Annotated Bibliography

Balintfy, J. (2019, February 28). Data sharing uncovers five new risk genes for Alzheimer’s

Disease. National Institute on Aging. Received from https://www.nia.nih.gov/news

/datasharing-uncovers-five-new-risk-genes-alzheimers-disease

This article is a summary of a recent study conducted on Alzheimer’s disease that

attempts to identify risk genes that can be used to identify Alzheimer’s development.

Identifying these genes is important because they serve as markers in biological

development of the disease, and by finding these genes, drugs can be made to target their

output and functioning to specifically tailor a treatment to preventing the disease’s

development. This genomic research is critical to accurate drug development, and will

hopefully deduce the amount of time it takes to develop a cure because there is less guess

and check occurring with the drug development, when the researchers know what gene

they are dealing with. This article is beneficial as it is a very modern example of how

genomic research is actively being used to develop drugs for incurable diseases.

Beck, S., & Paul, D. S. (2014, October 1). Advances in epigenome-wide association studies for

common diseases. Spotlight, 20(10), 541-543. Retrieved from https://www.cell.com

/action/showPdf?pii=S1471-4914%2814%2900115-4

This issue details some of the current trends in molecular medicine, specifically

epigenomic research, which is the study of epigenetic modifications of the epigenome,

genetic material of a cell. While the issue does not cover how epigenetic modifications

work or how they are specifically studied, it does detail a couple of examples in recent

years of how epigenetic modifications have been used in research. The primary type it

covers is DNA methylation, adding a methyl group to DNA to not alter the structure, but
 change the function of the DNA. The information found in this issue is valuable because

it explains various cases where epigenetic research has made progress. Some of these

cases have been in rheumatoid arthritis, type I diabetes, and multiple sclerosis. The last

paragraph of the issue is a short opinion on EWAS, that introduces a little explanation of

what an EWAS is used for.

Cancer Genomics Research. (2018, November 20). National Cancer Institute. Retrieved from

https://www.cancer.gov/research/areas/genomics

This article presents valuable information about the National Cancer Institute and how it

is currently using genomic research to learn more about cancer. Specifically, genomic

research is showing that under specific cancers, there are many more subset, which could

better be treated in specific ways rather than coming up with treatments for cancer in

general. The idea of specificity is becoming a common theme, which suggests that

incurable disease research is moving towards as specific, tailored approach to treatments.

This article says that genomic cancer research will “increasingly be integrated with

patients’ medical histories and clinical data … to develop more tailored approaches to

cancer diagnosis and treatment.” The information presented through this article links

together genomic research with the emerging emphasis on precision medicine and how

they are interconnected.

Collins, F. S., & Varmus, H. (2015, February 26). A New Initiative on Precision Medicine. The

New England Journal of Medicine. Retrieved by https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056

/NEJMp1500523

President Obama released in his 2015 State of the Union address that he would begin a

new initiative to launch Precision medicine to hopefully come closer to finding cures and
 treatments for diseases such as cancer and diabetes. The article explains that precision

medicine is a method of research that focuses on “prevention and treatment strategies that

take individual variability into account,” which has already been used for years in

methods such as blood typing. However, now, precision medicine is used in a new way to

research for diseases. The most prominent facet where precision medicine is used is in

precision oncology, which has made many breakthroughs in recent years, but needs more

support and creative ingenuity to progress further. This article provides a good outline for

how precision medicine has been pioneering new disease research methods, and clearly

describes the current benefits that precision medicine will provided the medical field if it

was given a larger focus, which is what Obama was attempting to do with this initiative.

Current News Releases. (2018, September 24). National Human Genome Research Institute.

Retrieved from https://www.genome.gov/10000475/current-news-releases/

This article has a timeline from January 2018 to October 2018 that detailed the National

Human Genome Research institute’s news releases throughout the time period. Most of

the news surrounds large releases of new studies or awards being given for impressive

research work, but interestingly, the two most current posts to this site (September and

October) mention precision medicine being used for one of the first times by the NIH

Clinical Genome Resource program and epidemiology being used to recognize racial

disparities in public health. The inclusion of precision medicine and epidemiology

validates the conclusions that claim precision medicine and epidemiology are some of the

most current and effective methods for disease research.

Guhr et al. (2018, July 19). Recent Trends in Research with Human Pluripotent Stem Cells:

Impact of Research and Use of Cell lines in Experimental Research and Clinical Trials.
 Stem Cell Reports, 11(2), 485-496. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc

/articles/PMC6092712/

This article is a review of the studies on Human Pluripotent Stem Cells, an analysis on

how that research is affecting experiments and clinical trials. It began with the history of

hPSC research and the development of hiPSCs, then began the analysis of global studies

using hPSCs and hiPSCs, and ended with how that is affecting research. This article does

not give specific examples of how these cells are specifically helping to cure diseases;

however, it explains the methods researchers apply when using these cells, which will be

helpful when finding studies involving these cells. Additionally, the article briefly

addresses the ethical dilemma of using these cells, and how that is contributing to a steep

increase in hiPSC usage, while there is only a slow increase of hPSC usage in studies.

Rizzi, L., Rosset, I., & Roriz-Cruz, M. (2014, June 25). Global Epidemiology of Dementia:

Alzheimer’s and Vascular Types. BioMed Research International, 2014, 8. Retrieved

from https://www.hindawi.com/journals/bmri/2014/908915/cta/

This articles gives a clear description of how epidemiology is being used to track

Alzheimer’s across the world in two specific capacities: through a descriptive point and

analytical point. It then proceeds to give specific studies large-scale studies and case

studies across the globe that report on Alzheimer and Dementia prevalence. Specifically,

there’s and analysis of studies from Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia, China,

Japan, Africa, and the Middle East. This is information easily describes how

epidemiological studies can be put into effect to help find treatments or cures. Because

this article goes through and details epidemiology very well, it presents a good baseline
 level of understanding of epidemiology, which can be applied to other articles that

reference epidemiology.

Rohrid et al. (2009, April 10). Types of Study in Medical Research. National Institute of

Medicine. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2689572/

This article discussed the differences between types of medical research, which are basic

medical research, clinical research, and epidemiological research. Basic medical research

is plainly experimental research, clinical studies research clinical or pharmacologic

effects of drugs, and epidemiological research investigates the distribution and historical

changes in the frequency of diseases. This is great background information because

understanding the fundamentals of research is essential to having a better understanding

of to better understanding of how research is implemented and applied towards patient

care.

Schattner, E. (2017, December 31). 7 Key Cancer Trends for 2018. Forbes. Retrieved from

https://www.forbes.com/sites/elaineschattner/2017/12/31/7-key-cancer-trends-for

2018/#b213a662d0e7

This article compiled the primary trends in cancer research from 2017. It briefly describes

each of the ten cancer research trends, which are, less chemotherapy, more prescription of

novel anti-cancer agents, concern over cancer drug costs, focus on diagnostics, quality

and payment for genetic cancer tests, tumor-agnostic prescription of cancer medications,

patient-reported outcomes, and artificial intelligence. While the article does not have a

quality descriptions or research on each of these topics, it is a good starting place to base

further research on incurable disease research efforts off of. The research innovations are

very modern, and will provide key words to use for further research.
What are the next steps in genomic research?. (2019, March 19). U.S. National Library of

Medicine. Retrieved from https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/primer/genomicresearch/nextsteps

This article is a review of the current route genomic research is headed towards and some

of the progress it made. It does a good job explaining the purpose of genomic research,

and how it will be used in application. For example, one of its purposes is

pharmocogenetics, which is combining pharmacology and genomic research to create

drugs tailored to individualized cases of a disease. It additionally explains one of the

current breakthroughs of genetic research is finding nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs.

These are common genetic variations in DNA, that serve as biological markers, which

help scientists associate particular genes with diseases. This article overall has good

descriptions of the new methods used in genomic research, which will serve as a good

source of background information for knowledge of genomic research.