October 2008

• Guinea Pig Zero Speaks (.MP3,47.38 Mb)
  
  For much of his adult life, Robert Helms worked as a professional medical test subject. He chronicled his experiences, and that of others, in his zine Guinea Pig Zero. Excerpts of the publication are available in the book Guinea Pig Zero: An Anthology of the Journal for Human Research Subjects. “When I rent my healthy body to medical science, I am the temporary employee of a research team, paid as a contractor for each job. I do my bleeding, pissing work in a blurry area between patient and subject.  This blurry area has made for intense public debate, and the questions relating to the guinea pig as a worker are not even considered by lawmakers in this country (yet they are in Canada or France)." We spoke to Helms about his career choice, the day to day lives of professional guinea pigs, and the role of human test subjects in modern medical science.

August 2008

• Full Podcast: A Magic Formula (.MP3,25.75 Mb)
  
  On this edition we speak with Ernst & Young’s Global Biotechnology Leader Glen Giovannetti about Big Pharma’s efforts to reinvent itself through changing models of collaboration and acquisitions. We also speak with the Milken Institute’s Ross DeVol about the economic toll of chronic disease and why healthcare reform efforts must address this growing problem if they are to be successful.
• A Chronic Problem (.MP3,12.68 Mb)
  It’s not just diabetes, but heart disease, hypertension, cancer and other chronic conditions that are at the heart of America’s healthcare crisis. An estimated 133 million people, almost half of all Americans today, live with at least one chronic condition, and the number continues to grow. Consider that 75 percent of the $2.1 trillion spent on healthcare in the United States goes to treat people who suffer from chronic conditions, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We spoke to the Milken Institutes’ Ross DeVol about the economic toll of chronic disease and why healthcare reform efforts must address this growing problem if they are to be successful.
• Reinventing Pharma (.MP3,14.4 Mb)
  When Roche acquired a majority stake in Genentech in 1990, it led to what would become one of the most productive and successful relationships between a pharmaceutical company and a biotech. Now, nearly two decades later, Big Pharma seems to finally be taking notice, and taking steps to leave some autonomy and independence with the biotechs they acquire in the hopes of preserving the culture of innovation that attracted them in the first place. We spoke to Ernst & Young’s Global Biotechnology Leader Glen Gionvannetti about this emerging trend and why now that it’s happening, Roche is trying to buy the rest of Genentech.  

July 2008

• FULL PODCAST: July 2008 (.MP3,39.5 Mb)
  
  On this edition, we travel to San Diego for the BIO 2008 International Convention, the largest annual gathering for the biotechnology industry. We’ll begin with BIO president and CEO Jim Greenwood, who talks about why the industry is lobbying to get more money for the folks who regulate it. We’ll also speak with Ed Holmes, executive deputy chairman for  Clinical-Translational Sciences at the Biomedical Research Council of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research or A*STAR about Singapore’s efforts to become a biotechnology powerhouse. Amgen’s Senior Vice Present of Research and Development Joe Miletich discusses both the art and science of early stage research. And we finish with Deloitte’s National Managing Principal for Biotechnology Matthew Hudes on measuring innovation.
• Lobbying For Regulators (.MP3,11.22 Mb)
  Most industry groups lobby to get regulators off their backs, but the biotechnology industry may be unique in complaining that the folks who regulate it need more money to do so. With new scrutiny on food safety and drug safety, the industry is worried that the agency doesn’t have the resources it needs to review new drug applications in a timely manner, and that its already sizeable contribution to the agency through user fees is also undermining the public’s trust in both the FDA and the industry. We talk to BIO president and CEO Jim Greenwood about industry efforts to get Congress to find more money for the FDA.

   

• Tall Order (.MP3,8.55 Mb)
  
  About a year and a half ago Ed Holmes along with his wife Judy Swain, both distinguished researchers in the United States, found themselves lured to Singapore where the government was backing its great ambitions to become a leading biotech center with billions in investment. Holmes, the executive deputy chairman of A*STAR's Biomedical Research Council, is helping lead the second phase of Singapore's biomedical sciences initiative with a focus on translational efforts. He is working to build capabilities and attract the talent needed to translate basic research into potential new drugs, devices and diagnostic tools. We spoke to Holmes, a member of the TJOLS advisory board, about both the successes Singapore has enjoyed and the challenges it continues to face.
• Following Where Science Leads (.MP3,10.79 Mb)
  
  As Senior Vice President, Research and Development at Amgen, Joe Miletich leads the translational science efforts for the biotechnology giant. As such, Miletich serves as both a gateway and guardian over the company’s future. This critical part of Amgen’s R&D effort unlocks the promise of early discoveries by demonstrating their potential to alter disease in a beneficial way. We caught up to Miletich at the BIO 2008 Confernece and talked to him about the changing process of translational research and the sometime challenge of following where science leads.
• Measuring Innovation (.MP3,10.99 Mb)
  
  “Given the volatility and the pace of scientific discovery in recent years, there is a need for a fact-based analysis to better understand which innovations are emerging as the most promising and, conversely, which technologies are losing ground,” said Matthew Hudes, U.S. managing principal, Biotechnology, for Deloitte Consulting's Life Sciences & Health Care practice. Using data collected over the past six years, Deloitte researchers created a three-stage measurement model covering discovery, development and realization to measure the inputs and outputs of innovation during the process of bringing new products to market. We caught up with Hudes, a member of the TJOLS business advisory board, at the BIO 2008 Conference and talked about the emerging technologies reshaping the biotech sector and how exactly you go about measuring innovation.

June 2008

• Full Podcast: A Conversation On Healthcare Reform and Income Security (.MP3,61.42 Mb)
  
  On this edition of the Journal of Life Sciences podcast, we travel to the campus of Stanford University for a conversation on healthcare reform and income security featureing George Shultz and John Shoven. Shultz, professor of economics at Stanford Graduate School of Business and Distinguished Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and Shoven, professor of economics and director of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, discuss the issues of their new book Putting Our House in Order: a Guide to Social Security and Health Care Reform. The healthcare economist Victor Fuchs moderates the discussion. The California Healthcare Institute hosted the April 29 event, which was sponsored by Fenwick & West.

May 2008

• FULL PODCAST: A 20/20 Vision to 2020 (.MP3,20.13 Mb)
  On this special edition of The Journal of Life Sciences Podcast, we travel to Half Moon Bay, California for the annual limited partners meeting of the San Francisco-based life sciences merchant bank Burrill & Company. TJOLS was permitted to record portions of this closed-door conference held this year at the end of April. Steve Burrill, CEO of Burrill & Company and co-publisher of TJOLS, spoke about his vision for the changing world of healthcare in the year 2020. It is the focus of Burrill & Company's annual report on the biotech industry Biotech 2008-Life Sciences: A 20/20 Vision to 2020. Steve discusses how we are moving from a world of treatment to one of prediction and prevention, how technology will be harnessed to invisibly monitor patients as they go about their everyday activities, and how 12 years from now when people need medical treatment, they will go to Wal-Mart.

April 2008

• FULL PODCAST: The Journal of Life Sciences April 2008 (.MP3,27.96 Mb)
  
  On this edition, the Journal’s editor-in-chief William Patrick is joined by Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology Director Martha Gray, California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences Director Reg Kelly, and journalists Ellen Durckel. They discuss the convergence of biology with the quantitative sciences, efforts to get industry and academia to collaborate more effectively and how harnessing nanotechnology to create an artificial retina may restore limited vision to the blind.
• Same As It Ever Was (.MP3,3.12 Mb)
  The Journal's Editor-In-Chief William Patrick offers a few thoughts on convergence.
• Hands On Medicine (.MP3,6.4 Mb)
  
  For nearly 40 years, the Harvard-MIT division of Health Sciences and Technology has worked to bring innovations in non-medical fields such as information technology, engineering and materials science to the patient bedside and to clinical research. The catchword for the program is convergence with faculty focusing on fostering collaboration among researchers from disparate fields. Now, HST through a unique program aimed at training a new class of highly versatile health professional, is taking its model to India. The move could lead to new treatments and technologies.
• The Smiling Heretic (.MP3,8.77 Mb)
  
  For Reg Kelly, the director of the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences, or QB3, research breakthroughs are not enough. Kelly notes that Q2’s mandate is not only to improve public health, but California’s economic well being as well. To that end, QB3 has aggressively pursued relationships with industry, sought to find sources of funding for faculty created start-ups, and even created incubator space for new companies within its headquarters on the Mission Bay campus of the University of California, San Francisco to see that researchers’ discoveries get translated into products that can ultimately benefit public health.
• A Bionic Eye (.MP3,7.86 Mb)
  
  No one would ever confuse William Boyd with Steve Austin, the iconic and bionic hero of the 1970’s TV series the six million dollar man. Boyd, who spent his career at a Nabisco bakery in Houston mixing dough to make Ritz Crackers, though, may become something of a bionic man himself. In 1979, Boyd developed retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic condition that causes a degeneration of the natural photoreceptors that line the retina in the back of the eye. Thirty years after his diagnosis, Boyd may be one of the first patients implanted with an artificial retina in the hopes of restoring limited sight to him.
   
• The Last Word (.MP3,3.64 Mb)
  The Journal's Web Editor Daniel S. Levine offers the best podcast segment you've ever heard.

March 2008

• Full Podcast: The Journal of Life Sciences (.MP3,18 Mb)
  
  On this edition, Tjols' editor-in-chief William Patrick is joined by Jaxon White, chairman of Medmarc Insurance Group, and Dr. David Dale, president of the American College of Physicians. They discuss the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision on liability for medical device makers and the need for greater research into the medicinal uses of marijuana.
• Immunizing Device Makers (.MP3,7.17 Mb)
  
  In a major victory for the medical device industry, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that medical device makers could not be sued over harm done by devices that had gone through the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s premarket approval process. The 8-1 decision in the case of Riegel v. Medtronic decision reaffirms two previous lower court rulings. The medical device industry said the decision makes clear that the FDA, and not a patchwork of state regulation and jury verdicts, is the determiner of the safety and efficacy of medical devices. Jaxon White, chairman of MedMark Insurance Group, discusses the significance of the decision with Tjols' editor-in-chief William Patrick.
• Turn on, Tune in, and Research (.MP3,8.08 Mb)
  Marijuana has for centuries been smoked for its medicinal benefits. There are both clinical and anecdotal evidence of many potential uses, but research expansion has been impeded by a complicated federal approval processes, limited availability of research grade marijuana and the debate over legalization. The American College of Physicians, the nation’s second largest physician group, is calling for programs and funding for rigorous scientific research into the medical uses of marijuana. Tjols' editor-in-chief William Patrick talked to Dr. David Dale, president of the ACP and a professor of medicine at the University of Washington, about the organization’s recent policy statement.
• The Last Word (.MP3,3.64 Mb)
  The Journal’s Daniel S. Levine offers some thoughts on the Journal of Visualized Experiments or JoVE.com, a website dedicated to making biological experiments easily reproduced by allowing researchers to see how they are performed.

February 2008

• FULL PODCAST: The Journal of Life Sciences (.MP3,17.27 Mb)
  
  On this edition, the Journal’s editor-in-chief William Patrick is joined by New Republic Assistant Editor Bradford Plumer, law professor Lori Andrews, and TJOLS Publishers and California Healthcare Institute CEO David Gollaher. They discuss Congress’ legislative agenda, patent issues surrounding nanotechnology, and the challenges that lie in getting doctors to practice evidenced-based medicine.
• Nurturing our Nerds (.MP3,1.73 Mb)
  The Journal's Editor-in-Chief William Patrick talks about the importance of nurturing our nerds.
• Untethering Innovation (.MP3,5.02 Mb)
  The expectation is that Congress will be relatively quiet in this election year, but not completely. Patent reform legislation, and bills creating a pathway for follow-on biologics will likely come up for votes in the months ahead. Congressional drug-safety hearing could affect the way the FDA does business, while scores of smaller bills—from genetic non-discrimination rules to small-business grants—could have significant effects on medical innovation. While trade groups and lobbyists may be looking ahead to 2009 and the possibility of a democrat in the white house, Bradford Plumer reports in the February issue of the Journal of life sciences that there’s still plenty to focus on in this session.
• Thinking Small (.MP3,5.02 Mb)
  
  As the emerging science of nanotechnology converges with biopharmaceutical sciences, the blurring boundary lines threaten to create a nightmare for regulators. As Lori Andrews reports in the February issue of the Journal of Life Sciences, both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office are bring criticized for their approaches as they attempt both to encourage and to impose order on the field.
• A Healthcare GPS for Doctors (.MP3,3.95 Mb)
  
  Evidence-based medicine could help physicians navigate the complexities of patient care by collecting, interpreting and disseminating data on outcomes. At first, it would seem to be nothing more than common sense. After all, who wants medicine based on mere opinion? If outcomes data confirm a treatments benefits, doctors should use it: if it’s harmful they shouldn’t, but as David Gollaher writes in the February 2008 issue of The Journal of Life Sciences, while evidenced-based medicine can improve quality and cut costs in the U.S. Healthcare system there are obstacles, not the least of which are doctors.
• The Last Word (.MP3,2.82 Mb)
  The Journal's Web Editor Daniel S. Levine shares a letter to his wife, the doctor.

January 2008

• FULL PODCAST: The Outlook for 2008 (.MP3,14.65 Mb)
  On this special New Year’s edition editor-in-chief William Patrick is joined by Steve Burrill, CEO of the San Francisco-based life science merchant bank Burrill & Co., and David Gollaher, CEO of the California Healthcare Institute. The two co-publishers of the Journal of Life Sciences discuss the year ahead in business and policy for the life sciences industry.

   

• The Year Ahead on the Business Front (.MP3,6.58 Mb)
  The biotechnology industry enjoyed a solid year in 2007. As the final trading sessions of the year approach it appeared the Burrill Biotech Index would better than double the returns of the Dow Jones Industrial Averages for the year. The industry raised nearly $46 billion and saw nearly 30 IPOs. But 2007 was also a year when the pharmaceutical industry saw concerns about safety step to the forefront and that added to the pipeline pressures already being felt as caution at the FDA helped made this year one marked by the fewest new drugs approved in nearly a decade. Steve Burrill joins Bill to take a look back and a look forward for the industry in 2008.
• The Year Ahead on the Policy Front (.MP3,8.21 Mb)
  
  Though in 2007 concerns over patent reform and efforts to create a pathway for so-called follow-on or generic biologics dominated the policy front for the industry, no resolution on these issues were reached. As we head into an election year, healthcare reform will likely take center stage, but these unresolved issues will continue to remain high on the agenda for the industry. David Gollaher joins Bill to discuss the big policy concerns of 2007 that continue to be front and center for the industry as we move forward.

December 2007

• FULL PODCAST: The Journal of Life Sciences (.MP3,16.88 Mb)
  

  On this edition, the Journal’s editor-in-chief William Patrick is joined by journalist Theresa Moore, author Ann Parson and eHarmony senior research scientist Gian Gonzaga. They discuss Kaiser Permanente’s efforts to change patients health through the introduction of farmers markets at their facilities, Geron’s push into the clinic with its embryonic stem cell-derived therapy and how not just marriage, but good health may be the payoff from finding the love of your life.

• Fix-Me-Itis (.MP3,1.95 Mb)
  The Journal's Editor-in-Chief William Patrick offers some thoughts on love and wellness and what the emerging area of social neuroscience is telling us about the two.
• Love is a Drug (.MP3,5.35 Mb)
  
  eHarmony specializes in getting singles to connect. Now the matchmaking site hopes landmark research will show that good health, not just marriage, is a possible outcome of its pairings. If a dating service seems an unlikely venue for serious research that could influence both health psychology and personalized medicine, it helps to remember that eHarmony’s business proposition is not to find you a few dates, but a partner for life. Gian Gonzaga, senior research scientists with eHarmony talks to Bill about the research being conducted by the company.
• Nurse, Get This Patient Some Arugula (.MP3,4.62 Mb)
  
  HMO Kaiser Permanente is helping set up farmers markets at its medical centers across the nation on the principle that good food leads to good health. Since the first weekly markets opened at the Kaiser facility in Oakland in May 2003, farmers markets have sprouted at 32 Kaiser centers in California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Georgia and Hawaii. As journalist Theresa Moore reports in the December issue of The Journal of Life Sciences, it’s one thing to tell patients to eat more fruits and vegetables and its another thing to make high quality produce available at its medical centers.
   
• Eye on the Prize (.MP3,4.26 Mb)
  
  In 2008, Menlo Park, California-based Geron expects to begin a much-anticipated clinical trial in which doctors will transplant a type of neural stem cell into humans. The trial is significant because, if successful, it would represents the first time that a product derived from embryonic stem cells could be shown to be safe and effective. But as author Ann Parson reports in the December issue of The Journal of Life Sciences, even though the company’s expectations are modest, success in treating patients with spinal cord injuries would validate a lengthy and costly effort.
• The Last Word (.MP3,2.02 Mb)
  A report from Physicians for Social Responsibility puts a price tag as high as $660 billion on what the country will eventually spend caring for the mental and physical damage done to U.S. military personnel from the war in Iraq. Northwest Regional Director Physicians for Social Responsibility Evan Kanter recently spoke to The Journal of Life Sciences about the war’s physical and mental toll on veterans, the long-term cost of caring for those who served, and why the situation is worse than in previous conflicts.

November 2007

• FULL PODCAST: The Journal of Life Sciences (.MP3,34.54 Mb)
  
  On this edition, The Journal’s editor-in-chief William Patrick is joined by journalist Sally Lehrman, author Catherine Brady and The Journal’s Web Editor Daniel S. Levine. They discuss the emergence of consumer genetic tests, the career of groundbreaking scientist Elizabeth Blackburn and the challenges of making personalized medicine a reality.
• Junk Science, Junk Food (.MP3,5.14 Mb)
  The Journal's Editor-In-Chief William Patrick offers some thoughts on Gary Taubes Good Calories, Bad Calories and the trouble that ensues when scientists yield to pressures from political, financial and other considerations.
• Getting Personal (.MP3,9.09 Mb)
  
  The notion of personalized medicine is seductive. Proponents say it will increase the efficiency of drug development, cut wasteful spending on therapies that don’t work for certain patients, and deliver more effective treatments. But as Daniel S. Levine reports in the November issue of The Journal of Life Sciences, the adoption of personalized medicine on a large scale faces significant barriers. The science of identifying appropriate biomarkers for diagnostics can be evasive. The business models to align pharmaceutical and diagnostic companies’ interests remain undefined. And the regulatory and reimbursement models are not yet in place to allow companies to recoup their sizable R&D investment in products designed to reach smaller and smaller populations within a subset of a disease.
• Genes 'R Us (.MP3,8.28 Mb)
  
  Empowerment through genetics is now at everyone’s finger tips – or so we’re told. A quick trip online will direct you to tests that claim to identify your genetic propensity for diabetes, breast cancer, cystic fibrosis, or iron overload disease. You can secretly check your baby’s paternity and learn its gender in as few as six weeks from conception. You can go to Target.com and buy a genetic home collection kit for the whole family, with results that tell you how your DNA makes you unique. But as Sally Lehrman reports in the November issue of The Journal of Life Sciences, some question whether the trend toward making genetics testing as easy as fixing a TV dinner is putting the market ahead of the science.
• The Unlikely Mentor (.MP3,9.49 Mb)
  
  Reserved, introspective, uncomfortable with head-to-head competition, Elizabeth Blackburn might seem an unlikely role model and mentor for young scientists. But her predilection for exploring unconventional explanations and her aversion to jostling for position in a crowded race led her to a seemingly obscure byway that became a thriving research field with significant implications for human health. The functions of telomeres and telomerase in the aging of cells influences human aging, and telomerase also plays a role in the growth and metastasis of cancer. Catherine Brady, author of the newly released Elizabeth Blackburn and the Story of Telomeres: Deciphering the Ends of DNA joins Bill to discuss the career of this pioneering scientist.
• The Last Word (.MP3,5.16 Mb)
  The Journal's Managing Editor Eric Wahlgren offers some thoughts on the zymergy experts of biotechnology who apply their professional skills in the science of fermentation to the art of brewing beer.

October 2007

• FULL PODCAST: The Journal of Life Sciences (.MP3,16.57 Mb)
  
  On this edition, The Journal’s editor-in-chief William Patrick is joined by journalist Ellen Durckel, Author Bruce Goldman and Christopher Meyer, chief executive of Monitor Networks. They discuss Houston's efforts to emerge as a center for biotechnology, a promising new cancer vaccine, and the biotechnology company Maxygen, which shows how biological systems are providing new organizational models for businesses.
• The Biomolecular Economy (.MP3,2.12 Mb)
  
  The Journal's Editor-in-Chief offers some thoughts on the biomolecular economy and how biological principles are informing organizational structures.
• Houston, We Have a Problem (.MP3,16.57 Mb)
  
  For all the size and scope of its medical infrastructure, Houston lags behind in translating biomedical research into biotech commerce. A 2005 Ernst & Young study showed that California was leading the nation with more than 400 biotechnology companies, but Texas was toward the end of the list with fewer than 50. In the current issue of the Journal of Life Sciences, Ellen Durckel takes a look how the biggest city in Texas is hoping institutional partnerships will change that.
• An Injection of Hope (.MP3,2.9 Mb)
  
  A Glioblastoma is a relatively rare illness, but a nasty one. About 10,000 patients get diagnosed with it in the United States annually and only half of them will live a full year after their diagnosis. Even when the tumors have been surgically removed from the brain, half the time they will return within six months. But a vaccine in tests for this aggressive cancer has patients living more than twice as long as those treated with radiation and chemotherapy and, as author Bruce Goldman reports in the October issue of the Journal of Life Sciences, has some wondering if it could serve as a model for other types of cancer.
• A Turning Point (.MP3,6.62 Mb)
  
  Maxygen CEO Russell Howard has said that “Life is characterized not only by death, but by reproduction, passing on the DNA, the thread that produce progeny and is the real essence of life. Most businesses are the genesis of another business. They may spin off another company, and the parent may die, but the spin-offs survive and succeed. I use the analogy not only of inevitable death, but of life’s continuous process of recreation.” In 2002, Monitor’s Chris Meyer took a close look at Maxygen, itself has been an extraordinarily adaptive enterprise, following an evolutionary biological model when it comes to its organization, leadership, and product development. In this month’s Journal, Meyer revisits the company five year’s later.
• The Last Word (.MP3,2 Mb)
  The Journal's Web Editor Daniel S. Levine tells how two oncologists from the University of Chicago are trying to tackle the high cost of cancer drugs with a little grapefruit juice.

September 2007

• FULL PODCAST: The Journal of Life Sciences (.MP3,19.7 Mb)
  On this edition, The Journal's editor in chief William Patrick is joined by David Gollaher, president and CEO of the California Healthcare Institute, Lori Andrews, professor of law at Chicago Kent College of Law and author Ann Parson.
• The Story Contained in a Stamp (.MP3,3.77 Mb)
  A few thoughts from The Journal's editor-in-chief William Patrick on the many enemies of progress.
• Tissue Culture (.MP3,6.35 Mb)
  The now-iconic 1997 photograph of a mouse with a human-shaped ear growing on its back stimulated the development of tissue engineering, both among basic researchers and entrepreneurs. But it also had a profound effect on two Australian artists, Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr. They looked at the ear, created by seeding bovine cartilage cells on biodegradable scaffolding, and said to each other, "that's sculpture."
• From Rehab to Regeneration (.MP3,5.66 Mb)
  Radical improvements in emergency triage, medical evaluation and body armor mean more soldiers are surviving battlefield trauma than ever before. The unfortunate corollary is that more survivors are living with harsh injuries. Two new military-sponsored research projects in regeneration could revolutionize an amputee's prospects. In the future, when a roadside bomb blows a soldier's arm off, he might be rushed to a regenerative medicine complex where his own cells are put to work to grow a new limb.
• The California Experiment (.MP3,4.9 Mb)
  It was in 2004 that stem cells entered the mainstream of American politics. On election night, November 2, in Los Angeles' venerable Checkers Hotel, supporters of a ballot measure called Proposition 71 gathered to watch the polling results. By midnight, the initiative that would authorize $3 billion in state bonds to fund 10 years of embryonic stem cell research, was winning by a 59-41 percent landslide. At that moment, California seemed about to write a bold new chapter in the history of life sciences. Its sheer magnitude made prop 71 the greatest application of direct democracy to science policy in history, but in so doing it has also created something big to fight over.