Mayor Gray Protects DC Transgender Community from Health Care Discrimination, 2/27/14 – Video

Posted on by


Mayor Gray Protects DC Transgender Community from Health Care Discrimination, 2/27/14
The District of Columbia has advanced the rights of the city #39;s transgender community by prohibiting discrimination in health insurance based on gender identi...

By: dcmayorsoffice

Read more:

Mayor Gray Protects DC Transgender Community from Health Care Discrimination, 2/27/14 - Video

Letter: Health care compact serves states

Posted on by

Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger made some comments regarding the Health Care Compact that are erroneous and must be corrected.

The Health Care Compact, which I support and which is before the Legislature, is an interstate compact that transfers authority, responsibility and control of federal health care funding from the federal government to member states. It reverses the decades-long centralization of power over health care and gives Kansas the opportunity to control its own health care system. It also requires the federal government to continue providing a proportional share of federal health care dollars to the member states.

Commissioner Praeger erroneously stated that the Legislature could take funds for Medicare and other health programs and spend them on other programs.

That is false. The Health Care Compact explicitly states federal health care dollars must be spent only on health care. They cannot be siphoned off to fund other programs.

If Medicare beneficiaries want to protect public funding of their health care, Obamacare is the problem, not the solution. Obamacare cuts more than $700 billion from Medicare to pay for Medicaid expansion and insurance subsidies.

Kansas can use the Health Care Compact to shield Medicare from the disaster of Obamacare. Consider that if the Health Care Compact had been active in 2013, funding for health care in our state would have been 1.4 percent higher than actual federal health care expenditures.

The time has come for Kansas to join the movement to bring health care back to the states. The Health Care Compact is the best way for our state to protect all our citizens. Working with other states, we can repeal the Obamacare provisions that have caused health insurance costs to skyrocket, we can better allocate the public dollars that are available, and we can restore the constitutional framework of our country.

KRIS KOBACH, Piper

Secretary of State

Read more here:

Letter: Health care compact serves states

Personalized Medicine and Companion Diagnostic Market Discussed in New Report by Kelly Scientific Publications …

Posted on by

London, UK (PRWEB) March 07, 2014

During the last 20 years, the ongoing genetic advances have considerably facilitated the emergence of personalized medicine sector as an important player in the overall healthcare universe. Human genome sequencing has propelled the pharmacogenetics sector. Furthermore, personalized medicine also takes into account pharmacogenomics studies, where protein and genetic interactions yield the potential drug targets. The key objective of personalized medicine is to offer individualized care that is more effective and specific to the potential patients. Targeted and personalized medicine R&D efforts are aimed at increasing the efficiency of the therapeutic area via genetic testing along with companion diagnostics. The introduction of novel personalized medicine will likely reduce the frequency of adverse drug reactions and thus have a significant influence on health economics. Diagnostic and developmental companies are predicted to take benefit from lower discovery and commercialization costs, as well as from more specific market sub-types awaited in the years ahead.

Nodality, Celera, 23andMe, Myriad, Amgen, Atossa Genetics and Affymetrix are among the leading participants in the worldwide market for personalized medicine and companion diagnostic tests.

New research report Personalized Medicine and Companion Diagnostic Market - A Strategic Analysis of Industry Trends, Technologies, Participants, and Environment elaborated by Kelly Scientific Publications is available at MarketPublishers.com.

Report Details:

Title: Personalized Medicine and Companion Diagnostic Market - A Strategic Analysis of Industry Trends, Technologies, Participants, and Environment Published: March, 2014 Pages: 224 Price:US$ 3,835.00 http://marketpublishers.com/report/life_sciences/healthcare/personalized-medicine-n-companion-diagnostic-market.html

A cutting-edge all-round report provides a full detailed coverage of the world personalized medicine and companion diagnostic market as well as tackles the most significant industry related issues. The study presents insights into the historical background of the industry and illustrates the current situation in the market; summarizes the key factors influencing the market growth, and also reviews the major existing personalized medicine and companion diagnostic products and technologies. It traces the most recent important industry developments, identifies and scrutinizes the most prominent market trends, covers the actual scenario in the main geographical markets, investigates the competitive landscape and includes the leading companies profiles. Additionally, the report discusses the markets growth opportunities and grants access to a complete set of projections of the future performance of the personalized medicine and companion diagnostic market through 2017.

Reasons to Buy:

More new research reports by the publisher can be found at Kelly Scientific Publications page.

Go here to see the original:

Personalized Medicine and Companion Diagnostic Market Discussed in New Report by Kelly Scientific Publications ...

Task force on precision medicine takes interdisciplinary approach

Posted on by

It cost over $3 billion and took almost 13 years to sequence the human genome for the first time, a task that was only completed a little over ten years ago.

Instead of our current one-size-fits all treatment for most diseases, many envision a future in which we will be able to tailor medical treatment based on ones underlying genetic information, a medical model known as personalized, or precision, medicine.

To better understand what it will take to reach these aims, which will require further advances in many disciplines and have implications stretching far beyond the field of medicine, University President Lee Bollinger recently announced the creation of a task force on personalized medicine.

When there are major advances in our knowledge that can be translated in very important effects for the world, we want to make sure as the university we are doing everything we can to facilitate that, Bollinger said at last weeks University Senate plenary.

The task force, co-chaired by Provost John Coatsworth and Dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences and Medicine Lee Goldman, brings together almost 40 faculty members across the entire university. Unlike other institutions, including various cancer centers, that are also working in personalized medicine, this task force will use a University-wide approach, rather than just a medical one.

The opportunity is really here now

They have the foresight to realize that this is not just a medical center problem, that this really permeates every different aspect of what we do at Columbia, said Dr. Wendy Chung, director of the Clinical Genetics Program at the Columbia University Medical Center and member of the task force. Its going to be challenging, I think, to get people who speak different languages to come together and to realize what they can contribute but Ive never seen any other initiative where so many people have come together to try and make it work.

Though the task force has yet to meet, it plans to produce a report next fall that outlines what Columbia should do in this emerging field of medicine.

Its almost certainly one of those things that you cant just leave to chance to happen. You have to get organized, you have to get the infrastructure, you have to figure out the kinds of intellectual work that you need to do, Bollinger said.

Personalized medicine will ultimately be the result of a more comprehensive understanding of the genetic underpinnings of disease, but to get to that point, researchers need more data than is currently available.

Continue reading here:

Task force on precision medicine takes interdisciplinary approach

New theory on cause of endometriosis

Posted on by

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

7-Mar-2014

Contact: Marla Paul marla-paul@northwestern.edu 312-503-8928 Northwestern University

Changes to two previously unstudied genes are the centerpiece of a new theory regarding the cause and development of endometriosis, a chronic and painful disease affecting 1 in 10 women.

The discovery by Northwestern Medicine scientists suggests epigenetic modification, a process that enhances or disrupts how DNA is read, is an integral component of the disease and its progression. Matthew Dyson, research assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and and Serdar Bulun, MD, chair of obstetrics and gynecology at Feinberg and Northwestern Memorial Hospital, also identified a novel role for a family of key gene regulators in the uterus.

"Until now, the scientific community was looking for a genetic mutation to explain endometriosis," said Bulun, a member of the Center for Genetic Medicine and the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University. "This is the first conclusive demonstration that the disease develops as a result of alterations in the epigenetic landscape and not from classical genetic mutations."

The findings were recently published in PLoS Genetics.

Women develop endometriosis when cells from the lining of the uterus, usually shed during menstruation, grow in other areas of the body. The persistent survival of these cells results in chronic pelvic pain and infertility. Although the cause of the disease has remained unknown on a cellular level, there have been several different models established to explain its development.

Endometriosis only occurs in menstruating primates, suggesting that the unique evolution behind uterine development and menstruation are linked to the disease. Scientists consider retrograde menstruation cells moving up the fallopian tubes and into the pelvis as one probable cause. Previous models, however, have been unable to explain why only 10 percent of women develop the disease when most experience retrograde menstruation at some point. Nor do they explain instances of endometriosis that arise independent of menstruation.

Bulun and Dyson propose that an epigenetic switch permits the expression of the genetic receptor GATA6 rather than GATA2, resulting in progesterone resistance and disease development.

Originally posted here:

New theory on cause of endometriosis

Should we be concerned with synthetic biology?

Posted on by

Dear EarthTalk: Should those of us who care about our health and the planet be concerned about the new trend in genetic engineering called synthetic biology? Chrissie Wilkins, Bern, N.C.

Synthetic biology (or synbio) refers to the design and fabrication of novel biological parts, devices and systems that do not otherwise occur in nature. Many see it as an extreme version of genetic engineering (GE). But unlike GE, whereby genetic information with certain desirable traits is inserted from one organism into another, synbio uses computers and chemicals to create entirely new organisms.

Proponents of synbio, which include familiar players such as Cargill, BP, Chevron and Du Pont, tout its potential benefits. According to the Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Center (SYNBERC), a consortium of leading U.S. researchers in the field, some promising applications of synthetic biology include alternatives to rubber for tires, tumor-seeking microbes for treating cancer, and photosynthetic energy systems. Other potential applications include using synbio to detect and remove environmental contaminants, monitor and respond to disease and develop new drugs and vaccines.

While these and other applications may not be widely available for years, synthetic biology is already in use for creating food additives that will start to show up in products on grocery shelves later this year. Switzerland-based Evolva is using synthetic biology techniques to produce alternatives to resveratrol, stevia, saffron and vanilla. The companys synthetic vanillin is slated to go into many foods as a cheaper and limitless version of real vanilla flavor. But many health advocates are outraged that such a product will be available to consumers without more research into potential dangers and without any warnings or labeling to let consumers know they are eating organisms designed and brought to life in a lab.

This is the first major use of a synbio ingredient in food, and dozens of other flavors and food additives are in the pipeline, so synbio vanilla could set a dangerous precedent for synthetic genetically engineered ingredients to sneak into our food supply and be labeled as natural, reports Friends of the Earth (FoE), a leading environmental group. Synthetic biology vanillin poses several human health, environmental and economic concerns for consumers, food companies and other stakeholders.

For example, FoE worries that synbio vanilla (and eventually other synthetic biology additives) could exacerbate rainforest destruction while harming sustainable farmers and poor communities around the world. Synbio vanillacould displace the demand for the natural vanilla market, reports FoE. Without the natural vanilla market adding economic value to the rainforest in these regions, these last standing rainforests will not be protected from competing agricultural markets such as soy, palm oil and sugar. Critics of synbio also worry that releasing synthetic life into the environment, whether done intentionally or accidentally, could have adverse effects on our ecosystems.

Despite these risks, could the rewards of embracing synthetic biology be great? Could it help us deal with some of the tough issues of climate change, pollution and world hunger? Given that the genie is already out of the bottle, perhaps only time will tell.

EarthTalk is written and edited by Roddy Scheer and Doug Moss and is a registered trademark of E-The Environmental Magazine http://www.emagazine.com. Send questions to: earthtalk@emagazine.com.

Read the original here:

Should we be concerned with synthetic biology?

Gene therapy shows promise for HIV control

Posted on by

Scientists have modified genes in the blood cells of HIV patients to help them resist the AIDS virus, and say the treatment seems safe and promising. The results give hope that this approach might one day free at least some people from needing medicines to keep HIV under control, a form of cure.

The idea came from an AIDS patient who appears cured after getting a cell transplant seven years ago in Berlin from a donor with natural immunity to HIV. Only about 1 percent of people have two copies of the gene that gives this protection.

Researchers are seeking a more practical way to get similar results by using gene therapy to modify patients' own blood cells.

A study of this in 12 patients was led by Dr. Carl June at the University of Pennsylvania. Results are in Thursday's the New England Journal of Medicine. These are the first published results from this method, which also has been tried in several smaller studies of patients in California.

HIV usually infects blood cells through a protein on their surface, a "docking station" called CCR5. A California company, Sangamo BioSciences Inc., makes a treatment that can knock out a gene that makes CCR5.

The 12 HIV patients had their blood filtered to remove some of their cells. The gene-snipping compound was added in the lab, and the cells were infused back into the patients.

Four weeks later, half of the patients were temporarily taken off AIDS medicines to see the gene therapy's effect. The virus returned in all but one of them, but the modified cells seemed to be protected from HIV infection and were more likely to survive than the cells that had not been treated.

"We knew that the virus was going to come back in most of the patients," but the hope is that the modified cells eventually will outnumber the rest and give the patient a way to control viral levels without medicines, said Dr. Pablo Tebas, one of the Penn researchers. That would be what doctors call a "functional cure," because the virus would still be present but held in check without treatment.

The lone patient whose HIV did not return turned out to have one copy of the protective gene, so "nature had done half of the job already," Tebas said.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases sponsored the work with Sangamo and Penn.

Read the original here:

Gene therapy shows promise for HIV control