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Newswise LA JOLLA, CADecember 22, 2014Famine, drug abuse and even stress can silence certain genes, causing health problems in generations to come. Now scientists are wonderingcould therapies that change gene expression in parents help their children?

A new study from scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) suggests this is possible. The research showed that the offspring of mice treated with a drug also had delayed onset and reduced symptoms of Huntingtons disease, an inherited, degenerative disease that causes a loss of motor skills, cognitive impairment and death.

This was the first time scientists have shown that drug compounds that benefit parents can also cause changes in genetic expression that benefit offspringin this case, improved memory and motor skills.

One exciting aspect of our study is that the parental drug treatment made the offspring better, not worse, like other compounds known to cause transgenerational effects, said Elizabeth Thomas, associate professor at TSRI who led the new study.

Thomas and her colleagues report their findings online ahead of print in this weeks Early Edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Compound Shows Potential

The Huntingtons Disease Society of America estimates that more than a quarter of a million Americans have the disease or are at risk of inheriting it from a parent. Thomas began studying Huntingtons disease 15 years ago, when she found out that a close friends mother had the disease.

If your mom or dad carries the mutation, you have a 50-50 chance of inheriting the disease, said Thomas. Although there is a test to see if a person will develop Huntingtons, Thomas said many people dont get tested because there are no good treatments to prevent or reduce symptoms.

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TSRI Scientists Find Drug That Helps Huntington's Disease-Afflicted Mice--and Their Offspring

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IMAGE:Authors of the new study include (left to right) Elizabeth Thomas, Ph.D., associate professor at the Scripps Research Institute, and Haiqun Jia, first author and professional scientific collaborator. view more

Credit: Photo courtesy of The Scripps Research Institute.

LA JOLLA, CA--December 22, 2014--Famine, drug abuse and even stress can "silence" certain genes, causing health problems in generations to come. Now scientists are wondering--could therapies that change gene expression in parents help their children?

A new study from scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) suggests this is possible. The research showed that the offspring of mice treated with a drug also had delayed onset and reduced symptoms of Huntington's disease, an inherited, degenerative disease that causes a loss of motor skills, cognitive impairment and death.

This was the first time scientists have shown that drug compounds that benefit parents can also cause changes in genetic expression that benefit offspring--in this case, improved memory and motor skills.

"One exciting aspect of our study is that the parental drug treatment made the offspring better, not worse, like other compounds known to cause transgenerational effects," said Elizabeth Thomas, associate professor at TSRI who led the new study.

Thomas and her colleagues report their findings online ahead of print in this week's Early Edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Compound Shows Potential

The Huntington's Disease Society of America estimates that more than a quarter of a million Americans have the disease or are at risk of inheriting it from a parent. Thomas began studying Huntington's disease 15 years ago, when she found out that a close friend's mother had the disease.

"If your mom or dad carries the mutation, you have a 50-50 chance of inheriting the disease," said Thomas. Although there is a test to see if a person will develop Huntington's, Thomas said many people don't get tested because there are no good treatments to prevent or reduce symptoms.

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Scientists find drug that helps Huntington's disease-afflicted mice -- and their offspring

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A new genetics project could help "unlock a series of secrets about devastating diseases", the NHS says.

Under the scheme, 11 Genomics Medicine Centres are being set up in English hospitals to gather DNA samples to help devise targeted treatments for a wide range of diseases.

It is focusing on cancer and rare genetic diseases.

The aim is to sequence 100,000 genomes within three years in order to develop new tests and drugs.

Doctors will offer suitable patients the opportunity to take part in the scheme.

They will have to agree to have their genetic code and medical records - stripped of anything that could identify them - made available to drugs companies and researchers.

Up to 25,000 cancer patients will have the genetic code of their healthy tissue compared to the genetic code of their tumour.

A giant game of spot-the-difference will then take place to identify the precise mutations in DNA that are causing a patient's tumour.

This would allow targeted medicines to be developed.

Genetic code

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NHS DNA Scheme To Fight Cancer And Genetic Diseases

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During a conversation I had with a doctor a couple of years ago, the subject of cancer diagnoses came up, in a tangential way. She said that not all that many decades ago, a physician who had established that a patient had cancer often wouldnt bother investigating further: since there werent any effective treatments for any kind of cancer, there wasnt much point in finding out what kind of cancer it was. You could try to cut it out, or you could leave it in and see what happened, and that was about it.

Now, of course, that has changed. It matters what cancer you have, because different cancers respond differently to different treatments. As we get better at treating the disease, it pushes us to get better at differentiating them; as we establish the various kinds, it allows us to target drugs more precisely at the ones they work on, so that the drugs themselves become more effective. There is a virtuous circle between diagnostics and treatment that improves both. Thats why the news that the NHS is to open 11 major genomics centres with more to follow around the country is so hugely positive.

Over the past few years, genomics the study of our genetic code has taken off in spectacular style: while it took decades and billions of pounds to sequence the first human genome, now the information in a human cell can be catalogued in a few days for about a grand. This, obviously, opens up huge possibilities for medicine. It renders it practical to record and analyse the genetic code of thousands of people, and to see how small differences in our DNA change our vulnerability to different diseases.

And thats exactly what the NHS plan, with Genomics England, involves. The centres will take the genetic data of 100,000 people, all suitably anonymised, and analyse and record them, making them available to researchers at universities and drug firms. They will also sequence the DNA of 25,000 cancer sufferers, and the DNA of the cancers themselves. Cancer is a disease of the genes the product of mutations which send the cell into uncontrolled reproduction and establishing which genes are vulnerable to which mutations will be vital in defeating its various incarnations.

This has possibilities far beyond cancer, though. To a startling degree, we are freed from the crippling burden of infectious disease. Thats not the case in developing countries, where more than half of all deaths are caused by infection, according to the World Health Organisation; but in the rich West, nearly nine out of 10 of us will die of a non-communicable disease, when something simply goes wrong with our bodies. Sometimes that something goes wrong because of environmental factors smoking, drinking, obesity and sometimes were just unlucky, but our risk of suffering pretty much any non-communicable disease, from heart disease to diabetes to stroke, is influenced by our genes. If we can see which genes tend to be associated with which diseases, doctors can help those at the greatest risk to take steps to avoid it.

An obvious example is breast cancer, which oncologists now think of as at least 10 different diseases. While the average lifetime risk for a woman in the UK is about 12.5 per cent, according to Cancer Research UK, if they have a particular mutation in a gene called BRCA1, that risk goes up to between 60 and 90 per cent. Angelina Jolie was tested and found to have this mutation, and chose to have a double mastectomy as a preventive measure. Less dramatically, statins could be prescribed specifically to those people who are found to be more susceptible to high blood pressure or heart disease, instead of as now giving them to a huge swath of the population in order to help the minority who actually need them. It is the difference between a sniper rifle and a shotgun.

The trick with the genomics revolution will be tying it in to the everyday business of health care in England, and that is where these centres will become vital. When doctors are able to look at a patients genetic information as easily as they can their height and weight, they will be able to target those patients with the interventions that will work best on them true individualised medicine. But that involves making genome sequencing routine, calming understandable fears about privacy, and convincing people to take that first scary step and look at what their genes hold in store for them.

A year or so after my conversation with the doctor about cancer, a close relative was diagnosed with malignant melanoma. It was a horrible, terrifying time. Skin cancer comes in various forms, many of them relatively benign, but melanoma is a killer. And until recently there were no drugs that were effective against it. If caught early, it could be cut off, and you were usually all right; later, once it had got into your system, you were in real trouble. Like the cancers a century ago, there was little point knowing more about what kind of melanoma it was, because you couldnt do much about it.

Luckily (touch wood) my relatives cancer was caught early, and the prognosis is good. But if, heaven forfend, it comes back, there are now drugs that can be used, with some success and the choice of which drug depends on your genes. The genomic revolution is already transforming medicine, and saving the lives of people right now. This is an extraordinary time for medicine.

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Genomics: the revolution that's transforming medicine

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Stem Cells: Tools for Human Genetics and Heart Regeneration
Department of Medicine Grand Rounds presentation by Dr. Charles Murry, professor, Department of Pathology, Bioengineering and Medicine/Cardiology; Director, Center for Cardiovascular Biology;...

By: UWDeptMedicine

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Stem Cells: Tools for Human Genetics and Heart Regeneration - Video

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Sacramento, Calif. (PRWEB) December 22, 2014

Using modified human stem cells, a team of UC Davis scientists has developed an improved gene therapy strategy that in animal models shows promise as a functional cure for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS. The achievement, which involves an improved technique to purify populations of HIV-resistant stem cells, opens the door for human clinical trials that were recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

We have devised a gene therapy strategy to generate an HIV-resistant immune system in patients, said Joseph Anderson, principal investigator of the study and assistant professor of internal medicine. We are now poised to evaluate the effectiveness of this therapy in human clinical trials.

Anderson and his colleagues modified human stem cells with genes that resist HIV infection and then transplanted a near-purified population of these cells into immunodeficient mice. The mice subsequently resisted HIV infection, maintaining signs of a healthy immune system.

The findings are now online in a paper titled Safety and efficacy of a tCD25 pre-selective combination anti-HIV lentiviral vector in human hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells, and will be published in the journal Stem Cells.

Using a viral vector, the researchers inserted three different genes that confer HIV resistance into the genome of human hematopoietic stem cells cells destined to develop into immune cells in the body. The vector also contains a gene which tags the surface of the HIV-resistant stem cells. This allows the gene-modified stem cells to be purified so that only the ones resistant to HIV infection are transplanted. The stem cells were then delivered into the animal models, with the genetically engineered human stem cells generating an HIV-resistant immune system in the mice.

The three HIV-resistant genes act on different aspects of HIV infection one prevents HIV from exposing its genetic material when inside a human cell; another prevents HIV from attaching to target cells; and the third eliminates the function of a viral protein critical for HIV gene expression. In combination, the genes protect against different HIV strains and provide defense against HIV as it mutates.

After exposure to HIV infection, the mice given the bioengineered cells avoided two important hallmarks of HIV infection: a drop in human CD4+ cell levels and a rise in HIV virus in the blood. CD4+ is a glycoprotein found on the surface of white blood cells, which are an important part of the normal immune system. CD4+ cells in patients with HIV infection are carefully monitored by physicians so that therapies can be adjusted to keep them at normal level: If levels are too low, patients become susceptible to opportunistic infections characteristic of AIDS. In the experiments, mice that received the genetically engineered stem cells and infected with two different strains of HIV were still able to maintain normal CD4+ levels. The mice also showed no evidence of HIV virus in their blood.

Although other HIV investigators had previously bioengineered stem cells to be resistant to HIV and conducted clinical trials in human patients, efforts were stymied by technical problems in developing a pure population of the modified cells to be transplanted into patients. During the process of genetic engineering, a significant percentage of stem cells remain unmodified, leading to poor resistance when the entire population of modified cells is transplanted into humans or animal models. In the current investigation, the UC Davis team introduced a handle onto the surface of the bioengineered cells so that the cells could be recognized and selected. This development achieved a population of HIV-resistant stem cells that was greater than 94 percent pure.

Developing a technique to purify the population of HIV-resistant stem cells is the most important breakthrough of this research, said Anderson, whose laboratory is based at the UC Davis Institute for Regenerative Cures. We now have a strategy that shows great promise for offering a functional cure for the disease.

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New Technique for Bioengineering Stem Cells Shows Promise in HIV Resistance

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Cardiovascular diseases remain the biggest cause of deaths worldwide, though over the last two decades, cardiovascular mortality rates have declined in many high-income countries but have increased at an astonishingly fast rate in low- and middle-income countries. The percentage of premature deaths from cardiovascular disease range from 4% in high-income countries to 42% in low-income countries. More than 17 million people died from cardiovascular diseases in 2008. Each year, heart disease kills more Americans than cancer. In recent years, cardiovascular risk in women has been increasing and has killed more women than breast cancer.

Measures to prevent cardiovascular disease may include:

A fairly recent emphasis is on the link between low-grade inflammation that hallmarks atherosclerosis and its possible interventions. C-reactive protein (CRP) is a common inflammatory marker that has been found to be present in increased levels in patients at risk for cardiovascular disease. Also osteoprotegerin which is involved with regulation of a key inflammatory transcription factor called NF-B has been found to be a risk factor of cardiovascular disease and mortality. Studies have shown that Stem Cells have shown the ability to reduce inflammation.

Streaming NIH Database:

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Stem Cell Treatment Heart Disease - ASCI - Asian Stem Cell ...

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San Diego, CA (PRWEB) December 22, 2014

Stemiotics, Inc., a supplier of stem cell generation services, today announced it has licensed key intellectual property pertaining to the application of modified RNA from CELLSCRIPT, LLC of Madison, WI. CELLSCRIPT holds an exclusive license to a portfolio of issued and pending patents based on discoveries made at the University of Pennsylvania covering the use of synthetic messenger RNA (mRNA) containing modified nucleotides to evade antiviral responses in mammalian cells. This breakthrough technology has opened new vistas for the application of mRNA as a gene expression vector in human therapeutics and cell fate manipulation. The license to Stemiotics is for use of modified RNA in the production of human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) for research applications such as disease modeling and drug discovery.

Stemiotics is already using CELLSCRIPT's ultra-low immunogenicity mRNA to reprogram human skin cells into pluripotent stem cells with the potential to become any cell type in the body. In addition to the incorporation of modified nucleotides, CELLSCRIPT's advanced synthetic mRNA is subject to novel purification techniques that virtually eliminate residual innate immune responses to the mRNA on delivery into human or animal cells in vivo or in culture. Stemiotics is committed to applying clinically relevant, state-of-the-art technology in its iPSC derivation pipeline. The company uses only xeno-free reagents at all steps of the process, from the initial expansion of the donor skin cells to the cryogenic preservation of the artificially-induced pluripotent stem cells. Stemiotics employs the most potent cocktail of cellular reprogramming factors currently available, including engineered transcription factors based on IP which has been exclusively licensed to CELLSCRIPT. This sophisticated technology allows Stemiotics to convert human skin cells into pluripotent stem cells in just over a week in feeder-free conditions and without the need for drug-like small molecule accelerants.

Stemiotics believes that the mRNA-based reprogramming system it has developed is the fastest, most productive and safest approach to converting human skin cells into pluripotent stem cells yet devised. The company offers high-throughput iPSC derivation on a fee-for-service basis with fast turnaround times and at a cost of only $1000 per line, an order of magnitude below prevailing industry norms. The licensing relationship with CELLSCRIPT will further enhance Stemiotics position as an emerging leader in the field of cellular reprogramming, with all its great promise for advancing the understanding of disease, the development of new drugs and, ultimately, for cell-based therapies and regenerative medicine.

http://www.stemiotics.com

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Stemiotics Licenses Modified RNA for Cell Reprogramming

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Newswise LOUISVILLE, Ky. Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB) has awarded a grant of $115,000 to the University of Louisville Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, bringing the total of grant funding awarded over the past 50 years from RPB to $3,959,800. The latest grant was awarded Dec. 3.

The funding supports research across a variety of eye diseases and conditions, said Henry J. Kaplan, M.D., department chair, Evans Professor of Ophthalmology and director of UofLs Kentucky Lions Eye Center.

Among research conducted at UofL that RPB helps fund are studies examining the pharmacologic treatment of age-related macular degeneration, gene therapy in retinal degeneration, stem cell therapy in retinal degeneration, genetic mutations in hereditary night blindness, retinopathy of prematurity, autoimmune uveitis and more.

We are grateful for the support from Research to Prevent Blindness, Kaplan said. With this help, we can continue to carry out groundbreaking research on the development, structure and function of the visual system and discover and develop new treatments for ocular disease.

RPB is the worlds leading voluntary organization supporting eye research. Since it was founded in 1960, RPB has channeled hundreds of millions of dollars to medical institutions throughout the United States for research into all blinding eye diseases. For information on RPB, RPB-funded research, eye disorders and the RPB Grants Program, go to http://www.rpbusa.org.

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Research to Prevent Blindness Awards to University of Louisville Reach Almost $4 Million

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Patricia Bacus Genetic Engineering Fall 2014

By: Kim Solez

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Patricia Bacus Genetic Engineering Fall 2014 - Video

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Patients in Greater Manchester are set to spearhead a genetic revolution to help fight cancer and rare diseases.

The citys St Marys Hospital has been named as one of 11 Genomic Medicine Centres, which together will map the complete genetic codes of 100,000 patients.

The three-year project, unveiled by the Prime Minister earlier this year, is a bold bid to transform diagnosis and treatment.

It will allow doctors to learn more about cancer and rare conditions by decoding and exploring human genomes - complete sets of peoples genes.

University of Manchester scientists and doctors at St Marys will work closely with colleagues at Salford Royal, The Christie, Wythenshawe Hospital and the Pennine Acute Hospitals Trust on the project.

Bill Newman, professor of translational Genomic medicine at the Manchester Centre for Genomic Medicine at the University of Manchester and honorary consultant at Central Manchester University Hospitals Trust, said doctors, nurses and scientists at the Manchester Centre for Genomic Medicine, based at St Marys, were delighted to have been selected for the pioneering project.

He said: They plan to work with colleagues to use the new type of genetic testing called whole genome sequencing to find out why some people have certain types of rare health problems and to treat people with cancer more effectively.

The project is expected to revolutionise the future of healthcare. It could improve the prediction and prevention of disease, enable new diagnostic tests, and allow treatments to be personalised.

It could also allow patients with rare conditions to be diagnosed more quickly and unlock the secrets of genetic changes in cancer.

St Marys and The Christie have already been part of a pilot phase of the project.

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St Mary's Hospital to lead genetic revolution in fight against cancer and rare diseases

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A team of Liverpool scientists have been selected to take part in a genetic revolution.

The group will participate in a world-leading project to tackle the genetic causes of cancer and rare diseases.

The North West Coast NHS Genomic Medicine Centre is a partnership led by Liverpool Womens Hospital which will be helping deliver the 100,000 Genomes Project, a three year scheme launched by David Cameron.

Angela Douglas, scientific director for genetics at Liverpool Womens NHS Foundation Trust and chair of the British Society for Genetic Medicine (BSGM), said: The 100,000 Genome Project is welcomed by the BSGM as an exciting and unprecedented development that offers the UK the opportunity of being a leader in the field of genomic medicine.

The project has the potential to transform the future of healthcare.

It could improve the prediction and prevention of disease, enable new and more precise diagnostic tests, and allow personalisation of drugs and other treatments to specific genetic variants.

The initiative involves collecting and decoding 100,000 human genomes complete sets of peoples genes that will enable scientists and doctors to understand more about specific conditions.

Life Sciences Minister George Freeman said: We want to make the UK the best place in the world to design and discover 21st century medicines which is why we have invested in the 100,000 Genomes Project.

We also want to ensure NHS patients benefit which is why we have now selected NHS hospitals to help us sequence genomes on an unprecedented scale and bring better treatments to people with cancers and rare diseases for generations to come.

It is anticipated that around 75,000 people will be involved in this project which will also include some patients who have life threatening or debilitating diseases.

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Liverpool to lead world in genetic cancer research

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Eleven genomic medicine centres (GMC) are the heart of the project, a plan to map 100,000 complete genetic codes of patients. The human genome consists of more than three billion chemical units or "base pairs" that make up the letters of the genetic code - abbreviated to A, T, C, and G. The way the letters pair up on both sides of the double-helix DNA molecule shapes the genome sequence. Mistakes in the pairing can lead to disease.

The project is needed to treat illnesses such as cancer, which can take a variety of forms - breast cancer, for example, has at least 10 - each requiring a different treatment. In the case of breast cancers, more than 70 per cent respond to hormone therapies, but their reaction to the treatment is very varied. The new research centres will create personalised treatment that can be targeted more effectively at each variation of cancer.

The participants in the project will agree to share their genetic code and medical records with drugs companies and researchers. Their DNA will then be examined in order to compare the genetic code of their healthy tissue to the genetic code of their tumour.

It should then be easier to spot the mutations in DNA that are causing the tumour, and so create a more precisely targeted treatment.

Some 15,000 patients with rare diseases will have their genome compared with those of close relatives in order to spot the mutations.

Ultimately the aim is to secure the participation of more than 100 NHS trusts over the project's three-year lifespan. Scientists and doctors hope the 300m initiative will transform medicine by uncovering DNA data that can be used to develop personalised diagnostic procedures and drugs.

More than 100 patients with cancer and rare inherited diseases have already had their genomes sequenced during the project's pilot phase.The first wave of GMCs will be linked to NHS trusts in 11 locations covering London, Manchester, Oxford, Birmingham, Cambridge, Southampton, Exeter and Newcastle.

Professor Mark Caulfield, chief scientist at Genomics England, the Department of Health company set up to deliver the project, strongly defended the decision to let drug companies have access to the data.

"It is absolutely vital if you want to develop maximum benefit from this project that we encourage industry to join us in this," he said. "There's no university in the land that can develop a medicine on its own."

But he pointed out that drug companies would be restricted to using the facility like a reading library. They would be able to work with data, but not take it away.

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How the genomes project could help you

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Genomic Medicine Centres (GMC) are at the heart of the 100,000 Genomes Project, a plan to map 100,000 complete genetic codes of patients. But why is it important? And what does it mean for future health care?

1. By combining DNA samples with patients health records it will improve the prediction and prevention of cancers and rare disease, say experts.

2. The uncovered DNA data can be used to develop personalised diagnostic procedures and drugs, argue scientists and doctors.

3. To reassure patients, strict security measures are in place to protect their identity and private details.

4. 100 patients with cancer and rare inherited diseases have already had their genomes sequenced in a pilot phase of the 100,000 Genomes Project.

5. Between 50,000 and 75,000 people will take part in the project and have their genomes sequenced that figures includes women, men and children.

6. The project will focus on five common cancers breast, bowel, ovarian, lung and CLL leukaemia and 110 inherited conditions.

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12 facts you need to know about the 100,000 Genomes Project

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Spinal Cord Injury: Biomaterials for Stem Cell-Based Therapy: Karen Dubbin, Stanford University
Karen Dubbin, a PhD candidate in the department of materials science and engineering at Stanford Unversity, produced this video as part of a final assignment...

By: California Institute for Regenerative Medicine

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Spinal Cord Injury: Biomaterials for Stem Cell-Based Therapy: Karen Dubbin, Stanford University - Video

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BRUCE MERCER/FAIRFAX NZ

HOPE: Andrew Hunt, pictured with his wife Marie and children Jesse and Samuel faces limited time with his family unless a new form of stem cell treatment can reverse his deterioration from multiple sclerosis.

Andrew Hunt is betting his life on a high-risk, brutal and unproven medical treatment on the other side of the world, in a bid to beat the disease slowly killing him.

The Cambridge-based anaesthetic technician was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis eight years ago.

The news he had the disease, which attacks the nervous system in people's bodies, came just two weeks after Hunt asked his girlfriend Marie for her hand in marriage. They have since tied the knot.

Since then, she has helplessly watched her husband daily endure the characteristic symptoms of the disease: Fatigue, leg spasms, loss of balance, muscle weakness and tightening, and severe heat intolerance.

As is common for those who suffer from multiple sclerosis, Hunt is getting progressively worse. In mid-September, the disease forced him to resign from his job as an anaesthetic technician at Southern Cross Hospital.

His wife and sons - two-year-old Jesse and four-month-old Samuel - have been left with little hope of a stable future

But come early January, Hunt will leave his family for two months to become the first New Zealander to travel to Chicago for a treatment known as Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT).

The treatment is being trialled internationally for multiple sclerosis and is not yet approved in New Zealand. Although it has been labelled a high-risk treatment that is deemed unproven the Hunt family say it's a risk they are willing to take.

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Hunt after cure for MS disease

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stem cell therapy Nephrology Perspectives.Prof. Hussein Sheashaa 18.12.2014
stem cell therapy Nephrology Perspectives.Prof. Hussein Sheashaa 18.12.2014.

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stem cell therapy Nephrology Perspectives.Prof. Hussein Sheashaa 18.12.2014 - Video

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Nola, the only surviving northern white rhinoceros at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, rests at the facility on Dec. 18. / photo by Charlie Neuman * U-T San Diego

When the northern white rhinoceros Angalifu died at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park last week, he left his species a step closer to extinction. Only five of his kind remain, most of them elderly.

However, the gentle, two-ton animal also left behind a part of himself that may let scientists breathe new life into the imperiled species. They plan to use DNA samples preserved in the San Diego Frozen Zoo to create more white rhinos.

In their most ambitious vision something that has never been tried for any creature other than lab mice the researchers aim to coax skin cells from Angalifu and others of his kind to become stem cells, and then sperm and eggs, and then implant the embryos in surrogate rhinos.

This approach would go beyond cloning by producing more genetic diversity in the resulting offspring. Its unclear how long scientists will need to achieve the unprecedented feat, but they remain committed to the years-long effort.

Its really brilliant in retrospect that when animals die, you can freeze some of their cells and theyll last forever, said Jeanne Loring, a stem cell pioneer at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla who is a member of the project.

Angalifu came to the San Diego Zoo in 1990, joining two females, Nola and Noti, who had arrived a year earlier. The easygoing animals were favorites with zookeepers, who enjoyed training them and scratching their thick but sensitive hides.

Northern white rhinos, which once roamed central Africa in Chad, Uganda, Sudan and the Central African Republic, have been nearly wiped out by civil war and poaching. Their horns are valued as dagger handles and are mistakenly seen as an aphrodisiac or medicinal aid.

Researchers and zoo officials in several countries decided to try to preserve the species through captive breeding of the few remaining northern white rhinoceroses.

The San Diego Zoo Safari Park had succeeded in breeding southern white rhinos, a close relative of the northern variety. Nearly 100 southern white calves have been born at the facility.

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Can scientists clone a rhinoceros?

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LCT completes patient implants in Parkinsons trial

Sydney & Auckland, 15 December 2014 - Living Cell Technologies Limited today announced that the final patient has been successfully implanted in its Phase I/IIa clinical trial of regenerative cell therapy NTCELL for Parkinsons disease. The operation took place at Auckland City Hospital last week.

The Phase I/IIa clinical trial, led by Dr Barry Snow, is an open-label investigation of the safety and clinical effects of NTCELL in patients who no longer respond to current therapy. Dr Snow MBChB, FRACP, FRCPC, leads the Auckland Movement Disorders Clinic at the Auckland District Health Board and is an internationally recognised clinician and researcher in Parkinsons disease.

LCT anticipates presenting the results of the 26-week trial at the 19th International Congress of Parkinsons Disease and Movement Disorders in San Diego in June 2015.

Dr Ken Taylor, chief executive, notes that the success of the implant procedure means that LCTs clinical programme remains on track.

The treatment phase of the trial has been completed on schedule. We believe NTCELL has the potential to be the first disease-modifying treatment for patients who are failing the current conventional treatment for Parkinsons disease, said Dr Taylor.

About Living Cell Technologies Living Cell Technologies (LCT) is an Australasian biotechnology company researching and developing cell therapies to treat diseases with high unmet clinical need. LCTs lead product NTCELL is an alginate coated capsule containing clusters of neonatal porcine choroid plexus cells. After transplantation NTCELL functions as a biological factory producing factors to promote new central nervous system growth and repair disease induced nerve degeneration.

NTCELL is in Phase I/IIa clinical trial in New Zealand for the treatment of Parkinsons disease. It has the potential to be used in a number of other central nervous system indications such as Huntingtons, Alzheimers and motor neurone diseases.

LCTs proprietary encapsulation technology, IMMUPEL, allows cell therapies to be used without the need for co-treatment with drugs that suppress the immune system.

LCT holds a 50% interest in Diatranz Otsuka Limited which is developing a cell therapy for type 1 diabetes.

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LCT completes patient implants in Parkinsons trial

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Tom B.K. Goldtooth - Indigenous Environmental Justice | Bioneers
Native American global leader and Executive Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network Tom Goldtooth shows that at the root of indigenous survival is gratitude for the generosity of Mother...

By: Bioneers

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Tom B.K. Goldtooth - Indigenous Environmental Justice | Bioneers - Video

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GENETIC ENGINEERING BIOTECHAWESOME
based on journal paper "gene cloning and soluble expression of Aspergillus niger phytase in E.coli via chaperone co-expression (Ushasree et al.)"

By: SAM SHU CUEN

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GENETIC ENGINEERING BIOTECHAWESOME - Video

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Ive mentioned this technology on ERV before:

Saving the American Chestnut tree from extinction with GMOs

Well the scientists involved think they have finally done it. They have finally made American Chestnut trees resistant to the blight that is literally driving the species to extinction:

Breakthrough at SUNY-ESF: Genetic engineering may save the nearly extinct American chestnut

After 25 years of research, a pair of professors at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry say they have used a gene from wheat to create an American chestnut that could withstand the blight that wiped out up to 5 billion of the trees in the United States.

It is tremendously satisfying to reach this level of success, said ESF professor Chuck Maynard, who worked with fellow professor William Powell to build the blight-resistant tree.

Like how GMO Papaya saved Regular Papaya from extinction, its possible that GMO American Chestnut has not only saved the species from extinction, but also can save Regular American Chestnut. Of course it depends on how the blight is spread, but like papaya, perhaps planting armies of GMO Chestnut around Regular Chestnut trees can provide a buffer to keep the Regular trees blight-free.

It is *amazing*. I LOVE THE FUTURE!!!!

But not everyone is so excited.

Some people would rather the American Chestnut tree go extinct, than have the species survive unclean.

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GMO trees: Saving the American Chestnut tree [erv]

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ITV Report 22 December 2014 at 1:26am Credit: Christoph Bock/Max Planck Institute for Informatics

More than ten years since scientists completed the first sequence of the human genome, today the genetic era will make its grand entrance into mainstream clinical care.

This morning, NHS England launched its 100,000 Genomes Project, a three-year plan to sequence the entire genetic code of thousands of patients with cancers and rare diseases.

The latter includes thousands of conditions that are often named after first doctor or scientist to describe the symptoms in a patient and can involve everything from neurological to muscular or behavioural problems. They are debilitating, often inherited and can shorten life but usually defy doctors trying to identify the biological causes.

The potential for all this genetic information is huge. As well as insights into how cancers and rare diseases work and how they progress, knowing which genetic variations a person has will help doctors work out ways to personalise their treatment by giving them drugs, for example, that specifically target particular problematic genetic mutations. This already happens to some extent in the NHS with drugs such as Herceptin for some types of breast cancer but the potential to improve so-called precision medicine using genetic information is vast.

Genomes have always held the promise to be the cornerstone of healthcare in the 21st century, ever since the draft of the first human genome was published in 2000. The international Human Genome Project (HGP) was a staggering achievement, taking hundreds of researchers more than a decade to piece together the 3 billion letters of the human genetic code, at a cost of around $3bn.

Today, we are learning the language in which God created life, said President Bill Clinton on the morning of 26 June 2000, when the draft of the first human genome sequence was formally announced:

We are gaining ever more awe for the complexity, the beauty, the wonder of God's most divine and sacred gift. With this profound new knowledge, humankind is on the verge of gaining immense, new power to heal.

Genome science will have a real impact on all our lives and even more, on the lives of our children. It will revolutionize the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of most, if not all, human diseases.

Bill Clinton

The rest is here:
NHS starts new era of DNA medicine

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Cancer treatment could be transformed by project to read our DNA Scientists hope it will lead to faster and more accurate diagnosis Predicted genetic revolution will make chemotherapy obsolete in 20 years Project launched today aims to read genetic blueprint of 75,000 volunteers

By Fiona Macrae, Science Correspondent for the Daily Mail

Published: 19:06 EST, 21 December 2014 | Updated: 19:37 EST, 21 December 2014

Cancer treatment could be transformed by a landmark project to read the DNA of thousands of men, women and children.

Scientists believe that unlocking secrets deep in patients' genetic code will lead to faster and more accurate diagnosis, speed the development of 'wonder' drugs and mean better use is made of existing medicines.

It is even predicted that the genetic revolution will make chemotherapy obsolete within 20 years.

The value of genetic testing is demonstrated by Angelina Jolie's experience. Testing revealed that the Hollywood actress carries a mutation of the BRCA1 gene, meaning she had an 87 per cent risk of developing breast cancer and a 50 per cent risk of ovarian cancer. The data led Miss Jolie, 39, to have a preventative double mastectomy

The treatment of rare genetic diseases is also set to benefit from the 100,000 Genomes Project, which will combine genetic data with information from health records to give Britain 'the greatest healthcare system in the world'.

Sir Bruce Keogh, the NHS's medical director, said the 300million initiative puts the UK in a position to 'unlock a series of secrets about devastating diseases which have remained hidden for centuries and to unlock those on behalf of the whole of humankind'.

Professor Mark Caulfield, the project's chief scientist, said: 'If there was just one medicine that came out of this programme that would be well worth the investment.'

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300m bid to find new cancer cures by mapping our DNA: Unlocking genetic code could lead to faster and more accurate ...

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