Thanks to Janet Rowley, et al

[Guest guest]

" In 1972, Janet Rowley sat down at her dining room table and made a discovery

that would forever change how doctors study and treat cancer. Poring over

photographs of chromosomes from patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML),

the part-time researcher and full-time mother of four boys noticed the patients

shared a certain genetic anomaly called a translocation—a piece of one of their

chromosomes had broken off and attached itself to another. Consumed by

curiosity, she tested more patients and found more translocations, leading her

to a new and then controversial conclusion: the translocations weren’t a symptom

of the cancer, but its cause.

Translocations have since been implicated in other diseases, including several

thyroid cancers, lymphomas and sarcomas, and have been used to create new

life-saving treatments. Thanks to Rowley’s work, CML patients who were once

doomed to die within three to five years of their diagnosis now enjoy a more

than 80 percent survival rate. Her contributions to cancer research have earned

her numerous awards, including the 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom, the

highest civilian honor in the U.S.

" Thanks to Rowley’s work, CML patients who were once doomed to die within three

to five years of their diagnosis now enjoy a more than 80 percent survival rate.

Her contributions to cancer research have earned her numerous awards, including

the 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the U.S.

Rowley is the University of Chicago’s Blum Riese Distinguished Service Professor

of Medicine, Molecular Genetics & Cell Biology and Human Genetics, and was

elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1984. (Updated 8-30-10)

http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=INTERVIEWS_Janet_Rowley & printe\

r_friendly=1

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Antibiotic Resistance: Implications for Global Health and Novel Intervention

Strategies (September 7, 2010)

Workshop Summary On:

Note: Workshop Summaries contain the opinion of the presenters, but do NOT

reflect the conclusions of the IOM. Learn more about the differences between

Workshop Summaries and Consensus Reports.

" For decades it seemed as if modern medicine had conquered many of the

infectious diseases that once threatened human and animal health. But years of

using, misusing, and overusing antibiotics and other antimicrobial drugs have

led to the emergence of multidrug-resistant " superbugs. " Some strains of

bacteria and viruses are now resistant to all but a single drug, while others

have no effective treatments at all.

" The IOM’s Forum on Microbial Threats held a public workshop April 6-7 to

discuss the nature and sources of drug-resistant bacteria and viruses and their

implications for global health. Speakers explored the evolutionary, genetic, and

ecological origins of antimicrobial drug resistance and its effects on human and

animal health worldwide. Participants discussed the causes of drug resistance;

strategies for extending the life of antimicrobial drugs; alternative approaches

for treating infections; incentives and disincentives for prudent antimicrobial

drug use; and prospects for the next generation of antimicrobial treatments.

This document summarizes the workshop. "

http://www.iom.edu/Reports/2010/Antibiotic-Resistance-Implications-for-Global-He\

alth-and-Novel-Intervention-Strategies.aspx

FYI,

Lottie Duthu