Archive for the ‘Gene Therapy Research’ Category

Dr Alok Sharma Stem Cell Therapy Treatment for Muscular Dystrophy
Dr Alok Sharma Stem Cell Therapy Treatment for Muscular Dystrophy She is a known case of MD with history of gradual onset of progressive lower extremities muscle weakness noticed since 27 years of age with complaints of imbalance while walking foot drop and difficulty in stair case climbing So she was investigated and muscle biopsy confirmed diagnosis of MD After Stem Cell Therapy 1 Stamina has increased Exercise tolerance has improved 2 She can lift her leg more up while in standing 3 Hip ...

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Dr Alok Sharma Stem Cell Therapy Treatment for Cerebral Palsy
Dr Alok Sharma Stem Cell Therapy Treatment for Cerebral Palsy He is a known case of Diplegic CP with history of full term normal delivery (vaccum) delivery a...

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Dr Alok Sharma Stem Cell Therapy Treatment for Cerebral Palsy - Video

With its growing popularity in the country, the so-called stem cell therapy, which was recently approved by the Department of Health (DOH), is now available in Davao City.

Dr. Luz Acosta, a Davao-born physician specializing in Ophthalmology, Oculoplastic Reconstructive Surgery, Cosmetic Surgery and recently Stem Cell Treatment, conducts the procedure after acquiring equipment from Australia and the USA. She is supported by a team that includes cardiologists, internists, and anesthesiologists who administer the laboratory tests and cardiopulmonary clearance to determine if an individual can safely undergo stem cell therapy. Having trained in this discipline abroad, she recently decided to offer this treatment after it was approved by the DoH.

As a founding member of the Philippine Society for Stem Cell Medicine that was only established last January 18, 2013 with DOH Sec. Dr. Enrique Ona as its honorary chair, Acosta is joined by doctors Jose Sabili, Melchor Santos, Christian Mancao, Leo Olarte, Bu Castro, Oscar Tinio, and Almond Derla as well as Mr. Rico Colayco as organizers of the society.

"This means that the Philippine Society for Stem Cell Medicine is the regulating body for the practice of stem cell treatment in the country," Acosta says. "Stem cell therapy is legal and safe for every medically cleared patient who wants to undergo such treatment to be rejuvenated and treated of his/her illnesses and diseases."

Acosta said that based on what was stipulated in the approved directions for stem cell therapy, the stem cell could just come from the person himself and not from the other sources like black sheep or aborted fetus, adding that sources of stem cells are fats, blood, bone marrow and umbilical cord.

"It could take five to six hours for one to undergo stem cell therapy. Harvesting is done in the first two hours, then another one to two hours for stem cell processing and activation, and the last one to two hours for treatment of stem cells back to the same patient," she said.

Popular personalities who have already publicly admitted that they had undergone stem cell therapy are former President Joseph Estrada, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and former Senator Ernesto Maceda, who said that they spent millions to pay for the treatment.

But Acosta said that it could be a lot cheaper here than abroad, as the cost of treatment will be in accordance to the guidelines of the Phil. Society for Stem Cell Medicine.

She said there have been very good clinical outcomes from stem cell treatments on autism, auto-immune diseases, cerebral palsy, diabetes, heart disease, liver cirrhosis, macular degeneration, multiple sclerosis, nerve damage, osteoarthritis, spinal cord injury and stroke.

"But we have to clarify here that we are not claiming stem cell therapy as a cure for cancer, though it can alleviate pain and improve patients' wellbeing while undergoing cancer therapy," she said.

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Stem Cell Therapy Now In Davao

HARRISBURG The Center for Rural Pennsylvania has re-elected state Senator Gene Yaw, R-23 of Lycoming County, to serve as Chairman of its 11 member Board of Directors.

The Center is a bipartisan, bicameral legislative agency that serves as a resource for rural policy within the Pennsylvania General Assembly.

I am again very humbled to be re-elected Chairman of the Board for the Center for Rural Pennsylvania, said Yaw. As a state Senator and resident of rural Pennsylvania, I find the research and reports conducted and distributed by the Center for Rural Pennsylvania invaluable to our work in Harrisburg and also to many individuals, groups and organizations in my district, and across the Commonwealth.

The Center works with the legislature, educators, state and federal executive branch agencies, and national, statewide, regional and local organizations to maximize resources and strategies that can better serve Pennsylvanias 3.4 million rural residents.

Approximately 27 percent of the states 12.7 million residents live in 48 rural counties, Yaw added. By 2030, Pennsylvania rural counties are projected to have a total population of 3.57 million people, a 3 percent increase from 2010. This further amplifies the importance of the work provided by the Center for Rural Pennsylvania.

Created in 1987 under Act 16, the Rural Revitalization Act, the Center for Rural Pennsylvania promotes and sustains the vitality of Pennsylvanias rural and small communities by:

- Sponsoring research projects to identify policy options for legislative and executive branch consideration and action

- Collecting data on trends and conditions to understand the diversity of rural Pennsylvania

- Publishing information and research results to inform and educate audiences about the diverse people and communities of rural Pennsylvania; and

- Participating in local, state and national forums on rural issues to present and learn from best practices.

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State Sen. Gene Yaw re-elected board chairman for Center for Rural Pennsylvania

March 12, 2013 - News Release

A discovery by University of Guelph researchers will help in understanding how horses develop recurrent airway obstruction (RAO) and offers hope of potential solutions for people with asthma.

In a paper in a recent issue of BMC Genomics, the researchers discuss their discovery that horses have three copies of a gene normally found as a single copy in mammals. This gene, called secretoglobin family 1A member 1 (SCGB-1A1), produces a protein secreted in large amounts in the airway.

RAO is a chronic inflammatory lung disease. It is especially prevalent during winter in horses kept in barns and fed hay. The researchers found that RAO-susceptible horses have much less SCGB1A1 protein in their airways, which enhances inflammation.

Symptoms in horses with RAO resemble those of humans with environmentally induced asthma.

The researchers found that two of the gene copies could play a significant role in treating RAO. The third copy has no recognized function and may have evolved into a pseudo-gene.

Lead author Olivier Ct, a PhD candidate in the Department of Pathobiology, says the study could have larger implications than treating horses.

Were able to use the horse as a model for asthma in humans, said Ct. We found through our research that horses suffering from RAO had reduced SCGB1A1 levels. Since an obvious suggestion for treating RAO is to increase protein levels of SCGB1A1, we made a synthetic version of it in the lab. We are currently testing the proteins function. While it would not be possible to simply provide humans with this protein to reduce asthma, as humans and horses are different species, these findings do give hope that we can find novel treatments for asthma.

Study co-author Prof. Dorothee Bienzle said it was challenging to isolate and assess the individual genes. The researchers also faced challenges because of the unusual nature of the gene triplication.

Other mammals do not have multiple SCGB1A1 copies, except for some other equidae, such as Przewalskis horses and donkeys, she said. So it is difficult to know where the gene came from. We can speculate that it was an evolutionary response that took place over many years. We dont know why the pseudo-gene exists or what its purpose is. The distribution of the other two gene transcripts and proteins indicates they are extremely prevalent in the lung and reproductive organs.

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Horse Gene Discovery Points to Asthma Relief: Guelph Study

GIANT GENETIC MUTANT RATS 2013
WERE THEY RELEASED THERE? ARE THEY INFECTED WITH HORRIBLE DISEASES? THIS SOUNDS VERY SUSPICIOUS TO ME! LINK: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/437326/2013022...

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Palo Alto and Berkeley, Calif. March 10, 2013 An unprecedented collaboration among academia, industry, government and civil society has resulted in the launch of a professional-grade collection of public domain DNA parts that greatly increases the reliability and precision by which biology can be engineered. Researchers at the International Open Facility Advancing Biotechnology (aka, BIOFAB) have just announced that they have, in effect, established rules for the first language for engineering gene expression, the layer between the genome and all the dynamic processes of life. The feat is all the more remarkable considering that just a few years ago several prominent scientists claimed that it would be impossible to develop frameworks enabling reliably reusable standard biological parts. Collectively, the BIOFAB team has produced thousands of high quality standard biological parts. The DNA sequences that encode all parts and the data about them are free and available online.

The project is detailed in three research papers, Precise and Reliable Gene Expression via Standard Transcription and Translation Initiation Elements, and Quantitative Estimation of Activity and Quality for Collections of Functional Genetic Elements, published simultaneously in Nature Methods, and Measurement and Modeling of Intrinsic Transcription Terminators, forthcoming in Nucleic Acids Research (see full citations below).

The BIOFABs rules for engineering expression come in the form of mathematical models that can be used to predict and characterize the individual parts used in synthetic biology. The work establishes a much-needed technological foundation for the field, allowing researchers to engineer the function of DNA more precisely, and to better predict the resultant behavior.

Dr. Vivek Mutalik, a BIOFAB team leader, says that synthetic biology has been plagued by a lack of reliability and predictability. Until now, virtually every project has been a one-off we havent figured out how to standardize the genetic parts that are the building blocks of this new field. Researchers produce amazing new parts all the time, but much like trying to use someone elses house key in your own door, its been difficult to directly reuse parts across projects. Without the ability to characterize parts that is, to understand how they will behave in multiple contexts biotech researchers are doomed to a lengthy process of trial-and-error. Fortunately, notes Mutalik, Our work in the BIOFAB changes all that.

The plan for establishing the rules for how genetic parts fit together was ambitious and complex. First, researchers needed to figure out the functional patterns of genetic parts. They had to ask, To what extent do the basic genetic parts that control gene expression misbehave when reused over and again in novel combinations, said Mutalik. BIOFAB researchers had to make and test hundreds of combinations of frequently used parts, then take the resulting data and build mathematical models that demonstrated part quality. Joao Guimaraes, a member of the BIOFAB team and graduate student in computational biology, explains that difficult-to-predict parts are deemed to be low quality, while high quality parts behave the same when reused. Once they found a way to determine part quality, the BIOFAB team set to work on establishing rules for precision control of gene expression, a process that underlies all of biotechnology. They learned by observing natural examples of genetic junctions, and built reliable transcription and translation initiation elements. We also created standard junctions for transcription terminators, a molecular stop sign for gene expression, said Dr. Guillaume Cambray, a BIOFAB team leader.

While the initial BIOFAB project was able to tame three types of core genetic parts, much more work remains. We ask that others expand upon the genetic grammar initiated here, to incorporate additional genetic functions and to translate the common rule set beyond E. coli, says Stanford professor and BIOFAB co-director Drew Endy. (Endy also serves as president of the BioBricks Foundation.)

The BIOFABs seed money came from the National Science Foundation, but this funding came only after 10 years of knocking on doors. Part of the difficulty was that the BIOFAB represented a fundamental engineering research project. Its not the kind of work that is suitable for a single graduate student thesis, and it wasnt economically practical for a biotechnology company to take it on. UC Berkeley professor and BIOFAB co-director Adam Arkin noted that, We knew that we would only be successful if we could bring together the skills represented by both academia and industry to establish a professional team that could specify and solve the fundamental engineering puzzles that slow the development of effective biotechnologies

The BIOFABs collaboration with not only the NSF, but also with industry, has been one of the keys to its success. Pre-competitive and unrestricted partnerships with industry were essential to guide the work and help secure and extend public funding, said UC Berkeley professor and BIOFAB advisor Jay Keasling. (Both Arkin and Keasling are also affiliated with Lawrence Berkeley Lab; Arkin is Director of the Physical Biosciences Division, and Keasling is an Associate Lab Director for Biosciences.)

Other partners came from civil society, including the BioBricks Foundation, a public-benefit organization that helps to advance best practices in the emerging field of synthetic biology. We were thrilled to help make all BIOFAB engineered parts free-to-use via the BioBrick Public Agreement and the public domain, said Holly Million, the foundations executive director.

The BIOFABs standardized parts are specific for E. coli but the grammar the way in which the rules are constructed for how the parts fit together should apply to nearly any organism; many of the BIOFABs rules for E.coli are expected to apply to other prokaryotes.

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Synthetic biologists standardize genetic parts to engineer cells

Public release date: 11-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Vicki Cohn vcohn@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

New Rochelle, NY, March 11, 2013Consumption of energy drinks containing caffeine may have beneficial effects on exercise but probably not for mental function. The effects of pre-exercise caffeine consumption by trained cyclists on racing times and cognitive performance were measured and are reported in Journal of Caffeine Research, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Journal of Caffeine Research website at http://www.liebertpub.com/jcr.

Race performance improved for all study participants after consuming an energy drink, even if they already had an elevated blood caffeine level before the energy drink. Cycling times improved by an average of 3% for the group. David Gray Lassiter and coauthors from University of Texas at Austin also reported improvements in certain aspects of cognitive function, but these were probably not due to the energy drink. They present their findings in the article "Effect of an Energy Drink on Physical and Cognitive Performance in Trained Cyclists."

"While it is not certain from this one study whether energy drink improves physical performance, the study is important in pointing the way to further research in this area," says Jack E. James, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Caffeine Research.

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About the Journal

Journal of Caffeine Research: The International Multidisciplinary Journal of Caffeine Science is a quarterly journal published in print and online that covers the effects of caffeine on a wide range of diseases and conditions, including mood disorders, neurological disorders, cognitive performance, cardiovascular disease, and sports performance. The Journal explores all aspects of caffeine science including the biochemistry of caffeine; its actions on the human body; benefits, dangers, and contraindications; and caffeine addiction and withdrawal, across all stages of the human life span from prenatal exposure to end-of-life. Tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Journal of Caffeine Research website at http://www.liebertpub.com/jcr.

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 Breastfeeding Medicine, Journal of Medicinal Food, and Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology. 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 70 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website at http://www.liebertpub.com.

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Can energy drinks improve the physical and mental performance of cyclists?

Public release date: 12-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Vicki Cohn vcohn@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

New Rochelle, NY, March 12, 2013The foodborne bacteria Listeria monocytogenes sickens about 2,500 people in the U.S. each year and many more worldwide, killing about 25-30% of those infected. Listeriosis is caused by eating food contaminated with L. monocytogenes, and current methods for detecting the bacteria are costly and time consuming. An innovative nanotechnology-based method for developing an inexpensive biosensor to detect the pathogen in food is described in Industrial Biotechnology, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert Inc., publishers (http://www.liebertpub.com). The articles are available free on the Industrial Biotechnology (http://www.liebertpub.com/ind) website.

Vivian C.H. Wu, PhD led a group of scientists from University of Maine (Orono), National Chio Tung University, and Apex Biotechnology Corp. (Hsinchu, Taiwan), in producing a highly specific, antibody-based immunobiosensing strip with the potential for low-cost commercial development. Danielle Davis, et al. describes their work in the article "Gold Nanoparticle-Modified Carbon Electrode Biosensor for the Detection of Listeria monocytogenes (http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/ind.2012.0033)."

The article is part of an IB Special Section on Nanobiotechnology, Part 2, led by Co-Guest Editors Norman Scott, PhD, Professor, Cornell University (Ithaca, NY) and Hongda Chen, PhD, National Program Leader, National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDA (Washington, DC). In their Overview article "Nanoscale Science and Engineering for Agriculture and Food Systems (http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/ind.2013.1555)," they describe the emerging opportunities and challenges for nanotechnology and nanomaterials research in industrial biotechnology.

The special section also includes two Review articles: "Time Analysis of Poly(Lactic-Co-Glycolic) Acid Nanoparticle Uptake by Major Organs Following Acute Intravenous and Oral Administration in Mice and Rats (http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/ind.2012.0032)" by Lacey Simon and Cristina Sabliov, Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge, LA); and "Biomarker-Based Nanotechnology for the Improvement of Reproductive Performance in Beef and Dairy Cattle (http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/ind.2012.0035)" by Peter Sutovsky and Chelsey Kennedy, University of Missouri-Columbia, MO.

Additional original research articles include "Pueraria lobata (Kudzu) Photosystem I Improves the Photoelectrochemical Performance of Silicon (http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/ind.2012.0036)" by Darlene Gunther, Gabriel LeBlanc, David Cliffel, and G. Kane Jennings, Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN); and "An Aptasensor Based on Polymer-Gold Nanoparticle Composite Microspheres for the Detection of Malathion Using Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/ind.2012.0029)" by Francisco Barahona, Cameron Bardliving, Adrienne Phifer, John Bruno, and Carl Batt, Cornell University (Ithaca, NY) and Operational Technologies Corp. (San Antonio, TX).

"Nanoscale science continues to play a major role in catalyzing biotechnology innovation, yielding a broad spectrum of devices and products that are addressing many pressing social needs," says Larry Walker, PhD, Co-Editor-in-Chief and Professor, Biological & Environmental Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.

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Low-cost nano-biosensor to detect foodborne pathogen that causes listeriosis

BIOFABs directors Drew Endy (left) and Adam Arkin hope that their facility will help to industrialize synthetic biology.

Margot Hartford

The latest shopping website is open for business, offering unusual wares: DNA tools to help biologists to engineer life.

The DNA sequences which allow precise control of gene activity in the bacterium Escherichia coli are the first output of BIOFAB, based in Emeryville, California, which calls itself the worlds first biological design-build facility. Launched in 2009 with a US$1.4-million grant from the US National Science Foundation, BIOFAB aims to advance synthetic biology by creating standard biological parts in the form of DNA sequences that control gene expression. These standard sequences should allow biologists to engineer cells that can make medicines and perform other useful tasks simply by plugging in various sets of genes.

The sequences are meant to overcome a key barrier to synthetic biology: genes inserted into an organism do not behave predictably, even in such a well-understood workhorse as E. coli. You would think after a generation of genetic engineering, expressing genes with precision in an organism as well utilized as E. coliwould be pretty straightforward. It turns out its not, says BIOFAB co-director Drew Endy, a synthetic biologist at Stanford University in California.

For a cell to express a gene that is, transcribe it into an RNA molecule and then translate that RNA into a protein other sequences recognized by the cells machinery must precede it. A promoter sequence is needed to make an RNA transcript, and a ribosome binding site (RBS) is crucial for protein translation.

Over the past three decades, scientists have amassed collections of these sequences and used them to express genes in which they are interested. Some sequences tend to be strong and others weak, resulting in varying levels of RNA and protein being produced.

But a team led by Endy and BIOFAB co-director Adam Arkin, of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, has found that the activities of those sequences are far from predictable. In two papers published online this week in Nature Methods1, 2, the team reports inserting many different combinations of promoters and RBS sequences in front of genes encoding fluorescent proteins, and then measuring the level of protein that was made. It was a bloody mess, says Arkin, with each promoterRBS combination having varying effects depending on the gene.

He and Endy also cite an earlier finding that a scientist hoping to express a protein at a particular level has just a 50% chance of producing the required amount within a factor of two. Such hit-or-miss expression poses a major challenge to synthetic biologists who would like to create genetic circuits involving dozens of genes.

As a solution, the BIOFAB team designed promoter and RBS sequences for E. colithat do not interfere with downstream DNA, so that their effects are independent of the specific gene they are paired with. The sequences should provide scientists with a much tighter grip on gene expression, offering around a 93% chance of hitting a desired level of expression within a factor of two2. Researchers can obtain the sequences for free online (see http://www.biofab.org/data), and Arkin says that some of his colleagues are already finding them useful.

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DNA tool kit goes live online

Colon Cancer Pathological and Clinical Stages
Dr. Kozloff explains that although there are four specific stages of colon cancer, doctors often break the stages up into two stages: clinical and pathologic...

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JEFFREY BROWN: In California, researchers are sifting through a huge collection of genetic data that could be a key to unlocking vital information for doctors and patients.

NewsHour correspondent Spencer Michels reports.

SPENCER MICHELS: Every year, 240,000 men in America learn that they have prostate cancer. Reggie Watkins, a retired parole officer and a patient at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, Calif., is one of them.

REGGIE WATKINS, Kaiser Patient: The first biopsy showed a slight cancer, slight amount of cancer. The second biopsy showed no cancer. I do think there's a genetic situation in my family. I'm not the only and my brother is not the only one in the family to have this problem.

SPENCER MICHELS: Until recently, Watkins' family history and his unique genetic makeup would have played a minor role, if any, in his medical care. But thanks in part to a massive, groundbreaking new study under way at Kaiser and the University of California, San Francisco, information gleaned from patients' genes may prove the key to identifying and treating a host of diseases.

NEIL RISCH, University of California, San Francisco: You know, you're not born to this world as a blank slate. You come into it with a certain genetic disposition.

SPENCER MICHELS: UCSF Professor Neil Risch, the lead genetic researcher, says that his project and others that compile vast amounts of genetic information are on the verge of revolutionizing medicine.

NEIL RISCH: We can actually look to see how the genes that somebody has and they have had since they were born interact with environmental factors that actually work together to either increase or decrease risk of, say, heart disease or cancer or a whole variety of things.

SPENCER MICHELS: More than 200,000 Kaiser patients in California over the last five years have volunteered saliva and blood samples for genetic analysis. Those samples are processed at this Kaiser lab using state-of- the-art robotic devices which extract the DNA.

CATHERINE SCHAEFER, Kaiser Permanente: This is the richest, largest, the most comprehensive data bank right now in the world.

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Researchers Aim to Unlock Genetic Data Goldmine for Vital Medical Information

Strange Materials with Mark Miodownik
Materials are a defining characteristic of society. The ages of civilization are named after materials and the development of new materials do more than simp...

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Strange Materials with Mark Miodownik - Video

Can You Build Muscle With Hardgainer Genetics
http://www.StackedNJacked.com - Click HERE for your FREE guide to getting Stacked N Jacked. http://dclaiborne.com/start-here - Click HERE for your FREE repor...

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Debut DNA Genetics Exodus Kush
Debut of DNA Genetics Exodus Kush, taking some clones off this cute plant that is in the vegative phase. This Exodus Kush looks really healthy and I #39;m excite...

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The Great Debate - What is Life?
http://www.thesciencenetwork.org Richard Dawkins, J. Craig Venter, Nobel laureates Sidney Altman and Leland Hartwell, Chris McKay, Paul Davies, Lawrence Krau...

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15 hours ago Mar. 12, 2013 - 9:00 AM PDT

Spiral Genetics, a Seattle-based startup that helps researchers and others quickly analyze DNA sequence data, has raised $3 million in its first institutional round of funding.

The Series A round was led by venture firm DFJ and brings the startups total amount raised to $3.7 million. With the new funding, Adina Mangubat, Spiral Genetics co-founder and CEO, said her eight-person team plans to expand product development, as well as sales and marketing.

Mangubat said that when she and one of her co-founders, Becky Drees, first looked at the field of genomics, their plan was to launch a consumer-focused genetic testing service like 23andme. But as that company started launching its services, they decided to switch tacks.

We were looking at the industry and we wanted to do something really impactful that involved genomics and computing, she said. When they realized the speed and volume with which raw sequence data was being generated, she said, they spotted an opportunity in offering high-performance bioinformatics tools for analyzing it.

Companies like DNANexus also offer sequence analysis, and others might conduct the analysis in-house, but Mangubat said they envisioned a service that could shrink the turnaround time for researchers and others in industry deluged by data. Last month, Redwood City, Calif.-based Bina Technologies announced the commercial launch of its own genomic analysis platform and similarly touts a faster-than-ever service.

Mangubat and Drees teamed up with their third co-founder Jeremy Bruestle and started building a computing platform specifically intended to solve this kind of big data problem. Now, the company says, it can analyze a whole human genome in 3 hours, which is about 40 times faster than what it might take others.

Spiral Genetics customers run the gamut from academic researchers to corporations, Mangubat said. For example, while some clients may use their bioinformatics tool to tackle childhood cancer, others in agrigenomics could use it to sequence different strains of corn.

Along with the new funding, Spiral Genetics announced a new partnership with Omicia, an Emeryville, Calif.-based provider of clinical genome sequence interpretation tools.

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Big data bioinformatics startup Spiral Genetics raises $3M

LOS ANGELES, March 12, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Response Genetics, Inc. (RGDX), a company focused on the development and sale of molecular diagnostic tests for cancer, announced today that Thomas A. Bologna, Chairman and CEO, will present at the 25th Annual ROTH Conference in Laguna Niguel, CA.

Mr. Bologna's presentation is scheduled to begin at 4:00 p.m. PDT on March 19, 2013. Interested investors can access a live webcast of the presentation by going to the Investor Relations tab on the Response Genetics website: http://www.responsegenetics.com.

About Response Genetics, Inc.

Response Genetics, Inc. (the "Company") is a CLIA-certified clinical laboratory focused on the development and sale of molecular diagnostic testing services for cancer. The Company's technologies enable extraction and analysis of genetic information derived from tumor cells stored as formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded specimens. The Company's principal customers include oncologists and pathologists. In addition to diagnostic testing services, the Company generates revenue from the sale of its proprietary analytical pharmacogenomic testing services of clinical trial specimens to the pharmaceutical industry. The Company's headquarters is located in Los Angeles, California. For more information, please visit http://www.responsegenetics.com.

Forward-Looking Statement Notice

Except for the historical information contained herein, this press release and the statements of representatives of the Company related thereto contain or may contain, among other things, certain forward-looking statements, within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

Such forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties. Such statements may include, without limitation, statements with respect to the Company's plans, objectives, projections, expectations and intentions, such as the ability of the Company, to provide clinical testing services to the medical community, to continue to expand its sales force, to continue to build its digital pathology initiative, to attract and retain qualified management, to strengthen marketing capabilities, to expand the suite of ResponseDX(R)products, to continue to provide clinical trial support to pharmaceutical clients, to enter into new collaborations with pharmaceutical clients, to enter into areas of companion diagnostics, to continue to execute on its business strategy and operations, to continue to analyze cancer samples and the potential for using the results of this research to develop diagnostic tests for cancer, the usefulness of genetic information to tailor treatment to patients, and other statements identified by words such as "project," "may," "could," "would," "should," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "intend," "plan" or similar expressions.

These statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of the Company's management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties, including those detailed in the Company's filings with the Securities Exchange Commission. Actual results, including, without limitation, actual sales results, if any, or the application of funds, may differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve certain risks and uncertainties that are subject to change based on various factors (many of which are beyond the Company's control). The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

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Response Genetics to Present at the 25th Annual ROTH Conference

SEATTLE, March 12, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --Spiral Genetics, a cloud-based big data bioinformatics company, announced today that it closed its Series A financing, led by venture capital firm DFJ. The new capital will help further Spiral Genetics' mission to create revolutionary tools that empower the bioinformatics community to solve the large-scale genomic data challenges of tomorrow. The company intends to use the funds to expand its bioinformatics engineering team, scale its sales and marketing efforts and accelerate product development.

In addition to its funding, Spiral announced its partnership with Omicia, a developer of scalable and fully integrated informatics systems specifically designed to interpret human genome sequences for research and clinical applications. The partnership leverages Omicia's Opal solution which is a variant analysis tool that empowers researchers and clinicians to analyze genomes and prioritize disease-causing variants.

"Our partnership with Spiral Genetics allows faster and more accurate interpretation of human genomes for clinical relevance; a critical bottleneck for adoption of genomes into clinical care and laboratory testing. In combination with Omicia's Opal system, our partnership will move us closer to a seamless solution from raw sequence data to clinically relevant genomic variants. Speed and user friendliness are critical for adoption of human genome sequencing," stated Martin G. Reese, Ph.D, Co-Founder, President and Chief Scientific Officer Omicia. The Opal tool is used by CLIA labs and clinical researchers and in combination with Spiral's platform is providing same-day analysis from raw reads to produce clinically relevant findings.

"Innovations in DNA sequencing have led to an explosion of data, which presents an enormous market opportunity," said Rachel Pike of DFJ. "These developments are only accelerating and will have real and lasting implications on drug development, R&D in agriculture, and biological production of chemicals and fuels. Spiral Genetics is a solution that will both manage and draw insight from these data, enabling the industry to keep up with constantly-accelerating technological progress."

The Spiral Platform offers the fastest cloud-based bioinformatics analysis available today. Their breakthrough approach accelerates the data processing time from days to hours, shrinking analysis time for a whole human genome at 40x coverage to 3 hours.

"We are thrilled to be backed by DFJ," stated Adina Mangubat, CEO of Spiral Genetics. "DFJ has consistently invested in industry leaders whose technologies are changing critical industry sectors. As more academic researchers and agro-genomic and pharmaceutical companiesincrease their use of genomic data, there's no doubt that a large-scale, focused bioinformatics toolkit to process and analyze genomic data will be vital. We are excited to be at the forefront of developing new solutions to these challenges."

About Spiral Genetics Spiral Genetics provides the fastest cloud-based bioinformatics analysis available today. Used by customers across a variety of industries including drug development and agriculture, Spiral's breakthrough approach accelerates data processing time from days to hours, allowing researchers to analyze a whole human genome from raw DNA sequence data to a fully annotated list of genetic variants in just 3 hours.

About DFJ DFJ is a venture capital firm that partners with extraordinary entrepreneurs who set out to change the world. Since 1985, DFJ and the DFJ Global Network have had $7B committed to their funds and have managed more than 400 portfolio investments, including AdMob, Baidu, Box, Skype, Hotmail, SpaceX, Tesla Motors, SolarCity, Twitter, Tumblr and Yammer. DFJ works with companies at seed, early and growth stages, with the goal of creating iconic and lasting businesses. DFJ pioneers investing in emerging markets including consumer and enterprise information technology, digital media, and disruptive technologies. The DFJ Global Network is a federation of 16 independent venture funds operating on four continents that cooperate on investment diligence and co-investing. Learn more at dfj.com.

About Omicia, Inc. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Omicia develops scalable and fully integrated informatics systems specifically designed to interpret human genome sequences for research and clinical applications. Omicia's mission is to help research scientists, clinicians and patients better understand the most relevant information from personal genome sequences and their potential medical consequences. Omicia is funded with private investments and a series of Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants from the National Institutes of Health. For more information, please visit http://www.omicia.com

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Spiral Genetics Closes $3 Million in Funding Led by DFJ and Announces Partnership with Omicia

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Scientists at the Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute of Florida (VGTI Florida), a nonprofit immunological research institute, published a paper in the March 10th issue of Nature Medicine that reveals a major defect in a particular T cell subset, the follicular helper T cells, that is a component in the response to vaccines. Elias K. Haddad, Ph.D., Associate Member and Rafael Cubas, Ph.D., both from VGTI Florida, and their colleagues from the US and Europe, showed that previously unidentified dysfunction of these cells might have major implications on the ability of HIV infected patients to respond to vaccines.

Antibodies, which are secreted by B cells, are among the most effective weapons against infectious diseases such as HIV, influenza, and the common cold as they are the major therapeutic components that are produced in response to vaccines. Follicular helper T cells are the major inducers of this antibody response. The majority of HIV infected individuals fail to produce protective antibodies and therefore, have diminished responses to immunizations. Dr. Haddad and colleague identified components of the mechanism that are impaired during HIV infection. These results provide important insight into HIV pathogenesis and pave the way to the development of novel anti HIV therapies.

Dr. Haddad and his colleagues contend that the results of this investigation will have important implications for the design of novel vaccines and therapies against HIV infection. Dr. Haddad said, Targeting follicular helper T cells in vaccine development may lead to the design of more effective vaccines for HIV.

About VGTI Florida

VGTI Florida is a leading immunological research institute that is on an urgent mission to transform scientific discoveries into novel treatments and cures for devastating chronic illnesses such as cancer, HIV/AIDS, and infectious diseases. VGTI Florida is an independent non-profit 501(c)(3) organization located in the Tradition Center for Innovation in Port St. Lucie, Florida. For more information, please visit http://www.VGTIFL.org.

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VGTI Florida Scientists Reveal a Mystery of Diminished Immune Function in HIV Infection

TORONTO, March 5, 2013 /CNW/ - Some of the dramatic differences seen among patients with schizophrenia may be explained by a single gene that regulates a group of other schizophrenia risk genes. These findings appear in a new study from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH).

The study revealed that people with schizophrenia who had a particular version of the microRNA-137 gene (or MIR137), tended to develop the illness at a younger age and had distinct brain features - both associated with poorer outcomes - compared to patients who did not have this version. This work, led by Drs. Aristotle Voineskos and James Kennedy, appears in the latest issue of Molecular Psychiatry.

Treating schizophrenia is particularly challenging as the illness can vary from patient to patient. Some individuals stay hospitalized for years, while others respond well to treatment.

"What's exciting about this study is that we could have a legitimate answer as to why some of these differences occur," explained Dr. Voineskos, a clinician-scientist in CAMH's Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute. "In the future, we might have the capability of using this gene to tell us about prognosis and how a person might respond to treatment."

"Drs. Voineskos and Kennedy's findings are very important as they provide new insights into the genetic basis of this condition that affects thousands of Canadians and their families," says Dr. Anthony Phillips, Scientific Director at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction.

Also, until now, sex has been the strongest predictor of the age at which schizophrenia develops in individuals. Typically, women tend to develop the illness a few years later than men, and experience a milder form of the disease.

"We showed that this gene has a bigger effect on age-at-onset than one's gender has," said Dr. Voineskos, who heads the Kimel Family Translational Imaging-Genetics Research Laboratory at CAMH. "This may be a paradigm shift for the field."

The researchers studied MIR137 a gene involved in turning on and off other schizophrenia-related genes in 510 individuals living with schizophrenia. The scientists found that patients with a specific version of the gene tended to develop the illness at a younger age, around 20.8 years of age, compared to 23.4 years of age among those without this version.

"Although three years of difference in age-at-onset may not seem large, those years are important in the final development of brain circuits in the young adult," said Dr. Kennedy, Director of CAMH's Neuroscience Research Department. "This can have major impact on disease outcome."

In a separate part of the study involving 213 people, the researchers used magnetic resonance brain imaging (MRI) and diffusion tensor-MRI (DT-MRI). They found that individuals with the particular gene version tended to have unique brain features. These features included a smaller hippocampus, which is a brain structure involved in memory, and larger lateral ventricles, which are fluid-filled structures associated with disease outcome. As well, these patients tended to have more impairment in white matter tracts, which are structures connecting brain regions, that serve as the information highways of the brain.

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Single gene might explain why people with schizophrenia have such different outcomes, according to a new CAMH imaging ...

Study: Genital warts are the most common symptom of HPV infection in the U.S. Military. polyDNA recommends Gene-Eden-VIR against the Human Papillomavirus.

Rochester, NY (PRWEB) March 10, 2013

The Massachusetts Society for Medical Research says in a new study that HPV genital warts among service members in the military is the most common sexually transmitted infection. The researchers examined the annual incidence of diagnoses of genital warts (GW) among U.S. service members before and after the availability of the quadrivalent HPV (HPV4) vaccine in 2006. According to this same study, Incidence rates of GW diagnoses markedly declined among female service members in the HPV4 vaccine-eligible age range from 2007 (following introduction of the HPV4 vaccine) through 2010.

polyDNA points out that HPV is actually the most common sexually transmitted infection in the general population. In fact, according to the CDC, over 20 million people in the U.S. are infected with the Human Papillomavirus. Since HPV is transmitted through any skin-to-skin contact, one can get infected without having sex.

Thats why many young people call HPV, stuff that gets up around the sides of condoms.

Moreover, in some individuals the HPV establishes a lifelong infection. However, infected individual can avoid the symptoms, and help prevent spreading the infection to other people. How? By lowering the load of latent viruses in the infected individual.

The key to your health is to reduce the level of the latent viruses in your body to harmless levels. Dr. Hanan Polansky

Although the CDC says that in 90% of cases, the bodys immune system clears HPV naturally within two years, sometimes the body has trouble clearing the virus. In these instances, symptoms such as genital warts or dangerous cervical changes can occur.

Gene-Eden-VIR is the only scientifically based, all natural, herbal supplement with scientific studies published in the U.S. National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health. It has been specifically designed and formulated to boost the body's own immune system in order to counter many of the latent viruses of today, including the Genital Warts virus.

The truth is, Gene-Eden-VIR is really efficient against the latent version of the virus that causes genital warts; each ingredient was chosen through a scientific approach. PolyDNA scientists scanned thousands of scientific and medical papers published in various medical and scientific journals around the world in order to identify the safest, most effective natural ingredients that target the latent (sleeping)HPV Virus.

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Study: HPV Genital Warts is Most Common Sexually Transmitted Infection in U.S. Military, polyDNA Recommends Gene -Eden ...

Mar. 10, 2013 The British astrophysicist Stephen Hawking is likely to be the world's most famous person living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. ALS is a progressive disease affecting motor neurons, nerve cells that control muscle function, and nearly always leads to death. Researchers at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (IMBA) in Vienna have now identified a completely new mechanism in the onset of motor neuron diseases. Their findings could be the basis for future treatments for these presently incurable diseases.

A new principle on motor neuron death

The IMBA scientists, working with an international team of researchers under the leadership of Josef Penninger and Javier Martinez, discovered a completely new fundamental mechanism that triggers the death of motor neurons. Motor neurons are nerve cells responsible for stimulating muscles. The loss of these motor neurons in mice with a genetic mutation in a gene named CLP11 leads to severe and progressive muscular paralysis and, in some cases, to death.

"We've been working on resolving the function of the CLP1 gene in a living organism for a long time. To do that, we developed model mice in which the function of CLP1 was genetically inactivated. To our utter surprise we discovered that deactivating CLP1 increases the sensitivity of cell die when exposed to oxidative stress2. That leads to enhanced activity of the p53 protein3 and then to the permanent destruction of motor neurons," says Toshikatsu Hanada, a postdoctoral researcher working in the lab of Josef Penninger and first author of the study along with Stefan Weitzer.

Stephen Hawking -- a most renowned patient

Motor neuron diseases (MNDs), such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), are chronic disorders of the neuromuscular system. These diseases are caused by damage in the motor nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, and the nerves can no longer stimulate motion in the muscles. The primary symptoms are muscular weakness, muscular dystrophy, and problems swallowing or speaking. Stephen Hawking was diagnosed with ALS 50 years ago. But not all ALS patients live so long with the disease: so far there are no treatments for ALS. Nearly all ALS patients die of paralysis of respiratory muscles within a few years.

Completely new disease mechanism

Javier Martinez, an IMBA team leader and co-author of the study, is a specialist in the field of ribonucleic acid (RNA) research. His research group had discovered the CLP1 gene in an earlier study, published in Nature in 2007. Until now, the exact essential function of CLP1 in RNA biology was unclear. "By deactivating CLP1, we have discovered a previously unknown new species of RNA," says Javier Martinez about the scientific relevance of the work. "The accumulation of this RNA is a consequence of increased oxidative stress in the cell. We see this as one of the triggers for the loss of motor neurons that occurs in ALS and other neuromuscular diseases. Thus our findings describe a completely new mechanism of motor neuron diseases."

Seminal findings

Josef Penninger, scientific director at the IMBA and last-author of the study, is excited about the researchers' findings: "This surprising discovery of a role of CLP1 in the onset of motor neuron diseases is an entirely new principle in how RNA talks to oxidative stress. Nearly all genetic mutations found in ALS patients affect either RNA metabolism or oxidative stress, suggesting a possibly unifying principle for these diseases. Our work may have revealed the 'missing link' in how these two biological systems communicate and trigger incurable diseases like ALS."

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Mutated gene causes nerve cell death

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Press TV: Threat of Aid Cuts to Israel - Jim W_ Dean002
Mark Robert 3 days ago. DNA Proof that 90% of Jews are 70% European Google or watch on #65279; You TubeJewish Genome Myth BUSTED. Research papers found here Dr Eran Israeli Elhaik exposes the DNA genome published by Oxford Journals 01162013 Title Google The Missing Link of Jewish European Ancestry mckusickNathans Institute of Genetic Medicine Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Baltimore MD USA 21208. You cant be AntiSemitic against people who are 70% European ...

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