Ricki Lewis's Blog, page 55
July 12, 2012
A Good Death, the Hospice Way
This morning I drove up to what�s left of the Glendale Nursing Home, in Glenville NY, a mile from my home. The series of connected old buildings is still intact, a backdrop to a new gaping hole that will give forth to a new facility. But for now, the
July 9, 2012
If �Fifty Shades of Grey� Had Been Written by a Biology Textbook Author
Come summertime, even nerds need to escape to a trashy novel. Megabestseller �Fifty Shades of Grey� tells the tale of Anastasia Steele, an innocent ensnared within the orbit of the mysterious �dominator� Christian Grey. Despite its enshrinement at the top of the Amazon ranks, the book reads as if written by a horny 15-year-old,
July 3, 2012
Human Stem Cells from Amniotic Fluid
A new source of human stem cells reminds me of Russian nesting dolls: They come from amniotic fluid. When exposed to a seizure drug (valproic acid), they divide to give rise to cells that can specialize as nearly any cell type � they are �pluripotent,� like embryonic stem (ES) cells. But the new stem cells are most like precursor cells in a fetus that become sperm and eggs. And so the cells derived from an organ in a pregnant woman might otherwise, if paired with the opposite type of sex cell, have become her grandchildren!
June 26, 2012
4 Suggestions for Halting the Lethality of Cancer
(Originally published at Scientific American, guest blog, June 26)
I had a very strange week. While in Washington, D.C., writing news releases for the Model Organisms to Human Biology: Cancer Genetics meeting sponsored by the Genetics Society of America, I had left, back home in upstate New York, my dear hospice patient. Ruth was nearing the end of her battle with liver cancer. It was jarring to go from holding her hand to listening to litanies of deranged signal transduction pathways and cascades of mutations that cause the damn diseases.
I had a very strange week. While in Washington, D.C., writing news releases for the Model Organisms to Human Biology: Cancer Genetics meeting sponsored by the Genetics Society of America, I had left, back home in upstate New York, my dear hospice patient. Ruth was nearing the end of her battle with liver cancer. It was jarring to go from holding her hand to listening to litanies of deranged signal transduction pathways and cascades of mutations that cause the damn diseases.
June 14, 2012
The Bonobo Genome, Dave Matthews, and Rewinding the Tape of Life
When I wrote for The Scientist, I covered the debuts of several genome sequences � fruit fly, rat, pufferfish, and the plague bacterium, to name a few. An illustration in my human genetics textbook resembles the intro to The Brady Bunch, a checkerboard of nine new genomes with each edition, now with more than 1,000 to choose from. In just the past few weeks, several salad ingredients have had their genomes unveiled.
But the genome sequence to intrigue me the most, except for our own, is that of the bonobo, aka Pan paniscus.
But the genome sequence to intrigue me the most, except for our own, is that of the bonobo, aka Pan paniscus.
June 3, 2012
Max Graduates!
Max Graduates!
Tomorrow night, Max Randell will graduate from middle school. He even passed a test on the U.S. Constitution. I don�t think I could do that.
Max has Canavan disease. And thanks to gene therapy, he�s here to celebrate.
Canavan disease is an inherited disease that strips the insulation from nerve cells in the brain. It destroys neural function, beginning at birth and likely before, and the child loses the battle by age 8 -- unless she or he has gene therapy, still experimental (as are all gene therapies).
Tomorrow night, Max Randell will graduate from middle school. He even passed a test on the U.S. Constitution. I don�t think I could do that.
Max has Canavan disease. And thanks to gene therapy, he�s here to celebrate.
Canavan disease is an inherited disease that strips the insulation from nerve cells in the brain. It destroys neural function, beginning at birth and likely before, and the child loses the battle by age 8 -- unless she or he has gene therapy, still experimental (as are all gene therapies).
May 23, 2012
The �Valley of Death� Looms for 8 Kids With a Rare Disease
The pharmaceutical industry rightly calls the stage in drug development between basic research and clinical trials the �Valley of Death.� This is when a potential treatment that�s worked in mice, monkeys, and the like catapults to a phase 1 clinical trial to assess safety. It�s rare.
Francis Collins, MD, PhD, director of the National Institutes of Health, calls this period �where projects go to die.� The reason: $.
Matthew Herper writes in Forbes that the cost of developing a new drug is $4-11 billion, not the $1 billion that Pharma often claims. Yet even that $1 billion is unimaginable, especially when you put a face on a rare disease and witness what the family goes through to leap to phase 1.
For me, that face belongs to 8-year-old Hannah Sames, of Rexford, New York.
Francis Collins, MD, PhD, director of the National Institutes of Health, calls this period �where projects go to die.� The reason: $.
Matthew Herper writes in Forbes that the cost of developing a new drug is $4-11 billion, not the $1 billion that Pharma often claims. Yet even that $1 billion is unimaginable, especially when you put a face on a rare disease and witness what the family goes through to leap to phase 1.
For me, that face belongs to 8-year-old Hannah Sames, of Rexford, New York.
April 10, 2012
April 2, 2012
Limits of Genome Sequencing Not a Surprise
The news is being trumpeted everywhere
March 27, 2012
Seeking a Second, More Specialized Opinion
A challenge of living with a genetic disease, especially a very rare one, is that the mutation may affect different body parts. A health care practitioner may not consider a patient
