Researchers say they have discovered a new way to activate the stem cells in the hair follicle to stimulate hair growth.

According to researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, the experiment, conducted on mice, may lead to new drugs that could promote hair growth for people with baldness or alopecia.

After initially blocking, and subsequently increasing the production of lactate genetically in mice, the researchers identified two drugs that, when applied to the skin of mice, influenced hair follicle stem cells in distinct ways to promote lactate production.

According to them, the first drug, called RCGD423, activates a cellular signaling pathway called JAK-Stat, which transmits information from outside the cell to the nucleus of the cell.

The findings showed that JAK-Stat activation leads to the increased production of lactate and this, in turn, drives hair follicle stem cell activation and quicker hair growth.

The other drug, called UK5099, blocks pyruvate from entering the mitochondria, which forces the production of lactate in the hair follicle stem cells and accelerates hair growth in mice.

Before this, no one knew that increasing or decreasing the lactate would have an effect on hair follicle stem cells, said William Lowry, a professor of molecular, cell and developmental biology.

Once we saw how altering lactate production in the mice influenced hair growth, it led us to look for potential drugs that could be applied to the skin and have the same effect.

The researchers explained that the experimental drugs were used in preclinical tests only and have not been tested in humans or approved by the food and drug administration as safe and effective for use in humans

The research was published in the journal Nature Cell Biology.

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Suffering from hair loss? Scientists may have found a solution - TheCable

Recommendation and review posted by simmons

The brutal heatwave affecting southern Europe this summer has become known among locals as Lucifer. Having just returned from Italy, I fully understand the nickname. An early excursion caused the beginnings of sunstroke, so we abandoned plans to explore the cultural heritage of the Amalfi region and strayed no further than five metres from the hotel pool for the rest of the week.

The children were delighted, particularly my 12-year-old stepdaughter, Gracie, who proceeded to spend hours at a time playing in the water. Towelling herself after one long session, she noticed something odd.

Whats happened there? she asked, holding her foot aloft in front of my face.

I inspected the proffered appendage: on the underside of her big toe was an oblong area of glistening red flesh that looked like a chunk of raw steak.

Did you injure it?

She shook her head. It doesnt hurt at all.

I shrugged and said she must have grazed it. She wasnt convinced, pointing out that she would remember if she had done that. She has great faith in plasters, though, and once it was dressed she forgot all about it. I dismissed it, too, assuming it was one of those things.

By the end of the next day, the pulp on the underside of all of her toes looked the same. As the doctor in the family, I felt under some pressure to come up with an explanation. I made up something about burns from the hot paving slabs around the pool. Gracie didnt say as much, but her look suggested a dawning scepticism over my claims to hold a medical degree.

The next day, Gracie and her new-found holiday playmate, Eve, abruptly terminated a marathon piggy-in-the-middle session in the pool with Eves dad. Our feet are bleeding, they announced, somewhat incredulously. Sure enough, bright-red blood was flowing, apparently painlessly, from the bottoms of their big toes.

Doctors are used to contending with Google. Often, what patients discover on the internet causes them undue alarm, and our role is to provide context and reassurance. But not infrequently, people come across information that outstrips our knowledge. On my return from our room with fresh supplies of plasters, my wife looked up from her sun lounger with an air of quiet amusement.

Its called pool toe, she said, handing me her iPhone. The page she had tracked down described the girls situation exactly: friction burns, most commonly seen in children, caused by repetitive hopping about on the abrasive floors of swimming pools. Doctors practising in hot countries must see it all the time. I doubt it presents often to British GPs.

I remained puzzled about the lack of pain. The injuries looked bad, but neither Gracie nor Eve was particularly bothered. Here the internet drew a blank, but I suspect it has to do with the pruning of our skin that were all familiar with after a soak in the bath. This only occurs over the pulps of our fingers and toes. It was once thought to be caused by water diffusing into skin cells, making them swell, but the truth is far more fascinating.

The wrinkling is an active process, triggered by immersion, in which the blood supply to the pulp regions is switched off, causing the skin there to shrink and pucker. This creates the biological equivalent of tyre treads on our fingers and toes and markedly improves our grip of great evolutionary advantage when grasping slippery fish in a river, or if trying to maintain balance on slick wet rocks.

The flip side of this is much greater friction, leading to abrasion of the skin through repeated micro-trauma. And the lack of blood flow causes nerves to shut down, depriving us of the pain that would otherwise alert us to the ongoing tissue damage. An adaptation that helped our ancestors hunt in rivers proves considerably less use on a modern summer holiday.

I may not have seen much of the local heritage, but the trip to Italy taught me something new all the same.

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White supremacists are embracing genetic testing - but they aren't always that keen on the results - New Statesman

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

TOKYO, Aug. 21, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Genesis Healthcare Co. has announced the completion of a new share issue worth 1.4 billion yen for allotment to Rakuten Inc. Furthermore, Rakuten's Chairman and CEO will join Genesis Healthcare's Board of Directors as an External Board Director. As a result of the new stock offering, Genesis Healthcare's capital has increased to 2.1 billion yen, one of the largest paid-in-capital levels among genetic testing companies in Japan.

Genesis Healthcare, founded in 2004, already manages one of the largest genetic databases in Asia and Japan, with data of approximately 520,000 individuals as of August, 2017, and plans to increase its database size to one million by 2020. While Genesis Healthcare offers various genetic testing services to the government, medical community, academia, industry and consumers, it also offers healthcare and disease prevention test kits and IT services under the consumer brand "GeneLife" in order to enrich people's lives through personalized genetic testing.

Genesis Healthcare's Co-Founder and President, Dr. Iri Sato Baran, commented: "The investment by Rakuten, a Japan leader in Internet services, will allow us to increase awareness of genetic information technology through digital healthcare for the betterment of personalized health and self-medication."

"Forward-thinking technologies like Genesis Healthcare's genetic health analysis and a deeper understanding of responsible self-medication are essential to finding innovative responses to increasing health costs and the rising awareness of health issues in Japan," commented the Rakuten Chairman and CEO, Hiroshi "Mickey" Mikitani. "With this investment, we would like to see Genesis Healthcare take a leading role in furthering the understanding and adoption of genetic health testing in Japan."

Genesis Healthcare plans to use the new funding mainly to promote genetic testing and investment into IT and R&D. It will also continue to accelerate its marketing programs, as well as strengthening recruiting and training efforts. Genesis Healthcare will continue to contribute to improving the quality of life through genetic diagnostic technologies.

About Genesis Healthcare Co.

Co-Founder and President: Dr. Iri Sato BaranCorporate site: http://genesis-healthcare.jp/en/

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Genesis Healthcare, Pioneer in Genetic Health Testing, Announces ... - Markets Insider

Recommendation and review posted by simmons

More than 1 million American women who have had breast or ovarian cancer are not getting a simple genetic test that will determine whether they carry a mutation that puts them at higher risk of a recurrence, according to a UCLA study published Friday.

Up to 10 percent of women who have, or have had, breast cancer, and up to 15 percent of those with a history of ovarian cancer, carry inheritable mutations that put them at higher risk of the cancer returning, says the study, which was published Friday in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

The test to detect the mutations involves taking blood or saliva, but the study found that 70 percent of eligible breast cancer patients and 80 percent of patients with ovarian cancer have never taken the initial step of discussing testing with their health care provider.

"We want to figure out who are the women in this country that have those genetic changes," says lead author Dr. Christopher Childers, a resident physician at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine. That information, he says, can inform decisions about their treatment and surgery. It can also help family members detect cancer early and make lifestyle changes to try to prevent the disease.

National Cancer Center Network guidelines recommend genetic testing for women in these categories:

The study, based on surveys of more than 47,000 women nationwide, asked whether women were discussing the test or had taken it. It did not assess why patients aren't discussing or undergoing testing, but Childers says both providers and patients must play a role in closing the gap. He says all providers should ask women about their cancer history, inquire about prior genetic testing and be aware of the latest testing guidelines.

"Genetic testing is not just something that is under the care of an oncologist, it's something that all health care providers, from surgeons to primary care doctors to cardiologists, should be thinking about when we see patients with a history of cancer," he says.

Patients with a history of breast or ovarian cancer should see their doctors and inquire about genetic testing, even if they were diagnosed many years earlier, says Childers. The mutations detected by the test can affect the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. Tests for the mutations have been around since the mid-1990s, but science, testing guidelines and test availability have evolved since then.

"It's not something that you can just assume was taken care of when you had the diagnosis five or 10 years ago," he says. "This is something that is as important 10 years, 20 years, 30 years after your cancer, because it can not only affect your own health, but can also affect the health of your family members."

From her experience as a genetic counselor at Providence Health & Services Southern California, study co-author Kimberly Childers says some patients want to know the potential risks for themselves and their family so they can take steps to prevent future cancers, while others say ignorance is bliss.

Those patients typically say, "I'd rather just see what happens and not worry about it, and if something happens, I'll deal with it when it happens," says Childers, who is married to the study's lead author. She notes that testing might not be right for these people.

On the flip side, Kimberly Childers also sees women who have breast cancer in their history, but learn through testing that they didnt inherit the gene mutation.

"While our focus is on identifying those at risk who can benefit from early prevention and detection, it also can help give people peace of mind who might be living with a cancer cloud," she says.

The genetic test is covered by Medicare, Medi-Cal and most private insurance plans, says Kimberly Childers.

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Audio: Many breast, ovarian cancer survivors should take this ... - 89.3 KPCC

Recommendation and review posted by simmons

Representational image

Washington D.C. : A study has recently revealed that vitamin C may tell faulty stem cells in the bone marrow to mature and die normally, instead of multiplying to cause blood cancers.

According to researchers, certain genetic changes are known to reduce the ability of an enzyme called TET2 to encourage stem cells to become mature blood cells, which eventually die, in many patients with certain kinds of leukemia.

The new study found that vitamin C activated TET2 function in mice engineered to be deficient in the enzyme.

Corresponding study author Benjamin G. Neel said, "We're excited by the prospect that high-dose vitamin C might become a safe treatment for blood diseases caused by TET2-deficient leukemia stem cells, most likely in combination with other targeted therapies."

The results suggested that changes in the genetic code (mutations) that reduce TET2 function are found in 10 percent of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), 30 percent of those with a form of pre-leukemia called myelodysplastic syndrome, and in nearly 50 percent of patients with chronic myelomonocytic leukemia.

The study results revolve around the relationship between TET2 and cytosine, one of the four nucleic acid "letters" that comprise the DNA code in genes.

To determine the effect of mutations that reduce TET2 function in abnormal stem cells, the team genetically engineered mice such that the scientists could switch the TET2 gene on or off.

The findings indicated that vitamin C did the same thing as restoring TET2 function genetically. By promoting DNA demethylation, high-dose vitamin C treatment induced stem cells to mature, and also suppressed the growth of leukemia cancer stem cells from human patients implanted in mice.

"Interestingly, we also found that vitamin C treatment had an effect on leukemic stem cells that resembled damage to their DNA," said first study author Luisa Cimmino.

"For this reason, we decided to combine vitamin C with a PARP inhibitor, a drug type known to cause cancer cell death by blocking the repair of DNA damage, and already approved for treating certain patients with ovarian cancer," Cimmino added.

The findings appear in journal Cell.

See the article here:
Vitamin C may help genes to kill blood cancer stem cells - ETHealthworld.com

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Forever Labs, a startup in Y Combinators latest batch, is preserving adult stem cells with the aim to help you live longer and healthier.

Stem cells have the potential to become any type of cell needed in the body. Its very helpful to have younger stem cells from your own body on hand should you ever need some type of medical intervention, like a bone marrow transplant as the risk of rejection is greatly reduced when the cells are yours.

Mark Katakowski spent the last 15 years studying stem cells. What he found is that not only do we have less of them the older we get, but they also lose their function as we age.So, he and his co-founders Edward Cibor and Steve Clausnitzer started looking at how to bank them while they were young.

Clausnitzer banked his cells two years ago at the age of 38. So, while he is biologically now age 40, his cells remain the age in which they were harvested or as he calls it, stem cell time travel.

Steven Clausnitzer with his 38-year-old banked stem cells.

Stem cell banking isnt new. In fact, a lot of parents are now opting to store their babys stem cells through cord blood banking. But thats for newborns. For adults, its not so common, and theres a lot of snake oil out there, Clausnitzer cautions.

There are places offering stem cell therapy and Botox, he said.

Forever Labs is backed by a team of Ivy League-trained scientists with decades of experience between them. Jason Camm, chief medical officer for Thiel Capital, is also one of the companys medical advisors however, the startup is quick to point out it is not associated with Thiel Capital.

The process involves using a patented device to collect the cells. Forever Labs can then grow and bank your cells for $2,500, plus another $250 for storage per year (or a flat fee of $7,000 for life).

The startup is FDA-approved to bank these cells and is offering the service in seven states. What it does not have FDA approval for is the modification of those cells for rejuvenation therapy.

Katakowski refers to what the company is doing as longevity as a service, with the goal being to eventually take your banked cells and modify them to reverse the biological clock.

But that may take a few years. There are hundreds of clinical trials looking at stem cell uses right now. Forever Labs has also proposed its own clinical trial to take your stem cells and give them to your older cells.

Youll essentially young-blood effect yourself, Katakowski joked of course, in this case, youd be using your own blood made from your own stem cells, not the blood of random teens.

Read more here:
Forever Labs preserves young stem cells to prevent your older self ... - TechCrunch

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

New parents are beginning to bank their babys cord blood cells in the hope that they can be used to treat serious diseases later on in the childs life.

Many of them have been told that the cells can already be used to treat about 80 blood and immunological conditions. So they fork out thousands a year for the service.

What they are not told is that the tiny amounts saved at birth would not be sufficient to treat a serious condition in an adult.

Stem cells are currently being used to treat

In the future, they are expected to help in the treatment of

Globally, around 50,000 cases of cancer have been treated with stem cells from cord blood, but banking is not a feasible solution because the amount preserved is not enough for bone marrow transplants in adults, says Dr Dharama Choudhary, bone-marrow transplant specialist at BLK Super Speciality Hospital.

For example, if one child has leukemia and has a newborn sibling, instead of using the cord blood doctors would rather wait for a couple of years and use the bone marrow of the younger child for transplant, adds Dr IC Verma, senior consultant of medical genetics and genomics at Delhis Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.

Even if you have enough, using cord blood cells is more costly and the recovery period is longer, Dr Choudhary adds.

FROM SOLO TO POOL

How umbilical cord stem cells are saved

Currently, cord blood is preserved in less than 1% of deliveries in urban centres, with the number being a higher 2% in private tertiary-care hospitals. The percentage is higher in Hyderabad, Bangalore and Pune, although we have not been able to ascertain the reason, says Upamannyue Roy Choudhury, CEO of CordLife India, a private cord blood bank.

The idea of public registries run by charitable organisations never really took off. That registry was meant so that anyone could purchase stem cells from a shared bank, but it has only about 5,000 units of cord blood banked across India. Private banks have about 500,000, says Mayur Abhaya, executive director at Life Cell International, one such private bank.

To help more people get treated using stem cells from cord blood, private banks should now promote sharing within their own pool, doctors add. We have underutilised assets, so pools would benefit people who have not banked cord blood, says Abhaya.

His company charges an initial fee of Rs 17,000 for the processing of banked cord blood and then Rs 4,000 a year for banking it. We have now started a sharing system where, for the same amount, the baby, its parents and both sets of grandparents can draw cord blood too from the shared pool at no extra cost, he says.

Life Cell estimates that even with the sharing of saved cord blood, utilisation would be only around 10%, because of the low incidence of the conditions that cord blood can be used to treat.

In the four months since starting the community pool, 99% of new customers have opted for the sharing model. We are now going back to older customers and trying to bring them into this pool as well, Abhaya says.

FRACTIONAL BENEFITS

Case study: Family matters

On average, only about 0.004% to 0.005% of people who store cord blood end up using it for their own treatment, says Dr Choudhary of BLK.

In addition to the problem of too little cord blood being harvested for treatment of serious diseases in adults, there is the issue of incorrect storage. Storage is not done correctly in many Indian banks. The cord blood is cryopreserved, and when it is thawed, the number of viable cells drops drastically, Dr Choudhary says.

Public cord blood banking, though, has a future. Storing cord blood in a public banking system, where it may be used by others in need, is more feasible, says Dr IC Verma. It will take another couple of decades before people will be able to meaningfully use their own cord blood.

Read more here:
Striking a cord: Is it worth saving stem cells? Yes, if you plan to share - Hindustan Times

Recommendation and review posted by sam

Preserving Life Through Cryonics

Cryonics is the practice of deep-freezing recently deceased bodies(or even just the brains of those who have recently died)in the hopes of one day reviving them. It has been the subject of serious scientific exploration and study as well as a fair share of pseudoscience, lore, and myth. Fictional accounts like Batmans Iceman, and the (untrue) rumors of Walt Disney being cryogenically frozen have, unfortunately, cast a speculative shadow over the field of cryonics.

But recently, for the first time ever in China, a woman has been cryogenically frozen. Zhan Wenlian died at the age of 49 from lung cancer and her husband, Gui Junmin, volunteered her for the cryonic procedure. Bothhe and his late wife wanted to donate her body to science to give back to society. He told Mirror UKthat hewas initially pitched the idea of cryonics with it being described as a life preservation project.

This procedure which has Wenlians body restingfacedownin 2,000 liters of liquid nitrogen was completed at theYinfeng Biological Group in Jinan. This project is the collaborative effortof the Yinfeng Biological Group, Qilu Hospital Shandong University and consultants from Alcor Life Extension Foundation, a nonprofit cryonics company based in the United States.

Even with all the faith many have in the procedure, the question remains: how scientifically possible is a project like this? Is this just an experiment to allow us to better understand human biology, orcould cryonics one day become a feasible option?

Cryonics is all about timing.The bodies of the deceased arecryogenically frozenimmediately after the heartstops beating. Freezing is a bit of a misleading term, because cryonic freezing is actually very specifically trying toavoidice crystal formation which damages the cells of the bodys tissues. Rapid cooling, rather than freezing, is a more accuratedescription of the process. A chemical cocktail of preservatives likeglycerol andpropandiol, in addition to antifreeze agents, are commonly used to get the body into a stable state where it wont be decaying, but also wont suffer damage from being stored at low temperatures for, conceivably, a very long time.

From there, the bodiesare given specific care that caters to the idea that death is a continuing process; one that can ultimately be reversed. The aim of cryonic preservation would be to one day be able to thaw the bodies and reanimate them at a cellular level preferably without too many epigenetic changes.

I tend to believe in new and emerging technologies, so I think it will be completely possible to revive her.

With ourcurrent understanding and technology, this process of reversingdeath so completely is just not possible. The closest kind of revival we have are themoments after clinical death where patients are revived by something such as cardiac defibrillation. Cryonics acts within this critical, albeit brief, period as well but works within the belief that death is a grey area. More of a processrather than a definite, final, event.

Just because we havent succeeded in reviving the dead yetdoesnt mean the field of cryonics isunnecessary or unimportant.This first case inChina is a major step forward for everyone researching inthe field of cryonics and those of us who may, one day, hope to benefit from advancements in it.

We may not be able to reverse death just yet,but it doesnt seem outof the realm of possibility to imagine that, with such wild scientific advancements underway, technology could one day allow it to be possible. Whether or not it does in our lifetimes, this most recent development is certainly a positive one.

Originally posted here:
For The First Time Ever, A Woman in China Was Cryogenically Frozen - Futurism

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Humans have wanted to live forever for as long as we've lived at all. It's an obsession that stretches back so far that it feels like it's somehow hard-coded into our DNA. Over the years, immortality (to a greater or lesser extent) has been promised by everyone from religions and cults to the cosmetics industry, big tech companies and questionable food blogs.

It's also a staple of fiction, all the way back to the earliest surviving great work of literature. The Epic of Gilgamesh, carved onto stone tablets in 2100 BC, depicts its titular king hunting for the secret of eternal life, which he finds in a plant that lives at at the bottom of the sea. He collects the plant by roping stones to his feet, but then a snake steals it while he's having a pre-immortality bath. Gilgamesh has a little cry, then gives up.

A cuneiform tablet containing part of The Epic of Gilgamesh.

The reason why we age is still the subject of major scientific debate, but it basically boils down to damage accumulating in our cells throughout our lives, which eventually kills us. By slowing that damage - first by making tools, then controlling fire, inventing writing, trade, agriculture, logic, the scientific method, the industrial revolution, democracy and so on, we've managed to massively increase human life expectancy.

There's a common misconception that to live forever we need to somehow pause the ageing process. We don't. We just need to increase the rate at which our lifespans are lengthening. Human lifespan has been lengthening at a constant rate of about two years per decade for the last 200 years. If we can speed that up past the rate at which we age then we hit what futurist Aubrey de Grey calls "longevity escape velocity" - the point we become immortal.

There's a common misconception that to live forever we need to somehow pause the ageing process. We don't. We just need to increase the rate at which our lifespans are lengthening.

That all sounds rather easy, and of course it's not quite that simple. It's all we can do at the moment to keep up with the Moore's Law of increasing lifespans. But with a major research effort, coordinated around the world, who knows? Scientific history is filled with fields that ticked along slowly and then suddenly, massively, accelerated. Computer science is one. Genetics is another recent example.

To understand what we need to do to hit longevity escape velocity, it's worth looking at how life expectancy has increased in recent history. The late statistician Hans Rosling made a powerful case that average lifespans rise alongside per capita income. Take a couple of minutes to watch this video and you'll be convinced:

Reducing the gap between the global rich and poor, therefore, is probably the fastest way to boost the world average life expectancy figure, but it's limited. And it won't do much for people in rich countries.

To boost the lifespans of the people living in countries that are already pretty wealthy, we need to look closer at the countries that are forecast to have the highest life expectancies in the coming years. A study published earlier this year in the Lancet shows what life expectancy might look like in 2030 in 35 industrialised countries, using an amalgamation of 21 different forecasting models.

South Korea tops the chart with women living on average beyond 90, while France, Japan, Switzerland and Australia are not far behind. Most of the countries at the top of the chart have high-quality healthcare provision, low infant deaths, and low smoking and road traffic injury rates. Fewer people are overweight or obese. The US, meanwhile, is projected to see only a modest rise - due to a lack of healthcare access, and high rates of obesity, child mortality and homicides.

The study results are interesting, not only because they're the best possible guess at our future but because they clearly show how social policies make a massive difference to how long people live. There are unknowns, of course - no-one could have predicted the 80s AIDS epidemic, for example, and no doubt further pandemics lurk in humanity's future. But ban smoking, fight obesity, and introduce autonomous cars and personalised medicine, and you'll see lifespans rise.

The US is projected to see only a modest rise in lifespan - due to a lack of healthcare access, and high rates of obesity, child mortality and homicides.

The other interesting thing is that the study's results are a shot across the bows of scientists who claim that there are hard limits to human lifespan.

"As recently as the turn of the century, many researchers believed that life expectancy would never surpass 90 years, lead author Majid Ezzati of Imperial College London told the Guardian back in February.

That prediction mirrors another, published in Nature in October 2016, that concluded that the upper limit of human age is stuck at about 115 years.

"By analysing global demographic data, we show that improvements in survival with age tend to decline after age 100, and that the age at death of the worlds oldest person has not increased since the 1990s," wrote the authors - Xiao Dong, Brandon Milholland & Jan Vijg.

"Our results strongly suggest that the maximum lifespan of humans is fixed and subject to natural constraints."

The maximum length of a human lifespan remains up for debate.

Other researchers, however, disagree. Bryan G. Hughes & Siegfried Hekimi wrote in the same journal a few months later that their analysis showed that there are many possible maximum lifespan trajectories.

We just dont know what the age limit might be. In fact, by extending trend lines, we can show that maximum and average lifespans, could continue to increase far into the foreseeable future, Hekimi said.

Three hundred years ago, many people lived only short lives. If we would have told them that one day most humans might live up to 100, they would have said we were crazy.

That's all big-picture stuff, so let's dive down to a more personal level. Assuming that you can't change your genetics or your life up until the point that you're currently at, what can you personally do to live longer?

Here's the list: Don't smoke. Exercise your body and mind on a daily basis. Eat foods rich in whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and unsaturated fat. Don't drink too much alcohol. Get your blood pressure checked. Chop out sources of stress and anxiety in your life. Travel by train. Stay in school. Think positive. Cultivate a strong social group. Don't sit for long periods of time. Make sure you get enough calcium and vitamin D. Keep your weight at a healthy level. And don't go to hospital if you can help it - hospitals are dangerous places.

All of those things have been correlated with increased lifespan in scientific studies. And they're all pretty easy and cheap to do. If you want to maximise your longevity, then that's your to-do list. But there are also strategies that have a little less scientific merit. The ones that people with too much money pursue when they realise they haven't been following any of the above for most of their life.

Inside the Cryonics Institute.

Cryonics is probably the most popular. First proposed in the 1960s by US academic Robert Ettinger in his book "The Prospect of Immortality", it involves freezing the body as soon as possible after death in a tube kept at -196C, along with detailed notes of what they died of. The idea is that when medicine has invented a cure for that ailment, the corpse can be thawed and reanimated.

Calling someone dead is merely medicines way of excusing itself from resuscitation problems it cannot fix today, reads the website of top cryogenics firm Alcor.

The problem is the brain. First, it's so dense and well-protected that it's extremely difficult for the cryonics chemicals to penetrate it. It's almost impossible that it doesn't get damaged in the freezing process.

The 21,000,000,000 neurons and ~1,000,000,000,000,000 synapses in the human brain means that it'll be a while until we have the computational resources to map it.

Secondly, your neurons die quickly - even if you're immersed within minutes of death, you're still likely to suffer substantial brain damage. To which cryonics proponents argue: "What do I have to lose?" If the choice is between probably never waking up again and never waking up again, and it's your money to spend, then why not give it a shot?

An alternative to deep freeze is storing your brain in a computer. Not literally a lump of grey matter, but a database detailing in full all of the connections between the neurons in your brain that make you you (known as your connectome). Future doctors could then either rewire a real or artificial brain to match that data, resurrecting you in a new body (or perhaps even as an artificial intelligence).

A close look at a slice of mouse brain. Credit: Robert Cudmore

So far, we've only managed to map the full connectome of one animal - the roundworm C. elegans. Despite the worm's mere 302 neurons and 7,500 or so synapses, the resulting data is about 12GB in size - you can download it in full at the Open Connectome Project, and even install it in a robot, which will then act like a worm.

Unfortunately the human brain is a somewhat larger undertaking. The Human Connectome Project is making a start, and AI is helping, but the 21,000,000,000 neurons and ~1,000,000,000,000,000 synapses in the human brain means that it'll be a while until we have the computational resources to get it done. It's worth noting that this isn't an unassailable goal, especially if we can somehow figure out which bits are actually important to our personality and who we are as individuals and which bits are just used to remember the lyrics of Spice Girls songs.

For now, though, my recommendation would be to stick to the list of simple life extension strategies above. It's probable that in time we'll have new ways of augmenting our bodies that will extend our lifespans (we've already started with cyborg technology - just look at pacemakers and artificial hips).

But if you want to be at the front of the waiting list then you'll need to arrive at that point with as youthful a body as possible.

Visit link:
How to live forever - TechRadar

Recommendation and review posted by simmons

Cedar Ridge Farms was established in 1954 by the late Fred and Betty Grohmann. Their six sons, Bob, Dennis, Stan, Mike, Randy, and Freddie, now own and operate the farm. We invite you to view the information throughout the site and contact us about you in what we have to offer.

Thank you!

At Cedar Ridge Genetics, we are confident that when you consider all things including productivity, longevity, growth rate, feed efficiency, carcass yield, loin depth and lean muscle content into an overall evaluation, our genetic program will excel and provide maximum profit potential for any modern production system. Put us to the test!

Our complete program consists of purebred, nucleus-level grandparent boars and gilts of the following breeds: Landrace, Yorkshire, Duroc and Hampshire. These genetics can be accessed through live animal purchase, fresh semen sales or pre-ordered bred gilts.

Our terminal program consists of our ProfitMAX parent-stock females bred to our high-caliber ProfitMAX terminal boars. Access to the ProfitMAX terminal lines are available from our two home studs, and, Eastern A.I. in Indiana, or by direct purchase of young elite A.I.- quality boars or natural service boars.

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Cedar Ridge Genetics Home of America's Elite Sowherd

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Farmers Advance Published 10:21 a.m. ET Aug. 20, 2017

The Angus Foundation is pleased to announce that Jim Coleman, Vintage Angus Ranch, Modesto, CA, is donating the heifer that will anchor the Angus Foundation Heifer Package.

It is an honor for Vintage Angus Ranch to donate the 2018 Angus Foundation heifer, says Jim Coleman, Vintage Angus Ranch owner. We are selecting a very elite female to represent the very best of Vintage Angus Ranch that truly delivers upon our goal of producing ultimate Angus genetics. Again, we are humbled by this prestigious invitation from the Angus Foundation, and consider it a privilege to give back to the Angus breed.

The Angus Foundation Heifer Package will be auctioned on January 10, 2018, at the National Western Stock Show in Denver, Colo.

We are honored that Vintage Angus Ranch has stepped up to donate the female for the 2018 Angus Foundation Heifer Package, says Milford Jenkins, Angus Foundation President. This heifer will provide the lucky buyer with some of the best genetics in the Angus breed while simultaneously generating funds for educational, research and youth activities advancing the Angus breed.

The 2018 Angus Foundation heifer is a February 2017 female out of Blackbird 8809 and sired by Discovery X 8809, one of the most sought-after sires in the Angus breed today. Discovery progeny are known for displaying light birth weights and exceptional growth. The heifers dam is the famous dam of Foreman, Generation, Index, Ranger, Frontier, Complete 1209, Commander, Reserve and Rubicon.

Coleman and Vintage Angus Ranch General Manager Doug Worthington are responsible for Vintage Angus Ranchs proven Angus genetics, as the pair work together to make all of the herds breeding decisions. Vintage Angus Ranch raises their 450 females on year-round grass covering three different hill ranches in the Modesto area. Coleman started Vintage Angus in 1976, expanding the program to a national scale. Worthington received the 1985 National Herdsman Award from the American Angus Association and Coleman hired him in 1989.

Check the Angus Foundation website for more updates on the Angus Foundation Heifer Package atwww.angusfoundation.org.

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Heifer donated for 2018 Angus Foundation package - Farmers Advance

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

ADADALE Tequila Primrose 7, anall-class fouryear old Jersey, has clinched top honours at the Ekka, named the supreme champion cow of the Royal Queensland Show.

Exhibited by the Paulger family from Kenilworth, the in-milk female by Tower Vue Prime Tequila was earlier judged to have the best udder of the show.

Primrose came in ahead just one point of the Illawarra and three points ahead of the Holstein in the six breed competition.

Nicola Paulger and Gary Goss with Adadale Tequila Primrose 7, the champion udder of the show.

The top Illawarra cow was Allendale Virgin 13, The top Holstein cow was the Barron familys Grantley Allen Flora, which won the five to seven year old class.

In the intermediate class the same five cows also contested the title for best udder. The supremewas the Holstein, Arabella Smokin, shown by Arabella Farming Co, Brookstead. Smokin was the winner of the 2.5-3 year old class.

The supreme junior female title went to the Illawarra, which initially won six to 10 month old class winner before being named the breeds junior champion female. Allenvale Blossom 41 was shown by Allen and Denise Whatman, Oakey.

Life member Warren Gibson, Glencrest Guenseys, Gympie, Bradley Frohloff, Sunshine Guenseys, Yarra, Vic, and federal Guensey president Darby Norris, Rockford Park, Lancaster, Vic.

Daniel Holmes, Brookstead, with Arabella Miss Olivia, Dean Malcolm, Shepherdton, Vic, with Albion Park Shotgun Pam, Wayne Barron, Ardylbar, Cambooya, with Grantley Allen Flora, and judge Glen Gordon, Cohuna, Vic.

Steward Alan Trim holding the John and Ida Scott Memorial Shield with family member John Edwards, Toogoolawah, and with Allen Whatman, Allenvale, Oakey, and the supreme junior champion female Allenvale Blossom 41.

Repeat Brown Swiss champion cow - Melalukea Magnafic Jolly 1 - with Callum McPhee and Melissa Tompson, Melalukea, Toogoolawah.

EKKA WINNER: Adadale Tequila Primrose 7, the supreme champion cow of Royal Queensland Show with Tony Burnett from Dairy Farmers Milk Cooperative, Shane Paulger, sisters Julia and Nicola Paulger and RNA president David Thomas.

Alan Trim, Windaroo, Annette Pickering, Mt Mee, and Michelle Hewitt, Delaneys Creek.

Nicola Paulger and Gary Goss with Adadale Tequila Primrose 7, the champion udder of the show.

RNA councillor Ian Galloway and the supreme champion intermediate female Eacham Vale Precious 7 (Illawarra) with Greg English.

Wade Johnston, Craiglea Sud, Obi Obi, and Tim Nicholls, Sunnyview, Kenilworth.

Georgia Finlay and Hannah Hardy checking out the dairy judging.

Shane Burke, Myrtleholme, Gladfield, and Allen Whatman, Allenvale, Oakey.

Christine and Doug Bartkowski, Hillcrest, Meringandan, and Wayne Phillips, Sunny View, Toowoomba.

Duncan McInnes, Dairy Farmers, and Daniel Holmes, Brookstead, with the intermediate Holstein winner Arabella Smokin Ilma.

Kevin Smith, Hillcrest Ayrshires, Boonah, and Eric Ross, Rosellinos, Carbrook.

Ben Hickey and Phil Vitale, Templemore Ayrshires, Bunya.

Krystle Johnston, Jondene Illawarras, Imbil, and Nathan Arnold, Craiglea Stud, Kenilworth.

Warren and Heather Nicholls, Sandy Flats, Fernvale.

Wayne Barron, Ardylbar, Cambooya, with the champion Holstein cow Grantley Allen Flora, and judge Glen Gordon, Cohuna, Vic.

Michell Greenslade, Nambour, and Denise Whatman with Allenvale Blossom 34.

Todd Rothe, Woodchester, SA, judge Caitlin Liebich, Glencoe, SA, Ray Zerner, Pineville Ayrshires, Gympie, and Sue Hood, Redcliffe.

Ayshire. Junior female: Pineville Thistle Burdette Awaiting, RG&RO Zerner. Reserve: Auchen Plumb Titans Tatiana, Ariah Edwards. Honourable mention: Tailors Grove Ebenee, LA&MA Schneider.

Brown Swiss.Senior female: Melalukea Magnafic Jolly 1, M Thompson and S Childs. Reserve: Mountain View Velvet 2. Honourable mention: Elavesor Zaster Exciting, Quicksilver Brown Swiss. Intermediatefemale:Elavesor Shebang Sheiba. Reserve: Melalukea banker Jackie Jak. Honourable mention: Mountain View Leesa 10, Radel Discretionary Trust. Junior female: Mountain View Velvet. Reserve: Elavesor Bosephus Nikola. Honourable mention: MelalukeaBlooming Denmark.

Guernsey:Senior female: Sunny Valley Mentor Bess, Clarke Partnership. Reserve: Sunny Valley Bevan Caleen. Honourable mention: Sunny Valley Showtime Monica. Intermediatefemale: Shadow Valley Chads Lulu, JT&JM ODonohoe. Reserve: Sunny Valley Ninja Rennie. Honourable mention: Fernybank Banjo Edina, LP&DA Dunne. Junior female: Fernybank Reuben Kalleen. Reserve: Fernybank Banjos Netta.

Holstein:Senior female: Grantley Allen Flora, AD&SL Barron. Reserve: Albion Park Shotgun Pam, Bernice Jannusch. Arabella Miss Olivia ET, Arabella Farming Co. Intermediatefemale: Arabella Smokin Ilma. Reserve: Ardylbar Atwood Gracious, AD&SL Barron.Junior female: Arabella Fever Frances. Reserve: Adadale Attic Kooyong, Paulger family, Kenilworth.Honourable mention: Arabella Broke Tam.

Illawarra: Senior female: Allenvale Virgin 13, Damen Phillips Nichols Barren. Reserve: Sunny View Duchess.Honourable mention: Allenvale Blossom 41, Allen and Denise Whatman, Oakey.Intermediatefemale: Eacham Vale Precious 7, Ledger family. Reserve: Myrtleholme Lemon Empress 66, JP Bourke and Co. Honourable mention:Allenvale Blossom 44. Junior female: Allenvale Blossom 41. Reserve: Sunny View Barbwire Pamela.Honourable mention:Sunny View Barbwire Pauline.

Jersey:Senior female: Adadale Tequila Primrose 7, Paulger family, Kenilworth. Reserve: Adadale GP Rowena. Honourable mention: Adadale HG Narcissus. Intermediatefemale: Ascot Park Unreal Lora 2, SG&JA McCarthy, Budgee. Reserve: Adadale Wattle HL Rowena.Honourable mention: Adadale FP Lynn. Junior female: Adadale HG Avalon. Reserve: Nobbyview Comericas Locket, Nobbyview Partnership.Honourable mention: Glen Echo Barba Muriel 3443, CR&CM Parker.

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Kenilworth cow wins supreme dairy title - Queensland Country Life

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How long do you expect to live?

Thats a question that can make a lot of people feel suddenly lost for an answer.

In fact, its not a question that anybody would like to answer.

However, for scientific, socio-economic, and other legitimate reasons, average life expectancy per region are being documented. According to the World Factbook by the Central Intelligence Agency, the average life expectancy at birth of the following countries as of 2016 are as follows:

The rest of the world has an average life expectancy of 80 years downwards, with Chad ranking the lowest at 50.20 years.

Life is short, too short.

Its the reason why the pursuit of anything and everything under the sun that can stop aging is mankinds obsession.

We want to live longer; if possible, forever.

Forever is definitely too, too far away. But, longer, yes. Its more probable.

Heres the latest news on anti-aging, and this time its about stem cells. Stem cells from a young heart may help in regaining vitality which we lose as we grow old.

Researchers from the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute have recently discovered that upon application of Cardiosphere-derived cells (CDC), which they took from newborn mice and injected into the hearts of 22-month-old mice, had resulted to better heart functionality, hair regrowth at a faster rate, 20 percent longer exercise endurance, and longer cardiac telomeres.

The findings on the effect of CDC cells on telomeres is very significant since these compound structures located at the tip of chromosomes function as the cells time-keepers. In fact, another study is focusing on methods to lengthen telomeres to fight the effects of progeria and help prolong life.

Our previous lab studies and human clinical trials have shown promise in treating heart failure usingcardiac stem cell infusions, saidCedars-Sinai Heart Institute and lead researcher Eduardo Marbn, MD, PhD, Now we find that these specialized stem cells could turn out to reverse problems associated with aging of the heart.

According to Dr. Marban, the CDC cells work on reversing the aging process by secreting very small vesicles that are full of signaling molecules like proteins and ribonucleic acid (RNA). The vesicles appear to have all the necessary information in producing cardiac and systemic rejuvenation.

In 2009, the LA-based team achieved the worlds first stem cell infusion which they hope to use in treating patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy and cases of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. However, this was the first time that they have observed this kind of rejuvenating effects of CDC cells.

Nevertheless, Dr. Marban and his team acknowledge that they still have a lot to do and figure out. They havent determined yet if the CDC cells could lengthen life, or just produce a younger heart in an aged physique. They also have to find out if the cells must come from younger hearts for the stem cell treatment to be effective.They will obviously need more time and tests to find the right answers to these very important questions.

But, if Dr. Marban and his team succeed, CDC cells may be a key to restoring youth and vigor. It will also help globally the large number of people who suffer from cardiovascular diseases-heart disease is the worlds number 1 killer and accounts for 17.3 million deaths per year.

The study was published on theEuropean Heart Journal.

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In World First, Scientists Reverse Aging in Old Hearts by Injecting Younger Cells - Wall Street Pit

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Researchers at the Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota say theyre on the brink of a new era in cancer care one in which doctors extract a patients white blood cells, have them genetically engineered in a lab, and put them back to become personalized cancer-fighting machines.

The so-called CAR T cellular therapies are expected to receive federal approval this fall for certain rare blood cancers B-cell forms of lymphoma and leukemia. But scientists at the Minnesota institutions hope thats just the first step that will lead to better treatment of solid tumor cancers as well.

This is really the first approval of a genetically modified product for cancer therapy, said Dr. Jeffrey Miller, deputy director of the Masonic Cancer Center at the University of Minnesota. If the proof of concept works, he said, we might be on the right track to get away from all of that toxic chemotherapy that people hate.

Participating in industry-funded clinical trials, the Minnesota researchers hoped to determine if patients with leukemia or lymphoma would be more likely to survive if their own stem cells were extracted to grow cancer-fighting T-cells that were then infused back into their bodies.

One analysis, involving trials by Kite Pharmaceuticals at Mayo and other institutions, found a sevenfold increase in lymphoma patients whose cancers disappeared when they received CAR T instead of traditional chemo-based treatment.

I often tell patients that T-cells are like super robocops, said Dr. Yi Lin, a Mayo hematologist in Rochester. Were now directing those cells to really target cancer.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is widely expected this fall to approve CAR T products made by Kite and Novartis, which genetically engineer T-cells to target so-called CD19 proteins found on the surface of leukemia and lymphoma cells.

The side effects can be harsh, because the T-cell infusions trigger an immune system response that can produce fever, weakness, racing heart and kidney problems. Short-term memory and cognitive problems also have occurred. Brain swelling led to five deaths of cancer patients who took part in a CAR T trial by Juno Pharmaceuticals. The trial was shut down as a result.

Lin said brain swelling appeared mostly in adults with leukemia. For now, she expects Kites CAR T therapy to be approved for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and the Novartis therapy to be approved for acute lymphoblastic leukemia in children. Federal regulations also might restrict CAR T for patients whose cancers survived traditional treatments.

Current practice to treat these cancers generally involves chemotherapy and radiation. Physicians then transplant stem cells, often from donor bone marrow, to regrow the patients immune systems, which are weakened in the process of treatment.

CAR T differs in that patients will receive infusions of their own T-cells, genetically modified, which their bodies will be less likely to reject.

Its individualized medicine, Lin said.

Im on my way

Before he tried CAR T at Mayo as part of a clinical trial, John Renze of Carroll, Iowa, had received two rounds of chemo, two rounds of radiation, and an experimental drug that did nothing to stop the spread of lymphoma.

After you fail about four times, you start to wonder if anything is going to work, the 58-year-old said.

At first, there was no room for him in the Mayo trial which has been a problem nationwide as desperate cancer patients have searched for treatment alternatives. But then he got the call one morning last summer while ordering coffee at his local cafe.

Can you get up here by one? the Mayo official asked.

Im on my way, Renze replied.

Even before federal approval comes through, researchers such as Miller are looking beyond the first-line CAR T therapies, and wondering if the approach can be used on solid tumors. Roughly 80,000 blood cancers occur each year in the U.S. that could be treated with CAR T, but the total number of cancers diagnosed each year is nearly 1.7 million.

The challenge is that solid tumors dont have the same protein targets as blood cancers. And T-cells would have to be more discriminating if infused to eliminate tumors in solid organs, Miller said. If you destroy normal lung tissue (along with lung cancer), thats not going to work, he said.

Mayo researchers are studying whether CAR T can work against multiple myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow, while U researchers are exploring ways to better control the CAR T-cells after they are infused in cancer patients.

Researchers also are trying to understand whether CAR T produces memory in the immune system, so it knows to react if cancers resurface.

In addition, Miller is studying whether NK cells, which also play a role in the human immune system, can be genetically modified and infused instead of T-cells to target cancer. The body doesnt reject NK cells from donors as much, he said. So NK cells from donor bone marrow or umbilical cord blood could be collected and mass produced to potentially provide faster and cheaper treatments.

Like many breakthrough therapies, CAR T will be expensive, with a price likely to exceed $200,000 per patient. How insurers plan to cover it remains unclear. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota is evaluating evidence regarding CAR Ts effectiveness, and will set a coverage policy after it receives FDA approval, said Dr. Glenn Pomerantz, Blue Cross chief medical officer.

A surge for Mayo?

Mayo expects a surge of hundreds of cancer patients per year if CAR T is approved, because it will initially be provided by large medical centers that have experience with the therapy and its side effects. The Rochester hospital is planning to add staff and space dedicated to CAR T.

Miller said the U is developing advice for referring doctors and hospitals statewide, so they know what to do if CAR T patients show up with complex symptoms.

They can be a bit delayed and you cant just keep people in the hospital to see if they develop these things, he said.

Renzes stem cells were taken last July, and his modified T-cells were put back a month later. He lost weight and felt sick for weeks, and had to drive three hours to Mayo for frequent checkups.

But as of last Aug. 31, the cancer had vanished.

Every three months, he returns to Mayo to make sure the cancer hasnt re-emerged. Then he returns to Carroll, where he owns farmland and car dealerships and dotes on his grandchildren.

For people like me that have already failed a bunch of times, youre happy to try anything, he said. I mean, what else would I have done?

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Mayo Clinic, University of Minnesota develop 'robocop' stem cells to fight cancer - Minneapolis Star Tribune

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Digital Trends

Want to live longer? Forever Labs wants to help, using your stem cells Digital Trends Using a patented device, Forever Labs collects stem cells from your blood marrow, which the team calls a wellspring for stem cells that replenish your blood, bone, immune system, and other vital tissues. The whole process is said to take around 15 ...

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Want to live longer? Forever Labs wants to help, using your stem cells - Digital Trends

Recommendation and review posted by simmons

WASHINGTON D.C: Good news! A study has recently revealed that vitamin C may tell faulty stem cells in the bone marrow to mature and die normally, instead of multiplying to cause blood cancers.

According to researchers, certain genetic changes are known to reduce the ability of an enzyme called TET2 to encourage stem cells to become mature blood cells, which eventually die, in many patients with certain kinds of leukemia.

The new study found that vitamin C activated TET2 function in mice engineered to be deficient in the enzyme.

Corresponding study author Benjamin G. Neel said, "We're excited by the prospect that high-dose vitamin C might become a safe treatment for blood diseases caused by TET2-deficient leukemia stem cells, most likely in combination with other targeted therapies."

The results suggested that changes in the genetic code (mutations) that reduce TET2 function are found in 10 percent of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), 30 percent of those with a form of pre-leukemia called myelodysplastic syndrome, and in nearly 50 percent of patients with chronic myelomonocytic leukemia.

The study results revolve around the relationship between TET2 and cytosine, one of the four nucleic acid "letters" that comprise the DNA code in genes.

To determine the effect of mutations that reduce TET2 function in abnormal stem cells, the team genetically engineered mice such that the scientists could switch the TET2 gene on or off.

The findings indicated that vitamin C did the same thing as restoring TET2 function genetically. By promoting DNA demethylation, high-dose vitamin C treatment induced stem cells to mature, and also suppressed the growth of leukemia cancer stem cells from human patients implanted in mice.

"Interestingly, we also found that vitamin C treatment had an effect on leukemic stem cells that resembled damage to their DNA," said first study author Luisa Cimmino.

"For this reason, we decided to combine vitamin C with a PARP inhibitor, a drug type known to cause cancer cell death by blocking the repair of DNA damage, and already approved for treating certain patients with ovarian cancer," Cimmino added.

The findings appear in journal Cell.

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Vitamin C could help genes kill blood cancer stem cells - Economic Times

Recommendation and review posted by simmons

ARZ050-051-059>061-070>073-LAZ001>006-010>014-017>022-OKZ077-TXZ097-112-126-137-138-150>153-165>167-201300-/O.CON.KSHV.HT.Y.0009.000000T0000Z-170821T0000Z/Sevier-Howard-Little River-Hempstead-Nevada-Miller-Lafayette-Columbia-Union-Caddo-Bossier-Webster-Claiborne-Lincoln-De Soto-Red River-Bienville-Jackson-Ouachita-Sabine-Natchitoches-Winn-Grant-Caldwell-La Salle-McCurtain-Bowie-Cass-Marion-Gregg-Harrison-Rusk-Panola-Nacogdoches-Shelby-Angelina-San Augustine-Including the cities of De Queen, Nashville, Mineral Springs, Dierks, Ashdown, Hope, Prescott, Texarkana, Stamps, Lewisville, Bradley, Magnolia, El Dorado, Shreveport, Bossier City, Minden, Springhill, Homer, Haynesville, Ruston, Farmerville, Bernice, Mansfield, Stonewall, Logansport, Coushatta, Martin, Arcadia, Ringgold, Gibsland, Jonesboro, Monroe, Many, Zwolle, Pleasant Hill, Natchitoches, Winnfield, Colfax, Montgomery, Dry Prong, Clarks, Grayson, Columbia, Jena, Midway, Olla, Idabel,Broken Bow, Atlanta, Linden, Hughes Springs, Queen City, Jefferson, Longview, Marshall, Henderson, Carthage, Nacogdoches, Center, Lufkin, San Augustine, Hemphill, and Pineland936 PM CDT Sat Aug 19 2017...HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 7 PM CDT SUNDAY...* EVENT...High pressure aloft across the area will allow for temperatures to climb into the middle to upper nineties. These temperatures along with low level moisture will produce heat indices of 105 to 109 degrees. * TIMING...Heat indices will be near 105 to 109 in the afternoon and early evening before lowering. * IMPACT...Precautions should be taken to prevent heat related illnesses, including limiting outdoor work activities to the morning before temperatures rise and early evening after the readings lower. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. Whenpossible, reschedule strenuous activities to early morning orevening. Take frequent rest breaks in shaded or air conditionedenvironments. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion andheat stroke. Wear light weight and loose fitting clothing whenpossible and drink plenty of water.Heat stroke is an emergency, call 9 1 1.A heat advisory means that a period of hot temperatures isexpected. The combination of hot temperatures and high humiditywill combine to create a situation in which heat illnesses arepossible. Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditionedroom, stay out of the sun, and check up on relatives andneighbors.&&$$

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Bone Marrow Transplant gives local cancer patient more time with his family - KTBS

Recommendation and review posted by sam

Jaipur: Sawai Man Singh (SMS) Hospital is showing the way to treat various types of blood cancer and other blood-related disorders, including aplastic anaemia, myeloma, lymphoma, leukaemia and thalassemia.

Despite the higher risk of infections in ICUs, the hospital has not reported a single mortality. Some 19 patients have undergone autologous bone marrow transplant since 2009 at the hospital. Patients who have done the transplant are vulnerable to infections as they have to stay in post-operative care in ICUs for 14 to 54 days.

While the high dose of chemotherapy put patients at the risk of death, the rejection of graft (bone marrow) remains a major concern for doctors.

Though patients are given immunosuppressive medicines to deal with the risk of rejection, they make patients more immune-compromised which in turn make them more vulnerable to infections.

But despite all these risk factors, the hospital has not witnessed a single death of patients who have undergone autologous bone marrow transplant.

"We maintain high standards and follow protocol of ICUs. We do not allow anyone to enter the ICUs. One attendant with one patient is allowed, but we allow him to enter the ICU only after he changes his clothes completely and follows all norms in ICUs to minimise the risk of infection," said Dr Sandeep Jasuja, head of the department (medical oncology), SMS Medical College.

But still, 36% (7 patients) of these 19 patients contracted bacterial (due to Escherichia coli, enterobacter, pseudomonas), fungal and viral infections. However, the doctors brought the situation under control by providing them antibiotics and other drugs.

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Bone marrow transplants: SMS leads the way - Times of India

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Yaron Ramati, Director of Regulatory Affairs at Pluristem Therapeutics

Over the past few years, the regulatory landscape for cell therapy development has grown increasingly complex. There are now accelerated pathways for advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs) in several countries worldwide, including the U.S., Japan, and South Korea. While the possibility for accelerated commercialization has resulted from these changes, substantial complexity has also been introduced, making it a more elaborate process to move cell therapy products from bench to bedside.

In the interview with Yaron Ramati, Director of Regulatory Affairs at Pluristem Therapeutics, we get an experts perspective on how the regulatory environment has changed and new opportunities that exist for bringing cell therapy products through the clinical trial process and into the global marketplace.

Yaron Ramati: I have 10 years of experience in regulatory affairs in biotechnology companies in Israel.

I have a PhD in Philosophy of Biology from the London School of Economics and an M.Sc. from the Technion in Neurobiology

Yaron Ramati:The United States, Japan, and South Korea are countries that have accelerated pathways that are unique for cell and gene therapies. Legislation took effect in Japan in late 2014, in South Korea in 2016, and in the United States in 2017.

Additionally, the EU has a program for product acceleration the Adaptive Pathways. Although it is not explicitly for cell and gene therapies, these have been given a lot of attention by the group.

Yaron Ramati:

In the United States: Regenerative medicine advanced therapy (RMAT) designation.Cell therapies that aim to treat serious medical conditions with high unmet need, and have preliminary favorable clinical data, can get the designation. It allows for accelerated approval (i.e., the use of biomarkers and intermediate endpoints for BLA, priority review).

In Japan: Conditional time-limited marketing authorization.This program allows for regenerative therapies (cell, gene and tissue therapies) to receive conditional marketing authorization for up to 7 years, following confirmation of safety and an initial proof of efficacy in Japan in diseases that are serious and have a high unmet need.

In South Korea: Conditional marketing authorization for cell therapy.As in Japan, this program allows for cell therapies to receive conditional marketing authorization for a limited time, following an initial proof of efficacy in serious diseases.

In EU: Adaptive Pathways pilot program. This program is a pilot program established by the EMA to explore ways in which the EMA can assist the streamlining the development of new promising therapies for serious conditions with high unmet need. Although this program is not explicitly for cell or gene therapy, it is the main focus of the group.

Yaron Ramati: All EU countries have a joint definition for ATMPs as set by EU regulation. Other countries have separate definitions that only partially overlap.

Yaron Ramati: Only few countries in the world are willing to be the first to provide marketing authorization for novel therapies. For ATMPs, European regulation does not allow individual countries in the union to provide marketing authorization, and so the EMA is the only gateway for ATMPs in Europe.

The U.S. FDA, Japan PMDA, and South Korea KFDA are the only others that are willing to be first to approve ATMPs.

Yaron Ramati: Currently, the EMA and PMDA are leading with four marketing approvals of cell and gene therapies each. RMAT designation procedure in the U.S. is expecting to give a boost to the products that are being developed for the U.S. market.

Yaron Ramati: Pluristem is very active in the field of accelerated development of its products. PLX-PAD of Pluristem has been accepted to the Japan conditional time-limited marketing authorization scheme by PMD, as well as to the adaptive pathways program of the EMA. It is active in both programs.

In addition, Pluristem intends to make use of the accelerated pathways offered for regenerative therapies in both the U.S. and in South Korea.

Yaron Ramati: The focus of Pluristem in these programs is the advancement of PLX-PAD. Pluristem had achieved understandings with EMA and PMDA regarding the accelerated approval of PLX-PAD for the treatment of critical limb ischemia (CLI).

It is the intention of Pluristem to achieve similar understandings with FDA, EMA, PMDA and KFDA regarding the development of PLX-PAD for the treatment of patients following hip fractures.

Yaron Ramati: PLX-PAD was accepted into the EMA adaptive pathways pilot program in 2015. Since then, Pluristem has taken advantage of this program in coming to an understanding with the EMA on the desired regulatory path of PLX-PAD in CLI. In addition, Pluristem undertook parallel scientific advice with the EMA and leading health technology assessment (HTA) bodies in Europe.

In this meeting, Pluristem received valuable feedback on the expectations that these bodies have for purposes of reimbursement in Europe. Pluristem has designed the Phase 3 PACE study in CLI patients in view of the feedback received from both the EMA and the HTA bodies, with the purpose of addressing their respective expectations.

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An Experts Perspective on Accelerated Pathways for Cell ...

Recommendation and review posted by sam

If you have around US$90,000 to spare and are of a gambling disposition, perhaps your final journey should be to Australia. A company called Southern Cryonics is looking to open a facility in New South Wales this year that will allow its customers to freeze their bodies after death in the hope of one day being resurrected. If it goes ahead, it will make Australia only the third country, after the US and Russia, where such a service is available.

But, especially for those of a futurist bent perhaps, its as valid a thing to do with ones body as burial or cremation. Last year, a terminally ill 14-year-old girl in the UK became the first and only child so far to undergo the cryonic process. This is technically not freezing but vitrification, in which the body is treated with chemicals and chilled to super-cold temperatures so that molecules are locked in place and a solid is formed. An estimated 2,500 bodies around the world are now stored in this condition.

Supporters concede that the technology to revive the infinitely complex interactions between those molecules may never exist, but are nonetheless hopeful, pointing to shifting conceptions of what irreversible death actually is. If, for example, cessation of a heartbeat used to define it, now hearts can be re-started todays corpse may be tomorrows patient. They point to experiments such as that announced last year by 21st Century Medicine, which claimed to have successfully vitrified and recovered an entire mammalian brain for the first time, with the thawed rabbits brain found to have all of its synapses, cell membranes and intracellular structures intact.

Its not just cryonics. Stem-cell research, nano-tech, cloning, the science just keeps plugging away towards a future [of reanimating] that may or may not come to exist, says an upfront Dennis Kowalski, president of the Michigan-based Cryonics Institute. His company was launched just over 40 years ago to provide cryostasis services. Lots of things considered impossible not long ago are possible today, so we just dont know how cryonics will work out. For people who use the service its really a case of theres nothing to lose.

Naturally, not everyone is hopeful that such processes will ever work out for those in the chiller. The problem with cryonics is that the perception of it is largely shaped by companies offering a service based on something completely unproven, says Joo Pedro De Magalhes, biologist and principal investigator into life extension at the University of Liverpool, UK, and co-founder of the UK Cryonics and Cryopreservation Network. Youre talking about a fairly eccentric procedure that only a few people have signed up to and into which little reported research is being done. That said, I think the people providing these services do believe theres a chance it may work one day, although I would have to say theyre optimistic.

But this is not to say that living longer wont, in time, prove possible as a result of some other method; just that arguably this is more likely to be based around preserving a life that has not experienced death, rather than the promise of reanimating one after its demise. The chasm between the two is all the more pronounced given neurosciences still scant ideas as to what consciousness or mind is, let alone how it might be saved and rebooted; would the warmed and reanimated you be the you that died, or a mere simulacrum? Your body may well not be the same: many of those opting for cryo-preservation go for the freezing of just their brains.

Certainly while cryonics specifically may remain a largely unexplored field, Google is now investing in anti-ageing science, an area that, as De Magalhes puts it, now has fewer crackpots and more reputable scientists working in it, with stronger science behind it too. Indeed, as Yuval Noah Harari argues in his best-selling book Homo Deus, humanisms status as contemporary societys new religion of choice, combined with technological advances, makes some form of greatly extended lifespan inevitable for some generation to come. Whether this will be by melding man and machine, by genetic manipulation, by a form of existence in cyberspace or some other fix can only be speculated at, but everything about our civilisations recent development points to it becoming a reality.

Advances in medicine, after all, have greatly extended average longevity over the last century alone. With this has come a shift in perspective that sees death less as the natural end point to a life so much as a process of disease that could, and perhaps should, be tackled like any other disease that threatens existence. De Magalhes points out that for many working in the field it is less about the pursuit of immortality as of improved health.

After all, its not self-evident that we all want to live forever, and there are philosophical arguments for the idea that death is good, that its necessary to appreciate life, he says. But it is self-evident that nobody wants Alzheimers, for example. If you focus on retarding the problems of ageing then inevitably were going to live longer. The longevity we have now isnt normal; its already better than what we had not long ago. Extrapolate that to the future and in a century the length of time we live now might be considered pretty bad. One can envisage a time when we might live, if not forever, then perhaps thousands of years so much longer than we live now that it might feel like forever.

That, naturally, would bring with it profound changes to the way in which we perceive ourselves and to how the world operates and all the more so if living considerably longer became a possibility faster than society was able to inculcate the notion. How would such a long lifespan affect our sense of self? Would institutions and mores such as lifelong marriage and monogamy remain the norm? When would we retire? How would our relationships with the many subsequent generations of our family be shaped? How would population growth be managed? How would such long lives be funded?

Such questions are, for sure, of no concern to those currently in cryostasis. These people tend to be into sci-fi, and into science too, suggests Kowalski, who has signed up himself, his wife and children for cryonic services when the time comes. I think for a lot of them its not necessarily about the fear of death. Its more a fascination with the future. Theyre optimistic about what it will bring. Theyre more Star Trek than Terminator.

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Freeze Frame: Lifting The Lid On Cryonics - Billionaire.com

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In BriefCRISPR co-discoverer Jennifer Doudna stressed the importance of using the technology with proper consideration at CrisprCon this week.

The CRISPR gene editing tool has already been used to perform some incredible feats of science, from manipulating the social behavior of ants to making superbugs kill themselves. Its an incredibly powerful asset, but this week at CrisprCon, there was plenty of discussion about where we should draw a line on its usage.

Ive never seen science move at the pace its moving right now, said CRISP co-discoverer Jennifer Doudna, who has spent recent months touring the world campaigning for a global consensus on appropriate implementations of gene-editing technologies. Which means we cant put off these conversations.

CRISPR has already been used to edit harmful conditions out of animals and even viable human embryos. From this point, it wouldnt take a great leap to start using the technology to enhance healthy organisms which is why now is the time for discussions about the consequences.

While medical uses of CRISPR are perhaps the most ethically urgent, the conversation about its usage goes beyond medicine. Companies like Monsanto and Cargill have already licensed CRISPR technologies to help with their agricultural efforts. However, early attempts at genetically modified crops struggled to gain mainstream acceptance, and thats something these firms need to keep in mind as they implement the latest techniques.

It was a convenience item for farmers, observed organic farmer Tom Wiley at the convention, according to Wired. And a profit center for corporations. To combat genetically modified foods perception problem, companies using CRISPR will have to make sure that the technology benefits the consumer, not just the production process.

The convention addressed CRISPR usage in many different fields: from the importance of ensuringit is used to address the widest range of medical conditions as possible, to the potentially damaging effects of gene drives on a delicate ecosystem.

Science is moving at a rapid pace, and CRISPR is too but if we dont carefully consider which applications are safe and valid, it could quickly cause as many problems as it solves.

Crispr is not a light on the nation, its a mirror, said CrisprCon keynote speaker Greg Simon, director of the Biden Cancer Initiative;Wiredreporter Megan Molteni interpreted those words as,its just another technology thats only as good as the people using it.

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CRISPR Co-Discoverer: "I've Never Seen Science Move at the Pace ... - Futurism

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CrisprCon is not a place where spandexed, beglittered, refrigerator drawer fans come together for an all-you-can-eat celebration of unwilted produce. No. Crispr-Cas9 (no E), if you havent been paying attention, is a precise gene editing tool thats taken the world by storm, promising everything from healthier, hangover-free wine to cures for genetic diseases. Like, all of them. And CrisprCon is where people come not to ask how to do those things, but rather, should we? And also, whos the we here?

On Wednesday and Thursday, the University of California, Berkeley welcomed about 300 peoplescientists, CEOs, farmers, regulators, conservationists, and interested citizensto its campus to take a hard look at the wnderenzyme known as Cas9. They discussed their greatest hopes and fears for the technology. There were no posters, no p-values; just a lot of real talk. You can bet it was the first Crispr conference to sandwich a Cargill executive between a septagenarian organic farmer and an environmental justice warrior. But the clashing views were a feature, not a bug. "When you feel yourself tightening up, that's when you're about to learn something," said moderator and Grist reporter, Nathanael Johnson.

Which, to be honest, was totally refreshing. Serious conversations about who should get to do what with Crispr have been largely confined to ivory towers and federal agencies. In February the National Academy of Sciences released a report with its first real guidelines for Crispr, and while it suggested limitations on certain applicationslike germline modificationsit was largely silent on questions outside of scientific research. What sorts of economies will Crispr create; which ones will it destroy? What are the risks of using Crispr to save species that will otherwise go extinct? Who gets to decide if its worth it? And how important is it ensure everyone has equal access to the technology? Getting a diverse set of viewpoints on these questions was the explicit goal of CrisprCon

Why was that important? Greg Simon, director of the Biden Cancer Initiative and the conferences keynote speaker, perhaps said it best: Crispr is not a light on the nation, its a mirror. In other words, its just another technology thats only as good as the people using it.

Panel after panel took the stage (each one, notably, populated with women and people of color) and discussed how other then-cutting-edge technologies had failed in the past, and what history lessons Crispr users should not forget. In the field of conservation, one panel discussed, ecologists failed to see the ecosystem-wide effects of introduced species. As a result, cane toads, red foxes, and Asian carp created chaos in Australia and New Zealand. How do you prevent gene drivesa technique to spread a gene quickly through a wild populationfrom running similarly amok?

From the agricultural field, the lessons were less nebulous. First-generation genetically modified organisms failed to gain public support, said organic farmer Tom Willey, because they never moved agriculture in a more ecologically sustainable direction and it never enhanced the quality of food people actually ate. At least, noticeably so. Instead, most modifications were to commodity crops like corn and soy to improve their pest resistance or boost yields.] It was a convenience item for farmers, he said. And a profit center for corporations. In order for gene-edited foods to avoid the same fate, companies like Monsanto, Dupont Pioneer, and Cargill, who have already licensed Crispr technologies, will need to provide a more tangible value than corn you can spray the bejeezus out of. Like say, extra-nutritious tomatoes, or a wine with 10-times more heart-healthy resveratrol and fewer of the hangover-causing toxins.

The presence of executives from each of these three companies signaled that theyre serious about not making the same mistakes they did in the 90s when GMOs first came to market. Back then we were only talking to farmers, said Neal Gutterson, vice president of R&D at Dupont Pioneer during a break between panels. I cant remember anyone going to anything like this or casting as wide a net in our discussions with the public.

Of all the fields Crispr will touch, medicine is the one most primed for disruption. So its of great concern to conference-goers that Crispr doesnt become a technology only for the haves and not the have-nots. Shakir Cannon, founder of the Minority Coalition for Precision Medicine, pointed out the myriad ways doctors and researchers have exploited people of color in the name of scientific advancement, while neglecting diseases that hit underserved communities the hardest. In a breakout session on Wednesday, Rachel HaurwitzCEO of Caribou Biosciences, one of the big three Crispr companiesasked Cannon and his colleague, Michael Friend, how industry leaders could help make sure that doesnt happen. First, you have to build trust with communities, said Friend, whose work focuses on sickle cell anemia. But we think Crispr could be a real turning point.

Still, CrisprCon was just more talkwhich the field has seen a lot of recently. Crisprs co-discoverer Jennifer Doudna has taken a step back this past year from her lab at Berkeley to travel the world and discuss the importance of coming to what she calls a global consensus on appropriate uses for gene editing technologies. And in her opening address on Wednesday, the standing-room-only auditorium heard a line shes trotted out many times before. I've never seen science move at the pace its moving right now, Doudna said. Which means we cant put off these conversations." The conversations happening at CrisprCon were all the right ones. But action, whether in the form of regulations, laws, or other populist social contracts, still feels a long way off.

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Crispr Fans Dream of a Populist Future for Gene Editing | WIRED - WIRED

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News that U.S. scientists led by Oregon Health and Sciences University biologist Shoukrat Mitalipov have used the gene-editing technique known as CRISPR to modify the DNA of human embryos has led to renewed debate over human genetic engineering. Although scientists in China and the United Kingdom have already used gene editing on human embryos, the announcement that the research is now being done in the United States makes a U.S. policy response all the more urgent.

The scientists created 131 embryos that carried a genetic mutation that causes hypertrophic cardiomyopathya condition that can lead to sudden and unexpected heart attacks but has few other symptomsand attempted to correct the mutation in 112 of them (leaving 19 as unmodified controls).By injecting the CRISPR complex together with the sperm cells that carried the mutation, rather than injecting CRISPR into already fertilized embryos, the scientists were able to successfully correct the mutated genes in 72 percent of the embryos.Whether the embryos were successfully or unsuccessfully treated, all were destroyed after the researchers were finished with the study.

Much of the debate over CRISPR has been framed around concerns over the creation of so-called designer babieschildren genetically engineered to possess desirable traits that will then be passed on to subsequent generations. Some science writers and journalists have tried to downplay these concerns by noting that the gene editing was done only for basic research, rather than as an attempt to create a genetically engineered human. Writing in The New York Times, Pam Belluck argued that even if scientists do modify the genes of human embryos, fears that embryo modification could allow parents to custom order a baby with Lin-Manuel Mirandas imagination or Usain Bolts speed are closer to science fiction than science.

Those downplaying concerns also argue that preexisting practices such as the abortion of fetuses diagnosed with Down syndrome or the selective discarding of embryos diagnosed with genetic disease through preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) are exactly the reason gene-editing

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CRISPR and the Ethics of Human Embryo Research - Foreign Affairs

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Science and ethics experts took part in a first-of-its-kind conference on the role of gene editing, and nearly half of the sold-out crowd was involved in the food and agriculture sector. CRISPRcon a summit named for the genome editing technique known as clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) brought together a diverse set of panelists to discuss this emerging technology.

CRISPR technology allows precise changes to be made to the DNA of living cells, which holds the potential to eradicate diseases, transform agriculture and enable massive leaps forward in environmental and life sciences. Through a series of keynote speakers, panels and interactive discussions, CRISPRcon offered a single forum for those with a stake in gene editing to share ideas, ask and answer questions and explore the path forward.

Since the CRISPR-Cas9 technology was invented five years ago by a team led by Dr. Jennifer Doudna, professor of chemistry and of molecular and cell biology at the University of California-Berkeley, and her colleague Emmanuel Charpentier, it has revolutionized biomedical and agricultural research while fueling angst about questionable applications, such as designer crops, farm animals and humans.

Its really a very cross-cutting technology, Doudna told attendees.

In fact, she said unlike earlier ways of manipulating genetic information in cells, the thing that makes CRISPR particularly powerful is the fact that it really is a democratizing tool. Its a technology that is easy enough to use and to employ that its accessible to a wide range of people, Doudna said.

It has been possible to globally adopt the technology for use in any organism, she added.

Doudna discussed applications of gene editing, including producing cattle with no horns, finding ways to treat human genetic diseases of the blood, cancer-related research, generating animals that would be better organ donors for humans, as well as plant and crop research.

The agriculture industry was represented among speakers. Thomas Titus, a pork producer from Illinois, was one of only two farmers who presented among the scientific experts, physicians, patients, environmentalists, consumers and community leaders.

Gene editing will have great impact on the future of farming, and especially on livestock production, Titus said. Although in its very early stages of development and acceptance, gene editing could ultimately be used to make pigs resistant to diseases, thereby improving food safety, animal welfare and the environmental impact of agriculture.

Titus, who raises pigs and also grows grain on his Illinois farm, was part of a panel discussing where CRISPR technology could take society by 2050. His appearance was supported by the pork checkoff and the National Pork Producers Council. Other panelists included representatives from the Center for Genetics & Society, the Institute for the Future, PICO National Network and The Breakthrough Institute.

Todays consumer is educated and asking questions about where their food comes from and how it is raised, Titus said. Thats why I welcome every chance I get to talk about todays pork production. I appreciated the opportunity to once again open my barn doors to share how I raise pigs with these key influencers in food production.

Other topics addressed during the conference included societal perception and acceptance of CRISPR application in surgery, human health and food production and conservation.

Doudna said just understanding the science is a challenge for many people, but then they also have to understand how the technology is going to affect them.

She encouraged scientist to take a very active role in engaging in conversation about gene editing, adding that its always challenging to explain technical work in a non-technical setting.

Its important to appreciate what the technology can and cannot do. Its not a magical technology; its not perfect, she said. While there are still a number of aspects of the technology that are still at the beginning phase, Doudna said the field is an incredibly fast-moving area. Ive never seen science move at the pace it is moving right now, she added.

When asked how to know when to use the cutting-edge technique, Doudna said the recommendation is to look for situations where there really is no other reasonable way to deal with a genetic disease other than gene editing. When you think about it that way, those situations are rare, she noted.

Read more here:
Genome editing CRISPR technique takes center stage | Feedstuffs - Feedstuffs

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ST. LOUIS Monsanto Company has forged an agreement with ToolGen, Inc., a biotechnology company specializing in genome editing, to use ToolGens CRISPR technology platform to develop agricultural products.

The companies announced Aug. 16 that they have reached a global licensing agreement for Monsanto to access ToolGens suite of CRISPR intellectual property for use in plants.

CRISPR stands for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats. Its a relatively new way to modify an organisms genome by precisely delivering a DNA-cutting enzyme to a targeted region of DNA. The resulting modification can delete or replace specific DNA pieces, thereby promoting or disabling certain traits.

The companies noted that gene-editing technologies, like CRISPR, offer agriculture researchers significant advantages over existing plant breeding and biotechnology methods due to their versatility and efficiency.

This agreement further expands Monsantos broad portfolio of gene-editing tools that can be used to develop improved and sustainable crops, said Tom Adams, Ph.D., vice president of biotechnology for Monsanto.

As a company we remain committed to the development of safe, sustainable and high-quality crops, and look forward to leveraging the CRISPR platform.

Additional terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

In January, Monsanto announced an agreement with the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard for the nonexclusive use of its CRISPR-Cpf1 genome-editing technology, which is different from the CRISPR-Cas9 system.

Related articles:

CRISPR mushroom created at Penn State a GMO game-changerMonsanto agreement with Broad for CRISPR systemDuPont Pioneer scientists demonstrating potential of CRISPR-Cas for agricultureResearch finds probiotics may combat disease

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