Quality Of Biomedical Research Research Articles

Summer undergraduate biomedical research program for underrepresented minority students in a rural, low-income state

IntroductionDiversity can enhance the agenda and quality of biomedical research, but a dearth of underrepresented minorities and women serve as biomedical researchers. The study purpose was to examine the impact of the a summer undergraduate research program on self-efficacy in research, scientific communication, and leadership as well as scientific identity, valuing objectives of the scientific community, and intent to pursue a biomedical research career.MethodsUnderrepresented minority and female undergraduate students participated in a mentored research experience in a rural, low-income state.ResultsStudents' self-efficacy in research, scientific communication, and leadership as well as scientific identity, valuing objectives of the scientific community, and intent to pursue a biomedical research career increased post-program compared to pre-program.ConclusionThis study supports implementation of a biomedical summer undergraduate research program for URM and women in a poor, rural, settings.

Undergraduates as course creators: Reflections on starting and sustaining a student-faculty partnership

We reflect on a grassroots partnership to create a new sophomore seminar, “Precision medicine or privileged medicine?” The course puts students in the driver’s seat to explore problems with inclusiveness and quality of biomedical research. It also emphasizes the relevance of “soft skills”, such as emotional intelligence, to build trust, understand inequities and involve patients as partners to improve research. 
 After developing the course, we felt our experience could interest students and faculty interested in pedagogical co-design, especially where this is not supported by a specific initiative. Ours was a multi-year partnership spearheaded by a sophomore, a senior and a volunteer adjunct associate professor. While we made important use of existing university programs, there was no umbrella initiative or overall sponsor to support student-faculty partnerships from first ideas through new course implementation. This meant we operated with both uncertainty and creativity regarding process, continuity and funding. 
 In this essay we reflect on experiences that formed and facilitated our partnership, from our first conversations through course approval. We look at how our partnership became one of pedagogical co-design and shaped an inclusive, real-world problem-oriented course for undergraduates. Our reflections may help students interested in teaching and course development looking to develop relationships with faculty members in which they feel heard and valued. Furthermore, we hope to encourage faculty members looking to create a course that prioritizes student experience, goals, and feedback, through development of collaborative and mutually beneficial partnerships with undergraduates.

Biobanking in Psychiatry

Medical biobanking is concerned with establishing and maintaining large-scale repositories of biological specimens combined with comprehensive archives of clinical and biographical information on donors. This aims for controlled high and consistent quality of specimens for future biomedical research. One major objective is to assemble multiple blood components for various types of biochemical analysis and experimentation including different isolated cell types. With proper cryo-conservation, blood-derived cells can be conserved and revitalized after thawing and employed as in-vitro cell models carrying specific biological traits of donors. Optimizing pre-analytical methods can reduce pre-analytical variance thereby reducing imprecision of analytical data. This is particularly valuable for multivariate analyses of biological systems ("omics") and biomarker research. Introducing biobanking to psychiatry carries the challenge of making diagnostic allocation more compatible with biological entities than is achieved with current diagnostic categories of ICD-10 or DSM-V. Diagnostic or transdiagnostic subgroups can be stratified using biologically anchored clinical criteria. An important ethical issue of biobanking is the need for broad consent by the donors for specimen use in not yet defined future research projects. The organizational, logistic and financial costs of establishing and maintaining a biobank are considerable, but seem well warranted in view of the gainable advances in biomedical research quality, translations and clinical applications.

The Need for the Introduction of Assessment Program of Good Animal Care and Use Facility

The humane care and use of animals should be the prime concern and responsibility of all those individuals using animals for research, teaching or testing. The use of animals as experimental subjects in the 20th century has contributed to many important advances in scientific and medical knowledge. Although scientists have also developed non-animal models for research, these models often cannot completely mimic the complex human or animal body. Nevertheless, efforts to develop and use scientifically valid alternatives, adjuncts, and refinements to animal research should continue. Laboratory Animal Law that was prepared to improve the reliability and reproducibility of research data using laboratory animals also required an institutes to care and use animal in ways judged to be scientifically, technically, and humanely appropriate. The law introduced Assessment Program of Good Animal Care and Use Facility. The primary goal of the Assessment Program is to provide quality assurance for the care and use of experimental animals on a national basis. Although, an effective surveillance protects animals, promotes animal welfare and ensures the quality of science that uses animals, it is the responsibility of investigators to conduct animal experiment on the basis of the highest scientific, humane, and ethical principles. It is expected that the Program will accelerate the introduction of mind concerning humane and ethical animal experiment and will enhance animal well-being, the quality of biomedical research, and the advancement of biologic knowledge that is relevant to humans or animals.

Cell line cross-contamination in biomedical research: a call to prevent unawareness

During the 1950s, cross-contamination of cell lines emerged as a problem with serious consequences on the quality of biomedical research. Unfortunately, this situation has worsened over years. In this context, some actions should be urgently undertaken to avoid the generation of misleading data due to the increasingly and sometimes neglected use of cross-contaminated cell lines. Unawareness about this problem may then turn many scientists into victims or even perpetrators of this unwanted situation. Collaborative actions involving researchers, cell banks, journals, and funding agencies are needed to save the scientific reputation as well as many public or private resources that are used to produce misleading data.

PSI Has to Live and Become PCI: Protein Complex Initiative

The large-scale, systematic, community-wide determination and structural characterization of protein complexes will happen regardless of the current decision on the continuation of funding for PSI. It is already happening in other countries and will happen in the United States, simply because it is the direction where the science is going. Arguing against it is like arguing against automobiles in 1890s (saying that horses are a better way of transportation, which I am sure was true at the time) or space exploration in 1960s (with the logic of how many lunches can be provided for the cost of a single flight to the moon). The only issue is whether it will happen now (within a few years) or later down the road with time and resources wasted, progress slowed down, and the quality of biomedical research in the United States and other countries damaged. Therefore, PSI has to live and thrive by significantly increasing its focus on protein complexes.

Behavioral Management of Chimpanzees in Biomedical Research Facilities: The State of the Science

The current status of the behavioral management of chimpanzees housed in US research facilities is examined, and recent advances are described. Behavioral management includes the application of environmental enrichment, animal training, and environmental design for improving animal welfare. Authors surveyed the six major chimpanzee holding facilities and found that the vast majority of chimpanzees are housed socially, with access to the outdoors. The institutions currently invest in behavioral scientists, enrichment specialists, and, most recently, chimpanzee trainers to implement and study chimpanzee behavioral management. This review is based on the substantial scientific literature related to managing social behavior, identifying the behavioral effects of restricted socialization, evaluating various forms of enrichment, and describing positive reinforcement animal training. Authors outline recent accomplishments in behavioral management, summarize behavioral issues that have been evaluated, and identify issues for future consideration. It is proposed that the enhanced application of behavioral management techniques, including training, could significantly reduce chimpanzee stress that is generally associated with experimental manipulations, and could improve animal welfare and the quality of biomedical research. The next challenge is to implement effectively and thoroughly the approaches that have been shown to be beneficial.

Journals Have Obligations, Too: Commentary on "Confirmational Response Bias"

In response to increasing attention to problems of research misconduct, the Institute of Medicine initiated a project in 1987. It appointed a 17-member committee that held a workshop and developed recommendations to assist relevant institutions and organizations to formulate policies and procedures to improve the integrity and quality of biomedical research. (Institute of Medicine 1989, v) Its report, The Responsible Conduct of Research in the Health Sciences, contains 16 recommendations. It limits its recommendation on scientific journals to the following:

Fisher's Inexact Test: Probability Too Serious to Be Left to Statisticians-Reply

In Reply. — We thank Dr Cormack for his comments on our article. The issue of multiple techniques for performing Fisher's Exact Test is yet another reason for structured reviews of submitted articles to ensure that statistical methodology is described explicitly. It is important for both physicians and biostatisticians to maximize the quality of biomedical research. However, few nonstatisticians have the ability to contribute to statistical theory as Dr Cormack has done. Ultimately, only the journal editors and their designated reviewers can ensure that uniform statistical standards for manuscripts are developed and strictly enforced.