Archive for March, 2015

PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 18 (UPI) -- Scientists have proven successful in engineering immune cells to track down and attack cancer cells. The heat-seeking T cells have proven effective in controlling brain tumor growth in mice, and have also shown promise as a potential treatment for two types of leukemia.

The new treatment technique is specific to cancers that express the protein EGFRvIII. Roughly a third of all glioblastomas -- the most common and aggressive type of brain tumor -- feature EGFRvIII. Tumors that express the protein tend to be the most aggressive and the most resistant to traditional treatments.

The unique treatment begins with the extraction of blood from the cancer patient. The sample's T cells, the body's main blood-bound immune cell, are isolated and trained to hunt down a specific protein via gene therapy.

The engineered T cells are then reintroduced to the patient. The cells seek out the tumor, binding to the surface of the EGFRvIII-expressing cells and inhibiting growth.

"A series of Penn trials that began in 2010 have found that engineered T cells have an effect in treating some blood cancers, but expanding this approach into solid tumors has posed challenges," lead study author Dr. Marcela Maus, an assistant professor of oncology at the University of Pennsylvania's Abramson Cancer Center, explained in a press release.

"A challenging aspect of applying engineered T cell technology is finding the best targets that are found on tumors but not normal tissues," Maus added. "This is the key to making this kind of T cell therapy both effective and safe."

While the cancer-hunting T cells weren't enough to thwart cancer alone, when mice with human brain tumors were treated simultaneously with chemotherapy and targeted T cell therapy, researchers were able to control the growth of the glioblastomas.

The treatment was safe and effective enough to move onto a Phase 2 trial, with human patients. Twelve people with EGFRvIII-expressing brain cancer have already begun the experimental treatment.

Researchers say a similar technique could allow scientists to engineer T cells to thwart leukemia, as well.

The new study was published this week in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

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Personalized T cell therapy shows promise in stopping brain tumor growth

WSCS 2014: REGENERATIVE MEDICINE: A NEW ERA OF DISCOVERY AND INNOVATION
Moderator - John Sterling, Genetic Engineering Biotechnology News Speakers - Marie Csete, MD, PhD, Huntington Medical Research Institute Aubrey de Grey, ...

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WSCS 2014: REGENERATIVE MEDICINE: A NEW ERA OF DISCOVERY AND INNOVATION - Video

IMAGE:Tissue Engineering is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published monthly online and in print in three parts: Part A, the flagship journal published 24 times per year; Part B: Reviews, published... view more

Credit: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers

New Rochelle, NY, February 17, 2015--In creating engineered tissues intended to repair or regenerate damaged or diseased human tissues, the goal is to build three-dimensional tissue constructs densely packed with living cells. The Bio-P3, an innovative instrument able to pick up, transport, and assemble multi-cellular microtissues to form larger tissue constructs is described in an article in Tissue Engineering, Part C: Methods, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Tissue Engineering website until March 20th, 2015.

Andrew Blakely, MD, Kali Manning, Anubhav Tripathi, PhD, and Jeffrey Morgan, PhD, Rhode Island Hospital and Brown University, Providence, RI, developed the manual Bio-P3 device, and in the article "Bio-Pick, Place, and Perfuse: A New Instrument for 3D Tissue Engineering," they explain how the device is able to grip, transport, and release multi-cellular microtissues grown in the laboratory, with minimal effects on the viability of the cells or the structure of the microtissue construct. The authors describe the design of the device's gripper and build heads and the peristaltic pump-driven fluid dynamics used to create and maintain contact between the device heads and the microtissues. They discuss applications of the device, the potential for automation, challenges, and future directions.

"This device can be the long-expected breakthrough in the field of regenerative medicine and hopefully allow the fabrication of large 3D organs and tissues," says John A. Jansen, DDS, PhD, Co-Editor-in-Chief Tissue Engineering, Part C: Methods and Professor and Head of Dentistry, Radboud University Medical Center, The Netherlands.

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About the Journal

Tissue Engineering is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published monthly online and in print in three parts: Part A, the flagship journal published 24 times per year; Part B: Reviews, published bimonthly, and Part C: Methods, published 12 times per year. Led by Co-Editors-In-Chief Antonios Mikos, PhD, Louis Calder Professor at Rice University, Houston, TX, and Peter C. Johnson, MD, Vice President, Research and Development and Medical Affairs, Vancive Medical Technologies, an Avery Dennison business, and President and CEO, Scintellix, LLC, Raleigh, NC, the Journal brings together scientific and medical experts in the fields of biomedical engineering, material science, molecular and cellular biology, and genetic engineering. Tissue Engineering is the official journal of the Tissue Engineering & Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS). Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed online at the Tissue Engineering website.

About the Publisher

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Stem Cells and Development, Human Gene Therapy, and Advances in Wound Care. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 80 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.

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New device enables 3-D tissue engineering with multicellular building blocks

IMAGE:This is a figure depicting four regulatory models for genome-edited crops. view more

Credit: Araki, M. and Ishii, T./Trends in Plant Science 2015

A survey of rice, wheat, barley, fruit, and vegetable crops found that most mutants created by advanced genetic engineering techniques may be out of the scope of current genetically modified organism (GMO) regulations. In a review of these findings, published in the February 25 issue of the Cell Press journal Trends in Plant Science, two bioethicists from Hokkaido University propose new regulatory models for genome-edited crops and declare a call to action for clarifying the social issues associated with such genetically engineered crops.

"Modern genome editing technology has allowed for far more efficient gene modification, potentially impacting future agriculture," says Tetsuya Ishii, PhD, of Hokkaido University's Office of Health and Safety. "However, genome editing raises a regulatory issue by creating indistinct boundaries in GMO regulations because the advanced genetic engineering can, without introducing new genetic material, make a gene modification which is similar to a naturally occurring mutation."

Under current regulations, a GMO is a living organism that has been altered by a novel combination of genetic material, including the introduction of a transgene. Advanced genetic engineering technologies, including ZFN, TALEN, and CRISPR/Cas9, raise regulatory issues because they don't require transgenes to make alterations to the genome. They can simply pluck out a short DNA sequence or add a mutation to an existing gene.

"Genome editing technology is advancing rapidly; therefore it is timely to review the regulatory system for plant breeding by genome editing," says Dr. Ishii. "Moreover, we need to clarify the differences between older genetic engineering techniques and modern genome editing, and shed light on various issues towards social acceptance of genome edited crops."

In their study, Dr. Ishii and a member of his research staff, Motoko Araki, present four regulatory models in order to resolve the indistinct regulatory boundaries that genome editing has created in GMO regulations. They propose that the most stringent regulation (in which most of the mutants are subject to the regulations, whereas only a portion of deletion and insertion mutants fall outside the regulations) should be initially adopted and gradually relaxed because the cultivation and food consumption of genome-edited crops is likely to increase in the near future.

While policy-level discussions about the regulations of genome-edited organisms are slowly taking place around the world, according to Dr. Ishii, his study will serve as a basis for the conversation with regulatory agencies in the world as well as the Japanese Ministry of the Environment.

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Trends in Plant Science, Araki, M. and Ishii, T.: "Towards social acceptance of plant breeding by genome-editing"

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Regulating genome-edited crops that (according to current regulations) aren't GMOs

IMAGE:Light-activated genetic manipulation is demonstrated by shining light through a stencil to turn on fluorescent genes in cells. view more

Credit: Charles Gersbach, Duke University

DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University researchers have devised a method to activate genes in any specific location or pattern in a lab dish with the flip of a light switch by crossing a bacterium's viral defense system with a flower's response to sunlight.

With the ability to use light to activate genes in specific locations, researchers can better study genes' functions, create complex systems for growing tissue, and perhaps eventually realize science-fiction-like healing technologies.

The study was led by Charles Gersbach, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Duke University, and published on February 9 in Nature Chemical Biology.

"This technology should allow a scientist to pick any gene on any chromosome and turn it on or off with light, which has the potential to transform what can be done with genetic engineering" said Lauren Polstein, a Duke PhD student and lead author on the work. "The advantage of doing this with light is we can quickly and easily control when the gene gets turned on or off and the level to which it is activated by varying the light's intensity. We can also target where the gene gets turned on by shining the light in specific patterns, for example by passing the light through a stencil."

The new technique targets specific genes using an emerging genetic engineering system called CRISPR/Cas9. Discovered as the system bacteria use to identify viral invaders and slice up their DNA, the system was co-opted by researchers to precisely target specific genetic sequences.

The Duke scientists then turned to another branch of the evolutionary tree to make the system light-activated.

In many plants, two proteins lock together in the presence of light, allowing plants to sense the length of day which determines biological functions like flowering. By attaching the CRISPR/Cas9 system to one of these proteins and gene-activating proteins to the other, the team was able to turn several different genes on or off just by shining blue light on the cells.

"The light-sensitive interacting proteins exist independently in plants," explained Gersbach. "What we've done is attached the CRISPR and the activator to each of them. This builds on similar systems developed by us and others, but because we're now using CRISPR to target particular genes, it's easier, faster and cheaper than other technologies."

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Controlling genes with light

IMAGE:Soft Robotics, a peer-reviewed journal published quarterly online with Open Access options and in print, combines advances in biomedical engineering, biomechanics, mathematical modeling, biopolymer chemistry, computer science, and tissue engineering... view more

Credit: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers

New Rochelle, NY, March 9, 2015-- A novel, fully untethered soft robot capable of repeated jumping is able to cover half a meter in a single hop-and-roll motion. The innovative design of this combustion-powered robot, based on a roly-poly toy, and how it returns to an upright position after each jump are described in a fascinating study published in Soft Robotics, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available on the Soft Robotics website.

In the article "An Untethered, Jumping Roly-Poly Soft Robot Driven by Combustion", Michael Loepfe, Christoph Schumacher, Urs Lustenberger, and Wendelin Stark, Institute for Chemical and Bioengineering (Zurich, Switzerland), describe a soft robot powered by a mixture of nitrous oxide/propane/butane gas that can function even over rough terrain. The authors provide a detailed description of the activity of the robot and suggest future advances that could improve the jumping ability and performance of the robot.

"Although this robot is a hybrid of soft and hard components, I think it demonstrates how incorporating new materials can open up all sorts of robot capabilities," says Editor-in-Chief Barry A. Trimmer, PhD, who directs the Neuromechanics and Biomimetic Devices Laboratory at Tufts University (Medford, MA).

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About the Journal

Soft Robotics, a peer-reviewed journal published quarterly online with Open Access options and in print, combines advances in biomedical engineering, biomechanics, mathematical modeling, biopolymer chemistry, computer science, and tissue engineering to present new approaches to the creation of robotic technology and devices that can undergo dramatic changes in shape and size in order to adapt to various environments. Led by Editor-in-Chief Barry A. Trimmer, PhD, and a distinguished team of Associate Editors, the Journal provides the latest research and developments on topics such as soft material creation, characterization, and modeling; flexible and degradable electronics; soft actuators and sensors; control and simulation of highly deformable structures; biomechanics and control of soft animals and tissues; biohybrid devices and living machines; and design and fabrication of conformable machines. Tables of content and a sample issue can be viewed on the Soft Robotics website.

About the Publisher

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science, technology, and biomedical research, including 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing and Tissue Engineering. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 80 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.

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Jumping, roly-poly, untethered robot described in Soft Robotics journal

IMAGE:Industrial Biotechnology, led by Co-Editors-in-Chief Larry Walker, PhD, Biological and Environmental Engineering Department, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, and Glenn Nedwin, PhD, MoT, CEO and President, Taxon Biosciences, Tiburon, CA, is... view more

Credit: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers

New Rochelle, NY, February 19, 2015--Novel nanomaterials derived from cellulose have many promising industrial applications, are biobased and biodegradable, and can be produced at relatively low cost. Their potential toxicity--whether ingested, inhaled, on contact with the skin, or on exposure to cells within the body--is a topic of intense discussion, and the latest evidence and insights on cellulose nanocrystal toxicity are presented in a Review article in Industrial Biotechnology, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available on the Industrial Biotechnology website.

Maren Roman, PhD, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, describes the preparation of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) and highlights the key factors that are an essential part of studies to assess the potential adverse health effects of CNCs by various types of exposure. In the article "Toxicity of Cellulose Nanocrystals: A Review" , Dr. Roman discusses the current literature on the pulmonary, oral, dermal, and cytotoxicity of CNCs, provides an in-depth view on their effects on human health, and suggests areas for future research.

The article is part of an IB IN DEPTH special research section entitled "Cellulose Nanotechnology: Fundamentals and Applications," led by Guest Editors Jose Moran-Mirabal, PhD and Emily Cranston, PhD, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada. In addition to the Review article by Dr. Roman, the issue includes Reviews by M. Rose, M. Babi, and J. Moran-Mirabal ("The Study of Cellulose Structure and Depolymerization Through Single-Molecule Methods") and by X.F. Zhao and W.T. Winter ("Cellulose/cellulose-based nanospheres: Perspectives and prospective"); Original Research articles by A. Rivkin, T. Abitbol, Y. Nevo, et al. ("Bionanocomposite films from resilin-CBD bound to cellulose nanocrystals), and P. Criado, C. Fraschini, S. Salmieri, et al. ("Evaluation of antioxidant cellulose nanocrystals and applications in gellan gum films"); and the Overview article "Cellulose Nanotechnology on the Rise," by Drs. Moran-Mirabal and Cranston.

"A comprehensive and objective assessment of the environmental toxicity of cellulose nanocrystals is important for deployment of these crystals for a number of exciting industrial biotechnology applications," says Co-Editor-in-Chief Larry Walker, PhD, Biological and Environmental Engineering Department, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.

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About the Journal

Industrial Biotechnology , led by Co-Editors-in-Chief Larry Walker, PhD, Biological and Environmental Engineering Department, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, and Glenn Nedwin, PhD, MoT, CEO and President, Taxon Biosciences, Tiburon, CA, is an authoritative journal focused on biobased industrial and environmental products and processes, published bimonthly in print and online. The Journal reports on the science, technology, business, and policy developments of the emerging global bioeconomy, including biobased production of energy and fuels, chemicals, materials, and consumer goods. The articles published include critically reviewed original research in all related sciences (biology, biochemistry, chemical and process engineering, agriculture), in addition to expert commentary on current policy, funding, markets, business, legal issues, and science trends. Industrial Biotechnology offers the premier forum bridging basic research and R&D with later-stage commercialization for sustainable biobased industrial and environmental applications.

About the Publisher

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Potential toxicity of cellulose nanocrystals examined in Industrial Biotechnology journal

IMAGE:Journal of Women's Health, published monthly, is a core multidisciplinary journal dedicated to the diseases and conditions that hold greater risk for, or are more prevalent among women,... view more

Credit: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers

New Rochelle, NY, February 23, 2015--Even as more women are pursuing careers in academic medicine, and now comprise 20% of full-time faculty in medical schools, they are not rising to senior leadership positions in similar numbers as men. The National Faculty Study evaluated the gender climate in academic medicine and identified several factors related to the current work environment that are contributing to this disparity, and these are described in an article in Journal of Women's Health, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Journal of Women's Health website until March 23, 2015.

Coauthors Phyllis Carr, MD, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School (Boston, MA), Christine Gunn and Samantha Kaplan, MD, Boston University School of Medicine, Anita Raj, PhD, University of California, San Diego, and Karen Freund, MD, Tufts University School of Medicine (Boston, MA), found a lack of gender equality in the following areas: fewer women achieving leadership positions, disparities in salary, more women leaving academic medicine, and a disproportionate burden of family responsibilities and of balancing work and home life on women's career advancement. Better methods to track the careers of women and greater institutional oversight of the gender climate are needed, conclude the authors of the article "Inadequate Progress for Women in Academic Medicine: Findings from the National Faculty Study."

"Despite some progress in improving the climate for women in academic medicine, inequities persist that must be addressed," says Susan G. Kornstein, MD, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Women's Health, Executive Director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Institute for Women's Health, Richmond, VA, and President of the Academy of Women's Health.

"The powerful effect of innate bias has been documented. Its effect in the academic medicine sphere needs to be considered," says Rita R. Colwell, PhD, President of the Rosalind Franklin Society and Distinguished University Professor, University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.

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About the Journal

Journal of Women's Health, published monthly, is a core multidisciplinary journal dedicated to the diseases and conditions that hold greater risk for, or are more prevalent among women, as well as diseases that present differently in women. The Journal covers the latest advances and clinical applications of new diagnostic procedures and therapeutic protocols for the prevention and management of women's healthcare issues. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Journal of Women's Health website. Journal of Women's Health is the official journal of the Academy of Women's Health and the Society for Women's Health Research.

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Why don't more women rise to leadership positions in academic medicine?

Researchers find link between burden of genetic risk factors and reduction of cardiovascular death and heart attacks with statin therapy

Research has demonstrated that the risk for developing coronary heart disease depends on a host of risk factors that are related both to lifestyle and genetics. In a new study from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), researchers tested whether a composite of genetic variants could identify the risk of cardiovascular death and heart attacks as well as identify individuals who derived greater clinical benefit from statin therapy.

Researchers found that a genetic risk score identified individuals at increased risk for cardiovascular death or a heart attack, both in individuals with and without known coronary disease, with individuals in the highest genetic risk score group having more than a 70 percent increase in the risk of cardiovascular death or a heart attack compared to the lowest risk group. Moreover, the individuals with the highest burden of genetic risk had the largest benefit with statin therapy in terms of reducing the risk of cardiovascular death or heart attacks, with three times the absolute risk reduction seen in the low risk group. These findings are published in the March 3 issue of The Lancet.

"These findings could play an important role in helping physicians understand which patients will benefit the most from statin therapy," said Jessica L. Mega, MD, MPH, first author of the research paper and a cardiologist and Senior Investigator in the TIMI Study Group at BWH.

"Current clinical guidelines base treatment indications, in part, on the estimated 10-year risk of having an event," added Nathan Stitziel, MD, PhD, co-first author of the report and a cardiologist at Washington University in St. Louis. "It is possible that a genetic score such as this one might help refine these risk estimates in the future."

Researchers examined data from 48,421 individuals who experienced 3,477 cardiac events during the study period, and evaluated the association of a genetic risk score, based on 27 known genetic variants, with a first time or repeat cardiac event. After grouping patients by genetic risk, researchers then evaluated the role of statin therapy in reducing the risk of a cardiac event in each group.

They report that those with the lowest genetic risk score had the lowest risk of a first-time or recurring cardiac event, such as heart attack or stroke. In terms of the benefit of statin therapy, researchers observed an increase in both absolute and relative risk reduction across the low, intermediate and high genetic risk categories.

"Over the last five years, we have identified more than two dozen genetic variants that increase risk for heart attack," said Sekar Kathiresan, MD, director of Preventive Cardiology at MGH and co-senior author of the paper. "We wondered if those at highest genetic risk would enjoy the greatest benefit from statin therapy with respect to preventing a first heart attack. This looks to be the case."

"This knowledge will allow us, as cardiologists, to provide more personalized treatment for our patients," said Marc S. Sabatine, MD, MPH, a cardiologist at BWH, chairman of the TIMI Study Group and co-senior author of the paper.

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Genetic risk linked to clinical benefit of statin therapy

White Houses move to develop customized care prompts worries about data security and informed consent

Credit: Thinkstock/ImageSource

A new effort to create tailor-made medicine for patients around the U.S. is getting a boost from a $215-million presidential initiative. Its an ambitious undertaking fraught with concerns about patient privacy, funding and how such data would be stored. But because its such an innovative idea, there are few blueprints to work with. The broad federal effort, first announced during Pres. Barack Obamas State of the Union address and then fleshed out with a few more details and a presidential East Room address last week, would create a personal health care information database of more than a million individuals. In addition to patient histories the endeavor would include genetic data and information from devices like wearable health monitors, and the collection of bacteria, fungi and viruses in and on the body called the microbiome. Armed with reams of such data scientists hope they could one day offer more personalized medical care, or precision medicine, that would differ from person to person based on their unique genetic makeups and other factors. The end result of the initiative, according to Obama, will be delivering the right medicine at the right time every time to the right person. Moreover, as the president envisions it, patients would also be able to access their own data. Rather than start culling data from scratch, however, the effort aims to tap existing info on patients in clinical trials and incorporate it into the new massive effort. And thats where it gets complicated, says Kristen McCaleb, program manager of the Genomic Medicine Initiative at the University of California, San Francisco. Scientists often disagree on the importance or meaning of particular genetic variants for disease. When a sick patient agrees to get his DNA analyzed it triggers a string of decision-making. A doctor may tell the lab to only seek results about specific genes. And once the genome is sequenced, another expert makes a judgment callruling if a mutated gene identified by the sequencer is risky or not. Certain mutations, such as variants of the BRCA1 gene linked to breast cancer, are clearly defined. The significance of many others, however, remains muddier, so two scientists looking at the same list of more than 30,000 genetic variants for each person may have varying opinions about whether or not those genetic mutations are strongly linked to disease or worth exploring further. That ambiguity, McCaleb says, could spell trouble for the presidents precision medicine initiative. If they plan on incorporating all 30,000 variants coming from one million people, somebody better have a gigantic, honking-fast supercomputer capable of capturing all that raw data, she says, because otherwise investigators would be relying on a series of relatively subjective interpretations of that information, making it cumbersome to work with. As excited as we are that Pres. Obama has made this a priority, there are a lot of logistics to be worked out here, she says. Robert Green, the director of a genome research program, G2P, at Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston, says that a raw data set from a single genome takes roughly 100 gigabytes of storage. So all that data will also pose a computational challenge. When his team collected 800 genomes for a large Alzheimers study, the only way they could practically share the data, other than sending it around on hard drives as they do now, he says, would be to put it on a giant server in the cloud and then researchers could log in to access the server remotely and use analytic tools to explore the massive data set.* Thats the only way you could access 800 genomes, much less 10,000 or a million, he says. Naturally, this gives rise to privacy concerns. When information from one million people is brought together, it would make an attractive target for a hacker working to link the data back to individuals. Such a breach could rob both patients and their families of their privacy. Data for research are typically scrubbed of identifying factors like a patients name and birth date, but someone with enough information about an individuals family tree may be able to connect some dots. Such data privacy concerns already have a track record of scaring away a segment of potential research subjects. When people agree to be part of an academic study they sign a consent form that says they consent to have their data used in specific ways. Green, for example, heads up a whole genome-sequencing project geared toward incorporating genetic data into clinical medicine. To that end, his team has sequenced the genomes of more than 100 people who agreed to have their personal data shared with large government databases as well as Greens own biobank. Thats good news for the White Houses precision medicine initiative, says Green, who would like his data sets to be folded into the effort. But getting people to sign on after they learned all the ways their data could be used did prove challenging, he says. About 25 percent of research participants that bowed out during the consent processwhen they were in the office and talking in personcited fear of health insurance discrimination as the primary reason, he says. Still other projects, like U.C. San Franciscos, would have to go through an entirely new consent process as well as the time-consuming and expensive effort of recontacting patients. Their patients, McCaleb says, did not sign up to be part of larger databases like this one. And exactly who would pay for the staff time to do that remains unclear. Moreover, with different data sources coming togethersay U.C. San Franciscos genome sequencing alongside comprehensive patient histories from the long-standing Framingham Heart Studydifferent questions were asked and the data were organized quite differently, which, in turn, raises questions about the margin of error on the info when its all mashed together, she says. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, says that a board will be formed to advise on issues such as privacy and data reliability and to decide who will oversee the initiative and its details. Federal agencies, if awarded the $215 million outlined in the president's 2016 budget request, would be tasked with creating an easily accessible database with needed privacy protections and streamlining the regulatory approval process for the instruments that would help scientists find the data. Moreover, patient advocates and privacy experts will be at the table, Obama said in his public remarks on January 30. They wont be on the sidelines, it wont be an afterthought and we will protect patients in a responsible way, he said. Further details of the proposal, whenever they are released, could help patients decide how protected they should feel.

*Clarification (2/3/14): This sentence was edited after posting to more precisely describe how data from the large Alzheimer's study is currently shared.

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Big Precision Medicine Plan Raises Patient Privacy Concerns

The order in which genetic mutations are acquired determines how an individual cancer behaves, according to research from the University of Cambridge, published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Most of the genetic mutations that cause cancer result from environmental 'damage' (for example, through smoking or as a result of over-exposure to sunlight) or from spontaneous errors as cells divide. In a study published today, researchers at the Department of Haematology, the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research and the Wellcome Trust/Medical Research Council Stem Cell Institute show for the first time that the order in which such mutations occur can have an impact on disease severity and response to therapy.

The researchers examined genetically distinct single stem cells taken from patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs), a group of bone marrow disorders that are characterised by the over-production of mature blood cells together with an increased risk of both blood clots and leukaemia. These disorders are identified at a much earlier stage than most cancers because the increased number of blood cells is readily detectable in blood counts taken during routine clinical check-ups for completely different problems.

Approximately one in ten of MPN patients carry mutations in both the JAK2 gene and the TET2 gene. By studying these individuals, the research team was able to determine which mutation came first and to study the effect of mutation order on the behaviour of single blood stem cells.

Using samples collected primarily from patients attending Addenbrooke's Hospital, part of the Cambridge University Hospitals, researchers showed that patients who acquire mutations in JAK2 prior to those in TET2 display aberrant blood counts over a decade earlier, are more likely to develop a more severe red blood cell disease subtype, are more likely to suffer a blood clot, and their cells respond differently to drugs that inhibit JAK2.

Dr David Kent, one of the study's lead authors, says: "This surprising finding could help us offer more accurate prognoses to MPN patients based on their mutation order and tailor potential therapies towards them. For example, our results predict that targeted JAK2 therapy would be more effective in patients with one mutation order but not the other."

Professor Tony Green, who led the study, adds: "This is the first time that mutation order has been shown to affect any cancer, and it is likely that this phenomenon occurs in many types of malignancy. These results show how study of the MPNs provides unparalleled access to the earliest stages of tumour development (inaccessible in other cancers, which usually cannot be detected until many mutations have accumulated). This should give us powerful insights into the origins of cancer."

Work in the Green Lab is supported in party by Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research and Cancer Research UK.

Dr Matt Kaiser, Head of Research at Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research, said: "We are becoming more and more aware that a cancer's genetic signature can vary from patient to patient, and we are becoming better at personalising treatment to match this. The discovery that the order in which genetic errors occur can have such a big impact on cancer progression adds an important extra layer of complexity that will help tailor treatment for patients with MPNs. The technology to do this sort of study has been available only recently and it shows once again how pioneering research into blood cancers can reveal fundamental insights into cancer in general."

Dr ine McCarthy, Science Information Officer at Cancer Research UK, says: "The methods used in this pioneering research could help improve our understanding of how cancer cells develop mutations and when they do so. This interesting study suggests that the order in which genetic faults appear can affect how patients respond to different drugs - this insight could help doctors personalise treatment to make it more effective for each patient."

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Order matters: Sequence of genetic mutations determines how cancer behaves

(Boston)--A new genetic discovery in the field of Huntington's disease (HD) could mean a more effective way in determining severity of this neurological disease when using specific treatments. This study may provide insight for treatments that would be effective in slowing down or postponing the death of neurons for people who carry the HD gene mutation, but who do not yet show symptoms of the disease.

The work was led by researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and currently appears in BMC Medical Genomics.

HD is a fatal, inherited neurological disease that usually manifests between 30 and 50 years of age. The disease is caused by a genetic defect that is passed from parent to child in the huntingtin gene. Having too many repeated elements in the gene sequence causes the disease and an increasing number of repeats leads to earlier onset and increased severity of the disease.

The researchers studied the brains of people who died from HD and those who died of other, non-neurological diseases and identified a very specific genetic signal that strongly correlates disease severity and extent of neuronal, or brain cell death. The genetic signal, also called a microRNA, silences certain genes in the DNA. Genes that lead to the toxic effects of the huntingtin gene may be silenced by these microRNAs, in particular the miR-10b-5p microRNA.

"The findings that we found most interesting were the microRNAs that reflect the extent of the neuron death in the brain, since it is this process that causes the debilitating symptoms of the disease and eventually leads to the death of the individual," explained senior author Richard H. Myers, PhD, Director of the Genome Science Institute at BUSM.

According to the researchers these findings may represent a more effective way to tell whether or not HD treatments may be slowing down the pace of the death of brain cells. "If miR-10b-5p measurements can provide a faster and more effective way to determine whether or not a specific treatment is protecting brain neurons, it may be possible to study more potential treatments for HD more quickly. Equally importantly, it may become feasible to perform these trials in people who are HD gene carriers, but who do not yet show symptoms, by giving evidence for which trials may postpone onset and provide more healthy years of life," added Myers.

These findings also suggest that other microRNAs may also be important markers of severity for other neurological diseases such as Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease. Further research is already being conducted in Parkinson's Disease by Myers and his colleagues.

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This research was supported by the Jerry McDonald Huntington Disease Research Fund, the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

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Genetic discovery may help determine effectiveness of Huntington's disease treatments

im back with new genetics
im back with new genetics.

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The Sims 4: Perfect Genetics Legacy [Part 22] Birthday and Promotion
The day has come for Avery to go ahead and age into a child!! This time Avery ages up and Kaydence goes to work for the first time. Just so happens that Kaydence comes home with a promotion...

By: Connor K Games

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The Sims 4: Perfect Genetics Legacy [Part 22] Birthday and Promotion - Video

chi square genetics
how to apply chi square test in genetics.

By: Hoa Nguyen

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IMAGE:This is Patrick Concannon, director of the University of Florida Genetics Institute. view more

Credit: UF Health file photo

The genes that increase the risk of Type 1 diabetes have lost their hiding place.

A research group that includes a University of Florida genetics expert has located and narrowed down the number of genes that play a role in the disease, according to a study published Monday in the journal Nature Genetics. Knowing the identities and location of causative genes is a crucial development: Other researchers can use this information to better predict who might develop Type 1 diabetes and how to prevent it.

"It's a game-changer for Type 1 diabetes," said Patrick Concannon, director of the University of Florida Genetics Institute.

Researchers gathered information about the genetic makeup of 27,000 people, including those who had Type 1 diabetes and others who did not. They then began looking for individual differences in DNA that raise the risk of Type 1 diabetes. Starting with 200,000 possible locations in the genome, researchers used a technique known as fine mapping to pinpoint DNA sequence variations that can lead to diabetes. In some genomic regions, they narrowed the number of disease-causing DNA variations -- known as single nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs -- from the thousands down to five or less.

That will make diabetes researchers' work more effective and efficient by giving them the most detailed directions yet about where to look for the genetic variations that cause Type 1 diabetes and perhaps other autoimmune diseases such as arthritis, Concannon said. Now that the group of geneticists has identified the important genes and SNPs, diabetes researchers will reap the benefits, according to Concannon.

"We've taken this genetic data which was interesting but hard to work with, and we've condensed it down into something that people can actually use to begin to explore the mechanism of the disease. It moves it out of the realm of genetics to being broadly applicable to Type 1 diabetes research," he said.

Type 1 diabetes occurs when the body's immune system kills off insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. Some 3 million people in the United States have the disease, according to the JDRF, a group that funds Type 1 diabetes research and education. Experts don't know exactly what causes the disease but suspect that genetics and environmental factors may play a role.

The researchers' findings are the most comprehensive yet in the effort to locate and identify the genetic risk variants for Type 1 diabetes and other autoimmune diseases, said Todd Brusko, a member of the UF Diabetes Institute and an assistant professor in the UF College of Medicine's department of pathology, immunology and laboratory medicine, part of UF Health.

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Genetics breakthrough by group that includes UF expert will boost diabetes resear

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Newswise The genes that increase the risk of Type 1 diabetes have lost their hiding place.

A research group that includes a University of Florida genetics expert has located and narrowed down the number of genes that play a role in the disease, according to a study published Monday in the journal Nature Genetics. Knowing the identities and location of causative genes is a crucial development: Other researchers can use this information to better predict who might develop Type 1 diabetes and how to prevent it.

Its a game-changer for Type 1 diabetes, said Patrick Concannon, director of the University of Florida Genetics Institute.

Researchers gathered information about the genetic makeup of 27,000 people, including those who had Type 1 diabetes and others who did not. They then began looking for individual differences in DNA that raise the risk of Type 1 diabetes. Starting with 200,000 possible locations in the genome, researchers used a technique known as fine mapping to pinpoint DNA sequence variations that can lead to diabetes. In some genomic regions, they narrowed the number of disease-causing DNA variations -- known as single nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs -- from the thousands down to five or less.

That will make diabetes researchers work more effective and efficient by giving them the most detailed directions yet about where to look for the genetic variations that cause Type 1 diabetes and perhaps other autoimmune diseases such as arthritis, Concannon said. Now that the group of geneticists has identified the important genes and SNPs, diabetes researchers will reap the benefits, according to Concannon.

Weve taken this genetic data which was interesting but hard to work with, and weve condensed it down into something that people can actually use to begin to explore the mechanism of the disease. It moves it out of the realm of genetics to being broadly applicable to Type 1 diabetes research, he said.

Type 1 diabetes occurs when the bodys immune system kills off insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. Some 3 million people in the United States have the disease, according to the JDRF, a group that funds Type 1 diabetes research and education. Experts dont know exactly what causes the disease but suspect that genetics and environmental factors may play a role.

The researchers findings are the most comprehensive yet in the effort to locate and identify the genetic risk variants for Type 1 diabetes and other autoimmune diseases, said Todd Brusko, a member of the UF Diabetes Institute and an assistant professor in the UF College of Medicines department of pathology, immunology and laboratory medicine, part of UF Health.

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Genetics Breakthrough by Group That Includes University of Florida Expert Will Boost Diabetes Research

(Boston)--Today's physicians require an increasingly comprehensive understanding of the principles of genetics and genomics in order to make informed clinical decisions. Scientific discoveries are bringing genomic technology directly to consumers at an increasingly rapid pace. The availability of genomic information necessitates that educators provide adequate training in genetics and genomics for future health-care providers.

In a new study in the journal Genetics in Medicine, researchers have shown that genetics curricula are evolving to include current topics in genomics however the majority of the content is taught in the first two years of medical school, with minimal and declining formal instruction in genetics during years three and four.

This study was the result of a survey of course directors in the U.S. and Canada who teach genetics to medical students. The survey collected information on what topics are currently being taught, how they are taught, who the instructors are, how student learning is evaluated, what strategies are used when students do not pass the subject at their schools.

Medical schools that participated in the survey used a variety of innovative teaching strategies to bring genetics into medical training including using integrated curricular models, as well as diverse and innovative teaching and assessment strategies. "We found the curriculum has evolved to include topics of particular relevance to the practice of genomic medicine, including personalized medicine, direct-to-consumer genetic testing, genome wide association studies, pharmacogenetics and bioinformatics," explained corresponding author Shoumita Dasgupta, PhD, associate professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM). "However, while important topics emerging in genomic medicine are frequently being added to the curricula, more than 40 percent of the responding medical schools in the U.S. and Canada still don't teach them," said Dasgupta.

According to Dasgupta and her colleagues, in order to produce genomically literate physicians, it is critical to improve the coverage of topics relating to genomic medicine. One way they recommend is to increase exposure to these topics by promoting more integration of genetics across the four-year curriculum and highlight existing genetics topics in core clerkships. "These results point to an opportunity to extend formal training in genetics across the entire medical school continuum," she added.

The researchers suggest concrete steps are needed to ensure the readiness of future physicians to practice genomic medicine, including increasing clinical exposure to genetic topics both locally and through curricula developed by national organizations such as the Association of Professors of Human and Medical Genetics, tracking student performance in the subject even when taught alongside other topics, and involving genetics experts in curriculum development and student mentoring.

"This is a pivotal moment in clinical genetics, and as educators, it is our responsibility to ensure our graduates are prepared to practice in the era of genomic medicine. While powerful technologies that allow whole genome analysis gain traction, it becomes increasingly critical to train the next generation of future physicians to translate genomic technologies and discoveries into their clinical practice across a range of specialties and practices," said Dasgupta.

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Funding for this multi-institution study was provided by the Association of Professors and Medical Genetics.

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

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Study finds positive trends in medical genetics education

BETHESDA, MD - Over 1,500 scientists from 30 countries and 46 states will attend next week's 56th Annual Drosophila Research Conference organized by the Genetics Society of America (GSA), March 4-8 in Chicago, IL. The conference will feature close to 1,000 presentations (including 170 talks) describing cutting-edge research on genetics, developmental biology, cancer, stem cells, neurology, epigenetics, genetic disease, aging, immunity, behavior, drug discovery, and technology. It is the largest meeting in the world that brings together researchers who use the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster to study biology.

Of special note are scientists whose achievements in genetics are being honored through awards and special lectures:

The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is one of the most versatile and widely used model organisms applied to the study of genetics, physiology, and evolution. Drosophila research has led to some of the most significant breakthroughs in our understanding of biology, including five Nobel prizes. It is an effective system for studying a range of human genetic diseases, ranging from cancer to diabetes to neurodegenerative disorders. Fruit flies are a valuable resource for biomedical research because of the efficiency and cost-effectiveness with which comprehensive, sensitive, and accurate biological data can be generated. Research presented at the Drosophila conference, like that at other GSA conferences, helps advance our fundamental understanding of living systems and provides crucial insight into human biology, health and disease.

The conference will take place at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers at 301 East North Water Street. The organizers include Gregory J. Beitel, PhD (Northwestern University), Michael Eisen (University of California, Berkeley; Howard Hughes Medical Institute), Marc Freeman (University of Massachusetts Medical School; Howard Hughes Medical Institute), and Ilaria Rebay (University of Chicago). For additional information, please see the conference website at http://www.genetics-gsa.org/drosophila/2015/.

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More information on the importance of Drosophila research:

Fruit Flies in Biomedical Research. Michael F. Wangler, Shinya Yamamoto, and Hugo J. Bellen. Genetics; Early online January 26, 2015

Media Eligibility: The 2015 Drosophila Research Conference is open to media representatives, including those from bona fide print, broadcast, radio, and online venues, and freelance writers on a verifiable assignment from an established news source. Please contact press@genetics-gsa.org">press@genetics-gsa.org for information about complimentary press registration.

About the Genetics Society of America (GSA)

Founded in 1931, the Genetics Society of America (GSA) is the professional scientific society for genetics researchers and educators. The Society's more than 5,000 members worldwide work to deepen our understanding of the living world by advancing the field of genetics, from the molecular to the population level. GSA promotes research and fosters communication through a number of GSA-sponsored conferences including regular meetings that focus on particular model organisms. GSA publishes two peer-reviewed, peer-edited scholarly journals: GENETICS, which has published high quality original research across the breadth of the field since 1916, and G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics, an open-access journal launched in 2011 to disseminate high quality foundational research in genetics and genomics. The Society also has a deep commitment to education and fostering the next generation of scholars in the field. For more information about GSA, please visit http://www.genetics-gsa.org.

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Disease, evolution, drugs: Fruit fly research continues to teach us about human biology

IMAGE:This is a maritime pine forest in the Castilian Plateau, central Spain. Maritime pine forests support a great diversity of associated fauna and flora, in particular in the Mediterranean region... view more

Data from only a small number of gene variants can predict which maritime pine trees are most vulnerable to climate change, scientists report in the March issue of GENETICS. The results will improve computer models designed to forecast where forests will grow as the climate changes, and promises to help forestry managers decide where to focus reforestation efforts. The results will also guide the choice of tree stocks.

The maritime pine (Pinus pinaster) grows widely in southwestern Europe and parts of northern Africa. But the tree's important economic value and ecological roles in the region may be at risk as the changing climate threatens the more vulnerable forests and the productivity of commercial plantations.

To predict which regions will sustain pine forests in the future, researchers and managers rely on computer models. But these forecasts don't take into account two major factors that influence a forest's fate: genetics and evolution. Genetic differences between tree populations mean that forests vary in how well they cope with warmer, drier conditions. Ongoing evolution of trees also influences the prevalence of these genetic differences; for example, trees with gene variants allowing them to withstand higher temperatures will become increasingly common as the climate changes.

"These genetic effects are not included in forest range shift models, but we know they can completely change the resulting predictions. Our goal was to identify such effects in a way that can be readily incorporated into the forecasts," said study leader Santiago Gonzlez-Martnez, from the Forest Research Centre of Spain's Institute for Agricultural Research (CIFOR-INIA).

To find genetic variants that affect the species' fitness in different climate conditions, maritime pine researchers from around the world pooled their expertise and the results of previous research, yielding a list of more than 300 variants in 200 candidate genes. Creating a shortlist of targets is considerably faster and more economical than searching the entire genome of the maritime pine, which is about nine times larger than the human genome.

From this list, the team tested whether any of the candidates were more common in regions that shared similar climates. Such geographic patterns can be the result of natural selection and point to gene variants that influence tree survival and reproduction according to climate. By testing the frequency of each variant at 36 locations in Portugal, Spain, France, Morocco, and Tunisia, the researchers found 18 variants that showed correlations with the local climate. These variants affected genes involved in many different biological processes, including growth and response to heat stress.

The researchers then looked for evidence that these variants are important for the trees' fitness by planting seedlings from 19 of the locations together in a dry part of Spain, at the extreme end of the species' climatic range. This allowed the team to compare how well genetically different trees would survive under similar conditions. After five years, the seedlings carrying gene variants predicted to be beneficial in the local climate indeed tended to have higher survival rates.

These results demonstrate the feasibility of this relatively fast approach of finding and confirming genetic variants associated with climate. "Now that we have shown that the method works well, we are planning similar experiments on a bigger scale, with more test sites, looking at more genes, and different traits. For example, the single biggest climate change threat to pine forests is the increased frequency of wildfires, so we're searching for variants that affect fire tolerance," said Gonzlez-Martnez.

"Good decisions require good data, and this collaborative work shows how crucial genetic data can be for managing biodiversity and commercial forestry amid a changing climate," said GENETICS Editor-in-Chief Mark Johnston.

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Genetic data can help predict how pine forests will cope with climate change

'Genetically Speaking' series showcases research findings, technological advances, and applications of human genetics in the evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment of health conditions

BETHESDA, MD and Fort Washington, PA - The American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) and ReachMD announced today the launch of 'Genetically Speaking', a series of audio interviews designed to educate healthcare professionals on the application of human genetics in disease prevention and management.

The series features peer-to-peer interviews conducted during the ASHG 2014 Annual Meeting and includes topics such as:

"One of our primary goals at ASHG is to develop a healthcare workforce that is genetics-literate and capable of interpreting and applying information in clinical practice," said Joseph D. McInerney, MA, MS, Executive Vice President of ASHG. "We are excited to team up with ReachMD to produce and deliver peer-to-peer programming to healthcare professionals nationwide."

'Genetically Speaking' is co-produced by ASHG and ReachMD and broadcast on ReachMD's integrated online, mobile, and on air content distribution network. Content is accessible both on demand and through 24/7 radio streaming on ReachMD, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, and iTunes digital platforms.

"This series is an excellent addition to the ReachMD lineup," said Matt Birnholz, MD, Vice President and Medical Director of ReachMD. "Our users love cutting-edge programming, and the scientific and medical experts on this series really showcase the latest research and the applications of genetics in disease prevention and management."

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Link to 'Genetically Speaking': https://reachmd.com/programs/genetically-speaking/

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

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ASHG and ReachMD launch educational series on genetics and genomics

An effective vaccine for HIV has eluded researchers for several decades, due to the pathogen's infamous shape-shifting abilities.

Even though researchers have identified certain broadly neutralizing antibodies that can conquer multiple strains of the human immunodeficiency virus, many strains of rapidly mutating HIV remain resistant to the these super antibodies.

In recent years however,researches have proposed a new method of battling the virus that involves gene therapy.

Instead of using a vaccine to stimulate the body's own immune system, so that it produces HIV antibodies, scientists are bypassing the immune system entirely.

In experiments involving rats and monkeys, the researchers have used non-life-threatening viruses to alter the animals' genome so that its cells produce designer molecules capable of neutralizing HIV.

In a paper published Wednesday in the journal Nature, a team of researchers said they had used the technique to protect rhesus macaques from repeated intravenous injections of a SHIV, a combination of simian immunodeficiency virus and humanimmunodeficiency virus.

The technique, researchers said, "can function like an effective HIV-1 vaccine." (HIV-1 is the main family of the virus, and accounts for most infections worldwide.)

When HIV enters the body, it attacks specific immune cells. As the virus copies itself over and over, and kills more and more host cells, the immune system grows progressively weaker. If left untreated, this progressive weakening will give rise to AIDS.

In most cases, the HIV virus begins its attack by latching onto two separate protein structures on the surface of its target white blood cells. One of these structures is called CD4, and the other is called CCR5.

In the Nature study, researchers set out to engineer an antibody-like molecule that would mimic both of these proteins, so that it would act as decoy of sorts for the virus. Instead of latching onto a host cell, HIV would latch onto a specially enhanced protein molecule, or eCD4-Ig, that was released by the cell.

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With genetic engineering, scientists use decoy molecule to trick HIV

An effective vaccine for HIV has eluded researchers for several decades, due to the pathogen's infamous shape-shifting abilities.

Even though researchers have identified certain broadly neutralizing antibodies that can conquer multiple strains of the human immunodeficiency virus, many strains of rapidly mutating HIV remain resistant to the these super antibodies.

In recent years however,researches have proposed a new method of battling the virus that involves gene therapy.

Instead of using a vaccine to stimulate the body's own immune system, so that it produces HIV antibodies, scientists are bypassing the immune system entirely.

In experiments involving rats and monkeys, the researchers have used non-life-threatening viruses to alter the animals' genome so that its cells produce designer molecules capable of neutralizing HIV.

In a paper published Wednesday in the journal Nature, a team of researchers said they had used the technique to protect rhesus macaques from repeated intravenous injections of a SHIV, a combination of simian immunodeficiency virus and humanimmunodeficiency virus.

The technique, researchers said, "can function like an effective HIV-1 vaccine." (HIV-1 is the main family of the virus, and accounts for most infections worldwide.)

When HIV enters the body, it attacks specific immune cells. As the virus copies itself over and over, and kills more and more host cells, the immune system grows progressively weaker. If left untreated, this progressive weakening will give rise to AIDS.

In most cases, the HIV virus begins its attack by latching onto two separate protein structures on the surface of its target white blood cells. One of these structures is called CD4, and the other is called CCR5.

In the Nature study, researchers set out to engineer an antibody-like molecule that would mimic both of these proteins, so that it would act as decoy of sorts for the virus. Instead of latching onto a host cell, HIV would latch onto a specially enhanced protein molecule, or eCD4-Ig, that was released by the cell.

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A new twist on HIV vaccines shows results in monkeys, study says

Carrollton Spinal Cord Injury

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