SEATTLE, WA--(Marketwired - Sep 12, 2013) - The ForeCYTE Breast Health Test, the flagship product of Atossa Genetics, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATOS), The Breast Health Company, was featured in a video segment and article on FoxNews.com posted on September 11.

The segment and article profiled Marci Dulgerian, a resident of Little Neck, NY who lost both her mother and grandmother to breast cancer, and who wants more information about her breast health. During the segment, Ms. Dulgerian's OB/GYN, Dr. Jonathan Herman of Elite Women's Healthcare in New Hyde Park, NY, recommends that Ms. Dulgerian undergo the ForeCYTE test.

"Why would someone choose to become another victim to breast cancer when this test can give them all the information they need to save their life?" asks Ms. Dulgerian during the segment.

"It's a helper for your mammography," remarks Dr. Herman during the segment. "It's a helper for your breast exam, and it's a helper for your breast ultrasound -- and a helper for a history."

"Breast cancer has a peak age group of about 45 to 60, so really the younger women -- the 20-, 30- and maybe 40-year-old -- is the ideal population for this," says Steven C. Quay, M.D., Ph.D., FCAP, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Atossa Genetics, during the segment. "Most mammograms begin at 40 or sometimes as early as 35, but definitely in an older age group."

To view the FoxNews.com segment and read the story, please visit the following link: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/09/11/new-test-can-help-detect-breast-cancer-decade-before-it-develops/

About the ForeCYTE Breast Health Test

The ForeCYTE Breast Health Test, intended for the 110 million women in the U.S. ages 18 to 73, is a painless, quick and non-invasive procedure that can be done in a physician's office.The test can provide vital early detection of cancer or pre-cancerous conditions that may progress to cancer over an approximately eight year period and before cancer can be detected by mammography or other means and without the risks of radiation, especially in women younger than age 50. No invasive biopsy needles or open surgical incisions are used in the Atossa test.

Just as the Pap smear has reduced cervical cancer rates by over 70 percent, becoming the most successful screening test in medicine, the goal of Atossa Genetics is to reduce the stubbornly high rate of breast cancer through the early detection of the precursor changes that can lead to breast cancer and the treatment of those early changes.For more information, please visit getforecyte.com.

About Atossa Genetics, Inc.

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Questions 183 Re-Post See Description For Video Details
Questions Answers 183 Re-Post Welcome Message 01:29 -- Question From Gary. - Father diagnosed with Parkinson #39;s - 78 Years old - Issued anti viral and Dopam...

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Sep. 11, 2013 An HIV/AIDS vaccine candidate developed by researchers at Oregon Health & Science University appears to have the ability to completely clear an AIDS-causing virus from the body. The promising vaccine candidate is being developed at OHSU's Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute. It is being tested through the use of a non-human primate form of HIV, called simian immunodeficiency virus, or SIV, which causes AIDS in monkeys. Following further development, it is hoped an HIV-form of the vaccine candidate can soon be tested in humans.

These research results were published online today by the journal Nature. The results will also appear in a future print version of the publication.

"To date, HIV infection has only been cured in a very small number of highly-publicized but unusual clinical cases in which HIV-infected individuals were treated with anti-viral medicines very early after the onset of infection or received a stem cell transplant to combat cancer," said Louis Picker, M.D., associate director of the OHSU Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute. "This latest research suggests that certain immune responses elicited by a new vaccine may also have the ability to completely remove HIV from the body."

The Picker lab's approach involves the use of cytomegalovirus, or CMV, a common virus already carried by a large percentage of the population. In short, the researchers discovered that pairing CMV with SIV had a unique effect. They found that a modified version of CMV engineered to express SIV proteins generates and indefinitely maintains so-called "effector memory" T-cells that are capable of searching out and destroying SIV-infected cells.

T-cells are a key component of the body's immune system, which fights off disease, but T-cells elicited by conventional vaccines of SIV itself are not able to eliminate the virus. The SIV-specific T-cells elicited by the modified CMV were different. About 50 percent of monkeys given highly pathogenic SIV after being vaccinated with this vaccine became infected with SIV but over time eliminated all trace of SIV from the body. In effect, the hunters of the body were provided with a much better targeting system and better weapons to help them find and destroy an elusive enemy.

"Through this method we were able to teach the monkey's body to better 'prepare its defenses' to combat the disease," explained Picker. "Our vaccine mobilized a T-cell response that was able to overtake the SIV invaders in 50 percent of the cases treated. Moreover, in those cases with a positive response, our testing suggests SIV was banished from the host. We are hopeful that pairing our modified CMV vector with HIV will lead to a similar result in humans."

The Picker lab is now investigating the possible reasons why only a subset of the animals treated had a positive response in hopes that the effectiveness of the vaccine candidate can be further boosted.

This research was funded by several grants from the National Institutes of Health, funding from the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative and a CAVD grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

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AIDS vaccine candidate appears to completely clear virus from the body in monkeys

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

An HIV/AIDS vaccine candidate developed by researchers at Oregon Health & Science University appears to have the ability to completely clear an AIDS-causing virus from the body. The promising vaccine candidate is being developed at OHSUs Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute. It is being tested through the use of a non-human primate form of HIV, called simian immunodeficiency virus, or SIV, which causes AIDS in monkeys. Following further development, it is hoped an HIV-form of the vaccine candidate can soon be tested in humans.

These research results were published online today by the journal Nature. The results will also appear in a future print version of the publication.

To date, HIV infection has only been cured in a very small number of highly-publicized but unusual clinical cases in which HIV-infected individuals were treated with anti-viral medicines very early after the onset of infection or received a stem cell transplant to combat cancer, said Louis Picker, M.D., associate director of the OHSU Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute. This latest research suggests that certain immune responses elicited by a new vaccine may also have the ability to completely remove HIV from the body.

The Picker labs approach involves the use of cytomegalovirus, or CMV, a common virus already carried by a large percentage of the population. In short, the researchers discovered that pairing CMV with SIV had a unique effect. They found that a modified version of CMV engineered to express SIV proteins generates and indefinitely maintains so-called effector memory T-cells that are capable of searching out and destroying SIV-infected cells.

T-cells are a key component of the bodys immune system, which fights off disease, but T-cells elicited by conventional vaccines of SIV itself are not able to eliminate the virus. The SIV-specific T-cells elicited by the modified CMV were different. About 50 percent of monkeys given highly pathogenic SIV after being vaccinated with this vaccine became infected with SIV but over time eliminated all trace of SIV from the body. In effect, the hunters of the body were provided with a much better targeting system and better weapons to help them find and destroy an elusive enemy.

Through this method we were able to teach the monkeys body to better prepare its defenses to combat the disease, explained Picker. Our vaccine mobilized a T-cell response that was able to overtake the SIV invaders in 50 percent of the cases treated. Moreover, in those cases with a positive response, our testing suggests SIV was banished from the host. We are hopeful that pairing our modified CMV vector with HIV will lead to a similar result in humans.

The Picker lab is now investigating the possible reasons why only a subset of the animals treated had a positive response in hopes that the effectiveness of the vaccine candidate can be further boosted.

This research was funded by several grants from the National Institutes of Health, funding from the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative and a CAVD grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Source: Science Daily.

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AIDS vaccine candidate gives hope

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PROVIDENCE, R.I., Sept. 10 -- Brown University issued the following news release:

Academic and medical institutions from around Rhode Island today unveiled CoresRI.org, a Web directory of publicly shared core science facilities and services that officials said could accelerate research collaboration for the benefit of the entire state.

CoresRI.org readily serves up detailed information on more than 500 lab instruments and services available in more than 30 core facilities and laboratories at 12 institutions. Site visitors -- scientists, engineers or physicians -- can search by institution, facility, general application or any keyword to find electron microscopes, high-throughput gene sequencers, nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers, bioinformatics services and many other resources.

The site helps fulfill and expand on the promise of shared core facilities, which are designed to make expensive scientific resources, such as high-end equipment and expert staff, available to a broad scientific community. Otherwise researchers would struggle to acquire those resources just for themselves and then they might not be used to full capacity.

"Research is very technology-driven and so access to instrumentation is really critical," said Edward Hawrot, the Alva O. Way University Professor of Medical Science at Brown and associate dean for the Program in Biology in the University's Division of Biology and Medicine. "Having a searchable database is a big advantage."

Dr. Peter Snyder, senior vice president and chief research officer for the Lifespan health system and a professor of neurology in the Alpert Medical School, said CoresRI.org provides an important new tool to promote scientific productivity and cooperation.

"This collective cataloguing of all core facilities, spanning all of the major research institutions across the State of Rhode Island, will allow any of our investigators - no matter where they are located or where their salary is drawn from - equal access to critical resources to support scientific research," Snyder said. "This is an entirely unprecedented first step for all of our partner institutions, and I see this as the start of a new era of inter-institutional support and cooperation to grow our research activities and to bring new grants and contracts to our state."

Scientists, engineers and physicians do not need to work at any of the inaugural partner institutions - Brown University, Lifespan, Care New England, the University of Rhode Island, the Providence V.A. Medical Center, the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence College, Bryant University, Community College of Rhode Island, Rhode Island College, Salve Regina University and Roger Williams University - to use the site or arrange access to facilities listed there. A state environmental researcher, for example, could use CoresRI to find the spectrometer needed to test for an unusual chemical in a water sample, or a physician at an independent hospital could seek space in an ultracold freezer for a tissue specimen.

Many benefits

Hawrot said the site's partners anticipate many benefits from the new site beyond the most obvious one of facilitating researchers' access to needed equipment. CoresRI.org can make state researchers more competitive in applying for grants, he said, because they'll be able to show that they have access to relevant instruments even if they aren't at their home institution. The site also can help inspire new research collaborations as researchers discover what each other can do.

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Public release date: 11-Sep-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Todd Murphy murphyt@ohsu.edu 503-494-8231 Oregon Health & Science University

PORTLAND, Ore. An HIV/AIDS vaccine candidate developed by researchers at Oregon Health & Science University appears to have the ability to completely clear an AIDS-causing virus from the body. The promising vaccine candidate is being developed at OHSU's Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute. It is being tested through the use of a non-human primate form of HIV, called simian immunodeficiency virus, or SIV, which causes AIDS in monkeys. Following further development, it is hoped an HIV-form of the vaccine candidate can soon be tested in humans. These research results were published online today by the journal Nature. The results will also appear in a future print version of the publication.

"To date, HIV infection has only been cured in a very small number of highly-publicized but unusual clinical cases in which HIV-infected individuals were treated with anti-viral medicines very early after the onset of infection or received a stem cell transplant to combat cancer," said Louis Picker, M.D., associate director of the OHSU Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute. "This latest research suggests that certain immune responses elicited by a new vaccine may also have the ability to completely remove HIV from the body."

The Picker lab's approach involves the use of cytomegalovirus, or CMV, a common virus already carried by a large percentage of the population. In short, the researchers discovered that pairing CMV with SIV had a unique effect. They found that a modified version of CMV engineered to express SIV proteins generates and indefinitely maintains so-called "effector memory" T-cells that are capable of searching out and destroying SIV-infected cells.

T-cells are a key component of the body's immune system, which fights off disease, but T-cells elicited by conventional vaccines of SIV itself are not able to eliminate the virus. The SIV-specific T-cells elicited by the modified CMV were different. About 50 percent of monkeys given highly pathogenic SIV after being vaccinated with this vaccine became infected with SIV but over time eliminated all trace of SIV from the body. In effect, the hunters of the body were provided with a much better targeting system and better weapons to help them find and destroy an elusive enemy.

"Through this method we were able to teach the monkey's body to better 'prepare its defenses' to combat the disease," explained Picker. "Our vaccine mobilized a T-cell response that was able to overtake the SIV invaders in 50 percent of the cases treated. Moreover, in those cases with a positive response, our testing suggests SIV was banished from the host. We are hopeful that pairing our modified CMV vector with HIV will lead to a similar result in humans."

The Picker lab is now investigating the possible reasons why only a subset of the animals treated had a positive response in hopes that the effectiveness of the vaccine candidate can be further boosted.

###

This research was funded by several grants from the National Institutes of Health, funding from the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative and a CAVD grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

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OHSU AIDS vaccine candidate appears to completely clear virus from the body

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University of Otago and Auckland scientists have for the first time discovered a human gene variant that can "turn bad" when affected by sugary drinks, raising the risk of developing the common and debilitating arthritic disease gout.

Associate Professor Tony Merriman from the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Otago says: "This study shows that sugary drinks reverse the benefits of a gene variant which would usually protect against gout. The evidence is now even stronger against sugary drinks."

Gout is caused by high levels of uric acid in the blood. The acid crystallises in the joints and the painful inflammatory response is gout. It is the most common form of arthritis in New Zealand, with particularly high rates in men; 3.7% in European men, 11.7% in Mori men and 13.5% in Pacific men. The disease has strong links with other 'metabolic' diseases such as diabetes, heart and kidney disease.

The study, which appeared today online in the international journal Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, shows that when the variant of the gene SLC2A9 behaves correctly, it helps transport uric acid out of the blood stream and facilitates its excretion through the kidney.

"But when people with this gene variant consume sugary drinks, it takes on Jekyll and Hyde characteristics; the apparent function of the gene variant reverses, such that we think uric acid is instead transported back into the blood-stream and the risk of gout is increased.

"So, not only does sugar raise uric acid in the blood due to processing in the liver, but it also appears to directly interfere with excretion of uric acid from the kidney. This was a quite unpredictable interaction," he says.

US researchers studying gout have so far proven that high-fructose corn syrup sweetened soft drinks increase the risk of gout for people of European ancestry. The second major finding of the new Otago study was that consuming sugar-sweetened soft drinks also increases the risk of gout in New Zealanders, including for Mori and Pacific people, independent of their weight.

"Each daily 300ml serving of sugar-sweetened drink increases the chance of gout by 13%," Associate Professor Merriman says.

The Otago researchers examined blood samples to specifically focus on the SLC2A9 gene in 1634 people of European, Maori and Pacific ancestry recruited between 2007 and 2012. Study participants were recruited mainly from Auckland and Christchurch, through hospitals, community focal points, such as marae, and workplaces. A similar study was also done in Tairawhiti (East Coast) in partnership with Ngati Porou Hauora.

Participants also answered a question about their sugar-sweetened soft drink and fruit juice consumption, and medical information was collected to verify whether or not they had gout. Within the sample, 5% of European, 14.4% of Mori and 16.6% of Pacific Island people were drinking more than 1 litre of sugar-sweetened soft and/or fruit juice drink per day.

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Genetic link found between sugary drinks and gout

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SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA and TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Sep 11, 2013) - Natera, a leading innovator in prenatal genetic testing, and LifeLabs Medical Laboratory Services (LifeLabs), a Canadian company with over 50 years' experience in laboratory testing and management, today announced a distribution partnership for Natera's non-invasive prenatal screening test, Panorama. Panorama was launched in March 2013 for the detection of trisomy 21 (Down syndrome), trisomy 18 (Edwards syndrome), trisomy 13 (Patau syndrome) and select sex chromosome abnormalities, such as monosomy X (Turner syndrome). The detection of triploidy was added in August 2013.

"There is tremendous demand by patients for non-invasive prenatal testing, and we are pleased to be able to offer these tests at our laboratories in Canada," said Dr. Doug Tkachuk, Chief Medical and Quality Officer at LifeLabs. "We are especially glad to be partnering with Natera to give patients access to Panorama, which we believe offers the best data possible across most indications."

"We continue to gain momentum with our global rollout by partnering with leading organizations, such as LifeLabs, and are glad to now expand into Canada," said Matthew Rabinowitz, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Natera. "We look forward to bringing patients access to the most accurate information possible early in pregnancy, while also expanding the offerings of the test through continued investigation."

Panorama uses a simple blood draw from the mother to examine cell-free DNA found in maternal blood originating from both mother and fetus. The test can be performed as early as nine weeks of gestation without any risk to the fetus. Panorama's technology analyzes 19,488 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in a single reaction. SNPs are the most informative portions of an individual's DNA. Panorama utilizes the NATUS [Next-generation Aneuploidy Testing Using SNPs] algorithm, an advanced version of Natera's proprietary informatics.

Across multiple clinical trials, Panorama has been validated globally for trisomy 21, trisomy 18, trisomy 13 and monosomy X with a sensitivity of greater than 99% for trisomy 21, trisomy 18 and trisomy 13, 92% for monosomy X, and a less than 0.1% false positive rate for all syndromes tested. Panorama's clinical validation data was presented at the annual Society of Maternal Fetal Medicine Meeting on Feb. 15, 2013. The most recent independently-led, blinded study was published in May 2013 in Prenatal Diagnosis from author Professor Nicolaides, M.D., and The Fetal Medicine Foundation. This study also demonstrated the ability to detect triploidy. Panorama is currently being evaluated in several other clinical trials for the detection of other genetic disorders, including XXY, XYY, and XXX.

About Natera

Natera is a leading genetic testing company that has developed a proprietary bioinformatics-based technology (NATUS) to deliver accurate and comprehensive high-throughput testing for reproductive indications from tiny quantities of DNA. Natera operates a CLIA-certified laboratory in San Carlos, Calif., providing a host of preconception and prenatal genetic testing services. Test offerings include pre-implantation genetic diagnosis to identify chromosomal anomalies or inherited genetic conditions in embryos generated during an IVF cycle; products-of-conception testing following miscarriage to rapidly and extensively analyze fetal chromosomes in order to understand the cause of the pregnancy loss; non-invasive prenatal testing to determine paternity; carrier screening tests to detect whether parents carry genetic variations that may result in disease in the child; and Panorama, a safe, simple test for pregnant women that identifies the most common chromosomal anomalies in a fetus as early as nine weeks. Natera's PreNATUS clinical trial for non-invasive screening of fetal chromosomal anomalies is funded by the NIH and is being conducted by leaders in maternal-fetal medicine in the United States. For more information, visit http://www.natera.com.

About LifeLabs

LifeLabs provides laboratory testing services, which help physicians and other healthcare professionals diagnose, treat, monitor and prevent disease in patients. LifeLabs employs approximately 4,000 professionally trained staff, who deliver more than 60 million tests annually, serving over 11 million patients and 26,000 healthcare providers. LifeLabs has operated in Canada for over 50 years and is owned by Borealis, a global leader in infrastructure investing, with assets in energy, transportation and infrastructure buildings, including long-term care facilities and hospitals, pipelines and telecommunications. For information, visit http://www.lifelabs.com.

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Natera Partners With LifeLabs Medical Laboratory Services to Distribute Non-Invasive Prenatal Test Panorama(TM) in ...

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Sep. 11, 2013 The largest DNA-sequencing study of anorexia nervosa has linked the eating disorder to variants in a gene coding for an enzyme that regulates cholesterol metabolism. The finding suggests that anorexia could be caused in part by a disruption in the normal processing of cholesterol, which may disrupt mood and eating behavior.

"These findings point in a direction that probably no one would have considered taking before," said Nicholas J. Schork, a professor at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI). Schork was the senior investigator for the multicenter study, which was published recently online ahead of print in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

Anorexia affects up to 1 percent of women, and has an estimated mortality rate of 10 or more percent, making it perhaps the deadliest of psychiatric illnesses. Anorexics severely restrict eating and become emaciated, yet see themselves as fat. Individuals with anorexia nervosa tend to be perfectionistic, anxious or depressed, and obsessive, said Walter Kaye, a co-author on the study, professor at the University of California (UC), San Diego School of Medicine and principal investigator of the Price Foundation Genetic Studies of Anorexia Nervosa.

How the disorder develops is still not fully understood. Anorexia predominantly affects girls and young women (the estimated gender ratio is nearly 10:1) and appears to be influenced in part by cultural factors, stress, puberty and social networks. Yet twin studies suggest that genetic factors have the largest influence.

The big mystery has been: what are those genetic factors? Gene-association studies of anorexics have so far produced few replicable findings. Researchers suspect that many genes can contribute to the disorder -- and thus only large studies will have the statistical power to detect those individual genetic influences.

For this project -- the largest-ever sequencing study of anorexia -- Schork worked with an international team of collaborators representing more than two dozen research institutions. The many contributors included first author Ashley Scott-Van Zeeland from The Scripps Translational Science Institute and Scripps Health in La Jolla, California; Kaye and Pei-an Betty Shih from the UC San Diego; Andrew Bergen from SRI International in Menlo Park, California; Wade Berretini from the University of Pennsylvania; and Pierre Magistreti from Ecole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne. The project made use of genetic information from more than 1,200 anorexia patients and nearly 2,000 non-anorexic control subjects.

For an initial "discovery" study in 334 subjects, the researchers catalogued the variants of a large set of genes that had already been linked to feeding behavior or had been flagged in previous anorexia studies. Of more than 150 candidate genes, only a handful showed statistical signs of a linkage with anorexia in this group of subjects.

One of the strongest signs came from the gene EPHX2, which codes for epoxide hydrolase 2 -- an enzyme known to regulate cholesterol metabolism. "When we saw that, we thought that we might be onto something, because nobody else had reported this gene as having a pronounced role in anorexia," said Schork.

The team followed up with several replication studies, each using a different cohort of anorexia patients and controls, as well as different genetic analysis methods. The scientists continued to find evidence that certain variants of EPHX2 occur more frequently in people with anorexia.

To help make sense of these findings, they looked at existing data from a large-scale, long-term heart disease study and determined that a subset of the implicated EPHX2 variants have the effect of altering the normal relationship between weight gain and cholesterol levels.

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New genetic clue to anorexia

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A new test -- looking at three genes -- could predict which prostate cancers will turn aggressive, helping avoid invasive treatments for those that will grow more slowly, a study out Wednesday said.

Used alongside existing tests, the analysis will help doctors determine whether treatment is needed or if "active surveillance" would suffice, Columbia University researchers said in the study in "Science Translational Medicine."

"Most of the 200,000 prostate cancers diagnosed each year in the US are slow growing and will remain so, but the three-gene biomarker could take much of the guesswork out of the diagnostic process and ensure that patients are neither overtreated nor undertreated," said study leader Cory Abate-Shen.

"The problem with existing tests is that we cannot identify the small percentage of slow-growing tumors that will eventually become aggressive and spread beyond the prostate," said coauthor Mitchell C. Benson.

The three genes -- FGFR1, PMP22 and CDKN1A -- are particularly affected by cellular senescence, a process known for playing an essential role in tumor suppression and linked to benign prostate legions in mice and humans.

When these three genes are present, the researchers found, the prostate tumors are low risk. Prostate cancers that test negative for these genetic biomarkers are thus deemed potentially aggressive.

The researchers tested the accuracy of their diagnoses against biopsy specimens from 43 patients who were actively monitored over at least ten years.

Each had initially been diagnosed with a low-risk prostate cancer. Fourteen of them later developed advanced prostate cancer. The genetic biomarker test accurately identified each of them.

"The bottom line is that, at least in our preliminary trial, we were able to accurately predict which patients with low-risk prostate cancer would develop advanced prostate cancer and which ones would not," said Abate-Shen.

The researchers plan to evaluate the genetic test in a larger clinical trial.

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Genetic test could identify aggressive prostate cancers

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September 11, 2013

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

According to the National Institutes of Health, almost 3.8 million Americans will suffer from anorexia at some point in their life. Thought to be primarily psychological in nature, anorexia nervosa may have a partial genetic cause according to a new report in Molecular Psychiatry.

These findings point in a direction that probably no one would have considered taking before, said study author Nicholas J. Schork, a professor at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI).

A condition that predominantly affects women and young girls, anorexia is marked by a severe eating restriction and emaciation. Individuals with anorexia may also see themselves as fat, express perfectionism, exhibit signs of anxiety or depression, and have obsessive tendencies, said Walter Kaye, a co-author on the study and professor at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine.

Scientists arent entirely sure how anorexia develops in a person, but many suspect cultural, stress, hormonal and social factors.

To explore a potential genetic factor for the condition, TSRI researchers, along with a team of international colleagues, embarked on the largest-ever genetic sequencing study of anorexia. The project was based on genetic data from over 1,200 individuals diagnosed with anorexia and almost 2,000 non-anorexic participants.

In an initial discovery phase of the study that included over 330 subjects, the researchers recorded the genetic variants that had already been associated to feeding behaviors or had been cited in previous anorexia studies. Out of the more than 150 genetic candidates, only a small group demonstrated a significant statistical linkage with anorexia in the study cohort.

One of the strongest initial candidates was the gene EPHX2, which is involved in the production of epoxide hydrolase 2 an enzyme recognized for regulating cholesterol metabolism.

When we saw that, we thought that we might be onto something, because nobody else had reported this gene as having a pronounced role in anorexia, said Schork.

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New Study Finds Anorexia Has A Genetic Link, At Least Partially

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CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Good Start Genetics, Inc.,an innovative molecular diagnostics company harnessing a powerful, proprietary next-generation DNA sequencing (NGS) capability, today announced the appointment of R. Mark Adams, Ph.D., to chief information officer.

Good Start Genetics is focused on developing commercial applications of our proprietary NGS technology that build on our current market-leading carrier screening test, GoodStart Select, said Don Hardison, president and chief executive officer of Good Start Genetics. Good Start Genetics is an innovator in the healthcare information space, and adding Mark to our team further strengthens our ability to translate human genomics into clinically actionable tests for the reproductive health space and beyond.

Dr. Adams has worked in the field of bioinformatics and data analytics for more than 15 years and brings extensive experience in the strategy, design, and implementation of large-scale informatics organizations and systems in support of key strategic initiatives. He joins Good Start Genetics from Bridgewater Associates, Ltd., where he developed unique data warehousing and machine learning approaches to support the worlds largest hedge fund. Previously, Dr. Adams was a principal with Booz Allen Hamilton, where he developed a leading biomedical informatics consulting practice with a primary focus on informatics strategy for clients in the commercial, government, and non-profit markets. A pioneer in the use, development and deployment of large-scale, open-source software in the national and international bioinformatics community, Dr. Adams is also an expert on building communities comprised of academic, industry, and government partners to fund and address health care issues. Dr. Adams led some of the earliest commercial bioinformatics efforts to explore and use genomic and genetic variation data at Variagenics (Cambridge, MA,) where he was vice president of bioinformatics, and Incyte (Palo Alto, CA) where he worked with Temple Smith, Ph.D., to build the companys first informatics pipeline, supporting high-throughout SNP genomics. Dr. Adams holds a B.A. from Oberlin College and a Ph.D. from Baylor College of Medicine.

It is a privilege to join the team at Good Start Genetics, said Dr. Adams. The companys CAP- and CLIA-certified, high-complexity laboratory is generating unique and voluminous genomic data through its proprietary NGS platform. We are well-positioned to combine that growing data set with public data sources to take advantage of emerging data science approaches and develop unique and highly-valuable intellectual property.

Good Start Genetics is on the leading edge of responsible, clinically relevant NGS-based testing, and I look forward to contributing my expertise to expand our proprietary platform and to deliver valuable information to patients and healthcare practitioners, continued Dr. Adams.

About Good Start Genetics, Inc.

Good Start Genetics is an innovative molecular diagnostics company harnessing a powerful, proprietary next-generation DNA sequencing (NGS) capability combined with other technologies to deliver best-in-class tests for routine genetic screening. Through its GoodStart Select offering, the company provides the most comprehensive and clinically actionable set of tests for known and novel mutations that cause inherited diseases. Good Starts NGS capabilities can be applied to multiple disease areas, including pre-conception carrier screening in the in-vitro fertilization setting. For more information, please visit http://www.goodstartgenetics.com.

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Good Start Genetics Appoints Mark Adams, Ph.D., to Chief Information Officer

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Oxford Biomedica Quote more

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Gene therapy specialist Oxford Biomedica has been awarded a significant grant to help improve its supply chain.

A UK consortium of companies won 7.7m of government funding in grants and loans, with the FTSE Fledgling company taking 7.1m of this as lead member.

The consortium has been awarded, subject to due diligence and final confirmation, a 2.4m grant, of which Oxford BioMedica will receive 1.8m, and a 5.3m loan to OXB repayable by March 2017.

Chief Executive Officer John Dawson said the award was given to the company in recognition of its potential to become a world-leader in Advanced Therapy Medicinal Product (ATMP) manufacture and supply chain expertise.

He said the funds will help the company, supported by the consortium, in its plans to develop its capability in serum-free, non-adherent manufacturing techniques and expand its proprietary manufacturing facility in Oxford to contain a third production suite and a state-of-the-art fill-and-finish operation.

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Oxford Biomedica wins significant government funding

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Scientists have identified a gene on the extra chromosome causing Down syndrome that may be responsible for the early aging and cognitive defects in people with the condition, a finding that could lead to new treatments.

The gene, called Usp16, may hinder the bodys ability to make stem cells needed to maintain tissues and organs, according to research published today in the journal Nature. That includes development of organs such as the brain while in the uterus, said Michael Clarke, a senior study author.

The findings in mice and human cells are the first to help explain why people with Down syndrome show signs of early Alzheimers disease and age faster, the authors said. Further investigation may test whether the gene might slow down these aging effects or fight against other diseases like Alzheimers and cancer, Clarke said.

Like most regulators and stem cell functions, understanding how those things work has potential implications in a wide range of diseases, Clarke, a professor of medicine at Stanford University near Palo Alto, California, said in a telephone interview. Now that we have a pathway, there might be drugs that could be used to improve some of the problems.

People with Down syndrome have three copies of chromosome 21 rather than the standard two. Usp16 is on all three copies. The extra copy of chromosome 21 and the Usp16 gene may speed up the rate that stem cells are used during early development, exhausting the stem cell pools needed to regenerate tissues as adults, Craig Garner, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford and a study author, said in a statement. This could make the brains of those with the condition age faster and increase cognitive deficits, he said.

About 400,000 people in the U.S. have Down syndrome and about 6,000 babies are born in the U.S. each year with the disorder, according to the National Down Syndrome Society.

Physical issues that accompany Down syndrome include heart defects, stomach trouble, hearing difficulties and a higher likelihood of childhood leukemia. Alzheimers disease is also common among patients with the disorder. It is estimated that more than 75 percent of those ages 65 and older with Down syndrome have Alzheimers, six times as many as those in the age group without Down syndrome, according to the Alzheimers Association.

In the study, the tests in human cells also showed that an excess of Usp16 in people without Down syndrome caused skin cells to grow more slowly, while reducing Usp16 in skin and nerve cells in people with Down syndrome allowed the cells to have normal growth patterns rather than to regenerate slowly, the authors said.

This gene is clearly regulating processes that are central to aging in mice and humans, Clarke said. Reducing Usp16 expression gives an unambiguous rescue at the stem cell level. The fact that its also involved in this human disorder highlights how critical stems cells are to our well-being.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nicole Ostrow in New York at nostrow1@bloomberg.net

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Gene Tied to Down Syndrome May Suggest Way to New Therapy

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@fox4kc Meryl Lin McKean explains personalized medicine. It #39;s the future in cancer care @kuhospital
via YouTube Capture.

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@fox4kc Meryl Lin McKean explains personalized medicine. It's the future in cancer care @kuhospital - Video

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Interview with Mr. Rene Sarmiento of Powermax Re Stem Cell Therapy Summit

By: Fritz Capulong

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Interview with Mr. Rene Sarmiento of Powermax Re Stem Cell Therapy Summit Part 2

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Studies of a therapy designed to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also called Lou Gehrig's Disease, suggest that the treatment dramatically slows onset and progression of the deadly disorder that is the most common neuromuscular condition in the world. There currently is no cure for ALS. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates there are about 5,000 new cases in the U.S. each year, mostly in people age 50 to 60.

The researchers, led by teams from The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital and the Ludwig Institute at the University of California, San Diego, found a survival increase of up to 39 percent in animal models with a one-time treatment, a crucial step toward moving the therapy into human clinical trials.

A release from the hospital reports that the therapy reduces expression of a gene called SOD1, which in some cases of familial ALS has a mutation that weakens and kills nerve cells called motor neurons that control muscle movement. While many drug studies involve only one type of animal model, this effort included analysis in two different models treated before and after disease onset. The in-depth study could vault the drug into human clinical trials, said Brian Kaspar, PhD, a principal investigator in the Center for Gene Therapy at Nationwide Children's and a senior author on the research, which was published online September 6th 2013 in the journal Molecular Therapy.

"We designed these rigorous studies using two different models of the disease with the experimenters blinded to the treatment and in two separate laboratories," said Dr. Kaspar, who collaborated on the study with a team led by Don Cleveland, PhD, at the University of California, San Diego. "We were very pleased with the results, and found that the delivery approach was successful in a larger species, enabling us to initiate a clinical translational plan for this horrible disease." Kevin Foust, PhD, co-first author on the manuscript and an assistant professor in neurosciences at The Ohio State University College of Medicine, said "The extension of survival is fantastic, and the fact that we delayed disease progression in both models when treated at disease onset is what drives our excitement to advance this work to human clinical trials." In addition to the potential therapeutic benefit, the study also offers some interesting insights into the biological underpinnings of ALS. The role of motor neurons in ALS has been well documented, but this study also highlighted another key playerastrocytes, the most abundant cell type in the human brain and supporters of neuronal function. "Recent work from our collaborator Dr. Cleveland has demonstrated that astrocytes and other types of glia are as important if not more important in ALS, as they really drive disease progression," said Dr. Kaspar. "Indeed, in looking at data from mice, more than 50 percent of astrocytes were targeted throughout the spinal cord by this gene-delivery approach."

Ideally, a therapy would hit motor neurons and astrocytes equally hard. The best way to do that is to deliver the drug directly into the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), which would reduce the amount of SOD1 suppression in cells outside the brain and reduce immune system exposure to AAV9elements that would add weight to an argument for studying the drug in humans. Injections directly into CSF cannot be done easily in mice, so the team took the study a crucial step further by injecting AAV9-SOD1-shRNA into the CSF of healthy nonhuman primates. The results were just as the team hopedthe amount of gene expression dropped by as much as 90 percent in motor neurons and nearly 70 percent in astrocytes and no side effects were reported, laying the groundwork towards moving to human clinical trials. "We have a vast amount of work to do to move this toward a clinical trial, but we're encouraged by the results to date and our team at Nationwide Children's and our outstanding collaborators are fully committed to making a difference in this disease," Dr. Kaspar said. The findings could impact other studies underway in Dr. Kaspar's lab, including research on Spinal Muscular Atrophy, an often fatal genetic disease in infants and children that can cause profoundly weakened muscles in the arms and legs and respiratory failure. "This research provides further proof of targeting motor neurons and glial cells throughout the entire spinal cord for treatment of Spinal Muscular Atrophy and other degenerative diseases of the brain and spinal cord, through a less invasive manner than direct injections," said Dr. Kaspar, who also is an associate professor of pediatrics and neurosciences at The Ohio State University College of Medicine.

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Therapy Slows ALS Progression

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Public release date: 10-Sep-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Juan J. Gmez juanj.gomez@cnio.es Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncologicas (CNIO)

Researchers from the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) have discovered that more than 70% of bladder tumours display somatic mutations in the TERT gene (telomerase reverse transcriptase). The TERT gene is involved in the protection of DNA and in cellular ageing processes and cancer. These results make this gene the most mutated in these tumours.

The study was led by Francisco X. Real, head of the Epithelial Carcinogenesis Group at CNIO, together with Nuria Malats, the head of the Genetic & Molecular Epidemiology Group at CNIO, as well as other European groups, especially Yves Allory, a pathologist at the Mondor Hospital (Crteil, Paris, France), who is on a sabbatical year with Real and Malats's groups at CNIO, and Ellen Zwarthoff's group at the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam. The results are published in the online version of the journal European Urology.

The conclusions come from an exhaustive genetic and molecular study of more than 450 patients diagnosed with bladder cancer. Among the cases explored are both indolent tumours and more aggressive tumours and, therefore, those most likely to develop localised or spreading metastasis in the organism.

"When we analysed the frequency of TERT mutations in this group of patients, we observed that there was no correlation between the presence of mutations and the aggressiveness of the tumour or the survival or the patients", says Real. The authors' description in the article explains that: "The fact that these mutations are present in any phase of the urothelial tumoural process suggests that they occur in an early phase during carcinogenesis".

The product of the TERT gene is a protein, the reverse transcriptase of the telomerase complex, which increases the length of telomeres, protective structures for genetic material located at the ends of chromosomes and associated with cellular ageing.

"How TERT mutations affect the length of the telomeres and encourage carcinogenesis still needs to be discovered", says Real, adding that: "We believe that they could increase the gene expression, but additional studies are necessary".

The authors think that the clinical implications of their study could be of great relevance, both from a diagnostic point of view and in the follow-up treatment of these patients.

From the diagnostic and treatment-of-patients points of view, the authors propose TERT as a new biomarker for bladder cancer: "We are able to detect gene mutations in urine samples from patients, in such a way that the analysis of these mutations, combined with other markers, could be promising for the detection of the illness".

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3 out of every 4 cases of bladder cancer display mutations in the same gene

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Public release date: 10-Sep-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Vicki Cohn vcohn@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

New Rochelle, NY, September 10, 2013Use of stimulant medications to treat Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in children and adolescents has increased significantly over the past several years. This trend toward increased use of prescription stimulants extends beyond ADHD to other types of neuropsychiatric disorders in children and teens as well, including Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), according to a study published in Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology (JCAP), a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available on the JCAP website.

Sren Dalsgaard, MD, PhD, Helena Skyt Nielsen, PhD, and Marianne Simonsen, PhD, Aarhus University (Denmark), Lundbeck Foundation Initiative for Integrative Psychiatric Research (Denmark), and Hospital of Telemark (Norway), conducted a study of more than 850,000 children born in Denmark between 1990 and 2001. They found that 61% of children with ADHD, 16% of children with ASD, and 3% of those with other psychiatric disorders were treated with one or more medications typically prescribed for ADHDmethylphenidate, dexamphetamine, and atomoxetine. The data indicated significant increases in the prescription rates of these medications during the years 2003 to 2010.

"This study utilizes a population-based national cohort of children and adolescents, and assesses stimulant treatment in children and adolescents with ASD," says Harold S. Koplewicz, MD, Editor-in-Chief of JCAP, and President, Child Mind Institute, New York, NY. "This is the largest and first prospective study to quantify the change in the use of treatment with ADHD medications over time."

###

About the Journal

Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology (JCAP) is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published 10 times a year online with Open Access options and in print. The Journal is dedicated to child and adolescent psychiatry and behavioral pediatrics, covering clinical and biological aspects of child and adolescent psychopharmacology and developmental neurobiology. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the JCAP website.

About the Publisher

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking and Games for Health Journal. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's over 80 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.

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5-fold increase in ADHD medication use in children and adolescents

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A more stringent safety regime will be in place for genetic engineering in agriculture or medical sciences once the National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority (NBRA) Bill is cleared by Parliament, a senior official said here today.

"The NBRA bill has been introduced in Parliament and being debated. Once it (bill) is cleared, a more stringent safety regime shall be in place for genetic engineering, be it in the agriculture space or medical sciences," said S R Rao, Scientist, 'G' Department of Biotechnology Government of India.

He was addressing a gathering of farmers at ongoing Vibrant Gujarat Global Agriculture Summit-2013.

The authority is proposed to be an autonomous and statutory agency to regulate the research, transport, import, manufacture and use of organisms and products of modern bio-technology, he said.

India has signed the UN convention on biodiversity and Cartagena Protocol on bio-safety, which calls for a regulatory authority.

Making a strong pitch for adoption of bio-technology in agri sector, Rao said the spurt in Cotton production in India has set an example for adoption of technology.

The cotton production has been growing at a CAGR of 4.38 per cent, Rao said, adding other crops like pulses and others are still in negative territory.

According to experts, after switching over to BT Cotton, the yield in India has shot up from 328 kg per hectare to 491 kg per hectare in 2012, while acreage under the crop has gone up from 78 lakh to 120 lakh hectares.

Experts estimate that around 93 per cent of area in the country is now under BT Cotton even though disease-related issues continue to persist.

Rao said India ranked seventh in the world with 140 million hectares of area under cultivation. "And if the crop productivity has to be increased from 100 per cent to 250 per cent in an acre of land, then 80 per cent of contribution can come through ado."

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Stringent Safety Norms in Agriculture after NBRA: Centre

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IGM Art Gallery #39;s "Creating A Healthy Life" Forum
For Dr. Howard Murad #39;s book: "Water Secret" please visit: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0470554703 For a copy of Dr. Rishi Manchanda #39;s new good "Upstream Doc...

By: IGM Art Gallery

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Newswise Case Western Reserve University is part of a landmark study that has discovered four novel gene variations associated with blood pressure. The 19-site meta-analysis, involving nearly 30,000 African-Americans, also found that the set of genetic mutations are also associated with blood pressure across other populations.

Epidemiology and biostatistics professor Xiaofeng Zhu, PhD, is co-senior author of the paper, which appears in The American Journal of Human Genetics. The Continental Origins and Genetic Epidemiology Network (COGENT) consortium conducted the research, which is the largest genome-wide association study of blood pressure in individuals of African ancestry. Most gene discovery studies to date have been performed using individuals of European ancestry. Previous genome-wide association studies using samples from individuals of African descent failed to detect any replicable genes associated with blood pressure.

In addition to their disproportionate suffering, hypertension occurs earlier in life for African-Americans compared to individuals of other ancestries, Zhu explained. Therefore, it is important to study this population to better understand genetic susceptibility to hypertension.

Zhu and his colleagues also confirmed that previous findings regarding other genes whose presence correlates with increased hypertension risk.

Although it is unknown how the genes regulate blood pressure, Zhu added, our findings contribute to better understanding of blood pressure pathways that can lead to future development of drug target for hypertension and may guide therapy for clinical care.

Experts estimate genetic make-up accounts for roughly 40-50 percent of individuals susceptibility to hypertension. Other factors associated with the disease include lifestyle, diet, and obesity. Compared to Americans of European-ancestry, African-Americans increased hypertension prevalence contributes to a greater risk of stroke, coronary heart disease, and end-stage renal disease.

We anticipated that individuals of African ancestry share similar biology to other populations. However, differences in genomic make-up between African ancestry and other populations have uncovered additional genes affecting blood pressure, in addition to genetic variants that are specific to individuals of African ancestry, said Nora Franceschini, MD, MPH, nephrologist and research assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and first author on the paper.

The next phase of study involving the newly discovered gene mutations will investigate their function using human blood samples at the molecular level. Zhu and his colleagues have begun conducting additional research to determine whether the newly identified genes respond to existing hypertension medications. Individuals typically respond differently to a given medication depending on which gene mutation they carry. The more information researchers gather, the greater opportunity clinicians will have prescribed the drug that is most efficacious based on the patients specific mutation.

The research findings do not have immediate implications for treatment, but the hope is that discovering genes associated with disease risks will bring scientists closer to biological pathways and may suggest useful targets for new treatments, said geneticist Brendan J. Keating, DPhil, one of co-senior authors of the paper, of The Center for Applied Genomics at The Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia and faculty at the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania.

###

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African-American Study Identifies Four Common Genetic Variants Associated with Blood Pressure

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Public release date: 10-Sep-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Jessica Studeny Jessica.studeny@case.edu 216-368-4692 Case Western Reserve University

Case Western Reserve University is part of a landmark study that has discovered four novel gene variations which are associated with blood pressure. The 19-site meta-analysis, involving nearly 30,000 African-Americans, also found that the set of genetic mutations are also associated with blood pressure across other populations.

Epidemiology and biostatistics professor Xiaofeng Zhu, PhD, is co-senior author of the paper, which appears in The American Journal of Human Genetics. The Continental Origins and Genetic Epidemiology Network (COGENT) consortium conducted the research, which is the largest genome-wide association study of blood pressure in individuals of African ancestry. Most gene discovery studies to date have been performed using individuals of European ancestry. Previous genome-wide association studies using samples from individuals of African descent failed to detect any replicable genes associated with blood pressure.

"In addition to their disproportionate suffering, hypertension occurs earlier in life for African-Americans compared to individuals of other ancestries," Zhu explained. "Therefore, it is important to study this population to better understand genetic susceptibility to hypertension."

Zhu and his colleagues also confirmed that previous findings regarding other genes whose presence correlates with increased hypertension risk.

"Although it is unknown how the genes regulate blood pressure," Zhu added, "our findings contribute to better understanding of blood pressure pathways that can lead to future development of drug target for hypertension and may guide therapy for clinical care."

Experts estimate genetic make-up accounts for roughly 40-50 percent of individuals' susceptibility to hypertension. Other factors associated with the disease include lifestyle, diet, and obesity. Compared to Americans of European-ancestry, African-Americans' increased hypertension prevalence contributes to a greater risk of stroke, coronary heart disease, and end-stage renal disease.

"We anticipated that individuals of African ancestry share similar biology to other populations. However, differences in genomic make-up between African ancestry and other populations have uncovered additional genes affecting blood pressure, in addition to genetic variants that are specific to individuals of African ancestry," said Nora Franceschini, MD, MPH, nephrologist and research assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and first author on the paper.

The next phase of study involving the newly discovered gene mutations will investigate their function using human blood samples at the molecular level. Zhu and his colleagues have begun conducting additional research to determine whether the newly identified genes respond to existing hypertension medications. Individuals typically respond differently to a given medication depending on which gene mutation they carry. The more information researchers gather, the greater opportunity clinicians will have prescribed the drug that is most efficacious based on the patient's specific mutation.

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African-American study identifies 4 genetic variants associated with blood pressure

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Sept. 10, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --AvidBiotics today announced a research collaboration with Full Spectrum Genetics for the purpose of optimizing multiple therapeutic protein candidates from AvidBiotics' Micacide protein immuno-oncology and antiviral platform. AvidBiotics also announced that Bob DuBridge, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Full Spectrum Genetics, has joined the AvidBiotics Scientific Advisory Board.

(Logo:http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130909/NE76577LOGO)

"Micacide proteins represent a new class of molecules that harness the innate cellular immune response to efficiently detect and destroy cancerous or virus-infected cells," said JamesL. Knighton, AvidBiotics' President. "Full Spectrum Genetics' MapEng technology enables the rapid, simultaneous screening of many protein variants, allowing us to quickly identify those molecules with the best binding properties for further development as potential therapeutics."

Under the terms of the agreement, Full Spectrum Genetics will be responsible for generating and analyzing a multitude of variants of up to five specified AvidBiotics' protein molecules using its MapEng platform. AvidBiotics will receive worldwide rights to develop and commercialize product candidates arising from the collaboration. Full Spectrum Genetics will receive an upfront payment and is eligible for additional milestones and royalties on successfully commercialized molecules. Additional terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

"Traditional methods to understand protein-ligand interactions that affect disease outcomes often yield incomplete information despite the considerable time and expense involved," said Dr. DuBridge. "Our MapEng platform is designed to generate these insights significantly faster, less expensively and in more detail than other technologies, thus enabling the engineering of optimized proteins for further development by AvidBiotics."

Bob DuBridge Biography

Bob DuBridge, Ph.D. is the CEO of Full Spectrum Genetics, a company that he founded in 2010. Prior to that, he was employed at PDL BioPharma, Inc. from 2003 to 2010, ultimately serving as Head of New Technologies, and before that at Eos Biotechnology from 1999, which was acquired by PDL in 2003. Dr. DuBridge has also held senior scientific and management positions at such biotechnology firms as Lynx Therapeutics, Cell Genesys, Inc. and Genentech, Inc. He received his Ph.D. in genetics from Stanford University.

About Full Spectrum Genetics

Founded in 2010, Full Spectrum Genetics, Inc. is a privately-held protein engineering platform and product company. The Company's MapEng platform enables ultra-high throughput quantification of the effect on binding of every possible single amino acid substitution within a protein binding site. The MapEng platform provides a comprehensive analysis of protein structure-function relationships, with multiple applications for generating better biotherapeutics and diagnostics. Full Spectrum Genetics' activities cover the spectrum from antibody discovery to generating proteins with improved properties including modulation of binding affinity to one or more targets, de-immunization, humanization, half-life extension and increased stability. For more information on Full Spectrum Genetics and its MapEng platform, visit http://www.fsgene.com.

About AvidBiotics

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AvidBiotics Announces Research Collaboration with Full Spectrum Genetics

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