13-01-2012 06:26 The Lord will keep you safe from all evil; he will take care of your soul.Psalm 121:7 Youtube - They Sold Their Souls For Music Jesus is the Truth John 15-4 Baking Soda (SODIUM BICARBONATE) + hot water + drink = Cancer CURE (One teaspoon a week)
Continue reading here:
21-03-2012 17:38 Hank discusses some of the recent developments in synthetic biology, and why some advocacy groups are calling for a moratorium on those developments. Like SciShow on Facebook: Follow SciShow on Twitter: References for this episode can be found in the Google document here: tags: synthetic biology, science, scishow, genetics, genetic engineering, biology, moratorium, genome, synthetic genome, bacteria, biobrick, friends of the earth, eric hoffman, society, law, lawmakers
Visit link:
The Obama administration is to unveil its National Bioeconomy Blueprint plan today, reports The New York Times. "The growth of today's US bioeconomy is due in large part to the development of three foundational technologies: genetic engineering, DNA sequencing, and automated high-throughput manipulations of biomolecules," the report notes, adding that "tomorrow's bioeconomy relies on the expansion of emerging technologies such as synthetic biology (the direct engineering of microbes and plants), proteomics (the large-scale study and manipulation of proteins in an organism), and bioinformatics (computational tools for expanding the use of biological and related data), as well as new technologies as yet unimagined." The report adds that such technologies appear to be moving toward advances in health, bioenergy, biomanufacturing, and environmental clean-up.
The report includes five strategies, including some to support research and development, and to encourage translating basic findings into commercial applications. In addition, the plan calls for improving training and promoting collaborations between the public and private sectors. Finally, the plan calls for regulation reform namely to speed up regulatory processes and make them more predictable.
"This may be the first time the country has recognized the total impact that biological sciences has for the current and future economy," MIT's Phillip Sharp tells the Times.
View original post here:
Bioeconomy Plans
Public release date: 24-Apr-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Vicki Cohn vcohn@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News
New Rochelle, NY, April 23, 2012 Nearly 8 of 10 Americans will experience lower back pain at some time in their lives. Persistent low back pain is a common, incapacitating, costly, and difficult to treat condition. Many patients might benefit significantly from an individualized, multidisciplinary, team-based model of care that includes access to licensed complementary care practitioners (e.g., chiropractors, massage therapists, and acupuncturists) in addition to conventional care providers, as demonstrated in a study published in The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The article, "A Model of Integrative Care for Low-Back Pain," is available free on The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine website at http://www.liebertpub.com.acm.
David M. Eisenberg, MD, and colleagues from Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital (Boston, MA), Group Health Research Institute (Seattle, WA), and Brown University (Providence, RI), compared conventional therapy alonedefined as "usual care"to the combination of an integrated program of complementary and alternative medical (CAM) therapies plus usual care. They report significant differences between the two randomized patient groups in outcomes which included pain, functional status, and difficulty performing routine, self-identified challenging activities.
CAM therapies were provided by a trained team of healthcare practitioners and included acupuncture, chiropractic, massage therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, mind-body techniques, and nutritional counseling. Usual care consisted of treatments provided by subjects' primary care physicians and typically included non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS), physical therapy and bed rest as needed, education, and changes in activity levels.
###
About the Journal
The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine is a monthly peer-reviewed journal publishing observational, clinical, and scientific reports and commentary intended to help healthcare professionals and scientists evaluate and integrate therapies into patient care protocols and research strategies. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine website at http://www.liebertpub.com.acm.
About the Company
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Alternative and Complementary Therapies, Medical Acupuncture, and Journal of Medicinal Food. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 70 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. website at http://www.liebertpub.com.
Read more:
CAM therapy combined with conventional medical care may improve treatment of lower back pain
Log in to manage your products and services from The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune.
Don't have an account yet? Create an account
E-Mail or Member ID
Password
Remember Me Log In
Read this article:
Public release date: 23-Apr-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Vicki Cohn vcohn@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 x2156 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News
New Rochelle, NY, April 23, 2012-- Videogame technology is proving to be a valuable tool for helping people of all ages improve lifestyle and health habits and manage disease. New research is showing that exergames have significant benefits for older adults by providing cognitive stimulation and a source of social interaction, exercise, and fun. Thus, the games help them to lead fuller, more independent lives for a longer time, according to two articles in Games for Health Journal, a new bimonthly peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The articles are available free on the Games for Health Journal website.
"The elderly often forsake their lifelong activities in exchange for the safety, security, and care of institutional living," says Editor-in-Chief Bill Ferguson, PhD. "This trade-off need not require the sacrifice of physical activity and fitness. Furthermore, videogames offer an escape from routine. All of these benefits can improve the well-being of elderly adults."
Digital games offer a home-based method to support behavior modification, motivating patients to take better care of themselves and to self-mange chronic conditions. Recommendations for how to use and integrate videogame technology in the rehabilitation and training of older adults are presented in the review article "Interactive Videogame Technologies to Support Independence in the Elderly." Videogames offer a good alternative to traditional forms of aerobic exercise, according to the authors, Hannah Marston, PhD, German Sport University Cologne, Germany, and Stuart Smith, PhD, Neuroscience Research, Randwick, New South Wales, Australia.
Another article in the issue describes a study performed in three European countries that defined and compared the specific features of videogames that would most interest older adults. Unai Diaz-Orueta, PhD, Matia Gerontological Institute Foundation-INGEMA (Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain), and colleagues from Spain, The Netherlands, and Greece identified several main factors that motivate interest in gaming: the social aspect of the experience; the challenge it presents; the combination of cognitive and physical activity; and the ability to gain specific skills as a result of gaming. They present their findings in the article entitled "What is the Key for Older People to Show Interest in Playing Digital Learning Games? Initial Qualitative Findings from the LEAGE Project on a Multicultural European Sample."
###
About the Journal
Games for Health Journal breaks new ground as the first to address this emerging and increasingly important area of health care. The Journal provides a bimonthly forum in print and online for academic and clinical researchers, game designers and developers, health care providers, insurers, and information technology leaders. Articles in the Journal explore the use of game technology in a wide variety of clinical applications in disease prevention, promotion, and monitoring, including nutrition, weight management, medication adherence, diabetes monitoring, post-traumatic stress disorder, Alzheimer's, and cognitive, mental, emotional, and behavioral health.
About the Publisher
More:
A genetically engineered fish that glows green from the inside out is helping illuminate what pollutants do inside the body.
Endocrine disruptors aresubstances found in a wide range of industrial products, including plastics, as well as in many femalecontraceptives.
The chemicals mimic the actions of sexual hormones, resulting in various reproductive problems in both people and animals. Previous research has shown the chemicals cause fish to change gender, and in people, endocrine disruptors have been associated with lower sperm counts and breast and testicular cancers.
Yet scientists have had difficulty tracking what endocrine disruptors do inside a person or an animal's body. So a team genetically engineered zebrafish to glow in places where an endocrine-disrupting chemical is presentand thus show where it may be harming the body.
"We've essentially put genetic elements within the fish, over time, that are specifically designed to identify where the chemicals penetrate and act within the body," said study leader Charles Tyler at the U.K.'s University of Exeter.
"This genetic machinery produces proteins which don't interfere with the way these chemicals act in the body, but they fluoresce green under a fluorescent microscope, providing a reporting system to identify which body tissues are being affected.
"This, in turn provides a more 'intelligent' way of identifying where the [pollutants'] potential health impacts might be" in people.
(See "Glowing Animals: Beasts Shining for Science.")
Glowing Fish Confirm Past Findings
Tyler and team exposed the zebrafish to varying levels of chemicals known to affect the hormone estrogen, including ethinyloestradiol, found in contraceptive pills; nonylphenol, present in paints and industrial detergents; and bisphenol A (BPA), a component of many plastics.
The rest is here:
In my last blog, I received repeated accusations of being "anti-evolution" from John Kwok and Keith Roragen. These accusations puzzled me, and I tried to explain why I was puzzled in my online answers to them. But they continued to insist.
My basic argument on the blog (and in my book) was the following: We need to pay far more attention to non-random cell-mediated genome change ("natural genetic engineering") in evolution.
Here's what John Kwok said:
And here's what Keith Roragen said:
Both John and Keith invoked natural selection and population genetics in a way that makes no logical sense. They seemed to believe that incanting "natural selection" would somehow invalidate what I said about the importance of natural genetic engineering. (Readers are invited to dig out the full exchanges and judge for themselves.)
The Jerry Coyne statement that John quoted does not even make sense within the context of the neo-Darwinian Modern Synthesis. Population geneticists recognize the need to use "mutation rates" and recombination events (i.e., genome changes) to generate new allelic variants and combinations as the raw material for selection. There is no way that natural selection can substitute for natural genetic engineering; by definition, it can only work after heritable change has occurred.
Keith simply sticks his head in the sand and introduces stubborn ignorance in place of explanation.
It is difficult to imagine how evolution could occur without genome change according to virtually any theory. Perhaps a purely neo-Lamarckian process, depending exclusively on epigenetic modifications, might conceivably generate heritable (and hence selectable) organism change without alterations to DNA sequences. But I do not think this is what my antagonists had in mind.
The curious responses to my position exposed a fundamental difference in understanding of biological functions between molecular geneticists and these particular proponents of population genetics. Because I can only speak for the molecular side, let me elaborate. I will leave it to John, Keith, and Jerry to explain their assertions.
Molecular geneticists recognize the essential roles of genome structures and multi-molecular networks for cell activities and for morphogenesis.
Read this article:
ST. LOUIS, April 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Sigma-Aldrich Corporation (Nasdaq: SIAL - News) today announced that Sigma Advanced Genetic Engineering (SAGE) Labs, an initiative of Sigma Life Science, extended CompoZr Zinc Finger Nuclease (ZFN) technology to achieve the first tissue-specific conditional knockout of an endogenous gene in rats. For two decades this approach for generating sophisticated disease models could be performed only in mice. Rats, however, are preferred by drug discovery and basic researchers because the animal's physiology, neurobiology and other features are more predictive of human conditions. Rats engineered to contain tissue-specific conditional gene knockouts are available exclusively through the SAGEspeed Custom Model Development Service. Details are available at http://www.sageresearchmodels.com/conditional-KO.
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20050215/CGSIGMAALLOGO)
Conventional gene knockout eliminates a gene throughout an entire animal. In contrast, conditional gene knockout can eliminate a gene solely in the relevant tissue or organ, leading to a more accurate understanding of the gene's function. Conditional gene knockout can also knock out genes at certain points in development, enabling studies of genes whose absence in embryos is lethal, but whose loss of function in adulthood is critical to investigate for many human diseases.
"Almost 89% of drug candidates fail to achieve approval," said Edward Weinstein, Director of SAGE Labs. "Basic and drug discovery researchers need access to more predictive animal models whose physiology, biology, and genetics more closely reflect specific human conditions. SAGE Labs is applying ZFN technology to achieve previously impossible genetic manipulations, such as tissue-specific gene deletion in rats."
Using the conditional knockout methodology, scientists at SAGE Labs have generated a pair of rat lines in which two important neuronal genes, Crhr1 and Grin1, were removed in specific neuronal populations. Crhr1 and Grin1 have been implicated as playing a role in depression and schizophrenia, respectively. The rat lines were developed through the SAGEspeed model creation process, which uses Sigma's CompoZr ZFN technology to create sophisticated genetic modifications in rats, mice, rabbits, and other organisms. CompoZr ZFN technology is the first to enable highly efficient, targeted editing of the genome of any species.
For more information and to request pricing, visit http://www.sageresearchmodels.com.
Cautionary Statement: The foregoing release contains forward-looking statements that can be identified by terminology such as "enable," "enabling," "leading to," "achieve," "predictive" or similar expressions, or by expressed or implied discussions regarding potential future revenues from products derived there from. You should not place undue reliance on these statements. Such forward-looking statements reflect the current views of management regarding future events, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. There can be no guarantee that iPS cells, iPS-cell derived primary cell lines, novel assays, or related custom services will assist the Company to achieve any particular levels of revenue in the future. In particular, management's expectations regarding products associated iPS cells, iPS-cell derived primary cell lines, novel assays, or related custom services could be affected by, among other things, unexpected regulatory actions or delays or government regulation generally; the Company's ability to obtain or maintain patent or other proprietary intellectual property protection; competition in general; government, industry and general public pricing pressures; the impact that the foregoing factors could have on the values attributed to the Company's assets and liabilities as recorded in its consolidated balance sheet, and other risks and factors referred to in Sigma-Aldrich's current Form 10-K on file with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Sigma-Aldrich is providing the information in this press release as of this date and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
About Sigma Life Science: Sigma Life Science is a Sigma-Aldrich business that represents the Company's leadership in innovative biological products and services for the global life science market and offers an array of biologically-rich products and reagents that researchers use in scientific investigation. Product areas include biomolecules, genomics and functional genomics, cells and cell-based assays, transgenics, protein assays, stem cell research, epigenetics and custom services/oligonucleotides. Sigma Life Science also provides an extensive range critical bioessentials like biochemicals, antibiotics, buffers, carbohydrates, enzymes, forensic tools, hematology and histology, nucleotides, amino acids and their derivatives, and cell culture media.
About Sigma-Aldrich: Sigma-Aldrich is a leading Life Science and High Technology company whose biochemical, organic chemical products, kits and services are used in scientific research, including genomic and proteomic research, biotechnology, pharmaceutical development, the diagnosis of disease and as key components in pharmaceutical, diagnostics and high technology manufacturing. Sigma-Aldrich customers include more than 1.3 million scientists and technologists in life science companies, university and government institutions, hospitals and industry. The Company operates in 40 countries and has nearly 9,000 employees whose objective is to provide excellent service worldwide. Sigma-Aldrich is committed to accelerating customer success through innovation and leadership in Life Science and High Technology. For more information about Sigma-Aldrich, please visit its website at http://www.sigma-aldrich.com.
Sigma-Aldrich and Sigma are trademarks of Sigma-Aldrich Co, LLC registered in the US and other countries. SAGE and CompoZr are registered trademarks of Sigma-Aldrich Co. LLC. SAGEspeed is a trademark of Sigma-Aldrich Co. LLC.
Read more from the original source:
SAGE® Labs Creates the First Tissue-Specific Gene Deletion in Rats
A team of UCLA researchers has found a genetic engineering technique that suppresses the HIV virus in mice, an encouraging step toward potentially fighting the disease in humans, researchers said.
The study, led by Scott Kitchen, a member of the UCLA AIDS Institute and assistant professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine, draws upon previous UCLA research findings. It was published last week in the epidemiology journal PLoS Pathogens and funded in part by the UCLA Center for AIDS Research.
Researchers examined the effectiveness of genetically engineered killer T cells, which are capable of fighting off disease, at combating the HIV virus in a mouse. The team used a humanized mouse engineered to have a human immune system. In the humanized mouse, the disease progressed similarly to its progression in humans, making it a reliable tool for the study and providing powerful predictive value for the therapy in humans, Kitchen said. Its a major advance and a step closer in demonstrating the potential use of this in people, he said.
A few months ago, the team introduced a population of the engineered T cells into a mouse so they could develop and grow into a human immune system, Kitchen said. The researchers then conducted blood and organ tests at the second and sixth weeks, finding a decrease in the HIV levels and an increase in the cells HIV typically kills, according to the journal article.
The findings could theoretically be used to support a clinical trial in humans, said Jerome Zack, associate director at the UCLA AIDS Institute and co-author of the study.
A benefit genetic engineering is that it opens the field to therapeutic HIV treatments, and that it can be extended to potentially treat other diseases such as cancer, said co-author Arumugam Balamurugan.
In 2009, the lead scientists from the most recent study showed that human blood stem cells in mice could be genetically engineered to grow large quantities of killer T cells, As a result of their genetic engineering, these T cells grew to a large population and targeted HIV-infected cells in the mice.
We had the idea that we could take the elements of immune response (the T cells) that are successful in suppressing HIV in infected people to see if it was possible to identify a receptor specific to HIV, Kitchen said, referring to the teams research in 2009.
Though advances have been made in the fight against HIV, an estimated 50,000 new cases are diagnosed in the United States each year, and there are more than 33 million people living with the disease worldwide, according to the National Institutes of Health. Factors that make the disease difficult to fight include its rapid rate of spread and lack of preventative measures. The findings could lead to more comprehensive methods of fighting the disease and eventually to a clinical trial in humans, Kitchen said.
Originally posted here:
UCLA researchers develop genetically engineered stem cells to fight HIV in mice
"What are your thoughts on genetically modified foods?" I asked a horticulturist friend.
"It's probably impossible to get an unbiased opinion from either side," he said. On the other hand, he reminded me, life is full of "genetic modifications." Any time a male and female come together to produce offspring either in plants, animals, or humans there is a mixing of genes in the process. And the new offspring are new and different hopefully with desirable traits from both parents.
Genetic manipulation in the plant world is not new, he said. What we call "heirloom" tomatoes were the new varieties a hundred years ago. Growers of food continually mix genetic material to come up with hardier, more tasteful and often more nutritious varieties.
Made me think of my Uncle Cab from Arizona. He was a pharmacist by profession and a farmer by hobby. He had a small orchard where he practiced grafting one species of fruit tree to another. I remember seeing a grapefruit growing on his orange tree that I thought was pretty nifty.
Critics argue that we shouldn't artificially insert genes where they shouldn't be inserted ... that genetic engineering is "an imprecise process" prone to mistakes.
Au contraire, according to Peggy G. Lemaux, Ph.D, UC Berkeley Department of Plant and Microbial Biology (www.ucbiotech.org). In classical plant breeding, she explains, when and where a gene is "expressed" is not controlled
Another concern is that, unlike Uncle Cab's orange/grapefruit tree, biotechnology allows for genes from entirely different species to produce ... who knows what?
In many cases this can be good, however. Insulin medication, for example, is genetically engineered. Prior to 1980, this hormone the key to life for people with type 1 diabetes had to be extracted from the pancreas of cows and pigs. Today, through a process called "recombinant DNA technology," the genetic code (DNA) to make pure human insulin is introduced into organisms that are then able to manufacture this vital medicine in unlimited amounts.
And while one side argues that plants produced by selectively manipulating genetic material can cause health concerns, others argue that genetically modified foods are a humanitarian step to care for our world.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), vitamin A deficiency is the leading cause of preventable blindness in children around the world, affecting an estimated 250million preschool children. Genetically modified rice that is high in beta carotene (a nutrient that converts to vitamin A in the body) is one way to supplement this nutrient in the diets of children who get much of their nourishment from this one staple food.
See original here:
Barbara Quinn: Genetically modified food facts
By John Stanton
"After the industries of death brought about by the gas chambers and concentration camps, the industries of life now offer the possibility of a genetically modified human race, calling into question humans born of blood and sperm and therefore the wild, the natural part of humanity. The "naturals" would become the new savages with augmented people leading a new humanity shaped less by political totalitarianism than bioengineering. And now we have entered the question of hyper racism. The deadly consequences of the great ecological fear are extremely disturbing. We are at risk of seeing not military dissuasion established between powers, but civil dissuasion between people.
What would be behind this civil dissuasion? The third bomb, which in truth has not yet exploded, already carries a name: the genetic bomb. It is the mutation of the human species by genetic engineering: the production of a human being with a smaller ecological footprint, consuming less air water and energy; the installation of a genetically modified organism to adapt to new environmental conditions, a new human being with a smaller ecological footprint because it uses less proteins water and oxygen, a creature made compatible with an Earth of dwindling resources..."
"The communism of effects is the privatization of communism. Communism has not disappeared from history; it has been privatized, creating a community of synchronized emotions. Something happened with progress and its propaganda to make us constantly preoccupied with progress and perpetually occupied by it. We are now in a situation of occupation in both the temporal and martial meanings of the word: we are under the pressure of permanent occupation. This occupation places us under surveillance, watching us, revealing us and it is increasingly present, increasingly accepted as a fate, a destiny. Promoting progress means that we are always behind: on the high speed Internet, on our Facebook profile, on our email inbox. There are always updates to be made: we are the objects of daily masochism and under constant tension."
The excerpts above are taken from the book The Administration of Fear. Inside is an interview with Paul Virilio conducted by Bertrand Richard. The book is part of the Semiotext(e) Intervention series and is distributed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The book is at once intellectually stimulating and terribly frightening. Virilio's revelations appeal: he has diagnosed the human condition in the early part of the 21st Century with pointed accuracy and may have predicted its end during some century to come. The title Administration of Fear does not nearly capture the wide range of topics ecological, social and political covered in the 93 page learning experience.
His revelatory statements inspire a belief that it is time to move the focus, the critique past capitalism, particularly capitalism accelerated by the agent silicon. The speed of life-economic, political, and social-and the subsequent compression of time and distance is the reality of the day. Money/capital flows and accumulates. Who or what gets that money is decided by algorithms deep within the world of electronic finance. A human may be encountered in such transactions but only briefly. So, who or what is in front of and behind the electronic facade? The answer is everyone and no one.
There are no critiques of silicon capitalism that have not already been written. The "isms" should focus on silicon individualism and collectivism going forward. How can humanity avoid becoming an integrated genetic circuit or node? How can humanity avoid Virilio's genetically engineered human?
It seems pointless now to rage against silicon based capitalism, at once perfidious and effective. Over the centuries, it has proven that it knows no ideology and, in fact, as Marcuse said, "It has delivered the goods.". It is flexible enough to fit any form of politics/governance. Silicon capitalism comes in all flavors: communist, terrorist, democratic, socialist, totalitarian, Judeo-Christian, or Muslim. Perhaps silicon capitalism has been so reviled because its practice reveals human beings as predators one moment and cooperative gathers at another: it reveals innate human duplicity, looking in the mirror is painful. Or maybe its ability to absorb the most radical philosophies and ideas that humans can muster disturbs; yesterday's radical song is today's car commercial. Everyone relents, there is no space to hide anymore.
Silicon capitalism's most triumphant product was the Internet and World Wide Web, and the computing and telecommunications devices that attach humans to humans, and humans to the Net/Web. In doing this, it has created non-reflective plug and play individuals and collectives around the globe. This dynamic threatens to erase being, thought, mind and self as proactive agents that filter incoming stimulation to reactive integrated genetic circuits prompted for time-restricted reflexive action. Virilio is rides exactly the right train of thought in stating that humanity's survival may depend on the creation of genetically designed human beings built to last in a world of empty concrete spaces, depleted resources and recurring ecological disasters. He makes perfect sense. Privatized communism dominates.
See the original post:
Beyond silicon capitalism to the individual as integrated genetic circuit
Public release date: 18-Apr-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Michael Bernstein m_bernstein@acs.org 202-872-6042 American Chemical Society
Scientific insights that expand on the teachings of Mendel, Watson and Crick, and underpinnings of the Human Genome Project are moving drug companies along the path to development of new medicines based on deeper insights into how factors other than the genetic code influence health and disease. That's the topic of the cover story in the current edition of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society.
The article, by C&EN Senior Editor Lisa M. Jarvis, focuses on the quiet revolution in epigenetics that has been sweeping through biology, chemistry and other scientific fields for the last several years. It explains how scientists initially believed that cracking the genetic code, achieved a decade ago, would lay out a straight path for inventing new medicines: Identify the genetic mutation behind a disease and then find a drug that overcomes it. But scientists now know that another layer of biochemical controls, an epigenetics layer, influences how and when genes work in health and disease without changing DNA itself. Early epigenetics research already produced four drugs currently approved to treat blood cancer. But these treatments lack selectivity, limiting their effectiveness.
Now, Jarvis explains, companies like GlaxoSmithKline, Epizyme and Constellation Pharmaceuticals are moving ahead to develop the next generation of epigenetic drugs, particularly for cancer. Armed with a better understanding of how specific epigenetic enzymes are implicated in disease, they are designing compounds to block the activity of those enzymes. The article describes GSK's announcement earlier this month of an epigenetic inhibitor it has developed that might fight lymphoma. "Although no one will know the value of the new epigenetic compounds until they are tested in humans, scientists are confident that the field is moving forward with the right balance of caution and enthusiasm," Jarvis concludes.
###
The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With more than 164,000 members, ACS is the world's largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.
To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society contact newsroom@acs.org.
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
See the article here:
Not by DNA alone: How the epigenetics revolution is fostering new medicines
Genetic Sensor Boosts Biofuel Production
Designer microbes regulate their own pathways to optimize fuel production, boosting yields threefold.
Give bacteria a bit of self-awareness and they can be smarter about producing biofuel.
That's the conclusion from researchers at the University of California, Berkeley who report a genetic sensor that enables bacteria to adjust their gene expression in response to varying levels of key intermediates for making biodiesel. As a result, the microbes showed a threefold boost to the yield of the fuel. Such a sensor-regulator system could eventually help make advanced biofuels more cheaply and bring them one step closer to being an economically viable replacement to petroleum-based products.
One issue that has limited the amount of biofuels that a microbe makes is an imbalance of the different biological ingredients, or precursors, used to make the final fuel product. In a study published this week in Nature Biotechnology, Jay Keasling, professor of chemical engineering and bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and colleagues describe a biological sensor system that enables bacteria to regulate genes in its biofuel-production pathways according to the amount of certain precursors in the cell.
The researchers augmented a previously reported strain of engineered E. coli that creates biodiesel from two biological building blocksfatty acids and ethanol. Over the lifecycle of that strain, one precursor can be produced at a higher level than another, an inefficient and sometimes harmful situation.
"The pathways weren't in balance," says Keasling. "The cells were wasting resources producing one precursor at a higher level than another." What's more, he says, is that biofuel production would sometimes consume too many fatty acids, which the bacteria need at certain stages of their life cycle, making the strain unstable.
Keasling and coworkers designed a microbe, using a naturally occurring sensor, that responds to the amounts of internal fatty acids and related molecules and tunes the activity of its pathways accordingly. When limited amounts of fatty acid are in the cell, the sensor-regulator molecules puts the brakes on both the ethanol-producing pathway and the fatty acid-converting pathway. Conversely, when the bacteria contain higher levels of fatty acids, the brakes on these pathways are released.
The sensor-regulator system improves the engineered bacteria in two ways, says Keasling: the metabolic pathways are better balanced so that one precursor isn't overproduced relative to the other and the modified bacteria are more stable because the biofuel production isn't robbing the cell of the ability to grow. This "self-awareness" increased the amount of biodiesel made by the bacteria to 28 percent of theoretical maximum, a three-fold increase over the previously reported strain.
Although the improvement is significant, biodiesel production is still too limited to bring the fuel into the mainstream. "There are many issues, including metabolic imbalances, that need to be solved to make biofuels a reality," said Keasling in an email. For instance, expanding these largely experimental cultures to commercial scaleon the order of a million literswill be a challenge.
Continued here:
Genetic Sensor Boosts Biofuel Production
A forum critical of UC Berkeleys plans to ramp up genetic engineering research at a planned massive new second campus of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Richmond drew a capacity crowd to the David Brower Center Thursday night.
One speaker after another ripped into the potential consequences of the universitys grandiose plans, including the human and environmental devastation certain to be wrought on Africa and Latin America.
We will be posting several articles on the gathering, but we will begin with a focus on some of the ways the labs end products could impact other lands targeted by the labs emphasis on using genetic engineering to transform living plants into fuel.
A resonant voice from Nigeria
Environmental activist Nnimmo Bassey, executive director of Environmental Rights Action in Nigeria and chair of Friends of the Earth International, ripped into comments made a day earlier by Jay Keasling, UC Berkeley professor, founder of three genetic engineering companies, and head of the Department of Energy-funded Joint BioEnergy Institute [JBEI], which is slated to relocate to the new Richmond campus.
In an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, Keasling had dismissed criticisms by Bassey and others that any successful program to use genetically altered microbes to create fuel from plant matter would wreak ecological and human devastation in Africa, Latin America, and Asia:
Thast so-called wasteland is somebodys land, Bassey said. The worlds pastoralists thrive on lands marginal or unsuitable for farming. People do live in the Sahara desert. People do live in the Kalahari Desert. People do live in the desert here in the United States.
The one sure result of a global land grab is conflict, he said. A second is the introduction of genetically modified organisms [GMOs] into more nations where theyve been previously banned.
Bassey, whose words flow in resonant, almost musical bass tones, is a winner of the 2010 Right Livelihood Award, often called the Alternate Nobel Prize because it is awarded by the Swedish legislature the day before the Nobels are handed out in the same city, Stockholm. The prize is given for working on practical and exemplary solutions to the most urgent challenges facing the world today.
Much of Basseys work has centered on the devastation wrought on his country by oil companies like Chevron, which has sunk its claws and talons into Richmond, and, like Shell, BP, and other oil companies is moving into agrofuels.
Follow this link:
Stakeholders weigh in on UC Berkeley GMO complex
A plan by Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory to merge its energy labs into a major new research facility in Richmond where scientists would work to develop biofuels through genetic engineering came under fire Wednesday by activists who fear that dangerous new microbes would be created there.
And even if the venture succeeds in transforming plants into biofuels by altering the genes of microbes, the activists argued, the Richmond lab could become an unregulated front for corporate interests and turn millions of acres of croplands used to grow food in underdeveloped countries into huge plantations for energy production.
Their protests reflect deep concerns about the dramatic new science called "synthetic biology," an unfamiliar term that in part involves engineering the genes of microbes to transform worthless plants like switchgrass into potentially unlimited sources of energy. The controversy also recalls an epic time in science nearly 40 years ago when manipulating genes was in its infancy and the public was deeply fearful that some genetically altered "Andromeda Strain" microbe might escape and imperil the world with unknown diseases.
That fear was largely ended when, after a 1975 conference at Asilomar near Monterey, biologists, lawyers and physicians agreed on enforceable guidelines for proceeding with genetic engineering projects.
It marked the first time that scientists agreed to be regulated and led to the public start of recombinant DNA research and what would become the huge international biotech industry.
Concerns about engineering "synthetic biology" are arising anew among activists.
On Wednesday, they gathered at the Center for Genetics and Society in Berkeley to express their concerns that the new research lab would be a poorly regulated entity with ties to unknown energy companies, that the work there would expose employees to dangerous microbes and, if successful, ultimately rob undeveloped nations of their croplands.
"This is a wild, wild, dangerous world," said Becky McClain, a onetime molecular biologist at a Pfizer lab in Connecticut who claimed that she had been sickened by a genetically engineered virus and was fired for speaking out about it.
"We can't afford to leave it to the corporations to self-regulate," said McClain, who won a $1.37 million lawsuit against Pfizer as a whistle-blower.
Gopal Dayaneni, an Oakland organizer, argued that the entire project - with so many engineered microbes - should never be built where earthquake hazards are high.
Public release date: 28-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Vicki Cohn vcohn@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 x2156 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News
New Rochelle, NY -- A novel method for printing human cells onto surfaces in defined patterns can help advance research on tissue engineering and regeneration, as described in an article in Tissue Engineering, Part C, Methods, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc (http://www.liebertpub.com). The article is available free online at the Tissue Engineering website (http://www.liebertpub.com/ten).
"Cell printing is one of the breakthrough technologies that will make the application of stem cells for tissue engineering feasible," says John Jansen, DDS, PhD, Methods Co-Editor-in-Chief and Professor and Chairman, Department of Biomaterials, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center, The Netherlands.
Yu Fang and colleagues, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, combined two microscale techniques to dispense and position cells in a variety of patterns. They then demonstrated the ability to use these 3-dimensional cell systems to monitor cell signaling events known to have a role in the growth, proliferation, and metastasis of cancer cells. The authors describe the use of sound waves to deliver microdroplets of cells and polymer-based phase separation to control cell placement in the article "Rapid Generation of Multiplexed Cell Co-Cultures Using Acoustic Droplet Ejection Followed by Aqueous Two-phase Exclusion Patterning." (http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/ten.TEC.2011.0709)
###
About the Journal
Tissue Engineering (http://www.liebertpub.com/ten) is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published monthly in print and online in three parts: Part A--the flagship journal; Part BReviews; and Part CMethods. Led by Co-Editors-In-Chief Antonios Mikos, PhD, Louis Calder Professor at Rice University, Houston, TX, and Peter C. Johnson, MD, Vice President, Research and Development, Avery Dennison Medical Solutions of Chicago, IL and President and CEO, Scintellix, LLC, Raleigh, NC, the Journal brings together scientific and medical experts in the fields of biomedical engineering, material science, molecular and cellular biology, and genetic engineering. Tissue Engineering is the official journal of the Tissue Engineering & Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS). Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed online at the Tissue Engineering website (http://www.liebertpub.com/ten).
About the Company
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.(http://www.liebertpub.com), is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Stem Cells and Development, Human Gene Therapy and HGT Methods, and Biopreservation and Biobanking. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 70 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available at Mary Ann Liebert Inc. (http://www.liebertpub.com).
Here is the original post:
Innovative cell printing technologies hold promise for tissue engineering R&D
Public release date: 28-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Vicki Cohn vcohn@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News
New Rochelle, NY -- Online romance scams, a new form of cybercrime, is under-reported and increasing, and has victimized an estimated 230,000 people in England, costing them nearly $60 billion a year, according to an article in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The article is available free online at the Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking website at http://www.liebertpub.com/cyber.
"This crime is very serious and unfortunately often overlooked. The costs to the victim are both hidden (emotional) and more visible (monetary)," says Brenda K. Wiederhold, PhD, MBA, BCIA, Editor-in-Chief of Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, from the Interactive Media Institute, San Diego, CA.
Online dating scammers pretend to initiate a romantic relationship through online dating services and then defraud their victims of large sums of money over a period of months or longer. Monica Whitty, University of Leicester, UK, and Tom Buchanan, University of Westminster, London, UK, document the rapid growth in these serious crimes and how cybercriminals pursue and steal from their victims. They describe the devastating financial and emotional losses the victims suffer.
###
About the Journal
Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published monthly in print and online that explores the psychological and social issues surrounding the Internet and interactive technologies. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed online at the Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking website at http://www.liebertpub.com/cyber.
About the Company
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Games for Health Journal, Telemedicine and e-Health, and Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 70 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. website at http://www.liebertpub.com.
Original post:
Online dating scammers looking for money, not love
Dublin - Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/01d4e5c9/from_genes_to_geno) has announced the addition of John Wiley and Sons Ltd's new book "From Genes to Genomes: Concepts and Applications of DNA Technology, 3rd Edition" to their offering.
Rapid advances in a collection of techniques referred to as gene technology, genetic engineering, recombinant DNA technology and gene cloning have pushed molecular biology to the forefront of the biological sciences. From Genes to Genomes: Concepts and Applications of DNA Technology explains key ideas underlying the most central techniques in the context of the ways in which they are used. The book opens with a brief review of the basic concepts of molecular biology, before moving on to describe the key molecular methods and how they fit together. This ranges from the cloning and study of individual genes to the sequencing of whole genomes, and the analysis of genome-wide information. Finally, the book moves on to consider some of the applications of these techniques, in biotechnology, medicine and agriculture, as well as in research that is causing the current explosion of knowledge across the biological sciences.
Features:
- Major revision of a concise, well-written introduction to genome sequencing technologies.
- Excellent balance between clarity of coverage and level of detail.
- Includes clear, two-colour diagrams throughout.
- Dedicated website will include all figures.
The latest edition of this highly successful textbook introduces the key techniques and concepts involved in cloning genes and in studying their expression and variation.
Key Topics Covered:
1 From Genes to Genomes
See more here:
Research and Markets: From Genes to Genomes: Concepts and Applications of DNA Technology, 3rd Edition