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On October 2-5, 2018, tribal officials, researchers, practitioners, and others will gather at Mystic Lake Casino to discuss the current state of Indigenous and academic scientific knowledge about Native nutrition and food science. Session topics will include nutrition across the lifecycle, intergenerational learning about food and nutrition, learning from Indigenous communities around the world, linking agriculture to nutrition and recovering from historical trauma. The conference is offered by Seeds of Native Health and sponsored by the Healthy Foods, Healthy Lives Institute, a Consortium member, and the Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Tribal Community. Learn more and register here. 

Recent research has raised hopes that new drugs can help slow or reverse the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. While promising breakthroughs abound in this arena, what distinguishes the development of one of these drugs, BAN2401, was the clinical trial's "adaptive design." That approach "ensured that when new subjects were recruited, they were more likely to be assigned to arms of the trial that showed the greatest promise," according to the Los Angeles Times. Advocates for adaptive design note it can make clinical trials more flexible, efficient and ethical because it makes effective treatments more readily available to patients. Critics are concerned that such adaptation opens the door to biased studies. To read a recent symposium on challenges to the conduct of high-quality laboratory research, click here. The other promising drug, Anavex 2-73, was developed using precision medicine approaches. "Researchers [focused on studying a small group of] Alzheimer’s patients who bear a few 'actionable genetic variants.'" These variants were identified by genomic sequencing intended to find participants most likely to have a positive response to the drugs. On Nov. 29, the Consortium is co-sponsoring a free, public conference and webcast, "Law, Genomic Medicine & Health Equity" that will discuss some of the implications of precision medicine for traditionally underserved populations; co-sponsors are the Meharry-Vanderbilt Alliance, Vanderbilt Health, and the Minnesota Precision Medicine Collaborative. The event will be held at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, TN; to learn more and register, click here. 

The Masonic Cancer Center, a Consortium member, has announced its first Chainbreaker Breakthrough Cancer Research Grant, which was awarded to a multidisciplinary group of scholars at the University of Minnesota. The team will focus on the connections between microorganisms and cancer, as both potential causes of and treatments for the disease, and will be co-led by Timothy K. Starr, PhD, Assistant Professor, Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women’s Health, and Alexander Khoruts, MD, Professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition. The funds for the grant were derived from last year's inaugural Chainbreaker Ride, a two-day bike tour that raised $1.4 million for cancer research. This year's ride begins on Aug. 10, and will include more than 1000 riders who will pedal distances ranging from 25 to 180 miles. Can't ride? You can still help as a "virtual rider" who works to raise funds or serve as a volunteer; learn more here. 

The advocacy group Public Citizen has filed a complaint with the FDA and Office for Human Research Protections about trials conducted at Hennepin Healthcare (formerly Hennepin County Medical Center), in which paramedics used the sedative ketamine to treat "prehospital agitation." The letter is signed by dozens of bioethicists and medical experts, including Carl Elliott and Leigh Turner of the University of Minnesota Center for Bioethics, a Consortium member. According to reporting in the Washington Post, during the 4-year study "paramedics used either the anesthetic ketamine or a different powerful drug to sedate patients. . . . Patients or caregivers were not asked for permission to participate, and they were informed only later that they had become part of a medical experiment." Previous research, also conducted by Hennepin Healthcare, demonstrated that ketamine frequently causes complications that require patients by intubated. Regarding the recently halted study that was the catalyst for the complaint, Leigh Turner notes, “Even if there’s a case for using these drugs, there’s a case for being very judicious about when to use it.” He also expressed concern about the danger of the study influencing decisions by paramedics: “That’s going to lead to a reduction in the scope of clinical judgment, where EMS doesn’t have the full array of medications. The study is playing a role in which medication people get,” Turner said.