From the opening scene, questions of identityboth existential and scientificprovide the shows narrative thrust.

BBC America

This article contains spoilers about the series finale of Orphan Black.

After five seasons of clone cabals, the BBC America/Space series Orphan Black has come to a mostly happy end. Yet an ellipsis follows wrapping of the show, hinting at bigger questions that transcend the characters storylines. Orphan Blacks conspiracies, camp, and Tatiana Maslanys riveting performances as a dozen different clones make it easy to overlook its prescience and profundity. From the opening scene in which Sarah Manning sees her clone kill herself by stepping in front of a train, questions of identityboth existential and scientificprovide the shows narrative thrust. Who created the clones? How? Why? How much control do their creators have over them? The shows final season provides answers while raising questions that transcend science fiction. What role should ethics play in science? Do scientific subjects have the right to self-determination?

If you stopped watching a few seasons back, heres a brief synopsis of how the mysteries wrap up. Neolution, an organization that seeks to control human evolution through genetic modification, began Project Leda, the cloning program, for two primary reasons: to see whether they could and to experiment with mutations that might allow people (i.e., themselves) to live longer. Neolution partnered with biotech companies such as Dyad, using its big pharma reach and deep pockets to harvest peoples genetic information and to conduct individual and germline (that is, genetic alterations passed down through generations) experiments, including infertility treatments that result in horrifying birth defects and body modification, such as tail-growing.

In the final season, we meet the man behind the curtain: P.T. Westmoreland, who claims to be 170 years old thanks to life-extension treatments such as parabiosis (transfusions of young blood). Westmoreland wants to harness the healing powers of the particular LIN28A gene mutation found in the fertile clones kids. (Real-world studies suggest that while LIN28A mutations are linked to cancer, its RNA-binding protein promotes self-renewal of embryotic stem cells.)

Westmorelandultimately discovered to be a fraud who assumed the original Westmorelands identity after he diedpersonifies one of the shows messages: that pseudoscience and megalomania can masquerade as science. Just because someone has a genetic sequencer and a lab coat doesnt mean hes legitimate, and just because someones a scientist doesnt mean hes ethical.

Orphan Black demonstrates Carl Sagans warning of a time when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few. Neolutionists do whatever they want, pausing only to consider whether theyre missing an opportunity to exploit. Their hubris is straight out of Victor Frankensteins playbook. Frankenstein wonders whether he ought to first reanimate something of simpler organisation than a human, but starting small means waiting for glory. Orphan Blacks evil scientists embody this belief: if theyre going to play God, then theyll control not just their own destinies, but the clones and, ultimately, all of humanitys. Any sacrifices along the way are for the greater goodreasoning that culminates in Westmorelands eugenics fantasy to genetically sterilize 99 percent of the population he doesnt enhance.

Orphan Black uses sci-fi tropes to explore real-world plausibility. Neolution shares similarities with transhumanism, the belief that humans should use science and technology to take control of their own evolution. While some transhumanists dabble in body modifications, such as microchip implants or night-vision eye drops, others seek to end suffering by curing human illness and aging. But even these goals can be seen as selfish, as access to disease-eradicating or life-extending technologies would be limited to the wealthy. Westmorelands goal to sell Neolution to the 1 percent seems frighteningly plausibletranshumanists, who statistically tend to be white, well-educated, and male, and their associated organizations raise and spend massive sums of money to help fulfill their goals. Critics raise many objections to transhumanism, including overpopulation and the socioeconomic divide between mortals and elite immortals, which some think might beget dystopia. Researchers are exploring ways to extend the human lifespan whether by genetic modification, reversing senescence (cellular deterioration with age), nanobots, or bio-printed tissues and organs, but in the world of Orphan Black we dont have to speculate about the consequences of such work.

The show depicts the scientists dehumanization of the clones from its first scene, when Beth, unable to cope with the realities of her cloned existence, commits suicide. When another clone, Cosima, tries to research her DNA, she gets a patent statement: This organism and derivative genetic material is restricted intellectual property. It doesnt matter that Cosima is sick or that shes in love. Shes not a person: Shes a trademarked product, as are the other clones.

Orphan Black warns us that money, power, and fear of death can corrupt both people and science.

The shows most tragic victim is Rachel, the evil clone. Shes the cautionary tale: Frankensteins monster, alone, angry, and cursed. The only one raised with the awareness of what she is, Rachel grows up assured of her own importance and motivated to expand it by doing Neolutions dirty work. Westmoreland signs a document giving Rachel sovereignty, but later she sees computer files in which shes still referred to by her patent number. Despite her leadership, cunning, and bravery, even those working with her never regard her as human. Her willingness to hurt her sisters and herself shows what happens to someone whose experience of nature and nurture is one and the same.

We, the viewers, also dehumanize Rachel by writing her off as one of them. When she lands on the side of her sisters, she does so not out of morality but out of vengeance. At the end, Westmoreland, the closest thing she has to a father, taunts her: its fitting you return to your cage. All lab rats do. But her childhood flashbacks suggest she doesnt want others to experience what she has. When Neolutionists take 9-year-old Kira from her home at gunpoint, Rachel initially supports the plan to load Kira with fertility drugs and then harvest her eggs to access her mutated gene. But when Kira gives Rachel a friendship bracelet (and perhaps her first friendship), Rachels haunted expression suggests that beneath her usually unflappable demeanor, shes still a frightened little girl. When Kira asks, Who hurt you? Rachel responds, They all did.

Whether motivated by retaliation, morality, or both, Rachel helps save Kira and takes down Neolution. Yet its unclear whats left for her as shell never be welcomed into Clone Club. Her last act is to provide a list of clones around the world so Cosima and former Dyad researcher Delphine can cure them. Rachel gives the clones control over their livesand in so doing, asserts control over her own.

Ultimately, Orphan Black is all about choice. Theres much in life we cant choose: our parents, the circumstances of our birth, our DNA. Its no surprise that a show that espouses girl power (the future is female is both spoken and seen on a T-shirt in the final two episodes) dwells on the importance of choice. The finale flashes back to Sarah in front of Planned Parenthood debating whether to have an abortion. Reckless, rough Sarah surprises herself (and Mrs. S, her foster mother) by deciding to keep the baby. Years before she learns how many decisions others have made about her body, she makes a decision for herself.

On Orphan Black, denial of choice is tantamount to imprisonment. That the clones have to earn autonomy underscores the need for ethics in science, especially when it comes to genetics. The shows message here is timely given the rise of gene-editing techniques such as CRISPR. Recently, the National Academy of Sciences gave germline gene editing the green light, just one year after academy scientists from around the world argued it would be irresponsible to proceed without further exploring the implications. Scientists in the United Kingdom and China have already begun human genetic engineering and American scientists recently genetically engineered a human embryo for the first time. The possibility of Project Leda isnt farfetched. Orphan Black warns us that money, power, and fear of death can corrupt both people and science. Once that happens, loss of humanityof both the scientists and the subjectsis inevitable.

In Carl Sagans dark vision of the future, people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority. This describes the plight of the clones at the outset of Orphan Black, but as the series continues, they challenge this paradigm by approaching science and scientists with skepticism, ingenuity, and grit. The lab rats assert their humanity and refuse to run the maze. Freedom looks different to everyone, Sarah says in the finale. As she struggles to figure out what freedom will look like for hershould she get her GED? Sell the house? Get a job?its easy to see how overwhelming such options would be for someone whose value has always been wrapped in a double helix. But no matter what uncertainties their futures hold, the clones dismantle their cages and make their own choices, proving what weve known all alongtheir humanity.

This article is part of Future Tense, a collaboration among Arizona State University, New America, and Slate. Future Tense explores the ways emerging technologies affect society, policy, and culture. To read more, follow us on Twitter and sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Read more from the original source:
Orphan Black Was Never About Cloning - Slate Magazine

Recommendation and review posted by simmons

Katalina Murrie came in last in her heat at the Whitewater National Championships last weekend, but the transgender athlete was simply happy to be able to compete with other female athletes and inspire other trans athletes.

She's not the only one who has been fighting stereotypes to compete in the gender in which she identifies.

Sports organizations across Canada have been scrambling to develop policies on trans athletes and many are taking cues from guidelines developed by the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport.

While many sports vary on how they welcome trans athletes, "the guidelines suggest that sport organizations allow individuals to participate in sport in the gender in which they identify," the guideline's co-author Jennifer Birch-Jones told CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning.

That's because the centre's research found there was no evidence that testosterone was a "consistent and reliable predictor of competitive advantage," she said. And the science doesn't support requiring an athlete to take hormone suppressants.

The centresuggests following thoseguidelines evenif an athlete isn't yet eligible to compete internationally.

The International Olympic Committee mandates that male transgender athletes can compete without any restrictions, however, trans women must have identified as female for at least four years and must have a testosterone level below a certain level for at least a year before her first competition.

Even though there's a 10 to 12 per cent performance advantage between men and women in various sports, that gap is closing, said Birch-Jones.

What the science does show, she said,is a greater variation within a gender than between genders and any advantage an athlete has depends more on genetics.

Birch-Jones said no one questions when a woman who is five foot four inches competes against someone who is six foot two, until that woman is transgender; that's when questions about competitive fairness are voiced.

But that person could just be an exceptional athlete, which isn't tied to his or her gender, she said.

"There's lots of transathletes who just want to play their sport," she said.

Original post:
Trans athletes should be able to compete in gender they identify with: centre for ethics in sport - CBC.ca

Recommendation and review posted by sam

Much of the civil society has become political. Even the sciences are not immune. Climatology is an example of a hard science that has been overwhelmed by politics, and of course anything that has to do with sexuality even pediatrics is consumed by politics.

With that in mind, let us take a look at one aspect of the recent county ordinance passed by the Pima County Board of Supervisors, which restricts the treatment of children with gender dysphoria. The ordinance was passed 3-2, with Supervisors Ally Miller and Steve Christy voting against.

The new political narrative that has subsumed the science of pediatric medicine states that the psyche of the child is immutable, so if it is non-conforming with regard to the physical sex, then the physical sex must be modified to conform to the psyche and of course all that is necessary to determine the nature of the psyche is to ask the child. Children as young as 4 have been asked questions regarding gender preferences.

Alas, the notion that a childs gender identity is immutable has no basis in science. When we think immutable, we think genetics, when we think genetics, we look at identical twin surveys. As it turns out, surveys of transgender identical twins show that both of the twins are transgender only 28 percent of the time, while only one is transgender 72 percent of the time. If gender identity was in fact immutable (as in genetics), then both of the identical twins should be transgender very close to 100 percent of the time.

Another important thing that the political narrative overlooks is the fact that there is more to the difference between children and adults than size. Children are generally immature. Their bodies are developing, as are their psyches. They are incapable of adult judgement.

That is why it is inappropriate to ask a child, Would you like to try a shot and a beer? or Would you like to sign this contract? or In your heart of hearts, do you feel like a male or a female? Heres a crazy idea, maybe it would be better to altogether avoid discussions relating to sexuality with pre-pubescent children, and discuss matters with the older ones with the understanding that they are not yet adults. After all, before the political narrative caught hold, these issues would many times resolve themselves after puberty. That is when the cake is baked.

A peer-reviewed article by Michelle A. Cretella, M.D. titled Gender Dysphoria in Children and Suppression of Debate provides detailed information on the current state of pediatrics in this regard.

Pima County declares that, The purpose of this chapter is to protect the health, safety, and well being of minors in Pima County. If that is true, then why does the county not concern itself with pre-pubescent hormone therapy, puberty blockers and post-pubescent radical surgeries including double mastectomies instead of condemning the helping of children to align themselves with their respective physical realities?

I sought comments from each of the supervisors regarding their votes. Supervisor Steve Christy said, I think the ordinance heads down a slippery and sloped pathway of interfering with parental rights and choice. I read the ordinance again and found it very telling that no form of the word parent appeared anywhere in the text. Christy also expressed concern with the board grandstanding on the national stage.

Now, I understand that its helpful for elected officials to pander to their base every now and then, and who wants to be the last Democratic county in the country to pass such an ordinance, but is the sacrificing children on the altar of political correctness really representative of the people of Pima County?

Jonathan Hoffman has lived and worked in Tucson for 40 years. He has served on the Tucson Pima County Bicycle Advisory Committee and on the board of the Pima Trails Association. Email him at tucsonsammy@gmail.com

Read the original post:
Jonathan Hoffman: Pima County should butt out of medical decisions - Arizona Daily Star

Recommendation and review posted by simmons

A staple of bad science fiction, mutant ants have been more of a figment of imagination rather than scientific reality. Weve genetically altered mice and fruit flies, but growing mutant ants has eluded scientists due to the complex life cycle of the little critters. Now two teams announced that they managed to edit out certain genes from lab ants, altering their behavior.

The team from Rockefeller University published a paper outlining how they removed orco - a gene that plays a key part in an ants odor receptors. Deleting the gene by using theCRISPR-Cas9 technique resulted in the ants losing about 90% of their olfaction. This made them unable to socialize. The ants also changed in other ways, showing affected behavior. They laid very few eggs, wandered aimlessly, and showed poor parenting.

The other team, including scientists from NYU, Vanderbilt University, University of Pennsylvania, and Arizona State University, also used CRISPR to delete the orco protein in ants to affect their communication through pheromones, causing an "aberrant social behavior and defective neural development."

You can read their paper here.

Researchers modified the ability of the ants to detect pheromones though porous hairs on their antennae. Credit: Rockefeller University.

This kind of interference with the social behavior of ants is considered a success because of the difficulty in altering the nature of insects with such a sophisticated social structure. NYU Professor Claude Desplan, who was involved in one of the studies called the modified ant they created the first mutant in any social insect.

While ant behavior does not directly extend to humans, we believe that this work promises to advance our understanding of social communication, with the potential to shape the design of future research into disorders like schizophrenia, depression or autism that interfere with it, said Desplan.

Why edit ant genes at all? Daniel Kronauer, author of the Rockefeller University study, says there are interesting biologic questions you can only study in ants.

It was well known that ant language is produced through pheromones, but now we understand a lot more about how pheromones are perceived, saysKronauer. The way ants interact is fundamentally different from how solitary organisms interact, and with these findings we know a bit more about the genetic evolution that enabled ants to create structured societies.

Check out this animation of how Kronauer and his colleagues tracked color-coded ants, while using an algorithm to analyze the resulting behavior.

Go here to read the rest:
Scientists Use CRISPR Gene Editing to Create the World's First ... - Big Think

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

We are one step closer to having pig organ transplants, a new study shows.

Using the genetic cut-and-paste tool CRISPR, scientists have removed DNA-based viruses that usually infect pig organs, raising the chances that these animal organs could be safely transplanted into human patients one day, a process known as xenotransplantation.

Still, that doesn't mean pig organ transplants are just around the corner; scientists would still need to change other elements of pig transplants to ensure the human body doesn't reject them.

Currently, there is a dramatic shortage in the number of organ transplants available for people who need them, and many people die before they receive one. Animals such as pigs could theoretically supply an unlimited source of such organs. But immune incompatibilities and viruses that are incorporated into the pig genome, called porcine endogenous retroviruses (PERVs), have made it very likely that such pig organs would never take on their own. [11 Body Parts Grown in the Lab]

To get around those PERVs, scientists at eGenesis, a bioengineering company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, used CRISPR-Cas 9, a genetic tool that cuts the genome wherever it's targeted, to remove 62 PERVs in pig cells in culture. The team then injected these cells into pig egg cells and generated baby pigs. They then used genetic testing to show that the pigs did not contain any trace of these PERVs.

"Although we have focused in this paper on the applications to xenotransplantation, we envision, more generally, that the synergistic combination of CRISPR-Cas technology with anti-apoptosis treatment may also be used to enable large-scale genome engineering in primary cells for a broad range of applications," the researchers wrote in the study, which was published yesterday (Aug. 10) in the journal Science.

Originally published on Live Science.

Read the original here:
Pig-to-Human Transplants: CRISPR Gene Editing May Make This Possible - Live Science

Recommendation and review posted by sam

The first office visit includes an hour and a half with Dr. Pierce, and an hour and a half with a nutrition consultant. In that time we develop a unique treatment and nutrition plan based on each patient's individual needs, their symptoms and lab results, as well as personal preferences.. We emphasize a more holistic approach and use dietary modification, nutritional supplementation and hormone balancing when indicated, as opposed to going straight to patented pharmaceutical drugs.

We do not take medical health care insurance. We are a fee-for-service medical wellness clinic. You may however use your health care insurance for your lab work. Remember, you have a contract between yourself and your insurance provider. We are not a part of that contract. Your insurance provider also has a contract between itself and their preferred laboratory. Our staff will help you figure out what is your insurance's preferred laboratory and submit your requisition and/or blood work to that laboratory. We will also provide you with the proper CPT codes and submit them to your insurance carrier to give you the best chance of having your tests covered.

There are some tests, such as a cortisol saliva test, that are not covered by any insurance to our knowledge. This is because the performing laboratory is not contracted by any insurance provider to perform the test and they are a fee-for-service company as well.

You may take your lab requisition directly to the lab and have your blood drawn there, or we can provide the blood draw service for you at our clinic at a scheduled convenient time for you. This avoids waiting in line at the laboratory for an unknown amount of time, while fasting, to get your blood drawn.

Is important to know that when you submit a request for your insurance company to cover your lab work, they will have access to you labresults. They can use this information to increase your insurance premiums in the future.

However, if you pay out-of-pocket directly to Ageless Forever for your lab work the information stays between Ageless Forever and you, the patient. Your insurance company does not have the right to obtain your lab and health information at that juncture.

Read more...

Continued here:
Ageless Forever - Bio-identical Hormone Replacement

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Q: I read that you can use your own stem cells to rejuvenate worn-out knees. Does this really work?

A: Worn out is a good way to term what happens to the knee joint with prolonged use. Lets look at how this happens, starting with cartilage.

The lower portion of the knee joint (at the tibia) contains shock absorbers called menisci made of cartilage. You have one on the inner portion and another on the outer portion of each knee. The upper portion of the knee joint (at the femur) is lined with cartilage as well. All of this cartilage helps protect the bones at the joint but it doesnt heal or regenerate well due to limited blood supply. When severe, worn cartilage leads to arthritis of the knee. In knee X-rays of people over age 60, 37 percent have shown evidence of arthritis of the knees.

The intriguing thing about stem cells is that they have the ability to become any type of cell that the body needs. The cells used for stem cell injections in the knees are called mesenchymal stem cells, and they can differentiate into bone, fat or cartilage cells. These stem cells can come from the fat cells of your body, from your bone marrow or from the inner lining of your knee joint; theyre then replicated in the laboratory and injected into the knee joint.

Heres what the research shows so far.

In a 2013 study, 32 patients with meniscal tears of the knee were injected with a combination of stem cells, platelet-rich plasma and hyaluronic acid. The study reported improved symptoms and even MRI evidence of meniscal cartilage regeneration.

In a 2014 study, 55 patients who had surgery for meniscal tears of the knees were separated into three groups, with two of the groups receiving stem cell injections. Researchers found that, after six weeks, pain had decreased substantially in the two groups that received stem cell injections and that the decrease was even greater at one and two years after the injection.

In a 2017 study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, researchers analyzed six studies that used stem cells for osteoarthritis of the knees. In five of the studies, stem cells were given after surgery to the knee; in the other study, stem cells from a donor were administered without surgery. All the studies showed reduced pain and improved knee function. Further, in three of the four trials, MRIs corroborated the cartilage improvements.

There may be benefit to stem cell injections for cartilage loss of the knees, but more data are needed. Id also like to see more data on this type of therapy as a preventive measure for younger patients before their knees are worn out.

ASK THE DOCTORS is written by Robert Ashley, M.D., Eve Glazier, M.D., and Elizabeth Ko, M.D. Send questions to askthedoctors@

mednet.ucla.edu, or write: Ask the Doctors, c/o Media Relations, UCLA Health, 924 Westwood Blvd., Suite 350, Los Angeles, CA, 90095.

Read more:
Stem cell therapy may help knees - Citizens Voice

Recommendation and review posted by simmons

INDIANAPOLIS (WTHR) - People at the Indiana State Fair Saturday got to witness something special.

A husband and wife recommitted their lives to one another right at the Fairgrounds.

The couple also shared with the crowd the important reason they made it to this celebration.

Amid all the fun and food and families at the Indiana State Fair, they brought some magic on the midway.

A love story - two decades strong.

"Today is actually our 20th wedding anniversary," said Derek Fakehany.

Derek and his wife, Amy Van Ostrand, renewed their marriage vows at their favorite summer spot.

And in some ways, the place that illustrates their lives recently.

"The last 18 months have been a roller coaster ride of ups and downs," said bridesmaid Sheri Champagne.

The serious test of their original vows.

"It's very easy to be in love when you're 23, getting married, Amy said. But when you're in your mid-40's and looking at your spouse maybe not making it through the end of the week, you're really tested."

In 2015, Derek was diagnosed with blood cancer.

It was a painful, difficult battle back to health that he nearly lost.

But thanks to a simple swab and a stranger's decision to be the match,

Derek found a donor on the national bone marrow registry.

He had his second transplant 200 days ago.

"That is the reason that Derek is here today. A 26-year-old woman who we never met donated her stem cells to my husband not once, but twice over the last year and that's why he's standing here."

Surrounded by the friends and family who cared for him at his lowest point.

On this day, they watched a stronger Derek and Amy renew promises lived for 20 years.

I declare again that Derek and Amy are for a lifetime of days husband and wife," their minister said, concluding the ceremony.

And in the place where they always feel joy.

Amy asked, "Who wants funnel cake?"

The happy couple and their guests dined on fair food and went for a ride on the Ferris wheel.

Celebrating two milestones - Love and Life.

See original here:
Couple renews vows at State Fair after bone marrow donor helps save his life - WTHR

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

A novel device that reprograms skin cells could represent a breakthrough in repairing injured or aging tissue, researchers say. The new technique, called tissue nanotransfection, is based on a tiny device that sits on the surface of the skin of a living body. An intense, focused electric field is then applied across the device, allowing it to deliver genes to the skin cells beneath it -- turning them into different types of cells.

That, according to the researchers, offers an exciting development when it comes to repairing damaged tissue, offering the possibility of turning a patient's own tissue into a "bioreactor" to produce cells to either repair nearby tissues, or for use at another site.

"By using our novel nanochip technology, injured or compromised organs can be replaced," said Chandan Sen [pictured above], from the Ohio State University, who co-led the study. "We have shown that skin is a fertile land where we can grow the elements of any organ that is declining."

The ability for scientists to reprogram cells into other cell types is not new: the discovery scooped John Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka the Nobel Prize in 2012 and is currently under research in myriad fields, including Parkinson's disease.

"You can change the fate of cells by incorporating into them some new genes," said Dr Axel Behren, an expert in stem cell research from the Francis Crick Institute in London, who was not involved in the Ohio research. "Basically you can take a skin cell and put some genes into them, and they become another cell, for example a neuron, or a vascular cell, or a stem cell."

But the new approach, says Sen, avoids an intermediary step where cells are turned into what are known as pluripotent stem cells, instead turning skin cells directly into functional cells of different types. "It is a single step process in the body," he said.

Furthermore, the new approach does not rely on applying an electric field across a large area of the cell, or the use of viruses to deliver the genes. "We are the first to be able to reprogram [cells] in the body without the use of any viral vector," said Sen.

The new research, published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, describes how the team developed both the new technique and novel genes, allowing them to reprogramme skin cells on the surface of an animal in situ.

"They can put this little device on one piece of skin or onto the other piece of skin and the genes will go there, wherever they put [the device]," said Behrens.

The team reveal that they used the technique on mice with legs that had had their arteries cut, preventing blood flow through the limb. The device was then put on the skin of the mice, and an electric field applied to trigger changes in the cells' membrane, allowing the genes to enter the cells below. As a result, the team found that they were able to convert skin cells directly into vascular cells -with the effect extending deeper into the limb, in effect building a new network of blood vessels.

"Seven days later we saw new vessels and 14 days later we saw [blood flow] through the whole leg," said Sen.

The team were also able to use the device to convert skin cells on mice, into nerve cells which were then injected into the brains of mice who had experienced a stroke, helping them to recover.

"With this technology, we can convert skin cells into elements of any organ with just one touch. This process only takes less than a second and is non-invasive, and then you're off," said Sen.

The new technology, said Behrens is an interesting step, not least since it "avoids all issues with rejection".

"This is a clever use of an existing technique that has potential applications -- but massive further refinement is needed," he said, pointing out that there are standard surgical techniques to deal with blockages of blood flow in limbs.

What's more, he said, the new technique is unlikely to be used on areas other than skin, since the need for an electric current and the device near to the tissue means using it on internal organs would require an invasive procedure.

"Massive development [would be] needed for this to be used for anything else than skin," he said.

But Sen and colleagues say they are hoping to develop the technique further, with plans to start clinical trials in humans next year.

2017 Guardian Web under contract with NewsEdge/Acquire Media. All rights reserved.

Image credit: The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.

See the article here:
Nanochip Could Heal Injuries or Regrow Organs with One Touch - Sci-Tech Today

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

US specialty pharma firm Lipocine (Nasdaq: LPCN) has resubmitted a New Drug Application (NDA) for LPCN 1021, its oral testosterone product candidate for testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) in adult males for conditions associated with a deficiency of endogenous testosterone, also known as hypogonadism.

Initial market reaction saw a 5.9% gain to $4.49 for the stock, but it closed Friday up just 0.7% at $4.7.

Lipocine had previously submitted an NDA for LPCN 1021 and received a Complete Response Letter (CRL) from the US Food and Drug Administration in June 2016. The CRL identified a deficiency related to the dosing algorithm for the proposed label.With the goal of addressing this deficiency, the company successfully completed a dosing validation (DV) study, which confirmed the validity of a fixed dose approach without the need for dose titration to orally administer LPCN 1021. The efficacy results of the DV study, as well as an integrated safety set (ISS) from all previously-conducted clinical trials, including 52-week safety results from the Phase III Study of Androgen Replacement (SOAR) clinical study, form the basis for the NDA resubmission.

"Resubmission of this NDA as planned is an important milestone in bringing LPCN 1021 to patients," said Dr Mahesh Patel, chairman, president and chief executive of Lipocine. "We believe the results from the recently completed DV study address the label-related deficiency identified by the FDA in the CRL. We consider LPCN 1021 to be a differentiated TRT option for treating hypogonadism in men. We anticipate a six-month review by the FDA with a projected PDUFA date in the first quarter of 2018 assuming the FDA acknowledges our submission is a complete response," he noted.

Read more:
Lipocine resubmits NDA for LPCN 1021 in hypogonadism - The Pharma Letter (registration)

Recommendation and review posted by simmons

Global Male Hypogonadism Sales Market Research Report 2017 to 2022 provides a unique tool for evaluating the market, highlighting opportunities, and supporting strategic and tactical decision-making. This report recognizes that in this rapidly-evolving and competitive environment, up-to-date marketing information is essential to monitor performance and make critical decisions for growth and profitability. It provides information on trends and developments, and focuses on markets and materials, capacities and technologies, and on the changing structure of the Male Hypogonadism Sales Market.

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The research includes historic data from 2012 to 2016 and forecasts until 2022 which makes the reports an invaluable resource for industry executives, marketing, sales and product managers, consultants, analysts, and other people looking for key industry data in readily accessible documents with clearly presented tables and graphs. The report will make detailed analysis mainly on above questions and in-depth research on the development environment, market size, development trend, operation situation and future development trend of Male Hypogonadism Sales on the basis of stating current situation of the industry in 2017 so as to make comprehensive organization and judgment on the competition situation and development trend of Male Hypogonadism Sales Market and assist manufacturers and investment organization to better grasp the development course of Male Hypogonadism Sales Market.

The study was conducted using an objective combination of primary and secondary information including inputs from key participants in the industry. The report contains a comprehensive market and vendor landscape in addition to a SWOT analysis of the key vendors.

There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the Global Male Hypogonadism Sales market.

Chapter 1, to describe Male Hypogonadism Sales Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;

Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Male Hypogonadism Sales , with sales, revenue, and price of Male Hypogonadism Sales , in 2016 and 2017;

Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;

Chapter 4, to show the Global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Male Hypogonadism Sales , for each region, from 2012 to 2017;

Chapter 5, 6, 7,8 and 9, to analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;

Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;

Chapter 12, Male Hypogonadism Sales market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;

Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Male Hypogonadism Sales sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.

See original here:
Male Hypogonadism Sales Market Research Report 2017 to 2022 - The Donohue Report

Recommendation and review posted by sam

Global Male Hypogonadism Market Research Report provides insights of Male Hypogonadism industry over past 5 years and a forecast until 2022.Report studies the Male Hypogonadism Market status and future trend in global market, splits Male Hypogonadism by type and by applications, to fully and deeply research and reveal the market situation and future forecast.

Male Hypogonadism Market report would come in handy to understand your competitors and give you an insight about sales; volumes, revenues in the Male Hypogonadism industry, assists in making strategic decisions. It reduces the risks involved in making decisions as well as strategies for companies and individuals interested in the Male Hypogonadism industry. Both established and new players in Male Hypogonadism industry can use report to understand the market.

Male Hypogonadism Market: Type wise segment:

Male Hypogonadism Market: Applications wise segment:

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Type wise and application wise consumption figures are given. With the help of supply and consumption data, gap between these two is also explained.

Male Hypogonadism Market report contains proven analysis by regions, especially for North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and India, focusing top manufacturers in global market, with Production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, covering top players like Astrazeneca Plc., Merck & Co. Inc., Laboratories Genevrier, Allergan Plc., Endo International Plc., Ferring, AbbVie Inc., Eli Lilly and Company Ltd., Finox Biotech, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., Bayer AG, IBSA Institut Biochimque, and many more.

On competitive landscape, this report includes complete profiles of Male Hypogonadism Market key players. For each player contact information is given. Their product details, capacity, price, cost, gross and revenue numbers are provided for better understanding.

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Some key points of Male Hypogonadism Market research report:

With Experts Interview, Market Breakdown and Data Triangulation, Primary & Secondary Sources and Research Center data, Male Hypogonadism Market research report guides you towards exponential growth.

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Male Hypogonadism Market Growth Forecast Analysis by ... - Green Mountain Outlook

Recommendation and review posted by simmons

Welcome to another edition of "3 Things In Biotech You Should Learn Today," a daily digest dedicated to helping you uncover the news from the biotech and pharmaceutical industries.

So let's get started!

Though it currently holds the first-line therapy spot in kidney cancer, Pfizer's (NYSE:PFE) multi-targeted kinase inhibitor sunitinib is in danger of losing this hegemony as effective agents like cabozantinib from Exelixis (NASDAQ:EXEL) and Bristol-Myers Squibb's (NYSE:BMY) nivolumab are explored in first-line metastatic disease.

PFE's response? Go low. As in earlier treatment stages. The company has previously announced a supplemental drug application for sunitinib in adjuvant therapy for patients with kidney cancer and high risk of recurrence. This would be the first approved targeted therapy in an earlier treatment setting.

Now, we have gotten word that PFE has a meeting with the Oncology Drug Advisory Committee (ODAC) on September 19 to discuss this application. The ODAC will be responsible for scientific grilling of the company on the risks and benefits of sunitinib in this earlier treatment line. It will also be responsible for giving the scientific thumbs up or thumbs down, a crucial step in the FDA's overall review process.

Looking forward: I'm sure PFE has its fingers crossed, as first-line metastatic therapy is beset by competition from promising agents. Moving to even earlier treatment settings could allow it to remain in the foreground of clinicians' minds when managing patients at high risk for recurrence. But it's no sure thing, either, as we'll find out once the FDA publishes the advisory brief a few days before the actual meeting. So keep your eyes peeled for that news in about a month!

Lipocine, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPCN) is a developmental pharma company engaged in the development of therapies for low testosterone, formally called hypogonadism. In particular, its late-stage candidate is an oral version of testosterone, which the company hopes will address challenges associated with injectable and topical forms of the hormone.

However, the company was hit with a complete response letter from the FDA back in June of last year, which detailed some issues with the titration scheme proposed for marketing. This led to difficulty translating how the drug would be used in the real world compared with how it was used in the phase 3 study.

The next step for LPCN was to conduct a dosing validation study to prove that the proposed algorithm will yield the expected results seen in the phase 3 study. Now, over a year later, the company has resubmitted its NDA to the FDA.

Looking forward: Because the complete response letter in June 2016 did not outline any other major issues divulged by LPCN, it would be surprising if the FDA comes back with more negative feedback. Of course, it's possible that the dosing validation study will not be sufficient, but I imagine that the company has done its homework with FDA meetings to try and nail down exactly what it needs. And that can serve as a lesson for all of us in the investment community: small issues can lead to pretty long-term delays.

You might expect that most of the big news to come out of the world of hormone receptor-positive breast cancer is related to the CDK4/6 inhibitors marketed by Lilly (NYSE:LLY), Novartis (NYSE:NVS), and Pfizer. But of course research continues along a huge number of other avenues.

One of those is the targeting of a member of the EGFR family, HER3. And this specifically is where Merrimack Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:MACK) finds itself. Its investigational monoclonal antibody, seribantumab, is designed to block HER3 dimer formation with other members of the EGFR family.

This is potentially important due to the known role of PI3K/Akt signaling in hormone-positive breast cancer. And HER3 is the most potent activator of this signaling pathway in the EGFR family. Seribantumab in combination with exemestane was shown to reduce the risk of death in patients with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer and progression on endocrine therapy at last year's AACR meeting.

Now, the company is moving forward with a phase 2 randomized study assessing the potential benefit of this antibody combined with fulvestrant in untreated, advanced breast cancer.

Looking forward: Seribantumab has yielded some interesting early findings in breast cancer, though its history has been a bit mixed. A prior study in ovarian cancer showed that this agent did not improve outcomes for patients when given in combination with paclitaxel. However, hormone receptor-positive breast cancer has a known association with PI3K/Akt signaling, so if the findings here are discrepant, I won't be shocked.

As always, thank you for tuning into a new edition of this digest. If you found it helpful, I hope you will consider becoming a follower of mine on Seeking Alpha, as this will allow you to receive real-time email updates when new articles of mine go live!

Have a great day!

Disclosure: I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.

I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Continue reading here:
3 Things In Biotech You Should Learn Today: August 12, 2017 - Seeking Alpha

Recommendation and review posted by sam

FAIRBANKS Alaskas high court has struck down the State Medical Boards medical license revocation for a Fairbanks doctor who specializes in anti-aging and weight loss treatment.

In what had been the states first medical license revocation since 2009, Alaskas medical board revoked Dr. David Odoms medical license in 2014. The board pulled Odoms license after concluding he prescribed drugs inappropriately to his patientSonja Carlson Quebbemann in 2007.Quebbemann died from heart failure about six months after last seeing Odom, but the state investigatorsdidnt directly accuse Odoms treatment of causing her death.

In a 27-page opinion, the courts five justices stated the Medical Board treated Odoms case incorrectly, both intheprocess the board used to pull his license and in the substanceof the boards conclusion that Odoms treatment didnt meet professional standards.

The Medical Boards decisional document is legally insufficient not only with regard to its choice of sanction, but also in its conclusion that Dr. Odom acted incompetently, the court stated in an opinion written by Justice Peter Maassen.

Odom, 74, has been practicing medicine in Palm Springs, California since he lost his licenseto practice in Alaska.Odom said in an interview Friday that he believes the action to take his license was an act of retribution by Banner Health, the nonprofit organization that previously operated Fairbanks Memorial Hospital and the Tanana Valley Clinic. Between 1993 and 2003,Odom fought a legal battle with the hospital over his interest in opening a surgery center in Fairbanks.

In my mind, Banner knewbecause their agent is the one who pursued my licenseand they gave a license to their own employee so basically he could take over my practice, he said.

Odomsaid hed like to come to split his time between California and Alaska practices now that he can practice in Alaska again.

The case against Odomwas based on his prescription of two drugs for weight loss and hormone treatment: the stimulant phentermine, and thyroid hormone drug Armour Thyroid. State investigatorsat theAlaska Division of Corporate, Business and Professional Licensing said Odom prescribed too large of a dose of Armour Thyroid and should not have prescribedphentermine because his patient had cardiomyopathy, a heart condition.

The first judge to hear the case sided with Odom. Administrative Law JudgeAndrew Hemenway concluded in 2014 that the state failed to prove Odoms treatment was below the required standard of care.

However, the Medical Board which ismade up of five physicians, one physicians assistant and two members of the public chose to revoke Odoms license after a meeting in closed-door executive session in June 2014.

In their opinion, the Supreme Court justices stated that revoking Odoms license was too strong a sanction. License revocations are usually caused by offenses like criminal convictions or medical license revocations in other states, the opinion states. In their decision to revokeOdoms license, the State Medical Board went beyond the recommendations of Division of Corporate, Business and Professional Licensing investigators who had suggested a suspension or fine.

In addition, the Medical Board failed to produce a written explanation for its actions as the law requires, the opinion states.

Contact Outdoors Editor Sam Friedman at 459-7545. Follow him on Twitter:@FDNMoutdoors.

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Alaska Supreme Court denies medical license revocation - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

Recommendation and review posted by simmons

Often times when we meet someone who is short, we are likely to think that its just the luck of their genes.

Even if they are much shorter than average, we are likely to brush it off as just being their lot in life.

And that is a problem as some children suffering from short stature can actually be treated.

In a sense, we are fighting for recognition because growth disorders are usually not life-threatening, so they dont get as much immediate recognition and publicity as, for example, cancer, diabetes and problems with neonatal disorders, says University of London, United Kingdom, consultant paediatric endocrinologist Prof Emeritus Dr Martin Savage.

He explains that the growth meant here refers to height, or linear growth.

Short stature is not always recognised or perceived by the general public to be a problem, and a problem that can be successfully treated in some circumstances, he adds.

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centres Paediatric Endocrine Unit head Prof Dr Wu Loo Ling agrees.

Prof Wu stresses that patients and their family need to start treatment as early as possible and be compliant to it in order to reap the maximum benefits within the limited period of growth the child has.

There are a lot of people out there who can be helped, and yet, they are not getting help.

We actually lack awareness even among the doctors among the public, the parents, even the schools; they are very complacent, they think that we are just small people, she says.

Among the problematic attitudes she has encountered are that the child looks healthy despite being unusually short; that being petite is cute; that the child still has many years to catch up in height, especially when they hit puberty; and that the child is a picky eater and as long as they improve their appetite or take supplements or traditional medicine, they will be fine.

Doctor-shopping is another problem, she says, where parents of an affected child go from doctor to doctor hoping that the next one will tell them what they want to hear.

However, the senior consultant paediatric endocrinologist and diabetologist warns that these attitudes will only result in delayed referral to the right specialist, by which time the child might have missed the window of opportunity for treatment.

What is short?

Our period of growth starts at birth and stops once we hit our mid to late teens on the average, 16 years of age for females and 18 years for males.

Explains Prof Emeritus Savage, who also practices at The London Clinic Centre for Endocrinology: Basically, children grow because in their long bones, which are the bones of the arms, the legs and the spine, there is a layer of cartilage, which is the site of active growth.

This is called the growth plate. And this growth plate is made up of cartilage cells called chondrocytes.

Essentially, a child grows by these cartilage cells developing, differentiating, expanding, and eventually becoming formed as bone.

The cells in the growth plate are triggered by growth hormones, which are produced by our pituitary gland.

The growth hormone circulates around the body until it eventually comes to the growth plate where it is transformed to another hormone called IGF-1 insulin growth factor-1 and it is IGF-1 that actually stimulates the growth plate to expand and grow, adds Prof Emeritus Savage.

Our period of growth ends when our growth plates close and are replaced by bone.

For those with treatable growth disorders, this represents the end of the window of opportunity for treatment.

There are three general causes of short stature: variants of normal growth, endocrine causes and non-endocrine disorders, says Prof Emeritus Savage.

Variants of normal growth include children that are otherwise healthy, but not growing as fast as the rest of their age group, as well as children whose parents are naturally short.

Non-endocrine disorders include chronic conditions like malnutrition and renal failure, chromosomal defects like Turner syndrome, as well as intra-uterine growth retardation (IUGR) and small for gestational age (SGA).

And endocrine causes include growth hormone deficiency and resistance, hypothyroidism and Cushings syndrome, among others.

Short stature, Prof Emeritus Savage explains, is actually a statistical definition.

It is when a childs height is more than two standard deviations from the mean height of children their age, sex and pubertal stage.

Says Prof Wu: Any child who has fallen short of the normal centile below the third centile, as Prof Savage said the shorter the child is, the more likely you are to find a pathological condition in this person.

So any short child, especially a very short one, or those children who are slowly deviating from their centile, are likely to be abnormal.

So they must be recognised, evaluated and investigated, so that the appropriate treatment can be given.

Treatment for three

According to the Health Ministrys 2010 clinical practice guidelines on the subject, the use of recombinant growth hormone therapy is indicated in three conditions: growth hormone deficiency, SGA and Turner syndrome.

Argentinian footballer Lionel Messi was diagnosed with idiopathic short stature as a child and received recombinant growth hormone therapy to achieve his current height. Photo: AFP

Certain countries, like the United States, have also approved the therapy for use in children with chronic renal insufficiency whose height is affected (up to one-third of such patients) and idiopathic short stature, according to Prof Emeritus Savage.

Growth hormone deficiency, as indicated by its name, means that the body is not producing enough growth hormone due to a problem with the pituitary gland.

The problem can be present from birth (congenital), or a result of a tumour, infection, radiation or a severe head injury.

Says Prof Wu: There are a lot of metabolic effects from the lack of growth hormone this person is not just short, but also not well.

She explains that growth hormone deficiency results in the deposition of fat around the abdomen, lack of muscle mass, poor stamina and poor bone health, among others.

In this condition, treatment needs to be initiated as soon as possible after diagnosis.

Meanwhile, SGA means that the baby is born with a length and/or weight that is below the normal range for their gestational age.

This occurs in about 5% of newborns.

We now know that a proportion of these babies do not catch up they stay small. They become small children and small adults, says Prof Emeritus Savage.

As some SGA children do catch up in growth after a while, treatment is only started if the child does not catch up after four years of age.

In the case of Turner syndrome, which affects only females, patients are born with only one fully-functional X chromosome.

Just because they have Turner syndrome, they are already 20%-25% shorter than they would have been without Turner syndrome. Thats almost one foot! says Prof Wu.

This syndrome can be diagnosed at birth, and the affected children one in 2,500 female babies need to be monitored for their growth.

According to Prof Wu, growth hormone therapy is initiated as soon as a drop in their height centile is observed, as this means that their body is no longer able to supply the adequate amount of growth hormone.

She also notes that those who are SGA and those who have Turner syndrome are normal people, saying: They have normal IQs, but they are people of low self-esteem because they are very, very short.

Prof Emeritus Savage agrees: An adult who is abnormally short has major disadvantages physical disadvantages, psychological disadvantages, disadvantages in terms of employment, self-esteem, well-being, etc.

That is what we are trying to avoid (with treatment).

In Malaysia, recombinant growth hormone therapy is available in a number of public and university hospitals across the country.

According to Prof Wu, the treatment, which is weight-dependent and can come up to RM3,000 a month for a teenager, is not free; however, there are limited public and NGO funds available for deserving patients.

Both Prof Wu and Prof Emeritus Savage were speaking to the media at a roundtable after the SEA Growth Summit organised by pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk in Kuala Lumpur recently.

Read the original post:
There is a cure for your child's lack of growth - Star2.com

Recommendation and review posted by simmons

(Infertility) can be a very painful thing for a lot of people and it was for us, Herbert says. But our pain was short-lived . We were very lucky.

Thats because couples can go through numerous IVF cycles and never have a baby.

The meta-analysis didnt examine the cause for the decline, but the authors say the fact that its occurring in the West suggests chemicals used in commercial products play a role. They warn the decline has implications beyond fertility and reproduction, saying it may be a canary in the coal mine for male health across the lifespan.

In the industrialized world were seeing a very definite and clear decline in sperm counts, in quality, even among fertile men, and as the world becomes more toxic, the effect will be greater, says Dr. Art Leader of The Ottawa Fertility Centre and a board member of Conceivable Dreams, an Ontario-based infertility patient advocacy group.

I think as well as The Handmaids Tale were going to have a sequel to it called The Manservants Tale.

Although men cant change the burden of global pollution there are things they can do to optimize fertility, says the professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Medicine at the University of Ottawa.

He suggests minimizing alcohol, smoking and exposure to smoke, increasing exercise, maintaining a healthy weight, eating organic foods, taking an adequate dose of Vitamin D and not using anabolic steroids. And be mindful of endocrine disruptors, which are chemicals found in everyday products that interfere with the bodys naturally occurring hormones. Examples include bisphenol A (BPA), dioxins, phthalates and fire retardants.

Even medications used by men to stop hair loss finasteride and minoxidil have been shown to lower sperm counts. But once men stop taking these drugs, sperm counts bounce back.

Men should also be wary of reproductive hazards on the job, says Leader. For instance, bakers and chefs who work in hot places; mechanics and industrial workers who handle the metal degreaser Trichloroethylene (TCE), and farmers who work with herbicides and pesticides may be at risk.

If someone is really concerned, they can freeze their sperm before age 40, says Leader, noting: Men have a best-before date of 40.

For Herbert, learning in 2014 that he had a low sperm count was a difficult blow. The normal range is 15 million to 200 million sperm per millilitre of semen he had about one million.

But infertility wasnt something he felt comfortable talking about with his buddies.

There is a taboo attached, he says. Whats the stigma? That youre shooting blanks. It just doesnt feel manly. This is the one thing that should be easy for us to do.

We go through so much of our life trying not to get somebody pregnant ... And then you get to this stage and its like, What? I need help? Its not working? I dont have enough?

In hindsight, Herbert says, it would have been a lot more helpful for me to talk about it. But he didnt, except with his wife, who happens to be a psychotherapist.

Jan Silverman, a fertility counsellor who also works at Create Fertility Centre in Toronto, says men dont easily open up about infertility. But when given the chance they will.

We get all kinds of guys coming out with sperm issues, says Silverman, who runs an infertility support group. Wives will say Oh, hell never talk. And you get them in the room, with a couple of other guys there, and before you know it they are talking.

Often what surfaces are feelings of shame, embarrassment and sexual inadequacy. And theres guilt because even though theyre infertile, its their female partners who undergo the invasive and uncomfortable fertility treatments.Ill never forget having this huge police officer a six-foot-five, big, burly guy who found he had a sperm count of zero. He sat in my office weeping, asking Me?

That was so poignant and telling because you never know. Thats the interesting thing about sperm. Just because you ejaculate you dont know whats in there. So for men, there is such a sense of shock.

Even popular culture is tackling the topic. Recently on the HBO hit Ballers, the main character Spencer Strasmore, a retired football player portrayed by Dwayne The Rock Johnson, is worried he may not have swimmers and seeks a referral to a fertility specialist. Its still unclear how that storyline will unfold because moments before he goes into a collection room to ejaculate, he gets called away for work.

Dr. Keith Jarvi, director of the Murray Koffler Urologic Wellness Centre and Head of Urology at the Mount Sinai Hospital, says a sperm test should be the first thing a couple undergoes as part of fertility testing.

Its not any statement about your manhood, says Jarvi, who heads the biggest centre in Canada for male infertility. The frequency with having a lower sperm count is not uncommon.

The test checks to see if there is sperm, how much of it there is, how it moves and if it appears healthy and normal. The test is covered by OHIP, relatively easy to do and may spare the female partner from undergoing treatments.

Guys are often ignored, says Jarvi. But if you ignore the guy you might not find a fertility problem that could be fixed.

Sometimes the fix is simple. Avoiding regular exposure to heat, such as hot baths and saunas, wearing looser underwear and keeping the genital area cool have all been shown to help.

Theres a whole series of new techniques and new treatments that we can now offer men that we couldnt offer them 15 years ago, he says. Were now taking on more and more patients who we thought before had no hope.

For the Herberts, fertility doctors suggested a type of IVF called Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection, which is commonly used to treat severe male factor infertility. Its a laboratory process involving eggs extracted from the female, and semen retrieved from the man. An embryologist takes a single healthy sperm and injects it into the egg to create an embryo that is then transferred to the uterus.

Herbert and his wife also made lifestyle changes. He started taking vitamins, improved his diet, stopped doing hot yoga, started acupuncture and eliminated soaps, shampoos, deodorants, toothpaste and household products with potentially harmful chemicals.

In total, they spent about $30,000 during that first IVF attempt.

Once we said, Were going for this, then we were all in, says Herbert.

But it wasnt enough. In November 2015 they were devastated to learn that first cycle of IVF didnt work. They tried again in 2016. By then the Ontario Fertility Program was up and running and they were eligible for provincial funding, which cut their costs by half. The procedure is covered, but not the drugs. Conceivable Dreams, where Herbert is a member, is trying to persuade insurance companies to add the drug cost to their standard plans.

About 8,200 patients have received government funded IVF treatments since it was introduced in December 2015, says the health ministry. There is a database tracking how many funded IVF cycles are the result of male infertility, but the figures are not yet available.

Doctors warned that IVF was a crap shoot, but the Herberts hit the jackpot on their second attempt.

If it had been unsuccessful, I wouldve spent the rest of my life having to carry that: We spent our lives childless because of me. Thats pretty intense.

But then Ori came along. Herbert now looks forward to a life filled with discovering the joys of fatherhood: Playing with her, teaching her to walk, speaking with her.

Shes like a book that Im anxious to read.

Protecting your Sperm

Source: Environmental Working Group

Originally posted here:
Let's talk about male infertility - Toronto Star

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / August 11, 2017 / Friday Night Inc. (Friday Night) (CSE:TGIF) (1QF.F) (OTC PINK: VPGDF) is pleased to announce that the Company has appointed Dr. Anthony R. Torres, MD to its board of advisors and would also like to provide an update on the genetics breeding program at the Company's 91% owned subsidiary, Alternative Medicine Association, LC. (AMA).

NEW GENETIC STRAIN

Over the past several months, AMA has been cross breeding existing strains in hopes of creating an improved cannabis product. This time consuming and laborious process has resulted in a new product offering that only AMA will be able to provide.

One of AMA's favorite prototype plants from the genetics program is a strain they have created and named ''Naughty Cookies''. Over the last year and thousands of test plants later, AMA created the new strain by crossing the high-THC and popular 'Girl Scout Cookies' strain with the high-yielding 'Juggernaut' male. The buds are very frosty, aesthetically pleasing and dense with light purple coloration.

This week AMA received the test results for the first lot. The cannabinoid content was higher than any strain AMA had seen in the last 3 years, and the THC content came back as 34.9%. Most fortunately, AMA had the foresight to cultivate over 70 of these plants in anticipation of great results. These will be flowered during the next growing cycle and so far are yielding over 2 pounds per light of dried flower.

The creator of this strain and Director of Operations, Mr. Ben Horner said, ''This gives us a competitive edge in a market which we now control. When new cultivators come on board, we will be the only producer with this strain. I feel it will inevitably become a favorite in Las Vegas.''

NEW ADVISOR TO THE COMPANY

Anthony R. Torres, M.D. with training at the National Institutes of Health, Yale University School of Medicine and the University of Utah, has considerable experience in the separation sciences of biological molecules. Anthony is widely published and has made a career not only in university research, but also in the biotechnology field including protein enrichment and advance separation processes. He is an inventor and owns several patents in the field. He is not new to the world of start-up companies and continues to be a pioneer in biotechnology. He also brings a deep understanding of the cannabis plant and its molecular structure.

Dr. Torres commented, ''I am very interested in applying traditional laboratory processes to the rapidly developing field of molecular cannabis. I believe that there are many positive applications for the natural benefits of this plant in modern medicine and that it has the potential to help hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions of people.''

About Friday Night Inc.

Friday Night Inc. is a Canadian public company, which owns and controls cannabis and hemp based assets in Las Vegas Nevada. The company owns 91% of Alternative Medicine Association, LC (AMA), a licensed medical and adult-use cannabis cultivation and production facility that produces its own line of unique cannabis-based products and manufactures other third-party brands. Infused MFG, also a 91% owned subsidiary, produces hemp-based, CBD products, thoughtfully crafted of high quality organic botanical ingredients. Friday Night Inc. is focused on strengthening and expanding these operations within and outside of the state.

For further information please contact:Joe Bleackley, Corporate Communications604-674-4756Joe@FridayNightInc.com

Notice regarding Forward Looking Statements: This news release contains forward-looking statements. The use of any of the words ''anticipate,'' ''continue,'' ''estimate,'' ''expect,'' ''may,'' ''will,'' ''project,'' ''should,'' ''believe,'' and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which the forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. This news release includes forward-looking statements with respect to the entering into a definitive agreement, the future exercise of the option regarding the vape lounge and the regulatory environment in Canada. Since forward-looking statements address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. These statements speak only as of the date of this news release. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors and risks including failure to enter into a definitive agreement, inability to attract new customers in Nevada as a result of the license, the inability of the Company to take advantage of the license arrangement and various risk factors discussed in the Company's disclosure documents, which can be found under the Company's profile on http://www.sedar.com. Friday Night undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law or the Canadian Securities Exchange.

Read More

SOURCE: Friday Night Inc.

Continued here:
Friday Night Inc. Announces Dr. Torres Advisor and Genetics Update - Yahoo News

Recommendation and review posted by simmons

One of the obstacles on the way of successful stem cell transplant is problems in finding a good match for the recipient.There is only 25% chance that siblings offer one another a human leukocyte antigen match (or simply a tissue type match) while in 75% of cases patients need to find a match from unrelated donors, Dr. Azim Mehrvar, head of MAHAK Specialized Pediatric Cancer Hospital, was quoted by ISNA as saying.Last month, MAHAK opened a stem cell registry to facilitate the search for donors who are a match to blood disorder patients the first of its kind in Iran.The best transplant outcome happens when a patients HLA and the donors HLA closely match. HLA is a protein or marker found on most cells in a body and is used to match with a donor for bone marrow or cord blood transplant.All people between the ages of 18 and 50 can come to the center and register to help children suffering from cancer.The process is easy: Once an applicant is registered, his/her cheek cell sample (buccal swab) is sent for HLA typing, the result of which is stored in the registry. The process takes only a few minutes.In the future if the persons HLA type matches with any patient looking for a match, the donor will be contacted to donate their blood stem cells to potentially save a life, the physician said.After finding a good match, the donor receives a health check-up to make sure he/she is fit and healthy to donate. Then they will be given an injection called GCSF (Granulocyte Colony Stimulating Factor) every day for 5 days. This is to release stem cells from the bone marrow into the peripheral blood flow.On the fifth day, blood stem cells are collected in a 3-4 hours outpatient procedure called apheresis. The stem cells are then transferred to the hospital to be grafted.Stem cells can be used to treat a variety of disorders including hematopoietic and genetic disorders and even cerebral palsy. Cerebral palsy is an umbrella term for the effects of damage to a developing brain by various causes. It is connected with a range of symptoms, including muscle weakness and movement problems.According to the charitys website (Mahak-charity.org), currently donors can be registered only in Tehran. The budget to maintain the registry has been provided by Bahman Group, an Iran-based auto company under license of Japan carmaker Mazda.Mahak, a non-governmental organization dedicated to helping children, was established in 1991 by Saideh Ghods.The society is funded entirely by donations and has supported 11,505 children suffering from cancer in the past 17 years. The 18,000-square-meter rehab center and hospital in the north of Tehran was completed in 2003 and can house 120 children, each with a family member. The rehab center has diagnostic and treatment wards on par with global standards.

Continue reading here:
Stem Cell Registry Will Facilitate Finding Donors - Financial Tribune

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Researchers have created a method to kill cancerous tissue without causing the harmful side effects of chemotherapy.

Medical researchers at the University of California, Irvine have created a stem cell-based method to zero in on cancerous tissue. This method kills the cancerous tissue without causing the nasty side effects of chemotherapy. Such side effects are avoided by treating the disease in a more localized manner. The advancement was spearheaded by associate professor of pharmaceutical sciences Weian Zhao. The details of the stem cell therapy were recently published in Science Translational Medicine.

About the new Stem Cell Therapy

Zhao's team programmed stem cells derived from human bone marrow to pinpoint the specific properties of cancerous tissue. They implemented a portion of code to these engineered cells to identify stiff cancerous tissue, lock onto it and implement therapeutics. The researchers safely used this new stem cell therapy in mice to kill metastatic breast cancer that had moved to the lungs. They transplanted these engineered stem cells in order for the teamto pinpoint and settle in the site of the tumor.

Once the stem cells reached the tumor, they released enzymes referred to as cytosine deaminase. The mice were then provided with an inactive chemotherapy known as prodrug 5-flurocytosine. The tumor enzymes stimulated the chemotherapy into action. Zhao stated his team zeroed in on metastatic cancer that occurs when the disease moves to additional parts of the body. Metastatic tumors are especially dangerous. They are responsible for90 percent of all cancer deaths.

Why the new Stem Cell Therapy is Important

Zhao is adamant his stem cell therapy represents an important newparadigm in the context of cancer therapy. Indeed, Zhao has blazed a trail in a new direction that others will likely follow in the years to come. It is possible his new stem cell therapy serves as an alternative and more effective means of treating cancer. This stem cell therapy will serve as an alternative to numerous forms of chemotherapy that typically have nasty side effects. Chemotherapy certainly kills plenty of growing cancer cells yet it can also harm healthy cells. The new type of treatment keys in on metastatic tissue that allows for the avoidance of the undesirable side effects produced by chemotherapy.

Though the published piece describing this stem cell therapy is centered on breast cancer metastases within thelungs, the method will soon be applicable to additional metastases. This is due to the fact that numerous solid tumors are stiffer than regular tissue. The new system does not force scientists to invest time and effort to pinpoint and create a brand new protein or genetic marker for each kind of cancer.

The Next Step

At this point in time, Zhao's team has performed pre-clinical animal studies to show the treatment is effective and safe. They plan to segue to human studies in the coming months and years. Zhao's team is currently expanding to additional types of cells such as cancer tissue-sensing and engineered immune system CAR-T (T cells) to treat metastasizing colon and breast cancers. Their goal is totransform this technology for the treatment of additional diseases ranging from diabetes to fibrosis and beyond.

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Stem Cell Therapy Selectively Targets and Kills Cancerous Tissue - Anti Aging News

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The LA Galaxy Foundation has teamed up with Gift of Life Marrow Registry, a club community partner curing blood cancer through marrow and stem cell donation, to co-host Kick Blood Cancer at The Grove in Los Angeles on Sunday, Aug. 13 from 1-4p.m. The event will feature family-friendly games, activities and LA Galaxy appearances in the effort to recruit potential donors to the worldwide marrow registry.

LA Galaxy goalkeeper Jon Kempin, LA Galaxy Star Squad and LA Galaxy mascot Cozmo will be in attendance. Kempin joined LA Galaxy in the off-season and is one of the brightest young talents in the organization, who earned his first MLS shutout earlier this season. He signed his first MLS contract with Sporting Kansas City at the age of 17.

Gift of Life believes every person battling blood cancer deserves a second chance at life and they are determined to make it happen. They are singularly passionate about engaging the public to help get everyone involved in curing blood cancer, whether as a donor, a volunteer or a financial supporter. It all begins with one remarkable person, one life-changing swab and one huge win finding a match and a cure.

For many patients who suffer from leukemia, lymphoma, or other types of blood cancer, transplantation of bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cells donated by unrelated volunteers offers the hope of a cure.

WHAT

Kick Blood Cancer

WHEN

Sunday, Aug. 13

1-4 p.m.

WHERE

The Grove

189 The Grove Drive

Los Angeles, CA 90036

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Join Jon Kempin, LA Galaxy Foundation and Gift of Life Marrow Registry for Kick Blood Cancer on August 13 - LA Galaxy

Recommendation and review posted by simmons

Bone marrow transplants are used in serious blood disorders, especially cancers, when the needed doses of chemotherapy or radiation would be so high it would damage or destroy the stem cells in the marrow.

WINTER HAVEN For 14 years, Dr. Christopher Miller has been treating patients at Bond Clinic where he specializes in endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism. Many local people have met him at Bonds diabetes clinic or in nearby Eloise where he volunteers at Angel Cares free clinic.

Organizers of a Be The Match drive are hoping that those who have benefited from his care, including families and friends of patients, will turn out to honor him Saturday by volunteering to be a bone marrow donor.

He received a shocking, out-of-the-blue diagnosis and is in need of a bone marrow match, said Ashley Scanlan, marketing director for Bond Clinic.

Bone marrow is the soft tissue inside bones where blood cells are produced. Transplants are used in serious blood disorders, especially cancers, when the needed doses of chemotherapy or radiation would be so high it would damage or destroy the stem cells in the marrow.

Be The Match, a national nonprofit organization that is part of the National Marrow Donor Program, is the largest registry matching donors with those in need of a marrow transplant, said Marc Silver, community engagement representative for Be The Match. It also provides support for patients and donors, information for health care professionals and conducts research.

Nearly 70 percent of people needing a marrow transplant do not have a match within their families so the registry was set up to provide a resource for matches.

The event is from 8to 11 a.m. Saturday at the Bond Clinic Main Campus, 500 E. Central Ave., Winter Haven.

Registering to be a donor is a simple process, filling out some paperwork and taking a mouth swab, Scanlan said.

Volunteers should be between 18 and 44 years old, generally in good health and be willing to donate to any patient in the future, Scanlan said.

People are asking why the cutoff is 44, but they have found that age group has the best success in transplants, Scanlan said.

People of other ages are invited to come Saturday and write a note toMiller or make a financial donation, which would go either to the American Cancer Society or to the local Angel Care clinic, she said.

Bobbie Skukowski, an advanced registered nurse practitioner who leads Bonds diabetes clinic, said, Dr. Miller is an excellent physician and an excellent teacher. He was a fellow at Emory University and has taught us all so much; he has brought up the level of diabetes care at Bond Clinic and in the Winter Haven area in general.

"He is very good with his patients and right-on in his care, she said.

If a person is later selected as a potential match, there is no cost to the donor, Scanlan said. And the potential donor can later decide to withdraw from the registry.

The paperwork will ask several questions, including whether the potential donor is willing to donate to any patient in need, willing to donate to a stranger, and willing to donate 20 to 30 hours if found to be a perfect match.

If the potential donor meets the criteria, a mouth swab is taken and later analyzed for a match.

While years ago, being a bone marrow donor was a complicated procedure, now it typically is simple, handled much like a blood donation, Scanlan said.

Over 80 percent of the donations are non-invasive, said Be The Matchs spokesman Silver.

Be The Match literature explains that the donor is given injections of a drug, filgrastim, for five days leading up to the donation to increase the number of stem cells in the blood.

Then, on the day of the donation, the donor goes through a procedure similar to donating blood platelets at a blood center. Blood is taken out of one arm, passed through a machine that collects the blood-forming stem cells, and then the red and white blood cells are returned to the donors other arm through a needle. Typically it takes eight hours.

Donors often have a headache or muscle aches for a few days 22 percent recover within two days, 53 percent within a week, 93 percent within a month, 99 percent within three months and a very few people can take as long as a year to recover, according to Be The Match.

Less than 20 percent of the time, we do a hip aspiration, which is a more complicated procedure and involves having anesthesia in an operating room, Silver said.

Be The Match literature explains that, in those cases, needles are used to withdraw liquid marrow from both sides of the back of the pelvic bone. Typically, the donor stays at the hospital from early morning to late afternoon, or occasionally overnight for observation.

Be The Match helped match 6,200 patients for marrow and cord blood transplants last year and added 472,000 new potential donors to the registry, according to the organization.

Marilyn Meyer can be reached at marilyn.meyer@theledger.com or 863-802-7558. Follow her on Twitter @marilyn_ledger.

Link:
Be The Match donor drive to help, honor Bond Clinic physician who needs bone marrow transplant - The Ledger

Recommendation and review posted by simmons

Julie Gould was heartbroken to learn that there was no cure for diffuse scleroderma, the chronic disease that she was diagnosed with in 2016.

Julie Gould was heartbroken to learn that there was no cure for diffuse scleroderma, the chronic disease that she was diagnosed with in 2016.The life-threatening auto-immune disease affects connective tissue in the body by producing too much collagen and hardening cartilage, tendons and skin.

I was depressed when I received the initial diagnosis, she said. It's difficult to hear that you may be dead in five years time. According to the Scleroderma Foundation, A person newly diagnosed with scleroderma may feel alone and uncertain about where to turn for help. He or she may experience a number of other feelings and emotional reactions from time to time, including initial shock or disbelief, fear, anger, denial, self-blame, guilt, grief, sadness or depression. Family members may have similar feelings.

When Julie first consulted a doctor in 2015, she was concerned that she might have picked up an infectious disease, such as a mosquito-born illness, or as she described it, the worst flu ever, during a vacation to Mexico. But she was told that diabetic neuropathy was causing the pins and needles tingling in her hands and feet.

My hands and feet continued to swell and I thought I had heart failure, said Julie. I went to a cardiologist to see if that was the problem. Those tests and lab work came back normal too.When the pain and swelling became excruciating, she consulted with a rheumatologist. When diabetic neuropathy was ruled out, she was told it could be rheumatoid arthritis. Although the lab tests were within normal limits, her doctor thought the labs werent correlating yet because it was so early in diagnosis. She was given medication and told to come back in six weeks, but saw no alleviation of the pain.

When her rheumatologist told her she might have scleroderma and ordered lab work, those tests too were normal.My physical therapist thought I should go to the Mayo Clinic, said Julie. I got online and requested an appointment. Three months later at the clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, she was diagnosed with diffuse scleroderma but it was a rare type that doesnt test positive in the usual lab test. Her total diagnosis wait had been a year and eight months, and she was more than ready to begin treatment. She was given multiple medications for pain and symptom control.After diagnosis, I got online and started searching for information about scleroderma, said Julie. It was dismal. I had to step away from the computer.Current treatments for the disease are varied, but basically treat the organs being affected. When lung tissue is hardened, patients are tube-fed and given oxygen. Sometimes lung transplants are required. Some patients need gastrointestinal surgery and some have operations to decrease ulcers on their fingers, while some must have their fingers and toes amputated.

Medication for high blood pressure and chemotherapy to suppress the disease are common with the disease and stiff joints and skin can result in patients not being able to stand upright and wheelchair-bound. Physical and occupational therapy is required to save body functions.Julies mother and sister, who is a nurse, also began scouring the internet for treatments. When they read about stem cell transplant they both felt this was the answer to Julies prayers.

Overcome with depression and pain, Julie began taking an antidepressant. With the help of the drug and limitless help and support from her family, the research on transplant gave her much needed hope. When I found out about the transplant, I was scared, said Julie. I feared for my life being taken by this disease.

This disease literally affects every organ system in the body. Transplant offered a chance to stop the disease in its tracks and stop further progression and damage to my body. I had been recently diagnosed, so the doctor said I could wait until I was worse, then have the transplant at a later date. I did not wait. I already had heart, lung, GI, and musculoskeletal systems involved. This approach was proactive, not reactive. It offered me hope.To qualify for stem cell treatment a patient must be sick enough toneed it, but not so sick that they would not benefit from the procedure.

We were able to find many groups to help us learn about scleroderma, she said. Inspire and Facebook were invaluable. There were specific groups for people who had scleroderma. Groups for people who needed a stem cell transplant. Groups for people with scleroderma, who wanted, or who already had a transplant.I started to read all the testimonials. I looked at the NIH website. This was productive research. I was finding out information on how to save my life not on how I was going to die.

After Julie applied for evaluation by Dr. Richard Burt at Northwestern in Chicago, she had scores of tests, including a CT scan of her lungs, MRI of her chest, EKG, sonogram of her heart, heart cath, colonoscopy, EGD, lab work, stress tests, psychological exam, dental exam, and 24-hour urine collection.

After all the anxious waiting during almost two years of doctor visits and tests, Julie was informed that she had passed the evaluation and had been approved for stem cell transplant.I came home to mentally prepare myself, said Julie. I returned to Chicago for the mobilization phase. I received a dose of chemo overnight in the hospital to suppress my immune disease. A week later I then started to give myself injections to produce white blood cells using neupogen. This medication forces the bone marrow to put out extra white blood cells, from which stem cells originate.

After six days of injections, Julie returned to the hospital to have the stem cells removed from her blood for use at a later date. She had to stay in Chicago during this part of treatment in case she had complications from the procedure. The process was similar to dialysis, said Julie. I was at the hospital all day, 12 hours. My own stem cells had been harvested to heal me. After two weeks of rest at home in Leavenworth, Julie returned to Chicago for the transplant. And after five days of more chemo, her stem cells were returned to her body. Now we only had to wait for the transplant to work, said Julie. I stayed in the hospital until the cells engrafted and my immune system started working again. Eight days.I had been in the hospital for 16 days. The transplant is a reboot to your diseased immune system like a reboot to your computer.Julie returned to Leavenworth to rest and recover. My entire family have been tremendously supportive, she said. They offered and provided all of the help that I needed to achieve this treatment.

She is also grateful to the community of Leavenworth for reaching out to help her. They donated money for my out-of-pocket expenses, said Julie. They provided food upon my return from Chicago. I didn't have to cook, nor did my husband for six weeks. Family cleaned my home and watched my children. I was grateful.

Social media also provided support during Julies treatment. She discovered a network of people on Facebook who had already had a transplant, or were waiting to have one. Stem cells are used to treat many auto-immune disorders like multiple sclerosis, lupus, Crohns disease, and many others, said Julie. I could pose any question to this forum and receive an answer. I started my own Facebook page to document my medical treatment so that I too could share my information. It has been wonderful to help others who are experiencing what I have been through.

Julie has just returned from her one-year checkup in Chicago and learned that the progression of the disease has stopped. Stem cell transplant has saved my life, said Julie. I am living, not merely existing.Not only has the disease been stopped in its tracks, Julie has seen physical improvements such as full motion in her shoulder, which was frozen from hardened tissue for much of the last few years. Her contracted hands are also more mobile and she has gained 40 degrees movement in some of her fingers.

I have Raynaud's syndrome, said Julie. It has improved. It was a constant struggle to keep my hands and feet warm. The pain in my hands is mostly gone. The all-over joint pain is gone. The fatigue and malaise are gone. I feel good. I feel happy.As she has regained her back strength and dexterity she is now able to enjoy the routine of normal days, like rising from a chair without pain, sleeping and eating well and even doing simple tasks such as opening a jar, which was difficult after her diagnosis.Everyday tasks were difficult, said Julie. Deodorant, flossing, brushing teeth or hair, dressing. All of the daily activities have gotten easier everyday. The pain is mostly gone.My body feels healthy.

Julie has gained much more than flexibility and relief from constant pain during her long medical challenge, and she emphasizes, I learned to not sweat the small stuff. I learned to live every day. I learned to love every day.

Link:
IN-DEPTH: Fighting for your life - Leavenworth Times

Recommendation and review posted by sam

In the days after a heart attack, surviving patients and their loved ones can breathe a sigh of relief that the immediate danger is over but the scar tissue that forms during the long healing process can inflict lasting damage. Too often it restricts the hearts ability to fill properly between beats, disrupting rhythm and ultimately leading to heart failure. Yet a new possible treatment may help to revitalize an injured ticker.

A cadre of scientists and companies is now trying to prevent or reverse cardiac damage by infusing a cocktail of stem cells into weakened hearts. One company, Melbourne, Australiabased Mesoblast, is already in late-stage clinical trials, treating hundreds of chronic heart failure patients with stem cell precursors drawn from healthy donors hip bones. A randomized trial that includes a placebo group is scheduled to complete enrollment next year.

Mesoblasts earlier-stage trials, published in 2015 inCirculation Research, found that patients who received injections of its cell mixture had no further problems related to heart failure.

Promising results from the new trial would be a major step forward for a field that has long been criticized for studies that are poorly designed, incomplete or lack control-group comparisons, as well as for the peddling of unproved therapies in many clinics worldwide.

Another company, Belgium-based TiGenix, hopes to attack scar tissue before it forms by treating patients with a mixture of heart stem cells within seven days of a heart attack. This approach has just completed phase II trials, but no findings have yet been published.

There are still many unanswered questions about how stem cells typically derived from bones could help heal the heart. Leading theories suggest they may help fight inflammation, revitalize existing heart cells, or drive those cells to divide or promote new blood-vessel growth, says Richard Lee, leader of the cardiovascular program at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. Other stem cell scientists, including Joshua Hare, who conducted earlier-stage Mesoblast research and directs the Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute at the University of Miami, say the cells may work in multiple ways to heal scar tissue. According to Hare, the stem cells could ultimately be a truly regenerative treatment.

More:
Stem cell therapy for heart failure gets a gold-standard trial - Salon

Recommendation and review posted by sam

Celebrity deaths often spawn inheritance lawsuits. And after Juan Gabriels (real name Alberto Aguilera) sudden death last year, lawsuits and paternity and inheritance claims have followed.

At least one of those has encountered a legal roadblock after a Los Angeles Superior Court denied a motion seeking DNA paternity testing.

In the decision handed down Thursday(Aug. 10), judge Brenda J. Penny, Commissioner of the Los Angeles Superior Court, denied Joao Aguileras request for genetic testing.

Read more: Mexican Superstar Juan Gabriel Dies at 66

The decision comes in the wake of a petition filed by Joao Aguilera on July 13, 2017, requesting a court order authorizing the County Coroners office to release a portion of Juan Gabriels remains for DNA testing. The petition, filed by Joao Aguilera, states that he is Juan Gabriels son, and that the fact is noted on his birth certificate.

In turn, Ivan Aguilera, who is recognized as Juan Gabriels son and is the beneficiary of his estate, filed an opposing motion July 28.

At the time of his death, according to court documents, Juan Gabriel had a Last Will and Testament, dated June 4, 2014, in which Ivan Aguilera is named as the sole beneficiary.

Read more: Juan Gabriel Hologram to Debut at Tribute Concert in Mexico: 'What We've Put Together is Unbelievable'

In a statement provided to Billboard, Ivan Aguileras legal firmLoeb & Loebwrote: We are pleased that the court rejected and denied Joao Aguileras motion, recognizing it as plainly improper and beyond the jurisdiction of any court in the State of California. Ivan Aguilera will continue to do whatever is necessary to honor and give effect to his father Albertos clear wishes and instructions, including those contained in his fathers will.

A copy of the court decision was not available at press time.

Juan Gabriel died a year ago at 66 years of age whilst on a major U.S. tour.

At the time of his death, Juan Gabriel, already one of Latin musics biggest superstars, was arguably at the apex of his career, despite his age.

Read more: Juan Gabriel Sales & Streams Soar Following His Death

He ranked at No. 18 on Billboards 2015 Money Makers list (just below Ed Sheeran and just above Florida Georgia Line), largely thanks to $11.6 million in touring revenue in 2015. He scored the years highest-grossing Latin tour and had the top-selling Latin album, Los Duo, which has moved 131,000 units, according to Nielsen Music.

The week before his death, his latest album, Vestido de Etiqueta: Por Eduardo Magallanes, debuted at No. 1 on Billboards Top Latin Albums chart. In the fall, Telemundo will begin airing a TV series based on his life.

After his death, different claims have been made to his estate, including from Joao Aguilera and Luis Alberto Aguilera, who both claim to be his children.

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Court Denies Genetic Testing in Juan Gabriel Estate Case - Billboard

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

NEW YORK, Aug. 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --Prenatal genetic tests, which are predominantly used to test disorders such as aneuploidies in chromosomes 21, 18, and 13, and carrier screens, are gaining momentum in the United States due to enhanced assay outcomes through non-invasive methodologies, increased popularity through social media channels, and the growing number of women choosing to undergo pregnancy at an advanced maternal age.

Read the full report: http://www.reportlinker.com/p05057845/Growth-Opportunities-in-the-US-Prenatal-Genetic-Testing-Market-Forecast-to.html

The growth in demand has led to a high level of merger and acquisition activity, apart from numerous collaborations, which in turn has bolstered the product portfolio of several companies in the women's healthcare segment. With this accelerated growth, companies are exploring new avenues to market their products, thereby strategically tying up with IVF clinics, physicians, and OBGYNs. New business models like direct to consumer (DTC) are seeing increased uptake due to ease of use and hassle-free processing. Partnerships with Big Data companies will be the next big leap in the prenatal genetic testing market, thereby providing interpretation of vast volumes of data to increase specificity and sensitivity.

Research Scope:

The key objectives of this growth opportunity study are to track the changes in the prenatal genetic testing market landscape in the United States from 2016 to 2021. The study aims to identify growth segments and disruptive companies for investment. Further, it provides an in-depth revenue and market share analysis of 4 key segments, namely, NIPT, carrier screening for cystic fibrosis, invasive tests, and miscarriage tests.

The study highlights industry challenges, growth drivers and restraints, competitive developments, mergers and acquisitions, and investment opportunities. It also discusses the impact of Protecting Access to Medicare Act (PAMA) and the LDT guidelines issued by the FDA, identifies transforming business models, and makes strategic recommendations to understand market dynamics. The study also covers key trends and growth opportunities, game-changing companies, disruptive technologies, and strategic recommendations.

Key questions this study will answer include:

- What are the long-term growth prospects in the market?

- What are the other areas of growth outside NIPT? What are the opportunities to explore in carrier screening and miscarriage screening?

- What are some of the innovative companies to action and to follow?

- How should you price your tests to remain competitive in the market?

- Who are the established market participants and what are their strategies to remain competent in this market?

Read the full report: http://www.reportlinker.com/p05057845/Growth-Opportunities-in-the-US-Prenatal-Genetic-Testing-Market-Forecast-to.html

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

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View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/growth-opportunities-in-the-us-prenatal-genetic-testing-market-forecast-to-2021-300502855.html

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Growth Opportunities in the US Prenatal Genetic Testing Market, Forecast to 2021 - Markets Insider

Recommendation and review posted by simmons