Outcomes associated with 12 years of grant funding: the Pediatric Endocrinology Nursing Society grant program

In 1990, the Pediatric Endocrinology Nursing Society (PENS) developed a grant program to provide funding to advance pediatric endocrinology nursing practice through basic and applied research. Minimal data exist regarding the effect of grant funding on professional development and research dissemination. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent that PENS' grant funding has resulted in professional presentations, publications, and further research funding. Nineteen grants that received funding were identified. Survey questions included whether the results of the PENS-funded study were presented, published, and resulted in subsequent funding from other sources. Outcome data were available for 11 of 18 grants (61%). All funded studies were presented at PENS conference; 55% were presented at other national or international conferences. Sixteen publications resulted from seven funded studies; 64% of PENS' funded studies led to additional funding, and 18% resulted in additional research studies. In summary, the research grant program of PENS funded 19 grants, which resulted in numerous publications, presentations, and, in some cases, additional research funding from other sources. Many grant recipients acknowledged that PENS was their first source of research funding and gave them the opportunity to become experienced in their role as clinical researchers.     

9th American Society of Gene Therapy Annual Meeting

The American Society of Gene Therapy, under the presidency of Mark Kay, held its annual meeting in Baltimore, MD, USA this year. This meeting was well received by academics and industry alike in order to promote research, development and application of gene therapy. Exchange of information, promotion of education and development of clinical translation have been the main aims of this society. On face value, the meeting seems to highlight that gene-based treatment is coming of age. Many drawbacks of gene-based treatments were discussed at this meeting with an intense vigour. Immunology has been the major hurdle in restricting the full realisation of gene therapy in the clinical arena. In summary, the field of gene therapy has progressed from its infancy stage of trying to get it to work, to another stage where attempts are being made to overcome the problems associated with its application, in particular, in relation to human immune responses to the vector and the transgene. This progress should be celebrated and not treated as a failure of this form of therapy, as to make this progress is indeed an achievement for any form of therapy.     

American Society of Clinical Oncology 41st Annual Meeting

For many years the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) has been the premier meeting in clinical oncology, and one that is closely scrutinised by Wall Street and international investors because of the economic significance of cancer therapies to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. The area of biologicals and targeted therapies exploded in the late 1990s after the blockbuster results with the monoclonal antibody rituximab in the treatment of lymphoma. Although historically a somewhat conservative organisation that is still closely tied to classical cytotoxic chemotherapy, ASCO has been able to integrate various areas of biological therapy into its scope of clinical activity. Although ASCO still has ‘American’ in its title, it is really the ‘International’ Society of Clinical Oncology, as reflected by the attendance at this year’s meeting by ～ 30,000, with approximately two-thirds attending from outside the US. There were 9708 abstracts published in conjunction with the meeting, 86 of which are referenced in this review. There were 10 papers chosen for plenary presentations and many other key papers were presented at other oral abstract sessions and poster discussion session that were organised by tumour type. In addition to key papers submitted by specific tumour type, for this year’s meeting there were 103 abstracts published in the session entitled ‘Developmental Therapeutics: Immunotherapy’, and 218 in the session entitled Developmental Therapeutics: Molecular Targets’, for a total of 321 biological therapy abstracts compared with only 125 abstracts for the session entitled ‘Developmental Therapeutics: Cytotoxic Therapy’. This meeting review is organised by biotherapy modality rather than tumour type.