Researchers from George Washington University have published in Animal Cognition that monkeys make character judgments based on reputation. In the past research has suggested that primates use eavesdropping and third-party interactions to help judge character, now Dr. Francy’s Subiaul believes that his work provides further evidence that a primate system exist similar to human social skills. Dr. Subiaul performed three experiments which showed that chimpanzee’s demonstrate judgment of reputation of individuals through observational interactions with strangers.

This further brings to light questions regarding our use of animals for pharmaceutical testing. Clearly more evidence is suggesting social interactions of many animals that we use in vivariums. Anyone in science realizes the benefits these test bring to the table but we should recognize, at the minimum, the intelligence of these animals.

On Wednesday, Medtronic announced that the FDA has informed them that it has classified its communication to physicians related to inflammatory mass formation associated with intrathecal drug delivery as a Class I Recall.  On January 16, 2008, Medtronic sent a letter to inform clinicians worldwide of an increase in the rate of reported inflammatory mass cases in patients who have received intrathecal drug delivery through its implantable infusion systems. Even though Medtronic has issued communications regarding this issue since 2001 it was still deemed necessary by the FDA to issue a class I recall, something that Medtronic has downplayed. Physicians and patients will need to do nothing regarding this issue as it is Medtronic’s responsibility to follow the guidelines set by the FDA.

 Regarding FDA recalls, many people are confused when the FDA issues a recall, evident in this 2002 brochure released by the FDA to help explain its recall policies. Some interesting points, The FDA has a classification system regarding recalls which is as followed:

“The guidelines categorize all recalls into one of three classes according to the level of hazard involved.

• Class I recalls are for dangerous or defective products that predictably could cause serious health problems or death. Examples of products that could fall into this category are a food found to contain botulinal toxin, food with undeclared allergens, a label mix-up on a life saving drug, or a defective artificial heart valve.
• Class II recalls are for products that might cause a temporary health problem, or pose only a slight threat of a serious nature.  One example is a drug that is under-strength but that is not used to treat life-threatening situations.
• Class III recalls are for products that are unlikely to cause any adverse health reaction, but that violate FDA labeling or manufacturing regulations. Examples might be a container defect (plastic material delaminating or a lid that does not seal); off-taste, color, or leaks in a bottled drink, and lack of English labeling in a retail food.”

From this information we can see that even though Medtronic is issuing a press release saying that this recall is a non-issue, the fact that the FDA has classified this as class I would suggest otherwise.

The plight of the Great Barrier Reef has been reported at length for the last decade. In 2003, an article in Science, believed that part of this decline was due to the loss of herbivores. According to the authors the loss of herbivores and preadators exposed the reef to pollution and natural disasters of which it could not recover. This is due to the fact that when a reef is damaged it can usually recover if it is not overrun with algae, which herbivores eat. If the algae is left to grow unchecked it becomes tall, like grass that has not been mowed for a while, preventing common herbivore fish from being able to clean up the mess. Recently researchers at James Cook University noticed a new fish in town.

Prof. Bellwood and fellow researcher Rebecca Fox commented “To our surprise and disappointment, the fish that usually ‘mow’ the reef – parrot fishes and surgeon fish - were of little help when it came to suppressing well established weedy growth. Most herbivores simply avoided the big weeds.
 
“Then, to our even greater surprise a fish we had never seen in this area before was observed grazing on the weed. The rabbit fish (Siganus canaliculatus), came out of nowhere and began to clear-fell the weed placed on the reef crest. The rabbit fish is not a fish you tend to take a lot of notice of,” Prof. Bellwood explains. “Like its terrestrial counterpart, it is brown, bland and easily overlooked – but it could be very important when it comes to protecting the GBR. We hadn’t seen it previously at this site despite conducting over 100 visual censuses. This made its appearance in numbers sufficient to check the weedy growth all the more remarkable.”

This is great news for such an amazing natural wonder. We at Biotech Mashup salute the hard work and strong work ethic of the rabbit fish.

A review published in Acta Paediatrica has found that from 1996 to 2002 only 2 percent of 739 children drug trials had independent safety monitoring. Independent safety monitoring gives an unbiased review of the drugs side affects and can determine if a drug trial should be stopped due to unwanted and harmful results. This is particularly important in children as they are more prone to issues than adults and could live with harmful effects for the rest of their lives.

When I read this earlier today I was shocked. I had always believed that compared to adult trials, children drug trials had higher standards and more emphasis on safety, however this report strongly shows my ignorance. The lead author Dr. Helen Sammons commented that “We were very surprised by the low level of trials that had independent safety monitoring committees and are urging pharmaceutical companies to include these in all future trials involving children.” Some surprising statistics come out of this report:

·     Seven out of ten trials reported adverse events and a fifth of the trials reported a serious adverse event, ie. an untoward medical occurrence, not necessarily related to a drug.

·     Adverse drug reactions were reported in just under 37 per cent of trials, with 11 per cent of trials reporting moderate or severe adverse drug reactions.

·     Six clinical trials — which all had safety monitoring committees — were terminated early because of significant drug toxicity.

·     Deaths were reported in 11 per cent of the trials, but the majority were thought to be unrelated to the drug use.

·     Death rates were highest in trials involving newborn babies, with 56 per cent of the 99 trials included reporting a death.

·     Other major specialities in which deaths were reported included infectious diseases, neurology, respiratory and kidney problems.

It should be noted that almost three fourths of the trials had safety monitoring but were not independent and could be considered unreliable. Finally it should be mentioned that in many respects these type of trials are needed if children’s health and conditions are to ever improve but it should be done in a manner that is responsible.

The European Space Agency working with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization have announced a new land cover, the observed biophysical cover of the earth’s surface, map. The map, called GlobCover, is based upon twenty Terabytes of data and will offer resolution ten times greater than any previous attempt. Current Plans are for the map to be released freely to the public sometime after it’s completion in July.

Scientist will use the map to continue to further refine climate models, analyze the impact of human development, and help manage resources. GlobCover comprises of twenty two different land types and is compatible with the UN Land Cover Classification System. John Latham of FAO said ”The GlobCover product will be the first freely available product at 300m resolution and is therefore a milestone product which will be fundamental to broad level stakeholder community.”

Biotech Mashup is eager to see the final product and cannot wait for the inevitable Google Earth modification. A demonstration of the current map is available in the link.

Here’s what happened last week on Biotech Mashup:

Sunday, March 9th, 2008

DNA Fabrication One Strand at a Time

Monday, March 10th, 2008

HemCon Medical Technologies Uses Shrimp to Save Lives

Building Small Molecules using a DNA Program

Tuesday, March 11th, 2008

Hormones from the Heart

Wednesday, March 12th, 2008

Stem Cells Used to Create Kidneys and Pancreas in Mice

Roaches’ Secret to Moving is Unveiled, Motels Around the World Rejoice!

Thursday, March 13th, 2008

A Crabby Personality

Friday, March 14th, 2008

Mosquito Repellent Haywires Neurons

Researchers at Rockefeller University have published in Science the first chemical mechanism on how DEET, mosquito repellent, works on mosquito’s preventing them from biting humans. According to the paper DEET inhibits signals from the olfactory co-receptor  OR83b. This receptor responds to 1-octen-3-ol, a chemical secreted by humans. When DEET is sprayed on human skin it competitively binds to OR83b preventing the mosquito from detecting 1-octen-3-ol.

According to the Department of Health and Human Services DEET has a range of side effects on humans, from skin rashes and seizures to eight reported deaths since 1961. Due to these effects many people do not use DEET, even though mosquitoes carry a multitude of diseases which can be passed to humans. With this recent research, many home remedies such as Citronella, lemongrass, peppermint, eucalyptus, cedarwood, and garlic, can be tested and compared to DEET to see if they behave similarly and can be made into a commercial product. Biotech Mashup can not wait for the day that everyone is spreading peppermint garlic butter on their skins to prevent mosquito bites.

As reported yesterday in LiveScience, Mark Briffa, a behavioral ecologist published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B that hermit crabs have different personalities. In the past he has examined how they behave in combat and the value they place on a shell.

Dr. Briffa’s method for determining a crab’s personality was to flip crabs upside down and measure how long it took them to exit their shell. Based on this measurement he did a statistical comparison between a crabs behavioral consistency verses their behavioral plasticity. From this result he found a pattern in behavior and was able to show statistically that certain crabs are more bold than others.

In 2006, I remember reading an interesting article in the New York Times, by Charles Siebert, describing the different personalities of the giant Pacific octopus, an article definitely worth a read if you have the time. What was so surprising by this report was the distinctive stories passed to Charles by the marine biologist working at the aquarium. They could specifically describe the distinct personalities of each octopus, the jealous one or the one sensitive to light who would spray you with water if you flashed him , etc. This brings up a very interesting and perplexing ethical question that I think is far too often overlooked in the Biotech community. Is animal testing an appropriate way for testing new drugs or technologies? For example, monkeys clearly have personalities, so is it proper to be injecting them with Ebola to determine if the new vaccine is successful? These are questions that if the community is being intellectually honest, at a minimum, should be discussing. We all know the benefits from testing on animal models but have we recognized or even acknowledged some of the negatives.

A group at University of Cambridge released a study Wednesday detailing a mystery a century old, how did that roach get there? Lead Researchers, Walter Federle and Christofer Clemente, explain that the nemesis of modern motels has two pads on the feet which allow the legs to pull or push. This allows the buggers to skim across sufaces ninety degrees and even one hundred and eighty degrees from normal.

Past research has shown that the pads on the legs of roaches contains a thin oily liquid which uses surface tension to allow them to stick firmly to a surface, allowing them to pull themselves along. However, no one has managed to figure out how these insects could travel up walls as this requires pushing as well as pulling on the surface. Using some very clever methodology, Federle and Clemente amputated legs from adult cockroaches, froze the limbs, and examined them under an electron microscope. Then after examination they tested the movement of the legs on a mount and monitored the action using a high speed camera. The end result is the theory that roaches pads are comprised of two parts, a toe and heel. The toe is used to pull the roach and the heel to push. The insect is able to scurry along by using a combination of legs and pushing/pulling their way on the surface.

This is another leap forward in understanding adhesive movement. Similar to how the gecko’s movement has helped to develop a new glue, this could help robotic engineers develop better robots or develop a new construction machine which could reach areas in the past that have been inaccessible. As well motels around the world now have a reason to dump money into a research fund. This fund would of course be focused on development of a new paint to prevent a roach’s pad from pushing and pulling, ridding motels of roaches once and for all.

Researchers from the University of Tokyo have announced they have successfully grown kidneys and pancreas in mice missing the ability to grow their own said organs. According to Japan Today, the researchers injected embryonic stem cells from healthy mice into eggs of genetically engineered mice that do not grow kidneys and pancreases three days after fertilization and implanted the eggs into surrogate mice. The newborn mice turned out to have kidneys and pancreases and the researchers confirmed that they derived from the embryonic stem cells while vascular tracts and nerves were those of the host mice. Both types of organs functioned normally. Professor Hiromitsu Nakauchi, lead researcher, said a potential application of this technique in the future includes reproducing in reprogrammed swine the pancreas of a diabetic patient using stem cells produced from the patient’s skin tissue.

Embryonic stem cell research has been a very controversial issue. Interesting is the suggestion by Dr. Nakauchi that this technique could be used to take stem cells from a patient’s skin, not embryonic. If this was the case, I would fail to see how this would be an issue with anyone who is an opponent of embryonic stem cell research.