Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) Market Reviews and Analysis 2020 Along With Study Reports BIO-ON, SHENZHEN ECOMANN BIOTECHNOLOGY CO.,LTD, NEWLIGHT…

Global Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) marketResearch presents a Comprehensive scenario which can be segmented according to producers, product type, applications, and areas. This segmentation will provide deep-dive analysis of the Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) business for identifying the growth opportunities, development tendencies and factors limiting the development of the marketplace. This report features forecast market information based on previous and present Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) industry scenarios and growth facets. Each of the Essential regions coated in Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) report are North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. The Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) market share and market prognosis of every region from 2020-2027 are presented within this report. A deep study of Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) marketplace dynamics will help the market aspirants in identifying the business opportunities that will lead to accumulation of earnings. This segment can efficiently determine the Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) hazard and key market driving forces.

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Scope of Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) Market:The global Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) market is valued at million US$ in 2019 and will reach million US$ by the end of 2027, growing at a CAGR of during 2020-2027.

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BIO-ON, SHENZHEN ECOMANN BIOTECHNOLOGY CO.,LTD, NEWLIGHT TECHNOLOGIES, INC, POLYFERM CANADA, BIOMER, TIANJIN GREENBIO MATERIALS CO., LTD, DANIMER SCIENTIFIC, BIOSCIENCE, INC, METABOLIX INC, TIANAN BIOLOGIC MATERIALS CO

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Commission charts narrow path for editing human embryos – Science Magazine

He Jiankui shocked the world when he described the implantation of edited embryos that led to the birth of twin girls, Lulu and Nana.

By Jon CohenSep. 3, 2020 , 10:00 AM

No recent biomedical experiment has caused more consternation than He Jiankuis creation of the first gene-edited babies, in 2018, which was widely seen as dangerous, unethical, and prematureand which led to his incarceration by China. Now, an international committee has concluded that gene-editing methods, despite substantial improvements, are still far from mature enough to safely introduce heritable DNA modifications into human embryos.

But they might be one day, in rare circumstances, adds the panel, calling for the formation of a global scientific body that would review proposals for what it calls heritable human genome editing (HHGE) and try to influence whether countries decide to allow its use. The group, which today released one of the mostin-depth reportson the topic yet, spells out in great detail genetic situations that HHGE could address and the strict oversight that clinicians in the future must meet before again creating humans with modified DNA that they can pass on to offspring.

For more than 1 year,the International Commission on the Clinical Use of Human Germline Genome Editingreviewed the scientific literature on CRISPR and other ways to modify DNA, held public meetings and webinars, and consulted scientists, physicians, ethicists, and patient groups. The 18 members of the commissionwho come from 10 countries and, as the report notes, include experts in science, medicine, genetics, ethics, psychology, regulation, and lawagreed with earlier groups that concluded no one should follow in Hes footsteps anytime soon. CRISPRthe genome editor He used, and refined versions of itthey concluded, still cannot efficiently and reliably make precise changes without causing undesired changes in human embryos.

The report stresses that it focuses on initial clinical use of HHGE, and says the field needs to be closely monitored and frequently reevaluated. There are a lot of gaps in our knowledge and further research is needed, Kay Davies, a geneticist at the University of Oxford who co-chaired the commission, said at a briefing today.

Organized by the U.K.s Royal Society and the science and medicine branches of the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, the commission aimed to describe a responsible clinical translational pathway that could move genome editing from the lab to assisted-reproduction interventions for human diseases. The report largely steers clear of the complex social and ethical implications of creating gene-edited babies. But it does delve into the governance of the issue, notably calling for creating an International Scientific Advisory Panel to assess proposed uses of HHGE, provide regular updates about related technologies, and review clinical outcomes if an edited embryo implanted into a mother is born. It also recommends the creation of an international mechanism by which a clinician or researcher could report plans for or uses of HHGE that they find concerningin essence, a hotline for whistleblowers.

The commissions foray into such issues has perturbed some. The report strays beyond its scientific remit, Sarah Norcross, director of the Progress Educational Trust, a charity focused on helping people with infertility or genetic conditions, said in a statement released by the U.K. Science Media Centre. The World Health Organization (WHO) is still deliberating on the governance of genome editing, and should not feel constrained by this report's governance recommendations if it sees fit to deviate from them.

The genome editing commission categorized potential uses of HHGE, creating a six-level hierarchy that ranges from the most to least compelling rationales to take the risk. The use of HHGE that is easiest to justify, they said, would be helping those rare couples who, even with in vitro fertilization (IVF) and screening of embryos, have little or no chance of having a baby that does not inherit a genetic conditionfor example, Huntington disease, cystic fibrosis, beta thalassemiathat will cause severe morbidity or premature death. The report stresses that these situations are few and far between. People have two copies of most genes, one inherited from the mother and the other from the father. For a so-called recessive disorder such as cystic fibrosis, there are maybe one or two couples in the United States who both are homozygous for this mutationmeaning in their inherited pair of the geneand would produce an affected child. In dominant disorders, like Huntington, a child needs to inherit only one mutated gene to develop the disease, so one homozygous parent, also a rarity, inevitably would pass on the disease to all embryos.

If HHGE is allowed, the panel said, any embryo edit should only specifically change one DNA sequence into a specific desired sequence that is common in the relevant population. This means the simplest, most frequently used form of CRISPR, which can cripple genes but does not fix them, should not ever be used in embryos; in Hes controversial experiment, for example, he attempted to knock out a gene and make the childrens cells resistant to HIV infection.

I welcome the commissions report, which continues to add depth to the ongoing global conversation about the science of germline editing, says Alta Charo, a bioethicist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who is part of a committee organized by WHO that is examining how to best govern this controversial arena.

Harvard University chemist David Liu, who has pioneered improved genome editing technologies that borrow from CRISPRs toolkit, describes the report as thoughtful, balanced, and well-bounded. But he still has misgivings about whether HHGE should ever be allowed. I continue to struggle to imagine plausible situations in which clinical germline editing provides a path forward to address an unmet medical need that cannot be provided by other options, Liu says. He and others stress that preimplantation genetic testing (PGT), which IVF clinics routinely use, could avoid the need for most human embryo editing. In all but the rarest circumstances, it would allow couples to select and then implant embryos that did not have the disease-causing mutations borne by parents.

There are some couples, however, who have a high likelihood of PGT failing to give them an unaffected child, and this is the one exception to the second-tiered category in the report. The third category of HHGE uses is for genetic diseases that have less serious effects and may also be corrected or treated, like deafness, for which there are now cochlear implants.

In the wake of Hes 2018 revelation, Denis Rebrikov, a DNA sequencing specialist at the Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University, has pursued a project to correct a deafness mutation in couples who each have the aberrant gene. Rebrikov, who is not yet satisfied he can safely edit a human embryo and so has not sought Russias approval to move forward, says the cases for which the commission would allow HHGE are so rare that the panels endorsement is meaningless. In this formulation, it is a ban on editing the genome of the embryo in principle, Rebrikov says.

Norcross echoes that criticism, calling the reports criteria for human embryo editing far too narrow.

Diseases caused by several genes represent the fourth category of HHGE uses. The fifth, and most taboo in the eyes of the panel, would involve genetic enhancements of children, making make them resistant to HIV, better at sports, taller, smarter, or even able to withstand radiation exposures encountered during extended spaceflight.

A key danger of editing human embryos is that unintended off-target DNA changes will occur and not be detected before embryo implantation. The panel explores in detail a possible solution: editing the stem cells that produce human sperm or eggs before using those gametes for IVF. This would have significa
nt safety implications since the issues of on-target editing fidelity and avoidance of off-target events could be largely settled before any gamete is considered for use in the creation of an embryo, the report notes.

Fyodor Urnov, a CRISPR researcher at the University of California, Berkley, says the report confirms the widespread consensus that, at best, theres only a niche justification for editing human embryos. The careful guidelines laid out in this report show that the list of problems that could be addressed by such editing is, in fact, quite small, Urnov says. It is an open secret in the gene-editing community that human reproductive editing is a solution in search of a problem.

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Commission charts narrow path for editing human embryos - Science Magazine

The Brain Implants That Could Change Humanity – The New York Times

When I asked Facebook about concerns around the ethics of big tech entering the brain-computer interface space, Mr. Chevillet, of Facebook Reality Labs, highlighted the transparency of its brain-reading project. This is why weve talked openly about our B.C.I. research so it can be discussed throughout the neuroethics community as we collectively explore what responsible innovation looks like in this field, he said in an email.

Ed Cutrell, a senior principal researcher at Microsoft, which also has a B.C.I. program, emphasized the importance of treating user data carefully. There needs to be clear sense of where that information goes, he told me. As we are sensing more and more about people, to what extent is that information Im collecting about you yours?

Some find all this talk of ethics and rights, if not irrelevant, then at least premature.

Medical scientists working to help paralyzed patients, for example, are already governed by HIPAA laws, which protect patient privacy. Any new medical technology has to go through the Food and Drug Administration approval process, which includes ethical considerations.

(Ethical quandaries still arise, though, notes Dr. Kirsch. Lets say you want to implant a sensor array in a patient suffering from locked-in syndrome. How do you get consent to conduct surgery that might change the persons life for the better from someone who cant communicate?)

Leigh Hochberg, a professor of engineering at Brown University and part of the BrainGate initiative, sees the companies now piling into the brain-machine space as a boon. The field needs these companies dynamism and their deep pockets, he told me. Discussions about ethics are important, but those discussions should not at any point derail the imperative to provide restorative neurotechnologies to people who could benefit from them, he added.

Ethicists, Dr. Jepsen told me, must also see this: The alternative would be deciding we arent interested in a deeper understanding of how our minds work, curing mental disease, really understanding depression, peering inside people in comas or with Alzheimers, and enhancing our abilities in finding new ways to communicate.

Theres even arguably a national security imperative to plow forward. China has its own version of BrainGate. If American companies dont pioneer this technology, some think, Chinese companies will. People have described this as a brain arms race, Dr. Yuste said.

Not even Dr. Gallant, who first succeeded in translating neural activity into a moving image of what another person was seeing and who was both elated and horrified by the exercise thinks the Luddite approach is an option. The only way out of the technology-driven hole were in is more technology and science, he told me. Thats just a cool fact of life.

Moises Velasquez-Manoff, the author of An Epidemic of Absence: A New Way of Understanding Allergies and Autoimmune Diseases, is a contributing opinion writer.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. Wed like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And heres our email: letters@nytimes.com.

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The Brain Implants That Could Change Humanity - The New York Times

Sanford Health is first in nation to dose patient with promising novel therapeutic candidate for COVID-19, SAB-185 – PRNewswire

SIOUX FALLS, S.D., Sept. 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Sanford Health, the largest provider of rural healthcare in the country, today announced it has initiated a Phase 1b trial of SAB-185, a first-of-its-kindhuman polyclonal antibodytherapeutic candidate developed by SAB Biotherapeutics (SAB), that would be used to treat patients with mild to moderate COVID-19 at an early stage of the disease. The trial will enroll a total of 21 adult patients across several clinical sites. Sanford Health is the first site in the country to open the study to patients.

"Today's milestone underscores our relentless commitment to advancing the science of medicine to ensure our patients benefit from new discoveries as quickly as possible," said David A. Pearce, PhD, president of innovation and research at Sanford Health. "Working with SAB Biotherapeutics on this clinical trial gives us an opportunity to deliver on our promise to patients."

"We are eager to participate in this clinical trial to investigate the safety of SAB-185, a human polyclonal antibody therapeutic candidate for COVID-19," said Dr. Susan Hoover, principal investigator and an infectious disease physician at Sanford Health. "Our goal is to advance the science around COVID-19 so physicians can be better prepared to treat this novel coronavirus in the future, especially for our populations most at-risk."

SAB's novel platform, which leverages genetically engineered cattle to produce fully human antibodies, enables scalable and reliable production of specifically targeted, high potency neutralizing antibody products. This approach has expedited the rapid development of this novel immunotherapy for COVID-19, deploying the same natural immune response to fight the disease as recovered patients, but with a much higher concentration of antibodies.

"SAB is pleased to advance SAB-185, one of the leading novel therapeutics for COVID-19, into human trials and leverage the rapid response capabilities of our first-of-its-kind technology during this pandemic, when its needed most," said Eddie Sullivan, founder, president and CEO of SAB Biotherapeutics.

SAB is a Sioux Falls-based biopharmaceutical company advancing a new class of immunotherapies leveraging fully human polyclonal antibodies.Sanford Health is committed to taking research from the bench and bringing promising new treatments to our patients' bedside.New medical discoveries come out of hard work, innovation and research. SAB and Sanford Health are committed to developing and delivering novel solutions to overcome this global pandemic and improve people's lives.

About Sanford HealthSanford Health, one of the largest health systems inthe United States, is dedicated to the integrated delivery of health care, genomic medicine, senior care and services, global clinics, research and affordable insurance. Headquartered inSioux Falls, South Dakota, the organization includes 46 hospitals, 1,400 physicians and more than 200 Good Samaritan Society senior care locations in 26 states and 10 countries. Learn more about Sanford Health's transformative work to improve the human condition atsanfordhealth.orgorSanford Health News.

About SAB BiotherapeuticsSAB Biotherapeutics, Inc. (SAB) is a clinical-stage, biopharmaceutical company advancing a new class of immunotherapies leveraging fully human polyclonal antibodies. Utilizing some of the most complex genetic engineering and antibody science in the world, SAB has developed the only platform that can rapidly produce natural, highly-targeted, high-potency, human polyclonal immunotherapies at commercial scale. The company is advancing programs in autoimmunity, infectious diseases, inflammation and oncology. SAB is rapidly progressing on a new therapeutic for COVID-19, SAB-185, fully human polyclonal antibodies targeted to SARS-CoV-2 without using human donors. For more information visitsabbiotherapeutics.comor follow @SABBantibody on Twitter.

Media Contacts:

Angela Dejene[emailprotected](218) 280-0148

Melissa Ullerich[emailprotected](605) 695-8350

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Sanford Health is first in nation to dose patient with promising novel therapeutic candidate for COVID-19, SAB-185 - PRNewswire

Cell Suicide Gene Further Linked to Immunotherapy Response – Technology Networks

Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers have added to evidence that a gene responsible for turning off a cells natural suicide signals may also be the culprit in making breast cancer and melanoma cells resistant to therapies that use the immune system to fight cancer. A summary of the research, conducted with mice and human cells, appeared in Cell Reports.When the gene, called BIRC2, is sent into overdrive, it makes too much, or an overexpression, of protein levels. This occurs in about 40% of breast cancers, particularly the more lethal type called triple negative, and it is not known how often the gene is overexpressed in melanomas.

If further studies affirm and refine the new findings, the researchers say, BIRC2 overexpression could be a key marker for immunotherapy resistance, further advancing precision medicine efforts in this area of cancer treatment. A marker of this kind could alert clinicians to the potential need for using drugs that block the genes activity in combination with immunotherapy drugs to form a potent cocktail to kill cancer in some treatment-resistant patients. Cancer cells use many pathways to evade the immune system, so our goal is to find additional drugs in our toolbox to complement the immunotherapy drugs currently in use, says Gregg Semenza, M.D., Ph.D., the C. Michael Armstrong Professor of Genetic Medicine, Pediatrics, Oncology, Medicine, Radiation Oncology and Biological Chemistry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and director of the Vascular Program at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Cell Engineering.

Semenza shared the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of the gene that guides how cells adapt to low oxygen levels, a condition called hypoxia.

In 2018, Semenzas team showed that hypoxia essentially molds cancer cells into survival machines. Hypoxia prompts cancer cells to turn on three genes to help them evade the immune system by inactivating either the identification system or the eat me signal on immune cells. A cell surface protein called CD47 is the only dont eat me signal that blocks killing of cancer cells by immune cells called macrophages. Other cell surface proteins, PDL1 and CD73, block killing of cancer cells by immune cells called T lymphocytes.

These super-survivor cancer cells could explain, in part, Semenza says, why only 20% to 30% of cancer patients respond to drugs that boost the immune systems ability to target cancer cells.

For the current study, building on his basic science discoveries, Semenza and his team sorted through 325 human genes identified by researchers at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston whose protein products were overexpressed in melanoma cells and linked to processes that help cancer cells evade the immune system.

Semenzas team found that 38 of the genes are influenced by the transcription factor HIF-1, which regulates how cells adapt to hypoxia; among the 38 was BIRC2 (baculoviral IAP repeat-containing 2), already known to prevent cell suicide, or apoptosis, in essence a form of programmed cell death that is a brake on the kind of unchecked cell growth characteristic of cancer.

BIRC2 also blocks cells from secreting proteins that attract immune cells, such as T-cells and natural killer cells.

First, by studying the BIRC2 genome in human breast cancer cells, Semenzas team found that hypoxia proteins HIF1 and HIF2 bind directly to a portion of the BIRC2 gene under low oxygen conditions, identifying a direct mechanism for boosting the BIRC2 genes protein production.

Then, the research team examined how tumors developed in mice when they were injected with human breast cancer or melanoma cells genetically engineered to contain little or no BIRC2 gene expression. In mice injected with cancer cells lacking BIRC2 expression, tumors took longer to form, about three to four weeks, compared with the typical two weeks it takes to form tumors in mice.

The tumors formed by BIRC2-free cancer cells also had up to five times the level of a protein called CXCL9, the substance that attracts immune system T-cells and natural killer cells to the tumor location. The longer the tumor took to form, the more T-cells and natural killer cells were found inside the tumor.

Semenza notes that finding a plentiful number of immune cells within a tumor is a key indicator of immunotherapy success.

Next, to determine whether the immune system was critical to the stalled tumor growth they saw, Semenzas team injected the BIRC2-free melanoma and breast cancer cells into mice bred to have no functioning immune system. They found that tumors grew at the same rate, in about two weeks, as typical tumors. This suggests that the decreased tumor growth rate associated with loss of BIRC2 is dependent on recruiting T-cells and natural killer cells into the tumor, says Semenza.

Finally, Semenza and his team analyzed mice implanted with human breast cancer or melanoma tumors that either produced BIRC2 or were engineered to lack BIRC2. They gave the mice with melanoma tumors two types of immunotherapy FDA-approved for human use, and treated mice with breast tumors with one of the immunotherapy drugs. In both tumor types, the immunotherapy drugs were effective only against the tumors that lacked BIRC2.

Experimental drugs called SMAC mimetics that inactivate BIRC2 and other anti-cell suicide proteins are currently in clinical trials for certain types of cancers, but Semenza says that the drugs have not been very effective when used on their own.

These drugs might be very useful to improve the response to immunotherapy drugs in people with tumors that have high BIRC2 levels, says Semenza.Reference: Samanta D, Huang TYT, Shah R, Yang Y, Pan F, Semenza GL. BIRC2 Expression Impairs Anti-Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy Efficacy. Cell Rep. 2020;32(8). doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2020.108073

This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.

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Cell Suicide Gene Further Linked to Immunotherapy Response - Technology Networks

Toxicity of dorsal root ganglia is widely associated with CNS AAV gene therapy – Science Codex

New Rochelle, NY, September 2, 2020A meta-analysis of non-human primate (NHP) studies showed that adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene therapy often caused dorsal root ganglion (DRG) pathology. There were no clinical effects. The study is reported in the peer-reviewed journal Human Gene Therapy.Click here to read the full-text article free on the Human Gene Therapy website through October 2, 2020.

The dorsal root ganglion is a cluster of neurons in the dorsal root of a spinal nerve. DRG pathology was present in 83% of NHP given AAV through the cerebrospinal fluid and 32% of NHP that received an intravenous injection.

The data suggest that DRG pathology is almost universal after AAV vectors are delivered into the cerebral spinal fluid of nonhuman primates. However, none of the animals receiving a vector expressing a therapeutic transgene displayed any clinical signs, stated James M. Wilson, MD, PhD, a professor of Medicine and director of the Gene Therapy Program and the Orphan Disease Center, and coauthors from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

The DRG pathology associated with AAV has triggered an increase in the intensity of preclinical evaluation of AAV vectors prior to initiation of clinical trials of new vectors, according to Editor-in-Chief of Human Gene Therapy Terence R. Flotte, MD, Celia and Isaac Haidak Professor of Medical Education and Dean, Provost, and Executive Deputy Chancellor, University of Massachusetts Medical School. The insights offered by Dr. Wilsons paper provide an excellent summary perspective on this phenomenon, which could potentially eliminate the need for a number of redundant preclinical safety studies and thus shorten the path to the clinic for new vectors.

Individual studies utilized for data extraction were supported by REGENXBIO (all studies previously published), Biogen (some studies previously published), Passage Bio, Amicus Therapeutics, ODC MPS I pilot grant MPS-18-D010-01 and MPS-19-001-0, Janssen, Cure FA, Rett Syndrome Research Trust and Elaaj Bio. These entities funded the original studies whose samples were later run through the comparative meta-analysis covered in the manuscript. The studies, company sponsor, and transgenes representing each data point are not disclosed.

About the JournalHuman Gene Therapy ,the Official Journal of the European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy and eight other international gene therapy societies, was the first peer-reviewed journal in the field and provides all-inclusive access to the critical pillars of human gene therapy: research, methods, and clinical applications. The Journal is led by Editor-in-Chief Terence R. Flotte, MD, Celia and Isaac Haidak Professor of Medical Education and Dean, Provost, and Executive Deputy Chancellor, University of Massachusetts Medical School, and an esteemed international editorial board. Human Gene Therapy is available in print and online. Complete tables of contents and a sample issue are available on the Human Gene Therapy website.

About the PublisherMary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research. Its biotechnology trade magazine, GEN (Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News), was the first in its field and is today the industrys most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firms 90 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.

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Toxicity of dorsal root ganglia is widely associated with CNS AAV gene therapy - Science Codex

Cats point the way to potential COVID-19 remedies – FierceBiotech

Last week, Gilead Sciences said it would test its COVID-19 drug remdesivir against a related compound in its library called GS-441524 in animal trials, after facing scrutiny over the latter drug, which has been used for years to treat feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) despite not being licensed for that use.

Now, another California biotech, Anivive Lifesciences, is working on a COVID-19 antiviral drug thats inspired by cats, and it has new preclinical research findings to back up the project.

Scientists led by the University of Alberta reported that a drug developed to treat a coronavirus that can cause FIP inhibited the main protease of both SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2. That prevented the human coronaviruses from replicating in cell cultures, they reported in the journal Nature Communications.

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Anivive originally licensed the drug, called GC376, from Kansas State University in 2018 and has been working since then to develop it as an antiviral to treat FIP, a progressive disease in cats thats often caused by a coronavirus and is fatal if left untreated. Last month, Anivive said it had started two preclinical studies to determine whether GC376 could also treat COVID-19.

RELATED: COVID-19: New animal data back up Gilead's remdesivir as other treatment candidates emerge

GC376 was designed to inhibit a protease called 3C, which promotes the replication of several coronaviruses that infect animals and people. They include feline coronavirus (FCoV), which usually causes mild symptoms in cats but can lead to FIP.

Two pilot studies of GC376 in pet cats infected with FIP showed that the drug was effective against the disease within two weeks and was well tolerated. Anivive is currently scaling up production of the drug for larger studies in cats.

For the new study, the University of Alberta team tested both GC376 and its parent drug, GC373, for their ability to inhibit the 3C protease. Both drugs blocked viral replication, they reported.

The authors acknowledged that vaccines against COVID-19 are advancing rapidly, but they suggested antiviral drugs are still necessary in the short term. SARS-CoV-2 is a virus with a significant mutation rate. Also, in some patients the virus has persisted longer than 2 months with some possibility of re-infection, they wrote in the study.

M. Joanne Lemieux, Ph.D., professor of structural biology at the University of Alberta, pointed out in an interview with Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News that GC376 could be advanced rapidly into human trials, given its track record in veterinary medicine.

Because this drug has already been used to treat cats with coronavirus, and its effective with little to no toxicity, its already passed [preclinical] stages, and this allows us to move forward, Lemieux said.

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Cats point the way to potential COVID-19 remedies - FierceBiotech

Is Lab-Grown Meat Healthy and Safe to Consume? – One Green Planet

It goes by many names: cultured, in vitro, cell-based, cultivated, lab-grown meat, etc. As the names imply, it is a meat alternative made in a lab via animal cells and a cultured medium, like fetal bovine serum or a proprietary mix of sugars and salts. Several companies around the world are promoting this new technique as a way to cultivate a meat alternative that is supposedly cleaner and safer than traditional meat.

(We are only looking at those products that culture cells taken from animals into a new meat-like formulation. There are many other products that culture plant, fungi, or algal cells into a meat substitute, but we are not reviewing them here.)

29 companies are planning to bring lab-cultured meat to market in the form of chicken, beef, pork, seafood, pet food, and beyond. These companies include Memphis Meats, Aleph Farms, Mosa Meat, Meatable, SuperMeat, and Finless Foods. These companies are backed by huge investments from meat industry corporations (Cargill and Tyson), venture capitalist firms (Blue Yard Capital, Union Square Ventures, S2G Ventures, and Emerald Technology Ventures), and billionaires (such as Bill Gates and Richard Branson).

While the hype is certainly there, is lab-cultured meat actually better? Its proponents tout it as an environmentally responsible, cruelty-free, and antibiotic-free alternative to current meat production. While the goal of producing sustainable meat without killing animals is admirable, lab-cultured meat is in its infancy and the science behind the production methods requires more scrutiny.

Of particular concern is the genetic engineering of cells and their potential cancer-promoting properties. To be able to better assess whether the products are being produced by methods that involve genetic engineering and use genetic constructs (called onco-genes, typically used to make stem cells keep growing; this is not a problem for lab experiments, but could be for food products) that might encourage cancer cells, we need more information on how the cells are engineered and kept growing. Many of the companies are claiming this information is confidential and a business secret. These companies are not yet patenting their production processes wherein this information would be more fully disclosed. Some suggest that the production will follow the FDA cell culture guidelines, but theFDAs cell culture guidelines do not apply to this because theyre not designed for food.

To produce lab-cultured meat, many producers extract animal cells from living animals. This is typically done via biopsy, a painful and uncomfortable procedure that uses large needles. If a company could scale up with this method, it would require a consistent supply of animals from which to acquire cells and innumerable painful extractions. To make the cell-based product more consistent, the producer may biopsy the same animal many times for the cells that growing meat requires.

Growing animal cells (typically muscle cells) also requires a growth medium. When lab-cultured meat production first began, companies depended on fetal bovine serum (FBS) as a growth medium. Producing FBS involves extracting blood from the fetus of a pregnant cow when the cow is slaughtered.

Given its high cost, it appears that FBS is usually only used during small-scale lab trials. Additionally, increasing production capacity using FBS comes with its own set of concerns. Even disregarding the high cost of FBS, non-genetically engineered animal muscle cells only proliferate or increase to a certain degree. In order to overcome this limitation, large companies such as Mosa Meats and Memphis Meats claim theyve found an FBS alternative that does not involve animals along with an effective way to expand production. For Memphis Meats, this process involves the utilization of abioreactor and the creation of immortal cell lines.

Curious about how we make our Memphis Meat? See below! #sogood pic.twitter.com/co5d7OY0bI

Memphis Meats (@MemphisMeats) May 8, 2018

These companies are using a bioreactor essentially a very large vessel for containing biological reactions and processes to implement a scaffold-based system to grow meat, which uses a specific structure for cells to grow on and around. The scaffolding helps the cells differentiate into a specific meat-like formation. Researchers cite using cornstarch fibers, plant skeletons, fungi, and gelatin as common scaffold materials. Instead of animal muscle cell precursors (otherwise known as myosatellites), researchers have been using cultured stem cells. This distinction is important because extracted muscle cells will only proliferate to a certain extent. Companies are trying cultured stem cells as an alternative type of cell(s) that could proliferate exponentially so that they could scale up production, and later differentiate the cells into the various cell types that make up animal meat (muscle, fat, and blood cells) in a bioreactor.

In this process, the stem cells still come from animals or animal embryos, but what differentiates the two methods is that in the scaffold-based system, the cells can be genetically engineered to proliferate indefinitely. These cells are otherwise known as pluripotent (which make many kinds of cells, like stem cells) or totipotent (which make every kind of cell, as do embryos). This would greatly expand a companys capacity to make lab-cultured meat, but the methods by which companies make these cells proliferate come with human health and food safety ramifications.

While the FDA has previously reviewed enzymes, oils, algal, fungal, and bacterial products grown in microorganisms, these new animal cell-cultured products are much more complicated in structure and require a more thorough review. The scale required for making lab-cultured meat feasible for mass consumption will be the largest form of tissue engineering to exist and could introduce new kinds of genetically engineered cells into our diets. Further research will also be needed to conrm or dispel uncertainties over various potential safety issues. Candidate topics for research include the safety of ingesting rapidly growing genetically-modied cell lines, as these lines exhibit the characteristics of a cancerous cell which include overgrowth of cells not attributed to the original characteristics of a population of cultured primary cells. If lab-cultured meat enters the market, there are several human health concerns associated with this new production method, specifically that these genetically-modified cell lines could exhibit the characteristics of a cancerous cell.

While these companies dont disclose much to the public about their processing methods, their public patents reveal the creation of oncogenic, or cancer-causing, cells.A Memphis Meats patent on the creation of modified pluripotent cell lines involves the activation or inactivation of various proteins responsible for tumor suppression. Another patent from JUST Inc. describes the utilization of growth factors as part of its growth medium. This process could promote the development of cancer-like cells in lab-cultured meat products. Additionally, it is possible certain growth factors can be absorbed in the bloodstream after digestion.

If they are using stem cells, cell-based meat companies need to pay attention to the risk of cancer cells emerging in their cultures. A research team from the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI), Harvard Medical School (HMS), and the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard has found that as stem cell lines grow in a lab environment, they often acquire mutations in the TP53 (p53) gene, an important tumor suppressor responsible for controlling cell growth and division. Their research suggests that inexpensive genetic sequencing technologies should be used by cell-based meat companies to screen for mutated cells in stem cell cultures so that these cultures can be excluded.

Cancer-causing additives are prohibited in our food supply under the Delaney Clauses in the 19
58 Food Additive Amendments and the 1960 Color Additive Amendments to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA). These new rapidly growing cell lines might be considered color additives if they are being used to produce the color in the meat. The federal statutes regulating meat also prohibit the selling of animals with symptoms of illness, such as cancerous cells in meat. Regardless, all of these new ways of making cells that continue to grow or differentiate should require a safety assessment to determine if they contain cancerous cells before they can be sold.

In describing the scaffolding and growth media being used, lab-cultured meat companies need to be fully transparent about what ingredients theyre using. During the above-mentioned industry nonprofits presentation, the presenter suggested the growth media could be composed of a variety of different ingredients like proteins, amino acids, vitamins, and inorganic salts classified under the GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) process that allows companies to do their own testing and not submit to a new FDA food additive review. Since companies are not required to fully disclose the composition of their scaffolding or growth media, potentially exposing consumers to novel proteins and allergens, the new mixture of ingredients should be reviewed under a full FDA supervised food additive review, not GRAS.

Another major issue associated with processing methods using cell lines and/or culture medium is contamination. Unlike animals, cells do not have a fully functioning immune system, so there is a high likelihood of bacterial or fungal growth, mycoplasma, and other human pathogens growing in vats of cells. While lab-cultured meat companies emphasize that this type of meat production would be more sterile than traditional animal agriculture, its unknown how that is true without the use of antibiotics or some other pharmaceutical means of pathogenic control.

Based on commentary from various companies, antibiotic usage across the industry is still very unclear. While the industrys promoters have outlined many uses for antibiotics in lab-grown meat production in preventing contamination, they have not disclosed the amount of antibiotics being used in the various processes. Instead, they suggest that because mass production of lab-grown meat will be done in an industrial rather than lab setting, with bioreactors and tanks, there will be higher safety oversight than in medical labs. It is suggested that the many preventative measures in the industry will maintain a sterile boundary and deter antibiotic use in production. It remains a question of how a food production plant would be more sterile than a medical lab.

Some companies, such as Memphis Meats claim they are genetically engineering cell lines to be antibiotic-resistant, which would suggest they plan on using antibiotics, but dont want their meat cells to be affected. Problems with bacterial and viral contamination plague medical cell culture, so they generally use antimicrobials. Still, any large-scale production that requires antibiotic use even if just for a short-term duration should require such lab-cultured meat undergo even stricter USDA drug residue testing, pathogen testing, and FDA tolerance requirements than conventionally-produced meat. Many other companies claim they dont plan to use antibiotics in expanded production which begs the question, in addition to supposed sterile bioreactors, are they using other undisclosed processes to prevent contamination? For example, Future Meat Technologies describes the use of a special resin to remove toxins.

The companies have also not disclosed plans for how they will dispose of the toxins from bioreactors, scaffolding, and culture media like growth factors/hormones, differentiation factors, often including fetal calf serum or horse serum, and antimicrobials (commonly added to cultured cells to prevent bacterial and fungal contamination, particularly in long-term cultures). In conventionally-produced meat, animals dispose of these toxins in their urine and feces. If companies cant find a way for this meat to dispose of these toxins, they could potentially build up within the meat itself. Given the lack of clarity of these companies and their processes, there must be continuous monitoring of the cell lines and growth media/bioreactor for contaminants and some sort of standardization established across the industry to ensure safety.

The industry is new and the exact production process and inputs needed for large-scale, lab-cultured meat production are unknown (or not being disclosed by the companies). It is the responsibility of both FDA and USDA to ensure that all inputs used in production and the final product are safe for human and animal consumption. These agencies must ensure that lab-cultured meat is labeled appropriately, including if any of the product ingredients are genetically modified or if the ingredients are produced using unmodified cells from animals. These agencies must also ensure that this product doesnt introduce new allergens into the food supply, that any hormones or antibiotics used are not found at unsafe levels in the final product, and that the product doesnt contain any compounds or oncogenic (cancer-causing) cells that have not been approved for use in food.

Lab-cultured meat should not be allowed to use the Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) regulatory loophole wherein companies can hire their own experts to evaluate their products, often in secret without any notice to the public or FDA. GRAS is an inappropriate designation because the consensus among knowledgeable experts regarding the safety of lab-cultured meat does not yet exist. Instead, FDA should require that lab-cultured meat products be regulated more thoroughly as food additives. Meat companies should submit complete food additive petitions for each of the novel ingredients used to produce these meats as well as a final food approval petition for the entire product. The production facilities, like all meat processing plants, should then have USDA inspectors on-site monitoring the process and inspecting the meat. The USDA announced in August that it will start the process of developing regulations for these new kinds of meat. Adequate regulation will be necessary to address the concerns raised in this blog.

Overall, due to the novel nature of lab-cultured meat, the lack of transparency from the companies involved, and the myriad potential health risks to consumers, rigorous regulation of this product is vitally important. Join Center for Food Safetys mailing list to protect your right to safe food HERE >>

For those of you interested in eating more plant-based, we highly recommend downloading theFood Monster App with over 15,000 delicious recipes it is the largest plant-based recipe resource to help reduce your environmental footprint, save animals and get healthy! And, while you are at it, we encourage you to also learn about theenvironmentalandhealth benefitsof aplant-based diet.

Here are some great resources to get you started:

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Is Lab-Grown Meat Healthy and Safe to Consume? - One Green Planet

Celyad’s High Hopes for a Path Forward in Cancer Immunotherapy with CYAD-211 – BioSpace

Celyad Oncology is at the forefront of cutting-edge immunotherapy and is hopeful of providing a new way forward for patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma. After receiving FDA approval on July 14th to begin Phase I trials, they plan to be in the clinic with their first patient the end of 2020.

The Belgian clinical-stage biotechnology company is focused on the discovery and development of chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR-T) therapies for cancer. Celyad Oncology is also developing CYAD-101, an investigational non-gene edited, allogeneic NKG2D-based CAR-T therapy for metastatic colorectal cancer.

The two primary types of cell therapy are autologous and allogeneic. Autologous CAR-T therapy uses the transplantation and genetic editing of a patients own immune cells in a single batch, while an allogeneic transplant uses immune cells from a donor manufactured in large batches. Celyad Oncology is only the fourth company to proceed to Phase I with an allogeneic CAR-T working against a target known as B-cell maturationantigen (BCMA), which is highly expressed in multiple myeloma patients.

The Phase I objectives for CYAD-211 are to establish the viability, effectiveness and further possibilities opened up by the shRNA-based technology. Along with analyzing the merits of targeting BCMA with a CAR-T, Celyad Oncology Chief Executive Officer Filippo Petti shared that the companys first priority is to prove the premise that ShRNA bears out for allogeneic CAR-T.

The first level is to get into the clinic and evaluate the question, is shRNA a novel, non-gene edited allogeneic approach to CAR-T? Where the majority of our peers in the space work on genome using the gene editing technology, if we can show that another non-gene editing technology like ShRNA works, it would just open up the whole field in terms of allogeneic CAR-T. It would demonstrate that we have an unencumbered asset and technology platform for us to create next-generation CAR-T candidates with, Petti said. Well know very quickly, within the first few patients, if we are seeing an absence of graft-versus-host disease, and if ShRNA carries its weight in terms of being an allogeneic technology.

He expects to have a sense of how competitive the data is in terms of both safety and clinical efficacy by end of year 2021.

Dr. Laurence Cooper, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ziopharm Oncology, who is also a veteran innovator in pairing genetic engineering with immunotherapies, explained that Graft-versus-Host Disease (GvHD) is one of biggest challenges facing companies who take the allogeneic approach.

When you put in third party cells, those cells get really confused right off the bat because now theyre somewhere new, and all of a sudden they perceive the patient as the threat. This can result in Graft-versus-Host Disease, an autoimmune disease triggered by the native biology in the T cell through its T cell receptor, Cooper said. The engineering that youre talking about is to eliminate that threat. Some cut out the genetic material coding for the endogenous T cell receptor so that now a T cell can go into another person, and it cant perceive the threat anymore because its lost its antennae. Another way is to prevent expression of the T cell receptor. Now the T cell can do something useful if you put in a CAR, it can go off and targetBCMA.

Frdric F. Lehmann, Head of the Oncology Franchise at Celyad Oncology, explained how the shRNA-based therapy is engineered to reign in the cells new rampant disregard for threat, and lessen the chances of an autoimmune response.

One of the innovations for CYAD-211 is incorporating in the vector a short hairpin RNA (shRNA) targeting the CD3 subunit of the T cell Receptor (TCR). This effectively downregulates the surface expression of the TCR thereby inhibiting the signaling that would lead to Graft-versus-Host Disease, Lehmann said.

A notable drawback with the autologous approach to CAR-T therapy is that it is costly and time-consuming. Petti explained how CYAD-211 not only has the potential to improve efficacy, but also make the treatment process more scalable and therefore economically expedient.

When it comes to commercialization, because we use an all-in-one-vector approach, we benefit from less manipulations during manufacturing, allowing us to enrich for the engineered cells we want, which eventually could help during potential commercialization of a product thats streamlined, Petti said.

He added that the all-in-one vector approach increases efficiency because, as opposed to the case with the gene editing process, they are able to accomplish everything in a single step.

Long term, Cooper is excited about the possibility that, whether autologous or allogeneic, immunotherapy may one day replace bone marrow transplants, or even chemotherapy, but emphasized that it must be made accessible.

If these immunotherapies can be advanced really to replace chemotherapy, not to replace transplantation for liquid tumors, but to replace chemotherapy, which is a huge goal if you can get it to do that, you have to bring the costs down to make it available for the masses, inside first world economies as well as less privileged societies, Cooper said.

In 2013, the overall five-year survival rate for multiple myeloma stood at 49.6%. Relapsed/refractory patients for whom currently available treatments have failed, are the intended beneficiaries of much of the biotechnology work being done in this area. And impressive steps have recently been made.

GlaxoSmithKlines BLENREP (BelantamabMafodotin) is the first in its class to work against BCMA, while Janssen Biotechs (Johnson & Johnson) DARZALEX (Daratumumab) is the first human Anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody in the space. After their 2019 acquisition of Celgene Corp., Bristol-Myers Squibb gained Revlimid (Lenalidomide), a hematology drug approved for multiple myeloma, and Amgen and Takeda have popular proteasome inhibitors on the market.

With Celyad Oncology moving the needle forward once again, the future looks a little brighter for multiple myeloma patients.

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Celyad's High Hopes for a Path Forward in Cancer Immunotherapy with CYAD-211 - BioSpace

Effective Cancer Immunotherapy Further Linked To Regulating A Cell Suicide Gene – Newswise

Newswise Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers have added to evidence that a gene responsible for turning off a cells natural suicide signals may also be the culprit in making breast cancer and melanoma cells resistant to therapies that use the immune system to fight cancer. A summary of the research, conducted with mice and human cells, appeared Aug. 25 in Cell Reports.

When the gene, called BIRC2, is sent into overdrive, it makes too much, or an overexpression, of protein levels. This occurs in about 40% of breast cancers, particularly the more lethal type called triple negative, and it is not known how often the gene is overexpressed in melanomas.

If further studies affirm and refine the new findings, the researchers say, BIRC2 overexpression could be a key marker for immunotherapy resistance, further advancing precision medicine efforts in this area of cancer treatment. A marker of this kind could alert clinicians to the potential need for using drugs that block the genes activity in combination with immunotherapy drugs to form a potent cocktail to kill cancer in some treatment-resistant patients.

Cancer cells use many pathways to evade the immune system, so our goal is to find additional drugs in our toolbox to complement the immunotherapy drugs currently in use, says Gregg Semenza, M.D., Ph.D., the C. Michael Armstrong Professor of Genetic Medicine, Pediatrics, Oncology, Medicine, Radiation Oncology and Biological Chemistry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and director of the Vascular Program at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Cell Engineering.

Semenza shared the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of the gene that guides how cells adapt to low oxygen levels, a condition called hypoxia.

In 2018, Semenzas team showed that hypoxia essentially molds cancer cells into survival machines. Hypoxia prompts cancer cells to turn on three genes to help them evade the immune system by inactivating either the identification system or the eat me signal on immune cells. A cell surface protein called CD47 is the only dont eat me signal that blocks killing of cancer cells by immune cells called macrophages. Other cell surface proteins, PDL1 and CD73, block killing of cancer cells by immune cells called T lymphocytes.

These super-survivor cancer cells could explain, in part, Semenza says, why only 20% to 30% of cancer patients respond to drugs that boost the immune systems ability to target cancer cells.

For the current study, building on his basic science discoveries, Semenza and his team sorted through 325 human genes identified by researchers at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston whose protein products were overexpressed in melanoma cells and linked to processes that help cancer cells evade the immune system.

Semenzas team found that 38 of the genes are influenced by the transcription factor HIF-1, which regulates how cells adapt to hypoxia; among the 38 was BIRC2 (baculoviral IAP repeat-containing 2), already known to prevent cell suicide, or apoptosis, in essence a form of programmed cell death that is a brake on the kind of unchecked cell growth characteristic of cancer.

BIRC2 also blocks cells from secreting proteins that attract immune cells, such as T-cells and natural killer cells.

First, by studying the BIRC2 genome in human breast cancer cells, Semenzas team found that hypoxia proteins HIF1 and HIF2 bind directly to a portion of the BIRC2 gene under low oxygen conditions, identifying a direct mechanism for boosting the BIRC2 genes protein production.

Then, the research team examined how tumors developed in mice when they were injected with human breast cancer or melanoma cells genetically engineered to contain little or no BIRC2 gene expression. In mice injected with cancer cells lacking BIRC2 expression, tumors took longer to form, about three to four weeks, compared with the typical two weeks it takes to form tumors in mice.

The tumors formed by BIRC2-free cancer cells also had up to five times the level of a protein called CXCL9, the substance that attracts immune system T-cells and natural killer cells to the tumor location. The longer the tumor took to form, the more T-cells and natural killer cells were found inside the tumor.

Semenza notes that finding a plentiful number of immune cells within a tumor is a key indicator of immunotherapy success.

Next, to determine whether the immune system was critical to the stalled tumor growth they saw, Semenzas team injected the BIRC2-free melanoma and breast cancer cells into mice bred to have no functioning immune system. They found that tumors grew at the same rate, in about two weeks, as typical tumors. This suggests that the decreased tumor growth rate associated with loss of BIRC2 is dependent on recruiting T-cells and natural killer cells into the tumor, says Semenza.

Finally, Semenza and his team analyzed mice implanted with human breast cancer or melanoma tumors that either produced BIRC2 or were engineered to lack BIRC2. They gave the mice with melanoma tumors two types of immunotherapy FDA-approved for human use, and treated mice with breast tumors with one of the immunotherapy drugs. In both tumor types, the immunotherapy drugs were effective only against the tumors that lacked BIRC2.

Experimental drugs called SMAC mimetics that inactivate BIRC2 and other anti-cell suicide proteins are currently in clinical trials for certain types of cancers, but Semenza says that the drugs have not been very effective when used on their own.

These drugs might be very useful to improve the response to immunotherapy drugs in people with tumors that have high BIRC2 levels, says Semenza.

Scientists who contributed to the research include Debangshu Samanta, Tina Yi-Ting Huang, Rima Shah, Yongkang Yang and Fan Pan of Johns Hopkins.

This research was supported by grants from the Emerson Collective Cancer Research Fund, American Cancer Society, Armstrong Family Foundation, the Cindy Rosencrans Fund for Triple-Negative Breast Cancer, the C. Michael Armstrong Professorship of Genetic Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a Career Catalyst Research grant from the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2020.108073

Link:
Effective Cancer Immunotherapy Further Linked To Regulating A Cell Suicide Gene - Newswise

Perspective: A Sign Of Immortality | WNIJ and WNIU – WNIJ and WNIU

Francisco Solares-Larrave's "Perspective" (September 2, 2020).

Sometimes, I take a walk through a cemetery near my house. There's nothing morbid about it. In fact, I enjoy cemeteries, and during a trip, I insisted on seeing the cemetery of a small French town, and we found the tomb of Marc Chagall. I felt vindicated.

The one near my house has no celebrities that I know of. It looks a bit abandoned, despite some shiny headstones here and there. When I walk through it, I stop to contemplate some groups.

There's an entire family -- they have the same last name -- that makes me think they're together, like sharing an eternal Thanksgiving.

There are also several small headstones with a man's name first, and a woman's below it, with the title "wife" added. Were they stoic? Were they good neighbors? Did they like music?

I also find it mystifying that some headstones have just one name, nothing else, as if that were enough.

Is this immortality? That you may be known by your first name? That your family will be buried around you, in a section of the cemetery? It may seem odd, but to me there is some measure of immortality in their choice of headstone. That's how those Finnish, Swedish, German and British last names tell stories of struggles, success or failure. They left an imprint visible today. If that's not immortality, tell me what is.

I am Francisco Solares-Larrave, and that's my perspective.

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Perspective: A Sign Of Immortality | WNIJ and WNIU - WNIJ and WNIU

The First Emperor of China Who Died in His Quest Pursuing Immortality – Interesting Engineering

Once upon a time, over two thousand years ago, the first Emperor of China was so great, powerful, and ambitious that he spent his entire life pursuing his ultimate goal: Trying to find a potion that could make him immortal. Indeed, in the end, he found immortality in the history books.

This crucial chapter in Chinese history unfolded in one of the oldest cities in China, the city ofXi'an. The birth of China's first imperial dynasty took place during a time of conflict, betrayal, and lust for power that shaped the future of the nation.

The Zhou Dynasty was the longest-ruling Chinese dynasty. It lasted from 1122-255 BC. The Qin Dynasty(pronounced chin), the first dynasty of Imperial China, was the shortest-ruling Chinese dynasty (221-206 BCE). It lasted only 15 years, well against the First Emperor's wishes. The latter is the dynasty that occupies our interest.

The Qin Dynasty reunited China and laid the foundation for 21 centuries of imperial rule. Our focus is on the tragic and ironic destiny of the First Emperor of China, who died during his search for the elixir of life after a life-long fear of death.

Qin Shi Huang (Ying Zheng) was born in 259 BCE in Hanan, but the exact date is unknown.It is believed that the name Qin is the etymological ancestor of today's name of the country, China. Some scholars, though, dismissed this etymology.

Ying Zheng was the son of King Zhuangxiang of Qin and Lady Zhao Ji. Or that is what the King believed. A legend says that Lu Buwei, a rich merchant, and his wife, Zhao Ji, had got pregnant when Buwei arranged for Zhuangxiang to meet and fall in love with her. When Zhao Ji gave birth to Lu Buwei's child in 259 BCE, the King believed the baby was his own.

Ying Zheng became King of the Qin state upon the death of his supposed father. The young King was only 13 years old. His prime minister and likely real father, Lu Buwei, acted as regent for the first eight years.

According to the Records of the Grand Historian, in 240BCE, Lu Buwei introduced the King's mother, Zhao Ji, to Lao Ai as part of a scheme to depose Qin Shi Huang. The queen dowager and Lao Ai had two sons. In 238 BCE, Lao Ai and Bu Buwei decided to launch a coup. Lao Ai raised an army with the help of the king of nearby Wei. He tried to seize control while Qin Shi Huang was traveling.

However, Qin Shi Huang found out about the rebellion. Lao was executed by having his neck, arms, and legs tied to horses, which were spurred to run in different directions. The young King forced his mother Zhao Ji to watch, while soldiers went to kill his two half-brothers.

Lao's whole family and all relatives to the third degree (uncles, aunts, and cousins) were also killed. Zhao Ji was spared, but forced to spend the rest of her life under house arrest. Lu Buwei was banished after the incident. He lived in constant fear of execution. In 235 BCE, Lu Buwei committed suicide by drinking poison.

After the Lao Ai incident, Qin Shi Huang grew increasingly suspicious of everyone around him. He survived two murder attempts.

Qin Shi Huang had around 50 children including Fusu, Gao, Jiangl, and Huhai, but had no empress. His most notable quote is: "I have collected all the writings of the Empire and burnt those which were of no use." Of not use for him, that is.

Zheng assumed the sacred titles of legendary rulers and proclaimed himself Qin Shi Huang (First Sovereign Emperor of Qin). He claimed that his dynasty would last 10,000 generations. However, the 15 years of the Qin dynasty was the shortest major dynasty in the history of China, consisting of only two emperors. The 35-year reign of Qin Shi Huang brought both rapid cultural and intellectual advancement as well as much destruction and oppression within China.

Yet, the Qin dynasty inaugurated an imperial system that lasted from 221 BCE until 1912. The Qin introduced a standardized currency, weights, measures, and a uniform system of writing, which aimed at unifying the state and promote commerce. The military used the latest weaponry, transportation, and military tactics. The Confucians portrayed the Qin dynasty as a monolithic tyranny, citing a purge which was known as the burning of books and burying of scholars.

As the Emperor entered middle age, he grew more and more afraid of death. Qin Shi Huang became obsessed with finding an elixir of life, a potion for immortality. The court alchemists and doctors devoted day and night to find potions for the Emperor, many of them containing quicksilver (mercury). Slowly, the ironic effect of the potions resulted in the death of the Emperor, rather than preventing it.

The Emperor also ordered the construction of a gargantuan tomb for himself, in case the immortality treatment failed. Plans for the Emperor's tomb included flowing rivers of mercury, cross-bow booby traps to thwart would-be plunderers, and replicas of all the Emperor's earthly palaces.

In 211 BCE, a large meteor fell in Dongjun, representing an ominous sign for the Emperor. What followed was a stone found with the words "the First Emperor will die and his land will be divided." The Emperor ordered everyone in the vicinity to be executed, since no one would confess to the crime.

A year later, while touring eastern China, Qin Shi Huang died on September 10, 210 BCE in Julu Commandery. He was 49 years old. Details of the cause of Qin Shi Huang's death are largely unknown to this date. However, it is known that the cause of death was mercury poisoning.

Reportedly, he died from Chinese alchemical elixir poisoning due to ingesting mercury pills --made by his alchemists and court physicians-- believing it to be an elixir of immortality. The Emperor, who had feared death since a young age, wanted to conquer death at any cost and was kin on trying immortality treatments.

Qin Shi Huang believed that as the Emperor of China, he would need an army in the afterlife, in the event that his elixir of life failed him. He believed an army could protect him. So, his subjects built 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots, and 670 horses out of terracotta to help protect the great Emperor from his rival armies in the afterlife. The project took off and a mausoleum was carefully planned.

The construction of the one-of-its-kind mausoleum began when the Emperor was just 14 years old, and long before he took on power. We are talking about a 14-year-old child who witnessed the preparations for his own death before he had the chance to live, which might explain his life-log terrifying fear of death.

In the second year of their reign, Kings began building their own tomb. his father died when he was 13 years old. Qin Shi Huang ordered the construction of his mausoleum at the age of 14.

As his own tomb grew, so did his fear of death. The fear of death would accompany him for the rest of his life, well until the end.

It took immense manpower to complete the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, which was only discovered, and in part unearthed, in March 1974.

The Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor and First Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, was constructed for over 38 years, from 246 to 208 BCE. The Mausoleum is underneath a 76-meter-tall (249 feet) tomb mound-shaped like a truncated pyramid in Lintong District, Xi'an, Shaanxi province of China.

The tomb complex contains an estimated 8,000 life-like clay soldiers, chariots, horses, weapons, and mass graves with evidence of brutal power. Archeologists have been reluctant to open Qin Shi Huang's actual tomb.

The Terracotta Army is a collection of over 8,000 real-size sculptures depicting the armies of the First Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang. Archeologists first found 8,000 warriors. Each warrior has very distinct facial features. Most recently, archeologists in China found over 200 others. Experts in military say the discovery of the warriors depicts how the Qin military used to operate.

The Terracotta Army is a display of the militar formation of the Qin army. The first three rows are archers facing forward. Behind them, stand infantry men in 38 rows, poise to strike upon commander's orders. The flanks are defended by troops on the peripheric, facing upward, watching for threats from any direction.

The funerary massive art collection was buried with the Emperor in 210-209 BCE to protect him in his afterlife. All the terracotta warriors are facing east, and there is a reason for that.

During the 3rd Century BCE, the land we now call China was a bloody battle ground, and battles went on for decades. According to historical records, the original ruling area in Qin was the west, whereas all the other states were in the east of China. Qin Shi Huang's goal was to unify all states. The fact that the warriors and horses are facing east confirms his determination for unification even in his afterlife.

Each Terracotta Warrior is 1.80 centimeters (6 feet) tall and weighs 160 to 300 kilograms (approximately 300 to 400 pounds). An interesting fact is that the hands were made in one whole piece and separately, they would only be added at the end.Each Terracotta Warrior was molded with individual and unique facial features. The bodies and limbs were mass-produced from molds.

The FBI has estimated that each 300-kilogram Terracotta Warrior is worth $4.5 million. Perhaps this explains why in December 2017, someone broke off and stole a Terracotta Warrior's left thumb from the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, in The United States, where 10 of the ancient relics were on loan. Although the event speaks more about ignorance than about greed.

The Emperor Qin Shi Huang ordered the construction of the Great Wall around 221 BCE to protect his Empire from the recurrent threat from the north, raids by the nomadic Xiongnu, who were the ancestors of Attila's Huns.

The labor force that built the enormous defensive wall was largely made up of hundreds of thousands of slaves and convicts. The work was completed between 220 and 206 BCE. Thousands died during that period at the task.

The northern fortification formed the first section of what later on would become the Great Wall of China. In 214, the Emperor ordered the construction of a canal which would link the Yangtze and Pearl River systems, the Lingqu Canal.

The Great Wall was not just built by slaves and convicts. Scholars who refused to allow their books to be burned following orders from Emperor Qin Shi Huang were either burned alive or sent to work on the wall.

In 213 BCE, the Emperor's orders were that all books that were not about agriculture, medicine, prophesy, or related to his reign had to be burned. It was a way of weakening scholars and teachers, especially Confucianism and a number of other philosophies. Qin Shi Huang viewed these schools of thought as threats to his authority. Let's not forget that knowledge is power, and the Emperor wanted absolute control and power over China.

Approximately 460 scholars were not lucky enough to work on the wall as slaves. Instead, they were buried alive for daring to disagree with the Emperor. Other 700 scholars were stoned to death. From then on, the only school of thought approved by the Emperor was legalism, which meant to follow the Emperor's laws, or face the consequences.

Whether Qin Shi Huang should be remembered more for his architectural creations and cultural advances, or for his brutal tyranny is a matter of dispute. All scholars, however, agree that Qin Shi Huang, the First Emperor of the Qin dynasty and a unified China, was one of the most important rulers in the whole Chinese history.

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The First Emperor of China Who Died in His Quest Pursuing Immortality - Interesting Engineering

The Originals: How Rebekah Mikaelson Got The Vampire Cure – Screen Rant

In The Originals series finale, Klaus makes up for 1,000 years of torturing Rebekah by offering her the cure. All she has to do is wait a few decades.

In the series finale of The Originals, Klaus Mikaelson offered his sister Rebekah what she wanted most in the world: the cure for immortality. The Vampire Diaries introduced the cure during season 4.When a member of The Five arrived in Mystic Falls, the story behind the cure slowly unfolded. The witch Qetsiyah created the immortality spell, cementing their love as eternal. After Silas betrayed her, she developed the cure. Qetsiyah demanded Silas drink it so that they could spend the rest of their mortal lives together. When he refused, she locked him in a tomb with the cure. Every vampire in Mystic Falls had a vested interest in finding the tomb, Silas, and the cure.

The search for Silas led most of the main characters, including Rebekah, to a remote island off the coast of Nova Scotia, but it was Katherine Pierce who succeeded in retrieving the cure and freeing Silas. Bonnie Bennett eventually defeated the ancient witch, encasing him in stone (he escaped following Bonnie's death). Damon Salvatore gave the cure to Elena Gilbert, who shoved it down Katherine's throat. Silas drained it from Katherine, and when Stefan Salvatore killed Silas, the cure went with him. However, when Bonnie returned from the 1994 Prison World (an alternate dimension where the cure still existed) during season 6, she brought the cure back with her. History repeated itself when Damon once again gave it to Elena. Bonnie injected Stefan with Elena's blood during season 8, making him human, and in the series finale, Stefan passed the cure on to Damon.

RELATED: The Originals: What The Main Cast Has Done Since The Show Ended

Before Klaus died, he offered Rebekah a peace offering: the cure. He told his sister the cure was waiting for her in Mystic Falls, and he asked Caroline Forbes to get it for her, saying,"In a handful of decades, when it's time, you can go to Mystic Falls and get it. Then if you no longer wish to be a vampire, it's your choice."It's unclear how long Klaus had known there was a second cure, since Damon and Stefan were initially determined to keep its existence a secret fearing for Elena's safety. The cure was never mentioned throughout The Originals until the series finale, despite both Rebekah's and Klaus' desire to procure it onThe Vampire Diaries.

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The Originals: How Rebekah Mikaelson Got The Vampire Cure - Screen Rant

Norwalks Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum virtual Starlit Gala includes talk on bioethics in the pursuit of immortality – Thehour.com

Glenn E. McGee, PhD, will discuss biotech advances toward immortality at the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum virtual Starlit Gala on Oct. 17. Tickets are $50 to $100.

Glenn E. McGee, PhD, will discuss biotech advances toward immortality at the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum virtual Starlit Gala on Oct. 17. Tickets are $50 to $100.

Photo: Hamerman Photography, 2017 / Contributed Photo

Glenn E. McGee, PhD, will discuss biotech advances toward immortality at the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum virtual Starlit Gala on Oct. 17. Tickets are $50 to $100.

Glenn E. McGee, PhD, will discuss biotech advances toward immortality at the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum virtual Starlit Gala on Oct. 17. Tickets are $50 to $100.

Norwalks Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum virtual Starlit Gala includes talk on bioethics in the pursuit of immortality

Norwalks Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum will celebrate science and history at its virtual Starlit Gala on Saturday, Oct. 17, that will include a presentation on humanitys pursuit of immortality by award-winning expert on bioethics, Glenn E. McGee, PhD.

Along with McGees talk, the 8 p.m. event, co-chaired by trustees Trudy Dujardin and Mickey Koleszar, will honor David Westmoreland, a longstanding supporter of LMMM and its preservation.

There will be a catered dinner and silent auction. All all proceeds will benefit the museums educational and cultural programs. Tickets are $50 to $100.

During these uncertain times, this educational and cultural icon needs support from all of our communities, and the gala is a major opportunity to step up to the plate, Dujardin and Koleszar said in a news release.

McGee will discuss revolutionary advances in biomedical science technology in pursuit of immortality, and the ethical, legal and social questions they pose.

McGee is the author of three books, The Perfect Baby: A Pragmatic Approach to Genetics; Beyond Genetics; and Bioethics for Beginners, and more than 100 articles. He is the founder and served for 11 years as editor-in-chief of The American Journal of Bioethics, the leading publication in its field. He has served on the board of directors of the American Society for Bioethics and on more than a dozen federal and state advisory panels. He has received the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Cellular and Molecular Devices Advisory Panel Outstanding Service Award. McGee is Deputy Provost for the University of New Haven and received a B.A. from Baylor University and M.A. and Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University.

Born in Houston, Texas, Westmoreland graduated from Baylor University with a bachelors degree in Computer Science and worked for 23 years in the field of Information Technology at such corporations as American Airlines and Arrow Electronics. He completed his Master of Landscape Architecture at Cornell University in 2006 and is a registered landscape architect and co-owner, with Mike Mushak, of Tuliptree Site Design, Inc. in Norwalk.

Westmoreland serves the community in Norwalk in a number of roles, including: Chairman of the Second Taxing District Commission (SNEW), Redevelopment Agency Commissioner, and on the Norwalk Historical Society Board of Directors, among others. He has served as chairman of the City of Norwalks Historical Commission, overseeing the relocation and development of the new Historical Society Museum, the renovations of the buildings and park at Mill Hill, and three city-owned cemeteries, along with the historic buildings at Mathews Park, including the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum.

The virtual Starlit Gala is sponsored in part by Fairfield County Bank and David Scott Parker Architects. The graphic design sponsor is Miggs B Design.

LMMMs cultural and educational programs are made possible in part by funding from LMMMs Founding Patrons: The Estate of Mrs. Cynthia Clark Brown; LMMMs Leadership Patrons: The Sealark Foundation; LMMMs 2020 Season Distinguished Benefactors: The City of Norwalk and The Maurice Goodman Foundation; LMMMs 2020 Distinguished Benefactors for Education: The Daphne Seybolt Culpeper Memorial Foundation, Inc.

For more information on the gala, visit lockwoodmathewsmansion.com.

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Norwalks Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum virtual Starlit Gala includes talk on bioethics in the pursuit of immortality - Thehour.com

Engineering human ACE2 to optimize binding to the spike protein of SARS coronavirus 2 – Science Magazine

A decoy receptor for SARS-CoV-2

For severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) to enter human cells, the spike protein on the surface of the virus must bind to the host receptor protein, angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). A soluble version of the receptor is being explored as a therapeutic. Chan et al. used deep mutagenesis to identify ACE2 mutants that bind more tightly to the spike protein and combined mutations to further increase binding affinity (see the Perspective by DeKosky). A promising variant was engineered to be a stable dimer that has a binding affinity for the spike protein; it is comparable with neutralizing antibodies and neutralized both SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV-1 in a cell-based assay. In addition, the similarity to the natural receptor may limit the possibility for viral escape.

Science, this issue p. 1261; see also p. 1167

The spike (S) protein of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) binds angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) on host cells to initiate entry, and soluble ACE2 is a therapeutic candidate that neutralizes infection by acting as a decoy. By using deep mutagenesis, mutations in ACE2 that increase S binding are found across the interaction surface, in the asparagine 90glycosylation motif and at buried sites. The mutational landscape provides a blueprint for understanding the specificity of the interaction between ACE2 and S and for engineering high-affinity decoy receptors. Combining mutations gives ACE2 variants with affinities that rival those of monoclonal antibodies. A stable dimeric variant shows potent SARS-CoV-2 and -1 neutralization in vitro. The engineered receptor is catalytically active, and its close similarity with the native receptor may limit the potential for viral escape.

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Engineering human ACE2 to optimize binding to the spike protein of SARS coronavirus 2 - Science Magazine

Children of women with PCOS may have higher risk of psychiatric and neurodevelopmental problems, says study – Firstpost

Polycystic ovary syndrome or PCOS is a hormonal disorder that occurs due to an excess of male hormones in the female body, which causes the ovaries to not function properly. With a global prevalence of 6-20 percent - and Indian prevalence of 9.13 percent to 22.5 percent according to the National Health Portal - PCOS is also the most common cause of infertility among women.

Many studies have shown that women with PCOS have more difficulties getting pregnant and have a higher incidence of miscarriages, apart from other health issues like hirsutism, acne, obesity and diabetes. A new study published in the journal Human Reproduction is the first to show that children born to women with PCOS may be at an increased risk of developing a wide range of psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders.

The study, conducted by researchers in Sweden, China and Finland, found that such increased risks existed not only for babies born to mothers with PCOS but also that these risks were further increased if the mother also had complications like obesity, gestational diabetes, caesarean delivery and others.

Maternal PCOS and psychiatric disorders in offspring

The largest of its kind, this study included over a million babies born in Finland between 1996 and 2014. Data of 24,682 children born to mothers with PCOS and 1,073,071 children born to mothers without PCOS was collected. All children were then followed up with until 31 December 2018, which is roughly till the time the kids turned 22 years old.

Stratified analyses were performed on all data to test the independent role of PCOS, as well as the joint effects of PCOS with maternal obesity, perinatal problems, caesarean delivery, gestational diabetes, use of fertility treatments, etc. The analyses were also adjusted for factors like maternal age, smoking, psychiatric disorders, use of drugs during pregnancy and systemic inflammatory diseases wherever applicable.

Higher prevalence of mental health issues

During the follow-up period, the researchers reportedly found that of the total 1,097,753 children included in the study, 9.8% were diagnosed with a neurodevelopmental or psychiatric disorder. The risk of being diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder was reportedly 1.3 times higher among children born to mothers with PCOS. Among these children, the following disorders had a higher prevalence:

Severe obesity among mothers with PCOS was observed to be a huge contributing factor to psychiatric disorder prevalence in the children and perinatal complications - particularly gestational diabetes and caesarean delivery - increased the risk of this prevalence by 1.7 times.

These findings indicate that healthcare providers across the world have to understand that children born to mothers with PCOS are at a higher risk of mental health problems, and are in need of psychological support and mental health follow-ups for longer periods of time. This also underlines the need for proper counselling for women with PCOS so that they are aware of the risks involved and have the resources and foreknowledge to monitor their offsprings mental health better.

For more information, read our article on Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS).

Health articles in Firstpost are written by myUpchar.com, Indias first and biggest resource for verified medical information. At myUpchar, researchers and journalists work with doctors to bring you information on all things health.

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Children of women with PCOS may have higher risk of psychiatric and neurodevelopmental problems, says study - Firstpost

Systems biological assessment of immunity to mild versus severe COVID-19 infection in humans – Science Magazine

Immune profiling of COVID-19 patients

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has affected millions of people globally, yet how the human immune system responds to and influences COVID-19 severity remains unclear. Mathew et al. present a comprehensive atlas of immune modulation associated with COVID-19. They performed high-dimensional flow cytometry of hospitalized COVID-19 patients and found three prominent and distinct immunotypes that are related to disease severity and clinical parameters. Arunachalam et al. report a systems biology approach to assess the immune system of COVID-19 patients with mild-to-severe disease. These studies provide a compendium of immune cell information and roadmaps for potential therapeutic interventions.

Science, this issue p. eabc8511, p. 1210

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) represents a global crisis, yet major knowledge gaps remain about human immunity to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). We analyzed immune responses in 76 COVID-19 patients and 69 healthy individuals from Hong Kong and Atlanta, Georgia, United States. In the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of COVID-19 patients, we observed reduced expression of human leukocyte antigen class DR (HLA-DR) and proinflammatory cytokines by myeloid cells as well as impaired mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling and interferon- (IFN-) production by plasmacytoid dendritic cells. By contrast, we detected enhanced plasma levels of inflammatory mediatorsincluding EN-RAGE, TNFSF14, and oncostatin Mwhich correlated with disease severity and increased bacterial products in plasma. Single-cell transcriptomics revealed a lack of type I IFNs, reduced HLA-DR in the myeloid cells of patients with severe COVID-19, and transient expression of IFN-stimulated genes. This was consistent with bulk PBMC transcriptomics and transient, low IFN- levels in plasma during infection. These results reveal mechanisms and potential therapeutic targets for COVID-19.

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Systems biological assessment of immunity to mild versus severe COVID-19 infection in humans - Science Magazine

Structural basis for translational shutdown and immune evasion by the Nsp1 protein of SARS-CoV-2 – Science Magazine

As the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues to cause devastation, scientists race to increase their understanding of the disease-causing severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. Once inside host cells, not only does the virus hijack the cells' translational machinery to make viral proteins, but the virulence factor nonstructural protein 1 (Nsp1) also shuts down translation of host messenger RNA. Thoms et al. determined a 2.6-angstrom resolution cryoelectron microscopy structure of a reconstituted complex of Nsp1 bound to the human 40S ribosomal subunit and showed that Nsp1 blocks the messenger RNA entry tunnel. A structural inventory of native Nsp1-ribosome complexes from human cells confirms this mechanism. Cellular studies show that the translational shutdown almost completely inhibits the innate immune response. The binding pocket on the ribosome may be a target for drugs to treat COVID-19.

Science, this issue p. 1249

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Structural basis for translational shutdown and immune evasion by the Nsp1 protein of SARS-CoV-2 - Science Magazine

Diversity and prosocial behavior – Science Magazine

Abstract

Immigration and globalization have spurred interest in the effects of ethnic diversity in Western societies. Most scholars focus on whether diversity undermines trust, social capital, and collective goods provision. However, the type of prosociality that helps heterogeneous societies function is different from the in-group solidarity that glues homogeneous communities together. Social cohesion in multiethnic societies depends on whether prosocial behavior extends beyond close-knit networks and in-group boundaries. We identify two features of modern societiessocial differentiation and economic interdependencethat can set the stage for constructive interactions with dissimilar others. Whether societal adaptations to diversity lead toward integration or division depends on the positions occupied by minorities and immigrants in the social structure and economic system, along with the institutional arrangements that determine their political inclusion.

Most Western countries already are or are destined to become multiethnic societies thanks to recent patterns of migration and globalization. Growing immigration to North America and Western Europe (Fig. 1A) has commanded particular attention. Increased ethnic heterogeneity has renewed scholarly interest in intergroup dynamics of cooperation and discrimination and spurred debates over the consequences of ethnic diversity for social trust and democratic integration. Many scholars have concluded that ethnic diversity negatively affects overall levels of trust, social capital, and public goods provision. Instead, we see these changes as an opportunity to ask a more important question: How does prosocial behavior extend beyond the boundaries of the in-group and to unknown and dissimilar others? Answering this question is the key to achieving solidarity and cooperation in the heterogeneous communities we increasingly inhabit today.

(A) Ratio of international migrant stock (1990/2015). Europe and North America saw relatively large increases in national stocks of international migrants in the past two decades. International migrant stock refers to the percentage of foreign-born residents in a given year. Orange indicates higher ratios of migrant stock; teal indicates lower ratios of migrant stock. [Data source: United Nations Population Division] (B) Ethnoracial fractionalization (2013). Fractionalization is higher in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia than in Europe or North America. Fractionalization corresponds to the probability that two randomly chosen residents belong to the same ethnoracial group. Darker colors represent higher ethnoracial fractionalization. [Data source: Historical Index of Ethnoracial Fractionalization]

To function, large collectivities need to foster solidarity and cooperation among their members. Most theories of political orderfrom Enlightenment theories of the social contract (Hobbes and Rousseau) and Tocquevilles Democracy in America to recent work on civil society and social capitalacknowledge the need for a sense of collective identity that allows trust and solidarity to extend beyond the boundaries of the family or clan to the larger community or nation. How does this come about? According to popular models of human behavior, repeated interactions within groups and close-knit networks facilitate the emergence of a shared culture, norms of reciprocity and cooperation, and peer sanctioning, inducing positive outcomes for the collectivity (1). Homogeneous communities readily nurture trust and solidarity through these avenues. In heterogeneous communities, by contrast, social ties between noncoethnics are sparser, which limits coordination and social control. In addition, social norms might not be shared across ethnic boundaries, or there might be uncertainty among members regarding the extent to which they are shared (2). Seen in this light, it makes sense to think of diversity as a challenge to the foundations of our collective social contract.

Nevertheless, most heterogeneous communities still manage to get along. As homogeneous communities become less prevalent and more people experience life in diverse contexts, we need to move beyond traditional understandings of prosociality. In order to achieve solidarity and cooperation, diverse communities may not rely on the same mechanisms as homogeneous ones. More than a century ago, in fact, Durkheim argued that solidarity in complex, differentiated societies relies primarily on interdependence and the division of labor rather than on cultural similarity and mutual acquaintanceship (3). Following this lead, we identify two features of modern societies that have the potential to foster generalized prosociality.

The first feature is social differentiation, which refers to the growing number of identities and group affiliations that people have in their lives. As first theorized by Simmel, in modern societies individuals become less determined by a few ascribed categoriessuch as race, class, or genderand experience a greater ability to choose their group affiliations. As people emancipate from family and community ties, out of choice or necessity, the number of unknown, distant others they will interact with increases, and this has been shown to foster generalized prosociality (4, 5). A second, related feature is economic interdependence: Market-integrated societies in which strangers regularly engage in mutually beneficial transactions exhibit greater levels of generalized solidarity and trust (6, 7).

We should not take for granted that societies will inevitably adapt to increasing diversity in ways that further social integration. Critically important for social integration is the extent to which ethnic differences map onto class, religious, gender, or other differences. Differentiation brings about social integration when lines of social division are cross-cuttingthat is, when ethnic group membership does not wholly predict membership in specific class, religious, gender, or other groups. By contrast, when social cleavages are consolidated, differentiation poses a threat to social integration (8) and democratic stability (9). Ethnic diversity may thereby foster social division.

Indeed, existing studies on the effects of ethnic diversity tend to highlight its negative consequences for social capital, economic growth, and public goods provision. We start by reviewing this literature, which has dominated the debate regarding the consequences of ethnic diversity in Western societies. However, to fully understand the conditions under which heterogeneous societies can achieve social cohesion across lines of ethnic differentiation, we also need to take stock of the status of immigrants and native minorities. Then, we discuss how differentiation and economic interdependencetwo core features that emerge in modern societiesset the stage for a new kind of prosociality that extends beyond the confines of the in-group by enhancing the opportunities for intergroup contact, encouraging superordinate identification, and inhibiting in-groupout-group thinking. Overall, we argue that the type of prosociality that helps heterogeneous societies function likely derives from positive experiences in the context of strategic interactions, such as those in the workplace, and is different from the in-group solidarity that glues homogeneous communities together.

Political economy scholars have looked to ethnic diversity in their attempts to explain societal problems in developing countries, including violent conflicts and stalled economic growth (10). On the whole, however, studies paint a nuanced picture, one in which poverty and political instability, rather than ethnic or religious divisions, increase the risk of civil war (11) and in which ethnic fractionalization is associated with lower growth only in the absence of robust democratic institutions and policies (12, 13).

A second line of work, which focuses mainly on Western European and North American countries, instead probes within-country differences across homogeneous and heterogeneous communities. These studies typically report negative associations between ethnic diversity and desirable outcomes, including civic engagement (14), public goods provision (15), and self-reported trust (16). On the association between diversity and trust alone, a recent review covers nearly 90 studies (17). Although effect sizes are minimal, this scholarship often reaches alarming conclusions about the erosion of civic life at the hands of ethnic diversity.

However, in Western countries, homogeneous and heterogeneous communities differ in systematic ways, which cautions against concluding that diversity per se has negative effects. For one, heterogeneous communities are disproportionally nonwhite, economically disadvantaged, and residentially unstable. Compositional effects related to these differences largely account for the relationship between ethnic diversity and collective outcomes. For example, nonwhites and immigrants tend to report lower trust, and they are overrepresented in heterogeneous communities. Once analyses account for the fact that native whites, who are disproportionately represented in homogeneous communities, also score higher on prosocial indicators, negative associations with ethnic diversity are strongly reduced and even disappear. Similarly, economic hardship takes a toll on prosocial engagement, and diverse communities have much higher rates of concentrated poverty (18). Overall, economic indicators are by far stronger predictors of collective outcomes than are ethnoracial indicators (3, 19).

More generally, the consequences of ethnic diversity likely depend on the extent to which ethnicity constitutes one of many lines of differentiation or instead operates as an organizing principle around which resources are distributed. It matters whether ethnicity intersects with other lines of division and, especially, economic inequality. In their investigation of public goods provision, Baldwin and Huber found that economic inequality between groupsrather than ethnolinguistic or cultural differencesundermines welfare provision (20). They speculate that this happens because richer, more powerful groups prioritize different public goods and exclude others from access. Therefore, resource asymmetries between ethnic groups, and not the multiplicity of ethnic groups per se, undermine collective efforts.

Ethnic fractionalization has been and remains relatively low in Western Europe and North America compared with several countries in Africa and Asia (Fig. 1B). The focus on Western countries is mostly driven by growing immigration (Fig. 1A). Hence, to date, systematic ethnoracial differences between homogeneous and heterogeneous communities are an artifact of studying diversity in contexts such as North America and Europe, where heterogeneity is relatively low and homogeneous communities are, by and large, homogeneously native majority communities.

It follows that although they use measures of heterogeneity and make claims about diversity, studies in Western countries are unable to attribute observed associations to heterogeneity, as opposed to immigrant or minority share. As a result, studies of ethnic diversity rehash the findings of a long-standing literature on how native majorities react to the growing presence of immigrants and minorities. This literature links the size and growth of immigrant and minority populations to perceived threat and greater hostility toward them. For example, survey and laboratory experiments found that U.S. whites who are exposed to information about the growing share of nonwhites express greater opposition to policies and parties seen to benefit nonwhites (21). Observed effects are theorized to stem from broad concerns about native majorities economic well-being, their cultural dominance, and their symbolic status within an intergroup hierarchy from which they derive social and psychological benefits (22).

Diversity, as both a concept and measure, treats groups interchangeably; a community that is 80% white and 20% Black is as diverse as one that is 80% Black and 20% white and one that is 80% Latino and 20% Asian (18). However, where there is differentiation, there is hierarchy: Native majorities, native minorities, and immigrants occupy different positions in the social order. Because intergroup dynamics tend to reproduce status and power asymmetries (23), the dynamics of similarly heterogeneous communities likely vary according to the specific groups represented and their relative sizes. Hierarchy raises another consideration: In heterogeneous contexts, we need to distinguish between benefits that accrue to single groups and those that extend to the whole collectivity (3).

Taken together, these observations caution against making generic claims about the effects of diversity. To ascertain the challenges and possibilities posed by diversity, we first need to disentangle its effects from those of inequality. This entails understanding the social cleavages and asymmetries that govern intergroup relationships in diverse societies.

To what extent and in what domains have immigrants and native minorities achieved economic, political, and social membership in Western countries?

In the United States, immigrants (primarily from Latin America and Asia) and native minorities (primarily Black Americans) contribute to present-day diversity. Regarding the experience of immigrants, scholars are split between those who contend that todays immigrants are on the same upward trajectory as earlier Europeans (24) and those who read, from some groups experiences, evidence of stalled or even downward mobility (25). Evidence of integration comes from the advances made by members of the second generation over their immigrant parents (26). However, longer-term views into the third generation or later reveal remarkable marital homogamy as well as network and residential segregation for some groups, such as Mexican Americans (27).

The experience of Black Americans, the largest native minority group in the United States, challenges the expectation that full economic, political, and social membership necessarily await later-generation Americans. Black households have less wealth and lower incomes than do Asian or Latino households. And despite recent gains, Blacks are still less likely to marry whites and more likely to be residentially segregated from whites than are Asians or Latinos. Persistent, intergenerational disadvantage among Blacks is a consequence of past institutional practices, including Jim Crow segregation and red-lining (28), present institutional practices such as mass incarceration, and contemporary discrimination in the labor market and other domains (29).

In Europe, immigrants from Turkey, Africa, and other regions, including former colonies, contribute to diversity. Their prospects for integration are sobering (30). Evidence of upward economic mobility is tempered by gaps in employment and earnings that may persist into later generations (31). A growing body of field experimental research uncovers discrimination against immigrants, especially Muslim immigrants and/or those of Arab origin, in formal markets such as those for employment and housing (32) and informal, everyday interactions (33, 34). Hostility toward certain immigrant groups is sometimes motivated by their observance and transmission of religious practices and cultural norms that are seen to conflict with liberal principles of gender equality and individual freedom (33, 35). These findings fuel the view that European societies are converging on a discriminatory equilibrium in which discrimination toward some groups drives underinvestments in human capital (30) and furthers the reproduction of values and practices that stall integration in economic and other domains.

The picture is not all negative, however. First, it is worth acknowledging that persistent, later-generation gaps in educational attainment, employment, and earnings coexist with substantial upward mobility, especially between the first and second generations (24). Second, legal status can go a long way toward securing economic mobility, as evidenced by the diverging earnings trajectories of undocumented immigrants and legal permanent residents in the United States as well as the rise in earnings induced by amnesty laws (26). When it comes to political incorporation, government efforts to promote citizenship, whether aimed directly at immigrants or at the community organizations that serve them, boost naturalization and participation through material and symbolic channelsthat is, by signaling immigrants suitability for inclusion (36).

When such resources are not available or when discrimination is prevalent, attachment to a protective ethnic core may provide immigrants and minorities one path to economic, political, and cultural mobility (27, 37). However, insofar as enclaves reproduce segregation and contribute to discrimination by native majorities toward immigrants and minorities, they are a suboptimal and short-term reprieve to the challenges posed by diversity. A more robust solution for the successful integration of immigrants and minorities in multiethnic societies builds on the features of modern societies that facilitate cooperative encounters and shared interests across group boundaries.

The key to solidarity and cooperation in heterogeneous communities is the extension of prosociality beyond close-knit networks and in-group boundaries to unknown, dissimilar others. The large-scale interdependence of life in modern societies requires that individuals follow universal norms of reciprocity and cooperation rather than rely on mutual acquaintanceship or group identification. The observance of such norms is assured by the presence of strong coordinating institutions; for example, we rely on public transportation not because we know the bus driver or identify with them but because we trust that they will competently perform the job that corresponds to their role (3).

The type of prosociality that helps heterogeneous communities function is different from the in-group solidarity that glues homogeneous communities together. A large scholarship has documented the parochial nature of human altruism, convincingly showing that in-group preferences are a staple of human behavior (38). From an evolutionary perspective, parochial altruism emerged from the coevolution of intergroup favoritism and out-group hostility during periods of violent intergroup conflict (39). Although in-group favoritism may have served us well in small-scale societies, it cannot get us far in complex, large-scale societies characterized by heterogeneity. For diverse societies to function, they must to some extent suppress members reliance on in-group identification as the primary basis for prosocial behavior (40). Prosocial behavior in complex societies likely derives from positive experiences in the context of strategic interactions, such as those in the workplace, rather than empathic identification (41). People in modern societies are often pushed outside the comfort zones of their familiar networks to constructively interact with unknown and dissimilar others. We have learned, from a rich literature on intergroup contact, that such interactions have the potential to reduce prejudice, especially under favorable conditions, including equal status, common goals, and lack of competition (42). Here, we discuss how social differentiation, a macrostructural feature of modern societies, may favor the emergence of generalized prosociality and the special role that market integration and economic interdependence can play in facilitating productive intergroup interactions.

Differentiation may be the key, not an obstacle, to social cohesion in modern societies because an increase in the dimensions of differentiation might bring about greater social integration. A greater number of identities and affiliations brings about distinct combinations that can foster even greater cooperation (8). This, however, occurs only when the lines of differentiation are cross-cutting, whereas division follows from consolidated lines of differentiation (Fig. 2). Ethnic heterogeneity can push societies toward either pole. On the one hand, when ethnic differences overlap with status and resource differences, in-group favoritism can operate more efficiently. But far from binding people together (as it does in homogeneous societies), in-group favoritism would deepen inequality and division in heterogeneous ones. On the other hand, when heterogeneity along ethnic lines cross-cuts differences in terms of class, politics, and other dimensions, it both neutralizes in-group favoritism and deepens interdependence, fostering cohesion.

(A to C) The top layers represent various group identities that individuals might have in modern societies (such as ethnicity, class, or sexuality), and the bottom layer describes the social network that emerges from shared membership in these groups. In (A), the two dimensions of differentiation are consolidated and thus bring about social fragmentation. In (B) and (C), the dimensions are cross-cutting, thus favoring social integration. As the number of cross-cutting dimensions increases [(comparing (C) with (B)], so does overall network integration.

Social differentiation refers to the multiplicity of identities and roles that individuals may acquire and inhabit in their day-to-day lives and often leads to greater individualization. Namely, peoples ability to choose, with relative freedom, their identities and group affiliations increases, and their profiles become distinctive. When lines of differentiation are cross-cutting, the process of differentiation and individualization sets the stage for broad-based cohesion through at least three pathways.

The first is by facilitating interpersonal contact beyond close-knit, kinship ties and with others who are dissimilar in terms of some identities, including, most notably, ethnicity. Research supports the claim that generalized trust and other benefits flow from interactions outside dense networks, such as those based on kinship. Cross-societal comparisons have documented greater generalized trust and cooperation in an individualistic society such as the United States than in Japan, where monitoring and sanctioning happen primarily within the confines of close, long-term relationships (4). According to Yamagishis emancipatory theory of trust, strong ties, which are typical of collectivist societies such as Japan, produce a sense of security within the group but prevent trust from developing beyond group boundaries. Similarly, people with strong family and group ties display lower levels of trust toward generalized others in incentivized experiments. By contrast, people who are less embedded in family networks and those who have experienced uprooting events, such as divorce, are more likely to trust strangers, possibly because they have more opportunities and incentives to engage in relationships with unknown others (5). More broadly, seminal work on social networks has exposed the limits of strong ties and close-knit social relationships (43, 44). This work shines a positive light on weak ties and network positions of brokerage for their ability to connect parts of a social network that would be otherwise disconnected, facilitating access to a broader range of information and opportunities. To quote Granovetter, Weak ties, often denounced as generative of alienation...are here seen as indispensable to individuals opportunities and to their integration into communities; strong ties, breeding local cohesion, lead to overall fragmentation [(43), p. 1378].

The second pathway through which social differentiation may foster cohesion is through identification, with or without direct interpersonal contact. In laboratory studies, procedures that encourage identification with a common (or superordinate) identity have been shown to reduce prejudice across group boundaries (45). This is possible when cross-cutting affiliations enable identification with a category that spans ethnic boundaries. An outstanding question is whether identification with a superordinate category can somehow achieve deeper trust and cooperation than can lower-level ethnic identification, perhaps by training individuals to be more flexible about categorization in general. If not, superordinate identification may be an imperfect solution that trades favoritism toward one group for favoritism toward another, larger group. These aspects are ripe for further testing in field settings (46).

A third pathway consists in subverting humans deep-seated capacity to think (and act) in terms of in-groupout-group categories. Category-based inconsistenciesfor example, the Harvard-educated, first-generation Latinainhibit the cognitive processes that compel us to frame encounters in us versus them terms, opening the door to more elaborate cognitive processes in which an alter is more likely to be perceived as an individual rather than an (oppositional) group member [(40), p. 854]. The distinction between this pathway and one that hinges on a common identity is subtle: Category-based inconsistencies can subvert us versus them thinking even if we do not share identities or experiences with a targetthat is, even if we are neither Ivy Leagueeducated, nor Latino, nor the first in our family to attend college.

Critically, the most effective way to secure multiethnic cohesion through this channel is not to promote a few minorities but rather to weaken the covariance between ethnic category membership and life chances writ largethat is, to cultivate a system in which a first-class education is equally accessible to whites and nonwhites, regardless of their family background. There is growing evidence that cross-cutting affiliations can mitigate bias against immigrants and minorities. Experimental evidence shows that U.S. Americans report greater willingness to admit immigrants who are highly educated or have high-status jobs (47). Relatedly, high socioeconomic status mitigates mistrust toward Blacks in a cooperative investment game (48), and signals of cultural integration mitigate bias toward Muslims in Germany (33).

Taken together, the hypothesized pathways are consistent with a model of social cohesion in which cross-cutting differentiation, rather than social closure, is the unifying force. When social cleavages are not cross-cutting but instead consolidatedfor example, when minorities and immigrants are systematically deprived of educational and employment opportunities and thereby relegated to the lower tiers of the social hierarchydisadvantaged groups will continue to be cast in a separate and marginalized social category and discriminated against.

Economic exchanges are the quintessential setting for meaningful, cooperative interactions between dissimilar others. This is partly because of the specific nature of economic transactions: They occur between parties who have different goods (or skills) to exchange and thereby bring together people who may not belong to the same social circles. Along these lines, workplace relationships tend to be less homophilious than relationships in other settings. Moreover, intergroup encounters in economic settings seem to be particularly conducive to generalized prosociality. In a series of cross-cultural studies, Henrich and his colleagues uncovered less prosocial behavior in small-scale societies based on kinship networks than in market-integrated societies in which strangers regularly engage in mutually beneficial transactions. In their words, The more frequently people experience market transactions, the more they will also experience abstract sharing principles concerning behaviors toward strangers [(6), p. 76)]. Market integration not only fosters prosociality toward unknown others; it can also shift boundaries to include noncoethnics. In a nationwide field experiment in Italy, market integration explained variation in prosocial behavior toward both natives and immigrants (7). Similar effects are imputed to globalization, understood as greater worldwide connectedness (49).

Workplaces, more than homes or neighborhoods, may be crucial for fostering the type of prosociality that holds modern societies together. Minorities and immigrants positions in the productive system and their prospects for social mobilityincluding employment opportunities in complementary sectors, and a legal regime that protects their rights as workersare therefore important not only for their own material success but for society as a whole. The economic integration of minorities and immigrants also determines the extent to which they come to identify with mainstream society (50).

Most economic exchangesfor example, hiring someone or renting an apartment from themare strategic in nature, in the sense that a persons behavior is affected by their expectations of the alter. These types of interaction entail risk and uncertainty because people have to overcome difficulties related to coordination, lack of information, and mistrust. Cooperative and prosocial behavior in these settings may still be affected by in-group favoritism but are also based on considerations that go beyond whether an ego likes or dislikes the alter, to encompass the alters trustworthiness, competence, and reputation (40). This calls for a deeper understanding of intergroup dynamics, and the institutional arrangements, that favor prosocial outcomes in the context of strategic interactions. Some field experimental work has made progress in this direction; for example, in a study of public goods provision in diverse Ugandan neighborhoods, Habyarimana and colleagues used behavioral games to disentangle the various motives and mechanisms that bring about collective action in multiethnic contexts (2). Although they did not find evidence of ethnic favoritism, they found that the reciprocity norms and sanctioning opportunities that facilitate cooperation in risky interactions are stronger among coethnics than noncoethnics.

Market integration enhances opportunities for productive interactions across group boundaries. Additionally, the strategic nature of economic exchanges elicits decision-making processes that go beyond in-group favoritism, therefore providing new venues for institutional intervention.

We can approach ethnic diversity through the lens of lost homogeneity. From this perspective, we understand that members of the white majority tend to react negatively to the growth of immigrants and minorities in their communities. However, it would be premature to conclude that diversity or diversification per se are to blame for declining levels of trust and cooperation. In the Western European and North American context, diversity is synonymous with immigrant and minority share and economic disadvantage, and statistical attempts at disentangling their effects will not get us very far.

Beyond questioning the effects of ethnic diversity, scholars should develop a theory of social cohesion in multiethnic societies that considers intergroup dynamics, social cleavages, and asymmetries in resources and power. Crucial to this effort is understanding the conditions under which prosocial behavior extends beyond close-knit networks and the safe confines of the in-group. Here, we have highlighted two features of modern societies, social differentiation and economic interdependence, that set the stage for generalized prosociality to develop. We argue that, in contrast with the in-group solidarity that glues homogeneous communities together, prosociality in heterogeneous societies likely derives from positive experiences in the context of strategic interactions. Further research is needed on the mechanisms and institutional arrangements that foster this higher-level form of cooperation.

The experience of immigrants and minorities is instructive regarding the conditions and institutions that facilitate integration and mobility in Western societies. Of primary importance are employment opportunities in mainstream labor markets, especially under conditions of economic expansion, along with legal and political inclusion. Regrettably, it is precisely these conditions that are in short supply in a historical moment characterized by the rise of right-wing movements, an economic recession induced by a global pandemic, and long-standing institutional practices, such as those of law enforcement, that deepen the divides between ethnoracial groups. Whether societal adaptation to diversity moves toward integration or social division depends as much on microinteractions on the ground as on the economic and political institutions that govern these processes.

J. Habyarimana, M. Humphreys, D. N. Posner, J. M. Weinstein, Coethnicity: Diversity and the Dilemmas of Collective Action (Russell Sage Foundation, 2009).

T. Yamagishi, Trust: The Evolutionary Game of Mind and Society (Springer, 2011).

S. M. Lipset, S. Rokkan, in Cleavage Structures, Party System and Voter Alignments. An Introduction (Free Press, 1967), pp. 164.

P. Collier, The Political Economy of Ethnicity (World Bank, 1998).

R. J. Sampson, Great American City: Chicago and the Enduring Neighborhood Effect (Univ. Chicago Press, 2012).

E. Telles, C. A. Sue, Durable Ethnicity: Mexican Americans and the Ethnic Core (Oxford Univ. Press, 2019).

A. Portes, R. Aparicio, W. Haller, Spanish Legacies: The Coming of Age of the Second Generation (Univ. California Press, 2016).

C. L. Adida, D. D. Laitin, M.-A. Valfort, Why Muslim Integration Fails in Christian-Heritage Societies (Harvard Univ. Press, 2016).

I. Bloemraad, Becoming a Citizen: Incorporating Immigrants and Refugees in the United States and Canada (Univ. California Press, 2006).

H. Tajfel, J. Turner, 1979, An integrative theory of intergroup conflict, in The Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations, W. G. Austin, S. Worchel, Eds. (Brooks/Cole, 1979), pp. 3347.

R. S. Burt, Brokerage and Closure (Oxford Univ. Press, 2005).

S. L. Gaertner, J. F. Dovidio, Reducing Intergroup Bias: The Common Ingroup Identity Model (Psychology Press, 2000).

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Diversity and prosocial behavior - Science Magazine

The Year of the Abortion – The Conservative Woman

THIS is proving to be a big year of change in abortion provision in Great Britain.

March saw the expansion of DIY abortions with a law being rushed through Parliament, with almost no scrutiny or guidelines, permitting women to take two powerful abortion drugs without any medical supervision. Despite this being fast-tracked as a temporary measure, using highly dubious arguments, these DIY terminations, accessible with just a brief phone consultation, are likely to become permanent.according to new reports.

The stated premise behind the pills by post measureswas to limit the transmission of Covid-19, so the use of both abortion pills could be approved without the need to attend a hospital or clinic. However abortion clinics remained openall through lockdown, unlike many health centres, so terminations have been as easily accessible as they have always been.

Also in March the Abortion (Northern Ireland) Regulations cameinto force, introducing to Northern Ireland one of the most extreme abortion regimes in the world and overriding opposition from the Assembly in Stormont.

In June, the latest statistics were released, showingthat abortions in England and Wales have increasedto the highest number ever recorded 207,384 in one year. This is about one every two minutes.

This number is hardly likely to fall since it has become so quick and easy to obtain a medical abortion. Now 73 per cent of abortions are medical, not surgical, in England and Wales (86 per cent in Scotland).This means that 151,400 women had a medical abortionin 2019 in England and Wales.

As well as convenience, privacy and speed for women, financial cost will undoubtedly have something to do with the increase in medical abortions. With pills there is no need for anaesthetics, a stay in a medical centre, surgical equipment or abortion doctors. By financial cost, I refer to the costs for abortion clinics and, by extension, to the NHS, since 99 per cent of all abortions are now paid for by the NHS (our taxes). The NHS pays for all abortions in hospitals and also pays private abortion clinics to do them. The demand is now so high that 74 per cent take place in private clinics as the NHS does not have the capacity. No doubt, therefore, ever-cheaper home terminations are attractive to a cash-strapped NHS. Abortion clinics are certainly runninga good business,with highly paid managers, well-structured business plans and marketing tactics, powerful advocates in Westminster pushing to remove all limits on abortion, and (conveniently) rising demand for their abortion care packages. There is more than just lives at stake here.

However I have more concern about the health and safety dangers, and psychological harm, for women having medical abortions than I do about the finances.

We hear little about when medical abortions go wrong, but what few realise is how often theydogo wrong.

The chemicals that women take must be powerful enough kill the living human foetus and to ensure the womb contracts enough to expel it, along with the placenta and other pregnancy tissues. The womb is designed to protect the foetus so these drugs need to be strong.

Research on 43,000 women in Finlandfound that 20 per cent had complications after a medical abortion. In one centre in the UK, more than 50 per cent needed surgical evacuation of the foetus after a failed medical abortion. On the basis that 73 per cent of abortions in England and Wales in 2019 were medical, assuming a rate of 20 per cent of these having some complications, this would equate to more than30,000 womenexperiencing some sort of complications from their medical abortion.

However our recording of abortion data is so poor in England and Wales that we just do not know what the situation is and have to reply on data from other countries to inform us of the medical risks that women are taking, as I explain inthis blog.

Common sense however tells us that if women are taking powerful abortion drugs at home with no medical supervision then there is no control over:

The amount or dosage they take;

The timing between taking the two pills;

The method of taking them (if following medical protocols);

Who is taking them(as this news report shows);

The gestation of pregnancy (at least one mother took them at28 weeks,way beyond the recommended 10 weeks);

Where they are being taken;

Any follow-up;

Any coercion into taking them.

I also find it disturbing that there have been almost no studies on the emotional and psychological consequences of having a self-induced abortion at home.

I say almost no studies because one there has been one particularly fascinating peer-reviewed studyon the effects of a drug-induced medical abortion. The research was revealing, especially as it was able to use a proper control group.

It is the first research to investigate the biologicaland behaviouraleffects of medical abortion inan animal model, in this case rats. The rat is one of the primary models for studies of human reproduction, providing valuable insights into how humans function.

I explain more in this blogbut, briefly, theresearch found the rats which had a chemical abortion clearly showed moderate to severe stress, whereas the rats whichwent to a full-term pregnancy, and even those which had a natural miscarriage, did not.It was a controlled, objective and ethical assessment of rat behaviour pre- and post-termination, and no one can argue that rats suffered these adverse consequences because they were reflecting on what they had done, or were being made to feel guilty by society for having an abortion.

At the very least these findings highlight the urgency for objective research into the biological and behavioural effects of medical abortion.

Until such research is carried out, along with this research on rats, we do still have stories women tell:https://www.abortionchangesyou.com/stories

I went to the clinic got the pills and the process started. I have never experienced that much pain, my nights were sleepless and I remember one night I was in so much pain, my boyfriend held me and started praying I was so convinced that I would die that night. Its been a year since then and Im terrified of the dark. I cant talk to anyone about this fear because of how guilty I feel.

They said I was 9 weeks. I took the pill they gave me and went home. The next day, (today), I took the four pills they told me to take. Contractions started and I held it together pretty well. I was sitting in my bathtub, shower running on me when I saw the baby gently floating towards the drain. I grabbed it up in my hands and just sobbed. I couldnt bear the thought of just letting him go down the drain. I saw it was a boy. A little boy. My child that I consented to be killed. I immediately was struck with grief as I realised the gravity of the decision I had made. My heart hurts so badly right now. I dont see this going away any time soon.

Women deserve much more than a quick fix DIY abortion. There are alternatives and other options, there is support available and there are many other women who want to help anyonefacing a crisis or unplanned pregnancy. But of course there is no Government money or fast-tracked legislation to provide alternatives.

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The Year of the Abortion - The Conservative Woman