By Lena Groeger

Right now, if you want to read the published results of the biomedical research that your own tax dollars paid for, all you have to do is visit the digital archive of the National Institutes of Health.

There you’ll find thousands of articles on the latest discoveries in medicine and disease, all free of charge.

A new bill in Congress wants to make you pay for that, thank you very much.

The Research Works Act would prohibit the NIH from requiring scientists to submit their articles to the online database. Taxpayers would have to shell out $15 to $35 to get behind a publisher’s paid site to read the full research results. A Scientific American blog said it amounts to paying twice.

Supporters of the initiatives say these new services allow students to get good information about sex anonymously. But there are also those who oppose these initiatives, writes Hoffman.

…proponents of abstinence-based sexual education argue that these digital services presume that sexual activity among teenagers is the norm, and do not spend enough time on alternatives.

“They are only focusing on the risk-reduction model,” said Valerie Huber, executive director of the National Abstinence Education Association, which hopes to kick off its online service for teenagers next year.

Those who run digital programs say they simply want teens to have accurate information, to help them make good decisions. Even though popular culture is saturated with sex, facts and advice can be hard to find.

To learn more:

• Read Hoffman’s article Sex Education Gets Directly to Youths, via Text.

Some of the services discussed:

• ICYC – In Case You’re Curious

• Chicago’s The Sex-Ed Loop

• California’s The Hookup.

• SexEtc: www.sexetc.org

• National Abstinence Education Association: www.abstinenceassociation.org

RNA interference (RNAi) is an important pathway that is used in many different organisms to regulate gene expression. This animation introduces the principles of RNAi involving small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) and microRNAs (miRNAs).

We take you on an audio-visual journey through the steps of gene expression and show you an up-to-date view of how RNAi can silence specific mRNAs in the cytoplasm.

Animation by Ballard-based Arkitek Studios.

To learn more:

• Go to the Nature Reviews Genetics webpage where you can find additional information and a poster in a pdf file.
• Visit Arkitek Studios.

The University of Washington’s DO-IT Scholars program is inviting applications from Washington state high school sophomores and juniors with disabilities who are interested in preparing for college and challenging careers.

DO-IT, which stands for Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking and Technology, introduces high school students with disabilities to technology, peer support and work-based learning in an effort to help them be successful in a college environment.

Between 15 and 20 students are selected each year.

DO-IT is seeking students who:

• Are high school sophomores or juniors.

• Have an aptitude and interest in attending college.

• Have a significant disability.

• Want to meet other college-bound students with disabilities.

Selected applicants will travel to Seattle over three summers to take part in a one- or two-week program in which they participate in academic lectures and labs; live in residence halls; and practice skills that will help them become independent and successful in college.

Participants are loaned laptop computers, software and adaptive technology for long-term use in their homes and at school or work.

This technology enables them to continue to network online with peers, DO-IT staff and DO-IT mentors, many of whom are working professionals with disabilities.

At summer study sessions, students will learn about college selection, career options, technology and self-advocacy. Living in dormitories and navigating the campus also helps them get an early taste of college life.

Meals, housing and accommodation are covered. Primary funding for DO-IT is provided by the National Science Foundation, the State of Washington, and the U.S. Department of Education.

“Some young people with disabilities have expectations that are lower than they need to be,” said Sheryl Burgstahler, director of accessible technologies in UW Information Technology and founder and director of DO-IT. “We try to change that. Our focus is on the use of empowering technology and teaching students the skills they need to succeed in challenging careers.”

Students are encouraged to apply by January 10, 2012, but enrollment continues until all positions are filled. For more information or application materials, contact the DO-IT office at 206-685-3648 (V/TTY), or download forms at http://www.washington.edu/doit/Programs/scholar.html.

WBBA President Chris Rivera said the upbeat report on state’s life sciences industry was “conservative” — but added there were challenges that threatened the sector’s growth, including burdensome regulation and increased competition from competitors both here in the U.S. and abroad.

The report “Trends in Washing’s Life Sciences Industry 2007–2011”, which was prepared for WBBA by the Washington Research Council, found that the life sciences was now the fifth largest employment sector in the state, after transportation and equipment manufacturing, agriculture, software, and food and beverage manufacturing.

The sector, which does not include hospitals and other health services, employs 33,519 individuals directly, whose employment, in turn, supports as many as 57,000 other jobs indirectly for a total of nearly 91,000 overall, the report said.

In general, life science jobs are well paid, with an annual average wage of $77,490, compared to the state’s average private sector wage of $48,519 a year.

Overall, the sector adds $10.4 billion to the state’s gross domestic product of $340.5 billion in 2010.

Chris Gregoire

In her address to the conference, Gov. Christine Gregoire said collaboration has been the key to the success of the state’s life science sector.

“Our growing life sciences sector is built on three strong pillars: our educational institutions, our private businesses, and our nonprofit organizations,” she said, which “unlike many around the world are all working together.”

Gregoire cited a number of promising programs designed to support the sector, in particular small start ups, but warned that cuts to education due to the budget crisis threatened the sector.

“We cannot afford to continue to compromise our education system in this state and yet expect that we be on the cutting edge of the knowledge economy,” she said.

Speaker Highlight: Eli Lilly CEO John Leichleiter

Eli Lilly CEO John Leichleiter told the conference that while the U.S. Life sciences and biopharmaceutical sector was the “envy of the world” the sector is “facing today nothing short of a innovation crisis.”

Leichleiter blamed the high cost of research and development, burdensome regulation at home, and increased competition abroad, particularly from China and India.

Leichleiter noted that it now takes $1.3 billion to develop a new drug. At the same time, due to expiration of patents for a large number of top-selling drugs, the industry faces the loss of $150 billion in annual revenue. This means there will be less to invest in “next generation of medicines,” Leichleiter said.

These and other pressures are forcing a “wave of defensive consolidation” among “arge cap pharmaceutical companies, resulting in a “dwindling number of entities capable of taking a discovery to a medicine.”

At the same time,  China and India are “producing more scientists and engineers than we are and are intensely focussesing on developing their innovation capacity,” Leichleiter said.

Leichleiter proposed five policy remedies:

1. Improve science and math literacty by improving K througn 12 education.
2. Immigration reform that “allows and encourages top scientists to choose to work in the U.S.”
3. Strong and sustained federal support for research: Medical research is a long process, he noted, “the funding must be consistent, predictable and sustained” in order to attract researchers and keep them engaged.
4. Tax reform: Lowering corporate tax rates to the 20 to 25 percent range, more in line with the rates seen in competitor nations.
5. Regulatory reform: Make drug approval quicker and more predictable and that better balances risks against potential benefits. “The pressure on regulators is to err on the side of avoiding risks, when some patients might accept those risks for the treatments potential benefit,” he said.

University of Washington President Michael Young echoed Gregoire’s and Leichleiter’sconcern about the effect state and federal budget cuts may have to the education system.

Young argued that there were three elements needed for a successful regional high-tech sector: an “innovative, imaginative business community that is willing to take risks”, a university that included “economic development in its mission,” and a supply of well-trained, “entrepreneurial students.”

That third leg was under threat due to budget cuts to public education, he warned.

WBBA also announced 2011 winners of their Innovation Award.

Seattle Genetics was recognized for its work on Adcetris (brentuximab vedotin), approved for the treatment of patients with relapsed Hodgkin lymphoma, and for the treatment of patients with relapsed systemic anaplastic large cell lymphoma.

Amgen was recognized for the FDA approval of Prolia (denosumab) for the treatment of postmenopausal women with osteoporosis at high risk for fractures, as a treatment to increase bone mass in women at high risk for fracture receiving adjuvant aromatase inhibitor therapy for breast cancer, and as a treatment to increase bone mass in men at high risk for fracture receiving androgen deprivation therapy for non-metastatic prostate cancer.

“Success in today’s economy is most directly tied to a region’s ability to grow, retain and attract human capital,” Young said.

Young argued that reason why the U.S. has been able to thrive as as the world economy have evolved from an economy based on first, agriculture, then industry, then services and now knowledge, was that it had an economic and regulatory environment that allowed businesses to adapt, a cutting-edge research infrastructure, and the “mechanisms for the best and the brightest to rise to the top,”

“The mechanisms that has allowed the best and the brightest to rise to the top have been the universities,” Young said, particularly the public universities, which educate the vast majority of America’s young.

To learn more:

• Read the Washington Research Council’s report: Trends in Washingotn’s Life Sciences Industry 2007 – 2011