MarketResearchNest.com adds Global CRISPR Market Report 2019 Market Size, Share, Price, Trend and Forecast new report to its research database. The report spread across 102 with table and figures in it.

The global market size of CRISPR is $- million in 2018 with CAGR from 2014 to 2018, and it is expected to reach $- million by the end of 2024 with a CAGR of -% from 2019 to 2024.

Global CRISPR Market Report 2019 Market Size, Share, Price, Trend and Forecast is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the global CRISPR industry.

This report studies the CRISPR Market with many aspects of the industry like the market size, market status, market trends and forecast, the report also provides brief information of the competitors and the specific growth opportunities with key market drivers. Find the complete CRISPR market analysis segmented by companies, region, type and applications in the report.

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The key insights of the report:

There are 4 key segments covered in this report: competitor segment, product type segment, end use/application segment and geography segment.

For competitor segment, the report includes global key players of CRISPR as well as some small players.

At least 9 companies are included:

For complete companies list, please ask for sample pages.

The information for each competitor includes:

For product type segment, this report listed main product type of CRISPR market

For end use/application segment, this report focuses on the status and outlook for key applications. End users are also listed.

Browse full table of contents and data tables @

https://www.marketresearchnest.com/Global-CRISPR-Market-Report-2019Market-Size-Share-Price-Trend-and-Forecast.html

For geography segment, regional supply, application-wise and type-wise demand, major players, price is presented from 2013 to 2023. This report covers following regions:

The key countries in each region are taken into consideration as well, such as United States, China, Japan, India, Korea, ASEAN, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Spain, CIS, and Brazil etc.

Highlights of the Global CRISPR report:

Reasons to Purchase this Report:

We also can offer customized report to fulfill special requirements of our clients. Regional and Countries report can be provided as well.

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See original here:
Growth of CRISPR Market in Global Industry: Overview, Size and Share 2019-2024 - Markets Gazette 24

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Soon youll be able to cover your imperfect flesh with more flesh.

Japanese cosmetics company Kao Corporation has developed a custom synthetic spray-on skin to cover unwanted blemishes, moles or other marks on the natural epidermis.

The artificial product, called est, is composed of tiny, liquid fibers. When sprayed, the substance adheres to human skin, transforming into an extremely thin, derma-like material, the Daily Mail reports.

It has a similar elasticity to skin, and its porous, too. Water vapor and air can pass through this second skin to moisten the living dermis beneath. At its edges, est forms an even thinner bond, helping it blend in with natural flesh.

Est is set to hit the market exclusively in Japan beginning Dec 4. and will sell for roughly $532 as a diffuser and potion combination, with diffuser refills priced at $73. A lotion version will sell for $110, and everything will become available online in January, according to Japanese publication the Asahi Shimbun.

Japanese-language advertisements for the product call it Future Skin, which uses Fine Fiber Technology. Kao has plans to expand the line beginning next year and hopes to soon enter the medical market.

Until then, American consumers can check out the SkinGun by RenovaCare, which shoots a liquid mist infused with human stem cells and can help burn victims skin.

Kao Japan

Kao Japan

Kao Japan

Kao Japan

Kao Japan

Continue reading here:
Makeup brand offers spray-on 'skin' to cover up zits and scars - New York Post

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

AVITA Medical (ASX: AVH, NASDAQ: RCEL), a regenerative medicine company with a technology platform positioned to address unmet medical needs in therapeutic skin restoration, and scientists at the Gates Center for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine have announced a preclinical research collaboration to establish proof-of-concept and explore further development of a spray-on treatment of genetically modified cells for patients with epidermolysis bullosa (EB), with potential applicability to other genetic skin disorders.

The partnership will pair AVITA Medicals patented and proprietary Spray-On Skin Cells technology and expertise with the Gates Centers innovative, patent pending combined reprogramming and gene editing technology to allow cells to function properly. Under the terms of the Sponsored Research Agreement (SRA), AVITA Medical retains the option to exclusively license technologies emerging from the partnership for further development and commercialization. The Gates Center team is further supported by the EB Research Partnership in New York, the Los Angeles-based EB Medical Research Foundation, the London-based Cure EB Charity and government grants, in a collaborative effort to rapidly develop and translate this technology to the clinic for meaningful impact on patient lives.

The Gates Center is a leader in developing therapeutic approaches for genetic skin diseases. Researchers at the Gates Center have developed a powerful new approach for treating genetic skin disorders and improving the lives of patients with epidermolysis bullosa, said Mike Perry, PhD, chief executive officer of AVITA Medical and adjunct professor at the Gates Center for Regenerative Medicine. We look forward to collaborating with the team at the Gates Center on the expanded use of our technology. This agreement marks an important milestone in AVITAs mission to harness the potential of regenerative medicine to address unmet medical needs across a broad range of dermatological indications, including genetic disorders of the skin.

Epidermolysis bullosa is a group of rare and incurable skin disorders caused by mutations in genes encoding structural proteins resulting in skin fragility and blistering, leading to chronic wounds and, in some sub-types, an increased risk of squamous cell carcinoma or death. There are no approved curative therapies, and current treatment is palliative - focused primarily on pain and nutritional management, itching relief, wound care, and bandaging.

Its very exciting to partner with AVITA Medical to help advance our epidermolysis bullosa program, said Director of the Gates Center for Regenerative Medicine Dennis Roop, PhD. Were looking forward to exploring a novel approach to delivering gene-edited skin cells to patients that addresses current treatment challenges.

We believe that Spray-On Skin Cells technology combined with our genetically corrected cells has the potential to be game changing in the treatment of this disease. This combination could reduce time to treatment, lower manufacturing complexity, reduce costs and improve patient outcomes, said Ganna Bilousova, PhD, assistant professor of dermatology, who is a co-principal investigator on this research program.

ABOUT THE CHARLES C. GATES CENTER FOR REGENERATIVE MEDICINE

The Charles C. Gates Center for Regenerative Medicine was established in 2006 with a gift in memory of Denver industrialist and philanthropist, Charles C. Gates, who was captivated by the hope and benefit stem cell research promised for so many people in the world. The Gates Center aspires to honor what he envisionedby doing everything possible to support the collaboration between basic scientific researchers and clinical faculty to transition scientific breakthroughs into clinical practice as quickly as possible.

Led by Founding Director Dennis Roop, PhD, the Gates Center is located at the University of Colorados Anschutz Medical Campus, the largest new biomedical and clinical campus in the United States. Operating as the only comprehensive Stem Cell Center within a 500-mile radius, the Gates Center shares its services and resources with an ever-enlarging membership of researchers and clinicians at the Anschutz Medical Campus, which includes University of Colorado Hospital, Childrens Hospital Colorado and the Veterans Administration Medical Center, as well as the Boulder campus, Colorado State University, the Colorado School of Mines, and business startups. This collaboration is designed to draw on the widest possible array of scientific exploration relevant to stem cell technology focused on the delivery of innovative therapies in Colorado and beyond.

ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

Faculty at the University of Colorado School of Medicine work to advance science and improve care. These faculty members include physicians, educators and scientists at University of Colorado Hospital, Childrens Hospital Colorado, Denver Health, National Jewish Health, and the Denver Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The school is located on the CU Anschutz Medical Campus, one of four campuses in the University of Colorado system. To learn more about the medical schools care, education, research and community engagement, visit its web site.

ABOUT AVITA MEDICAL LIMITED

AVITA Medical is a regenerative medicine company with a technology platform positioned to address unmet medical needs in burns, chronic wounds, and aesthetics indications. AVITA Medicals patented and proprietary collection and application technology provides innovative treatment solutions derived from the regenerative properties of a patients own skin. The medical devices work by preparing a REGENERATIVE EPIDERMAL SUSPENSION (RES), an autologous suspension comprised of the patients skin cells necessary to regenerate natural healthy epidermis. This autologous suspension is then sprayed onto the areas of the patient requiring treatment.

AVITA Medicals first U.S. product, the RECELL System, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in September 2018. The RECELL System is indicated for use in the treatment of acute thermal burns in patients 18 years and older. The RECELL System is used to prepare Spray-On Skin Cells using a small amount of a patients own skin, providing a new way to treat severe burns, while significantly reducing the amount of donor skin required. The RECELL System is designed to be used at the point of care alone or in combination with autografts depending on the depth of the burn injury. Compelling data from randomized, controlled clinical trials conducted at major U.S. Burn Centers and real-world use in more than 8,000 patients globally, reinforce that the RECELL System is a significant advancement over the current standard of care for burn patients and offers benefits in clinical outcomes and cost savings. Healthcare professionals should read the INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE - RECELL Autologous Cell Harvesting Device (https://recellsystem.com/) for a full description of indications for use and important safety information including contraindications, warnings and precautions.

In international markets, our products are marketed under the RECELL System brand to promote skin healing in a wide range of applications including burns, chronic wounds and aesthetics. The RECELL System is TGA-registered in Australia and received CE-mark approval in Europe.

To learn more, visit http://www.avitamedical.com.

Photo at top: From left, Igor Kogut, PhD, Ganna Bilousova, PhD, and Dennis Roop, PhD.

Guest contributor: Gates Center for Regenerative Medicine/ASX

Visit link:
AVITA Medical Teams With Gates Center to Advance Therapeutic Skin Restoration - CU Anschutz Today

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

A new study by Rutgers University researchers suggests that two genes expressed in the intestinal cells that line the inside of the colon may also be involved in cancer development.

Recent studies have shown that intestinal stem cells can increase in animals on a high fat Western diet, potentially explaining an elevated cancer risk from such a diet.Diet being able to control cell proliferation is an interesting research development, particularly the convergence of dietary factors and dysregulated gene signaling driving malignant transformations and promoting an adenoma-to-adenocarcinoma progression.

This new study suggests a novel connection between HNF4A and HNF4G genes, diet and cancer.Genetic expression of HNF4 has previously been shown by to be heavily influenced by the gut microbiota, which in turn can influence a multitude of intestinal disorders.

Non-host gene regulation was further explored in this study by using a high fat diet to test how these genes work, and the researchers discovered they help co-regulate stem cell proliferation, as well as help intestine cells burn dietary fat. This was done by isolating cells from knockout and control mice and observing intestine stem cell proliferation under conditions of high fat and control. Mice that had both HNF4A and HNF4G knocked out were unable to have their stem cells proliferate under high fat conditions.

Intestinal stem cells undergo constant renewal and fuel the continuous turnover of the lining of the intestine. People naturally lose millions of intestinal cells daily, much like they lose skin cells. If this rate of replication is not closely controlled, it can quickly lead to malignancy. Lack of proliferation can be very problematic for the colon and damaging to lower layers of cells.

This [research] is important because scientists have shown that when theres too much dietary fat in the intestine, stem cell numbers increase, boosting susceptibility to colon cancer, said senior author Michael Verzi, an associate professor in the Department of Genetics in the School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers UniversityNew Brunswick.

Rutgers scientists believe HNF4A and HNF4G help stem cells burn fat, providing them energy. By linking gene activation, cell replication number, diet and cancer risk, scientists might be able to better understand the cancer development process in high risk patients. Going forward, the researchers plan to continue studying whether these two genes alter stem cell numbers and cancer risk alongside a high fat diet, said Verzi.

Colorectal cancer (of the colon or rectum) is the third most common cancer diagnosed in both men and women in the United States. According to the American Cancer Society, over 100,000 Americans will be diagnosed with colon cancer this year. This cancer is also the second most deadliest in the United States, but due to a combination of increased screening and heightened awareness the death rate has been dropping. However, in patients under the age of 55, the death rate of colon cancer has increased each year by 1% since 2007. Approximately 50,000 colon cancer patients are expected to die in 2019.

View original post here:
New Link Discovered Between Cells That Burn Fat and Colon Cancer - Clinical OMICs News

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

The most raved about secret in beauty this year wasn't a magic facialist or Real Housewife-lauded injection, it was an unassuming moisturizer made by a 60-year-old German scientist who'd never worked in the industry, let alone had an Instagram following. And yet, despite having none of the traditional resources that makes a beauty brand an overnight successlike paid celebrity spokespeople, $1 million ad campaigns, or millennial pink packagingAugustinus Bader became a sleeper hit purely through word of mouth.

In the nearly two years since it launched, AB's "miracle cream" has gotten accolades from Ashley Graham, Kate Bosworth, and Victoria Beckham (who's since launched a moisturizing primer with the brand). Glamour even gave it a Beauty Award for Best Moisturizer, a highly competitive category as you can surely imagine. So before I even uncapped the weighty blue-and-copper tube of its famed The Cream, which costs a cool $265 for 50 mL, I was basically set to fall in love with itprice tag be damned.

But the only kind of hype I pay real attention to is beauty editor hype; if my product-inundated colleagues are raving about it, I figure it has to stand out from the pack. And for weeks, every single editor I knew had told me about the cream in an attitude I can only describe as reverent. I was ready to experience my own Bader-sparked miracle.

Bizarrely, I didn't immediately fall head over heels for it (don't worry, a second plot twist will follow shortly). Sure, it was a good face cream. The light texture absorbed quickly and my skin looked decent, but it didn't exactly wow me. I felt like a thin layer just wasn't doing much in the moisturizing departmentwhich, apparently, I later learned isn't even what The Cream claims to do. It's more of an overall skin rejuvenator. The brand also sells a Rich Cream for dry skin, which contains additions like avocado and argan oil to aide with extra hydration, but I began with the original thinking it'd be enough.

In order to get maximum effectiveness from the active ingredients, I did what a few other friends and makeup artists had advised and skipped all other products, except face wash. The Bader formula is based on TFC8 (Trigger Factor Complex 8), a proprietary cocktail of over 40 different ingredients, including vitamins and amino acids. It's meant to encourage regeneration and healingProfessor Bader actually discovered the formula while looking for solutions to help burn survivors heal quickerand TFC8 is supposed to activate your stem cells, which go to work to repair fine lines, dark spots, and visible pores. I had heard that the ingredients within were enough to replace all other skin care, so I devoted myself to a one-step kind of lifestyle and waited for my skin to start looking like I had just walked out of a spa. And then I waited some more...

See original here:
Augustinus Bader The Cream Review: Why It's Worth Every Cent - Glamour

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Harper's Bazaar

This year, Black Friday has truly become a behemoth, with every retailer from Liberty to Net-A-Porter offering a bevy of tempting discounts.

Unsurprisingly, its easy to become overwhelmed and succumb to those impulse buys - especially when just-reduced lipsticks and buzzy fragrance bottles are winking at you from every angle.

But the smartest shoppers will tackle the Black Friday sales with a discerning eye. That luxury eyeshadow palette might make a sparkling addition to your festive party looks, but an expertly formulated serum has the power to transform your skin for good.

Here, discover the eight most sensible, editor-approved skincare purchases you can (and should) make this Black Friday. After all, glowing, healthy skin is for life not just for Christmas.

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1Black Rose Cream Mask

110.00

WAS 110 NOW 99

Sisley's legendary skincare is rarely reduced, so the savviest shoppers will be stockpiling.

Where to start? It has to be the universally adored, deep-hydrating Black Rose Cream Mask, which has the power to bring the driest of skin back to its glowing former glory.

2Enzyme Cleanser

50.00

SAVE UP TO 30%

Dr. Barbara Sturm's results-driven skincare is used by so many of the world's best facialists.

If you're new to the brand, begin with the deeply clarifying Enzyme Cleanser, then fall in love with the cult Hyaluronic Serum.

The discount you will receive at Cult Beautydepends on the value of your bag: spend 75 to receive 20% off, 200 for 25%, and 500 for a remarkable 30% reduction.

3Luna Sleeping Night Oil

SUNDAY RILEYselfridges.com

WAS 85 NOW 76.50

Sunday Riley's cult Luna oil isn't the most potent retinol on the shelves, but it is one of the most soothing. Working to refine pores while nurturing a nourished glow, it'll make a brilliant addition to any night-time skin routine.

4Ultimate Cleanse

48.00

WAS 48 NOW 43.20

One of the UK's best facialists, Sarah Chapman knows exactly how to create a winning cleanser. This peptide-powered balmreally can do it all: sweep away remnants of make-up, dissolve pollutants, and leave skin happy and balanced. Try it, and be converted.

5Protect Elixir

93.50

WAS 110 NOW 93.50

It may have only launched in September, but Decree has quickly become one of our most-loved skincare lines.

Formulated by dermatologist Dr. Anita Sturnham, the collection of cleansers, serums and SPF creams is designed to deliver everything your skin needs and nothing it doesn't.

The Protect Elixir is a worthy starting point packed with vitamins, hyaluronic acid and powerful antioxidants, it's the only daytime serum you'll need.

6Moisturizing Cream

301.75

WAS 355 NOW 301.75

If you're loyal to La Mer's legendary skincare, now's the time to stock up.

Thanks to Harvey Nichols, you can save 15% across the entire line, from the iconic Moisturizing Cream to the best-selling Treatment Lotion.

7The Rich Cream 50ml

Augustinus Baderharveynichols.com

WAS 205 NOW 174.25

Thisboundary-pushing cream is the result of 30 years of research and innovation, and it's undoubtedly worth the hype.

Originally created for burns victims, Augustinus Bader's The Cream contains a Trigger Factor Complex, which worksto boost the natural healing process of the body's stem cells. The result? A unified complexion almost instantly, with plumped-up lines and firmer skin following in a few weeks.

8C-Tango Multivitamin Eye Cream

54.00

SAVE UP TO 30%

A shopping spree can be salubrious, especially when you're stocking up on Drunk Elephant's globally adored skincare.

But not only will such a haul be good for your complexion it'll benefit your wallet too. Spend 300 on Cult Beauty this weekend, and you'll save a remarkable 30%.

On our list? The transformative C-Tango Multivitamin Eye Cream, alongside a bottle of the B-Hydra intensive Hydration Serum:a saviour in these cold climes.

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Originally posted here:
The best skincare to shop this Black Friday - harpersbazaar.com

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

The warnings are already up in the popular press: Conversations during the Thanksgiving feast can be hazardous if they veer into political territory. But political talk can take place in theory: A data research company has now determined what topics are safe to talk about on the holiday.

With some qualitative analysis and a little common sense, weve created a cheat sheet that will help you blaze a path through Thanksgiving dinner that steers clear of treacherous political pitfalls and dangerous inter-uncle conflicts, reports Ranker.com, a Los Angeles-based media company which uses crowdsourcing to rank public opinion on multiple topics, typically at the rate of 15 million votes a month.

They have determined what political topics are the least and the most likely to set off a Thanksgiving dinner squabble. Their judgment is based on 300,000 votes from 40,000 respondents.

The topics to avoid this year: Abortion, immigration, terrorism and gender equality. The topics which are safe for dinnertime discussion: Ineffective government, health care reform and education.

If there are millennials present, they will be triggered, the organization says, by talk of abortion, police brutality and pollution. Generation X members will be set off by such topics as homelessness, affordable housing and campaign finance reform. Baby boomers will go to battle over terrorism, immigration and the moral decline of the nation.

The organization also has warnings for dinner hosts in certain states. If they live in Florida, their guests will be particularly sensitive about discussions of vaccines. In Indiana, its gender equality while Georgia diners are prone to fight over police brutality. Beware of talking about gun control at dinner tables in both California and Missouri; Texans get feisty over moral decline. New Yorkers get upset over transgender issues.

We examined each issue on a case-by-case basis to find the topics that are most likely to cause disagreement, as well as the ones on which people tend to either agree or not care about, Ranker.com explains.

A VERY SPECIALIZED MEAL

While most of us are enjoying turkey and pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving, the staff at one laboratory at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles will be busy serving a meal to stem cells.

Stem cells do not observe national holidays, says Loren Ornelas-Menendez, manager of the very specialized lab that converts samples of adult skin and blood cells into stem cells which the human body uses to make our cells in the first place.

These special cells help medical scientists learn how diseases develop and how they might be cured. The lab is tending millions of them. Oh, but they have needs.

Stem cells are living creatures that must be hand-fed a special formula each day, monitored for defects and maintained at just the right temperature. And that means the cell lab is staffed every day, 52 weeks a year, the lab notes in a public advisory.

Many people have dogs. We have stem cells, says Ms. Ornelas-Menendez.

Derived from hundreds of healthy donors and patients, the resident induced pluripotent stem cells or iSPCs are keys to potential treatments for diabetes, breast cancer, Alzheimers disease, blindness, Parkinsons disease and Crohns disease, among other conditions. Ten lab technicians monitor the cells through microscopes each day and cull out any cells which have gone awry for one reason or another.

But what do they eat even on Thanksgiving?

While the cells get sorted, a special feeding formula is defrosting in a dozen bottles spread around a lab bench. The formula includes sodium, glucose, vitamins and proteins. Using pipettes, employees squeeze the liquid into food wells inside little compartments that contain the iPSCs. Afterward, they return the cells to their incubators, the lab advises.

Lab director Dhruv Sareen suggests that people consider offering a toast to the stem cells on Thanksgiving.

One day the cells they tend could lead to treatments for diseases that have plagued humankind for centuries, he says. And thats something to be truly thankful for.

THE GIPPERS FAVORITE

Back by popular demand, Inside the Beltway again shares this little known but historic recipe for President Reagans Favorite Macaroni and Cheese enjoyed by Ronald Reagan and his family on Thanksgiving and other holidays. What follows is a step-by-step shared by Mrs. Ronald Reagan, Washington, D.C., Wife of the President in a spiral-bound community cookbook published by the American Cancer Societys Northern Virginia division in 1983. The recipe serves six and is baked at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes.

The directions are from the cookbook reflecting the style, perhaps, of another era:

1/2 pound macaroni, 1 teaspoon butter, 1 egg, beaten; 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon dry mustard, 3 cups grated cheese, sharp; 1 cup milk.

Boil macaroni in water until tender and drain thoroughly. Stir in butter and egg. Mix mustard and salt with 1 tablespoon hot water and add to milk. Add cheese leaving enough to sprinkle on top. Pour into buttered casserole, add milk, sprinkle with cheese. Bake until custard is set and top is crusty.

Curious about what transpired at a Reagan Thanksgiving? A 1985 Los Angeles Times account noted this:

President and Mrs. Reagan gathered with their family for a quiet Thanksgiving dinner at their fogbound ranch in the Santa Ynez mountains, where the main topic of conversation was the weather. The Reagans did not seem to mind the enforced seclusion as they sat down to a traditional turkey dinner, prepared by Ann Allman, the Reagan familys longtime cook in California. It was an all-American menu that included cornbread dressing, cranberries, string beans, mashed potatoes, salad, pumpkin pie and monkey bread, a family favorite.

POLL DU JOUR

46% of Americans say long standing family tensions are the cause of family fights during holidays.

37% say general politics is the cause; 33% cite the 2020 presidential race.

24% say someones future plans cause the fights; 24% say money.

22% say the behavior of guests; 21% say drinking and alcohol.

18% say holiday cooking is the cause.

Source: A YouGov poll of 1,310 U.S. Adults conducted Sept. 25-26 and released Tuesday.

Have a happy Thanksgiving and thank you for reading Inside the Beltway.

See the original post:
Inside the Beltway: Abortion, immigration among forbidden topics at Thanksgiving table - Washington Times

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Winter is not just for hot cocoa and cozy blankets; the season is not always kind to the skin.

When the air outside gets gold and dry, without proper care, you skin can quickly follow suit. Having dry skin is the most uncomfortable feeling in the world.

The entire winter season, dead skin cells can build up on the skin's surface, which would result in a dry and dull complexion. The cold weather can lead to chapped lips, cracked hands and dry flaky skin.

Once the temperatures drop, your skincare routine should rise to the challenge.

That's why it's important to moisturize at this time of the year. However, it's also important to keep exfoliation in your winter skincare routine, and here's why.

Exfoliation isn't something yo;ll need to put on the back burner. In fact, winter is one of the best times for exfoliations. If you aren't spending your snow days sloughing away dead skin, then you're totally missing out.

Exfoliations helps replenish the skin.

Between the dry indoor heating and the cold air outside, your skin cells need to hydrate. They easily die out faster in the colder season, so it's essential to buff away the dead cells so new cells can come in healthier. It's recommended to exfoliate at least twice a week.

Exfoliators improve the effectiveness of the moisturizers.

Because you'll be slapping extra heavy lotion for the winter, you'll want to maximize its power. Do this by exfoliating regularly. The dead cells block moisture from the layers of live skin cells that actually need it.

Exfoliating beads, salt or sugar scrubs, dry scrubbing or even common body sponges are best examples of physical exfoliants that will help tremendously.

The usual at-home scrubs are the sugar scrub and the salt scrub.

The difference between the two is that the sugar scrub is more gentle, less abrasive and tends to dissolve fast in warm water.

Whereas the salt scrub tends to be a little more aggressive because the granules are larger. With a salt scrub, you're going to want to exfoliate a little less than you would with a sugar scrub or other exfoliating beads.

Keep scrolling to check 5 of our top picks for adding some body scrub time to your tub or shower regime.

M3 Naturals Himalayan Salt Scrub

Detoxify the skin with the M3 Naturals Himalayan Salt Scrub. It is infused with collagen and stem cell that increases skin cell longevity. Combined, these deliver an anti-aging performance.

This salt scrub is made from an all-natural Himalayan pink salt with lychee fruit and almond oil that will provide moisture and cleans out impurities of the skin and will effectively remove dirt, oil and reduce the appearance of acne, scars, blackheads and cellulites.

(Photo : Amazon)

Dove Exfoliating Body Polish Body Scrub

This easy-to-find exfoliating body scub removes dull, dry skin while deeply nourishes it to restore its natural nutrients.

The product is formulated with moisturizing cream and has a whipped texture that provides a creamy coverage.

(Photo : Amazon)

Brooklyn Botany Arabica Coffee Scrub

A coffee body scrub that can be used on the face, hand and foot. It will easily remove dead skin giving you a fresher, younger and moisturized appearance.

It will also reduce the signs of aging because of the coffee's antoxidants, fighting the appearance of fine lines, sun spots and wrinkles.

(Photo : Amazon)

Majestic Pure Cosmeceuticals Sweet Orange Body Scrub

A vegan-friendly, bright and refreshing body scrub crafted with nourishing ingredeints such as sweet orange oil, dead sea salt, organic aloe vera juice and coconut oil.

Using this product can promote more supple and smooth skin, gently removing dead skin and exposing it to enriching and moisturizing minerals and nutrients.

(Photo : Amazon)

Shea Moisture Exfoliating Hand and Body Sugar Scrub

The sugar scrub is made from natural ingredeints that gently cleanses skin from impurities, pollutants and build-up. It is created with argan oil and organic raw shea butter.

It will provide your skin with intense moisture and can exfoliate your hand and body by removing dead skin cells.

(Photo : Amazon)

READ MORE: 7 Gifts that Will Not Break Your Bank Account this Christmas 2019

See Now: Famous Actors Who Turned Down Iconic Movie Roles

2019 ENSTARS, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.

Excerpt from:
5 Scrubs and Exfoliators You NEED This Winter 2019 - Enstarz

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

.

The Black Friday sales are almost among us, meaning the halls of your local department store are about to become a battleground. (The smartest of shoppers know the key to maintaining sanity is to do it all online.)

But when faced with deals and discounts from every angle, its crucial to keep your cool. You dont want to panic-buy all those as-seen-on-Instagram products before youre covered the essentials you know, the things you'll use day in, day out, until they're empty.

Resist those shiny, sparkling impulse buys (although yes, that glitter lipstick would look pretty good on NYE), and youll come out triumphant with a well-curated skincare edit that will keep your skin happy long after the last Quality Street has been polished off.

So, skip the scrolling and head straight for the good stuff this year. Here, discover the eight most unequivocally iconic beauty products we've spotted in the Black Friday sales. Trust us: you cannot go wrong with any (or all) of these heroes.

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1Soleil Tan De Chanel

Chanel

WAS 40 NOW 36

Soleil Tan de Chanel is the kind of product beauty dreams are made of. The weighty pot will last you all year, while the lacquered, double-C engraved pot will look incredibly bouji on your dressing table.

But of course,it's what's on the inside that really counts, and boy is this a brilliantly formulated bronzer. Unlike literally anything else on the market (many brands have tried and failed to 'dupe' it), this dense, mattecream can be picked up with a powder brush, dusted under or over foundation, and swiped strategically to carve out killer cheekbones it's revolutionary.

2Blanche Eau de Parfum

Byredo

WAS 110 NOW 93.50

Byredo's perfumes are coveted the world over, but with so many to choose from, you'll be hard-pressed to find a favourite without some kind of divine intervention.

Our advice? Head straight for Blanche, which is a byword for the crispest, cleanest scent you'll ever spritz. Forget cloying talc notes or blink-and-you'll-miss-it citrus: this is pure violet and musk-tinted freshness, like the cleanest cotton sheets that ever were.

And seeing as there's a very generous 15% discount (thank you, Liberty), maybe treat yourself to the body wash, too.

3The Rich Cream

205.00

WAS 205 NOW 174

The hype around Augustinus Bader's debut product was remarkable across the world, A-listers and beauty editors fawned. (Victoria Beckham even tapped him up to create her debut skincare product.)

Turns out, this clever cream really delivers. The secret is the Trigger Factor Complex, which works to kick-start the natural healing process of the body's stem cells. 30 years of research and development have clearly paid off.

4Bronzing Powder

Narsasos.com

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The name of many a Nars product precedes its performance Orgasm, anyone? But not this one: the brand's Laguna and Casino bronzing powdersare famed for their supreme performance alone.

Both illuminate without relying on glitter (which always looks fake), and are warming without imparting those giveaway ruddy undertones.

Paler skins are destined for Laguna, while darker tones will love Casino. Your bank balance will love either.

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DIOR

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Ask any beauty editor what their ride-or-die mascara is and you'll get...a lot of conflicting opinions.

Like the perfect shade of red lipstick, a favourite mascara is a subjective thing. After all,few can deliver perfection when it comes to length, volumeand colour. Enter Dior's Pump 'N' Volume: the mascara to unite us all. (And yes, it's the one with the no-wastesqueezy tube.)

6Do Son Eau De Parfum

Diptyque

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Many of Diptyque's fragrances could be considered iconic, but Do Son is the one that'll see you being stopped by strangersin the street.

The tuberose trail is enticing enough, but it's the unusual addition of orange blossom and jasmine that take things to truly memorable heights. A spectacularode to its namesake beach, in Vietnam's Ha Long Bay.

7Ruby Woo Matte Lipstick

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If you're a 'lipstick person', you already know about this one. You've likely got one stashed in your bag right now, as well as one on your dresser, and an 'emergency' onefloating around your bedroom somewhere.

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We all know that alpha-hydroxy-acids are the gold standard when it comes to resurfacing, but so many require a degree in dermatology to use correctly.

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The 8 Most Iconic Beauty Products In The Black Friday Sales To Buy Now - elle.com

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Over lunch at the Canadian Centre for Alternatives to Animal Methods (CCAAM), Charu Chandrasekera nonchalantly mentions one of the projects her team is working on. We are just printing some human liver tissue right now, she says.

Chandrasekera launched the CCAAM at the University of Windsor in 2017, with help from the schools vice-president of research and innovation, Michael Siu, and dean of science, Chris Houser. The centre promotes non-animal methods in biomedical research, education, and regulatory (chemical safety) testing. In October 2019, the centre received a million-dollar gift from the Eric S. Margolis Family Foundation, which Chandrasekera says was instrumental in establishing the state-of-the art research laboratory, and in launching a number of important initiatives.

Chandrasekera says the move away from animal testing to human-based research models isnt radical but inevitable. After many years working in biomedical research with mouse models of heart disease and diabetes, It became very obvious that the work I was doing was not translatable [to humans], she says. Nothing was really reproducible; there were so many discrepancies and contradictions, even among the top-notch researchers.

Ninety-five per cent of drugs tested to be safe and effective in animal models fail in human clinical trials, says Chandrasekera. Alzheimers disease99.6 per cent drug failure rate, she says. It has been cured in mice. But we dont even understand the molecular mechanisms of this disease in humans, much less a cure.

RELATED:I am mine: This is what Alzheimers is like at 41

Empirical evidence from across a whole host of biomedical science disciplines shows us that animal models are failing both science and human health, echoes Elisabeth Ormandy, co-founder and executive director of Animals in Science Policy Institute, a registered Canadian charity working to promote better science without animals. Animal models can falsely show that a drug is effective, she says. They can also falsely show no effect, in which case a drug that would have been shown to be effective in humans never gets advanced to human clinical trials.

The result, she says, is billions of public tax dollars being wasted on research using ineffective animal models, and diversion of precious research funding away from other lines of scientific inquiry that might hold greater promise in terms of predicting drug safety, risk, and effectiveness.

Those other promising lines of scientific inquiry, say Ormandy and Chandrasekera, are human biology-based models. We can use human cells and tissues from cadavers, biopsies, and explanted organs [from surgeries], says Chandrasekera. And we can also engineer them. With adult stem cell technology, you can take a small biopsylike two-to-three millimetres from a persons skinto create any cell type in your body, she says. And if that person has a disease, such as Alzheimers, it will still be present in these cells. These cells can then be assembled to form tissue-like structures called organoids, or engineered through 3D-bioprinting to create more complex tissues, all of which can be combined to create what has become known as disease-in-a-dish. At present,Chandrasekera iscreating diabetes-in-a-dish.

Further, those cells and tissues can also be placed onto computer chips the size of thumb drives, where a large number of drugs can be tested to select whats most appropriate for youpersonalized medicine based on your cells, your tissues, your biologynot mouse biology, Chandrasekera explained in her April 2019 TedX Talk. The goal of the scientific community at large is to create a human-on-a-chip to emulate human biology better than animals, she says, which I think will happen over the next decade.

Currently there is no data on the success rates of human biology-based methods, because there are no drugs that have been approved without animal testing, since animal testing was mandated by regulatory guidelines several decades ago, says Chandrasekera.

However, a growing body of scientific data and internationally approved guidelines in chemical safety testing, indicate that alternative methods are equal or superior to animal models in predicting human biology, Chandrasekera says. Even computer simulations are out-predicting animal-derived data.

RELATED:Health care cannot modernize unless health policy changes first

Ifdisease-in-a-dish and toxicity-on-a-chip effortscontinue to advance at a fast pace with a sense of urgencybacked by global scientific, financial, legislative, and ethical mandates, she says, we will come to a point where we can test drugs without relying on animals.

And while Chandrasekera is busy both in the lab and on the global stage promoting her work, she is also focused on enlightening future scientists. Shes working on the development of courses and degrees to train the next generation, she says, to think outside the cage.

Read the original here:
Hatching disease in a dish: The new frontier in drug testing - Maclean's

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

The worlds second most populous country has an unlikely problem. India, which the United Nations projects will surpass Chinas population as early as 2022, has interestingly witnessed a decline in fertility rate. As per the World Population Prospects 2017, the fertility rate of Indians reduced by over 50% from 4.97 during 1975-80 to 2.3 for 2015-20. A further reduction of the fertility rate to 2.1 is expected during 2015-30 and 1.78 by the end of the century. The major reason behind this is not a defect in our bodies, but simply the changing lifestyle of the current generation.

Increasing urbanisation has led to people living a lethargic lifestyle and indulging in unhealthy food habits, which causes ailments such as obesity and diabetes. According to a report, more than 40% of women attending infertility clinics are found to be obese and in men, obesity brings down the semen quality. Moreover, theres a sense of social stigma attached to infertility. Theres a need of regular health monitoring without the burden of spending hefty amounts on clinics, scans and lab results repeatedly. Bengaluru-based Inito was formed precisely to cater to these needs.

Inito, the brainchild of IIT alumni Varun AV (35) and Aayush Rai (30), has built a device which makes it easier for people to monitor their health at home such as tracking a woman's ovulation cycle and diagnosing fertility conditions through a smartphone. The device has been recognized to increase their chances of getting pregnant naturally by 89% by giving the fertile days specific to their body, Rai told ET.

The AI that understood womenUpon realising the change in disease patterns in India due to changes in food and lifestyle habits, the co-founding duo, former employees of Siemens Research, came up with the idea of a home health monitoring device which would analyze the trends of body parameters, diagnose conditions and predict best treatments.

Initos flagship product- Inito Fertility Monitor is a smartphone-connected device which performs real-time lab-grade fertility diagnostics test at home. It comprises of a monitor, a smartphone app- Inito and test stripe.

To gather input, the test strip has to be first dipped in urine, and is then attached to the monitor, which in turn is attached to the smartphone.

Thereafter, the monitor uses its flat-lens technology, which measures two hormones (Luteinizing Hormone and Estrogen) in urine. This helps the AI-based app track womens ovulation cycle, understand cycle variations and identify the high and peak fertility days. The app then suggests up to six fertile days for women to conceive.

The app also works when the cycles are not regular and in fact, records, changing hormone patterns and is, therefore, able to predict almost accurate cycle variations, diagnose fertility issues and provide personalised medical guidance to women. All the data recorded is stored on the app and the cloud.

The device has been medically tested and the results were found to be comparable to those acquired with clinic-grade instrumentation which cost 100 times more and are 10 times bigger, Rai said.

(Pic: Aayush Rai)When asked about what makes Inito unique from other home ovulation tests available in the market, Rai said, Other home ovulation tests measure only 1 hormone, and are confusing to read and interpret. They are also not specific to Indian women and their hormones. The standard protocol is women going to the lab to do a sequence of ultrasound scans called follicular scans to track ovulation. However, with women leading busy lifestyles, it becomes all the more difficult to take out time to go to the lab.

He added that some women also feel a lack of privacy visiting hospitals and clinics for the tests. These insecurities are removed by Inito, whose fertility monitor reminds women when to take the test based on their hormone level variations and can easily be done with comfort at their homes.

Citing an Ernst and Young report, Rai said that South Asian women have a poor ovarian reserve compared to Caucasian women. This means that South Asian women are likely to suffer from earliest onset of infertility and poorer outcomes of infertility treatment. Therefore, even western medicine has failed to provide accurate results for Indian women and Inito has been specifically designed for Indian women and their hormonal patterns.

However, despite having over 95% of accurate results, Rai finds gaining customers trust as Initos biggest challenge. To build customer trust, we take a lot of effort in conducting third party studies, work with doctors etc. to prove the effectiveness of our technology. The biggest challenge for us is that we deal with people's bodies and health. The cost of missing out on even one variable is very high in our industry. In this case, we can't rely on guesswork, everything needs to be clinically validated, he said.

Brisk businessFrom launching the product commercially in 2017-end to have it shipped to more than 350 cities, the four-year-old startup has witnessed a soaring business. According to Rai, the firm grew 10x in the last financial year with 50% of its sales coming from non-Tier 1 towns and cities.

After doing over 1.5 lakh tests on our device, we've managed to collect the largest cloud-based dataset of fertility hormones in the world, he quipped.

Sumon Sadhu, an angel investor who was also an early investor in Inito, believes the startups innovation is a much-needed product for India. Inito has built a device which makes it easy for women to track their fertile days easily sitting at home. Similar ideas have been proposed and researched many times in India, but could never be implemented. With a mix of hardware and software, Initos innovation is supporting women by giving them an easy way to monitor their health and is addressing the declining fertility rate in the country. The firm has the caliber to reach international markets, especially, other parts of Asia as it is more demographically suited for the product.

Inito recently got backed by the American seed accelerator Y Combinator in its Winter 18 cohort. It has so far raised $2 million in funding. The firm is now planning to add 8 more hormone tests to the device, enabling them to not just track ovulation but diagnose conditions like anovulatory cycles, PCOS etc. right on the phone.

Go here to see the original:
Indias fertility rate is crumbling. Y-Combinator-backed Inito might have a solution - Economic Times

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

The Fulton County Health Department has scheduled the following health clinics and services.

CANTON The Fulton County Health Department has scheduled the following health clinics and services. Please call the number listed with each service for an appointment or more information.

Maternal child health: Health screenings, WIC nutrition education and supplemental food coupons for women, infants and children. To make an appointment or for more information call 647-1134 (ext. 254). For Astoria clinic appointments call 329-2922.

Canton - Clinic - Monday, Dec. 2 - 8-4 - Appt needed

Canton - WIC Nutrition Education - Tuesday, Dec. 3 - 8-4 - Appt needed

Canton - Clinic/Immunizations - Wednesday, Dec. 4 - 8-4 - Appt needed

Astoria - Clinic, WIC Nutrition Educ. - Wednesday, Dec. 4 - 9-3 - Appt needed

Canton - Clinic - Thursday, Dec. 5 - 8-4 - Appt needed

Adult Health Immunizations: Various vaccines are available. There is a fee for immunization administration. Medicaid cards are accepted. To make an appointment or for more information call 647-1134 (ext. 254).

Canton - Immunizations - Wednesday, Dec. 4 - 8-4 Appt needed

Other times available by special arrangement at Canton, Cuba and Astoria.

Blood Lead Screening: Blood lead screenings are available for children ages one to six years. A fee is based on income. To make an appointment or for more information call 647-1134 (ext. 254). For Astoria appointments call 329-2922.

Canton - Clinic - Wednesday, Dec. 4 - 8-4 - Appt needed

Family Planning: Confidential family planning services are available by appointment at the Canton office for families and males of child-bearing age. Services provided include physical exams, pap smears, sexually transmitted disease testing, contraceptive methods, pregnancy testing, education and counseling. Services are available to individuals of all income levels. Fees are based on a sliding fee scale with services provided at no charge to many clients. Medicaid and many insurances are accepted. After hours appointments are available. To make an appointment or for more information call the 647-1134 (ext. 244). *Program funding includes a grant from the US DHHS Title X.

Pregnancy testing: Confidential urine pregnancy testing is available at the Canton and Astoria offices. This service is available to females of all income levels. A nominal fee is charged. No appointment is needed. A first morning urine specimen should be collected for optimal testing and brought to the health department. Services are provided on a walk-in basis on the following days each week:

Canton: Every Wednesday & Thursday, 8-3:30 (for more information call 647-1134 ext. 244)

Astoria: Every Wednesday, 9-2:30 (for more information call 329-2922)

Womens Health: A womens clinic for pap tests, clinical breast examinations and vaginal examinations is available by appointment. There is a nominal fee for this service. Medicaid cards are accepted. Financial assistance is available for a mammogram. Cardiovascular screenings may be available to age and income eligible women. To make an appointment or for more information call 647-1134 (ext. 244).

Mammograms: Age and income eligible women may receive mammograms at no charge. Speakers are available to provide information to clubs and organizations. For more information or to apply for financial assistance, call 647-1134 (ext. 254).

Mens Health: Prostate specific antigen (PSA) blood tests are available for men for a fee. To make an appointment or for more information call 647-1134 (ext. 224).

Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) Clinic: Confidential STD and HIV testing services are available by appointment to males and females at the Canton office. Services include physical exams to identify STDs, a variety of STD testing, HIV testing, education, counseling, medications and condoms. There is a nominal fee for services. Services are available to individuals of all income levels. Medicaid cards are accepted. To make an appointment or for more information call 746-1134 (ext. 224).

HIV Testing and Counseling: Confidential HIV testing and counseling services are available by appointment through the sexually transmitted disease (STD) clinic at the Canton office. To make an appointment or for more information call 647-1134 (ext. 224).

Tuberculosis (TB) Testing: TB skin tests are available at no charge by appointment. To make an appointment or for more information call 647-1134 (ext. 254).

Blood Pressure Screenings: The Fulton County Health Department provides blood pressure screenings at no charge on a walk-in basis during the following times:

Cuba - Screening - Monday, Dec. 2 - 8-12 - Walk in

Astoria - Screening - Wednesday, Dec. 4 - 9-12 - Walk in

Health Watch Wellness Program: The Health Watch Program provides low cost lab services. Through this program adults can obtain venous blood draws for a variety of blood tests. Blood tests offered without a doctors order Comprehensive Metabolic Panel (CMP), Complete Blood Count (CBC), Lipid Panel, Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) test, Hepatitis C test, and Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH). A wide variety of blood tests are also available with a doctors order. There is a charge at the time of service. To make an appointment or for more information call 647-1134 (ext. 254).

Dental Services: The Dental Center offers a variety of basic dental services to children and adults. An appointment is needed. Medicaid and Kid Care cards are accepted. To make an appointment or for more information call 647-1134 (ext. 292).

Continued here:
Health Department announces services for the week of Dec 2 - Canton Daily Ledger

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Most areas in Europe and North America observe daylight saving time. Daylight saving time is often welcomed in spring, as it helps to extend daylight hours well into the evening. But few may welcome turning the clocks back in fall. Coupled with the natural shortening of daylight hours as winter approaches, the end of DST facilitates a sudden shift in the ratio of sunlight to darkness. As autumn transforms into winter, the number of available hours of daylight slowly dwindles. Some areas of Alaska and Canada see only about three or four hours of daylight per day in the winter months. Conversely, those who live in Key West, Florida, the southernmost point of the contiguous United States, may enjoy around 10 hours of daylight. Fewer daylight hours can adversely affect mood and productivity. Seasonal affective disorder, often referred to as SAD or the winter blues, has been recognized and included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders. Clinicians say that, as days become short and dark, a predictable set of symptoms of SAD may emerge. Individuals with SAD may experience a host of symptoms, including difficulty waking in the morning; diminished energy levels; a tendency to eat more; an inability to concentrate; and depression. The Cleveland Clinic advises that approximately half a million people in the United States suffer from winter SAD, while 10 to 20 percent may suffer from more mild forms of winter blues. The Canadian Mental Health Association states that between 2 and 3 percent of Canadians will experience SAD in their lifetime. Another 15 percent will experience a mild form of SAD that leaves them only slightly depressed. Similar symptoms can occur for those people who live in cloudy regions or high latitudes. Evidence strongly suggests SAD is linked to sunlight. This lack of sunlight may trigger production of melatonin in some individuals. Melatonin is a hormone made in the pineal gland that regulates sleep onset and sleeping patterns. A combination of self-care strategies as well as professional medical treatment may help those with winter blues or more severe SAD. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says that these strategies can help people coping with SAD. Get out of the house into sunlight or brightly lit spaces early in the day when the sun is out. Increase time spent outdoors. Take a break midday and enjoy lunch outside or take a walk, even if its chilly. Try to spend time with other people and chat with friends and relatives. Avoid overloading on carbohydrates like cookies and candies. Talk to a doctor about using light therapy, which is the first line of SAD treatment, according to the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Consider cognitive behavioral therapy or talk therapy with a licensed mental health provider. He or she also can make recommendations about the use of medication to alleviate symptoms if other treatments do not provide results. There are many ways to mitigate the symptoms of winter blues.

View original post here:
Beating the winter blues - thewestsidejournal.com

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Communities have always played a huge part in the response to HIV. People coming together, organising themselves and demanding their right to health. For people most vulnerable to HIV, it is no exaggeration to say that communities often make the difference between life and death.

For young women and girls and for marginalised and vulnerable groups of people such as gay men, straight men who have sex with men, transgender people, sex workers, people who use drugs, prisoners and migrants, the pathway to health is not always as clear-cut as it should be. Stigma and discrimination, repressive laws, ignorance and even hate, can all prevent vulnerable people from accessing life-saving prevention, treatment and care.

This is where communities often step in. Communities of people living with HIV, of marginalised and vulnerable groups, of women and of young people lead and sustain the delivery of peer-to-peer HIV services, defend human rights and advocate for access to essential services. They fight every day to keep people at the centre of decision-making and implementation and help to make sure that no one is left behind.

Women and girls are the backbone of care support in their families and communities, providing unpaid and often undervalued work in caring for children, the sick, the elderly and the disabled and underpinning fragile social support systems. The involvement and leadership of communities of women is vital in the response to HIV and we must support them and utilise their potential.

Community-based services often support fragile public health systems by filling critical gaps; they are led by or connect strongly with women and other marginalised populations; they provide services that complement clinic-based care and they extend the reach of health care to groups that would otherwise fall through the gaps.

For example, Rainbow Sky Association of Thailand (RSAT) is one of the five community-based organisations in Thailand that provide free PrEP services through lay providers under the successful Princess PrEP Project. With four clinics and 10 drop-in centres across the country, RSAT is a one-stop service with flexible service hours. In addition to PrEP, RSAT provides needs-based and client-centred services such as hormone level check-ups for transgender people, STI screening, legal consultation and harm reduction. The Thai Red Cross Aids Research Centre with PEPFAR support through the USAID LINKAGES Thailand project implements continuous capacity building to ensure that community-health workers can provide HIV services in accordance with national standards.

Sisters is another community-based organisation whose reputation is spreading across borders as a model for programmes that provide HIV services where they are most needed. The organisation that carries out outreach work among Pattaya's transgender community. Sisters runs a drop-in centre in Pattaya where they provide medical services, counselling and skills development for transgenders. Working in partnership with transgenders to identify their needs, Sisters also advocate for policies and programmes that improve their health, safety and engagement in the Aids response.

At a time, when reduced funding is putting the sustainability of HIV services in jeopardy, community activism remains critical. Indeed, a greater mobilisation of communities is urgently required and barriers that prevent them delivering services and seeking funds must be dismantled. Communities must have the space and power to voice their demands and write their own solutions. In 2016 world leaders signed the United Nations Political Declaration on Ending Aids, which recognised the essential role that communities play in advocacy, participation in the coordination of Aids responses and service delivery. Moreover, they recognised that community responses to HIV must be scaled up and committed to at least 30% of services being community-led by 2030.

Most countries are nowhere near reaching that commitment and where investment in communities is most lacking, there is often weaker progress against HIV and other health challenges.

Communities stand ready to play their part in building healthier and more resilient societies, but they need our support. On World Aids Day tomorrow, let's celebrate communities, recognise the essential role they play in the response to HIV and commit to meeting the promises made to them.

See the rest here:
Communities are the difference in HIV response - Bangkok Post

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

A study published in the Nutrition Journal examined the relationship between vitamin D and atrial fibrillation. Their report includes thirteen studies from 2011 to 2018 with 6,519 cases of atrial fibrillation and 74,885 participants.

One study showed that vitamin D deficiency promotes atrial fibrillation by activating the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone (RAAS) system. It is responsible for the structural and electrical wiring of the atrium. Mainly it is a hormone system responsible for controlling blood pressure and electrolyte balance. If its too active then you will have high blood pressure. Vitamin D negatively affects the RAAS. Also, vitamin D has antioxidant properties that reduce oxygen free radicals in the atria. These oxygen free radicals are responsible for inflammation and arrhythmia in the heart. Serum vitamin D levels were lower in those where atrial fibrillation occurred than in those where it did not occur. Serum vitamin D per 10ng/ml increase was associated with decreased postoperative atrial fibrillation. Vitamin D deficiency led to an increased risk of atrial fibrillation by 23%. Inadequate levels of vitamin D increased the risk of atrial fibrillation by 14%. This shows a correlation between vitamin D and atrial fibrillation.

Sunlight exposure is the primary way humans produce vitamin D. However in the north from November to March, there is not enough UV-B rays for vitamin D production. Also called the sunshine vitamin, vitamin D can be found in fatty fish like salmon and mackerel. Almond milk, other meat such as pork, egg yolk, and fortified orange juice also contains vitamin D. The amount of vitamin D required on a daily basis is a recommendation of 600 IU. Vitamin D is a fat-soluble steroid that increases the absorption of calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus. In these studies, lower vitamin D levels have been found in people with acute myocardial infarction, stroke, heart failure, and cardiovascular disease.

Vitamin D is essential for preventing cardiovascular disease. It also helps the immune system stay healthy and protects against infections. According to this study, there seems to be a correlation between vitamin D and atrial fibrillation. While more research is required, vitamin D intake should be taken seriously. Vitamin D deficiency is becoming a problem in some communities and could lead to a burden on the healthcare system.

Written by Katrina F. Zafer, BSc

References

Image byGerd AltmannfromPixabay

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Is there a correlation between a deficiency in vitamin D and atrial fibrillation? - Medical News Bulletin

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Although one in nine men will receive a prostate cancer diagnosis in his lifetime, cutting-edge research has allowed more men to live longer or even be cured.

One such program that sheds light on this cause is City of Hopes NoShaver November. The month-long fundraising and awareness campaign urges participants to forego shaving to start a conversation, encourage testing and raise critical funds to continue leading-edge prostate cancer research and promising new therapies conducted at City of Hope.

CURE recently spoke with Dr.Tanya Dorff, a medical oncologist at City of Hope who specializes in prostate cancer, about the campaign, her current work and where she sees the future of prostate cancer treatment shifting in the coming years.

CURE: What led you to City of Hope? What do you do there?Dorff: City of Hope was attractive to me because I am a clinical and translational researcher. The reason I came here was to work with scientists who share what we are seeing in the clinic and who incorporate the latest insights from the scientific discoveries in our laboratories into patient care. There is a real sense of mission and urgency that binds scientists to clinicians at City of Hope in a way that is unique and gratifyingly productive.First and foremost, I take care of patients who remain my central inspiration and raison detre, but I spend part of my time writing and running clinical trials that have real potential to impact how we treat patients in the future how we can do even better in the future than we do today. I lead the genitourinary cancer program, which includes fostering collaborations between the incredible physicians from urology, radiation oncology, radiology and pathology to work together both clinically and in research projects.You are Grammy-winning songwriter and vocal producer Kuk Harrells physician. Can you tell me what it was like to treat him?Kuk is such an incredible gentleman; it has been a pleasure to be part of his care team. His attitude toward treatment was one of diligence, and he has approached his illness as an opportunity for personal growth and for giving back by promoting prostate cancer awareness through his story. It has been inspiring to see him come through what was a lengthy and involved treatment with so much positive energy.How has the field of prostate cancer treatment evolved in recent years?More and more men with prostate cancer can be cured, and the men who cannot be cured with todays treatments are clearly living longer and better. This is thanks to new drug approvals in advanced, resistant prostate cancer but even more so to the application of more intensive therapy earlier in the course of the disease. This has been the biggest paradigm shift in prostate cancer over the last five years: up-front intensification in metastatic hormone sensitive prostate cancer.The next big shift in prostate cancer treatment is just now upon us molecular selection of therapies to individualize prostate cancer treatment. The most imminent example is olaparib (Lynparza), a PARP inhibitor, which worked better than standard treatment in patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer whose tumors harbor mutations in DNA repair genes. But the ingenious theranostic approach will be close behind where imaging (scans) show us whether a cancer is expressing a certain target (i.e. PSMA) and if so, a radioactive particle linked to that target is applied (i.e. Lu-177 PMSA).

What are you most hopeful for in cancer treatment in the future?I believe immunotherapy will be the way to durable remission or a cure. Here at City of Hope, we are working hard to improve the effectiveness of immunotherapy for patients with metastatic prostate cancer, studying intensive treatments such as CAR-T and bispecific T-cell engaging antibodies, among other approaches. Our scientists are looking at our patients in real time to learn why treatments work or dont work, and how to better engage the immune system. I am very hopeful that these biologic insights will eventually translate into therapeutic success such as we have seen in leukemia with CAR-T and melanoma with immune checkpoint inhibitors.What advice would you offer someone who has just received a cancer diagnosis of their own?One: Play an active role. Ask questions, and if something doesnt sound right or make sense, ask again. It is so important that patients buy into their treatment, understand and feel confident about the treatment plan. No one is perfect, not even the best doctor, and working together as a team will lead to the best success.

Two: Be a squeaky wheel. Patients who communicate symptoms in real time fare better because problems are addressed before they become more serious.

Three: Stay active. Exercise is one of the things that has been shown over and over again to help cancer survivors and cancer patients in various stages. Obviously, a conversation should occur with the treatment physicians to ensure that there are no restrictions but patients who are more active will come through treatment in better shape.

See the rest here:
Exploring the Future of Prostate Cancer with City of Hope - Curetoday.com

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

The Food and Drug Administrations approval of Calquence (acalabrutinib) for adult patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia or small lymphocytic lymphoma offers an exciting treatment option, according to Dr. John C. Byrd.

BY Kristie L. Kahl

(The FDAs approval) places another active drug in the combinations of therapy in the in the repertoire in development for physicians, Byrd D. Warren Brown Chair of Leukemia Research; Distinguished University Professor of Medicine Medicinal Chemistry, and Veterinary Biosciences; and senior advisor for cancer experimental therapeutics at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center said in an interview with CURE.

The approval, which was granted under the FDAs Real-Time Oncology Review and newly established Project Orbis programs, was based on positive results from the interim analyses of two phase 3 clinical trials: the ELEVATE-TN trial in patients with previously untreated CLL and the ASCEND trial in patients with relapsed or refractory CLL.

In the randomized, multicenter, open-label, phase 3 ELEVATE-TN trial, the researchers evaluated the safety and efficacy of Calquence alone or in combination with Gazyva (obinutuzumab) compared with chlorambucil plus Gazyva in 535 treatment-nave patients with CLL.

Median progression-free survival (time from treatment to disease progression) was 22.6 months in the control arm, but was not yet reached in both of the Calquence treatment arms. The objective response rate (complete and partial responses to treatment) was 79% in the control arm, compared with 94% in the Calquence combination arm and 86% in the monotherapy arm. Median overall survival was not yet reached in any of the three arms at a median follow-up of 28.3 months.

In the international, multicenter, open-label, phase 3 ASCEND trial, 310 previously treated patients with CLL were randomized to receive either single-agent Calquence or rituximab (Rituxan) plus idelalisib (Zydelig) or bendamustine.

At a median follow-up of 16.1 months, the median progression-free survival with Calquene was not reached, compared with 16.5 months in the control arms. At 12 months, 88% of patients on Calquence showed no disease progression compared with 68% in the control arm.

Common side effects included anemia, neutropenia, upper respiratory tract infection, thrombocytopenia, headache, diarrhea and musculoskeletal pain.

Of note, tolerability of treatments for CLL/SLL have been an issue with the current treatment landscape. Therefore, the favorable tolerability and safety profile associated with Calquence is important.

Having less side effects for a chronic therapy is very important when you get into adverse events such as hypertension where you know there are not only effects that are irritating but also affect our cardiovascular system and the risk of other bad things happening, said Byrd.

With this, it is an exciting time with such advancements for the treatment of this disease. Were in a great place in CLL now that we have several targeted therapies that are approved. All of these options are good options for our patients. This just puts another nail in the coffin for treatment with chemotherapy, Byrd said, noting that he does not recommend patients consider chemotherapy as a treatment option.

The era of getting chemotherapy for this disease is virtually done, Byrd said. Essentially, I would say for almost all patients, chemotherapy should not be a consideration. There's only one very small subset, the IGBH-mutated patientsbut for the majority of patients, those who have high-risk disease, doing chemotherapy plus immunotherapy is not a good option. Targeted therapies offer an alternative approach that is better than chemotherapy.

To conclude, he added that new studies are even evaluating the approach of time-limited therapy, where patients would receive therapy for a set period of time, and if they experience remission, stop treatment, versus receiving continuous BTK inhibitor therapy.

Read CUREs original coverage of the FDAs approval of Calquence for patients with CLL/SLL.

See the article here:
What Patients With CLL/SLL Should Know About the FDA - Curetoday.com

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Totalprestige spoke to Dr. Amit Kumar, President and CEO of Anixa Biosciences and Dr Vincent Tuohy of the Cleveland Clinic about their partnership in developing a breast cancer vaccine that could potentially eliminate breast cancer as a disease. That is a bold statement, but animal studies have demonstrated spectacular results and the United States government has agreed to fund the beginning of human studies. The technology was developed at the Cleveland Clinic by Dr. Tuohy and his research team, based on the discoveries they made regarding how breast cancer forms. Dr. Tuohy and the Cleveland Clinic have partnered with Dr. Amit Kumar and his Silicon Valley biotech company, Anixa Biosciences (NASDAQ:ANIX), to begin testing in humans and should the data mirror the data in animals, take the technology to commercialization.

Dr. Kumar, can you give us a little background about Anixa and how you came to the company? What excited you about Anixa?

Anixa is a relatively new biotechnology company. The predecessor company was a failed company in the electronics and IP licensing industry. When I got involved at the board level, the company had been delisted and was on the verge of going out of business. Over a period of time, we financed the company, and brought it back onto NASDAQ. In July 2017, I was Chairman of the Board, and at that time, I took on the additional roles of President and CEO, and we re-positioned the company as a biotech working on many exciting projects, of which the breast cancer vaccine is one. Our stock is traded on NASDAQ, the stock symbol is ANIX, and the website is http://www.anixa.com

Anixa is also very different from other biotech companies. We are executing a business model that has us working with the best cancer centers in the world to help develop and validate our products. This strategy enables us work to on multiple, diverse projects that each have potential multi-billion dollars of value as well as tremendous value for cancer patients. In that light, we are working on a liquid biopsy technology for early cancer detection, a therapy for ovarian cancer as well as the vaccine for breast cancer.

Your partnership with the Cleveland Clinic envisions a new approach to addressing breast cancer thanks to Dr Vince Tuohys research. Can you tell us how you and the Cleveland Clinic began working together?

I met Tony Giordano, who is a business development executive at the Cleveland Clinic, in early 2019. He introduced me to the breast cancer vaccine technology that Vince Tuohy had developed, and I was very intrigued. After meeting Vince as well as his R&D and clinical team at the Cleveland Clinic, and reviewing the animal data that they had completed, I was sold. I felt that Vinces approach was a pathway to possibly eliminating some of the most aggressive forms of breast cancer and possibly all breast cancers. Vaccination against infectious diseases like smallpox, polio, and many others have had a profound effect on human health. In fact, vaccines have enabled mankind to completely eliminate some of these diseases. Before vaccines, some of these diseases were scourges on humanity. A few years ago, the first cancer vaccine was approved. This vaccine targets the cause of cervical cancer, as well as some other cancers. With this vaccine, we feel that within a generation, we can eliminate cervical cancer in the US, and if we can get this vaccine to the developing world, we can eliminate cervical cancer in the same way we have infectious diseases like small pox.

When I saw what Vince had done at the Cleveland Clinic, I realized his technology could potentially do the same with breast cancer. Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, and a few men contract breast cancer as well. In the US alone, we spend close to $50 billion annually diagnosing, treating and performing research on breast cancer. If you count the supportive care, missed work, and other non-direct costs, the economic cost is exponentially higher. Worldwide, the number is even bigger. I am just talking about the economic value. We should not forget about the deaths, the debilitating surgeries, and the impact on the family enduring a battle with cancer. In addition, many women are getting prophylactic (preventative) mastectomies even though they are healthy, just because they do not want to get cancer. One high-profile case was that of movie star Angelina Jolie who had her breasts and ovaries removed so she would not contract cancer in those organs, because her heredity put her at high-risk.

Vinces technology has the potential to eliminate breast cancer. Imagine if this works in humans as well as it works in the animal studies. In that case, women would simply get an injection and perhaps a booster shot, and may never have to worry about disfiguring and painful preventative surgery or contracting breast cancer at all. That would change the paradigm of cancer care and have an immeasurable impact on patients as well as our healthcare system.

Anixa Biosciences has been working on the fight against cancer for some time. The companys partnership with the Cleveland Clinic is a logical step in building a better future that is able to combat cancers. The two groups will now lead the fight together and could be the ones to eliminate breast cancer completely.

Anixa Biosciences has been in a fight against cancer for some time now. How will partnering with the Cleveland Clinic improve your work at Anixa?

Our company partners with key scientists in academia to work on projects that we think will have great impact on cancer. We have two other programs in our portfolio. One project is a liquid biopsy to try to identify cancer at the earliest stages. We know that treating early stage cancers are much more successful than later stage cancers. A third project is a specialized technique to treat ovarian cancer, a cancer that has not had any real improved therapies for decades. But I feel the vaccine technology that we are developing with the Cleveland Clinic could have the greatest impact. Cleveland Clinic is regularly ranked as the best hospital in the US and the entire world. It is an honor for a young, small company like ours to be working with an institution of such high repute.

Obviously, it is too early to tell just what the partnership will be able to accomplish. That said, how do you see this working relationship changing medicine and the treatment of cancer?

The Cleveland Clinic team has been working on this vaccine for nearly a decade. So, there is a lot of research data. One of the most compelling pieces of data was the animal study testing the vaccination approach. Vince took a mouse that is genetically engineered to contract breast cancer. He immunized a group of these mice with his vaccine and had an equal number of the same type of mice injected with everything but the vaccine. Of the mice that got the vaccine, 100% of them did not get cancer. Of the control mice, 80% of them presented with breast cancer and died. It is rare to have such night and day experimental result. If this vaccine works in humans in the same way, we would expect all women who got vaccinated to never get breast cancer. Our plan is to work with Vince and the Cleveland Clinic to help take this vaccine into human testing. The animal data is very compelling, but we have to prove it works as well in humans and that requires human trials under the guidance of the US Food and Drug Administration. We hope to begin those trials in the coming year.

What can Anixa Biosciences offer Dr Tuohy in his work and development of the vaccine to fight breast cancer?

We will work with the team to begin and progress the clinical trial work. There are a number of steps, some of which are relatively quick and some of which will be long and expensive. We hope to work hand in hand with the Cleveland Clinic to progress the technology and to bring additional corporate partners to the table as well, when the trials get larger and once we near commercialization.

Over a quarter of a million women in the US will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in 2019. The number is staggering, but if the Breast Cancer Vaccine created by Anixa Biosciences and the Cleveland Clinic is successful, then that number could drop to an incredibly low figure. That figure could be zero.

In 2019, it was estimated over 268,000 women in the US would be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer. What will these numbers look like in the future if the revolutionary approach created by Dr Vince Tuohy is successful?

If in humans the performance is similar to what it was in animals, none of these 268,000 women will get breast cancer and no woman should die of breast cancer. Can you imagine a world where women dont have to worry about the most common form of cancer in women? What an amazing world that would be.

If successful in treating breast cancer, is there a chance the vaccination created by Dr Tuohy can be used to treat other forms of cancer?

That is a very good question. The approach that Vince is using to develop the breast cancer vaccine, can be used for other cancer vaccines as well. In fact, Vince has also developed an approach to vaccinate against ovarian cancer, but that program is a year or two away from human testing. As we go forward, we hope to work with Vince on other cancer vaccines.

In 2018, it was claimed over 608,000 people in the US died of cancer. With new research being completed, do you see these numbers dropping in the next 10 years, staying the same, or increasing due to lifestyle choice?

I believe those numbers will get smaller. There are a number of factors that will drive those numbers lower. I am a member of the Board of Directors of the American Cancer Society, which is the larger cancer fighting charity in the world. We monitor carefully the cancer rates, mortality and other factors. Statistics show that one in two men will get cancer in their lifetime and one in three women will as well. We feel that the number of deaths will decline due to lifestyle changes (reduction in smoking, healthier lifestyles, etc.), early detection, and most importantly prevention. In addition, our understanding of how the immune system battles cancer is advancing quickly. Those scientific advancements will enable better ways to treat and prevent cancer, like Vince Tuohys vaccine technology.

We previously spoke in 2018 about Anixa Biosciences (formerly ITUS Corporation) and the early cancer detection technology it was working on. Can you tell us about any new developments Anixa Biosciences has made since then?

Yes, we will be launching later this year, our first product for detection of prostate cancer. We are rapidly completing the steps necessary to launch this test and we hope to have an impact on the way prostate cancer is diagnosed in this country.

You believe in being more proactive in the fight against cancer. How can modern medicine be more proactive in the search and treatment of cancer in patients?

If one studies the advances we have made in cancer care over the last century, there are some key points that emerged. The biggest impact on mortality has come from early detection and elimination of high-risk behavior like smoking. While we have made great advances in therapies, the impact there has been modest. That is why I am a firm believer in early detection and prevention. Prevention can be achieved in a number of ways, including lifestyle changes but also vaccination once proper vaccines can be developed.

Dr Tuohys and the Cleveland Clinics breakthrough vaccine has been years in the making. The group has been hard at work for nearly two decades from the initial plan to this stage. There has been a lot of work, funding, and trials that have gone into the vaccine. Now, he is ready to take it to the next level alongside Anixa Biosciences in hopes that someday soon women around the world will be given the vaccine to prevent breast cancer.

Dr. Tuohy, first off, can you tell us about the Breast Cancer Vaccine and how it targets cancer cells in women?

We modeled the breast cancer vaccine on the childhood vaccine program that protects against infectious diseases by providing pre-emptive immunity against attenuated pathogens before children engage the disease-causing variant. This prophylactic model is largely responsible for the dramatic increase in human life expectancy that occurred during the 20th century. Our challenge was to develop an adult vaccine program that would provide pre-emptive immunity against adult onset diseases like breast cancer. However, the immunity we needed to prevent breast cancer is very different from the more conventional antibody-mediated immunity that protects against infectious diseases. We had to create a cell-mediated immunity that recognizes the emerging breast tumors and prevents them from growing into mature destructive cancers. Also, we had to do this without inducing collateral damage against any normal tissues and without being able to target a pathogen because breast cancer and most other cancers are not associated with any definitive disease-causing pathogen. This was quite a challenge.

We identified a protein called -lactalbumin that is produced exclusively in the normal breast tissues only during lactation and is not expressed at any other time in any other normal tissues. However, when breast cancer develops, this protein is once again produced. When we induced a powerful cell-mediated immunity to this protein in mice, it protected them from developing breast tumors and also inhibited the growth of established tumors and did so without inducing any detectable damage to any normal tissues. We subsequently found that -lactalbumin is particularly expressed in triple negative breast cancers (TNBC), the most aggressive and lethal form of breast cancer and the most common form of this disease occurring in women at high genetic risk. Therefore, we believe the breast cancer immunity that we created can be effective as a treatment for established growing TNBC, but its greatest effectiveness occurs when it is used prophylactically to prevent tumors from growing in the first place.

How long has it taken from creating the vaccine to reach this point in your research?

Actually, I conceived this plan in 2002, and immediately started assembling the reagents and mice needed to test our retired protein hypothesis whereby normal self-proteins that are expressed in adult-onset cancers but are retired from expression in normal cells due to the natural aging process can serve as viable vaccine targets for inducing safe and effective cancer prophylaxis. This took several years to test and we published the results in Nature Medicine in 2010. It took a very long time to get the grant funding to move this discovery into clinical trials but we managed to do so in 2017 and are preparing to test our vaccine in phase I clinical trials very soon.

How significant is your partnership with Anixa Biosciences in the development of the Breast Cancer Vaccine?

I cannot say enough about the importance of our partnership with Anixa Biosciences. I have been spearheading the movement of our breast cancer vaccine from discovery and development, through the FDA regulatory process, and into clinical testing. This effort has been very difficult and often very frustrating. I am lucky to have a very talented and dedicated team at the Cleveland Clinic to facilitate this effort, but now I have a very supportive CEO in Dr. Amit Kumar who recognizes the feasibility of our vaccine in creating a paradigm change in controlling breast cancer and ovarian cancer. I think the support from Anixa and Dr Kumar guarantees the completion of our clinical trials and has already been productive with submission of a joint application for funding. I am delighted to continue working with Anixa and Dr. Kumar and look forward for some time to come to a successful and productive relationship.

Although things are moving forward quickly for the Breast Cancer Vaccine, Dr Tuohy stresses that things take time and it could be a while until the vaccine is made available to women. Due to the research, testing, trials, and reviews that go into the vaccine, commercialization may be years away.

When will the Breast Cancer Vaccine go into clinical trials with real patients?

We are currently assembling our application to the FDA and plan to submit our application by the end of 2019. We hope to have permission from the FDA to vaccinate human subjects soon thereafter. We anticipate starting our recruitment of test subjects for determining the safety and dosage of our vaccine in a phase I clinical trial by mid 2020.

If the vaccine is found to be effective in the fight against breast cancer, how long until it can go into production and be used in everyday medicine?

This question is always very difficult to answer because it requires substantial speculation on my part in anticipating whether the FDA will allow us to assess early efficacy of our vaccine using molecular indicators rather than waiting for complete overall survival data. The latter data could take ten years or more to collect and the FDA will rightfully be very cautious about safety before allowing our vaccine to have widespread use. In any event, no matter how long it may take, we must not hesitate to keep moving forward with our vision of a world without breast cancer.

Dr. Kumar has previously alluded to the Breast Cancer Vaccine being used in a similar way to children being vaccinated against smallpox and other preventable diseases. How significant would this medicine be to the worlds population?

We are always mindful of the fact that smallpox was once seen as an incurable disease that ravaged young people. However, the smallpox vaccine eradicated the disease. Now, it is hoped that the breast cancer vaccine will offer a pre-emptive strike against the most lethal form of breast cancer and prevent women from ever having to face it.

Current estimates indicate that by 2020, Medicare reimbursement costs for breast cancer will likely exceed $20bn annually. Considering that the median age of diagnosis of breast cancer is 62 years,these costs represent less than half of the total annual costs. Thus, in 2020 and every year thereafter, the costs to Americans for breast cancer will exceed $40bn annually. These built-in costs of breast cancer certainly dwarf whatever expenses may be needed to finance clinical trials for primary immunoprevention of this disease.

Successful induction of pre-emptive immunity against breast cancer would clearly have a dramatic impact on reducing the overall tumor burden in the USA and thereby reduce our annual healthcare costs. In the USA, there are over 268,000 new cases of breast cancer diagnosed each year, and worldwide there are close to 2 million new cases anticipated to be diagnosed yearly. I would think that the cost of screening, diagnosis, and treatment of breast cancer worldwide may conservatively cost at least $100bn a year. Thus, I think a preventive vaccine would have an enormous impact on global healthcare costs. I never really thought about the global impact of my work and am quite staggered by this potential. I cannot think of anything more impactful that I could do other than creating and testing vaccines to prevent adult-onset cancers and finally addressing these great unmet needs in our healthcare. I couldnt be more excited about the possibilities of such a paradigm-changing strategy for controlling so many lethal diseases that impact so many lives worldwide.

The Breast Cancer Vaccine would be used to vaccinate women over 40-years old at risk of cancer. Is there a chance it could be used on younger women as a preventative measure?

We have certainly made arguments in the past about how our vaccine that targets a lactation protein can be administered to women over 40 years of age because 95% of all breast cancers occur in women over 40 and only 3% of children are born to women over 40. It seemed to us in the beginning that most 40-year-old women have ended their childbearing years and have entered their breast cancer susceptibility years and could get vaccinated against -lactalbumin without adversely affecting lactation.

However, we now realize that women with the greatest need for a preventive vaccine are those at high-risk due to carrying mutations in their BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes. About 70% of women with these mutations develop breast cancer in their lifetime, and the most common form of breast cancer that they get is TNBC. Thus, ultimately, we would like to make our vaccine available to women that have completed their childbearing years. However, for our initial clinical trials, we will focus on women at high genetic risk who have the greatest need for a preventive vaccine since their only alternative to lower their breast cancer risk is bilateral mastectomy and subsequent reconstructive plastic surgery. Personally, I think a preventive vaccine is a much less traumatic and a much more civilized alternative to such traumatic surgical intervention.

If successful in the next stage of trials, would you move onto developing a vaccine for other types of cancers such as testicular or ovarian cancer?

We did develop a vaccine for testicular stromal cell cancer a few years ago. It was very effective in our preclinical studies in mice. However, the incidence of this disease in humans is very low making it extremely difficult to recruit sufficient patients for clinical testing and extremely difficult to secure the funding for such a rare though very lethal form of testicular cancer. We are much more focused now on our ovarian cancer vaccine which is designed to prevent ovarian cancer, the most lethal of all female-specific cancers. To me, ovarian cancer is a disease that screams PREVENT ME!! because it is typically diagnosed late at advanced stages, resistance to treatment is common, and 52% of all women die from this disease within five years of their diagnosis. We have already applied for funding to complete the preclinical studies for our ovarian cancer vaccine and hope to start clinical trials within the next year or two. What strikes me today is that we have no adult vaccination program to prevent the cancers we confront with age. Such a program is long overdue because it is simply unacceptable that in the United States, one in eight women will develop breast cancer, one in six men will develop prostate cancer, and ovarian cancer kills most of the women soon after their diagnosis. The 21st century must bring us safe and effective pre-emptive immunity against these common and lethal adult onset cancers and extend human life expectancy in the same way that childhood vaccinations did in the 20th century. This to me is the real moonshot program. It is my dream that when when my grandchildren reach middle age, they get their breast, ovarian, and prostate cancer vaccines and are thereby protected from these diseases in the same way they were protected from so many infectious diseases by the childhood vaccination program. Indeed, the job of our immune system is to keep us healthy, but to do this, it needs instructions, and vaccines are simply instructions for our immune system, so it knows exactly what to do to protect us from disease. I think we have only just begun to realize how much disease protection our immune system can provide. It is an exciting time for testing the limits of what our immune system can do to control so many cancers.

Dr. Tuohy, the Cleveland clinic previously received $6.2 million in grant money from the US Department of Defense. What was the DoDs role in the development of the vaccine and motivation behind granting the funds?

At first, it may seem surprising that the Department of Defense would be interested in supporting efforts to prevent breast cancer. However, it is a little-known fact that military families have a higher incidence of breast cancer than the rest of the American population. We dont know why this is the case, but it is nevertheless a good reason for the DoD to finance our proposal and provide the funding needed to test our breast cancer vaccine in clinical trials.

How will treating patients before they develop breast cancer rather than after they develop it change medicine?

I think it is important to change the language here. We are not treating patients before they develop disease because treatment implies that there is a disease in place to begin with. Administration of a preventive vaccine for breast cancer is the opposite of a treatment because prevention implies that the disease never occurs and precludes any need for treatment.

Our breast cancer vaccine is designed to prevent the need for treatment. Our approach represents a paradigm change in the way to control breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and hopefully other adult-onset cancers. Instead of waiting for these cancers to occur and going on offense to beat the daylights out of the cancer (and the patient) with surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, hormone therapy, and immunotherapy, we are going on defense before the cancer appears so we can reduce the overall tumor burden and the need for treatment.

Such a paradigm change brings with it a wonderful opportunity to dramatically alter the natural history of these adult onset cancers. I am delighted to have this opportunity and eagerly look forward to determine whether we can eliminate several adult-onset cancers in our lifetimes. I cannot begin to tell you how excited I am about this opportunity and how excited our entire team is in being involved in this magnificent journey with Dr. Kumar and Anixa Biosciences.

So, what would the world be like without breast cancer? It is a world that many believed would never occur. However, with Anixa Biosciences and the Cleveland Clinic working together, they are attempting to eliminate one of the worst diseases in the world today. Vaccines to eliminate childhood diseases changed the world in the 20th century. Now, vaccines to prevent cancer in adults could be the major medical breakthrough of the 21st century.

For more information, please visit https://my.clevelandclinic.org/ and https://www.anixa.com/

Images credit: Larry Spencer and Brian Byllesby

Journalist and author. Contributor

Read more here:
EXCLUSIVE: The Team That Wants To Eliminate Breast Cancer - Totalprestige Magazine

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

The moral of this article is not simply that your doctor is doing it wrong. Many conventional doctors and medical institutions are basing their screenings on science-backed recommendations outlined by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF). Heres an example of the Cleveland Clinics screening guidelines. A cholesterol screening, for example, is recommended every 5 years (or more based on risk) after age 20.

This often catches big stuff, which is good, but not always in time for you to prevent it altogether. Case in point: After my five-year stretch with no blood work, a lipid panel actually revealed I had high cholesterol and borderline high blood sugarsomething I was able to address, but that I could have addressed much earlier had I noticed my numbers slowly creeping up.

The message isnt test for everything! either. Testing has been given this halo effect of, You should test to be healthier, but some of these specialty tests are super unnecessary, says integrative physician Amy Shah, M.D.. I get people in my practice all the time who want to know their food sensitivities, but I have to be the bearer of bad news and tell them food sensitivity tests are really poor at this point. I try to stay on the side of less is more.

The truth is: You dont need to have big fancy tests done to get a lot of information about how you are shifting metabolically, says Kristann Heinz, M.D., R.D., a doctor board-certified with the American Board of Integrative-Holistic Medicine. You can glean a lot of information from pretty basic teststhe key is doing them regularly (preferably annually), so you can track your results over time and spot trends. You want to catch smoke before theres fire.

More:
What Blood Tests You Should Ask For Based On Your Family History - mindbodygreen.com

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Why am I having genetic testing?

You may be having genetic testing because:

Some people with an inherited heart conditionwont have any signs or symptoms. Genetic testing can help doctors assess whether you should be monitored or if you should start any treatment.

Inherited conditions which can affect your heart, include:

Youll usually attend a specialist inherited heart conditions clinic before you have genetic testing. While youre there, healthcare professionals will talk to you about your medical and family history.

They may carry out some routine tests to check for signs of an IHC. This is called screening. These tests include:

Depending on the results of your screening, you may then be offered genetic testing. This is a DNA test thats carried out if youre suspected to have a faulty gene which can cause an inherited heart condition. This test may be:

You should only have a genetic test after discussing it with a specialist. This is to make sure youre happy for the test to be done, the right tests take place and the results are interpreted correctly. Your specialist will also be able to support you and answer any questions you have.

Before the genetic test takes place, youll speak to a specialist and may be referred for genetic counselling. This is a chance to ask questions, understand more about the process and decide whether you wish to go ahead with testing. It may involve:

Even if a faulty gene is found, this doesnt always mean youll develop an inherited heart condition. Your doctor will monitor you for any signs of the condition and youll receive treatment if you need it.

In some people its not possible to find the faulty gene. If it cant be found, it doesnt necessarily mean that its not there and you may still be at risk of developing the condition. The specialists will discuss this with you, and they may continue to monitor you, if necessary.

Our Genetic Information Service (GIS) helplinehas qualified cardiac nurses who can provide you with information and support on inherited heart conditions.

Some tests can take months while others may take a few weeks. This is because some genetic faults can take longer to detect than others. Your healthcare professional will tell you when to expect your results.

If youve been diagnosed with an inherited heart condition or if youre found to have a faulty gene which can cause one your specialist will talk to you about close family members who may benefit from testing. The process of rolling out genetic testing through families is called cascade testing.

Any of your children will have a 50:50 (or 1 in 2) chance of inheriting the same faulty gene that you have. However, this doesnt necessarily mean theyll develop the condition.

If a close family member has the gene fault or has been diagnosed with an inherited heart condition, you should be referred to a specialist clinic for an assessment and to discuss having genetic testing.

Close family members, or immediate family, are your parents, siblings or children.

If a genetic test shows you dont have the same gene fault you wont develop the condition. You also cant pass it onto your children.

If you have the same faulty gene but dont have any signs or symptoms of the condition, youll be monitored in case you develop it in the future.

It can be very worrying if you think you may have, or develop an inherited heart condition, and there are lots of questions you might have, such as:

Speak to a specially-trained nurse on our Genetic Information Service (GIS) helpline who can provide you with information and support.

Order or download our publications:

Continued here:
Genetic testing - How it works and who it's for - British Heart Foundation

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

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MEDICINE

Newswise By Dani Kupperman, Genetic Counselor at Danbury Hospital, Jessica Lipschutz, Genetic Counselor at Norwalk Hospital, and Susan Ingram, Genetic Counselor at Norwalk Hospital

Summary:

At-home genetic testing kits, also known as direct-to-consumer or lab-to-consumer DNA tests, are growing in popularity especially as holiday gifts.

Most people are aware that at-home genetic testing kits can be used to provide information about their ancestry and family history. Due to advances in genetic testing technology and the availability of lower-cost genetic tests, some at-home genetic testing companies are now also offering health-related genetic testing services. These services can provide information about gene mutations that may put you or a family member at a higher risk of developing an inherited condition such as cancer.

Although these at-home genetic tests may provide information about your health and family history, as well as a dose of highly personalized holiday fun, there are a few things that you should know before you purchase a kit as a gift or send in your own DNA sample.

What are at-home genetic tests and how do they work?

At-home genetic tests are kits that use a sample of your cells to look for changes in your DNA called gene mutations, as well as information on ancestry or paternity. The kit provides tools and instructions for collecting a sample of your saliva, blood, or cells, usually from a swab of the inside of your cheek. You then send your sample to a laboratory (lab) for testing.

Are at-home genetic test results complete?

Although at-home genetic test results are usually accurate, they will likely be incomplete. Thats because at-home genetic tests only test for a few specific gene mutations. The limited scope of at-home genetic tests means that the results may not provide a complete picture of your risk for developing certain medical conditions.

For example, at-home genetic testing providers typically only test for three BRCA gene mutations that are linked to an increased risk of breast cancer, as well as other cancers. These three gene mutations are most common in people of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. For people in the general population who are not of Ashkenazi Jewish descent, the test may not capture other specific BRCA gene mutations that are linked to breast cancer risk. That means that it is possible for someone who receives a BRCA-negative result from an at-home genetic test to still be at an increased risk of developing breast cancer and possibly other cancers.

Are at-home genetic test results easy to understand?

The terminology used in at-home genetic test results can sometimes be confusing for consumers. For example, if the test results show a variant or clinically significant mutation, a consumer might not realize that they could be at increased risk of developing an inherited health condition.

What is the difference between at-home genetic test results and genetic test results provided by a certified genetic counselor?

Most people arent aware that at-home genetic tests do not provide a comprehensive genetic analysis. In contrast, genetic counselors carefully review your family history and coordinate whole gene sequencing, which looks for any mutation that may be associated with an increased risk of certain inherited diseases.

It may help to think of genetic testing like a book at-home DNA tests look at one word on one page, while professional genetic counselors read the entire book. Dani Kupperman, Genetic Counselor, Danbury Hospital

Further, genetic counselors can now perform genetic tests on a large number of genes on a single panel, resulting in more efficient, comprehensive genetic testing when compared to the less-extensive tests that were available years ago.

Related article: This Thanksgiving, Talk Turkey About Family Health History

Do at-home genetic test results need to be validated?

Due to the limitations of the tests and the terminology used in the results, the National Society of Genetic Counselors and the at-home genetic testing manufacturers themselves recommend that all at-home genetic test results be reviewed in a clinical setting by a certified genetic counselor or physician and confirmed by another CLIA-certified genetic laboratory (lab) before being used for healthcare decision-making.

Plus, although at-home DNA test companies have CLIA-certified genetic labs, these labs do not specialize in cancer genetic testing. This is another reason why consumers should validate their at-home DNA test results with a certified genetic counselor.

At Nuvance Health, our genetic counselors often see patients who have done at-home genetic tests and want to verify their positive or negative results for BRCA and other gene mutations. Our genetic counselors can assess the at-home genetic test results, perform additional testing for verification, and work with each patient and his or her physician to develop a proactive health management plan based on the most accurate and complete information.

Are at-home genetic test results private?

At-home genetic testing services usually allow consumers to choose how much information to share and who they would like to share it with. However, at-home genetic testing providers may not be held to the same privacy standards as healthcare providers.

At Nuvance Health, we have policies and processes in place to protect your privacy, including what information is revealed from your genetic testing results and who has access to your information.

What should I consider before doing an at-home genetic test or giving one as a gift?

Although at-home genetic tests might seem like a fun idea for yourself, a friend, or a family member who might not otherwise seek genetic counseling, it is important to consider the risks, limitations, and psychological implications of DNA testing before you make a gift purchase or submit your DNA sample.

For example, it is possible for a genetic test to reveal unexpected information such as that your parents are not your biological parents or that you are at risk for a serious disease. Such unexpected news can understandably cause stress and anxiety, especially if it is not the right time in your life for you to learn these new facts.

Consumers who use at-home DNA tests may not fully understand or be prepared for the implications their results may have. At Nuvance Health, our genetic counselors work with patients before beginning the genetic testing process to help them weigh the pros and cons of genetic testing. We make sure our patients are emotionally and mentally prepared for the possible results, which can sometimes be upsetting and may lead to difficult decisions or conversations with loved ones.

Key takeaways about at-home genetic tests

At-home genetic tests can be fun and interesting, as well as provide people with the tools and empowerment they need to be proactive about their health. Before taking an at-home genetic test, it is essential to understand what you are getting into and make sure you really want to know the results. It is also critical that you make a plan to verify the results with trained professionals.

Related article: Genetic Testing Results Help Mom Be Proactive About Her Health

Read more from the original source:
What You Need to Know Before You Buy an At-Home Genetic Test - Newswise

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Part one of our three-part PAST LIVES series on Jewish genealogical research. Parts two and three will be available next week.

Jennifer Ortiz has a screenshot saved on her computer. Its an image that captures a moment that changed her life.

Right there on the screen: Stewart Bloom is your father, she said, describing the message she received when she logged in to see the results of her home DNA test.

Ortiz is one of millions of people who have taken a DNA test like the ones sold by 23andMe or Ancestry.com. Ortiz, who grew up Catholic in Utah, found out from the test that she was 50 percent Ashkenazi Jewish a result that led to the discovery that she was the child of Bloom, a Jewish photographer in San Francisco, and not the man who raised her.

Thats when my world changed, she said.

But what is 50 percent Jewish?

The question itself is a new wrinkle in the age-old debate of just what it means to be Jewish, which has been given a kick in the pants from the commercialization of a field of science that says it can tell you something new: For a price, you can now choose from one of seven commercial genetic tests to find out just how Jewish you are (among other things).

Its a very interesting, different and complicated and morally ambiguous moment, said Steven Weitzman, director of the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and former director of the Taube Center for Jewish Studies at Stanford University.

In the past few years, commercial gene testing has taken off, driven by aggressive advertising that purports to tell the real story behind your ancestry. The magazine MIT Technology Review analyzed available data to estimate that more than 26 million people had taken at-home tests since they first went on the market more than a decade ago.

Its really beginning to seep into peoples consciousness, Weitzman said.

Sunnyvale-based 23andMe and Ancestry.com, headquartered in Utah, will ask you to spit in a tube and then, several weeks later, will give you a pie chart that might say, for example, 20 percent Swedish, 8 percent Greek and 11 percent German. Or, perhaps, 39 percent Ashkenazi Jewish.

But is there such a thing as 39 percent Ashkenazi? Yes, according to professor of epidemiology and biostatistics Neil Risch, director of UCSFs Institute for Human Genetics.

Its very easy to identify someone whos Ashkenazi Jewish, said Risch, who also does research on population genetics for Kaiser Permanente Northern California.

Thats because there are genetic markers distinct to the Eastern European Jewish population, partly due to a population founder effect, a way of saying that they descend from a small number of ancestors. Also, Jews in Europe tended to marry other Jews, making them endogamous.

Jews were not allowed to intermarry, Risch said. He added that on top of that, there were other external factors; for centuries, Christian churches forbade their flock from marrying Jews.

Ashkenazi Jews share a genetic profile so distinct that even commercial tests can spot it, unlike the difference between, say, Italians and Spaniards, who share a more diffuse Southern European profile. Risch said that although commercial genetic tests will show a percentage of your heritage from very specific regions in Europe, these results should be taken with a grain of salt.

Those kinds of subtle differences are challenging and have to be looked at with some skepticism, Risch said.

I call it entertainment genetics, said Marcus Feldman, a Stanford biology professor and co-director of the universitys Center for Computational, Evolutionary and Human Genetics, when you go and find out where your ancestors came from.

But for Ashkenazi Jews, heritage is pretty clear. Pick a street, Feldman said. Then pick any two Ashkenazi Jews at random walking down it.

Theyd be fifth to ninth cousins at the genetic level, Feldman said. Ashkenazi Jews are actually that closely related, all descended from a small group of people.

But what about Sephardic Jews looking to get a quantitative peek at their heritage? Theyre out of luck. 23andMe communications coordinator Aushawna Collins said that the company hasnt collected enough data on those populations yet to be able to pinpoint what makes them unique in terms of genes. Risch said its because genetically they are not distinct enough from other Mediterranean peoples.

But even if science can determine whether people have Ashkenazi genes, can one extrapolate from that how Jewish they are?

What is 39 percent Jewish? Thats nonsense, said Weitzman, a former professor of Jewish culture and religion at Stanford, where in 2012 he started an interdisciplinary course on Jewish genetics with biology professor Noah Rosenberg. You cant be half Jewish. Youre either Jewish or not Jewish.

Rabbi Yehuda Ferris of Berkeley Chabad would agree.

You cant be part kosher, you cant be part pregnant, you cant be part Jewish, he said.

However, even Ferris and his wife, Miriam, have done at-home DNA tests although they did it to find relatives, not to figure out their Jewishness.

It was extremely shocking, Ferris said dryly. Im 100 percent Ashkenazi Jewish and shes 99 percent.

For zero dollars we could have told you the same thing, Miriam Ferris added.

As an Orthodox rabbi, Ferris goes not by percentages but by the matrilineal rule in establishing Jewishness.

If your mother is Jewish, youre Jewish, he said. Thats it.

The concept of matrilineal descent is an old one, but genetics are giving it a new twist, especially in Israel where the Chief Rabbinate has used gene testing to weigh in on the crucial question of who is a Jew. (In Israel, immigrants must prove their Jewish status to marry, be buried in a Jewish cemetery or undergo other Jewish life-cycle rituals.)

Thats an interesting and disturbing new phenomenon, Weitzman said.

The way the rabbinate has used gene testing is by examining mitochondrial DNA, which gives much less information than testing of the more extensive DNA in the cell nucleus, which is what home tests do. But unlike nuclear DNA, mitochondrial DNA is almost always passed from mothers to their children. This dovetails nicely with the notion of matrilineal Jewish descent, and rabbis in Israel have now begun accepting mitochondrial DNA testing for people, primarily immigrants or children of immigrants from the former Soviet Union, who have inadequate documentation of their Jewish status.

The test can identify Jews descended from four founder women ancestors. However, it can be used only to prove a positive, as half of Ashkenazi Jews dont have the characteristic mitochondrial chromosomes at all. Still, for people who have no paper or eyewitness proof of Jewish descent, genetic testing can be the deciding factor.

When you dont have enough information, it might be the linchpin, Ferris commented.

The rabbinates use of mitochondrial DNA testing is controversial, with some critics calling it humiliating. The Yisrael Beiteinu party, which represents Russian-speaking immigrants, is trying to challenge it in Israels Supreme Court.

Outside of Israel, too, not everyone is comfortable with using science to figure out who is a Jew. Its something the world has seen before.

People were also using science to figure out who people were. We called that race science, Weitzman said.

And the people who did it?

I mean Nazis, he clarified.

Genetics have been used against Jews in the most virulent way, said UCSFs Risch. But he thinks that Jews are inclined right now to trust the science because its a field filled with Jewish researchers. We love science because were all the scientists! he said.

In the past two decades, there has been a rash of research on the genetic components of Judaism, a boom coinciding with the Human Genome Project, which ran from 1990 to 2003. Much of it was done by Jewish scientists. The initial research on mitochondrial DNA in Ashkenazi Jews was done in 2006 by Israeli geneticist Doron Behar; he is now CEO of genetic analysis company Igentify.

In 1997, a study of traits in the Y chromosome, passed only from father to son, found that more than 50 percent of men with the last name Cohen (or Kahan or Kahn or other variants) had a certain marker, giving some support to the idea of a hereditary Jewish priesthood.

In 2010, medical geneticist Harry Ostrer did work that found various communities of Jews shared a common Middle East ancestry. And in 2009, Feldman, who is also director of Stanfords Morrison Institute for Population Biology and Resource Studies, studied to what degree Jewish groups in different places were related. (This last topic has been studied further, including by Risch.)

But Feldman himself has experienced firsthand how his own research has been twisted for what he called racist conclusions when economists drew inferences from his work with fellow Stanford professor Rosenberg to suggest theres a genetic basis for economic success.

We were outraged because those two people were using our data to make these quite racist statements, Feldman said.

Feldman said its common for the public to seize on genome research and try to use it to explain everything from intelligence to criminality; he said scientists have a responsibility to be on alert all the time.

Theres been too much emphasis on the genetic basis of a lot of human behaviors, he said. When genetics is your hammer, everything becomes a nail, he said. So it doesnt matter what human trait youre interested in.

Even if geneticists like Feldman consider home testing kits entertainment, their popularity shows that people are interested in using genetics to figure out who they are, including how Jewish. Weitzman said it might be connected to how hard it is for most Ashkenazi Jews in this country to trace their roots; Jews in Central and Eastern Europe didnt have last names until the 18th or 19th centuries.

A lot of us, we dont know a lot about our ancestors prior to our grandparents, Weitzman said.

So in searching for ancestors, people are turning to the companies that promise results. 23andMes Collins told J. theyd sold 10 million kits in total, and Ancestry.com in May issued an announcement claiming to have tested more than 15 million people.

Cantor Doron Shapira of Peninsula Sinai Congregation in Foster City is one of them. He was always into Sephardic music and food. As a percussionist, he felt drawn to the rhythms.

People have very often asked me, Are you Sephardic? he said. And I always said, Not to my knowledge.

Last year he saw an ad for Ancestry.com, got his DNA testing kit and sent it in with his sample.

It comes back 94 percent no surprise Russian Ashkenazi Jewish European roots, he said.

But the test also revealed 6 percent of his roots were other, including from Southern Europe and the Iberian Peninsula. Maybe Shapira had a Sephardic ancestor after all?

He started to think about which side of the family it could be and considered asking his mom to get tested. It wasnt that the result suggesting a Sephardic ancestor changed his perception of who he was, he said, but it validated something about himself that he and others had always noticed.

I got a little bit excited, he admitted.

And then he got an email update from Ancestry.com.

It says, scratch that, youre now 100 percent Ashkenazi Jewish, he said with a laugh.

But even with the change in result, Shapira says hes not against using home genetic testing to get a peek into his ancestry.

Im inclined to do another one, he said. Just to see if its consistent.

Many others are taking the tests and their results very seriously. People are making life decisions now on the results of this test, Weitzman said. Theyre deciding whether theyre Jewish or not.

Thats what Ortiz has done. If you ask her now if shes Jewish, the 53-year-old has an answer.

Yes, I am, she said. Ill say yes.

She had never been told that the father who raised her was not her biological dad, and when she confronted her parents, they denied it. But she knew it was no mistake when the DNA testing company delivered a startling message with the name of her biological father thats the screenshot shes got saved on her computer.

Ortiz immediately made contact with Stewart Bloom and flew down to San Francisco last year from her home in Portland to visit. There was a lot to process, of course, but for Ortiz its been a wonderful thing and that includes embracing Jewishness, something she said shed always been drawn to.

When I found out Im actually 50 percent, on one level it didnt surprise me, she said.

Now shes converting that number into something deeper: Shes planning a ceremony in Portland with a Jewish Renewal rabbi not a conversion, but something to celebrate her new identity.

It would help me take a step into Judaism, she said. Not just from a biological level but a little more than that.

Thinking about Jewishness in terms of biology is something that bothers Emma Gonzalez-Lesser, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Connecticut and the author of an article titled Bio-logics of Jewishness. If being Jewish is something in the genes, then that excludes people who have come to Judaism in other ways.

People who convert may not be seen as legitimately Jewish as someone who has 30-something percent ancestry from a genetic test, she said.

And beyond that, she added, there are some ideas underlying the current fascination with genetics that arent being questioned, like the question of whether Jews are a race.

I think part of our societal fascination with genetic testing really rests on this assumption that race is really this biological function, she said.

(Prominent researchers like Feldman, Rosenberg and Risch have been caught up in the sensitive question of whether studying the genomics of populations leads to a biological definition of race; the issue has been written about at length and remains controversial.)

Weitzman said the interest in ancestry reflects a trend around the world of turning to biology, genetics and race as a way to encode identity.

Part of whats going on in the Jewish world right now is a reflection of a broader revival of ethno-nationalism, Weitzman said.

In addition, at a time when American Jews are less likely to go to synagogue or practice rituals in the home, they face more questions about what it means to be Jewish. That may incline them to trust in science to determine their identity, especially when they have only a few dusty boxes of papers, if that, to show their family history. That makes Jewish genes a door into the past.

Theres something hiding inside of you that is preserving your identity intact, Weitzman said. To me, thats part of the appeal.

Read more here:
Who is a Jew? DNA home testing adds new wrinkle to age-old debate - The Jewish News of Northern California

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Testingpatients for certain pathogenic variants associated with increased cancer riskchanged the management of those patients, with patients almost always followingprovider recommendations for cancer screening, according to a recent study.

The studylooked at de-identified personal and family history data from 654 individualswith pathogenic variants in PALB2, ATM, CHEK2, NBN, BRIP1, RAD51C, and/orRAD51D. Data were analyzed to quantify pretest and posttest candidacyfor guideline-recommended management of cancer risk.

Amongpatients with CHEK2, ATM, PALB2, or NBN variants, only 24% wereappropriate for consideration of annual breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)prior to genetic testing. The remaining 76% were only deemed appropriatecandidates for MRI after testing.

Similarly,no patients with BRIP1, RAD51C, or RAD51D variants would havebeen considered candidates for risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy (RRSO) priorto undergoing genetic testing.

No consensus management recommendations exist for individuals at average risk or increased risk for ovarian cancer based on family history; therefore, no individuals were deemed appropriate candidates for consideration of RRSO based on family history, the researchers wrote. After testing, 100% of these individuals were appropriate candidates for RRSO.

Finally, onthe basis of personal or family history, only 17% of 309 individuals with CHEK2variants were considered appropriate for earlier and more frequent colonoscopyprior to genetic testing the remaining 83% were only considered appropriatecandidates after receiving genetic testing.

Read more here:
Testing for Genetic Variants Informed the Use of Cancer Risk Assessments - Cancer Therapy Advisor

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Country doctor James DeLine talks about his work with the Amish

In 33 years at the La Farge clinic, Dr. James DeLine has gained the trust of many Amish. He understands their beliefs and their financial limitations, and he leaves the medical decisions to the families.

Mark Hoffman, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

MILWAUKEE, Wis.It is 5 degrees below zeroand a light powdering ofsnow swirls across the roads of Vernon County.Afew horses and buggies clop through the chillmorningair, but Perry Hochstetler leaves his buggy at the family farmand has a driver take him to his doctors appointment.

TheHochstetlersare Amish. With no health insuranceanda modest income, they cannot afford most doctors.

They can afford James DeLine, once the lone doctor in the western Wisconsin village of LaFarge. Population 750.

When he became the village doctor in 1983, DeLine had no experience treating the Amish and no idea the crucial role they would play in his work. Today, about 20% of the doctors patients are Amish or Old Order Mennonite, part of a Christian population called Plain People. They are known for their separation from the modern world and adherence to a simple lifestyle and unadorned dress.

Something of a throwback himself,DeLine, 65, is a short,bespectacledman with a walrus mustache, a doctor who carries a brown medical bag to house calls. For years, he carried his equipment in a fishing tackle box.

He knows the families on every local farm and their medical histories. He knows whos beenborn,andcalls on the mothers and infants to make sure they are healthy. He knows whos dying, and looks in on them in their final days, sitting by their bedside, talking in a gentle voice, making sure they have what they need for pain.

Amish farms are clustered together along Highway D between Cashton and La Farge.Mark Hoffman / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

As a young doctor,DeLine never imagined he would find himselfsomedaywith one foot planted solidly in medicines past, the other in its future.

The doctor who makes housecallsalso collaborates with English and American geneticists studying some of the rarest diseases on Earth. Some occur at much higher levels among the Amish, Mennonites and other closed communities that dont allow marriage to outsiders. This prohibition increases the likelihood that when a rare, disease-causing mutation appears in the community, it will take root and pass from generation to generation.

It has taken DeLine and his staff years to gain the trust of Plain People, some of whom are wary of medicine and technology.Often,theyfear that going to a hospital or clinic will mean surrendering the decision-making to doctors who neither respect their beliefsnor understand their financial limitations.

DeLine, not a religious man himself, accommodates the beliefs of patients and parents; he has always viewed them as the ultimate decision-makers.

At first glance, Hochstetler seems an unlikely candidate for a rare disease or a health problem of any kind. Work at the local sawmill and his family farm has given the 26-year-old father of two a lean muscular frame. Beneath the skin lies another story.

He has the vasculature of an 80-year-old smoker,DeLinesays.

He inherited the genetic mutation that causes an illness most people have never heard of: sitosterolemia. Only 100 cases have been described in the medical literature, but DeLine has 13 patients with the condition, including four of Hochstetlers 10 siblings and their father.

The disease prevents the body from getting rid of lipids from vegetable oils and nuts, causing them to build up and clog the arteries.

Since diagnosing the disease,DeLinehas treated Hochstetler with a cholesterol-lowering drug called Zetia.

Without diagnosis and treatment,Hochstetlercould by now havesuffereda heart attack, a trauma that Zetia should delay, thoughfor how long isuncertain. There is no cure for sitosterolemia.

Im not afraid, he says. If I die young, I guess Im going to die young. I cant do much about it. I cant say I ever get low and have the blues about it.

Saving grace: The story of an Amish community and the fight for their children's lives

A blizzard almost kept the doctor and village from their appointment.

It was February 1983. DeLine drovehis familyover hilly country roads, staring out the windshield into flurries and fearingtheir carmight not makeit to LaFarge.

DeLinehad just completed his residency at the Wausau Hospital Center. Now, a10-membercommitteeof localswas recruiting him to fill LaFargesvacancy for a doctor. Thevillage had beenwithout one for a couple ofyears.

The doctor liked the friendly villagers, a welcome change from the suit-and-tie types hed interviewed with in other places.

He was 28 years oldwith a bad car, a growing family and $30,000 in unpaid student loans. The average salary for a family doctor in America was then around $80,000, enough to settle down and beginpaying offhis debt.

But the people of LaFargewantedDeLine needed him. Their offer: $20,000.

That would have to coverDeLinesannual salary, the salary of an assistant to answer the phones and handle billing, plus all the clinic equipment andexpenses. .

DeLine took the offer.

The photo of country doctor Ernest Guy Ceriani, made famous in a groundbreaking Life Magazine photo essay by W. Eugene Smith, hangs on James DeLine's refrigerator door at his home in La Farge.Mark Hoffman / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

DeLinegrew up in New Lenox, Illinois, a farming community outside Joliet.

The village of 1,750 was mostly cornfields. DeLine remembers it asthe kind of place where children grew up building forts during the day and watching bonfires at night. DeLine had twin sisters five years younger than him. Their father owned a restaurant.

From an early age, though, itjust seemed like Id be going to medical school. It was meant to be.

DeLineremembers nights when he could hear his mother struggling to breathe. He could hear his father, too, trying to persuade her to go to the hospital.

She had rheumatic heart disease and took blood thinners starting in her 30s. She sometimes joked about needing a valve job.

DeLinewas 17 when his mother went in for the procedure.

He saw her once after surgerybut I didnt like how she looked.About the third day, his mother suffered cardiac arrest. She was resuscitated but had sustained a severe brain injury. Days later, the family shut off life support. She was 42.

One week after her death, JamesDeLineset out to become a doctor,leavinghome for the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.

Physician James DeLine eases into his work day starting at 5 a.m. at his home in La Farge.Mark Hoffman / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

University life was hard.DeLineremained so miredin grief that when he ate, he suffered terrible abdominal pain and had to lie on his stomach for relief.

Still, he took on a demanding schedule.Driven students tended to enter the more advanced honors program in either chemistry orbiology. DeLine, a physiology major, enrolled in both.

He paid for college through restaurant jobs and financial aid.

He went on to medical school, first in Champaign, then at the University of Illinois campus in Chicago. He lived in the citys Little Italysection on the nearwestside. There he met his future wife, Ann Doherty, who worked in a print shop.

DeLinegraduated from medical school on June 7, 1980. The next day, he and Ann married.

A week later, he started his residency in Wausau.

He would work a 24-hour shift, take 24 hours off, then head back for another 24 hours at the hospital. By the time Id stagger home for some rest, he says, I was sleep-deprived, hungry, with a headache.

The schedule bothered his wife. She missed him.In his next job, she would see even less of him.

Physician James DeLine checks on Dean Pease at Vernon Memorial Healthcare in Viroqua. Pease was admitted to the hospital for breathing difficulties.Mark Hoffman / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

In LaFarge,DeLineworked harder than he had in his residency.

He was on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. To make ends meet, both for his family and the clinic,DeLineworked five shifts a month in the emergency room at Vernon Memorial Hospital in Viroqua.

Some days he would work 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the clinic, then drive to the hospital and work 6 p.m. to 8 a.m. in the emergency room. He would return to the familys home just in time to shower and get to the clinic by 9.

There were times when he was tired, but it didnt slow him down, Marcia Bader, his now-retired office managersays. It was that deep-seated caring that kept him going.

After a morning of driving around visiting patients, physician James DeLine, right, updates the staff at his clinic.Mark Hoffman / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

It was his wife,AnnDeLine, too.

The woman who had dreamed of being a mother did everything for the couples four children, all born within a five-year span. She washed cloth diapers and hung them out to dry. Shecooked, cleaned, took the children for walks, helped with school and play, and accepted with grace all the times when her husband was called away from holidays and birthday parties.

"The calendar of holidays does not apply," she says. "He helps people when they need him like the volunteer fireman races off when the alarm sounds; like the farmer plants and harvests when the ground and weather are ready."

"Life is lived by needs, not calendars and time slots."

This drawing is a gift from an Amish patient. James DeLine keeps it on his desk at home.Mark Hoffman / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Villagers embraced their doctor. Patients said they were accustomed to physicians who talked at them most of the time;DeLinelistened.

The clinic struggled financially in the early years. Not everybody paid their bills, Bader recalls. But the doctor wasnt going to send them to collection firms, and he wasnt going to stop caring for them.

The doctor and his wife became fixtures ofcommunitylife. They went to their childrens cross country meets and other school events. They attended the annual Kickapoo Valley Reserve Winter Festival.

But it was his presence in the homes of area residents that endeared him to them.

My father was diagnosed with colon cancer in 1994. The thing that always struck me was that Dr.DeLinestopped in to see my mom and dad one night after a basketball game, recalls Bonnie Howell-Sherman, editor and publisher of the weekly Epitaph-News in nearby Viola.

That was just unheard of. My mom is going through dementia now and out of all of the people shes met since shes been here, hes the one she remembers.

The villagers didnt just likeDeLine. They depended on him.

They worried about him, too.

Theres been two things about Dr.DeLinethat the whole community has been concerned about, Steinmetz said. One was, how do we keep him? The other was that hestayhealthy.

From time to time, rumors spread that the doctor was sick, even dying.

In 2007,DeLinehad noticed a problem. He would urinate, only to discover a short time later that he needed to go again.

It was prostate cancer.

Courtesy of the Viola Epitaph-News

Feeling, as he put it, reflective, maybe anxious too,DeLineapproached the Epitaph-News editor. He asked to write a series of columns for the newspaper describing his illness and treatment. He would counter the rumors with transparency. He called the column, From the Other Side.

I decided early on that I was comfortable sharing my experience with our community, he wrote in the first column. After all many of you have shared your concerns, fears and symptoms with me for nearly 25 years. Each of us knows that our turn must come for illness and eventually death.

He discussed his fears about surgery to remove his prostate Would I be able to jog again?He evensharedthe frustration of phoning to make a doctors appointment and going through endless computer prompts before reaching a live human voice.

His columns took readers through his surgery, recovery andreturn home.

The way the whole village shared the doctors illness and treatment, thats part of small-town life, explains Howell-Sherman, the newspaper editor.

Its been 12 years sinceDeLinessurgery. The cancer hasnot returned.

An Amish teen pulls farm machinery down a road in La Farge.Mark Hoffman / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Of all the relationships the doctor built in LaFarge, the most challenging involved his Amish patients.

DeLine found his medical work was affected by a deeply held principle among the Amish, expressed in the German wordgelassenheit, which means yielding oneself to a higher authority. Among the Amish, the word encompasses a calmness and patience, as well as a belief that individualism must take a back seatto the good of the community and the will of God.

A sign warns motorists they may encounter horse-drawn vehicles on Highway D between Cashton and La Farge.Mark Hoffman / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

While some Amish visit hospitals and accept modern medical techniques, others prefer natural methods and traditional treatments: herbs, vitamins, supplements and home remedies. In the LaFargearea, it is not unusual for an Amish family to turn to these methods beforedecidingto see DeLine.

Such was the case with Abie and Edna Yoder when their 8-year-old daughter, Barbara, first grew sick in spring 2015.

The girl had little appetite and suffered from a terrible stomachache and bloody diarrhea. Barbara weighed 38 pounds 19 pounds below average for an 8-year-old.

The Yoders took her to a so-called non-traditional doctor used by some of the Amish; these tend to be herbalists, specialists in natural medicine and others, all of whom lack medical degrees.He viewed her blood under a microscope and told the family she might have colon cancer.

The parents worried terribly about their daughters survival, but worried too about putting her in the hands of a traditional doctor. The scenario that haunted them had happened to a 3-year-old Amish boy with leukemia. The boy was given chemotherapy, they say, despite the excruciating pain andultimate failureof the treatment.

He begged to be released to go to Jesus, Edna Yoder recalls.

The Yoders approached a midwife, whosent her husband to speak with DeLine. The husband explained to the doctor the circumstances and the familys hesitation. Then the Yoders brought their daughter.

"Dr.DeLinemade it really clear that he would respect our wishes,Edna Yoder recalls.

Their daughter was admitted to American Family Childrens Hospital in Madison.DeLineconsulted with a pediatric cardiologist hed worked with at UW, Amy Peterson.

Dr.DeLinehad noticed that she had interesting looking bumps on her arms and on her legs, Peterson recalls. They were deposits of cholesterol. Dr.DeLineand I started thinking along very similar lines very quickly.

Genetic testing confirmed their hunch. The girl had extremely rare sitosterolemia, the same illness that would later be diagnosed in Perry Hochstetler.

Treatment lowered the girls sitosterol levels and helped her gain weight.

DeLineand Peterson have since foundamong the local Amisha dozen othercases the second largest cluster of the disease in the world.

An Amish farmer makes his way to work on a fence along Highway D between Cashton and La Farge.Mark Hoffman / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Almost 200 diseases are found in much higher proportions among Plain People. Scientists have developed a special Amish genetics test that screens the blood for more than 120 of them.

DeLine has seen patients with more than 30of the diseases on the testand has at least two patients with diseases neverdescribed in medicine.

Across the globe, there have beenonly20 to 30 cases of a disease called BRAT1; DeLine has seen six. Babies with the illness are born rigid and are prone to frequent seizures.

When the baby is born you cant straighten the baby, DeLine says. The eyes are jerking, face twitching. Some moms say they have felt things that suggest the babies have been seizing in the womb.

Continue reading here:
In a Wisconsin village, the doctor makes house calls and sees the rarest diseases on Earth - USA TODAY

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Pennsylvania seniors, their families, friends, and caregivers are advised to watch out for a new scam in which a scammer offers "free" genetic testing covered through Medicare. The scammer will promise that the test is meant to help prevent disease or find the right medications in order to snatch a senior's personal Medicare information, which can lead to compromised financial information and more.

The Administration for Community Living suggests these tips to avoid getting scammed:

If you or someone you know has already received a genetic testing cheek swab or other screening that was not ordered by a trusted provider, or have any other concerns about possible fraud or scams, contact your local Senior Medicare Patrol through their website(under the "Medicare Fraud Complaints" heading) or call 1-877-808-2468.

Go here to read the rest:
Department of Aging warns of new "genetic testing" scam - NorthcentralPa.com

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith