The Week in Review

1. Sex bias in control of cancer pain. Women get less meds, more pain. Sounds like a Raw Deal.

2. AAAS comments on human subject protection training.

3. Gardasil requirement for immigrants stirs backlash.

4. Paxil suit settled by Glaxo for $40M.

5. Inspire Pharmaceuticals reaches deal with SEC in investigation related to clinical trial of experimental dry-eye treatment.

6. Chinese parents file tainted milk lawsuit.

7. Personalized medicine: new predictive tool can help determine treatment for breast cancer patients (identifies those most at risk of relapse, potentially avoiding chemo).

8. Doctors urge the FDA to ban OTC cough and cold medicines for children until they are found safe and effective. Not safe and effective? Perhaps we should resort to that cherry-flavored placebo elixir reported on in these very pages a few weeks back, eh?

9. Impact of expanded newborn screening in the US.

10. "Friendly" bacteria protect against Type 1 diabetes. Ah, friendly, protective bacteria. Such a nice change from those drug-resistant ne'er-do-wells.

11. Secrets revealed! Penicillin bug genome unraveled.

12. Scientists find gene pathway that triggers the spread of melanoma.

13. Researchers find yet another new source of multipotent stem cells—in the walls of blood vessels.

14. How best to schedule downtime for ERMs (Electronic Medical Record Systems) . *Is* there any good time for the records to be unavailable?

15. No more excuses! Health clubs gear programs for those with ailments.

16. Faster genetic test for flu virus approved in the US.

17. Genentech warns about PML (progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy—a rare brain infection) death in a patient taking Raptiva for psoriasis.

18. European drug makers urge regulators to impose price controls. I know, this sounds counterintuitive, but you'll see, it's not (seriously).

19. NIH announces funding for new epigenomics initiative.

20. FDA grants 510(k) clearance to I-Flow for topical wound dressing that controls oxygen and moisture. I'd like to see this thing. How does it manage all that? I'm thinking of robo-bandage here.

AND in the category of "Weird News":

21. Tainted candy from China found in US: White Rabbit Creamy Candy. Yes, that's the actual name of the candy. Is it me, or does it sound oddly sinister? Or perhaps I read "Alice in Wonderland" one too many times as a kid. Darn, now I have Jefferson Airplane's song "Go Ask Alice" stuck in my head.

22. If bioterrorists strike, letter carriers might deliver antibiotics. Neither rain, nor snow, nor anthrax spore . . . Wait a minute, weren't these the guys who were targeted with the anthrax in the first place?

23. Experts call for warning labels on energy drinks. Apparently, these things are so chock full o' caffeine that they deliver quite a blast, and people aren't really aware of just how much caffeine they're loading up with. Gives me the shakes just thinking about it.

[Thank you to Lisa von Biela, JD candidate, 2009, UMN, Editor of the BioBlurb, from which this content is taken and edited. BioBlurb is a weekly electronic publication of the American Bar Association's Committee on Biotechnology, Section of Science & Technology Law. Archived issues of the BioBlurb, as well as further information about the Committee on Biotechnology, are available here.]

New Vistas in Mapping the Genome of Life

In the continuing quest to get one step closer to making man-made life a reality, genetic engineering researcher Dr. J. Craig Venter has announced that he and his team have manufactured the entire genome of a bacterium, through a clever "stitching together" of its chemical components, a feat being heralded as "watershed" for the emerging field called synthetic biology.
This genome is more than 10 times as long as the longest piece of DNA ever previously synthesized. What it means is the possibility of scientists to be able to one day design an organism on a computer, press the “print” button to have the necessary DNA made, and then put that DNA into a cell to produce a custom-made creature, a possibility certain to raise many ethics questions in the minds of scholars and laymen alike.

See details of this emerging technology in this from the NY Times.

Home Genetic Test-kits: the new "gotta have it" holiday gift?

Remember home chemistry sets? Well, they're now officially passe since you can get your very own personal genome sequence from one of several fine establishments and do a paternity test in the comfort of your own home.

Beyond simple worries about fraud, there are a number of concerns brought up at DigitalBio, including privacy, liability and legality. I offer up the possibility of overriding GINA (or similar laws, should they ever get passed), and a question: when does information stop being information and just becomes an overload of data that a person does not know how to actually use or parse?