Archive for March, 2013
Italy pushes on with controversial stem cell therapy
Italian health officials are allowing a handful of patients to continue with a controversial stem cell therapy amid protests from scientists that the treatments are unproven and unsafe.
The Stamina Foundation has been administering the therapy at the public hospital Spedali Civili of Brescia to people with a range of degenerative diseases. Their approach is based on mesenchymal stem cells, derived from bone marrow, which can become mature bone and connective tissue.
In 2011 the hospital agreed to host the research and assist with cell extraction and patient treatments, stirring protests from the medical community. "The hospital is not even listed among the 13 Italian authorised stem cell factories," says Michele de Luca, director and gene therapy programme coordinator at the Centre for Regenerative Medicine in Modena. After an inspection in 2012, Italian drug regulator AIFA ordered an immediate halt to Stamina's stem cell treatments at the hospital.
The AIFA report says the Stamina Foundation's treatment did not follow Italy's official path required for clinical approval. So far no scientific publications describing its effectiveness are available.
But the halt sparked protests among patients' families who believed the treatment was working. Some appealed to the courts, and as a result a few patients were allowed to go ahead with the therapy. On 15 March, a group of 13 Italian stem cell researchers published an open letter to the country's Minister of Health, Renato Balduzzi, asking him to shut down all of the Stamina Foundation's treatments at the hospital.
Instead Balduzzi signed a bill last week authorising the foundation to continue treatments in patients who had already begun the regime unless they are experiencing serious side effects.
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Innate immune system can kill HIV when a viral gene is deactivated
Mar. 28, 2013 Human cells have an intrinsic capacity to destroy HIV. However, the virus has evolved to contain a gene that blocks this ability. When this gene is removed from the virus, the innate human immune system destroys HIV by mutating it to the point where it can no longer survive.
This phenomenon has been shown in test tube laboratory experiments, but now researchers at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine have demonstrated that the same phenomenon occurs in a humanized mouse model, suggesting a promising new target for tackling the virus, which has killed nearly 30 million people worldwide since it first appeared three decades ago.
A family of human proteins called APOBEC3 effectively restrict the growth of HIV and other viruses, but this action is fully counteracted by the viral infectivity factor gene (vif) in HIV. In the study, researchers intravenously infected humanized mice with HIV. They found that the most commonly transmitted strains of HIV are completely neutralized by APOBEC3 proteins when vif is removed from the virus.
"Without the vif gene, HIV can be completely destroyed by the body's own immune system," said J. Victor Garcia, PhD, professor of medicine at the UNC School of Medicine and senior author on the study. "These results suggest a new target for developing drugs fully capable of killing the virus."
Garcia and his colleagues pioneered the humanized mouse model used for these studies. The aptly named "BLT" mouse is created by introducing human bone marrow, liver and thymus tissues into animals without an immune system of their own. The mice have a fully functioning human immune system and can be infected with HIV in the same manner as humans. In previous research, Garcia and his team have effectively prevented intravenous, rectal, vaginal and oral transmission of HIV in the mice with pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).
For the current study, Garcia and his colleagues also infected BLT mice with another, highly harmful strain of the virus. The results show that this strain of HIV does continue to replicate, even without vif, but at a much slower rate and without harming the human immune system. Further, the researchers found that virus replication in this case was limited to one tissue -- the thymus -- in the entire body.
"These findings demonstrate a fundamental weakness in HIV," said John F. Krisko, PhD, lead author on the study. "If this weakness can be exploited, it might eventually lead to a cure for HIV/AIDS," Krisko said.
The study appears March 28 in the online journal PloS Pathogens.
In addition to Garcia and Krisko, other study authors are Francisco Martinez-Torres, PhD, and John L. Foster, PhD, all of the Center for AIDS Research at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.
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Healthier Me: Genetic Markers Reveal Cancer Risks
In Thursday's Healthier Me,scientists say they've discovered new ways in which small changes in our DNA can increase the risk for breast, ovarian, and prostate cancer.
It is a trove of new genetic information about cancer that could soon help millions of patients: researchers have found nearly 50 new markers for breast cancer, 26 for prostate cancer, and nearly a dozen for ovarian cancer.
Groundbreaking studies of more than 200,000 people in some 200 labs around the worldalmost doubled the number of gene variations known to affect risk for some of the deadliest cancers.
Thisnew genetic information could soon lead to new blood tests to help determine how much a person is at risk and how serious the cancer might be.
Because the research involved so many subjects, some of the tests should be in your doctor's office in a year or two, with others coming further down the road.
The explosion of genetic information has been made possible through the development of robotic machines capable of identifying the slight differencesin the DNA which signal cancer risk. Finding these variations used to take months or years; now it takes just days.
Dr. Fergus Couch, Mayo Clinic: "We started this project four years ago, and already we're at an endpoint where we can make tremendous benefits for the patients. We really thought we'd be doing this for 10, maybe 15 years before we'd see an outcome."
The tests will also help to identify more families with a high risk for cancer, allowing people like Julie Olbering -one of five girls -and her loved ones to make better-informed decisions
Experts say it's a gigantic step toward the goal of personalized medicine: giving individuals and families exactly the information and the treatment they need.
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What advances are driving clinical applications of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine ?
Public release date: 29-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Vicki Cohn vcohn@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 x2156 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News
New Rochelle, NY, Mar 28, 2013Explosive growth in the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine has led to innovative and promising applications and techniques, many of which are now being tested in human clinical trials. Hot topics, research advances, and transformative publications that are driving the field forward are highlighted in a comprehensive overview of the field presented in Tissue Engineering, Part B, Reviews, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. publishers (http://www.liebertpub.com). The article is available on the Tissue Engineering website (http://www.liebertpub.com/ten).
Matthew Fisher, PhD and Robert Mauck, PhD, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, and Philadelphia Veterans Administration Medical Center, Philadelphia, PA, identify four key areas in which the field is progressing. The first main theme, in the area of tissue engineering, focuses on advances in grafts and materials, including human or animal tissue from which the cells are removed and the remaining scaffold is used to regenerate new tissues, as well as scaffolds made of new types of biomaterials. Second, in the field of regenerative medicine, the authors highlight the role of novel scaffolds and various growth and control factors in promoting tissue formation and, for example, bone healing.
In the article "Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine: Recent Innovations and the Transition to Translation," (http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/ten.teb.2012.0723) the authors identify two additional areas that signal progress in the field: the increasing number of applications advancing into clinical trials; and the growing use of novel types of cells, such as induced pluripotent stem cells.
"Considering the rapid pace of growth and development in regenerative medicine, it is imperative that we fully consider recent advances," says Reviews Co-Editor-in-Chief John P. Fisher, PhD, Professor and Associate Chair, Fischell Department of Bioengineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD. "Dr. Matthew Fisher and Dr. Robert Mauck have wonderfully reviewed the efforts in the tissue engineering field over the past few years, highlighting advances in biomaterials, cell-based constructs, and translational endeavors."
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About the Journal
Tissue Engineering is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published monthly in print and online in three parts: Part A--the flagship journal; Part BReviews; and Part CMethods. Led by Co-Editors-In-Chief Antonios Mikos, PhD, Louis Calder Professor at Rice University, Houston, TX, and Peter C. Johnson, MD, Vice President, Research and Development, Avery Dennison Medical Solutions of Chicago, IL and President and CEO, Scintellix, LLC, Raleigh, NC, the Journal brings together scientific and medical experts in the fields of biomedical engineering, material science, molecular and cellular biology, and genetic engineering. Tissue Engineering is the Official Journal of the Tissue Engineering & Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS). Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Tissue Engineering website (http://www.liebertpub.com/ten).
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Mutazione… Card Trick Magic N°2 – Video
Mutazione... Card Trick Magic N°2
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HUNTED BY MARIO (The Hidden) – Video
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Resistance to Growing Stronger – Video
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EPIC Natural Bodybuilding Motivation 2013: Polska Genetics – My Way to the Top – Video
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Autism (Understanding Autism, Autistic Children and Autistic Adults) – Video
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Stem Cell Therapy Market in Asia-Pacific to 2018 Market Research Report Available at MarketResearchReports.biz
MarketResearchReports.biz Publishes Stem Cell Therapy Market in Asia-Pacific to 2018 Commercialization Supported by Favorable Government Policies, Strong Pipeline and Increased Licensing Activity. Buy the copy of this Report @ http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/analysis-details/stem-cell-therapy-market-in-asia-pacific-to-2018-commercialization-supported-by-favorable-government-policies-strong-pipeline-and-increased-licensing-activity
Albany, NY (PRWEB) March 29, 2013
To Read the Complete Report with TOC Visit: http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/analysis/155690
This report is built using data and information sourced from proprietary databases, primary and secondary research and in-house analysis by GBI Researchs team of industry experts.
GBI Research analysis finds the stem cell therapy market was valued at $545m in 2012, and is projected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 10% from 2012 to 2018, to attain a value of $972m in 2018. The market is poised for significant growth in the forecast period due to the anticipated launch of JCR Pharmaceuticals JR-031 (2014) in Japan and FCB Pharmicells Cerecellgram (CCG) (2015) in South Korea.
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The research is mainly in early stages, with the majority of the molecules being in early stages of development (Phase I/II and Phase II). Phase I/II and Phase II contribute 67% of the pipeline. Stem cell research is dominated by hospitals/universities/institutions, which contribute 63% of the molecules in the pipeline. The dominance of institutional research is attributable to uncertain therapeutic outcomes in stem cell research.The major companies conducting research in India include Reliance Life Sciences and Stempeutics Research Pvt Ltd, among others. The major institutions include PGIMER and AIIMS.
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Country analysis of regulatory framework of India, China, South-Korea, Japan and Singapore
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Therapy Funded by The ALS Association Involving Injection of Antisense Molecules Into Spinal Cord Area of People with …
WASHINGTON, March 29, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --The injection of antisense molecules into the space around the spinal cord of people with ALS is safe according to research published today. The first-in-human trial of this new therapy was funded by The ALS Association. The study was published today in the scientific journal Lancet Neurology.
ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig 's Disease, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. The disease robs people of the ability to walk, to talk and even blink an eye. It traps them inside a body they no longer can control and ultimately prevents them from breathing as it takes their life. There is no known cause of the disease, although military veterans are approximately twice as likely to develop ALS as the general population.
"This trial is a landmark in ALS therapy," said Lucie Bruijn , Ph.D., Chief Scientist of The ALS Association. "By demonstrating the safety and practicality of this approach, it lays the groundwork for exciting new forms of treatment of ALS."
The study was led by Timothy Miller , M.D., Ph.D., of Washington University in Saint Louis, Mo. It compared the safety of delivering a single dose of antisense therapy versus placebo to the fluid surrounding the spinal cord in 21 patients with ALS. Several different doses were tested, and several patients re-enrolled and thus received more than one dose. The frequency of adverse events was similar between the two groups. The most common adverse event was post-lumbar puncture syndrome (characterized by a headache that is relieved by lying flat), as would be expected from the procedure. The study was not designed to test whether the antisense therapy had any effect on the disease, which would likely only emerge with longer-term treatment.
Antisense therapy targets a cellular messenger molecule, called messenger RNA, used to build proteins within cells. In this trial, the target was the messenger RNA for the protein Cu/Zn Superoxide Dismutase (SOD1). Mutations in the SOD1 gene account for about 20 percent of all familial, or inherited, ALS. The sequence of building blocks that make up the messenger RNA (the "sense" sequence) is used to design a complementary "antisense" molecule that will bind to it. That binding triggers the cell to destroy the messenger RNA, preventing the harmful SOD1 protein from being made. Results from SOD1-based animal models of ALS have indicated that reducing the level of SOD1 by antisense therapy increases lifespan.
The ALS Association's Translational Research Advancing Therapies for ALS (TREAT ALS) program provided funding at each stage of development for this therapy, beginning with establishing the proof of concept in pre-clinical work. That work was led by Don Cleveland , Ph.D., and Richard Smith , M.D., both of the University of California at San Diego, along with Dr. Miller, Dr. Cleveland's lab, and Frank Bennett , Ph.D., of Isis Pharmaceuticals, developer of the antisense molecules used in the research program. Merit Cudkowicz, M.D., of Massachusetts General Hospital, was co-investigator of the clinical trial.
This first-in-human trial of an antisense therapy for a neurodegenerative disease is the culmination of years of work by scores of people from academia and biotechnology, working in partnership to stop ALS," Dr. Bruijn said. "We still have much work to do before we know whether antisense therapy can offer benefit to patients with SOD1 mutations, but the evident safety of the procedure is very encouraging and should allow larger and longer trials in the near future that can tell us more about the potential of this form of treatment."
The ALS Association is grateful to have received funding to support this new groundbreaking research from the following:
The Kanter Family ALS Research Fund and The ALS Association Greater Philadelphia Chapter The Jeff Kaufman Fund and The ALS Association Wisconsin Chapter The Wallace Genetic Foundation and Mrs. Jean Wallace Douglas The George Yardley Company, the family of George Yardley , and The ALS Association Orange County Chapter Contributors to the Lou Gehrig Challenge campaign of The ALS Association
About The ALS AssociationThe ALS Association is the only national non-profit organization fighting Lou Gehrig 's Disease on every front. By leading the way in global research, providing assistance for people with ALS through a nationwide network of chapters, coordinating multidisciplinary care through certified clinical care centers, and fostering government partnerships, The Association builds hope and enhances quality of life while aggressively searching for new treatments and a cure. For more information about The ALS Association, visit our website at http://www.alsa.org.
New Gene Markers Reveal Cancer Risk
A huge international effort involving more than 100 institutions and genetic tests on 200,000 people has uncovered dozens of signposts in DNA that can help reveal further a person's risk for breast, ovarian or prostate cancer, scientists reported Wednesday.
It's the latest mega-collaboration to learn more about the intricate mechanisms that lead to cancer. And while the headway seems significant in many ways, the potential payoff for ordinary people is mostly this: Someday there may be genetic tests that help identify women with the most to gain from mammograms, and men who could benefit most from PSA tests and prostate biopsies.
And perhaps farther in the future these genetic clues might lead to new treatments.
"This adds another piece to the puzzle," said Harpal Kumar, chief executive of Cancer Research U.K., the charity which funded much of the research.
One analysis suggests that among men whose family history gives them roughly a 20 percent lifetime risk for prostate cancer, such genetic markers could identify those whose real risk is 60 percent.
The markers also could make a difference for women with BRCA gene mutations, which puts them at high risk for breast cancer. Researchers may be able to separate those whose lifetime risk exceeds 80 percent from women whose risk is about 20 to 50 percent. One doctor said that might mean some women would choose to monitor for cancer rather than taking the drastic step of having healthy breasts removed.
AP
Scientists have found risk markers for the three diseases before, but the new trove doubles the known list, said one author, Douglas Easton of Cambridge University. The discoveries also reveal clues about the biological underpinnings of these cancers, which may pay off someday in better therapies, he said.
Experts not connected with the work said it was encouraging but that more research is needed to see how useful it would be for guiding patient care. One suggested that using a gene test along with PSA testing and other factors might help determine which men have enough risk of a life-threatening prostate cancer that they should get a biopsy. Many prostate cancers found early are slow-growing and won't be fatal, but there is no way to differentiate and many men have surgery they may not need.
Easton said the prospects for a genetic test are greater for prostate and breast cancer than ovarian cancer.
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UMMS scientists tie dietary influences to changes in gene expression and physiology
Public release date: 28-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jim Fessenden james.fessenden@umassmed.edu 508-856-2000 University of Massachusetts Medical School
WORCESTER, MA Sometimes you just can't resist a tiny piece of chocolate cake. Even the most health-conscious eaters find themselves indulging in junk foods from time to time. New research by scientists at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) raises the striking possibility that even small amounts of these occasional indulgences may produce significant changes in gene expression that could negatively impact physiology and health.
A pair of papers published in Cell by A.J. Marian Walhout, PhD, co-director of the Program in Systems Biology and professor of molecular medicine at UMMS, describe how metabolism and physiology are connected to diet. Using C. elegans, a transparent roundworm often used as a model organism in genetic studies, Dr. Walhout and colleagues observed how different diets produce differences in gene expression in the worm that can then be linked to crucial physiological changes.
"In short, we found that when C. elegans are fed diets of different types of bacteria, they respond by dramatically changing their gene expression program, leading to important changes in physiology," said Walhout. "Worms fed a natural diet of Comamonas bacteria have fewer offspring, live shorter and develop faster compared to worms fed the standard laboratory diet of E. coli bacteria."
Walhout and colleagues identified at least 87 changes in C. elegans gene expression between the two diets. Surprisingly, these changes were independent of the TOR and insulin signaling pathways, gene expression programs typically active in nutritional control. Instead, the changes occur, at least in part, in a regulator that controls molting, a gene program that determines development and growth in the worm. This connection provided one of the critical links between diet, gene expression and physiology detailed in "Diet-induced Development Acceleration Independent of TOR and Insulin in C. elegans." "Importantly, these same regulators that are influenced by diet in the worms control circadian rhythm in humans," said Lesley MacNeil, PhD, a postdoctoral student in the Walhout Lab and first author on the paper. "We already know that circadian rhythms are affected by diet. This points to the real possibility that we can now use C. elegans to study the complex connections between diet, gene expression and physiology and their relation to human disease."
Strikingly, Walhout and colleagues observed that even when fed a small amount of the Comamonas bacteria in a diet otherwise comprised of E. coli bacteria, C. elegans exhibited dramatic changes in gene expression and physiology. These results provide the tantalizing possibility that different diets are not "healthy" or "unhealthy" but that specific quantities of certain foods may be optimal under different conditions and for promoting different physiological outcomes.
"It's just as true that a small amount of a 'healthy' food in an otherwise unhealthy diet could elicit a beneficial change in gene expression that could have profound physiological effects," said Walhout.
Additional research by the Walhout Lab further explored the possibility of using C. elegans as a model system to answer complex questions about disease and dietary treatment in humans. Detailed in the "Integration of Metabolic and Gene Regulatory Networks Modulates the C. elegans Dietary Response," Walhout and colleagues found that disrupting gene expression involved with C. elegans metabolism lead to metabolic imbalances that interfered with the animal's dietary response; a result that may have a direct correlation to the treatment of a class of human genetic diseases.
"To better understand the molecular mechanisms by which diet effects gene expression in the worm, we performed complimentary genetic screens looking for genes that gave an abnormal response to diet," said Emma Watson, a doctoral student in the Walhout Lab and co-first author on the second Cell study together with Dr. MacNeil. "What we discovered was a large network of metabolic and regulator genes that can integrate internal cellular nutritional needs and imbalances with external availability," said Watson. "This information is then communicated to information processing genes in the worm to illicit the appropriate response in the animal."
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UMMS scientists tie dietary influences to changes in gene expression and physiology
Gene discovery may yield lettuce that will sprout in hot weather
Public release date: 28-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Patricia Bailey pjbailey@ucdavis.edu 530-752-9843 University of California - Davis
A team of researchers, led by a University of California, Davis, plant scientist, has identified a lettuce gene and related enzyme that put the brakes on germination during hot weather a discovery that could lead to lettuces that can sprout year-round, even at high temperatures.
The study also included researchers from Arcadia Biosciences and Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, India.
The finding is particularly important to the nearly $2 billion lettuce industries of California and Arizona, which together produce more than 90 percent of the nation's lettuce. The study results appear online in the journal The Plant Cell.
"Discovery of the genes will enable plant breeders to develop lettuce varieties that can better germinate and grow to maturity under high temperatures," said the study's lead author Kent Bradford, a professor of plant sciences and director of the UC Davis Seed Biotechnology Center.
"And because this mechanism that inhibits hot-weather germination in lettuce seeds appears to be quite common in many plant species, we suspect that other crops also could be modified to improve their germination," he said. "This could be increasingly important as global temperatures are predicted to rise."
Most lettuce varieties flower in spring or early summer and then drop their seeds a trait that is likely linked to their origin in the Mediterranean region, which, like California, characteristically has dry summers. Scientists have observed for years that a built-in dormancy mechanism seems to prevent lettuce seeds from germinating under conditions that would be too hot and dry to sustain growth. While this naturally occurring inhibition works well in the wild, it is an obstacle to commercial lettuce production.
In the California and Arizona lettuce industries, lettuce seeds are planted somewhere every day of the year even in September in the Imperial Valley of California and near Yuma, Ariz., where fall temperatures frequently reach 110 degrees.
In order to jump-start seed germination for a winter crop in these hot climates, lettuce growers have turned to cooling the soil with sprinkler irrigation or priming the seeds to germinate by pre-soaking them at cool temperatures and re-drying them before planting methods that are expensive and not always successful.
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Gene discovery may yield lettuce that will sprout in hot weather
Is China Engineering Smarter Babies? – Video
Is China Engineering Smarter Babies?
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Is China Engineering Smarter Babies? - Video
How to Make a Computer from a Living Cell
Genetic logic gates will enable biologists to program cells for chemical production and disease detection.
If biologists could put computational controls inside living cells, they could program them to sense and report on the presence of cancer, create drugs on site as theyre needed, or dynamically adjust their activities in fermentation tanks used to make drugs and other chemicals. Now researchers at Stanford University have developed a way to make genetic parts that can perform the logic calculations that might someday control such activities.
The Stanford researchers genetic logic gate can be used to perform the full complement of digital logic tasks, and it can store information, too. It works by making changes to the cells genome, creating a kind of transcript of the cells activities that can be read out later with a DNA sequencer. The researchers call their invention a transcriptor for its resemblance to the transistor in electronics. We want to make tools to put computers inside any living cella little bit of data storage, a way to communicate, and logic, says Drew Endy, the bioengineering professor at Stanford who led the work.
Timothy Lu, who leads the Synthetic Biology Group at MIT, is working on similar cellular logic tools. You cant deliver a silicon chip into cells inside the body, so you have to build circuits out of DNA and proteins, Lu says. The goal is not to replace computers, but to open up biological applications that conventional computing simply cannot address.
Biologists can give cells new functions through traditional genetic engineering, but Endy, Lu, and others working in the field of synthetic biology want to make modular parts that can be combined to build complex systems from the ground up. The cellular logic gates, Endy hopes, will be one key tool to enable this kind of engineering.
Cells genetically programmed with a biological AND gate might, for instance, be used to detect and treat cancer, says Endy. If protein A and protein B are presentwhere those proteins are characteristic of, say, breast cancerthen this could trigger the cell to produce protein C, a drug.
In the cancer example, says Endy, youd want the cell to respond to low levels of cancer markers (the signal) by producing a large amount of the drug. The case is the same for biological cells designed to detect pollutants in the water supplyideally, theyd generate a very large signal (for example, quantities of bright fluorescent proteins) when they detect a small amount of a pollutant.
The transcriptor triggers the production of enzymes that cause alterations in the cells genome. When the production of those enzymes is triggered by the signala protein of interest, for examplethese enzymes will delete or invert a particular stretch of DNA in the genome. Researchers can code the transcriptor to respond to one, or multiple, different such signals. The signal can be amplified because one change in the cells DNA can lead the cell to produce a large amount of the output protein over time.
Depending on how the transcriptor is designed, it can act as a different kind of logic gatean AND gate that turns on only in the presence of two proteins, an OR gate thats turned on by one signal or another, and so on. Endy says these gates could be combined into more complex circuits by making the output of one the input for the next. This work is described today in the journal Science.
MITs Lu says cellular circuits like his and Endys, which use enzymes to alter DNA, are admittedly slow. From input to output, it can take a few hours for a cell to respond and change its activity. Other researchers have made faster cellular logic systems that use other kinds of biomoleculesregulatory proteins or RNA, for example. But Lu says these faster systems lack signal amplification and memory. Future cellular circuits are likely to use some combination of different types of gates, Lu says.
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How to Make a Computer from a Living Cell
Cellular computers: ‘ Genetic circuit’ biological transistor enables computing within living cells
When Charles Babbage prototyped the first computing machine in the 19th century, he imagined using mechanical gears and latches to control information. ENIAC, the first modern computer developed in the 1940s, used vacuum tubes and electricity. Today, computers use transistors made from highly engineered semiconducting materials to carry out their logical operations.
And now a team of Stanford University bioengineers has taken computing beyond mechanics and electronics into the living realm of biology. In a paper to be published March 28 in Science, the team details a biological transistor made from genetic materialDNA and RNAin place of gears or electrons. The team calls its biological transistor the "transcriptor."
"Transcriptors are the key component behind amplifying genetic logicakin to the transistor and electronics," said Jerome Bonnet, PhD, a postdoctoral scholar in bioengineering and the paper's lead author.
The creation of the transcriptor allows engineers to compute inside living cells to record, for instance, when cells have been exposed to certain external stimuli or environmental factors, or even to turn on and off cell reproduction as needed.
"Biological computers can be used to study and reprogram living systems, monitor environments and improve cellular therapeutics," said Drew Endy, PhD, assistant professor of bioengineering and the paper's senior author.
The biological computer
In electronics, a transistor controls the flow of electrons along a circuit. Similarly, in biologics, a transcriptor controls the flow of a specific protein, RNA polymerase, as it travels along a strand of DNA.
"We have repurposed a group of natural proteins, called integrases, to realize digital control over the flow of RNA polymerase along DNA, which in turn allowed us to engineer amplifying genetic logic," said Endy.
Using transcriptors, the team has created what are known in electrical engineering as logic gates that can derive true-false answers to virtually any biochemical question that might be posed within a cell.
They refer to their transcriptor-based logic gates as "Boolean Integrase Logic," or "BIL gates" for short.
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Cellular computers: ' Genetic circuit' biological transistor enables computing within living cells
Researchers Identify ‘Haul’ of New Genetic Markers for Cancer Risks
What is being hailed as major news in the genetic science community this week -- the identification of more than 80 genomes that raise a person's risk of different cancers -- may receive a lukewarm reception from the general public until the ramifications of such discoveries is evident.
Collaborative Oncological Gene-Environment Study, COGS
Learning the causes of cancer can only mean positive things in the development of screening, treatment, and perhaps, one day, prevention of those cancers. A consortium of more than 160 EU-based research groups working together in the Collaborative Oncological Gene-Environment Study, COGS, brought science and medicine one step closer to these positive outcomes with the discovery of more than 80 genome regions that can increase an individual's risk for prostate, breast and ovarian cancers, reported MedicalNewsToday.com .
The COGS research was submitted as 13 different scientific papers and published in five journals this week, including PLOS Genetics . (PLOS is the Public Library of Science , a non-profit and open access
group of scientific journals.)
COGS Research Team Members Weigh in on Genome Discovery Value
Professor Ros Eeles of the Royal Marsden and the Institute of Cancer Research explained to the Telegraph that this discovery is hoped to leading to simple saliva testing for these risk factors that primary care physicians will be able to interpret within the next five years.
The researchers caution that although the discovery of these genomes is important, there is more work to be done, first in research, then in application of the findings.
Understanding the Genetic Science Hoopla Over New Genome Discoveries
To the layman, the science behind genetic discovery and its uses is mystifying until the scientific terms and methods are broken down into concepts that are readily understandable: The discovery of these genomes associated with increased cancer risks in individuals may lead to simplified genetic testing for those risks within the next five years and potentially new therapies to thwart those cancers.
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Researchers Identify 'Haul' of New Genetic Markers for Cancer Risks
Genetic Variants and Wheezing Put Kids At Risk For Asthma
Jose Luis Pelaez / Getty Images
Almost every toddler will sniffle through a cold by the time they are three, but if they wheeze while theyre sick, they may be at higher risk of developing asthma.
Previous research found that wheezing-related illnesses can increase a childs risk for developing asthma, and other studies connected certain genetic factors to this heightened tendency to wheeze. In a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers connected the two and found that 90% of three-year-olds with a combination of specific genes and a particular wheezing illness were diagnosed with asthma by the age of 6.
The scientists focused on a region of chromosome 17, known as 17q21 that has been associated with an elevated risk of asthma early in life. Two genes in the region likely increase this risk ORMDL3 and GSDMB. Variants of these genes, which are relatively common, seemed to confer higher risk of wheezing when children were infected with the rhinovirus, which is responsible for the common cold. About half of the infants in the study had one copy of the variant, while a quarter had both copies, which significantly increased their likelihood of wheezing and developing asthma.
(MORE: Fast Food Linked to Asthma and Allergies in Kids)
The researchers included children from two separate study groups, all of whom came from families with a history of allergies or asthma. The first group included 200 children toddlers with at least one, and possibly two parents who had allergies or asthma while the second group consisted of Danish toddlers whose mothers were diagnosed with asthma. Among children without the high-risk genetic variants for asthma, 40% who wheezed when they caught a cold before age three developed asthma by age six, compared to 60% who had one copy of the variant and wheezed, and 90% of those who had two copies and also wheezed.
We found that the interaction between this specific wheezing illness and a gene or genes on a region of chromosome 17 determines childhood asthma risk. The combination of genetic predisposition and the childs response to this infection has a huge effect,said study author Carole Ober, a Blum-Riese Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Chicago in a statement.
Overall, the children with the genetic and wheezing illness combination were almost four times as likely to develop asthma compared to kids who did not have the genetic variation or did not wheeze, suggesting that wheezing might be a relatively easy marker for identifying toddlers who might be at highest risk of developing asthma later.
(MORE: BPA Exposure Linked To Asthma In Kids)
The biological mechanisms underlying the connection are not well understood, but to get a better idea of whats going on, the researchers collected blood from 100 healthy adults and exposed their immune cells to human rhinovirus. Infection with the cold virus seemed to make the asthma-related genes on chromosome 17 more active, possibly leading to more wheezing.
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Genetic Variants and Wheezing Put Kids At Risk For Asthma
NCH Adds Genetic Counselor
Avis Gibons, a licensed and board-certified genetic counselor joins Northwest Community Healthcare's genetic counseling program.
Arlington Heights, IL (PRWEB) March 28, 2013
Avis Gibons, MS, CGC, a licensed and board-certified genetic counselor with experience in both clinical and research settings, is now serving patients whose personal or family medical histories indicate an increased risk of developing cancer. In her role, Gibons meets with patients to review personal and family medical histories, assesses patients risks of developing cancer, coordinates genetic testing and discusses results, and presents cancer screening and risk reduction options.
We are thrilled that Avis has joined NCHs genetic counseling team, Keith Ammons, director of cancer services at NCH, says. Her previous experience will be an asset to the genetic counseling team.
Before joining NCH, Gibons served as genetic counselor at John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital in Chicago, where she assisted in establishing a formal high-risk cancer genetics clinic. Dedicated to raising awareness about genetic contributions to disease, she also has designed human genetics course curriculum for clinical research professionals, presented seminars in genetics to community members, and delivered continuing medical education in cancer risk assessment and hereditary cancer syndromes to healthcare providers. Gibons has completed a certificate in clinical cancer genetics from City of Hope, a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center and a founding member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network.
Gibons is an adjunct faculty member in the Division of Science and Health Careers at Oakton Community College, where she prepares students for careers in medicine and health sciences. Her research on the impact of genetic medicine on the employer-based healthcare system and on coverage and reimbursement of genetic tests and services has been cited in a report to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Gibons says that the multidisciplinary Commission on Cancer, established by the American College of Surgeons, considers genetic counseling a standard of service necessary to ensure quality and comprehensive cancer care delivery. By helping to identify patients at increased risk of developing cancer, genetic counseling can have dramatic effects on early detection and cancer outcome. In addition, genetic counseling empowers patients to make informed decisions about cancer screening, cancer prevention and genetic testing.
The NCH Genetic Counseling Team has more than 20 years of experience providing genetic counseling, including review of medical history, assessment of cancer risk, and consideration of early detection and risk reduction options.
About Northwest Community Healthcare (NCH)
Serving Chicagos northwest suburbs since 1959, NCH is a comprehensive, patient-centered system of care that serves more than 350,000 outpatients each year, as well as nearly 30,000 inpatients treated annually at the 496-bed acute care hospital in Arlington Heights. The award-winning hospital holds the prestigious Magnet designation for nursing excellence, is designated as a Primary Stroke Center, earned the Joint Commission's Gold Seal of Approval in 2011, and was awarded the Leapfrog Groups designation as one of the nations Top Hospitals based on quality and safety criteria. NCH has four Immediate Care locations in the northwest suburbs and operates a FastCare Clinic in Palatine. NCH has a medical staff of more than 1,000 physicians, which includes the board-certified primary care doctors and specialists of the NCH Medical Group. For more information or to find a doctor on the NCH Medical staff, visit http://www.nch.org.
Patrick Reilly Northwest Community Healthcare 847.618.5529 Email Information
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NCH Adds Genetic Counselor
More Genetic Insights Into 3 Types of Cancer
By Barbara Bronson Gray HealthDay Reporter
WEDNESDAY, March 27 (HealthDay News) -- Critical clues to understanding who is at the greatest risk for particular types of cancer may be found in "spelling mistakes" contained in a person's DNA.
In a step toward personalized medicine and the ability to better understand individual risk factors for three common hormone-related cancers, a large team of international researchers have unveiled what might be the clearest picture to date of the genetic alterations associated with some forms of the disease.
Although more research is needed, the study authors predict that genetic testing to help determine a person's risk for some of the most potentially deadly cancers may be available within five to 10 years.
"We think the most immediately practical application will be in people already at risk for the disease and going through the genetic counseling process," said Douglas Easton, a professor of genetic epidemiology at the University of Cambridge, in England.
A combination of five studies that include work from 160 different research groups has identified more than 80 genetic errors that are linked to increased risk of breast, prostate and ovarian cancers. The research was published March 27 in the journal Nature Genetics.
More than 2.5 million people worldwide are diagnosed with these three types of cancers each year, according to the researchers.
Everyone has some of the so-called spelling mistakes, often called "snips" (single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs), the researchers said. Problems are signaled by errors in the sequence of genetic elements (bases), where letters representing the elements -- A, G, C and T -- are incorrectly placed.
The sequence of bases in a portion of a DNA molecule, called a gene, carries the instructions that are needed to create a protein. Although some errors affect small things, others may be responsible for increasing vulnerability to certain forms of cancer. The impact on a person depends on where on the strand of DNA the genetic alteration is located.
The studies from the European-based consortium -- collectively known as the Collaborative Oncological Gene-Environment Study, or COGS -- compared 100,000 patients with breast, ovarian or prostate cancer to 100,000 healthy people.
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