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Adam Castillejo (pictured), 40, was known only as the London Patient when doctors revealed his success story last March after a stem cell transplant to treat his cancer.

The second person to be cured of HIV has revealed how he was more fearful of dying from cancer than Aids and considered ending his life at Dignitas.Adam Castillejo, 40, was known only as the London Patient when doctors revealed his success story last March after a stem cell transplant to treat his cancer.He remained anonymous until he decided he wanted to be seen as an ambassador of hope after struggling with his health for almost two decades.Mr Castillejo, who was born in Venezuela and moved to London in 2002, was diagnosed with blood cancer in 2012, having already lived with HIV since 2003.His last hope of cancer survival was a bone marrow transplant from a donor with HIV-resistant genes that could wipe out his cancer and virus in one fell swoop.But in a powerful interview with The Sunday Times,Mr Castillejo admitted that he was more fearful of dying from stage 4 Hodgkins lymphoma than Aids.Calling the second diagnosis another death sentence, the sou-chef revealed that he panicked because cancer can kill you faster than HIV.Adam Castillejo, 40, was known only as the London Patient when doctors revealed his success story last March after a stem cell transplant to treat his cancerMr Castillejo embarked upon a gruelling treatment regime that left him physically emaciated and pushed the Venezuelan to the mental edge.Both illnesses became one because you had to deal with the anti-retroviral medications not interfering with thechemotherapy regime and vice versa, he said.By the end of 2014, he said that he had given up on battling the two illnesses, and had made up his mind to end it all at Dignitas in Switzerland.Around this time,Mr Castillejo disappeared, and was found four days later outside London psychologically broken. He does not remember this period.Doctors gave him six months to live, before a switch flicked.At that time I accepted straight away, because what choice have I got? I would rather die fighting, he explained.Within days, he met with Dr Ian Gabriel at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, who advised that he could attempt a bone marrow transplant.The procedure in May 2016 meantMr Castillejo was cleared of both cancer and HIV.But he lost five stone and took 60 pills a day, revealing: I told my doctors there werent enough hours in the day to take all the medication I needed.Mr Castillejo, who was born in Venezuela and moved to London in 2002, was diagnosed with blood cancer in 2012, having already lived with HIV since 2003An American man treated in Germany 12 years ago called Timothy Ray Brown (pictured) the so-called Berlin Patient also survived the transplantHe also developed mouth ulcers which inhibited his ability to eat, and his anti-retroviral medication had to be crushed and washed down.Mr Castillejo also claimed that he felt victimised and guilty when he told people that he was suffering from HIV, saying: This is a punishment for you.The Venezuelan chef is the second person to have survived the life-threatening technique and come out the other side HIV-free.An American man treated in Germany 12 years ago called Timothy Ray Brown the so-called Berlin Patient also survived the transplant.He was put into an induced coma for six months, however.Experts have hailed the treatment as a milestone in the fight against HIV, but are urging caution when calling it a cure so early on.In the context of HIV infection, the term cure means there are no virus-carrying cells left.Anti-retroviral therapy is very effective at reducing the viral load in the blood of infected individuals so that it cannot be transmitted to others.Unfortunately, the Berlin and London Patients cases do not change the reality much for 37 million HIV patients.The treatment is unlikely to have potential on a wider scale because both Mr Castillejo and Mr Ray Brown were given stem cells to treat cancer, not HIV.Stem cell and bone marrow transplants are life-threatening operations with huge risks. Patients can suffer a fatal reaction if substitute immune cells dont take.In his private life, Mr Castillejo likes to walk the streets of Shoreditch and travel.Kat Smithson, director of policy at National AIDS Trust, said: We applaud the London Patient Adam Castillejo for sharing his unique experience of having his HIV cured following a bone-marrow transplant to treat cancer. Mr Castillejo has been through a long and extremely challenging journey with his health, within which HIV is just one part.His decision to speak about his experience without anonymity can only enrich our understanding of his experience on a human level, and we thank him for this.Theres still a great deal of stigma around HIV which can make it harder for people to access the services and support they need and for people to talk openly about HIV.His story helps raise much-needed awareness of HIV, but broader than that its a story about incredible resilience, determination and hope.How a stem cell transplant cured the Berlin and London Patients and how it can go badly wrongUsually, HIV patients expect to stay on daily pills for life to suppress the virus. When drugs are stopped, the virus roars back, usually in two to three weeksThe vast majority of humans carry the gene CCR5.In many ways, it is incredibly unhelpful. It affects our odds of surviving and recovering from a stroke, according to recent research.And it is the main access point for HIV to overtake our immune systems.But some people carry a mutations that prevents CCR5 from expressing itself, effectively blocking or eliminating the gene.Those few people in the world are called elite controllers by HIV experts. They are naturally resistant to HIV.If the virus ever entered their body, they would naturally control the virus as if they were taking the virus-suppressing drugs that HIV patients require.Both the Berlin patient and the London patient received stem cells donated from people with that crucial mutation.WHY HAS IT NEVER WORKED BEFORE?There are many reasons this hasnt worked, Dr Janet Siliciano, at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, told DailyMail.com.1. FINDING DONORSIts incredibly difficult to find HLA-matched bone marrow [i.e. someone with the same proteins in their blood as you], Dr Siliciano said.Its even more difficult to find the CCR5 mutation.2. INEFFECTIVE TRANSPLANT LEADS TO CANCER RELAPSESecond, there is a risk that the bone marrow wont take.Sometimes you dont become fully chimeric, meaning you still have a lot of your own cells.This means they will not defeat the cancer if it returns again.3. THE OLD IMMUNE SYSTEM ATTACKS THE NEW ONEThe other most common reason this approach has failed is graft-versus-host disease: whenthe patients immune system tries to attack the incoming, replacement immune system, causing a fatal reaction in most.4. UNKNOWN QUANTITIESInterestingly, both the Berlin patient and the London patient experienced complications that are normally lethal in most other cases.And experts believe that those complications helped their cases.Timothy Ray Brown, the Berlin patient, had both his cancer returned and he developed graft-versus-host disease, putting him in a coma and requiring a second bone marrow transplant.The London patient had one: he suffered graft-versus-host disease.Against the odds, they both survived, HIV-free.Some believe that, ironically, graft-versus-host disease might have helped both of them to further obliterate their HIV.But there is no way to control or replicate that safely.

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Adam Castillejo 'feared dying of cancer more than Aids and considered ending it all at Dignitas' Daily Mail - westofthepond.com

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In the past, an injury to the stifle joint of a horse may have certainly ended his or her career or usefulness. Now, with the ever-evolving science of veterinary medicine, afflictions to the joint have a much higher chance of being treated or even healed.

One of the reasons a stifle injury gives apprehension to horse owners is the complicated nature of the joint said Scott Cammack, D.V.M. He practices at Northern Hills Veterinary Clinic in Sturgis, South Dakota, with several other specialists.

Cammack explains that its treatment is much more involved than similar injuries. For example, an injury to the hock can often be resolved by fusing the bottom two joints (the hock consists of four total). Because it is a low-motion joint, the horse will still be sound and function after fusion.

The stifle, on the other hand, is a high-motion joint. Its got a lot of things going on in there. It doesnt have the capacity to be fused and still be sound. I would consider that they are more serious. They are more prone to long-term issues than a hock is, in my mind, he said.

According to Dr. Cammack, the stifle is anatomically similar to a human knee. All the parts are similar to your knee. Just as athletes injure their knees, they injure themselves. They have a patella, theyve got meniscuses, theyve got anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments, theyve got collateral ligaments. One major difference is that humans have one patellar ligament coming off the kneecap, while horses have three. Therefore, horses can have very unique issues.

One condition, often found in younger horses (aged 2-6) is the intermittent upward fixation of the patella or simply a catchy stifle. Dr. Cammack describes this condition: The locking mechanism of the stifle is inappropriately keeping the leg in the locked, extended position. They cant bend their leg and it only bends at the fetlock. That one is one that we treat in different ways. Sometimes, well do a procedure where we put a needle in the medial patellar ligament and we split it a little bit and cause it to thicken up and tighten up a little bit to help correct that. So thats a pretty simple procedure.

Another condition found in younger horses is OCD (osteochondrosis) lesions, a developmental issue. According to Dr. Cammack, they are cyst-like lesions on the bone. Some of them fill in and some require surgery. We saw one just the other day. A four year old had large cysts up in the bone. All they did was turn the horse out and waited. That one filled in on its own, but thats not common. Usually youre injecting the cyst or putting a screw across it or various treatments for something like that.

On the other hand, older horses may have very different afflictions in the joint. He said, In my mind, youre going to see more of the soft tissue injuries in your younger horses and more of the osteoarthritis in the older horses.

Older horses are going to be more prone to seeing arthritis in their stifle, which might be secondary to an injury it had had way back when. They injured a collateral ligament and it wasnt diagnosed, or they have some instability from ligament damage and then it healed some and they got by with it. Years down the road, youre seeing the arthritis, the osteoarthritis in there.

Stifle injuries are often seen in performance horses in various disciplines. When you start getting into any disciplines where theyre having to run hard, turn hard, stop hard, spin. We see it more in the reined cow horses and the reiners and the barrel horses, Dr. Cammack said. However, injuries can occur on the ranch or in other disciplines, as well. Certainly any horse can catch some bad ground or find a hole in the ground or something that can cause them injury.

Interestingly, younger horses may be more prone to injuries that occur in the arena. We are doing our futurities and so much heavy training on them when theyre young and they dont have the muscle memory and the skillset to have their leg in the right place at the right time with that amount of force on it.

Dr. Cammacks procedure for examining horses includes a flex test, where the joint is stressed momentarily to determine the location of any potential weaknesses in the joints. The end goal is to determine how to optimize the horses performance without masking any problems. If the horse deals with chronic issues, the typical injection of HA (hyaluronic acid), a type of steroid, may be administered, costing around $175.

For other injuries, different types of injections may do the trick. Theres certainly a lot more going on with regenerative medicine than there used to be, Dr. Cammack said. Using PRP (platelet-rich plasma) can help the joint heal itself. Youre taking the blood and processing it and pulling out platelet-rich plasma. Its going to have healing factors and certain proteins that can help the joint get better. This may cost around $250.

Theres another one called pro-stride, which is another form of PRP, but its a more concentrated form of PRP. Its more like $450. If youre getting into stem cells, that goes right up. We just pull the bone marrow or the fat, depending on which form were doing and we send it in. With that sample that we send in, we have to send $2,300 to the laboratory. That one can be in excess of $2,500 to do stem cells, Dr. Cammack said. Its an exciting area.

Cammack has devoted his professional career to the study of equines and particularly their joints and movement.

When I was in college, I started working at this clinic with Dr. Margie Jones. I developed a strong affinity for equine work and did a year internship with an equine surgeon in California, but he did a sports medicine practice and then I got in the deep pool of sports medicine and developed a deep love for it, he said.

More severe injuries to the stifle may involve surgeries, which range vastly in involvement and price.

This article serves as a brief overview of a very large field of veterinary study. Dr. Cammack devotes much of his practice and time to learning more about the equine, attending the yearly American Association of Equine Practitioners conferences, and expanding into regenerative medicine.

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Stifle injuries and treatments - Tri-State Livestock News

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USS America was the third Kitty Hawk class aircraft carrier and the third ship in the US Navy to bear the name. Initially commissioned as attack aircraft carrier CVA 66, she was redesignated as multi-purpose aircraft carrier CV 66 on Jun. 30, 1975. Decommissioned on Aug. 9, 1996, the USS America spend the following years at the Naval Inactive Ships Facility in Philadelphia.

On Apr. 19, 2005, the carrier left Philadelphia under tow on its final mission. The America was towed off the east coast where the ship was finally disposed of during a classified SinkEx.

The USS America is the only supercarrier ever sunk, either on purpose or in combat. Blake Horner, Mechanical Engineer, explains why on Quora It took four weeks and they ended up having to scuttle her from on board due to her not sinking. She is not only far larger than WWII battleships, but she is also a lot tougher. While she does not have the heavy armor the battleships of yore had, she does have a double layered hull, meaning weapons have to push through alternating layers of steel and empty pockets to reach her internals.

On top of that, her internal compartmentalization was far better than that of battleships. She is so large, there are so many more rooms that must be filled in order to make her sink than that of a battleship.

Additionally, thanks to modern technology, most bombs, torpedoes and missiles actually have smaller warheads than what they used against WWII vessels. And in the process of the tests, they were actually using controlled explosives, not actual weapons.

The whole point of the tests was to make future carriers more survivable, as well as see how warships reacted to underwater explosion and damage. Clearly, after taking a beating for four weeks, they can survive a LOT due to just their sheer bulk. But at the same time, the tests were not meant to truly sink her immediately. Thus, there was no shoot to kill mindset of the naval officers conducting the test, versus the whole point of attacking enemy battleships was to sink them.

America lasted so much longer because A) they were not trying to sink her immediately (though they did end up having to board her to make her sink) and B) her sheer bulk made it a lot harder to sink by being able to absorb damage better than battleships.

Americawas planned to be sold for scrapping. However, she was chosen to be alive-fire testand evaluation platform in 2005, to aid the design of future aircraft carriers. There was some objection to a ship being named after the U.S. being deliberately sunk at sea, and a committee of her former crew members and other supporters attempted to save the ship for use as amuseum ship.Their efforts were ultimately unsuccessful. In a letter to them, then-Vice Chief of Naval OperationsAdmiralJohn B. Nathmanexplained:

Americawill make one final and vital contribution to our national defense, this time as a live-fire test and evaluation platform.Americas legacy will serve as a footprint in the design of future carriers ships that will protect the sons, daughters, grandchildren and great-grandchildren ofAmericaveterans. We will conduct a variety of comprehensive tests above and below the waterline collecting data for use by naval architects and engineers in creating the nations future carrier fleet. It is essential we make those ships as highly survivable as possible. When that mission is complete, theAmericawill slip quietly beneath the sea. I knowAmericahas a very special place in your hearts, not only for the name, but also for your service aboard her. I ask that you understand why we selected this ship for this one last crucial mission and make note of the critical nature of her final service.

Horner concludes:

Economically, it was the smallest loss to the original cost ratio versus any of theNimitzclass, or even its sister ships of theKitty Hawkclass (USS America never really went through the Navys Carrier Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) and therefore, the ship was in bad shape during its last years of service. In the early 1990s the America even had one of her flight deck elevators fall with an S-3B aircraft and several blueshirts on it. Additionally, the carrier suffered steam and fuel leaks and also in the early 1990s, returning home from deployment the carrier cut through a Hurricane destroying large parts of the flight deck catwalks.). America was conventionally powered, meaning they did not have to worry about the nuclear radiation of aNimitzclass. It was of similar size and design to theNimitzso they could learn just as much as they would from sinking one of those in preparation for theFordclass. There were no plans for using her as a potential reactivation ship (one that could come back to service) or as a museum, as she was in very bad condition in comparison to her sisters. It resulted that the potential benefits far outweighed the loss, as the lessons learned from sinking her would allow the Navy to perfect theGerald R.Fordclass, which was under development. It was just a logical decision in allowing the vessel to serve in one last capacity, without having to pay for tearing her apart or letting her sit as a museum. And hopefully, it worked.

Photo credit: Photographers Mate 2nd Class Michael Sandberg / U.S. Navy

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Heres why it Took four Weeks to Scuttle USS America, the Only Supercarrier Ever Sunk - The Aviation Geek Club

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Liquid-nitrogen-filled human storage unit at Russian cryonics firm KrioRus, 2020. (Alexey Sazonov / AFP / Getty Images)

I stand against confiscatory taxes, totalitarian collectives, and the ideology of the inevitability of the death of every individual, venture capitalist Peter Thiel declared in his 2009 essay The Education of a Libertarian. His opposition to taxes and totalitarian collectives is hardly surprising; his ongoing campaign against human mortality is a bit more quixotic. For Thiel, death is just another obstacle to be overcome by the synergy of extraordinary wealth and cutting-edge technology.1Ad Policy Books in Review

Thiels vision cant be called utopian, because its about no one but him. According to one of the more scandalous reports on his quest to live forever, he was considering injections of young peoples blood in an effort to slow the aging process, a service offered by a California company called Ambrosia. The story caught fire not only because of the dubious efficacy of the procedure but also because it looked like a literal expression of vampiric capitalism: the youth and strength of the poor harvested for the benefit of the ultrarich. This dystopian scenario was merely an exaggerated version of the grotesquely unequal US health care system, in which the wealthy buy longevity while the poor die prematurely for lack of basic care.2

Thiel is not the first to explore the idea of life-extending blood transfusions. In fact, this practice has its origins in a truly utopian and egalitarian, if even more biologically suspect, experiment. Aleksandr Bogdanov, a prominent early Bolshevik and science fiction writer, investigated the rejuvenating properties of blood transfusions in the 1920s, though he soon died after exchanging blood with a tubercular student. As anthropologist Anya Bernstein discusses in The Future of Immortality: Remaking Life and Death in Contemporary Russia, Bogdanovs hope was not merely to prolong the lives of individuals; he envisioned a sanguine communism in which all were granted an equal share of societys collective health through blood exchanges. In his popular 1908 sci-fi novel Red Star, a revolutionary Russian scientist travels to Mars and visits a communist society that has eliminated inequalitynot just in property but also in health and strengthas well as gender binaries. The happy Martians participate in regular blood exchanges that extend their lives and break down the barriers among them.3

Bogdanovs ideal of physiological collectivism, as he called it, didnt make his experiments any less dangerous on a biological level (as he tragically discovered). But his project was a libertarians nightmare and a far cry from a model in which a rich few purchase the blood of the impoverished many. In The Future of Immortality, we meet a number of Bogdanovs heirs, Russians who hope to extend life for all of humankind. Many are adamant in their commitment to collective transcendence, and some even have government funding. Their projects are often ludicrous from a scientific perspective, but Bernstein isnt concerned with that. Instead, she seeks to understand what these Russian ways of remaking life and death reveal about human efforts to bring the future into the present, even as the future turns into an increasingly scary place.4

The story of the Russian battle against death begins in the second half of the 19th century, when the country was in a state of entropy. Writers like Nikolai Chernyshevsky, the author of What Is to Be Done?, were imagining new modes of communal, egalitarian living, while revolutionary activists and terrorists sought to eradicate the old class hierarchies. In this heady atmosphere, the Russian quest for immortality was born. At Moscows central library, Nikolai Fedorov, a teacher turned philosopher-librarian, was writing feverish treatises on a form of collective life that could transcend both time and death.5

Fedorov believed that if humankind could train its full energy on the struggle to live forever, all war and other forms of conflict would vanish. He called this project the common cause. Just as he worked as a librarian to preserve the books in his care so they would be available to future generations, so too could humankind work to preserve each person in a library of eternal life. Every human being was a unique and precious repository of information and experiences, and Fedorov wanted to ensure that they would all remain available in perpetuity.6

Fedorovs ambition was not limited to those still living. He imagined resurrecting every person who had ever lived. Inverting the idea of the duty of the living to future generations, he argued that we owe a resurrectory debt to our parents, and he insisted that as technology advanced, we would pay off this debt by piecing our families back together from bones and even specks of dust. (A crackpot visionary rather than a scientist, he was short on specifics about how we might do this.) To solve the problem of housing the vast resurrected population, he looked to space, proposing the colonization of the galaxya hope shared by people like Thiel and Elon Musk today. But Fedorov imagined the work and benefits of immortality as collective and universal. He accumulated a number of followers during his lifetime and after his death, and his reputation as an eccentric visionary endures in Russia.7Current Issue

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Leaping into the future to resurrect the past, Fedorovs theories were a strange start for Soviet and Russian technofuturism. But nostalgia often lies at the heart of grand visions of the future. The Narodniki, followers of the movement from which many early Russian revolutionaries emerged, celebrated the traditional peasant commune as the seed of socialism. The fear of destruction can be another powerful motivator. In our moment of belated panic over the climate crisis, it might be surprising to learn from Bernstein that the potential end of a habitable planet was also discussed in Fedorovs time. The second law of thermodynamics, according to which entropy in a closed system never decreases, was postulated in the mid-19th century and soon resulted in predictions of the universes eventual heat death.8

This secular eschatology, as Bernstein calls it, and the loss of faith in Earths immortality prompted a deep anxiety among some European intellectuals. Darwin wrote that it was an intolerable thought that [humans] and all other sentient beings are doomed to complete annihilation after such long-continued slow progress. One of the characters in Dostoevskys The Adolescent asked, reasonably enough, Why should I unequivocally love my neighbor or your future mankind, which Ill never get to see, which wont know about me and which in turn will turn into dust, leaving not a single trace or memory behindwhen the Earth [becomes] an icy rock and [flies] off into the void with an infinite number of similar icy rocks? (Not everyone bought the theory. In an 1869 letter to Marx, Engels denounced the notion of the planets heat death; dialectical materialism demanded an indestructible universe.) Fedorovs theories promised to restore meaning and purpose to existenceto overcome the death of the individual, of humankind, and of the planet.9

The focus on human extinction also began to yield real scientific results. Among those who studied at Fedorovs library was an impoverished young autodidact named Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, who went on to prove the possibility of spaceflight through his calculations for liquid-propellant rockets. Although his proof was rejected by serious journals, it eventually became the basis for Soviet rocket design through the efforts of amateur spaceflight enthusiasts beginning in the 1930s. Like Fedorov, Tsiolkovsky wanted to help humans populate the universe in preparation for the moment when Earth became uninhabitable. Journeys into space were only one step in the creation of a more perfect version of humanity in which, as Tsiolkovsky explained, human bodies would be transformed into radiation, allowing all human beings to merge into the radiant state of a higher order. Fedorovs ideas were suffused with his devout Russian Orthodox faith, making them a bad fit for the atheist Soviet Union. Tsiolkovsky, on the other hand, offered a more scientific approach to space exploration and the transcendence of human boundaries and was therefore far more palatable. He became a hero, the founding father of cosmonautics.10

Fedorovs writings were eventually banned in the USSR because of their religious content and their general dissonance with Soviet doctrine. But in part for this very reason, his ideas continued to percolate. In the 1960s and 70s, Moscows Socrates was resurrected by a new generation of dissidents. Intrigued by his link to the Soviet space program and by forbidden spiritual matters more generally, some members of the Soviet underground took up the study of his ideas. A young woman named Svetlana Semenova wrote a samizdat text on him and then published her work legally after official censorship loosened.11Related Article

Deeply religious, Semenova considered Fedorovs teachings to be the only meaningful advance made by Christianity since antiquity, in Bernsteins words, pairing futurism with a faith in spiritual immortality. She viewed the discovery of DNA as confirmation of her theory that every particle of the body carries an imprint of the soul. In the 1980s, as Soviet citizens watched the TV funerals of one Communist Party general secretary after another, Semenova indoctrinated her teenage daughters with a firm belief in resurrection. The planet hadnt died, but by 1991, the Soviet Union had. As they watched the spectacle unfold, she and her daughters imagined eternal life.12

The Future of Immortality opens with a wonderfully vivid scene that illustrates how the legacy of Fedorov, Bogdanov, and Tsiolkovsky has become the nostalgic futurism of the new millennium. Its 2012, and a few dozen people have gathered in front of Moscows Karl Marx statue for a demonstration:13

A middle-aged man held a poster demanding Old People Should Live. Others read, We Are for Regenerative Medicine and I Want to Be a GMO. One young man rode a futuristic-looking electric unicycle around the giant rock slab with Marxs torso emerging out of it, held up by the inscription Proletarians of the world, unite! A fifty-something woman walked by with a sign declaring We Are for Immortality.14

The Soviet Union is a thing of the past, but Marx is still standing. Moscow may be filled with creative professionals and entrepreneurs who click-clack on MacBook Pros in Instagram-ready coffee shops, but not every Russian has renounced utopias or embraced the new order. One of the speakers at this Rally for Radical Life Extension is Anastasia Gacheva, who is Semenovas daughter. Gacheva followed in her mothers footsteps and is now the face of Cosmism, as Fedorovs philosophy is called. She runs the Fedorov Society, which holds regular open seminars at the Fedorov Museum-Library in southern Moscow.15

All social doctrinesall the social utopias humanity has tried to achieve have stumbled up against the short-breathedness of man, Gacheva tells the crowd. The utopias stumbled on mans deepest misfortune, which is his mortality. Mortal man cannot be made happy. This is why communism did not succeed. Needless to say, this is a novel diagnosis of communisms failure. It wasnt the command economy, the Cold War, or growing popular resistance that brought the Soviet Union down but rather the failure to achieve eternal life. Until all people unite in the common causethe struggle against deaththe world will be rife with conflict, whether or not the state professes itself a utopia.16

Reflecting on her upbringing in a conversation with Bernstein, Gacheva makes it clear that she and her family were not Soviet apologists but that she values the way the USSR fostered a collectivist consciousness, put a value on friendship and mutual aidqualities that are important for society and for any collective undertaking. Her parents, who struggled to publish under Soviet censorship, were poor, but that wasnt really a problem. We were fine, she recalls. In the Soviet periodit was even shameful to be rich. This is, of course, hardly the case in post-Soviet Russia, with its dwindling social safety net and rampant inequality. Bernstein notes that at least one of the participants in the Fedorov seminars is occasionally homeless.17

The Cosmists of today are vintage futurists, many of them elderly. Despite the vast medical and technological advances that have occurred since Fedorovs day, they pursue their passion through philosophical debate and exhaustive analysis of his writings. Though they advocate for life extension research and maintain some ties with other, more scientifically oriented groups, the Cosmists do not engage in much practical activity. They are holdovers from an era when pure theorizing was considered a viable means of transforming reality. The exigencies of post-Soviet life will likely make it difficult for their movement to survive.18

Other Russian life-extensionist groups are (somewhat) more practical and scientifically minded. The next speaker we meet at the rally is Valerija Pride. Though she is a militant atheist, she and Gacheva are friendly and regularly exchange ideas. They are, after all, united in Fedorovs common cause. Trained as a physicist in the Soviet days, Pride is the director of KrioRus, Russias first cryonics company, which she founded in 2006 with an economist and a biophysicist. The trios primary goal was to offer free or low-cost cryonics for the relatives and pets of activists. In 2008, Pride froze her mother. Like Gacheva, Pride retains some fondness for the Soviet ways. When she informs Bernstein that KrioRus has just frozen four people in a single month, she adds excitedly, That means society is ready for this. Maybe because were used to grand projectsthe Soviet Union, the exploration of space.19

Unlike the Soviet space program, however, KrioRus is a shoestring operation, staffed mostly by volunteers. Its storage facility, at a volunteers dacha plot an hour outside Moscow, consists of a simple concrete and metal structure with two dewars. Named for James Dewar, the inventor of the thermos, these insulated vacuum vats currently hold 71 patients from 15 countries, as well as 19 cats, 10 dogs, four birds, four hamsters, two rabbits, and a chinchilla. Would-be cryopatients make arrangements in advance so that KrioRus can take charge of their bodies at the moment of death, cooling them to 196 degrees Celsius and replacing their blood with cryoprotectant. The patients are then placed in a dewar to await the invention of technologies necessary for a gut renovation. The international scientific consensus remains deeply skeptical of cryonics promise, but Bernstein doesnt mention this fact. Shes interested in the ideological and cultural aspects of cryonics, not its medical feasibility.20

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Regardless of their scientific credibility, KrioRuss activities have provoked much ideological and theological debate, especially among the facilitys neighbors, who fear that they will soon be invaded by zombies, animated corpses, or the soulless living dead. In Russian Orthodox tradition, the soul leaves the body 40 days after death, which makes cryonic corpse storage appalling to believers. Cryonicists are not troubled by the prospect of zombies; they consider death to occur in stages. Only when the body has begun to decompose is the process complete. In their view, selfhood resides in the brain and its memories, so preservation of the brain is preservation of the self. For this reason, KrioRus offers two options: freezing the whole body or just the brain. The second option is about 66 percent cheaper and avoids quarrels with relatives and priests, since the body can be buried with the signs of brain extraction concealed. It is also considered more advanced ideologically, as it implies agreement with the idea that personality consists entirely of long-term memories stored in the brain.21

KrioRus is the worlds third-largest cryonics company and the only one outside the United States. Though early Russian scientists researched anabiosis, or suspension by freezing, and despite the epic preservation of Lenins corpse, the idea of freezing the dead in the hope of reanimating them later found more popularity in the United States than in the Soviet Union or Russia. Is KrioRus simply an effort to import this big American business to Russia? Bernstein argues that KrioRus is profoundly different from the more profit-oriented American cryonics companies because it was founded as a kind of cooperative endeavor (and a nongovernmental organization) and because it represents a form of long-term and intergenerational caregiving. Those who sign up entrust KrioRus and future generations with the care of their bodies, she continues, putting their faith in the continuation of society and in the promise that living people will maintain the vats and bring the frozen back to life whenever it becomes possible. In the best-case scenario for cryonics, the living will fulfill Fedorovs ideal of filial duty by resurrecting their forebears.22

This part of Bernsteins argument is somewhat shaky, since American cryonics (which she mentions only in passing) has been heavily focused on the preservation of relatives, especially parents, and since any people who agree to be frozen inevitably put their trust in future generations. But KrioRuss collaboration (as at the Rally for Radical Life Extension) and philosophical disputes with the Cosmists do give Russian cryonics a special flavor. When Semenova, the grande dame of Cosmism, was dying, KrioRus offered her a free place in one of its dewars. Her daughter declined on her behalf, citing a desire to remain faithful to Fedorovs vision of universal immortality. Semenova was not categorically opposed to cryonics, but she was unwilling to participate until it became a socialized and universal practice. Until the very end, she remained adamant that the pursuit of immortality was meaningful only if it included everyone.23

The Cosmists represent an older way of imagining immortality in Russia. KrioRus stands for a version that is more global and less socialist, albeit one that is still informed by the distinctive egalitarian legacy of Cosmism, of Bogdanovs physiological collectivism, and of Soviet hopes to transform the human race. Unlike the Soviet projects, however, Cosmism and KrioRus are small, independent entities, without substantial resources or government backing. After examining these scrappier efforts, Bernstein turns her attention to more profit-minded start-ups, some of which are backed by the Russian state.24

When the Soviet Union fell, the Russian government found itself badly in need of a national idea to guide the much-diminished country into the future. The search prompted widespread discussion in the government and media. So far, the leading options have focused on the past, notably in the ever more grandiose celebrations of victory in World War II. But some Russians feel that their country would be better off looking to the future, as the Soviets didfor example, by reinvigorating the space program, one of the greatest sources of Soviet pride, or by helping to create a new and improved human being.25

The Russian state has come around to this idea as well. The organization NeuroNet, for example, has received funding from Russias Presidential Council. Part of the Foresight Fleet, which is sponsored by the Russian state and charged with the search for national technological ideas, NeuroNet is focused on human enhancement rather than immortality. The projects founders imagine connecting the entire human race using neurointerfaces, essentially linking brains directly. Timour Shchoukine, one of its leading members, envisions a world in which neurointerfaces allow humankind to solve problems togethera more direct and comprehensive version of the hive mindand thus overcome the difficulties caused by failures of communication.26

NeuroNet acknowledges that its plan poses its own dangers. The impossibility of concealment could lead to a host of terrible conflictssocial, political, martial, maritalas every tactless thought is revealed. Other dangers include the risk of a generation that never learns how to read or communicate verbally, the possibility of hackers entering your brain and stealing its contents, and the near certainty of corporate and government abuse of this power, including mind control. Bernstein deems the last threat particularly alarming in light of the extensive sponsorship of NeuroNet by the Russian government, which has proved willing to jail its citizens on the basis of Facebook posts. But NeuroNet cocreator Pavel Luksha tells Bernstein that at this point, humankind has little left to lose: Weve already created a situation where we will either break through to over there or become extinct as a species.27

The idea of a neurological interface is neither new nor distinctively Russian, but NeuroNets vision of collective transcendence is in keeping with the Russian tradition that Bernstein identifies. Of all the contemporary projects she examines, it is also arguably the most radical. As Luksha, who was inspired by Tsiolkovsky and his vision of the radiant state, explains:28

We will see the emergence of a true collective consciousness, where people have no borders separating their self from the selves of others. Where did this thought come from, how did this emotion arise? It will be such that people in these communities will feel themselves as one body.29

As the climate crisis escalates, visions of annihilation and resurrection have assumed new urgency, moving beyond the realm of the human and peering deeper into the past. Pleistocene Park, which Bernstein mentions in passing, is a project in Arctic Siberia intended to restore the steppe ecosystem that existed there during the Pleistocene. A grassy steppe should not only reflect more light (and thus absorb less heat) than an expanse of trees and shrubs, but it should also freeze more quickly in the winter. Theoretically, it could slow the disastrous, greenhouse-gas-emitting thaw of the permafrost that accounts for more than half of Russias territory. Extending and maintaining a vast new steppe requires the continuous tramping and tree felling of large herbivores, the kind that earlier humans hunted to extinction. Pleistocene Parks director has been importing bison, horses, musk oxen, and other species, and he hopes to add the woolly mammoth, which went extinct about 4,000 years ago. This ambitious and perhaps fanciful project is the fruit of a Russian-American collaboration. Harvard geneticist George Church is attempting to edit the genome of the Asian elephant to make it resemble the woolly mammoths. He hopes to deliver within the next decade. What would Fedorov think?30

Silicon Valleys technological advances may have brought us closer to a world of neurointerfaces, but its ventures have done far more to hasten climate change than to mitigate it. Thiel, a fracking enthusiast and critic of global carbon-emission restrictions, dreams of buying off death and leaving for spacebut where will the rest of us live? The Cosmists are right about one thing, at least: The battle against extinction can only be a collective endeavor.31

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The Strange and Often Radical Pursuit of Immortality in Russia - The Nation

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Depression has a variety of symptoms and causes, and it can be diagnosed and treated in different ways. It is important that nurses can recognise patients presenting with depression. This article comes with a self-assessment enabling you to test your knowledge after reading it

Depression is a common condition. It presents differently in each person, but common symptoms include feelings of hopelessness, loss of interest in things previously enjoyed, and reduced motivation and energy. Diagnostic tools are available but, as they do not capture all the factors that affect depression, full clinical assessments are needed. Misdiagnosis is common. Causes of depression may vary but may relate to situational, genetic, biological, environmental or psychological factors. It often occurs alongside other mental health conditions or long-term physical conditions. Treatment options vary, depending on the severity of the episode, and a stepped-care approach is recommended. Depression can be recurrent, so treatment should focus on avoiding relapse.

Citation: Munro M, Milne R (2020) Symptoms and causes of depression, and its diagnosis and management. Nursing Times [online]; 116: 4, 18-22.

Authors: Mary Munro is lecturer, mental health nursing, Robert Gordon University Aberdeen and community mental health nurse (substance misuse), Royal Cornhill Hospital Aberdeen; Rosa Milne is community mental health nurse (adult services), Royal Cornhill Hospital Aberdeen.

Depression is a major public health issue in the UK and worldwide (Norman and Ryrie, 2018). It is estimated to affect 264 million people globally (GBD 2017 Disease and Injury Incidence and Prevalence Collaborators, 2018), and defined by the World Health Organization (2020) as a leading cause of disability worldwide and a major contributor to the overall burden of disease. WHO (2020) defines depression as low mood and loss of enjoyment in things that were previously enjoyed.

The human experience involves periods of low mood or difficulty, but for most people these feelings pass. The difference between a low mood and depression is when an individuals feelings consistently interfere with their daily life over a minimum period of two weeks (Norman and Ryrie, 2018). An episode of depression can vary in duration from weeks to years, but normally lasts for a minimum of several weeks (Mind, 2017).

For any diagnosis of depression, and ideally before treatment options are explored, the severity of an individuals depression should be ascertained; this is indicated by their symptoms. Symptoms may vary between individuals but, generally, they will encompass feelings of sadness and hopelessness (Lotfaliany et al, 2019). Norman and Ryrie (2018) have said the signs and symptoms of depression can be split into two categories: how an individual feels and how these feelings affect their behaviour.

Common feelings associated with depression include:

The detrimental effect these feelings have on how an individual behaves in their daily life means that behavioural symptoms often include a lack of motivation in personal care, work and relationships. Most people present with a variety of signs and symptoms; the most common are listed in Box 1 (Norman and Ryrie, 2018).

Box 1. Common signs and symptoms of depression

Two main classification system manuals are used to diagnose depression:

Both manuals categorise depression into three main categories mild, moderate and severe depending on the number of symptoms (Table 1), their duration and frequency.Mild depression. The DSM-5 defines mild depression as:

Symptoms must be evident but not presenting to an intense degree. There may be some difficulty continuing with ordinary work and social activities, but they will not stop completely.

Moderate depression. Christensen et al (2019) define moderate depression as:

Symptoms are present to a marked degree, and there is difficulty continuing with daily activities.

Severe depression. DSM-5 categorises severe depression as:

Health professionals can use a variety of tools to help with accurate and robust diagnosis of depression (Nabbe et al, 2018). However, NICE (2009) identified that a range of biological, psychological and social factors can have a significant impact on depression and are not wholly captured by diagnostic systems. It is, therefore, vital to consider the individuals personal history and family history of depression during a diagnostic assessment (NICE, 2009).

The Whooley questions for depression screening (Box 2) form a commonly used depression diagnostic tool. However, findings have suggested the tool alone cannot determine whether a person has depression; if they answer yes to one or both questions, a full clinical assessment is needed (Bosanquet et al, 2015). The assessment can be carried out by a GP or, if the patient presents in secondary care, an assessing nurse or doctor who is competent to perform a mental health assessment. The assessment must evaluate the persons mental state and accompanying functional, interpersonal and social difficulties (NICE, 2009).

Box 2. Whooley questions for depression screening

Yes to one or both questions = positive test (requires further evaluation)

No to both questions = negative test (individual does not have depression)

Source: Whooley et al (1997)

Nurses work at the forefront of patient interaction and care. It is, therefore, essential that they understand depression, along with its signs, symptoms and clinical, social and economic impacts to be able to provide effective person-centred care. Nurses from all fields can learn to recognise depression and ensure further assessment and interventions are offered.

Misdiagnosis of depression is common (Bostwick, 2012) because several illnesses have similar symptoms; for example, hyperthyroidism symptoms include low mood, reduced attention span and fatigue.

Depression is underdiagnosed in older adults (Rodda et al, 2011) and can be misdiagnosed as dementia due to the similarity in some symptoms, such as increased social isolation and mood changes. An assessment tool such as the General Practitioner Assessment Of Cognitionmay be required to differentiate between symptoms of depression and dementia.

Depression is a complex condition, and its causes are not fully understood. Genetics, biology, environment and psychological factors may play a role, and it can affect people of any age, race and socioeconomic status. Why people experience depression varies, so it is important to treat each person individually and understand their symptoms and behaviours by getting to know them dont look at the diagnosis of depression alone, as the cause will be personal to individual (Norman and Ryrie, 2018).

In the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey undertaken in England in 2014, 3.3% of respondents reported that they were experiencing depression (McManus et al, 2016), while in Scotland 20% of the adult population experienced one or more symptom of depression in 2014/15 (Mental Health Foundation, 2016).

Although the exact reasons why depression manifests are unclear, there are some theories to help our understanding. Almost all community epidemiological studies find that gender, age and marital status are associated with depression. Kessler and Bromet (2013) have suggested that adult women are at almost double the risk of severe depression compared with men and a study by Van de Velde et al (2010) identified that women represented statistically higher rates of severe depression in 15 of the 18 countries they studied. Kessler and Bromet (2013) suggested people who are separated or divorced have significantly higher rates of severe depression, compared with those who are married.

Some studies suggest that genetics can influence the risk of developing depression for example, Elwood et al (2019) have found that some genes may play a key role in developing recurrent depression. However, it must be noted that there is no one gene linked to depression.

Studies have shown that lifestyle choices such as a lack of exercise, being underweight or overweight and having fewer social relationships can increase the risk of developing depressive symptoms (Esiwe et al, 2015). The use of legal and illegal drugs may also be a way of coping for some individuals, and has been linked to a greater risk of developing depression as well as other mental health conditions (Esiwe et al, 2015).

Ongoing research suggests that people who have experienced adverse childhood events, trauma or abuse have increased symptoms of depression compared with the general population (Bond, 2019). Depression has also been found to be more prevalent in people with a lower socio-economic status and a lower subjective social status (Hoebel et al, 2017). There is also evidence suggesting an association between social deprivation and depression: Fiske et al (2009) found that people in areas of great deprivation are four times more likely than the general population to experience depressive symptoms.

A number of studies have highlighted the link between depression and long-term physical health conditions, including:

The life expectancy of people who are diagnosed with severe depression is 10years lower than that of the general population; one reason for this is the higher suicide rate in this group, but it is also because depression elevates the risk of the onset, persistence and severity of a wide range of physical disorders (Norman and Ryrie, 2018). Long-term physical conditions can also cause or exacerbate depressive symptoms (NICE, 2009). This comorbidity has been attributed to:

These findings emphasise the importance of careful psychological assessment and treatment of people with a long-term physical condition, even in the critical stages of a disease. Nurses in all fields should consider the mental health of people in their care.

Depression can exist comorbidly with other mental health conditions, including substance use disorders (Blanco et al, 2013). Kellner et al (2012) said this was partly because people with a substance use disorder commonly face stigmatisation, marginalisation and financial insecurity, which can cause depressive symptoms. People with a substance use disorder who have a diagnosis of depression are at a higher risk of death by overdose than other substance users (Pabayo et al, 2013). Kellner et al (2012) identified that 50% of people with a substance use disorder reported symptoms of severe depression but were not receiving any treatment for it.

Another common comorbidity of depression is anxiety disorder (Hranov, 2007). Having both anxiety and depression has been found to increase the severity and number of symptoms of each condition, resulting in greater impairment (Hofmeijer-Sevink et al, 2012). Some of the symptoms of anxiety and depression also overlap, for example overthinking, avoidance and sleep disturbance (WHO, 2020). The high rate of comorbidity of anxiety and depression suggests we should consider the occurrence of one disorder as a pre-disposing factor for developing the other (Cameron, 2007).

NICE (2009) recommended a stepped-care approach to treat depression, using a framework that lists the most-effective interventions (Table2). In stepped care, the least-intrusive, most-effective intervention is provided first; if a person does not benefit from it, or declines it, they should be offered an appropriate intervention from the next step.

Cognitive behavioural therapy, behavioural activation methods, self-help approaches, interpersonal therapy and counselling have all proved effective psychological interventions for depression (Ekers and Webster, 2012). Both technology-assisted and face-to-face therapy have been found to be effective (Zhang et al, 2019).

Electroconvulsive therapy can be used for severe depression; despite controversy about the treatment, due to misconceptions or unfamiliarity, it is acknowledged as one of the most-effective treatments for severe mood disorders (Kellner et al, 2012).

Newer treatments are being developed for treatment-resistant depression, such as esketamine given by infusion (Bozymski et al, 2019). Most first-line antidepressants take 4-6weeks to achieve full effect; the response time for esketamine is as short as 2-24hours post-administration in clinical trials (Bozymski et al, 2019). Although esketamine could be a promising option for treatment-resistant depression, its disadvantages include its cost, the time commitment required to attend an infusion clinic and its unpleasant side-effects. According to the British National Formulary these include arrythmias, dizziness, hypersalivation, nausea, vomiting, respiratory issues, sleep disorders and vision problems.

Treatment and support for depression can come from many health professionals in primary or secondary care, depending on the severity of symptoms. Mental health nurses, GPs, occupational therapists, psychologists and psychiatrists can all provide evidence-based interventions. Core interventions for nurses working with people with depression include:

NICEs (2009) guidance stated that when working with people who have depression, best practice means:

Stigma is a significant issue in mental health: it lowers peoples self-esteem, makes symptoms more severe and limits help-seeking behaviours (Sastre et al, 2019). Nurses should be aware of the potential for self-stigmatisation in people with depression. Forming an effective therapeutic alliance has been shown to improve clinical outcomes in people with depression (Arnow et al, 2013) and reduce negative self-perception (Porr et al, 2012).

Community and third-sector support is also often available. This can include:

These have been shown to improve symptoms (Rosenbaum et al, 2014; Cruwys et al, 2013; Sanchez-Villegas and Martnez-Gonzlez, 2013; Pfeiffer et al, 2011).

A key part of recovering from a mental health condition is patient choice; people with depression may benefit from a multifaceted, holistic approach to treatment (Loos et al, 2017).

Depression is common and often chronic and recurrent (Uher and Pavlova, 2016). Its symptoms and outcomes are marked by persistent suffering, poor overall health and negative effects on several areas of life, including psychosocial, academic and work life (de Zwart et al, 2018). One study found that fewer than a third of patients recovered and remained well in the 18months after an episode of depression (Mulder, 2015). This suggests treatment needs to focus on maintaining wellness and preventing relapse.

To help prevent relapse, it is helpful to use the recovery model, a holistic, person-centred approach to mental health care that is becoming the standard model. It is based on two simple premises:

A significant part of sustained recovery from depression is being able to avoid or cope with relapse risk factors (Jumnoodoo et al, 2017). Recovery can mean a person staying in control of their life and living in a way that is meaningful to them, rather than returning to the level of functioning they experienced before depression (Jacob, 2015). Although depression is a chronic condition that can recur throughout someones life (Uher and Pavlova, 2016), this does not have to mean a state of consistent suffering and powerlessness but, instead, a journey that includes setbacks and successes (Scottish Recovery Network, NHS Education for Scotland, 2007).

Modern-day living and its pressures have been linked to a rise in depressive symptoms and prevalence of depressive disorders (Hidaka, 2012; Walsh, 2011). Although psycho-education, medication and psychological approaches have been shown to be effective at treating depression (NICE, 2009), people can take several lifestyle approaches to maintain good mental health. These include:

Nurses are well-placed to advise patients on these.

This article has provided a general overview of depression, its treatment, outcomes and significance when providing nursing care and assessment. As nurses in all settings and specialties work at the forefront of patient interaction and care, a knowledge of depression, its signs and symptoms, and its potential implications for patients is essential to provide person-centred care. Nurses from all fields can learn to recognise depression in their patients and ensure further assessment and interventions can be offered.

References

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Arnow BA et al (2013) The relationship between the therapeutic alliance and treatment outcome in two distinct psychotherapies for chronic depression. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology; 81: 4, 627-638.

Blanco C et al (2013) The latent structure and comorbidity patterns of generalized anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder: a national study. Depression and Anxiety; 31: 3, 214-222.

Bond P (2019) Falling through the net: unrecognised trauma. Healthcare Counselling and Psychotherapy Journal; 19: 1, 8-13.

Bosanquet K et al (2015) Diagnostic accuracy of the Whooley questions for the identification of depression: a diagnostic meta-analysis. British Medical Journal Open; 5: e008913.

Bostwick M (2012) Recognizing mimics of depression: The 8 Ds. Current Psychiatry; 11: 6, 31-36.

Bozymski KM et al (2019) Esketamine: a novel option for treatment-resistant depression. Annals of Pharmacotherapy; doi: 10.1177/1060028019892644.

Cameron OG (2007) Understanding comorbid depression and anxiety. Psychiatric Times; 24: 14.

Christensen KS et al (2019) Diagnosing depression in primary care: a Rasch analysis of the Major Depression Inventory. Scandinavian Journal of Primary Health Care; 37: 1, 105-112.

Cruwys T et al (2013) Social group memberships protect against future depression, alleviate depression symptoms and prevent depression relapse. Social Science and Medicine; 98: 179-186.

de Zwart PL et al (2018) Empirical evidence for definitions of episode, remission, recovery, relapse and recurrence in depression: a systematic review. Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences; 28: 5, 544-562.

Ekers D, Webster L (2012) An overview of the effectiveness of psychological therapy for depression and stepped care service delivery models. Journal of Research in Nursing; 18: 2, 171-184.

Elwood J et al (2019) A systematic review investigating if genetic or epigenetic markers are associated with postnatal depression. Journal of Affective Disorders; 253: 51-62.

Esiwe C et al (2015) Screening for depression in older adults on an acute medical ward: the validity of NICE guidance in using two questions. Age and Ageing; 44: 5, 771-775.

Fiske A et al (2009) Depression in older adults. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology; 5: 363-389.

GBD 2017 Disease and Injury Incidence and Prevalence Collaborators (2018) Global, regional, and national incidence, prevalence, and years lived with disability for 354 diseases and injuries for 195 countries and territories, 19902017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017. Lancet; 392: 1789-1858.

Hidaka BH (2012) Depression as a disease of modernity: Explanations for increasing prevalence. Journal of Affective Disorders; 140: 3, 205-214.

Hoebel J et al (2017) Social inequalities and depressive symptoms in adults: the role of objective and subjective socioeconomic status. PLOS ONE; 12: 1, e0169764.

Hofmeijer-Sevink MK et al (2012) Clinical relevance of comorbidity in anxiety disorders: a report from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA). Journal of Affective Disorders; 137: 1-3, 106-112.

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Jacob KS (2015) Recovery model of mental illness: a complementary approach to psychiatric care. Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine; 37: 2, 117-119.

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Kessler RC, Bromet EJ (2013) The epidemiology of depression across cultures. Annual Review of Public Health; 34, 119-138.

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Lotfaliany M et al (2019) Variation in the prevalence of depression and patterns of association, sociodemographic and lifestyle factors in community-dwelling older adults in six low- and middle-income countries. Journal of Affective Disorders; 251: 218-226.

McManus S et al (2016) Mental Health and Wellbeing in England: Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2014. NHS Digital.

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Mulder R (2015) Depression relapse: importance of a long-term perspective. The Lancet; 386: 9988, 10-12.

Nabbe P et al (2018) One consensual depression diagnosis tool to serve many countries: a challenge! A RAND/UCLA methodology. BMC Research Notes; 11: 4.

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National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (2009) Depression in Adults with a Chronic Physical Health Problem: Recognition and Management. NICE.

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Pabayo R et al (2013) The role of depression and social support in non-fatal drug overdose among a cohort of injection drug users in a Canadian setting. Drug and Alcohol Dependence; 132: 3, 603-609.

Pfeiffer PN et al (2011) Efficacy of peer support interventions for depression: a meta-analysis. General Hospital Psychiatry; 33: 1, 29-36.

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Symptoms and causes of depression and its diagnosis and management - Nursing Times

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Komen is providing breast cancer patients with transportation, food delivery and other resources to meet critical needs during the stay-at-home order issued by Gov. Mike DeWine.

One of Downtowns most visible, crowd-drawing events is on the postponed list. But the needs of the cancer patients it serves are not.

Citing concerns for the health and safety of participants, supporters and staff, Susan G. Komen Columbus recently decided to postpone the 2020 Komen Columbus Race for the Cure scheduled for May 16. The event is the largest Race for the Cure in the United States. Last year it drew more than 21,000 participants.

With its primary fundraiser on hold, Komen still tends to the real-time needs of people living with breast cancer. Were hoping we can still see pink. We have a vision for an actual race, says Julie McMahon, Komen Columbus interim executive director. But our primary mission is to help women today.

McMahon says Komen still provides transportation, food delivery and other resources to meet critical needs during the stay-at-home order issued by Gov. Mike DeWine. It is launching programs to provide special support to immunosuppressed patients so their treatment isnt disrupted, using sources like Uber Health for transportation and Amazon delivery for food.

Komen Columbus is hosting virtual support groups and wellness activities such as yoga and coping skills education, and its Facebook page livestreams content as well. This is only made possible by our tens of thousands of supporters here in Central Ohio. Our partners and sponsors have been amazing, McMahon says.

The Komen website details information on its response to the pandemic.

The organization is helping breast cancer patients grapple with unanswered questions, such as whether their treatment protocol makes them especially vulnerable at this time. For example, McMahon says, most hormone therapy does not cause immunosuppression, while most chemotherapy does. Its also talking with clients about whether treatment can be paused or delayed. For people about to start treatment, this is especially scary, she says.

She says the information provided by Komen is by no means medical advice but offers general guidance about questions that may be on patients minds or things to consider. Of course, you consult with your physician on your personal treatment.

Komen is guiding women on postponing routine screening mammograms so those resources can be targeted directly toward patients now undergoing treatment.

The re-allocation of resources now required during a world pandemic has immediate consequences for patients who are relying on clinical trials to give them hope. Research is affected, and many clinical trials are at a halt for women with no remaining options, McMahon says. We pray for them, and we pray with them.

Last years local Race for the Cure raised more than $1.3 million last year for education, screening and research. Money also is used for community outreach and programing for underserved and uninsured women.

The organization was about to host another fundraiser when Ohio Health Director Dr. Amy Acton closed the Arnold Expo and Classic to most spectators and visitors. When the CDC issued guidelines that limited gatherings to 50, we were very concerned. We want to be leaders and show how important we think this is, says McMahon, who has a background in public health and epidemiology.

The decision to postpone major events threw crucial fundraising support into a tailspin that will reverberate for months or years to come. We cant stop fundraising right now, but it will look differently. The Race for the Cure sustains us year-round. Its going to be difficult for us moving forward.

Laurie Allen is a freelance writer for Columbus CEO.

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The Komen Columbus race is off, but heres how its still helping patients - Columbus CEO

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Texas resident Hunter Howard shares journey ater testing positive for coronavirus.

Texas resident Hunter Howard shares journey ater testing positive for coronavirus.

Texas resident Hunter Howard shares journey ater testing positive for coronavirus.

Texas resident Hunter Howard shares journey ater testing positive for coronavirus.

Texas resident shares personal journey of testing positive for coronavirus

It has been 14 days since Hunter Howard first suspected he had contracted COVID-19.

Ten days since it was confirmed.

Now Howard, a 50-year-old Dallas resident, is recovering and out of quarantine. Yet his breathing is labored at times, his sense of taste is altered and intestinal problems ensue.

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I went for a walk yesterday and after about five blocks, I had to sit down. I couldnt breathe, Howard said Wednesday.

Howard, who has no underlying health conditions, believes he caught the virus via an infected passenger seated behind him on a flight home from Aspen, Colo.,on March 9. Upon his return to Dallas, it was life as normal.

Until March 12.

I had a slight fever and a dry cough. It is a light tickle in the back of your throat. There was no phlegm or mucus, said Howard, who is the president of Dallas-based Hormone Therapeutics.

By the next day, he began experiencing head and body aches, fatigue and night sweats. His fever was also rising, but he had no way to measure his temperature due to a shortage of thermometersamid the coronavirus pandemic.

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He relied on Gatorade to help replenish his electrolytes. I was incredibly thirsty. I was surprised by how much Gatorade I needed, Howard said.

After calling his doctor, Howard decided not to seek additional medical attention.

My physician told me there were only 42 testing units allocated to Dallas at that time and unless I needed a ventilator, I should stay home and rest, said Howard. He also said if I felt like I needed help to come in.

Two days later, his symptoms worsened considerably.

My fever was much higher and my breathing was really labored. I felt like my lungs were two paper bags. I could hear them crackling every time I would take a breath, said Howard.

He also experienced intense body pains, including discomfort in his back and chest.

I felt like I had a strap around my chest. The pain felt like it was coming out of the bottom lobes of my lungs and rib cage. It was uncomfortable to lie down, he said.

But the most alarming thing was the fear of the unknown.

The symptoms were worsening and I did not know how much worse it might get. I was being told to self-quarantine unless I needed ICU breathing support, he said. When do you make a decision to go in? At what point do you need to take better care of yourself?

After taking physician-advised doses of 1600mg of Tylenol, his situation improved. My fever broke and I have been feeling better ever since, said Howard.

On March 16, four days after he originally suspected he may be afflicted, Howard received a physician referral to get tested for COVID-19 at Baylor Scott & White Medical Center in Greenville.

The test requires a swab from a hard-to-reach area of the throat. To get there, technicians insert a nasopharyngeal swab essentially a giant Q-tip deep into the patients nose.

It stings the nostrils but only takes around 10 seconds, Howard said. A day later, it was confirmed that Howard had the coronavirus.

Howard was released from quarantine this week, but complications from the virus remain. His sense of smell and taste buds are still slightly off, and he has ongoing nausea and intestinal problems.

Still, he believes the worst is behind him. Now, hes dishing out advice to others.

Most of us will get the coronavirus. Safeguard your immune system, eat well and rest, Howard said.

We need to all protect the elderly and those with immunosuppression or lung and breathing issues by following social guidelines, and with the lack of beds and ventilators and medication, I believe we need shelter-in-place to slow down the transmission of this virus.

@marcydeluna

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Texas resident shares personal journey of testing positive for coronavirus - Laredo Morning Times

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Global Humanitarian Leader Offers Evidence-based Breathing Techniques to Help Healthcare Workers Stay Resilient and Strong on the Frontlines.; Launches New Online Happiness Program to Help the General Public Manage Stress and Anxiety

WASHINGTON, March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --Today, on the occasion of National Doctors' Day, the Art of Living, a global educational and humanitarian non-profit, has launched a first-ever opportunity for healthcare workers across the US to learn its powerful breathing meditation - at no cost - to help sustain them during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Art of Living is also providing free content to the general public, as well as a new online Happiness Program, to help all manage stress and anxiety during these turbulent times.

"To all the doctors, the paramedics, frontline workers and all other healthcare professionals, for your services, your dedication, we cannot express our gratitude enough," said global humanitarian, spiritual leader, and founder of the Art of Living, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. "Please don't ignore yourself. Your good rest is absolutely essential and it's necessary to keep you charged and keep you healthy. Art of Living Foundation and its counselors are ready for you, anytime to help you. This meditation will be tremendously beneficial to you. You'll feel the energy and enthusiasm renewed in you to carry your noble mission forward."

Beginning today, any US healthcare worker can access the online course by visiting http://www.aolf.me/covid19 and register using their professional license number. The Happiness Program, which has been taught in person to millions across the world, has been adapted to a new online platform, and tailored specifically to busy healthcare providers. The self-paced format can be accessed from anywhere, and in just a few minutes, will equip health care workers with powerful, evidence-based breathing and meditation techniques.

The program was developed in collaboration with leaders of the Provider Well-being Program at Children's National Hospital in Washington, DC and other healthcare experts from around the country. Children's National implemented the in-person course for some of their healthcare providers last year. "We found this course significantly reduced burnout and anxiety among our providers, some of whom said the daily practices have transformed their entire lives," said Dr. Hemant Sharma, Chief of Allergy and Immunology at Children's National and co-lead of Well-being. "At this time of immense strain on healthcare systems world-wide, we are so grateful to the Art of Living for offering these evidence-based practices to bolster the physical and mental well-being of those caring for the sick."

"Healthcare workers, including doctors, nurses, and the entire team, are giving their all on the front lines of this pandemic," said Dr. Christiane Corriveau, a critical care physician and co-lead of Well-being at Children's National. "This takes a great personal toll on them and we want to do whatever we can to sustain and support healthcare workers in these challenging times."

Over 70 independent studies have demonstrated a range of scientific benefits from practicing the breathing exercises taught on the Art of Living Happiness Program. Research has shown the practices decrease anxiety, reduce the stress hormone cortisol by over 50%, improve immune cell counts within as little as three weeks, and improve time spent in deep sleep three-fold.

In addition to its commitment to support healthcare workers, the Art of Living is also offering following to the community at large:

A Moment of Peace in Troubled Times: Two live guided meditations daily led by our meditation experts. These sessions are Suitable for beginners as well as advanced meditators. In addition, we also offer on-demand meditations guided by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. (Access Here)

Online Happiness Program: Offered at a reduced cost to all members of the general public to help them manage the stress and anxiety provoked by these uncertain times. (Access Here)

Art of Living Journey App: All the premium meditation content on the app is made free for a limited time. Download Android version here. Download iOS version here.

About Art of Living

Operating in 156 countries, The Art of Living Foundation (AOLF) is a non-profit, educational and humanitarian organization founded in 1981 by the humanitarian and spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. All of AOLF's programs are inspired by Sri Sri's philosophy of creating world peace through a stress-free and violence-free society. AOLF has touched over 400 million lives through numerous educational and self-development programs and tools that facilitate the elimination of stress and foster deep and profound inner peace, happiness and well-being for individuals.

About Children's National Hospital

Children's National Hospital, based in Washington, D.C., celebrates150yearsof pediatric care, research and commitment to community. Volunteers opened the hospital in 1870 with 12 beds to care for Civil War orphans. Today, 150 years stronger, it is the nation's No. 6 children's hospital. It is ranked No. 1 fornewborn carefor the third straight year and ranked in all specialties evaluated by "U.S. News & World Report." Children's National is transforming pediatric medicine for all children. In 2020, it will open the Children's National Research and Innovation Campus, the first in the nation dedicated to pediatric research. It has been designated twice as a Magnethospital, demonstrating the highest standards of nursing and patient care delivery. This pediatric academic health system offers expert care through a convenient, community-based primary care network and specialty outpatient centers in the D.C., metropolitan area, including the Maryland and Northern Virginia suburbs. Children's National is home to theChildren's National Research InstituteandSheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovationand is the nation's seventh-highest NIH-funded children's hospital. It is recognized for its expertise and innovation in pediatric care and as a strong voice for children through advocacy at the local, regional and national levels.

For more information, follow us onFacebook,InstagramandTwitter.

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Art of Living Partners with Children's National Hospital to Provide Free Access to its One-of-a-kind Breathing Meditation for US Healthcare Workers...

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Henry J. "Trip" Goolsby, III, MD

NEW ORLEANS (PRWEB) March 27, 2020

It occurred to me, as I was listening to a number of complaints, worries, and debates related to the recent pandemic crisis, that a few simple measures taken by everyone will assure their immune system is optimized for the challenge of a viral incursion.

Granted, avoidance and the current imposition of social distancing are the best means by which not to acquire the new plague, but what are some additional simple actions that will assist you in empowering your immune system, in the event it is challenged by any viral threat?

The following tools, while not exhaustive nor all-inclusive, will, at the very least, prevent you from undermining the very system that will be called upon to defend and heal you; these tools are based on my career-long exposure as a Medical Oncologist and Hematologist, to the inherited and acquired immune-compromise.

#1 Creation of - and Gratitude for- A Personal Image of an immune system gifted with an extraordinary ability to recognize and destroy any viral threat. Understanding that the Adaptive Immune Response is the main immunologic response system that will respond to and provide protection from future insults from viruses, it is important to create an image of a super response from this system when thinking about it.

Your personal image of your optimized immune system should include any combination of these cells destroying and eliminating your favorite viral culprit at the moment.

A component of your imaging process should also include meditation (5-10 minutes twice daily) focusing on the dynamic ability of your immune system protecting and eliminating viral challenges. This same exercise should be implemented with feelings of gratitude.

#2 Nutrition: Quality nutrition is essential for the optimum function of all of the systems of your body.

What may not be so common to the knowledge base is the nefarious effect of the different macronutrients that constitute our foods. I am most concerned about the impact of carbohydrates when it comes to the optimum function of the immune systems. An excess of carbohydrates (more than 30 gm of net carbs per day) creates what is termed Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEPs).

The progressive toxicity and ultimately destructive inflammatory response produced by these substances severely compromise the ability of the immune system to respond to threats in real time. The inflammation generated by AGEPs detracts and deviates the resources of the immune system making necessary resources unavailable.

How to address this challenge? Institute minimization of carbohydrate nutrients from your daily intake, particularly if you are diabetic or borderline diabetic. In the latter instances, it may be necessary to decrease the amount of diabetic medicine you are taking and require guidance from your family physician.

#3 Exercise: Even though many fitness centers/gyms are closed, in the interest of social distancing, continued focus on some type of daily routine, and in particular, a high-intensity interval training (HIIT) program, should be maintained, or initiated.

For example, if you have a favorite Marvel or DC superhero, chances are high there is a HIIT workout for that superhero. Check out https://darebee.com for great free workouts you can do from home.

The benefits of exercise on the immune system is well documented. Exercise also improves many other aspects of your life that secondarily impact your ability to respond to the challenges of any disease.

#4 Optimized Hormone and Metabolic Balancing: The impact of various hormone deficiencies and suboptimal hormone balance (menopause, Low-T, suboptimal thyroid balance, adrenal insufficiency....) on the immune system can be dramatic. Many other medical conditions, autoimmune disease, and chronic metabolic diseases result from the suboptimal balance of this complex system. Any efforts to achieve a youthful optimum balance will ensure an optimally functioning immune response.

#5 Stay Calm and Dont Buy The Hype - Medias job is to dramatize and amplify the facts to capitalize and draw attention to current events announced by their organizations.

In the medias efforts to get the news out in this fashion, many people are prone to getting caught up in over-dramatization.

What does this do?

The emotional repercussions can range anywhere from guilt and anger to shame, anxiety, and fear.

What do these emotions cause and what do they do to the immune system?

They promote, to varying degrees, the stress responses that serve to stimulate the secretion of a multitude of hormones and molecular messengers that serve to compromise the ability to respond to infectious challenges.

Deliberately choosing to focus on your optimum health outcome, despite what is being broadcast (e.g., news of trauma, devastation, and adverse emotions which attempt to invade your calm) serves you in avoiding the suppression of your immune response biologically.

Your focus on the health outcome you desire has a quantum ability to attach you to your entangled multiple worlds outcome of the affirmed image of extraordinarily awesome health and immune response.

#6 Thymosin Peptide Optimization (This is a prophylactic and therapeutic intervention for the appropriate risk groups).

For those over forty years of age, deterioration in the immune response and immune surveillance system is well documented and studied.

The correlated increase in chronic disease morbidity is associated with the decline of the immune organizing peptide, Thymosin Alpha One (TA1).

Pending the development of a useful therapeutic intervention, or the availability of an effective vaccine, subsidizing TA1 for individuals in the high-risk age groups, which at this juncture seem to be in large part those over 40 years of age, may provide a protective benefit and enhance their immune response effectiveness. Seeking out a physician experienced in its usage may be of significant benefit.

###

Trip Goolsby, MD is a bestselling author, new thought leader in integrative medicine and the Cofounder of Infinite Health Integrative Medicine Center, which provides elite precision-medicine health optimization, longevity, and regenerative medicine services. For more information about how you can boost your immune system visit http://www.YourInfiniteHealth.com and/or reserve your initial consultation this week by calling 504-323-0025 or 337-312-8234 - Tele-appointments are now also available.

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6 Keys to Boosting Your Immune System During COVID-19 March 27, 2020Health optimization and - PR Web

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It acts as a true miracle pill! One speaks of fasting with Dr. Petra Bracht over the Interval, then it comes very quickly to these superlative.

The a physician Nutrition specialist and author from Bad Homburg in Germany is certainly one of the pioneers of the diet method eating Pause, and she practiced the method since the end of the 1980s, out of Conviction.

fasting is the Trend, according to a Forsa-survey on behalf of the DAK 63 percent of Germans are in favour of for themselves to reduce, at least temporarily, the diet, or change, or by 20 percent more than almost ten years ago.

Particular interval of fasting, even intermittent fasting is becoming more and more popular. Because in addition to the weight loss of this method can be attributed to many health effects.

However, Only little of it is scientifically proven as yet, clearly. Although there are a number of animal experiments in rats and monkeys, the fasting, an effect of Interval around the cells health and life expectancy show yet so simple to humans, such results can not be transferred.

As healthy interval fasting

A study from Graz, with 100 participants may bring with it the discussion now, because it shows that, Already after four weeks of positive effects in humans on the health evidence.

And even after six months were no negative (side) effects detected. The researchers from the Institute for Molecular Biosciences to a rather rare variant of the interval fasting: 36:12. This is about the perfect fast formula?

a Brief explanation: When intermittent fasting, you eat during a fixed period of time, as usual, ends, without changing the amount and type of food followed by a Phase in which no or only very reduced calories, are allowed in the amounts as follows.

The best known is the Schema 16:8 is: Of the 24 hours of each day is an eight hour period for eating is reserved, followed by 16 hours in which the body gets no food.

Who eats Breakfast so, for example, 9 oclock, may eat as usual for lunch and must have finished his evening meal till 17 oclock then just calories, are allowed free drinks, more water, tea, coffee in moderation is said necessarily recommended.

The 5:2 principle, the Plan runs not hours, but days of operation: five days you can eat as usual, two days are almost time.

At this, the calorie intake is limited to around 500 calories for women and 700 for men. This is no more than a small meal. The Graz researchers chose for their study a middle ground, the Alternate Day Fasting or 36:12.

Visible results after four weeks of

Of the 100 subjects, half was allowed to eat for six months, so only every second day. Together with the night before and after the day of fasting that results in a rhythm of 12 to 36 hours.

The other 50 participants ate, as always, however, the researchers selected the biochemist Frank Madeo after some time, 25 from this group at random, the four weeks to the 36:12-almost rhythm changed. So they wanted to explore the short-term effects.

Countless data from body fat to blood pressure, bone density to the insulin value, the Grazer documented. And were amazed: after only four weeks of fasting, the participants had reduced their weight by 4.5 percent, and effective belly fat lost.

This visceral fat around the internal organs is considered to be particularly harmful. The cholesterol level decreased, also the amount of proteins in the body that make the researchers of ageing processes responsible.

More muscles despite the absence of

And thats just a few of the results of the investigation. You confirm what has been observed by Dr. Petra Bracht also in their work with patients virtually: I have been practicing interval fasting for more than 30 years. I havent started, there was the concept yet.

From the American natural healing scene is the Knowledge that it is much better not to eat so often came, and to process, especially that it gives the body time for the food alone. This seemed to me to be very logical, and I have tried it myself to a time when there were six to eight small meals are recommended the day.

One of the most exciting effects that you get when you fast found and also the Graz study confirmed the Autophagy: in the past, it was thought that fasting would consume proteins and thus the breakdown of muscle to carry. But that is not true.

In the Autophagy-mode, the body is already consumed proteins, splits it into individual amino acids and gives the body back. Therefore, we observe that people who are fasting, and this move can build muscle mass. Our body uses old protein, new muscles and also to make antibodies, explains the expert.

feelings of happiness during the interval fasting

In women, the time of the Autophagy begins after 13 to 14 hours of fasting, men and a good hour later, adds Dr. Bracht.

thats Why men in particular of a longer fast would benefit interval. I recommend to men to be fasting, therefore, more like 18 hours, the Doctor says, the eating itself usually only in a time window of two to four hours of the day.

Still another effect is seen in practice as well as in the experiment: During the interval fasting of the body between the carbohydrate processing in the food phases and fat burning, known as ketosis goes, in the fast breaks.

Both alternates, what the cells need. Anything else would be harmful, says Dr. Bracht.

The ketone bodies in the fasting phase by means of an increase the production of the appropriate hormones for the mood of the people is stimulated. And this feeling makes us the hunger the hours easier to bear.

the Graz study showed this mood. Also, the hormone boost also acts as an anti-inflammatory with a variety of positive effects on health.

Even small steps will help

the question of the ideal almost Remains the interval. Im a Fan of 16:8. All other methods do not have this waiver in-character, which is why many people keep on that, says Dr done.

And warns of excessive goals: Its not about all or nothing. Basically, every day I intervallfaste is a Plus for the health.

sources

Peter Schmidt-Feneberg

*The post Healthy and effective: weight loss with intermittent fasting: All is a question of timing, published by FitForFun. Contact with the executives here.

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Finding good stocks in this market climate is a unique challenge. With the COVID-19 pandemic posing serious risks and offering major market opportunities, wise investors who make well-informed decisions during this time could make a fortune.

While there are plenty of promising stocks you've surely heard about before, there are also quite a few companies that haven't received the same attention. Many of these businesses have tremendous growth potential, and despite their relative obscurity, make great potential investments right now. Here are three stocks you probably haven't heard of but are worth a potential spot in your portfolio:

Image source: Getty Images.

If someone asked you to name the top gold mining companies on the market, giants like Newmontand Barrick Goldcome to mind. However, there's one lesser-known gold miner that's worth a mention.

Kinross Gold (NYSE:KGC) tends not to get that much attention, especially compared to its larger rivals. However, its stock has fared reasonably well during this coronavirus bear market, losing only a small portion of its overall value over the past month. This makes sense considering that gold prices tend to move in the opposite direction of the equities market, with investors seeking safe havens for their money when stocks start falling.

Higher gold prices mean larger profit margins for gold miners, which all gold companies can appreciate. However, Kinross has a few things going for it that make it stand apart from the crowd.

For one, Kinross is significantly cheaper than its competitors from a valuation standpoint. Gold mining companies are already fairly affordable, with both Newmont and Barrick Gold trading at 3.7 and 3.5 price-to-sales (P/S) ratios, respectively. In comparison, Kinross trades at just a 1.6 P/S ratio.

While Kinross obviously isn't as large as these two better known gold miners, it's just as efficient in terms of its operations. One of the most important metrics for gold miners is its all-in sustaining costs (AISC). This figure, measured in dollars per ounces, represents the total cost of mining an ounce of gold. Kinross had an AISC of $983 per gram for 2019, while Newmont's 2019 AISC came in at $966 and Barrick's at $894.

While Kinross's costs are a bit higher when it comes to producing gold in comparison to its rivals, it's not enough to justify a P/S ratio that's half its competitors. If gold prices stay where they are or go higher, something which is a major possibility, Kinross Gold could be a major winner in 2020.

Sangamo Therapeutics (NASDAQ:SGMO)one of the few companies in the gene-editing sector, often gets overshadowed by its larger competitors. Compared to stocks like CRISPR Therapeutics, which is significantly larger in market cap, Sangamo seems like a smaller player in this relatively young market. However, this healthcare stock has plenty of tailwinds many of its competitors don't enjoy.

For one, Sangamo has one of the most diverse pool of drug candidates in the entire gene-editing sector. The company has 16 separate projects ongoing at the moment, with 11 in preclinical development and five in early stage clinical testing. This is much more than CRISPR's nine drug candidates, with only three having begun early stage testing.Right now, some of Sangamo's most anticipated candidates are its transfusion-dependent beta thalassemia drug ST-400, a sickle cell disease treatment called BIVV003, and a hemophilia A drug called SB-525.

Given the uncertain nature of developing new drugs, especially in the cutting-edge field of gene-editing, there's always a big chance that something can go wrong, like a candidate flopping. As such, having a diverse portfolio means there's a bigger chance of hitting at least one clinical home run, which is all a small biotech stock like Sangamo needs to become a major success.

Sangamo is also remarkably well-funded, with around $385 million worth of cash or cash equivalents on its balance sheet. For 2019, the company reported a net loss of $95.2 million. If expenses stay relatively the same, that would mean Sangamo has just under four years' worth of cash to keep itself afloat, more than enough time for a candidate to enter late-stage trials.

The gene-editing company also has a number of major partnerships with big names in the pharmaceutical industry, includingBiogen, Pfizer, and Sanofi. These deals can help provide additional capital as well as help manufacture and commercialize a potential candidate once it reaches late-stage trials.

Image source: Getty Images.

Peloton Interactive (NASDAQ:PTON) might not be as obscure as the other two names on this list, but it's far from being a household name either. If you've been thinking about ordering a treadmill or stationary bike at home, you've probably seen some of their products before.

With fear of the virus and government edicts keeping people at home and out of gyms, it's not surprising to see why Peloton is expecting a surge in sales.Finding ways to exercise at home has become an issue for many folks. As such, revenue from the company's bikes and treadmills is expected to surge in the coming months.

Peloton has already seen a significant increase in revenue over the past year. According to the company's recent Q4 2019 financial results, the company reported $466.3 million in revenue, a 77% increase from the $262.9 million reported in Q4 2018. It wouldn't be surprising if this upcoming quarter is even better than expected as more people avoid gyms altogether in favor of buying their own home workout equipment.

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* From Gov. Pritzkers press conference

Even though weve moved past the point of pure containment, it remains a priority to further build our testing abilities in part to understand the presence and spread of COVID 19 across the state. In our last testing announcement on the 24th, we were running about 2000 tests per day across our three state labs, our four commercial labs and our 15 hospital labs. Today were now averaging around 4000 tests per day. And in total we have now run nearly 28,000 tests here in Illinois with 30 Hospital and clinical laboratories now up and running.

Within the next 10 days we believe that we will be up to 10,000 tests per day. Again, were at 4000 today. That marker 10,000 is significant because its the number of tests per day that the scientists and experts tell us that we need to get a truly holistic understanding of the virus in each of our hundred and two counties.

Right now were working with roughly the same data that the majority of states are working with. That gives our state a rough picture of the viruses landscape across our state and in our municipalities by extrapolating the data using modeling largely based on the viruses spread in other countries. This 10,000 a day marker will give us the data to run a more mathematically significant model that offers us improved insight into how well our interventions are working. Ultimately, my goal is to reach a large enough testing capacity, where were able to test. Everyone who needs a test on a regular basis. But for right now all of the experts point to 10,000 tests as the standard that we need to achieve again.

Again, I want to be frank with you, where we are now is not where I want to be. Every day we arent hitting 10,000 tests or more is another day that were not able to get answers that help us get past this current crisis.

And to be clear though, loss of essentially the entire month of February in the effort to scale up robust testing, and the exponential spread that followed, was a profound failing of the federal government. State leaders have spent every day since then, trying to correct for this foundational mistake.

Nationally, there have been some improvements in testing, but we still have so far to go. The United States is still trailing other countries in testing on a per capita basis, several times over. In all the states we are working to fill the gap.

But the most frustrating part of this gap is, its not just in the past. The White House has promised millions of tests for weeks now and theyre just not here. To be clear, I also welcome the testing capacity when it actually arrives, but Im not going to wait on promises from the federal government that may never be fulfilled. We need this testing capacity now, so were building it ourselves in Illinois.

Heres how were getting there. All three of our state labs are running a second shift of technicians to run samples, and well be adding a third shift when we can get our hands on an even larger supply of the reagent and viral transport media, and other material elements needed beyond the swabs themselves.

Second, and this is key, were acquiring additional laboratory robotics to load our 12 real time PCR machines at a multi thousand unit increase in single day capacity. Were getting our first two machines on loan. And well have them up and running by Tuesday, and we expect the others later this week. This technology is crucial, as it replaces manual loading and shrinks down the bottleneck for results. Were working with the University of Illinois discovery partners Institute to ensure our staffing and logistics reflects this increased capacity, as well as exploring options with the Illinois State Police to utilize their manpower to move materials and equipment to maximize daily capacity at each of our three state labs.

You also might have heard that Friday, Abbott Laboratories, an Illinois company announced a portable five minute rapid test for COVID 19. That same night I picked up the phone and I spoke with the president of Abbott, and the CEO of Abbott separately to ask that Illinois be first in line. Im proud to say that they expressed their real dedication to taking care of their home state, and will be very helpful to us here in Illinois as their production ramps up. In a parallel effort, were collaborating with our university and hospital partners to ensure Illinois commercial testing can grow as fast as possible.

As for our drive-thru testing, weve added a fifth facility since our last testing update the Illinois National Guard, really truly an amazing group, the Illinois National Guard has opened up a second state run drive thru testing facility in McLean county yesterday, joining our Harwood heights community based testing site in northwest Chicago, and the three federal HHS sites in Bolingbrook North Lake and Joliet. Our state run sites have been a huge success. And in addition to our McLean county site. Were investigating additional areas around the state to launch potential drive thru locations symptomatic first responders healthcare workers seniors and all people with underlying health conditions will be able to visit these sites.

* Federal red tape and delays

Still, due to the federal government requiring federal personnel representation at our two state drive throughs we remain tied to a 250 test cap at each of these locations. We know theres greater need at our longer running Harwood Heights site. Weve been hitting 250 tests by just the early afternoon, and having to turn people away. Wed like to be able to test more than 400 people a day at these sites and think that we can. We have the capacity to do so. So were pushing the federal government to change their requirements and allow us to test more than 250 people were turning people away that we just shouldnt have to. And we asked the federal government to remove their restriction.

Were also pressuring the federal government on the return timelines of these tests. The private labs contracted by the federal government are taking four to seven days, sometimes even up to 10 days to turn around results. That is far too long. Were doing it much faster in the state of Illinois, with the capacity that we have.

* Evictions

Were seeing news stories out of other states about nurses being thrown out of apartments or are denied the ability to rent their apartments out of fear of exposure by other tenants. Weve not yet specifically heard of instances like that here in Illinois. But let me be very clear, that will not be tolerated in our state. I want to remind everyone that evictions are prohibited during this disaster to begin with. But I also want to make sure that landlords are not inappropriately terminating leases. So let me say this here in Illinois we are fortunate to have a very strong community of attorneys that are ready to fight for nurses and for all healthcare workers to make sure that their rights are protected. If any healthcare workers encounter this situation. They should immediately contact the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law for assistance.

* On to questions for the governor. Why havent construction projects been halted? Some are complaining that they are working too close together on the sites

Well, its certainly up to the companies that are doing the construction to make sure that people are social distancing that are working there. There should be an opportunity at most construction sites to do that. But to the extent that theyre not able to, that is a concern certainly for me and it should be for the owners of the companies that people are operating those construction sites. So anybody that is concerned about that certainly should be reporting that to the Department of Public Health or letting my administration know, because there is, remember that much of what is being done is essential work thats been determined at least as essential under our order and we dont want anybody to be at risk but but we also want to make sure that were, you know, continuing the necessary work across the state. So please, anybody thats experiencing that should let us know.

Again, please pardon all typos.

* Asked about closures of local parks and forest preserves

Those decisions are being made on a city by city, county by county basis, and should be by the locals there.

* Reached the peak?

No we have not hit the peak here in Chicago, or in the state of Illinois and were going to continue to see an increase unfortunately of cases, and likely deaths.

* There have been a lot of reports nationally about the PPE shelf life extension program. Has the federal government let Illinois extend the shelf life of COVID 19 intensive supplies and how big is that stockpile?

All of the PPE that we have in the state anything that is expired or deemed to be expired is being checked its being sampled and checked. According to the regulations for extending that shelf life so were trying to be very careful about any PPE thats being distributed that has any extension and making sure that were keeping our healthcare workers safe. I should also add though that were running through PPE at a reasonable clip across the state. Were also acquiring millions of units PPE. Most of what we are acquiring is being shipped out to locations where theyre running through the PPE so I would expect that in many places theyll be using the PPE that was recently acquired recently manufactured. And were going to continue to make those acquisitions, so youll be seeing even more PPE but weve checked with all of our local health departments and continue to talk to the hospitals and health care centers to make sure that the end nursing homes and other locations where we need PP to make sure that people have what they need. And that were supplying them with anything that they may need, especially in the near future.

* Governor, people downstate need to hear from you in person. And provided you and your staff can travel safely without becoming ill, when will you be back downstate?

I appreciate the question and I always love to be in downstate Illinois. I was there just a week ago I think, it seems like about a month or two ago, but thats the way time is moving right now. In Murphysboro, in Springfield, and elsewhere and I am in Carbondale, so Im going to, I am not reticent to travel. And I certainly will try to find a moment in the near future.

I would just remind you, though, that the virus has been so severe in North Eastern Illinois in the in Chicago in the collar counties. Ive tried to make sure that Ive been on hand to make decisions here about the thousands and thousands of people that have been affected here, while also looking seriously at the areas of the state like St Clair and Madison counties, like Jackson County Peoria and Champaign where theres been a rising number of cases. But Im glad somebody asked and Im always glad to travel and I will do so and sometime in the near future.

* The University of Washington projected the COVID 19 apex in Illinois at April 16, and forecasted 2454 deaths by August. Do those figures and other data in this analysis align with the current state projections?

We have our own statisticians and and modelers that along with the scientists and experts here, we have now taken that University of Washington data and melded in some of the conclusions that they reached, looked at the data sets that they had, and tried to make sure that were doing the right thing in terms of our modeling here in Illinois. Were not concluded, every day theres new information that goes into these models. But I think that it is fair to say that most of the models that Ive seen and weve seen a number of them show that well be peaking sometime in April in Illinois. And were not yet close to that, you know, we have weeks to go.

* Is it a foregone conclusion that our medical infrastructure will be vastly overwhelmed in a few weeks? What are you going to do about it?

Oh my goodness. That is my number one concern is to make sure that we dont have our medical capacity overwhelmed. But I must say when you look at New York, when you look at other places in the country, and you see how fast the beds are filling, the ICU beds, hospitalizations and so on. You cant help but feel that they have been running as hard as they can to create capacity and to mitigate and put in orders.

So, in terms of the mitigation efforts that we put in place, I am pleased that we were able to be early, or at least to do it as quickly as possible. And that has helped us to drop the number of cases that we think will hit the hospitals going forward.

But I must tell you that theres not enough capacity today. That is why you see us building out facilities across the state, thats why you see us putting in triage centers. Were building, our national guardsmen and others are putting up tents and other facilities at 10s of dozens of hospitals across the state to make sure that were able to keep people separate, that the epidemic doesnt fly through an emergency room for example. And then were building out capacity at some hospitals to just literally add beds in an on to facilities that already exist, and then McCormick Place and the hospitals that were looking to turn on in the next couple of weeks.

* Question for IDPH Director: If you dont have adequate testing yet and were already roughly halfway through the stay at home order, then how do we measure the rate of transmission? Do we have any evidence to suggest that the spread is slowing?

In addition to testing, we also have the hospital data. Every day, we collect the number of people who are admitted with COVID disease, who have coded like disease, who maybe havent had their testing. Were checking the amount of people with these illnesses that require ICU admission that require the use of a ventilator. And so following those numbers as well, that gives us a track and actual good data in terms of how this is growing and how this is spreading and how our capacity might be reached and how much more we will need. So those data are additional data points that we can use for the modeling that can supplement what we dont have with widespread testing.

-30-

Adding I shouldve added this. The question for the IDPH Director was: What information can you tell us about the nine month old who has died? Is it known how the baby contracted the virus, have the parents tested positive? And what is the status of the other infant who tested positive?

The investigation of the infant that we reported about yesterday is still very fresh. We are trying to gather all the data before speaking. I know that theres a lot of concern as hearing about the death of an infant who also had COVID. And so we really want to get a complete report.

Gov. Pritzker also responded

I would remind parents out there that this is highly uncommon. I mean, it really is highly uncommon. That isnt to say that that every infant is safe, but it just is. Its so uncommon that, at least when I started to do the work and listen to the experts about it, I got at least some comfort in the idea that this is not something that we should expect to hear a lot more of, because its just not happening very often at all.

* Some hospitals nationally are continuing to do elective surgeries because they have to worry about their bottom line. How does that fit in with the coronavirus directives in Illinois?

Well, first of all, we, you know, we had to make space for theres an elective surgery somebody can put off, then we had to ask people to do that. And we realized that it has a financial impact on hospitals. But I have to say, first to the credit of the hospitals, that was not their primary concern when they heard that we were considering it they understood that we needed to do this. And many of them wanted to let us know how quickly they could get to a state where theyre not doing elective surgeries. And so Im very proud of those institutions and I thank them very much for their willingness. There is a significant financial impact on the hospitals and thats why the last relief package had a large amount over 100 billion dollars. That was dedicated to hospitals and health centers precisely in part because the impact of COVID 19 on hospitals, has been, I mean, you know, severe, and theyre doing the work anyway theyre theyre doing it and theyre, you know theyre losing money doing everything that theyre doing, but theyre saving peoples lives and Im so grateful for that were gonna work very hard with our federal delegation to help take care of the hospitals that have stepped up. All of them have

Originally posted here:
Your Illinois News Radar Pritzker says 4,000 tests per day being done, 10K tests per day in ten days - Bemoans federal red tape - Warns landlords...

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

This article was originally published here

Trends in disease incidence and survival and their effect on mortality in Scotland: nationwide cohort study of linked hospital admission and death records 2001-2016.

BMJ Open. 2020 Mar 25;10(3):e034299

Authors: Timmers PRHJ, Kerssens JJ, Minton J, Grant I, Wilson JF, Campbell H, Fischbacher CM, Joshi PK

AbstractOBJECTIVES: Identify causes and future trends underpinning Scottish mortality improvements and quantify the relative contributions of disease incidence and survival.DESIGN: Population-based study.SETTING: Linked secondary care and mortality records across Scotland.PARTICIPANTS: 1967130 individuals born between 1905 and 1965 and resident in Scotland from 2001 to 2016.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Hospital admission rates and survival within 5years postadmission for 28 diseases, stratified by sex and socioeconomic status.RESULTS: Influenza and pneumonia, Symptoms and signs involving circulatory and respiratory systems and Malignant neoplasm of respiratory and intrathoracic organs were the hospital diagnosis groupings associated with most excess deaths, being both common and linked to high postadmission mortality. Using disease trends, we modelled a mean mortality HR of 0.737 (95% CI 0.730 to 0.745) from one decade of birth to the next, equivalent to a life extension of ~3 years per decade. This improvement was 61% (30%-93%) accounted for by improved disease survival after hospitalisation (principally cancer) with the remainder accounted for by lowered hospitalisation incidence (principally heart disease and cancer). In contrast, deteriorations in infectious disease incidence and survival increased mortality by 9% (~3.3 months per decade). Disease-driven mortality improvements were slightly greater for men than women (due to greater falls in disease incidence), and generally similar across socioeconomic deciles. We project mortality improvements will continue over the next decade but slow by 21% because much progress in disease survival has already been achieved.CONCLUSION: Morbidity improvements broadly explain observed mortality improvements, with progress on prevention and treatment of heart disease and cancer contributing the most. The male-female health gaps are closing, but those between socioeconomic groups are not. Slowing improvements in morbidity may explain recent stalling in improvements of UK period life expectancies. However, these could be offset if we accelerate improvements in the diseases accounting for most deaths and counteract recent deteriorations in infectious disease.

PMID: 32217562 [PubMed as supplied by publisher]

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Trends in disease incidence and survival and their effect on mortality in Scotland: nationwide cohort study of linked hospital admission and death...

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Facts and Factors (FnF), A leading market research firm published the latest report on "Cell and Gene Therapy Consumables Market By Product Type (Kits & Buffers, Diagnostic Assay, Culture Medium, and Cryopreservation Media) and By Application/ Therapeutics (Cardiovascular, Urology, Dermatology, Critical Care, Respiratory, Endocrine & Metabolic, Neuroscience, Hematology & Oncology, Obstetrics, Immunology, and Gastroenterology): Global Industry Perspective, Comprehensive Analysis, and Forecast, 2018 2027" which includes 180+ research pages for the forecast period. The Cell and Gene Therapy Consumables market report offers comprehensive research updates and information related to market growth, demand, and opportunities in the global Cell and Gene Therapy Consumables market.

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Amgen Inc., ATLANTA BIOLOGICALS, bluebird bio, Inc., Cook, Dendreon Pharmaceuticals, LLC, Fibrocell Science, Inc., General Electric, Kolon TissueGene, Inc., Orchard Therapeutics plc., Pfizer, Inc., PromoCell GmbH, RENOVA THERAPEUTICS, Sibiono GeneTech Co. Ltd., Spark Therapeutics, Inc., Vericel, Helixmith Co., Ltd., and Vitrolife

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Cell and Gene Therapy Consumables Market 2020 Industry Analysis, Segmentation, Competitive Landscape, Regional Outlook and Forecast to 2027 - Global...

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

There is always a well-known solution to every human problem neat, plausible, and wrong.From Prejudices (1920) by H L Mencken

There has never been a problem facing mankind more complex than understanding our own human nature. And no shortage of neat, plausible, and wrong answers purporting to plumb its depths.

Having treated many thousands of psychiatric patients in my career, and having worked on the American Psychiatric Associations efforts to classify psychiatric symptoms (published as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM-IV and DSM-5), I can affirm confidently that there are no neat answers in psychiatry. The best we can do is embrace an ecumenical four-dimensional model that includes all possible contributors to human functioning: the biological, the psychological, the social, and the spiritual. Reducing people to just one element their brain functioning, or their psychological tendencies, or their social context, or their struggle for meaning results in a flat, distorted image that leaves out more than it can capture.

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) was established in 1949 by the federal government in the United States with the practical goal of providing an objective, thorough, nationwide analysis and reevaluation of the human and economic problems of mental health. Until 30 years ago, the NIMH appreciated the need for this well-rounded approach and maintained a balanced research budget that covered an extraordinarily wide range of topics and techniques.

But in 1990, the NIMH suddenly and radically switched course, embarking on what it tellingly named the Decade of the Brain. Ever since, the NIMH has increasingly narrowed its focus almost exclusively to brain biology leaving out everything else that makes us human, both in sickness and in health. Having largely lost interest in the plight of real people, the NIMH could now more accurately be renamed the National Institute of Brain Research.

Read: [How tech is helping brain-injured patients with decision-making]

This misplaced reductionism arose from the availability of spectacular research tools (eg, the Human Genome Project, functional magnetic resonance imaging, molecular biology, and machine learning) combined with the naive belief that brain biology could eventually explain all aspects of mental functioning. The results have been a grand intellectual adventure, but a colossal clinical flop. We have acquired a fantastic window into gene and brain functioning, but little to help clinical practice.

The more we learn about genetics and the brain, the more impossibly complicated both reveal themselves to be. We have picked no low-hanging fruit after three decades and $50 billion because there simply is no low-hanging fruit to pick. The human brain has around 86 billion neurons, each communicating with thousands of others via hundreds of chemical modulators, leading to trillions of potential connections. No wonder it reveals its secrets only very gradually and in a piecemeal fashion.

Genetics offers the same baffling complexity. For instance, variation in more than 100 genes contributes to vulnerability to schizophrenia, with each gene contributing just the tiniest bit, and interacting in the most impossibly complicated ways with other genes, and also with the physical and social environment. Even more discouraging, the same genes are often implicated in vulnerability to multiple mental disorders defeating any effort to establish specificity. The almost endless permutations will defeat any easy genetic answers, no matter how many decades and billions we invest.

The NIMH has boxed itself into a badly unbalanced research portfolio. Playing with cool brain and gene research toys trumps the much harder and less intellectually rewarding task of helping real people.

Contrast this current NIMH failure with a great success story from NIMHs distant past. One of the high points of my career was sitting on the NIMH granting committee that funded psychotherapy studies in the 1980s. We helped to support the US psychologist Marsha Linehans research that led her to develop dialectical behavior therapy; the US psychiatrist Aaron T Becks development of cognitive therapy; along with numerous other investigators and themes. Subsequent studies have established that psychotherapy is as effective as medications for mild-to-moderate depression, anxiety, and other psychiatric problems, and avoids the burden of medication side-effects and complications. Many millions of people around the world have already been helped by NIMH psychotherapy research.

In a rational world, the NIMH would continue to fund a robust psychotherapy research budget and promote its use as a public-health initiative to reduce the current massive overprescription of psychiatric medication in the US. Brief psychotherapy would be the first-line treatment of most psychiatric problems that require intervention. Drug treatments would be reserved for severe psychiatric problems and for those people who havent responded sufficiently to watchful waiting or psychotherapy.

Unfortunately, we dont live in a rational world. Drug companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year influencing politicians, marketing misleadingly to doctors, and pushing pharmaceutical treatments on the public. They successfully sold the fake marketing jingle that all emotional symptoms are due to a chemical imbalance in the brain and therefore all require a pill solution. The result: 20% of US citizens use psychotropic drugs, most of which are no more than expensive placebos, all of which can produce harmful side-effects.

Drug companies are commercial Goliath with enormous political and economic power. Psychotherapy is a tiny David with no marketing budget; no salespeople mobbing doctors offices; no TV ads; no internet pop-ups; no influence with politicians or insurance companies. No surprise then that the NIMHs neglect of psychotherapy research has been accompanied by its neglect in clinical practice. And the NIMHs embrace of biological reductionism provides an unintended and unwarranted legitimization of the drug-company promotion that there is a pill for every problem.

A balanced NIMH budget would go a long way toward correcting the two biggest mental-health catastrophes of today. Studies comparing psychotherapy versus medication for a wide variety of mild to moderate mental disorders would help to level the playing field for the two, and eventually reduce our massive overdependence on drug treatments for nonexistent chemical imbalances. Health service research is desperately needed to determine best practices to help people with severe mental illness avoid incarceration and homelessness, and also escape from them.

The NIMH is entitled to keep an eye on the future, but not at the expense of the desperate needs of the present. Brain research should remain an important part of a balanced NIMH agenda, not its sole preoccupation. After 30 years of running down a bio-reductionistic blind alley, it is long past time for the NIMH to consider a biopsychosocial reset, and to rebalance its badly uneven research portfolio.

This article was originally published at Aeonby Allen Frances and has been republished under Creative Commons.

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The distorted idea of 'cool' brain research is stifling psychotherapy - The Next Web

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Human beings are a highlyadaptable bunch of bipeds, being able to swiftly change their lifestyles, clothes, hair, chewing gum brands, and political opinionsas the wind blows.But none of us are capable of intentionally altering our own genetic code as this superpowered species ofsquid has demonstrated!

In what could one day be used to affect gene-editing medicines and therapies to cure diseases in people, a new research paper publishedthis weekin the onlinejournalNucleic Acids Researchpresents evidence that a particular species of longfin inshore squid (Doryteuthis pealeii), commonly used as bait fish, isthe first-ever animal known to changemessenger RNAoutside of the cell nucleus.Most all creatures on this planet enact changes to their DNA from the cell nucleus via messenger RNA, but this crafty little oceanic creature takes a unique shortcut.

Scientists working out of the famous Woods HoleMarine Biological Laboratory inMassachusetts found that this extreme RNA editing process occurs withinthe squid on a fantasticscale, using over60,000 brain cells, and dwarfing the hundreds of similar sites registering in humans.

Joshua Rosenthal, a seniorscientist at Woods Hole,together withcolleagues from Tel Aviv University and the University of Colorado at Denver theorizethat thismethod of recodingallowsthe squid to better adapt to rapidly fluctuatingenvironmental conditions likewater temperature.This revolutionary RNA editing takes place inside the squids axon, the elongatedsectionof the brain cell that transmits electrical signals to neighboringneurons. Reformulatingtheir RNA outside the nucleus lets these squidmore effectively change protein function nearerto the segmentof the body that requires adaptation.

It works by this massive tweaking of its nervous system, Rosenthal explains. Which is a really novel way of going through life.

The implicationfor applications and exploration within today's gene-tweaking Crispr-centric technologies for fighting human ailments are enormous, sincethe squid does this type ofediting with messenger RNA instead ofDNA.Crispr medical research involvesirreversible changes inDNA, but due to the diminishing aspects ofunused messenger RNA, temporary errors includedby a certain genetherapy would be wiped away as opposed to remaining within someone's body permanently.

If you have some faulty information inside of your genomesay, you inherited a nucleotide base from your parents, and normally its a G [guanine] and its an A [adenine] in youthen you could potentially change it back by editing the RNA, Rosenthal notes, pointing toa pair ofbuilding blocks that compriseRNA. "RNA editing is a hell of a lot safer than DNA editing. If you make a mistake, the RNA just turns over and goes away."

So next time you order the calamari, remember that a member of your tasty squid's extended family could one day help in improving the health and vitality of all humanity. Now please pass the salt and melted butter!

More:
Crazy calamari! This superpowered squid can change its own genetic code - SYFY WIRE

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Glen Allen Mar 29, 2020 (Thomson StreetEvents) -- Edited Transcript of Precigen Inc earnings conference call or presentation Monday, March 2, 2020 at 10:30:00pm GMT

Precigen, Inc. - President & CEO

Precigen, Inc. - VP of IR

H.C. Wainwright & Co, LLC, Research Division - MD of Equity Research & Senior Healthcare Analyst

Good day, and welcome to the Precigen Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Please note that this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Steven Harasym. Please go ahead, sir.

Steven Harasym, Precigen, Inc. - VP of IR [2]

Thank you, operator. Welcome to the Precigen Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2019 Business and Update Call. I'm Steven Harasym, Vice President of Investor Relations. And I'm pleased to be joined today by Dr. Helen Sabzevari, President and CEO of Precigen; and Tom Samuelson, Vice President of Finance.

During today's call, as seen on Slide 2, we will make various forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that our forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those indicated by our forward-looking statements. Please read the safe harbor statement contained in this presentation as well as in Precigen most recent SEC filings for a more complete discussion of these risks and uncertainties. I would now like to turn the call over to Dr. Helen Sabzevari. Helen?

Helen Sabzevari, Precigen, Inc. - President & CEO [3]

Thank you, Steve. Please go to Slide 3. I'm extremely pleased to be here today as we have made great progress even since our last public presentation at JP Morgan Health Care Conference in early January. We enter 2020 with renewed optimism about our ability to deliver on our aggressive goals and add value to shareholders.

Precigen's mission is to improve patient care through innovative gene and cell therapy-based approaches. I will review our carefully curated portfolio of unique solutions to unmet needs in health in greater detail. Our approaches are novel and designed to treat conditions that are both difficult to treat and have limited treatment options for patients.

Before we give a quick recap of the divestments and transactions that enabled us to advance towards our goal of becoming a dedicated health care company, I thought it would be useful to provide a recap of how far we have come in such a short time, as shown in Slide 3. In Q4 of 2018, we started on the path to becoming a stand-alone health care company by reacquiring the rights to our oncology assets from our former partners. In just under a year, we advanced 2 programs from inception into the clinic and developed a pipeline of promising product candidates in immuno-oncology, autoimmunity and infectious diseases. We also took the necessary steps to expand on an already robust IP estate. Finally, we consolidated the majority of our operation in our Maryland headquarters and continue to bolster our scientific team here.

We believe the transactions that occurred over the last several months put us firmly on the path to being able to devote our resources to advance our health care assets and become a major player in the gene and cell therapy field. As you may recall, this included divesting the majority of Intrexon's non-health care assets, my appointment as a CEO, and name change from Intrexon to Precigen, and associated stock ticker change to PGEN. We also sold our position in AquaBounty for approximately $21.6 million; sold our 50% interest in EnviroFlight to our former partner, Darling Ingredients for $12.2 million; completed the sale of several assets, including our non-health subsidiaries, Oxitec, Okanagan Specialty Fruits and AgBio and ILH Holdings for a combined $53 million-plus certain contingent payment rights. These now divested non-health businesses accounted for $46 million in net cash operating expenses and capital expenditure in 2019 and raised $35 million in capital through the issuance of equity.

Through the financial transaction, we achieved our previously stated cash position goals, allowing the company to deliver on several value-creating milestones in 2020. Furthermore, we are happy to report that the going concern qualifier has been removed from our financial statement. Based on a combination of our cash position and reduced spending, we anticipate current capital on hand will allow us to operate well into 2021.

In light of our transition to a more health-focused company, we are evaluating all aspects of our operating structure and will provide updates in our next quarterly call. Concurrently, I want to acknowledge the contributions of General Bostick, COO and President of Intrexon Bioengineering; and Tom Reed, Founder and CFO of Intrexon, both of whom are no longer at the company. We thank them for their contribution and services.

Moving ahead, I want to share how we plan to manage Precigen going forward on the next slide. Slide 4, please. With our focus firmly on health care, we have aligned the entire company to operate in accordance with 4 key principles. First is adhering to strict fiscal responsibility. We will responsibly allocate capital to maximize value creation for stakeholders. Fiscal responsibility for us is not just about saving, maintaining cash and cutting costs. It is also about allocating resources to the right areas to create value. You will note that in 2019, we spent $43.7 million on our 2 most advanced health care subsidiaries, Precigen and ActoBio. Collectively, the health portfolio spent significantly lower than our non-health portfolio.

The second operating principle is actively managing our portfolio with a strict adherence to data-driven go and no-go decisions. Third is focusing on rapid execution, moving our valuable portfolio of assets quickly into the clinic and advancing them into registration-enabling studies in accordance with the appropriate scientific, clinical and manufacturing standards. And finally, forming a strategic partnership to advance or divest assets in our portfolio where appropriate, noting our fiduciary duty to operate in the best interest of shareholders.

Since January, we have aligned our portfolio, streamlined our operations and optimized our organizational structures to improve operational efficiency, especially at the corporate level. We will continue to take additional efficiency measures across the organization, and we'll update you on our progress. I strongly believe that the most important way we can deliver value to shareholders is to create value to patients through rapid development of novel therapeutics that are safe, effective and address unmet medical needs in a fiscally responsible manner.

Before moving on to a review of the anticipated 2020 milestones for Precigen, on the next slide, we want to discuss our strategy for the remaining non-health assets. Slide 5, please. Our subsidiary MBP Titan's technology platform has the potential to upgrade natural gas to higher value carbon output through our Methane Bioconversion Platform. As we prioritize our health portfolio, the Board of Directors and I are committed to significantly reducing our non-health spending, specifically for MBP.

To this end, we have already implemented efficiency measures at MVP to achieve this goal and have already significantly reduced their capital requirements compared to last year. We will continue to evaluate further efficiency measures that support its ongoing operations while establishing clear fiscal guardrails on spending.

Our goal is to partner or ultimately sell this business. Whatever we do will be in the long-term interest of our stakeholders and adherence to our mission. We will continue to update you on our decision when we have new information to share.

Another non-health business in our portfolio, Trans Ova, is the industry leader in advanced reproductive technologies for the cattle industry. We considered divestiture of this non-health business, but ultimately elected to retain it because we believe it has more value than the offers we received.

Nevertheless, we continue to strategically evaluate options for this business. In the meantime, however, we have implemented efficiency and cost reduction measures, such that we will not contribute any additional capital towards Trans Ova and expect Trans Ova to return to being a net contributor of capital to Precigen this year.

Moving to the next slide. You can see the breadth of our health care organization. Slide 6, please. The new Precigen enters 2020 with a promising portfolio of investigational gene and cell therapies. Under the new 1 Precigen umbrella is our transformative UltraCAR-T, AdenoVerse immunotherapy and ActoBiotics Therapeutic platforms, which share a focus on developing innovative therapies in immuno-oncology, infectious diseases and autoimmune disorders. We also are advancing an innovative approach from our subsidiary, Triple-Gene, in heart failure.

Slide 7, please. Moving to the next slide, we see the breadth and the value of our clinical portfolio, which includes our internal as well as partnered programs, including later-stage assets in Phase II and Phase III clinical trials. Two important things to remember about our portfolio are that: first, we are advancing unique programs that represent substantial therapeutic class innovation; and second, we expect most of these programs to have important data readouts in 2020.

Following the release of new data, we intend to assess and further prioritize our pipeline to optimize cash resources. Beyond this clinical pipeline, we also have a portfolio of novel preclinical assets that will be assessed and funded according to strict science and data development analysis. Our most significant role for preclinical assets for 2020 is to initiate a Phase I trial of PRGN-2009, our new off-the-shelf AdenoVerse immunotherapy in HPV-positive cancers.

Slide 8, please. Before reviewing our many exciting milestones for 2020, I want to take a few moments on the next slide to provide an overview of one of our most promising therapeutic platforms, UltraCAR-T. We believe it holds the promise to revolutionize the CAR-T landscape and provide benefits to patients and the health care system at large for the following reasons. First, unlike conventional CAR-T, UltraCAR-T cells do not require lentivirus and long ex vivo expansion in manufacturing facilities. Instead, UltraCAR-T uses nonviral, rapid, overnight manufacturing at hospital. This overnight manufacturing brings the potential for repeat dosing of UltraCAR-T to patients as well. This manufacturing approach, we believe, brings the convenience of allogeneic CAR-T administration to autologous CAR-T treatment without the potential risk associated with the allogeneic CAR-T therapy.

Second, unlike conventional CAR-T, UltraCAR-T cells express membrane-bound IL-15, which provides higher potential to expand and persist in vivo and to maintain a younger, less differentiated state.

Conventional CAR-T cells have limited potential for expansion after administration due to long manufacturing process that requires T cell activation and expansion outside the body.

Allogeneic CAR-T cells are even more limited in their persistence potential since they are foreign and risk rejection by patients' immune system and the occurrence of the graft-versus-host disease.

Furthermore, allogeneic CAR-T cells requires severe lymphodepletion of patients, which also limits antigen-spreading potential. We believe membrane-bound IL-15 provides our UltraCAR-T cells with a higher potential for expansion and persistence in patients after administration than conventional CAR-T.

Third, we have built our UltraCAR-T platform such that all modified T cells express a kill switch. This engineering provides us with an ability to selectively eliminate UltraCAR-T cells by administration of a kill switch activator in the event of toxicity, thus improving the safety profile.

With the potential to advance precision medicine and disrupt the current CAR-T landscape, our vision for the UltraCAR-T platform is to build and validate a library of UltraCAR vectors to provide personalized autologous CAR-T treatment for any cancer patients in a rapid and cost-conscious manner. During 2020, we expect to report numerous data sets and achieve new milestones.

Slide 9, please. Looking at our advanced assets,

3005 is the first UltraCAR-T in solid tumors, targeting ovarian cancer in Phase I clinical study. We currently are enrolling the second cohort for the IP arm. To date, we continue to have 100% manufacturing success and the preliminary findings regarding UltraCAR-T kinetics, which includes expansion and persistence in patients treated in the lowest dose cohort are very encouraging. We know that everyone is eager to see these early data points, and we share their excitement. We will continue to evaluate the appropriate time to provide additional details. Presently, we expect to provide an initial readout from the IP arm in the second half of 2020. We are also planning to present preclinical data for 3005 at an upcoming medical meeting later this year.

Slide 10, please. 3006 is the first UltraCAR-T therapy be evaluated in hematological cancers. We recently received orphan drug status from the FDA for this program. We are currently enrolling the second cohort for the non-lymphodepletion arm and the first cohort for the lymphodepletion arm. As with 3005, we continue to have 100% manufacturing success and the preliminary findings regarding UltraCAR-T kinetics from the trial are very encouraging. We expect to provide an initial data readout in the second half of 2020.

We are very excited about the Phase II trial for AG013 for oral mucositis in head and neck cancer with our partner Oragenics as we believe that it will further validate our ActoBiotics platform across multiple indications. Using our platform in partnership with Oragenics, we are targeting oral mucositis, a severe and painful side effect of chemoradiation therapy, especially in patients with head and neck cancer. There are currently no drugs approved to prevent this condition in the cancer patient population. As a result, the FDA has given this program Fast Track status, which validates the urgent need for a treatment. AG013 is formulated as an oral rinse and used as mouthwash to deliver the trefoil factor 1 gene, which prevents mucosal tissue damage and induces subsequent repair of the lining of the mouth. Based on the encouraging Phase I data, AG013 is currently in a Phase II trial. Enrollment in this study was completed in the fourth quarter of 2019, and we are looking forward to reporting interim data from the Phase II trial in the first half of 2020. We also expect to report interim data from an ongoing clinical trial of AG019 in type I diabetes patients. AG019 is a first-in-class disease-modifying antigen-specific immunotherapy for the prevention, delay or reversal of type 1 diabetes with encouraging results in preclinical studies. Currently, AG019 is in a Phase Ib/IIa trial. The Phase IIa portion of the trial is now enrolling, and interim data readout is expected in the third quarter of 2020.

Another exciting asset in our portfolio is INXN-4001, a novel gene therapy for heart failure patients, which is being developed by our majority-owned Triple-Gene subsidiary. We expect to complete the trial by the end of 2020. 2009 is an off-the-shelf AdenoVerse immunotherapy product candidate designed to activate the immune system to recognize and target HPV-positive solid tumors. This program is currently under development through a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement or CRADA with Dr. Jeffrey Schlom, a world renowned investigator in immuno-oncology at the NCI. We expect the NCI to start dosing patients in 2020.

I'll now turn the call over to Tom Samuelson to provide a financial update.

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Tom Samuelson, [4]

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Thank you, Helen, and good evening, everyone. There are 3 key points that I would like to address today. First, as Helen mentioned, we've made material progress in narrowing the company's focus to our core health care programs and reducing our other capital requirements. A critical component of this pivot was the divestiture of a number of our legacy bioengineering assets, including our shares in AquaBounty for $86.8 million plus certain contingent payment rights, and the sale of $35 million of our common stock. The business is sold in these recent transactions accounted for $46 million in 2019 segment adjusted EBITDA losses, capital that can be redeployed towards our health care assets in 2020. Please recall that segment EBITDA, which is more fully defined in our 10-K, is generally the sum of net cash operating expenses and capital expenditures. The proceeds from these transactions, combined with the company's cash and short-term investments on hand, provide sufficient capital to remove the going concern qualification from our 2019 financial statements. We've adjusted our 2019 and prior financial statements to reflect the effects of these businesses as discontinued operations.

Second, we reported fourth quarter and full year 2019 revenues of $17 million and $90.7 million and consolidated financial results from continuing operations, as we continued our shift from the business model focused on collaboration and licensing revenues to one wholly focused on our internal programs primarily in human health. Despite pivoting away from a collaboration model, we continue to own the rights to certain legacy milestones and royalties. Any of these, if successful, could result in additional sources of capital for us without requiring any further obligations on our part.

Fourth quarter and full year segment EBITDA losses including corporate costs, were $37.8 million and $144.4 million, respectively. These annual losses included only $30.2 million at Precigen and $13.7 million at ActoBio. Among our retained bioengineering entities, MBP Titan and Trans Ova Genetics accounted for $36.7 million and $6.3 million, respectively. As Helen mentioned, we are fully committed to reducing spend at these entities and have already implemented efficiencies that should substantially reduce their capital requirements going forward. I would further highlight that the aforementioned $46 million in segment EBITDA losses from transacted assets does not include an allocation of general corporate costs, which we do not allocate to particular segments. More details on segment information can be found in the financial discussion in our 10-K.

Third, the 2019 consolidated loss attributable to Precigen shareholders of $322.3 million or $2.09 per share includes $116.2 million or $0.75 per share associated with the discontinued operations. We further incurred a noncash impairment charge of $29.6 million for the write-down of goodwill associated with our Trans Ova Genetics subsidiary.

As discussed, we've initiated efforts in 2020 to improve the financial performance of Trans Ova Genetics going forward.

In concluding the financial component of our call, I will again reiterate that Precigen is wholly committed to deploying our precious capital towards our highest value health care assets in 2020 and beyond. We look forward to providing regular updates as our targeted value-generating milestones are achieved.

I would now like to turn the call back to Helen for concluding remarks.

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Helen Sabzevari, Precigen, Inc. - President & CEO [5]

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Thank you, Tom. In closing our call today, I want to confirm our optimism about Precigen's potential to transform the health care landscape with our innovative and focused portfolio. I think you will agree that there has never been a more exciting and promising time at Precigen. As Precigen's CEO, you have my commitment to manage our company in a financially prudent, fiscally disciplined and transparent manner with the paramount goal of achieving our mission to bring novel treatment options to patients. If we do this, all of our stakeholders will benefit.

With that, we'll now open the line for questions. Operator, please begin.

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Questions and Answers

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Operator [1]

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(Operator Instructions) Our first question will come from Jason Butler of JMP Securities.

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Jason Nicholas Butler, JMP Securities LLC, Research Division - MD and Senior Research Analyst [2]

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Helen, first one, just on the UltraCAR-T trials for both 3005 and 3006, can you frame for us how we should think about the readouts later this year in terms of patient numbers and maturity of data? And maybe if not specifically in terms of numbers, then in terms of how it could inform next steps or potentially progression to pivotal studies?

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Helen Sabzevari, Precigen, Inc. - President & CEO [3]

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Thank you, Jason. Actually, we are very excited for this upcoming interim data. First of all, in regards to the ovarian cancer, the IP arm and in regard to the AML that we have non-lymphodepletion arm to report. As you might have seen in our slides, our trials currently are 3 plus 3 plus 3, there are 3 doses. And as we finish these doses, we obviously will be reporting on the safety and dose, which are the paramount aspects of the Phase I. But at the same token, as we have always emphasized what is the most important thing for us is also show that our manufacturing in vivo directing patients to show the persistence and also the expansion of T cells. So we are looking forward to show some of the interim data by the second half of 2020. And it's quite exciting for us as we go through this journey, and we continue to then expand these patients to Phase Ib.

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Jason Nicholas Butler, JMP Securities LLC, Research Division - MD and Senior Research Analyst [4]

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Great. And then I had a question on AG013 and the interim results upcoming. How should we think about the magnitude of treatment effect here in terms of what would be clinically important to patients? And then in terms of the oral mucositis endpoint, can you just talk to us about subjectivity of the endpoint and how you're controlling for that? And any expectations for either reduction in analgesic use or potential for prolong radiation dose?

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Helen Sabzevari, Precigen, Inc. - President & CEO [5]

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Absolutely. Thank you. So our -- actually, the AG013 is a very exciting program for the platform of ActoBio. As you know, that ActoBio platform uses our elective delivery mechanisms for delivering different proteins, specifically to the mucosal linings. In the case of the oral mucositis, this is a devastating disease especially after the treatment of head and neck cancer patients with chemo and radiation. There are tremendous ulcers in the mouth, which is quite painful, and currently, there is really no treatment for this.

In the Phase I of the study that was done, we have designed the [elastics] in such a way that it delivers a gene that protects and also stimulates the lining of the mucosal lining of the mouth. And we had a very exciting results in the first Phase I showing reduction in the ulcers and actually the level of the pain. And now we have entered and actually finished enrollment of the patients in 2019 in a Phase II that it's done in a randomized fashion. So there is a placebo arm versus the treatment arm, which is quite important. And one aspect that is quite exciting based on the Phase I data, FDA has given us a Fast Track for this indication currently. And this is -- would be the first proof of this platform actually for ActoBio, which we also have exciting trial ongoing in the T1D, type 1 diabetes, which we are anticipating to actually report on in second half of 2020 using a similar actually platform, but delivering a proinsulin, and as well as IL-10, which suppresses the immune system, but actually, it helps the onset of -- it reduces onset of diabetes, and we had a very encouraging preclinical data, the Phase I data and now the Phase IIa will be reported in second half.

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Jason Nicholas Butler, JMP Securities LLC, Research Division - MD and Senior Research Analyst [6]

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Okay, great. That's helpful. And then just 1 last financial question, and sorry if I missed this in the prepared comments. But should we expect any further reorganization charges? And if so, how should we think about those in terms of cash versus noncash spend?

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Helen Sabzevari, Precigen, Inc. - President & CEO [7]

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So currently, I think we are not expecting any further reorganization charges. And as we mentioned by the end of January, all the assets will transfer to Third Security, and currently, we do not expect anything in that lab.

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Operator [8]

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(Operator Instructions) Our next question will come from Swayampakula Ramakanth from H.C. Wainwright.

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Swayampakula Ramakanth, H.C. Wainwright & Co, LLC, Research Division - MD of Equity Research & Senior Healthcare Analyst [9]

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This is RK from H.C. Wainwright. Helen, a couple of quick questions. For the non-oncology assets, AG019 and INXN-4001, what do you plan for these assets in the long term? The reason for that question is, as you can imagine, as these assets get into late-stage development, they could become cash-intensive because of the large clinical trials that you would need to conduct. Would these be assets that can become currency in terms of out licensing?

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Helen Sabzevari, Precigen, Inc. - President & CEO [10]

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Thank you, RK. Great question. So we agree. We have a portfolio of -- maybe I should just first give a few minutes on the reason that we have a portfolio that we have. The strength of our portfolio is that we are not a one-drug-product company. It becomes very important because when you are one-drug-product company, basically despite of what the science might be or might not be, you are committed somehow. Whereas the way we have arranged our portfolio is that it's in such a manner that we prioritize and make it go/no-go decision based on data, and we know the attrition of the portfolio. And therefore, it's very, very important that we keep a fiscal responsibility with very, very laser-focused decision-making to address our portfolio.

In regards to the assets that we have highlighted for this year, actually, this has been a principal factor behind it. We are looking at our data, we are evaluating the breadth of the data that comes in its totality. And then there will be decisions made that if these assets will go to the next levels of development or not. However, what is very important as the fourth pillar that I mentioned as part of our principle is a strategic partnership. And this is very, very important for us in our portfolio. And to your point, obviously, and I'm going to stress this over and over again. We will not take every asset forward ourselves. We will also look into strategic partnerships that will bring the most value for our shareholders. And I think this is a pillar for us that it would allow us to manage our portfolio accordingly and make the decisions with the right partners, with the right speed and with the right cash to make these things and move them forward. And definitely, as you have mentioned, this is one of our strategic responsibility and platforms that we have for these assets.

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Swayampakula Ramakanth, H.C. Wainwright & Co, LLC, Research Division - MD of Equity Research & Senior Healthcare Analyst [11]

Link:
Edited Transcript of XON earnings conference call or presentation 2-Mar-20 10:30pm GMT - Yahoo Finance

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Growth Prospects of the Global Gene Therapy for Ovarian Cancer Market

The comprehensive study on the Gene Therapy for Ovarian Cancer market provides crucial insights to the stakeholders who are vying to solidify their presence in the current and future market landscape. The various factors that are likely to shape the course of the Gene Therapy for Ovarian Cancer market over the next decade are thoroughly analyzed in the report. The study represents the market share in terms of US$ XX Mn/Bn and volume (XX units).

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Application analysis

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The quantitative and qualitative analysis of the market scenario in different regions and key success factors impacting the growth of the market in each region is provided in the market study. The different regions covered in the report include:

The key players covered in this studyTakara BioVBL TherapeuticsCELSIONTargovax

Market segment by Type, the product can be split intoIntravenousIntratumoralIntraperitoneal

Market segment by Application, split intoOvarian Cancer (unspecified)Recurrent Ovarian Epithelial CancerPlatinum-Resistant Ovarian Cancer

Market segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaCentral & South America

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Gene Therapy for Ovarian Cancer Market top key players, size, Analysis, growth, research, Types, Regions and Forecast from 2019-2023 - Daily Science

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Over 95% planned enrollment completed in Phase 3 oGVHD study; topline results anticipated by end of 2020

Conference Call and Webcast Today at 8:30 a.m. ET

MALVERN, Pa., March 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ocugen, Inc. (OCGN), a clinical-stage company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing transformative therapies to treat rare and underserved ophthalmic diseases, today reported full year 2019 financial results along with a general business update.

We are extremely pleased with the progress we have made in enrolling patients in our Phase 3 clinical trial for OCU300, an orphan drug candidate for ocular graft versus host disease (oGVHD). Based on current enrollment, we anticipate topline results by the end of the year, commented Shankar Musunuri, PhD, MBA, Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder of Ocugen. The publication of preclinical data on OCU400 in Nature Gene Therapy earlier this month is a key achievement for this program. We continue to advance IND-enabling studies toward bringing this potential breakthrough modifier gene therapy platform to patients in a Phase 1/2a clinical trial for OCU400 in 2021. Similar to the situation with virtually all other biopharmaceutical companies, we are also assessing the potential impact of ongoing COVID-19 pandemic-related events on our programs and plans. We are grateful to healthcare professionals and others who are working hard to address and mitigate the challenges presented by the virus.

Business Highlights:

Full Year 2019 Financial Results:

Conference Call and Webcast Details

The Company has scheduled a conference call and webcast for 8:30 a.m. ET today to discuss the results and recent business highlights. Ocugen's senior management team will host the call, which will be open to all listeners. There will also be a question and answer session following the prepared remarks.

The call can be accessed by dialing (844) 873-7330 (U.S.) or (602) 563-8473 (international) and providing the conference ID 5373849. To access a live audio webcast of the call on the Investors section of the Ocugen website, please click here. A replay of the webcast will be archived on Ocugens website for approximately 45 days following the call.

About Ocugen, Inc. Ocugen, Inc. is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing transformative therapies to treat the whole eye. Our Phase 3 small molecule drug candidate for ocular Graft Versus Host Disease (oGVHD), if approved, will be the first and only treatment for this orphan disease. Our breakthrough modifier gene therapy platform has the potential to treat multiple retinal diseases with one drug one to many. And our novel biologic product candidate aims to offer better therapy to patients with underserved diseases such as wet age-related macular degeneration, diabetic macular edema and diabetic retinopathy. For more information, please visit http://www.ocugen.com.

Cautionary Note on Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which are subject to risks and uncertainties. We may, in some cases, use terms such as predicts, believes, potential, proposed, continue, estimates, anticipates, expects, plans, intends, may, could, might, will, should or other words that convey uncertainty of future events or outcomes to identify these forward-looking statements. Such statements are subject to numerous important factors, risks and uncertainties that may cause actual events or results to differ materially from our current expectations. These and other risks and uncertainties are more fully described in our periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC), including the risk factors described in the section entitled Risk Factors in the quarterly and annual reports that we file with the SEC. Any forward-looking statements that we make in this press release speak only as of the date of this press release. Except as required by law, we assume no obligation to update forward-looking statements contained in this press release whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, after the date of this press release.

Story continues

(tables to follow)

OCUGEN, INC.CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS(UNAUDITED)

OCUGEN, INC.CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS(UNAUDITED)

Corporate Contact:Ocugen, Inc.Kelly Beck kelly.beck@ocugen.com +1 484-328-4698

Media Contact:LaVoieHealthScienceEmmie Twomblyetwombly@lavoiehealthscience.com+1 857-389-6042

Read more:
Ocugen Provides Business Update and Full Year 2019 Financial Results - Yahoo Finance

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Facts and Factors (FnF), A leading market research firm published the latest report on "Gene Therapy Market By Type (Germ Line Gene Therapy and Somatic Gene Therapy), By Vector Type (Viral Vectors, Non-Viral Vectors, and Human Artificial Chromosome), and By Therapy Area (Cancer, Neurological Diseases, Infectious Diseases, Genetic Disorders, Rheumatoid Arthritis, and Others): Global Industry Perspective, Comprehensive Analysis, and Forecast, 2018 2027" which includes 180+ research pages for the forecast period. The Gene Therapy market report offers comprehensive research updates and information related to market growth, demand, and opportunities in the global Gene Therapy market.

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Advanced Cell & Gene Therapy, Audentes Therapeutics, Benitec Biopharma, Biogen, Blubird Bio, Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, CHIESI Farmaceutici SPA, Eurofins Scientific, Geneta Science, Genzyme Corporation, Gilead, GlaxoSmithKline PLC

(To know the complete list of companies mentioned, Use This Link)

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Facts & Factors is a leading market research organization offering industry expertise and scrupulous consulting services to clients for their business development. The reports and services offered by Facts and Factors are used by prestigious academic institutions, start-ups, and companies globally to measure and understand the changing international and regional business backgrounds. Our clients/customers conviction on our solutions and services has pushed us in delivering always the best. Our advanced research solutions have helped them in appropriate decision-making and guidance for strategies to expand their business.

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Gene Therapy Market 2020 Upcoming Trends, Industry Share, Competitive Landscape with Top Key Players - Global Industry News 24

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

DENVER (KDVR) -- Even with a stay-at-home order in place, there was no way Amber Freed was cancelling her 3-year-old twins birthday party.

The Denver mother set up an entire partys worth of decorations in the front yard, complete with a giant blow-up dinosaur, and dozens of balloons.

What I did was pull out every seasons decorations all at once.We had Thanksgiving, dinosaurs, Halloween, and everything for a birthday, Freed said, laughing.

She asked friends and neighbors to drive by in their car and wish her twinsMaxwell and Rileyahappy birthday, by honking three times.

I am going to remember this day and smile so big, said Amber Freed.

The drive-by style party brought a few hours of joy to the Freed family, during an otherwise time of darkness.

I definitely was up late last night, trying to piecemeal this party together, knowing that this might be Maxwells last healthy birthdayand also knowing that all the progress we made may be falling apart right now, said Freed, with tears in her eyes.

Maxwell suffers from a rare, genetic disorderso rare, in fact, it doesnt have a real name.For now, its referred to as SLC6A1 and is similar to Parkinsons disease.

In the next year, were expecting a debilitating form of epilepsy to begin, that is not treatable with drugs.His 4th birthdayhe may lose a lot of the skills he has fought so hard to gain, Freed said.

A drug, and possible cure, is already being tested on mice.

Gene therapy was set to start later this year, but the timeline has slowed down significantly in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Only a few scientists can be in laboratory at a time, and a lot of students and PhDs were working on our projectsand universities have shut down, Freed explained.Because universities have shut down, there are just no resources, she added.

Its a devastating setback for her son.

Days and minutes count for us.We need to have him treated soon, or else he will have no quality of life.

Theyll still need an additional $3.5 million, minimum, to conduct a full clinical trailat a time where many Americans are now experiencing financial strain.

Im so deeply sad that we came this far, and everything was working out perfectly.I was fighting so hard to save my baby boy, and all of that is in complete limbo right now, Freed said.

Which is why Saturday was much more than just a party, in her eyes.

I cannot believe how many people showed up to support Maxwell and Riley.It made the day so special for us.And it just meant the entire world for my family.

Learn more on Milestones for Maxwell or donate to help the family fund research and a clinical trial.

Excerpt from:
Drive-by birthday party for 3-year-old with rare disease - FOX 31 Denver

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Fact.MR has adopted multi-disciplinary approach to shed light on the evolution of the global Gene Therapy market during the historical period of 2014 2019. The study presents a deep-dive assessment of the current growth dynamics, major avenues in the estimation year of 2020, and key prospects over the forecast period 2020 2026.

According to Fact.MR report the global Gene Therapy Market to hit US$ 5 Bn by 2026. Extensive rounds of primary and a comprehensive secondary research have been leveraged by the analysts at Fact.MR to arrive at various estimations and projections of the Gene Therapy market, both at global and regional levels. The analysts have used numerous industry-wide prominent business intelligence tools to consolidate facts, figures, and market data into revenue estimations and projections in theGene Therapy market.

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The Gene Therapy market report offers assessment of prevailing opportunities in various regions and evaluates their shares of revenue by the end of different years of the assessment period. Key regions covered comprise:

The evaluation of the competitive landscape in the Gene Therapy market covers the profile of the following top players:

Novartis AG, Gilead Sciences Inc., Spark Therapeutics Inc., Sibiono GeneTech Co. Ltd., Spark Therapeutics, Inc., CELGENE CORPORATION, and Orchard Therapeutics Limited, among others.

To expand the understanding of opportunities in the global Gene Therapy market report looks at close quarters into the opportunities and new avenues in following key segments:

In addition to understanding the demand patterns of various applications, the report on the Gene Therapy market also enumerates trends expected to attract investments by other various associated industries.

On the basis of product types, the Gene Therapy market report offers insight into major adoption trends for the following segments:

The global Gene Therapy market report offers detailed assessments and quantitative evaluations that shed light on numerous key aspects that have shaped its evolution over the historical period. In coming years, some of the key aspects that will shape the growth prospects during the forecast period are objectively covered in the study.

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Media Release:https://www.factmr.com/media-release/1409/global-gene-therapy-market

Continue reading here:
Gene Therapy Market Foraying into Emerging Economies Insights 2020 to 2026 - The Cloud Tribune

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

The Global Gene Therapy Market is expected to grow from USD 1,636.49 Million in 2018 to USD 6,436.64 Million by the end of 2025 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 21.60%.The latest report on Gene Therapy Market added by Regal Intelligence, focus on market estimates and geographical spectrum of this industry. The report specifies information about Gene Therapy industry regarding a thorough and detailed assessment of this business.

Further, the Gene Therapy Market report details important challenges and factors that influence market growth. Further, a detailed comprehensive secondary research was done to collect information on the market segments and sub-segments. Further, primary research was performed to validate the assumptions and findings obtained from secondary research with industry professionals and experts.

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Competitive Landscape:

The report deeply explores the recent significant developments by the leading vendors and innovation profiles in the Global Gene Therapy Market including are Achieve Life Sciences, Inc., Adaptimmune, Bluebird bio, Inc., Gilead, Merck & Co., Inc, Abeona Therapeutics, Inc.,, AGTC, Audentes Therapeutics, Biogen, Editas Medicine, Novartis, Orchard Therapeutics, and Spark Therapeutics. On the basis of Type, the Global Gene Therapy Market is studied across Antigen Gene Therapy, Cancer Gene Therapy, Cytokine Gene Therapy, Suicide Gene Therapy, and Tumor Suppressor Gene Therapy.On the basis of Vector Type, the Global Gene Therapy Market is studied across Non-viral Vectors and Viral Vectors.On the basis of Application, the Global Gene Therapy Market is studied across Cardiovascular Diseases, Genetic Diseases, Infectious Diseases, Neurological Diseases, and Oncological Disorders.

In the primary research process, various sources from both the supply and demand sides were interviewed to obtain qualitative and quantitative information for this Gene Therapy Market report. The primary sources from the supply side include product manufacturers (and their competitors), opinion leaders, industry experts, research institutions, distributors, dealer and traders, as well as the raw materials suppliers, and producers etc.

The primary sources from the demand side include Gene Therapy industry experts such as business leaders, marketing and sales directors, technology and innovation directors, supply chain executive, End-User (product buyers), and related key executives from various key companies and organizations operating in the global Gene Therapy market.

Primary Types of the industry are

Primary Applications of the industry are

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This report is based on the synthesis, analysis, and interpretation of information collected on the Gene Therapy market from various sources. Our analysts have analysed the information & data and gained insights using a mix of primary and secondary research efforts with the primary objective to provide a holistic view of the Gene Therapy Industry.

The following market parameters were considered to estimate market value:

Market Overview

The report includes overviews market introduction, market drivers & influencing factors, restraints & challenges, and potential growth opportunities of Gene Therapy market. The report consists of market evaluation tools such as Porters five forces, PESTLE Analysis, and value chain analysis.

Key Questions Addressed in the Report:

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New Business Opportunities in Gene Therapy Market and Growth analysis - Skyline Gazette

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

The research study presented in this report offers complete and intelligent analysis of the competition, segmentation, dynamics, and geographical advancement of the Global Hemophilia Gene Therapy Market. The research study has been prepared with the use of in-depth qualitative and quantitative analyses of the global Hemophilia Gene Therapy market. We have also provided absolute dollar opportunity and other types of market analysis on the global Hemophilia Gene Therapy market.

It takes into account the CAGR, value, volume, revenue, production, consumption, sales, manufacturing cost, prices, and other key factors related to the global Hemophilia Gene Therapy market. All findings and data on the global Hemophilia Gene Therapy market provided in the report are calculated, gathered, and verified using advanced and reliable primary and secondary research sources. The regional analysis offered in the report will help you to identify key opportunities of the global Hemophilia Gene Therapy market available in different regions and countries.

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The authors of the report have segmented the global Hemophilia Gene Therapy market as per product, application, and region. Segments of the global Hemophilia Gene Therapy market are analyzed on the basis of market share, production, consumption, revenue, CAGR, market size, and more factors. The analysts have profiled leading players of the global Hemophilia Gene Therapy market, keeping in view their recent developments, market share, sales, revenue, areas covered, product portfolios, and other aspects.

Competitive landscape

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Hemophilia Gene Therapy Market Size and Forecast

In terms of region, this research report covers almost all the major regions across the globe such as North America, Europe, South America, the Middle East, and Africa and the Asia Pacific. Europe and North America regions are anticipated to show an upward growth in the years to come. While Hemophilia Gene Therapy Market in Asia Pacific regions is likely to show remarkable growth during the forecasted period. Cutting edge technology and innovations are the most important traits of the North America region and thats the reason most of the time the US dominates the global markets. Hemophilia Gene Therapy Market in South, America region is also expected to grow in near future.

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The Hemophilia Gene Therapy Market report highlights is as follows:

This Hemophilia Gene Therapy market report provides complete market overview which offers the competitive market scenario among major players of the industry, proper understanding of the growth opportunities, and advanced business strategies used by the market in the current and forecast period.

This Hemophilia Gene Therapy Market report will help a business or an individual to take appropriate business decision and sound actions to be taken after understanding the growth restraining factors, market risks, market situation, market estimation of the competitors.

The expected Hemophilia Gene Therapy Market growth and development status can be understood in a better way through this five-year forecast information presented in this report

This Hemophilia Gene Therapy Market research report aids as a broad guideline which provides in-depth insights and detailed analysis of several trade verticals.

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Fact.MR is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. Fact.MRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.

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Hemophilia Gene Therapy Market to Generate Huge Revenue in Industry by 2026 - Monroe Scoop

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

- New company formed from combination of TranscripTx and ReCode Therapeutics

- Advancing mRNA-mediated protein replacement and tRNA NanoCorrector therapies for primary ciliary dyskinesia and cystic fibrosis

- Developing proprietary non-viral lipid nanoparticle delivery platform for organ-specific delivery of RNA therapies and gene editing components

MENLO PARK, Calif. & DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- ReCode Therapeutics (ReCode) (the Company), a private biopharmaceutical company pioneering precision medicines for pulmonary diseases, today announced the close of an oversubscribed $80 million Series A financing round. OrbiMed Advisors LLC and Colt Ventures co-led the round, with participation from MPM Capital, Vida Ventures LLC, Hunt Technology Ventures, L.P. and Osage University Partners. ReCode will use the proceeds to continue the preclinical development of its lead programs in primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) and cystic fibrosis (CF). The Company expects to file an Investigational New Drug Application (IND) for both programs in 2021. In addition, the Company will advance its proprietary non-viral lipid nanoparticle (LNP) delivery platform for organ-specific delivery of RNA therapies and gene editing components.

Our preclinical studies demonstrate that our targeted RNA therapies have great potential for the treatment of life-threatening pulmonary diseases, commented David Lockhart, Ph.D., CEO and president, ReCode Therapeutics. We are pleased to close this financing round with world-class investors who believe in the bold vision of our new company. With these additional resources, were focused on advancing our preclinical programs into the clinic over the next two years.

Lockhart continued, Im especially grateful to ReCodes founders, professors Daniel Siegwart, Ph.D., and Philip Thomas, Ph.D., at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, and Professor Emeritus Arthur Johnson from Texas A&M University whose foundational research played an instrumental role in cultivating both the LNP delivery platform and the CF therapeutic program. Finally, we are grateful to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, whose financial support has allowed us to play a pivotal role in understanding the pathogenesis of CF and led to the development of a novel therapeutic approach for correcting nonsense mutations for this severe disease.

Along with the financing, ReCode has appointed a new board of directors. The directors comprise representatives from the Company including Dr. David Lockhart and key investors including Dr. Peter Thompson, partner at OrbiMed, Ed Hurwitz, J.D., managing director at MPM Capital, Helen S. Kim, managing director at Vida Ventures, R.A. Session II, chief business officer of the gene therapy subsidiaries at BridgeBio, and ReCode founder and new vice president of R&D, Dr. Michael Torres.

We believe that ReCode has an exceptional opportunity to advance its targeted RNA therapies and LNP delivery platform to address the critical needs of patients living with devastating genetic respiratory diseases, said Dr. Peter Thompson, partner, OrbiMed. The board looks forward to supporting ReCodes evolution as it moves these compelling therapies into the clinic.

Chardan acted as sole placement agent on the Series A financing, and as M&A advisor to ReCode Therapeutics.

About ReCode Therapeutics

ReCode Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company developing precision medicines for genetic respiratory diseases with significant unmet medical need. ReCodes diverse pipeline includes lead programs for primary ciliary dyskinesia and nonsense mutations in cystic fibrosis. The Companys proprietary non-viral lipid nanoparticle platform enables the delivery of a variety of payloads, and precise organ targeting of nucleic acid and protein payloads via both systemic and local delivery. ReCode is leveraging its nanoparticle and nucleic acid technologies across multiple modalities, including mRNA-mediated protein replacement therapies, first-in-class tRNA NanoCorrectors for diseases caused by nonsense mutations, and gene editing. For more information, visit http://www.recoderx.com

About OrbiMed Advisors LLC

OrbiMed is a leading healthcare investment firm, with over $14 billion in assets under management. OrbiMed invests globally across the healthcare industry, from start-ups to large multinational corporations, utilizing a range of private equity funds, public equity funds, and royalty/credit funds. OrbiMed maintains offices in New York City, San Francisco, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Mumbai and Herzliya. OrbiMed seeks to be a capital provider of choice, providing tailored financing solutions and global team resources and support to help build world-class healthcare companies. To learn more, visit http://www.orbimed.com.

About Colt Ventures

Colt Ventures is a family office that was established in 2003 to invest the capital of Darren Blanton. Colt invests in a variety of private and public companies, and has deep domain expertise in biotechnology and energy. Dr. Sundeep Agrawal leads the firms investment activities with a focus on biotechnology/therapeutics. Colt is headquartered in Dallas with a presence in New York City. To learn more, visit http://www.coltventures.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200326005123/en/

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ReCode Therapeutics Raises $80 Million in Oversubscribed Series A Financing - BioSpace

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith