A vaccine that apparently prevents cervical cancer is on a fast track for federal review and could be available to women and adolescent girls sometime this summer, according to a Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center physician who has been involved in studying the new drug.
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An international clinical trial directed by Dr. Diane Harper of Norris Cotton Cancer Center at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) and Dartmouth Medical School has shown extremely promising results for a vaccine against the most common causes of cervical cancer. Writing in the lead article of this week's issue of The Lancet, Harper and co authors said the vaccine has the potential to greatly reduce deaths from cervical cancer, one of the leading causes of cancer mortality among women worldwide. The vaccine is targeted to immunize against two different types of high risk human papillomavirus (HPV-16 and HPV-18) that cause an estimated 70 percent of cervical cancer cases.
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The Amarillo Globe-News: “A week after the special election, Kel Seliger's personal life didn't let up. Never mind that a runoff election was less than a month away.On the same day that he had a funeral to attend, his son came down with an eye infection. His wife - who was recovering from a car wreck she suffered two days earlier while he was campaigning in Big Spring - still couldn't get around by herself...In high school, Seliger immersed himself in academics, student government, music and sports. On the debate team, he developed his vocabulary and public-speaking ability, and he later fine-tuned his skills at Dartmouth College.”
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Last Thursday I, along with my teammate and fraternity brother Chris Little, spoke about my stay in the hospital last summer and my football team’s response in helping my family and me through tough times. We spoke in the 1930’s room in Rockefeller. It was video taped by the Men’s Project here at Dartmouth and was on the topic of masculinity and how men relate to one another through caring. In short, I was hospitalized for a life threatening infection last summer. To help my parents and family have a bit of rest, my teammates and fraternity brothers remained with me in shifts every night while I was in the intensive care unit so my parents would not have to worry that no one was watching over me.
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NewsRx.net reports: "Medarex, Inc. announced that its fully human antibody against anthrax, MDX-1303, protected against inhalation anthrax at a dose 10-fold lower than previously tested in rabbits treated with the antibody, and that MDX-1303 reduced mortality even when administered 1-2 days after inhalation, once animals displayed signs suggestive of disease. The preclinical study was conducted by an independent party and was designed to determine the minimal amount of MDX-1303 required to provide protection and to determine the therapeutic activity of the antibody given at the time of anthrax inhalation...The preclinical study, under a cooperative research and development agreement with the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases and Dartmouth Medical School, was conducted at a separate, specially equipped facility in the Midwest..."
The PR Newswire reports, “Medarex, Inc. announced today that its fully human antibody against anthrax, MDX-1303, protected against inhalation anthrax at a dose ten-fold lower than previously tested in rabbits treated with the antibody, and that MDX-1303 reduced mortality even when administered 1-2 days after inhalation, once animals displayed signs suggestive of disease. These results are being presented today at the Biodefense Funding and Development Opportunities on Vaccines, Therapeutics & Diagnostics Conference in Washington, D.C.” The article continues, “The pre-clinical study, under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) and Dartmouth Medical School, was conducted at a separate, specially equipped facility in the Midwest.”
During my junior winter, I spent the term as an intern at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation as part of the Dartmouth Partners in Community Service program. During those ten weeks, I spent half of my time researching, planning, and implementing HIV/AIDS outreach, prevention, and education programs in the Bay Area. The other half of my time was spent as an anonymous phone operator on the nation-wide California AIDS Hotline, providing countless strangers with HIV/AIDS resources, referrals, and counseling. Some people called, worried that they had put themselves at risk for HIV infection and wanting to know where they could be anonymously tested. Some called, knowing that their lifestyles were putting them in danger and wanting to know how to better protect themselves. Lastly, and most difficult, some called because they were walking out of a testing clinic, with the news that they were HIV-positive and didn't know where else to turn.Innovations-Report says, "An innovative vaccine against tuberculosis has shown promise in persons with HIV, researchers from Dartmouth Medical School and the National Public Health Institute of Finland report in the Nov. 7 issue of the journal AIDS. An international team led by DMS infectious disease expert Dr. C. Fordham von Reyn, professor of medicine, found that the new booster, a killed vaccine, enhanced the TB immunity of HIV patients. Their weakened immune systems make the current TB vaccine, which is a live vaccine, more risky. In most countries where TB is widespread, children generally receive a vaccine made from live Mycobacterium bovis, Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) that has been used to reduce the risk of TB for more than half century. Despite the widespread use of BCG, TB has been growing dramatically in the world, fueled by the increased susceptibility of HIV-infected people to TB."
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The daughter of a doctor from Freedom is among the U.S. survivors of Sunday’s devastating tsunamis. Doctor William Foord said his 31-year-old daughter Kristin, of Boston, was having breakfast with her finance when the tsunami struck. They were eating on an island off the coast of Thailand. Foord said a 12-foot wave swept away hotel employees and guests, including the fiance, Jeffrey Woods of Ohio. He swam back to shore, then ran inland. The couple climbed a 20-foot tree to escape a second wave. Foord said they later ran to higher ground and eventually were evacuated. She suffered only a minor injury, but Woods got a leg infection. “I was extremely relieved to find out she was safe,” Foord said. Kristin Foord is a geologist and graduated from Dartmouth in 1995. Woods is a student at Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Management. He was overseas as part of his studies.
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Biotech Week: "At a time when HIV/AIDS in the developing world has reached epidemic stages, a team of international researchers, led by Ford von Reyn, MD, professor of medicine, Dartmouth Medical School (DMS) and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center has received a 5-year, $1.5 million grant from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) to provide HIV and tuberculosis research training to health care workers in Tanzania. In collaboration with the Muhimbili University College of Health Sciences (MUCHS), Boston University (BU) School of Public Health, and the National Public Health Institute of Finland, the Dartmouth/Boston University AIDS Training and Research Program (AITRP) is designed to increase knowledge and enhance research skills and capacity among Tanzanian scientists working with HIV and tuberculosis. The ultimate goal of the training and the associated research projects is reduction in the number of deaths due to HIV and tuberculosis in Tanzania.
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Kathryn Miller, D'97, Th'98, is the new President of the Dartmouth Society of Engineers (DSE). Until her senior year in high school, Miller thought she was going to be an English major. Her calculus teacher convinced her to pursue engineering, and she is now in her fourth year of a doctoral program in chemical engineering at M.I.T. Miller is doing research in biological engineering applications, specifically gene therapy, looking at the effects of adenoviral vector infection on cell behavior. 
The media's coverage of avian flu has made Americans all too familiar with the word pandemic— the worldwide spread of a disease. Yet other pandemics are every bit as troublesome but get much less attention.
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New findings from a Dartmouth Medical School collaboration in Tanzania may alter assumptions about the diagnosis of tuberculosis in HIV-infected people, and prompt a major change in way TB testing is routinely done in the developing world.
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White blood cells are the principle mediators of immune system function, yet efforts to influence their role in illness have been hampered due to a lack of understanding of the surface structure of these cells - until now. Dartmouth Medical School researchers characterize the structure of white blood cells and challenge assumptions about how a certain immunodeficiency disorder affects the white blood cell surface in the September 1 issue of Blood, the journal of the American Society of Hematology. Their findings could have a large impact on treatments for autoimmune diseases such as diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, as well as AIDS and cancer metastasis.
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