Regulation and Function of miR-218 in Gastric Cancer Metastasis
Tie, Pan et al., PLoS Genetics
Researchers describe a negative feedback system between Robo1, a Slit receptor, and miR-218, wherein “decreased miR-218 levels eliminate Robo1 repression, which activates the Slit-Robo1 pathway through the interaction between Robo1 and Slit2, thus triggering tumor metastasis.” The authors suggest that the restoration of miR-218 supresses Robo1 espression and inhibits tumor cell invasion.
Arrowhead's Regional Clinical Lab Goes on a New-Tech Shopping Spree
February 09, 2010
New equipment installed at the clinical lab of Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton, Calif., has enabled the hospital to "produce same-day results for some tests that used to take several days or even a week," according to a local news report.
The move could help the lab deal with the impending mass retirement that will soon be felt my most of its peers, an exodus that promises to be particularly brutal because recruiters' arid prospects.
Arrowhead's lab, which has been adding equipment since February 2009, uses blood, spinal fluid, and tissue to perform more than 2.5 million tests per year.
Among the new tools is a chemistry analyzer, made by an undisclosed vendor, which "does the bulk of the work, running 2.2 million tests annually," according to the article. It consolidates testing previously done by seven analyzers.
The lab also brought onboard "new hematology equipment that provides more accurate clinical data and reduced review times. According to the report, the platform "can review 25,000 white blood cells while a technologist looking at a slide under a microscope would see 100."
"With this new technology, we can stay on the cutting edge of clinical laboratory services," said the medical center's Chief Operating Officer Maureen Malone.
Before the upgrade, the lab would save specimens and run tests in batches "once or twice a week," it said. "Now tests run around the clock."
Because Arrowhead is a regional trauma, the new technology "means some normal results can be released without review by a technologist," according to a hospital Arrowhead's lab, like most clinical labs in the US, has been girding for the Dark Days, that impending and unavoidable period in which its most experienced lab begin to retire.
This fact taken with the relatively weak labor market behind them means that clinical labs like Arrowhead must either learn to work with fewer staff, or devise strategies, including investing in new technologies, that can enable them to continue performing high-throughput analyses with fewer lab techs.
"The issue is the difficulty in finding qualified technologists," the official is quoted
"I do know that we actually saved money" after installing the new equipment, the official said. "I think the vendors are more hungry. The economy is affecting all of us."
