BiotechMashup

In the first human study of its kind to be published in more than 35 years, researchers found psilocybin, an hallucinogen which occurs naturally in "magic mushrooms," can safely improve the moods of patients with advanced-stage cancer and anxiety.

(JAMA and Archives Journals) A pilot study suggests the hallucinogen psilocybin may be feasible and safe to administer to patients with advanced-stage cancer and anxiety, with promising effects on mood, according to a report published online today that will appear in the January 2011 print issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

(Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (LA BioMed)) LA BioMed presents awards to Los Angeles county supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas and businesswoman Anne-Merelie Murrell.

(Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (LA BioMed)) The Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center announced today that it is a Grand Challenges Explorations winner, an initiative funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Frans J. Walther, M.D., Ph.D., FAAP, LA BioMed lead investigator and professor of pediatrics at UCLA, will pursue an innovative global health and development research project, titled "Aerosol Delivery of Synthetic Lung Surfactant."

(Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (LA BioMed)) A new UCLA study shows that physicians who work shorter shifts are less likely to make mistakes during medical procedures.Dr. Christian De Virgilio, lead investigator at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor- UCLA Medical Center, led a team that studied the medical records of 2,470 patients who had undergone laparoscopic gallbladder surgery.

(Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (LA BioMed)) Kamyar Kalantar-Zadeh, M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D., principal investigator at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, is the author of an invited editorial in JAMA. The editorial accompanied a study that included data from more than one million adults, and indicated the use of a newer risk prediction equation that classified fewer individuals as having chronic kidney disease and more accurately categorized the risk for death and end-stage renal disease.

(Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (LA BioMed)) Melvin R. Kaplan, M.D., F.A.C.P., a former LA BioMed Board Chair and one of the founders of the research institute, will be honored by the American College of Physicians for his lifetime devotion to the care of patients.

(Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (LA BioMed)) Roger J. Lewis, M.D., Ph.D., a principal investigator at Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (LA BioMed), has received one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine with his recent election to the Institute of Medicine.

(Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (LA BioMed)) LA BioMed will honor Alan H. Jobe, M.D., Ph.D., and Jerome I. Rotter, M.D., for their contributions to science at the eighth annual "Legends" dinner.