Little Things Do Make A Big Difference: Globalizing Personal Health

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In a world where nearly 4 billion people lack access to basic health care, the need for mobile testing using simple methods such as a single drop of blood could have momentous impacts on care. The level of individualized, near real-time care could become a reality in the developing world, as well as in many remote areas of the industrialized world. Anita Goel, M.D., Ph.D., a Harvard-MIT-trained physicist and physician, claims, technologies like our Gene-RADAR are emerging from the new field of nanobiophysics which will mobilize, personalize, and decentralize the next generation of health infrastructure, exponentially increasing access on a global scale.

Although there are significant gaps in health care around the world, there is no lack of technology in the health sector. Gene-RADAR is an iPad-sizedmobile diagnostic platform that works off of a drop of blood or saliva to deliver a real-time diagnosis ata price point makers claim are 10 to 100 times cheaper than conventional tests.

Gene-RADAR

Decentralizing Health Care

When Google was launched in 1998 it revolutionized the world and our access to knowledge about the world, by taking books, manuscripts, music, general history and information out of libraries, and into homes, information began to decentralize immediately. Like that ground-breaking endeavor, Gene-RADAR has the ability to be the first mobile device that can test for diabetes, tuberculosis, AIDS, HIV, E.Coli and even certain types of cancer in under an hour. The ability, domestically and abroad, for individuals and providers to know this information without the US-based four-walled hospital could fundamentally transform the way we understand and practice medicine.

In the United States however, this means that we must prepare the ecosystem for the kinds of shocks that could result from unleashing this kind of technology. Further, it means understanding and harnessing the power of such technology that intersects physics, nanotechnology and information technology. When there are critical gaps and limitations to what can be done in silos, the need for combining these kinds of technologies and innovations is paramount. Gene-RADAR integration means that potentially the unmet need for diagnosis is not only in the hands of those who need it, but that the costs also plummet.

Unmet Need Meets Customization

Empowering individuals to take responsibility for their own health care begins with access. By bringing Gene-RADAR to individuals, Dr. Goel believes that consumers will be more empowered to take ownership over their own health. Further, both industrialized nations and developing countries can benefit from increased access and quality of care.

Currently, Gene-RADAR is custom building apps for customers in both the developed and developing worlds and have already designed two pilot studies to run simultaneously in a large US hospital system and in Rwanda.

In the United States, Nanobiosyms goal is to use Gene-RADAR to demonstrate a mobile cost-effective and real-time solution to cut costs while delivering better patient care. This also enables the next generation of pharma, and how these changes will impact the way Americans are diagnosed and treated. What makes Gene-RADAR special, says Dr. Goel, is thatthe applications behind the platform are extremely flexible, and therefore can be customized for each partners needs, accommodating their nuances such as the user group who will be tested, the disease targets and even the site location.

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Little Things Do Make A Big Difference: Globalizing Personal Health

A highway runs through it: Mountain lions in southern California face genetic decay

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

8-Oct-2014

Contact: Holly Ernest hernest@uwyo.edu 307-766-6605 University of California - Davis @ucdavis

Cut off by freeways and human development, mountain lions in southern California are facing a severe loss of genetic diversity, according to a new study led by the University of California, Davis in partnership with The Nature Conservancy.

The study, published today in the journal PLOS ONE, represents the largest genetic sampling of mountain lions, or pumas, in southern California. It raises concerns about the current status of mountain lions in the Santa Ana and Santa Monica mountains, as well as the longer-term outlook for mountain lions across southern California.

UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine scientists collected and analyzed DNA samples from 354 mountain lions statewide, including 97 from southern California. Pumas in the Santa Ana Mountains displayed lower genetic diversity than those from nearly every other region in the state.

Santa Ana mountain lions show dramatic genetic isolation and have less in common with their neighbors in the Santa Monica Mountains than with those in the Sierra Nevada, underscoring the increasing seclusion of pumas in southern California.

The Santa Ana Mountain range, located south of Los Angeles and north of San Diego, is surrounded by urbanization and a growing population of about 20 million people. A small habitat linkage to the southeast connects pumas to the Peninsular Range, but it is bisected by Interstate 15 -- a busy 10-lane highway -- and associated human development. The study highlights the urgency to maintain and enhance the little connectivity remaining for coastal mountain lions, particularly across I-15.

The study also showed that the Santa Ana pumas recently went through a "population bottleneck," when the population's size sharply decreased to a fraction of its original size.

"The genetic samples give us a clear indication that there was a genetic bottleneck in the last 80 or so years," said lead author Holly Ernest, a professor with the Karen C. Drayer Wildlife Health Center and the Veterinary Genetic Laboratory at UC Davis at the time of the study. She is now a professor at the University of Wyoming, Laramie. "That tells us it's not just natural factors causing this loss of genetic diversity. It's us people impacting these environments."

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A highway runs through it: Mountain lions in southern California face genetic decay

Gene Therapy Shows Potential for 'Bubble Boy' Disease

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Amy Norton HealthDay Reporter Posted: Thursday, October 9, 2014, 5:00 AM

(HealthDay News) -- A new form of gene therapy may offer a safe and effective way to treat "bubble boy" disease -- a severe immune deficiency that is fatal unless treated in infancy.

Researchers have long known that gene therapy can cure the disease, known medically as severe combined immunodeficiency, or SCID. Over a decade ago, trials in Europe showed that gene therapy worked -- but five of the 20 children treated developed leukemia (a type of cancer) within two to five years, according to background information in the study.

In the new trial, reported in the Oct. 9 New England Journal of Medicine, researchers refined the gene therapy approach to hopefully negate the leukemia risk.

Eight of nine children who received the therapy are still alive one to three years later, the investigators report. And so far, none has developed leukemia.

It's too early to say the therapy carries no leukemia risk, cautioned researcher Dr. David Williams, a pediatric hematologist/oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Boston Children's Hospital.

"We'll continue to follow these children for 15 years," Williams said.

But based on the early results, he noted, the tweaked gene therapy appears as effective at generating a functional immune system as the earlier form of treatment.

SCID refers to a group of rare genetic disorders that all but eliminate the immune system, according to the Immune Deficiency Foundation (IDF). That leaves children at high risk of severe infections.

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Gene Therapy Shows Potential for 'Bubble Boy' Disease

Gene therapy shows promise for severe combined immunodeficiency

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

8-Oct-2014

Contact: Hillary Hoffman hillary.hoffman@nih.gov 301-402-1663 NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases @NIAIDNews

Researchers have found that gene therapy using a modified delivery system, or vector, can restore the immune systems of children with X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID-X1), a rare, life-threatening inherited condition that primarily affects boys. Previous efforts to treat SCID-X1 with gene therapy were initially successful, but approximately one-quarter of the children developed leukemia two to five years after treatment. Results from a study partially funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), suggest that the new vector is equally effective at restoring immunity and may be safer than previous approaches.

In SCID-X1, mutations in a specific gene prevent the development of infection-fighting T cells. The standard therapy for SCID is transplantation of blood-forming stem cells, but some patients lack a suitable donor. In gene therapy, doctors remove stem cells from the patient's bone marrow, use a vector to insert a corrected gene and then return the corrected cells to the patient. Scientists suspect that the vectors used in earlier studies may have activated genes that control cell growth, contributing to leukemia.

In the current study, nine boys with SCID-X1 underwent gene therapy using a vector engineered by the study researchers. Seven boys developed functional T cells at levels comparable to those seen in previous studies and have remained healthy for one to three years after treatment. Analyses of the children's T cells suggest that the new vector causes fewer genomic changes that could be linked to leukemia. Researchers will continue to monitor the boys for leukemia development. Of the two other boys, one died of a pre-existing viral infection shortly after receiving the therapy, and one failed to develop corrected T cells and was given a stem cell transplant from an unrelated donor.

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ARTICLE:

S Hacein-Bey-Abina, S-Y Pai et al. A modified y-retrovirus vector for X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency. New England Journal of Medicine DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1404588 (2014).

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Gene therapy shows promise for severe combined immunodeficiency

Future of the Auto Industry, electric vehicles, hydrogen cars, robots – Futurist Keynote – Video

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Future of the Auto Industry, electric vehicles, hydrogen cars, robots - Futurist Keynote
Future of the Auto Industry: Summary of key messages in keynote on auto industry trends and future of cars by Futurist Patrick Dixon, for event held by the National Auto Auctions Association...

By: Patrick Dixon Futurist Keynote Speaker for Industry Conference

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Future of the Auto Industry, electric vehicles, hydrogen cars, robots - Futurist Keynote - Video

The Freedom Zone 2014: The future of the BBC. Should the licence fee be scrapped? – Video

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The Freedom Zone 2014: The future of the BBC. Should the licence fee be scrapped?
Andrew Allison (Campaign Manager, Freedom Association), Dave Atherton (Chairman, Freedom2Choose), Andrew Bridgen MP, Alex Deane CC (Managing Director of Public Affairs, FTI Consulting), ...

By: tfa4freedom

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The Freedom Zone 2014: The future of the BBC. Should the licence fee be scrapped? - Video

Episode 3

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The IRS letters that went out to politically-active nonprofit groups in 2010 and kicked up a House investigation two years later have fallen out of the headlines but they just might be havingan impact on this year's midterms.

Billionaire oil executives David and Charles Koch are now relying on Freedom Partners Action Fund, a new super-PAC, to run political commercials, while their nonprofit,Americans for Prosperity, has gone dark.

The shift in television ad buying occurred on Sept. 5, which was precisely60 days from the general election and a date that triggers additional disclosure rules for nonprofits such as AFP. The group did air political advertisements within that 60-day window in 2012, funding950 network and national cable spots in House and Senate races and 2,208 spots in the presidential, according to Kantar Media's CMAG data. Of course, that was before the Internal Revenue Service letters scrutinizing the political activity of so-called charitable groups and ensuing scandal became public.

By shifting ad spending to a super-PAC, the Kochs won'tneed to worry about whether the IRS decides to amend disclosure rules, impose new limits on campaign-related activities or if any of the ongoing legal battles trigger changes. "All these groups have to consider what that IRS might construe as political," said David Keating, the president of the Center for Competitive Politics, a conservative organization that is challenging campaign finance regulations.

The IRS flap was a "minor factor" in the decision to shift roles, according to a source familiar with AFP. Another driver, according to the source, was a reassessment of strategy after taking electoral losses in 2012 that included spending money earlier in the election cycle.

The move also puts the best-known Koch group further from thepublic eyeat least for the time-being. The Koch brothers have come under withering attacks from the left, with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid excoriating them as "un-American" from the Senate floor while theAFL-CIO has launched a media campaign focused on "The Koch" sisterstwo women who are supposed to represent a counter-point to David and Charles Koch.

We'll continue with a strong push through the elections.

James Davis, Freedom Partners Action Fund

http://origin-www.bloomberg.com/politics/graphics/2014-election-ads/senateMap.html?Sponsor=Americans%20for%20Prosperity&Air%20Date=Jan%20%207%20-%20Sep%2030&

Freedom Partners Action Fund began appearing on disclaimers for television spots in Arkansas, Iowa and Oregon on Sept. 5, according theCMAG data. That dayAFP, which ran ads for most of this year, pulleddown all of their commercials, the data shows.

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Episode 3