Labor and skills gap analysis of the biomedical research workforce

PubMed Central

Mason, Julie L.; Johnston, Elizabeth; Berndt, Sam; Segal, Katie; Lei, Ming; Wiest, Jonathan S.

2016-01-01

The United States has experienced an unsustainable increase of the biomedical research workforce over the past 3 decades. This expansion has led to a myriad of consequences, including an imbalance in the number of researchers and available tenure-track faculty positions, extended postdoctoral training periods, increasing age of investigators at first U.S. National Institutes of Health R01 grant, and exodus of talented individuals seeking careers beyond traditional academe. Without accurate data on the biomedical research labor market, challenges will remain in resolving these problems and in advising trainees of viable career options and the skills necessary to be productive in their careers. We analyzed workforce trends, integrating both traditional labor market information and real-time job data. We generated a profile of the current biomedical research workforce, performed labor gap analyses of occupations in the workforce at regional and national levels, and assessed skill transferability between core and complementary occupations. We conclude that although supply into the workforce and the number of job postings for occupations within that workforce have grown over the past decade, supply continues to outstrip demand. Moreover, we identify practical skill sets from real-time job postings to optimally equip trainees for an array of careers to effectively meet future workforce demand.—Mason, J. L., Johnston, E., Berndt, S., Segal, K., Lei, M., Wiest, J. S. Labor and skills gap analysis of the biomedical research workforce. PMID:27075242

The diversity of experimental organisms in biomedical research may be influenced by biomedical funding.

PubMed

Erick Peirson, B R; Kropp, Heather; Damerow, Julia; Laubichler, Manfred D

2017-05-01

Contrary to concerns of some critics, we present evidence that biomedical research is not dominated by a small handful of model organisms. An exhaustive analysis of research literature suggests that the diversity of experimental organisms in biomedical research has increased substantially since 1975. There has been a longstanding worry that organism-centric funding policies can lead to biases in experimental organism choice, and thus negatively impact the direction of research and the interpretation of results. Critics have argued that a focus on model organisms has unduly constrained the diversity of experimental organisms. The availability of large electronic databases of scientific literature, combined with interest in quantitative methods among philosophers of science, presents new opportunities for data-driven investigations into organism choice in biomedical research. The diversity of organisms used in NIH-funded research may be considerably lower than in the broader biomedical sciences, and may be subject to greater constraints on organism choice. © 2017 WILEY Periodicals, Inc.

Environmental practices for biomedical research facilities.

PubMed Central

Medlin, E L; Grupenhoff, J T

2000-01-01

As a result of the Leadership Conference on Biomedical Research and the Environment, the Facilities Committee focused its work on the development of best environmental practices at biomedical research facilities at the university and independent research facility level as well as consideration of potential involvement of for-profit companies and government agencies. The designation "facilities" includes all related buildings and grounds, "green auditing" of buildings and programs, purchasing of furnishings and sources, energy efficiency, and engineering services (lighting, heating, air conditioning), among other activities. The committee made a number of recommendations, including development of a national council for environmental stewardship in biomedical research, development of a system of green auditing of such research facilities, and creation of programs for sustainable building and use. In addition, the committee recommended extension of education and training programs for environmental stewardship, in cooperation with facilities managers, for all research administrators and researchers. These programs would focus especially on graduate fellows and other students, as well as on science labs at levels K--12. PMID:11121360

Financial anatomy of biomedical research.

PubMed

Moses, Hamilton; Dorsey, E Ray; Matheson, David H M; Thier, Samuel O

2005-09-21

Public and private financial support of biomedical research have increased over the past decade. Few comprehensive analyses of the sources and uses of funds are available. This results in inadequate information on which to base investment decisions because not all sources allow equal latitude to explore hypotheses having scientific or clinical importance and creates a barrier to judging the value of research to society. To quantify funding trends from 1994 to 2004 of basic, translational, and clinical biomedical research by principal sponsors based in the United States. Publicly available data were compiled for the federal, state, and local governments; foundations; charities; universities; and industry. Proprietary (by subscription but openly available) databases were used to supplement public sources. Total actual research spending, growth rates, and type of research with inflation adjustment. Biomedical research funding increased from 37.1 billion dollars in 1994 to 94.3 billion dollars in 2003 and doubled when adjusted for inflation. Principal research sponsors in 2003 were industry (57%) and the National Institutes of Health (28%). Relative proportions from all public and private sources did not change. Industry sponsorship of clinical trials increased from 4.0 dollars to 14.2 billion dollars (in real terms) while federal proportions devoted to basic and applied research were unchanged. The United States spent an estimated 5.6% of its total health expenditures on biomedical research, more than any other country, but less than 0.1% for health services research. From an economic perspective, biotechnology and medical device companies were most productive, as measured by new diagnostic and therapeutic devices per dollar of research and development cost. Productivity declined for new pharmaceuticals. Enhancing research productivity and evaluation of benefit are pressing challenges, requiring (1) more effective translation of basic scientific knowledge to clinical

Recruiting intergenerational African American males for biomedical research Studies: a major research challenge.

PubMed

Byrd, Goldie S; Edwards, Christopher L; Kelkar, Vinaya A; Phillips, Ruth G; Byrd, Jennifer R; Pim-Pong, Dora Som; Starks, Takiyah D; Taylor, Ashleigh L; Mckinley, Raechel E; Li, Yi-Ju; Pericak-Vance, Margaret

2011-06-01

The health and well-being of all individuals, independent of race, ethnicity, or gender, is a significant public health concern. Despite many improvements in the status of minority health, African American males continue to have the highest age-adjusted mortality rate of any race-sex group in the United States. Such disparities are accounted for by deaths from a number of diseases such as diabetes, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), cancer, and cardiovascular disease, as well as by many historical and present social and cultural constructs that present as obstacles to better health outcomes. Distrust of the medical community, inadequate education, low socioeconomic status, social deprivation, and underutilized primary health care services all contribute to disproportionate health and health care outcomes among African Americans compared to their Caucasian counterparts. Results of clinical research on diseases that disproportionately affect African American males are often limited in their reliability due to common sampling errors existing in the majority of biomedical research studies and clinical trials. There are many reasons for underrepresentation of African American males in clinical trials, including their common recollection and interpretation of relevant historical of biomedical events where minorities were abused or exposed to racial discrimination or racist provocation. In addition, African American males continue to be less educated and more disenfranchised from the majority in society than Caucasian males and females and their African American female counterparts. As such, understanding their perceptions, even in early developmental years, about health and obstacles to involvement in research is important. In an effort to understand perspectives about their level of participation, motivation for participation, impact of education, and engagement in research, this study was designed to explore factors that impact their willingness to participate. Our

Biomedical Research Division significant accomplishments for FY 1983

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Martello, N. V.

1984-01-01

Various research and technology activities of Ames Research Center's Biomedical Research Division are described. Contributions to the Space Administration's goals in the life sciences include research in operational medicine, cardiovascular deconditioning, motion sickness, bone alterations, muscle atrophy, fluid and electrolyte changes, radiation effects and protection, human behavior and performance, general biomedical research, and gravitational biology.

Should biomedical research be like Airbnb?

PubMed

Bonazzi, Vivien R; Bourne, Philip E

2017-04-01

The thesis presented here is that biomedical research is based on the trusted exchange of services. That exchange would be conducted more efficiently if the trusted software platforms to exchange those services, if they exist, were more integrated. While simpler and narrower in scope than the services governing biomedical research, comparison to existing internet-based platforms, like Airbnb, can be informative. We illustrate how the analogy to internet-based platforms works and does not work and introduce The Commons, under active development at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and elsewhere, as an example of the move towards platforms for research.

Should biomedical research be like Airbnb?

PubMed Central

Bonazzi, Vivien R.

2017-01-01

The thesis presented here is that biomedical research is based on the trusted exchange of services. That exchange would be conducted more efficiently if the trusted software platforms to exchange those services, if they exist, were more integrated. While simpler and narrower in scope than the services governing biomedical research, comparison to existing internet-based platforms, like Airbnb, can be informative. We illustrate how the analogy to internet-based platforms works and does not work and introduce The Commons, under active development at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and elsewhere, as an example of the move towards platforms for research. PMID:28388615

Biomedical engineering for health research and development.

PubMed

Zhang, X-Y

2015-01-01

Biomedical engineering is a new area of research in medicine and biology, providing new concepts and designs for the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of various diseases. There are several types of biomedical engineering, such as tissue, genetic, neural and stem cells, as well as chemical and clinical engineering for health care. Many electronic and magnetic methods and equipments are used for the biomedical engineering such as Computed Tomography (CT) scans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans, Electroencephalography (EEG), Ultrasound and regenerative medicine and stem cell cultures, preparations of artificial cells and organs, such as pancreas, urinary bladders, liver cells, and fibroblasts cells of foreskin and others. The principle of tissue engineering is described with various types of cells used for tissue engineering purposes. The use of several medical devices and bionics are mentioned with scaffold, cells and tissue cultures and various materials are used for biomedical engineering. The use of biomedical engineering methods is very important for the human health, and research and development of diseases. The bioreactors and preparations of artificial cells or tissues and organs are described here.

National Space Biomedical Research Institute Annual Report

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2000-01-01

This report summarizes the activities of the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) during FY 2000. The NSBRI is responsible for the development of countermeasures against the deleterious effects of long-duration space flight and performs fundamental and applied space biomedical research directed towards this specific goal. Its mission is to lead a world-class, national effort in integrated, critical path space biomedical research that supports NASA's Human Exploration and Development of Space (HEDS) Strategic Plan by focusing on the enabling of long-term human presence in, development of, and exploration of space. This is accomplished by: designing, testing and validating effective countermeasures to address the biological and environmental impediments to long-term human space flight; defining the molecular, cellular, organ-level, integrated responses and mechanistic relationships that ultimately determine these impediments, where such activity fosters the development of novel countermeasures; establishing biomedical support technologies to maximize human performance in space, reduce biomedical hazards to an acceptable level, and deliver quality medical care; transferring and disseminating the biomedical advances in knowledge and technology acquired through living and working in space to the general benefit of mankind, including the treatment of patients suffering from gravity- and radiation-related conditions on Earth; and ensuring open involvement of the scientific community, industry and the public at large in the Institute's activities and fostering a robust collaboration with NASA, particularly through NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. Attachment:Appendices (A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O, and P.).

Funding of US biomedical research, 2003-2008.

PubMed

Dorsey, E Ray; de Roulet, Jason; Thompson, Joel P; Reminick, Jason I; Thai, Ashley; White-Stellato, Zachary; Beck, Christopher A; George, Benjamin P; Moses, Hamilton

2010-01-13

With the exception of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, funding support for biomedical research in the United States has slowed after a decade of doubling. However, the extent and scope of slowing are largely unknown. To quantify funding of biomedical research in the United States from 2003 to 2008. Publicly available data were used to quantify funding from government (federal, state, and local), private, and industry sources. Regression models were used to compare financial trends between 1994-2003 and 2003-2007. The numbers of new drug and device approvals by the US Food and Drug Administration over the same period were also evaluated. Funding and growth rates by source; numbers of US Food and Drug Administration approvals. Biomedical research funding increased from $75.5 billion in 2003 to $101.1 billion in 2007. In 2008, funding from the National Institutes of Health and industry totaled $88.8 billion. In 2007, funding from these sources, adjusted for inflation, was $90.2 billion. Adjusted for inflation, funding from 2003 to 2007 increased by 14%, for a compound annual growth rate of 3.4%. By comparison, funding from 1994 to 2003 increased at an annual rate of 7.8% (P < .001). In 2007, industry (58%) was the largest funder, followed by the federal government (33%). Modest increase in funding was not accompanied by an increase in approvals for drugs or devices. In 2007, the United States spent an estimated 4.5% of its total health expenditures on biomedical research and 0.1% on health services research. After a decade of doubling, the rate of increase in biomedical research funding slowed from 2003 to 2007, and after adjustment for inflation, the absolute level of funding from the National Institutes of Health and industry appears to have decreased by 2% in 2008.

Biomedical research publications: 1980 - 1982

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pleasant, L. G.; Limbach, L.

1982-01-01

Publications concerning the major physiological and psychological problems encountered by man when he undertakes space flight are listed. Nine research areas are included: cardiovascular deconditioning, motion sickness, bone alterations, muscle atrophy, blood cell alterations, fluid and eletrolyte changes, radiation effects and protection, behavior and performance, and general biomedical research.

Globalization and changing trends of biomedical research output.

PubMed

Conte, Marisa L; Liu, Jing; Schnell, Santiago; Omary, M Bishr

2017-06-15

The US continues to lead the world in research and development (R&D) expenditures, but there is concern that stagnation in federal support for biomedical research in the US could undermine the leading role the US has played in biomedical and clinical research discoveries. As a readout of research output in the US compared with other countries, assessment of original research articles published by US-based authors in ten clinical and basic science journals during 2000 to 2015 showed a steady decline of articles in high-ranking journals or no significant change in mid-ranking journals. In contrast, publication output originating from China-based investigators, in both high- and mid-ranking journals, has steadily increased commensurate with significant growth in R&D expenditures. These observations support the current concerns of stagnant and year-to-year uncertainty in US federal funding of biomedical research.

International coordination of biomedical research.

PubMed

Owen, S G

1976-01-01

Recent efforts at international coordination in biomedical research have taken place at two levels. At the level of the working clinician and scientist, European regionalism has become increasingly manifest in such organizations as the European Society for Clinical Investigation, the European Organization for Research into the Treatment of Cancer, the European Molecular Biology Organization and many others. These have developed largely, though not entirely, independently of government funding. At the level of science policy, i.e. of bodies supporting biomedical research mainly from public funds, the major developments have been the Comité de la Recherche Médicale of the European Community and the much wider association of European Medical Research Councils, based on the whole of Western Europe; in October 1975 the latter group became incorporated into the new European Science Foundation as the first Standing Committee of that body. Wider, interregional, cooperation presents greater problems, though there have been some modest successes, and the multinational drive on research into six of the major health problems of the Third World now being proposed by WHO holds further promise for the future.

Computational approaches for predicting biomedical research collaborations.

PubMed

Zhang, Qing; Yu, Hong

2014-01-01

Biomedical research is increasingly collaborative, and successful collaborations often produce high impact work. Computational approaches can be developed for automatically predicting biomedical research collaborations. Previous works of collaboration prediction mainly explored the topological structures of research collaboration networks, leaving out rich semantic information from the publications themselves. In this paper, we propose supervised machine learning approaches to predict research collaborations in the biomedical field. We explored both the semantic features extracted from author research interest profile and the author network topological features. We found that the most informative semantic features for author collaborations are related to research interest, including similarity of out-citing citations, similarity of abstracts. Of the four supervised machine learning models (naïve Bayes, naïve Bayes multinomial, SVMs, and logistic regression), the best performing model is logistic regression with an ROC ranging from 0.766 to 0.980 on different datasets. To our knowledge we are the first to study in depth how research interest and productivities can be used for collaboration prediction. Our approach is computationally efficient, scalable and yet simple to implement. The datasets of this study are available at https://github.com/qingzhanggithub/medline-collaboration-datasets.

Biomedical research in a Digital Health Framework

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

This article describes a Digital Health Framework (DHF), benefitting from the lessons learnt during the three-year life span of the FP7 Synergy-COPD project. The DHF aims to embrace the emerging requirements - data and tools - of applying systems medicine into healthcare with a three-tier strategy articulating formal healthcare, informal care and biomedical research. Accordingly, it has been constructed based on three key building blocks, namely, novel integrated care services with the support of information and communication technologies, a personal health folder (PHF) and a biomedical research environment (DHF-research). Details on the functional requirements and necessary components of the DHF-research are extensively presented. Finally, the specifics of the building blocks strategy for deployment of the DHF, as well as the steps toward adoption are analyzed. The proposed architectural solutions and implementation steps constitute a pivotal strategy to foster and enable 4P medicine (Predictive, Preventive, Personalized and Participatory) in practice and should provide a head start to any community and institution currently considering to implement a biomedical research platform. PMID:25472554

Research evaluation support services in biomedical libraries

PubMed Central

Gutzman, Karen Elizabeth; Bales, Michael E.; Belter, Christopher W.; Chambers, Thane; Chan, Liza; Holmes, Kristi L.; Lu, Ya-Ling; Palmer, Lisa A.; Reznik-Zellen, Rebecca C.; Sarli, Cathy C.; Suiter, Amy M.; Wheeler, Terrie R.

2018-01-01

Objective The paper provides a review of current practices related to evaluation support services reported by seven biomedical and research libraries. Methods A group of seven libraries from the United States and Canada described their experiences with establishing evaluation support services at their libraries. A questionnaire was distributed among the libraries to elicit information as to program development, service and staffing models, campus partnerships, training, products such as tools and reports, and resources used for evaluation support services. The libraries also reported interesting projects, lessons learned, and future plans. Results The seven libraries profiled in this paper report a variety of service models in providing evaluation support services to meet the needs of campus stakeholders. The service models range from research center cores, partnerships with research groups, and library programs with staff dedicated to evaluation support services. A variety of products and services were described such as an automated tool to develop rank-based metrics, consultation on appropriate metrics to use for evaluation, customized publication and citation reports, resource guides, classes and training, and others. Implementing these services has allowed the libraries to expand their roles on campus and to contribute more directly to the research missions of their institutions. Conclusions Libraries can leverage a variety of evaluation support services as an opportunity to successfully meet an array of challenges confronting the biomedical research community, including robust efforts to report and demonstrate tangible and meaningful outcomes of biomedical research and clinical care. These services represent a transformative direction that can be emulated by other biomedical and research libraries. PMID:29339930

Research evaluation support services in biomedical libraries.

PubMed

Gutzman, Karen Elizabeth; Bales, Michael E; Belter, Christopher W; Chambers, Thane; Chan, Liza; Holmes, Kristi L; Lu, Ya-Ling; Palmer, Lisa A; Reznik-Zellen, Rebecca C; Sarli, Cathy C; Suiter, Amy M; Wheeler, Terrie R

2018-01-01

The paper provides a review of current practices related to evaluation support services reported by seven biomedical and research libraries. A group of seven libraries from the United States and Canada described their experiences with establishing evaluation support services at their libraries. A questionnaire was distributed among the libraries to elicit information as to program development, service and staffing models, campus partnerships, training, products such as tools and reports, and resources used for evaluation support services. The libraries also reported interesting projects, lessons learned, and future plans. The seven libraries profiled in this paper report a variety of service models in providing evaluation support services to meet the needs of campus stakeholders. The service models range from research center cores, partnerships with research groups, and library programs with staff dedicated to evaluation support services. A variety of products and services were described such as an automated tool to develop rank-based metrics, consultation on appropriate metrics to use for evaluation, customized publication and citation reports, resource guides, classes and training, and others. Implementing these services has allowed the libraries to expand their roles on campus and to contribute more directly to the research missions of their institutions. Libraries can leverage a variety of evaluation support services as an opportunity to successfully meet an array of challenges confronting the biomedical research community, including robust efforts to report and demonstrate tangible and meaningful outcomes of biomedical research and clinical care. These services represent a transformative direction that can be emulated by other biomedical and research libraries.

Calixarenes in bio-medical researches.

PubMed

Rodik, Roman V; Boyko, Vyacheslav I; Kalchenko, Vitaly I

2009-01-01

Application of calixarene derivatives in bio-medical researches is reviewed in this article. Antiviral, bactericidal, antithrombothic, antituberculosis, anticancer activity as well as specific protein complexation, membranotropic properties and toxicity of modified calixarenes are discussed.

Biomedical research publications, 1982 - 1983

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bolcik, C.; Pleasant, L. G.

1983-01-01

Cardiovascular deconditioning, motion sickness, bone alterations, muscle atrophy, blood cell alterations, fluid and electrolyte changes, radiation effects and protection, behavior and performance, and general biomedical research are covered in a bibliography of 444 items.

Globalization and changing trends of biomedical research output

PubMed Central

Conte, Marisa L.; Liu, Jing; Omary, M. Bishr

2017-01-01

The US continues to lead the world in research and development (R&D) expenditures, but there is concern that stagnation in federal support for biomedical research in the US could undermine the leading role the US has played in biomedical and clinical research discoveries. As a readout of research output in the US compared with other countries, assessment of original research articles published by US-based authors in ten clinical and basic science journals during 2000 to 2015 showed a steady decline of articles in high-ranking journals or no significant change in mid-ranking journals. In contrast, publication output originating from China-based investigators, in both high- and mid-ranking journals, has steadily increased commensurate with significant growth in R&D expenditures. These observations support the current concerns of stagnant and year-to-year uncertainty in US federal funding of biomedical research. PMID:28614799

Community outreach at biomedical research facilities.

PubMed

Goldman, M; Hedetniemi, J N; Herbert, E R; Sassaman, J S; Walker, B C

2000-12-01

For biomedical researchers to fulfill their responsibility for protecting the environment, they must do more than meet the scientific challenge of reducing the number and volume of hazardous materials used in their laboratories and the engineering challenge of reducing pollution and shifting to cleaner energy sources. They must also meet the public relations challenge of informing and involving their neighbors in these efforts. The experience of the Office of Community Liaison of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in meeting the latter challenge offers a model and several valuable lessons for other biomedical research facilities to follow. This paper is based on presentations by an expert panel during the Leadership Conference on Biomedical Research and the Environment held 1--2 November 1999 at NIH, Bethesda, Maryland. The risks perceived by community members are often quite different from those identified by officials at the biomedical research facility. The best antidote for misconceptions is more and better information. If community organizations are to be informed participants in the decision-making process, they need a simple but robust mechanism for identifying and evaluating the environmental hazards in their community. Local government can and should be an active and fully informed partner in planning and emergency preparedness. In some cases this can reduce the regulatory burden on the biomedical research facility. In other cases it might simplify and expedite the permitting process or help the facility disseminate reliable information to the community. When a particular risk, real or perceived, is of special concern to the community, community members should be involved in the design, implementation, and evaluation of targeted risk assessment activities. Only by doing so will the community have confidence in the results of those activities. NIH has involved community members in joint efforts to deal with topics as varied as recycling and soil

Minimization and management of wastes from biomedical research.

PubMed Central

Rau, E H; Alaimo, R J; Ashbrook, P C; Austin, S M; Borenstein, N; Evans, M R; French, H M; Gilpin, R W; Hughes, J; Hummel, S J; Jacobsohn, A P; Lee, C Y; Merkle, S; Radzinski, T; Sloane, R; Wagner, K D; Weaner, L E

2000-01-01

Several committees were established by the National Association of Physicians for the Environment to investigate and report on various topics at the National Leadership Conference on Biomedical Research and the Environment held at the 1--2 November 1999 at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. This is the report of the Committee on Minimization and Management of Wastes from Biomedical Research. Biomedical research facilities contribute a small fraction of the total amount of wastes generated in the United States, and the rate of generation appears to be decreasing. Significant reductions in generation of hazardous, radioactive, and mixed wastes have recently been reported, even at facilities with rapidly expanding research programs. Changes in the focus of research, improvements in laboratory techniques, and greater emphasis on waste minimization (volume and toxicity reduction) explain the declining trend in generation. The potential for uncontrolled releases of wastes from biomedical research facilities and adverse impacts on the general environment from these wastes appears to be low. Wastes are subject to numerous regulatory requirements and are contained and managed in a manner protective of the environment. Most biohazardous agents, chemicals, and radionuclides that find significant use in research are not likely to be persistent, bioaccumulative, or toxic if they are released. Today, the primary motivations for the ongoing efforts by facilities to improve minimization and management of wastes are regulatory compliance and avoidance of the high disposal costs and liabilities associated with generation of regulated wastes. The committee concluded that there was no evidence suggesting that the anticipated increases in biomedical research will significantly increase generation of hazardous wastes or have adverse impacts on the general environment. This conclusion assumes the positive, countervailing trends of enhanced pollution prevention

[Biomedical research in Revista de Biologia Tropical].

PubMed

Gutiérrez, José María

2002-01-01

The contributions published in Revista de Biología Tropical in the area of Biomedical Sciences are reviewed in terms of number of contributions and scope of research subjects. Biomedical Sciences, particularly Parasitology and Microbiology, constituted the predominant subject in the Revista during the first decade, reflecting the intense research environment at the School of Microbiology of the University of Costa Rica and at Hospital San Juan de Dios. The relative weight of Biomedicine in the following decades diminished, due to the outstanding increment in publications in Biological Sciences; however, the absolute number of contributions in Biomedical Sciences remained constant throughout the last decades, with around 80 contributions per decade. In spite of the predominance of Parasitology as the main biomedical subject, the last decades have witnessed the emergence of new areas of interest in the Revista, such as Pharmacology of natural products, Toxinology, especially related to snake venoms, and Human Genetics. This retrospective analysis evidences that Biomedical Sciences, particularly those related to Tropical Medicine, were a fundamental component during the first years of Revista de Biología Tropical, and have maintained a significant presence in the scientific output of this journal, the most relevant scientific publication in biological sciences in Central America.

Accessing and integrating data and knowledge for biomedical research.

PubMed

Burgun, A; Bodenreider, O

2008-01-01

To review the issues that have arisen with the advent of translational research in terms of integration of data and knowledge, and survey current efforts to address these issues. Using examples form the biomedical literature, we identified new trends in biomedical research and their impact on bioinformatics. We analyzed the requirements for effective knowledge repositories and studied issues in the integration of biomedical knowledge. New diagnostic and therapeutic approaches based on gene expression patterns have brought about new issues in the statistical analysis of data, and new workflows are needed are needed to support translational research. Interoperable data repositories based on standard annotations, infrastructures and services are needed to support the pooling and meta-analysis of data, as well as their comparison to earlier experiments. High-quality, integrated ontologies and knowledge bases serve as a source of prior knowledge used in combination with traditional data mining techniques and contribute to the development of more effective data analysis strategies. As biomedical research evolves from traditional clinical and biological investigations towards omics sciences and translational research, specific needs have emerged, including integrating data collected in research studies with patient clinical data, linking omics knowledge with medical knowledge, modeling the molecular basis of diseases, and developing tools that support in-depth analysis of research data. As such, translational research illustrates the need to bridge the gap between bioinformatics and medical informatics, and opens new avenues for biomedical informatics research.

Accessing and Integrating Data and Knowledge for Biomedical Research

PubMed Central

Burgun, A.; Bodenreider, O.

2008-01-01

Summary Objectives To review the issues that have arisen with the advent of translational research in terms of integration of data and knowledge, and survey current efforts to address these issues. Methods Using examples form the biomedical literature, we identified new trends in biomedical research and their impact on bioinformatics. We analyzed the requirements for effective knowledge repositories and studied issues in the integration of biomedical knowledge. Results New diagnostic and therapeutic approaches based on gene expression patterns have brought about new issues in the statistical analysis of data, and new workflows are needed are needed to support translational research. Interoperable data repositories based on standard annotations, infrastructures and services are needed to support the pooling and meta-analysis of data, as well as their comparison to earlier experiments. High-quality, integrated ontologies and knowledge bases serve as a source of prior knowledge used in combination with traditional data mining techniques and contribute to the development of more effective data analysis strategies. Conclusion As biomedical research evolves from traditional clinical and biological investigations towards omics sciences and translational research, specific needs have emerged, including integrating data collected in research studies with patient clinical data, linking omics knowledge with medical knowledge, modeling the molecular basis of diseases, and developing tools that support in-depth analysis of research data. As such, translational research illustrates the need to bridge the gap between bioinformatics and medical informatics, and opens new avenues for biomedical informatics research. PMID:18660883

Biomedical research applications of electromagnetically separated enriched stable isotopes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lambrecht, R. M.

The current and projected annual requirements through 1985 for stable isotopes enriched by electromagnetic separation methods were reviewed for applications in various types of biomedical research: (1) medical radiosiotope production, labeled compounds, and potential radio-pharmaceuticals; (2) nutrition, food science, and pharmacology: (3) metallobiochemistry and environmental toxicology; (4) nuclear magnetic resonance, electron paramagnetic resonance, and moessbauer spectroscopy in biochemical, biophysical, and biomedical research; and (5) miscellaneous advances in radioactive and nonradioactive tracer technology. Radioisotopes available from commercial sources or routinely used in clinical nuclear medicine were excluded. Current requirements for enriched stable isotopes in biomedical research are not being satisfied. Severe shortages exist for Mg 26, Ca 43, Zn 70, Se 76, Se 77, Se 78, Pd 102, Cd 111, Cd 113, and Os 190. Many interesting and potentially important investigations in biomedical research require small quantities of specific elements at high isotopic enrichments.

Characteristics Desired in Clinical Data Warehouse for Biomedical Research

PubMed Central

Shin, Soo-Yong; Kim, Woo Sung

2014-01-01

Objectives Due to the unique characteristics of clinical data, clinical data warehouses (CDWs) have not been successful so far. Specifically, the use of CDWs for biomedical research has been relatively unsuccessful thus far. The characteristics necessary for the successful implementation and operation of a CDW for biomedical research have not clearly defined yet. Methods Three examples of CDWs were reviewed: a multipurpose CDW in a hospital, a CDW for independent multi-institutional research, and a CDW for research use in an institution. After reviewing the three CDW examples, we propose some key characteristics needed in a CDW for biomedical research. Results A CDW for research should include an honest broker system and an Institutional Review Board approval interface to comply with governmental regulations. It should also include a simple query interface, an anonymized data review tool, and a data extraction tool. Also, it should be a biomedical research platform for data repository use as well as data analysis. Conclusions The proposed characteristics desired in a CDW may have limited transfer value to organizations in other countries. However, these analysis results are still valid in Korea, and we have developed clinical research data warehouse based on these desiderata. PMID:24872909

Personnel Needs and Training for Biomedical and Behavioral Research. The 1985 Report of the Committee on National Needs for Biomedical and Behavioral Research Personnel.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Institute of Medicine (NAS), Washington, DC.

Designed to provide assistance in the assessment of the need for biomedical and behavioral research personnel, this report presents research findings related to specific medical careers. The review includes an examination of the system under which biomedical and behavioral scientists are trained for research careers and the United States…

Information Retrieval in Biomedical Research: From Articles to Datasets

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wei, Wei

2017-01-01

Information retrieval techniques have been applied to biomedical research for a variety of purposes, such as textual document retrieval and molecular data retrieval. As biomedical research evolves over time, information retrieval is also constantly facing new challenges, including the growing number of available data, the emerging new data types,…

Research and technology activities at Ames Research Center's Biomedical Research Division

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Martello, N.

1985-01-01

Various research and technology activities at Ames Research Center's Biomedical Research Division are described. Contributions to the Space Administration's goals in the life sciences include descriptions of research in operational medicine, cardiovascular deconditioning, motion sickness, bone alterations, muscle atrophy, fluid and electrolyte changes, radiation effects and protection, behavior and performance, gravitational biology, and life sciences flight experiments.

National Space Biomedical Research Institute

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2001-01-01

This report outlines National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) activities during FY 2001, the fourth year of the NSBRI's programs. It is prepared in accordance with Cooperative Agreement NCC 9-58 between NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center and Baylor College of Medicine (NSBRI).

Animal Experiments in Biomedical Research: A Historical Perspective

PubMed Central

Franco, Nuno Henrique

2013-01-01

Simple Summary This article reviews the use of non-human animals in biomedical research from a historical viewpoint, providing an insight into the most relevant social and moral issues on this topic across time, as well as to how the current paradigm for ethically and publically acceptable use of animals in biomedicine has been achieved. Abstract The use of non-human animals in biomedical research has given important contributions to the medical progress achieved in our day, but it has also been a cause of heated public, scientific and philosophical discussion for hundreds of years. This review, with a mainly European outlook, addresses the history of animal use in biomedical research, some of its main protagonists and antagonists, and its effect on society from Antiquity to the present day, while providing a historical context with which to understand how we have arrived at the current paradigm regarding the ethical treatment of animals in research. PMID:26487317

HPC AND GRID COMPUTING FOR INTEGRATIVE BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH

PubMed Central

Kurc, Tahsin; Hastings, Shannon; Kumar, Vijay; Langella, Stephen; Sharma, Ashish; Pan, Tony; Oster, Scott; Ervin, David; Permar, Justin; Narayanan, Sivaramakrishnan; Gil, Yolanda; Deelman, Ewa; Hall, Mary; Saltz, Joel

2010-01-01

Integrative biomedical research projects query, analyze, and integrate many different data types and make use of datasets obtained from measurements or simulations of structure and function at multiple biological scales. With the increasing availability of high-throughput and high-resolution instruments, the integrative biomedical research imposes many challenging requirements on software middleware systems. In this paper, we look at some of these requirements using example research pattern templates. We then discuss how middleware systems, which incorporate Grid and high-performance computing, could be employed to address the requirements. PMID:20107625

National Space Biomedical Research Institute

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2004-01-01

This report outlines the National Space Biomedical Research Institute's (NSBRI) activities during FY 2004, the Institute's seventh year. It is prepared in accordance with Cooperative Agreement NCC 9-58 between NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) and the Institute's lead institution, Baylor College of Medicine.

The distribution of biomedical research resources and international justice.

PubMed

Resnik, David B

2004-05-01

According to some estimates, less than 10% of the world's biomedical research funds are dedicated to addressing problems that are responsible for 90% of the world's burden of disease. This paper explains why this disparity exists and what should be done about it. It argues that the disparity exists because: 1) multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies do not regard research and development investments on the health problems of developing nations to be economically lucrative; and 2) governmental agencies that sponsor biomedical research face little political pressure to allocate funds for the problems of developing nations. This paper argues that developed nations have an obligation to address disparities related to biomedical research funding. To facilitate this effort, developed countries should establish a trust fund dedicated to research on the health problems of developing nations similar to the Global AIDS Fund.

Facilitating biomedical researchers' interrogation of electronic health record data: Ideas from outside of biomedical informatics.

PubMed

Hruby, Gregory W; Matsoukas, Konstantina; Cimino, James J; Weng, Chunhua

2016-04-01

Electronic health records (EHR) are a vital data resource for research uses, including cohort identification, phenotyping, pharmacovigilance, and public health surveillance. To realize the promise of EHR data for accelerating clinical research, it is imperative to enable efficient and autonomous EHR data interrogation by end users such as biomedical researchers. This paper surveys state-of-art approaches and key methodological considerations to this purpose. We adapted a previously published conceptual framework for interactive information retrieval, which defines three entities: user, channel, and source, by elaborating on channels for query formulation in the context of facilitating end users to interrogate EHR data. We show the current progress in biomedical informatics mainly lies in support for query execution and information modeling, primarily due to emphases on infrastructure development for data integration and data access via self-service query tools, but has neglected user support needed during iteratively query formulation processes, which can be costly and error-prone. In contrast, the information science literature has offered elaborate theories and methods for user modeling and query formulation support. The two bodies of literature are complementary, implying opportunities for cross-disciplinary idea exchange. On this basis, we outline the directions for future informatics research to improve our understanding of user needs and requirements for facilitating autonomous interrogation of EHR data by biomedical researchers. We suggest that cross-disciplinary translational research between biomedical informatics and information science can benefit our research in facilitating efficient data access in life sciences. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

National Space Biomedical Research Institute

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

This report outlines the activities of the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) during FY 2003, the sixth year of the NSBRI's programs. It is prepared in accordance with Cooperative Agreement NCC 9-58 between NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) and the Institute's lead institution, Baylor College of Medicine.

Structural biology computing: Lessons for the biomedical research sciences.

PubMed

Morin, Andrew; Sliz, Piotr

2013-11-01

The field of structural biology, whose aim is to elucidate the molecular and atomic structures of biological macromolecules, has long been at the forefront of biomedical sciences in adopting and developing computational research methods. Operating at the intersection between biophysics, biochemistry, and molecular biology, structural biology's growth into a foundational framework on which many concepts and findings of molecular biology are interpreted1 has depended largely on parallel advancements in computational tools and techniques. Without these computing advances, modern structural biology would likely have remained an exclusive pursuit practiced by few, and not become the widely practiced, foundational field it is today. As other areas of biomedical research increasingly embrace research computing techniques, the successes, failures and lessons of structural biology computing can serve as a useful guide to progress in other biomedically related research fields. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

NIH/NSF accelerate biomedical research innovations

Cancer.gov

A collaboration between the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health will give NIH-funded researchers training to help them evaluate their scientific discoveries for commercial potential, with the aim of accelerating biomedical in

Organization of Biomedical Data for Collaborative Scientific Research: A Research Information Management System.

PubMed

Myneni, Sahiti; Patel, Vimla L

2010-06-01

Biomedical researchers often work with massive, detailed and heterogeneous datasets. These datasets raise new challenges of information organization and management for scientific interpretation, as they demand much of the researchers' time and attention. The current study investigated the nature of the problems that researchers face when dealing with such data. Four major problems identified with existing biomedical scientific information management methods were related to data organization, data sharing, collaboration, and publications. Therefore, there is a compelling need to develop an efficient and user-friendly information management system to handle the biomedical research data. This study evaluated the implementation of an information management system, which was introduced as part of the collaborative research to increase scientific productivity in a research laboratory. Laboratory members seemed to exhibit frustration during the implementation process. However, empirical findings revealed that they gained new knowledge and completed specified tasks while working together with the new system. Hence, researchers are urged to persist and persevere when dealing with any new technology, including an information management system in a research laboratory environment.

Defining Compensable Injury in Biomedical Research.

PubMed

Larkin, Megan E

2015-01-01

Biomedical research provides a core social good by enabling medical progress. In the twenty-first century alone, this includes reducing transmission of HIV/AIDS, developing innovative therapies for cancer patients, and exploring the possibilities of personalized medicine. In order to continue to advance medical science, research relies on the voluntary participation of human subjects. Because research is inherently uncertain, unintended harm is an inevitable part of the research enterprise. Currently, injured research participants in the United States must turn to the “litigation lottery” of the tort system in search of compensation. This state of affairs fails research participants, who are too often left uncompensated for devastating losses, and makes the United States an outlier in the international community. In spite of forty years’ worth of Presidential Commissions and other respected voices calling for the development of a no-fault compensation system, no progress has been made to date. One of the reasons for this lack of progress is the failure to develop a coherent ethical basis for an obligation to provide compensation for research related injuries. This problem is exacerbated by the lack of a clear definition of “compensable injury” in the biomedical research context. This article makes a number of important contributions to the scholarship in this growing field. To begin, it examines compensation systems already in existence and concludes that there are four main definitional elements that must be used to define “compensable injury.” Next, it examines the justifications that have been put forth as the basis for an ethical obligation to provide compensation, and settles on retrospective nonmaleficence and distributive and compensatory justice as the most salient and persuasive. Finally, it uses the regulatory elements and the justifications discussed in the first two sections to develop a well-rounded definition of “compensable injury�

Perspectives of clinician and biomedical scientists on interdisciplinary health research.

PubMed

Laberge, Suzanne; Albert, Mathieu; Hodges, Brian D

2009-11-24

Interdisciplinary health research is a priority of many funding agencies. We surveyed clinician and biomedical scientists about their views on the value and funding of interdisciplinary health research. We conducted semistructured interviews with 31 biomedical and 30 clinician scientists. The scientists were selected from the 2000-2006 membership lists of peer-review committees of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. We investigated respondents' perspectives on the assumption that collaboration across disciplines adds value to health research. We also investigated their perspectives on funding agencies' growing support of interdisciplinary research. The 61 respondents expressed a wide variety of perspectives on the value of interdisciplinary health research, ranging from full agreement (22) to complete disagreement (11) that it adds value; many presented qualified viewpoints (28). More than one-quarter viewed funding agencies' growing support of interdisciplinary research as appropriate. Most (44) felt that the level of support was unwarranted. Arguments included the belief that current support leads to the creation of artificial teams and that a top-down process of imposing interdisciplinary structures on teams constrains scientists' freedom. On both issues we found contrasting trends between the clinician and the biomedical scientists. Despite having some positive views about the value of interdisciplinary research, scientists, especially biomedical scientists, expressed reservations about the growing support of interdisciplinary research.

[Hospital biomedical research through the satisfaction of a Health Research Institute professionals].

PubMed

Olmedo, C; Plá, R; Bellón, J M; Bardinet, T; Buño, I; Bañares, R

2015-01-01

A Health Research Institute is a powerful strategic commitment to promote biomedical research in hospitals. To assess user satisfaction is an essential quality requirement. The aim of this study is to evaluate the professional satisfaction in a Health Research Institute, a hospital biomedical research centre par excellence. Observational study was conducted using a satisfaction questionnaire on Health Research Institute researchers. The explored dimensions were derived from the services offered by the Institute to researchers, and are structured around 4 axes of a five-year Strategic Plan. A descriptive and analytical study was performed depending on adjustment variables. Internal consistency was also calculated. The questionnaire was completed by 108 researchers (15% response). The most valued strategic aspect was the structuring Areas and Research Groups and political communication and dissemination. The overall rating was 7.25 out of 10. Suggestions for improvement refer to the need for help in recruitment, and research infrastructures. High internal consistency was found in the questionnaire (Cronbach alpha of 0.9). So far research policies in health and biomedical environment have not been sufficiently evaluated by professionals in our field. Systematic evaluations of satisfaction and expectations of key stakeholders is an essential tool for analysis, participation in continuous improvement and advancing excellence in health research. Copyright © 2015 SECA. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

Livestock in biomedical research: history, current status and future prospective.

PubMed

Polejaeva, Irina A; Rutigliano, Heloisa M; Wells, Kevin D

2016-01-01

Livestock models have contributed significantly to biomedical and surgical advances. Their contribution is particularly prominent in the areas of physiology and assisted reproductive technologies, including understanding developmental processes and disorders, from ancient to modern times. Over the past 25 years, biomedical research that traditionally embraced a diverse species approach shifted to a small number of model species (e.g. mice and rats). The initial reasons for focusing the main efforts on the mouse were the availability of murine embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and genome sequence data. This powerful combination allowed for precise manipulation of the mouse genome (knockouts, knockins, transcriptional switches etc.) leading to ground-breaking discoveries on gene functions and regulation, and their role in health and disease. Despite the enormous contribution to biomedical research, mouse models have some major limitations. Their substantial differences compared with humans in body and organ size, lifespan and inbreeding result in pronounced metabolic, physiological and behavioural differences. Comparative studies of strategically chosen domestic species can complement mouse research and yield more rigorous findings. Because genome sequence and gene manipulation tools are now available for farm animals (cattle, pigs, sheep and goats), a larger number of livestock genetically engineered (GE) models will be accessible for biomedical research. This paper discusses the use of cattle, goats, sheep and pigs in biomedical research, provides an overview of transgenic technology in farm animals and highlights some of the beneficial characteristics of large animal models of human disease compared with the mouse. In addition, status and origin of current regulation of GE biomedical models is also reviewed.

Organization of Biomedical Data for Collaborative Scientific Research: A Research Information Management System

PubMed Central

Myneni, Sahiti; Patel, Vimla L.

2010-01-01

Biomedical researchers often work with massive, detailed and heterogeneous datasets. These datasets raise new challenges of information organization and management for scientific interpretation, as they demand much of the researchers’ time and attention. The current study investigated the nature of the problems that researchers face when dealing with such data. Four major problems identified with existing biomedical scientific information management methods were related to data organization, data sharing, collaboration, and publications. Therefore, there is a compelling need to develop an efficient and user-friendly information management system to handle the biomedical research data. This study evaluated the implementation of an information management system, which was introduced as part of the collaborative research to increase scientific productivity in a research laboratory. Laboratory members seemed to exhibit frustration during the implementation process. However, empirical findings revealed that they gained new knowledge and completed specified tasks while working together with the new system. Hence, researchers are urged to persist and persevere when dealing with any new technology, including an information management system in a research laboratory environment. PMID:20543892

The Impact of Regulating Social Science Research with Biomedical Regulations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Durosinmi, Brenda Braxton

2011-01-01

The Impact of Regulating Social Science Research with Biomedical Regulations Since 1974 Federal regulations have governed the use of human subjects in biomedical and social science research. The regulations are known as the Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects, and often referred to as the "Common Rule" because 18 Federal…

Biomedical text mining for research rigor and integrity: tasks, challenges, directions.

PubMed

Kilicoglu, Halil

2017-06-13

An estimated quarter of a trillion US dollars is invested in the biomedical research enterprise annually. There is growing alarm that a significant portion of this investment is wasted because of problems in reproducibility of research findings and in the rigor and integrity of research conduct and reporting. Recent years have seen a flurry of activities focusing on standardization and guideline development to enhance the reproducibility and rigor of biomedical research. Research activity is primarily communicated via textual artifacts, ranging from grant applications to journal publications. These artifacts can be both the source and the manifestation of practices leading to research waste. For example, an article may describe a poorly designed experiment, or the authors may reach conclusions not supported by the evidence presented. In this article, we pose the question of whether biomedical text mining techniques can assist the stakeholders in the biomedical research enterprise in doing their part toward enhancing research integrity and rigor. In particular, we identify four key areas in which text mining techniques can make a significant contribution: plagiarism/fraud detection, ensuring adherence to reporting guidelines, managing information overload and accurate citation/enhanced bibliometrics. We review the existing methods and tools for specific tasks, if they exist, or discuss relevant research that can provide guidance for future work. With the exponential increase in biomedical research output and the ability of text mining approaches to perform automatic tasks at large scale, we propose that such approaches can support tools that promote responsible research practices, providing significant benefits for the biomedical research enterprise. Published by Oxford University Press 2017. This work is written by a US Government employee and is in the public domain in the US.

Mixed Methods in Biomedical and Health Services Research

PubMed Central

Curry, Leslie A.; Krumholz, Harlan M.; O’Cathain, Alicia; Plano Clark, Vicki L.; Cherlin, Emily; Bradley, Elizabeth H.

2013-01-01

Mixed methods studies, in which qualitative and quantitative methods are combined in a single program of inquiry, can be valuable in biomedical and health services research, where the complementary strengths of each approach can yield greater insight into complex phenomena than either approach alone. Although interest in mixed methods is growing among science funders and investigators, written guidance on how to conduct and assess rigorous mixed methods studies is not readily accessible to the general readership of peer-reviewed biomedical and health services journals. Furthermore, existing guidelines for publishing mixed methods studies are not well known or applied by researchers and journal editors. Accordingly, this paper is intended to serve as a concise, practical resource for readers interested in core principles and practices of mixed methods research. We briefly describe mixed methods approaches and present illustrations from published biomedical and health services literature, including in cardiovascular care, summarize standards for the design and reporting of these studies, and highlight four central considerations for investigators interested in using these methods. PMID:23322807

Biomedical Publishing and the Internet

PubMed Central

Jacobson, Michael W.

2000-01-01

The Internet is challenging traditional publishing patterns. In the biomedical domain, medical journals are providing more and more content online, both free and for a fee. Beyond this, however, a number of commentators believe that traditional notions of copyright and intellectual property ownership are no longer suited to the information age and that ownership of copyright to research reports should be and will be wrested from publishers and returned to authors. In this paper, it is argued that, although the Internet will indeed profoundly affect the distribution of biomedical research results, the biomedical publishing industry is too intertwined with the research establishment and too powerful to fall prey to such a copyright revolution. PMID:10833159

DNA nanotechnology and its applications in biomedical research.

PubMed

Sun, Lifan; Yu, Lu; Shen, Wanqiu

2014-09-01

DNA nanotechnology, which uses DNA as a material to self-assemble designed nanostructures, including DNA 2D arrays, 3D nanostructures, DNA nanotubes and DNA nanomechanical devices, has showed great promise in biomedical applications. Various DNA nanostructures have been used for protein characterization, enzyme assembly, biosensing, drug delivery and biomimetic assemblies. In this review, we will present recent advances of DNA nanotechnology and its applications in biomedical research field.

The Central Importance of Laboratories for Reducing Waste in Biomedical Research.

PubMed

Stroth, Nikolas

2016-12-01

The global biomedical research enterprise is driving substantial advances in medicine and healthcare. Yet it appears that the enterprise is rather wasteful, falling short of its true innovative potential. Suggested reasons are manifold and involve various stakeholders, such that there is no single remedy. In the present paper, I will argue that laboratories are the basic working units of the biomedical research enterprise and an important site of action for corrective intervention. Keeping laboratories relatively small will enable better training and mentoring of individual scientists, which in turn will yield better performance of the scientific workforce. The key premise of this argument is that people are at the heart of the successes and failures of biomedical research, yet the human dimension of science has been unduly neglected in practice. Renewed focus on the importance of laboratories and their constituent scientists is one promising approach to reducing waste and increasing efficiency within the biomedical research enterprise.

Health- and Disease-Related Biomarkers in Aging Research

PubMed Central

Thompson, Hilaire J.; Voss, Joachim G.

2011-01-01

This article focuses on a synthesis of knowledge about healthy aging research in human beings and then synthesized nurse-led research in gerontology and geriatrics that use biomarkers. Healthy aging research has attracted considerable attention in the biomedical and basic sciences within the context of four major areas: (a) genetic variations as an expression of successful or unsuccessful aging; (b) caloric restriction as an intervention to slow the progression of aging; (c) immunological aging; (d) neurobiology of the aging brain. A systematic review of the literature was performed to identify nurse-led geriatric-related biomarker research. Nurse researchers who have chosen to integrate biomarkers as part of their research studies have been working in six focal areas, which are reviewed: health promotion within risk populations, cancer, vascular disease, Alzheimer’s disease, caregiving, and complementary therapies. The article provides a discussion of contributions to date, identifying existing gaps and future research opportunities. PMID:20077975

Are we studying what matters? Health priorities and NIH-funded biomedical engineering research.

PubMed

Rubin, Jessica B; Paltiel, A David; Saltzman, W Mark

2010-07-01

With the founding of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) in 1999, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) made explicit its dedication to expanding research in biomedical engineering. Ten years later, we sought to examine how closely federal funding for biomedical engineering aligns with U.S. health priorities. Using a publicly accessible database of research projects funded by the NIH in 2008, we identified 641 grants focused on biomedical engineering, 48% of which targeted specific diseases. Overall, we found that these disease-specific NIH-funded biomedical engineering research projects align with national health priorities, as quantified by three commonly utilized measures of disease burden: cause of death, disability-adjusted survival losses, and expenditures. However, we also found some illnesses (e.g., cancer and heart disease) for which the number of research projects funded deviated from our expectations, given their disease burden. Our findings suggest several possibilities for future studies that would serve to further inform the allocation of limited research dollars within the field of biomedical engineering.

Implementation of Assessment of Polar Biomedical Research

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-08-01

biomedicine in educational programs and professional society activities and publications is urgently needed. RECENT STATEMENTS ON POLAR BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH...study methods for training administrators, community health aides, paraprofessionals, and professionals ; 3. to conduct research to increase the...to be studied as well as the professionals and agencies involved in providing health care; and • ensure that results of all research are reported

Biomedical text mining and its applications in cancer research.

PubMed

Zhu, Fei; Patumcharoenpol, Preecha; Zhang, Cheng; Yang, Yang; Chan, Jonathan; Meechai, Asawin; Vongsangnak, Wanwipa; Shen, Bairong

2013-04-01

Cancer is a malignant disease that has caused millions of human deaths. Its study has a long history of well over 100years. There have been an enormous number of publications on cancer research. This integrated but unstructured biomedical text is of great value for cancer diagnostics, treatment, and prevention. The immense body and rapid growth of biomedical text on cancer has led to the appearance of a large number of text mining techniques aimed at extracting novel knowledge from scientific text. Biomedical text mining on cancer research is computationally automatic and high-throughput in nature. However, it is error-prone due to the complexity of natural language processing. In this review, we introduce the basic concepts underlying text mining and examine some frequently used algorithms, tools, and data sets, as well as assessing how much these algorithms have been utilized. We then discuss the current state-of-the-art text mining applications in cancer research and we also provide some resources for cancer text mining. With the development of systems biology, researchers tend to understand complex biomedical systems from a systems biology viewpoint. Thus, the full utilization of text mining to facilitate cancer systems biology research is fast becoming a major concern. To address this issue, we describe the general workflow of text mining in cancer systems biology and each phase of the workflow. We hope that this review can (i) provide a useful overview of the current work of this field; (ii) help researchers to choose text mining tools and datasets; and (iii) highlight how to apply text mining to assist cancer systems biology research. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

e-Science platform for translational biomedical imaging research: running, statistics, and analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Tusheng; Yang, Yuanyuan; Zhang, Kai; Wang, Mingqing; Zhao, Jun; Xu, Lisa; Zhang, Jianguo

2015-03-01

In order to enable multiple disciplines of medical researchers, clinical physicians and biomedical engineers working together in a secured, efficient, and transparent cooperative environment, we had designed an e-Science platform for biomedical imaging research and application cross multiple academic institutions and hospitals in Shanghai and presented this work in SPIE Medical Imaging conference held in San Diego in 2012. In past the two-years, we implemented a biomedical image chain including communication, storage, cooperation and computing based on this e-Science platform. In this presentation, we presented the operating status of this system in supporting biomedical imaging research, analyzed and discussed results of this system in supporting multi-disciplines collaboration cross-multiple institutions.

National Space Biomedical Research Institute

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1999-01-01

This report summarizes the activities of the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) during FY 1999, the second full year of existence of the NSBRI's research program, and is prepared in accordance with Cooperative Agreement NCC9-58 between NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center and Baylor College of Medicine (NSBRI). The report consists of progress reports on projects related to the effects of microgravity and space on physiology. The research is broken up in nine areas: (1) Bone loss, (2) Cardiovascular alterations, (3) human performance, (3) immunology, infection and hematology, (4) muscle alterations and atrophy,(5) Neurovestibular adaptation, radiation effects, (6) technology development, and (7) synergy projects.

Challenges in regulation of biomedical research: The case of Kenya.

PubMed

Wekesa, M

2015-12-01

Unregulated biomedical research has previously caused untold suffering to humankind. History is full of examples of abuse of animal and human subjects for research. Several codes and instruments have been formulated to regulate biomedical research. In Kenya, the Science, Technology and Innovation Act, 2014, together with the Constitution of Kenya, 2010, provide a fairly robust legal framework. Possible challenges include capacity building, overlap of functions of institutions, monitoring and evaluation, scientific/technological advances, intellectual property rights, funding for research, and dispute resolution. It is hoped that the new legislation will adequately address these challenges.

Building a biomedical cyberinfrastructure for collaborative research.

PubMed

Schad, Peter A; Mobley, Lee Rivers; Hamilton, Carol M

2011-05-01

For the potential power of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and translational medicine to be realized, the biomedical research community must adopt standard measures, vocabularies, and systems to establish an extensible biomedical cyberinfrastructure. Incorporating standard measures will greatly facilitate combining and comparing studies via meta-analysis. Incorporating consensus-based and well-established measures into various studies should reduce the variability across studies due to attributes of measurement, making findings across studies more comparable. This article describes two well-established consensus-based approaches to identifying standard measures and systems: PhenX (consensus measures for phenotypes and eXposures), and the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). NIH support for these efforts has produced the PhenX Toolkit, an assembled catalog of standard measures for use in GWAS and other large-scale genomic research efforts, and the RTI Spatial Impact Factor Database (SIFD), a comprehensive repository of geo-referenced variables and extensive meta-data that conforms to OGC standards. The need for coordinated development of cyberinfrastructure to support measures and systems that enhance collaboration and data interoperability is clear; this paper includes a discussion of standard protocols for ensuring data compatibility and interoperability. Adopting a cyberinfrastructure that includes standard measures and vocabularies, and open-source systems architecture, such as the two well-established systems discussed here, will enhance the potential of future biomedical and translational research. Establishing and maintaining the cyberinfrastructure will require a fundamental change in the way researchers think about study design, collaboration, and data storage and analysis. Copyright © 2011 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Building a Biomedical Cyberinfrastructure for Collaborative Research

PubMed Central

Schad, Peter A.; Mobley, Lee Rivers; Hamilton, Carol M.

2018-01-01

For the potential power of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and translational medicine to be realized, the biomedical research community must adopt standard measures, vocabularies, and systems to establish an extensible biomedical cyberinfrastructure. Incorporating standard measures will greatly facilitate combining and comparing studies via meta-analysis, which is a means for deriving larger populations, needed for increased statistical power to detect less apparent and more complex associations (gene-environment interactions and polygenic gene-gene interactions). Incorporating consensus-based and well-established measures into various studies should reduce the variability across studies due to attributes of measurement, making findings across studies more comparable. This article describes two consensus-based approaches to establishing standard measures and systems: PhenX (consensus measures for Phenotypes and eXposures), and the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). National Institutes of Health support for these efforts has produced the PhenX Toolkit, an assembled catalog of standard measures for use in GWAS and other large-scale genomic research efforts, and the RTI Spatial Impact Factor Database (SIFD), a comprehensive repository of georeferenced variables and extensive metadata that conforms to OGC standards. The need for coordinated development of cyberinfrastructure to support collaboration and data interoperability is clear, and we discuss standard protocols for ensuring data compatibility and interoperability. Adopting a cyberinfrastructure that includes standard measures, vocabularies, and open-source systems architecture will enhance the potential of future biomedical and translational research. Establishing and maintaining the cyberinfrastructure will require a fundamental change in the way researchers think about study design, collaboration, and data storage and analysis. PMID:21521587

Social Media and Mentoring in Biomedical Research Faculty Development.

PubMed

Teruya, Stacey Alan; Bazargan-Hejazi, Shahrzad

2014-09-01

To determine how effective and collegial mentoring in biomedical research faculty development may be implemented and facilitated through social media. The authors reviewed the literature for objectives, concerns, and limitations of career development for junior research faculty. They tabularized these as developmental goals, and aligned them with relevant social media strengths and capabilities facilitated through traditional and/or peer mentoring. The authors derived a model in which social media is leveraged to achieve developmental goals reflected in independent and shared projects, and in the creation and expansion of support and research networks. Social media may be successfully leveraged and applied in achieving developmental goals for biomedical research faculty, and potentially for those in other fields and disciplines.

Facilities available for biomedical science research in the public universities in Lagos, Nigeria.

PubMed

John, T A

2010-03-01

Across the world, basic medical scientists and physician scientists work on common platforms in state-of-the-arts laboratories doing translational research that occasionally results in bedside application. Biotechnology industries capitalise on useful findings for colossal profit.1 In Nigeria and the rest of Africa, biomedical science has not thrived and the contribution of publications to global high impact journals is low.2 This work investigated facilities available for modern biomedical research in Lagos public universities to extract culprit factors. The two public universities in Lagos, Nigeria were investigated by a cross sectional questionnaire survey of the technical staff manning biomedical science departments. They were asked about availability of 47 modern biomedical science research laboratory components such as cold room and microscopes and six research administration components such as director of research and grants administration. For convenient basic laboratory components such as autoclaves and balances, 50% responses indicated "well maintained and always functional" whereas for less convenient complex, high maintenance, state-of-the-arts equipment 19% responses indicated "well maintained and always functional." Respondents indicated that components of modern biomedical science research administration were 44% of expectation. The survey reveal a deficit in state-of the-arts research equipment and also a deficit in high maintenance, expensive equipment indicating that biomedical science in the investigated environment lacks the momentum of global trends and also lacks buoyant funding. In addition, administration supporting biomedical science is below expectation and may also account for the low contributions of research articles to global high impact journals.

Two-Photon Fluorescence Microscopy for Biomedical Research

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fischer, David; Zimmerli, Greg; Asipauskas, Marius

2007-01-01

This viewgraph presentation gives an overview of two-photon microscopy as it applies to biomedical research. The topics include: 1) Overview; 2) Background; 3) Principles of Operation; 4) Advantages Over Confocal; 5) Modes of Operation; and 6) Applications.

Towards a 21st century roadmap for biomedical research and ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Decades of costly failures in translating drug candidates from preclinical disease models to human therapeutic use warrant reconsideration of the priority placed on animal models in biomedical research. Following an international workshop attended by experts from academia, government institutions, research funding bodies and the corporate and NGO sectors, this consensus report analyses, as case studies, five disease areas with major unmet needs for new treatments. In view of the scientifically driven transition towards a human pathways-based paradigm in toxicology, a similar paradigm shift appears to be justified in biomedical research. There is a pressing need for an approach that strategically implements advanced, human biology-based models and tools to understand disease pathways at multiple biological scales. We present recommendations to help achieve this. To discover and develop new therapies, we need 21-century roadmaps for biomedical research based on multiscale human disease pathways, and supported by policy and funding strategies that prioritise human relevance.

Structural DNA Nanotechnology: Artificial Nanostructures for Biomedical Research.

PubMed

Ke, Yonggang; Castro, Carlos; Choi, Jong Hyun

2018-06-04

Structural DNA nanotechnology utilizes synthetic or biologic DNA as designer molecules for the self-assembly of artificial nanostructures. The field is founded upon the specific interactions between DNA molecules, known as Watson-Crick base pairing. After decades of active pursuit, DNA has demonstrated unprecedented versatility in constructing artificial nanostructures with significant complexity and programmability. The nanostructures could be either static, with well-controlled physicochemical properties, or dynamic, with the ability to reconfigure upon external stimuli. Researchers have devoted considerable effort to exploring the usability of DNA nanostructures in biomedical research. We review the basic design methods for fabricating both static and dynamic DNA nanostructures, along with their biomedical applications in fields such as biosensing, bioimaging, and drug delivery.

Technical editing of research reports in biomedical journals.

PubMed

Wager, Elizabeth; Middleton, Philippa

2008-10-08

Most journals try to improve their articles by technical editing processes such as proof-reading, editing to conform to 'house styles', grammatical conventions and checking accuracy of cited references. Despite the considerable resources devoted to technical editing, we do not know whether it improves the accessibility of biomedical research findings or the utility of articles. This is an update of a Cochrane methodology review first published in 2003. To assess the effects of technical editing on research reports in peer-reviewed biomedical journals, and to assess the level of accuracy of references to these reports. We searched The Cochrane Library Issue 2, 2007; MEDLINE (last searched July 2006); EMBASE (last searched June 2007) and checked relevant articles for further references. We also searched the Internet and contacted researchers and experts in the field. Prospective or retrospective comparative studies of technical editing processes applied to original research articles in biomedical journals, as well as studies of reference accuracy. Two review authors independently assessed each study against the selection criteria and assessed the methodological quality of each study. One review author extracted the data, and the second review author repeated this. We located 32 studies addressing technical editing and 66 surveys of reference accuracy. Only three of the studies were randomised controlled trials. A 'package' of largely unspecified editorial processes applied between acceptance and publication was associated with improved readability in two studies and improved reporting quality in another two studies, while another study showed mixed results after stricter editorial policies were introduced. More intensive editorial processes were associated with fewer errors in abstracts and references. Providing instructions to authors was associated with improved reporting of ethics requirements in one study and fewer errors in references in two studies, but no

A community of practice: librarians in a biomedical research network.

PubMed

De Jager-Loftus, Danielle P; Midyette, J David; Harvey, Barbara

2014-01-01

Providing library and reference services within a biomedical research community presents special challenges for librarians, especially those in historically lower-funded states. These challenges can include understanding needs, defining and communicating the library's role, building relationships, and developing and maintaining general and subject specific knowledge. This article describes a biomedical research network and the work of health sciences librarians at the lead intensive research institution with librarians from primarily undergraduate institutions and tribal colleges. Applying the concept of a community of practice to a collaborative effort suggests how librarians can work together to provide effective reference services to researchers in biomedicine.

Figure mining for biomedical research.

PubMed

Rodriguez-Esteban, Raul; Iossifov, Ivan

2009-08-15

Figures from biomedical articles contain valuable information difficult to reach without specialized tools. Currently, there is no search engine that can retrieve specific figure types. This study describes a retrieval method that takes advantage of principles in image understanding, text mining and optical character recognition (OCR) to retrieve figure types defined conceptually. A search engine was developed to retrieve tables and figure types to aid computational and experimental research. http://iossifovlab.cshl.edu/figurome/.

[Cluster analysis in biomedical researches].

PubMed

Akopov, A S; Moskovtsev, A A; Dolenko, S A; Savina, G D

2013-01-01

Cluster analysis is one of the most popular methods for the analysis of multi-parameter data. The cluster analysis reveals the internal structure of the data, group the separate observations on the degree of their similarity. The review provides a definition of the basic concepts of cluster analysis, and discusses the most popular clustering algorithms: k-means, hierarchical algorithms, Kohonen networks algorithms. Examples are the use of these algorithms in biomedical research.

Incorporating collaboratory concepts into informatics in support of translational interdisciplinary biomedical research

PubMed Central

Lee, E. Sally; McDonald, David W.; Anderson, Nicholas; Tarczy-Hornoch, Peter

2008-01-01

Due to its complex nature, modern biomedical research has become increasingly interdisciplinary and collaborative in nature. Although a necessity, interdisciplinary biomedical collaboration is difficult. There is, however, a growing body of literature on the study and fostering of collaboration in fields such as computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) and information science (IS). These studies of collaboration provide insight into how to potentially alleviate the difficulties of interdisciplinary collaborative research. We, therefore, undertook a cross cutting study of science and engineering collaboratories to identify emergent themes. We review many relevant collaboratory concepts: (a) general collaboratory concepts across many domains: communication, common workspace and coordination, and data sharing and management, (b) specific collaboratory concepts of particular biomedical relevance: data integration and analysis, security structure, metadata and data provenance, and interoperability and data standards, (c) environmental factors that support collaboratories: administrative and management structure, technical support, and available funding as critical environmental factors, and (d) future considerations for biomedical collaboration: appropriate training and long-term planning. In our opinion, the collaboratory concepts we discuss can guide planning and design of future collaborative infrastructure by biomedical informatics researchers to alleviate some of the difficulties of interdisciplinary biomedical collaboration. PMID:18706852

Social Media and Mentoring in Biomedical Research Faculty Development

PubMed Central

Teruya, Stacey Alan; Bazargan-Hejazi, Shahrzad

2015-01-01

Purpose To determine how effective and collegial mentoring in biomedical research faculty development may be implemented and facilitated through social media. Method The authors reviewed the literature for objectives, concerns, and limitations of career development for junior research faculty. They tabularized these as developmental goals, and aligned them with relevant social media strengths and capabilities facilitated through traditional and/or peer mentoring. Results The authors derived a model in which social media is leveraged to achieve developmental goals reflected in independent and shared projects, and in the creation and expansion of support and research networks. Conclusions Social media may be successfully leveraged and applied in achieving developmental goals for biomedical research faculty, and potentially for those in other fields and disciplines. PMID:26120494

Shaping science policy: what's happening to biomedical research in America.

PubMed

Culliton, B J

1991-04-01

There is, scientists proclaim, a crisis in biomedical research. The crisis lies in the fact that the community's expectations now exceed any reasonable capacity to fund its projects. Between the late 1960s and now, the community has felt threatened many times: by the government leaders' and the public's perceptions of what basic science can produce; by such government initiatives as the "war on cancer," which steered funding to politically chosen areas of research; by changes in funding postgraduate research training; and by successive "crises" over the way NIH research funds are apportioned. None of these crises has resulted in the predicted dire consequences for the community, and the current one will not either. The challenge for the biomedical research community is to set priorities and allocate money accordingly. Despite the nation's economic and social problems, funding for biomedical research remains very high--$8 billion for the NIH, for example--and the community cannot expect that doubling or even tripling the budget would fund all the good ideas produced by a greatly expanded body of researchers. New policies for allocating funds among individual investigators, institutions, and infrastructure need to be put in place.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH ETHICS IN IRAN: CONFLICT OF PARADIGMS

PubMed Central

ARAMESH, KIARASH

2014-01-01

During the past two decades, Iran has experienced a noteworthy growth in its biomedical research sector. At the same time, ethical concerns and debates resulting from this burgeoning enterprise has led to increasing attention paid to biomedical ethics. In Iran, Biomedical research ethics and research oversight passed through major periods during the past decades, separated by a paradigm shift. Period 1, starting from the early 1970s, is characterized by research paternalism and complete reliance on researchers as virtuous and caring physicians. This approach was in concordance with the paternalistic clinical practice of physicians outside of research settings during the same period. Period 2, starting from the late 1990s, was partly due to revealing of ethical flaws that occurred in biomedical research in Iran. The regulatory and funding bodies concluded that it was not sufficient to rely solely on the personal and professional virtues of researchers to safeguard human subjects’ rights and welfare. The necessity for independent oversight, emphasized by international declarations, became obvious and undeniable. This paradigm shift led to the establishment of research ethics committees throughout the country, the establishment of academic research centers focusing on medical ethics (MEHR) and the compilation of the first set of national ethical guidelines on biomedical research–one of the first and most important projects conducted by and in the MEHR. Although not yet arrived, ‘period 3’ is on its way. It is predictable from the obvious trends toward performance of high-quality clinical research and the appearance of a highly educated new generation, especially among women. PMID:24720443

Current Progress of Genetically Engineered Pig Models for Biomedical Research

PubMed Central

Gün, Gökhan

2014-01-01

Abstract The first transgenic pigs were generated for agricultural purposes about three decades ago. Since then, the micromanipulation techniques of pig oocytes and embryos expanded from pronuclear injection of foreign DNA to somatic cell nuclear transfer, intracytoplasmic sperm injection-mediated gene transfer, lentiviral transduction, and cytoplasmic injection. Mechanistically, the passive transgenesis approach based on random integration of foreign DNA was developed to active genetic engineering techniques based on the transient activity of ectopic enzymes, such as transposases, recombinases, and programmable nucleases. Whole-genome sequencing and annotation of advanced genome maps of the pig complemented these developments. The full implementation of these tools promises to immensely increase the efficiency and, in parallel, to reduce the costs for the generation of genetically engineered pigs. Today, the major application of genetically engineered pigs is found in the field of biomedical disease modeling. It is anticipated that genetically engineered pigs will increasingly be used in biomedical research, since this model shows several similarities to humans with regard to physiology, metabolism, genome organization, pathology, and aging. PMID:25469311

Blood donors' preferences for blood donation for biomedical research.

PubMed

Raivola, Vera; Snell, Karoliina; Pastila, Satu; Helén, Ilpo; Partanen, Jukka

2018-03-23

Increasing numbers of blood donors are recruited to participate in biomedical research. As blood services depend on voluntary donors, successful recruitment calls for a better understanding of donors' expectations and attitudes toward the use of samples in research. Sixty-one semistructured interviews were conducted with blood donors at eight Finnish Red Cross Blood Service donation sites in Finland. The 10- to 30-minute interviews included open-ended questions about donors' views on blood donation for patients and for biomedical research. Central motives to donate blood for patients were identified against which views on research use were compared to see how these reflections differed. Six central motives for donating blood for patients were identified among donors. The interviewees were, in general, willing to donate blood for research, but considered research donation more likely if it could be easily integrated into their usual blood donation habits. Biomedical research was perceived as important but its social benefits were more abstract than a direct help to patients. Familiarity and reciprocity were key to the relationship between the blood service and blood donors. Donation for research introduces a new, more complex context to blood donation. Challenge to recognize concrete outcomes and benefits of donation may affect willingness to donate for research. Transparent communication of the role of the blood service in research and of the beneficiaries of the research is essential in maintaining trust. These results will help blood services in their planning to recruit blood donors for research projects. © 2018 The Authors Transfusion published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of AABB.

[Open access :an opportunity for biomedical research].

PubMed

Duchange, Nathalie; Autard, Delphine; Pinhas, Nicole

2008-01-01

Open access within the scientific community depends on the scientific context and the practices of the field. In the biomedical domain, the communication of research results is characterised by the importance of the peer reviewing process, the existence of a hierarchy among journals and the transfer of copyright to the editor. Biomedical publishing has become a lucrative market and the growth of electronic journals has not helped lower the costs. Indeed, it is difficult for today's public institutions to gain access to all the scientific literature. Open access is thus imperative, as demonstrated through the positions taken by a growing number of research funding bodies, the development of open access journals and efforts made in promoting open archives. This article describes the setting up of an Inserm portal for publication in the context of the French national protocol for open-access self-archiving and in an international context.

Leveraging the national cyberinfrastructure for biomedical research.

PubMed

LeDuc, Richard; Vaughn, Matthew; Fonner, John M; Sullivan, Michael; Williams, James G; Blood, Philip D; Taylor, James; Barnett, William

2014-01-01

In the USA, the national cyberinfrastructure refers to a system of research supercomputer and other IT facilities and the high speed networks that connect them. These resources have been heavily leveraged by scientists in disciplines such as high energy physics, astronomy, and climatology, but until recently they have been little used by biomedical researchers. We suggest that many of the 'Big Data' challenges facing the medical informatics community can be efficiently handled using national-scale cyberinfrastructure. Resources such as the Extreme Science and Discovery Environment, the Open Science Grid, and Internet2 provide economical and proven infrastructures for Big Data challenges, but these resources can be difficult to approach. Specialized web portals, support centers, and virtual organizations can be constructed on these resources to meet defined computational challenges, specifically for genomics. We provide examples of how this has been done in basic biology as an illustration for the biomedical informatics community.

The Tuskegee Legacy Project: willingness of minorities to participate in biomedical research.

PubMed

Katz, Ralph V; Kegeles, S Steven; Kressin, Nancy R; Green, B Lee; Wang, Min Qi; James, Sherman A; Russell, Stefanie Luise; Claudio, Cristina

2006-11-01

The broad goal of the Tuskegee Legacy Project (TLP) study was to address, and understand, a range of issues related to the recruitment and retention of Blacks and other minorities in biomedical research studies. The specific aim of this analysis was to compare the self-reported willingness of Blacks, Hispanics, and Whites to participate as research subjects in biomedical studies, as measured by the Likelihood of Participation (LOP) Scale and the Guinea Pig Fear Factor (GPFF) Scale. The Tuskegee Legacy Project Questionnaire, a 60 item instrument, was administered to 1,133 adult Blacks, Hispanics, and non-Hispanic Whites in 4 U.S. cities. The findings revealed no difference in self-reported willingness to participate in biomedical research, as measured by the LOP Scale, between Blacks, Hispanics, and Whites, despite Blacks being 1.8 times as likely as Whites to have a higher fear of participation in biomedical research on the GPFF Scale.

The Tuskegee Legacy Project: Willingness of Minorities to Participate in Biomedical Research

PubMed Central

Katz, Ralph V.; Russell, Stefanie L.; Kegeles, S. Steven; Kressin, Nancy R.; Green, B. Lee; Wang, Min Qi; James, Sherman A.; Claudio, Cristina

2006-01-01

The broad goal of the Tuskegee Legacy Project (TLP) study was to address, and understand, a range of issues related to the recruitment and retention of Blacks and other minorities in biomedical research studies. The specific aim of this analysis was to compare the self-reported willingness of Blacks, Hispanics, and Whites to participate as research subjects in biomedical studies, as measured by the Likelihood of Participation (LOP) Scale and the Guinea Pig Fear Factor (GPFF) Scale. The Tuskegee Legacy Project Questionnaire, a 60 item instrument, was administered to 1,133 adult Blacks, Hispanics, and non-Hispanic Whites in 4 U.S. cities. The findings revealed no difference in self-reported willingness to participate in biomedical research, as measured by the LOP Scale, between Blacks, Hispanics, and Whites, despite Blacks being 1.8 times as likely as Whites to have a higher fear of participation in biomedical research on the GPFF Scale. PMID:17242525

A Brief History of Biomedical Research Ethics in Iran: Conflict of Paradigms.

PubMed

Aramesh, Kiarash

2015-08-01

During the past two decades, Iran has experienced a noteworthy growth in its biomedical research sector. At the same time, ethical concerns and debates resulting from this burgeoning enterprise has led to increasing attention paid to biomedical ethics. In Iran, Biomedical research ethics and research oversight passed through major periods during the past decades, separated by a paradigm shift. Period 1, starting from the early 1970s, is characterized by research paternalism and complete reliance on researchers as virtuous and caring physicians. This approach was in concordance with the paternalistic clinical practice of physicians outside of research settings during the same period. Period 2, starting from the late 1990s, was partly due to revealing of ethical flaws that occurred in biomedical research in Iran. The regulatory and funding bodies concluded that it was not sufficient to rely solely on the personal and professional virtues of researchers to safeguard human subjects' rights and welfare. The necessity for independent oversight, emphasized by international declarations, became obvious and undeniable. This paradigm shift led to the establishment of research ethics committees throughout the country, the establishment of academic research centers focusing on medical ethics (MEHR) and the compilation of the first set of national ethical guidelines on biomedical research-one of the first and most important projects conducted by and in the MEHR. Although not yet arrived, 'period 3' is on its way. It is predictable from the obvious trends toward performance of high-quality clinical research and the appearance of a highly educated new generation, especially among women. Published 2014. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.

Building dialogues between clinical and biomedical research through cross-species collaborations.

PubMed

Chao, Hsiao-Tuan; Liu, Lucy; Bellen, Hugo J

2017-10-01

Today, biomedical science is equipped with an impressive array of technologies and genetic resources that bolster our basic understanding of fundamental biology and enhance the practice of modern medicine by providing clinicians with a diverse toolkit to diagnose, prognosticate, and treat a plethora of conditions. Many significant advances in our understanding of disease mechanisms and therapeutic interventions have arisen from fruitful dialogues between clinicians and biomedical research scientists. However, the increasingly specialized scientific and medical disciplines, globalization of science and technology, and complex datasets often hinder the development of effective interdisciplinary collaborations between clinical medicine and biomedical research. The goal of this review is to provide examples of diverse strategies to enhance communication and collaboration across diverse disciplines. First, we discuss examples of efforts to foster interdisciplinary collaborations at institutional and multi-institutional levels. Second, we explore resources and tools for clinicians and research scientists to facilitate effective bi-directional dialogues. Third, we use our experiences in neurobiology and human genetics to highlight how communication between clinical medicine and biomedical research lead to effective implementation of cross-species model organism approaches to uncover the biological underpinnings of health and disease. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A survey of working conditions within biomedical research in the United Kingdom.

PubMed

Riddiford, Nick

2017-01-01

Background: Many recent articles have presented a bleak view of career prospects in biomedical research in the US. Too many PhDs and postdocs are trained for too few research positions, creating a "holding-tank" of experienced senior postdocs who are unable to get a permanent position. Coupled with relatively low salaries and high levels of pressure to publish in top-tier academic journals, this has created a toxic environment that is perhaps responsible for a recently observed decline in biomedical postdocs in the US, the so-called "postdocalypse". Methods: In order to address the gulf of information relating to working habits and attitudes of UK-based biomedical researchers, a link to an online survey was included in an article published in the Guardian newspaper. Survey data were collected between 21 st March 2016 and 6 th November 2016 and analysed to examine discrete profiles for three major career stages: the PhD, the postdoc and the principal investigator. Results: Overall, the data presented here echo trends observed in the US: The 520 UK-based biomedical researchers responding to the survey reported feeling disillusioned with academic research, due to the low chance of getting a permanent position and the long hours required at the bench. Also like the US, large numbers of researchers at each distinct career stage are considering leaving biomedical research altogether. Conclusions: There are several systemic flaws in the academic scientific research machine - for example the continual overproduction of PhDs and the lack of stability in the early-mid stages of a research career - that are slowly being addressed in countries such as the US and Germany. These data suggest that similar flaws also exist in the UK, with a large proportion of respondents concerned about their future in research. To avoid lasting damage to the biomedical research agenda in the UK, addressing such concerns should be a major priority.

An Evolving Research Culture: Analysis of Biomedical Publications from Libya, 2003-13

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ahmed, Mohamed O.; Daw, Mohamed A.; van Velkinburgh, Jennifer C.

2017-01-01

Understanding the publication output of a country's biomedical research can provide information for strengthening its policies, economy, and educational systems. Yet, this is the first bibliometric study to date to analyze and provide an in-depth discussion of the biomedical research productivity from Libyan academic institutions. The biomedical…

Can there be a moral obligation to participate in biomedical research?

PubMed

Seiler, Christian

2018-04-01

In clinical medicine, the moral obligation to care for the individual patient is absolute. Patient care means at least and by negative terms to minimize any risk of treatment. In this context, the question arises about the compatibility of clinical ethics and human biomedical research ethics. Or conversely, is there a common ground between the two? At the opposite end of the field between clinical ethics and biomedical research ethics is the proposal of an obligation to participate in biomedical research, which is argued for on the basis of biomedical knowledge being a public good available to the community as a whole. While patient accrual during a clinical investigation would certainly be facilitated by obligatory research participation, and the data obtained would be-at first sight-more representative for the population studied, the still feasible refusal to participate would be stigmatizing and as such detrimental for the patient-physician relation. This essay seeks to provide a reply to the titled question by focusing on aspects such as individual vs common medical claims, shared grounds between the two and an important document of medical research ethics, that is the Nuremberg code. © 2018 Stichting European Society for Clinical Investigation Journal Foundation.

Knowledge of the Nigerian Code of Health Research Ethics Among Biomedical Researchers in Southern Nigeria.

PubMed

Ogunrin, Olubunmi A; Daniel, Folasade; Ansa, Victor

2016-12-01

Responsibility for protection of research participants from harm and exploitation rests on Research Ethics Committees and principal investigators. The Nigerian National Code of Health Research Ethics defines responsibilities of stakeholders in research so its knowledge among researchers will likely aid ethical conduct of research. The levels of awareness and knowledge of the Code among biomedical researchers in southern Nigerian research institutions was assessed. Four institutions were selected using a stratified random sampling technique. Research participants were selected by purposive sampling and completed a pre-tested structured questionnaire. A total of 102 biomedical researchers completed the questionnaires. Thirty percent of the participants were aware of the National Code though 64% had attended at least one training seminar in research ethics. Twenty-five percent had a fairly acceptable knowledge (scores 50%-74%) and 10% had excellent knowledge of the code (score ≥75%). Ninety-five percent expressed intentions to learn more about the National Code and agreed that it is highly relevant to the ethical conduct of research. Awareness and knowledge of the Code were found to be very limited among biomedical researchers in southern Nigeria. There is need to improve awareness and knowledge through ethics seminars and training. Use of existing Nigeria-specific online training resources is also encouraged.

A negative trend of biomedical research in Libya: a bibliometric study.

PubMed

Benamer, Hani T S; Bredan, Amin; Bakoush, Omran

2009-09-01

It is well established that Libya is lagging behind its peers in biomedical research. The aim of this study is to analyse all the original biomedical publications affiliated with Libya from 1973 to 2007. PubMed and the Science Citation Index Expanded were searched for 'original research' biomedical studies affiliated with Libya. The generated data were hand searched and 329 'original research' studies were included in the analysis. The first study was published in 1973. Publication rate peaked to an average of 15.2 studies per year during 1986-1996 and dropped to an average of 8.8 studies per year during 1997-2007. Of 166 first authors; 41% were Libyans and 59% were expatriates. The latter contributed 104 studies between 1986 and 1996 and 36 studies between 1997 and 2007, while the Libyans contributed 63 and 61 studies in the two respective periods. Authors affiliated with Benghazi produced 67% of the published studies, while authors from Tripoli produced 30% and other medical schools, hospitals and research centres from other Libyan cities produced only 3%. This study showed a decline in biomedical research publication in Libya. We propose that the lack of a research culture among the Libyan medical professionals is one of the factors contributing to this decline, which coincided with the departure of expatriate doctors from Libya. Raising awareness of the importance of research and improving research skills among Libyan medical professionals may help to reverse the current trend.

Biomedical databases: protecting privacy and promoting research.

PubMed

Wylie, Jean E; Mineau, Geraldine P

2003-03-01

When combined with medical information, large electronic databases of information that identify individuals provide superlative resources for genetic, epidemiology and other biomedical research. Such research resources increasingly need to balance the protection of privacy and confidentiality with the promotion of research. Models that do not allow the use of such individual-identifying information constrain research; models that involve commercial interests raise concerns about what type of access is acceptable. Researchers, individuals representing the public interest and those developing regulatory guidelines must be involved in an ongoing dialogue to identify practical models.

Medical and biomedical research productivity from Palestine, 2002 - 2011.

PubMed

Sweileh, Waleed M; Zyoud, Sa'ed H; Sawalha, Ansam F; Abu-Taha, Adham; Hussein, Ayman; Al-Jabi, Samah W

2013-02-02

Medical research productivity reflects the level of medical education and practice in a particular country. The objective of this study was to examine the quantity and quality of medical and biomedical research published from Palestine. Comprehensive review of the literature indexed by Scopus was conducted. Data from Jan 01, 2002 till December 31, 2011 was searched for authors affiliated with Palestine or Palestinian authority. Results were refined to limit the search to medical and biomedical subjects. The quality of publication was assessed using Journal Citation Report. The total number of publications was 2207. A total of 770 publications were in the medical and biomedical subject areas. The annual rate of publication was 0.077 articles per gross domestic product/capita. The 770 publications have an h-index of 32. One hundred and thirty eight (18%) articles were published in 46 journals that were not indexed in the web of knowledge. Twenty two (22/770; 2.9%) articles were published in journals with an IF > 10. The quantity and quality of research originating from Palestinian institutions is promising given the scarce resources of Palestine. However, more effort is needed to bridge the gap in medical research productivity and to promote better health in Palestine.

'Add women & stir'--the biomedical approach to cardiac research!

PubMed

O'Donnell, Sharon; Condell, Sarah; Begley, Cecily M

2004-07-01

In conditions shared by women and men, the biomedical model of disease assumes that illness-symptoms and outcomes are biologically and socially 'neutral'. Consequently, up until a decade ago, white middle-aged men were the model subjects in most funded cardiac trials, with the assumption that whatever the findings, the results would also hold true for women. This 'add women and stir' approach has resulted in imbalances in cardiac care and an image of coronary artery disease, which portrays a middle-aged male as its victim. Moreover, cardiac health care has been designed with the male anatomy and male experience of illness in mind, and health promotional measures have been targeted towards men. Women have received these health promotional messages to protect the hearts of men, and have been less likely to modify their own lifestyles in a cardio-protective manner. However, the biological and social differences that exist between women and men, must surely invalidate such biased biomedical assertions, and signify a need to delve beyond the realm of biomedical reductionism for greater insights and understanding. This review examines how scientific reductionism has failed to explore the impact of coronary artery disease on the lives of women and how the gendered image of this disease has privileged the normative frame.

Leveraging the national cyberinfrastructure for biomedical research

PubMed Central

LeDuc, Richard; Vaughn, Matthew; Fonner, John M; Sullivan, Michael; Williams, James G; Blood, Philip D; Taylor, James; Barnett, William

2014-01-01

In the USA, the national cyberinfrastructure refers to a system of research supercomputer and other IT facilities and the high speed networks that connect them. These resources have been heavily leveraged by scientists in disciplines such as high energy physics, astronomy, and climatology, but until recently they have been little used by biomedical researchers. We suggest that many of the ‘Big Data’ challenges facing the medical informatics community can be efficiently handled using national-scale cyberinfrastructure. Resources such as the Extreme Science and Discovery Environment, the Open Science Grid, and Internet2 provide economical and proven infrastructures for Big Data challenges, but these resources can be difficult to approach. Specialized web portals, support centers, and virtual organizations can be constructed on these resources to meet defined computational challenges, specifically for genomics. We provide examples of how this has been done in basic biology as an illustration for the biomedical informatics community. PMID:23964072

A biobank management model applicable to biomedical research.

PubMed

Auray-Blais, Christiane; Patenaude, Johane

2006-04-06

The work of Research Ethics Boards (REBs), especially when involving genetics research and biobanks, has become more challenging with the growth of biotechnology and biomedical research. Some REBs have even rejected research projects where the use of a biobank with coded samples was an integral part of the study, the greatest fear being the lack of participant protection and uncontrolled use of biological samples or related genetic data. The risks of discrimination and stigmatization are a recurrent issue. In light of the increasing interest in biomedical research and the resulting benefits to the health of participants, it is imperative that practical solutions be found to the problems associated with the management of biobanks: namely, protecting the integrity of the research participants, as well as guaranteeing the security and confidentiality of the participant's information. We aimed to devise a practical and efficient model for the management of biobanks in biomedical research where a medical archivist plays the pivotal role as a data-protection officer. The model had to reduce the burden placed on REBs responsible for the evaluation of genetics projects and, at the same time, maximize the protection of research participants. The proposed model includes the following: 1) a means of protecting the information in biobanks, 2) offers ways to provide follow-up information requested about the participants, 3) protects the participant's confidentiality and 4) adequately deals with the ethical issues at stake in biobanking. Until a governmental governance body is established in Quebec to guarantee the protection of research participants and establish harmonized guidelines for the management of biobanks in medical research, it is definitely up to REBs to find solutions that the present lack of guidelines poses. The model presented in this article offers a practical solution on a day-to-day basis for REBs, as well as researchers by promoting an archivist to a pivotal

Research-Doctorate Programs in the Biomedical Sciences: Selected Findings from the NRC Assessment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lorden, Joan F., Ed.; Kuh, Charlotte V., Ed.; Voytuk, James A., Ed.

2011-01-01

"Research Doctorate Programs in the Biomedical Sciences: Selected Findings from the NRC Assessment" examines data on the biomedical sciences programs to gather additional insight about the talent, training environment, outcomes, diversity, and international participation in the biomedical sciences workforce. This report supports an…

A list of highly influential biomedical researchers, 1996-2011.

PubMed

Boyack, Kevin W; Klavans, Richard; Sorensen, Aaron A; Ioannidis, John P A

2013-12-01

We have generated a list of highly influential biomedical researchers based on Scopus citation data from the period 1996-2011. Of the 15,153,100 author identifiers in Scopus, approximately 1% (n=149,655) have an h-index >=20. Of those, we selected 532 authors who belonged to the 400 with highest total citation count (>=25,142 citations) and/or the 400 with highest h-index (>=76). Of those, we selected the top-400 living core biomedical researchers based on a normalized score combining total citations and h-index. Another 62 authors whose focus is outside biomedicine had a normalized score that was at least as high as the score of the 400th core biomedical researcher. We provide information on the profile of these most influential authors, including the most common Medical Subject Heading terms in their articles that are also specific to their work, most common journals where they publish, number of papers with over 100 citations that they have published as first/single, last, or middle authors, and impact score adjusted for authorship positions, given that crude citation indices and authorship positions are almost totally orthogonal. We also show for each researcher the distribution of their papers across 4 main levels (basic-to-applied) of research. We discuss technical issues, limitations and caveats, comparisons against other lists of highly-cited researchers, and potential uses of this resource. © 2013 Stichting European Society for Clinical Investigation Journal Foundation. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

[International regulation of ethics committees on biomedical research as protection mechanisms for people: analysis of the Additional Protocol to the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine, concerning Biomedical Research of the Council of Europe].

PubMed

de Lecuona, Itziar

2013-01-01

The article explores and analyses the content of the Council of Europe's Additional Protocol to the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine concerning Biomedical Research regarding the standard legal instrument in biomedical research, issued by an international organization with leadership in bioethics. This implies ethics committees are mechanisms of protection of humans in biomedical research and not mere bureaucratic agencies and that a sound inescapable international regulatory framework exists for States to regulate biomedical research. The methodology used focuses on the analysis of the background, the context in which it is made and the nature and scope of the Protocol. It also identifies and analyses the characteristics and functions of ethics committees in biomedical research and, in particular, the information that should be provided to this bodies to develop their functions previously, during and at the end of research projects. This analysis will provide guidelines, suggestions and conclusions for the awareness and training of members of these committees in order to influence the daily practice. This paper may also be of interest to legal practitioners who work in different areas of biomedical research. From this practical perspective, the article examines the legal treatment of the Protocol to meet new challenges and classic issues in research: the treatment of human biological samples, the use of placebos, avoiding double standards, human vulnerability, undue influence and conflicts of interest, among others. Also, from a critical view, this work links the legal responses to develop work procedures that are required for an effective performance of the functions assigned of ethics committees in biomedical research. An existing international legal response that lacks doctrinal standards and provides little support should, however, serve as a guide and standard to develop actions that allow ethics committees -as key bodies for States- to advance in

Biomedical and Behavioral Research Scientists: Their Training and Supply. Volume 1: Findings.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Academy of Sciences - National Research Council, Washington, DC. Office of Scientific and Engineering Personnel.

This is the first of three volumes which presents the Committee on Biomedical and Behavioral Research Personnel's examination of the educational process that leads to doctoral degrees in biomedical and behavioral science (and to postdoctoral study in some cases) and the role of the National Research Service Awards (NRSA) training programs in it.…

Seven layers of security to help protect biomedical research facilities.

PubMed

Mortell, Norman

2010-04-01

In addition to risks such as theft and fire that can confront any type of business, the biomedical research community often faces additional concerns over animal rights extremists, infiltrations, data security and intellectual property rights. Given these concerns, it is not surprising that the industry gives a high priority to security. This article identifies security threats faced by biomedical research companies and shows how these threats are ranked in importance by industry stakeholders. The author then goes on to discuss seven key 'layers' of security, from the external environment to the research facility itself, and how these layers all contribute to the creation of a successfully secured facility.

Maximizing the return on taxpayers' investments in fundamental biomedical research.

PubMed

Lorsch, Jon R

2015-05-01

The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) at the U.S. National Institutes of Health has an annual budget of more than $2.3 billion. The institute uses these funds to support fundamental biomedical research and training at universities, medical schools, and other institutions across the country. My job as director of NIGMS is to work to maximize the scientific returns on the taxpayers' investments. I describe how we are optimizing our investment strategies and funding mechanisms, and how, in the process, we hope to create a more efficient and sustainable biomedical research enterprise.

A Roadmap for caGrid, an Enterprise Grid Architecture for Biomedical Research

PubMed Central

Saltz, Joel; Hastings, Shannon; Langella, Stephen; Oster, Scott; Kurc, Tahsin; Payne, Philip; Ferreira, Renato; Plale, Beth; Goble, Carole; Ervin, David; Sharma, Ashish; Pan, Tony; Permar, Justin; Brezany, Peter; Siebenlist, Frank; Madduri, Ravi; Foster, Ian; Shanbhag, Krishnakant; Mead, Charlie; Hong, Neil Chue

2012-01-01

caGrid is a middleware system which combines the Grid computing, the service oriented architecture, and the model driven architecture paradigms to support development of interoperable data and analytical resources and federation of such resources in a Grid environment. The functionality provided by caGrid is an essential and integral component of the cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG™) program. This program is established by the National Cancer Institute as a nationwide effort to develop enabling informatics technologies for collaborative, multi-institutional biomedical research with the overarching goal of accelerating translational cancer research. Although the main application domain for caGrid is cancer research, the infrastructure provides a generic framework that can be employed in other biomedical research and healthcare domains. The development of caGrid is an ongoing effort, adding new functionality and improvements based on feedback and use cases from the community. This paper provides an overview of potential future architecture and tooling directions and areas of improvement for caGrid and caGrid-like systems. This summary is based on discussions at a roadmap workshop held in February with participants from biomedical research, Grid computing, and high performance computing communities. PMID:18560123

A roadmap for caGrid, an enterprise Grid architecture for biomedical research.

PubMed

Saltz, Joel; Hastings, Shannon; Langella, Stephen; Oster, Scott; Kurc, Tahsin; Payne, Philip; Ferreira, Renato; Plale, Beth; Goble, Carole; Ervin, David; Sharma, Ashish; Pan, Tony; Permar, Justin; Brezany, Peter; Siebenlist, Frank; Madduri, Ravi; Foster, Ian; Shanbhag, Krishnakant; Mead, Charlie; Chue Hong, Neil

2008-01-01

caGrid is a middleware system which combines the Grid computing, the service oriented architecture, and the model driven architecture paradigms to support development of interoperable data and analytical resources and federation of such resources in a Grid environment. The functionality provided by caGrid is an essential and integral component of the cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG) program. This program is established by the National Cancer Institute as a nationwide effort to develop enabling informatics technologies for collaborative, multi-institutional biomedical research with the overarching goal of accelerating translational cancer research. Although the main application domain for caGrid is cancer research, the infrastructure provides a generic framework that can be employed in other biomedical research and healthcare domains. The development of caGrid is an ongoing effort, adding new functionality and improvements based on feedback and use cases from the community. This paper provides an overview of potential future architecture and tooling directions and areas of improvement for caGrid and caGrid-like systems. This summary is based on discussions at a roadmap workshop held in February with participants from biomedical research, Grid computing, and high performance computing communities.

100 Metrics to Assess and Communicate the Value of Biomedical Research

PubMed Central

Guthrie, Susan; Krapels, Joachim; Lichten, Catherine A.; Wooding, Steven

2017-01-01

Abstract Biomedical research affects society in many ways. It has been shown to improve health, create jobs, add to our knowledge, and foster new collaborations. Despite the complexity of modern research, many of the metrics used to evaluate the impacts of research still focus on the traditional, often academic, part of the research pathway, covering areas such as the amount of grant funding received and the number of peer-reviewed publications. In response to increasing expectations of accountability and transparency, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), in collaboration with RAND Europe, undertook a project to help communicate the wider value of biomedical research. The initiative developed resources to support academic medical centers in evaluating the outcomes and impacts of their research using approaches relevant to various stakeholders, including patients, providers, administrators, and legislators. This study presents 100 ideas for metrics that can be used to assess and communicate the value of biomedical research. The list is not comprehensive, and the metrics are not fully developed, but they should serve to stimulate and broaden thinking about how academic medical centers can communicate the value of their research to a broad range of stakeholders. PMID:28983437

From Nonclinical Research to Clinical Trials and Patient-registries: Challenges and Opportunities in Biomedical Research

PubMed Central

de la Torre Hernández, José M.; Edelman, Elazer R.

2018-01-01

The most important challenge faced by human beings is health. The only way to provide better solutions for health care is innovation, true innovation. The only source of true innovation is research, good research indeed. The pathway from a basic science study to a randomized clinical trial is long and not free of bumps and even landmines. These are all the obstacles and barriers that limit the availability of resources, entangle administrative-regulatory processes, and restrain investigators’ initiatives. There is increasing demand for evidence to guide clinical practice but, paradoxically, biomedical research has become increasingly complex, expensive, and difficult to integrate into clinical care with increased barriers to performing the practical aspects of investigation. We face the challenge of increasing the volume of biomedical research and simultaneously improving the efficiency and output of this research. In this article, we review the main stages and methods of biomedical research, from nonclinical studies with animal and computational models to randomized trials and clinical registries, focusing on their limitations and challenges, but also providing alternative solutions to overcome them. Fortunately, challenges are always opportunities in disguise. PMID:28838647

Latino Beliefs about Biomedical Research Participation: A Qualitative Study on the US-Mexico Border

PubMed Central

Ceballos, Rachel; Knerr, Sarah; Scott, Mary Alice; Hohl, Sarah; Malen, Rachel; Vilchis, Hugo; Thompson, Beti

2015-01-01

Latinos are under-represented in biomedical research conducted in the United States (US), impeding disease prevention and treatment efforts for this growing demographic group. We gathered perceptions of biomedical research and gauged willingness to participate through elicitation interviews and focus groups with Latinos living on the US-Mexico border. Themes that emerged included a strong willingness to participate in biomedical studies and suggested that Latinos may be under-represented due to limited formal education and access to health information, not distrust. The conflation of research and clinical care was common and motivated participation. Outreach efforts and educational interventions to inform Latinos of participation opportunities and clarify harms and benefits associated with biomedical research participation will be essential to maintain trust within Latino communities. PMID:25747293

Contrasting the ethical perspectives of biospecimen research among individuals with familial risk for hereditary cancer and biomedical researchers: implications for researcher training.

PubMed

Quinn, Gwendolyn P; Koskan, Alexis; Sehovic, Ivana; Pal, Tuya; Meade, Cathy; Gwede, Clement K

2014-07-01

While ethical concerns about participating in biospecimen research have been previously identified, few studies have reported the concerns among individuals with familial risk for hereditary cancer (IFRs). At the same time, biomedical researchers often lack training in discussing such concerns to potential donors. This study explores IFRs' and biomedical researchers' perceptions of ethical concerns about participating in biobanking research. In separate focus groups, IFRs and biomedical researchers participated in 90-min telephone focus groups. Focus group questions centered on knowledge about laws that protect the confidentiality of biospecimen donors, understanding of informed consent and study procedures, and preferences for being recontacted about potential incidental discovery and also study results. A total of 40 IFRs and 32 biomedical researchers participated in the focus groups. Results demonstrated discrepancies between the perceptions of IFRs and researchers. IFRs' concerns centered on health information protection; potential discrimination by insurers and employers; and preferences for being recontacted upon discovery of gene mutations or to communicate study results. Researchers perceived that participants understood laws protecting donors' privacy and (detailed study information outlined in the informed consent process), study outcomes were used to create a training tool kit to increase researchers' understanding of IFRs' concerns about biobanking.

Funding for U.S. biomedical research: the case for the scientist-advocate.

PubMed

Nurse, J T D; Fox, C H

2012-07-01

The U.S. biomedical research community finds itself at a particularly consequential moment. Since the end of the Fiscal Year (FY) 1998-2003 NIH budget doubling period, brought to fruition with bipartisan leadership, the Federal investment in biomedical research has been declining. The NIH budget has actually decreased in constant dollars since FY 2004. Across-the-board cuts included in the Budget Control Act of 2011 would result in a loss of $2.4 billion and roughly 2,300 research project grants in FY 2013 alone, unless Congress acts to intervene before January 2013. Many of the beneficiaries of NIH support view advocacy for research funding as "someone else's job". The case to reverse this mindset must be made. Members of Congress and their staffers are open to consideration of the case for sustaining Federal investments in science, even during these difficult budget times. However, the advocacy effort must be broad-based and repeatedly presented to effect change. The figures on economic return from spending on biomedical research are compelling, but they do not tell the entire story. The results of biomedical research improve and save lives every single day, a fact that should not be lost on our elected leaders.

Critical Contexts for Biomedical Research in a Native American Community: Health Care, History, and Community Survival

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sahota, Puneet Chawla

2012-01-01

Native Americans have been underrepresented in previous studies of biomedical research participants. This paper reports a qualitative interview study of Native Americans' perspectives on biomedical research. In-depth interviews were conducted with 53 members of a Southwest tribal community. Many interviewees viewed biomedical research studies as a…

Effects of an educational intervention on female biomedical scientists' research self-efficacy.

PubMed

Bakken, Lori L; Byars-Winston, Angela; Gundermann, Dawn M; Ward, Earlise C; Slattery, Angela; King, Andrea; Scott, Denise; Taylor, Robert E

2010-05-01

Women and people of color continue to be underrepresented among biomedical researchers to an alarming degree. Research interest and subsequent productivity have been shown to be affected by the research training environment through the mediating effects of research self-efficacy. This article presents the findings of a study to determine whether a short-term research training program coupled with an efficacy enhancing intervention for novice female biomedical scientists of diverse racial backgrounds would increase their research self-efficacy beliefs. Forty-three female biomedical scientists were randomized into a control or intervention group and 15 men participated as a control group. Research self-efficacy significantly increased for women who participated in the self-efficacy intervention workshop. Research self-efficacy within each group also significantly increased following the short-term research training program, but cross-group comparisons were not significant. These findings suggest that educational interventions that target sources of self-efficacy and provide domain-specific learning experiences are effective at increasing research self-efficacy for women and men. Further studies are needed to determine the longitudinal outcomes of this effort.

Effects of an Educational Intervention on Female Biomedical Scientists’ Research Self-Efficacy

PubMed Central

Bakken, Lori L.; Byars-Winston, Angela; Gundermann, Dawn M.; Ward, Earlise C.; Slattery, Angela; King, Andrea; Scott, Denise; Taylor, Robert E.

2009-01-01

Women and people of color continue to be underrepresented among biomedical researchers to an alarming degree. Research interest and subsequent productivity have been shown to be affected by the research training environment through the mediating effects of research self-efficacy. This article presents the findings of a study to determine whether a short-term research training program coupled with an efficacy enhancing intervention for novice female biomedical scientists of diverse racial backgrounds would increase their research self-efficacy beliefs. Forty-three female biomedical scientists were randomized into a control or intervention group and 15 men participated as a control group. Research self-efficacy significantly increased for women who participated in the self-efficacy intervention workshop. Research self-efficacy within each group also significantly increased following the short-term research training program, but cross-group comparisons were not significant. These findings suggest that educational interventions that target sources of self-efficacy and provide domain-specific learning experiences are effective at increasing research self-efficacy for women and men. Further studies are needed to determine the longitudinal outcomes of this effort. PMID:19774477

How Do Interaction Experiences Influence Doctoral Students' Academic Pursuits in Biomedical Research?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kong, Xiaoqing; Chakraverty, Devasmita; Jeffe, Donna B.; Andriole, Dorothy A.; Wathington, Heather D.; Tai, Robert H.

2013-01-01

This exploratory qualitative study investigated how doctoral students reported their personal and professional interaction experiences that they believed might facilitate or impede their academic pursuits in biomedical research. We collected 19 in-depth interviews with doctoral students in biomedical research from eight universities, and we based…

Commercializing biomedical research through securitization techniques.

PubMed

Fernandez, Jose-Maria; Stein, Roger M; Lo, Andrew W

2012-10-01

Biomedical innovation has become riskier, more expensive and more difficult to finance with traditional sources such as private and public equity. Here we propose a financial structure in which a large number of biomedical programs at various stages of development are funded by a single entity to substantially reduce the portfolio's risk. The portfolio entity can finance its activities by issuing debt, a critical advantage because a much larger pool of capital is available for investment in debt versus equity. By employing financial engineering techniques such as securitization, it can raise even greater amounts of more-patient capital. In a simulation using historical data for new molecular entities in oncology from 1990 to 2011, we find that megafunds of $5–15 billion may yield average investment returns of 8.9–11.4% for equity holders and 5–8% for 'research-backed obligation' holders, which are lower than typical venture-capital hurdle rates but attractive to pension funds, insurance companies and other large institutional investors.

Maximizing the return on taxpayers' investments in fundamental biomedical research

PubMed Central

Lorsch, Jon R.

2015-01-01

The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) at the U.S. National Institutes of Health has an annual budget of more than $2.3 billion. The institute uses these funds to support fundamental biomedical research and training at universities, medical schools, and other institutions across the country. My job as director of NIGMS is to work to maximize the scientific returns on the taxpayers' investments. I describe how we are optimizing our investment strategies and funding mechanisms, and how, in the process, we hope to create a more efficient and sustainable biomedical research enterprise. PMID:25926703

Alternative methods for the use of non-human primates in biomedical research.

PubMed

Burm, Saskia M; Prins, Jan-Bas; Langermans, Jan; Bajramovic, Jeffrey J

2014-01-01

The experimental use of non-human primates (NHP) in Europe is tightly regulated and is only permitted when there are no alternatives available. As a result, NHP are most often used in late, pre-clinical phases of biomedical research. Although the impetus for scientists, politicians and the general public to replace, reduce and refine NHP in biomedical research is strong, the development of 3Rs technology for NHP poses specific challenges. In February 2014 a workshop on "Alternative methods for the use of NHP in biomedical research" was organized within the international exchange program of EUPRIM-Net II, a European infrastructure initiative that links biomedical primate research centers. The workshop included lectures by key scientists in the field of alternatives as well as by experts from governmental and non-governmental organizations. Furthermore, parallel sessions were organized to stimulate discussion on the challenges of advancing the use of alternative methods for NHP. Subgroups voted on four statements and together composed a list with opportunities and priorities. This report summarizes the presentations that were held, the content of the discussion sessions and concludes with recommendations on 3Rs development for NHP specifically. These include technical, conceptual as well as political topics.

Legacy of Biomedical Research During the Space Shuttle Program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hayes, Judith C.

2011-01-01

The Space Shuttle Program provided many opportunities to study the role of spaceflight on human life for over 30 years and represented the longest and largest US human spaceflight program. Outcomes of the research were understanding the effect of spaceflight on human physiology and performance, countermeasures, operational protocols, and hardware. The Shuttle flights were relatively short, < 16 days and routinely had 4 to 6 crewmembers for a total of 135 flights. Biomedical research was conducted on the Space Shuttle using various vehicle resources. Specially constructed pressurized laboratories called Spacelab and SPACEHAB housed many laboratory instruments to accomplish experiments in the Shuttle s large payload bay. In addition to these laboratory flights, nearly every mission had dedicated human life science research experiments conducted in the Shuttle middeck. Most Shuttle astronauts participated in some life sciences research experiments either as test subjects or test operators. While middeck experiments resulted in a low sample per mission compared to many Earth-based studies, this participation allowed investigators to have repetition of tests over the years on successive Shuttle flights. In addition, as a prelude to the International Space Station (ISS), NASA used the Space Shuttle as a platform for assessing future ISS hardware systems and procedures. The purpose of this panel is to provide an understanding of science integration activities required to implement Shuttle research, review biomedical research, characterize countermeasures developed for Shuttle and ISS as well as discuss lessons learned that may support commercial crew endeavors. Panel topics include research integration, cardiovascular physiology, neurosciences, skeletal muscle, and exercise physiology. Learning Objective: The panel provides an overview from the Space Shuttle Program regarding research integration, scientific results, lessons learned from biomedical research and

Dual-use review policies of biomedical research journals.

PubMed

Resnik, David B; Barner, Dionne D; Dinse, Gregg E

2011-03-01

To address biosecurity issues, government agencies, academic institutions, and professional societies have developed policies concerning the publication of "dual-use" biomedical research-that is, research that could be readily applied to cause significant harm to the public, the environment, or national security. We conducted an e-mail survey of life science journals to determine the percentage that have a dual-use policy. Of the 155 journals that responded to our survey (response rate 39%), only 7.7% stated that they had a written dual-use policy and only 5.8% said they had experience reviewing dual-use research in the past 5 years. Among the potential predictors we investigated, the one most highly associated with a journal having a written dual-use policy was membership in the Nature Publishing Group (positive association). When considered individually, both previous experience with reviewing dual-use research and the journal's impact factor appeared to be positively associated with having a written dual-use policy, but only the former remained significant after adjusting for publishing group. Although preventing the misuse of scientific research for terrorist or criminal purposes is an important concern, few biomedical journals have dual-use review policies. Journals that are likely to review research that raises potential dual-use concerns should consider developing dual-use policies.

Contrasting the Ethical Perspectives of Biospecimen Research Among Individuals with Familial Risk for Hereditary Cancer and Biomedical Researchers: Implications for Researcher Training

PubMed Central

Koskan, Alexis; Sehovic, Ivana; Pal, Tuya; Meade, Cathy; Gwede, Clement K.

2014-01-01

While ethical concerns about participating in biospecimen research have been previously identified, few studies have reported the concerns among individuals with familial risk for hereditary cancer (IFRs). At the same time, biomedical researchers often lack training in discussing such concerns to potential donors. This study explores IFRs' and biomedical researchers' perceptions of ethical concerns about participating in biobanking research. In separate focus groups, IFRs and biomedical researchers participated in 90-min telephone focus groups. Focus group questions centered on knowledge about laws that protect the confidentiality of biospecimen donors, understanding of informed consent and study procedures, and preferences for being recontacted about potential incidental discovery and also study results. A total of 40 IFRs and 32 biomedical researchers participated in the focus groups. Results demonstrated discrepancies between the perceptions of IFRs and researchers. IFRs' concerns centered on health information protection; potential discrimination by insurers and employers; and preferences for being recontacted upon discovery of gene mutations or to communicate study results. Researchers perceived that participants understood laws protecting donors' privacy and (detailed study information outlined in the informed consent process), study outcomes were used to create a training tool kit to increase researchers' understanding of IFRs' concerns about biobanking. PMID:24786355

[Big Data: the great opportunities and challenges to microbiome and other biomedical research].

PubMed

Xu, Zhenjiang

2015-02-01

With the development of high-throughput technologies, biomedical data has been increasing exponentially in an explosive manner. This brings enormous opportunities and challenges to biomedical researchers on how to effectively utilize big data. Big data is different from traditional data in many ways, described as 3Vs - volume, variety and velocity. From the perspective of biomedical research, here I introduced the characteristics of big data, such as its messiness, re-usage and openness. Focusing on microbiome research of meta-analysis, the author discussed the prospective principles in data collection, challenges of privacy protection in data management, and the scalable tools in data analysis with examples from real life.

Social Media and Mentoring in Biomedical Research Faculty Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Teruya, Stacey Alan; Bazargan-Hejazi, Shahrzad

2014-01-01

Purpose: To determine how effective and collegial mentoring in biomedical research faculty development may be implemented and facilitated through social media. Method: The authors reviewed the literature for objectives, concerns, and limitations of career development for junior research faculty. They tabularized these as developmental goals, and…

[Metrology research on biomedical engineering publications from China in recent years].

PubMed

Yu, Lu; Su, Juan; Wang, Ying; Sha, Xianzheng

2014-12-01

The present paper is to evaluate the scientific research level and development trends of biomedical engineering in China using metrology analysis on Chinese biomedical engineering scientific literatures. Pubmed is used to search the biomedical engineering publications in recent 5 years which are indexed by Science Citation Index, and the number and cited times of these publications and the impact factor of the journals are analyzed. The results show that comparing with the world, although the number of the publication in China has increased in recent 5 years, there is still much room for improvement. Among Chinese mainland, Hongkong and Taiwan, Chinese mainland maintains the obvious advantage in this subject, but Hongkong has the highest average cited number. Shanghai and Beijing have better research ability than other areas in Chinese mainland.

Arab nations lagging behind other Middle Eastern countries in biomedical research: a comparative study

PubMed Central

2009-01-01

Background Analysis of biomedical research and publications in a country or group of countries is used to monitor research progress and trends. This study aims to assess the performance of biomedical research in the Arab world during 2001–2005 and to compare it with other Middle Eastern non-Arab countries. Methods PubMed and Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-expanded) were searched systematically for the original biomedical research publications and their citation frequencies of 16 Arab nations and three non-Arab Middle Eastern countries (Iran, Israel and Turkey), all of which are classified as middle or high income countries. Results The 16 Arab countries together have 5775 and 14,374 original research articles listed by PubMed and SCI-expanded, respectively, significantly less (p < 0.001) than the other three Middle Eastern countries (25,643 and 49,110). The Arab countries also scored less when the data were normalized to population, gross domestic product (GDP), and GDP/capita. The publications from the Arab countries also have a significantly lower (p < 0.001) citation frequency. Conclusion The Arab world is producing fewer biomedical publications of lower quality than other Middle Eastern countries. Studies are needed to clarify the causes and to propose strategies to improve the biomedical research status in Arab countries. PMID:19374747

Biomedical publishing and the internet: evolution or revolution?

PubMed

Jacobson, M W

2000-01-01

The Internet is challenging traditional publishing patterns. In the biomedical domain, medical journals are providing more and more content online, both free and for a fee. Beyond this, however, a number of commentators believe that traditional notions of copyright and intellectual property ownership are no longer suited to the information age and that ownership of copyright to research reports should be and will be wrested from publishers and returned to authors. In this paper, it is argued that, although the Internet will indeed profoundly affect the distribution of biomedical research results, the biomedical publishing industry is too intertwined with the research establishment and too powerful to fall prey to such a copyright revolution.

Medical and biomedical research productivity from Palestine, 2002 – 2011

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Medical research productivity reflects the level of medical education and practice in a particular country. The objective of this study was to examine the quantity and quality of medical and biomedical research published from Palestine. Findings Comprehensive review of the literature indexed by Scopus was conducted. Data from Jan 01, 2002 till December 31, 2011 was searched for authors affiliated with Palestine or Palestinian authority. Results were refined to limit the search to medical and biomedical subjects. The quality of publication was assessed using Journal Citation Report. The total number of publications was 2207. A total of 770 publications were in the medical and biomedical subject areas. The annual rate of publication was 0.077 articles per gross domestic product/capita. The 770 publications have an h-index of 32. One hundred and thirty eight (18%) articles were published in 46 journals that were not indexed in the web of knowledge. Twenty two (22/770; 2.9%) articles were published in journals with an IF > 10. Conclusions The quantity and quality of research originating from Palestinian institutions is promising given the scarce resources of Palestine. However, more effort is needed to bridge the gap in medical research productivity and to promote better health in Palestine. PMID:23375070

ChE Undergraduate Research Projects in Biomedical Engineering.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stroeve, Pieter

1981-01-01

Describes an undergraduate research program in biomedical engineering at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Includes goals and faculty comments on the program. Indicates that 58 percent of projects conducted between 1976 and 1980 have been presented at meetings or published. (SK)

Applying environmental product design to biomedical products research.

PubMed Central

Messelbeck, J; Sutherland, L

2000-01-01

The principal themes for the Biomedical Research and the Environment Conference Committee on Environmental Economics in Biomedical Research include the following: healthcare delivery companies and biomedical research organizations, both nonprofit and for-profit, need to improve their environmental performance; suppliers of healthcare products will be called upon to support this need; and improving the environmental profile of healthcare products begins in research and development (R&D). The committee report begins with requirements from regulatory authorities (e.g., U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [EPA], the U.S. Food and Drug Administration), and the healthcare delivery sector). The 1998 American Hospital Association and EPA Memorandum of Understanding to reduce solid waste and mercury from healthcare facilities is emblematic of these requirements. The dominant message from the requirements discussion is to ensure that R&D organizations do not ignore customer, environmental, and regulatory requirements in the early stages of product development. Several representatives from healthcare products manufacturers presented their companies' approaches to meeting these requirements. They reported on efforts to ensure that their R&D processes are sensitive to the environmental consequences from manufacturing, distributing, using, and disposing of healthcare products. These reports describe representatives' awareness of requirements and the unique approaches their R&D organizations have taken to meet these requirements. All representatives reported that their R&D organizations have embraced environmental product design because it avoids the potential of returning products to R&D to improve the environmental profile. Additionally, several reports detailed cost savings, sustainability benefits, and improvements in environmental manufacturing or redesign, and increased customer satisfaction. Many companies in healthcare delivery are working to improve environmental

Applying environmental product design to biomedical products research.

PubMed

Messelbeck, J; Sutherland, L

2000-12-01

The principal themes for the Biomedical Research and the Environment Conference Committee on Environmental Economics in Biomedical Research include the following: healthcare delivery companies and biomedical research organizations, both nonprofit and for-profit, need to improve their environmental performance; suppliers of healthcare products will be called upon to support this need; and improving the environmental profile of healthcare products begins in research and development (R&D). The committee report begins with requirements from regulatory authorities (e.g., U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [EPA], the U.S. Food and Drug Administration), and the healthcare delivery sector). The 1998 American Hospital Association and EPA Memorandum of Understanding to reduce solid waste and mercury from healthcare facilities is emblematic of these requirements. The dominant message from the requirements discussion is to ensure that R&D organizations do not ignore customer, environmental, and regulatory requirements in the early stages of product development. Several representatives from healthcare products manufacturers presented their companies' approaches to meeting these requirements. They reported on efforts to ensure that their R&D processes are sensitive to the environmental consequences from manufacturing, distributing, using, and disposing of healthcare products. These reports describe representatives' awareness of requirements and the unique approaches their R&D organizations have taken to meet these requirements. All representatives reported that their R&D organizations have embraced environmental product design because it avoids the potential of returning products to R&D to improve the environmental profile. Additionally, several reports detailed cost savings, sustainability benefits, and improvements in environmental manufacturing or redesign, and increased customer satisfaction. Many companies in healthcare delivery are working to improve environmental

DEVELOPING THE TRANSDISCIPLINARY AGING RESEARCH AGENDA: NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN BIG DATA.

PubMed

Callaghan, Christian William

2017-07-19

In light of dramatic advances in big data analytics and the application of these advances in certain scientific fields, new potentialities exist for breakthroughs in aging research. Translating these new potentialities to research outcomes for aging populations, however, remains a challenge, as underlying technologies which have enabled exponential increases in 'big data' have not yet enabled a commensurate era of 'big knowledge,' or similarly exponential increases in biomedical breakthroughs. Debates also reveal differences in the literature, with some arguing big data analytics heralds a new era associated with the 'end of theory' or which makes the scientific method obsolete, where correlation supercedes causation, whereby science can advance without theory and hypotheses testing. On the other hand, others argue theory cannot be subordinate to data, no matter how comprehensive data coverage can ultimately become. Given these two tensions, namely between exponential increases in data absent exponential increases in biomedical research outputs, and between the promise of comprehensive data coverage and data-driven inductive versus theory-driven deductive modes of enquiry, this paper seeks to provide a critical review of certain theory and literature that offers useful perspectives of certain developments in big data analytics and their theoretical implications for aging research. Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.

Future of fundamental discovery in US biomedical research

PubMed Central

Levitt, Michael; Levitt, Jonathan M.

2017-01-01

Young researchers are crucially important for basic science as they make unexpected, fundamental discoveries. Since 1982, we find a steady drop in the number of grant-eligible basic-science faculty [principal investigators (PIs)] younger than 46. This fall occurred over a 32-y period when inflation-corrected congressional funds for NIH almost tripled. During this time, the PI success ratio (fraction of basic-science PIs who are R01 grantees) dropped for younger PIs (below 46) and increased for older PIs (above 55). This age-related bias seems to have caused the steady drop in the number of young basic-science PIs and could reduce future US discoveries in fundamental biomedical science. The NIH recognized this bias in its 2008 early-stage investigator (ESI) policy to fund young PIs at higher rates. We show this policy is working and recommend that it be enhanced by using better data. Together with the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA) program to reward senior PIs with research time in exchange for less funding, this may reverse a decades-long trend of more money going to older PIs. To prepare young scientists for increased demand, additional resources should be devoted to transitional postdoctoral fellowships already offered by NIH. PMID:28584129

Biomedical research, a tool to address the health issues that affect African populations

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Traditionally, biomedical research endeavors in low to middle resources countries have focused on communicable diseases. However, data collected over the past 20 years by the World Health Organization (WHO) show a significant increase in the number of people suffering from non-communicable diseases (e.g. heart disease, diabetes, cancer and pulmonary diseases). Within the coming years, WHO predicts significant decreases in communicable diseases while non-communicable diseases are expected to double in low and middle income countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The predicted increase in the non-communicable diseases population could be economically burdensome for the basic healthcare infrastructure of countries that lack resources to address this emerging disease burden. Biomedical research could stimulate development of healthcare and biomedical infrastructure. If this development is sustainable, it provides an opportunity to alleviate the burden of both communicable and non-communicable diseases through diagnosis, prevention and treatment. In this paper, we discuss how research using biomedical technology, especially genomics, has produced data that enhances the understanding and treatment of both communicable and non-communicable diseases in sub-Saharan Africa. We further discuss how scientific development can provide opportunities to pursue research areas responsive to the African populations. We limit our discussion to biomedical research in the areas of genomics due to its substantial impact on the scientific community in recent years however, we also recognize that targeted investments in other scientific disciplines could also foster further development in African countries. PMID:24143865

76 FR 1212 - Joint Biomedical Laboratory Research and Development and Clinical Science Research and...

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2011-01-07

... DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS Joint Biomedical Laboratory Research and Development and Clinical Science Research and Development Services Scientific Merit Review Board Panel for Eligibility; Notice of Meeting The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) gives notice under the Public Law 92-463 (Federal Advisory...

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2010-09-22

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2011-10-26

... DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS Joint Biomedical Laboratory Research and Development and Clinical Science Research and Development Services Scientific Merit Review Board; Notice of Meetings The Department of Veterans Affairs gives notice under the Public Law 92-463 (Federal Advisory Committee Act) that...

77 FR 26069 - Joint Biomedical Laboratory Research and Development and Clinical Science Research and...

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2012-05-02

... DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS Joint Biomedical Laboratory Research and Development and Clinical Science Research and Development Services Scientific Merit Review Board, Notice of Meeting Amendment The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) gives notice under the Public Law 92-463 (Federal Advisory Committee Act...

76 FR 79273 - Joint Biomedical Laboratory Research and Development and Clinical Science Research and...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-12-21

... DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS Joint Biomedical Laboratory Research and Development and Clinical Science Research and Development Services Scientific Merit Review Board Panel for Eligibility, Notice of Meeting The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) gives notice under Public Law 92-463 (Federal Advisory...

Our Future Selves; A Research Plan Toward Understanding Aging, of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Inst. on Aging (DHEW/PHS), Bethesda, MD.

This booklet presents a research plan of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (DHEW) aimed at understanding aging in the United States. The following subjects are discussed: (1) demographic information that outlines major issues affecting aging; (2) priorities for aging research in the biomedical, behavioral and social science and…

RX for science literacy: The what, where, how, and why of health science research (A teacher`s manual about biomedical research)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hoffman, K.S.

1994-12-31

When the North Carolina Association for Biomedical Research (NCABR) surveyed the state`s science teachers in March 1993, 92% of those responding requested information related to biomedical research. Most of the teachers requested lesson plans and activities designed to help them give students an accurate and balanced perspective on research. In response to that need, NCABR has recently completed production of a 300-page teacher`s manual that provides an overview of the biomedical research process and describes the role and care of animals in that process. Rx for Science Literacy incorporates background information, lesson plans, handouts and activities to assist teachers inmore » K-12 classrooms. Developed by a science teacher with assistance from science and education experts, the manual captures the complex biomedical research process in an easy-to-follow, easy-to-use format. In North Carolina, NCABR plans to begin these workshops in fall 1994. The workshops will include a tour of a biomedical research laboratory and on-site presentations by bench scientists. Teacher evaluation of the manual will be structured into the workshop program. The manual is available at cost to all interested individuals and organizations.« less

UCSC genome browser: deep support for molecular biomedical research.

PubMed

Mangan, Mary E; Williams, Jennifer M; Lathe, Scott M; Karolchik, Donna; Lathe, Warren C

2008-01-01

The volume and complexity of genomic sequence data, and the additional experimental data required for annotation of the genomic context, pose a major challenge for display and access for biomedical researchers. Genome browsers organize this data and make it available in various ways to extract useful information to advance research projects. The UCSC Genome Browser is one of these resources. The official sequence data for a given species forms the framework to display many other types of data such as expression, variation, cross-species comparisons, and more. Visual representations of the data are available for exploration. Data can be queried with sequences. Complex database queries are also easily achieved with the Table Browser interface. Associated tools permit additional query types or access to additional data sources such as images of in situ localizations. Support for solving researcher's issues is provided with active discussion mailing lists and by providing updated training materials. The UCSC Genome Browser provides a source of deep support for a wide range of biomedical molecular research (http://genome.ucsc.edu).

How Do Interaction Experiences Influence Doctoral Students’ Academic Pursuits in Biomedical Research?

PubMed Central

Kong, Xiaoqing; Chakraverty, Devasmita; Jeffe, Donna B.; Andriole, Dorothy A.; Wathington, Heather D.; Tai, Robert H.

2014-01-01

This exploratory qualitative study investigated how doctoral students reported their personal and professional interaction experiences that they believed might facilitate or impede their academic pursuits in biomedical research. We collected 19 in-depth interviews with doctoral students in biomedical research from eight universities, and we based our qualitative analytic approach on the work of Miles and Huberman. The results indicated that among different sources and types of interaction, academic and emotional interactions from family and teachers in various stages essentially affected students’ persistence in the biomedical science field. In addition, co-mentorship among peers, departmental environment, and volunteer experiences were other essential factors. This study also found related experiences among women and underrepresented minority students that were important to their academic pursuit. PMID:26166928

How Do Interaction Experiences Influence Doctoral Students' Academic Pursuits in Biomedical Research?

PubMed

Kong, Xiaoqing; Chakraverty, Devasmita; Jeffe, Donna B; Andriole, Dorothy A; Wathington, Heather D; Tai, Robert H

2013-01-01

This exploratory qualitative study investigated how doctoral students reported their personal and professional interaction experiences that they believed might facilitate or impede their academic pursuits in biomedical research. We collected 19 in-depth interviews with doctoral students in biomedical research from eight universities, and we based our qualitative analytic approach on the work of Miles and Huberman. The results indicated that among different sources and types of interaction, academic and emotional interactions from family and teachers in various stages essentially affected students' persistence in the biomedical science field. In addition, co-mentorship among peers, departmental environment, and volunteer experiences were other essential factors. This study also found related experiences among women and underrepresented minority students that were important to their academic pursuit.

Unbridle biomedical research from the laboratory cage

PubMed Central

Lahvis, Garet P

2017-01-01

Many biomedical research studies use captive animals to model human health and disease. However, a surprising number of studies show that the biological systems of animals living in standard laboratory housing are abnormal. To make animal studies more relevant to human health, research animals should live in the wild or be able to roam free in captive environments that offer a natural range of both positive and negative experiences. Recent technological advances now allow us to study freely roaming animals and we should make use of them. PMID:28661398

78 FR 28292 - Joint Biomedical Laboratory Research and Development and Clinical Science Research and...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-05-14

... DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS Joint Biomedical Laboratory Research and Development and Clinical Science Research and Development Services Scientific Merit Review Board; Notice of Meetings; Amendment The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) gives notice under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, 5 U.S.C. App...

Gifted Minority High School Students Study Biomedical Research.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bitter, John

1988-01-01

A program at Alabama State University seeks to stimulate the interest of academically gifted minority juniors and seniors in biomedical sciences and health professions. Selected students carry out research under the direction of university faculty members, in such areas as salmonella contamination in chicken and acid content in rainwater. (JDD)

Empirically-derived Knowledge on Adolescent Assent to Pediatric Biomedical Research

PubMed Central

Brody, Janet L.; Annett, Robert D.; Turner, Charles; Dalen, Jeanne; Yoon, Yesel

2013-01-01

Background There has been a recent growth in empirical research on assent with pediatric populations, due in part, to the demand for increased participation of this population in biomedical research. Despite methodological limitations, studies of adolescent capacities to assent have advanced and identified a number of salient psychological and social variables that are key to understanding assent. Methods The authors review a subsection of the empirical literature on adolescent assent focusing primarily on asthma and cancer therapeutic research; adolescent competencies to assent to these studies; perceptions of protocol risk and benefit; the affects of various social context variables on adolescent research participation decision making; and the inter-relatedness of these psychological and social factors. Results Contemporary studies of assent, using multivariate methods and updated approaches to statistical modeling, have revealed the importance of studying the intercorrelation between adolescents’ psychological capacities and their ability to employ these capacities in family and medical decision-making contexts. Understanding these dynamic relationships will enable researchers and ethicists to develop assent procedures that respect the authority of parents, while at the same time accord adolescents appropriate decision-making autonomy. Conclusions Reviews of empirical literature on the assent process reveal that adolescents possess varying capacities for biomedical research participation decision making depending on their maturity and the social context in which the decision is made. The relationship between adolescents and physician-investigators can be used to attenuate concerns about research protocols and clarify risk and benefit information so adolescents, in concert with their families, can make the most informed and ethical decisions. Future assent researchers will be better able to navigate the complicated interplay of contextual and developmental

Dual-Use Review Policies of Biomedical Research Journals

PubMed Central

Barner, Dionne D.; Dinse, Gregg E.

2011-01-01

To address biosecurity issues, government agencies, academic institutions, and professional societies have developed policies concerning the publication of “dual-use” biomedical research—that is, research that could be readily applied to cause significant harm to the public, the environment, or national security. We conducted an e-mail survey of life science journals to determine the percentage that have a dual-use policy. Of the 155 journals that responded to our survey (response rate 39%), only 7.7% stated that they had a written dual-use policy and only 5.8% said they had experience reviewing dual-use research in the past 5 years. Among the potential predictors we investigated, the one most highly associated with a journal having a written dual-use policy was membership in the Nature Publishing Group (positive association). When considered individually, both previous experience with reviewing dual-use research and the journal's impact factor appeared to be positively associated with having a written dual-use policy, but only the former remained significant after adjusting for publishing group. Although preventing the misuse of scientific research for terrorist or criminal purposes is an important concern, few biomedical journals have dual-use review policies. Journals that are likely to review research that raises potential dual-use concerns should consider developing dual-use policies. PMID:21395429

From the NIH: A Systems Approach to Increasing the Diversity of the Biomedical Research Workforce

PubMed Central

Valantine, Hannah A.; Lund, P. Kay; Gammie, Alison E.

2016-01-01

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is committed to attracting, developing, and supporting the best scientists from all groups as an integral part of excellence in training. Biomedical research workforce diversity, capitalizing on the full spectrum of skills, talents, and viewpoints, is essential for solving complex human health challenges. Over the past few decades, the biomedical research workforce has benefited from NIH programs aimed at enhancing diversity. However, there is considerable room for improvement, particularly at the level of independent scientists and within scientific leadership. We provide a rationale and specific opportunities to develop and sustain a diverse biomedical research workforce through interventions that promote the successful transitions to different stages on the path toward completion of training and entry into the biomedical workforce. PMID:27587850

Biomedical research leaders: report on needs, opportunities, difficulties, education and training, and evaluation.

PubMed Central

Wilson, S H; Merkle, S; Brown, D; Moskowitz, J; Hurley, D; Brown, D; Bailey, B J; McClain, M; Misenhimer, M; Buckalew, J; Burks, T

2000-01-01

The National Association of Physicians for the Environment (NAPE) has assumed a leadership role in protecting environmental health in recent years. The Committee of Biomedical Research Leaders was convened at the recent NAPE Leadership Conference: Biomedical Research and the Environment held on 1--2 November 1999, at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland. This report summarizes the discussion of the committee and its recommendations. The charge to the committee was to raise and address issues that will promote and sustain environmental health, safety, and energy efficiency within the biomedical community. Leaders from every important research sector (industry laboratories, academic health centers and institutes, hospitals and care facilities, Federal laboratories, and community-based research facilities) were gathered in this committee to discuss issues relevant to promoting environmental health. The conference and this report focus on the themes of environmental stewardship, sustainable development and "best greening practices." Environmental stewardship, an emerging theme within and outside the biomedical community, symbolizes the effort to provide an integrated, synthesized, and concerted effort to protect the health of the environment in both the present and the future. The primary goal established by the committee is to promote environmentally responsible leadership in the biomedical research community. Key outcomes of the committee's discussion and deliberation were a) the need for a central organization to evaluate, promote, and oversee efforts in environmental stewardship; and b) immediate need to facilitate efficient information transfer relevant to protecting the global environment through a database/clearinghouse. Means to fulfill these needs are discussed in this report. PMID:11121363

Biomedical research leaders: report on needs, opportunities, difficulties, education and training, and evaluation.

PubMed

Wilson, S H; Merkle, S; Brown, D; Moskowitz, J; Hurley, D; Brown, D; Bailey, B J; McClain, M; Misenhimer, M; Buckalew, J; Burks, T

2000-12-01

The National Association of Physicians for the Environment (NAPE) has assumed a leadership role in protecting environmental health in recent years. The Committee of Biomedical Research Leaders was convened at the recent NAPE Leadership Conference: Biomedical Research and the Environment held on 1--2 November 1999, at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland. This report summarizes the discussion of the committee and its recommendations. The charge to the committee was to raise and address issues that will promote and sustain environmental health, safety, and energy efficiency within the biomedical community. Leaders from every important research sector (industry laboratories, academic health centers and institutes, hospitals and care facilities, Federal laboratories, and community-based research facilities) were gathered in this committee to discuss issues relevant to promoting environmental health. The conference and this report focus on the themes of environmental stewardship, sustainable development and "best greening practices." Environmental stewardship, an emerging theme within and outside the biomedical community, symbolizes the effort to provide an integrated, synthesized, and concerted effort to protect the health of the environment in both the present and the future. The primary goal established by the committee is to promote environmentally responsible leadership in the biomedical research community. Key outcomes of the committee's discussion and deliberation were a) the need for a central organization to evaluate, promote, and oversee efforts in environmental stewardship; and b) immediate need to facilitate efficient information transfer relevant to protecting the global environment through a database/clearinghouse. Means to fulfill these needs are discussed in this report.

Decision-making and motivation to participate in biomedical research in southwest Nigeria.

PubMed

Osamor, Pauline E; Kass, Nancy

2012-08-01

Motivations and decision-making styles that influence participation in biomedical research vary across study types, cultures, and countries. While there is a small amount of literature on informed consent in non-western cultures, few studies have examined how participants make the decision to join research. This study was designed to identify the factors motivating people to participate in biomedical research in a traditional Nigerian community, assess the degree to which participants involve others in the decision-making process, and examine issues of autonomy in decision-making for research. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted with 100 adults (50 men, 50 women) in an urban Nigerian community who had participated in a biomedical research study. Subjects were interviewed using a survey instrument. Two-thirds of the respondents reported participating in the biomedical study to learn more about their illness, while 30% hoped to get some medical care. Over three-quarters (78%) of participants discussed the enrollment decision with someone else and 39% reported obtaining permission from a spouse or family member to participate in the study. Women were more than twice as likely as men to report obtaining permission from someone else before participating. More specifically, half of the female participants reported seeking permission from a spouse before enrolling. The findings suggest that informed consent in this community is understood and practised as a relational activity that involves others in the decision making process. Further studies are needed in non-Western countries concerning autonomy, decision-making, and motivation to participate in research studies. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

A research education program model to prepare a highly qualified workforce in biomedical and health-related research and increase diversity.

PubMed

Crockett, Elahé T

2014-09-24

The National Institutes of Health has recognized a compelling need to train highly qualified individuals and promote diversity in the biomedical/clinical sciences research workforce. In response, we have developed a research-training program known as REPID (Research Education Program to Increase Diversity among Health Researchers) to prepare students/learners to pursue research careers in these fields and address the lack of diversity and health disparities. By inclusion of students/learners from minority and diverse backgrounds, the REPID program aims to provide a research training and enrichment experience through team mentoring to inspire students/learners to pursue research careers in biomedical and health-related fields. Students/learners are recruited from the University campus from a diverse population of undergraduates, graduates, health professionals, and lifelong learners. Our recruits first enroll into an innovative on-line introductory course in Basics and Methods in Biomedical Research that uses a laboratory Tool-Kit (a lab in a box called the My Dr. ET Lab Tool-Kit) to receive the standard basics of research education, e.g., research skills, and lab techniques. The students/learners will also learn about the responsible conduct of research, research concept/design, data recording/analysis, and scientific writing/presentation. The course is followed by a 12-week hands-on research experience during the summer. The students/learners also attend workshops and seminars/conferences. The students/learners receive scholarship to cover stipends, research related expenses, and to attend a scientific conference. The scholarship allows the students/learners to gain knowledge and seize opportunities in biomedical and health-related careers. This is an ongoing program, and during the first three years of the program, fifty-one (51) students/learners have been recruited. Thirty-six (36) have completed their research training, and eighty percent (80%) of them have

Tsinghua-Johns Hopkins Joint Center for Biomedical Engineering Research: scientific and cultural exchange in undergraduate engineering.

PubMed

Wisneski, Andrew D; Huang, Lixia; Hong, Bo; Wang, Xiaoqin

2011-01-01

A model for an international undergraduate biomedical engineering research exchange program is outlined. In 2008, the Johns Hopkins University in collaboration with Tsinghua University in Beijing, China established the Tsinghua-Johns Hopkins Joint Center for Biomedical Engineering Research. Undergraduate biomedical engineering students from both universities are offered the opportunity to participate in research at the overseas institution. Programs such as these will not only provide research experiences for undergraduates but valuable cultural exchange and enrichment as well. Currently, strict course scheduling and rigorous curricula in most biomedical engineering programs may present obstacles for students to partake in study abroad opportunities. Universities are encouraged to harbor abroad opportunities for undergraduate engineering students, for which this particular program can serve as a model.

Comparative case study of two biomedical research collaboratories.

PubMed

Schleyer, Titus K L; Teasley, Stephanie D; Bhatnagar, Rishi

2005-10-25

Working together efficiently and effectively presents a significant challenge in large-scale, complex, interdisciplinary research projects. Collaboratories are a nascent method to help meet this challenge. However, formal collaboratories in biomedical research centers are the exception rather than the rule. The main purpose of this paper is to compare and describe two collaboratories that used off-the-shelf tools and relatively modest resources to support the scientific activity of two biomedical research centers. The two centers were the Great Lakes Regional Center for AIDS Research (HIV/AIDS Center) and the New York University Oral Cancer Research for Adolescent and Adult Health Promotion Center (Oral Cancer Center). In each collaboratory, we used semistructured interviews, surveys, and contextual inquiry to assess user needs and define the technology requirements. We evaluated and selected commercial software applications by comparing their feature sets with requirements and then pilot-testing the applications. Local and remote support staff cooperated in the implementation and end user training for the collaborative tools. Collaboratory staff evaluated each implementation by analyzing utilization data, administering user surveys, and functioning as participant observers. The HIV/AIDS Center primarily required real-time interaction for developing projects and attracting new participants to the center; the Oral Cancer Center, on the other hand, mainly needed tools to support distributed and asynchronous work in small research groups. The HIV/AIDS Center's collaboratory included a center-wide website that also served as the launch point for collaboratory applications, such as NetMeeting, Timbuktu Conference, PlaceWare Auditorium, and iVisit. The collaboratory of the Oral Cancer Center used Groove and Genesys Web conferencing. The HIV/AIDS Center was successful in attracting new scientists to HIV/AIDS research, and members used the collaboratory for developing and

Comparative Case Study of Two Biomedical Research Collaboratories

PubMed Central

Teasley, Stephanie D; Bhatnagar, Rishi

2005-01-01

Background Working together efficiently and effectively presents a significant challenge in large-scale, complex, interdisciplinary research projects. Collaboratories are a nascent method to help meet this challenge. However, formal collaboratories in biomedical research centers are the exception rather than the rule. Objective The main purpose of this paper is to compare and describe two collaboratories that used off-the-shelf tools and relatively modest resources to support the scientific activity of two biomedical research centers. The two centers were the Great Lakes Regional Center for AIDS Research (HIV/AIDS Center) and the New York University Oral Cancer Research for Adolescent and Adult Health Promotion Center (Oral Cancer Center). Methods In each collaboratory, we used semistructured interviews, surveys, and contextual inquiry to assess user needs and define the technology requirements. We evaluated and selected commercial software applications by comparing their feature sets with requirements and then pilot-testing the applications. Local and remote support staff cooperated in the implementation and end user training for the collaborative tools. Collaboratory staff evaluated each implementation by analyzing utilization data, administering user surveys, and functioning as participant observers. Results The HIV/AIDS Center primarily required real-time interaction for developing projects and attracting new participants to the center; the Oral Cancer Center, on the other hand, mainly needed tools to support distributed and asynchronous work in small research groups. The HIV/AIDS Center’s collaboratory included a center-wide website that also served as the launch point for collaboratory applications, such as NetMeeting, Timbuktu Conference, PlaceWare Auditorium, and iVisit. The collaboratory of the Oral Cancer Center used Groove and Genesys Web conferencing. The HIV/AIDS Center was successful in attracting new scientists to HIV/AIDS research, and members

[Biomedical research from philanthropy to scarcity.

PubMed

Addis, Antonio; De Fiore, Luca; Traversa, Giuseppe

2016-10-01

Some huge information technology companies have increased investment in biomedical research: recently Google, Microsoft, and Facebook. The latter presented the ambitious Zuckerberg-Chan Initiative involving three major Californian universities: UC San Francisco, Berkeley and Stanford. These important private investments arouse reflections. First, investing in scientific research improves the corporate image of the most generous companies and it is a great marketing strategy. Second, the availability of private funds is surely useful, especially if these funds are directed to relevant projects, and produce studies conducted and disseminated in a transparent way. Third, private funding should not replace public ones, representing an integration that will not likely affect the determination of the research agenda, which should remain the prerogative of public institutions. Fourth, the researchers involved in public funded projects should benefit from the margin of freedom that private industry promises, both in the decision of research pathways and in their course. Finally, the scarcity of resources is likely to divert energy and attention of the public researchers and this aspect should be considered by decision makers when determining size and recipients of research funding.

Outcome of a Workshop on Applications of Protein Models in Biomedical Research

PubMed Central

Schwede, Torsten; Sali, Andrej; Honig, Barry; Levitt, Michael; Berman, Helen M.; Jones, David; Brenner, Steven E.; Burley, Stephen K.; Das, Rhiju; Dokholyan, Nikolay V.; Dunbrack, Roland L.; Fidelis, Krzysztof; Fiser, Andras; Godzik, Adam; Huang, Yuanpeng Janet; Humblet, Christine; Jacobson, Matthew P.; Joachimiak, Andrzej; Krystek, Stanley R.; Kortemme, Tanja; Kryshtafovych, Andriy; Montelione, Gaetano T.; Moult, John; Murray, Diana; Sanchez, Roberto; Sosnick, Tobin R.; Standley, Daron M.; Stouch, Terry; Vajda, Sandor; Vasquez, Max; Westbrook, John D.; Wilson, Ian A.

2009-01-01

Summary We describe the proceedings and conclusions from a “Workshop on Applications of Protein Models in Biomedical Research” that was held at University of California at San Francisco on 11 and 12 July, 2008. At the workshop, international scientists involved with structure modeling explored (i) how models are currently used in biomedical research, (ii) what the requirements and challenges for different applications are, and (iii) how the interaction between the computational and experimental research communities could be strengthened to advance the field. PMID:19217386

The Biomedical Resource Ontology (BRO) to Enable Resource Discovery in Clinical and Translational Research

PubMed Central

Tenenbaum, Jessica D.; Whetzel, Patricia L.; Anderson, Kent; Borromeo, Charles D.; Dinov, Ivo D.; Gabriel, Davera; Kirschner, Beth; Mirel, Barbara; Morris, Tim; Noy, Natasha; Nyulas, Csongor; Rubenson, David; Saxman, Paul R.; Singh, Harpreet; Whelan, Nancy; Wright, Zach; Athey, Brian D.; Becich, Michael J.; Ginsburg, Geoffrey S.; Musen, Mark A.; Smith, Kevin A.; Tarantal, Alice F.; Rubin, Daniel L; Lyster, Peter

2010-01-01

The biomedical research community relies on a diverse set of resources, both within their own institutions and at other research centers. In addition, an increasing number of shared electronic resources have been developed. Without effective means to locate and query these resources, it is challenging, if not impossible, for investigators to be aware of the myriad resources available, or to effectively perform resource discovery when the need arises. In this paper, we describe the development and use of the Biomedical Resource Ontology (BRO) to enable semantic annotation and discovery of biomedical resources. We also describe the Resource Discovery System (RDS) which is a federated, inter-institutional pilot project that uses the BRO to facilitate resource discovery on the Internet. Through the RDS framework and its associated Biositemaps infrastructure, the BRO facilitates semantic search and discovery of biomedical resources, breaking down barriers and streamlining scientific research that will improve human health. PMID:20955817

ROLE OF INSTITUTIONAL CLIMATE IN FOSTERING DIVERSITY IN BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH WORKFORCE: A CASE STUDY

PubMed Central

Butts, Gary C.; Hurd, Yasmin; Palermo, Ann-Gel S.; Delbrune, Denise; Saran, Suman; Zony, Chati; Krulwich, Terry A.

2012-01-01

This article reviews the barriers to diversity in biomedical research, describes the evolution and efforts to address climate issues to enhance the ability to attract, retain and develop underrepresented minorities (URM) - underrepresented minorities whose underrepresentation is found both in science and medicine, in the graduate school biomedical research doctoral programs (PhD and MD/PhD) at Mount Sinai School of Medicine (MSSM). We also describe the potential beneficial impact of having a climate that supports diversity and inclusion in the biomedical research workforce. MSSM diversity climate efforts are discussed as part of a comprehensive plan to increase diversity in all institutional programs PhD, MD/PhD, MD, and at the residency, post doctoral fellow, and faculty levels. Lessons learned from four decades of targeted programs and activities at MSSM may be of value to other institutions interested in improving diversity in the biomedical science and academic medicine workforce. PMID:22786740

Role of institutional climate in fostering diversity in biomedical research workforce: a case study.

PubMed

Butts, Gary C; Hurd, Yasmin; Palermo, Ann-Gel S; Delbrune, Denise; Saran, Suman; Zony, Chati; Krulwich, Terry A

2012-01-01

This article reviews the barriers to diversity in biomedical research and describes the evolution of efforts to address climate issues to enhance the ability to attract, retain, and develop underrepresented minorities, whose underrepresentation is found both in science and medicine, in the graduate-school biomedical research doctoral programs (PhD and MD/PhD) at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. We also describe the potential beneficial impact of having a climate that supports diversity and inclusion in the biomedical research workforce. The Mount Sinai School of Medicine diversity-climate efforts are discussed as part of a comprehensive plan to increase diversity in all institutional programs: PhD, MD/PhD, and MD, and at the residency, postdoctoral fellow, and faculty levels. Lessons learned from 4 decades of targeted programs and activities at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine may be of value to other institutions interested in improving diversity in the biomedical science and academic medicine workforce. © 2012 Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

Mössbauer spectroscopy in biomedical physics research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Xiufang

1994-12-01

Several applications of Mössbauer spectroscopy (MS) as an analytical tool in research on biomedical physics are reviewed: (1) The evaluation of treatments for some diseases such as thalassemia, iron-overload disease, high altitude polycythemia. (2) Medical research on the effects of environmental factors on the human body, for example, the effects of electromagnetic radiation on human red blood cells (RBCs). Some advantages and weaknesses of MS, a new application of the Mössbauer effect, cancer therapy, and some possible applications such as monitoring the RBCs of the patients before, during, and after surgical operation, are discussed.

Art and science of authorship for biomedical research publication.

PubMed

Harsoor, S S

2016-09-01

Completion of research is logically followed by process of submission of the outcomes for publication. The objective of this article is to sensitise the young potential authors to improve their skill of writing so that the acceptance rate of publication is improved without significant comments and efforts of the editors of the journal. The article is based on the available literature combined with the experience of the author himself as reviewer and editor of biomedical journals. The treatment patterns of clinicians are moving towards evidence-based medical practice. Hence, a clinically relevant research question based on the contemporary knowledge gap is studied using appropriate research methodology. The writers are informed about the criteria to be fulfilled to claim authorship. Finally, emphasis is laid on the essentials of good medical writing necessary for publication. The writing for submission to biomedical journal is both an art and science in itself. A scientifically well-conducted study along with a sound knowledge of the mechanics of writing will enable the novices to achieve better acceptance rate for publication.

National Space Biomedical Research Institute

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2005-01-01

NSBRI partners with NASA to develop countermeasures against the deleterious effects of long duration space flight. NSBRI's science and technology projects are directed toward this goal, which is accomplished by: 1. Designing, testing and validating effective countermeasures to address the biological and environmental impediments to long-term human space flight. 2. Defining the molecular, cellular, organ-level, integrated responses and mechanistic relationships that ultimately determine these impediments, where such activity fosters the development of novel countermeasures. 3. Establishing biomedical support technologies to maximize human performance in space, reduce biomedical hazards to an acceptable level and deliver quality medical care. 4. Transferring and disseminating the biomedical advances in knowledge and technology acquired through living and working in space to the general benefit of humankind; including the treatment of patients suffering from gravity- and radiation-related conditions on Earth. and 5. ensuring open involvement of the scientific community,industry and the public in the Institute's activities and fostering a robust collaboration with NASA, particularly through JSC.

The normative dimensions of extending the human lifespan by age-related biomedical innovations.

PubMed

Ehni, Hans-Joerg; Marckmann, Georg

2008-10-01

The current normative debate on age-related biomedical innovations and the extension of the human lifespan has important shortcomings. Mainly, the complexity of the different normative dimensions relevant for ethical and/or juridicial norms is not fully developed and the normative quality of teleological and deontological arguments is not properly distinguished. This article addresses some of these shortcomings and develops the outline of a more comprehensive normative framework covering all relevant dimensions. Such a frame necessarily has to include conceptions of a good life on the individual and societal levels. Furthermore, as a third dimension, a model for the access to and the just distribution of age-related biomedical innovations and technologies extending the human lifespan will be developed. It is argued that such a model has to include the different levels of the general philosophical theories of distributive justice, including social rights and theories of just health care. Furthermore, it has to show how these theories can be applied to the problem area of aging and extending the human lifespan.

caGrid 1.0: an enterprise Grid infrastructure for biomedical research.

PubMed

Oster, Scott; Langella, Stephen; Hastings, Shannon; Ervin, David; Madduri, Ravi; Phillips, Joshua; Kurc, Tahsin; Siebenlist, Frank; Covitz, Peter; Shanbhag, Krishnakant; Foster, Ian; Saltz, Joel

2008-01-01

To develop software infrastructure that will provide support for discovery, characterization, integrated access, and management of diverse and disparate collections of information sources, analysis methods, and applications in biomedical research. An enterprise Grid software infrastructure, called caGrid version 1.0 (caGrid 1.0), has been developed as the core Grid architecture of the NCI-sponsored cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG) program. It is designed to support a wide range of use cases in basic, translational, and clinical research, including 1) discovery, 2) integrated and large-scale data analysis, and 3) coordinated study. The caGrid is built as a Grid software infrastructure and leverages Grid computing technologies and the Web Services Resource Framework standards. It provides a set of core services, toolkits for the development and deployment of new community provided services, and application programming interfaces for building client applications. The caGrid 1.0 was released to the caBIG community in December 2006. It is built on open source components and caGrid source code is publicly and freely available under a liberal open source license. The core software, associated tools, and documentation can be downloaded from the following URL: https://cabig.nci.nih.gov/workspaces/Architecture/caGrid. While caGrid 1.0 is designed to address use cases in cancer research, the requirements associated with discovery, analysis and integration of large scale data, and coordinated studies are common in other biomedical fields. In this respect, caGrid 1.0 is the realization of a framework that can benefit the entire biomedical community.

Southwest Research Institute assistance to NASA in biomedical areas of the technology utilization program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Culclasure, D. F.; Sigmon, J. L.; Carter, J. M.

1973-01-01

The activities are reported of the NASA Biomedical Applications Team at Southwest Research Institute between 25 August, 1972 and 15 November, 1973. The program background and methodology are discussed along with the technology applications, and biomedical community impacts.

Accelerator mass spectrometry in biomedical research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vogel, J. S.; Turteltaub, K. W.

1994-06-01

Biological effects occur in natural systems at chemical concentrations of parts per billion (1:10 9) or less. Affected biomolecules may be separable in only milligram or microgram quantities. Quantification at attomole sensitivity is needed to study these interactions. AMS measures isotope concentrations to parts per 10 13-15 on milligram-sized samples and is ideal for quantifying long-lived radioisotopic labels for tracing biochemical pathways in natural systems. 14C-AMS has now been coupled to a variety of organic separation and definition technologies. Our primary research investigates pharmacokinetics and genotoxicities of toxins and drugs at very low doses. Human subjects research using AMS includes nutrition, toxicity and elemental balance studies. 3H, 41Ca and 26Al are also traced by AMS for fundamental biochemical kinetic research. Expansion of biomedical AMS awaits further development of biochemical and accelerator technologies designed specifically for these applications.

Adolescent Self-Consent for Biomedical Human Immunodeficiency Virus Prevention Research.

PubMed

Gilbert, Amy Lewis; Knopf, Amelia S; Fortenberry, J Dennis; Hosek, Sybil G; Kapogiannis, Bill G; Zimet, Gregory D

2015-07-01

The Adolescent Medicine Trials Network Protocol 113 (ATN113) is an open-label, multisite demonstration project and Phase II safety study of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) preexposure prophylaxis with 15- to 17-year-old young men who have sex with men that requires adolescent consent for participation. The purpose of this study was to examine factors related to the process by which Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) and researchers made decisions regarding whether to approve and implement ATN113 so as to inform future biomedical HIV prevention research with high-risk adolescent populations. Participants included 17 researchers at 13 sites in 12 states considering ATN113 implementation. Qualitative descriptive methods were used. Data sources included interviews and documents generated during the initiation process. A common process for initiating ATN113 emerged, and informants described how they identified and addressed practical, ethical, and legal challenges that arose. Informants described the process as responding to the protocol, preparing for IRB submission, abstaining from or proceeding with submission, responding to IRB concerns, and reacting to the outcomes. A complex array of factors impacting approval and implementation were identified, and ATN113 was ultimately implemented in seven of 13 sites. Informants also reflected on lessons learned that may help inform future biomedical HIV prevention research with high-risk adolescent populations. The results illustrate factors for consideration in determining whether to implement such trials, demonstrate that such protocols have the potential to be approved, and highlight a need for clearer standards regarding biomedical HIV prevention research with high-risk adolescent populations. Copyright © 2015 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Eli Lilly and Company's bioethics framework for human biomedical research.

PubMed

Van Campen, Luann E; Therasse, Donald G; Klopfenstein, Mitchell; Levine, Robert J

2015-11-01

Current ethics and good clinical practice guidelines address various aspects of pharmaceutical research and development, but do not comprehensively address the bioethical responsibilities of sponsors. To fill this void, in 2010 Eli Lilly and Company developed and implemented a Bioethics Framework for Human Biomedical Research to guide ethical decisions. (See our companion article that describes how the framework was developed and implemented and provides a critique of its usefulness and limitations.) This paper presents the actual framework that serves as a company resource for employee education and bioethics deliberations. The framework consists of four basic ethical principles and 13 essential elements for ethical human biomedical research and resides within the context of our company's mission, vision and values. For each component of the framework, we provide a high-level overview followed by a detailed description with cross-references to relevant well regarded guidance documents. The principles and guidance described should be familiar to those acquainted with research ethics. Therefore the novelty of the framework lies not in the foundational concepts presented as much as the attempt to specify and compile a sponsor's bioethical responsibilities to multiple stakeholders into one resource. When such a framework is employed, it can serve as a bioethical foundation to inform decisions and actions throughout clinical planning, trial design, study implementation and closeout, as well as to inform company positions on bioethical issues. The framework is, therefore, a useful tool for translating ethical aspirations into action - to help ensure pharmaceutical human biomedical research is conducted in a manner that aligns with consensus ethics principles, as well as a sponsor's core values.

Semicompeting risks in aging research: methods, issues and needs

PubMed Central

Varadhan, Ravi; Xue, Qian-Li; Bandeen-Roche, Karen

2015-01-01

A semicompeting risks problem involves two-types of events: a nonterminal and a terminal event (death). Typically, the nonterminal event is the focus of the study, but the terminal event can preclude the occurrence of the nonterminal event. Semicompeting risks are ubiquitous in studies of aging. Examples of semicompeting risk dyads include: dementia and death, frailty syndrome and death, disability and death, and nursing home placement and death. Semicompeting risk models can be divided into two broad classes: models based only on observables quantities (class O) and those based on potential (latent) failure times (class L). The classical illness-death model belongs to class O. This model is a special case of the multistate models, which has been an active area of methodology development. During the past decade and a half, there has also been a flurry of methodological activity on semicompeting risks based on latent failure times (L models). These advances notwithstanding, the semi-competing risks methodology has not penetrated biomedical research, in general, and gerontological research, in particular. Some possible reasons for this lack of uptake are: the methods are relatively new and sophisticated, conceptual problems associated with potential failure time models are difficult to overcome, paucity of expository articles aimed at educating practitioners, and non-availability of readily usable software. The main goals of this review article are: (i) to describe the major types of semicompeting risks problems arising in aging research, (ii) to provide a brief survey of the semicompeting risks methods, (iii) to suggest appropriate methods for addressing the problems in aging research, (iv) to highlight areas where more work is needed, and (v) to suggest ways to facilitate the uptake of the semicompeting risks methodology by the broader biomedical research community. PMID:24729136

Biomedical scientists' perception of the social sciences in health research.

PubMed

Albert, Mathieu; Laberge, Suzanne; Hodges, Brian D; Regehr, Glenn; Lingard, Lorelei

2008-06-01

The growing interest in interdisciplinary research within the Canadian health sciences sector has been manifested by initiatives aimed at increasing the involvement of the social sciences in this sector. Drawing on Bourdieu's concept of field and Knorr-Cetina's concept of epistemic culture, this study explores the extent to which it is possible for the social sciences to integrate into, and thrive in, a field in which the experimental paradigm occupies a hegemonic position. Thirty-one semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore biomedical scientists' receptiveness toward the social sciences in general and to qualitative research in particular. We found that these respondents exhibited a predominantly negative posture toward the social sciences; however, we also found considerable variation in their judgments and explanations. Eight biomedical scientists tended to be receptive to the social sciences, 7 ambivalent, and 16 unreceptive. The main rationale expressed by receptive respondents is that the legitimacy of a method depends on its capacity to adequately respond to a research question and not on its conformity to the experimental canon. Unreceptive respondents maintained that the social sciences cannot generate valid and reliable results because they are not conducive to the experimental design as a methodological approach. Ambivalent respondents were characterized by their cautiously accepting posture toward the social sciences and, especially, by their reservations about qualitative methods. Based on the biomedical scientists' limited receptiveness, we can anticipate that the growth of the social sciences will continue to meet obstacles within the health research field in the near future in Canada.

[Ethics of biomedical research: questions about patient information].

PubMed

Moutel, Grégoire

2013-02-01

All recommendations and laws concerning biomedical research, including the most recent in France in 2012, emphasize the quality of patient information to justify its participation. To optimize practices, it is important to take into account the central issues: what limits of information? What role for the relatives and family in the decision in case of disability or vulnerability of a patient? What need for specific information for long protocol and follow-up cohort? What information about research results? © 2013 médecine/sciences – Inserm / SRMS.

Women's mental health research: the emergence of a biomedical field.

PubMed

Blehar, Mary C

2006-01-01

This review surveys the field of women's mental health, with particular emphasis on its evolution into a distinct area of biomedical research. The field employs a biomedical disease model but it also emphasizes social and cultural influences on health outcomes. In recent years, its scope has expanded beyond studies of disorders occurring in women at times of reproductive transitions and it now encompasses a broader study of sex and gender differences. Historical and conceptual influences on the field are discussed. The review also surveys gender differences in the prevalence and clinical manifestations of mental disorders. Epidemiological findings have provided a rich resource for theory development, but without research tools to test theories adequately, findings of gender differences have begged the question of their biological, social, and cultural origins. Clinical depression is used to exemplify the usefulness of a sex/gender perspective in understanding mental illness; and major theories proposed to account for gender differences are critically evaluated. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary federal funding source for biomedical women's mental health research. The review surveys areas of emphasis in women's mental health research at the NIH as well as some collaborative activities that represent efforts to translate research findings into the public health and services arenas. As new analytic methods become available, it is anticipated that a more fundamental understanding of the biological and behavioral mechanisms underlying sex and gender differences in mental illness will emerge. Nonetheless, it is also likely that integration of findings predicated on different conceptual models of the nature and causes of mental illness will remain a challenge. These issues are discussed with reference to their impact on the field of women's mental health research.

Introduction to Oxidative Stress in Biomedical and Biological Research

PubMed Central

Breitenbach, Michael; Eckl, Peter

2015-01-01

Oxidative stress is now a well-researched area with thousands of new articles appearing every year. We want to give the reader here an overview of the topics in biomedical and basic oxidative stress research which are covered by the authors of this thematic issue. We also want to give the newcomer a short introduction into some of the basic concepts, definitions and analytical procedures used in this field. PMID:26117854

Importance of intellectual property generated by biomedical research at universities and academic hospitals.

PubMed

Heus, Joris J; de Pauw, Elmar S; Leloux, Mirjam; Morpurgo, Margherita; Hamblin, Michael R; Heger, Michal

2017-01-01

Biomedical research has many different facets. Researchers and clinicians study disease biology and biochemistry to discover novel therapeutic targets, unravel biochemical pathways and identify biomarkers to improve diagnosis, or devise new approaches to clinically manage diseases more effectively. In all instances, the overall goal of biomedical research is to ensure that results thereof (such as a therapy, a device, or a method which may be broadly referred to as "inventions") are clinically implemented. Most of the researchers' efforts are centered on the advance of technical and scientific aspects of an invention. The development and implementation of an invention can be arduous and very costly. Historically, it has proven to be crucial to protect intellectual property rights (IPR) to an invention (i.e., a patent) to ensure that companies can obtain a fair return on their investment that is needed to develop an academic invention into a product for the benefit of patients. However, the importance of IPR is not generally acknowledged among researchers at academic institutions active in biomedical research. Therefore this paper aims to (1) raise IP awareness amongst clinical and translational researchers; (2) provide a concise overview of what the patenting trajectory entails; and (3) highlight the importance of patenting for research and the researcher. Adequate patent protection of inventions generated through biomedical research at academic institutions increases the probability that patients will benefit from these inventions, and indirectly enables the financing of clinical studies, mainly by opening up funding opportunities (e.g. specific grants aimed at start-ups, pre-seed and seed capital) that otherwise would not be accessible. As a consequence, patented inventions are more likely to become clinically tested and reach the market, providing patients with more treatment options.

Applications of nanotechnology, next generation sequencing and microarrays in biomedical research.

PubMed

Elingaramil, Sauli; Li, Xiaolong; He, Nongyue

2013-07-01

Next-generation sequencing technologies, microarrays and advances in bio nanotechnology have had an enormous impact on research within a short time frame. This impact appears certain to increase further as many biomedical institutions are now acquiring these prevailing new technologies. Beyond conventional sampling of genome content, wide-ranging applications are rapidly evolving for next-generation sequencing, microarrays and nanotechnology. To date, these technologies have been applied in a variety of contexts, including whole-genome sequencing, targeted re sequencing and discovery of transcription factor binding sites, noncoding RNA expression profiling and molecular diagnostics. This paper thus discusses current applications of nanotechnology, next-generation sequencing technologies and microarrays in biomedical research and highlights the transforming potential these technologies offer.

Animals in biomedical space research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Phillips, Robert W.

The use of experimental animals has been a major component of biomedical research progress. Using animals in space presents special problems, but also provides special opportunities. Rat and squirrel monkeys experiments have been planned in concert with human experiments to help answer fundamental questions concerning the effect of weightlessness on mammalian function. For the most part, these experiments focus on identified changes noted in humans during space flight. Utilizing space laboratory facilities, manipulative experiments can be completed while animals are still in orbit. Other experiments are designed to study changes in gravity receptor structure and function and the effect of weightlessness on early vertebrate development. Following these preliminary animals experiments on Spacelab Shuttle flights, longer term programs of animal investigation will be conducted on Space Station.

Development and Validation of the Biomedical Research Trust Scale (BRTS) in English and Spanish.

PubMed

Baik, Sharon H; Arevalo, Mariana; Gwede, Clement; Meade, Cathy D; Jacobsen, Paul B; Quinn, Gwendolyn P; Wells, Kristen J

2016-10-01

This study developed and validated the Biomedical Research Trust Scale (BRTS), a 10-item measure of global trust in biomedical research, in English and Spanish (BRTS-SP). In total, 85 English- and 85 Spanish-speaking participants completed the BRTS or BRTS-SP, as well as measures of biobanking attitudes, self-efficacy, receptivity, and intentions to donate blood or urine. Results indicated the BRTS and BRTS-SP showed adequate internal consistency in both English and Spanish. In addition, greater levels of trust in biomedical research were significantly associated with greater self-efficacy, receptivity, attitudes, and intentions to donate blood and urine in English-speaking participants, and self-efficacy and intention to donate urine in Spanish-speaking participants. These results support the use of the BRTS and BRTS-SP among English- and Spanish-speaking community members.

Boundary-Work in the Health Research Field: Biomedical and Clinician Scientists' Perceptions of Social Science Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Albert, Mathieu; Laberge, Suzanne; Hodges, Brian D.

2009-01-01

Funding agencies in Canada are attempting to break down the organizational boundaries between disciplines to promote interdisciplinary research and foster the integration of the social sciences into the health research field. This paper explores the extent to which biomedical and clinician scientists' perceptions of social science research operate…

Importance of intellectual property generated by biomedical research at universities and academic hospitals

PubMed Central

Heus, Joris J.; de Pauw, Elmar S.; Leloux, Mirjam; Morpurgo, Margherita; Hamblin, Michael R; Heger, Michal

2017-01-01

Biomedical research has many different facets. Researchers and clinicians study disease biology and biochemistry to discover novel therapeutic targets, unravel biochemical pathways and identify biomarkers to improve diagnosis, or devise new approaches to clinically manage diseases more effectively. In all instances, the overall goal of biomedical research is to ensure that results thereof (such as a therapy, a device, or a method which may be broadly referred to as “inventions”) are clinically implemented. Most of the researchers’ efforts are centered on the advance of technical and scientific aspects of an invention. The development and implementation of an invention can be arduous and very costly. Historically, it has proven to be crucial to protect intellectual property rights (IPR) to an invention (i.e., a patent) to ensure that companies can obtain a fair return on their investment that is needed to develop an academic invention into a product for the benefit of patients. However, the importance of IPR is not generally acknowledged among researchers at academic institutions active in biomedical research. Therefore this paper aims to (1) raise IP awareness amongst clinical and translational researchers; (2) provide a concise overview of what the patenting trajectory entails; and (3) highlight the importance of patenting for research and the researcher. Importance for patients Adequate patent protection of inventions generated through biomedical research at academic institutions increases the probability that patients will benefit from these inventions, and indirectly enables the financing of clinical studies, mainly by opening up funding opportunities (e.g. specific grants aimed at start-ups, pre-seed and seed capital) that otherwise would not be accessible. As a consequence, patented inventions are more likely to become clinically tested and reach the market, providing patients with more treatment options. PMID:29623295

Diversity in the biomedical research workforce: developing talent.

PubMed

McGee, Richard; Saran, Suman; Krulwich, Terry A

2012-01-01

Much has been written about the need for and barriers to achievement of greater diversity in the biomedical workforce from the perspectives of gender, race, and ethnicity; this is not a new topic. These discussions often center around a "pipeline" metaphor that imagines students flowing through a series of experiences to eventually arrive at a science career. Here we argue that diversity will only be achieved if the primary focus is on (1) what is happening within the pipeline, not just counting individuals entering and leaving it; (2) de-emphasizing the achievement of academic milestones by typical ages; and (3) adopting approaches that most effectively develop talent. Students may develop skills at different rates based on factors such as earlier access to educational resources, exposure to science (especially research experiences), and competing demands for time and attention during high school and college. Therefore, there is wide variety among students at any point along the pipeline. Taking this view requires letting go of imagining the pipeline as a sequence of age-dependent steps in favor of milestones of skill and talent development decoupled from age or educational stage. Emphasizing talent development opens up many new approaches for science training outside of traditional degree programs. This article provides examples of such approaches, including interventions at the postbaccalaureate and PhD levels, as well as a novel coaching model that incorporates well-established social science theories and complements traditional mentoring. These approaches could significantly impact diversity by developing scientific talent, especially among currently underrepresented minorities. © 2012 Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

DIVERSITY IN THE BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH WORKFORCE: DEVELOPING TALENT

PubMed Central

McGee, Richard; Saran, Suman; Krulwich, Terry A.

2012-01-01

Much has been written about the need for and barriers to achievement of greater diversity in the biomedical workforce from the perspectives of gender, race and ethnicity; this is not a new topic. These discussions often center around a ‘pipeline metaphor’ which imagines students flowing through a series of experiences to eventually arrive at a science career. Here we argue that diversity will only be achieved if the primary focus is on: what is happening within the pipeline, not just counting individuals entering and leaving it; de-emphasizing achieving academic milestones by ‘typical’ ages; and adopting approaches that most effectively develop talent. Students may develop skills at different rates based on factors such as earlier access to educational resources, exposure to science (especially research experiences), and competing demands for time and attention during high school and college. Therefore, there is wide variety among students at any point along the pipeline. Taking this view requires letting go of imagining the pipeline as a sequence of age-dependent steps in favor of milestones of skill and talent development decoupled from age or educational stage. Emphasizing talent development opens up many new approaches for science training outside of traditional degree programs. This article provides examples of such approaches, including interventions at the post-baccalaureate and PhD levels, as well as a novel coaching model that incorporates well-established social science theories and complements traditional mentoring. These approaches could significantly impact diversity by developing scientific talent, especially among currently underrepresented minorities. PMID:22678863

Reasons behind the participation in biomedical research: a brief review.

PubMed

Dainesi, Sonia Mansoldo; Goldbaum, Moisés

2014-12-01

Clinical research is essential for the advancement of Medicine, especially regarding the development of new drugs. Understanding the reasons behind patients' decision of participating in these studies is critical for the recruitment and retention in the research. To examine the decision-making of participants in biomedical research, taking into account different settings and environments where clinical research is performed. A critical review of the literature was performed through several databases using the keywords: "motivation", "decision", "reason", "biomedical research", "clinical research", "recruitment", "enrollment", "participation", "benefits", "altruism", "decline", "vulnerability" and "ethics", between August and November 2013, in English and in Portuguese. The review pointed out that the reasons can be different according to some characteristics such as the disease being treated, study phase, prognoses and socioeconomic and cultural environment. Access to better health care, personal benefits, financial rewards and altruism are mentioned depending on the circumstances. Finding out more about individuals' reasons for taking part in the research will allow clinical investigators to design studies of greater benefit for the community and will probably help to remove undesirable barriers imposed to participation. Improving the information to health care professionals and patients on the benefits and risks of clinical trials is certainly a good start.

caGrid 1.0: An Enterprise Grid Infrastructure for Biomedical Research

PubMed Central

Oster, Scott; Langella, Stephen; Hastings, Shannon; Ervin, David; Madduri, Ravi; Phillips, Joshua; Kurc, Tahsin; Siebenlist, Frank; Covitz, Peter; Shanbhag, Krishnakant; Foster, Ian; Saltz, Joel

2008-01-01

Objective To develop software infrastructure that will provide support for discovery, characterization, integrated access, and management of diverse and disparate collections of information sources, analysis methods, and applications in biomedical research. Design An enterprise Grid software infrastructure, called caGrid version 1.0 (caGrid 1.0), has been developed as the core Grid architecture of the NCI-sponsored cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG™) program. It is designed to support a wide range of use cases in basic, translational, and clinical research, including 1) discovery, 2) integrated and large-scale data analysis, and 3) coordinated study. Measurements The caGrid is built as a Grid software infrastructure and leverages Grid computing technologies and the Web Services Resource Framework standards. It provides a set of core services, toolkits for the development and deployment of new community provided services, and application programming interfaces for building client applications. Results The caGrid 1.0 was released to the caBIG community in December 2006. It is built on open source components and caGrid source code is publicly and freely available under a liberal open source license. The core software, associated tools, and documentation can be downloaded from the following URL: https://cabig.nci.nih.gov/workspaces/Architecture/caGrid. Conclusions While caGrid 1.0 is designed to address use cases in cancer research, the requirements associated with discovery, analysis and integration of large scale data, and coordinated studies are common in other biomedical fields. In this respect, caGrid 1.0 is the realization of a framework that can benefit the entire biomedical community. PMID:18096909

CPTAC Accelerates Precision Proteomics Biomedical Research | Office of Cancer Clinical Proteomics Research

Cancer.gov

The accurate quantitation of proteins or peptides using Mass Spectrometry (MS) is gaining prominence in the biomedical research community as an alternative method for analyte measurement. The Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium (CPTAC) investigators have been at the forefront in the promotion of reproducible MS techniques, through the development and application of standardized proteomic methods for protein quantitation on biologically relevant samples.

Science communication in the field of fundamental biomedical research (editorial).

PubMed

Illingworth, Sam; Prokop, Andreas

2017-10-01

The aim of this special issue on science communication is to inspire and help scientists who are taking part or want to take part in science communication and engage with the wider public, clinicians, other scientists or policy makers. For this, some articles provide concise and accessible advice to individual scientists, science networks, or learned societies on how to communicate effectively; others share rationales, objectives and aims, experiences, implementation strategies and resources derived from existing long-term science communication initiatives. Although this issue is primarily addressing scientists working in the field of biomedical research, much of it similarly applies to scientists from other disciplines. Furthermore, we hope that this issue will also be used as a helpful resource by academic science communicators and social scientists, as a collection that highlights some of the major communication challenges that the biomedical sciences face, and which provides interesting case studies of initiatives that use a breadth of strategies to address these challenges. In this editorial, we first discuss why we should communicate our science and contemplate some of the different approaches, aspirations and definitions of science communication. We then address the specific challenges that researchers in the biomedical sciences are faced with when engaging with wider audiences. Finally, we explain the rationales and contents of the different articles in this issue and the various science communication initiatives and strategies discussed in each of them, whilst also providing some information on the wide range of further science communication activities in the biomedical sciences that could not all be covered here. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Development and Validation of the Biomedical Research Trust Scale (BRTS) in English and Spanish

PubMed Central

Baik, Sharon H.; Arevalo, Mariana; Gwede, Clement; Meade, Cathy D.; Jacobsen, Paul B.; Quinn, Gwendolyn P.; Wells, Kristen J.

2016-01-01

This study developed and validated the Biomedical Research Trust Scale (BRTS), a 10-item measure of global trust in biomedical research, in English and Spanish (BRTS-SP). In total, 85 English- and 85 Spanish-speaking participants completed the BRTS or BRTS-SP, as well as measures of biobanking attitudes, self-efficacy, receptivity, and intentions to donate blood or urine. Results indicated the BRTS and BRTS-SP showed adequate internal consistency in both English and Spanish. In addition, greater levels of trust in biomedical research were significantly associated with greater self-efficacy, receptivity, attitudes, and intentions to donate blood and urine in English-speaking participants, and self-efficacy and intention to donate urine in Spanish-speaking participants. These results support the use of the BRTS and BRTS-SP among English- and Spanish-speaking community members. PMID:27646400

100 Metrics to Assess and Communicate the Value of Biomedical Research: An Ideas Book.

PubMed

Guthrie, Susan; Krapels, Joachim; Lichten, Catherine A; Wooding, Steven

2017-01-01

Biomedical research affects society in many ways. It has been shown to improve health, create jobs, add to our knowledge, and foster new collaborations. Despite the complexity of modern research, many of the metrics used to evaluate the impacts of research still focus on the traditional, often academic, part of the research pathway, covering areas such as the amount of grant funding received and the number of peer-reviewed publications. In response to increasing expectations of accountability and transparency, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), in collaboration with RAND Europe, undertook a project to help communicate the wider value of biomedical research. The initiative developed resources to support academic medical centers in evaluating the outcomes and impacts of their research using approaches relevant to various stakeholders, including patients, providers, administrators, and legislators. This study presents 100 ideas for metrics that can be used to assess and communicate the value of biomedical research. The list is not comprehensive, and the metrics are not fully developed, but they should serve to stimulate and broaden thinking about how academic medical centers can communicate the value of their research to a broad range of stakeholders.

Biomimicry in biomedical research

PubMed Central

Zhang, Ge

2012-01-01

Biomimicry (literally defined as the imitation of life or nature) has sparked a variety of human innovations and inspired countless cutting-edge designs. From spider silk-made artificial skin to lotus leaf-inspired self-cleaning materials, biomimicry endeavors to solve human problems. Biomimetic approaches have contributed significantly to advances biomedical research during recent years. Using polyacrylamide gels to mimic the elastic modulus of different biological tissues, Disher’s lab has directed meschymal stem cell differentiation into specific lineages.1 They have shown that soft substrates mimicking the elastic modulus of brain tissues (0.1~1 kPa) were neurogenic, substrates of intermediate elastic modulus mimicking muscle (8 ~17 kPa) were myogenic, and substrates with bone-like elastic modulus (25~40 kPa) were osteogenic. This work represents a novel way to regulate the fate of stem cells and exerts profound influence on stem cell research. Biomimcry also drives improvements in tissue engineering. Novel scaffolds have been designed to capture extracellular matrix-like structures, binding of ligands, sustained release of cytokines, and mechanical properties intrinsic to specific tissues for tissue engineering applications.2,3 For example, tissue engineering skin grafts have been designed to mimic the cell composition and layered structure of native skin.4 Similarly, in the field of regenerative medicine, researchers aim to create biomimetic scaffolds to mimic the properties of a native stem cell environment (niche) to dynamically interact with the entrapped stem cells and direct their response.5 PMID:23275257

Wild-derived mouse stocks: an underappreciated tool for aging research

PubMed Central

2008-01-01

Virtually all biomedical research makes use of a relatively small pool of laboratory-adapted, inbred, isogenic stocks of mice. Although the advantages of these models are many, there are a number of disadvantages as well. When studying a multifaceted process such as aging, the problems associated with using laboratory stocks are greatly inflated. On the other hand, wild-derived mouse stocks, loosely defined here as either wild-caught individuals or the recent progeny of wild-caught individuals, have much to offer to biogerontology research. Hence, the aims of this review are threefold: (1) to (re)acquaint readers with the pros and cons of using a typical inbred laboratory mouse model for aging research; (2) to reintroduce the notion of using wild-derived mouse stocks in aging research as championed by Austad, Miller and others for more than a decade, and (3) to provide an overview of recent advances in biogerontology using wild-derived mouse stocks. PMID:19424863

Architecture of a Biomedical Informatics Research Data Management Pipeline.

PubMed

Bauer, Christian R; Umbach, Nadine; Baum, Benjamin; Buckow, Karoline; Franke, Thomas; Grütz, Romanus; Gusky, Linda; Nussbeck, Sara Yasemin; Quade, Matthias; Rey, Sabine; Rottmann, Thorsten; Rienhoff, Otto; Sax, Ulrich

2016-01-01

In University Medical Centers, heterogeneous data are generated that cannot always be clearly attributed to patient care or biomedical research. Each data set has to adhere to distinct intrinsic and operational quality standards. However, only if high-quality data, tools to work with the data, and most importantly guidelines and rules of how to work with the data are addressed adequately, an infrastructure can be sustainable. Here, we present the IT Research Architecture of the University Medical Center Göttingen and describe our ten years' experience and lessons learned with infrastructures in networked medical research.

Economies of scale and scope in publicly funded biomedical and health research: evidence from the literature.

PubMed

Hernandez-Villafuerte, Karla; Sussex, Jon; Robin, Enora; Guthrie, Sue; Wooding, Steve

2017-02-02

Publicly funded biomedical and health research is expected to achieve the best return possible for taxpayers and for society generally. It is therefore important to know whether such research is more productive if concentrated into a small number of 'research groups' or dispersed across many. We undertook a systematic rapid evidence assessment focused on the research question: do economies of scale and scope exist in biomedical and health research? In other words, is that research more productive per unit of cost if more of it, or a wider variety of it, is done in one location? We reviewed English language literature without date restriction to the end of 2014. To help us to classify and understand that literature, we first undertook a review of econometric literature discussing models for analysing economies of scale and/or scope in research generally (not limited to biomedical and health research). We found a large and disparate literature. We reviewed 60 empirical studies of (dis-)economies of scale and/or scope in biomedical and health research, or in categories of research including or overlapping with biomedical and health research. This literature is varied in methods and findings. At the level of universities or research institutes, studies more often point to positive economies of scale than to diseconomies of scale or constant returns to scale in biomedical and health research. However, all three findings exist in the literature, along with inverse U-shaped relationships. At the level of individual research units, laboratories or projects, the numbers of studies are smaller and evidence is mixed. Concerning economies of scope, the literature more often suggests positive economies of scope than diseconomies, but the picture is again mixed. The effect of varying the scope of activities by a research group was less often reported than the effect of scale and the results were more mixed. The absence of predominant findings for or against the existence of

Disadvantages of publishing biomedical research articles in English for non-native speakers of English

PubMed Central

Rezaeian, Mohsen

2015-01-01

OBJECTIVES: English has become the most frequently used language for scientific communication in the biomedical field. Therefore, scholars from all over the world try to publish their findings in English. This trend has a number of advantages, along with several disadvantages. METHODS: In the current article, the most important disadvantages of publishing biomedical research articles in English for non-native speakers of English are reviewed. RESULTS: The most important disadvantages of publishing biomedical research articles in English for non-native speakers may include: Overlooking, either unintentionally or even deliberately, the most important local health problems; failure to carry out groundbreaking research due to limited medical research budgets; violating generally accepted codes of publication ethics and committing research misconduct and publications in open-access scam/predatory journals rather than prestigious journals. CONCLUSIONS: The above mentioned disadvantages could eventually result in academic establishments becoming irresponsible or, even worse, corrupt. In order to avoid this, scientists, scientific organizations, academic institutions, and scientific associations all over the world should design and implement a wider range of collaborative and comprehensive plans. PMID:25968115

Disadvantages of publishing biomedical research articles in English for non-native speakers of English.

PubMed

Rezaeian, Mohsen

2015-01-01

English has become the most frequently used language for scientific communication in the biomedical field. Therefore, scholars from all over the world try to publish their findings in English. This trend has a number of advantages, along with several disadvantages. In the current article, the most important disadvantages of publishing biomedical research articles in English for non-native speakers of English are reviewed. The most important disadvantages of publishing biomedical research articles in English for non-native speakers may include: Overlooking, either unintentionally or even deliberately, the most important local health problems; failure to carry out groundbreaking research due to limited medical research budgets; violating generally accepted codes of publication ethics and committing research misconduct and publications in open-access scam/predatory journals rather than prestigious journals. The above mentioned disadvantages could eventually result in academic establishments becoming irresponsible or, even worse, corrupt. In order to avoid this, scientists, scientific organizations, academic institutions, and scientific associations all over the world should design and implement a wider range of collaborative and comprehensive plans.

Observations from the AAMC advisory panel on biomedical research.

PubMed

Cohen, D H

1991-10-01

The author gives a brief history of the events that led to the establishment of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Advisory Panel on Biomedical Research, describes some of its early activities, and discusses some of the issues that the biomedical research community is facing. Specifically, he describes how the competition for research funding that became particularly intense in 1989-90 eroded the well-orchestrated coalition approach to appropriations that had been the norm. Another disturbing development was a growing tension between research faculty and the administrators of their institutions. To address these problems, the author, under the aegis of the AAMC, convened a series of workshops during the summer of 1990 to provide a forum for airing concerns and allowing different groups to become aware of each other's positions and perceptions. These workshops were quite useful and helped in framing some important issues. Also deriving from the workshops was the recognition that a continuing advisory group on research policy was needed; thus the AAMC advisory panel was created. The author describes its unusual characteristics and its importance. Subcommittees were later established to facilitate the effectiveness of the panel. Early in the panel's deliberations it became clear that it was important to bring into the meeting various knowledgeable individuals to educate and interact with panel members. The author concludes by surveying the larger picture of the public's eroding confidence in research universities and higher education in general, the punitive environment that this has created in Congress, the increasingly harsh economic situation, and what these conditions may portend for future research funding.

Effects of an Educational Intervention on Female Biomedical Scientists' Research Self-Efficacy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bakken, Lori L.; Byars-Winston, Angela; Gundermann, Dawn M.; Ward, Earlise C.; Slattery, Angela; King, Andrea; Scott, Denise; Taylor, Robert E.

2010-01-01

Women and people of color continue to be underrepresented among biomedical researchers to an alarming degree. Research interest and subsequent productivity have been shown to be affected by the research training environment through the mediating effects of research self-efficacy. This article presents the findings of a study to determine whether a…

Can small institutes address some problems facing biomedical researchers?

PubMed

Sheetz, Michael P

2014-11-01

At a time of historically low National Institutes of Health funding rates and many problems with the conduct of research (unfunded mandates, disgruntled reviewers, and rampant paranoia), there is a concern that biomedical research as a profession is waning in the United States (see "Rescuing US biomedical research from its systemic flaws" by Alberts and colleagues in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences). However, it is wonderful to discover something new and to tackle tough puzzles. If we could focus more of our effort on discussing scientific problems and doing research, then we could be more productive and perhaps happier. One potential solution is to focus efforts on small thematic institutes in the university structure that can provide a stimulating and supportive environment for innovation and exploration. With an open-lab concept, there are economies of scale that can diminish paperwork and costs, while providing greater access to state-of-the-art equipment. Merging multiple disciplines around a common theme can catalyze innovation, and this enables individuals to develop new concepts without giving up the credit they deserve, because it is usually clear who did the work. Small institutes do not solve larger systemic problems but rather enable collective efforts to address the noisome aspects of the system and foster an innovative community effort to address scientific problems. © 2014 Sheetz.

ReVeaLD: a user-driven domain-specific interactive search platform for biomedical research.

PubMed

Kamdar, Maulik R; Zeginis, Dimitris; Hasnain, Ali; Decker, Stefan; Deus, Helena F

2014-02-01

Bioinformatics research relies heavily on the ability to discover and correlate data from various sources. The specialization of life sciences over the past decade, coupled with an increasing number of biomedical datasets available through standardized interfaces, has created opportunities towards new methods in biomedical discovery. Despite the popularity of semantic web technologies in tackling the integrative bioinformatics challenge, there are many obstacles towards its usage by non-technical research audiences. In particular, the ability to fully exploit integrated information needs using improved interactive methods intuitive to the biomedical experts. In this report we present ReVeaLD (a Real-time Visual Explorer and Aggregator of Linked Data), a user-centered visual analytics platform devised to increase intuitive interaction with data from distributed sources. ReVeaLD facilitates query formulation using a domain-specific language (DSL) identified by biomedical experts and mapped to a self-updated catalogue of elements from external sources. ReVeaLD was implemented in a cancer research setting; queries included retrieving data from in silico experiments, protein modeling and gene expression. ReVeaLD was developed using Scalable Vector Graphics and JavaScript and a demo with explanatory video is available at http://www.srvgal78.deri.ie:8080/explorer. A set of user-defined graphic rules controls the display of information through media-rich user interfaces. Evaluation of ReVeaLD was carried out as a game: biomedical researchers were asked to assemble a set of 5 challenge questions and time and interactions with the platform were recorded. Preliminary results indicate that complex queries could be formulated under less than two minutes by unskilled researchers. The results also indicate that supporting the identification of the elements of a DSL significantly increased intuitiveness of the platform and usability of semantic web technologies by domain users

Genome typing of nonhuman primate models: implications for biomedical research.

PubMed

Haus, Tanja; Ferguson, Betsy; Rogers, Jeffrey; Doxiadis, Gaby; Certa, Ulrich; Rose, Nicola J; Teepe, Robert; Weinbauer, Gerhard F; Roos, Christian

2014-11-01

The success of personalized medicine rests on understanding the genetic variation between individuals. Thus, as medical practice evolves and variation among individuals becomes a fundamental aspect of clinical medicine, a thorough consideration of the genetic and genomic information concerning the animals used as models in biomedical research also becomes critical. In particular, nonhuman primates (NHPs) offer great promise as models for many aspects of human health and disease. These are outbred species exhibiting substantial levels of genetic variation; however, understanding of the contribution of this variation to phenotypes is lagging behind in NHP species. Thus, there is a pivotal need to address this gap and define strategies for characterizing both genomic content and variability within primate models of human disease. Here, we discuss the current state of genomics of NHP models and offer guidelines for future work to ensure continued improvement and utility of this line of biomedical research. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Map of biomedical research in Cameroon; a documentary review of approved protocols from 1997 to 2012.

PubMed

Walter, Ebile Akoh; Jerome, Ateudjieu; Marceline, Djuidje Ngounoue; Yakum, Martin Ndinakie; Pierre, Watcho

2017-11-21

Over the last decade, there has been a rapid increase in biomedical research in Cameroon. However, the question of whether these research projects target major health priorities, vulnerable populations and geographic locations at risk remains to be answered. The aim of this paper is to describe the state of biomedical research in Cameroon which is a key determinant that would guide future health care policies and promote equitable access to healthcare. A documentary review of all approved protocols (proposals) of biomedical research projects, from 1997 through 2012, at the Cameroon National Ethics Committee. Protocols were reviewed systematically by independent reviewers and data were extracted on a grid. Data were analyzed by calculating proportions at 95% confidence interval, chi-square test (chi2) and p-values. Two thousand one hundred seventy two protocols were reviewed for data extraction. One thousand three hundred ninety-five (64.7%) were student projects, 369 (17.0%) projects had international sponsors, and 1528 (72.4%) were hospital-based studies. The most targeted domain was the fight against diseases 1323 (61.3%); mostly HIV 342 (25.8%) and Malaria 136 (10.3%). Over half of the studies were concentrated in the Centre region 1242 (57.2%), with the least projects conducted in the Northern region 15 (0.7%). There was strong evidence that international and local sponsors would influence the research site (p-value = 0.01) and population targets (p-value = 0.00). Although biomedical research targets some important diseases that pose a great burden to Cameroonians, the most vulnerable populations are excluded from research. Biomedical research scarcely addresses other components of the health system and emerging diseases of vital public health importance. We recommend that the government should play a central role, between researchers from academic institutions, sponsors, NGOs and research institutions, to ensure that biomedical research addresses the

Fundamental differences between wildlife and biomedical research.

PubMed

Sikes, Robert S; Paul, Ellen

2013-01-01

Non-human animals have starred in countless productions of biological research. Whether they play the lead or supporting role depends on the nature of the investigation. These differences in the roles of animals affect nearly every facet of animal involvement, including: the choice of species, the sample size, the source of individuals, and the settings in which the animals are used. These roles establish different baselines for animal use that require substantially different ethical considerations. Efficient and appropriate oversight of wildlife research benefits the animals and their investigators. Toward that end, Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUCs) must appreciate the profound differences between biomedical and wildlife research and recognize the value of the state and federal permitting processes required for wildlife studies. These processes assure us that potential impacts beyond the level of the individual are minimal or are justified. Most importantly, IACUCs must recognize that they, and their investigators, have an obligation to use appropriate guidelines for evaluating wildlife research.

Identifying the "vulnerables" in biomedical research: the vox populis from the Tuskegee Legacy Project.

PubMed

Chiu, Christopher T; Katz, Ralph V

2011-01-01

This report presents, for the first time, findings on the vox populis as to who constitutes the "vulnerables in biomedical research" The 3-City Tuskegee Legacy Project (TLP) study used the TLP questionnaire as administered via random-digit-dial telephone interviews to 1162 adult Black people, non-Hispanic White people, and two Puerto Rican (PR) Hispanic groups: Mainland United States and San Juan (SJ) in three cities. The classification schema was based upon respondents' answers to an open-ended question asking which groups of people were the most vulnerable when participating in biomedical research. Subjects provided 749 valid open-ended responses, which were grouped into 29 direct response categories, leading to a four-tier classification schema for vulnerability traits. Tier 1, the summary tier, had five vulnerability categories: (1) Race/ ethnicity; (2) Age; (3) SES; (4) Health; and, (5) Gender. Black people and Mainland United States PR Hispanics most frequently identified Race/Ethnicity as a vulnerability trait (42.1 percent of Black people and 42.6 percent of Mainland United States. PR Hispanics versus 15.4 percent of White people and 16.7 percent of SJ R Hispanics) (P < 0.007), while White people and SJ PR Hispanics most frequently identified Age (48.3 percent and 29.2 percent) as a vulnerability trait. The response patterns on "who was vulnerable" were similar for the two minority groups (Black people and Mainland US PR Hispanics), and notably different from the response patterns of the two majority groups (White people and SJ PR Hispanics). Further, the vox populis definition of vulnerables differed from the current official definitions as used by the U.S. federal government.

Requirement analysis for an electronic laboratory notebook for sustainable data management in biomedical research.

PubMed

Menzel, Julia; Weil, Philipp; Bittihn, Philip; Hornung, Daniel; Mathieu, Nadine; Demiroglu, Sara Y

2013-01-01

Sustainable data management in biomedical research requires documentation of metadata for all experiments and results. Scientists usually document research data and metadata in laboratory paper notebooks. An electronic laboratory notebook (ELN) can keep metadata linked to research data resulting in a better understanding of the research results, meaning a scientific benefit [1]. Besides other challenges [2], the biggest hurdles for introducing an ELN seem to be usability, file formats, and data entry mechanisms [3] and that many ELNs are assigned to specific research fields such as biology, chemistry, or physics [4]. We aimed to identify requirements for the introduction of ELN software in a biomedical collaborative research center [5] consisting of different scientific fields and to find software fulfilling most of these requirements.

Public views on the donation and use of human biological samples in biomedical research: a mixed methods study

PubMed Central

Lewis, Celine; Clotworthy, Margaret; Hilton, Shona; Magee, Caroline; Robertson, Mark J; Stubbins, Lesley J; Corfield, Julie

2013-01-01

Objective A mixed methods study exploring the UK general public's willingness to donate human biosamples (HBSs) for biomedical research. Setting Cross-sectional focus groups followed by an online survey. Participants Twelve focus groups (81 participants) selectively sampled to reflect a range of demographic groups; 1110 survey responders recruited through a stratified sampling method with quotas set on sex, age, geographical location, socioeconomic group and ethnicity. Main outcome measures (1) Identify participants’ willingness to donate HBSs for biomedical research, (2) explore acceptability towards donating different types of HBSs in various settings and (3) explore preferences regarding use and access to HBSs. Results 87% of survey participants thought donation of HBSs was important and 75% wanted to be asked to donate in general. Responders who self-reported having some or good knowledge of the medical research process were significantly more likely to want to donate (p<0.001). Reasons why focus group participants saw donation as important included: it was a good way of reciprocating for the medical treatment received; it was an important way of developing drugs and treatments; residual tissue would otherwise go to waste and they or their family members might benefit. The most controversial types of HBSs to donate included: brain post mortem (29% would donate), eyes post mortem (35%), embryos (44%), spare eggs (48%) and sperm (58%). Regarding the use of samples, there were concerns over animal research (34%), research conducted outside the UK (35%), and research conducted by pharmaceutical companies (56%), although education and discussion were found to alleviate such concerns. Conclusions There is a high level of public support and willingness to donate HBSs for biomedical research. Underlying concerns exist regarding the use of certain types of HBSs and conditions under which they are used. Improved education and more controlled forms of consent for

The development of large-scale de-identified biomedical databases in the age of genomics-principles and challenges.

PubMed

Dankar, Fida K; Ptitsyn, Andrey; Dankar, Samar K

2018-04-10

Contemporary biomedical databases include a wide range of information types from various observational and instrumental sources. Among the most important features that unite biomedical databases across the field are high volume of information and high potential to cause damage through data corruption, loss of performance, and loss of patient privacy. Thus, issues of data governance and privacy protection are essential for the construction of data depositories for biomedical research and healthcare. In this paper, we discuss various challenges of data governance in the context of population genome projects. The various challenges along with best practices and current research efforts are discussed through the steps of data collection, storage, sharing, analysis, and knowledge dissemination.

The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis and public perceptions of biomedical research: a focus group study.

PubMed

Bates, Benjamin R; Harris, Tina M

2004-08-01

African Americans are less likely than European Americans to participate in biomedical research. Researchers often attribute nonparticipation to the "Tuskegee effect." Using critical qualitative analysis of focus group data, we examined the public's use of the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis (TSUS) to discuss biomedical research. Our participants articulated three primary themes in relation to TSUS: 1) that TSUS made them suspicious about biomedical research; 2) that other values had to weigh against concerns about TSUS; and 3) that African Americans could take steps to resolve their concerns about TSUS. African Americans were more likely to discuss TSUS than were European Americans. African Americans did not use TSUS to express simple fear. African Americans suggested issues other than TSUS that influence the decision to participate in research. African Americans indicated specific reforms that would increase participation in research. We discuss how a better understanding of African Americans' use of TSUS can enhance research participation and allay concerns about "another Tuskegee."

The Connectivity Map: a new tool for biomedical research.

PubMed

Lamb, Justin

2007-01-01

The ultimate objective of biomedical research is to connect human diseases with the genes that underlie them and drugs that treat them. But this remains a daunting task, and even the most inspired researchers still have to resort to laborious screens of genetic or chemical libraries. What if at least some parts of this screening process could be systematized and centralized? And hits found and hypotheses generated with something resembling an internet search engine? These are the questions the Connectivity Map project set out to answer.

NASA's Biomedical Research Program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ahn, Chung-Hae

1981-01-01

The biomedical research program has been established to investigate the major physiological and psychological problems encountered by man when he undertakes spaceflight. The program seeks to obtain a better definition of each problem, an understanding of its underlying mechanism, and ultimately a means of prevention. In pursuing these goals the program also includes a major effort to develop the research tools and procedures it needs where these are not being developed elsewhere. After almost twenty years of manned spaceflight activities and after a much longer period of space related ground-based research, the program now recognizes two characteristics of spaceflight which are truly unique to space. These are weightlessness and one specific form of radiation. In its present stage of maturity much of the research focuses on mechanisms underlying the basic responses of man and animals to weightlessness. The program consists of nine elements. Eight of these are referable to specific physiological problems that have either been encountered in previous manned spaceflight or which are anticipated to occur as spaceflights last longer, traverse steeper orbital inclinations, or are otherwise different from previous missions. The ninth addresses problems that have neither arisen nor can be reasonably predicted but are suspected on the basis of theoretical models, ground-based animal research, or for other reasons. The program's current emphasis is directed toward the motion sickness problem because of its relevance to Space Shuttle operations. Increased awareness and understanding of the radiation hazard has resulted in more emphasis being placed on the biological effects of high energy, high mass number particulate radiation and upon radiation protection . Cardiovascular and musculoskeleta1 studies are pursued in recognition of the considerable fundamental knowledge that must be acquired in these areas before effective countermeasures to the effects of repetitive or long

Liberty to decide on dual use biomedical research: an acknowledged necessity.

PubMed

Keuleyan, Emma

2010-03-01

Humanity entered the twenty-first century with revolutionary achievements in biomedical research. At the same time multiple "dual-use" results have been published. The battle against infectious diseases is meeting new challenges, with newly emerging and re-emerging infections. Both natural disaster epidemics, such as SARS, avian influenza, haemorrhagic fevers, XDR and MDR tuberculosis and many others, and the possibility of intentional mis-use, such as letters containing anthrax spores in USA, 2001, have raised awareness of the real threats. Many great men, including Goethe, Spinoza, J.B. Shaw, Fr. Engels, J.F. Kennedy and others, have recognized that liberty is also a responsibility. That is why the liberty to decide now represents an acknowledged necessity: biomedical research should be supported, conducted and published with appropriate measures to prevent potential "dual use". Biomedical scientists should work according to the ethical principles of their Code of Conduct, an analogue of Hippocrates Oath of doctors; and they should inform government, society and their juniors about the problem. National science consulting boards of experts should be created to prepare guidelines and control the problem at state level. An international board should develop minimum standards to be applicable by each country. Bio-preparedness is considered another key-measure.

Resolving Complex Research Data Management Issues in Biomedical Laboratories: Qualitative Study of an Industry-Academia Collaboration

PubMed Central

Myneni, Sahiti; Patel, Vimla L.; Bova, G. Steven; Wang, Jian; Ackerman, Christopher F.; Berlinicke, Cynthia A.; Chen, Steve H.; Lindvall, Mikael; Zack, Donald J.

2016-01-01

This paper describes a distributed collaborative effort between industry and academia to systematize data management in an academic biomedical laboratory. Heterogeneous and voluminous nature of research data created in biomedical laboratories make information management difficult and research unproductive. One such collaborative effort was evaluated over a period of four years using data collection methods including ethnographic observations, semi-structured interviews, web-based surveys, progress reports, conference call summaries, and face-to-face group discussions. Data were analyzed using qualitative methods of data analysis to 1) characterize specific problems faced by biomedical researchers with traditional information management practices, 2) identify intervention areas to introduce a new research information management system called Labmatrix, and finally to 3) evaluate and delineate important general collaboration (intervention) characteristics that can optimize outcomes of an implementation process in biomedical laboratories. Results emphasize the importance of end user perseverance, human-centric interoperability evaluation, and demonstration of return on investment of effort and time of laboratory members and industry personnel for success of implementation process. In addition, there is an intrinsic learning component associated with the implementation process of an information management system. Technology transfer experience in a complex environment such as the biomedical laboratory can be eased with use of information systems that support human and cognitive interoperability. Such informatics features can also contribute to successful collaboration and hopefully to scientific productivity. PMID:26652980

Guidelines for Developing and Reporting Machine Learning Predictive Models in Biomedical Research: A Multidisciplinary View

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

Background As more and more researchers are turning to big data for new opportunities of biomedical discoveries, machine learning models, as the backbone of big data analysis, are mentioned more often in biomedical journals. However, owing to the inherent complexity of machine learning methods, they are prone to misuse. Because of the flexibility in specifying machine learning models, the results are often insufficiently reported in research articles, hindering reliable assessment of model validity and consistent interpretation of model outputs. Objective To attain a set of guidelines on the use of machine learning predictive models within clinical settings to make sure the models are correctly applied and sufficiently reported so that true discoveries can be distinguished from random coincidence. Methods A multidisciplinary panel of machine learning experts, clinicians, and traditional statisticians were interviewed, using an iterative process in accordance with the Delphi method. Results The process produced a set of guidelines that consists of (1) a list of reporting items to be included in a research article and (2) a set of practical sequential steps for developing predictive models. Conclusions A set of guidelines was generated to enable correct application of machine learning models and consistent reporting of model specifications and results in biomedical research. We believe that such guidelines will accelerate the adoption of big data analysis, particularly with machine learning methods, in the biomedical research community. PMID:27986644

A new paradigm for improved co-ordination and efficacy of European biomedical research: taking diabetes as a model.

PubMed

Halban, P A; Boulton, A J M; Smith, U

2013-03-01

Today, European biomedical and health-related research is insufficiently well funded and is fragmented, with no common vision, less-than-optimal sharing of resources, and inadequate support and training in clinical research. Improvements to the competitiveness of European biomedical research will depend on the creation of new infrastructures that must be dynamic and free of bureaucracy, involve all stakeholders and facilitate faster delivery of new discoveries from bench to bedside. Taking diabetes research as the model, a new paradigm for European biomedical research is presented, which offers improved co-ordination and common resources that will benefit both academic and industrial clinical research. This includes the creation of a European Council for Health Research, first proposed by the Alliance for Biomedical Research in Europe, which will bring together and consult with all health stakeholders to develop strategic and multidisciplinary research programmes addressing the full innovation cycle. A European Platform for Clinical Research in Diabetes is proposed by the Alliance for European Diabetes Research (EURADIA) in response to the special challenges and opportunities presented by research across the European region, with the need for common standards and shared expertise and data.

Drug knowledge bases and their applications in biomedical informatics research.

PubMed

Zhu, Yongjun; Elemento, Olivier; Pathak, Jyotishman; Wang, Fei

2018-01-03

Recent advances in biomedical research have generated a large volume of drug-related data. To effectively handle this flood of data, many initiatives have been taken to help researchers make good use of them. As the results of these initiatives, many drug knowledge bases have been constructed. They range from simple ones with specific focuses to comprehensive ones that contain information on almost every aspect of a drug. These curated drug knowledge bases have made significant contributions to the development of efficient and effective health information technologies for better health-care service delivery. Understanding and comparing existing drug knowledge bases and how they are applied in various biomedical studies will help us recognize the state of the art and design better knowledge bases in the future. In addition, researchers can get insights on novel applications of the drug knowledge bases through a review of successful use cases. In this study, we provide a review of existing popular drug knowledge bases and their applications in drug-related studies. We discuss challenges in constructing and using drug knowledge bases as well as future research directions toward a better ecosystem of drug knowledge bases. © The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Biomedical ontologies: toward scientific debate.

PubMed

Maojo, V; Crespo, J; García-Remesal, M; de la Iglesia, D; Perez-Rey, D; Kulikowski, C

2011-01-01

Biomedical ontologies have been very successful in structuring knowledge for many different applications, receiving widespread praise for their utility and potential. Yet, the role of computational ontologies in scientific research, as opposed to knowledge management applications, has not been extensively discussed. We aim to stimulate further discussion on the advantages and challenges presented by biomedical ontologies from a scientific perspective. We review various aspects of biomedical ontologies going beyond their practical successes, and focus on some key scientific questions in two ways. First, we analyze and discuss current approaches to improve biomedical ontologies that are based largely on classical, Aristotelian ontological models of reality. Second, we raise various open questions about biomedical ontologies that require further research, analyzing in more detail those related to visual reasoning and spatial ontologies. We outline significant scientific issues that biomedical ontologies should consider, beyond current efforts of building practical consensus between them. For spatial ontologies, we suggest an approach for building "morphospatial" taxonomies, as an example that could stimulate research on fundamental open issues for biomedical ontologies. Analysis of a large number of problems with biomedical ontologies suggests that the field is very much open to alternative interpretations of current work, and in need of scientific debate and discussion that can lead to new ideas and research directions.

Development, implementation and critique of a bioethics framework for pharmaceutical sponsors of human biomedical research.

PubMed

Van Campen, Luann E; Therasse, Donald G; Klopfenstein, Mitchell; Levine, Robert J

2015-11-01

Pharmaceutical human biomedical research is a multi-dimensional endeavor that requires collaboration among many parties, including those who sponsor, conduct, participate in, or stand to benefit from the research. Human subjects' protections have been promulgated to ensure that the benefits of such research are accomplished with respect for and minimal risk to individual research participants, and with an overall sense of fairness. Although these protections are foundational to clinical research, most ethics guidance primarily highlights the responsibilities of investigators and ethics review boards. Currently, there is no published resource that comprehensively addresses bioethical responsibilities of industry sponsors; including their responsibilities to parties who are not research participants, but are, nevertheless key stakeholders in the endeavor. To fill this void, in 2010 Eli Lilly and Company instituted a Bioethics Framework for Human Biomedical Research. This paper describes how the framework was developed and implemented and provides a critique based on four years of experience. A companion article provides the actual document used by Eli Lilly and Company to guide ethical decisions regarding all phases of human clinical trials. While many of the concepts presented in this framework are not novel, compiling them in a manner that articulates the ethical responsibilities of a sponsor is novel. By utilizing this type of bioethics framework, we have been able to develop bioethics positions on various topics, provide research ethics consultations, and integrate bioethics into the daily operations of our human biomedical research. We hope that by sharing these companion papers we will stimulate discussion within and outside the biopharmaceutical industry for the benefit of the multiple parties involved in pharmaceutical human biomedical research.

Advanced Biomedical Computing Center (ABCC) | DSITP

Cancer.gov

The Advanced Biomedical Computing Center (ABCC), located in Frederick Maryland (MD), provides HPC resources for both NIH/NCI intramural scientists and the extramural biomedical research community. Its mission is to provide HPC support, to provide collaborative research, and to conduct in-house research in various areas of computational biology and biomedical research.

NASA Johnson Space Center Biomedical Research Resources

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Paloski, W. H.

1999-01-01

Johnson Space Center (JSC) medical sciences laboratories constitute a national resource for support of medical operations and life sciences research enabling a human presence in space. They play a critical role in evaluating, defining, and mitigation the untoward effect of human adaption to space flight. Over the years they have developed the unique facilities and expertise required to perform: biomedical sample analysis and physiological performance tests supporting medical evaluations of space flight crew members and scientific investigations of the operationally relevant medical, physiological, cellular, and biochemical issues associated with human space flight. A general overview of these laboratories is presented in viewgraph form.

Collaborative mining and interpretation of large-scale data for biomedical research insights.

PubMed

Tsiliki, Georgia; Karacapilidis, Nikos; Christodoulou, Spyros; Tzagarakis, Manolis

2014-01-01

Biomedical research becomes increasingly interdisciplinary and collaborative in nature. Researchers need to efficiently and effectively collaborate and make decisions by meaningfully assembling, mining and analyzing available large-scale volumes of complex multi-faceted data residing in different sources. In line with related research directives revealing that, in spite of the recent advances in data mining and computational analysis, humans can easily detect patterns which computer algorithms may have difficulty in finding, this paper reports on the practical use of an innovative web-based collaboration support platform in a biomedical research context. Arguing that dealing with data-intensive and cognitively complex settings is not a technical problem alone, the proposed platform adopts a hybrid approach that builds on the synergy between machine and human intelligence to facilitate the underlying sense-making and decision making processes. User experience shows that the platform enables more informed and quicker decisions, by displaying the aggregated information according to their needs, while also exploiting the associated human intelligence.

Collaborative Mining and Interpretation of Large-Scale Data for Biomedical Research Insights

PubMed Central

Tsiliki, Georgia; Karacapilidis, Nikos; Christodoulou, Spyros; Tzagarakis, Manolis

2014-01-01

Biomedical research becomes increasingly interdisciplinary and collaborative in nature. Researchers need to efficiently and effectively collaborate and make decisions by meaningfully assembling, mining and analyzing available large-scale volumes of complex multi-faceted data residing in different sources. In line with related research directives revealing that, in spite of the recent advances in data mining and computational analysis, humans can easily detect patterns which computer algorithms may have difficulty in finding, this paper reports on the practical use of an innovative web-based collaboration support platform in a biomedical research context. Arguing that dealing with data-intensive and cognitively complex settings is not a technical problem alone, the proposed platform adopts a hybrid approach that builds on the synergy between machine and human intelligence to facilitate the underlying sense-making and decision making processes. User experience shows that the platform enables more informed and quicker decisions, by displaying the aggregated information according to their needs, while also exploiting the associated human intelligence. PMID:25268270

From the NIH: A Systems Approach to Increasing the Diversity of the Biomedical Research Workforce.

PubMed

Valantine, Hannah A; Lund, P Kay; Gammie, Alison E

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is committed to attracting, developing, and supporting the best scientists from all groups as an integral part of excellence in training. Biomedical research workforce diversity, capitalizing on the full spectrum of skills, talents, and viewpoints, is essential for solving complex human health challenges. Over the past few decades, the biomedical research workforce has benefited from NIH programs aimed at enhancing diversity. However, there is considerable room for improvement, particularly at the level of independent scientists and within scientific leadership. We provide a rationale and specific opportunities to develop and sustain a diverse biomedical research workforce through interventions that promote the successful transitions to different stages on the path toward completion of training and entry into the biomedical workforce. © 2016 H. A. Valantine et al. CBE—Life Sciences Education © 2016 The American Society for Cell Biology. This article is distributed by The American Society for Cell Biology under license from the author(s). It is available to the public under an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0).

Strategies for Disseminating Information on Biomedical Research on Autism to Hispanic Parents

PubMed Central

Lajonchere, Clara M.; Wheeler, Barbara Y.; Valente, Thomas W.; Kreutzer, Cary; Munson, Aron; Narayanan, Shrikanth; Kazemzadeh, Abe; Cruz, Roxana; Martinez, Irene; Schrager, Sheree M.; Schweitzer, Lisa; Chklovski, Tara; Hwang, Darryl

2015-01-01

Low income Hispanic families experience multiple barriers to accessing evidence-based information on Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). This study utilized a mixed-strategy intervention to create access to information in published bio-medical research articles on ASD by distilling the content into parent-friendly English- and Spanish-language ASD Science Briefs and presenting them to participants using two socially-oriented dissemination methods. There was a main effect for short-term knowledge gains associated with the Science Briefs but no effect for the dissemination method. After 5 months, participants reported utilizing the information learned and 90% wanted to read more Science Briefs. These preliminary findings highlight the potential benefits of distilling biomedical research articles on ASD into parent-friendly educational products for currently underserved Hispanic parents. PMID:26563948

BUILDing BLaST: promoting rural students' biomedical research careers using a culturally responsive, one health approach.

PubMed

Taylor, Barbara E; Reynolds, Arleigh J; Etz, Kathy E; MacCalla, Nicole M G; Cotter, Paul A; DeRuyter, Tiffany L; Hueffer, Karsten

2017-01-01

Most postsecondary institutions in the state of Alaska (USA) have a broad mission to serve diverse students, many of whom come from schools in rural villages that are accessible only by plane, boat, or snowmobile. The major research university, the University of Alaska in Fairbanks (UAF), serves a population whereby 40% are from groups recognized as underrepresented in the biomedical workforce. The purpose of this article is to describe the Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD)-supported program in the state of Alaska that seeks to engage students from rural areas with a culturally relevant approach that is centered on the One Health paradigm, integrating human, animal, and environmental health. The Biomedical Learning and Student Training (BLaST) program distinguished by broad themes that address recruitment, retention, and success of students in biomedical programs, especially for students from rural backgrounds. Targeted rural outreach emphasizes that biomedical research includes research on the integration of human, animal, and environmental health. This One Health perspective gives personal relevance and connection to biomedical research. This outreach is expected to benefit student recruitment, as well as foster family and community support for pursuit of college degrees. BLaST promotes integration of research into undergraduate curricula through curriculum development, and by creating a new class of instructors, laboratory research and teaching technicians, who provide research mentorship, course instruction, and comprehensive advising. Finally, BLaST facilitates early and sustained undergraduate research experiences in collaborations with graduate students and faculty. BLaST's approach is highly adapted to the Alaskan educational and physical environment, but components and concepts could be adapted to other rural areas as a means to engage students from rural backgrounds, who often have a closer relationship with the natural environment than

NASA Ames Research Center R and D Services Directorate Biomedical Systems Development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pollitt, J.; Flynn, K.

1999-01-01

The Ames Research Center R&D Services Directorate teams with NASA, other government agencies and/or industry investigators for the development, design, fabrication, manufacturing and qualification testing of space-flight and ground-based experiment hardware for biomedical and general aerospace applications. In recent years, biomedical research hardware and software has been developed to support space-flight and ground-based experiment needs including the E 132 Biotelemetry system for the Research Animal Holding Facility (RAHF), E 100 Neurolab neuro-vestibular investigation systems, the Autogenic Feedback Systems, and the Standard Interface Glove Box (SIGB) experiment workstation module. Centrifuges, motion simulators, habitat design, environmental control systems, and other unique experiment modules and fixtures have also been developed. A discussion of engineered systems and capabilities will be provided to promote understanding of possibilities for future system designs in biomedical applications. In addition, an overview of existing engineered products will be shown. Examples of hardware and literature that demonstrate the organization's capabilities will be displayed. The Ames Research Center R&D Services Directorate is available to support the development of new hardware and software systems or adaptation of existing systems to meet the needs of academic, commercial/industrial, and government research requirements. The Ames R&D Services Directorate can provide specialized support for: System concept definition and feasibility Mathematical modeling and simulation of system performance Prototype hardware development Hardware and software design Data acquisition systems Graphical user interface development Motion control design Hardware fabrication and high-fidelity machining Composite materials development and application design Electronic/electrical system design and fabrication System performance verification testing and qualification.

A possible biomedical facility at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).

PubMed

Dosanjh, M; Jones, B; Myers, S

2013-05-01

A well-attended meeting, called "Brainstorming discussion for a possible biomedical facility at CERN", was held by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics on 25 June 2012. This was concerned with adapting an existing, but little used, 78-m circumference CERN synchrotron to deliver a wide range of ion species, preferably from protons to at least neon ions, with beam specifications that match existing clinical facilities. The potential extensive research portfolio discussed included beam ballistics in humanoid phantoms, advanced dosimetry, remote imaging techniques and technical developments in beam delivery, including gantry design. In addition, a modern laboratory for biomedical characterisation of these beams would allow important radiobiological studies, such as relative biological effectiveness, in a dedicated facility with standardisation of experimental conditions and biological end points. A control photon and electron beam would be required nearby for relative biological effectiveness comparisons. Research beam time availability would far exceed that at other facilities throughout the world. This would allow more rapid progress in several biomedical areas, such as in charged hadron therapy of cancer, radioisotope production and radioprotection. The ethos of CERN, in terms of open access, peer-reviewed projects and governance has been so successful for High Energy Physics that application of the same to biomedicine would attract high-quality research, with possible contributions from Europe and beyond, along with potential new funding streams.

A possible biomedical facility at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)

PubMed Central

Dosanjh, M; Myers, S

2013-01-01

A well-attended meeting, called “Brainstorming discussion for a possible biomedical facility at CERN”, was held by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics on 25 June 2012. This was concerned with adapting an existing, but little used, 78-m circumference CERN synchrotron to deliver a wide range of ion species, preferably from protons to at least neon ions, with beam specifications that match existing clinical facilities. The potential extensive research portfolio discussed included beam ballistics in humanoid phantoms, advanced dosimetry, remote imaging techniques and technical developments in beam delivery, including gantry design. In addition, a modern laboratory for biomedical characterisation of these beams would allow important radiobiological studies, such as relative biological effectiveness, in a dedicated facility with standardisation of experimental conditions and biological end points. A control photon and electron beam would be required nearby for relative biological effectiveness comparisons. Research beam time availability would far exceed that at other facilities throughout the world. This would allow more rapid progress in several biomedical areas, such as in charged hadron therapy of cancer, radioisotope production and radioprotection. The ethos of CERN, in terms of open access, peer-reviewed projects and governance has been so successful for High Energy Physics that application of the same to biomedicine would attract high-quality research, with possible contributions from Europe and beyond, along with potential new funding streams. PMID:23549990

Building up careers in translational neuroscience and mental health research: Education and training in the Centre for Biomedical Research in Mental Health.

PubMed

Rapado-Castro, Marta; Pazos, Ángel; Fañanás, Lourdes; Bernardo, Miquel; Ayuso-Mateos, Jose Luis; Leza, Juan Carlos; Berrocoso, Esther; de Arriba, Jose; Roldán, Laura; Sanjuán, Julio; Pérez, Victor; Haro, Josep M; Palomo, Tomás; Valdizan, Elsa M; Micó, Juan Antonio; Sánchez, Manuel; Arango, Celso

2015-01-01

The number of large collaborative research networks in mental health is increasing. Training programs are an essential part of them. We critically review the specific implementation of a research training program in a translational Centre for Biomedical Research in Mental Health in order to inform the strategic integration of basic research into clinical practice to have a positive impact in the mental health system and society. Description of training activities, specific educational programs developed by the research network, and challenges on its implementation are examined. The Centre for Biomedical Research in Mental Health has focused on training through different activities which have led to the development of an interuniversity master's degree postgraduate program in mental health research, certified by the National Spanish Agency for Quality Evaluation and Accreditation. Consolidation of training programs within the Centre for Biomedical Research in Mental Health has considerably advanced the training of researchers to meet competency standards on research. The master's degree constitutes a unique opportunity to accomplish neuroscience and mental health research career-building within the official framework of university programs in Spain. Copyright © 2014 SEP y SEPB. Published by Elsevier España. All rights reserved.

Synergies and Distinctions between Computational Disciplines in Biomedical Research: Perspective from the Clinical and Translational Science Award Programs

PubMed Central

Bernstam, Elmer V.; Hersh, William R.; Johnson, Stephen B.; Chute, Christopher G.; Nguyen, Hien; Sim, Ida; Nahm, Meredith; Weiner, Mark; Miller, Perry; DiLaura, Robert P.; Overcash, Marc; Lehmann, Harold P.; Eichmann, David; Athey, Brian D.; Scheuermann, Richard H.; Anderson, Nick; Starren, Justin B.; Harris, Paul A.; Smith, Jack W.; Barbour, Ed; Silverstein, Jonathan C.; Krusch, David A.; Nagarajan, Rakesh; Becich, Michael J.

2010-01-01

Clinical and translational research increasingly requires computation. Projects may involve multiple computationally-oriented groups including information technology (IT) professionals, computer scientists and biomedical informaticians. However, many biomedical researchers are not aware of the distinctions among these complementary groups, leading to confusion, delays and sub-optimal results. Although written from the perspective of clinical and translational science award (CTSA) programs within academic medical centers, the paper addresses issues that extend beyond clinical and translational research. The authors describe the complementary but distinct roles of operational IT, research IT, computer science and biomedical informatics using a clinical data warehouse as a running example. In general, IT professionals focus on technology. The authors distinguish between two types of IT groups within academic medical centers: central or administrative IT (supporting the administrative computing needs of large organizations) and research IT (supporting the computing needs of researchers). Computer scientists focus on general issues of computation such as designing faster computers or more efficient algorithms, rather than specific applications. In contrast, informaticians are concerned with data, information and knowledge. Biomedical informaticians draw on a variety of tools, including but not limited to computers, to solve information problems in health care and biomedicine. The paper concludes with recommendations regarding administrative structures that can help to maximize the benefit of computation to biomedical research within academic health centers. PMID:19550198

Improving validity of informed consent for biomedical research in Zambia using a laboratory exposure intervention.

PubMed

Zulu, Joseph Mumba; Lisulo, Mpala Mwanza; Besa, Ellen; Kaonga, Patrick; Chisenga, Caroline C; Chomba, Mumba; Simuyandi, Michelo; Banda, Rosemary; Kelly, Paul

2014-01-01

Complex biomedical research can lead to disquiet in communities with limited exposure to scientific discussions, leading to rumours or to high drop-out rates. We set out to test an intervention designed to address apprehensions commonly encountered in a community where literacy is uncommon, and where complex biomedical research has been conducted for over a decade. We aimed to determine if it could improve the validity of consent. Data were collected using focus group discussions, key informant interviews and observations. We designed an intervention that exposed participants to a detailed demonstration of laboratory processes. Each group was interviewed twice in a day, before and after exposure to the intervention in order to assess changes in their views. Factors that motivated people to participate in invasive biomedical research included a desire to stay healthy because of the screening during the recruitment process, regular advice from doctors, free medical services, and trust in the researchers. Inhibiting factors were limited knowledge about samples taken from their bodies during endoscopic procedures, the impact of endoscopy on the function of internal organs, and concerns about the use of biomedical samples. The belief that blood can be used for Satanic practices also created insecurities about drawing of blood samples. Further inhibiting factors included a fear of being labelled as HIV positive if known to consult heath workers repeatedly, and gender inequality. Concerns about the use and storage of blood and tissue samples were overcome by a laboratory exposure intervention. Selecting a group of members from target community and engaging them in a laboratory exposure intervention could be a useful tool for enhancing specific aspects of consent for biomedical research. Further work is needed to determine the extent to which improved understanding permeates beyond the immediate group participating in the intervention.

Improving Validity of Informed Consent for Biomedical Research in Zambia Using a Laboratory Exposure Intervention

PubMed Central

Zulu, Joseph Mumba; Lisulo, Mpala Mwanza; Besa, Ellen; Kaonga, Patrick; Chisenga, Caroline C.; Chomba, Mumba; Simuyandi, Michelo; Banda, Rosemary; Kelly, Paul

2014-01-01

Background Complex biomedical research can lead to disquiet in communities with limited exposure to scientific discussions, leading to rumours or to high drop-out rates. We set out to test an intervention designed to address apprehensions commonly encountered in a community where literacy is uncommon, and where complex biomedical research has been conducted for over a decade. We aimed to determine if it could improve the validity of consent. Methods Data were collected using focus group discussions, key informant interviews and observations. We designed an intervention that exposed participants to a detailed demonstration of laboratory processes. Each group was interviewed twice in a day, before and after exposure to the intervention in order to assess changes in their views. Results Factors that motivated people to participate in invasive biomedical research included a desire to stay healthy because of the screening during the recruitment process, regular advice from doctors, free medical services, and trust in the researchers. Inhibiting factors were limited knowledge about samples taken from their bodies during endoscopic procedures, the impact of endoscopy on the function of internal organs, and concerns about the use of biomedical samples. The belief that blood can be used for Satanic practices also created insecurities about drawing of blood samples. Further inhibiting factors included a fear of being labelled as HIV positive if known to consult heath workers repeatedly, and gender inequality. Concerns about the use and storage of blood and tissue samples were overcome by a laboratory exposure intervention. Conclusion Selecting a group of members from target community and engaging them in a laboratory exposure intervention could be a useful tool for enhancing specific aspects of consent for biomedical research. Further work is needed to determine the extent to which improved understanding permeates beyond the immediate group participating in the intervention

Resolving complex research data management issues in biomedical laboratories: Qualitative study of an industry-academia collaboration.

PubMed

Myneni, Sahiti; Patel, Vimla L; Bova, G Steven; Wang, Jian; Ackerman, Christopher F; Berlinicke, Cynthia A; Chen, Steve H; Lindvall, Mikael; Zack, Donald J

2016-04-01

This paper describes a distributed collaborative effort between industry and academia to systematize data management in an academic biomedical laboratory. Heterogeneous and voluminous nature of research data created in biomedical laboratories make information management difficult and research unproductive. One such collaborative effort was evaluated over a period of four years using data collection methods including ethnographic observations, semi-structured interviews, web-based surveys, progress reports, conference call summaries, and face-to-face group discussions. Data were analyzed using qualitative methods of data analysis to (1) characterize specific problems faced by biomedical researchers with traditional information management practices, (2) identify intervention areas to introduce a new research information management system called Labmatrix, and finally to (3) evaluate and delineate important general collaboration (intervention) characteristics that can optimize outcomes of an implementation process in biomedical laboratories. Results emphasize the importance of end user perseverance, human-centric interoperability evaluation, and demonstration of return on investment of effort and time of laboratory members and industry personnel for success of implementation process. In addition, there is an intrinsic learning component associated with the implementation process of an information management system. Technology transfer experience in a complex environment such as the biomedical laboratory can be eased with use of information systems that support human and cognitive interoperability. Such informatics features can also contribute to successful collaboration and hopefully to scientific productivity. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Single cell biology beyond the era of antibodies: relevance, challenges, and promises in biomedical research.

PubMed

Abraham, Parvin; Maliekal, Tessy Thomas

2017-04-01

Research of the past two decades has proved the relevance of single cell biology in basic research and translational medicine. Successful detection and isolation of specific subsets is the key to understand their functional heterogeneity. Antibodies are conventionally used for this purpose, but their relevance in certain contexts is limited. In this review, we discuss some of these contexts, posing bottle neck for different fields of biology including biomedical research. With the advancement of chemistry, several methods have been introduced to overcome these problems. Even though microfluidics and microraft array are newer techniques exploited for single cell biology, fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) remains the gold standard technique for isolation of cells for many biomedical applications, like stem cell therapy. Here, we present a comprehensive and comparative account of some of the probes that are useful in FACS. Further, we illustrate how these techniques could be applied in biomedical research. It is postulated that intracellular molecular markers like nucleostemin (GNL3), alkaline phosphatase (ALPL) and HIRA can be used for improving the outcome of cardiac as well as bone regeneration. Another field that could utilize intracellular markers is diagnostics, and we propose the use of specific peptide nucleic acid probes (PNPs) against certain miRNAs for cancer surgical margin prediction. The newer techniques for single cell biology, based on intracellular molecules, will immensely enhance the repertoire of possible markers for the isolation of cell types useful in biomedical research.

Increasing disparities between resource inputs and outcomes, as measured by certain health deliverables, in biomedical research.

PubMed

Bowen, Anthony; Casadevall, Arturo

2015-09-08

Society makes substantial investments in biomedical research, searching for ways to better human health. The product of this research is principally information published in scientific journals. Continued investment in science relies on society's confidence in the accuracy, honesty, and utility of research results. A recent focus on productivity has dominated the competitive evaluation of scientists, creating incentives to maximize publication numbers, citation counts, and publications in high-impact journals. Some studies have also suggested a decreasing quality in the published literature. The efficiency of society's investments in biomedical research, in terms of improved health outcomes, has not been studied. We show that biomedical research outcomes over the last five decades, as estimated by both life expectancy and New Molecular Entities approved by the Food and Drug Administration, have remained relatively constant despite rising resource inputs and scientific knowledge. Research investments by the National Institutes of Health over this time correlate with publication and author numbers but not with the numerical development of novel therapeutics. We consider several possibilities for the growing input-outcome disparity including the prior elimination of easier research questions, increasing specialization, overreliance on reductionism, a disproportionate emphasis on scientific outputs, and other negative pressures on the scientific enterprise. Monitoring the efficiency of research investments in producing positive societal outcomes may be a useful mechanism for weighing the efficacy of reforms to the scientific enterprise. Understanding the causes of the increasing input-outcome disparity in biomedical research may improve society's confidence in science and provide support for growing future research investments.

Increasing disparities between resource inputs and outcomes, as measured by certain health deliverables, in biomedical research

PubMed Central

Bowen, Anthony; Casadevall, Arturo

2015-01-01

Society makes substantial investments in biomedical research, searching for ways to better human health. The product of this research is principally information published in scientific journals. Continued investment in science relies on society’s confidence in the accuracy, honesty, and utility of research results. A recent focus on productivity has dominated the competitive evaluation of scientists, creating incentives to maximize publication numbers, citation counts, and publications in high-impact journals. Some studies have also suggested a decreasing quality in the published literature. The efficiency of society’s investments in biomedical research, in terms of improved health outcomes, has not been studied. We show that biomedical research outcomes over the last five decades, as estimated by both life expectancy and New Molecular Entities approved by the Food and Drug Administration, have remained relatively constant despite rising resource inputs and scientific knowledge. Research investments by the National Institutes of Health over this time correlate with publication and author numbers but not with the numerical development of novel therapeutics. We consider several possibilities for the growing input-outcome disparity including the prior elimination of easier research questions, increasing specialization, overreliance on reductionism, a disproportionate emphasis on scientific outputs, and other negative pressures on the scientific enterprise. Monitoring the efficiency of research investments in producing positive societal outcomes may be a useful mechanism for weighing the efficacy of reforms to the scientific enterprise. Understanding the causes of the increasing input-outcome disparity in biomedical research may improve society’s confidence in science and provide support for growing future research investments. PMID:26283360

Biomedical Research Group, Health Division annual report 1954

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Langham, W.H.; Storer, J.B.

1955-12-31

This report covers the activities of the Biomedical Research Group (H-4) of the Health Division during the period January 1 through December 31, 1954. Organizationally, Group H-4 is divided into five sections, namely, Biochemistry, Radiobiology, Radiopathology, Biophysics, and Organic Chemistry. The activities of the Group are summarized under the headings of the various sections. The general nature of each section`s program, publications, documents and reports originating from its members, and abstracts and summaries of the projects pursued during the year are presented.

Text mining patents for biomedical knowledge.

PubMed

Rodriguez-Esteban, Raul; Bundschus, Markus

2016-06-01

Biomedical text mining of scientific knowledge bases, such as Medline, has received much attention in recent years. Given that text mining is able to automatically extract biomedical facts that revolve around entities such as genes, proteins, and drugs, from unstructured text sources, it is seen as a major enabler to foster biomedical research and drug discovery. In contrast to the biomedical literature, research into the mining of biomedical patents has not reached the same level of maturity. Here, we review existing work and highlight the associated technical challenges that emerge from automatically extracting facts from patents. We conclude by outlining potential future directions in this domain that could help drive biomedical research and drug discovery. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Design of e-Science platform for biomedical imaging research cross multiple academic institutions and hospitals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Jianguo; Zhang, Kai; Yang, Yuanyuan; Ling, Tonghui; Wang, Tusheng; Wang, Mingqing; Hu, Haibo; Xu, Xuemin

2012-02-01

More and more image informatics researchers and engineers are considering to re-construct imaging and informatics infrastructure or to build new framework to enable multiple disciplines of medical researchers, clinical physicians and biomedical engineers working together in a secured, efficient, and transparent cooperative environment. In this presentation, we show an outline and our preliminary design work of building an e-Science platform for biomedical imaging and informatics research and application in Shanghai. We will present our consideration and strategy on designing this platform, and preliminary results. We also will discuss some challenges and solutions in building this platform.

Biomedical informatics research network: building a national collaboratory to hasten the derivation of new understanding and treatment of disease.

PubMed

Grethe, Jeffrey S; Baru, Chaitan; Gupta, Amarnath; James, Mark; Ludaescher, Bertram; Martone, Maryann E; Papadopoulos, Philip M; Peltier, Steven T; Rajasekar, Arcot; Santini, Simone; Zaslavsky, Ilya N; Ellisman, Mark H

2005-01-01

Through support from the National Institutes of Health's National Center for Research Resources, the Biomedical Informatics Research Network (BIRN) is pioneering the use of advanced cyberinfrastructure for medical research. By synchronizing developments in advanced wide area networking, distributed computing, distributed database federation, and other emerging capabilities of e-science, the BIRN has created a collaborative environment that is paving the way for biomedical research and clinical information management. The BIRN Coordinating Center (BIRN-CC) is orchestrating the development and deployment of key infrastructure components for immediate and long-range support of biomedical and clinical research being pursued by domain scientists in three neuroimaging test beds.

Comparing the perceptions of academics and members of the public about patient and public involvement in ageing research.

PubMed

Tullo, Ellen StClair; Robinson, Lisa; Newton, Julia

2015-05-01

public and patient involvement (PPI) in clinical research is increasingly advocated by funding and regulatory bodies. However, little is known about the views of either academics or members of the public about perceptions of the practical realities of PPI, particularly in relation to ageing research. to survey current levels of PPI in biomedical and clinical research relating to ageing at one institution. To compare and contrast the views of academics and the public about PPI relating to research about ageing. electronic survey of senior academics, postgraduate students and members of a local user group for older people. thirty-three academics (18 principal investigators and 15 PhD students) at a biomedical research institution. Fifty-four members of a local user group for older people. thirty per cent (10/33) of projects described some PPI activity. Older adults were more positive about active involvement in research about ageing than academics. The perceived benefits of and barriers to involvement in research were similar among all groups, although older members of the public were more likely than academics to acknowledge potential barriers to involvement. academics and older people share some perceptions about PPI in ageing research, but members of the public are more optimistic about active involvement. Further correspondence between these groups may help to identify feasible involvement activities for older people and encourage collaborative research about ageing. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Geriatrics Society. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Creating a Controlled Vocabulary for the Ethics of Human Research: Towards a Biomedical Ethics Ontology

PubMed Central

Koepsell, David; Arp, Robert; Fostel, Jennifer; Smith, Barry

2009-01-01

Ontologies describe reality in specific domains in ways that can bridge various disciplines and languages. They allow easier access and integration of information that is collected by different groups. Ontologies are currently used in the biomedical sciences, geography, and law. A Biomedical Ethics Ontology (BMEO) would benefit members of ethics committees who deal with protocols and consent forms spanning numerous fields of inquiry. There already exists the Ontology for Biomedical Investigations (OBI); the proposed BMEO would interoperate with OBI, creating a powerful information tool. We define a domain ontology and begin to construct a BMEO, focused on the process of evaluating human research protocols. Finally, we show how our BMEO can have practical applications for ethics committees. This paper describes ongoing research and a strategy for its broader continuation and cooperation. PMID:19374479

An examination of how women and underrepresented racial/ethnic minorities experience barriers in biomedical research and medical programs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chakraverty, Devasmita

Women in medicine and biomedical research often face challenges to their retention, promotion, and advancement to leadership positions (McPhillips et al., 2007); they take longer to advance their careers, tend to serve at less research-intensive institutions and have shorter tenures compared to their male colleagues (White, McDade, Yamagata, & Morahan, 2012). Additionally, Blacks and Hispanics are the two largest minority groups that are vastly underrepresented in medicine and biomedical research in the United States (AAMC, 2012; NSF, 2011). The purpose of this study is to examine specific barriers reported by students and post-degree professionals in the field through the following questions: 1. How do women who are either currently enrolled or graduated from biomedical research or medical programs define and make meaning of gender-roles as academic barriers? 2. How do underrepresented groups in medical schools and biomedical research institutions define and make meaning of the academic barriers they face and the challenges these barriers pose to their success as individuals in the program? These questions were qualitatively analyzed using 146 interviews from Project TrEMUR applying grounded theory. Reported gender-role barriers were explained using the "Condition-Process-Outcome" theoretical framework. About one-third of the females (across all three programs; majority White or Black between 25-35 years of age) reported gender-role barriers, mostly due to poor mentoring, time constraints, set expectations and institutional barriers. Certain barriers act as conditions, causing gender-role issues, and gender-role issues influence certain barriers that act as outcomes. Strategies to overcome barriers included interventions mostly at the institutional level (mentor support, proper specialty selection, selecting academia over medicine). Barrier analysis for the two largest URM groups indicated that, while Blacks most frequently reported racism, gender barriers

Mediator infrastructure for information integration and semantic data integration environment for biomedical research.

PubMed

Grethe, Jeffrey S; Ross, Edward; Little, David; Sanders, Brian; Gupta, Amarnath; Astakhov, Vadim

2009-01-01

This paper presents current progress in the development of semantic data integration environment which is a part of the Biomedical Informatics Research Network (BIRN; http://www.nbirn.net) project. BIRN is sponsored by the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). A goal is the development of a cyberinfrastructure for biomedical research that supports advance data acquisition, data storage, data management, data integration, data mining, data visualization, and other computing and information processing services over the Internet. Each participating institution maintains storage of their experimental or computationally derived data. Mediator-based data integration system performs semantic integration over the databases to enable researchers to perform analyses based on larger and broader datasets than would be available from any single institution's data. This paper describes recent revision of the system architecture, implementation, and capabilities of the semantically based data integration environment for BIRN.

Astonishing advances in mouse genetic tools for biomedical research.

PubMed

Kaczmarczyk, Lech; Jackson, Walker S

2015-01-01

The humble house mouse has long been a workhorse model system in biomedical research. The technology for introducing site-specific genome modifications led to Nobel Prizes for its pioneers and opened a new era of mouse genetics. However, this technology was very time-consuming and technically demanding. As a result, many investigators continued to employ easier genome manipulation methods, though resulting models can suffer from overlooked or underestimated consequences. Another breakthrough, invaluable for the molecular dissection of disease mechanisms, was the invention of high-throughput methods to measure the expression of a plethora of genes in parallel. However, the use of samples containing material from multiple cell types could obfuscate data, and thus interpretations. In this review we highlight some important issues in experimental approaches using mouse models for biomedical research. We then discuss recent technological advances in mouse genetics that are revolutionising human disease research. Mouse genomes are now easily manipulated at precise locations thanks to guided endonucleases, such as transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs) or the CRISPR/Cas9 system, both also having the potential to turn the dream of human gene therapy into reality. Newly developed methods of cell type-specific isolation of transcriptomes from crude tissue homogenates, followed by detection with next generation sequencing (NGS), are vastly improving gene regulation studies. Taken together, these amazing tools simplify the creation of much more accurate mouse models of human disease, and enable the extraction of hitherto unobtainable data.

Implantable Biomedical Microsystems: A New Graduate Course in Biomedical Circuits and Systems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sodagar, Amir M.

2014-01-01

After more than two decades of research on the design and development of implantable biomedical microsystems, it is time now to organize research achievements in this area in a consolidated and pedagogical form. This paper introduces a new graduate course in advanced biomedical circuits and systems. Designed for graduate students with electrical…

Life sciences biomedical research planning for Space Station

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Primeaux, Gary R.; Michaud, Roger; Miller, Ladonna; Searcy, Jim; Dickey, Bernistine

1987-01-01

The Biomedical Research Project (BmRP), a major component of the NASA Life Sciences Space Station Program, incorporates a laboratory for the study of the effects of microgravity on the human body, and the development of techniques capable of modifying or counteracting these effects. Attention is presently given to a representative scenario of BmRP investigations and associated engineering analyses, together with an account of the evolutionary process by which the scenarios and the Space Station design requirements they entail are identified. Attention is given to a tether-implemented 'variable gravity centrifuge'.

Status of marine biomedical research.

PubMed Central

Bessey, O

1976-01-01

A meeting on Marine Biomedical Research, sponsored by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), National Institutes of Health and the Smithsonian Institution Museum of Natural History, was attended by approximately 125 scientists, directors and representatives from many of the country's marine biological laboratories, and government agencies whose interests and responsibilites are in the marine biology and health areas. The purpose of the meeting was to explore the undeveloped research opportunities in the area of marine biology for the advancement of our understanding of human health problems and to provide information on the current status of marine biology laboratories. The meeting was devoted to presentations and discussions in four general areas: (1)Marine Species as Models for Human Disease; (2)Environmental Carcinogenesis and Mutagenesis; (3)Human Health and the Marine Environment--infectious agents and naturally occurring and foreign toxins; and (4)Drugs from the seas. Representatives from twelve of the country's approximatley 40 marine laboratories discussed their organization, developmental history, scientific programs, facilities, and present status of their support. The presentations served as a background and stimulated very lively analytical and constructive discussions of the undeveloped research and education potential residing in the marine environment and biological laboratories for a better understanding of many human health problems; some scientific areas that should be developed to realize this potential; and the needs and problems of marine laboratories that require attention and support if they are to survive and realize their possibilities. PMID:944630

Nanomaterials driven energy, environmental and biomedical research

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sharma, Prakash C.; Srinivasan, Sesha S.; Wilson, Jeremiah F.

We have developed state-of-the-art nanomaterials such as nanofibers, nanotubes, nanoparticles, nanocatalysts and nanostructures for clean energy, environmental and biomedical research. Energy can neither be created nor be destroyed, but it can be converted from one form to another. Based on this principle, chemical energy such as hydrogen has been produced from water electrolysis at a much lower voltage using RuO{sub 2} nanoparticles on the Si wafer substrate. Once the hydrogen is produced from the clean sources such as solar energy and water, it has to be stored by physisorption or chemisorption processes on to the solid state systems. For themore » successful physical adsorption of hydrogen molecule, we have developed novel polyaniline nanostructures via chemical templating and electrospinning routes. Chemical or complex hydrides involving nano MgH{sub 2} and transition metal nanocatalysts have been synthesized to tailor both the thermodynamics and kinetics of hydrogen (chemi) sorption respectively. Utilization of solar energy (UV-Vis) and a coupling of novel semiconductor oxide nanoparticles have been recently demonstrated with enhancement in photo-oxidation and/or photo-reduction processes for the water/air detoxification and sustainable liquid fuel production respectively. Magnetic nanoparticles such as ZnFe{sub 2}O{sub 4} have been synthesized and optimized for biomedical applications such as targeted drug delivery and tumor diagnostic sensing (MRI)« less

Topics in Biomedical Optics: Introduction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hebden, Jeremy C.; Boas, David A.; George, John S.; Durkin, Anthony J.

2003-06-01

The field of biomedical optics is experiencing tremendous growth. Biomedical technologies contribute in the creation of devices used in healthcare of various specialties (ophthalmology, cardiology, anesthesiology, and immunology, etc.). Recent research in biomedical optics is discussed. Overviews of meetings held at the 2002 Optical Society of America Biomedical Topical Meetings are presented.

Strategies from UW-Madison for rescuing biomedical research in the US

PubMed Central

Kimble, Judith; Bement, William M; Chang, Qiang; Cox, Benjamin L; Drinkwater, Norman R; Gourse, Richard L; Hoskins, Aaron A; Huttenlocher, Anna; Kreeger, Pamela K; Lambert, Paul F; Mailick, Marsha R; Miyamoto, Shigeki; Moss, Richard L; O'Connor-Giles, Kate M; Roopra, Avtar; Saha, Krishanu; Seidel, Hannah S

2015-01-01

A cross-campus, cross-career stage and cross-disciplinary series of discussions at a large public university has produced a series of recommendations for addressing the problems confronting the biomedical research community in the US. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.09305.001 PMID:26122792

Smart textile-based wearable biomedical systems: a transition plan for research to reality.

PubMed

Park, Sungmee; Jayaraman, Sundaresan

2010-01-01

The field of smart textile-based wearable biomedical systems (ST-WBSs) has of late been generating a lot of interest in the research and business communities since its early beginnings in the mid-nineties. However, the technology is yet to enter the marketplace and realize its original goal of enhancing the quality of life for individuals through enhanced real-time biomedical monitoring. In this paper, we propose a framework for analyzing the transition of ST-WBS from research to reality. We begin with a look at the evolution of the field and describe the major components of an ST-WBS. We then analyze the key issues encompassing the technical, medical, economic, public policy, and business facets from the viewpoints of various stakeholders in the continuum. We conclude with a plan of action for transitioning ST-WBS from "research to reality."

Silicon Valley Meets Biomedical Research in the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

PubMed

Crow, Diana

2017-05-18

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the philanthropy launched by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, drew attention with its stated goal of helping to "cure, manage, or treat all diseases" by the end of the century. They intend to do it through funding basic research and addressing gaps in biomedical technology. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Guidelines for Developing and Reporting Machine Learning Predictive Models in Biomedical Research: A Multidisciplinary View.

PubMed

Luo, Wei; Phung, Dinh; Tran, Truyen; Gupta, Sunil; Rana, Santu; Karmakar, Chandan; Shilton, Alistair; Yearwood, John; Dimitrova, Nevenka; Ho, Tu Bao; Venkatesh, Svetha; Berk, Michael

2016-12-16

As more and more researchers are turning to big data for new opportunities of biomedical discoveries, machine learning models, as the backbone of big data analysis, are mentioned more often in biomedical journals. However, owing to the inherent complexity of machine learning methods, they are prone to misuse. Because of the flexibility in specifying machine learning models, the results are often insufficiently reported in research articles, hindering reliable assessment of model validity and consistent interpretation of model outputs. To attain a set of guidelines on the use of machine learning predictive models within clinical settings to make sure the models are correctly applied and sufficiently reported so that true discoveries can be distinguished from random coincidence. A multidisciplinary panel of machine learning experts, clinicians, and traditional statisticians were interviewed, using an iterative process in accordance with the Delphi method. The process produced a set of guidelines that consists of (1) a list of reporting items to be included in a research article and (2) a set of practical sequential steps for developing predictive models. A set of guidelines was generated to enable correct application of machine learning models and consistent reporting of model specifications and results in biomedical research. We believe that such guidelines will accelerate the adoption of big data analysis, particularly with machine learning methods, in the biomedical research community. ©Wei Luo, Dinh Phung, Truyen Tran, Sunil Gupta, Santu Rana, Chandan Karmakar, Alistair Shilton, John Yearwood, Nevenka Dimitrova, Tu Bao Ho, Svetha Venkatesh, Michael Berk. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 16.12.2016.

The intriguing evolution of effect sizes in biomedical research over time: smaller but more often statistically significant.

PubMed

Monsarrat, Paul; Vergnes, Jean-Noel

2018-01-01

In medicine, effect sizes (ESs) allow the effects of independent variables (including risk/protective factors or treatment interventions) on dependent variables (e.g., health outcomes) to be quantified. Given that many public health decisions and health care policies are based on ES estimates, it is important to assess how ESs are used in the biomedical literature and to investigate potential trends in their reporting over time. Through a big data approach, the text mining process automatically extracted 814 120 ESs from 13 322 754 PubMed abstracts. Eligible ESs were risk ratio, odds ratio, and hazard ratio, along with their confidence intervals. Here we show a remarkable decrease of ES values in PubMed abstracts between 1990 and 2015 while, concomitantly, results become more often statistically significant. Medians of ES values have decreased over time for both "risk" and "protective" values. This trend was found in nearly all fields of biomedical research, with the most marked downward tendency in genetics. Over the same period, the proportion of statistically significant ESs increased regularly: among the abstracts with at least 1 ES, 74% were statistically significant in 1990-1995, vs 85% in 2010-2015. whereas decreasing ESs could be an intrinsic evolution in biomedical research, the concomitant increase of statistically significant results is more intriguing. Although it is likely that growing sample sizes in biomedical research could explain these results, another explanation may lie in the "publish or perish" context of scientific research, with the probability of a growing orientation toward sensationalism in research reports. Important provisions must be made to improve the credibility of biomedical research and limit waste of resources. © The Authors 2017. Published by Oxford University Press.

A Microcosm of the Biomedical Research Experience for Upper-Level Undergraduates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hurd, Daryl D.

2008-01-01

The skill set required of biomedical researchers continues to grow and evolve as biology matures as a natural science. Science necessitates creative yet critical thinking, persuasive communication skills, purposeful use of time, and adeptness at the laboratory bench. Teaching these skills can be effectively accomplished in an inquiry-based,…

The Aotus nancymaae erythrocyte proteome and its importance for biomedical research.

PubMed

Moreno-Pérez, D A; García-Valiente, R; Ibarrola, N; Muro, A; Patarroyo, M A

2017-01-30

The Aotus nancymaae species has been of great importance in researching the biology and pathogenesis of malaria, particularly for studying Plasmodium molecules for including them in effective vaccines against such microorganism. In spite of the forgoing, there has been no report to date describing the biology of parasite target cells in primates or their biomedical importance. This study was thus designed to analyse A. nancymaae erythrocyte protein composition using MS data collected during a previous study aimed at characterising the Plasmodium vivax proteome and published in the pertinent literature. Most peptides identified were similar to those belonging to 1189 Homo sapiens molecules; >95% of them had orthologues in New World primates. GO terms revealed a correlation between categories having the greatest amount of proteins and vital cell function. Integral membrane molecules were also identified which could be possible receptors facilitating interaction with Plasmodium species. The A. nancymaae erythrocyte proteome is described here for the first time, as a starting point for more in-depth/extensive studies. The data reported represents a source of invaluable information for laboratories interested in carrying out basic and applied biomedical investigation studies which involve using this primate. An understanding of the proteomics characteristics of A. nancymaae erythrocytes represents a fascinating area for research regarding the study of the pathogenesis of malaria since these are the main target for Plasmodium invasion. However, and even though Aotus is one of the non-human primate models considered most appropriate for biomedical research, knowledge of its proteome, particularly its erythrocytes, remains unknown. According to the above and bearing in mind the lack of information about the A. nancymaae species genome and transcriptome, this study involved a search for primate proteins for comparing their MS/MS spectra with the available information for

[The significance of animals in biomedical research].

PubMed

Pawlik, W W

1998-01-01

The mission of medicine is maintenance of health, elimination of suffering and prolongation of life. These aims can be achieved by medicine based on experimental determination, because only then it becomes a real science. The nature of human mind has led the man since the beginning of humanity on the earth to the cognition of his environment and himself. Being intellectually superior than other living creatures, the man got power over them. In his endless efforts to expand knowledge about living organisms, including his own, he started to use animals. The man has used animals for cognitive purposes for ages and is still doing it, however his motivation has changed and is still changing. Cognition of functions of living organisms on the basis of observation solely, without any interference into the living body gave a lot of important information, yet, generally, this method was of little use for the development of science. Only the use of animals could give information about this what was earlier unknown and impossible. The long-lasting evolution of experimental studies of living functions of higher organisms resulted in achieving a perfect level in biomedical studies. Vivisection, as it was understood years ago, has become history. For a chronic experiment, an animal is surgically prepared according to the researcher's intention. The surgery and the postoperative period follow the principles used in human surgery. After the convalesce period, the animal is used for further experiments. On such prepared animals, the investigations in experimental cardiology, neurophysiology, gastroenterology and other medical disciplines are performed. The animal prepared for longlasting experiments do not suffer from pain during both the experiments and intervals between them. Another important achievement in chronic experiments is considerable reduction of the number of animals used in experimental medicine. Undoubtedly, the greatest achievements in medicine in the 19th and 20th

Current Status of Sperm Cryopreservation in Biomedical Research Fish Models: Zebrafish, Medaka, and Xiphophorus*

PubMed Central

Yang, Huiping; Tiersch, Terrence R.

2009-01-01

Aquarium fishes are becoming increasingly important because of their value in biomedical research and the ornamental fish trade, and because many have become threatened or endangered in the wild. This review summarizes the current status of sperm cryopreservation in three fishes widely used in biomedical research: zebrafish, medaka, and live-bearing fishes of the genus Xiphophorus, and will focus on the needs and opportunities for future research and application of cryopreservation in aquarium fish. First, we summarize the basic biological characteristics regarding natural habitat, testis structure, spermatogenesis, sperm morphology, and sperm physiology. Second, we compare protocol development of sperm cryopreservation. Third, we emphasize the importance of artificial fertilization in sperm cryopreservation to evaluate the viability of thawed sperm. We conclude with a look to future research directions for sperm cryopreservation and the application of this technique in aquarium species. PMID:18691673

Biomedical engineering - A means to add new dimension to medicine and research

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Doerr, D. F.

1992-01-01

Biomedical engineering is an evolving science that seeks to insert technically oriented and trained personnel to assist medical professionals in solving technological problems in the pursuit of innovations in the delivery of health care. Consequently, engineering solutions are brought to bear on problems that previously were outside the training of physicians and beyond the understanding or appreciation of the conventionally educated electrical or mechanical engineers. This physician/scientist/engineer team has a capability to extend medicine and research far beyond the capability of a single entity operating alone. How biomedical engineering has added a new dimension to medical science at the Kennedy Space Center is described.

Semantic Similarity in Biomedical Ontologies

PubMed Central

Pesquita, Catia; Faria, Daniel; Falcão, André O.; Lord, Phillip; Couto, Francisco M.

2009-01-01

In recent years, ontologies have become a mainstream topic in biomedical research. When biological entities are described using a common schema, such as an ontology, they can be compared by means of their annotations. This type of comparison is called semantic similarity, since it assesses the degree of relatedness between two entities by the similarity in meaning of their annotations. The application of semantic similarity to biomedical ontologies is recent; nevertheless, several studies have been published in the last few years describing and evaluating diverse approaches. Semantic similarity has become a valuable tool for validating the results drawn from biomedical studies such as gene clustering, gene expression data analysis, prediction and validation of molecular interactions, and disease gene prioritization. We review semantic similarity measures applied to biomedical ontologies and propose their classification according to the strategies they employ: node-based versus edge-based and pairwise versus groupwise. We also present comparative assessment studies and discuss the implications of their results. We survey the existing implementations of semantic similarity measures, and we describe examples of applications to biomedical research. This will clarify how biomedical researchers can benefit from semantic similarity measures and help them choose the approach most suitable for their studies. Biomedical ontologies are evolving toward increased coverage, formality, and integration, and their use for annotation is increasingly becoming a focus of both effort by biomedical experts and application of automated annotation procedures to create corpora of higher quality and completeness than are currently available. Given that semantic similarity measures are directly dependent on these evolutions, we can expect to see them gaining more relevance and even becoming as essential as sequence similarity is today in biomedical research. PMID:19649320

Biomedical and Behavioral Research Scientists: Their Training and Supply. Volume 2: Statistical Tables.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Academy of Sciences - National Research Council, Washington, DC. Office of Scientific and Engineering Personnel.

Volume Two of a three volume set of the Biomedical and Behavioral Research Scientists study presents tables of data which were required for the study's development by the National Research Council. Data from these tables were obtained from the Association of American Medical Colleges, the American Dental Association, the American Medical…

Spacelab Life Sciences 3 biomedical research using the Rhesus Research Facility

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ballard, R. W.; Searby, N. D.; Stone, L. S.; Hogan, R. P.; Viso, M.; Venet, M.

1992-01-01

In 1985, a letter of agreement was signed between the French space agency, CNES, and NASA, formally initiating a joint venture called the RHESUS Project. The goal of this project is to provide a facility to fly rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) to support spaceflight experiments which are applicable but not practical to carry out on human subjects. Biomedical investigations in behavior/performance, immunology/microbiology, muscle physiology, cardiopulmonary physiology, bone/calcium physiology, regulatory physiology, and neurophysiology disciplines will be performed. The Rhesus Research Facility, hardware capable of supporting two adult rhesus monkeys in a microgravity environment, is being developed for a first flight on Spacelab Life Sciences in early 1996.

Suitability of customer relationship management systems for the management of study participants in biomedical research.

PubMed

Schwanke, J; Rienhoff, O; Schulze, T G; Nussbeck, S Y

2013-01-01

Longitudinal biomedical research projects study patients or participants over a course of time. No IT solution is known that can manage study participants, enhance quality of data, support re-contacting of participants, plan study visits, and keep track of informed consent procedures and recruitments that may be subject to change over time. In business settings management of personal is one of the major aspects of customer relationship management systems (CRMS). To evaluate whether CRMS are suitable IT solutions for study participant management in biomedical research. Three boards of experts in the field of biomedical research were consulted to get an insight into recent IT developments regarding study participant management systems (SPMS). Subsequently, a requirements analysis was performed with stakeholders of a major biomedical research project. The successive suitability evaluation was based on the comparison of the identified requirements with the features of six CRMS. Independently of each other, the interviewed expert boards confirmed that there is no generic IT solution for the management of participants. Sixty-four requirements were identified and prioritized in a requirements analysis. The best CRMS was able to fulfill forty-two of these requirements. The non-fulfilled requirements demand an adaption of the CRMS, consuming time and resources, reducing the update compatibility, the system's suitability, and the security of the CRMS. A specific solution for the SPMS is favored instead of a generic and commercially-oriented CRMS. Therefore, the development of a small and specific SPMS solution was commenced and is currently on the way to completion.

Integrity in Biomedical Research: A Systematic Review of Studies in China.

PubMed

Yi, Nannan; Nemery, Benoit; Dierickx, Kris

2018-05-02

Recent empirical evidence has demonstrated that research misconduct occurs to a substantial degree in biomedical research. It has been suggested that scientific integrity is also of concern in China, but this seems to be based largely on anecdotal evidence. We, therefore, sought to explore the Chinese situation, by making a systematic review of published empirical studies on biomedical research integrity in China. One of our purposes was also to summarize the existing body of research published in Chinese. We searched the China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang Data, PubMed and Web of Science for potentially relevant studies, and included studies meeting our inclusion criteria, i.e. mainly those presenting empirically obtained data about the practice of research in China. All the data was extracted and synthesized using an inductive approach. Twenty-one studies were included for review. Two studies used qualitative methods (interviews) and nineteen studies used quantitative methods (questionnaires). Studies involved mainly medical postgraduates and nurses and they investigated awareness, attitudes, perceptions and experiences of research integrity and misconduct. Most of the participants in these 21 studies reported that research integrity is of great importance and that they obey academic norms during their research. Nevertheless, the occurrence of research misbehaviors, such as fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, improper authorship and duplicate submission was also reported. Strengthening research integrity training, developing the governance system and improving the scientific evaluation system were areas of particular attention in several studies. Our review demonstrates that a substantial number of articles have been devoted to research integrity in China, but only a few studies provide empirical evidence. With more safeguard measures of research integrity being taken in China, it would be crucial to conduct more research to explore researchers

Biomedical research and the commercialization agenda: a review of main considerations for neuroscience.

PubMed

Caulfield, Timothy; Ogbogu, Ubaka

2008-01-01

This article reviews a range of issues associated with the commercialization of biomedical research and speculates on how these issues might apply to the neuroscience context. Drawing on existing studies of the impact of research commercialization activities on various areas of biotechnology research, the authors explore normative benchmarks for assessing and resolving issues likely to arise from the commercialization of neuroscientific research, including such topics as patenting, marketing pressures, and representations of research prospects.

Barriers to publishing in biomedical journals perceived by a sample of French researchers: results of the DIAzePAM study.

PubMed

Duracinsky, Martin; Lalanne, Christophe; Rous, Laurence; Dara, Aichata Fofana; Baudoin, Lesya; Pellet, Claire; Descamps, Alexandre; Péretz, Fabienne; Chassany, Olivier

2017-07-10

As publishing is essential but competitive for researchers, difficulties in writing and submitting medical articles to biomedical journals are disabling. The DIAzePAM (Difficultés des Auteurs à la Publication d'Articles Médicaux) survey aimed to assess the difficulties experienced by researchers in the AP-HP (Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris, i.e., Paris Hospitals Board, France), the largest public health institution in Europe, when preparing articles for biomedical journals. The survey also aimed to assess researchers' satisfaction and perceived needs. A 39-item electronic questionnaire based on qualitative interviews was addressed by e-mail to all researchers registered in the AP-HP SIGAPS (Système d'Interrogation, de Gestion et d'Analyse des Publications Scientifiques) bibliometric database. Between 28 May and 15 June 2015, 7766 researchers should have received and read the e-mail, and 1191 anonymously completed the questionnaire (<45 years of age: 63%; women: 55%; physician: 81%; with PhD or Habilitation à Diriger des recherches--accreditation to direct research--: 45%). 94% of respondents had published at least one article in the previous 2 years. 76% of respondents felt they were not publishing enough, mainly because of lack of time to write (79%) or submit (27%), limited skills in English (40%) or in writing (32%), and difficulty in starting writing (35%). 87% of respondents would accept technical support, especially in English reediting (79%), critical reediting (63%), formatting (52%), and/or writing (41%), to save time (92%) and increase high-impact-factor journal submission and acceptance (75%). 79% of respondents would appreciate funding support for their future publications, for English reediting (56%), medical writing (21%), or publication (38%) fees. They considered that this funding support could be covered by AP-HP (73%) and/or by the added financial value obtained by their department from previous publications (56%). The DIAze

Collective intelligence for translational medicine: Crowdsourcing insights and innovation from an interdisciplinary biomedical research community.

PubMed

Budge, Eleanor Jane; Tsoti, Sandra Maria; Howgate, Daniel James; Sivakumar, Shivan; Jalali, Morteza

2015-01-01

Translational medicine bridges the gap between discoveries in biomedical science and their safe and effective clinical application. Despite the gross opportunity afforded by modern research for unparalleled advances in this field, the process of translation remains protracted. Efforts to expedite science translation have included the facilitation of interdisciplinary collaboration within both academic and clinical environments in order to generate integrated working platforms fuelling the sharing of knowledge, expertise, and tools to align biomedical research with clinical need. However, barriers to scientific translation remain, and further progress is urgently required. Collective intelligence and crowdsourcing applications offer the potential for global online networks, allowing connection and collaboration between a wide variety of fields. This would drive the alignment of biomedical science with biotechnology, clinical need, and patient experience, in order to deliver evidence-based innovation which can revolutionize medical care worldwide. Here we discuss the critical steps towards implementing collective intelligence in translational medicine using the experience of those in other fields of science and public health.

Use of telescience for biomedical research during space flight

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Huntoon, Carolyn L.; Schneider, Howard J.; Karamanos, Gayle M.

1991-01-01

When the U.S. first embarked on a manned space flight program, NASA's use of medical telescience was focused on crew health monitoring. In recent years, medical telescience use has been expanded to include support of basic research in space medicine. It enables ground support personnel to assist on-board crews in the performance of experiments and improves the quality and quantity of data return. NASA is continuing to develop its telescience capabilities. Future plans include telemedicine that will enable physicians on Earth to support crewmembers during flight and telescience that will enable investigators at their home institutions to support and conduct in-flight medical research. NASA's use of telescience for crew safety and biomedical research from Project Mercury to the present is described and NASA's plans for the future are presented.

Engineering and Application of Zinc Finger Proteins and TALEs for Biomedical Research.

PubMed

Kim, Moon-Soo; Kini, Anu Ganesh

2017-08-01

Engineered DNA-binding domains provide a powerful technology for numerous biomedical studies due to their ability to recognize specific DNA sequences. Zinc fingers (ZF) are one of the most common DNA-binding domains and have been extensively studied for a variety of applications, such as gene regulation, genome engineering and diagnostics. Another novel DNA-binding domain known as a transcriptional activator-like effector (TALE) has been more recently discovered, which has a previously undescribed DNA-binding mode. Due to their modular architecture and flexibility, TALEs have been rapidly developed into artificial gene targeting reagents. Here, we describe the methods used to design these DNA-binding proteins and their key applications in biomedical research.

[The long pilgrimage of Spanish biomedical journals toward excellence. Who helps? Quality, impact and research merit].

PubMed

Alfonso, Fernando

2010-03-01

Biomedical journals must adhere to strict standards of editorial quality. In a globalized academic scenario, biomedical journals must compete firstly to publish the most relevant original research and secondly to obtain the broadest possible visibility and the widest dissemination of their scientific contents. The cornerstone of the scientific process is still the peer-review system but additional quality criteria should be met. Recently access to medical information has been revolutionized by electronic editions. Bibliometric databases such as MEDLINE, the ISI Web of Science and Scopus offer comprehensive online information on medical literature. Classically, the prestige of biomedical journals has been measured by their impact factor but, recently, other indicators such as SCImago SJR or the Eigenfactor are emerging as alternative indices of a journal's quality. Assessing the scholarly impact of research and the merits of individual scientists remains a major challenge. Allocation of authorship credit also remains controversial. Furthermore, in our Kafkaesque world, we prefer to count rather than read the articles we judge. Quantitative publication metrics (research output) and citations analyses (scientific influence) are key determinants of the scientific success of individual investigators. However, academia is embracing new objective indicators (such as the "h" index) to evaluate scholarly merit. The present review discusses some editorial issues affecting biomedical journals, currently available bibliometric databases, bibliometric indices of journal quality and, finally, indicators of research performance and scientific success. Copyright 2010 SEEN. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

Factors Influencing Dental Patient Participation in Biobanking and Biomedical Research.

PubMed

Hassona, Yazan; Ahram, Mamoun; Odeh, Noorah; Abu Gosh, Mais; Scully, Crispian

To study the willingness of dental patients to donate biospecimens for research purpose and to examine factors that may influence such a decision. A face-to-face interview was conducted using a pretested structured survey instrument on 408 adult dental patients attending a university hospital for dental care. Descriptive statistics were generated, and the x03C7;2 test was used to examine differences between groups. p values ≤0.5 were considered statistically significant. Of the 408 participants, only 71 (17.4%) had heard of the terms biobanking/biospecimens, but 293 (71.9%) approved of the idea of using biospecimens for biomedical research, and 228 (55.9%) were willing to donate biospecimens and give personal information for research purposes. In participants who were unwilling to participate in biobanking, fear of information leakage was the most frequently reported reason, while in participants who were willing to donate biospecimens, the potential to provide more effective and less costly treatments was the most frequently reported reason. The preferences of the 228 participants who were willing to donate biospecimens were as follows: give a sample of removed oral tissues including extracted teeth (n = 105, 46.1%), donate a blood sample (n = 52, 23%), donate a sample of saliva (n = 43, 18.6%), and give a urine sample (n = 28, 12.3%). Dental patients had a generally positive attitude towards biomedical research and biobanking. The most preferred types of biospecimens to donate in a dental setting were removed tissues, including extracted teeth and blood samples. © 2016 S. Karger AG, Basel.

The use of nonhuman animals in biomedical research: necessity and justification.

PubMed

Francione, Gary L

2007-01-01

Discourse about the use of animals in biomedical research usually focuses on two issues: its empirical and moral use. The empirical issue asks whether the use of nonhumans in experiments is required in order to get data. The moral issue asks whether the use of nonhumans can be defended as matter of ethical theory. Although the use of animals in research may involve a plausible necessity claim, no moral justification exists for using nonhumans in situations in which we would not use humans.

Annual tendency of research papers used ICR mice as experimental animals in biomedical research fields.

PubMed

Kim, Ji Eun; Nam, Jung Hoon; Cho, Joon Young; Kim, Kil Soo; Hwang, Dae Youn

2017-06-01

Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) mice have been widely used in various research fields including toxicology, oncology, pharmacology, and pharmaceutical product safety testing for decades. However, annual tendency of research papers involving ICR mice in various biomedical fields has not been previously analyzed. In this study, we examined the numbers of papers that used ICR mice as experimental animals in the social science, natural science, engineering, medicine-pharmacy, marine agriculture-fishery, and art-kinesiology fields by analyzing big data. Numbers of ICR mouse-used papers gradually increased from 1961 to 2014, but small decreases were observed in 2015 and 2016. The largest number of ICR-used papers were published in the medicine-pharmacy field, followed by natural science and art-kinesiology fields. There were no ICR mouse-used papers in other fields. Furthermore, ICR mice have been widely employed in cell biology studies within the natural science field as well as in biochemistry and pathology in the medicine-pharmacy field. Few ICR mouse-used papers were published in exercise biochemistry and exercise nutrition in the art-kinesiology field. Regardless in most fields, the total numbers of published papers involving ICR mice were higher in 2014 than in other years, although the numbers in some fields including dentistry, veterinary science, and dermatology were high in 2016. Taken together, the present study shows that various ICR stocks, including Korl:ICR mice, are widely employed as experimental animals in various biomedical research fields.

Annual tendency of research papers used ICR mice as experimental animals in biomedical research fields

PubMed Central

Kim, Ji Eun; Nam, Jung Hoon; Cho, Joon Young; Kim, Kil Soo

2017-01-01

Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) mice have been widely used in various research fields including toxicology, oncology, pharmacology, and pharmaceutical product safety testing for decades. However, annual tendency of research papers involving ICR mice in various biomedical fields has not been previously analyzed. In this study, we examined the numbers of papers that used ICR mice as experimental animals in the social science, natural science, engineering, medicine-pharmacy, marine agriculture-fishery, and art-kinesiology fields by analyzing big data. Numbers of ICR mouse-used papers gradually increased from 1961 to 2014, but small decreases were observed in 2015 and 2016. The largest number of ICR-used papers were published in the medicine-pharmacy field, followed by natural science and art-kinesiology fields. There were no ICR mouse-used papers in other fields. Furthermore, ICR mice have been widely employed in cell biology studies within the natural science field as well as in biochemistry and pathology in the medicine-pharmacy field. Few ICR mouse-used papers were published in exercise biochemistry and exercise nutrition in the art-kinesiology field. Regardless in most fields, the total numbers of published papers involving ICR mice were higher in 2014 than in other years, although the numbers in some fields including dentistry, veterinary science, and dermatology were high in 2016. Taken together, the present study shows that various ICR stocks, including Korl:ICR mice, are widely employed as experimental animals in various biomedical research fields. PMID:28747984

Sex Bias in Neuroscience and Biomedical Research

PubMed Central

Beery, Annaliese K.; Zucker, Irving

2010-01-01

Female mammals have long been neglected in biomedical research. The NIH mandated enrollment of women in human clinical trials in 1993, but no similar initiatives exist to foster research on female animals. We reviewed sex bias in research on mammals in 10 biological fields for 2009 and their historical precedents. Male bias was evident in 8 disciplines and most prominent in neuroscience, with single-sex studies of male animals outnumbering those of females 5.5 to 1. In the past half-century, male bias in non-human studies has increased while declining in human studies. Studies of both sexes frequently fail to analyze results by sex. Underrepresentation of females in animal models of disease is also commonplace, and our understanding of female biology is compromised by these deficiencies. The majority of articles in several journals are conducted on rats and mice to the exclusion of other useful animal models. The belief that non-human female mammals are intrinsically more variable than males and too troublesome for routine inclusion in research protocols is without foundation. We recommend that when only one sex is studied, this should be indicated in article titles, and that funding agencies favor proposals that investigate both sexes and analyze data by sex. PMID:20620164

IT Infrastructure for Biomedical Research in North-West Germany.

PubMed

Seeger, Insa; Zeleke, Atinkut; Freitag, Michael; Röhrig, Rainer

2017-01-01

The efficient use of routine data for biomedical research presupposes an IT infrastructure designed for health care facilities. The objective of this study was to analyse which IT infrastructure is used in hospitals and by general practitioners' (GP) practices in the region Oldenburg-Bremen and to examine how well this supports research projects. To this end, IT managers and GPs were interviewed. The usage of hospital information systems (HIS) and data warehouse systems (DWS) in hospitals is of major importance for the study. Over 90 % use DWS for administration, 42 % for clinical research. None of the hospitals implemented consent for the use of routine data for research. Only a third of the GPs have participated in studies. The GPs' offices based EHR systems in use offer virtually no support for research projects. The study results demonstrate that technical and organisational measures are required for the further usage of routine data in the region.

Strategies for Disseminating Information on Biomedical Research on Autism to Hispanic Parents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lajonchere, Clara M.; Wheeler, Barbara Y.; Valente, Thomas W.; Kreutzer, Cary; Munson, Aron; Narayanan, Shrikanth; Kazemzadeh, Abe; Cruz, Roxana; Martinez, Irene; Schrager, Sheree M.; Schweitzer, Lisa; Chklovski, Tara; Hwang, Darryl

2016-01-01

Low income Hispanic families experience multiple barriers to accessing evidence-based information on Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). This study utilized a mixed-strategy intervention to create access to information in published bio-medical research articles on ASD by distilling the content into parent-friendly English- and Spanish-language ASD…

Southwest Research Institute assistance to NASA in biomedical areas of the technology utilization program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1973-01-01

Applications of aerospace technology to biomedical science are described. Recent research and development of specific techniques, services, and equipment adopted by physicians to help combat disease and disability are reviewed.

The National Center for Biomedical Ontology

PubMed Central

Noy, Natalya F; Shah, Nigam H; Whetzel, Patricia L; Chute, Christopher G; Story, Margaret-Anne; Smith, Barry

2011-01-01

The National Center for Biomedical Ontology is now in its seventh year. The goals of this National Center for Biomedical Computing are to: create and maintain a repository of biomedical ontologies and terminologies; build tools and web services to enable the use of ontologies and terminologies in clinical and translational research; educate their trainees and the scientific community broadly about biomedical ontology and ontology-based technology and best practices; and collaborate with a variety of groups who develop and use ontologies and terminologies in biomedicine. The centerpiece of the National Center for Biomedical Ontology is a web-based resource known as BioPortal. BioPortal makes available for research in computationally useful forms more than 270 of the world's biomedical ontologies and terminologies, and supports a wide range of web services that enable investigators to use the ontologies to annotate and retrieve data, to generate value sets and special-purpose lexicons, and to perform advanced analytics on a wide range of biomedical data. PMID:22081220

An entrepreneurial training model to enhance undergraduate training in biomedical research.

PubMed

Kamangar, Farin; Silver, Gillian; Hohmann, Christine; Hughes-Darden, Cleo; Turner-Musa, Jocelyn; Haines, Robert Trent; Jackson, Avis; Aguila, Nelson; Sheikhattari, Payam

2017-01-01

Undergraduate students who are interested in biomedical research typically work on a faculty member's research project, conduct one distinct task (e.g., running gels), and, step by step, enhance their skills. This "apprenticeship" model has been helpful in training many distinguished scientists over the years, but it has several potential drawbacks. For example, the students have limited autonomy, and may not understand the big picture, which may result in students giving up on their goals for a research career. Also, the model is costly and may greatly depend on a single mentor. The NIH Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) Initiative has been established to fund innovative undergraduate research training programs and support institutional and faculty development of the recipient university. The training model at Morgan State University (MSU), namely " A S tudent- C entered En trepreneurship D evelopment training model" (ASCEND), is one of the 10 NIH BUILD-funded programs, and offers a novel, experimental "entrepreneurial" training approach. In the ASCEND training model, the students take the lead. They own the research, understand the big picture, and experience the entire scope of the research process, which we hypothesize will lead to a greater sense of self-efficacy and research competency, as well as an enhanced sense of science identity. They are also immersed in environments with substantial peer support, where they can exchange research ideas and share experiences. This is important for underrepresented minority students who might have fewer role models and less peer support in conducting research. In this article, we describe the MSU ASCEND entrepreneurial training model's components, rationale, and history, and how it may enhance undergraduate training in biomedical research that may be of benefit to other institutions. We also discuss evaluation methods, possible sustainability solutions, and programmatic challenges that can affect all

[The relevance of qualitative techniques in biomedical research].

PubMed

de Camargo, Kenneth Rochel

2008-01-01

On observing how qualitative and quantitative studies are reported in the biomedical literature it becomes evident that, besides the virtual absence of the former, they are presented in different ways. Authors of qualitative studies seem to need almost invariably to explain why they choose a qualitative approach whereas that does not occur in quantitative studies. This paper takes Ludwik Fleck's comparative epistemology as a means of exploring those differences empirically, illustrating on the basis of two studies dealing with different aspects of biomedical practices how qualitative methods can elucidate a variety of questions pertaining to this field. The paper concludes presenting some structural characteristics of the biomedical field which on one hand, would not be explored properly without employing qualitative methods and, on the other hand, can help understanding the little value given to qualitative techniques in this area.

[Biomedical engineering today : An overview from the viewpoint of the German Biomedical Engineering Society].

PubMed

Schlötelburg, C; Becks, T; Stieglitz, T

2010-08-01

Biomedical engineering is characterized by the interdisciplinary co-operation of technology, science, and ways of thinking, probably more than any other technological area. The close interaction of engineering and information sciences with medicine and biology results in innovative products and methods, but also requires high standards for the interdisciplinary transfer of ideas into products for patients' benefits. This article describes the situation of biomedical engineering in Germany. It displays characteristics of the medical device industry and ranks it with respect to the international market. The research landscape is described as well as up-to-date research topics and trends. The national funding situation of research in biomedical engineering is reviewed and existing innovation barriers are discussed.

Ceramide synthases in biomedical research.

PubMed

Cingolani, Francesca; Futerman, Anthony H; Casas, Josefina

2016-05-01

Sphingolipid metabolism consists of multiple metabolic pathways that converge upon ceramide, one of the key molecules among sphingolipids (SLs). In mammals, ceramide synthesis occurs via N-acylation of sphingoid backbones, dihydrosphingosine (dhSo) or sphingosine (So). The reaction is catalyzed by ceramide synthases (CerS), a family of enzymes with six different isoforms, with each one showing specificity towards a restricted group of acyl-CoAs, thus producing ceramides (Cer) and dihydroceramides (dhCer) with different fatty acid chain lengths. A large body of evidence documents the role of both So and dhSo as bioactive molecules, as well as the involvement of dhCer and Cer in physiological and pathological processes. In particular, the fatty acid composition of Cer has different effects in cell biology and in the onset and progression of different diseases. Therefore, modulation of CerS activity represents an attractive target in biomedical research and in finding new treatment modalities. In this review, we discuss functional, structural and biochemical features of CerS and examine CerS inhibitors that are currently available. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Peer Review Practices for Evaluating Biomedical Research Grants: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association.

PubMed

Liaw, Lucy; Freedman, Jane E; Becker, Lance B; Mehta, Nehal N; Liscum, Laura

2017-08-04

The biomedical research enterprise depends on the fair and objective peer review of research grants, leading to the distribution of resources through efficient and robust competitive methods. In the United States, federal funding agencies and foundations collectively distribute billions of dollars annually to support biomedical research. For the American Heart Association, a Peer Review Subcommittee is charged with establishing the highest standards for peer review. This scientific statement reviews the current literature on peer review practices, describes the current American Heart Association peer review process and those of other agencies, analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of American Heart Association peer review practices, and recommends best practices for the future. © 2017 American Heart Association, Inc.

Improving biomedical journals' ethical policies: the case of research misconduct.

PubMed

Bosch, Xavier

2014-09-01

Scientific journals may incur scientific error if articles are tainted by research misconduct. While some journals' ethical policies, especially those on conflicts of interest, have improved over recent years, with some adopting a uniform approach, only around half of biomedical journals, principally those with higher impact factors, currently have formal misconduct policies, mainly for handling allegations. Worryingly, since a response to allegations would reasonably require an a priori definition, far fewer journals have publicly available definitions of misconduct. While some journals and editors' associations have taken significant steps to prevent and detect misconduct and respond to allegations, the content, visibility of and access to these policies varies considerably. In addition, while the lack of misconduct policies may prompt and maintain a de novo approach for journals, potentially causing stress, publication delays and even legal disputes, the lack of uniformity may be a matter of contention for research stakeholders such as editors, authors and their institutions, and publishers. Although each case may need an individual approach, I argue that posting highly visible, readily accessible, comprehensive, consistent misconduct policies could prevent the publication of fraudulent papers, increase the number of retractions of already published papers and, perhaps, reduce research misconduct. Although legally problematic, a concerted approach, with sharing of information between editors, which is clearly explained in journal websites, could also help. Ideally, journals, editors' associations, and publishers should seek consistency and homogenise misconduct policies to maintain public confidence in the integrity of biomedical research publications. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

Does a biomedical research centre affect patient care in local hospitals?

PubMed

Lichten, Catherine A; Marsden, Grace; Pollitt, Alexandra; Kiparoglou, Vasiliki; Channon, Keith M; Sussex, Jon

2017-01-21

Biomedical research can have impacts on patient care at research-active hospitals. We qualitatively evaluated the impact of the Oxford Biomedical Research Centre (Oxford BRC), a university-hospital partnership, on the effectiveness and efficiency of healthcare in local hospitals. Effectiveness and efficiency are conceptualised in terms of impacts perceived by clinicians on the quality, quantity and costs of patient care they deliver. First, we reviewed documentation from Oxford BRC and literature on the impact of research activity on patient care. Second, we interviewed leaders of the Oxford BRC's research to identify the direct and indirect impacts they expected their activity would have on local hospitals. Third, this information was used to inform interviews with senior clinicians responsible for patient care at Oxford's acute hospitals to discover what impacts they observed from research generally and from Oxford BRC's research work specifically. We compared and contrasted the results from the two sets of interviews using a qualitative approach. Finally, we identified themes emerging from the senior clinicians' responses, and compared them with an existing taxonomy of mechanisms through which quality of healthcare may be affected in research-active settings. We were able to interview 17 research leaders at the Oxford BRC and 19 senior clinicians at Oxford's acute hospitals. The research leaders identified a wide range of beneficial impacts that they expected might be felt at local hospitals as a result of their research activity. They expected the impact of their research activity on patient care to be generally positive. The senior clinicians responsible for patient care at those hospitals presented a more mixed picture, identifying many positive impacts, but also a smaller number of negative impacts, from research activity, including that of the Oxford BRC. We found the existing taxonomy of benefit types to be helpful in organising the findings, and propose

Progress and Prospects for Genetic Modification of Nonhuman Primate Models in Biomedical Research

PubMed Central

Chan, Anthony W. S.

2013-01-01

The growing interest of modeling human diseases using genetically modified (transgenic) nonhuman primates (NHPs) is a direct result of NHPs (rhesus macaque, etc.) close relation to humans. NHPs share similar developmental paths with humans in their anatomy, physiology, genetics, and neural functions; and in their cognition, emotion, and social behavior. The NHP model within biomedical research has played an important role in the development of vaccines, assisted reproductive technologies, and new therapies for many diseases. Biomedical research has not been the primary role of NHPs. They have mainly been used for safety evaluation and pharmacokinetics studies, rather than determining therapeutic efficacy. The development of the first transgenic rhesus macaque (2001) revolutionized the role of NHP models in biomedicine. Development of the transgenic NHP model of Huntington's disease (2008), with distinctive clinical features, further suggested the uniqueness of the model system; and the potential role of the NHP model for human genetic disorders. Modeling human genetic diseases using NHPs will continue to thrive because of the latest advances in molecular, genetic, and embryo technologies. NHPs rising role in biomedical research, specifically pre-clinical studies, is foreseeable. The path toward the development of transgenic NHPs and the prospect of transgenic NHPs in their new role in future biomedicine needs to be reviewed. This article will focus on the advancement of transgenic NHPs in the past decade, including transgenic technologies and disease modeling. It will outline new technologies that may have significant impact in future NHP modeling and will conclude with a discussion of the future prospects of the transgenic NHP model. PMID:24174443

Lung Cancer Cell Lines as Tools for Biomedical Discovery and Research

PubMed Central

Girard, Luc; Lockwood, William W.; Lam, Wan L.; Minna, John D.

2010-01-01

Lung cancer cell lines have made a substantial contribution to lung cancer translational research and biomedical discovery. A systematic approach to initiating and characterizing cell lines from small cell and non–small cell lung carcinomas has led to the current collection of more than 200 lung cancer cell lines, a number that exceeds those for other common epithelial cancers combined. The ready availability and widespread dissemination of the lines to investigators worldwide have resulted in more than 9000 citations, including multiple examples of important biomedical discoveries. The high (but not perfect) genomic similarities between lung cancer cell lines and the lung tumor type from which they were derived provide evidence of the relevance of their use. However, major problems including misidentification or cell line contamination remain. Ongoing studies and new approaches are expected to reveal the full potential of the lung cancer cell line panel. PMID:20679594

Foundational biomedical informatics research in the clinical and translational science era: a call to action.

PubMed

Payne, Philip R O; Embi, Peter J; Niland, Joyce

2010-01-01

Advances in clinical and translational science, along with related national-scale policy and funding mechanisms, have provided significant opportunities for the advancement of applied clinical research informatics (CRI) and translational bioinformatics (TBI). Such efforts are primarily oriented to application and infrastructure development and are critical to the conduct of clinical and translational research. However, they often come at the expense of the foundational CRI and TBI research needed to grow these important biomedical informatics subdisciplines and ensure future innovations. In light of this challenge, it is critical that a number of steps be taken, including the conduct of targeted advocacy campaigns, the development of community-accepted research agendas, and the continued creation of forums for collaboration and knowledge exchange. Such efforts are needed to ensure that the biomedical informatics community is able to advance CRI and TBI science in the context of the modern clinical and translational science era.

Personnel Needs and Training for Biomedical and Behavioral Research.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Academy of Sciences - National Research Council, Washington, DC. Commission on Human Resources.

The fourth in a series of annual reports assessing the role of and need for federal training programs in the biomedical and behavioral sciences is presented. Highlights of this 1978 report include: (1) the results of surveys of the chairpersons of 1,324 basic biomedical science departments and 474 behavioral science departments in Ph.D.-granting…

The Benefits of Attending the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS): The Role of Research Confidence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Casad, Bettina J.; Chang, Amy L.; Pribbenow, Christine M.

2016-01-01

The Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS) is designed to support undergraduate students' professional development as future scientists. Juniors, seniors, and postbaccalaureates who attended ABRCMS during 2008-2011 were emailed a link to an online questionnaire in which they reported their experiences at the…

Awareness and knowledge of the U.S. Public Health Service syphilis study at Tuskegee: implications for biomedical research.

PubMed

McCallum, Jan M; Arekere, Dhananjaya M; Green, B Lee; Katz, Ralph V; Rivers, Brian M

2006-11-01

The purpose of this review was to collect and interpret the findings of all published qualitative or quantitative research that assessed African Americans' 1) general awareness and/or specific knowledge of the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) Syphilis Study at Tuskegee, and 2) attitudes towards and/or willingness to participate in biomedical research. An exhaustive review of the literature produced eight articles that fit the aforementioned selection criteria. All articles that assessed both awareness and knowledge found that familiarity with the USPHS Syphilis Study at Tuskegee did not necessarily ensure accurate knowledge of it. Four studies also found that awareness of the USPHS Syphilis Study at Tuskegee did not relate to willingness to participate in biomedical research. In addition to awareness and knowledge of the USPHS Syphilis Study at Tuskegee, published studies suggest that a broad array of structural and sociocultural factors influence minorities' willingness to participate in biomedical studies.

State of reporting of primary biomedical research: a scoping review protocol

PubMed Central

Mbuagbaw, Lawrence; Samaan, Zainab; Jin, Yanling; Nwosu, Ikunna; Levine, Mitchell A H; Adachi, Jonathan D; Thabane, Lehana

2017-01-01

Introduction Incomplete or inconsistent reporting remains a major concern in the biomedical literature. Incomplete or inconsistent reporting may yield the published findings unreliable, irreproducible or sometimes misleading. In this study based on evidence from systematic reviews and surveys that have evaluated the reporting issues in primary biomedical studies, we aim to conduct a scoping review with focuses on (1) the state-of-the-art extent of adherence to the emerging reporting guidelines in primary biomedical research, (2) the inconsistency between protocols or registrations and full reports and (3) the disagreement between abstracts and full-text articles. Methods and analyses We will use a comprehensive search strategy to retrieve all available and eligible systematic reviews and surveys in the literature. We will search the following electronic databases: Web of Science, Excerpta Medica Database (EMBASE), MEDLINE and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL). Our outcomes are levels of adherence to reporting guidelines, levels of consistency between protocols or registrations and full reports and the agreement between abstracts and full reports, all of which will be expressed as percentages, quality scores or categorised rating (such as high, medium and low). No pooled analyses will be performed quantitatively given the heterogeneity of the included systematic reviews and surveys. Likewise, factors associated with improved completeness and consistency of reporting will be summarised qualitatively. The quality of the included systematic reviews will be evaluated using AMSTAR (a measurement tool to assess systematic reviews). Ethics and dissemination All findings will be published in peer-reviewed journals and relevant conferences. These results may advance our understanding of the extent of incomplete and inconsistent reporting, factors related to improved completeness and consistency of reporting and potential recommendations for

Reflections on my journey in biomedical research: the art, science, and politics of advocacy.

PubMed

Slavkin, H C

2013-01-01

Scientific Discovery often reflects the art, science, and advocacy for biomedical research. Here the author reflects on selected highlights of discovery that contributed to several aspects of our understanding of craniofacial biology and craniofacial diseases and disorders.

Identifying the ‘Vulnerables’ in Biomedical Research: the vox populis from the Tuskegee Legacy Project

PubMed Central

Wiley, John

2011-01-01

Objectives This report presents, for the first time, findings on the vox populis as to who constitutes the ‘vulnerables in biomedical research’. Methods The 3-City Tuskegee Legacy Project (TLP) study used the TLP Questionnaire as administered via RDD telephone interviews to 1,162 adult Blacks, non-Hispanic Whites, and two Puerto Rican (PR) Hispanic groups: Mainland U.S. and San Juan (SJ) in 3 cities. The classification schema was based upon respondents’ answers to an open-ended question asking which groups of people were the most vulnerable when participating in biomedical research. Results Subjects provided 749 valid open-ended responses which were grouped into 29 direct response categories, leading to a 4 tier classification schema for vulnerability traits. Tier 1, the summary tier, had five vulnerability categories: 1) Race/ethnicity; 2) Age; 3) SES; 4) Health; and, 5) Gender. Blacks and Mainland U.S. PR Hispanics most frequently identified Race/Ethnicity as a vulnerability trait (42.1% of Blacks and 42.6% of Mainland U.S. PR Hispanics vs. 15.4% of Whites and 16.7% of San Juan R Hispanics) (p<.007), while Whites and SJ PR Hispanics most frequently identified Age (48.3% and 29.2%) as a vulnerability trait. Conclusions The response patterns on ‘who was vulnerable’ were similar for the two minority groups (Blacks and Mainland U.S. PR Hispanics), and notably different from the response patterns of the two majority groups (Whites and SJPR Hispanics). Further, the vox populis definition of vulnerables differed from the current official definitions as used by the U.S. federal government. PMID:21972462

Biomedical progress rates as new parameters for models of economic growth in developed countries.

PubMed

Zhavoronkov, Alex; Litovchenko, Maria

2013-11-08

While the doubling of life expectancy in developed countries during the 20th century can be attributed mostly to decreases in child mortality, the trillions of dollars spent on biomedical research by governments, foundations and corporations over the past sixty years are also yielding longevity dividends in both working and retired population. Biomedical progress will likely increase the healthy productive lifespan and the number of years of government support in the old age. In this paper we introduce several new parameters that can be applied to established models of economic growth: the biomedical progress rate, the rate of clinical adoption and the rate of change in retirement age. The biomedical progress rate is comprised of the rejuvenation rate (extending the productive lifespan) and the non-rejuvenating rate (extending the lifespan beyond the age at which the net contribution to the economy becomes negative). While staying within the neoclassical economics framework and extending the overlapping generations (OLG) growth model and assumptions from the life cycle theory of saving behavior, we provide an example of the relations between these new parameters in the context of demographics, labor, households and the firm.

Biomedical Progress Rates as New Parameters for Models of Economic Growth in Developed Countries

PubMed Central

Zhavoronkov, Alex; Litovchenko, Maria

2013-01-01

While the doubling of life expectancy in developed countries during the 20th century can be attributed mostly to decreases in child mortality, the trillions of dollars spent on biomedical research by governments, foundations and corporations over the past sixty years are also yielding longevity dividends in both working and retired population. Biomedical progress will likely increase the healthy productive lifespan and the number of years of government support in the old age. In this paper we introduce several new parameters that can be applied to established models of economic growth: the biomedical progress rate, the rate of clinical adoption and the rate of change in retirement age. The biomedical progress rate is comprised of the rejuvenation rate (extending the productive lifespan) and the non-rejuvenating rate (extending the lifespan beyond the age at which the net contribution to the economy becomes negative). While staying within the neoclassical economics framework and extending the overlapping generations (OLG) growth model and assumptions from the life cycle theory of saving behavior, we provide an example of the relations between these new parameters in the context of demographics, labor, households and the firm. PMID:24217179

Effects of government spending on research workforce development: evidence from biomedical postdoctoral researchers.

PubMed

Hur, Hyungjo; Ghaffarzadegan, Navid; Hawley, Joshua

2015-01-01

We examine effects of government spending on postdoctoral researchers' (postdocs) productivity in biomedical sciences, the largest population of postdocs in the US. We analyze changes in the productivity of postdocs before and after the US government's 1997 decision to increase NIH funding. In the first round of analysis, we find that more government spending has resulted in longer postdoc careers. We see no significant changes in researchers' productivity in terms of publication and conference presentations. However, when the population is segmented by citizenship, we find that the effects are heterogeneous; US citizens stay longer in postdoc positions with no change in publications and, in contrast, international permanent residents (green card holders) produce more conference papers and publications without significant changes in postdoc duration. Possible explanations and policy implications of the analysis are discussed.

Getting to zero the biomedical way in Africa: outcomes of deliberation at the 2013 Biomedical HIV Prevention Forum in Abuja, Nigeria

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Over the last few decades, biomedical HIV prevention research had engaged multiple African stakeholders. There have however been few platforms to enable regional stakeholders to engage with one another. In partnership with the World AIDS Campaign International, the Institute of Public Health of Obafemi Awolowo University, and the National Agency for the Control of AIDS in Nigeria, the New HIV Vaccine and Microbicide Advocacy Society hosted a forum on biomedical HIV prevention research in Africa. Stakeholders’ present explored evidences related to biomedical HIV prevention research and development in Africa, and made recommendations to inform policy, guidelines and future research agenda. Discussion The BHPF hosted 342 participants. Topics discussed included the use of antiretrovirals for HIV prevention, considerations for biomedical HIV prevention among key populations; HIV vaccine development; HIV cure; community and civil society engagement; and ethical considerations in implementation of biomedical HIV prevention research. Participants identified challenges for implementation of proven efficacious interventions and discovery of other new prevention options for Africa. Concerns raised included limited funding by African governments, lack of cohesive advocacy and policy agenda for biomedical HIV prevention research and development by Africa, varied ethical practices, and limited support to communities’ capacity to actively engaged with clinical trial conducts. Participants recommended that the African Government implement the Abuja +12 declaration; the civil society build stronger partnerships with diverse stakeholders, and develop a coherent advocacy agenda that also enhances community research literacy; and researchers and sponsors of trials on the African continent establish a process for determining appropriate standards for trial conduct on the continent. Conclusion By highlighting key considerations for biomedical HIV prevention research and

Getting to zero the biomedical way in Africa: outcomes of deliberation at the 2013 Biomedical HIV Prevention Forum in Abuja, Nigeria.

PubMed

Folayan, Morenike Oluwatoyin; Gottemoeller, Megan; Mburu, Rosemary; Brown, Brandon

2014-01-01

Over the last few decades, biomedical HIV prevention research had engaged multiple African stakeholders. There have however been few platforms to enable regional stakeholders to engage with one another. In partnership with the World AIDS Campaign International, the Institute of Public Health of Obafemi Awolowo University, and the National Agency for the Control of AIDS in Nigeria, the New HIV Vaccine and Microbicide Advocacy Society hosted a forum on biomedical HIV prevention research in Africa. Stakeholders' present explored evidences related to biomedical HIV prevention research and development in Africa, and made recommendations to inform policy, guidelines and future research agenda. The BHPF hosted 342 participants. Topics discussed included the use of antiretrovirals for HIV prevention, considerations for biomedical HIV prevention among key populations; HIV vaccine development; HIV cure; community and civil society engagement; and ethical considerations in implementation of biomedical HIV prevention research. Participants identified challenges for implementation of proven efficacious interventions and discovery of other new prevention options for Africa. Concerns raised included limited funding by African governments, lack of cohesive advocacy and policy agenda for biomedical HIV prevention research and development by Africa, varied ethical practices, and limited support to communities' capacity to actively engaged with clinical trial conducts. Participants recommended that the African Government implement the Abuja +12 declaration; the civil society build stronger partnerships with diverse stakeholders, and develop a coherent advocacy agenda that also enhances community research literacy; and researchers and sponsors of trials on the African continent establish a process for determining appropriate standards for trial conduct on the continent. By highlighting key considerations for biomedical HIV prevention research and development in Africa, the forum has

Globalizing and crowdsourcing biomedical research.

PubMed

Afshinnekoo, Ebrahim; Ahsanuddin, Sofia; Mason, Christopher E

2016-12-01

Crowdfunding and crowdsourcing of medical research has emerged as a novel paradigm for many biomedical disciplines to rapidly collect, process and interpret data from high-throughput and high-dimensional experiments. The novelty and promise of these approaches have led to fundamental discoveries about RNA mechanisms, microbiome dynamics and even patient interpretation of test results. However, these methods require robust training protocols, uniform sampling methods and experimental rigor in order to be useful for subsequent research efforts. Executed correctly, crowdfunding and crowdsourcing can leverage public resources and engagement to generate support for scientific endeavors that would otherwise be impossible due to funding constraints and or the large number of participants needed for data collection. We conducted a comprehensive literature review of scientific studies that utilized crowdsourcing and crowdfunding to generate data. We also discuss our own experiences conducting citizen-science research initiatives (MetaSUB and PathoMap) in ensuring data robustness, educational outreach and public engagement. We demonstrate the efficacy of crowdsourcing mechanisms for revolutionizing microbiome and metagenomic research to better elucidate the microbial and genetic dynamics of cities around the world (as well as non-urban areas). Crowdsourced studies have been able to create an improved and unprecedented ability to monitor, design and measure changes at the microbial and macroscopic scale. Thus, the use of crowdsourcing strategies has dramatically altered certain genomics research to create global citizen-science initiatives that reveal new discoveries about the world's genetic dynamics. The effectiveness of crowdfunding and crowdsourcing is largely dependent on the study design and methodology. One point of contention for the present discussion is the validity and scientific rigor of data that are generated by non-scientists. Selection bias, limited sample

Biomedical applications engineering tasks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Laenger, C. J., Sr.

1976-01-01

The engineering tasks performed in response to needs articulated by clinicians are described. Initial contacts were made with these clinician-technology requestors by the Southwest Research Institute NASA Biomedical Applications Team. The basic purpose of the program was to effectively transfer aerospace technology into functional hardware to solve real biomedical problems.

Biomedical technology in Franconia.

PubMed

Efferth, T

2000-01-01

Medical instrumentation and biotechnology business is developing rapidly in Franconia. The universities of Bayreuth, Erlangen-Nürnberg, and Würzburg hold upper ranks in biomedical extramural funding research. They have a high competence in biomedical research, medical instrumentation, and biotechnology. The association "BioMedTec Franken e.V" has been founded at the beginning of 1999 both to foster the information exchange between universities, industry and politics and to facilitate the establishment of biomedical companies by means of science parks. In the IGZ (Innovation and Foundation Center Nürnberg-Fürth-Erlangen) 4,500 square meters of space are currently shared by 19 novel companies. Since 1985 60 companies in the IGZ had a total turnover of about 74 Mio Euro. The TGZ (Technologie- und Gründerzentrum) in Würzburg provides space for 11 companies. For the specific needs of biomedical technology companies further science parks will be set up in the near future. A science park for medical instrumentation will be founded in Erlangen (IZMP, Innovations- und Gründerzentrum für Medizintechnik und Pharma in der Region Nürnberg, Fürch, Erlangen). Furthermore, a Biomedical Technology Center and a Research Center for Bicompatible Materials are to be founded in Würzburg and Bayreuth, respectively. Several communication platforms (Bayern Innovativ, FORWISS, FTT, KIM, N-TEC-VISIT, TBU, WETTI etc.) allow the transfer of local academic research activities to industrial utilization and open new co-operation possibilities. International pharmaceutical companies (Novartis, Nürnberg; Pharmacia Upjohn, Erlangen) are located in Franconia. Central Franconia represents a national focus for medical instrumentation. The Erlangen settlement of the Medical Engineering Section of Siemens employs 4,500 people including approximately 1,000 employees in the Siemens research center.

Managing the future: the Special Virus Leukemia Program and the acceleration of biomedical research.

PubMed

Scheffler, Robin Wolfe

2014-12-01

After the end of the Second World War, cancer virus research experienced a remarkable revival, culminating in the creation in 1964 of the United States National Cancer Institute's Special Virus Leukemia Program (SVLP), an ambitious program of directed biomedical research to accelerate the development of a leukemia vaccine. Studies of cancer viruses soon became the second most highly funded area of research at the Institute, and by far the most generously funded area of biological research. Remarkably, this vast infrastructure for cancer vaccine production came into being before a human leukemia virus was shown to exist. The origins of the SVLP were rooted in as much as shifts in American society as laboratory science. The revival of cancer virus studies was a function of the success advocates and administrators achieved in associating cancer viruses with campaigns against childhood diseases such as polio and leukemia. To address the urgency borne of this new association, the SVLP's architects sought to lessen the power of peer review in favor of centralized Cold War management methods, fashioning viruses as "administrative objects" in order to accelerate the tempo of biomedical research and discovery.

African Americans, democracy, and biomedical and behavioral research: contradictions or consensus in community-based participatory research?

PubMed

Spigner, C

Individualism, in both its political and attitudinal senses, reinforces societal and institutional racism in the United States. Because of individualism's dominant focus on self-interest and self-reliance, any application of "participatory democracy" in community-based biomedical and behavioral research is fraught with dilemmas similar to those that Gunnar Myrdal observed between American racism and democracy. The research establishment is overwhelmed by well-meaning non-minorities who recognize racism and its consequences in health, but only greater representation of people-of-color in the health establishment can ameliorate the inherent contradictions of "participatory democracy" which is so fundamental to the process of community-based participatory research.

Biomedical research and corporate interests: a question of academic freedom.

PubMed

McHenry, Leemon

2008-01-01

The current situation in medicine has been described as a crisis of credibility, as the profit motive of industry has taken control of clinical trials and the dissemination of data. Pharmaceutical companies maintain a stranglehold over the content of medical journals in three ways: (1) by ghostwriting articles that bias the results of clinical trials, (2) by the sheer economic power they exert on journals due to the purchase of drug advertisements and journal reprints, and (3) by the threat of legal action against those researchers who seek to correct the misrepresentation of study results. This paper argues that Karl Popper's critical rationalism provides a corrective to the failure of academic freedom in biomedical research.

Biomedical Research and Corporate Interests: A Question of Academic Freedom

PubMed Central

McHenry, Leemon

2008-01-01

The current situation in medicine has been described as a crisis of credibility, as the profit motive of industry has taken control of clinical trials and the dissemination of data. Pharmaceutical companies maintain a stranglehold over the content of medical journals in three ways: (1) by ghostwriting articles that bias the results of clinical trials, (2) by the sheer economic power they exert on journals due to the purchase of drug advertisements and journal reprints, and (3) by the threat of legal action against those researchers who seek to correct the misrepresentation of study results. This paper argues that Karl Popper's critical rationalism provides a corrective to the failure of academic freedom in biomedical research. PMID:22013356

caGrid 1.0 : an enterprise Grid infrastructure for biomedical research.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Oster, S.; Langella, S.; Hastings, S.

To develop software infrastructure that will provide support for discovery, characterization, integrated access, and management of diverse and disparate collections of information sources, analysis methods, and applications in biomedical research. Design: An enterprise Grid software infrastructure, called caGrid version 1.0 (caGrid 1.0), has been developed as the core Grid architecture of the NCI-sponsored cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG{trademark}) program. It is designed to support a wide range of use cases in basic, translational, and clinical research, including (1) discovery, (2) integrated and large-scale data analysis, and (3) coordinated study. Measurements: The caGrid is built as a Grid software infrastructure andmore » leverages Grid computing technologies and the Web Services Resource Framework standards. It provides a set of core services, toolkits for the development and deployment of new community provided services, and application programming interfaces for building client applications. Results: The caGrid 1.0 was released to the caBIG community in December 2006. It is built on open source components and caGrid source code is publicly and freely available under a liberal open source license. The core software, associated tools, and documentation can be downloaded from the following URL: .« less

Medical research in Israel and the Israel biomedical database.

PubMed

Berns, D S; Rager-Zisman, B

2000-11-01

The data collected for the second edition of the Directory of Medical Research in Israel and the Israel Biomedical Database have yielded very relevant information concerning the distribution of investigators, publication activities and funding sources. The aggregate data confirm the findings of the first edition published in 1996 [2]. Those facts endorse the highly concentrated and extensive nature of medical research in the Jerusalem area, which is conducted at the Hebrew University and its affiliated hospitals. In contrast, Tel Aviv University, whose basic research staff is about two-thirds the size of the Hebrew University staff, has a more diffuse relationship with its clinical staff who are located at more than half a dozen hospitals. Ben-Gurion University in Beer Sheva and the Technion in Haifa are smaller in size, but have closer geographic contact between their clinical and basic research staff. Nonetheless, all the medical schools and affiliated hospitals have good publication and funding records. It is important to note that while some aspects of the performance at basic research institutions seem to be somewhat better than at hospitals, the records are actually quite similar despite the greater burden of clinical services at the hospitals as compared to teaching responsibilities in the basic sciences. The survey also indicates the substantial number of young investigators in the latest survey who did not appear in the first survey. While this is certainly encouraging, it is also disturbing that the funding sources are apparently decreasing at a time when young investigators are attempting to become established and the increasing burden of health care costs precludes financial assistance from hospital sources. The intensity and undoubtedly the quality of medical research in Israel remains at a level consistent with many of the more advanced western countries. This conclusion is somewhat mitigated by the fact that there is a decrease in available funding

The Content of Statistical Requirements for Authors in Biomedical Research Journals

PubMed Central

Liu, Tian-Yi; Cai, Si-Yu; Nie, Xiao-Lu; Lyu, Ya-Qi; Peng, Xiao-Xia; Feng, Guo-Shuang

2016-01-01

Background: Robust statistical designing, sound statistical analysis, and standardized presentation are important to enhance the quality and transparency of biomedical research. This systematic review was conducted to summarize the statistical reporting requirements introduced by biomedical research journals with an impact factor of 10 or above so that researchers are able to give statistical issues’ serious considerations not only at the stage of data analysis but also at the stage of methodological design. Methods: Detailed statistical instructions for authors were downloaded from the homepage of each of the included journals or obtained from the editors directly via email. Then, we described the types and numbers of statistical guidelines introduced by different press groups. Items of statistical reporting guideline as well as particular requirements were summarized in frequency, which were grouped into design, method of analysis, and presentation, respectively. Finally, updated statistical guidelines and particular requirements for improvement were summed up. Results: Totally, 21 of 23 press groups introduced at least one statistical guideline. More than half of press groups can update their statistical instruction for authors gradually relative to issues of new statistical reporting guidelines. In addition, 16 press groups, covering 44 journals, address particular statistical requirements. The most of the particular requirements focused on the performance of statistical analysis and transparency in statistical reporting, including “address issues relevant to research design, including participant flow diagram, eligibility criteria, and sample size estimation,” and “statistical methods and the reasons.” Conclusions: Statistical requirements for authors are becoming increasingly perfected. Statistical requirements for authors remind researchers that they should make sufficient consideration not only in regards to statistical methods during the research

The Content of Statistical Requirements for Authors in Biomedical Research Journals.

PubMed

Liu, Tian-Yi; Cai, Si-Yu; Nie, Xiao-Lu; Lyu, Ya-Qi; Peng, Xiao-Xia; Feng, Guo-Shuang

2016-10-20

Robust statistical designing, sound statistical analysis, and standardized presentation are important to enhance the quality and transparency of biomedical research. This systematic review was conducted to summarize the statistical reporting requirements introduced by biomedical research journals with an impact factor of 10 or above so that researchers are able to give statistical issues' serious considerations not only at the stage of data analysis but also at the stage of methodological design. Detailed statistical instructions for authors were downloaded from the homepage of each of the included journals or obtained from the editors directly via email. Then, we described the types and numbers of statistical guidelines introduced by different press groups. Items of statistical reporting guideline as well as particular requirements were summarized in frequency, which were grouped into design, method of analysis, and presentation, respectively. Finally, updated statistical guidelines and particular requirements for improvement were summed up. Totally, 21 of 23 press groups introduced at least one statistical guideline. More than half of press groups can update their statistical instruction for authors gradually relative to issues of new statistical reporting guidelines. In addition, 16 press groups, covering 44 journals, address particular statistical requirements. The most of the particular requirements focused on the performance of statistical analysis and transparency in statistical reporting, including "address issues relevant to research design, including participant flow diagram, eligibility criteria, and sample size estimation," and "statistical methods and the reasons." Statistical requirements for authors are becoming increasingly perfected. Statistical requirements for authors remind researchers that they should make sufficient consideration not only in regards to statistical methods during the research design, but also standardized statistical reporting

Issues in Biomedical Research Data Management and Analysis: Needs and Barriers

PubMed Central

Anderson, Nicholas R.; Lee, E. Sally; Brockenbrough, J. Scott; Minie, Mark E.; Fuller, Sherrilynne; Brinkley, James; Tarczy-Hornoch, Peter

2007-01-01

Objectives A. Identify the current state of data management needs of academic biomedical researchers. B. Explore their anticipated data management and analysis needs. C. Identify barriers to addressing those needs. Design A multimodal needs analysis was conducted using a combination of an online survey and in-depth one-on-one semi-structured interviews. Subjects were recruited via an e-mail list representing a wide range of academic biomedical researchers in the Pacific Northwest. Measurements The results from 286 survey respondents were used to provide triangulation of the qualitative analysis of data gathered from 15 semi-structured in-depth interviews. Results Three major themes were identified: 1) there continues to be widespread use of basic general-purpose applications for core data management; 2) there is broad perceived need for additional support in managing and analyzing large datasets; and 3) the barriers to acquiring currently available tools are most commonly related to financial burdens on small labs and unmet expectations of institutional support. Conclusion Themes identified in this study suggest that at least some common data management needs will best be served by improving access to basic level tools such that researchers can solve their own problems. Additionally, institutions and informaticians should focus on three components: 1) facilitate and encourage the use of modern data exchange models and standards, enabling researchers to leverage a common layer of interoperability and analysis; 2) improve the ability of researchers to maintain provenance of data and models as they evolve over time though tools and the leveraging of standards; and 3) develop and support information management service cores that could assist in these previous components while providing researchers with unique data analysis and information design support within a spectrum of informatics capabilities. PMID:17460139

Awareness and Knowledge of the U.S. Public Health Service Syphilis Study at Tuskegee: Implications for Biomedical Research

PubMed Central

McCallum, Jan M.; Arekere, Dhananjaya M.; Green, B. Lee; Katz, Ralph V.; Rivers, Brian M.

2007-01-01

The purpose of this review was to collect and interpret the findings of all published qualitative or quantitative research that assessed African Americans’ 1) general awareness and/or specific knowledge of the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) Syphilis Study at Tuskegee, and 2) attitudes towards and/or willingness to participate in biomedical research. An exhaustive review of the literature produced eight articles that fit the aforementioned selection criteria. All articles that assessed both awareness and knowledge found that familiarity with the USPHS Syphilis Study at Tuskegee did not necessarily ensure accurate knowledge of it Four studies also found that awareness of the USPHS Syphilis Study at Tuskegee did not relate to willingness to participate in biomedical research. In addition to awareness and knowledge of the USPHS Syphilis Study at Tuskegee, published studies suggest that a broad, array of structural and sociocultural factors influence minorities’ willingness to participate in biomedical studies. PMID:17242526

Towards an ethics safe harbor for global biomedical research

PubMed Central

Dove, Edward S.; Knoppers, Bartha M.; Zawati, Ma'n H.

2014-01-01

Although increasingly global, data-driven genomics and other ‘omics’-focused research hold great promise for health discoveries, current research ethics review systems around the world challenge potential improvements in human health from such research. To overcome this challenge, we propose a ‘Safe Harbor Framework for International Ethics Equivalency’ that facilitates the harmonization of ethics review of specific types of data-driven international research projects while respecting globally transposable research ethics norms and principles. The Safe Harbor would consist in part of an agency supporting an International Federation for Ethics Review (IFER), formed by a voluntary compact among countries, granting agencies, philanthropies, institutions, and healthcare, patient advocacy, and research organizations. IFER would be both a central ethics review body, and also a forum for review and follow-up of policies concerning ethics norms for international research projects. It would be built on five principle elements: (1) registration, (2) compliance review, (3) recognition, (4) monitoring and enforcement, and (5) public participation. The Safe Harbor would create many benefits for researchers, countries, and the general public, and may eventually have application beyond (gen)omics to other areas of biomedical research that increasingly engage in secondary use of data and present only negligible risks. PMID:27774154

Capital Investment for the Future of Biomedical Research: A University Chief Financial Officer's View.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Massy, William F.

1989-01-01

Three principal aspects of capital needs in biomedical research are discussed: the significant and growing need for capital; sources; and the role of federal policy. Important assumptions, questions, and possible future trends are discussed. Consolidated thinking and effort are encouraged. (MSE)

Southwest Research Institute assistance to NASA in biomedical areas of the technology utilization program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1972-01-01

The problem statements presented relate mostly to research on prosthetic equipment and means of attaching biomedical and electronic devices to the human body. A patent application for a reliable switching element in a patient assist control units is also described.

78 FR 52777 - Implementation of the Revised International Guiding Principles for Biomedical Research Involving...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-08-26

... DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES National Institutes of Health Implementation of the... Institutes of Health (NIH) is providing guidance to Public Health Service (PHS) awardee institutions on implementation of the revised International Guiding Principles for Biomedical Research Involving Animals...

Scope and impact of financial conflicts of interest in biomedical research: a systematic review.

PubMed

Bekelman, Justin E; Li, Yan; Gross, Cary P

Despite increasing awareness about the potential impact of financial conflicts of interest on biomedical research, no comprehensive synthesis of the body of evidence relating to financial conflicts of interest has been performed. To review original, quantitative studies on the extent, impact, and management of financial conflicts of interest in biomedical research. Studies were identified by searching MEDLINE (January 1980-October 2002), the Web of Science citation database, references of articles, letters, commentaries, editorials, and books and by contacting experts. All English-language studies containing original, quantitative data on financial relationships among industry, scientific investigators, and academic institutions were included. A total of 1664 citations were screened, 144 potentially eligible full articles were retrieved, and 37 studies met our inclusion criteria. One investigator (J.E.B.) extracted data from each of the 37 studies. The main outcomes were the prevalence of specific types of industry relationships, the relation between industry sponsorship and study outcome or investigator behavior, and the process for disclosure, review, and management of financial conflicts of interest. Approximately one fourth of investigators have industry affiliations, and roughly two thirds of academic institutions hold equity in start-ups that sponsor research performed at the same institutions. Eight articles, which together evaluated 1140 original studies, assessed the relation between industry sponsorship and outcome in original research. Aggregating the results of these articles showed a statistically significant association between industry sponsorship and pro-industry conclusions (pooled Mantel-Haenszel odds ratio, 3.60; 95% confidence interval, 2.63-4.91). Industry sponsorship was also associated with restrictions on publication and data sharing. The approach to managing financial conflicts varied substantially across academic institutions and peer

Glycan Arrays: From Basic Biochemical Research to Bioanalytical and Biomedical Applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Geissner, Andreas; Seeberger, Peter H.

2016-06-01

A major branch of glycobiology and glycan-focused biomedicine studies the interaction between carbohydrates and other biopolymers, most importantly, glycan-binding proteins. Today, this research into glycan-biopolymer interaction is unthinkable without glycan arrays, tools that enable high-throughput analysis of carbohydrate interaction partners. Glycan arrays offer many applications in basic biochemical research, for example, defining the specificity of glycosyltransferases and lectins such as immune receptors. Biomedical applications include the characterization and surveillance of influenza strains, identification of biomarkers for cancer and infection, and profiling of immune responses to vaccines. Here, we review major applications of glycan arrays both in basic and applied research. Given the dynamic nature of this rapidly developing field, we focus on recent findings.

Research Workforce Diversity: The Case of Balancing National versus International Postdocs in US Biomedical Research.

PubMed

Ghaffarzadegan, Navid; Hawley, Joshua; Desai, Anand

2014-03-01

The US government has been increasingly supporting postdoctoral training in biomedical sciences to develop the domestic research workforce. However, current trends suggest that mostly international researchers benefit from the funding, many of whom might leave the USA after training. In this paper, we describe a model used to analyse the flow of national versus international researchers into and out of postdoctoral training. We calibrate our model in the case of the USA and successfully replicate the data. We use the model to conduct simulation-based analyses of effects of different policies on the diversity of postdoctoral researchers. Our model shows that capping the duration of postdoctoral careers, a policy proposed previously, favours international postdoctoral researchers. The analysis suggests that the leverage point to help the growth of domestic research workforce is in the pregraduate education area, and many policies implemented at the postgraduate level have minimal or unintended effects on diversity.

Irreproducibility in Preclinical Biomedical Research: Perceptions, Uncertainties, and Knowledge Gaps.

PubMed

Jarvis, Michael F; Williams, Michael

2016-04-01

Concerns regarding the reliability of biomedical research outcomes were precipitated by two independent reports from the pharmaceutical industry that documented a lack of reproducibility in preclinical research in the areas of oncology, endocrinology, and hematology. Given their potential impact on public health, these concerns have been extensively covered in the media. Assessing the magnitude and scope of irreproducibility is limited by the anecdotal nature of the initial reports and a lack of quantitative data on specific failures to reproduce published research. Nevertheless, remediation activities have focused on needed enhancements in transparency and consistency in the reporting of experimental methodologies and results. While such initiatives can effectively bridge knowledge gaps and facilitate best practices across established and emerging research disciplines and therapeutic areas, concerns remain on how these improve on the historical process of independent replication in validating research findings and their potential to inhibit scientific innovation. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Research Strategies for Biomedical and Health Informatics

PubMed Central

Kulikowski, Casimir A.; Bakken, Suzanne; de Lusignan, Simon; Kimura, Michio; Koch, Sabine; Mantas, John; Maojo, Victor; Marschollek, Michael; Martin-Sanchez, Fernando; Moen, Anne; Park, Hyeoun-Ae; Sarkar, Indra Neil; Leong, Tze Yun; McCray, Alexa T.

2017-01-01

Summary Background Medical informatics, or biomedical and health informatics (BMHI), has become an established scientific discipline. In all such disciplines there is a certain inertia to persist in focusing on well-established research areas and to hold on to well-known research methodologies rather than adopting new ones, which may be more appropriate. Objectives To search for answers to the following questions: What are research fields in informatics, which are not being currently adequately addressed, and which methodological approaches might be insufficiently used? Do we know about reasons? What could be consequences of change for research and for education? Methods Outstanding informatics scientists were invited to three panel sessions on this topic in leading international conferences (MIE 2015, Medinfo 2015, HEC 2016) in order to get their answers to these questions. Results A variety of themes emerged in the set of answers provided by the panellists. Some panellists took the theoretical foundations of the field for granted, while several questioned whether the field was actually grounded in a strong theoretical foundation. Panellists proposed a range of suggestions for new or improved approaches, methodologies, and techniques to enhance the BMHI research agenda. Conclusions The field of BMHI is on the one hand maturing as an academic community and intellectual endeavour. On the other hand vendor-supplied solutions may be too readily and uncritically accepted in health care practice. There is a high chance that BMHI will continue to flourish as an important discipline; its innovative interventions might then reach the original objectives of advancing science and improving health care outcomes. PMID:28119991

[Research Biomedical Ethics and Practical Wisdom].

PubMed

Vergara, Oscar

2015-01-01

As is well known, in the field of Biomedical Ethics some methodological proposals have been put forward. They try to provide some guidelines in order to take proper decisions. These methodologies are quite useful insofar as they supply reasons for action, but they are essentially insufficient. In fact, taking a good decision requires a special skill that goes beyond sheer technique, and this skill is traditionally called practical wisdom. Not in the usual and more outlying sense of sheer caution, but in the more central one of phronesis or prudentia. Although it is not a new notion, it usually appears blurred in biomedical decision-making theory, playing the wrong role, or in a marginal or indefinite way. From this postulate, we will try to make a double analysis. First, we will try to show the need for a proper understanding of the core role that phronesis plays in decision making. Second, we will try to get the original meaning of Aristotelian phronesis back. For reasons of space, in this paper the second question will be just partially addressed.

The SWAN biomedical discourse ontology.

PubMed

Ciccarese, Paolo; Wu, Elizabeth; Wong, Gwen; Ocana, Marco; Kinoshita, June; Ruttenberg, Alan; Clark, Tim

2008-10-01

Developing cures for highly complex diseases, such as neurodegenerative disorders, requires extensive interdisciplinary collaboration and exchange of biomedical information in context. Our ability to exchange such information across sub-specialties today is limited by the current scientific knowledge ecosystem's inability to properly contextualize and integrate data and discourse in machine-interpretable form. This inherently limits the productivity of research and the progress toward cures for devastating diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. SWAN (Semantic Web Applications in Neuromedicine) is an interdisciplinary project to develop a practical, common, semantically structured, framework for biomedical discourse initially applied, but not limited, to significant problems in Alzheimer Disease (AD) research. The SWAN ontology has been developed in the context of building a series of applications for biomedical researchers, as well as in extensive discussions and collaborations with the larger bio-ontologies community. In this paper, we present and discuss the SWAN ontology of biomedical discourse. We ground its development theoretically, present its design approach, explain its main classes and their application, and show its relationship to other ongoing activities in biomedicine and bio-ontologies.

Manpower development for the biomedical industry space.

PubMed

Goh, James C H

2013-01-01

The Biomedical Sciences (BMS) Cluster is one of four key pillars of the Singapore economy. The Singapore Government has injected research funding for basic and translational research to attract companies to carry out their commercial R&D activities. To further intensify the R&D efforts, the National Research Foundation (NRF) was set up to coordinate the research activities of different agencies within the larger national framework and to fund strategic R&D initiatives. In recent years, funding agencies began to focus on support of translational and clinical research, particularly those with potential for commercialization. Translational research is beginning to have traction, in particular research funding for the development of innovation medical devices. Therefore, the Biomedical Sciences sector is projected to grow which means that there is a need to invest in human capital development to achieve sustainable growth. In support of this, education and training programs to strengthen the manpower capabilities for the Biomedical Sciences industry have been developed. In recent years, undergraduate and graduate degree courses in biomedical engineering/bioengineering have been developing at a rapid rate. The goal is to train students with skills to understand complex issues of biomedicine and to develop and implement of advanced technological applications to these problems. There are a variety of career opportunities open to graduates in biomedical engineering, however regardless of the type of career choices, students must not only focus on achieving good grades. They have to develop their marketability to employers through internships, overseas exchange programs, and involvement in leadership-type activities. Furthermore, curriculum has to be developed with biomedical innovation in mind and ensure relevance to the industry. The objective of this paper is to present the NUS Bioengineering undergraduate program in relation to manpower development for the biomedical

Edited course of biomedical research: leaping forward with CRISPR.

PubMed

Collins, Patrick J; Hale, Christopher M; Xu, Han

2017-11-01

Within the short few years since the report of its application in precise genome editing, CRISPR technology has become the method of choice to modify and modulate gene expression in biomedical research and therapeutic development. Subsequently, a variety of research, diagnostic, and therapeutic tools have been developed based upon CRISPR's mechanism of action. Such tools have helped to deepen the understanding of fundamental biology and broaden the horizon in the search for treatments for diseases that have been considered hard or impossible to cure. As CRISPR technology advances closer to clinical applications, its short comings are becoming more apparent, thus creating opportunities to improve the technology's efficacy, specificity, and safety profile in this setting. We will summarize the current status of CRISPR technology and discuss its future impact in this review. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

[Integration of fundamental and applied medical and technical research made at the department of the biomedical systems, Moscow State Institute of Electronic Engineering].

PubMed

Selishchev, S V

2004-01-01

The integration results of fundamental and applied medical-and-technical research made at the chair of biomedical systems, Moscow state institute of electronic engineering (technical university--MSIEE), are described in the paper. The chair is guided in its research activity by the traditions of higher education in Russia in the field of biomedical electronics and biomedical engineering. Its activities are based on the extrapolation of methods of electronic tools, computer technologies, physics, biology and medicine with due respect being paid to the requirements of practical medicine and to topical issues of research and design.

Recent advances in bulk metallic glasses for biomedical applications.

PubMed

Li, H F; Zheng, Y F

2016-05-01

With a continuously increasing aging population and the improvement of living standards, large demands of biomaterials are expected for a long time to come. Further development of novel biomaterials, that are much safer and of much higher quality, in terms of both biomedical and mechanical properties, are therefore of great interest for both the research scientists and clinical surgeons. Compared with the conventional crystalline metallic counterparts, bulk metallic glasses have unique amorphous structures, and thus exhibit higher strength, lower Young's modulus, improved wear resistance, good fatigue endurance, and excellent corrosion resistance. For this purpose, bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) have recently attracted much attention for biomedical applications. This review discusses and summarizes the recent developments and advances of bulk metallic glasses, including Ti-based, Zr-based, Fe-based, Mg-based, Zn-based, Ca-based and Sr-based alloying systems for biomedical applications. Future research directions will move towards overcoming the brittleness, increasing the glass forming ability (GFA) thus obtaining corresponding bulk metallic glasses with larger sizes, removing/reducing toxic elements, and surface modifications. Bulk metallic glasses (BMGs), also known as amorphous alloys or liquid metals, are relative newcomers in the field of biomaterials. They have gained increasing attention during the past decades, as they exhibit an excellent combination of properties and processing capabilities desired for versatile biomedical implant applications. The present work reviewed the recent developments and advances of biomedical BMGs, including Ti-based, Zr-based, Fe-based, Mg-based, Zn-based, Ca-based and Sr-based BMG alloying systems. Besides, the critical analysis and in-depth discussion on the current status, challenge and future development of biomedical BMGs are included. The possible solution to the BMG size limitation, the brittleness of BMGs has been

DrosAfrica: Building an African biomedical research community using Drosophila.

PubMed

Martín-Bermudo, María D; Gebel, Luka; Palacios, Isabel M

2017-10-01

The impact that research has on shaping the future of societies is perhaps as significant as never before. One of the problems for most regions in Africa is poor quality and quantity of research-based education, as well as low level of funding. Hence, African researchers produce only around one percent of the world's research. We believe that research with Drosophila melanogaster can contribute to changing that. As seen before in other places, Drosophila can be used as a powerful and cost-effective model system to scale-up and improve both academia and research output. The DrosAfrica project was founded to train and establish a connected community of researchers using Drosophila as a model system to investigate biomedical problems in Africa. Since founding, the project has trained eighty scientists from numerous African countries, and continues to grow. Here, we describe the DrosAfrica project, its conception and its mission. We also give detailed insights into DrosAfrica's approaches to achieve its aims, as well as future perspectives, and opportunities beyond Africa. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Pacific Northwest Laboratory annual report for 1983 to the DOE Office of Energy Research. Part 1. Biomedical sciences

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Drucker, H.

1983-02-01

Biomedical and health effects research conducted at PNL in 1982 on the evaluation of risk to man from existing and/or developing energy-related technologies are described. Most of the studies described in this report relate to activities for three major energy technologies: nuclear fuel cycle; fossil fuel cycle (oil, gas, and coal process technologies, mining, and utilization; synfuel development), and fudion (biomagnetic effects). The report is organized under these technologies. In addition, research reports are included on the application of nuclear energy to biomedical problems. Individual projects are indexed separately.

Research Workforce Diversity: The Case of Balancing National versus International Postdocs in US Biomedical Research

PubMed Central

Ghaffarzadegan, Navid; Hawley, Joshua; Desai, Anand

2013-01-01

The US government has been increasingly supporting postdoctoral training in biomedical sciences to develop the domestic research workforce. However, current trends suggest that mostly international researchers benefit from the funding, many of whom might leave the USA after training. In this paper, we describe a model used to analyse the flow of national versus international researchers into and out of postdoctoral training. We calibrate our model in the case of the USA and successfully replicate the data. We use the model to conduct simulation-based analyses of effects of different policies on the diversity of postdoctoral researchers. Our model shows that capping the duration of postdoctoral careers, a policy proposed previously, favours international postdoctoral researchers. The analysis suggests that the leverage point to help the growth of domestic research workforce is in the pregraduate education area, and many policies implemented at the postgraduate level have minimal or unintended effects on diversity. PMID:25368504

Advances in targeted proteomics and applications to biomedical research

PubMed Central

Shi, Tujin; Song, Ehwang; Nie, Song; Rodland, Karin D.; Liu, Tao; Qian, Wei-Jun; Smith, Richard D.

2016-01-01

Targeted proteomics technique has emerged as a powerful protein quantification tool in systems biology, biomedical research, and increasing for clinical applications. The most widely used targeted proteomics approach, selected reaction monitoring (SRM), also known as multiple reaction monitoring (MRM), can be used for quantification of cellular signaling networks and preclinical verification of candidate protein biomarkers. As an extension to our previous review on advances in SRM sensitivity herein we review recent advances in the method and technology for further enhancing SRM sensitivity (from 2012 to present), and highlighting its broad biomedical applications in human bodily fluids, tissue and cell lines. Furthermore, we also review two recently introduced targeted proteomics approaches, parallel reaction monitoring (PRM) and data-independent acquisition (DIA) with targeted data extraction on fast scanning high-resolution accurate-mass (HR/AM) instruments. Such HR/AM targeted quantification with monitoring all target product ions addresses SRM limitations effectively in specificity and multiplexing; whereas when compared to SRM, PRM and DIA are still in the infancy with a limited number of applications. Thus, for HR/AM targeted quantification we focus our discussion on method development, data processing and analysis, and its advantages and limitations in targeted proteomics. Finally, general perspectives on the potential of achieving both high sensitivity and high sample throughput for large-scale quantification of hundreds of target proteins are discussed. PMID:27302376

A comparative analysis of biomedical research ethics regulation systems in Europe and Latin America with regard to the protection of human subjects.

PubMed

Lamas, Eugenia; Ferrer, Marcela; Molina, Alberto; Salinas, Rodrigo; Hevia, Adriana; Bota, Alexandre; Feinholz, Dafna; Fuchs, Michael; Schramm, Roland; Tealdi, Juan-Carlos; Zorrilla, Sergio

2010-12-01

The European project European and Latin American Systems of Ethics Regulation of Biomedical Research Project (EULABOR) has carried out the first comparative analysis of ethics regulation systems for biomedical research in seven countries in Europe and Latin America, evaluating their roles in the protection of human subjects. We developed a conceptual and methodological framework defining 'ethics regulation system for biomedical research' as a set of actors, institutions, codes and laws involved in overseeing the ethics of biomedical research on humans. This framework allowed us to develop comprehensive national reports by conducting semi-structured interviews to key informants. These reports were summarised and analysed in a comparative analysis. The study showed that the regulatory framework for clinical research in these countries differ in scope. It showed that despite the different political contexts, actors involved and motivations for creating the regulation, in most of the studied countries it was the government who took the lead in setting up the system. The study also showed that Europe and Latin America are similar regarding national bodies and research ethics committees, but the Brazilian system has strong and noteworthy specificities.

Crowdsourcing biomedical research: leveraging communities as innovation engines

PubMed Central

Saez-Rodriguez, Julio; Costello, James C.; Friend, Stephen H.; Kellen, Michael R.; Mangravite, Lara; Meyer, Pablo; Norman, Thea; Stolovitzky, Gustavo

2018-01-01

The generation of large-scale biomedical data is creating unprecedented opportunities for basic and translational science. Typically, the data producers perform initial analyses, but it is very likely that the most informative methods may reside with other groups. Crowdsourcing the analysis of complex and massive data has emerged as a framework to find robust methodologies. When the crowdsourcing is done in the form of collaborative scientific competitions, known as Challenges, the validation of the methods is inherently addressed. Challenges also encourage open innovation, create collaborative communities to solve diverse and important biomedical problems, and foster the creation and dissemination of well-curated data repositories. PMID:27418159

Crowdsourcing biomedical research: leveraging communities as innovation engines.

PubMed

Saez-Rodriguez, Julio; Costello, James C; Friend, Stephen H; Kellen, Michael R; Mangravite, Lara; Meyer, Pablo; Norman, Thea; Stolovitzky, Gustavo

2016-07-15

The generation of large-scale biomedical data is creating unprecedented opportunities for basic and translational science. Typically, the data producers perform initial analyses, but it is very likely that the most informative methods may reside with other groups. Crowdsourcing the analysis of complex and massive data has emerged as a framework to find robust methodologies. When the crowdsourcing is done in the form of collaborative scientific competitions, known as Challenges, the validation of the methods is inherently addressed. Challenges also encourage open innovation, create collaborative communities to solve diverse and important biomedical problems, and foster the creation and dissemination of well-curated data repositories.

qPortal: A platform for data-driven biomedical research.

PubMed

Mohr, Christopher; Friedrich, Andreas; Wojnar, David; Kenar, Erhan; Polatkan, Aydin Can; Codrea, Marius Cosmin; Czemmel, Stefan; Kohlbacher, Oliver; Nahnsen, Sven

2018-01-01

Modern biomedical research aims at drawing biological conclusions from large, highly complex biological datasets. It has become common practice to make extensive use of high-throughput technologies that produce big amounts of heterogeneous data. In addition to the ever-improving accuracy, methods are getting faster and cheaper, resulting in a steadily increasing need for scalable data management and easily accessible means of analysis. We present qPortal, a platform providing users with an intuitive way to manage and analyze quantitative biological data. The backend leverages a variety of concepts and technologies, such as relational databases, data stores, data models and means of data transfer, as well as front-end solutions to give users access to data management and easy-to-use analysis options. Users are empowered to conduct their experiments from the experimental design to the visualization of their results through the platform. Here, we illustrate the feature-rich portal by simulating a biomedical study based on publically available data. We demonstrate the software's strength in supporting the entire project life cycle. The software supports the project design and registration, empowers users to do all-digital project management and finally provides means to perform analysis. We compare our approach to Galaxy, one of the most widely used scientific workflow and analysis platforms in computational biology. Application of both systems to a small case study shows the differences between a data-driven approach (qPortal) and a workflow-driven approach (Galaxy). qPortal, a one-stop-shop solution for biomedical projects offers up-to-date analysis pipelines, quality control workflows, and visualization tools. Through intensive user interactions, appropriate data models have been developed. These models build the foundation of our biological data management system and provide possibilities to annotate data, query metadata for statistics and future re-analysis on

Towards a 21st-century roadmap for biomedical research and drug discovery: consensus report and recommendations.

PubMed

Langley, Gillian R; Adcock, Ian M; Busquet, François; Crofton, Kevin M; Csernok, Elena; Giese, Christoph; Heinonen, Tuula; Herrmann, Kathrin; Hofmann-Apitius, Martin; Landesmann, Brigitte; Marshall, Lindsay J; McIvor, Emily; Muotri, Alysson R; Noor, Fozia; Schutte, Katrin; Seidle, Troy; van de Stolpe, Anja; Van Esch, Hilde; Willett, Catherine; Woszczek, Grzegorz

2017-02-01

Decades of costly failures in translating drug candidates from preclinical disease models to human therapeutic use warrant reconsideration of the priority placed on animal models in biomedical research. Following an international workshop attended by experts from academia, government institutions, research funding bodies, and the corporate and non-governmental organisation (NGO) sectors, in this consensus report, we analyse, as case studies, five disease areas with major unmet needs for new treatments. In view of the scientifically driven transition towards a human pathways-based paradigm in toxicology, a similar paradigm shift appears to be justified in biomedical research. There is a pressing need for an approach that strategically implements advanced, human biology-based models and tools to understand disease pathways at multiple biological scales. We present recommendations to help achieve this. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Biomedical Big Data Training Collaborative (BBDTC): An effort to bridge the talent gap in biomedical science and research.

PubMed

Purawat, Shweta; Cowart, Charles; Amaro, Rommie E; Altintas, Ilkay

2016-06-01

The BBDTC (https://biobigdata.ucsd.edu) is a community-oriented platform to encourage high-quality knowledge dissemination with the aim of growing a well-informed biomedical big data community through collaborative efforts on training and education. The BBDTC collaborative is an e-learning platform that supports the biomedical community to access, develop and deploy open training materials. The BBDTC supports Big Data skill training for biomedical scientists at all levels, and from varied backgrounds. The natural hierarchy of courses allows them to be broken into and handled as modules . Modules can be reused in the context of multiple courses and reshuffled, producing a new and different, dynamic course called a playlist . Users may create playlists to suit their learning requirements and share it with individual users or the wider public. BBDTC leverages the maturity and design of the HUBzero content-management platform for delivering educational content. To facilitate the migration of existing content, the BBDTC supports importing and exporting course material from the edX platform. Migration tools will be extended in the future to support other platforms. Hands-on training software packages, i.e., toolboxes , are supported through Amazon EC2 and Virtualbox virtualization technologies, and they are available as: ( i ) downloadable lightweight Virtualbox Images providing a standardized software tool environment with software packages and test data on their personal machines, and ( ii ) remotely accessible Amazon EC2 Virtual Machines for accessing biomedical big data tools and scalable big data experiments. At the moment, the BBDTC site contains three open Biomedical big data training courses with lecture contents, videos and hands-on training utilizing VM toolboxes, covering diverse topics. The courses have enhanced the hands-on learning environment by providing structured content that users can use at their own pace. A four course biomedical big data series is

Perceptions of Chinese Biomedical Researchers Towards Academic Misconduct: A Comparison Between 2015 and 2010.

PubMed

Liao, Qing-Jiao; Zhang, Yuan-Yuan; Fan, Yu-Chen; Zheng, Ming-Hua; Bai, Yu; Eslick, Guy D; He, Xing-Xiang; Zhang, Shi-Bing; Xia, Harry Hua-Xiang; He, Hua

2018-04-01

Publications by Chinese researchers in scientific journals have dramatically increased over the past decade; however, academic misconduct also becomes more prevalent in the country. The aim of this prospective study was to understand the perceptions of Chinese biomedical researchers towards academic misconduct and the trend from 2010 to 2015. A questionnaire comprising 10 questions was designed and then validated by ten biomedical researchers in China. In the years 2010 and 2015, respectively, the questionnaire was sent as a survey to biomedical researchers at teaching hospitals, universities, and medical institutes in mainland China. Data were analyzed by the Chi squared test, one-way analysis of variance with the Tukey post hoc test, or Spearman's rank correlation method, where appropriate. The overall response rates in 2010 and 2015 were 4.5% (446/9986) and 5.5% (832/15,127), respectively. Data from 15 participants in 2010 were invalid, and analysis was thus performed for 1263 participants. Among the participants, 54.7% thought that academic misconduct was serious-to-extremely serious, and 71.2% believed that the Chinese authorities paid no or little attention to the academic misconduct. Moreover, 70.2 and 65.2% of participants considered that the punishment for academic misconduct at the authority and institution levels, respectively, was not appropriate or severe enough. Inappropriate authorship and plagiarism were the most common forms of academic misconduct. The most important factor underlying academic misconduct was the academic assessment system, as judged by 50.7% of the participants. Participants estimated that 40.1% (39.8 ± 23.5% in 2010; 40.2 ± 24.5% in 2015) of published scientific articles were associated with some form of academic misconduct. Their perceptions towards academic misconduct had not significantly changed over the 5 years. Reform of the academic assessment system should be the fundamental approach to tackling this problem in

Improving average ranking precision in user searches for biomedical research datasets

PubMed Central

Gobeill, Julien; Gaudinat, Arnaud; Vachon, Thérèse; Ruch, Patrick

2017-01-01

Abstract Availability of research datasets is keystone for health and life science study reproducibility and scientific progress. Due to the heterogeneity and complexity of these data, a main challenge to be overcome by research data management systems is to provide users with the best answers for their search queries. In the context of the 2016 bioCADDIE Dataset Retrieval Challenge, we investigate a novel ranking pipeline to improve the search of datasets used in biomedical experiments. Our system comprises a query expansion model based on word embeddings, a similarity measure algorithm that takes into consideration the relevance of the query terms, and a dataset categorization method that boosts the rank of datasets matching query constraints. The system was evaluated using a corpus with 800k datasets and 21 annotated user queries, and provided competitive results when compared to the other challenge participants. In the official run, it achieved the highest infAP, being +22.3% higher than the median infAP of the participant’s best submissions. Overall, it is ranked at top 2 if an aggregated metric using the best official measures per participant is considered. The query expansion method showed positive impact on the system’s performance increasing our baseline up to +5.0% and +3.4% for the infAP and infNDCG metrics, respectively. The similarity measure algorithm showed robust performance in different training conditions, with small performance variations compared to the Divergence from Randomness framework. Finally, the result categorization did not have significant impact on the system’s performance. We believe that our solution could be used to enhance biomedical dataset management systems. The use of data driven expansion methods, such as those based on word embeddings, could be an alternative to the complexity of biomedical terminologies. Nevertheless, due to the limited size of the assessment set, further experiments need to be performed to draw

A Probabilistic Approach to Data Integration in Biomedical Research: The IsBIG Experiments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anand, Vibha

2010-01-01

Biomedical research has produced vast amounts of new information in the last decade but has been slow to find its use in clinical applications. Data from disparate sources such as genetic studies and summary data from published literature have been amassed, but there is a significant gap, primarily due to a lack of normative methods, in combining…

The genetic composition of populations of cynomolgus macaques (Macaca fascicularis) used in biomedical research.

PubMed

Kanthaswamy, S; Ng, J; Satkoski Trask, J; George, D A; Kou, A J; Hoffman, L N; Doherty, T B; Houghton, P; Smith, D G

2013-06-01

The genetic composition of cynomolgus macaques used in biomedical research is not as well-characterized as that of rhesus macaques. Populations of cynomolgus macaques from Sumatra, Corregidor, Mauritius, Singapore, Cambodia, and Zamboanga were analyzed using 24 STRs. The Sumatran and Cambodian populations exhibited the highest allelic diversity, while the Mauritian population exhibited the lowest. Sumatran cynomolgus macaques were the most genetically similar to all others, consistent with an Indonesian origin of the species. The high diversity among Cambodian animals may result from interbreeding with rhesus macaques. The Philippine and Mauritian samples were the most divergent from other populations, the former due to separation from the Sunda Shelf by deepwater and the latter due to anthropogenic translocation and extreme founder effects. Investigators should verify their research subjects' origin, ancestry, and pedigree to minimize risks to biomedical experimentation from genetic variance stemming from close kinship and mixed ancestry as these can obscure treatment effects. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Biomedical research competencies for osteopathic medical students

PubMed Central

Cruser, des Anges; Dubin, Bruce; Brown, Sarah K; Bakken, Lori L; Licciardone, John C; Podawiltz, Alan L; Bulik, Robert J

2009-01-01

Background Without systematic exposure to biomedical research concepts or applications, osteopathic medical students may be generally under-prepared to efficiently consume and effectively apply research and evidence-based medicine information in patient care. The academic literature suggests that although medical residents are increasingly expected to conduct research in their post graduate training specialties, they generally have limited understanding of research concepts. With grant support from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, and a grant from the Osteopathic Heritage Foundation, the University of North Texas Health Science Center (UNTHSC) is incorporating research education in the osteopathic medical school curriculum. The first phase of this research education project involved a baseline assessment of students' understanding of targeted research concepts. This paper reports the results of that assessment and discusses implications for research education during medical school. Methods Using a novel set of research competencies supported by the literature as needed for understanding research information, we created a questionnaire to measure students' confidence and understanding of selected research concepts. Three matriculating medical school classes completed the on-line questionnaire. Data were analyzed for differences between groups using analysis of variance and t-tests. Correlation coefficients were computed for the confidence and applied understanding measures. We performed a principle component factor analysis of the confidence items, and used multiple regression analyses to explore how confidence might be related to the applied understanding. Results Of 496 total incoming, first, and second year medical students, 354 (71.4%) completed the questionnaire. Incoming students expressed significantly more confidence than first or second year students (F = 7.198, df = 2, 351, P = 0.001) in their ability to understand the

Big Data Application in Biomedical Research and Health Care: A Literature Review.

PubMed

Luo, Jake; Wu, Min; Gopukumar, Deepika; Zhao, Yiqing

2016-01-01

Big data technologies are increasingly used for biomedical and health-care informatics research. Large amounts of biological and clinical data have been generated and collected at an unprecedented speed and scale. For example, the new generation of sequencing technologies enables the processing of billions of DNA sequence data per day, and the application of electronic health records (EHRs) is documenting large amounts of patient data. The cost of acquiring and analyzing biomedical data is expected to decrease dramatically with the help of technology upgrades, such as the emergence of new sequencing machines, the development of novel hardware and software for parallel computing, and the extensive expansion of EHRs. Big data applications present new opportunities to discover new knowledge and create novel methods to improve the quality of health care. The application of big data in health care is a fast-growing field, with many new discoveries and methodologies published in the last five years. In this paper, we review and discuss big data application in four major biomedical subdisciplines: (1) bioinformatics, (2) clinical informatics, (3) imaging informatics, and (4) public health informatics. Specifically, in bioinformatics, high-throughput experiments facilitate the research of new genome-wide association studies of diseases, and with clinical informatics, the clinical field benefits from the vast amount of collected patient data for making intelligent decisions. Imaging informatics is now more rapidly integrated with cloud platforms to share medical image data and workflows, and public health informatics leverages big data techniques for predicting and monitoring infectious disease outbreaks, such as Ebola. In this paper, we review the recent progress and breakthroughs of big data applications in these health-care domains and summarize the challenges, gaps, and opportunities to improve and advance big data applications in health care.

Big Data Application in Biomedical Research and Health Care: A Literature Review

PubMed Central

Luo, Jake; Wu, Min; Gopukumar, Deepika; Zhao, Yiqing

2016-01-01

Big data technologies are increasingly used for biomedical and health-care informatics research. Large amounts of biological and clinical data have been generated and collected at an unprecedented speed and scale. For example, the new generation of sequencing technologies enables the processing of billions of DNA sequence data per day, and the application of electronic health records (EHRs) is documenting large amounts of patient data. The cost of acquiring and analyzing biomedical data is expected to decrease dramatically with the help of technology upgrades, such as the emergence of new sequencing machines, the development of novel hardware and software for parallel computing, and the extensive expansion of EHRs. Big data applications present new opportunities to discover new knowledge and create novel methods to improve the quality of health care. The application of big data in health care is a fast-growing field, with many new discoveries and methodologies published in the last five years. In this paper, we review and discuss big data application in four major biomedical subdisciplines: (1) bioinformatics, (2) clinical informatics, (3) imaging informatics, and (4) public health informatics. Specifically, in bioinformatics, high-throughput experiments facilitate the research of new genome-wide association studies of diseases, and with clinical informatics, the clinical field benefits from the vast amount of collected patient data for making intelligent decisions. Imaging informatics is now more rapidly integrated with cloud platforms to share medical image data and workflows, and public health informatics leverages big data techniques for predicting and monitoring infectious disease outbreaks, such as Ebola. In this paper, we review the recent progress and breakthroughs of big data applications in these health-care domains and summarize the challenges, gaps, and opportunities to improve and advance big data applications in health care. PMID:26843812

Environmental/Biomedical Terminology Index

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Huffstetler, J.K.; Dailey, N.S.; Rickert, L.W.

1976-12-01

The Information Center Complex (ICC), a centrally administered group of information centers, provides information support to environmental and biomedical research groups and others within and outside Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In-house data base building and development of specialized document collections are important elements of the ongoing activities of these centers. ICC groups must be concerned with language which will adequately classify and insure retrievability of document records. Language control problems are compounded when the complexity of modern scientific problem solving demands an interdisciplinary approach. Although there are several word lists, indexes, and thesauri specific to various scientific disciplines usually groupedmore » as Environmental Sciences, no single generally recognized authority can be used as a guide to the terminology of all environmental science. If biomedical terminology for the description of research on environmental effects is also needed, the problem becomes even more complex. The building of a word list which can be used as a general guide to the environmental/biomedical sciences has been a continuing activity of the Information Center Complex. This activity resulted in the publication of the Environmental Biomedical Terminology Index (EBTI).« less

The effect of public disclosure laws on biomedical research.

PubMed

Cardon, Andrew D; Bailey, Matthew R; Bennett, B Taylor

2012-05-01

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and state 'open-records' laws govern access to records in the possession of federal agencies and state entities, such as public universities. Although these laws are intended to promote 'open government' and to assure the existence of an informed citizenry capable of holding government officials accountable for their decisions, an inherent tension exists between the public's access to information and biomedical research institutions' need to ensure the confidentiality of proprietary records and to protect the personal safety of employees. Recognizing these and other conflicts, the federal FOIA and state public-disclosure laws contain express exemptions to protect sensitive information from disclosure. Although some state open-records laws are modeled after the federal FOIA, important differences exist based on the language used by the state law, court interpretations, and exemptions. Two specific types of exemptions are particularly relevant to research facilities: exemptions for research information and exemptions for personal information. Responding to FOIA and state open-records requests requires knowledge of relevant laws and the involvement of all interested parties to facilitate a coordinated and orderly response.

Frontiers in biomedical engineering and biotechnology.

PubMed

Liu, Feng; Goodarzi, Ali; Wang, Haifeng; Stasiak, Joanna; Sun, Jianbo; Zhou, Yu

2014-01-01

The 2nd International Conference on Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology (iCBEB 2013), held in Wuhan on 11–13 October 2013, is an annual conference that aims at providing an opportunity for international and national researchers and practitioners to present the most recent advances and future challenges in the fields of Biomedical Information, Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology. The papers published by this issue are selected from this conference, which witnesses the frontier in the field of Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology, which particularly has helped improving the level of clinical diagnosis in medical work.

[Research Progress and Development Prospect of Biomedical Plate].

PubMed

Li, Xiao; Liu, Jing; Wu, Qiang; Wang, Yanjie; Xiao, Tao; Liu, Lihong; Yu, Shu

2016-12-01

Different generations of biomedical materials are analyzed in this paper.The current clinical uses of plates made of metals,polymers or composite materials are evaluated,and nano hydroxyapatite/polylactic acid composites and carbon/carbon composite plates are introduced as emphasis.It is pointed out that the carbon/carbon composites are of great feasibility and advantage as a new generation of biomedical materials,especially in the field of bone plate.Compared to other biomaterials,carbon/carbon composites have a good biocompatibility and mechanical compatibility because they have similar elastic modulus,porosity and density to that of human bones.With the development of the technology in knitting and material preparation,carbon/carbon composite plates have a good application prospect.

Biomedical informatics and translational medicine.

PubMed

Sarkar, Indra Neil

2010-02-26

Biomedical informatics involves a core set of methodologies that can provide a foundation for crossing the "translational barriers" associated with translational medicine. To this end, the fundamental aspects of biomedical informatics (e.g., bioinformatics, imaging informatics, clinical informatics, and public health informatics) may be essential in helping improve the ability to bring basic research findings to the bedside, evaluate the efficacy of interventions across communities, and enable the assessment of the eventual impact of translational medicine innovations on health policies. Here, a brief description is provided for a selection of key biomedical informatics topics (Decision Support, Natural Language Processing, Standards, Information Retrieval, and Electronic Health Records) and their relevance to translational medicine. Based on contributions and advancements in each of these topic areas, the article proposes that biomedical informatics practitioners ("biomedical informaticians") can be essential members of translational medicine teams.

Pair Housing of Vervets/African Green Monkeys for Biomedical Research

PubMed Central

Jorgensen, Matthew J.; Lambert, Kelsey R.; Breaux, Sarah D.; Baker, Kate C.; Snively, Beverly M.; Weed, James L.

2016-01-01

Vervets, also known as African green monkeys, are a nonhuman primate species widely used in biomedical research. However, there are currently few references available describing techniques and rates of success for pair-housing this species. We present data from four cohorts of vervets from three different facilities: (i) the Wake Forest Vervet Research Colony (VRC; n = 72 female pairs, n = 52 male pairs), (ii) the University of Louisiana at Lafayette—New Iberia Research Center (UL-NIRC; n = 57 female pairs, n = 54 male pairs), (iii) the Tulane National Primate Research Center (TNRPC; n = 18 male pairs), and (iv) a cohort of imported males (n = 18 pairs) at Wake Forest. Compatibility was measured at 14, 30, and 60 days following introduction. Success rates for pair-housing at14 days ranged from 96% to 98% for females and 96% to 100% for males at the VRC and UL-NIRC but were lower in the smaller imported male cohorts (TNPRC: 50%; WF: 28%). Among the UL-NIRC cohort and VRC male cohort, most of the pair separations after 14 days were due to reasons unrelated to social incompatibility. In contrast, a large proportion of TNPRC and imported male pairs successful at 14 days required separation within 60 days due to incompatibility. Multiple logistic regressions were performed using cohort, mean age of pair and weight difference between pair-mates as potential predictors of compatibility at 14 days. All three predicted the 14-day outcome in males but not females. A separate analysis in the VRC cohort found no evidence that prior familiarity in a group setting influenced outcomes. Variations in success rates across cohorts may have been influenced by introduction methodology. Behavioral differences between vervets and macaques, coupled with our findings, lead us to theorize that the gradual introduction techniques commonly implemented to pair house macaques may not be beneficial or suitable for this species. PMID:26539878

Pair housing of Vervets/African Green Monkeys for biomedical research.

PubMed

Jorgensen, Matthew J; Lambert, Kelsey R; Breaux, Sarah D; Baker, Kate C; Snively, Beverly M; Weed, James L

2017-01-01

Vervets, also known as African green monkeys, are a nonhuman primate species widely used in biomedical research. However, there are currently few references available describing techniques and rates of success for pair-housing this species. We present data from four cohorts of vervets from three different facilities: (i) the Wake Forest Vervet Research Colony (VRC; n = 72 female pairs, n= 52 male pairs), (ii) the University of Louisiana at Lafayette-New Iberia Research Center (UL-NIRC; n = 57 female pairs, n = 54 male pairs), (iii) the Tulane National Primate Research Center (TNRPC; n = 18 male pairs), and (iv) a cohort of imported males (n = 18 pairs) at Wake Forest. Compatibility was measured at 14, 30, and 60 days following introduction. Success rates for pair-housing at 14 days ranged from 96% to 98% for females and 96% to 100% for males at the VRC and UL-NIRC but were lower in the smaller imported male cohorts (TNPRC: 50%; WF: 28%). Among the UL-NIRC cohort and VRC male cohort, most of the pair separations after 14 days were due to reasons unrelated to social incompatibility. In contrast, a large proportion of TNPRC and imported male pairs successful at 14 days required separation within 60 days due to incompatibility. Multiple logistic regressions were performed using cohort, mean age of pair and weight difference between pair-mates as potential predictors of compatibility at 14 days. All three predicted the 14-day outcome in males but not females. A separate analysis in the VRC cohort found no evidence that prior familiarity in a group setting influenced outcomes. Variations in success rates across cohorts may have been influenced by introduction methodology. Behavioral differences between vervets and macaques, coupled with our findings, lead us to theorize that the gradual introduction techniques commonly implemented to pair house macaques may not be beneficial or suitable for this species. Am. J. Primatol. 79:e22501, 2017. © 2015

From Mars to man - Biomedical research at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Beckenbach, E. S.

1984-01-01

In the course of the unmanned exploration of the solar system, which the California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has managed for NASA, major advances in computerized image processing, materials research, and miniature electronics design have been accomplished. This presentation shows some of the imaging results from space exploration missions, as well as biomedical research tasks based in these technologies. Among other topics, the use of polymeric microspheres in cancer therapy is discussed. Also included are ceramic applications to prosthesis development, laser applications in the treatment of coronary artery disease, multispectral imaging as used in the diagnosis of thermal burn injury, and some examples of telemetry systems as they can be involved in biological systems.

Special Issue: 3D Printing for Biomedical Engineering.

PubMed

Chua, Chee Kai; Yeong, Wai Yee; An, Jia

2017-02-28

Three-dimensional (3D) printing has a long history of applications in biomedical engineering. The development and expansion of traditional biomedical applications are being advanced and enriched by new printing technologies. New biomedical applications such as bioprinting are highly attractive and trendy. This Special Issue aims to provide readers with a glimpse of the recent profile of 3D printing in biomedical research.

Informed consent document improvement does not increase patients' comprehension in biomedical research

PubMed Central

Paris, Adeline; Brandt, Christian; Cornu, Catherine; Maison, Patrick; Thalamas, Claire; Cracowski, Jean-Luc

2010-01-01

AIMS International guidelines on ethics in biomedical research require that the informed consent of all enrolled participants is obtained. A written document describing the research, the informed consent (IC) document, must be given to all participants by the investigator. Most IC documents are long, containing much information. The aim of the present study was to determine whether the modification of the IC document by a working group or systematic improvement in its lexicosyntactic readability can improve comprehension of the written information given to patients participating in biomedical research. METHODS One hundred and fifty-nine patients were randomized to read one of the three versions of the IC document: unchanged document, document modified using systematic improvement of lexicosyntactic readability and document modified by a working group. RESULTS Neither the improvement in the lexicosyntactic readability, nor the intervention of the working group significantly improved the score of objective comprehension for the subjects included in this study: it was 66.6 (95% confidence interval 64.0, 69.2) for the control group, 68.8 (66.2, 71.4) for the group with the document improved for lexicosyntactic readability and 69.2 (66.0, 72.4) for the group who read the document improved by the working group (P= 0.38). CONCLUSIONS We failed to show that improving IC document comprehension through a lexicosyntactic approach or by a working group leads to better comprehension. PMID:20233193

Advances in targeted proteomics and applications to biomedical research

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Shi, Tujin; Song, Ehwang; Nie, Song

Targeted proteomics technique has emerged as a powerful protein quantification tool in systems biology, biomedical research, and increasing for clinical applications. The most widely used targeted proteomics approach, selected reaction monitoring (SRM), also known as multiple reaction monitoring (MRM), can be used for quantification of cellular signaling networks and preclinical verification of candidate protein biomarkers. As an extension to our previous review on advances in SRM sensitivity (Shi et al., Proteomics, 12, 1074–1092, 2012) herein we review recent advances in the method and technology for further enhancing SRM sensitivity (from 2012 to present), and highlighting its broad biomedical applications inmore » human bodily fluids, tissue and cell lines. Furthermore, we also review two recently introduced targeted proteomics approaches, parallel reaction monitoring (PRM) and data-independent acquisition (DIA) with targeted data extraction on fast scanning high-resolution accurate-mass (HR/AM) instruments. Such HR/AM targeted quantification with monitoring all target product ions addresses SRM limitations effectively in specificity and multiplexing; whereas when compared to SRM, PRM and DIA are still in the infancy with a limited number of applications. Thus, for HR/AM targeted quantification we focus our discussion on method development, data processing and analysis, and its advantages and limitations in targeted proteomics. Finally, general perspectives on the potential of achieving both high sensitivity and high sample throughput for large-scale quantification of hundreds of target proteins are discussed.« less

The long tail: a usage analysis of pre-1993 print biomedical journal literature

PubMed Central

Starr, Susan; Williams, Jeff

2008-01-01

Objective: The research analyzes usage of a major biomedical library's pre-1993 print journal collection. Methodology: In July 2003, in preparation for a renovation and expansion project, the Biomedical Library at the University of California, San Diego, moved all of its pre-1993 journal volumes off-site, with the exception of twenty-two heavily used titles. Patrons wishing to consult one of these stored volumes could request that it be delivered to the library for their use. In the spring of 2006, an analysis was made of these requests. Results: By July of 2006, 79,827 journal volumes published in 1992 or earlier had been requested from storage. The number of requests received declined with age of publication. The usage distribution exhibited a “long tail”: 50% of the 79,827 requests were for journal volumes published before 1986. The availability of electronic access dramatically reduced the chance that corresponding print journal volumes would be requested. Conclusions: The older biomedical print journal literature appears to be of continued value to the biomedical research community. When electronic access was provided to the older literature, demand for older print volumes declined dramatically. PMID:18219377

Status of Research in Biomedical Engineering 1968.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Inst. of General Medical Sciences (NIH), Bethesda, MD.

This status report is divided into eight sections. The first four represent the classical engineering or building aspects of bioengineering and deal with biomedical instrumentation, prosthetics, man-machine systems and computer and information systems. The next three sections are related to the scientific, intellectual and academic influence of…

Size and characteristics of the biomedical research workforce associated with U.S. National Institutes of Health extramural grants

PubMed Central

Pool, Lindsay R.; Wagner, Robin M.; Scott, Lindsey L.; RoyChowdhury, Deepshikha; Berhane, Rediet; Wu, Charles; Pearson, Katrina; Sutton, Jennifer A.; Schaffer, Walter T.

2016-01-01

The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) annually invests approximately $22 billion in biomedical research through its extramural grant programs. Since fiscal year (FY) 2010, all persons involved in research during the previous project year have been required to be listed on the annual grant progress report. These new data have enabled the production of the first-ever census of the NIH-funded extramural research workforce. Data were extracted from All Personnel Reports submitted for NIH grants funded in FY 2009, including position title, months of effort, academic degrees obtained, and personal identifiers. Data were de-duplicated to determine a unique person count. Person-years of effort (PYE) on NIH grants were computed. In FY 2009, NIH funded 50,885 grant projects, which created 313,049 full- and part-time positions spanning all job functions involved in biomedical research. These positions were staffed by 247,457 people at 2,604 institutions. These persons devoted 121,465 PYE to NIH grant-supported research. Research project grants each supported 6 full- or part-time positions, on average. Over 20% of positions were occupied by postdoctoral researchers and graduate and undergraduate students. These baseline data were used to project workforce estimates for FYs 2010–2014 and will serve as a foundation for future research.—Pool, L. R., Wagner, R. M., Scott, L. L., RoyChowdhury, D., Berhane, R., Wu, C., Pearson, K., Sutton, J. A., Schaffer, W. T. Size and characteristics of the biomedical research workforce associated with U.S. National Institutes of Health extramural grants. PMID:26625903

Biomedical informatics training at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

PubMed

Severtson, D J; Pape, L; Page, C D; Shavlik, J W; Phillips, G N; Flatley Brennan, P

2007-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to describe biomedical informatics training at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison). We reviewed biomedical informatics training, research, and faculty/trainee participation at UW-Madison. There are three primary approaches to training 1) The Computation & Informatics in Biology & Medicine Training Program, 2) formal biomedical informatics offered by various campus departments, and 3) individualized programs. Training at UW-Madison embodies the features of effective biomedical informatics training recommended by the American College of Medical Informatics that were delineated as: 1) curricula that integrate experiences among computational sciences and application domains, 2) individualized and interdisciplinary cross-training among a diverse cadre of trainees to develop key competencies that he or she does not initially possess, 3) participation in research and development activities, and 4) exposure to a range of basic informational and computational sciences. The three biomedical informatics training approaches immerse students in multidisciplinary training and education that is supported by faculty trainers who participate in collaborative research across departments. Training is provided across a range of disciplines and available at different training stages. Biomedical informatics training at UW-Madison illustrates how a large research University, with multiple departments across biological, computational and health fields, can provide effective and productive biomedical informatics training via multiple bioinformatics training approaches.

Compliance with National Ethics Requirements for Human-Subject Research in Non-biomedical Sciences in Brazil: A Changing Culture?

PubMed

de Albuquerque Rocha, Karina; Vasconcelos, Sonia M R

2018-02-06

Ethics regulation for human-subject research (HSR) has been established for about 20 years in Brazil. However, compliance with this regulation is controversial for non-biomedical sciences, particularly for human and social sciences (HSS), the source of a recent debate at the National Commission for Research Ethics. We hypothesized that for these fields, formal requirements for compliance with HSR regulation in graduate programs, responsible for the greatest share of Brazilian science, would be small in number. We analyzed institutional documents (collected from June 2014 to May 2015) from 171 graduate programs at six prestigious Brazilian universities in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the states that fund most of the science conducted in Brazil. Among these programs, 149 were in HSS. The results suggest that non-compliance with standard regulation seems to be the rule in most of these programs. The data may reflect not only a resistance from scientists in these fields to comply with standard regulations for ethics in HSR but also a disciplinary tradition that seems prevalent when it comes to research ethics in HSR. However, recent encounters between Brazilian biomedical and non-biomedical scientists for debates over ethics in HSR point to a changing culture in the approach to research ethics in the country.

Patient identity management for secondary use of biomedical research data in a distributed computing environment.

PubMed

Nitzlnader, Michael; Schreier, Günter

2014-01-01

Dealing with data from different source domains is of increasing importance in today's large scale biomedical research endeavours. Within the European Network for Cancer research in Children and Adolescents (ENCCA) a solution to share such data for secondary use will be established. In this paper the solution arising from the aims of the ENCCA project and regulatory requirements concerning data protection and privacy is presented. Since the details of secondary biomedical dataset utilisation are often not known in advance, data protection regulations are met with an identity management concept that facilitates context-specific pseudonymisation and a way of data aggregation using a hidden reference table later on. Phonetic hashing is proposed to prevent duplicated patient registration and re-identification of patients is possible via a trusted third party only. Finally, the solution architecture allows for implementation in a distributed computing environment, including cloud-based elements.

Building integrated pathways to independence for diverse biomedical researchers: Project Pathways, the BUILD program at Xavier University of Louisiana.

PubMed

Foroozesh, Maryam; Giguette, Marguerite; Morgan, Kathleen; Johanson, Kelly; D'Amour, Gene; Coston, Tiera; Wilkins-Green, Clair

2017-01-01

Xavier University of Louisiana is a historically Black and Catholic university that is nationally recognized for its science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) curricula. Approximately 73% of Xavier's students are African American, and about 77% major in the biomedical sciences. Xavier is a national leader in the number of STEM majors who go on to receive M.D. degrees and Ph.D. degrees in science and engineering. Despite Xavier's advances in this area, African Americans still earn about 7.5% of the Bachelor's degrees, less than 8% of the Master's degrees, and less than 5% of the doctoral degrees conferred in STEM disciplines in the United States. Additionally, although many well-prepared, highly-motivated students are attracted by Xavier's reputation in the sciences, many of these students, though bright and capable, come from underperforming public school systems and receive substandard preparation in STEM disciplines. The purpose of this article is to describe how Xavier works to overcome unequal education backgrounds and socioeconomic challenges to develop student talent through expanding biomedical training opportunities and build on an established reputation in science education. The National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)-funded BUILD (Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity) Program at Xavier University of Louisiana, Project Pathways , is a highly-innovative program designed to broaden the career interests of students early on, and to engage them in activities that entice them to continue their education towards biomedical research careers. Project strategies involve a transformation of Xavier's academic and non-academic programs through the redesign, supplementation and integration of academic advising, tutoring, career services, personal counseling, undergraduate research training, faculty research mentoring, and development of new biomedical and research skills courses. The Program also

Bridging the social and the biomedical: engaging the social and political sciences in HIV research.

PubMed

Kippax, Susan C; Holt, Martin; Friedman, Samuel R

2011-09-27

This supplement to the Journal of the International AIDS Society focuses on the engagement of the social and political sciences within HIV research and, in particular, maintaining a productive relationship between social and biomedical perspectives on HIV. It responds to a number of concerns raised primarily by social scientists, but also recognized as important by biomedical and public health researchers. These concerns include how best to understand the impact of medical technologies (such as HIV treatments, HIV testing, viral load testing, male circumcision, microbicides, and pre-and post-exposure prophylaxis) on sexual cultures, drug practices, relationships and social networks in different cultural, economic and political contexts. The supplement is also concerned with how we might examine the relationship between HIV prevention and treatment, understand the social and political mobilization required to tackle HIV, and sustain the range of disciplinary approaches needed to inform and guide responses to the global pandemic. The six articles included in the supplement demonstrate the value of fostering high quality social and political research to inform, guide and challenge our collaborative responses to HIV/AIDS.

Biomedical informatics: development of a comprehensive data warehouse for clinical and genomic breast cancer research.

PubMed

Hu, Hai; Brzeski, Henry; Hutchins, Joe; Ramaraj, Mohan; Qu, Long; Xiong, Richard; Kalathil, Surendran; Kato, Rand; Tenkillaya, Santhosh; Carney, Jerry; Redd, Rosann; Arkalgudvenkata, Sheshkumar; Shahzad, Kashif; Scott, Richard; Cheng, Hui; Meadow, Stephen; McMichael, John; Sheu, Shwu-Lin; Rosendale, David; Kvecher, Leonid; Ahern, Stephen; Yang, Song; Zhang, Yonghong; Jordan, Rick; Somiari, Stella B; Hooke, Jeffrey; Shriver, Craig D; Somiari, Richard I; Liebman, Michael N

2004-10-01

The Windber Research Institute is an integrated high-throughput research center employing clinical, genomic and proteomic platforms to produce terabyte levels of data. We use biomedical informatics technologies to integrate all of these operations. This report includes information on a multi-year, multi-phase hybrid data warehouse project currently under development in the Institute. The purpose of the warehouse is to host the terabyte-level of internal experimentally generated data as well as data from public sources. We have previously reported on the phase I development, which integrated limited internal data sources and selected public databases. Currently, we are completing phase II development, which integrates our internal automated data sources and develops visualization tools to query across these data types. This paper summarizes our clinical and experimental operations, the data warehouse development, and the challenges we have faced. In phase III we plan to federate additional manual internal and public data sources and then to develop and adapt more data analysis and mining tools. We expect that the final implementation of the data warehouse will greatly facilitate biomedical informatics research.

Nanoparticles for Biomedical Imaging

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Nune, Satish K.; Gunda, Padmaja; Thallapally, Praveen K.

2009-11-01

Background: Synthetic nanoparticles are emerging as versatile tools in biomedical applications, particularly in the area of biomedical imaging. Nanoparticles 1 to 100 nm in diameter possess dimensions comparable to biological functional units. Diverse surface chemistries, unique magnetic properties, tunable absorption and emission properties, and recent advances in the synthesis and engineering of various nanoparticles suggest their potential as probes for early detection of diseases such as cancer. Surface functionalization has further expanded the potential of nanoparticles as probes for molecular imaging. Objective: To summarize emerging research of nanoparticles for biomedical imaging with increased selectivity and reduced non-specific uptake with increasedmore » spatial resolution containing stabilizers conjugated with targeting ligands. Methods: This review summarizes recent technological advances in the synthesis of various nanoparticle probes, and surveys methods to improve the targeting of nanoparticles for their applications in biomedical imaging. Conclusion: Structural design of nanomaterials for biomedical imaging continues to expand and diversify. Synthetic methods have aimed to control the size and surface characteristics of nanoparticles to control distribution, half-life and elimination. Although molecular imaging applications using nanoparticles are advancing into clinical applications, challenges such as storage stability and long-term toxicology should continue to be addressed. Keywords: nanoparticle synthesis, surface modification, targeting, molecular imaging, and biomedical imaging.« less

Research in the Biotech Age: Can Informational Privacy Compete?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peekhaus, Wilhelm

2008-01-01

This article examines the privacy of personal medical information in the health research context. Arguing that biomedical research in Canada has been caught up in the government's broader neoliberal policy agenda that has positioned biotechnology as a strategic driver of economic growth, the author discusses the tension between informational…

Relational Databases and Biomedical Big Data.

PubMed

de Silva, N H Nisansa D

2017-01-01

In various biomedical applications that collect, handle, and manipulate data, the amounts of data tend to build up and venture into the range identified as bigdata. In such occurrences, a design decision has to be taken as to what type of database would be used to handle this data. More often than not, the default and classical solution to this in the biomedical domain according to past research is relational databases. While this used to be the norm for a long while, it is evident that there is a trend to move away from relational databases in favor of other types and paradigms of databases. However, it still has paramount importance to understand the interrelation that exists between biomedical big data and relational databases. This chapter will review the pros and cons of using relational databases to store biomedical big data that previous researches have discussed and used.

Special Issue: 3D Printing for Biomedical Engineering

PubMed Central

Chua, Chee Kai; Yeong, Wai Yee; An, Jia

2017-01-01

Three-dimensional (3D) printing has a long history of applications in biomedical engineering. The development and expansion of traditional biomedical applications are being advanced and enriched by new printing technologies. New biomedical applications such as bioprinting are highly attractive and trendy. This Special Issue aims to provide readers with a glimpse of the recent profile of 3D printing in biomedical research. PMID:28772604

Biomedical technology transfer applications of NASA science and technology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1972-01-01

The identification and solution of research and clinical problems in cardiovascular medicine which were investigated by means of biomedical data transfer are reported. The following are sample areas that were focused upon by the Stanford University Biomedical Technology Transfer Team: electrodes for hemiplegia research; vectorcardiogram computer analysis; respiration and phonation electrodes; radiotelemetry of intracranial pressure; and audiotransformation of the electrocardiographic signal. It is concluded that this biomedical technology transfer is significantly aiding present research in cardiovascular medicine.

Instructions to Prospective Authors by Indian Biomedical Journals: An Opportunity to Promote Responsible Conduct of Research.

PubMed

Bhat, Anup; Shah, Akash; Sherighar, Swathi G

2017-04-01

Journals provide instructions to prospective authors to facilitate the process of manuscript publication. The information provided under such instructions could be a potential opportunity to promote responsible conduct of research (RCR). We analyzed 74 Indian biomedical journals for the type of information provided in the "instructions to authors" section and adherence to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommendations. Among the 71 journals that had an "instructions to authors" section, 53 journals adhered to ICMJE recommendations. We discuss sections of the ICMJE recommendations detailed by Indian biomedical journals under the "instructions to authors" section and emphasize components that require greater exposure.

New Developments in NASA's Rodent Research Hardware for Conducting Long Duration Biomedical and Basic Research in Space

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shirazi, Yasaman; Choi, S.; Harris, C.; Gong, C.; Fisher, R. J.; Beegle, J. E.; Stube, K. C.; Martin, K. J.; Nevitt, R. G.; Globus, R. K.

2017-01-01

Animal models, particularly rodents, are the foundation of pre-clinical research to understand human diseases and evaluate new therapeutics, and play a key role in advancing biomedical discoveries both on Earth and in space. The National Research Councils Decadal survey emphasized the importance of expanding NASA's life sciences research to perform long duration, rodent experiments on the International Space Station (ISS) to study effects of the space environment on the musculoskeletal and neurological systems of mice as model organisms of human health and disease, particularly in areas of muscle atrophy, bone loss, and fracture healing. To accomplish this objective, flight hardware, operations, and science capabilities were developed at NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) to enhance science return for both commercial (CASIS) and government-sponsored rodent research. The Rodent Research Project at NASA ARC has pioneered a new research capability on the International Space Station and has progressed toward translating research to the ISS utilizing commercial rockets, collaborating with academia and science industry, while training crewmembers to assist in performing research on orbit. The Rodent Research Habitat provides a living environment for animals on ISS according to standard animal welfare requirements, and daily health checks can be performed using the habitats camera system. Results from these studies contribute to the science community via both the primary investigation and banked samples that are shared in publicly available data repository such as GeneLab. Following each flight, through the Biospecimen Sharing Program (BSP), numerous tissues and thousands of samples will be harvested, and distributed from the Space Life and Physical Sciences (SLPS) to Principal Investigators (PIs) through the Ames Life Science Data Archive (ALSDA). Every completed mission sets a foundation to build and design greater complexity into future research and answer questions about

Survey of checkpoints along the pathway to diverse biomedical research faculty

PubMed Central

Brown, Abigail M.; Moneta-Koehler, Liane; Chalkley, Roger

2018-01-01

There is a persistent shortage of underrepresented minority (URM) faculty who are involved in basic biomedical research at medical schools. We examined the entire training pathway of potential candidates to identify the points of greatest loss. Using a range of recent national data sources, including the National Science Foundation’s Survey of Earned Doctorates and Survey of Doctoral Recipients, we analyzed the demographics of the population of interest, specifically those from URM backgrounds with an interest in biomedical sciences. We examined the URM population from high school graduates through undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral training as well as the URM population in basic science tenure track faculty positions at medical schools. We find that URM and non-URM trainees are equally likely to transition into doctoral programs, to receive their doctoral degree, and to secure a postdoctoral position. However, the analysis reveals that the diversions from developing a faculty career are found primarily at two clearly identifiable places, specifically during undergraduate education and in transition from postdoctoral fellowship to tenure track faculty in the basic sciences at medical schools. We suggest focusing additional interventions on these two stages along the educational pathway. PMID:29338019

The biomedical model of mental disorder: a critical analysis of its validity, utility, and effects on psychotherapy research.

PubMed

Deacon, Brett J

2013-11-01

The biomedical model posits that mental disorders are brain diseases and emphasizes pharmacological treatment to target presumed biological abnormalities. A biologically-focused approach to science, policy, and practice has dominated the American healthcare system for more than three decades. During this time, the use of psychiatric medications has sharply increased and mental disorders have become commonly regarded as brain diseases caused by chemical imbalances that are corrected with disease-specific drugs. However, despite widespread faith in the potential of neuroscience to revolutionize mental health practice, the biomedical model era has been characterized by a broad lack of clinical innovation and poor mental health outcomes. In addition, the biomedical paradigm has profoundly affected clinical psychology via the adoption of drug trial methodology in psychotherapy research. Although this approach has spurred the development of empirically supported psychological treatments for numerous mental disorders, it has neglected treatment process, inhibited treatment innovation and dissemination, and divided the field along scientist and practitioner lines. The neglected biopsychosocial model represents an appealing alternative to the biomedical approach, and an honest and public dialog about the validity and utility of the biomedical paradigm is urgently needed. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Coal conversion: description of technologies and necessary biomedical and environmental research

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

1976-08-01

This document contains a description of the biomedical and environmental research necessary to ensure the timely attainment of coal conversion technologies amenable to man and his environment. The document is divided into three sections. The first deals with the types of processes currently being considered for development; the data currently available on composition of product, process and product streams, and their potential effects; and problems that might arise from transportation and use of products. Section II is concerned with a description of the necessary research in each of the King-Muir categories, while the third section presents the research strategies necessarymore » to assess the potential problems at the conversion plant (site specific) and those problems that might effect the general public and environment as a result of the operation of large-scale coal conversion plants.« less

The Impact of CRISPR/Cas9-Based Genomic Engineering on Biomedical Research and Medicine.

PubMed

Go, D E; Stottmann, R W

2016-01-01

There has been prolonged and significant interest in manipulating the genome for a wide range of applications in biomedical research and medicine. An existing challenge in realizing this potential has been the inability to precisely edit specific DNA sequences. Past efforts to generate targeted double stranded DNA cleavage have fused DNA-targeting elements such as zinc fingers and DNA-binding proteins to endonucleases. However, these approaches are limited by both design complexity and inefficient, costineffective operation. The discovery of CRISPR/Cas9, a branch of the bacterial adaptive immune system, as a potential genomic editing tool holds the promise of facile targeted cleavage. Its novelty lies in its RNA-guided endonuclease activity, which enhances its efficiency, scalability, and ease of use. The only necessary components are a Cas9 endonuclease protein and an RNA molecule tailored to the gene of interest. This lowbarrier of adoption has facilitated a plethora of advances in just the past three years since its discovery. In this review, we will discuss the impact of CRISPR/Cas9 on biomedical research and its potential implications in medicine.

Past and future trends in cancer and biomedical research: a comparison between Egypt and the world using PubMed-indexed publications.

PubMed

Zeeneldin, Ahmed Abdelmabood; Taha, Fatma Mohamed; Moneer, Manar

2012-07-10

PubMed is a free web literature search service that contains almost 21 millions of abstracts and publications with almost 5 million user queries daily. The purposes of the study were to compare trends in PubMed-indexed cancer and biomedical publications from Egypt to that of the world and to predict future publication volumes. The PubMed was searched for the biomedical publications between 1991 and 2010 (publications dates). Affiliation was then limited to Egypt. Further limitation was applied to cancer, human and animal publications. Poisson regression model was used for prediction of future number of publications between 2011 and 2020. Cancer publications contributed 23% to biomedical publications both for Egypt and the world. Egyptian biomedical and cancer publications contributed about 0.13% to their world counterparts. This contribution was more than doubled over the study period. Egyptian and world's publications increased from year to year with rapid rise starting the year 2003. Egyptian as well as world's human cancer publications showed the highest increases. Egyptian publications had some peculiarities; they showed some drop at the years 1994 and 2002 and apart from the decline in the animal: human ratio with time, all Egyptian publications in the period 1991-2000 were significantly more than those in 2001-2010 (P < 0.05 for all). By 2020, Egyptian biomedical and cancer publications will increase by 158.7% and 280% relative to 2010 to constitute 0.34% and 0.17% of total PubMed publications, respectively. The Egyptian contribution to world's biomedical and cancer publications needs significant improvements through research strategic planning, setting national research priorities, adequate funding and researchers' training.

Biomedical research and aerospace technology applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1971-01-01

The accomplishments and activities of an Applications Team for biomedical subjects are presented. The team attempts to couple the technological problems and requirements in medicine with the relevant aerospace technology and, in particular, NASA-generated technology. The team actively engages in identifying these problems through direct contact with medical staffs or problem originators. The identification and specification of medical problems is followed by a search for technology which may be relevant to solutions to these problems.

The first chimpanzee sanctuary in Japan: an attempt to care for the "surplus" of biomedical research.

PubMed

Morimura, Naruki; Idani, Gen'ichi; Matsuzawa, Tetsuro

2011-03-01

This article specifically examines several aspects of the human-captive chimpanzee bond and the effort to create the first chimpanzee sanctuary in Japan. We discuss our ethical responsibility for captive chimpanzees that have been used in biomedical research. On April 1, 2007, the Chimpanzee Sanctuary Uto (CSU) was established as the first sanctuary for retired laboratory chimpanzees in Japan. This initiative was the result of the continuous efforts by members of Support for African/Asian Great Apes (SAGA), and the Great Ape Information Network to provide a solution to the large chimpanzee colony held in biomedical facilities. However, the cessation of invasive biomedical studies using chimpanzees has created a new set of challenges because Japan lacks registration and laws banning invasive ape experiments and lacks a national policy for the life-long care of retired laboratory chimpanzees. Therefore, CSU has initiated a relocation program in which 79 retired laboratory chimpanzees will be sent to domestic zoos and receive life-long care. By the end of 2009, the number of chimpanzees living at CSU had decreased from 79 to 59 individuals. A nationwide network of care facilities and CSU to provide life-long care of retired laboratory chimpanzees is growing across Japan. This will result in humane treatment of these research animals. 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Biomedical Science Undergraduate Major: A New Pathway to Advance Research and the Health Professions.

PubMed

Gunn, John S; Ledford, Cynthia H; Mousetes, Steven J; Grever, Michael R

2018-01-01

Many students entering professional degree programs, particularly M.D., Ph.D., and M.D./Ph.D., are not well prepared regarding the breadth of scientific knowledge required, communication skills, research experience, reading and understanding the scientific literature, and significant shadowing (for M.D.-related professions). In addition, physician scientists are a needed and necessary part of the academic research environment but are dwindling in numbers. In response to predictions of critical shortages of clinician investigators and the lack of proper preparation as undergraduates for these professions, the Biomedical Science (BMS) undergraduate major was created at The Ohio State University to attract incoming college freshmen with interests in scientific research and the healthcare professions. The intent of this major was to graduate an elite cohort of highly talented individuals who would pursue careers in the healthcare professions, biomedical research, or both. Students were admitted to the BMS major through an application and interview process. Admitted cohorts were small, comprising 22 to 26 students, and received a high degree of individualized professional academic advising and mentoring. The curriculum included a minimum of 4 semesters (or 2 years) of supervised research experience designed to enable students to gain skills in clinical and basic science investigation. In addition to covering the prerequisites for medicine and advanced degrees in health professions, the integrated BMS coursework emphasized research literacy as well as skills related to work as a healthcare professional, with additional emphasis on independent learning, teamwork to solve complex problems, and both oral and written communication skills. Supported by Ohio State's Department of Internal Medicine, a unique clinical internship provided selected students with insights into potential careers as physician scientists. In this educational case report, we describe the BMS

Towards a 21st century roadmap for biomedical research and drug discovery: Consensus report and recommendations

EPA Science Inventory

Decades of costly failures in translating drug candidates from preclinical disease models to human therapeutic use warrant reconsideration of the priority placed on animal models in biomedical research. Following an international workshop attended by experts from academia, govern...

For 481 biomedical open access journals, articles are not searchable in the Directory of Open Access Journals nor in conventional biomedical databases

PubMed Central

Andresen, Kristoffer; Pommergaard, Hans-Christian; Rosenberg, Jacob

2015-01-01

Background. Open access (OA) journals allows access to research papers free of charge to the reader. Traditionally, biomedical researchers use databases like MEDLINE and EMBASE to discover new advances. However, biomedical OA journals might not fulfill such databases’ criteria, hindering dissemination. The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is a database exclusively listing OA journals. The aim of this study was to investigate DOAJ’s coverage of biomedical OA journals compared with the conventional biomedical databases. Methods. Information on all journals listed in four conventional biomedical databases (MEDLINE, PubMed Central, EMBASE and SCOPUS) and DOAJ were gathered. Journals were included if they were (1) actively publishing, (2) full OA, (3) prospectively indexed in one or more database, and (4) of biomedical subject. Impact factor and journal language were also collected. DOAJ was compared with conventional databases regarding the proportion of journals covered, along with their impact factor and publishing language. The proportion of journals with articles indexed by DOAJ was determined. Results. In total, 3,236 biomedical OA journals were included in the study. Of the included journals, 86.7% were listed in DOAJ. Combined, the conventional biomedical databases listed 75.0% of the journals; 18.7% in MEDLINE; 36.5% in PubMed Central; 51.5% in SCOPUS and 50.6% in EMBASE. Of the journals in DOAJ, 88.7% published in English and 20.6% had received impact factor for 2012 compared with 93.5% and 26.0%, respectively, for journals in the conventional biomedical databases. A subset of 51.1% and 48.5% of the journals in DOAJ had articles indexed from 2012 and 2013, respectively. Of journals exclusively listed in DOAJ, one journal had received an impact factor for 2012, and 59.6% of the journals had no content from 2013 indexed in DOAJ. Conclusions. DOAJ is the most complete registry of biomedical OA journals compared with five conventional biomedical

For 481 biomedical open access journals, articles are not searchable in the Directory of Open Access Journals nor in conventional biomedical databases.

PubMed

Liljekvist, Mads Svane; Andresen, Kristoffer; Pommergaard, Hans-Christian; Rosenberg, Jacob

2015-01-01

Background. Open access (OA) journals allows access to research papers free of charge to the reader. Traditionally, biomedical researchers use databases like MEDLINE and EMBASE to discover new advances. However, biomedical OA journals might not fulfill such databases' criteria, hindering dissemination. The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is a database exclusively listing OA journals. The aim of this study was to investigate DOAJ's coverage of biomedical OA journals compared with the conventional biomedical databases. Methods. Information on all journals listed in four conventional biomedical databases (MEDLINE, PubMed Central, EMBASE and SCOPUS) and DOAJ were gathered. Journals were included if they were (1) actively publishing, (2) full OA, (3) prospectively indexed in one or more database, and (4) of biomedical subject. Impact factor and journal language were also collected. DOAJ was compared with conventional databases regarding the proportion of journals covered, along with their impact factor and publishing language. The proportion of journals with articles indexed by DOAJ was determined. Results. In total, 3,236 biomedical OA journals were included in the study. Of the included journals, 86.7% were listed in DOAJ. Combined, the conventional biomedical databases listed 75.0% of the journals; 18.7% in MEDLINE; 36.5% in PubMed Central; 51.5% in SCOPUS and 50.6% in EMBASE. Of the journals in DOAJ, 88.7% published in English and 20.6% had received impact factor for 2012 compared with 93.5% and 26.0%, respectively, for journals in the conventional biomedical databases. A subset of 51.1% and 48.5% of the journals in DOAJ had articles indexed from 2012 and 2013, respectively. Of journals exclusively listed in DOAJ, one journal had received an impact factor for 2012, and 59.6% of the journals had no content from 2013 indexed in DOAJ. Conclusions. DOAJ is the most complete registry of biomedical OA journals compared with five conventional biomedical databases

A Perspective on Promoting Diversity in the Biomedical Research Workforce: The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's PRIDE Program.

PubMed

Boyington, Josephine E A; Maihle, Nita J; Rice, Treva K; Gonzalez, Juan E; Hess, Caryl A; Makala, Levi H; Jeffe, Donna B; Ogedegbe, Gbenga; Rao, Dabeeru C; Dávila-Román, Victor G; Pace, Betty S; Jean-Louis, Girardin; Boutjdir, Mohamed

2016-07-21

Aspiring junior investigators from groups underrepresented in the biomedical sciences face various challenges as they pursue research independence. However, the biomedical research enterprise needs their participation to effectively address critical research issues such as health disparities and health inequities. In this article, we share a research education and mentoring initiative that seeks to address this challenge: Programs to Increase Diversity among Individuals Engaged in Health Related Research (PRIDE), funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). This longitudinal research-education and mentoring program occurs through summer institute programs located at US-based academic institutions. Recruited participants are exposed to didactic and lab-based research-skill enhancement experiences, with year-round mentoring over the course of two years. Mentor-mentee matching is based on shared research interests to promote congruence and to enhance skill acquisition. Program descriptions and sample narratives of participants' perceptions of PRIDE's impact on their career progress are showcased. Additionally, we highlight the overall program design and structure of four of seven funded summer institutes that focus on cardiovascular disease, related conditions, and health disparities. Mentees' testimonials about the value of the PRIDE mentoring approach in facilitating career development are also noted. Meeting the clinical and research needs of an increasingly diverse US population is an issue of national concern. The PRIDE initiative, which focuses on increasing research preparedness and professional development of groups underrepresented in the biomedical research workforce, with an emphasis on mentoring as the critical approach, provides a robust model that is impacting the careers of future investigators.

Aptamers: multifunctional molecules for biomedical research.