MUST READS

An April 29, 2015 USC News article reported that the USC Davis School of Gerontology hosted “‘What’s Hot in Aging Research at USC,’ the sixth annual interdisciplinary symposium at the Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center.” According to the article, “University Professor Caleb Finch and Professor Christian Pike described their research into inflammatory responses in the brain and Alzheimer’s disease. Finch has been exploring the possible links between pollution-induced inflammation and the disease, while Pike has probed the connections between obesity and increased expression of inflammatory factors that heighten Alzheimer’s risks. Assistant Professor Sean Curran discussed his work on the interaction of diet and genetics, outlining the possible translational path his studies would take from C. elegans to humans, highlighting the possibilities for personalized nutritional insight ushered in by the genomics revolution.”

An April 29, 2015 Miami Herald article highlighted the downside of China’s economic boom: its growing demographic crisis. According to the article, “Millions of people ponder that question regularly in China, a country with a demographic crisis that its leaders are only starting to confront. According to United Nations figures, nearly 200 million Chinese are now over age 60. Roughly half are “empty nest” parents living alone in rural areas. In the next 15 years, nearly one in four Chinese – more than 320 million people – will be 60 and older, including tens of millions of disabled seniors.In the past, Chinese elders could be assured that, when they were frail and no longer able to work, their children would look after them. But because of the government’s one-child policy and the migration of young people to urban jobs, China’s traditional system of elder care has been shredded.”

An April 29, 2015 The Hill opinion piece by Todd Gillenwater highlighted the importance of the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act (FDASIA) to patient care. According to Gillenwater, “FDASIA has been a success, helping the FDA approval processes get back on track. For example, FDASIA expanded the agency’s ability to fast-track treatments for the most serious diseases. This led to the Breakthrough Therapy Designation, which helps the Agency accelerate the approval process for drugs that may benefit patients with life-threatening conditions…Unfortunately, recent fiscal battles have jeopardized FDASIA’s success. In 2013, a decision by bureaucrats at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) meant that the budget sequester both reduced FDA congressionally-appropriated funding and limited the agency’s access to user fees. This created a strange situation, in which industry continued to pay fees but the FDA could not access all of them…For these reasons, we call on Congress to quickly pass H.R. 1078, the FDA Safety Over Sequestration (S.O.S.) Act. This bipartisan bill, sponsored by Reps. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) and Leonard Lance (R-N.J), exempts FDA user fees from sequestration. By eliminating the threat posed by sequestration, the bill ensures that safe, effective treatments get to patients as quickly as possible. The FDA S.O.S. Act is not just a legislative imperative, it’s common sense.” Gillenwater is executive vice president for Advocacy & External Relations at California Healthcare Institute (CHI), a nonprofit public policy organization representing leading academic institutions and biotechnology, medical device, diagnostics and pharmaceutical firms.

An April 30, 2015 Tech MIT article highlighted a university report that underscored the importance of maintaining the US’s investment in research and development. According to the article, “The report, released Monday, listed 15 specific areas of basic research that would benefit from increased government support. The committee says that its aim is to combat the growing innovation deficit between the U.S. and other nations…One of the areas of research outlined in the report is Alzheimer’s disease, which is still not well understood and currently costs Medicare $150 billion per year. Other areas discussed include space exploration, robotics, and drug development to counter antibiotic-resistant bacteria.”

SOCIETY 

An April 29, 2015 The New York Times article reported that broadway actress Betsy von Furstenberg died from complications of Alzheimer’s. According to the article, “In 1951, she made her Broadway debut in Philip Barry’s “Second Threshold,” which earned her a spot on the cover of Life magazine (accompanied by a photograph inside of her stage-door mother) as “the most promising young actress of the year.” Brooks Atkinson wrote in The New York Times, more guardedly, that her part, like those of the rest of the supporting cast, was “agreeably played.””