Tag: review

Monthly Research Review – May 2020

~ Simon ~ Leave a comment

 

At the end of each month the SoPD writes a post which provides an overview of some of the major pieces of Parkinson’s-related research that were made available during May 2020.

The post is divided into seven parts based on the type of research:

  • Basic biology
  • Disease mechanism
  • Clinical research
  • New clinical trials (Oooh, new section for 2019!)
  • Clinical trial news
  • Other news
  • Review articles/videos

 

So, what happened during May 2020?

In world news:

May 11th – In two studies published in Nature, and Nature Ecology and Evolution, scientists describe hominin remains and artefacts excavated from the Bacho Kiro Cave (in Bulgaria) that indicate early humans were present in Europe around 46,000 years ago – suggesting the species shared the continent with Neanderthals for longer than previously thought.

May 18th – A Maryland restaurant preparing to reopen amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic unveiled its fleet of wheeled bumper tables designed to enforce social distancing:

 

May 27th – South Korean schools reopened as the country began easing COVID-19-associated lockdown restrictions.

May 29th – South Korea re-closed 200 schools as new cases of COVID-19 spike to 79, the highest daily figure in two months.

May 30th – The age of commercial human spaceflight officially began

In the world of Parkinson’s research, a great deal of new research and news was reported:

In May 2020, there were 782 research articles added to the Pubmed website with the tag word “Parkinson’s” attached (4565 for all of 2020 so far). In addition, there was a wave to news reports regarding various other bits of Parkinson’s research activity (clinical trials, etc).

The top 6 pieces of Parkinson’s news

Continue reading “Monthly Research Review – May 2020” →

Monthly Research Review: March 2020

~ Simon ~ 2 Comments

 

At the end of each month the SoPD writes a post which provides an overview of some of the major pieces of Parkinson’s-related research that were made available during March 2020.

The post is divided into seven parts based on the type of research:

  • Basic biology
  • Disease mechanism
  • Clinical research
  • New clinical trials (Oooh, new section for 2019!)
  • Clinical trial news
  • Other news
  • Review articles/videos

 

So, what happened during March 2020?

In world news:

March 1-31st – Obviously, COVID-19.

 

March 9th – A research team at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (US) has developed a less expensive water electrolysis system, offering a more viable way to store energy from solar and wind power in the form of hydrogen fuel (Click here to read the study and click here to read the press summary).

March 10th – Researchers at the Dark Energy Survey (DES) study reported the discovery of more than 300 trans-Neptunian objects orbiting the Sun (all were 30-90 times the distance of Earth to the sun away – Pluto is 40x; click here to read the study and click here to read the press summary).

March 15th – Faced with national lockdown due to the current coronavirus/COVID-19 situation, Italians kept themselves occupied in wonderful ways:

 

March 16th – Of the 44 COVID-19 vaccines under development, one of the first went into clinical trial on this day. Biotech firm Moderna announced the dosing of the first participant in their NIH-led Phase 1 study of mRNA Vaccine (mRNA-1273) against SARS-CoV-2 (The trial ready vaccine was delivered to NIH in just 42 days from sequence selection!!! – Click here to read more about this). #Godspeed

March 26th – Daniel Matarazzo made the world smile with his Coronarvirus-parody of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. In case you missed it, enjoy:

 

In the world of Parkinson’s research, a great deal of new research and news was reported:

In March 2020, there were 719 research articles added to the Pubmed website with the tag word “Parkinson’s” attached (2475 for all of 2020 so far). In addition, there was a wave to news reports regarding various other bits of Parkinson’s research activity (clinical trials, etc).

The top 4 pieces of Parkinson’s news

Continue reading “Monthly Research Review: March 2020” →

Monthly research review: February 2020

~ Simon ~ 1 Comment

 

At the end of each month the SoPD writes a post which provides an overview of some of the major pieces of Parkinson’s-related research that were made available during February 2020.

The post is divided into seven parts based on the type of research:

  • Basic biology
  • Disease mechanism
  • Clinical research
  • New clinical trials
  • Clinical trial news
  • Other news
  • Review articles/videos

 

So, what happened during February 2020?

In world news:

February 5th – A research team in Hong Kong announced the development of a droplet-based electricity generator, which will allow electrical energy production with the minimum possible use of water (Click here to read more about this).

February 9th – Storm Ciara battered the UK.

 

February 12th – Researchers discovered a new group of antibiotics that display a unique approach to attacking bacteria, providing a promising new approach in the fight against antimicrobial resistance (Click here to read more about this).

February 24th – Michael Jordon’s tribute to the late Kobe Bryant almost made me cry (almost!). It’s a beautiful speech for a basketball fan.

 

February 26th – Astronomers announced that Earth had acquired a second, slightly smaller moon. Designated 2020 CD3, a calculation of its orbit suggests that it has been orbiting Earth for approximately 3 years. But given that it is the size of a car, don’t expect a second moon landing any time soon (Click here to read more about this).

In the world of Parkinson’s research, a great deal of new research and news was reported:

In February 2020, there were 921research articles added to the Pubmed website with the tag word “Parkinson’s” attached (1803for all of 2020 so far). In addition, there was a wave to news reports regarding various other bits of Parkinson’s research activity (clinical trials, etc).

The top 5 pieces of Parkinson’s news

Continue reading “Monthly research review: February 2020” →

Monthly Research Review: Jaunary 2020

~ Simon ~ Leave a comment

At the end of each month the SoPD writes a post which provides an overview of some of the major pieces of Parkinson’s-related research that were made available during January 2020.

The post is divided into seven parts based on the type of research: Basic biology, Disease mechanism, Clinical research, New clinical trials, Clinical trial news, Other news, and Review articles/videos

So, what happened during January 2020?

In world news:

January 6th – From the only in London files – this was “No Trousers Tube Ride 2020” day (don’t ask me to explain… I wouldn’t know where to begin – click here to read more about this).

January 23rd – The Chinese city of Wuhan was placed under quarantine, in which all public transport in and out of the city was suspended in efforts to control the spread of a new coronavirus, designated 2019-nCoV.

January 26th – In the build up to BREXIT, the UK presented the new 50 pence coin… with a gramatical error. Three million coins bearing the slogan “Peace, prosperity and friendship with all nations” are due to enter circulation from 31 January (Click here to read more about this).

January 30th – The Daniel K Inouye Solar Telescope on Hawaii released new footage of the surface of the sun showing features as small as 30km across.(Click here to read more about this).

31st January – As the bush fires in Australia have continued over January, a state of emergency was declared in the Canberra region, with fires reaching suburbs just south of the capital (Click here to read more about this).

In the world of Parkinson’s research, a great deal of new research and news was reported:

In January 2020, there were 849 research articles added to the Pubmed website with the tag word “Parkinson’s” attached (8195 for all of 2019 – updated number). In addition, there was a wave to news reports regarding various other bits of Parkinson’s research activity (clinical trials, etc).

The top 5 pieces of Parkinson’s news

Continue reading “Monthly Research Review: Jaunary 2020” →

2019: Year in review

~ Simon ~ 12 Comments

 

In this end-of-year post, we review the Parkinson’s research that caught our attention at SoPD HQ in 2019.

Month-by-month we will briefly discuss some of the major pieces of research/announcements that have defined the year and advanced our understanding of Parkinson’s. The list is based on nothing more than the author’s personal opinion – apologies to any researchers who feel left out – and the contents should certainly not be considered definitive or exhaustive.

It was just some of the stuff that made me say “wow” in 2019.

And in the next post, we will conduct our annual horizon scan and consider what 2020 may have in store for us.

 

Source: a-star

2019 was a productive year for the Parkinson’s research community.

Wait a minute. Hold your horses. What is that statement based on?

If we use number of research report published in 2019 as our measure, there was a total of 8094 articles added to the Pubmed website with the tag word “Parkinson’s” attached (compared to 7672 for all of 2018 and 7675 for 2017). That sounds rather productive.

In addition, there were a host of new clinical trials initiatiated, many of which are exploring entirely new experimental therapies. These include:

  • UDCA (aka Ursodeoxycholic acid) – A bial acid therapy used for reducing gall stones that may improve mitochondrial function entered Phase II testing for Parkinson’s (Click here to read a SoPD post on the topic).
  • PR001 – A gene therapy targetting GBA-associated Parkinson’s (Click here to read a SoPD post about this).
  • CNM-Au8 – Gold nanoparticles entered Phase II testing for Parkinson’s (Click here to read an SoPD post about this research).
  • Terazosin – This prostatic hyperplasia and hypertension drug was found to enhance Phosphoglycerate kinase 1 (Pgk1) activation & a Phase II trial was immediately initiatiated (Click here to read an SoPD post on this topic).
  • Inzomelid – An NLRP3 inhibitor from Inflazome began Phase I testing (Click here to read a SoPD post on this topic).

On top of all of this, numerous novel potenially therapeutic pathways were proposed, such as:

  • Farnesyltransferase inhibition (Click here to read a SoPD post on the topic)
  • Miro1 degradation (Click here to read an SoPD post on the topic).
  • CD22 inhibition (Click here to read a SoPD post on this topic).
  • Felodipine – Researchers discovered that this L-type calcium channel blocker & anti-hypertensive drug boosts waste disposal (or autophagy) in mouse brains (Click here to read an SoPD post on the topic).

Plus, there were a number of major Parkinson’s research organisations launched, including the Australian Parkinson’s Mission (Click here to read more about this), Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s (ASAP – click here to read more about this), the Accelerating Medicines Partnership for Parkinson’s disease (or AMP-PD) initiative (Click here to read more about this), and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

Based on all of this, I think it is safe to say that 2019 was a productive year for Parkinson’s research.

Ok, all of that sounds great, but what does that mean for someone living with the condition?

Continue reading “2019: Year in review” →

Monthy research review – December 2019

~ Simon ~ Leave a comment

 

At the end of each month the SoPD writes a post which provides an overview of some of the major pieces of Parkinson’s-related research that were made available during December 2019.

The post is divided into seven parts based on the type of research:

  • Basic biology
  • Disease mechanism
  • Clinical research
  • New clinical trials
  • Clinical trial news
  • Other news
  • Review articles/videos

 

So, what happened during December 2019?

In world news:

December 1-31st – Bush fire continued to rage across Eastern Australia. In New South Wales alone more than 3 million hectares have burned (compared to a total of 900,000 hectares in the Amazon for all of 2019 – Source). Prime Minister Scott Morrison returned home from holiday and signaled “no change” to Australia’s climate policy.

 

December 10 – Sanna Marin, at the age of 34, became the world’s youngest serving prime minister after being selected to lead Finland’s Social Democratic Party.

December 13th – “Away from the manger” – Sully the camel, Gus the donkey and Rufus the cow were discovered by authorities wandering (towards a Northern star) when they should have been part of the nativity exhibit at the Tanganyika Wildlife Park (Click here to read more about this).

December 30 – Chinese authorities announced that researcher He Jiankui, who claimed to have created the world’s first genetically edited human babies, has been sentenced to three years in prison and fined 3 million yuan (US$430,000) for his genetic research.

In the world of Parkinson’s research, a great deal of new research and news was reported:

In December 2019, there were 792 research articles added to the Pubmed website with the tag word “Parkinson’s” attached (8075 for all of 2019). In addition, there was a wave to news reports regarding various other bits of Parkinson’s research activity (clinical trials, etc).

The top 5 pieces of Parkinson’s news

Continue reading “Monthy research review – December 2019” →

Monthly Research Review – February 2019

~ Simon ~ 4 Comments

 

At the end of each month the SoPD writes a post which provides an overview of some of the major pieces of Parkinson’s-related research that were made available during February 2019.

The post is divided into seven parts based on the type of research:

  • Basic biology
  • Disease mechanism
  • Clinical research
  • New clinical trials
  • Clinical trial news
  • Other news
  • Review articles/videos

 

So, what happened during February 2019?

In world news:

31st January – Not exactly February I know, but this is amazing: Forget everything you know about 3D printing, because now we can 3D print with light! (Click here for the research report and click here for the press release).

 

 

 

 

3rd February – Pope Francis visited Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates. He is the first pope to visit the Arabian Peninsula.

19th February – Star Wars Lightsaber duelling was registered as an official sport in France, as part of an effort to encourage young people to engage more in sports (Click here to read more about this).

21st February – Israeli tech firm SpaceIL launched the Beresheet probe – the world’s first privately financed mission to the Moon. The company is competing in the Google Lunar X Prize, and it is hoping that the craft will land on the surface of the moon on the 12th April.

22nd February – “Wallace’s giant bee” (Megachile pluto) was the world’s largest species of bee – with a wingspan measuring more than six centimetres (2.5 inches) – until the species disappeared in 1981. An international team of scientists and conservationists have now re-discovered it in an Indonesian rainforest, giving hope that other lost species may also be found.

In the world of Parkinson’s research, a great deal of new research and news was reported:

In February 2019, there were 696 research articles added to the Pubmed website with the tag word “Parkinson’s” attached (1555 for all of 2019 so far). In addition, there was a wave to news reports regarding various other bits of Parkinson’s research activity (clinical trials, etc).

The top 7 pieces of Parkinson’s news

Continue reading “Monthly Research Review – February 2019” →

2018: Year in review

~ Simon ~ 13 Comments

 

In this end-of-year post we review the year that was 2018.

Month-by-month we will briefly discuss some of the major pieces of research/announcement that have define the year and advanced our understanding of Parkinson’s.

The list is based on nothing more than the author’s personal opinion – apologies to any researchers who feel left out.

And in the next post we will consider what the year ahead (2019) has in store for us.

 

Source: a-star

In the 525600 minutes that made up 2018, a lot happened in the world of Parkinson’s research.

A total of 7672 research papers were published with the keyword ‘Parkinson’s’ according to the Pubmed website (this compared to 7675 for all of 2017 – this obviously represents a dismal failure for the Parkinson’s research community: the first time in quite a while that we haven’t beaten the number of research reports from the previous year!

I am of course kidding. The quantity of research reports is irrelevant. But it does make me smile that we missed the mile stone by just 3 papers!

2018 has been another amazing year for Parkinson’s research. And while I appreciate that a comment like this means little to someone living with the condition on a day-to-day, remarkable progress has been made not only in our understanding of the condition, but also in the various ways in which the research is being done and potential therapies are approaching the condition.

In this post, we will review the year that was by briefly summarising some of the major research-related events of each month in 2018.

And that journey begins with:

Continue reading “2018: Year in review” →

Monthly Research Review – December 2018

~ Simon ~ 1 Comment

 

At the end of each month the SoPD writes a post which provides an overview of some of the major pieces of Parkinson’s-related research that were made available during December2018.

The post is divided into five parts based on the type of research (Basic biology, disease mechanism, clinical research, other news, and Review articles/videos). 

 

So, what happened during December 2018?

In world news:

7th December  – The U.N.’s International Telecommunication Union reported that, by the end of 2018, more than half – a full 51.2 percent – of the world’s population will be using the Internet (Click here to read more about this).

 

8th December – Drama at the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP24) meeting in Katowice, Poland. The US, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Kuwait object to adopting the scientific report – which was commissioned at the 2015 meeting. The study suggests that the world is now “completely off track” on climate change, heading towards a 3 degree C. rise by the end of this century rather than a mere 1.5 degree C. rise (Click here to read more about this).

12th December – Negotiators at COP24 in Katowice finally secured an agreement on a range of measures that will make the Paris climate pact operational in 2020 (Click here to read more about this).

 

17th December – Astronomers announced that they have identified the most distant object ever observed within our solar system. Currently named “2018 VG18” (but nicknamed ‘Farout’), the 500km (310 miles) wide body is approximately is 120 times further away from the sun than Earth is (to put that in perspective, Pluto is only 34 times – Click here to read more about this).

 

In the world of Parkinson’s research, a great deal of new research and news was reported:

In December 2018, there were 597 research articles added to the Pubmed website with the tag word “Parkinson’s” attached (7672 for all of 2018 – compared to 7675 for all of 2017….seriously?!? Just 3 papers difference?!?). In addition, there was a wave to news reports regarding various other bits of Parkinson’s research activity (clinical trials, etc).

The top 5 pieces of Parkinson’s news

Continue reading “Monthly Research Review – December 2018” →

Monthly Research Review – October 2018

~ Simon ~ 6 Comments

At the end of each month the SoPD writes a post which provides an overview of some of the major pieces of Parkinson’s-related research that were made available during October 2018.

The post is divided into five parts based on the type of research (Basic biology, disease mechanism, clinical research, other news, and Review articles/videos). 

So, what happened during October 2018?

In world news:

1st October – The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded to James P. Allison and Tasuku Honjo for their discoveries in cancer therapy (Click here for the press release).

3rd October – The Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded to George P. Smith, Frances Arnold, and Greg Winter for taking control of evolution and designing molecules used it for purposes that bring the greatest benefit to humankind (Click here to read the press release).

8th October – The 27th Human Tower Competition finished in Tarragona, Spain. ‘Castells’ were declared by Unesco one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2010. Look at the passion of these crazy Catalonians (seriously, take a moment and watch this video):

 

 

 

 

 

(Click here for another example – and turn the sound up to listen to the excitement in the commentator’s voice)

18th October – The auction house Christie’s announced that ‘Portrait of Edmond Belamy’ a painting generated entirely by artificial intelligence, will be sold at auction

(Yeah, I don’t understand art either)

30th October – NASA’s Parker Solar Probe spacecraft flew closer to the Sun than any other human made object, passing within 42.7 million km (26.6 million miles) from the Sun’s surface.

In the world of Parkinson’s research, a great deal of new research and news was reported:

In October 2018, there were 647 research articles added to the Pubmed website with the tag word “Parkinson’s” attached (6530 for all of 2018 so far). In addition, there was a wave to news reports regarding various other bits of Parkinson’s research activity (clinical trials, etc).

The top 6 pieces of Parkinson’s news

Continue reading “Monthly Research Review – October 2018” →