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J Virol. 2021 Oct 20:JVI0106321. doi: 10.1128/JVI.01063-21. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

COVID-19 affects multiple organs. Clinical data from the Mount Sinai Health System shows that substantial numbers of COVID-19 patients without prior heart disease develop cardiac dysfunction. How COVID-19 patients develop cardiac disease is not known. We integrated cell biological and physiological analyses of human cardiomyocytes differentiated from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) infected with SARS-CoV-2 in the presence of interleukins, with clinical findings related to laboratory values in COVID-19 patients, to identify plausible mechanisms of cardiac disease in COVID-19 patients. We infected hiPSC-derived cardiomyocytes, from healthy human subjects, with SARS-CoV-2 in the absence and presence of IL-6 and IL-1. Infection resulted in increased numbers of multinucleated cells. Interleukin treatment and infection resulted in disorganization of myofibrils, extracellular release of troponin-I, and reduced and erratic beating. Infection resulted in decreased expression of mRNA encoding key proteins of the cardiomyocyte contractile apparatus. Although interleukins did not increase the extent of infection, they increased the contractile dysfunction associated with viral infection of cardiomyocytes resulting in cessation of beating. Clinical data from hospitalized patients from the Mount Sinai Health System show that a significant portion of COVID-19 patients without prior history of heart disease, have elevated troponin and interleukin levels. A substantial subset of these patients showed reduced left ventricular function by echocardiography. Our laboratory observations, combined with the clinical data, indicate that direct effects on cardiomyocytes by interleukins and SARS-CoV-2 infection might underlie heart disease in COVID-19 patients. Importance SARS-CoV-2 infects multiple organs including the heart. Analyses of hospitalized patients show that a substantial number without prior indication of heart disease or comorbidities show significant injury to heart tissue assessed by increased levels of troponin in blood. We studied the cell biological and physiological effects of virus infection of healthy human iPSC cardiomyocytes in culture. Virus infection with interleukins disorganizes myofibrils, increases cell size and the numbers of multinucleated cells, suppresses the expression of proteins of the contractile apparatus. Viral infection of cardiomyocytes in culture triggers release of troponin similar to elevation in levels of COVID-19 patients with heart disease. Viral infection in the presence of interleukins slows down and desynchronizes the beating of cardiomyocytes in culture. The cell level physiological changes are similar to decreases in left ventricular ejection seen in imaging of patients hearts. These observations suggest that direct injury to heart tissue by virus can be one underlying cause of heart disease in COVID-19.

PMID:34669512 | DOI:10.1128/JVI.01063-21

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Functional Effects of Cardiomyocyte Injury in COVID-19 - DocWire News

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Elephants, which typically have tusks, are often hunted for the valuable ivory that their tusks are made of. Due to this poaching, elephants which are born without tusks have a higher chance of living and mating, causing an evolutionary trend towards naturally tuskless elephants. Photo byMagda EhlersfromPexels.

Recentlywhile procrastinating homework and scrolling through Instagram, I came across a picture of an elephant, to which my first response was,oh, cute! Then I read the associated caption,which talked about how,due toexcessive poaching,many African elephantsareevolvingto be born without tusksalsoknown asnaturally tuskless.

This is horrifying to think about on multiple levels. Although this change in the genetics ofelephantsmay seembeneficial to thematfirst glancebecauseit puts them at a lower risk of being hunted,thereis amuchdeeper issue.This isaharmfulmutation in their genetics that is lethal to male elephants,and is thus likely to have long term effects on the African elephant population.

Normally, both male and female African elephants are born with tusksmade of ivory, and thus valued by poachers. When these elephantsare huntedfor their ivory, they are oftenunable to pass down their genesto future generations, making it more likelyfortuskless elephantstopass downtheirgenes.

This has its own problems, genetically speaking. When female elephants are born tuskless, there is a variation on one of their two X chromosomesthatgives maleoffspringa50/50 chancetoinherit this variation. Male elephants that receive this mutated X chromosomeareunable to survive.Although this genetic variation maybe helpfulforfemale elephants astudyshowed that over a 28-year period,female tuskless elephants were five times more likely to survive than female elephants with tusks itislethalto the male elephant population.

Poaching elephants for their ivory is horribleandhas greatconsequences for their speciesand the environment around them. Despite the1989 ban on the international ivory trade, as of 2015,35,000 and 50,000 African elephantswerereportedbeing poached yearly. As of March2021, itwas estimatedthatonly 415,000 elephantsremainon the entire continent of Africa.Thespecies is endangered, with the most prominent cause being poaching for ivory.Thisissuecannot be takenlightly.

On the black market, a pound of ivory costs about$1,500 per pound, with tusks from male elephants weighing about 250 pounds each. Therefore, the monetary value of ivory drives many of these poachers, regardless of the risks and detrimental effects.

Elephant poaching has immense effects on the ecosystem and theenvironment as a whole.Elephant manure, for example, helps fertilize soilthat helpsplant crops,and elephants play large parts inseed dispersalas well. When elephantsare poachedto the degree that they have been throughout history, it compromises their own population as well as the surrounding ecosystem, including the lives of many humans.

The importance of elephants in the environment and the greater ecosystemmust be understoodand widely known. Poaching has gone too far, endangering the elephants themselves as well as the environment around them, which includes other animals and humans.

In order to ensure that elephantsare not poachedfor ivory, other measures must be taken. For example,synthetic ivorycould have immense benefits to elephant populations and theenvironment as a whole. However, this would require immense research and funding to ensurethe synthetic ivory is similar enough to real ivory and so that its prices are affordable enoughtodiscouragepeoplefrom poaching.

There should be more research, time, effort and funding putinto thisissuetoprotect elephants andto ceasepoachingaltogether. The consequences ofnot doing so are far too great for elephants and for thegreater environment.

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Protect the elephants - UConn Daily Campus

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In 1989, when elephant ethologist Joyce Poole began carrying out surveys of three East African elephant populations to understand the impact that heavy poaching was having on them, she quickly noted several stark trends. There was a huge skew in the sex ratio, with very few adult males. Many families lacked older femalesand many of those females had no tusks.

Pooles observationswhich were used a few months later to support a ban on international ivory tradewere alarming, but they mostly made sense. Poachers, she knew, prioritized elephants with the largest tusks. Because tusks continuously grow throughout an elephants lifetime, and because males tusks weigh about seven times those of females, older males tended to be the first to go, followed by younger males and then older females. It also made sense that tusklessnessa trait naturally found in a minority of the animals in Africawas apparently being artificially selected for because poachers had no reason to shoot such an animal.

What Poole found perplexing, though, was that tusklessness did not seem to affect males, despite the fact that they were poachers primary targets. Its something I had puzzled over for so long, says Poole, co-founder and scientific director of ElephantVoices, a nonprofit science and conservation organization. The more killing there was, the more tuskless females you got. But why werent there any tuskless males?

More than 30 years later, she finally may have her answer. Tusklessness, according to a new paper in Science, can be attributed in large part to a dominant mutation on the X chromosomea genetic change that also explains the sex skew Poole saw. In females, mutations in a key gene on one of their X chromosomes seems to be responsible for tusklessness. But in males with no other X chromosome to fall back on, that mutation appears to cause death in the womb.

This is a beautiful study that is certain to become a textbook example of how intense human exploitation of wildlife can rapidly change the natural world, says Jeffrey Good, a mammalian evolutionary geneticist at the University of Montana, who was not involved in the research. Such a deep genetic understanding of complex evolutionary changes in large free-ranging animals would have been unobtainable just a few years ago.

Shane Campbell-Staton of Princeton University, co-lead author of the new paper, has spent his career studying the ways that humans force such evolutionary changes across the tree of life. Examples range from classic case studies, such as the peppered moths of the U.K. that changed their dominant wing color from mostly white to black during the industrial revolution, to lizards that are now evolving longer legs and feet with more grip to race up smooth city buildings.

Typically, though, such studies focus on small creatures that have large population sizes and fast generational turnovers because changes they undergo are easier to observe in real time. This has left a notable gap in the literature that the new paper helps to fill. This study is among the first to show that selective killing of large vertebrates can have a direct impact on evolutionary change, says Fanie Pelletier, an ecologist at the University of Sherbrooke in Quebec, who co-authored a perspective piece in Science about the research.

Elephants were not an obvious choice for Campbell-Staton, who has mostly focused on lizards until now. But he found himself sucked into the mystery of tuskless elephants when he watched a YouTube video about the phenomenon. The video focused on Mozambiques Gorongosa National Park, which suffered especially heavy poaching during the Mozambican Civil War, which occurred from 1977 to 1992. Gorongosas elephant population declined by about 90 percent, from more than 2,500 individuals in 1972 to fewer than 250 in 2000. Like other places that had undergone intense poaching, Gorongosas female elephants exhibited an abnormally high proportion of tusklessness.

Campbell-Staton was just as perplexed by this as Poole had been, and he soon struck up a collaboration with her and other elephant ecologists. The researchers first needed to determine whether it was actually the selection from poaching that led to a disproportionate number of tuskless individuals or if it was just some fluke of chance that emerged as the population crashed.

Poole, who is a co-author on the new paper, combed through old natural history films and amateur videos to estimate the prevalence of tusklessness prior to the war. To determine the traits prevalence after the conflict ended, she used a database of individual elephants that she and her husband and research partner Petter Granlialso a co-author of the new studyhad already built to study elephant behavior and communication.

The frequency of tusklessness, the team found, increased from about 18.5 percent before the war to 50.9 percent after. In population simulations, the researchers confirmed that it is extremely unlikely that tusklessness would have changed so drastically by chance alone. Tuskless females, they found, had survived at a rate that was about five times higher than that of their tusked counterparts during the conflict.

Using Pooles database, they further confirmed that, with a single exception, female elephants with two tusks had never been observed to have a tuskless baby. Tuskless mothers, on the other hand, had about an equal proportion of daughters with or without tusks (or, in some cases, with a single tusk). This pattern suggested to the researchers a sex-linked genetic origin for what they were seeing.

The sex ratio of the offspring of tuskless mothers also indicated that the genetics responsible may be lethal for males. Instead of having sons and daughters at an equal proportion, tuskless mothers gave birth to daughters roughly two thirds of the time.

After making these observations, Campbell-Staton decided it was time to use a whole-genome analysis to pinpoint the potential genetic factors. Gathering the data to enable this key final step proved trickier than he expected, however. We were going to drive around at Gorongosa, spot an elephant, see if the elephant had tusks or not, wait for the elephant to poop and then collect its DNA, he says. It seemed simple enoughexcept we drove all day, every day for a week and didnt see a single elephant.

Fortunately, another research team was carrying out a collaring project to track matriarch elephants. Campbell-Staton and his co-first author, Brian Arnold of Princeton, were able to join forces with the other researchers to collect blood samples from 18 femalessome with tusks and some withoutthat would meet the genomic requirements for the project.

Using those samples, they identified candidate regions in the genome that, when mutated, seemed to explain tusklessness and its apparent male lethality. One of the genes, AMELX, is known from decades of basic research in mice and humans to play a role in mammalian tooth development. Additionally, disruptions to the same region of the X chromosome in humans is associated with a syndrome that usually causes male fetuses to abort in the second trimester. Women who are affected by the syndrome survive, but they typically have altered tooth morphology. In particular, they often are missing their upper lateral incisorsthe anatomical equivalent of tusks in elephants.

The study shows that tuskless male elephant offspring are not viable, meaning that population decline is accentuated, Pelletier says. Not only do animals die due to poaching, but there is also additional decline because half of the male offspring from the surviving tuskless mothers do not survive.

Good agrees that the findings are alarming. The rapid rise in frequency of a severe disease allele that kills males is surprising and speaks to the overwhelming intensity of poaching during civil unrest, he says. These changes came with enormous cost to the overall genetic health of these declining populations.

Ultimately, Campbell-Staton says, the study speaks to the ubiquity of the human footprint as an evolutionary force.

There is some good news, however. As poaching in Gorongosa has been stamped out through sustained conservation efforts, the number of baby elephants born tuskless has begun to decrease. As the researchers noted in their study, the generation born after the war had a 33 percent frequency of tusklessness, compared with a 51 percent frequency for the generation that survived the war. Nature, in this case at least, seems to be correcting itself. Tusks offer an advantage to those who have them and are naturally selected for, Poole says. If we keep the pressure off these elephants, the rate of tusklessness declines with each generation.

Link:
Disturbing Answers to the Mystery of Tuskless Female Elephants - Scientific American

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The National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences has selected a study published by Wayne State University School of Medicine researchers as an Extramural Paper of the Month.

The paper, Paternal preconception phthalate exposure alters sperm methylome and embryonic programming, published in in the October issue of the journal Environment International by J. Richard Pilsner, Ph.D., professor and Robert J. Sokol, M.D., Endowed Chair of Molecular Obstetrics and Gynecology, and director of Molecular Genetics and Infertility for the C.S. Mott Center for Human Growth and Development; and Stephen Krawetz, Ph.D., the Charlotte B. Failing Professor of Fetal Therapy and Diagnosis, and associate director of the Mott Center, was selected by the NIEHS as a paper of the month for September.

The Extramural Papers of the Month are selected based on their important findings and potential for public health impact.

The researchers reported that male mice exposed to phthalates before conception had DNA methylation changes in sperm, which can be transferred to the next generation as altered gene expression in embryos. DNA methylation occurs when a chemical compound, called a methyl group, attaches to DNA, affecting whether a gene is turned on or off.

They exposed male mice to either a low or high level of di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate for two sperm production cycles, or 67 days. Following exposure, they mated the mice with unexposed females. They then assessed genome-wide methylation in sperm, embryos and extra-embryonic tissues, which support the developing embryo.

Compared with unexposed controls, paternal preconception DEHP exposure altered methylation in 704 sperm gene regions, 1,716 embryo gene regions, and 3,181 extra-embryonic gene regions. Of these, 29 gene regions overlapped between sperm and embryonic tissues, suggesting methylation changes related to paternal DEHP exposure may be transmitted to the next generation. The researchers also identified changes in gene expression in embryos in both exposure groups compared with controls. Many of the altered genes were related to pathways important in development.

The researchers said their results indicate that preconception is a sensitive window in which phthalate exposure alters sperm methylation and embryo gene expression in ways that may influence offspring health and development.

Others involved in the research and subsequent publication include Oladele Oluwayiose, a doctoral student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst; Chelsea Marcho, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst; Haotian Wu, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University; Alexander Suvorov, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst; Emily Houle, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst; and Jesse Mager, Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst.

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Report by Mott Center researchers named NIEHS Extramural Paper of the Month - The South End

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Destructive human activity has left a permanent, devastating mark on the African elephant as a species. Over the last few decades, the beloved creatures have evolved to develop without their iconic tusks which are useful in helping them dig, lift trees, and protect themselves in an attack. Poachers had removed and illegally sold them on the black market for several years, and although the evolution happened relatively quickly, it seems as though many of these elephants are now tuskless.

The data that shows the current number of tuskless elephants is truly shocking to animal experts, because it took such a short amount of time for the evolution to take place.

"When we think about natural selection, we think about it happening over hundreds, or thousands, of years," conservationist Samuel Wasser told NPR. "The fact that this dramatic selection for tusklessness happened over 15 years is one of the most astonishing findings."

Over the last several years, increasing numbers of female African elephants in Gorongosa National Park have been born without their tusks, which experts believe is due to a 15-year ivory war in Mozambique, according to CNN. After the war ended in 1992, animal experts noticed the population of tuskless female African elephants had multiplied by three in 28 years.

"During the war, Gorongosa was essentially the geographic center of the conflict," University of Idaho professor, Ryan Long, told CNN.

"As a result there were large numbers of soldiers in the area and a lot of associated motivation... to kill elephants and sell the ivory to purchase arms and ammunition. The resulting level of poaching was very intense," he continued.

Experts attribute the evolution to the fact that female elephants who were born tuskless during the war were 5 times as likely to survive as tusked elephants.

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Many are also shocked that the evolution happened in such a short period of time. This was likely because of how often elephants were having their tusks removed.

"The fact that it occurred so rapidly is rare indeed, and is a direct function of the strength of selection," Long mused. "In other words, it happened so quickly because tuskless females had a MUCH higher probability of surviving the war, and thus a MUCH greater potential for passing their genes on to the next generation."

Source: African Elephant Poaching

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Only female elephants can be born tuskless, and although it had previously occurred naturally on occasion, it's become increasingly more common. And while being tuskless helped elephants during the war, as it increased their chances of survival, there are downsides. According to Live Science, not having tusks makes natural survival trickier they can't lift branches and trees as easily, scratch bark, or protect themselves. It's also harder to dig holes for water without them.

Additionally, it doesn't help with repopulating the species. Due to genetics, tuskless female African elephants who pass on X chromosomes with the mutant gene to their male embryos inhibit their chances of survival. About 50 percent of male embryos (or those who inherit said gene) won't survive.

Since the war, numbers of the African elephant have increased tremendously, but this is a major setback hopefully they will readapt to their post-war state, and get their tusks back.

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African Elephants Are Evolving Without Tusks, Due to Years of Poaching - Green Matters

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Breast cancer can affect men too although it's more common in women. Approximately 1-2% of all breast cancer patients are men yet when it comes to diagnosis, they may face a unique set of challenges. Men tend to ignore the symptoms of breast cancer due to fear of stigma and may be diagnosed at an advanced stage and have poorer outcome as compared to women.

"Men suffering from Klinefelter syndrome (where they are born with an extra X chromosome) are at risk of getting breast cancer as they have higher estrogen levels and get gynecomastia that outgrow breast tissue in males," says Dr Aditi Agrawal, Consultant Breast and Laparoscopic Surgeon, Wockhardt Hospital, Mira Road.

Breast cancer starts in the milk ducts and the lobules, which are the structures containing the milk-producing glands. Male and female breast tissue have few ducts under the nipple and areola until puberty. During puberty, females see increased levels of various hormones like estrogen causing ducts to grow and lobules to form. While in males, owing to low levels of these hormones, ducts, lobules are few and tend to consist of fat tissue, according to Dr Agarwal.

ALSO READ: Breast Cancer Awareness Month: 5-step self-examination guide you must follow

In women on the other hand, early start of periods before the age of 12 and late menopause, after age of 55, giving birth for the first time at an older age, or never giving birth increases the risk of breast cancer.

Dr Agarways says age and genetics are common factors seen in both males and females when it comes to breast cancer. She says other common factors which can be taken care at an individual level are smoking, previous radiation therapy, alcohol and lack of exercise.

Symptoms for both men and women

Females and males having breast cancer will spot symptoms such as bumps and lumps, swelling in one or both the breasts, feeling tenderness, soreness, discharge from the breast, itchy skin around nipples, inverted nipple, thickened skin on the breast and pain. "In males as the breast is small in size is recognised at a small size but spreads fast to neighbouring structure/organs," says Dr Agarwal.

A mammogram and a biopsy remain the diagnosis tools for both men and women to determine if the lump is cancerous.

"After the type, location, and stage of the cancer are confirmed, your doctor will decide on a proper line of treatment for you. You will be asked to opt for a mastectomy, lumpectomy that falls under surgery. Apart from that, other options such as chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and hormone therapy can also be advised to you," says Dr Agarwal when asked about the treatment for breast cancer.

It is also advised to make lifestyle modifications like exercising every day, avoiding weight gain and eat balanced diet of leafy green vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes and whole grains. One should also do self-breast examination from the age of 18.

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Breast Cancer Awareness Month: What men need to know about breast cancer - Hindustan Times

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Wednesday, 27 October 2021, 12:13 pmPress Release: Ramari Stewart

Whales are often named after Western scientistsand after men, but that tradition is about to change, as anewly discovered species of whale will carry an Indigenousname and the name of a woman.

Its scientificname will be Mesoplodon eueu, referring to itsIndigenous roots in South Africa, and its common nameRamaris beaked whale after Ramari Stewart, a MtaurangaMori whale expert.

Until now, this beaked whale wasthought to be the Trues beaked whale but almost a decadeago, a female washed ashore on the west coast of TeWaipounamu (South Island), Aotearoa New Zealand. She was 5meters long and pregnant. The local iwi (tribe) of NgtiMhaki named her Nihongore and her bones were sent to TePapa Tongarewa Museum in Wellington-New Zealand forpreservation.

When Nihongore turned up I knew thatshe was something different, I knew it was special because Ihadnt seen it before, Ramari Stewart says.

Thediscovery was made by Ramari Stewart, a renowned TohungaTohor (whale expert) who was raised by her elders in thetraditional Mori knowledge of the moana (sea). Togetherwith biologist Dr Emma Carroll from the University ofAuckland Waipapa Taumata Rau, they would bring the worldof Mtauranga Mori and science together to explore thenature and origins of this whale.

Ramari broughtextensive knowledge to the project, including leading workpreparing Nihongore for Te Papa. Its brilliant thatRamari accepted the honor of having this species named afterher, in recognition of Ramaris Mtauranga and Westernknowledge on whales and dolphins. As Ramari also meansa rare event in Te Reo (Mori language) it is also afitting tribute to the elusive nature of most beakedwhales, says Dr Emma Carroll.

Initially the NewZealand research team thought this was the first Truesbeaked whale found in the country, but that changed duringtheir work with a global network of researchers. They soonrealised that the genetics and skull shape of the Truesbeaked whales in the Northern Hemisphere were very differentto the Trues beaked whales in the SouthernHemisphere. They have been separated for around half amillion years, probably because they dont like the warmwater near the equator. Its clear that they are differentspecies.

Its wonderful that Western science isstarting to recognise that Mtauranga Mori is as equallygreat as Western science and the two can work together.Rather than just bridging a relationship and takingknowledge from Indigenous practitioners, it is better thatwe both sit at the table, Ramari Stewart.

Thisdiscovery brings the total number of beaked whale species to24. These are the most visible inhabitants of the deep oceandue to their large size and need to surface to breath. Thegroup includes the deepest diving mammals, which can dive100s or 1000s of metres to find their prey. Ramarisbeaked whale probably spends a lot of time offshore in deepwaters given so few specimens have beendiscovered.

The scientific name Mesoplodon eueuconnects the male specimens used in this research to theirorigins in South Africa, a territory inhabited by theKhoisan peoples. Guided by the Khoisan Council, the nameeueu was given, meaning big fish in the Khwedamlanguage. This is representative of languages from theregion, as the languages of people that inhabited the coast,where the whales stranded, are now mostly extinct.

Incollaboration with an international team of over 30scientists, research led by Dr Emma Carroll will bepublished in the international journal Proceedings of theRoyal SocietyB.

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Vertex Pharmaceuticals will develop in vivo gene-editing therapies for two genetic diseases using Mammoth Biosciences CRISPR systems through a collaboration that could generate more than $695 million for Mammoth, the companies said today.

The companies is not disclosing which diseases they will target.

We are focused on developing in vivo gene-editing therapies in two indications for specific serious and/or life-threatening diseases with the Vertex team,Peter Nell, Mammoths Chief Business Officer and Head of Therapeutics Strategy, told GEN.

Mammoth and Vertex did say, however, that they will apply Mammoths CRISPR platform consisting of a proprietary toolbox of novel Cas enzymeswhat the company calls the largest toolbox of CRISPR proteins on earth.

These include Cas12, which targets double-stranded DNA;Cas13, which targets and recognizes single-stranded RNA; Cas14, which targets single-stranded DNA; and Cas, which is encoded exclusively in the genomes of huge bacteriophages.

Mammoth has exclusively licensed foundational IP around novel CRISPR Cas12, Cas13, Cas14, and Cas systems from the University of California, Berkeley, where, they were discovered in the lab of Nobel laureate and Berkeley-based researcher Jennifer Doudna, PhD.

Doudna is a co-founder of Mammoth Biosciencesalong with CEO Trevor Martin, PhD; Janice Chen, PhD, the companys CTO, who discussed her companys technology last year onGENs monthly GEN Live program; Lucas Harrington, Mammoths CSO; and Ashley Tehranchi, PhD, who served as CTO until May 2019.

Cas14 and Cas are the smallest known CRISPR systems. Their sizes530 amino acids for Cas14a and 757 amino acids for Cas-2are less than half those of commonly used variants of Cas9 [1368 amino acids for SpCas9] and Cas12 [1,300 amino acids for FnCas12], offering numerous potential advantages for the therapies Mammoth plans to develop, Martin told GEN Edge last month, after the company announced the completion of $195 million in new financing completed over the past year.

The additional financingconsisting of $150 million in Series D financing and a $45-million Series C round whose investors included Amazonbrought Mammoths total capital raised from investors to more than $255 million., propelling the company to a unicorn valuation of more than $1 billion.

In addition, Mammoth said, it is building out its IP portfolio by discovering novel CRISPR systems within and beyond the foundational work. The company has yet to disclose those systems or other Cas enzymes under development.

The combination of Mammoths unique technology with Vertexs unmatched experience in serious disease research and development will only accelerate programs with the goal of reaching patients with high unmet medical need, Nell added. We believe our novel ultra-small CRISPR systems have the potential to be game-changers when it comes to systemic and targeted delivery of in vivo gene-editing therapies.

CRISPR-edited therapies have been an area of focus for Vertex. Late last year, the company and CRISPR Therapeutics reported positive data from a pair of Phase I/II trials for their CRISPR-Cas9 gene-edited therapy CTX001 showing consistent and sustained positive response in 10 patients treated for a pair of blood disorders, sickle cell disease (SCD) and beta thalassemia.

The companies in April amended their collaboration agreement to give Vertex leadership in global development, manufacturing, and commercialization of CTX001 with support from CRISPR Therapeutics, in return for CRISPR receiving a $900 million upfront payment and a potential additional $200 million milestone payment upon CTX001 regulatory approval. Two months later, during the Joint European Hematology Association-American Society of Hematology (EHA-ASH) Symposium, researchers presented additional clinical data showing CTX001 to have delivered a consistent and sustained response to treatment in 22 patients in two ongoing Phase I/II trials.

We see tremendous potential for CTX001, Stuart A. Arbuckle, Vertexs executive vice president and chief commercial and operations officer, told analysts July 29 on the companys quarterly earnings call following release of second-quarter results. He cited an estimate of more than 150,000 patients in the United States and Europe, who have beta thalassemia, or sickle cell disease, approximately 32,000 of whom have severe disease; plus another 25,000 severe sickle cell disease patients, the vast majority of which were in the United States.

We believe that a gene-editing approach which holds the potential for a one-time curative treatment will be highly valued by patients, physicians, and payers, Arbuckle said. Consistent with our own internal market research, published physician surveys in the United States consistently indicate that they expect a quarter to a third of their sickle cell disease patients would be good candidates for a one-time curative approach using the current conditioning regimen, which is in line with the estimates of the numbers of severe patients.

With gentler conditioning regimens in the future, Arbuckle added, we expect CTX001 to be an attractive option for a much larger proportion of the 150,000 beta thalassemia and sickle cell disease patients.

To launch its collaboration with Mammoth, Vertex has agreed to pay the Brisbane, CA,-based company $41 million upfront, including an investment in the form of a convertible note, and up to $650 million in potential future payments tied to achieving research, development, and commercial milestones across two potential programs.

Mammoth is also eligible for tiered royalties from Boston-based Vertex on future net sales on any products that may result from the collaboration, the first one announced by Mammoth for the development of gene-edited therapies.

Vertex and Mammoth share the same commitment to developing therapies that have the potential to be transformative for people with serious diseases, stated David Altshuler, MD, PhD, Vertexs CSO. We look forward to expanding our cell and genetic therapies capabilities with the addition of Mammoths ultra-small CRISPR systems for in vivo genome editing, which will provide us with another set of tools to tackle many of the diseases were interested in.

Mammoth is also developing CRISPR-based diagnostics, having applied Cas12 in itsCOVID-19diagnostic effort which culminated in the SARS-CoV-2 RNA DETECTR Assay, a COVID-19 diagnostic for whichUCSF Health Clinical Laboratorieswasgranted an FDA Emergency Use Authorization (EUA)in August 2020.

The 45-minute test is designed to detect nucleic acid from SARS-CoV-2 in upper respiratory specimens. The test extracts, isolates, and purifies SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid for simultaneous reverse transcription into cDNA, followed by amplification using loop-mediated amplification (RT-LAMP).

The SARS-CoV-2 RNA DETECTR Assay was co-developed by Mammoth through itspartnership with UCSF professor Charles Chiu, MD, PhD, who is also director of the UCSF-Abbott Viral Diagnostics and Discovery Center, and a member of the companys Scientific Advisory Board. Mammothin 2019exclusively licensed two U.S. patents granted to the regents of the University of California that cover CRISPR collateral cleavage diagnostic systems.

In July 2020, Mammoth won funding for its development of a scalable COVID-19 test, when the company wasawarded $23.1 millionof $248.7 million in contracts to the first seven lab-based and point-of-care tests diagnostics developersfunded through the NIHs Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) initiative. The testing system can be adapted to detect for other viruses, though Mammoth has not made public which ones.

Two months earlier in May 2020, Mammoth launched a collaboration with GlaxoSmithKlines GSK Consumer Healthcare to develop a handheld test designed to apply the DETECTR platform at point of need. Mammoth has disclosed few details since the initial announcement, with Martin saying last month: I cant say too much about it, but definitely weve made huge strides.

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Vertex, Mammoth Launch Up-to-$695M CRISPR Gene-Editing Collaboration - Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Life goes on as gene-edited foods begin to hit the market. Japanese consumers have recently startedbuying tomatoes that fight high blood pressure, and Americans have been consuming soy engineered to produce high amounts of heart-healthy oils for a little over two years. Few people noticed these developments because, as scientists have said for a long time, the safety profile of a crop is not dictated by the breeding method that produced it. For all intents and purposes, it seems that food-safety regulators have done a reasonablejob of safeguarding public health against whatever hypothetical risks gene editing may pose.

But this has not stopped critics of genetic engineering from advocating for more federal oversight of CRISPR and othertechniquesused to make discrete changes to the genomes of plants, animals and other organisms we use for food or medicine. Over at The Conversation, a team of scientists recently made the case for tighter rules in Calling the latest gene technologies natural is a semantic distraction they must still be regulated.

Many scientists have defended gene editing, in part, by arguing that it simply mimics nature. A mutation that boosts the nutrient content of rice, for example, is the same whether it was induced by a plant breeder or some natural phenomenon. Indeed, the DNA of plants and animals we eat contains untold numbers of harmless, naturally occurringmutations. But The Conversation authors will have none of this:

Unfortunately, the risks from technology dont disappear by calling it natural... Proponents of deregulation of gene technology use the naturalness argument to make their case. But we argue this is not a good basis for deciding whether a technology should be regulated.

They have written a very long peer-reviewed article outlining a regulatory framework based on "scale of use."The ideais that the more widely a technology is implemented, the greater risk it may pose to human health and the environment, which necessitates regulatory "control points" to ensure its safe use. It's an interesting proposal, but it's plagued by several serious flaws.

Where's the data?

The most significant issue with a scale-based regulatory approachis that it's a reaction to risks that have never materialized. This isn't to say that a potentially harmful genetically engineered organism will never be commercialized. But if we're going to upend our biotechnology regulatory framework, we need to do so based on real-world evidence. Some experts have actually argued, based on decades of safety data, that the US over-regulates biotech products. As biologist and ACSHadvisorDr. Henry Miller and legal scholar John Cohrssen wrote recently in Nature:

After 35 years of real-world experience with genetically engineered plants and microorganisms, and countless risk-assessment experiments, it is past time to reevaluate the rationale for, and the costs and benefits of, the case-by-case reviews of genetically engineered products now required by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The problem with scale

Real-world data aside for the moment, there are some theoretical problems with the scalabilitymodel as well. Theargument assumes thatrisks associated with gene editing proliferate as use of the technology expands, because each gene edit carries a certain level of risk. This is a false assumption, as plant geneticist Kevin Folta pointed out on a recent episode of the podcast we co-host (21 minute mark).

Scientists have a variety of tools with which to monitor and limit the effects of specific gene edits. For example, proteins known as anti-CRISPRs can be utilized to halt the gene-editing machinery so it makes only the changes we want it to. University of Toronto biochemist Karen Maxwell has explained how this could work in practice:

In genome editing applications, anti-CRISPRs may provide a valuable 'off switch for Cas9 activity for therapeutic uses and gene drives. One concern of CRISPR-Cas gene editing technology is the limited ability to control its activity after it has been delivered to the cell . which can lead to off-target mutations. Anti-CRISPRs can potentially be exploited to target Cas9 activity to particular tissues or organs, to particular points of the cell cycle, or to limit the amount of time it is active

Suffice it to say that these and other safeguards significantly alter the risk equation and weaken concerns about a gene-edits-gone-wild scenario. Parenthetically, scientists design these sorts of preventative measures as they develop more genetic engineering applications for widespread use. This is why the wide variety of cars in production today have safety features that would have been unheard of in years past.

Absurdity alert: The A-Bomb analogy

To bolster their argument, The Conversation authors made the following analogy:

Imagine if other technologies with the capacity to harm were governed by resemblance to nature. Should we deregulate nuclear bombs because the natural decay chain of uranium-238 also produces heat, gamma radiation and alpha and beta particles? We inherently recognize the fallacy of this logic. The technology risk equation is more complicated than a supercilious 'its just like nature' argument

If someone has to resort to this kind of rhetoric, the chances are excellent that their argument is weak. Fat Man and Little Boy, the bombs dropped on Japan in 1945, didn't destroy two cities because a nuclear physicist in New Mexico made a technical mistake. These weapons are designed to wreak havoc. Tomatoes bred to produce more of an amino acid, in contrast, are not.

The point of arguing that gene-editing techniques mimic natural processes isn't to assert that natural stuff is good; therefore, gene editing is also good. Instead, the point is to illustrate that inducing mutations in the genomes of plants and animals is not novel or uniquely risky. Even the overpriced products marketed as all-natural have been improved by mutations resulting from many years of plant breeding.

Nonetheless, some scientists have argued that reframing the gene-editing conversation in terms of risk vs benefit would be a smarter approach than making comparisons to nature. I agree with them, so let's start now. The benefits of employing gene editing to improve our food supply and treat disease far outweigh the potential risks, which we can mitigate. Very little about modern life is naturaland it's time we all got over it.

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CRISPR Revolution: Do We Need Tighter Gene-Editing Regulations? No - American Council on Science and Health

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Published: Oct. 20, 2021 at 9:05 PM EDT

DAEJEON, South Korea, Oct. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- On September 2, 2021, a scientific paper from GenKOre on the new hypercompact CRISPR system called CRISPR/Cas12f-GE was published in an online issue of Nature Biotechnology (IF 54.9), one of the world's top-tier biotechnology journals.

For effective gene therapy, it is absolutely essential that the genetic payload be delivered to the desired location inside a patient's body. The best method for accomplishing this is to use the Adeno-Associated Virus (AAV) as a vector. AAV is a non-enveloped single-stranded DNA virus that penetrates cells that either divide or do not divide. AAV replicates only when a helper virus is present and thus it is non-pathogenic to humans. Because of these traits, AAV is an effective and practical method to deliver genes into various types of cells and is used as a vector in gene therapy. However, with the CRISPR/Cas9 technology, the size of the scissor gene is large and it is difficult to transport the gene inside the human body using the virus (AAV) carrier. For this reason, the clinical use of CRISPR/Cas9 as a gene therapy is very limited.

Because the size of the gene in the 'CRISPR/Cas12f-GE' system developed by GenKOre is one-third that of Cas9, it is an ideal payload for AAV delivery. GenKOre demonstrated its potential utility as the best gene therapy by improving the editing efficiency. In addition to high editing efficiency, it has proven to be effective and safe as gene scissor technology with respect to the off-target issue, a chronic weakness of CRISPR gene scissors.

The hypercompact CRISPR system Cas12f-GE has revealed its value as a therapeutic agent that can be widely used for developing medical treatments for patients who chronically suffer from life-long illnesses or diseases due to the lack of fundamental remedies.

GenKOre, which successfully developed this new technology, is a spin-off company of the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience & Biotechnology (KRIBB), a research institute funded by the South Korean government.

Dr. Yong-Sam Kim, CEO of GenKOre remarked, "I hope that our achievements based on our research will bring about a revolution in gene therapies utilizing this genome-editing tool. Our technology can be seen as a breakthrough by resolving the major obstacle linked to the original CRISPR technology, and I am optimistic that in tandem with existing gene scissors, our technology will contribute to the human health and welfare."

With the successful development of CRISPR/Cas12f-GE, GenKOre plans to step up its development of gene therapy and new products through its unique gene scissor technology and collaborate with other companies in becoming a market leader in the realm of gene therapy and new plant biotechnology

For more content on GenKOre's paper published online by Nature Biotechnology, refer to https://www.nature.com/articles/s41587-021-01009-z.

The website of GenKOre is http://www.genkore.com

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SOURCE GenKOre

The above press release was provided courtesy of PRNewswire. The views, opinions and statements in the press release are not endorsed by Gray Media Group nor do they necessarily state or reflect those of Gray Media Group, Inc.

Original post:
A Hypercompact CRISPR Technology Developed by GenKOre is deemed a Potential Game Changer in Gene Therapy. - WKYT

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Oct. 21, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Intellia Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTLA), a leading clinical-stage genome editing company focused on developing curative therapeutics using CRISPR/Cas9 technology both in vivo and ex vivo, announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted orphan drug designation to NTLA-2001 for the treatment of transthyretin (ATTR) amyloidosis. This investigational therapy is the first CRISPR therapy to be administered systemically to edit a disease-causing gene inside the human body. NTLA-2001 has the potential to be the first single-dose treatment for ATTR amyloidosis as it may be able to halt and reverse the devastating complications of this disease. ATTR amyloidosis is a rare condition that can impact a number of organs and tissues within the body through the accumulation of misfolded transthyretin (TTR) protein deposits.

Orphan drug designation underscores the FDAs recognition of NTLA-2001s potential promise as a single-dose, novel therapy for the treatment of ATTR amyloidosis, said Intellia President and Chief Executive Officer John Leonard, M.D. At Intellia, we are committed to advancing our modular genome editing platform to develop potentially curative treatment options for life-threatening diseases, and we look forward to working with the ATTR amyloidosis community and the FDA to bring a much-needed treatment option to patients.

NTLA-2001 is currently being studied in a Phase 1 trial in adults with hereditary ATTR amyloidosis with polyneuropathy (ATTRv-PN). In June 2021, Intellia and its collaborator Regeneron announced positive interim clinical results from the first two cohorts of this study. These results, which were published in the New England Journal of Medicine, represented the first-ever clinical data supporting the safety and efficacy of in vivo CRISPR genome editing in humans.

The FDA's Orphan Drug Designation program provides orphan status to drugs defined as those intended for the treatment, diagnosis or prevention of rare diseases that affect fewer than 200,000 people in the United States. Orphan drug designation qualifies the sponsor of the drug for certain development incentives, including tax credits for qualified clinical testing, prescription drug user fee exemptions and seven-year marketing exclusivity upon FDA approval. The decision by the FDA follows a March 2021 decision by the European Commission (EC) to also grant NTLA-2001 orphan drug designation for the treatment of ATTR amyloidosis.

Story continues

About Transthyretin (ATTR) Amyloidosis Transthyretin amyloidosis, or ATTR amyloidosis, is a rare, progressive and fatal disease. Hereditary ATTR (ATTRv) amyloidosis occurs when a person is born with mutations in the TTR gene, which causes the liver to produce structurally abnormal transthyretin (TTR) protein with a propensity to misfold. These damaged proteins build up as amyloid deposits in the body, causing serious complications in multiple tissues, including the heart, nerves and digestive system. ATTRv amyloidosis predominantly manifests as polyneuropathy (ATTRv-PN), which can lead to nerve damage, or cardiomyopathy (ATTRv-CM), which can lead to heart failure. Some individuals without any genetic mutation produce non-mutated, or wild-type TTR proteins that become unstable over time, misfolding and aggregating in disease-causing amyloid deposits. This condition, called wild-type ATTR (ATTRwt) amyloidosis, primarily affects the heart.

About NTLA-2001Based on Nobel Prize-winning CRISPR/Cas9 technology, NTLA-2001 could potentially be the first curative treatment for ATTR amyloidosis. NTLA-2001 is the first investigational CRISPR therapy candidate to be administered systemically, or intravenously, to edit genes inside the human body. Intellias proprietary non-viral platform deploys lipid nanoparticles to deliver to the liver a two-part genome editing system: guide RNA specific to the disease-causing gene and messenger RNA that encodes the Cas9 enzyme, which carries out the precision editing. Robust preclinical data, showing deep and long-lasting transthyretin (TTR) reduction following in vivo inactivation of the target gene, supports NTLA-2001s potential as a single-administration therapeutic. Interim Phase 1 clinical data released in June 2021 confirm substantial, dose-dependent reduction of TTR protein following a single dose of NTLA-2001. Intellia leads development and commercialization of NTLA-2001 as part of a multi-target discovery, development and commercialization collaboration with Regeneron.

About Intellia TherapeuticsIntellia Therapeutics, a leading clinical-stage genome editing company, is developing novel, potentially curative therapeutics using CRISPR/Cas9 technology. To fully realize the transformative potential of CRISPR/Cas9, Intellia is pursuing two primary approaches. The companys in vivo programs use intravenously administered CRISPR as the therapy, in which proprietary delivery technology enables highly precise editing of disease-causing genes directly within specific target tissues. Intellias ex vivo programs use CRISPR to create the therapy by using engineered human cells to treat cancer and autoimmune diseases. Intellias deep scientific, technical and clinical development experience, along with its robust intellectual property portfolio, have enabled the company to take a leadership role in harnessing the full potential of CRISPR/Cas9 to create new classes of genetic medicine. Learn more at intelliatx.com. Follow us on Twitter @intelliatweets.

Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release contains forward-looking statements of Intellia Therapeutics, Inc. (Intellia or the Company) within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, express or implied statements regarding Intellias beliefs and expectations regarding its: being able to complete clinical studies for NTLA-2001 for the treatment of transthyretin (ATTR) amyloidosis pursuant to its clinical trial applications (CTA), including submitting additional regulatory applications in other countries; ability to demonstrate effectiveness of NTLA-2001 in treating or reversing ATTR amyloidosis in patients; advancement and expansion of its CRISPR/Cas9 technology to develop human therapeutic products, as well as its ability to maintain and expand its related intellectual property portfolio; expectations of the potential impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic on strategy, future operations and timing of its clinical trials or IND submissions; ability to optimize the impact of its collaborations on its development programs, including but not limited to its collaborations with Regeneron, including its co-development programs for ATTR amyloidosis; and statements regarding the timing of regulatory filings regarding its development programs.

Any forward-looking statements in this press release are based on managements current expectations and beliefs of future events and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially and adversely from those set forth in or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: risks related to Intellias ability to protect and maintain its intellectual property position; risks related to Intellias relationship with third parties, including its licensors and licensees; risks related to the ability of its licensors to protect and maintain their intellectual property position; uncertainties related to the authorization, initiation and conduct of studies and other development requirements for its product candidates; the risk that any one or more of Intellias product candidates will not be successfully developed and commercialized; the risk that the results of preclinical studies or clinical studies will not be predictive of future results in connection with future studies; and the risk that Intellias collaborations with Regeneron or its other collaborations will not continue or will not be successful. For a discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties, and other important factors, any of which could cause Intellias actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see the section entitled Risk Factors in Intellias most recent annual report on Form 10-K as well as discussions of potential risks, uncertainties, and other important factors in Intellias other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). All information in this press release is as of the date of the release, and Intellia undertakes no duty to update this information unless required by law.

Intellia Contacts:

Investors:Ian KarpSenior Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications+1-857-449-4175ian.karp@intelliatx.com

Lina LiDirector, Investor Relations+1-857-706-1612lina.li@intelliatx.com

Media:Lisa QuTen Bridge Communications+1-678-662-9166media@intelliatx.com lqu@tenbridgecommunications.com

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Intellia Therapeutics Receives U.S. FDA Orphan Drug Designation for NTLA-2001, an Investigational CRISPR Therapy for the Treatment of Transthyretin...

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

How successful of an investor is Cathie Wood? Consider that over the last five years, the two best-performing non-leveraged exchange-traded funds (ETFs) were her ARK Next Generation Internet ETF and ARK Innovation ETF. And her ARK Genomic Revolution ETF came in at No. 5.

The kinds of stocks that Wood likes aren't for everyone. They're often high-risk, potentially high-reward plays that are suitable only for aggressive investors. If you don't mind taking on considerable risk, here are three stocks Wood is buying that you might want to consider too.

Image source: Getty Images.

Both the ARK Innovation ETF and ARK Genomic Revolution ETF have scooped up more shares ofBeam Therapeutics (NASDAQ:BEAM) in October. The biotech stock is only one spot away from jumping into the top 10 holdings for the ARKG ETF.

Beam specialized in base editing. It's a type of gene editing that enables pinpoint rewriting of a specific letter in the genome. And Beam's approach could prove to be more important over the long run than other types of gene editing.

The company doesn't have any candidates in clinical testing yet. That could change relatively soon, though, with Beam on track to submit an Investigational New Drug (IND) application within the next couple of months for BEAM-101 in treating rare blood disorders beta-thalassemia and sickle cell disease.

Beam's market cap stands above $6 billion. That's a quite lofty valuation for a preclinical-stage biotech. However, if the company's base editing works in one indication, it could potentially be applied in many other indications. Wood obviously thinks the chances that will happen are worth placing a major bet on Beam Therapeutics.

Beam Therapeutics isn't the only gene-editing stock that Wood likes these days. Her ARK Innovation ETF and ARK Genomic Revolution ETF have also added to their positions in CRISPR Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CRSP) in recent weeks.

CRISPR Therapeutics could become the first biotech focused on CRISPR gene editing to have a shot at getting a product on the market. The company and its partner Vertex Pharmaceuticalshope to file for regulatory approvals of CTX001 in 2023. CTX001 is a CRISPR gene-editing therapy targeting beta-thalassemia and sickle cell disease.

Some investors were disappointed with the durability of response in CRISPR Therapeutics' phase 1 data for its off-the-shelf chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR-T) therapy CTX110. However, the day after those results were announced, Wood chose to buy more shares of the stock at a discount.

CRISPR Therapeutics' market cap of over $7 billion might be hard to swallow for cautious investors. But with the prospects of potentially launching its first product in 2024 and a still-promising pipeline of gene-editing therapies, the company could become a big player in healthcare over the long run.

There's no question thatTeladoc Health (NYSE:TDOC) remains one of Wood's favorite stocks. So far in October, three of her ARK ETFs have bought additional Teladoc shares. Teladoc ranks as the top holding of the ARK Genomic Revolution ETF. It's the second-largest position in the ARK Innovation ETF. The telehealth stock is even in the top 10 for the ARK Fintech Innovation ETF.

Some investors have soured on Teladoc this year due to concerns about slowing membership growth. However, the company continues to perform well overall. Visits have risen. Revenue per member per month is up. Utilization rates are climbing.

On the other hand, Wall Street hasn't given up on the stock. Analysts think that Teladoc could soar close to 40% over the next 12 months. This optimism about Teladoc from both Wood and Wall Street centers on the company's long-term prospects.

The virtual care market remains only in its early stages. Teladoc is the clear leader in the market. It also continues to launch new products and services that provide further competitive advantages. Of these three stocks being bought by Wood recently, Teladoc is the least risky while still offering strong growth prospects.

This article represents the opinion of the writer, who may disagree with the official recommendation position of a Motley Fool premium advisory service. Were motley! Questioning an investing thesis -- even one of our own -- helps us all think critically about investing and make decisions that help us become smarter, happier, and richer.

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3 Stocks Cathie Wood Is Buying That You Might Want to Consider Too - Motley Fool

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Latest Study on Industrial Growth of Global CRISPR-Based Therapeutics Market 2021-2027. A detailed study accumulated to offer Latest insights about acute features of the CRISPR-Based Therapeutics market. The report contains different market predictions related to revenue size, production, CAGR, Consumption, gross margin, price, and other substantial factors. While emphasizing the key driving and restraining forces for this market, the report also offers a complete study of the future trends and developments of the market. It also examines the role of the leading market players involved in the industry including their corporate overview, financial summary and SWOT analysis.

The Major Players Covered in this Report: Caribou Biosciences, Addgene, CRISPR THERAPEUTICS, Merck KGaA, Mirus Bio LLC, Editas Medicine, Takara Bio USA, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Horizon Discovery Group, Intellia Therapeutics & GE Healthcare Dharmacon

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The titled segments and sub-section of the market are illuminated below:In-depth analysis of Global CRISPR-Based Therapeutics market segments by Types: , Genome Editing, Genetic Engineering, gRNA Database/Gene Librar, CRISPR Plasmid, Human Stem Cells, Genetically Modified Organisms/Crops & Cell Line EngineeringDetailed analysis of Global CRISPR-Based Therapeutics market segments by Applications: Biotechnology Companies, Pharmaceutical Companies, Academic Institutes & Research and Development Institutes

Major Key Players of the Market:Caribou Biosciences, Addgene, CRISPR THERAPEUTICS, Merck KGaA, Mirus Bio LLC, Editas Medicine, Takara Bio USA, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Horizon Discovery Group, Intellia Therapeutics & GE Healthcare Dharmacon

Regional Analysis for Global CRISPR-Based Therapeutics Market: APAC (Japan, China, South Korea, Australia, India, and Rest of APAC; Rest of APAC is further segmented into Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, New Zealand, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka) Europe (Germany, UK, France, Spain, Italy, Russia, Rest of Europe; Rest of Europe is further segmented into Belgium, Denmark, Austria, Norway, Sweden, The Netherlands, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania) North America (U.S., Canada, and Mexico) South America (Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Rest of South America) MEA (Saudi Arabia, UAE, South Africa)

Furthermore, the years considered for the study are as follows:Historical year 2015-2020Base year 2020Forecast period** 2021 to 2027 [** unless otherwise stated]

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Detailed TOC of CRISPR-Based Therapeutics Market Research Report-

CRISPR-Based Therapeutics Introduction and Market Overview CRISPR-Based Therapeutics Market, by Application [Biotechnology Companies, Pharmaceutical Companies, Academic Institutes & Research and Development Institutes] CRISPR-Based Therapeutics Industry Chain Analysis CRISPR-Based Therapeutics Market, by Type [, Genome Editing, Genetic Engineering, gRNA Database/Gene Librar, CRISPR Plasmid, Human Stem Cells, Genetically Modified Organisms/Crops & Cell Line Engineering] Industry Manufacture, Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2015-2020) Industry Value ($) by Region (2015-2020) CRISPR-Based Therapeutics Market Status and SWOT Analysis by Regions Major Region of CRISPR-Based Therapeutics Marketi) Global CRISPR-Based Therapeutics Salesii) Global CRISPR-Based Therapeutics Revenue & market share Major Companies List Conclusion

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CRISPR-Based Therapeutics Market Analysis, Size, Strategic Assessment, Market Growth and Forecasts to 2027 Puck77 - Puck77

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

CRISPR in agriculture market includes biological techniques that have been utilized in a wide variety of plant species to improve agricultural traits. Due to the deterioration of air quality, the health of soils, and adverse climate change CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) has been implemented to improve crop yields.

The agriculture sector is one of the potential sectors that utilize CRISPR technology to increase the production of crops. The CRISPR processes in which specified enzymes have been modified can remove DNA from a genome that is different from the genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

According to FSA (Federation of American Scientists), NIH had sanctioned funds with the value of approximately $1,155.4 million in 2020 respectively for the CRISPR related research activities and projects.

Report Consultant has published an innovative statistical data, titled as CRISPR in Agriculture market. This report has been aggregated with different market segments, such as applications, end-users and revenue. It focuses on the analysis of the existing market and upcoming innovations, to provide better insights for the businesses. This study includes the elaborative description of CRISPR in Agriculture market along with the different perspectives from various industry experts.

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Top Key Players:Bayer AG, Benson Hill Biosystems, Inc., Caribou Bioscience Inc., CRISPR Therapeutics, Horizon Discovery Group PLC, Intellia Therapeutics Inc., Yield10 Biosciences Inc., and so on.CRISPR in Agriculture Market By End-UserAcademic & Research InstitutesBiotech Companies

CRISPR in Agriculture Market By Target TypeCropsLivestockAquaculture

The genetic editing technology in CRISPR has brought multiple benefits to the food and agricultural industry that improves the productivity of fermentation processes. The development of abiotic stress-tolerant crop plants in the tropics by using the technology of CRISPR such as drought, soil salinity, heat stress that significantly limit the yield of crops across the globe. The CRISPR increases the demand of genome-editing for emerging diseases and pests in tropical regions that has opened a new opportunity for rapid development of disease resistant crop varieties by deletion of susceptibility.

Different regions, such as North America, Latin America, Japan, China, Asia Pacific, and India are considered to examine the facts of the leading key players. Through quantitative and qualitative analysis, this report has summarized about the significant pillars that can boost the performance of different industries.Get a Sample Copy of this CRISPR in Agriculture Market report now! @https://www.reportconsultant.com/request_sample.php?id=77685

CRISPR in Agriculture Market Research objectives1. To study and analyze the CRISPR in Agriculture market size by key regions/countries, product type and application, history data from 2016 to 2020, and forecast to 2028.2. To understand the structure of the CRISPR in Agriculture market by identifying its various sub-segments.3. To analyze the CRISPR in Agriculture concerning individual growth trends, prospects, and their contribution to the total market.4. To share detailed information about the key factors influencing the growth of the market (growth potential, opportunities, drivers, industry-specific challenges and risks).

5. To project the size of CRISPR in Agriculture sub-markets, concerning key regions (along with their respective key countries).6. To analyze competitive developments such as expansions, agreements, new product launches and acquisitions in the market.7. To strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their growth strategies.

A substantial study of the market strategies, challenges, prospects for advancements along with a detailed introspection of prominent aspects affecting the market is included in this report. It also sheds light upon the ongoing developments in this field as well as prevailing strategies to thrive in such a continually evolving market. To conclude with, this report covers all the necessary financial, economic and social factors relevant to the industry, thus enhancing a readers ability to understand the information required to make an informed decision.Customization Service of the Report:Report Consultant provides customization of reports as per your need. This report can be personalized to meet your requirements. Get in touch with our sales team, who will guarantee you to get a report that suits your necessities.Contact us:Rebecca Parker(Report Consultant)Contact No: +81-368444299[emailprotected]www.reportconsultant.comAbout Report Consultant:Report Consultant A global leader in analytics, research and advisory that can assist you to renovate your business and modify your approach. With us, you will learn to take decisions intrepidly. We make sense of drawbacks, opportunities, circumstances, estimations and information using our experienced skills and verified methodologies.Our research reports will give you an exceptional experience of innovative solutions and outcomes. We have effectively steered businesses all over the world with our market research reports and are outstandingly positioned to lead digital transformations. Thus, we craft greater value for clients by presenting advanced opportunities in the global market.

Read more from the original source:
CRISPR in Agriculture Market to Exhibit Robust Growth in Forthcoming Period 2021- 2028 With Prominent Players: Bayer AG, Benson Hill Biosystems, Inc.,...

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Detailed study and analysis of the Global CRISPR Technology Market highlights new trends in the CRISPR Technology industry and provides companies with trading insights. This study helps manufacturers, suppliers and investors, CEOs to identify opportunities and business optimization strategies to improve their value in the global CRISPR Technology market. Provides important information for well-known companies that are one of the top performing companies. The report provides comprehensive coverage of existing and potential markets as well as an assessment of competitiveness in changing market scenarios.

The report also presents data in the form of charts, tables and figures together with contact details and sales contact information for the major market players in the global market. There is a detailed overview of the competitive landscape of the global CRISPR Technology industry, with all the information gathered and deepened with the SWOT analysis. Opportunities for potential industrial growth have been discovered and the competition risks involved have also been structured.

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The segmentation chapters enable readers to understand aspects of the market such as its products, available technology and applications. These chapters are written to describe their development over the years and the course they are likely to take in the coming years. The research report also provides detailed information on new trends that may define the development of these segments in the coming years.

CRISPR Technology Market Segmentation:

CRISPR Technology Market, By Application (2016-2027)

CRISPR Technology Market, By Product (2016-2027)

Major Players Operating in the CRISPR Technology Market:

Company Profiles This is a very important section of the report that contains accurate and detailed profiles for the major players in the global CRISPR Technology market. It provides information on the main business, markets, gross margin, revenue, price, production and other factors that define the market development of the players studied in the CRISPR Technology market report.

Global CRISPR Technology Market: Regional Segments

The different section on regional segmentation gives the regional aspects of the worldwide CRISPR Technology market. This chapter describes the regulatory structure that is likely to impact the complete market. It highlights the political landscape in the market and predicts its influence on the CRISPR Technology market globally.

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The Study Objectives are:

This report includes the estimation of market size for value (million USD) and volume (K Units). Both top-down and bottom-up approaches have been used to estimate and validate the market size of CRISPR Technology market, to estimate the size of various other dependent submarkets in the overall market. Key players in the market have been identified through secondary research, and their market shares have been determined through primary and secondary research. All percentage shares, splits, and breakdowns have been determined using secondary sources and verified primary sources.

Some Major Points from Table of Contents:

Chapter 1. Research Methodology & Data Sources

Chapter 2. Executive Summary

Chapter 3. CRISPR Technology Market: Industry Analysis

Chapter 4. CRISPR Technology Market: Product Insights

Chapter 5. CRISPR Technology Market: Application Insights

Chapter 6. CRISPR Technology Market: Regional Insights

Chapter 7. CRISPR Technology Market: Competitive Landscape

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Original post:
CRISPR Technology Market Size 2021 Key Strategies, Applications, Trends and Opportunities | Top Brands: Thermo Fisher Scientific, Merck KGaA,...

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Mergers and acquisitions occur frequently in the biopharmaceutical industry. And there are often rumors of other deals that never materialize. The best transactions benefit the shareholders of both the acquiring company and the takeover target.In this Motley Fool Live video recorded on Oct. 13, Fool contributors Keith Speights and Brian Orelli discuss potential biotech buyouts that would be great for investors.

Keith Speights: All right, Brian. Now, let's take a speculative twist in our discussion about acquisitions. We've just talked about two deals that have been announced this week. But Brian, is there a biotech buyout that you would really like to see? Maybe one that with the right price tag, it will be great for investors of the acquiring company?

Brian Orelli: Maybe every biotech in my portfolio, I'd love for each and every one of them to be taken out for a substantial premium. I don't know. There's some people who say that they're disappointed because a company got taken out because they'd rather own the company and profit from the growth of that company individually.

But the way I see it, there's plenty of biotechs in the sea to reinvest those profits. If you're going to give me a quick up-front profit, I'm definitely going to take it and I'm not going to complain about it.

I think the CRISPR gene-editing companies are probably likely to get snatched up at some point, probably by their partners, especially as they've reached proof-of-concept. I'm thinking Intellia (NASDAQ:NTLA) potentially being acquired by Regeneron (NASDAQ:REGN), and CRISPR Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CRSP) potentially being acquired by Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VRTX).

I think these would be great for the investors, mostly because I think maybe their valuations are a little inflated. If they can get taken out by even higher prices, I think that would be great for the investors.

I own Vertex so I certainly don't want Vertex overpaying for CRISPR Therapeutics. Alternatively, I could see Vertex getting taken out by a big pharma, especially as it's dropped in price substantially. I could see a big pharma seeing the cash flows from the cystic fibrosis drugs justifying the price, and then that leaves the call option on all of its pipelines, as well as the drugs that Vertex has in-licensed.

Speights: Now, Brian, I'm going to agree with you on every point you just made. No. 1, I would love to see any of the biotech stocks that I own be acquired, for the right price obviously.

No. 2, I agree with you that the CRISPR gene-editing companies are probably near the top of the list of potential acquisition targets over the next few years. I also agree with you that Vertex, if there's going to be one of those massive big pharma mergers like we've seen over the last 20 years, some of those massive deals, I think Vertex would be an excellent candidate to be acquired by a bigger company.

I'm not sure. We'll see if that happens, but I think it would be one of the top megamerger acquisition candidates that are on the market right now.

Orelli: I think a pharma that wanted a lot of cash flow, but also wanted to boost up their pipeline, Vertex probably has more external deals than it has internal candidates. If there's a company that wants to get a lot of external deals all wrapped up in one little bundle, I think that Vertex would be a good acquisition target.

This article represents the opinion of the writer, who may disagree with the official recommendation position of a Motley Fool premium advisory service. Were motley! Questioning an investing thesis -- even one of our own -- helps us all think critically about investing and make decisions that help us become smarter, happier, and richer.

View original post here:
Biotech Buyouts That Would Be Great for Investors - Motley Fool

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

H. Lundbeck A/S (Lundbeck) announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement with AprilBio Co., Ltd. (AprilBio), a biopharmaceutical company based in South Korea dedicated to developing specialized biologics and antibody drugs.

Under the agreement between the two companies, Lundbeck receives exclusive, worldwide rights to research, develop and commercialize APB-A1, a novel and well-differentiatedanti-CD40 ligand (CD40L) antibody-like drug candidate,readyfor phase I testing around the beginning of 2022. This novel drug candidate offers significant potential across a wide array of neuroimmune diseases.

Dr. Johan Luthman, EVP and Head of Research & Development in Lundbeck, said:

"I am excited to announce this partnership with AprilBio around their interesting novel anti-CD40L antibody-like molecule that accelerates our R&D strategy within neuroimmunology, one of our four strategic biological focus areas. Based on promising preclinical data, this project has the potential to offer new, potent and differentiated therapies for several different types of neuroimmune diseases".

The agreement enables Lundbeck to initiate clinical activities targeting the neuroimmune system. The concept is built on a biology that has proven its ability to therapeutically target diseases of the central nervous system. APB-A1 will accelerate internal experience and expertise that in turn will enable building a broader pipeline for Lundbeck in this area.

"We are also glad to join hands with Lundbeck, which leads the global brain disease treatment industry," AprilBio CEO Dr. Sang-hoon Cha said in a statement. "We expect that possibilities to successfully develop a new drug for treating multiple neuroimmune diseases will increase through this partnership."

Under the terms of the license agreement, Lundbeck will make a one-time payment to AprilBio of USD 16 million in cash. In addition, Lundbeck will pay AprilBio success-based development, regulatory, and sales milestone payments of up to USD 432 million related to APB-A1. Lundbeck will also pay AprilBio tiered royalty payments with the highest tier reaching low double-digit percentage of net sales. Lundbeck will be responsible for all future development activities and expenses related to the project.

About APB-A1APB-A1 is a neutralizing anti-CD40L antibody-like drug candidate with an innovative molecular design blocking the essential CD40L/CD40 co-stimulatory interaction. The activation of the CD40L/CD40 signaling cascade is essential for the initiation of cellular and humoral immune responses. It is an established and clinically validated immune pathway through its ability to trigger activation, differentiation and proliferation of B-cells, T-cells, and several other immunes cells (such as monocytes, macrophages, dendritic cells, natural killer cells) to mediate immune responses. Modulating the CD40L/CD40 interaction therefore holds great promise for treatment of a wide range of autoimmune related CNS disorders and neurological diseases.

APB-A1 is a human, high affinity, anti-CD40L antibody-like fusion protein that is designed to inhibit the CD40L/CD40 pathway through neutralization of CD40L presented on activated T-cells, and consequently significantly attenuating the initiated immune response. In preclinical studies, APB-A1 has demonstrated engagement with CD40L leading to decreased antibody response and circulating inflammatory markers. One of the differentiating aspects of the APB-A1 design is its ability to utilize human serum albumin for half-life extension translating into superior clinical features.

About AprilBioAprilBio Co., Ltd. is a biopharmaceutical company in South Korea founded in 2013. The company is specialized in development of specialized biologics and antibody drugs. The company's platform technologies include a human phage-display Ab library and Anti-Serum Albumin Fab-Associated (SAFA) technology (versatile building block for half-life extension and generation of novel biological therapeutics). AprilBio is focused on rare diseases, oncology, autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.

Contacts

About H. Lundbeck A/SH. Lundbeck A/S (LUN.CO, LUN DC, HLUYY) is a global pharmaceutical company specialized in brain diseases. For more than 70 years, we have been at the forefront of neuroscience research. We are tirelessly dedicated to restoring brain health, so every person can be their best.

Too many people worldwide live with brain diseases - complex conditions often invisible to others that nonetheless take a tremendous toll on individuals, families and societies. We are committed to fighting stigma and discrimination against people living with brain diseases and advocating for broader social acceptance of people with brain health conditions. Every day, we strive for improved treatment and a better life for people living with brain disease.

We have approximately 5,600 employees in more than 50 countries, and our products are available in more than 100 countries. Our research programs tackle some of the most complex challenges in neuroscience, and our pipeline is focused on bringing forward transformative treatments for brain diseases for which there are few, if any therapeutic options. We have research facilitiesin Denmark and the United States, and our production facilities are located in Denmark, France, and Italy. Lundbeck generated revenue of DKK 17.7 billion in 2020(EUR 2.4billion; USD 2.7billion).

For additional information, we encourage you to visit our corporatesitewww.lundbeck.comand connect with us on Instagram (h_lundbeck), Twitter at@Lundbeckand viaLinkedIn.

H. Lundbeck A/S

Ottiliavej 9, 2500 Valby, Denmark

+45 3630 1311

info@lundbeck.com

https://news.cision.com/h--lundbeck-a-s/r/lundbeck-receives-exclusive-rights-to-apb-a1--an-innovative-phase-i-ready-bio-therapeutic-for-the-tr,c3432091

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H Lundbeck A/S : Lundbeck receives exclusive rights to APB-A1, an innovative phase I-ready bio-therapeutic for the treatment of neuroimmune diseases...

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

The summer before she started her neuroscience degree at the University of Texas, Celine Halioua interned at a clinic in Germany, working with patients who had age-related brain cancer. She formed a bond with one of them. He had a large, bushy moustache and a permanent smile the picture of a kind father, she told me. My German was not great, and neither was his English, but what struck me was his kindness despite the fact he was there to discuss his terminal diagnosis.

Halioua was shadowing a doctor, and found it hard to grasp that nothing could be done for this patient. I always thought that doctors were magical that if you put the effort in, youd be able to fix it. The realisation that you cant made me feel that we dont have free will.

She resolved to find that fix: not a cure for cancer, but an end to ageing itself. Now, at only 26, Halioua is a leading light in the relatively new field of anti-ageing biotech. Im confident well have an ageing drug by the time its relevant for me, she told me. She estimated that time as within a decade, and aims to dominate the market before then. Transparently, my goal is to build the ageing pharma company there will be many. The ageing field will one day be larger than the cancer field. Halioua described ageing as deviation from optimal biological function. Optimal is subjective, of course: Olympic gymnasts peak at a much younger age than Olympic sprinters. Old is easier to define: Halioua described it as when the physical body gets in the way of the thing that you want to do.

Haliouas speech was so rapid that the internet connection from her office in San Francisco could barely keep up. She looked every inch the digital nomad in her black T-shirt and AirPods: part biogerontologist, part CEO, part Gen Z-er. Haliouas mother is Moroccan and her father German; she was born in Texas but studied in Sweden, Germany and the UK, and dropped out of her PhD at Oxford University and began to work for the venture capitalist Laura Deming, now 27, at the California-based Longevity Fund, a firm that invests in anti-ageing businesses. Halioua launched her own start-up in 2020.

The quest for eternal youth may not be new, but it is now bankrolled by some of the wealthiest individuals and corporations on Earth. PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel and Oracles Larry Ellison are among the many billionaires who are investing. Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page helped launch Calico, a Google subsidiary focused on combating ageing, in 2013. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is in the game: not long after touching down from his maiden space flight in July, he was reported to have invested an undisclosed sum in Russian billionaire Yuri Milners Altos Labs, which will have a research base in Cambridge, UK (most anti-ageing start-ups are in the US). It is estimated that the industry will be worth $610bn by 2025.

[See also: The internet was built for connection how did it go so wrong?]

The field shouldnt be confused with the kooky subculture of life extensionism, whereby the determined and ascetic experiment with severe calorie restriction, intensely calibrated exercise and cocktails of daily supplements in a bid to extend a life that is arguably not worth living. Instead, anti- ageing science works at the level of gene therapy, cell hacking and reconstituting human blood; the medical treatments at its heart are based on bleeding edge science and aimed at the mass market. Some focus on biological reprogramming: adding proteins known as Yamanaka factors to cells, causing them to revert to a previous state. Others look at genomic instability or the way DNA damage that accumulates over time might be repaired.

The entrepreneurs in this fledgling field are determined that the end of ageing will come via therapies approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA). The elixir of youth wont be a single drug, but a regimen of treatments that knock out different hallmarks of ageing and allow us to get older without losing our bodies and minds. We will still die: there will be accidents as well as diseases unrelated to age (children still get fatal cancers, after all). But death will become increasingly remote, and no longer preceded by years of inevitable decline.

Its advocates argue that, once ageing is cured, the financial, medical, societal and emotional burden of taking care of the elderly will disappear. But have these entrepreneurs thought about what a post-ageing world would look like? And if they have, would anyone want to live there?

As it stands, a drug will only get regulatory approval if it is marketed as a treatment for age-related diseases such as arthritis, cataracts and macular degeneration, diabetes, certain cancers, dementia and Parkinsons rather than ageing in its own right. This, then, is where the science is focused. The thinking is that, if the ageing processes that underlie those diseases are treated, other rejuvenation benefits can be smuggled in.

Based in San Francisco, Unity Biotechnology is developing a class of anti-ageing drugs called senolytics. These work by eradicating senescent cells those that have stopped dividing and then gather in the body, spewing out factors that harm the surrounding tissue. Its a completely new way both of thinking about a disease and targeting it, Anrivan Ghosh, Unitys CEO, told me. Senolytics reprogramme the tissue. They raise the possibility that I can restore a previous state that a tissue or a body was in. It was first thing in the morning for Ghosh (we were speaking over Zoom), but he was fizzing with enthusiasm. He is 57 but looks younger, with a neat goatee and hair that is only flecked with grey.

Senolytic drugs are designed to be taken prophylactically, during what Ghosh refers to as a window of time when senescent cells are known to accumulate (this varies in different parts of the body). He was keento tell me about Unitys ongoing clinical trial in people with age-related eye disease the first evidence of a senolytic treatment working, he said. Twelve patients with severe vision loss due to macular degeneration or diabetic macular oedema (two of the major causes of age-related blindness) had been put on a course of Unitys lead senolytic. One of the patients could not see any letters on an eye chart, even with her glasses on, from four metres away. Everything she once needed help with, she can now do independently. The majority of those patients showed an improvement.

I would have been happy if they just maintained their vision, Ghosh said. It raises the possibility that you may somehow be able to reverse trajectory and restore a better state. Thats another level.

[See also: The fidget business]

Unity was an early success story, with Peter Thiel and Jeff Bezos signing up as seed investors. People like Thiel and Bezos arent interested in financing the kind of incremental gains a next-generation medicine might offer, Ghosh told me. They are drawn to the idea of being able to do something that changes the way we think about disease, that changes the way we live. Over time, Unitys funding has come increasingly from bigger, more mainstream investors.

Promising paradigm change can be a risky business. Unity was valued at $700m at its initial public offering in May 2018, but shares fell by more than 60 per cent in August 2020 after its flagship product, a senolytic treatment for osteoarthritis of the knee that had worked on mice, was shown to have no greater effect than a placebo in human trials. It tells you something about the translational gap in that case sometimes the animal studies do not replicate in the human case, Ghosh said. There will be many bumps before we have success.

Up to 30 biotech companies around the world are developing senolytic drugs. British biogerontologist and computational biologist Andrew Steele, who wrote his book Ageless: The New Science of Getting Older Without Getting Old (2020) while studying nematode worms at the Francis Crick Institute in London, told me he thought we were two or three years away from having the first senolytics in the clinic for specific conditions. It could be within a decade that were using these things preventatively. Like most other advocates, Steele was ambitious about the timeframe, given the relatively small number of human trials.

Ageing isnt officially defined as a disease, which is a problem for the biotech companies, Steele explained. Its currently very difficult to get a drug approved because it isnt an indication in the pharmaceutical industry. That means theres no way to say, Ive reversed or slowed someones ageing. But he remained optimistic. Were in a position, unique in human and scientific history, where weve finally got a handle on the processes. Unless youre very old or very, very unwell, theres going to be an anti-ageing drug in time for you.

For Steele, who is 36, this cant come soon enough. We have been completely ignoring the single largest cause of death, human disease and suffering, he told me. I dont think barbaric is too strong a word. Being old steals your independence: its what puts you at risk of all kinds of things not just the internal stuff like cancer and heart disease, but external threats like falls, infectious disease.

Steele told me about some 24-month-old mice (around 70 in human years) he had observed in a lab while researching his book. After a dose of senolytics, the mice thrived. They get less cancer, fewer cataracts, fewer heart problems, they are fitter and less frail, he said. Theyre cognitively younger as well. And they have better fur, thicker, plumper skin, less grey hair they just look fantastic.

Celine Halioua doesnt have to worry about the translational gap between mice and humans. She left the world of longevity venture capital in 2019 to become founder and CEO of Loyal, a biotech start-up dedicated to extending dog lifespan. It aims not simply to stretch the length of time a dog can live anything from an extra six months to three years, depending on the breed but to ensure that those months and years are healthy. (Halioua herself is a devoted dog owner, and lists her husky, Wolfie, as the companys chief evangelist on the Loyal website.) But dogs are just the beginning. Were planning to take what we learn in dogs to help pet parents and non-pet parents live longer, too, she told me.

Dogs develop the same age-related diseases as we do, Halioua explained, at approximately the same point in their life-span (the exception being heart disease, because they dont eat a lot of McDonalds or whatever). Their fur loses pigment and goes grey, just like their owners hair. They share an environment with us, and environmental factors are huge in ageing. Its also possible to see whether an intervention is working much sooner in dogs than in humans: You can do a preventative measure when theyre two or three, and youll know by six or seven, probably sooner, whether the intervention did or did not do the thing. Dogs will make the pathway to regulatory approval smoother, Halioua believes. If something can work in a complex species like a dog, that isnt super-inbred like a mouse, its a more robust justification to pursue that in people.

Significantly, dogs have devoted owners who are prepared to pay over the odds though Halioua said she was determined not to exploit that devotion. It is important to me to price our products so that they are accessible for the majority of dog owners. The final cost will depend on the materials but, order of magnitude tens, not hundreds, of dollars a month.

The first of two Loyal drugs in development targets cellular mechanism and glucose metabolism in large- and giant-breed dogs. Due to a quirk of animal husbandry, the larger the dog, the shorter its lifespan. A Great Dane might live seven to nine years on average, while a Chihuahua might live 16 to 18. Thats weird. You normally dont see a times-two differential in lifespan within the same species you dont see it in people of varying heights. This, Halioua explained, was due to an antagonistic pleiotropic effect: the thing that caused the dog to grow big quickly has a negative impact on lifespan.

The second drug targets metabolic fitness in dogs of any breed and size, in order to replicate the same effect on lifespan that calorie restriction does in mice. This will be better for late-in-life intervention. Of course, prevention is optimal, but there are people who already have grey-faced dogs and we wanted to have something for them. Trials are due to begin next year.

Other anti-ageing therapies have emerged from more gruesome animal experimentation. The biotech company Elevian, founded in Silicon Valley but now based in Boston, began 15 years ago after Harvard professor of regenerative biology Amy Wagers stitched live mice together, fusing the circulatory systems of old and young specimens, in a process called parabiosis. The mice lived fused together for four weeks before their organs were removed and studied. Elevians CEO and co-founder, Mark Allen, described an experiment that sounded like Frankenstein and Dracula combined: The old mice exposed to young blood grow biologically younger by many different measures, and the young mice exposed to old blood grow older.

[See also: The spirit of the age: Why the tech billionaires want to leave humanity behind]

A 51-year old medical doctor turned tech entrepreneur, Allen told me he had read about Wagers work and thought it might be turned into a therapy. But its not an easy thing to translate. In the parabiosis model, the old animals are getting a continuous transfusion of young blood, 24/7, for four weeks. You cant really have a blood boy tied to you, he said, with a dark grin.

The Harvard team identified the recombinant protein GDF11, the critical factor circulating in blood that appears to be behind the rejuvenating effect. Just injecting GDF11 once daily was able to reproduce many of the different effects, Allen said. I fell in love with this work because of the breadth of effect. He reeled off a list of diseases that GDF11 might combat: emphysema, cardiovascular disease, fatty liver disease and potentially some cancers.

Still, Elevian had to choose one specific indication they could tell regulators they were targeting, and decided its best bet was stroke: the worst possible disease that we could treat for the shortest possible duration, and see clinically meaningful effects, Allen said. Stroke is the second biggest cause of death worldwide and a leading cause of long-term disability; the few treatments that currently exist need to be given within a few hours after a stroke if they are to be effective.

Allen said animal trials were looking positive. When we give GDF11 after a stroke, it significantly improves sensory motor function recovery. And we can give it late we can start it 24 hours or later when no other treatments exist. Our primary focus today is taking it into clinical trials. For Allen, this would be the start of something more ground-breaking. Part of the game is getting it to market as soon as possible and then beginning to expand its indication.

The entrepreneurs I speak to might be taking different paths to eternal youth, but they agree on one thing: ultimately, ageing will be cured. None wants to hazard a guess at how long people will live there may be some yet unknown physical side effect that we discover in our 200s but they believe the only obstacle to an infinite human lifespan is our inability to imagine what that might look like. This means that the potential negative effects can only be raised delicately. The ageing process causes two thirds of death globally, Steele reminded me. Any objection you want to come up with to say we shouldnt do something about it has to be larger than that.

But Paul Root Wolpe, 64, director of the centre for ethics at Emory University in Georgia in the USA (and a former senior bioethicist at Nasa), told me that a world without ageing would be an economic disaster. The argument some advocates make for its enormous social benefits is a misdirection, he said. I find their arguments extremely naive, sociologically unsupportable, and most importantly, deeply narcissistic. Ive never heard a single plausible argument of how radical life extension would benefit society only an egocentric desire not to die. The truth is, they want to stop ageing. They want to live healthily to 150.

In Wolpes view, anti-ageing scientists and entrepreneurs minimise or ignore the profound implications of significantly increasing the human lifespan. The International Monetary Fund has stated that an ageing population in Japan has led to a vanishing labour force, higher demands for social services, a shrinking tax pool, greater wealth disparities and thats just from living what is currently our lifespan. If we increase it, all of those things would increase exponentially.

But in the future envisaged by the biotech start-ups, we would work into our hundreds: an elderly population would still be a labour force. Wolpe had little patience for this idea. That is a profoundly elite perspective. Do you really think that the longshoreman, the hard labourer, the person who works as a clerk in a store, at the age of 65 is going to say, Great! I get to work for another 50 years! Its absurd. Polls show that large percentages of people hate their job. Elitists who work entirely with their brains are a small minority of the human population. They have a very blinkered point of view. It was no coincidence that Silicon Valleys tech billionaires were early investors, Wolpe said. This is one of the great scientific, intellectual areas to conquer. These people have already conquered the world in new ways. They are the first group to touch the lives of hundreds of millions, if not billions, of people. They have so much cash, and they dont know what to do with it.

The political ramifications of an indefinite lifespan are equally huge, Wolpe argued. The elderly vote at much higher rates than the young, and, in America at least, the highest echelons of power have become the preserve of the over-70s. Politically, young people will be squeezed, and the fresh ideas they bring to politics and innovation more generally will be suppressed.

Do you think that if the last generation or the generation before that lived to 100 or 150, there would be gay marriage, diversity inclusion movements, #MeToo? Wolpe said. The vast majority of the great innovations of the last 50 years were created by young people. A life well-lived hands its torch to the next generation. It doesnt try to override them for its own narcissistic needs.

Overpopulation and the climate crisis are other obvious counter-arguments. If death becomes rare, and humans remain at optimal health, how soon will the world run out of space and resources? Wont humans die from starvation and natural disasters instead?

[See also: Toxic relationships, burnout, productivity dysmorphia why do we medicalise societal problems?]

This is not a technology in isolation, Allen argued when I put this to him. Were figuring out how to have cleaner energy, how to have food that is healthier and less polluting, how to live more peacefully, how to travel into space. There is not a real estate problem here on Earth if we live better. Its an argument typical of Silicon Valley optimism: the solution is always more tech.

Im sanguine about overpopulation, Steele told me. If we had to work a little bit harder to solve things like climate change, resource use, land use and all those things that Im genuinely concerned about, Id happily do so if it meant suddenly no one was dying of cancer or Alzheimers.

Both Steele and Halioua dismissed the idea that indefinite fertility would lead to a population crisis, seeing it instead as an opportunity for a fairer world. Halioua pointed out that, if women want to have children, they are currently forced to make compromises at a critical time in their careers. Im going to be in my thirties soon, theoretically the ideal age to have kids, and Im not going to want kids at that age hopefully I will still be building Loyal. Thats a societal pressure that men dont have. [This] will free up 50 per cent of the population who inevitably have to take the hit.

Already, the wealthy live longer: men in the most deprived areas of England can expect to lead lives nearly a decade shorter than those in the wealthiest parts. Anti-ageing drugs will surely amplify these inequalities, when only the individuals and nations that can afford them can buy ever longer life-spans. Halioua said she had factored these concerns into her development plans: The ideal ageing drug is going to be like a statin, in terms of not being expensive. Steele added that this was a long game: expensive drugs have patents that expire after 20 years, after which generic drugs can be made at a fraction of the cost. Im not saying its right, but its normal for rich people in the West, and then everyone in the West, and then poorer countries to benefit from various kinds of medical intervention.

[See also: How life without germs has left us newly vulnerable]

I asked the anti-ageing entrepreneurs about Wolpes point that longer lives will increase intergenerational inequalities. In a future where people keep their minds and bodies, never losing their edge, how will the young ever compete in the workplace?

That kind of thinking assumes that if people were to live in good health for a very long period of time they would want to continue to do the same things, Ghosh said. I know I would not want to do drug discovery for the next 30 years. I have a bazillion other things Id like to do, and I would happily let other people take this role.

Halioua took the question personally. With Loyal, there are plenty of people who are double my age, in their 40s and 50s, completely cognisant, who have been working in ageing a long time, and didnt have the idea or desire to build this company, she said. Experienced people come with baggage and biases. Being naive has actually been one of my best traits, she said. In other words, the young will still wield their advantages.

Allen was the only anti-ageing advocate I spoke to who entertained any ethical discomfort. The biggest thing that concerns me is despots, dictators, he said. They die over time. With this, they might be able to live.

Even if we believe the claims these proponents of eternal youth make that the planet can cope, that societies will be no more unequal one problem remains: death. Its proximity directly affects our appetite for risk, making clinical trials into new vaccines possible, and encouraging billionaires to go into space. In a future where death occurs only as a result of rare disease, suicide or tragic accident, will we become paralysed by the fear of it?

For the first time, Halioua didnt have an answer. I dont know, she replied, after a long pause. I would argue that this is already a huge latent paralysis in the average human. Maybe it will get better. I dont see a world where we start becoming extra- terrified of car accidents, but maybe we will. Her face brightened: she had an idea. Maybe Tesla needs to get all their self-driving cars on the market and market it this way Number One Cause of Death Eliminated By Tesla! There it was again: the answer to a problem created by technology is more technology. The future looked bright once more and endless.

Jenny Kleeman is the author of Sex Robots and Vegan Meat: Adventures at the Frontier of Birth, Food, Sex and Death (Picador)

This article appears in the 13 Oct 2021 issue of the New Statesman, Perfect Storm

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Who wants to live forever? Big Tech and the quest for eternal youth - New Statesman

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Cancer is a condition where some of the bodys cells grow and divide in a way that can be difficult to manage.

Typically, the growth and division of cells is tightly managed and there are many genes that regulate these processes.

When certain genetic changes occur within cells, the way that they grow and divide can become atypical and develop into cancer. There are several factors involved in genetic changes that may lead to developing cancer.

While environmental and lifestyle factors can lead to some of these changes, an individuals genetics also play an important role. Its possible to inherit some gene changes that increase your risk of developing certain types of cancer.

Genetic testing is available to help detect some of the genetic changes that can increase the risk of developing cancer. Keep reading to learn more about this testing, its potential benefits, and whos a good candidate.

Genetic testing is a tool that can be used to learn about inherited cancer risks. Some examples of cancers where specific genes appear to play a role in cancer risk include:

Other cancers where specific genes appear to play a role in cancer risk include some cancers of your:

Genetic testing looks for variations in genes that are associated with an increased risk of cancer. The National Cancer Institute estimates that inherited gene variants contribute to 5 to 10 percent of all cancers.

There are many options for genetic testing. For example, your healthcare professional may recommend a test to look for variants in a single gene. There are also panel tests that can detect variants in several genes.

There are several components that are associated with genetic testing for cancer. Lets explore each of them below:

A healthcare professional, such as a doctor or genetic counselor, will look at both your personal and family medical history to determine if youre a good candidate for genetic testing.

A genetic counselor will work to give you additional information that can help you decide if you want to get tested. This can include information on:

Genetic counselors are also important after testing. They can help you interpret your results and discuss what to do moving forward.

If you decide to get tested, youll be asked to sign an informed consent document. This document confirms that youve been told about things like:

The testing procedure typically involves collecting a blood sample from a vein in your arm. However, it may also be a sample of:

The sample is then analyzed by a lab that specializes in genetic testing. Its possible that it can take several weeks for results to be ready.

When results are available, theyre typically sent to your genetic counselor, who will then contact you to discuss them and develop a plan for next steps.

The different results that you can receive are:

Genetic testing for cancer can have several potential benefits. These can include:

A healthcare professional may recommend genetic testing for cancer when:

Now lets look at some examples of situations where you may consider genetic testing for cancer.

Someone with a strong family history of developing certain types of cancer may choose to get tested to find out their risk level. This is typically the case if:

For example, someone with both a mother and sister that have been diagnosed with breast cancer may choose to be tested for variations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes.

If the test has a positive result, this person can then begin to take preventative steps. These can include things like:

A person thats already been diagnosed with cancer may wish to see if an inheritable factor is present. This is particularly true if they have a family history of certain types of cancer or if they received their diagnosis younger than 50 years old.

Knowing that a relative has a specific genetic variation that increases cancer risk can be beneficial for family members as well. It may prompt them to get genetic testing themselves.

Genetic testing isnt perfect. If you do receive a positive test result for a specific gene variant, it doesnt mean that youll develop cancer. It just means that your risk of developing cancer is increased.

Additionally, remember that all cancers are different. Because of this, different types of variations are associated with different levels of risk. Your genetic counselor will discuss this with you when you get your results.

According to Breastcancer.org, the cost of genetic testing for cancer can vary greatly and can be between $300 and $5,000. How much genetic testing costs can depend on the type of test as well as how complex it is.

What exactly is covered will depend on your specific health insurance plan. Many plans will offer some coverage if genetic testing is considered medically necessary.

If youre considering genetic testing for cancer, contact your insurance provider before getting tested. They can help inform you about what is and isnt covered.

Recently, home-based genetic testing has increased in popularity. These tests typically involve using a swab to collect a sample from your mouth. You then mail this sample back and get your results by:

You may be curious if home-based genetic tests are good for determining your cancer risk.

Overall, its best to talk with a healthcare professional if youre interested in genetic testing to assess your cancer risk. Some reasons for this include:

Genetic testing can help determine if you have certain genetic variations that place you at an increased risk of developing cancer. Its often done when you have a family or personal history of certain types of cancer.

There are many benefits to genetic testing. For example, a negative test result may offer some peace of mind. Or, a positive result could help you start taking steps that can prevent cancer from occurring.

Genetic testing does have limitations. A positive test result doesnt mean with certainty that youll develop cancer, Meanwhile, a negative test result doesnt mean that youll never develop cancer over the course of your lifetime.

A healthcare professional or genetic counselor will work with you to help you decide if genetic testing is right for you. If you do decide to get tested, they can also walk you through what the results mean as well as discuss next steps.

Read the original here:
Genetic Testing for Cancer: Benefits, Risks, Cost, and More - Healthline

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Important

There are many things to think about when deciding whether genetic testing is right for you. Although these tests can provide important information about health risks, they can also be upsetting or raise questions about what the results mean. Genetic tests also have certain limitations that are important to understand. Your personal and family medical history, as well as your goals for testing, should all factor into your decisions about whether and how to test.

A genetic counselor, a healthcare professional with special training in genetic conditions, will be able to answer your questions and help you make an informed choice. We recommend that you speak with a genetic counselor before testing, and also after testing to help you understand your results and what actions you should take. This is especially important for health conditions that are preventable or treatable.

Talk to your healthcare provider or click here to search for a genetic counselor near you (this link takes you to a page managed by the National Society of Genetic Counselors: http://www.aboutgeneticcounselors.com/).

Read more:
Information about Genetic Health Risk reports - 23andMe

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Most rare retinal diseases including retinitis pigmentosa, Stargardt disease, Usher syndrome and choroideremia are inherited and usually caused by one or more defects (mutations) in a single gene.

Genetic testing is available to attempt to identify the defective gene causing the IRD in an individual or family.

There are potential benefits to knowing the underlying genetic cause of a persons IRD. It may help confirm or refine a diagnosis. Knowing the mutated gene can help a person understand how the disease may affect their vision during their lifetime. It can also guide the testing of family members to identify those at risk of inheriting the condition. Knowing the genetic defect may help people qualify for clinical trials and inform them about which future therapies may be of benefit.

At the same time, the information revealed from a genetic test may not be immediately helpful to an individual or family. In some cases, the knowledge might create anxiety for some family members.

It is very important to remember, however, that a genetic test may not reveal the defective gene, which can be frustrating for a patient and their family.

The decision to undergo genetic testing should not be made lightly. Anyone interested in a genetic test is strongly advised to talk to a genetic counselor or retinal physician who is knowledgeable about the genetic testing process and the potential impacts of the results, before they decide to undertake the test.

The Foundations booklet Genetic Testing For Retinal Degenerative Diseases: Information and Resources for Affected Individuals, Families and Health Care Providers offers additional information on the genetic testing process. While the booklet is not a substitute for a genetic counselor, it can help you better understand and prepare for the process. The last section of the booklet lists additional resources, which may also be helpful.

You can download the booklet by clicking on the hyperlink below or call 800-683-5555 and ask for a copy to be mailed to you.

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Why Genetic Testing is Important - Foundation Fighting Blindness

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If a person develops pancreatic cancer, it may have genetic mutations that affect how it responds to treatment. Genetic testing can provide valuable information to help doctors and individuals make treatment decisions.

Healthcare providers use genetic testing to learn more about the DNA in a persons cells. Specific genetic mutations affect how cancer grows, including pancreatic cancer.

People who dont have cancer may still consider genetic testing, depending on their family history. If someone inherits specific genetic mutations, it raises their risk of developing pancreatic cancer.

Take a moment to learn how doctors may use genetic testing to check for these genetic mutations.

Healthcare providers and genetic counselors use two main types of genetic testing to manage pancreatic cancer: germline testing and somatic testing.

Germline testing, or predictive genetic testing, can identify whether a person has inherited genetic mutations linked to pancreatic cancer. These include certain mutations on the following genes:

Many of these genetic mutations also raise the risk of other types of cancer, such as breast, ovarian, prostate, and colorectal cancer.

A healthcare provider or genetic counselor may recommend germline testing to someone who receives a pancreatic cancer diagnosis. This testing will identify whether the cancer has a genetic link, which may affect the treatment options.

A healthcare provider or genetic counselor may also recommend germline testing to someone who has a strong family history of certain types of cancer or a blood relative who tested positive for certain genetic mutations. If the blood relative has genetic traits linked to pancreatic cancer, those traits may run in the family.

When someone tests positive for genetic mutations linked to pancreatic cancer, their healthcare provider or genetic counselor may encourage their family members to get tested. Doctors call this cascade testing.

If someone receives a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, their healthcare provider may order somatic, or tumor, testing on a sample of the tumor.

This will identify whether the cancer has mutations in specific genes that affect how it behaves and responds to treatment.

The results of somatic testing help the healthcare provider determine the most suitable and effective treatments. Certain targeted therapies are more effective in treating tumors with specific genetic mutations.

The results of a germline or somatic test may influence a persons treatment plan for pancreatic cancer. That is because certain genetic mutations affect how pancreatic cancer responds to specific treatments.

For instance, research suggests that platinum-based chemotherapy might best suit people with pancreatic cancer who test positive for germline or somatic mutations in DNA repair genes. The BRCA1, BRCA2, and PALB2 genes are three examples of DNA repair genes.

According to a review in Cancer Management and Research, PARP inhibitors provide another promising treatment for pancreatic cancer in people with germline mutations in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene.

Scientists continue to study how people with somatic or germline mutations in these genes or other DNA repair genes respond to this treatment.

A persons genetic test results can also help their doctor predict how pancreatic cancer will respond to other medications, such as larotrectinib (Vitrakvi), entrectinib (Rozlytrek), and pembrolizumab (Keytruda).

To conduct genetic testing, a healthcare provider collects a sample of blood or tissue from a persons body. The type of sample depends on which kind of testing they order.

Before someone undergoes germline testing, their healthcare provider or genetic counselor will ask them about their personal and family medical history. This helps them determine whether germline testing is appropriate for them.

To conduct germline testing, a healthcare professional uses a needle and syringe to draw a sample of the persons blood. They send this sample to a laboratory for genetic sequencing.

To conduct somatic testing, a healthcare professional collects a sample of pancreatic cancer from a persons body. They may use endoscopic surgery to collect this sample.

To perform endoscopic surgery, the healthcare professional makes a small incision in the persons abdomen. Then they insert an endoscope, which is a flexible tube, through the incision and use that tube to remove a sample of the tumor.

They then send the sample to a laboratory for genetic testing.

A person can talk to their healthcare provider or genetic counselor to find out about the cost of genetic counseling services and genetic tests.

If someone has health insurance and meets certain criteria, their insurance plan may cover some or all of the costs of germline testing, somatic testing, or genetic counseling.

They may contact their insurance provider to learn if their plan provides coverage, and how much they can expect to pay in co-payment, co-insurance, or deductible charges.

Under federal law in the United States, health insurance providers cannot use genetic tests to decide which people they cover or how much they charge for health insurance.

Federal law does not prevent life insurance, disability insurance, or long-term care insurance providers from using genetic test results to guide their coverage decisions. As a result, some people prefer to pay for genetic counseling and testing out of pocket to keep the results private.

Sometimes the results of genetic tests are inconclusive. In other words, the test may not provide enough information to know if a person has specific genetic mutations or not.

False-negative results are rare, but they do occur. This means that although the test shows a negative result, genetic mutations are present.

To help a person understand the results of their genetic test, their healthcare provider may refer them to a genetic counselor.

A genetic counselor can help the person understand what positive, negative, or inconclusive test results mean for them and their family.

A person should talk to their healthcare provider or a genetic counselor to determine whether they should get genetic testing for pancreatic cancer or other types of cancer.

Their healthcare provider or genetic counselor may recommend germline testing if the person:

Their healthcare provider or genetic counselor might recommend somatic testing if they received a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.

If someone has a family history of pancreatic cancer or certain other types of cancer, their healthcare provider or genetic counselor may recommend germline testing.

If a person receives a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, their treatment team may recommend germline testing, somatic testing, or both.

These types of genetic testing can identify the presence of specific genetic mutations that may affect how cancer develops.

Anyone concerned about their cancer risk should talk to their healthcare provider about whether genetic testing is appropriate for them.

Continue reading here:
Genetic testing for pancreatic cancer: What to know - Medical News Today

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

DNA matching techniques to identify someone's father

DNA paternity testing is the use of DNA profiles to determine whether an individual is the biological parent of another individual. Paternity testing can be especially important when the rights and duties of the father are in issue and a child's paternity is in doubt. Tests can also determine the likelihood of someone being a biological grandparent. Though genetic testing is the most reliable standard, older methods also exist, including ABO blood group typing, analysis of various other proteins and enzymes, or using human leukocyte antigen antigens. The current techniques for paternity testing are using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). Paternity testing can now also be performed while the woman is still pregnant from a blood draw.[1][2]

DNA testing is currently the most advanced and accurate technology to determine parentage. In a DNA paternity test, the result (called the 'probability of parentage)[3][failed verification] is 0% when the alleged parent is not biologically related to the child, and the probability of parentage is typically 99.99% when the alleged parent is biologically related to the child. However, while almost all individuals have a single and distinct set of genes, rare individuals, known as "chimeras", have at least two different sets of genes, which can result in a false negative result if their reproductive tissue has a different genetic make-up from the tissue sampled for the test.[4]

The DNA test is performed by collecting buccal (cheek) cells found on the inside of a person's cheek using a buccal or cheek swab. These swabs have wooden or plastic stick handles with a cotton on synthetic tip. The collector rubs the inside of a person's cheek to collect as many buccal cells as possible, which are then sent to a laboratory for testing. Samples from the alleged father or mother and the child would be needed.

It is possible to determine who the biological father of the fetus is while the woman is still pregnant through procedures called chorionic villus sampling or amniocentesis. Chorionic villus sampling retrieves placental tissue in either a transcervical or transabdominal manner. Amniocentesis retrieves amniotic fluid by inserting a needle through the pregnant mother's abdominal wall. These procedures are highly accurate because they are taking a sample directly from the fetus; however, there is a small risk for the woman to miscarry and lose the pregnancy as a result. Both CVS and Amnio require the pregnant woman to visit a genetic specialist known as a maternal fetal medicine specialist who will perform the procedure.

Advances in genetic testing have led to the ability to identify the biological father while the woman is still pregnant. There is a small amount of fetal DNA (cffDNA) present in the mother's blood during pregnancy. This allows for accurate fetal DNA paternity testing during pregnancy from a blood draw with no risk of miscarriage. Studies have shown that cffDNA can first be observed as early as 7 weeks gestation, and the amount of cffDNA increases as the pregnancy progresses.[5][6]

The DNA of an individual is the same in every somatic (nonreproductive) cell. Sexual reproduction brings the DNA of both parents together to create a unique combination of genetic material in a new cell, so the genetic material of an individual is derived from the genetic material of each parent in equal amounts; this genetic material is known as the nuclear genome of the individual, because it is found in the nucleus.

Comparing the DNA sequence of one person to that of another can prove if one of them was derived from the other, but DNA paternity tests are not currently 100% accurate. Specific sequences are examined to see if they were copied verbatim from one individual's genome; if so, then the genetic material of one individual could have been derived from that of the other (i.e. one is the parent of the other). Besides nuclear DNA, mitochondria also have their own genetic material called mitochondrial DNA. Mitochondrial DNA comes only from the mother, without any shuffling.

Proving a relationship based on comparison of the mitochondrial genome is much easier than that based on the nuclear genome. However, testing the mitochondrial genome can prove only if two individuals are related by common descent through maternal lines only from a common ancestor and is, thus, of limited value (i.e., it could not be used to test for paternity).

In testing the paternity of a male child, comparison of the Y chromosome can be used, since it is passed directly from father to son.

In the US, the AABB has regulations for DNA paternity and family relationship testing, but AABB accreditation is not required. DNA test results are legally admissible if the collection and the processing follows a chain of custody. Similarly in Canada, the SCC has regulations on DNA paternity and relationship testing, but this accreditation, while recommended, is not required.

The Paternity Testing Commission of the International Society for Forensic Genetics has taken up the task of establishing the biostatistical recommendations in accordance with the ISO/IEC 17025 standards.[7] Bio-statistical evaluations of paternity should be based on a likelihood ratio principle - yielding the Paternity Index, PI. The recommendations provide guidance on concepts of genetic hypotheses and calculation concerns needed to produce valid PIs, as well as on specific issues related to population genetics.

The first form of any kind of parental testing was blood typing, or matching blood types between the child and alleged parent, which became available in the 1920s, after scientists recognized that blood types, which had been discovered in the early 1900s, were genetically inherited. Under this form of testing, the blood types of the child and parents are compared, and it can be determined whether there is any possibility of a parental link. For example, two O blood type parents can produce a child only with an O blood type, and two parents with a B blood type can produce a child with either a B or an O blood type. This often led to inconclusive results, as 30% of the entire population can be excluded from being the possible parent under this form of testing.[8] In the 1930s, serological testing, which tests certain proteins in the blood, became available, with a 40% exclusion rate.[9]

In the 1960s, highly accurate genetic paternity testing became a possibility when HLA typing was developed, which compares the genetic fingerprints on white blood cells between the child and alleged parent.[10] HLA tests could be done with 80% accuracy but could not distinguish between close relatives.[11] Genetic parental testing technology advanced further with the isolation of the first restriction enzyme in 1970. Highly accurate DNA parental testing became available in the 1980s with the development of RFLP. In the 1990s, PCR became the standard method for DNA parental testing: a simpler, faster, and more accurate method of testing than RFLP, it has an exclusion rate of 99.99% or higher.[11]

The DNA parentage test that follows strict chain of custody can generate legally admissible results that are used for child support, inheritance, social welfare benefits, immigration, or adoption purposes. To satisfy the chain-of-custody legal requirements, all tested parties have to be properly identified and their specimens collected by a third-party professional who is not related to any of the tested parties and has no interest in the outcome of the test.

The quantum of evidence needed is clear and convincing evidence: that is, more evidence than an ordinary case in civil litigation, but less than beyond a reasonable doubt required to convict a defendant in a criminal case.

In recent years, immigration authorities in various countries, such as the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, France, and others, may accept DNA parentage test results from immigration petitioners and beneficiaries in a family-based immigration case when primary documents that prove biological relationship are missing or inadequate.

In the U.S., immigration applicants bear the responsibility of arranging and paying for DNA testing. The U.S. immigration authorities require that the DNA test, if pursued, be performed by one of the laboratories accredited by the AABB (formerly American Association of Blood Banks). Similarly, in Canada, the laboratory needs to be accredited by the Standards Council of Canada.

Although paternity tests are more common than maternity tests, there may be circumstances in which the biological mother of the child is unclear: examples include cases of an adopted child attempting to reunify with his or her biological mother, potential hospital mix-ups, and in vitro fertilization where the laboratory may have implanted an unrelated embryo inside the mother.

Other factors, such as new laws regarding reproductive technologies using donated eggs and sperm and surrogate mothers, can also mean that the female giving birth is not necessarily the legal mother of the child. For example, in Canada, the federal Human Assisted Reproduction Act provides for the use of hired surrogate mothers. The legal mother of the child may be the egg donor. Similar laws are in place in the United Kingdom and Australia.

In Brazil in 2019, two male identical twins were ordered to both pay maintenance for a child fathered by one of them, because the father could not be identified with DNA.[12]

Peace-of-mind parentage tests are widely available on the internet. For a parentage test (paternity or maternity) to be admissible for legal purposes, such as for changing a birth certificate, Family Law Court proceedings, visa/citizenship applications or child support claims, the process must comply with the Family Law Regulations 1984 (Cth).[13] Further, the laboratory processing the samples must be accredited by the National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA).[14]

Personal paternity-testing kits are available. The Standards Council of Canada regulates paternity testing in Canada whereby laboratories are ISO 17025-approved. In Canada, only a handful of labs have this approval, and it is recommended that testing is performed in these labs. Courts also have the power to order paternity tests during divorce cases.[15]

In China, paternity testing is legally available to fathers who suspect their child is not theirs. Chinese law also requires a paternity test for any child born outside the one-child policy for the child to be eligible for a hukou, or family registration record. Family tie formed by adoption can also only be confirmed by a paternity test. A large number of Chinese citizens seek paternity testing each year, and this has given rise to many unlicensed illegal testing centers being set up.[16]

DNA paternity testing is solely performed on decision of a judge in case of a judiciary procedure in order either to establish or contest paternity or to obtain or deny child support.[17] Private DNA paternity testing is illegal, including through laboratories in other countries, and is punishable by up to a year in prison and a 15,000 fine.[18] The French Council of State has described the law's purpose as upholding the "French regime of filiation" and preserving "the peace of families."[19]

Under the Gene Diagnostics Act of 2009, secret paternity testing is illegal. Any paternity testing must be conducted by a licensed physician or by an expert with a university degree in science and special education in parentage testing, and the laboratory carrying out genetic testing must be accredited according to ISO/IEC 17025. Full informed consent of both parents is required, and prenatal paternity testing is prohibited, with the exception of sexual abuse and rape cases. Any genetic testing done without the other parent's consent is punishable with a 5,000 fine.[20] Due to an amendment of the civil law section 1598a in 2005, any man who contests paternity no longer automatically severs legal rights and obligations to the child.[21][22]

A paternity test with any legal standing must be ordered by a family court. Though parents have access to "peace of mind" parental tests through overseas laboratories, family courts are under no obligation to accept them as evidence. It is also illegal to take genetic material for a parental test from a minor over 16 years of age without the minor's consent. Family courts have the power to order paternity tests against the will of the father in divorce and child support cases, as well as in other cases such as determining heirs and settling the question involving the population registry. A man seeking to prove that he is not the father of the child registered as his is entitled to a paternity test, even if the mother and natural guardian object. Paternity tests are not ordered when it is believed it could lead to the murder of the mother, and until 2007, were not ordered when there was a chance that the child could have been conceived outside of marriage, making them a mamzer under Jewish law.[23][24][25]

DNA paternity testing for personal knowledge is legal, and home test kits are available by mail from representatives of AABB- and ISO 17025-certified laboratories.[26] DNA Paternity Testing for official purposes, such as sustento (child support) and inheritance disputes, must follow the Rule on DNA Evidence A.M. No. 06-11-5-SC, which was promulgated by the Philippine Supreme Court on October 15, 2007.[27] Tests are sometimes ordered by courts when proof of paternity is required.

In Spain, peace-of-mind paternity tests are a "big business," partly due to the French ban on paternity testing, with many genetic testing companies being based in Spain.[28][29]

In the United Kingdom, there were no restrictions on paternity tests until the Human Tissue Act 2004 came into force in September 2006. Section 45 states that it is an offence to possess without appropriate consent any human bodily material with the intent of analysing its DNA. Legally declared fathers have access to paternity-testing services under the new regulations, provided the putative parental DNA being tested is their own. Tests are sometimes ordered by courts when proof of paternity is required. In the UK, the Ministry of Justice accredits bodies that can conduct this testing. The Department of Health produced a voluntary code of practice on genetic paternity testing in 2001. This document is currently under review, and responsibility for it has been transferred to the Human Tissue Authority.In the 2018 case of Anderson V Spencer the Court of Appeal permitted for the very first time DNA samples taken from a Deceased person to be used for paternity testing.

In the United States, paternity testing is fully legal, and fathers may test their children without the consent or knowledge of the mother. Paternity testing take-home kits are readily available for purchase, though their results are not admissible in court and are for personal knowledge only.

Only a court-ordered paternity test may be used as evidence in court proceedings. If parental testing is being submitted for legal purposes, including immigration, testing must be ordered through a lab that has AABB accreditation for relationship DNA testing.[30]

The legal implications of a parentage result test vary by state and according to whether the putative parents are unmarried or married. If a parentage test does not meet forensic standards for the state in question, a court-ordered test may be required for the results of the test to be admissible for legal purposes. For unmarried parents, if a parent is currently receiving child support or custody, but DNA testing later proves that the man is not the father, support automatically stops. However, in many states, this testing must be performed during a narrow window of time, if a voluntary acknowledgement of parentage form has already been signed by the putative father; otherwise, the results of the test may be disregarded by law, and in many cases, a man may be required to pay child support, though the child is biologically unrelated. In a few states, if the mother is receiving the support, then that alleged father has the right to file a lawsuit to get back any money that he lost from paying support. As of 2011, in most states, unwed parents confronted with a voluntary acknowledgement of parentage form are informed of the possibility and right to request a DNA paternity test. If testing is refused by the mother, the father may not be required to sign the birth certificate or the voluntary acknowledgement of parentage form for the child. For wedded putative parents, the husband of the mother is presumed to be the father of the child. But, in most states, this presumption can be overturned by the application of a forensic paternity test; in many states, the time for overturning this presumption may be limited to the first few years of the child's life.

Reverse paternity determination is the ability to establish the biological father when the father of that person is not available. The test uses the STR alleles in the mother and her child, other children and brothers of the alleged father, and deduction of genetic constitution of the father by the basis of genetic laws, all to create a rough amalgamation. This can compare the father's DNA when a direct sample of the father's DNA is unavailable. An episode of Solved shows this test being used to know if a blood sample matches with the victim of a kidnapping.

Genetic:

More here:
DNA paternity testing - Wikipedia

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Outcomes4Me Inc., developer of a leading free mobile app and platform to navigate cancer treatment and care, today announced that it has partnered with Invitae Corporation (NYSE: NVTA), a leading medical genetics company, to expand education and access to genetic testing to breast cancer patients and survivors. The collaboration leverages the strengths of Invitae, which supplies clinical grade genetic testing, and Outcomes4Mes 360-degree, validated and evidence-based cancer support and treatment options via its free and easy-to-use app. Initially and currently available in the United States, patients can now receive genetic counseling through Invitaes partnership with Genome Medical, get testing, and upload their results within the Outcomes4Me app.

There is a misconception that genetic testing is only useful as a preventative tool prior to a cancer diagnosis. According to Outcomes4Me patient data, almost half of users (46 percent) who qualified for testing (based on NCCN Guidelines) did not receive testing or did not know if they had received testing. However, genetic testing can provide insights that can help inform and refine precision therapy use and clinical treatment trial enrollment. In addition, genetic testing results can be used to help prevent recurrence and reduce incidence of other inherited cancers.

A cancer diagnosis is often overwhelming for patients and their families. Outcomes4Me demystifies cancer by providing the most up-to-date and validated research, support, and treatment options, all grounded in science and data and curated according to the patients specific diagnosis. Outcomes4Me partners with the researchers, doctors, and academics that set the rigorous standards of cancer care for all treatment providers, including the National Comprehensive Care Network (NCCN), Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). The collaboration with Invitae expands access to genetic testing, a vitally important tool in the patients cancer care arsenal.

Outcomes4Me is an indispensable platform for patients with breast cancer, giving them the personalized knowledge and access to timely new trials and targeted therapies that could lead to better health outcomes, said Ed Esplin, M.D., Ph.D., FACMG, FACP, Clinical Geneticist at Invitae. By providing access to our comprehensive genetic testing and counseling services, Outcomes4Me is adding a valuable resource that will empower patients to advance their knowledge, understanding, and therefore, self-advocacy during treatment and survivorship.

Unlike popular direct-to-consumer genetic testing services, which test for a few specific genetic variants for certain genes, Invitae provides state-of-the-art clinical grade next-generation sequencing-based (NGS) genetic testing that comprehensively analyses more than 80 genes, including all known mutations of the important BRCA1/BRCA2 genes. This comprehensive approach, combined with associated genetic counseling, not only provides insights for cancer patients, but also for family members who may be at risk.

Our collaboration with Invitae reinforces Outcomes4Mes mission to give patients back control, said Maya R. Said, Sc. D., Founder and CEO of Outcomes4Me. Because of this work with Invitae, our valued community now has rare direct access to a much-needed testing service. Outcomes4Me will proudly continue to democratize the best in cancer treatment, research, and support by removing barriers and bias in information flow.

The Outcomes4Me app is available free to users on both the App Store and Google Play.

About Invitae

Invitae Corporation (NYSE: NVTA) is a leading medical genetics company whose mission is to bring comprehensive genetic information into mainstream medicine to improve healthcare for billions of people. Invitae's goal is to aggregate the world's genetic tests into a single service with higher quality, faster turnaround time, and lower prices. For more information, visit the company's website at http://www.invitae.com.

About Outcomes4Me

Outcomes4Me is on a mission to improve health outcomes by empowering patients with understandable, relevant and evidence-based information. Outcomes4Me has developed a platform for shared decision-making between patients and providers. The platform harnesses regulatory-grade, real-world data and patient experiences generating deeper insights and better outcomes to improve care and accelerate research. The Outcomes4Me mobile app enables cancer patients to make decisions and take control of their care based on information that is personalized to their specific condition, including finding treatment options, matching to clinical trials, and tracking and managing symptoms. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, Outcomes4Me, a woman-led company, comprises seasoned healthcare, oncology, pharmaceutical, consumer and technology veterans. For more information, visit http://www.outcomes4me.com.

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Outcomes4Me Partners with Invitae to Offer Genetic Testing to Breast Cancer Patients - Business Wire

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

NEW YORK The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Monday that its Genetic Testing Reference Materials Program (GeT-RM) has partnered with the Clinical Genome Resource (ClinGen) to develop a publicly available list of 546 curated clinically important variants in 84 genes for use in next-generation sequencing genetic testing.

By defining variants that are either major contributors to disease or difficult to detect, the list will serve as a resource for the design of comprehensive analytical validation studies, as well as the creation of computer-modulated or simulated reference materials for clinical genomic test development, the partners said.

Genetic testing has grown from the analysis of small sets of known pathogenetic variants in one or a few genes to the analysis of hundreds or thousands of genes simultaneously using NGS, they added. But it's difficult, or even impossible, to obtain DNA reference materials containing the full scope of variants and variant types needed to perform a comprehensive validation study. It can also be challenging for laboratories to maintain the expert knowledge to identify variants that are appropriately representative of the spectrum of disease for inclusion in validation studies.

The new variant list, they said, will help address these complexities.

The CDC and ClinGen first proposed the curated list in a paper published in August in the Journal of Molecular Diagnostics. The variant types include 346 SNVs, 104 deletions, 37 copy number variants, 25 duplications, 18 deletion-insertions, five inversions, four insertions, two complex rearrangements, three difficult-to-sequence regions, and two fusions. They were nominated for a variety of reasons, including being major contributors to disease, analytically difficult to detect, or inadvertently filtered out due to high allele frequency.

The authors also noted that the list of 84 genes include 29 of the 73 genes recommended by the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics for reporting of incidental or secondary findings.

The ClinGen Allele Registry was used to standardize nomenclature for all nominated variants, and ClinVar Variation IDs and associated disorders were added where available. The Food and Drug Administration has also recognized ClinGen's curation process and its resulting classifications as a regulatory-grade variant database, and the curated variants are available via the National Center for Biotechnology Information's ClinVar database and ClinGen's Evidence Repository.

"This important novel approach will remove a critical bottleneck for test developers and may help harmonize test development and validation across laboratories," co-lead investigator Birgit Funke, VP of genomic health at Sema4, said in a statement.

Co-lead investigator and GeT-RM Director Lisa Kalman also noted that the partners have started a pilot project to demonstrate how the curated variants "could be used to create reference materials by in silico mutagenesis of NGS sequencing files. The pilot will examine whether the added variants can be detected by the clinical laboratories that generated the NGS files and demonstrate a general process that labs can use to develop electronic reference materials to fit their own needs."

GeT-RM and ClinGen will continue to add to the current variant list as needed, and are inviting input from the genetics community about the list and the processes used to generate it.

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CDC, ClinGen Partner to Develop Curated List of Important Variants for Use in NGS Genetic Testing - GenomeWeb

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