Three N.D. Libertarians file to run for office

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Three North Dakota Libertarian Party candidates for statewide office have filed their certificates of endorsement with the secretary of state's office for this year's election cycle.

The party has candidates in the races for Congress, secretary of state and tax commissioner.

Fargo businessman Jack Seaman, making his first run for office, announced his intent to run for Congress in October. He has been a Fargo resident since 1985 and owns MinDak Gold Exchange.

He has listed his top campaign issues as including repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and an audit and subsequent abolition of the Federal Reserve.

Seaman is the only party candidate with a website, http://jackfornd.com .

Running for secretary of state is Roland Riemers, who has made multiple runs for office earlier. He is owner of Affordable Apartments, LLC in Grand Forks and the chairman of the North Dakota Libertarian Party.

He ran for governor twice, in 2004 and 2012. In the 2004 race, he ran as an Independent.

In 2012, improper paperwork filing by his running mate prompted his removal from the ballot on the Libertarian Party ticket. He later re-entered the race as an Independent.

He ran as an Independent in 2006 for the U.S. Senate, and later ran for Grand Forks County sheriff in 2010.

Fargo resident Anthony Mangnall is running for North Dakota tax commissioner. Hes a producer for Rush Street Productions in Fargo.

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Three N.D. Libertarians file to run for office

A key facilitator of mRNA editing uncovered

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4 hours ago Messenger were RNAs charted, with A's and I's representing specific nucleotides. ADR-1 does not alter editing activity of ADR-2 at all of the hundreds of newly found editing sites, but the ability of ADR-1 to bind to these mRNAs is required for its regulatory activity at the majority of ADR-1 affected editing sites. Credit: Heather A. Hundley

Molecular biologists from Indiana University are part of a team that has identified a protein that regulates the information present in a large number of messenger ribonucleic acid molecules that are important for carrying genetic information from DNA to protein synthesis.

The new work, published today in Cell Reports, finds that the protein ADR-1 binds to messenger ribonucleic acid, or mRNA, and then enhances RNA editing, a process that allows a gene to be present as multiple mRNAs that can then each affect gene expression differently.

Organisms ranging from sea anemone to humans utilize RNA editing to express different mRNAs at various times in development. Decreased mRNA editing has been reported in patients with neuropathological diseases like epilepsy, schizophrenia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and several types of cancer, including glioblastomas (brain tumors).

Using the model organism, Caenorhabditis elegans, the researchers identified over 400 new mRNA editing sitesthe majority regulated by ADR-1and declared the protein the first global regulator of RNA editing.

"What we've determined is that this protein's ability to alter editing of mRNAs is not specific to just a few genes, but instead, its ability to bind to mRNAs is required for proper RNA editing of most mRNAs," said Michael C. Washburn, a graduate student in the IU College of Arts and Sciences' Department of Biology and first author on the paper with Boyko Kakaradov of the University of California, San Diego.

Working in the laboratory of Heather A. Hundley, corresponding author on the paper and an assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology in the IU School of Medicine's Medical Sciences Program at Bloomington, Washburn and undergraduate Medical Sciences program student Emily Wheeler collaborated with the team from UCSD to show that the region of ADR-1 protein that binds to target mRNAs in C. elegans is also required for regulating editing. This region is present in many human proteins, and a protein similar to ADR-1 is specifically expressed in human neurons.

"So it is likely that a similar mechanism exists to regulate editing in humans," Hundley said. "Further work in our lab will be aimed at understanding the detailed mechanism of how these proteins regulate editing, in turn providing an inroad to developing therapeutics that modulate editing for the treatment of human diseases."

C. elegans is a microscopic worm that like humans highly expresses a family of proteins in the nervous system called ADARsadenosine deaminases that act on RNAa family that includes ADR-1.

ADARs change specific nucleotides (molecular building blocks for DNA and RNA) in RNA, in a process called adenosine-to-inosine editing, or A-to-I editing, that diversifies genetic information to specify different amino acids, splice sites and structures. Scientists currently estimate there are between 400,000 and 1 million A-to-I editing events in noncoding regions of the human transcriptome.

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A key facilitator of mRNA editing uncovered

New report forecasts health care reform law will decrease U.S. labor supply – Video

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New report forecasts health care reform law will decrease U.S. labor supply
In the Congressional Budget Office #39;s economic outlook report for 2014, analysts predicted that as many as 2.3 million will stop working or work less as a res...

By: PBS NewsHour

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New report forecasts health care reform law will decrease U.S. labor supply - Video

Obamacare and jobs reports: Health care law could cost more than 2 million jobs – Video

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Obamacare and jobs reports: Health care law could cost more than 2 million jobs
A report conducted by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that because of the Affordable Care Act, the equivalent of two million workers w...

By: CBS This Morning

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Obamacare and jobs reports: Health care law could cost more than 2 million jobs - Video

Health care deadline to qualify for federal subsidy is March 31

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by Rudy Herndon Staff Writer Moab Times Independent

The looming date marks the end of the current open enrollment period under the new Affordable Care Act insurance marketplace at http://www.healthcare.gov. Its also the last chance this year that consumers will have to qualify for direct federal subsidies, which can lower their overall health insurance costs, depending on their annual income levels.

If youre going to receive a subsidy ... time is of the essence, Moab Regional Hospital Marketing and Communications Director Jen Sadoff said.

Fortunately, free help is readily available for local residents who want to find the best deals out there, yet may have trouble navigating the new marketplace on their own.

Moab Regional Hospital and the Moab Free Health Clinic recently teamed up to raise awareness about the options that are offered through marketplace, and to guide residents through the application process.

Interest to date has been strong especially among older and middle-aged residents, according to Moab Free Health Clinic Executive Director Allyson OConnor. But OConnor and Sadoff are encouraging younger people and anyone else who needs health insurance to take advantage of the services theyre offering at no cost.

The plans can be complex, OConnor said. Thats the value of going to either a certified application counselor at the hospital or the free health clinic, or going to a commercial insurance representative.

OConnor estimated that 60 percent of the free health clinics patients will qualify for some type of subsidy.

The best deals may be available to individuals who earn between $11,500 and $17,000 a year, according to Charlie Kulander, who serves as a certified application counselor at the free health clinic. Similar bargains may be out there for a two-person household with an annual income of $23,000, or a four-person family with a combined income of $36,000 a year, Kulander said.

Theyre going to get an incredible deal where in some cases they will pay $0 for their deductible [out-of-pocket expenses], he said.

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Health care deadline to qualify for federal subsidy is March 31

The Lonely Death of the Republican Health-Care Plan

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Last week, Republican Senators Tom Coburn, Richard Burr, and Orrin Hatch unveiled a health-care proposal or, at least, a close approximation of one. Conservatives hailed it as a seminal event, the moment when the Republican Party would finally dispel the accusation of mindless obstructionism and assert its full equal status as a vessel for serious health-care policymaking. Ross Douthat rejoiced, mirabile dictu,an actual health care reform proposal! The new plan explode[s] the myth, exulted a National Review editorial, that Obamacare or something like it is the only game in town.

Republicans are certainly going to have to abandon their indifference to policy and formulate an actual health-care reform policy. But the moment has not arrived, and the events since the plans hopeful emergence have made the gap between aspiration and reality painfully clear.

Within hours of the new plan coming into contact with political reality, things began to fall apart. The general outlines of the plan involved deregulating health insurance, so that healthy customers paid less for cheaper plans and sicker customers paid more, and shifting the tax burden off the wealthy and onto the middle class. Defining its effects more specifically has proven difficult. Its less a plan than an outline that, depending on how the authors filled in its missing details, could mean any number of wildly different things.

The first blow to its coherence came when the authors faced questions about their proposal to cap the tax deduction for employer-sponsored health insurance, a politically risky but economist-approved change that provided most of its money for covering the uninsured. Asked about this piece of their plan, the authors changed the language within hours to ratchet back its scope, insulating them from political attacks, but also neutering its value.

The next thing that happened was that, on Tuesday, the Congressional Budget Office released a new budget update. The latest CBO estimate contained political gold for Republicans: It estimated that the availability of health insurance would spur workers to reduce their labor by the equivalent of two million jobs, a change Republicans could gleefully mischaracterize as destroying two million jobs. Of course any health reform plan would reduce employment this way if you give people the chance to leave the safety of employer-sponsored insurance without risking the horrors of the pre-Obamacare individual market, many of them will. The Republican proposal, sketchy though it was, would likely have approximately the same job-killing impact as Obamacare.

But while reveling in the potential new attack line, Republicans suddenly forgot that they had a plan other than repealing Obamacare. What was the fun in comparing Obamacare to a specific plan, with trade-offs and disruptions of if its own, when they could continue assailing every real or imagined downside of Obamacare, full stop?

Every Republican health-care reform plan in history has served the same purpose: to enable Republican politicians to say that they do indeed have a health-care reform plan, in order to block Democrats from enacting a health-care reform plan. Two of the sponsors of the new Republican plan, Coburn and Burr, also sponsored, along with Paul Ryan, a health-care plan in May 2009. It was a pretty good plan, albeit a somewhat vague one. It was based on replicating Mitt Romneys successful reform in Massachusetts in the other states. It set up health-care exchanges in every state, which would be regulated heavily. The plan, the authors wrote, prevents cherry picking when insurance companies choose to cover only healthy patients by equalizing risk across insurance companies and reversing the perverse incentives that leave those most vulnerable with the fewest options. It required that all health-insurance plans meet the same statutory standard used for the health benefits given to Members of Congress. Ezra Klein really liked it.

That sounds a lot like Obamacare, doesnt it? Indeed, it does. But Ryan, Coburn and Burr did not see their plan as fertile grounds for compromise. Instead they saw it as the free-market alternative to the European, socialistic horrors Democrats longed to impose upon America. In defending their plan, they pointedly contrasted it with Obamacares public option:

Nothing will rally ordinary Americans against the president's plan more than his allies arguing too forcefully for a system run by politicians and bureaucrats in Washington what we call the "public option" in the Obama plan

If Washington can effectively run a health program like Obama's public option, why are Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal health programs in such disrepair?

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The Lonely Death of the Republican Health-Care Plan

Health-Care Storm Roils White House Again

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Since Democrats passed President Barack Obamas health-care overhaul in 2010, the White House has tried to move its agenda beyond the storm of criticism that followed. Yet every time Mr. Obama and his aides find reprieve from one politically charged battle the Supreme Court case, the many Republican attempts to repeal the law and the 2012 election, to name a few another emerges.

This week it was a report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that predicts the law will insure fewer people than expected and reduce the number of hours that Americans work by more than previously thought. Republicans seized on the findings.

The report came on the heels of Mr. Obamas State of the Union address, where he approached the issue in a way that suggested his team was looking to finally turn the page on months of embarrassing revelations about the laws rollout. Mr. Obama made clear in the speech that he was done apologizing for the botched rollout, which emboldened critics of the law and even turned some supporters of it into skeptics.

Instead he touched on the laws success stories and sought to refocus his agenda on the economy. He followed up with a series of events showcasing his new executive actions on the economy as he races to accomplish some of his economic goals.

That lasted about six days.

For the White House, the CBO report is distraction dj vu: its latest effort to set its own agenda once again has been cut short by the latest problem with the health-care law. The White House is again reacting to events, refighting old battles and trying to win the war of public opinion on Mr. Obamas health-care overhaul.

The cycle seems destined for repetition all year, no matter what message Mr. Obama tries to push. Republicans have long been determined to make the health-care law his political quagmire, and that includes making it a dominant fixture in Novembers midterm elections.The GOP plans to highlight every hiccup in the law and every story that suggests its now working up to the standard Mr. Obama promised.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee used the CBO report to criticize Democratic candidates, saying their support for the health-care law has dire consequences for their constituents.

So many of the promises these Democrats repeatedly made about ObamaCare have turned out to be false, and unfortunately middle-class Americans continue to pay the price, Brook Hougesen, NRSC press secretary, said in a statement.

For the White House, this means having to continue fighting a rearguard action that keeps overshadowing Mr. Obamas agenda.White House press secretary Jay Carney faced questions about the report Wednesday, while trying to highlight Mr. Obamas economic initiatives. He argued that the report was largely positive news for the White House, saying it showed the law will cut the deficit and insure millions of Americans. But Republicans seized on it to feed public skepticism about the law.

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Health-Care Storm Roils White House Again

Former Red Hat COO Helps Health Care Providers Work Together (Video)

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Do you remember the worries about getting different health care software systems to work with each other as health care providers starting moving away from paper? It's still a problem, but Joanne Rohde's company, Axial Exchange, is working to cure that problem not only as an entrepreneur but also because she has personal reasons to see health care providers communicate better with each other. In a 2012 interview for Huffington Post, she said, "While I was working for Red Hat, I got very sick... I ultimately had to go to 10 doctors to be diagnosed. Going from doctor to doctor, I could not believe I had to start over each time. No one actually talks to each other I became convinced that if I had had all the information, I probably would have been able to figure it out faster." In fact, Joanne got so sick that she quit her job as Red Hat COO after four years with the company. Once she started getting decent treatment for her Fybromyalgia and started getting better, she decided to apply open source principles to health care IT -- and to start a new company to do it. Opensource.com talked with Joanne in September 2013, and in January 2014 she talked with Health Care Finance News for an article titled Patients key to reducing readmissions. A phrase Joanne seems to be using a lot lately is "patient engagement," which has become a major part of Axial Exchange's work to improve communications not only between different health care providers but also between those providers and their patients. Update: 02/05 20:16 GMT by T : If you're seeing this post on beta.slashdot.org, note that we're still ironing out the details of video display here. You can view the video on tv.slashdot.org, instead. Please pardon our dust.

Robin Miller:This is Joanne Rohde who is the Founder and CEO of Axial Exchange a company thats busily working to make it easier for healthcare providers to share healthcare records, that is your patient records safely, securely and quickly. She was recently quoted as saying patients are the key to reducing readmissions How is that? What does that mean?

Joanne Rohde:Well, I think that we are moving from what I call the myth of the Dr. Welby healthcare system, and I think it was always a myth that there is this all-knowing physician thats going to take care of you and your family to the reality that we are a nation of chronic disease. As we jokingly say sometimes no one gets well in the hospital, what do we mean? You might be diagnosed in the hospital, you might get patched up in the hospital, you might get your tests taken, but you get well once you leave. If you get well. And healthcare really hasnt recognized that yet. And so they dont really meet the patients where they live and where they improve

The second thing in this parochial view of patients is this idea that patients really cant understand what they need to take care of their health. And that is just a myth, because any sick person Ive ever talked to wants nothing more than to get better. And they are much more vested in that than the healthcare provider, I dont care what economic incentives we change in this country, your physician is not living your life.

And then thirdly, I think the healthcare organizations have not done the minimal job of trying to see the world through the lens of the patient. So even though were starting to make progress in selling to healthcare organizations I often hear the patient relationship referred to as the last mile. So whats their view of the world? Their view of the world is: Here is the hospital, we are theheartof the world, youre going to come in here and were going to fix you up. First were going to fix whats going on thats wrong in our hospital, then were going to fix whats going wrong between the hospital and the other docs.

And then when we think weve got that, were going to talk to you, the patient. Instead of going the other way around and going, Well, wait a minute, this just isnt working, it isnt working where we are first place in costs, we are37th place inresultshow are we going to really check this? We are a nation of chronic diseases, theres nothing anybody can do in my care thats going to change that. Thats the question that we got to be able to answer as a country. And it is with the patient.

But where it is supposed to be a relationship between the healthcare providers and the patient gets to I think three different things: Teach me, engage me, and track me. And what that means is essentially is starting with the teaching, tell me what I need to know about my disease, let me learn, I might not have been reading it before I got sick, probably not, but now that I am sick, if you give it to me in a way that I can understand it I will learn it. So the big phrase there is in a way that I can understand it. Everybody has had that experience of standing in a doctors office with them going through the language of Greys Anatomy and you go What?, thats why part of the reason why we only maintain 8% of what we hear in a hospital situation when we get home.

The second is we dont do normal teaching even if we have the ability to get the phrases we dont teach that, we dont use testing, we dont use any of the things that we know get people to learn, so we dont employ any of those techniques. So it is not surprising that people dont really understand about their illnesses because they do not really talk about them when it comes right down to it.

The second in terms of engage me, comes to the, how are we going to work together, and that has everything to do with building a care team. So its not just the doctor you see, but do I have a physical therapist, do I have a mental health professional, have I seen a nutritionistall the pieces that youre going to need to get engaged in taking care of your own health and how do they share information.

And then finally track me, and I think there is a lot of proof coming thats not just for triathletes, I think that whether we like it or not anytime you ever written down everything you eat all day long, and its a pain to do so, anytime youve ever tracked how many steps you take, it really teaches you about yourself. And normally you can just ignore it, but if youre sick you might want to change it. So the measurement is very key. So those are really the three buckets, I think that we have to address if we are going to get patients to take responsibility in a way removed from a lose-lose situation, which is where I think healthcare is today, to a win-win situation where theres something in it for both the patients and the providers.

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Genetics & Medicine – Site Guide – NCBI – National Center …

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Bookshelf

A collection of biomedical books that can be searched directly or from linked data in other NCBI databases. The collection includes biomedical textbooks, other scientific titles, genetic resources such as GeneReviews, and NCBI help manuals.

A resource to provide a public, tracked record of reported relationships between human variation and observed health status with supporting evidence. Related information intheNIH Genetic Testing Registry (GTR),MedGen,Gene,OMIM,PubMedand other sources is accessible through hyperlinks on the records.

An archive and distribution center for the description and results of studies which investigate the interaction of genotype and phenotype. These studies include genome-wide association (GWAS), medical resequencing, molecular diagnostic assays, as well as association between genotype and non-clinical traits.

An open, publicly accessible platform where the HLA community can submit, edit, view, and exchange data related to the human major histocompatibility complex. It consists of an interactive Alignment Viewer for HLA and related genes, an MHC microsatellite database, a sequence interpretation site for Sequencing Based Typing (SBT), and a Primer/Probe database.

A searchable database of genes, focusing on genomes that have been completely sequenced and that have an active research community to contribute gene-specific data. Information includes nomenclature, chromosomal localization, gene products and their attributes (e.g., protein interactions), associated markers, phenotypes, interactions, and links to citations, sequences, variation details, maps, expression reports, homologs, protein domain content, and external databases.

A collection of expert-authored, peer-reviewed disease descriptions on the NCBI Bookshelf that apply genetic testing to the diagnosis, management, and genetic counseling of patients and families with specific inherited conditions.

Summaries of information for selected genetic disorders with discussions of the underlying mutation(s) and clinical features, as well as links to related databases and organizations.

A voluntary registry of genetic tests and laboratories, with detailed information about the tests such as what is measured and analytic and clinical validity. GTR also is a nexus for information about genetic conditions and provides context-specific links to a variety of resources, including practice guidelines, published literature, and genetic data/information. The initial scope of GTR includes single gene tests for Mendelian disorders, as well as arrays, panels and pharmacogenetic tests.

A database of known interactions of HIV-1 proteins with proteins from human hosts. It provides annotated bibliographies of published reports of protein interactions, with links to the corresponding PubMed records and sequence data.

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Genetics & Medicine - Site Guide - NCBI - National Center ...

Regents push for change in genetic medicine

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Regents push for change in genetic medicine

BY KEVIN SVEC | FEBRUARY 06, 2014 5:00 AM

What was once confined only to science-fiction movies is now the subject of boardroom meetings. The University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, the home to the Iowa Institute of Human Genetics, plans to start a revolution in modern medicine. Today, most of the medication prescribed is based on the weight and body surface area of the patient. The institutes goal is to promote an alternative, which will be known as personal genomic medicine.

Such medicine would cater to each patients specific needs. The medication prescribed would be based on the genetic makeup of a patient rather than her or his body index.

Using a genetic test, scientists would be able to evaluate each patients needs, allowing health-care providers to personalize each drug treatment.

The medicine will work with each individual patient based on her or his personal health risks. By personalizing the medicine, the doctors could increase the likelihood that the drug would have the best possible effect on each patient.

Richard Smith, the director of the Institute of Human Genetics, noted several advantages of genomic medicine.

Newborns would be able to have screenings done to determine what medication would work best from the beginning, said Smith.

According to the Jackson Laboratory website, any prescription drug now on the market only works for half of the people who take it. Antidepressants are effective for only 63 percent of those who take it. The percentage rate of effectiveness jumps to 75 percent among cancer patients. Genetic testing can change that.

Part of the process has started already. For those willing to pay, they can have their genes tested. The cost for the test is $296 through the UI Hospitals and Clinics, $256 through the institute. However, Medicare is willing to pay for $295 of the costs.

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Regents push for change in genetic medicine

Critical factor (BRG1) identified for maintaining stem cell pluripotency

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

6-Feb-2014

Contact: Vicki Cohn vcohn@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 x2156 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

New Rochelle, NY, February 6, 2014The ability to reprogram adult cells so they return to an undifferentiated, pluripotent statemuch like an embryonic stem cellis enabling the development of promising new cell therapies. Accelerating progress in this field will depend on identifying factors that promote pluripotency, such as the Brg1 protein described in a new study published in BioResearch Open Access, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the BioResearch Open Access website.

In "BRG1 Is Required to Maintain Pluripotency of Murine Embryonic Stem Cells," Nishant Singhal and coauthors, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine, Mnster, and University of Mnster, Germany, demonstrate the critical role the Brg1 protein plays in regulating genes that are part of a network involved in maintaining the pluripotency of embryonic stem cells. This same network is the target for methods developed to reprogram adult somatic cells.

"This work further clarifies the role of the Brg1 containing BAF complex in regulating pluripotency and has important implications for all cellular reprogramming technologies," says BioResearch Open Access Editor Jane Taylor, PhD, MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine, University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

###

About the Journal

About the Publisher

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in promising areas of science and biomedical research, including, DNA and Cell Biology, Tissue Engineering, Stem Cells and Development, Human Gene Therapy, HGT Methods, and HGT Clinical Development, and AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 80 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.

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Critical factor (BRG1) identified for maintaining stem cell pluripotency

Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy (ACGT) Targets Brain, Pediatric Cancers with $1 Million in New Grants

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Stamford, CT (PRWEB) February 06, 2014

Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy (ACGT) the nations only non-profit dedicated exclusively to cell and gene therapies for cancer is redoubling its efforts to treat and combat cancers in the New Year, and announces $1 million in recent grants.

The funding spread across three grants will support basic and clinical science at premier institutions in and outside the United States, with ACGTs mission top-of-mind: uncovering effective, innovative cancer treatments that supersede radiation, chemotherapy and surgery.

This January, ACGTs President and Co-Founder Barbara Netter has announced two Young Investigator Grants that provide promising researchers with $250,000 each for two- to three-year studies.

Young Investigator Fan Yang, PhD Assistant Professor of Orthopedic Surgery and Bioengineering at Stanford University will use the funds to research new treatment options for pediatric brain cancer, the leading cause of death from childhood cancer. Dr. Yangs study will deploy adult-derived stem cells to target solid brain tumor cells, which are often highly invasive and difficult to treat.

Arnob Banerjee, MD, PhD Assistant Professor of Hematology and Oncology at the University of Maryland will use ACGTs funding to further develop the long-term effectiveness of immune-mediated treatments, the most advanced form of gene therapy.

It is imperative that the best and brightest young scientists like Fan Yang and Arnob Banerjee have the funds necessary to study and treat cancer, Netter said. This was my husband Edwards vision in 2001, when gene cell therapy was a fledgling science. We are proud to continue his pioneering foresight today. Partnerships with Dr. Yang, a former fellow at MIT, and Dr. Banerjee, a former fellow and instructor at the University of Pennsylvania, dovetail with ACGTs record of funding outstanding researchers and physicians with the capability to make unprecedented breakthroughs.

The Young Investigator grants come on the heels of a $500,000 Investigators Award to John Bell, PhD, Senior Research Scientist and Professor of Medicine at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute in Canada. Dr. Bell has worked extensively with oncolytic viruses man-made viruses that target only cancer cells, and spare patients the harrowing side-effects of chemotherapy, radiation or surgery and has discovered the enormous promise they offer in the war on cancer.

The research and trials funded by ACGTs grant have the potential to treat metastatic and recurrent brain cancer, extend patients survival timeline, and vastly improve patients quality of life during treatment, Dr. Bell said.

ACGT has served as a major funding engine in the fight against cancer since its formation in 2001, and has provided nearly $25 million in grants to date. ACGT was created by Barbara and Edward Netter after the loss of their daughter-in-law to breast cancer. Since Edwards passing in 2011, Barbara Netter has led the foundation as President and Co-Founder, continuing her husbands vision.

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Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy (ACGT) Targets Brain, Pediatric Cancers with $1 Million in New Grants

Futurist (definition): Common Types of Futures Thinking

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Twelve Common Types of Foresight Thinking

Social Types

1. [Preconventional futurist]. One who thinks about the future in relation to self (ego, personal vision), but without either concern for or broad understanding of the norms and conventions of society.

2. [Personal futurist]. One who uses foresight to solve problems primarily for themselves, within the conventions of society, and whose current behavior is oriented to and influenced by their future expectations and plans.

3. [Imaginative futurist]. One who habitually develops future visions, scenarios, expectations, and plans in relation to self and others, knowing but sometimes breaking the conventions and norms of society.

4. [Agenda-driven futurist]. One who creates or works toward top-down developed (received, believed) ideological, religious, or organizationally-preferred agendas (sets of rules, norms) and their related problems, for the future of a group.

5. [Consensus-driven futurist]. One who helps create or work toward bottom-up developed (facilitated, emergent), group-, communally-, institutionally- or socially-preferred futures.

6. [Professional futurist]. One who explores change for a paying client or audience, who seeks to describe and advance possible, probable, or preferable future scenarios while avoiding undesirable ones, and who may seek to help their client or audience apply these insights (manage change).

Methodological Types

7. [Critical futurist]. One who explores, deconstructs, and critiques the future visions, perspectives, and value systems of others, not primarily to advance an agenda, to achieve consensus, or for payment, but as a methodology of understanding.

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Futurist (definition): Common Types of Futures Thinking

Global Futurist and Trends Expert, Jack Uldrich, to Keynote the 48th Annual Association for the Advancement of …

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Boston, MA (PRWEB) February 06, 2014

From Thursday, February 6, to Sunday, February 9, the Association for the Advancement of International Education will be holding its 48th Annual Conference at the Westin Copley Place in Boston, MA. The keynote address will be given on February 7th by noted futurist and author, Jack Uldrich.

This year's AAIE conference theme of "Eyes on the Future: Future Trends and Foresight Education" will be addressed by Uldrich as he shares insights from his latest book, "Foresight 20/20: A Futurist Explores the Trends Transforming Tomorrow," and highlights from "Higher Unlearning: 39 Post-Requisite Lessons for Achieving a Successful Future."

During his presentation, Uldrich will focus on the practice of unlearning as a key concept, (a video of his TED Talk on unlearning can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR9fdhJGxtI.)

Uldrich will also provide an overview of how technological change and enhanced mobility is rapidly shifting the expectations and behavior of students, teachers, parents and administration, thereby upending long-standing educational models. Throughout the presentation, Uldrich will use vivid analogies and memorable stories, and videos and games drawn from a wide spectrum of industries, to ensure his message of change is both inspirational and applicable.

A sample of some his ideas on the future of education can be found in this chapter, The Future of Higher Education: A Cloudy Forecast from his latest book Foresight 2020: A Futurist Explores the Trends Transforming Tomorrow.

In the past year, Uldrich has addressed dozens of educational groups and associations, including customized keynote presentations for Indiana University, The Council of Great Lakes Schools, The University of Minnesotas Carlson School of Business, Educational Services of America, Belmont University, The Chief Learning Officers Summit, The Minneapolis Public School System, The Teaching and Technology Conference, The League of Innovation, The California League of Middle Schools, The American Technical Education Association and the 2013 European Association for International Education's annual conference, in Istanbul. Uldrich has also addressed a number of major, non education-related corporations and institutions on the topics of future trends, change management and unlearning, including Cisco, IBM, PepsiCo, United Healthcare, Case IH, Guardian Life Insurance, WiPro, and General Electric.

Parties interested in learning more about Jack Uldrich, his books, his daily blog or his speaking availability are encouraged to visit his website at: http://www.jumpthecurve.net. Media wishing to know more about the event or interviewing Jack can contact Catherine Glynn.

Jack Uldrich is a renowned global futurist, technology forecaster, best-selling author, editor of the monthly newsletter, The Exponential Executive, and host of the award-winning website, http://www.jumpthecurve.net.

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Global Futurist and Trends Expert, Jack Uldrich, to Keynote the 48th Annual Association for the Advancement of ...