October 13, 2008
Category: Academia
Much hoo-hah in the local fishwrapper regarding the installation yesterday of Dr Holden Thorp as Chancellor of the state's flagship university, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (installation address here). Thorp has brought a large degree of enthusiasm and optimism to Chapel Hill with his numerous and diverse accomplishments to date as well as his vision and youth - he has turned 44 during the time between his appointment and installation yesterday.
My scientific colleagues at UNC-CH have been giddy with Thorp's appointment as he is himself a scientist: his appointment is in the Department of Chemistry and his primary area of research expertise is transition-metal redox chemistry of nucleic acids. Thorp has also served as Director of the university's Morehead Planetarium and Science Center. Come to think of it, I actually wrote a half-decent post on the gentleman a little while back and here is his official biography.
Read on »
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 8:02 AM • 1 Comments • View blog reactions
October 12, 2008
Category: Drugs of Abuse
When dialing up SiteMeter this morning over the first cup of coffee, I noted an unusually large number of hits coming from Fark.com to my post on a NEJM article detailing lead poisoning cases among marijuana users in Germany.
In that article, lead shavings were used to boost dime bags that were "a little light." The combustion of the particles lead to lead poisoning in users and is one of the few scenarios where use of a chelating agent ((2,3-dimercaptosuccinic acid; DMSA; succimer; Chemet®) was both indicated and effective.
Turns out that the Fark.com hits today are coming from a forum thread discussing a story at ABC News on the use of US National Parks as sites of marijuana cultivation by so-called Mexican marijuana cartels. The primary point of the article is that pesticides and herbicides available in Mexico but banned in the US for safety reasons are being spread across these swaths of protected forests, leaving environmental issues behind when the groups are busted as well as a safety hazard for those purchasing the plant from such cultivation operations.
Read on »
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 6:55 PM • 6 Comments • View blog reactions
October 11, 2008
Category: Medicine
Nobel Prize month also means that Denver's 5280 magazine has announced the annual results of their top 270 medical professionals in 79 specialties. While the picture here is the cover of last year's issue featuring my dear colleague, Dr John J (Jay) Reusch, the good doctor was again named among the top six physicians in Cardiovascular Medicine. Our other compatriot, Dr Daniel (Dan) Bessesen was named for the sixth year among the top specialists in Endocrinology, Diabetes, & Metabolism.
Even my former pulmonologist, Dr James (Jim) Good, made the list - for his 14th year! The Pulmonary Disease category is extremely competitive, particularly because Denver is a historical landmark in respiratory medicine and home to the USN&WR #1 ranked National Jewish Medical Center. Honestly, you can't help but feeling well when you are treated by Doctor Good.
I had the great pleasure of doing my postdoc down the hall from Dr Bessesen when he was doing the research portion of his endocrine fellowship. My research training with physician-scientists like Dan gave me the opportunity early on to appreciate the particular contributions of this hybrid professional. Moreover, I can easily cite Dan and Jay as the two most influential gentlemen in my adult life despite the fact I never did end up going to medical school (sorry, PharmMom).
And while Google-stalking me old mates, I learned that those of you in Denver can see Dr Resuch in a different light Monday evening when he performs his band's music in a rare solo performance.
Lest you think from these three names that the Denver medical community might be too paternalistic, about 40% of this year's honorees are women, with the University of Colorado internist, Dr Jean Kutner gracing this year's cover.
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 6:05 PM • 0 Comments • View blog reactions
Category: Personal
. . .is not the name of my new punk rock band.
It is, however, the key text of lab results that came back this week in following up on the most highly-read post of my blogging career.
That is all.
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 12:19 PM • 5 Comments • View blog reactions
October 10, 2008
Category: The Friday Fermentable
Another Wine Experience- A romp thru northern Italy: the Piemonte
by Erleichda
Following a week of hiking around lakes Orta, Maggiore and Como, the eight of us piled into a rented van with all our luggage and headed for the Piedmont (or Piemonte) region, home of dolcetto, barbera, barbaresco and barolo wines. Lucky us (or was it good planning?), we arrived in Alba just in time for lunch and a few hours before the beginning of the annual wine festival. More than 100 wine producers, and a thousand different wines, awaited our tasting glasses (10 euros for a wine glass as an admission price, but you also got into the truffle display and bourse area, much to Sweetpea's delight).
What can I tell you? It was almost as nice an experience as when my parents took me as a youngster to visit FAO Schwartz and see the Lionel train display. With our tummies filled with pizza and calzone so as to absorb the alcohol, we each set off to sample the sea of wine before us. It soon become apparent that I would have to focus on selected wine varieties, or a variety, if I was to draw any meaningful conclusions about what I was tasting while still able to write. And with my amici scattered, it was too late to mount an organized approach to the "chore" of tasting, and besides, they'd probably just pour wine over me if I assumed a work-like demeanor.
Read on »
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 9:13 PM • 1 Comments • View blog reactions
October 9, 2008
Category: Academia
You probably thought this was going to be about Dr Robert Gallo.
Driving in to lab this morning I heard Dan Charles' story on NPR's Morning Edition about the unheralded scientist, Dr Douglas Prasher, who first cloned the green fluorescent protein gene from Aequorea victoria in 1992, as published in Gene. This amazing laboratory tool, you will note, was the focus of yesterday's awarding of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Prasher freely distributed the cDNA to those requesting it, including at least two of the three recently Nobelists.
Because of funding shortfalls from both NIH and the USDA, Dr Prasher is currently driving a courtesy shuttle for a Huntsville, Alabama, automobile dealership.
The heartbreaking story, described by one scientist as "a staggering waste of talent," will be available on the NPR site at 9:00 am EDT.
Very nice enterprise reporting by Dan Charles.
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 6:59 AM • 18 Comments • View blog reactions
October 8, 2008
Category: Academia
I am about to lead a discussion of science and medical blogs with a group of journalism students in a course entitled, Medical Journalism. While many of the students are specifically majoring in medical and science journalism in a master's program, some are undergraduates in general journalism and mass communications looking to get a flavor for medical writing for print and broadcast.
My question to the valued readers of this humble blog is:
What would you tell these young, knowledge-seeking minds about how science and medical blogs and bloggers might contribute to their future careers as "conventional" journalists?
For example, I have been a big proponent of journalists seeking the input of science bloggers when writing articles pitched via press releases from journals or research institutions. Many bloggers are practicing scientists, physicians, physician-scientists and other allied health professionals who
1. possess highly-specialized expertise
2. demonstrate the ability and desire to communicate complex science and medical information to broad, less-specialized or lay audiences
3. are far more likely to respond to media requests promptly (i.e., on deadline) than the average "big-name" expert source pitched by medical center news service offices.
As a scientist-blogger, I have been fortunate to develop a somewhat scholarly reputation in journalism not because of any formal journalism training, but rather that journalists with online savvy keep tabs on my posts and have developed professional relationships with me.
My guess is that wise sci/med journalists keep a cadre of RSS feeds in their news aggregators from science bloggers so they can get well-parsed information and commentary whenever a major story breaks. I view this as a symbiotic relationship because the vast majority of sci/med bloggers want to share their knowledge without any desire for competing with journalists for jobs, a concern I sometimes hear from professional writers.
So what advice do you have for journalism students or practicing journalists on how to interface with science and medical bloggers?
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 8:02 AM • 2 Comments • View blog reactions
Category: Chemistry
Nature's gift of green fluorescent protein (GFP) from the jellyfish, Aequorea victoria, has always been important to me, personally and professionally. In fact, PharmGirl, MD, and I would have never met if not for this wonder macromolecule nor then would PharmKid exist.
Well, it appears that GFP has been of enough important to others that the three scientists central to its discovery and development were just awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry:
Osamu Shimomura (Woods Hole and Boston University) first isolated GFP from the jellyfish Aequorea victoria, which drifts with the currents off the west coast of North America. He discovered that this protein glowed bright green under ultraviolet light.
Martin Chalfie (Columbia University) demonstrated the value of GFP as a luminous genetic tag for various biological phenomena. In one of his first experiments, he coloured six individual cells in the transparent roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans with the aid of GFP.
Roger Y. Tsien (University of California, San Diego) contributed to our general understanding of how GFP fluoresces. He also extended the colour palette beyond green allowing researchers to give various proteins and cells different colours. This enables scientists to follow several different biological processes at the same time.
My early morning gut reaction is that chemists will argue vigorously that this is a biological discovery that has fueled biology (albeit, biochemical) research. This will not be the first time that anyone will argue there should be a separate Nobel Prize in Biology.
However, the intrinsic fluorescence of GFP is truly a chemical marvel of nature. Tsien in particular has meticulously dissected the chemistry of the molecule and used genetic methods to change the chemistry of protein to yield different colors, allowing biochemists to tag multiple regulators of cellular processes to investigate the interplay of multiple pathways.
Second, is that many may argue that GFP is a new biochemical tool that overlooks many other contributions to chemistry over the past decades. In point of fact, however, Japanese Nobelist Shimomura has been working on marine fluorescent proteins since 1955. The application of GFP to biochemical research may be relatively recent, but the groundwork for its chemical basis was laid decades ago before a great many of us were born.
Read on »
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 6:01 AM • 1 Comments • View blog reactions
October 6, 2008
Category: Physiology
The 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been split between the discoverers of two viruses of major pathophysiological importance.
Half of the prize goes to German Dr prof Harald zur Hausen for his discovery of human papilloma virus as the cause of cervical cancer while the other half went to the French team that discovered human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), Françoise Barr´-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier.
Just a few early thoughts: Notably absent from the award is American Robert Gallo, whose role in the HIV discovery has been long disputed. That this Nobel can only be awarded to a sum total of three individuals means that the committee chose to honor zur Hausen's seminal work on HPV rather than acknowledge Gallo's questionable role on HIV (ouch!). (note added: Perhaps I'm being a little harsh as Gallo and Montagnier acknowledged the roles of each group in Science in 2002; Montagnier cited the crucial contribution of Gallo's group as the use of a the T-cell growth factor, now known as interleukin-2, for short-term virally-infected cultures. I'm very interested to hear how Montagnier comments on this obvious issue today.)
I will also be interested to see how the HIV-denialist community chooses to spin this award acknowledging the importance of the discovery of HIV as the cause of AIDS. I do not believe that the Nobel Foundation is beholden to Big Pharma or receives proceeds from the sales of HIV diagnostics or HIV therapeutics.
Lastly, I am simply tickled to see Dr zur Hausen recognized for the HPV work, of which much of the early work was conducted with HeLa cells. HeLa is a well-known human cervical carcinoma cell line first isolated at Johns Hopkins from an African-American woman from Virginia with cervical cancer. The engaging story of Henrietta Lacks and her cells has been the focus of writings by Rebecca Skloot (PDF of 2001 NYT article) and will be compiled in her upcoming book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
Congratulations to the professors on these outstanding accomplishments.
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 5:49 AM • 3 Comments • View blog reactions
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