Seeking innovation: incentive funding for biodefense biotechs.

In the current venture capital climate, it is easier to secure funding for late-stage, next-in-class therapeutic agents than for early-stage opportunities that have the potential to advance basic science and translational medicine. This funding paradigm is particularly problematic for the development of "dual-use" biothreat countermeasures such as antibiotics, vaccines, and antitoxins that target pathogens in novel ways and that have broad public health and biodefense applications. To address this issue, we propose the creation of the Drug Development Incentive Fund (DDIF), a novel funding mechanism that can stimulate the development of first-in-class agents that also possess the capability to guard against potential biothreats. This program would also support greater synergies between public funding and private venture investment. In a single act, this organization would secure science of national importance from disappearing, invest in projects that yield significant public health returns, advance the promises of preclinical and early phase research, revitalize biopharmaceutical investment, and create valuable innovation-economy jobs.

Novel electrophysiological instrument for rapid and objective assessment of magnocellular deficits associated with glaucoma.

PURPOSE: To introduce a rapid and objective electrophysiological technique that can assess visual function in the magnocellular pathway, which is thought to be affected in early-stage glaucoma. METHODS: Low-contrast bright or dark isolated-checks were luminance-modulated against a static background at 10 Hz in order to drive preferentially the magnocellular ON or OFF pathway. Visual evoked potentials were recorded during 1-s epochs of stimulation and responses at the stimulus frequency were measured. Artifact rejection features ensured that eight valid runs were obtained per eye. Signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) were derived based on a multivariate statistic. In order to demonstrate its functionality, a small group of patients with glaucoma (N = 18, Snellen acuity of 20/30 or better) and control observers (N = 16) were tested. A participant failed the test if either eye yielded an SNR < or = 1. Receiver-operating-characteristic curve analysis was used to estimate the accuracy of group classification. RESULTS: The instrument was found to elicit reliable responses from control observers. For the 15% bright condition, all control observers yielded significant isolated-check VEPs (icVEPs), whereas the majority of patients failed to do so, indicating significant losses in central visual function. This condition produced the highest classification accuracy (94%), followed by the 10% dark condition (91%). CONCLUSIONS: Both ON and OFF divisions of the magnocellular pathway can be assessed rapidly through the application of the icVEP technique. This measure of central visual function may be of value in the detection of glaucomatous deficits and may complement tests of peripheral function.

Theoretical methods in the assessment of vision and automated perimetry.

An analytic understanding of automated perimetry requires an appreciation of the fundamental theories of vision and an understanding of the basic mathematical rudiments of signal processing theory. The theories of vision by Weber, Fechtner, and Stevens are evaluated and the mathematical bases of logarithmic, exponential, and power functions are considered as they relate to various models of visual functioning. Presenting perimetry results as actual, linear stimulus values, not theoretical, non-linear response values, could better allow clinicians to assess and examine the testing data directly to evaluate more correctly and accurately their patients' visual function.