Science Market Update

New stem cell research by University of Wisconsin scientists may lead to new therapies and possible cures for numerous genetic heart diseases. The UW research team was led by Craig January and Tim Kamp, professors of medicine at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. These researchers are the first to use stem cells to study the genetic mechanisms in heart disease. 

When the American Medical Women's Association (AMWA) met in Washington DC for their annual meeting two weeks ago, they gave the 2011 Women in Science Award to Dr. Katherine L. Wisner of the University of Pittsburgh for her important work on perinatal mental health over the past 20+ years.   Dr. Wisner is one of over 200 faculty members of the Department of Psychiatry at Pitt and its affiliate hospital, the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic (WPIC) of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). 

A recent ruling by a federal appeals court will allow the Obama Administration to continue funding embryonic stem cell research. The ruling reversed a previous injunction by a district court judge which would have frozen federal funding for stem cell science research. This new ruling ends months of uncertainty for numerous scientists who rely on federal funding for their stem cell research.

A grant from the National Science Foundation has provided $4.8 million research funding for UC Riverside enabling researchers Susan R. Wessler, and Jason Stajich to investigate  various rice cultivars using genome sequencing and seeing how these cultivars react to drought, disease, and flooding.  

The rice plants are mutagenized with Transposable Elements (TE), which identify interesting characteristics within a particular strain and help locate specific elements causing a characteristic within that gene.  

With the current severe weather and climate stresses on agriculture as a whole, this research is very timely, rice being one of the main global food staples .  Additionally the  funding will  allow researchers to generate resources in the scientific community, enabling them to follow TE movement and find out how traits are determined by the insertion of a TE in a gene.

The Oregon University System plans to build a new life science building on Portland's South Waterfront. The building will be shared by Portland State, The University of Oregon, Oregon State, and OHSU. The main tenant will be OHSU which plans to house several of its science research programs in the new space.

The University of California, Irvine runs a world-class academic Medical Center in Orange County, and it's getting even better with these recent research and facilities developments:

Until November of 2008, the State of Michigan had some of the most restrictive laws in the country governing stem cell research.  Dr. Eva Feldman of the University of Michigan went to California on a grant from philanthropist/benefactor Alfred Taubman to do her stem cell research toward treatment of Lou Gehrig's disease.  Then Michigan voters passed Proposal 2, allowing researchers to use human embryonic stem cell lines derived from surplus fertility clinic embryos.  After a year debating the ethical and legal angles of this new stem cell opportunity, UM came out with guidelines to direct and permit its researchers to move forward using cells from surplus blastocysts.  Dr. Feldman returned to UM, where she is Professor of Neurology and currently conducting the first human trial of a stem cell treatment for Lou Gehrig's disease.  [Photo of Dr. Feldman courtesy of Michigan Research Corridor]

New research led by IBM Research-Almaden and the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology has developed a new treatment for drug-resistant superbugs such as Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The new MRSA treatment uses tiny nanotechnology structures to attack the cell membrane of MRSA bacteria. 

Despite fears of massive cuts to vital Life Science and Bioscience research funding, the National Institutes of Health emerged relatively unscathed from the recent budget negotiations on Capitol Hill.