All posts by erin

NIDA pledges $10 million to develop addiction treatments

Government Regulations, Public Perceptions, Research Funding

Here is another article that I wrote for J800 last semester (in September 2010) that wasn’t timely once I had edited it, and I couldn’t get it picked up anywhere. But for those of you interested in research funding, this is an interesting look at basic vs. preclinical and clinical research. 





NIDA has announced the four winners of the first funding award specifically designed to support research to create a viable human treatment for cocaine or nicotine addiction.






There is the patch, the pills, the gum, and even going cold turkey, but for some nicotine addicts, nothing seems to stop the urge to reach for a cigarette. Instead of feeling dejected, people suffering from addictions can now pin their hopes for quitting on the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA.)

NIDA, a member of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), recently announced the four winners of a funding initiative for research that develops addiction treatments for human application. The initiative seeks to produce new addiction treatments by providing more government-based funding for the development of pharmaceutical treatments.

“Usually pharmaceutical companies support potential drugs,” said Jia Bei Wang, a pharmacology researcher at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, and winner of the new award. “But I don’t think these companies are interested in addiction because it’s not profitable, so drugs for addiction are very much in need of government support.”


The new NIDA award will provide a combined total of $10 million to develop ways to counteract cocaine and nicotine dependency. The initiative hopes to create viable human treatments at the end of five years.

“I think that this is something very new,” said Wang. “As a researcher I have gone through a lot of grant applications, and this is the first of its kind that I have tried, that is not a mechanism for basic research but that is a drug development grant.”


According to Wang, the majority of federal funding for research is for basic research, projects that evaluate scientific questions without a definite sense of the outcome. The NIDA Avant-Garde Award for Innovative Medication Development is different because it is focused on pre-clinical and clinical research, projects that are outcome driven and based on extensive basic research.

“I think NIDA realizes there is a gap between basic research and clinical outcomes, and the research that bridges that gap is very important,” said Wang. “A lot of progress is made in the basic sciences, but on the clinical side we still don’t have any useful drugs [for cocaine addiction].”


Why is a clinical-only grant needed?

Every year the government spends billions on scientific research. According to the NIH Office of Budget, in fiscal year 2010 NIDA dedicated just $118,546 million to their pharmaceutical development department out of a total budget of $1.06 billion. According to Wang, by pledging an additional $10 million specifically for pharmaceutical development NIDA is finally stepping up to the plate to help find new addiction treatments.

“There isn’t a lot of interest from industry, but NIDA is the public health institute and they have a responsibility to develop treatments for these diseases for the people, and I think this grant came out of recognizing that need,” said Wang. 


Ivan Montoya, deputy director of NIDA’s division of pharmacotherapies and medical consequences of drug abuse will oversee the Innovative Medication Development award. According to Montoya, this funding is part of a NIH push to support innovative research, while addressing the risk involved in providing government support for drug development projects. 

“If [a research proposal] is very innovative it carries more risk, but it has to guarantee that results will be obtained after the five-year period,” said Montoya. “It is critical that the background science is successful, otherwise NIDA won’t give funds to someone that the committee doesn’t think has a good idea. It has to be supported by a good future for results.”


Creating the Innovative Medication Development award addresses the lack of interest from the pharmaceutical companies, but also satisfies NIDA’s need for confidence in the projects they fund. According to Montoya, to this end, the four winners of the award will be monitored for the duration of the grant, and required to provide progress updates about how they spend the money. NIDA hopes keeping tabs on the researchers will push the winning ideas toward the complete development of new therapies.


Potential abounds, but what about results?

According to William (Stephen) Brimijoin, a researcher in molecular pharmacology and experimental therapeutics at the Mayo Clinic, and a winner of the award, a government focus on human application is vital to making progress on addiction treatment.


According to Brimijoin, NIDA should be commended for selecting promising clinical research projects and cultivating them for human applications. “If some of these projects do result in a useful therapeutic agent we should all celebrate,” said Brimijoin. “Right now we just don’t know which projects will go all the way to real human applications.”

BioTech’s New Hot Shot

Genetics, Sequencing

There was an interesting article in the New York Times today (yes, I was magically granted access to their website again, not sure why but I’m glad) by Andrew Pollack. Taking DNA Sequencing to the Masses takes an in-depth look at the work of Jonathan M. Rothberg.

Dr. Rothberg is the founder of the genome sequencing company Ion Torrent. The article looks at Ion Torrent’s role in providing cheap (under $50,000) sequencing technology with the launch of their Personal Genome Machine. The technology isn’t intended for the general public, but will make obtaining a sequencing system more feasible for smaller universities and clinics that can’t afford larger machines.

The article draws a parallel between Rothberg and Apple founder Steve Jobs on several occasions. Pollack paints Rothberg as a bit of a rebellious nerd, who certainly has high hopes for his company and the technology they are developing.

Pollack ends the article with Rothberg saying that he believes that genome sequencing will become as useful for medical applications as imaging (like X-rays, CAT Scans, etc.) I like this article because statements like that aren’t blown out of proportion. I think that for an article that is focused on what can be achieved in the future the ideas all stay grounded in what is really feasible, which can sometimes be difficult in a science technology article.

USGS says the nose knows prominent lake toxins

Environment, Grad School, Science Policy

I wrote this article for my J800 class last semester at the beginning of October. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get it published in any of the local papers when it was still timely. But, the nice thing about having a blog is that I can use it to publish pieces that don’t get picked up elsewhere, so here you go…

A U.S. Geological Survey study has found that cyanotoxins in Midwest lakes emit odors, adding smell to the public’s arsenal against exposure to hazardous aquatic toxins.

Before you enter your local lake, stop and smell the water. A new study shows that lakes in the throes of a toxic algae bloom give off a characteristic scent that can warn people to stay away. According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS) the findings should help the public identify hazardous lakes based on their smell, reducing the instance of cyanotoxin-related illness.
“Cyanotoxins pose the largest hazard to human health during recreational activities, so public health is one of the motivations behind studies of these toxins,” said Jennifer Graham a researcher at the USGS’ Kansas Water Science Center, and lead researcher on the study.
Simply avoiding lakes with algae isn’t a realistic way for residents to stay safe because algae occurs naturally and is not usually harmful. According to Graham, residents need new ways to tell whether specific algae blooms contain toxic compounds. The researchers tested for chemical signatures that indicate the presence of odor, and found that cyanobacteria blooms give the water what Graham describes as a musty smell.
The study showed the odor consistently occurs when toxins are present, but toxins can occur without the odor. According to Graham this makes smell a useful indication that toxins are present, but not something the public can rely on with absolute certainty.
“Smell is something that anybody should be able to use, the human nose is very sensitive to the compounds produced by the cyanobacteria. It is musty and might smell like dirt and so that could be used to evaluate a situation,” said Graham. “From a recreational perspective it is useful because odor gives a cue that there might be something of concern going on in an area.”
Would your nose know?

While Graham maintains that the odors given off by toxic algae blooms are distinctive enough to identify a toxic bloom, some Madison residents have doubts.
University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison) sophomore Martin Feehan doesn’t think smell is a reliable way to identify cyanotoxin episodes in Wisconsin’s lakes. Feehan is president of Hoofer Scuba, a recreational group at UW that uses the lakes surrounding campus regularly.
“I think smell could be a good way, but it could also be misleading because the different smells in the lake could come from several sources,” said Feehan. According to Feehan, the decomposition of plant material or fish could easily cause earthy, musty smells at the lakes that could be confused with the toxin scent.
Feehan says participating in Hoofer Scuba has made him aware of cyanotoxins, but the group does not actively look for toxic blooms. Instead, they rely on notices from the Madison Department of Public Health. “We have warnings that go up at the boathouse if there are blooms,” said Feehan.
Todd Miller, a postdoctoral researcher at UW-Madison is wary of encouraging the public to sniff out cyanotoxins.  Miller, who holds a doctorate in marine estuarine environmental sciences from the University of Maryland, College Park, has worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the laboratory of Trina McMahon since 2007.
“The study is intriguing and I think opens the door to potential new methods for early toxic bloom detection,” said Miller, in an email message. “But there are many sources of the odor compounds the researchers measured, and as the study shows toxins can be present in the water at dangerous levels even when the odor compounds are not present.”
According to Miller, smelling the lakes to identify the presence of toxins is unreliable. “It is probably not reasonable to expect the public to identify toxic or non-toxic waters based on smell,” said Miller. “I tell people to enjoy the lakes, but don’t swallow the water, pay attention to public warning signs by the health department and don’t enter the water if the lakes are closed to recreation.”
Graham says smell is not the only one way that the public should identify potentially toxic blooms, and advocates using multiple means to avoid exposure to cyanotoxins including visual cues (green or red tint to the water or scum floating on the water’s surface) and checking for warning notices before entering a lake.
A persistent problem

Cyanobacteria and the toxins they produce are a problem that has affected Midwest lakes for several years. According to the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network and the UW-Center for Limnology nine beaches in Madison were closed due to cyanotoxins in July 2009, the largest cyanotoxin episode in Wisconsin that year.
According to Graham, cyanobacteria are microorganisms that occur naturally in aquatic ecosystems as part of algae blooms. Some of these blooms contain cyanobacteria, which can create toxic chemical compounds that can be dangerous.
The three main types of toxins are dermatoxins, which cause skin or respiratory reactions after direct contact; hepatotoxins, which are absorbed by the liver and cause gastroenteritis; and neurotoxins, which are absorbed by the central nervous system.
Though cyanobacteria exist naturally in lakes, according to Graham, the toxins they produce become problematic when they occur in increasingly large concentrations. This happens when algae the bacteria thrive on grow rapidly.
“Cyanobacteria blooms are a natural phenomenon, but they can be aggravated by human activities,” said Graham. These activities include land development that causes soil to erode and runoff from farms or landscaping that washes fertilizer and soil into lakes.
According to Graham in addition to testing for odors, this study was the first to quantify the presence of multiple toxins in a single algae bloom. The study evaluated lakes in Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, and Minnesota, chosen because they have long-standing cyanobacteria problems.
Until Next Year

With the outdoor recreational season ending and Midwest residents heading back to land, Graham, Miller and Feehan agree that cyanotoxins remain a pressing issue.
Cyanotoxins are continuously researched. Miller is studying how environmental factors like temperature and pH influence the production of toxins in freshwater lakes, and Graham is working to identify what organisms produce cyanotoxins and why.
“Cyanobacterial blooms are an issue that has been exacerbated by human activities, so it won’t be an easy issue to solve because it is something that has evolved over time,” says Graham. “But, with public education and increased information about what hazards are in natural water bodies the incidents of human illness and animal illness from recreational exposure can really be reduced.”
For water enthusiasts like Hoofer Scuba’s Feehan, research like Miller and Graham’s is a step in the right direction because staying out of the water every time there is a toxic bloom isn’t sustainable. “I understand that the algae is toxic and can cause health problems,” said Feehan. “But it makes people lose out on fishing and other water activities so I think something definitely needs to be done to fix the situation.”
The research paper, “Cyanotoxin mixtures and taste-and-odor compounds in cyanobacterial blooms from the Midwestern United States” was published in the September 2010 issue of Environmental Science and Technology. 

Blackbird Homicide

Blame the Media, Environment, Public Perceptions

I hope everyone had a great start to the new year! Over my weekend blogging hiatus the big science story in the US was the mysterious death of thousands of birds on New Year’s Eve in Arkansas.

Source: Wikimedia Commons.

More than 3,000 blackbirds fell in the town of Beebe, AK and samples have been taken for analysis to determine what could have killed the birds in one mass attack. Initial reports said that the birds have died due to trauma (they fell out of the sky, so clearly that was a shocking conclusion.) Now the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission is reporting that fireworks launched to commemorate the new year caused the birds’ demise.

However, today it was reported that approximately 500 red-winged blackbirds (the same species found dead in Arkansas) and starlings fell from the sky in Labarre, Louisiana, hundreds of miles south of the original bird deaths. Early reports from Louisiana also state that the birds suffered some trauma, although an official cause has yet to be determined.

One theory on the mysterious deaths is that the mere sound of new year’s fireworks could have startled the birds, causing them to fly into buildings or billboards. Although, you have to wonder why we’ve never heard of fireworks (launched every year for new year’s, the fourth of july, weddings, fairs, and numerous other events) causing birds to die in large, concentrated groups.

I think that we’re definitely going to have to stay tuned to this story to see what happens after the birds from Louisiana are analyzed more closely, and also watch to see if more birds die in other areas — which most certainly wouldn’t be attributable to fireworks.

Editor’s Pick

Past Articles

BioTechniques has compiled a list of the top five methods newsletters of 2010 as chosen by their editorial staff. My article from August, Ending Cell Line Contamination by Cutting Off Researchers made the cut for their cell culture category.

Methods newsletters were a new endeavor for BioTechniques in 2010, and they were such a big hit that in 2011 the topics (currently microscopy, sequencing, cell culture, antibodies, and PCR) will expand to include cell biology, DNA sequencing, epigenetics, proteomics, and translational research. You can sign up to receive them as an email blast on the BioTechniques website.