Cell culture vials.

The University of Florida Cancer and Genetics Research Complex is one of the largest medical research facilities in the United States.

The All India Institute of Medical Sciences, is one of the largest medical schools in Asia

Biomedical research (or experimental medicine), in general simply known as medical research, is the basic research, applied research, or translational research conducted to aid and support the body of knowledge in the field of medicine. Medical research can be divided into two general categories: the evaluation of new treatments for both safety and efficacy in what are termed clinical trials, and all other research that contributes to the development of new treatments. The latter is termed preclinical research if its goal is specifically to elaborate knowledge for the development of new therapeutic strategies. A new paradigm to biomedical research is being termed translational research, which focuses on iterative feedback loops between the basic and clinical research domains to accelerate knowledge translation from the bedside to the bench, and back again. Medical research may involve doing research on public health, biochemistry, clinical research, microbiology, physiology, oncology, surgery and research on many other non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

The increased longevity of humans over the past century can be significantly attributed to advances resulting from medical research. Among the major benefits have been vaccines for measles and polio, insulin treatment for diabetes, classes of antibiotics for treating a host of maladies, medication for high blood pressure, improved treatments for AIDS, statins and other treatments for atherosclerosis, new surgical techniques such as microsurgery, and increasingly successful treatments for cancer. New, beneficial tests and treatments are expected as a result of the Human Genome Project. Many challenges remain, however, including the appearance of antibiotic resistance and the obesity epidemic.

Most of the research in the field is pursued by biomedical scientists, however significant contributions are made by other biologists, as well as chemists and physicists. Medical research, done on humans, has to strictly follow the medical ethics as sanctioned in the Declaration of Helsinki and elsewhere. In all cases, the research ethics has to be respected.

Preclinical research[link]

Preclinical research is research in basic science, which precedes the clinical trials, and is almost purely based on theory and animal experiments. Much of these experiments involve preclinical imaging modalities to aid in vivo, longitudinal studies.

New treatments come about as a result of other, earlier discoveries — often unconnected to each other, and in various fields. Sometimes the research is done for non-medical purposes, and only by accident contributes to the field of medicine (for example, the discovery of penicillin). Clinicians use these discoveries to create a treatment regimen, which is then tested in clinical trials.

Clinical trials[link]

A clinical trial is a comparison test of a medication or other medical treatment, versus a placebo, other medications and devices, or the standard medical treatment for a patient's condition. Clinical trials vary greatly in size: from a single researcher in one hospital or clinic to an international multicenter trial with several hundred participating researchers on several continents. The number of patients tested can range from as few as a dozen to several thousands.

Every new drug formulation used in a clinical trial has to first undergo rigorous tests in a laboratory. Once the results from those tests confirm that the formulation is safe to be taken by humans, the drug is given to healthy volunteers in what are called Phase I clinical trials.^[1]

Funding[link]

The headquarters of the Wellcome Trust in London, United Kingdom

Research funding in many countries comes from research bodies which distribute money for equipment and salaries. In the United Kingdom, funding bodies such as the Medical Research Council derive their assets from UK tax payers, and distribute this to institutions in a competitive manner. The Wellcome Trust is the UK's largest non-governmental source of funds for biomedical research and provides over £600 million per year in grants to scientists and funds for research centres.^[2]

In the United States, the most recent data from 2003^[3] suggest that about 94 billion dollars were provided for biomedical research in the United States. The National Institutes of Health and pharmaceutical companies collectively contribute 26.4 billion dollars and 27.0 billion dollars, respectively, which constitute 28% and 29% of the total, respectively. Other significant contributors include biotechnology companies (17.9 billion dollars, 19% of total), medical device companies (9.2 billion dollars, 10% of total), other federal sources, and state and local governments. Foundations and charities, led by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, contributed about 3% of the funding.

In Australia, in 2000/01 (the most recent data available), about $1.7B was spent on biomedical research,^[4] with just under half ($800M, 47%) sourced from the Commonwealth government (all sources). About $540M came from business investments/funding and a further $220M from private or not-for-profit organisations (totalling 44%). The balance was from state and local governments. Since then there has been a significant in government funding through the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), whose expenditure on research was nearly $AUD700 million in 2008-09.^[5]

The enactment of orphan drug legislation in some countries has increased funding available to develop drugs meant to treat rare conditions, resulting in breakthroughs that previously were uneconomical to pursue.

Regulations and guidelines[link]

Medical research is highly regulated. National regulatory authorities oversee and monitor medical research, such as for the development of new drugs. In the USA the Food and Drug Administration oversees new drug development, in Europe the European Medicines Agency (see also EudraLex), and in Japan the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (Japan). The World Medical Association develops the ethical standards for the medical profession, involved in medical research. The most fundamental of them is the Declaration of Helsinki. The International Conference on Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH) works on the creation of rules and guidelines for the development of new medication, such as the guidelines for Good Clinical Practice (GCP). All ideas of regulation are based on a country's ethical standards code. This is why treatment of a particular disease in one country may not be allowed, but is in another.

Conflicts of interest[link]

In 2001, the editors of 12 major journals issued a joint editorial, published in each journal, on the control over clinical trials exerted by sponsors, particularly targeting the use of contracts which allow sponsors to review the studies prior to publication and withhold publication. They strengthened editorial restrictions to counter the effect. The editorial noted that contract research organizations had, by 2000, received 60% of the grants from pharmaceutical companies. In the U.S. researchers may be restricted from contributing to the trial design, accessing the raw data, and interpreting the results.^[6]

Fields of research[link]

Fields of biomedical research include:

See also[link]

References[link]

Notes[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Indrayan A (2004). "Elements of medical research.". Indian J Med Res 119 (3): 93–100. PMID 15115159. 
• Highleyman L (2006). "A guide to clinical trials. Part II: interpreting medical research.". BETA 18 (2): 41–7. PMID 16610119. Full text
• Beyleveld D & Pattinson S D (2006). "Medical Research into Emergency Treatment: Regulatory Tensions in England and Wales.". Web JCLI 5.  full text

External links[link]

• Johns Hopkins Biomedical Research & Discovery
• SciClyc An Open-access database to shared antibodies, cell cultures, and documents for biomedical research.
• Biomedical Research, a peer reviewed international research journal of Basic and Clinical Medical Sciences published quarterly by Scientifics of India

Douglas A. Melton is the Xander University Professor at Harvard University, and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Additionally, Dr. Melton serves as the co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and the co-chair of the Harvard University Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology.

Dr. Melton serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Genetics Policy Institute, holds membership in the National Academy of the Sciences, and is a founding member of the International Society for Stem Cell Research.

Melton's early work in the 1980s pioneered the technique of in vitro transcription.^[1] This later shifted to general developmental biology research in Xenopus, and eventually in the mid-1990s, became centered on the development of the pancreas.

His current research interests include pancreatic developmental biology and the directed differentiation of human embryonic stem cells, particularly in pertinence to type 1 diabetes, which afflicts both his children.

In 2001 when President George W. Bush cut federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, Melton used private donations to create 17 published^[2] stem cell lines and distribute them without charge to researchers around the world.

In 2007 and 2009, Melton was listed among Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in The World.

In August 2008, Melton's lab published successful in vivo reprogramming of adult mice exocrine pancreatic cells into insulin secreting cells which closely resembled endogenous islet beta cells of pancreas in terms of their size, shape, ultrastructure and essential marker genes.^[3] Unlike producing beta cells from conventional embryonic stem cells or recently developed induced pluripotent stem cell (iPS) technique, Melton's unique method involved direct cell reprogramming of adult cell type (exocrine cell) into other adult cell type (beta cell) without reversion to a pluripotent stem cell state. His team used a specific combination of three transcription factors, Ngn3 (or Neurog3), Pdx1 and Mafa for such direct cell reprogramming to yield cells capable of secreting insulin and remodelling local vasculature in pancreas to counteract hyperglycemia and diabetes.

Sources[link]

• Douglas Melton - the Time 100

References[link]

External links[link]

• Human Embryonic Stem (HUES) Cell Collection
• The Melton Laboratory
• Doug Melton Faculty Webpage
• 2 Melton children suffering juvenile diabetes, on which father works
• Derivation of Human Embryonic Stem Cells by Immunosurgery
• Doug Melton's Curriculum Vitae

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Tagged since July 2010. Very few or no other articles link to it. Please help introduce links to this page from other articles related to it. Tagged since March 2010.

Joel D. Wallach (born in St. Louis County, Missouri on June 4, 1940) is an American veterinarian and naturopath. He markets colloidal minerals for many conditions and makes many controversial claims. He is openly critical of many mainstream medical treatments. Dr. Joel Wallach has published numerous books on dietary deficiencies and their resultant effects. Dr. Wallach conducts approximately 300 lectures annually to overflowing and enthusiastic audiences and has sold over 40 million cassettes/CD's which are recordings of the lecture "Dead Doctors Don't Lie". His marketing and claims are the subject of some criticism Liquid multivitamin-mineral preparations are gaining popularity among those who believe that liquid (or colloidal) nutrients are better absorbed from a liquid than when ingested in tablets or pills.

Criticism[link]

Critics like James Pontolillo^[1] are skeptical of Wallach's claims and research. Pontolillo's article attempts to debunk many claims made by Wallach, such as a calcium deficiency causing Bell's Palsy -- traditionally known to be a form of cranial nerve paralysis. It also highlights other claims not supported by any clinical research, and highlights the potential harm from supposed vitamin overdosing.^[1]

Dr. Wallach replies however, that profits are the prime motive for the medical industries decisions on any health matter. Vitamins and minerals are a threat because they can be bought at reasonable prices over the counter without being controlled by a Doctor. Even the two time Nobel Prize winning scientist Linus Pauling, amongst many other well known scientists was labeled a "Quack" in an effort to preserve the powerful attitude and monopolistic control of the general medical industry which has only seen extreme increases in profits while general life expectency has gone down and cancer rates have sky rocketed. This industry has no choice but to disparage anyone who claims, even when it is supported by newsworthy evidence, to usurp curative power from medical doctors. Dr. Wallach even created a special website specifically aimed at presenting all the evidence that supports each of his claims at www.wallachfiles.com.

Silver, for example has been popular since ancient times as an antibiotic and in clinical tests has impressive antibacterial properties. In 1999, after massive popularity brought on in part by information presented on the internet, Colloidal Silver was officially recognized as a "drug" subject to the control of the Food and Drug Administration. The Environmental Protection Agency has officially stated that there is "no known toxicity level" for colloidal silver.

However, critics claim that a comprehensive explanation of why one colloidal mineral, silver, is nutritionally useless, and may in fact cause harm, is given by a recent article from Cecil Adams of Straight Dope.^[2]

Publications some refute[link]

• D. Wallach, Ma Lan, Wei Han Yu, Bo-Qi Gu, Feng Teng Yu and Roy F. Goddard (1990). Common denominators in the etiology and pathology of visceral lesions of cystic fibrosis and Keshan Disease. Biol. Trace El. Res. 24: 189 — 205.^[3]
• Charney AN, Wallach JD, Donowitz M, Johnstone N. Effect of cycloheximide on corticosteroid-induced changes in colonic function. Am J Physiol. 1982 Aug;243(2):G112-6.^[4]
• Wallach JD. A connection between bulimia and depression? Am J Psychiatry. 1986 Mar;143(3):390-1.^[5]
• Lowenkopf EL, Wallach JD. Bulimia: theoretical conceptualizations and therapies. J Am Acad Psychoanal. 1985 Oct;13(4):489-503.^[6]
• Boever WJ, Thoen CO, Wallach JD. Mycobacterium chelonei infection in a natterer manatee.J Am Vet Med Assoc. 1976 Nov 1;169(9):927-9.^[7]

Published books[link]

• Joel D. Wallach, BS, DVM, ND and Ma Lan, MS. The Agebeaters and Their Universal Currency for Immortality. Wellness Publication LLC, Bonita CA, 2008. ISBN 0-9748581-6-1
• Joel D. Wallach, BS, DVM, ND and Ma Lan, MS. The Energy Crisis. Wellness Publication LLC, Bonita CA, 2007. ISBN 0-9748581-5-3
• Joel D. Wallach, BS, DVM, ND and Ma Lan, MS. Passport To Aromatherapy. Wellness Publication LLC, Bonita CA, 2005. ISBN 0-9748581-2-9
• Joel D. Wallach, BS, DVM, ND and Ma Lan, MS. God Bless America!. Wellness Publication LLC, Bonita CA, 2002. ISBN 0-9701490-5-0
• Joel D. Wallach, BS, DVM, ND, and Ma Lan, MS. Let's Play Herbal Doctor. Wellness Publication LLC, Bonita CA, 2001. ISBN 0-9701490-7-7.
• Joel D. Wallach, BS, DVM, ND, and Ma Lan, MS. Dead Doctors Don't Lie. Legacy Communication Group Incorporated, 1999.
• Joel D. Wallach, BS, DVM, ND, and Ma Lan, MS. Rare Earths, Forbidden Cures. Double Happiness Publishing Company, 1997. ISBN 0-9701490-8-5.
• Joel D. Wallach, BS, DVM, ND, and Ma Lan, MS. Let's Play Doctor! Double Happiness Publishing Company, 1998. ISBN 0-9701490-9-3.
• Joel D. Wallach, DVM and William J. Boever, DVM. Diseases of Exotic Animals: Medical and Surgical Management. W. B. Saunders Company, 1983.
• Joel D. Wallach, DVM and Josephine Wallach. Rhino Express. Vantage Press, 1978.

References[link]

External links[link]

Dr. Wallach video[link]

• Youngevity Canada - Importance of Minerals

Sites run by Wallach[link]

• Youngevity
• Wallach Files

Critics[link]

• The Skeptic's Dictionary - The Skeptic's Dictionary
• Dr. Wallach Exposed - Stuart Adams
• Colloidal Mineral Supplements - Quackwatch
• What’s the deal with colloidal silver? - Cecil Adams, The Straight Dope