Understanding the mechanisms that give cancer cells the ability to survive and grow opens the possibility of developing improved treatments to control or cure the disease. In the case of glioblastoma multiforme, the deadliest type of brain cancer, researchers have discovered that the molecule CD44s seems to give cancer cells a survival advantage. In the lab, eliminating this advantage by reducing the amount of CD44s resulted in cancer cells being more sensitive to the deadly effects of the drug erlotinib. The study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Treatment with erlotinib attempts to kill cancer cells by inhibiting EGFR signaling, a cellular mechanism that is hyperactive in most cases of glioblastoma multiforme and associated with poor prognosis, said senior author Dr. Chonghui Cheng, associate professor of molecular and human genetics and of molecular and cellular biology at Baylor College of Medicine. However, the clinical benefit of treatment with this and other EGFR inhibitors has been limited by the development of drug resistance.

Erlotinib can inhibit EGFR signaling but in time cancer cells become resistant to the treatment, in part because other molecules can compensate for the lack of EGFR activity.

Increasing evidence also suggests that EGFR and related signaling mechanisms do not act alone. Another molecule present in a number of cancers, CD44s, seems to be involved in sustaining those cancer-promoting mechanisms, but how this happens remained a mystery.

CD44s gives cancer cells a survival advantage

In this study, we discovered a mechanism by which CD44s helps maintain the EGFR signaling activated in glioblastoma multiforme, said Cheng, who also is a professor in the Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center at Baylor, part of the NCI-designated Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center. Working with a number of cancer cells grown in the lab, we determined that CD44s on the cell surface can enter the cell and prevent the digestion of EGFR, thus sustaining the activity of the signaling cascade that gives the cells a survival advantage.

Cheng and her colleagues have shown that CD44s holds a strategic place from which it can influence not only EGFR, but also a number of other signaling cascades that are important for cancer cell survival.

If we remove CD44s from the cell surface, we also can reduce the appearance of other molecules that could help cancer cells sustain their growth by compensating for the lack of EGFR activity, Cheng said.

Importantly from the therapeutic point of view, the researchers also found that removing CD44s from cancer cells in culture and treating them with erlotinib resulted in higher cancer cell deaths than treating with erlotinib alone. Cheng and colleagues anticipate that CD44s might also play a similar role in other types of cancer in which EGFR signaling is involved. This opens the possibility that targeting CD44s could potentially reduce the growth of many types of cancer, not just glioblastoma.

Researchers have been focused on developing inhibitors of EGRF and related pathways. Instead, we want to find novel approaches to boost the activity of inhibitors already available, and removing CD44s is a good example of how this could be done, said co-author Sali Liu, a graduate student in the Cheng lab. Our work suggests that in the future, physicians and scientists might approach cancer treatment in a different way. For example, instead of deciding on a treatment based on the type of breast cancer a patient has, they might choose a treatment according to the type of mechanism that helps this particular cancer grow, regardless of the type of cancer it is.

Other contributors to this work include Wei Wang, Honghong Zhang, Chung Kwon Kim, Yilin Xu, Lisa Hurley, Ryo Nishikawa, Motoo Nagane, Bo Hu, Alexander Stegh and Shi-Yuan Cheng. The authors are affiliated with one or more of the following institutions: Baylor College of Medicine, Northwestern University, Saitama Medical University and Kyorin University.

This research was supported in part by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Northwestern University Brain Tumor Institute and a Brain Cancer Research Award from James S. McDonnell Foundation. Further support was provided by a Zell Scholarship at Northwestern University and the Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas.

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How CD44s gives brain cancer survival advantage - Baylor College of Medicine News (press release)

July 17, 2017 by Emily Litvack Obese asthmatics have increased TNF-alpha levels, which, in part, leads to decreased SP-A secretion. Subsequently, these individuals have enhanced eosinophilia. Credit: University of Arizona

A large, bouquet-shaped molecule called surfactant protein A, or SP-A, may explain why obese asthma patients have harder-to-treat symptoms than their lean and overweight counterparts, according to a new study led by scientists at the University of Arizona and Duke University. The results were published in a recent edition of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

The study, titled "Obese Asthmatics Have Decreased Surfactant Protein-A Levels: Mechanisms and Implications," compared SP-A levels in lean and overweight asthmatics against SP-A levels in obese asthmatics (those with a body mass index, or BMI, over 30). Obese individuals had significantly less of the protein.

To understand why the lack of the protein is such a problem for those with asthma, one must first understand the function of SP-A, a powerhouse of a protein that helps curb the lungs' responses to environmental insults such as air pollution. It also regulates the numbers and locations of disease-fighting white blood cells called eosinophils. Without enough SP-A to rein them in, one ends up with too much of a good thing. The eosinophils collect in the lungs and wreak havoc.

The team included UA researchers Dave Francisco, Kenneth Addison, Akarsh Manne, William Pederson, Dr. Monica Kraft and Julie Ledford.

Kraft, department chair and professor of medicine, and Ledford, an assistant professor of medicine, are members of the UA's BIO5 Institute. They began this research in 2010, when Ledford was a postdoctoral fellow at Duke University and Kraft was chief of pulmonary and critical care medicine.

At that time, SP-A levels in asthmatic patients were relatively well studied, yet little understood. The literature was shaky. Some research showed that asthmatic patients have more SP-A than healthy individuals, others found they have less, and still others found they had the same amount. Using about 50 samples from the patients of medical doctors, including Kraft and Ledford, also got mixed results.

"I saw a really wide discrepancy in levels," Ledford said. "My results matched everything that had been published, so Monica and I looked at patient demographics to see if anything stood out."

There in the data, Ledford saw it plain as day: People with especially low levels of SP-A had especially high BMIs. It was the first time anyone had made the connection.

This latest study, with data from 55 individuals, shows the same connection Ledford made years ago. The study also provides insights on what is driving that stark difference in SP-A levels between obese individuals and others.

It starts with something called cytokines, little proteins made by cells in the immune system, giving other cells a signal to take some kind of action. By moving out of a cell, one cytokine called tumor necrosis alpha, or TNF-a, tells other cells to activate the immune system. Obese individuals often have increased amounts of TNF-a.

If you have enough of it, Ledford explained, TNF-a can actually suppress SP-A. And according to this study, in obese asthmatics, it does just that.

"These results are eye-opening in that we're finding out potentially why obese asthma patients don't respond as well to treatments as other asthmatic patients. It could be due to the lack of this important immunoregulatory protein," Ledford said. "I hope this study will lead to better patient care for this group of people.

"SP-A is well known to fight pathogens, so with pretty much any lung infection, someone with less SP-A would be at a higher risk for complications," she said, adding that across all demographics of asthmatic patients, SP-A doesn't work as well as it should to begin with.

Ledford and Kraft are working to translate this information into a new therapy.

"The active piece of surfactant protein A is, we think, 10 to 20 amino acids. We're putting that piece of it into an inhaler as a delivery," Ledford said.

They are working with Tech Launch Arizona, the UA office that commercializes inventions stemming from research, to develop and license the treatment for those with asthma and other respiratory diseases.

"Fundamentally, we do research to address grand challenges facing our society," said Kimberly Andrews Espy, the UA's senior vice president for research. "And by taking this groundbreaking discovery from the lab to the marketplace, Drs. Ledford and Kraft will improve the lives of patients with difficult-to-treat asthma. I am so proud of their work and of the impact it will have for so many. The University of Arizona is an international leader in research in airway diseases, and Dr. Ledford's and Dr. Kraft's work adds to our record of accomplishment."

Ledford and Kraft are now working to further understand what factors, beyond TNF-a, might lead to decreased levels of SP-A. They also would like to study SP-A levels in bariatric patients before and after their weight-loss surgeries.

Said Ledford: "I'm getting to see where and how my work in the lab can affect patient outcomes and, as a scientist, that's the best reward one can get."

Explore further: Researchers talk turkey: Native Americans raised classic holiday bird

More information: Njira Lugogo et al. Obese asthmatic patients have decreased surfactant protein A levels: Mechanisms and implications, Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (2017). DOI: 10.1016/j.jaci.2017.05.028

(Medical Xpress)Research conducted at Boston Children's Hospital indicates that obesity might cause asthma via factors in the immune system and suggests a new way of treating asthma in obese peoplewho often respond ...

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The International Centre for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS), University of Karachi, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Beijing Institute of Genomics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, China, on Friday, an official announced.

As per the MoU, Chinese and Pakistani institutions aim to recognise their complementary strengths in the fields of life sciences, and wish to strengthen their relationship for the benefit of their students and researchers.

Both parties will endeavour to encourage, promote and facilitate collaboration. In particular, they have agreed to develop collaborative work by facilitating exchanges of academic staff and students, hosting the other partys academic staff and students as departmental visitors, fostering bioinformatics and big data union/network in Asia, exchanging relevant non-confidential publications, exploring opportunities for collaborating on funded research programmes, exchanging relevant non-confidential materials, subject to appropriate agreements, inviting the other party to attend conferences.

The MoU was signed by BIG-CAS Director Dr Yongbiao Xue and ICCBS Director Professor Dr M Iqbal Choudhary.

Earlier, a meeting was held at the Dr Panjwani Centre for Molecular Medicine and Drug Research, KU, in which the six-member Chinese delegation was welcomed by ICCBS acting director Professor Dr Shaiq Ali and other officials. Dr Changqing Zeng, Dr Songnian Hu, Dr Yiming Bao, Dr Zhang Zhang and Dr Jiayan Wu attended the meeting. Dr Yongbiao Xue and Prof Shaiq Ali discussed issues of mutual interest. They stressed the need to have mutual research work in the field of life sciences. Dr Hina Siddiqui of the ICCBS gave an introduction of the international centre in her presentation. The Chinese delegation visited the state-of-the art laboratories set up in the Jamil-ur- Rahman Centre for Genome Research, HEJ Research Institute of Chemistry, and the Dr Panjwani Centre for Molecular Medicine and Drug Research.

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KU's ICCBS, Chinese institution sign MoU for collaboration - The News International

Newswise BETHESDA, Md. July 14, 2017 The Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP), the premier global, non-profit organization serving molecular diagnostic professionals, today announced that Andrew P. Feinberg, MD, MPH, Director of the Center for Epigenetics and Bloomberg Distinguished Professor, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Whiting School of Engineering, and Bloomberg School of Public Health, has earned this years Award for Excellence in Molecular Diagnosticsfor his seminal scientific discoveries and countless contributions to the field of epigenetics. The award will be presented at theAMP 2017 Annual Meeting on November 16, 2017 in Salt Lake City, UT. Following the award presentation, Dr. Feinberg will deliver a special lecture on the epigenetic basis of common human disease.

Dr. Feinberg has dedicated his career to understanding the epigenetic basis of normal development and disease, including cancer, aging, and neuropsychiatric illness. His early work involved the discovery of altered DNA methylation in cancer, as well as common epigenetic variants in the population that may be responsible for a significant population-attributable risk of cancer. Over the last few years, he has pioneered the field of epigenomics, founding the first NIH-supported Epigenome Center in the country and developing many novel tools for molecular and statistical analysis. His current research examines the mechanisms of epigenetic modification, the epigenetic basis of cancer and neuropsychiatric disease including schizophrenia and autism, as well as the invention of new molecular, statistical, and epidemiological tools for genome-scale epigenetics. Dr. Feinbergs numerous honors include the MERIT Award of the National Cancer Institute, the NIH Directors Pioneer Award, and the Feodor Lynen Medal for pioneering the field of cancer epigenetics.

Over the course of his career, Dr. Feinberg has fundamentally transformed our understanding of epigenetics and the role it plays in many complex diseases, said Federico A. Monzon, MD, AMP President. He is a true trailblazer in the field and his work continues to influence and inspire the next generation of clinical molecular diagnostic professionals.

The AMP Award for Excellence in Molecular Diagnostics was created in 1998 to recognize lifetime, pioneering and special achievements by professionals in the fields of molecular biology, molecular pathology, pathology, genetics, microbiology, and basic medical sciences, especially as these achievements relate to molecular diagnostics and molecular medicine. Honorees work has provided the scientific rationale for, or led to the development of, novel technologies for molecular diagnostics, and has contributed significantly to disease and patient management through their research. Previous recipients of the award are recognized on the AMP website

For more information on the AMP 2017 Annual Meeting, please visit our meeting website

Register for the AMP 2017 Annual Meeting here.

ABOUT AMP

The Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) was founded in 1995 to provide structure and leadership to the emerging field of molecular diagnostics. AMP's 2,300+ members practice in the various disciplines of molecular diagnostics, including bioinformatics, infectious diseases, inherited conditions and oncology. They include individuals from academic and community medical centers, government, and industry; including pathologist and doctoral scientist laboratory directors; basic and translational scientists; technologists; and trainees. Through the efforts of its Board of Directors, Committees, Working Groups, and members, AMP is the primary resource for expertise, education, and collaboration in one of the fastest growing fields in healthcare. AMP members influence policy and regulation on the national and international levels, ultimately serving to advance innovation in the field and protect patient access to high quality, appropriate testing. For more information, visitwww.amp.org. Follow AMP on Twitter:@AMPath.

MEDIA CONTACT:

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The Association for Molecular Pathology to Recognize Andrew P. Feinberg, MD, MPH with 2017 Award for Excellence ... - Newswise (press release)

Lynn Ge-Zerbe, MD, MPH, is a highly trained and qualified Endocrinologist with an extensive expertise in all facets of her work, especially in the treatment of diabetes and metabolism disorders. She is currently serving patients within Boise Thyroid Endocrinology in Meridian, Idaho, and is also affiliated with St. Lukes Regional Medical Center and the Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center.

Dr. Lynn Ge-Zerbe attended the Peking Union Medical College in Beijing, China, where she gained her Doctor of Medicine Degree in 1987. After moving to the United States she completed an internship at Howard University, followed by a residency at Lehigh Valley Hospital and then a fellowship at Vanderbilt University. Dr. Ge-Zerbe has also completed advanced postdoctoral training in Epidemiology and Molecular Medicine, and holds a Master of Public Health Degree.

Dr. Ge-Zerbe is dual board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine, and she is a distinguished member of the American College of Physicians, the Endocrine Society, the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, and the American Thyroid Association. She is internationally renowned as an expert in the treatment of conditions including diabetes, Graves disease, hyperthyroidism, and osteoporosis. Dr. Ge-Zerbe is the author of more than 18 medical papers, and says that her success has come because of the example set by her grandfather, who was also a doctor.

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FindaTopDoc.com is a hub for all things medicine, featuring detailed descriptions of medical professionals across all areas of expertise, and information on thousands of healthcare topics. Each month, millions of patients use FindaTopDoc to find a doctor nearby and instantly book an appointment online or create a review. FindaTopDoc.com features each doctors full professional biography highlighting their achievements, experience, patient reviews and areas of expertise. A leading provider of valuable health information that helps empower patient and doctor alike, FindaTopDoc enables readers to live a happier and healthier life. For more information about FindaTopDoc, visit http://www.findatopdoc.com

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Lynn Ge-Zerbe, MD, MPH, an Acclaimed Endocrinologist located in Meridian, Idaho - PR NewsChannel (press release)

In the Wall Steet Journal, White House budget boss Mick Mulvaney introduces theportmanteauMAGAnomics, the Trump agenda for achieving 3% growth. As Muvlaney notes, for merely suggesting that we can get back to that level, the administration has been criticized as unrealistic.

Director of the Office of Management and Budget Mick Mulvaney (L) and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin (R) flank U.S. President Donald Trump as he hosts a strategic initiatives lunch at the White House in Washington, U.S., February 22, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Actually this criticism has come in two flavors. The first, noting chronically weak productivity growth and a demographic-driven decline in labor force growth, views 2% growth as the new 3%. Welcome to the New Normal. Indeed, the 2% growth forecast is actually too optimistic if productivity growth stays stuck at the0.5% average rate notched since 2010. In that case, well have more like a 1% growth economy.

But if you assume the sharp productivity slowdown is at least partly due to a cyclical recession hangover, figure a productivity rebound to 1.5%. That would produce 2% GDP growth when combined with 0.5% labor force growth.

So the core problem is boosting productivity growth another percentage point or so. Thats where smarter policy would probably have the most impact. And this is where the second flavor of criticism comes in: Faster growth is possible, but the Trump agenda wont get it done. Mulvaneys summation of MAGAnomics and how it would boost productivity and growth focuses on tax reform, deregulation, welfare reform, cheaper energy, improving infrastructure, fair trade, and spending restraint.

This is basically five-sevenths traditional Reagan Republicanism, with trade and infrastructure as the Trumpian bits. Noticeably left out is Ryan Republicanism. The words debt, entitlements, Medicare, and Social Security are not mentioned in the piece.

But, oddly, also no mention of innovation, technology, internet, robotics,drones, artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, automation, immigration, entrepreneurship, or startups. Not a unicorn to be found. And I would think that it would be hard to create a modern pro-growth agenda without using those words and the policies they suggest.

As it happens, the Peterson Institute is just out with a report on boosting productivity. This graphic sums up their take on what is possible given ongoing technological progress:

So that would put us in the 2.5-3% growth range. The Peterson take also syncs with a recent analysisfrom AEI Visiting Fellow Bret Swanson and economist Michael Mandel of the Progressive Policy Institute, commissioned by the Technology CEO Council.

The 10-year productivity drought is almost over. The next waves of the information revolutionwhere we connect the physical world and infuse it with intelligenceare beginning to emerge. Increased use of mobile technologies, cloud services, artificial intelligence, big data, inexpensive and ubiquitous sensors, computer vision, virtual reality, robotics, 3D additive manufacturing, and a new generation of 5G wireless are on the verge of transforming the traditional physical industrieshealthcare, transportation, energy, education, manufacturing, agriculture, retail, and urban travel services. . . . Healthcare, energy, and transportation, for example, are evolving into information industries. Smartphones and wearable devices will make healthcare delivery and data collection more effective and personal, while computational bioscience and customized molecular medicine will radically improve drug discovery and effectiveness. Artificial intelligence will assist doctors, and robots will increasingly be used for surgery and eldercare. The boom in American shale petroleum is largely an information technology phenomenon, and its just the beginning. Autonomous vehicles and smart traffic systems, meanwhile, will radically improve personal, public, and freight transportation in terms of both efficiency and safety, but they also will create new platforms upon which entirely new economic goods can be created. . . .How much could these IT-related investments add to economic growth? Our assessment, based on an analysis of recent history, suggests this transformation could boost annual economic growth by 0.7 percentage points over the next 15 years

And where does policy come in? Again from the Peterson report (bold is mine):

The best way government could hasten this productivity revival is through continued adherence to a set of growth supporting policies that have received bipartisan support for decades. The first is robust federal investment in basic science. Although science is the foundation on which technological progress depends, markets will not invest in it to a sufficient degree; the argument for government support is clear and compelling (Stephan 2012).

Evidence also shows that immigrant scientists and entrepreneurs play a disproportionate role in driving the technological advances that power productivity growth in the United States (Kerr et al. 2016). Rather than dissuading highly skilled immigrants from seeking educational and employment opportunities in the United States, as the Trump administration seems to be doing, the federal government should make it easier for inventors, scientists, and entrepreneurs from around the world to secure the right to work in the United States. The globalization of invention could undergird productivity growth in the United States but globalization of invention presupposes the continuation of an open global trading and investment system supported by the United States. Recent statements and policy steps by the new administration backing away from that longstanding bipartisan embrace of open trade and investment are likely to undermine, rather than support, future economic growth.

That said, openness to international trade, investment, and new technology often brings disruption. The safety net has not done nearly enough to limit the disruptive impact of trade and technology shocks in the United States. Many economists have long advocated wage insurance, which would compensate workers forced to move to jobs that paid less than they had been earning, as a useful addition to the safety net (Lalonde 2007). Such a system merits close consideration. Current proposals to curtail or weaken the safety net represent a significant step in the wrong direction.

New educational technologies are potentially transformative, but the fragmented and imperfect nature of the market for them could drastically limit their adoption and slow their diffusion. As Chatterji and Jones (2012) note, the officials making curricular decisions for the more than 13,000 school districts in the United States are constantly bombarded by (mostly false) claims regarding the efficacy of new educational products and curricular fadsclaims theygenerally lack the expertise to verify. They also face distorted incentives: If they adopt a new technology that fails, their careers are in jeopardy, whereas if they continue to underperform as badly as peer institutions, their jobs are secure. Given these market imperfections, Chatterji and Jones make the case for a public agency or public-private partnership that could certify the efficacy of new educational technologies in the same way the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) certifies the safety and efficacy of new drugs, by supervising rigorous, randomized control trials. Modest policy effort in this direction could yield rich dividends in the form of much faster, more cost-effective human capital formation.

One key to growth is really along the lines of Thefutureis already here its justnotveryevenly distributed except its technological progress thats not evenly distributed. (Indeed, a good chunk of the paper discusses how the pace of IT innovation is much faster than official indexes suggest and business investment is much stronger than traditional measures indicate.) So I would like to see more focus on competition and dynamism policy as a way of encouraging diffusion. But I dont see that in MAGAnomics, either.

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Out: Trumponomics. In: MAGAnomics. What's missing? The entire 21st century technological revolution. - American Enterprise Institute

The market revenue is also expected to rise from $12465 million in 2016 to $95365 million by 2025.

The fact that bioinformatics has emerged as a key tool for drug discovery processes due to its high throughput screening, aided by recent advancements in proteomics and genomics, is majorly responsible for driving the global market.

The various initiatives undertaken by the government coupled with the developments in IT sector are propelling the market growth.

The market is mainly segmented into service, market by products and market by application.

These three applications are further sub-segmented into other various applications.

The Genomics application which involves analysis of a complex set of genes, their expressions, and the subsequent role played in biology is anticipated to dominate the Global Bioinformatics market by growing at a faster CAGR of 32.50% during the forecast period.

The transcriptomic and metabolomics markets are also predicted to grow at a CAGR of 22% and 26% respectively.

The Bioinformatics platforms market that comprises of sequence analysis, sequence alignment, structural analysis, sequence manipulation and other platforms is expected to lead the Global Bioinformatics Market in terms of Product and Services with a CAGR of 28.93%.

KEY FINDINGS

The Global Bioinformatics market is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 25.45% over the forecast period of 2016 2025. The market revenue is also expected to rise from $12465 million in 2016 to $95365 million by 2025. The fact that bioinformatics has emerged as a key tool for drug discovery processes due to its high throughput screening, aided by recent advancements in proteomics and genomics, is majorly responsible for driving the global market. The various initiatives undertaken by the government coupled with the developments in IT sector are propelling the market growth.

MARKET INSIGHTS The market is mainly segmented into service, market by products and market by application. These three applications are further sub-segmented into other various applications. The Genomics application which involves analysis of a complex set of genes, their expressions, and the subsequent role played in biology is anticipated to dominate the Global Bioinformatics market by growing at a faster CAGR of 32.50% during the forecast period. The transcriptomic and metabolomics markets are also predicted to grow at a CAGR of 22% and 26% respectively. The Bioinformatics platforms market that comprises of sequence analysis, sequence alignment, structural analysis, sequence manipulation and other platforms is expected to lead the Global Bioinformatics Market in terms of Product and Services with a CAGR of 28.93%. The molecular medicine held the highest market share of 30.36% in terms of products in 2016. But, it is the preventive medicine product sector that is expected to grow at a faster CAGR of 26.22% during the forecasted period

REGIONAL INSIGHTS The Asian bioinformatics market is estimated grow at CAGR of 24.84% owing to the emerging markets like China and India in this region and is anticipated to generate a net worth of $12895 Million 2025. The European countries like Germany and U.K. have a huge bioinformatics market which is stimulated by the continuous R&D activities in the region initiated by the European government. The market is expected to generate $30897 million by the end of the forecast period. However, it is the North American market that is anticipated to hold the largest share by the year 2025 by exhibiting the fastest CAGR growth of 27.46%. The rest of the world bioinformatics market consists of regions like North Africa and South Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. The bio informatics market is expected to show a steady growth in these regions because of the growing bioinformatics platforms stimulated by proteomics and genomic growth.

COMPETITIVE INSIGHTS The Qiagen Company provides over 500 consumable products as well as a number of instrument solutions to fully automate the processing of almost all Qiagen biological materials used for sample preparation and their subsequent analysis in the field of molecular biology. Affymetrix Inc is another such company that offers life science products for the applications of genotyping and gene expression. Some of the other prominent players include Illumina Inc, Waters Corporation, Agilent Technologies, Inc, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., Sencel bioinformatics, S.A.F.A.N. Bioinformatics SAS, Biovia, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Biomax Informatics AG, Qiagen n.v., Inc, Geneva Bioinformatics SA, and Noray bioinformatics SLU. Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/4976566/

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Global Bioinformatics Market is expected to $95365 million by 2025 - PR Newswire (press release)

A powerful, fast experimental approach to screen potential BPA substitutes

Earlier, Mancini and his colleagues developed a new, powerful experimental approach that combined high throughput microscopy techniques with specifically engineered cell lines and roboticized screening resources to individually test the effect of numerous compounds on biological functions; these experiments are highly efficient, generating a large number mechanistic and phenotypic measurements simultaneously, even with only very brief exposure of compounds to cells.

We previously established highly multiplexed, single cell-oriented model systems to identify mechanisms involved in complex hormonal biology, Mancini said. Unlike standard biochemical or toxicological assays, our approach quantifies levels of estrogen receptors, nuclear localization, DNA binding, large-scale chromatin modeling, protein interactions and transcription, and also include data on toxicity, cell proliferation and many other characteristics; all at the level of individual cells and in one assay that only takes a few hours.

A robotic system processes the samples and takes tens of thousands of images of the cells through an automated microscope. Later, in-house developed software analyzed and reported on more than 10 billion data points to create a comprehensive picture of what is going on inside and on the surface of the cells.

When the paper describing our novel approach was published, Valspar Corp., an industrial coatings company, approached our lab, Mancini said. They were interested in finding a compound that does not have activity on estrogen receptors, but still provides a means to extend the shelf life of canned foods. Traditional toxicology studies conducted in animals are time consuming, expensive and provide limited data regarding the mechanism involved. Our approach is much faster, sensitive and accurate as standard biochemical assays and allows for testing for numerous compounds at once.

The researchers used their automated approach to screen a number of BPA substitute candidates for their ability to bind to estrogen receptors and trigger their activity.

Using our high-throughput assay, we identified two compounds that are relatively inactive when compared to the negative effects attributed to BPA or the BPA-substitutes in use today, Szafran said.

The compounds we found passed our testing, but it doesnt mean that they are completely free of effects, Mancini said. This would need further testing in animal studies.

Other contributors to this wok include Fabio Stossi, Maureen G. Mancini and Cheryl L. Walker.

This work was supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) grants NIEHS R01 (1R01ES023206-01) and NIEHS P30 (ES023512-01) and the Center of Excellence in Environmental Health. Further support was provided by the Integrated Microscopy Core at Baylor College of Medicine with funding from the John S. Dunn Gulf Coast Consortium for Chemical Genomics, the Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center (National Institutes of Health (NIH) P30CA125123), the NIH grants HD007495, DK56338 and K12DK0083014 and the multidisciplinary K12 Urologic Research Career Development Program. DeepBio, Inc received funds and material support from the Valspar Corporation.

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Researchers identify potentially safer substitutes for BPA - Baylor College of Medicine News (press release)

Glutathione is the most abundant natural antioxidant in cells. It protects them from damage and regulates a number of important functions, including cell proliferation and death, the synthesis of the genetic material and proteins and the activation of gene expression. These functions are regulated by changes in the concentration of glutathione, but the current methods do not allow for real-time measurements of glutathione levels inside cells. Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Childrens Hospital and Rice University have moved the field of glutathione research a step forward by developing a fluorescent probe they called it RealThiol that can measure real-time changes of glutathione concentration in living cells. Published in Nature Communications, this study offers a new tool to investigate the roles glutathione plays in aging, health and diseases such as cancer, Alzheimers and Parkinsons, cardiovascular conditions and diabetes, among others.

Until now, methods for measuring glutathione levels inside cells only allowed for one time point measurements, said corresponding author Dr. Jin Wang, associate professor of pharmacology and chemical biology and of molecular and cellular biology at Baylor. We wanted to develop a method that would allow biologists to measure how glutathione concentration inside cells changes in real time.

How to measure glutathione changes in real time

Previous methods are based on irreversible chemical reactions that capture all the glutathione that is inside the cells, providing a one-time snapshot of its amount. Wang, who was trained as a physical organic chemist, and his colleagues looked for reversible chemical reactions that would capture and release glutathione, allowing for multiple measurements inside the same cell.

Other researchers had succeeded at developing chemical probes for measuring the dynamic changes of calcium and zinc in cells using reversible chemical reactions, Wang said. However, some researchers thought that the same could not be accomplished for glutathione.

In 2015, Wang and his colleagues published a proof of concept that a reversible reaction could be used to measure glutathione. Further research led to the current publication.

The key contribution of the current study is that we optimized the probe and made the reaction much faster; both the forward and the reverse reaction can be completed within one minute, allowing us to follow the dynamic changes on glutathione in living cells, Wang said. Our method requires very small amounts of the probe, which results in little toxicity and poses minimal perturbance of the antioxidant capacity in the cells, and the probe can be used in various applications, from microscopy to cell sorting experiments.

Using RealThiol, the researchers measured enhanced antioxidant capability of activated neurons and dynamic glutathione changes during ferroptosis, a form of cell death. The Wang group is currently developing glutathione probes with different sub-cellular specificities. This new tool set can potentially generate knowledge that could help develop new strategies to treat diseases involving glutathione-mediated processes.

Other contributors to this study include Xiqian Jiang, Jianwei Chen, Aleksandar Baji, Chengwei Zhang, Xianzhou Song, Shaina L. Carroll, Zhao-Lin Cai, Meiling Tang, Mingshan Xue, Ninghui Cheng, Christian P. Schaaf, Feng Li, Kevin R. MacKenzie, Allan Chris M. Ferreon, Fan Xia, Meng C. Wang and Mirjana Maleti-Savati.

The research was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) (R01-GM115622 R01-CA207701, R01-AG045183, R01-AT009050, R21-EB022302, DP1-DK113644, R01-GM120033 and R01-NS100893), the Welch Foundation (Q-1912), the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT R1104 and RP130573), Whitehall Foundation (Research grant 2015-05-54), the Curtis Hankamer Basic Research Fund at Baylor College of Medicine and the Caroline DeLuca Scholarship. Further support was provided by the United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service through Cooperative Agreement Number 58-6250-0-008, the IDDRC Microscopy Core (P30HD024064 and 1U54 HD083092 Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development), the Optical Imaging and Vital Microscopy core, and the Cytometry and Cell Sorting Core at Baylor College of Medicine with funding from the NIH (AI036211, CA125123 and RR024574).

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Scientists develop method for real-time glutathione measuring ... - Baylor College of Medicine News (press release)

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Foundation Medicine, Inc. (NASDAQ:FMI) today announced that financial results for the company's second quarter ended June 30, 2017 will be released on Tuesday, August 1, 2017. The management team will host a conference call on Tuesday, August 1, 2017, at 4:30 p.m. ET to discuss the company's financial results and recent developments. The call can be accessed by dialing 1-877-270-2148 (domestic) or 1-412-902-6510 (international) five minutes prior to the start of the call. A passcode is not required to access the live call from either number. A replay of the conference call will be available until August 15, 2017 and can be accessed by dialing 1-412-317-0088 and providing the passcode 10110537.

The live, listen-only webcast of the conference call may be accessed by visiting the investors section of the company's website at investors.foundationmedicine.com. A replay of the webcast will be available shortly after the conclusion of the call and will be archived on the company's website for two weeks following the call.

About Foundation Medicine Foundation Medicine (NASDAQ:FMI) is a molecular information company dedicated to a transformation in cancer care in which treatment is informed by a deep understanding of the genomic changes that contribute to each patients unique cancer. The company offers a full suite of comprehensive genomic profiling assays to identify the molecular alterations in a patients cancer and match them with relevant targeted therapies, immunotherapies and clinical trials. Foundation Medicine's molecular information platform aims to improve day-to-day care for patients by serving the needs of clinicians, academic researchers and drug developers to help advance the science of molecular medicine in cancer. For more information, please visit http://www.FoundationMedicine.com or follow Foundation Medicine on Twitter (@FoundationATCG).

Foundation Medicineis a registered trademark of Foundation Medicine, Inc.

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Foundation Medicine Announces Timing for Second Quarter 2017 ... - Business Wire (press release)

Home Colon And Digestive Colon Health Swollen colon: Causes and symptoms

A swollen colon is a manifestation of chronic inflammatory conditions that affect the intestines and is thought to be caused by the bodys own immune system. Normally, the immune system is supposed to act as the first line of defense against bacteria and other foreign invaders to protect the body, but in an unknown twist, it instead attacks itself. In the case of inflammatory bowel conditions, it leads to swelling of intestinal tissue.

Disorders such as ulcerative colitis and Crohns disease are the most common examples of an inflammatory bowel condition and are thought to be attributed to an autoimmune reaction. Those affected often suffer from episodic symptoms such as abdominal pain and diarrhea, with researchers still attempting to find the precise cause of their occurrence.

Recent studies have uncovered some of the mystery behind these inflammatory conditions, with the involvement of a particular protein linked to their development called Bcl-3.

With the help of our cooperation partners, we were able to demonstrate that the level of the Bcl-3 protein, which also plays a role in the development of various cancerous diseases, is elevated in the intestinal tract of colitis patients and is indeed a trigger of the disease, said Dr. Nadine Hvelmeyer, head of the work group at the Mainz-based Institute for Molecular Medicine.

This protein was found to suppress the actions of regulatory T-cells (Tregs), which are responsible for preventing the over-reaction of the immune system. This results in the immune system to no longer be regulated, leading to the development of inflammatory bowel disorders, according to the researchers.

Further research is being conducted to search for new active agents that will prevent this process from occurring.

A swollen colon can have a variety of causes with your doctor having to do a multitude of different tests to help pinpoint the reasons for its development. Infections, blood flow problems, and immune system problems are all potential causes for a swollen colon. Direct contact with chemicals, such as during an enema, may also cause the condition.

The primary process for symptom development is due to inflammation. When the tissue layers of the colon become inflamed, it produces the symptoms commonly attributed to inflammatory bowel conditions.

The side that the inflammatory reactions occur can determine the diagnosis and potential treatments for that particular condition.

A swollen colon on the left side, also called the descending colon, may be caused by the following:

Also known as the ascending colon, pathology on the right side can be caused by the following:

Bothersome symptoms are often what prompt patients to seek the advice of a medical professional. Since a swollen colon has a variety of causes, your symptoms and how they present are important clues your doctor needs in order provide an accurate diagnosis. Knowing what is causing your symptoms will help you prevent them from becoming worse and prevent possible complications.

The following are symptoms commonly attributed to a swollen colon:

o Bloating: a common occurrence due to increased volume of stool in the colon

o Bleeding: often seen mixed with stool and a result of tissue damage to the lining of the colon.

o Anemia: a possible result of excess bleeding

o Mucus in stool: a feature of ulcerative colitis

o Tenesmus: the urge to have a bowel movement

o High fever

o Weight loss

o Fatigue

Related: Colon cleansing at home: Natural ways to detox your colon

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http://www.unimedizin-mainz.de/presse/press-releases/press-releases/newsdatail/article/the-swollen-colon-cause-of-chronic-inflammation-discovered.html?L=1&cHash=fceb903c53312b2160a7fde9bad4aab0 http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/crohns-disease/basics/causes/con-20032061 http://www.healcure.org/intestine/colon/swollen-colon-causes-treatments-eat-bloody-stool-left-right-side/ http://www.wisegeek.org/what-causes-a-swollen-colon.htm

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Swollen colon: Causes and symptoms - Bel Marra Health

The International Association of HealthCare Professionals is pleased to welcome Zain Khalpey, MD, PhD, FETCS, FACS, a prominent Cardiothoracic Surgeon to their prestigious organization with his upcoming publication in The Leading Physicians of the World. Dr. Khalpey is a highly trained and qualified surgeon with a vast expertise in all facets of his work and an international reputation for his work with Artificial Hearts remodeling scars in hearts with laser therapy, stem cells and liquid matrices to build a program for heart recovery and regenerative medicine, using precision medicine, but more specifically metabolomics with new artificial intelligence platforms in cardiac surgery to change outcomes for the better. Dr. Khalpey is currently serving as an Associate Professor of surgery, medical imaging, physiological sciences, biomedical engineering, cell & molecular medicine, regenerative & translational medicine, and pharmacology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson, Arizona. He also serves as Co-Director of the Heart Transplant and Perfusion Science Programs, Director of the Mechanical Circulatory Support and Artificial Heart Programs, and Director of Robotic Mitral Valve Program in the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Banner University Medical Center. Furthermore, Dr. Khalpey is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University.

Dr. Khalpey was educated at the University of London, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude with his Medical Degree in 1998. He then gained his PhD in cardiothoracic surgery, bioenergetics, and cardiac transplantation from Imperial College London. Dr. Khalpey completed extensive postgraduate training in both the United Kingdom and the United States. In the United Kingdom, Dr. Khalpey was awarded a very prestigious Winston Churchill Medal for his research as well as a highly prestigious lifetime Hunterian Professorship from the Royal College of Surgeons of England, where he remains a member. His research training to end his PhD was completed at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, and Massachusetts General Hospital at Harvard in Boston. He then went on to finish his clinical general surgery residency and cardiothoracic heart surgery fellowship at the Brigham and Womens Hospital, also at Harvard in Boston. He went on to New York where he completed a Super-Fellowship in Heart Transplants and Mechanical Circulatory Support Therapies for Advanced Heart Failure, at New York Presbyterian Hospital at Columbia University. He is certified by the American Board of Thoracic Surgery, and has earned the coveted title of Fellow of the European Board of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery and Fellow of the American College of Surgeons.

Dr. Khalpey is a distinguished member of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, the American Academy of Regenerative Medicine and the Board of Regenerative Medicine. For his extensive expertise and important work, he has been awarded the prestigious Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Medical Sciences in Europe Award. Awards in the Fulbright Distinguished Chairs Program in Europe are viewed as among the most prestigious accolades in the Fulbright Scholar Program. Dr Khalpey holds the coveted Endowed Tony S. Marnell Sr. Chair in Cardiovascular Research at the University of Arizona for his metabolic and stem cell research within the surgical tissue and stem cell biobank he created. Furthermore, Dr. Khalpey is the surgical director of the Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenator Program, which is the only mobile ECMO service in the state of Arizona. Alongside his exceptional operative team of perfusionists and clinical fellows, Dr. Khalpey helped save NHL hockey player, Tucson Roadrunners Captain, Craig Cunninghams life after sudden cardiac arrest. Dr. Khalpey is the only person on the west coast who is routinely placing left ventricular assist devices (LVADS) through minimally invasive incisions, without the use of a bypass machine, and also strives to revolutionize organ transplantation. Dr. Khalpeys passion for what he does is unparalleled. He is renowned for his innovative and groundbreaking work, and has dedicated his life to providing the best solutions for his patients and community.

View Dr. Zain Khalpeys Profile Here:

https://www.findatopdoc.com/doctor/8137416-Zain-Khalpey-Cardiac-Surgeon-85755

Learn more about Dr. Khalpey here:

https://profiles.arizona.edu/person/zkhalpey and be sure to read his upcoming publication in The Leading Physicians of the World.

About FindaTopDoc.com

FindaTopDoc.com is a hub for all things medicine, featuring detailed descriptions of medical professionals across all areas of expertise, and information on thousands of healthcare topics. Each month, millions of patients use FindaTopDoc to find a doctor nearby and instantly book an appointment online or create a review. FindaTopDoc.com features each doctors full professional biography highlighting their achievements, experience, patient reviews and areas of expertise. A leading provider of valuable health information that helps empower patient and doctor alike, FindaTopDoc enables readers to live a happier and healthier life. For more information about FindaTopDoc, visit: http://www.findatopdoc.com

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Renowned Cardiothoracic Surgeon, Zain Khalpey, MD, PhD, FETCS, FACS will be Honorably Mentioned in The ... - PR NewsChannel (press release)

The Baylor College of Medicine Board of Trustees, Academic Council and Faculty Senate have approved a new Genetic Counseling Program, which will award a Master of Science degree through the School of Allied Health Sciences.

The two-year program prepares graduates to engage individuals and families who are at risk for, or affected by, conditions that may have a genetic cause. Genetic counselors provide information, facilitate understanding, identify support resources and explain genetic testing options for individuals in whom a genetic condition may be present. Genetic counselors educate families about the pros and cons of genetic testing, the possible outcomes, and when testing is desired, arrange testing and help interpret results.

In many stressful, complex and scary situations involving an individuals health and well-being, there is a discomfort in knowing what healthcare decisions to make, said Daniel Riconda, program director and associate professor of molecular and human genetics at Baylor College of Medicine. Genetic counselors often engage with families under moments of stress, duress and uncertainty. They respond to the patients needs in a sensitive and empathic manner. Genetic counselors foster families adjustment to the circumstances and allow them to adapt in the best way they can.

The Masters degree program is well positioned to leverage Baylors extraordinary strengths in genetics to train students in a dynamic clinical and research intensive environment. Baylor College of Medicines Department of Molecular and Human Genetics is ranked No. 1 in the country in National Institutes of Health funding.

As a health sciences university, Baylor College of Medicine values the role that each member of a patients healthcare team plays in providing care. It is an opportune time to add this important program to our portfolio of excellent training opportunities for the next generation of healthcare professionals, said Dr. Alicia Monroe, provost and senior vice president of academic and faculty affairs at Baylor College of Medicine.

The program will include foundational courses as well as clinical rotations throughout the Texas Medical Center and will allow students to sit for the American Board of Genetic Counseling Certification Exam upon completion of the program. The inaugural cohort for the program will consist of eight students.

Genetic Counseling is natural fit to our growing School of Allied Health Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine, which also includes a Physician Assistant Program, Doctor of Nursing Practice Program in Nurse Anesthesia and an Orthotics and Prosthetics Program, said Dr. Robert McLaughlin, dean of the School of Allied Health Sciences at Baylor. The new program builds on the national reputation our programs have earned for excellence and innovation.

Graduate programs in genetic counseling must be accredited by the Accreditation Council for Genetic Counseling (ACGC) before students enroll so that their graduates are eligible to take the American Board of Genetic Counseling certification exam. The Baylor College of Medicine Genetic Counseling Program is not yet accredited, but the required letter of intent to apply for accreditation to the ACGC was submitted in June 2017. An accreditation decision must be obtained before the March 15, 2018, deadline for programs to be eligible to enroll in the 2018 match that pairs each applicant to a program that student wishes to attend.

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Baylor to offer new genetic counseling degree program - Baylor College of Medicine News (press release)

Dr. Jurgi Camblong, CEO and Co-founder, SOPHiA GENETICS

Liquid biopsies are a growing area of interest for cancer diagnostics, offering a number of advantages over traditional methods. However, before more widespread adoption of these tools is seen in hospitals, there is a need for a more standardized approach to testing. One possible solution to help overcome this challenge, is SOPHiA, a recently introduced artificial intelligence platform.

To find out more about SOPHiA, the benefits it offers, and the role that AI could play in the future of healthcare, we spoke to Dr. Jurgi Camblong, CEO and co-founder of SOPHiA GENETICS.

Can you tell us about some of the advantages liquid biopsies offer over more traditional tissue biopsies?

Liquid biopsy is a new paradigm. Compared to tissue biopsies, liquid biopsies allow clinicians to perform analysis of solid tumors and hematological malignancies at various time points to detect tumor progression and monitor treatments effectiveness. Also, a liquid biopsy tends to be more accurate than a tissue biopsy as they offer a more comprehensive picture of the spread or remission of a cancer. To sum-up, liquid biopsies allow clinicians to have several different analyses run over time in one blood sample and adapt treatments accordingly. For patients, this new approach represents a faster and less invasive alternative to existing solutions.

What has been responsible for the lack of widespread adoption of liquid biopsies in the clinic so far?

The lack of a standardized accurate and unbiased analytical solution able to take into account low ctDNA levels has for a long time been the main significant barrier to the widespread adoption of liquid biopsies in hospitals.

Can you tell us a little about SOPHiAand how it can help overcome some of these limitations?

Our new application for liquid biopsy taps the analytical power of our artificial intelligence SOPHiA to help clinicians diagnose, treat, and monitor cancer earlier and more effectively by looking at circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) contained in patients liquid samples such as blood, urine, and cerebral spinal fluid. SOPHiA solves the existing challenges in liquid biopsy by offering a standardized DNA analysis approach to liquid biopsy testing, built upon the network of over 300 hospitals from 51 countries already using SOPHiA for genomic data analysis.

Even with low ctDNA levels, SOPHiA provides indispensable insights into tumors profiles, straight from liquid samples. Rather than waiting for months to detect changes on an imaging scan, SOPHiA allows clinicians to monitor a tumors progression with remarkable precision from a simple blood test. Faster and more accurate analysis eliminates undue anxiety resulting from biased answers and unclear response to heavy treatments, making regular status-checks less stressful and painful for patients. To facilitate the interpretation of all the genetic variants detected by SOPHiA in ctDNA, the analysis results are presented in the companys OncoPortal, an interface dedicated to solid tumors and hematological malignancies, which experts can access on the companys online analytical platform, SOPHiA DDM. OncoPortal flags associations between human gene variants, disease causality, progression, drug efficacy, and toxicity to help the clinicians better leverage the data analyzed by SOPHiA in order to provide personalized care to patients.

SOPHiA's application for liquid biopsies is also available for clinical trials, making it possible to identify the patients most likely to benefit from new treatments.

How important do you think Data-Driven Medicinewill be in the future of healthcare?

Thanks to AI, Data-Driven Medicine will play a key role to ensure treatments are targeted and personalized for each patient, building on the thousands of previous patient cases we will have analyzed. By 2020, our goal for SOPHiAis to have participated in diagnosing 1 million patients. By then, we should have succeeded in ensuring that patients get access to the best treatments, not based on clinical trials but rather building on evidence-based medicine.

Moving forward, SOPHiA will ultimately be used to target treatments, based on the value and benefits they have previously proven to bring to patients. In healthcare, SOPHiAalready participated in delivering on several milestones highlighted in President Obama Precision Medicine Initiative, i.e. connect hospitals, pool molecular data and share knowledge. To date, we have helped diagnose over 115,000 patients. The next step is now to expand our knowledge base and head towards a future of real time epidemiology. An era when we can monitor treatments almost real time within patients cohorts and where we will be able to say that one particular patients cancer is identical to 10,000 other patients, who had received treatment plan A and survived. SOPHiAGENETICS already put the infrastructure in place and democratized the approach. The next step is to have access to more and different types of data and metadata to expand our knowledge base and fully leverage SOPHiAAI technology for Data-Driven Medicine.

Next we spoke to Professor La Payen-Gay, co-investigator of the CIRCAN program at the Hospices Civils de Lyon Laboratory, to learn more about CIRCAN and the benefits that SOPHiAhas brought to the program.

Can you tell us about the CIRCAN program?

The CIRCAN (CIRculating CANcer) program is a comprehensive research program on liquid biopsy developed at the Hospices Civils of Lyon, with the support of the Cancer institute of the Hospices Civils of Lyon. Samples are collected within the framework of the CIRCAN study, which is a prospective and retrospective programs established to setup the analysis of circulating biomarkers. Primary and metastatic patients are included at diagnosis and during progression for NSCLC, colon cancer, etc. The program hosts Next Generation Sequencing, BEAMing and Digital PCR (BioRad) optimized for cfDNA analysis and circulating tumoral cells (CTCs).

How is SOPHiAbeing used in the program, and what benefits has it brought?

The Hospices Civils de Lyon, which is the second-oldest teaching hospital in France, is an early adopter of SOPHiAfor liquid biopsies. We use this cutting edge technology to analyze samples directly within the hospital after ctDNA has been sequenced. For us, SOPHiAmakes it easy to carry out a molecular profile for patients. It helps us find relevant models in certain cancers so that we locate mutations that can serve as predictive biomarkers to help us choose therapies. SOPHiAmakes it easier for us to detect multiple mutations from small fragments of ctDNA. We can run different analyses from one blood sample and personalize the treatment. This approach tends to be more accurate than a tissue biopsy, since the latter is just a sample from one area and not a full representation of a disease. It also reduces stress on patients and can lower costs by avoiding invasive biopsies and inappropriate drug choices.

How much of a role do you think artificial intelligence will play in the future of cancer diagnosis?

I think AI will play a key role to ensure treatments are targeted and personalized for each patient and oncology should be the first disease area to benefit from this technological advance.

Dr. Camblong and Professor Payen-Gay were speaking to Anna MacDonald, Editor for Technology Networks.

You can find out more from @JurgiCamblong and @SOPHiAGENETICS

Excerpt from:

Data-Driven Medicine: The Role of AI in Cancer Diagnostics - Technology Networks (blog)

The human immune system has a built in failsafe to ensure that we dont normally produce antibodies that attack our own tissues. The failsafe, known as immune tolerance, ensures that any B cells that might produce self-reactive broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs) are eliminated in the bone marrow, or if the B cells do reach the circulation they are suppressed so that they cant mature into antibody-secreting plasma cells.

Work in mice by a team at the University of Colorado School of Medicine now suggests that human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1) exploits immune tolerance to prevent the production of broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs) that can target the viral Env protein and destroy the virus, because the same antibodies would also recognize epitopes on the bodys own histone H2A. The team, led by Raul M. Torres, Ph.D., professor of immunology and microbiology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, has found that mice with weakened immune tolerance due genetic defects or drug treatment readily produce broadly neutralizing antibodies that can eliminate multiple strains of HIV-1.

We think this may reflect an example of molecular mimicry where HIV-1 Env has evolved to mimic an epitope on histone H2A as a mechanism of immune camouflage," Prof. Torres suggests.

Human patients with the autoimmune disorder systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) are known to demonstrate a lower incidence of HIV-1 infection, and this is thought to be because they produce self-reactive antibodies that can also neutralize HIV-1. To investigate this a bit further in a mouse model, Dr. Torres team looked first at animals with a genetic defect that causes symptoms similar to SLE. When the animals were injected with alum, an adjuvant used in vaccines to trigger antibody secretion, they started to produce antibodies that neutralize HIV-1.

Production of antibodies that could neutralize HIV-1 was also associated with increased levels of a self-reactive antibody targeting histone H2A. autoimmune-prone strains of mice treated with alum produce HIV-1neutralizing anti-bodies, and this activity correlates with increased anti-H2A IgM autoantibody titers, the authors note in their published paper in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, which is titled Breaching Peripheral Tolerance Promotes the Production of HIV-1Neutralizing Antibodies.

The researchers then treated normal mice using pristane, a drug that impairs immunological tolerance. The pristane-treated animals also started to produce antibodies that could neutralize some strains of HIV-1. Production of these antibodies was increased further when the pristine-treated mice were injected with the alum adjuvant. And when the animals were then injected with the HIV-1 protein Env, they started to produce potent bnAbs that were able to neutralize a broad range of HIV-1 strains.

Again, the production of HIV-1 neutralizing antibodies correlated with increased levels of the self-reactive anti-histone H2A antibodies, which the researchers purified, and confirmed were able to neutralize HIV-1.

Here, using lupus prone mouse models, we confirm that immunological tolerance indeed limits wild-type B cells from producing Env-specific antibodies able to neutralize tier 2 HIV-1 strains, the authors conclude. We extend these findings by further formally demonstrating that a breach in peripheral tolerance can lead to the production of HIV-1neutralizing antibodies in mice with wild-type immune systems.

Prof. Torres stresses that his teams work was carried out in an animal model, and more research will need to investigate whether the findings are relevant to HIV immunity in humans. Studies will need to determine whether it is possible to transiently relax immunological tolerance so that HIV-1 bnAb production can be triggered through vaccination, but without causing autoimmune side effects. It is not clear that relaxing tolerance is a path for promoting humoral immunity to HIV, Dr. Torres told GEN. Ongoing work in the lab is to attempt to transiently break peripheral tolerance in mouse models and to monitor autoantibody production, the ability of treated mice to mount a neutralizing HIV antibody response, and whether tolerance is reinstated after treatment.

It has been more commonly thought that similarities between a pathogen and a cross-reactive self-antigen represent the basis for certain autoimmune diseases, Dr. Torres further points out. That is, upon infection, the immune response generates antibodies against the pathogen but that these can also recognize self-antigens and ultimately may lead to autoimmunity. However, there are a number of examples in which an antibody against a particular pathogen also cross-reacts with a self-antigen and, thus, in these cases it may very well be that these represent examples of immune camouflage by the pathogen. Whether this similarity represents evolution by the pathogen to escape tolerance is difficult to determine.

Dr. Torres cites examples, including infections by Streptococcus pyogenes, in which antibodies against two strep antigens, M protein and N-acetyl-D-glucosamine (GlcNAc), also cross-react with a cardiac protein, host myosin. And in EpsteinBarr virus (EBV) infection, antibodies against the viral EpsteinBarr nuclear antigen 1 (EBNA-1) antigen also cross-react with Smith self-antigen, a nuclear protein.

Read more here:

HIV's Molecular Mimicry Exploits Immune Tolerance to Halt Antibody Attack - Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News

July 10, 2017 by Becky Freemal After a stroke, each patient faces a unique path to recovery a precision medicine approach could help them receive better, customized care. Credit: Virginia Tech

Studying human diseases is the equivalent of solving a massive and dynamic jigsaw puzzle with pieces that are constantly changing shape.

A team of researchers from the Nutritional Immunology and Molecular Medicine Laboratory (NIMML), a leading laboratory at the Biocomplexity Institute of Virginia Tech, and the Department of Biomedical and Translational Informatics at Geisinger Health System are now working together to find precise methods to treat stroke patients using computer algorithms, clinical data, and advanced computational methods.

In a new study, the collaborative team of experts has developed new computational methods to stratify stroke patients in an emergency setting, paving the way to data-driven triage process with higher fidelity.

"Advanced machine-learning methods will be driving the next generation of personalized medicine at the clinical and genomic levels; however, these methods and their outcomes will have an added value if we let models actively learn from experts and experts learn from models. Our team has applied AI successfully to develop a data-driven triage process for classifying stroke patients. Ongoing collaborative studies are also applying these same AI methods successfully in infectious and immune-mediated diseases," said Vida Abedi, a researcher at Geisinger Health System and adjunct faculty member in NIMML.

The rich, longitudinal data warehouse of the Geisinger Health System has detailed electronic health records with tens of millions of legacy clinical data and more than 3 million active participants. This data is one of the major strengths that allowed Geisinger to be selected to participate in the national Precision Medicine Initiative Cohort Program with the goal of improving the ability to prevent and treat diseases based on individual differences in lifestyle, environment, and genetics.

"My resolve to implement a revolutionary vision for precision medicine is the driving force that defines and underpins this successful collaboration. As opposed to the one-size-fits-all approach that dominates health care today, by focusing on a unique iterative integration of large-scale clinical record mining using new AI systems, informatics analyses, and computer modeling, NIMML and Geisinger Health System are partnering effectively to make tangible progress toward the personalized, individual treatment of human diseases," said Josep Bassaganya-Riera, director of NIMML and CEO of BioTherapeutics.

At its core, AI is a complex computer algorithm that replaces the traditional rule-based strategy with a data-driven approach capable of learning from positive and negative experiences. AI algorithms are driving the future of precision medicine and provide better health-care support for diverse and dynamic patient populations.

On average, the electronic health records of a four-year patient contains about 32 petabytes of data. The application of AI in medicine will leverage the volume and exponential growth of clinical data to translate clinical information into new unforeseen insights for safer, more-effective and cost-efficient personalized healthcare.

Explore further: Researchers target gene to treat inflammatory bowel disease

More information: Vida Abedi et al. Novel Screening Tool for Stroke Using Artificial Neural Network, Stroke (2017). DOI: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.117.017033

Journal reference: Stroke

Provided by: Virginia Tech

Contracting shingles, a reactivation of the chickenpox virus, increases a person's risk of stroke and heart attack, according to a research letter published today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

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Artificial intelligence aids research to find best treatment for stroke patients - Medical Xpress

As a poor youngster staring at a dead-end future in Mexico, Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa would often lay on the roof of his ramshackle home to dream of a brighter future.

Not even he dared dream his life would become this compelling.

Affectionately known as "Dr. Q," Quinones-Hinojosa recently was hired to be Mayo Clinic's chairman of neurologic surgery at its expanding Florida campus while leading federal research to cure brain cancer.

And, after long consideration, he's also given Disney the green light to turn his life story into a movie.

Expectations are high for the dramatic version of Dr. Q's life, especially since Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment's credits includes "12 Years A Slave," "Moonlight," "Selma" and "The Departed," among other blockbusters. The script is expected to be completed by the end of 2017 and it may hit theaters by the end of 2018.

'Knew something good would happen'

While it won't be a true documentary, the truth appears to need little embellishment.

"I used to go to the roof of my house and look at the stars I knew something good was going to happen," Dr. Q said last week by phone from Florida. "There's a lot of people who immigrate to the U.S., but there's not very many who came from nothing to be where (I am) today. That's the story of the American dream, right?"

It's a timely topic with unambiguous political overtones. The Trump administration has cracked down on immigration and increased deportation efforts, which has raised the profile of sanctuary cities across the country.

Dr. Q entered this country illegally, and while he is now a U.S. citizen, it's an open question whether he would have been allowed to reach his current heights in today's politicized climate. As an 18-year-old who jumped a border fence to enter the United States in 1988, he didn't speak English, had no immigration paperwork and was essentially broke.

His first few years were spent in the fields as a migrant worker, earning enough money to learn English at a California community college. He overcame those obstacles to earn an academic scholarship at UC-Berkeley in 1991.

Three years later, his unusual ascent saw him enroll at Harvard, paving the way for him to become a brain surgeon.

'Real people who are changing the world'

The rags-to-riches immigrant story first caught the attention of Plan B's studio execs way back in 2007, while Dr. Q was Professor of Neurosurgery and Oncology, Neurology, and Cellular and Molecular Medicine and Director of the Brain Tumor Stem Cell Laboratory at Johns Hopkins. Jeremy Kleiner, who is now Plan B's co-president with Pitt, made his initial pitch to Dr. Q in 2007.

Dr. Q spent the next eight years respectfully declining Kleiner's periodic overtures. He finally reconsidered after seeing "12 Years A Slave," which won best picture at the 2015 Oscars.

"The world has a tremendous appetite for real stories," Dr. Q said. "I always tell people, 'I'm not an expert on immigration, I'm an expert on brain cancer and brain surgery.' Why my story resonates is we need stories of real people who are changing the world.

"I'm not a fancy person. I still take the trash out of my house and my kids always make fun of me because I know a lot about very little. At the end of the day, I'm just a regular guy but my patients may think differently. They put their lives in my hands."

While filmmakers have been chasing Dr. Q's story for about a decade, Mayo Clinic's pursuit is actually longer. He turned down a 2005 job offer at Mayo's Rochester campus to work at Johns Hopkins.

Dr. Q's decision this April to join the Mayo system finally! was hailed as "a coup" by Gianrico Farrugia, CEO of Mayo's Jacksonville campus. His arrival coincides with a $100 million expansion project, aimed at making Jacksonville a destination medical center for that part of the country and Latin America.

Construction is expected to start later this year on buildings to improve services for complex cancer patients and those seeking neurologic or neurosurgical care. That all falls under Dr. Q's purview.

"Any place in the world would be pleased to have him coming," Farrugia told the Florida-Times Union. "It's a real coup to have him coming to Florida. I think he will have a remarkable impact on Jacksonville."

Forbes has named Dr. Q one of the most creative Mexicans in the world, while Popular Science has also dubbed him among the "Brilliant Ten" for his cancer research. The prestigious William J. and Charles H. Mayo Professor also presented May 18 at Tedx Zumbro River at Autumn Ridge Church in Rochester about his quest to use stem cells to fight brain cancer.

While collaborating daily on an upcoming Disney movie that figures to make him a household name, Dr. Q's says he feels a particular kinship with Mayo due to its humble origins.

"They (Mayo Clinic's founders) went out in the middle of cornfields and built something that is unimaginable," Dr. Q said. "I came and basically went to work in the fields in California. I picked corn when I first came in 1987. I relate so much and in so many ways that I feel I have so many things in common with this amazing institution."

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'That's the story of the American Dream, right?' - Post-Bulletin

If you had to name the branch of university research that has the most tangible impact on mankind's day-to-day activities, it is likely that the life sciences would be near the top of the list: notmany days go by without the announcement of a new drug or gene discovery that has the potential to change lives or tackle disease.

Much of the best research in these fields takes place in the ultra-elite universities that excel in subjects across the board.

But analysis byTimes Higher Education of the institutions that make up the World University Rankings reveals that there is a cluster of institutions just below this elite that areparticularly strong in the life sciences and in driving forward innovation.

The 120 "life science challengers"tend to pitch much higher in the subject rankings related to clinical research and life sciences, as might be expected, with the bulk of them achieving overall scores in the middle to upper ranges (see below).

However, they also perform very strongly in terms of the citation impact of their research, something that can be credited to their excelling in fields where journal article activity is key. Unlike the "technology challengers"(another cluster in the rankings), they also tend to be older universities, with few having been established less than 50 years ago.

Beyond these similarities though, the factors that drive the individual successes of the institutions are varied. In some cases excellent strategic decisions taken by the university are a factor; in others the local or regional ecosystem for research plays a part.

Sweden, which has five institutions in the list (headed by the medical research specialist Karolinska Institute), is one example where the ecosystem for life sciences appears to be a key factor.

Ulf Landegren, professor of molecular medicine at Uppsala University, another of the Swedish institutions in the list, said that the country had historically excelled in many life science fields, but that it was now taking its performance to another level with the help of collaborative programmes. The Science for Life Laboratory is one such programme government-funded, it is based in Uppsala and also in Stockholm.

The SciLifeLab, as it is known, allows researchers from across Sweden to use cutting-edge and often expensive technology without paying for the privilege (apart from the costs of disposables used in lab work). Companies and scientists based outside Sweden can also use the facilities, but must face the full cost of doing so.

Professor Landegren, who was heavily involved in setting up Uppsalas SciLifeLab site, said the effect of the scheme has been that Swedish scientists now have ready access to advanced techniques that they may not themselves have the economy or the skills to set up.

Increasingly we see that life science is going the way of physics, in that technology is getting a little too expensive and complicated for individuals to have all the resources they need to answer their research questions so you might as well centralise it, he explained.

He added that as well as making generic technology and techniques available to all Swedish scientists, SciLifeLab went a stage further by also identifying emerging beyond state-of-the-art approaches to research and capitalising on them before they spread to other countries and universities.

Access to expensive technology and the latest techniques is a theme carried across to other institutions that make the list.

Ross Coppel, director of research in the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at Australia's Monash University, puts its success down to past strategic decisions to invest properly in the best academic staff and equipment, but also to the skilled technicians who operate facilities.

He said universities research strategies are often very similar and it [success] comes down to your capacity to implement and execute your vision. I think we were in the fortunate position of having the financial resource to do it [and] the determination to do it and its worked out for us very well.

On the role of technicians, he said Monash had focused on their field being a career path in its own right, with good job security and benefits. In return, in terms of testing new techniques and advancing research technology, we look to them also to be pushing the boundaries of what is achievable", explained Professor Coppel.

Beyond smaller research nations like Sweden and Australia, the life science challengers cluster is dominated by institutions in the US and UK.

With 35 institutions of the 120 (the UK has 24), the US is out in front, with a number ofprivate institutions excelling in research.Here, the unique position that some American universities occupy having strong ties to hospitals and the general healthcare system is an obvious explanation for their success.

Emory University in Atlanta, for instance, is behind the state of Georgias biggest healthcare system not-for-profit Emory Healthcare while the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has its headquarters adjacent to the university's campus. This geographic proximity between researchers and the practical application of their findings has obvious collaborative benefits.

But the university is also keen to stress the importance of its global reach through its success in spinning out research into the healthcare market and its academic links overseas.

David Stephens, vice-president for research at Emory, said that the institution had "realised its greatest success in commercialising research discoveries in the field of infectious diseases. For example, nine out of 10 US HIV/Aids patients, and thousands more globally, are on life-saving drugs discovered at Emory".

Meanwhile, an effect of its international collaborations can be seen in the recent joint set-up with the University of Queensland another life science challenger institution of a multimillion-dollar biotech company developing cancer treatments.

simon.baker@timeshighereducation.com

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Which universities are pushing the boundaries in life sciences? - Times Higher Education (THE)

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OHIO CITY The Ohio City Park Association and the Lambert Days Committee has finalized plans for the 2017 festival.

Lambert Days is always the third full weekend in July. This years dates are July 21-23. This is also the 50th anniversary of Ohio Citys celebration of the life of John W. Lambert and his invention of Americas first automobile.

This years edition of Lambert Days will feature a communitywide garage sale. For more information, contact Laura Morgan at 419.965.2515. There will also be food all weekend in the newly renovated Community Building on Ohio 118.

Friday, July 21

Festivities start off with a steak dinner (carryout is available), starting at 4 p.m. Friday. Ohio Citys American LegionHarvey Lewis Post 346 will have aflag-raising ceremony at 5 Friday evening, while kids games and inflatables will also open at 5. At 6 p.m., the Lambert Days Wiffleball Homerun Derby will take place. For more information, contactLorenzo Frye 419.771.7037.

There will also be entertainment at 6 p.m. featuring Cass Blue. At 7, there will be a adult Wiffleball tournament. For more information, contact Brian Bassett419.203.8203. A Texas Hold em Tournament will begin at 7 p.m. Friday, along with Monte Carlo Night, which begins at 8 p.m. For more information, contact Jeff Agler at 419.513.0580.

Entertainment for Friday night starts at 8 and will be the band Colt & Crew. There will also be a fireworks display at 10:15 p.m. Friday (Saturday night is the rain date).

Saturday, July 22

Saturday morning begins with a softball tournament at 8. For more information, contact Brian Bassettat 419.203.8203. There will also be a coed volleyball tournament that starts at 9 a.m. Saturday. For more information, contact Tim Matthews at 419.203.2976. The Lambert Days Kids Wiffleball Tournament starts at 10 a.m. Saturday. For more information, contact Lorenzo Frye at 419.771.7037.

Kids games and Inflatables continue at 11 Saturday morning. Cornhole tournament registration and 3-on-3 basketball tournament registration start at noon, while both tournaments begin at 1 p.m. For more information on cornhole, contact Josh Agler at 567.259.9941 and for 3-on-3 basketball, contact Scott Bigham at 419.953.9511.

The Hog Roast Dinner starts at 4 p.m. Saturday and carryout is available. There will also be music under the tent by Jeff Unterbrink at 4. Bingo will start at 5 p.m., and the night ends with entertainment by Megan White and Cadillac Ranch.

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Levitra professional mail order telephone number - Cheap generic levitra professional - Van Wert independent

UC Davis announced last week the recipients of nine proof-of-concept grants totaling $328,000 for campus innovators to advance their research and technologies toward commercialization.

These grants and the associated review process are managed by UCD Venture Catalyst through the Science Translation and Innovative Research, or STAIR, grant program, which is in its fourth year, and the newly launched Data, Informatics and Application Launch, or DIAL, grant program.

It remains the responsibility of public universities like UC Davis, to fulfill their societal mission of generating impact from research, by facilitating the translation of faculty and student research into meaningful products and services that enrich the human experience, said Dushyant Pathak, associate vice chancellor for research and executive director of Venture Catalyst.

Through our successful STAIR grant program and the newly launched DIAL grants, we are enabling our most innovative campus researchers to map a more effective path from their scientific and engineering breakthroughs to the commercial sphere.

STAIR grant recipients The STAIR grant program provides awards of up to $50,000 per grant recipient to help campus innovators demonstrate proof-of-concept and commercial feasibility of their technologies. A total of 30 applications were received this year.

Six award recipients were selected to receive grants following a multistage review process involving external industry experts, investors and entrepreneurs that evaluated each application based on its market potential, technical merit and ability to achieve identified commercialization milestones with the funds requested.

This years STAIR grant recipients are:

* Johnathon Anderson, assistant professor, Stem Cell Research Program: Anderson and his team have developed a novel drug candidate platform for inflammatory diseases that offers the beneficial aspects of stem cell therapeutics with fewer hurdles to clinical development.

* Paul Henderson, associate adjunct professor, department of internal medicine: Henderson and his team are developing an add-on chemotherapy drug that increases the effectiveness of existing treatment regimens for advanced bladder cancer. Their innovation, an orally bioavailable drug, combines anti-inflammatory and anti-angiogenic properties.

* Lee Miller, associate professor, Center for Mind and Brain: Miller and his team have developed a powerful electroencephalogram diagnostic that provides a rapid and comprehensive assessment of the functional health of the auditory system, including how speech is processed at different levels and how these levels interact. Their innovation is expected to enable individualized assessments of hearing loss and improve the performance of assistive listening devices.

* David Olson, assistant professor, department of chemistry: Olson and his team have discovered how to decouple the beneficial effects of neuroplasticity-promoting compounds from their deleterious hallucinogenic and psychostimulant effects in order to develop more effective drug therapies for various neurological disorders.

* Lin Tian, assistant professor, department of biochemistry and molecular medicine: Tian and her team have developed a novel technology for drug discovery involving G-protein-coupled receptors. Their innovation directly tackles GPCR confrontational dynamics in living cells and organisms, providing a novel platform for rigorous high-throughput cell-based screening and validation.

* Yu-Jui (Yvonne) Wan, vice chair for research, department of pathology and laboratory medicine: Wan and her team are developing a bio-encapsulation process using yeast to deliver retinoic acid and a short-chain fatty acid with histone deacetylase inhibitory properties that benefit the liver and intestine offering the potential to help prevent and treat metabolic-associated diseases and cancer.

DIAL grant recipients The DIAL grant program is a pilot program structured similarly to the STAIR grant program, which targets commercial opportunities in software, informatics and data science.

This program is enabled by funding provided by the State of California under Assembly Bill AB 2664. Passed in 2016, this legislation authorizes one-time funding of $2.2 million to each of the 10 University of California campuses with the objective of expanding innovation and entrepreneurship programs on each campus.

Three DIAL grant recipients were selected following a review process modeled on the STAIR grant program, based on each projects market potential, technical merit and ability to achieve identified commercialization milestones with the funds requested.

The DIAL grant award recipients are:

* Petr Janata, professor, department of psychology: Janata has invented an online platform that allows users to document and share personal memories they associate with specific pieces of music.

Janatas technology platform leverages his research in the field of cognitive neuroscience and the psychology of music to enable a number of life enriching applications linking music, memory and interpersonal interactions.

* Nelson Max, distinguished professor, department of computer science: Max and his team have developed a novel system for use in emergency response training where emergency scenarios can be added to real world environments. His invention uses a quadcopter camera that will add computer-generated artificial reality graphic image components to a computer screen.

* Lisa Miller, professor, department of anatomy, physiology & cell biology: Miller and her team have invented a gaming app to teach nutrition concepts, practice food-choice skills, build nutritional literacy and promote healthy behavior-change in adults to combat poor dietary habits.

UC Davis News

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Campus innovators receive grants to advance research - Davis Enterprise