| | | | |  | | By Erin Schumaker, Carmen Paun, Daniel Payne and Ruth Reader | Programming note: We’ll be off this Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day but will be back in your inboxes on Tuesday.
| | |  UV image of a control sample of crystals grown on Earth (left) compared to a sample from Merck's investigation growing more uniform crystals in microgravity (right). | Merck | Cancer researchers are using the atmosphere on board the International Space Station to conduct experiments that could speed the development of new treatments, Erin reports. How so? President Joe Biden wants to expand the work as part of his cancer moonshot effort to cut the cancer death rate in half over 25 years. The goal would be easier to hit with rapid development of new drugs, something scientists think space research can help. Why space? Understanding how protein molecules work plays a key role in drug discovery. Crystals grown from proteins remain suspended in low gravity, and their molecules move more slowly, allowing them to form more perfectly than they would on Earth. Researchers can slow down the process of growing crystals, which allows them to grow bigger and more uniformly, with fewer defects. In addition, since there are limited convection currents in space, liquids heat uniformly, too. “If you’re going to try to make chocolate, and chocolate only crystallizes at 45 degrees, you can get a very beautiful chocolate bar — or in our case, a crystal — to form,” said Paul Reichert, a biochemist at the drugmaker Merck who led the work on the cancer drug Keytruda on the space station. What’s next? Merck’s work on the space station suggests that crystallizing proteins in microgravity and then replicating the process on Earth could inform Keytruda’s under-the-skin formulation. That formulation hasn’t been tested in human trials yet, but in the best-case scenario, it has the potential to revolutionize the experience of getting a Keytruda treatment. Instead of being attached to an IV in the hospital, a patient could get a shot in a doctor’s office. Erin has more on NASA’s part in the cancer moonshot here.
| | | This is where we explore the ideas and innovators shaping health care. A survey from Carta Healthcare, says that 63 percent of Americans are concerned that health systems will embrace AI at the cost of their data privacy. Share any thoughts, news, tips and feedback with Carmen Paun at cpaun@politico.com, Daniel Payne at dpayne@politico.com, Ruth Reader at rreader@politico.com or Erin Schumaker at eschumaker@politico.com. Send tips securely through SecureDrop, Signal, Telegram or WhatsApp.
| | |  | Residential treatment facilities in the U.S. for teenagers with opioid and other substance use disorders are few, according to a new federally funded study on the availability of care. How so? Researchers from the Oregon Health & Science University, Boston University, Massachusetts General Hospital and the PeaceHealth system in Washington state identified 160 facilities nationwide that treated teens with opioid use disorder as of December 2022. They couldn’t find any treatment facility for teens in 10 states: Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont and West Virginia plus Washington, D.C. Why it matters: An average of 22 teenagers ages 14 to 18 died every week in 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The monthly rate of drug overdoses among teens nearly doubled between February 2018 and December 2022, from fewer than three teens per 100,000 people to just over five teens per 100,000, according to the CDC. Takeaway: “The ability to access timely, evidence-based treatment for addiction can be a matter of life or death, and the current system too often fails young people,” said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which funded the study. | | | |  The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health wants to put donated organs to better use. | KAREN BLEIER/AFP via Getty Images | More than 70,000 Americans donate their eyes each year after they die. The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health wants to put the organs to better use. Right now, only parts of the eye, like the cornea, can be transplanted. If scientists can figure out how to transplant the whole eye and reconnect nerves, muscles and blood vessels to the brain, it could theoretically restore the sight of people who are blind. The agency, which President Joe Biden created to fund high-risk, high-reward research, is seeking proposals. “For centuries, doctors have theorized eye transplantation to repair vision without success,” Dr. Calvin Roberts, manager of ARPA-H’s new research program, Transplantation of Human Eye Allografts, said in a statement. “However, very recent discoveries in vision science and neuroscience may now help solve the hurdles of reattaching the donor eye’s optic nerve to the recipient.” The program aims to use evolving technologies, including microsurgery and genetic and cell-based therapies, to preserve or regrow nerves that connect the eye and the brain. Preventing degenerative blindness with those methods would be a key step toward successful eye transplants. Why it matters: The top three causes of blindness in the U.S. — glaucoma, macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy — have no cures and only limited therapies. Current vision-correction tools, including eyeglasses, contacts, laser surgery and cataract surgery, don’t stop deterioration at the back of the eye. Current therapies slow vision loss, but none restore sight. What’s next? A proposer’s day for interested teams that want to learn more about the program will be held Feb. 15 in New York City and virtually. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
