The first time Lyell CEO Rick Klausner looked at what PACT Pharma was trying to accomplish with neoantigens, non-viral T cell engineering and cancer, he felt they couldnt get it done. But in the 3 years since theyve launched, Klausner has become a believer.

Now, hes a believer and a partner.

Early Thursday morning, Klausner and PACT CEO Alex Franzusoff announced a plan to jointly pursue one of the Holy Grails of oncology R&D. Blending their technologies and bringing a wide network of leading experts to the table, the two companies are working on a personalized T cell therapy for solid tumors. And an IND is in the offing.

The collaboration joins the Lyell team, which has been concentrating on overcoming the exhaustion that afflicts the first generation of cell therapies, with a PACT group that has developed tech to identify a patients unique signature of cancer mutations and use a non-viral method to engineer their T cells into cancer therapies.

I spent some time on Wednesday talking with Klausner and Franzusoff about the deal, which comes with an undisclosed set of financials as Lyell invests in the alliance.

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Adding billions in value, Eli Lilly succeeds where Pfizer failed, halting breast cancer recurrence - Endpoints News

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

I hadnt meant to have a baby at all. I hadnt meant not to have a baby either, by which I mean I always thought Id have children one day. I just thought those children would grow up with me and their yet-to-materialise father in a lovely farmhouse, hugged by the hills, with an Aga and a dog and long, invigorating walks through the fields. This was not how I had grown up in Yorkshire, but it wasnt a million miles from it either. It was an idealised version of home, and it lived somewhere vaguely in my future as an unspecified certainty.

Exactly how I thought La Vida Farmhouse was going to appear when I was, in fact, living in a one-bedroom rented apartment in West Hollywood in 2010 isnt clear. My apartment was just behind the Sunset Strip part of Sunset Boulevard. The Strip is the glamorously cheesy bit, full of rooftop pools and famous people, and it was a place that encouraged in me a relationship with reality that could at best be described as negligible. I was working as a journalist, interviewing Hollywood celebrities for newspapers and magazines back home.

This was unreal life, where a friend offered me a free place on a health retreat on a ranch in Mexico, and Id go to power yoga lessons where they told me and the wealthy Californians who surrounded me to feel the pain, and I felt the pain so much that I could barely manage the trip back to LA. By the time we got home I was unable to sit down. A day after that I was in the emergency room at Cedars-Sinai hospital in Beverly Hills, which was the place where Paris Hilton and co would end up after paparazzi-induced car crashes and the Kardashians would give birth. It was, improbably, my local hospital.

It wasnt clear to anyone quite where this agony was coming from, or if it had anything to do with the exercise at all. I spent a whole day being wheeled around to different tests, and having a cash machine wheeled right up to my face by a credit-cardiologist. Finally they told me that there was good news and bad news. The good news was that the MRI scan had revealed the main problem: I had something like a slipped disc. I would not need surgery and it would resolve itself naturally within a week or two if I was sensible and simply became addicted to industrial-strength painkillers instead. Something like that.

The bad news, however, was that while they were poking around, they had discovered some trouble in my ovaries. Oh, I know about that, I said, I was diagnosed as having polycystic ovary syndrome in my 20s, Ive been told its probably fine. Well, it isnt fine now, they said, its much worse, and coupled with your hormone levels and your age and hang on a minute, I thought, your age? I was only just into my 30s all right, I was 34 but nobody had ever said your age to me in that tone of voice, suggesting that I had used a lot of my age up already, rather than not had enough of it yet. Regardless, the doctor continued, I had the best kind of infertility, because I could still carry a child in my own womb. It was just that I would not be able to conceive naturally.

In my life, it was as if I was the captain of a magnificent ship but was somehow always in a dinghy buffeted about in the ships wake, about to catch up with myself. Up ahead on the magnificent ship, I was organised and sober and slim and shiny-haired. This infertility news was the first thing to finally break through to me that the ship had sailed off without me. I went home, shut the door of my apartment and cried for a week.

What an idiot I had been, thinking that I could go back and make a family later, that I could work out how to have a relationship with a nice man later. I didnt know any nice men. What I knew were exciting men, egotistical men, men who ran fast, whom you could sometimes run alongside, as long as you didnt let out a single whisper of genuine need.

I told my friend Mal about this most awful diagnosis that had made me reconsider my whole life. And when my monologue ended, he smiled and said, Sophie, all the doctors have said to you is that you can only get pregnant on purpose, not by accident. Thats it. Which is, as you would say, brilliant. So I think you should celebrate this amazing news by going out and fucking like its the 1970s.

And that is the story of how I didnt use a condom the next time I had sex, which would turn out to be the very next day, which turned into the story of how I became somebodys mother for the rest of our lives, the end. Except its not the end, is it? It never is.

***

I remember feeling particularly hot that next night, as I left my apartment with Mals fantastically bad advice still ringing in my ears. I remember trying to walk confidently straight past the hotel reception desk, then stopping round the next corner to secretly check the text message again. Then I was beside the swimming pool, deserted but still floodlit. I remember hearing a noise and looking up and seeing him, a man Ill call the Musician, grinning down at me.

Laughing, I took a big gulp of whisky and said we didnt need to use anything as I definitely couldnt get pregnant

We had known each other for about seven years by this point, ever since a mutual friend had introduced us backstage after one of his shows and our eyes had locked. Once again, we were now wrapped around each other like we had something to prove, and I suppose we did, even though I would spend many years afterwards wondering what it was. I took a big gulp of the whisky that was on my side of the bed while I laughed and said that we didnt need to use anything, because I definitely couldnt get pregnant.

The next day, when I got home, I sat down at my computer, opened a blank document and typed a paragraph that began with these words: And one day I will tell you all about how you were conceived in a hotel room in Hollywood. My hands seemed to be typing by themselves. A wave of anger rushed over me. It felt as if something beyond me had written it. I didnt like it. Hadnt I been told, just 10 days previously, that I would never conceive a child naturally? Was I taunting myself with a child who had already turned out to be a ghost?

I slammed the laptop shut and got on with my day.

Christmas and New Year came and went, and I found I didnt like the taste of alcohol any more. I pretended to be doing Dry January, hiding the very confusing, nagging feeling that eventually led to me taking a pregnancy test.

A couple of days after the test, I had to tell him. I had to summon up all of the strength inside me to break it to the Musician that he was going to be a father. I didnt know if we were starting a family or starting a war. My best news and it was, truly, starting to feel like my best news could be his worst. The terrifying thing was that I had to tell him over the phone because sending a text saying Were having a baby seemed a little informal.

The loneliness of the long-distance runner has nothing on that of the single person in an antenatal class

He was thousands of miles away and not expecting to hear from me. In fact, I talked so fast when he answered that he couldnt hear what I said, which meant I had to take a deep breath and deliver my big news all over again. These phone conversations continued, over the weeks, turning into a big old argument: disbelief, terror and sometimes tenderness, too. And every time I would put my hands to my belly, where barely anything existed beyond a particle theory of cells. I knew the miraculous accident was here to stay.

Later that week I spent hours in my local bookshop, nervously scanning the shelves for a guide to show me the way. All I could find were books called things like What To Expect When Youre Expecting, full of advice on folic acid and how your husband should give you a back rub to ease the tension of growing another person inside your person.

What I longed for was a book called What To Expect When You Werent Even Fucking Expecting To Be Expecting, which would tell you what to do when you found yourself standing on Santa Monica pier holding your phone in your trembling hand, desperate to hurl it into the Pacific Ocean so the thoughts of a scared man couldnt buzz through it any more. We had to stay in regular communication, and sometimes it could be sweet, even, on a very good day, to the point of us discussing potential baby names we liked. We werent going to become a couple, but there were moments when we could be friends. But mostly it was a battle.

I tried to find a bigger apartment in LA, one more suited to babies and less to parties. Nobody would rent one to me, not once theyd taken a look at my rapidly growing bump and my rapidly shrinking income. With my tail between my legs, I moved back to London and began attending antenatal classes, where the husbands and boyfriends were taught all the helpful things they could do. I experienced the class solely as a guide to heteronormative marriage practices, with me the only single person there, feeling like the extra prick at a wedding.

Of course, this shouldnt have been a thing in open-minded London in the 21st century. I was hardly being forced into a home for unmarried mothers and having my baby adopted against my will. Technically, I had nothing to feel ashamed of, but shame is tidal; at certain times it wells up and surges on to the land. The loneliness of the long-distance runner has nothing on the loneliness of the single person in an antenatal class.

So imagine my delight when, about halfway through the course, one of the dads took offence at being told he should probably give up smoking, and he left. The numbers balanced out fine after that.

I find it odd when people say that giving birth was the single best day of their life. I can safely say that giving birth was the single worst day of my life. All right, the single worst two days of my life. I was 18 days overdue when I finally let them induce me, and it was 48 hours after that when they cut the baby out of my womb. My daughter is the best thing in my existence, but I can quite clearly separate loving my daughter from not enjoying 10 different doctors waggling their poky things up my chuff.

Theres another bit of labour I find hard to write about. The bit where the Musician, who had been going to come, and then not going to come, then did come, somewhere around midnight, when Id gone deep into an animal state. Or so I thought. The bit where hed sat at the far end of the bed, too far away, and he finally stood up and I thought he was coming towards me so I reached out my arms to touch him. I needed that contact. But I had misread the movement and he was in fact standing up to leave the room. A cheery goodbye came from him as I lay there, contracting, the midwives and doctors looking at me as my arms tried to find a place to fold themselves back into. I was no longer an animal. I was shame.

But then I was made into two. In the operating theatre, a baby was passed over the white curtain to me and she was my daughter, she was a broken star, a bloodied astronaut, a bloodied moon. She was a missile coming straight for me; an answer to the question that my body asked without me knowing. She was the smallest person I had ever held and the biggest thing I had ever seen. An alien who clearly knew everything about everything. I cried involuntarily. It came from me like a bark.

The babys face was lopsided, one eye more closed than the other, a big red mark across her forehead, and I didnt know how to ask if that was how she was always going to look, if I would reveal a lack of love by already wanting her to be different at 28 seconds old. Some time later, we were wheeled along the corridor to meet her father, and as we arrived I felt an acute sense of embarrassment. I felt an even more acute sense that this was not how it is supposed to feel when you present a man with his baby.

***

Three months later, and a live human male person was actually chatting me up at a party. For the first time in a year, I did not have a baby inside my womb, or hanging from my breast, or snoring beside me in a pram.

Of course, most new mothers go out to have some respite from the four walls that surround them, and the feeling of being needed at every second of every day, and while those were my goals, too, I also had another motive. I had come out on the pull.

Pregnancy is not an ideal time to meet someone, but Id got through that, and was now in the afterwards stage where youre merely leaking milk from your breasts. So that was fine. In fact, it was more than fine because said milk was making them enormous.

A single parent is both structure and playground, walls and soft landing, good cop and bad cop

The man trying to talk to me was a real grownup in a suit jacket. When he introduced himself, I immediately felt the whooshing rush to my heart that could only mean one thing: total inadequacy.

What do you do? he asked.

I told him I was a journalist: But Im not really working at the moment. Oh God, quick, Sophie, salvage it.

Because Ive just had a baby! I added, hurriedly.

Looking into his confused eyes, I realised my mistake.

But Ive already split up with the dad! I barked, solving everything.

My brain helpfully nipped back in for one killer finale.

In fact, I actually had the baby on my own.

I didnt get to find out what he thought, because, oh my God, he turned around to talk to someone else. I went and sat at a table with some people I vaguely knew, and was still laughing to myself, wheezing with relief that I would never again have to experience The First Time A Man Chats Me Up After Having A Baby On My Own.

***

The private clinic was as white as the here comes the science part of a LOral advert. We gave our names at the desk and waited to be called. There wasnt much small talk between the two of us adults. The baby slept. We went into the private room. The doctor seemed highly intelligent, talking us through the clinical procedure before explaining that she was legally obliged to ask us why we were having it. I decided to sit this one out. And so we waited, the doctor and I, both turning to look at the Musician. I think I may, for a nanosecond, have even enjoyed the look on his face.

We just, we just want to be sure, he stuttered. It was an innovative usage of the first person plural, seeing as I was perfectly sure already. Just, you know, just for the avoidance of doubt, he added, nodding as if everyone was already agreeing with him. The doctor and I both knew that nobody in that room was agreeing with him.

Even though the doctor said the baby was his, I knew it wasnt true. That baby wasnt his at all. She was mine

The baby doesnt have to be woken for the procedure, she explained, as we can swab her mouth for the saliva sample while shes asleep in her pram. You wont even need to take the covers off. My relief was marred only by my disappointment that nobody would now get to see what I had dressed my four-month-old in a grey babygrow that had one word lovingly stitched across it: Daddy.

The doctor swabbed each of our mouths with a separate sterile bud, which then went into sealed plastic bags. When it was all done, the credit card handed over and the receipt signed with my blood I mean his pen he and I stood outside on the street and looked all around us. It was preferable to looking at each other.

And then the Musician and I tried to talk, but only revolting angry words came out. I began to walk away, pushing the pram down the street. The shouting carried on at my back. I pushed the baby to the end of the street, and then round the corner to the end of another street, and then suddenly I was free.

The clinic phoned a week later. The baby was his, they told me: even though the technology didnt yet exist to prove it 100%, they could give us a 99% likelihood. It was the same doctor on the phone, and I could hear her hesitation, where professional boundaries seemed to be preventing her from asking if I was all right. I wasnt, as it happened. But what did it matter, because even though she said the baby was his, I now knew it wasnt true. That baby wasnt his at all. She was mine.

Still, the child maintenance payments continued to arrive. Sometimes they felt like a mockery. Sometimes they felt like an apology. Sometimes they just felt like a great big help and it was a relief. The months passed into years, and the anger turned into pain, and the pain turned into a ghost that sat on my shoulder for many years and flicked my nerves while allowing me to live. But life takes its snaking turns around unexpected corners, and we are on better terms now and beyond. Family life has changed again. I was always grateful for my best ever present, one given to me in a curious pocket of magic that we had somehow slipped into in the California moonlight, and if I think about what my life would have been without her my diminutive partner in crime, and in beauty, and in fart jokes I almost cant breathe again. She has his sense of humour. Its a very good one.

***

We are a small republic of two, my daughter and I. We sit at the breakfast table every morning, staring across at each other like Frost and Nixon. And every day she says, Mummy, look at my sad face. And I say, Thats not very sad, look at my sad face and I do a mournful expression the same as hers, only I let my jaw hang down and let one of my eyes tilt to the side, as if I am dying, and she giggles and says, No, Mummy, look at my sad face and she copies all of mine but adds an enormous sigh to it, a sigh that knocks her head practically off her neck, and so I say, Look at my sad face and I do everything she did but I also fall off my chair on purpose and collapse on to the kitchen floor at some personal discomfort and start to cry out, rending my garments, I am so sad, oh Lord why hast thou forsaken me and then my daughter is almost hysterical with rancid delight and joins me on the floor, crying out, Oh Lord, why have shaking because thats what she thinks Ive said, and then we remember that its 8.42am on a school day and I have to get her hair into two French plaits that I learned by watching a YouTube instructional video 11 times.

We grab our coats and run along the street and get there before they close the gates at 9am. We always make it just in the nick of time, and we hug each other goodbye, and she goes up the stairs to her classroom, but stops at the big landing window and waves down at me again. We both bump a fist on to our hearts to show that we will carry each other in there all day.

Some might think a romance between a parent and child is not healthy. What would they think if it came from a father who wanted his little girl to know that she was beautiful? I have had to provide both things, the romance and the rules. A single parent is both structure and playground, walls and soft landing, good cop and bad cop. You dont ready someone to travel into a famine zone by starving them, so I have prepared my child for an ugly world by fattening her with love, like a foie gras goose. And when we are sad, we sit there being sad, crying, accepting, until we can laugh again.

As a child, I learned that sadness makes people uncomfortable, and it still makes me uncomfortable, if Im honest. But what I know now is that it doesnt always want to be fixed rather it wants to be heard. In our house, I have made room for it, so it can come and go like familiar visitors do. It makes the happiness less frantic. I tried a lot of cures for existential angst, but becoming this persons mother was definitely the one. She gives me somewhere to put all that love Id been wasting on my fears. I want to be the safe place my daughter turns to at night, and wakes up to in the morning. The safe harbour. Unconditional. Not everybody gets one of those.

The Hungover Games by Sophie Heawood is published by Jonathan Cape on 16 July at 14.99. To order a copy for 12.89 go to guardianbookshop.com.

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I got pregnant by mistake. Was I ready for single motherhood? - The Guardian

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Gemma Collins has revealed she hopes to be pregnant next year when she turns 40.

The reality TV star has been trying to prepare her body in order to conceive and has lost nearly three stone on the advice of doctors.

Gemma believes if she could become pregnant, she could send a positive message to women who start a family later in their lives.

I would love to have a child, she told The Sun.

It would be great for me and such a positive message for all the girls out there who dont want to rush their life or their life has taken different a direction, like me whos put their career first.

But in my forties Id love everybody to see The GC walking around with a pram.

Read more: Jessie J shares infertility struggles, but vows she will be a mum one day

The TOWIE star isnt worried about hitting the birthday milestone pointing out other stars who are enjoying successful careers into their forties and beyond, some of whom are yet to become parents.

Im going to be up there with them all Mariah Carey, Madonna, Kylie Minogue and Jennifer Aniston.

Kylies not married yet or got children. Jennifer hasnt got kids either.

Dont write us off yet. Were just beginning.

Read more:Kelly Brook shares two stone weight loss

When it comes to conceiving a child, Gemma, who refers to herself as The GC, has had regular consultations with her doctor about her prospects, having suffered a number of miscarriages in her thirties.

And though shes been told it is possible for her to become pregnant doctors have advised losing weight could help her achieve her parenting dream.

I can definitely have a child, he just told me it would be easierwhen Im not carrying as much weight, she told The Sun.

He gave me the confidence not to panic about it. He told me to lose a few stone and it will help me.

And the lockdown period has provided Gemma with an opportunity to take stock of where she was in life and make some positive changes for the future.

Things are a lot calmer now, she said. Im cooking my own meals at home, riding my bike in the countryside and enjoying long walks. I am established. My career has gone above and beyond.

Read more:Carer slimmed down by as much as Adele

An additional factor in Gemmas journey to motherhood is that she hasPolycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a condition that affects how a woman's ovaries work and can impact fertility.

Gemma was 28 when she was diagnosed with the condition after becoming alarmed by sudden weight gain.

She says: I was always very slim. But I really started piling on the weight and Ill never forget it.

I said to my mum, Have you shrunk my clothes?. She said, I hate to break this to you,but youre putting on weight.

Figures frompcos-uk.org.uksuggest that one in 10 women have PCOS, which roughly translates into 3.5 million women in the UK, and makes it the most common female hormone condition.

Symptoms can include irregular periods, weight gain and excess hair growth.

Read more: Size 20 nursery worker, who ate McDonald's five times a week, sheds four stone in three months

Some women with the condition can experience difficultygetting pregnant as a result of irregular ovulation or failure to ovulate.

Women who are overweight and trying to get pregnant will be advised to lose weight before trying fertility drugs or treatments, explains Mr Parijat Bhattacharjee, consultant gynaecologist at BMI The Clementine Churchill Hospital and BMI Syon Clinic in West London.

Losing weight might be enough to restart ovulation, and fertility drugs are also most effective on women with a healthy body mass index.

According to the NHS medications are also available to treat symptoms such as excessive hair growth, irregular periods and fertility problems.

If fertility medications are not effective, a simple surgical procedure called laparoscopic ovarian drilling (LOD) may be recommended.

This involves using heat or a laser to destroy the tissue in the ovaries that's producing androgens, such as testosterone.

For women who do get pregnant, being a healthy weight helps to reduce the risk of complications throughout the pregnancy, including gestational diabetes, high blood pressure and pre-eclampsia, Mr Bhattacharjee adds.

Original post:
Gemma Collins reveals her desires to have a baby in her forties, talks losing weight to try to get pregnant - Yahoo Lifestyle UK

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

UpMarketResearch offers a latest published report on Global Endometriosis Market industry analysis and forecast 20192025 delivering key insights and providing a competitive advantage to clients through a detailed report. This is a latest report, covering the current COVID-19 impact on the market. The pandemic of Coronavirus (COVID-19) has affected every aspect of life globally. This has brought along several changes in market conditions. The rapidly changing market scenario and initial and future assessment of the impact is covered in the report. The report contains XX pages which highly exhibits on current market analysis scenario, upcoming as well as future opportunities, revenue growth, pricing and profitability.

Endometriosis Market research report delivers a close watch on leading competitors with strategic analysis, micro and macro market trend and scenarios, pricing analysis and a holistic overview of the market situations in the forecast period. It is a professional and a detailed report focusing on primary and secondary drivers, market share, leading segments and geographical analysis. Further, key players, major collaborations, merger & acquisitions along with trending innovation and business policies are reviewed in the report. The report contains basic, secondary and advanced information pertaining to the Endometriosis global status and trend, market size, share, growth, trends analysis, segment and forecasts from 20192025.

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The Major Players Reported in the Market Include:AbbVieAstraZenecaBayer HealthCarePfizerAddex TherapeuticsAstellas PharmaDebiopharmElexoPharmEndoCeuticsEuroscreenForendo PharmaKissei PharmaceuticalNeurocrine BiosciencesNippon ShinyakuTakedaBayer AGNeurocrine Biosciences

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About UpMarketResearch:Up Market Research (https://www.upmarketresearch.com) is a leading distributor of market research report with more than 800+ global clients. As a market research company, we take pride in equipping our clients with insights and data that holds the power to truly make a difference to their business. Our mission is singular and well-defined we want to help our clients envisage their business environment so that they are able to make informed, strategic and therefore successful decisions for themselves.Contact Info UpMarketResearchName Alex MathewsEmail [emailprotected]Website https://www.upmarketresearch.comAddress 500 East E Street, Ontario, CA 91764, United States.

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Endometriosis Market Executive Summary, Introduction, Sizing, Analysis and Forecast To 2025 - 3rd Watch News

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

This is a Siamese fighting fish.

Betta fish opponents undergo similar brain changes that become more synchronized after longer fights.

When two betta fish are fighting for dominance, not only do their attacks mirror each other, but the gene expression in their brain cells also starts to align. The new findings, published June 17th in PLOS Genetics by Norihiro Okada of Kitasato University, Japan, may explain how the fish synchronize their fighting behavior.

The fighting fish Betta splendens is famous for its aggression, but opponents typically stop fighting after assessing the others abilities to avoid any serious injuries. The small freshwater fish is commonly used to study aggression in the lab, and it employs a handful of standard tactics like mouth-locking, bites, strikes, and swimming to the surface to gulp air. In the new study, researchers observed that during a fight, two male opponents modify their actions to match the aggressive behavior of the other, leading to tightly synchronized battles.

Furthermore, when the researchers analyzed the brains of both opponents, they observed that the fish also synchronized which genes were turned on or off in brain cells. The fighting pair had similar changes in gene activity related to learning, memory, synapse function and ion transport across cell membranes. The synchronization was specific to a fighting pair and became stronger after fighting for an hour compared to a 20-minute fight, suggesting that the degree of synchronization was driven by fighting interactions.

The new study takes a neurogenomic approach to the old question of how animals synchronize their behavior. Similar mirrored behaviors also occur during mating, foraging and cooperative hunting, and these behaviors may also trigger synchronized brain changes in the pairs of animals. One of my future plans is to elucidate what happens in the male-female interaction of fish on the molecular level, said author Norihiro Okada.

The findings suggest that even though the betta fish are fighting each other, sometimes to the death, their brains may be cooperating at the molecular level.

Reference: Behavioral and brain- transcriptomic synchronization between the two opponents of a fighting pair of the fish Betta splendens by Trieu-Duc Vu, Yuki Iwasaki, Shuji Shigenobu, Akiko Maruko, Kenshiro Oshima, Erica Iioka, Chao-Li Huang, Takashi Abe, Satoshi Tamaki, Yi-Wen Lin, Chih-Kuan Chen, Mei-Yeh Lu, Masaru Hojo, Hao-Ven Wang, Shun-Fen Tzeng, Hao-Jen Huang, Akio Kanai, Takashi Gojobori, Tzen-Yuh Chiang, H. Sunny Sun, Wen-Hsiung Li and Norihiro Okada, 17 June 2020, PLOS Genetics.DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1008831

See original here:
Fighting Fish Synchronize Their Combat Moves and Gene Expression Leading to Tightly Meshed Battles - SciTechDaily

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

In an interaction with ETHealthworld, Preetha Reddy, Vice Chairperson, Apollo Hospitals and President, NATHEALTH, discusses the need to prioritize healthcare by collaborative approach.

As the new president of NATHEALTH, what will be your key priorities in the coming months?Over the course of the next few months, our priorities will be to continue our work towards bringing everyone in the healthcare ecosystem, to a unified platform through integration, collaboration and re-imagination. The road ahead for NATHEALTH is to be a competency centre par excellence for public-private partnerships, nurturing the innovation ecosystem in healthcare and driving new programs to bring in Government support and expanding our aperture. With this vision in mind, NATHEALTH will focus its efforts to bring together all the stakeholders and build the national health agenda.

How important is the need for Government and the private sector engagement in the present times? How is NATHEALTH going to take this forward?The path to achieve a holistic goal of universal healthcare, hinges on collaboration where all the key industry stakeholders come together, deliberate, cooperate and work in tandem to bridge the vital gaps in service delivery. An equally important task is to establish a collaborative platform to coordinate national resilience in the present times, through value based public private partnerships.

As a unified ecosystem, we will sharpen our focus on thought leadership, create new markets and tech access, robust communication, transparency in governance and forge partnerships with smaller organizations and nursing associations, to take this movement forward.

What is urgently needed to revamp Indian healthcare today, in your opinion?It is essential to rebuild trust among key stakeholders, work towards making universal health coverage a fundamental right and creating value for healthcare services. We will make continued efforts to help people understand the valuable contributions that the private health sector makes in handling critical cases and saving countless lives. We need to establish a win-win proposition by fostering partnership models which address healthcare gaps and driving a dialogue that is based on mutual respect and capabilities.

What are the recommendations from NATHEALTH towards collaborative initiatives to address the impact of COVID 19? The healthcare sector is currently tackling the twin challenges of lower productivity due to systemic shock to earnings and major cash flow challenges at a time when COVID-19 needs the entire sector to be motivated and secured as a united front. We believe that the public and private sectors will need to work in partnership to ensure existing challenges are managed better in future and universal health coverage becomes a reality.

This pandemic has made us realize that as stakeholders, the hospitals, med-tech companies, pharma, IT, the medical academia and nursing councils have to join hands, chalk out a plan and work towards it collectively. Collaboration is the way forward.

There is also a need to lay the foundation for building the infrastructure and financial capability with an immediate action plan to tackle such large public health emergencies, now and in the future.

In view of the several challenges facing the private healthcare industry, how does NATHEALTH plan on addressing these issues?Our plan is to actively engage with our four key stakeholder groups: Policymakers, Partners, People and Members to encourage a collaborative approach in addressing these issues. We will work with policymakers to shape industry policies and forge new partnerships with State Governments. We plan to expand our membership base to new markets over the upcoming months to enable smaller and medium healthcare providers to become part of the federations ecosystem, and identify new operating models, technology and knowledge through our members.

Overall, I believe, in order to work towards sustainable healthcare, we have to look at increased public-private partnerships and look at ways to bring the Government, academia and industry together. It is important for us as a nation to prioritize healthcare, bring in increased health investments, scale up medical education and leverage technology to establish much more health infrastructure.

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We need to establish a win-win proposition by fostering partnership models to address healthcare gaps : Pree.. - ETHealthworld.com

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

This research report based on Male Breast Cancer Treatment market and available with Market Study Report, LLC, includes latest and upcoming industry trends in addition to the global spectrum of the Male Breast Cancer Treatment market that includes numerous regions. Likewise, the report also expands on intricate details pertaining to contributions by key players, demand and supply analysis as well as market share growth of the Male Breast Cancer Treatment industry.

Male breast cancer (male breast neoplasm) is a rare cancer in males that originates from the breast. Many males with breast cancer have inherited a BRCA mutation, but there are other causes, including alcohol abuse and exposure to certain hormones and ionizing radiation.

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The latest report on the Male Breast Cancer Treatment market contains a detailed analysis of this marketplace and entails information about various industry segmentations. According to the report, the market is presumed to amass substantial revenue by the end of the forecast duration while expanding at decent growth rate.

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The Male Breast Cancer Treatment market with respect to the geographical terrain:

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Table of Contents:

Executive Summary: It includes key trends of the Male Breast Cancer Treatment market share related to products, applications, and other crucial factors. It also provides analysis of the competitive landscape and CAGR and market size of the Male Breast Cancer Treatment market based on production and revenue.

Production and Consumption by Region: It covers all regional markets to which the research study relates. Prices and key players in addition to production and consumption in each regional market are discussed.

Key Players: Here, the report throws light on financial ratios, pricing structure, production cost, gross profit, sales volume, revenue, and gross margin of leading and prominent companies competing in the Male Breast Cancer Treatment market.

Market Segments: This part of the report discusses about product type and application segments of the Male Breast Cancer Treatment market based on market share, CAGR, market size, and various other factors.

Research Methodology: This section discusses about the research methodology and approach used to prepare the report. It covers data triangulation, market breakdown, market size estimation, and research design and/or programs.

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Some of the Major Highlights of TOC covers:

Male Breast Cancer Treatment Regional Market Analysis

Male Breast Cancer Treatment Segment Market Analysis (by Type)

Male Breast Cancer Treatment Segment Market Analysis (by Application)

Male Breast Cancer Treatment Major Manufacturers Analysis

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Male Breast Cancer Treatment Market Size : Technological Advancement and Growth Analysis with Forecast to 2025 - Cole of Duty

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These stories have nothing in common other than that they are fascinating examples of the way animals have evolved to suit their environments and lifestyles.

Researchers say they have discovered how Tibetan antelopes are able to run hard and fast despite living at altitude, and why Siamese fighting fish fight like they do.

In the first case, its a bit about staying young.

A study published in the journal Science Advances suggests that Pantholops hodgsonii has overcome oxygen deprivation on the high-altitude Tibetan Plateau through an unusual adaptation in which it permanently expresses a form of haemoglobin that other members of the cattle family only express as juveniles, or when under extreme oxygen deprivation.

Through a comparative genomic analysis with other bovids, Anthony Signore and Jay Storz from the University of Nebraska, US, found that the region that encodes for the adult form of haemoglobin was deleted in the antelopes ancestor, causing the juvenile form of the protein, which has a higher oxygen affinity, to take its place in adult red blood cells.

In other words, they say, a reversible response to oxygen deprivation previously documented in adult goats and sheep became a permanent genetic fixture in a mammal that is native to a region that ranges between 3600 and 5500 metres above sea level.

Through in vitro experiments, they confirmed that the antelopes haemoglobin does have a much higher oxygen affinity than that of all other bovids, perhaps explaining how it can run at 70 kilometres an hour over great distances, at altitudes where the partial pressure of oxygen is roughly half that at sea level.

In the second study, published in the journal PLOS Genetics, researchers from Japan, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia and the US reveal that when Siamese fighting fish are fighting, the gene expression in their brain cells starts to align.

Betta splendens is famous for its aggression, but male opponents modify their actions to match each others behaviour leading to tightly synchronised battles and typically stop fighting after assessing the others abilities to avoid any serious injuries, the researchers say.

When they analysed their brains, they observed that the opponents had similar changes in gene activity related to learning, memory, synapse function and ion transport across cell membranes.

This was specific to a fighting pair and became stronger after fighting for an hour, compared to 20 minutes, suggesting the degree of synchronisation is driven by fighting interactions.

Similar mirrored behaviours occur during mating, foraging and cooperative hunting, and these may also trigger synchronised brain changes in the pairs of animals.

One of my future plans is to elucidate what happens in the male-female interaction of fish on the molecular level, says lead author Norihiro Okada, from Kitasato University, Japan.

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Aerobic antelopes and synchronised fish - Cosmos

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19 June 2020

The findings, published in the Journal of Public Health, suggest that the relationship between COVID-19 infection and ethnicity is complex, and requires more dedicated research to explain the factors driving these patterns.

Growing international reports highlight higher risk of adverse COVID-19 infection in BAME populations. The underlying cause of this ethnicity disease pattern is not known. Variation in cardiovascular disease risk, vitamin D levels, socio-economic, and behavioural factors have been proposed as possible explanations. However, these hypotheses have not been formally studied in existing work.

Investigators from Queen Mary, in collaboration with the Medical Research Council Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit at the University of Southampton, used the comprehensive and unique UK Biobank cohort of over half a million people to investigate the role of a range of socioeconomic, biological, and behavioural factors in determining the ethnicity pattern of severe COVID-19. The dataset included 4,510 UK Biobank participants who were tested for COVID-19 in a hospital setting, of whom 1,326 had a positive test result.

The results demonstrate that BAME ethnicity, male sex, higher body mass index, greater material deprivation, and household overcrowding are independent risk factors for COVID-19. The higher rates of severe COVID-19 in BAME populations was not adequately explained by variations in cardiovascular disease risk, vitamin D levels, socio-economic, or behavioural factors, suggesting that other factors not included in the analysis might underlie these differences.

Dr Zahra Raisi-Estabragh, BHF Clinical Research Training Fellow at Queen Mary University of London, led the analysis. She said: There is increasing concern over the higher rate of poor COVID-19 outcomes in BAME populations. Understanding potential drivers of this relationship is urgently needed to inform public health and research efforts. This work goes some way in addressing some of these pertinent questions.

Steffen Petersen, Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at Queen Mary University of London, who supervised the work added: The results of this analysis suggest that factors which underlie ethnic differences in COVID-19 may not be easily captured. In addition to assessment of the role of biological considerations such as genetics, approaches which more comprehensively assess the complex economic and sociobehavioural differences should now be a priority.

Nicholas Harvey, Professor of Rheumatology and Clinical Epidemiology at the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, University of Southampton, was a key collaborator in the work. He comments: The detailed participant characterisation in the UK Biobank and the rapid linkage of this data with COVID-19 test results from Public Health England permitted consideration of potential importance of a wide range of exposures.

The work was also supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) through the Barts Biomedical Research Centre, NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre, and NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre.

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SMD - Higher rates of severe COVID-19 in BAME populations remain unexplained - QMUL

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Genetically modified mosquitoes with the ability to prevent other mosquitoes from spreading deadly diseases may be making their way to Florida backyards in the near future.

British biotech group Oxitec announced on Tuesday that the company had won both federal and state approval to release its so-called Friendly mosquitoes in the U.S. on an experimental trial basis, expected to last until 2022, according to documents provided by the Environmental Protection Agency. The insects will first be released in Monroe County, Florida, and Oxitec has plans to also bring them to Harris County, Texas.

Oxitecs project involvesAedes aegypti, the mosquito that spreads yellow fever, dengue fever and Zika, among other diseases. While femaleAedes aegyptifeed on blood and are the transmitters of such illnesses, maleAedes aegypti are harmless, and Oxitecs Friendly mosquitoes are males who have been altered to carry a specificself-limiting gene, according to a description on the companys website. This gene will reduce the lifespan of any female offspring they might foster, but will live on in males, offering ... self-limiting generations of suppression that can lower the generalAedes aegypti population over time, theoretically leading to a decrease in the diseases that the insects are known for.

There is broad consensus amongst public health officials in the U.S. that a new generation of safe, targeted and cost-effective vector control tools are needed urgently to combat the growing threat posed by Aedes aegypti without impacting the ecosystem, Grey Frandsen, Oxitec CEO, said in the companys announcement. Were pleased that the EPA and Florida state regulators have, after extensive scientific reviews, approved our demonstration trials and we look forward to continuing the collaboration with our local partners as they take up the matter.

This novel method of mosquito population control was recently tested in the municipality of Indaiatuba, near So Paulo, Brazil, from May 2018 to 2019. In one of the tested communities, Oxitec observed that the genetically modified mosquitoes managed to suppress the population of Aedes aegyptiup to 96% within a four-week period.

Oxitecs work in mosquito genetics is not without controversy, and the company has targeted Florida as a testing ground for nearly a decade. AChange.org petition urging the EPA to reject the companys proposals, originally posted online in 2012, has received over 230,000 signatures, and the EPA is facingpre-litigation from advocacy groups, including the Center for Food Safety and Friends of the Earth U.S., for approving Oxitecs latest proposal.

Jaydee Hanson, policy director for the Center for Food Safety, called the mosquito project a Jurassic Park experiment in a statement. Hanson argued that by not carrying out in-depth consultations with local wildlife agencies before allowing Oxitec free rein with its insects, the EPA had unlawfully refused to seriously analyze environmental risks.

The Florida Keys and Houston and the surrounding communities are home to some of the most diverse and threatened species in our country, Dana Perls, food and technology program manager of Friends of the Earth U.S., echoed in the same statement. Once again, the Trump administration is callously disregarding scientific experts and the will of communities to force this risky experiment through.

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Genetically Modified Mosquitoes Approved For Insect Population Control In The U.S. - HuffPost

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The Global Direct-To-Consumer (DTC) Genetic Testing Market was $1.1 Bn in 2019, and it is expected to reach $2.7 Bn by 2026.

This press release was orginally distributed by SBWire

Kolkata, West Bengal -- (SBWIRE) -- 06/18/2020 -- According to a new market research report published by sheer analytics and insights, "The Global Direct-To-Consumer (DTC) Genetic Testing Market was $1.1 Bn in 2019, and it is expected to reach $2.7 Bn by 2026. It is eventually growing at a commendable high compound of annual growth rate CAGR of 13.5% between 2020-2026. However, the current pandemic of COVID-19 might make a slight difference in the growth rate in the present year. The Direct-To-Consumer (DTC) Genetic Testing Market are majorly driven by some of the factors such as rising genetic disorders globally. Increasing genetic diseases such as breast cancer, achondroplasia, colorectal cancer and other diseases is expected to propel the market growth rapidly. Further, high quality DTC genetic testing can significantly reduce the mortality rates of cancer patients. This significant benefit of DTC genetic testing along with rising public awareness, increasing income level in emerging economies, and rising demand for service personalization may propel the Direct-To-Consumer (DTC) Genetic Testing Market in the forecast period.

Direct-To-Consumer (DTC) Genetic Testing Market is expected to provide sustainable growth opportunities during the forecast period from 2020 to 2026. This latest industry research study analyzes the Direct-To-Consumer (DTC) Genetic Testing market by various product segments, applications, regions and countries while assessing regional performances of numerous leading market participants.

Browse Full report on Global Direct-To-Consumer (DTC) Genetic Testing Market report at https://www.sheeranalyticsandinsights.com/market-report-research/direct-to-consumer-dtc-genetic-testing-market-21

The report titled "Direct-To-Consumer (DTC) Genetic Testing Market - Global Trends, Market Share, Industry Size, Growth, Opportunities, and Forecast 2020 2026" offers a holistic view of the Direct-To-Consumer (DTC) Genetic Testing industry encompassing numerous stakeholders including raw material suppliers, providers, distributors, consumers and government agencies, among others. Furthermore, the report includes detailed quantitative and qualitative analysis of the global Direct-To-Consumer (DTC) Genetic Testing market considering market history, product development, regional dynamics, competitive landscape, and key success factors (KSFs) in the industry.

The report includes a deep-dive analysis of key countries including the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Germany, France, China, Japan, India, Australia, Mexico, Brazil and South Africa, among others. Thereby, the report identifies unique growth opportunities across the world based on trends occurring in various developed and developing economies.

Global Direct-To-Consumer (DTC) Genetic Testing Market report summarizes the positive growth rate in upcoming years, and market size with competitive analysis. Our experts have analyzed the historical data to compare with the current market scenario to calculate the market growth in the coming years. The study provides an exhaustive report that includes an executive summary, scope, and forecast of the market.

Key Questions Answered by Direct-To-Consumer (DTC) Genetic Testing Market Report

Product popularity and adoption based on various country-level dynamicsRegional presence and product development for leading market participantsMarket forecasts and trend analysis based on ongoing investments and economic growth in key countriesCompetitive landscape based on revenue, product offerings, years of presence, number of employees and market concentration, among others

Number of employees and market concentration, among others

Browse the full report at https://www.sheeranalyticsandinsights.com/market-report-research/direct-to-consumer-dtc-genetic-testing-market-21

List of Key Companies:

Ancestry,Color Genomics,Easy DNA,FamilytreeDNA (Gene By Gene),Full Genome Corporation,Helix OpCo LLC,Identigene,Karmagenes,Living DNA,Mapmygenome,MyHeritage,Pathway genomics,Genesis Healthcare,23andMe,Myriad Genetics, andQuest Diagnostics.

The Global Direct-To-Consumer (DTC) Genetic Testing Market Has Been Segmented into:

By Test Type

Carrier TestingNutrigenomic TestingAncestry & Relationship TestingPredictive TestingOthers

By Technology

Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) ChipsWhole Genome Sequencing (WGS)Targeted Analysis

By Distribution Channel

Online PlatformsOver the Counter

By Geography Type

North AmericaEuropeAsia PacificLatin AmericaMiddle East and Africa

To know more about this study, request a free sample report @ https://www.sheeranalyticsandinsights.com/request-sample/direct-to-consumer-dtc-genetic-testing-market-21

About Us:

Sheer Analytics and Insights as firm is created to balance between client requirements without compromising the core values of Market research in terms of quality, factual correctness, market awareness and analysis. SAI goes back to the root of Market Research in terms of TAM (Total Available Market) and PAM (Potential Available Market) and assess the same quantifying all Push and Pull factors.

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For more information on this press release visit: http://www.sbwire.com/press-releases/direct-to-consumer-dtc-genetic-testing-market-135-cagr-2020-to-2026-global-industry-size-share-growth-trends-and-forecast-1294473.htm

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Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) Genetic Testing Market (13.5% CAGR) 2020 to 2026: Global Industry Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast - Press Release -...

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

HealthCoronavirusUniversity researchers are asking for people who have used home DNA testing kits to share their results in a bid to see if there is any genetic reason why some people suffer from Coronavirus worse than others.

Monday, 15th June 2020, 12:01 am

Data from popular home genetic-testing kits could help scientists shed light on why some people who catch coronavirus have no symptoms while others become very ill.

Researchers are asking people who have used DNA testing services such as Ancestry DNA, FTDNA and 23andMe to gain ancestry or health insights to join a study that aims to identify key genes involved in the bodys response to the infection.

Understanding the effect genes have on susceptibility to Covid-19 could aid efforts to tackle the pandemic, and help combat future disease outbreaks, researchers say.

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More than 30 million people worldwide have used genetic testing services. Researchers are urging them to share their DNA data to help speed up discoveries that could help fight the virus.

By providing these data, volunteers will help the team avoid the costly, time-consuming task of collecting the hundreds of thousands of DNA samples that would otherwise be needed to map the genes involved.

Volunteers who have not used these services will also be able to provide the project with DNA, once current lockdown restrictions have been eased.

The team aims to identify genes that influence the risk of developing Covid-19 and those that affect disease severity, by comparing volunteers symptoms or lack of them with their DNA.

Those taking part in the University of Edinburgh study called Coronagenes will complete online questionnaires about their health, lifestyle and any symptoms they have experienced, such as fever or a persistent cough.

Updating the survey before, during and after an infection will help scientists detect any patterns that might indicate how the virus progresses.

Researchers also aim to analyse the long-term health consequences of infection and self-isolation.

The study is supported by the Medical Research Council, Biotechnology and Biological Science Research Council, Health Data Research UK and Wellcome Trust.

Jim Wilson, Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Edinburgh, who is co-leading the study, said: Some people suffer no ill effects from coronavirus infection, yet others require intensive care. We need to identify the genes causing this susceptibility, so we can understand the biology of the virus and hence develop better drugs to fight it.

Albert Tenesa, Professor of Quantitative Genetics at the University of Edinburgh, also co-leading, said: Time is of the essence. To identify the genes that explain why some people get very sick from coronavirus and others dont, we need the solidarity of a large proportion of people from different countries who can share their DNA testing results with us. In this case, size really matters.

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Home DNA kit test results to be used in fight against Coronavirus - The Scotsman

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Geneticist Dr. Kat Arney explores the stories of two women one a scientist fascinated by dancing mice, the other a seamstress with a deadly family legacy who made significant contributions to our understanding of cancer as a disease driven by genetic changes. Yet while their work paved the way for lifesaving screening programs for families, it was used by some as justification for eugenics the idea of removing genetic defectives from the population.

Born in Minnesota in 1879, Maud Slye was a cancer pathologist who dedicated her career to studying patterns of cancer inheritance in more than 150,000 mice. But as well as being a dedicated scientist (as well as a part-time poet), she was also wedded to eugenic ideas, suggesting that If we had records for human beings comparable to those for mice, we could stamp out cancer in a generation. At present, we take no account at all of the laws of heredity in the making of human young. Do not worry about romance. Romance will take care of itself. But knowledge can be applied even to romance.

While her ideas were controversial, Slyes work earned her a gold medal from the American Medical Society in 1914 and from the American Radiological Association in 1922. She was also awarded the Ricketts Prize from the University of Chicago in 1915 and an honorary doctorate from Brown University in 1937. She was even nominated for a Nobel prize in 1923.

Over the decades since Slyes death in 1954, weve come to understand that the hereditary aspects of cancer susceptibility are much more complicated than she originally suggested, although her work was vital in establishing inherited gene variations as an essential thread of cancer research.

Running parallel to Slyes work in mice was the research carried out by Aldred Warthin, a doctor working at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. One day in 1895, a chance meeting between Warthin and a local seamstress, Pauline Gross, set the two of them off on a 25-year-long quest to understand why so many members of Paulines family had died from cancer at a young age.

Pauline spent years compiling detailed family histories, enabling Warthin to trace the pattern of inheritance through Family G, as it became known. Like Slye, Warthin was a fan of eugenic ideas, describing Paulines family as an example of progressive degenerative inheritance the running-out of a family line through the gradual development of an inferior stock.

He was also quoted as saying in a 1922 lecture: Today it is recognized that all men are not born equal. We are not equal so far as the value of our bodily cells is concerned.

Perhaps as a direct result of growing public concern about eugenics, Warthins work fell out of favor. Paulines detailed genealogy lay undisturbed in a closet in the university until the 1960s, when American doctor Henry Lynch and social worker Anne Krush rediscovered her work and continued extending and investigating Family G.

Nearly a decade on from that first meeting between Pauline and Warthin, researchers finally pinned down the underlying genetic cause of this deadly legacy: an inherited variant of the MSH2 gene, which normally repairs mismatched DNA strands. Today, members of Family G and others around the world carrying dangerous variants in mismatch repair genes can undergo genetic testing, with a range of preventative and screening options available.

The story of Pauline and Family G, and the impact that their genetic legacy has had on the family down the generations, is beautifully told in the book Daughter of Family G, a memoir by Ami McKay.

Full transcript, links and references available online atGeneticsUnzipped.com

Genetics Unzippedis the podcast from the UKGenetics Society,presented by award-winning science communicator and biologistKat Arneyand produced byFirst Create the Media.Follow Kat on Twitter@Kat_Arney,Genetics Unzipped@geneticsunzip,and the Genetics Society at@GenSocUK

Listen to Genetics Unzipped onApple Podcasts(iTunes)Google Play,Spotify,orwherever you get your podcasts

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Podcast: The dark connection between cancer research and the eugenics movement - Genetic Literacy Project

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Many factors like age and comorbidities have been studied to help us better understand Covid-19 and peoples susceptibility to its severity and now your blood type could be another factor that could influence your interaction with the coronavirus.

Private genetic testing company 23andME from the US have released some preliminary data from their ongoing genetic study on Covid-19, which they launched on 6 April.

It aims to find out if the ABO blood group can play a direct role in infections by serving as a receptor, or coreceptor for microorganisms, parasites, and viruses.

READ: Top WHO official backtracks on comments that asymptomatic spread of Covid-19 virus is 'rare'

From the data of 750 000 participants so far mostly customers from their existing database they have gleaned that type O blood appears to be more protective against contracting the virus and severe symptoms than other blood types.

People with this blood type appear to be 9 to 18% less likely to test positive for Covid-19. They created another sample set limited to only those with high exposure to the virus like medical practitioners and essential workers and found those with type O blood to be 13 to 26% less likely to contract the virus.

They add that their data holds even when taking into account other factors like age, sex, body mass index, ethnicity, and comorbidities.

ALSO READ: Are people with blood type A more vulnerable to contracting the new coronavirus?

While one study from Columbia University which hasnt been peer-reviewed yet did demonstrate that only O-positive blood types seem to show resilience to Covid-19. 23andMes results dont indicate any difference between rhesus positive and negative blood types.

But is any blood type more susceptible to the virus? The preliminary data did show that most people who tested positive had type AB blood, but the difference compared to other blood types was statistically inconsequential.

There have been more studies focusing on the link between blood types and the coronavirus. A joint limited study from Chinese universities involving 2 173 patients found similar results regarding blood type O, and found that type A blood group was most susceptible. Another study from Europe that looked at Spanish and Italian patients also found blood type O to be more protective, and that A-positive people had a higher risk.

Both studies still need to be peer-reviewed.

SEE: Covid-19 patients with high blood pressure face higher risk of death, study says

The 23andMe study, however, is still ongoing, and they are currently looking for more US-residing participants outside of their customer database that have tested positive for Covid-19. In return, they will get free access to the companys genetic reports.

The study and recruitment are ongoing, with the hope that we can use our research platform to better understand differences in how people respond to the virus. Ultimately, we hope to publish our research findings in order to provide more insight into Covid-19 for the scientific community.

Image credit: Pixabay

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One blood type seems to be more resistant against Covid-19 - Health24

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

This high-end research comprehension on the Global CRISPR Technology Market renders major impetus on detailed growth facets, in terms of product section, payment and transaction platforms, further incorporating service portfolio, applications, as well as a specific compilation on technological interventions that facilitate ideal growth potential of the market.

The report is so designed as to direct concrete headways in identifying and deciphering each of the market dimensions to evaluate logical derivatives which have the potential to set the growth course in the aforementioned CRISPR Technology market. Besides presenting notable insights on market factors comprising above determinants, this specific, innately crafted research report offering further in its subsequent sections states information on regional segmentation, as well as thoughtful perspectives on specific understanding comprising region specific developments as well as leading market players objectives to trigger maximum revenue generation and profits.

This study covers following key players:Thermo Fisher ScientificMerck KGaAGenScriptIntegrated DNA Technologies (IDT)Horizon Discovery GroupAgilent TechnologiesCellectaGeneCopoeiaNew England BiolabsOrigene TechnologiesSynthego CorporationToolgen

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This illustrative research report on the CRISPR Technology market is an all-in-one, ready to use handbook of market dynamics that upon mindful inference lends valuable insights on market developments, growth trajectory, dominant trends as well as technological sophistication as well as segment expansion and competition spectrum that have a strong bearing on the growth probabilities of the CRISPR Technology market.

This particular section of the CRISPR Technology market report specifically stresses upon various indigenous tactical discretion that eventually contributed towards soliciting heralding market consolidation, impeccable stability and sustainable revenue pools, the ultimate touchstone to judge the potency of the CRISPR Technology market.

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Market segment by Type, the product can be split into EnzymesKitsgRNALibrariesDesign Tools

Market segment by Application, split into BiomedicalAgricultural

The report further unveils pertinent details about segment contribution in coining ample revenue flow, sustainability and long term growth in global CRISPR Technology market. A thorough knowledge base of market facets remains integral and indispensable to decode CRISPR Technology market prognosis. This recent research compilation on the CRISPR Technology market presents a deep analytical review and a concise presentation of ongoing market trends that collectively inculcate a strong influence on the growth trajectory of the aforementioned CRISPR Technology market.

The report sheds light on the particular segment that sets revenue maximization, rolling, thus incurring steady growth in revenues and contributing towards steady sustenance of the CRISPR Technology market. This well versedreport is thoughtfully crafted to arm report readers with convincing market insights on the mettle of all aforementioned factors that propel relentless growth despite significant bottlenecks in the CRISPR Technology market.

Some Major TOC Points:1 Report Overview2 Global Growth Trends3 Market Share by Key Players4 Breakdown Data by Type and ApplicationContinued

In addition to all of the above stated inputs, discussed at length in the report, the report sheds tangible light on dynamic segmentation based on which the market has been systematically split into prominent segments inclusive of type, end use technology, as well as region specific diversification of the CRISPR Technology market to encourage highly remunerative business discretion.

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Global CRISPR Technology Market Expanding Rapidly with Forecast 2025 and Top Players : Thermo Fisher Scientific, Merck KGaA, GenScript, Integrated DNA...

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

BERKELEY, Calif. Great partnerships depend on a rare combination of shared vision, mutual trust, and complementary skillsets. Scientists from Stanford University and Berkeley Labs Molecular Foundry may have found just that in a newly formed collaboration. Since March, research teams from these two institutions have been developing a new therapeutic that uses CRISPR technology in combination with a novel lipitoid delivery system to fight COVID-19 and other RNA viruses.

Last year, Stanley Qi, an assistant professor in the departments of bioengineering, and chemical and systems biology at Stanford, along with his team pioneered a new technology called prophylactic antiviral CRISPR in human cells, or PAC-MAN. Their efforts were initially focused on developing PAC-MAN as a strategy for targeting and destroying influenzain humans. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in January, they abruptly pivoted their research to adapt the technology for SARS-CoV-2.

PAC-MAN is based on the popular gene-editing tool, CRISPR, which has revolutionized modern medicine. The technology allows for unprecedented control over gene expression in many species, including humans. At its core, CRISPR is a technique for finding a specific sequence of DNA inside a cell and then altering or deleting it.

The process involves two components: an enzyme (Cas protein) that cuts through genetic material; and a piece of RNA that is used as a guide to direct Cas protein to the targeted gene sequence. PAC-MAN uses a specific version of the Cas protein, called Cas13, which slices through RNA such as that which makes up the genomes of viruses like influenza and SARS-CoV-2.

In a paper published in the journalCell, Qi and his team demonstrate that their PAC-MAN strategy can effectively degrade RNA from SARS-CoV-2 sequences and live influenza A virus in human lung cells. Notably, the authors perform bioinformatics analyses that suggested a group of only six guide RNAs can target more than 90% of all coronaviruses, giving PAC-MAN the potential to become a pan-coronavirus inhibition strategy.

There was one problem. For PAC-MAN to be effective in patients, particularly as an anti-COVID-19 therapy, it needs to be able to be delivered into lung cells. But my lab doesnt work on delivery methods, Qi explains in a media release.

Enter Michael Connolly, a principal scientific engineer associate in the Biological Nanostructures Facility at the Molecular Foundry. His work on synthetic molecules called lipitoidsprovides a possible solution to the delivery issue with PAC-MAN. Lipitoids were first developed 20 years ago by Connollys mentor, Ron Zuckermann, and have since been widely studied for potential therapeutic applications. They are nontoxic to humans and can facilitate entry of RNA or DNA into cells by encapsulating them into tiny nanoparticles, a seemingly perfect delivery system for the PAC-MAN technology.

Berkeley Labs Molecular Foundry has provided us with a molecular treasure that transformed our research, Qi says.

In late April, the PAC-MAN/lipitoid system had its first test run in a sample of human lung cells. According to Qi, this approach reduced the amount of synthetic SARS-CoV-2 by greater than 90%. As an immediate next step to validate their technique, the team is collaborating with researchers at New York University and Karolinska Institute in Sweden. There, researchers are conducting animal trials with live SARS-CoV-2 infection. If successful, they hope to further develop the PAC-MAN/lipitoid system as a therapy against other viruses.

An effective lipitoid delivery, coupled with CRISPR targeting, could enable a very powerful strategy for fighting viral disease not only against COVID-19, but possibly against newly viral strains with pandemic potential, says Connolly.

One of the silver linings to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic is how the scientific community has banded together to focus urgently on one topic. The joint effort of researchers from Stanford University and Berkeley Labs Molecular Foundry is an archetype of that collaborative spirit. As Qi notes, Its very rewarding to combine expertise and test new ideas across institutions in these difficult times.

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PAC-MAN to the Rescue: CRISPR-Based Tech on Cutting Edge of COVID-19 Therapeutics - Study Finds

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Rising government funding and increase in the number of genomic projects, especially in the area of rare diseases, and a growing application horizon are all expected to drive the growth of the genome editing/genome engineering market.

New York, June 18, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Genome Editing/Genome Engineering Market by Technology, Product & Service, Application, End-User and Region - Global Forecast to 2025" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05220258/?utm_source=GNW

The global genome editing/genome engineering market is projected to reach USD 11.2 billion in 2025 from USD 5.1 billion in 2020, at a CAGR of 17.0 % during the forecast period. Market growth is largely driven by factors such as the rise in government funding, growth in the number of genomics projects, high prevalence of infectious diseases & cancer, technological advancements, increasing production of genetically modified crops, and growing application areas of genomics. However, the high cost of genomic equipment will restrain the growth of this market.

CRISPR commanded the largest share of the market in 2019.Based on technology, the market is segmented into CRISPR, TALEN, ZFN, antisense, and other technologies.CRISPR accounted for the largest share of the genome editing/genome engineering market in 2019.

The large share of this segment can be attributed to the ease of use associated with the CRISPR technology and its ability to multiplex.

Pharmaceutical companies commanded the largest share of the genome editing/genome engineering market in 2019.By end user, the genome editing/genome engineering market is segmented into pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, and academic & government research institutes.The pharmaceutical companies segment accounted for the largest share of the market.

The pharmaceutical companies segment accounted for the largest share of the genome editing/genome engineering market in 2019. This is due to the increasing prevalence of infectious diseases and cancer, which is driving research in the pharma sector for drug development.

The Asia Pacific region will register the highest growth in the global genome editing/genome engineering market during the forecast period.The Asia Pacific is estimated to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. Factors such as the rapid growth in the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industry, the rising number of genomic projects, and the presence of a genetically diverse population have supported the regions high growth rate.

In-depth interviews were conducted with chief executive officers (CEOs), marketing directors, other directors, and executives from various key organizations operating in the genome editing/genome engineering market. By Respondent Type: Supply Side (80%) and Demand Side (20%) By Designation: D-level (55%), C-level (20%), and Others (25%) By Region: North America (50%), Europe (20%), Asia Pacific (20%), and RoW (10%)

The major companies in the genome editing/genome engineering market include Thermo Fisher Scientific (US), Merck (Germany), Horizon Discovery Limited (UK), Lonza (Switzerland), GenScript (US), Eurofins Scientific (Luxembourg), and Sangamo Therapeutics (US).The study includes an in-depth competitive analysis of these key players in the genome editing/genome engineering market, along with their company profiles, recent developments, and key market strategies.

Research Coverage:The market study covers the genome editing/genome engineering market across various segments.It aims at estimating the market size and the growth potential of this market across different segments, such as products, technology, and region.

The study also includes an in-depth competitive analysis of the key players in the market, along with their company profiles, key observations related to their product and business offerings, recent developments, and key market strategies.

Key Benefits of Buying the Report:The report will help market leaders/new entrants in this market and provide information on the closest approximations of the revenue numbers for the overall genome editing/genome engineering market and its subsegments.This report will help stakeholders to understand the competitive landscape, gain insights to better position their businesses, and plan suitable go-to-market strategies.

The report will also help stakeholders to understand the pulse of the market and provide information on the key market drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges.Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05220258/?utm_source=GNW

About ReportlinkerReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.

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The global genome editing/genome engineering market is projected to reach USD 11.2 billion in 2025 from USD 5.1 billion in 2020, at a CAGR of 17.0 % -...

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

CRISPR Technology Market Research Report provides customers with a complete analytical study that provides all the details of key players such as company profile, product portfolio, capacity, price, cost and revenue during the forecast period from 2020 to 2027. A CRISPR Technology market that includes Future Trends, Current Growth Factors, Meticulous Opinions, Facts, Historical Data and Statistically Supported And Industry-Validated Market Data.

This CRISPR Technology market research provides a clear explanation of how this market will make a growth impression during the mentioned period. This study report scanned specific data for specific characteristics such as Type, Size, Application and End User. There are basic segments included in the segmentation analysis that are the result of SWOT analysis and PESTEL analysis.

RequestSample PDF of CRISPR Technology Market Report https://www.worldwidemarketreports.com/sample/254147

Thermo Fisher Scientific, Merck KGaA, GenScript, Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT), Horizon Discovery Group, Agilent Technologies, Cellecta Inc., GeneCopoeia Inc., New England Biolabs, Origene Technologies Inc are some of the major organizations dominating the global market.

(*Note: Other Players Can be Added per Request)

Key players in the CRISPR Technology market were identified through a second survey, and market share was determined through a first and second survey. All measurement sharing, splitting and analysis were solved using a secondary source and a validated primary source. The CRISPR Technology market report starts with a basic overview of the Industry Life Cycle, Definitions, Classifications, Applications, and Industry Chain Structure. The combination of these two factors will help key players meet the market reach and help to understand offered characteristics and customer needs.

The report also makes some important suggestions for the new CRISPR Technology market project before evaluating its feasibility. Overall, this report covers CRISPR Technology market Sales, Price, Sales, Gross Profit, Historical Growth and Future Prospects. It provides facts related to mergers, acquisitions, partnerships and joint venture activities prevalent in the market.

This report includes market size estimates of value (million US $) and volume (K MT). The top-down and bottom-up approaches are used to estimate and validate the market size of the CRISPR Technology market, estimating the size of various other submarkets in the overall market. Major players in the market were identified through secondary studies, and market share was determined through primary and secondary studies. All ratio sharing, splitting and analysis were determined using the secondary source and the identified primary source.

What CRISPR Technology Market report offers:

Regions Covered in This Report

Complete knowledge of the CRISPR Technology market is based on the latest industry news, opportunities and trends in the expected region. The CRISPR Technology market research report provides clear insights into the influential factors expected to change the global market in the near future.

Remarkable Attributes of CRISPR Technology Market Report:

About WMR

Worldwide Market Reports is your one-stop repository of detailed and in-depth market research reports compiled by an extensive list of publishers from across the globe. We offer reports across virtually all domains and an exhaustive list of sub-domains under the sun. The in-depth market analysis by some of the most vastly experienced analysts provide our diverse range of clients from across all industries with vital decision making insights to plan and align their market strategies in line with current market trends.

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Know About CRISPR Technology Market: How COVID 19 is Reshaping the Industry: Thermo Fisher Scientific, Merck KGaA, GenScript - Cole of Duty

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Gene Therapies Market Research Report provides customers with a complete analytical study that provides all the details of key players such as company profile, product portfolio, capacity, price, cost and revenue during the forecast period from 2020 to 2027. A Gene Therapies market that includes Future Trends, Current Growth Factors, Meticulous Opinions, Facts, Historical Data and Statistically Supported And Industry-Validated Market Data.

This Gene Therapies market research provides a clear explanation of how this market will make a growth impression during the mentioned period. This study report scanned specific data for specific characteristics such as Type, Size, Application and End User. There are basic segments included in the segmentation analysis that are the result of SWOT analysis and PESTEL analysis.

RequestSample PDF of Gene Therapies Market Report https://www.worldwidemarketreports.com/sample/179400

Adaptimmune Therapeutics Plc., Celgene Corporation, Crispr Therapeutics Ag, Glaxosmithkline Plc, Intellia Therapeutics Inc., Merck & Co. Inc., Novartis Ag, Regenxbio Inc., Voyager Therapeutics Inc., Abeona Therapeutics Inc. are some of the major organizations dominating the global market.

(*Note: Other Players Can be Added per Request)

Key players in the Gene Therapies market were identified through a second survey, and market share was determined through a first and second survey. All measurement sharing, splitting and analysis were solved using a secondary source and a validated primary source. The Gene Therapies market report starts with a basic overview of the Industry Life Cycle, Definitions, Classifications, Applications, and Industry Chain Structure. The combination of these two factors will help key players meet the market reach and help to understand offered characteristics and customer needs.

The report also makes some important suggestions for the new Gene Therapies market project before evaluating its feasibility. Overall, this report covers Gene Therapies market Sales, Price, Sales, Gross Profit, Historical Growth and Future Prospects. It provides facts related to mergers, acquisitions, partnerships and joint venture activities prevalent in the market.

This report includes market size estimates of value (million US $) and volume (K MT). The top-down and bottom-up approaches are used to estimate and validate the market size of the Gene Therapies market, estimating the size of various other submarkets in the overall market. Major players in the market were identified through secondary studies, and market share was determined through primary and secondary studies. All ratio sharing, splitting and analysis were determined using the secondary source and the identified primary source.

What Gene Therapies Market report offers:

Regions Covered in This Report

Complete knowledge of the Gene Therapies market is based on the latest industry news, opportunities and trends in the expected region. The Gene Therapies market research report provides clear insights into the influential factors expected to change the global market in the near future.

Remarkable Attributes of Gene Therapies Market Report:

About WMR

Worldwide Market Reports is your one-stop repository of detailed and in-depth market research reports compiled by an extensive list of publishers from across the globe. We offer reports across virtually all domains and an exhaustive list of sub-domains under the sun. The in-depth market analysis by some of the most vastly experienced analysts provide our diverse range of clients from across all industries with vital decision making insights to plan and align their market strategies in line with current market trends.

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Gene Therapies Market Expansion of Industry Creat New Opportunities for Key Players: Adaptimmune Therapeutics Plc., Celgene Corporation, Crispr...

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

From sophisticated techniques to easy-to-use strips, the world has deployed all kinds of tools to fightnovel coronavirus

Diagnostic tests are important to identify the sick,trace contacts tracing and ensure the disease does not spread. While the standard tests available for COVID-19 have been used for this purpose so far, researchers have been trying to find new methods for testing which are faster, cheaper and more reliable. The aim is also to develop tests that do not require infrastructure and can be used off-site like in rural areas.

Down To Earth lists the available test and also those that are in the pipeline:

RT-PCR

Medical professionals vouch for the accuracy of Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction when it comes to diagnosis of infectious diseases. The test is based on the PCR technique, which replicates genetic material of the pathogen and helps identify it.

But PCR is customised to replicating DNA and for pathogens where the genetic material is RNA, as is the case of SARS-CoV-2 virus, an additional step of converting the RNA into DNA is added. This step is Reverse Transcription.

After a sample of mucous is collected from the nasopharynx using a swab, it is kept in a buffer solution which also helps in extraction of the virus. Then, using RT-PCR, its genetic material is replicated many times over usually 40 times.

During the replication process, primers (which are specific to the viral genetic material), enzymes, nucleotides and fluorescent probes are added.

The fluorescent probes offers a visual signal as soon as a strand is successfully copied. The test is thus also called as real-time RT-PCR (rRT-PCR or qRT-PCR, where q stands for quantitative).

Looks for viral genes Takessix hoursConducted in labs with high biosafety levels, BSL-2 &bill

Automated RT-PCR

RT-PCR test can also be automated. India has so far allowed two such tests which run on proprietary machines: TrueNat, by Molbio Diagnostics of India, and Xpert Xpress, by Cepheid of USA.

Both were originally used to test for TB. TrueNat was approved for COVID-19 by ICMR on April 4. Its battery-operated kits are the size of a telephone and can be taken out into the field to test as many as 15 individuals a day.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) allowed the use of Xpert Xpress on April 19 under emergency use authorisation. The test is fully automated and provides the results in 45 minutes.

Four tests can be performed simultaneously. Both tests require positive results to be confirmed by RT-PCR.

Looks for viral genes Takes 35-50 minutes Conducted in BSL-2 labs, portable Positive results have to be confirmed by RT-PCR

Antibody tests

These can be manual or automated immunoassays. They identify the IgM and IgG antibodies developed against the SARS-CoV-2. For the test, whole blood, serum and plasma can be used and if antibodies are present in the sample, these bind to the antigen immobilised on the test strip and give a coloured reaction.

Such test kits are easy to use, provides quick results and are also effective in identifying asymptomatic patients. There is a risk of getting false positives and results need to be confirmed using a more advanced test.

In case of ELISA, (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) antibody test, as many as 90 tests can be run simultaneously. The results are more reliable than strip tests and can also provide quantitative data. The test provides results in around 2.5 hours.

Looks for antibodies Takes 20 minutes to 2.5hoursTo be conducted under doctors supervision Useful only for experimental or surveillance purposes

Antigen rapid tests

Antigen is a foreign substance produced by a pathogen, which induces an immune response in the body, especially the production of antibodies. The technique thus detects the presence of antigen or viral RNA in the sample.

The test is being developed by E25Bio, a Massachusetts-based biotech startup. The test relies on a patients nasopharyngeal swab. It resembles an over-the-counter pregnancy test and provides visual results within 15 minutes by detecting the presence of the virus in the sample.

The company is in the process of obtaining clearance under USFDAs emergency use authorisation model. Another company, OraSure Technologies Inc, has also received funds to develop a kit based on this technique.

Looks for viral genes In development stage

CRISPR

This test identifies the virus using the CRISPR genome editor, which uses tags that carry enzymes to the target DNA and cut it. For identifying the virus, a special tag has been developed whose enzyme, instead of cutting the gene, gives off a signal that it has reached the target.

A diagnostic kit based on CRISPR received emergency use authorisation by USFDA on May 7. Sherlock CRISPR SARS-CoV-2 kit is based on the specific high sensitivity enzymatic reporter unlocking technique.

The genetic material is extracted from the patients sample, amplified and incubated and detected with Cas13 enzyme. A commercially available paper dipstick is then used to confirm the presence of the virus with the naked eye.

A similar kit, DETECTR, is being developed by Mammoth Biosciences and UC San Francisco.

Looks for viral genes Takes 30 minutes As accurate as RT-PCR

Dogs

This experiment involves training dogs to sniff out people suffering from COVID-19.

The three-month trials would be led by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and are backed with 500,000 pounds of government funding.

The UK hopes these dogs would be part of the countrys strategy to test people.

Each dog is expected to screen as many as 250 people every hour. The dogs would include breeds like labradors and cocker spaniels.

Dogs are already used to detect a host of diseases such as cancers and malaria.

The dogs use specific odour that a sick person gives out. Samples of breath and body odour can come from a number of sources like used face masks.

Looks for odour Under trial Can test 250 people per hour

This was first published in Down To Earths print edition (dated 1-16 June, 2020)

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Battle-ready for COVID-19: A look at the arsenal of various tests - Down To Earth Magazine

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

By Chris Kocher

June 18, 2020

The Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences Department of Biomedical Engineering has earned nearly $4 million in grants from 201820 (as of March 2020). Associate Professor Sha Jin alone received three grants totaling $1.2 million for her diabetes research. Funding agencies include the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Guy German

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

RESEARCH TOPIC: HUMAN SKIN

THE GOAL: Understanding how different factors can cause the mechanical properties of our skin to change. The human body has many barriers, and skin is arguably the most important, protecting us from the external environment. When skin becomes broken or ruptured, that barrier is lost. It can be caused by surgical incisions, penetrating trauma, diseases that cause lesions and chapping from cold environments. German explores how bacteria can degrade integrity; the effects of chronological- and photo-aging; and how to create bio-inspired materials that control crack propagation and the movement of fluids on their surfaces.

Tracy Hookway

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

RESEARCH TOPIC: HEART CELLS

THE GOAL: Turning stem cells into functioning cardiac cells.

The human heart does not have the ability to repair itself after heart attacks or similar cardiac events. By merging the fields of stem-cell biology, tissue engineering and cardiovascular physiology, Hookway is trying to make models of cardiovascular tissue in a Petri dish that are more similar to what is in our bodies. One challenge is that the heart is not one cell type; in fact, it is multiple types of cells working together to achieve function.

Sha Jin

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

RESEARCH TOPIC: DIABETES

THE GOAL: Generating pancreatic tissue from stem cells.

One experimental treatment for diabetes currently in clinical trials through the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is islet transplantation, but there are fewer donors than needed. Human-induced pluripotent stem cells cells that can self-renew by dividing could offer a renewable source for islets, but they remain a challenge because of limited knowledge about how islets form. Jins lab has been working to direct stem cells to differentiate and mature into pancreatic islet organoids using a variety of approaches; when successful, these islets would be transplanted into humans.

Ahyeon Koh

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

RESEARCH TOPIC: HUMAN SWEAT

THE GOAL: Utilizing sweat to generate electricity for flexible biosensors and to monitor stress levels.

Kohs research aims to give us real-time information about how our bodies are functioning, such as for glucose monitoring, wound care and post-surgery cardiac health. She is currently working with other Binghamton professors on two microfluidic systems that can collect and use the sweat that our body produces. One of them will have sweat-eating bacteria that will power biosensors, and the other will monitor stress levels by measuring the amounts of the steroid hormone cortisol that are secreted.

Gretchen Mahler

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

RESEARCH TOPIC: ORGAN-ON-A-CHIP

THE GOAL: Creating 3D microfluidic cell-culture chips that simulate the mechanics and physiological response of organs and tissues.

Mahlers current research which has applications for cardiovascular disease and cancer focuses on how disruptions in a tissues mechanical or chemical environment can lead to disease initiation and progression. She currently is working with three other professors two from Watson, one from Harpur College of Arts and Sciences on a National Science Foundation-funded study of calcific aortic valve disease, and she also is interested in how food additives alter gastrointestinal health.

Kaiming Ye

PROFESSOR AND DEPARTMENT CHAIR

RESEARCH TOPIC: CANCER VACCINE

THE GOAL: Developing a vaccine that will slow or halt the growth of future tumors.Yes research is targeting the protein CD47, which is part of the membrane that covers human cells. It also sends a dont eat me signal to a bodys immune system normally a good thing, but a problem when cells become cancerous. In a 2019 study using mice treated with their experimental vaccine, Ye and his co-investigators found a two-fold reduction in tumor growth rates and five-fold reduction in size in the tumors that did form.

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Biomedicals big year: Grants fund research on skin, heart cells, cancer and more - Binghamton University

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Concrete deterioration can be a major problem for facilities managers anywhere, but its especially challenging to address when a facility needs to remain in operation during repairs.

A Terracon client in the amusement park industry approached facilities services staff with a heavily deteriorated, elevated concrete slab project, and specific expectations for the repair program results.

The slab was located within a swimming pool equipment building and had been exposed to moisture and pool sanitizing chemicals for an extended period of time. To get started, Terracon obtained four concrete dust samples from the slab.

Two samples were taken from the top of the slab and two from the bottom of the slab, both representing the concrete surrounding the reinforcement in their respective areas. The samples were analyzed in Terracon's materials laboratory and tested for chloride content according to the ASTM C1218 Standard Test Method for Water-Soluble Chloride in Mortar and Concrete. The test results indicated locations where the soluble chloride ion content in the concrete was well over the 0.15% maximum requirement for concrete exposure class C2.

In addition to chloride testing, two types of concrete compressive strength tests were performed; ASTM C42 Standard Test Method for Obtaining and Testing Drilled Cores and Sawed Beams of Concrete and ASTM C805 Standard Test Method for Rebound Number of Hardened Concrete. The concrete compressive strength test results were found to be acceptable and suitable for a slab rehabilitation.

Due to the handling of highly corrosive materials on top of the slab, a vehicular traffic grade waterproofing membrane was specified.Terracon

The initial project requirements were to restore the slab while the pool equipment remained in operation and portions of the space remained in use, and the repair design should add 10 years of service life to the slab.

The design process included several iterations. Initially, the client received a budget for a repair program consisting of concrete repair, steel replacement, and waterproofing of the slab. When the client was presented with budget costs for the 10-year life extension repair program, they decided for an investment of that magnitude, the project requirements for added slab life had to be extended to 15 to 20 years.

Terracons design team went back to work and proposed adding a cathodic protection system to the repair design. This system includes a combination of an initial intense burst of current to passivate the rebar and long-term protection with the installation of internal impressed current, commonly known as galvanic anodes.

The state-of-the-art type of anodes used are a combination of impressed current applied by the anodes self-generated electric charge which passivates the ongoing corrosion process and a passive galvanic cathodic protection to prevent future corrosion damage. In laymans terms, it is a combination of a battery with a limited current life that stops ongoing corrosion, and a remaining cathodic sacrificial material, which will divert the corrosion from the reinforcing steel to itself until it is completely consumed, protecting the reinforcing steel from corroding.

The client had preconceived ideas for the repair program, the project outcome, as well as the cost of the implementation of a cathodic protection system. Terracon advised and educated the client regarding the most cost-efficient methods to achieve the desired outcome. When questions arose about proposed technology and repair method, Terracons design team presented the client with research, test results, and case studies to help them understand the repair technology and its benefits. This approach enabled the client to approve Terracons design solution and hire a qualified contractor to perform the repair work.

There was considerable concrete deterioration and spalling of the slab soffit.Terracon

The first step when implementing a cathodic protection system is to determine whether the reinforcing rebar mat in the structure is continuous. Reinforcing steel mat continuity is necessary to ensure that the applied current will reach each piece of reinforcing steel in the structure to be protected and to make sure there is an uninterrupted path of migration of the ions towards the sacrificial anode.

Following establishment of the reinforcing steel mat continuity, the anodes are installed at a spacing established by an engineering design, performed by an expert, based on the density of steel in the concrete.

Finally, the deteriorated concrete and concrete removed for the installation of the anodes and their wiring was restored. In this specific case, due to the handling of highly corrosive materials on top of the slab, a vehicular traffic grade waterproofing membrane was specified. The product selected had the following characteristics: 1) It is applied seamlessly to avoid leaks through joints; 2) It has high chemical resistance including to chlorine, 3) It has very low odor and is volatile organic compound-compliant (VOC) for application during active use of the building; and 4) It is slip resistant while surface is wet, making it ideal for this application.

Because of the concrete permeability, the chemicals containing chlorides, with the help of the water seepage, migrated towards the soffit of the slab. There was considerable concrete deterioration and spalling of the slab soffit. During pre-design inspections it was also apparent the bottom rebar mat was extremely corroded and had significant section loss. Upon removal of the concrete, Terracon inspected the rebar to determine whether it had to be replaced or had minimal section loss and could remain in use with proper treatment.

This presented a great challenge since certain locations of the slab soffit were inaccessible, due to of the presence of many pipes and pipe hangers. During the course of the repair work, the contractor requested an alternate method to add supplemental rebar to the areas with heavily corroded steel.

Terracons Facilities division had the expertise to propose an alternate solution.Terracon

Terracons Facilities division had the expertise to propose an alternate solution, whereby the lost area of steel due to corrosion was replaced with externally bonded carbon fiber polymers (CFRP), which could be applied within the space constraints.

The first step in CFRP design consists of determining the slabs residual capacity given the reduced area of existing steel in the section. The residual capacity is then compared to the design loads to determine the level of deficiency. If the deficiency falls within the limits of CFRP, then the corresponding number of layers, width, and spacing is calculated and specified in the repair design.

CFRP is applied to a prepared, open pore, concrete surface and is achieved by means of mechanical tools for small applications or media blasting for larger areas. In this case, after the concrete repair was completed, a small hand-held grinder which fit within the limited space was used to prepare the concrete surface. A small brush or roller was used to apply the bonding epoxy to the concrete surface and the CFRP was threaded between the pipes.

The ease of installation in tight spaces made CFRP a viable solution for supplementing the remaining steel section, where required. Quality assurance testing was performed to verify the bond strength between the CFRP and the concrete surface. Additionally, witness panels were made using the specific batch of CFRP material used during the project to confirm the tensile strength and other properties used in the design assumptions .

The final design integrated a combination of repair technologies which met the clients requirement to extend the life of the slab for another 15 to 20 years. This was achieved using Terracons design professional expertise in concert with quality of installation performance.

The selection of an experienced repair and restoration engineering consultant with knowledge of the latest technologies available in the market is critical to achieve a successful project, completed on time and on budget.

ACI Committee 318, Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete (ACI 318-14) and Commentary (ACI 318R-14), 2014, 519 pp.

https://www.vector-corrosion.com/galvashield-fusion-t2

https://www.master-builders-solutions.basf.us/en-us/products/deck-coatings/masterseal-traffic-2500

Carla Ramo VelzquezTerracon

Carla Ramo Velzquez, P.E., is a senior engineer in Terracons Facilities practice in Winter Park, Florida. Specializing in business development and project management of concrete restoration projects and constructions services, her experience includes management of contracts and construction activities for the private and public sectors.

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Concrete Life Extended by Effective Repair Approach - ForConstructionPros.com

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Increasing Requirement For Acid Regulators In Beverages Sector To Power The Growth Of The Global Market

Increasing requirement for acid regulators in beverages sector majorly in energy and sparkling drinks as well as flavored water will power the growth of the global market. Acidulants provides beverage makers wide series of helpful properties comprising sensory appeal, palatability, and nutritive value that might improve user captivity towards their good that might support demand of the product.

Increasing User Preference Shift Towards Protein-Based Meat Goods To Power The Growth Of The Global Market

Lactic acids are extensively employed in processed meat goods due to its major properties comprising pathogenic bacteria control, shelf life extension, enhancing water binding ability, protecting & improving meat flavor, and lowering levels of sodium. Global processed meat sector is predicted to cross USD 1.8 trillion by 2025. Increasing user preference shift towards protein-based meat goods together with swift growth of value chain for processed meat will favor meat products requirement, therefore power the growth of the Global Food Acidulants Market.

Increasing User Inclination For Quality & Fresh Bakery Goods To Power The Growth Of The Global Market

Acidulants are used commonly in bakery sector to impart soft texture and improve product lifespan. Increasing user inclination for quality & fresh bakery goods have powered utilization of acidulants due to functional advantages comprising enhancing flavor, leavening, low hygroscopicity, heat resistance, dough conditioning, mold inhibition, and dairy compatibility. Increasing requirement for on the go snacks owing to quick urbanization and increasing working population have powered bakery sector development that might stimulate market growth.

Asia Pacific Might Observe Substantial Rise That Might Add Up For More Than 4.9% Development By The End Of 2025

Asia Pacific led by South Korea, India, China, and Japan market might observe substantial rise that might add up for more than 4.9% development by the end of 2025. Increasing requirement for canned goods & beverages has resulted in increasing acceptance of Acidulants during eatables production majorly for preservation. Rising acidulants production in China have imposed stress on western companies owing to reduced manufacturing price that might power regional market growth.

The size of the global food acidulants market is fragmented moderately with major players comprising Bartek Ingredients, ADM, Cargill, Univar Inc, Tate & Lyle., Brenntag, Purac Biochem, Parchem Trading, Jungbunzlauer Suisse, and Caremoli.

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Having a Masters Degree in Brewing Technology and overall experience of 6 years in the field of writing, Jerri has been one of the most workaholic and dedicated team members of thefoodbeveragenews.com portal. She has been a part of this portal for 4 years now. Jerri started a career in writing with freelancing and the journey has been worth watching and appraising. She handles the Beverage Industry domain of the portal and along with her team provides all the vital and up-to-the-minute news and reports to the readers in a simple and comprehensible manner.

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Food Acidulants Market To Grow Rapidly And Reach Almost 5.9 Million Tons By The End Of 2025 - Food Beverage News

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Editors note: This special Behind The Racquet with Bob Ryland is from was originally published in June, 2019.

10sBalls thanks Noah Rubin for giving us permission to repost these great stories. We wish him and this endeavor the best of luck. Great seeing Noah wearing K-Swiss and playing Solinco Strings.

#MyBTR- I was the first black professional tennis player & today I turn 99. I say it is no big deal, no cause for celebration, just another year. There are many things I can not do now, but I accept that. I enjoy doing what I can do. I have played tennis all my life: Played on my high school team in Chicago and was a finalist in state singles. Played at Wayne State in Detroit and was one of the first black players to compete in the NCAA Championships and the first to reach the quarterfinals. In college I wasnt allowed to eat in restaurants with my teammates. They would bring me my food on the bus, where I sometimes would sleep. I wasnt bitter, all I wanted was to play tennis.

After winning the American Tennis Association Mens title I was given a wild card to play at the USLTA Nationals (US Open) at Forest Hills in 1955, as one of the first few African Americans to play there. In 1959 I was invited to join Jack Marchs World Pro Tennis Championships, becoming the first black pro player.

When he was a kid, Arthur Ashe said I was his hero and he wanted to be good enough to beat me. I was a teaching pro and coached many young talented players and celebrities all over the world. In 1994 I had the opportunity to coach the Williams sisters a brief time before they became famous. Venus, I believe was 14. I dont play tennis anymore. My balance is bad. I do Yoga. I watch so many new players in person and on TV. At the courts, I enjoy giving pointers to anyone who will listen. There is a Paver at the BIllie Jean King National Tennis Center and it says, Bob Ryland: Coach and Friend. I tell my wife Nancy she can go there to remember me when I am gone. Last week I had a check up on my pacemaker. The doc said the battery is good for another 8 years. It made me feel like I have an eight year life extension. Next year, June 16, 2020, I will be 100. No Big Deal. Robert Ryland

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10sBalls Wishes Happy 100th Birthday To Tennis Star Robert Ryland - 10sBalls

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Following the release of its feasibility study, LSE-listed Emmerson is now keenly focused on advancing its Khemisset potash project in Morocco.

Morocco Emmersons focus now shifts to moving Khemisset towards shovel ready status including operational capability build-out, Front End Engineering and Design (FEED), detailed design and financing.

The permitting process is also underway including stakeholder engagement, socio-economic impact assessments and the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA). The feasibility study provides the catalyst for engagement with various potential financing groups to commence detailed due diligence.

Read: Emmerson makes significant strides in Morocco

Key workstreams ongoing

Emmerson CEO, Hayden Locke commented: We are pleased with the results of the feasibility study, but now our attention must turn to the next phase of development as we seek to move the project one step further towards our goal of becoming an independent potash producer.

Despite the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic, we continue to make progress with our ESIA, which is one of the key workstreams required to be completed prior to our application for a mining permit for Khemisset. Our objective is to have it ready for final submission to the government by the end of Q3 2020, in line with our original schedule.

While we know this will be a challenge, our team has proven itself to be adept at continuing to move key workstreams forward regardless of the circumstances and I am sure this will be no exception. Once the ESIA is signed off by the government, we will be able to apply for our mining permits.

Financing will continue to be a focus for Emmerson. Over the last two years, we have engaged with numerous potential funding partners and have identified several which we believe would make excellent partners for Emmerson in the development of Khemisset.

Other projects being considered

The feasibility study confirmed the world class characteristics of Khemisset including industry leading capital cost to production and a post-tax NPV8 of US$1.4bn based on industry expert Argus FMB price forecasts. Perhaps more importantly, it confirmed robust cashflow generation (over US$130m in EBITDA) and IRRs (nearly 15%) at potash prices well below the current contracted potash price in its target markets of Brazil, North West Europe, USA, central America and Morocco.

In addition, Emmerson will re-examine the potential of the various growth and expansion options available to it including the SOP project, de-icing salt expansion potential and Khemissets mine life extension.

Link:
Emmerson has announced plans to get it potash project 'shovel' ready - Mining Review

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith