Surgeons and dentists often use Gelfoam sponges to mop up blood and help stop bleeding. Could they act as drug-eluting devices to grow new heart tissue?

While current heart-attack treatments mainly try to preserve healthy heart tissue, scientists have been finding ways to stimulate growth of new tissue to replace the tissue that’s damaged. They’ve done this either by getting heart muscle cells (cardiomyocytes) to make more copies of themselves, or by stimulating other cells to become cardiomyocytes (one recently reported study, for example, used genetic regulators called microRNAs).

The next challenge lies in getting these regenerative factors into a living patient’s damaged heart tissue — without affecting healthy tissue – and getting the factors to stay in place long enough to work their magic.

A new approach developed at Boston Children’s Hospital, which could be used relatively soon, takes advantage of Gelfoam, a gelatin-based sponge that’s already FDA-approved and has been used by surgeons and dentists for decades.

Cardiologist Bernhard Kühn, MD, and bioengineer Brian Polizzotti, PhD, decided to soak it in a peptide (that is, an abbreviated form) of periostin, a naturally occurring compound derived from the skin around bone. Back in 2007, Kühn’s lab showed that periostin effectively regenerates heart tissue, reduces scarring and improves heart function in rats.

Moving to a large-animal model, Kühn, Polizzotti and colleagues injected the Gelfoam-peptide mixture into the sac that surrounds the heart.  “We used the pericardial sac like a containment center,” Polizzotti says.

The next hurdle was to get the Gelfoam to release the periostin peptide gradually, without the drug being washed away or broken down. To do this, they took advantage of the fact that whenever Gelfoam comes in contact with a body fluid, like that inside the pericardial sac, a clot forms around it. It’s a first-line immune response that shields the body from something that might be harmful. (Though this might sound alarming, the clot never enters a blood vessel so poses no medical risk.)

“We used the body’s innate ability to respond to Gelfoam in this way to encapsulate the drug,” Polizzotti explains. “That enables the drug to be released over time and exert its beneficial effect.”

Using this method, Kühn and Polizzotti were able to prolong the periostin peptide’s release so that it occurred gradually over the course of seven days after a heart attack. The treatment appeared safe: As reported last week in the online journal PLoS One, there was no inflammatory response and no scarring in the heart.

The researchers also showed that the drug diffuses rapidly through injured but not healthy heart tissue, decreasing the potential for adverse reactions. That’s because after a heart attack, the damaged heart muscle becomes more permeable, allowing periostin peptide to diffuse into the injured area.

In practical terms, the most important advantage of this drug-delivery approach is that it uses established medical procedures and FDA-approved devices, clearing some of the hurdles in getting it to heart patients. In the future, Kühn also hopes to use it to strengthen the hearts of children with congenital heart disease.

“Our objective was to demonstrate a clinically translatable strategy for targeted, prolonged release of periostin peptide in the heart,” says Kühn. “Our approach may also serve as a platform for rapid testing of new pharmaceuticals targeting the heart.”

Vector

The Gutenberg press disseminated ideas to a wider society. But in the clinical world, much information is still on "lockdown." (Wikimedia Commons)

The best things in life are free: friends, sunny days, beautiful vistas. Wouldn’t it be nice if knowledge were also free? Historically, libraries promulgated knowledge sharing because it was for the public good. We see this spirit increasingly embraced on the Internet – take the recent announcement of a collaboration between Harvard and MIT to make their courses freely available to users around the world via the edX platform.

But have we made all useful knowledge available in a way that allows for the greatest societal advancement? Not really. According to Ken Mandl, MD, MPH, director of the Intelligent Health Laboratory at the Children’s Hospital Informatics Program (CHIP), one important source of information still on lockdown is clinical trial data. In an article called, “Learning from Hackers: Open-Source Clinical Trials” published this month in Science Translational Medicine (not currently available in full text), Mandl and his coauthors call for making raw, de-identified clinical trial data free to the public.

Expanding the definition of “free” to include not just “gratis” (zero cost) but also “libre” (no restrictions), the article makes the case that releasing these data sets could revolutionize our understanding of disease. The authors note that the open-source software community has demonstrated its ability to rapidly collaborate to solve problems through the free exchange of information. Success, they write, “is driven by the developers’ active engagement with users in the software creation and testing phases, and the rapid filling of gaps in functionality by a decentralized cadre of developers, a process supported by online communities formed around repositories of code.”

What is so compelling about liberated information? Just as the printing press and increased literacy allowed societies to tap the creative power of the many, making clinical trial data available to new analysts will introduce a new population of problem-solvers to answered medical questions. It’s likely these new analysts will be motivated for the same reasons they are in software: more data provide more opportunity to make discoveries, develop careers and gain clout in the field.

“Learning from Hackers” cites cases where releasing clinical data to a wider group of researchers led to rapid advances in understanding of medical conditions. For example, the number of publications using the Framingham Heart Study data increased by 19 percent in the four years after data were released to a greater audience of researchers. And, as a market analyst in a technology transfer office, I think crowd-sourcing clinical data could help the pharmaceutical industry replenish its diminishing pipeline. How we’re doing things now – proprietary datasets, redundant research efforts — just isn’t cost-effective.

At least one group of patients ought to have a strong opinion about sharing clinical knowledge: those with rare diseases. At the recent Bio-IT World conference, Alex Sherman, MSc, from Mass General spoke of setting up the IT infrastructure for a centralized data repository for patients with Lou Gehrig’s disease, and advocated for doing the same for other diseases, especially rare ones. Conditions with the most data, he argued, will be in the best position to entice pharmaceutical companies to develop new therapies.

Pharma and biotech will want to invest significant capital only where they’re most likely to meet the required clinical end points and get FDA approval. Rather than walking blindfolded on a tightrope over crocodile-infested waters, they could have a bridge – built on centralized, freely accessible data on the mechanisms and pathology of the disease and the ability of biomarkers and other measures to assess whether treatments are working.

That’s not to say there won’t be problems to solve. We still lack universal standards and quality controls that would allow researchers to build a solid data bank for meta-studies. De-identified data aren’t entirely protected from malevolent attacks on patient privacy. And, as Sherman noted, stakeholders often have incentives contrary to information-sharing: Researchers incentivized to “publish or perish” fear losing their competitive edge, while industry is motivated to keep some information private to avoid possible scandals or legal concerns.

These hurdles need to be addressed before we’ll see widespread adoption of the “libre” mantra, but we in health care should start brainstorming about how to get us there. Mandl and others engaged in both medicine and information technology are helping pave the way through their brilliant connection to the hacker (open source) community. Cross-industry innovation can help us think outside the (pill) box.

Keeley Wray (@Market_Spy) is senior market research analyst in the Technology and Innovation Development Office at Boston Children’s Hospital.

Vector

I am busy, busy, busy planning my summer travels! First it’s off to South Africa. Wow, it’s hard to believe I’m actually doing this! When Alyssa and I return from South Africa it will be time to take a deep breath, switch gears and pack-up the family for a road trip to the beaches of Gulf Shores, Alabama. My husband’s family has a big family reunion planned and we are taking Alyssa and our three oldest grandsons along for some sand, surf and fun.

Our first trip to the beaches of Alabama was with Jeannine’s family to the ultra quiet Fort Morgan. If you’re looking for great prices and seclusion Fort Morgan is just the spot for you.

Jeannine’s family has been vacationing along the Alabama and Florida Coast for over 20 years. She has great locations and tips for Planning an Affordable Family Beach Vacation.

Gulf State Park website photo

I do believe I have found a real gem to share with you. We are meeting our extended family for a week of fun at Gulf State Park.

“Gulf State Park offers 20 modern cabins within walking distance of the golf course and two-and-a-half miles from snow-white beaches. Four of these cabins, referred to as (woods) cabins, are surrounded by the beautiful longleaf pine and palmetto forest of coastal Alabama. The remaining (lakeside) cabins are located on the shores of the 900-acre Lake Shelby.” (Gulf State Park website)

Gulf State Park website photo

Okay, I was a bit worried when I heard we were going to stay in cabins on a lake in Alabama. You never know quite what to expect when you hear cabins. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw this cute 3 bedroom cottage on the Gulf State Park website!

Gulf State Park website photo

Does this look like a cottage at a State Park to you? It has a gorgeous full kitchen, dinning room, living room and 3 comfy bedrooms. I got a great rate for our seven night stay. Much cheaper than booking hotel rooms for a family of six!

We’ll save a ton of money cooking our own meals. After traveling with Jeannine, we know all of the best places to buy farm fresh veggies, the best tomatoes in the world and shrimp right off the boat.

• Burris Farm Market
  • If you’re traveling from the west on I-10, you’ve got to stop at Burris Farm Market for fresh, local produce.
  • After driving 10 hours, this is the first stop we’ll make. We’ll buy pounds of their big red tomatoes and have them EVERY day for lunch while we’re at the beach. My mouth is watering!
  • It’s located about 5 minutes off I-10.

• Nix Brothers’ Seafood 
• They have the freshest and best gulf shrimp. Totally delicious! We’ll hit this market every morning for shrimp right off the fishing boat.
• Look out Bubba Gumb! It’s going to be a shrimp fest week!

• Sea-n-Suds  
• One night (or two) we will treat ourselves to inexpensive dining right on the beach. We can actually afford to feed all three grandsons at this budget friendly seafood joint.
• The best gumbo on the planet! Print a coupon for a FREE cup of gumbo.

Photo from Gulf State Park Beach website

 Things on our to do list:

• Gulf State Park Beach is where you’ll find us most days.
  
• Gulf Shores for all of the family fun action, souvenir shopping and restaurants.

• Santa Rosa – Opal Beach, Florida
• Jeannine has been raving that this is one of the most beautiful beaches she has ever seen. It sounds like it will be worth a short drive.
• A great place to observe sea creatures like turtles, dolphins, crabs and fish.
• No highrises, no buildings, just miles of white sand and clear blue water.
• Part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore
• Historic Pensacola with its eclectic shops and restaurants.
• Blue Angels - It’s just a short drive to Pensacola to watch the Blue Angels Flight Demonstrations. Don’t miss this!

Next week Jeannine will highlight another Budget Friendly Family Vacation on Okaloosa Island, Florida.

This is going to be one exciting summer!

Life with Joyce

Come win our Book of the Week GIVEAWAY: Swimmy by Leo Lionni

• Ocean Theme activities, books, songs and links
• FREE printable guided reading books

waddlee-ah-chaa

Book of the Week GIVEAWAY: Swimmy by Leo Lionni

Why we love this book:

Can you believe it? Summer is just around the corner! We’re looking forward to the sun, sand and water with much anticipation! There’s just none better than Swimmy to take us on a tour through the deep wet world of the ocean. This Caldecott Honor Book is best known for it’s story of the little fish that uses his ingenuity to teach his new companions how to work together to camouflage themselves from the fierce tunas. An important lesson that combines the message of being yourself and also working together to solve a problem.

The language and illustrations in Swimmy are exquisite. Where else can you find a watery print world with “a forest of seaweeds growing from sugar-candy rocks . . . and sea anemones, who looked like pink palm trees swaying in the wind.”

I’m accustomed to seeing classes of children make a giant wall mural of little red fish with Swimmy standing alone as the eye. As an alternative, I like giving children many materials to explore, paint and stamp, creating their own watery world. Taking descriptive writing tips from Leo Lionni, older children can write their own descriptive sentences for their ocean illustrations.

Going to the Beach Theme Study

This week we’re sharing just a few of our favorite ocean books, activities and links. Ready for the beach? Here we go . . .

literacy development: Writing a Song Adaptation Going to the Beach

read aloud:

• At the Beach by Anne & by Harlow Rockwell
• Senses at the Seashore by Shelley Rotner

FREE printable book: I’m Ready for the Beach

• I’m Ready for the Beach is a FREE printable book that you can use for guided reading.
• It follows a similar pattern as the song adaptation: Going to the Beach.

literacy development: Writing a Song Adaptation 10 Little Fish

read aloud: 10 Little Fish by Audrey Wood & Bruce Wood

art: scrap paper collage fish

math: Reader’s Theater 10 Little Fish

• We invite children during “circle time” to use their finished collage fish to act out the book Ten Little Fish and also the song adaptation Ten Little Fish.

art: pen & ink and paint fish illustrations

FREE printable book: I Went to the Beach

• I Went to the Beach  is a FREE printable book that you can use for guided reading.
• This little book features real photos of some of the amazing sea creatures we found during our beach vacation.

art: Play-Doh Sea Creatures (learning at it’s finest)

We’ll be back this week with affordable family beach getaways for those of you are are ready for a little sand, surf and sun of your own!

Life with Joyce & Jeannine

We’re GIVING AWAY one copy of  Swimmy by Leo Lionni.

To enter this contest, just answer the following question in the comments section of this post.

So, are you ready for summer vacation and maybe a little sand, surf and sun?!  (Or just say “Hey.” We’re flexible around here.)

The Rules:

One entry per person, please.

No entries after 8:00 pm Central Time, Thursday, May 17, 2012

The winner must be a resident of The United States.

The winner will be selected at random and announced Friday, May 18, 2012. Check back to claim your prize. It might be you!

waddlee-ah-chaa

1. Describe the skills or attributes you believe are necessary to be an outstanding teacher.

Jean Piaget once said, “The principle goal of education in the schools should be creating men and women who are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done.” An outstanding teacher understands that their purpose is not to simply teach, but to inspire in hopes of igniting a passion in their students that will change future generations.

Like any other skilled profession, teaching is an art that requires passion. To become an expert in any venue requires constant practice, honing of your skills and willingness to accept advice. No matter what degree is held, educators understand that as there is always a lesson to be taught, there is also one to be learned.

Teachers set the atmosphere of their classroom, regardless of the subject. They must share their knowledge with enthusiasm and spirit, encouraging student to reach their optimum potential. With the idea that the teachers is the single most important ingredient in any classroom, I believe that the qualities common to outstanding teachers include superior content knowledge, innovative instructional strategies, enthusiasm and sense of humor combined with a unique personal connection.

Many people who remember a teacher who played a pivotal role in their lives, remember them because of their personal connection. The teacher who cared about them as individuals, took interest, demanded the most, and taught them lessons not only about school, but also life. They wore that hat of educator, mentor, counselor, cheerleader, parent, friend, etc. and somehow seamlessly interchanged them.

Of all the hats a teacher must wear, the role of “inspiration advocate” is one of the most important. You must be willing to proudly share your love of learning with students, who will undoubtedly recognize a teacher with true passion and devotion for what they do. Teaching is only for special people. It is not a craft that can be learned, but rather a gift that is cultivated into an art.

2. How would you address a wide range of skills and abilities in your classroom?

The best way to address the skills and abilities of my students is to first get to know them. It is impossible to think that all students in a classroom are alike. Therefore, their differences should be appreciated and used as an opportunity for students to excel. Once their needs have been assessed, proper differentiated instruction can take form in a variety of ways to promote higher order thinking.

It is most effective to use different strategies, such as flexible grouping, individual study, class discussions/debates, and peer tutoring. Peer tutoring allows struggling students to learn from their peers, and advanced students to become more confident in their abilities. These strategies are more effective if they appeal to students’ interest. So to increase students’ interest in a particular topic, I would include student in the planning process.

In addressing students’ different abilities, it is also important to address several different learning styles. Therefore, it is important to “include varied activities such as skill practice, problem solving, manipulatives, games, technology integration such as computers of calculators, graphs and other visual, and writing opportunities (NCTM, 2012).”

In differentiating my classroom, I will also be sure not to leave out the gifted students, as differentiation should provide enrichment to all students.

(To be quite honest, I’m not too fond of my response to the second question. I feel like it’s missing something. That’s why I need your help! I want to make sure that my responses are perfect.

Teacher Forums – Teacher Chat

Teacher Forums – Teacher Chat