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June/July 2014 Newsletter

A new solution for treating neuropathic pain

 

Biopharmaceutical company, BioLineRx Ltd. recently announced that is has licensed a new compound developed at CU-Boulder by BioFrontiers' Hubert Yin and Linda R. Watkins (Dept. of Psychology and Neuro-science) for the treatment of neuropathic pain. The compound, called BL-1110 may also be developed for the treatment of scleroderma, an autoimmune disease characterized by a hardening and tightening of the skin and connective tissues.

 

Neuropathic pain is caused by damage or diseases affecting the nervous system, and it usually does not respond to regular painkillers. Morphine is commonly used to treat this pain, but patients often develop a tolerance to the drug or suffer severe side effects, including addiction and abuse. The causes of neuropathic pain include shingles, diabetes and cancer. Only 50 percent of patients with neuropathic pain achieve even partial relief, because it is difficult to treat with pain medication. Annual sales for prescription drugs for neuropathic pain exceed $6 billion in the seven major markets.

 

Many of these effects are due to the neuroinflammation of the nervous system that morphine creates, which is triggered by the interaction of the drug with the nervous system's glial cells. BL-1110 blocks the interaction between morphine and glial cells, enhancing the pain-relieving effects of the drug while reducing the side affects, inflammation and potential for addiction.

 

"BL-1110 works through a novel mechanism-of-action, based on our recent discovery that opioids, such as morphine, cause the activation of glial cells," says Yin. "We have high hopes that BL-1110 will be a valuable companion to opioid therapies, enhancing their efficacy and reducing their negative side effects."

American Gut data and processing pipeline now available to researchers

Rob Knight,  a faculty member at the BioFrontiers Institute, is sharing the largest known dataset on the human microbiome and the software key to understand what it may reveal about the role of the millions of bacteria living in and on the human body. The data is from the American Gut Project and includes information from more than 3,000 participants, 101 million DNA sequences and 27 gigabytes of sequencing information. The data has been deidentified to remove personal information, which was collected from 3,238 participants ranging in age from newborns to octogenarians, and Paleo dieters to omnivores. The American Gut Project summary, dataset and processing notebook can be found at http://americangut.org.

 

There are more than 1,000 known bacterial species in the human microbiome, which also includes viruses and fungi. The diversity of a microbiome is important. Among the interesting patterns emerging from the data:

  • How much of their microbial diversity participants shared with others depended greatly on how recently they had taken antibiotics. Those participants who had taken antibiotics within the last year tended to have less shared diversity. 
  • Spikes in microbiome populations seem to occur around holidays: in July, and in November through January.
  • People who sleep more, and who exercise outdoors, have more diverse microbiomes.

The American Gut Project is an "open source" effort, meaning participants and researchers have access to the data gathered to help understand how diet and lifestyle may contribute to human health through the interaction of our microbiomes, cells and genes. Most participants in the American Gut project donated $99 and requested that their microbiome be sequenced and analyzed. The project is currently the largest crowdfunded, citizen bioscience project ever launched. 

Sie Fellows focused on quality of life for people with Down syndrome

Mary Allen holds up a valentine sent to her from a childhood friend. It sits in her cubicle where she is hard at work tearing apart genomic data looking for patterns. This friend, who has Down syndrome, is part of the reason that Allen, a postdoctoral researcher in
Robin Dowell's lab at the BioFrontiers Institute, became interested in studying aneuploidy. Aneuploidy means that cells have too many, or too few, of one or more chromosomes. In the case of Down syndrome, there is an extra copy of chromosome 21. Allen is exploring what makes people with this extra chromosome survivors.

 

"Down syndrome is actually not all that survivable," says Allen. "Only 25 percent of embryos with three copies of chromosome 21 survive to live birth. These people who are surviving and living long lives have something in their DNA-from their genetic background-that is helping them."

 

Down syndrome is the most commonly occurring chromosomal condition and more than 400,000 people in the United States are currently living with it. Allen is right about them being survivors. According to the Global Down Syndrome Foundation, life expectancy for people with the syndrome has increased dramatically from 25 years in 1983 to 60 years now, due in part to better educational programs, health care and support from families and communities.

 

Allen is taking genetic sequencing data from people with Down syndrome and their parents to understand how that extra copy of chromosome 21 puts this population at higher risk for health issues such as heart defects, thyroid conditions, leukemia, Alzheimer's disease, and respiratory and hearing problems. She is also trying to understand why they are at lower risk for heart attack, stroke, and solid tumor cancers. Allen isn't out to find a cure for Down syndrome. Her goal is to find what in their DNA is helping these survivors, and how can we design targeted molecular therapy to help them have better lives.

 

Allen recently was awarded a Sie Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship to continue her Down syndrome research for the next two years. This fellowship was created under the Anna and John J. Sie Endowment Fund for the BioFrontiers Institute, which is targeted specifically at funding research to prevent the cognitive and medical ill effects associated with the extra chromosome 21. The fellowship is offered as a collaboration between BioFrontiers and the Linda Crnic Institute for Down Syndrome at the University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus. 

Recent papers by our faculty 

Extracellular-regulated kinase 2 is activated by the enhancement of hinge flexibility. (J Mol Biol) - Natalie Ahn

Structure and function of steroid receptor RNA activator protein, the proposed partner of SRA noncoding RNA. (J Mol Biol.) - Tom Cech

The noncoding RNA revolution-Trashing old rules to forge new ones. (Cell) - Tom Cech

Global analysis of p53-regulated transcription identifies its direct targets and unexpected regulatory mechanisms (eLife) - Joaquin Espinosa and Robin Dowell

Alterations in the gut microbiota associated with HIV-1 infection. (Cell Host Microbe) - Rob Knight

Bacterial phylogeny structures soil resistomes across habitats. (Nature) - Rob Knight

Convergence of gut microbiomes in myrmecophagous mammals. (Mol Ecol.) - Rob Knight

Finding the Missing Links among Metabolites, Microbes, and the Host. (Immunity) - Rob Knight

Microbial community dynamics and effect of environmental microbial reservoirs on red-backed salamanders (Plethodon cinereus). (ISME J.) - Rob Knight

The amphibian skin-associated microbiome across species, space and life history stages (Mol Ecol.) - Rob Knight

The intestinal metabolome: an intersection between microbiota and host. (Gastroenterology) - Rob Knight

Vertebrate Decomposition is Accelerated by Soil Microbes. (Appl Environ Microbiol.) - Rob Knight

Upcoming Events
 
BioFrontiers Special Seminar
Dursan Turk
Jozef Stefan Institute, Slovenia
Jul. 22 - 4:00 pm
JSCBB-Butcher Audi.
 
BioFrontiers Public Lecture
Richard Axel - Butcher Awardee
Columbia University
Oct. 7 - 7:00 pm
CU Boulder - Math 100
BioFrontiers at BIO2014

 

BioFrontiers' Jana Watson-Capps represented the Institute at the BIO International Convention June 23-26, and moderated a panel discussion on academic and industry partnerships.

 

The panel discussion included Kevin Grimes, Associate Professor of Chemical and Systems Biology at Stanford University's SPARK program; Ellen Law, Director, IP Counsel at the Broad Institute; and Ron Newbold, Vice President of External R&D Innovation at Pfizer, Inc.

 

The discussion covered three examples of university and industry partnerships and highlight the untapped opportunities for partnerships between academia and industry. 

 

In addition, BioFrontiers' Rob Knight spoke at the convention as a Blavatnik Award honoree. The Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists are given to America's most exciting and influential scientific innovators. 

 

The BIO convention is a global event attended by biotech companies, academic institutions, state biotech centers and related organizations around the world. 

Loren Hough joins Boettcher Investigators

 

BioFrontiers' Loren Hough, an assistant professor of physics,was among four University of Colorado medical researchers who were named 2014 Boettcher Investigators in the Webb-Waring Biomedical Research Program.

 

As an investigator, Hough will receive a grant of $225,000 to further his work on the structural biology of disordered proteins. The grant covers up to three years of research with the goal for early career scientists to establish themselves and become competitive for major awards from federal agencies and private foundations.

 

The Webb-Waring Biomedical Research Program was created in 2008 as part of an innovative agreement between the Boettcher Foundation, the Webb-Waring Foundation for Biomedical Research and the University of Colorado. The Boettcher Foundation now invests more than $1.5 million each year to increase Colorado's competitiveness in biomedical science. BioFrontiers' Robin Dowell also received the award in 2010. 

Anseth lab student stars in award-winning video
A short video featuring Emi Tokuda, a graduate student in Kristi Anseth's lab, recently won a LabTV video competition and premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. 
Emi Tokuda -  Medical Researcher
Emi Tokuda on YouTube
LabTV is a science communications project funded by the National Institutes of Health and Google. In the video, created by CU journalism student Emilie Johnson, Tokuda describes her work and what inspired her to pursue a science degree. 
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At the University of Colorado BioFrontiers Institute, researchers from the life sciences, physical sciences, computer science and engineering are working together to uncover new knowledge at the frontiers of science, and partnering with industry to make their discoveries relevant.
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