The same antibiotic resistant genes that alarm public health officials can be useful tools in the medical research laboratory, according to National Public Radio's “All Things Considered” (July 7). In fact, in recent years the federal government has approved more than 100 requests to put antibiotic resistance genes into dangerous germs. The report quoted Louis Kirchhoff, MD, a professor of internal medicine and epidemiology at The University of Iowa. Kirchhoff is a member of the NIH's Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee, and chaired a session in which the committee dealt with an application for authorization to insert an antibiotic resistance gene into a human pathogen. Kirchhoff noted that the requirement for formal review of plans to insert antibiotic resistance genes into disease-causing organisms that have not acquired them naturally is not particularly well-known among scientists. “The review process is important nonetheless because of the risks for laboratory staff and the general public that are posed by creating newly-resistant organisms that do not exist in nature,” he said.

Although 4 million American women give birth each year, almost no one is developing medications for complications of pregnancy, according to USA Today (June 4). The article said no new classes of drugs have been approved for conditions of pregnancy in the past two decades, making obstetrics “a specialty stuck in a time warp.” Jennifer
Niebyl, MD, head of obstetrics and gynecology at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, was quoted as saying she understands the need to protect women and children from the risks posed by new experimental medications, but that in actuality few drugs have been found to increase these risks. The real obstacles to developing drugs for pregnancy are financial, she said. The market for drugs to treat conditions of pregnancy is relatively small. Relatively few women develop these conditions, and those who get sick need treatment for only a few weeks or months.

The environment's impact on us doesn't begin when we are born. It begins in the womb, and its effects may be felt decades after birth, according to new research cited by
the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (June 27). The term “fetal programming” describes this phenomenon, with the mother's diet having a significant impact on later problems. By example, UI Children's Hospital researchers Jeffrey Segar, MD; Fred Lamb, MD; PhD, Robert Roghair, MD; and Tom Scholz, MD, found that when mice were fed a low-protein diet, the offspring developed glucose intolerance, often a precursor to diabetes. Diet and stress each affect a hormone called cortisol, which is normally neutralized by an enzyme in the placenta. But when the mother is under stress or has a bad diet, this enzyme fails to do its job and cortisol can flow across the placental barrier and affect the fetus.