UCSF

WASHINGTON, June 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- AACC, a global scientific and medical professional organization dedicated to better health through laboratory medicine, is pleased to announce that Anthony A. Killeen, MB, BCh, PhD, MSc, has been elected to serve on the AACC board of directors as president-elect starting in August 2023. Following this, he will serve successive terms as the association's president from August 2024-July 2025 and as past president from August 2025-July 2026. In addition, the AACC membership elected a new secretary and two new directors to the association's board. They will take office in August 2023 along with the incoming president of AACC Academy and the incoming chair of the AACC Clinical Laboratory Scientists Council, both of whom will also serve on the board. "I am truly honored that the membership has elected me to serve as the president-elect," said Dr. Killeen. "I am passionate about our field and its role in healthcare, and I look forward to working with AACC's leadership, staff, and members to ensure laboratory medicine professionals have the resources and support they need to excel in a quickly changing healthcare landscape. I fully support efforts to promote diversity in laboratory medicine and clinical chemistry and to expand opportunities for professional advancement to all." Dr. Killeen is a professor of laboratory medicine and pathology and the director of clinical laboratories at the University of Minnesota Medical Center (Adult Hospital) in Minneapolis. He has been closely involved with AACC for most of his career and has served in many leadership positions, including as board secretary from 2017 to 2020. He is currently chair of AACC's Education Core Committee. AACC Secretary Christopher McCudden, PhD, FAACC, will serve as AACC secretary from August 2023 to July 2026. Dr. McCudden is a clinical biochemist at the Ottawa Hospital in Ontario, Canada. He is a professor and vice chair of the department of pathology and laboratory medicine at the University of Ottawa. He serves as deputy chief medical scientific officer and medical director of informatics and information technology for the Eastern Ontario Regional Laboratory Association. Dr. McCudden has served AACC in various capacities, including within his local section, the Society for Young Clinical Laboratorians, the Annual Meeting Organizing Committee, the Nominating Committee, and the Finance Committee. He is currently a member of the board of directors. AACC Board Members M. Laura Parnas, PhD, DABCC, FAACC, and Christina Lockwood, PhD, will serve as members of AACC's board of directors from August 2023 to July 2026. Allison Chambliss, PhD, DABCC, FAACC, will also serve on the board from August 2023-July 2024 as president of AACC Academy, the association's home for distinguished laboratory experts who shape science in the field. Additionally, Kacy Peterson, MBA, MLS (ASCP), DLM (ASCP), will serve on the board from August 2023-July 2024 as chair of the Clinical Laboratory Scientists Council, which guides AACC's activities and programs to address the professional needs of AACC's clinical laboratory scientist members. Dr. Parnas is disease area network lead, cardiometabolism and neurology, medical and scientific affairs, Roche Diagnostics Corporation, Indianapolis. Dr. Lockwood is a professor of laboratory medicine and pathology and adjunct professor of genome sciences at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle. AACC Nominating Committee AACC's membership has also elected Deborah French, PhD, DABCC, FAACC; James H. Nichols, PhD, DABCC, FAACC; and Nicole V. Tolan, PhD, DABCC, to serve from August 2023-July 2026 on the association's Nominating Committee. The AACC Nominating Committee carries out the important task of ensuring that the association's leadership comprises a diverse and highly talented group of individuals who represent the full breadth of AACC's membership. Dr. French is an assistant director of chemistry and director of mass spectrometry, UCSF Clinical Laboratories, San Francisco. Dr. Nichols is a professor of pathology, microbiology, and immunology; medical director, clinical chemistry and point-of-care testing, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee. Dr. Tolan is assistant professor of pathology, Harvard Medical School; co-medical director, clinical chemistry laboratory, medical director, mass spectrometry and point-of-care testing, Brigham and Women's Hospital; CLIA laboratory and medical director, Mass General Brigham Home Care; Boston. About AACC Dedicated to achieving better health through laboratory medicine, AACC brings together more than 70,000 clinical laboratory professionals, physicians, research scientists, and business leaders from around the world focused on clinical chemistry, molecular diagnostics, mass spectrometry, translational medicine, lab management, and other areas of progressing laboratory science. Since 1948, AACC has worked to advance the common interests of the field, providing programs that advance scientific collaboration, knowledge, expertise, and innovation. For more information, visit . Bill Malone AACC Director, Communications & News Publications (p) 202.835.8756 [email protected] Molly Polen AACC Senior Director, Communications & PR (p) 202.420.7612 (c) 703.598.0472 [email protected] SOURCE AACC

Two years of heavy exposure to TCE, a liquid chemical that lingers in the air, water and soil, may increase the risk of Parkinson's disease by 70%. Two years of heavy exposure to TCE, a liquid chemical that lingers in the air, water and soil, may increase the risk of Parkinson's disease by 70%. Previous research has linked TCE, or trichloroethylene, to certain cancers, but a new study publishing in JAMA Neurology on May 15, 2023, is believed to be the first large-scale study to demonstrate its association with Parkinson's. TCE has been used for industrial and commercial purposes for nearly 100 years, and was used as a surgical anesthetic until it was banned in 1977. More recently it was used as a degreasing solvent. Today, it is primarily used to degrease industrial metal parts. This entails heating TCE in degreasing tanks to create a vapor that dissolves the grease, but it also releases the chemical into the atmosphere. Once TCE enters the soil or groundwater, it can persist for decades. In the study, researchers led by UC San Francisco and the San Francisco VA Medical Center, compared Parkinson's diagnoses in approximately 160,000 Navy and Marine veterans. Just over half came from Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, where TCE was used to degrease military equipment and water was contaminated; the remainder came from Camp Pendleton in California, where the water was not contaminated. Service members spent at least three months in the camps between 1975 to 1985, a period when TCE in the water at Camp Lejeune exceeded maximum safety levels by 70-fold. The researchers had access to follow-up health data on the service members between 1997 and 2021, by which time Parkinson's might be expected to develop. Researchers found that 430 veterans had been diagnosed with Parkinson's, and that the Lejeune veterans' risk was 70% higher than the Pendleton veterans. On average, service members of both camps were stationed there approximately two years from 1975 to 1985. Residence began at an average age of 20, and Parkinson's diagnosis occurred at an average age of 54 at Lejeune and 53 at Pendleton, showing that the disease took decades to develop after TCE exposure. The civilian population is also at risk of TCE exposure, said first author Samuel M. Goldman, MD, MPH, of the UCSF Division of Occupational, Environmental and Climate Medicine, and the SFVA, noting that between 9% and 34% of U.S. water supplies contain measurable amounts of the chemical. TCE Production Has Increased "TCE is still a very commonly used chemical in the United States and throughout the world. Its production has been increasing over the past several years and it is widely available online," he said. "Unfortunately, there's no easy way to know if you've been exposed, unless you've worked with it directly. Many of us have detectable levels of TCE in our bodies, but it gets metabolized and excreted very quickly, so blood and urine tests only reflect very recent exposure." Additionally, the researchers found that the Lejeune veterans had a higher prevalence of prodromal Parkinson's -- symptoms that are suggestive of Parkinson's but do not yet fulfill diagnostic criteria for the disease. "Loss of sense of smell, a sleep disorder known as RBD, anxiety, depression and constipation can be early signs of Parkinson's, but only a very small fraction of people with them will develop it," said senior author Caroline M. Tanner, MD, PhD, of the UCSF Department of Neurology, the Weill Institute for Neurosciences and the SFVA. "The risk of developing Parkinson's in the future can be estimated using a risk score based on these symptoms. The Lejeune veterans had higher risk scores than the Pendleton veterans, suggesting that they are more likely to develop Parkinson's in the future."

Ten young children born without functioning immune systems and lacking the ability to fight infections are on track for healthier lives thanks to a new gene therapy treatment. Ten young children born without functioning immune systems and lacking the ability to fight infections are on track for healthier lives thanks to a new gene therapy treatment pioneered at UC San Francisco, reports a Dec. 22 study in the New England Journal of Medicine. The children have Artemis-SCID, a very rare genetic disorder that is typically treated with a bone marrow transplant from a healthy donor, ideally a matched brother or sister. The new gene therapy allows researchers to treat newly diagnosed babies with their own cells -- adding a healthy copy of the Artemis gene to the baby's harvested marrow stem cells, then infusing the corrected stem cells back into their bodies -- in hopes of avoiding many of the short- and long-term complications of the standard treatment, including death. The children in the trial -- all under the age of 5 -- are living at home with their families, attending daycare and preschool, playing outside, and living normal lives, said Mort Cowan, MD, UCSF pediatrics professor and the trial's lead investigator. "Already, the course of their illness is so much better than with the typical treatment," said Cowan, who has treated more than 30 children with Artemis-SCID using standard bone marrow transplants. "I've never seen results like this in any of the other kids. It's amazing." Gene correction has been used before in patients with other genetic forms of SCID, but its use in Artemis-SCID is significant because these patients usually respond more poorly to standard bone marrow transplants. Complications can include rejecting the marrow graft, graft-vs.-host disease -- in which the donor T cells attack the recipient's tissues -- chronic infections leading to organ damage, stunted growth, and premature death. Signs of Stronger Immunity The first outcome of the Phase I/II trial involved the safe transfusion of gene-corrected cells that would differentiate into white blood cells by 42 days after infusion. Researchers theorized patients would need less chemotherapy to prepare their marrow for transfusion when their own cells were being used; thus only 25% of a full dose of busulfan was administered. The second outcome was T-cell reconstitution at 12 months, a measurement of the strength of the immune system. All 10 patients were safely transfused with their own gene-corrected stem cells that gave rise to corrected peripheral blood cells within 42 days. All 10 were growing their own T cells and B cells by 12 weeks, and four of nine (excluding a patient who received a second treatment) achieved full T-cell immune reconstitution by 12 months. Four of nine also achieved full B cell immunity by 24 months, allowing them to discontinue immunoglobulin replacement and receive standard childhood vaccinations. An additional three patients, who were followed for fewer than 24 months, had promising B cell development when compared to previous outcomes for donor-transplanted patients. One child required a second infusion of gene-corrected bone marrow due to a persistent infection with cytomegalovirus prior to gene therapy but is now infection free with good T- and B-cell immunity. "All of the results are better than those previously seen with Artemis-SCID patients who received donor bone marrow transplants," noted Jennifer Puck, MD, UCSF pediatrics professor and co-lead investigator in the study. "Having patients in the trial achieve full T-cell immunity is outstanding. B-cell recovery takes longer, but so far it looks as if the patients also have a far better chance for B-cell reconstitution than they would with a regular bone marrow transplant," Puck said. "Successfully using less chemotherapy is also a big win, minimizing the harmful side effects of full dose busulfan in small infants." Better B-cell immunity could help avoid issues such as chronic lung disease that often develop later in childhood for Artemis-SCID patients who receive a standard bone marrow transplant, Cowan added. The children in the trial are currently between the ages of 18 months and 4.5 years; nine were born in the U.S. and were diagnosed following newborn screening for SCID; one was born in Canada and diagnosed at five months of age with clinical illness. Four patients are of Navajo/Apache Native American descent, where the Artemis-SCID mutation is more common. Median follow-up was 31.2 months. At the time of study publication, six patients had been followed for at least 24 months. "We're pioneering gene therapy in this very rare disease right now, but we are using techniques that can be exported to other situations and can help many other conditions worldwide," said Puck. "Every new innovation happens one patient at a time." Co-authors: Also contributing to this research from UCSF were: Jason Yu, PhD; Carol Fraser-Browne, BA; Ukina Sanford, MS; Misako Kawahara, BA; Wendy Chan, BS; Shivali Chag, MS; and Robert Currier, PhD, of the UCSF Department of Pediatrics; Jess Oh, MS, of the UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital San Francisco; Jasmeen Dara, MD; Janelle Facchino, NP; Christopher Dvorak, MD, of the UCSF Department of Pediatrics and UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital San Francisco; Joan Hilton, DSc, MPH, of the UCSF Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics; and Janel Long-Boyle, PharmD, PhD, of UCSF's Department of Pediatrics, School of Pharmacy and UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital San Francisco. Please refer to the paper for additional co-authors.