A new field of developmental neuroscience changes our understanding of the early years of human lifePublic release date: 8-Oct-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Laura Matthews lmatthews@cifar.ca 416-971-4152 Canadian Institute for Advanced Research
Toronto October 3, 2012. By the time our children reach kindergarten their learning and developmental patterns are already taking shape, as is a trajectory for their future health. Now, for the first time, scientists have amassed a large collection of research that looks "under the skin", to examine how and why experiences interact with biology starting before birth to affect a life course.
Biological Embedding of Early Social Adversity: From Fruit Flies to Kindergartners, a special volume published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and authored largely by researchers of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), sets out an emerging new field of the developmental science of childhood adversity.
The implications of the research are far reaching, from new approaches to learning and language acquisition, to new considerations for the health effects of social environments affecting large populations, and policies for early childhood care and education.
"CIFAR's multidisciplinary and international program in early childhood development is transforming our understanding of how early life experiences affect the development of the brain and in so doing set a lifelong trajectory," says Dr. Alan Bernstein, CIFAR President & CEO. "This research is providing the scientific basis for public policy concerning the critical window to provide the optimal conditions that will enable our children to grow up to be well-adjusted, well-educated and productive individuals."
The volume is a multidisciplinary collection of 25 thought-provoking papers that have implications for a broad range of scientific inquiry: from molecular genetics, evolutionary biology and neuroscience to social and behavioural science, epidemiology and social policy.
"This is the first volume of collected research to provide such a substantial and comprehensive picture of the interaction between experience and biology in the early years," says Dr. Marla Sokolowski, Co-director of CIFAR's program in Experience-based Brain & Biological Development, and Co-editor of the PNAS volume. "Brain and genetic development are extraordinarily intricate and complex, and so by approaching this question from multiple angles, we're able to reveal a convergence on a number of themes, giving us new insights and an understanding of a greater whole, which now sets more clearly a direction for research to come."
Select highlights:
From the lab of CIFAR Fellow Michael Meaney (McGill University): Scientists have provided evidence that socioeconomic status affects family function and the development and function of brain regions that are critical for attention, learning and memory. Meaneys lab looks into how parenting produces lasting effects on cognitive and emotional development. His lab examined development in rats and found parental influences on the chemical, or 'epigenetic', signals that control the activity in the brain of genes that influence the connections between brain cells as well as learning and memory. In adult animals that were licked more frequently by their mothers the epigenetic signals enhanced the activity of genes associated with learning and memory. These findings reveal that social influences during early life affect the activity of genes that affect the structure and function of brain regions critical for cognitive capacity.
From the lab of CIFAR Fellow Takao Hensch (Harvard University): Given that music is a powerful tool for probing and promoting brain development, Hensch and his collaborators exposed young mice to music and discovered a critical period between 15 and 24 days of life when they could change the mice's innate preference for a silent shelter to a preference for shelter with music. Typically, this preference cannot be altered in adulthood. However, the team then treated adult mice and were able to show that a key brain region could be re-wired to have a preference for music in later adult years. His results point to molecular factors that emerge after early critical periods of plasticity and can be manipulated in adulthood the first evidence that a juvenile form of higher cognitive behavior can be restored. This clearer picture of molecular mechanisms in early development is critical to eventually treating complex, life-long disorders of the brain, such as autism or acute anxiety.
From the lab of CIFAR Fellow W. Thomas Boyce (University of British Columbia): Guided by animal models of hierarchy and an understanding of the health effects of socioeconomic status (SES), Tom Boyce and his team examined the behavioral development of children in a kindergarten classroom hierarchy. The study found that children in subordinate roles had more depressive behaviors and inattention, fewer good friends and diminished academic ability. The study found that subordination was compounded by low SES the children with low SES had the lowest levels of prosocial behaviors. Importantly, the study found that teachers who utilized child-centred teaching practices to create better classroom climates were able to diminish some of the adverse effects of stratification. The study suggests that socioeconomic gradients in health and development are the products of more than simply differences in access to money, material goods, medical care, or nutrition. When taken with our growing understanding of the importance of the first five years of life, this research renders even more crucial the need to provide egalitarian and supportive early childhood settings.
From the lab of CIFAR Fellow Janet Werker (University of British Columbia): Janet Werker and her researcher collaborators at University of British Columbia, the Child & Family Research Institute (CFRI) at BC Childrens Hospital and Harvard University studied babies belonging to three groups of mothers one being treated for depression with serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SRIs), one with depression not taking antidepressants and one with no symptoms of depression. By measuring changes in heart rate and eye movement to sounds and video images of native and non-native languages, the researchers calculated the language development of babies at three intervals, including six and 10 months of age. The heart rate response of unborn babies at age 36 weeks to languages was also measured. Their study is the first to show that maternal depression and its treatment can accelerate babies ability to attune to the sounds and sights of their native language, thereby affecting the timing of language development in babies.
About CIFAR's program in Experience Based Brain & Biological Development
Launched in 2003, CIFAR's research program in Experience-based Brain and Biological Development explores the core question of how social experiences and settings affect developmental biology and help set early trajectories of lifelong development and health.
The CIFAR research program brings together an international team of scientists with expertise in neurobiology, molecular genetics, epidemiology, developmental sciences, pediatrics and psychology. Their work capitalizes on new techniques for measuring physiological changes, as well as a new abundance of knowledge in genetics, epigenetics, and neuroscience. This breadth and interdisciplinarity has led to transformative new thinking in understanding gene-environment interactions: CIFAR researchers say the nature-versus-nurture debate is dead. Real solutions come from studying interactions between the two.
In December, 2011, members of CIFAR's Experience-Based Brain & Biological Development program partnered with the NAS to present the Arthur M. Sackler Colloquium of the National Academy of Sciences, "Biological Embedding of Early Social Adversity: From Fruit Flies to Kindergartners," which became the genesis for this PNAS volume. Thomas Boyce and Marla Sokolowski are co-directors of CIFARs Experience-based Brain & Biological Development program, as well as the co-editors of the PNAS special edition.
###
CIFAR researchers reporting in the PNAS special edition
Ronald G Barr (University of British Columbia): Abusive head trauma: Preventing a failure of normal caregiver-infant interaction.
W. Thomas Boyce (University of British Columbia): Social stratification, classroom 'climate' and the behavioral adaptation of kindergarten children.
David F Clayton (Queen Mary, University of London): The impact of experience-dependent and -independent factors on gene expression in songbird brain.
Lia C. H. Fernald (University of California at Berkeley): Socio-economic gradients in child development in very young children: Evidence from India, Indonesia, Peru and Senegal.
Russell D Fernald (Stanford University): How does social information change the brain?
Takao K Hensch (Harvard): A critical period for acoustic preference in mice.
Clyde Hertzman (University of British Columbia): Biological embedding: Putting the concept in perspective.
Michael S Kobor (University of British Columbia): Biological and environmental predictors of variable DNA methylation in a human community cohort.
Bryan Kolb (University of Lethbridge): Experience and the developing prefrontal cortex.
Joel D. Levine (University of Toronto, Mississauga): Social structures depend on innate determinants and chemosensory processing in Drosophila.
Michael J. Meaney (McGill University and Douglas Hospital Research Centre): Variations in postnatal maternal care and the epigenetic regulation of Grm1 expression and hippocampal function in the rat.
Michael Rutter (King's College London): Achievements and challenges in the biology of environmental effects.
Marla B Sokolowski (University of Toronto): Gene-environment interplay in Drosophila melanogaster: Chronic food deprivation in early-life affects adult exploratory and fitness traits.
Moshe Szyf (McGill University): Conserved epigenetic sensitivity to early life experience in the rat and human hippocampus.
Janet F. Werker (University of British Columbia): Prenatal exposure to antidepressants and depressed maternal mood alter trajectory of infant speech perception.
For more information contact:
Laura Matthews
Director, Marketing & Communications
Canadian Institute for Advanced Research
lmatthews@cifar.ca
o) 416-971-4152 m) 647-454-0340
(PNAS Volume, 109, Issue 42, October 16, 2012, embargoed until Monday, October 8, 2012, at 3 pm ET. Research papers available in advance at Eureka Alert.)
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
A new field of developmental neuroscience changes our understanding of the early years of human lifePublic release date: 8-Oct-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Laura Matthews lmatthews@cifar.ca 416-971-4152 Canadian Institute for Advanced Research
Toronto October 3, 2012. By the time our children reach kindergarten their learning and developmental patterns are already taking shape, as is a trajectory for their future health. Now, for the first time, scientists have amassed a large collection of research that looks "under the skin", to examine how and why experiences interact with biology starting before birth to affect a life course.
Biological Embedding of Early Social Adversity: From Fruit Flies to Kindergartners, a special volume published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and authored largely by researchers of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), sets out an emerging new field of the developmental science of childhood adversity.
The implications of the research are far reaching, from new approaches to learning and language acquisition, to new considerations for the health effects of social environments affecting large populations, and policies for early childhood care and education.
"CIFAR's multidisciplinary and international program in early childhood development is transforming our understanding of how early life experiences affect the development of the brain and in so doing set a lifelong trajectory," says Dr. Alan Bernstein, CIFAR President & CEO. "This research is providing the scientific basis for public policy concerning the critical window to provide the optimal conditions that will enable our children to grow up to be well-adjusted, well-educated and productive individuals."
The volume is a multidisciplinary collection of 25 thought-provoking papers that have implications for a broad range of scientific inquiry: from molecular genetics, evolutionary biology and neuroscience to social and behavioural science, epidemiology and social policy.
"This is the first volume of collected research to provide such a substantial and comprehensive picture of the interaction between experience and biology in the early years," says Dr. Marla Sokolowski, Co-director of CIFAR's program in Experience-based Brain & Biological Development, and Co-editor of the PNAS volume. "Brain and genetic development are extraordinarily intricate and complex, and so by approaching this question from multiple angles, we're able to reveal a convergence on a number of themes, giving us new insights and an understanding of a greater whole, which now sets more clearly a direction for research to come."
Select highlights:
From the lab of CIFAR Fellow Michael Meaney (McGill University): Scientists have provided evidence that socioeconomic status affects family function and the development and function of brain regions that are critical for attention, learning and memory. Meaneys lab looks into how parenting produces lasting effects on cognitive and emotional development. His lab examined development in rats and found parental influences on the chemical, or 'epigenetic', signals that control the activity in the brain of genes that influence the connections between brain cells as well as learning and memory. In adult animals that were licked more frequently by their mothers the epigenetic signals enhanced the activity of genes associated with learning and memory. These findings reveal that social influences during early life affect the activity of genes that affect the structure and function of brain regions critical for cognitive capacity.
From the lab of CIFAR Fellow Takao Hensch (Harvard University): Given that music is a powerful tool for probing and promoting brain development, Hensch and his collaborators exposed young mice to music and discovered a critical period between 15 and 24 days of life when they could change the mice's innate preference for a silent shelter to a preference for shelter with music. Typically, this preference cannot be altered in adulthood. However, the team then treated adult mice and were able to show that a key brain region could be re-wired to have a preference for music in later adult years. His results point to molecular factors that emerge after early critical periods of plasticity and can be manipulated in adulthood the first evidence that a juvenile form of higher cognitive behavior can be restored. This clearer picture of molecular mechanisms in early development is critical to eventually treating complex, life-long disorders of the brain, such as autism or acute anxiety.
From the lab of CIFAR Fellow W. Thomas Boyce (University of British Columbia): Guided by animal models of hierarchy and an understanding of the health effects of socioeconomic status (SES), Tom Boyce and his team examined the behavioral development of children in a kindergarten classroom hierarchy. The study found that children in subordinate roles had more depressive behaviors and inattention, fewer good friends and diminished academic ability. The study found that subordination was compounded by low SES the children with low SES had the lowest levels of prosocial behaviors. Importantly, the study found that teachers who utilized child-centred teaching practices to create better classroom climates were able to diminish some of the adverse effects of stratification. The study suggests that socioeconomic gradients in health and development are the products of more than simply differences in access to money, material goods, medical care, or nutrition. When taken with our growing understanding of the importance of the first five years of life, this research renders even more crucial the need to provide egalitarian and supportive early childhood settings.
From the lab of CIFAR Fellow Janet Werker (University of British Columbia): Janet Werker and her researcher collaborators at University of British Columbia, the Child & Family Research Institute (CFRI) at BC Childrens Hospital and Harvard University studied babies belonging to three groups of mothers one being treated for depression with serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SRIs), one with depression not taking antidepressants and one with no symptoms of depression. By measuring changes in heart rate and eye movement to sounds and video images of native and non-native languages, the researchers calculated the language development of babies at three intervals, including six and 10 months of age. The heart rate response of unborn babies at age 36 weeks to languages was also measured. Their study is the first to show that maternal depression and its treatment can accelerate babies ability to attune to the sounds and sights of their native language, thereby affecting the timing of language development in babies.
About CIFAR's program in Experience Based Brain & Biological Development
Launched in 2003, CIFAR's research program in Experience-based Brain and Biological Development explores the core question of how social experiences and settings affect developmental biology and help set early trajectories of lifelong development and health.
The CIFAR research program brings together an international team of scientists with expertise in neurobiology, molecular genetics, epidemiology, developmental sciences, pediatrics and psychology. Their work capitalizes on new techniques for measuring physiological changes, as well as a new abundance of knowledge in genetics, epigenetics, and neuroscience. This breadth and interdisciplinarity has led to transformative new thinking in understanding gene-environment interactions: CIFAR researchers say the nature-versus-nurture debate is dead. Real solutions come from studying interactions between the two.
In December, 2011, members of CIFAR's Experience-Based Brain & Biological Development program partnered with the NAS to present the Arthur M. Sackler Colloquium of the National Academy of Sciences, "Biological Embedding of Early Social Adversity: From Fruit Flies to Kindergartners," which became the genesis for this PNAS volume. Thomas Boyce and Marla Sokolowski are co-directors of CIFARs Experience-based Brain & Biological Development program, as well as the co-editors of the PNAS special edition.
###
CIFAR researchers reporting in the PNAS special edition
Ronald G Barr (University of British Columbia): Abusive head trauma: Preventing a failure of normal caregiver-infant interaction.
W. Thomas Boyce (University of British Columbia): Social stratification, classroom 'climate' and the behavioral adaptation of kindergarten children.
David F Clayton (Queen Mary, University of London): The impact of experience-dependent and -independent factors on gene expression in songbird brain.
Lia C. H. Fernald (University of California at Berkeley): Socio-economic gradients in child development in very young children: Evidence from India, Indonesia, Peru and Senegal.
Russell D Fernald (Stanford University): How does social information change the brain?
Takao K Hensch (Harvard): A critical period for acoustic preference in mice.
Clyde Hertzman (University of British Columbia): Biological embedding: Putting the concept in perspective.
Michael S Kobor (University of British Columbia): Biological and environmental predictors of variable DNA methylation in a human community cohort.
Bryan Kolb (University of Lethbridge): Experience and the developing prefrontal cortex.
Joel D. Levine (University of Toronto, Mississauga): Social structures depend on innate determinants and chemosensory processing in Drosophila.
Michael J. Meaney (McGill University and Douglas Hospital Research Centre): Variations in postnatal maternal care and the epigenetic regulation of Grm1 expression and hippocampal function in the rat.
Michael Rutter (King's College London): Achievements and challenges in the biology of environmental effects.
Marla B Sokolowski (University of Toronto): Gene-environment interplay in Drosophila melanogaster: Chronic food deprivation in early-life affects adult exploratory and fitness traits.
Moshe Szyf (McGill University): Conserved epigenetic sensitivity to early life experience in the rat and human hippocampus.
Janet F. Werker (University of British Columbia): Prenatal exposure to antidepressants and depressed maternal mood alter trajectory of infant speech perception.
For more information contact:
Laura Matthews
Director, Marketing & Communications
Canadian Institute for Advanced Research
lmatthews@cifar.ca
o) 416-971-4152 m) 647-454-0340
(PNAS Volume, 109, Issue 42, October 16, 2012, embargoed until Monday, October 8, 2012, at 3 pm ET. Research papers available in advance at Eureka Alert.)
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
ScienceDaily (Oct. 8, 2012) ? Dryland ecosystems cover 41% of Earth's land surface. These ecosystems are highly vulnerable to global environmental change and desertification. But climate change seems to have a positive impact on some plants. A study involving the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock has come to this conclusion.
Using demographic methods, ecologist Roberto Salguero-G?mez investigates desert plants to find out how vulnerable they are to climate change. The results of his newest study are surprising: Climate change may have a positive impact on some plants.
Climate models used by scientists to forecast the effect of climate change on the various ecosystems predict a bleak future for these regions: temperatures will rise, there will be less rain, and it will rain more erratically -- all conditions seemingly unfavorable to plants.
To measure the impact of climate change on the dynamics of plant populations, researchers to date have mostly worked with average values, such as average temperature or average rainfall. "This is a method commonly used, but it cannot be applied to desert plants," says researcher Roberto Salguero-G?mez of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research.
Dryland plants cannot really be compared to plant species growing in other latitudes, where weather conditions are fluctuate less. Dryland plants have adapted to the extreme climatic conditions of arid regions in the course of evolution, even under conditions of no climate change, and they benefit from it.
Some plants produce dormant seeds in years of heavy rainfall. The seeds of other plant species have something like a sensor to detect the level of rainfall: not enough rain drops falling to secure their life until they reproduce and they will not germinate. A lot of rain after years of drought, and they start to grow. The advantage is that many other plant species -- competitors for space -- have a low drought tolerance and this has thinned out the total population, freeing up space where individuals, who have waited for the big rain, can spread.
"Using average precipitation values to predict plant population dynamics does not correspond to the physiology of these plants, a physiology that is unique," sums up Roberto Salguero-G?mez.
It is for this reason that he, together with his colleagues Wolfgang Siewert and Katja Tielb?rger (University of T?bingen) and Brenda Casper (University of Pennsylvania) have looked anew at two long-term studies that documented the population size of two desert plant species, one each in the USA and Israel, over a number of years.
Based on the data of these studies, a climate model and a demographic calculation method, the researchers have developed a new model that provides insights into the future dynamics of plant populations. The results, recently published in the scientific journal Philosophical Transactions B of the Royal Society of London, are astounding: Changing weather conditions do not seem to harm the population of these plants; quite to the contrary, they seem to benefit from it. "The plants adapt quite well," says Roberto Salguero-G?mez. They seem to have a sizeable buffer to adapt to climate change."
It is of great important to continue to observe and investigate these dynamics, he stresses, for example to assess which measures are best suited to alleviate poverty in the long run and where to apply them. Most dryland areas are located in the poorest regions of the world, i.e. Africa, Central Asia, and South America. Many people living there have to make a living from the scarce resources these barren regions offer. And there will be more of them as, undoubtedly, the share of dryland will increase due to climate change, desertification and other human-driven activities. It is thus all the more important to assess what impact climate change will truly have on plants that serve as food for people and livestock in these areas.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Max-Planck-Gesellschaft.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
R. Salguero-Gomez, W. Siewert, B. B. Casper, K. Tielborger. A demographic approach to study effects of climate change in desert plants. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2012; 367 (1606): 3100 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2012.0074
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Scientists develop 'barcode' blood test for aggressive prostate cancerPublic release date: 8-Oct-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jane Bunce, ICR Science Communuications Manager jane.bunce@icr.ac.uk 44-207-153-5106 Institute of Cancer Research
Scientists have designed a blood test that reads genetic changes like a barcode and can pick out aggressive prostate cancers by their particular pattern of gene activity.
A team at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust found reading the pattern of genes switched on and off in blood cells could accurately detect which advanced prostate cancers had the worst survival.
And the researchers believe the blood test could eventually be used alongside the existing PSA test at diagnosis to select patients who need immediate treatment.
The test, described in The Lancet Oncology today (Tuesday 9 October), is unique because it assesses changes in the pattern of gene activity in blood cells triggered by a tumour elsewhere in the body.
Study senior author Professor Johann de Bono, leader of the prostate cancer targeted therapy team at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and honorary consultant at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, said: "Prostate cancer is a very diverse disease some people live with it for years without symptoms but for others it can be aggressive and life-threatening so it's vital we develop reliable tests to tell the different types apart.
"We've shown it is possible to learn more about prostate cancers by the signs they leave in the blood, allowing us to develop a test that is potentially more accurate than those available now and easier for patients than taking a biopsy. Our test reads the pattern of genetic activity like a barcode, picking up signs that a patient is likely to have a more aggressive cancer. Doctors should then be able to adjust the treatment they give accordingly."
Researchers scanned all the genes present in blood samples from 100 patients with prostate cancer at the ICR's and The Royal Marsden's joint Drug Development Unit in London and The Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre in Glasgow. They included 69 patients with advanced cancer and 31 control patients thought to have low-risk, early-stage cancer, who were being managed by active surveillance.
Using statistical modelling, they divided the patients into four groups reflecting their pattern of gene activity the barcode. When they reviewed all the patients' progress after almost two-and-a-half years, they found patients in one group had survived for significantly less time than patients in the others. Further modelling identified nine key active genes that were shared by all patients in the group.
They confirmed the results in another 70 US patients with advanced cancer, showing that just these nine genes could be used to accurately identify those who ultimately survived for a shorter time - 9.2 months compared with 21.6 months for patients without the gene pattern.
The genes included a number involved in the immune system suggesting the immune system was suppressed in patients whose cancers were spreading around the body.
Professor Alan Ashworth, chief executive of The Institute of Cancer Research, said: "Whether particular genes are active or not is an important clue in identifying patients with a poor prognosis. This latest study shows that it is possible to read these patterns of gene activity like a barcode, allowing scientists to spot cancers that are likely to be more aggressive."
Professor Martin Gore, medical director at The Royal Marsden, said: "Personalised medicine is the future of cancer treatment. This blood test, which reads genetic changes in prostate cancer providing a prediction of how aggressive the cancer might be, is an important development, allowing us to better tailor treatment to suit each individual."
###
The study received funding from AstraZeneca, Prostate Cancer UK (formerly the Prostate Cancer Charity) and the Prostate Cancer Foundation, while the Drug Development Unit also receives funding from Cancer Research UK and the Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre network.
Media Contact: ICR Science Communications Manager Jane Bunce on 0207
153 5106 or 07 721 747 900
Notes to editors:
"Prognostic value of blood mRNA expression signatures in castration resistant prostate cancer: a prospective two-stage study" will publish in The Lancet Oncology on 9 October 2012.
The scientists initially plan to assess the test as part of a large-scale international trial of a new prostate cancer drug in patients with advanced cancer. They also hope to assess the test in patients with earlier-stage disease, using either the existing nine-gene pattern or using the same technique to find another set of genes.
The Institute of Cancer Research, London, is one of the world's most influential cancer research institutes.
Scientists and clinicians at The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) are working every day to make a real impact on cancer patients' lives. Through its unique partnership with The Royal Marsden and 'bench-to-bedside' approach, the ICR is able to create and deliver results in a way that other institutions cannot. Together the two organisations are rated in the top four cancer centres globally.
The ICR has an outstanding record of achievement dating back more than 100 years. It provided the first convincing evidence that DNA damage is the basic cause of cancer, laying the foundation for the now universally accepted idea that cancer is a genetic disease. Today it leads the world at isolating cancer-related genes and discovering new targeted drugs for personalised cancer treatment.
As a college of the University of London, the ICR provides postgraduate higher education of international distinction. It has charitable status and relies on support from partner organisations, charities and the general public.
The ICR's mission is to make the discoveries that defeat cancer. For more information visit www.icr.ac.uk
The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust
The Royal Marsden opened its doors in 1851 as the world's first hospital dedicated to cancer diagnosis, treatment, research and education.
Today, together with its academic partner, The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), it is the largest and most comprehensive cancer centre in Europe treating over 44,000 patients every year. It is a centre of excellence with an international reputation for groundbreaking research and pioneering the very latest in cancer treatments and technologies. The Royal Marsden also provides community services in the London boroughs of Sutton and Merton and in June 2010, along with the ICR, the Trust launched a new academic partnership with Mount Vernon Cancer Centre in Middlesex.
Since 2004, the hospital's charity, The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, has helped raise over 50 million to build theatres, diagnostic centres, and drug development units.
Prince William became President of The Royal Marsden in 2007, following a long royal connection with the hospital.
For more information, visit www.royalmarsden.nhs.uk
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Scientists develop 'barcode' blood test for aggressive prostate cancerPublic release date: 8-Oct-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jane Bunce, ICR Science Communuications Manager jane.bunce@icr.ac.uk 44-207-153-5106 Institute of Cancer Research
Scientists have designed a blood test that reads genetic changes like a barcode and can pick out aggressive prostate cancers by their particular pattern of gene activity.
A team at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust found reading the pattern of genes switched on and off in blood cells could accurately detect which advanced prostate cancers had the worst survival.
And the researchers believe the blood test could eventually be used alongside the existing PSA test at diagnosis to select patients who need immediate treatment.
The test, described in The Lancet Oncology today (Tuesday 9 October), is unique because it assesses changes in the pattern of gene activity in blood cells triggered by a tumour elsewhere in the body.
Study senior author Professor Johann de Bono, leader of the prostate cancer targeted therapy team at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and honorary consultant at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, said: "Prostate cancer is a very diverse disease some people live with it for years without symptoms but for others it can be aggressive and life-threatening so it's vital we develop reliable tests to tell the different types apart.
"We've shown it is possible to learn more about prostate cancers by the signs they leave in the blood, allowing us to develop a test that is potentially more accurate than those available now and easier for patients than taking a biopsy. Our test reads the pattern of genetic activity like a barcode, picking up signs that a patient is likely to have a more aggressive cancer. Doctors should then be able to adjust the treatment they give accordingly."
Researchers scanned all the genes present in blood samples from 100 patients with prostate cancer at the ICR's and The Royal Marsden's joint Drug Development Unit in London and The Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre in Glasgow. They included 69 patients with advanced cancer and 31 control patients thought to have low-risk, early-stage cancer, who were being managed by active surveillance.
Using statistical modelling, they divided the patients into four groups reflecting their pattern of gene activity the barcode. When they reviewed all the patients' progress after almost two-and-a-half years, they found patients in one group had survived for significantly less time than patients in the others. Further modelling identified nine key active genes that were shared by all patients in the group.
They confirmed the results in another 70 US patients with advanced cancer, showing that just these nine genes could be used to accurately identify those who ultimately survived for a shorter time - 9.2 months compared with 21.6 months for patients without the gene pattern.
The genes included a number involved in the immune system suggesting the immune system was suppressed in patients whose cancers were spreading around the body.
Professor Alan Ashworth, chief executive of The Institute of Cancer Research, said: "Whether particular genes are active or not is an important clue in identifying patients with a poor prognosis. This latest study shows that it is possible to read these patterns of gene activity like a barcode, allowing scientists to spot cancers that are likely to be more aggressive."
Professor Martin Gore, medical director at The Royal Marsden, said: "Personalised medicine is the future of cancer treatment. This blood test, which reads genetic changes in prostate cancer providing a prediction of how aggressive the cancer might be, is an important development, allowing us to better tailor treatment to suit each individual."
###
The study received funding from AstraZeneca, Prostate Cancer UK (formerly the Prostate Cancer Charity) and the Prostate Cancer Foundation, while the Drug Development Unit also receives funding from Cancer Research UK and the Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre network.
Media Contact: ICR Science Communications Manager Jane Bunce on 0207
153 5106 or 07 721 747 900
Notes to editors:
"Prognostic value of blood mRNA expression signatures in castration resistant prostate cancer: a prospective two-stage study" will publish in The Lancet Oncology on 9 October 2012.
The scientists initially plan to assess the test as part of a large-scale international trial of a new prostate cancer drug in patients with advanced cancer. They also hope to assess the test in patients with earlier-stage disease, using either the existing nine-gene pattern or using the same technique to find another set of genes.
The Institute of Cancer Research, London, is one of the world's most influential cancer research institutes.
Scientists and clinicians at The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) are working every day to make a real impact on cancer patients' lives. Through its unique partnership with The Royal Marsden and 'bench-to-bedside' approach, the ICR is able to create and deliver results in a way that other institutions cannot. Together the two organisations are rated in the top four cancer centres globally.
The ICR has an outstanding record of achievement dating back more than 100 years. It provided the first convincing evidence that DNA damage is the basic cause of cancer, laying the foundation for the now universally accepted idea that cancer is a genetic disease. Today it leads the world at isolating cancer-related genes and discovering new targeted drugs for personalised cancer treatment.
As a college of the University of London, the ICR provides postgraduate higher education of international distinction. It has charitable status and relies on support from partner organisations, charities and the general public.
The ICR's mission is to make the discoveries that defeat cancer. For more information visit www.icr.ac.uk
The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust
The Royal Marsden opened its doors in 1851 as the world's first hospital dedicated to cancer diagnosis, treatment, research and education.
Today, together with its academic partner, The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), it is the largest and most comprehensive cancer centre in Europe treating over 44,000 patients every year. It is a centre of excellence with an international reputation for groundbreaking research and pioneering the very latest in cancer treatments and technologies. The Royal Marsden also provides community services in the London boroughs of Sutton and Merton and in June 2010, along with the ICR, the Trust launched a new academic partnership with Mount Vernon Cancer Centre in Middlesex.
Since 2004, the hospital's charity, The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, has helped raise over 50 million to build theatres, diagnostic centres, and drug development units.
Prince William became President of The Royal Marsden in 2007, following a long royal connection with the hospital.
For more information, visit www.royalmarsden.nhs.uk
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Passing for Normal: Product Review: Farmland Oven Perfect Pork Loin
Product Review: Farmland Oven Perfect Pork Loin
?A few days ago, I tried the new Farmland Oven Perfect Pork Loin. This is a new product, where you cook it in the plastic packaging - just remove the paper labels, put the bag on a cookie sheet, and bake.
??The instructions on the?loin say to cook for an hour at 425 degrees, and not to puncture the bag. After removing from oven, let sit for ten minutes, then use scissors to cut open the bag. Well, I followed the instructions, but I didn't have to get my scissors dirty; when I took it out, the bag had split wide open all by itself. I don't think it was supposed to do that, but it didn't seem to hurt anything.?Though it was?juicy and flavorful, I thought the pork was a bit overcooked. (DH disagreed, but I like my meats rarer than he does.) Next time I make this, I plan to?reduce the cooking time by about ten minutes.
?I tried the Cracked Peppercorn flavor. Now, when I've tried other marinated pork loins, like Hormel's, I've found the flavor was too intense. All you taste is marinade, not the meat. This Farmland version got it right. Just the right amount of marinade flavor, but not enough to overpower the pork.
?The usual retail price for the product is $8.99. I got it on sale for $7.49, plus I had a?$1 off coupon. It was big enough to feed three people (though the boy didn't eat much, he doesn't care for pork), plus enough for lunch the next day.? I liked the product and would buy it again, but?I wouldn't pay $8.99. I will probably only get it when it's on sale, or I have a coupon - preferably both.
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Public release date: 8-Oct-2012
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