The Digital Life History Project: Intergenerational Collaborative Research

This article describes the Digital Life History Project, a 10-week “lab” linked to a course on aging, in which students and community-dwelling elders work together to create a short digital story honoring the elder's life. After two interview sessions, the pair works together to produce a 3- to 5-minute digital life story narrated by the elder. The resulting multimedia videos are then screened for the community at large at the end of the semester. Students and elders alike report long-term personal, interpersonal, and community-based effects from participating in the Digital Life History Project, including making meaningful relationships, linking biography and history, learning to confront ageism, charting the next chapter, and participating in community-wide education.     

The Swedish Twin Registry: a unique resource for clinical,epidemiological and genetic studies

The Swedish Twin Registry (STR), which today has developed into a unique resource, was first established in the late 1950s to study the importance of smoking and alcohol consumption on cancer and cardiovascular diseases whilst controlling for genetic propensity to disease. Since that time, the Registry has been expanded and updated on several occasions, and the focus has similarly broadened to most common complex diseases. In the following, we will summarize the content of the database, describe for the first time recent data collection efforts and review some of the principal findings that have come from the Registry.     

Rochester Epidemiology Project: a unique resource for research in the rheumatic diseases

Olmsted County, Minnesota is one of the few places in the world to conduct comprehensive population-based studies of disease etiology, natural history, and outcomes because of a unique resource, the Rochester Epidemiology Project (REP). This article describes the REP and highlights its research capabilities in the context of the rheumatic diseases.     

The Mouse Tumor Biology Database: integrated access to mouse cancer biology data

Mice have long been used as models for the study of human cancer. The National Cancer Institute has included among its research areas of extraordinary opportunity the development of new mouse genetic models of human cancer and the exploration of cancer imaging as a research tool. Because of the volume and interconnectedness of relevant data, the creation and maintenance of bioinformatics resources of mouse tumor biology is necessary to facilitate current and future cancer research. The Mouse Tumor Biology (MTB) Database provides electronic access to data generated through the study of spontaneous and induced tumors in genetically defined mice (inbred, hybrid, spontaneous and induced mutant, and genetically engineered strains of mice).     

Influenza Research Database: an integrated bioinformatics resource for influenza research and surveillance

Please cite this paper as: Squires et al. (2012) Influenza research database: an integrated bioinformatics resource for influenza research and surveillance. Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses 6(6), 404–416. Background The recent emergence of the 2009 pandemic influenza A/H1N1 virus has highlighted the value of free and open access to influenza virus genome sequence data integrated with information about other important virus characteristics. Design The Influenza Research Database (IRD, http://www.fludb.org ) is a free, open, publicly‐accessible resource funded by the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases through the Bioinformatics Resource Centers program. IRD provides a comprehensive, integrated database and analysis resource for influenza sequence, surveillance, and research data, including user‐friendly interfaces for data retrieval, visualization and comparative genomics analysis, together with personal log in‐protected ‘workbench’ spaces for saving data sets and analysis results. IRD integrates genomic, proteomic, immune epitope, and surveillance data from a variety of sources, including public databases, computational algorithms, external research groups, and the scientific literature. Results To demonstrate the utility of the data and analysis tools available in IRD, two scientific use cases are presented. A comparison of hemagglutinin sequence conservation and epitope coverage information revealed highly conserved protein regions that can be recognized by the human adaptive immune system as possible targets for inducing cross‐protective immunity. Phylogenetic and geospatial analysis of sequences from wild bird surveillance samples revealed a possible evolutionary connection between influenza virus from Delaware Bay shorebirds and Alberta ducks. Conclusions The IRD provides a wealth of integrated data and information about influenza virus to support research of the genetic determinants dictating virus pathogenicity, host range restriction and transmission, and to facilitate development of vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics.     

The Ovarian Life Cycle: A Contemporary View

Reviews in Endocrine and Metabolic Disorders -     

Auranofin: A unique oral chrysotherapeutic agent

Auranofin is a chemically unique gold coordination complex with demonstrated antiarthritic properties on oral administration. Its pharmacokinetic and immunologic profiles are distinct from injectable gold compounds.When auranofin is added to a regimen of salicylates and/or a nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug for the treatment of RA, significant additional therapeutic benefit is observed. Published studies indicate that auranofin given 6 mg per day approaches the efficacy of parenteral gold salts in the treatment of rheumatoid disease. Noticeable improvement in clinical and laboratory parameters of disease activity has been observed by the third month of auranofin therapy. Further benefit occurs in some patients during the remainder of the first year of treatment.In the more than 3,000 patients treated with auranofin, the most frequently reported side effects were gastrointestinal (mainly diarrhea) and mucocutaneous. Most side effects were mild in nature and the withdrawal rate due to all adverse reactions averaged 11%.Auranofin differs from injectable gold by producing more gastrointestinal but fewer mucocutaneous reactions. The severity of these reactions is less with auranofin and causes fewer withdrawals from therapy.