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Dialog^® Analysis Shows Autophagy Research Rising Steeply

As cell turnover shows promise in biomedicine, US leads in research and China comes on strong in patents

March 24, 2010 (Morrisville, NC) — A new report by Dialog^®, a leader in online information services for professional searchers, shows a significant increase in research in autophagy, a biological process of cellular self-eating that prevents the body from accumulating unneeded cellular products. A related uptick in patent activity suggests that the biomedical industry is applying the research, which may lead to a new area of prescription drugs, clinical trials and research on cures for disease. While the U.S. and U.K. dominate in published research, China's aggressive autophagy-related patent activity suggests that it's poised to become a global leader in translating research into medical advancements. The full report is published in Dialog's Eye on Innovation.

"We can see clearly from our analysis that a breakthrough in gene research at the close of the 20th century sparked significant interest in the role of autophagy in health and its contribution to disease," said Suzanne BeDell, Dialog General Manager. "This report shows that research is now translating into patent activity, which in turn, provides clues as to which countries are going to be the hot spots for the development of new medicines and new research."

Dialog's analysis focused on capturing the source of published research and identifying the most influential works through an examination of cited references. That analysis was bolstered with a summary of patent activity by country to determine where research is inspiring ideas and innovation. The U.S. is the clear leader in both published research and patents, but China shows greater overall growth, especially in patents. In fact, since 2002, China has overtaken Japan, Germany, Canada, France and the U.K. in number of autophagy-related patent applications. Second only to the U.S., which has filed 33 patent applications since 2002 — China has 10 patent applications in the area, all within the past three years.

The results echo a report published by Dialog in January which suggested that American manufacturers continue to be the center of innovation in the global medical device market, but Chinese manufacturers are increasing their activity and are poised for continuing growth.

"China's impact on global research is becoming more and more important," said Ms. BeDell. "This report suggests that China is exploring many types of medical research, including emerging areas that may lead to important advancements."

Dialog supplies content and technology to help organizations drive innovation. Users rely on Dialog to discover, validate and market. To learn more about the source of innovation in autophagy-related advances visit dialog.com to read the article in Eye on Innovation.

About Dialog
Dialog (www.dialog.com), a pioneer of online searching in advance of the internet, is the global leader in providing mission-critical information that drives research in science, engineering, business and intellectual property. The online services provided by Dialog — offered through the Dialog^® and DataStar^® brands — give users the ability to search through more than 1.5 billion unique records from the world's most authoritative publishers. Sources include in-depth, deep web repositories of scientific, technical and biomedical data, patents and trademarks, and thousands of industry, news and company information sources. Librarians, researchers and information users from corporate, professional and government organizations in more than 100 countries prize Dialog for depth of content, precision searching and the ability to provide complete solutions.

Dialog, LLC, part of the ProQuest (www.proquest.com) family of brands, is headquartered in Morrisville, North Carolina, with offices in Sunnyvale, California, and London.

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