Closer Weekly | 'Grey's Anatomy' Star Ellen Pompeo Takes Fans Behind the Scenes of the Popular Show Closer Weekly Grey's Anatomy fans were stoked when the show's star Ellen Pompeo gave them a sneak-peek at her life on set. In the series of Instagram clips on Thursday, March 2, the 47-year-old actress gave a detailed behind-the-scenes look at the popular medical ... |
Here is the original post:
'Grey's Anatomy' Star Ellen Pompeo Takes Fans Behind the Scenes of the Popular Show - Closer Weekly
A French teen who underwent a first-of-its-kind procedure 15 months ago to change his DNA shows no signs of the sickle cell disease he had been suffering from. The procedure, which was performed at Necker Childrens Hospital in Paris, may offer hope to millions of patients who suffer from sickle cell disease, BBC News reported.
Sickle cell disease is a severe hereditary form of anemia, which causes patients to develop abnormal hemoglobin in red blood cells. The botched hemoglobin causes the cells to form a crescent or sickle shape, making it difficult to maneuver throughout the body. Sickle-shaped cells are less flexible, and may get stuck to vessel walls causing a blockage, which can stop blood flow to vital tissues.
Before undergoing the procedure, treatment for the unidentified teen included traveling to the hospital each month for a blood transfusion to dilute the defective blood, BBC News reported. According to the report, the excessive amount of treatment caused severe internal damage, and at age 13 he already needed a hip replacement and had his spleen removed.
In a world first, doctors at Necker Childrens Hospital removed his bone marrow and genetically altered it using a virus to compensate for the defect in his DNA responsible for sickle cell disease, BBC News reported. The results published in the New England Journal of Medicine said he no longer uses medication, and has been making normal blood for the past 15 months.
So far the patient has no sign of the disease, no pain, no hospitalization, Philippe Leboulch, professor of medicine at the University of Paris, told BBC News. He no longer requires a transfusion so we are quite pleased with that.
Doctors said the treatment will have to be repeated in other patients as the teen is the trials first, but that it does show powerful potential.
Ive worked in gene therapy for a long time and we make small steps and know theres years more work, Dr. Deborah Gill, of the gene medicine research group at the University of Oxford, told BBC News. But here you have someone who has received gene therapy and has complete clinical remission thats a huge step forward.
It was not clear how much the procedure would cost, or whether there are plans to expand to other countries.
Here is the original post:
Doctors reverse teen's sickle cell disease with innovative gene therapy - Fox News
March 3, 2017
Sanford Health, one of the largest health systems in the country, is partnering with the flagship hospital of the Miami Children's Health System to sequence the genes of nearly 1,000 Latinos and Hispanics in order to better understand the health needs of the populations.
Philanthropist Denny Sanford and Sanford Health have given $7 million to the Nicklaus Children's Hospital initiative in Miami, Florida, to support the research, which uses genetic and genomic information to personalize health carein this case, for children.
Golfing great Jack Nicklaus, for whom the hospital is named, said he recently approached his friend, Denny Sanford, and asked for help with the project.
"When we approached Denny with a plea to assist our important work at Nicklaus Children's Hospital and through our Foundation, he was quick to open his heart and lend a hand," Nicklaus said in a statement.
The sequencing project will make it easier to determine whether a person is predisposed to a certain disease, or how he or she might respond to a particular medicine. The initiative will help build a database of common genomes and identify genetic patterns among Hispanic and Latino populations.
MCHS is South Florida's only health care system exclusively for children and includes the nonprofit Nicklaus Children's Hospital.
Sanford Health, which is the largest employer based in the Dakotas with 28,000 workers, has 45 hospitals and nearly 300 clinics in nine states and four countries. Sanford Health CEO Kelby Krabbenhoft said the partnership will help Sanford diversify its work and research with genomic medicine.
Explore further: Stem cell therapy trial at Sanford first of its kind in US for shoulder injuries
2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
The first FDA-approved clinical trial of its kind in the United States using a person's own fat-derived adult stem cells to treat shoulder injuries is available at Sanford Health.
A 9-day-old baby who suffered a normally fatal stroke was saved after a Sanford Health cerebrovascular neurosurgeon removed the clot by combining mechanical and medicinal therapies. The unique case, completed by Alexander ...
Genetic profiling of cancer tumors provides new avenues for treatment of the disease, according to a study conducted by Sanford Health and recognized by the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
(HealthDay)Sick children from rural areas in the United States have more complex medical problems and cost more to treat than urban or suburban kids, a new hospital study finds.
A drug that blocks neurotransmitters could reduce nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy, research co-authored by a Sanford Health physician and published in the New England Journal of Medicine finds.
Snoring can be a normal symptom of a cold or virus in children. But when snoring persists and children have difficulty sleeping, parents should take their children to a doctor to look for signs of more serious conditions.
A condition forcing people to involuntarily mirror movements in opposing limbs has been linked to a common developmental brain disorder.
Common knowledge says that genetic mutations are bad. This is true for most mutations of lipoprotein lipase (LPL), the enzyme in the blood responsible for the breakdown of lipoproteins, which allows tissue to utilize energy ...
A computer method called ZeitZeiger that uses a sample of blood to accurately predict circadian time - the time of day according to a person's body clock - is described in new research published in the open access journal ...
Genetic variants linked to autism spectrum disorders (ASD) may have been positively selected during human evolution because they also contribute to enhanced cognition, a new Yale study suggests.
Australian scientists have discovered the first evidence of genes that cause Macular Telangiectasia type 2 (MacTel), a degenerative eye disease which leads to blindness and is currently incurable and untreatable.
New research has identified sections of DNA associated with altered regulation of gene expression underlying schizophrenia. The implicated loci contribute to schizophrenia risk by affecting alternative splicing, part of the ...
Please sign in to add a comment. Registration is free, and takes less than a minute. Read more
Originally posted here:
Sanford Health, hospital partner on gene sequencing project - Medical Xpress
NEW ORLEANS Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins have provided plenty of fireworks but no winning chemistry for the New Orleans Pelicans in their first three games together since a blockbuster trade moved Cousins from Sacramento.
The NBAs newest version of the Twin Towers gets a fourth chance for a breakthrough win on Friday night at the Smoothie King Center, but it will be a very tall order because the 24-37 Pelicans will host the 46-13 San Antonio Spurs, the team with the second-best record in the NBA, in a nationally televised game.
The Pelicans have lost two of three to the Spurs this season, but in their most recent contest on Jan. 27, New Orleans spanked San Antonio 119-103. The Spurs had entered the game having won five straight, but San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich waved the white flag and emptied his bench with 3:34 left.
We just ran out of gas, Popovich said.
Jrue Holiday led the Pelicans with 23 points and had 11 assists, and Davis scored 16 points and grabbed 22 rebounds, tying his career high on the boards.
The Pelicans would love nothing more than to have Holiday repeat that performance. Holiday broke out of a mini-slump on Wednesday night with 22 points in a 109-86 victory over the Detroit Pistons.
Im still excited (about the Cousins trade), but I dont think were as good as weve shown, Holiday said Thursday after practice. Weve added DeMarcus and seen bits and pieces of him and AD getting 30 and nobody else helping them out. When we put a whole game together, itll be a lot more fun.
In his three games as a Pelicans, Cousins has averaged 23.3 points and 12.7 rebounds, but hes also picked up 14 fouls, some of them early in games to limit his effectiveness. Cousins sat out the victory over Detroit on Wednesday while serving a one-game suspension for having picked up his 18th technical foul of the season in the previous game.
On Thursday, the Pelicans scrimmaged a little more than we do on regular practice days to find out what will work best in essentially a double-post offense, said coach Alvin Gentry.
Were just trying to get (Cousins) and everybody else into a flow where were beginning to understand where guys want the ball or where guys are going to be in certain situations, Gentry said. Thats the biggest thing putting them out there and letting them play.
Davis has averaged 31.4 points on 50 percent shooting and 10.2 rebounds over his last five games, and he had 33 points in the victory over Detroit. Holiday said he hopes to get both big men going and have a good game himself.
Once the offense starts to click, Holiday believes Davis will really benefit from having more space to operate.
I think hell get a lot more shots because you really cant double-team him, Holiday said. If you do it with a guard, its a mismatch. Hes playing against fours now, and fours cant handle him in the perimeter or in the post.
The Spurs are coming off a challenging 100-99 home victory against the Indiana Pacers in a game which had its share of controversy down the stretch. Kawhi Leonard hit the game-winning, fallaway jumper over Paul George with 2.4 seconds left, but the NBA admitted Thursday that the shot should not have counted because officials missed a traveling call against Leonard before the shot.
Leonard led the Spurs with 31 points on 11-of-22 shooting.
He does that every night, Popovich said.
Leonard has averaged 18.7 points and 4.0 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.3 steals in three games against New Orleans, while forward LaMarcus Aldridge has averaged 16.0 points and 8.7 rebounds.
Rookie point guard Dejounte Murray started in place of Tony Parker (quad contusion) against the Pacers and played well down the stretch, contributing four assists and three points in the fourth quarter.
He didnt start that well, but he hung in there and made some big plays, San Antonio guard Manu Ginobili said
The Spurs have won five of the last six games against New Orleans.
Read more:
Cousins, Davis still seeking winning chemistry with Pelicans (Mar 03, 2017) - FOXSports.com
First-year Department of Chemistry student Julia Trowbridges film, The Chemist, was chosen to be on display at the 2017 Art and Science Exhibition at the Curfman Galley in the Lory Student Center.
Students as well as faculty and staff were encouraged to submit their best science-inspired art and art-inspired science to this years event. The Chemist, along with more than two dozen other pieces, will be on display until March 24.
Julia Trowbridge
Trowbridge is originally from Austin, Texas, and at a young age was interested in art and science. She discovered her passion for photography during middle school and currently shoots photography for the Collegian.
Chemistry became an interest when Trowbridge took an AP chemistry class her senior year in high school. After working with two different teachers, she was convinced that chemistry was what she wanted to study in college.
At Colorado State University, Trowbridge began her study of chemistry through solar cells and pursued her interests in photography and film making. She also participates in slam poetry and wanted to combine all of her passions in art and science, so she produced a spoken word poem with video to create her film, The Chemist.
She melded the science of different chemical reactions from thermite to glassblowing with an artistically written poem. Trowbridge said, I see film as an art, and so filming chemical reactions was easy to put together and is aesthetically pleasing. Trowbridge submitted three pieces to this years exhibition and plans to do more collaborations in the future.
Trowbridge was encouraged by Professor Nancy Levinger to enter her work into the exhibition. She was able to produce her film in 11 days, and her recent involvement in the CSU film club helped her polish the piece. She said, It was fun in terms of running around to different labs to capture chemical reactions and learning about different things along the way.
This years exhibition shows the talents of members of the CSU community, just like Trowbridge, from disciplines around campus. Everything from film, photography, printmaking, and poetry are on display for the public to view.
The rest is here:
Chemistry-inspired film on display at Art and Science Exhibition - Colorado State News
Big news in biotech: Scientists created what appeared to be a mouse embryo using stem cells. From the Telegraph story:
Artificial human life could soon be grown from scratch in the lab, after scientists successfully created a mammal embryo using only stem cells.
Cambridge University mixed two kinds of mouse stem cells and placed them on a 3D scaffold. After four days of growth in a tank of chemicals designed to mimic conditions inside the womb, the cells formed the structure of a living mouse embryo.
The breakthrough has been described as a masterpiece in bioengineering, which could eventually allow scientists to grow artificial human embryos in the lab without the need for a sperm or an egg.
First, this wouldnt be from scratch, as if they scientists brewed DNA from raw chemicals. It involved existing cells.
Second, we already know that mammalian life can be created without egg and sperm, for example, as in cloning, of which this is a variant technique that fuses different cells into a new organism.
Third, IF they ever create a human organism in this way, it would not be an artificial life but a real and fully human being thatshould be treated as such in ethics and in law.
More here:
Bioengineered Human Life Would Not Be Artificial - National Review
SEOUL, South Korea--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
R-Japan, an affiliated company of Nature Cell (007390.KQ), announced its business performance for 2016.
In 2016 R-Japan cultured and supplied a total of 1,055.9 billion stem cells for 5 affiliated hospitals including Nishihara Clinic. The company conducted regenerative medical treatment more than 3,500 times and achieved sales of KRW10.4 billion as well as the ordinary profit of KRW1.6 billion.
The patients who received the regenerative medical treatment with stem cells supplied by R-Japan did not have any side effects. This performance of the medical treatment for the past 1 year has been officially reported to Japans Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
Moreover, the medical treatments effects regarding degenerative arthritis, critical limb ischemia, autoimmune disease and skin care have been gradually acknowledged. R-Japan reported the number of medical treatments for degenerative arthritis exceeded 650 and the satisfaction regarding its therapeutic effect was very high.
R-Japan is promoting the expansion of affiliated medical institutions in 27 regions including Hokkaido, Kansai, Kyushu, etc., expecting the earnest activation of the stem cell regenerative medical treatment in 2017. Moreover, the company is planning to expand the area of medical treatment to anti-aging and Alzheimers disease. The company expects to perform regenerative medical treatment more than 5,000 times and supply cells which will be worth more than 1.5 trillion won for this year.
From this March, production processes will be allocated to Nature Cell and the affiliated company R Bio, which received permission for manufacturing from Japans Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. Japan BioStar Stemcell Research Institute (Director:Jeong-chan Ra) will be established in the KOBE Biomedical Innovation Cluster.
About R-JAPAN
R-JAPAN Co., Ltd. is the advanced biotechnology company specialized in manufacturing mesenchymal stem cells regenerative therapy with stem cell technology of Biostar Stem cell Research Institute in Korea. R-Japans proprietary technology is to isolate, multiply, and store adult mesenchymal stem cells with ensuring genetic integrity. R-Japan currently cultures approximately 1,000 cases per month and has been evaluated by many medical institutions. As a result, R-Japan has been cultured 5,860 billion cells for 24,293 patients since stem cell processing facility was operated.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170303005202/en/
Potential Treatment
Gene therapy has been available for quite some time now. Advances in modern medical science, particularly in stem cell research, have made it possible to use DNA to compensate for malfunctioning genes in humans. The therapies haveeven proven effective fortreating rare forms of diseases. Now, a research team in France has shown that gene therapy may be used to cure one of the most common genetic diseases in the world.
The team, led by Marina Cavazzana at the Necker Childrens Hospital in Paris, conducted stem cell treatment on a teenage boy with sickle cell disease. The disease alters theblood through beta-globin mutations, which cause abnormalities in the blood proteinhemoglobin. These abnormalities cause the blood cells (which have an irregular shape, like a sickle, hence their name) to clump together. Patients with sickle cell disease usually need transfusions to clear the blockages their cells cause, and some are able to have bone marrow transplants. About 5 percent of the global population has sickle cell disease,according to the WHO. In the United States alone, the CDC reports that approximately 100,000 people have sickle cell disease.
The patient is now 15 years old and free of all previous medication, Cavazzana saidwhen discussing the outcome of their study. He has been free of pain from blood vessel blockages, and has given up taking opioid painkillers. Their research is published in the the New England Journal of Medicine.
The particular treatment given to the teenage boy at Necker Childrens Hospitalbegan when he was 13 years old. The team took bone marrow stem cells from the boy and added mutated versions of the gene that codes for beta-globin before putting these stem cells back into the boys body. The mutated genes were designed to stop hemoglobin from clumping together and blocking blood vessels the hallmark of sickle cell disease.
Two years later, the boys outcomelooks promising.All the tests we performed on his blood show that hes been cured, but more certainty can only come from long-term follow-up, Cavazzan said. Her team also treated seven other patients who also showed promising progress.
If the method shows success in larger scale clinical trials, it could be a game changer, saidDeborah Gill at the University of Oxford, The fact the team has a patient with real clinical benefit, and biological markers to prove it, is a very big deal.
Other research involving gene therapy is also showing similar promise. One which has already been approved by the FDA is a potential treatment for blindness. Others look at treating Parkinsons disease or evenprolonging human life. What these studies show is that gene therapyand stem cells may be able togive hope to patients with diseases that have long been considered incurable.
Continued here:
Doctors Claim They've Cured a Boy of a Painful Blood Disorder Using Gene Therapy - Futurism
By Jeremy D. Goodwin Globe Correspondent March 02, 2017
Mark S. Howard
Alexander Platt and Celeste Oliva in Stage Kiss.
Theres surely something strange about depictions of physical intimacy onstage. We understand that the stage directions, like the lines the actors speak, are all scripted. But two people kissing onstage are still kissing.
Sarah Ruhls comedy Stage Kiss doesnt dwell too deeply on such metaphysics. Ruhl is a highly interesting playwright and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, but this 2011 entry is not a major work. Yet as seen in a crisp and attractive production at Lyric Stage Company of Boston, it makes for an agreeable romp with ample laughs and just enough winks toward something deeper to suggest to attentive audience members that perhaps theyre onto something.
Advertisement
Ruhl gives us two central characters, identified only as She (Celeste Oliva) and He (Alexander Platt), ex-lovers reunited in the cast of a remount of a 1930s Broadway flop. Oliva motors Stage Kiss from the outset, when we see her nervously auditioning for the amusingly ineffectual director played with a light comic touch by Lyric mainstay Will McGarrahan. This actor has the gift of making it look easy, but his comic timing here is expert.
Through the rehearsal process of this play-within-a-play and its opening night, we track the exchange between the hokey melodramas depiction of an affair and the evolution of She and Hes relationship. The structure is inverted in the second act, when offstage life gives way to the performance of a different play. We get repeated reminders that the line between an actor doing her job and a person living in the moment is more permeable than is comfortably acknowledged such as when botched stage business leads to a genuinely broken foot or sprained neck.
Get The Weekender in your inbox:
The Globe's top picks for what to see and do each weekend, in Boston and beyond.
Director Courtney OConnor keeps the clever storytelling twists lucid, making sure we follow the transitions from play to play-within-a-play, even when they occur in the same scene and on the same set. OConnors deftest move, though, is facilitating a pair of ever-more-impressive central performances.
Oliva and Platt are provided here a showcase of their craft. The piece could easily lie inert if not for these actors firecracker chemistry. In scenes set onstage and off, the two model the full emotional journey of a testy romance, from post-coital bliss to the bitter re-litigation of ancient disputes to an awkward post-breakup meeting. Stage Kiss is forever reminding us of the essential artifice of performance (starting with the protagonists names), but Oliva and Pratt keep things anchored by believably playing the reality underlying the gags. Even when their motivations are obscured by costumes and heavy accents, we observe the evolution of these characters.
Another chief asset is Michael Hisamoto as Kevin, an all-purpose understudy. Kevins presence in various roles becomes a running joke particularly when a scene calls for his very awkward kissing skills. (Kevin is gay, and the trepidation with which he approaches his intimate moments with She is hilarious.) Craig Mathers, Theresa Nguyen, and Gillian Mackay-Smith also do admirable double duty in roles that work as mirror images.
Advertisement
The playwright doesnt quite stick the landing, as things take a turn for the sentimental and were suddenly meant to be invested in the mending of an offstage relationship weve seen little of. The plays concluding beats feel very familiar, reminding us weve really seen all of this before, in other backstage tales told in the theater and on film.
But in one bravura comic sequence involving the directors intervention in an onstage kiss, we get a reminder that even the most personal of gestures may be merely artifice whatever one might be pretending.
Stage Kiss
At Lyric Stage Company of Boston, through March 26. 617-585-5678, http://www.lyricstage.com
Here is the original post:
Firecracker chemistry makes 'Stage Kiss' stand out - The Boston Globe
What happened
Puma Biotechnology (NASDAQ: PBYI) ended the day down 13.8% after Roche (NASDAQOTH: RHHBY) reported that its rival breast cancer drug, Perjeta, had passed its phase 3 trial, dubbed "Aphinity."
Image source: Getty Images.
In Roche's trial, patients either took Perjeta and Herceptin with chemotherapy or just Herceptin with chemotherapy, and then took Perjeta and Herceptin, or just Herceptin, for an additional year. Roche didn't release the full data from the clinical trial, but it did say the triple combination reduced the risk of recurrence of invasive disease or death compared to Herceptin and chemotherapy alone.
The potential to establish a new standard of care where patients take Herceptin and Perjeta for a year could be problematic for Puma Biotechnology because its drug candidate, neratinib, was tested after just Herceptin use, the current standard of care.
Without any data, doctors will likely wonder whether neratinib helps patients that have received Herceptin and Perjeta. And the relapse rate for patients on the current standard of care is already quite low; if adding Perjeta decreases it further, doctors and their patients may decide taking another drug after that isn't worth it, especially given neratinib's side-effect profile.
Investors will have to wait for the full data from Aphinity -- perhaps at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in June -- to know how much better Herceptin plus Perjeta is than Herceptin alone, and how that might affect neratinib's sales, assuming it's approved later this year.
10 stocks we like better than Puma Biotechnology
When investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*
David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Puma Biotechnology wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.
*Stock Advisor returns as of February 6, 2017
See the original post:
Why Puma Biotechnology Inc. Got Hammered Today - Madison.com
Tonight, ABC will be airing a special, When We Rise, in place of Greys Anatomy. But dont worry, our favorite doctors will be back next week at their usual time for an all-new episode.
Next weeks episode is titled Civil War, and the synopsis reads: A grueling trauma case is complicated by hospital politics. Meanwhile, Amelia confronts her feelings regarding Owen; and Meredith finds herself stuck in the middle as Nathan and Alex butt heads over a patient.
So where did Greys leave off? Last week, Alex finally came back to Grey Sloan Memorial for work, and Meredith agreed to return to the hospital, too. Alexs first day back was, well, heavy. He was assigned to a mother-to-son kidney transplant, but things quickly turned dramatic when the boys father showed up to the hospital uninvited.
We learned that Cynthia (the mom) was a victim of domestic abuse at the hands of her husband, and after hearingthis, Jo toldOwen to ask the man to leave. But after that it all got worse. Cynthias second kidney failed and the doctors still needed to give her sona kidney to live. As it turns out, the husband never actually left the hospital, and he overheard the doctors conversation. He said he wanted to give up his kidney to save his son, putting the doctors in a moral dilemma. Should they save Chris with a kidney from his father, who abused his mother? Ultimately, they diduse the fathers kidney, but Jo secretly snuck into the OR to convince him to donate it anonymously and never admit to his wife or son that it was his kidney.
Another (maybe not-so-secret) secret that was revealed? Arizona and Eliza Minnick are togetherish. Theyve been meeting in the parking lot, hiding theirsteamy romance. Oh, and everyone seems to love to vocalize their disdain for Minnick in front of Arizona, which makes for an interesting juxtaposition.
Dont miss a new episode of Greys Anatomy, which will return to ABC on March 9 at 8 p.m. ET.
Why isn't How to Get Away with Murder on TV Tonight? When will HTGAWM be back for next season? Get the details here.
See the article here:
Why Isn't Grey's Anatomy on Tonight? - Heavy.com
The Countess Zapak (2016)
Probably the most famous piece of early feminist artart with a distinct uplift-the-gender messagewas Judy Chicago's 197479 The Dinner Party, the installation of Great Historical Vaginas now on permanent exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum. But Wittenberg introduces me to a group of female artists of the 1960s and '70s who pioneered the painting of sexually explicit images of men as well, and soon I discover that the art world is in the midst of a veritable ManSpoke renaissance. Early last year, the Dallas Contemporary mounted a retrospective called Black Sheep Feminism: The Art of Sexual Politics, while the Mary Boone Gallery in New York City featured 1960s-era antiwar artist Judith Bernstein under the title Dicks of Deathinspired by the scrawls on the walls of men's bathrooms, she drew cartoon penises shooting bullets or turning into giant menacing screws. Eventually I find my way to the Fight Censorship Group, a girl gang of '60s artists who put this cri de chatte in their manifesto: "If the erect penis is not wholesome enough to go into museums, it should not be considered wholesome enough to go into women."
But Wittenberg's love of sexual material goes deeper than politics or even lust. She's looking for fresh ways to engage art's long history of sexual imagery, from the first cave paintings 12,000 years ago to the lingams of ancient India and the phallic statues of ancient Greece to more modern provocations like Courbet's The Origin of the World, a close-up view of a woman's genitals that is still so upsetting it's been banned on Facebook. She's very interested in technical questions like the contrast between "image and surface," applying high style to subjects that many people consider vulgar. She's also responding to other current artists who are exploring the theme, from Salle and Jeff Koons to Marlene Dumas, a prominent Dutch painter whose earthy subjects range from childbirth to peep shows to, yes, impassioned men. In 2008 and 2009, a Dumas show called Measuring Your Own Grave made an influential splash at both the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. And of course, with frank sexual imagery now available on every laptop and with the porn industry outselling Hollywood, Wittenberg is engaging like a journalist with the hot topics and pressing issues (so to speak) of the modern world. As she puts it, "When you're thinking about sex all the time, it has a funny way of wandering into the picture."
It certainly doesn't hurt that her predecessors are finally starting to sell their paintings; this year, the Carnegie Museum paid $350,000 for a series of Bernstein's "screw drawings" from the Mary Boone show. Boone's director, Ron Warren, said that while male artists still find it easier to sell explicit work (it's considered "much more aggressive for females to use sexual imagery"), the message of Bernstein's workits critique of the link between militarism and machismomade it downright family-friendly. "I saw people bringing in their kids and explaining the work to them."
When I email Bernstein for perspective, I inadvertently stumble into a minefield of feminist politics by starting with a general question about women who paint sex. "Women who work with sexual imagery are often lumped together, when in essence their aesthetic and message are very different," she snaps. Maybe this is because I enthused a little too much about Wittenberg, who rejects "identity art" and the notion that a woman should paint from a female perspectivethe closest she's gotten to that is painting the Fox News building like a vaguely phallic still from a Leni Riefenstahl movie.
Wittenberg put me in touch with Betty Tompkins, who was more fun. Still sounding 25 at 68, she laughed her way through most of a two-hour visit to her SoHo studio. She found rejection by all the male-dominated galleries of the '70s "liberating" because she could focus on what she really wanted, which was explosive imagery. "That was in the back of my mind all the timea charged image. It was too late to do it like de Kooning and Hofmannthey were my heroesand I didn't want to be anybody's second place." One day she was flipping through her husband's porn collection, and she framed the shots with her fingers. "I said, 'Now that's a charged image.'"
By now, it's getting late. I've been in Wittenberg's studio for almost three hours. She never seems to tire. She never sits down. She has shown us paintings of a beautiful naked woman straddling a log and paintings of an orgy based on a porn video she found by searching "after school special"she likes to use weird search terms like "back to nature" or "grassy knoll" because they generate unusual images.
Once she lands on a video she likes, she'll print out 50 different stills at different moments and play with them, "meshing" one drawing to the next. "I'll spend days just, like, distancing myself from the photograph and living it, until the direction of the emotional content" sinks in. "I'd be like, Oh, that image really feels red. You know?" Sometimes she's chasing something as simple as a shadow, or a curl of the mouth.
Wittenberg takes us to her newest series: paintings of two men kissing so hard their faces almost merge into one. She's done drawings, monotypes, paintings in black and white and in red and white. The latest is the size of a small car and mostly yellow, with streaks of drippy red that look, in an oddly beautiful way, like oozing blood. She wants to express all the "conditions of the kiss: the unwanted kiss, the loving kiss, the kiss of death, the kiss of Judas, the eternal kiss of God." Eventually, she wants to do three faces kissing themselves into a single face.
Finally, at my request, she shows us the series of paintings that led to Red Handed, Again. She tells the story of the famous painter who first saw them. "I was fussing around, and he took the brush out of my hand and he just pulled it right up as one stroke'The dick is one thing,' he said. 'Part of painting is making a choice and sticking to it. Commit! Go with your gut!'"
This seems like the right time to ask the question that started this adventure. "You said to me it's the hardest thing in the world to sell these paintings," I say. "So what happened when you showed them to collectors and gallery owners?"
At last, she sits down. The very question seems to sap her energy. But her rat-a-tat answer reveals her true spiritrepeating her favorite word about 30 times in rapid succession, she says that art curators in both Miami and the Midwest asked for one of her paintings and insisted that Miami and the Midwest were ready for explicit male imagery, eager for it, hungry for it, drooling for it. So she sent a painting out and quickly got the message that Miami and the Midwest weren't quite so eager for it or hungry for it or drooling for it after all. "So it's been sent to Miami and back, and to the Midwest and back, and now this guy is calling me from Los Angeles for a show in October, and I'm inclined to send him the same dick."
"Decoration is still an important element for painting, and when you have something with an aggressive subject matter, it doesn't know its place."
Why?
"Because I feel like it's the most digestible one in the studioit has nice colors, it's kind of a softer image. It's slightly more decorative."
I look where she's pointing. It's one of her yellow ones, very pretty.
"There doesn't seem to be any real home for any of these," she continues a bit sadly. "It doesn't go in the kids' room; it doesn't go in the living room; it doesn't go in the dining room. Decoration is still an important element for painting, and when you have something with an aggressive subject matter, it doesn't know its place."
But does she intend to keep doing them, I ask, even if they don't sell?
"Yeah," she answers. "I mean, I might die with all these dicks, for all I care."
At that moment, her parrot lands on her shoulder,
and Wittenberg breaks into a smile. She takes the bird in her hand and pushes its feathers apart. "Look at those colors," she says.
This article originally appeared in the March 2017 issue of ELLE.
Have thoughts on this story? Email elleletters@hearst.com.
Continued here:
What Happens When Women Paint Male Anatomy - Explicit ... - Elle - ELLE.com
Artificial intelligence is already gaining steam as one of the most-talked-about tech trends of 2017.
Its one of those umbrella terms thats easy to throw around. But away from the big conferences and debates about techs role in society, the hard work to develop the predictive technology is happening.
One of those spots is theEastern Campus of the Emerging Technology Centers, where Insilico Medicine is working to develop algorithms that can help select and develop the right drugs. The company sees artificial intelligence as apath to reduce the use of animal testing in developing pharmaceuticals, and is even working on a virtual human to simulate how drugs affect the body.
The latest news from the company shows how itswork could help other companies pick out what works and what doesnt. Insilicos research on aging (one study was published in the journal Aging) showed how artificial intelligence could help show the specific molecules that influence the aging process.
This was interesting to 37-year-old Life Extension, a company that makes anti-aging supplements. The natural supplement, or nutraceuticals, market is big, but its a place where other research studies have questioned whether the supplements actually prevent disease.
Life Extensions Ageless Cell. (Courtesy photo)
InSilcos algorithms were used at the early stage of development of a new product to screen for the right compounds to help slow or reverse aging, said Insilico Medicine COOQingsong Zhu.
Some of the compounds they identified were used inAgeless Cell, a new product in Life ExtensionsGeroprotect line that was released this week.
Our collaboration with Insilico Medicine fostered a novel approach to formulating anti-aging supplements utilizing artificial intelligence and sophisticated biologically-inspired algorithms and resulted in the very first AI formulated supplement,Andrew G. Swick, Life Extensions senior vice president of scientific affairs, discovery research and product development, said in a statement.
Talk of AI and extending human life seem to go hand-in-hand around tech circles. Both are in play for Insilico Medicine.
Stephen Babcock is the lead reporter for Technical.ly Baltimore. A graduate of Northeastern University, he moved to Baltimore following a stint in New Orleans, where he served as managing editor of online news and culture publication NOLA Defender. While there, he also wrote for NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune. He was previously a reporter for the Rio Grande Sun of Northern New Mexico.
Original post:
How this Baltimore company is using AI to make supplements smarter - Technical.ly Brooklyn
Posted on March 2, 2017, 6 a.m. in Biotechnology Drug Delivery Technology
Researchers develop the first DNA computer capable of pinpointing several antibodies in the blood and carrying through resultant calculations.
A team of researchers has developed an intelligent DNA computer that can enable controlled drug delivery into the bloodstream. The team, from Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands, believes this new method will lead to the development of smart drugs that more effectively treat autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn's disease. The team, led by Professor of Biochemical Chemistry Maarten Merkx, published their findings in the Nature Communications journal.
DNA Computing
DNA computing is a largely experimental field of scientific study. Using a combination of DNA, biochemistry, and molecular biology hardware, researchers seek to use DNA sequencing for data storage and to perform complex calculations.
The goal of this new field is to create nano-computers using DNA instead of mechanical parts. The resulting machines would be able to store immense amounts of data and make complex calculations faster than inorganic equipment. Some scientists believe DNA computers may one day replace silicon-based hardware.
Possible Applications in Medical Treatment
DNA computing methods, due to their organic nature, allow medicines to work more effectively with the bodys natural defenses. Researchers compare the body to a security system with facial recognition. Previous research has focused on creating a machine that is recognized by the body, similar to the way a security system would recognize an authorized person.
Professor Merkxs method adds the ability to recognize the presence of antibodies. The identification and measurement of antibodies is a crucial step in diagnosing and treating disease. Antibody levels are also a factor when calculating the dosage of therapeutic drugs.
With DNA nano-computers able to detect and measure antibodies while performing complex analyses, researchers are hopeful machines can be programmed to carry out actions in response to certain measurements. Merkxs team successfully used DNA computing to control the activity of enzymes. The professor believes it is possible to apply this technique to therapeutic antibodies. This should result in better absorption of therapeutic substances. When used as a delivery system, these computers will be able to decide how much medicine to release into the bloodstream, based on the antibodies in the bloodstream.
Future Applications in the Treatment of Chronic Disease
Researchers are working on ways to use the technology in the fight against chronic diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and Crohns Disease. These conditions are often treated with the same drugs. The dosage is dependent on the condition it is meant to treat. Smart drugs would be able to deliver the most accurately therapeutic dose of medication. This would allow for more effective treatment. It would also reduce the overall cost of treatment and reduce side effects.
Go here to read the rest:
DNA Computer Enables Controlled Drug Delivery - Anti Aging News
Scientists and doctors will gather in La Jolla this week for a conference about how medicine could change and in some cases, how it's already starting to change thanks to advances in genomics.
The 10th annual Future of Genomic Medicine conference organized by the Scripps Translational Science Institute and held at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography is being held at a time when genomic breakthroughs have increasingly become the subject of high-profile intellectual property disputes, ethical debates and major industry investments.
One panel focussed on the gene editing tool CRISPR will feature MIT scientist Feng Zhang, who recently came out ahead of UC Berkeley scientists in a patent battle over who deserves credit for developing a tool that could be used to fight cancer, malaria and a host of other genetic diseases.
"I think it can't really be overstated how big of a revolution CRISPR is in terms of manipulating the genome," said Scripps Translational Science Institute researcher Ali Torkamani, who will moderate the CRISPR panel.
"It's exciting to the public and it is really exciting to scientists as well," he said.
Other panels will cover the federal Precision Medicine Initiative, which is still in nascent stages, and attempts to develop blood-based screening tests meant to catch cancer in early stages. Grail, a spinoff company of San Diego-based Illumina, announced on Wednesday that it has raised $900 million to develop such "liquid biopsies."
Razelle Kurzrock of the UCSD School of Medicine will give a presentation about fighting cancer by better understanding a patient's unique DNA and the unique DNA of their tumor.
"By understanding genomics and each patient's cancer, we are learning how to customize precision treatments for patients," Kurzrock wrote in an email to KPBS. "The immune system, once reactivated by our new drugs, differentiates between tumor and normal cells by the mutations that tumor cells harbor."
More than 600 people are scheduled to attend the conference, which begins Thursday morning and wraps on Friday afternoon.
To view PDF documents, Download Acrobat Reader.
Original post:
San Diego Genomic Medicine Conference Kicks Off Thursday - KPBS
Do you want to know how much pee you're swimming in? A scientist at the University of Alberta has some answers for you. (Those who wish to remain blissfully ignorant, keep scrolling.)Stock Photo via Anne Lepesant
Do you pee in the pool? Maybe its a habit yououtgrew,but for every potty-trained graduate ofage-group swimming there are a dozen more older and mature swimmers that would still rather just let it go than get out during practice. After all, most swimmers only ever get out of the pool to pee right before the hard setwe see you, slackers, but were not debating the actual sizes of your bladders here. In fact, we applaud your willingness to walk all the way to the toilet, because as Dr. Xing-Fang Lifrom the University of Alberta has discovered, your teammates that stay put havent stopped answering natures call in your shared aquatic field of play, the pool.
So, do you still want to know how much pee is in a pool? Well, assuming youre swimming in a standard eight-lane, 25 yard pool, which holds approximately 220,000 gallons of water, youre also swimming in about 20 gallons of urine. Your best friends backyard pool, which likely measures around 20 feet long by 40 feet wide at about five feet deep, probably contains onlytwo gallons of pee. In either case, this translates to approximately 1/100th of 1% of the pools total volume. Peanuts, right? Well, it turns out its not that simple.
Even a volume as tiny as 1/100th of 1% of the pools volume can be a hazard to patronshealth. How? Well, when urine andchlorine bond in their objectionable union a whole host of unsavory compounds known asdisinfection byproducts are born. Such byproducts include thechloramines floating in the air that swimmers and pool-goers breathe in, giving pools that classic chlorine odor, to cyanogen chloride, a chemical so dangerous it is classified amongchemical warfare agents,to nitrosamines, substances which are usually carcinogenic. While theres not enough evidence to say whether the nitrosamine levels in pools increase risk of cancer, one Spanish study founda trend inbladder cancers in some long-term swimmers. Apparently, even peeing in the pool can generate bad karma that might bite you back in the very organ you sneakily relieved during that social kick your coach was nice enough to pencil into the workout.
So how did scientists determine these volumes in the first place? Well, if it leaves your body, it had to find its way in somehow, so in the case of pee, scientists followed the Yellow Brick Road back to artificial sweeteners which leave a distinct and traceable residue in pool water. For this study,Dr. Xing-Fang Li measured the amounts of acesulfame potassium, or Ace-K for short, in competition pools, hotel pools, and hotel hot tubs in two Canadian cities. University of Purdues Dr. Ernest Blatchley III equated peeing in the pool to second-hand smoke, saying that the habit is disrespectful and potentially dangerous. However, as Blatchley points out, any pool open for wide-spread or public use is definitely absorbing its fill of urine. Essentially, pee in the pool is a foregone conclusioneven a joke among many swimmersso best prepare to deal with it.
Any swimmer or swim parent can tell you how much worse air quality tends to be in natatoriums than at outdoor pools. Without open air and sunlight, airborne compounds like chloramines build up and are more concentrated, making breathing more difficult, especially for those with respiratory issues such as asthma. Whats more, urine isnt the only unpleasant substance finding its way into common waters via the human body. Oils on the skin and in the hair, and products used on the body such as lotions and hair gels, all contribute to the sump that pool water can become if both patrons and aquatics directors and staff do not take the necessary precautions to side-step inadvertentlyadulterating the seemingly pristine waters within which weswim.
Thankfully, the path to a cleaner pool is simple. First, if you gotta go, just get out of the pool and go, or go before practice, or hold it. Your choice! Second, actually take a shower before getting in the water like the sign in the locker room says. It might seem redundant to shower before getting in the pool, but by rinsing off whatever residue is on your skin and hair before getting in the water, youre doing everyone in the pool, on deck, and in the stands a favor. So there you have itthere really is a lot of pee in the pool, but with any luck, well keep a few gallons out!
The original study this information is drawn from can be found here. For further scientific reading about chloride formation in swimming pools and other disinfection byproducts, click here.
Reid Carlsonoriginally hails from Clay Center, Kansas, where he began swimming at age six. At age 14 he began swimming club year-round and later with his high school team, making state all four years. He was fortunate enough to draw the attention of Kalamazoo College where he went on to
See the rest here:
How Much Pee Is In This Pool? Chemistry Has Answers, If You Dare - SwimSwam
Kym Johnson (now Herjavec) is returning to the Dancing with the Stars floor after marrying former celebrity partner, Robert Herjavec. According to People.comanother Dancing with the Stars love connection might be in the works for the upcoming season. Apparently the chemistry between fan-favorite professional Sharna and her new celebrity partner, Bonner Bolton, a former professional bull rider and current model, is intense and obvious.
Dancing with the Stars Season 24 Cast: Mr. T, Charo, Simone Biles and More>>>
"I showed up in skinny jeans and Louboutins and was very unprepared for the situation I was in," Burgess said describing their first meeting on Bolton's ranch. "All of a sudden, Bonner is walking towards me with his horse and his cowboy hat down -- I couldn't see his face. I was like: 'Okay, where am I?!' It was sunset -- it looked amazing."
"I looked up and saw her and I was a little bit speechless, I have to say," Bolton added. "Obviously, everyone is telling me how great of a partner I have, but I think it's pretty easy to see -- she's not hard on the eyes!"
Sharna went on to say about Bonner, "Instantly I was excited to work with him and be able to tell his story, which is one of my favorite things to do on the show. I'm excited about this one."
Sharna came incredibly close to winning season 23 of Dancing with the Stars with partner James Hinchcliffe. Hinchcliffe was probably equally as unknown as Bonner before Dancing with the Stars so Sharna has a history of taking nobodies and making them into legitmate stars.This supposed chemistry doesn't mean that Sharna will walk away with the Mirrorball Trophy she deserves, but it's best not to count her out just yet.
But what do you think? Could Sharna and Bonner be the next DWTS romance? What do you think of the cast? Who are you rooting for before the season begins?
(Image courtesy of ABC)
Go here to see the original:
Dancing with the Stars - BuddyTV (blog)
Marcia France:Associate Dean of the College /John T. Herwick, M.D. Professor of Chemistry. She becomes Associate Provost on July 1.
Courses: Organic Chemistry I and II, Advanced Organic Chemistry, Science of Cooking in Italy
Little-known fun fact: Ive played flute in Carnegie Hall, and Ive worked with two Nobel laureates.
Challenge yourself. Take advantage of all the opportunities W&L has to offer. When theres a speaker on campus, go and fully engage. Think of a question you could ask, and then ask it. Study abroad. Go to a country youve never been to before, learn a new language, and engage with the people. Pursue activities that interest you, on campus and in your community. Sit down with your friends and talk about something thats happened in the world recently.
Your research involves green chemistry. What is that?My research focuses on developing better methodologies for carrying out organic transformations. In particular, I am interested in developing greener reactions that would result in more efficient chemical syntheses that produce less waste. The research could help produce various types of pharmaceutical compounds in a more environmentally friendly way. Recently, I have been thinking about moving my scholarship in a completely different direction related to my longstanding interest in the science of cooking, focusing on the intersection of the science, history and culture of food. Many food production traditions and methodologies developed over generations because they worked to create a product people enjoyed, without the practitioners understanding the underlying science. Yet, when examined closely, many of these practices make sense from a scientific viewpoint.
Your Science of Cooking course is your favorite class to teach. What do you love about it?I also love teaching organic chemistry, dont get me wrong. Its what I was trained to do, and that is my passion, but the Science of Cooking class gives me a chance to explore something completely different and work with non-major students. Im meeting students I would never have met otherwise. And Im not going to lie; we go to Italy! And we eat really well! I would probably enjoy organic chemistry even more if I did that in Italy, too. When you teach abroad, you get to interact with the students, outside as well as inside the classroom. I love that part. And every time we go, I learn something new, too.
You helped start the W&L-University of St Andrews exchange program, which allows science and pre-med students to study in Scotland and receive W&L credit. What prompted you to start this?It goes back to my love of being abroad. As an undergraduate, I never had the chance to study abroad, although I really wanted to. Its so difficult for science students to find opportunities to do that. Very few science majors have the ability to take a complex, upper-level science course in a foreign language, so it often restricts them to English-speaking countries. The U.K. and most other English-speaking countries approach chemistry education very differently in terms of class sequencing, so theres no one-to-one correspondence between a class you would have in the states and a class you would have over there. Another issue is that a lot of American med schools wont accept credits for pre-med core courses from abroad. I wanted to find a way to let my students have the opportunity that I wasnt able to have. Thats why I really wanted to be involved in creating that program. W&L now has this built-in, tailor-made program for our science students. Its definitely something thats unique.
What is the coolest activity youve done with a class?One of the students in my 2016 Spring Term class took the initiative (months in advance) to book a reservation at Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy. Although not officially part of the course, most of the class chose to go. We enjoyed one of the most amazing meals of my life a nine-course tasting menu in our own private room. Chef Massimo Bottura came out a couple times and had a fairly long conversation with us. A month later, the restaurant was named number one in the world!
A hallmark of a W&L education is the close interactions between faculty and students. How have you seen this in action?One thing is just having students over for dinner. I dont know that that happens at a lot of other universities. The former program coordinator [from IES Siena, our partner organization] for my 2015 Spring Term class was recently at W&L to give a couple talks. We took that as an opportunity to have a class reunion at my house, complete with lasagna prepared with our cooking instructors recipe. The classroom you can get that at any school. But, as I walk around the lab teaching, I chat with the students about their classes, what theyre doing that weekend, or what sports teams theyre on. I know them as people, not just as students.
What do W&L students bring to the classroom?The idea of the liberal arts. Some of the most creative ideas emerge from taking the way something is done or conceptualized in one field and applying it in another. Thats the strength of the liberal arts. At W&L, there is this convergence of really bright students who are interested in so many different things. They bring so many perspectives. We have the diversity of an organic chemistry student who is double-majoring in economics. Some of my students are passionate about music and some are athletic stars. Its a unique environment where students combine so many of their interests in the classroom.
As associate dean of the College, part of your job is connecting students to national fellowships and mentoring them through the entire application process. What advice do you have for students looking at fellowship opportunities?Take full advantage of your W&L education. That starts on day one. You want to be cultivating the types of qualities that will make you a good applicant. I once heard someone say that its not about being a Rhodes Scholar, its about being the kind of person who could win a Rhodes scholarship. So challenge yourself. Take advantage of all the opportunities W&L has to offer. When theres a speaker on campus, go and fully engage. Think of a question you could ask, and then ask it. Study abroad. Go to a country youve never been to before, learn a new language, and engage with the people. Pursue activities that interest you, on campus and in your community. Sit down with your friends and talk about something thats happened in the world recently. W&L is great for the well-rounded student whos involved in many different things. But find where your passion is and work on the focus as well, developing intellectually in a small area as well as some of those broader areas. Start that early and keep working on it. Then start that application process early, because you can always tell a last-minute application.
Why is Midnight Breakfast your favorite W&L tradition?Its just so much fun, and a huge stress relief for students. Its finals week. Theyve been studying heavily for exams, and then they come through the dining hall late at night, and professors and staff are there serving them smoothies and waffles. I love being out there and serving them. I always want to be assigned to a station where I get to interact with the students. Even if its 11:30 at night, those smiles on their faces when I hand them a smoothie is totally worth it. Theyre really grateful, and I think they find it so fun to have professors and deans out there serving them in this role reversal. Its this nice study break that they really deserve. Even if its the middle of finals, everybodys happy to be at Midnight Breakfast.
When did you play in Carnegie Hall?Ive played the flute since fourth grade. While getting my masters, I played in the Yale band, which performed in Carnegie Hall. We also marched in the first George Bushs inaugural parade. Then, of course, Ive had the opportunity to travel all over the world with the W&L Wind Ensemble: Japan, China, Egypt, Russia, Costa Rica all kinds of cool places. < /p>
Do you have a favorite place to travel?There are two places that are most near and dear to my heart because Ive spent so much time in them. Definitely St Andrews, because I spent a sabbatical and several summers there. Its almost become like a second home. Ive also spent five months collectively in Siena, Italy. Ive gone from being a tourist to having a sense of belonging. I have friends I look forward to seeing whenever I go back to St Andrews or Italy, so those are two places that I love.
Do you speak any other languages?I speak French fairly well. As an undergraduate, I lived in a French-speaking house for four years, and then I did a sabbatical in 2011 in Paris. Ive really been trying to keep up my French. Here at W&L, I try to go to the French table in the dining hall as often as I can. I did take two years of Japanese at W&L. I also took two years of German in college. And Ive been working on Italian on my own for the Science of Cooking class.
Read more:
Marcia France on Chemistry, Cooking and Culture - Washington and Lee University News Office
LOWER POTTSGROVE >>Pottsgrove High School was evacuated Wednesday afternoon following a reported incident in the chemistry lab.
According to the Pottsgrove School Districts Twitter feed, the high school was evacuated at 1:05 p.m. on Wednesday. Emergency crews responded to the scene by around 1:20 p.m. and investigated the incident.
The chemistry lab had an incident where a chemical got mixed together and it sort of flashed in front of a student, said Lower Pottsgrove Fire Marshal Lew Babel. It was put out over the air by somebody but it was just a chemical reaction that overheated in a container and popped it.
Babel said the student was taken to Pottstown Memorial Medical Center to be evaluated for any burns.
Advertisement
No damages to the building were reported during the incident, Babel said, and students were able to return to class by 2 p.m.
The upper science wing remained closed until students were dismissed for the day.
Responding to the incident were Sanatoga Fire Company, Ringing Hill Fire Company and Goodwill Ambulance.
See more here:
UPDATED: Pottsgrove High School reports incident in chemistry lab - The Times Herald
University of Otago researchers have made a ''significant step'' forward in understanding a key factor in Parkinson's disease, gastric cancer and melanoma.
Peter Mace, of the Otago biochemistry department, led the research, working with Australian scientists. The study's first two authors are Johannes Weijman and Dr Abhishek Kumar, of the department.
Dr Mace is ''very excited'' about the outcome of this ''fundamental biochemistry of cells'', which sheds new light on several disease processes.
The Otago-led study of a protein called apoptosis signal-regulating kinase 1 (ASK1) has just been published in PNAS.
Apoptosis is programmed cell death, which protects the rest of the body if damage to an individual cell is too great.
ASK1 and other kinases act as signalling proteins that control many aspects of cellular behaviour. Kinases put tags on to other proteins that can turn them on or off, which in turn can make a cell respond in many ways, including by dividing, dying or moving.
ASK1 also helps control how a cell responds to damage, including by pushing it towards apoptosis.
The research team determined ASK1's previously ''very little known'' molecular structure through using the Melbourne-based Australian synchrotron.
Researchers had learned a lot more about how the protein was turned on and off, which was ''important'', because in diseases such as Parkinson's, stomach cancer and melanoma there could be either ''too much of, or too little ASK1 activity''.
Kinases were ''excellent targets'' for developing new drugs because they had a ''pocket'' in their structure that such compounds could bind to.
But to develop better drugs, far more knowledge was needed, he said.
See the article here:
Research on signalling protein sheds new light on disease processes - Otago Daily Times