Results from the 2020 PhilPapers survey, with responses from nearly 1,800 philosophers (mainly from North America, Europe, and Australasia), to questions on a variety of philosophical subjects and problems, have now been published.

In their commentary on the survey, David Bourget (Western University) and David Chalmers (NYU) explain the its value:

Surveys like this can play at least three roles within philosophy. First, todays sociology is tomorrows history, and these resultsmay be of some use to future historians of philosophy. Second, philosophers often appeal to sociological claims about the distributions of views among philosophers, for example in justifying which views should be taken seriously, and it makes sense for these claims to be well-grounded. Third, if philosophy has any tendency to converge to the truth, then philosophers views might provide some guidance about the truth of philosophical views. It is not clear whether philosophy tends to converge to the truth, so we dont make the third claim about guidance, but surveys can clearly play the first two roles in philosophical practice.

The survey asked 40 main questions and 60 additional questions.

Here are the results of the main questions:

Bourget and Chalmers note that the results reported above cannot be directly compared to the 2009 results, owing to the change in the population surveyed. Still, they noted some of the largest shifts in responses among those who took both surveys. These include swings:

See their write-up for a more detailed longitudinal analysis of philosophers views.

Here are a few results from the newly added questions:

Bourget and Chalmers also include information about which answers to different questions are correlated. For the complete set of results and additional analysis, go here.

Discussion welcome.

Note:The post was edited to make clear that the 2020 data cannot be directly compared to the 2009 data, owing to changes in the survey population.

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What Philosophers Believe: Results from the 2020 PhilPapers Survey - Daily Nous

Patients with nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the most common lung cancer in humans, are frequently treated with an immunotherapy called immune checkpoint blockade (ICB). This therapy induces a population of tumor-infiltrating T cells called CD8 positive T cells to secrete interferon gamma which in turn induces the expression of programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1).

PD-L1 expression in the tumor microenvironment indicates the T cells are poised to kill tumor cells and patients with PD-L1 positive T-cell infiltrated tumors are most likely to respond to ICB. However, only about 35% of NSCLC patients respond to ICB therapy. Not all CD8 positive T cells in lung tumors express PD-L1 and respond to ICB and little is known about the mechanisms that govern ICB resistance in T cells within NSCLC.

In a new study published in Science Immunologytitled, Lack of CD8+ T cell effector differentiation during priming mediates checkpoint blockade resistance in nonsmall cell lung cancer, Stefani Spranger, PhD, professor at the MIT department of biology, and her colleagues uncover what causes some T cells in animal models of NSCLC to fail to respond to ICB, offering a potential way around it.

Jeffrey Bluestone, PhD, professor of metabolism and endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco, who was not involved with the paper said, The study provides a potential opportunity to rescue immunity in the NSCLC non-responder patients with appropriate combination therapies.

It has been generally held that the continuous fight against tumor cells exhausts T cells which causes them to stop working. The rationale behind ICB therapy, therefore, has been to reinvigorate the exhausted T cells that pass into the tumors microenvironment.

However, experiments conducted by Brendan Horton, PhD, postdoctoral fellow in Sprangers lab, showed some ICB-resistant T cells stop working before they even enter the tumor, indicating exhaustion is not the cause behind their dysfunction.

Instead, the authors found that gene expression in these T cells is altered during their activation in lymph nodes which causes them to stop functioning. Once activated, T cells specialize into different subtypes with distinct functions that can be detected by specific genetic signatures.

According to Spranger, the idea that the dysfunctional state leads to ICB resistance arises before T cells enter the tumor is quite novel.

We show that this state is actually a preset condition, and that the T cells are already nonresponsive to therapy before they enter the tumor, she said. As a result, she explained, ICB therapies that work by reinvigorating exhausted T cells within the tumor are less likely to be effective. This suggests that combining ICB with other forms of immunotherapy that target T cells differently might be a more effective approach to help the immune system combat this subset of lung cancer.

To determine why some tumors are resistant to ICB, the team studied T cells in mouse models of NSCLC. They sequenced mRNA from responsive and non-responsive T cells and used a technique called Seq-Well, developed in the lab of fellow Koch Institute member, J. Christopher Love, PhD, professor of chemical engineering, and a co-author of the study. The technique allows rapid gene expression profiling of single cells. T cells responsive and nonresponsive to ICB show different gene expression patterns at specialized functional states, the single-cell sequencing analysis showed. For instance, nonresponsive T cells express low levels of some cytokinesproteins that control immunity.

Armed with the differential gene expression pattern, the team sought to convert ICB-resistant T cells into ICB-responsive T cells. The researchers treated lung tumors in mouse models with cytokines IL-2 and IL-12. This led the previously nonresponsive T cells to fight cancer cells in the mouse NSCLC.

This is potentially something that could be translated into a therapeutic that could increase the therapy response rate in non-small cell lung cancer, Horton said.

Spranger and Horton suspect cytokine therapy could be used in combination with ICB, although current clinical practices avoid cytokine treatments due to potential adverse side effects, including a condition called cytokine storm that can be fatal.

Spranger feels this work will help researchers develop more innovative cancer therapies, refocusing their efforts from reversing T-cell exhaustion to earlier states of T-cell specialization.

If T cells are rendered dysfunctional early on, ICB is not going to be effective, and we need to think outside the box, she said. Theres more evidence, and other labs are now showing this as well, that the functional state of the T cell actually matters quite substantially in cancer therapies.

To Spranger, this means that cytokine therapy might be a therapeutic avenue for NSCLC patients beyond ICB.

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Lung Cancer Unresponsive to Immunotherapy and a Potential Solution - Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News

Evolutionary genomics approach identifies genes that enable plants to live in the Atacama Desert, offering clues for engineering more resilient crops to face climate change.

An international team of researchers has identified genes associated with plant survival in one of the harshest environments on Earth: the Atacama Desert in Chile. Their findings, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), may help scientists breed resilient crops that can thrive in increasingly drier climates.

In an era of accelerated climate change, it is critical to uncover the genetic basis to improve crop production and resilience under dry and nutrient-poor conditions, said Gloria Coruzzi, Carroll & Milton Petrie Professor in the New York University (NYU) Department of Biology and Center for Genomics and Systems Biology, who co-led the study with Rodrigo Gutirrez.

The Chilean research team established an unparalleled natural laboratory in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, one of the driest and harshest environments on Earth. Credit: Melissa Aguilar

The study was an international collaboration among botanists, microbiologists, ecologists, evolutionary and genomic scientists. This unique combination of expertise enabled the team to identify the plants, associated microbes, and genes that enable the Atacama plants to adapt to and flourish in extreme desert conditions, which could ultimately help to enhance crop growth and reduce food insecurity.

Our study of plants in the Atacama Desert is directly relevant to regions around the world that are becoming increasingly arid, with factors such as drought, extreme temperatures, and salt in water and soil posing a significant threat to global food production, said Gutirrez, professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at Pontificia Universidad Catlica de Chile.

The Atacama Desert in northern Chile, sandwiched between the Pacific Ocean and Andes Mountains, is the driest place on the planet (excluding the poles). Yet dozens of plants grow there, including grasses, annuals, and perennial shrubs. In addition to limited water, plants in the Atacama must cope with high altitude, low availability of nutrients in the soil, and extremely high radiation from sunlight.

Gabriela Carrasco, an undergraduate researcher at the time, is identifying, labeling, collecting, and freezing plant samples in the Atacama Desert. These samples then traveled 1,000 miles, kept under dry ice to be processed for RNA extractions in Rodrigo Gutirrezs lab in Santiago de Chile. The species Carrasco is collecting here are Jarava frigida and Lupinus oreophilus. Credit: Melissa Aguilar

The Chilean research team established an unparalleled natural laboratory in the Atacama Desert over a 10-year period, in which they collected and characterized the climate, soil, and plants at 22 sites in different vegetational areas and elevations (every 100 meters of altitude) along the Talabre-Leja Transect. Measuring a variety of factors, they recorded temperatures that fluctuated more than 50 degrees from day to night, very high radiation levels, soil that was largely sand and lacked nutrients, and minimal rain, with most annual rain falling over a few days.

The Chilean researchers brought the plant and soil samplespreserved in liquid nitrogen1,000 miles back to the lab to sequence the genes expressed in the 32 dominant plant species in the Atacama and assess the plant-associated soil microbes based on DNA sequences. They found that some plant species developed growth-promoting bacteria near their roots, an adaptive strategy to optimize the intake of nitrogena nutrient critical for plant growthin the nitrogen-poor soils of the Atacama.

To identify the genes whose protein sequences were adapted in the Atacama species, the researchers at NYU next conducted an analysis using an approach called phylogenomics, which aims to reconstruct evolutionary history using genomic data. In consultation with colleagues at the New York Botanical Garden, they compared the genomes of the 32 Atacama plants with 32 non-adapted but genetically similar sister species, as well as several model species.

The goal was to use this evolutionary tree based on genome sequences to identify the changes in amino acid sequences encoded in the genes that support the evolution of the Atacama plant adaptation to desert conditions, said Coruzzi.

This computationally intense genomic analysis involved comparing 1,686,950 protein sequences across more than 70 species. We used the resulting super-matrix of 8,599,764 amino acids for phylogenomic reconstruction of the evolutionary history of the Atacama species, said Gil Eshel, who conducted this analysis using the High Performance Computing Cluster at NYU.

The study identified 265 candidate genes whose protein sequence changes were selected by evolutionary forces across multiple Atacama species. These adaptive mutations occurred in genes that could underlie plant adaptation to the desert conditions, including genes involved in response to light and photosynthesis, which may enable plants to adapt to the extreme high-light radiation in the Atacama. Similarly, the researchers uncovered genes involved in the regulation of stress response, salt, detoxification, and metal ions, which could be related to the adaptation of these Atacama plants to their stressful, nutrient-poor environment.

The majority of scientific knowledge of plant stress responses and tolerance has been generated through traditional lab-based studies using a few model species. While beneficial, such molecular studies likely miss the ecological context in which plants have evolved.

By studying an ecosystem in its natural environment, we were able to identify adaptive genes and molecular processes among species facing a common harsh environment, said Viviana Araus of the Pontificia Universidad Catlica de Chile in Gutierrez lab and a former postdoctoral associate at NYUs Center for Genomics and Systems Biology.

Most of the plant species we characterized in this research have not been studied before. As some Atacama plants are closely related to staple crops, including grains, legumes, and potatoes, the candidate genes we identified represent a genetic goldmine to engineer more resilient crops, a necessity given the increased desertification of our planet, said Gutirrez.

In addition to Gutirrez and Araus, their collaborators in Chile included Claudio Latorre of the Pontificia Universidad Catlica de Chile and Mauricio Gonzlez of the Universidad de Chile. Coruzzi and Eshel at NYU worked on the phylogenomic pipeline and analysis with collaborators in the U.S., including Kranthi Varala of Purdue University, Dennis Stevenson of the New York Botanical Garden, Rob DeSalle of the American Museum of Natural History, as well as members of their research teams.

Reference: Plant ecological genomics at the limits of life in the Atacama Desert 1 November 2021, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2101177118

This work was supported by Fondo de Desarrollo de Areas Prioritarias (FONDAP) Center for Genome Regulation (15090007) in Chile, and in the U.S. by the Zegar Family Foundation (A160051), and by a Department of Energy Biological and Environmental Research grant (DE-SC0014377).

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Genetic Goldmine Uncovered for Plant Survival in One of the Harshest Environments on Earth - SciTechDaily

Researchers at MIT and Harvard University have designed a way to selectively turn on gene therapies in target cells, including human cells. Their technology can detect specific messenger RNA sequences in cells, and that detection then triggers production of a specific protein from a transgene, or artificial gene.

Because transgenes can have negative and even dangerous effects when expressed in the wrong cells, the researchers wanted to find a way to reduce off-target effects from gene therapies. One way of distinguishing different types of cells is by reading the RNA sequences inside them, which differ from tissue to tissue.

By finding a way to produce transgene only after reading specific RNA sequences inside cells, the researchers developed a technology that could fine-tune gene therapies in applications ranging from regenerative medicine to cancer treatment. For example, researchers could potentially create new therapies to destroy tumors by designing their system to identify cancer cells and produce a toxic protein just inside those cells, killing them in the process.

This brings new control circuitry to the emerging field of RNA therapeutics, opening up the next generation of RNA therapeutics that could be designed to only turn on in a cell-specific or tissue-specific way, says James Collins, the Termeer Professor of Medical Engineering and Science in MITs Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES) and Department of Biological Engineering and the senior author of the study.

This highly targeted approach, which is based on a genetic element used by viruses to control gene translation in host cells, could help to avoid some of the side effects of therapies that affect the entire body, the researchers say.

Evan Zhao, a research fellow at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, and Angelo Mao, an MIT postdoc and technology fellow at the Wyss Institute, are the lead authors of the study, which appears today in Nature Biotechnology.

RNA detection

Messenger RNA (mRNA) molecules are sequences of RNA that encode the instructions for building a particular protein. Several years ago, Collins and his colleagues developed a way to use RNA detection as a trigger to stimulate cells to produce a specific protein in bacterial cells. This system works by introducing an RNA molecule called a toehold, which binds to the ribosome-binding site of an mRNA molecule that codes for a specific protein. (The ribosome is where proteins are assembled based on mRNA instructions.) This binding prevents the mRNA from being translated into protein, because it cant attach to a ribosome.

The RNA toehold also contains a sequence that can bind to a different mRNA sequence that serves as a trigger. If this target mRNA sequence is detected, the toehold releases its grip, and the mRNA that had been blocked is translated into protein. This mRNA can encode any gene, such as a fluorescent reporter molecule. That fluorescent signal gives researchers a way to visualize whether the target mRNA sequence was detected.

In the new study, the researchers set out to try to create a similar system that could be used in eukaryotic (non-bacterial) cells, including human cells.

Because gene translation is more complex in eukaryotic cells, the genetic components that they used in bacteria couldnt be imported into human cells. Instead, the researchers took advantage of a system that viruses use to hijack eukaryotic cells to translate their own viral genes. This system consists of RNA molecules called internal ribosome entry sites (IRES), which can recruit ribosomes and initiate translation of RNA into proteins.

These are complicated folds of RNA that viruses have developed to hijack ribosomes because viruses need to find some way to express protein, Zhao says.

The researchers started with naturally occurring IRES from different types of viruses and engineered them to include a sequence that binds to a trigger mRNA. When the engineered IRES is inserted into a human cell in front of an output transgene, it blocks translation of that gene unless the trigger mRNA is detected inside the cell. The trigger causes the IRES to recover and allows the gene to be translated into protein.

Targeted therapeutics

The researchers used this technique to develop toeholds that could detect a variety of different triggers inside human and yeast cells. First, they showed that they could detect mRNA encoding viral genes from Zika virus and the SARS-CoV-2 virus. One possible application for this could be designing T cells that detect and respond to viral mRNA during infection, the researchers say.

They also designed toehold molecules that can detect mRNA for proteins that are naturally produced in human cells, which could help to reveal cell states such as stress. As an example, they showed they could detect expression of heat shock proteins, which cells make when they are exposed to high temperatures.

Lastly, the researchers showed that they could identify cancer cells by engineering toeholds that detect mRNA for tyrosinase, an enzyme that produces excessive melanin in melanoma cells. This kind of targeting could enable researchers to develop therapies that trigger production of a protein that initiates cell death when cancerous proteins are detected in a cell.

The idea is that you would be able to target any unique RNA signature and deliver a therapeutic, Mao says. This could be a way of limiting expression of the biomolecule to your target cells or tissue.

The new technique represents a conceptual quantum leap in controlling and programming mammalian cell behavior, says Martin Fussenegger, a professor of biotechnology and bioengineering at ETH Zurich, who was not involved in the research. This novel technology sets new standards by which human cells could be treated to sense and react to viruses such as Zika and SARS-CoV-2.

All of the studies done in this paper were performed in cells grown in a lab dish. The researchers are now working on delivery strategies that would allow the RNA components of the system to reach target cells in animal models.

The research was funded by BASF, the National Institutes of Health, an American Gastroenterological Association Takeda Pharmaceuticals Research Scholar Award in Inflammatory Bowel Disease, and the Schmidt Science Fellows program.

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Engineers devise a way to selectively turn on RNA therapies in human cells - MIT News

Humble microalgae may seem minor at first glance, but when optimally farmed and converted into biofuels, the potential of this renewable resource to combat climate change is anything but insignificant.

Through the extraction of lipids, they can be converted into biofuels. And, like plants, photosynthesizing algae absorb carbon dioxide, or CO2, and release oxygen into the atmosphere. But algae can do that at much faster rates and higher efficiencies than plants, and they dont need arable land or even fresh water to grow, which has sustainability scientists and engineers intrigued. Taylor Weiss (left), co-PI and assistant professor of environmental and resource management at the Polytechnic School, and Duane Barbano (right), a biological design PhD candidate in the School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy, are farming algae in a pond at the Arizona Center for Algae Technology and Innovation on ASU's Polytechnic campus. Photo by Deanna Dent/ASU Download Full Image

On a small scale, converting algae into biofuels can be fairly straightforward. However, for an algal system to be sustainable, scalable and economical, it must be able to deliver and utilize CO2 efficiently.

A new U.S. Department of Energy grant awarded to the Arizona Center for Algae Technology and Innovation, or AzCATI, will investigate novel methods of CO2 sourcing, delivery and absorption with the goal of promoting algae resiliency and pathways to large-scale biomass production and eventual conversion into low-carbon biofuels an alternative to petroleum.

This initiative is especially important in reducing the carbon footprint of the transportation sector specifically airplanes and ships which accounts for approximately 30% of total U.S. energy consumption and generates the largest share of the countrys greenhouse gas emissions.

AzCATI, located on 4 acres of Arizona State Universitys Polytechnic campus, is home to one of the countrys largest and most comprehensive algae test-bed facilities. In partnership with researchers from all over the world, AzCATI has been investigating algal technology since its establishment in 2010 and has since attracted more than $45 million in federal, state and private funding.

AzCATI will receive $3.2 million for this DOE-supported effort out of a total $34 million in funding for 11 industry- and university-led projects to support the high-impact research and development of biofuels, biopower and bioproducts.

John McGowen, a portfolio manager for research in the Knowledge Enterprise at ASU, will lead the project. He says that about 80% of algae funding at ASU is from the DOE.

We are essentially a national test bed, the longest-running, continually funded outdoor cultivation test bed in the country that isnt commercial. With our experienced faculty, staff, upwards of 30 students and unique testing abilities, we are set up to test new technologies, break them and move on, or improve them and make breakthroughs.

McGowen was one of AzCATIs first researchers and has witnessed the evolution of algae research over the past 11 years.

He explains that the high levels of oils and carbohydrates and proteins created by algae are refined and used as various forms of biofuels and valuable bioproducts.

McGowen says its important to know that the high-density algae needed to create biofuel cant be grown naturally in the environment because of current CO2 levels in the atmosphere, and that they need an additional source delivered directly to them to be viable for this purpose.

A trifecta of research objectives will define AzCATIs three-year DOE project, titled, Direct Air Capture Integration With Algae Carbon Biocatalysis. Researchers at AzCATI will model a novel technology called passive-direct air capture, or PDAC, developed by Klaus Lackner, a professor at the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, one of the seven Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at ASU.

Coinciding research entails precisely delivering the CO2 product derived from PDAC to the algae for optimal absorption and low product loss, followed by improving the algaes ability to assimilate CO2 for more resilient and robust ponds.

The goal of PDAC is to offer a sustainable and efficient supply of self-sourced CO2 from the atmosphere versus conventionally purchasing costly CO2 from the merchant market. It also may help in shifting the paradigm on the cost of CO2, McGowen says. This method of CO2 sourcing would remove the necessity for algae to be co-located near a point source emitter, such as a power plant or a CO2 pipeline, meaning they could potentially grow anywhere at scale an essential step in large-scale biofuel production.

The collaboration of key partners will make this concept a reality. Carbon Collect Limited, which has licensed technology developed by Lackner and the Center for Negative Carbon Emissions at ASU, has commercialized PDAC through the development of MechanicalTrees, which according to their website are a thousand times more efficient than natural trees at removing CO2 from the air.

AzCATI will leverage Carbon Collects installation in Tempe, Arizona, and use the CO2 generated from their MechanicalTrees. It will be transported in truckloads to AzCATI and will serve as the main CO2 source for their research, meaning there will be two wholly completed unique test-bed facilities at ASU directly interacting with each other, says Taylor Weiss, co-PI and assistant professor of environmental and resource management at The Polytechnic School.

In this case, the MechanicalTrees arent in close proximity to the algae ponds at AzCATI, requiring the need for CO2 transportation. However, in theory, strategically placing a cluster of MechanicalTrees on an algae crop would offer a continuous and unlimited source of CO2, achieving a self-sustaining crop wherever it makes sense to grow it, McGowen says.

The most promising locations possessing both the water resources and ideal climate for high-productivity algae cultivation are not near pipeline infrastructure, nor do they have the available land, he says. This is where the need for PDAC technology becomes apparent.

Weiss says that even with a sustainably sourced supply of CO2 through PDAC, there remain additional challenges in achieving high productivity, including how efficiently you can deliver that CO2 into the culture and how efficiently the algae can actually convert that CO2 into the most ideal form, in particular for biofuels.

Additional research partners the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, or NREL, and Burge Environmentalwill assist in taking on these challenges. They will offer expertise in innovative CO2 delivery and biocatalysis or supporting the CO2 uptake within algae cells, as well as providing support in genetically engineering algae to give them the ability to assimilate CO2 to improve the microbial ecology within a pond to enable robust outdoor cultivation.

Weiss believes that NRELs expertise will not only improve the efficiency of CO2 dissolution into the culture once it has been captured by PDAC, but will also leverage years of experience building a genetic engineering toolkit to enhance the rate of CO2 uptake by the algae cells.

McGowen and Weiss say that using algae for atmospheric CO2 mitigation to combat climate change is a promising pathway. They also think that algae are only part of the toolbox when it comes to decarbonizing the atmosphere, and they hope to see other technologies and innovations work in tandem with algae to make significant breakthroughs.

This investigation is about redirecting the CO2 within the cell into different forms of more valuable carbon products, while eliminating environmental threats to the algae that contribute to lower output, Weiss says. We look forward to putting this technology into action and empowering algae to reach their full potential.

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Empowering algae to shape the future of bioenergy - ASU Now

Dr. Green dedicated his career to furthering our understanding of skin regeneration and improving the outcomes for patients, Dr. Morgan said. I am honored not only to build on his work in helping improve the lives of patients, but to do so together with Shriners Hospitals for Children.

BOSTON (PRWEB) November 01, 2021

Shriners Childrens is pleased to announce that a cutting-edge gene and stem cell therapy research program to cure the rare skin blistering disorder is to be supported by the Howard Green Center for Childrens Skin Health & Research at Shriners Hospitals for Children Boston.

The lead scientist is Dr. Jeffrey Morgan who has proven track record of successful innovation and leadership skills. Dr. Morgan will guide this program as it pursues its goal of improving the outcomes and lives of patients with burns, skin disorders and dermatological conditions. The expert co-investigators on the research project are Robert Sheridan M.D., Mehmet Toner Ph.D., and Martin Yarmush M.D., Ph.D., all at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Harvard Medical School (HMS) and Shriners Childrens Boston.

Dr. Morgan has extensive experience in genetically engineering skin to treat various genetic disorders or to deliver local wound healing factors. His interdisciplinary research has produced 110 publications in high-impact, peer-reviewed scientific journals. Working in translation and commercialization of technologies, Dr. Morgan is an inventor on thirteen issued patents and was elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. Innovations developed in his laboratories are distributed worldwide. Dr. Morgan has served in a number of leadership positions in academia as well as start-up companies.

Dr. Morgan trained at Massachusetts Institute of technology with Howard Green, M.D. Dr. Green was the first to grow skin grafts using a patients own cells, one of the earliest examples of stem cell therapy. The first grafts from cultured skin were used to treat two patients with life threatening burns at Shriners Hospitals for Children Boston in the early 1980s, cementing the impact of Dr. Greens discovery as well as his bond with Shriners Hospitals for Children.

Dr. Green dedicated his career to furthering our understanding of skin regeneration and improving the outcomes for patients, Dr. Morgan said. I am honored not only to build on his work in helping improve the lives of patients, but to do so together with Shriners Hospitals for Children.

Dr. Morgans appointment as principal investigator will help the Howard Green Center for Childrens Skin Health & Research take the next step in caring for patients with devastating skin injuries and conditions, said Jerry G. Gantt, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Shriners Hospitals for Children. Dr. Morgans leadership in the field and longtime connection with Dr. Howard Green make him a natural choice to lead the research project, and we are honored to have him as an important part of our Shriners Childrens family.

About the Howard Green Center for Childrens Skin Health & Research at Shriners Childrens BostonFounded in 2016, the Howard Green Center for Childrens Skin Health and Research at Shriners Hospitals for Children Boston is a first-of-its kind center dedicated to advancing the field of regenerative medicine. The mission is to engage in translational research projects that work hand-in-hand with clinical practice to move regenerative medicine along the discovery continuum to bring new treatments to children more quickly. The ultimate goal is to further improve the outcomes and lives of patients with burns, skin disorders and dermatological conditions by providing world-class care regardless of the families ability to pay.

The Center is the vision of Dr. Green and his family. By making a generous and transformational gift to Shriners Hospitals for Children Boston, Mrs. Rosine Kauffmann Green ensured her late husbands work would continue on and help children in Boston and around the world.

About Shriners Childrens Shriners Childrens is changing lives every day through innovative pediatric specialty care, world-class research and outstanding medical education. Our health care system provides care for children with orthopedic conditions, burns, spinal cord injuries, and cleft lip and palate. All care and services are provided regardless of the families ability to pay. Since opening its first location in 1922, the health care system has treated more than 1.5 million children. To learn more, please visit shrinershospitalsforchildren.org.Media Contact:Mel Bower, Shriners Hospitals for Children813-281-8643, mbower@shrinenet.org

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A major research project to advance regenerative therapy for epidermolysis bullosa (EB) using transgenic stem cells - PR Web

Consumption of fish and other seafood has played a pivotal role in human history as a nourishing protein. This warrants a reminder: global demand for healthy protein such as omega-3 oil reflects one of the many challenges around ensuring global food security. Research suggeststhat because of global warming, by 2100, 96 percent of the global population may not have sufficient access to a DHA, the naturally occurring essentialbrain-buildingomega-3 fatty acid. The researchers estimate a global loss of ~10-58 percent of the worlds DHA in the next 80 years.

Innovation is needed to support natural fisheries while also encouraging sustainable production of farmed fish.

Overfishing has emerged as a major dilemma in Earths vast oceans. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, more than 90 percent of the worlds fisheries are fully exploited, overexploited or depleted. In addition, changing weather patterns and ocean temperatures are affecting ocean life. This includes the sardine shortage along the South Africa coast, as a November 2020 study from South African Journal of Science shows that changing weather patterns caused by the climate crisis may threaten the sardine run. If sardines are migrating later in the year, this could cause food shortages for sharks and other species that feed on them.

Omega-3 oil, including the fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), are essential to the human diet and have been shown to reduce inflammation and certain risks of chronic disease.DHA is a key component of cell membranes and is critical for brain function. It helps regulate cell survival, inflammation, and neuroprotection, and makes up 10 percent of the mammalian brains fatty acids. DHA is also thought to help develop the central nervous system and retina.New researchsays DHA and other types of omega-3s may help people suffering from depression, if taken alongside antidepressants. DHA is especially helpful for fetuses, babies, and young children for developing healthy brain and eyes.

But humans cant produce enough DHA on their own. To reach therecommended dose 1.1 g for adult women and 1.6 g for adult males daily they either have to eat DHA-rich foods like fish and seafood once or twice a week, or take dietary supplements.Omega-3 oils are present only in certain cold-water fatty fish species including sardines, mackerel, and salmon.

Ethical and environmental concerns have arisen over the sustainable sourcing of omega-3 oils from naturally harvested fish for use in commercial fish meal used in farmed fish, including salmon. A recent survey, detailing the collective opinion of 30 global seafood procurement executives from Spheric Research on behalf of Global Seafood Alliance, found that retail demand for the most popular seafood species such as salmon and shrimp surged by double digits and will continue to rise this year.

Also, according to a recent Nielsen study, seafood consumption escalated by more than 30 percent in retail channels in North America in 2020, greater than any other type of animal protein including beef and chicken. In this study, retail procurement executives who participated found that salmon and shrimp demand rose as much by 30 percent in North America and 20 percent in Europe.

Innovation is needed to support natural fisheries while also encouraging the sustainable production of farmed fish. Plant-based alternatives for fish oil, including an alternative for omega-3 fish oil, are in high demand, especially as the public becomes more educated about the food they consume, and the impact it may have on their health. Therefore, technology is being developed using Camelina plants as a platform to produce oils that closely mimic omega-3 fish oil containing EPA and DHA, without the fish.

The team at Yield10 Biosciences is participating in a global research effort to utilize the oil seed plant Camelina sativa as a platform to produce omega-3 oil representing a sustainable, land-based solution to supplying this heart healthy oil for use in commercial fish feed, especially for farmed salmon. Last year Yield10 formed a collaboration with Rothamsted Research to develop biotechnology for producing omega-3 in Camelina as a potential fish oil alternative.As part of the agreement, Yield10 has an exclusive two-year option to sign a global license agreement to develop and commercialize this plant-based omega-3 technology.

Rothamsteds Flagship leader, Johnathan A. Napier , is the head author of a paper published this year in Nature describing how AgTech innovation could help aquaculture become greener. The paper explains how aquaculture can deliver fish protein to a growing world population while staying within planetary boundaries of environmental sustainability. It also features research on how due to overfishing and the decline of marine diversity, only aquaculture has the potential to meet the needs of 10 billion people in 2050, while remaining within said planetary boundaries. Therefore, using omega-3 oil produced in Camelina represents an exciting alternative to combat the overfishing associated with the harvest of natural fish to produce omega-3 oil, and by supplying sufficient omega-3 as a nutrient for farmed fish as a healthy protein for human nutrition.

Over the last decade, the Rothamsted team led by Napier has successfully produced DHA/EPA omega-3 fish oils in Camelina seed. The Rothamsted team has used recombinant genetic engineering techniques to reproduce the omega-3 biosynthesis pathway from algae to Camelina. This approach worked very well in achieving high levels of both EPA and DHA in the seed oil of Camelina. The Rothamsted team has demonstrated that the omega-3 oil produced in Camelina already matches (or exceeds) the DHA/EPA levels found in northern hemisphere fish oil (such as mackerel or cod liver) and is working on technology to raise the omega-3 levels to match southern hemisphere fish oil. The Rothamsted team also carried out multi-year field trials and multiple feeding studies showing the equivalence of the DHA and EPA Camelina oil to natural omega-3 fish oil in feeding studies of salmon, trout and sea bass.

Because it is readily genetically engineered, has a fast growth cycle, and demonstrates robust agronomics, Camelina is an ideal crop to produce this fish oil substitute. There are also benefits to avoiding production in commodity crops such as canola and soy, since Camelina seeds are easier to segregate from the major seed export crops during production, harvesting and processing.

We recognized fairly early that the work done at Rothamsted had not only been successful scientifically but was demonstrated from a nutritional point of view to essentially be a substitute for fish oil, both in aquafeed diets for salmon farming and bream but also for use directly in the human diet.

We are planning on submitting our engineered Camelina for approval in South American countries, followed by North America. We believe that attitudes toward biotech crops and products produced may be changing as consumers see sustainability and product benefits in the new crops coming forward in development. Producing omega-3 oil on land, in Camelina, presents clear benefits in nutrition and sustainability versus extracting oil from wild-caught fish.

Dr. Oliver Peoples is the CEO atYield10 Bioscience, an agricultural bioscience companyfocusing on the development of disruptive technologies to produce step-change improvements in crop yield for food and feed crops to enhanceglobal food security. Prior to founding Metabolix, Dr. Peoples was a research scientist with the Department of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Find him on Twitter@Yield10Bio

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A shortage of healthful omega-3 fatty acid from fish looms as the global climate heats up. Here is a plant-based biotechnology solution - Genetic...

The Genome Editing market report contains a detailed focused scene in which major players (OriGene, Thermo Fisher Scientific, NEB, Integrated DNA Technologies Inc, Lonza Group Ltd., Sangamo, GenScript, Transposagen, IDT, Horizon) are profiled. Various companies engaged with the Genome Editing are studies. TheGenome Editing market research reportgives a worldwide viewpoint. This can help the end consumer to make the right decision which ultimately leads to the development of the Genome Editing market. This brand-new report covers the current COVID-19 impact on the global market. Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemics have affected every aspect of life globally. This has brought many changes in the market conditions. Initial and future assessments of the rapidly changing market landscape and impact are included in the report.

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According to the study, the market was predicted to grow at a CAGR of approximately xx% through the forecast period to strikeUSD xx million by 2026, reaching USD xx million in 2020.

The report gives a forward-looking viewpoint on different driving and limiting factors needed for the development ofthe Genome Editing market. It provides forecasts based on how the market should be developed. Their general organization review, key financial aspects, major progress, SWOT analysis, competitive analysis, growth and strategies are studied and discussed in the Genome Editing market report.

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OriGene, Thermo Fisher Scientific, NEB, Integrated DNA Technologies Inc, Lonza Group Ltd., Sangamo, GenScript, Transposagen, IDT, Horizon, among others

(Note: Driving key market players in the Genome Editing industry are scrutinized in the report along with their financial analysis, SWOT profile, business overview, products & services, operations, and geographical locations.)

This report studies the Genome Editing market based on its classifications. In addition to this, major regions (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, The Middle East and Africa, etc.) are also studies via this report. This report offers a detailed examination of the market by studying aggressive factors of the Genome Editing market. It also helps in identifying the main product sectors and their forecast in the years to come.

Global Market Segmentation by Product Type:

CRISPR, TALEN, ZFN, Antisense, Other Technologies

Global Industry Segmentation by Application:

Cell Line Engineering, Animal Genetic Engineering, Plant Genetic Engineering, Other Applications

Competitive Analysis:

The foundation of the Genome Editing market is also mentioned in the report that can allow the consumers in applying primary techniques to gain a competitive advantage. Such far-reaching and in-depth analyzes give the necessary detail with key ideas and honest scalable analysis. It can be used to improve the current state and to plan future expansion in a particular section in the Genome Editing market.

Imperial regions are studied all over the world and the types, drivers, development, restraints, and challenges that influence the growth of the Genome Editing market are taken into consideration on these essential geologies. Research on the impact of government strategies and policies of Genome Editing market processes has also been added to give a comprehensive summary of the future of the Genome Editing market.

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Global Genome Editing Market 2021 Size Share Upcoming Trends Segmentation And Forecast To 2027 Chip Design Magazine - Chip Design Magazine

C.S. Lewis wrote several fiction and non-fiction books that are still enjoyed by readers today, almost 50 years since his passing. His books serve as a commentary with insight into culture, humanity and the place of faith. His writings continue to deserve our attention as society continues to shift direction, struggling for meaning and fulfillment.

His book, The Abolition of Man, continues to be one of his most challenging works. Many literary and theological scholars consider it his most difficult book. The book isnt lengthy, but its argument is profound. Lewis perceived that our institutions of education and the influences of culture walked arm-in-arm with policies that were removing our ability to make moral judgments and hold to virtue.

Breakpoint.org, the website for the Colson Center promoting a Christian worldview, has focused several articles on the book during this past month. John Stonestreet, president of the Center, says the book is a must-read especially in our cultural moment. Lewis concern for the shifts in culture grew from his observation that without morality, humans would become less human.

Abolition was written by Lewis in 1943. The book carries the subtitle, Reflections on education with special reference to the teaching of English in the upper forms of schools. The book started as a series of lectures that Lewis delivered in England.

The foundation of the concerns of Lewis centered upon how truth is taught in culture. Ultimately a shift in understanding began with the questioning of absolute truth to truth that is appropriate and relevant for the individual. The unspoken premise of no absolute truth is then reinforced through the teaching of subjective truth as opposed to objective truth. Subjective truth depends upon the individuals perspective and their emotional reaction to it.

Shifting away from objective truth carries important implications. Lets think about a headline this past week that was actually developing during Lewis time, but started even 50 years prior.

On Oct. 20, the NPR website announced that scientists had attached a pigs kidney to a human body and watched it begin to work. The procedure was only a temporary solution, but it was a step in a process that had taken several decades to achieve. Surgeons in New York performed the operation in which the organ functioned normally for 54 hours. Speculation rises that the accomplishment may open a door to a new supply of needed organs.

There was a time when such a headline would have stirred debate and discussion about the dangers involved in genetic engineering. Who will regulate the decisions involved in such a life-changing technology? Are there psychological issues involved in combining organs from two different beings a human and an animal? Are there spiritual or religious issues that are involved in such science? Several years ago, we would have discussed such a transplant.

But it wasnt too long ago that such a headline would have appalled its readers. Books like H.G. Wells The Island of Doctor Moreau and George Orwells 1984 and Animal Farm shocked people with tales of genetic engineering, human cloning and manipulation of behavior. A hundred years ago, we would not have even discussed this issue because it belonged to the realm of science fiction, not the world that we live in.

Today, the headline spurs a different type of debate. Less than a day later, PETA issued a statement urging humans to fix the organ shortage and not use pigs. Pigs arent spare parts and should never be used as such just because humans are too self-centered to donate their bodies to patients desperate for organ transplants. Today, our concern is for the pigs.

A similar pattern could be traced around dozens of topics. What was morally appalling decades ago doesnt even register a blip on the radar of ethics today.

Lewis was almost prophetic with his arguments. He believed that relativism teaching that there are no absolute, objective truths would lead to moral decay and the absence of virtue in culture. With no universal moral code, we become less than human. We are intelligent men who behave like animals. Lewis uses the phrase we are men without chests.

Lewis borrows the symbolism from the philosopher Plato. The Greeks saw the head as the home of the intellect. Meanwhile, the belly housed the raw passions and appetite. The chest formed virtue, a trained blend between the reason of the mind and the emotion of the heart. According to Plato, the head rules the belly through the chest.

Modern education, according to Lewis, produced men without chests demanding correct behavior from people who lacked values and virtue.

Lewis warns of the dangers of a culture that educates people with no standard for morals and values. We make men without chests and expect from them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.

Lewis concludes in this manner: It may even be said that it is by this middle element that man is man: for by his intellect he is mere spirit and by his appetite mere animal A persevering devotion to truth, a nice sense of intellectual honor, cannot be long maintained without the aid of a sentiment.

Andrew Wilson put it like this: Without sentiment we may appear intellectual, but it will be a mirage; our heads will look larger, but only because our chests are so small.

The Christians answer to a culture with no virtue? Speak the truth with love.

The C.S. Lewis Institute website reflects: The apostle Paul writes The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith (1 Timothy 1:5 ESV). If followers of Christ live as people with chests strong hearts filled with Gods truth the world will take notice.

Tom May is a freelance writer who has held paid and volunteer ministry positions at several churches in the tri-state area. Reach him at tgmay001@gmail.com.

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TOM MAY: What happens when morals and values are absent? - Evening News and Tribune

With over 300 tombs, the Little River (Xiaohe) Cemetery, a Bronze Age burial located in the Tarim Basin in Xinjiang, Western China, contains the largest number of mummies found at any single site to date. Located on the Silk Road at the confluence of the Eastern and Western cultures, the naturally mummified human remains in boat coffins dating to circa 2,000 BCE to 200 CE have inspired speculations on their enigmatic origins.

Whereas some placed the origin of these mummies among the early farmers of the Iranian Plateau, many believed their origins to be Caucasoiddescendants of migrating Yamnaya herders from the steppes of the Black Sea region of southern Russiadue to their Western physical appearance, clothing, and agropastoral economy. This has led to global attention on these archeological remains.

To solve this enigma, an international team of scientists from Jilin University, the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Seoul National University of Korea, and Harvard University have generated and analyzed genome-wide data from thirteen of the earliest known Tarim Basin mummies, dating to circa 2,100 to 1,700 BCE, together with five individuals dating to circa 3,000 to 2,800 BCE, from the neighboring Dzungarian Basin.

This premiere genome-scale study of prehistoric populations in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region is reported in an article in the journal Nature titled, The genomic origins of the Bronze Age Tarim Basin mummies.

A naturally mummified woman from burial M11 of the Xiaohe cemetery. [Wenying Li/Xinjiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology]Contrary to their expectations, the genomic study found that the Tarim Basin mummies were not newcomers to the area but rather appear to be direct descendants of Ancient North Eurasiansa once widespread Pleistocene population that had nearly disappeared by the end of the last Ice Age. This population survives only fractionally in the genomes of present-day populations, with Indigenous populations in Siberia and the Americas having the highest known proportions, at about 40%.

In contrast to present day populations, genomes of the Tarim Basin mummies show no admixture with other Holocene groups, demonstrating their genetic isolation.

Archaeogeneticists have long searched for Holocene Ancient North Eurasians populations to better understand the genetic history of Inner Eurasia. We have found one in the most unexpected place, says Choongwon Jeong, a senior author of the study and a professor of Biological Sciences at Seoul National University.

Genome analysis of the neighboring Dzungarian Basin mummies showed that they descended not only from local populations but also from Western steppe cattle herders with strong genetic links to the Early Bronze Age Yamanya. The genetic characterization of the Early Bronze Age Dzungarians also helped to clarify the ancestry of other cattle faming groups (Chemurchek) who later spread northward to the Altai mountains and into Mongolia.

These findings add to our understanding of the eastward dispersal of Yamnaya ancestry and the scenarios under which admixture occurred when they first met the populations of Inner Asia, says Chao Ning, co-lead author of the study and a professor at the School of Archaeology and Museology at Peking University.

The widespread genetic mixing all around the Tarim Basin throughout the Bronze Age make it even more remarkable that the Tarim Basin mummies exhibit no evidence of genetic admixture. Yet, they were not culturally isolated.

Typical Xiaohe boat coffin with oar. The coffin is covered with a cattle hide. [Wenying Li/Xinjiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology]Dietary proteins are trapped in calcifying dental plaque (dental calculus) and preserve a record of the individuals diet. Proteomic analysis of dental calculus from the Tarim mummies show cattle, sheep, and goat dairying was already practiced by the founding population, and that they were connected to neighboring cultures, cuisines, and technologies.

Despite being genetically isolated, the Bronze Age peoples of the Tarim Basin were remarkably culturally cosmopolitanthey built their cuisine around wheat and dairy from the West Asia, millet from East Asia, and medicinal plants like Ephedrafrom Central Asia, says Christina Warinner, a senior author of the study, a professor of Anthropology at Harvard University, and a research group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.

Dietary DNA is difficult to recover from dental calculus, and DNA cannot be used to easily distinguish specific dietary sources (e.g., meat vs. milk). Proteomics is more suitable for studying ancient diets in this context, explains Warinner.

One of the technical challenges of sequencing ancient genomes is DNA damage. The length of ancient DNA is short and contains specific forms of damage (cytosine deamination). We use this expected form of damage to authenticate DNA fragments as being ancient and to ensure accurate sequence calls. To analyze the ancient DNA sequences, we used software pipelines specifically designed for analyzing ultrashort fragments of ancient DNA, explains Warinner.

The new genomic and proteomic data presented in the paper builds upon decades of painstaking archaeological work that has fostered insights on the lifestyle and culture of the early inhabitants of the Tarim Basin. Warinner clarifies, We were able to contribute new genomic and proteomic data to this rich body of knowledge, including the first whole genome sequences for the Tarim Basin mummies. Together with our archaeologist colleagues and coauthors, we have been able to reconstruct a more complete and complex picture of the populations who first colonized the Tarim Basin more than 4,000 years ago.

Reconstructing the origins of the Tarim Basin mummies has had a transformative effect on our understanding of the region, and we will continue the study of ancient human genomes in other eras to gain a deeper understanding of the human migration history in the Eurasian steppes, says Yinquiu Cui, a senior author of the study and professor in the School of Life Sciences at Jilin University.

Future palaeogenomic and archeological research on subsequent Tarim Basin populations will focus on better understanding the later history of populations in the Tarim Basin and their role in the rise of Silk Road trade networks, says Warinner.

The Tarim mummy genomes provide a critical reference point for genetically modeling Holocene-era populations and reconstructing the population history of Asia, the authors conclude.

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Ancient Genomes and Proteomes Help Uncover Unexpected Origins and Cultural Connections - Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News

For all the things we have and have not done in space, a few will be making rounds in our mind. Sending the weird stuff off on our satellites or flying the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars, we have our complete list of exciting things done in Space.

But here is yet another thrilling experience: Gene-editing in Space using CRISPR gene editing tool.

Researchers aboard ISS have undertaken such strenuous task in space on yeast to understand how radiation affects Astronauts in space and how can it be seemingly mitigated to help the ones away from their home planet.

Genome editing is a technique used to alter the DNA of any being that can offer a set of chromosomes to be tweaked including plants, bacteria, animals and even food.

The main motive of editing in DNA results in changes in even the physical traits such as iris color or disease risk.

First such technology was established in late 1900s and CRISPR got invented in 2009 and since then, has been used extensively because it is simpler, faster, cheaper and more accurate than any other editors.

CRISPRs (clusters of regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) are actually specific stretches of DNA.

Genes in DNA code for a specific protein. The protein Cas9 coding for an enzyme, acts like a pair of molecular scissors that is capable of cutting strands of DNA to perform editing.

This mechanism has been simulated after learning from bacteria and archaea those chop up and destroy the DNA of a foreign invader to survive.

The 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry went for the development of a method for genome editing, which is totally being loved by the entire world, for who does not want a world full of things as desired.

For an in-built safety assurance, Cas9 doesnt just cut anywhere in a genome. Short specific DNA sequences known as PAMs (protospacer adjacent motifs) serve as tags and sit adjacent to the target DNA sequence. No PAM, no cut.

Operationally, you design a stretch of 20 [nucleotide] base pairs that match a gene that you want to edit. Then the RNA plus the protein [Cas9] will cut like a pair of scissors the DNA at that site, and ideally nowhere else, explains a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School.

Human health: This technology can serve the best in correcting genetic defects.

An assistant professor of biology, neuroscience and physiology at New York University told: I think the public perception of CRISPR is very focused on the idea of using gene editing clinically to cure disease.

Up-building Food Security:

Food and agricultural industries can offer more as a playfield to engineer probiotic cultures and vaccinate industrial cultures/inoculums against viruses.

Genes of a crop are altered or modified to improve yield, drought or pest tolerance and increase nutritional properties such as GM cotton, Bt Brinjal etc.

Selector of Inheritance: Gene drives can be created, to select a set of characteristics only to be transferred from parent to next progeny. E.g., Designer babies.

It can even help in preventing the inheritance of a disease trait or blood-related disorders such as hemophilia, sickle cell anemia, and Beta Thalassemia.

Or perhaps to eradicate human problems. Genetic alteration, once introduced, may over the course of generations, spread through entire populations and increase the chances of a particular trait passing on from parent to offspring.

For example: sterility introduced in Anopheles gambiaemosquitoes, that causes Malaria.

Gene-editing applications seem to have opened new avenues to economic prosperity but it has certain ethical concerns.

Bioethicists fear that this technology may just become another tool for selling commodities or maybe misused by governments and the private sector.

The scope of this tech is still limited in India, confined to the very doors of research labs. Not even, all genetically modified crops can be released in India for cultivation without appropriate approval from GEAC (under the MOEFCC).

CRISPR technology is erasing barriers to genome editing and could revolutionize plant breeding.

Since these crops are created with their DNA tweaked, they can exhibit certain additional changes which can turn unwanted for people and society in general.

Because there are limits to our knowledge of human genetics, gene-environment interactions, and the pathways of disease (including the interplay between one disease and other conditions or diseases in the same patient).

India is yet to release a comprehensive gene editing policy. India can tailor this risky-yet-helpful tool to its own requirements and can look forward to provision of affordable healthcare to its people.

Everything comes with pros and cons. Similarly, Genome editing has its own set of challenges yet to be addressed fully. But if exploited can help save the planet in the long run.

With increasing Climate change and want of greater resilience or sustainability, from droughts, inundation, increased salinity, water scarcity or increased temperatures, such techniques can open big ways.

To feed our Net-zero targets, countries can even look to this sort of editing to produce low-emission varieties of organisms. For instance, livestock is responsible for most of the Methane emissionsworldwide.

To overcome such a loss to the planet, the varieties of grass easier for cows to digest, can be designed, for reducing emissions generated by digestion of such animals and simultaneously boosting milk production.

In the UN decade of Ecosystem Restoration 2021-30, restoring soil health and productivity shall be our top-most concern. For this, the unbated use of nitrogen-based fertilizers (NPK) shall stop.

Genetically enhancing the fixation or intake of required nutrientsby the microbes can be dealt with using editing.

Recently, seaweedhas managed to double its lipid production which is a huge achievement, using the very tool we are talking of.

Such Environmental bioengineering can even be used to heal the ailing bioindicators like Coral that are being lost due to bleaching.

Australian scientists (The great Barrier reef in Australia already under threat)have proposed using CRISPRto play with the genome of local varieties of these symbiotic algae to ramp-up its resistance to higher temperatures.

Thus, when difficulties surround Humans, we tend to become very demanding and are looking for probable options to survive. Technology can rescue us from our own deeds as we reap what we have sown for our own benefits put ahead.

CRISPR tool was used to inflict the yeast in Space with a particular type of cut called a double-strand break, an injury much similarly given by the cosmic rays, and can be particularly harmful.

The change for healing the damage could be visible because of the red-coloured stain given by the editing sequence within next six days of the experiment.

The editing worked providing thefirst steps for developing a way to repair the injured DNA of astronauts while in space as it becomes difficult to keep them healthy and safe while away from Earth.

Its not just that the team successfully deployed novel technologies like CRISPR genome editing, PCR, and nanopore sequencing in an extreme environment, but also that we were able to integrate them into a functionally complete biotechnology workflow applicable to the study of DNA repair and other fundamental cellular processes in microgravity.

These developments fill this team with hope in humanitys renewed quest to explore and inhabit the vast expanse of space, tells the senior author of the study.

Insights gained from this experiment can help researchers know how one can safely navigate future space-based activity.

Accordingly, the Life support systems or required protective gear can be made to shield the human body from long-term radiation exposure and consequent genetic damage.

Thus, this cutting-edge cross-terrestrial genomics can explore ways to help Humankind in this planet and beyond.

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Genetic Engineering to save humans on Earth and beyond: Gene-editing experimented the first time on Intern ... - The Indian Wire

The Roslin Institute has responded to the UK Governments public consultation on the regulation of gene-editing technologies.

Our response is focused on our experience of fundamental and applied research using gene editing, and its potential applications to improve livestock and aquaculture production and sustainability.

Selective breeding practices have significantly improved the productivity of farmed animals, particularly in the past century, reducing the feed required per animal and consequently the carbon footprint of each animal raised.

Modern selective breeding programs are both effective and sustainable, and their applications have been expanded to include a focus on improving animal welfare.

However, some characteristics of farmed animals are not easily improved by genetic selection. Gene-editing technologies offer new opportunities to improve traits of relevance to sustainable farmed animal production, including improving animal health and welfare, and reducing environmental impact.

These new technologies have the advantages of being specific by introducing a single, planned genetic change, with reduced potential for unplanned negative effects compared to other genetic engineering technologies.

A major challenge for conventional breeding is genetic improvement for disease resistance, an important target for improving animal welfare and reducing environmental impact.

Roslin research has a major focus on using our knowledge of the fundamental biological mechanisms in major infectious diseases of farmed animals to make precise, specific genetic changes that block or otherwise mitigate infection.

This can be achieved by using gene-editing technologies, as we have shown by the production of pigs that are genetically fully resistant to infection by porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) virus.

These pigs have a very small genetic change, are healthy, and cannot be infected by PRRS virus.

Our response outlines our reasons for proposing that gene-editing applications in animal breeding should not fall under genetically modified organism (GMO) regulations.

We recommend that any new regulations are proportionate, assess the outcomes of the genetic change in terms of animal welfare and any potential environmental impacts, but are not driven by the use of gene editing technology itself.

The Roslin Institute is in Scotland, where regulatory changes on gene editing introduced by the UK Government may not be implemented.

There is substantial industry and academic research and development into the application of gene editing, for example, to improve sustainable aquaculture production, a major Scottish industry, and we hope to discuss these opportunities further with the Scottish Government.

"Gene-editing technology offers the potential to efficiently enable beneficial changes in DNA. Within animal agriculture, genetic engineering technologies hold great potential in mitigating disease, improving the welfare and productivity of animals, and addressing a demand for animal products driven by population growth and climate change," said Professor Bruce Whitelaw, the chair of Animal Biotechnology at the Roslin Institute.

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Response to UK Government's gene editing consultation - The Pig Site

Luciano Marraffini, a Bachelor of Biotechnology graduate from Rosario National University, was incorporated into the US National Academy of Sciences in 2019 for his research on CRISPR-Cas systems, a molecular tool used to edit or correct a cells genome. He is currently Professor and Director of the Laboratory of Bacteriology at Rockefeller University in New York. Marrafini is recognized for being one of the first scientists to explain how CRISPR-Cas systems work at the molecular level. Humans get infected not only with viruses, but also with bacteria. To defend themselves, they make their own immune system and this is one of them. Bacteria contain enzymes called nucleases, which have the ability to penetrate the genetic material of the virus entering the cell. Marraffini commented that its a very straightforward way to defend itself and once the virus has inserted its genetic material into the bacteria, it uses CRISPR-Cas to cut them and thus end the infection.

In 2006 he began investigating how this system works in bacteria and built his PosDoc based on this curiosity. The reason Ive been studying CRISPR-Cas for 15 years is because its not just an immune system, its a collection of different immune systems, so theres always a new device to study. Also, during that time, CRISPR-Cas gained more international fame because these The systems can be transferred and placed in human cells, performing what is called gene editing. It has become a genetic engineering tool like no other, because it is very easy to use and this has given it great interest in the scientific community.

A long way

Marraffini entered my BA in Biotechnology in 1993 and earned it in 1998. My memories of my time at university are all good. What I stay with the most are friends who were one of them at the time and I am still in with. I also met my wife, so it was Something that stands out to me a lot.

The researcher stressed that a bachelors degree in biotechnology was very demanding but at the same time very complete. I remember the early years, the workload was huge. We spent a lot of time in college, we were almost all day. The intensity of the program made us learn a lot, something I appreciated over time. It is simpler and more interesting, because in the beginning the contents were more focused on mathematics and physics , and as the course materials went through, the details of the degree were accessed, he recalls.

After completing his undergraduate studies, he chose to travel to Chicago to further his professional development. At that time, I had the possibility of going to study at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) which has laboratories in Heidelberg, Germany. I went for an interview, but did not speak the language, I thought it would be difficult to live there. In return, I received some offers From different universities in the US, and although I had never been to the country, it seemed to me that it would be the most suitable.It was a decision I made with the logic of a 25-year-old boy, without thinking about what I did, once I chose the country, I headed towards the University of Chicago Because of her academic career and also because of the presence of an Argentine professor with whom I was able to establish a dialogue through Diego de Mendoza, Professor at the United Nations School of Biochemistry.

Once this trip was completed, the biotech scientist in that city went on to do his postdoc. Finally, in 2010, he joined Rockefeller University to further study CRISPR-Cas immunity.

Marrafini joined the American Academy of Microbiology in 2017 and has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences since 2019. Its a great honor, especially since Im relatively young to enter the Academy of Sciences. Its really a recognition of the work that Ive come from. It has had such an impact. It serves to validate what one does in the present and what is expected in the future, I would have never imagined that at this age I would have such a distinction.

dream come true

The professor at Rockefeller University stated that he had always had a great curiosity about science from those first readings in a very interesting journal. I had it every month and read it carefully. I always had an innate science orientation and when I finished high school I decided to get a B.Sc in Biotechnology, because it was really what I wanted to do. So not everyone surprises me the way. I traveled because since I was young I knew that this What I loved.

Changing countries is always a challenge, especially for a young man who is pursuing his dream. Its a big change but eventually youll get used to everything, said Maravini, who has lived in the country under Joe Biden for more than 20 years. However, there are things that cannot be provided. Im a huge fan of Newells Old Boys, and I really miss going to the stadium. Its something you definitely cant do here.

The biotechnologist admitted that although he was not an expert in the use of English, his bachelors degree helped encourage him to take on this challenge abroad. For the past few years, almost all subjects have been in English, so reading papers and books for faculty has helped me a lot. I think science has the advantage that, even if you dont have perfect English proficiency, it can be associated with different words and concepts, facilitating all Thing

The path is not simple, but it is full of questions and setbacks. Being a researcher is hard, but it is like any passion: if there is something you want to do, you have to put your energy into it, not to get prizes or publications in important journals, but to enjoy every moment. 90 percent of experiments dont work for a reason. What, but thats part of enjoying science as well, you always have to keep up front that youre doing what you want.

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Expert in genetic engineering key | Rosario at the National Academy of Sciences in the United States - East Africa News Post

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are two of the fastest-growing technologies pervading all sectors. From automated cars to chatbots, mobile phones, and other electronic devices, they have numerous applications. Consequently, the demand for AI and ML engineers with specific skills is growing rapidly. Certain technical and non-technical skills are common for both AI and ML engineers:

Technical skills

Programming languages: A strong grasp of programming languages such as Python, Java, R, and C++ is vital. These are easy to learn and tend to have a wider scope. Python, in fact, is considered the lingua franca of ML.

Linear algebra, Calculus, Statistics: One must have a thorough understanding of concepts such as Matrices, Vectors, Derivatives, and Integrals and a firm grasp of statistical concepts such as Mean, Standard Deviations, and Gaussian Distributions, along with probability theory for algorithms such as Naive Bayes, Gaussian Mixture Models, and Hidden Markov Models.

Signal processing techniques: AI and ML engineers must know how to solve problems using Signal Processing. Additional knowledge of Advanced Signal Processing Algorithms such as Wavelets, Shearlets, Curvelets, and Bandlets is a bonus.

Applied Maths and algorithms: Apart form being well-versed in applied Maths, knowledge of algorithm theory can help in understanding crucial subjects such as Gradient Descent, Convex Optimisation, Lagrange, Quadratic Programming, Partial Differential Equations, and Summations.

Neural network architectures: Used for coding tasks that are arduous for human effort, this has been extremely useful in areas such as translation, speech recognition, and image classification, and so on.

Non-technical skills

Communication: Explaining complex topics to people who arent from the industry requires clear communication skills. Additionally, engineers often work in teams that include non-technical personnel from sales and marketing departments. Unless they can communicate the relevance of what they are working on, it will be tough for the product to gain traction in the market.

Domain expertise: Business owners expect industry-specific solutions from these emerging technologies. Therefore, AI/ML engineers must thoroughly understand the domain they will be working in. For example, creating AI or ML solutions for a genetic engineering firm requires a basic understanding of fundamental genetic engineering concepts.

Rapid prototyping: Launching products quickly in the market is every businesss goal today. Rapid prototyping helps form different techniques to develop a scale model and allows engineers to quickly develop a prototype and test it out.

Besides these, there are a few skills that are specific to Machine Learning engineers only. They are:

Natural Language Processing (NLP): It is a fundamental part of ML, and studies how machines understand and interpret human language. There are several libraries such as Gensim and NLTK that provide the NLPS foundation and contain different functions to help computers understand our language. This is accomplished by breaking down the text according to its syntax, extracting important phrases, removing unnecessary words, and so on.

Reinforcement learning: It is the primary reason behind the sudden improvements in deep learning, and has the potential to revolutionise Robotics in the foreseeable future.

The growing demand for these technologies means that individuals who spend time learning these skills will be able to carve out a successful career.

The writer is the President Judge India (Global Delivery) at The Judge Group.

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Engineer your career - The Hindu

Ethan Hawke in Gattaca, left, and the cover of Octavia Butlers Parable of the Sower, right. (Getty Images)

A little less than halfway through the 1997 film Gattaca, Irene (Uma Thurman) steals a strand of hair from the desk of a coworker she knows as Jerome (Ethan Hawke), and takes it to an all-night DNA testing booth, passing a woman who is having her lips swabbed just five minutes after kissing her date. A few seconds later, the technician gives Irene her answer: Nine-point-threequite a catch. But 9.3 of what? How does her printout of amino acids translate to a scale of 1 to 10, a genetic quotient that leads the technician to think her boyfriend is a catch?1

After nearly a quarter century, Gattaca has aged disturbingly well. The New Zealand writer and director Andrew Niccol crafted a noir dystopian thriller of a society trapped by eugenic ideology and ubiquitous biometric surveillance. Those with poor GQ are deemed in-valid and condemned to a life of poverty, drudgery, and crime. But those with good GQ also measure themselves against impossible standards, believing that their DNA determines what they should be able to do, and they plunge into depression, suicidality, and self-sabotage when theyre unable to meet expectations. Today, as we charge into an age of biotechnology, the film feels especially prescient, providing a benchmark against which to compare our trajectory. Our capacity for both genetic manipulation and biometric assessment is advancing, but we have not improved our ability to hold conversations about genetics, disability, or even abstractions like the relationship between probability and outcomes. I worry that our Gattaca future is nigh.2

The hair fiber may have scored a 9.3 GQ, but it doesnt come from Hawkes character, whose real name is Vincent. Vincent is an invalid, a child conceived in the back seat of a Buick and allowed to develop as nature sees fit. Hes got a 99 percent chance of developing a heart condition, and his life expectancy is 30 years. Hes also brilliant and wants to be an astronaut, but he has no chance of passing the genetic screening for a space gig at the Gattaca Aerospace Corporation. So he engages in a criminal conspiracy with the real Jerome (Jude Law). Jerome was genetically engineered to near perfection, becoming a champion swimmer and a silver medalist in the Olympics before suffering a spinal injury in a car crash. (Later we find out that Jerome, unable to tolerate being second best, had stepped in front of the car. Its the rare disability-suicide plot point that places the blame on society rather than on disability.) Jerome makes a deal to provide Vincent with hair, blood, urine, and skin samples in exchange for a portion of Vincents salary. The fraud works. Vincent becomes a navigator, but before he can launch into space, the mission director at Gattaca is murdered. A manhunt ensues, the cops find an eyelash from Vincent himself, and the movie rolls forward.3

Its a pretty good plot. Vincent has a genetically engineered younger brother, Anton, against whom the naturally conceived in-valid measures himself, a tension that plays out in adulthood. Vincent helps Irene realize that even if shes not perfect according to the charts (shes valid, but no 9.3), she can do more than she realizes. But its not the plot thats made the story endure; rather, its the films vision of the world.4

The premises of Gattaca feel real not just because its characters espouse long-held eugenic principles in the development of prenatal testing and genetic engineering technologies but because the movie pairs those ideologies with surveillance. Its one thing to have an ableist viewpoint about the value of people, another to have the technology for genetic engineering, and yet a third to build a society around the routine penetration of the body to extract blood, urine, and saliva and measure it against a universal database.5Current Issue

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The film isnt perfect. Aside from the presence of a Black geneticist and a few extras, its world is extremely white, and I dont think thats an accident. As we watch Vincent embark on his early career as a janitor, he provides narration about the times, saying, I belong to a new underclass, no longer determined by social status or the color of your skin. No, we now have discrimination down to a science. Thats nonsense. Ableism and eugenics intersect with racism, classism, and other forms of discrimination. Inventing new forms of discrimination does not erase the old ones.6

Still, a single film, like a single essay, doesnt have to do everything. Make no mistake, our Gattaca future is coming; the technology cant be held back. What we must do now is work to undermine the eugenicist ideologies that will lead those technologies to cause increasingly greater harm. And thats where this movie comes in. When I talk to people about designing babies, I often get assurances that discrimination against kids like minemy son has Down syndrome and is autisticis bad, but wheres the problem in trying to create advantages, to alleviate burdens? Gattaca, however, makes the case that you cannot design your way to happiness and that trying to do so will build a world ever less freeeven for those who achieve high marks in GQ, IQ, or whatever other rubric we use to mismeasure potential.7

David M. Perry8

The events in Octavia E. Butlers 1993 novel Parable of the Sower presage this moment of mass shootings, global warming, en masse migration from California, a pandemic that throws into relief rampant structural inequities, widespread drug abuse, and a presidential candidate who campaigned on returning the country to a sense of so-called normalcy. (In the books sequel, 1998s Parable of the Talents, one politician promises to Make America Great Again.) When the novel was published, it was set 31 years in the future. The gap between the version of life Butler imagined and the one were living in is closing.9

Parable of the Sower tells the story of activist Lauren Oya Olamina, who is 15 when the book begins and lives in an increasingly destabilized Southern California with her minister father, her stepmother, and her four brothers. Like other micro-communities in their Los Angeles County town, the Olaminas and a handful of other families live behind a wall to escape looting, murder, sexual assault, drug abuse, arson, and corporate slavery. Responding to her environment, Lauren has already started to develop Earthseed, the spiritual philosophy she creates based on the notion that God is change. She lives with a condition called hyperempathy, which causes her to become ill when she vicariously experiences the suffering of others. It is perhaps this hyperempathy that makes Lauren so attuned to the impending doom around the corner (literally, for her and her compound). She seems to be the most worried person in her community and suggests that people refine their emergency preparedness for a series of catastrophic events. She reads history books to fortify herself; in a conversation with a friend, Lauren underscores the significance of the Black Death in the 14th century, saying, It took a plague to make some of the people realize that things could change. Eventually her suspicions come true, and Lauren leads a band of travelers to Northern California in search of freedom, paying jobs, and affordable water.10

In a present-day America thats reeling from the toll of the pandemic, the War on Drugs, the prison-industrial complex, reproductive oppression, and weakened labor unions and that is constantly threatened by white supremacy, the cowardice of career politicians, and the avarice of the wealthy, the lessons of Parable of the Sower have practical application. The principles of Martine and Bina Aspen Rothblatts Terasem Movement (founded in 2002), which focuses on nanotechnology and cyber-consciousness, were inspired by the books Earthseed philosophy. adrienne maree browns 2017 manual Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds was also influenced by Earthseed. Since last spring, Tananarive Due and Monica Coleman have hosted a series of webinars called Octavia Tried to Tell Us: Parable for Todays Pandemic, in which Butler scholars explore the context and imaginative implications of the books predictions. In an October 2020 interview in The Believer, writer and housing attorney Rasheedah Phillips advised people interested in envisioning survival to start with Butler. She is the person who prepared me, to the extent that I am prepared for this, Phillips said.11

Yet it is not only because of its pragmatism that Parable of the Sower should be considered the more prescient dystopia; it also ingeniously foresaw movements in todays culture to recenter marginalized groups, including young Black girls and women; Indigenous communities, whose botanical and nutritional insights are crucial to the survival of Lauren and her band; and youth, of which the Earthseed collective is mainly composed. Lauren is a fictional forerunner to courageous young people like Darnella Frazier, X Gonzlez, Greta Thunberg, and the late Erica Garner.12

Perhaps the biggest indication of Parable of the Sowers foresight is its understanding that as powerful as empathy is, its not enough (Namwali Serpells New York Review of Books essay The Banality of Empathy is also useful in articulating this idea). When Laurens lover suggests that it might benefit society if most people had her hyperempathy, Lauren calls the notion a bad idea. You must know how disabling real pain can be, she insists. Just as hyperempathy is not enough to save Lauren, it wont be enough to save us. Empathy takes courage, compassion, and an interest in alterity, and many people in her world and ours lack those qualities. But art, at least, can prompt us to think critically. Like empathy, critical thinking requires compassion and a desire to move past pretense toward truth.13

Here again, Parable of the Sower is telling. Use your imagination, Lauren tells a friend. Any kind of survival information from encyclopedias, biographies, anything that helps you learn to live off the land and defend ourselves. Even some fiction might be useful. And the novel has been. But as Lauren learns, reading is only the first step. Explaining her impetus to move beyond studying, Lauren tells someone from her old neighborhood, I thought something would happen someday. I didnt know how bad it would be or when it would come. But everything was getting worse: the climate, the economy, crime, drugs, you know. Yeah, I do knowand all of that requires thoughtful action now.14

Niela Orr15

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Which Is the More Prescient Dystopia? 'Gattaca' or 'Parable of the Sower' - The Nation

We have seen government buildings invaded, public officials held hostage, local leaders harassed in their homes, and speakers and professors hounded off campuses, and now more of this has been promised.

Americans are better than this! We are blessed with a political tradition stretching back 800 years, enshrining unprecedented power and rights for the people and showing us how they should be exercised the Magna Carta, the indictment of Charles I, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, the Gettysburg Address, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

When an established political system proves rigid and unresponsive, we have shining models of how to challenge it Mahatma Gandhi, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela. It is turning up the volume of demands for justice without intimidation that produces seemingly impossible results.

But no license to bully people is found in this treasure trove of wisdom. In fact, the bullies always turn out to be wrong Hitler's Brown Shirts, Mao's Red Guards, Sen. Joseph McCarthy, the Ku Klux Klan. Their fatal flaw is that the very nature of bullying forecloses the opportunity to see one's own errors.

We are now struggling to accomplish things no community has ever done before to establish a truly pluralistic society with genuine justice for all, distribute abundant resources to meet everyone's basic needs, and empower all people. Even if these lofty goals are not in dispute, we have little idea of what the details of these aspirations should look like, much less how to attain them.

The challenges we need to work out together are only going to grow more intense. How do we preserve individual autonomy in the face of artificial intelligence that can often make better decisions for us than we can ourselves? How do we manage the biotech and genetic engineering techniques that will soon make possible the creation of superhumans?

Our only hope is to trust in the slow, deliberative, pluralistic processes that stumble along toward results that satisfy no one, but eventually surpass the accomplishments of true believers. That is democracy.

The simple fact is that we are just not smart enough to be bullies. No one person or group has the capacity to see the whole picture. No one knows the whole truth.

Consider just two of our shortcomings. Our minds are engineered to believe what people say you could not live in a community if you had to fact check everything someone said to you. But today our minds are the targets of innumerable information peddlers who exploit our innate naivet to accumulate power or profit.

Moreover, evolution has equipped our minds with strong filters. If you are crossing a field, you won't even see the beautiful flowers if a bear comes out of the woods. And faced with an unmanageable barrage of factual claims, we tend to ignore what doesn't fit into what we already believe to be true. Of course, the internet always will serve up compelling confirmation for whatever gets into our heads.

Isn't this an age for healthy humility rather than self-righteousness?

I have spent my career in the legal system, which of course is a prime example of a system carefully constructed to minimize the distortions caused by individual cognitive limitations. All parties get a chance to present their points of view, using only reliable evidence. Judges take time to work out complex decisions in writing. Appellate judges sitting in groups review the work of trial courts.

The wisdom of such a system is clear to those of us in it. Most of us have been burned at some point by issuing a wrong order in one of those rare situations where all sides of a question do not get fully considered. Despite all the safeguards, all the good judges I know constantly wonder whether they have done the right thing.

Do bullies ever take time to wonder? Do they make sure they have carefully considered all sides of an issue? Do they consider why, in most societies throughout history, two political orientations have persisted?

I keep seeing an analogy from quantum physics. In the world of very small objects, light changes from waves to particles when it is measured, electrons jump from one orbit to another without traveling through the space in between and subatomic particles called fermions have to rotate twice before they come back to the same place. Scientists cannot form a mental picture of such strange objects because our mental machinery was evolved in the macro world where nothing behaves like that.

Naturally, physicists developed opposing views about the true nature of this alien world. Yet the brilliant spokespersons for the two camps, Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr, engaged in respectful dialogue with each other for decades trying to understand and persuade each other.

Do we owe each other any less in the strange new world we are trying to manage? We are climbing a steep mountain path on a stormy night with a weak flashlight. It would be good to link hands.

Abraham Lincoln, who presumably had somewhat greater claim to moral certainty than we do, nonetheless advised a humble search for truth: "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right "

Bruce Peterson is a senior district judge and teaches a class on lawyers as peacemakers at the University of Minnesota Law School.

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OPINION EXCHANGE | We must be better than the politics of bullying - Minneapolis Star Tribune

This article was originally published here

Curr Gene Ther. 2021 Jul 7. doi: 10.2174/1566523221666210707125342. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Recently, genetic engineering by various strategies to stimulate gene expression in a specific and controllable mode is a speedily growing therapeutic approach. Genetic modification of human stem or progenitor cells, such as embryonic stem cells (ESCs), neural progenitor cells (NPCs), mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs), and hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) for direct delivery of specific therapeutic molecules or genes has been evidenced as an opportune plan in the context of regenerative medicine due to their supported viability, proliferative features, and metabolic qualities. On the other hand, a large number of studies have investigated the efficacy of modified stem cells in cancer therapy using cells from various sources, disparate transfection means for gene delivery, different transfected yields, and wide variability of tumor models. Accordingly, cell-based gene therapy holds substantial aptitude for the treatment of human malignancy as it could relieve signs or even cure cancer succeeding expression of therapeutic or suicide transgene products; however, there exist inconsistent results in this regard. Herein, we deliver a brief overview of stem cell potential to use in cancer therapy and regenerative medicine and importantly discuss stem cells based gene delivery competencies to stimulate tissue repair and replacement in concomitant with their potential to use as an anti-cancer therapeutic strategy, focusing on the last two decades in vivo studies.

PMID:34238158 | DOI:10.2174/1566523221666210707125342

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Genetically-Modified Stem Cell in Regenerative Medicine and Cancer Therapy; A New Era - DocWire News

Its the rumour that wont go away that SARS-CoV-2 was accidentally leaked from a high biosecurity lab in Wuhan, China. The allegation is that the laboratory was conducting gain of function (GOF) research, and that this produced a potent version of coronavirus that led to the pandemic.

This has led to some scepticism and distrust of the field of research and whether it is necessary to conduct experiments using GOF techniques.

Essentially, GOF research is used to learn how viruses gain new functions through mutation and evolution.

A function is simply a property of an organism, such as plants that are more tolerant to drought or disease, or enzymes that evolved to make our bodies work.

The language about GOF has become loaded with negative connotations that associate this work with dangerous or risky research. But like rhetoric about genetic modification, these connections dont represent the diversity of the field or the security precautions that regulate the research. At its core, though, the research does exactly what the name suggests.

GOF research observes these mutations and sees how certain stimuli might affect evolutionary changes and properties of a virus or organism.

However, in our current climate its often spoken about in a much narrower context, as though its specifically about how a virus changes to move more easily between humans, or how viruses become more lethal. This just doesnt represent the full picture of GOF research.

Viruses evolve rapidly thats why there are so many new SARS-CoV-2 variants. GOF seeks to understand why and how these changes occur, and what environmental factors might influence the process.

In a sense, this is a know-your-enemy approach.

Beyond the benefit to fundamental biology research about the nature of viruses and evolution, GOF contributes to three clear areas: pandemic preparedness, vaccine development, and identification of new or potential pathogens.

GOF research can help us understand the rate at which mutations occur, and how many generations may be needed for a virus to change in a way that will require extra precautions in the community, which is information that is fed into epidemiological modelling.

This GOF information helps predict things such as how likely a virus is to become a nasty variant in a certain population size or density, during a certain season, or within a particular period or time. This informs how we react to a pandemic. Beyond this, it also informs how quickly a virus might mutate to overcome vaccines, and provides genetic information that may be useful in vaccine development. Specifically, GOF research can accumulate potential vaccine candidates in a database that can be accessed if an outbreak occurs because of natural evolution.

In turn, this means vaccine development can be sped up exponentially because candidates are already available.

For instance, a report from a 2015 GOF risk-assessment workshop for expert organisations revealed the genomics information from GOF research. This showed that bat-borne, SARS-like coronaviruses had many strains and mutations that had pandemic potential against which countermeasures need to be developed.

This information led to current pandemic responses and vaccine development the pandemic was already predicted because of a thorough understanding of the evolution of coronaviruses.

In another example, GOF experiments about influenza showed that the virus had the potential to be transmitted between different mammals with only a few changes to the genetic code, and has contributed to seasonal flu vaccines.

GOF research is based on observed evolution and changes to DNA or RNA.

The genome is the sum of all the genetic information in an organism. Some of this DNA or RNA is made up of genes, which often hold information on how to make a protein. These proteins perform functions in our body to make everything work.

These genes can naturally change a bit every generation. This happens because, to reproduce, the DNA of the parent must be replicated. The mechanisms that do this arent perfect, so little mistakes can be made when the DNA is copied.

Most of the time, the changes are tiny just a single unit of DNA (called a nucleotide) could be changed, and it may have no effect on the proteins made. At other times, the tiny change of a single nucleotide can make a gene gain a whole new function, which could be beneficial to an organism.

Natural mutations that occur during reproduction are one example of evolution in action.

These changes happen every generation, so organisms that can breed quickly, such as flies, can also evolve quickly as a species.

This process happens in essentially the same way with viruses, except that viruses have RNA instead of DNA and reproduce asexually. They still make proteins, and they still accumulate mutations, but the major difference is that they can reproduce very, very fast they can start reproducing within hours of being born and evolve at an exceptionally rapid rate.

This is why we have identified so many new variants of SARS-CoV-2 since the beginning of 2020. Every time the virus enters a new host, it reproduces rapidly, and mutations occur. Over time these mutations change the properties of the virus itself.

For example, new mutations may end up making the virus more virulent or cause worse symptoms because the proteins have changed their properties.

In these cases, we would say that the mutant strain has gained a function, and this is what GOF research aims to understand.

The viruses in a lab dont have a human host in which to grow, so researchers grow them in Petri dishes or animals instead.

There are two ways of using GOF in a lab: you can observe the virus mutate on its own (without intervention), or you can control small changes through genetic modification.

The first type of use involves putting the virus in different situations to see how it will evolve without intervention or aid.

This video is an example of GOF research with bacteria (not a virus, but the method is similar). The researchers put bacteria onto a giant petri dish with different concentrations of antibiotics. They leave the bacteria and watch how it naturally evolves to overcome the antibiotic.

The new strains of bacteria were able to be genetically sequenced to see what genetic changes had caused them to become antibiotic-resistant. This experiment can show how quickly the bacteria evolve, which can inform when or how often antibiotics are given, and whether there is a high-enough concentration of antibiotic that can halt the speed at which the antibiotic is overcome by resistance.

Similar experiments can be conducted with viruses to see how they might change to overcome human antibodies and other immune system protections.

Read more: What happens in a virology lab?

The second type of use is through small changes using genetic modification. This type of experiment occurs after a lot of other genetic information has already been gathered to identify which nucleotides in virus RNA might particularly contribute to a new function.

After these have been identified, a single or small nucleotide change will be made to the virus to confirm the predictions gained from genomic research. The modified virus will then be placed on a petri dish or inserted into an animal, such as a rabbit or a mouse, to see how the change affects the properties of the virus.

This type of research is done in specialised laboratories that are tightly controlled and heavily regulated under biosecurity laws that involve containment and decontamination processes.

Read more: How are dangerous viruses contained in Australia?

While the benefits of virus GOF research centre around pandemic preparedness, concerns have been raised about whether the research is ethical or safe.

In 2005, researchers used this technique for viruses when they reconstructed influenza (H1N1) from samples taken in 1918. The aim was to learn more about the properties of influenza and future pandemics, as influenza still circulates, but the controversial study sparked heavy debate about whether it should be acceptable.

The two major concerns are about whether this poses any threat to public health if a virus escapes the lab, or whether the techniques could be used for nefarious purposes.

In the past year, 16 years after the H1N1 study, there has been debate about whether SARS-CoV-2 had spontaneous zoonotic origins, or whether it was created in a lab in GOF experiments, and then escaped.

So now, 16 years after the first controversial H1N1 study, this speculation has pushed GOF research back into the public eye and led to many criticisms of the research field, and regulation of laboratories that use this technique.

In 2017, the US government lifted bans on GOF pathogen research after the National Institute of Health concluded that the risks of research into influenza and MERS were outweighed by the benefits, and that few posed significant threats to public health.

Following concerns about the origins of SARS-CoV-2, however, the rules surrounding GOF research, risk assessments and disclosure of experiments are now under review again, in order to clarify policy.

Read more: The COVID lab-leak hypothesis: what scientists do and dont know

Beyond this, the speculation has sparked further inquiries into the origin of SARS-CoV-2, although the World Health Organization concluded that viral escape from a laboratory was very unlikely.

Regardless, its never a bad thing to review biosafety, biosecurity and transparency policy as new evidence becomes available, and they have been frequently reviewed throughout history.

As for the concern that a government or private entity might abuse scientific techniques for malevolent purposes, scientists can, and do, support bans on research they deem ethically irresponsible, such as the controversial CRISPR babies.

Ultimately, the parameters around how scientific techniques like GOF are used and by whom is not a scientific question, but one that must be answered by ethicists.

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What is gain of function research in genetics? - Cosmos Magazine

We've got potentially about 200,000 algae species that we know of on planet Earth - we don't even think we've scratched the surface yet - and out of those, only about 20,000 have been characterized, and from these, only about 15 have been grown commercially at any scale, Provectus Algae founder and CEO Nusqe Spanton told FoodNavigator-USA.

And the reason is because algae is extremely particular about the light which it absorbs to grow [most algae species are photosynthetic, in that they require light along with carbon dioxide and water - to produce organic compounds].

When it grows really fast, it tends to block out its own light, and the specificity of the light that's required to grow all of these algae species is vastly different. Think about the environments in which algae grows on the surface of the ocean, at 500 meters deep. And if you think about the way light is utilized in these environments, it's very different, so the vast majority of algae species we know of cannot handle natural sunlight to grow.

But more importantly, 99% of all algae species are extremely fragile, and because of that, you cant put many species in traditional production systems because you can destroy the algae cells, which has limited our ability to use algae [as a microbial host]for synthetic biology purposes, because its so hard to grow on an industrial scale without killing it.

But these are two key problems we solved early on, claimed Spanton, who is based in Queensland, Australia, but is targeting the US, Europe, and Asia. Weve got a fundamentally different industrial process for growing algae and this enables us to look at vastly different product lines and species to push through into industrial scale.

So, we don't see ourselves as a competitor to anyone [growing things like spirulina or astaxanthin in outdoor ponds, or chlorella for protein, or Schizochytriumsp forDHA omega-3s].We're a complementary platform, to deliver novel products in algae that's never been utilized commercially before.

He added: Were seeing huge interest from corporates; there's a significant move within the industry to move towards more sustainable and environmentally friendly production systems and alleviate some of the pain points associated with specialty food and beverage ingredients.

Provectus Algae has developed closed system automated bioreactors using photosynthetic algae as a platform for growing high-value compounds at extreme densities with a series of LED lights, said Spanton, a marine biotechlogist who founded the business in April 2018 after years working with large-scale aquaculture systems.

Seeing the rapid technological developments in synthetic biology; what became clear to me was that existing microbial platforms using bacteria and yeast really limit our ability to produce more complex molecules found in plants and animals.

Yeast and bacteria, he said, are simple organisms good at converting sugar into carbon dioxide and energy. So with yeast, say, youre basically starting with an empty chassis of a cell, so you have to genetically engineer the entire metabolic process inside that cell.

The beauty of using algae is that the majority of that process may already be done it already has the metabolic components to deliver those products already. Algae is what all plants and animals evolved from originally, and so its vastly different from other microbial platforms that are existing today.

He added:The advantage of using algae compared to those other [microbial expression]systems is that sometimes 90% of the genetic work is already done for us naturally by the algae, so utilizing these existing biological components to our advantage, we're able to speed up product development time, which offers a huge advantage for our customers.

He added: I realized that photosynthetic algae could be the third pillar in synthetic biology, used alongside existing platforms [yeast, bacteria]to produce more complex molecules. So were building an entire bio manufacturing platform that is turnkey for customers, providing product development all the way through to contract manufacturing.

So how does it work?

Provectus deploys a couple of approaches: the first uses algae species that naturally produce a given compound such as a pigment or fatty acid.

Here, deploying what it calls precision photosynthesis, Provectus can optimize and improve the algaes productivity by exposing it to light, which effectively alters its DNA and improves its productivity without using techniques that would be classified as genetic engineering from a regulatory perspective, said Spanton.

If we can control the light, we can control the DNA, and were able to deliver any type of light in the visible spectrum but also in the infrared and UV spectrum, manipulate the algae and push it down a metabolic pathway to vastly increase the production of a target substance naturally inside the algae."

The second approach involves using the entire synthetic biology toolkit, such as CRISPR [gene editing],insertion of genes, design and synthesis of DNA, and inserting those genes into the algae, and we can then use that to upregulate [the production of a given substance]or to produce products that aren't naturally occurring at all in the algae, he added.

We have the capability to do both naturally occurring products in novel algae species that have never been commercially grown before, and also biosynthetic products using our synthetic biology toolkit to design and engineer new algae strains for novel high performance products that don't exist today.

According to an international patent application published in April 2020,Provectus Algae has developed bioreactors for growing algae with a controller connected to sensors that monitor everything from dissolved gases (oxygen, carbon dioxide) to cell density, temperature, pH, salinity, nitrates, and cell health.

This data is then sent to a remote device such as a laptop or cellphone from which users can set the spectrum, intensity, and flickering frequency of the LED lights, and make adjustments to the inputs and growing conditions, which can be optimized via artificial intelligence.

Right now, the company has a 20,000 liter pilot facility for product development, but is building a 200,000 liter facility, said Spanton, who has raised around $3.5m to date and is currently raising additional funds. We expect to scale up very rapidly over the next two years.

The business model is designed for speed and agility, said Spanton, who is working with large ingredients suppliers and CPG companies.

Unlike companies focused on driving an individual product to market, he said, Our product is our platform; customers pay for product development through to contract manufacturing. Once we've produced a commercially viable product, we then take a small share of the revenue in a royalty agreement once thats taken to market.

Lets say you're producing plant-based burgers, and maybe you cant source enough beets from conventional farming to produce your [pink color].So companies will come to us, well identify an algae that can [produce the target color/ingredient]for their application.

If you need something vegan friendly and non GMO, we can deliver a product to those specifications. Well look for a naturally occurring algae species that can deliver the particular coloring you want, perhaps within a novel algae species, and then we can control and upregulate the process to vastly increase the production of that pigment in the algae.

Asked about IP, he said:Weve got patents on using a cloud-enabled platform to produce algae, and there's a lot of trade secrets, IP that go around that in not only the production systems, in the hardware and software that go behind it, but also in the detailed components of how to grow algae, so there's a lifetime of knowledge behind Provectus Algae as well.

Right now the company is exploring scores of ingredients from peptides to antibiotics for markets from nutraceuticals to pharma with partners in the US, Europe and Asia, but on the food side, he said, there is strong potential in high-value ingredients such as pigments, antioxidants, sweet proteins, specialty additives, and binding agents.

As for bulk protein, he said, At the moment the production metrics just aren't there, although we fully expect that over the next decade as our as our technology comes to market, products like bulk proteins for alternative proteins markets will become commercially viable.

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'If we can control the light, we can control the DNA' Provectus Algae unlocks algae's potential as an industrial platform for high-value ingredients -...

New Delhi: Coronavirus was first identified in 1967 in the United Kingdom and then in the United States. That same year the first pseudo-virus was created in a laboratory in the US. Until the SARS pandemic of 2002, no new human coronavirus was discovered. Bats, coronaviruses and wet markets have existed for centuries without even an epidemic. Then suddenly in the past 20 years for the first time in history we have had SARS, MERS and Covid-19 coronavirus pandemics, all blamed on bats without convincing evidence. It is well known that clandestine bio-warfare research has been going on since World War 1. Initially, these efforts focused on historically important pathogens and the influenza virus of the first flu pandemic of 1918. Historically, all pandemics and large epidemics were due to plague, cholera, typhus or smallpox. Bacteria cause the first three of these diseases and all these have been suppressed by better hygiene. Smallpox virus has become extinct thanks to worldwide vaccination. Then suddenly pandemics due to newly discovered HIV virus in 1981, Ebola virus in 2004 and coronaviruses appeared from the wild or at least that is what we were told.

In the past few years, military researchers have been busy collecting viruses from wild animals, especially bats. They have focused their energies on deadly viruses that have existed in wild animals since centuries. From prehistoric times humans have hunted, consumed, poached and used parts of exotic wild animals as in Chinese medicine. Still the first zoonotic virus pandemics were in the past few years. These recent episodes are too many to be just a coincidence. The simultaneous development of genetic engineering technology and search for deadly wild viruses by military researchers cannot be a coincidence either.

Detailed report: Zoonoses blamed for man-made pandemics

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Manmade viruses being blamed on animals - The Sunday Guardian Live - The Sunday Guardian