March 2006

Introducing ...

A member of the RCS International Scientific Advisory Panel

When David Jackson, DC; Matthew McCoy, DC; and Robert Blanks, PhD founded Research & Clinical Science (RCS), they realized that the credibility and validity of the program would rely in great part on the quality of researchers chosen to analyze the data collected by chiropractors around the world.

They sought out a world‑class group of respected scientists with unimpeachable credentials and proven expertise in health care research. The result of their efforts was the RCS International Scientific Advisory Panel, a multi‑disciplinary group charged with overseeing the collection of, and analyzing, data compiled on hundreds of thousands of volunteers and chiropractic patients across the globe.

Each month during this special series, The Chiropractic Journal profiles one member of this prestigious panel.

Janet Blanks, PhD

Dr. Janet Blanks, Professor of Biomedical Science at Florida Atlantic University, focuses her research on gene therapy, genetic and vascular disorders of the eye.

The importance of this expertise to chiropractic may at first seem unclear, but our understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms (e.g., genetic, epigenetic, cell‑cycle regulation and vascular regulation) underlying the relationship between structure of the spine, nervous system activity and their influence over the body's recuperative powers will greatly advance the biology of chiropractic.

In fact, the Association of Chiropractic Colleges' definition of chiropractic is "... a health care discipline which emphasizes the inherent recuperative power of the body to heal itself without the use of drugs or surgery. The practice of chiropractic focuses on the relationship between structure (primarily the spine) and function (as coordinated by the nervous system) and how that relationship affects the preservation and restoration of health."

Moreover, many of the identified genetic disorders and disease entities are co‑morbid with stress and poor health lifestyle choices, issues that are profoundly influenced by promoting what is coming to be known as "the chiropractic lifestyle."

Dr. Blanks obtained her PhD from the Department of Anatomy at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Her thesis examined the pattern of photoreceptor degeneration in a strain of mice (termed rd for retinal degeneration) that become blind within 1‑2 months after birth.

This mouse strain has become a good animal model for a family of inherited retinal degenerative diseases in humans called retinitis pigmentosa. Blanks' earlier studies were pursued during her postdoctoral training at the Jules Stein Eye Institute at UCLA, the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt, Germany, and as an Instructor at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

Findings in other laboratories have defined the cause of blindness in the rd mice as a specific gene defect leading to the lack of an enzyme (namely, phosodiesterase) which is necessary for the detection of light by photoreceptor cells in the retina. In the absence of this enzyme, the light sensitive photoreceptor cells degenerate and the rd mice go blind.

Blanks expanded her studies to include the study of retinal ganglion cell degeneration that can sometimes be found in Alzheimer's disease and environmental factors, such as excessive exposure to light, that can contribute to loss of photoreceptors and eventual blindness.

Not only is cardiovascular disease the leading cause of death in western cultures, but vascular complications in the eye are also the major pathology in eye diseases such as age‑related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy often found in type II diabetics.

Blanks left Harvard Medical School in 1978 and joined the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Southern California where she spent almost 20 years at the Doheny Eye Institute conducting vision research, directing the CORE Morphology Facility in the Institute and teaching residents and fellow research design and retinal morphology.

She also taught medical students and trained graduate students while at USC Medical School. During this time she received numerous scientific distinctions including a Career Development Award from the National Eye Institute, the James S. Adams Scholar Research Award from Research to Prevent Blindness, Inc, a Fogarty Senior International Fellowship to work with investigator at the INSERM in Paris, France, and was appointed as a member of the Board of Scientific Counselors to the National Eye Institute, a part of the National Institutes of Health.

In 1997, she received the added distinction of becoming the first woman director of an Eye Institute in the United States when she was appointed Professor and Director of the Eye Research Institute, Oakland University (Rochester Hills, MI) where she remained for five years.

At the same time she was elected to a five‑year term as the Executive Vice President for the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO), the research and political action organization representing approximately 10,000 ophthalmologists, optometrists, and vision researchers.

Her role in the ARVO organization was to plan and organize the annual research meetings, assist with oversight of the ARVO infrastructure, and to help coordinate political outreach efforts to promote funding for vision research among members of Congress and the National Institutes of Health.

Through the leadership efforts of ARVO, funding for vision research has remained strong even in the face of severe cut‑backs in the funding at other NIH. Still seeking new challenges, she moved to Florida Atlantic University (Boca Raton, Florida) in 2002 as Professor and Vice‑Chairman of the Department of Biomedical Science, to help build a new medical school affiliated with the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

The program is now in its second year of operation and is growing with the addition of a major teaching hospital affiliation and the support of a large community based physician population.

Blanks maintains an active research program. She has published a total of 169 peer‑reviewed manuscripts, book chapters and abstracts over the past 30 years and has secured a total of $8.9 million in extramural funding from the NIH, State and private sources to support these efforts.

Her current NIH grant entitled "Hypoxia Regulated Gene Therapy for Neovascularization" examines the basic mechanisms underlying vessel proliferation that contributes to the severity of vision loss with age‑related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy. Factors contributing to inflammation and vascular abnormalities in the eye are common to many other conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, neuropathies and joint changes with diabetes, heart disease and stroke.

Blanks has received regular chiropractic care for the past 10 years, and views having conducted research and medical education in the nervous system as preparation for her contributing role on the RCS International Scientific Advisory Board.

She points out that "the clinical effects of chiropractic adjustment are likely to be manifested through a number of the increasingly well‑understood pathways controlling cellular and molecular processes of the cell. All that remains is to conduct research on the mechanisms linking spinal structure, nervous system function, and the full gamut of positive health changes experienced by patients undergoing chiropractic care."