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Tobacco
Settlement Supports Promising Research LITTLE
ROCK, Ark. (April 25, 2002) – A leading researcher in human genomics
will be able to explore causes and possible prevention of birth
defects because tobacco settlement funds were provided today by the
Arkansas Biosciences Institute (ABI).
Another researcher from the University of Arkansas,
Fayetteville, is actually looking at using tobacco plants to treat
drug addiction – also funded through ABI. Charlotte
Hobbs, M.D., Ph.D., told the ABI Board today that every six hours a
baby is born in Arkansas with a birth defect, yet the causes of 70 to
80% of birth defects are still unknown. Dr. Hobbs is a faculty
physician of the Department of Pediatrics of the University of
Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) College of Medicine and the
co-director of the Arkansas Center for Birth Defects Research and
Prevention. The Arkansas Children’s Hospital’s Research Institute
will use ABI funds to recruit a leading genomics research scientist
who will work in the Institute’s birth defects lab.
Smoking appears to increase the incidence of at least one type
of birth defect – clef lip and clef palate.
If a mother has a genetic susceptibility she doesn’t know
about and is a smoker, her risk of having a baby with a clef lip or
palate is seven times greater, said Hobbs. As strange as it may seem, tobacco may prove to be useful in treating drug addiction. Ralph Henry, Ph.D., a molecular biologist at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, told the ABI Board that there are receptors involved in addictive behavior and there are antibodies that will bind to the drugs and shut down the addiction. With the help of ABI funding, Dr. Henry and his team will try to grow these antibodies in plants like tobacco and corn. They can be grown in mice, says Henry, but it is very expensive. If the antibodies can be grown in plants and then extracted when harvested, the method will lead to an affordable treatment. These
presentations were made today at the ABI Board meeting held at the
Arkansas Cancer Research Center at UAMS. Also at the meeting, Michael Owens, Ph.D., ABI Director,
reported on the Arkansas Tobacco Settlement Commission meeting and
announced plans for an ABI research symposium to be held in October. -------------------------------------------------- NOTE: The Arkansas Biosciences Institute is a partnership of scientists from the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, and Arkansas State University. It was created as part of the Tobacco Settlement Proceeds Act, approved in the fall, 2000, general election by a 64% majority of Arkansas voters. # # # PR
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Contact: 03/30/07 |
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