News Release

Disease outbreak detection, retinal gene therapy

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLOS

An epidemiological network model for disease outbreak detection

Advanced disease-surveillance systems have been deployed worldwide to provide early detection of infectious disease outbreaks and bioterrorist attacks. New methods that improve the overall detection capabilities of these systems can have a broad practical impact. However, most surveillance systems do not hold up when there are shifts in health care utilization such as caused by public-health crises and major public events, such as the Olympic Games. In this modeling paper Ben Reis and colleagues, from Harvard Medical School, developed models, known as network models, that were able to detect localized outbreaks better and which were more robust to unpredictable shifts in healthcare utilization

Citation: Reis BY, Kohane IS, Mandl KD (2007) An epidemiological network model for disease outbreak detection. PLoS Med 4(6): e210.

IN YOUR ARTICLE, PLEASE LINK TO THIS URL, WHICH WILL PROVIDE ACCESS TO THE PUBLISHED PAPER:
http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/"request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0040210

PRESS-ONLY PREVIEW OF THE ARTICLE: http://www.plos.org/press/plme-04-06-reis.pdf

CONTACT:

Ben Reis
Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology
Childrens Hospital Informatics Program
1 Autumn St Room 540.1
Boston, MA 02115
United States of America
+1 617 355 5848
+1 617 730 0267 (fax)
reis@mit.edu


Canine and human visual cortex intact and responsive despite early retinal blindness from RPE65 mutation

The study by Geoffrey Aguirre and colleagues suggests that retinal gene therapy can improve retinal, visual pathway, and visual cortex responses to light stimulation, even after prolonged periods of blindness and in congenitally blind patients.

Citation: Aguirre GK, Komáromy AM, Cideciyan AV, Brainard DH, Alemán TS, et al. (2007) Canine and human visual cortex intact and responsive despite early retinal blindness from RPE65 mutation. PLoS Med 4(7): e230.

IN YOUR ARTICLE, PLEASE LINK TO THIS URL, WHICH WILL PROVIDE ACCESS TO THE PUBLISHED PAPER:
http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/"request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0040230

PRESS-ONLY PREVIEW OF THE ARTICLE: http://www.plos.org/press/plme-04-06-jacobson.pdf

CONTACT:

Samuel Jacobson
University of Pennsylvania Scheie Eye Institute
Ophthalmology
51 North 39th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104-2689
United States of America
+1 215-662-9981
+1 215-662-9388 (fax)
jacobsos@mail.med.upenn.edu

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PLoS Medicine is an open access, freely available international medical journal. It publishes original research that enhances our understanding of human health and disease, together with commentary and analysis of important global health issues. For more information, visit http://www.plosmedicine.org

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