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British Veterinary AssociationGuide To Partnerships In Veterinary Practice, UK
Continuing efforts to help its members form lasting and profitable partnerships and pre-empt disputes in veterinary practice, the British Veterinary Association (BVA) has revised its "Guide to partnerships in veterinary practice". It will be of particular interest to vets buying into a partnership for the first time and will also be helpful to partners revising their existing agreement.

Argos Therapeutics Presents Positive Transplantation And Immunosuppression Data For Soluble CD83 At The American Transplant Congress
Argos Therapeutics announced the presentation of new information on its soluble CD83 (sCD83) protein program in a poster session at the 2009 American Transplant Congress, held May 30-June 3 in Boston. The poster presentation, to be made on June 2 at 5:30pm by Argos" collaborating scientists from the University of Western Ontario, demonstrates that combination therapy with sCD83 can prolong kidney allograft survival in an animal model of transplantation, and that sCD83 attenuates pathological changes in kidney allografts, induces generation of T regulatory cells and inhibits dendritic cell maturation, all of which may contribute to immunosuppression and allograft tolerance.
News of the day
Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report Feature Highlights Recent Blog Entries
"Blog Watch" offers readers a roundup of health policy-related blog posts.The blogosphere is buzzing about the GOP "alternative" health reform proposal from Sens. Richard Burr (N.C.), Lamar Alexander (Tenn.) and Tom Coburn (Okla.), and Reps. Devin Nunes (Calif.) and Paul Ryan (Wis.). Known as the Patients" Choice Act (.pdf), it would create state-based private health insurance exchanges and provide U.S. residents tax credits to subsidize coverage premiums. Yuval Levin of conservative stalwart The Corner calls the plan "the best comprehensive health care proposal Republicans have produced to date, and shows that at least some in the party understand the need to engage the issue with a grasp of the differences between underlying problems (like cost control) and symptoms of those problems (like access to coverage), and with an actual appreciation for economic incentives and pressures." Marguerite Higgins of the Heritage Foundation"s The Foundry says the plan "features several important conservative principles for health care reform that would allow free-market solutions to take root in the broken U.S. health care system, and give patients more decision-making power with their health care dollars."But Michael Cannon of the libertarian Cato@Liberty blog says he is "troubled" by aspects of the plan that are "self-contradictory." He writes, "On the one hand, it lists "No Tax Increases" as a core concept. Do its authors not know that imposing price controls on health insurance premiums imposes a tax on healthier-than-average consumers? And where do they think the money for "risk-adjustment" payments will come from? Heaven?" The New Republic"s Jonathan Cohn seems to agree, saying, "The details are pretty unappealing, except where there are none; and the whole thing is presented as the antithesis of big government when, in fact, it too would require at least some government intervention." Overall Cohn thinks the plan indicates good news for Democrats, concluding, "Passage of a bill seems ever more likely, to the point where potential opponents feel they must offer alternatives that embrace some of the same concepts."The Washington Post"s Ezra Klein examines the structure of the plan, calling it "the bastard child of the Massachusetts health reforms and the McCain campaign proposal." He also seems to think it"s positive news for reformers, adding, "But it"s still a step forward for the Republican Party. It"s an admission that individuals can"t go it alone. That the state has a large and important regulatory role to play. The business model of insurers is not simply broken but actively cruel. A Republican Party that accepts the principles of this plan is a Republican Party that is much likelier to accept the principles of Obama"s eventual plan." He notes that GOP leadership was not involved in the proposal.Interesting elsewhere:
Health Insurance

Glimpsing The Birth Of Our Earliest Reproductive Cells

It has long been a mystery how the developing embryo designates those rare, precious cells destined to produce sperm and eggs -- enabling us to have offspring - since these primordial germ cells" existence is fleeting and hard to spot with the tools of biology. Now, using mouse embryonic stem cells, researchers in the Stem Cell Program at Children"s Hospital Boston have managed to recapitulate the creation of primordial germ cells (PGCs) in the lab, capturing the stem cells" gene activity as they differentiated to form PGCs. The findings, published in the July 5 issue of Nature, also offer a unique window on cancer. The researchers, led by George Q. Daley, MD, PhD, had a list of 30 genes they suspected of having a possible role in the development of PGCs. Using RNA interference (RNAi) techniques, they systematically disabled each one in turn to see if their absence affected PGC formation. They were able to catch embryonic stem cells in the act of differentiating into PGCs by testing them for genomic imprints, a set of genetic instructions affecting about 50 genes - knowing that these imprints disappear in PGCs. (The imprints are reestablished later when actual sperm and eggs are formed.) To their surprise, Daley and colleagues discovered that a protein they had already been studying in the context of cancer and embryonic stem cells, known as Lin28, is essential for the formation of PGCs. When Lin28 was suppressed, PCGs did not develop. Conversely, when the Lin28 gene was too active, the embryonic stem cells produced many more germ cells, suggesting that Lin28 regulates germ cell numbers. With this result in hand, the team suspected Lin28 might be linked to human germ cell tumors. Examining gene-expression data from malignant germ-cell tumors (mixed germ cell tumors, yolk-sac tumors, choriocarcinomas, embryonal carcinomas and seminomas), the researchers indeed found evidence of increased activity of Lin28 or the related protein Lin28B. Notably, this over-expression was confined to the malignant components of the tumors. In addition, tumors in mice treated with RNAi directed against Lin28 showed less invasiveness and proliferation. "The ability to reproduce the earliest stages of gamete development in a Petri dish allowed us to discover Lin28"s role in germ cell development and malignancy," says Daley, who is also affiliated with Children"s Division of Hematology/Oncology, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. "In this case, studying embryonic stem cells has taught us an important lesson about cancer." Jason West, PhD, of the Biological and Biomedical Sciences program at Harvard Medical School, was first author on the paper. "Knowing Lin28 is deranged in germ cell cancers gives us a new target in the fight against this disease," says West. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the NIH Director"s Pioneer Award, the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Children"s Hospital Boston


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