articles have been published on the Open Access Online Scientific Journal, since April 2012.  All new articles on any subject, will continue to be incorporated, as published with periodical updates.

Open Access Online Journal

http://www.pharmaceuticalIntelligence.com

is a scientific, medical and business, multi-expert authoring environment for information syndication in several domains of Life Sciences, Medicine, Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Industries, BioMedicine, Medical Technologies & Devices. Scientific critical interpretations and original articles are written by PhDs, MDs, MD/PhDs, PharmDs, Technical MBAs as Experts, Authors, Writers (EAWs).

 

D4        Methodology Development for Exposition of the Scientific Frontier in Five Specialties in Medicine  (D4.1, D4.2, D4.3, D4.4, D4.5).

 

  • In D1 we presented WHAT the Curation Methodology is.
  • In D4 we apply the Curation Methodology to Five Specialties in Medicine

 

Concentration on Knowledge Interpretation and Integration by Clinicians, Pathologists (MDs, MD/PhDs) and Scientist/Experts (PhDs, PharmD) of the following aspects of Health Care:

  • Medical Disease Diagnosis,
  • Diagnostic Methods and Biomarkers,
  • Genomics
  • Therapeutics
  • Personalized Medicine and Patient-center Health Care Delivery.

 

The Five Specialties in Medicine consists of:

D4.1     Cardiovascular Diseases

  • Perspectives on Nitric Oxide in Disease Mechanisms, Nobel Prize, 1998 “Molecule of the Year” in 1992 by the journal  It has crucial biochemical functions in the Cardiovascular system.
  • Etiologies of Cardiovascular Diseases: Epigenetics, Genetics and Genomics
  • Regenerative and Translational Medicine: The Therapeutics Promise for Cardiovascular Diseases.
  • Pharmacological Agents and Pharmacogenomics in Treatment of Cardiovascular Diseases
  • Interventional Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery for Disease Diagnosis and Guidance of Treatment

D4.2     Genomics Research and Applications in Medicine 

  • Genomics Orientations for Personalized Medicine
  • Latest in Genomics Methodologies for Therapeutics: Gene Editing, Next Generation Sequencing & BioInformatics, Simulations and the Genome Ontology

 D4.3    Cancer & Oncology

  • Cancer Biology & Genomics for Disease Diagnosis
  • Cancer Therapies: Metabolic, Genomics, Interventional, Immunotherapy and Nanotechnology in Therapy Delivery

D4.4     BioMedicine – Metabolomics, Immunology, Infectious Diseases

  • Metabolomics: Metabolic Genomics and Pharmaceutics
  • The Immune System, Stress Signaling, Infectious Diseases and Therapeutic Implications

 D4.5    Patient-Centered Medicine  – Newest Paradigm in Healthcare Delivery

  • The VOICES of Patients, Hospitals CEOs, Health Care Providers, Caregivers and Families: Personal Experience with Critical Care and Invasive Medical Procedures
  • Medical Scientific Discoveries for the 21st Century & Interviews with Scientific Leaders.
  • Milestones in Physiology: Discoveries in Medicine, Genomics and Therapeutics.
  • Medical 3D BioPrinting – The Revolution in Medicine, Technologies for Patient-centered Medicine: From R&D in Biologics to New Medical Devices

In Section D, above, we explained the pressing need to generate a knowledge architecture to handle the complexity of contents in Medicine and Life Sciences, as well as the need for a methodology to compress the volume of information. Our response is the Curation Methodology.

 

In Section E, we present six innovative strategies to tackle the challenge of Digital Information Explosion in the field of Medical education:

E.         Innovative ideas that tackle pressing challenges in the field of Medical education: Digital Information Explosion

 

E1        Access to CURATED Scientific Knowledge is maximized by Open Access Scientific Journal Launch in Biomedicine

 

Site Statistics reflect the REACH achieved following the ACCESS provided by the Open Access Scientific Journal Launch in Biomedicine:

+1.3 Million e-Readers and Subscribers

[On 1/29/2018 – 1,373,977 views 7,283 scientific comments]

 

E2        Journal Ontology for Knowledge Architecture, +600 Categories of Research

[On 1/29/2018 – 611 Categories]

 

E3        Intellectual Property Vault (IPV): Building Capacity for Knowledge Reach of Scientific Content Created by using the Curation Methodology

The relevance of IPV to Medical Education is vast. ANY article in the Journal or in any e-book that is a curation (not a reporting) represents ORIGINAL curation of the frontier of knowledge. In Medical Education each curation in the format of a Journal Article could serve as

  • a Template for building the contents in curriculum on the subject of the article(s).
  • the eTOCs of each e-Book could serve as a Template for building the contents in curriculum on an entire COURSE on the subject of the e-Book. It is been used for that very scope at a Medical School in PA, Series A, Volume 3 and Series E, Volume 1.

EXAMPLE: In teaching Cardiology Residents on Acute Coronary Syndromes the following CURATIONS on High Sensitivity Troponin (hs cTn) Assays would save weeks/months of secondary investigation by the Cardiology Professor planning to teach this subject:

  • Previously undiscerned value of hs-troponin

Curators: Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2016/06/18/previously-undiscerned-value-of-hs-troponin/

  • Recent Insights into the High Sensitivity Troponins for Acute Coronary Syndromes

Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/09/08/recent-insights-into-the-high-sensitivity-troponins-for-acute-coronary-syndromes/

 

  • Dealing with the Use of the High Sensitivity Troponin (hs cTn) Assays: Preparing the United States for High-Sensitivity Cardiac Troponin Assays

Author and Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP and Author and Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RD

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/05/18/dealing-with-the-use-of-the-hs-ctn-assays/

 

  • Preparing the United States for High-Sensitivity Cardiac Troponin Assays

Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/06/13/high-sensitivity-cardiac-troponin-assays/

 

Our Journal’s Knowledge Base applying the Curation of Scientific Findings Methodology on peer-reviewed published Research in Medicine consists of +5,200 Scientific articles

[On 1/29/2018 – 5,246 scientific articles]

  

E4        Scientific Agora: Comment exchanges between e-Readers Scientists and LPBI’s Scientists/Experts/Authors/Writers

[On 1/29/2018 – 7,283 comments]

The relevance of the Scientific Agora to Medical Education is vast. The Open Access Journal allows EVERY Scientist on the internet the GLOBAL reach and access to Open Access published scientific contents NOT only to the subscription payer base of the Journal. If you don’t have a HIGH FEE subscription you got NO access to content in the Journal, you can’t participate in Multiple Comment Exchanges. In the Medical Education context – COMMENTS are the medium to debate with peers. See, below.

 

Multiple Comment Exchanges on an article in the Journal: An Example

 

Personalized Medicine: Cancer Cell Biology and Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS)

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/12/01/personalized-medicine-cancer-cell-biology-and-minimally-invasive-surgery-mis/

 

This article generated a Scientific Exchange of 24 Comments, some scholarly comments are quite lengthy

The 24 Responses in the Comment Section of the article

 

  1. edit this on October 16, 2012 at 10:30 AM | Reply2012pharmaceutical

GREAT work.

I’ll read and comment later on

  1. edit this on October 17, 2012 at 1:49 PM | Reply2012pharmaceutical

Highlights of The 2012 Johns Hopkins Prostate Disorders White Paper include:

A promising new treatment for men with frequent nighttime urination.
Answers to 8 common questions about sacral nerve stimulation for lower urinary tract symptoms.
Surprising research on the link between smoking and prostate cancer recurrence.
How men who drink 6 cups of coffee a day or more may reduce their risk of aggressive prostate cancer.
Should you have a PSA screening test? Answers to important questions on the controversial USPSTF recommendation.
Watchful waiting or radical prostatectomy for men with early-stage prostate cancer? What the research suggests.
A look at state-of-the-art surveillance strategies for men on active surveillance for prostate cancer.
Locally advanced prostate cancer: Will you benefit from radiation and hormones?
New drug offers hope for men with metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer.
Behavioral therapy for incontinence: Why it might be worth a try.

You’ll also get the latest news on benign prostatic enlargement (BPE), also known as benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and prostatitis:
What’s your Prostate Symptom Score? Here’s a quick quiz you can take right now to determine if you should seek treatment for your enlarged prostate.
Your surgical choices: a close look at simple prostatectomy, transurethral prostatectomy and open prostatectomy.
New warnings about 5-alpha-reductase inhibitors and aggressive prostate cancer.

  1. edit this on December 1, 2012 at 6:29 AM | ReplyBB

Promising technique.

INCORE pointed out in detail about the general problem judging response and the stil missing quality in standardization:

http://www.futuremedicine.com/doi/abs/10.2217/fon.12.78?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%3dwww.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

I did research in response evaluation and prediction for about 15y now and being honest: neither the clinical, nor the molecular biological data proved significant benefit in changing a strategy in patient diagnosis and / or treatment. I would state: this brings us back on the ground and not upon the sky. Additionally it means: we have to ´work harder on that and the WHO has to take responsibility: clinicians use a reponse classification without knowing, that this is just related to “ONE” experiment from the 70′s and that this experiment never had been rescrutinized (please read the Editorial I provided – we use a clinical response classification since more than 30 years worldwide (Miller et al. Cancer 1981) but it is useless !

  1. edit this on December 1, 2012 at 6:48 AM | Reply2012pharmaceutical

Dr. BB

Thank you for your comment.
Dr. Nir will reply to your comment.
Regarding the Response Classification in use, it seems that the College of Oncology should champion a task force to revisit the Best Practice in use in this domain and issue a revised version or a new effort for a a new classification system for Clinical Response to treatment in Cancer.

  1. edit this on December 2, 2012 at 5:01 PM | Replylarryhbern

I’m sorry that I was looking for this paper again earlier and didn’t find it. I answered my view on your article earlier.

This is a method demonstration, but not a proof of concept by any means. It adds to the cacophany of approaches, and in a much larger study would prove to be beneficial in treatment, but not a cure for serious prostate cancer because it is unlikely that it can get beyond the margin, and also because there is overtreatment at the cutoff of PSA at 4.0. There is now a proved prediction model that went to press some 4 months ago. I think that the pathologist has to see the tissue, and the standard in pathology now is for any result that is cancer, two pathologist or a group sitting together should see it. It’s not an easy diagnosis.

Björn LDM Brücher, Anton Bilchik, Aviram Nissan, Itzhak Avital, & Alexander Stojadinovic. Tumor response criteria: are they appropriate? Future Oncol. (2012) 8(8), 903–906. 10.2217/FON.12.78. ISSN 1479-6694.

..Tumor heterogeneity is a ubiquitous phemomenon. In particular, there are important differences among the various types of gastrointestinal (GI) cancers in terms of tumor biology, treatment response and prognosis.

..This forms the principal basis for targeted therapy directed by tumor-specific testing at either the gene or protein level. Despite rapid advances in our understanding of targeted therapy for GI cancers, the impact on cancer survival has been marginal.

..Can tumor response to therapy be predicted, thereby improving the selection of patients for cancer treatment?

..In 2000 theNCI with the European Association for Research and Treatment of Cancer, proposed a replacement of 2D measurement with a decrease in the largest tumor diameter by 30% in one dimension. Tumor response as defined would translate into a 50% decrease for a spherical lesion

..We must rethink how we may better determine treatment response in a reliable, reproducible way that is aimed at individualizing the therapy of cancer patients.

..we must change the tools we use to assess tumor response. The new modality should be based on empirical evidence that translates into relevant and meaningful clinical outcome data.

..This becomes a conundrum of sorts in an era of ‘minimally invasive treatment’.

..integrated multidisciplinary panel of international experts – not sure that that will do it

Several years ago i heard Stamey present the totality of his work at Stanford, with great disappointment over hsPSA that they pioneered in. The outcomes were disappointing.

I had published a review of all of our cases reviewed for 1 year with Marguerite Pinto.
There’s a reason that the physicians line up outside of her office for her opinion.
The review showed that a PSA over 24 ng/ml is predictive of bone metastasis. Any result over 10 was as likely to be prostatitis, BPH or cancer.

I did an ordinal regression in the next study with Gustave Davis using a bivariate ordinal regression to predict lymph node metastasis using the PSA and the Gleason score. It was better than any univariate model, but there was no followup.

I reviewed a paper for Clin Biochemistry (Elsevier) on a new method for PSA, very different than what we are familiar with. It was the most elegant paper I have seen in the treatment of the data. The model could predict post procedural time to recurrence to 8 years.

I hope we are in agreement on the fact that imaging guided interventions are needed for better treatment outcome. The point I’m trying to make in this post is that people are investing in developing imaging guided intervention and it is making progress.

Over diagnosis and over treatment is another issue altogether. I think that many of my other posts are dealing with that.

  1. edit this on December 5, 2012 at 2:05 PM | Replylarryhbern

Tumor response criteria: are they appropriate?
Future Oncology 2012; 8(8): 903-906 , DOI 10.2217/fon.12.78 (doi:10.2217/fon.12.78)
Björn LDM Brücher, Anton Bilchik, Aviram Nissan, Itzhak Avital & Alexander Stojadinovic

Tumor heterogeneity is a problematic because of differences among the metabolic variety among types of gastrointestinal (GI) cancers, confounding treatment response and prognosis.
This is in response to … a group of investigators from Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada who evaluate the feasibility and safety of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging–controlled transurethral ultrasound therapy for prostate cancer in humans. Their study’s objective was to prove that using real-time MRI guidance of HIFU treatment is possible and it guarantees that the location of ablated tissue indeed corresponds to the locations planned for treatment.
1. There is a difference between expected response to esophageal or gastric neoplasms both biologically and in expected response, even given variability within a class. The expected time to recurrence is usually longer in the latter case, but the confounders are – age at time of discovery, biological time of detection, presence of lymph node and/or distant metastasis, microscopic vascular invasion.
2. There is a long latent period in abdominal cancers before discovery, unless a lesion is found incidentally in surgery for another reason.
3. The undeniable reality is that it is not difficult to identify the main lesion, but it is difficult to identify adjacent epithelium that is at risk (transitional or pretransitional). Pathologists have a very good idea about precancerous cervical neoplasia.

The heterogeneity rests within each tumor and between the primary and metastatic sites, which is expected to be improved by targeted therapy directed by tumor-specific testing. Despite rapid advances in our understanding of targeted therapy for GI cancers, the impact on cancer survival has been marginal.

The heterogeneity is a problem that will take at least another decade to unravel because of the number of signaling pathways and the crosstalk that is specifically at issue.

I must refer back to the work of Frank Dixon, Herschel Sidransky, and others, who did much to develop a concept of neoplasia occurring in several stages – minimal deviation and fast growing. These have differences in growth rates, anaplasia, and biochemical. This resembles the multiple “hit” theory that is described in “systemic inflammatory” disease leading to a final stage, as in sepsis and septic shock.

In 1920, Otto Warburg received the Nobel Prize for his work on respiration. He postulated that cancer cells become anaerobic compared with their normal counterpart that uses aerobic respiration to meet most energy needs. He attributed this to “mitochondrial dysfunction. In fact, we now think that in response to oxidative stress, the mitochondrion relies on the Lynen Cycle to make more cells and the major source of energy becomes glycolytic, which is at the expense of the lean body mass (muscle), which produces gluconeogenic precursors from muscle proteolysis (cancer cachexia). There is a loss of about 26 ATP ~Ps in the transition.

The mitochondrial gene expression system includes the mitochondrial genome, mitochondrial ribosomes, and the transcription and translation machinery needed to regulate and conduct gene expression as well as mtDNA replication and repair. Machinery involved in energetics includes the enzymes of the Kreb’s citric acid or TCA (tricarboxylic acid) cycle, some of the enzymes involved in fatty acid catabolism (β-oxidation), and the proteins needed to help regulate these systems. The inner membrane is central to mitochondrial physiology and, as such, contains multiple protein systems of interest. These include the protein complexes involved in the electron transport component of oxidative phosphorylation and proteins involved in substrate and ion transport.

Mitochondrial roles in, and effects on, cellular homeostasis extend far beyond the production of ATP, but the transformation of energy is central to most mitochondrial functions. Reducing equivalents are also used for anabolic reactions. The energy produced by mitochondria is most commonly thought of to come from the pyruvate that results from glycolysis, but it is important to keep in mind that the chemical energy contained in both fats and amino acids can also be converted into NADH and FADH2 through mitochondrial pathways. The major mechanism for harvesting energy from fats is β-oxidation; the major mechanism for harvesting energy from amino acids and pyruvate is the TCA cycle. Once the chemical energy has been transformed into NADH and FADH2 (also discovered by Warburg and the basis for a second Nobel nomination in 1934), these compounds are fed into the mitochondrial respiratory chain.
The hydroxyl free radical is extremely reactive. It will react with most, if not all, compounds found in the living cell (including DNA, proteins, lipids and a host of small molecules). The hydroxyl free radical is so aggressive that it will react within 5 (or so) molecular diameters from its site of production. The damage caused by it, therefore, is very site specific. The reactions of the hydroxyl free radical can be classified as hydrogen abstraction, electron transfer, and addition.
The formation of the hydroxyl free radical can be disastrous for living organisms. Unlike superoxide and hydrogen peroxide, which are mainly controlled enzymatically, the hydroxyl free radical is far too reactive to be restricted in such a way – it will even attack antioxidant enzymes. Instead, biological defenses have evolved that reduce the chance that the hydroxyl free radical will be produced and, as nothing is perfect, to repair damage.

Currently, some endogenous markers are being proposed as useful measures of total “oxidative stress” e.g., 8-hydroxy-2’deoxyguanosine in urine. The ideal scavenger must be non-toxic, have limited or no biological activity, readily reach the site of hydroxyl free radical production (i.e., pass through barriers such as the blood-brain barrier), react rapidly with the free radical, be specific for this radical, and neither the scavenger nor its product(s) should undergo further metabolism.
Nitric oxide has a single unpaired electron in its π*2p antibonding orbital and is therefore paramagnetic. This unpaired electron also weakens the overall bonding seen in diatomic nitrogen molecules so that the nitrogen and oxygen atoms are joined by only 2.5 bonds. The structure of nitric oxide is a resonance hybrid of two forms.
In living organisms nitric oxide is produced enzymatically. Microbes can generate nitric oxide by the reduction of nitrite or oxidation of ammonia. In mammals nitric oxide is produced by stepwise oxidation of L-arginine catalyzed by nitric oxide synthase (NOS). Nitric oxide is formed from the guanidino nitrogen of the L-arginine in a reaction that consumes five electrons and requires flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD), flavin mononucleotide (FMN) tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4), and iron protoporphyrin IX as cofactors. The primary product of NOS activity may be the nitroxyl anion that is then converted to nitric oxide by electron acceptors.

The thiol-disulfide redox couple is very important to oxidative metabolism. GSH is a reducing cofactor for glutathione peroxidase, an antioxidant enzyme responsible for the destruction of hydrogen peroxide. Thiols and disulfides can readily undergo exchange reactions, forming mixed disulfides. Thiol-disulfide exchange is biologically very important. For example, GSH can react with protein cystine groups and influence the correct folding of proteins, and it GSH may play a direct role in cellular signaling through thiol-disulfide exchange reactions with membrane bound receptor proteins (e.g., the insulin receptor complex), transcription factors (e.g., nuclear factor κB), and regulatory proteins in cells. Conditions that alter the redox status of the cell can have important consequences on cellular function.
So the complexity of life is not yet unraveled.

Can tumor response to therapy be predicted, thereby improving the selection of patients for cancer treatment?
The goal is not just complete response. Histopathological response seems to be related post-treatment histopathological assessment but it is not free from the challenge of accurately determining treatment response, as this method cannot delineate whether or not there are residual cancer cells. Functional imaging to assess metabolic response by 18-fluorodeoxyglucose PET also has its limits, as the results are impacted significantly by several variables:

  • tumor type
    • sizing
    • doubling time
    • anaplasia?
    • extent of tumor necrosis
    • type of antitumor therapy and the time when response was determined.
    The new modality should be based on individualized histopathology as well as tumor molecular, genetic and functional characteristics, and individual patients’ characteristics, a greater challenge in an era of ‘minimally invasive treatment’.
    This listing suggests that for every cancer the following data has to be collected (except doubling time). If there are five variables, the classification based on these alone would calculate to be very sizable based on Eugene Rypka’s feature extraction and classification. But looking forward, time to remission and disease free survival are additionally important. Treatment for cure is not the endpoint, but the best that can be done is to extend the time of survival to a realistic long term goal and retain a quality of life.

Brücher BLDM, Piso P, Verwaal V et al. Peritoneal carcinomatosis: overview and basics. Cancer Invest.30(3),209–224 (2012).
Brücher BLDM, Swisher S, Königsrainer A et al. Response to preoperative therapy in upper gastrointestinal cancers. Ann. Surg. Oncol.16(4),878–886 (2009).
Miller AB, Hoogstraten B, Staquet M, Winkler A. Reporting results of cancer treatment. Cancer47(1),207–214 (1981).
Therasse P, Arbuck SG, Eisenhauer EA et al. New guidelines to evaluate the response to treatment in solid tumors. European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer, National Cancer Institute of the United States, National Cancer Institute of Canada. J. Natl Cancer Inst.92(3),205–216 (2000).
Brücher BLDM, Becker K, Lordick F et al. The clinical impact of histopathological response assessment by residual tumor cell quantification in esophageal squamous cell carcinomas. Cancer106(10),2119–2127 (2006).

Dr. Larry,

Thank you for this comment.

Please carry it as a stand alone post, Dr. Ritu will refer to it and reference it in her FORTHCOMING post on Tumor Response which will integrate multiple sources.

Please execute my instruction

Thank you

Thank you Larry for this educating comment. It explains very well why the Canadian investigators did not try to measure therapy response!

What they have demonstrated is the technological feasibility of coupling a treatment device to an imaging device and use that in order to guide the treatment to the right place.

the issue of “choice of treatment” to which you are referring is not in the scope of this publication.
The point is: if one treatment modality can be guided, other can as well! This should encourage others, to try and develop imaging-based treatment guidance systems.

  1. edit this on December 5, 2012 at 2:11 PM | Replylarryhbern

The crux of the matter in terms of capability is that the cancer tissue, adjacent tissue, and the fibrous matrix are all in transition to the cancerous state. It is taught to resect leaving “free margin”, which is better aesthetically, and has had success in breast surgery. The dilemma is that the patient may return, but how soon?

Correct. The philosophy behind lumpectomy is preserving quality of life. It was Prof. Veronesi (IEO) who introduced this method 30 years ago noticing that in the majority of cases, the patient will die from something else before presenting recurrence of breast cancer..

It is well established that when the resection margins are declared by a pathologist (as good as he/she could be) as “free of cancer”, the probability of recurrence is much lower than otherwise.

  1. edit this on December 5, 2012 at 2:19 PM | Reply2012pharmaceutical

Dr. Larry,

To assist Dr. Ritu, PLEASE carry ALL your comments above into a stand alone post and ADD to it your comment on my post on MIS

Thank you

  1. edit this on December 5, 2012 at 2:34 PM | Replysjwilliamspa

Great post! Dr. Nir, can the ultrasound be used in conjunction with PET scanning as well to determine a spatial and functional map of the tumor. With a disease like serous ovarian cancer we typically see an intraperitoneal carcimatosis and it appears that clinicians are wanting to use fluorogenic probes and fiberoptics to visualize the numerous nodules located within the cavity Also is the technique being used mainy for surgery or image guided radiotherapy or can you use this for detecting response to various chemotherapeutics including immunotherapy.

Ultrasound can and is actually used in conjunction with PET scanning in many cases. The choice of using ultrasound is always left to the practitioner! Being a non-invasive, low cost procedure makes the use of ultrasound a non-issue. The down-side is that because it is so easy to access and operate, nobody bothers to develop rigorous guidelines about using it and the benefits remains the property of individuals.

In regards to the possibility of screening for ovarian cancer and characterising pelvic masses using ultrasound I can refer you to scientific work in which I was involved:

  1. VAES (E.), MANCHANDA (R), AUTIER, NIR (R), NIR (D.), BLEIBERG (H.), ROBERT (A.), MENON (U.). Differential diagnosis of adnexal masses: Sequential use of the Risk of Malignancy Index and a novel computer aided diagnostic tool. Published in Ultrasound in Obstetrics & Gynecology. Issue 1 (January). Vol. 39. Page(s): 91-98.
  2. VAES (E.), MANCHANDA (R), NIR (R), NIR (D.), BLEIBERG (H.), AUTIER (P.), MENON (U.), ROBERT (A.). Mathematical models to discriminate between benign and malignant adnexal masses: potential diagnostic improvement using Ovarian HistoScanning. Published in International Journal of Gynecologic Cancer (IJGC). Issue 1. Vol. 21. Page(s): 35-43.
  3. LUCIDARME (0.), AKAKPO (J.-P.), GRANBERG (S.), SIDERI (M.), LEVAVI (H.), SCHNEIDER (A.), AUTIER (P.), NIR (D.), BLEIBERG (H.). A new computer aided diagnostic tool for non-invasive characterisation of malignant ovarian masses: Results of a multicentre validation study. Published in European Radiology. Issue 8. Vol. 20. Page(s): 1822-1830.

Dror Nir, PhD
Managing partner

BE: +32 (0) 473 981896
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  1. edit this on December 5, 2012 at 2:39 PM | ReplyBB

totally true and I am very thankful for these brilliant comments.

Remember: 10 years ago: every cancer researcher stated: “look at the tumor cells only – forget the stroma”. The era of laser-captured tumor-cell dissection started. Now , everyone knows: it is a system we are looking at and viewing and analyzing tumor cells only is really not enough.

So if we would be honest, we would have to declare, that all data, which had been produced 13-8years ago, dealing with laser capture microdissection, that al these data would need a re-scrutinization, cause the influence of the stroma was “forgotten”. I ‘d better not try thinking about the waisted millions of dollars.

If we keep on being honest: the surgeon looks at the “free margin” in a kind of reductionable model, the pathologist is more the control instance. I personally see the pathologist as “the control instance” of surgical quality. Therefore, not the wish of the surgeon is important, the objective way of looking into problems or challenges. Can a pathologist always state, if a R0-resection had been performed ?

The use of the Resectability Classification: There had been many many surrogate marker analysis – nothing new. BUT never a real substantial well tought through structured analysis had been done: mm by mm by mm by mm and afterwards analyzing that by a ROC analysis. BUt against which goldstandard ? If you perform statistically a ROC analysis – you need a golstandard to compare to. Therefore what is the real R0-resectiòn? It had been not proven. It just had been stated in this or that tumor entity that this or that margin with this margin free mm distance or that mm distance is enough and it had been declared as “the real R0-classification”. In some organs it is very very difficult and we all (surgeons, pathologists, clinicians) that we always get to the limit, if we try interpretating the R-classification within the 3rd dimension. Often it is just declared and stated.

Otherwise: if lymph nodes are negative it does not mean, lymph nodes are really negative, cause up to 38% for example in upper GI cancers have histological negative lymph nodes, but immunohistochemical positive lymph nodes. And this had been also shown by Stojadinovic at el analyzing the ultrastaging in colorectal cancer. So the 4th dimension of cancer – the lymph nodes / the lymphatic vessel invasion are much more important than just a TNM classification, which unfortunately does often not reflect real tumor biology.

AS we see: cancer has multifactorial reasons and it is necessary taking the challenge performing high sophisticated research by a multifactorial and multidisciplinary manner.

Again my deep and heartly thanks for that productive and excellent discussion !

Dr. BB,

Thank you for your comment.

Multidisciplinary perspectives have illuminated the discussion on the pages of this Journal.

Eager to review Dr. Ritu’s forthcoming paper – the topic has a life of its own and is embodied in your statement:

“the 4th dimension of cancer – the lymph nodes / the lymphatic vessel invasion are much more important than just a TNM classification, which unfortunately does often not reflect real tumor biology.”

Thank you BB for your comment. You have touched the core limitation of healthcare professionals: how do we know that we know!

Do we have a reference to each of the test we perform?

Do we have objective and standardise quality measures?

Do we see what is out-there or are we imagining?

The good news: Everyday we can “think” that we learned something new. We should be happy with that, even if it is means that we learned that yesterday’s truth is not true any-more and even if we are likely to be wrong again…:)

But still, in the last decades, lots of progress was made….

  1. edit this on December 11, 2012 at 2:34 AM | Replyritusaxena

Dr. Nir,
I thoroughly enjoyed reading your post as well as the comments that your post has attracted. There were different points of view and each one has been supported with relevant examples in the literature. Here are my two cents on the discussion:
The paper that you have discussed had the objective of finding out whether real-time MRI guidance of treatment was even possible and if yes, and also if the treatment could be performed in accurate location of the ROI? The data reveals they were pretty successful in accomplishing their objective and of course that gives hope to the imaging-based targeted therapies.
Whether the ROI is defined properly and if it accounts for the real tumor cure, is a different question. Role of pathologists and the histological analysis they bring about to the table cannot be ruled out, and the absence of a defined line between the tumor and the stromal region in the vicinity is well documented. However, that cannot rule out the value and scope of imaging-based detection and targeted therapy. After all, it is seminal in guiding minimally invasive surgery. As another arm of personalized medicine-based cure for cancer, molecular biologists at MD Anderson have suggested molecular and genetic profiling of the tumor to determine genetic aberrations on the basis of which matched-therapy could be recommended to patients. When phase I trial was conducted, the results were obtained were encouraging and the survival rate was better in matched-therapy patients compared to unmatched patients. Therefore, everytime there is more to consider when treating a cancer patient and who knows a combination of views of oncologists, pathologists, molecular biologists, geneticists, surgeons would device improvised protocols for diagnosis and treatment. It is always going to be complicated and generalizations would never give an answer. Smart interpretations of therapies – imaging-based or others would always be required!

Ritu

Dr. Nir,
One of your earlier comments, mentioned the non invasiveness of ultrasound, thus, it’s prevalence in use for diagnosis.

This may be true for other or all areas with the exception of Mammography screening. In this field, an ultrasound is performed only if a suspected area of calcification or a lump has been detected in the routine or patient-initiated request for ad hoc mammography secondery to patient complain of pain or patient report of suspected lump.

Ultrasound in this field repserents ascalation and two radiologists review.

It in routine use for Breast biopsy.

Thanks Ritu for this supporting comment. The worst enemy of finding solutions is doing nothing while using the excuse of looking for the “ultimate solution” . Personally, I believe in combining methods and improving clinical assessment based on information fusion. Being able to predict, and then timely track the response to treatment is a major issue that affects survival and costs!

Judging the ‘Tumor response’- there is more food for thought

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/12/04/judging-the-tumor-response-there-is-more-food-for-thought/

13 Responses

  1. edit this on December 4, 2012 at 2:25 PM | Replysjwilliamspa

Dr. Sanexa
you have brought up an interesting and very clinically relevant point: what is the best measurement of response and 2) how perspectives among oncologists and other professionals differ on this issues given their expertise in their respective subspecialties (immunologist versus oncologist. The advent of functional measurements of tumors (PET etc.) seems extremely important in the therapeutic use AND in the development of these types of compounds since usually a response presents (in cases of solid tumors) as either a lack of growth of the tumor or tumor shrinkage. Did the authors include an in-depth discussion of the rapidity of onset of resistance with these types of compounds?
Thanks for the posting.

  1. edit this on December 4, 2012 at 4:48 PM | Reply ritusaxena

Dr. Williams,
Thanks for your comment on the post. The editorial brings to attention a view that although PET and other imaging methods provide vital information on tumor growth, shrinkage in response to a therapy, however, there are more aspects to consider including genetic and molecular characteristics of tumor.
It was an editorial review and the authors did not include any in-depth discussion on the rapidity of onset of resistance with these types of compounds as the focus was primarily on interpreting tumor response.
I am glad you found the contents of the write-up informative.
Thanks again!
Ritu

  1. edit this on December 5, 2012 at 4:40 AM | ReplyBB

Thank you for your wonderful comment and interpretation. Dr.Sanexa made a brilliant comment.

May I allow myself putting my finger deeper into this wound ? Cancer patients deserve it.

It had been already pointed out by international experts from Munich, Tokyo, Hong-Kong and Houston, dealing with upper GI cancer, that the actual response criteria are not appropriate and moreover: the clinical response criteria in use seem rather to function as an alibi, than helping to differentiate and / or discriminate tumor biology (Ann Surg Oncol 2009):

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19194759

The response data in a phase-II-trial (one tumor entity, one histology, one treatment, one group) revealed: clinical response evaluation according to the WHO-criteria is not appropriate to determine response:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15498642

Of course, there was a time, when it seemed to be useful and this also has to be respected.

There is another challenge: using statistically a ROC and resulting in thresholds. This was, is and always be “a clinical decision only” and not the decision of the statistician. The clinician tells the statistician, what decision, he wants to make – the responsibility is enormous. Getting back to the roots:
After the main results of the Munich-group had been published 2001 (Ann Surg) and 2004 (J Clin Oncol):

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11224616

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14990646

the first reaction in the community was: to difficult, can’t be, not re-evaluated, etc.. However, all evaluated cut-offs / thresholds had been later proven to be the real and best ones by the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. Jaffer Ajani – a great and critical oncologist – pushed that together with Steve Swisher and they found the same results. Than the upper GI stakeholders went an uncommon way in science: they re-scrutinized their findings. Meanwhile the Goldstandard using histopathology as the basis-criterion had been published in Cancer 2006.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16607651

Not every author, who was at the authorlist in 2001 and 2004 wanted to be a part of this analysis and publication ! Why ? Everyone should judge that by himself.

The data of this analysis had been submitted to the New England Journal of Medicine. In the 2nd review stage process, the manuscript was rejected. The Ann Surg Oncol accepted the publication: the re-scrutinized data resulted in another interesting finding: in the future maybe “one PET-scan” might be appropriate predicting the patient’s response.

Where are we now ?

The level of evidence using the response criteria is very low: Miller’s (Cancer 1981) publication belonged to ”one single” experiment from Moertel (Cancer 1976). During that time, there was no definition of “experiences” rather than “oncologists”. These terms had not been in use during that time.

Additionally they resulted in a (scientifically weak) change of the classification, published by Therasse (J Natl Cancer Inst 2000). Targeted therapy did not result in a change so far. In 2009, the international upper GI experts sent their publication of the Ann Surg Oncol 2009 to the WHO but without any kind of reaction.

Using molecular biological predictive markers within the last 10years all seem to have potential.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20012971

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18704459

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17940507

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17354029

But, experts are aware: the real step breaking barriers had not been performed so far. Additionally, it is very important in trying to evaluate and / predict response, that not different tumor entities with different survival and tumor biology are mixed together. Those data are from my perspective not helpful, but maybe that is my own Bias (!) of my view.

INCORE, the International Consortium of Research Excellence of the Theodor-Billroth-Academy, was invited publishing the Editorial in Future Oncology 2012. The consortium pointed out, that living within an area of ‘prove of principle’ and also trying to work out level of evidence in medicine, it is “the duty and responsibility” of every clinician, but also of the societies and institutions, also of the WHO.

Complete remission is not the only goal, as experts dealing with ‘response-research’ are aware. It is so frustrating for patients and clinicians: there is a rate of those patients with complete remission, who develop early recurrence ! This reflects, that complete remission cannot function as the only criterion describing response !

Again, my heartly thanks, that Dr. Sanexa discussed this issue in detail.
I hope, I found the way explaining the way of development and evaluating response criteria properly and in a differentiated way of view. From the perspective of INCORE:

“an interdisciplinary initiative with all key stake¬holders and disciplines represented is imperative to make predictive and prognostic individualized tumor response assessment a modern-day reality. The integrated multidisciplinary panel of international experts need to define how to leverage existing data, tissue and testing platforms in order to predict individual patient treatment response and prognosis.”

  1. edit this on December 5, 2012 at 5:34 AM | Reply ritusaxena

Dr. Brucher,

First of all thanks for expressing your views on the ‘tumor response’ in a comprehensive way. You are the first author of the editorial review one of the prominent people who has taken part in the process of defining tumor response and I am glad that you decided to write a comment on the writeup.

The topic has been explained well in an immaculate manner and that it further clarifies the need for the perfect markers that would be able to evaluate and predict tumor response. There are, as you mentioned, some molecular markers available including VEGF, cyclins, that have been brought to focus in the context of squamous cell carcinoma.

It would be great if you could be the guest author for our blog and we could publish your opinion (comment on this blog post) as a separate post. Please let us know if it is OK with you.

Thanks again for your comment
Ritu

  1. edit this on December 5, 2012 at 6:34 AM | Reply2012pharmaceutical

Thank you all to the compelling discussions, above.

Please review the two sources on the topic I placed at the bottom of the post, above as post on this Scientific Journal,

All comments made to both entries are part of this discussion, I am referring to Dr. Nir’s post on size of tumor, to BB comment to Nir’s post, to Larry’ Pathologist view on Tumors and my post on remission and minimally invasive surgery (MIS).

Great comments by Dr. Williams, BB and wonderful topic exposition by Dr. Ritu.

  1. edit this on December 5, 2012 at 6:43 AM | Replyritusaxena

Aviva,
Thats a great idea. I will combine all sources referred by you, the post on tumor imaging by Dr. Nir and the comments made on the these posts including Dr. Brucher’s comments in a new posts.
Thanks
Ritu

Great idea, ask Larry, he has written two very long important comments on this topic, one on Nir’s post and another one, ask him where, if it is not on MIS post. GREAT work, Ritu, integration is very important. Dr, Williams is one of our Gems.

Assessing tumour response it is not an easy task! Because tumours don’t change, but happilly our knowlege (about them) does really change, is ever changing (thank god!). In the past we had the Recist Criteria, then the Modified Recist Criteria, because of Gist and other tumors. At this very moment, these are clearly insuficient. We do need more, new validated facing the reality of nowadays. A great enormous post Dr Ritu! Congratulations!

See also Multiple Comment Exchanges submitted for:

·      Knowing the tumor’s size and location, could we target treatment to THE ROI by applying…..

Author: Dror Nir, PhD

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/10/16/knowing-the-tumors-size-and-location-could-we-target-treatment-to-the-roi-by-applying-imaging-guided-intervention/

 

See also Multiple Comment Exchanges submitted for:

  • Is the Warburg Effect the Cause or the Effect of Cancer: A 21st Century View?

Author: Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/10/17/is-the-warburg-effect-the-cause-or-the-effect-of-cancer-a-21st-century-view/

 

E5        Real Time (RT) Press Coverage of Leading Conferences in BioMedicine: RT Methodology and the Archive

 

The relevance of the Real Time (RT) Press Coverage of Leading Conferences in BioMedicine to Medical Education is vast. At these Conferences UNPUBLISHED material is presented. Attendance of Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN at these Conferences brings to the Journal Readers ACCESS to TRENDS on yet UNPUBLISHED work. That inspiration leads the Editor-in-Chief to commission our Team to research cutting edge topics that would not have otherwise been incorporated in the Journal at a novel stage.

 

The methodology developed for the task of Real Time Press Coverage of Biotechnology Conferences is explained in the link, below

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/press-coverage/

 

  • Part One – The Real Time Press Coverage methodology explained
  • Part Two – The Breakthrough Bio-Technology Archive: List of Conferences covered in Real Time per Year, 2013 to Present
  • Part Three – The Conference Archive: Deliverables at the end of each Conference

 

E5.1            Super RECORD of REAL TIME Coverage of Biotech and Medicine Conferences by LPBI Group in 2016. Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/super-record-real-time-coverage-biotech-medicine-lpbi-aviva/

 

E5.2            Examples of use of Social Media for Real Time Conference Press Coverage:

 

  • Tweets by @pharma_BI and @AVIVA1950 for #PMConf at The 13th Annual Personalized Medicine Conference, From Concept to the Clinic, November 14–16, 2017, Joseph B. Martin Conference Center, Harvard Medical School

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2017/11/17/tweets-by-pharma_bi-and-aviva1950-for-pmconf-at-the-13th-annual-personalized-medicine-annual-meeting-from-concept-to-the-clinic-november-14-16-20/

 

  • Day 1 – 13th Annual Personalized Medicine Conference, From Concept to the Clinic, November 14–16, 2017

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2017/11/15/live-day-one-13th-annual-personalized-medicine-from-concept-to-the-clinic-november-14-16-2017-joseph-b-martin-conference-center-harvard-medical-school-77-avenue-louis-pasteur-bos/

 

  • Day 2 – 13th Annual Personalized Medicine Conference, From Concept to the Clinic, November 14–16, 2017

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2017/11/16/live-day-two-13th-annual-personalized-medicine-from-concept-to-the-clinic-november-14-16-2017-joseph-b-martin-conference-center-harvard-medical-school-77-avenue-louis-pasteur-bos

 

 

E6        Impact of E5 on E3

 On average each conference attendance on a Press Pass yields 5-6 new articles for the Journal that would not have been written if exposure to the contents of the conference would not have had taken place. If on average there are 10 conferences per year, this engagement would yield ~50 new articles in the Journal per year. The Journal publishing on the Frontier of Science is sustained by the content presented at conferences attended. Each conference covered yields an electronic Conference Proceedings and new lists of ideas and lists of scientist to be followed up and often contacted.

The archive has great value for Medical Education. Each conference augments the searchable compilations in the knowledge base of the most recent scientific findings presented.

 

 

F.     Innovation & Creativity Demonstrated in the Pursuit of Content Creation by the Curation Methodology for Medical Education

 

Development of this methodology and its application to Medical Education represents our Pursuit of Excellence in Content Creation for curriculum development in Life Sciences and Medicine

  • In Section D we presented WHAT is the Curation Methodology
  • In Section F we present WHAT was accomplished during five years of application of this methodology to Medical Education
  • In Section F we present SEVEN aspect of Innovation & Creativity for the benefit of Medical Education from our pursuit of excellence in Content Creation in the Life Sciences and in Medicine

 

F1        What was accomplished by Development of the Curation Methodology

 

·       @ PharmaceuticalIntelligence.com –  A Case Study on the LEADER in Curation of Scientific Findings

Author: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2017/06/29/pharmaceuticalintelligence-com-a-case-study-on-the-leader-in-curation-of-scientific-findings/

 

·    Scientific Curation Fostering Expert Networks and Open Innovation: Lessons from Clive Thompson

Curator: Stephen J Williams, PhD

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/07/17/scientific-curation-fostering-expert-networks-and-open-innovation-lessons-from-clive-thompson-and-others/

 

·       Innovations in electronic Scientific Publishing (eSP): Case Studies in Marketing eContent, Curation Methodology, Categories of Research Functions, Interdisciplinary conceptual innovations by Cross Section of Categories, Exposure to Frontiers of Science by Real Time Press coverage of Scientific Conferences

Editor-in-Chief http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2017/05/06/case-studies-of-innovations-in-electronic-scientific-publishing-esp-marketing-econtent-curation-methodology-categories-of-research-functions-interdisciplinary-conceptual-innovations-by-cross-sec/

 

  • FIVE years of e-Scientific Publishing @pharmaceuticalintellicence.com, Top Articles by Author and by e-Views >1,000, 4/27/2012 to 1/29/2018

Editor-in-Chief: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2017/04/28/five-years-of-e-scientific-publishing-pharmaceuticalintellicence-com-top-articles-by-author-and-by-e-views-1000-4272012-to-4272017/

 

·       Inevitability of Curation: Scientific Publishing moves to embrace Open Data, Libraries and Researchers are trying to keep up

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2015/02/19/inevitability-of-curation-scientific-publishing-moves-to-embrace-open-data-libraries-and-researchers-are-trying-to-keep-up/

 

·       The e-Factor in Curation of Scientific Findings

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/e-factor-curation-scientific-findings-aviva-lev-ari-phd-rn/

 

·       Power of Analogy: Curation in Music, Music Critique as a Curation and Curation of Medical Research Findings – A Comparison

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/02/11/power-of-analogy-curation-in-music-music-critique-as-a-curation-and-curation-of-medical-research-findings-a-comparison/

 

  • Three Genres in e-Scientific Publishing AND Three Scientists’ Dilemmas

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2017/06/28/three-genres-in-e-scientific-publishing-and-three-scientists-dilemmas/

 

·       e-Scientific Publishing: The Competitive Advantage of a Powerhouse for Curation of Scientific Findings and Methodology Development for e-Scientific Publishing – LPBI Group, A Case in Point

Author and Editor-in-Chief: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2017/06/20/e-scientific-publishing-the-competitive-advantage-of-a-powerhouse-for-curation-of-scientific-findings-and-methodology-development-for-e-scientific-publishing-lpbi-group-a-case-in-point/

 

 

F2        Method Selection of the Open Access Journal Publishing Medium

 

·       Scientific Innovation: as Influenced by Academia, Publishing Requirements and the Academic Publishing Industry

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/03/05/scientific-innovation-as-influenced-by-academia-publishing-requirements-and-the-academic-publishing-industry/

·       The Fatal Self Distraction of the Academic Publishing Industry: The Solution of the Open Access Online Scientific Journals

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/open-access-scientific-journal/the-open-access-online-scientific-journals-solution-vs-the-fetal-self-distraction-of-the-academic-publishing-industry/

 

  • All scientific papers to be free by 2020 under EU proposals

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2016/06/01/all-scientific-papers-to-be-free-by-2020-under-eu-proposals/

 

·    SAME SCIENTIFIC IMPACT: Scientific Publishing – Open Journals vs. Subscription-based

Reporters: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN & Pnina G. Abir-Am, PhD

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/07/23/same-scientific-impact-scientific-publishing-open-journals-vs-subscription-based/

 

·       June 19, 2016 – We Celebrate reaching over One Million e-Readers @PharmaceuticalIntelligence.com

Editor-in-Chief: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2016/06/19/june-19-2016-we-celebrate-reaching-over-one-million-e-readers-pharmaceuticalintelligence-com/

 

·       By Design: A BRANDING Engine “Hard-wired” in the Ontology of an Open Access Online Scientific Journal @ Leaders in Pharmaceutical Business Intelligence (LPBI)

Author and Platform’s Features Designer: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2015/10/05/by-design-a-branding-engine-hard-wired-in-the-ontology-of-an-open-access-online-scientific-journal-leaders-in-pharmaceutical-business-intelligence-lpbi/

 

·       Elsevier’s Mendeley and Academia.edu – How We Distribute Scientific Research: A Case in Advocacy for Open Access Journals

Curator and Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/01/16/elseviers-mendeley-and-academia-edu-how-we-distribute-scientific-research-a-case-in-advocacy-for-open-access-journals/

 

·       Reconstructed Science Communication for Open Access Online Scientific Curation

Author and Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP and Co-Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/01/04/reconstructed-science-communication-for-curation/

 

·       e-Recognition via Friction-free Collaboration over the Internet: “Open Access to Curation of Scientific Research”

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/03/17/e-recognition-via-friction-free-collaboration-over-the-internet-open-access-to-curation-of-scientific-research/

 

·    Open-Access Publishing in Genomics

Reporter:  Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/01/14/open-access-publishing-in-genomics/

 

·    “Open Access Publishing” is becoming the mainstream model: “Academic Publishing” has changed Irrevocably

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/10/25/open-access-publishing-is-becoming-the-mainstream-model-academic-publishing-has-changed-irrevocably/

 

  • http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com – Nomination submission of the Journal for 2016 Communication Award Excellence in Reporting in Science, Medicine and Engineering, National Academies 2016 Communication Awards

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/httppharmaceuticalintelligencecom-nomination-2016-lev-ari-phd-rn/

 

 

F3        Selection of electronic Books vs Hardcover or Softcover type of product

·    Digital Publishing Promotes Science and Popularizes it by Access to Scientific Discourse

Curator & Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/11/27/digital-publishing-promotes-science-and-popularizes-it-by-access-to-scientific-discourse/

 

·       Nomination: National Academies 2016 Communication Awards – EXCELLENCE in REPORTING SCIENCE and MEDICINE: BioMed e-Series, 2015 publications by LPBI

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/nomination-national-academies-2016-communication-lev-ari-phd-rn/

 

 

F4        Examples of Creative Article Titles

 

  • We celebrate 5,070 Scientific Articles – pharmaceuticalintelligence.com – Top Posts with Greater than 2,000 Views

Editor-in-Chief: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2017/04/12/we-celebrate-5070-scientific-articles-pharmaceuticalintelligence-com-top-posts-with-greater-than-2000-views/

 

·       Calcium and Cardiovascular Diseases: A Series of Twelve Articles in Advanced Cardiology

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

Part I:

Identification of Biomarkers that are Related to the Actin Cytoskeleton

Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP

Part II:

Role of Calcium, the Actin Skeleton, and Lipid Structures in Signaling and Cell Motility

Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP, Stephen Williams, PhD and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

Part III:

Renal Distal Tubular Ca2+ Exchange Mechanism in Health and Disease

Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP, Stephen J. Williams, PhD
 and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

Part IV:

The Centrality of Ca(2+) Signaling and Cytoskeleton Involving Calmodulin Kinases and Ryanodine Receptors in Cardiac Failure, ArterialSmooth Muscle, Post-ischemic Arrhythmia, Similarities and Differences, and Pharmaceutical Targets

Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP, Justin Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

Part V:

Heart, Vascular Smooth Muscle, Excitation-Contraction Coupling (E-CC), Cytoskeleton, Cellular Dynamics and Ca2 Signaling

Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP, Justin Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

Part VI:

Calcium Cycling (ATPase Pump) in Cardiac Gene Therapy: Inhalable Gene Therapy for Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension and Percutaneous Intra-coronary Artery Infusion for Heart Failure: Contributions by Roger J. Hajjar, MD

Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

Part VII:

Cardiac Contractility & Myocardium Performance: Ventricular Arrhythmias and Non-ischemic Heart Failure – Therapeutic Implications for Cardiomyocyte Ryanopathy (Calcium Release-related Contractile Dysfunction) and Catecholamine Responses

Justin Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC, Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

Part VIII

Disruption of Calcium Homeostasis: Cardiomyocytes and Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells: The Cardiac and Cardiovascular Calcium Signaling Mechanism – Part VIII

Justin Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC, Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

Part IX

Calcium-Channel Blockers, Calcium Release-related Contractile Dysfunction (Ryanopathy) and Calcium as Neurotransmitter Sensor – Part IX

Justin Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC, Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

Part X

Synaptotagmin functions as a Calcium Sensor: How Calcium Ions Regulate the fusion of vesicles with cell membranes during Neurotransmission – Part X

Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

Part XI

Sensors and Signaling in Oxidative Stress – Part XI

Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP

Part XII

Atherosclerosis Independence: Genetic Polymorphisms of Ion Channels Role in the Pathogenesis of Coronary Microvascular Dysfunction and Myocardial Ischemia (Coronary Artery Disease (CAD)) – Part XII

Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD,

Part XIII 

Ca2+-Stimulated Exocytosis:  The Role of Calmodulin and Protein Kinase C in Ca2+ Regulation of Hormone and Neurotransmitter
Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

 

 

F5        Examples of Creative eTOCs

 

Series C: e-Books on Cancer & Oncology

 

  • Volume 1: Cancer Biology & Genomics for Disease Diagnosis. On comsince 8/11/2015

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B013RVYR2K

 

  • Volume 2: Cancer Therapies: Metabolic, Genomics, Interventional, Immunotherapy and Nanotechnology in Therapy Delivery(Series C Book 2). On com since 5/18/2017

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B071VQ6YYK

 

Series D: e-Books on BioMedicine – Metabolomics, Immunology, Infectious Diseases

 

  • Metabolomics

VOLUME 1: Metabolic Genomics and Pharmaceutics. On Amazon.com since 7/21/2015

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B012BB0ZF0

 

  • The Immune System, Stress Signaling, Infectious Diseases and Therapeutic Implications

VOLUME 2Infectious Diseases and Therapeutics

VOLUME 3The Immune System and Therapeutics

(Series D: BioMedicine & Immunology) Kindle Edition. On Amazon.com since September 4, 2017

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075CXHY1B

 

 

F6        Examples of Hierarchical Ontologies created by Experts/Authors/Writers for selected Categories of Research with +500 Articles

 

  • 960 articles on Cancer Biology & Innovations in Cancer Therapy
  • 739 articles on Frontiers in Cardiology and Cardiovascular Disorders
  • 636 articles on Personalized and Precision Medicine & Genomics Research
  • 595 articles on Cell Biology and Cell Circuits

Go to https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/

  • Click on Select Category on the right hand side of the Home Page
  • Click on one of the Categories below to observe the Hierarchical Ontologies
  • Click on the Parent or a subsequent sub-category to fetch all the articles nested

 

 

F7        Articles of Note on selective Research Topic @PharmaceuticalIntelligence

 

·    Articles on Cancer-Related Topic in http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com Scientific Journal

Curator: Stephen J Williams, PhD

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/05/05/articles-on-cancer-related-topic-in-httppharmaceuticalintelligence-com-scientific-journal/

 

·       Articles on Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) in Cardiovascular Diseases by the Team @Leaders in Pharmaceutical Business Intelligence (LPBI) Group

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/articles-minimally-invasive-surgery-mis-diseases-team-aviva/

 

·       Proteomics, Metabolomics, Signaling Pathways, and Cell Regulation – Articles of Note, LPBI Group’s Scientists @ http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/proteomics-metabolomics-signaling-pathways-cell-lev-ari-phd-rn/

 

·       Articles of Note on Signaling and Metabolic Pathways published by the Team of LPBI Group in @pharmaceuticalintelligence.com

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/articles-note-signaling-metabolic-pathways-published-aviva/

·       Pancreatic Cancer: Articles of Note @PharmaceuticalIntelligence.com

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/pancreatic-cancer-articles-note-aviva-lev-ari-phd-rn/

 

·       Immune System Stimulants: Articles of Note @pharmaceuticalintelligence.com

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/immune-system-stimulants-articles-note-aviva-lev-ari-phd-rn/

 

·       Alzheimer’s Disease: Novel Therapeutical Approaches — Articles of Note @PharmaceuticalIntelligence.com

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/alzheimers-disease-novel-therapeutical-approaches-lev-ari-phd-rn/

 

·       Prostate Cancer: Diagnosis and Novel Treatment – Articles of Note @PharmaceuticalIntelligence.com

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/prostate-cancer-diagnosis-novel-treatment-articles-lev-ari-phd-rn/

 

·       Nutrition: Articles of Note @PharmaceuticalIntelligence.com

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/nutrition-articles-note-pharmaceuticalintelligencecom-aviva/

 

·       Epigenetics, Environment and Cancer: Articles of Note @PharmaceuticalIntelligence.com

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/epigenetics-environment-cancer-articles-note-aviva-lev-ari-phd-rn/

 

·       Contributions to Personalized and Precision Medicine & Genomic Research

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/contributions-personalized-precision-medicine-genomic-aviva/

 

 

G.        Editor-in-Chief’s Roles and Accomplishments

 

G1        Curation Methodology Development

In Section F1, above we present the Leadership we provide on curation of scientific findings in the eScientific publishing for Medical Education contents.

In Section G1, the Leadership we provide on curation of scientific findings in the eScientific publishing for Medical Education contents is demonstrated by a subset of several outstanding curations with high electronic Viewer volume. Each article included presents unique content contribution to Medical Clinical Education.

·       These articles are extracted from the list of all Journal articles with >1,000 eReaders, 4/28/2012 to 1/29/2018.

Article Title, # of electronic Viewers, Author(s) Name

Is the Warburg Effect the Cause or the Effect of Cancer: A 21st Century View?                      16,114 Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP

Do Novel Anticoagulants Affect the PT/INR? The Cases of XARELTO (rivaroxaban) and PRADAXA (dabigatran) 11,606 Vivek Lal, MBBS, MD, FCIR,

Justin D. Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC and

Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

Clinical Indications for Use of Inhaled Nitric Oxide (iNO) in the Adult Patient Market: Clinical Outcomes after Use, Therapy Demand and Cost of Care

 

 5,865 Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR-gamma) Receptors Activation: PPARγ transrepression for Angiogenesis in Cardiovascular Disease and PPARγ transactivation for Treatment of Diabetes                  1,919 Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

 

Bystolic’s generic Nebivolol – Positive Effect on circulating Endothelial Progenitor Cells Endogenous Augmentation  1,059 Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

 

Triple Antihypertensive Combination Therapy Significantly Lowers Blood Pressure in Hard-to-Treat Patients with Hypertension and Diabetes  1,339 Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

 

Clinical Trials Results for Endothelin System: Pathophysiological role in Chronic Heart Failure, Acute Coronary Syndromes and MI – Marker of Disease Severity or Genetic Determination?  1,472 Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
Treatment of Refractory Hypertension via Percutaneous Renal Denervation  1,085 Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

G2        Content Creation and Key Opinion Leader (KOL) Recognition

G2.1     Volume of Articles in the Journal and in the 16 Volume-BioMed e-Series

 

Select

Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN 2012pharmaceutical

3,064 Articles

·       All  (5,288)

avivalev-ari@alum.berkeley.edu Administrator 3064

 

G2.1     Volume of Articles in the Journal and in the 16 Volume-BioMed e-Series

 

1.   Volume of Articles in the Journal since Journal inception on 4/28/2012:

  • Total articles by ALL authors in Journal Archive on 1/29/2018 = 5,288
  • ALL articles/posts Authored, Curated, Reported by Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN = 3,064

 

2.   Volume of Articles in the 16 Volume-BioMed e-Series

  • Editorial & Publication of Articles in e-Books by Leaders in Pharmaceutical Business Intelligence: Contributions of Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/10/16/editorial-publication-of-articles-in-e-books-by-leaders-in-pharmaceutical-business-intelligence-contributions-of-aviva-lev-ari-phd-rn/

  • 557 Co-Curations, Single Author Curations and Scientific Reports in 13 Volumes of LPBI’s BioMed e-Series by Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/557-co-curations-single-author-curation-scientific-13-aviva/

3.   Biography and Bibliographies: LPBI Group’s Founder – Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/founder/

 

  • Reflections on a Four-phase Career: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN, March 2018

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2018/03/06/reflections-on-a-four-phase-career-aviva-lev-ari-phd-rn-march-2018/

G2.2     Digital Presence measured by eViews: Clicks on article by Author Name

Top Authors for all days ending 2018-01-29 (Summarized) – All Time

Author Name electronic Views
Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN [2012pharmaceutical] 352,153

 

Our TEAM Clicks on Tab

5,934

 

 

Founder 3,257
BioMed e-Series 3,140

 

Journal PharmaceuticalIntelligence.com – 2,214 2,214
About – 2,054 2,054
VISION – 2,803 2,803

LPBI Group – 1,201
1,201

G2.3     Digital KOL Parameters

Key Opinion Leader (KOL) – Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN, as Evidenced by

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2016/07/21/key-opinion-leader-kol-aviva-lev-ari-phd-rn-as-evidenced-by/

G3        Team building: Editors and Expert, Authors, Writers

Our Team

Selection of Journal’s Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) and BioMed e-Series Content Consultant (CC): Series B, C, D, E

L. H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP

Editorial & Publication of Articles in e-Books by  Leaders in Pharmaceutical Business Intelligence:  Contributions of Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/10/16/editorial-publication-of-articles-in-e-books-by-leaders-in-pharmaceutical-business-intelligence-contributions-of-larry-h-bernstein-md-fcap/

G4        Book Title Generation and Cover Page Design

As BioMed e-Series Editor–in-Chief, was responsible for the following functions of product design and product launch

·       16 Title creations for e-Books

·       Designed 16 Cover Pages for a 16-Volume e-Books e-Series in BioMed

·       Designed Series A, eTOCs for SIX Volumes and

·       Approved of all 16 electronic Table of Contents (eTOCs), working in tandem with all the Editors of each volume and all the Author contributors of article contents in the Journal.

·       Commissioned Articles by Authors/Curators per Author’s expertise on a daily basis

 

Below, see Volume Titles and Cover Pages:

13 LIVE results for Kindle Store: “Aviva Lev-Ari

  • Etiologies of Cardiovascular Diseases: Epigenetics, Genetics and Genomics

    Nov 28, 2015 | Kindle eBook

    by Justin D. Pearlman MD ME PhD MA FACC and Stephen J. Williams PhD
    Subscribers read for free.
    Get it TODAY, Oct 21
    Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
  • Amazon’s Aviva Lev-Ari Page

    Discover books, read about the author, find related products, and more.More about Aviva Lev-Ari
  • Perspectives on Nitric Oxide in Disease Mechanisms (Biomed e-Books Book 1)

    Jun 20, 2013 | Kindle eBook

    by Margaret Baker PhD and Tilda Barliya PhD
    Subscribers read for free.
    Get it TODAY, Oct 21
    Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
  • The Immune System, Stress Signaling, Infectious Diseases and Therapeutic Implications: VOLUME 2: Infectious Diseases and Therapeutics and VOLUME 3: The … (Series D: BioMedicine & Immunology)

    Sep 4, 2017 | Kindle eBook

    by Larry H. Bernstein and Aviva Lev-Ari
    Subscribers read for free.
    Get it TODAY, Oct 21
    Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
  • The VOICES of Patients, Hospitals CEOs, Health Care Providers, Caregivers and Families: Personal Experience with Critical Care and Invasive Medical Procedures … E: Patient-Centered Medicine Book 1)

    Oct 16, 2017 | Kindle eBook

    by Larry H. Bernstein and Aviva Lev-Ari
    Subscribers read for free.
    Get it TODAY, Oct 21
    Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
  • Cardiovascular Original Research: Cases in Methodology Design for Content Co-Curation: The Art of Scientific & Medical Curation

    Nov 29, 2015 | Kindle eBook

    by Larry H. Bernstein MD FCAP and Aviva Lev-Ari PhD RN
    Subscribers read for free.
    Get it TODAY, Oct 21
    Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
  • Milestones in Physiology: Discoveries in Medicine, Genomics and Therapeutics (Series E: Patient-Centered Medicine Book 3)

    Dec 26, 2015 | Kindle eBook

    by Larry H. Bernstein MD FACP and Aviva Lev-Ari PhD RN
    Subscribers read for free.
    Get it TODAY, Oct 21
    Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
  • Cancer Biology and Genomics for Disease Diagnosis (Series C: e-Books on Cancer & Oncology Book 1)

    Aug 10, 2015 | Kindle eBook

    by Larry H Bernstein MD FCAP and Prabodh Kumar Kandala PhD
    Subscribers read for free.
    Get it TODAY, Oct 21
    Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
  • Medical 3D BioPrinting – The Revolution in Medicine Technologies for Patient-centered Medicine: From R&D in Biologics to New Medical Devices (Series E: Patient-Centered Medicine Book 4)

    Dec 30, 2017 | Kindle eBook

    by Larry H. Bernstein and Irina Robu
    Subscribers read for free.
    Get it TODAY, Oct 21
    Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
  • Metabolic Genomics & Pharmaceutics (BioMedicine – Metabolomics, Immunology, Infectious Diseases Book 1)

    Jul 21, 2015 | Kindle eBook

    by Larry H. Bernstein MD FCAP and Prabodah Kandala PhD
    Subscribers read for free.
    Get it TODAY, Oct 21
    Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
  • Regenerative and Translational Medicine: The Therapeutic Promise for Cardiovascular Diseases

    Dec 26, 2015 | Kindle eBook

    by Justin D. Pearlman MD ME PhD MA FACC and Ritu Saxena PhD
    Subscribers read for free.
    Get it TODAY, Oct 21
    Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
  • Medical Scientific Discoveries for the 21st Century & Interviews with Scientific Leaders (Series E)

    Dec 9, 2017 | Kindle eBook

    by Larry H. Bernstein and Aviva Lev-Ari
    Subscribers read for free.
    Get it TODAY, Oct 21
    Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
  • Cancer Therapies: Metabolic, Genomics, Interventional, Immunotherapy and Nanotechnology in Therapy Delivery (Series C Book 2)

    May 13, 2017 | Kindle eBook

    by Larry H. Bernstein and Demet Sag
    Subscribers read for free.
    Get it TODAY, Oct 21
    Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
  • Genomics Orientations for Personalized Medicine (Frontiers in Genomics Research Book 1)

    Nov 22, 2015 | Kindle eBook

    by Sudipta Saha PhD and Ritu Saxena PhD
    Subscribers read for free.
    Get it TODAY, Oct 21
    Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC

G5        Style Setting: Instruction manuals for Journal, Articles, Books

As BioMed e-Series Editor–in-Chief, Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN was responsible for

·       All the documentation (Instruction manuals) on Style setting, and for

·       Training all team members

·       Journal Articles Format

·       Journal Comment Exchange Format

·       e-Books Production Process:

1.               Volume creation from Journal’s Article Archive,

2.               Format Translation from HTML to .mobi for Kindle devices,

3.               Proof reading process,

4.               Title release,

5.               Book electronic Upload to Amazon.com Cloud.

6.               Connection of all articles and e-Books to Social Media, Ping back generation by mentioning other related articles published in the Journal

 

Lastly, G6, below

G6        Annual Workflow Management of Multiple eTOCs – Multi-year Book Publishing Scheduling Plan, 2013 – Present

 

Title Date of Publication Number of Pages
Perspectives on Nitric Oxide in Disease Mechanisms 6/21/2013 895
Cardiovascular Original Research: Cases in Methodology Design for Content Co-Curation 11/30/2015 11039 KB
Etiologies of Cardiovascular Diseases: Epigenetics, Genetics and Genomics 11/29/2015 12333 KB
Regenerative and Translational Medicine: The Therapeutics Promise for Cardiovascular Diseases 12/26/2015 11668 KB
Genomics Orientations for Personalized Medicine 11/23/2015 11724 KB
Cancer Biology & Genomics for Disease Diagnosis 8/11/2015 13744 KB
Cancer Therapies: Metabolic, Genomics, Interventional, Immunotherapy and Nanotechnology in Therapy Delivery 5/18/2017 5408 pages
Metabolic Genomics and Pharmaceutics 7/21/2015 13927 KB
The Immune System, Stress    Signaling, Infectious Diseases and Therapeutic Implications 9/4/2017 3747 pages
The VOICES of Patients, Hospitals CEOs, Health Care Providers, Caregivers and Families: Personal Experience with Critical Care and Invasive Medical Procedures 10/16/2017 826 pages
Medical Scientific Discoveries for the 21st Century & Interviews with Scientific Leaders 12/9/2017 2862 pages
Milestones in Physiology: Discoveries in Medicine, Genomics and Therapeutics 12/27/2015 11125 KB
Medical 3D BioPrinting – The Revolution in Medicine, Technologies for Patient-centered Medicine: From R&D in Biologics to New Medical Devices 12/30/2017 1005 pages
 

Pharmacological Agents in Treatment of Cardiovascular Disease

 

12/23/2018 185 – no format conversion to MS Word, e-book contains links, Clinical Pearls and Editorials

Interventional Cardiology for Disease Diagnosis and Cardiac Surgery for Condition Treatment

12/24/2018

 

169 – – no format conversion to MS Word, e-book contains links, Clinical Pearls and Editorials
Series B, Volume 1:

Latest in Genomics Methodologies for Therapeutics: Gene Editing, NGS & BioInformatics, Simulations and the Genome Ontology

Work-in-Progress, Expected Publishing date in 2019 ???

 

Live 2:30-4:30 PM  Mediterranean Diet and Lifestyle: A Symposium on Diet and Human Health:  October 19, 2018

Reporter: Stephen J. Williams, Ph.D.

 

2:30 Mediterranean Diet, Intangible Heritage and Sustainable Tourism?

Prof. Fabio Parasecoli, PhD.

 

 

Nutrition and Food Department, New York University

We focus on more of the cultural aspects and the relevance of this diet to tourism in Italy where there is a high rate of unemployment.  The diet is interesting from a touristic standpoint as the diet have the perspective of the different ingredients inherent in Italy.  The mediterranean diet food pyramid totally different than US.  How do we explain to consumers these medical concepts; for example in China, Germany they are using different ways to explain the benefits of this diet.

A Cultural Formation

  • a way of life, for tourism there is the way of life people want to adopt (easiest way to do this is go to the Mediterranean and learn the lifestyle)
  • so for example Olive Garden for marketing purposes sent a few chefs for half a day training so the image of learning to cook in the mediterranean diet style can be very powerful communicative tool
  • 2003 UNESCO Convention for Safeguarding the Culturing Heritage: protecting landscapes but then decided to protect other intangible heritage like oral, language, oral traditions like transmitting recipes, social and festive events (how do we cook how do we grow tomatoes, wheat etc)
  • UNESCO: promoted France Gastronomic, Mediterranean Diet, and traditional Mexican Cuisine (Mayan)
  • defined Greece, Italy, Morroco then included Cyprus Crotia and Portugal in the Mediterranean diet
  • has it been used for promotion: no UNESCO did not use this since does not safeguard the culture
  • (gastrodiplomacy); like Korea and kimchie; included in the list of cultural cuisine but can create tourist bubbles as you tourism places like hotels don’t always use; for reasons of economy or safety or accessibility , local food
  • Centrality of Territorio:  food consumed from tourist should come from the area

Sustainable Tourism: a form of tourism where have the intention to get to know the place;

have to think in three ways

  1. environmental
  2. social
  3. cultural

how do we make a circular economy so no waste; for example certain companies using food waste to make other products

Tourism clusters made of many groups; he is working on a way to jump start these networks in Nigeria;

Sustainable Food Supply Chain Tourism can be used as way to engage people and promote the diet

Question: are there regions where people are not adopting the diet because of taste, preferences

Yes there is always a problem with accessibility, affordability, trade issues and regional acceptance. For instance in Australia a big push back against the Mediterranean diet.  Medical professionals need to work with communication experts and media experts in developing ways to communicate the benefits since “no one wants to be preached at” and “as economies get richer people want to be more modern and try new things”

In Nigeria we are working with many different industries like transportation, engineers, the IT industry and chefs to build a scalable model

 

3.00 Italy as a Case Study: Increasing Students’ Level of Awareness of the Historical, Cultural, Political and Culinary Significance of Food

Prof. Lisa Sasson

Nutrition and Food Department, New York University

Started a program at NYU to understand food  from a nutritionist and historical point of view as a cultural heritage in Italy, but when students came back students mentioned it changed their food shopping habits

they described diet as wine, pasta, and olive oil

Artisional Production:  understanding the taste and flavor; she wanted them to learn about the food culture and educate their tastes

Food Memories: how we pass on recipes and food aromas, food tastes.  The students were experienced food in a unique way for the first time, experiencing what cheese, quality oil other foods when fresh tastes like.  Artisional foods may be expensive but need only a little of it because the tastes and flavors are so potent due to the phytochemicals

Within six months students:

  1. increased consumption of weekly wine consumption with meals
  2. increased consuming satisfying meals
  3. increased time consuming meals

In the womb the fetus is actually acquiring sense of taste (amniotic fluid changes with mother diet; can detect flavor chemicals)

Student Perceptions after a study Abroad Program

  • eating foods local and seasonal
  • replacing butter with quality olive oil
  • using herbs
  • very little sugar
  • unsweetened beverages
  • limiting red meats
  • fish a couple of times a week
  • dairy in moderation
  • no processed foods

Eating and Dining for Americans is a Challenge:  The students ate well and satisfying meals but ate alot but did not gain weight

3:30 Italian Migration and Global Diaspora

Dr. Vincenzo Milione, PhD

Director of Demographics Studies, Calandra Institute, City University of New York

for a PDF of this presentation please click heresbarro handout.

Dr. Millione used the U.S. Census Bureau Data to estimate the growth of the Italian diaspora descendants in host countries in the Americas and to determine the mixed global ancestry of Italian descendants.

  • Italian emigration to the US happened in two waves
  1.            Wave 1: early 1900 peaking between 1901 and 1911 (turn of century)
  2.            Wave 2: 1951-1971 (post WWII)

This pattern was similar between North and South America although South American had first Italian immigration; in 1860 we got rid of slavery so many jobs not filled new orleans

Developing a mathematical model of Italian diaspora: the model is centered on the host country population dynamics but descendants are separated into first generation and multi generation

Model dependent on:

  • birth and death rates
  • first generation population growth
  • multi generational population growth
  • emigration from host country over time

He was able to calculate an indices he termed Year of Italianization Change (YIC): the year the growth of the multi generation supercedes the first generation immigrant population 

Country Year of Italianlization Change (YIC)
Brazil 1911
Uruguay 1915
Argentina 1918
USA 1936
Venezuela 1963
Canada 1968
Australia 1988

 

note: as a result there is an increasing loss of language and traditional customs with host country cultural adaptation among the native born descendants

In addition, over the last 20 years Italian-American population growth demonstrates that Italian-American self-identity in the United States has increased.  The census data identified two ancestries of the respondent.  In mixed ancestry Italian-American respondents to the extent they identify Italian first demonstrating the strong Italian-American identity.

The foreign born Italian Americans mirror the immigration pattern of Italian immigration from Italy until 1980 where more Italian Americans self identify as foreign born in other countries and not in Italy

Summary

  • over 5 million Italians have emigrated from Italy from 1980 to present
  • most went to North and South America but many went to other global countries
  • the Italian immigration to the different countries in the Americas varies over the period of mass emigration when the growth of multi generational Italian descendants is greater then first generation Italians (Year of Italianization Change) goes from 1911 in Brazil to 1988 in Australia
  • Immigrants to the USA was not just from Italy but from almost all nations globally over all geographical continents
  • Italina immigrants descendants greatly grew after 1930 with appreciable increase with other ethnicities such that 61% of Italian Americans are mixed ancestry in 2014: to date mixed ancestry represents 98% of Italian Americans
  • younger italian americans more likely to have mixed ancestry with Central and South America, Asian and African ethnicities

over time during immigration eating habits has changed but more research is needed if and how the italian recipes and diet has changed as well

 

4:15 Conclusions

Prof. Antonio Giordano, MD, PhD.

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