Genetics Team Makes MS Breakthrough

In the most significant genetic breakthrough in multiple sclerosis research in 30 years, researchers at the Miller School of Medicine and elsewhere have identified a second gene linked to development of the disease. Margaret Pericak-Vance, director of the Miami Institute for Human Genomics at the Miller School, and colleagues from Vanderbilt University, the University of California at San Francisco, Duke University, and the University of Cambridge discovered that variations in the interleukin 7 receptor (IL7R) alpha chain gene can increase an individual’s risk of getting the disease by about 20 percent. The research was published in two related studies in Nature Genetics and The New England Journal of Medicine.

Real-World Script on Side Effects

Clinical trials don’t always reveal side effects that can occur once a prescription drug is on the market. The Pharmacovigilance Initiative, a collaboration between the Miller School of Medicine and health insurer Humana, will track real-world medication use, document adverse events, and issue results to physicians and the FDA. “With Humana’s 11 million-member prescription drug and medical claims database, we are going to be able to track more closely and quickly and contribute to the ongoing dialogue in Washington around the safety and use of pharmaceuticals,” said President Donna E. Shalala at a news conference announcing the partnership.

Current Affairs in Computing

Remember when computer memory was measured only in kilobytes? Magnetic fields enable today’s computer hard drives to store and recall gads of gigabytes, but professor of physics Stewart Barnes has shown that electron currents—rather than magnetic fields—may offer the next revolution in computing power. “The use of currents to change the direction of the magnetism in nano-spintronic devices will allow us to get more gigabits per square inch on a computer chip and, therefore, lead to faster computers,” says Barnes, who published the study along with colleagues at Tohoku University in Japan in the journal Science.