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Pitt School Of Medicine's George K. Michalopoulos, M.D., Ph.D., Receives 2009 ASIP Rous-Whipple Award
George K. Michalopoulos, M.D., Ph.D., Maud L. Menten Professor and chair of pathology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, has received the 2009 American Society for Investigative Pathology (ASIP) Rous-Whipple Award.
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To Lead The Transformation Of Health Care, Young Physicians Selected For Prestigious National Fellowship
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program® is pleased to announce the selection of 29 young physicians who will learn to conduct innovative research and work with communities, organizations, practitioners and policy-makers on issues important to the health and well-being of all Americans. They will begin their prestigious two-year fellowships in July 2010.
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Blogs Comment On Sotomayor Confirmation Hearings, Health Reform, Other Topics
The following summarizes selected women"s health-related blog entries.~ "Judge Sotomayor Provides Important Testimony on the Constitutional Right to Privacy and Its Application to Reproductive Rights," Marcia Greenberger, Womenstake: "One major line of questions, asked repeatedly throughout the hearings" for President Obama"s Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor was her "views on the constitutional right to privacy," Greenberger writes, adding, "Given that this right is central to women"s lives, protecting" such "decisions involving whether to bear children ... and having consensual adult sexual relations, it is important to analyze Judge Sotomayor"s answers carefully." According to Greenberger, because Sotomayor "had not ruled directly on the right to privacy as a federal judge, her testimony in this area warrants particular attention." Following questions from senators such as Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Sotomayor portrayed a "clear agreement with the right to privacy and strong description of the court"s current precedents regarding Roe and women"s health," which "lend[s] further support to the view from her legal record that she would not undermine Roe v. Wade if confirmed to the Supreme Court" (Greenberger, Womenstake, 7/16). ~ "Major Steps Forward for Health Care Reform," Thao Nguyen, Womenstake: Nguyen, outreach manager for the National Women"s Law Center, reports that the health care reform legislation passed by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is "particularly important for women because of the critical headway it makes towards women"s ability to secure access to quality, affordable health care throughout their lives." The bill "works towards confronting many of the particular obstacles faced by women in our current health care system," such as banning the "discriminatory" practice of basing insurance premiums on gender, even when maternity benefits are excluded, Nguyen writes. The bill also bans insurance companies from rejecting patients based on medical history, which has prevented many domestic violence survivors and women who have had caesarean sections from obtaining coverage. Nguyen concludes that "the momentum for health care reform could not have come at a more needed time" because women and their families "need quality, affordable and comprehensive health more than ever" (Nguyen, Womenstake, 7/15).~ "Democrats for Life of America Ousts Member Who Supports Contraception," Feministing: Feministing reports that Democrats for Life of America removed Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) from its advisory board because he supports efforts to improve access to contraception. According to Ryan, he was dismissed from the board after four years after attempting to persuade the group to support contraceptive use as a way to avoid unintended pregnancies. According to the blog, "This is why we call anti-choicers "anti-choice": because they"re not just about making abortion illegal." It adds, "They don"t want women to have access to contraception either -- something that 98% of American women will use at some point in their lives" (Feministing, 7/15). ~ "Umpires, Perspective and the Supreme Court," Jim Wallis, Sojourners" "God"s Politics": "During his opening remarks for his own confirmation hearing in 2005, Chief Justice [John] Roberts made" an analogy between judges and umpires "that has gotten a lot of play in the media and has already been used quite a few times during" Sotomayor"s confirmation hearing, Wallis writes. He adds that "nothing in the world would frustrate me more than an umpire who would call the game differently based upon the color of the jersey that" players were wearing. "But I haven"t seen that happen," Wallis writes, adding, "In fact, the biggest problem we face isn"t an umpire that has favored one team over the other, but umpires who make mistakes in their rulings and judgment because of their lack of perspective." He adds that Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and "others w
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Discovery Of New Trigger For Chronic Inflammation In Rheumatoid Arthritis

A signal molecule made by the human body that triggers the immune system into action may be important in rheumatoid arthritis, according to new research published in Nature Medicine. The authors of the study, from Imperial College London, say that if scientists could block this signal, it may be possible to develop more effective arthritis treatments. Rheumatoid arthritis is the most common autoimmune disease, affecting around 1 in 100 people. It causes painful and persistent swelling in the joints that can result in damage to the bone and cartilage. Around half of all patients do not respond to one or more of the treatments currently available, and even these can become less successful over time. The researchers behind the new study say stopping the disease closer to the root of the problem could be the best way to treat it, and their results suggest a new target for therapies. When a microbe infects the body, the body responds by turning on a molecular switch to set the immune system into action and protect the body from disease. Today"s findings show that a signal molecule called tenascin-C can trigger the same molecular switch and also activate the immune system. High levels of tenascin-C present in joints therefore may cause the activated immune system to attack the joint leading to the persistent inflammation of rheumatoid arthritis. The molecular switch is called TLR4, and is found on the surface of immune cells. Previous research has shown that mice without TLR4 do not show chronic joint inflammation. The researchers hope scientists can develop new treatments that target the interaction between tenascin-C and TLR4, which may help to combat rheumatoid arthritis. Dr Kim Midwood, lead author of the study from the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology at Imperial College London, said: "Rheumatoid arthritis is a debilitating and painful disease and, unfortunately, there is no cure. Furthermore, current treatments are not effective for many patients." "We have uncovered one way that the immune system may be triggered to attack the joints in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. We hope our new findings can be used to develop new therapies that interfere with tenascin-C activation of the immune system and that these will reduce the painful inflammation that is a hallmark of this condition," added Dr Midwood. The researchers reached their conclusions by carrying out five studies. One study suggested that tenascin-C was needed to sustain inflammation. The researchers induced joint inflammation in mice with and without the gene for tenascin-C. They found the mice that could produce tenascin-C had severe joint swelling with bone and cartilage destruction, but the mice that could not produce tenascin-C had no swelling or tissue destruction at all. In a subsequent study, the researchers injected the active part of the tenascin-C molecule into mice joints. They found it caused the joints of the mice to become inflamed and that this reaction was more intense with higher doses. Another experiment demonstrated that tenascin-C causes swelling in the joints by increasing levels of molecules that cause inflammation. The researchers took human immune cells called macrophages and cells called fibroblasts from the swollen joint of patients with rheumatoid arthritis and added tenascin-C. After the tenascin-C was added, the cells produced more molecules that cause inflammation. The authors plan to work out the precise mechanism by which tenascin-C increases these levels of inflammatory molecules in the human joint and try to find ways to inhibit this action. This work was funded by the Arthritis Research Campaign, The Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology Trustees and an MRC New Investigators Research Grant awarded to K. M. The researchers are also grateful for support from the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre funding scheme. Lucy Goodchild Imperial College London


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