NEWS OF THE WEEK MATERIALS
SCIENCE
LIQUID-CRYSTAL LENSES Spectacles made with switchable material could advance vision correction IFOCAL LENSES AND T H E with nematic liquid crystals can easily change their focusing power, dizziness anddisœmfort that optics researchers have eagerly come from gazing through eyed them as potential replacethem could become a thing of the ments for multifocal lenses. But past, thanks to new liquid-crystal these efforts have been hamstrung lenses that quickly switch between corrective states (Proc. Natl. Acad. by slow response times associated with the relatively thick layers of Set. USA, published online April 5, dx.doi.org/10.1073/ liquid crystal required. Now, a group led by University pnas.0600850 of Arizona optical scientists Guo103). qiang Li and Nasser PeyghambarBecause ian have come up with a lens design lenses made
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FOUR EYES What these prototype liquid-crystal spectacles lack in fashion sense, they make up in tech savvy.
PHARMACEUTICALS
WYETH AND SCOTS IN RESEARCH PACT Partners will spend $87 million on translational medicine R&D effort TOP FLIGHT The Translational Medicine Research Collaboration will locate its central lab at Scotland's University of Dundee.
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YETH PHARMACEUTI-
cals and the Health Ministry of Scotland have formed the Translational Medi cine Research Collaboration. With the support of Scotland's National Health Service (NHS) and eco nomic development agency, Scottish Enterprise, TMRC will combine efforts at Wyeth with those of four Scottish medical universities. Scottish Enterprise says it will invest $30 million in the collabo ration; Wyeth will contribute $57 million in the first five years and has an option to continue funding over another five years. Translational medicine seeks
2006
to integrate drug research and development and patient response to create new, more personalized therapies and diagnostics. It is a part ofNIH's Roadmap for Medi cal Research, and many major drug firms, including Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline, and Wyeth, have established internal translational research groups to increase the information flow between their R&D and clinical programs as a means to improve productivity in both areas. In addition, AstraZeneca is collaborating with M. D. Anderson Cancer Center and the University of Pennsylvania School ofMedicine.
that uses a liquid-crystal layer just 5 μηι thick. Prototype spectacles made with these lenses can change focus in less than a second and re quire only low voltage. The lens design features a liq uid-crystal layer sandwiched be tween two thin sheets of glass. Tiny electrodes photolithographically patterned onto the glass in concentric circles adjust the ma terial's optical properties. Currently, "the device just has on and off states," Li says. "When it's on, it has focusing power and can be used like reading glasses, and when it's off, it's just like clear glass." Li and Peyghambarian would like to combine the lenses with an autofocusing device. "In the future, we're going to incorporate near vi sion, intermediate vision, and far vision," Li adds, so that in theory, you could buy one pair of glasses that could be adjusted through out your lifetime as your vision changes.-BETHANY HALF0RD
"Translational medicine is a key success factor to the develop ment of the next generation of innovative medicines," said Frank S. Walsh, Wyeth's executive vice president and head of discovery re search, in announcing the deal. T M R C will include a cen tral laboratory at the University of Dundee that will work with centers of excellence at Dundee and universities in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, and Glasgow. Clini cal research programs will be set up at each of the universities' medical schools. The program is expected to create 50 new jobs at the central lab and as many as 120 overall. TMRC's goals include the identification of biomarkers. These biological or chemical indicators can help identify groups of pa tients that may respond best to a given treatment. The research ers intend to use biomarkers to follow the progress and response of patients in specialized clinical trials.-ANN THAYER WWW.CEN-0NLINE.ORG
