PROTEOMICS PRECISION TECHNOLOGY
Proteomics, a new precision technology based on protein structures and function, allows physicians to detect cancer earlier. The process of serum proteomic pattern diagnostics has relied on low-resolution mass spectrometry to detect a protein pattern that would signal disease. Government researchers extended the analysis to a higher resolution method using multiple accurate protein patterns. In a controlled serum study from 248 women at risk for ovarian cancer, researchers used the extended pattern method and found 59 different patterns that were more than 85 percent accurate in disease diagnosis, four of which were 100 percent accurate. Researchers report multiple proteomic patterns do exist within human sera mass spectra, and finding them provides an extremely accurate method of detecting disease in the earliest stages.
SANDIA'S Z MACHINE IN ACTION
Sandia National Laboratories' Z Machine is in race to achieve controlled nuclear fusion. The Z Machine has created a hot dense plasma that produces thermonuclear neutrons. Scientists say the neutrons come from fusion reactions within a BB-sized deuterium capsule placed within the target of the machine. Compressing hot dense plasmas that produce neutrons is an important step toward realizing ignition, the level at which the fusion reaction becomes self-sustaining. The amount of energy a larger successor to Z could bring to bear offers the still-later possibility of high-yield fusion -- the state in which much more energy is released than is needed to provoke the reaction initially to occur. The excess energy could be used for applications such as the generation of electricity.
NASA AWARDS SPACE PLANE MONIES
Three contractors have been awarded $135 million through NASA's Orbital Space Plane program to extend their contracts and work on providing crew rescue and transfer capabilities to the International Space Station. The Orbital Space Plane program will provide for crew rescue by 2010 and the capability for crews to transfer to and from the International Space Station by 2012. Boeing Co., Lockheed Martin Corp., and a team including Orbital Sciences Corp. and Northrop Grumman each will get $45 million to design potential candidates for the system, including the Orbital Space Plane vehicle or vehicles, ground operations and all supporting technologies needed to conduct a mission to and from the ISS.
WHY HEADACHE TREATMENTS FAIL
Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York say studies show most people with difficult-to-treat headaches have a biologically determined problem. They say there are five categories of reasons for treatment failure, the most common being the diagnosis is incomplete or incorrect. This can occur when a primary headache disorder is misdiagnosed. Other exacerbating factors can include hormonal changes, dietary or lifestyle factors, and occupational and environmental exposures. The third category is the medication regimen may be inadequate or inappropriate. The fourth category is that non-drug treatment may be inadequate. The experts then list "other factors" as the last category, taking into consideration additional conditions, such as depression, stroke or epilepsy, which make the headaches more difficult to treat.
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(EDITORS: For more information on PROTEOMICS, contact Aimee Frank at (202) 955-6222. For Z MACHINE, Neal Singer, (505) 845-7078 or e-mail [email protected], for SPACE PLANE, June Malone, (256) 544-0034, and for HEADACHES, Marilee Reu, (651) 695-2789 or [email protected].)
