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Crypto Analyst: Ethereum Has Bottomed, Expected To See Extended Rally – newsBTC

Posted on October 21, 2019 by Danzig

2019 has been the year of Bitcoin, while altcoins like Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, and others have continued to suffer and fall further from their all-time high prices set back at the height of the crypto hype bubble in late 2017 and early 2018.

But according to one crypto analyst, Ethereum may have bottomed and an extended bullish rally may be ahead as the second-largest crypto by market cap catches up on ground it lost against Bitcoin during the year.

At the start of the year, the entire crypto market appeared to be rebounding out of the crypto winter it had long been trapped in and started showing signs of a bullish uptrend forming once again. But starting in April, Bitcoin and altcoins like Ethereum diverged, and the alternative crypto assets began to plummet even further, erasing what little gains had amounted during the year thus far.

Related Reading | Alt Season 2.0: Ethereum and XRP Post 20% Gains, Litecoin and More Up 10%

Since then, Bitcoin sucked the life out of the altcoin market, including Ethereum, and only now that Bitcoin is once again falling too are altcoins beginning to show a glimmer of hope that their ongoing downtrend may finally be coming to an abrupt end.

According to one popular crypto industry analyst, that is true for Ethereum, which may have bottomed and is ready to break out of a consolidation pattern it has been trading in. The crypto analyst also expects Ethereum to go on to experience parabolic price growth, on the ETH/USD trading pair.

After fully bottoming in December 2018 along with the rest of the market, the crypto analyst says that Ethereum has just experienced its first pullback after the disbelief stage, and following that phase in normal market cycles typically comes a revival of hope that ultimately becomes a full-blown bull market.

If Ethereum has indeed bottomed and has just confirmed former resistance as support during a pullback ahead of a rally, the analyst believes that not only will the smart contract-focused crypto-asset rise in the coming days ahead, but could revisit its all-time high of over $1,400 per ETH within less than one years time.

Related Reading | Ethereum, XRP, Litecoin and Other Large Cap Altcoins Poised For 20% Breakout

Such performance in Ethereum markets would result in an over 650% return on investment from current prices of $180 per ETH to the assets previous all-time high of $1,400 it set at the start of 2018 before the bear market took hold and eliminated as much as 99% of the value from most altcoins including Ethereum.

Ethereum, like Bitcoin, often moves the entire crypto market and an extended rally for Ethereum may also mean an extended rally in the overall crypto market may be around the corner.

Crypto Analyst: Ethereum Has Bottomed, Expected To See Extended Rally - newsBTC

Ethereum (ETH) Dives To $170, Is $160 Next Bear Target? – newsBTC

Posted on October 21, 2019 by Danzig

Ethereum price is under selling pressure versus the US Dollar, similar to bitcoin. ETH price remains at a risk of more losses below the $170 level.

Yesterday, we saw bearish signs for Ethereum below the $185 resistance area against the US Dollar. ETH price remained in a bearish zone and even broke the $180 support. Moreover, there was a close below $180 and the 100 hourly simple moving average. It opened the doors for more downsides and the price broke the key $175 support area. It traded close to the $170 level and a swing low was formed near $171.

At the moment, the price is consolidating losses above the $172 level. An immediate resistance is near the $175 level. Moreover, the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the recent drop from the $188 high to $171 low is near the $175 level. Besides, yesterdays highlighted key bearish trend line is intact with resistance near $175 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD.

If there is an upside break above $175, the price could test the $177 resistance area. However, the next key resistance is near the $180 level. It represents the 50% Fib retracement level of the recent drop from the $188 high to $171 low. Additionally, the 100 hourly SMA is also positioned near the $180 level to act as a strong resistance if the price corrects higher in the near term.

On the downside, the $172 and $170 levels are immediate supports. If there is a downside break below the $170 support, the price could continue to decline. The next stop for the bears could be near the $160 level.

Looking at the chart, Ethereum price is trading in a bearish zone below the $180 resistance and the 100 hourly SMA. If there is an upside correction, the price is likely to face a strong resistance near the $180 and $185 levels. Therefore, there are high chances of more downsides below $170 in the coming sessions.

Hourly MACD The MACD for ETH/USD is about to move into the bearish zone.

Hourly RSI The RSI for ETH/USD is now well below the 50 level, with a flat structure.

Major Support Level $170

Major Resistance Level $180

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Ethereum (ETH) Dives To $170, Is $160 Next Bear Target? - newsBTC

Thomson Reuters: Bringing Smart Contracts to the Mainstream With Ethereum & Chainlink – Blockonomi

Posted on October 21, 2019 by Danzig

Media conglomerate Thomson Reuters, one of Canadas leading brands, is eyeing an opportunity to bring the possibilities of Ethereum smart contracts into the mainstream.

The effort comes as part of a partnership with OpenLaw, the ConsenSys-backed builders of an open source and peer-to-peer protocol for automating legal agreements.

Revealed on October 17th, the first fruit of the partnership is a proof of concept (PoC) system dubbed Smart Contract Express, which melds Thomson Reuterss document automation service Contract Express with smart contract functionalities using Ethereum and decentralized oracle project Chainlink.

The PoC allows for users to take a Practical Law Company contract template and run it through Contract Express, at which point the most important data from the contract like dates and payment obligations can be permanently hashed onto Ethereum.

Accordingly, the point of the PoC system is not to dump the entirety of a traditional legal contract onto a blockchain, but rather to make specific contracts hybrid in having both off-chain and on-chain components.

That kind of hybrid dynamic could be particularly useful in the context of international trade or when companies are specifically dealing with cryptocurrencies.

Notably, if later rolled out further the system could provide mainstream lawyers a comfortable way to interact with smart contracts, per Andy Wishart, the Global Head of Drafting and Productivity Solutions at Thomson Reuters:

This system pulls data through to OpenLaw and brings two worlds together. At the same time, lawyers will be very familiar with Contract Express.

Decentralized autonomous organizations, or DAOs, have experienced nothing short of a resurgence in the Ethereum community in 2019. From MolochDAO, to MetaCartel, to newer groups like OrochiDAO and Trojan DAO, innovation around these new kinds of organizations is currently abounding.

One such venture that has recently gained attention is the LAO, the first limited liability for-profit DAO that OpenLaw announced last month. The LAO will allow its users a legally-compliant structure through which to offer grants and invest in projects around the Ethereum community.

Much like how Coinbase helped bring the trading of traditional assets to millions by attempting to comply with various legal requirements, OpenLaw will help to resurrect the initial vision of The DAO in a manner that comports with U.S. law, the OpenLaw team said at the time.

Ether (ETH) is the king of the hill when it comes to money in the Ethereum ecosystem. The second most popular project is inarguably the Dai stablecoin.

Thats why it came as no surprise in August when OpenLaws builders revealed they were embracing the stablecoin as the medium of exchange of choice for on-chain financial transactions on their protocol. As the team then explained:

To that end, weve integrated Dai into OpenLaw Finance to show how Dai can be used as the medium of exchange for legally compliant tokenized securities, fixed income products, tokenized real estate, and smart derivatives Dai can continue its path towards achieving a status as a global currency.

This month, excitement picked up around a new demo from the Lexon project, which is developing a human readable programming language that is designed to make the code of blockchain smart contracts readable for non-programmers.

Not only is the demo readable to a layperson, but its code can also be easily exported to Solidity, the programming language of Ethereum.

Its an interesting dynamic that will surely lead to further innovation at the crossroads of several different fields in the years ahead. While platforms like Ethereum are changing the way that digital commerce can be done, they may increasingly shift how we approach legal agreements, too.

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Thomson Reuters: Bringing Smart Contracts to the Mainstream With Ethereum & Chainlink - Blockonomi

Ethereums Bearish Wave Count Outlined by Cryptocurrency Analyst – BeInCrypto

Posted on October 21, 2019 by Danzig

Ethereum is the second-largest cryptocurrency when ranked by its market capitalization. It made headlines on Monday when its co-founder was spotted in the company of several Chinese investors and internet moguls. This could have been the reason for a nearly 10 percent increase in the price of the altcoin.

However, despite this price spike, Ethereum has been on a downward trend for the prior 110 days.

Crypto trader @smartcontracter pointed out that the Ethereum four-hour chart looks bearish while outlining a possible downward path for the price.

According to him, the price is ready to make a downward move towards $170.

While the short-term wave count seems correct, we want to look at the longer-term price action to decide the Ethereum price outlook and find a target for the end of the downward move.

Looking at the price movement since Ethereum reached a low of $83 on December 7, 2018, we believe the ETH price has finished a five-wave upward move when it reached a high of $363 on June 26, 2019.

Since then, the Ethereum price has been trading inside of a descending wedge. The descending wedge is a bullish pattern, making a price breakout more likely. While inside its confines, ETH has either finished the final corrective C-wave or is very close to doing so.

However, it is also right at the resistance line of the pattern. Therefore, even though the wedge is a bullish pattern, we could definitely see an extension of the downward leg towards the support area if the price does not break out immediately.

When we look at the daily moving averages (MAs), the possibility of a breakout is greatly reduced.

The 100- and 200-day MAs have just made a bearish cross and are providing close resistance to the price.

A bullish cross between the two MAs occurred in May and preceded an increase of more than 100 percent.

The current bearish cross could very well be a precursor to a similar decrease. However, due to the support area outlined near $160 and the projected end of the wedge, we do not believe this decrease will have the same magnitude.

Looking at the four-hour chart to which @smartcontracter alluded to, we can see a short-term ascending support line. Combining it with the descending resistance line from the wedge, we get a symmetrical triangle which is projected to end in two days.

A decisive move should occur by that time.

Based on our long-term analysis, we agree with the statement made by @smartcontracter that the price is likely to initiate a downward move.

Do you think Ethereum will break out or will it decrease towards the support area? Let us know in the comments below.

[Disclaimer: This article is not trading advice and should not be construed as such. Always consult a trained financial professional before investing in cryptocurrencies, as the market is particularly volatile.]

Images courtesy of Twitter, TradingView.

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Ethereums Bearish Wave Count Outlined by Cryptocurrency Analyst - BeInCrypto

XRPs Third Quarter Inflation Rate Was Lower Than Ethereum (ETH) and Litecoin (LTC) – SludgeFeed

Posted on October 21, 2019 by Danzig

Ripple, the company behind XRP (XRP), released its third-quarter summary on Friday.

In the report, Ripple revealed that it ended up selling far fewer XRP in the quarter than was previously anticipated. According to the company, XRP sales were $66.24 million vs. $251.51 million in the previous quarter, representing a 73.7% decrease quarter over quarter. Additionally, 3 billion XRP were released out of escrow while 2.3 billion were returned during the period.

While Ripple planned to have a third-quarter programmatic sales rate of 10 basis points of its volume benchmark, the sales ended up being 8.8 basis points as it decided to focus more heavily on over-the-counter sales to strategic partners. This resulted in a total of 36 bps of the volume benchmark, and a lower inflation rate than both Ethereum (ETH) and Litecoin (LTC) during the quarter.

This information will likely come as a relief to many XRP investors, who frequently monitor sites like Whale Alerts to view the various XRP sales and movements in and out of Ripples escrow. While Ripple continues to issue new XRP, the rate at which it is doing so appears to be decreasing as the company is perhaps being more strategic with its distributions.

Investors looking to trade XRP commission-free and earn some free BTC can do so on theVoyager appby signing up throughthis link(or use code: SLUDGE25).

Disclaimer: This articles author has cryptocurrency holdings that can betracked here. This article is for informational purposes only and should not be taken as investment advice. Always conduct your own due diligence before making investments.

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XRPs Third Quarter Inflation Rate Was Lower Than Ethereum (ETH) and Litecoin (LTC) - SludgeFeed

Dark Horses of dApps: 6 Blockchains With Ethereum In Their Sights – Crypto Briefing

Posted on October 21, 2019 by Danzig

Right now, three blockchains dominate the dApp market: Ethereum, EOS, and TRON, which are responsible for about 95% of all deployed distributed applications.

On top of this, there are a few blockchains that dont have as many dApps, but which are popular due to their coins high market rankingsuch as NEO, VeChain, and Ontology.

Things are changing, though: dApp listing sites are starting to pin their hopes on smaller blockchains. This year, four of the biggest dApp listing sites began to list apps from up-and-coming platforms. Heres what the newest dApp blockchains have to offerand an answer as to whether they really deserve the attention that theyre getting.

IOST is specifically designed as a basis for online services. It boasts high speeds (8000 TPS) and low transaction fees, making it an ideal foundation for dApps. It also relies on a unique consensus mechanism called Proof of Believability, which gives IOSTs underlying network a high degree of decentralization despite its small size.

Since its February launch, IOST has performed well: its the 70th largest cryptocurrency thanks to its $60 million market cap, and its 30 apps are listed on DAppRadar, DappReview, Dapp.com, and DAppTotal.

IOSTs highest volume (and most heavily used) dApp is its DEX, which averages 215 daily users and handles about $13,500 per day. We have examined IOST and assigned an investment grade in our SIMETRI Research.

The Loom Network is a second layer solution that provides better performance for Ethereum dApps. Its also introducing compatibility with EOS, TRON, and Cosmos, which means that developers can release their Apps on multiple blockchains at once.

In short, the Loom Network is one of the most dApp-focused blockchains on the market, period. Our SIMETRI Research team has taken a very deep dive into its tech.

Looms token has a $23 million market cap, making it the 135th largest cryptocurrency. It has about nine apps on DappRadar and DappReview, but its biggest apps are doing quite well: the learn-to-code game CryptoZombies attracts 250 users per day, while the creature trading game Axie Infinity handles $4100 daily.

Klaytn is a blockchain from Kakao, South Koreas most popular mobile messaging company. Klaytns claim to fame is its hybrid nature: it combines the efficiency of private blockchains with the decentralization of public blockchains. This means that Klaytn has a large number of apps from enterprises, despite the fact that it is a public blockchain.

There are 10 Klaytn dApps listed on Dapp.comand a few, such as the security suite Cloudbric, have thousands of daily users. However, since some of these web apps existed before Klaytn did, they may have benefited from a head start. The fact that Klaytns token has no reported market value also makes its success difficult to measure.

Nebulas is a blockchain with a focus on analytics and searchabilityin fact, it is sometimes touted as the blockchain equivalent of Google. This should make it a useful tool for developers and analytics websites alike. Currently, Nebulas NAS token is doing quite well: it ranks at #126 and has a market cap of approximately $25 million.

Unfortunately, Nebulas is a ghost town: DAppReview lists 278 of its apps, but none of those appear to be active. This may be a cautionary tale of forced growth: as some community members have noted, Nebulas briefly rewarded dApp developers, who appear to have abandoned their projects upon receiving their payout.

TomoChain is a blockchain that mainly offers scalability in the form of fast transactions (2000 TPS) and low feesthough it also has an extensible network of chains and custom tokens. It is additionally trying to facilitate access for end users with features like its zero-friction protocol, TomoZ, which handles transaction fees in a simplified way.

TomoChain hosts about twenty dApps, which are listed on Dapp.com and DAppReview. Its most used and highest volume dApp is its governance and staking app, TomoMaster, which handles $88,000 per day and averages 30 daily users.

The TOMO token, meanwhile, has a market cap of $22 billion, making it the 142nd largest cryptocurrency.

WaykiChain (WICC) is a blockchain with a focus on a few types of dAppsspecifically prediction markets, decentralized crypto exchanges, and decentralized forex exchanges. It also offers high transaction speeds (starting at 3200 TPS) thanks to its DPOS consensus mechanism, which relies on eleven nodes to power the network.

WaykiChains status is roughly on par with TomoChain: WICCs token is the 138th largest coin, and it has a market cap of $23 million.

WaykiChain offers about 15 dApps, which are listed on DAppReview. Its most used app, Wayki Paradise, sees about 40 users per day. Its highest volume app, which appears to be a staking app, handles $24,000 per day.

Individually, most of these blockchains account for less than 1.5% of the 3,000 dApps in existence. Even though these platforms have unique technical underpinning and potentially powerful networks, the results are somewhat predictable: theyve produced a few successful trading games, gambling games and financial apps.

But although dApp blockchains have gained visibility from listing sites, that might not be enough. GoChain is one platform that has taken this to heart: it has its own category on State of the DApps, but that page only lists three apps. Now, its shifting its focus towards enterprise adoption and questioning whether dApps are ready for prime time.

Its also possible that listing sites are letting down blockchains by not keeping up with new dApp launches. Listings for small blockchains might not be getting a lot of upkeep, and there seems to be some inaccurate datafor example, some apps are active but have no recorded volume.

Perhaps todays dApp data is just the tip of the iceberg.

Note: where possible, daily dApp statistics have been averaged from weekly statistics and rounded off.

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Dark Horses of dApps: 6 Blockchains With Ethereum In Their Sights - Crypto Briefing

Latin Americans get two new ways to trade Bitcoin, Ethereum, and more – Decrypt

Posted on October 21, 2019 by Danzig

The importance of the Latin American market for the crypto industry continues to become more evident, as two new cryptocurrency exchanges make their way into Central America.

In Costa Rica, local crypto startup Obsidiam today launched what it describes as a new type of hybrid exchange, according to a report from local media outlet La Republica. At the same time, Japanese exchange BitPoint is expanding an already established presence in the region by opening its doors to Guatemalans.

BitPoint had been eyeing an expansion into Guatemala for some time, according to Spanish-language media site Guatemala.com, as executives visited the country and held several meetings with local banks to explain the advantages of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.

The meetings evidently yielded positive results, as BitPoints Latin America portal added support for Guatemala last week. BitPoint, which last July suffered a massive hack that saw the exchange lose $32 million in customer funds, is nevertheless optimistic about what its Latin American expansion means for its business and for the region.

Now, 100 million people in Latin America can safely invest in Bitcoin and the world's leading cryptoassets through BitPoint, Stefan Krautwald, a board member of BitPoint Latin America, said in a statement. Our goal is that in the short term, anyone in the region can own cryptoassets as part of their investment portfolio."

Meanwhile, in Costa Rica, Obsidiama firm that primarily deals in crypto-related financial serviceshas launched a new crypto exchange that will enable its users to trade, remit, process payments, and do many more operations with cryptocurrencies than they would otherwise be able to do with traditional exchanges or financial services.

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The firm is promoting its venture as a type of hybrid exchangea combination between a decentralized (P2P) exchange and a traditional exchange," according to its website, though it does not elaborate on what, exactly, that means for its users. The company did announce, however, that its exchange will initially support Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, and XRP, promising to add more options in the future.

All in all, the options available to Latin American users to buy and sell cryptocurrency continue to multiply.

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Latin Americans get two new ways to trade Bitcoin, Ethereum, and more - Decrypt

BREAKING: Roger Ver clashes with Nouriel Roubini in heated debate – Yahoo Finance

Posted on October 19, 2019 by Danzig

Renowned economist Nouriel Roubini found himself embroiled in a war of words with Bitcoin Cash founder Roger Ver during a heated panel at Londons CC Forum on Tuesday.

Roubini, who is often referred to as Dr Doom, clashed with Ver on the topic of whether cryptocurrencies are being used and if they have a genuine use case.

Ver enthusiastically claimed that more than 100,000 websites accept Bitcoin Cash, while Roubini continually rebuffed his claim by stating that no one uses cryptocurrencies and that they cant even be classified as currencies.

A hostile audience challenged Roubini on his anti-crypto stance, although he reiterated that they have lost on average 95% of their value and that 80% of ICOs are all copycat scams.

Despite the moderator attempting to steer debate towards the topic of cryptocurrencies in general, Roger Ver was insistent in his advertisement of Bitcoin Cash.

To his credit, Roubini held his own when comparing the unregulated nature of cryptocurrencies to global regulated currencies and capital markets, stating that cryptocurrency was a hotbed of price manipulation, money laundering and terrorism due to the lack of AML and KYC procedures from exchanges.

There were also claims that 20m people used cryptocurrency, however Roubini was quick to point out that 95% of the reported volume was fake, thus rendering it irrelevant in comparison to paper money.

Full report to follow.

For more news from the conference, click here.

The post BREAKING: Roger Ver clashes with Nouriel Roubini in heated debate appeared first on Coin Rivet.

BREAKING: Roger Ver clashes with Nouriel Roubini in heated debate - Yahoo Finance

Ethereum is fantastic as an ICO platform: Bitcoin Cashs Roger Ver – AMBCrypto

Posted on October 19, 2019 by Danzig

The annual DevCon 5 conference for Ethereum played host to many attendees, many of whom are prominent personalities in the crypto-community. Ran NeuNer, Host of Crypto Trader, recently interviewed Bitcoin Cash proponent Roger Ver on the sidelines of the event.

Decentralized Finance or DeFi has been one of the most popular applications in the crypto-space lately, and the dApp has steadily grown into a $500 million industry over the past 12 months.

Talking about DeFi, Roger Ver said that the idea of DeFi intrigued him due to its characteristics as a non-custodian financial service. Ver claimed that the functionality of Ethereum and ERC-2o tokens in DeFI was excellent, but Bitcoin Cash tokens could be implemented in the DeFi ecosystem in a more precise manner. Additionally, Ver said that Bitcoin Cashs network presented the ideal platform to create a security token. He said,

You can now make Bitcoin Cash tokens, send them to anyone, anywhere in the world and then pay dividends directly on chain to every token holder with whatever address and whatver country they are present in.

Ver also took the time to highlight Bitcoin Cashs eventual form as a stablecoin in the cryptospace. He stressed that with BCH, users will be able to pay the interest thats acquired on the fiat currency in the bank, directly on-chain to all the stablecoin holders in the network via a new tool introduced on the BCH network.

Ver also addressed the dormant trend of ICOs, with the BCH proponent suggesting that Initial Coin Offerings should not be underestimated yet. He believes that it is still a very powerful tool to connect investors with entrepreneurs around the globe.

He added,

Ethereum is fantastic as an ICO platform. If people want to have an ICO today, Ethereum is a fantastic platform to do it on because you have all this infrastructure already in place.

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Ethereum is fantastic as an ICO platform: Bitcoin Cashs Roger Ver - AMBCrypto

Driving the decentralized revolution; Devcon 5 – Cryptopolitan

Posted on October 19, 2019 by Danzig

Looking back cyber historians may go that the decentralized revolution was crafted at the Devcon events. Elsewhere had set up a one of a kind experience for Devcon attendees to witness. It included an artful experience that unveiled the ideas with which people mythologize money.

Greg Crawford, who is the head of dream logistics at Elsewhere, claimed that the experience allows people to find out about their opinions regarding money.

The Devcon Park featured dinosaur and unicorn figures that were scattered around the area. Various stalls offered food and t-shirts.

Ethereums community is comprised of people who wish to develop a perfect financial system. Devcon 5 focused on Ethereum developers, and its display has implied that the Ethereum community is making constant progress towards the creation of a better financial system for the world.

Devcon 5 was headed by Roger Ver, the founder of Bitcoin.com. He was present at Devcon as a promoter of solidity between blockchain platforms and projects. He believes that users should utilize any blockchain platforms.

Roger Ver thinks that developers should do whatever it takes to empower people and to make platforms better for its users, even if it involves breaking the rules. He termed Devcon as a protest event.

The soon-to-be-launch decentralized Virtual Private Network (VPN), developed by Orchid Labs, is based on blockchain technology. The VPN will allow users to access content using a better privacy layer.

This is the beginning of paid-for Internet services which will allow users to perform small scale payments to other users, instead of an Internet Service Provider (ISP).

Ernst & Young, which is a multinational professional services firm based in London, introduced privacy tools. The firm allows businesses to utilize their tools while staying in the boundaries set by the law. The firm is currently allowing people to use its open-source tools.

Paul Brody, who is responsible for driving the firms initiatives in blockchain technology, has claimed that various developers are appreciating the firm, for developing its tool Nightfall.

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Driving the decentralized revolution; Devcon 5 - Cryptopolitan

Weekly Wrap-Up October 18th, 2019 – TheNews.Asia

Posted on October 19, 2019 by Danzig

Read the full newsletter here.

This week saw South Korea serve as host to two more conferences, one major and one minor, but both quite interesting. Additionally, Roger Ver and friends moved from Korea over to London in the same week. There was other activity around the world involving government entities finally finishing their DD to realize that digital currencies may be a development they should be investing in. Lets dive in and look at the tech updates, biggest gainers, and official announcements from the week.

First, we have Brave browser, based on Chrome and by most accounts indistinguishable from Googles flagship browser barring their advanced ad blocking and crypto rewards program, reaching 8 million active users. Now that may not necessarily mean 8 million individuals because many people are active on multiple devices with the browser, but it is not an insignificant amount of active accounts nonetheless.

Both the Canadian bank and the US Federal Reserve made announcements about their involvement in launching their own government-backed digital currencies. The Canadian Bank went as far as to name theirs CBDC and will be launching it as soon as possible. There are some caveats, however, since they were the first and most public state government to be doing broad due diligence on how and why to launch a coin since early 2018. The Fed also announced that they were actively debating whether or not to develop and launch a digital dollar that would be used like CBDC. Just so you know, they all realize that they can track transactions with it.

Thena US Senator urged all the companies remaining on Libras council to stay there amidst PayPal and others jumping off of the council in the past few weeks. His argument was simply to wait and watch as the Libra situation becomes clearer. They may be part of something huge.

Brave Breaks the 8 Million User Mark

Coming as little surprise to those who use the Chrome-based browser, Brave has hit the 8 million-user mark. Daily active users is nearly 3 million which suggests that the 8 million number could be just the number of installs since its hard for someone to use two instances of a browser on two separate devices at the same exact time. For example, you can download Brave on your laptop, desktop, phone, and tablet, but would likely only use one of them at a time. Furthermore, the 14% click-through rate on ads is more than 5-times the industry standard 2%. Turns out, people are more inclined to watch something if there is a direct incentive for them to do so. Groundbreaking ideas.

CBDC Canada Bank-Backed Digital Currency

Last week we discovered through an official correspondence that US government officials are seriously interested in developing and rolling out a USD digital dollar to combat the likes of Libra. Since digital assets and cryptocurrencies have taken a major spotlight in the past few months from business-types, the Canadian government is also realizing that there is money to be made, or rather, money to be saved in developing a project that would replace Libra and other cryptocurrencies with similar use cases. The scariest part is that it would allow the sharing of personal data with tax authorities or police.

Practical Blockchain Adoption via Banks

Panelists at a conference in Seoul discussed mass adoption and the value of blockchain for the average Joe. The consensus was that traders are not a factor in mass adoption. All of your Chads who think more people should be using STEEM have it all wrong. Their assertion was that blockchain will be most practically adopted and regularly used as a broker, saving up to 30% of the price of a deal between parties, and as a rewards system to pay people for using a platform. These ideals are far from the lofty ones we used to hear at similar blockchain conferences a year or more ago, and are coming from people who have been in other industries for years before blockchain, as well. Listen up, folks; blockchain at a bank near you.

Fed Now Actively Discussing Fed-Backed Digital Dollar

Not only are officials interested in developing a digital dollar, apparently the Fed is making strides forward at making a final decision whether they will or wont develop and launch a USD digital currency. At about 65% of global currency reserves, the USD is by far the largest currency in circulation. Making a digital dollar would likely make the currency more accessible, or at least easier to house safely since it wouldnt take costly vaults and staff to protect the reserves if it were held digitally. The spark for the deep debate at the Fed is the realization that other currencies are gaining on the USDs heels despite its global dominance. Losing that dominance would mean higher costs all around. Taking the USD away from competitors while USD is still the top currency would be the smart business move, but smart business moves dont always come from governments, or businesses for that matter.

US Senator Urges Firms to Stay Aboard Libra

Whether or not you are bullish about Libra, at least one regulator has seen the light surrounding innovation. US Senator Rounds of South Dakota has recently written a letter which praised and encouraged Anchorage, the crypto custody firm, for staying the course with Libra. While PayPal, Visa, and Mastercard of the Libra Associations founding members have since caused an imbalance with their recent departures, Anchorage and others remain. In the letter, Rounds expressed his concern that regulators were taking an ominous tone towards Libra and slowing innovation. It is worth noting that the state, known for large swaths of farmland, may become a tech-hub in the future, especially so if Rounds and his cohorts continue to spearhead positive regulatory efforts.

FOCUS ETH Validator Wallets

There is a clear bullish trend since the launch of ETH. This is fairly simple: the more wallets that are opened, the more value the network has. As the cryptocurrency these wallets hold are traded more and/or used for their specific functions, the value of both those cryptos and the network as a whole rises.From an economic standpoint, keep in mind that roughly 30% of the total circulating supply has been mined, with the rest being pre-mined. Therefore, inflation is merely a minimal factor when it comes to 32 ETH being a notable amount.

The steady ascending pattern of the amount of wallets indicates an overall steady growth of the network as a whole. A non-negligible portion of these addresses are likely held by individual actors who are keeping their ETH in segmented addresses, for better or worse. This is more than just HODLers looking to stash away their ETH for a few years and wait for it to quintuple in value. The owners of the wallets represent people who are staking their principles on the success of the Ethereum network in the very long term. ETH2.0 will require 32 ETH to be a validator. The race to acquire validators for the highly anticipated ETH 2.0 Phase 0 is clearly shown in this trend. At ETHs highest USD value, a single validator would have cost nearly 45,000 USD, the current price for a future validator is closer to 6,000 USD.

Courtesy @ASvanevik

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Weekly Wrap-Up October 18th, 2019 - TheNews.Asia

21st century medicine helps Amish deal with rare, inherited illnesses – University of Wisconsin-Madison

Posted on October 19, 2019 by Danzig

James DeLine founded the Center for Special Children in La Farge to attend to the particular health needs of the Amish and Old Order Mennonite families in Wisconsin. The Center exists within the La Farge Medical Clinic, also started by DeLine, which is part of Vernon Memorial Health Care. Photo by David Tenenbaum

Editors note: A recent article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on Dr. James DeLines work with the Wisconsin Amish community. This story describes how UWMadison and the Wisconsin Partnership Fund are helping the effort.

LA FARGE, Wisconsin There is no car in the driveway, neither phone nor electricity in the house. Handmade clothes dry on the line.

Its fall 2018, and La Farge physician James DeLine has brought us to talk with Barbara and Daniel Hochstetler, part of the large Amish population in Wisconsins Driftless Region.

Six of their 11 children live with siterosterolemia, an extremely rare disease that can cause joint damage, stroke or heart attack, due to accumulations of a plant-based fat akin to cholesterol.

DeLine has practiced family medicine in La Farge since 1983. In 2015 he started the Center for Special Children to care for Wisconsins large concentration of Amish or Old Order Mennonite people.

Rural doctors pride themselves on being able to treat a wide range of conditions in their patients, but DeLines practice brings him face to face with several rare genetic conditions that were present when the Amish and Mennonites immigrated from Europe to America and then Wisconsin.

And that, in turn, has brought DeLine into a close collaboration with specialists at the University of WisconsinMadison who have developed tests, and suggested treatments, for some of those conditions, including siterosterolemia.

Amish and Mennonite families avoid technologies that, they feel, would endanger the social cohesion that is key to their survival. Thus they do not own motor vehicles or use telephones or electricity in the home. Photo by David Tenenbaum

In quiet voices, DeLine and the Hochstetler parents recounted how they learned that the family carried a gene for the rare disease. Years previously, their son, Perry, had been seen at the La Farge clinic with painful arthritis and large lumps in his limbs. Later, when we discovered that a relative of his mother had sitosterolemia, DeLine explained, we thought back to this young man and with some searching, we found him, had gene testing done at UWMadison, and discovered that he too had the disease.

After starting medicine and changing his diet, Perrys elbow lumps began melting away, DeLine said. He has had no further arthritis, and his exercise tolerance has improved.

Eventually, with genetic testing at UWMadison, the mutation was diagnosed in six of the 11 Hochstetler children. Only then did Daniel volunteer that he had heart pain (likely just age catching up with me) during heavy exertion, was actually caused by a buildup of plaque in his heart arteries. After starting the same drug as his children, Daniel has improved, though he said he can still feel it once in a while if I exert myself.

DeLine has become an expert in the culture, family relationships, and medical needs of the Amish and Old Order Mennonites (sometimes called the Plain people).

Although their acceptance of technology is highly constricted by culture and religion, the Plain benefit from DeLines hybrid of 19th century rural doctoring with 21st century genetic medicine.

Chris Seroogy, professor of pediatrics at UWMadison, is a long-time collaborator in the effort to bring 21st century health care to Wisconsins Plain populations. Photo by Robert C. Thayer

The genetic work has relied on clinicians from the School of Medicine and Public Health, and on testing at the State Laboratory of Hygiene, both at UWMadison. The State Lab has already developed fast, low-cost diagnostic tests for more than 30 conditions afflicting Plain populations in Wisconsin.

Vanessa Horner, director of cytogenetic services and molecular genetics at the State Lab, said that once a test has been developed and validated, it becomes a clinical assay that must be performed in a certified laboratory such as hers. Its a highly regulated, rigorous testing environment.

Funding for these tests and related activities came from grants totaling $800,000 from the Wisconsin Partnership Program in the School of Medicine and Public Health. Addressing the health care needs of Wisconsin communities is a priority for the Wisconsin Partnership Program, said Richard Moss, chair of the partnership education and research committee.

This teams innovative and successful community-engaged research has resulted in increased newborn screenings and affordable genetic testing that have the potential to spare our states Plain families from fatal medical conditions and costly hospitalizations, added Moss, senior associate dean for basic research, biotechnology and graduate studies.

One newborn screening test created at UWMadison, for example, detectsmaple-syrup urine disease, whichprevents the normal breakdown of certain amino acids from food. Then, toxic byproducts attack the brain and other organsimmediately after birth.

According to Mei Baker, co-director of newborn screening at the State Laboratory of Hygiene, which developed the test, We make special arrangements for lab testing beyond regular working hours. The midwife collects a blood sample and a hired driver delivers it immediately to our lab. Six or eight hours after birth, we have the result, and the clinicians at Waisman Center advise the parents on an appropriate formula to avoid the symptoms.This service is free of charge, and you cannot do any better than that.

This team hauls logs and saw timber at the Hershberger family sawmill outside La Farge, Wisconsin. Photo by David Tenenbaum

Genetic diseases among the Plain arise from founder mutations that were present in the few Amish and Old Order Mennonites who immigrated to America in the 19th century. A second genetic bottleneck occurred among smaller groups that moved to Wisconsin, starting about a century ago.

Most of the genetic diseases he sees can be treated if not cured, DeLine said.

DeLines long and deep experience with many Amish families, and his anthropological knowledge of family relationships are part of his doctors toolkit.

So are home visits.

He talks about how helpful it is to see a child in the home environment, surrounded by siblings, grandparents, parents, said Christine Seroogy, a professor of pediatrics. Seroogy is one of several UWMadison colleagues who provide outreach clinical services with the Center for Special Children. Its been quite an experience, an honor, to take part in those home visits.

The characteristic homemade clothes of an Amish family hang just inside the back door. Photo by David Tenenbaum

Home visits were not part of my medical training, but its how doctors used to practice, and Jim DeLine still does, she added.

When Seroogy began working with DeLine in 2007, one focus was severe combined immune deficiency (SCID, or bubble boy) disease. Though fatal, SCID can be detected with newborn screening and in some cases treated with bone marrow transplant. Over the years, she has worked closely with DeLine, newborn screening experts at the State Laboratory of Hygiene, and Plain families to improve SCID diagnosis and treatment.

In many cases, a true diagnosis can keep patients out of hospitals and away from physicians who tend to order an endless series of costly tests that cause more trouble than healing.

When we must deliver news about a child with a lethal disorder, DeLine said, if the family knows whats going on, sad though it is, its a gift to the family to take the child home and care for them surrounded by their community and their family.

Its hard to treat something you dont recognize, understand, DeLine added. Each time a new condition is identified, the search for a cure can begin.

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Research presented by Invitae at the American Society of Human Genetics Meeting Pushes Science and Practice of Genetics Forward – P&T Community

Posted on October 19, 2019 by Danzig

HOUSTON, Oct. 17, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Researchers fromInvitae Corporation (NYSE: NVTA), a leading medical genetics company, are presenting data showing the increasing utility of genetic information at the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) annual meeting this week, ranging from comprehensive screening for cancer patients, to appropriate clinical follow up for women using non-invasive prenatal screening, to the limitations of direct to consumer genetic screening health reports.

The company's research includes three platform presentations and multiple poster sessions, many performed in collaboration with leading academic researchers. Among the data presented is a study evaluating the utility of combined germline testing and tumor profiling (somatic testing) in cancer patients. Germline and somatic testing are increasingly used in precision treatment of people with cancer, although frequently are ordered separately in clinical practice. Data presented at the meeting shows a substantial number of patients with medically significant variants in hereditary cancer syndrome genes in their tumor profile carry the same variant in their germline, thereby establishing a previously unknown risk of hereditary cancer and suggesting the value of combined or concurrent testing to inform precision medicine approaches.

"The research we are presenting at this year's ASHG meeting provides meaningful insight into both the science and practice of genetics, helping identify how we as clinicians can better use deep genetic insights to help a wide array of patients, whether they are cancer patients, women having a child or healthy adults seeking to better understand their risk of disease," said Robert Nussbaum, M.D., chief medical officer of Invitae. "We are proud and grateful to be able to join our colleagues from across genetic medicine in meaningful conversations that push genetic medicine forward."

Following are research from the company and collaborators to be presented at the meeting:

Wednesday, October 16:

Poster presentation #819W | 2:00 3:00 pm Germline testing in colorectal cancer: Increased yield and precision therapy implications of comprehensive multigene panels. Presented by Shan Yang, PhD. Invitae.

Poster presentation #2427W | 2:00 3:00 pm Harmonizing tumor sequencing with germline genetic testing: identification of at-risk individuals for hereditary cancer disorders. Presented by Daniel Pineda-Alvarez, MD, FACMG, Invitae.

Poster presentation #606W | 3:00 4:00 pm A comprehensive evaluation of the importance of prenatal diagnostic testing in the era of increased utilization of non-invasive prenatal screening. Presented by Jenna Guiltinan, MS, LCGC, Invitae.

Thursday, October 17:

Platform presentation #235 | 5:00 pm, Room 370A, Level 3 Limitations of direct-to-consumer genetic screening for hereditary breast, ovarian and colorectal cancer risk. Presented by: Edward Esplin, MD, PhD, FACMG, FACP, Invitae.

Poster presentation #763T | 2:00 3:00 pm In-depth dissection of APC pathogenic variants: Spectrum of more than 400 pathogenic variants, challenges of variant interpretation, and new observations in a large clinical laboratory testing cohort. Presented by: Hio Chung Kang, PhD, Invitae.

Poster presentation #1399T | 2:00 3:00 pm Prediction of lethality and severity of osteogenesis imperfecta variants in the triple-helix regions of COL1A1 and COL1A2. Presented by: Vikas Pejaver, PhD, University of Washington.

Friday, October 18:

Platform presentation #264 | 9:00 am, Room 361D, Level 3 Million Veteran Program Return Of Actionable Results - Familial Hypercholesterolemia (MVP-ROAR-FH) Study: Considerations for variant return to mega-biobank participants. Presented by Jason Vassy, MD, MPH, VA, Boston Healthcare System.

Platform presentation #265 | 9:15 am, Room 361D, Level 3 Comprehensive secondary findings analysis of parental samples submitted for exome evaluation yields a high positive rate. Presented by Eden Haverfield, DPhil, FACMG, Invitae.

Poster presentation #698F | 2:00 3:00 pm Reporting of variants in genes with limited, disputed, or no evidence for a Mendelian condition among GenomeConnect participants. Presented by: Juliann Savatt, MS, LGC, Geisinger.

About InvitaeInvitae Corporation(NYSE: NVTA)is a leading medical genetics company, whose mission is to bring comprehensive genetic information into mainstream medicine to improve healthcare for billions of people. Invitae's goal is to aggregate the world's genetic tests into a single service with higher quality, faster turnaround time, and lower prices. For more information, visit the company's website atinvitae.com.

Safe Harbor StatementsThis press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements relating to the increasing utility of genetic information; the utility of combined germline and somatic testing; and the benefits of the company's research. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially, and reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: the applicability of clinical results to actual outcomes; the company's history of losses; the company's ability to compete; the company's failure to manage growth effectively; the company's need to scale its infrastructure in advance of demand for its tests and to increase demand for its tests; the company's ability to use rapidly changing genetic data to interpret test results accurately and consistently; security breaches, loss of data and other disruptions; laws and regulations applicable to the company's business; and the other risks set forth in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the risks set forth in the company's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2019. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof, and Invitae Corporation disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

Contact:Laura D'Angelopr@invitae.com(628) 213-3283

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Genetic Tests For Psychiatric Drugs Now Covered By Some Insurers : Shots – Health News – NPR

Posted on October 19, 2019 by Danzig

Myriad Genetics is among a handful of companies that make a genetic test to help doctors choose psychiatric medicines for patients. Evidence that the tests are effective has been called "inconclusive." Myriad Genetics hide caption

As a teenager, Katie Gruman was prescribed one mental health drug after another. None seemed to help her manage symptoms of anxiety and bipolar disorder, so she self-medicated with alcohol and illicit drugs.

It would take five years, and trying more than 15 different medications, before she found meds that actually helped.

Now 28 and in recovery, Gruman has been on the same drugs for years. But when a clinician recommended a genetic test to see which drugs work best for her, she took it.

Reading the test results "was definitely vindicating," she says. Medications that hadn't worked for her as a teenager were the same ones the results marked as bad fits.

She says she wishes she had taken the test as a teenager. "I could have avoided a lot of disaster in my life," she says.

Psychiatric medications are known to be hard to match to symptoms, and many patients like Gruman live through years of trial and error with their doctors.

Companies that make genetic tests like the one Gruman used say they can save patients and doctors from prolonged searching for the right medication and save insurance companies from paying for ineffective drugs. But many researchers say the tests don't have enough evidence backing them up. The Food and Drug Administration has warned that the tests could potentially steer patients towards the wrong medications. Nonetheless, UnitedHealthcare, the nation's largest insurer, began covering them October 1 for its 27 million individual and group plans.

Test makers hailed the announcement of United's coverage, the first from an insurance company to apply to all of its commercial plans across the country.

"We expect this to be a tipping point," says Shawn Patrick O'Brien, CEO of Genomind, a company that makes one of the tests. Other insurers will cover the tests "because they don't want to be uncompetitive in the marketplace," he predicts.

If the prediction is correct, it would likely fuel a market that has seen its largest test maker, Myriad Genetics, sell about 375,000 of its psychiatric medicine tests in the 2019 fiscal year, according to Jack Meehan, an industry analyst for Barclays. Myriad reported that it sold $113 million worth of the tests.

In addition to UnitedHealthcare's coverage, Myriad Genetics' test is covered by Medicare, a regional Blue Cross Blue Shield affiliate, and the insurance network for the grocery chain Kroger, a spokesperson says.

Genomind has discussed coverage with insurers including Anthem and Blue Cross Blue Shield, O'Brien says.

Debates over efficacy

As the field of genetic testing to help diagnose and treat disease grows, medicine has embraced certain tests, such as that for the BRCA gene linked to breast cancer. But many researchers say there is not enough evidence tying genetic variants to better outcomes for most psychiatric medications.

James Potash, the head of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Medicine and an expert on psychiatric genetics, says of all the tests claiming to improve depression treatment, GeneSight's has the most proof. That isn't saying much, though.

"I wouldn't say there's no evidence that it works," he says. "It's just the evidence at this point is still weak."

The idea behind the tests is that in some cases, people can have different reactions to the same drug, even at the same dose, because they have different gene variants. Which variant a person has can affect how quickly or slowly a medicine moves through their body.

This link between genes and drug metabolism has been known for decades, says Francis McMahon, who leads genetic research into mood and anxiety disorders at the National Institutes for Mental Health.

Usually, the longer it takes your body to process a drug, the easier it is for that medication to have an effect. But in psychiatry, McMahon says, how fast someone processes a drug, or metabolizes it, and how well they respond to the drug "are sometimes not strongly related."

This skepticism is shared by some insurance companies. "Anthem considers these tests investigational and not medically necessary," says a spokesman for the carrier, which covers 41 million people. The Blue Cross Blue Shield Federal Employee Program, which covers about two-thirds of government workers and their families, said "there is not enough evidence at this time to determine the effect of genetic testing on health outcomes," according to a spokeswoman.

Test makers are also facing FDA objections that they haven't proven some of the claims underpinning genetic tests for medications, including that antidepressants work better with some gene variants.

"Changing drug treatment based on the results from such a genetic test could lead to inappropriate treatment decisions and potentially serious health consequences for the patient," the agency warned in late 2018. It told companies to stop naming specific drugs, in marketing materials or test results, for which its tests "claim to predict a patient's response" without "scientific or clinical evidence to support this use."

Most test makers complied. One, Inova Genomics Laboratory, stopped selling a range of tests, including its test for mental health disorders, after the FDA followed up with a warning letter in April.

Several mental health advocacy groups, including the National Alliance on Mental Illness, have sided with test makers in their dispute with the FDA. Keeping the names and types of medication off of genetic test reports, as the FDA has required, will "impede the ability of psychiatrists and other front-line health care professionals to personalize medication decisions" for patients with depression, the groups wrote the FDA in September.

Some have argued that genetic tests like these shouldn't be regulated by the FDA at all. Tests conducted in a lab are a medical service, not a medical device that's shipped like a product, says Vicky Pratt, president of the Association for Molecular Pathology. As a medical service, she says, clinical laboratories are already regulated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

"It would be redundant to have dual regulation by both the FDA and CMS," says Pratt.

Cost-benefit analysis

Research into the tests' efficacy is ongoing and continues to be debated.

Myriad hoped to bolster evidence for its test, GeneSight, in a study it funded that was published this year in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, but the results were mixed.

In the study, doctors used genetic tests to help prescribe medications for one group of patients with depression, while another group of patients received usual care. There was overall no difference between the groups in the study's primary measure of symptom improvement, though some patients showed improved response and remission rates.

Responding to criticisms of its clinical trial results, Myriad Genetics spokesman Ron Rogers says the trial population whose average participant had tried more than three unsuccessful medications for depression was uniquely difficult to treat. He says he expects to see stronger outcomes in a forthcoming review of the trial data.

In a statement on the use of genetic testing in psychiatry, the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics, calls the existing evidence "inconclusive," and notes that if 12 patients take such a test for antidepressants, just one will benefit from it.

A low rate of success means insurers will have to pay for a lot of tests for one useful result, says Barclays analyst Meehan. Meehan pointed to a letter about the recent GeneSight study that was published in the same journal, which found that 20 patients would need to take the test for one to recover as a result. At $2,000 for a GeneSight test, the authors wrote, that means patients and insurers would have to cover $40,000 worth of tests. (While competitor Genomind does not share pricing information, a spokeswoman confirmed that it has an active contract with the Department of Veterans to supply tests for $1,886.)

Still some clinicians value the tests. Skeptics often misunderstand how the tests should be used, argues Daniel Mueller, a professor at the University of Toronto who researches how genes and drugs interact. (Mueller is involved in research comparing Myriad's GeneSight to another test developed by a University of Toronto-affiliated hospital.) Most of the time, he says, doctors who order the test already plan to prescribe medication. The test is just another tool to help them decide which one to prescribe.

"It's not an alternative intervention," Mueller says. "It's additional information." He orders the test for most patients who do not respond to at least one antidepressant.

"If you think about the cost of depression and weeks of suffering that you can potentially avoid for some patients," Mueller says, he thinks anyone who can afford a test should take it. (Myriad says 95% of patients pay less than $330 for their test, the cost remaining after insurance and possible financial assistance; Genomind says most privately insured customers pay no more than $325.)

A lack of watertight evidence for the tests should not stop doctors from using it to inform their choice of medication, says Reyna Taylor, who leads public policy for the National Council for Behavioral Health, one of the advocacy groups that defended the tests in a letter to the FDA. "You use the science that you currently have," she says.

"Whether our providers choose to use [a genetic test] or not, we want them to have that choice," she adds.

Disagreement among experts hasn't dissuaded UnitedHealthcare from paying for the tests.

In a statement, UnitedHealthcare spokeswoman Tracey Lempner says they "frequently review our coverage policies to ensure they reflect the most current published evidence-based medicine and specialty society recommendations."

Graison Dangor is a journalist in Brooklyn.

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Genetic Tests For Psychiatric Drugs Now Covered By Some Insurers : Shots - Health News - NPR

How Artifical Intelligence Is Advancing Precision Medicine – Forbes

Posted on October 19, 2019 by Danzig

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Artificial intelligence and machine learning have been utilized for years in the field of healthcare and continue to grow tremendously each year with its ability to advance medicine and discoveries in the industry.

The term precision medicine, sometimes referred to as personalized medicine, is a relatively new term in the healthcare field but the idea has been around for many years in the industry. According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, precision medicine is "an emerging approach for disease treatment and prevention that takes into account individual variability in genes, environment, and lifestyle for each person."

Precision medicine helps physicians determine more personalized treatments for patients considering individualized approaches instead of a blanketed approach for all patients. They do this by looking at a patients genetic history, location, environmental factors, lifestyle and habits to determine a plan of action for treatment.

With artificial intelligence, it takes precision medicine to the next level and increases the accuracy and prediction of outcome for patients. Some actually believe that precision medicine is not completely possible without the addition of machine learning algorithms to assist in the process.

In a report from Chilmark Research, it states that to achieve the full potential of precision medicine it must be accompanied by machine learning and artificial intelligence due to the deep learning technology and ability to analyze large data sets faster than clinicians and medical researchers.

Not only can AI read and analyze large sets of medical data much faster than a human, it can more accurately determine results to come to conclusions about a patients treatment options and possible outcomes of the treatment.

With AI, the ability to not only predict outcomes but also be able to predict future patients probability of having diseases is a major benefit for precision medicine. By better understanding why diseases may occur and in what environments they are more likely to occur, artificial intelligence can help in the education of medical professionals to know what to look for before a disease is showing symptoms. To be able to evaluate the risk of disease in patient populations is revolutionary for healthcare and the lives of many.

Machine learning can also help improve FDA regulations of tests, drugs and pharmaceutical partnerships to help support treatments. Fully achieving precision medicine effectively takes a collaboration of pharmaceutical companies, biotechs, academia, diagnostic companies and others to drive innovation forward.

Amplion, a leading precision medicine intelligence company, recently released Dx:Revenue, a software intelligence platform that uses machine learning to deliver insights into pharmaceutical partnerships.

The platform uses over 34 million data sources from clinical trials, scientific publications, conference abstracts, FDA approved tests, lab tests, and other information to match a test providers capabilities to pharmas specific needs.

This is particularly important in cancer, where were moving away from the one-size-fits-all approach to care toward a more targeted approach with treatments based on the biological characteristics of each patient, said CEO of Amplion Chris Capdevlia. Personalizing our approach to healthcare in this way not only results in better outcomes for patients, it also drives down drug development costs through shorter, more successful trials and reduces time to market for valuable drugs all very good news for better patient outcomes.

Precision medicine can truly improve the lives, and even save the lives, of many people and the use of artificial intelligence can increase those outcomes drastically. It can also make treatments more affordable and accessible to those who may not be able to receive those treatments due to cost and health insurance at this time. There are many challenges ahead for precision medicine to be perfect, but artificial intelligence can help drive us closer to those goals.

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Ochsner Health System teaming up with Color on population health pilot – FierceHealthcare

Posted on October 19, 2019 by Danzig

Louisiana-based Ochsner Health System is partnering with Color to launch a population health pilot program, tyinggenetic information into preventive care.

Calling it the first "fully-digital population health program," Ochsner will work with the health technology company to incorporateclinical genomics into primarycare with a focuson impacting patients' health further downstream.

Developed by Ochsners innovation lab, innovationOchsner (iO), the health systems program willidentify patients who are at higher risk for certain hereditary cancers and heart disease so these diseases can be detected early or prevented.

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This marks another big partnership for Color this year. The company inked a similar collaboration with Chicago-based NorthShore University HealthSystem, called DNA10K, that will provide more than10,000 NorthShore patients access to Colors clinical-grade genetic testing and whole genome sequencing.Atthe time, it was touted as the largest primary care genomics program in the U.S.

RELATED:Mount Sinai to launch $100M center dedicated to AI, precision medicine

Physician practices are beginning to incorporate genomics into primary care as well.Murfreesboro Medical Clinic and SurgiCenter in Tennessee are working with technology company2bPrecise, a subsidiary of health IT company Allscripts, to integrate pharmacogenomic testresults at the point of care.

In August, Color was awarded a $4.6 million grant by the National Institutes of Health to serve as the nationwide genetic counseling service for its All of Us Research Program.

With this pilot program, Ochsner is focused on screening patients with genetic mutations that put them at increased risk for three conditionshereditary breast and ovarian cancer syndrome due to genetic mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes; Lynch syndrome,associated with increased risk in colorectal, endometrial, ovarian and other cancers; and familial hypercholesterolemia (FH), which increases the risk for heart disease or stroke.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports thatnearly 2 million people in the U.S. are at increased risk for adverse health outcomes because they have genetic mutations with one of thosethree conditions.

Genetic screening can make a meaningful difference to patients through early detection and screening. Most consumers have access to home genetic screening tests but may not have the tools, resources, and collaboration needed to take action should they receive questionable results, said Richard Milani, M.D., chief clinical transformation officer for the Ochsner Health System and medical director for iO.

RELATED:How a Nashville-area clinic teamed up with Allscripts on precision medicine

Ochsner provides patient care across40 owned, managed and affiliated hospitals and specialty hospitals and more than 100 health centers and urgent care centers.The partnership will combine Colors capabilities inmedical-grade genetics, clinical services and patient engagement and the health system's experience withpersonalized medicineand integrating it into routine patient care, the organizations said in a press release.

As part of the program, selected patients will be enrolled into the program digitally and will receive access to genetic testing and counseling.Genetic testing results will bestored in the patients Epic electronic health record so patients and providers have access to the genetic information.

RELATED:UCLA Health deploys Microsoft Azure to accelerate medical research, precision medicine at the point of care

Ochsner also has developed clinical decision support tools and a robust provider education program for both primary care and specialty providers to integrate into clinical practice.

New technology tools like clinical genomics will enableOchsner physicians to better understand individualized risk among its patient population and create action plans that can detect or prevent disease, according to the health system.

We know there are many factors that influence health, and genetic insights provide an additional data point to allow us to develop and deliver a more personalized approach in partnership with our patients," Milani said.

"Integrating this information into the patients electronic health record so doctors can review the results and discuss proactive treatment recommendations is yet another example of how we are reengineering care, informing smarter decisions by healthcare providers and empowering patients to become more involved in their health," he said.

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Scientists at Wake Forest School of Medicine Identify Genetic Variation Linked to Severity of ALS – Newswise

Posted on October 19, 2019 by Danzig

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Neurology Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation, Oct-2019

Newswise WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. Oct. 16, 2019 A discovery made several years ago in a lab researching asthma at Wake Forest School of Medicine may now have implications for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a disease with no known cure and only two FDA-approved drugs to treat its progression and severity.

A study published in the current edition of the journal Neurology Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation showed that ALS patients with a commonly inherited genetic variation or polymorphism in the interleukin 6 (IL6) receptor gene may experience more severe symptoms and faster progression of the disease.

This relationship was first identified in asthma patients in 2012 by Gregory A. Hawkins, Ph.D., and co-workers at Wake Forest School of Medicine, part of Wake Forest Baptist Health. He found that people who had asthma and this inherited trait got more severe asthma than those who didnt.

We knew that interlukin 6 had many functions in the lung, as shown in asthma, but also in muscle and nerves, all three of which are affected in ALS, said Carol Milligan, Ph.D., professor of neurobiology and anatomy at Wake Forest School of Medicine and senior author of the study. Therefore we wondered if what they found in asthma may also have a role in ALS patients or maybe explain why the disease progressed faster in some patients but not others.

ALS, also known as Lou Gehrigs disease, is a disease that causes the death of neurons that control voluntary muscles. As voluntary muscle action is progressively affected, people may lose the ability to speak, eat, move and breathe.

To further an understanding of the factors that influence ALS progression and severity, Milligan and her team conducted an observational, case-controlled retrospective study of two groups of people.

The researchers examined blood and spinal fluid samples, provided by the Northeastern ALS Consortium Biofluid Repository, from 47 participants with ALS and 46 healthy people. Results confirmed that samples from people with ALS who had the variation in the IL6 receptor gene accounted for increased levels of IL6 in blood and spinal fluid compared to the control groups.

To examine if presence of the variation in the IL6 receptor gene might affect disease progression, the investigators examined a second group of 35 patients from the Wake Forest Baptist ALS Center Biorepository that included clinical data collected within a year of symptom onset. The researchers compared the progression of the disease between those who had the polymorphism and those who didnt. In those with the genetic variation, the disease progressed faster.

This study is the first to show that this polymorphism may modify the course of ALS, Milligan said. We hope that our findings may provide a target for a new treatment and lay the groundwork for future clinical trials.

The study was spear-headed by Marlena Wosiski-Kuhn, a M.D./Ph.D. student at Wake Forest School of Medicine, and included members of the ALS center and Departments of Biochemistry, Neurology and Neurobiology and Anatomy at Wake Forest School of Medicine.

Support for the study was provided by Hope for Tomorrow, a gift in the memory of Murray Sherman, the Wake Forest Baptist Health Brian White Fund and the Tab A. Williams Funds at Wake Forest School of Medicine.

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Scientists at Wake Forest School of Medicine Identify Genetic Variation Linked to Severity of ALS - Newswise

100 Health Summit: How to Make Research Better | Time.com – TIME

Posted on October 19, 2019 by Danzig

Behind any landmark cure is years of medical research. But the old goal of research to find a one-size-fits-all treatment for a disease, based on a set of standard protocols must radically change to further and diversify advances in the field, experts argued at the TIME 100 Health Summit on Thursday.

Sean Parker, an entrepreneur and founder of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, came to the complex world of biotech, life sciences and health care research as an outsider. (Parker co-founded Napster and was the first president of Facebook.) It seemed like there was tremendous opportunity. The field looked and felt a lot like the early Internet, he explained at the summit.

There was a lot of similarity in terms of enthusiasm and excitement and breakthroughs and yet there were these inherent systemic obstacles that felt like they were slowing down progress," Parker said. The cost of enrolling a patient in a clinical trial, for instance, can be extraordinarily high, and researchers focused on similar treatment goals often work separately from one another without sharing data. The Parker Institutes goal is to connect cancer doctors, share information among researchers and accelerate new treatments. Work at the Parker Institute has led to the first approved gene immunotherapy for blood cancers and Nobel Prize-winning immune-based cancer drugs.

Were all in it, at the end of the day, for our patients, said Dr. Laura Esserman, professor of surgery at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine. We want to get people to a better outcome." In the field of breast cancer, for example, the same cancer screening and treatment guidelines have traditionally been applied across the board. But people have different genetic profiles and risk factors, necessitating a range of different approaches. Breast cancer is many diseases, Esserman said, and a treatment path for one patient may not be appropriate for another.

This precision-focused medicine approach is best achieved through collaboration, which is partly why the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is in the process of ensuring recipients of NIH grant funding must make their data accessible, said NIH director Dr. Francis Collins at the summit. We can all learn from it."

This approach is useful not only to discover how to treat people once they get sick, but also to understand how they remain well. We have these one-size-fits-all approaches to how to stay healthy diet and exercise, for example and most people ignore them, he said.

In the NIHs All of Us trial, which is currently enrolling participants, researchers will follow 1 million Americans who are providing electronic health records, blood samples for DNA sequencing, and information from Fitbits and questionnaires. That rich trove of data will then be available to other researchers. Imagine you have this as a platform to understand wellness, Collins noted.

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100 Health Summit: How to Make Research Better | Time.com - TIME

Genetic counselors save health care dollars when involved in the testing process | TheHill – The Hill

Posted on October 19, 2019 by Danzig

As a cardiovascular genetic counselor with more than 15 years of experience, I know firsthand the critical importance of identifying genetic risk in a timely manner. Genetic counselors are in a unique position to help patients and their providers navigate medically complex genetic risk factors.

Everyday, genetic counselors are evaluating and providing guidance on the constantly evolving nature of genetic testing. With their advanced training in medical genetics and counseling, certified genetic counselors are able to provide state of the art services, accurately assess risk, identify the right genetic test, ensure correct interpretations of genetic test results and guide patient decision-making.

The National Institutes of Health recognizes that genetic counselors are trained to help patients and caregivers understand the scientific, emotional and ethical factors surrounding the decision to have genetic testing. Genetic counselors use their expertise to collaborate with healthcare providers on the best medical pathway forward for the patient, based on the test results.

Complex genetic tests are rapidly evolving, greatly magnifying the need for Medicare beneficiaries to have access to genetic counselors who can guide them through the complex testing process.

The Medicare program does not reimburse certified genetic counselors directly. Direct access to a certified genetic counselor would help ensure that more Medicare patients receive critical services in time to avoid costly complications and improve health outcomes. This is particularly true for seniors at risk of hereditary heart diseases, cancer or neurological conditions for these patients, genetic counseling is an essential service that is best delivered by a certified genetic counselor.

The Medicare program has not kept pace with changes in innovation and payment for genetic testing and counseling. Congress has an opportunity to address this program failure, and help beneficiaries, by adopting the Access to Genetic Counselor Services Act. The legislation would authorize the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to recognize certified genetic counselors as health-care providers.

The proliferation of genetic testing is exploding, and will only continue to grow in the future. Medicare is expected to spend approximately $23 billion in the next ten years on these tests. Evidence indicates genetic counselors can help drive cost efficiencies by providing guidance about which genetic tests would be most beneficial depending on a patients situation and working with patients and their providers to determine if genetic testing is appropriate.

Genetic counseling services can also help ensure Medicare beneficiaries do not face avoidable complications and are not subjected to additional costs. And Medicare already covers genetic counseling, but the program only reimburses other practitioners to provide it.

To ensure access and address the complexity of genetic testing in appropriate medical care, the National Society of Genetic Counselors (NSGC) strongly supports the Access to Genetic Counselor Services Act introduced in Congress. Sponsored by Reps. Dave LoebsackDavid (Dave) Wayne LoebsackOvernight Health Care Presented by National Taxpayers Union Buttigieg targets Warren, Sanders on health care ahead of debate | Judge overturns ObamaCare transgender protections | Poll sees support drop for 'Medicare for All' Genetic counselors save health care dollars when involved in the testing process Iowa Democrat tops Ernst in third-quarter fundraising for Senate race MORE (D-Iowa) and Mike KellyGeorge (Mike) Joseph KellyGenetic counselors save health care dollars when involved in the testing process America's workers and small business owners need the SECURE Act House votes to repeal ObamaCare's 'Cadillac tax' MORE (R-Pa.), the legislation would authorize CMS to recognize certified genetic counselors as health-care providers and reimburse certified genetic counselors for services delivered to Medicare beneficiaries at 85 percent of physician payment levels for the same services.

Research demonstrates that genetic counselors save health care dollars when involved in the testing process and can increase compliance with the recommended medical management plan all priorities as personalized medicine and genetic testing become more prevalent.

The National Society of Genetic Counselors, as well as more than 200 organizations, patients and health-care providers, strongly encourages Congress to enact the Access to Genetic Counselor Services Act, which can make a critical impact on the health of individuals and their families.

Amy Sturm is the president of the National Society of Genetic Counselors' Board of Directors and a professor and the director of Cardiovascular Genomic Counseling at the Geisinger Health System Genomic Medicine Institute.

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Genetic counselors save health care dollars when involved in the testing process | TheHill - The Hill

New Gene Therapy Approach Reduces Cost and Improves Efficiency – DocWire News

Posted on October 19, 2019 by Danzig

A more efficient approach to gene therapy that could lower costs and improve patient outcomes has recently been developed by a team from Scripps Research. This work, published on October 17 in the journal Blood, offers a potential alternative to the standard process of delivering gene therapy, which is expensive, time-consuming, and requires many steps to administer healthy genes to the patients stem cells.

If you can repair blood stem cells with a single gene delivery treatment, rather than multiple treatments over the course of many days, you can reduce the clinical time and expense, which removes some of the limitations of this type of approach, explained research leader Bruce Torbett, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Immunology and Microbiology.

The goal of gene therapy is to introduce a healthy version of a gene to a patients stem cells to replace a defective copy of this gene. This approach is designed to treat inherited conditions caused by genetic mutations, such as sickle cell anemia. Patients with sickle cell have a mutation in a gene that codes for a protein in blood cells, leading to misshaped cells that cause a myriad of clinical issues. The goal of gene therapy is to replace this mutated gene with a healthy copy to restore normal protein synthesis and eliminate the disease symptoms. This is often done by implanting the healthy gene into a modified virus, known as a viral vector, and having this virus use its innate ability to infiltrate host cells and inject this healthy gene into them.

Gene therapy treatments typically require the harvesting of a small population of hemopoietic stem cells, the cells that serve as precursors for all types of blood cells, from the patients blood. Viral vectors containing therapeutic genes are then introduced to these cells with the goal being for them to insert this genetic information into the stem cells.

The hemopoietic stem cells defend themselves from viral penetrance using interferon-induced transmembrane (IFITM) proteins that block the viral vectors. For this reason, many gene therapies require a large number of vectors and many attempts for success, which is an expensive process.

In their work, the Scripps team focused on caraphenol A, a molecular relative of resveratrol, a natural compound made by grapes and other plants present in wine. Resveratrol is known to have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Although caraphenol A shares these anti-inflammatory properties, it served a much different purpose in this work.

Observing the chemical properties of resveratrol and associated molecules such as caraphenol A, Torbett and colleagues wanted to investigate whether they could be used in gene therapy to improve the viral vectors ability to enter blood stem cells. Enhancing viral vector penetrance into host cells would be advantageous, being that the cells natural defense mechanisms against viral attacks present a challenge in gene therapy.

This is why gene therapy of hemopoietic stem cells has been hit-or-miss, explained Torbett. We saw a way to potentially make the treatment process significantly more efficient.

The researchers found that by adding caraphenol A to human hemopoietic stem cells with the viral vector present, the stem cells defense was weakened, and the viral penetrance increased. When these treated stem cells were implanted into mice in this study, they were observed to produce blood cells that contained the new genetic information.

In addition to saving costs, this approach also cuts down the time required for a patient to receive a gene therapy treatment. Reducing treatment time is not only convenient for the patient, but it lowers the chance that the stem cells lose their self-renewing properties as well. The more time the stem cells spend being outside of the body and being manipulated, the higher the likelihood of them losing their proliferative ability is.

Torbetts team is continuing to research how stem cells combat viral attacks, hoping to lower the cost of gene therapy while improving efficiency.

New Gene Therapy Approach Reduces Cost and Improves Efficiency - DocWire News

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