High-risk research

The pharmaceutical industry is much more research oriented than other industries and has to cope with higher risks. Due to the high development cost and long development times, risks must be eliminated as early and consequently as possible. Risk elimination must already start in the research phase and before the expensive industrial development commences. High-risk research projects need much time, thus they must be kept small and have to focus only on the major risk factors. Research projects should be clearly separated - if not physically, at least in mind - from the more rigid and much more expensive development. 

The DTP of the NCI thus complements the efforts of the pharmaceutical industry and other research organizations through undertaking the development of positive leads, which industry might consider too uncertain to sponsor, and conducting the high risk research necessary to determine their potential utility. 

Biorational approaches have proven useful in the development of classes of herbicides which inhibit essential metaboHc pathways common to all plants and thus are specific to plants and have low toxicity to mammalian species. Biorational herbicide development remains a high risk endeavor since promising high activities observed in the laboratory may be nullified by factors such as limitations in plant uptake and translocation, and the instabiHty or inactivity of biochemical en2yme inhibitors under the harsher environmental conditions in the field. Despite these recogni2ed drawbacks, biorational design of herbicides has shown sufficient potential to make the study of herbicide modes of action an important and growing research area. 

Proponents of the laboratories counter that, despite these shortcomings, the laboratories seiwe a vital mission of undertaking the high risk and expensive investments that the private sector would never agree to invest in. Although natural gas research and development was minimal, DOE support accelerated technological advances on natural gas-fired turbines. Much of the research and development at the laboratories has provided a net social benefit to the nation and economy, work such as safe nuclear reactors and the development of sophisticated defense weapons. 

The IBIS-I study was promoted by the UK Coordinating Committee for Cancer Research and supported by the Imperial Cancer Research Fund. A group of 7152 high-risk women were selected according to criteria related to familial cases of breast cancer, previous atypical biopsies, and parity. The most important group was that of women with two or more first- or second-degree relatives with breast cancer. For this group the yearly frequency of breast cancer, in the absence of any intervention, was calculated to be 7.50 per 1000 women. This proved to be accurate since the actual frequency in the placebo... 

Lenzenweger, M. F. (1993). Explorations in schizotypy and the psychometric high-risk paradigm. In L. J. Chapman, J. P. Chapman, D. Fowles (Eds.), Progress in experimental personality and psychopathology research (Vol. 16, pp. 66-116). New York Springer. 

Research has found that certain vulnerabilities can place a client in a high-risk situation for a relapse (Marlatt Donovan, in press Marlatt Gordon, 1985). 

The research described in this thesis deals with safety management in complex and high-risk organizations. Companies in the chemical process industry handling hazardous substances are chosen as the subject of study. In particular this thesis will focus on the current safety indication process, and how this safety indication process works and its shortfalls. An unreliable indication process, leads automatically to wrong reactions and measures to prevent possible accidents. Increased understanding of this process helps in providing a better basis from which effective measures to prevent accidents can be derived. 

Several other herbs have weaker evidence for CNS depressant effects, but hold potential for further research and evaluation. Certain herbs have also had historical use for treating epilepsy, before the invention of several modern, very effective synthetic antiseizure medications. There is, at present, absolutely no evidence that the CNS depressant herbs will be effective or sufficient in the treatment of epilepsy. Much further research would be needed to support this contention. Further, withdrawal of current antiseizure medications would put an individual at high risk for recurrence or worsening of seizures. 

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