Published in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences in October 2014
This paper investigates the mathematical representation of time in physics. In existing theories, time is represented by the real numbers, hence their formal properties represent properties of time: these are surveyed. The central question of the paper is whether the existing representation of time is adequate, or whether it can or should be supple...
Published in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences in July 2015
The double burden of under- and overnutrition profoundly affects human health globally. According to the World Health Organization, obesity and diabetes rates have almost doubled worldwide since 1980, and, in 2011, more than 40 million children under 5 years of age were overweight. Ecologic factors, parental genetics and fitness, and the intrauteri...
Published in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences in July 2015
Angiogenesis and inflammation are two highly linked processes. In the last decade, several factors with dual function in both of these major pathways have been identified. This review focuses on angiopoietin-2 (Ang-2), an important proangiogenic factor that has more recently been implicated in mediating inflammatory processes as well. Ang-2 is upre...
Published in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences in July 2015
Failure to secure safe and affordable food to the growing global population leads far too often to disastrous consequences. Among specialists and other individuals, food scientists have a key responsibility to improve and use science-based tools to address risk and advise food handlers and manufacturers with best-practice recommendations. With coll...
Published in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences in June 2015
Published in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences in June 2015
Precision medicine holds promise to solve the conundrums of clinical care. Foremost is the well-known but vexing problem of heterogeneity and the tyranny of the mean. Who will respond to a treatment? How can patients avoid the harms of treatments that will not work for them? And if we know who to treat, will that make care more efficient and less c...
Published in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences in June 2015
Diabetes mellitus affects approximately 382 million individuals worldwide and is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. Over 40 and nearly 80 genetic loci influencing susceptibility to type 1 and type 2 diabetes, respectively, have been identified. In addition, there is emerging evidence that some genetic variants help to predict response to t...
Published in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences in June 2015
An incredibly high failure rate in the pharmaceutical industry has positioned personalized medicine with its prerequisite drug-diagnostic codevelopment, commonly known as companion diagnostics (CDx), in the frontline as an potential rescuer. This hopefulness is potentiated by the recent major advances and competitiveness in molecular diagnostics, m...
Published in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences in June 2015
Metabolomics is the systemic study of all small molecules (metabolites) and their concentration as affected by pathological and physiological alterations or environmental or other factors. Metabolic alterations represent a "window" on the complex interactions between genetic expression, enzyme activity, and metabolic reactions. Techniques, includin...
Published in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences in June 2015
Personalized health care (PHC) is an evolving field of medicine aimed at providing the right therapy to the right patient at the right time. This approach often incorporates the use of companion diagnostics (CDx) assays that provide information essential for the safe and effective use of the corresponding drug. In addition to oncology, many other t...