News & Comment

The massive rise of patient advocacy in the US has led to an aggressive, if inadvertent, contest between disease-specific lobbyists. Advocacy groups say they're just trying to get taxpayer-backed research dollars distributed equitably according to public health need and they deny any outright competition with one another. But with research budgets shrinking, advocacy becomes a zero-sum game. Some scientists worry that pitting one disease against another threatens the leadership of government funding bodies—not to mention the basic research enterprise. Virginia Hughes reports.

Modern medicine keeps unraveling new ways to investigate autoimmunity, leading to the production of boundless amounts of genetic, cellular and imaging data. Although the precision with which this information can define the etiology and mechanisms of a particular autoimmune disease is encouraging, much work lies ahead until all the knowledge acquired can be translated into the clinic. In 'Bedside to Bench', Calliope A. Dendrou, John I. Bell and Lars Fugger discuss the promises and limitations of genome-wide and next-generation genetic studies to provide further understanding of mechanisms driving autoimmune disorders and the role of experimental medicine in the new era of integrative clinical practice and personalized medicine. In 'Bench to Bedside', Lawrence Steinman argues the concept of a 'hub and spoke' pattern of T cell activation and organ targeting in multiple sclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease and type 1 diabetes. This paradigm suggests new ways to develop drugs to keep autoreactive T cells in the organ where activation occurs and preclude them from reaching the target organ and cause disease.

Stitches offer a suitable means of sealing up simple wounds. But when it comes to suturing tissues inside the body, the existing methods for closing wounds fall short. Elie Dolgin meets scientists taking inspiration from nature to develop the next generation of surgical adhesives.

Last January, scientists voluntarily imposed a pause on research that could lead to the generation of highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses with increased transmissibility to mammals. Now, new restrictions currently under debate further risk stalling progress in avian flu research.

In late September, ten pharmaceutical giants announced the formation of a Philadelphia-based nonprofit called TransCelerate BioPharma as a vehicle for sharing resources. This year kicked off with the appointment of its first chief executive, Dalvir Gill. He spoke with Roxanne Khamsi about his vision of how pharmaceutical firms can work together to simplify the process of multisite trials without sacrificing the quality of the data they collect.