Findings from Rutgers faculty
Archived article from Sep 22, 2003
Also in this article:
Technology addicts, workaholics alienate others
Drug addiction relapse linked to nerve cells
Married couples with kids at all-time low
'Onions' in space
A tangled Web of plagiarism
A wizard of a flower
Brain functions like a jazz band
A smart bomb for cancer cells
Rutgers pharmaceutical chemists have developed compounds for drugs that have the potential to attack cancer like a high-tech "smart bomb." This combination of a novel cell-killing agent and a targeting technology proved to be as much as 100 times more potent than a comparable drug in clinical trials.
The delivery of the compound is accomplished with a "prodrug," an inert chemical derivative of a drug that can be activated once it reaches its destination inside a patient's body. Prodrugs can transport highly potent medicines without affecting other body tissues along the way.
Traditional anticancer drugs use accelerated cell growth as their trigger, which can damage rapidly replicating normal cells. "That is how you wind up with the negative side effects you see in chemotherapy patients, such as hair loss, nausea and reduced immunities," says Longqin Hu, an assistant professor at the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy. Instead of hitting all cells that grow fast, the new prodrugs use a protein or enzyme as the activating trigger, guaranteeing a direct hit on cancerous cells.
"We are testing this combination and it looks like a winner," says Hu. "But there are many preclinical studies ahead. If everything goes well, we could see clinical trials in humans in a couple of years." Hu says that these compounds are not going to cure cancer by themselves. But they will be significant tools, most probably used in combination with other technologies — one bullet of many in the arsenal of anticancer weapons.
— Joe Blumberg
Technology addicts, workaholics alienate others
While it is commonly accepted that slavish devotion to one's job is not healthy for individual employees, most assume that at least the organizations they work for get some benefit from all that workaholism.
Not so, says Gayle Porter, an associate professor of management at Rutgers School of Business in Camden. A recent study Porter co-authored, "Addiction to Technology and Work: An Imprudent Use of Human Resources," looks at the problems workaholism and addiction to technology can cause for individuals and organizations. "The benefit is not there," she says. "Either the benefit is an illusion or there is a detriment offsetting any of the positives."
Detriments can include alienating co-workers, especially subordinates, as most workaholics are not good delegators and make unreasonable demands. "Working productively while maintaining outside interests and relationships is a sign of a healthy employee," Porter says. "Managers and those in human resources need to look beyond the surface appearance of working everywhere and all the time, and focus on the longer-term investment in people who also maintain other life interests."
— Mike Sepanic
Drug addiction relapse linked to nerve cells in brain
Relapse among recovering drug addicts can now be linked to specific nerve cells in a particular region of the brain, according to a team of researchers at Rutgers. The discovery may help pave the way for new addiction therapies and intervention strategies.
Long after an addict has become drug-free, simple events or circumstances that were associated with prior drug use, such as walking through a particular neighborhood or hearing a particular song, can reawaken memories that trigger a craving and provoke a relapse. These environmental stimuli may render an addict vulnerable to a return to compulsive drug use.
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