Feature Channels: Ethics and Research Methods

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This year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash, and Michael W. Young for their studies of the circadian clock in fruit flies. But their discoveries weren’t just insect idiosyncrasies—they held true across much of the living world, from animals to plants and even some bacteria. And, as many researchers building on their work have found, circadian rhythms have immense importance in human health.

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Hackensack Meridian Health Hackensack University Medical Center is pleased to announce that it has been awarded accreditation by the Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs (AAHRPP) at the September meeting of its Council on Accreditation. As the "gold seal," AAHRPP accreditation offers assurances—to research participants, researchers, sponsors, government regulators, and the general public—that Hackensack University Medical Center is focused first and foremost on excellence.

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As reported in JNCCN, a recent study by researchers at The University of Sydney found that 29% of breast cancer clinical trials lack control arms consistent with the standard of care.

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Do you really need that MRI? Your doctor may order an MRI based on factors other than your actual medical need for imaging, researchers in UT Southwestern’s Center for Patient-Centered Outcomes Research found. Their study in JAMA Internal Medicine showed that a physician’s prior image-ordering habits, as well as ownership of the equipment, were strong indicators of unnecessary imaging orders.

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Researchers at University of Colorado Boulder and five other institutions are collaborating to explore legal, ethical, and privacy concerns surrounding a field of study so new it lacks ethical standards.

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Aspects of gene function in humans can be predicted by studies of the corresponding gene in mice, but new research findings have revealed important divergences between the species which scientists will need to understand better through further investigation.

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The “involuntary treatment” of unwilling psychiatric patients has long been accepted as necessary in some cases, for the sake of patients and society, though it can raise serious ethical concerns as well as legal barriers. In a Viewpoint essay published online today in JAMA, Dominic Sisti, PhD, an assistant professor of Medical Ethics & Health Policy at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, argues that some of the concerns about treating patients without their consent would be alleviated if the mental health profession recognized an important distinction among these cases.

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Press can register here to livestream this special session through Newswise Live on Monday, July 31 at 7:30 PM EDT. The winner of the Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE competition will present DxtER—a real-life tricorder—at the 69th AACC Annual Scientific Meeting & Clinical Lab Expo in San Diego. This special session will be the first time that the device is presented to researchers at a U.S. scientific conference.

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The Global Biological Standards Institute’s 3rd annual BioPolicy Summit: Improving reproducibility of research through digital tools, technologies and laboratory automation is scheduled October 16, 2017, at the Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco.

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A novel project led by the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, and funded by The Greenwall Foundation, will develop the most ethically appropriate, legally viable interpretations of a critical eight-word phrase in the Federal Tobacco Control Act, in addition to other related passages.

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The Trump Administration has released its final, detailed FY18 federal budget and it is just what was expected: short on funding. The Trump proposal calls for an 18% overall cut for the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) with individual cuts for NIH Institutes and Centers ranging from 18% to 23%. The only exception is the National Institutes of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), which only has a 12% cut to its budget.

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A recent study finds that “moral enhancement technologies” – which are discussed as ways of improving human behavior – are neither feasible nor wise, based on an assessment of existing research into these technologies.

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When scientists take off the googles and lab coats, they can be amusing and inspiring storytellers. These short videos are part of initiative to persuade Washington University in St. Louis scientists talk about being scientists with the hope that their stories will amuse and inspire.

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The technology and machine known as ECMO was once seen as a "far-fetched" idea. Today, it's a critical, lifesaving treatment, thanks to years of research and federal funding.

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Author Danielle Allen argues for defense of equality as cornerstone of democracy.

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EyesOnALZ (http://eyesonalz.com) – a project to crowdsource Alzheimer’s research is launching an online competition to #CrushALZ on April 6th, in partnership with The Crowd & The Cloud – a public television documentary series about citizen science.

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The Electrochemical Society (ECS) is partnering with Research4Life to provide accessibility to over 132,000 articles and abstracts published in the ECS Digital Library. All papers published by ECS will be free to access for more than 8,200 institution in an effort to reduce the scientific knowledge gap between high-income and low- and middle-income countries by providing free or affordable access to critical scientific research.

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Leonard P. Freedman, PhD, president of Global Biological Standards Institute (GBSI) will lead a panel discussion convened by GBSI, titled “Rigor and Reproducibility One Year Later: How Has the Biomedical Community Responded?” Freedman will also introduce a new GBSI report on the life science community’s multiple years of progress toward improved reproducibility by 2020. “Reproducibility2020 Report: Progress and Priorities,” also tracks the GBSI Reproducibility2020 challenge issued February 2016.

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One year after the Global Biological Standards Institute (GBSI) issued its Reproducibility2020 challenge and action plan for the biomedical research community, the organization reports encouraging progress toward the goal to significantly improve the quality of preclinical biological research by year 2020. “Reproducibility2020 Report: Progress and Priorities,” posted today on bioRxiv, identifies action and impact that has been achieved by the life science research community and outlines priorities going forward. The report is the first comprehensive review of the steps being taken to improve reproducibility since the issue became more widely known in 2012.

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Disputes over science-related policy issues such as climate change or fracking often seem as intractable as other politically charged debates. But in science, at least, simple curiosity might help bridge that partisan divide, according to new research.

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Click here to go directly to the Physics News Source Sponsored by AIP.

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An article promoting standardized imaging efforts to improve diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer has been selected as the best clinical research paper published in European Urology.

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Recent years have marked a dramatic transition from paper to electronic medical records. Simultaneously, Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems allow for the creation of medical “big data”—massive collections of electronic data that can be used for medical research, public health initiatives and other health-related endeavors. To educate medical, legal, information technology and policy professionals and students about EHR systems, medical big data and the regulations that govern them, Sharona Hoffman, a professor of law and bioethics at Case Western Reserve University, wrote a new book, Electronic Health Records and Medical Big Data: Law and Policy (Cambridge University Press).

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When flawed clinical research is reported in the media with hype and sensationalism, it has the potential to have a devastating effect on patients, physicians, the scientific community and eventually society as a whole.

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The “reproducibility crisis” in biomedical research has led to questions about the scientific rigor in animal research, and thus the ethical justification of animal experiments. In research publishing in the Open Access journals PLOS Biology and PLOS ONE on December 2nd, 2016, researchers from the University of Bern have assessed scientific rigor in animal experimentation in Switzerland. The study, commissioned by the Swiss Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office (FSVO), found widespread deficiencies in the reporting of experimental methodology.

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Students are using non-traditional funding sources to augment their research projects. The following NMSU students are using outside sources: Grace Smith Vidaurre is using Experiment.com; Brian Ramos-Guivas used Instrumentl in the past and is now using GoFundMe; Sativa Cruz, a recent graduate, used GoFundMe.

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The Case for Quality, a collaboration between FDA, the medical device industry, healthcare providers and quality experts, released today its first report on the feasibility and effectiveness of using standardized medical device performance data and analytic techniques to help hospitals better compare and evaluate product quality.

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Global Biological Standards Institute (GBSI) gathers 100+ biomedical research experts from around the world next week at the scientifically historic Asilomar Conference Grounds in California for a workshop to discuss, define and vote on the first detailed standardized guidelines for validating research antibodies. Antibody Validation: Standards, Policies, and Practices will build upon the conceptual framework published September 5, in Nature Methods, in order to establish practical, applicable and implementable antibody validation guidelines. A webcast press briefing will present broad consensus-based outcomes September 28. Follow along on Twitter with #AbValidate.

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When Experiment.com, an online platform for funding scientific discoveries, decided to issue a grant challenge addressing wildlife diseases, they invited UA’s own Dr. Hazel Barton, professor of biology and geoscience, to submit a project. Barton is recognized as having one of the world’s preeminent cave microbiology labs and has been studying white-nose syndrome (WNS), a fungal infection that is killing millions of hibernating North American bats.

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Preventing the extinction of gorillas, rhinoceroses, elephants, lions, tigers, wolves, bears and the world's other largest mammals will require bold political action and financial commitments from nations worldwide. In an article in the journal BioScience, 43 wildlife experts write that without immediate changes, many of the Earth's most iconic species will be lost.

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Race not gender appears to be the most significant factor influencing the award of a National Institutes of Health Research Project Grant, according to a new study led by a University of Kansas economist.

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Get the latest research and features in healthcare, including hospital administration, patient care, and health economics in Newswise's Healthcare News Source.

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Bioethicists from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and The Hastings Center, working with a research administrator at The Rockefeller University, are proposing a reexamination of an internationally recognized rule limiting in vitro research on human embryos to 14 days post-fertilization. Under the rule, such research is permitted before the cut-off date at 14 days and prohibited thereafter.

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Generally seen as antithetical to one another, evolution and religion can hardly fit in a scientific discourse simultaneously. However, biologist Dr Aldemaro Romero Jr., Baruch College, USA, devotes his latest research article, now published in the open access Research Ideas and Outcomes (RIO), to observing the influences a few major religions have had on evolutionists and their scientific thinking over the centuries.

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Pinellas County a Model for Mosquito-Borne Disease Surveillance, Scientists Unravel the Genetic Evolution of Zika Virus, Worm Infection Counters Inflammatory Bowel Disease and more in the Infectious Diseases News Source

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A recent study by researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine reports that educating community health workers and other “citizen scientists” can improve knowledge of basic research concepts and ultimately boost the integrity of scientific research.

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Scientists looking for environmental and occupational health risks are less likely to find them if they have a financial tie to firms that make, use, or dispose of industrial and commercial products, a University of Illinois at Chicago researcher has found.

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Shoppers making ethical purchases, such as buying organic food or environmentally friendly cars, are generally seen as more virtuous - unless they're receiving government assistance. If ethical shopping is funded by welfare cheques, those shoppers are judged as immoral for taking advantage of public generosity, according to a new UBC Sauder School of Business study.

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'Four-Flavored' Tetraquark, Planets Born Like Cracking Paint, New 2D Materials, The World's Newest Atom-Smasher in the Physics News Source sponsored by AIP.

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Twitter may be an effective, untapped resource to stimulate interest in cancer clinical trials and boost enrollment, physicians at the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania suggest in a new research letter in JAMA Oncology.