those kind of predictive measures are called biomarkers. one of our top priorities is to find and validate those kinds of biomarkers for clinical use so we'll know if treatments are working as quickly as possible. this leads me to the crucial issue of clinical trials. until a couple of years ago, we focused primarily on trying to treat people with unmistakable symptoms of advanced alzheimer's. those who had already lost many of their brain cells. the results, i'm sorry to say, have been almost entirely discouraging. but today, we are focused on earlier interventions. so many of our newest clinical trials are actually looking at presymptom attic patients who are at high risk but don't yet show symptoms. one of these is a five-year clinical trial to see if an antibody treatment aimed at amyloid can prevent cognitive decline by starting the treatment before any symptoms appear. in a unique situation, we're testing this among members of a very large family in columbia as well as some u.s. patients, who share a dominantly inherited had genetic m

those kind of predictive measures are called biomarkers.ne of our top priorities is to find and validate those kinds of biomarkers for clinical use so we'll know if treatments are working as quickly as possible. this leads me to the crucial issue of clinical trials. until a couple of years ago, we focused primarily on trying to treat people with unmistakable symptoms of advanced alzheimer's. those who had already lost many of their brain cells. the results, i'm sorry to say, have been almost entirely discouraging. but today, we are focused on earlier interventions. so many of our newest clinical trials are actually looking at presymptom attic patients who are at high risk but don't yet show symptoms. one of these is a five-year clinical trial to see if an antibody treatment aimed at amyloid can prevent cognitive decline by starting the treatment before any symptoms appear. in a unique situation, we're testing this among members of a very large family in columbia as well as some u.s. patients, who share a dominantly inherited had genetic mu

eventually, we'll have biomarkers, and we can spit into a cup and be able to analyze that, looking at the cortisol levels, et cetera. those days are not here yet, but we're going in that direction very quickly. my heart goes out to her and to everyone working with veterans close to suicide. because they vicariously experience this terrible loss themselves. but i know that the army is doing all they can to work on this issue. and indeed, the rate has gone down. my hope is that we would study why it has gone down, as well as the reasons it's going up. part of it is the end of the war, which is useful, in terms of causing less distress. this is not a new finding, and i know ron knows this, that in the past, there have been efforts to pin deployment on suicide rates, and it's not the case. because those who are not deployed -- in other words, it's not an issue, but we can't look inside of the minds of those who haven't been deployed yet and know that they're going to be deployed, especially if they are enlisted. so we can't rule out the shadows on those who took their lives. >> we're goin

that measurement in the blood is a biomarker, or a biologic marker. what it means is that, rather than asking you about your exposures, i am measuring the exposure or the effect of the exposure in your body. and what we are doing is we are measuring the insecticide in the mother's blood at birth and in the baby's blood at birth. narrator: dr. deliang tang is in charge of the lab at columbia university where the blood samples are tested. these tests pick up even the smallest levels of exposure in the blood. each spike on this graph indicates a separate compound and the amount found in the sample. man: we're measuring a very, very trace amount in the blood. in order to detect it as tra amount, we have to avoid the contamination in all process, from the sample collection to the measurement. every single step we have to test is any contamination in there. so we are very, very careful on those biological specimens. narrator: but this lab is not the only one used in the study. many samples are shipped to other labs around the world, with the lab at columbia

we can track the effect justifiness of treatment through biomarkers. biomarkers are what we know now and as we learn about the progress of disease. everything is about translation and in fact in the planning process now and years beyond with the benefit of this increased funding by appropriation we'll be looking at precisely the right balance of initiatives across this whole spectrum from discovery, to translation, to clinical trials. this is an ongoing effort. we'll meet periodically with the best minds in the nation and internationally to revise those plans, but translation is what is primarily in mind for this whole effort and i think progress at each of tlefls from basic science through clinical trials will support acceleration with full utilization of the resources made available to us. >> let me add one other translational thing that's exciting and that's stem cell. to take a skin biopsy or skin sample and by adding four genes convince those cells to go back in time. then having achieved that, add a certain number of growth factors and convince t

we take the tumor out or we also have a drug that is a direct injection, when we relate to the biomarkerss in the tumor, we are then taking the cells out of your body and they are the master of your entire immune system, and so by exposing the biomarkers that we breakout from the tumor tissue to the lab were inside your body, we basically tell your immune system to go after your cancer and nothing else instead of getting poison which is what chemo does, this only targets, and we're getting on average years of additional life. stuart: you're pointing the way for my immune system to go get that thing. here is where it is, here' herew you kill this thing. >> and only that thing. stuart: you got permission to germany to go forward with what part of this process? is this a really big deal? >> this is really a breakthrough because first and foremost what is going to happen is we are in a position to make available this drug to people outside the setting of a clinical trial. you cannot do that here yet. stuart: ordinary people in germany can get this? >> under a special program which says if you

the presence of these biomarkers are revealed to show the break downed of blood, whether the person would develop alzheimer's disease within three years. >> in this study we sought to find a set of circulating molecules in the blood of individuals who were cognitively normal that would allow us to predict who in the next several years will develop cognitive impairment or alzheimer's disease and that is exactly what we found. >> the scientists say they're investigating whether the test will work earlier than three years before the onset of symptoms and say the sooner the disease can be discovered, the more effective therapies can be to slow or prevent it. >> this observation that we are reporting suggests that we may be able to use this diagnostic to enroll subjects to test for the first time whether disease modifying therapies in those at risk, not those that already have the disease, might be able to delay or perhaps abrogate that group of individuals from developing alzheimer's disease. >> the test will now be su larger clinical trials. and if confirmed as effective, will be a huge adva

it also gives clues as to what might be biomarkers for identifying autism at very young ages, perhaps as early as at the age of one to two years. so that kids can be identified at much younger ages, be referred for treatment at much younger ages and thereby have a better outcome. >> woodruff: well, there is-- it's fascinating research. and we appreciate your joining us, eric courchesne, thank you. >> well thank you, it was good to be here. >> ifill: we turn now to the business of finding and hiring foreign nurses for the american health care system. the demand is great but, for some, so are the risks. newshour special correspondent fred de sam lazaro reports from the philippines. >> reporter: every few minutes at this manila nursing school, a mannequin is born. students are trained on a range of childbirth scenarios, simulated on robotic patients. but real life, whether in operating rooms or the job market these days will be far trickier. nursing has long been a highly sought-after profession in the philippines-mainly because it is seen as a ticket to a well-paid job outside the count

these biomarkers are the critical things.we hope these will be much more reliable and predictive. >> thank you for being here, and i yield back. >> thank you. generally, this would end, but we have questions, we are going to do a second round. plus, the bells are not going to go off for another seven minutes. jan has a conflict and she has given us approval that she is going to leave, but she trusts us to ask legitimate questions. >> let me thank this panel, in the previous panel as well. the intensity of the scientific research and then its application to the playing field and so many other fields, i really want to thank you for telling us what is going on. i also wanted to thank ian heaton for coming here today. it is important to have people like brianna and ian to tell their stories and give us a face to the importance of this, and i want to thank the ftc for making sure that false claims are not made, but this is so important, so appreciated. we will have to figure out where it leaves us, that it has informed us. thank y

these biomarkers are the critical things. we hope these will be much more reliable and predictive. >> thank you for being here, and i yield back. >> thank you. generally, this would end, but we have questions, we are going to do a second round. plus, the bells are not going to go off for another seven minutes. jan has a conflict and she has given us approval that she is going to leave, but she trusts us to ask legitimate questions. >> let me thank this panel, in the previous panel as well. the intensity of the scientific research and then its application to the playing field and so many other fields, i really want to thank you for telling us what is going on. i also wanted to thank ian heaton for coming here today. it is important to have people like brianna and ian to tell their stories and give us a face to the importance of this, and i want to thank the ftc for making sure that false claims are not made, but this is so important, so appreciated. we will have to figure out where it leaves us, that it has informed us. thank

this will help us start to develop biomarkers like ways that we know autism is present and then understandonce you find that what will you do? what does it lead to? >> so the oerl that we can discover autism the brain is more plastic the younger the brain is meaning that we can intervene. and we want to intervene, the frontier of intervention is earlier and earlier and earlier. so we want even in that first year of life to know something so they that we can start to change what we do and help coax and nudge those brain path ways into connection. >> all right. dr. nishawala, thank you. >>> another spoiler alert. can't say that enough because people get very upset. if you're a fan of if the the good wife" put your tv on mute right now. you might still be asking why did they kill off will gardner. the time behind the cbs drama tells charlie why it means the start of something more. that's next on "cbs this morning." >>> this portion of "cbs this morning" sponsored by toyota. let's go places. buy a camry. good timing. great choice. it took me to victory lane seven times last year. can i get yo

chapel hill years later looked at the blood of people who suffered these symptoms found clear biomarkers of radiation exposure and sure enough found an increase of things like leukemia and lung cancer two to ten fold higher than would be expected in the downwind areas so one you know this myth is out there that no one died at three mile island well you know there's a lot of families who've lost people that things like cancer in the years sell this any estimate of how many people actually have died as a result through i don't have a figure in my head but what i do have you know seared in my memory are are these testimonials from people who suffered severe ailments in the aftermath sometimes immediately and also this is you know some of the best farming country in the world actually so farmers who had deaths among their cattle herd there was one family that raised exotic birds and they actually had five hundred birds die all of a sudden all at once for no apparent cause and what arnie gundersen at fairwinds points out is if this concentrated plume in the air was very still for days on end