The News Review:

- ACRN Presents Findings of Collaborative Metastatic Colorectal Cancer…
- MPLN expands Geneuity in response to surge in clinical trials
- PHT Corporation’s 5th Annual European User Group Meeting to…
- Could a ‘brain cap’ warn us of mistakes we are about to make?
- Hormone Therapy: Does Timing Matter?

ACRN Presents Findings of Collaborative Metastatic Colorectal Cancer…
Earthtimes – Apr 21, 2008
55% of the study’s participants were male and 45% female. African- Americans accounted for 21% of the participants with the remaining identified as Caucasian. The minority participation figure is well-above national norms and reflects ACRN’s commitment to make advanced clinical research available to every member of the community who has a need. Neutropenia (low white blood counts) and fatigue were the two most commonly reported side effects; however no patients withdrew from the study as a result of any side effect. Furthermore the lack of additional toxicity allows other drugs to be added to the treatment. Additional correlative studies are in progress as a result of these findings.

MPLN expands Geneuity in response to surge in clinical trials
Maryville Daily Times – Apr 21, 2008
the privately-held Maryville-based molecular diagnostics laboratory has expanded its clinical trials services with the development of a new subsidiary Geneuity Clinical Research Services. The company said Geneuity offers sophisticated research and design services to accurately assess the safety and effectiveness of experimental therapeutics and new diagnostic assays using an integrated molecular and biomarker approach to evaluate disease processes. The increased complexity of clinical trials as well as the increased time and cost of bringing a new drug to market have led biopharmaceutical companies to seek partners to develop and commercialize new drugs and diagnostic assays. “ur leadership and experience in molecular diagnostics clinical testing and research and development positions Geneuity to meet the growing demands of clinical trial research especially on a molecular level” said Dr. Roger Hubbard founder president and chief executive officer of MPLN.

PHT Corporation’s 5th Annual European User Group Meeting to…
sys-con.com – Apr 21, 2008
“The 5th Annual European User Group Meeting is an important event in theexpansion of ePR solutions for larger more complex trials worldwide”said Phil Lee President and CE of PHT. “We look forward to sharingexperiences ideas and issues with our growing European clients andpartners. Clinical research representatives from past and present PHT clients can seemore details and register online at.

Could a ‘brain cap’ warn us of mistakes we are about to make?
Telegraph.co.uk – Apr 21, 2008
These areas include a part of the brain’s default mode network located in a posterior midline cortex which showed a gradual increase in activity as the brain became fatigued by a repetitive task. The authors noted that simultaneously brain activity also decreased in frontal brain regions associated with maintaining effort while performing a task before a mistake occurred. nce the subjects committed and detected their errors they re-engaged in the task and the activity pattern reset according to the team which is now studying what this pattern does in other circumstances and how the new analysis method developed could be used in clinical research. As for using the method to monitor workers that would require a cheap lightweight and mobile alternative to the bulky scanners used for the experiment says Dr Eichele. However it might be possible to find corresponding patterns of electrical activity that can be picked up by scalp electrodes a more old fashioned method called EEG (electro-encephalography). “In the EEG literature there are some reports that found error-preceding activity but so far not longer than a couple of hundred milliseconds (thousandths) of a second or so ahead” says Dr Eichele whose team is seeing if this simpler method can detect errors. There are already commercial brain caps in use for mind control of computer games – Emotiv Systems from San Francisco has developed EEG caps that use the electrical signals from a player’s brain to control the on-screen action.

Hormone Therapy: Does Timing Matter?
Science Daily – Science Daily (press release) – Apr 21, 2008
ther ongoing rigorous randomized and controlled studies looking at younger menopausal women on hormone therapy may help to clarify our results. "The American Heart Association does not advise women take postmenopausal hormone therapy (PHT formerly called hormone replacement therapy or HRT) or selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs) to reduce the risk of coronary heart disease or stroke. The study was funded by American Heart Association – Virginia Affiliate (now Mid-Atlantic Affiliate) and in part by National Center and was supported by the General Clinical Research Center at Virginia Commonwealth University. Co-authors are: Jonathan Potfay M. ; Cheryl Stacklin B.