Monthly Archives: March 2014

Microbes and Metabolites Fuel an Ambitious Aging Project

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Craig Venters new company wants to improve human longevity by creating the worlds largest, most comprehensive database of genetic and physiological information.

Last week, genomics entrepreneur Craig Venter announced his latest venture: a company that will create what it calls the most comprehensive and complete data set on human health to tackle diseases of aging.

Human Longevity, based in San Diego, says it will sequence some 40,000 human genomes per year to start, using Illuminas new high-throughput sequencing machines (see Does Illumina Have the First $1,000 Genome?). Eventually, it plans to work its way up to 100,000 genomes per year. The company will also sequence the genomes of the bodys multitudes of microbial inhabitants, called the microbiome, and analyze the thousands of metabolites that can be found in blood and other patient samples.

By combining these disparate types of data, the new company hopes to make inroads into the enigmatic processes of aging and the many diseases, including cancer and heart disease, that are strongly associated with the process. Aging is exerting a force on humans that is exposing us to diseases, and the diseases are idiosyncratic, partly based on genetics, partly on environment, says Leonard Guarente, who researches aging at MIT and is not involved in the company. The hope for many of us who study aging is that by having interventions that hit key pathways in aging, we can affect disease.

But despite decades of research on aging and age-related diseases, there are no treatments to slow aging, and diseases like cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimers continue to plague patients. A more comprehensive approach to studying human aging could help, says Guarente. The key is to go beyond genome sequencing by looking at gene activity and changes in the array of proteins and other molecules found in patient samples.

To that end, Human Longevity will collaborate with Metabolon, a company based in Durham, North Carolina, to profile the metabolites circulating in the bloodstreams of study participants. Metabolon was an early pioneer in the field of metabolomics, which catalogues the amino acids, fats, and other small molecules in a blood or other sample to develop more accurate diagnostic tests for diseases (see 10 Emerging Technologies 2005: Metabolomics).

Metabolon uses mass spectrometry to identify small molecules in a sample. In a human blood sample, there are around 1,200 different types; Metabolons process can also determine the amount of each one present. While genome sequencing can provide information about inherited risk of disease and some hints of the likelihood that a person will have a long life, metabolic data provides information on how environment, diet, and other features of an individuals life affect health.

Metabolic data can also help researchers interpret the results of genome-based studies, which can often pinpoint a particular gene as important in a disease or a normal cellular process without clarifying what that gene actually does. If a particular metabolite is found to correlate with a particular genetic signal in a study, then researchers have a clue as to the function of the DNA signal.

And changes in blood metabolites are not just caused by changes in human cell behavior: the microbes that live in our bodies produce metabolites that can be detected in blood, says John Ryals, CEO and founder of Metabolon. When you get certain diseases, we believe your gut microbiome is changing its composition, and that leads to changes in what molecules are being made, he says.

Ryals says his company, working with collaborators, has already shown that blood biochemistry changes with aging: You can tell how old someone is just by looking at their metabolites.

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Microbes and Metabolites Fuel an Ambitious Aging Project

NASA Launches New Research, Seeks the Subtle in Parallel Ways

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nvestigations for the study of identical twin astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly and, in doing so, launched human space life science research into a new era. Although NASA's Human Research Program has been researching the effects of spaceflight on the human body for decades, these 10 investigations will provide NASA with broader insight into the subtle effects and changes that may occur in spaceflight as compared to Earth-based environments.

NASA and the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) will jointly manage this ambitious new undertaking.

"We realized this is a unique opportunity to perform a class of novel studies because we had one twin flying aboard the International Space Station and one twin on the ground," says Craig Kundrot, Ph.D. and deputy chief scientist of NASA's Human Research Program.

"We can study two individuals who have the same genetics, but are in different environments for one year.

The investigations, which were picked from a pool of 40 proposals, introduce to space physiology the field of -omics, the integrated study of DNA, RNA, and the entire complement of biomolecules in the human body. Studying human physiology at this fundamental level will provide NASA and the broader spaceflight community with unique information.

This is because these tiny components of the human body tell researchers volumes about an individual's composition and their reaction to stressors like those associated with spaceflight. Investigating the subtle changes - or lack thereof - between the Kelly brothers at this level, after Scott's year in space and Mark's year on Earth, could shed light between the nature vs. nurture aspect of the effects of spaceflight on the human body.

The studies will focus on four areas: human physiology, behavioral health, microbiology/microbiome, and molecular or -omics studies. Human physiological investigations will look at how the spaceflight environment may induce changes in different organs like the heart, muscles or brain within the body. Behavioral health investigations will help characterize the effects spaceflight may have on perception and reasoning, decision making and alertness.

The microbiology/microbiome investigations will explore the brothers' dietary differences and stressors to find out how both affect the organisms in the twins' guts. Lastly, but potentially opening a whole new realm of information about humans exposed to the spaceflight environment are the molecular or -omics investigations.

These studies will look at the way genes in the cells are turned on and off as a result of spaceflight; and how stressors like radiation, confinement and microgravity prompt changes in the proteins and metabolites gathered in biological samples like blood, saliva, urine and stool.

Some of the investigations are brand new, some are already being considered as part of the research plans for the one-year mission set for 2015, and some are already being performed with crews living aboard the space station for six-month durations. These will allow the agency to build upon existing knowledge about long duration spaceflight.

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NASA Launches New Research, Seeks the Subtle in Parallel Ways

2013 Fine Awards For Teamwork Excellence in Healthcare: Highmark AIS – Video

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2013 Fine Awards For Teamwork Excellence in Healthcare: Highmark AIS
Sponsored by The Fine Foundation and the Jewish Healthcare Foundation, the Fine Awards reinforce the critical role teamwork plays in health care. The theme o...

By: Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative

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2013 Fine Awards For Teamwork Excellence in Healthcare: Highmark AIS - Video

Burn Unit Series – "Stretching, Scar Management, and Compression" (UI Health Care) – Video

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Burn Unit Series - "Stretching, Scar Management, and Compression" (UI Health Care)
Patient video education series for University of Iowa Health Care #39;s Burn Treatment Center. For more information, please call 319-356-2496 or visit http://www...

By: University of Iowa Health Care

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Burn Unit Series - "Stretching, Scar Management, and Compression" (UI Health Care) - Video

Amitabh Bachchan & Om Puri at The Inauguration of Surya Child Health Care Centre – Video

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Amitabh Bachchan Om Puri at The Inauguration of Surya Child Health Care Centre
Amitabh Bachchan Om Puri at The Inauguration of Surya Child Health Care Centre Visit - https://www.unitezz.com . India #39;s Biggest Bollywood Entertainment We...

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Amitabh Bachchan & Om Puri at The Inauguration of Surya Child Health Care Centre - Video

Campos wants stricter rules on S.F. health care accounts

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It looks like it's loophole closure time all over again.

Supervisor David Campos is once again proposing legislation to stop employers from pocketing millions of dollars that were supposed to pay for employee health care as part of the city's universal health care law.

The centerpiece of Campos' proposal is a requirement that money employers deposit in savings accounts to reimburse their workers for their health care expenses actually gets used for that. Now, employers may take back the unused portion of the money after two years, and some do.

In 2010, 860 employers put a total of $62.5 million into the accounts, paid out $12.4 million and kept the rest, officials reported.

Campos, who on Tuesday will ask the city attorney to draft this latest legislation, tried to close the loophole in 2011 by preventing employers from taking back money until 18 months after an employee had left the company. But after the Board of Supervisors approved his legislation, Mayor Ed Lee vetoed it amid concerns from businesses that said it would tie up millions of dollars and could force them to lay off workers or possibly close.

A draft report from the Office of Labor Standards Enforcement in July indicated that the situation had only improved somewhat.

The overall reimbursement rate to employees rose from 17 percent in 2011 to 25 percent in 2012, with actual payments jumping from $11.3 million to $26.4 million in 2012.

In 2011, 17 percent of employers who opted for the reimbursement accounts to comply with the city's Health Care Security Ordinance paid out absolutely nothing, the draft report said.

In 2012, after the loophole fix, 12 percent of employers with the accounts reported reimbursing nothing for employee health care, the report said.

With the city's economy humming amid growing frustration about income disparity, Campos may find a better reception at the Board of Supervisors for his legislation this time around and get eight votes to make it veto-proof.

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Campos wants stricter rules on S.F. health care accounts

Uninsured rate drops due to health care law, but signups lag among Hispanics

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A bodega worker receives free care during a health clinic in the Bronx in 2010. Photo by Chris Hondros/Getty Images

With just three weeks left to enroll on the new insurance exchanges, the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, finds that 15.9 percent of U.S. adults are uninsured thus far in 2014, down from 17.1 percent for the last three months or calendar quarter of 2013.

Released Monday, the survey based on more than 28,000 interviews is a major independent effort to track the health care rollout. The drop of 1.2 percentage points in the uninsured rate translates to about 3 million people gaining coverage.

Gallup said the proportion of Americans who are uninsured is on track to drop to the lowest quarterly level it measured since 2008, before Obama took office.

Its probably a reasonable hypothesis that the Affordable Care Act is having something to do with this drop, said Frank Newport, Gallups editor-in-chief. We saw a continuation of the trend we saw last month; it didnt bounce back up.

The survey found that almost every major demographic group made progress getting health insurance, although Hispanics lagged.

With the highest uninsured rate of any racial or ethnic group, Latinos were expected to be major beneficiaries of the new health care law. They are a relatively young population and many are on the lower rungs of the middle class, in jobs that dont come with health insurance. Theyve also gone big for Obama in his two presidential campaigns.

But the administrations outreach effort to Hispanics stumbled from the start. The Spanish-language enrollment website, CuidadodeSalud.gov, was delayed due to technical problems. Its name sounds like a clunky translation from English: Care of Health.

The feds also translated Affordable Care Act as Law for Care of Health at Low Price which doesnt sound too appealing.

A spot check of the Spanish site on Monday showed parts of it still use a mix of Spanish and English to convey information on such basics as insurance copays, risking confusion.

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Uninsured rate drops due to health care law, but signups lag among Hispanics

Syrian health care on brink of collapse

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Syria's health care system is on the brink of collapse, with medics forced to engage in 'brutal medical practices' in order to save lives: knocking out patients with metal bars because of lack of anaesthesia, or amputating infants' limbs for lack of other ways to treat their injuries.

International charity Save the Children in a report published on Monday said newborns die in hospital incubators during power outages, while millions of children have been exposed to deadly diseases, some of which are preventable with vaccinations and basic medical equipment.

The conflict has ravaged Syria for three years and has hit the country's health facilities and health providers hard. Hospitals have been bombed by government forces in rebel-held areas. Armed men with the opposition have forced their way into clinics to have their fighters treated. Many doctors have fled the country to escape harassment from the warring sides.

'This humanitarian crisis has fast become a health crisis,' Save the Children's regional director Roger Hearn said in a statement.

'The desperate measures to which medical personnel are resorting to keep children alive are increasingly harrowing.'

Simply finding a doctor is a matter of luck, Hearn also said. Finding one with the necessary equipment and medication to provide proper treatment has become almost impossible, he added.

The report quotes a doctor saying that most children brought to his clinic suffer from burns and fractures. The doctor, who is not named in the report, says they need complicated operations that cannot be performed in his small facility.

'In some cases, we have to cut their limbs off to try to save their lives, because if we don't they will bleed to death,' the doctor told Save the Children.

Also worrying, is the re-emergence of deadly and disfiguring diseases such as polio and measles, which can permanently maim and paralyse, the charity said.

It estimates that up to 80,000 children are likely to be infected by polio's most aggressive form, and are silently spreading the disease.

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Syrian health care on brink of collapse

Endometriosis Cause And Development Linked To Unstudied Genes

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March 10, 2014

Rebekah Eliason for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

A study from Northwestern Medicine has led to a new theory regarding the development and cause of endometriosis. The chronically painful disease, which affects 1 in 10 women, has been linked to two previously unstudied genes.

This innovative research regarding endometriosis suggests that an integral part of the disease and its progression is epigenetic modification, which is a process that will either enhance or disrupt the reading of DNA.

Matthew Dyson, research assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, along with Serdar Bulun, MD, chair of obstetrics and gynecology at Feinberg and Northwestern Memorial Hospital, were able to recognize a novel role for a family of key gene regulators found in the uterus.

Until now, the scientific community was looking for a genetic mutation to explain endometriosis, said Bulun, a member of the Center for Genetic Medicine and the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University. This is the first conclusive demonstration that the disease develops as a result of alterations in the epigenetic landscape and not from classical genetic mutations.

Heather C. Guidone, Surgical Program Director at The Center for Endometriosis Care explains that, Endometriosis results when tissue similar to that which lines the uterus grows in other areas of the body. The persistent survival of these cells results in chronic pelvic pain, organ dysfunction, infertility and more. Although the cause of the disease has remained unknown on a cellular level, there have been several different models established to explain its development.

Since endometriosis is only found in menstruating primates, it is likely that the unique evolution of uterine development and menstruation are connected with the disease. Retrograde menstruation, the movement of cells up the fallopian tubes and into the pelvis, has long been considered by scientists as a probable cause of endometriosis. Since most women experience retrograde menstruation at some point, this model fails to explain why only ten percent of women develop the disease. In addition, this theory is insufficient at explaining instances where endometriosis arises independent of menstruation.

Bulun and Dyson theorize that there is an epigenetic switch that allows the expression of the genetic receptor GATA6 instead of GATA2. This results in progesterone resistance leading to development of the disease.

We believe an overwhelming number of these altered cells reach the lining of the abdominal cavity, survive and grow, Bulun said. These findings could someday lead to the first noninvasive test for endometriosis.

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Endometriosis Cause And Development Linked To Unstudied Genes

Genomic test to rule out obstructive CAD may reduce need for more invasive diagnostics

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

10-Mar-2014

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

New Rochelle, NY, March 10, 2014Nearly $7 billion is spent each year in the U.S. on diagnostic testing of the estimated three million people with symptoms of obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD). A new blood test that detects specific genes activated in individuals with obstructive CAD could exclude the diagnosis without the need for imaging studies or more invasive tests, reducing health care costs, as described in an article in Population Health Management, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Population Health Management website at http://www.liebertpub.com/pop.

Louis Hochheiser (St. John's Medical Center, Jackson, WY), Jessie Juusola and Mark Monane (CardioDx, Palo Alto, CA), and Joseph Ladapo (New York University School of Medicine, NY), use a decision analysis model to compare the cost-effectiveness of "usual care" for obstructive CAD diagnosis with a strategy that includes "gene expression score (GES)-directed care." They present the results and potential value of this new diagnostic approach in the article "Economic Utility of a Blood-Based Genomic Test for the Assessment of Patients with Symptoms Suggestive of Obstructive Coronary Artery Disease".

"Work like this is vital to our understanding as we move from a world of volume to value," says Editor-in-Chief David B. Nash, MD, MBA, Dean and Dr. Raymond C. and Doris N. Grandon Professor, Jefferson School of Population Health, Philadelphia, PA.

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About the Journal

Population Health Management is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published bimonthly in print and online that reflects the expanding scope of health care management and quality. The Journal delivers a comprehensive, integrated approach to the field of population health and provides information designed to improve the systems and policies that affect health care quality, access, and outcomes. Comprised of peer-reviewed original research papers, clinical research, and case studies, the content encompasses a broad range of chronic diseases (such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic pain, diabetes, depression, and obesity) in addition to focusing on various aspects of prevention and wellness. Tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Population Health Management website at http://www.liebertpub.com/pop. Population Health Management is the official journal of the Population Health Alliance.

About the Publisher

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Genomic test to rule out obstructive CAD may reduce need for more invasive diagnostics

Rice synthetic biologists shine light on genetic circuit analysis

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

10-Mar-2014

Contact: David Ruth david@rice.edu 713-348-6327 Rice University

In a significant advance for the growing field of synthetic biology, Rice University bioengineers have created a toolkit of genes and hardware that uses colored lights and engineered bacteria to bring both mathematical predictability and cut-and-paste simplicity to the world of genetic circuit design.

"Life is controlled by DNA-based circuits, and these are similar to the circuits found in electronic devices like smartphones and computers," said Rice bioengineer Jeffrey Tabor, the lead researcher on the project. "A major difference is that electrical engineers measure the signals flowing into and out of electronic circuits as voltage, whereas bioengineers measure genetic circuit signals as genes turning on and off."

In a new paper appearing online today in the journal Nature Methods, Tabor and colleagues, including graduate student and lead author Evan Olson, describe a new, ultra high-precision method for creating and measuring gene expression signals in bacteria by combining light-sensing proteins from photosynthetic algae with a simple array of red and green LED lights and standard fluorescent reporter genes. By varying the timing and intensity of the lights, the researchers were able to control exactly when and how much different genes were expressed.

"Light provides us a powerful new method for reliably measuring genetic circuit activity," said Tabor, an assistant professor of bioengineering who also teaches in Rice's Ph.D. program in systems, synthetic and physical biology. "Our work was inspired by the methods that are used to study electronic circuits. Electrical engineers have tools like oscilloscopes and function generators that allow them to measure how voltage signals flow through electrical circuits. Those measurements are essential for making multiple circuits work together properly, so that more complex devices can be built. We have used our light-based tools as a biological function generator and oscilloscope in order to similarly analyze genetic circuits."

Electronic circuits -- like those in computers, smartphones and other devices -- are made up of components like transistors, capacitors and diodes that are connected with wires. As information -- in the form of voltage -- flows through the circuit, the components act upon it. By putting the correct components in the correct order, engineers can build circuits that perform computations and carry out complex information processing.

Genetic circuits also process information. Their components are segments of DNA that control whether or not a gene is expressed. Gene expression is the process in which DNA is read and converted to produce a product -- such as a protein -- that serves a particular purpose in the cell. If a gene is not "expressed," it is turned off, and its product is not produced. The bacteria used in Tabor's study have about 4,000 genes, while humans have about 20,000. The processes of life are coordinated by different combinations and timings of genes turning on and off.

Each component of a genetic circuit acts on the input it receives -- which may be one or more gene-expression products from other components -- and produces its own gene-expression product as an output. By linking the right genetic components together, synthetic biologists like Tabor and his students construct genetic circuits that program cells to carry out complex functions, such as counting, having memory, growing into tissues, or diagnosing the signatures of disease in the body.

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Rice synthetic biologists shine light on genetic circuit analysis