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Health Reform Plans Grab Spotlight As Specifics Emerge
President Obama"s carefully worded health care reform letter to key Senate Democrats last week highlighted the growing role the president is taking in overhaul efforts, Politico reports.

MDRNA, Inc. Receives Full FDA Approval Of Generic Calcitonin-Salmon Nasal Spray For Osteoporosis
MDRNA, Inc. (NASDAQ: MRNA) announced that it has obtained full U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of its Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) for generic calcitonin-salmon nasal spray for the treatment of osteoporosis and that Par Pharmaceutical Companies, Inc. (NYSE: PAR) has launched the product.
News of the day
Schizophrenia: A Genetic Basis
Schizophrenia is a severely debilitating psychiatric disease that is thought to have its roots in the development of the nervous system; however, major breakthroughs linking its genetics to diagnosis, prognosis and treatment are still unrealized. Jill Morris, PhD assistant professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University"s Feinberg School of Medicine and a researcher in the Human Molecular Genetics Program of Children"s Memorial Research Center studies a gene that is involved in susceptibility to schizophrenia, Disc1 (Disrupted-In-Schizophrenia 1). Two recent publications by Morris and colleagues focus on the role of Disc1 in development, particularly the migration of cells to their proper location in the brain and subsequent differentiation into their intended fate. During development, cells need to properly migrate to their final destination in order to develop into the appropriate cell-type, integrate into the corresponding network of cells and function properly. Disruption of cell migration can lead to inappropriate cell development and function, resulting in disease.
Endocrinology

Golden Rice An Effective Of Vitamin A

The beta-carotene in so-called "Golden Rice" converts to vitamin A in humans, according to researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and Tufts University in an article that appears in the current issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Golden Rice was developed in the early 1990s with a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation with the goal of creating rice that had beta-carotene - a vitamin A precursor - in the rice grain. In its current form, Golden Rice contains 35 micrograms of beta-carotene per gram. "We found that four units of beta-carotene from Golden Rice convert to one unit of vitamin A in humans," said Dr. Michael Grusak, associate professor of pediatrics at the USDA/ARS Children"s Nutrition Research Center at BCM and Texas Children"s Hospital. They determined this by feeding five healthy adults a specific amount of specially-labeled Golden Rice and measured the amount of retinol, a form of vitamin A, in the blood. Vitamin A deficiency is prevalent in many parts of the world where poorer community members rely on rice as their major food . People who lack adequate amounts of this vitamin can have vision problems or even blindness as a result. "By incorporating vitamin A into the major crop that is consumed, we would be able to make it accessible to the majority of people in the area," said Grusak. Additional research is necessary before Golden Rice is made commercially available. The next steps of the research include incorporating this technology into the rice grains found in various regions and continuing testing the conversion rates in humans. The study can be found at http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/rapidpdf/ajcn.2008.27119v1. Others who participated in this study include Guangwen Tang, Jian Qin, Gregory G. Dolnikowski and Robert M Russell, all of the Jean Mayer US Department of Agriculture Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University. Funding for this study came from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, a part of the National Institutes of Health. Dipali Pathak Baylor College of Medicine


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