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Researchers identify key components linking circadian rhythms and cell division cycles

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

14-Jan-2014

Contact: Keith Herrell keith.herrell@uc.edu 513-558-4559 University of Cincinnati Academic Health Center

CINCINNATIResearchers at the University of Cincinnati (UC) have identified key molecular components linking circadian rhythms and cell division cycles in Neurospora crassa, providing insights that could lead to improved disease treatments and drug delivery.

The researchers in the UC College of Medicine Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, led by Christian Hong, PhD, published their findings Monday, Jan. 13, online ahead of print in PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences).

"Our work has large implications for the general understanding of the connection between the cell cycle and the circadian clock," says Hong, an assistant professor in the molecular and cellular physiology department who collaborated with an international team of researchers on the project.

The circadian rhythm, often referred to as the biological clock, is a cycle of biological activity based on a 24-hour period and generated by an internal clock synchronized to light-dark cycles and other external cues.

"Everything has a schedule, and we are interested in understanding these schedules at a molecular level," Hong says. "We also wanted to know the components that connect two different oscillators (the circadian clock and cell division, or mitosis)."

Using the filamentous (thread-like) fungi Neurospora crassa, the researchers investigated the coupling between the cell cycle and the circadian clock using mathematical modeling and experimentally validated model-driven predictions. They demonstrated a mechanism that is conserved (constant) in Neurospora as in mammals, which results in circadian clock-gated mitotic cycles.

"The cell divisions happened during a certain time of day," Hong says, "and they were molecularly regulated by the mechanisms of circadian rhythms."

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Researchers identify key components linking circadian rhythms and cell division cycles

Raymark Launching Next Generation Of Retail Mobility And Analytics Solutions At The National Retail Federation’s BIG …

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Raymark is delighted to announce the upcoming launch of its next generation of retail enterprise solutions for mobility and analytics at the National Retail Federation's BIG Show 2014, in New York on January 13th and 14th. The two new solutions, Raymark Mosaic Point of Sale and Raymark Affinity Analytics, will complement the end-to-end suite of Raymark retail enterprise applications with innovative tools for mobile transaction processing and customer engagement as well as omni-channel retail analytics.

Raymark Mosaic Point of Sale will be a game changer in the world of retail mobility because of its device agnosticism: the application is not locked into any particular hardware model or operating system. Retailers gain the freedom to use the devices they want, and, as new devices, form factors and operating systems become available, the application's HTML5 technology will enable it to evolve with new trends in mobile hardware. The solution's real-time capabilities make it a must-have for up-to-the second access to product information, including price lookup and inventory visibility from anywhere in the retail network, even distribution centers. Raymark Mosaic Point of Sale works in harmony with Raymark Mosaic Clienteling to provide a holistic tool for building customer relationships and providing superior service.

"In order to remain competitive in an omni-channel marketplace, retailers must meet and exceed increasing consumer demands for rapid, informed service in brick-and-mortar locations" says Marc Chriqui, President of Raymark. To empower store associates with tools to provide an outstanding customer experience, Raymark is introducing its newest mobile Point of Sale solution, which provides the tools needed to serve customers from anywhere along with easily-accessible, in-depth customer information that makes up-selling and cross-selling easier than ever.

For head office and management users, Raymark's new Affinity Analytics solution is a powerful yet incredibly easy-to-use tool to create and view graphical dashboards and reports based on transactional, product or customer profile data from any omni-channel source, including POS, e-commerce, merchandising, CRM and many more. Users can analyze customer behaviors and demographics alongside store, product, vendor and promotion performance with interactive visualization tools to drill-down and organize data in a way that makes it simple to zero in on key insights. The solution includes over 25 graphical reports and dashboards that can be viewed from any web-enabled device, including handheld mobile devices, PCs and tablets.

"We believe these new solutions will empower users at every level of the retail organization with the insights and tools to provide the ultimate customer experience" added Marc Chriqui, President of Raymark. Raymark will be demoing the new solutions at booth 719 at the National Retail Federation's BIG Show 2014.

About Raymark For 25 years, Raymark has been empowering retail with world-class enterprise software solutions to optimize stock turns, build customer loyalty, improve associate productivity and increase sales. Raymark's integrated, end-to-end suite of retail technology solutions operate in real-time and provide retailers with everything they need for store operations, customer-centric retailing, planning and inventory management, reporting and analytics. To learn more, visit http://www.raymark.com/about.

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Nature study discovers chromosome therapy to correct a severe chromosome defect

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

12-Jan-2014

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

Geneticists from Ohio, California and Japan joined forces in a quest to correct a faulty chromosome through cellular reprogramming. Their study, published online today in Nature, used stem cells to correct a defective "ring chromosome" with a normal chromosome. Such therapy has the promise to correct chromosome abnormalities that give rise to birth defects, mental disabilities and growth limitations.

"In the future, it may be possible to use this approach to take cells from a patient that has a defective chromosome with multiple missing or duplicated genes and rescue those cells by removing the defective chromosome and replacing it with a normal chromosome," said senior author Anthony Wynshaw-Boris, MD, PhD, James H. Jewell MD '34 Professor of Genetics and chair of Case Western Reserve School of Medicine Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences and University Hospitals Case Medical Center.

Wynshaw-Boris led this research while a professor in pediatrics, the Institute for Human Genetics and the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UC, San Francisco (UCSF) before joining the faculty at Case Western Reserve in June 2013.

Individuals with ring chromosomes may display a variety of birth defects, but nearly all persons with ring chromosomes at least display short stature due to problems with cell division. A normal chromosome is linear, with its ends protected, but with ring chromosomes, the two ends of the chromosome fuse together, forming a circle. This fusion can be associated with large terminal deletions, a process where portions of the chromosome or DNA sequences are missing. These deletions can result in disabling genetic disorders if the genes in the deletion are necessary for normal cellular functions.

The prospect for effective counter measures has evaded scientistsuntil now. The international research team discovered the potential for substituting the malfunctioning ring chromosome with an appropriately functioning one during reprogramming of patient cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). iPSC reprogramming is a technique that was developed by Shinya Yamanaka, MD, PhD, a co-corresponding author on the Nature paper. Yamanaka is a senior investigator at the UCSF-affiliated Gladstone Institutes, a professor of anatomy at UCSF, and the director of the Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA) at the Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS) in Kyoto University. He won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2012 for developing the reprogramming technique.

Marina Bershteyn, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the Wynshaw-Boris lab at UCSF, along with Yohei Hayashi, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the Yamanaka lab at the Gladstone Institutes, reprogrammed skin cells from three patients with abnormal brain development due to a rare disorder called Miller Dieker Syndrome, which results from large terminal deletions in one arm of chromosome 17. One patient had a ring chromosome 17 with the deletion and the other two patients had large terminal deletions in one of their chromosome 17, but not a ring. Additionally, each of these patients had one normal chromosome 17.

The researchers observed that, after reprogramming, the ring chromosome 17 that had the deletion vanished entirely and was replaced by a duplicated copy of the normal chromosome 17. However, the terminal deletions in the other two patients remained after reprogramming. To make sure this phenomenon was not unique to ring chromosome 17, they reprogrammed cells from two different patients that each had ring chromosomes 13. These reprogrammed cells also lost the ring chromosome, and contained a duplicated copy of the normal chromosome 13.

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Nature study discovers chromosome therapy to correct a severe chromosome defect

The democratization of medical science

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Vinod Khosla has stirred up some controversy in the healthcare community over the last several years by suggesting that computers might be able to provide better care than doctors.This includes remarks he made at Strata Rx in 2012, including that, We need to move from the practice of medicine to the science of medicine. And the science of medicine is way too complex for human beings to do.

So when I saw the news that Khosla Ventures has just invested $4Min Series A funding intoLumiata (formerly MEDgle), a company that specializes in healthcare data analytics, I was very curious to hear more about that companys vision.Ash Damle is the CEO at Lumiata.We recently spoke by phone to discuss how data can improve access to care and help level the playing field of care quality.

Ash Damle: Were bringing together the best of medical science and graph analytics to provide the best prescriptive analysis to those providing care. We data-mine all the publicly available data sources, such asjournals, de-identified records, etc. We analyze the data to make sure were learning the right things and, most importantly, what the relationships are among the data. We have fundamentally delved into looking at that whole graph, the way Google does to provide you with relevant search results. We curate those relationships to make sure theyre sensible, and take into account behavioral and social factors.

Our goal is to apply the best of medical science in every health interaction possible. In the long term, we want to optimize health. In the short term, we want to optimize care.

Ash Damle: Right now we have care as a service, but not necessarily health as a service. Care is reactive, while health is proactive. If you had a physician who could spend three hours a week looking over all of your data, he could tell you the things you need to do each week to stay healthy and be proactive. But thats not efficient. So we want to bring data science and the power of big data to bear, and we want to provide that anytime, anywhere.

Ash Damle: Theres so much medical science out there, but its really hard to apply it all within a limited amount of time. Were just in the beginning of the datification of health, but if we can computationalize medical science with all the power and nuance that computers and data analysis have to offer, then suddenly we have a way to apply the best of medical science to everyones care all the time.

The advent of the variety and volume of big data presents an opportunity to better contextually understand what is happening with the patient, and what is likely to occur in the future. Everyday we are amazed by the brilliance of physicians. We want to democratize medical science and make it easier so that all kinds of medical stafffrom advice nurses, to physicians assistants, to doctorscan apply higher quality care.

Were at the beginning of what we can do, and were excited about having such an extraordinary partner.

Ash Damle: Physicians and nurse practitioners and other providers are very empathetic people; part of why they do what they do is that they care. How do we superpower them and enable them to do the best they can by giving them the best tools?

The reality is that if a care provider is in the Southwest versus the Northeast of the United States, theyll see different things, and so the way they think about whats more likely will change based on local conditions. Experience is key and intuition is extraordinarily powerful. But intuition is the ability to synthesize huge numbers of variables and personal experience to deduce things from weak signals. In some sense, thats also what were trying to enable, because not everyone has the same level of experience that our best physicians do.We want to democratize that brilliance so that everyone gets the best care. We believe tools improving and applying the science of care should be used to augment and amplify the intangible human components.

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DaSilva Institute Brings World-Class Medicine to Sarasota, Florida

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Sarasota, FL (PRWEB) January 13, 2014

The DaSilva Institute opened their brand new state-of-the-art medical facility in Sarasota, Florida on December 16, 2013.

The DaSilva Institute combines functional medicine with anti-aging and regenerative medicine, making it the most unique multi-specialty medical center of its kind in the U.S.

One major advantage that the DaSilva Institute has over similar centers found elsewhere in the US and overseas is its focus on autologous stem cell therapy. Used to reverse degenerative diseases and injuries, this innovative therapy involves harvesting stem cells from the patients own body fat without the controversial use of embryos, umbilical cords, placentas or donors, thus eliminating the risk of viruses and rejection.

The DaSilva Institute is also known for their expertise in bio-identical hormone replacement therapies, functional gastrointestinal disorders, mood disorders, nutritional counseling, IV nutrition and chelation, natural cancer support, regenerative orthopedics, platelet rich plasma (PRP), prolotherapy, and several new aesthetic treatments including facial rejuvenation, natural breast and buttocks augmentation and gentle liposculpture.

Guy DaSilva, MD, founder and medical director of the DaSilva Institute, states, Our vision is to make this extraordinary form of medicine accessible and affordable for people in the U.S. You shouldnt have to fly to other countries and spend tens of thousands of dollars for what you can receive in your own backyard for much less.

After outgrowing their previous office in the Lakewood Ranch area, the decision to move into a larger, more optimally equipped facility led them to the heart of Sarasota.

Dr. DaSilva states, My hope is that people will benefit from our extended menu of services and enjoy the beautiful and comforting ambiance of our new office, as well as the convenience of the new Sarasota location. And above all, we want to help more people discover health without limits.

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DaSilva Institute Brings World-Class Medicine to Sarasota, Florida

Eat Right to Look Younger

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According to Mintels consumer research, the anti-aging skincare market has grown to over $2 billion annually, and 76 percent of consumers concerned with aging are interested in products that use natural or organic ingredients. What can be more natural and organic than the foods that you eat?

Can your diet play a role in anti-aging? Just ask Maye Musk, a 65-year old model and registered dietitian. While Musk admits that genetics, getting adequate sleep, avoiding smoking, and limiting sun exposure, can all play a role in how your body ages, diet is key as you have to eat well to look and feel young. She eats a healthy, high fiber diet to maintain her weight and youthful looks.

According to the American Academy of Dermatology, a well-balanced diet rich in fresh vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and lean proteins can lead to healthier skin. Elisa Zied, RD, author of the new book, Younger Next Week, agrees about the power of a healthy diet. For example, fruits and veggies not only keep us hydrated because of their high water content, but they can also help us look younger and better, writes Zied. Certain phytochemicals and nutrients in foods may also play a specific anti-aging role in helping your skin look more youthful. Research suggests that eating more carotenoid-rich produce is associated with improved skin color and a more healthy and attractive appearance, according to Zied.

As we age our skin becomes thinner and drier, losing some of the elasticity that we had in our youth, which paves the way to wrinkles, according to researcher, Richard L. Roberts, Ph.D. These changes are accelerated by exposure to ultraviolet (UV) rays from the sun as well as tanning beds. While the skin has a natural antioxidant capacity to protect against damage caused by those UV rays, too much exposure can overwhelm its capabilities leaving the skin vulnerable to damage. According to an article authored by Roberts and published in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, lutein and zeaxanthin are two carotenoids that may help boost the antioxidant capacity of your skin as well as the health of your eyes. Look to egg yolks, corn, orange peppers, orange juice, and red grapes for excellent sources of both of these antioxidants.

Drinking tea also has its perks when it comes to looking and feeling younger, according to Zied. Many of the benefits of tea are linked with its high content of polyphenols (specifically flavonoids), powerful plant chemicals that act as antioxidants that also can protect against UV skin damage.

Vitamin E is another important antioxidant in the skin that helps avoid accelerated aging. According to an article published in Clinics in Dermatology, adequate stores need to be maintained in the body daily. Unfortunately, many Americans fall short of their daily needs of this vitamin so adding vitamin E-rich foods sources, such as wheat germ, sunflower seeds, almonds, and corn and olive oil, can help boost your intake. Since this antioxidant works synergistically with vitamin C in the body, your diet should also have a wide variety of vitamin C-rich foods, such as citrus fruits, kiwi, strawberries, peppers and broccoli. Research also suggests that vitamin C, in and of itself, may also help reduce the prevalence of wrinkles and dry skin due to aging. Lastly, vitamin A, which is found in carotenoid-rich dark green veggies, such as spinach and kale, and orange vegetables, such as carrots, sweet potatoes and pumpkin, is also needed for healthy skin.

Sometimes life will get in the way of making the best food choices, but if we prioritize nurturing ourselves and make time to care for ourselves, we can reclaim the vitality we so deserve, states Zied.

Be well, Joan

If you have topic you would like me to cover on my blog, please email me at: salge@bu.edu

Follow Joan on Twitter at: joansalgeblake

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Eat Right to Look Younger

Symptoms Of Hypothyroidism Part 2: Thyroid physiology and testing – Video

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Symptoms Of Hypothyroidism Part 2: Thyroid physiology and testing
The thyroid gland is one of the body #39;s major metabolic engines. Understanding how thyroid hormone is made, how it interacts, other hormones that impact it and tests that you can do to assess...

By: Metabolic Effect

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Symptoms Of Hypothyroidism Part 2: Thyroid physiology and testing - Video

Calgary medical team attempting stem cell therapy on paralyzed man

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Ryan White, CTV Calgary Published Friday, January 10, 2014 3:37PM MST Last Updated Friday, January 10, 2014 7:10PM MST

Alex Petric is hoping his part in an international clinical trial at the Foothills Hospital will assist researchers in the development of a treatment for spinal cord injuries.

Alex, a paramedic from Winnipeg, was paralyzed during a winter holiday in Panama with his girlfriend. The 28-year-old dove headfirst into what he believed to be deep water.

Immediately I felt paralyzed, right when I came up, recollects Alex. You just know youre in a lot of trouble. Youre trying your hardest to move your legs and its not happening.

Ten months after the accident, 29-year-old Alex is taking part in a medical trial to determine the safety of stem cell therapy on patients with spinal cord injuries.

While the trial, conducted by researchers from the University of Calgary, focuses on safety, the ultimate goal is to develop a cure for spinal cord injuries which could require multiple therapies.

The medical team, led by Dr. Steve Casha, will make a small incision in order to view Alexs injury. Once the precise location of the injury has been determined, then stem cells are injected above and below to potentially recreate the lost tissue.

The approach is regeneration, explains Dr. Casha, to reverse the damage that has been done.

Researchers and Alex are realistic in their expectations of the treatment despite the fact two previous patients in the study have regained sensation.

I just feel like I am part of something that could give people hope, including myself, said Alex. We don't know what will happen with this surgery. They're trying to fix us, basically trying to make us normal again.

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Calgary medical team attempting stem cell therapy on paralyzed man

Scientists control cells following transplantation, from inside out

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Jan. 10, 2014 Harvard stem cells scientists at Brigham and Women's Hospital and MIT can now engineer cells that are more easily controlled following transplantation, potentially making cell therapies, hundreds of which are currently in clinical trials across the United States, more functional and efficient.

Associate Professor Jeffrey Karp, PhD, and James Ankrum, PhD, demonstrate in this month's issue of Nature Protocols how to load cells with microparticles that provide the cells cues for how they should behave over the course of days or weeks as the particles degrade.

"Regardless of where the cell is in the body, it's going to be receiving its cues from the inside," said Karp, a Harvard Stem Cell Institute Principal Faculty member at Brigham and Women's Hospital. "This is a completely different strategy than the current method of placing cells onto drug-doped microcarriers or scaffolds, which is limiting because the cells need to remain in close proximity to those materials in order to function. Also these types of materials are too large to be infused into the bloodstream."

Cells are relatively simple to control in a Petri dish. The right molecules or drugs, if internalized by a cell, can change its behavior; such as inducing a stem cell to differentiate or correcting a defect in a cancer cell. This level of control is lost after transplantation as cells typically behave according to environmental cues in the recipient's body. Karp's strategy, dubbed particle engineering, corrects this problem by turning cells into pre-programmable units. The internalized particles stably remain inside the transplanted cell and tell it exactly how to act, whether the cell is needed to release anti-inflammatory factors or regenerate lost tissue.

"Once those particles are internalized into the cells, which can take on the order of 6-24 hours, we can deliver the transplant immediately or even cryopreserve the cells," Karp said. "When the cells are thawed at the patient's bedside, they can be administered and the agents will start to be released inside the cells to control differentiation, immune modulation or matrix production, for example."

It could take more than a decade for this type of cell therapy to be a common medical practice, but to speed up the pace of research, Karp published the Nature Protocols study to encourage others in the scientific community to apply the technique to their fields. The paper shows the range of different cell types that can be particle engineered, including stem cells, immune cells, and pancreatic cells.

"With this versatile platform, which leveraged Harvard and MIT experts in drug delivery, cell engineering, and biology, we've demonstrated the ability to track cells in the body, control stem cell differentiation, and even change the way cells interact with immune cells," said Ankrum, a former graduate student in Karp's laboratory. "We're excited to see what applications other researchers will imagine using this platform."

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Scientists control cells following transplantation, from inside out

Central Florida Specialist Offers Trinity Laser Tattoo Removal with Astanza Technology

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DUNDEE,Fla., Jan. 10, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Dr. Christopher Mondello and Mondello Medical Spa feature non-invasive laser tattoo removal with the world's most advanced laser systemthe Astanza Trinity. Dr. Mondello's professional focus lies in anti-aging medicine with a specialization in aesthetic and cosmetic treatments. The primary goal of Dr. Mondello and the Mondello Medical Spa is to help every patient achieve ideal personal health and wellness.

Dr. Mondello is a board certified physician and surgeon, and he uses his knowledge and experience to provide services that enhance and refine patients' natural appearance. Central Florida has recently seen an extremely high demand for the removal of tattoos, and Dr. Mondello has added Astanza Trinity tattoo removal not only to serve as a solution for those high numbers of tattoo regret, but also to provide a professional procedure with extremely high success and satisfaction rates.

"Our patients come from all over Polk County and Central Florida we have the most advanced technology in the region," says Dr. Mondello. "We can remove tattoos of any ink color from all skin types safely and effectively with our Astanza Trinity laser system."

Laser tattoo removal requires a series of treatments for full ink removal. The Astanza Trinity minimizes the number of sessions necessary with its three laser wavelengths and unparalleled power production. The combination of three wavelengths 1064nm, 532nm, and 694nm gives Dr. Mondello the ability to treat the entire spectrum of ink colors, including resistant shades. The Q-switching power of the Astanza Trinity allows for tattoo ink deep inside the dermis to be treated without harming surrounding skin.

"Mondello Medical Spa is in a part of the country known for its exceptional cosmetic and aesthetic procedures, and we are proud to have a renowned physician like Dr. Mondello add Astanza's Trinity laser tattoo removal technology to his already extensive procedure offerings," said Ryan Lambert, president of Astanza. "Dr. Mondello's practice of aesthetic medicine combined with the Astanza Trinity laser will give each and every patient at Mondello Medical Spa a successful removal experience."

ABOUT MONDELLO MEDICAL SPA & DR. CHRISTOPHER MONDELLO, DO, MBA

Dr. Christopher Mondello has established Mondello Medical Spa to be the premier facility for excellence in laser resurfacing, Smart Lipo, and laser tattoo removal, among many other procedures. Dr. Mondello's primary focus is to enhance natural beauty using non-surgical methods of aesthetic medicine. Dr. Mondello's board certification includes recognition from the ACOFP and AAM. Both Dr. Mondello and each member of his medical staff share a passion for beauty and cosmetic medicine. Dr. Mondello and his professional staff have been trained on the tattoo removal procedure by the Q-switched laser experts of New Look Laser College.

For more information or to schedule a free consultation, visit http://www.mondellomedicalspa.com, or call (863) 422-5476. Mondello Medical Spa is located at 28149 US Hwy 27, Dundee, FL 33838.

ABOUT ASTANZA

Astanza is a leading manufacturer of Q-switched lasers designed for many applications, but with a unique focus on the application of laser tattoo removal. In addition to developing cutting-edge medical laser devices such as the Trinity and Duality lasers, Astanza offers its customers a complete range of training, marketing, and business consulting services specific to achieving success in this growing field.

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Central Florida Specialist Offers Trinity Laser Tattoo Removal with Astanza Technology