Archive for the ‘Gene Therapy Research’ Category

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Dublin - Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/aaa990c9/research_report_on) has announced the addition of the "Research Report on Chinese Monoclonal Antibody Industry, 2012" report to their offering.

Antibody medicine is generally obtained from monoclonal antibody through genetic engineering, possessing the advantages of strong targeting and few drug side effects. At the present time, it is mainly used for the cure of tumor and immune system diseases and has good application prospects in clinical treatment. From the point of the global market, antibody medicine accounts for over 40% of the entire biotechnology medicine. With constant growth of the market share, antibody medicine has become the most important part of the biotechnology medicine, and monoclonal antibody medicine is the best-selling product in the antibody medicine. In 2010, in the 10 world's best-selling drugs, monoclonal antibody medicine took up 5, and the market sales revenue of each single product all exceeded USD 5 billion.

More following information can be acquired through this report:

- Development Course of Chinese Monoclonal Antibody Market

- Competition in Chinese Monoclonal Antibody Market

- Research and Development of Chinese Monoclonal Antibody Market

- Major Monoclonal Antibody Production Enterprises in Chinese Market

- Hot Products of Chinese Monoclonal Antibody Market

- Prediction on Chinese Monoclonal Antibody Market

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Research and Markets: Research Report on Chinese Monoclonal Antibody Industry, 2012

How studies of Jewish DNA could help answer a question that's at the heart of some of Israeli society's biggest problems: Who counts as a Jew?

Modified from Shutterstock/Dream Designs

Herzliya, a broad-beached ocean-side resort 10 miles north of Tel Aviv, is booming with construction -- big hotels going up on the bluffs and expensive new bungalows on the bougainvillea-laden streets. Herzliya was named for Theodor Herzl, the 19th-century Zionist visionary whose dream to see the Jewish people resettled in their homeland triumphantly came to pass.

From across the Atlantic, Israel looks to be a liberal and fully modern Western state, albeit one with a terrific burr under its saddle, the Palestinian problem. Until you come here, you don't sense the second conflict, just as severe for Israelis, over the religious character of the nation. The essential question is, Who is a Jew? The issue is driven by the religious right, which has never been stronger in Israel. All new citizens must prove they are Jewish in order to get married, for example. So the question of who qualifies and who doesn't could define not just the country's identity but its demographic future. Is a person Jewish because of blood or because of culture? Must Jewish identity follow the biological pathway of descent, like those tongue-twisting names in the Hebrew Bible connected by begat, or can Jewishness be acquired merely by espousing the faith?

The implications of the debate matter for more than just Jewish Israelis. Allowing for biological yardsticks of Jewish ancestry begs a question about the blood origins of the Palestinians in their midst. On the family tree of humanity the two peoples are surprisingly close, or so says science.

Last June, some two dozen Israeli and American geneticists met at the Dan Accadia Hotel in Herzliya. Although the purpose of the two-day conference was to discuss the latest findings about the DNA of the world's populations, the focus soon narrowed to the genetics of Jews. Jewish DNA, with its tracks of ancient migrations and rare genetic diseases, such as Tay-Sachs, was the material the scientists knew best. The 20-minute presentations were hurried and dense. As the scientists took the podium, each made quips about their tribe's DNA. "Somebody should do a genomic study about why Jews eat so much," said one, in a nod to the food the hotel had lavishly laid on. "In Jews," said another, "there's probably a stop codon [a unit of DNA that tells a cell to stop making a protein] in the human gene for smell. That's why we can eat gefilte fish."

On the afternoon of the second day, the participants edged away from science to ask if genetics might help resolve the identity issues paining Israel. One of the conference organizers, the Israeli Karl Skorecki, said that the meeting had been evading the subject for two days. "I believe Jewishness is metaphysical, cultural, unrelated to DNA."

"But some others," he went on, "such as politicians, journalists, genealogists, and professors of French theater, have jumped ahead of us scientists. Why have we been so reticent over the years?"

By "French theater," Skorecki was taking a swipe at his compatriot Shlomo Sand, a professor of contemporary history. Sand was not in attendance, but his work was a presence at the conference nonetheless. He was the author of The Invention of the Jewish People, a 2009 best-seller in Israel and France and point of controversy in the U.S. On the one hand, Sand agreed with most scientists that Jewishness was a cultural, not a biological, construct. On the other, he attacked the "myth" of Israel's blood connection to the Biblical founders, and he disputed recent genetic findings that tie Jews' origins to the Middle East. Earlier, when the American scientist Harry Ostrer had declared, as he did again at the conference, that markers on the DNA reveal "a biological basis for Jewishness," Shlomo Sand had retorted, "It is a bitter irony to see the descendants of Holocaust survivors set out to find a biological Jewish identity: Hitler would certainly have been very pleased!"

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Defining Jews, Defining a Nation: Can Genetics Save Israel?

Public release date: 13-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Juan J. Gmez juanj.gomez@cnio.es 34-917-328-000-4060 Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncologicas (CNIO)

Can a gene simultaneously protect against cancer and favor its growth? Researchers at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre have discovered a gene with this double-edged property and suspect there may be many more that share it. In the words of Oscar Fernandez Capetillo, head of the group responsible for the study, this gene "can be both Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, in that it can either protect us against the appearance of tumors or promote tumor growth".

The study, appears this week in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, with Andres J. Lopez-Contreras and Paula Gutierrez Martinez as first authors, focuses on the activity of Chk1, a gene known for its tumour suppressing effect. It is what Fernandez-Capetillo calls "a genome guardian, a gene that keeps our genome free of mutations and, therefore, protects against the development of tumours".

The team wished to ascertain whether the tumour-protective effect of Chk1 was magnified in organisms with a larger quantity of the protein it codes for, so they created a mouse with three copies of the gene instead of the normal two. They then extracted and cultured the animal's cells and turned them cancerous with the aid of other genes. What they observed confounded all expectations: the cells became malignant more easily when carrying an extra copy of Chk1.

The reason for this paradox is that Chk1 has a beneficial effect on healthy cells, but also benefits tumour cells once they have established themselves in the body.

The dual role of Chk1

"Initially, Chk1 prevents the appearance of tumours, by limiting the spontaneous mutations that take place in our cells", remarks Fernandez Capetillo. "This is the Dr. Jekyll side. However, advanced tumours exhibit extensive damage to their DNA and it is here that Chk1 comes to the tumour's aid by reducing the damage built up in its genome", he continues.

Chk1 works by protecting against replicative stress, a kind of damage that occurs in cells' genetic material as they divide. Some tumours indeed suffer continuous lesions in their genome due to their high division rates.

"The presence of 'genome guardians' like Chk1 may favour the growth of this kind of tumour by lessening its lesion load", explains Lopez-Contreras.

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CNIO researchers discover that a gene known to protect against cancer can also promote tumor growth

ScienceDaily (Mar. 13, 2012) Can a gene simultaneously protect against cancer and favor its growth? Researchers at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre have discovered a gene with this double-edged property and suspect there may be many more that share it. In the words of Oscar Fernandez Capetillo, head of the group responsible for the study, this gene "can be both Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, in that it can either protect us against the appearance of tumors or promote tumor growth."

The study, appears this week in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, with Andres J. Lopez-Contreras and Paula Gutierrez Martinez as first authors, focuses on the activity of Chk1, a gene known for its tumour suppressing effect. It is what Fernandez-Capetillo calls "a genome guardian, a gene that keeps our genome free of mutations and, therefore, protects against the development of tumours."

The team wished to ascertain whether the tumour-protective effect of Chk1 was magnified in organisms with a larger quantity of the protein it codes for, so they created a mouse with three copies of the gene instead of the normal two. They then extracted and cultured the animal's cells and turned them cancerous with the aid of other genes. What they observed confounded all expectations: the cells became malignant more easily when carrying an extra copy of Chk1.

The reason for this paradox is that Chk1 has a beneficial effect on healthy cells, but also benefits tumour cells once they have established themselves in the body.

The dual role of Chk1

"Initially, Chk1 prevents the appearance of tumours, by limiting the spontaneous mutations that take place in our cells," remarks Fernandez Capetillo. "This is the Dr. Jekyll side. However, advanced tumours exhibit extensive damage to their DNA and it is here that Chk1 comes to the tumour's aid by reducing the damage built up in its genome," he continues.

Chk1 works by protecting against replicative stress, a kind of damage that occurs in cells' genetic material as they divide. Some tumours indeed suffer continuous lesions in their genome due to their high division rates.

"The presence of 'genome guardians' like Chk1 may favour the growth of this kind of tumour by lessening its lesion load," explains Lopez-Contreras.

"This study sheds light on why Chk1 is overexpressed in many tumours, when we would intuitively suppose that what favours the development of cancer is the loss of protective genes," the scientist concludes.

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Gene known to protect against cancer can also promote tumor growth

TUESDAY, March 13 (HealthDay News) -- A newly discovered genetic mutation is more common in teens and young adults than infants with a nerve tissue cancer called neuroblastoma.

The gene with the defect is called ATRX. While this defect was found in many teens and young adults with neuroblastoma, none of the infants with the disease who were tested had this genetic defect. This is important because babies are the ones who most commonly develop neuroblastoma. And, in babies, the disease tends to take a much less aggressive course.

"In infants, neuroblastoma is often treatable. In older patients, it tends to be more clinically aggressive," said study co-author Dr. Alberto Pappo, director of the solid tumor division at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.

"About 90 percent of neuroblastomas happen in children less than 10 years old. When it happens in teens and young adults, they usually tend to have poorer clinical outcomes. They relapse over and over again. They can survive for many years with the disease, but they ultimately die of the disease," Pappo noted.

The discovery of the mutation in the ATRX gene is an "exciting, but preliminary finding. We still need to try to determine if this mutation is associated with any significant differences in survival," added Pappo.

Results of the study are published in the March 14 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Overall survival rates for neuroblastoma are 88 percent for babies under 18 months at the time of diagnosis, 49 percent in children between 18 months and 12 years and just 10 percent in teens and young adults who are diagnosed with the disease, according to background information in the study.

Because the disease takes such a different course depending on a patient's age, researchers have long suspected that there are likely different subsets of neuroblastoma, and that different genetic mutations may account for the differences in prognosis by age.

To see if there were any identifiable differences, the researchers conducted what's known as whole genome analysis on tumor samples from 40 infants, children, teens and young adults with advanced neuroblastoma. The researchers then looked to see if there were any similarities.

The investigators found that mutations in the ATRX gene were present in 100 percent of teens and young adults. Just 17 percent of children under age 12 had this same mutation, and none of the infants tested had it.

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Gene Discovery Gives Clues to a Childhood Cancer

By Matt Jones

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) An international advocacy coalition today called for a moratorium on the development of new synthetic organisms for commercial use while new international regulations for governing the synthetic biology sector are created to protect the environment and people from unknown perils.

The coalition said today that synbio represents "extreme genetic engineering." It said there currently is little or no governance over synthetic organisms, and private companies cannot be trusted to self-regulate and protect people and the environment from risk and harm.

"We are calling for a global moratorium on the release and commercial use of synthetic organisms until we have established a public interest research agenda, examined alternatives, developed the proper regulations, and put into place rigorous biosafety measures," Carolyn Raffensperger, executive director of the Science and Environmental Health Network, said in a statement today.

"Self-regulation of the synthetic biology industry simply won't work," added Andy Kimbrell, executive director of the International Center for Technology Assessment. "Current laws and regulations around biotechnology are outdated and inadequate to deal with the novel risks posed by synthetic biology technologies and their products."

Friends of the Earth and over 100 international groups focused on environmental, bioscience, food safety, human and consumer rights issues, and religion, said in a report published today that although the synbio market had a value of more than $1.6 billion in 2011 and could hit $10.8 billion by 2016, there has been "little or no governance of the industry or assessment of the novel risks posed by synthetic organisms."

In a conference call today unveiling the report, Jaydee Hanson, policy director at the International Center for Technology Assessment, said that the first creation of a synthetic genome and its implantation into a microbe by the J. Craig Venter Institute in 2010 "should have been a wake-up call for governments around the world, but little new oversight resulted."

"The ability to synthesize DNA and create synthetic organisms and products is far outpacing our understanding of how these novel products work in the real world. Even engineering simple organisms could have major ecological and health effects," Hanson said.

In its report, "The Principles for the Oversight of Synthetic Biology," the consortium calls for governments to take specific steps to account for a range of possible effects caused by synthetic organisms.

It calls for a moratorium on the release and commercial use of synthetic organisms, cells, or genomes, until a government research agenda has been established to study the public's interest. The moratorium also would hold while alternative approaches are considered and risk assessments are made, and international oversight and security mechanisms are developed.

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Coalition Wants Moratorium on 'Extreme' Synthetic Bio Businesses

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/719d98/genetic_engineerin) has announced the addition of the "Genetic Engineering - Global Outlook" report to their offering.

The global outlook series on Genetic Engineering provides a collection of market briefs and concise summaries of research findings. The report offers an aerial view of the industry, highlights latest developments, and discusses demand drivers, issues and concerns, and regulatory environment. Discussion on the industry's most noteworthy regional market, the US, is amply detailed with unbiased research commentary to provide the reader a rudimentary understanding of the prevailing market climate. Market discussions in the report are punctuated with fact-rich market data tables.

Regional markets elaborated upon include United States, Canada, India, China, and South Africa among others. Also included is an indexed, easy-to-refer, fact-finder directory listing the addresses, and contact details of 153 companies active in the market.

Key Topics Covered:

1. INDUSTRY OVERVIEW

2. MARKET DYNAMICS

3. ISSUES AND CONCERNS

4. REGIONAL TRENDS

5. GENETIC ENGINEERING: AN OVERVIEW

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Research and Markets: Genetic Engineering - Global Outlook

Public release date: 13-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Scott LaFee slafee@ucsd.edu 619-543-6163 University of California - San Diego

Tracking the genetic pathway of a disease offers a powerful, new approach to drug discovery, according to scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine who used the approach to uncover a potential treatment for prostate cancer, using a drug currently marketed for congestive heart failure. Their findings are published in the current online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"The science of genomics the study of all of the genes in a person and how these genes interact with each other and the environment has revealed many fundamental aspects of biology, including the mechanisms of diseases like cancer. But it has not yet been truly exploited to find new medicines to treat those diseases," said Xiang-Dong Fu, PhD, professor of cellular and molecular medicine and senior author of the PNAS paper.

Fu, with colleagues at UC San Diego and elsewhere, describe a unique screening strategy that compares genes associated with specific disease phenotypes (traits) with small molecules capable of intervening with disease-linked gene-expression events. The high-throughput process, capable of analyzing large numbers of genes and drugs simultaneously, emphasizes investigation of the entire genetic pathway of the disease against a large set of internal controls, rather than its limited phenotype or any particular molecular or cellular target.

Historically, drug discovery has been driven by phenotype- or target-based methodologies.

"For 50 years, the standard phenotype approach emphasized the final outcome without worrying about the mechanism," said Fu. "The process has produced some very good drugs, but researchers often didn't know exactly how or why the drug worked. Aspirin is an example. It's been around for more than a century, but we still don't understand the mechanism in great detail."

More recently, many drug designers have focused upon targeting particular components of a disease, such as a vital molecule or receptor involved in the pathogenic process. The approach has a stronger, more rational scientific basis, said Fu, but remains beset by two fundamental difficulties: "You can create a drug that disrupts a specific disease target, but you also run the risk of causing unforeseen, adverse side effects that might be worse than the disease. Second, there are many places inside of a cell that are essentially 'undruggable.' They are difficult, if not impossible, to intervene with."

The new approach attempts to avoid these problems by emphasizing investigation of the genetic pathways associated with disease processes and how they might be altered to produce a healthful benefit.

"The idea is to identify the genetic troublemakers associated with a disease and then find a way to contain them, not crush them," said Fu. "No gene was ever designed to cause disease. The goal is to find new drugs or ways to convert these genes or the affected cells back to a normal state. In many disease paradigms, you don't want to kill cells. You want to modify them to become healthy again."

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A new approach to faster anticancer drug discovery

GDF has expanded its Medical & Scientific Advisory Board to keep the organization at the forefront of genomic medicine.

new york, NY (PRWEB) March 13, 2012

Dr. Schadt brings a bold new research approach, which is premised on studying multiple genes and biological processes through the use of advanced technology and computer models to develop a better understanding of disease causes and ultimately better diagnostics and treatment.

We are extremely pleased and privileged to welcome a thought-leader like Dr. Schadt to our Advisory Board, where he will help guide the organizations efforts, said Elisa Ross, GDF President. Its important that GDF stays at the very forefront of genomic medicine so that we can optimize use of funds and provide the most valuable information to others.

An expert in computational mathematics and sequencing technology, Dr. Schadts research at companies including Merck & Co. and Roche Biosciences has helped revolutionize the integration of genetic and molecular profiling data to construct predictive models of disease that have led to a number of discoveries relating to causes of common diseases. He currently maintains his position as Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) at Pacific Biosciences, a third generation DNA sequencing company, where hes worked since 2009 overseeing the firms scientific strategy including creating the vision for next-generation sequencing applications of the companys technology. Dr. Schadt is also a founding member of Sage Bionetworks, an open access genomics initiative designed to build and support databases and an accessible platform for creating innovative, dynamic disease models.

Two Prominent Maternal Fetal Medicine Specialists Also Join GDF Medical & Scientific Advisory Board

GDF is also pleased to announce the recent addition of two prominent Mount Sinai physicians to its Medical & Scientific Advisory Board: Keith A. Eddleman, MD, Director of Obstetrics and a Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences and of Genetics and Genomic Sciences; and Joanne Stone, MD, Director of the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Director of Perinatal Ultrasound and a Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences. Both Dr. Eddleman and Dr. Stone are nationally recognized for their expertise in chorionic villus sampling (CVS) and ultrasound and have published extensively on areas related to high-risk pregnancies in medical journals and other publications.

Dr. Stone has a consultative and clinical practice and is also active in clinical research and education. Her areas of interest include ultrasound, fetal therapy, multi-fetal pregnancy reduction and prenatal diagnosis.

Dr. Eddleman is an expert and educator in maternal-fetal medicine and clinical genetics, specializing in reproductive genetics, ultrasound and diagnostic procedures.

Drs. Eddleman and Stone co-authored the books Pregnancy for Dummies and The Pregnancy Bible and will help guide GDF activities related to genetics and family planning.

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Genetic Disease Foundation (GDF) Welcomes Dr. Eric Schadt, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, to its Medical & Scientific ...

NEW YORK, March 13, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The Alzheimer's Association, New York City Chapter will host a free community event, open to the public, featuring a panel of experts who will explore the role of genetics in Alzheimer's disease. Titled, "The Role of Genetics in Alzheimer's Disease: An Evolving Landscape," the event will take place on Wednesday, March 14, 2012 at 6:00 p.m. at The Times Center in midtown Manhattan and will be moderated by WCBS-TV Medical Reporter Dr. Max Gomez, who was recently awarded the Chapter's 2011 Public Awareness Award. Panelists include:

Lou-Ellen Barkan, President and CEO of the Alzheimer's Association, New York City Chapter, said, "The role of genetics in Alzheimer's is often misunderstood. This expert panel, led by Dr. Gomez, the Janssen team and world renowned medical researchers, will set the record straight and provide members of the Alzheimer's community with reliable, easy-to-understand and up-to-date information."

Dr. Richard Mayeux said, "The importance of genetics in Alzheimer's disease is growing, not only to potentially identify those at risk, but also as a tool to find potential targets for therapies in the future."

This program was developed by the Alzheimer's Association, New York City Chapter, Janssen Alzheimer Immunotherapy Research & Development, LLC, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Janssen Research & Development, LLC, with funding from the Janssen companies.

The Alzheimer's Association, New York City Chapter is a leading voluntary organization dedicated to providing support for people with the disease and their families, and advancing research for the causes, treatment and prevention of Alzheimer's disease, which includes further understanding the role of genetics and Alzheimer's.

For more information, visit http://www.alznyc.org/genetics.

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Alzheimer's Association, New York City Chapter Hosts Free Event Exploring the Role of Genetics in Alzheimer's Disease

Public release date: 13-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Iqbal Pittalwala iqbal@ucr.edu 951-827-6050 University of California - Riverside

RIVERSIDE, Calif. Stephanie Turner Chen, a University of California, Riverside alumna, has received the prestigious Larry Sandler Memorial Award given by the Genetics Society of America to the most outstanding Ph.D. dissertation of the year in Drosophila genetics.

Turner Chen, who graduated in 2010 with a Ph.D. in cell, molecular and developmental biology (CMDB), received the award last week at the 53rd Annual Drosophila Research Conference, Chicago.

Turner Chen, who worked in the lab of entomologist Anandasankar Ray, an assistant professor participating in the CMDB program, gave the Larry Sandler Memorial Lecture which kicks off the conference.

"I was highly surprised to be chosen, as the competition for the award is always very intense," said Turner Chen, who, as a Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Fellow now at UC San Francisco, is studying molecular mechanisms involved in pain reception. "Receiving this award would not have been possible without my Ph.D. adviser Dr. Ray, who nominated me for the award, and gave me unparalleled mentorship throughout my dissertation work."

At UCR Turner Chen worked on the detection of carbon dioxide in the fruit fly and the mosquito.

"While working on the fruit fly, we were interested in finding out why fruit flies avoid carbon dioxide despite being attracted to fermenting fruits, which produce large amounts of carbon dioxide," she said. "We found fruit odors that actually inhibit the carbon dioxide receptor of the fly, and therefore inhibit their avoidance behavior to carbon dioxide."

Subsequently Turner Chen investigated whether these odors could also inhibit the carbon dioxide receptors of mosquitoes, given that these insects are attracted to carbon dioxide, using our exhaled breath as a cue for seeking a human blood-meal.

"We found odors that blind the mosquitoes' ability to detect carbon dioxide, causing dramatically reduced carbon dioxide attraction behavior," she said. "This work provides a novel approach to mosquito control."

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UC Riverside alumna receives high honor in genetics

Published: March. 13, 2012 at 7:10 PM

MONTREAL, March 13 (UPI) -- Swarms of online gamers have helped solve difficult biological problems and untangle a major problem in comparative genomics, Canadian researchers say.

Thousand of Internet gamers have played the online game Phylo, created to address the "multiple sequence alignment (MSA) problem," the thorny task of aligning roughly similar sequences of DNA in genes common to many species.

A DNA sequence that is found across species suggests it has an important role in the ultimate function of that particular gene.

Researchers said that task has proven difficult to crack using computers, Nature reported Tuesday.

Although computer algorithms can do very rough alignments of sequences across species, they have proven inept at getting the answer just right, they said.

That's where humans -- in this case game players -- excel, researchers said.

"Understanding when something breaks a general rule is very difficult for a computer but that is what human visual intelligence is very good at," lead author Jerome Waldispuhl, a computational biologist at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, said.

Waldispuhl and his colleagues created Phylo and released it online in November 2010. The aim of the game is to improve the sequence alignment of regions that control when a gene is transcribed in 521 disease-associated genes from 44 vertebrate species.

Sequences are represented by strings of blocks, each with a color corresponding to one of the four different bases that make up DNA, and players try to find the best possible match between sequences for up to eight different species at a time by shifting the sequences to the left or right one block at a time.

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Online gamers help with genetics study

St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center discover first gene alteration associated with patient age and neuroblastoma outcome

Newswise (MEMPHIS, Tenn. March 13, 2012) Researchers have identified the first gene mutation associated with a chronic and often fatal form of neuroblastoma that typically strikes adolescents and young adults. The finding provides the first clue about the genetic basis of the long-recognized but poorly understood link between treatment outcome and age at diagnosis.

The study involved 104 infants, children and young adults with advanced neuroblastoma, a cancer of the sympathetic nervous system. Investigators discovered the ATRX gene was mutated only in patients age 5 and older. The alterations occurred most often in patients age 12 and older. These older patients were also more likely than their younger counterparts to have a chronic form of neuroblastoma and die years after their disease is diagnosed.

The findings suggest that ATRX mutations might represent a new subtype of neuroblastoma that is more common in older children and young adults. The work is from the St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project (PCGP). The study appears in the March 14 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

If validated, the results may change the way doctors think about this cancer, said co-author Richard Wilson, Ph.D., director of The Genome Institute at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. This suggests we may need to think about different treatment strategies for patients depending on whether or not they have the ATRX mutation, he said.

Neuroblastoma accounts for 7 to 10 percent of all childhood cancers and about 15 percent of pediatric cancer deaths. In about 50 percent of patients, the disease has already spread when the cancer is discovered.

For patients whose disease has spread, age has long been a powerful but perplexing predictor of treatment outcome. Currently 88 percent of patients age 18 months and younger become long-term survivors, compared to 49 percent of those ages 18 months through 11 years and only 10 percent of patients age 12 and older.

Until now there was no understanding of the basis of this age-related risk, and no treatment has had an impact on the outcome, said Michael Dyer, Ph.D., a member of the St. Jude Department of Developmental Neurobiology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Early Career Scientist. He is the studys corresponding author. The mutation we found is associated with patients in the older age group, but it also identifies for the first time a subset of younger patients who turned out to have an indolent form of neuroblastoma.

Researchers must now determine whether tumors with ATRX mutations behave the same way in both children and young adults, following a similarly indolent but often deadly course, said Nai-Kong Cheung, M.D., Ph.D., first author and head of the Neuroblastoma Program at New Yorks Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

St. Jude investigators have begun screening the hospitals library of federally approved drugs looking for evidence of activity against neuroblastoma cells with the ATRX mutation. Availability of more targeted therapies would likely spur efforts for early identification of patients with the ATRX mutation who have a chronic form of neuroblastoma and are unlikely to benefit from current therapies.

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Genome Sequencing Initiative Links Altered Gene to Age-Related Neuroblastoma Risk

SILVER SPRING, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Nuvilex, Inc. (OTCQB:NVLX), an emerging biotechnology provider of cell and gene therapy solutions, discussed today the proprietary Cell-in-a-Box technology, being acquired from SG Austria, that was used for the pancreatic cancer clinical trial and may have an effect on downstream micro metastatic disease.

The proprietary Cell-in-a-Box technology capsules, when used in combination with cytochrome P450 expressing cells, can be placed at the tumor site so that the cells inside the capsule can convert the drug ifosfamide. When the patient is subsequently injected with the chemotherapeutic drug ifosfamide, the encapsulated cells transform this prodrug into its active form, which kills the pancreatic cancer cells.

It is extremely difficult to diagnose pancreatic cancer early on. Approximately 26% of people diagnosed have pancreatic cancer that spreads into the regions beside the tumor and 52% of patients have metastatic disease spread to regional lymph nodes and the liver. From trial and use data, for all pancreatic cancer stages combined there is only a 26% survival rate at 1 year, whereas using Cell-in-a-Box technology in the phase 1/2 clinical trial the 1-year survival rate was 36%, double that of the standard Gemzar therapy 1-year results of 18%.

The advantage of this approach is that pancreatic tumors are locally delivered high concentrations of active drug, allowing a decrease to only one-third of the standard amount of ifosfamide, reducing toxic side effects such as nausea, diarrhea, bone marrow suppression and weight loss. Due to the advanced stage most pancreatic cancers are found in, an important question has been whether the reduced amount of drug used can have an effect on the few pancreatic cancer cells, called micro metastases, which leave the primary tumor and are found in organs downstream from the original pancreatic tumor.

Dr. Robert Ryan, Chief Executive Officer of Nuvilex, addressed this concern, The most common site for metastatic pancreatic cancer is in liver. The clinical trial data supports the idea that the chemotherapeutic drug arrives at the liver and could treat micro metastases in that organ. This is because the chemotherapeutic drug will follow the same route along the blood vessels from the primary tumor in the pancreas to the liver. We hope in future trials to see greater effects on these small tumor cell islands where success will be measured by lowered pancreatic cancer recurrence. Its exciting also because a lower than standard ifosfamide clinical dose is anticipated, providing additional patient benefit. By killing the cancer cells and reducing damage to normal tissues, our objective to eliminate cancer and leave the patient healthier, stronger and better able to fight their disease will have been accomplished.

About Nuvilex

Nuvilex, Inc. (OTCQB:NVLX) is an emerging international biotechnology provider of live clinically useful, therapeutically valuable, encapsulated cells as well as services for encapsulating live cells for the research and medical communities. Through substantial effort, the aspects of our corporate activities alone and in concert with SG Austria continue to move toward agreement completion and ultimately a strong future. Our companys ultimate clinical offerings will include cancer, diabetes and other treatments using the companys industry-leading cell and gene therapy expertise and cutting-edge, live-cell encapsulation technology.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 involving risks and uncertainties. Results, events and performances could vary from those contemplated. These statements involve risks and uncertainties which may cause actual results, expressed or implied, to differ from predicted outcomes. Risks and uncertainties include product demand, market competition, and Nuvilexs ability to meet current or future plans. Investors should study and understand all risks before making an investment decision. Readers are recommended not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information. Nuvilex is not obliged to publicly release revisions to any forward-looking statement, to reflect events or circumstances afterward, or to disclose unanticipated occurrences, except as required under applicable laws.

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Completed Pancreatic Cancer Phase 1-2 Trial Concluded the Encapsulated Cells Produced Chemotherapy That May Treat ...

12-03-2012 20:48 by:www.medicaltourism.hk

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Chia medical tourism--stroke--stem cell therapy 1.flv - Video

12-03-2012 17:41 Dr.Mark Newkirk is once again on the cutting edge of medicine. Newkirk Family Veterinarians now offer STEM CELL THERAPY for pets. Dr. Mark Newkirk combines traditional medicine and surgery with Holistic Alternatives to access the best of both worlds. As a Veterinarian, Dr. Newkirk has been serving Southern New Jersey for over 25 years. He is extensively trained in medicine and surgery and also is skilled in the care of exotic pets such as reptiles and birds. Dr. Newkirk is also one of only 5 doctors in the country currently undergoing training by the nationally renowned Dr. Martin Goldstein, the author of "The Nature of Animal Healing", and founder of immuno-augmentative therapy for animals, a true alternative cancer therapy. Dr. Newkirk is a member of American Holistic Veterinary Medical Society, the American Veterinary Medical Association, New Jersey Veterinary Medical Association and the Colorado Veterinary Medical Association. For more information check out Stem Cell Therapy on The Animal Planet's dogs 101 http://www.youtube.com

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Stem Cell Therapy at Newkirk Family Veterinarians - Hunter's Story - Video

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Healthier orange juice could be the result of British scientists seeing red.

Researchers hope to turn ordinary fruit into blood oranges by manipulating their genes.

The distinctive red pigment is believed to have health benefits which include combating obesity and heart disease.

One recent study found that drinking blood orange juice with a full English breakfast reduced the harmful effects of a fat-laden fry-up.

Scientists writing in The Plant Cell journal described how they identified the "ruby" gene that makes the blood orange red. They also discovered how the gene is activated, raising the possibility of switching it on in ordinary "blond" orange varieties.

Blood oranges need a period of cold as they ripen and currently the only place where they can be reliably grown on a commercial scale is in the foothills of Mount Etna in Sicily in the Mediterranean. As a result, blood orange juice is hard to come by and a carton costs about 1 more than ordinary orange juice.

Professor Cathie Martin, who led the research team from the John Innes Centre in Norwich, said: "Blood oranges contain naturally occurring pigments associated with improved cardiovascular health, controlling diabetes and reducing obesity.

"Our improved understanding of this trait could offer relatively straightforward solutions to growing blood oranges reliably in warmer climates through genetic engineering."

A test batch of genetically created blood oranges is currently being grown in Valencia, Spain.

Speaking at a press conference in London, Prof Martin said: "Hopefully in the near future, seven years down the line, we will have blood orange varieties which can be grown in the major orange growing areas like Brazil and Florida. So blood orange juice will become more available worldwide and the healthy properties enjoyed by more and more people."

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Gene for blood orange identified

Published: March. 12, 2012 at 7:15 PM

ADELAIDE, Australia, March 12 (UPI) -- Australian researchers say they've bred salt tolerance into a variety of wheat, resulting in a 25 percent increase in grain yield in salty soils.

Using 'non-GM,' crop breeding techniques, scientists have introduced a salt-tolerant gene into commercial durum wheat, with field tests confirming the benefits to yield figures, the University of Adelaide reported Sunday.

"This work is significant as salinity already affects over 20 percent of the world's agricultural soils, and salinity poses an increasing threat to food production due to climate change," Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization scientist Rana Munns said.

While domestication and breeding have narrowed the gene pool of modern wheat, leaving it susceptible to environmental stress, wild relatives of modern-day wheat remain a significant source of genes for a range of traits including salinity tolerance, the researchers said.

A salt-tolerant gene in an ancestral cousin of modern-day wheat, Triticum monococcum, has been introduced into modern commercial durham wheat, they said.

"Salinity is a particular issue in the prime wheat-growing areas of Australia, the world's second-largest wheat exporter after the United States," Adelaide researcher Matthew Gilliham said.

"With global population estimated to reach 9 billion by 2050, and the demand for food expected to rise by 100 percent in this time, salt-tolerant crops will be an important tool to ensure future food security."

While durham what is used mainly for foods like pasta and couscous, the researchers said they've now crossed the salt-tolerance gene into bread wheat and are beginning field trials.

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Wild gene makes wheat crops salt-tolerant

I rarely post anything on space because I really dont know much more than the average reader of this weblog; no value-add from me. But yesterday I ran across an article which reported the financial overruns in the Mars Science Laboratory project. Today NASA said that the project will launch on schedule. It seems that to make this work theyll have to ax some other missions, though theyre putting a happy-face on their claims today (as if the money will magically appear in these strained financial times!).

Im very happy that the is all-go. Space exploration and science is something I really care about. I remember how angry I was when I saw a speech in Congress by representative Joe Kennedy II where he argued for the cutting of the NASA budget by suggesting that people were going hungry so that we could launch vehicles into earth orbit. I thought that was a low blow; after all, why doesnt Joe Kennedy and his clan divest themselves of their wealth and funnel it to organizations which aid the needy? Why dont obese & consumerist Americans start diverting their economic wealth to those in need, especially to places where malnutrition and hunger are endemic? Ive lived in very progressive & conscious locales where theres plenty of affluence and useless bling. Its more complicated than a simple trade-off between basic blue sky science and human necessities. Why do we continue to fund space science is something that cant be resolved through material utilitarian calculus; rather, it is an issue of values, dare I say, a matter of transcendence?* Those who support unmanned space exploration often gripe about the costs of the manned projects and their lack of basic science yield. But of course, that too is an issue of values. At the end of the day reasonable people can disagree. I accept that many humans do not share my fascination with space science, and appreciation of its fruits. In fact, it may be that my relative security in terms of basic necessities allow my head to be in the clouds. But, I would offer that all humans are in the clouds in some way. Even the poor in many developing nations give some of their meager income to religions and bow to social custom which demand that they take on debt so as to finance outrageous displays such as weddings for their children. I could ask why Joe Kennedy allowed children to starve so that he could afford ski trips to Aspen? And yet I am sure he could make a case for the joy and the intrinsic value of racing down a ski slope at incredible velocities. I dont begrudge him that. * I am not persuaded that the engineering byproducts of space exploration warrant the enormous cost. Zero gravity might be the ideal laboratory for some experiments, but the cost to attain zero gravity could probably be better allocated so as to the make the research in regular gravity more productivity.

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Mars Science Laboratory on schedule! | Gene Expression

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Sunflowers in Birmingham, Ala.

Sunflowers in Birmingham, Ala.

I'm rounding out The Salt's impromptu Pest Resistance Week (which started with stories about weeds and corn rootworms) with a little-known tale that may scramble your mental categories.

You've heard about herbicide-resistant weeds (which farmers hate) and herbicide-resistant crops like Roundup Ready soybeans or corn (which farmers like). But here's a case the only one I know of in which a weed helped create a herbicide-resistant crop.

The story begins in 1996, in a soybean field in Kansas. The soybeans in this field were able to tolerate a class of weedkillers known as "ALS inhibitors." This line of soybeans had been created through "mutation breeding."

This technique involves exposing thousands of seeds to chemicals that cause genetic mutations. One of those mutations allowed the resulting soybean plant to withstand the herbicides. (Similar kinds of herbicide-tolerant wheat, rice, and other crops have been created using the same method.)

Among the soybeans in this Kansas field, however, a few weeds also survived after the farmers sprayed their herbicide. The weeds were native sunflowers, wild relatives of the sunflowers that farmers grow as a crop. (As I reported a few months ago, sunflowers are one of a very small handful of crops that originated in our part of the world.)

The farmer contacted Kassim Al-Khatib, who was then a weed expert at Kansas State University. Al-Khatib collected some of the surviving weeds from this field, did some tests on them, and confirmed that these sunflowers were indeed resistant to ALS inhibitor herbicides.

A few months later, through a chance encounter at a scientific meeting, word of this discovery reached Jerry Miller, a sunflower breeder at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Sunflower Research Unit in Fargo, N.D. "I couldn't believe it. I called Kassim right away," recalls Miller. He saw the possibility of a herbicide-tolerant commercial sunflower created through traditional breeding, avoiding controversies over genetic engineering.

Originally posted here:
How A Sunflower Gene Crossed The Line From Weed To Crop

When men get stressed, their bodies get more revved up than women's. Now, two Australian researchers have a theory as to why and it all boils down to a single gene.

The classic "fight-or-fight" response to stress is controlled by the sympathetic nervous system the part of our nervous system that deals with automatic functions such as breathing. Under stress, this system goes wild, increasing heart rate and blood pressure, hastening breathing, and otherwise readying you to face down your enemy or to run.

But most of the research that established this fight-or-flight paradigm was done on men. About 12 years ago, researchers started to pull together evidence from that women don't respond to stress in the same way. In fact, they found, women do show a fight-or-flight response to immediate stress, but it's dampened by a tendency to "tend and befriend," or to seek out social support in stressful times.

Neuroscientist Joohyung Lee of Prince Henry's Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, Australia, and his colleague Vincent Harley of Monash University in Melbourne now suspect that a Y-chromosome gene called SRY may be at the root of why men's response to stress is more aggressive than women's. [6 Gender Myths Busted]

The gene is known for its role in prenatal testes development; without it, the testes don't form. But new research has shown that SRY plays a role in the heart, lungs and brain. It's involved in the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which is crucial to movement. It also shows up in the adrenal glands, which secrete norepinephrine and epinephrine. All three chemicals are important in regulating how our bodies respond to stress.

This male-only SRY gene may "prime" the male body for a more aggressive stress response, Lee and Harley reported March 7 in the journal BioEssays. Their idea is still speculative. To find out if it's true, researchers will need to determine how SRY acts in the brain and in other tissues. They'll need to find out what happens when the SRY gene is blocked from being expressed. And they'll have to study other sex-linked genes to understand how they work in tandem with gonadal (sex) hormones, to create sex differences in the brain.

If their hypothesis is right, the researchers wrote, SRY could have medical implications. Disorders such as Parkinson's disease, autism, attention deficit/hyperactive disorder and schizophrenia are all more common in men than in women, and they all involve alterations in the body chemicals, such as dopamine, that the SRY gene influences.

"Better understanding the degree and nature of interactions between the sex-specific genes, gonadal hormones and epigenetic pathways will undoubtedly shed light on what predisposes men or women to certain behavioral phenotypes and neuro-psychiatric disorders," the researchers wrote.

You can follow LiveSciencesenior writer Stephanie Pappas on Twitter @sipappas. Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescienceand on Facebook.

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Single Gene May Drive Men's Aggressive Stress Response

A year after introducing the first pair of rare African black-footed kittens conceived through in vitro fertilization, the scientists at the Audubon Center for Research of Endangered Species in Algiers have announced the arrival of another kitten that, genetically, is their sister, and the first kitten of her type to be carried in the womb of a domestic cat. The same parents contributed to the frozen embryos that produced the two males born last year and this year's female.

A black-footed cat served as the surrogate mother for last year's litter. Researchers next sought to show that vastly more plentiful domestic cats can serve as surrogate mothers in efforts to save the small wild cat from extinction.

"Being able to use domestic cats adds another extra dimension to that, being able to produce more," said Earle Pope, acting director of the center. Only 53 of the cats, which are native to South Africa, live in zoo collections in the United States.

Domestic and African black-footed are different species of cat but members of the same group of felines. Their similar sizes and gestation lengths, Pope said, appear to be what made the pregnancy and birth physically possible even though the genetic makeup of the kitten differed from the mother.

"They're considered to be of the same lineage," he said. "Somewhere back a couple of million years ago, they're descended from the same ancestor."

The kitten, named Crystal, was born on Feb. 6 to domestic cat Amelie without any human assistance in the birth itself. It exhibits all the characteristics of a black-footed cat despite being nurtured by a domestic cat mother, Pope said.

"It's not changed genetically in any way," from other black-footed cats, he said. "It is totally a black-footed cat in behavior."

Researchers handle the kitten almost every day as they study it, but she remains decidedly unadapted to human contact.

"It just wants you to leave it alone and stay away from it," Pope said. "It gets along beautifully with the domestic cat mother. They don't know, or do not care, that it's a different species."

Scientists started gathering the genetic material that eventually created the kitten in 2003, when they collected and froze a sperm sample from a black-footed cat named Ramses that lived at a research center in Nebraska. In 2005, they thawed the sperm and combined them with eggs from Zora, a cat living at Audubon. That produced 11 embryos, which went into deep freeze.

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Audubon center in Algiers logs another breakthrough in genetic engineering of endangered cats

The Los Angeles Times this week reports on a new UnitedHealth Group study that "estimates spending on genetic tests at $5 billion in the US in 2010," adding that it "could reach $25 billion within a decade." The LA Times says that the increasing availability of genetic tests and molecular diagnostics "offers the promise of earlier detection of disease and more personalized treatments that could wring substantial savings from the nation's $2.6 trillion-a-year healthcare tab." However, the LA Times adds, some "worry that those benefits may be outweighed by indiscriminate use of genetic testing."

The research arm of UnitedHealth surveyed physicians and patients on their attitudes toward genetic testing, and estimates that its members in private plans, Medicare, and Medicaid "spent $483 million on genetic tests in 2010, with 40 percent related to infectious diseases, 16 percent for cancer, and the rest for inherited disorders and other conditions." UnitedHealth also found that "more than half the 1,506 consumers surveyed were concerned about their physician's ability to know when a genetic test is needed and interpret it, the confidentiality of test results and about possible discrimination," the LA Times adds.

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Physicians, Patients Talk Genetic/MDx Tests

On Feb. 28, European and American scientists, including Stanford School of Medicine genetics professor Carlos Bustamante, PhD, and senior research associate Peter Underhill, PhD, announced the sequencing of Otzis entire genome. It is the oldest human sample to undergo such an analysis. Postdoctoral scholars Andres Moreno-Estrada, PhD; Brenna Henn, PhD; and Martin Sikora, PhD, also worked on the study, which appeared in Nature Communications. High-throughput DNA sequencing was performed at Massachusetts-based Life Technologies Corp.

The sequence revealed some things impossible to learn by studying the body: the color of his eyes, for example, (brown) and the fact that he was likely lactose-intolerant. But more importantly, it also gave clues to where his ancestors lived and how humans may have migrated across Europe during the Copper Age, which started about 7,000 years ago. The answer surprised some people:

The Icemans ancestry most closely mirrors that of modern-day Sardinians, said Underhill, who, with Bustamante, came to the conclusion by analyzing the mummys Y chromosome. His lineage is very rare in mainland Europe only 1 percent or less share the same sequence but is rather frequent in northern Sardinia and southern Corsica.

Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It lies 120 miles west of Italys mainland and 7.5 miles south of the French island of Corsica.

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The mummy of the Iceman is kept in a refrigerated cell in the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology. Credit: South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology

Obtaining and sequencing DNA from such an ancient source was challenging. Ancient DNA, which has been exposed to the elements for thousands of years, is plagued by contamination both from the environment and anyone who has handled Otzi since his discovery, said Timothy Harkins, PhD, of Life Technologies who led the sequencing effort. To limit contamination, researchers used a long needle to tap the inner part of the femur.

As it was, the researchers obtained only about 20 nanograms of genomic DNA for sequencing, which is hundreds of times less than the amount usually used for whole-genome sequencing of modern-day samples. From this, the scientists were able to identify about 2 million unique sequence variants for population studies. One small variation on the Y chromosome pointed researchers to Otzis island heritage.

The finding suggests two scenarios: either the mummys ancestors were once more prevalent in mainland Europe than they are now (and some unknown selection process caused them to die off everywhere but the island strongholds), or they actively immigrated to the mainland from the island. Because there is little archeological evidence of the large, rapid population change required in the first possibility, the Stanford researchers favor the second.

Its thought that Sardinia was first peopled about 11,000 years ago by sedentary hunter-gatherers, said Underhill. Some samples of volcanic glass, or obsidian, found in mainland Italy and southern France have been shown to come from Mount Arci in Sardinia. This implies that there were episodes of trading between the island and mainland. If so, the mummys ancestors could have arrived in Europe as traders.

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Genetic analysis of ancient 'Iceman' mummy traces ancestry from Alps to Mediterranean isle