Va. Senator Creigh Deeds speaks at the National Press Club – Mar. 31, 2014 – Video

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Va. Senator Creigh Deeds speaks at the National Press Club - Mar. 31, 2014
Virginia State Senator Creigh Deeds, pushing in the Virginia legislature for mental health-care reform, spoke about mental health at a National Press Club lu...

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Va. Senator Creigh Deeds speaks at the National Press Club - Mar. 31, 2014 - Video

Fading Negative Health Care Headlines Could Be Trouble for GOP

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What happens if the negative health care headlines go away?

Its safe to say that Monday was the Obama White Houses best health-care day since the law passed. NBC News confirms that enrollment in the exchanges is on track to hit or surpass 7 million -- which was the original goal before the website woes of October and November. And while it very well might an outlier, a new Washington Post/ABC poll shows that support for the law, for the first time we can remember in some time, is now right-side up, with 49% supporting the law and 48% opposing it. (Were taking the poll with a grain of salt for now until we see more numbers post-enrollment deadline, but at a minimum, its an important political booster shot for Democrats, even if it is just for today.) Now with the end of enrollment, Republicans face this potential challenge: What happens if the negative headlines go away? Since mid-October 2013, the GOP has been riding a wave of negative stories about the law, whether it's been the troubled website, the early low enrollment, the delays in implementing the law, and the stories about Americans negatively impacted. But consider this: The next round of potentially worrisome news for the administration -- the premium rates for 2015 -- is about five or six months from now. So what happens in the meantime? To be sure, both parties will exchange anecdotes about how the law is affecting people, and they also will exchange TV ads (just see this ad Americans for Prosperity is airing against Democrat Mark Pryor in Arkansas). But the GOP needs the daily momentum of negative headlines on health care to last until the fall to truly build a wave; what if that daily momentum on health care is gone?

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Ryan to release his latest budget -- and Democrats are ready to pounce

Republicans are incredibly confident that they will capitalize on the health-care law in Novembers elections. But now Democrats believe its their turn to go on offense -- against the latest iteration of Rep. Paul Ryans (R-WI) budget plan, which gets released today and is likely voted on next week. Reuters: U.S. Representative Paul Ryan on Tuesday plans to unveil a 10-year balanced budget plan that seeks to bolster Republicans' campaign credentials as the party of fiscal prudence but also leaves them open to fresh attacks over deep cuts to social programs. We cant report on the details of the new Ryan budget, but its expected to contain many of the same provisions as his past budgets -- a balanced budget within 10 years achieved in part due to cuts to safety-net programs, a fundamental restructuring of Medicare and Medicaid, and a repeal of the health-care law. The budget is definitely bold, but its also risky given that Democrats and Republicans have ALREADY hammered out a budget agreement. Remember, what was the worst candidate quality from our NBC/WSJ poll last month? Answer: A candidate who supports reductions in Social Security and Medicare benefits to address the budget deficit (69% of respondents said they were less likely to vote for such a candidate). This is precisely why Republicans have used the changes in the health-care law (see Medicare Advantage) to go after Democrats. And why Democrats will go after Republicans on the Ryan budget.

How will House Republicans in competitive Senate races vote?

It will be interesting to see how many House Republicans running in the most competitive Senate contests vote on the Ryan budget. Do they support Ryan to bolster their conservative credentials (especially if theyre facing GOP primaries), or do they vote against it to protect their Medicare/entitlement flank? Here are the House Republicans were watching on Ryan: Tom Cotton (AR), Steve Daines (MT), Cory Gardner (CO), Bill Cassidy (LA), Shelley Moore Capito (WV), Paul Broun (GA), Phil Gingrey (GA), and Jack Kingston (GA). As we've written before, the GOP is counting on a bunch of House Republicans to obtain a Senate majority, and Democrats are desperate to paint House Republicans as out of the mainstream to save these Democratic seats.

Obamacare vs. kynect

Our colleague Perry Bacon traveled to Kentucky to report on the health-care law there. And what did he find in a place that has been praised for successfully implementing it so far? Attitudes about the law are pretty much where they are everywhere else -- with Republicans wanting to roll it back and Democrats defending it. But Bacon noticed the striking difference in opinion between Obamacare and what the state has implemented, kynect. From the story: Even Republicans here say that some Kentuckians will criticize Obamacare, but in the next breadth emphasize how well kynect works, as if they are not part of the same law. So can Democrats in Kentucky somehow run on kynect and thus dis-kynect themselves from the presidents health-care plan?

Primary Day in D.C.: Its not every day that an election -- or primary -- falls on April Fools Day, but this is no joke: D.C. is holding its primaries today, and the contest to watch is the Democratic mayoral race. An NBC4/Marist poll released last week shows a neck-and-neck contest, with challenger City Councilmember Muriel Bowser getting the support of 28% of likely Democratic voters and incumbent Mayor Vince Gray getting 26%. No other candidate got more than 11% in the crowded primary. This is a reversal from the same poll in February, when Gray held an eight-point lead over Bowser, 28%-20%. (The current poll also is in line with a recent Washington Post survey, which had Bowser at 30% and Gray at 27%.) The other good news for Bowser in the NBC4/Marist poll is that shes the top second choice among Democratic likely voters, meaning she has room to grow. The good news for Gray is that his supporters are more committed and enthusiastic than Bowsers. Polling places close at 8:00 pm ET.

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Fading Negative Health Care Headlines Could Be Trouble for GOP

Gene Therapy Expert to Join The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

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Newswise Philadelphia, April 1, 2014 Beverly L. Davidson, Ph.D., a nationally prominent expert in gene therapy, is joining The Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) today.

Dr. Davidson, who investigates gene therapy for neurodegenerative diseases, arrives from the Center for Gene Therapy at the University of Iowa. She served as associate director at that Center, as well as director of the Gene Therapy Vector Core, and held the Roy J. Carver Biomedical Research Chair in Internal Medicine at the University. She also was Vice Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine and was a Professor in Internal Medicine, Neurology, and Physiology & Biophysics.

She has been named to the Arthur V. Meigs Chair in Pediatrics at CHOP and will join the hospitals Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. We heartily welcome Dr. Davidson to our hospital, and are excited that she has chosen to continue her groundbreaking gene therapy research here, said Robert W. Doms, M.D., Ph.D., pathologist-in-chief at The Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia. She will greatly enhance our abilities to translate important biological discoveries into pioneering treatments for deadly diseases.

In addition, Dr. Davidson will serve as the new director of the Center for Cellular and Molecular Therapeutics at CHOP. The mission of the Center is to use pioneering research in cell and gene therapy to develop novel therapeutic approaches for hitherto untreatable illnesses. The inaugural director of the Center, Katherine A. High, M.D., said, I am thrilled that we have been able to recruit one of the premier translational investigators in the U.S. to serve as the next director of the Center. I have led the Center for the last ten years, and I eagerly look forward to the innovations of the next decade, under Dr. Davidsons leadership.

Dr. Davidson has concentrated on inherited genetic diseases that attack the central nervous system, with a particular focus on childhood-onset neurodegenerative diseases such as Batten disease and similar diseases called lysosomal storage disorders. In these disorders, the lack of an enzyme impairs lysosomes, proteins that perform crucial roles in removing unwanted by-products of cellular metabolism. Toxic waste products then accumulate in the brain and cause progressively severe brain damage.

Dr. Davidson has studied the cell biology and biochemistry of these disorders, and has developed novel methods to deliver therapeutic genes to the central nervous system. Her laboratory team has succeeded in reversing neurological deficits in small and large animal models of disease, and is working to advance this approach to treating human diseases.

In addition to lysosomal storage disorders, she has studied other inherited neurological diseases such as Huntingtons disease and spino-cerebellar ataxia. In these studies, she has delivered forms of RNA to the brains of animals to silence the activity of disease-causing genes. She also is collaborating with scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital in animal studies of Alzheimers disease.

Although much of Dr. Davidsons research has centered on delivering beneficial genes to the central nervous system, the viral vectors that she has developed are applicable to other organs and tissuesfor example, in gene therapy directed to the lungs or the liver.

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Gene Therapy Expert to Join The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Gene therapy comes of age: We can now edit entire genomes to cure diseases

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For a long time, people thought HIV was incurable. The main reason was that HIV is a retrovirus, meaning that it inserts its own viral DNA into the genome of its host perhaps we could treat the symptoms of HIV, but many doubted it was possible to actually correct the genes themselves.Our techniques for slicing up DNA are very advanced when that DNA sits suspended in a test solution, but nearly useless when we need to accurately edit millions of copies of a gene spread throughout a complex, living animal. Technologies aimed at addressing that problem have been the topic of intense study in recent years, and this week MIT announced that one of the most promising lines of research has achieved its first major goal: researchers have permanently cured a genetic disease in an adult animal.

This is a proof of concept for something medicine has been teasing for decades: useful, whole-body genome editing in fully developed adults. Until recently, most such manipulation was possible only during early development and many genetic diseases dont make themselves known until after birth, or even much later in life. While breakthroughs in whole-genome sequencing are bringing genetic early-warning to awhole new level for parents, there are still plenty of ways to acquire problem DNA later in life most notably, through viruses like HIV. Whether were talking about a hereditary genetic disease like Alzheimers or an acquired one like radiation damage, MITs newest breakthrough has the potential to help.

A simplified schematic of the CRISPR system. RNA guides Cas9 in cutting at the CRISPR sequences.

In this study[doi:10.1038/nbt.2884], researchers attacked a disease called hereditarytyrosinemia, which stops liver cells from being able to process the amino acid tyrosine. It is caused by a mutation in just a single base of a single gene on the mouse (and human) genome, and prior research has confirmed that fixing that mutation cures the disease. The problem is that, until now, such a correction was only possible during early development, or even before fertilization of the egg. An adult body was thought to be simply too complex a target.

The gene editing technology used here is called the CRISPR system, which refers to the Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats that allow its action.As the name suggests, the system inserts short palindromic DNA sequences called CRISPRs that are a defining characteristic of viral DNA. Bacteria have an evolved defense that finds these CRISPRs, treating them (correctly, until now) as evidence of unwanted viral DNA. Scientists insert DNA sequences that code for this bacterial cutting enzyme, along with the healthy version of our gene of interest and some extra RNA for targeting. All scientists need do is design their sequences so CRISPRs are inserted into the genome around the diseased gene, tricking the cell into identifying it as viral from there, the cell handles the excision all on its own, replacing the newly viral gene with the studys healthy version. The whole process plays out using the cells own machinery.

This is how MIT chose to visualize the process.

The experimental material actually enters the body via injection, targeted to a specific cell type.In this study, researchers observed an initial infection rate of roughly 1 in every 250 target cells. Those healthy cells out-competed their unmodified brothers, and within a month the corrected cells made up more than a third of the target cell type. This effectively cured the disease; when the mice were taken off of previously life-saving medication, they survived with little ill effect.

There are other possible solutions to the problem of adult gene editing, but they can be much more difficult to use,less accurate and reliable, and are generally useful in a narrower array of circumstances. CRISPRs offer a very high level of fidelity in targeting, both to specific cells in the body and to very specific genetic loci within each cell.

Tyrosinemia affects only about 1 in every 100,000 people, but the science on display here is very generalizable. While many diseases will require a more nuanced approach than was used here, many will not; wholly replacing genes in adult animals is a powerful tool, capable of curing many, many diseases. Not every cell type will lend itself as well to the CRISPR system, nor every disease; particularly, this study relies on the fact that corrected cells will naturally replace disease cells, improving their initial infection rate. That wont always be possible, unfortunately.

Theres also very little standing between this technique and non-medical applications can you drug test an athlete or academic for the contents of their own genome? These questions and more will become relevant over the next few decades, though their effects should be minuscule when weighed against the positive impacts of the medical applications.

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Gene therapy comes of age: We can now edit entire genomes to cure diseases

Star Apps: David X. Cohen

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The Emmy-winning "Simpsons" writer and "Futurama" co-creator chats about his upcoming Moogfest lecture, his writing career, technology in the 31st century, and his favorite mobile apps.

When David X. Cohen was in graduate school, he had hit the proverbial fork in the road. Would the Harvard graduate, with a degree in physics, studying theoretical computer science at U.C. Berkeley, opt for an assured career in mathematics/computer science or take the gamble and become a comedy writer? Fortunately for "The Simpsons" and "Futurama" fans, he took the latter route. Now an expert in all three disciplines, Cohen will chat about the intersection of math, technology, and comedy writing at Moogfest 2014 (April 23-27).

Emmy-winning writer David X. Cohen will appear at Moogfest 2014.

Talk to us about your appearance at Moogfest 2014. We will be talking about the two coolest subjects imaginable, "Futurama" and mathematics. It could not get cooler than that [laughs] for me.

The genesis of this is a book that's out right now called, "The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets" by Simon Singh, and it also talks about "Futurama." I did an interview with Simon Singh about the book, and it so happened that one of the organizers of Moogfest heard that. This chain reaction started, and they asked if I'd be interested in going and doing something about math and "Futurama," because they're trying to expand the festival into more futurism and technology. So I said, "Sure. Why don't we get Simon Singh in to moderate the panel, and we'll get some "Futurama" writers in there, too? So it's going to be more "Futurama" themed, and it'll be both nerdy and funny, hopefully.

When you were still in school, did you know what you wanted to be when you grew up? Absolutely. I was 100 percent set on being a scientist. Growing up on the East Coast, it never would have occurred to me that you could make a living out of writing comedy. But on the other hand, it was a hobby of mine, where I wrote a humor column for my high school newspaper and stuff like that. So I always thought it was fun to try and make people laugh.

Since my parents were both biologists, I thought that's the way to go. I eventually became more interested in math and computer science, so I went that way, but I didn't go too far from the parent trees.

In college, at Harvard, I wrote for "The Harvard Lampoon" magazine, and only then did I realize that some of my friends there were trying to make that a career, and saw that as an option. So I went through a wrenching period where I had to decide what I was doing, but I thought it'd be wiser to go to graduate school before I forgot all the math and science I'd learned, and then I'd switch to writing later if I wanted to. But it'd be hard to go the other direction. So that's what happened. But I kept wanting to write, so I tried that for a while and have been on that path ever since.

At what point did you realize you could create a career in writing? I used to make drawings and make my sister buy them from me for one penny. So that was the beginning of my professional career. She was younger, so there was the threat that she would be beaten up if she didn't give me the money. [Laughs]

In graduate school, thinking I would try to make the switch, I was writing spec material and sending it all over the place and seeing if anyone would hire me. Eventually there was a lucky break. I had sent some stuff to David Letterman. Mike Judge, who had just created "Beavis and Butt-Head" was a guest, and he told the head writer that he needs to hire some really cheap writers, and the head writer said, "I really liked his stuff, but couldn't use him, so here you go." Mike Judge asked me to submit some ideas, and he hired me for a wage similar to the penny, but the show turned into a hit to my surprise. I wrote two episodes, so I now had a resume, and thought, "Maybe this will pay off."

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Star Apps: David X. Cohen