Genetics (22 Music Parody)
Genetices.

By: Eric Parraz

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Brian Kennedy #39;s invitation to the 3rd International Genetics of Aging and Longevity conference
Brian Kennedy, President of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging invites everyone to the Genetics of Aging and Longevity conference, which will take place in Sochi, Russia, on 6-10, April, 2014.

By: LongevityFoundation

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EFT for Weight loss - Day 10 - Genetics (part 2)
EFT for Weight loss, day 10, topic: Slow metabolism and genetics. Being overweight is in my genes. http://www.MagicalLivingCoaching.com.

By: MagicalLivingCoach

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Everton Gubert, director de Agriness Brasil integrante de Choice Genetics.
CHOICE GENETICS desembarca en Argentina Con una amplia concurrencia de productores, veterinarios y empresarios del sector porcicultor de Argentina, se presentó en Puerto España Eventos,...

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AMES, Iowa, June 1, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --NewLink Genetics Corporation (NLNK), an oncology-focused biopharmaceutical company specializing in immunotherapy, today announced results from a Phase 2 clinical study with tergenpumatucel-L. The study evaluated the safety and activity of tergenpumatucel-L in 28 previously treated patients with metastatic or recurrent non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). All patients in the study received tergenpumatucel-L as a single agent, which resulted in long term stable disease (>/= 16 weeks) in 8 of the 28 patients, including one patient who survived 50 months. Median overall survival of 11.3 months with tergenpumatucel-L as a single agent was also encouraging in this patient population. Sixteen of the patients whose disease progressed following tergenpumatucel-L therapy received salvage chemotherapy. The partial response rate was 31 percent (5/16) and an additional 25 percent (4/16) achieved stable disease, suggesting that tergenpumatucel-L enhanced the response rate of the salvage chemotherapy. The safety and tolerability of tergenpumatucel-L was demonstrated in the study with no serious drug related (grade 4) adverse events reported; the most frequent drug related adverse events reported in the study were skin reactions at the injection sites.

NewLink is currently conducting a Phase 2b/3 trial comparing tergenpumatucel-L to docetaxel for patients with previously treated NSCLC. This study will compare the response rates of follow-on chemotherapy for patients whose disease progresses in either the docetaxel or tergenpumatucel-L arm to further investigate tergenpumatucel-L's potential to produce a chemo-sensitization effect. Tergenpumatucel-L is the second most advanced product in clinical testing from NewLink's HyperAcute platform technology.

"Lung cancer continues to be the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in this country. Response rates to currently available cytotoxic chemotherapies in previously treated patients are typically less than 10 percent with median survival being less than 8 months. Immune therapies such as tergenpumatucel-L have the promise of improving the outcomes without producing excessive toxicities. If Phase 3 trials confirm these results, tergenpumatucel-L would fill a significant unmet need for these patients," said RamaswamyGovindan, MD, Professor of Medicine, Division of Oncology, Washington University School of Medicine.

"Our Phase 2 trial data demonstrate the potential of tergenpumatucel-L to improve survival while enhancing response rates to subsequent therapies," said Nicholas Vahanian, M.D., President and Chief Medical Officer of NewLink Genetics. "Combined with results from studies of HyperAcute products for other indications, these data show that our HyperAcute technology has the potential to effectively stimulate the human immune system to recognize and destroy cancer cells."

The Phase 2 data were discussed in a poster presentation entitled "Potential chemo-sensitization effect of tergenpumatucel-L immunotherapy in treated patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)," by NewLink Genetics researchers and collaborators at the 2013 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).

About HyperAcute Immunotherapy

NewLink's HyperAcute immunotherapy platform creates novel biologic products that are designed to stimulate the human immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells. HyperAcute product candidates are composed of human cancer cells that are tumor specific, but not patient specific. These cells have been modified to express alpha-gal, a carbohydrate for which humans have pre-existing immunity. These alpha-gal-modified cells stimulate a rapid and powerful human immune response that trains the body's natural defenses to seek out and destroy cancer cells. The objective of HyperAcute immunotherapies is to elicit an antitumor response by "educating" the immune system to attack a patient's own cancer cells. HyperAcute immunotherapies do not require any tissue from individual patients and use intact whole cells rather than cell fragments or purified proteins. We believe these unique properties of HyperAcute products result in the stimulation of a robust immune response.

NewLink's lead product candidate, algenpantucel-L (HyperAcute pancreas), is being studied in a Phase 3 trial (IMPRESS: "Immunotherapy for Pancreatic Resectable cancer Survival Study") under a Special Protocol Assessment with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. This trial involves up to 722 patients with surgically resected pancreatic cancer. Algenpantucel-L is also being tested in a second Phase 3 study (PILLAR: "Pancreatic Immunotherapy with algenpantucel-L for Locally Advanced non-Resectable"), involving patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer.

NewLink has several HyperAcute product candidates focused on other tumor types in various stages of development, including tergenpumatucel-L, which is in an adaptive design, randomized Phase 2B/3 clinical trial currently accruing up to 240 patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

About NewLink Genetics Corporation

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NewLink Genetics Presents Positive Phase 2 Data on Novel Immunotherapy, Tergenpumatucel-L, in Non-Small Cell Lung ...

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A Different View on Bone Marrow Stem Cells
HSCI Principal Faculty member Les E. Silberstein, MD, details how new imaging technologies allowed his laboratory to discover that bone marrow stem cells are located near blood vessels, but...

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Live Cell Therapy - Purtier Introduction
A superb cell therapy which can transform ... My mother suffered from COPD, Heart failure in a very critical condition. After 8 years of treatment in the hos...

By: Lister Liew Teck Choy

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Stem Cell Therapy for Hair Loss | Hair Loss Treatment in India
Stem Cell Therapy for Hair Loss - Enhances hair regrowth within 2-3 weeks after treatment!

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Harley Shear AP Gov Genetic Engineering

By: Harley Shear

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GGN: Kids to Be Forced Sterlilized, Gates Urges Parents Vaccinate, Traffic an Unnatural Condition
May 29, 2013 Part Four (4/5) DONATIONS WELCOME Visit http://www.ggnonline.com to make a PayPal donation because it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. -...

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GGN: China Buys Biggest US Pork Co, Wheat is the Perfect Poison, H2O Dead Zones Create Bio-Fuel
May 29, 2013 Part Five (5/5) DONATIONS WELCOME Visit http://www.ggnonline.com to make a PayPal donation because it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. -...

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Lumberjacks stand besides old-growth chestnut trees in North Carolina around 1909/1910 (Forest History Society, Durham, North Carolina)

"The forests of America,"John Muir wrote inThe Atlanticin 1897, "... must have been a great delight to God; for they were the best he ever planted." Muir didn't know it yet, but by the time he wrote those words, the king of the eastern forests, the American chestnut tree, was already doomed. An interloping fungus had arrived at America's shores two decades earlier, and it would soon make short work of this then-common species. In less than a century's time, it killed off an estimated fourbillionof these towering trees.

Now, for the first time since the die-off, there is real hope. Researchers at SUNY's College of Environmental Science and Forestry have been trying to build a better American chestnut, one that would be resistant to the blight, and there's reason to think they've succeeded. Such a plant could repopulate the vast region of the eastern United States in which the tree was once found.

It's hard to overstate what a dramatic reversal this would be. Chestnuts were once one of the most abundant trees in the eastern United States, making up about 25 percent of the mature timber. Today,there is a section of its Wikipedia page titled "surviving specimens,"and it is not long.

The trouble began in the 1870s, when Americans began importing chestnuts from Japan to New York. The Japanese trees were shorter, making for a better orchard crop, as their nuts could be more easily reached. Unfortunately, those trees harboredCryphonectria parasitica, a fungal blight to which they were resistant, but to which the American variety was highly susceptible. The fungus would attack a tree at a wound and then spread beneath its bark, releasing a toxin known as oxalic acid that would poison the tree and reduce it to a mere stump that would occasionally send out shoots, but could never grow tall. The blightwas discovered in 1904in what is now the Bronx Zoo by a scientist named Hermann Merkel. Within five decades of that date, the fungus had spread across the entire range of the American chestnut, from Maine to Mississippi.

American Chestnut Foundation

Since the blight's discovery, countless efforts have been made to control the blight or somehow re-instate the trees. Early on, before it had spread too far, people tried cutting firebreak-like gaps into forests, such as a mile-wide chestnut-free zone etched into Pennsylvania -- but the fungus lived on oaks too (though it did not kill them) and made its way across the divide just the same. In more recent decades, scientists have tried cross-breeding the tree with its Asian counterparts, hoping to create a variety that is as American as possible, while retaining the Asian resistance. But though they've made some progress, none of those trees have gained full resistance.

The genetic engineering effort alone has gone on for more two decades, researchers at SUNY's College of Environmental Science and Forestry have been trying to build a better American chestnut, one that would be resistant to the blight.

"At that point, genetic engineering of trees was really in its infancy," William Powell of the SUNY lab told me. "There were only one or two trees that had been what we call transformed -- had a gene put in."

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Genetically Engineering an Icon: Can Biotech Bring the Chestnut Back to America's Forests?

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Let #39;s Play The Sims 3 - Perfect Genetics Challenge - Episode 14
My Sims 3 Page: http://mypage.thesims3.com/mypage/Llandros2012 My Blog: http://Llandros09.blogspot.com My Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Llandros09?ref=t...

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Let's Play The Sims 3 - Perfect Genetics Challenge - Episode 14 - Video

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Genetics Genetics Baby
Our project.

By: Eric Parraz

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Genetics Genetics Baby - Video

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LETS TALK ABOUT GENETICS!
Rich and Ric discuss GENETICS http://www.ricdrasin.com http://www.anabolicoutlaws.com.

By: ric drasin

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The Caring Vet Dr. Michel Selmer: Stem Cell Therapy
By Video Journalist Waldo Cabrera The Caring Vet Dr. Michel Selmer shows how stem cell therapy works. Featured Inte

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The Caring Vet Dr. Michel Selmer: Stem Cell Therapy - Video

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12-Personalized Medicine - Interview with Dr. Jeanne Kowalski
For additional information visit http://www.cancerquest.org/jeanne-kowalski-interview. Jeanne Kowalski, PhD, is an associate professor in Biostatistics in th...

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The Personalized Medicine. InGeneious
The human genome, their applications and their patents. The video was created with the YouTube Video Editor (http://www.youtube.com/editor)

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ATTENTION ALL Spinal cord injury-sci-neuropathic pain sufferers - lyrica
via YouTube Capture.

By: doug schroeder

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Newswise LOS ANGELES May 30, 2013 Newport Beach-based nonprofit Coalition Duchenne has awarded a $150,000 grant to a Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute team investigating whether an experimental cardiac stem cell treatment could be used to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy patients who have developed heart disease.

Coalition Duchenne is led by Catherine Jayasuriya, a mother whose 20-year-old son, Dusty Brandom, has cardiomyopathy associated with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. She was inspired to underwrite cardiac stem cell research at Cedars-Sinai after reading about a successful clinical trial led by Eduardo Marbn, MD, PhD, director of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute and the Mark S. Siegel Family Professor.

The experimental stem cell therapy, developed by Marbn, is the only treatment shown in clinical trials to regenerate healthy heart muscle. In the clinical trial, patients underwent biopsies during which doctors removed a piece of heart muscle about the size of half a raisin. The heart tissue was then used to grow specialized heart stem cells, which then were injected back into the patients heart. Results published in The Lancet showed that patients experienced an average 50 percent reduction in muscle damaged by heart attack.

I immediately sensed the potential for applying this rapidly evolving treatment to Duchenne, said Jayasuriya. I made it my personal quest to help get this kind of therapy for Duchenne patients.

Jayasuriyas commitment was further cemented when she discovered that Ron Victor, MD, associate director of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, has been working with Duchenne patients as part of his investigation of the cardiac benefits of sildenafil (Viagra) and tadalafil (Cialis).

We know that boys with Duchenne are born with a small scar in the base of their heart, said Victor, the Burns and Allen Chair in Cardiology Research at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute. The damage to hearts in boys with Duchenne increases over time. If we can use stem cells to slow or stop heart damage, it could help stall progression of the disease.

The first step in the study is to examine the effect of injecting cardiac stem cells into the hearts of mice with Duchenne. If the data is positive, the experimental treatment could be rapidly approved for use in humans with Duchenne because of cardiac stem cell treatments have been approved for other patient populations, including those with advanced heart disease.

Each year, 20,000 boys are born with Duchenne, Jayasuriya said, who founded Coalition Duchenne in 2010 to raise global awareness for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, fund research and find a cure for Duchenne. Many do not live into their 20s and we lose many to cardiac issues. We need to focus on changing the course of the disease. We hope that working with cardiac stem cells is one way we will eventually change that outcome.

Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a progressive muscle-wasting disease and the most common fatal disease that affects children. Duchenne occurs in one in 3,500 male births, across all races, cultures and countries. Duchenne is caused by a defect in the gene that produces the protein dystrophin, which helps connect the muscle fiber to the cell membranes. Without dystrophin, muscle cells become unstable, are weakened and lose their functionality. Life expectancy of boys and young men with Duchenne ranges from the mid-teens to the mid-20s. Their minds are unaffected.

The Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute is internationally recognized for outstanding heart care built on decades of innovation and leading-edge research. From cardiac imaging and advanced diagnostics to surgical repair of complex heart problems to the training of the heart specialists of tomorrow and research that is deepening medical knowledge and practice, the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute is known around the world for excellence and innovations.

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Grant Funds Research Into Cardiac Stem Cells as Treatment for Heart Disease Related to Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

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The Potency of a Cell Therapy Product: Questions and Answers
This second Technical Guide Video addresses and provides answers to several misconceptions and misunderstandings regarding important aspects of how to measur...

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Cardiff, UK EKF Diagnostics, the point-of-care diagnostics business, has announced the launch of EKF Molecular Diagnostics PointMan DNA Enrichment kits at ASCO 2013, 31st May 4th June, Chicago. The global launch will comprise three kits for enriching mutations in BRAF, KRAS and EGFR T790M genes associated with skin melanoma, colorectal and lung cancers. PointMan kits offer highly-specific and ultra-sensitive enrichment of mutant genes in a background of wild-type (normal) genes that is unmatched by existing technologies.

The launch of the new PointMan kits on Stand 19117 is the first new product introduction since EKFs acquisition of 360 Genomics Limited and the establishment of EKF Molecular Diagnostics in March 2013. EKF Molecular was set up to offer innovative products with the potential to change current DNA extraction and detection practices, in order to best support the fast growing companion diagnostics market.

PointMan, is a real-time PCR technology that provides reliable and extremely sensitive detection for cancer mutations. It is highly efficient in amplifying the target sequence of interest, whilst suppressing amplification of the wild-type. The resulting sample is effectively enriched for the mutation, thereby having the potential to offer industry leading sensitivity in a wide variety of sample types.

PointMan DNA enrichment kits can also be used to enrich all mutant sequences within the gene of interest using a single set of reagents, unlike competing technology that requires a separate reagent set for each mutation within a gene sequence. These kits offer fast, efficient and cost effective enrichment of mutant gene sequences for researchers in the pharmaceutical industry developing anti-cancer therapies. At ASCO, EKF Molecular Diagnostics will also premiere its pipeline of PointMan enrichment kits currently in development for other cancer-related mutations.

The three PointMan kits initially being launched for the Research Use Only market, with planned diagnostic registration in Europe in 2014, are: PointMan BRAF DNA Enrichment Kit The BRAF gene has proven utility in the treatment of melanoma, as well as colorectal cancer. PointMan KRAS DNA Enrichment Kit The KRAS gene has proven utility in the treatment of colorectal cancer. PointMan EGFR T790M DNA Enrichment Kit T790M mutation in EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor) has been associated with about 50% of patients who develop resistance to EGFR targeted therapies in non-small cell lung cancer.

Andrew Webb, Chief Executive Officer of EKF Molecular, said: The launch of these three kits, which are the first in a line of further expected PointMan product launches, comes ahead of schedule and represents step one in our operational development plan for the newly established EKF Molecular Diagnostics.

For more information please visit http://www.ekfdiagnostics.com.

About EKF Diagnostics http://www.ekfdiagnostics.com EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc specialises in the development, production and worldwide distribution of point-of-care blood analysers for use in the detection and management of diabetes, anaemia, lactate and kidney related diseases. Its new Molecular division focuses on molecular and companion diagnostics.

Point-of-care diagnostics: EKF Diagnostics expertise covers the entire in vitro diagnostics chain, from fermentation and enzyme production, to liquid reagent manufacture, design and building of world-class diagnostic devices, and distribution of rapid test kits for infectious diseases and pregnancy. The EKF analyser range is used widely in GP surgeries, pharmacies, blood banks, sports clinics, hospitals and laboratories for glucose, lactate, haemoglobin, haematocrit and HbA1c measurement.

Companion Diagnostics: In March 2013 EKF set up a new division to focus on molecular and companion diagnostics - EKF Molecular Diagnostics develops technologies for cancer gene detection. Through its acquisition of UK-based 360 Genomics and by offering innovative products with the potential to change current DNA extraction and detection practices, EKF is addressing the fast growing companion diagnostics market.

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DNA Enrichment Kits aid cancer gene detection.

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CON HUMAN GENETIC ENGINEERING
New Project 4.

By: Drew Connolly

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A few weeks ago, the Union of Concerned Scientists released a policy paper entitled "The Healthy Farm: A Vision for U.S. Agriculture," which is exactly what it sounds like. A healthy farm practices sustainable agriculture, which means it must do three things well:Productivity. A healthy farm produces food in abundance.Economic viability. A healthy farm is a thriving business that provides a good living and fair working conditions to those who work on it, and contributes to a robust local and regional economy.Environmental stewardship. A healthy farm maintains the fertility of the soil and the health of the surrounding landscape for future generations. Current industrial farming practices in the US accomplish the first and second goals quite well, but these practices tend to be unsustainable and fail the "Environmental Stewardship" plank pretty miserably. The UCS's concern about the dire state of our food system is well-founded, and I applaud their efforts to get out in front of the policy debate. There's just one problem: they oppose using all of our technology to help combat this problem. Specifically, I'm talking about genetic engineering (GE) and genetically modified organisms (GMO).Conversations of this sort inevitably devolve into ad hominem attacks on the GMO supporter's credibility, so before going further, let me state clearly and for the record that I do not now, nor have I ever, nor do I ever plan to work for any company that produces GMOs. Neither have I ever received any form of compensation from any such company.Nevertheless, I think that using genetic engineering to improve our crops can help move us towards more productive, healthier, and yes, more sustainable farming practices. Unfortunately, there's a lot of misinformation standing in the way of public acceptance of this technology. Since I'm an immunologist, today I'm just going to address a single piece of that misinformation. From UCS: [GE crops] may produce new allergens and toxins[...] This statement is at best wildly misleading and at worse an all-out fabrication. For an organization dedicated to informing citizens about science, I'm a bit appalled that they got this one so wrong. But in order to explain why, I first need to explain a bit about genes, proteins and how these things interact with the immune system.From Genes to ProteinsIf you're already well acquainted with the Central Dogma of molecular biology, feel free to skip ahead. For the rest of you, your memories of genetics may be a foggy recollection of a monk and his peas. But don't worry, I'm not going to ask you to draw any punnett squares. The key thing to know is that your genetic information, encoded in your DNA, is a blueprint for the production of proteins*.Proteins are the things that do work in the cell. They can do everything from providing structure and support, to communicating information between cells, to sensing the outside world, to catalyzing chemical reactions. Basically, if there's a job to be done in a cell, it's a protein that's doing it. Proteins are fundamentally a linear sequence of small units called "amino acids." In the same way that you can take a finite set of lego blocks and build almost any shape, evolution has selected for a finite set of about 20 amino acids, but these 20 blocks can be fit together in many different ways to make many different shapes of protein. Those different shapes determine the multitude of different functions that proteins have in a cell.Because of the molecular biology revolution, we now have a pretty firm understanding of how a cell reads a particular sequence of nucleic acid (that's the "NA" in DNA), and translates the code into a sequence of amino acids that becomes a protein of a certain shape and function. And one of the most amazing features of this process is that the language is the same regardless of the sort of cell you're talking about, be it plant, bacteria, virus or mammal**. This is all very neat in theory, but it has profound consequences in practice.For example, the insulin that diabetics need to stay alive is just a protein. Before genetic engineering, the vast majority of insulin was isolated from the blood of cows or pigs - these sources were not particularly reliable, and insulin from animals is not exactly the same as human insulin, leading to potential adverse reactions. In the 1980's, scientists realized that they could use genetic engineering to make actual human insulin in bacteria. They isolated the DNA sequence code for the human version of the protein and inserted it into the genome of E. coli bacteria. The bacteria don't know the difference between a human gene and a bacterial gene - it's all just DNA! The bacteria read the code, and turned it into protein - the exact same protein that your own ?-islet cells make in your own pancreas; it's identical.This is the same process used in genetic engineering of crops - moving a gene code for a protein or group of proteins from one organism into another. More on that later.Proteins and AllergiesAn allergy is essentially an immune response to something that's not normally dangerous. Those pollen grains that are the source of so much misery don't actually pose a threat, but your immune system may react as if it is. Your immune system makes particular antibodies called IgE that are able to bind some protein from the pollen. Those IgE antibodies coat the surface of mast cells, which are filled with a bunch of reactive molecules like histamines that make your immune system freak out. Mast cells evolved to combat parasitic worms and other infections, and when the immune response is directed appropriately, it's a good defense - a little bit of inflammation is better than an infection.When it's directed against something abundant and harmless though, that's when suffering ensues. Immune responses to all sorts of things have been reported, from the relatively common seasonal allergies to different types of pollen, to dust mites, to semen. Though these allergies can be quite unpleasant for the afflicted, but are usually not life threatening. Allergies to food, on the other hand, can be significantly more severe.Because food allergies can lead to anaphylaxis and death, it's perhaps understandable that people are worried about manipulation of food. But remember - allergies are a response to a particular protein. Our immune systems can distinguish between different proteins quite well, but is completely unaware of the source of that protein.Case Studies on GMOs and AllergiesThe PremiseBefore getting started, let's go back to the statement from UCS that I find so objectionable: [GE crops] may produce new allergens and toxins [emphasis mine] This is patently false - genetic engineering techniques allow us to precisely add genes of known structure and function to crops. It would in principle be possible to engineer corn that expresses anthrax toxin, or introduce peanut allergens into soybeans, but this would have to be by malicious intent of the scientists, not some accident. We know how genes work, and we know what kind of protein an individual gene will make.Contrast this with a common tool of breeding in organic and non-GMO farming: Mutation Breeding. This is a technique whereby farmers expose seeds to large doses of radiation or chemical mutagens, and then selectively breed the seeds that have useful traits. This process may introduce hundreds or thousands of mutations into the genomes, and breeders cannot know where those mutations are. These mutations will change the shape and functions of proteins, and could, in principle produce new allergens. Despite the fact that this process is manipulating the genome, it's not considered genetic engineering, and is allowed to be called organic.Now, some examples of the most common types of GE crops.Bt CornDifferent strains of the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) can produce proteins that are toxic to various invertebrates. These proteins, called "Cry toxins," have been used in agriculture for almost 100 years - bacteria cultured in a certain way can be induced to create these proteins, and then sprayed onto crops. Certain types of insects are susceptible to eating these toxins and will die upon ingesting them. Bt Cry proteins are among the safest insecticides that can be used in agriculture, and there are many varieties that target different types of insect pests. Since Cry toxins are proteins, that means they are coded for by genes, and scientists realized that they could do away with the bacterium entirely.In much the same way we can produce human insulin in bacteria, we can get corn (and other plants) to produce bacterial Cry proteins - and scientists did. The protein is produced predominantly in the leaves of the corn, and insects attempting to feed on the leaves ingest the Cry proteins at the same time and die. The protein isn't expressed much in the corn kernels themselves, which is actually a problem for farmers wanting to use these crops to stave off insects that attack the ear, but it also means that humans enjoying that corn-on-the-cob are not going to be ingesting much either.So, Cry proteins are safe to consume, they're expressed in very low levels in the food we eat, and they're sprayed on organic crops in huge quantities (and have been for almost a hundred years). There's no reason to assume that Cry produced by corn is any different than Cry made by bacteria - it's the same gene, so it's the same protein.Fishy TomatoesOne of the horror stories often trotted out by GMO opponents is a tomato plant that was genetically engineered to resist frost. The winter flounder fish has "antifreeze" in its blood to allow it to survive in extremely cold waters. Scientists realized that antifreeze in plants would be incredibly useful - frost damage costs farmers hundreds of millions of dollars every year in lost crops or decreased productivity.Now, I can understand why antifreeze in your food might sound scary, but this isn't the stuff you put in your car. The antifreeze in the fish is just a protein called AFA3, and as you've probably gathered by now, that means it's coded for by a gene. Unfortunately, when this gene was put into tomatoes, it didn't actually provide much frost resistance, and these tomatoes were never brought to market, but I think this is an instructive example - if you could eat flounder without an allergic reaction, you could eat these tomatoes.Potential for HarmThere are many examples of new GMO varieties that are using genes for proteins that don't have a 100 year history like Bt, or aren't usually ingested the way that flounder is. But there's nothing magical about genetic engineering - it's just about proteins. Most proteins are readily destroyed in our stomach and small intestine, broken down into their constituent amino acids and absorbed into our bloodstream, regardless of whether that protein comes from a cow or a tomato or a bacterium. Our digestive systems and our immune systems are oblivious to their origin.It's impossible to claim that there's zero risk from using GMO technology in our food, and it's worth testing the safety of anything new that we put into our mouths. Safety tests are done of course, but it would be impossible to eliminate all risk.But a possibility of risk alone is not a valid reason to avoid a technology. As I mentioned above, mutation breeding is at least as likely to generate new allergens, if not more so. At least with GE, we know what genes are being changed, and we have better tools for testing the proteins that they code for. We've embraced many technologies that have risks, from microwave ovens to cell phones, and there's more at stake here than quick meals or communication. In order to feed the billions of people on our planet without doing (more) irreparable harm to the environment, we need to be thinking about all of our options.It's also worth noting as Pamela Ronald did in this space two years ago: There is broad scientific consensus that genetically engineered crops currently on the market are safe to eat. After 14 years of cultivation and a cumulative total of 2 billion acres planted, no adverse health or environmental effects have resulted from commercialization of genetically engineered crops. Please note: I will not address comments here related to the myriad other complaints about GMOs - this is a post about allergens, but there are a number of other resources to check out:GMOs do not cause cancer.GMO's have not driven Indian farmers to suicideHerbicide resistant weeds are a problem, but not one unique to GMOA Survey of Long Term GM Food Studies (collected papers)---------------* Not all genes code for protein. There are also gene products like microRNAs, but these largely have an effect by regulating the expression of proteins.** Not exactly the same, it turns out. Some species have slight modifications to the code, but it's more like having different dialects rather than a different language.Images: top: by author; Jessica Reuter; Dcastor; United States Department of Agriculture. Follow Scientific American on Twitter @SciAm and @SciamBlogs.Visit ScientificAmerican.com for the latest in science, health and technology news. 2013 ScientificAmerican.com. All rights reserved.

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Allergic to Science-Proteins and Allergens in Our Genetically Engineered Food

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Public release date: 30-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Vicki Cohn vcohn@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 x2156 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

New Rochelle, NY, May 15, 2013The scientists who led the team that developed Glybera, the first gene therapy drug approved for use in the Western world, provide a fascinating first-person account of their pioneering work in Human Gene Therapy, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. In addition, an in-depth Review reveals the inside story of the European regulatory review and approval of Glybera, chock full of twists and turn, politics, and intrigue, reviews and critiques the groundbreaking drug's path to the marketplace appears in in Human Gene Therapy Clinical Development. Both articles are available on the Human Gene Therapy website.

John Kastelein, University of Amsterdam (the Netherlands) and Colin Ross and Michael Hayden, University of British Columbia (Vancouver, BC, Canada) describe the long path to the discovery of the genetic mutation responsible for lipoprotein lipase deficiency (LPLD), a rare, inherited disease, and the subsequent work in Dr. Hayden's laboratory to develop a gene replacement therapy. In the article "From Mutation Identification to Therapy: Discovery and Origins of the First Approved Gene Therapy in the Western World," the authors recount the many failures and successes and the significant delays that finally ended on November 2, 2012, when the European Medicines Agency granted marketing approval for Glybera. The therapy will be submitted for review by the U.S. and Canadian regulatory authorities.

James M. Wilson, MD, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of Human Gene Therapy, and Director of the Gene Therapy Program, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, and coauthors give a behind-the-scenes view of the protracted clinical development, review, and approval process for Glybera in the Commentary "Lessons Learned from the Clinical Development and Market Authorization of Glybera." Although Glybera's safety was not an issue, its efficacy in the relatively small number of patients who received the therapy was questionable. The authors chronicle a bumpy road to market approval, fraught with rejections, reanalysis of study data, and appeals that led to commercialization of the product with the caveat of an ongoing patient registry to allow for continued review of the effectiveness of the therapy as it is used in more patients.

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About the Journals

Human Gene Therapy, the Official Journal of the European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy, British Society for Gene and Cell Therapy, French Society of Cell and Gene Therapy, German Society of Gene Therapy, and five other gene therapy societies, is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published monthly in print and online. Human Gene Therapy presents reports on the transfer and expression of genes in mammals, including humans. Related topics include improvements in vector development, delivery systems, and animal models, particularly in the areas of cancer, heart disease, viral disease, genetic disease, and neurological disease, as well as ethical, legal, and regulatory issues related to the gene transfer in humans. Its sister journals, Human Gene Therapy Methods, published bimonthly, focuses on the application of gene therapy to product testing and development, and Human Gene Therapy Clinical Development, publishes data relevant to the regulatory review and commercial development of cell and gene therapy products. Tables of content for all three publications and a free sample issue may be viewed on the Human Gene Therapy website.

About the Publisher

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Nucleic Acid Therapeutics, Tissue Engineering, Stem Cells and Development, and Cellular Reprogramming. 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.

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The inside story behind the approval of the gene therapy drug Glybera

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith