Genetic Tricks Could Make Bionic Ears Hear Better

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A CT scan showing a cochlear implant in the left ear of a guinea pig. Image: UNSW Australia Biological Resources Imaging Laboratory, NationalImaging Facility of Australia, and UNSW TranslationalNeuroscience Facility

Scientists have devised a strategy they hope will one day make bionic ears even sharper. The idea is to make neurons inside the ear sprout new branches and become more sensitive to signals from a cochlear implant.

The cochlear implant is arguably the most successful bionic device ever invented. More than 200,000 people with severe hearing loss have received one, allowing them to understand speech and hear things like barking dogs and fire alarms. But theres plenty of room for improvement.

Pitch perception is not so good, and that impacts music appreciation and hearing in a complex environment like a noisy room, said Gary Housley, a physiologist and neuroscientist at the University of New South Wales in Australia, and the senior author of a new study out today in Science Translational Medicine.

To appreciate what Housleys team did, you have to picture whats going on inside the inner ear. The bony, spiral cochlea is where sound waves get translated into the electrical language of neurons. Its essentially a coiled tube. The implant is thin like a wire, and it has an array of electrodes along its length. Surgeons thread it into the tube of the cochlea.A microphone worn on the ear converts sound into electrical signals and transmits them to the implant, thereby stimulating the auditory nerve directly and bypassing whatever part of the persons own hearing apparatus has broken down.

A cross section of the spiral tube of the cochlea shows the auditory nerve reaching up through the center. Image: Grays Anatomy, via WikiCommons

But a lot of information gets lost in the communication between the implant and the nerve.

Housley thinks one important reason is that in people with severe hearing loss, auditory nerve fibers degenerate and shrink into the bony core of the cochlea, farther away from the implant.

To try to overcome this communication breakdown, Housleys team borrowed some tricks from genetic engineering. We refer to it as closing the neural gap, he said.

Work by other scientists had suggested that growth factorschemicals that encourage neurons to grow new branchescouldimprove the performance of implants in lab animals. These studies used viruses to deliver genes encoding the growth factors, but Housleys team tried another strategy they think could be more precise.

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Genetic Tricks Could Make Bionic Ears Hear Better

Genome Editing

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Above: The genomes of these twin infant macaques were modified with multiple mutations.

The ability to create primates with intentional mutations could provide powerful new ways to study complex and genetically baffling brain disorders.

The use of a genome-tool to create two monkeys with specific genetic mutations.

The ability to modify targeted genes in primates is a valuable tool in the study of human diseases.

By Christina Larson

Until recently, Kunming, capital of Chinas southwestern Yunnan province, was known mostly for its palm trees, its blue skies, its laid-back vibe, and a steady stream of foreign backpackers bound for nearby mountains and scenic gorges. But Kunmings reputation as a provincial backwater is rapidly changing. On a plot of land on the outskirts of the citywilderness 10 years ago, and today home to a genomic research facilityscientists have performed a provocative experiment. They have created a pair of macaque monkeys with precise genetic mutations.

Last November, the female monkey twins, Mingming and Lingling, were born here on the sprawling research campus of Kunming Biomedical International and its affiliated Yunnan Key Laboratory of Primate Biomedical Research. The macaques had been conceived via in vitro fertilization. Then scientists used a new method of DNA engineering known as CRISPR to modify the fertilized eggs by editing three different genes, and they were implanted into a surrogate macaque mother. The twins healthy birth marked the first time that CRISPR has been used to make targeted genetic modifications in primatespotentially heralding a new era of biomedicine in which complex diseases can be modeled and studied in monkeys.

CRISPR, which was developed by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, Harvard, MIT, and elsewhere over the last several years, is already transforming how scientists think about genetic engineering, because it allows them to make changes to the genome precisely and relatively easily (see Genome Surgery, March/April). The goal of the experiment at Kunming is to confirm that the technology can create primates with multiple mutations, explains Weizhi Ji, one of the architects of the experiment.

Ji began his career at the government-affiliated Kunming Institute of Zoology in 1982, focusing on primate reproduction. China was a very poor country back then, he recalls. We did not have enough funding for research. We just did very simple work, such as studying how to improve primate nutrition. Chinas science ambitions have since changed dramatically. The campus in Kunming boasts extensive housing for monkeys: 75 covered homes, sheltering more than 4,000 primatesmany of them energetically swinging on hanging ladders and scampering up and down wire mesh walls. Sixty trained animal keepers in blue scrubs tend to them full time.

The lab where the experiment was performed includes microinjection systems, which are microscopes pointed at a petri dish and two precision needles, controlled by levers and dials. These are used both for injecting sperm into eggs and for the gene editing, which uses guide RNAs that direct a DNA-cutting enzyme to genes. When I visited, a young lab technician was intently focused on twisting dials to line up sperm with an egg. Injecting each sperm takes only a few seconds. About nine hours later, when an embryo is still in the one-cell stage, a technician will use the same machine to inject it with the CRISPR molecular components; again, the procedure takes just a few seconds.

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The Pull of Social Media: Are We Becoming Ever More Individualistic or More Herd-Like in Our Decision Making?

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New York, NY (PRWEB UK) 23 April 2014

As our digital universe continues to expand at an exponential rate doubling in size every two years what effect is our online behavior having on our decision-making skills? The authors of an article in the latest issue of Behavioral and Brain Sciences argue that we need to be careful not to assume decisions made in the collective realm are typical of all decisions.

The co-authors from the University of Missouri and the University of Bristol make the case that social scientists themselves are in danger of classifying all decisions as socially influenced rather than individually determined, as researchers increasingly to big data sets from sources like Facebook and Twitter to measure trends in human behavior.

Bentley, OBrien and Brock note that the behavioral sciences have flourished in the past by studying how traditional and/or rational behavior has been governed throughout most of human history by relatively well-informed individual and social learning. In the online age, however, social phenomena can occur with unprecedented scale and unpredictability, and individuals have access to unprecedented social connections.

The digital shadow of every Internet user the online information created about that person is already much larger than the amount of information each individual deliberately creates online. These digital shadows are the subjects of big data research, which optimists see as an outstandingly large sample of real behavior that is revolutionizing social science. With all its potential in both the academic and commercial world, the effect of big data on the behavioral sciences is already apparent in the ubiquity of online surveys and psychology experiments, the authors argue. And that can be problematic.

Studies of human dynamics based on these data sets are novel and exciting but, if not placed in context, can foster the misconception that mass-scale online behavior is all we need to understand how humans make decisions, they write.

The authors have created a new multi-scale comparative map that provides a framework for evaluating how modern collective behavior may be changing in the digital age. The map makes it possible to measure whether behavior is becoming more individualistic, as people seek out exactly what they want, or more social, as people become more inextricably linked, even herd-like, in their decision making.

The authors posit that there is no substitute for human experience, so incorporating big data into behavioral science means more than just following the most popular trends; the latter has the potential to undermine the collective wisdom that formed the foundations of the Internet in the first place.

Humans sample the actions of their peers just by living among them for a lifetime, they conclude. As long as people trust their own individual experiences, even in observing the behavior of others, a collective wisdom is possible.

Read the full article here: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayFulltext?type=6&fid=9181555&jid=BBS&volumeId=37&issueId=01&aid=9181554&fulltextType=RA&fileId=S0140525X13000289.

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Genetics risk, prenatal smoking may predict behavioral problems

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

23-Apr-2014

Contact: Beth Kuhles kuhles@shsu.edu 936-294-4425 Sam Houston State University

HUNTSVILLE, TX (4/23/14) -- Researchers have found evidence of an interaction between prenatal smoking and genetic risk factors that increase aggressive behavior in children, especially in girls.

"The interesting issue is that not all children exposed to prenatal smoking will have behavioral problems. Some might, but others will not," said Brian Boutwell, Assistant Professor at Sam Houston State University, College of Criminal Justice and senior author on the study. "One possible explanation for this is that the effect of prenatal smoke exposure depends on the presence of 'triggering influence;' in this case, we investigated whether genetic risk factors might act as just such a trigger."

The study, "Prenatal Smoking and Genetic Risk: Examining the Childhood Origins of Externalizing Behavioral Problems," was led by Melissa Petkovsek, a doctoral student at Sam Houston State, and was based on a nationally representative sample of 1,600 twins, including identical and fraternal pairs, collected during early childhood. The study found that children exposed to prenatal smoking, and who also had an increased genetic propensity for antisocial behavior, exhibited the most pronounced conduct problems during childhood. Interestingly, this gene-environment interaction was most pronounced in females.

The study demonstrates that prenatal environmental experiences may influence future behavioral problems in children, especially in combination with the presence of genetic risk factors. Ultimately, the study presented four key findings:

The current research underscores the link between genetic factors and antisocial behaviors. Boutwell said that while most research focuses on environmental factors, such as the family and neighborhoods, it is important to explore alternative environments, such as prenatal experiences, to gain a better understanding of the origins of problem behaviors.

"Social scientists have spent decades looking at what happens with parents and the family to try and determine why some children develop behavioral problems and others don't," said Boutwell. "While we are not saying that family environments are completely unimportant, environmental experiences encompass far more than just parenting. It is possible, in fact, than other environmental experiences may matter just as much, and perhaps more in some cases, for development than simply what happens inside the home between parents and children."

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Comets down Knights

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SCRANTON After Abington Heights senior pitcher Dave Manasek surrendered his first run in the bottom of the sixth inning, and with University of Virginia commit Jake McCarthy looming in the seventh, he had a simple plan to finish off the win.

Just throw strikes, he said, get it over the plate and dont make a mistake.

He did just that, retiring the side in order, and Abington Heights held on for a 2-1 win over Scranton in a Lackawanna League Division 1 contest on Monday.

Manasek, a Fordham University commit, who allowed just one run on three hits, hit shortstop Sean Padden to open the sixth inning. Right fielder Cody Miller added a single, and after pitcher Colin Maldonato reached on a fielders choice, third baseman Colin Davis delivered an RBI single. Manasek recovered to strike out pinch hitter Aaron Pregmon with runners on second and third to end the inning and preserve a one-run lead.

Dave has been pounding the (strike) zone all year, Abington Heights head coach Bill Zalewski said. Hes been in a couple dog fights now, where its been a 1-0 game or a 2-1 game, and hes come up big for us.

Abington Heights took an early 1-0 lead when shortstop Matt Heckman scored from third base on an attempted steal by center fielder Sean OConner in the top of the first inning.

Comets second baseman Jimmy Fayocavitz, who led Abington Heights, with two hits, lined an RBI single in the top of the second, scoring right fielder Kyle Tierney for the second run of the game.

I call Fayo my second leadoff hitter, Zalewski said. We love him in the nine hole. He turns the batting order over. Its really like having two leadoff hitters in the lineup

Fayocavitz also made a diving catch in shallow right field the end the third inning.

The defense has been playing great, Zalewski said. We knew coming into the season that we had the pitching and the defense, we just have to get the bats to wake up.

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Comets second in golf match

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By Marc Vieau

LUDINGTON Northern Michigan Christian shot a 278 to take second in a three-team match against Manistee and Mason County Eastern Tuesday at Lakeside Links Golf Course.

"I was really proud of the boys for withstanding the 20 mph-plus winds right off Lake Michigan in the 40 degree weather," NMC coach Dave Skinner said. "It was brutal and every kid from No. 1 to No. 6 made it all the way through and never complained once.

"Our kids got a lot of useful tips from Manistee's golfers today. They finished 12th at the Division 3 state finals last year so it was a great for the kids to play with them and provide a valuable learning experience."

Tim Embertson and Jack Simons paced the Comets with 66s.

NMC is at Manton with Frankfort on Thursday.

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Comets second in golf match

Psoriatic arthritis affects many people

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People who suffer from psoriasis or have a family history of this skin condition may be at risk for psoriatic arthritis, a serious disease that causes extensive swelling and joint pain.

The Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis Education Center notes that up to 30 percent of people with psoriasis also develop psoriatic arthritis. Psoriasis is an auto-immune skin condition in which the skin reproduces cells at an accelerated rate. This causes patches of flaky, irritated skin, also known as plaques. Psoriatic arthritis can develop at any time, but it is common between the ages of 30 and 50. Environmental factors, genes and immune system responses play a role in the onset of the disease. Patients with psoriatic arthritis can develop inflammation of their tendons, cartilage, eyes, lung lining, and sometimes aorta.

Psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis do not necessarily occur at the same time. Psoriasis generally comes first and then is followed by the joint disease. The skin ailment precedes the arthritis in nearly 80 percent of patients. Psoriatic arthritis is a rheumatic disease that can affect body tissues as well as joints. Psoriatic arthritis shares many features with several other arthritic conditions, such as ankylosing spondylitis, reactive arthritis and arthritis associated with Crohns disease and ulcerative colitis.

The rate of onset of psoriatic arthritis varies among people. For some it can develop slowly with mild symptoms. Others find it comes on quickly and is severe. Symptoms of the disease also vary, but may include the following;

* generalized fatigue

* swollen fingers and toes

* stiffness, pain, throbbing, swelling, and tenderness in joints

* reduced range of motion

* changes in fingernails

* redness and pain of the eyes

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Psoriatic arthritis affects many people

Major tourism promotion at travel fair in Latin America

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Major tourism promotion at travel fair in Latin America

By Stathis Kousounis

Greece is the country of honor at the World Travel Market Latin America, the regions biggest travel fair that opens on Wednesday in Sao Paulo, Brazils most populous city. It will last until Friday.

The home page of the fairs website (www.wtmlatinamerica.com) even bears a link that leads to the site of the Greek National Tourism Organization (www.visitgreece.gr).

The head of the fairs organizers, Lawrence Reinisch, said that Greece, with its history and culture, has had a long relationship with the World Travel Market, and will now be able to be intensely promoted to the Latin American market, too. Greek National Tourism Organization general secretary Panos Livadas said that Greeces popularity in Brazil and Latin America in general is on the rise.

Greece has long been a sponsor at the international media center of the main World Travel Market fair that takes place every year in November, in London, where it has drawn international interest.

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Major tourism promotion at travel fair in Latin America

Scientists Identify Cancer Specific Cell for Potential Targeted Treatment of Gastric Cancer

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Newswise A team of scientists led by a researcher from the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore (CSI Singapore) at the National University of Singapore has identified the cancer specific stem cell which causes gastric cancer. This discovery opens up the possibility of developing new drugs for the treatment of this disease and other types of cancers.

The research group, led by Dr Chan Shing Leng, Research Assistant Professor at CSI Singapore, demonstrated for the first time that a cancer-specific variant of a cell surface protein, CD44v8-10, marks gastric cancer stem cells but not normal cells. Conceptualised by Dr Chan and Associate Professor Jimmy So, a Senior Consultant from the Department of Surgery at the National University Hospital Singapore, the study is also the first to be conducted with human gastric tissue specimens and took five years to complete. This novel study will be published in the research journal Cancer Research, the official journal of American Association of Cancer Research, in May 2014.

Gastric cancer is a major cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, with low survival and high recurrence rates for patients with advanced disease. New therapies for the treatment of gastric cancer are urgently needed.

How CD44v8-10 serves as a biomarker

Many cancer cell types express high levels of a cell surface protein known as CD44. This protein marks cancer stem cells that are thought to be responsible for resistance to current cancer therapy and tumour relapse. There are many forms of CD44 and the standard form of CD44, CD44s, is found in high abundance on normal blood cells. It was previously not known which form of CD44 is found on cancer stem cells. This is critical as an ideal cancer target should mark only cancer cells but not normal cells.

Research by the team and other scientists in the field has led to the hypothesis that the growth of gastric cancer may be driven by cancer stem cells. In this study, the researchers analysed 53 patient tissue samples in conjunction with patient-derived xenograft models which are derived from intestinal type gastric cancer. The team is one of the few groups in the world to have a relatively large collection of patient-derived xenograft models for gastric cancer and the first to use these models for identification of gastric cancer stem cells. A total of eight cancer cell lines were used in this study, including six new cell lines which were established by the researchers.

The scientists discovered a cancer-specific CD44 variant, CD44v8-10 marks gastric cancer stem cells but not normal cells. CD44v8-10 promotes cancer cell growth and it is significantly more abundant in gastric tumour sites compared to normal gastric tissue, which makes it easily detectable. The findings results suggest that CD44v8-10 is an ideal target for developing clinical therapeutics against gastric cancer stem cells. As CD44v8-10 is cancer specific, it may also be used as a biomarker for screening and diagnosis of gastric cancer. This is significant as biomarkers for early detection of gastric cancer are currently not available and doctors rely on endoscopy for the screening and diagnosis of this disease.

Said Dr Chan, With our findings, we can now work on developing drugs that would recognise and attack the cancer stem cells only, reducing the side effects on normal cells. With additional funding, we aim to have a drug that can show efficacy in our models within three years.

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Scientists Identify Cancer Specific Cell for Potential Targeted Treatment of Gastric Cancer

Letters to the editor: Exodus, spirituality and anti-Semitism

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Barking Up the Wrong Free

I must admit that each time I read a good argument supporting each position (1) the Bible is to be taken literally and (2) the Bible is not to be taken literally, I find I am moved by both positions (Did the Exodus Happen? April 18). They are both intellectually and emotionally fulfilling. The question then becomes, for me, what are my motives in accepting one position as opposed to the other. Which position brings me closer to God, a being I cannot prove exists? And if I cannot prove God exists, though I can experience his existence as I experience love, why am I required to prove these events occurred to a standard of scientific certainty? The desire for proof and certainty becomes the new prison, the new idol, the new Pharaoh, which prevents our heart from completely opening up to freedom so that we can then walk with God, as Moses did, and we can truly live the life of a free Jew.

Ilbert Philipsvia jewishjournal.com

To add another well-known name to the discourse, Freud described the story of the Exodus as a pious myth. And yet,in one of his controversial books he wrote profoundly and with reverence about Moses the remarkable national leader of the people of the Exodus. He followed his life from the time he was plucked out of the river until his death at the edge ofthe Promised Land.

The story of Exodus, regardless how it happened, is a recurring event in Jewish history. It is the eternal struggle of monotheism in apolytheistic world with tragic results. The Exodus from Egypt probably was no different from the exodus of Jews from Muslim Iran, Czarist and Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany, or Catholic Spain. The Exileto Babylon and Rome would also classify as areverse exodus. Whether Rabbi Wolpe or Dennis Prager isright is not the question. The issue is whether the unleavened bread displayed on asilver platter in afestive setting is the proper and worthy symbol of the strugglefor freedom by a people willing to suffer and pay the price for it. So we ask: Manishtana?

Ken LautmanLos Angeles

To Thine Own Selfie Be True

Kudos to Danielle Berrin for her informative article on Alan Morinis and the Mussar Institute (Selfie Spirituality, April 18).I was privileged to learn about how effective this ethical system is when I visited the California Institute for Women where my friend, the Rev. Gabbai Shayna Lester, was honored on Pesach by inmates and her peers alike.The inmates both Jews and gentiles who took part in the Mussar classes, learned among other principles the importance of avoidinglashon harah gossip and negative comments about others. And it was reported on several occasions that the parole board looked favorably on this program in their consideration of an inmate being found suitable for parole.

This was the most moving seder I have ever attended, written by the inmates themselves as part of a creative writing project. The inmates were also able to have a rare real food meal, and to socialize with outsiders like me who take our freedom for granted.I urge my fellow Jews to familiarize themselves with this programs leader, Rabbi Moshe Raphael Halfon, and Am Or Olam.

Gene Rothman,Culver City

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Narendra Modi is 'anti-Dalit': Congress

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Congress today dubbed BJP leader Narendra Modi as "anti-Dalit", citing a quote from a book written by him in 2007 in which he purportedly says Valmiki community do manual scavenging not for living but to attain "spiritual experience".

"Narendra Modi thinks that scavenging is a way to attain spiritual enlightenment as he mentioned in his book 'Karmayog' printed by Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation. (If it is so), why Modi himself does not engage in scavenging for attaining spiritual enlightenment," Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala told a press conference.

"Modi in his book 'Karmayog' printed in 2007, has said, scavenging must have been a spiritual experience for the Valmiki caste," he said.

Distributing a copy of a particular page of the book to mediapersons in which the alleged quotation in question was printed, Surjewala referred to a quote in which he said,"I don't think they do scavenging for their bread and butter. If it is so, then they would not have done it from centuries. In my sense, they feel doing it as attaining spiritual experience unknowingly".

Surjewala questioned Modi that why he himself does not engage in scavenging for attaining "spiritual enlightenment", saying the statements show Modi's "anti-Dalit" mindset.

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Narendra Modi is 'anti-Dalit': Congress