Watch this nanochip reprogram cells to fix damaged body tissue – The Register

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Video Researchers at Ohio State University have developed a nanochip contact patch that can reprogram nearby cells, to help repair damaged or aging organs, blood vessels, or nerve cells.

The bio-boffins have successfully used the device, which is about the size of a smartwatch screen, to turn skin cells into vascular cells in a mouse's damaged leg, which lacked blood flow. A week later, active blood vessels had grown in the mouse's leg and two weeks later, the leg's health had been restored.

The researchers also reprogrammed skin cells to become nerve cells, so they could be injected into mice with brain damage to help them recover from the equivalent of a stroke.

The technology, referred to as tissue nano-transfection (TNT), is described in a paper published on Monday in Nature Nanotechnology, "Topical tissue nano-transfection mediates non-viral stroma reprogramming and rescue."

TNT has two components: a nanotechnology-based chip capable of delivering a payload to adult cells in a live subject and a biological cargo of specific proteins or genetic material that initiate cell conversion. Reprogramming relies on techniques involving induced neurons and endothelium.

Dr Chandan Sen, director of Ohio State's Center for Regenerative Medicine & Cell Based Therapies, is one of the 27 co-authors of the research paper and a co-leader of the study, along with L James Lee, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering with Ohio State's College of Engineering.

Sen in a statement said the technology has reached the point where it is working successfully 98per cent of the time. "With this technology, we can convert skin cells into elements of any organ with just one touch," he said. "This process only takes less than a second and is non-invasive, and then you're off."

A video produced by OSU's Wexner Medical Center, and embedded below, demonstrates the process. The chip is placed on an injured part of the body and a small electrical current is applied, shooting genetic code into the cells. In less than a second, cells in the area receive new marching orders and start functioning in their new role.

Youtube Video

"The chip does not stay with you, and the reprogramming of the cell starts," said Sen. "Our technology keeps the cells in the body under immune surveillance, so immune suppression is not necessary."

Human clinical trials are planned for next year.

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Brain-in-a-Dish Models Neuroinflammation – Technology Networks

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Credit: Cleber A. Trujillo, UC San Diego

An international team of scientists, led by University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers, has created a human stem cell-based model of a rare, but devastating, inherited neurological autoimmune condition called Aicardi-Goutieres Syndrome (AGS). In doing so, the team was able to identify unusual and surprising underlying genetic mechanisms that drive AGS and test strategies to inhibit the condition using existing drugs.

Two repurposed FDA-approved drugs showed measurable effect, rescuing cells from the effects of AGS. The findings point to the promise of future clinical trials and to the utility of creating novel stem cell-based models of human diseases when no other models are available.

Our approach can now be used to investigate other neurological conditions, like autism and schizophrenia and overlapping autoimmune disorders that dysfunction in similar ways, said Alysson Muotri, PhD, professor in the UC San Diego School of Medicine departments of Pediatrics and Cellular and Molecular Medicine, director of the UC San Diego Stem Cell Program and a member of the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine.

First described in 1984, AGS typically involves early-onset inflammation affecting the brain, immune system and skin. Its severity depends upon which genes are involved there are six types but usually results in pronounced physiological and psychological consequences, from microcephaly (an abnormally small head) and spasticity to skin and vision problems and joint stiffness, all appearing in the first year of life. The syndrome is progressive, resulting in death or a persistent vegetative state in early childhood. Currently, there is no cure; the only treatments are symptomatic or palliative.

The clinical features of AGS mimic those of viral infections acquired in utero, before birth, with increased levels of inflammatory markers and other signatures of inflammatory response. However, Muotri said there is no link between AGS and exogenous pathogens. Previous research has shown that AGS patients have mutations in genes critical to nucleic acid metabolism in the regulation of cellular immune response, among them a deficiency in an enzyme called TREX1, which helps prevent abnormal DNA from accumulating in cells.

Deeper probing into the pathogenesis of AGS has been difficult because animal models do not accurately mimic the human version of the disease. So Muotri, with colleagues, used embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) derived from AGS patients to create six cellular models of the condition. In the past, Muotris lab has developed similar disease-in-a-dish neuronal models of autism, anorexia nervosa and Williams Syndrome, among other rare genetic neurological conditions.

From the iPSCs, they also created cerebral organoids or mini-brains larger clusters of neurons that organize themselves into a cortical structure, similar to a developing human cerebral cortex.

The researchers found that with TREX1 not functioning normally, all of the cell models displayed excess extra-chromosomal DNA and that a major source of the excess DNA came from LINE1 (L1) retroelements. L1s are repetitive sequences of DNA with the ability to autonomously copy-and-paste themselves within the human genome. In the past, they have been called jumping genes and, because their function within cells is largely unknown, junk DNA.

However the term junk DNA is increasingly becoming a misnomer. In work published in 2005, for example, Muotri and colleagues reported that L1s have a high impact on brain cells compared to other tissues, suggesting an important, if so far mysterious, role in brain development.

Since then, he said, researchers around the world have investigated the role of L1s in creating a genetic mosaicism in the brain. These are ancient, genomic parasites that replicate inside our cells. The majority of the current work is focusing on the impact of this genome mosaicism, but we decided to also look outside of the nucleus. And what we found was a big surprise.

In some of the AGS cell models created by the researchers, toxins from excess DNA built up. Others showed an abnormal immune response, secreting toxins that induced cell death in other cells. The combined effect in organoids was a massive reduction in neuron growth when the opposite should occur. These models seemed to mirror the development and progression of AGS in a developing fetus, said Muotri. It was cell death and reduction when neural development should be rising.

The cell death was trigged by the anti-viral response from the L1 molecules outside the nucleus. We uncovered a novel and fundamental mechanism, where chronic response to L1 elements can negatively impact human neurodevelopment, said Charles Thomas, a former graduate student in the Muotri lab and first author of the study. This mechanism seems human-specific. We dont see this in the mouse.

The researchers observed that AGS pathogenesis was similar to a retroviral infection and wondered whether existing HIV antiretroviral drugs might be effective in interfering in L1 replication. Two drugs were tested in the cell models: Stavudine and Lamivudine. Both drugs resulted in reduced L1 and cell toxicity. Cell model growth returned in all cell types and in the complex, differentiated colonies of nerve cells that comprise organoids.

The data supported the idea that HIV drugs could benefit AGS patients, Muotri said. A clinical trial led by study co-author Yanick Crow, MRCP, PhD, at Sorbonne Paris Cite University and the University of Manchester, has already started in Europe.

Muotri said the findings were illuminating and encouraging, providing a platform and impetus for further study of the pathology of neuroinflammation and drug discovery. Its important to note that while this work focused on AGS, nerve cells in schizophrenia show an overabundance of L1 elements and there is an overlap with other autoimmune disorders.

This is a great example of how a fundamental basic research could be rapidly translated into clinics. Are there analogous mechanisms at work in these different diseases? Is this modeling strategy relevant for better understanding and treating them? These are questions we will now pursue.

This article has been republished frommaterialsprovided byUCSD. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.

Reference:

Thomas, C. A., Tejwani, L., Trujillo, C. A., Negraes, P. D., Herai, R. H., Mesci, P., . . . Muotri, A. R. (2017). Modeling of TREX1-Dependent Autoimmune Disease using Human Stem Cells Highlights L1 Accumulation as a Source of Neuroinflammation. Cell Stem Cell. doi:10.1016/j.stem.2017.07.009

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Circular RNA linked to brain function – Phys.org – Phys.Org

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August 10, 2017 Circular RNA can impact normal brain function. Credit: The circular RNA biology Training Network (circRTrain), MDC.

While hundreds of circular RNAs (circRNAs) are abundant in mammalian brains, one big question has remained unanswered: What are they actually good for? In the current issue of Science, Nikolaus Rajewsky and his team at the Berlin Institute of Medical Systems Biology (BIMSB) of the Max Delbrck Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC), as well as other collaborators within the MDC and Charit, present data thatfor the first timelink a circular RNA to brain function.

RNA is much more than the mundane messenger between DNA and the protein it encodes. Indeed, there are several different kinds of non-coding RNA molecules. They can be long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) or short regulatory RNAs (miRs); they can interfere with protein production (siRNAs) or help make it possible (tRNAs). In the past 20 years, scientists have discovered some two dozen RNA varieties that form intricate networks within the molecular microcosm. The most enigmatic among them are circRNAs, an unusual class of RNAs whose heads are connected to their tails to form a covalently closed ring. These structures had for decades been dismissed as a rare, exotic RNA species. In fact, the opposite is true. Current RNA-sequencing analyses have revealed that they are a large class of RNA, which is highly expressed in brain tissues.

Thousands of circular RNAs exist in nematode worms, mice and humans

In 2013, two pioneering studies that characterized circular RNAs appeared in the journal Nature, one of them by Nikolaus Rajewsky and his team. Intriguingly, most circular RNAs are unusually stable, floating in the cytoplasm for hours and even days on end. The systems biologists proposed thatat least sometimes - circRNAs serve gene regulation. Cdr1as, a large single-stranded RNA loop that is 1,500 nucleotides around, might act as a "sponge" for microRNAs. For example, it offers more than 70 binding sites for a microRNA called miR-7. MicroRNAs are short RNA molecules that typically bind to complementary sequences in messenger RNAs, thereby controlling the amounts of specific proteins produced by cells.

Additionally, Rajewsky and his collaborators mined databases and discovered thousands of different circRNAs in nematode worms, mice and humans. Most of them were highly conserved throughout evolution. "We had found a parallel universe of unexplored RNAs," says Rajewsky. "Since publication the field has exploded; hundreds of new studies have been carried out."

Understanding a circle that is mostly present in excitatory neurons

For the current paper in Science, the systems biologists teamed up with Carmen Birchmeier's lab at the MDC to reconsider Cdr1as. "This particular circle can be found in excitatory neurons but not in glial cells," says Monika Piwecka, one of the first authors of the paper and coordinator of most of the experiments. "In brain tissues of mice and humans, there are two microRNAs called miR-7 and miR-671 that bind to it." In a next step, Rajewsky and his collaborators selectively deleted the circRNA Cdr1as in mice using the genome editing technology CRISPR/Cas9. In these animals, the expression of most microRNAs in four studied brain regions remained unperturbed. However, miR-7 was downregulated and miR-671 upregulated. These changes were post-transcriptional, consistent with the idea that Cdr1as usually interacts with these microRNAs in the cytoplasm.

"This indicates that Cdr1as usually stabilizes or transports miR-7 in neurons by sponging them up, while miR-167 might serve to regulate levels of this particular circular RNA," says Rajewsky. If microRNA floated in the cytoplasm without binding anywhere, it would get broken down as waste. The circle would prevent that and also carry it to new places like the synapses. He adds: "Maybe we should think about Cdr1as not as a 'sponge' but as a 'boat.' It prevents its passengers from drowning and also moves on to new ports."

The changes in microRNA concentration had dramatic effects on the mRNA and proteins produced by nerve cells, especially for a group called "immediate early genes." They are part of the first wave of responses when stimuli are presented to neurons. Also affected were messenger RNAs that encode proteins involved in the maintenance of the animals' sleep-wake cycles.

Cdr1as modulates synaptic responses

Using single-cell electrophysiology, Charit-researcher Christian Rosenmund observed that spontaneous vesicle release at the synapse happened twice as often. The synaptic responses to two consecutive stimuli were also altered. Additional behavioral analyses performed at the MDC mirrored these findings. Even though the mice appeared normal in many ways, they were unable to tune down their responses to external signals such as noises. Similar disruptions in pre-pulse inhibition have been noted in patients suffering from schizophrenia or other psychiatric diseases.

It is an everyday experience how much we depend on this filtering function: When a loud noise suddenly disturbs the quiet atmosphere of a library, you cannot avoid being alarmed. The same bang, however, will seem much less threatening next to a construction site. In this instance, the brain has had the chance to process previous noises and filter out unnecessary information. Therefore, the startle reflex is dampened (pre-pulse inhibition). This basic brain function that allows healthy animals and people to temporarily adapt to a strong stimulus and avoid information overload has now been linked to Cdr1as.

"Functionally, our data suggest that Cdr1as and its direct interactions with microRNAs are important for sensorimotor gating and synaptic transmission," says Nikolaus Rajewsky. "More generally, since the brain is an organ with exceptionally high and diverse expression of circular RNAs, we believe that our data suggest the existence of a previously unknown layer of biological functions carried out by these circles."

Explore further: Research shows that circular RNAs, until now considered non-coding, can encode for proteins

More information: M. Piwecka el al., "Loss of a mammalian circular RNA locus causes miRNA deregulation and affects brain function," Science (2017). science.sciencemag.org/lookup/ 1126/science.aam8526

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UCT opens first global research centre on killer fungi – Times LIVE

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The worlds first international research centre for tackling fungal infections which kill about 1.3 million people globally every year opened at the University of Cape Town (UCT) on Friday.

The majority of deaths related to fungal infections are in Africa particularly sub-Saharan Africa. Here about 50% of people die as a result of invasive fungal infections.

In 2008 one million cases of cryptococcal meningitis were reported in patients with HIV resulting in more than 500,000 related deaths UCT said in a statement on Friday.

Professor Mark Nicol head of UCTs Division of Medical Microbiology in the Department of Pathology said: "This is a wonderful opportunity to develop a centre of excellence for fungal infections on the African continent. We will have the opportunity to extend the pioneering clinical research on fungal infections taking place at UCT by collaborating with scientists studying the biology and immunology of fungal infections at the world-leading centre [at the University of] Aberdeen [UA].

Now the UA internationally recognised Aberdeen Fungal Group in collaboration with UCT have established the worlds first research centre focused on tackling these diseases in Africa. The R10-million UAs AFGrica Unit will be based at UCTs IDM [Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine] headed by Professor Valerie Mizrahi.

Professor Gordon Brown from the Aberdeen Fungal Group who led the establishment of the AFGrica Unit said: Fungal infections are understudied and under-diagnosed compared with other infectious diseases despite their contribution to so many deaths every year.

Fungal infections kill more people in Africa than anywhere else on the planet. The AFGrica Unit is a unique opportunity to address the urgent need to improve basic knowledge and clinical management of fungal infections in Africa.

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March for Science: Scientists were instructed to stay away – National Herald

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Apprehending serious repercussions over what could have been perceived as an anti-government activity, many researchers and scientists were instructed not to participate in the India March for Science on August 9.

The march saw thousands of scientists and science enthusiasts from premier research institutions and colleges of the country taking to streets in 26 cities across the country. It was held to protest government promoting unscientific ideas and budgetary cuts in the funding to research institutes. Hundreds of demonstrators holding placards, reading messages such as Defend science, not defund science, stop killing science for your personal and political agenda and sought respect for research.

Demanding that the government invest 3 per cent of countrys total GDP in the field of research and development, they lamented that the investment remains stagnant at around 0.9 per cent for the past 10 years.

Pertinently, India March for Science follows the global March for Science that was held in April, Washington DC, along with over 600 other cities around the world in April to support scientific research and evidence-based policy making. It was held shortly after US President Donald Trumps inauguration earlier this year, to protest his governments attitude towards science.

Describing climate change an expensive hoax and declaring that numerous environmental protection laws would be rolled back, President Trump had withdrawn the United States from the landmark 2015 global agreement to fight climate change.

In India, however, members of several institutes like Institute of Genomics & Integrative Biology (IGIB)which is a premier Institute of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), engaged in research of national importance in the areas of genomics, molecular medicine, bioinformatics, proteomics and environmental biotechnology, were advised not to participate in the march.

Screen grab of the Email sent to the members of CSIR-IGIB from the director

Citing reasons for issuing instructions to the members of the CSIR-IGIB, its director Dr Sanjay Kumar said that there was no need to hold such a march. Modi government doesnt have an anti-science perspective. It is encouraging science and funding has gone up, he told National Herald, without disclosing the amount of funding that has been increased for his institute in the past three years.

His office in fact gave e-mail instructions to all members of CSIR-IGIB not to participate in the march. In much demonstrations, there is always a possibility of police lathi-charge or any untoward incident can happen if a large gathering turns into a mob. So my first concern is the safety and security of my scientists, he stated, adding that the Modi government is always there to financially support the scientists if there is a mission like Chandrayaan.

I dont understand why a particular group of scientists held such a march. I havent interacted with them, he added, refusing that he had been instructed by higher authorities to advise the members of research body against participating in March for Science.

On August 8, without citing any reasons, an e-mail from the office of CSIR-IGIB directors secretariat, written by his PA Manoj Kumar asked its members to not participate in the march.

The e-mail reads: I am directed to inform all the members of CSIR-IGIB that they are advised not to participate in the March for Science which is being organised tomorrow.

Those who have been holding the governing bodies of research institutes dont have a spine to stand for the promotion of science and scientific temperament or to counter the unscientific ideas being promoted in this country, said a scientist at one CSIR institute on the basis of anonymity, adding that heads of most of the institutesmostly careerist-scientistsperceived that the march could be perceived as an anti-government activity, which will have serious ramifications. They are more concerned about their jobs rather than the discipline of science or the country for that matter.

In this country, a union minister says that India is carrying out scientific research to establish the benefits of cow dung, cow urine, cow milk, curd and clarified butter. Look at the kind of research subjects that are being appreciated and funded by the government, he wondered.

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Gigabit broadband upload speeds revolutionizes the internet – CNET – CNET

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At one point there were five AT&T trucks and technicians at my house installing fiber-optic broadband. It's been smooth sailing since then.

I just upgraded to gigabit broadband at home. But being able to download a 2GB episode of "Game of Thrones" in 16 seconds isn't what gets me excited.

It's the ability to upload data at 1 gigabit per second -- not just download it -- that helped me decide to cancel Comcast and sign up for AT&T Fiber. Downstream data rates are important, but fast upstream speed is what's going to power the next transformation of home broadband.

If you're shopping for broadband, the odds are good that internet service providers will rank their speed tiers by download speed. To make abstractions like 100 Mbps per second real, they'll tell you how long it'll take to download a movie in full HD resolution (hence my above example). What they won't tell you is how long it'll take to upload your video to YouTube or how good your Skype call with grandma will look.

It's no surprise they don't highlight these upload speeds, because they're not very flattering. Network operators have a finite amount of bits they can shuttle around every second, and downloading generally is more important and data-intensive than uploading. So they allocate more of their capacity to downstream data transfer to your home, not upstream data transfer from your home to the internet.

But upload speeds matter. Being able to send data fast is important to videoconferencing, uploading photos, online gaming, collaborating with coworkers and more. Eventually, it could transform the internet again, perhaps the same way it changed when high-speed download speeds helped YouTube trigger the video streaming revolution.

For an example of how fast upload speeds change broadband, look at online backup service Backblaze, which charges $5 per month to keep a copy of your PC's data. On Thursday, it announced a new version of its backup software that should triple or quadruple most customer's backup speeds. If you have a fast upstream connection, that means you can send files up to its servers at 100 Mbps. Backblaze's own chief technology officer has maxed out at 200 Mbps, though he's an exceptional case.

AT&T promises 940 megabits per second with its gigabit fiber-optic service. For the most part it delivers -- though Wi-Fi is slower than a cable connection.

I've been a Backblaze customer for years, and this kind of performance changes the game. For $60 a year they offer unlimited storage, but when I got started, with a slow upstream connection, it took months for all of my data to trickle its way to Backblaze. No way was I going to ditch the backup hard drive in my office.

But at 100 Mbps, you can pump 50 gigabytes per hour into the cloud. That means my current 2-terabyte backup would be finished in less than a day. It's much faster to update an existing backup, of course, because only new or changed data must be sent, but it's common for me to come back from a day trip with 10GB or 20GB of photos and video.

No, I'm not going to dump my physical backup drive, because I like to protect my data with multiple methods. But fast upstream data rates make online backup more feasible for people who otherwise wouldn't bother. Online backup is a lifesaver if you're the victim of flood, fire or burglary, plus the ability to access files if you're away from your home computer.

With AT&T Fiber, Backblaze backup speeds increased dramatically to 101 Mbps -- and that was before release of a new version of the software tuned better for high-speed links.

Lots of other services today benefit from good upstream speeds:

None of these are impossible with today's broadband, but all of them work better with gigabit speeds. Before moving to AT&T Fiber, I paid for a premium tier on Comcast's Xfinity service not because I needed the 200 Mbps download rates, but because I wanted the commensurate 20 Mbps upload rate.

I ponied up for AT&T's top-tier gigabit rate (actually 940 Mbps when you read the fine print), which costs $70 a month and goes to $80 after the first year. For 100 Mbps, it's $50, increasing to $70, but I wanted to see what the top-of-the-line speed would get me.

In my speed testing, AT&T delivers the goods. But it's not magic. Lots of things go faster, like YouTube uploads that take only a few seconds. The internet has abundant bottlenecks, though, so I still wait for data more often than I'd like. On top of that, Wi-Fi cuts down the maximum speed by two thirds, and websites require more and more time to execute complex programming instructions. Overall, though, I'm satisfied, and I expect things will improve as more online services adapt to ultra-high-speed connections.

I'm lucky to have gigabit speeds at home, but it's becoming more common. AT&T can reach 5.5 million homes and small businesses today with its fiber-optic service, but plans to expand to at least 12.5 million by mid-2019.

The bigger question is what changes will come in the long run as upload speeds improve. There is an unpredictable "build it and they will come" factor.

Google had the presence of mind to acquire YouTube in 2006 and stands to profit likewise from tomorrow's services. So it makes sense that the company would try to kick things into gear with its Google Fiber service, which promises gigabit upload and download speeds.

But the company is pretty vague about what it thinks will emerge when our upload speeds surge.

AT&T Fiber can boast of high upload speeds, but in this promotional mailing, it only mentions download speeds.

"We believe technology paves the way for innovation," Google said of its Google Fiber project, which arguably kicked off this gigabit broadband push. "We've seen businesses in many industries -- from architecture to medicine to film and music -- take advantage of faster upload speeds to work collaboratively and expand their reach. And of course, it's also great for less serious endeavors like gaming or keeping your YouTube channel up to date."

For me, it was the supposedly slow-moving incumbent, not the Silicon Valley disruptor, that delivered my gigabit speeds.

AT&T expects changes with better upstream speeds. "We are seeing people producing more content than ever and pushing that content to the cloud, over social networks, engaging in video conferencing, online gaming, and more," the company said in a statement.

It's possible more radical changes will come. Faster upload speeds make telecommuting more feasible. It's easier to access company data and chat with teleconferencing technology, so maybe more people will skip rush-hour commutes or cross-country flights.

The bigger difference will be that our digital selves will move to the cloud. Take a photo of your dog, and nearly instantly it'll be stored on Facebook, Google, Dropbox, iCloud or some other online service. Your phone becomes an extension of the internet.

Security and privacy concerns mean it's not always wise to send data over networks and store it in central servers. But the benefits of cloud computing are immense when it comes to protecting against theft, granting fast access to a massive video and music library, and synchronizing our phones, TVs, laptops, smart speakers, smartwatches and tablets.

It's the future, so you better get used to it.

Tech Culture: From film and television to social media and games, here's your place for the lighter side of tech.

Batteries Not Included: The CNET team shares experiences that remind us why tech stuff is cool.

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That takes the cake: Duo arrested after stealing ice cream cake and uploading crime to social media – The Sentinel-Echo

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When Seth Messer and Ajayci Cotton entered the Dunkin Donuts/Baskin Robbins off the Ky. 192 Bypass Tuesday afternoon, they had one thing in mind: Steal a cake and upload it to social media.

They didnt think about the consequences of their actions.

Messer, 19, of London and Cotton, 18, of Manchester, were arrested by Detective Jason Back of the Laurel County Sheriffs Office shortly after they pulled off their prank that eventually landed them in jail.

The incident occurred around 3:30 p.m. when the two entered the establishment and Messer stole the cake while Cotton filmed the incident to upload to a social media site. As employees confronted the pair, Messer reportedly said something to the effect of this is my cake now and used profanity, according to Deputy Gilbert Acciardo, public affairs deputy for the sheriffs office.

The two left the restaurant and employees were able to write down their license plate number. The car was later spotted and the two were arrested by Back at approximately 4:51 p.m. Acciardo said that Messer asked if were really going to jail for this? when he was arrested.

Yes, Acciardo said. You stole something that did not belong to you. Stealing is stealing. He added that the two said they did it as a prank.

The cake was valued at $25 to $30 and that could result in a misdemeanor theft charge. However, officers chose to charge the two with felony third-degree burglary because of the circumstances, including that the two went into a business and left despite being confronted by employees. The charge could be reduced during the court process.

The two were lodged in the Laurel County Detention Center. Assisting on the arrest were Lieut. Greg Poynter, Sgt. Robbie Grimes, Detective Kyle Gray and Detective Chris Edwards.

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That takes the cake: Duo arrested after stealing ice cream cake and uploading crime to social media - The Sentinel-Echo

Exclusive: Here’s How Fantastic Contraption VR Devs Generated More Than $1 Million – UploadVR

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Fantastic Contraptions developers are part of an exclusive group of VR creators who have successfully generated in excess of $1 million.

The creative puzzler is made by Canada-based game-making couple Sarah and Colin Northway teaming with Radial Games Andy Moore, Kimberly Voll and Lindsay Jorgensen with sound by Gord McGladdery.

It released with the launch of the HTC Vive in early 2016 and Facebooks Oculus Touch controllers for Rift late in the year. This summer, it launched on Sonys PlayStation VR. The game was bundled with Vive headsets for a period when it launched but generally sells individually for $30 on Rift and Vive and $20 on PSVR. According to the team, between the bundling deal and individual sales (of which platform owners like Sony, Facebook and Valve usually take nearly a third) the title has generated more than $1 million.

I appreciate the team sharing this information exclusively with me. Though they declined to be more specific, the figure paired with the size of the team establishes the title as one of VR developments success stories. It isnt possible with the available information to establish just how big a success it is, but the creators are comfortable saying theyve made enough to fund further efforts and continue exploring a new medium. Other teams in this group include Survios (which is funded by investors to the tune of $50 million) and Owlchemy Labs (acquired by Google). In the case of Fantastic Contraption, not only does the game itself push forward interaction design and mixed reality capture, its creators have bootstrapped their creativity enough to keep going into future projectsas independent creators.

I met with Moore and the Northways for a conversation recently in Colin Northways still-under-construction virtual art gallery. Sarah Northway is working on her own VR game shes not ready to talk about yet. Moores studio developed a series of VR experiments, one of which he hopes can get funded by a publisher into a full game. Colin Northways art gallery is still very early too, but hes already using cutting edge tools like Valves Steam Audio to bring life to the space for people gathering to check out creations from a wide range of artists. The sound technology combined with the movements of our hands and heads made our conversation, even between avatars represented as the simplest of shapes floating in space, feel remarkably like the real thing.

During a transitional time for the mixed reality industry when startups like Envelop, AltspaceVR, CastAR and Vrideo close down, I talked to them for more than an hour in VR trying to break down how they succeeded with Fantastic Contraption. Here is what I came away with from our talk:

Classic Flash-based Fantastic Contraption.

Many VR creators have a very clear memory of the time they became convinced the technology was ready for mass market appeal. Rifts first development kit wasnt compelling enough to Fantastic Contraptions creators.

The creators hail from the Vancouver area, just a three or four hour drive across the border from Seattle-based Valve, and when they took a trip down to Valves offices in the summer of 2015 they got a look at an early HTC Vive with controllers that brought hands into VR. They recall demos of Owlchemys Job Simulator, Googles Tilt Brush and Valves early robot demo, each of which made excellent use of those hand controls.

It was a moment that changed their lives. Colin Northway sat on a couch after his demo, his mind exploding with the creative possibilities ahead.

For me it was like Im not that into VR and then I was like alright this is my life now, he said.

It didnt take them long to decide their legacy project, a 2D puzzle game called Fantastic Contraption that relied on creative thinking to build machines, could be adapted to VR.

Isnt this the best medium for Contraption? Moore recalls thinking.

While inspired, the creators of Fantastic Contraption werent recipients of the very first developer kits Valve sent out secretly to a handful of developers like Owlchemy. But the creators were so inspired after their demo they started building Fantastic Contraption without any VR headset at all.

We decided it would work and it would be amazing, Moore recalls.

Some weeks later they held a game jam (an event where teams rapidly create games) and partnered with Valve which brought some early Vive kits for groups to test their projects. They showed the demo to someone at Valve and, after the event was over, were told they could keep the headsets.

There was some good stuff going on there, Moore said of the event. But we were using it as a sneaky way to show off the game to Valve.

We spent the jam on VR integration basically, Colin Northway said.

During this process of development the Northways learned Unity, a game creation toolset that alongside competitor Unreal Engine has been early to support VR. In 2007, the original Fantastic Contraption was built for traditional screens with Adobes Flash tools. Thats about the time Flash started its decline partially because Apples Steve Jobs refused to allow the technology on iPhone and iPad.

So while the Northways became experts in Flash to the extent that the original Fantastic Contraption made Colin Northway enough money that he could quit his day job Now I just have a hobby that pays better than my jobs ever did that toolset wasnt built for VR and they had to learn something new.

I had a lot of trouble transitioning to Unity and VR, and 3D art Id avoided for ages, Sarah Northway said. Its scary trying new stuff but you really need to in this industry, because things keep changing and moving forward so fast.

Theres so much to learn in VR, added Colin Northway. If youre working in VR you cant help but be pushing boundaries all the time and learning a huge amount.

The team went into the project with a four month plan to deliver the VR game by the end of 2015, which is when HTC originally said it would start shipping headsets in volume. At the start, Sarah Northway said, they became comfortable with the idea the project could make no money and it could be a total failure. They had enough coming in from previous projects to make a four-month timeline work.

Well spend four months on it, well finish it, even if nothing happens of it well knowsomething about VR, well be set up to do our next thing, itll be fun, shesaid. So we didnt come into it thinking were going to put all our eggs in this basket.

The scope of the project grew as several things happened. The Vives consumer launch was set in stone later than expected, for April 2016. In addition, people reacted positively to early versions of their project and they secured a bundle deal ensuring some income from the game.

The bundle deal paid for development, Colin Northway said.

As soon as we had the bundle deal we knew everything was gonna be just fine, Sarah Northway said. Being agile in your business plan was pretty key.

The story would have gone very differently if we never got the bundle deal or there werent so many sales at launch, Moore said. We took a risk the whole team was comfortable with which was four month dev and before that four months was up we secured larger deals.

The extra development time allowed the team to explore a more fully realized version of the game including the ability to push VR design ideas much further. For example, Fantastic Contraption includes a helmet which sits on the ground. When you pick up and place the helmet on your head it transports you to another world with tables to save your creation or access those made by other people. It is the VR equivalent of the kind of flat screen menu to save your work that youd access in a traditional game. Their extra runway freed them to explore these ideas.

They also developed a miniaturized version of the game that made it easy for people to play it in a seated or forward-facing position. This in turn allowed the game to more easily make the jump to additional platforms like Rift and PlayStation VR that were tuned better for those setups.

So with all these different pieces falling into place just right to expand both the scope and reach of the game, was it luck or smart decision-making that allowed Fantastic Contraption to find success?

It is definitely both, Colin Northway said. A big lesson to learn from indie development is that you have this one advantage and that is that you can do super weird stuff. Big companies cant do weird stuff because they are going to be risk averse.

On the other hand, independent developers might be gambling their own future rather than a companys. Moore and the Northways warned against people mortgaging their house or running up credit cards in order pursue an idea in VR. They all had previous projects that gave them the runway to start the VR version of Fantastic Contraption in a game jam. And before that they made the transition to indie developer by working on ideas on weekends and evenings. Thats why they were comfortable with the concept of failing.

For the Northways and Radial Games, however, moving into 2018 they are poised for even greater success when headsets ship in larger numbers.

I personally kind of feel like were in a time where you should be doing a lot of building of your own skills, a lot of your own experimenting so that in the bright commercial future, when it comes, youre set up to take advantage of it, Colin Northway said.

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Exclusive: Here's How Fantastic Contraption VR Devs Generated More Than $1 Million - UploadVR

Fitness gurus to work out with for free on YouTube – Chicago Tribune

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Instead of neglecting our workout (and the mood-boosting benefits that come from it), we schedule ourselves a little one-on-one workout time with YouTube. The workouts are time-flexible, accessible and expert-led. In other words, its basically a treasure trove of fitness.

A quick search unearths everything from yoga to Pilates to HIIT training routines; whatever type of sweat session you prefer, YouTube likely has it. Thats why we decided to put together a list of our favorite online fitness channels just to help you narrow your search a little bit.

YOGA WITH ADRIENE.Adriene Mishler is the light-hearted yogi behind this YouTube channel. Her yoga videos range from targeted practices for anxiety, depression, sleep and pain (like this one for neck and shoulder relief) to power flows for strengthening and lengthening. Her goofy yet calming presence is enough to make you change into comfortable clothes, drink a cup of tea and relax into a yoga routine.

CASSEY HO OF BLOGILATES.Cassey Ho has been a mainstay on the YouTube fitness scene since she started uploading Pilates videos in 2009. Her website, Blogilates, provides fitness and nutrition advice, along with body-positive inspiration and sporty merchandise.

She specializes in workouts that build and tone muscle using nothing else but your own body weight. The workouts are hard but fun. Her bubbly and outgoing personality almost makes you forget your arms are screaming in the middle of a 15-minute workout (almost). Stay dedicated to her videos, try your best, and youll see real change.

TARA STILES.Although she does have videos fit for beginners, chances are that youll love Tara Stiless yoga videos if youre an intermediate or advanced yoga devotee. Her no-frills approach is quieting, calming and strengthening for both the body and mind. (If youre not super into yoga, check her videos out anyway, because they might majorly inspire you; shes the most graceful human being weve ever seen).

JEANETTE JENKINS.Jeanette Jenkins is a celebrity personal trainer (responsible for training A-listers such as Kelly Rowland) who posts a variety of different workouts designed to increase strength. Many of her videos are extremely short think no longer than 30 seconds just so she can show a few reps of effective moves. Then, depending on how much time you have, you can make it an extended workout, or just do a few circuits. Take this Zumba video, for instance. Its solely concentrated on planks and high knees for an intense cardio sweat.

THE TONE IT UP GIRLS.Karena Dawn and Katrina Scott started their Tone It Up empire to share workout, nutrition, and even lifestyle advice. Many of their workouts take place in front of a beautiful backdrop of the Pacific ocean, so you can kind of feel like youre working out while on a SoCal vacation (better than working out at home, right?).

Theyre also regular Byrdie contributors. Check out all of their stories. (Personally, we love this piece on the 5 exercises you should do if you sit all day).

XHIT DAILY.XHIT Daily is a YouTube channel that regularly posts workout videos ranging from Crossfit to Pilates. The three hosts are incredibly knowledgeable, reminding their viewers how to correct their form and get the most from their workouts throughout.

THE RUN EXPERIENCE.Weve covered yoga, Pilates, and strength training workouts, but this one is for any runners out there. The Run Experience has almost 70,000 YouTube subscribers, to which it shares motivating running tips, tricks, and advice. They have videos on everything from hydration and nutrition to race-day prep. Regardless if youre a runner or not, they share super-effective targeted workouts that are great for doing on the go.

WHITNEY SIMMONS.Simmons posts regularly on YouTube, so youll never be without a new workout to try. The best part? You dont need a ton of equipment. Many of her videos use your body weight, and maybe a dumbbell or two to target specific muscle groups. Plus, she produces videos on healthy meal prep, to keep you going throughout a busy week.

Get the latest celebrity beauty news, runway trends, health and fitness tips, as well as product suggestions from the experts at Byrdie.com.

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Fitness gurus to work out with for free on YouTube - Chicago Tribune

Sanofi’s Zika Standoff: Bad Medicine? – Seeking Alpha

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Sanofi (NYSE: SNY) has had a bumper year thus far. Its revenue has exceeded analysts expectations and its share price jumped more than 20% YTD. It has outperformed the S&P 500 as well as the NYSE ARCA Pharmaceutical Index. That performance means Sanofi has successfully dodged the struggles plaguing other pharmaceutical firms after the shenanigans surrounding the late American Health Care Act. But a series of scandals and changing political attitudes have sounded alarm bells for the companys fortunes.

As Bon Jovi put it in his 1988 ballad: It'll take more than a doctor to prescribe a remedy. I got lots of money, but it isn't what I need. More than anywhere else in the world, access to medicine in the United States is predicated on a patients ability to pay and since American patients often pay far more for the same drugs, Sanofi, as well as most of its peers, are in for some choppy waters ahead.

A recent Health Affairs study comparing drug prices revealed that Americans pay on average more than a 60% premium over other Western nations all while unravelling the pharmaceutical industrys arguments that hiking prices pays for research & development. Companies including Biogen (BIIB), Amgen (AMGN) and Pfizer (PFE) were estimated to have spent less than half their 2015 profits from US premium prices on R&D. Bad press, especially in light of pharma-bro Martin Shkrelis unscrupulous drug price gouging and (unrelated) conviction for fraud, is adding to growing anti-pharma sentiment and making it harder for the industry to fix its public image.

Drug pricing has likewise been occupying President Trump, as he re-entered the fray with a speech in March, calling the prices of prescription drugs "outrageous" and prompting a dip in both the NASDAQ Biotechnology Index and the S&P Biotech ETF (XBI). Since the market reaction was more muted than his January lambasting of drug makers when he claimed they "are getting away with murder", it seems the sensitivity to Trump outbursts and policy threats is waning. Trump did however vow to tackle the issue of drug pricing after successful 'repealing and replacing' Obamacare, and, with the American Health Care Acts spectacular failure, the Trump administration may yet turn the erstwhile rhetoric into a determined focus on enacting valuable policy to get drug prices down. With public sentiment clearly against Big Pharma, any such action with both public and bipartisan support - could be a (relatively) quick and (comparatively) easy win. It may also serve as a valuable measure to reconnect and appease his electoral base.

One sure way to strain high cost is encouraging price completion through generic alternatives. A development that investors should take heed of is the Federal Drug Administration's (FDA) "Drug Competition Action Plan" - announced in May - in which they pledge to reduce the time taken to approve generic versions of branded drugs. Another, albeit less celebrated piece of legislation is a bipartisan solution being re-introduced to curb anti-competitive practices that have historically stymied market entry to lower-cost generic drugs. The Creating and Restoring Equal Access to Equivalent Samples (CREATES) Act, will introduce measures allowing generic drug makers to seek legal recourse to force brand-drug companies to supply samples: a process required in order to allow the generic drug maker to test and produce the generic alternatives. The bill would moreover authorize the Federal Trade Commission to prohibit a popular tactic employed by big drug makers known as "pay for delay", whereby pharmaceutical firms pay rival drug makers to delay introducing generics on the market a tactic that is currently not prohibited.

Increased competition should be in the public interest, and serve as a boon for generic drug-makers. Investors holding long positions in large pharmaceuticals may be wise to investigate how and if this legislation may have an impact on selected firms, and how it could benefit generic drug makers.

And while quarterly revenues look good, Sanofi is slogging through its own unique pricing scandal. In one particularly alarming example, Americans pay nearly 10 times more for Sanofis multiple sclerosis drug Aubagio than their French counterparts. Senator Bernie Sanders, who has the pharma industry firmly in his sights and is currently pushing a plan to let Americans buy prescription drugs from abroad, penned an op-ed in the New York Times back in March putting Sanofi on the spot for the terms of an agreement between the Paris-based CAC40 company and the U.S. government.

On the face of it, the deal is fairly straightforward: in response to the Zika epidemic that started in Brazil in April 2015, the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (a part of the U.S. Department of Defense), signed an agreement with Sanofi Pasteur (a division of Sanofi) in September 2016 to start the development of a vaccine. Sanofi was awarded a $43 million grant, and the government has promised another $130 million to conduct further phases of development and various phases of the drug trials.

The need for a Zika vaccine is self-explanatory. Any outbreak can have a devastating impact, both in terms of loss of life and economic output. The World Bank estimated that the Ebola crisis of 2013 2016 in West Africa wiped as much as 4% of growth of Guinea and 8% of that of Liberia. Sanofi has extensive experience in developing vaccines - it is one of their main business lines - and developing a Zika vaccine means utilizing advances the company previously and successfully developed for both its dengue fever and Japanese encephalitis vaccines. All three belong to the same family of viruses, and are transmitted by the same type of mosquito.

Though the justifications for the deal between Sanofi and the U.S. Army are sound, the parts of the agreement provoking Senator Sanders ire have to do with the Armys decision to grant the company an exclusive license to sell the vaccine in the U.S. Pricing practices in the U.S. are such that any vaccine from the public-private tie up could well be too expensive for most Americans, despite the fact that American taxpayer dollars are funding its development.

Matters escalated when the Army, responding to Sanders, requested Sanofi make a commitment to fair pricing and the company reportedly refused (for the record, the company insists no such rejection has occurred). Senator Sanders and Congressman Peter DeFazio of Oregon have now responded by proposing a new rule (introduced as an amendment to the 1938 Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act) requiring drug makers to levy fair prices for drugs developed with taxpayer-backed research. An amendment to military spending authorization that would allow the Department of Defense to open tenders to other drug makers when it helped fund research is currently making its way through Congress.

Sanofis pricing controversy illustrates one of the potential shortcomings of public-private partnerships in a context where drug prices are artificially inflated. According to conventional wisdom, Big Pharma has far less market incentive to develop drugs for Zika and other similar neglected diseases. To bring private sector companies on board, the thinking goes, the public sector has to make it worth their while.

And yet, some non-profit organisations have managed to develop successful, extremely cost-effective solutions for treating neglected diseases at far lower costs than major pharmaceuticals companies. One of those non-profits Sanofi should look to is the Drugs for Neglected Disease Initiative (D.N.D.I), founded in 1999. The D.N.D.I. has already developed seven approved, patent-free, low-cost treatments for neglected diseases. It succeeds in piggybacking on, and paying for, established infrastructure through government and grant funding relying on the so-called product development partnership (PDP) model.

PDPs keep costs down through collaboration either with universities, governments or the pharmaceutical industry itself. If anything, the model that D.N.D.I employs serves as a proof of concept that an organisation without any profit objective can develop and deploy medications at a fraction of the cost of global drug makers. The D.N.D.I has a further 26 drugs currently under development. Tallying together its completed drugs and ongoing projects, the non-profit has thus far spent $290 million much less than what a typical pharmaceutical company would spend to develop just one drug. Sanofi itself partnered with the D.N.D.I. to develop and produce the ASAQ Winthrop malaria treatment.

While for-profit drug companies can hardly be expected to adopt D.N.D.I.s business model, the dispute over Zika vaccine pricing has nevertheless overshadowed some highly successful public-private partnerships in which private companies have taken on neglected diseases without a profit motive. This was the case with West Africas Ebola outbreak in December 2013, in which a number of private firms partnered with both local and outside governments to address what was otherwise an unmitigated medical calamity.

In West Africa, some of the most impactful partnerships came from outside the pharmaceuticals industry. The Gavi global vaccine alliance may have partnered with Merck on the latters Ebola vaccine, but the Russian aluminium producer UC Rusal also partnered with the Russian government to develop Ebola vaccines now being deployed to Guinea. At the height of the outbreak, Rusal leveraged its extensive operations in the country the epicentre of the Ebola outbreak to establish a local Centre for Microbiological Research and Treatment of Epidemic Diseases, investing $10 million and donating medicines, sanitary and hygiene items to the Guinean Ministry of Health from 2014.

When compared to those fruitful, mutually beneficial examples, the dust-up between Sanofi and the U.S. government over developing the Zika vaccine seems to be an anomaly. Nonetheless, Sanofis clumsy response to Congressional criticism may have already contributed to a bipartisan backlash against the industry as a whole. A growing chorus of lawmakers is targeting the seemingly predatory pricing schemes employed by drug makers in the U.S. New legislation is ripe for the making: the U.S. counts as a nearly unique exception of a developed nation with no drug price regulation policy, and pressure is mounting from politicians, physicians, and also the FDA to seriously address the regulation of drug pricing.

And while the government is currently unable to negotiate drug pricing as part of Medicaids so-called "Part D" program (which covers most prescription drugs and constitute 25% of large pharmaceuticals gross sales), the practice is being reviewed and does not carry the favour of the current administration.

If the U.S. finally does close its drug pricing loopholes, the pharmaceutical giants will be even more reliant on emerging market sales for their profit margins. Sanofis emerging market sales, as per their Q-2 earning report, grew by 6.6% year-on-year at constant exchange rates, compared to a 2.7% decline in the U.S. With that in mind, it would be good business for these firms who carry an inherent moral responsibility to do good to engage in fruitful, balanced R&D partnerships with the public sector. As Bill Gates declared at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos this year, the world remains tragically unprepared for the next epidemic.

Disclosure: I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.

I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

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Sanofi's Zika Standoff: Bad Medicine? - Seeking Alpha

Using only alternative medicine for cancer linked to lower survival rate – Yale News

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Yale News
Using only alternative medicine for cancer linked to lower survival rate
Yale News
There is increasing interest by patients and families in pursuing alternative medicine as opposed to conventional cancer treatment. This trend has created a difficult situation for patients and providers. Although it is widely believed that ...
Alternative medicine only treatment linked to lower cancer survivalUPI.com

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Using only alternative medicine for cancer linked to lower survival rate - Yale News

After On Podcast #2: Video Games as Medicine? – Boing Boing

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Below youll find an unhurried interview with Dr. Adam Gazzaley, who runs one of the West Coasts largest neuroscience labs at UCSF. There, his team carefully crafts video games with the potential to cure a wide range of neurological ailments.

Machine learning algorithms have successfully identified plant species in massive herbaria just by looking at the dried specimens. According to researchers, similar AI approaches could also be used identify the likes of fly larvae and plant fossils. From Nature: There are roughly 3,000 herbaria in the world, hosting an estimated 350 million specimens only []

In this TEDx Talk, science writer and umbraphile (an eclipse chaser) David Baron emphasizes the importance of witnessing a total solar eclipse firsthand (eye?) at least once in your lifetime.

On August 20 and September 5, 1977, NASA launched two spacecraft, Voyager 1 and 2, on a grand tour of the solar system and into the mysteries of interstellar space. It was an incredibly audacious mission, and its still going. My friend Timothy Ferris produced the Voyager golden record thats attached to each of the []

This project management bundle will help you get organized and learn how to lead a team to success. You can pay what you want for these five courses when you pick them up from the Boing Boing Store.To help you become an invaluable asset for your company, this bundle includes a curated collection of professional []

Despite the push towards USB-C as the one connector to rule them all, most peripherals in the wild are still largely USB-A. Since theres little reason to upgrade all of your old flash drives, wired keyboards, and game controllers, youll need a decent hub to keep them all talking to your new computer.The MondoHub Master []

You dont always have to pay out the nose for household items, everyday accessories, or memorable gifts. If youre searching for something unexpected that can be had for less than two sawbucks, take a look at the following goods:20oz Insulated Water Bottle ($18.99)This stainless steel water bottle is double-walled with vacuum-sealed insulation to keep drinks []

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After On Podcast #2: Video Games as Medicine? - Boing Boing

Mizzou medical school will produce more doctors to address shortage – STLtoday.com

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Not all enrollment trends at the University of Missouri-Columbia are down the medical school has increased its class size by one-third this year.

The expansion, to a class of 128 from 96, is aimed at addressing a looming physician shortage created by an aging population. Most of Missouri is considered to have a shortage of health professionals, particularly rural parts of the state. The state needs an additional 367 doctors to accommodate its population, according to Kaiser Family Foundation data.

In 2006, the Association of American Medical Colleges recommended medical schools increase their enrollments by 30 percent in the following decade. The same year, St. Louis University increased the number of first-year students to 175 from 150, making it the largest medical school in the state.

Washington Universitys medical school enrollment has stayed between 120 and 124 students per class. There are no plans to increase the size of the class, which is partly influenced by the number of faculty and available space, according to the dean of admissions.

Mizzou started looking at expanding its class size soon after the 2006 recommendations, said Weldon Webb, an associate dean.

Were the No. 1 provider of practicing physicians in Missouri, so if somebody was going to increase, it should probably be Columbia, he said.

The expansion of the medical school includes a new $42.5 million classroom and laboratory building on the Columbia campus. A clinical campus opened last year in Springfield where some third- and fourth-year students train, aided by a partnership with CoxHealth and Mercy hospitals. About 44 percent of the medical schools students stay in Missouri after graduation, Webb said.

The growth of the medical school contrasts with undergraduate enrollment in Columbia, which dropped by about 14 percent this fall. The incoming class of about 4,000 freshmen is the smallest in nearly 20 years.

Reports of racism and a lack of diversity at Mizzou contributed to the drop in undergraduate enrollment and have also caused troubles for the medical school.

The medical schools credentials are at risk if it doesnt train more minority doctors, according to a 2016 report from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the accrediting organization for U.S. medical schools. The committee previously cited the school for its lack of diversity in 2001 and 2008.

The committees most recent recommendations give the school until 2018 to increase the number of black, Hispanic and Native American medical students, among other requirements.

Last year, less than 4 percent of Mizzous medical students belonged to one of the three underrepresented minority groups, according to national data. In the incoming class, 9 percent of students identify as black, Hispanic or Native American, school officials said.

The increased diversity of the incoming class tops St. Louis University, where 7 percent of medical students are in the three minority groups. The accrediting body placed SLUs medical school on a two-year probation in February in part for its problems recruiting and retaining low-income and first-generation students.

Washington Universitys rate of underrepresented minority medical students is 9 percent. University of Missouri-Kansas City has the states most diverse medical student body, with 12 percent.

Ebony Page of St. Louis joined Mizzous class of 2021 because of the medical schools growth and the opportunities to work in underserved communities after graduation, she said.

For me, growing up in the inner city and knowing the health disparities, a lot of it has to do with access to care, said Page, 27. To see the shortage firsthand made it important to go to an institution where it was important to them.

Shake off your afternoon slump with the offbeat or overlooked news of the day.

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Mizzou medical school will produce more doctors to address shortage - STLtoday.com

Med School Curriculum Kicks Off With a Patient’s Story – Northwestern University NewsCenter

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David Rush was interviewed by Josh Hauser, MD.

Hip-hop artist and motivational speaker David Rush kicked off the first day of medical school for Feinbergs Class of 2021, discussing his experience with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, a life-threatening kidney condition that eventually forced him onto dialysis.

Rush was interviewed onstage by Josh Hauser, MD, associate professor of Medicine in the Division of Hospital Medicineand of Medical Education, as part of Feinbergs first-week curriculum, called Introduction to the Profession.

According to Rush, the first signs of trouble appeared when he was in 10th grade, during a school-mandated physical for football. High protein levels indicated poor kidney function and he was prescribed medication, which he took throughout high school. But when Rush moved to Georgia to attend the Art Institute of Atlanta, he left his self-care at home in New Jersey.

I forgot about the medical side living away from your parents and your doctors, youre not really thinking about what your blood pressure is or what your creatinine levels are, Rush said. Youre thinking, How much is Wendys again?

It wasnt until Rush underwent a physical at the urging of a friend that he discovered just how poorly his kidneys were functioning. His doctors told him he needed to start dialysis or he could die within a year. Still, Rush delayed starting the treatment. After 10 months had elapsed without treatment, Rush was discovered passed out in his sisters apartment.

He woke up in the emergency room, connected to a dialysis machine.

It was scary, I didnt want to be there, Rush said. But thats how I started dialysis.

These days, Rush spends three hours a day hooked up to a dialysis machine. While it can make him feel like hes pressed for time, he said, its also given him insight into how much patients sacrifice to receive medical care.

Patients time is taken the time they spend at hospitals, the time they spend in doctors offices and the time they spend on treatment, he said. So when youre seeing patients, you have to think about how theyre spending their time. When they finally see you it may be the seventh hour theyve been spending on this. They might come in a little edgy, but were not mad at you, but we need you to understand us.

First-year medical student Balaji Veluswamy said he appreciated hearing about Rushs experience. I havent heard that perspective before: the point of view of a patient who had time taken away from them. The patient is who you learn from the most. I find that fascinating.

Introduction to the Profession week familiarizes students with the roles of medical student and physician, connecting them to the competencies that constitute the core of the Feinberg curriculum. These competencies include ethics, teamwork, communication, patient-centered care, quality improvement, and personal awareness and self-care.

The first week also serves as an opportunity for medical students to learn about the informal curriculum the attitudes and values conveyed by Feinberg education practices and culture.

I like to think of it as the things that happen before and after class, on your way to class, and when youre talking to friends and colleagues, Hauser said. When I look back on my time as a medical student, those things are every bit as important as the more explicit goals.

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Med School Curriculum Kicks Off With a Patient's Story - Northwestern University NewsCenter

Media Advisory: White coat ceremony for UB’s largest-ever medical school class marks institutional milestone – UB News Center

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BUFFALO, N.Y. They volunteer at food pantries and suicide hotlines, work with the homeless and refugees, and assist at hospice and Meals on Wheels. Theyve done research on cancer, diabetes and geriatrics, and worked on medical missions all over the globe.

They are the 180 students of the Class of 2021 at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo. Today, Aug. 11, at 3 p.m., they will receive their white coats at a ceremony in the Mainstage theater in the Center for the Arts on the UB North Campus.

Best time for photos: Students will begin to be coated at approximately 3:30 p.m. For press arrangements, contact Ellen Goldbaum in the UB Office of University Communications at 716-645-4605 or 716-771-9255 and on-site.

For each student who will be coated, the ceremony is a personal milestone, said Michael E. Cain, MD, vice president for health sciences and dean of the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

But this years white coat ceremony is also an institutional milestone, Cain added. Today, we officially welcome to UB its largest-ever medical school class, 180 students, up from 144.

That expansion, which he called a necessity to help fill the physician shortage in the region and in the nation, was only made possible by the construction of the new downtown home of the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. Students will begin classes in the new building in January after spending their first semester on the South Campus.

Of the 180 students, 152 are from New York State, 78 are from Western New York and 40 earned their undergraduate degrees from UB.

At the ceremony, all 180 medical students will take the Oath of Medicine. During the "calling of the class," students will be called to the stage individually to be presented with their coat while their undergraduate institution and hometown is identified by Charles M. Severin, MD, PhD, UB associate dean for medical education and admissions.

The keynote address will be given by Robert H. Ablove, MD, clinical associate professor in the Department of Orthopaedics. The Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine award will be presented to Lynn Steinbrenner, MD, clinical assistant professor in the Department of Medicine and chief of the Oncology Section at the Veterans Administration WNY Healthcare System.

The white coat ceremony is a symbolic rite of passage shared by medical students across the U.S. to establish a psychological contract for professionalism and empathy in the practice of medicine.

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Media Advisory: White coat ceremony for UB's largest-ever medical school class marks institutional milestone - UB News Center

Watch: Dude Who Pretended to be Black to Get Into Medical School Wants Trump to Abolish Affirmative Action – Townhall

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Two years ago, the brother of actress Mindy Kaling published a confessional book describing how he posed as an African-American in order to gain admission into medical schools whose rigorous academic standards made his acceptance as an Indian-American virtually impossible. With affirmative action back in the news recently thanks to a (misreported) New York Times story about the Trump Justice Department potentially investigating claims of discrimination against whites (in truth, the possible inquiry was about alleged unfair treatment of Asian students), Vijay Chokal-Ingam appeared on CNN to discuss his experience. After summarizing how he overcame a subpar GPA by presenting himself as black, "JoJo" ripped affirmative action as codified racism and said he hopes President Trump will put an end to the practice, which he provocatively compared to Lincoln's abolition of slavery:

Trump has actually supported affirmative action policies, but Chokal-Ingam reasons that the president's conservative judicial picks and DOJ will undermine and eventually kill off what he calls legalized racial discrimination. Reacting to the news that for the first time ever, a slim majority of Harvard's incoming freshman class identifies as non-white, Chokal-Ingam expressed skepticism over the statistic. Borrowing Trump's famous (and deserved) derisive nickname for Elizabeth Warren, he cited the "Pocahontas factor," speculating that some significant number of students likely laid claim to dubious racial statuses in order to increase their chances of getting into the prestigious university.

On the question of race-based affirmative action vis-a-vis college admissions or corporate hiring, I have long abhorred the current regime -- which was once much more defensible -- as outmoded and unjust. Why should a wealthy Latino student from Beverly Hills or an affluent black student from Greenwich receive special advantages over a dirt poor white kid from Appalachia, whose family has been ravaged by the opioid epidemic? And why is it okay to make things substantially harder for some people of color (Asians) than others? Reaching these decisions based on skin color is antithetical to Martin Luther King's dream of a colorblind society. Race-based affirmative action should be stamped out; socio-economic affirmative action should replace it. It's simply undeniable that advantaged students from well-to-do communities have many more resources available to them than their underserved peers, creating a systemically uneven playing field. Offering a leg up to applicants who hail from from substantially less privileged families or communities is fair. I'd add that diversity of experience and thought are more valuable and enriching than "diversity" as defined purely by skin color. Plus, it's likely that a ripple effect of socio-economic affirmative action would also encourage some racial diversification, so long as certain communities remain disproportionately disadvantaged.

I'll leave you with this statistic, via Gallup last summer. While many in the media freaked out over the Times' misleading report, most Americans would be quite pleased to see racial presences and factors banished from the college admissions process -- including a majority of blacks and a super-majority of Hispanics:

In total, fully 70 percent of Americans believe race should not be a factor in admissions decisions, favoring a "merit only" rubric. As ever, the elite media and their liberal social circles are extraordinarily out of touch with much of America.

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Watch: Dude Who Pretended to be Black to Get Into Medical School Wants Trump to Abolish Affirmative Action - Townhall

Shelley Berkley: UNR’s Med School Should Close Its Doors – KNPR

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Former Nevada Congresswoman Shelley Berkley says Nevada can't afford two publicmedical schools. And with UNLV's new school starting this year, UNR's school should be shut down.

"We spend $60 milliona biennium to keep UNR's medical school going," Berkley told Nevada Public Radio. She is the CEO and senior provost at Touro University/Western Division, an osteopathic medical school in Henderson. "I dont think this state will want to sustain two medical schools.

Berkley joined Barbara Atkinson, dean of UNLV's new medical school, and Renee Coffman, co-founder and president of Roseman University of Health Sciences, to talk about the health care needs in Southern Nevada.

All three schools expect to churn out more doctors but that won't necessarily mean Nevada will get those doctors. Often graduating physicians stay in the cities where they do their residencies, which comes after medical school.

The number of residencies at different hospitals in southern Nevada is still relatively small, so many of the medical school students here will move to other states after graduation.

"Without any local residencies for these medical school graduates to go to basically what we would be doing is just exporting our graduates to other states to do their residencies," Heidi Kyser, staff writer for Desert Companion said.

Kyser interviewed the three women for an article in the August issue of the magazine. She said part of the problem is that residency programs are expensive. They are often funded by federal grants.

"The process for getting that funding is really complicated," Kyser explained, "And most of Nevada's hospitals have already hit the limit of that funding and the number of physicians they can get."

In Las Vegas, University Medical Center, Sunrise Hospital, and the VA hospital have had the bulk of the residency programs but more private hospitals are opening residencies.

As for the idea of closing the medical school at UNR, Kyser talked to Thomas Schwenk, the dean of that medical school, he told her he believes all the citizens of the state of Nevada deserve access to all the benefits that public medical school brings to a community not just those in the southern part of the state.

According to the three women interviewed, one of the biggest benefits would be employment and not just for new doctors trained at their facilities.

"We focus on health professions, like Shelley does at Touro, they have jobs when they get out," said Renee Coffman with Roseman University of Health Services, "So, as a prospective student that's a tremendous return on investment for your educational dollars."

Berkley added that for the 10 to 20 years health care will be where all the jobs are.

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Shelley Berkley: UNR's Med School Should Close Its Doors - KNPR

Jennifer Lawrence Vogue cover with Statue of Liberty blasted as ‘attack’ by Breitbart editor – EW.com

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A prominent voice at the right-wing news and opinion site Breitbart News is railing against Vogues new cover featuring Jennifer Lawrence posing in front of the Statue of Liberty, arguing that the imagery represents an attack on conservatives.

John Carney, who runs Breitbartsfinance and economics coverage, tweeted a copy of the magazines September cover on Thursday and wrote,Were going to have to create a full #MAGA shadow cultural industry because the Opposition Media cant even do fashion without attacking us.

Photographed by Annie Leibovitz, the image depicts Lawrence in a flowing red dress with the Statue of Liberty in the background. The cover line reads American Beauty and teases Lawrences thoughts onlove, liberty, and the freedom to be herself.

Although the cover does not include any overt political commentary, Carney said in a follow-up tweet (since deleted) that its clearly an allusion to our current immigration debate, taking the #poemlaw side.

His hashtag was a reference to last weeks heated debate between White House senior adviser Stephen Miller and CNNs Jim Acosta about immigration and the symbolism of the Statue of Liberty. During the exchange, Miller discounted the statues poem (The New Colossus, by Emma Lazarus), saying itwas added later; Acosta retorted, That sounds like someNational Parks revisionism.

Zara Rahim, Vogues director of communications, responded to Carneys accusations by noting, we shot this in June buddy.

Carneys tweets drew further criticism and ridicule, particularly from the left. Matthew McDermott, a New York-based pollster, tweeted, Just a thought, but maybe if youre triggered by the Statue of Liberty the United States of America is not the right place for you.

Carney was unswayed by his detractors. The reaction by leftists to my criticism of Vogues cover is all the proof you need about its political content, he tweeted.

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Jennifer Lawrence Vogue cover with Statue of Liberty blasted as 'attack' by Breitbart editor - EW.com

Republican gov candidates stand in lockstep behind ‘religious liberty’ bill – Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog)

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Gov. Nathan Deal with Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and House Speaker David Ralston. BOB ANDRES /BANDRES@AJC.COM

Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and his three Republican rivals signed a pledge that they would enact a religious liberty measure if theyre elected, taking a united stance on one of the most contentious debates in Georgia.

Secretary of State Brian Kemp and state Sens. Hunter Hill and Michael Williams had already signaled their support for the pledge. But Cagles decision to sign it was a surprise given his changing stances on the measure and the effort by some allies to spare him from making the decision.

It means that the leading GOP contenders to succeed Gov. Nathan Deal are all unequivocally opposed to his decision to veto the religious liberty measure in 2016 and that all will push to advance the legislation if theyre elected.

Read the entire story on MyAJC: All 4 Republican gov candidates sign religious liberty pledge

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Republican gov candidates stand in lockstep behind 'religious liberty' bill - Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog)

Cagle, other GOP hopefuls pledge to sign ‘religious liberty’ measure – MyAJC

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Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and his three Republican rivals signed a pledge that they would enact a religious liberty measure if theyre elected, taking a united stance on one of the most contentious debates in Georgia.

Secretary of State Brian Kemp and state Sens. Hunter Hill and Michael Williams had already signaled their support for the pledge. But Cagles decision to sign it was a surprise given his changing stances on the measure.

It means that the leading GOP contenders to succeed Gov. Nathan Deal are all unequivocally opposed to his decision to veto the religious liberty measure in 2016 and that all will push to advance the legislation if theyre elected.

The measure has riven Georgia lawmakers, and energized activists from both parties, for more than four years. Supporters say it would protect people of faith from government intrusion, as well as strengthen legal protections for opponents of gay marriage. Opponents warn it would amount to legalized discrimination, and they point to big-name companies who threatened boycotts if it becomes law.

Cagle enthusiastically supported it last year, warning that a silent majority opposed Deals veto. But he took a different tack earlier this year as he prepared to run for higher office. He said it should be left to Congress, and not state legislators, and in his role as the top official in the state Senate he did not make it a priority during this years legislative session.

Asked to elaborate on his stance, the lieutenant governor said in a statement that he will not stand for discrimination against people of faith, or anyone of that matter. Prodded on his policy shift, Cagle campaign manager Scott Binkley said he has consistently supported protections for religious freedom.

He believes we need a uniform national standard from the federal government and that may still come from Congress or from an upcoming Supreme Court decision, Binkley said. But in the meantime, Georgia can take action on the state level.

The move seemed aimed at depriving Cagles three GOP adversaries or any others considering joining the race an opening to pummel him over an issue thats wildly popular with the partys conservative base.

The states GOP primary electorate tends to skew further to the right than the broader Republican vote, and activists routinely pass resolutions encouraging lawmakers to pass the measure.

Its also a sign that Cagle is willing to alienate Deal and the states leading business boosters both who disdain the measure to try to shirk off the image that hes part of the GOP establishment.

Democrats are likely to seize on the lockstep GOP position over religious liberty, particularly as they sharpen their pitch to moderate and independent voters. Several Republicans representing suburban districts have voted against the measures. And both Democrats running for governor state Reps. Stacey Abrams and Stacey Evans staunchly oppose it.

Abrams said Friday that Deals veto of the legislation helped the state avert economic collapse that would have devastated Georgias thriving film industry, and said Republicans were trying to push discrimination under the guise of religion.

The quick-forming decision to sign the pledge was particularly remarkable given the drawn-out effort in other quarters of the party to avoid any firm vow on religious liberty.

After weeks of behind-the-scenes maneuvering, the Georgia GOPs state committee voted Saturday to remove the pledge from a resolution. Opponents of the pledge said it could lead to legal challenges and open a Pandoras box for candidates.

Days later, a conservative group called the Georgia Republican Assembly called the state partys decision unacceptable and resurfaced the original version of the pledge. And within hours, all four GOP candidates signed it.

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Cagle, other GOP hopefuls pledge to sign 'religious liberty' measure - MyAJC