A new statistical study found that men with older brothers are 38% more likely to be gay than men who are their mothers oldest son.

In a paper published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B this week, the researchers explain that they wanted to examine the fraternal birth order effect hypothesis of male homosexuality, the idea that having older brothers increases a mans chance of being gay.

Related: Here are the craziest theories experts have to explain why some people are LGBTQ

The researchers used data from ten other studies and narrowed their dataset down to families with exactly two sons (no matter how many daughters there were) who were either gay or straight. They ended up with a sample of 5390 gay and straight men.

They then calculated the odds of each child being gay, and it turned out that the second child was 38% more likely to be gay than the first.

Fraternal birth order has been studied in relation to male homosexuality since the 1990s. Studies published in the last several decades have found that having older brothers consistently increases the chances that a man will be gay.

One of the theories about why this happens has been called that the mothers immune system reacts to the Neuroligin 4 Y-linked protein, a protein important for brain development in male fetuses. After being exposed to the protein once, the theory states, the mothers immune system attacks it when it sees it again, like when they are pregnant with another male fetus.

The fascinating study estimates that having an older brother increases the odds of being gay by 38 percent, supporting the idea that a mothers immune response to having a male child influences subsequent boys, University of Cambridge statistician David Spiegelhalter told the Daily Mail.

People have endlessly argued about the possible roles of genetics and upbringing, but this clear result fits in neither category.

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Having an older brother makes a man 38% more likely to be gay - LGBTQ Nation

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Hair often plays a critical role in forming a womans identity, so it should come as no surprise that female hair loss can have a major effect on self esteem, mood and confidence. It can even result in increased stress, anxiety and clinical depression, according to board certified dermatologist Anna Drosou of DermSurgery Associates in Houston, Texas.

Discussion around female hair loss pales in comparison to talk about male baldness, so we spoke with several experts who explained to us the most common causes of female hair loss and how to treat them.

As always, consult with your doctor before diagnosing yourself with any of the following causes or conditions.

First, Get To Understand Your Hair Cycle

Everyones healthy hair cycle follows a similar pattern: The active growth phase of hair (anagen) lasts 3-5 years, followed by a 10-day transitional period (catagen), and finally the telogen phase, in which the hair sheds and follicles fall out. The follicle is then inactive for three months before the whole cycle is repeated.

Some people experience hair loss at a pace thats more rapid than usual (telogen effluvium), which is a prolonged (and usually sudden) period of hair loss. Telogen effluvium is a reactive type of hair loss, caused by some sort of internal disruption, i.e. nutritional inadequacies, illness, surgery or hypo/hyperthyroid, Anabel Kingsley, a trichologist, associate member of The Institute of Trichologists and brand president at Philip Kingsley, told HuffPost.

SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY via Getty Images

Hair loss, thinning and similar issues occur when the normal hair cycle is disrupted, Kingsley explained. This can be due to a variety of reasons, some common for both women and men, others focused specifically on women. The American Academy of Dermatology defines normal hair loss as 50 to 100 strands a day, so anything more than your usual amount could be reason to see a doctor.

Drosou said that hair loss due to hormones, stress, iron and diet-related causes is generally reversible. Its harder to reverse hair loss connected with hereditary causes or rare inflammatory cases. Upon first seeing a patient, Kingsley first conducts blood tests to look at potential hormonal or nutritional deficiencies.

Hormones

Hormones can wreak havoc on our skin, and unfortunately that applies to our hair, too.

A balance of estrogen, progesterone and testosterone is necessary for healthy hair growth, according to Roy Stoller, a board certified surgeon and founder of Hair Transplant NYC.

Although estrogen usually promotes hair growth, when in excess, it can tip the balance and actually increase testosterone, causing a testosterone-related hair loss, Stoller told to HuffPost. In that case, there may be a genetic predisposition to dihydrotestosterone (DHT), which attacks the hair follicle, diminishing and eventually resulting in total loss of the follicle.

Stoller provides a solution to this situation to block the conversion of testosterone to DHT and prolong the life of the hair follicle: The one most prescribed drug is Finasteride. Although only approved for men, women have also had success with it. This is a prescription-only drug, so speak to your doctor if you think it might be a good fit and ensure you know all the contra-indications, which include loss of libido among others.

Pregnancy Hormones

Its not uncommon for a pregnant woman to receive compliments on her hair, which appears fuller, shinier and overall more healthy during pregnancy. Though not every woman experiences this, for those who do its due to a prolonged anagen phase thanks to higher estrogen and progesterone hormones during pregnancy.

However, Stoller noted that 40% of women will experience excessive shedding (telogen effluvium) post-birth. This is due to the physical stress of the labor, and its self-resolving without treatment, Drosou said. Stoller added the effects are temporary, lasting around three to four months, and starting at three months post-birth. Being diligent with the intake of all necessary vitamins and minerals is helpful in dealing with this type of hair loss, and its completely reversible.

Menopause Hormones

Both before and during menopause, hormonal changes affect hair growth, particularly due to a decrease in estrogen and progesterone. Stoller said that female pattern hair loss is more common during that period, and could even relate to hair loss from androgens (male hormones) depending on the womans genetics. The decrease in the female hormones leave the hair cells unprotected from circulating androgens. Over time, the hair shafts will thin, miniaturize and eventually die, Stoller said.

Estrogens are hair friendly and help to keep strands in their growth phase, Kingsley explained. They also offer a sort of buffer against androgens, which are not very good for your scalp hair. The extent to which a woman will experience changes to hair diameter is down to genes, she added.

Studies have shown that Finasteride can be successful against hair loss in pre- and post-menopausal women who do not intend to be pregnant. There are suggestions that anti-androgen hormones can help, as well as iron supplements. Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) can be beneficial in hair loss too, by slowing it down or stopping it completely, studies show. Another topical treatment that is proven to work in menopausal women is Minoxidil.

Thyroid Irregularities

The thyroid gland is responsible for regulating our metabolism, and its usually the first thing a doctor will look at if you have issues with weight changes or hair loss.

Thyroid hormones are released in the body at a steady steam, Stoller said, regulating everything from breathing to temperature, body weight and hair growth. Nutrition and thyroid disease can affect the release of those hormones, and Drosou notes that low thyroid hormones, also known as hypothyroidism, can cause reversible alopecia and even lateral eyebrow thinning. With proper medication to support the thyroid, the hair loss can be completely reversed.

Anemia

Anemia, or iron deficiency, is one of the most common causes of hair loss in women, apart from hormones.

Low iron stores can force hair into a chronic rest phase, resulting in increased shedding and reduced density, Stoller said. Drosou adds that iron deficiency is quite common if youve experienced sudden weight loss, and is often the result of going on a vegan diet.

Iron is used both for hair production and red blood cell production, Drosou said. The body wisely prioritizes the red blood cell production, so if it has a limited amount of iron intake, the first thing to be affected is the hair. Speak to your doctor, who will be able to give you a suitable iron/ferritin supplement depending on your needs.

Eating Disorders

These affect the body in various ways, creating physical stress for the body and often resulting in hair loss.

Stoller notes that the protein in hair (keratin) is not essential for the body, and at periods of malnourishment, hair growth will stop. The body prioritizes nutrients going to vital organs (brain, heart, lungs) over hair, so shedding occurs, Stoller said. Depending on a persons age, genetic makeup and health status, regular hair growth usually returns in about six months after the malnourished state is resolved, Stoller said.

Heredity

The hereditary form of alopecia is female pattern hair loss, or androgenetic alopecia, Drosou said. This is usually seen as diffused thinning, not bald spots.

She notes that this form of hair loss can happen at any point during adult life, and is more common in connection to menopause as its connected with androgen levels. Women with conditions like polycystic ovary syndrome, which is connected with androgen levels, could see hair thinning earlier.

Pongsak Tawansaeng / EyeEm via Getty Images

Medications that block androgens, like spironolactone, are somewhat effective at reducing hair loss and preventing worsening of the condition, Drosou said.

Frontal Fibrosing Alopecia

This is a type of hair loss that leaves scars at the front of a womans hairline, and its becoming more common, particularly in post-menopausal women. Kingsley said its now seen even in younger women, but the exact triggers arent known.

It is thought to be caused by a faulty immune response, whereby your body attacks and destroys hair follicles at the front of your hairline, leaving scar tissue behind, Kingsley said. Unfortunately, you cannot regrow hair from a scarring alopecia. However, at [hair] clinics we endeavor to stop it from progressing and reoccurring.

This is not to be confused with traction alopecia, a type of hair loss thats a result of wearing tight hairstyles, like ponytails or tight braids worn repeatedly that pull out the hair follicles. Kingsley said these hair styles should be avoided as they can cause traction breakage, which could pull out hairs from the follicle and then lead to traction alopecia over time. If treated early, the hair can grow back normally after six months. Otherwise, it could cause non-reversible scarring alopecia, which is often seen in women who use weaves, hair extensions, braids and chemical relaxation.

Insulin Imbalance

Insulin is a hormone that regulates energy. Its obtained from the food we eat, and then released into the body to help store energy for future use. Since insulin can affect hair growth, its important to take note of the glycemic index (GI) a ranking of how foods affect your blood glucose levels of foods you eat.

Eating high-glycemic foods in excess, often in combination with a sedentary lifestyle, can cause an overload of insulin in the body, Stoller said. Too much insulin disrupts ovulation and signals the ovaries to make more testosterone, Stoller said. A change in diet and lifestyle can help insulin levels and restore hair growth.

Stress

We know stress can be catastrophic for the body and the mind, so its no surprise that stress plays a major role when it comes to hair loss.

Kingsley notes that anything that affects your physical well-being impacts your hair to an even greater degree. Hair is non-essential to physical survival and so it will always be the first part of you to suffer when something is off-kilter, he said.

Stress is connected to our cortisol levels, which are increased, Stoller said, when insulin levels rise, in turn triggering a testosterone increase. After a particularly stressful event, and 2-4 months after the event, women may experience hair loss, but after 6-plus months hair returns to normal, Stoller added.

Drosou notes that stress-related hair loss is also seen after events like childbirth, hospitalization, divorce and the death of a significant other. The reason is that stress induces a larger percentage of follicles to enter the telogen phase, resulting in increased shedding of hair. The hair follicles remain intact, so complete recovery is expected after 6-12 months, Drosou said.

The Takeaway

No matter what the underlying cause of hair loss might be, as with many health issues, a balanced diet with the necessary nutrients and vitamins is essential.

Hair is the first point of damage when something is out of balance in our bodies, as its a non-essential tissue or a vital organ. But as hair cells are the second-fastest growing cells our body makes (the fastest-growing are the cells lining the gastrointestinal tract), their nutritional requirements are high, Kingsley said. Supplements can be helpful in the support of good hair health, in conjunction with a healthy balanced diet. Looking after the scalp and cleaning it properly is also important to support healthy hair growth, as well.

As soon as you notice an increase in hair loss, its important to take action and see a dermatologist, trichologist or specialist. Every situation is very different, so seeing an expert is essential.

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The Most Common Causes Of Hair Loss In Women And How To Treat Them - HuffPost

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An older male influence in your family might have something to do with your sexuality, a study suggests.

According to a study published in journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, research has revealed that having an older brother increases mens chances of being homosexual.

The studys researchers analyzed 10 separate sexual orientation studies that involved 5,400 men with info regarding their birth order.

The study revealed that men with older brothers have a 38% higher likelihood of being gay compared to men who dont have an older brother.

(Older) brothers increase the probability of homosexuality in later-born males, the study noted.

The information presented also showed that the more older brothers a man had, the higher chance that he would be homosexual. The study stated having three older brothers doubled a mans chances of being gay.

The study also found that mothers of homosexual males bear more children compared to mothers of heterosexual males.

David Spiegelhalter, a statistician and professor at the University of Cambridge, told the Daily Mail that the fascinating study estimates that having an older brother increases the odds of being gay by 38%, supporting the idea that a mothers immune response to having a male child influences subsequent boys.

People have endlessly argued about the possible roles of genetics and upbringing, but this clear result fits in neither category, he said.

The researchers failed to find a connection between sexuality and birth order for women, noting theres no pattern of siblings, their gender or age that would help determine whether a female would be a lesbian.

Much prior research has shown that females do not influence the sexual orientation of their younger siblings, and females sexual orientation is not affected by their numbers of older siblings, study author Dr. Ray Blanchard stated in an interview with the Daily Mail.

The studys authors state they arent sure why their findings are the case, stating they believe it may be attributed to a theory known as maternal immune hypothesis which believes women who give birth to male babies develop antibodies that impact brain development of future male children they have.

Read more:
Boys with older brother more likely to be gay: Study - CANOE

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First, I want to say this: Im glad youre here. Hair loss is something that most guys will experience in their lives, and if more of us talked about it instead of joking about it, maybe wed all have better information. According to the American Hair Loss Association, two-thirds of American men will experience some degree of appreciable hair loss, with 85 percent of men significantly thinning by the age of 50. About 25 percent of men who experience hair loss begin the process before they reach the age of 21. In other words, this is a nearly universal experiencewhich makes the stigma surrounding hair loss all the more confusing.

Odds are, if youre reading this, you are quite literally already balding or thinningeven if you dont think you can see it. But dont panic! First, its possible to look great bald. But secondly, theres a lot you can do.

There are so many triggers that can create balding, so its important to have a clear understanding of what actually impacts the process, says Palm Beach trichologist Bridgette Hill. (A trichologist is a hair and scalp specialist who is not a doctor.) There is no reason that balding has to be a reality in the 21st century.

But before we get ahead of ourselves, lets start at the root of hair loss.

What causes balding?

Balding is primarily genetic. But contrary to all those fun factoids youve heard about it being your mothers father (or was it your fathers mother?) who caused your current situation, there's no strict rule to determine who is going to lose it.

What science can confirm is that the exact trigger for male-pattern hair loss is a hormone called dihydrotestosterone, otherwise known as DHT. This comes from testosterone thats naturally in your body, but if you have male-pattern hair loss, what youve inherited is a sensitivity to DHT in your hair follicles, says Dr. Alan Bauman, a full-time, board-certified hair restoration physician. Basically, he explains, this sensitivity to DHT causes a miniaturization of the hair follicle, which leads to the overall weakening of hair growth. This manifests itself as that all-too-common receding hairline and thinning in the crown of your head (the bald spot).

But trichologists and doctors alike also assume that, beyond genetics, lifestyle factors also contribute to hair loss. Something men dont really talk about is emotional health and wellbeing, but thats a trigger, Hill says. So is your dieta lot of times, men have high-protein diets without lots of greens or folic acids, which are essential in making hair follicles and protein. Dr. Bauman also adds that poor sleep, some medications, and smoking may worsen things, too.

Another interesting cause of balding may very well be in your protein shake. When Dr. Bauman assesses a patients risk factors, he looks for the typical things: inflammation of the scalp, sleep schedule, diet, and mental health. Now, he also asks about a patients intake of excess testosterone, which could come from supplements. Ive been doing this for 25 years and have treated about 30,000 patients, he says. We noticed a common thread of hair loss among guys in their 20s or younger who are in their workout regimen, taking bodybuilding supplements. Some clinical research has shown that creatine supplementation, for example, increases the level of DHT in the bloodstreamwhich means it can exacerbate hair loss in anyone with a genetic sensitivity.

It all starts with the scalp.

Theres also the mechanical element of hair loss, which really lies in how we take care of our scalp. If you want to ensure that you hold onto the hair you have for as long as possible, you have to start getting just as serious with your head as you are about your face. Look at it this way: Your face shows signs of aging through wrinkles, dark spots, and sagging. Your scalp shows signs of aging through thinning and balding.

Continue reading here:
How to Prevent Hair Lossand When to Give Up - GQ

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The mammals of New Zealand have long posed a threat to native species. The Predator Free 2050program is an effort to rid the island of these invaders including using the tools of CRISPR-based genome editing to create a gene drive to jumpstart extinctions.

Its a very bad idea.

In the 1993 film Jurassic Park, mathematician Ian Malcolmlistens to arrogant dinosaur daddy John Hammond describe the islands supposedly all-female populations of the giant reptiles:

John, the kind of control youre attempting simply is its not possible. If there is one thing the history of evolution has taught us its that life will not be contained. Life breaks free, it expands to new territories and crashes through barriers, painfully, maybe even dangerously, but, there it is Im simply saying that life, uh finds a way.

The wise Dr. Malcolm may prove prescient when it comes to using gene drive technology to get rid of pesky species.

Today reptiles, albeit smaller ones than dinosaurs, are among the threatened natives of New Zealand. Prior to the arrival of people, only bats and marine species represented class Mammalia, except for a few archaic types a few million years ago. Then the Mori people introduced Polynesian rats and dogs in about 1250 CE, and Europeans five centuries later contributed mice, pigs, more rats (ship stowaways), possums, weasels, stoats, and ferrets. Native birds, reptiles, invertebrates, snails, insects, and even the forest canopies began to lose out in the competition for natural resources and to predation.

The New Zealand government painted the newcomers as pests, interlopers, invaders. Introduced predators: the bad guys, states one pamphlet.

In a simpler and perhaps more violent time, pests might have been shot, drowned, or poisoned. But a 2003 paper fromAustin Burt, a selfish gene proponent from Imperial College, London, proposed the concept of a gene drive.

A gene drive harnesses one of the ways that cells repair DNA, called homing, that snips out one copy of a gene and replaces it with a copy of whatever corresponding gene variant (allele) is on the paired chromosome. It would be like cutting out a word in this sentence and replacing it with a copy of the word below it. If done to a gene that affects fertility in a fertilized ovum aka the germline the intervention can lead, within a few generations, to mass sterility and a plummeting population a gene drive towards extinction.

A gene drive skews Mendelian inheritance. Instead of one of a pair of genes coming from the father and one from the mother, both copies are from one parent. In the language of genetics, the intervention can turn a heterozygote (2 different copies of a gene) into a homozygote (2 identical copies). Nature does this in several ways, but the tools of CRISPR-Cas9, first described in 2012,offer a faster route to a gene drive, and can target several genes at once.

Visions of vanquishing the mosquitoes that carry the malaria parasite or zika virus dampened initial scrutiny of gene drives. In 2016, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) released a 200+ page reportthat discussed reasons to proceed with caution, but endorsed continued laboratory experimentation as well as limited field trials of gene drives.

In 2017, a short paper in Science responded to the NASEM report with Guiding principles for the sponsors and supporters of gene drive research. Ill return to the new recommendations after a trip down biotech memory lane what distinguishes this blog from the clonal regurgitations of aggregated science news.

I was in graduate school in 1976 when recombinant DNA technology was under heated debate. My mentor dubbed the rising public fear of genetics and biotech the triple-headed purple monster mindset.

In February 1975, a whos who of molecular biologists had convened at Asilomar, on Californias Monterey peninsula, to explore the implications of combining genes of two species, starting with insertion of a bacterial gene into a cancer-causing virus.

The 150 scientists discussed fail-safe measures to control recombinant organisms. The Asilomar conference begat guidelines for physical containment via specialized hoods and airflow systems and biological containment to weaken organisms so that they couldnt survive outside the lab.

Despite initial concerns, recombinant DNA technology turned out to be safer than expected, and it spread to industry fast and in diverse ways. A handful of important drugs, starting with human insulin, became safer and more abundant thanks to recombinant DNA techniques. In the agricultural arena, weve been eating GMO foods for decades, although the containment hasnt exactly worked, as the example of canolagrowing along the roadways of North Dakota illustrates.

In 1985geneticists met again to assess the safety, feasibility, and value of another huge project: sequencing the human genome. I doubt any of them could have foreseen a time when we would carry our genome sequences on our smartphones.

Back then, researchers packed a room at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on New Yorks Long Island. At first those against outnumbered those for 5:1, ticking off their fears: shifting research from inquiry-based experimentation to data dumps, comparing the sequencing effort to climbing Mt. Everest just because its there, and diverting funds to fight HIV/AIDs. Finally, the National Academy of Sciences jumped in to debate both sides, and in 1988, Congress authorized the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Department of Energy to start sequencing. Foreshadowing of gene drives?

On the reproductive front, the first test-tube baby, Louise Joy Brown, was discussed as if she were a space alien until her ordinariness became apparent, and today more than 5 million folkshave been born beginning with in vitro fertilization. Similarly, one of the first families to speak to the media about their use of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to select an embryo who would one day provide stem cells to save his sister was vilified PGD is now a common adjunctto IVF to select the healthiest embryos.

But a gene drive doesnt provide information, drugs, improved cabbages, or babies. It has the potential to tilt the biosphere.

When the inventors of a new biotechnology pull a 180 on applications of their brainchild, its time to take notice. Thats what Kevin Esvelt from MIT and Neil Gemmell from the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand, did in their Perspective in the November 16, 2017 issue of PLOS Biology,Conservation demands safe gene drive. They shout out a warning.

Back in 2014, Esvelt and his colleagues suggested using self-propagating CRISPR-based drive systems for conservation.They also discussed variations on the theme, including a daisy drive systemthat sets up a series of interventions, like a series of locks on a bank vault, and the trojan femaletechnique that sneaks male infertility mutations into mitochondrial DNA.

Second thoughts about deploying gene drives were perhaps already lurking in the minds of people familiar with the nature of DNA, as Jurassic Parks mathematician intuited. DNA changes! Thats why its the genetic materialand why the idea that we arent still evolving is absurd.

A gene swapped into a rat or a possums genome to squelch fertility can change. Such spontaneous mutation happens because of the nature of the DNA molecule. Each of the 4 types of DNA bases exists, when unlinked, fleetingly, in a slightly alternate form. If a DNA replication fork should happen down the old double helix and catch a clinging base in its rare form, a base pair can be replaced with a different one creating a new allele. Its simply the chemistry of life.

A gene drive also assumes that one allele is predominant in a population, and that isnt necessarily the case. What if the harnessed repair mechanism lassos another variant of that gene, a rarer one? Different outcome.

The inherent changeability of DNA alerted the scientists at Asilomar and Cold Spring Harbor. We can never predict all risks, about anything, and surprises have consequences. Who would have thought wed all have to haul off our boots when checking in at the airport thanks to a lone shoe bomber?

DNA also flits from cell to cell, aboard elements called transposons or, more colorfully, jumping genes. Thats how bacteria share sets of antibiotic resistance genes. What if a CRISPR gene drive harpoons something other than its intended target? Goodbye beloved kiwi birds rather than the weasels that eat their eggs? What if a targeted species hitches a ride to other islands and continents before it eliminates the local population and extinguishes itself? Drs. Esvelt and Gemmell write.

The bottom line: gene drives may create the equivalent of the very thing they are being deployed to fight: invasive species. Write Drs. Esvelt and Gemmell of their former approval of gene drives for conservation, We now believe that inclusion was a mistake: such drive systems lack control mechanisms and are consequently highly invasive.

And so also in November of 2017, Dr. Esvelt, with Charleston Noble, Ben Adlam, George Church, and Martin Nowak from Harvard, published Current CRISPR gene drive systems are likely to be highly invasive in wild populations in bioRxiv. Their paper warns against even limited field tests because of mitigating factors, including scenarios as yet unimagined. They did a mathematical analysis to counter recent reports that downplayed the potential ecological danger of a gene drive by claiming that natural resistances will emerge to block the spread to untargeted wild populations. Sound familiar? Contrary to the National Academy report on gene drive, our results suggest that standard drive systems should not be developed nor field-tested in regions harboring the host organism, they conclude.

The guiding principles for the sponsors and supporters of gene drive research published in todays Science, from Claudia Emerson, Stephanie James, Katherine Littler, and Filippo Randazzo, are dj vu all over again for those of us who recall Asilomar circa 1975. Perhaps the principles are attempting to prevent the public outcry at town hall meetings and destruction of some GM crops (most notablyice minus bacteria on plants)that accompanied the entry and acceptance of recombinant organisms.

According to the principles, gene drive experiments should

have goals of social value and the public good take biosafety measures, comply with regulations, and conduct ecological risk assessment have transparency and accountability, with sharing of data engage the public

Dr. Emerson and her colleagues make a good case for the need to find new ways to limit the spread of vector-borne infectious diseases like malaria and zika. Lets hope that gene drive technology goes the successful way of recombinant DNA technology and not the way of GMO escapees in agriculture or in the hands of bioterrorists.

Lets listen to Dr. Malcolm.

[Editors note: Kevin Esvelt of MIT commented on this article on PLOS Blogs. He wrote:

Respectfully, this somewhat mischaracterizes our point.

We think it unwise to build gene drive systems capable of spreading indefinitely beyond the target population.

Because standard self-propagating gene drive systems can spread indefinitely, we think they should only be developed and used for a handful of applications such as malaria eradication, for which the target population includes every Anopheles gambiae s.l. mosquito in Africa.

In contrast, we feel that self-propagating gene drive should not be used for invasive species control because there is always a native population that could be affected.

Instead, we should focus on developing locally-confined drive systems that cannot spread indefinitely. Local drive systems could enable each community to make decisions about its own environment without necessarily affecting people far away. There are several forms that have been modeled or are under development, including Trojan female, killer-rescue, daisy drive, and threshold drive, and hopefully still better ones will be invented.

A final note: there is essentially no risk that transposons, a natural and nearly ubiquitous form of gene drive, will cause a CRISPR-based drive system to spread in another species. The reason is that CRISPR is highly specific and the target DNA sequences would not be present in the genome, so the system would not function exactly the same way that laboratory genome editing fails when there is a strain-specific mutation in the CRISPR-targeted sequence.

Life usually does find a way eventually; the question is how long it will take. We have a remarkable opportunity to address many serious ecological problems using natures own language. With care, humility, and collective scrutiny as obtained through open research and broadly inclusive societal discussions we have a chance to do so wisely. Sometimes, that means walking away from an exciting idea.]

Ricki Lewis is the GLPs senior contributing writer focusing on gene therapy and gene editing. She has a PhD in genetics and is a genetic counselor, science writer and author of The Forever Fix: Gene Therapy and the Boy Who Saved It, the only popular book about gene therapy. BIO. Follow her at her website or Twitter @rickilewis

A version of this article previously appeared on the GLP on December 7, 2017and was originally published on PLOS Blogs website as An Argument Against Gene Drives to Extinguish New Zealand Mammals: Life Finds a Way.

Read more:
The risks of using gene drives to get rid of 'pesky species' - Genetic Literacy Project

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Mar 19th 2020

WE HAVE A simple message to all countries. So said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) at a news conference held in Geneva on March 16th. Test, test, test. All countries should be able to test all suspected cases, they cannot fight this pandemic blindfolded. Without adequate testing for SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that is now sweeping rapidly around the world, he said, there can be no isolation of cases and the chain of infection will not be broken. As if to prove the point, a vigorous policy of testing seems to have slowed the viruss spread in South Korea quite dramatically. And in Vo, a town in Italy, thorough and repeated testing of all 3,300 inhabitants has stopped new infections entirely.

Two main types of test are used to identify viral infections: genetic and serological. The first genetic test for SARS-CoV-2 was created just a few days after the viruss genomic sequence was published, on January 12th, by a group of Chinese researchers. Others, developed subsequently by public health bodies around the world (and also a few companies) have their own tweaks, but their broad principle is the same.

Each starts with a swab taken from the back of the nose or the throat of an individual suspected of being infected, in a search for RNAfor SARS-CoV-2 stores its genes as RNA, rather than the similar molecule, DNA, which animals such as human beings employ for the purpose. Because of this quirk, the first step of genetic testing is to copy any RNA collected into DNA, using an enzyme called reverse transcriptase. That done, the DNA is then amplified in quantity by a process called the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The now-amplified DNA is sequenced and matched (or not) against the sequence that would be expected if the starting point was RNA from the virus.

Executed properly, genetic tests of this sort are extremely accurate. But they have limitations. One is that if the virus is present only at low levelsat the start or end of an infection, for exampletheir sensitivity drops. Also, taking a throat swab is neither simple nor foolproof. If the sampling probe goes insufficiently deeply into the orifice concerned, or fails to gather enough cells, the test might not work. Virologists say that the best sort of throat swabbing almost inevitably makes a patient gag or cough. This means that whoever is doing the swabbing needs to be protected from infection.

All this assumes that the tests themselves are designed properly. The WHO published protocols for a SARS-CoV-2 test in January, and most places which have created their own tests have based them on these instructions. In America, however, the Centres for Disease Control and Protection (CDC) designed its own protocols. Tests created using these American CDC protocols, which were distributed across the country to state-level public-health laboratories, turned out to be flawed. This no doubt contributed to Americas slower response to the unfolding crisis.

The actual apparatus used to carry out PCR tests of this sortregardless of the exact bug being tested foris commonplace in hospitals in rich countries, for it is used routinely to identify viruses from influenza to hepatitis to HIV. But the process is thereby centralised, and can be slow. It may take as long as 48 hours after a sample is collected for the result to be returned to a patient. What is needed is a test which can be conducted immediately after sampling, a process known as near-patient testing. This involves packing everything required for a testboth the instruments and the chemicalsinto a reasonably portable machine, designed specifically to look for SARS-CoV-2, that can be deployed away from a big hospital laboratory.

Several firms are working on such things. BioMrieux, a French biotechnology company, says it will have a test on offer by the end of March, and that it has an emergency-use authorisation for it from the Food and Drug Administration, which approves such devices for America. Cepheid, a Californian firm, will try to use a similar approval process to get its own coronavirus-specific test to market. This is a box, the size of a small laser printer, that ingests a sample, carries out an analysis and returns a result within a couple of hours.

Machines like these could be particularly valuable in places where public-health laboratories are few and far between. John Nkengasong, head of Africa CDC (an arm of the African Union unrelated to the American organisation of the same name), wrote in the Lancet in February of his concern about the spread of coronavirus across his continent, given the strong links between many African countries and China, the place where the pandemic began. One of his worries was the continents lack of testing capacity. At the start of 2020, only the Pasteur Institute in Senegal and the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in South Africa were able to carry out full-scale genetic detection of SARS-CoV-2.

Subsequent training, led by the WHO, has now enabled scientists in around 40 African countries to diagnose infection with the virusbut this can still be done only in each countrys central public-health laboratory. Near-patient testing would help a lot. And many health-care workers in Africa are already familiar with similar self-contained diagnostic machines, because they have been used extensively to track the efficacy of antiretroviral therapy for HIV.

Genetic tests identify active infections. But to understand properly how SARS-CoV-2 is spreading through a population it is also important to know who has been infected in the past and recovered. That is where serological tests come in. They look not for RNA in swab samples, but for antibodies in blood samples. Antibodies usually hang around in a persons bloodstream well after an infection has cleared. They thus form a historical record of the pathogens people have been exposed to over the course of their lives.

Each antibody is tailored to latch onto a specific protein on the surface of a pathogen, thus disabling it. A serological test for SARS-CoV-2 therefore works by using such a proteinreferred to as an antigento capture antibodies from a blood sample. Most tests under development focus on spike, a protein which protrudes prominently, and in many places, from the surface of the otherwise-spherical SARS-CoV-2 virus particle. In a typical test, a blood sample would be placed into a test tube coated inside with the antigen. If relevant antibodies are present, they will stick to the antigen. Depending on the design of the test, a positive result could produce a colour change or emit light to indicate success. The whole thing is reasonably cheap and could give results in minutes.

BioMedomics, a firm in North Carolina, for example, has designed a serological test for SARS-CoV-2 that needs only a few drops of blood from a finger prick, and which gives results in 15 minutes. It includes a hand-held plastic stick which looks similar to that from a pregnancy-testing kit. And, similarly to those tests, it uses coloured lines to indicate the presence of particular antibodies. The company says the test has already been widely used by Chinas public-health authorities, but has not yet been reviewed for use by Americas FDA.

Designing a serological test, then, is straightforward. Checking that it gives accurate results takes time, though. A common problem with such tests is that antibodies may cross-react, meaning that a test for SARS-CoV-2 might also show a positive result when it comes across a different coronavirusthe original SARS, perhaps, or one of the coronaviruses that cause colds. Testing the accuracy of these tests requires trials involving hundreds of people who are known to have had SARS-CoV-2 infections, and hundreds of others who are known not to have been infected.

Once validated, serological tests are fast and cheap to run at scale. They have already been deployed in China, Singapore and South Korea. Data on their efficacy, however, have not yet been publicly released or independently verified. Americas CDC is evaluating two serological tests and Public Health England, the relevant government body in that country, is also working on a test. Chris Whitty, Englands chief medical officer, said that the introduction of such a test would be a game changer in the quest to track and control the spread of SARS-CoV-2 across the population. It cannot come fast enough.

This article appeared in the Science and technology section of the print edition under the headline "Test acts"

Link:
Developing and deploying tests for SARS-CoV-2 is crucial - The Economist

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

With rare diseases, 72 percent out of the 7000 known are genetic, and 70 percent of those start in childhood. The lack of scientific knowledge and the quality of information often delay diagnosis or lead to misdiagnosed cases, losing precious time that can be vital to find treatment before it's too late.This situation is changing with the advent of genetic medicine. an example is Emedgene's artificial intelligence software, which is the worlds first completely automated genetic interpretation platform using machine learning algorithms.Digital Journal spoke with Einat Metzer, CEO and Co-Founder of Emedgene to talk about the new genetic interpretation software.Digital Journal: How are rare diseases classified?Einat Metzer: Rare diseases defined by the number of people affected. In the U.S., any disease that affects fewer than 200,000 people is defined as rare, in Europe, its any disease affecting fewer than 1 in 2000 people.There are around 6000 known rare diseases, and that number is growing. Whats interesting to know, is that although they are each individually rare, collectively they impact over 300 million people. Those patients have a very difficult time receiving a diagnosis for their disease, and typically go through a diagnostic odyssey lasting on average 5-7 years. Its also worth noting that most rare diseases have a genetic basis, and appear in early childhood. DJ: Is sufficient funding and research invested into rare diseases? What are the factors that influence this?Metzer: There are two challenging aspects to rare diseases, the first is the identification of a rare disease, because obviously, physicians arent familiar with every disease affecting only tens or hundreds of patients worldwide. The second difficult aspect is developing treatments for diseases impacting small numbers of patients. The good news is countries and healthcare systems are increasingly recognizing the need to cover genetic testing for the identification of rare diseases. As of today, over 50% of the US population has insurance coverage for next generation sequencing. However, even insurance coverage for the tests does not entirely solve the problem. Sequencing a patients DNA is easily done, but understanding what variants in a patients genome mean is still quite challenging. Every patient has millions of harmless genetic variants, and only one disease-causing mutation. As a result, geneticists can spend hours manually reviewing hundreds of variants and looking for evidence for the disease in databases and the literature. There are fewer than 5,000 geneticists worldwide available to interpret patients genetic data, resulting in an interpretation bottleneck. Even as more patients become eligible for genetic testing, the workforce capable of diagnosing them is not growing fast enough. We estimate the worldwide capacity of interpretation is capped at roughly 2.4 million tests, less than the predicted rare disease testing volume for 2020. DJ: How can machine learning help?Metzer:Machine learning technologies can reduce the manual labor of interpretation, by offloading both the research and deep analysis tasks from geneticists. Machine learning is a buzzword, widely used, and applied to many types of solutions. Were talking about a unique application of the technology here, where we wont use a single algorithm to solve a single problem. Instead, we need to apply a set of algorithms designed to automate different aspects of the geneticists workflow. On the one hand, the geneticists work is to review thousands of data points for every patients test, and use them to come to a conclusion on the single genetic variant thats causing the disease. We can certainly apply machine learning algorithms to review those data points. But we can go a step further, and collect the data points most likely to impact their decision, and include those in our recommendations. The second labor-intensive task geneticists perform, is looking for the most up-to-date information in databases and the published literature. Thats a task well suited for Natural Language Processing, which can be used to augment existing databases with information curated from the literature. DJ: How does Emedgenes AI software work?Metzer:Emedgenes AI-powered genomic analysis platform tries to do just that, automate the labor-intensive parts of the geneticists workflow, so interpreting a patients genetic test takes less time and effort, and accuracy is not compromised. The goal is to scale the genetic testing interpretation in healthcare systems, so they can offer personalized care to a broader population. Our AI consists of dozens of different algorithms, each solving a different problem, all coming together to automate the genetic testing interpretation workflow. The platform is able to automatically identify the disease-causing variant, compile the evidence, and present it to the geneticist on the case for review. The machine learning algorithms utilize a proprietary knowledge graph that continuously incorporates new knowledge. The knowledge graph contains over 85,000 entities and 340,000 connections today, including unique information curated from the literature that has not yet made its way into public databases.DJ: What were the main challenges when developing the software?Access to large high-quality data sets is a major challenge in developing AI solutions in healthcare in general. For our supervised learning algorithms - those that require labeled data for training the algorithm - once we obtained the data, labeling was a challenge as well. The level of education required to annotate healthcare datasets is quite high.Fortunately, there are good solutions to both problems, both from the scientific and AI perspective. DJ: Are there any case studies you can share, to show the benefits of the approach?Metzer:Weve studied the accuracy of our interpretation algorithms with Baylor Genetics. In the 180-case study, our AI successfully identified the disease-causing mutation in 96% of the cases. Another of our customers, Greenwood Genetic Center, was able to reduce time spent per case by 75%, which was translated directly into shorter turn around times for patients waiting for a genetic diagnosis.

Read more from the original source:
Q&A:Transforming genetic medicine as the medical standard of care (Includes interview) - Digital Journal

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Enabling continuity of care while allowing patients to stay home

SAN CARLOS, Calif., March 19, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Natera, Inc.(NASDAQ: NTRA), a pioneer and global leader in cell-free DNA testing, today announced expanded access to its virtual ordering platforms and remote testing capabilities across its reproductive, oncology and organ transplant businesses.

Natera, Inc. Logo (PRNewsFoto/Natera, Inc.)

Natera's tests inform critical medical decisions, and the need to carry out these essential tests does not stop, even in these challenging times. To meet this demand, testing can be fulfilled remotely, delivered at the push of a button with virtual ordering and remote blood draws in the comfort and safety of a patient's home. "We are focused on helping physicians ensure continuity of essential medical care, while protecting the safety and well-being of our patients," said Steve Chapman, CEO.

The remote functionality is fulfilled through Natera's online platforms and a nationwide mobile blood draw network that performed roughly 10,000 in-home draws in 2019.

Natera provides essential medical services for thousands of patients every day, and our laboratories continue to operate at high throughput levels.Stringent health and safety precautions have been implemented in all of our facilities to ensure the continuity of testing operations. These include daily health checks for lab staff and a work-from-home policy for all non-lab employees.

About Natera Naterais a global leader in cell-free DNA testing. The mission of the company is to change the management of disease worldwide with a focus on reproductive health, oncology, and organ transplantation. Natera operates an ISO 13485-certified and CAP-accredited laboratory certified under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) in San Carlos, Calif. It offers proprietary genetic testing services to inform obstetricians, transplant physicians, oncologists, and cancer researchers, including biopharmaceutical companies, and genetic laboratories through its cloud-based software platform. For more information, visit natera.com. Follow Natera on LinkedIn.

Forward-Looking Statements All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this press release are forward-looking statements and are not a representation that Natera's plans, estimates, or expectations will be achieved. These forward-looking statements represent Natera's expectations as of the date of this press release, and Natera disclaims any obligation to update the forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially, including with respect to our efforts to develop and commercialize new product offerings, our ability to successfully increase demand for and grow revenues for our product offerings, or of our expectations of the benefits of our screening tests and product offerings to patients, providers and payers. Additional risks and uncertainties are discussed in greater detail in "Risk Factors" in Natera's recent filings on Forms 10-K and 10-Q and in other filings Natera makes with the SEC from time to time. These documents are available at http://www.natera.com/investorsand http://www.sec.gov.

Contacts Investor Relations: Mike Brophy, CFO, Natera, Inc., 650-249-9090 Media: Paul Greenland, VP of Corporate Marketing, pr@natera.com

View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/natera-provides-remote-access-to-tests-without-requiring-live-office-visits-301026668.html

SOURCE Natera, Inc.

Original post:
Natera Provides Remote Access to Tests Without Requiring Live Office Visits - Yahoo Finance

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Female reproductive health relates to a condition, disease or disorder by which the reproductive system is affected, during all stages of life, unless medically intervened. In clinical practice of reproductive medicine, genetic evaluation is a standard requirement for diagnosis and management. Reproduction helps to inherit and conserve genetic identity, but genetic variations can affect reproducibility Here are some of the major concerns of reproductive health in females.

The causes of the above conditions can be genetic or non-genetic. Genetic variations can be at different resolutions of the genome, such as gross chromosomal abnormalities, single gene disorders, complex genetic inheritance or multifactorial. Chromosomal abnormalities contribute for almost 60 per cent of spontaneous abortions and the most common type is trisomy, the extra copy of chromosome and its association with advanced maternal age.

Genetic etiology in couples with a history of repeated pregnancy losses, babies with mental retardation or developmental delays is due to the presence of a balanced chromosomal translocation that gets passed in an unbalanced form to the next generation. Hence, elucidating the type of genetic abnormality can help a genetic counsellor to understand the risk of recurrence and to discuss the option of prenatal testing, if required.

Sex chromosomal abnormalities, mainly numerical followed by structural, are an important cause of menstrual disorders and therefore confirming the clinical diagnosis by doing genetic testing is utmost important. Sex chromosomal abnormalities are one of the most common findings in infertility cases, followed by the presence of a single gene disorder in the form of permutation status of Fragile X syndrome in females which can lead to premature ovarian failure and subsequent infertility.

Therefore, in couples with history of infertility, knowing the genetic status may help the couple avoid an expensive and extensive work up. It can also help the genetic counsellor and the clinician to discuss the options of reproduction to help make them an informed choice. Further, complex genetic inheritance may be the cause of polycystic ovaries and endometriosis, but large cohort study is required for fully understanding the genetic contributions to this disorder.

The results of genetic testing are not only applicable to the individual but also to the family. Hence, it not only helps the individual but also helps all the family members who are at risk.

Originally posted here:
Women's Reproductive Health And Genetic Testing - Version Weekly

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Rio Tintos Kennecott mine near Salt Lake City, Utah, has been impacted by a 5.7-magnitude earthquake close to the town of Magna.

All employees have been safely accounted for and evacuated from the potential risk areas. At this stage the company has identified limited damage to the operation or risk to the surrounding community.

A detailed inspection of the complex is currently being conducted, in conjunction with the local emergency services and Utah Department of Transportation.

As a precaution, all operations have been temporarily halted and, in line with standard procedures pre-agreed with the Utah Department of Transportation, State Road 201 has been temporarily closed while the inactive South (Magna) tailings storage facility is inspected.

This is an inactive historic tailings storage facility that is stable and being actively monitored and managed, under a plan reviewed and endorsed by a panel of independent geotechnical experts and Utahs dam regulatory authorities.

Rio Tinto Copper & Diamonds chief executive Arnaud Soirat commented: The safety of our employees and wider community is our first priority and having ensured that all our employees are safe and the operations are shut, we are now working with the local emergency services and regulators to ensure the asset is safe before resuming any operations.

SEE ALSO:

Rio Tinto Oyu Tolgoi operation slowed by coronavirus

Rio Tinto investing $1bn to meet new climate change targets

Inmarsat delivers remote tailings dam monitoring with real-time analysis

Read the latest issue of Mining Global here

In DecemberRio Tinto announceda $1.5bn investment to expand the Kennecott copper mineextending operations to 2032.

The move reflects a growing trend for miners to invest in strategic mineral projects across the United States.The investment will further extend strip waste rock mining and support additional infrastructure development in the second phase of the South Wall Pushback project, to allow mining to continue into a new area of the ore body and deliver close to one million tonnes of refined copper between 2026 and 2032. It will also allow further exploration of the deposit and options for mine life extension.

For more insights on mining topics - please take a look at the latest edition ofMining Global.

Follow us onLinkedInandTwitter.

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Rio Tinto halts operations at Kennecott following earthquake - Mining Global - Mining News, Magazine and Website

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

NAIROBI, Kenya A white female giraffe and her 7-month-old calf, whose rare pigmentation mesmerized wildlife enthusiasts around the world, have been killed by poachers in Kenya, officials said, illustrating the challenges of conservation and the persistent and devastating impact of poaching.

The deaths of the giraffes left just one of the unusually colored animals in the countrys wild, a bull, out of a family of three, conservancy officials said.

Mohammed Ahmednoor, the manager of the Ishaqbini Hirola Community Conservancy in northeastern Kenya, where the giraffes lived, said that rangers had confirmed their deaths and that there were photographs of the skeletal remains.

This is a very sad day for the community of Ijara and Kenya as a whole, Mr. Ahmednoor said. We are the only community in the world who are custodians of the white giraffe.

Its killing is a blow to the tremendous steps taken by the community to conserve rare and unique species, and a wake-up call for continued support to conservation efforts, he added.

Conservationists estimated from the state of the carcasses that the animals had been killed four months ago. The Kenya Wildlife Service said it was investigating the killings.

With their unique white hides, the female giraffe and her calf drew global attention when they were sighted grazing in 2017 by a villager in Kenya who was herding his animals near the Ishaqbini sanctuary, which is also home to the critically endangered hirola antelope.

The adult was accompanied by a pale baby giraffe, and it was not immediately clear what had happened to that calf or whether its skin pigmentation had changed as it aged. Last year, a second calf was born, bringing the total number of white giraffes in the area to three.

The giraffes did not have albinism, but displayed the symptoms of a different genetic condition, known as leucism, in which animals often experience a partial loss of pigmentation.

Animals with albinism produce no melanin throughout their entire bodies. Animals with leucism may have darker pigment in their soft tissue, and their eyes retain a normal color. The eyes of animals with albinism are usually red. Ishaqbini said the female white giraffe had dark pigment in her soft tissue, noting that, Her eyes were dark in color.

The Giraffe Conservation Foundation estimates that the number of reticulated giraffes in the world, which includes the species found in Ishaqbini and across north and northeastern Kenya, has declined by more than 50 percent in the past three decades, to 15,780 in 2018.

There are about 111,000 giraffes in Africa, according to the foundation. In some populations, 50 percent of calves dont survive their first year, the foundation said.

The killing of the white giraffes highlighted the threats facing the animals, including poaching for their meat and hide, along with the loss of their habitat because of infrastructure development and land clearing for agriculture and firewood.

While conservation efforts in Kenya have improved, the country has for decades struggled to contain the threat to its wildlife population, a source of much-needed tourism revenue. This is especially true of its elephant and rhino populations, whose ivory and horns are valued as status symbols and used as ingredients in traditional medicine.

Mr. Ahmednoor, the manager of Ishaqbini, lamented the likely impact of the white giraffes killing, saying that the animals were a big boost to tourism in the area.

Also, he added, This is a long-term loss given that genetics studies and research which were significant investment into the area by researchers has now gone down the drain.

Beyond Kenya, a white giraffe was also spotted in 2016 in Tanzania, at the Tarangire National Park.

Abdi Latif Dahir reported from Nairobi, and Neil Vigdor from New York.

See the article here:
2 Rare White Giraffes Slaughtered by Poachers in Kenya - The New York Times

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Last Thursday, TV productions had only just begun to shut down as a result of the World Health Organization officially declaring the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. And while Hulu canceled the series' red carpet premiere scheduled for that evening, the cast of Hulu's Little Fires Everywhere, an adaptation of Celeste Ng's best-selling novel, still headed to the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills that morning for what would turn out to be the last Hollywood junket for the foreseeable future.

"It feels a little odd to be here talking about a television show," star Reese Witherspoon told The Hollywood Reporter the morning of March 12, well before any emergency regulations were put in place by the state and national governments. "If we have an opportunity to distract or entertain, I feel very lucky to be part of a community that's helping [do that]."

Added her co-star and fellow executive producer Kerry Washington, "Figuring out how to have moments of respite and calm and joy even in these times is really important because our stress level impacts our immunity. If we're doing everything we can to stay well, then we have to get all the facts we need to get in order to make smart decisions about taking care of ourselves and our families. But we also need to figure out how to cultivate some calm."

The duo's new series, an exploration of motherhood told via the stories of very different women whose lives intersect in a unique way in 1990s suburban Ohio, debuts its first three episodes on Wednesday, with subsequent episodes premiering weekly. At the time of the interview, seven of the season's eight episodes had been sent to critics for review and Witherspoon and Washington told THR that's because the finale was still being tweaked.

"We're still working on it," said Witherspoon, with Washington adding, "We are tweaking one little thing. For people who love the book, I will say there are some surprises. Celeste said something really beautiful and generous to us in the process of making the show. She said, 'The best covers of songs are the ones that really make it their own.' She saw us as doing that. It's a beautiful cover, but she gave us room to be our own thing while we were honoring what she originally wrote."

Below, the pair discuss Washington's return to TV after Scandal, working with their onscreen children and the series' now-hyper-relevant take on xenophobia.

Both of you have been producing for a while, but what was it like working together as producers and stars?

Kerry Washington: It was really, really fun. But I think one of the reasons why we had such a good time is because we put in the same amount of work. We worked really hard. We have teams around us that work really hard. With all of that collaborative, creative energy, we were able to build something that we're really proud of and have good time doing it.

Reese Witherspoon: Yeah, the show is really special because of, I think, what our teams brought to it. The thought and care about really creating realistic mothers and showing the nuance of motherhood that I don't think is on film very much.

Reese, this is another look at the types of issues you tackled on Big Little Lies in terms of both motherhood and class.

Witherspoon: Yeah, but we're dealing with hundreds of years of storytelling about mothers. We're just barely scratching the surface of stories that tell the spectrum of female behavior. There are so many different kinds of mothering ideologies. I think just exploring four different ones in this, actually five with my character's mother, it just informs you so much about parenting.

It's almost as if women aren't a monolith and there are a lot of different experiences.

Witherspoon: Can you imagine? It's just so interesting.

What was it like to work with the actors who play your children?

Washington: We were teenagers in the '90s. We were there. It was this weird like, "You're playing me. I had that outfit when I was 16."

Witherspoon: They're wonderful. I thought a lot, too, about my experience with being a teenager on sets and tried to be really helpful, helping them by giving them a lot of information that we had done about our characters. Josh [Jackson, her onscreen husband] and I sat down and had a family dinner with them before we started to talk about, "What does this family talk about? What are our political views? What are religious views?" [So they could] have that information to mind when they needed it.

Kerry, why choose this as your first onscreen project after Scandal, particularly since that seems to be how a wider audience came to know your work?

Washington: I was really lucky. I was really blessed before Scandal to have a fantastic career as a character actor where I really was able to disappear into different cinematic roles, where people didn't even really connect that the girl from Save the Last Dance was the same girl from Last King of Scotlandwas the same girl from Ray. I was able to work at a really high level without it impacting my anonymity or my personal life. I think for me, the fact that the characters are so different is just a symptom of how I like to gravitate toward diversity even in the kinds of women that I play and the kinds of characters that I bring to life. I like to change it up because you can't do as much when you're on a television show.

What was the biggest theme from the book that you wanted to bring to the screen?

Witherspoon: There's such an exploration of class in this [story]. What do we value as society? Where do we place importance for parenting? Is it about genetics? Is it about biology? Is it about affluence? Is it about education? Exploring that through the idea of what we talk about 25 years ago versus now almost gave us this great Mad Men perspective: You got to look at the way [society handled] every issue in the 1960s into the '70s with the sigh of like, "Oh, we know better now." But maybe that's not true, and I think it'll start a lot of conversation.

Washington: Yeah. I think some of it is, "Oh, we know better now." Some of it is, "Oh, we're still making those mistakes or we're still thinking some of those thoughts or we haven't come as far as maybe we thought we have or had."

Witherspoon: You know what else I was thinking? The show reminds me a little bit of Parasite in that you meet one world, and then you think, OK, well, there's a different class. It's mothering and then there's a whole other [look at] class and immigrant culture. What do we value? Do we value the immigrant experience as that pertains to motherhood?

Washington: Yeah, there's that kind of upstairs/downstairs Downton Abbey [clash].

The show is also hyper-relevant in terms of how it looks at xenophobia, even in a way that's more topical than it would have been a month ago.

Washington: We've been talking about that in my house because we overheard somebody talking about how they were nervous to order Chinese food and somebody was like, "Are you nervous to order Italian food?" It's really an interesting conversation to overhear. I think people are exploring their own feelings around who has [COVID-19], who doesn't, how do we get it, our assumptions about who represents what levels of safety.

Little Fires Everywhere is now streaming on Hulu. Hear more from Little Fires Everywhere showrunner Liz Tiglaar during Friday's new episode of TV's Top 5.

See original here:
Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington on Promoting 'Little Fires Everywhere' in a Pandemic - Hollywood Reporter

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

For their study, Terzic and colleagues analyzed the hearts of mice that received cardiopoietic stem cell therapy as well as those that did not. They used an algorithmic approach to map the proteins in the heart muscle, identifying 4,000 proteins. Ten percent of these were damaged during a heart attack.

The investigators found that the therapy either fully or partially reversed two-thirds of the changes caused by the event. And about 85% of cellular functional categories impacted by infarction responded positively to treatment, the authors wrote. They also noted that new blood vessels and heart tissue began to grow as a result of the intervention.

In the United States, someone has a heart attack every 40 seconds, according to the study, which kills this precious cardiac tissue and leads to a significantly weaker heart. Although cardiopoietic stem cells are still being investigated in advanced clinical trials in human patients, this most recent study is a big step in the right direction.

The current findings will enrich the base of knowledge pertinent to stem cell therapies and may have the potential to guide therapeutic regimens in the future," Terzic concluded.

Visit link:
Stem cell therapy revives cardiac muscle damaged during heart attacks - Cardiovascular Business

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Abeona Therapeutics Inc.ABEO announced that it has treated the first patient in the pivotal phase III study VIITAL evaluating its lead pipeline candidate, EB-101, in patients with recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB). The rare connective tissue disorder, RDEB, is characterized by severe skin wounds and can lead to systemic complications.

The study is being conducted by investigators at Stanford University Medical Center and enrollment in it is ongoing.

Currently, there are no FDA-approved therapies for treating RDEB. A successful development of the gene-corrected cell therapy candidate, EB-101 will be a major boost for the clinical-stage pharma company.

Please note that the company has successfully completed a phase I/II study on EB-101 in RDEB patients. Data from the study showed that treatment with the candidate resulted in sustained and durable wound healing. It also had a favorable safety profile.

Shares of Abeona have lost 37.7% so far this year compared with the industrys decline of 12.7%.

Apart from EB-101, the company has two other clinical-stage pipeline candidates in its portfolio. The candidates ABO-102 and ABO-101 are adeno-associated virus (AAV)-based gene therapies, which are being developed for treating Sanfilippo syndrome type A and Sanfilippo syndrome type B, respectively.

The company is also planning to initiate a phase I/II study to evaluate pre-clinical AAV-based gene therapy candidate, ABO-202 in patients with CLN1 disease soon. An investigational new drug application to support the initiation of the study was approved by the FDA in May 2019.

Abeona Therapeutics Inc. Price

Abeona Therapeutics Inc. Price

Abeona Therapeutics Inc. price | Abeona Therapeutics Inc. Quote

Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider

Abeona currently has Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock.

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Regenerons earnings estimates for 2020 have gone up from $28.31 to $29.18 and from $28.93 to $30.97 for 2021 over the past 30 days. Regenerons stock has returned 31% so far in 2020.

MeiraGTxs loss estimates for 2020 have narrowed from $2.41 to $2.06 and from $4.10 to $3.40 for 2021 over the past 30 days.

Veronas loss estimates for 2020 have narrowed from $3.95 to $2.65 and from $3.96 to $2.59 for 2021 over the past 30 days.

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Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free reportRegeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (REGN) : Free Stock Analysis ReportAbeona Therapeutics Inc. (ABEO) : Free Stock Analysis ReportVerona Pharma PLC American Depositary Share (VRNA) : Free Stock Analysis ReportMeiraGTx Holdings PLC (MGTX) : Free Stock Analysis ReportTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.

Read this article:
Abeona Treats First Patient in Pivotal Gene Therapy Study - Yahoo Finance

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

BOSTON and LONDON, March 18, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Orchard Therapeutics (Nasdaq: ORTX), a global gene therapy leader, today announced that company founder and gene therapy pioneer Bobby Gaspar, M.D., Ph.D., has been named chief executive officer, effective immediately. Dr. Gaspar, previously president of research, chief scientific officer, and a member of the Orchard board of directors, succeeds Mark Rothera, who has served as the companys chief executive officer since 2017. As part of this transition process, Frank Thomas, Orchards chief operating officer and chief financial officer, will take on the role of president.

As a world-renowned scientist and physician, and accomplished strategic and organizational leader with more than 25 years of experience in medicine and biotechnology, Bobby Gaspar is uniquely qualified to lead Orchard into the future, said Jim Geraghty, chairman of the Orchard board of directors. In addition, Frank Thomas proven track record of success in leading operations, corporate finance and commercialization at a number of publicly traded life sciences companies will continue to be invaluable in his expanded role. On behalf of the entire Board of Directors, Id like to personally thank Mark for his many contributions to building Orchard into a leading gene therapy company over the last three years and wish him all the best in his future endeavors.

One of the companys principal scientific founders, Dr. Gaspar has served on Orchards board of directors and has driven its research, development and regulatory strategy since its inception. Over the course of his long career he has been a leading force in the development of hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) gene therapy bringing it from some of the first studies in patients to potential regulatory approvals. Dr. Gaspars unparalleled expertise, in addition to his deep relationships with key physicians and treatment centers around the world, will continue to be integral to efforts to identify and treat patients with metachromatic leukodystrophy (MLD) and other diseases through targeted disease education, early diagnosis and comprehensive newborn screening.

Dr. Gaspar commented: I am honored to become Orchards next CEO at a time of such opportunity for the company and for patients with severe genetic disorders. Through the consistent execution of our strategy, our talented team has advanced a leading portfolio of gene therapy candidates, expanding our R&D, manufacturing and commercial capabilities. We will now focus on driving continued innovation and growth, as well as strong commercial preparation and execution. I look forward to providing greater detail around our commercialization plan, pipeline prioritization and how we can realize the full potential of our HSC gene therapy platform, in the coming quarter.

Mr. Thomas commented: Im excited to be part of this next phase of Orchards evolution as a gene therapy leader as we look to refine our strategic priorities, ensure financial strength through improved operating efficiencies and prepare for a new cycle of growth, which includes our anticipated upcoming launch of OTL-200 in Europe. Im confident we will achieve long-term growth and value for our shareholders while turning groundbreaking innovation into potentially transformative therapies for patients suffering from devastating, often-fatal inherited diseases.

Mr. Rothera commented: It has been a great privilege to lead Orchard and this outstanding management team for the past three years. Orchard is poised to make a huge difference to the lives of patients worldwide living with devastating rare genetic conditions. Having worked closely with Bobby for the last several years, I know that he is tremendously talented, extremely passionate about the patient-centric mission, and fully prepared to lead Orchard as it enters its next phase as a company.

About OrchardOrchard Therapeutics is a global gene therapy leader dedicated to transforming the lives of people affected by rare diseases through innovative, potentially curative gene therapies. Our ex vivo autologous gene therapy approach harnesses the power of genetically-modified blood stem cells and seeks to permanently correct the underlying cause of disease in a single administration. The company has one of the deepest gene therapy pipelines in the industry and is advancing seven clinical-stage programs across multiple therapeutic areas where the disease burden on children, families and caregivers is immense and current treatment options are limited or do not exist, including inherited neurometabolic disorders, primary immune deficiencies and blood disorders.

Orchard has its global headquarters in London and U.S. headquarters in Boston. For more information, please visit http://www.orchard-tx.com, and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Availability of Other Information About Orchard

Investors and others should note that Orchard communicates with its investors and the public using the company website (www.orchard-tx.com), the investor relations website (ir.orchard-tx.com), and on social media (twitter.com/orchard_tx and http://www.linkedin.com/company/orchard-therapeutics), including but not limited to investor presentations and investor fact sheets, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings, press releases, public conference calls and webcasts. The information that Orchard posts on these channels and websites could be deemed to be material information. As a result, Orchard encourages investors, the media, and others interested in Orchard to review the information that is posted on these channels, including the investor relations website, on a regular basis. This list of channels may be updated from time to time on Orchards investor relations website and may include additional social media channels. The contents of Orchards website or these channels, or any other website that may be accessed from its website or these channels, shall not be deemed incorporated by reference in any filing under the Securities Act of 1933.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements about Orchards strategy, future plans and prospects, which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include express or implied statements relating to, among other things, the companys business strategy and goals, and the therapeutic potential of Orchards product candidates, including the product candidate or candidates referred to in this release. These statements are neither promises nor guarantees and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond Orchards control, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in these forward-looking statements. In particular, the risks and uncertainties include, without limitation: the impact of the COVID-19 virus on Orchards clinical and commercial programs, the risk that any one or more of Orchards product candidates, including the product candidate or candidates referred to in this release, will not be approved, successfully developed or commercialized, the risk of cessation or delay of any of Orchards ongoing or planned clinical trials, the risk that prior results, such as signals of safety, activity or durability of effect, observed from preclinical studies or clinical trials will not be replicated or will not continue in ongoing or future studies or trials involving Orchards product candidates, the delay of any of Orchards regulatory submissions, the failure to obtain marketing approval from the applicable regulatory authorities for any of Orchards product candidates, the receipt of restricted marketing approvals, and the risk of delays in Orchards ability to commercialize its product candidates, if approved. Given these uncertainties, the reader is advised not to place any undue reliance on such forward-looking statements.

Other risks and uncertainties faced by Orchard include those identified under the heading "Risk Factors" in Orchards annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, as filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on February 27, 2020, as well as subsequent filings and reports filed with the SEC. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release reflect Orchards views as of the date hereof, and Orchard does not assume and specifically disclaims any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by law.

Contacts

InvestorsRenee T. LeckDirector, Investor Relations+1 862-242-0764Renee.Leck@orchard-tx.com

MediaChristine C. HarrisonVP, Public Affairs & Stakeholder Engagement+1 202-415-0137media@orchard-tx.com

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Orchard Therapeutics Appoints Company Founder and Gene Therapy Pioneer Bobby Gaspar, MD, Ph.D., as New Chief Executive Officer - BioSpace

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

NEW YORK, March 18, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --

The report on the global zinc finger nuclease technology market provides qualitative and quantitative analysis for the period from 2017 to 2025.

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05874235/?utm_source=PRN

The report predicts the global zinc finger nuclease technology market to grow with a healthy CAGR over the forecast period from 2019-2025. The study on zinc finger nuclease technology market covers the analysis of the leading geographies such as North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and RoW for the period of 2017 to 2025.

The report on zinc finger nuclease technology market is a comprehensive study and presentation of drivers, restraints, opportunities, demand factors, market size, forecasts, and trends in the global zinc finger nuclease technology market over the period of 2017 to 2025. Moreover, the report is a collective presentation of primary and secondary research findings.

Porter's five forces model in the report provides insights into the competitive rivalry, supplier and buyer positions in the market and opportunities for the new entrants in the global zinc finger nuclease technology market over the period of 2017 to 2025. Further, IGR- Growth Matrix gave in the report brings an insight into the investment areas that existing or new market players can consider.

Report Findings1) Drivers Rising use of gene therapy and genome therapy Benefits offered by zinc finger nuclease technology such as permanent and heritable mutation and efficient creation of animal models2) Restraints Complexities associated with zinc finger nuclease technology3) Opportunities Application of zinc finger nuclease technology in drug discovery

Research Methodology

A) Primary ResearchOur primary research involves extensive interviews and analysis of the opinions provided by the primary respondents. The primary research starts with identifying and approaching the primary respondents, the primary respondents are approached include1. Key Opinion Leaders associated with Infinium Global Research2. Internal and External subject matter experts3. Professionals and participants from the industry

Our primary research respondents typically include1. Executives working with leading companies in the market under review2. Product/brand/marketing managers3. CXO level executives4. Regional/zonal/ country managers5. Vice President level executives.

B) Secondary ResearchSecondary research involves extensive exploring through the secondary sources of information available in both the public domain and paid sources. At Infinium Global Research, each research study is based on over 500 hours of secondary research accompanied by primary research. The information obtained through the secondary sources is validated through the crosscheck on various data sources.

The secondary sources of the data typically include1. Company reports and publications2. Government/institutional publications3. Trade and associations journals4. Databases such as WTO, OECD, World Bank, and among others.5. Websites and publications by research agencies

Segment CoveredThe global zinc finger nuclease technology market is segmented on the basis of type, and application.

The Global Zinc Finger Nuclease Technology Market by Type Cell Line Engineering Animal Genetic Engineering Plant Genetic Engineering Other

The Global Zinc Finger Nuclease Technology Market by Application Biotechnology Companies Pharmaceutical Companies Hospital Laboratory and Diagnostic Laboratory Academic and Research Institutes

Company Profiles Sigma-Aldrich Corporation Thermo Fisher Scientific Sangamo Therapeutics inc. LabOmics S.A. Gilead Sciences, Inc. OriGene Technologies, Inc Others

What does this report deliver?1. Comprehensive analysis of the global as well as regional markets of the zinc finger nuclease technology market.2. Complete coverage of all the segments in the zinc finger nuclease technology market to analyze the trends, developments in the global market and forecast of market size up to 2025.3. Comprehensive analysis of the companies operating in the global zinc finger nuclease technology market. The company profile includes analysis of product portfolio, revenue, SWOT analysis and latest developments of the company.4. IGR- Growth Matrix presents an analysis of the product segments and geographies that market players should focus to invest, consolidate, expand and/or diversify.

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05874235/?utm_source=PRN

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Global zinc finger nuclease technology market is expected to grow with a healthy CAGR over the forecast period from 2019-2025 - PRNewswire

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

BETHESDA, Md., March 18, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Internationally acclaimed clinical geneticist and pediatrician Harvey Levy, MD, FACMG, is the recipient of the 2020 ACMG Foundation for Genetic and Genomic Medicine's David L. Rimoin Lifetime Achievement Award in Medical Genetics.

Dr. Levy, senior physician in medicine and genetics at Boston Children's Hospital and professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, is being honored for his many years of groundbreaking work with patients who have genetic metabolic diseases including phenylketonuria (PKU), homocystinuria, cobalamin metabolic disorder, and others; as well as for his training and mentoring of the next generation of genetics service providers; and for his major contributions to the development of newborn screening in the United States and around the world.

Dr. Levy's medical career spans more than 60 years. He hasmentored over 60 medical genetics fellows; published more than 400 research articles, reviews, book chapters, and proceedings from research meetings; written 2 books and created 2 educational videos for patients and clinicians; served on editorial boards and as a reviewer for numerous prominent research journals; and founded and formerly directed both the Maternal PKU Program and the Inborn Errors of Metabolism/PKU Program at Boston Children's Hospital.

"Harvey Levy is a physician scientist who has been instrumental in the development of newborn screening programs for metabolic diseases," said former ACMG Executive Director Dr. Michael S. Watson, FACMG. "Of particular importance has been his melding of knowledge of clinical genetics, population genetics and metabolic diseases to identify critical issues in the transition from a disease-based understanding of particular metabolic diseases to a population-based prevention program that has had enormous impact on hundreds of newborns in the United States."

"We take newborn screening for granted now," said Gerard Berry, MD, director of the Metabolism Program and professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. "There are laws in different states that babies need to be screened for certain diseases. But when Harvey began, this was uncharted territory. People didn't understand the power of newborn screening and how it could change lives by allowing someone to get on a diet or a medication that they need to take for life in order to be healthy. Harvey played a major role in allowing all of this to come to fruition. These same individuals, who might have been institutionalized years ago because of severe intellectual disability, are now students in elite colleges. Harvey possesses insight and super-ability to understand what is really important for healthcare. Newborn screening is one of the major healthcare successes of the previous centurymaybe the most important healthcare success. And Harvey was part of a group of unique individuals who helped to see that through."

The news that he had received the David L. Rimoin Lifetime Achievement Award came to Dr. Levy as a delightful surprise. "This means a great deal to me because of the ACMG, where I've been an active member for a number of years," Levy shared. "It's a wonderful organization full of outstanding individuals, so to be in that company is particularly gratifying. And it's very, very nice to be appreciated."

"The Rimoin family is proud to recognize Dr. Harvey L. Levy, whose outstanding work includes studies that formed the basis for newborn metabolic screening, the discovery of the first human vitamin B12defect and the establishment of cobalamin defects, and the development of Maternal PKU programs," said Dr. Ann Garber, David Rimoin's surviving spouse."Based on his scientific accomplishments, along with his remarkable integrity, empathy and collaboration, our family is pleased to honor Dr. Levy with the David L. Rimoin Lifetime Achievement Award."

Beyond his list of academic achievements and leadership positions, the nominations for Dr. Levy to receive this award stressed his abounding generosity of time, knowledge and skill while working with patients, families and the broad range of clinical providers and researchers who have collaborated with him.

"He's dedicated himself to the study of PKU and metabolic disorders with an energy and intellect and soul that is extraordinary," said neuropsychologist Susan Waisbren, PhD, a professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School and Dr. Levy's long-time collaborator at Boston Children's Hospital Metabolism Clinic. "One of the qualities I've always found striking is the respect he has for professions outside of medicine. In his mind, every member of the clinical team is important. He truly feels this and it shows in his academic as well as clinical work. He has included as co-authors psychologists, dieticians, social workers, genetic counselors, nurses, administrators, secretaries, and parents.

"The patients adore him, always," she added, "and they recognize a certain compassion and ability to see the whole person, not just the metabolic disorder."

"Harvey is one of those special individuals who one may encounteronce in a lifetime," said Dr. Levy's collaborator at Boston Children's Hospital, Dr. Berry. "He's much more than an accomplished geneticistand investigator.First and foremost, he's a very endearing individual with a wonderful bedside manner, and he's beloved by patients and families whom he's cared for over the years. Harvey goes out of his way to make things better for patients and their families."

As an example, Dr. Berry, who has knownDr. Levy for several decades, recalled a case around 15 years ago, when a baby had been born with PKU in a suburban hospital outside of Boston. "Without telling anyone, Harvey drove to the hospital just to say hello to the new parents and to see the baby," Dr. Berry recounted. "He didn't need to do that. Everything was already in place, people were already taking care of what needed to be done, but he felt compelled to drive out there on a Friday evening to say hello."

Harvey L. Levy was born in Augusta, Georgia in 1935, the eldest of three sons. His father owned a one-room mercantile that supplied clothing to families of the surrounding area, which comprised mostly farmland during that period. His mother, who was a homemaker, graduated from Hunter College and served as a technician in a research laboratory in New York before her marriage. He credits her with some of his initial interest in research.

"I was a guy who was looking for answers to things, so I was always interested in science. And I particularly liked chemistry," Dr. Levy recalled. "My mother was a very intelligent person and very interested in education and music and arts, and also interested in science. I talked with my mother quite a bit about science. So, I think she had a feeling that maybe it would be a good idea for me to be a doctor."

Dr. Levy began studying history as an undergraduate student at Emory University and then switched to an early admission program at the Medical College of Georgia. One of his medical school professors, the famous Dr. Victor Vaughan, headed the department of pediatrics and had a profound influence on the direction of Dr. Levy's career. "I was always interested in pediatrics because of its developmental aspects," explained Dr. Levy. "I felt that if I was going to do something in terms of disease, preventing or helping patients in a significant way, I had to start early, and the earlier the better."

After completing his medical degree in 1960, Dr. Levy served an internship in pediatrics at the Boston City Hospital under Dr.Sydney Gellis, a renowned teacher of pediatrics. Following the internship he moved to New York and the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, where he spent a year under Dr. Dorothy Anderson, the discoverer of cystic fibrosis. Then, as world events escalated toward the start of the Vietnam War, he was drafted and served 2 years in the Unites States Navy as a medical officer stationed in the Philippines.

His introduction to genetics came when he returned to his medical training in 1964 as a second-year pediatrics resident at Johns Hopkins University, where he met the pioneering pediatric clinical geneticist Dr. Barton Childs. What he learned from Dr. Childs about DNA triggered memories of an earlier time, and brought forth questions that further defined Dr. Levy's future career.

"If I go back to my childhood, my upbringing, I had three cousins from one of my father's brothers, whose family we were very close to, and all of these cousins were developmentally disabled," Dr. Levy said. " No reason was given for their disability and I always thought if I got into genetics, then maybe I could discover the causes of brain disease, particularly intellectual disability, and maybe I could influence the prevention of it."

Dr. Levy returned to Boston, where he served as Chief Resident in Pediatrics back at the Boston City Hospital. During that year he heard a lecture by Dr. Mary Efron, director of the Amino Acid Laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital, in which she described her studies on metabolic disorders and their enzymatic defects as well as how newborn screening was helping clinicians to identify infants with these disorders so they could receive immediate preventive treatment.

"I became so fascinated with that. It was just absolutely the thing that I really wanted to do," recalled Dr. Levy. "Here was chemistry, biochemistry, genetics, and the prevention of disease! So I asked Dr. Efron if I could do a fellowship with her, which resulted in an NIH-funded fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital. And that began the journey that has continued to this day."

One cold, fateful Friday afternoon while he was working in Dr. Efron's lab, a telephone call came from Dr. Robert MacCready, director of the Massachusetts Newborn Screening Program. Dr. MacCready asked if someone could come to the screening lab to look at an unusual screening result. Dr. Efron was ill, so Dr. Levy rode his bicycle seven miles across town to the State Laboratory Institute, where he recognized the unusual spot on the paper chromatogram test as a high level of methionine, the hallmark of a genetic disorder he had recently learned about called homocystinuria.

"I called the baby's doctor and asked if I could see the baby at the Massachusetts General Hospital the following Monday," Dr. Levy recalled. "The family and baby came that Monday and I confirmed that the infant indeed had homocystinuria. I asked if they had other children, and was told, 'Yes, we have a daughter.' And I asked if she was ok, and they said she was fine. I asked to see her and she was brought to the next visit, where I immediately recognized that she was developmentally delayed and had other features of homocystinuria that had only recently been described. She was born before screening for homocystinuria had begun. So that launched me into the field of methionine metabolism and some very interesting new areas of research." Much of this research was in collaboration with the late Dr. Harvey Mudd of the NIH, who was the world's foremost authority on methionine and on sulfur amino acid metabolism in general.

Dr. Efron passed away and Dr. Levy assumed Dr. Efron's position as consultant to the Massachusetts Newborn Screening Program and, in 1972, was appointed Director of the program. Four years later, he became Chief of Biochemical Genetics for the New England Newborn Screening Program, a position he held until 1997. Throughout this period, Dr. Levy collaborated with the famed, late microbiologist Robert Guthrie, MD, PhD, of Buffalo, New York, who had established newborn screening with his invention of the PKU test. During this time, he also continued to conduct research and to diagnose and treat patients with metabolic disorders at the Massachusetts General Hospital. An extraordinary influence for Dr. Levy during this time, and continuing to the present, is the internationally famous Canadian biochemical geneticist Dr. Charles Scriver, with whom Dr. Levy has often collaborated.

Toward the end of the 1970's Dr. Levy moved to Boston Children's Hospital, where he transformed the PKU Clinic it into a larger, comprehensive clinicthe Inborn Errors of Metabolism clinicthat now sees patients and families from around the world who are affected by a range of diseases: PKU, galactosemia, histidinemia, methylmalonic acidemia, problems with vitamin B12 metabolism and many other disorders. The hospital recently named the metabolic program after Dr. Levy.

At Boston Children's Hospital Dr. Levy became concerned about infants born to mothers who have genetic metabolic disease. "Before we began newborn screening girls who had PKU became delayed in their mental development, so very few bore children," Dr. Levy explained. "But now that we were treating them from infancy, they were bearing children. Even though their babies were genetically normal, they would be born with multiple severe problems if the mothers were not strictly treated for PKU during the pregnancies. So, with an extraordinary group of very talented professionals, including psychologists, nutritionists, a nurse, and a social worker, as well as physicians, we organized the New England Maternal PKU Program and followed these women on very strict dietary treatment throughout their pregnancies. We found that this regimen prevented many of these problems that the babies would otherwise have."

Today Dr. Levy is considered one of the foremost proponents worldwide for newborn screening. He led a successful effort in Massachusetts to expand newborn metabolic screening with new technology so that 20 to 30 disorders of amino acid, organic acid and fatty acid metabolism could be included rather than only 5 or 6 disorders previously screened. Within the ACMG, Dr. Levy led the effort to develop "ACT Sheets," one-page synopses of the newborn screened metabolic disorders so that physicians caring for infants can easily read an explanation of the biochemical, clinical and treatment characteristics of the disorders when contacted by a newborn screening program about an abnormality. As part of a contract funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), Dr. Levy began and led the Newborn Screening Translational Research Network of the ACMG.

Though many of his contemporaries have retired, Dr. Levy continues to lead research efforts that examine the long-term outcomes of expanded newborn screening using tandem mass spectrometryincluding the medical, biochemical and neuropsychological outcomes in relation to early treatment. He is also involved with clinical trials to develop new therapies for PKU and homocystinuria. Dr. Levy is driven to continue his work because there is still much work to do. "The fact that we've had to rely on complicated diets that alter the lives of patients so they cannot enjoy a normal meal with their family or their friends, they have to only be able to eat this very difficult diet, and also the fact that we still discover diseases for which we have no treatment, " he explained, "these are the issues that trouble me. There are still individuals we discover during newborn screening or we discover later on because we didn't screen for their disorder, and they have severe disorders for which we have no treatments. There are still metabolic diseases that are not being prevented."

Dr. Levy still spends time communicating face-to-face with patients. "If you have a new baby, in a room with the family, you have to present this very complicated story, and the family has no idea what this is about," he explained. "So, we spend a great deal of time explaining the biochemistry, the genetics, the problems that can occur and the treatments that can prevent these problems. Early on, we just thought about biochemistry. But today we become more involved in talking about the genes, because we think it's important for families to understand the origin of these disorders since at some point we are likely to talk to them about the possibility of gene therapy, actually introducing the normal gene into the child. So, they need to understand where the disorder comes from. It's a complicated and long process. The family will take in as much information as they can, but as you can imagine, a lot of what we tell them will be forgotten or not understood. So, we go over everything with them again, and for as many times as they need."

One of the most pleasing aspects of Dr. Levy's career, he recounted, has been working with wonderful and dedicated individualspsychologists, nutritionists, dieticians, nurses, social workers, coordinators, administratorsand within the community of clinicians and researchers who study metabolic genetic disorders, a "relatively small, cohesive group of delightful, brilliant people" as he describes them. "It's been an extraordinarily wonderful professional life, as gratifying as any professional life I could ever dream of," reflected Dr. Levy. "Little did I know when I started that I would have this kind of life and little did I know that I would be awarded with the awards and certainly nothing comparable to the David L. Rimoin Lifetime Achievement Award."

The David L. Rimoin Lifetime Achievement Award is the most prestigious award given by the ACMG Foundation. A committee of past presidents of the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics selects the recipient following nominations, which come from the general membership.

About the ACMG Foundation for Genetic and Genomic Medicine

The ACMG Foundation for Genetic and Genomic Medicine, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is a community of supporters and contributors who understand the importance of medical genetics and genomics in healthcare. Established in 1992, the ACMG Foundation supports the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) mission to "translate genes into health." Through its work, the ACMG Foundation fosters charitable giving, promotes training opportunities to attract future medical geneticists and genetic counselors to the field, shares information about medical genetics and genomics, and sponsors important research.To learn more and support the ACMG Foundation mission to create "Better Health through Genetics" visit http://www.acmgfoundation.org.

Note to editors: To arrange interviews with experts in medical genetics, contact ACMG Senior Director of Public Relations Kathy Moran, MBA at kmoran@acmg.net.

Kathy Moran, MBAkmoran@acmg.net

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Pediatrician and Geneticist Dr. Harvey Levy Receives 2020 David L. Rimoin Lifetime Achievement Award in Medical Genetics from the ACMG Foundation for...

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Barth syndrome is an X-linked metabolic disorder, affecting only males. It has widespread systemic effects presenting with cardiomyopathy, neutropenia, muscle weakness, stunted growth, exercise intolerance and abnormal skeletal structures. In many cases, it results in stillbirth. It is strongly related to mutations in the tafazzin gene, also known as TAZ. Currently only symptomatic treatment exists, and no definite cure has been developed for Barth syndrome.

Read Also: CRISPR Used for the First Time to Treat a Blind Patient

Researchers at Boston Childrens Hospital have proposed gene therapy as a potential treatment method to inhibit processes that lead to heart failure. The researchers conducted the study on mouse models with Barth syndrome.

A research to better understand Barth syndrome was conducted in 2014 by William Pu, MD and colleagues at Boston Childrens Hospital. Together, they created heart on chip models of Barth syndrome by using cardiac myocytes derived from patients with TAZ mutation. This led the researchers to discover the correlation between Barth syndrome and dysfunction. When the defective mutated TAZ myocytes was replaced by healthy TAZ gene myocytes, the cardiac dysfunction was spontaneously corrected.

Pu and colleagues realized that in order to fully understand the effects of Barth syndrome on the system, an animal body was crucial. Attempts at creating a whole body model had previously been done, but had not been successful.

The Beatson Institute for Cancer Research in the U.K has recently been successful in creating mouse models of Barth syndrome. Two categories of these mouse models were created, in the first category TAZ gene was deleted throughout the whole system whereas in the second category of mouse models ha TAZ gene deleted only from the cardiac myocytes.

The mouse models with whole body TAZ deletion died before birth mostly due to hypotonic weak musculature. However, some of the mice survived and developed cardiomyopathy, similar to the dilated cardiomyopathy in humans. The hearts left ventricle had thinner walls and dilated substantially which decreased the systolic pressure resulting in decreased cardiac output.

In those mice with deleted TAZ in heart muscle cells, all subjects survived but had cardiomyopathy issues and reduced cardiac output. Under electron microscope, the heart muscles were found to have abnormal structures and poor organization.

Read Also:UC Berkeley Researchers Restore Vision in Mice Through Gene Insertion

Using gene therapy, the researchers replaced the TAZ gene by administering a gentically engineered virus subcutaneously or intravenously. Whole body TAZ deletion mice survived to an average life span of healthy mice. It successfully prevented cardiac dysfunction in all mice models.

Only when more than 70 percent cardiac myocytes had taken up the modified TAZ gene, significant improvement was seen.

The problem is that neutralizing antibodies to the virus develop after the first dose, said Pu. Getting enough of the muscle cells corrected in humans may be a challenge.

Post introduction of TAZ gene corrected cells, the major problem was seen in sustaining the levels of modified gene cells. In comparison to cardiac myocytes, the number of corrected gene cells in skeletal muscles declined progressively.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200309165231.htm

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Correcting Barth Syndrome With Gene Therapy - Gilmore Health News

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Global Gene Therapy and Antisense Drugs Market: Snapshot

Since an escalating number of patients are being diagnosed with cancer every day, the global demand for gene therapy and antisense drugs is bound to multiply. The growing incidence of health conditions such as Parkinsons disease and high cholesterol is also boosting the demand for gene therapy and antisense drugs. Several new drugs and therapies have been making their debut in the global gene therapy and antisense drugs market of recent.

For instance, in June 2017, it was announced that a group of scientists at the University of Queensland have developed a new technique that is capable of permanently silencing severe allergies triggered by shellfish, peanuts, and venom. The treatment was found to be successful in animal trials. The technique holds considerable potential for treating asthma completely. During the same month, results of another research study for treating multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer, were announced at a conference held by the American Society of Clinical Oncology. The new CAR-T therapy consists of filtering the blood of the patients in order to eliminate T cells which are then genetically altered and given back to the patients.

Get Sample Copy of the Report @https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=500

However, the difficulty pertaining to the delivery of antisense technology to the brain can present key challenges to the expansion of the global market for gene therapy and antisense drugs. Moreover, the unavoidable toxic aftereffects associated with the technology can also inhibit the growth of the gene therapy and antisense drugs market worldwide. However, the present attempts at developing safe and efficient antisense drugs by several market participants including Ionis Pharmaceuticals, which undertook testing of the technology on transgenic mice, can promote the further expansion of the market.

Global Gene Therapy and Antisense Drugs Market: Overview

Antisense gene therapy is emerging as one of the most beneficial therapeutics for various diseases such as tumors, cancer etc. These newer therapies are based on increased knowledge of molecular events that lead to disordered cellular growth. The therapy involves using a gene silencing technique rather than a gene repairing technique for silencing the genes effect.

The research report is a valuable tool for comprehending the progression of the global gene therapy and antisense drugs market between 2017 and 2025.

Global Gene Therapy and Antisense Drugs Market: Treatment Insights

Antisense drugs attach to the mRNA of a target protein, which inhibits the protein production process. Antisense therapeutics can obstruct the expression of oncogenes and other cancer-related genes that express growth factors. Antisense gene therapy involves the utilization of various therapeutic strategies which requires a clear knowledge of the molecular anatomy of cancer related genes. Antisense gene therapy is used to treat various diseases such as hemorrhagic fever, cancer, cystic fibrosis, renal diseases, HIV/AIDS, spinal muscular atrophy, and cardiovascular diseases.

Global Gene Therapy and Antisense Drugs Market: Market Segmentation

On the basis of therapeutic area, the gene therapy and antisense drugs market is segmented into cancer, anemia, rheumatoid arthritis, cardiovascular diseases, HIV/AIDS, cystic fibrosis, diabetes mellitus and obesity, and renal diseases.

By gene transfer method, ex vivo gene transfer and in vivo gene transfer are the segments of the market. The former involves the transfer of cloned genes into cells, i.e., cells are altered outside the body before being implanted into the patient, whereas the latter involves the transfer of cloned genes directly into the patients tissues. The outcome of in vivo gene transfer technology mainly depends on the general efficacy of gene transfer and expression.

Global Gene Therapy and Antisense Drugs Market: Regional Outlook

The global gene therapy and antisense drugs market is segmented into North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Rest of the World. Amongst these, North America holds the leading position in the market followed by Europe. The increasing incidence of cancer and other fatal diseases, unhealthy lifestyle practices such as excessive smoking and excessive consumption of high fat content food, and increasing research efforts for treatment against cancer are the major factors driving the gene therapy and antisense drugs market in these regions.

Asia Pacific is expected to emerge as a significant market for gene therapy and antisense drugs. The high population density including a large geriatric population, expeditiously increasing demand for technologically advanced therapeutics, and increasing government support for improved healthcare infrastructure in the region is driving the growth of this regional market. Furthermore, favorable reimbursement policies and tax benefits on newer therapies will further fuel the growth of the Asia Pacific gene therapy and antisense drugs market.

Major Companies Mentioned in Report

Some of the leading companies operating in the global gene therapy and antisense drugs market are GenVec Inc., Avigen Inc., Genome Therapeutics Corp., Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corporation, Isis Pharmaceuticals, Cell Genesys Inc., and others. These companies are profiled for their key business attributes in the report.

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Gene Therapy and Antisense Drugs Market Growth Trends, Key Players, Competitive Strategies and Forecasts to 2025 - 3rd Watch News

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Report Description

A recent market intelligence report that is published by Data Insights Partner onGene Therapy marketmakes an offering of in-depth analysis of segments and sub-segments in the regional and international Gene Therapy market. The research also emphasizes on the impact of restraints, drivers, and macro indicators on the regional and world Gene Therapy market over the short as well as long period of time. A detailed presentation of forecast, trends, and dollar values of international Gene Therapy market is offered. In accordance with the report, the global Gene Therapy market is projected to expand at a CAGR of 30% over the period of forecast.

Market Insight, Drivers, Restraints& Opportunity of the Market:

Gene therapy is a medical procedure which replaces defective genes or introduces new genes n order to prevent or cure genetic disorders. This procedure has become a bench mark in medical industry as there is no requirement of surgery or drugs or other procedure which has side effects on the individuals. Gene therapy was first commercialized in China in 2004 by China based SiBono Gene Tech (product Gendicine).

The global gene therapy market has been expanding due to the rigorous research conducted in the field of genetics. The rising awareness about the capability of cure of several rare genetic diseases by gene therapy is another important driver which leads the global gene therapy market during the forecast period. Gene therapy has capability cure several life threatening diseases such as cancer, cardiac diseases, AIDS, cystic fibrosis, age-related disorders, sickle cell anemia etc. In March 2019, the director of the National Health Institute (NIH), the U.S. announced that the recent clinical trials on the gene therapy for the treatment of sickle cell anemia showed promising result- therefore, increasing prevalence of aforementioned lie threatening diseases would likely to drive the growth of the global gene therapy market during the forecast period.

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On the other hand, treatment cost and stringent regulatory conditions etc. may hamper the growth of the global gene therapy market in the upcoming future. The results of Gendicine clinical trials were published in 2003 and the medicine got approval by the China State Food and Drug Administration in the same year. Although approved in China, Gendicines use is not very promising outside China. There are several concerns among the researchers about the quality of the clinical trials performed and safety and efficacy of the treatment. However, Gendicines equivalent Advexin (company Introgen Therapueitcs) is still waiting for the FDA approval.

Increasing investment to the gene therapy related research (around 10 Bn was invested in 2015 by private and public organizations), new product developments such as (Zolgensma in 2019), strategic alliance among the key players (such as collaboration between Axovant and Yposkesi) would bring the global gene therapy market an opportunity to propel during the forecast period. In May 2019, Avexis (a Novartis company) has got the FDA approval for Zolgensma for treatment of spinal muscular atrophy for the pediatric patients (less than 2 years of age).

Segment Covered:

This market intelligence report on the global gene therapy market encompasses market segments based on product, application, target user and geography. On the basis of product, the sub-markets is segmented into Yescarta, Kymriah, Strimvelis, Gendicine, Zolgensma and others (Advexin). Based on application, the global gene therapy market has been segregated into large B-Cell lymphoma, Car T Cell therapy, ADA-SCID (adenosine deaminase deficiency), muscular atrophy, head and neck squamus cell carcinoma, others (Crigler-Najjar syndrome). By target user, the global gene therapy market is also classified into adult and pediatric. By Geography, the global gene therapy market has been divided into North America (the U.S., Canada), Latin America (Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and other countries), Europe (Germany, France, the U.K., Spain, Italy, Russia, and other countries), Asia Pacific (India, Japan, China, Australia and New Zealand and other countries), Middle East and Africa (GCC, South Africa, Israel and Other countries).

Profiling of Market Players:

This business intelligence report offers profiling of reputed companies that are operating in the market. Companies such as Novartis, Gilead Sciences, Orchard Therapeutics Ltd, SiBiono GeneTech Co, Introgen Therapeutics and among others have been profiled into detail so as to offer a glimpse of the market leaders. Moreover, parameters such as gene therapy market related investment & spending and developments by major players of the market are tracked in this global report.

Report Highlights:

In-depth analysis of the micro and macro indicators, market trends, and forecasts of demand is offered by this business intelligence report. Furthermore, the report offers a vivid picture of the factors that are steering and restraining the growth of this market across all geographical segments. In addition to that, IGR-Growth Matrix analysis is also provided in the report so as to share insight of the investment areas that new or existing market players can take into consideration. Various analytical tools such as DRO analysis, Porters five forces analysis has been used in this report to present a clear picture of the market. The study focuses on the present market trends and provides market forecast from the year 2017-2027. Emerging trends that would shape the market demand in the years to come have been highlighted in this report. A competitive analysis in each of the geographical segments gives an insight into market share of the global players.

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Salient Features:

This study offers comprehensive yet detailed analysis of the Gene Therapy market, size of the market (US$ Mn), and Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR (%)) for the period of forecast: 2019 2027, taking into account 2017 as the base year

It explains upcoming revenue opportunities across various market segments and attractive matrix of investment proposition for the said market

This market intelligence report also offers pivotal insights about various market opportunities, restraints, drivers, launch of new products, competitive market strategies of leading market players, emerging market trends, and regional outlook

Profiling of key market players in the world Gene Therapy market is done by taking into account various parameters such as company strategies, distribution strategies, product portfolio, financial performance, key developments, geographical presence, and company overview

Leading market players covered this report comprise names such as. Novartis, Gilead Sciences, Orchard Therapeutics Ltd, SiBiono GeneTech Co, Introgen Therapeutics and among others

The data of this report would allow management authorities and marketers of companies alike to take informed decision when it comes to launch of products, government initiatives, marketing tactics and expansion, and technical up gradation

The world market for Gene Therapy market caters to the needs of various stakeholders pertaining to this industry, namely suppliers, manufacturers, investors, and distributors for Gene Therapy market. The research also caters to the rising needs of consulting and research firms, financial analysts, and new market entrants

Research methodologies that have been adopted for the purpose of this study have been clearly elaborated so as to facilitate better understanding of the reports

Reports have been made based on the guidelines as mandated by General Data Protection Regulation

Ample number of examples and case studies have been taken into consideration before coming to a conclusion

Reasons to buy:

vIdentify opportunities and plan strategies by having a strong understanding of the investment opportunities in the Gene Therapy market

vIdentification of key factors driving investment opportunities in the Gene Therapy market

vFacilitate decision-making based on strong historic and forecast data

vPosition yourself to gain the maximum advantage of the industrys growth potential

vDevelop strategies based on the latest regulatory events

vIdentify key partners and business development avenues

vRespond to your competitors business structure, strategy and prospects

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Gene Therapy Market size Witness Growth Acceleration during 2027 - Packaging News 24

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Britain is really good at biology. In physics and chemistry, or painting and music, we have often failed to match the Germans, the French or the Italians. But in the bio-sciences, nobody can equal us. Heres an astonishing list of firsts that happened on this damp island: William Harvey and the circulation of the blood. Robert Hooke and the cell. Edward Jenner and vaccines. Charles Darwin and natural selection. Alexander Fleming and antibiotics. Francis Crick and James Watson (and Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins) and the structure of DNA. Fred Sanger and DNA sequencing. Patrick Steptoe and Robert Edwards and the first test-tube baby. Alec Jeffreys and DNA fingerprinting. Ian Wilmut and Dolly the Sheep. The biggest single contribution to the sequencing of the human genome (the Wellcome Trust).

Annoyingly, the exciting new tool of genome editing is the one that got away. The best of the new tools, known as CRISPR, emerged from the work of a Spaniard, Francisco Mojica, who first spotted some odd sequences in a microbes genome that seemed to be part of a toolkit for defeating viruses. Then a few years ago French, American, Finnish, Dutch and Chinese scientists turned this insight into a device for neatly snipping out specific sequences of DNA from a genome in any species, opening up the prospect of neatly rewriting DNA to prevent disease or alter crops. Two American universities are squabbling over the patents (and Nobel prize hopes). Further improvements are coming thick and fast.

But we are well placed to catch up with superb labs straining at the leash to apply these new tools. The biggest immediate opportunity is in agriculture, and here leaving the European Union is absolutely key. There is no clearer case of a technology in which we will be held back if we do not break free from the EU approach. It would not be a race to the bottom in terms of safety and environmental standards, but the very opposite: a race to the top.

For example, if we allowed the genetically modified blight-resistant potatoes that have been developed at the Sainsbury Laboratory in Norfolk to be grown in fields here in the UK, we would be able to greatly reduce the spraying of fungicides on potato fields, which at present happens up to 15 times a year, harming biodiversity and causing lots of emissions from tractors. That would be a big improvement, not a regression, in environmental terms. But at the moment commercializing the Sainsbury Lab potato is in practice impossible because of onerous EU rules.

Other countries are already dashing ahead with the new technology. Last year a review of the patenting of CRISPR products in agriculture found that, whereas America had taken out 872 patent families and China 858, the European Union had taken out only 194. The gap is growing.

The reason is nothing to do with the quality of research in Europe. It is all about regulation. When genome editing first came along, the European Commission decided to delay for several years making up its mind about how to regulate the release of genome-edited organisms while it waited for the European Court of Justice to decide whether to treat this new technology as if it were like genetic modification (the process invented a generation ago for transferring genes between species) or a form of mutation breeding (the process invented two generations ago for randomly scrambling the genes of plants under gamma rays in the hopes of generating better varieties).

If it was like genetic modification, then it would be subject to draconian rules that amount to a de-facto ban. Nobody even tries to commercialize a GMO crop in Europe any more because you enter a maze of delay, obfuscation, uncertainty, expense and red tape from which you never emerge.

The result is that European agriculture is more dependent on chemical sprays than it would have otherwise been, as shown by research at Gottingen University: on average, GMOs have reduced the application of pesticides to crops wherever they have been grown by 37 per cent. So we have missed out on biological solutions and had to stick with chemical ones instead.

If on the other hand genome editing is like mutation breeding, then you can go ahead and plant a crop straight away here with no restrictions. This is, of course, mad, since mutation breeding is more likely (though still very unlikely) to produce an accidentally harmful result even than GMOs, but its an older technique and has been used for much of the food you eat, including organic food, and for some reason nobody at Greenpeace objects.

Brexit is a fantastic opportunity to do something no European continental competitor is allowed to

Genome editing is an even more precise and predictable technique than GMOs. It involves no transfer of foreign DNA and the incision is made at a specific location in a genome, not at random. It is clearly the safest of all these three techniques, and so said the European Courts advocate general in his advice to the court. But in July 2018 the ECJ, being a political entity, decided otherwise and told the commission what it wanted to hear, that it should treat genome-edited plants and animals as if they were GMOs.

There was fury and dismay throughout the laboratories of Europe. There would have been more in Britain if academics had not feared playing into the hands of Brexiteers while remaining was still a possibility. A Canadian biotech professor tweeted that this was a good day for Canada since it removed a competitor continent from the scene. The absurdity is illustrated by the fact that in some cases it is impossible to distinguish a genome-edited variety from a variety bred by hybridisation or lucky selection with the same trait. Stefan Jansson from Ume University in Sweden put it like this: Common sense and scientific logic says that it is impossible to have two identical plants where growth of one is, in reality, forbidden while the other can be grown with no restrictions; how would a court be able to decide if the cultivation was a crime or not?

Brexit therefore offers a fantastic opportunity to do something no European continental competitor is effectively allowed to do, and that will benefit the environment. We have great laboratories here, in Norwich, Nottingham, Rothamsted and Edinburgh among other places. But the private sector of plant biotechnology is all but extinct in Britain and will take some jump-starting.

Twenty years ago there were 480 full-time equivalent, PhD-level, private sector jobs in agricultural biotechnology in this country. Today there are just ten. That is what has happened to that whole sector in this country as a result of the misinformed and misguided green campaign against GMOs. Until politicians signal a sea change, the private sector will shun the UKs wonderful labs and the breakthroughs will be applied overseas, if at all.

As a new online tool called the Global Gene Editing Regulation Tracker has shown, America, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Japan and much of the rest of the world are moving towards a nimbler and more rational regulatory approach: namely judging a crop not by the method used to produce it, but by the traits it possesses. If you can make a potato resistant to blight, what matters is whether the potato is safe, not whether it was made by conventional breeding, gamma-ray mutagenesis or genome editing.

[Visit GLPs global gene-editing regulation tracker and index to learn more.]

In the EU, if you made this potato by gamma-ray mutation breeding, scrambling its DNA at random in a nuclear reactor, the regulations would say: No problem. Go ahead and plant it. If you made it by the far more precise method of genome editing, in which you know exactly what you have done and have confined your activities to one tiny bit of DNA, you are plunged into a Kafkaesque labyrinth of regulatory indecision and expense. The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee, on which I sit, recommended we switch to regulation by trait, a few years back but it was not possible before Brexit.

Genome editing can bring not just environmental benefits but animal welfare benefits too. In 2017, scientists at the Roslin Institute near Edinburgh announced that they had genome-edited pigs to protect them against a virus called porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, PRRS. They used CRISPR to cut out a short section from the pig gene that made the protein through which the virus gained access to cell. The change therefore denied the virus entry. They did this without altering the function of the protein made by the gene, so the animal grew up to be normal in every way except that it was immune to the disease.

This means less vaccination, less medication and less suffering. What is not to like? (Incredibly, when I mentioned this case in a speech in the House of Lords, a Green Party peer objected that eradicating a disease that causes suffering in pigs might be a bad thing in case it allows a change in pig husbandry techniques. Even Marie Antoinette was never quite that callous.) But commercialising that animal in the UK is currently all but impossible until we change the rules.

Genome-editing technology could revolutionize conservation as well as agriculture. Looking far ahead into much more speculative science, the same scientists at the Roslin who made the virus-resistant pigs are now looking into how to control grey squirrels not by killing them, as we do now, but by using genome editing to spread infertility infectiously through the population, so that the population slowly declines while squirrels live happily into old age.

This technique, called gene drive, could transform the practice of conservation all around the world, especially the control of invasive alien species the single greatest cause of extinction among birds and mammals today. We could eliminate the introduced mosquitos on Hawaii whose malaria is slowly exterminating the native honeycreeper birds. We could get rid of the non-native rats and goats on the Galapagos which are destroying the habitat of tortoises and birds.

We could get rid of the signal crayfish from America that have devastated many British rivers. For those who worry that gene drive might run riot, there is a simple answer: it can and will be designed in each case to last for a certain number of generations, not forever. And it will be wholly species-specific, so it cannot affect, say, the native red squirrel.

Genome editing may one day allow the de-extinction of the great auk

Still more futuristically, genome editing may one day allow the de-extinction of the great auk and the passenger pigeon. To achieve this, we need to take four steps: to sequence the DNA of an extinct species, which we have done in the case of the great auk; to edit the genome of a closely related species inthe lab, which is not yet possible but may not be far off as genome editing techniques improve by leaps and bounds; to turn a cell into an adult animal, which is difficult, but possible through primordial germ cell transfer, again pioneered at the Roslin Institute; and to train the adults for living in the wild, which is hard work but possible.

Genome editing is also going to have implications for human medicine. Here the European Union is less of a problem, and home-grown regulation is already in good shape: cautious and sensibly applied under the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority. Britain has already licensed the first laboratory experiments, at the Crick Institute, on the use of genome editing in human embryos, but this is for research into infertility, not for making designer babies.

There is universal agreement that germ-line gene editing to produce human beings with new traits must remain off-limits and be considered in future only for the elimination of severe disease, not for the enhancement of normal talents. This view is shared around the world: the Chinese rogue scientist He Jiankui, who claims he used CRISPR to make two babies HIV-resistant from birth, was sentenced to three years in prison last December.

In practice, fears about designer babies are somewhat exaggerated. The same issue comes up about once a decade with every new breakthrough in biotechnology. It was raised about artificial insemination in the 1970s, about in-vitro fertilization in the 1980s, about cloning in the 1990s and about gene sequencing in the 2000s. Indeed, it has been possible to choose or selectively implant sperm, eggs and embryos with particular genes for a long time now and yet demand remains stubbornly low.

Most people do not want to use IVF or sperm donation to have the babies of clever or athletic people, as they easily could, but to have their own babies: the technology has been used almost exclusively as a cure for infertility. Indeed, the more we find out about genomes, the harder it becomes to imagine anybody wanting to, let alone being able to, enhance specific traits in future children by fiddling with genes: there are just too many genes, each with only very small effects, interacting with each other in the creation of any particular behaviour or ability.

Imagine walking into a doctors clinic and being presented with a catalogue of expensive genetic changes that could be made to your future babys genes, each of which might have a tiny and uncertain effect. The truth is most people do not want to have especially clever or sporty offspring: they want children like themselves.

However, in contrast to germ-line gene editing, somatic genome editing will play a large part in medicine. It is already happening, for example in a process known as CAR-T cell therapy, in which an immune cell is genome-edited so that it will attack a specific tumour, then multiplied and injected back into the body as a form of live drug. If we encourage genome editing in Britain we will be in a position to cure some cancers, enhance agricultural yield, improve the nutrient quality of food, protect crops from pests without using chemicals, eradicate animal diseases, enhance animal welfare, encourage biodiversity and maybe bring back the red squirrel. If we do not, then China, America, Japan and Argentina will still push ahead with this technology and will follow their own priorities, leaving us as supplicants to get the technology second-hand.

Matt Ridley is a British journalist and businessman. He is the author of several books, including The Red Queen (1994), Genome (1999), The Rational Optimist (2010) and The Evolution of Everything (2015). Follow him on Twitter @mattwridley

This article originally ran at The Critic and has been republished here with permission.

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Why Brexit could jump start UK GMO, CRISPR researchonce stifled by 'dead hand' of EU regulation - Genetic Literacy Project

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

In this new business intelligence Cancer Gene Therapy market report, PMR serves a platter of market forecast, structure, potential, and socioeconomic impacts associated with the global Cancer Gene Therapy market. With Porters Five Forces and DROT analyses, the research study incorporates a comprehensive evaluation of the positive and negative factors, as well as the opportunities regarding the Cancer Gene Therapy market.

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The Cancer Gene Therapy market report has been fragmented into important regions that showcase worthwhile growth to the vendors Region 1 (Country 1, Country 2), region 2 (Country 1, Country 2) and region 3 (Country 1, Country 2). Each geographic segment has been assessed based on supply-demand status, distribution, and pricing. Further, the study provides information about the local distributors with which the Cancer Gene Therapy market players could create collaborations in a bid to sustain production footprint.

Some of the major companies operating in the global cancer gene therapy market are Cell Genesys, Advantagene, GenVec, BioCancell, Celgene and Epeius Biotechnologies. Other leading players in cancer gene therapy market include Introgen Therapeutics, ZIOPHARM Oncology, MultiVir and Shenzhen SiBiono GeneTech

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Global Briefing 2019 Cancer Gene Therapy Industry Analyzer Technique, Advancements, Market Size, Share, Opportunity and Trend with Growing CAGR till...

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

The response to the coronavirus is both impressive and thought-provoking. Governments, organisations and people around the world are taking peacetime actions not known in living memory. And rightly so. The projections of human loss the virus could cause are chilling. Nevertheless, I have not been able to stop myself wondering: Why do other crises not generate the same level of action, even when we know they are associated with equally or even more devastating projections?

I have often compared the state of our economy to a body that is suffering an advanced stage of cancer. This is, I realise, a shocking analogy to use, but bear with me: it can provide a new lens through which to look at our economy.

Imagine the cells in your body represented organisations, hard at work producing all the services and goods you need to live a healthy life. Cancerous cells, unlike healthy ones, grow and replicate as fast as they can at the expense of the body that hosts them. In our economy, growth has become just as prevalent at all levels: nationally we grow GDP, organisations maximise profits and individuals accumulate wealth and possessions.

And this has real consequences for human health. Air pollution a direct consequence of how we choose to organise our economy has overtaken smoking as a cause of global deaths. Consumerism and the addictive algorithms behind social media are eroding our mental health; worklessness and low-paid, insecure jobs are driving people to hunger, as evidenced by the huge rise in foodbanks across many countries.

What would happen if we took the same approach to the economic crisis that we are taking to the coronavirus crisis? The anti-viral response has four phases: contain the infection at source, delay its spread, conduct research to understand its behaviour, find a vaccine and mitigate the effects of the virus spreading.

When it comes to our global economy we have, sadly, long passed the contain phase. Cancer-like behaviours have been spreading for decades. In the UK, for example, the 1990s saw a wave of mutual building societies converting to shareholder-owned banks. Banking regulations that split retail and investment banking (such as the Glass-Steagall Act in the US) were repealed in multiple countries around about the same time.

Immunising organisations that operate with a different set of values is an urgent priority

Containing the economic cancer at source is no longer possible. We can no longer surgically remove the tumour because it has already spread. However, we can still protect some areas from becoming infected, those that run with a different ethos: the UKs National Health Service and its public broadcaster are two examples, the Swiss railway (SBB) is another. The co-operative movement has long conformed to values that include co-operating rather than competing with other co-operatives, democratic control and economic participation (thats profit sharing) for all members although sadly it has not been immune either, as the part-takeover of the UKs Co-operative Bank shows. Immunising organisations that operate with a different set of values whose genes have not yet suffered cancerous mutations is an urgent priority.

Delaying the spread of cancerous behaviours is the next priority. There are multiple approaches that can be taken here.

Business schools and management consultancies that educate and influence decision-makers have become amplifying feedback loops for the unfettered growth ideology. Happily, some are now starting to engage seriously with the need for new approaches to management and leadership, which will slow the spread of this kind of thinking.

Other delay mechanisms include representing workers on company boards (as happens in Germany), and publishing CEO-to-worker pay ratios (now mandatory in the UK), which can curb the growth of top salaries.

Any serious attempt to combat our economic cancer must understand its root causes. Human cancer is caused by mutations in our genes the manual for our human bodies that is stored in every one of our cells. Similarly, our economic cancer is caused by how our economic manual the values that underpin our economic and management practices have evolved.

Labs are conducting thousands of experiments as they race towards a vaccine for the coronavirus. Similarly, in every part of our economy people are trying out doing business according to different values

At this very moment, labs all around the world are conducting thousands of experiments as they race towards a vaccine for the coronavirus. Similarly, in every part of our economy people are experimenting, trying out doing business according to different values, conducting gene therapy in which they replace harmful values with healthy ones.

In Germany, Purpose is trialling new models of ownership; In the UK, Operation Upgrade is tackling company law to weaken the power of shareholders; complementary currencies such as the Swiss WIR have operated in parallel to mainstream finance for decades; Common Future is creating more regional and community based economies in the US; B Corps are testing lots of ways of using business as a force for good; and even multi-national corporations are committing to a net positive impact on our climate, Microsoft and Interface being just two examples.

Mitigation is arguably where most effort has been going for a very long time. The raison-detre of many charities and public services has, for centuries, been to mitigate the worst excesses of our current system. Looking after those who have fallen through the cracks of our welfare system, cleaning up environmental pollution or protecting endangered species are all mitigation activities.

In recent times the Deep Adaptation movement is providing more sobering advice on the consequence of climate change that is already inevitable.

Mitigation is necessary and often the only compassionate and practical course of action. But we mustnt let fighting the symptoms distract us from tackling the root cause of the disease. Unlike the coronavirus vaccine, the values and behaviours we need for a healthy economy are already among us today; but we need to spread them quickly. Values even collective ones reside in people. This is why, at On Purpose, we work with people who want to learn how to apply healthy values in the real life of their everyday work.

We mustnt let fighting the symptoms distract us from tackling the root cause of the disease

We are learning a tough lesson in how quickly a virus like corona can spread around the world. Viruses, as it happens, are also the vehicle by which gene therapists smuggle healthy genes into cancerous cells one of the newest approaches to tackle the root causes of cancer. This gives me hope that fundamental change can happen more quickly than we think. We are already seeing the rapid spread of healthy viruses from school climate strikes and veganism to the anti-plastic movement. I believe these are the trailblazers for many more gene therapies to come.

Tom Rippin is thefounder and CEO of On Purpose.

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The other public health crisis: What the global economy can learn from our response to coronavirus | The Social Enterprise Magazine - Pioneers Post

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

The latest research report provides a complete evaluation on GlobalLongevity and Anti-senescence TherapyMarket for the forecast year 2020-2024, which is advantageous for companies irrespective of their size and revenue. The Market analysis provides a comprehensive market study including Key development trends, competitive landscape analysis, market dynamics, and key regions development status forecast 2020-2024. It includes numerous important aspects counting leading competitors which include their business profiling, Longevity and Anti-senescence Therapy market share, gross margin, sales, revenue, growth rate as well as it offers value chain analysis, capacity utilization analysis, SWOT analysis to further investigate.

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The Longevity and Anti-senescence Therapy research report has incorporated the analysis of different factors that augment the markets growth. It constitutes trends, restraints, and drivers that transform the market in either a positive or negative manner. It also provides the scope of different Longevity and Anti-senescence Therapy segments and applications that can potentially influence the market in the future. The detailed information is based on current trends and historic milestones.

Objective of the Report:The main objective of this Longevity and Anti-senescence Therapy report is to help the user understand the market in terms of its definition, segmentation, market potential, influential trends, and the challenges that the market is facing. in-depth researches and analysis were done during the preparation of the report. The readers will find this report very beneficial in understanding the market in depth. The data and the information regarding the market are taken from trustworthy sources such as websites, annual reports of the companies, journals, and others and were checked and validated by the industry experts. The Longevity and Anti-senescence Therapy facts and data are represented in the report using diagrams, graphs, pie charts, and other pictorial representations. This enhances the visual representation and also helps in understanding the facts much better.

Longevity and Anti-senescence Therapy Market Competitor Analysis:Some of the key players operating in the Longevity and Anti-senescence Therapy market areCohBar, TA Sciences, Unity Biotechnology, AgeX Therapeutics?Inc, PowerVision Inc.

Regional Segmentation of Longevity and Anti-senescence Therapy Market:North America Country (United States, Canada)South AmericaAsia Country (China, Japan, India, Korea)Europe Country (Germany, UK, France, Italy)Other Country (Middle East, Africa, GCC)

Longevity and Anti-senescence Therapy Market report Analysed Based on Major Product Type And Application :Product Type Segmentation :Hemolytic Drug Therapy, Gene Therapy, Immunotherapy, Other Stem Cell TherapiesIndustry Segmentation :Hospital, Medical Service Institution, Drug and Device Sales

Table of Contents:Market Overview:The report starts off with an executive summary, including top highlights of the research study on the global Longevity and Anti-senescence Therapy Market.

Market Segmentation:This section provides in-depth analysis of type and application segments of the global Longevity and Anti-senescence Therapy Market and shows the progress of each segment with the help of comprehensible statistics and graphical presentations.

Regional Analysis:All major regions and countries are covered in the report on the global Longevity and Anti-senescence Therapy Market.

Market Dynamics:The report offers deep insights into the dynamics of the global Longevity and Anti-senescence Therapy Market, including challenges, restraints, trends, opportunities, and drivers.

Competitor Analysis:Here, the report provides company profiling of leading players competing in the global Longevity and Anti-senescence Therapy Market.

Research Methodology:The report provides clear information on the research approach, tools, and methodology and data sources used for the research study on the global Longevity and Anti-senescence Therapy Market.

Browse full report @https://www.industryandresearch.com/report/Global-Longevity-and-Anti-senescence-Therapy-Market-Report-2020/180433

Reasons to Purchase this Report:1) Efficiency and quantitative analysis of the market based on segmentation involving both economic as well as non-economic factors2) Preparation of market value (USD Billion) data for each segment and sub-segment3) Specifies the region and segment that is expected to observe the fastest growth as well as to dominate the market4) Analysis by geography emphasizing the consumption of the product/service in the region as well as indicating the factors that are affecting the market within each region5) Competitive landscape which in undertake the market ranking of the major players, along with new service/product launches, partnerships, business expansions and acquisitions in the past five years of companies profiled6) Extensive company profiles comprising of company overview, company insights, product comparative analysis and SWOT analysis for the major market players7) The current as well as the future market viewpoint of the industry with respect to recent developments (which involve growth opportunities and drivers as well as challenges and constraints of both appearing as well as developed regions

Finally, the Longevity and Anti-senescence Therapy market report gives you details about the market research finding and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage. Supported by comprehensive primary as well as secondary research, the Longevity and Anti-senescence Therapy market report is then verified using expert advice, quality check and final review. The market data was analyzed and forecasted using market dynamics and consistent models.

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Global Longevity and Anti-senescence Therapy Market Report Business Plans & Strategies With Forecast 2020-2024 | CohBar, TA Sciences - 3rd Watch...

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

The market is estimated to grow with a CAGR of 11. 7% from 2019-2027. The factors driving the growth of genetic testing service include rising prevalence of the genetic diseases and rise in awareness & acceptance of personalized medicines.

New York, March 18, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Genetic Testing Services Market to 2027 - Global Analysis and Forecasts by Type , Disease , Service Provider and Geography" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05875881/?utm_source=GNW Also, growing preference towards Direct-To-Consumer (DTC) genetic testing, support of government to adopt genetic testing services is positively impacting the growth of the market in the review period.

In addition, various strategic initiatives by the manufacturers, new product launch along with artificial intelligence (AI) powered genetic testing is likely to boost the growth of market.Genetic testing comprises a broad range of laboratory tests performed to analyze DNA, RNA, chromosomes, proteins, and certain metabolites using biochemical, cytogenetic, or molecular methods or a combination of these methods.The global genetic testing service market is segmented by type, disease, and service provider.Based on the type, the market is segmented into predictive testing, carrier testing, prenatal testing, newborn screening and others.

On the basis of disease, the market is classified as, cancer disease, metabolic diseases, cardiovascular diseases and others. Based on service provider, the market is categorized as, diagnostic laboratories, hospital-based laboratories and clinics.The global Genetic Testing Service market, based on disease, has been segmented into cancer, metabolic disease, and cardiovascular disease among others.In 2019, the cancer based segment held the largest share of the market.

Cancer based segment is expected to register the significant growth during the forecast period due to the rising prevalence of cancer worldwide as about 10% to 20% of all cancers are related to gene mutations that are inherited or passed down through the family.

Some of the important primary and secondary sources included in the report are, the UK Genetic Testing Network (UKGTN), the Japanese Society for Genetic Counseling (JSGC), the European Cancer Information System among others.Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05875881/?utm_source=GNW

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

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The global genetic testing service market is expected to reach US$ 22,701.8 Mn in 2027 from US$ 9,546.2 Mn in 2019 - Yahoo Finance

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith