President Houshmand and CMSRU Dean Reboli named to South Jersey BIZ Power 50 list – Rowan Today

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Rowan University President Ali A. Houshmand and Cooper Medical School of Rowan University Dean Annette C. Reboli were named to one of the regions most exclusive lists this month, the South Jersey BIZ Power 50.

The list, which includes such statewide and regional leaders as Governor Phil Murphy, Subaru of America President Thomas Doll, and Mark Clouse, president and CEO of the Campbell Soup Company, annually recognizes those men and women whose vision, perseverance and drive help make the institutions they lead successful.

Influencers. Visionaries. Difference-makers. Those are just some of the many ways to describe the names on our annual Power 50 list, SJ BIZ editors wrote in introducing their Power 50 Class of 2020.

Houshmand, who became Rowans seventh president in 2012, has built his presidency, and the future of Rowan, on four guiding principles: increasing access to a four-year degree, keeping that degree affordable, high quality education and leveraging the Universitys capacity to be an economic engine.

I am most passionate about transforming Rowan to an institution that is responsive to the challenges of the 21st century, that provides affordable and relevant education to all, and that strives to enhance the economic well-being of our surrounding communities, Houshmand told the magazine.

Reboli, a prominent infectious disease specialist who became CMSRU dean in 2016, helped develop the school, southern New Jerseys first new medical school in more than 30 years.

Formerly head of the Division of Infectious Diseases, deputy chief of administration for the Department of Medicine and hospital epidemiologist for Cooper Health System in Camden, Dr. Reboli served as CMSRUs founding vice dean.

The overall impact of the coronavirus pandemic keeps me up at night, Reboli told the magazine. During this unprecedented time, were experiencing some of the greatest health, societal and financial challenges of our lifetimes. In my sector of health care and medical education, I worry most about how hospitals will weather the financial impact and whether our medical schools will be able to meet physician workforce needs in the face of uncertain financial support from the state.

Congratulations Drs. Houshmand and Reboli!

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‘Its a good mix of medicine and social justice’: Medical student gets experience at NATIVE Project during pandemic – The Spokesman-Review

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Kika Kaui had options and time at the outset of 2020.

A medical student finishing her first year in the University of Washingtons Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho medical school program , Kaui knew she wanted to learn medicine as a way to serve at-risk populations. She planned to do a rotation through the schools Rural Underserved Opportunities Program, a monthlong clinical immersion in a rural or urban underserved setting.

Then, in the middle of spring break, as the global pandemic set in, in-person classes were canceled for the rest of the quarter and her hopes for getting into a clinical setting for the first time this summer seemed far less likely.

Luckily for Kaui, she had met Toni Lodge, the CEO of the NATIVE Project, at a powwow before the pandemic hit. When an opportunity opened to do her RUOP rotation at the NATIVE Project this July, Kaui accepted. She was able to shadow John McCarthy, a UW professor and doctor, at the clinic and gain valuable time helping patients.

Kaui, who is Native Hawaiian, has a background in human rights and social studies, and was a Peace Corps member in Morocco before returning to college to take pre-requisite courses for medical school.

Part of the RUOP program requires students to do a research project, and Kaui decided to study diabetes and treatment for vulnerable populations. Her research this summer focused on diabetes care for patients experiencing homelessness and the challenges that come with food insecurity, difficulty accessing or storing insulin, and getting care.

The NATIVE Project was an ideal place for Kaui to learn about integrated medicine. The clinic has mental health and substance use disorder services and also offers full medical and dental care to its patients. It is a federally qualified health center as well as a Title V Indian Health Services clinic.

One of the big differences between the NATIVE Project clinic and most other health care settings, Lodge says, is the practice of generational medicine.

So we will know patients from the time they are little to the time they are elders, Lodge said. You have to have a different relationship. Our clinic director calls it being bonded and attached.

This spring, the tight-knit clinic also became ground zero for COVID-19 in Spokane County, testing for and confirming the first positive case of the virus in March.

Our staff did everything right. We were ready on that day, Lodge said.

Since then, while some staff members have contracted the virus, none have contracted it at work, McCarthy said.

Kaui spent her monthlong RUOP experience at the NATIVE Project in July, as a new norm was taking shape at the clinic. The NATIVE Project can only see about half as many patients as normal, meaning Kaui was using FaceTime or phone calls to communicate initially with some patients. This was new, not just for Kaui but also for the patients.

I have heard patients say, I was nervous to have a Skype or Zoom meeting, and I really appreciate that this is the first time they are on Zoom, and they are willing to do it for their health, Kaui said.

In the clinic, if one of McCarthys patients is willing to let her shadow the visit, she did. Once personal protective equipment was secured and no longer a pressing concern, McCarthy wanted students back in patients rooms.

Its a double-edged sword. You dont want to use up your sparse PPE on people that dont need to be there, McCarthy said of the university. But once we got that world under control, I think absolutely we need to bring back learners into this situation, because you cant be a good clinician if youre not seeing patients.

Lodge said PPE has been a challenge, especially at the outset of the pandemic. The clinic did not receive N95 respirators until 100 days into the pandemic, and providers there are still using expired PPE they received from the federal government.

Masks can make connecting with patients difficult, and with the current anxiety and stress levels generally higher due to the pandemic, it isnt uncommon for patients to express concerns about their mental health.

I think the fear and anxiety around people are probably making them sick, literally, Lodge said. Were seeing people with medical issues that are exacerbated with the pandemic.

When Kaui worked with a patient who had a medical need and expressed needs for behavioral or mental health services, she was able to make a referral in the same building and in real time, as the NATIVE Project has therapists and behavioral health professionals on staff.

Kaui finished her clinical time at the NATIVE Project at the end of July and will complete her research on diabetes in the coming weeks. She wont be in a clinical setting again until next summer, and she is grateful for her experience.

Becoming a doctor, for Kaui, is a way to help women and underserved communities.

Its a good mix of medicine and social justice, she said.

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'Its a good mix of medicine and social justice': Medical student gets experience at NATIVE Project during pandemic - The Spokesman-Review

Addressing inequalities in women’s health research | Contemporary OB/GYN – Contemporary Obgyn

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Womens health research continues to be marginalized. To address and reverse this trend requires committed, accountable leadership, inclusion of diversity of thought and critical social science issues, in addition to the more well-funded basic traditional and clinical research.

There are several areas that contribute to this marginalization, first, with respect to pregnant women. Optimizing pregnancy outcome would significantly improve world health, as babies, if born early and often thus small have higher risks of heart disease, diabetes, and asthma.

Therefore, a baby born without complications, at the right time and weight, has the potential for a healthier life. Similarly, optimizing a womans health both for a healthier pregnancy and outcome and for her long-erm health also has the potential to improve world health. A womans health is known to impact her family, including both younger and older generations, thus strategies to address womens health are essential.

Funding for womens health research is limited. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) categorizes research funding to provide consistent and transparent information on the categories of disease, conditions, and research areas.

The categorization uses sophisticated text data mining based on scientific experts to define a research category. Incredibly, 2019 was the first year that federal funding for womens health research was classified based on scientific relevance, rather than based on the percentage of female subjects included in the studies.1

The rationale for using the percentage of females enrolled in a study to count as womens health research is unclear, and unfounded, as women certainly are enrolled in studies that are not focused on womens health.In 2019, the NIH funded $4,749M in womens health research, with the largest percent (26%) by the National Cancer Institute (Figure 1).

As examples, the genetics, neurosciences, biotechnology, brain disorders, pediatrics, and aging research categories all had more NIH funding in 2019 than womens health.

To prevent transmission of the virus, all non-essential visits and encounters have been appropriately stopped, thus all ongoing clinical research has effectively ceased aside from that impacting clinical care. As I mentioned in my editorial in April, when there were only 51 studies2 - and now substantiated in 588 studies3 - pregnant and breastfeeding women are yet again excluded from research, notably from participating in COVID-19 clinical trials during this pandemic.

This is a major missed opportunity as results with therapies studied in men and nonpregnant women may not be generalizable. Furthermore, therapies are potentially not being offered to women, or if they are offered, are not being systematically studied in this population to provide needed data with which to guide therapy.

The impact of COVID-19 on womens health research highlights the long-standing inequities in including this population in research. Only in the last few decades were women required to be included in clinical research.

Yet even with this mandate, subsets of women remain excluded.

Despite mandated inclusion of women in research, womens health research remains marginalized, as are women researchers and physician-scientists. Although data suggest that women submitting NIH research project grant (RO1) applications for the first time have the same grant success rate as men4, they are half as likely to apply for those grants5, despite the fact that just as many women as men are receiving advanced degrees.

A natural history experiment using the investigator-initiated Canadian Institutes of Health Research Grant Programmes demonstrated that gender gaps in funding were due to female principal investigators being evaluated less favorably than male principal investigators - and not related to the quality of their research proposals.6

This marginalization of women researchers is rampant. As reported in numerous studies, women are less likely to be promoted, achieve tenure, or be selected for leadership roles (Supplemental figure).

Similarly, women with equal stature are less likely to be selected to participate in think tanks than men. As an example, a recent article outlining a research strategy for womens health with 17 authors included only 4 (24%) women.7

Furthermore, of the nine physician authors, only one is an ob/gyn and four are pediatricians. The themes from the think tank neglect critical areas of research, focusing on traditional sciences and emphasize genetics, overlooking the role of racial disparities and health inequities.

As noted by the 2018 NIH Gender Inequality Task Force Report, Sustainable change in representation of women, and of all individuals from underrepresented groups, requires committed, accountable leadership along with effective tools to accomplish this important goal.8 It is troubling that gender diversity in leadership positions is lacking nationally.

Using 2019 data, only 19% of department chairs (both interim and permanent) are held by women. Extrapolating the trend lines suggests another 50 years are needed to attain parity of department chairs and medical school deans by gender (Figure 2).

This diversity is not due to a lack of qualified women, as since 2002, women have earned the majority of all doctorates9 and in 2019, women comprise the majority of enrolled US medical students.10

Underrepresentation creates a culture that perpetuates inequalities. For our patients, for ourselves, for our families, we must correct this course. This is not easy, and will require a change of culture led by a committed, accountable, proactive leadership.

Equally important will be the inclusion of diversity and broadening of the research agenda to include critical social science issues, health disparities, and social determinants of health.

One ray of hope to address these pressing issues is the formation of the Womxns Health Collaborative, a group determined to identify and initiate actionable steps.

If you are interested in participating, I encourage you to contact Dr. Michal Elovitz at womxnshealth@gmail.com.

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New medical residents experience a different kind of welcome into URMC – University of Rochester

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August 3, 2020

More than 300 residents began the next phase of their medical training this summer, introduced to the University through an orientation program that followed safety and health guidelines while maintaining personal connections.

While the COVID pandemic has required the University of Rochester to make many changes, one certainty remains: the mission to learn and make the world ever better continues. With this in mind, the Medical Centers Graduate Medical Education (GME) Office had to satisfy both the demands to protect the health and safety of residents while enabling them to have a both high-value education and welcoming experience.

In June and July, more than 300 new residents arrived at the Medical Center to begin the next phase of their medical training.

In past years, the Offices of GME, Employee Health, Human Resources, Employee Assistance, and Total Rewards greeted new residents warmly in Flaum Atrium with smiles, handshakes, and in-person assistance to help them acclimate to the URMC community. Many of those connections were made virtually this year to respect social distance guidelines.

This years orientation sessions also emphasized the new world of health care, including caring for COVID patients, personal protective equipment (PPE) training, and resident safety.

Replicating the social experiences, which form the crucial bonds that help carry residents through their time in the program, was more challenging.

Special attention was paid by our program directors to ensure these interpersonal meetings were addressed for this year, and facilitated in a socially appropriate way, said Diane Hartmann, professor of obstetrics and gyenocology and senior associate dean for Graduate Medical Education. New trainees meeting their colleagues is vital to feeling part of the team and establishing their network, so programs found ways to fulfill that part of the experience. Despite some bumps along the way, this years mostly virtual orientations were a great success thanks to a lot of creative thinking and effort.

Getting to orientation was another remarkable feat with the GME Office staff working remotely. Onboarding for trainees is typically a paper-driven processa process that was quickly converted to electronic communication, including verifying medical school transcripts, trainings, diplomas, vaccinations, and health screenings.

Were incredibly grateful to our program directors and coordinators who quickly learned how to do things differently, said Hartmann. Their professionalism in making sure we are taking care of our patients and each other shows the kind of institution were representing. Were also demonstrating to our trainees our ability to adapt and perform amidst challenges, which are critical skills in health carewith or without a pandemic.

The next challenge for GME is preparing for the 2021 residency programs.

Work is already underway to reshape recruitment in everything from the application process and campus visits to interviews and networking dinners into virtual experiences.

COVIDs challenges are also opportunities to modernizeit is hard work for everyone, but also very exciting to explore, says Hartmann.

Tags: COVID-19, Graduate Medical Education, medical center, Rochester Restart

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New medical residents experience a different kind of welcome into URMC - University of Rochester

‘Not surprising’: International graduate students respond to short-lived ICE directive – The Stanford Daily

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The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued a policy on July 6 barring international students attending schools operating entirely online from remaining in the United States. The Trump Administration rescinded the policy a little over a week later, after Harvard and MIT filed a lawsuit to block the directive, with the support of hundreds of universities, including Stanford.

The rollercoaster of decisions put international students through the wringer that week, and while undergraduate international students received only a few assurances, graduate and medical students received even fewer. The Daily interviewed four of these students for their reactions to the policy.

Initially I dont think I took it in, said Vivian Lou 19, a Canadian citizen from Vancouver and second-year medical student at Stanford.

Lou was unsure whether the policy applied to her. However, when her friends began to reach out to her following the ICE decision, Lou realized that the situation could actually impact her.

Lou and other international students began checking with the leadership of Stanfords medical school to see if they would be willing to develop a hybrid model so that they could remain on campus. However, international students said they didnt receive any communication from the medical school despite reaching out.

It was a little bit disappointing, Lou said.

While Stanford Medical School appeared unsupportive, Bechtel International Center, which takes care of international student paperwork, was very responsive and helpful in regards to the ICE policy. Lou appreciated how the Stanford administration was very timely on their updates. The administration contacted international students immediately when the policy was rescinded.

When she heard the news about the overturned policy, Lou said she felt a great sense of relief, as the policy didnt make sense to begin with, at least when it came to COVID-19. The policy would have resulted in additional and unnecessary travel, thus potentially increasing the spread of coronavirus.

If the directive hadnt been reversed, Lou said that she would have gone home to Canada if medical school went fully online. She felt thankful that she would have the privilege of being able to go home if that was the case.

That wasnt the case for some of her classmates; Lou was worried for her classmates across the world, particularly those from countries in different timezones.

Compared to international undergraduate students, Lou felt that other international medical students were a little bit more optimistic I think that we all just felt worried for each other.

Since there are up to 2,000 students in each class cohort of undergraduate students, it would have been more difficult and dangerous for them to go back to campus and take classes in person, compared to the 90 students in each medical student class. Another concern that Lou had for undergraduate students was that some of their classes are mandatory, which would prove to be difficult for people in dramatically different time zones. For medical students, many of their classes are optional, so it wouldnt be as much of a concern with the policy.

Initially, Lou was happy to pursue her career as a physician in either Canada or the U.S. However, the directive has made her rethink this.

Given all the increasing changes in U.S. immigration policy, and just everything thats been happening since the new U.S. government administration, it does make me feel a little bit less like my goal is to eventually be in the United States, Lou added.

Austin Atsango, from Nairobi, Kenya, is a Ph.D. student in physical chemistry. Reflecting on the ICE directive, he said that it was not expected at all, adding that it was like a rock had been pulled out or something; it was so disruptive.

Atsango did have hope that the directive could be worked around, since a lot of people need to be on campus for in-person study. However, with his field of study, he didnt have to be on campus. He began to grow worried as there was a lack of information being sent out to him.

It was almost impossible to make plans, and it was a mess, Atsango said. He understood that the administration didnt have all of the information, but wished that Stanford couldve been more proactive in their response.

At some point we were just relying on faith that it would work out [for us to stay], Atsango recalled. He had kept the news a secret from his parents back home in Kenya. He wanted to wait to tell his parents about it until he was completely sure that the directive would affect him to avoid unnecessary panic, which given the Trump administrations quick 180, turned out to be the right decision.

It was a huge relief, Atsango remembered thinking when he heard the ICE directive had been reversed. Otherwise, he would have tried to stay at Stanford, but would go home if staying was illegal. Since Kenya is ten hours ahead of California time, and Atsango doesnt have the supplies he needs at home, he expressed his worries about keeping up with his work.

I dont think that itd have been possible over the long term for me to complete my degree while not in the U.S. and not at Stanford, he said. I just dont know what I wouldve done.

Atsango even expressed that he might have had to stop school altogether because of how much trouble the decision wouldve caused him. Despite this, he felt that it wouldve been much worse if he were an undergraduate student. If he wasnt on campus for the first quarter, he wouldve had to go back home. Plus, if there were an outbreak of COVID-19 on campus, he would have to leave the U.S. in ten days and do online learning from Kenya.

It wouldve been a nightmare [if I were an undergraduate], he added.

Songnan Wang, a second-year M.D. candidate at the School of Medicine, has lived in the U.S. since her junior year of high school and attended John Hopkins University as an undergraduate, though she grew up in Shandong, China. Wangs gut reaction toward the ICE policy was: not even surprised at this point.

Though there were initial feelings of bitterness, Wang said it was kind of expected since she feels that the overall climate [toward foreigners in the U.S.] is just not very friendly.

Theres always this idea of otherness, she added, but it became more evident because of the extraordinary time society is going through.

Its all against the backdrop of COVID-19, the health disparities revealed by the virus, as well as the police brutality and anti-racist movements happening. Though she understands the complex factors behind the ICE policy, its still ridiculous how the fate of international students who worked very hard for many years would get determined by a single class.

While the directive caused widespread disturbance to international students, she had a lot of faith in Stanford to come up with ways to fulfill the in-person requirement.

As a medical student, learning really does take place through practice, whether it is through dissection or through speaking with patients [in] the wards, so Wang believes that she would have been fine.

Thinking about undergraduates, fellow candidates in other departments, and students from other institutions all of which may be in a trickier situation to fulfill in-person requirements Wang felt privileged to be an international medical student at Stanford who receives protection and support.

Filip Simeski, who is currently the only Macedonian student at Stanford, is a third-year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Hailing from Skopje, Macedonias capital, he came to the U.S. in August of 2013 and finished his undergraduate studies at Brown University.

When Simeski first heard about the ICE directive, he was shocked, scared and, by extension, stressed out by it. He also expressed how things worsened as different interpretations from various departments at Stanford, media sources and personal connections added to the confusion.

While the uncertainty caused emotional strain, the directives retraction brought a little peace of mind, and can be best summed up in the tweet by one of his classmates from Brown: Wow is this what good news feels like?

As a Ph.D. candidate, Simeski is not required to take any more formal coursework at Stanford, however, he still registers for research units every quarter and does research to satisfy the 135-unit requirement for Ph.D. students at Stanford.

No one, however, knew if this counts as an online class or in-person class, he said, adding that his fellow Ph.D. students in other departments, as well as many masters-level and all undergraduate students, may not be as lucky as him.

In terms of his thoughts toward Stanfords response to the ICE directive, he believes that the cause for the Universitys slow response was because the policy was short, lacked details and was a blanket approach to the many different situations in which international students as a population find themselves during this period.

He added that the diversity of academic fields and the range of degrees (undergraduate, graduate, doctoral) at Stanford also complicated the Universitys response.

Simeski is hopeful that he and other international students pursuing the amazing educational opportunities offered in the U.S. can graduate with no further bureaucratic obstacles.

The melting pot of cultures, the cross-pollination between various backgrounds and complementary experiences are the three factors that make U.S. higher educational institutions so amazing, Simeski said. And, that will remain possible, as long as we strive to make everyone welcome here.

Contact Vivian Chang at vivianchang2003 at gmail.com and Bridget Stuebner at bridget.stuebner at gmail.com.

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MASKED-COVID Study to Assess Renal-Related Complications of COVID-19 – DocWire News

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The Mount Sinai Health System and RenalytixAI have announced a multi-center study designed to examine kidney-related complications and long-term outcomes linked to COVID-19. The study will be conducted in multiple centers in the United States and will utilize the artificial-intelligence enabled in vitro diagnostic platform, KidneyIntelX, to assess the risk of progression of kidney disease as well as the risk of kidney failure in patients surviving COVID-19.

The MASKED-COVID (Multi-Center Assessment of Survivors for Kidney Disease after COVID-19) study was announced in a press release from RenalytixAI, the developers of KidneyIntelX, and will expand on the study announced in April that focuses on the impact of COVID-19 in the acute hospitalized setting. The teams expected to participate in the study include the Mount Sinai Health System Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Yale New Haven Health/Yale School of Medicine, Michigan Medicine/University of Michigan Medical School, Johns Hopkins Medicine/The Johns Hopkins University Medical School, and Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey/Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.

The risk for new chronic kidney disease (CKD) in the short-term or longer-term progression of kidney disease in patients who have recovered from COVID-19 will be assessed via KidneyIntelX. The system will generate a unique patient risk score using diverse data points, including validated blood and urine-based biomarkers, inherited genetics, and other patient data from electronic health records, that will be incorporated into the KidneyIntelX machine learning-enabled algorithm. Mount Sinai Health Systems serologic SARS-CoV-2 testing will be used to assess a patients antibody levels to COVID-19 over time, providing insights into the interaction between immune response and kidney-related complications in this patient population.

F. Perry Wilson, MD, MSCE, Yale University School of Medicine and MASKED-COVID principal investigator, said, With the pandemic spread of COVID-19 and the increased morbidity and mortality from COVID-19 in patients with diabetes, CKD, and acute kidney injury, it is imperative to define the underlying mechanisms of COVID-associated kidney disease and develop solutions to guide patient care. This can be best achieved through collaboration in all aspects including data sharing, biomarker analysis, data analytics, and clinical translation. RenalytixAI and Mount Sinai have assembled an outstanding team to address critical issues regarding COVID-19 and kidney disease.

Evren Azeloglu, PhD, at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, said, There are so many questions yet to be answered regarding COVID-19 and kidney disease. For example, we dont yet know the risk factor and mediators of AKI to CKD transition after COVID-19. We also dont know the predictors of long-term outcomes after COVID-19. Moreover, we need to understand how this second hit from COVID-19 interacts with other risk factors such as underlying APOL1 genotypes to heighten the potential for proteinuric nephropathy.

The MASKED-COVID study will be coordinated by Mount Sinai. Initial research findings are expected to be reported in late 2020, with the goal of launching KidneyIntelX commercialization activities in this COVID-109 population targeted for H1 2012. For more information, visit http://www.mountsinai.org.

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Conquer the solar system in the upcoming game Solar Expanse . Drop asteroids, terraform, and plan rocket flights to eventually explore the entire…

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[This unedited press release is made available courtesy of Gamasutra and its partnership with notable game PR-related resource GamesPress.]

Go to the edge of our galaxy and beyond in the one-of-a-kind space challenge that awaits you in Solar Expanse. Take on the leading role of an early 21st-century space exploration company and show your competitors how space exploration is supposed to be done!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 4th, Warsaw, Poland.

Solar Expanse cleverly mixes strategy elements with economics and management factors and will demand that gamers familiar with the genre bring their A game, as this time theyll be operating on a whole new, cosmic scale.

Watch the Solar Expanse announcement trailer HERE to better understand the sheer scale of the challenge.

Solar Expanse is coming to Steam soon, but you can already add the game to your Steam Wishlist (https://store.steampowered.com/app/1369700/Solar_Expanse/).

ABOUT SOLAR EXPANSE

Its the early 21st century in an alternate future where SpaceX isnt the only privately-owned space technology company capable of sending astronauts into orbit. The competition in this market is huge, and the days when putting people on the International Space Station was called an achievement are long gone. Now your competitors mine and drop asteroids, colonize planets ready to be inhabited while terraforming those considered not habitable, and do everything they can to gain dominance in space. You have to think big if you want to be ahead of them, so dont limit yourself to our planetary system, but treat it as the starting point of your career. Reach the planets, moons, and asteroids of the system to mine and colonize them. Once youre ready, visit Alpha Centauri, Proxima Centauri, TRAPPIST-1, Gliese 581, or Kepler-452 your strategic thinking, management skills, and budget are your only limitations.

SOLAR EXPANSE MAIN FEATURES

Solar Expanse is currently under development and will soon come to Steam.

Aside from Steam, more information about the game can be found on the publishers Facebook and Twitter.

__________________________________________________________________________________

About Games Operators

Games Operators is a publishing company that invests in, releases, and promotes video games. The company helps to develop innovative and unique video games like 911 Operator and Radio Commander by getting involved in projects at various levels of progress from the conceptual phase to nearly-finished products. http://www.gameops.pl/

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Conquer the solar system in the upcoming game Solar Expanse . Drop asteroids, terraform, and plan rocket flights to eventually explore the entire...

Plants Have Hormones, Too, and Tweaking Them Could Improve Food Supply – Scientific American

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Between crop damage caused by climate changeand a rising global population and nutritional demand, it is clear the world will need to produce more food in the future. Researchers have long studied ways to help plants resist environmental stressors such as pests and drought, both through conventional breeding and genetic modification. But many questions still remain about how, exactly, plants interact with their environment and how scientists might be able to modify those processes to help them adapt.

Researchers at the Institute of Network Biology in Germany and their colleagues may have found a way to help. In early July they published a study in Nature showing that plants communicate with the environment in more complex ways than previously thought. The investigation revealed that the information-processing network, driven by hormones, in one genus of plants is carried out by more than 2,000 protein interactions, hundreds of which had not been discovered before. Were going to need a second green revolution, says Shelley Lumba, a plant biologist at the University of Toronto, who was not involved in the study. These would be good leads to test.

Unlike animals, which complete most of their development in utero, plants remain relatively flexible throughout their life. Sensory proteins detect changing environmental conditions and then use hormones to cause it to alter its behavior or physiology accordingly. Many pathways are well understood: the hormone ABA, for instance, tells plants to close their pores and conserve water during drought by directing a series of specific proteins to carry out cellular functions.

The flexibility of these hormone networks is precisely what has made them so difficult to genetically modify or engineer to cope with changing climates, however. Most genetically modified crops that are on the market are made by adding a gene from bacteria to a plants genomeallowing it to resist an herbicide or insecticide, for example. And although the alternative, manipulating proteins, is relatively easy with new genome-editing techniques, you usually mess up the plants, says Eilon Shani, a plant biologist at Tel Aviv University.

To create crops that resist environmental stressors, researchers have relied on conventional breeding techniques using the genetic diversity that exists naturally among them. They have done so to develop varieties of wheat that produce high levels of ABA, for instance. That sort of breeding has become increasingly difficult in recent years, says Matthew Hudson, a crop scientist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. For one thing, many countries have begun banning the export of seeds that have useful properties in order to conserve them as a natural resource.

New technologies, including CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing, can make genetic modification relatively straightforward. Scientists hoping to tweak plant genes must first know what they are looking for, however. Focusing on systems rather than individual genes could prove useful. To activate their defenses against insects, for example, plants might have to shut down another hormone pathway, such as growth or water conservation.

There are a lot of trade-offs that are fundamental to plant physiology, and we know they're there, but theyre not characterized in a quantitative way, Hudson says. Research such as the Nature study, he says, could help scientists develop computational models that would reveal how to understand and tweak the pathways through genetic engineering. This is obviously the next generation of research, Hudson says.

Making plants more flexible might be more important than giving them specific traits. Hormones permit responses to take place, Lumba says. Theyre not instructing; theyre allowing environmental stimulation to be read.

Lumba is studying the hormone mechanisms that help certain plants quickly repopulate areas razed by forest fires. When these fire followers sense the chemicals emitted from burned materials, they release a hormone called auxin that sparks germination. Yet because all known plants contain auxin, as well as the smoke-sensing proteins, it remains unclear why most of them do not actually respond. Mapping out the extensive pathways between the sensor and the response, she says, could be a step toward helping restore ecosystems after a fire.

Creating crops that quickly adapt to their environments will continue to be a massive endeavor. Most plant researchers studying signaling mechanisms have focused on Arabidopsis, a genus of small flowering herbs related to cabbage and mustard. A laboratory model of Arabidopsis has been extremely well characterized. Revealing the entire network of protein interactions in crops such as corn or rice, Hudson says, would take years and millions of dollars.

Although researchers have been working on genetically modified crop plants that resist drought or other stressors, none of the variations are close to being commercially available. We have transgenic traits we can add on top [of conventionally bred plants], but were really not engineering the subtle things that make plants into viable crops, Hudson says. His group and others at the University of Illinois are working on developing computer algorithms to predict how modifying particular genes through engineering would affect a plants growth. For slow-growing organismsincluding walnut trees, which are under threat from a parasitic fungussuch a system could save many years of watching and waiting.

The same advantage is true for noncrop plants. Bingru Huang, a plant biologist at Rutgers University, has genetically modified hormone-signaling pathways in grasses used for golf-course turf and other applications. Increasing the amount of hormones called cytokinins and making the plants more sensitive to their changing levels, she found, made the grasses more resistant to heat and salty soil. Huang says practical genetic engineering of hormone pathways will be difficult, however. When you change one hormone, others change, she adds.

Ultimately, figuring out the ways plants communicate with their surroundings and adapt to harsh environments could benefit the food supply. We dont think were smarter than nature and smarter than plants, Shani says. But we might help plants adapt faster than waiting another million years for evolution to do its work again.

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Plants Have Hormones, Too, and Tweaking Them Could Improve Food Supply - Scientific American

Novartis says CAR-T cancer therapy works in second lymphoma type – BioPharma Dive

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Dive Brief:

Three years on from Kymriah's pioneering approval as the first CAR-T cell treatment, the drug remains a relatively niche product, used for leukemia and lymphoma patients whose cancers have resisted other treatments.

But Novartis, as well as its CAR-T competitor Gilead, have continued to study their therapies in new cancer types as well as in earlier lines of treatment.

Gilead, which sells Yescarta for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, recently won U.S. approval for Tecartus, a slightly different version of Yescarta that is now cleared for treating patients with mantle cell lymphoma.

Sales of both Yescarta and Kymriah have grown steadily, although neither is yet the blockbuster product their respective makers made them out to be when they were approved.

Ned Pagliarulo / BioPharma Dive, sales data from companies

CAR-T therapies have shown dramatic effectiveness in some patients with few other options. But the treatments are difficult to manufacture, requiring the genetic engineering of immune cells extracted from each patient. Manufacturing is done at several sites scattered throughout the U.S. and Europe, meaning cells must be carefully frozen and shipped from treating hospitals to company plants and back.

Remarkably, neither Novartis nor Gilead have missed a delivery of their respective CAR-T treatments due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to recent executive comments on earnings calls.

Novartis, which has struggled to produce Kymriah at the correct commercial specifications, has had its manufacturing task made easier by the recent regulatory clearances of factories in Switzerland and France.

The Swiss company plans to submit data from the ELARA trial to the Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency in 2021. Detailed results will be shared at an upcoming medical meeting, likely the American Society of Hematology's now virtual conference in December.

After diffuse large B-cell, follicular lymphoma is the second most common type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Recent approved treatments include Verastem Oncology's Copiktra and Bayer's Aliqopa.

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Novartis says CAR-T cancer therapy works in second lymphoma type - BioPharma Dive

Critical Recurring Mutation Identified in Head and Neck Cancers – Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News

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Scientists at the University of California-San Diego report that an investigational drug candidate called tipifarnib showed promise in treating head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) tumors with mutations in the HRAS gene. Head and neck cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths worldwide, and squamous cell carcinomas account for the majority of these cases.

The study Tipifarnib as a Precision Therapy for HRAS-Mutant Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinomas, published in Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, findings shed new light on the HRAS gene, a member of the RAS family of genes that produce proteins that regulate a variety of cellular processes, including growth, movement and differentiation. In 4 to 8 percent of HNSCC tumors, the HRAS gene is mutated.

Tipifarnib is a potent and highly selective inhibitor of farnesyltransferase (FT). FT catalyzes the post-translational attachment of farnesyl groups to signaling proteins that are required for localization to cell membranes. Although all RAS isoforms are FT substrates, only HRAS is exclusively dependent upon farnesylation, raising the possibility that HRAS mutant tumors might be susceptible to tipifarnib-mediated inhibition of FT, write the investigators.

Here, we report the characterization of tipifarnib activity in a wide panel of HRAS mutant and wild type HNSCC xenograft models. Tipifarnib treatment displaced both mutant and wild type HRAS from membranes but only inhibited proliferation, survival and spheroid formation of HRAS mutant cells. In vivo, tipifarnib treatment induced tumor stasis or regression in all six HRAS mutant xenografts tested but displayed no activity in six HRAS wild type PDX models.

Mechanistically, drug treatment resulted in reduction of MAPK pathway signaling, inhibition of proliferation and induction of apoptosis and robust abrogation of neovascularization, apparently via effects on both tumor cells and endothelial cells. Bioinformatics and quantitative image analysis further revealed that FT inhibition induces progressive squamous cell differentiation in tipifarnib-treated HNSCC PDX.

These preclinical findings support that HRAS represents a druggable oncogene in HNSCC through FT inhibition by tipifarnib, thereby identifying a precision therapeutic option for HNSCCs harboring HRAS mutations.

This preclinical research has the potential to extend to the entire HNSCC patient community, whose overall survival rates are limited in recurrent or metastatic disease, and existing therapeutic options that are far from optimal, with response rates of roughly 10 to 20 percent, said senior co-author J. Silvio Gutkind, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology and associate director of basic science at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center.

These preclinical findings support the idea that HRAS represents a druggable oncogene in HNSCC through tipifarnibs inhibition of a key enzyme. It is a precision therapeutic option for HNSCCs harboring HRAS mutations.

In the study, UC San Diego researchers found that cell line- and patient-derived HNSCC models harboring HRAS mutations were highly sensitive to tipifarnib, which the authors said has demonstrated encouraging preliminary clinical activity in patients with relapsed or refractory HRAS-mutant HNSCC to date.

Currently, Kura Oncology, a San Diego-based biopharmaceutical company, is conducting a nationwide clinical trialto assess the safety and efficacy of tipifarnib in head and neck cancer with HRAS mutations. Employees of Kura are co-authors of the new paper. UC San Diego is not part of the trial.

Treatment with tipifarnib, wrote study authors, had a multifaceted effect on the biology of HRAS-mutant HNSCC tumors, reducing oncogenic signaling and proliferation, while increasing apoptosis, blocking angiogenesis, and driving squamous differentiation of tumors.

Head and neck cancer accounts for approximately 650,000 cases and 330,000 deaths annually worldwide. In the United States, approximately 4 percent of all cancers are head and neck, with an estimated 65,630 persons diagnosed each year, two-thirds of them men and 14,500 deaths, according to Cancer.Net.

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Critical Recurring Mutation Identified in Head and Neck Cancers - Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News

Where FoodTech meets the plate: The 11 finalists of Calcalists Food Innovation Contest – CTech

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Calcalists startup contest that aims to find the next great FoodTech innovation, in partnership with Tnuva, has reached its final stage. The team of judges together with accounting firm Somekh Chaikin, KPMG's member firm in Israel, has selected 11 leading companies among dozens of entries that will take part in the final event.

Amai Proteins

Founder: Ilan Samish

Investors: The Kitchen - FoodTech Hub, Israel Innovation Authority, Zora Ventures

Amai Proteins Ltd. produces sweet proteins as sweeteners and sugar substitutes, which it claims are tasty, cheap, and environmentally friendly.

The company produces designer proteins suitable for the food market when the sweetener being its first product, creating a healthier sugar substitute than those currently on the market. Although there are several companies in the field of sugar substitutes, the company has no competitors in the technology of designer proteins.

Robin Food

Founder: Shai Rilov

Investors: None provided

Robin Food is a non-profit that developed an app allowing its users to coordinate food transfers to avoid wasting resources, by sharing excess food between consumers and people in their community.

The company plans to expand tint cooperation between restaurants and users. For example, a restaurant that knows it has a supply of fish for the next few days can advertise on the app and offer discounts for users.

The final stage will be to connect organizations with commercial excess with aid organizations or other major bodies. The company currently operates a restaurant and catering service specializing in salvaged food waste.

Blue Tree Technologies

Founder: Yuval Klein

Investors: None provided

Blue Tree Technologies Ltd. is a sugar reduction platform for industrial applications in the drinks industry. Its objective is to selectively remove sugars from natural drinks without any addition of additives. its first product is pure sucrose-reduced orange juice.

The natural juices industry has been in decline for several years due to the high sugar found in them. Reducing sugar in natural juice will allow more people who have stopped consuming juices for health reasons to return to consuming them.

Blue Trees main competitor in Israel is Better Juice, which offers a similar product, but uses different technology.

SavorEat

Founders: Racheli Vizman, Oded Shosayev, and Ido Braslevsky

Investors: Israel Innovation Authority, private investors, Millennium Food-Tech

SavorEat Ltd. is developing a new generation of meat replacements. Its product combines 3D printing, automated cooking devices, and unique plant-based materials that allow it to create a variety of meat-like textures and designs.

The companys solution is designed to use infrared light to cook the burger as it prints, adjusting the serving to match the consumers specific dietary needs. The raw material the company uses does not necessitate refrigeration and is gluten and allergen-free.

The meat-substitute industry has been booming in recent years and Israel boasts several companies active in the space. SavorEats product stands out because it also offers the cooking process providing the user an end-to-end experience.

Verticanna

Investors: Israel Innovation Authority and Yoav Zeif

.

Verticanna claims that through the platform the company manages to produce one gram of medical cannabis at a cost of half a dollar compared to almost a dollar that it costs to produce today.

Trellis

Founder: Ilay Englard

Investors: None provided

Trellis, incorporated as ATPlabs Ltd. has developed an AI-powered food system intelligence platform to reduce food waste. The company says its product accurately forecasts crop production, supply chain fluctuations, and market trends, which can result in lower costs, improved quality, and reduced excess.

To achieve its forecasts, the company's system uses information available online, such as satellite imagery, and weather reports, and is connected to the customer's information systems. According to the company, it managed to save 10% in waste and increase productivity by 3% in the tomato-growing industry.

Tevel Aerobotics Technologies

Founder: Yaniv Maor

Investors: Maverick Ventures, OurCrowd, Ziv Aviram, Amichai Steimberg, Avi Gross, Eyal Desheh

Tevel Aerobotics Technologies has developed a drone with a robotic arm that allows farmers to determine which fruit is ripe and pick it. The drone offers convenient access to the fruit and gathers information about their quality, quantity, and fertilizer and water levels. The flying robot can move in six directions and works with all fruit varieties. The company aims to solve personnel shortages in agriculture.

Future Meat Technologies

Founders: Yaakov Nahmias and Eran Groner

Investors: S2G Ventures, Tyson Ventures, Emerald Technology Ventures, Manta Ray Ventures, Bits x Bites, Monde Nissin

Future Meat Technologies Ltd. is a biotechnology company that develops technology for the GMO-free production of meat directly from animal cells, without the need to raise or slaughter animals.

The company's technology is based on research conducted in the laboratory of Prof. Yaakov Nahmias, founder of the Center for Bioengineering at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The company is developing a technological platform for industrial-scale production that enables economical and scalable production of meat-free meat products, in order to free the world from animal dependence.

The technology simulates the fermentation processes of existing foods like yogurt or beer. Since its inception in 2018, the company has successfully created a bank of cells from various sources such as poultry and beef and adapted various formulas to create muscle and fat tissue.

BeeWise

Founder: Saar Safra

Investors: lool Ventures, Atooro Fund, ARC Impact, Beach investments, Fortissimo Capital

BeeWise Technologies Ltd. developed autonomous beehives that operate by utilizing AI-powered precision robotics and a network of cameras and sensors. The company's platform enables real-time detection and automated solution to 97% of the problems that may arise.

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Where FoodTech meets the plate: The 11 finalists of Calcalists Food Innovation Contest - CTech

WVU researcher to study THC levels in industrial hemp – WVNS-TV

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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WBOY) A researcher at West Virginia University has received $200,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to study industrial hemp for two years.

One of the many factors Michael Gutensohn, an assistant professor of horticulture in the Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design, will be studying is the THC levels in hemp plants. THC is the psychoactive compound in hemp and cannabis that causes someone to get high and hemp growers are only allowed to have 0.3% of it in their plant. However, this is hard to control because very little is understood about the hemp plant since growing it was illegal until 2018.

If you look at hemp, theres very little [understood], but on the flip side of that, any grower that grows hemp has the same questions and issues as, say, someone who grows corn would have. Theres a huge gap in knowledge and we really need to do some research there and were almost decades behind some of these other crop systems.

Because very little is known about why hemp plants go hot, the term for when they exceed the 0.3 percent THC limit, growers often have to discard their harvest or wait and hope the concentration drops, according to a WVU press release. Gutensohn said this problem is far from rare and as a result growers are suffering, and in need of answers.

Those answers, he said, could lie in the fact that there are a variety of hemp plants, some of which are less prone to having higher THC percentages. Another avenue that might yield some answers is better understanding the environmental impacts on triggering THC. These environmental factors include soil conditions, pests, pathogens and the use of fertilizer among other things, all of which will be studied.

In general, the end goal is to hopefully gain knowledge that can be used to develop varieties, hemp varieties, that would not run into this problem anymore, Gutensohn said. And in principle, there are two avenues for that, either you can do classical breeding, where you just test many many different varieties and hope to find and breed some that dont run into that problem. Thats what has been done and is still be done by certain seed companies that breed hemp. The other thing that might be a different avenue and a little bit quicker to solve some of these problems is genetic engineering.

The real aim is to have answers for growers at the end of the two year period as to how they can avoid running into the problem of hot hemp. As his research starts producing more answers, Gutensohn said, that information will start to be disseminated through WVUs Extension Services that works with West Virginian farmers.

Developing new hemp varieties will take quite some time, Gutensohn said, because breeding and developing new seeds is a pretty lengthy process. That is why he is looking more in the short term to find answers.

Another aspect of Gutensohns research is beyond THC and looks at some of the many other chemical compounds found in the hemp plant. He said some are helpful in producing pharmaceutical products. One of those compounds is terpenes, which is what gives hemp and cannabis their unique smell.

They are basically a feedstock material that theres a lot of different interests in from the chemical industry, Gutensohn said. For flavors, fragrances, they are even, for example, considered as a biofuel or a biofuel additive. Theres a lot of interest in that, hemp plants produce an enormous amount of these compounds. Our research sort of looks at more than just THC and CBD, but a larger number of compounds because we hope that hemp can be sort of a platform to produce a lot of these compounds as well and our research will hopefully help from that perspective.

According to the release, for this project, Gutensohn is partnering with two former WVU faculty members Nik Kovinich, assistant professor of systems biology at York University and Nianqiang Wu, professor of chemical engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

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WVU researcher to study THC levels in industrial hemp - WVNS-TV

Global CRISPR Gene-Editing Market Future Growth Analysis, Business Demand and Opportunities to 2027 | Applied StemCell, ACEA BIO, Synthego, Thermo…

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Global CRISPR gene-editing market is highly fragmented and the major players have used various strategies such as new product launches, expansions, agreements, joint ventures, partnerships, acquisitions, and others to increase their footprints in this market. The report includes market shares of the CRISPR gene-editing market for Global, Europe, North America, Asia-Pacific, South America, and the Middle East & Africa.

Global CRISPR Gene-Editing Market report performs systematic gathering, recording and analysis of data about the issues related to the marketing of goods and services and serves the businesses with an excellent market research report. The report provides intelligent solutions to complex business challenges and commences an effortless decision-making process. The report analyses and evaluates the important industry trends, market size, market share estimates, and sales volume with which industry can speculate the strategies to increase return on investment (ROI). In the Global CRISPR Gene-Editing Market document, the statistics have been represented in the graphical format for an unambiguous understanding of facts and figures.

CRISPR gene-editing marketis rising gradually with a healthy CAGR of 23.35 % in the forecast period of 2019-2026. Growing prevalence of cancer worldwide and expanding the application of CRISPR technology by innovative research from the different academic organizations are the key factors for market growth.

Get a Sample Copy of the Report @ (Use Corporate email ID to Get Higher Priority) @https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/request-a-sample/?dbmr=global-crispr-gene-editing-market

Key Market Players:

Few of the major competitors currently working in the global CRISPR gene-editing market are Applied StemCell, ACEA BIO, Synthego, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc, GenScript, Addgene, Merck KGaA, Intellia Therapeutics, Inc, Cellectis, Precision Biosciences, Caribou Biosciences, Inc, Transposagen Biopharmaceuticals, Inc, OriGene Technologies, Inc, Novartis AG, New England Biolabs among others

Market Dynamics:

Set of qualitative information that includes PESTEL Analysis, PORTER Five Forces Model, Value Chain Analysis and Macro Economic factors, Regulatory Framework along with Industry Background and Overview.

Global CRISPR Gene-Editing Market By Therapeutic Application (Oncology, Autoimmune/Inflammatory), Application (Genome Engineering, Disease Models, Functional Genomics and Others), Technology (CRISPR/Cas9, Zinc Finger Nucleases and Others), Services (Design Tools, Plasmid and Vector, Cas9 and g-RNA, Delivery System Products and Others), Products (GenCrispr/Cas9 kits, GenCrispr Cas9 Antibodies, GenCrispr Cas9 Enzymes and Others), End-Users (Biotechnology & Pharmaceutical Companies, Academic & Government Research Institutes, Contract Research Organizations and Others), Geography (North America, South America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa) Industry Trends and Forecast to 2026

Global CRISPR Gene-Editing Research Methodology

Data Bridge Market Research presents a detailed picture of the market by way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. The data thus presented is comprehensive, reliable, and the result of extensive research, both primary and secondary. The analysts have presented the various facets of the market with a particular focus on identifying the key industry influencers.

Major Drivers and Restraints of the CRISPR Gene-Editing Industry

High prevalence of cancer worldwide is driving the growth of this marketJoint ventures by biotechnical companies for the advancement of genetic engineering for the development of CRISPR worldwide can also boost the market growthExpanding the application of CRISPR technology by innovative research from the different academic organizations also enhances the market growth

High finance in research and development also acts as a driving factor in the growth of this marketProbable mistreatment of CRISPR gene editing device and CRISPR/Cas genome editing device is restricting the growth for the marketScientific and major technical challenges for the production of disease specific novel CRISPR gene editing can also hamper the market growthLack of healthcare budget in some middle-income countries restricts the market growth

Complete report is available (TOC) @https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/toc/?dbmr=global-crispr-gene-editing-market

The titled segments and sub-section of the market are illuminated below:

By Therapeutic

OncologyAutoimmune/Inflammatory

By Application

Genome EngineeringDisease ModelsFunctional GenomicsOthers

By Technology

CRISPR/Cas9Zinc Finger NucleasesOthers

By Services

Design ToolsPlasmid and VectorCas9 and g-RNADelivery System ProductsOthers

By Products

GenCrispr/Cas9 kitsGenCrispr Cas9 AntibodiesGenCrispr Cas9 EnzymesOthers

By End-Users

Biotechnology & Pharmaceutical CompaniesAcademic & Government Research InstitutesContract Research OrganizationsOthers

Top Players in the Market are:

Few of the major competitors currently working in the global CRISPR gene-editing market are Applied StemCell, ACEA BIO, Synthego, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc, GenScript, Addgene, Merck KGaA, Intellia Therapeutics, Inc, Cellectis, Precision Biosciences, Caribou Biosciences, Inc, Transposagen Biopharmaceuticals, Inc, OriGene Technologies, Inc, Novartis AG, New England Biolabs among others

How will the report help new companies to plan their investments in the CRISPR Gene-Editing market?

The CRISPR Gene-Editing market research report classifies the competitive spectrum of this industry in elaborate detail. The study claims that the competitive reach spans the companies.

The report also mentions about the details such as the overall remuneration, product sales figures, pricing trends, gross margins, etc.

Information about the sales & distribution area alongside the details of the company, such as company overview, buyer portfolio, product specifications, etc., are provided in the study.

Any query? Enquire Here For Discount Or Report Customization: @https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/inquire-before-buying/?dbmr=global-crispr-gene-editing-market

Some of the Major Highlights of TOC covers:

Chapter 1: Methodology & Scope

Definition and forecast parameters

Methodology and forecast parameters

Data Sources

Chapter 2: Executive Summary

Business trends

Regional trends

Product trends

End-use trends

Chapter 3: CRISPR Gene-Editing Industry Insights

Industry segmentation

Industry landscape

Vendor matrix

Technological and innovation landscape

Chapter 4: CRISPR Gene-Editing Market, By Region

Chapter 5: Company Profile

Business Overview

Financial Data

Product Landscape

Strategic Outlook

SWOT Analysis

Thanks for reading this article, you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia.

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An absolute way to forecast what future holds is to comprehend the trend today!Data Bridge set forth itself as an unconventional and neoteric Market research and consulting firm with unparalleled level of resilience and integrated approaches. We are determined to unearth the best market opportunities and foster efficient information for your business to thrive in the market. Data Bridge endeavors to provide appropriate solutions to the complex business challenges and initiates an effortless decision-making process.

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Global CRISPR Gene-Editing Market Future Growth Analysis, Business Demand and Opportunities to 2027 | Applied StemCell, ACEA BIO, Synthego, Thermo...

Opinion | The US is belatedly facing up to the ugly truth about shifty China – Livemint

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On 23 July, US secretary of state Mike Pompeo delivered a speech that is the clearest admission ever by a top US official that his countrys leadership had followed a wrong China strategy for half a century. And to say this, Pompeo chose the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum as a venue. President Nixon began the current US-China relationship in 1971, after 22 years of hostility.

Pompeo said that US policymakers had presumed for decades that as China became more prosperous, it would open up, it would become freer at home, and indeed present less of a threat abroad". They had been totally mistaken. And if we dont act now," said Pompeo, ultimately the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) willsubvert the rules-based order that our societies have worked so hard to build. If we bend the knee now, our childrens children may be at the mercy of the CCP, whose actions are the primary challenge today in the free world."

Secretary of state Henry Kissinger visited China in 1971, and soon after, the US began providing financial and military assistance. In the late 1970s, Deng Xiaoping realized that to prosper, China needed to obtain knowledge and skills from the US, the key being technology. In 1979, Deng and President Jimmy Carter signed agreements that led to the US providing China, as analyst Michael Pillsbury put it, the greatest outpouring of American scientific and technological expertise in history". The next year, the US granted China most-favoured-nation status as a trading partner. Wrote Pillsbury in 2015: There is no available accounting of all the activities funded by the US government to aid China. Not only is America funding its chief opponent, it doesnt even keep track of how much is being spent to do it."

In the 1980s, the Ronald Reagan administration funded and trained new Chinese state-run institutes specializing in high-tech areas, from genetic engineering to intelligent robotics. US companies began investing in China, agreeing (or being coerced) to transfer often-proprietary technology to Chinese firms. Wall Street bankers grew mega-rich while raising billions of dollars for Chinese companies, many of them dubious, with very few following transparent accounting norms.

Americans paid no attention to the fact that Chinese textbooks continued to portray the US as a hegemon that, for more than 150 years, had tried to stifle Chinas rise. Or that the Chinese National Museum in Beijing, where the CCP tells its version of Chinese history, consistently shows America as an evil power. The list of anti-China US presidents showcased range from Abraham Lincoln (who surely didnt have much time to think about China) toincrediblyNixon. The US ignored Document 9, a 2013 CCP position paper that stated that the belief that freedom, democracy and human rights are universal" is an attack on the foundations of the CCP, and promoting Western constitutional democracy" is an attempt to undermine the socialism-with-Chinese-characteristics system of governance".

Soon after the terror attacks of 9 September 2001, The Telegraph of London reported that the Chinese state-run propaganda machine is producing books, films and video games glorifying the strikes as a humbling blow against an arrogant nation". The State-owned Beijing Television produced a documentary, Attack America, in which, over the video of the jets crashing into the World Trade Centre, the narrator says: This is the America the whole world has wanted to see. Blood debts have been repaid with blood." Yet, a mere three months after 9/11, China achieved its dream of admission to the World Trade Organization (WTO), principally due to strong US support. Since then, it has repeatedly flouted WTO rules.

The Peoples Liberation Armys (PLAs) cyber warfare division, Unit 6139, has been found to be hacking into vital US computer systems for years, from its department of defence to Google and AT&T, and stealing data and technology. The J-20, the PLAs answer to the American stealth fighter jet F-35, may have been developed with F-35 designs stolen from the US. But when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the US in 2015, Barack Obama agreed to Chinese demands not to raise the issues of intellectual property theft and the PLAs cyber attacks.

Last month, Christopher Wray, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, described Chinese stealing of scientific research from US industry and academia as theft on a scale so massive that it represents one of the largest transfers of wealth in human history". In one case, Chinese scientist Hongjin Tan alone was found to have stolen over $1 billion worth of trade secrets from his employer, a petroleum company, before getting caught.

But none of this is a great revelation to any China watcher. These facts have been known for years, if not decades. The only mystery is why the US government took so long to wake up. As Pompeo put it, Perhaps we were naive about Chinas virulent strain of communism, or triumphalist after our victory in the Cold War, or cravenly capitalist, or hoodwinked by Beijings talk of a peaceful rise." Whatever the reason, it is good news for the world that America is finally facing the truth about Beijing.

Sandipan Deb is a former editor of Financial Express, and founder-editor of Open and Swarajya magazines

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Opinion | The US is belatedly facing up to the ugly truth about shifty China - Livemint

Theft, censorship and the emperors of the online economy: Tech CEOs go on defense – POLITICO

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Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos the world's richest man, making his long-awaited first-ever appearance before a congressional hearing faced no questions at all for nearly two hours, before offering an inconclusive answer on whether the company uses data to undermine its third-party merchants. Amazon is still facing allegations that one of its executives misled Congress about that same issue last year.

The virtual testimony comes at a time of rising legal jeopardy for the major tech companies, who are the subject of antitrust and consumer-protection probes in Washington, multiple U.S. states and Europe.

Subcommittee Chairman David Cicilline (D-R.I.) set the tone early, with an opening statement vowing to check the power of the "emperors of the online economy." But so did Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the full Judiciary panel, who laid out a long series of alleged slights against conservatives by top social media companies and later got into a shouting match after a Democrat accused him of promoting fringe conspiracy theories.

See live highlights from the hearing below.

Amazon is making more money from sellers fees because more third-party sellers are using its services, CEO Jeff Bezos told lawmakers, countering the idea that his company is unfairly profiting from the merchants.

But the Amazon CEO acknowledged that the marketplace algorithm may indirectly favor those who pay the company to fulfill orders.

Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.) cited a new report by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance that found Amazon brought in nearly $60 billion from seller fees last year 21 percent of Amazons total revenue and that the e-commerce giant keeps about 30 percent of each sale. That amount is up from 19 percent of each sale five years ago.

Bezos said the increased amount is because sellers are spending more money with Amazon by using additional services such as Fulfillment by Amazon, where the company stores and ships products on behalf of third-party sellers.

When you see these fees going up, sellers are choosing to use more of our services we make available, he said. Previously they were shipping their own products from their own fulfillment centers so they would have had costs doing that. Now they are doing that through Fulfilment by Amazon.

Bezos also acknowledged that the Buy Box which preselects the seller for when a user clicks on a product indirectly favors sellers who use the Fulfilled by Amazon services.

Indirectly, I think the Buy Box does favor products that can be shipped with Prime, he said. The Buy Box is trying to pick the offer that we predict the customer would most like. That includes price, that includes delivery speed, and if youre a Prime member, it includes whether the item is eligible for Prime."

In response to questions from Rep. Lucy McBath (D-Ill.) about stolen and counterfeit goods, Bezos said he believes that Amazon requires sellers to provide a real name and address, but wasnt sure whether a phone number is required. He also said he didnt know how many resources Amazon devotes to seller verification.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos took a rare swipe against a core feature of his Silicon Valley competitors late in todays hearing, singling out social media as destructive for free expression.

What I find a little discouraging is that it appears to me that social media is a nuance destruction machine, Bezos said. And I dont think thats helpful for a democracy.

Bezos offered his critique while testifying by videoconference, alongside the head of social media giant Facebook.

He was responding to House Judiciary ranking member Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who was invoking the idea of cancel culture and the notion of online mobs that shout down unfashionable opinions. The lawmaker was assessing whether lawmakers were concerned about the polarizing idea, which some question as overblown.

I am concerned in general about that, Bezos told Jordan.

Other tech CEOs also appeared sympathetic to Jordans cancel culture worries.

Apple CEO Tim Cook noted he wasnt all the way up to speed on the idea but expressed concern: If youre about where somebody with a different point of view talks, and theyre canceled, I dont think thats good. I think its good for people to hear from different points of view and decide for themselves.

Im very worried about some of the forces of illiberalism that I see in this country that are pushing against free expression, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Jordan, without identifying specifics.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai simply noted the interest in building platforms to allow freedom of expression. John Hendel

The Chinese government steals U.S. technologies, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said making him the only one of the four tech CEOs willing to say that plainly in response to a question from Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.).

I think its well-documented that the Chinese government steals technology from American companies, Zuckerberg said.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said he had no personal knowledge about Chinese technology theft.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai initially followed Cooks line, but later corrected the record to confirm that in 2009 China stole Google information in a well-publicized cyberattack.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who answered last, acknowledged that he had read many reports about technology theft by Beijing, but had no first-hand experience beyond knock-off products sold on Amazon.

All four CEOs passed on the opportunity to suggest how Congress could better help defend U.S. companies abroad, against either technology theft or excessive regulation. Leah Nylen and Ryan Heath

Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), who heads the Houses probe into tech giants, accused Facebook of tolerating a fountain of misinformation that benefits the companys engagement-driven business model even on topics as deadly as the coronavirus.

Theres no competition forcing you to police your own platform, the House antitrust subcommittee chairman told CEO Mark Zuckerberg. During the greatest public health crisis of our lifetime, dont you agree that these articles viewed by millions on your platform will cost lives?

The lawmaker cited articles that drew millions of views on sites like Facebook while making claims about Covid-19, including those describing President Donald Trumps musings about placing disinfectants inside the body or allegations that coronavirus hype is a political hoax.

Cicilline said Facebook allows such content to reap advertising dollars. But Zuckerberg countered that this kind of noxious material is not helpful for our business.

It is not what people want to see, and we rank what we show in Feed based on what is going to be most meaningful to people and what is going to create long-term satisfaction, Zuckerberg said.

Zuckerberg defended Facebooks policy of taking down bogus information that could cause imminent harm and its attempt to highlight authoritative guidance. But Cicilline brought up a Monday video from the conservative website Breitbart, which dismissed the necessity of masks and called hydroxychloroquine a Covid-19 cure and which experienced soaring Facebook traffic over several hours before Facebook removed it.

A lot of people shared that, Zuckerberg said. And we did take it down because it violates our policies.

After 20 million people saw it after a period of five hours? Cicilline countered. Doesnt that suggest, Mr. Zuckerberg, that your platform is so big that even with the right policies in place, you cant contain deadly content? John Hendel

Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks via video conference during the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law hearing. | Graeme Jennings/Getty Images

Apple didnt consider the impact on its own parental control app when it removed some of the most popular apps that limit screentime from its App Store, CEO Tim Cook told lawmakers.

Apple introduced its own Screen Time app, which allows parents to limit how much time kids spend on their phones, in September 2018. After that, the company removed a number of competing apps. Qustodio and Kidslox, two of the leading parental control apps, have filed a complaint with the European Commission about their removal.

Cook said Apple removed the apps because of privacy concerns.

We were worried about the safety of kids, Cook said in response to questions by Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.).

Demings asked Cook why the company removed many of the most popular screentime apps but not Absher, an app created by the Saudi Arabian government that uses the same technology.

It sounds like you applied different rules to the same apps, Demings said.

Cook said he wasnt familiar with Absher, but said the App Store has about 30 parental control apps after it changed its policy last year. Rep. Lucy McBath (D-Ga.), who returned to the issue later in the hearing, noted that Apple eventually allowed the apps back into the App Store after six months without requiring major changes.

We apply the rules to all developers equally, Cook said. I see Screen Time as just an alternative. Theres vibrant competition for parental controls out there. Leah Nylen

Facebook has certainly adapted features from competing services, CEO Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged Wednesday, but he denied it has threatened to copy start-ups if they wouldnt sell to his company.

But Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) expressed skepticism about his answer, reading from text messages between Zuckerberg and Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom and messages between Systrom and a venture capitalist. She asked Zuckerberg whether he threatened Systrom and Snap CEO Evan Spiegel by saying he would clone their products if they didnt sell to Facebook. The company bought Instagram in 2012, but Snap rebuffed offers to sell to the social network.

The House subcommittee also posted those documents to its website Wednesday.

Im not sure what you would mean by threaten, Zuckerberg said, referring to the companys effort to build an app called Facebook Camera. It was public we were building a camera app at the time. That was a well-documented thing.

It was clear this was a space we were going to compete in one way or another, he said. I dont think those are a threat in any way.

Jayapal reminded Zuckerberg he was under oath while testifying.

In closing her questioning, Jayapal said she didnt believe threats should be a normal business practice.

Facebook is a case study in monopoly power, in my opinion, because your company harvests and monetizes our data and then your company uses that data to spy on your competitors and copy, acquire and kill rivals, she said. Youve used Facebooks power to threaten smaller competitors and ensure you always get your way. These tactics reinforce Facebooks dominance. Leah Nylen

House Judiciary Democrats lost a big potential GOP ally if they had any hopes of bipartisan recommendations to update antitrust law as part of their probe into tech giants.

I have reached the conclusion that we do not need to change our antitrust laws, Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), the top Republican on the antitrust subcommittee, said hours into the hearing on alleged bad behavior by Google, Apple, Amazon and Facebook. Theyve been working just fine. The question here is the question of enforcement of those antitrust laws.

The subcommittees probe has been led by Chairman David Cicilline (D-R.I.), who has been preparing a report to conclude the long investigation. GOP buy-in would strongly bolster its conclusions, including potential recommendations for updates to antitrust law.

Notably, Sensenbrenner seemed to support the probe itself and said hes been working with the chairman for over a year on this bipartisan investigation. His support runs counter to some Republicans who have disparaged Democratic handling of the probe.

But Congress shouldnt toss out a century of precedent, added the retiring House Republican. He said lawmakers should instead pressure antitrust regulators like the Federal Trade Commission, an agency that has faced accusations of going lightly on companies like Facebook and Google. John Hendel

Tempers flared more than two hours into the hearing after Rep. Mary Scanlon (D-Pa.) began her questioning with a dismissal of what she called fringe conspiracy theories of House Judiciary ranking member Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).

That prompted an outburst from Jordan, who had just pressed Google on whether its biased toward Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden and said he had internal evidence of the search giants interest in encouraging Latino voters in 2016.

The only problem: It was no longer Jordans time to speak, as Democrats immediately reminded him as they shouted him down.

Mr. Jordan, you do not have the time! antitrust subcommittee Chairman David Cicilline (D-R.I.) declared amid gavel slamming.

When someone told him to wear a mask, Jordan sought to bring up the unmasking in the surveillance sense of former Trump White House national security adviser Michael Flynn.

When someone comes after my motives for asking questions, I get a chance to respond, Jordan said before letting the hearing proceed.

For the record, Google CEO Sundar Pichai maintained that his company is apolitical. John Hendel

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said the company is still investigating whether employees may have used data it acquires from its third-party sellers to launch competing products an issue that has prompted allegations that the company misled House lawmakers a year ago.

We have a policy against using seller-specific data to aid our private label business. I cant guarantee you that that policy has never been violated, Bezos said in response to questions from Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), whose district includes Amazon headquarters. If we found someone violated the policy, we would take action against them.

The Wall Street Journal reported this year that Amazon employees frequently looked at seller data to help determine what products the company should offer, contrary to what an Amazon executive told the House a year ago. Jayapal also quoted a former Amazon employee as telling the panel that seller data is a candy shop. Everyone can have access to anything they want.

Bezos also acknowledged that while company policy might prevent employees from looking at a specific sellers information, they could look at aggregate data. Jayapal and The Wall Street Journal story noted that Amazon workers took advantage of that by pairing a successful seller with one who had little business to gain insights into particular products.

You have access to data that other sellers do not have, Jayapal said. The whole goal of this committees work is to make sure that there are more Amazons, that there are more Apples, that there are more companies that get to innovate and small businesses get to thrive. ...That is why we need to regulate these marketplaces so that no company has a platform so dominant that it is essentially a monopoly. Leah Nylen

The first batch of questions saw the CEOs collectively struggle to directly answer lawmakers, who came armed with well-researched questions and strong opinions a shift in gear from previous congressional tech hearings.

The one exception was Jeff Bezos, who escaped all questions for the first hour.

As Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg defended his companys management of Instagram, citing the Federal Trade Commissions original decision not to challenge the companys 2012 merger with Instagram, hearing chairman David Cicilline (D-R.I.) dismissed Zuckerberg, saying the failures of the FTC in 2012 do not alleviate Facebooks current antitrust challenges.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai tried to fend off questions by citing examples of individual vendors using Google to grow their business, before Cicilline cut him off for not answering the question.

Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) reeled off a list of possible links and alignment between Google and the Chinese Communist Party, leaving Pichai to say only that Google had only a very limited presence in China. He repeated that answer to Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who repeated charges by tech investor Peter Thiel that Googles China links are treason, and concerns from Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who said in 2018 that Googles artificial intelligence work in China puts the U.S. military at a competitive disadvantage. Ryan Heath

Apple CEO Tim Cook rejected allegations that the companys App Store rules for developers are enforced arbitrarily and argued that the company must compete with rivals to interest developers in building apps for its iPhone and iPad.

We treat every developer the same. We have open and transparent rules, Cook said under questioning from Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.). Those rules apply evenly to everyone.

Cook said the majority of apps sold through the App Store, 84 percent, pay no fees. The remainder pay either a 30 percent or 15 percent commission, he said.

Johnson noted that Amazon has an agreement with Apple to allow users to bypass the iPhones in-app payment service, and its 30 percent fee, and instead use the credit card on file in their Amazon account for the Amazon Prime Video app. Cook said that would be available to anyone meeting the conditions, though he didnt outline what those conditions are.

The Apple CEO also argued that the company must compete to attract developers, who could offer apps for Googles Android, Microsofts Windows or XBox or Nintendos Playstation.

Theres a competition for developers just like theres a competition for customers, Cook said. Its so competitive I would describe it as a street fight for market share in the smartphone business. Leah Nylen

Were starting to see some fruits of the subcommittees year-plus investigation, and its got Zuckerberg on the defensive.

The Facebook CEO and New York Democrat Jerry Nadler went back and forth over internal company emails in which, Nadler said, Zuckerberg told a colleague back in 2012 that it was buying the photo-sharing Instagram because it could meaningfully hurt us without becoming a huge business.

Zuckerbergs thinking at the time could become a critical piece of evidence if it bolsters the idea that Facebook was abusing its dominance and deep coffers to eliminate budding rivals. Facebooks buying up of Instagram has become a key focus for critics of the company, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and others saying the deal should be unwound. Thats a threat for Facebook: Instagram has become wildly popular in its own right, and is central to Zuckerbergs plan to keep a toe hold with younger generations who are otherwise flocking to sites like TikTok.

Did you mean that consumers might switch from Facebook to Instagram? Nadler asked.

Congressman, started Zuckerberg, attempting to make the case that no one at the time saw Instagram has a general social network app, rather than a really good photo-sharing app. Nadler pressed on: Yes or no: Did you mean that?

Then Nadler went for the kill, asking what Zuckerberg meant when he wrote that what were really buying is time, adding, Mr. Zuckerberg: Mergers and acquisitions that buy off potential competitive threats violate the antitrust laws.

Zuckerberg tried again, insisting that the Federal Trade Commission knew how Facebook was thinking about Instagram back when it signed off on the merger almost a decade ago. Thats when antitrust subcommittee David Cicilline (D-R.I.) jumped in: I would remind the witness that the failures of the FTC in 2012 of course do not alleviate the antitrust challenges that the chairman described.

Translation: Dont think this is over just because that agency down the road said it was.Nancy Scola

A top House Republican used his questioning to press Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg over a recent content moderation squabble involving Donald Trump Jr., the presidents son, with Twitter.

It was reported that Donald Trump Jr. got taken down for a period of time because he put something up on the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine, Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), the top Republican on the Judiciary antitrust subcommittee. Although Sensenbrenner said he wouldnt take the medication, the lawmaker said, I think this is a legitimate matter of discussion.

Why has that happened? Sensenbrenner asked Zuckerberg.

Congressman, first, to be clear, I think what you might be referring to happened on Twitter, so its hard for me to speak to that, the Facebook CEO said. But I can talk to our policies about this.

Zuckerberg said Facebook would take down any claim a proven cure for Covid-19 exists when there is none, given the potential imminent risk for harm, although he said the social platform would allow free discussion about drug trials and what people may think more generally about a treatments prospects.

Our goal is to offer a platform for all ideas, Zuckerberg told Sensebrenner. Frankly I think weve distinguished ourselves as one of the companies that defends free expression the most. John Hendel

Google CEO Sundar Pichai denied that the search giant steals content from other websites and rejected reports alleging that the company steers users to its own products and sites rather than sources elsewhere on the web.

We have always focused on providing users the most relevant information, Pichai said in response to pointed questions from House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee chair David Cicilline (D-R.I.), who said the panel had seen evidence about Google taking content from other websites and placing more ads on its search results. The vast majority of queries on Google, we dont show ads at all.

Cicilline cited an investigation by The Markup that showed Google has devoted more space on the first page of search results to its own products -- which earn the company more revenue that if users go to other webpages. Pichai said that Google only shows ads when consumers are seeking to buy products and argued that they compete with other e-commerce platforms, like Amazon, where consumers often go directly to try to find products.

When I run the company Im really focused on giving users what they want, Pichai said. We see vigorous competition, whether it be travel or real estate, and we are working hard to innovate.

The Federal Trade Commissions investigation into Google in the early 2010s found Google scraped content from other websites, including Yelp and TripAdvisor. The company agreed to allow other companies to opt out of having their content scraped through 2017. Leah Nylen

One surprise so far in the hearing: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who generally likes to stick fairly religiously to a script in his public appearances, went far afield from his written testimony including strongly arguing that his 2-billion-member social network is an underdog when you look at the behemoths hes testifying alongside.

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Theft, censorship and the emperors of the online economy: Tech CEOs go on defense - POLITICO

How the New York Times profits from self-censorship – The Spectator USA

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The recent high-profile departures at theNew York Timesof editorial page editor James Bennet andopinionwriter Bari Weiss have left some on the business side of the news industry scratching their heads.Both exited amid ideological turmoil that Weissdetailedin a letter of resignationtothe Timesspublisher A.G. Sulzberger, describing the hostile work environment she endured at the hands of fellow editors and staffers. They were wholly intolerant, she said, of her role as acentrist at the paper. Bennet, said Weiss, had led the effort after President Trumps election in 2016 to bring in voices that would not otherwise appear in theTimes.

But what of Sulzberger, whose prime duty is toNew York Timesshareholders and therefore to the papers bottom line? How does the top executive justify alienating swathes ofTimes customers and potentialsubscriberswho may be sympathetic to, or even merely curious about, ideas beyond what Weiss described as our 4,000th op-ed arguing that Donald Trump is a unique danger to the country and the world?

Theoverlookedtruth is that there is considerable financial incentive for theTimesto limit the scope of discussion.This business angle may foretell what to expect from theTimesgoing forward.

Its a product of how the business of news has evolved in recent years. Advertising revenue has been hurtling downhill for some time and the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated that decline. In the first quarter of this year, the Timess ad revenue fell 15.2 percent year-over year. In May,theTimesannouncedthat it expects advertising revenue in the second quarter to fall even more dramatically, bybetween 50 and 55 percent.

And yet the companys stock price continues to climb. It is now priced in the $46per sharerange. Its all time high of $52per share, set in 2002, is within reach. This steady climb marks a remarkable recovery from a low of about $4per sharein 2009.

These strong numbers are a product of theTimesssuccessful digital subscription business, which hasgrownrapidlyin recent years. Last year, the publisher announced the goal of reaching 10 million subscribers by the end of 2025. In February the paper announced it had hit the halfway mark a year early. In the first quarter of this year theTimes added an impressive 587,000 new digital subscribers, bringing its total subscriber base to more than six million, some 85 percent of which are online-only.

In the past, when advertising was the main driver of revenue, the goal was to reach the widest possible audience. Now, though, the business model demands the paper focus on catering to a narrow but passionate segment of the readership base. Thatsegmentincreasingly accounts for the bulk of theTimess income and it prefers a narrow, left-wing editorial line.

A 2017 study of datafrom hundreds of major media sites conducted by Piano, a leading provider of metered paywalls for the news industry,foundthat for most media outlets the bulk of digital subscription revenue isdriven by a small percentage between 2 and 12 percent of readers. Piano calls them super-fans, super-users, direct and dedicated, the invested, and loyalists.

Being able to serve and monetize this relatively small part of the audience now makes all the difference between success and failure,the study concludes.

WhiletheTimessloyal subscriber base grows, its overall readership is growing even faster.The rapid increase in subscriber numbers means that, if anything, an even smaller percentage of the audience is driving the bulk of the revenue, says Mark Thompson, CEO of theTimes.

This relatively small base of loyalists, who are so fundamental to theTimess business model, stand largely on the left of the political spectrum.

TheTimess public editor, Liz Spayd,addressedthe questionof the papers political leanings in a 2016 column. She was unsuccessful in uncovering the official proprietary numbers on the ideological breakdown of theTimess subscriber base, butnotedthat on most days, conservatives occupy just a few back-row seats in this giant liberal echo chamber.

Should the paper write off conservatives and make a hard play for the left and perhaps center left, Spayd asked, or has that already happened?

Spaydnotesa 2014 Pew Research surveywhich found that 65 percent ofTimesreadersleaned to the left, and only 12 percent leaned to the right. Considering the heightened polarization in media today, its likely that those numbers now skew even further left, and that the loyalist subscribers are drawn from that audience. Spayd was on to something.Herjob at theTimeswas subsequently eliminated.

The phenomenon of leftward drift and loyalists came starkly to light after President Trumps election in 2016, which triggered a new surge in subscriptions. In 2017, Times executive editor Dean Baquet acknowledged in a CNN interview the impact Trump has on revenue. Every time he tweets, it drives subscriptions wildly, Baquet said. In 2018, the Financial Times reportedthat theTimeswas still riding the high of the so-called Trump Bump.

***Get a digital subscription toThe Spectator.Try a month free, then just $3.99 a month***

The President often belittles the paper as the failingNew York Times. The Timesoften returns fire.TheVox columnistJeff Guodescribed this approachas a great way to pile even more liberals onto the Timess subscriber bandwagon.

In recent years Thompsonhastried to push back against the contention that subscriptions are driven by opposition to Trump, citing diversification among subscribers geographically and also in terms of race and ethnicity. But he has provided no evidence of any political diversification.

Inherresignation letter,Bari Weissconfirms that stories arechosen and told in a way to satisfy the narrowest of audiences.Sulzbergers apparent comfort with the departures of Weiss and Bennet affirms why this is the case.FortheNew York Times, what Weisscallsself-censorship has been good for business. As long as the stock price and paid subscriber numbers keep rising, expect that newspapers ideological transformation to proceed apace.

Dovid Efune is editor-in-chief and CEO of theAlgemeiner, the international Jewish newspaper.

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How the New York Times profits from self-censorship - The Spectator USA

Some Facebook mods support the ads boycott, call for more censorship – Reclaim The Net

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As the US got engulfed in civil unrest after the death of George Floyd, the internet became consumed by new waves of cancel culture.

On one hand, some of the ire was directed toward Facebook as the largest social media network that was not doing enough to moderate and censor content that Black Lives Matter supporters disapproved of as hate speech and on the other, individuals, small businesses and corporations became aware of the importance of not finding themselves on the wrong side of this tidal wave of activist outrage.

Thats how the Facebook boycott campaign was born, as a way for companies, big and small, to punish the platform by depriving it of some of its advertising dollars. But although joined by true behemoths like Disney, Unilever, and Volkswagen, it was limited in duration to just one month, and therefore looked like a performative, good press-seeking ploy, rather than a case of authentic wokeness.

As the boycott is expiring, The Guardian is looking at what it really means and ways in which its participants could prove their action is anything but a PR stunt.

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One way would be to expand the boycott, and the paper has found several past and current (anonymous) content moderators that spoke in favor of this. One said that Facebooks lost revenue due to the boycott was negligible, and that while they supported scrutinizing Facebooks policies in this way, the giant was now retrenching, making it hard to say what, if any, long-term results the campaign will have.

These moderators are employees of third-party companies that Facebook outsources to do its dirty work not just in terms of having to act as censors, but also because they are not allowed to censor as much as some believe they should.

When it comes to our mental health, we would feel much better if we could delete more. One of the stressing factors is that we have to leave on the platform things that we think are harmful and plain evil, said one current moderator.

The accusation that Facebook isnt taking proper action to protect mental well-being and improve working conditions for workers of companies it hires as contractors, has been present for a while.

Former moderator Chris Gray, who is suing Facebook because he says he developed PTSD, had this to say about the one-month boycott:

Millions and millions of small businesses are going to have to pay for adverts: thats all they can do. Mark Zuckerberg doesnt care. Hes on record as saying theyll be back. So Ive got no faith that it will achieve anything.

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Some Facebook mods support the ads boycott, call for more censorship - Reclaim The Net

South Park: Why Episodes "200" and "201" Were Banned – Screen Rant

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South Park is well known for its crude and controversial material, however, some episodes have caused such an uproar that they are now banned.

South Park is well known for its crude and controversial material;however, there are some episodes that have caused suchan uproar that they are now banned from Comedy Central, South Park Studios website, and any streaming platform that airs the show. While there are five episodes banned in total, season 14 episodes "200" and "201" sparked an enormous outcry from Middle-Eastern terrorism groups over their planned depiction of the Prophet Muhammad.

Released in 1997,South Park became known for its crude animation and subject matter, before pivoting to more political, current-events-based satire. Still, despite its offensive material, the show has earned itself an array of awards and accolades, such as Primetime Emmy Awards, and its success has not waivered, remaining one of Comedy Central's most-watched shows.

Related:Why Winnie The Pooh Is Banned In China

Censorship was at the heart of episodes "200" and "201," with series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone taking a strong stance against it. The episodes upon airing, however, were censored; even the dialogue at the end of "201" was completely bleeped. The creators weren't happy with the network's decision (as per a statement South Park Studios released), which was no doubt increased by the fact that an image of Muhammad had already aired in 2001 during season 5 episode 3's "Super Best Friends."

Ross Douthat of The New York Timesstated thatthe move to censorSouth Park was a result of the Danish newspaper,Jyllands-Posten,running unflattering images of the Prophet Muhammad in 2005, which lead to global riots and death threats. In Islam traditions, the Prophet is not allowed to be depicted in any way. Despite this, the newspaper ran the images, and even with outcries from several prominent Muslim groups, the paper did not back down.

In the United States, tensions were high between the West and Islamic people due to the 9/11 terrorist attack. While US news outlets covered the controversy, they did not reprint any of the depictions of Muhammad, even though the US values freedom of speech and the press. For the US, religious sensitivity along with a larger population of people of the Islamic faith was a more important factor.

Episodes "200" and "201" revolve around pastSouth Parkepisodes, storylines, and controversies, with Trey Parker and Matt Stone pushing the boundaries of censorship, especially in the case of Muhammad. Irritated that they could show Jesus and other religious icons, the inability to display Muhammad becomes a focal point of the episode. Throughout the story, past celebrities, angered by the town of South Park for continually ridiculing and mocking them, want to steal the powers Muhammad has to not be shown or insulted.

Related:South Park: Every Celebrity Guest Star

After episode "200" aired, threats were leveled against both creators of the show and Comedy Central if they depicted the image of Muhammad further. Revolution Muslim, a group known for advocating the end of western imperialism, had an author post to Twitter wishing death and Hell for both Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Additional threats and veiled references were made comparing the creators to Dutch director Theo Van Gogh, who was murdered after a film he made portrayed violence against women in some Islamic societies.

While Trey Parker and Matt Stone continued to advocate against censorship and defended their work, Comedy Central heavily censored the episode in order to protect its employees. Further, they went back and removed "Super Best Friends" from the South Park lineup, as well as censored "Cartoon Wars Parts 1 and 2." WhileSouth Park has released episodes in the past that have pushed the boundaries enough to warrantcensorship, episodes "200" and "201" are notable due to their focused plot points, as well as the threats that were leveled against both show creators before the episodes even aired.

More:Is South ParkOn Netflix, Hulu Or Prime? Where To Watch Online

Agents of SHIELD Has Wiped Itself Out Of The MCU's Timeline

Jeff lives and breathes TV shows, movies, and video games. He's built his own media/gaming PC to house all of his media. Trained as a Screenwriter, Jeff dreams of being a Showrunner one day. His encyclopedic knowledge of TV shows allows him to write on a wide array of topics. Recently, he's been exploring Screenwriting for Virtual Reality. He draws from his love of science fiction, horror, drama, fantasy, and real-world politics/religion to craft his stories. In addition to writing, he has a passion for teaching, as well as Technology, Science, and Space Exploration.

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South Park: Why Episodes "200" and "201" Were Banned - Screen Rant

Free speech risk as university staff feel need to censor pro-Brexit views – The Scotsman

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EducationAcademic freedom within British universities could be in danger as academics with right-leaning or pro-Brexit views feel they have to censor what they teach, research and discuss, a report has warned.

Monday, 3rd August 2020, 7:30 am

The Policy Exchange think-tank argues that higher education institutions and government must do much more to ensure that all lawful speech is protected on university campuses.

The paper, entitled Academic freedom in the UK, suggests there is a structural discriminatory effect against the minority of academics at British universities who identify as being on the right politically.

Hostile or just uncomfortable attitudes signal to those subject to such discrimination that they should conceal their views and narrow their research questions to conform to prevailing norms, if they wish to progress and enjoy a positive workplace experience, it warns.

A YouGov poll, of 820 both current and former academics, found more than one in seven said there was a hostile climate towards people with their political beliefs in their department but the figure is higher among those who identify as being right-leaning, or among those who voted to leave the EU.

Just over half of respondents said they would feel comfortable sitting with a colleague who is a Leave supporter at lunch, in a meeting or in the staff room.

Meanwhile, more than a third said they would feel comfortable sitting with a colleague who opposes admitting transwomen to womens refuge centres.

But more than four in five said they believed academics who were pro-Remain would feel comfortable expressing their views to colleagues, the poll found.

The report suggests that right-leaning academics are more likely to choose to self-censor compared with colleagues who are centrists or on the left.

Some pro-Leave social sciences and humanities academics said they had refrained from publishing or airing views in research and teaching for fear of consequences to their careers, according to the think-tank paper.

It warns: The challenge today is that a serious threat to academic freedom may now, in addition, arise from within universities.

This internal threat derives from the way that some in the university-both students and faculty members-relate to others on campus, being willing to penalise them on the basis of their perceived or actual political views.

In a foreword to the report, Ruth Smeeth, former Labour MP and chief executive of Index on Censorship, says: It does the country no good if our educators, our academics, our scholars and most importantly our students feel that they cant speak or engage without fear of retribution.

The report calls on the UK government to make it explicit in law that universities have a direct duty to protect academic freedom and freedom of speech.

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Free speech risk as university staff feel need to censor pro-Brexit views - The Scotsman

Rozlytrek, Roche’s first tumour-agnostic therapy, approved in Europe for people with NTRK fusion-positive solid tumours and for people with…

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DetailsCategory: Small MoleculesPublished on Monday, 03 August 2020 13:50Hits: 870

BASEL, Switzerland I August 03, 2020 I Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) today announced that the European Commission has granted conditional marketing authorisation for Rozlytrek (entrectinib) for the treatment of adult and paediatric patients 12 years of age and older with solid tumours expressing a neurotrophic tyrosine receptor kinase (NTRK) gene fusion, who have a disease that is locally advanced, metastatic or where surgical resection is likely to result in severe morbidity, and who have not received a prior NTRK inhibitor, who have no satisfactory treatment options. The European Commission has also approved Rozlytrek for the treatment of adults with ROS1-positive, advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) not previously treated with ROS1 inhibitors.1

We are excited to announce the approval of Rozlytrek in Europe for two indications, bringing patients with NTRK and ROS1 gene fusions a new effective treatment even when their cancer has spread to the brain, said Levi Garraway, M.D., Ph.D., Roches Chief Medical Officer and Head of Global Product Development. This advance represents another important step forward in cancer care by allowing us to treat certain genetic drivers of cancer irrespective of the location of the tumour within the body. Roche is deeply committed to driving personalised healthcare and addressing the high unmet need in patients around the world with rare cancers.

The approval is based on results from the integrated analysis of the pivotal phase II STARTRK-2, phase I STARTRK-1 and phase I ALKA-372-001 trials, and data from the phase I/II STARTRK-NG study. These studies demonstrate that Rozlytrek has durable responses across several NTRK gene fusion-positive solid tumours, including sarcoma, non-small cell lung, salivary MASC, secretory and non-secretory breast, thyroid, colorectal, neuroendocrine, pancreatic, ovarian, endometrial carcinoma, cholangiocarcinoma, gastrointestinal cancers and neuroblastoma, as well as ROS1-positive NSCLC.1 Results showed:

Rozlytrek has been granted Priority Medicines (PRIME) designation by the EMA for the treatment of NTRK fusion-positive, locally advanced or metastatic solid tumours in adult and paediatric patients who have either progressed following prior therapies or who have no acceptable standard therapies.1 NTRK gene fusions have been identified in a range of solid tumour types, and are present in up to 90% of some rare cancer types and less than 1% of other more common tumours, including lung and colorectal.2 ROS1 gene fusions account for 1-2% of NSCLC, the most common type of lung cancer that accounts for up to 85% of all diagnoses.3,4

Biomarker testing for these fusions is the most effective way to identify people who are most eligible for treatment with Rozlytrek. Roche is leveraging its expertise in developing personalised medicines and advanced diagnostics, in conjunction with Foundation Medicine, to develop a companion diagnostic that will help identify people with NTRK and ROS1 gene fusions.

About the integrated analysisThe approval in Europe is based on an integrated analysis including data from 74 people with locally advanced or metastatic NTRK fusion-positive solid tumours (14 tumour types) and 161 people with ROS1-positive NSCLC from the phase II STARTRK-2, phase I STARTRK-1 and phase I ALKA-372-001 trials.1 It is also based on data from the phase I/II STARTRK-NG study in paediatric patients. The studies enrolled people across 15 countries and more than 150 clinical trial sites. Safety was assessed from an integrated analysis of 504 people across these four trials.1

About NTRK fusion-positive cancer NTRK fusion-positive cancer occurs when the NTRK1/2/3 genes fuse with other genes, resulting in altered TRK proteins (TRKA/TRKB/TRKC) that can activate signalling pathways involved in the proliferation of certain types of cancer.5 NTRK gene fusions are present in tumours irrespective of site of origin. These fusions have been identified in a broad range of solid tumour types, including sarcoma, non-small cell lung, salivary MASC, secretory and non-secretory breast, thyroid, colorectal, neuroendocrine, pancreatic, ovarian, endometrial carcinoma, cholangiocarcinoma, gastrointestinal cancers and neuroblastoma.1

About ROS1-positive NSCLCROS1 is a tyrosine kinase, which plays a role in controlling how cells grow and proliferate. When a ROS1 gene fusion occurs, cancer cells grow and proliferate in an uncontrolled manner. Blocking this abnormal signalling can cause tumour cells to shrink or die.3ROS1 gene fusions account for 1-2% of NSCLC.3 Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death across the world.6 Each year, more than one and a half million people die as a result of the disease globally, equating to more than 4,000 deaths every day.6 NSCLC is the most common type of lung cancer and accounts for up to 85% of all lung cancer diagnoses.4 While the ROS1 gene fusion can be found in any patient with NSCLC, young never-smokers with NSCLC have the highest incidence of ROS1 gene fusions.3

About RozlytrekRozlytrek (entrectinib) is a tumour-agnostic once-daily oral medicine for the treatment of locally advanced or metastatic solid tumours that harbour NTRK1/2/3 or ROS1 gene fusions. It is a selective tyrosine kinase inhibitor designed to inhibit the kinase activity of the TRKA/B/C and ROS1 proteins, whose activating fusions drive proliferation in certain types of cancer.7,8 Rozlytrek can block NTRK and ROS1 kinase activity and may result in the death of cancer cells with NTRK or ROS1 gene fusions.7,8

Rozlytrek was granted accelerated approval in August 2019 by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), following receipt of Breakthrough Therapy designation, for the treatment of adult and paediatric patients 12 years of age and older with solid tumours that have a NTRK gene fusion without a known acquired resistance mutation, are metastatic or where surgical resection is likely to result in severe morbidity, and have progressed following treatment or have no satisfactory alternative therapy, and was approved for the treatment of adults with ROS1-positive, metastatic NSCLC. In June 2019, Japans Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) also approved Rozlytrek for the treatment of adult and paediatric patients with NTRK fusion-positive, advanced recurrent solid tumours, and later approved Rozlytrek in ROS1-positive NSCLC in February 2020. Rozlytrek has also received approvals by health authorities in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Israel, New Zealand, South Korea and Taiwan.

About Roche in lung cancerLung cancer is a major area of focus and investment for Roche, and we are committed to developing new approaches, medicines and tests that can help people with this deadly disease. Our goal is to provide an effective treatment option for every person diagnosed with lung cancer. We currently have five approved medicines to treat certain kinds of lung cancer and more than ten medicines being developed to target the most common genetic drivers of lung cancer or to boost the immune system to combat the disease.

About RocheRoche is a global pioneer in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics focused on advancing science to improve peoples lives. The combined strengths of pharmaceuticals and diagnostics under one roof have made Roche the leader in personalised healthcare a strategy that aims to fit the right treatment to each patient in the best way possible.

Roche is the worlds largest biotech company, with truly differentiated medicines in oncology, immunology, infectious diseases, ophthalmology and diseases of the central nervous system. Roche is also the world leader in in vitro diagnostics and tissue-based cancer diagnostics, and a frontrunner in diabetes management.

Founded in 1896, Roche continues to search for better ways to prevent, diagnose and treat diseases and make a sustainable contribution to society. The company also aims to improve patient access to medical innovations by working with all relevant stakeholders. More than thirty medicines developed by Roche are included in the World Health Organization Model Lists of Essential Medicines, among them life-saving antibiotics, antimalarials and cancer medicines. Moreover, for the eleventh consecutive year, Roche has been recognised as one of the most sustainable companies in the Pharmaceuticals Industry by the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI).

The Roche Group, headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, is active in over 100 countries and in 2019 employed about 98,000 people worldwide. In 2019, Roche invested CHF 11.7 billion in R&D and posted sales of CHF 61.5 billion. Genentech, in the United States, is a wholly owned member of the Roche Group. Roche is the majority shareholder in Chugai Pharmaceutical, Japan. For more information, please visit http://www.roche.com.

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References[1] F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. Data on file.[2] Cocco, E, et al. NTRK fusion-positive cancers and TRK inhibitor therapy. Nat Rev Clin Oncol. 2018; 15:731747[3] Bergethon K, Shaw AT, Ou SH, et al. ROS1 rearrangements define a unique molecular class of lung cancers. J Clin Oncol. 2012; 30(8):863-70.[4] American Cancer Society. What is Non-small Cell Lung Cancer? [Internet; cited 2020 July 8]. Available from: https://www.cancer.org/cancer/lung-cancer/about/what-is.html%5B5%5D Amatu A, Sartore-Bianchi A, Siena S. NTRK gene fusions as novel targets of cancer therapy across multiple tumour types. ESMO Open. 2016;1(2):e000023.[6] GLOBOCAN. Lung Cancer. [Internet; cited 2020 July 8]. Available from: http://gco.iarc.fr/today/data/factsheets/cancers/15-Lung-fact-sheet.pdf%5B7%5D Ahn M-J, Cho BC, Siena S, et al. Entrectinib in patients with locally advanced or metastatic ROS1 fusion-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Presented at: IASLC 18th World Conference on Lung Cancer; October 15-18, 2017; Yokohama, Japan. Abstract 8564.[8] Rolfo C, et al. Entrectinib: a potent new TRK, ROS1, and ALK inhibitor. Expert Opin Investig Drugs. 2015;24(11):1493-500.

SOURCE: Roche

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Rozlytrek, Roche's first tumour-agnostic therapy, approved in Europe for people with NTRK fusion-positive solid tumours and for people with...