After more tests, Westford beaches remain closed

Posted on September 16, 2012 by Danzig

WESTFORD -- Public and semi-public beaches on Lake Nabnassett remain closed until further notice, the Board of Health announced Friday.

A follow-up sample taken from the lake on Tuesday confirmed unacceptable cyanobacteria levels of 185,000 cells per milliliter, up from 110,000 last week. The state Department of Public Health recommends that beaches should be closed if levels rise above 70,000 cells/mL.

The BOH closed the beaches on Aug. 31 due to high bacteria levels. Some algae blooms can produce toxins harmful to people and animals.

Swimming in the lake is restricted and residents are advised that pets, especially dogs, should not go into the water.

Boating, fishing and other recreational activities are not prohibited, but residents are advised to avoid coming into contact or ingesting water that appears to have algae bloom.

Specific questions can be directed to MDPH at 617-624-5757 or Westford Health Department at 978-692-5509.

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After more tests, Westford beaches remain closed

Volunteers Pick Up Trash On Beaches For Coastal Clean Up Day

Posted on September 16, 2012 by Danzig

Story Created: Sep 16, 2012 at 10:41 AM PDT

Story Updated: Sep 16, 2012 at 10:41 AM PDT

Last year in Santa Barbara County, 1,221 volunteers collected more than 7,000 pounds of debris. Saturday's event coincides with the kickoff of Creek Week, which is an annual celebration of our local watersheds. Festivities started on Saturday, September 14 and continue through Sunday, September 23rd.

If you'd like information on Creek Week activities, just log on to: http://www.santabarbaraca.gov/Resident/Community/Creek/Creek_Week.htm

AI through the ages

Posted on September 16, 2012 by Danzig

A look back over the years at the major stages of artificial intelligence design.

The concept of artificial intelligence is as old as the ancient Greeks and as new as the robotic rover currently probing the pinkish terrain of Mars, 352 million miles from Earth. In between have come "reasoning calculators," "analytical engines," and Leonardo da Vinci's walking lion. Modern AI began with the advent of the computer.

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3500 BC

Greek myths of Hephaestus, the god of blacksmiths and artisans, include the notion of intelligent robots.

400 BC

Greek philosopher and mathematician Archytas builds a wooden pigeon whose movements are controlled by steam.

13th century

Spanish mystic and theologian Ramon Llull invents a mechanical device that tries to prove the veracity of ideas.

Read the original here:

AI through the ages

How artificial intelligence is changing our lives

Posted on September 16, 2012 by Danzig

From smart phones that act as personal concierges to self-parking cars to medical robots, the artificial intelligence revolution is here. So where do humans fit in?

In Silicon Valley, Nikolas Janin rises for his 40-minute commute to work just like everyone else. The shop manager and fleet technician at Google gets dressed and heads out to his Lexus RX 450h for the trip on California's clotted freeways. That's when his chauffeur the car takes over. One of Google's self-driving vehicles, Mr. Janin's ride is equipped with sophisticated artificial intelligence technology that allows him to sit as a passenger in the driver's seat.

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At iRobot Corporation in Bedford, Mass., a visitor watches as a five-foot-tall Ava robot independently navigates down a hallway, carefully avoiding obstacles including people. Its first real job, expected later this year, will be as a telemedicine robot, allowing a specialist thousands of miles away to visit patients' hospital rooms via a video screen mounted as its "head." When the physician is ready to visit another patient, he taps the new location on a computer map: Ava finds its own way to the next room, including using the elevator.

In Pullman, Wash., researchers at Washington State University are fitting "smart" homes with sensors that automatically adjust the lighting needed in rooms and monitor and interpret all the movements and actions of its occupants, down to how many hours they sleep and minutes they exercise. It may sound a bit like being under house arrest, but in fact boosters see such technology as a sort of benevolent nanny: Smart homes could help senior citizens, especially those facing physical and mental challenges, live independently longer.

From the Curiosity space probe that landed on Mars this summer without human help, to the cars whose dashboards we can now talk to, to smart phones that are in effect our own concierges, so-called artificial intelligence is changing our lives sometimes in ways that are obvious and visible, but often in subtle and invisible forms. AI is making Internet searches more nimble, translating texts from one language to another, and recommending a better route through traffic. It helps detect fraudulent patterns in credit-card searches and tells us when we've veered over the center line while driving.

Even your toaster is about to join the AI revolution. You'll put a bagel in it, take a picture with your smart phone, and the phone will send the toaster all the information it needs to brown it perfectly.

In a sense, AI has become almost mundanely ubiquitous, from the intelligent sensors that set the aperture and shutter speed in digital cameras, to the heat and humidity probes in dryers, to the automatic parking feature in cars. And more applications are tumbling out of labs and laptops by the hour.

"It's an exciting world," says Colin Angle, chairman and cofounder of iRobot, which has brought a number of smart products, including the Roomba vacuum cleaner, to consumers in the past decade.

See more here:

How artificial intelligence is changing our lives

A lifelong passion to fetch more than a whip around

Posted on September 16, 2012 by Danzig

Video will begin in 5 seconds.

Original film shows Phar Lap winning the 1930 Melbourne Cup and is part of an auction of racing memorabilia, believed to be the biggest in Australia's history. (Music added)

IT WAS Norm Cove's most treasured possession, a jockey's whip, tipped in gold and engraved to mark its moment of equine immortality - when Billy Duncan used it to ride Peter Pan to victory in the 1932 Melbourne Cup.

For more than 50 years, Cove, a groundsman at Caulfield racecourse, was a fixture at the finishing line. He died a year ago and now his widow, Lorraine, is placing the whip and much of his extensive collection of racing memorabilia up for auction with Leonard Joel, in what is believed to be Australia's biggest auction of its kind.

The auction would make her husband very proud, she says, "because so many of his cherished possessions will now go to like-minded people with a passion for racing".

Lorraine Cove holds a portrait of her late husband Norm's favourite race horse Ajax. Photo: Ken Irwin

Lorraine says that among the items she will never sell are the hundreds of photographs of Cove at Caulfield. "When the grandchildren were small they'd get out these photographs and play 'Where's Wally' but it was really 'Where's Norm', trying to find him in his suit and hat in the crowd somewhere near the finishing line."

Lorraine admits she knew nothing about racing when they met, but she quickly grew to love the people - including jockeys and trainers - who filled their lives.

Mention Norm Cove around racing traps and you're deluged with words of praise for a gentle man. Friend and sports valuer Rick Milne describes Cove "as small in stature and large in heart, a dapper, perfectly dressed gentleman who always wore a suit and hat".

Link:
A lifelong passion to fetch more than a whip around

Destruction of Senescent Cells May Not Be Sufficient

Posted on September 16, 2012 by Fredricko

Senescent cells build up in our tissues with age. These cells have become damaged or passed the Hayflick limit and thus fallen out of the normal cell cycle of division. They should either self-destruct or be destroyed by the immune system, and until that happens they secrete all sorts of undesirable signaling compounds that tend to harm surrounding tissues. The more senescent cells you have, the more harm they cause - and the growth in their numbers with passing years is one of the root contributing causes of aging.

Given this outline, plans for dealing with the problem tend to involve identifying and destroying senescent cells - removing the cells from the picture is fairly clearly the way to go. The destroying part is pretty easy (there is no shortage of methods to kill cells) but the identification part is still a challenge, despite considerable progress from the cancer research community in building ways to target specific cell populations via aspects of their surface chemistry or other characteristics. At this point the state of the art demonstration of improved health in mice through destruction of senescent cells requires a combination approach of gene engineering and a targeted therapy, which isn't terribly practical as the basis for a human therapy.

Progress will be made nonetheless, and a near-future brace of therapies that remove the contribution of senescent cells to aging seems to be very plausible at this point. Yet this all assumes that senescent cells can be wiped out on an ongoing basis without consequence: a fair enough assumption for most tissues, made up of cells that are replaced and replenished on an ongoing basis. Recent research suggests, however, that cells that are far less readily replaced or are normally not replaced at all in the life span of an individual also turn senescent with age - such as those in the brain.

Postmitotic neurons develop a p21-dependent senescence-like phenotype driven by a DNA damage response:

In senescent cells, a DNA damage response drives not only irreversible loss of replicative capacity but also production and secretion of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and bioactive peptides including pro-inflammatory cytokines. This makes senescent cells a potential cause of tissue functional decline in aging.

To our knowledge, we show here for the first time evidence suggesting that DNA damage induces a senescence-like state in mature postmitotic neurons in vivo. About 40-80% of Purkinje neurons and 20-40% of cortical, hippocampal and peripheral neurons in the myenteric plexus from old [mice showed inceasing senescence-like characteristics] with age.

...

We conclude that a senescence-like phenotype is possibly not restricted to proliferation-competent cells. Rather, dysfunctional telomeres and/or accumulated DNA damage can induce a DNA damage response leading to a phenotype in postmitotic neurons that resembles cell senescence in multiple features. Senescence-like neurons might be a source of oxidative and inflammatory stress and a contributor to brain aging.

So if this research holds up we can't just rampage through the body and destroy everything that looks like a senescent cell. More discrimination is needed, which in turn means more complex therapies and a greater understanding of differences in biochemistry between the cell populations of interest. More to the point, we will also need some method of reversing this senescence-like state in the brain and nervous system cells that we want to keep around. Will a general repair of all of the known forms of cellular damage be sufficient for that? Is neural dysfunction absolutely a consequence of the damage modes described by the Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence? It seems unlikely that we'll get a solid answer to that question until SENS version 1.0 is implemented in mice, but the initial expectation would be that yes, it is.

And what about the mice that were treated with a method to destroy senescent cells? They didn't appear to have their brain function markedly impacted, or the researchers would have noted as much. However: (a) it was a study using mice engineered to age rapidly, and thus may not have lasted long enough to uncover issues of that sort, and (b) the method used to destroy senescent cells was very narrow and specific in its targeting, and may or may not have reached these neurons that fall into a senescence-like state.

Source:
http://www.longevitymeme.org/newsletter/latest_rss_feed.cfm

Vote for SENS Foundation at Chase Community Giving

Posted on September 16, 2012 by Fredricko

SENS Foundation manages a program of research, development, and advocacy for rejuvenation biotechnology - building the foundation for therapies that will reverse aging in the old by repairing the cellular and biochemical damage that causes it. At present the Chase Community Giving event at Facebook is winding to a close on the 19th of this month, with $10,000 grants provided to those charities given the most votes by the community. So if you have a Facebook account, take a few moments to head on over to the SENS Foundation page and add your vote. Similar past events have demonstrated that there are more than enough SENS supporters out there to win any charitable popularity measure like this; so vote before the 19th and pass it on to your friends.

Link: https://www.facebook.com/ChaseCommunityGiving/app_162065369655?cv=2&app_data=location|/charity/view/ein/94-3473864

Source:
http://www.longevitymeme.org/newsletter/latest_rss_feed.cfm

Spurring Regeneration of Axons in Spinal Injury

Posted on September 16, 2012 by Fredricko

Researchers continue to make progress in induced nerve regeneration: "researchers were able to regenerate 'an astonishing degree' of axonal growth at the site of severe spinal cord injury in rats. Their research revealed that early stage neurons have the ability to survive and extend axons to form new, functional neuronal relays across an injury site in the adult central nervous system (CNS). The study also proved that at least some types of adult CNS axons can overcome a normally inhibitory growth environment to grow over long distances. Importantly, stem cells across species exhibit these properties. ... The scientists embedded neural stem cells in a matrix of fibrin [mixed] with growth factors to form a gel. The gel was then applied to the injury site in rats with completely severed spinal cords. ... Using this method, after six weeks, the number of axons emerging from the injury site exceeded by 200-fold what had ever been seen before. The axons also grew 10 times the length of axons in any previous study and, importantly, the regeneration of these axons resulted in significant functional improvement. ... The grafting procedure resulted in significant functional improvement: On a 21-point walking scale, without treatment, the rats score was only 1.5; following the stem cell therapy, it rose to 7 - a score reflecting the animals' ability to move all joints of affected legs. Results were then replicated using two human stem cell lines, one already in human trials for ALS. ... We obtained the exact results using human cells as we had in the rat cells."

Link: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-09/uoc--nsc091012.php

Source:
http://www.longevitymeme.org/newsletter/latest_rss_feed.cfm

Progress in LysoSENS: Bacterial Enzymes Deployed in Cell Culture to Break Down 7-Ketocholesterol

Posted on September 16, 2012 by Fredricko

LysoSENS is the oldest extant research program of the SENS Foundation, started back when the SENS program ran under the auspices of the Methuselah Foundation. In brief, LysoSENS is the development of a means of biomedical remediation. A whole range of harmful metabolic byproducts build up in human tissue with age, and we lack the means to break them down, or break them down fast enough. Some of these compounds simply cause harm, while others actually progressively impair the ability of cells to remove any unwanted chemicals, leading to what is known as the garbage catastrophe in aging - cells overwhelmed with broken protein machinery and waste products.

To do something about this issue we need ways to break down these waste products, such as those that make up lipofuscin, a mix of compounds that bloat and degrade the cellular recycling machinery known as lysosomes. Lipofuscin is implicated in a range of age-related diseases (as well as a class of genetic conditions known as lysosomal storage diseases). The LysoSENS project aims to discover bacterial enzymes capable of breaking down lipofuscin constituents and other important damaging compounds, and which can safely be introduced to human tissue. Researchers will then build a therapy to deliver these enzymes to where they are needed in our cells.

We have long known that such enzymes must exist, because places such as graveyards and battlefields do not exhibit a buildup of lipofuscin - something is eating it all. So the LysoSENS project started out by sifting through bacteria in soil samples, testing to see which of the bacterial species in the samples could consume harmful compounds such as 7-ketocholesterol, and then isolating the responsible enzymes.

This has been going on for a few years now, of course, and progress has been made - even at the all-too-low levels of funding available for this work. At this stage in the project a number of candidate enzymes that break down 7-ketocholesterol have been identified, and researchers are now putting them through their paces in cell cultures. One enzyme at least is worthy of a published paper.

Increased resistance to oxysterol cytotoxicity in fibroblasts transfected with a lysosomally targeted Chromobacterium oxidase

7-Ketocholesterol (7KC) is a cytotoxic oxysterol that plays a role in many age-related degenerative diseases. 7KC formation and accumulation often occurs in the lysosome, which hinders enzymatic transformations that reduce its toxicity and increase the sensitivity to lysosomal membrane permeabilization.

We assayed the potential to mitigate 7KC cytotoxicity and enhance cell viability by overexpressing 7KC-active enzymes in human fibroblasts. One of the enzymes tested, a cholesterol oxidase engineered for lysosomal targeting, significantly increased cell viability in the short term upon treatment with up to 50?µM 7KC relative to controls. These results suggest targeting the lysosome for optimal treatment of oxysterol-mediated cytotoxicity, and support the use of introducing novel catalytic function into the lysosome for therapeutic and research applications.

Some comments at the SENS Foundation:

The success of the approach employed by the team at Rice makes this enzyme, Chromobacterium sp. DS1 cholesterol oxidase, an important step toward a true rejuvenation biotechnology - a therapy that can target and repair damage that underlies the diseases and disabilities of the aging process. SENS Foundation is pleased to continue backing Dr. Mathieu's research, so that further work can move us closer to making such treatments a reality.

Given that many different harmful metabolic waste products exist, the field of biomedical remediation has enormous scope for growth - and certainly for more funding, which should hopefully start to arrive in the wake of proof of concept work like this. There is no need to slow down after finding one or more enzymes that break down 7-ketocholesterol, as firstly there could still be far better enzymes out there for this job, and secondly there remain numerous other damaging waste compounds in our cells and tissues that are worthy of biomedical remediation.

Source:
http://www.longevitymeme.org/newsletter/latest_rss_feed.cfm

Struggling With the Separation of Aging and Disease

Posted on September 16, 2012 by Fredricko

There is a school of thought that declares the average pace of degenerative aging as "normal" and states that any faster degenerations should be broken out and called "disease." This is somewhat manageable at the level of taxonomy, where you are only cataloging and describing the various ways in which bodily parts and systems break down, but as a system of thought it falls down badly once you have the ability to look under the hood to see what is going in our biochemistry. All of aging and age-related disease descend from the same collection of damage-causing processes, which like rust in a metal construction can lead to any number of different forms of ultimate structural failure - but all stemming from the same root causes. So trying to draw a dividing line between aging and disease produces issues and unnecessary additional work, especially if the researcher is trying to treat only "disease" but let "aging" progress, as you can see from the opening paragraphs in this paper: "Aging of the musculoskeletal system starts early and is detrimental to multiple functions of the whole organism, since it leads to disability and degenerative diseases. The age-related musculoskeletal changes are important in medical risk assessment and care because they influence the responses to treatment and outcomes of therapy. ... There are two major problems that one faces while trying to disentangle the biological complexity of the musculoskeletal aging: (a) it is a systemic, rather than 'compartmental,' problem, which should be dealt with accordingly, (b) the aging per se is neither well defined nor reliably measurable. A unique challenge of studying any age-related process is a need of distinguishing between the 'norm' and 'pathology,' which are interwoven in the aging. When another dimension is added, namely genetics underlying the system's functioning, even less is known about this aspect, and attempts to decipher genetic relationships between the system's components are few. ... To disentangle the aging-related pathology from the homeostasis particular for aging steady-state, is a challenging task. Despite the multiple definitions of the aging process were proposed, there is no single agreed upon and reliable measurement, therefore underlying molecular mechanism of aging is still not fully understood. The definition of aging is complicated by the occurrence of various diseases that modify body functions and tissue structures; these disease-related changes that are common in older persons are often hard to delineate from the aging process per se."

Link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3429074/

Source:
http://www.longevitymeme.org/newsletter/latest_rss_feed.cfm

Two lessons I learned this week.

Posted on September 16, 2012 by Fredricko

I learned two valuable things this week I thought I'd pass on in a Friday afternoon post. Actually strictly speaking these are likely things I've learned before but needed to re-learn or to be 'reminded' of their importance.

Please pardon a little stroll away from the typically strict focus on cell therapy -- but in a way that's the theme of today's post.

1. Take time each week to read something from outside your specific profession or job focus.

I'm not talking here about the importance of escaping in the evening with a fiction novel (also very important) but rather reading something professional but from well outside your area of focus. Here are my examples.

I always read WIRED magazine. Aside from GEN it's the only magazine I read. Just reading something outside of cell therapy or biotech often infuses me with an idea that otherwise would have never occurred to me like the need for a cell therapy X Prize or cellular aggregates as microcarriers or tissue-engineered memory and processing devices or even just the conviction to better represent cell therapy to the broader world out there of scientists, engineers, journalists, policy-makers, or perhaps people with too much money looking to be inspired and wanting to make a difference.

Similarly, on a flight this week I reached into the seat pocket in front of me and discovered a recent copy of the Journal of the American Medical Association. I read a fascinating article that has me excited about an idea for how we as a cell therapy industry might lead the way in addressing clinical trial and data transparency that would put our sector in a leadership position, lend the industry a much-needed spotlight, and has the potential to facilitate the kind of meta-analysis and data-mining that could only be done through data aggregation. I believe the concept has the potential to be disproportionately significant for a sector defined by so many small, under-powered trials.

The idea may never see the light of day but the point is the source of the inspiration. In order to 'think' outside the box one typically has to 'be' outside the box. Lesson? Spend some time outside your box.

2. It often takes something very small to make a disproportionately significant impact on someone.

I was reminded recently through an exchange of simple kindnesses just how little it sometimes takes to make a big difference in someone's life. For you what might be so easy to give might be of unparalleled value to someone for whom that is so unattainable.

Lesson? When the opportunity knocks for you to give something small or simple, take it. This kind of charity almost always has the potential to be mre impactful than you might ever imagine.

http://www.celltherapyblog.com hosted by http://www.celltherapygroup.com

Source:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/CellTherapyBlog

Nonviral gene therapy targeting cardiovascular system

Posted on September 16, 2012 by Fredricko

The goal of gene therapy is either to introduce a therapeutic gene into or replace a defective gene in an individual's cells and tissues. Gene therapy has been urged as a potential method to induce therapeutic angiogenesis in ischemic myocardium and peripheral tissues after extensive investigation in recent preclinical and clinical studies. A successful gene therapy mainly relies on the development of the gene delivery vector. Developments in viral and nonviral vector technology including cell-based gene transfer will further improve transgene delivery and expression efficiency. Nonviral approaches as alternative gene delivery vehicles to viral vectors have received significant attention. Recently, a simple and safe approach of gene delivery into target cells using naked DNA has been impro...

MedWorm Sponsor Message: Please support the Doctors In Chains campaign for the medics tortured and sentenced for up to 15 years in Bahrain. #FreeDoctors

Source:
http://www.medworm.com/rss/medicalfeeds/therapies/Gene-Therapy.xml

Road to Commercialization: California Stem Cell Agency Seeking Top Level Product Development Execs

Posted on September 16, 2012 by Fredricko

Looking for a good job at an
enterprise that is on the cutting edge of biotechnology?

Nine positions are open at the $3
billion California stem cell agency, headquartered in San Francisco.
Some of them could pay more than $200,000 a year.

Several of the new jobs are closely
aligned with the agency's fresh focus on commercializing stem cell
research and driving therapies into the clinic. Scientists and
lawyers are being recruited along with a business development
officer. For some of the positions, travel is required.

One new, high-level position is
described as a senior development officer. The job posting calls for
“expertise in product development for stem cell therapies.” The
person would “directly interact with investigators on CIRM’s
clinically applicable research programs to help provide product
development guidance from preclinical, manufacturing, and first in
human to early phase clinical regulatory perspectives.” An M.D. or
Ph.D. degree in a biomedical science is required. Pay tops out at
$232,891. This person would report to Ellen Feigal, senior vice
president for research and development.

A second, high-level position reporting to Feigal is senior medical officer, who would manage the
agency's portfolio aimed at commercialization of stem cell research,
specifically “focused on IND enabling and clinical development
projects.” This also requires an M.D. or Ph.D. and substantial professional experience in development of biomedical research and
products. Pay also could run as high $232.891 annually.

A third new job at CIRM is
business development officer. That person would help generate
“outside investment in stem cell research in California for both
CIRM-funded and not currently CIRM-funded programs by
biopharmaceutical strategic partners; equity investors (venture
capital and others); and disease foundations.” The salary range
hits $216,270 annually. It wouldn't be surprising if the person in
this job also became involved in developing a funding mechanism for
CIRM after it runs out of state cash in 2017 or so.

This position reports to Elona Baum,
general counsel and vice president, business development.

And yet another new position is called
director of alliance management. The job deals with the agency's
extensive collaborative funding partnerships, many of which are
abroad. CIRM wants somebody with a law degree, experience in
intellectual property and business law along with strong negotiating
skills. The pay range for the post tops out at $232,891 annually. This position reports to CIRM President
Alan Trounson.

Other open positions include: deputy
general counsel, two science officers and office manager.

Source:
http://californiastemcellreport.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

StemCells, Inc., Discloses How it Will Generate $40 Million in Matching Funds

Posted on September 16, 2012 by Fredricko

StemCells, Inc., said yesterday that it
will come up with the $40 million needed to match loans from the California
stem cell agency through “existing infrastructure and overhead”
and will not be issuing stocks or warrants to the agency.

In a statement to shareholders, Martin
McGlynn, CEO of the publicly traded firm, discussed the $40 million in loans awarded by agency this summer, including $20 million last
week. The stem cell agency's governing board, after it emerged from
an executive session on the matter, last Wednesday night adopted a
motion requiring the company to demonstrate that it has the matching
funds.

CIRM Chairman J.T. Thomas, a Los Angeles bond financier, said that
concerns were expressed during the executive session that the agency
“would account for such a large part of the assets of the company.”
At his suggestion, the board approved the loan on the condition that
“it show it has access” to the $20 million in matching funds that
company offered during the application process. StemCells, Inc., also
offered a $20 million match on another loan approved in July by CIRM.

The latest financial reports from
StemCells, Inc., which is based in Newark, Ca., show that it had
assets of $17 million as of June 30 and liabilities of $11.6 million.
The company reported net income for the second quarter of $833,522
compared to a loss of $4 million for the same period a year ago.

In its filing with the SEC, the company
said,

“We have incurred significant
operating losses since inception. We expect to incur additional
operating losses over the foreseeable future. We have very limited
liquidity and capital resources and must obtain significant
additional capital and other resources in order to provide funding
for our product development efforts....”

In his statement yesterday, McGlynn
said the California stem cell agency had “doubled down” on
StemCells, Inc., in approving the two loans. He said the company is
not concerned about meeting the matching requirements. McGlynn said,

Martin McGlynn
StemCells, Inc., Photo

“To be clear, we do not interpret the
diligence requirement as an obligation to raise a specific amount of
money in a particular period of time, and we wish to correct the
misstatements made by some uninformed third parties that the ICOC is
requiring us to raise $20 million in matching funds. In
point of fact, we expect that a substantial amount of our
contribution towards these projects will come from existing
infrastructure and overhead, salaries for our existing personnel, and
other contributions in kind. Furthermore, we will soon be
reviewing the budgets for both projects in detail with CIRM
staff. Because each disease team budget was prepared on a
stand-alone basis, we expect to see significant economies and
efficiencies now that the company has in fact been awarded funding
for both.”

McGlynn also said,

"Under this particular CIRM
program (RFA 10-05), funding for companies will be in the form of
unsecured, non-recourse, interest-bearing, term loans, which will be
forgivable in the event the funded research fails to result in a
commercialized product. On the other hand, should the product be
successfully commercialized, CIRM would earn milestone payments
depending on how successful the product becomes. Because CIRM
shares the downside risk, and could participate handsomely on the
upside, the structure makes the loan about as close to 'equity' as one could, without having to dilute existing shareholders in order
to gain access to significant amounts of capital. The company
will not issue stock, warrants or other equity to CIRM in connection
with these awards.

"Of course, we realize that CIRM
prefers that applicants from industry provide evidence of their
ability to secure whatever additional funds may be needed to complete
any CIRM-funded project, in this case the filing of an IND for each
indication. This is stated in the text of RFA 10-05 itself and
was repeated in various comments by CIRM staff during the application
process. When making the second award on September 5, the
ICOC naturally recognized the sizeable commitment it was making
to StemCells, so it instructed CIRM staff to satisfy themselves
of the company's ability to access the capital needed to fund the
project, namely the Alzheimer's program through to the filing of the
IND.”

McGlynn also said firm's bid for
another $10 million from CIRM could come in the form of a grant
instead of a loan. He said,

"Finally, I can confirm that in
June of this year the Company applied for up to $10
million under CIRM's Strategic Partnership I program
(RFA 12-05). Unlike the disease team awards under RFA
10-05, if companies are approved for funding under RFA 12-05, they
may elect to take such funding in the form of a grant, not a
loan. Our application under RFA 12-05 is for a controlled Phase
II clinical trial of HuCNS-SC cells in Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease
(PMD), a rare myelination disorder. StemCells completed a Phase
I study in PMD in February 2012 and in April announced that
all of the patients from that study showed evidence of cell-derived
myelination and three of the four patients in the study showed
measurable gains in motor and/or cognitive function.”

According to CIRM, the awards in the strategic partner round will be approved either next month or in December.

StemCells, Inc. stock was trading at
$1.85 at the time of this writing. Last week, it rose to $2.43.
During the last 12 months, its high was $2.67 and its low was 59
cents.

Source:
http://californiastemcellreport.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

California Stem Cell Firsts: From Emotional Appeals to $40 Million Awards

Posted on September 16, 2012 by Fredricko

During the last few months, the $3 billion California stem cell
agency, which is approaching its eight-year anniversary, has chalked up a
number of important firsts.

Most of them came during the July and
September meetings of its 29-member governing board and were related to strenuous efforts by researchers to win approval of awards of up to
$20 million each. Several firsts involved the agency's former
chairman, Robert Klein, who could be considered the father of the
state's stem cell research effort.

So here is the California Stem Cell
Report's list of firsts at the California Institute of Regenerative
Medicine (as CIRM, the stem cell agency, is formally known) for the
summer of 2012.

It was the first time that a single
company – in this case, StemCells, Inc. , of Newark, Ca. –
received two awards in the same round.

It was the first time any company has
been awarded as much as $40 million. Again, StemCells, Inc.

It was the first time that Klein has lobbied his former board (see here and here) on
behalf of a particular grant application. That occurred in both July
and September with one of StemCells, Inc.'s application.

It was the first time that the board
has approved an application that has been rejected twice by
reviewers, again the StemCells, Inc., proposal backed by Klein.

It was the first time that board has
received such a large outpouring of appeals by rejected applicants.

It was the first time that the board
has received such lengthy presentations of emotional appeals by
patient advocates on behalf of rejected applicants.

It was the first time that action on a
grant round has been extended over three months(see here and here). The disease team
round began in July. Action will not be completed until the end of
October.

It was the first time that the
governing board has sent so many applications back for re-review –
five, six if the one to be acted on in October is included.

It was also the first time that the
board has ordered a full-blown review of its grant appeal process
with an eye to making making major changes in it.

Several reasons exist for the number of
firsts racked up by CIRM. One is the high stakes involved in the
disease team round that began in July and the low number approved by reviewers – six compared to the 12 approved by the board, as of
today, out of 21 applications. Another reason involves the
increasing understanding on the part of many scientists that they can
appeal directly to the board when reviewers reject their
applications. However, it is also clear that not all applicants
grasp the full range of appeal possibilities. A third reason involves
the agency's muddled appeal process, which has been a problem for
years. And a fourth reason involves the board's push to drive research into
the clinic and commercialization, which applicants are quickly
learning how to exploit.

Readers should feel free to add their
own firsts to this list. They can do so – even, anonymously – by
clicking on the word “comments” at the end of this item.

Source:
http://californiastemcellreport.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

Saving the golden goose from the chop

Posted on September 16, 2012 by Danzig

In these straightened economic times it seems like researchers are under ever greater pressure to show that their work can be turned into a money-spinning business. There’s more and more focus on ‘impact’, ‘innovation’ and getting a good return on investment for taxpayers’ hard earned cash. The Golden Goose awards have been launched as the antithesis of this need to make the business case for scientific curiosity – they celebrate the power of blue skies research to change society in ways that can’t yet be imagined.

The inaugural award ceremony took place last night in Washington, DC. Eight scientists were honoured for their basic research that no one would have been able to make a convincing business case for, but their discoveries went on to be incredibly important. Charles Townes received his Golden Goose for his work developing the laser (he won the 1964 physics Nobel prize for this work too). Back in the 1950s, Townes was looking to create an intense source of short wavelength radiation to help his team probe the basic properties of molecules and atoms. Now, the laser is ubiquitous in modern life, in everything from barcode scanners and DVD players to surgical equipment – something no one could have foreseen at the time.

Other recipients of an award were Eugene White, Rodney White, Della Roy and the late Jon Weber for their work on tropical coral, which led to a material used in bone grafts. Martin Chalfie, Roger Tsien and Osamu Shimomura also received an award for their research on jellyfish (they also received the 2008 chemistry Nobel prize!). Their discovery of green fluorescent protein, which explains why jellyfish glow under certain wavelengths of light, has been incredibly useful in teasing out how cells work. It has enabled researchers to watch events like protein transport occur in real time.

The Golden Goose awards are, in part, a mocking tribute to the Golden Fleece awards that one US Senator used to hand out for research he considered to be a waste of money. More recently, spending on basic research financed by the US’s stimulus package has been ridiculed as a waste of public money, largely thanks to images of a shrimp on a treadmill (the project was investigating the effects of pollution on crustacean mobility). The awards are also taking place against a backdrop of economic hardship when the case even needs to be made for public funding of essentials like healthcare. This means that making the argument that blue skies research holds the key to creating new technologies and jobs is more important that ever. Something that the people that fund research should bear in mind.

Patrick Walter

Source:
http://prospect.rsc.org/blogs/cw/?feed=rss2

Chemistry in its element – pectin

Posted on September 16, 2012 by Danzig

Jam or marmalade? Whichever you prefer on your toast in the morning, it’s the pectin that’s stopping it dripping off the slice! Find out about this networker par excellence in this week’s Chemistry in its element podcast.

Source:
http://prospect.rsc.org/blogs/cw/?feed=rss2

Glassblowing and old newspaper

Posted on September 16, 2012 by Danzig

A Dartington glassblower uses a newspaper paddle to shape a piece of blown glass

A letter in the Financial Times about a month ago piqued my interest. It stated that the characteristic salmon pink pages of the FT play a unique role in producing hand-made crystal glass at Dartington crystal. Since I was about to go on holiday to Devon, and had planned a trip to the Dartington factory anyway, I decided to do a bit of investigating myself.

In the FT letter, the correspondent says that the reason for using the pink pages of the FT is so that no trace elements are transferred to the crystal ‘when the protective newsprint is peeled away’, as they might be with other, bleached, newspaper.

This sounded a little implausible to the chemist in me. If the newspaper was only being used for protection, surely any interaction with the crystal glass would be confined to the ink, or any contaminants left from the paper processing, rubbing off on the surface? The possibility of significant chemical reaction between the glass and the newsprint at room temperature seemed remote at best.

A tour of the factory quickly confirmed my hunch. The role of the newspaper is much more than simply protective, but perhaps quite surprising. It is an integral tool in shaping blown glass. The yellow-handled paddle in the picture is actually made up of a wad of newspaper.

This yellow handled paddle is actually a stack of newspapers

As the glassblower blows and shapes a globule of molten glass into a tumbler (in this case) or any other object, part of the process involves dipping that paddle into a bucket of water and holding it up to the red hot glass. At the same time he rolls the blowpipe backwards and forwards to ensure the glass is the right shape and consistent thickness.

Newspaper is absorbent and cheap to replace, making it ideal for making these paddles. However, being in contact with glass at several hundred degrees means the paper does burn away slowly, so it’s important it doesn’t transfer contaminants to the glass in its semi-molten state, which could then create imperfections in the final product.

So that begs the question, what is it about the FT that makes it the preferred choice of glassblowers? Is it something to do with the chemical processing of the paper? Is the paper bleached less ferociously than its white cousins? Or does the dyeing process mean any residues from the bleaching are washed out more thoroughly? Or is it simply tradition with little scientific backing? Speaking to some of the Dartington staff I got some vague answers about the ‘quality of the paper’, but it would be interesting to know if any of our readers have more insight.

If you have never watched a glassblower at work, it is quite an amazing experience. The apparently effortless skill of a master glassblower is breathtaking. No wonder it takes around 10 years to reach that level. But, as with glassblowing for chemistry equipment, it is a skill that is slowly dying out – Dartington is one of the last commercial-scale producers of hand-blown glass in the UK.

Phillip Broadwith

Source:
http://prospect.rsc.org/blogs/cw/?feed=rss2

Soft robotics ‘elephant trunk’ with a delicate touch

Posted on September 16, 2012 by Danzig

Recreating the dexterity and control of an elephant’s trunk is no easy task. However, engineers over the years have risen to the challenge and have developed sophisticated robotic arms. The problem is that they don’t come cheaply. The fine motors and mechanical joints can cost thousands of pounds and could be too valuable to put in risky situations, so what if you could make one for less than $10?

That’s exactly what George Whitesides and his team at Harvard have achieved. By using silicone elastomer tubing and pressurised air, they produced a ‘tentacle’ that can be used for picking up delicate or complicated objects such as flowers or horseshoes. Published in Advanced Materials this month, this is the latest in a series of developments in the ‘pneumatic network’ method over the past few years. Previously, the group developed a starfish-like gripper that could pick up an egg, but the gripping motion was the limit of its movement. Whitesides’ groups have also used this soft robotics technology to develop a crawling robot.

This new tentacular system has hard polymer tubing running through the centre which can bend easily – but resists stretching – surrounded by a highly elastic polymer with channels running through it to allow pressurised air to enter. By controlling which channel the air enters, the tentacle can be manipulated to twist and turn in three dimensions. The construction of the tubing might be simple, but controlling it looks a lot more difficult!

Describing the new system as a tentacle is selling it short — it can do so much more. Just like an elephant’s trunk, it can use the central tubing for suction, either to lift objects or suck up liquids and powders. Just like the best robots (or colonoscopes), it can even have a video camera attached to the end.

As well as being cheaper than conventional ‘hard’ robots, this soft tubing has other advantages. The nature of the system allows for an even pressure spread across the object, rather than the ‘pincer’ method that we use with our fingers and that many robots try to emulate. Also, the stiff links and fixed structure of most robotic arms mean that they have difficulty in situations that they are not specialised for. The flexibility of the tubing allows it to grip in various ways and adapt as is needed.

The long list of innovations coming from the lab of George Whitesides have led to him having his name on nearly 1000 academic papers and over 100 patents. He is a co-founder of a dozen companies, including Genzyme which was the third largest biotech company in the world before it was acquired by Sanofi for $20 billion in 2011. With the level of development in this technology, I imagine it won’t be long before we see these tentacles going commercial.

Ian Le Guillou