Project description:The 21st Annual Antibody Engineering and 8th Annual Antibody Therapeutics international conferences, and the 2010 Annual Meeting of The Antibody Society, organized by IBC Life Sciences with contributions from The Antibody Society and two Scientific Advisory Boards, were held December 5-9, 2010 in San Diego, CA. The conferences were organized with a focus on antibody engineering only on the first day and a joint engineering/therapeutics session on the last day. Delegates could select from presentations that occurred in two simultaneous sessions on days 2 and 3. Day 1 included presentations on neutralizing antibodies and the identification of vaccine targets, as well as a historical overview of 20 years of phage display utilization. Topics presented in the Antibody Engineering sessions on day 2 and 3 included antibody biosynthesis, structure and stability; antibodies in a complex environment; antibody half-life; and targeted nanoparticle therapeutics. In the Antibody Therapeutics sessions on days 2 and 3, preclinical and early stage development and clinical updates of antibody therapeutics, including TRX518, SYM004, MM111, PRO140, CVX-241, ASG-5ME, U3-1287 (AMG888), R1507 and trastuzumab emtansine, were discussed, and perspectives were provided on the development of biosimilar and biobetter antibodies, including coverage of regulatory and intellectual property issues. The joint engineering/therapeutics session on the last day focused on bispecific and next-generation antibodies.
Project description:The 23rd Annual Antibody Engineering, 10th Annual Antibody Therapeutics international conferences, and the 2012 Annual Meeting of The Antibody Society, organized by IBC Life Sciences with contributions from The Antibody Society and two Scientific Advisory Boards, were held December 3-6, 2012 in San Diego, CA. The meeting drew over 800 participants who attended sessions on a wide variety of topics relevant to antibody research and development. As a prelude to the main events, a pre-conference workshop held on December 2, 2012 focused on intellectual property issues that impact antibody engineering. The Antibody Engineering Conference was composed of six sessions held December 3-5, 2012: (1) From Receptor Biology to Therapy; (2) Antibodies in a Complex Environment; (3) Antibody Targeted CNS Therapy: Beyond the Blood Brain Barrier; (4) Deep Sequencing in B Cell Biology and Antibody Libraries; (5) Systems Medicine in the Development of Antibody Therapies/Systematic Validation of Novel Antibody Targets; and (6) Antibody Activity and Animal Models. The Antibody Therapeutics conference comprised four sessions held December 4-5, 2012: (1) Clinical and Preclinical Updates of Antibody-Drug Conjugates; (2) Multifunctional Antibodies and Antibody Combinations: Clinical Focus; (3) Development Status of Immunomodulatory Therapeutic Antibodies; and (4) Modulating the Half-Life of Antibody Therapeutics. The Antibody Society's special session on applications for recording and sharing data based on GIATE was held on December 5, 2012, and the conferences concluded with two combined sessions on December 5-6, 2012: (1) Development Status of Early Stage Therapeutic Antibodies; and (2) Immunomodulatory Antibodies for Cancer Therapy.
Project description:The 22nd Annual Antibody Engineering and 9th Annual Antibody Therapeutics international conferences, and the 2011 Annual Meeting of The Antibody Society, organized by IBC Life Sciences with contributions from The Antibody Society and two Scientific Advisory Boards, were held December 5-8, 2011 in San Diego, CA. The meeting drew ~800 participants who attended sessions on a wide variety of topics relevant to antibody research and development. As a preview to the main events, a pre-conference workshop held on December 4, 2011 focused on antibodies as probes of structure. The Antibody Engineering Conference comprised eight sessions: (1) structure and dynamics of antibodies and their membrane receptor targets; (2) model-guided generation of binding sites; (3) novel selection strategies; (4) antibodies in a complex environment: targeting intracellular and misfolded proteins; (5) rational vaccine design; (6) viral retargeting with engineered binding molecules; (7) the biology behind potential blockbuster antibodies and (8) antibodies as signaling modifiers: where did we go right, and can we learn from success? The Antibody Therapeutics session comprised five sessions: (1)Twenty-five years of therapeutic antibodies: lessons learned and future challenges; (2) preclinical and early stage development of antibody therapeutics; (3) next generation anti-angiogenics; (4) updates of clinical stage antibody therapeutics and (5) antibody drug conjugates and bispecific antibodies.
Project description:ObjectivesWe determined the prevalence and treatment rates of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) in newly arrived refugees in San Diego County, California, and assessed demographic and clinical characteristics associated with these outcomes.MethodsWe analyzed data from LTBI screening results of 4280 refugees resettled in San Diego County between January 2010 and October 2012. Using multivariate logistic regression, we calculated the associations between demographic and clinical risk factors and the outcomes of LTBI diagnosis and LTBI treatment initiation.ResultsThe prevalence of LTBI was highest among refugees from sub-Saharan Africa (43%) and was associated with current smoking and having a clinical comorbidity that increases the risk for active tuberculosis. Although refugees from sub-Saharan Africa had the highest prevalence of infection, they were significantly less likely to initiate treatment than refugees from the Middle East. Refugees with postsecondary education were significantly more likely to initiate LTBI treatment.ConclusionsPublic health strategies are needed to increase treatment rates among high-risk refugees with LTBI. Particular attention is required among refugees from sub-Saharan Africa and those with less education.
Project description:Lacking population-specific data, activity of seasonal and pandemic influenza is usually tracked by counting the number of diagnoses and visits to medical facilities above a baseline. This type of data does not address the delivery of services in a specific population. To provide population-specific data, this retrospective study of patients with influenza-like illness, influenza, and pneumonia among members of a Kaiser Permanente health plan in San Diego, California, USA, during October-December 2009 was initiated. Population data included the number of outpatients accessing healthcare; the number of patients diagnosed with pneumonia; antimicrobial therapy administered; number of patients hospitalized with influenza, influenza-like illness, or pneumonia; level of care provided; and number of patients requiring specialized treatments (e.g., oxygen, ventilation, vasopressors). The rate of admissions specific to weeks and predictions of 2 epidemiologic models shows the strengths and weaknesses of those tools. Data collected in this study may improve planning for influenza pandemics.
Project description:In May 2015 the Diabetes Technology Society convened a panel of 27 experts in hospital medicine and endocrinology to discuss the current and potential future roles of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) in delivering optimum health care to hospitalized patients in the United States. The panel focused on 3 potential settings for CGM in the hospital, including (1) the intensive care unit (ICU), (2) non-ICU, and (3) continuation of use of home CGM in the hospital. The group reviewed barriers to use and solutions to overcome the barriers. They concluded that CGM has the potential to improve the quality of patient care and can provide useful information to help health care providers learn more about glucose management. Widespread adoption of CGM by hospitals, however, has been limited by added costs and insufficient outcome data.
Project description:Psoriasis vulgaris (PsV) and psoriatic arthritis (PsA) are interrelated disorders, PsA representing a disease within a disease. From an epidemiological perspective, the genetic contributions of PsV and PsA are now well documented. HLA-C is firmly established as a PsV/PsA gene, with HLA-Cw*0602 as a major risk allele. Fine-mapping studies within the MHC region in PsV and PsA have identified novel loci that are independent of the HLA-Cw6 allele. Recent genome-wide association scans have led to a substantial increase in the number of candidate genes reaching genome-wide significance in PsV and PsA cohorts. Most of these genes can be grouped into an integrated pathogenic model of PsV/psoriatic disease comprising distinct signaling networks affecting skin barrier function (LCE3, DEFB4, GJB2), innate immune responses involving nuclear factor-?B and interferon signaling (TNFAIP3, TNIP1, NFKBIA, REL, FBXL19, TYK2, NOS2), and adaptive immune responses involving CD8 T lymphocytes and interleukin 23 (IL-23)/IL-17-mediated lymphocyte signaling (HLA-C, IL12B, IL23R, IL23A, TRAF3IP2, ERAP1). Further development of a global genetic risk score and inclusion of potential gene/gene and gene/environment interactions will likely enhance the predictive value of recently identified genetic variants.
Project description:BackgroundMaterial presented at conferences is meant to provide exposure to ongoing research that could affect medical decision making based on future outcomes. It is important then to evaluate the rates of publication from conference presentations as a measure of academic quality as such research has undergone peer review and journal acceptance. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the fate of abstracts presented at the Skeletal Society of Radiology Annual Meetings from 2010-2015.Materials and methodsConference abstracts were searched using Google, Google Scholar, and PubMed (which includes Medline) to locate the corresponding published reports. The data recorded for published studies included date published online, in print, or both; the journal in which it was published; and the 5-year journal impact factor. When an abstract was not confirmed as published, authors were contacted by email to verify its publication status or, if not published, the reason for nonpublication.ResultsA total of 162 abstracts were published out of 320 presented (50.6%) at the SSR conferences from 2010 to 2015 with 59.9% (85/142) of publications occurring within two years of the conference date (not counting abstracts published prior to conference). Mean time to publication was 19 months and is calculated by excluding the 20 (12.3%) abstracts that were published prior to the conference date. The median time to publication is 13 months (25th-75th percentile: 6.25-21.75). The top two journals publishing research studies from this conference were Skeletal Radiology and The American Journal of Roentgenology. These journals accepted 72 of the 162 (44.4%) studies for publication. Of the 14 authors who responded with 17 reasons for not publishing, the most common reasons were lack of time (7-41.2%), results not important enough (4-23.5%), publication not an aim (3-17.6%), and lack of resources (3-17.6%).DiscussionAt least half of the abstracts presented at the annual meeting for the Society of Skeletal Radiology are accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. The majority (59.9%) of these publications were achieved within two years of the conference presentation. The rate at which presentations are published and the journals that accept the abstracts can potentially be used to compare the importance and quality of information at conferences.