Archive for March, 2015

Come back Frankenstein all is forgiven. Scientists say they are close to manufacturing a baby in a dish from stem cells taken from the skin of two males. Why?

The human race has been producing babies the natural way since the beginning.

Why cant they use their skills to find cures to all the diseases that continue to plague us?

I have every sympathy for those who cant produce children of their own but there are plenty of needy babies awaiting adoption.

The last thing this world needs is more babies.

It is producing far too many already. Over-population will pose a bigger threat to this planet than anything else, unless it is brought under control.

But when I see how impossible it is for nations to agree on other serious issues that affect this world I hold little or no hope for a solution to that problem.

Terry Hillier, Four Crosses

See the original post:
Letter: Leave babies up to nature

Contrasto/eyevine

Biologist Graziella Pellegrini has worked on stem-cell therapy at four different Italian institutions, including a hospital run by priests.

Last month saw a major landmark for regenerative medicine: the first time that a stem-cell therapy beside the use of cells extracted from bone marrow or umbilical cord blood had been cleared for sale by any regulatory agency in the world. The European Commission approved Holoclar for use in cases of blindness caused by burning. The achievement is all the more remarkable because Holoclar was developed by a small laboratory in Italy, a country better known for its lack of support for life sciences and for its recent tolerance of an unproven stem-cell concoction, marketed by the Stamina Foundation, that claimed to be a panacea for many diseases. Nature talked to Graziella Pellegrini from the University of Modena about how she and her colleagues overcame the many obstacles to take the therapy from bench to bedside.

The surface of the cornea the transparent tissue that sits in front of the iris is constantly renewed in a healthy eye, to keep it smooth and clear. New corneal cells are generated from a niche of stem cells in the limbus, an area between the cornea and the white of the eye. But if the limbus is destroyed by burning, then the white of the eye grows over the cornea and becomes criss-crossed with blood vessels. This causes chronic pain and inflammation, as well as blindness.

I had seen patients who had starting seeing again after 20 years of blindness: how could I stop?

Holoclar treatment can help to reverse these symptoms by adding new stem cells to seed the regrowth of a transparent cornea. But there must be enough surviving limbus in one eye to allow 1 or 2 square millimetres of tissue to be extracted. This tissue is then cultivated on a support made from modified human fibrin (a biodegradable blood protein) under stringent clinical conditions until at least 3,000 stem cells have been generated. The culture, still on its fibrin scaffold, is transplanted into the injured eye, which has been scraped clear of the invading white, and from there stem cells seed the regrowth of a transparent cornea, free of blood vessels, within a year.

Only around 1,000 people annually in the whole of Europe will be eligible: burns victims who have become blind but whose eyes have not been too extensively destroyed.

It is always very hard to find research money in Italy. We had to uproot many times. I first started working on the concept of the therapy, with my colleague Michele De Luca, in 1990 when we were post-docs at the University of Genova studying the fundamental biology of epithelial cells the cells that form the sheets lining organs, and also the skin. In 1996, we moved to Rome to the Institute Dermopatico Immaculate, a hospital run by priests who were highly committed to research and who offered us wonderful facilities and access to patients. But in the end they did not want to support our eye work through to the clinic. So in 2002, we moved to the Veneto Eye Bank Foundation in Venice, which had an epithelial stem-cell laboratory. Then in 2008 we moved again, to the Centre for Regenerative Medicine Stefano Ferrari, which had been newly created at the University of Modena specifically to incubate such types of advanced therapy.

Italy is not supportive of biomedical research. Things might have been easier if we had not had to struggle so much. But I am Italian, and the best way to stimulate me to find a solution is to tell me I cant do something. And despite the problems, research into advanced therapies does have a history here. One of the worlds first gene-therapy trials on children with an immunodeficiency disorder was carried out in Milan.

We published the results of our first two patients both successes in 19971. That was proof of principle that the therapy could work. Our major clinical paper, on 112 patients, was published in 20102. Around 77% of the transplants were fully successful, and a further 13% partially successful.

Original post:
Behind the scenes of the world's first commercial stem-cell therapy

UK Bishops voice opposition to human genetic engineering | Newsbreak 2-26-2015
UK Catholic Bishops voice opposition to House of Lords approval of genetic modification to the Human germ line. -Archdiocese of Detroit #39;s central services are settling into their new space....

By: The CatholicTV Network

Read the original:
UK Bishops voice opposition to human genetic engineering | Newsbreak 2-26-2015 - Video

US President Barack Obama is proposing to spend $215 million on a precision medicine initiative, whose centrepiece will be a national study drawing on the health records and DNA of one million volunteers.

The term precision medicine refers to treatments tailored to a persons genetic profile, an idea which is already transforming the way doctors fight cancer and some rare diseases. When treating cancer, for example, doctors can nowadays assess any molecular abnormalities in the cancerous cells so that they can apply the appropriate treatment. Some types of abnormalities may be found in different types of cancer, and patients with these conditions will be given the same treatment. Studying a set of molecular abnormalities in a patient in order to prescribe a unique, personalised treatment for his/her condition appears to be the future of medicine and this means that going forward treatment will be based on peoples individual genetic maps

Barack Obama has recently put forward a funding initiative to support precision medicine with a view to developing technology that has to date been under-exploited. The aim is to change the old one-size-fits-all approach, as Jo Handelsman, associate director for science at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, puts it, and to move towards personalised medicine using information from the human genome. Under the Federal funding proposal, $130 million will go to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for development of a voluntary national research cohort of a million or more volunteers to propel our understanding of health and disease and set the foundation for a new way of doing research through engaged participants and open, responsible data sharing, says the White House factsheet. This will be the largest genome study ever carried out at country level, and should open up amazing opportunities for the advance of science.

In the 1970s, the noted French biologistJacques Monod, regarded as one of the fathers of modern molecular biology, opined that the scale of DNA was too vast for scientists ever to be able to modify the human genome. Just six years later, the first genetic manipulations were being carried out. As recently as 1990, there was general consensus among genetic scientists that human DNA would never be sequenced, yet this feat had been achieved by 2003. Enormous progress has also been made in reducing the cost of human genome sequencing, which has fallen from $3 billion to just $1000 per person! In fact so mainstream has DNA sequencing become that the company ranked by MIT in 2014 as the smartest in the world was Illumina, a San Diego, California-based firm that develops, manufactures and markets integrated systems for the analysis of genetic variation and biological function. Today the main focus of investment in digital health is onBig Data and analytics.

Some companies are now even specialising in combating ageing, including California startupHuman Longevity Inc., a genomics and cell therapy-based diagnostic and therapeutic company whose stated goal is to tackle the diseases associated with age-related human biological decline. The web giants are also muscling into this field. Google is out in front via its R&D biotech firm California Life Company (Calico) on an amazingly ambitious mission to vanquish death, as CEO Larry Page put it. Clearly the White House is aware of the huge opportunities in this sector, hence the Presidents intention to channel Federal dollars into the search for DNA-based treatments.

Jo Handelsman predicts that significant scientific progress will result from studying the genome in a large number of people and merging this information with data from other ongoing studies. In fact she believes it will be a major step forward in how we see medicine. Some $130 million of the budget proposed by Barack Obama will be allocated to the NIH to fund the huge volunteer genome study. Another outcome of the initiative is that patients will be able to obtain lots of genetic information about themselves. We arent just talking about research but also about patients access to their own data, so they can participate fully in decisions about their health that affect them, underlined the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, John Holdren. The proposal also earmarks $70 million for DNA-driven research on cancer and another $10 million for related certification work by the US Food and Drug Administration.

NIH director Francis Collins underlined that the United States is not looking to create a single bio-bank. Instead, the project will seek to combine data from among over 200 large ongoing American health studies, which jointly together involve at least two million people. The challenge of this initiative is to link those together. Its more a distributed approach than centralised, he explained. Meanwhile, in the search for data, NIH officials have met in recent weeks with administrators from the Veterans Health Administration, whose ongoingMillion Veteran Program has already collected DNA samples from 343,000 former soldiers. Obama also wants to allocate grants to private sector technology firms, and Illumina is likely to be an early beneficiary. As the famous work La mort de la mort (The Demise of Death) by French surgeon DrLaurent Alexandre points out, progress in the field of medicine in the 21st century is in the process of delivering a scientific revolution on an unprecedented scale.

Read more here:
Genome Studies: Personalised Medicine around the Corner?

Contact Information

Available for logged-in reporters only

Newswise New research suggests that widely used statin therapy provides the most benefit to patients with the highest genetic risk of heart attack. Using a relatively straightforward genetic analysis, the researchers assessed heart attack risk independently of traditional risk factors such as age, sex, so-called good and bad cholesterol levels, smoking history, family history and whether the patient has diabetes.

Patients in intermediate and low-risk categories still benefit from statin therapy, but that benefit is progressively smaller because theyre starting at lower baseline risk, according to the investigators.

The research, from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Brigham and Womens Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School appears March 4 in The Lancet.

For patients at risk of heart disease, doctors routinely prescribe statins, known for their cholesterol-lowering effect. In 2013, the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association changed the guidelines for statin therapy, dramatically increasing the number of patients recommended to take it. The move has stirred debate over whether these drugs are overused, especially in light of increasing health-care costs.

There is ongoing debate over which individuals should be allocated statin therapy to prevent a first heart attack, said co-first author Nathan O. Stitziel, MD, a Washington University cardiologist and human geneticist. Some have said we should be treating more people, while others say we need to treat fewer. As an example of precision medicine, another approach is to identify people at high risk and preferentially prescribe statin therapy to those individuals. Genetics appears to be one way to identify high-risk patients.

Stitziel noted that this genetic analysis is not available to patients right now. More research is needed to validate the findings before such a test could be developed for clinical use.

Using statistical methods to combine data on 49,000 people enrolled in five studies, the researchers reported that individuals in the high-risk category have a 70 percent higher risk of heart attacks compared with those at lowest genetic risk. They went on to show that statin therapy results in a 13 percent reduction in risk in the low genetic-risk group, a 29 percent reduction in the intermediate group and a 48 percent reduction in the high-risk group.

Stitziel said the new results differ from past research that consistently has shown statins provide about the same relative risk reduction 30-45 percent depending on dose across all categories of patients.

Read the original:
Study Shows Who Benefits Most From Statins

You might resemble or act more like your mother, but a novel research study from UNC School of Medicine researchers reveals that mammals are genetically more like their dads. Specifically, the research shows that although we inherit equal amounts of genetic mutations from our parents the mutations that make us who we are and not some other person we actually use more of the DNA that we inherit from our dads.

The research, published in the journal Nature Genetics, has wide implications for the study of human disease, especially when using mammalian research models. For instance, in many mouse models created for the study of gene expression related to disease, researchers typically dont take into account whether specific genetic expression originates from mothers or fathers. But the UNC research shows that inheriting a mutation has different consequences in mammals, depending on whether the genetic variant is inherited from the mother or father.

This is an exceptional new research finding that opens the door to an entirely new area of exploration in human genetics, said Fernando Pardo-Manuel de Villena, PhD, professor of genetics and senior author of the paper. Weve known that there are 95 genes that are subject to this parent-of-origin effect. Theyre called imprinted genes, and they can play roles in diseases, depending on whether the genetic mutation came from the father or the mother. Now weve found that in addition to them, there are thousands of other genes that have a novel parent-of-origin effect.

These genetic mutations that are handed down from parents show up in many common but complex diseases that involve many genes, such as type-2 diabetes, heart disease, schizophrenia, obesity, and cancers. Studying them in genetically diverse mouse models that take parent-of-origin into account will give scientists more precise insights into the underlying causes of disease and the creation of therapeutics or other interventions.

The key to this research is the Collaborative Cross the most genetically diverse mouse population in the world, which is generated, housed, and distributed from UNC. Traditional lab mice are much more limited in their genetic diversity, and so they have limited use in studies that try to home in on important aspects of diseases in humans. The Collaborative Cross bred together various wild type mice to create wide diversity in the mouse genome. Pardo-Manuel de Villena said that this diversity is comparable to the variation found in the human genome. This helps scientists study diseases that involve various levels of genetic expression across many different genes.

Gene expression connects DNA to proteins, which then carry out various functions inside cells. This process is crucial for proper human health. Mutations that alter gene expression are called regulatory mutations.

This type of genetic variation is probably the most important contributor not to simple Mendelian diseases where theres just one gene mutation [such as cystic fibrosis] but to much more common and complex diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, neurological conditions, and a host of others, Pardo-Manuel de Villena said. These diseases are driven by gene expression, not of one gene but of hundreds or thousands of genes.

The Collaborative Cross and the expertise we have at UNC allow us to look at different gene expression for every gene in the genome of every kind of tissue, said Pardo-Manuel de Villena, who directs the Collaborative Cross.

Source: sciencedaily.com

Go here to see the original:
Genetically speaking, mammals are more like dad

Irvine, CA (PRWEB) March 04, 2015

Proove Biosciences, a commercial and research leader in Personalized Medicine, is excited to announce the launch of their CME-accredited course entitled Incorporating Genetic Testing to Optimize the Management of Pain.

The continuing medical education program will be available at Medscape.com for the next year. The focus of the program is to teach medical professionals how to recognize inadequate pain treatments, integrate appropriate pain management techniques, and incorporate genetic testing into the management plan for treating pain (with a focus on the use and understanding of pharmacogenetics for individual patients).

It is estimated that 116 million American adults suffer from chronic pain, more than those affected by heart disease, cancer, and diabetes combined. Yet despite its prevalence, chronic pain is often under-recognized and under-treated.

"Pain management involves a series of critical considerations to be made by treatment providers: the accurate assessment and diagnosis of pain, the assignment of an appropriate treatment plan, the screening of patients for contraindications, and optimization of the selection, dosage, and frequency of medications. These evaluations are difficult to make accurately due to the large variability and subjectivity innate in such assessments. However, emerging data demonstrates the importance of pharmacogenetics in tailoring clinical decisions and targeting treatment plans towards individual variability, states Svetlana Kantorovich, Ph.D., Director of Clinical & Scientific Affairs at Proove Biosciences. "Despite the fact that pain and addiction have known genetic components, genetic testing is not part of the standard of care."

Proove Biosciences proprietary genetic testing can provide physicians with information to objectively identify responders versus non-responders to specific medications, improve medication efficacy, and avoid adverse drug events. Importantly, the objective screening of patients at risk for opioid abuse and misuse is of paramount importance due to skyrocketing healthcare costs and emergency department visits resulting from nonmedical use of prescription opioids.

About Proove Biosciences Our Mission is to Change the Future of Medicine. Proove is the proof to improve healthcare decisions. We seek to realize a future when clinicians look back and wonder how they couldve ever prescribed medications without knowing how a patient would respond. With offices in Southern California and the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area, the Company is the research leader investigating and publishing data on the genetics of personalized pain medicine with clinical research sites across the United States. Physicians use Proove Biosciences testing to improve outcomes both safety and efficacy of medical treatment. From a simple cheek swab collected in the office, Proove performs proprietary genetic tests in its CLIA-certified laboratory to identify patients at risk for misuse of prescription pain medications and evaluate their metabolism of medications. For more information, please visit http://www.proove.com or call toll free 855-PROOVE-BIO (855-776-6832).

Continued here:
Proove Biosciences Launches CME Accredited Program with Medscape

Contact Information

Available for logged-in reporters only

Newswise (MEMPHIS, Tenn. March 4, 2015) The St. Jude Childrens Research HospitalWashington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project found that melanoma in some adolescent and adult patients involves many of the same genetic alterations and would likely respond to the same therapy. The research appears in the March issue of the Journal of Investigational Dermatology.

The similarities involved adolescents with conventional melanoma tumors and included the first genetic evidence that sun damage contributes to melanoma in children and adolescents as well as adults. The findings stem from the most comprehensive analysis yet of the genetic alterations responsible for pediatric melanoma, which is the most common skin cancer in children and adolescents.

This study shows that unlike many cancers, conventional melanoma is essentially the same disease in children and adults. That means we need to make it easier for adolescents to access promising therapeutic agents being tried in adults, said co-corresponding author Alberto Pappo, M.D., a member of the St. Jude Department of Oncology. These results also underscore the importance of starting sun protection early and making it a habit for life.

Researchers also identified distinct genetic alterations associated with other pediatric melanoma subtypes, including those associated with large congenital nevi (CNM) and spitzoid tumors. The alterations include a mutation that might help identify spitzoid patients who would benefit from aggressive therapy as well as those who could be cured with less intensive treatment.

Until now the genetic basis of pediatric melanoma has been a bit of a mystery, said co-corresponding author Armita Bahrami, M.D., an assistant member of the St. Jude Department of Pathology. With this study, we have established the molecular signatures of the three subtypes of this cancer, signatures that have implications for diagnosis and treatment.

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) estimates that melanoma is diagnosed in 425 U.S. residents age 19 and younger each year. While the cancer remains rare in young people, the incidence has risen about 2 percent annually in recent decades, primarily in those ages 15 to 19. That age group makes up the majority of current pediatric melanoma patients. For the 75 percent of pediatric patients whose disease has not spread, long-term survival rates now exceed 90 percent.

We were surprised to see that so many of the pediatric melanomas had genetic changes linked to UV damage, said co-author Richard K. Wilson, Ph.D., director of The Genome Institute at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. This in-depth look at the genomics of pediatric melanoma is extraordinarily important for diagnosis and for selecting treatments that give young patients the best chances of a cure.

This study included 23 melanoma patients ranging in age from 9 months to 19 years old. Researchers used whole genome sequencing and other techniques to compare the normal and tumor genomes of patients with three different types of melanoma for clues about the genetic alterations that underlie their disease. The genome is the blueprint for life that is encoded in the DNA found in almost every cell.

Here is the original post:
Sun Damage Causes Genetic Changes That Predispose Children and Adolescents to Melanoma

Mutants Genetics Gladiators Campaas Supra Campos Gamma
Gracias Por Dia A Dia Seguirme Los Quiero Mucho.

By: Nosferatus Gamexx

Original post:
Mutants Genetics Gladiators Campaas Supra Campos Gamma - Video

Flat Bench Workout for Strength Gains - Simple Exercise
Product Links Perfect 10 Fat Burner Click Link: http://www.amazon.com/Natural-Genetics-Promotes-Metabolism-Supplements/dp/B00T3JRJY4/ref=sr_1_1?s=hpc ie=UTF8 qid=1425444813 sr=1-1 ...

By: Natural Genetics

See more here:
Flat Bench Workout for Strength Gains - Simple Exercise - Video

The Sims 3 - Perfect Genetics Challenge - Pt5 - Possible New House
If you like this video please leave a thumbs up, it really helps Open fully for *NEW SCHEDULE* info and social media links Weekly Schedule (Subject t...

By: xSimSugar

Read more:
The Sims 3 - Perfect Genetics Challenge - Pt5 - Possible New House - Video

Let #39;s Play The Sims 3 - Perfect Genetics Challenge - Episode 58
Make sure to leave baby names in the comments!. #VampireClan #VampireClan4Life.

By: vampiregirl101101101

Excerpt from:
Let's Play The Sims 3 - Perfect Genetics Challenge - Episode 58 - Video

Genetics! coupling (cis) vs Repulsion (trans)

By: thomas underhill

Read the original here:
Genetics! coupling (cis) vs Repulsion (trans) - Video

Karma genetics
Getting ready to go into one gallon pots.

By: (RMC)rockymountaincultivators

See the article here:
Karma genetics - Video

Ask Al #50 - Genetics, HIIT vs. Steady State Cardio, and Combining Lifting With Calisthenics
Blog - http://www.AlKavadlo.com Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Al-Kavadlo/205151489148 Twitter - https://twitter.com/AlKavadlo Google+ ...

By: Al Kavadlo

Read the original here:
Ask Al #50 - Genetics, HIIT vs. Steady State Cardio, and Combining Lifting With Calisthenics - Video

Molecular Genetics of Pocket Mice
Recorded with ScreenCastify (http://www.screencastify.com), the screen video recorder for Chrome.

By: John Vieira

Visit link:
Molecular Genetics of Pocket Mice - Video

S75RS04 Gene Therapy
Science Technology ITV Schools circa 1986.

By: Lammas Science

Read more:
S75RS04 Gene Therapy - Video

Advances in gene therapy and the deepening understanding of cancer will see the oft-fatal disease becoming treatable in two decades, said cancer researcher Inder M. Varma.

Cancer mutations are being exposed cancer is in retreat through a combination of surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, molecular and genetic therapy, cancer will become a chronic disease rather than a terminal one, said Dr. Verma, a professor in Laboratory of Genetics at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, at the Infosys Science Foundation Lecture at the National Centre for Biological Sciences here on Wednesday.

His optimism was elaborated through an intriguing cat-and-mouse game that played out for over five years of research into the Glioblastomas multiforme (GBM), a lethal form of brain cancer that kills the patient within 14 months.

Understanding GBM was critical as relapse, even after surgery or treatment, was certainty, said Prof. Verma.

The researchers at the Salk Institute developed a novel genetic technique to switch on genes in around five cells of a mouse brain to make them into cancer cells. The cells grew to all parts of the brain, but more importantly, they started to exhibit stem cell characteristics, said Dr. Verma.

Unlike the normal cell, a stem cell can divide into specialised cells a phenomenon that explains the resurgent ability of the GBM cancer. Even if you surgically remove the tumour, one cell is enough to recreate the cancer again, he explained.

Using gene therapy, the team of scientists attempted to block this ability as well as use drugs to block blood supply to the cancer cell. While the tumour did become smaller, it became even more invasive. Though the treatment did not work, the cancer cell did reveal the genes responsible for its invasiveness.

We began to genetically cut out the cancers invasiveness, and for the first time, experiments showed GBM cancer could be controlled This is an exciting area that can be possibly used to treat other forms of cancer, said Dr. Verma.

Please Wait while comments are loading...

1. Comments will be moderated by The Hindu editorial team. 2. Comments that are abusive, personal, incendiary or irrelevant cannot be published. 3. Please write complete sentences. Do not type comments in all capital letters, or in all lower case letters, or using abbreviated text. (example: u cannot substitute for you, d is not 'the', n is not 'and'). 4. We may remove hyperlinks within comments. 5. Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name, to avoid rejection.

See more here:
Cancer set to become treatable: expert

National CyTOF Meeting 2014: TJ Chen, PhD, Cytobank
TJ Chen, PhD, Cytobank Cytobank: Enabling Single Cell Analysis and Personalized Medicine.

By: Icahn School of Medicine

See the rest here:
National CyTOF Meeting 2014: TJ Chen, PhD, Cytobank - Video

Anthony L. Komaroff M.D.

DEAR DOCTOR K: I have leukemia. Thankfully, a family member was a bone marrow match. Can you tell me what to expect during my bone marrow transplantprocedure?

DEAR READER: A bone marrow transplant can be a life-saving treatment. To understand how it works, you need to understand how blood cells are created. And what leukemiais.

Your blood contains red and white blood cells. There are several types of white blood cells, which are a key part of your immune system. All your blood cells are made by blood stem cells, which live primarily in the spongy center of

You have viewed 20 free articles or blogs allowed within a 30-day period. FREE registration is now required for uninterrupted access.

S-R Media, The Spokesman-Review and Spokesman.com are happy to assist you. Contact Customer Service by email or call 800-338-8801

DEAR DOCTOR K: I have leukemia. Thankfully, a family member was a bone marrow match. Can you tell me what to expect during my bone marrow transplantprocedure?

DEAR READER: A bone marrow transplant can be a life-saving treatment. To understand how it works, you need to understand how blood cells are created. And what leukemiais.

Your blood contains red and white blood cells. There are several types of white blood cells, which are a key part of your immune system. All your blood cells are made by blood stem cells, which live primarily in the spongy center of your bigbones.

In the years before you got leukemia, each of your blood cells was programmed to live for a while, and then to die only to be replaced by new, youngcells.

Visit link:
Ask Dr. K: Bone marrow can save a life - Tue, 03 Mar 2015 PST

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/27gqxk/rnai) has announced the addition of Jain PharmaBiotech's new report "RNAi - Technologies, Markets and Companies" to their offering.

Because of its ability to silence any gene once the sequence is known, RNAi has been adopted as the research tool to discriminate gene function. After the genome of an organism is sequenced, RNAi can be designed to target every gene in the genome and target for specific phenotypes. Several methods of gene expression analysis are available and there is still need for sensitive methods of detection of gene expression as a baseline and measurement after gene silencing. RNAi microarray has been devised and can be tailored to meet the needs for high throughput screens for identifying appropriate RNAi probes. RNAi is an important method for analyzing gene function and identifying new drug targets that uses double-stranded RNA to knock down or silence specific genes. With the advent of vector-mediated siRNA delivery methods it is now possible to make transgenic animals that can silence gene expression stably. These technologies point to the usefulness of RNAi for drug discovery.

RNAi can be rationally designed to block the expression of any target gene, including genes for which traditional small molecule inhibitors cannot be found. Areas of therapeutic applications include virus infections, cancer, genetic disorders and neurological diseases. Research at academic centers that is relevant to RNAi-based therapeutics is mentioned.

Regulatory, safety and patent issues are discussed. Side effects can result from unintended interaction between an siRNA compound and an unrelated host gene. If RNAi compounds are designed poorly, there is an increased chance for non-specific interaction with host genes that may cause adverse effects in the host. However, there are no major safety concerns and regulations are in preliminary stages as the clinical trials are still ongoing and there are no marketed products. Many of the patents are still pending.

The markets for RNAi are difficult to define as no RNAi-based product is approved yet but several are in clinical trials. The major use of RNAi reagents is in research but it partially overlaps that of drug discovery and therapeutic development. Various markets relevant to RNAi are analyzed from 2014 to 2024. Markets are also analyzed according to technologies and use of siRNAs, miRNAs, etc.

Profiles of 161 companies involved in developing RNAi technologies are presented along with 233 collaborations. They are a mix of companies that supply reagents and technologies (nearly half of all) and companies that use the technologies for drug discovery. Out of these, 33 are developing RNAi-based therapeutics and 35 are involved in microRNAs. The bibliography contains selected 600 publications that are cited in the report. The text is supplemented with 38 tables and 12 figures.

Key Topics Covered:

Executive Summary

1. Technologies for suppressing gene function

2. RNAi Technologies

Read more from the original source:
Research and Markets: Global RNAi Market Report 2015 - Technologies, Markets and Companies 2014-2024

DUBLIN, Mar. 03, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --Research and Markets

(http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/s3s3t8/personalized) has announced the addition of Jain PharmaBiotech's new report "Personalized Medicine - Scientific and Commercial Aspects" to their offering.

The aim of personalized medicine or individualized treatment is to match the right drug to the right patient and, in some cases, even to design the appropriate treatment for a patient according to his/her genotype. This report describes the latest concepts of development of personalized medicine based on pharmacogenomics, pharmacogenetics,pharmacoproteomics, and metabolomics. Basic technologies of molecular diagnostics play an important role, particularly those for single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping. Diagnosis is integrated with therapy for selection of the treatment as well for monitoring the results. Biochip/microarray technologies are also important and finally bioinformatics is needed to analyze the immense amount of data generated by various technologies.

Various technologies are integrated to develop personalized therapies for specific therapeutic areas described in the report. Examples of this are genotyping for drug resistance in HIV infection, personalized therapy of cancer, antipsychotics for schizophrenia, antidepressant therapy, antihypertensive therapy and personalized approach to neurological disorders. Although genotyping is not yet a part of clinically accepted routine, it is expected to have this status by the year 2020.

Several players are involved in the development of personalized therapy. Pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies have taken a leading role in this venture in keeping with their future role as healthcare enterprises rather than mere developers of technologies and manufacturers of medicines.

Ethical issues are involved in the development of personalized medicine mainly in the area of genetic testing. These along with social issues and consideration of race in the development of personalized medicine are discussed. Regulatory issues are discussed mainly with reference to the FDA guidelines on pharmacogenomics.

Increase in efficacy and safety of treatment by individualizing it has benefits in financial terms. Information is presented to show that personalized medicine will be cost-effective in healthcare systems. For the pharmaceutical companies, segmentation of the market may not leave room for conventional blockbusters but smaller and exclusive markets for personalized medicines would be profitable. Marketing opportunities for such a system are described with market estimates from 2014-2024.

Profiles of 311 companies involved in developing technologies for personalized medicines, along with 565 collaborations are included in the part II of the report. Finally the bibliography contains over 750 selected publications cited in the report.The report is supplemented by 73 tables and 25 figures.

Key Topics Covered:

Part I: Scientific & Commercial Aspects

View original post here:
Global Personalized Medicine Market Report 2015 - Scientific and Commercial Aspects 2014-2024

Patrick Sullivan: Why care about psychiatric genetics?
A Stockholm Psychiatry Lecture held at Karolinska Institutet Feb 3 2015 by Prof. Patrick F Sullivan, UNC and KI. More lectures at https://www.youtube.com/Psy...

By: PsychiatryLectures

Visit link:
Patrick Sullivan: Why care about psychiatric genetics? - Video

DUBLIN, Mar. 03, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --Research and Markets

(http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/gxqhg9/gene_therapy) has announced the addition of Jain PharmaBiotech's new report "Gene Therapy - Technologies, Markets and Companies" to their offering.

Gene therapy technologies are described in detail including viral vectors, nonviral vectors and cell therapy with genetically modified vectors. Gene therapy is an excellent method of drug delivery and various routes of administration as well as targeted gene therapy are described. There is an introduction to technologies for gene suppression as well as molecular diagnostics to detect and monitor gene expression.

Clinical applications of gene therapy are extensive and cover most systems and their disorders. Full chapters are devoted to genetic syndromes, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, neurological disorders and viral infections with emphasis on AIDS. Applications of gene therapy in veterinary medicine, particularly for treating cats and dogs, are included.

Research and development is in progress in both the academic and the industrial sectors. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) of the US is playing an important part. As of 2014, over 2050 clinical trials have been completed, are ongoing or have been approved worldwide.A breakdown of these trials is shown according to the geographical areas and applications.

Since the death of Jesse Gelsinger in the US following a gene therapy treatment, the FDA has further tightened the regulatory control on gene therapy. A further setback was the reports of leukemia following use of retroviral vectors in successful gene therapy for adenosine deaminase deficiency. Several clinical trials were put on hold and many have resumed now. The report also discusses the adverse effects of various vectors, safety regulations and ethical aspects of gene therapy including germline gene therapy.

The markets for gene therapy are difficult to estimate as there is only one approved gene therapy product and it is marketed in China since 2004. Gene therapy markets are estimated for the years 2014-2024. The estimates are based on epidemiology of diseases to be treated with gene therapy, the portion of those who will be eligible for these treatments, competing technologies and the technical developments anticipated in the next decades. In spite of some setbacks, the future for gene therapy is bright.The markets for DNA vaccines are calculated separately as only genetically modified vaccines and those using viral vectors are included in the gene therapy markets

The voluminous literature on gene therapy was reviewed and selected 750 references are appended in the bibliography.The references are constantly updated. The text is supplemented with 75 tables and 15 figures.

Profiles of 181 companies involved in developing gene therapy are presented along with 223 collaborations. There were only 44 companies involved in this area in 1995. In spite of some failures and mergers, the number of companies has increased more than 4-fold within a decade.

Key Topics Covered:

More:
Gene Therapy Market Report 2014-2024 - Technologies, Markets and Companies

DUBLIN, Mar. 03, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --Research and Markets

(http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/rcv4lq/gene_therapy) has announced the addition of the "Gene Therapy Market, 2015 - 2025" report to their offering.

The "Gene Therapy Market, 2015-2025" report provides an extensive study on the marketed and pipeline gene therapies. A lot of research has been carried out in this field for over a decade but there are only five approved therapies (four available in Asian markets; one approved in the EU). There are many promising therapies which are currently being developed worldwide; the approach is likely to result in several commercial success stories in the foreseen future. The report covers various aspects, such as key players, marketed gene therapy products, products in clinical / pre-clinical research, associated ethical issues, likely future developments and upcoming opportunities for a variety of stakeholders.

Several disorders that arise inside the body are a result of either a direct genetic aberration or a dysfunctional/non-functional protein. The attempt to use nucleic acids to correct or delete the genes causing a particular disease is known as gene therapy. Although gene therapy has not contributed significantly to the global pharmaceutical market yet, it is anticipated to grow at a fast pace over the next decade.

Gendicine, developed by SiBiono GeneTech, was the foremost gene therapy that entered market in 2004 in China. Since then four more therapies have received approval in China, Philippines, Russia and the EU. This number for approved / marketed therapies seems weak at present; however, the strong and highly populated pipeline holds tremendous potential. There are 12 gene therapies in late stage of clinical development for the treatment of cancer, ocular and cardiovascular disorders.

There are several concerns that remain to be answered; examples include insertional mutagenesis, treatment of multigene disorders, curbing the risk of immune reactions, eugenics, high cost of therapy and ethical concerns related to making alterations at the genetic level. Despite this, gene therapy does offer a ray of hope for patients who either have no treatment options or show no benefits with drugs that are currently available. Such a benefit far outweighs any disadvantages that may be associated with this upcoming therapeutic field.

Key Topics Covered:

1. Preface

2. Executive Summary

3. Introduction

Read the original:
Global Gene Therapy Market Report 2015-2025 - Extensive Study on the Marketed and Pipeline Gene Therapies