Medical Thought Leaders

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News Medical's "Thought Leaders" series is a selection of articles written by national and international experts and trusted advisers in health and medicine. All the articles are written by experts who have been invited as recognised leaders in their fields to provide a "state of the art" contribution.

Use of NMR in diagnostic research: an interview with Elaine Holmes, Imperial College

The Phenome Center developed out of the Olympic drug testing facility, and we've adapted it so that we use NMR spectrometry, which we have three spectrometers, and mass spectrometry, to take blood and urine from hundreds and thousands of people and profile them to get a biochemical fingerprint of every person.

From Bruker BioSpin - NMR, EPR and Imaging 1 Jul 2014

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in veterans: an interview with Milan Michael Karol, The Robert Packard Center for ALS Research at Johns Hopkins

ALS stands for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, better known as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease”. It is a progressive neurodegenerative disease characterized by the death of motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord.

30 Jun 2014

Alcoholic liver disease: an interview with Dr Vinood Patel, University of Westminster

Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) is one of the leading causes of death worldwide and also in the UK. As its name indicates this disease arises due to consuming excessive amounts of alcohol (80 g/day) over an extended period, normally 10-20 years.

24 Jun 2014

Complementary medicines: an interview with Associate Professor Evelin Tiralongo, Griffith University

Complementary medicines are generally being defined as medicines which are non-mainstream medicines and are mostly given together with conventional medicines.

23 Jun 2014

Predicting dengue fever in Brazil: an interview with Dr. Rachel Lowe, Catalan Institute for Climate Sciences (IC3)

Dengue is a mosquito-transmitted viral infection. The disease is widespread in tropical and sub-tropical climates and most commonly found in urban areas. Around half of the world's population are now estimated to live in dengue endemic regions.

16 Jun 2014

P2Y12 and blood clotting: an interview with Dr. Jacobson, NIH

We already understand the many steps involved in blood clotting in great mechanistic detail. The process of blood vessels closing off in response to injury is necessary for preserving life, but blood platelets that are over-active, or activated inappropriately because of unstable plaque, can lead to heart attacks and strokes.

3 Jun 2014

Ebola research: an interview with Professor Easton, University of Warwick

Ebola virus belongs to a group of viruses that have been known for some time. It was first isolated as a result of an infection in a primate, in a monkey colony, in monkeys that were being used for research in the Philippines.

28 May 2014

SGK1 enzyme, asthma and cancer therapies: an interview with Dr. Jonathan D. Powell, Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center

SGK1 stands for serum/glucocorticoid-regulated kinase 1. SGK1 is a member of the AGC kinase family, which is a huge family of kinases.

13 May 2014

Molecular imaging and multimodality: an interview with Professor Silvio Aime, University of Turin

Molecular imaging aims at the visualization of molecules or molecular events that occur at the cellular level. Clearly it also allows the possibility of looking inside the biochemical pathway at the cellular level and therefore enables us to look at the onset of diseases well before they are resolved into structural change.

From Bruker BioSpin - NMR, EPR and Imaging 12 May 2014

Mortality after cardiac surgery: an interview with Dr. Bryan G. Maxwell, Johns Hopkins Medicine

The last decade has seen a strong movement towards the use of various quality measurements to grade medical care. In surgery, 30-day mortality is one of the most common benchmarks. We wanted to determine if patterns of postoperative mortality showed any signs that the process of measuring medical care might actually alter how (and when) care is provided or withdrawn.

6 May 2014

Understanding GPCRs and controlling inflammation: an interview with Dr. Richard Proia, NIDDK, NIH

GPCRs are one of the largest families of cellular signalling proteins consisting of more than a thousand different types. They reside on the surface membranes of cells where they are poised to recognize molecules in the exterior environment and then transmit this information through the membrane allowing cells to respond accordingly.

16 Apr 2014

Managing pregnancy-related complications: an interview with Dr. Mark Zakowski

Pregnancy-related mortality has increased over the last 25 years. Ten years ago the top three pregnancy-related mortality diagnoses were hemorrhage, preeclampsia, and embolism (includes thrombotic and amniotic).

2 Apr 2014

Anxiety relief in children: an interview with Dr. Golda Ginsburg, Johns Hopkins Children’s Center

Anxiety is the most common psychiatric disorder among youth. Prevalence rates hover around 10%, although the actual percent varies depending on the specific anxiety disorder, sample, method of assessment, etc.

24 Mar 2014

Imaging cancer in children using MRI: an interview with Dr. Heike E. Daldrup-Link, Stanford University School of Medicine

There have been a number of scientific publications recently that suggest that the radiation exposure from imaging tests can induce secondary cancers later in life.

21 Mar 2014

Biostatistics provides clues to understanding autism: an interview with Dr Knut M. Wittkowski, The Rockefeller University

The incidence of autism spectrum disorders has increased sharply since it was first described 60 years ago. Today, ASD affects more than 1% of all children in the U.S. and about half of them develop a life-long disability.

3 Mar 2014

Protein M: an interview with Rajesh Grover, PhD, senior staff scientist, Lerner laboratory, TSRI

Protein M is a cell surface protein from Mycoplasma Genitalium that binds to all human antibodies.

26 Feb 2014

Understanding autism: an interview with Roberto Fernández Galán, PhD, Assistant Professor, Case Western Reserve School of Medicine

Autism does not come in just one flavour. It is a spectrum of disorders that share several features: impaired social interactions; impaired verbal and non-verbal communication; and restricted, repetitive behaviours.

25 Feb 2014

How do people become depressed? An interview with Anna Watters and Professor Lea Williams, University of Sydney

A clinical diagnosis of depression (i.e. major depressive disorder) is currently defined on the basis of reported symptoms.

19 Feb 2014

Valproic acid metabolism and obesity: an interview with Dr. Namandjé Bumpus, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Valproic acid is one of the most widely prescribed drugs for the treatment of epilepsy. It has also been shown to be effective for the treatment of mood disorders and migraine headaches.

17 Feb 2014

Prions and their shadow proteins: an interview with Dr Jiri Safar, Co-Director of the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center

The prion diseases were originally discovered by Dr Gajdusek and Dr Gibbs. The first disease discovered was Kuru, which was affecting native tribes in the Papua New Guinea highlands in the 1950s.

9 Feb 2014