Life at OSU

The fifth annual "Aware at the Square" event about antibiotics and other health issues will be Nov. 21 in Portland.

Americans spend billions to beautify their outermost organ – to make it softer and younger, to erase wrinkles, conceal freckles, fake a tan, or flaunt a tattoo.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Americans spend billions to beautify their outermost organ – to make it softer and younger, to erase wrinkles, conceal freckles, fake a tan, or flaunt a tattoo.

At the March 10 Corvallis Science Pub, Arup Indra of the Oregon State University College of Pharmacy will discuss what scientists know about skin development and what happens when things go awry. The Science Pub presentation, which is free and open to the public, begins at 6 p.m. in the Old World Deli located at 341 S.W. Second St. in Corvallis.

Indra and his wife, Gitali Indra, collaborate in studies of skin cell development. Their goal is to identify treatment options to help protect against diseases such as skin cancer and eczema. More cases of skin cancer are diagnosed in the United States every year than of breast, prostate, lung and colon cancer combined.

And while skin cancer rates vary geographically, the nation’s highest are in the Pacific Northwest.

Sponsors of Science Pub include Terra magazine at OSU, the Downtown Corvallis Association and the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.

OSU pharmacy students and Oregon AWARE will host a health education event in Portland on Friday, Nov. 22. The fourth annual “AWARE in the Square” event will be at Pioneer Courthouse Square from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.

A new genetic understanding of cervical cancer suggests that some antiviral therapies could actually trigger the cancer they are trying to cure.

A new drug delivery system could significantly improve the treatment of lung cancer, using nanotechnology as a carrier to inhale the chemotherapeutic drugs directly into the lungs.

Drug costs could be significantly reduced and health care improved if a long-standing relationship between physicians and drug company representatives were broken up.

Antibiotic resistance is now as bad in some outpatient, community settings as it is in hospitals, and researchers say more needs to be done to study the issue.

OSU pharmacy researchers have discovered that co-enzyme Q10 appears in laboratory tests to offset a serious side effect of statin drugs - an increase in adult onset diabetes.

OSU pharmacists have discovered the genetic basis for eczema, a skin disease that affects millions of people around the world. The findings may open the door to new therapies.