Is Intelligence Based On Environment Or Genetics

By: Jalyn Beaty

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Is Intelligence Based On Environment Or Genetics - Video

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Electronic pacemakers require invasive surgery to install and carry the risk of infection.

Gene therapy could soon join the electronic pacemaker as a treatment for a weak heart. By inserting a specific gene into heart-muscle cells, researchers can restore a normal heart rate in pigs at least temporarily.

Electronic pacemakers restore regular function to slowing and arrhythmic hearts by using electricity to stimulate their beating a function usually peformed by the sinoatrial node, a cluster of a few thousand cardiac cells that signal the heart to pump at a regular rate. Although implanted pacemakers are widely used, they require an invasive surgery to be installed, carry the risk of infection, and can set off alarms during airport security checks.

To overcome these limitations, a team led by Eduardo Marbn, a cardiologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, sought to coax heart cells outside the sinoatrial node to keep the beat using a less invasive approach. The findings are reported today in Science Translational Medicine1.

In 12 pigs, the team mimicked a fatal human heart condition in which electrical activity cannot spread through the heart from the sinoatrial node, forcing other, weaker parts of the heart to take over. The researchers used high-frequency radiowaves to destroy the pigs' natural pacemaking cells in the sinoatrial node. As a result, the animals' average heart rate slowed to about 50 beats per minute, compared to the normal rate of 100 or more beats per minute.

Then the scientists injected the pigs' hearts with a virus that had been modified to carry a pig gene, Tbx18, involved in heart development. Within a day, heart cells infected with the virus began expressing a variety of pacemaking genes and pumping the heart at a normal rate. The animals maintained this steady beating for the two-week study period, whether resting, moving or sleeping.

Marbn says that his method is simpler than other biological approaches to steady irregularly beating hearts, such as inducing cardiac muscle cells to a pluripotent state, then coaxing them to differentiate into pacemaker cells. But he cautions that the effect of the gene therapy may be temporary. Over time, the bodys immune system is likely to recognize the virus used to deliver Tbx18 to the heart and attack infected cells. Marbn's team is now monitoring pigs that have received the gene-therapy treatment for several months to see how long the pacemaker effect persists.

But even if the treatment's effects are limited, it could still prove useful, says Marbn. For example, if a person's electronic pacemaker becomes infected and must be removed, a biological pacemaker could keep the heart pumping steadily until the infection clears and a new device can be implanted. The gene-therapy approach could also help fetuses with heart defects, as well as children who quickly outgrow implanted pacemakers or people for whom surgery is too risky.

I think its a truly creative idea, says Ira Cohen, a cardiac electrophysiologist at Stony Brook University Medical Center in New York. He would like to see the therapy tested in dogs, whose average heart rate is more similar to that of humans' 60-100 beats per minute..

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Gene therapy creates biological pacemaker

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Researchers say they've found a way to transform ordinary pig heart muscle cells into a "biological pacemaker," a feat that might one day lead to the replacement of electronic pacemakers in humans.

"Rather than having to undergo implantation with a metallic device that needs to be replaced regularly and can fail or become infected, patients may someday be able to undergo a single gene injection and be cured of slow heart rhythm forever," said senior study author Dr. Eugenio Cingolani, director of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute's Cardiogenetics-Familial Arrhythmia Clinic, in Los Angeles.

Using gene therapy, the researchers altered a peppercorn-sized area in the heart muscle of pigs to create a new "sino-atrial node" -- the bundle of neurons that normally serves as the heart's natural pacemaker.

The technique kept alive a handful of pigs suffering from complete heart block, a condition in which the heart beats very slowly or not at all due to problems in the heart's electrical system.

The biological pacemaker also appeared to function as well as an original sino-atrial node and better than typical electronic pacemakers, said study co-author Dr. Eduardo Marban, director of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, in Los Angeles.

"When we exercise, our hearts go faster. When we rest, our hearts slow down," Marban said. "The pigs with the biological pacemaker faithfully reproduced these responses, which were absent in 'control' pigs that had been treated only with an electronic pacemaker."

About 300,000 electronic pacemakers are placed in humans in the United States each year, at an annual cost of $8 billion, Marban said. They work by sending electrical pulses to the heart if it is beating too slowly or if it misses a beat.

The key to the new procedure is a gene called TBX18, which converts ordinary heart cells into specialized sino-atrial node cells, Marban said.

The heart's sino-atrial node initiates the heart beat like a metronome, using electric impulses to time the contractions that send blood flowing through people's arteries and veins, the scientists explained. People with abnormal heart rhythms suffer from a defective sino-atrial node.

Researchers injected the gene into a very small area of the pumping chambers of pigs' hearts. The gene transformed the heart cells into a new pacemaker.

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Gene therapy could create "biological pacemaker"

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

NEW YORK, July 16 (UPI) --Pacemakers are one of modern medicine's great inventions. The mechanical timekeeping device essentially salvages failing hearts, saving 3,000 lives every year. Despite their accomplishments, scientists have been looking for an alternative: A way to avoid the invasive surgery -- and the associated risks -- required by traditional pacemakers.

A new gene therapy technique suggests humans may be able to just grow their own. While the technique hasn't yet been tested on humans, it has offered promising results in experiments on mice and now, most recently, on pigs.

The technique is as follows: scientists inject a gene called TBX18 into heart muscle cells. The gene causes normal heart cells to transform into the type of special cells that dictate the speed of the pumping heart. The genes actually aren't injected directly into the heart, but are loaded onto deactivated cold viruses which infect the heart cells and deliver the new code.

"This development heralds a new era in gene therapy, where genes are used not only to correct deficiency disorders but to convert one cell to another to treat disease," said Dr. Eduardo Marban -- director of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, in New York, and author of the new pig study, which was featured this week in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

A few days after being injected with the TBX-infected viruses, pigs with withering pacemakers had faster pulses. Their heart also showed the ability to speed up and slow down during exercise.

But Marban and his colleagues say more research is needed to determine potential side effects, like what would happen if the virus somehow enabled the transformation of regular-to-pacemaker cells in two different places.

Still, the new study is promising.

"Now that we and others are hot on the trail of developing therapeutics based on this principle of cell reprogramming," Marban added, "I anticipate that the flood gates will open and people will look for genes of interest to do whatever they want in particular organs or tissues of interest."

2014 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

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Gene therapy helps pigs grow their own pacemakers

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Researchers have succeeded in turning ordinary cardiac muscle cells into specialized ones that deliver a steady heartbeat using a gene therapy procedure they predict could become an alternative to implanted electronic pacemakers.

A study published on Wednesday involved pigs with a condition called heart block that makes their hearts beat too slowly. By injecting a human gene into a tiny region of the heart's pumping chambers roughly the size of a peppercorn, the researchers reprogrammed heart muscle cells into a type of cell that emits electrical impulses to drive the beating heart.

In doing so, cardiologists at Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles created "biological pacemaker" cells that restored a normal heart rate in the pigs. The procedure achieved the same result as implanting an electronic pacemaker that sends electrical pulses to the heart if it beats too slowly or skips a beat.

"This development heralds a new era of gene therapy where genes are used not only to correct a deficiency disorder but actually to convert one type of cell into another to treat disease," Dr. Eduardo Marbn, director of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute and leader of the research team, told reporters.

The researchers noted that pig hearts are very similar to human hearts. Dr. Eugenio Cingolani, director of the institute's Cardiogenetics-Familial Arrhythmia Clinic, said "if all goes well" in further animal studies examining the procedure's long-term effectiveness and safety, "we hope to be able to begin trials in humans within three years."

The researchers envision using the procedure initially to help people with heart rhythm disorders who cannot use a pacemaker because of device-related complications like an infection or in fetuses in the womb with congenital heart block.

Such fetuses cannot have a pacemaker implanted and risk severe heart failure often resulting in stillbirth. The researchers hope to develop an injection-based treatment to deliver the gene therapy to these developing babies.

They said down the road the procedure might be used in a broader patient population as a realistic alternative to the pacemaker. Marbn said about 2 percent of pacemakers lead to an infection requiring treatment. In the United States alone, about 300,000 people get pacemakers annually.

"Rather than having to undergo implantation with a metallic device that needs to be replaced regularly and can fail or become infected, patients may someday be able to undergo a single gene injection and be cured of the slow heart rhythm forever," Cingolani said.

Using a minimally invasive catheter procedure, the researchers injected pigs that had complete heart block with a gene called TBX18 that is responsible for a protein that makes the heart keep the right rhythm. On the second day after the gene was injected, the pigs developed a faster, more normal heartbeat that lasted for the rest of the 14-day experiment.

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Gene therapy creates a biological pacemaker that could someday replace implanted ones

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

16-Jul-2014

Contact: Sally Stewart sally.stewart@cshs.org 310-248-6566 Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

LOS ANGELES (STRICTLY EMBARGOED UNTIL 2 P.M. EDT ON JULY 16, 2014) Cardiologists at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute have developed a minimally invasive gene transplant procedure that changes unspecialized heart cells into "biological pacemaker" cells that keep the heart steadily beating.

The laboratory animal research, published online and in today's print edition of the peer-reviewed journal Science Translational Medicine, is the result of a dozen years of research with the goal of developing biological treatments for patients with heart rhythm disorders who currently are treated with surgically implanted pacemakers. In the United States, an estimated 300,000 patients receive pacemakers every year.

"We have been able, for the first time, to create a biological pacemaker using minimally invasive methods and to show that the biological pacemaker supports the demands of daily life," said Eduardo Marbn, MD, PhD, director of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, who led the research team. "We also are the first to reprogram a heart cell in a living animal in order to effectively cure a disease."

These laboratory findings could lead to clinical trials for humans who have heart rhythm disorders but who suffer side effects, such as infection of the leads that connect the device to the heart, from implanted mechanical pacemakers.

Eugenio Cingolani, MD, the director of the Heart Institute's Cardiogenetics-Familial Arrhythmia Clinic who worked with Marbn on biological pacemaker research team, said that in the future, pacemaker cells also could help infants born with congenital heart block.

"Babies still in the womb cannot have a pacemaker, but we hope to work with fetal medicine specialists to create a life-saving catheter-based treatment for infants diagnosed with congenital heart block," Cingolani said. "It is possible that one day, we might be able to save lives by replacing hardware with an injection of genes."

"This work by Dr. Marbn and his team heralds a new era of gene therapy, in which genes are used not only to correct a deficiency disorder, but to actually turn one kind of cell into another type," said Shlomo Melmed, dean of the Cedars-Sinai faculty and the Helene A. and Philip E. Hixson Distinguished Chair in Investigative Medicine.

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Transplanting gene into injured hearts creates biological pacemakers

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Insight: Stem Cells -- Perry and Matt
Perry Cross and Matt Battista share their experiences trying highly experimental stem cell therapy to treat a spinal cord injury. Catch the full episode on Tuesday, July 15 at 8:30pm AEST on...

By: Insight SBS

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Insight: Stem Cells -- Perry and Matt - Video

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Freeport, Bahamas (PRWEB) July 15, 2014

Okyanos Heart Institute, a leader in cardiac adult stem cell therapy, has selected Perkins Healthcare Technologies to provide video integration solutions for its new state-of-the-art cardiac catheterization lab. The video integration system is paired with Phillips equipment, creating a top-grade comprehensive solution for the cath lab by providing the ability to view high definition clinical cardiac procedures video information on a large screen collaged layout 8-megapixel display. Built to US surgical standards, the lab equipment is being installed over the next few weeks, bringing the highest standard of care and most advanced technology to cardiac care.

Okyanos Heart Institute utilizes adult stem cells derived from ones own adipose (fat) tissue, placing them in the heart to help it repair damaged or diseased tissue. This is done using a minimally invasive catheterization procedure, as demonstrated in multiple rigorous clinical trials from around the world.

Okyanos Chief Medical Officer Howard T. Walpole, Jr., M.D., M.B.A., F.A.C.C., F.A.C.A.I. noted, The most important functions of the video integration system are to provide high quality images with the right projections of the image. When you visualize a heart, you need to be able to get a complex angle to see the back side of the heart. This enables the cardiologist to deliver the stem cells where they are most needed. The size of the image detector is smaller and the more flexible positioner makes it easier to pivot around the patients body to obtain those difficult views.

Perkins Healthcare Technologies has been providing clinical video integration solutions for over 25 years and looks forward to bringing its expertise to Okyanos Heart Institute. We are very excited to have our state-of-the-art video integration system included as a part of this innovative solution for cardiac care. Our video integration system provides Okyanos a flexible solution to meet its staff needs, said Steve Plaugher, COO of Perkins Healthcare Technologies. Instead of having to assimilate patient data from multiple sources and locations, the staff can now access and view this information in their respective work area in an instant.

The combination of Okyanos adult stem cell treatments and Perkins state-of-the-art video integration solutions are designed to enhance patient care, improve the quality of life and deliver an exceptional patient experience.

To learn more about Okyanos and cardiac stem cell therapy, take a few minutes to view this video or visit http://www.Okyanos.com.

To learn more about Perkins and its clinical video integration and control technology, visit http://www.PerkinsHealthcareTechnologies.com for information on Perkins Solutions.

About Okyanos Heart Institute: (Oh key AH nos) Based in Freeport, Grand Bahama, Okyanos Heart Institutes mission is to bring a new standard of care and a better quality of life to patients with coronary artery disease using cardiac stem cell therapy. Okyanos adheres to U.S. surgical center standards and is led by CEO Matt Feshbach and Chief Medical Officer Howard T. Walpole Jr., M.D., M.B.A., F.A.C.C., F.A.C.A.I. Okyanos Treatment utilizes a unique blend of stem and regenerative cells derived from ones own adipose (fat) tissue. The cells, when placed into the heart via a minimally-invasive catheterization, stimulate the growth of new blood vessels, a process known as angiogenesis. Angiogenesis facilitates blood flow in the heart and supports intake and use of oxygen (as demonstrated in rigorous clinical trials such as the PRECISE trial). The literary name Okyanos, the Greek god of rivers, symbolizes restoration of blood flow.

About Perkins Healthcare Technologies: Perkins Healthcare Technologies has designed, developed, manufactured and distributed clinical video integration solutions for more than 25 years. Perkins vendor neutral video integration solutions work seamlessly with new or existing imaging, surgical, or hybrid procedure suites; complementing the functionality, improving workflow, and providing critical patient information to the stakeholder where and when they need it.

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Okyanos & Perkins Partner for Cardiac Stem Cell Therapy Innovation

Recommendation and review posted by simmons

Nicola Cockx[THE COCKX FAMILY]

Nicola Cockx, 35, was so intent on having a child that she postponed having chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant for fear it would risk the health of her future child.

Instead she fought Multiple Myeloma - a form of bone marrow cancer which affects plasma cells- by using holistic methods of treatment and even completed a one year nutrition course to help with a healthy diet.

But, tragically, Mrs Cockx, from Little Bollington, Cheshire, passed away in February 2013, eight months after giving birth to her daughter Harriet.

She had began limping in July 2008 and three months later as she was about to see an orthopaedic specialist she slipped and broke her femur whilst on business trip in Germany with her father John Flowers, who runs a glazing company.

Mrs Cockx's husband Rudy, 39, an IT consultant, told a Manchester inquest: "Following the leg break in the hip area the multiple myeloma was diagnosed. It was extremely stressful."

The condition affects places in the body where there is bone marrow such as the spine, hips, skull and pelvis.

Nicola Cockx with her husband, Rudy [THE COCKX FAMILY]

Mr Cockx said his wife was initially treated with radiotherapy in the area of her hip where the cancer had struck but despite this she sought alternative medication and therapy.

She even considered an autologous stem cell transplant - where your own stem cells are removed and blasted with chemotherapy- but she backed out last minute for fear the chemo toxins would affect her fertility.

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Woman who delayed cancer treatment to give birth died eight months after becoming a mother

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Karen Mitchell, 39, was inspired after reading plight of Alice Pyne Teenager lost battle with rare form of cancer in January 2013, aged 17 Before she died she urged people to join the bone marrow register Ms Mitchell tweeted Alice to promise she would - and teenager was delighted Butat 25st and with a BMI of 60, Ms Mitchell was rejected for being too fat Has now lost 11st 7lb and next week will donate bone marrow stem cells

By Anna Hodgekiss

Published: 05:19 EST, 15 July 2014 | Updated: 05:47 EST, 15 July 2014

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A woman so inspired by the plight of a young girl dying from cancer shed 11st in order to help other people battling the disease.

Encouraged by a tweet from terminally ill Alice Pyne, Karen Mitchell created her own 'bucket list', which included losing weight and saving lives.

Pride Of Britain winner Alice, who had fought Hodgkin's lymphoma from the age of 12, took to social media to urge people to join the bone marrow register.

Karen Mitchell shed 11st 7lb after promising a dying teenager she would join the bone marrow register

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Woman loses 11st after promise to join bone marrow register

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Freeport, Bahamas (PRWEB) July 15, 2014

Okyanos Heart Institute, a leader in cardiac adult stem cell therapy, has selected Perkins Healthcare Technologies to provide video integration solutions for its new state-of-the-art cardiac catheterization lab. The video integration system is paired with Phillips equipment, creating a top-grade comprehensive solution for the cath lab by providing the ability to view high definition clinical cardiac procedures video information on a large screen collaged layout 8-megapixel display. Built to US surgical standards, the lab equipment is being installed over the next few weeks, bringing the highest standard of care and most advanced technology to cardiac care.

Okyanos Heart Institute utilizes adult stem cells derived from ones own adipose (fat) tissue, placing them in the heart to help it repair damaged or diseased tissue. This is done using a minimally invasive catheterization procedure, as demonstrated in multiple rigorous clinical trials from around the world.

Okyanos Chief Medical Officer Howard T. Walpole, Jr., M.D., M.B.A., F.A.C.C., F.A.C.A.I. noted, The most important functions of the video integration system are to provide high quality images with the right projections of the image. When you visualize a heart, you need to be able to get a complex angle to see the back side of the heart. This enables the cardiologist to deliver the stem cells where they are most needed. The size of the image detector is smaller and the more flexible positioner makes it easier to pivot around the patients body to obtain those difficult views.

Perkins Healthcare Technologies has been providing clinical video integration solutions for over 25 years and looks forward to bringing its expertise to Okyanos Heart Institute. We are very excited to have our state-of-the-art video integration system included as a part of this innovative solution for cardiac care. Our video integration system provides Okyanos a flexible solution to meet its staff needs, said Steve Plaugher, COO of Perkins Healthcare Technologies. Instead of having to assimilate patient data from multiple sources and locations, the staff can now access and view this information in their respective work area in an instant.

The combination of Okyanos adult stem cell treatments and Perkins state-of-the-art video integration solutions are designed to enhance patient care, improve the quality of life and deliver an exceptional patient experience.

To learn more about Okyanos and cardiac stem cell therapy, take a few minutes to view this video or visit http://www.Okyanos.com.

To learn more about Perkins and its clinical video integration and control technology, visit http://www.PerkinsHealthcareTechnologies.com for information on Perkins Solutions.

About Okyanos Heart Institute: (Oh key AH nos) Based in Freeport, Grand Bahama, Okyanos Heart Institutes mission is to bring a new standard of care and a better quality of life to patients with coronary artery disease using cardiac stem cell therapy. Okyanos adheres to U.S. surgical center standards and is led by CEO Matt Feshbach and Chief Medical Officer Howard T. Walpole Jr., M.D., M.B.A., F.A.C.C., F.A.C.A.I. Okyanos Treatment utilizes a unique blend of stem and regenerative cells derived from ones own adipose (fat) tissue. The cells, when placed into the heart via a minimally-invasive catheterization, stimulate the growth of new blood vessels, a process known as angiogenesis. Angiogenesis facilitates blood flow in the heart and supports intake and use of oxygen (as demonstrated in rigorous clinical trials such as the PRECISE trial). The literary name Okyanos, the Greek god of rivers, symbolizes restoration of blood flow.

About Perkins Healthcare Technologies: Perkins Healthcare Technologies has designed, developed, manufactured and distributed clinical video integration solutions for more than 25 years. Perkins vendor neutral video integration solutions work seamlessly with new or existing imaging, surgical, or hybrid procedure suites; complementing the functionality, improving workflow, and providing critical patient information to the stakeholder where and when they need it.

See original here:
Okyanos & Perkins Partner for Cardiac Stem Cell Therapy Innovation

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

After looking at a thousand human brains over nearly a decade, Montreal researchers have found a genetic variation that delays the onset of Alzheimers disease by as many as five years.

Researchers are particularly excited because the gene in question regulates cholesterol, already the focus of heavy research and a target for drug development. This latest finding provides genetic support for the idea that Alzheimers can be prevented by inhibiting the cholesterol-regulating gene.

Its a very good study, said Weihong Song, Canada Research Chair in Alzheimers disease. The research provides new insight into the molecular mechanism leading to Alzheimers disease.

The research was performed by Judes Poirier and his team at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute. They found that a variant of a cholesterol-regulating gene, which makes the enzyme HMG CoA reductase, delays the onset of Alzheimers.

If you have [the variant], the disease will start roughly four to five years later, said Dr. Poirier, lead author of the study published Tuesday in Molecular Psychiatry. About a quarter of the population carries the variation, but a drug could potentially be developed to mimic the effect of the variation in non-carriers.

Scientists already know a lot about HMG CoA reductase this enzyme, responsible for deciding whether or not the body makes cholesterol, is inhibited by a group of drugs called statins, better known for their role in fighting heart disease. Most people think of heart disease when they hear the word cholesterol, but it plays a huge role in the brain as well.

The brain is the organ with the highest concentration of cholesterol in the entire body, Dr. Poirier said.

Even though the brain is only 2 per cent of our total body mass, it contains 25 per cent of all our cholesterol. Thats because the brain is full of neurons that send information to each other and all these connections are insulated by cholesterol.

The Alzheimers community has long known about a link between cholesterol and the disease. Some research has found that high cholesterol levels may raise the risk of Alzheimers. Previous correlational studies have found that users of old varieties of statins had less Alzheimers disease than non-users.

The next step is to develop a brain-specific statin and run a trial to confirm whether or not it consistently delays the onset of Alzheimers. But it may be difficult to find funding for a multimillion-dollar drug trial.

Link:
Research finds gene that delays onset of Alzheimers

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

15-Jul-2014

Contact: Kathryn Ruehle kruehle@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

New Rochelle, NY, July 15, 2014Alcohol dependence (AD) has a genetic component and testing can determine a person's genetic risk for susceptibility to AD. A new study shows that while more than 85% of the African American adults expressed an interest in genetic testing for AD susceptibility, many had ethical, privacy, and procedural concerns, as reported in Genetic Testing and Molecular Biomarkers, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available on the Genetic Testing and Molecular Biomarkers website.

Denise Scott and coauthors from Howard University (Washington, DC) and Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health (Baltimore, MD) offered hypothetical genetic testing for AD susceptibility to more than 300 African American adults to determine their interest level. The researchers documented the factors that contributed to an interest in being tested and those that might keep people from undergoing genetic risk assessment due to concerns over the testing methods and how the results would be used in the article "Genetic Testing for the Susceptibility to Alcohol Dependence: Interest and Concerns in an African American Population."

"The article documents the interest the African American community has about a possible genetic basis for alcoholism tempered by a real concern about privacy," says Kenneth I. Berns, MD, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of Genetic Testing and Molecular Biomarkers, and Director of the University of Florida's Genetics Institute, College of Medicine, Gainesville, FL.

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About the Journal

Genetic Testing and Molecular Biomarkers is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published 12 times per year in print and online that reports on all aspects of genetic testing, including molecular and biochemical based tests and varied clinical situations; ethical, legal, social, and economic aspects of genetic testing; and issues concerning effective genetic counseling. Tables of content and a free sample issue may be viewed on the Genetic Testing and Molecular Biomarkers website

About the Publisher

See the article here:
Genetic testing for alcohol dependence risk in African Americans

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

15-Jul-2014

Contact: Kathryn Ruehle kruehle@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

New Rochelle, NY, July 15, 2014A new, validated software-based method for identifying patients with newly diagnosed HIV using electronic medical records (EMRs) is described in AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses website at http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/aid.2013.0287 until August 15, 2014.

Providing medical care early on to people with newly diagnosed HIV infection is important for improving clinical outcomes. Study authors Matthew Bidwell Goetz and Tuyen Hoang, VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System and David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA; Virginia Kan, Washington DC VA Medical Center and George Washington University School of Medicine; David Rimland, Atlanta VA Medical Center and Emory University School of Medicine; and Maria Rodriguez-Barradas, Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center and Baylor University School of Medicine, Houston, TX, developed an algorithm designed to search EMRs to identify patients with new diagnoses of HIV infection based on the sequence of HIV diagnostic testing, diagnostic code entries into the EMR, and measurements of HIV genetic material in blood samples. They tested and validated their software tool using EMRs from patients undergoing HIV testing from 2006-2012 at four large Veterans Health Administration facilities.

The authors report the sensitivity, specificity, and predictive value of the algorithm in the article "Development and Validation of an Algorithm to Identify Patients Newly Diagnosed with HIV Infection from Electronic Health Records."

"This paper describes new and valuable methodologies that will enhance the ability of public health officials to monitor increases in newly infected HIV populations," says Thomas Hope, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses and Professor of Cell and Molecular Biology at the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL. "This will help to determine where healthcare resources for HIV-positive patients and testing for highest risk patients could be utilized more effectively. This will surely aid in facilitating the fight against HIV/AIDS."

###

About the Journal

AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses is published monthly in print and online. The Journal presents papers, reviews, and case studies documenting the latest developments and research advances in the molecular biology of HIV and SIV and innovative approaches to HIV vaccine and therapeutic drug research, including the development of antiretroviral agents and immune-restorative therapies. The content also explores the molecular and cellular basis of HIV pathogenesis and HIV/HTLV epidemiology. The Journal features rapid publication of emerging sequence information and reports on clinical trials of emerging HIV therapies. Tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses website at http://www.liebertpub.com/aid.

Original post:
Identifying newly diagnosed HIV-infected people using electronic medical records

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Averill Park, NY (PRWEB) July 15, 2014

How meditation can alter our genetic code to provide good health and wellness will be among the topics discussed at The American Meditation Institutes (AMI) sixth annual mind/body medicine CME conference on meditation and yoga November 5-9, 2014 at the Cranwell Resort and Spa in Lenox, Massachusetts. Entitled American Meditation: The Heart and Science of Yoga, this comprehensive physician training is accredited through the Albany Medical College Office of Continuing Medical Education.

If there's one mental practice that has stood the test of time and rigorous laboratory testing, its meditation. According to a recent article published in the Psychoneuroendocrinology, journal, a new clinical study reports that mindfulness meditation training can lead to epigenetic alterations of the genome. These changes down-regulate genes previously implicated in inflammation and accelerate cortisol recovery time from social stress. "To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper that shows rapid alterations in gene expression within subjects associated with mindfulness meditation practice," says study author Richard J. Davidson, founder of the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds and Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

As part of AMIs Yoga of Medicine program, this conference is dedicated to providing quality, comprehensive and evidence-based education to physicians and other health care providers. This CME course will offer a broad curriculum of Yoga Science as mind/body medicine to ward off stressful burnout for physicians while providing tools to enhance self-care for patients. Topics include mantra meditation, diaphragmatic breathing, easy-gentle yoga, Yoga psychology, chakra system therapy, mind function optimization, epigenomics, ayurveda, nutrition, functional medicine, and lymph system detoxification.

Each faculty member at this years CME conference is committed to the advancement and training of Yoga Science as holistic mind/body medicine. Presenters will include Leonard Perlmutter, AMI founder, meditational therapist and award-winning author; Mark Pettus MD, Director of Medical Education and Population Health at Berkshire Health Systems; Susan Lord MD, faculty member and holistic health consultant for Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health; Kathie Swift MS RDN LDN, leading educator, practitioner and author in the field of integrative nutrition; Beth Netter MD MT, holistic physician and acupuncturist, Albany, NY; Rosy Mann BAMS, Ayurvedic practitioner specializing in womens health and senior faculty member of Kripalu School of Ayurveda; Jenness Cortez Perlmutter, co-founder and faculty member of The American Meditation Institute.

Since 1995, Mr. Perlmutter has lectured extensively on the health benefits of meditation and yoga as mind/body medicine, including talks at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Albany Medical Center, Stratton VA Medical Center, Berkshire Medical Center, University of Colorado Medical School, University of Wisconsin School of Nursing, Washington University Medical School, the United States Military Academy at West Point, and the Commonwealth Club of California. He also served on a distinguished New York Times panel of Yoga experts with Dr. Dean Ornish. Noted physicians Mehmet Oz (Dr. Oz), Dean Ornish, Bernie Siegel and Larry Dossey have endorsed Mr. Perlmutters treatise on Yoga Science, which serves as the primary curriculum for the course.

According to AMI founder Leonard Perlmutter, The more consistently the therapeutic practices of meditation and yoga are incorporated into daily lives of physicians and patients, most symptoms of stress related burnout and chronic complex diseases can be diminished or eliminated. Joel M. Kremer, MD, who is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology in Albany, New York and a recent AMI conference participant, is in full agreement. This teaching has been an enormous benefit in my personal and professional life. I have less stress, more focus, and am able to serve my patients with greater clarity. It becomes surprisingly easy now to recognize the many clinical situations in which patients with somatic manifestations of 'dis-ease' could greatly benefit from Yoga Science.

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About the American Meditation Institute The American Meditation Institute is a 501(c)3 non-profit educational organization devoted to the teaching and practice of Yoga Science, meditation and its allied disciplines as mind/body medicine. In its holistic approach to wellness, AMI combines the healing arts of the East with the practicality of modern Western science. The American Meditation Institute offers a wide variety of classes, retreats, and teacher training programs. AMI also publishes Transformation a bi-monthly journal of meditation as holistic mind/body medicine. Call 800.234.5115 for a mail or email subscription.

Media Contact: Mary Helen Holloway 60 Garner Road, Averill Park, NY 12018 Tel: 800-234-5115 Fax: 518-674-8714

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The American Meditation Institute CME Conference Teaches How Meditation Practices Can Lead to Alterations in Genes for ...

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Techmacraft SMP ep.8: Enderdragon, twilight and advanced genetics
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Techmacraft SMP ep.8: Enderdragon, twilight and advanced genetics - Video

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Genetics with Dr Tiffany Oliver with subtitles

By: Spelman College

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Genetics with Dr Tiffany Oliver with subtitles - Video

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Genetics with Dr Tiffany Oliver

By: Spelman College

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Genetics with Dr Tiffany Oliver - Video

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Let #39;s Play The Sims 3 - Perfect Genetics Challenge: Cowgirl and Horse Edition Episode 17
Come join me on my latest journey into the complex world of sims 3 genetics, as I try to get perfect foals and perfect children. Will I succeed in getting pe...

By: GamerGirlsNetwork

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Let's Play The Sims 3 - Perfect Genetics Challenge: Cowgirl and Horse Edition Episode 17 - Video

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GenePod - Introducing The New Podcast from Genetics in Medicine 2014
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Peter Dearden.

Prof Dearden was ''extremely delighted'' to win the Genetics Society of AustralAsia Ross Crozier Medal, which recognises his work on evolution and development, epigenetics and developmental plasticity.

It was particularly pleasing to be a New Zealander gaining an award from an Australasian society, and that the award was in the name of Prof Ross Crozier, Prof Dearden said.

Prof Crozier had done ''fantastic work in social insects, which is a field I work in as well'', he said.

Based at James Cook University in Australia, Prof Crozier was a pioneer in the study of genetics in social insects.

He died in 2009.

Prof Dearden, who is based in the Otago biochemistry department, works with bees, and has also undertaken research with fruit flies.

He is on sabbatical in New York.

Social insects, such as ants and bees, provide a platform for research into how the genetics of an animal is affected by the environment.

Prof Dearden studies how the environment influences the genes of social insects, and the implications of this for human and animal health.

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Dunedin scientist wins international honour

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Longevity Technology Calico Genentech What products will the longevity company Calico make now?
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Project Walk Client Milestone - Claremont, Damien Maya
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Friends David Gyngell, left, and James Packer. Photo: Newslink

Washington: Friends often look alike. The tendency of people to forge friendships with people of a similar appearance has been noted since the time of Plato. But now there is research suggesting that, to a striking degree, we tend to pick friends who are genetically similar to us in ways that go beyond superficial features.

For example, you and your friends are likely to share certain genes associated with the sense of smell.

Our friends are as similar to us genetically as you'd expect fourth cousins to be, according to the study published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This means that the number of genetic markers shared by two friends is akin to what would be expected if they had the same great-great-great-grandparents.

"Your friends don't just resemble you superficially, they resemble you genetically," said Nicholas Christakis, a physician and social scientist at Yale University and a co-author of the study.

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The resemblance is slight, just about 1 per cent of the genetic markers, but that has huge implications for evolutionary theory, said James Fowler, a professor of medical genetics and political science at the University of California at San Diego.

"We can do better than chance at predicting if two people are going to be friends if all we have is their genetic data," Dr Fowler said.

This is a data-driven study that covers hundreds of friendship pairs and stranger pairs, plus hundreds of thousands of genetic markers. There's no single "friendship" gene driving people together. There's no way to say that a person befriended someone else because of any one genetic trait.

The research suggests that genetic factors are like a subtle breeze in the background, strong enough to be measured statistically in a big data set even if people in their day-to-day lives aren't consciously aware of it.

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Research: Human friendships based on genetic similarities

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University of Wisconsin-Madison

The ability to reliably and safely make in the laboratory all of the different types of cells in human blood is one key step closer to reality.

Writing today in the journal Nature Communications, a group led by University of Wisconsin-Madison stem cell researcher Igor Slukvin reports the discovery of two genetic programs responsible for taking blank-slate stem cells and turning them into both red and the array of white cells that make up human blood.

[ Watch the Video: What Are Stem Cells? ]

The research is important because it identifies how nature itself makes blood products at the earliest stages of development. The discovery gives scientists the tools to make the cells themselves, investigate how blood cells develop and produce clinically relevant blood products.

This is the first demonstration of the production of different kinds of cells from human pluripotent stem cells using transcription factors, explains Slukvin, referencing the proteins that bind to DNA and control the flow of genetic information, which ultimately determines the developmental fate of undifferentiated stem cells.

During development, blood cells emerge in the aorta, a major blood vessel in the embryo. There, blood cells, including hematopoietic stem cells, are generated by budding from a unique population of what scientists call hemogenic endothelial cells. The new report identifies two distinct groups of transcription factors that can directly convert human stem cells into the hemogenic endothelial cells, which subsequently develop into various types of blood cells.

The factors identified by Slukvins group were capable of making the range of human blood cells, including white blood cells, red blood cells and megakaryocytes, commonly used blood products.

By overexpressing just two transcription factors, we can, in the laboratory dish, reproduce the sequence of events we see in the embryo where blood is made, says Slukvin of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in the UW School of Medicine and Public Health and the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center.

The method developed by Slukvins group was shown to produce blood cells in abundance. For every million stem cells, the researchers were able to produce 30 million blood cells.

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Wisconsin Scientists Find Genetic Recipe To Turn Stem Cells To Blood

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