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First Anchorage Novel H1N1 confirmed, Alaska
A 28-year-old Anchorage man has become Anchorage"s first confirmed case of the novel H1N1 flu virus. The patient first reported feeling ill on June 1, 2009, and was swabbed for influenza at a clinic on June 3. The sample tested positive for novel H1N1 on June 9.
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New Obama Administration Policy To Allow U.S. Asylum For Abused Foreign Women
A recent Obama administration legal filing clears the way for foreign women who have experienced severe domestic beatings and sexual abuse to receive asylum in the U.S., the New York Times reports. The administration stated its position in an April immigration appeals court filing involving a Mexican woman, identified only by her initials, who is seeking asylum in the U.S. because of fear that her abusive common-law husband would kill her. The Times reports that the woman recently consented to having her confidential case documents disclosed to the newspaper.The filing reverses the government"s stance under former President George W. Bush. According to the Times, lawyers say that the Obama administration "has marked a clear, although narrow, pathway for battered women seeking asylum, ... after 13 years of tangled court arguments." Bush administration lawyers had argued as recently as last year that the Mexican woman and others like her could not meet the standards of U.S. asylum law, the Times reports. Applicants for U.S. asylums or refugee status must show a "well-founded fear of persecution" because of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or "membership in a particular social group." The legal debate has been whether women can be included under those terms. According to the Obama administration"s court filing, foreign women who experience abuse would have to prove that their abusers treat them as subordinates and little better than property. They would also have to show that abuse is widely accepted in their country. In addition, they would need to demonstrate that they are unable to find protections from their countries" institutions or by moving somewhere else in their country. The policy does not apply to women fleeing genital mutilation, the Times reports. The Department of Homeland Security has not recommended asylum for the woman. However, DHS senior lawyers wrote in the filing that "it is possible" for her "and other applicants who have experienced domestic violence could qualify for asylum."Under the Clinton administration, Attorney General Janet Reno proposed regulations to clarify the asylum law, but they have never taken effect. DHS lawyers in 2004 raised the possibility of asylum for domestic violence victims, but it was never put into practice in immigration court, according to Karen Musalo, director of the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at the University of California Hastings College of the Law. "This really opens the door to the protection of women who have suffered these kinds of violations," Musalo said. DHS officials said they now are returning to the 2004 position of stipulating conditions narrow enough to allow domestic violence victims to gain asylum in only a limited number of cases. Matt Chandler, a DHS spokesperson, said, "Although each case is highly fact-dependent and requires scrutiny of the specific threat an applicant faces, the department continues to view domestic violence as a possible basis for asylum in the United States" (Preston, New York Times, 7/16).
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Editorial, Opinion Piece Respond To Closure Of Murdered Abortion Provider Tiller's Clinic
Two newspapers recently published an editorial and an opinion piece in reaction to the announcement that murdered Kansas abortion provider George Tiller"s Wichita clinic would be permanently closed. The clinic was one of a handful in the U.S. offering abortion procedures in the second and third trimesters. Summaries appear below.~ Kansas City Star: The closing of Tiller"s clinic is "a tragedy for American democracy," and the "irrational violence" of his death has "trumped public policy," a Star editorial states. "The basis of civilization is that we agree to submit to the rule of law in order for society to flourish," the editorial says, adding that Tiller"s murder is "antithetical to that principle. It is dismaying to see a killer achieve his objective." The editorial notes that Tiller provided abortion services in "tragic cases" involving women "at risk of infertility or death; fetuses with severe abnormalities; and victims of rape and incest." It continues that the "reduction or loss of that service will create hardships and may put women"s lives at risk." Hospitals and doctors who refer such cases to abortion providers "must reassess the circumstances under which they would perform late-term abortions," according to the editorial. In addition, the "medical profession must take a role in training and supporting doctors willing to provide abortions," and the government and local police "must do all they can to protect a legal medical practice," the editorial says. It concludes, "Democracy demands that we not allow murder to make de facto public policy" (Kansas City Star, 6/11).~ Eric Zorn, Chicago Tribune: The announcement that Tiller"s clinic will remain permanently closed "was simply more proof that violence and intimidation can get results where civil discourse and political process fail," Tribune columnist Zorn writes. "The question isn"t whether prominent foes of abortion rights are being honest with us when they decry Tiller"s violent death and express regret over the means used to achieve an end they"ve sought," Zorn writes, adding, "Some are, I"m sure." He continues that abortion-rights opponents "recognize that ... a movement calling itself "pro-life"can"t also be pro-murder" and "are politically savvy enough to know that the gains won by terrorist acts are grudging and difficult to sustain." He continues that to "make terrorism less effective, and thereby discourage it," abortion-rights advocates, the medical profession, politicians and law enforcement officials "need to reopen that clinic in Wichita and assure its safe operation ... to defy terrorism, if for no other reason." He concludes that "as long as abortion remains legal, this same coalition needs to strive to expand the number of facilities where it"s available" (Zorn, Chicago Tribune, 6/11).
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Massague: "We Have Discovered The First Genes Intervening In Brain Metastasis"

Joan Massagué (Barcelona, Spain, 1953) is the first winner of the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards in the Biomedicine category. The Frontiers of Knowledge Awards are intended to recognize and promote research of excellence. The breadth of disciplines addressed and their monetary amount a combined purse of 3.2 million euros spread over eight prize categories place them among the world"s foremost award schemes. Massagué is Spain"s most widely cited working scientist, with his papers referred to on more than 62,000 occasions. His studies, with great potential for clinical application, are opening up fundamental new pathways in the fight against cancer. He has conducted pioneering research into the genetic and cellular bases of metastasis and remains an acknowledged leader in this field. His group"s latest findings, published in the May edition of Nature, explain how tumor cells manage to enter the brain and form a new tumor. Until now, scientists were baffled as to how cancer cells were able to breach the blood-brain barrier which normally protects the brain from harmful substances. Massagué has identified three genes that intervene in the process, but the list will go on and work will continue to determine which is most important in each type of cancer. Research into the genes involved in cerebral metastasis and their mode of action, "is still very much at the preliminary stage", says Massagué. "These are the first brain metastasis genes to be identified, with clinical data". Dr. Massague"s team is engaged in other research to ascertain how breast cancer cells survive from the time they leave the primary tumor and infiltrate vital organs to the time when, years later, they start to grow uncontrollably and form macrometastases. In the view of the Frontiers laureate, it is during these latent years that metastasis cells may be most vulnerable. The focus of this research was breast cancer. And his team are now investigating whether the same genes may intervene in metastasis to other organs and in other types of cancer. In fact two have been verified in earlier studies as participating in breast cancer metastasis to the lungs. Precisely another of Massague"s major projects focuses on lung cancer metastasis, one of the biggest causes of cancer death. So far, his team has discovered the mechanisms whereby lung tumors invade the bones and the brain. Aside from the above work, conducted at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, Massagué is collaborating on various projects on breast and bowel cancer, led by Roger Gomis and Eduard Batlle, at the IRB (Institute for Biomedical Research) in Barcelona. Their focus is on how metastases develop, with potential application further ahead in new drug development or by clinical research teams. "The golden age of cancer research" Research into metastasis is all-important, since this process whereby a tumor colonizes other organs is responsible for 90% of cancer-related deaths. So what is the current state of knowledge in this area? "We are just starting to explore the dark forest that is metastasis. But my group and others have begun to cut a path, and there are reasons to believe that we will shortly have an accurate map". But his optimism is tinged with caution: "We have entered the golden era of cancer research, when we stand a good chance of understanding the genetic and environmental causes of this disease and improving its prevention and treatment," Massagué affirms. "Yet we must humbly recognize that this fight will take decades to produce an acceptable victory". Each research advance opens new avenues for obtaining more effective pharmaceutical therapies. Joan Massagué"s program, for instance, combines basic science with "translational" research, to ensure that the knowledge gained in the laboratory works through as quickly as possible to clinical practice. Massagué has this to say about the applied side of his work: "More than ever science permeates our everyday life. Biomedicine, at least, is a subject of great public interest and growing public understanding. Scientists respond to this demand by looking for faster ways to translate basic discoveries into practical knowledge with the power to solve health problems." Hence the succinct phrase the scientist employs to express his research motivation: "To uncover the unknown for the service of mankind". Massagué has over 340 publications to his name in leading scientific journals. He heads the Cancer Biology and Genetics Program at the Sloan-Kettering Institute, where he has pursued most of his scientific career. He is also a researcher at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and adjunct director of the Institute for Biomedical Research (IRB Barcelona). His professional life, in other words, is a constant "shuttling between New York and Barcelona". Among the milestones in his scientific career was the isolating of TGF-Ãÿ (transforming growth factor beta), a group of molecules segregated by tumor cells that make normal cells behave like cancer cells. We now know that TGF-Ãÿ is the principle inhibitor of cell growth. It is essential for the organism"s normal development but, when disrupted, is also implicated in disease processes such as malformations and cancer. Massagué and his group identified the molecular pathway conveying the TGF-Ãÿ signal from the cell membrane to the nucleus rather like decoding the language it uses to communicate with other molecules and in this way have helped to elucidate one of the fundamental processes controlling cell division. Award presentation ceremony The presentation ceremony will take place on June 18 in the BBVA Foundation"s Madrid headquarters under the presidency of the Minister of Science and Innovation, Cristina Garmendia, and the BBVA Foundation President, Francisco González. The event will welcome eminent members of the international scientific community and high-level government institutions alongside personalities from the worlds of business and the arts. The Foundation is partnered in these awards by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), whose advisory input was instrumental in the appointment of the prize juries. The jury in the Biomedicine category was formed by Torsten Wiesel, Nobel Prize in Medicine; Angelika Schnieke, of the Technical University of Munich (Germany); Bruce Whitelaw, an expert in transgenic animals from the Roslin Institute (United Kingdom); Dario Alessi, of the Scottish Institute for Cell Signalling (United Kingdom); Robin Lovell-Badge, of the National Institute for Medical Research (United Kingdom); Josep Baselga, oncologist in the Hospital Vall d"Hebron Research Institute in Barcelona; and Juan Modolell of the Severo Ochoa Molecular Biology Center in Madrid, holder of the Santiago RamÃön y Cajal Research Prize in Biology. The BBVA Foundation supports knowledge generation, scientific research and the promotion of culture, relaying the results of its work to society at large. This effort materializes in research projects, human capital investment, specialization courses, grants and awards. Among the Foundation"s preferred areas of activity are basic sciences, biomedicine, ecology and conservation biology, the social sciences and literary and musical creation. BBVA Foundation


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