PACEMAKER: Winter 2004-05
Worth quoting
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Recent media quotes from experts within UI Health Care Matthew Rizzo, M.D.
New York Times
Even after Alzheimer's disease is diagnosed, experts say, many older people with the condition continue to drive. However, a study quoted in the Times suggests that their driving ability should be carefully scrutinized. Rizzo, a neurologist at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, led the study. He said researchers found that even people in the early stages of the disease were much more likely to make navigation and safety errors while driving. They compared the performances of 32 drivers with mild Alzheimer's, all of whom still had driver licenses and were regularly on the road, with those of 136 older adults with no known neurological problems. Physically, the Alzheimer's patients were as capable of driving as were the other drivers. The problems arose when the drivers with Alzheimer's were told to follow an assigned route. More than 70 percent of them made at least one wrong turn: more than three times the rate for the other group of drivers. About the same percentage also made driving mistakes like veering out of their lane.
Michael Feiss, Ph.D.
Dallas Morning News
Using a creature as hideous as any sci-fi monster, scientists have produced a one-minute horror movie starring a menacing, spidery virus swooping in on a hapless blob of bacteria, according to the News. The computer-generated short arose from research that could help scientists find new ways to combat viruses that cause everything from AIDS to the common cold. With help from computer animation, the movie shows the virus latching onto an E. coli bacterium and giving it an injection of DNA that turns it into a virus factory. "It's the most detailed picture yet of how any virus attaches to a cell and what happens immediately after that to get the virus' chromosomes in," said Feiss, a professor of microbiology at the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine. Feiss said that his normally restrained microbiologist colleagues burst into applause when the film was shown at two recent scientific gatherings. He called the movie "creepy."
Edwin Stone, M.D.
Wall Street Journal
In a discovery that illuminates the promise and the complexity of genetic research, scientists at The University of Iowa say they have identified a gene linked to age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness among the elderly, according to the Journal. The gene is among the first to be discovered to play a role in the common form of the disease. Known as fibulin-5, the gene is part of a broader puzzle that is expected to help researchers understand how macular degeneration develops. That, Stone and other scientists at the UI Center for Macular Degeneration say, could lead in turn to new medicines and preventive strategies for a disease for which few effective options are on the market. "We have a toehold on Mount Everest," said Stone, who was lead author of the study that also included UI researchers Val Sheffield, Tom Casavant, Terry Braun, and Steve Russell.
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