Archive for March, 2015

Chronic ankle pain

By: Wasserman Chronic Pain and Regenerative Medicine

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Chronic ankle pain - Video

Arthritis Suffers Have a New Hope for Pain Relief
Arthritis Joint Pain: (541) 716-6469 https://plus.google.com/+ColumbiaPainManagementPCHoodRiver/ Arthritis Joint Pain suffers have a new hope for a pain free life. Dr Rigert talks about...

By: Trey Rigert

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Arthritis Suffers Have a New Hope for Pain Relief - Video

Brown University biologists have determined how the loss of a gene in male mice results in the premature exhaustion of their fertility. Their fundamental new insights into the complex process of sperm generation may have direct applications to a similar loss of fertility in men.

What the team discovered is that the loss of the gene that makes the protein TAF4b causes a deficit in the number of progenitor cells at an embryonic stage of a male mouse's reproductive development. Lacking those important precursor cells means that the mice struggle to develop a robust stem cell infrastructure to sustain sperm production for the long term. The affected mice are fertile at first, but quickly deplete the limited sperm supply that they can generate.

"What's fascinating about these mice is they can reproduce," said Richard Freiman, senior author of the new study in the journal Stem Cells. "Mice can usually reproduce until they are two years old, but these mice can only reproduce until they are four months old."

TAF4b is a protein that affects how genes are regulated and transcribed, and its absence has profound impacts on the reproductive system. In previous work, Freiman's research group has shown that female mice without TAF4b are totally infertile and that their ovaries age prematurely. But in experiments with males, led by lab members Lindsay Lovasco and Eric Gustafson, the effect proved more subtle.

Sperm generation follows from a complex chain of events that the research shows begins before a male mouse is even born. In their experiments, the team compared the development of mice with and without the TAF4b gene. In mice with TAF4b, progenitor cells for sperm in the male embryo arise and proliferate normally, laying the groundwork in the testes for a robust pool of spermatogonial stem cells to develop. Those stem cells are the ones that produce a renewable supply of sperm. Without TAF4b, there were fewer progenitor cells and consequently fewer stem cells. They still produce sperm at first, but they can't renew production for the long haul. Ultimately the testes, which develop normally, become unproductive and atrophy.

What's not yet clear from the research is why the process fades out rather than just continuing, albeit at a very low level of productivity. One possibility is the low supply of spermatogonial stem cells drives the body to invest all its meager resources in immediate sperm production, leaving none of the stem cells in a more flexible state that can perpetually renew the supply. Another possibility is that regardless of supply, TAF4b is simply needed to see the renewal process through, for instance by maintaining some stem cells in their regenerative state.

Four Turkish brothers

Not only do humans have a gene for TAF4b, but a coincidental study last year in the Journal of Medical Genetics provides evidence that it also matters for sperm count. That research reported that four Turkish brothers who carried a mutation in the TAF4b gene had low sperm counts. Their mutation was in the same region of their gene as the one Freiman's team generated in the mice.

"The human implications are very exciting," he said. "It is possible that those men, as teenagers, were able to make functional sperm."

Certainly more research is needed, Freiman said, but if TAF4b mutation plays out in men the way it plays out in mice, his hope is that detecting the mutation in teenage boys could allow doctors to freeze their sperm so that when they are older and want to have children, they could draw on that banked supply.

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Mutation may cause early loss of sperm supply

Trieste team's breakthrough could lead to new AIDS drugs

(ANSA) - Trieste, March 2 - A group of researchers at Trieste's International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) has found the "dens" where HIV cells hide until they become "invisible". The breakthrough, which could lead to the development of new AIDS drugs, was made possible after the team, led by Professor Mauro Giacca, photographed the structure of HIV lymphoid cell nuclei. The study was published on Tuesday on the website of highly respected journal Nature. The AIDS virus manages to insert its DNA into the cells that it infects to become part of their genetic makeup. But up to now why the virus decides to combine with only some of the 20,000 human genes and how it manages to hide from medicines inside these genes had been a mystery.

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Italy study finds HIV's 'hiding places' - update

24 minutes ago Yunzhou Wei . Credit: Andrew Davis Tucker

An immune system that helps bacteria combat viruses is yielding unlikely results such as the ability to edit genome sequences and potentially correct mutations that cause human disease.

University of Georgia researchers Michael and Rebecca Terns were among the first to begin to study the bacterial immune system. They now have identified a key link in how bacteria respond and adapt to foreign invaders.

The new study, authored by the Terns and postdoctoral research associate Yunzhou Wei in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences department of biochemistry and molecular biology, was published recently in Genes & Development.

A bacterium gains immunity against a virus through a sophisticated process of acquiring a fragment of the viral DNA and incorporating the sequence into its own genome. This virus identification sequence is kept in a locus commonly known as a CRISPR, short for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats.

CRISPR-associated proteins then use the sequence to recognize and destroy viruses.

A CRISPR-associated protein known as Cas9 destroys invading viral DNA and has been co-opted as a tool for programmable genome editing. This new tool provides a way to make gene deletions, corrections of mutations and additions of new genes in any genome.

The UGA study highlights the discovery of a new role of the Cas9 protein in the initial acquisition of the invader sequence.

"The recognition that this enzyme functions both in capture and in killing provides us with a link between those two processes that we think is involved in ensuring that the process is specific for the virus and avoids potential damage to its own genome," said Rebecca Terns, a senior research scientist in biochemistry and molecular biology. "Our findings implicate Cas9 in the recognition of a secondary, invader-confirmation signal called a PAM."

In the study, the team describes the basic set of machinery that is required to obtain a specific fragment of viral sequence and insert the fragment in a specific location.

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Link identified between virus recognition, destruction in bacterial immune system

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Newswise CHAPEL HILL, NC 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.

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Genetically Speaking, Mammals Are More Like Their Fathers

Science Documentary: Genetics, Robotics, Quantum Computing, Artificial Intelligence
Science Documentary: Genetics, Robotics, Quantum Computing, Artificial Intelligence There are several technologies emerging that will change what it means to...

By: ScienceRound

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Science Documentary: Genetics, Robotics, Quantum Computing, Artificial Intelligence - Video

Stem cells for life, Life Science Center

By: Cell Therapy Catapult

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Stem cells for life, Life Science Center - Video

Noted chemist and biotech entrepreneur Peter G. Schultz, He spoke Wednesday, Feb. 25, at a conference held by the life science trade group Biocom.

In a rare appearance before the public, Peter G. Schultz showcased the drug research and preclinical activities at Calibr, the nonprofit biomedical research organization he directs.

Among the projects now under way:

-- A novel twist on the CAR T cell cancer therapy, using "blank" T cells that can be flexibly programmed by drugs given in vivo

-- A two-in-one multiple sclerosis therapy aimed at both controlling the disease's abnormal immune response and repairing damaged nerves

-- Treating spinal muscular atrophy with a Calibr-discovered compound that increases gene expression of the needed protein

Schultz, a prominent faculty member of the Scripps Research Institute known for his role in founding San Diego area biotechs, discussed what he was up to Wednesday at a life science conference held by Biocom, the San Diego-based life science trade group.

Calibr, the California Institute for Biomedical Research, was founded in 2012 with up to $90 million from Merck. The drug giant gets an option to exclusively license small molecule or antibody therapeutics from Calibr; the institute gets a financial base as it expands. It's located in Torrey Pines Mesa next to Synthetic Genomics.

Calibr is located at 11119 N Torrey Pines Rd #100, La Jolla, 92037 / Google Maps

The institution seeks a new way for drug discovery at non-for-profit research institutions, Schultz said at the luncheon presentation.

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Audacious start for La Jolla's Calibr

In the new treatment, specialists use a high dose of chemotherapy to knock out the immune system before rebuilding it with stem cells taken from the patients own blood.

Stem cells are so effective because they can become any cell in the body based on their environment.

"Since we started treating patients three years ago, some of the results we have seen have been miraculous," Professor Basil Sharrack, a consultant neurologist at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, told The Sunday Times.

"This is not a word I would use lightly, but we have seen profound neurological improvements."

During the treatment, the patient's stem cells are harvested and stored. Then doctors use aggressive drugs which are usually given to cancer patients to completely destroy the immune system.

The harvested stem cells are then infused back into the body where they start to grow new red and white blood cells within just two weeks.

Within a month the immune system is back up and running fully and that is when patients begin to notice that they are recovering.

Holly Drewry, 25, of Sheffield, was wheelchair bound after the birth of her daughter Isla, now two.

But she claims the new treatment has transformed her life.

It worked wonders, she said. I remember being in the hospital... after three weeks, I called my mum and said: 'I can stand'. We were all crying.

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'Miracle' stem cell therapy reverses multiple sclerosis

The role of animal genetics for food nutritional qualities
Paul Boettcher, Livestock production officer at FAO on the role of animal genetics for food nutritional qualities FAO: http://www.fao.org.

By: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

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The role of animal genetics for food nutritional qualities - Video

Published: Sunday, 3/1/2015 - Updated: 50 seconds ago

BY MARLENEHARRIS-TAYLOR BLADE STAFF WRITER

Hockey legend Gordie Howes star power is raising awareness in the United States and Canada about advances in stem-cell therapies as he continues what is being called a miraculous recovery from a massive stroke.

Those closest to him, including his son, Toledo radiologist Dr. Murray Howe, are convinced the former Detroit Red Wings player would have died if he had not traveled to a medical clinic in Tijuana, Mexico, for an experimental stem-cell treatment not yet available in the United States.

After a debilitating stroke on Oct. 26, Mr. Howe, 86, had a few weeks of slight recovery, but then his health went downhill quickly, said Dr. Howe, director of sports medicine imaging for ProMedica Toledo Hospital. The family had started preparing for his funeral. But that all turned around after he had the adult stem-cell treatment on Dec. 8.

If you saw him now, you wouldnt know he had a stroke, Dr. Howe said.

Its been wonderful. Every day I would say hes a little bit better, and there are little hints of improvement. Certainly in the first month, every day his strength, coordination, and balance were better. He has been eating like a horse. He had lost 20 pounds, and now he has gained back 25 pounds, so he is pretty close to his playing weight now, Dr. Howe said.

Amazing results

In describing his fathers treatment and recovery in the last three months, Dr. Howe does not hesitate to use words such as unbelievable, astonishing, and amazing.

Eight hours after Mr. Howe received what is called a lumbar puncture, where stem cells were injected in the spinal fluid of his lower back by an anesthesiologist, he went from being bedridden and only mumbling short sentences to speaking clearly and walking with assistance, Dr. Howe said.

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Howe's recovery shows stem-cell advances

Shoulder/Hip torn labrum 2 years and 5 months (respectively) after stem cell therapy by Adelson
Stacy describes her outcome from stem cell therapy by Dr Harry Adelson for treatment of torn labrum of her shoulder and hip. http://www.docereclinics.com.

By: Harry Adelson, N.D.

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Shoulder/Hip torn labrum 2 years and 5 months (respectively) after stem cell therapy by Adelson - Video

In the new treatment, specialists use a high dose of chemotherapy to knock out the immune system before rebuilding it with stem cells taken from the patients own blood.

Stem cells are so effective because they can become any cell in the body based on their environment.

"Since we started treating patients three years ago, some of the results we have seen have been miraculous," Professor Basil Sharrack, a consultant neurologist at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, told The Sunday Times.

"This is not a word I would use lightly, but we have seen profound neurological improvements."

During the treatment, the patient's stem cells are harvested and stored. Then doctors use aggressive drugs which are usually given to cancer patients to completely destroy the immune system.

The harvested stem cells are then infused back into the body where they start to grow new red and white blood cells within just two weeks.

Within a month the immune system is back up and running fully and that is when patients begin to notice that they are recovering.

Holly Drewry, 25, of Sheffield, was wheelchair bound after the birth of her daughter Isla, now two.

But she claims the new treatment has transformed her life.

It worked wonders, she said. I remember being in the hospital... after three weeks, I called my mum and said: 'I can stand'. We were all crying.

Visit link:
'Miracle' stem cell therapy reverses multiple sclerosis

THE contemporary age brings a lot of new things that leave people in awe, amazement, and sometimes, in disbelief and disagreement. One thing that the more advanced technology gave birth to is the controversial Stem Cell Therapy (SCT).

According to mayoclinic.org, SCT is the replacement of damaged or diseased stem cells by injecting or infusing healthy stems into your body.

An article from philstar.com also says that SCT replaces or supports ones degenerating tissues and organs. The stem cells used in this technology are capable of developing into different kinds of cells, thus, are also called master cells.

According to bethematch.org, the diseases that are treatable by SCT are leukemia, bone marrow diseases, inherited immune system disorders, and diseases with poorly functioning red blood cells.

SCT is also used as an anti-aging treatment. Some of the prominent Filipinos have used this therapy to maintain their youthful glow and energy.

In the Philippines, clinics offering SCT have sprouted like mushrooms due to its perceived benefits to the patients. In fact, Makati Medical Center has its Cellular Therapeutics Center, equipped with facilities from Germany, USA, and Japan.

In an article from makatimed.net, it was said that the center has an extensive range of services that boast the remarkable efficacy of stem cells.

Dr. Florencio Q. Lucero who started the use of adult SCT in the Philippines in 2006, was quoted in an article from inquirer.net saying that in the Philippines, most of the customers rich businessmen and public officials who are mostly males.

One of them is Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada. He had his SCT at a clinic in Germany called Villa Medica on April 2012. Another article from inquirer.net said that Estrada had 14 shots of blood from the donor animal, the unborn sheep, on his buttocks.

In the same article, Estrada was quoted saying he could sleep better, his knees are working better, and that his skin has shown its glow.

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Animal cells for a younger you

General Information About Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC)

SCLC accounts for approximately 15% of bronchogenic carcinomas.

At the time of diagnosis, approximately 30% of patients with SCLC will have tumors confined to the hemithorax of origin, the mediastinum, or the supraclavicular lymph nodes. These patients are designated as having limited-stage disease (LD).[1] Patients with tumors that have spread beyond the supraclavicular areas are said to have extensive-stage disease (ED).

SCLC is more responsive to chemotherapy and radiation therapy than other cell types of lung cancer; however, a cure is difficult to achieve because SCLC has a greater tendency to be widely disseminated by the time of diagnosis.

The overall incidence and mortality rates of SCLC in the United States have decreased during the past few decades.[2]

Estimated new cases and deaths from lung cancer (SCLC and non-small cell lung cancer [NSCLC] combined) in the United States in 2015:[3]

Lung cancer may present with symptoms or be found incidentally on chest imaging. Symptoms and signs may result from the location of the primary local invasion or compression of adjacent thoracic structures, distant metastases, or paraneoplastic phenomena. The most common symptoms at presentation are worsening cough, shortness of breath, and dyspnea. Other presenting symptoms include the following:

Symptoms may result from local invasion or compression of adjacent thoracic structures, such as compression involving the esophagus causing dysphagia, compression involving the laryngeal nerves causing hoarseness, or compression involving the superior vena cava causing facial edema and distension of the superficial veins of the head and neck. Symptoms from distant metastases may also be present and include neurological defect or personality change from brain metastases or pain from bone metastases.

Infrequently, patients with SCLC may present with symptoms and signs of one of the following paraneoplastic syndromes:

Physical examination may identify enlarged supraclavicular lymphadenopathy, pleural effusion or lobar collapse, unresolved pneumonia, or signs of associated disease such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

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Small Cell Lung Cancer Treatment (PDQ) - National Cancer ...

Heart Disease: The Genetics Behind It.
You got your brown eyes from your dad. You #39;re a lefty thanks to your mom. But you also may be at greater risk for heart disease because of your inheritance a...

By: UT Health Northeast

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Heart Disease: The Genetics Behind It. - Video

CSA genetics polycystic kidneys
CSA genetics case done well - showing you don #39;t need to mention chromosomes, genes etc.

By: Matthew Smith

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CSA genetics polycystic kidneys - Video

Trans Ova Genetics - 2015 Denver Display Video
Trans Ova Genetics provides industry-leading reproductive technologies and expertise to cattle breeders through a unique professional services team that work...

By: TransOvaGenetics

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Trans Ova Genetics - 2015 Denver Display Video - Video

Project Mineoid | E3 | Advanced Genetics!
Project Mineoid is a new SMP server created by CynicaGaming. It started out as an idea on reddit and took form a little while after that. Join us in our jour...

By: Xolan

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Project Mineoid | E3 | Advanced Genetics! - Video

Bagito: Genetics Explained
Andrew believes that Albie is his real child because they really are look alike. Subscribe to ABS-CBN Entertainment channel! - http://bit.ly/ABS-CBNEntertain...

By: ABS-CBN Entertainment

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Bagito: Genetics Explained - Video

Genetics- Unprofessional Psychopaths (prod. by MainPiece)
Follow on instagram: genetics4 Watch in 1080p.

By: Genetics

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Genetics- Unprofessional Psychopaths (prod. by MainPiece) - Video