Reality check: Most changes to WA’s assisted dying bill now not Goiran’s – Sydney Morning Herald

Of the 142 amendments still on the notice paper, only 53 are from Mr Goiran.

The rest a total of 89 are from other MPs and include 12 proposed by the government itself, including six announced by Health Minster Roger Cook just yesterday.

Just a few weeks ago, Premier Mark McGowan said Mr Goiran's behaviour was "disgraceful", accusing him of "just trying to wreck the bill with these ridiculous, endless amendments".

But if the government's bill was as pure as the driven snow, why did it need more amendments yesterday? And this doesn't include five the upper house has already agreed to, including a variation of one previously proposed by Labor MP Margaret Quirk in the lower house?

As 6PR's Gareth Parker pointed out on Twitter: "I know Nick Goiran is supposed to be public enemy no.1 with horns growing out of his forehead, but is anyone going to reflect on the fact the McGowan Government now WILL amend its supposedly unimpeachable VAD Bill in the Upper House?"

Before yesterday, the government's bill as it stood would have permitted any health practitioner to suggest euthanasia to a dying patient. That included optometrists, pharmacists, a podiatrist, a dental hygienist or a Chinese medicine practitioner.

Of the five amendments agreed to by the upper house on Tuesday, only one was from the government.

An amendment moved by Mr Goiran to ensure people in the regions had the same level of access to palliative care as those in Perth came close to passing, falling short by a hair-raising one vote.

Luckily for the government, Nationals MPs came to the rescue to oppose it.

Also under scrutiny are claims by the government that the Australian Medical Association is now supporting its euthanasia bill.

President Andrew Miller has not said his association supports the legislation.

"There's a range of things that the AMA suggested in amendments that the government are saying would be more appropriate to address in the guidelines or the implementation phase, so we'll have a look at that," Dr Miller said.

"The AMA hasn't pledged anything, what we've said is we're welcoming these amendments.

"We're not going to tell anyone how to vote, we're just saying we're hear to provide information, we're here to provide feedback from doctors on the ground and we want it to be safe for patients."

Far from a glowing endorsement of the bill from the profession who will be expected to implement it.

And while the government has introduced an amendment to reduce the number of people who can propose euthanasia, the change still falls short of Labor MP Tony Buti's proposal to bring the laws into line with Victoria's.

Dr Buti, a supporter of the bill, wanted the laws to prevent anyone proposing euthanasia to a sick patient, including doctors and nurses.

"I've spoken to Tony Buti and explained to him the amendments that go to the heart of his concerns. He's very pleased with the compromise that's been struck," Mr Cook said on Tuesday.

"He said that while he prefers his amendment, but in the event that that is not successful he's very satisfied with the actual compromise that's now been reached."

This would be astonishing, given Dr Buti proposed the change to protect people with disabilities and Aboriginal people considered vulnerable because of language or cultural differences.

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All this just goes to show the upper house still has its work cut out dealing with this legislation.

The state government's bill is complex, not perfectly understood even by the government itself, which is still discovering reasons it needs to be changed and some upper house MPs are waveringin their support.

Putting pressure on MPs by forcing it through by Christmas might make tactical sense for the government, which hasn't really been able to explain the rush, but it might make for bad legislation.

Let's pray the upper house takes its time to get the balance right.

Nathan is WAtoday's political reporter.

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Reality check: Most changes to WA's assisted dying bill now not Goiran's - Sydney Morning Herald

End of life and legalising cannabis referendums make for a complicated election – Stuff.co.nz

OPINION:Next year's general election just got a whole lot more complicated, voters.

Not only are we going to be drowned in the usual tub-thumping rhetoric and "pick me" bluster that comes with a national election, we're now going to be caught up in a maelstrom of two referendums.

The first follows last week's historic decision in Parliament to allow a referendum on voluntary euthanasia; the second is on the regulation of cannabis.

These two issues not to mention a general election are major, and, if followed through the way that is seemingly expected, will fundamentally change New Zealand.

READ MORE:* Labour and the referendums of dread* MPs pass the buck to the public* Is a referendum democracy at work or abdication of political will?

Both the voluntary euthanasia and cannabis issues need, and deserve, enough time and information for us to get to grips with them, if we're going to be asked to vote on them.

For those of you who read these columns regularly, you'll know that I have already developed an aversion to referendums since watching the damage done to the United Kingdom over the farce that is Brexit.

ROSS GIBLIN/STUFF

ACT MP David Seymour's euthanasia bill was passed by Parliament.

That's been a great example of what happens if you ask people to vote on issues when they really have no clue what's going on and don't have the time, access or the will to search out enough information to make a good decision.

I know we all have a duty to make ourselves fully aware of these issues, but most of us won't, because we have other stuff going on. We'll get half informed and go with our gut instinct when faced with the moment we have to put an 'X' in the box.

Those who shout loudest, have the deepest pockets and have the least regard for truth will do well, if the UK is anything to go by.

I can't think of two more emotive issues for the public to decide on than death and drugs.

Two countries and 11 US states have legalised cannabis, but the exact details of laws and regulations varies from place to place.

Groups who want the vote to go one way will become more strident, vocal, political and polarised; as will those on the opposing side.

Both viewpoints may be valid, but polarised behaviour is how referendums work they push people into opposing positions where they start shouting over each other to make their points heard so they can 'win'.

And politicians will be at the forefront of this as they jump on these issues to get air-time, increase their profile and, of course, gain votes.

These are huge issues to decide on and people are going to feel really strongly: just look at the interest already on the euthanasia bill.

GETTY-IMAGES

legalising cannabis will probably become an also-ran issue when put into a two-horse referendum race with euthanasia, but it deserves a thorough hearing in its own right.

The End of Life Choice Bill passed by a relatively slim margin of 69 votes to 51, after two years of fierce arguments. It gained a record 39,000 submissions from the public during its passage through Parliament.

By comparison, legalising cannabis will probably become an also-ran issue when put into a two-horse referendum race with euthanasia, but it deserves a thorough hearing in its own right.

These issues need plenty of clear air to be properly considered by the general public who are being asked to vote on them.

SUPPLIED

Sue Allen says both referendums will need plenty of clear air to be properly considered by the general public who are being asked to vote on them.

This is all aside from a general election, which is when we have to work out who we want to run the country. And that's a whole can of worms for us: getting to the bottom of issues around education, health, the economy, housing.That list goes on and on.

My plea, though I'm sure no one will hear it, is that if we want informed debate and voting behaviour, then the Government needs to invest some serious time and money into ensuring we lesser mortals fully understand what it is we're voting on.

Sue Allen has worked in journalism, communications, marketing andbrand management for 15 years in the United Kingdom and New Zealand.

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End of life and legalising cannabis referendums make for a complicated election - Stuff.co.nz

Expanding the Availability of Controversial Medical Procedures Need Not Interfere with the Religious Freedom of Doctors and Nurses – Mosaic

A set of regulations by the Department of Health and Human Services, intended to go into effect tomorrow, would have expanded the right of medical professionals to refuse, as a matter of conscience, to perform certain procedures or provide certain drugs. But, earlier this month, a federal court struck down the rules, which would apply, for instance, to a doctor who doesnt wish to perform euthanasia in a state where it is legal to do so or to a nurse who doesnt wish to administer a vaccine manufactured from fetal tissue. Without objecting to the largely technical grounds on which the court invalidated the regulations, Moishe Bane and Nathan Diament argue in favor of such protections:

American law, both legislative and judicial, has a magnificent tradition of accommodating the rights and needs of individuals with conflicting interests. Surely, such mutual accommodations should be the aspiration of regulations regarding health and medical care. Sadly, in certain contextssuch as regarding womens reproductive rights and euthanasiaachieving a balanced approach to competing rights is not the goal of some judges and legislators who instead seek to diminish, and [even] to dismiss, the rights of those Americans committed to abide by their religious tenets.

Even in controversial contexts, legislators have successfully found a middle ground to provide rights to services for some individuals while simultaneously ensuring protections for those unable to provide those services on religious grounds. . . . Unfortunately, [however], respect for the conscience rights of healthcare providers (and other Americans of faith) has been persistently attacked.

The denigration and dismissal of religious belief is frequently advanced in association with both abortion and LGBT rights. Rather than seeking to ensure that these legal rights are balanced with the competing, authentic religious rights of others, many abortion and LGBT advocates frame values borne of religion as illegitimate and undeserving of respect, let alone entitled to legal protection. They assert that any accommodation of religious belief is tantamount to using religion as a sword to harm others. Experience has now shown that the preservation of religious-conscience protections need not impose significant burdens on others.

Our courts and our culture must be reminded that America was founded by those who were seeking religious freedom; that is why they enshrined its protection in the First Amendment. A devout Jewish doctor who declines to issue an assisted-suicide prescription shouldnt be forced to choose between her career and conscience any more than a faithful Catholic attorney who doesnt want to work on a death-penalty case, or a committed feminist web designer who doesnt want to build a pornographic website.

Read more at Washington Times

More about: Abortion, American law, Euthanasia, Freedom of Religion, Medicine

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Expanding the Availability of Controversial Medical Procedures Need Not Interfere with the Religious Freedom of Doctors and Nurses - Mosaic

Townsville Bishop says Church will never accept assisted suicide because it is intentional killing – Catholic Leader

Life is sacred: Townsville Bishop Tim Harris has spoken out strongly against euthanasia.

TOWNSVILLE Bishop Tim Harris has spoken out strongly against euthanasia and defended comments he made likening a push to allow voluntary assisted dying in Queensland to a mentality that existed in Nazi Germany.

Bishop Harris said it was an important time to have a conversation on the grim topic following the Queensland Governments committee hearings, which could result in new laws being presented to parliament early next year.

He joined other Catholic leaders across Queensland, including Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge, in observing Dying Peacefully No Euthanasia Sunday on November 17, advocating against the introduction of so called voluntary assisted dying.

It reminds me of Nazi Germany; these are some of the things that people did because if someone was not 100 per cent, crippled, if they had something wrong with them, if they were aged or not of use to society any more the state then would select certain people and say well experiment on you or well kill you because youre not worth anything, he told parishioners during Mass at Sacred Heart Cathedral, Townsville.

Bishop Harris said he was not surprised media picked up on his comments, and he stood by them.

Everyone is referring to the reference with the Nazis. It (VAD) has that feel about it, for sure. Its not exactly the same but its got that feel about it, he said.

A shiver goes up my spine with this whole matter.

Both my parents had palliative care in the last couple of years of life and it never entered my mind that we would somehow have a law that would allow them to end their life prematurely.

They wouldnt have wanted it, we didnt want it.

The point was the more chances Ive got to say I love you, to me its worth every second of every day.

During his cathedral comments, Bishop Harris said he was not suggesting any evil intent from people with a different view.

Good people are believing that voluntary assisted (dying) is the way to go and I respect their views, but Ive also got to be in there and say there is another way and challenge it, just as theyll be challenging me, he said.

The Church wants to emphasise that we are created in the image and likeness of God and because of that it puts us right up there at the top in terms of Gods creations.

Our bodies are the temple of God and his Holy Spirit and you dont muck around with that, you respect it to the very end.

I believe to assist someone to die in an intentional manner is clearly intentional killing and the Church does not believe in intentional killing.

Instead, Bishop Harris said there should be more attention on improving palliative care services.

A state-sanctioned voluntary assisted suicide can have all the safeguards it likes but even then things can go wrong; the best safeguard is not to do it, he said.

Archbishop Coleridge said Catholic support for better palliative care was grounded in the common good of society.

Better end-of-life care begins with better conversations about death and dying, and how we can die well in ways that do not undermine the foundational values of our society, he said.

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Townsville Bishop says Church will never accept assisted suicide because it is intentional killing - Catholic Leader

Citizens and activists seek to end gas euthanization of shelter animals – Universe.byu.edu

A former gas chamber from the Heber City Animal Services in Heber, Utah. (Jim Urquhart/AP Images for The Humane Society of the United States)

An online petition to end the practice of gas chamber euthanization of shelter animals in Missouri, Ohio, Wyoming and Utah has gained momentum among activists and citizens.

The petition aims to create a federal ban on the euthanization of shelter animals by asphyxiation in a gas chamber, a practice that can include putting multiple animals in the same chamber for gassing and that can take half an hour or more. Proponents of the petition say they favor safer and cleaner methods, such as euthanization by injection.

According to a statement by the Humane Society of the United States, animal welfare experts agree that if an animal needs to be euthanized, the most humane way is by injection.

Gas chambers cannot provide humane euthanasia for shelter populations, the statement said. Old, ill, injured or otherwise circulatory-compromised animals may suffer from medical conditions that delay the effects of gas, causing them to experience distress prior to unconsciousness.

Instead of banning the gassing practice on a shelter-by-shelter basis, proponents of the petition hope to gain Congressional support to create a federal ban.

For years, efforts to create a ban have had little success in the Utah Legislature, however.

Instead of going to the capitol again, the Humane Society of Utah aims to educate shelter employees of the superiority of injection euthanization over gas chamber euthanization.

Deann Shepherd, director of marketing and communications at the Humane Society of Utah, helps educate shelter workers by explaining to them that injection is less expensive, faster, painless, more humane and safer for staff members since they arent exposed to carbon monoxide when they get an animal out of the gas chamber.

She said that much of the training is well-received by shelter employees who face the often difficult task of euthanizing animals.

We have found through our research that they know that it is better for the animal to be euthanized by injection, Shepherd said. They feel better knowing that they ended the animals life in a humane way instead of putting them in a chamber.

The South Utah Valley Animal Shelter is one of four shelters in Utah that the Humane Society said still practices euthanization via gas chamber.

Kierstan Munford, the executive director of the shelter, said that in some instances, its better to euthanize via gas chamber.

If were dealing with a fractious animal or a mean dog, its safer for our staff to handle the animal for the least possible amount of time, Nord said.

Nord said that if a federal ban were to be placed on gas euthanization, the shelter would need to implement new euthanization procedures.

While the practice of gas euthanization is still in place in Utah, many pet owners are in favor of either creating a ban on gas euthanization or using educational measures to stop it.

Former Provo council member and pet owner Laura Cabanilla is a staunch denouncer of gas chamber euthanization.

Gas chamber euthanization is inhumane, Cabanilla said. I feel like there are so many better ways to deal with fractious animals or feral cats.

The owner of several animals herself, Cabanilla recalled an experience of having to put a cat of her own down by means of injection, a euthanasia practice she is strongly in favor of.

It was such as peaceful experience, Cabanilla said. We got to hold our friend while she just dozed off.

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Citizens and activists seek to end gas euthanization of shelter animals - Universe.byu.edu

Nanoparticle therapy shows promise for treatment of rare cancer – The Brown Daily Herald

This month, a paper published by University researchers Richard Terek and Qian Chen highlighted a potential nanotechnology therapy that targets chondrosarcoma, a rare type of bone cancer. Using nanoparticles, the team effectively delivered therapies directly into tumor cells and observed decreases in tumor volume and prolonged survival in mouse models.

Chondrosarcoma currently has no FDA approved treatments. The complex makeup of these cancer cells makes them uniquely difficult to treat. Specifically, one challenge to (drug) delivery in chondrosarcoma is the negatively charged proteoglycan-rich extracellular matrix that needs to be penetrated to reach the tumor cells, according to the study.

Terek, the chief of musculoskeletal oncology at Rhode Island Hospital, an orthopedic oncology surgeon with the Lifespan Cancer Institute and a professor of orthopedic surgery at Warren Alpert, studies chondrosarcoma and collaborated with Chen, a molecular and nano-medicine researcher, director of the NIH-funded Center of Biomedical Research Excellence in Skeletal Health and Repair at Rhode Island Hospital and a professor of orthopedic research and medical science, on this study. The pair aimed to develop a nanopiece delivery platform capable of penetrating the convoluted chondrosarcoma matrix.

We develop nanomaterial (that) we call nanopieces and we found that it can deliver nucleic acid therapeutics to tissues that normally are very difficult to be penetrated, Chen said.

In addition to getting drugs to the tumor tissue, the researchers also studied the biology of how chondrosarcoma spreads. The other thing is we dont totally understand what drives cancer cells to metastasize. That part of the work involves trying to disentangle which types of pathways have gone awry, Terek said.

The underlying principle of the therapy is that miRNA, short 21-nucleotide sequences, are overexpressed in chondrosarcoma tumor cells. These miRNA end up functioning in a way similar to oncogenes, genes which drive cancer formation, by indirectly affecting other genes in the cancer pathway.

Tereks work over the past decade has culminated in the identification of the cancer-causing, or oncogenic, miRNA involved in chondrosarcoma formation. That process involved microarray analysis of primary human tumor tissues. We used a variety of screening techniques to identify which miRNA were overexpressed in tumors, Terek said.

These detrimental effects of the oncogenic miRNA can be prevented by synthesizing a molecule of the opposite sequence of nucleotides. Once delivered into the cell with the nanoparticles it will counteract and annihilate the overexpressed miRNA Terek said.

Once the target miRNA was identified, the small, opposing sequence of RNA needed to be delivered, a process that is normally very difficult because of the charge and structure of the matrix formed by the tumor. What we do in the lab is formulate this nanomaterial specifically for penetrating into the matrix, Chen said.

The laws kind of break down when you get to these nano levels. At the nano level, these particles somehow get through the cell wall and into the cell, even though the cell wall is classically thought of as this impenetrable structure around the cell, Terek said.

The nanomaterial delivery vehicle is composed of a small molecule, weighing about 400 daltons, which assembles into a nanotube structure that contains RNA. The molecule itself is biomimetic. Its half composed of nucleic bases and half of the molecule is amino acids, so its fused together. Because of that it also has a very low level of cell toxicity, Chen said. The nanoparticle is designed to be comparable to a natural biological structure, enabling the particle to be generally accepted by cells, so it can enter and affect them.

In previous studies, Chens lab has shown successful use of nanoparticle therapy in the treatment of multiple other diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis. Recently, they also received a grant from the National Institutes of Health funding research on the treatment of Alzheimers disease using a similar nanopiece delivery system that can traverse the blood brain barrier.

In further developing this drug therapy, Terek said one possibility is to combine multiple miRNA sequences with these nanoparticles to impact more pathways and get maximal inhibition of tumor spread. This involves both counteracting overexpressed miRNA, and restoring beneficial cancer suppressor miRNAs to combine multiple therapeutics with one dose of the nanoparticles.

Another potential approach is to pair the miRNA therapy with other cancer drug therapies. Since some miRNAs prevent the effective use of typical cancer treatment drugs, this approach can be used to reverse drug resistance, allowing for the use of conventional therapies, like chemotherapy.

In order for nanoparticle therapy development to succeed, investors, pharmaceutical companies, biotech companies and other collaborators need to give time and money to projects like this, Chen said. As far as moving it into the clinic, thats always a big hurdle, Terek said. One intermediate step the team might take is to collaborate with veterinarians allowing them to incorporate their treatment method beyond mouse models.

Brown and Lifespan have helped establish a startup called NanoDe so that we can continue the process, Chen said. Moving forward, the team will continue to work on collaborating with other researchers and developers to advance this drug therapy for chondrosarcoma.

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Nanoparticle therapy shows promise for treatment of rare cancer - The Brown Daily Herald

At 9.6% CAGR, Healthcare Nanotechnology Market Global Industry to Reach Valuation over 306100 Million USD by 2025 – Markets Gazette 24

Healthcare Nanotechnology Market delivers a succinct analysis on industry size, regional growth and revenue forecasts for the upcoming years. The report further sheds light on significant challenges and latest growth strategies adopted by manufacturers who are a part of the competitive spectrum of this business domain.

In 2018, the global Healthcare Nanotechnology (Nanomedicine) market size was 160800 million US$ and it is expected to reach 306100 million US$ by the end of 2025, with a CAGR of 9.6% during 2019-2025.

The key players covered in this study

Amgen

Teva Pharmaceuticals

Abbott

UCB

Roche

Celgene

Sanofi

Merck & Co

Biogen

Stryker

Gilead Sciences

Pfizer

3M Company

Johnson & Johnson

Smith & Nephew

Leadiant Biosciences

Kyowa Hakko Kirin

Shire

Ipsen

Endo International

Get Sample Copy of this Report@ https://brandessenceresearch.biz/Request/Sample?ResearchPostId=63256&RequestType=Sample

It is defined as the study of controlling, manipulating and creating systems based on their atomic or molecular specifications. As stated by the US National Science and Technology Council, the essence of nanotechnology is the ability to manipulate matters at atomic, molecular and supra-molecular levels for creation of newer structures and devices. Generally, this science deals with structures sized between 1 to 100 nanometer (nm) in at least one dimension and involves in modulation and fabrication of nanomaterials and nanodevices.

Nanotechnology is becoming a crucial driving force behind innovation in medicine and healthcare, with a range of advances including nanoscale therapeutics, biosensors, implantable devices, drug delivery systems, and imaging technologies. The classification of Healthcare Nanotechnology includes Nanomedicine, Nano Medical Devices, Nano Diagnosis and Other product. And the sales proportion of Nanomedicine in 2017 is about 86.5%, and the proportion is in increasing trend from 2013 to 2017.

This report focuses on the global Healthcare Nanotechnology (Nanomedicine) status, future forecast, growth opportunity, key market and key players. The study objectives are to present the Healthcare Nanotechnology (Nanomedicine) development in United States, Europe and China.

Market segment by Type, the product can be split into

Nanomedicine

Nano Medical Devices

Nano Diagnosis

Other

Market segment by Application, split into

Anticancer

CNS Product

Anti-infective

Other

The study objectives of this report are:

To analyze global Healthcare Nanotechnology (Nanomedicine) status, future forecast, growth opportunity, key market and key players.

To present the Healthcare Nanotechnology (Nanomedicine) development in United States, Europe and China.

To strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their development plan and strategies.

To define, describe and forecast the market by product type, market and key regions.

In this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of Healthcare Nanotechnology (Nanomedicine) are as follows:

History Year: 2014-2018

Base Year: 2018

Estimated Year: 2019

Forecast Year 2019 to 2025

For the data information by region, company, type and application, 2018 is considered as the base year. Whenever data information was unavailable for the base year, the prior year has been considered.

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At 9.6% CAGR, Healthcare Nanotechnology Market Global Industry to Reach Valuation over 306100 Million USD by 2025 - Markets Gazette 24

Nanotherapies for Rheumatoid Arthritis: Advantages, Challenges, and Future Direction – Rheumatology Advisor

Despite recent advances in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis(RA) attributed to biologic medications, only a minority of patients achieve andmaintain disease remission without the need for continuous immunosuppressive therapy.1Complicating the treatment of RA further is the development of tolerance over timeor failure of patients to respond to currently available therapies.1Thus, the development of new treatment strategies for RA remains a priority.

Nanotherapies for RA have received increasing attention in the past decade because they offer several potential advantages compared with conventional systemic therapies.2 Nanocarriers are submicron transport particles designed to deliver the drug at the site of inflammation the synovium thereby maximizing its therapeutic effect and avoiding unwanted systemic adverse effects.1 This targeted drug delivery approach also has the potential to minimize the amount of drug required to control joint inflammation3 and increase local bioavailability by protecting it from degradation in the circulation.1

In essence, nanotechnology enables the redesign of alreadyeffective rheumatologic medications into nanoformulations that may confer greaterspecificity, longer therapeutic effect, and more amenable safety profile.4Nanoencapsulated nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs),5 liposomaland polymeric preparations of glucocorticoids,6 and nanosystems thatdirectly inhibit angiogenesis are just several examples of nanotherapies that havebeen tested in experimental models of inflammatory arthritis.7

Despite the promising findings observed in studies to date, further development and subsequent integration of nanotherapies in the management of RA remains hampered by the lack of efficacy and toxicity studies in humans. In an interview with Rheumatology Advisor, Christine Pham, MD, chief of the Division of Rheumatology at the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, discussed the advantages and challenges of applying nanotherapies in RA.

RheumatologyAdvisor: How can nanotechnology be applied in the treatment of RA?

ChristinePham, MD: Nanotechnology is a multidisciplinary approach aimed at the deliveryof therapeutic agents using submicron nanocarriers. In RA, the vessels at the siteof inflammation are leaky, allowing passage of these nanocarriers from the circulationto specific target sites in the joint environment.

RheumatologyAdvisor: Which RA drugs are suitable forthis approach?

DrPham: Many conventionalantirheumatic drugs such as methotrexate, glucocorticoids, and NSAIDs have beensuccessfully delivered by nanocarriers to mitigate inflammatory arthritis in experimentalmodels.

RheumatologyAdvisor: Whatare the main advantages of using nanotherapy/nanocarriers, as opposed to systemictherapy, in the treatment of RA?

DrPham: The mainadvantages are selective drug delivery to desired sites of action through passiveor active targeting, which can lead to increased local bioavailability and potentiallycan reduce unwanted off-target side effects. In addition, nanocarriers may increasethe solubility of certain drugs and protect therapeutics against degradation inthe circulation.

RheumatologyAdvisor: Howfar has the medical community gotten in developing (and testing) nanotherapies forRA? Which nanotherapies have shown the most promise?

DrPham: A numberof nanotherapeutics have been developed and tested in animal models of RA. Mosthave shown disease mitigation, however, none has so far made it to the clinic.

RheumatologyAdvisor: Whatneeds to happen before nanotherapies can get fully integrated into clinical practiceand treatment of patients with RA?

DrPham: Insufficientdata regarding long-term toxicity and optimal therapeutic efficacy have hamperedtheir integration into clinical practice. Anticytokine biologics have been verysuccessful, so nanotherapeutics need to show clearly that they have higher efficacyand lower toxicity for pharmaceutical companies to invest in their development forthe clinic.

Rheumatology Advisor: Are any other promising treatment strategies for RA currently under investigation?

DrPham: RNA interference(RNAi) has recently emerged as a specific way to silence gene expression. The invivo delivery of small interfering RNA (siRNA), however, remains a significant hurdle,given the short half-life of the molecule in the circulation. We have used a self-assemblingpeptide-based nanosystem that protects the siRNA from degradation when injectedintravenously and which has shown to mitigate experimental RA.8,9 siRNAworks by knocking down NFkappaB p65, asubunit of NF-kappa-B transcription complex which plays acentral role in inflammation in general and in RA in particular. This platform promisesto have real translational potential.

References

1. Pham CTN. Nanotherapeutic approaches for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Wiley Interdiscip Rev Nanomed Nanobiotechnol. 2011;3(6):607-619.

2. Dolati S, Sadreddini S, Rostamzadek D, Ahmadi M, Jadidi-Niaragh F, Yousefi M. Utilization of nanoparticle technology in rheumatoid arthritis treatment. Biomed Pharmacother. 2016;80:30-41.

3. Rubinstein I, Weinberg GL. Nanomedicine for chronic non-infectious arthritis: the clinicians perspective. Nanomedicine. 2012;8(Suppl 1):S77-S82.

4. Henderson CS, Madison AC, Shah A. Size matters nanotechnology and therapeutics in rheumatology and immunology. Curr Rheumatol Rev. 2014;10(1):11-21.

5. Srinath P, Chary MG, Vyas SP, Diwan PV. Long-circulating liposomes of indomethacin in arthritic ratsa biodisposition study. Pharm Acta Helv. 2000;74:399-404.

6. Metselaar JM, Wauben MH, Wagenaar-Hilbers JP, Boerman OC, Storm G. Complete remission of experimental arthritis by joint targeting of glucocorticoids with long-circulating liposomes. Arthritis Rheum. 2003;48:2059-2066.

7. Koo OM, Rubinstein I, nyuksel H. Actively targeted low-dose camptothecin as a safe, long-acting, disease-modifying nanomedicine for rheumatoid arthritis. Pharm Res. 2011;28:776-787.

8. Zhou H-F, Yan H, Pan H, et al. Peptide-siRNA nanocomplexes targeting the NF-kB subunit p65 suppress nascent experimental arthritis. J Clin Invest. 2014;124:4363-4374.

9. Rai MF, Pan H, Yan H, Sandell L, Pham C, Wickline SA. Applications of RNA interference in the treatment of arthritis. Transl Res. 2019;214:1-16.

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Nanotherapies for Rheumatoid Arthritis: Advantages, Challenges, and Future Direction - Rheumatology Advisor

World Pancreatic Cancer Day: increasing awareness and inspiring action – UNSW Newsroom

Pancreatic cancer is an insidious disease itis often diagnosedat an advanced stage, with about 90% of patients dying within five years of diagnosis.New projections suggest pancreatic cancer will be the second leading cause of cancer mortality by 2025.

This World Pancreatic Cancer Day, we are celebrating some of the many UNSWresearchers who are dedicated to changing those statistics. Cancers with poor outcomes like pancreatic cancer are a key focus area in UNSW Medicine's cancer theme.

Associate Professor Phillips is the Head of the Pancreatic Cancer Translational Research Group and Deputy Director of the Adult Cancer Program at the Lowy Cancer Research Centre at UNSW Medicine.

This year, A/Prof Phillips was a key driver in establishing the Pancreatic Cancer Research Hub, which aims to double the survival of patients with pancreatic cancer by 2030.

She says World Pancreatic Cancer Day is a powerful advocacy event to increase community and government awareness of pancreatic cancer.

It is also a time to reflect on the progress we have made in understanding this terrible disease and focus on the next steps to overcome current clinical challenges to ensure our research efforts bridge the gap and, as in other cancers, improve the outcomes for our patients with pancreatic cancer.

I know that we are on the brink of overturning the unacceptable statistics. Uniting researchers with the community who, unlike in other cancers, dont often get to be a strong voice advocating for themselves and Government will ensure Australian researchers continue to make positive change for pancreatic cancer patients globally.

A/Prof Phillips group has developed a novel cutting-edge way to keep pieces of human pancreatic tumours alive in the laboratory for two weeks after surgical resection.

Our capacity to grow human tumour tissue in the laboratory provides a valuable new clinical tool to test how a patients tumour responds to different chemotherapies and has the potential to immediately inform patient treatment options. Our unique tumour model is superior to other models because it is human in origin and it contains the complex tumour environment present in patients.

In 2016 A/Prof Phillips had a major breakthrough, successfully developing a novel nanomedicine a tiny drug delivery vehicle consisting of a state-of-the-art nanoparticle that can package gene therapy to inhibit any tumour-promoting gene in pancreatic cancer.

With the generous support from the Brian O'Neill Pancreatic Cancer Fundraising Dinner held last night the team will be able to perform essential preclinical studies to test the therapeutic potential of their nano-gene therapy in combination with a clinically approved drug. They also plan on using their expertise to improve the bioavailability of the clinically approved drugs using a nanomedicine approach.

Professor Minoti Apte was the first in the world to isolate and characterise pancreatic stellate cells, a cell type that is now known to play a major role in the progression of both chronic pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer. Coming up with ways to target these cells to prevent them from doing harm is now a major focus of her teams research.

The group has now shown that interrupting the cross-talk between cancer cells and surrounding cells in the microenvironment by targeting a certain signalling pathway reduces tumour growth and eliminates metastasis in early as well as advanced pre-clinical models of pancreatic cancer.

We have also shown that targeting this pathway reduces the risk of recurrence and progression after surgical resection of pancreatic cancer in a mouse model, and are currently working on possible pathways to take our laboratory findings to the clinic, Professor Apte says.

To me, World Pancreatic Cancer Day is a great opportunity to raise awareness in the community about this deadly cancer, but it is also a day to admire the courage and resilience of patients and their carers. These are the people that spur us researchers on to continue working hard to develop new therapeutic approaches to improve outcomes.

Last year, Professor Apte received the Gastroenterological Society of Australia (GESA) Distinguished Researcher Prize 2018. In 2014 she was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM), after being named the NSW Woman of the Year in 2015. She was also the 2016 recipient of the Professor Rob Sutherland AO Make a Difference Award at the NSW Premiers Awards for Outstanding Cancer Research an award that recognises highly successful research that is actively changing cancer treatment and improving patient survival.

Dr Angelica Merlot, who is based at the Childrens Cancer Institute, focuses her research on developing new anti-cancer drugs that target drug resistance and suppress cancer spread.

This year, the cancer researcher has won the 2019 NSW Young Woman of the Year award for her achievements and research into treatments for pancreatic and brain cancer. She also won a 2019 Young Tall Poppy Science Award and the 2019 NSW Early Career Researcher of the Year (Biological Sciences) at the NSW Premiers Prizes for Science & Engineering.

Dr Merlot says today is an important day to raise awareness about one of the world's toughest cancers.

This is crucial as it broadens community knowledge, inspires action and supports further research funding for this cancer. It's also a time to remember those whom we have lost and those currently fighting this disease, she says.

Although we've seen a small improvement in the current survival rate, a lot of progress is still required. Further translational research means that there is a greater likelihood that the survival rates can be increased and the journey and treatment of those affected by the cancer can be improved.

Dr Merlot became focused on cancer research as an undergraduate. Her interest in aggressive cancers, such as pancreatic and brain cancer, was motivated by lack of improvement in survival rates over the past decades, largely due to late diagnosis, a lack of screening programs, low awareness of symptoms and a lack of treatment options.

After moving to UNSW Medicine as a Scientia Fellow in 2018, Dr Merlot focused on understanding the mechanisms by which cancer cells grow and adapt to their environment, why drugs become less effective and the development of nanoparticles to improve drug delivery.

Dr Merlots current projects are investigating part of a human cell called the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). The ER is a type of organelle, or subunit within a cell, that has been shown to help cancers grow, spread and develop drug resistance.

Dr Ying Zhu will lead a team of researchers from UNSW to discover much needed early detection methods for pancreatic cancer patients: the UNSW Medicine researcher today received $100,000 grant from the Avner Pancreatic Cancer Foundation. A/Prof Phillips is a co-investigator on this grant.

As current approaches to this research are time and labour intensive, the team will develop an integrated and small device based on nanotechnology for rapid and sensitive exosome analysis. The team will define a set of biomarkers that can differentiate between cancer and non-cancer subjects from cells and plasma carrying early signs of human pancreatic cancer. This novel technology will also be applicable for doctors monitoring the development and customising the treatment of a patients tumour.

Pancreatic cancer is difficult to diagnose in the early stages. Early tumour cant be observed during routine physical exams as the pancreas is deep inside the body. Most patients are diagnosed when the cancer has become very large or has spread to other organs. A method to detect pancreatic cancer early on is urgently needed, Dr Zhu said.

My project team aims to develop a blood test to detect pancreatic cancer in the early stages. The team will target exosomes, which are nanosized fragments released by cancer cells. Exosomes are important for communicating messages and transporting materials between cells. Exosomes have been identified as more accurate and promising biomarkers, or biological clues for pancreatic cancer diagnosis, Dr Zhu continued.

We are pleased to award funding to this innovative project, said Michelle Stewart, CEO of the Avner Pancreatic Cancer Foundation. We are encouraged by the high calibre of the research and believe that investment into projects like these will help us to increase survival for people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

See the rest here:

World Pancreatic Cancer Day: increasing awareness and inspiring action - UNSW Newsroom

Bankrupt biopharmas are rare. 2019 has some worried that’s changing. – BioPharma Dive

Editors note: This is part of a series about bankruptcy in the biopharma industry. Click here to see a running list of 2019 biopharma bankruptcies, and click here to see 31 biopharmas at high risk of bankruptcy for 2020.

Six years ago, Bind Therapeutics was flying high, with little idea how hard it would soon crash.

Headed into a public stock offering in 2013, the biotech, founded by top MIT and Harvard researchers, generated buzz with its lofty scientific ambitions. Company executives believed its nanomedicine platform, while only through Phase 1 tests, represented the next advance in cancer therapies.

Those dreams came undone within three years. As its experimental therapies struggled in clinical testing, Bind was punished by the market, and debt repayments forced the company into bankruptcy in 2016.

Bind may be a cautionary story in todays life sciences ecosystem, one that features biotechs going public at earlier stages and with heightened ambitions.

While bankruptcy is a rare outcome for biopharmas, 2019 has bucked that trend with an uptick in Chapter 11 filings. Eleven companies have declared bankruptcy so far this year, compared to an average of four per year during the past decade, according to a review of data tracked by the firm BankruptcyData.

That increase may forewarn of more companies falling to zero, industry experts said in interviews with BioPharma Dive, especially at a time of rising legal and political headwinds for the sector. After a decade of booming growth, the ballooning ranks of newly public biotechs may struggle to withstand market pressures.

I think theres a turning point now, said Andrew Hirsch, the former CEO of Bind, in an interview. I think its not sustainable.

Hirsch highlighted the rising prominence of early-stage platform companies, like Bind, going public in greater numbers and at larger valuations. That can bring steeper downside, he warned.

Things arent always going to work the first time, thats just the rule in this industry. A lot of times, companies are valued for perfection, said Hirsch, now Agios Pharmaceuticals chief financial officer.

If they are lucky and it works, thats great. But if you have a setback because youre doing novel things, the public markets can be a cruel place to be.

Biotech vastly outperformed the broader stock market over the past decade, and a steady inflow of capital supported more companies going public at rich valuations.

But those tides have turned. A leading biotech index has fallen more than 15% since peaking in the summer of last year, while the S&P 500 has ticked up nearly 13% in the same timeframe. The capital required for funding biopharmas ambitions is leaving too, with one Wall Street firm calculating $8.7 billion in net capital outflows this year rivaling a stretch in late 2015 and early 2016.

After years of outperformance, biotech has lagged the market for the past year

Price per share of a leading biotech index (XBI) and the S&P 500 (SPX) from January 2018 to October 2019 (indexed)

The base value of the index is trading value on Jan. 2, 2018.

Nami Sumida/BioPharma Dive

Investor anxiety is rising at a time when more companies are fighting for funding than in past decades. Evercore ISI analyst Josh Schimmer said this year hes noticed a marked shift in investor attitudes.

When they stumble, the markets are more unforgiving than ever, Schimmer said in an interview. They arent given second chances the way they used to be given. That may be a factor that does lead to a higher rate of bankruptcies.

And small biotechs arent the only ones facing elevated bankruptcy risk. The weight of thousands of lawsuits related to opioid marketing has already taken down Purdue Pharma and Insys Therapeutics. Several others, like Teva Pharmaceutical, Mallinckrodt and Amneal, are at risk of joining them.

The legal uncertainty has made these companies perceived as uninvestable, SVB Leerink analyst Ami Fadia said in an interview. Additionally, many of these pharmas are highly leveraged and face issues in generating cash going forward, she added.

Its pretty obvious that some of these companies are at high risk of bankruptcy, said Fadia, who covers several of these drugmakers including Mallinckrodt and Amneal.

To be sure, the effect of opioid liabilities is constrained to a comparatively small set of companies. But heading into an election year with drug pricing as a top issue, worries about capital fleeing the industry and a legal crackdown on opioid makers could be exacerbated by political threats as well.

Industry lobbyists have blasted HR3, the leading Democratic drug pricing proposal, saying it would trigger a nuclear winter by eroding the upside of biopharmas high-risk, high-reward investment premise.

If HR3 becomes law, it is lights out for a lot of very small biotech companies that are pre-revenue and depend on attracting capital, PhRMA CEO Stephen Ubl said at a recent media briefing.

Industry-specific concerns, of course, come against the backdrop of fears of a broader economic slowdown. Financial analysts have flagged recession signals in the U.S., which, if materialized, would further squeeze the industry.

It may be coming, in which capital itself is scarcer for companies, said Bob Eisenbach, a lawyer at Cooley specializing in bankruptcies. And when that happens, it puts pressure even on good companies.

Biopharmas are structured to avoid bankruptcies. Pre-revenue companies typically carry little debt and have little to restructure through a bankruptcy court if their pipeline fizzles.

Privately held biotechs that suffer clinical failures can also avoid bankruptcy by having their financial backers buy them out, saving face for those venture capitalists.

It just disappears into this great maw of the biotech universe, said Kevin Kinsella, a venture capitalist and founder of Avalon Ventures, referring to distressed biotechs in an interview.

Having launched more than 100 biopharmas, including prominent names like Vertex, Neurocrine and Onyx, Kinsella said hes been lucky enough to avoid getting entangled in any bankruptcies.

Someone absolutely failing, shutting the doors and turning off the lights, you dont really see that a lot in our industry, he said.

Drug companies, both young and old, derive value from ideas and hope more than tangible assets or resources. Just last year, early-stage platform companies like Moderna Therapeutics and Rubius Therapeutics went public with multi-billion dollar valuations despite lacking profits and significant clinical data.

But investor attitudes appear to have shifted. Rubius stock, for instance, has dropped more than 70% since its IPO. While up this month, shares in Moderna are 30% off their 52-week high in May.

Speaking generally about platform companies, Binds former CEO said market sentiment has turned.

Investors have lost their appetite for companies going public with preclinical data, Hirsch said.

Youre probably going to see more of these situations going forward, where a company is preclinical, went public and is left on their own and has to raise additional money from the public markets and they flounder.

Yet even floundering biotechs can persist for years, even decades. Long-standing industry veterans like Xoma, Novavax and Geron have survived in as-yet fruitless searches for their first drugs, suffering clinical failures along the way. Despite accumulated deficits exceeding $1 billion, these companies can find the necessary capital to keep chugging along.

Theres always someone else whos willing to bet the next discovery is around the corner, or the next asset, or if we get this clinical trial enrolled and finished, all will be good, Kinsella said. Theres always hope.

Besides selling hope, biopharmas, like all businesses, have practical options to stave off bankruptcy. Restructuring and raising cash are the main focuses, turnaround experts said.

Corporate restructurings typically shrink the business, either by laying off employees, selling assets or killing off R&D projects. Raising capital can include licensing rights to experimental therapies, taking on debt or tapping the public markets for secondary stock offerings.

If those options are exhausted, M&A can be another way out for shareholders. Firms like Deerfield Management, Hercules Capital and Highbridge Capital Management often aid distressed biotechs in such endeavours.

Deerfield, for instance, reached deals to finance R&D costs for Dynavax and helped fund Melinta Therapeutics acquisition of an infectious disease business.

A last resort can be merging with another struggling biotech, or becoming the shell in a reverse merger for another company seeking an easy path to a public listing.

Both happened in just the past few weeks. Foamix Pharmaceuticals and Menlo Therapeutics merged into one dermatology company, while NewLink Genetics was the shell through which Lumos Pharma joined public markets.

These strategies act as moats that insulate a high-risk industry from bankruptcy. In recent years, they have worked tremendously well. Among the 333 biopharmas that have gone public since 2012, just 3% filed for bankruptcy while 6% became reverse merger shells and 10% exited via M&A, according to data tracked by Evercore ISI.

But with 2019 looking shaky for biopharma, some have begun to wonder how markets will respond.

The last few years have featured record levels of capital raising, according to the investment bank Jefferies, which tallied 100 initial public offerings and 270 follow-on raises in 2018 and 2019 that drummed up tens of billions in cash.

At the same time, the number of public small and mid-sized biotechs has doubled in the past decade. There arent just more of these smaller firms; they also are worth more and consume more capital on average. From 2010 to present, these companies have seen their typical market values double, R&D budgets triple and cash burn rates quadruple, Jefferies found.

The annual burn rate for these biotechs, which includes market values from $200 million to $5 billion, has increased from $20 million to $80 million. Jefferies analyst Michael Yee credited that to free-flowing capital, more platform companies and an arms race in oncology.

Biotechs impressive market performance has made that possible. A leading biotech index, for instance, outperformed the S&P 500 by 30% since the market bottomed out in March 2009.

But of late, biotech has struggled, creating a tougher environment to raise cash.

The question is whether this is sustainable if market and macro conditions get tougher and political uncertainty gets more obvious, forcing companies to tighten their belts to ride out 2020, Yee wrote.

2019 has brought an uptick in industry bankruptcy filings

Credit: Data from Bankruptcy Data

Conditions have clearly worsened by some metrics, such as the amount of money invested in healthcare- or biotech-dedicated funds. Data tracked by a Piper Jaffray found $8.7 billion in investment has left such funds in 2019. Ten of the past 12 weeks have registered net capital outflows, a streak a Piper Jaffray analyst called seemingly the new normal.

Billions of dollars flowed out of biotech in 2015 and 2016, too, at a time when many biotech shares were falling and the prospect of a Hillary Clinton presidency had raised investor fears on drug pricing.

Biotech weathered that storm, with few companies entering bankruptcy, and has grown since. Going forward, a critical question will be gauging whether the sector is on a new trajectory or if it will emerge from this period relatively unscathed.

Getting investor attention is harder than ever to begin with, said Evercores Schimmer. For a company that has faltered, even if they are doing the right thing, its a struggle.

Continued here:

Bankrupt biopharmas are rare. 2019 has some worried that's changing. - BioPharma Dive

Fate of Male Birth Control Injection Now in Government’s Hands – Futurism

Women have a number of options for contraception, from pills to implants to injections.

But aside from condoms, men have just one: sterilization, which isnt always ideal given that it involves surgery and can be difficult to reverse.

That could soon change, though, as researchers in India have completed testing on a male birth control injection and the only thing now standing in its way is regulatory approval.

The trials are over, including extended, phase 3 clinical trials for which 303 candidates were recruited with 97.3% success rate and no reported side-effects, researcher RS Sharma, a senior scientist with the Indian Council of Medical Research, told The Hindustan Times. The product can safely be called the worlds first male contraceptive.

The contraceptive is a polymer that a medical professional injects into a patients vas deferens under local anesthesia.

Thats the same tube that gets snipped during a vasectomy, but blocking it with a polymer achieves the same goal preventing sperm from exiting the testicles without requiring a patient to undergo surgery. Whats more, the new contraceptive loses its potency after 13 years, so its not as permanent as a vasectomy.

Now that all the research and development is complete, the fate of the male birth control injection is in the hands of Indias regulators.

Its the first in the world from India so we have to be extra careful about approval, VG Somani, Indias drug controller general, told The Hindustan Times, adding that he thinks it will take about six to seven months for all the approvals to be granted before the product can be manufactured.

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Fate of Male Birth Control Injection Now in Government's Hands - Futurism

Our Solar System Is Blanketed in a Giant Wall of Fire – Futurism

Literal Firewall

At the outermost edges of our solar system lies a barrier of super-hot plasma a giant wall of fire from the Sun that defines the edge of interstellar space.

As Voyager 2 began its journey into interstellar space in late 2018, it recorded temperatures as high as 49,427 degrees Celsius (89,000 degrees Fahrenheit), according to Nerdist. And while the space probe seems to be fine, the plasma shield could pose a problem to NASA as it moves towards its planned interstellar mission.

Scientists are just now measuring the plasma layer, which was created and is maintained by solar winds that blow outward from the Sun to form a giant bubble, according to research published this month in Nature Astronomy.

According to a release from NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the new research suggests that Voyager 2 may not actually be in interstellar space yet, but rather stuck in a wide transitional region made of incredibly hot, compact plasma just beyond the outer reaches of the solar system.

READ MORE: 89,000F Wall of Plasma Surrounds Our Solar System [Nerdist]

More on interstellar space: Interstellar Objects Home Solar System May Resemble Our Own

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Our Solar System Is Blanketed in a Giant Wall of Fire - Futurism

Professor Claims to Have Discovered Insect-Like Life on Mars – Futurism

On Tuesday, insect experts from across the United States gathered in St. Louis, Missouri, for the Entomological Society of Americas annual meeting and when Ohio University Professor Emeritus William Romoser got a chance to address his peers, he made a shocking claim.

There has been and still is life on Mars, Romoser said in a press releaseabout his presentation.

The only problem: his evidence isnt exactly convincing.

According to the press release, Romoser believes that various Mars rovers have already captured images of both living and fossilized insects on the Red Planet. The poster he presented on Tuesday contains multiple photos he found on the internet with what he claims are bug body parts circled in red.

See this blurry spot? Thats an insects thorax. The spot next to it? Clearly, the creatures head looking straight at the camera using its compound eye, which appears in the image to be you guessed it a blurry spot.

After analyzing the photos, Romoser says he believes Mars is home to creatures resembling snakes, bumble bees, reptiles, and more. In the press release, he notes how his discovery of the lifeforms on Mars aligns with the identification of terrestrial creatures.

Three body regions, a single pair of antennae, and six legs are traditionally sufficient to establish identification as insect on Earth, he said. These characteristics should likewise be valid to identify an organism on Mars as insect-like. On these bases, arthropodan, insect-like forms can be seen in the Mars rover photos.

Perhaps the lesson to be learned from Romosers presentation, then, is not that insects exist on Mars, but that entomologists might want to look into more stringent bases for identifying bugs on Earth.

READ MORE: Scientist claims to spot insects on Mars, but I think theyre just rocks [CNET]

More on life on Mars: NASAs Chief Scientist Is Oddly Terrified by Finding Life on Mars

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Professor Claims to Have Discovered Insect-Like Life on Mars - Futurism

Scientists Confirm Water Vapor Above the Surface of Europa – Futurism

A team led by researchers out of NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, has confirmed traces of water vapor above the surface of Jupiters icy moon Europa.

And thats a big deal as the tiny space rock is one of the highest priority targets in NASAs search for extraterrestrial life, according to the agency.

While scientists have not yet detected liquid water directly, weve found the next best thing: water in vapor form, lead researcher and NASA planetary scientist Lucas Paganini said in a NASA statement.

According toa paper published in the journal Nature Astronomy on Monday, the NASA team discovered enough water vapor being released from Europa to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool within minutes.

But while that sounds like a lot, it was only just enough to be detected from Earth.

Out of 17 observations by the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii, which uses a spectrograph to detect the chemical compositions of other planets atmospheres by scanning the infrared light they release or absorb, the scientists only spotted water vapor in one.

We suggest that the outgassing of water vapour on Europa occurs at lower levels than previously estimated, with only rare localized events of stronger activity, Paganini and his team wrote in the paper.

For many years, scientists have suspected that theres water on Europas surface, and several observations appear to back up that suspicion.

More than two decades ago, NASAs Galileo spacecraft found evidence of an electrically conductive fluid on the moons surface. Then, a 2018 analysis of the data found evidence of massive plumes of liquid. Data previously collected by NASAs Hubble Space Telescope supported the existence of the plumes.

We performed diligent safety checks to remove possible contaminants in ground-based observations, Goddard planetary scientist Avi Mandell said of the water vapor discovery in the statement. But, eventually, well have to get closer to Europa to see whats really going on.

A mission to do just that is already lined up.

NASAs upcoming Europa Clipper mission will get a much closer look at the icy moons surface as soon as 2023. The spacecraft will feature a suite of cameras, spectrometers, and a radar to investigate the thickness of Europas icy shell during 45 flybys and perhaps yield further insights into the water vapor above the moons surface while its there.

READ MORE: NASA Scientists Confirm Water Vapor on Europa [NASA]

More on Europa: NASA is Sending a Probe to Jupiters Icy Moon to Look for Life

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Scientists Confirm Water Vapor Above the Surface of Europa - Futurism

"Like Horoscope Readings!": The Scammy World of DNA Test Startups – Futurism

In the spring of 2017, a college student named Mary spit into a tube and sent it to the DNA testing company Ancestry,which analyzed it and sent back a breakdown of her family history.

But Mary wanted to know more. The human genome contains, in theory, an extraordinary wealth of pre-programmed information about who we are and who we might become: whether she was at risk for the same types of cancer that killed her parents, for instance, or if she had medical conditions she could unknowingly pass on to her children.

For that information, Mary were withholding her last name to protect her privacy turned to a dubious new sector of the genomics industry, in which startups claim to provide vastly greater insights than prominent companies like Ancestry and 23andMe do. She uploaded a copy of her raw genetic code, which Ancestry provided as a 17.6 megabyte text file, to a site called Genomelink, which advertises tests for everything from medical conditions and mental illnesses to ludicrously specific personality traits including loneliness, social communication problems, and vulnerability to helicopter parenting.

But when her results arrived, Mary immediately noticed that many were wildly inaccurate. Genomelink said she was less easily depressed, but Mary was diagnosed with clinical depression at a young age. The startup predicted that she had a peanut allergy, but Mary told Futurism that peanut butter is one of the true loves of my life. Other errors in Marys report included traits like blood iron levels, body fat measurements, hearing problems, height, and skin complexion.

I felt that much of it was off-base and unhelpful, she told Futurism, as it didnt fit me at all.

Genomelink is just one of a growing number of shady DNA testing startups now operating in the regulatory Wild West of commercial genomics.

Theres GenePlaza, for instance, which sold a DNA test that claimed to predict users sexual preferences and still sells tests that purport to measure intelligence and risk of depression. A company called Soccer Genomics claims to examine a childs DNA to create a sports training regimen to turn them into the perfect soccer player. An outfit called GenoPalate told a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter that their DNA demanded a diet of elk meat and passion fruit. A venture called Vinome claims it can recommend the perfect wine for each person based on their genetic code.

The problem, according to experts, is that these companies are promising information about DNA with a granularity that even scientists cant deliver. Deanna Church, a geneticist at the biotech company Inscripta, told Futurism the tests are all equally useless.

There is not a scientific basis for this sort of testing, she said. I certainly would not recommend anyone spend any money on this sort of thing.

But thousands of people are doing just that and receiving supposed facts about themselves that have little or no scientific grounding. This can cause problems Genomelink customers could feasibly see their predictions for traits like gluten sensitivity, longevity, or alcohol drinking behavior, assume the results are valid, and make ill-informed lifestyle or medical changes based on the results.

And other Genomelink customers agree with Mary: the results just dont hold up.

It sometimes feels like horoscope readings! one woman told Futurism. Many seem like self-perception results. How can I know if they are correct when what I feel about it may only be my perception rather than a fact?

Another concern is privacy. Genomelink tells customers they can request to have their data scrubbed from the companys servers, but all it takes is one corporate acquisition or potentially a generous enough bid for the stores of personal data for that to change. Underlying the phenomenon is an unavoidable economic reality: Its getting incredibly cheap to have your DNA sequenced. Just ten years ago, it cost nearly $100,000 to produce a full human genome, according to the National Human Genome Research Institute. Today, an Ancestry kit costs just $59.

These increasingly-affordable tests are tantalizing your DNA is essentially a personal blueprint that dictates everything from your susceptibility to specific diseases to your eye color. While our environments and lifestyles play major roles in who and what we become, the influence of DNA is vast.

The ability to interpret DNAs full influence, however, still eludes us. Geneticists have only started to crack DNAs code, and experts told Futurism that theyre nowhere near able to predict something as complex as personality traits and that any startup claiming to do so should raise immediate red flags.

I think its fair to say that by and large, most of these tests are not useful at the moment, Shoumita Dasgupta, a biomedical geneticist at the Boston University School of Medicine, told Futurism. Maybe its just me being cynical, but I think its simply greed that is driving people to develop these tools for which there is limited scientific justification at best.

Tomohiro Takano, the CEO of Genomelink parent company Awakens, readily admits that the results arent always accurate.

I know that many of the DNA traits may not be true, Takano said in an interview with Futurism.

Takano did point toward some steps Genomelink has taken to communicate its own limitations. Every time a Genomelink customer gets a new trait report, he said, it comes with information that indicates how reliable the prediction is, along with a breakdown of the rigor of the studies its based on.

Takano also defended the company by saying that it doesnt explicitly recommend lifestyle changes based on results.

What we want to do here is communicate that limitation too, he said. Many of our users, myself included, want to know where is the science today.

Overall, Takano said, he sees Genomelink as an entertainment product as much as an educational one an idea that was harshly rebuked by experts.

I think it is concerning when the line between medical testing and entertainment is blurred, Gillian Hooker, President-Elect of the National Society of Genetic Counselors, told Futurism. Imagery and language that indicates a test may be medically useful could be very misleading when theres limited or no evidence to support its use.

And I think there is a particular vulnerability when you involve conditions that are poorly understood scientifically, physically and emotionally challenging and for which people may be seeking answers that science has yet to uncover, Hooker added, listing traits like depression, allergies, vitamin reports, and food sensitivities all of which Genomelink claims to identify.

Make no mistake: DNA tests can already provide doctors with valuable information about patients health, and Hooker often helps patients navigate them in her clinical practice. Genetic assessments can help oncologists determine whether their patients have a high risk of cancer, for instance, and how best to treat any existing tumors.

It might be simplest to picture DNA as an extremely intricate instruction manual. DNA exists as a long string of molecules called nucleotides, which include one of four molecular components. The order of those four components, read from one end to the other, guides the biological machinery found in every cell as it assembles and operates the human body.

Hooker said DNA screens will likely provide useful tools for cardiologists, neurologists, pediatricians, and also for prenatal caregivers. But the science to support tests for mental illness and intelligence already apoorly-defined metric isnt there yet.

For complex traits, we just dont understand enough to be able to look at someones DNA and make predictions about sports ability, intelligence, etc, Church, the geneticist, said. It is not that these things dont have a genetic component, it is just that we dont understand enough about the genetics, or how environment impacts these genetic variants.

Because this realm of science is so new, Hooker recommends that patients consult with trained genetic counselors who can offer specialized guidance to make sure tests will yield useful info and help people understand and come to terms with their results afterward.

Mary took her results with a grain of salt and realized that Genomelink wasnt giving her valid interpretations of her DNA. But others could easily be misled Mary said that she feels Genomelink never communicated to her the scientific limitations of its reports.

Personally, I find it irresponsible to market products of this type, Dasgupta, the geneticist from Boston, told Futurism, because providing genetic trait reports that are validated by robust science alongside flimsier predictions lends authority to the latter.

She added: We cant expect the average consumer to be able to tell the difference.

Futurism Associate Social Media Editor Natalie Coleman provided significant research assistance for this story.

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"Like Horoscope Readings!": The Scammy World of DNA Test Startups - Futurism

Here’s What Happens When a Solar Storm Slams Into the Earth – Futurism

Eerie Song

A team of scientists from the University of Helsinki used data collected by the European Space Agencys Cluster mission an investigation into the Earths magnetic field using a constellation of four spacecraft to map out the eerie song that the Earth sings when bombarded by electrically charged particles from the Sun.

The research could allow us to understand disturbances in space weather and how they affect technology both on the ground and in space. It could also teach us about the magnetic fields of distant exoplanets and how theyre affected by their parent star.

Solar winds occur when particles are released by the Sun and flow into other parts of the Solar System. A solar storm, or coronal mass ejection, occurs when the Sun shoots out a burst of plasma, caused by a release of magnetic energy. Such a storm is so powerfulthat it can temporarily change the shape of the Earths magnetic field.

The team studied the foreshocks the regions the solar storms particles hit first when approaching Earth and discovered the magnetic waves that were released as a result were far more complex than they initially thought.

We always expected a change in frequency but not the level of complexity in the wave, team lead Lucile Turc from the University of Helsinki, Finland said in a statement.

The scientists then turned these magnetic waves into audible sounds, resulting in alien-sounding bleeps and bloops.

READ MORE: Earths magnetic song recorded for the first time during a solar storm [ESA]

More on solar winds: We May Have Finally Solved the Mystery of Solar Flares

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Here's What Happens When a Solar Storm Slams Into the Earth - Futurism

NASA Will Test Beautiful Spaceship That Looks Like Space Shuttle – Futurism

Dream Chaser

Space company Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) is developing the Dream Chaser, a sleek reusable spacecraft thats meant to shuttle cargo to and from the International Space Station and beyond and it looks like a sleek version of the space agencys classic Space Shuttle.

A test version of the spacecrafts 15-foot cargo module, called Shooting Star, is already on its way to NASAs Kennedy Space Center for testing, according to a press release. The companys Dream Chaser is under contract with NASA to launch six times to the ISS in the fall of 2021, carrying a total of 10,000 pounds of pressurized and unpressurized payloads inside its cargo module.

The contract follows Boeing and SpaceXs attempts to ferry astronauts to and from the ISS in the coming years.

SNCs spacecraft is extremely versatile: it will have the ability to dispose of its cargo upon re-entry into the Earths atmosphere, offloading the space stations unwanted material. Thanks to a specialized self-inflating module attachment, Dream Chaser can even turn itself into an orbital satellite. Like the Space Shuttle, itll land on a runway.

SNC has big plans in store for Dream Chaser. It wants the spacecraft to support other missions in low-Earth orbit and even as far as NASAs planned Lunar Gateway, an outpost in the Moons orbit.

READ MORE: SNCs Dream Chaser spacecraft can supply NASAs lunar space station and become its own orbital platform [Tech Crunch]

More on the ISS: Brands Keep Sending Their Pointless Swag to the Space Station

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NASA Will Test Beautiful Spaceship That Looks Like Space Shuttle - Futurism

The Toll Casual Space Tourism Will Take on the Planet (Updated) – Futurism

Editors note 11/18/2019: After its publication, the figures cited in this story were re-reviewed, and were determined to be inadequately sourced and calculated. As such, weve retracted the story, and left the struck version of the story beneath for transparency. Futurism regrets the error.

Space companies trying to make off-world tourism a thing will likely cause major environmental destruction in the process.

Thats because a single SpaceX Falcon 9 launch emits as much carbon dioxide as 395 transatlantic flights, Common Dreams reports. And with SpaceX, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, and others planning to ramp up their space tourism efforts, they could become a major force exacerbatingglobal climate change.

Travel company Champion Travelerdid the actual math, and the numbers look grim.

Just one space flight emits as much CO2 as 73 cars typically do over the course of an entire year, and SpaceX has two dozen launches planned just to establish its Starlink satellite network. Add in all the other space companies launches, and you get a whole lot of greenhouse gases poised to burn our atmosphere away.

But hey, if the worlds going to burn, you might as well get a sick view of it from the shuttles window seat.

READ MORE: New Analysis Shows Billionaires Dream of Space Tourism Would Be Disaster for Emissions, Climate Crisis [Common Dreams]

More on space tourism: Virgin Galactics Plan: Send Tourists to Space Every 32 Hours

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The Toll Casual Space Tourism Will Take on the Planet (Updated) - Futurism

People With Half Their Brain Removed Are Doing Surprisingly Well – Futurism

One of the greatest marvels of the human brain is neuroplasticity the ability to restructure itself and adapt if chunks get damaged or removed.

Now, a new study reveals that neuroplasticity is more powerful than previously believed. In some cases, adults who had half of their brain taken out as children, in a procedure called a hemispherectomy, are living regular lives and can have stronger neural connections than those who still had the full thing.

If scientists can figure out how that came to be, they may uncover new treatments for strokes or other forms of brain damage.

The new study examined the neural function and connectivity of six people, all now in their 20s and 30s, who underwent hemispherectomies between the ages of three months and 11 years, HealthDay reports. The procedure which involves slicing the brain down the middle and taking out an entire half is an extreme but not unheard-of treatment for children with violent, frequent, and dangerous seizures.

Hemispherectomy patients have long been known to lead normal lives after the procedure, but the piecemeal case studies didnt reveal the extent to which the brain was able to recover. The California Institute of Technology doctors behind the new study, which was published Tuesday in the journal Cell Reports, say they were surprised at just how well the halved brains adapted and reorganized themselves over time.

The people with hemispherectomies that we studied were remarkably high-functioning, CalTech researcher Dorit Kliemann said. They have intact language skills. When I put them in the scanner, we made small talk, just like the hundreds of other individuals I have scanned.

You can almost forget their condition when you meet them for the first time, Kliemann added.

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People With Half Their Brain Removed Are Doing Surprisingly Well - Futurism

Spirituality: If you stick with Jesus, he’ll keep you on course – Norwich Bulletin

I was on my way to New York City to go to a conference last weekend. I needed a coffee and decided to stop at Dunkin' Donuts. Now, visiting a doughnut shop is dangerous for a guy who is always watching his weight. What's worse was the fact that I was in the mood for something sweet.

As I looked at the offerings, I fought off the temptation to grab a double chocolate glazed treat. I decided I'd stick to the plan. I was going to get my hot coffee. Then I looked at the menu board. Suddenly a warm feeling came over me. Before I knew what was happening, I ordered a Coffee Coolata with just a bit of whipped cream.

I fell in love with Coolatas back in spring 2011. That's the year I began my ministry in Westerly. As I drove back and forth on Route 2, I would often stop at Dunkin' on the way. I'd treat myself to one of these special frozen coffees. I couldn't figure out how a coffee drink could taste so good by just adding a bit of whipped cream.

I figured frozen coffee couldn't be that bad for you. So I drank those Coolatas all summer long. A strange thing happened. By the end of summer I noticed that all my pants were getting a little tight around the waist. It didn't make sense. I was a lifetime Weight Watcher. I'm always counting points. I rarely went over my daily allotment.

I mentioned it to Priscilla, my Weight Watcher leader at the time. She laughed out loud. She said, "How many points are you counting for that drink?" I told her I was counting it like a black coffee and adding zero points. She said, "Look it up." I was shocked. It was 25 points without the whipped cream. Suddenly it all made sense.

Little mistakes or oversights can add up. It doesn't take much for us to get off course. Just ask a boater. While out on the Watch Hill Fire rescue boat last summer, one of the department members told me that a few degrees here or there could end up causing our ship to run aground. You have to be alert and keep your eyes open.

Life is filled with detours that distract us and lead us into uncharted waters. Most of the time we don't even realize we are in danger. We just do what we do, like I did with the Coolatas. It is the little things that often lead us astray. We need to keep our eyes on Jesus. We need to listen to the sound of his voice.

That what the Apostle Peter did when he got out of the boat and began doing the impossible, walking on water. The truth is that amazing things happen when we walk with Jesus. We do far more than we think we are capable of. Even more, he will never lead us astray or let us go off course. So keep the faith. Follow Jesus.

The Rev. Cal Lord, of Norwich, is the pastor of Central Baptist Church of Westerly. Reach him at calstigers@gmail.com.

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Spirituality: If you stick with Jesus, he'll keep you on course - Norwich Bulletin