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Today we examine quantum mechanics, the existence of god, and near death experiences to see the truth of spirituality.
Even if you havent heard the term biohacking before, youve probably encountered some version of it. Maybe youve seen Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey extolling the benefits of fasting intermittently and drinking salt juice each morning. Maybe youve read about former NASA employee Josiah Zayner injecting himself with DNA using the gene-editing technology CRISPR. Maybe youve heard of Bay Area folks engaging in dopamine fasting.
Maybe you, like me, have a colleague whos had a chip implanted in their hand.
These are all types of biohacking, a broad term for a lifestyle thats growing increasingly popular, and not just in Silicon Valley, where it really took off.
Biohacking also known as DIY biology is an extremely broad and amorphous term that can cover a huge range of activities, from performing science experiments on yeast or other organisms to tracking your own sleep and diet to changing your own biology by pumping a younger persons blood into your veins in the hope that itll fight aging. (Yes, that is a real thing, and its called a young blood transfusion. More on that later.)
The type of biohackers currently gaining the most notoriety are the ones who experiment outside of traditional lab spaces and institutions on their own bodies with the hope of boosting their physical and cognitive performance. They form one branch of transhumanism, a movement that holds that human beings can and should use technology to augment and evolve our species.
Some biohackers have science PhDs; others are complete amateurs. And their ways of trying to hack biology are as diverse as they are. It can be tricky to understand the different types of hacks, what differentiates them from traditional medicine, and how safe or legal they are.
As biohacking starts to appear more often in headlines and, recently, in a fascinating Netflix series called Unnatural Selection its worth getting clear on some of the fundamentals. Here are nine questions that can help you make sense of biohacking.
Depending on whom you ask, youll get a different definition of biohacking. Since it can encompass a dizzying range of pursuits, Im mostly going to look at biohacking defined as the attempt to manipulate your brain and body in order to optimize performance, outside the realm of traditional medicine. But later on, Ill also give an overview of some other types of biohacking (including some that can lead to pretty unbelievable art).
Dave Asprey, a biohacker who created the supplement company Bulletproof, told me that for him, biohacking is the art and science of changing the environment around you and inside you so that you have full control over your own biology. Hes very game to experiment on his body: He has stem cells injected into his joints, takes dozens of supplements daily, bathes in infrared light, and much more. Its all part of his quest to live until at least age 180.
One word Asprey likes to use a lot is control, and that kind of language is typical of many biohackers, who often talk about optimizing and upgrading their minds and bodies.
Some of their techniques for achieving that are things people have been doing for centuries, like Vipassana meditation and intermittent fasting. Both of those are part of Dorseys routine, which he detailed in a podcast interview. He tries to do two hours of meditation a day and eats only one meal (dinner) on weekdays; on weekends, he doesnt eat at all. (Critics worry that his dietary habits sound a bit like an eating disorder, or that they might unintentionally influence others to develop a disorder.) He also kicks off each morning with an ice bath before walking the 5 miles to Twitter HQ.
Supplements are another popular tool in the biohackers arsenal. Theres a whole host of pills people take, from anti-aging supplements to nootropics or smart drugs.
Since biohackers are often interested in quantifying every aspect of themselves, they may buy wearable devices to, say, track their sleep patterns. (For that purpose, Dorsey swears by the Oura Ring.) The more data you have on your bodys mechanical functions, the more you can optimize the machine that is you or so the thinking goes.
Then there are some of the more radical practices: cryotherapy (purposely making yourself cold), neurofeedback (training yourself to regulate your brain waves), near-infrared saunas (they supposedly help you escape stress from electromagnetic transmissions), and virtual float tanks (which are meant to induce a meditative state through sensory deprivation), among others. Some people spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on these treatments.
A subset of biohackers called grinders go so far as to implant devices like computer chips in their bodies. The implants allow them to do everything from opening doors without a fob to monitoring their glucose levels subcutaneously.
For some grinders, like Zoltan Istvan, who ran for president as head of the Transhumanist Party, having an implant is fun and convenient: Ive grown to relish and rely on the technology, he recently wrote in the New York Times. The electric lock on the front door of my house has a chip scanner, and its nice to go surfing and jogging without having to carry keys around.
Istvan also noted that for some people without functioning arms, chips in their feet are the simplest way to open doors or operate some household items modified with chip readers. Other grinders are deeply curious about blurring the line between human and machine, and they get a thrill out of seeing all the ways we can augment our flesh-and-blood bodies using tech. Implants, for them, are a starter experiment.
On a really basic level, biohacking comes down to something we can all relate to: the desire to feel better and to see just how far we can push the human body. That desire comes in a range of flavors, though. Some people just want to not be sick anymore. Others want to become as smart and strong as they possibly can. An even more ambitious crowd wants to be as smart and strong as possible for as long as possible in other words, they want to radically extend their life span.
These goals have a way of escalating. Once youve determined (or think youve determined) that there are concrete hacks you can use by yourself right now to go from sick to healthy, or healthy to enhanced, you start to think: Well, why stop there? Why not shoot for peak performance? Why not try to live forever? What starts as a simple wish to be free from pain can snowball into self-improvement on steroids.
That was the case for Asprey. Now in his 40s, he got into biohacking because he was unwell. Before hitting age 30, he was diagnosed with high risk of stroke and heart attack, suffered from cognitive dysfunction, and weighed 300 pounds. I just wanted to control my own biology because I was tired of being in pain and having mood swings, he told me.
Now that he feels healthier, he wants to slow the normal aging process and optimize every part of his biology. I dont want to be just healthy; thats average. I want to perform; thats daring to be above average. Instead of How do I achieve health? its How do I kick more ass?
Zayner, the biohacker who once injected himself with CRISPR DNA, has also had health problems for years, and some of his biohacking pursuits have been explicit attempts to cure himself. But hes also motivated in large part by frustration. Like some other biohackers with an anti-establishment streak, hes irritated by federal officials purported sluggishness in greenlighting all sorts of medical treatments. In the US, it can take 10 years for a new drug to be developed and approved; for people with serious health conditions, that wait time can feel cruelly long. Zayner claims thats part of why he wants to democratize science and empower people to experiment on themselves.
(However, he admits that some of his stunts have been purposely provocative and that I do ridiculous stuff also. Im sure my motives are not 100 percent pure all the time.)
The biohacking community also offers just that: community. It gives people a chance to explore unconventional ideas in a non-hierarchical setting, and to refashion the feeling of being outside the norm into a cool identity. Biohackers congregate in dedicated online networks, in Slack and WhatsApp groups WeFast, for example, is for intermittent fasters. In person, they run experiments and take classes at hacklabs, improvised laboratories that are open to the public, and attend any one of the dozens of biohacking conferences put on each year.
Certain kinds of biohacking go far beyond traditional medicine, while other kinds bleed into it.
Plenty of age-old techniques meditation, fasting can be considered a basic type of biohacking. So can going to a spin class or taking antidepressants.
What differentiates biohacking is arguably not that its a different genre of activity but that the activities are undertaken with a particular mindset. The underlying philosophy is that we dont need to accept our bodies shortcomings we can engineer our way past them using a range of high- and low-tech solutions. And we dont necessarily need to wait for a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial, traditional medicines gold standard. We can start to transform our lives right now.
As millionaire Serge Faguet, who plans to live forever, put it: People here [in Silicon Valley] have a technical mindset, so they think of everything as an engineering problem. A lot of people who are not of a technical mindset assume that, Hey, people have always been dying, but I think theres going to be a greater level of awareness [of biohacking] once results start to happen.
Rob Carlson, an expert on synthetic biology whos been advocating for biohacking since the early 2000s, told me that to his mind, all of modern medicine is hacking, but that people often call certain folks hackers as a way of delegitimizing them. Its a way of categorizing the other like, Those biohackers over there do that weird thing. This is actually a bigger societal question: Whos qualified to do anything? And why do you not permit some people to explore new things and talk about that in public spheres?
If its taken to extremes, the Whos qualified to do anything? mindset can delegitimize scientific expertise in a way that can endanger public health. Luckily, biohackers dont generally seem interested in dethroning expertise to that dangerous degree; many just dont think they should be locked out of scientific discovery because they lack conventional credentials like a PhD.
Some biohacks are backed by strong scientific evidence and are likely to be beneficial. Often, these are the ones that are tried and true, debugged over centuries of experimentation. For example, clinical trials have shown that mindfulness meditation can help reduce anxiety and chronic pain.
But other hacks, based on weak or incomplete evidence, could be either ineffective or actually harmful.
After Dorsey endorsed a particular near-infrared sauna sold by SaunaSpace, which claims its product boosts cellular regeneration and fights aging by detoxing your body, the company experienced a surge in demand. But according to the New York Times, though a study of middle-aged and older Finnish men indicates that their health benefited from saunas, there have been no major studies conducted of this type of sauna, which directs incandescent light at your body. So is buying this expensive product likely to improve your health? We cant say that yet.
Similarly, the intermittent fasting that Dorsey endorses may yield health benefits for some, but scientists still have plenty of questions about it. Although theres a lot of research on the long-term health outcomes of fasting in animals and much of it is promising the research literature on humans is much thinner. Fasting has gone mainstream, but because its done so ahead of the science, it falls into the proceed with caution category. Critics have noted that for those whove struggled with eating disorders, it could be dangerous.
And while were on the topic of biohacking nutrition: My colleague Julia Belluz has previously reported on the Bulletproof Diet promoted by Asprey, who she says vilifies healthy foods and suggests part of the way to achieve a pound a day weight loss is to buy his expensive, science-based Bulletproof products. She was not convinced by the citations for his claims:
What I found was a patchwork of cherry-picked research and bad studies or articles that arent relevant to humans. He selectively reported on studies that backed up his arguments, and ignored the science that contradicted them.
Many of the studies werent done in humans but in rats and mice. Early studies on animals, especially on something as complex as nutrition, should never be extrapolated to humans. Asprey glorifies coconut oil and demonizes olive oil, ignoring the wealth of randomized trials (the highest quality of evidence) that have demonstrated olive oil is beneficial for health. Some of the research he cites was done on very specific sub-populations, such as diabetics, or on very small groups of people. These findings wouldnt be generalizable to the rest of us.
Some of the highest-risk hacks are being undertaken by people who feel desperate. On some level, thats very understandable. If youre sick and in constant pain, or if youre old and scared to die, and traditional medicine has nothing that works to quell your suffering, who can fault you for seeking a solution elsewhere?
Yet some of the solutions being tried these days are so dangerous, theyre just not worth the risk.
If youve watched HBOs Silicon Valley, then youre already familiar with young blood transfusions. As a refresher, thats when an older person pays for a young persons blood and has it pumped into their veins in the hope that itll fight aging.
This putative treatment sounds vampiric, yet its gained popularity in the Silicon Valley area, where people have actually paid $8,000 a pop to participate in trials. The billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel has expressed keen interest.
As Chavie Lieber noted for Vox, although some limited studies suggest that these transfusions might fend off diseases like Alzheimers, Parkinsons, heart disease, and multiple sclerosis, these claims havent been proven.
In February, the Food and Drug Administration released a statement warning consumers away from the transfusions: Simply put, were concerned that some patients are being preyed upon by unscrupulous actors touting treatments of plasma from young donors as cures and remedies. Such treatments have no proven clinical benefits for the uses for which these clinics are advertising them and are potentially harmful.
Another biohack that definitely falls in the dont try this at home category: fecal transplants, or transferring stool from a healthy donor into the gastrointestinal tract of an unhealthy recipient. In 2016, sick of suffering from severe stomach pain, Zayner decided to give himself a fecal transplant in a hotel room. He had procured a friends poop and planned to inoculate himself using the microbes in it. Ever the public stuntman, he invited a journalist to document the procedure. Afterward, he claimed the experiment left him feeling better.
But fecal transplants are still experimental and not approved by the FDA. The FDA recently reported that two people had contracted serious infections from fecal transplants that contained drug-resistant bacteria. One of the people died. And this was in the context of a clinical trial presumably, a DIY attempt could be even riskier. The FDA is putting a stop to clinical trials on the transplants for now.
Zayner also popularized the notion that you can edit your own DNA with CRISPR. In 2017, he injected himself with CRISPR DNA at a biotech conference, live-streaming the experiment. He later said he regretted that stunt because it could lead others to copy him and people are going to get hurt. Yet when asked whether his company, the Odin, which he runs out of his garage in Oakland, California, was going to stop selling CRISPR kits to the general public, he said no.
Ellen Jorgensen, a molecular biologist who co-founded Genspace and Biotech Without Borders, two Brooklyn-based biology labs open to the public, finds antics like Zayners worrisome. A self-identified biohacker, she told me people shouldnt buy Zayners kits, not just because they dont work half the time (shes a professional and even she couldnt get it to work), but because CRISPR is such a new technology that scientists arent yet sure of all the risks involved in using it. By tinkering with your genome, you could unintentionally cause a mutation that increases your risk of developing cancer, she said. Its a dangerous practice that should not be marketed as a DIY activity.
At Genspace and Biotech Without Borders, we always get the most heartbreaking emails from parents of children afflicted with genetic diseases, Jorgensen says. They have watched these Josiah Zayner videos and they want to come into our class and cure their kids. We have to tell them, This is a fantasy. ... That is incredibly painful.
She thinks such biohacking stunts give biohackers like her a bad name. Its bad for the DIY bio community, she said, because it makes people feel that as a general rule were irresponsible.
Existing regulations werent built to make sense of something like biohacking, which in some cases stretches the very limits of what it means to be a human being. That means that a lot of biohacking pursuits exist in a legal gray zone: frowned upon by bodies like the FDA, but not yet outright illegal, or not enforced as such. As biohackers traverse uncharted territory, regulators are scrambling to catch up with them.
After the FDA released its statement in February urging people to stay away from young blood transfusions, the San Francisco-based startup Ambrosia, which was well known for offering the transfusions, said on its website that it had ceased patient treatments. The site now says, We are currently in discussion with the FDA on the topic of young plasma.
This wasnt the FDAs first foray into biohacking. In 2016, the agency objected to Zayner selling kits to brew glow-in-the-dark beer. And after he injected himself with CRISPR, the FDA released a notice saying the sale of DIY gene-editing kits for use on humans is illegal. Zayner disregarded the warning and continued to sell his wares.
In 2019, he was, for a time, under investigation by Californias Department of Consumer Affairs, accused of practicing medicine without a license.
The biohackers I spoke to said restrictive regulation would be a counterproductive response to biohacking because itll just drive the practice underground. They say its better to encourage a culture of transparency so that people can ask questions about how to do something safely, without fear of reprisal.
According to Jorgensen, most biohackers are safety-conscious, not the sorts of people interested in engineering a pandemic. Theyve even generated and adopted their own codes of ethics. She herself has had a working relationship with law enforcement since the early 2000s.
At the beginning of the DIY bio movement, we did an awful lot of work with Homeland Security, she said. And as far back as 2009, the FBI was reaching out to the DIY community to try to build bridges.
Carlson told me hes noticed two general shifts over the past 20 years. One was after 2001, after the anthrax attacks, when Washington, DC, lost their damn minds and just went into a reactive mode and tried to shut everything down, he said. As of 2004 or 2005, the FBI was arresting people for doing biology in their homes.
Then in 2009, the National Security Council dramatically changed perspectives. It published the National Strategy for Countering Biological Threats, which embraced innovation and open access to the insights and materials needed to advance individual initiatives, including in private laboratories in basements and garages.
Now, though, some agencies seem to think they ought to take action. But even if there were clear regulations governing all biohacking activities, there would be no straightforward way to stop people from pursuing them behind closed doors. This technology is available and implementable anywhere, theres no physical means to control access to it, so what would regulating that mean? Carlson said.
Some biohackers believe that by leveraging technology, theyll be able to live longer but stay younger. Gerontologist Aubrey de Grey claims people will be able to live to age 1,000. In fact, he says the first person who will live to 1,000 has already been born.
De Grey focuses on developing strategies for repairing seven types of cellular and molecular damage associated with aging or, as he calls them, Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence. His nonprofit, the Methuselah Foundation, has attracted huge investments, including more than $6 million from Thiel. Its aim is to make 90 the new 50 by 2030.
Wondering whether de Greys goals are realistic, I reached out to Genspace co-founder Oliver Medvedik, who earned his PhD at Harvard Medical School and now directs the Kanbar Center for Biomedical Engineering at Cooper Union. Living to 1,000? Its definitely within our realm of possibility if we as a society that doles out money [to fund research we deem worthy] decide we want to do it, he told me.
Hes optimistic, he said, because the scientific community is finally converging on a consensus about what the root causes of aging are (damage to mitochondria and epigenetic changes are a couple of examples). And in the past five years, hes seen an explosion of promising papers on possible ways to address those causes.
Researchers who want to fight aging generally adopt two different approaches. The first is the small molecule approach, which often focuses on dietary supplements. Medvedik calls that the low-hanging fruit. He spoke excitedly about the possibility of creating a supplement from a plant compound called fisetin, noting that a recent (small) Mayo Clinic trial suggests high concentrations of fisetin can clear out senescent cells in humans cells that have stopped dividing and that contribute to aging.
The other approach is more dramatic: genetic engineering. Scientists taking this tack in mouse studies usually tinker with a genome in embryo, meaning that new mice are born with the fix already in place. Medvedik pointed out thats not very useful for treating humans we want to be able to treat people who have already been born and have begun to age.
But he sees promise here too. He cited a new study that used CRISPR to target Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome, a genetic disorder that manifests as accelerated aging, in a mouse model. It wasnt a total cure they extended the life span of these mice by maybe 30 percent but what I was very interested in is the fact that it was delivered into mice that had already been born.
Hes also intrigued by potential non-pharmaceutical treatments for aging-related diseases like Alzheimers for example, the use of light stimulation to influence brain waves but those probably wont help us out anytime soon, for a simple reason: Its not a drug. You cant package and sell it, he said. Pharma cant monetize it.
Like many in the biohacking community, Medvedik sounded a note of frustration about how the medical system holds back anti-aging progress. If you were to come up with a compound right now that literally cures aging, you couldnt get it approved, he said. By the definition weve set up, aging isnt a disease, and if you want to get it approved by the FDA you have to target a certain disease. That just seems very strange and antiquated and broken.
Not everyone whos interested in biohacking is interested in self-experimentation. Some come to it because they care about bringing science to the masses, alleviating the climate crisis, or making art that shakes us out of our comfort zones.
My version of biohacking is unexpected people in unexpected places doing biotechnology, Jorgensen told me. For her, the emphasis is on democratizing cutting-edge science while keeping it safe. The community labs shes helped to build, Genspace and Biotech Without Borders, offer classes on using CRISPR technology to edit a genome but participants work on the genome of yeast, never on their own bodies.
Some people in the community are altruistically motivated. They want to use biohacking to save the environment by figuring out a way to make a recyclable plastic or a biofuel. They might experiment on organisms in makeshift labs in their garages. Or they might take a Genspace class on how to make furniture out of fungi or paper out of kombucha.
Experimental artists have also taken an interest in biohacking. For them, biology is just another palette. The artists Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr from the University of Western Australia were actually the first people to create and serve up lab-grown meat. They took some starter cells from a frog and used them to grow small steaks of frog meat, which they fed to gallery-goers in France at a 2003 art installation called Disembodied Cuisine.
More recently, Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg has used old floral DNA to recreate the smell of flowers driven to extinction by humans, enabling us to catch a whiff of them once more.
And this summer, a London museum is displaying something rather less fragrant: cheese made from celebrities. Yes, you read that right: The cheese was created with bacteria harvested from the armpits, toes, bellybuttons, and nostrils of famous people. If youre thoroughly grossed out by this, dont worry: The food wont actually be eaten this bioart project is meant more as a thought experiment than as dinner.
When you hear about people genetically engineering themselves or trying young blood transfusions in an effort to ward off death, its easy to feel a sense of vertigo about what were coming to as a species.
But the fact is weve been altering human nature since the very beginning. Inventing agriculture, for example, helped us transform ourselves from nomadic hunter-gatherers into sedentary civilizations. And whether we think of it this way or not, were all already doing some kind of biohacking every day.
The deeper I delve into biohacking, the more I think a lot of the discomfort with it boils down to simple neophobia a fear of whats new. (Not all of the discomfort, mind you: The more extreme hacks really are dangerous.)
As one of my colleagues put it to me, 40 years ago, test tube babies seemed unnatural, a freak-show curiosity; now in vitro fertilization has achieved mainstream acceptance. Will biohacking undergo the same progression? Or is it really altering human nature in a more fundamental way, a way that should concern us?
When I asked Carlson, he refused to buy the premise of the question.
If you assert that hackers are changing what it means to be human, then we need to first have an agreement about what it means to be human, he said. And Im not going to buy into the idea that there is one thing that is being human. Across the sweep of history, its odd to say humans are static its not the case that humans in 1500 were the same as they are today.
Thats true. Nowadays, we live longer. Were taller. Were more mobile. And we marry and have kids with people who come from different continents, different cultures a profound departure from old customs that has nothing to do with genetic engineering but thats nonetheless resulting in genetic change.
Still, biohackers are talking about making such significant changes that the risks they carry are significant too. What if biohackers upgrades dont get distributed evenly across the human population? What if, for example, the cure for aging becomes available, but only to the rich? Will that lead to an even wider life expectancy gap, where rich people live longer and poor people die younger?
Medvedik dismissed that concern, arguing that a lot of interventions that could lengthen our lives, like supplements, wouldnt be expensive to produce. Theres no reason why that stuff cant be dirt-cheap. But that depends on what we do as a society, he said. Insulin doesnt cost much to produce, but as a society weve allowed companies to jack up the price so high that many people with diabetes are now skipping lifesaving doses. Thats horrifying, but its not a function of the technology itself.
Heres another risk associated with biohacking, one I think is even more serious: By making ourselves smarter and stronger and potentially even immortal (a difference of kind, not just of degree), we may create a society in which everyone feels pressure to alter their biology even if they dont want to. To refuse a hack would mean to be at a huge professional disadvantage, or to face moral condemnation for remaining suboptimal when optimization is possible. In a world of superhumans, it may become increasingly hard to stay merely human.
The flip side of all this is the perfect race or eugenics specter, Jorgensen acknowledged. This is a powerful set of technologies that can be used in different ways. Wed better think about it and use it wisely.
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Josiah Zayner is a biohacker whos famous for injecting himself with the gene-editing tool CRISPR. At a time when the technology exists for us to change (or hack) our own DNA, what are the ethics of experimenting on ourselves, and others, at home? On the launch episode of this new podcast, host Arielle Duhaime-Ross talks to Zayner about how hes thinking about human experimentation today. Plus: new efforts to come up with a code of conduct for biohackers, from legislation to self-regulation.
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What is biohacking? The new science of optimizing your brain and body. - Vox.com
Take Control of Your Health and Wellness TodayNobody knows your own body better than you do. That's why it's so important to understand your personal needs and limitations and to take charge when something doesn't feel right. Don't let small aches and pains become bigger issues. With proper treatment and preventative care, you can make your health and wellness the number one priority in your life.Adaptability and Mobility SolutionsYour home is somewhere you should feel safe and confident. But if you're recovering from an injury or are living with a mobility impairment, even the smallest tasks can feel monumental. Adaptability aids for the home are easy to put together and install and will make a big difference in your quality of life.Basic grab bars are some of the most common adaptability aids available. These sturdy supports are especially useful in places like the bathroom or near the bed. Having something to hold onto as you raise and lower yourself not only reduces stress on your joints but it also significantly reduces the risk of slips and falls. Having support bars also allows people with mobility impairments to retain their independence in day to day life.
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Events
n Medicares annual open enrollment period runs now through Dec. 7. The APPRISE Program can help answer questions. Those interested in having a free, confidential plan comparison done can contact a local Area Agency On Agings APPRISE Program to meet with a certified Medicare counselor to discuss needs. For a list of enrollment centers and their dates and times open for enrollment or contact information about local Area Agency on Aging offices, call Southwestern Pennsylvania Human Services, Inc. at 724-489-8080.
n Adagio Health has moved to a new location at Uniontown Professional Plaza, 205 Easy Street, near Uniontown Hospital. Health care services include family planning and reproductive care for women and men, breast and cervical cancer screening, and adult care basics such as immunizations and screening. The majority of patients receiving healthcare services are women who are uninsured, underinsured or need access to confidential family planning services. Adagio Health also serves thousands of children and families through education and nutrition programs including WIC and Power Up (SNAP-Ed), along with offering tobacco cessation programs aimed at teens and adults. All services are provided through funding from foundations, the State and Federal government and in partnership with a variety of local organizations and other funders.
Courses
n Exercise classes, Tuesdays and Thursdays, Center in the Woods, 130 Woodland Court, Brownsville. Classes include chair dancing at 9:30 a.m. followed by healthy steps at 11 a.m. Information: 724-938-3554.
n Monongahela Valley Hospital will host an American Heart Association Heartsaver CPR/AED course 4-8 p.m. Nov. 26 in the education conference center. Adult cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR/AED) classes are offered by Monongahela Valley Hospital. The fee for the class is $50 to cover the class and required materials. Registration: 724-258-1333 or https://www.monvalleyhospital.com/registration.asp.
n Monongahela Valley Hospital will host American Heart Association Family and Friends CPR/AED 9-11 a.m. Nov. 26 in the Simulation Center. This course is designed for the layperson that has little or no medical training, and is taught by a certified instructor. This course is for people who do not need a certification card for a job. Content includes an orientation to CPR for adult, child, infants, choking and use of an Automated External Defibrillator (AED). Cost of this course is $35 to cover the cost of the book, which includes a class participation card. Registration: 724-258-1333 or https://www.monvalleyhospital.com/registration.asp.
n Monongahela Valley Hospital will host the program Managing your Diabetes from 9-11 a.m. 19 and 6-8 p.m. Nov. 20 in the education conference center. This education program is designed to help you with diabetes self-management. You will learn, What is diabetes? Other topics include the importance of controlling your blood sugars, diabetes medications, lifestyle changes, meal planning and methods to reduce your risk of complications. The program is three consecutive Tuesdays. Registration is required at least one week prior to the start date of class by calling 724-258-1483.
n As part of their Innovations in Medicine series, Monongahela Valley Hospital will offer a free talk on Irritable Bowel Syndrome at 6 p.m. Nov. 21 in the Anthony M. Lombardi Education Conference Center. Dr. Jungmin L. Lee, a physician with the Pittsburgh Gastroenterology Associates, will host the free talk titled The ABCs of IBS. Lee will discuss irritable bowel syndrome and various treatment options for the conditions. The session will include light refreshments and free parking. Registration: monvalleyhospital.com or call 724-258-1333.
Support groups
n Breaking Addiction, HEAL Group for Men. This small group meeting for men is designed to help those who have a desire to overcome addictions and find a new direction in life. All sessions give instruction for practical life skills through Biblical Principles found in Gods Word. Discussion and interaction are encouraged at each group meeting. They are scheduled at 7 p.m. the first, second and fourth Thursdays of the month at Eagle Ranch Ministries Inc., 1579 Pleasant Valley Road, Mount Pleasant. Registration: 724-542-7243.
n Breaking Addiction, HEAL Group for Women. This small group meeting for women is designed to help those who have a desire to overcome addictions and find a new direction in life. All sessions give instruction for practical life skills through Biblical Principles found in Gods Word. Discussion and interaction are encouraged at each group meeting. The meetings are scheduled for 7 p.m. every Tuesday at Eagle Ranch Ministries Inc., 1579 Pleasant Valley Road, Mount Pleasant. Registration: 724-244-5261 or 412-969-8520.
n Caregiver support group, 6:30-8:30 p.m., the fourth Wednesday of the month at Lafayette Manor. Classes meet in the new physical therapy department. Light refreshments are provided. Open for family and friends who have lost a loved one to cancer. Registration: http://www.excelahealth.org or 877-771-1234.
n Uniontown Hospital will host a stroke support group at 6 p.m. Nov. 19, in Community Room 1 located in the Main Lobby of the hospital. Monthly meetings will include a guest speaker, blood pressure readings, medication review and any other information requested. This months meeting will focus on nutrition and light refreshments will be provided. Information: Andrea Lint, stroke programming coordinator, 724-430-5716 or lint@utwn.org.
n Mon Valley Hospital will host a suicide bereavement support group 12:30 p.m. Nov. 25 in the education conference center. This support group is a four-month program that meets the second and fourth Mondays of each month and is led by a licensed psychologist and is free and open to all those touched by suicide. Required registration: 724-678-3601.
n Monongahela Valley Hospital will host a weight control and wellness support group at 6 p.m. Nov. 18 in the education conference center. The bariatric support group activities are designed to reinforce key principles of success and help participants learn concepts that are sometimes difficult to grasp after bariatric surgery. Professionals such as dietitians, psychologists and fitness instructors may be invited to speak. Other presenters may discuss topics such as grooming, dating and cooking. The sessions are designed to educate, inform and provide a well-rounded foundation of knowledge for long-term success. Registration: 724-258-1333.
n Grief support group, 6-8 p.m. first Tuesday of every month, at the St. John the Evangelist Church on West Crawford Avenue in Connellsville. The group is a collaborative effort for those facing grief due to the loss of a loved one from addiction. Information: 724-628-6840.
n Al-Anon Family Groups, 8 p.m. Wednesdays, Trinity Church parlor, Fayette and Morgantown streets, Uniontown. Please enter at the handicapped ramp entrance. A second is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Fridays, Christian Church, Pittsburgh Street, Connellsville. These meetings are for anyone who has been affected by or is having problems from someone elses drinking. Information: al-anon.alateen.org or pa-al-anon.org.
n Survivors of Incest Anonymous group, 6:30-8 p.m. the first and third Mondays of the month, excluding holidays. This 12-step recovery program is meant for men and women aged 18 or older who were sexually abused by a trusted person as a child. The group meets at the Mount Macrina Retreat Center. A similar group, Healing Friends, is from 6:30-7:30 p.m., East Liberty Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month. Information: peopleofcourage@gmail.com siawso.org, or healingfriends8@gmail.com.
n Missing Piece of My Heart support group, 6-8 p.m. the last Thursday of each month at the Crime Victims Center conference room in the Oliver Square Plaza. The group is for families who have lost a child to a violent crime. Information: 724-438-1470.
n Silver Generation Support Program, 10 a.m. to noon Wednesdays, East End United Community Center, Uniontown. The program is for ages 55 and older. Information: 724-437-1660.
Read more:
Health briefs 11-18-19 | Healthy Living - Uniontown Herald Standard
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SEATTLE -- The seemingly rapid rise of allergies and food intolerance is making it hard to cater for a party, because there are so many restrictions to cater to. If you're not prepared, the major allergens can wreak havoc on your holiday meal.
So what is appropriate for hosts to do these days? Are they supposed to ask for a list of things to avoid? Can he or she ask people to bring their own food if they have restrictions? Are there simple swaps that can keep somebody from having a reaction?
Nutritionist Deborah Enos explains how restrictions don't have to restrict your holiday party.
VEGAN EVERYTHING BUT THE BAGEL DIP:
Add all the ingredients to a blender (you will get a creamier dip if you blend it) and blend for 30-45 seconds.
Add in your seasoning:
Blend for another 30 secondsperfection!
Add a shake of EBTB on top and some chopped parsley.
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Healthy Living: How to host the holidays in a world of food restrictions - Q13 News Seattle
The Michigan Health Endowment has awarded a two-year, $400,000 grant to the OU/Pontiac Initiative to expand collaborative efforts to promote healthy living in the city, according to the university.
The grant will support services that connect community members to non-clinical services relating to healthy eating and active living. The program, entitled Prescription for a Healthy Pontiac, will be directed by two Oakland University professors.
A special focus will be given to working with families and seniors, hosting integrated health education sessions on topics like cooking on a budget, healthy eating as a lifestyle, stress management and relaxation techniques.
Three clinic sites, Gary Bernstein Community Health Clinic, Honor Community Health and St. Joseph Mercy Oakland's Mercy Place Clinic, will join with the Healthy Pontiac, We Can! Coalition and the Oakland County Health Division to support the program.
READ ALSO:
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Oakland University awarded $400,000 for Pontiac health programs | Local News - The Oakland Press
By Anthony Byers
Our hearts work hard to keep our bodies going. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, they beat over 2.5 billion times throughout an average lifespan, and pump blood, oxygen, and essential cells to each part of our bodies. As this vital organ plays an essential role in keeping us alive and well, it becomes incredibly important to maintain our hearts health.
At The Becoming Center, inspiring healthy choices that empower wellness and vitality, give our members the opportunity to become their best selves. Practice these heart-healthy habits in your everyday life and discover the joy of living well.
What happens when we dont take care of our hearts? Facts about heart disease and heart-related health issues
Heart disease, which causes an average of 610,000 deaths on an annual basis, or about 1 out of every 4 deaths, is the leading cause of mortality in the United States.
While there are multiple aspects that contribute to heart health, including blood pressure, congenital heart defects and more, coronary heart disease (CHD) is what most people think of when they think of heart-related health issues.
As with all aspects of our health, the lifestyle choices we make have a significant correlation with the chances for being diagnosed with CHD. Top risk factors for developing heart disease are high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and smoking. Fortunately, there are a variety of things we can do to control these frustrating risk factors and benefit our heart health.
To reduce your risk for CHD practice the following healthy habits.
The Becoming Center takes pride in empowering our members to make healthy choices and live well. With exercise physiologists, certified nutritionists, and a variety of exercise programs and classes each day, The Becoming Center gives you the tools you need to live a healthy lifestyle and inspires the motivation to help you achieve it. Discover your best self and visit The Becoming Center at Artmans campus in Ambler today.
Visit our website at http://www.becomingcenter.org or call us at 215-643-9908.
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The alarm goes off in the pre-dawn dark and, rolling over, you touch the shoulder of your significant other.
An affectionate yet sly smile crosses your lips.
Shh, you say. Shh. Its OK. Im just letting you know Im leaving.
Huh? What? Where? he or she asks.
Hunting, you answer. I know I promised to stay home and rake leaves, clean the gutters, fold that pile of laundry in the corner.
But I love you too much, love the kids too much, for that. Im going to spend the day in a tree stand instead, or walk behind the bird dog, or look for a turkey under a stand of blazing fall, acorn-heavy oaks.
Not for me, but for you. I want to put good, healthy, eco-friendly meals on the table.
Ever tried justifying a day in the woods like that? Successfully?
Yeah, me neither.
But maybe we should get a little more credit. Wild game is, after all, incredibly healthful food.
If you doubt that, consider these six health benefits of eating wild protein.
Fat is not all bad.
According to the American Heart Association, fat is a nutrient needed for healthy living. In the proper amounts and varieties, fats help keep us warm, provide energy, support cell growth and more.
But, as is the case with so many things, too much is a bad thing. And domestic meats tend to be fatty.
Wild animals are leaner because of their lifestyle. They simply get more exercise and eat better.
Penn State University says a 3.5-ounce cut of beef, for example, has 2.7 grams of fat. An identical cut of venison from a white-tailed deer has 1.4.
For that same reason, a cut of beef contains more calories than a similar-sized piece of venison.
Harvard Medical School says a proper diet will include both omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids. In the right proportions, they promote heart health, among other things.
The problem is that modern diets typically contain too much of the former and too little of the latter.
According to research done by Purdue University, steers fed grains have a 5-to-1, or even sometimes 13-to-1, ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 acids.
By comparison, the ratio of so-called caveman fat is a far healthier 2-to-1 in deer and elk.
Eating that kind of meat, the research says, lessens obesity, lowers cholesterol and decreases the chances of things like strokes.
Iron is an essential mineral to a healthy diet, as it helps transfer oxygen from the lungs to tissues.
Yet iron deficiency is the most common nutritional deficiency in the world. Some estimates are that it impacts 25% of the people on the planet.
Likewise, zinc is critical to good health, as it promotes immune systems, slows age-related muscle degeneration and helps wounds heal.
Wild game offers good amounts of both. More, in fact, than many domestic meats.
Farm-raised livestock and especially whats been called factory farm livestock is invariably subjected to antibiotics and growth hormones.
Thats meant to limit disease and promote growth. The idea is to grow as many fat, relatively healthy animals as possible.
But even with all that, commercially-produced food can be tainted. A 12-year study done by the Center for Science in the Public Interest says common ground beef and chicken are among the riskiest foods to have in your kitchen.
And thats to say nothing of concerns that all those veterinary drugs might pose human health concerns.
Free-ranging, wild game from deer to squirrels contains none of those drugs. Its as natural as natural gets.
It takes a lot of livestock to feed the growing number of people on this planet. And increasingly, factory farms are producing it.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says large-scale livestock production think industrial facilities is now the norm. There are implications to that.
Scientists say industrial farming at least potentially impacts everything from global warming and biodiversity to land and water resources and human health.
Its no wonder the Environmental Protection Agency regulates such facilities much like they would, say, a mill.
In contrast, hunting for wild game or trapping or fishing for it is eco-friendly. It involves no pollution. And youve got to track it down, which is good exercise in itself.
Plus, hunting is the tool that wildlife managers use to sustain game populations.
Many people who eat wild game for the first time refer to its gaminess.
What theyre tasting is, well, flavor.
Wild animals exercise more than their domestic counterparts, which boosts blood circulation. They also eat more varied diets and often live longer. Add it all up and game meat higher in protein and richer in vitamins just generally tastes more intense.
Thats not a bad thing. Far from it.
That people might think so is just reflective of a world where blander foods are the norm.
Sure, preparing wild game requires different techniques sometimes. Some cuts of wild game though not all require longer, slower cooking methods to make them tender.
But far from tasting bad, wild game tastes as good as it is healthy.
So the next time you head afield, do it with a smile. Youre not just having fun, but in your labors youre taking one for the team by providing healthy options for the table.
You can make the argument anyway.
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A RECENTLY published report reveals Bradford has life expectancy, obesity and alcohol-related harm hospital admissions among its statistics that are worse than the national average.
The Local Authority Health Profile published by Public Health England (PHE) reveals a picture of peoples health in the city.
The news comes as Bradford was named as one of the best cities in the UK for affordability if you want to live a healthy lifestyle.
According to Compare My Mobile, a series of cost indicators from gym membership to fresh fruit and vegetables show the city is a good place to live if you want to save on healthy options.
But the PHE report says life expectancy is 9.1 years lower for men and 7.8 years lower for women in the most deprived areas of Bradford than in the least deprived areas.
And in Year 6, 24.3% (1,705) of children are classified as obese, worse than the average for England.
Also worse than the national average are figures for:
Areas where the city is better than the national average are for the rates of new sexually transmitted infections, killed and seriously injured on roads and the rate of statutory homelessness.
The report is designed to act as a conversation starter, to help local government and health services understand their communitys needs, so that they can work together to improve peoples health and reduce health inequalities.
Bradford is one of the 20% most deprived districts/unitary authorities in England and 23.2% (29,390) of children live in low income families.
The healthy affordability data by Compare My Mobile reveals the cost of living for a variety of products and services for the top 100 UK cities.
Bradford is almost three times cheaper than the most expensive city for fitness, Royal Leamington Spa. The average monthly gym fee in Bradford is 19.77, the second lowest in the country to Barnsley, while it costs 56.25 in Royal Leamington Spa.
Tennis court rental for an hour at the weekend is 6.20 in Bradford compared to 8.93 in Leeds.
According to Compare My Mobile's new Cost of Living Comparison Tool, other healthy options like fresh fruit and vegetables are also cheaper to buy in the city compared to neighbouring Leeds.
The tool allows you to find out the average price of goods and services in your city and compare this to a city of choice revealing where you may be spending more or making savings.
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Lakeland University students Tegan Schneider and Mitchel Larsen presented their research at the 50th annual Society for Neuroscience (SfN) meeting in Chicago in October.(Photo: Jered McGivern)
SHEBOYGAN - The woman's skin sample had already been "tricked" to think it was an embryo. The job for two Lakeland University biochemistry students was to make it behave like brain tissue.
Tegan Schneider, of Plymouth, and Mitchel Larsen, of Sheboygan, teamed up for this unusual task during Lakeland's summer research program, hoping to better understand how the brain regulates neurotransmitters.
Now juniors, they continued their work this semester and recently presented their research at the 50th annual Society for Neuroscience meeting in Chicago.
The sample they worked with came from the Medical College of Wisconsin and had already been directed, using chemicals, to behave like fetal tissue.
To get the sample to think it was brain tissue, Schneider and Larsen added growth factors that those cells would normally see during developmentin the brain.
The purpose of making brain cells in a dish, from skin cells: Donated brain tissue is hard to come by, said Jered McGivern, an assistant professor of biochemistry at Lakeland, who helped them with their research.
"There's a lot of work being done in the medical field to use (this method) for developing treatments and cures," McGivern said.
McGivern said Schneider and Larsen did a great job of trying different techniques to study neurotransmitters with the instrumentation they had, and they did a lot of work outside of the summer program because they were so interested.
One of the biggest challenges was to keep their cells from getting contaminated, sincethey don't have an immune system.
Theresearch is good experience for them to have as they move into bigger labs, McGivern said.
Suzette Rosas didthe foundational work and is now a graduate student at the Medical College of Wisconsin, he added.
McGivern joined Schneider and Larsen at the meeting in Chicago, which was attended by over 27,000 people, and where the students got to learn about work being done in the field.
Schneider and Larsenwere able to attend the meeting because of a gift from 1969 Lakeland graduate Cliff Feldmann.
Contact Diana Dombrowski at ddombrowski@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @domdomdiana
More: Can expecting mothers predict their baby's gender? Sheboygan study has an answer
More: Here are the improvements Sheboygan made to the recently reopened Pennsylvania Ave. bridge
More: Fatal farm accident reported on County Line Road in Sheboygan
Read or Share this story: https://www.sheboyganpress.com/story/news/2019/11/14/lakeland-university-biochemistry-students-use-skin-sample-study-neuroscience/2521527001/
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After 'tricking' skin cells to behave like brain tissue, Lakeland students present at neuroscience megaconference - Sheboygan Press
Explore schools that excel in biology and biochemistry.
Students might pursue a degree in biology or biochemistry as a path to medical school or a variety of professions. Whatever their career goals, prospective students can explore the top 10 Best Global Universities for Biology and Biochemistry, as ranked by U.S. News based on academic research performance in this subject area.
10. Cornell University
Location: Ithaca, New York
Best Global Universities overall rank: 23
Fact: Cornell University offers multiple college majors that relate to biology and biochemistry, including biology and society, chemistry and chemical biology, biomedical engineering, biological sciences and biological engineering.
9. Johns Hopkins University
Location: Baltimore
Best Global Universities overall rank: 11
Fact: Johns Hopkins University conducted $2.56 billion in medical, science and engineering research in the fiscal year 2017, according to its website.
8. University of California--San Diego
Location: La Jolla, California
Best Global Universities overall rank: 19
Fact: The University of California--San Diego's biological sciences division has more than 100 research labs, according to its website.
7. University of Oxford
Location: Oxford, England
Best Global Universities overall rank: 5
Fact: The University of Oxford's biochemistry department offers a four-year program for undergrads that culminates in a master's credential, according to the department's website.
5 (tie). University of Cambridge
Location: Cambridge, England
Best Global Universities overall rank: 9
Fact: The University of Cambridge's department of biochemistry is home to more than 50 research groups investigating "how cells and their constituent molecules work in life and relate to disease," according to the institution's website.
5 (tie). University of California--San Francisco
Location: San Francisco
Best Global Universities overall rank: 15
Fact: For globally minded students, the University of California--San Francisco offers a one-year master's program in global health and a doctoral program in global health sciences, according to the school's website.
4. University of California--Berkeley
Location: Berkeley, California
Best Global Universities overall rank: 4
Fact: The University of California--Berkeley has six field stations for biology researchers in places as close as San Jose, California, and as far as French Polynesia, according to the school's website.
3. Stanford University
Location: Stanford, California
Best Global Universities overall rank: 3
Fact: During the 2017-2018 school year, human biology was the second most popular undergraduate major at Stanford University, according to the institution's website. Computer science was the most popular.
2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Best Global Universities overall rank: 2
Fact: Three members of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's biology department faculty are recipients of the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine, according to the university's website.
1. Harvard University
Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Best Global Universities overall rank: 1
Fact: Harvard University is affiliated with 19 hospitals and health-focused research institutes in the Boston area, per its website, creating many opportunities for student research in life sciences fields.
These are the top 10 global universities for biology and biochemistry.
-- 1. Harvard University
-- 2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
-- 3. Stanford University
-- 4. University of California--Berkeley
-- 5 (tie). University of California--San Francisco
-- 5 (tie). University of Cambridge
-- 7. University of Oxford
-- 8. University of California--San Diego
-- 9. Johns Hopkins University
-- 10. Cornell University
Learn more about studying overseas.
Learn about global universities that offer free or very low tuition, and find out how to account for the language of instruction at global schools. Follow U.S. News Education on Facebook and Twitter for more education rankings and advice.
More From US News & World Report
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Top 10 Global Universities for Biology and Biochemistry - Yahoo Finance
Right now all our missions to Mars are sterilized to protect it from any Earth life that could hitch a ride and confuse the searches. This report by the Planetary Protection Independent Review Board is a proposal to treat most of Mars similarly to the Moon for planetary protection. We would no longer need to sterilize rovers that we send to large regions of Mars, just document what they do. The suggestion is to reclassify them as Category II:
where there is only a remote chance that contamination carried by a spacecraft could jeopardize future exploration. In this case we define remote chance as the absence of niches (places where terrestrial microorganisms could proliferate) and/or a very low likelihood of transfer to those places.
COSPAR Workshop on Planetary Protection for Outer Planet Satellites and Small Solar System Bodies European Space Policy Institute (ESPI), 1517 April 2009
The report comes with a cover letter from NASA recommending to their planetary protection officer that they implement the proposal:
This would be fine if we had clear evidence that these regions are like the Moon. However, we don't. The report relies on an earlier 2014 report that is now out of date. Even when it was in process of publication, NASA and ESA took steps to get it independently reviewed. For some reason they cite this problematical report, but don't cite the critical 2015 review of it. This meme summarizes one of the main issues:
Its important to get this right as there is no way to do a do over. It would be so sad to get to Mars, find life there, and then realize it was just life we brought ourselves. For many, the search for other lifeforms in our solar system is one of the major motivating reasons to explore Mars and other parts of our solar system with a potential for life.
Also if we find life based on a different biochemistry - this can be the basis of billion dollar industries in the future (as is already the case for enzymes from extremophiles). For details see Billions of dollars commercial potential of extraterrestrial biology.
This article will focus on the forwards direction, the risk of sending Earth microbes to Mars because the legal protection in that direction is very weak. But first lets look at the backwards direction.
Here is a video I made for this article (while working on the draft)
(click to watch on Youtube)
skip to What about the forwards direction?
In the backwards direction from Mars to Earth, we are strongly protected by many environmental laws and laws to protect human health that we didnt have at the time of Apollo. These laws dont rely on the Outer Space Treaty for their legal basis. How NASA categorizes Mars makes no difference to them. See the article by Margaret Race of the SETI institute.
NASA is going to send a sample caching rover to Mars in 2020 and they hope to send a second mission in the 2020s to return some of these samples back to Earth for analysis. They plan to return them unsterilized (a sterilized sample would not trigger environmental laws, but would be just like the sample returns from meteorites, comets, and the Moon).
I cant find any evidence that NASA have made a start on preparing the legislation. They havent left enough time to complete this process within their desired timescale, indeed, they probably should have started in 2010 or earlier if they want a sample return by 2030. There are papers about the engineering challenges of the sample return mission, but I can't find anything about the legal processes (if you know of anything do say in the comments).
Mars sample return concept - credit NASA. If NASA wants to return an unsterilized sample by 2030 they should have started the legal preparation for this about a decade ago at the latest. There is no sign they have even done any planning for the legal process yet.
Perhaps they expect it to be like Apollo 11 where they published the sample return precautions as an informal document on the day of the launch to the Moon and didnt go through any proper legal process? This would not be permitted today.
Mars could have extraterrestrial life there. Its not known to be sterile, and the dust can carry spores almost anywhere on the planet (more on this later).
As well see new discoveries have opened up the possibility of native microbial life on Mars hidden from our orbital telescopes just centimeters below the dust. This may be possible even in the exceedingly dry tropical areas where Curiosity is roving, especially if martian life has a biochemistry adapted to lower temperatures than Earth life.
Some Mars colonization enthusiasts and space engineers will tell you that any life we find on Mars will be from Earth, but they have not persuaded the astrobiologists of this. The designers of instruments to look for indigenous life there are careful not to make any assumptions about its biochemistry or whether it is related to Earth life.
We cant assume that any life in a sample returned from Mars is related to Earth life unless we have studied it already on Mars.
This life could also be hazardous to humans or our biosphere. To take a simple example, legionnaires disease is an infection of biofilms that can use the same methods to infect human lungs, seeing it as a warm biofilm - it is not adapted to humans. Some strains of it are now adapting to our environments, spread by humans infected by it, but the same could happen with Martian life that invades the lungs of an astronaut.
Astrobiologists say that though it is possible that Mars life could be mystified by an alien biochemistry, its also possible that it hasnt evolved any resistance to it, never having encountered it before. Joshua Lederberg put it like this:
"If Martian microorganisms ever make it here, will they be totally mystified and defeated by terrestrial metabolism, perhaps even before they challenge immune defenses? Or will they have a field day in light of our own total naivete in dealing with their aggressins?
from: "Paradoxes of the Host-Parasite Relationship"
Our lungs might offer no resistance, not even recognizing it as life as it munches away at them, and with a different biochemistry they would be likely to be naturally resistant to our antibiotics, which target particular processes of the pathogens. There would also be risk of larger scale environmental disruption, even if harmless to humans. As the National Research Council put it in 2009:
The risks of environmental disruption resulting from the inadvertent contamination of Earth with putative martian microbes are still considered to be low. But since the risk cannot be demonstrated to be zero, due care and caution must be exercised in handling any martian materials returned to Earth
Assessment of Planetary Protection Requirements for Mars Sample Return Missions
These reports haven't gone into details of how the environment could be disrupted. To give some points to think over right away (I will come back to this later), would our ecosystems work the same way if half the microbes were mirror DNA, say, or PNA, or TNA, or had novel amino acids that Earth life doesn't use, or didn't use proteins, to give a few examples? Would the martian life be edible? Would it have nutritional value? What about accidental poisons, like the way that cyanobacteria can kill dogs and cows? If it's a different biochemistry, they seem unlikely to be exact "drop in" replacements to terrestrial microbes, so there would be changes in how they function. Higher lifeforms would adapt more slowly than the microbes, with their longer lifespans.
The legislators would not ignore arguments such as these. There would be extensive public debate, and Earth would be protected.
I used Margaret Races article in an attempt to work out a timeline here for return of an unsterilized sample with potential for microbial life of an unknown alien biochemistry. I assumed that there were no objections to delay the legal process. Even with that assumption, I dont see how it can be done before 2040, if you start the legal process today. This takes into account the likely time requirements for constructing the receiving facility, based on the previous sample return studies. NASA would not start the expensive build (half a billion dollars facility) until it knows what it is legally required to do.: Why we are unlikely to return an unsterilized sample before 2040. These laws don't depend on the wording of the Outer Space Treaty in any form, but are independent legislation to protect Earth.
For these reasons Im not concerned about the backwards direction as far as safety is concerned. I expect NASA to sterilize their sample if they do return those samples from Mars to Earth, or return them to somewhere isolated from contact with Earth, such as a satellite set up for telerobotic study of the sample above GEO. They can use either of those approaches within the Outer Space Treaty. If there is no possibility of an unsterilized sample contacting Earth's biosphere, or Earth entering into the chain of contact with an unsterilized sample, it wouldn't trigger this legislation to protect our Earth.
The main concern is for the forwards direction. There isnt any other legislation here to protect Martian life apart from the very weak Outer Space Treaty. It is based on a few phrases about harmful contamination.
If these proposals were adopted in the forwards direction, you could send what you like to these regions of Mars, tardigrades, and extremophile blue green algae that have already been tested in Mars simulation chambers. The only requirement would be to document what you do. Eventually you could send humans too, with this category II classification, though returning them would be another matter if they had made contact with extraterrestrial microbes on Mars.
The report is here together with a cover letter from NASA recommending to their planetary protection officer that they implement the proposal:
This new report has few cites. Incongruously, its lead author is a planetary geologist.
One of their main cites is a report from 2014 by Rummel et al which proposed the use of maps to divide Mars into special regions which need especially careful planetary protection measures such as was used for the Voyager landers in the 1970s, and others that have less stringent requirements such as is used for Curiosity:
This is the basis for their proposal that Mars could be subdivided into regions some reclassified as category II. Although they dont go into detail, presumably they would use a map like the one in the 2014 review, and classify all except the uncertain regions as category II:
Map from the 2014 report. Purple is low in elevation, and grey is higher elevation. Red and blue lines delineating regions are approximately 50 km in width
In the text overlay I summarize the objection to this map in the 2015 review "2014 map of uncertain regions of habitability. 2015 review says maps can only represent incomplete knowledge."
They dont mention the problems identified with the use of maps in the 2015 review.
Even before Rummel et als report was published, both NASA and ESA took steps to have it reviewed independently.
This 2015 review overturned several of the findings of the 2014 report, and in particular, it recommended against the use of maps [49] saying:
In general, the review committee contends that the use of maps to delineate regions with a lower or higher probability to host Special Regions is most useful if the maps are accompanied by cautionary remarks on their limitations. Maps [of] surface features can only represent the current (and incomplete) state of knowledge for a specific timeknowledge that will certainly be subject to change or be updated as new information is obtained.
5 Generalization of Special Regions and the Utility of Maps
This new NASA report doesnt mention the 2015 review. Its an extraordinary omission from a report that is recommending the use of maps for category II.
I dont know the reason for this omission. They certainly should have looked at this 2015 review, and not just at the original 2014 report, before making this recommendation to NASA to map out large parts of Mars as category II like the Moon.
The 2015 report used the example of Recurring Slope Lineae (RSLs) to explain why maps are not enough by themselves. These are seasonal streaks that form on sun facing Martian slopes. They appear in the Martian spring, grow and broaden through the summer and fade away in autumn.
These dark features are not themselves damp and may be dust flows. However, they are associated with hydrated salts and they may also be linked with salty water (brines) in some form. Sadly the HiRISE instrument can only observe them in the early afternoon locally, the driest time for the Martian surface, because of its high inclination sun synchronous orbit. This makes it especially hard to know if there are any brines moving down these slopes.
Warm Season Flows on Slope in Newton Crater (animated)
The first ones were found in higher latitudes, but many of these have now been found in the Martian tropics, especially on the slopes of the Valles Marineres. Their status is unknown, whether they could have habitats for Earth life or not. At present they are classified as
As such they meet the criteria for Uncertain Regions, to be treated as Special Regions. [a Special region is one that Earth microbes could potentially inhabit]
The 2015 review gives the example of the ExoMars Schiaparelli lander. All HiRISE images of the landing site were inspected for the possible presence of RSL's. [50]
As another example of this, 58 RSLs were found on Mount Sharp close to the Curiosity landing site.
Here are some of them:
Possible RSLs on mount Sharp not far from the Curiosity rover. These photos are taken at a similar time in the Martian year, they are less prominent in the earlier one in 09 March 2010 and more prominent with some new ones in the later image August 6 2012. Photo from supplementary information for Transient liquid water and water activity at Gale crater on Mars
Importantly, these were not discovered until after the Curiosity landing in 2012. See Slope activity in Gale crater, Mars (2015) and Nature article: Mars contamination fear could divert Curiosity rover
This shows that we mightnt always be able to rule out potential uncertain regions that could be habitats at a landing site. They may be discovered later, after the landing itself.
More RSLs have been found in the Mawrth Vallis region, one of the two final candidates for ExoMars landing site
These results denote the plausible presence of transient liquid brines close to the previously proposed landing ellipse of the ExoMars rover, rendering this site particularly relevant to the search of life. Further investigations of Mawrth Vallis carried out at higher spatial and temporal resolutions are needed to , to prevent probable biological contamination during rover operations,
Discovery of recurring slope lineae candidates in Mawrth Vallis, Mars
ExoMars isnt going to Mawrth Vallis, because they chose the other candidate Oxia Planum. I cant find anything about RSLs in Oxia Planum, but how confident can we be that this doesnt have RSLs or other potential habitats? Does non detection so far mean they arent there?
This new report also doesnt mention the long running and vigorous debate on the topic of whether we should relax sterilization requirements for spacecraft sent to Mars.
This debate started in two Nature articles in 2013 and has continued in Astrobiology journal through to 2019.
Both sides in this debate were in agreement that there is a significant possibility that Earth microbes can contaminate Mars.
Surely neither side in this debate would support classifying most of Mars as category II like the Moon.
Rather, the argument in Nature and Astrobiology journal is about whether we should reduce sterilization requirements for Mars in order to study these potential habitats quickly before human missions get there and make it impossible to study them in their pristine condition without Earth life.
The other side in this debate argue that we have a fair bit of time before humans get there, and that if we relax planetary protection we risk finding Earth microbes we brought there ourselves.
Those arguing for relaxing planetary protection are:
Against
This debate is not mentioned in this report.
Nor does it mention the many new potential surface or near surface habitats that have been proposed / indirectly detected / theorized since 2008. We have had more of these than there have been years since 2008.
The 2014 report briefly considers these. The 2015 review expands on this topic, and says that to identify such potential habitats requires a better understanding of the temperature and water activity of potential microenvironments on Mars, for instance in the interior of craters, or microenvironments underneath rocks. These may provide favourable conditions for establishing life on Mars even when the landscape-scale temperature and humidity conditions would not permit it. [46]
The 2014 report looked at distributions of ice and concluded that ice in the tropics is buried too deep to be a consideration[47]
However the 2014/5 review corrected this due to evidence of ice present at depths of less than one meter in pole-facing slopes[48]
Research since then still hasnt resolved these issues.
Even the 2014 report acknowledged limitations:
"Claims that reducing planetary protection requirements wouldn't be harmful, because Earth life can't grow on Mars, may be reassuring as opinion, but the facts are that we keep dis4g life growing in extreme conditions on Earth that resemble conditions on Mars. We also keep discovering conditions on Mars that are more similarthough perhaps only at microbial scalesto inhabited environments on Earth, which is where the concept of Special Regions initially came from."
"A New Analysis of Mars "Special Regions": Findings of the Second MEPAG Special Regions Science Analysis Group (SR-SAG2)" (PDF).
Id like to cover a couple of these potential habitats to motivate this, then Ill look at why it is so important to protect Mars from Earth life - is it really so important to make sure we dont mix Earth life with Mars life before we canstudy it?
Nilton Renno's droplets that form where salt touches ice - why did he call a droplet of salty water on Mars "a swimming pool for a bacteria"?
This is perhaps one of the most striking discoveries in recent years because of its implications for habitability of Mars. Nilton Renno found that liquid water can form very quickly on salt / ice interfaces. Within a few tens of minutes in Mars simulation
experiments.
Erik Fischer, doctoral student at University of Michigan, sets up a Mars Atmospheric Chamber on June 18, 2014. These experiments showed that tiny "swimming pools for bacteria" can form readily on Mars wherever there is ice and salt in contact.
This is striking as it could open large areas of Mars up as potential sites for microhabitats that life could exploit. The professor says
"If we have ice, and then the salt on top of the ice, in a few tens of minutes liquid water forms. Our measurements clearly indicate that. And it's really a proof that liquid water forms at the conditions of the Phoenix landing site when this salt is in contact with the ice.
"Based on the results of our experiment, we expect this soft ice that can liquefy perhaps a few days per year, perhaps a few hours a day, almost anywhere on Mars. So going from mid latitudes all the way to the polar regions.
" This is a small amount of liquid water. But for a bacteria, that would be a huge swimming pool - a little droplet of water is a huge amount of water for a bacteria. So, a small amount of water is enough for you to be able to create conditions for Mars to be habitable today'. And we believe this is possible in the shallow subsurface, and even the surface of the Mars polar region for a few hours per day during the spring."
(transcript from 1:48 onwards)
(click to watch on Youtube)
That's Nilton Renno, who lead the team of researchers. See also Martian salts must touch ice to make liquid water, study shows . He is a mainstream researcher in the field - a distinguished professor of atmospheric, oceanic and space sciences at Michigan University. For instance, amongst many honours, he received the 2013 NASA Group Achievement Award as member of the Curiosity Rover " for exceptional achievement defining the REMS scientific goals and requirements, developing the instrument suite and investigation, and operating REMS successfully on Mars" and has written many papers on topics such as possible habitats on the present day Mars surface.
This was a serendipitous discovery announced in April 2015. Liquid brines that form through deliquescing salts (perchlorates) - the salts take in water from the atmosphere (same principle as the salts you use to keep equipment dry).
They noticed that when Curiosity drives over sand dunes, then the air above them is drier than it is normally. When it leaves the sandy areas the humidity increases.
Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover
See more here:
Can NASA'S Plan To Treat Parts Of Mars Like The Moon Risk Future Discoveries Of Extraterrestrial Life? - Science 2.0
GLASGOW biochemists have created the UKs first "hangover cure" after-alcohol revival drink.
Expert scientists Dhruv Trivedi and Vandana Pillai came up with the formula for Bounce Back.
5
Users are supposed to drink the can before bed after a night of boozing, so that they can wake up refreshed in the morning.
The drinks website states it was created with an aim to create innovative, scientifically validated formulations that have a real impact in peoples lives and solve specific problems.
It contains 16 unique ingredients all aiming to ensure party-goers feel replenished after a good sleep.
Biochemists Dhruv and Vandana first moved to Scotland to pursue the innovative idea after being scouted by the UK government's Sirius Programme.
They first launched a prototype drink back in 2015.
A spokesperson for Bounce Back said: "We'd came up with a powdered prototype, but marketing research told us people wanted a soft drink in a can, for convenience.
"Work on the can has taken 22 months, with 54 different versions. It's been a long journey."
5
Explaining how the product works, they said: "After you've had alcohol, it supports your body with the nutrients you need."
"It's something people can drink instead of a glass of water that offers them an extra boost."
And the company are looking to continue moving forward - as they plan a big marketing push early next year.
They said: "We'd say the product has performed as expect so far. We're planning on doing a big marketing push in March."
5
5
Punters have been giving Bounce Back glowing reviews on Facebook.
One user wrote: Tried this last night for the first time. This drink is amazing.
And it genuinely works! I suffer from huge hangovers with a day practically lost. Its 6.30am and Im bright as a button.
Another said: Brilliant! Was surprised just how well it works. Have stocked up on it now, totally recommend it!
And a third social media user said: The product looks great and tastes even better. I wasnt sure what to expect after a night out of drinking wine & gin if I would be able to handle drinking a can of bounce back before bed, however, I was proved wrong.
The flavour profile was perfect, to me it tasted almost like a cocktail in a can. Pina colada came to mind.
5
Thornliebank takeaway The Lynchbox are stocking the popular after-party drink, and have been promoting it on social media.
Speaking to the Scottish Sun, they said: It was pretty simple for us really, we researched a good bit about these first the reviews were really all positive."
"The ingredients inside these cans are really impressive - it was a no brainier really.
"We serve a lot of hungover people, the weekend is really is our busiest days in work so we stocked up on these and they are selling really well."
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"They wont be everyones cup of tea but we thought they would be worth a shot to see how they went down with our customers."
Currently Glasgow punters can pick up the "hangover cure" in several newsagents near Glasgow Central Station - including News Box and News 24.
It's also available to buy on Amazon, and through Bounce Back's website, which you can visit here.
We pay for your stories and videos! Do you have a story or video for The Scottish Sun? Email us at scoop@thesun.co.uk or call 0141 420 5300
Read the original here:
Glasgow biochemists create UKs first hangover cure in a can but you have to drink it before bed - The Scottish Sun
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Last week, students condemned Trinitys decision to demolish the biochemistry building and Roberts Laboratory at the end of the semester a typically stressful time, made far worse by demolition noise. Students labelled the decision selfish and inconsiderate, arguing that noise had made the Hamilton library a place not conducive to effective studying.
A large group of students depend on the Hamilton library as the only place they can access books in their field, and more still see it as their primary study space.
So it was a kick in the teeth for them that the College undoubtedly bound by planning restrictions and sensitive time frames failed to even consult them on a move that has clearly had a large effect on their ability to study effectively.
While the demolitions are ultimately a necessity theyre occurring to make way for the construction of Colleges new Engineering, Energy and Emerging Technologies (E3) Institute their timing has come to symbolise Colleges lack of regard for a cohort on the east end of campus that have persistently raised concerns of being underrepresented at many levels of College life.
It is remarkably negligent on Trinitys part that affected students were not involved in discussions until it was too late: while one student has been added to the key stakeholders group in order to receive updates on the demolition, this move served mainly to highlight the irony of students not being considered key stakeholders in the first place.
It was an oversight symbolic of a College strategy that prioritised capital projects over the people it exists to educate.
Were a similar demolition project undertaken in the vicinity of the Arts Block and its adjoining libraries, its safe to say that Trinity would be left in little doubt about the ire of affected students. With packed timetables, its harder for Hamilton students to make their frustrations known, and you dont have to be a great cynic to suggest that Trinitys decision-makers would have been aware at some level that its easier to slip these moves by busier students.
For students in the Hamilton, their involvement in demolition discussions is a concession that offers too little, and came too late.
Original post:
Hamilton Demolitions are Another Snub to a Cohort That's Long Felt Underacknowledged - The University Times
After their first year, many UT students choose to live off campus. Apartments in West Campus are popular. Theyre close to main University buildings and popular restaurants, theres a short commute to class and West Campus is considered one of the centers of UT social life.
While Austin residents have raised concerns about urban planning and space in downtown areas, West Campus high-rise style apartments continue to provide a growing student population with convenient places to live.
West campus proximity to UT encourages students to bike, walk or bus to class, cutting down on traffic and car emissions.
However, while West Campus has taken steps to ensure accessibility and sustainability, there are still many improvements that need to be made. Some streets lack adequate bike lanes, constant construction causes lane closures and transit delays and many students face unfair housing practices.
Students are often overcharged and misled. Most students have little knowledge about finding an apartment for a good price. Its easy for a landlord or realty company to advertise good prices for quality units and uniformed students to take them at their word. If theyre being misled, they most likely wont know how to file a claim against their landlord.
West Campus offers students opportunities to live near campus in sustainable, urban housing. However, West Campus can still improve by making apartments more accessible, affordable and convenient for students.
In this forum, Plan II and biochemistry sophomore Aidan Comiskey discusses how many students face unfair housing practices when they live in West Campus and urges students to organize for improved rental rights.
Civil engineering senior Kevin Quist explains what sustainability housing looks like and how West Campus can make changes to become more sustainable.
As always, if you have any thoughts on this topic or any other, please feel free to reach out to us at thedailytexanforum@gmail.com
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While the rate of death from cancer has been declining since the 1990s, an estimated 9.6 million people died from cancer in 2018, making it the second-leading cause of death worldwide [1]. According to the NCI Cancer Trends Progress Report, in the United States, the incidence and death rates of some cancer types have also been increasing. Together, these facts indicate that despite tremendous recent progress, the research community unfortunately still has a long list of tasks to complete to end global suffering from cancer.
The clinical management of cancer has long been rooted in morphological and histopathological analyses for diagnosis, and the triad of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation for treatment. However, we are quickly moving towards a pervasive reliance on high resolution, high throughput, molecular marker-based diagnostic as well as precision-targeted therapeutic modalities. The progressive development of the paradigm that defined molecular drivers of cancer has exposed therapeutic vulnerabilities; for example, the BCR-ABL1 gene fusion in chronic myeloid leukemia, KIT mutations in gastrointestinal stromal tumors, ERBB2 amplification in a subset of breast cancers, or EGFR mutations and ALK/ ROS/ RET gene fusions in lung cancers to name a few. Fueled by advances in high-throughput sequencing, it is increasingly practical (and arguably affordable) to systematically pursue Targeted Anticancer Therapies and Precision Medicine in Cancer.
PLOS ONE, together with PLOS Computational Biology, launched a Call for Papers earlier this year to increase understanding of this clinically important area. The scope of this call encompassed four areas: identification and classification of driver genes and somatic alterations; target and drug discovery; mechanisms of drug resistance; and early detection and screening.
Today, we are very happy to announce the launch of the resulting Collection. Featuring an initial set of nearly two dozen papers, with more to be added as they are published, these articles represent diverse facets of ongoing efforts in this area, where general knowledge of cancers serves to inform individual patients care, and at the same time particulars from individual cancer cases contribute to improved resolution of our general knowledge pool.
Somatic aberrations that are critical to the development, growth and progression of cancer are defined as drivers that are typically accompanied by large numbers of incidental aberrations referred to as passengers, acquired in the tumors due to the general chromosomal instability characteristic of advanced cancers. Distinguishing driver aberrations from passengers in individual tumors represents an active area of research that involves development of smarter analytical algorithms, as well as definitive functional characterization of candidate aberrations.
Emilie A. Chapeau et al. developed a conditional inducible transgenic JAK2V617F mouse model that recapitulates aspects of human myeloproliferative neoplasms, including splenomegaly, erythroid expansion and hyperproliferation of bone marrow, with some intriguing differences seen between male and female mice. Importantly, the disease phenotype was reversible when transgene expression was switched off. This work underscores the key role for JAK2V617F in the initiation and maintenance of myeloproliferative neoplasms, and suggests that inhibitors specific to this JAK2 mutation might be efficacious in this disease [2].
Using targeted exon sequencing and array comparative genomic hybridization (CGH), Gayle Pageau Pouliot et al. identified monoallelic mutations in Fanconi-BRCA pathway genes in samples collected from children with T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL). These mutations appeared to arise in early stages of tumorigenesis, suggesting a potential role for Fanconi-BRCA pathway insufficiency in the initiation of T-ALL. Although PARP inhibitors did not affect viability of isolated T-ALL cells with monoallelic Fanconi-BRCA mutations, these cells were hypersensitive to UV irradiation in vitro or ATR inhibition in vivo, suggesting that ATR inhibitors might have therapeutic value in T-ALL [3].
Three papers in this Collection examine links between genetic alterations and prognosis. Sumadi Lukman Anwar et al. report that LINE-1 hypomethylation in human hepatocellular carcinoma samples correlates with malignant transformation, decreased overall survival and increased tumor size [4]. Investigating HER2-positive breast cancer specimens, Arsalan Amirfallah et al. found that high levels of vacuole membrane protein 1 (VMP1) could potentially contribute to cancer progression and might be a marker of poor prognosis [5]. Finally, in their systematic review and meta-analysis, Chia Ching Lee et al. identified low discordance rates in EGFR mutations between primary lung tumors and distant metastases, although they note some differences depending on metastatic site. Notably, discordance rates appear to be higher in bone metastases compared to central nervous system or lung metastases [6]. These studies provide much-needed leads for the potential development of new diagnostic tests or targeted therapies.
Precision therapy of cancers is premised on the identification of tumor-specific driver aberrations that are necessary for tumor growth and survival. These aberrations represent potential therapeutic targets. While matching therapeutics have been developed for some of the tumor-specific targets, particularly many oncogenic kinases, a large number of defined driver aberrations remain in search of effective therapies. Drug discovery efforts to match defined targets represent a vigorous area of ongoing research with implications for survival and quality of lives of cancer patients worldwide. The development of drugs to treat cancers driven by transcription factors, chromatin modifiers, and epigenetic modulators has proved particularly challenging. On the other hand, recent development of novel immunotherapeutic approaches has spurred research to identify potential targets and matching drug discovery efforts.
This Collection highlights several interesting new strategies to identify potential lead compounds for cancer treatment. Thomas W. Miller et al. describe the development of a biochemical quantitative high-throughput screen for small molecules that disrupt the interaction between CD47 and SIRP. Preclinical studies have shown that disrupting this interaction may provide a new approach for cancer immunotherapy. Small molecular inhibitors that specifically target the interaction between CD47 and SIRP are potentially advantageous over biologics that target CD47, because they might have less on target toxicologic issues and greater tissue penetrance [7].
Work from Gabrielle Choonoo, Aurora S. Blucher et al. examines the feasibility of repurposing existing cancer drugs for new indications. The authors compiled information about somatic mutations and copy-number alterations in over 500 cases of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) and mapped these data to potential drugs listed in the Cancer Targetome [8]. This approach uncovered pathways that are routinely dysregulated in HNSCC and for which potential anti-cancer therapies are already available, as well as those for which no therapies exist. The work opens new therapeutic avenues in the treatment of this disease and also illuminates which pathways could be prioritized for the development of therapies [9].
Another important approach in extending the clinical utility of existing anti-cancer drugs is to determine whether they are effective in other settings. Indeed, Kirti Kandhwal Chahal et al. have demonstrated that the multi-tyrosine kinase inhibitor nilotinib, which is approved for use in chronic myeloid leukemia, binds the Smoothened receptor and inhibits Hedgehog pathway signaling. Nilotinib decreased viability of hedgehog-dependent medulloblastoma cell lines in vitro and in patient-derived xenografts in vivo, suggesting that nilotinib might be an effective therapy in Hedgehog-dependent cancer [10]. (Check out the authors preprint of this article on bioRxiv.) Darcy Welch, Elliot Kahen et al. took a different approach to identify new tricks for old drugs. By testing two-drug combinations of five established (doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, vincristine, etoposide, irinotecan) and two experimental chemotherapeutics (the lysine-specific demethylase 1 (LSD1) inhibitor SP2509 and the HDAC inhibitor romidepsin), they found that combining SP2509 with topoisomerase inhibitors or romidepsin synergistically decreased the viability of Ewing sarcoma cell lines in vitro [11].
Two papers in this collection describe potential new therapeutic approaches in cancer. Vagisha Ravi et al. developed a liposome-based delivery mechanism for a small interfering RNA targeting ferritin heavy chain 1 (FTH1) and showed that this increased radiosensitivity and decreased viability in a subpopulation of glioma initiating cells (GICs) [12]. Yongli Li et al. identified 2-pyridinealdehyde hydrazone dithiocarbamate S-propionate podophyllotoxin ester, a podophyllotoxin derivative that inhibits matrix metalloproteinases and Topoisomerase II. Treatment with this compound decreased the migration and invasion of human liver cancer cell lines in vitro, as well as growth of HepG2-derived tumors in mouse xenografts [13].
The success of precision cancer therapy targeting defined somatic aberrations is hampered by an almost inevitable, eventual treatment failure due to the emergence of drug resistance. Resistance often involves new mutations in the therapeutic target itself, or it may result due to activation of alternative pathways. Identification and therapeutic targeting of drug resistant clones represents an ongoing research problem with important practical implications for the clinical management of cancer.
Afatinib is a pan-human epidermal growth factor receptor (HER) inhibitor under investigation as a potential therapeutic option for people with gastric cancer; however, preclinical studies have found that some gastric cancer cell lines are resistant to afatinib treatment. Karolin Ebert et al. identify a potential mechanism behind this lack of response, demonstrating that siRNA-mediated knockdown of the receptor tyrosine kinase MET increases afatinib sensitivity of a gastric cancer cell line containing a MET amplification. As upregulation of MET has been linked to resistance to anti-HER therapies in other cancers, these findings support a role for MET in afatinib resistance in gastric cancer and suggest that combined afatinib and anti-MET therapy might be clinically beneficial for gastric cancer patients [14].
Identifying mechanisms to circumvent drug resistance is critically important to improve response and extend survival, but it is equally important to identify individuals who could be at risk of not responding to anti-cancer therapeutics. Lucas Maahs, Bertha E. Sanchez et al. report progress towards this end, showing that high expression of class III -tubulin in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) correlated with decreased overall survival and worse response rate (as measured by changes in prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels) in CRPC patients who received docetaxel therapy. The development of a biomarker indicating potential treatment resistance to docetaxel could help develop treatment plans with the best chance of success [15].
The converse approach identifying biomarkers that correlate with drug sensitivity could help distinguish subsets of patients who would benefit most from a certain anti-cancer therapy. Kevin Shee et al. mined publicly available datasets to identify genes whose expression correlate with sensitivity and response to chemotherapeutics and found that expression of Schlafen Family Member 11 (SLFN11) correlates with better response to a variety of DNA-damaging chemotherapeutics in several types of solid tumors [16]. Separately, Jason C. Poole et al. validated the use of the Target Selector ctDNA assay, a technology developed by their group that allows the specific amplification of very low frequency mutant alleles in circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA). Testing for EGFR, BRAF and KRAS mutations yielded a very high, >99% analytical sensitivity and specificity with the capability of single mutant copy detection, indicating that accurate molecular disease management over time is possible with this minimally invasive method [17].
Work from Georgios Kaissis, Sebastian Ziegelmayer, Fabian Lohfe et al. uses a machine learning algorithm to differentiate subtypes of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma based on 1,606 different radiomic features. Intriguingly, the subtypes identified in their analysis correlated with response to chemotherapeutic regimens and overall survival [18]. An imaging approach taken by Seo Young Kang et al. demonstrates the potential power of fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET/CT scans in determining the response of people with metastatic differentiated thyroid cancer to radioactive iodine treatment [19].
Since cancer growth and development accrues progressive accumulation of somatic aberrations, early detection holds the promise of more effective interventions. Similarly, screening of at risk demographics has been found effective in preventing or better managing cancer care, as exemplified by the significant reduction in cases of cervical cancer after the introduction of the Pap smear as well as human papillomavirus (HPV) testing.
Biomarker development is also critically important for the early detection of cancer and metastatic disease; moreover, biomarkers are being identified that can provide insight into patient prognosis. Several papers in this Collection report interesting findings in the area of biomarker development. A report from Lingyun Xu et al. describes a magneto-nanosensor-based multiplex assay that measures circulating levels of PSA and four proteins associated with prostate cancer. This approach segregates people with prostate cancer from those with benign prostate hyperplasia with high sensitivity and specificity [20].
Two articles provide new insight into markers of disease progression and survival. Vidya Balagopal et al. report the development of a 22-gene hybrid-capture next generation sequencing panel to identify measurable residual disease in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). In their retrospective study, the panel was effective at detecting evidence for residual disease. Importantly, it correctly identified patients who had never relapsed in that no evidence of residual disease was detected in any of these respective samples. Once validated, this approach could potentially be useful in monitoring patients with AML to ensure that recurrence or relapse is identified as soon as possible [21]. Separately, Yoon-Sim Yap et al. use a label-free microfluidic platform to capture circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from people with breast cancer and show that absolute numbers of CTCs predict progression-free survival with higher levels of CTCs correlating with a worse prognosis [22].
Finally, Lucia Suzuki et al. report findings into a potential role for the intestinal stem cell marker olfactomedin 4 (OLFM4) as a biomarker for metastasis in esophageal adenocarcinoma. The authors found that OLFM4 expression was not significantly associated with disease-free or overall survival; however, low OLFM4 expression was detected in poorly differentiated early and advanced-stage esophageal adenocarcinoma and was an independent prognostic variable for lymph node metastasis [23].
This collection of studies encompassing the range of research topics under the banner of targeted anticancer therapies highlights the diversity, complexity and inter-disciplinary nature of research efforts actively contributing to our collective knowledge base with the hope to positively impact the lives of all cancer patients.
We would like to thank all Academic Editors and reviewers for their expert evaluation of the articles in this Collection as well as the authors for their contributions to this field. Special thanks to Senior Editor, Team Manager Emily Chenette for her invaluable help and guidance in publishing this Collection.
Andrew Cherniack
Andrew Cherniack is a group leader in the Cancer Program at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and in the Department of Medical Oncology at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. He led the Broad Institutes effort to analyze somatic DNA copy number alterations for The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and is now co-principal investigator of the Broad Institutes copy number Genome Data Analysis Center for the National Cancer Institutes Genomic Data Analysis Network (GDAN). He also leads the oncoming effort to identify new cancer therapeutic targets for the partnership with Bayer. Prior to joining the Broad Institute in 2010, Dr. Cherniack worked in both academia and industry, with a 9-year tenure at the Abbott Bioresearch Center following a similar time period in the Program in Molecular Medicine at UMass Medical School, where he was a postdoctoral researcher and a research assistant professor. Dr. Cherniack holds a Ph.D. in molecular genetics from Ohio State University and a B.A. in biology from the University of Pennsylvania.
Anette Duensing
Anette Duensing is an Assistant Professor of Pathology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and a Member of the Cancer Therapeutics Program at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Hillman Cancer Center. Dr. Duensings research focuses on bone and soft tissue sarcomas with the goal of identifying novel therapeutic approaches that target the underlying molecular biology of these malignancies. Her special interest and expertise are in gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs), a sarcoma characterized by mutations in the KIT or PDGFRA receptor tyrosine kinases and the first solid tumor entity that was successfully treated with small molecule kinase inhibitors. Dr. Duensing holds an M.D. degree from the University of Hannover School of Medicine, Germany, and was a research scholar of the Dr. Mildred Scheel Stiftung fr Krebsforschung (German Cancer Aid/Deutsche Krebshilfe) at Brigham and Womens Hospital, Harvard Medical School. She is the recipient of an AACR Scholar-in-Training Award (AACR-AstraZeneca), a Young Investigator Award from The Liddy Shriver Sarcoma Initiative, a UPCI Junior Scholar Award, a Jeroen Pit Science Award, a Research Award from the GIST Group Switzerland and was named Hillman Fellow for Innovative Cancer Research. Dr. Duensing is co-founder and leader of the Pittsburgh Sarcoma Research Collaborative (PSaRC), a highly translational, interdisciplinary sarcoma research program. She is also affiliated with the Department of Urology at the University of Heidelberg, Germany. Dr. Duensing is an Academic Editor for PLOS ONE and author of nearly 70 original articles, reviews and book chapters.
Steven G. Gray
Steven Gray graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 1992. He joined the laboratory of Tomas J. Ekstrm at the Karolinska Institute (Sweden) in 1996 and received his PhD in 2000. He moved to the Van Andel Research Institute in Michigan, USA where he continued his studies on the therapeutic potential of histone deacetylase inhibitors in the treatment of cancer. He also spent time as a visiting fellow at Harvard Medical School, Boston working on epigenetic therapies for neurodegenerative disease. Returning to Europe, Dr. Gray spent some time at the German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ Heidelberg), and subsequently moved to Copenhagen to work for Novo Nordisk as part of the research team of Prof Pierre De Meyts at the Hagedorn Research Institute working on epigenetic mechanisms underpinning diabetes pathogenesis. Dr. Gray is currently a senior clinical scientist at St Jamess Hospital at the Thoracic Oncology Research Group at St. Jamess Hospital. He holds adjunct positions at both Trinity College Dublin (senior clinical lecturer with the Dept. of Clinical Medicine), and at Technical University Dublin (adjunct senior lecturer, School of Biology DIT). Dr. Gray has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles, 15 book chapters and has edited 1 book. Research in Dr Grays laboratory focuses on Receptor Tyrosine Kinases as potential therapeutic targets for the treatment of mesothelioma; epigenetic mechanisms underpinning drug resistance in lung cancer; targeting epigenetic readers, writers and erasers for the treatment of mesothelioma and thoracic malignancy; circulating tumour cells; and non-coding RNA repertoires in mesothelioma and thoracic malignancy.
Sunil Krishnan
Sunil Krishnan is the Director of the Center for Radiation Oncology Research and the John E. and Dorothy J. Harris Professor of Gastrointestinal Cancer in the department of Radiation Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center. He received his medical degree from Christian Medical College, Vellore, India and completed a radiation oncology residency at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota. In the clinic, he treats patients with hepatobiliary, pancreatic and rectal tumors with radiation therapy. His laboratory has developed new strategies and tools to define the roles and mechanisms of radiation sensitization with gold nanoparticles, chemotherapeutics, biologics and botanicals. Dr. Krishnan serves as the co-chair of the gastrointestinal scientific program committee of ASTRO, co-chair of the gastrointestinal translational research program of RTOG, consultant to the IAEA for rectal and liver cancers, chair of the NCI pancreatic cancer radiotherapy working group, and Fellow of the American College of Physicians. He has co-authored over 200 peer-reviewed scientific publications, co-authored 17 book chapters, and co-edited 3 books.
Chandan Kumar-Sinha
Chandan Kumar-Sinha is a Research Associate Scientist in the Department of Pathology at the University of Michigan. He obtained Masters in Biotechnology from Madurai Kamraj University, and PhD in Plant Molecular Biology from Indian Institute of Science. He completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Department of Pathology, University of Michigan, where he worked on genomic profiling of cancers. Thereafter, he joined the Advanced Center for Treatment, Research and Education in Cancer in India as a faculty member. After establishing a cancer genomics group there, he moved back to the University of Michigan to pursue translational cancer research. Dr. Kumar-Sinhas current research involves integrative clinical sequencing using high-throughput genome and transcriptome analyses to inform precision oncology. He has authored over 50 peer-reviewed publications, two book chapters, and is named co-inventor on a patent on prostate cancer biomarkers.
Gayle E. Woloschak
Gayle Woloschak is Professor of Radiation Oncology, Radiology, and Cell and Molecular Biology in the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University. Dr. Woloschak received her Ph.D. in Medical Sciences from the University of Toledo (Medical College of Ohio). She did her postdoctoral training at the Mayo Clinic, and then moved to Argonne National Laboratory until 2001. Her scientific interests are predominantly in the areas of molecular biology, radiation biology, and nanotechnology studies, and she has authored over 200 papers. She is a member of the National Council on Radiation Protection, the International Commission on Radiation Protection and numerous other committees and also serves on the US delegation to the United National Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation.
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Introducing the Targeted Anticancer Therapies and Precision Medicine in Cancer Collection - PLoS Blogs
A new study led by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine revealed how in utero Zika virus infection can lead to microcephaly in newborns. The team discovered that the Zika virus protein NS4A disrupts brain growth by hijacking a pathway that regulates the generation of new neurons. The findings point at the possibility of developing therapeutic strategies to prevent microcephaly linked to Zika virus infection. The study appeared Thursday in the journal Developmental Cell.
Patients with rare genetic mutations shed light on how Zika virus causes microcephaly
The current study was initiated when a patient presented with a small brain size at birth and severe abnormalities in brain structures at the Baylor Hopkins Center for Mendelian Genomics (CMG), a center directed by Dr. Jim Lupski, professor of pediatrics, molecular and human genetics at Baylor College of Medicine and attending physician at Texas Childrens Hospital, said Dr. Hugo J. Bellen, professor at Baylor, investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Childrens Hospital.
This patient and others in a cohort at CMG had not been infected by Zika virus in utero. They had a genetic defect that caused microcephaly. CMG scientists determined that the ANKLE2 gene was associated with the condition. Interestingly, a few years back the Bellen lab had discovered in the fruit fly model that ANKLE2 gene was associated with neurodevelopmental disorders. Knowing that Zika virus infection in utero can cause microcephaly in newborns, the team explored the possibility that Zika virus was mediating its effects in the brain via ANKLE2.
In a subsequent fruit fly study, the researchers demonstrated that overexpression of Zika protein NS4A causes microcephaly in the flies by inhibiting the function of ANKLE2, a cell cycle regulator that acts by suppressing the activity of VRK1 protein.
Since very little is known about the role of ANKLE2 or VRK1 in brain development, Bellen and his colleagues applied a multidisciplinary approach to tease apart the exact mechanism underlying ANKLE2-associated microcephaly.
The fruit fly helps clarify the mystery
The team found that fruit fly larvae with mutations in ANKLE2 gene had small brains with dramatically fewer neuroblasts brain cell precursors and could not survive into adulthood. Experimental expression of the normal human version of ANKLE2 gene in mutant larvae restored all the defects, establishing the loss of Ankle2 function as the underlying cause.
To understand why ANKLE2 mutants have fewer neuroblasts and significantly smaller brains, we probed deeper into asymmetric cell divisions, a fundamental process that produces and maintains neuroblasts, also called neural stem cells, in the developing brains of flies and humans, said first author Dr. Nichole Link, postdoctoral associate in the Bellen lab.
Asymmetric cell division is an exquisitely regulated process by which neuroblasts produce two different cell types. One is a copy of the neuroblast and the other is a cell programmed to become a different type of cell, such as a neuron or glia.
Proper asymmetric distribution and division of these cells is crucial to normal brain development, as they need to generate a correct number of neurons, produce diverse neuronal lineages and replenish the pool of neuroblasts for further rounds of division.
When flies had reduced levels of Ankle2, key proteins, such as Par complex proteins and Miranda, were misplaced in the neuroblasts of Ankle2 larvae. Moreover, live imaging analysis of these neuroblasts showed many obvious signs of defective or incomplete cell divisions. These observations indicated that Ankle2 is a critical regulator of asymmetric cell divisions, said Link.
Further analyses revealed more details about how Ankle2 regulates asymmetric neuroblast division. They found that Ankle2 protein interacts with VRK1 kinases, and that Ankle2 mutants alter this interaction in ways that disrupt asymmetric cell division.
The Zika connection
Linking our findings to Zika virus-associated microcephaly, we found that expressing Zika virus protein NS4A in flies caused microcephaly by hijacking the Ankle2/VRK1 regulation of asymmetric neuroblast divisions. This offers an explanation to why the severe microcephaly observed in patients with defects in the ANKLE2 and VRK1 genes is strikingly similar to that of infants with in utero Zika virus infection, Link said.
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For decades, researchers have been unsuccessful in finding experimental evidence between defects in asymmetric cell divisions and microcephaly in vertebrate models. The current work makes a giant leap in that direction and provides strong evidence that links a single evolutionarily conserved Ankle2/VRK1 pathway as a regulator of asymmetric division of neuroblasts and microcephaly, Bellen said.
Moreover, it shows that irrespective of the nature of the initial triggering event, whether it is a Zika virus infection or congenital mutations, the microcephaly converges on the disruption of Ankle2 and VRK1, making them promising drug targets.
Another important takeaway from this work is that studying a rare disorder (which refers to those resulting from rare disease-causing variations in ANKLE2 or VRK1 genes) originally observed in a single patient can lead to valuable mechanistic insights and open up exciting therapeutic possibilities to solve common human genetic disorders and viral infections.
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How in utero Zika virus infection can lead to microcephaly in newborns: Baylor research - Outbreak News Today
Groundbreaking research has found that the majority of people with cystic fibrosis can be treated successfully.
Researchers at Queens University in Belfast and at the Cystic Fibrosis Unit at St Vincents Hospital Dublin, have identified how a combination of three drugs, known as triple therapy, can tackle the underlying cause of the incurable disease.
The drug, Trikaftatm, targets the root cause of cystic fibrosis (CF), a genetic condition that clogs up the lungs and digestive system, making breathing difficult and often resulting in an early death for those affected.
CF is an inherited chronic disease that primarily affects the lungs and digestive system of about 1,300 children and adults in Ireland and 70,000 worldwide.
That figure, according to Philip Watt of Cystic Fibrosis Ireland, is set to increase by 75% in adults and 25% in children in this country according to ongoing studies by 2025.
This new drug Trikaftatm will benefit 90% of sufferers worldwide, lung function is expected to increase dramatically and will result in a 60% decrease in hospitalisation. This is a hugely welcome advancement. Many of the trials by the Queens University researchers were carried out at several centres in Ireland including St Vincents Hospital Dublin.
Dr Francis Collins, an American researcher who discovered the CF gene in 1989 has already said this is the breakthrough in research he has been waiting for. Many of the trials prior to this did not achieve as much as this study has.
Dr Collins who is the director of the National Institutes of Health writing in The New England Journal of Medicine and the highly respected Lancet medical magazine over the weekend, said these findings indicate that it may soon be possible to offer safe and effective molecularly targeted therapies to 90% of persons with cystic fibrosis.
He said that this should be a cause for major celebration and the best day ever for all of us traveling down this long road together will be the day when the more than 70,000 persons with cystic fibrosis worldwide do not need to take drug therapy at all and there finally is a permanent cure for cystic fibrosis that works for everyone.
Mr Watt added: The Food and Drugs Administration in the US has approved this drug five months ahead of time and now the European Medicines Agency is reviewing it. As a result we would expect this drug to be on the market here by the Summer of next year to those over 12-years-of-age. We would be hopeful that will include children aged as young as two in the future.
The numbers of adults and children increasing in Western Europe is down to advancements in related drugs and quality of services.
Talks and negotiations with the Health Service Executive on this new announcement will, Im sure, commence as a pipeline deal on future drug advancements was agreed with them in 2017 when Orkambi was finally approved. So far we are not privy to the potential costs of this new drug.
However, it is estimated that the drug may cost around $311,000 or 279,000 annually by Vertex, a pharmaceutical company that produces other CF drugs.
Ireland has the highest incidence of CF in the world with one in 19 Irish people being said to carry one copy of the altered gene, with three times the rate of the United States and the rest of the EU.
The organisation has pointed out that it is important to have a network of centres of expertise in dealing with disease.
A defective gene and its protein product cause the body to produce unusually thick, sticky mucus that clogs the lungs and leads to life-threatening lung infections; and obstructs the pancreas and stops natural enzymes from helping the body break down and absorb food.
Researchers believe it is possible to help control the symptoms and delay complications to make the condition easier to live with.
Dr Damian Downey, is a Clinical Senior Lecturer at the Wellcome-Wolfson Institute for Experimental Medicine, Queens University Belfast and co-author on the worldwide trial, set-up to assess the safety and efficacy of a new triple-drug combination called Trikaftatm in patients with CF aged 12 years and older.
The study involved a four-week, randomised, active-controlled trial in 107 patients who had two copies of the (F508del) most common gene mutation.
Dr Downey said: The trial was a success in demonstrating that this drug combination can potentially treat up to 90% of people with CF by addressing the underlying cause of their disease.
This new triple therapy has the potential to transform the lives of people with CF. It results in a significant improvement in lung function and quality of life and also reduces the frequency of chest infections. This treatment will likely alter the future of CF care.
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Research finds majority of people with cystic fibrosis can be treated successfully with three-drug combo - BreakingNews.ie