5 things for Monday, July 17, 2017: Health care bill, Russia, Venezuela, Iran – CNN

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1. Health care bill This was supposed to be a do-or-die week for the GOP Senate's health care bill, but instead, it's officially in limbo land. Why? Well, Sen. John McCain had surgery to remove a blood clot, which means he's going to be out for a little while. And since the GOP only has a two-seat majority AND since Rand Paul and Susan Collins both say they won't vote for the bill in its current vote, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell just doesn't have the votes to move this thing forward. So he's postponing a vote until McCain recovers. There also won't be a CBO score coming out today on the bill. 2. Russia investigation The revelations just keep coming out of Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting at Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer who promised dirt on Hillary Clinton. We've now learned there were eight people there. They include a Russian-American lobbyist and two others who are yet to be identified. President Trump's lawyer went on all the Sunday talk shows saying that nothing questionable could have happened at the meeting because the Secret Service, which had started protecting Trump because he was the GOP nominee by then, had allowed the people in. But the Secret Service shot that idea down, noting that Trump Jr. wasn't under its protection, so it wouldn't have vetted the meeting's participants. 3. Venezuela referendum Millions of Venezuelans have voiced their opinion on PresidentNicolas Maduro's plan to rewrite the country's constitution -- but their opinions won't count. More than seven million people voted in a non-binding referendum organized by the country's main opposition parties. The overwhelming majority (about 98%) of them voted against the plan. But Maduro's government called the referendum illegal and is still holding a vote on July 30 to pick a special assembly to rewrite the country's constitution. It's just the latest chapter in the social unrest that's rocked this country for months. 4. Iran An American citizen has been given a lengthy prison sentence in Iran.Xiyue Wang, a grad student at Princeton, was sentenced to 10 years for spying. He was arrested there last summer while doing research, the school said. It's not clear when his trial was held. Wang's sentence comes just as the Trump administration is expected to re-certify that Iran is living up to the demands of the nuclear deal it made under the Obama administration. Trump had promised to rip up the deal during the 2016 campaign. 5. Arizona flooding deaths An absolutely heartbreaking tragedy occurred over the weekend in Arizona. Several members of a family were swept away and killed during a sudden flash flood. Nine people died and one is missing after members of the family, enjoying a day at a swimming hole north of Phoenix, got caught up in flash flooding caused by heavy rains. Most of the victims were just children, ranging in ages from 2 to 13. BREAKFAST BROWSE

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5 things for Monday, July 17, 2017: Health care bill, Russia, Venezuela, Iran - CNN

Study: US healthcare system is worst among 11 developed nations – The Hill

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The U.S. healthcare system isranked the worst among 11 developed nations, according to a new study.

The Commonwealth Fund measuredelementsincluding care, access, administrative efficiency, equity and healthcare outcomes in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdomand the United States.

Nearly half of low-income Americans, 44 percent, were foundto have trouble getting access to healthcare coverage, while just 26 percent of high-income Americans were found to have issues getting coverage.

The study comes as the GOP struggles to repeal and replace ObamaCare.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnellMitch McConnellGroups launch 'people's filibuster' against GOP health bill Note threatened Heller's life over healthcare vote Trump to press GOP senators on healthcare at White House MORE (R-Ky.) announced this past weekend that the Senate would delay its consideration of the healthcare bill while Sen. John McCainJohn McCainGroups launch 'people's filibuster' against GOP health bill Note threatened Heller's life over healthcare vote Trump to press GOP senators on healthcare at White House MORE (R-Ariz.) recovers from surgery.

Two GOP senators Rand PaulRand PaulTrump to press GOP senators on healthcare at White House GOP senator: McConnell Medicaid comments a 'breach of trust' Poll: Americans see healthcare as most important issue MORE (R-Ky.) and Susan CollinsSusan CollinsTrump to press GOP senators on healthcare at White House GOP senator: McConnell Medicaid comments a 'breach of trust' Poll: Americans see healthcare as most important issue MORE (R-Maine) have already spoken out against the revised Senate GOPlegislation.

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Study: US healthcare system is worst among 11 developed nations - The Hill

Scientists one step close to cure for dementia after genetic medical breakthrough – Mirror.co.uk

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Scientists are closer to finding a cure for dementia after discovering two genes which raise your risk.

Researchers behind the exciting discovery hope it will lead to new treatments for the condition which currently affects more than half a million people in the UK, according to the Alzheimers Society, and is the leading cause of dementia.

Dr Doug Brown, director of research and development at the Society which jointly funded the work, said: Over 60% of people with dementia have Alzheimers disease, yet despite its prevalence we still dont fully understand the complex causes of the disease.

The discovery of two new risk genes for Alzheimers is an exciting advance that could help to deepen our understanding of what happens in the brains of people with the disease.

These genes reinforce a critical role for special cells in the brain - called microglia - that are responsible for clearing up debris including damaged cells and proteins.

Dr Brown said such findings helped to show researchers where to focus their efforts in the search for new, effective treatments.

The researchers from Cardiff University received funding from the Medical Research Council (MRC), Welsh Government and Alzheimers Research UK.

They identified the two genes, which were not previously considered candidates for Alzheimers risk, during a study which compared the DNA of tens of thousands of individuals with Alzheimers with aged-matched people who are free from the disease, building on their previous work of identifying 24 susceptibility genes.

Dr Rebecca Sims, from Cardiff Universitys School of Medicine, said the genes, which suggested immune cells in the brain played a causal role in the disease, were very good targets for potential drug treatment.

She added: In addition to identifying two genes that affect the risk of developing Alzheimers disease, our new research reveals a number of other genes and proteins that form a network likely to be important in its development.

The University was selected as one of six centres for the 250m UK Dementia Research Institute in April and the team there will now build on this discovery to investigate in detail the role of microglia in dementia, which Dr Brown said will ultimately accelerate our progress towards finding a cure.

The centre, which will employ up to 60 researchers in the first five years of the initiative and with the potential to be awarded further funding is set to become the biggest investment Wales has ever received for scientific study into dementia.

Dr Rosa Sancho, who is head of research at Alzheimers Research UK, likened the revelations to finding puzzle pieces that biologists can start to fit together to build a complete picture of a disease.

She said: There are currently no treatments to slow the progression of Alzheimers and increased investment in research is vital so that we can capitalise on new findings and drive progress for people with the condition and their families.

The research Rare coding variants in PLCG2, ABI3 and TREM2 implicate microglial-mediated innate immunity in Alzheimers disease is published in Nature Genetics.

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Scientists one step close to cure for dementia after genetic medical breakthrough - Mirror.co.uk

Snip, snip, curecorrecting defects in the genetic blueprint – Phys.Org

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July 17, 2017 Credit: The District

Gene editing using 'molecular scissors' that snip out and replace faulty DNA could provide an almost unimaginable future for some patients: a complete cure. Cambridge researchers are working towards making the technology cheap and safe, as well as examining the ethical and legal issues surrounding one of the most exciting medical advances of recent times.

Dr James Thaventhiran points to a diagram of a 14-year-old boy's family tree. Some of the symbols are shaded black.

"These family members have a very severe form of immunodeficiency. The children get infections and chest problems, the adults have bowel problems, and the father died from cancer during the study. The boy himself had a donor bone marrow transplant when he was a teenager, but he remains very unwell, with limited treatment options."

To understand the cause of the immunodeficiency, Thaventhiran, a clinical immunologist in Cambridge's Department of Medicine, has been working with colleagues at the Great Northern Children's Hospital in Newcastle, where the family is being treated.

Theirs is a rare disease, which means the condition affects fewer than 1 in 2,000 people. Most rare diseases are caused by a defect in the genetic blueprint that carries the instruction manual for life. Sometimes the mistake can be as small as a single letter in the three billion letters that make up the genome, yet it can have devastating consequences.

When Thaventhiran and colleagues carried out whole genome sequencing on the boy's DNA, they discovered a defect that could explain the immunodeficiency. "We believe that just one wrong letter causes a malfunction in an immune cell called a dendritic cell, which is needed to detect infections and cancerous cells."

Now, hope for an eventual cure for family members affected by the faulty gene is taking shape in the form of 'molecular scissors' called CRISPR-Cas9. Discovered in bacteria, the CRISPR-Cas9 system is part of the armoury that bacteria use to protect themselves from the harmful effects of viruses. Today it is being co-opted by scientists worldwide as a way of removing and replacing gene defects.

One part of the CRISPR-Cas9 system acts like a GPS locator that can be programmed to go to an exact place in the genome. The other part the 'molecular scissors' cuts both strands of the faulty DNA and replaces it with DNA that doesn't have the defect.

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"It's like rewriting DNA with precision," explains Dr Alasdair Russell. "Unlike other forms of gene therapy, in which cells are given a new working gene but without being able to direct where it ends up in the genome, this technology changes just the faulty gene. It's precise and it's 'scarless' in that no evidence of the therapy is left within the repaired genome."

Russell heads up a specialised team in the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute to provide a centralised hub for state-of-the-art genome-editing technologies.

"By concentrating skills in one area, it means scientists in different labs don't reinvent the wheel each time and can keep pace with the field," he explains. "At full capacity, we aim to be capable of running up to 30 gene-editing projects in parallel.

"What I find amazing about the technology is that it's tearing down traditional barriers between different disciplines, allowing us to collaborate with clinicians, synthetic biologists, physicists, engineers, computational analysts and industry, on a global scale. The technology gives you the opportunity to innovate, rather than imitate. I tell my wife I sometimes feel like Q in James Bond and she laughs."

Russell's team is using the technology both to understand disease and to treat it. Together with Cambridge spin-out DefiniGEN, they are rewriting the DNA of a very special type of cell called an induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC). These are cells that are taken from the skin of a patient and 'reprogrammed' to act like one of the body's stem cells, which have the capacity to develop into almost any other cell of the body.

In this case, they are turning the boy's skin cells into iPSCs, using CRISPR-Cas9 to correct the defect, and then allowing these corrected cells to develop into the cell type that is affected by the disease the dendritic cell. "It's a patient-specific model of the cure in a Petri dish," says Russell.

The boy's family members are among a handful of patients worldwide who are reported to have the same condition and among around 3,500 in the UK who have similar types of immunodeficiency caused by other gene defects. With such a rare group of diseases, explains Thaventhiran, it's important to locate other patients to increase the chance of understanding what happens and how to treat it.

He and Professor Ken Smith in the Department of Medicine lead a programme to find, sequence, research and provide diagnostic services to these patients. So far, 2,000 patients (around 60% of the total affected in the UK) have been recruited, making it the largest worldwide cohort of patients with primary immunodeficiency.

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"We've now made 12 iPSC lines from different patients with immunodeficiency," adds Thaventhiran, who has started a programme for gene editing all of the lines. "This means that for the first time we'll be able to investigate whether correcting the mutation corrects the defect it'll open up new avenues of research into the mechanisms underlying these diseases."

But it's the possibility of using the gene-edited cells to cure patients that excites Thaventhiran and Russell. They explain that one option might be to give a patient repeated treatments of their own gene-edited iPSCs. Another would be to take the patient's blood stem cells, edit them and then return them to the patient.

The researchers are quick to point out that although the technologies are converging on this possibility of truly personalised medicine, there are still many issues to consider in the fields of ethics, regulation and law.

Dr Kathy Liddell, who leads the Cambridge Centre for Law, Medicine and Life Sciences, agrees: "It's easy to see the appeal of using gene editing to help patients with serious illnesses. However, new techniques could be used for many purposes, some of which are contentious. For example, the same technique that edits a disease in a child could be applied to an embryo to stop a disease being inherited, or to 'design' babies. This raises concerns about eugenics.

"The challenge is to find systems of governance that facilitate important purposes, while limiting, and preferably preventing, unethical purposes. It's actually very difficult. Rules not only have to be designed, but implemented and enforced. Meanwhile, powerful social drivers push hard against ethical boundaries, and scientific information and ideas travel easily often too easily across national borders to unregulated states."

A further challenge is the business case for carrying out these types of treatments, which are potentially curative but are costly and benefit few patients. One reason why rare diseases are also known as orphan diseases is because in the past they have rarely been adopted by drug companies.

Liddell adds: "CRISPR-Cas9 patent wars are just warming up, demonstrating some of the economic issues at stake. Two US institutions are vigorously prosecuting their own patents, and trying to overturn the others. There will also be cross-licensing battles to follow."

"The obvious place to start is by correcting diseases caused by just one gene; however, the technology allows us to scale up to several genes, making it something that could benefit many, many different diseases," adds Russell. "At the moment, the field as a whole is focused on ensuring the technology is safe before it moves into the clinic. But the advantage of it being cheap, precise and scalable should make CRISPR attractive to industry."

In ten years or so, speculates Russell, we might see bedside 'CRISPR on a chip' devices that screen for mutations and 'edit on the fly'. "I'm really excited by the frontierness of it all," says Russell. "We feel that we're right on the precipice of a new personalised medical future."

Explore further: Testing the efficacy of new gene therapies more efficiently

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Snip, snip, curecorrecting defects in the genetic blueprint - Phys.Org

In South Asian Social Castes, a Living Lab for Genetic Disease – New York Times

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Marriage within a limited group, or endogamy, has created millions of people who are susceptible to recessive diseases, which develop only when a child inherits a disease-carrying gene from both parents, said Kumarasamy Thangaraj, an author of the study and a senior scientist at the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad.

Along with David Reich, a geneticist at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Thangaraj led an effort to analyze data from more than 2,800 individuals belonging to more than 260 distinct South Asian groups organized around caste, geography, family ties, language, religion and other factors. Of these, 81 groups had losses of genetic variation more extreme than those found in Ashkenazi Jews and Finns, groups with high rates of recessive disease because of genetic isolation.

In previous studies, Dr. Reich, Dr. Thangaraj and colleagues found that social groups in South Asia mixed between around 4,000 and 2,000 years ago. After that, the solidification of Indias caste system resulted in a shift toward endogamy. You can see writ in the genome the effects of this intense endogamy, Dr. Reich said.

Today, South Asia consists of around 5,000 anthropologically well-defined groups. Over 15 years, the researchers collected DNA from people belonging to a broad swath of these groups, resulting in a rich set of genetic data that pushes beyond the fields focus on individuals of European ancestry, Dr. Reich said.

The scientists then looked at something called the founder effect. When a population originates from a small group of founders that bred only with each other, certain genetic variants can become amplified, more so than in a larger starting population with more gene exchange.

Most people carry some disease-associated mutations that have no effect because theyre present only in one parents genes. In an endogamous group, however, its more likely that two individuals carry the same mutation from a common founder. If they reproduce, their offspring have a higher risk of inheriting that disease.

Rare conditions are therefore disproportionately common in populations with strong founder events. Among Finns, for instance, congenital nephrotic syndrome, a relatively rare kidney disease, is uniquely prevalent. Similarly, Ashkenazi Jews are often screened for diseases like cystic fibrosiss or Gaucher disease.

To measure the strength of different founder events, Dr. Reich and Dr. Thangarajs team looked for long stretches of DNA shared between individuals from the same subgroups. More shared sequences indicated a stronger founder event.

The strongest of these founder groups most likely started with major genetic contributions from just 100 people or fewer. Today, 14 groups with these genetic profiles in South Asia have estimated census sizes of over one million. These include the Gujjar, from Jammu and Kashmir; the Baniyas, from Uttar Pradesh; and the Pattapu Kapu, from Andhra Pradesh. All of these groups have estimated founder effects about 10 times as strong as those of Finns and Ashkenazi Jews, which suggests the South Asian groups have just as many, or more, recessive diseases, said Dr. Reich, who is of Ashkenazi Jewish heritage himself.

The next step, the authors say, is to map out and study the genetic origins of diseases prevalent in different groups. As proof of concept, they screened 12 patients from southern India for a gene mutation known to cause a joint disease called progressive pseudorheumatoid dysplasia. Of the six people that had the mutation, five instances could be traced to founder effects, and one case could be traced to a marriage between close relatives.

This distinction is important because its well documented that marriage between close relatives can increase the possibilities of recessive disease. But many South Asians are not yet aware that they should also look out for genetic risks among broader populations, said Svati Shah, an associate professor of medicine at Duke University who was not involved in the research.

Theres a tendency to think, This will never happen to me because I will never marry my first cousin, Dr. Shah said. But thats not whats happening here, according to the data.

There are many other suspected examples of disease associations that have yet to be systematically studied in South Asia. Some medical caregivers speculate that people with the surname Reddy may be more likely to develop a form of arthritis affecting the spine, Dr. Thangaraj said. Others think people from the Raju community, in southern India, may have higher incidents of cardiomyopathy, which affects the heart muscle.

If recessive disease mutations are cataloged, they could potentially be used for prenatal or premarital screening programs, which can be immensely powerful, said Priya Moorjani, an author of the paper and a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University.

An example of successful genetic cataloging can be found in Dor Yeshorim, a Brooklyn-based organization that screens Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews for common disease-causing mutations to inform marriage matchmaking. The program is credited with virtually eliminating new cases of Tay-Sachs disease, a neurodegenerative disorder, from these communities.

Beyond rare diseases, groups with founder effects hold lessons about common diseases and basic biology, said Alan Shuldiner, a professor of medicine at the University of Maryland and a genetics researcher for Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, who was not involved in the study. He and his collaborators have gained new insights into heart disease and Type 2 diabetes, for instance, from studying Old Order Amish.

Scientists often try to manipulate, or knock out, genes in mice or flies to better understand human disease. But populations like those found across South Asia provide a powerful opportunity to study how gene changes manifest naturally in humans. These are genetic experiments of nature that have occurred across the planet, Dr. Shuldiner said.

The sheer number of people and different groups in South Asia means theres a huge, untapped opportunity to do biological and genetic research there, Dr. Reich said.

He suggested that knockouts of almost every single gene in the genome probably exist in India.

I would argue that its unequal to anywhere else, he said.

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Study of How We Look at Faces May Offer Insight Into Autism – The … – New York Times

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The study provides detailed data on how children look at faces, including which features they focus on and when they move their eyes from one place to another. The information, Dr. Nelson said, could help scientists work out the circuitry that controls these eye movements, and then we ought to be able to work out which genes are being expressed in that circuit.

That would be a big advance in autism, he said.

In the study, scientists tracked the eye movements of 338 toddlers while they watched videos of motherly women as well as of children playing in a day care center. The toddlers, 18 months to 24 months old, included 250 children who were developing normally (41 pairs of identical twins, 42 pairs of nonidentical twins and 84 children unrelated to each other). There were also 88 children with autism.

Scientists study identical twins because 100 percent of their genes are the same, so if they share characteristics that are more individualized in other children, those traits are considered at least partly inherited. Nonidentical or fraternal twins share 50 percent of their DNA, so stark differences between identical and nonidentical twins suggest that those traits are strongly influenced by genes.

In the study, how much one identical twin looked at the eyes of people on screen matched the other identical twin 91 percent of the time. For fraternal twins, the match dropped to 35 percent. For unrelated children, when measured as pairs of the same age and sex, the match was 16 percent. And when the unrelated children were paired at random, their time spent looking at eyes did not match at all, said Warren Jones, the studys senior author and an assistant professor of pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine.

How much the children looked at mouths followed a similar pattern. And although each toddler watched the videos without other children present, identical twins often moved their eyes at nearly the same moment as close as 16.7 milliseconds apart and in the same direction.

Its a really remarkable set of findings in that it really shows that genetic factors are driving differences in the way that toddlers are looking at faces, said Brad Duchaine, a professor of psychological and brain sciences at Dartmouth, who was not involved in the study. This suggests that genetic differences drive this important aspect of the way that we interact with others.

Dr. Jones, whose co-authors include Dr. John Constantino, director of child and adolescent psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and Ami Klin, director of the Marcus Autism Center at Childrens Healthcare of Atlanta, said: When we started to get the results back, I thought that I had the wrong data because the match between identical twins was so strong. I thought I might have mistakenly matched data from the same twin.

With the children with autism, the researchers found that, compared with typically developing toddlers, they spent significantly less time looking at faces and more time looking at objects. That difference was especially pronounced with the day care videos, scenes presenting many more things to look at than the close-up videos of women talking to the camera, Dr. Jones said. When watching the day care videos, toddlers with autism looked at faces half as often as typical children did, and at objects almost twice as much.

The difference was so consistent that researchers could identify most children with autism just by looking at the eye-tracking results, Dr. Jones said. That result reinforced previous research in which Dr. Jones, Dr. Klin and colleagues showed that babies from 2 months to 6 months old who looked less at peoples eyes in videos were more likely to be given an autisim diagnosis at age 3 and that eye-tracking could provide an early behavioral indicator of autism.

Experts said that because the study shows that a social behavior that is significantly different in children with autism is strongly influenced by genetics, it might help scientists home in on specific genes to better understand autism or at least a key autism characteristic.

Even when identical twins watched completely different videos, their results matched. How much Twin 1 looked at the eyes in a video that Twin 2 didnt get to see predicted how much Twin 2 would look at the eyes in a different video, Dr. Jones said.

That suggests, he said, that the genetically driven behavior involves seeking out social information found in the eyes rather than merely responding to facial features, a finding that could help pinpoint what is disrupted in children with autism as they develop and learn about the world.

Dr. Nelson said one question for further research was how specific are these phenomena to autism, or might you see them in other neurological disorders?

Another question is how does this actually affect longer-term development of the brain, said Matthew Peterson, a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, whose studies have found that everybody has a preferred location or position on the face where they will always look when they identify someone higher or lower on the face; toward the eyes, nose or mouth.

In the new study, researchers also tested the typically developing children again at age 3 and found that identical twins still strongly matched in how much they looked at eyes and mouths. That suggests that compared with genes, that experience theyre having in that year thats not having much of an influence, said Dr. Duchaine, whose work has found genetic roots to face recognition.

Still, Dr. Nelson cautioned against overemphasizing the direct role of genes. Twins have identical DNA, but they dont have identical experiences and they dont have the same brains, he said.

Most likely, through evolution, we came to have genes that regulate the formation of the neural circuits that underpin how we visually inspect the social world, he said.

That, he said, helps ensure that we are social beings.

A version of this article appears in print on July 13, 2017, on Page A12 of the New York edition with the headline: Study Sees Autism Clues In How We Look at Faces.

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Study of How We Look at Faces May Offer Insight Into Autism - The ... - New York Times

Newly identified genetic marker may help detect high-risk flu patients – Medical Xpress

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July 17, 2017 First author Kaity Sliger, PhD, and corresponding author Paul Thomas, PhD, member of the Department of Immunology, examine liquid nitrogen samples. Credit: Peter Barta / St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Researchers have discovered an inherited genetic variation that may help identify patients at elevated risk for severe, potentially fatal influenza infections. The scientists have also linked the gene variant to a mechanism that explains the elevated risk and offers clues about the broader anti-viral immune response.

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital led the research, which appears as an advance, online publication today in the scientific journal Nature Medicine.

Researchers screened 393 flu patients ranging from infants to 70 years old. Patients with a particular inherited variation in the gene IFITM3 were more than twice as likely to develop severe, life-threatening flu symptoms as those who carried the protective version of the gene.

Working at the molecular level, the investigators showed how expression of the IFITM3 protein was reduced in killer T cells of patients with the high-risk variant compared to other patients. Researchers also found more killer T cellswhich help patients fight the infectionin the upper airways of flu patients with the protective variant compared to other patients.

"A genetic marker of flu risk could make a life-saving difference, particularly during severe flu outbreaks, by helping prioritize high-risk patients for vaccination, drug therapy and other interventions," said corresponding author Paul Thomas, Ph.D., an associate member of the St. Jude Department of Immunology. "These results raise hopes that this newly identified IFITM3 variant might provide such a marker."

Estimated U.S. flu-related deaths in recent years have ranged from 12,000 to 56,000, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Factors like age, obesity, pregnancy and such chronic health conditions as asthma, chronic lung disease and heart disease are associated with an elevated risk of flu complications and death. However, there are no proven genetic markers of flu risk with an established mechanism of action.

IFITM3 is an anti-viral protein that helps to block flu infection of lung cells and to promote survival of the killer T cells that help clear flu infection in the airways. Previous research from other scientists had reported an association between another IFITM3 variant (rs12252) and flu severity in Han Chinese patients. The underlying mechanism has remained unclear, and the rs12252 variant is rare in individuals of European ancestry.

Thomas and his colleagues began this study by searching for other possible IFITM3 variants that correlated with gene expression, levels of the IFITM3 proteins and were common in flu patients in the U.S. The search led to an IFITM3 variant known as rs34481144.

Researchers screened three different groups of U.S. flu patients and found those with the high-risk version of IFITM3 rs34481144 were likely to become infected with flu more rapidly and to develop more severe symptoms than those with another variant. For example, researchers checked 86 children and adults in Memphis with confirmed flu infections and found two-thirds of patients with the most severe symptoms carried at least one copy of the newly identified high-risk IFITM3 variant. The high-risk variant was found in just 32 percent of patients with milder symptoms.

Researchers also found an association between the newly identified high-risk variant and severe and fatal flu infections in 265 critically ill pediatric flu patients hospitalized in one of 31 intensive care units nationwide. The patients did not have health problems that put them at high risk for severe flu. Of the 17 patients in this group who died from the infection, 14 carried at least one copy of the newly identified high-risk variant. "When we looked at patients of European descent who died, they all carried at least one copy of the high-risk variant," Thomas said.

The predictive value of the newly identified IFITM3 variant is now being studied in flu patients in other countries.

The newly identified variation is found in the region of IFITM3 involved in regulation of gene expression through the binding of proteins and other chemicals that promote or suppress gene activity. Working in the laboratory, researchers showed how binding of proteins like CTCF, which can suppress gene activity, differed between the high-risk and protective variants.

Further study revealed how binding differed between the high-risk and protective variants. Those differences led to lower levels of the IFITM3 protein in ndividuals with two copies of the high-risk gene variant compared to other patients, researchers said. The Memphis flu patients also had fewer of the killer T cells in their upper airways.

"While this research focused on flu infections, the mechanism we identified has implications for regulating many genes involved in anti-viral activity," Thomas said. "CTCF has gained prominence in recent years as a master regulator of genomic organization. Evidence in this study suggests the high-risk variant we identified may be part of a larger network of CTCF binding sites involved in regulation in other genes with anti-viral activity."

Explore further: Genetic variant linked to overactive inflammatory response

More information: E Kaitlynn Allen et al, SNP-mediated disruption of CTCF binding at the IFITM3 promoter is associated with risk of severe influenza in humans, Nature Medicine (2017). DOI: 10.1038/nm.4370

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Newly identified genetic marker may help detect high-risk flu patients - Medical Xpress

FDA Uses Kalydeco and Keytruda as Examples of How It Is Promoting Precision Medicine – Cystic Fibrosis News Today

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is promoting a targeted treatment approach known as precision medicine to help people with diseases stemming from specific, and often rare, genetic features.

Its efforts include expanding the use of approved therapies to other genetic-based conditions, and pushing for the development of more biomarkers of diseases.

Two recent agency approvals exemplify that the approach is working, Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the FDAsCenter for Drug Evaluation and Research, wrote in ablog on theFDA Voicewebsite.

The article dealt with theexpanded approval of Vertexs Kalydeco (ivacaftor) for patients with a range of rare mutations in the CFTR gene that causes cystic fibrosis. The title of the blog isTwo Recent Scientific Advances Underscore an Encouraging Future for Precision Medicine at FDA.

The agencys decision to increase the number of mutations that Kalydeco can treat from 10 to 33 was based on results of non-human studies rather than clinical trials.

Regulators are increasingly using this approach because it can benefit patients with genetic features so rare that clinical trials of new therapies are difficult to carry out.

Mercks Keytruda (pembrolizumab) is another precision medicine example, Woodcock said. The FDA approved it for people with certain cancer-related genetic featuresrather than a specific type of cancer.

These are only two of more than 25 precision-medicine-type treatments the FDA has approved in the past three years, she said. In addition, it has expanded the conditions that many other drugs that are already on the market can treat.

To continue expanding the use of precision medicine, scientists need to keep making biomarker advances, she said.

Biomarkers measure biological features that tell researchers something about a disease such as the presence of bacteria in airways or levels of an inflammatory molecule.

Among other things, biomarkers can help assess the severity of a condition, determine which patients are likely to respond to a treatment, and predict a disease outcome. They can also play a key role in drug development, Woodcock argued. A suitable marker can make it easier and faster for scientists to recruit the right type of patients for a clinical trial.

Biomarkers can also offer scientists a more sensitive measure of a treatments effectiveness. They do this by identifying measures of patient improvement before their symptoms get better.

To develop biomarkers, researchers need a detailed understanding of both a disease and its response to treatment. But identifying a biomarker is not enough. Scientists must confirm that it measures what they think it measures.

To help assure this, the FDA is working with scientists and others in aBiomarker Qualification Program. It allows any drug developer to use a validated biomarker, further advancing the development process.

We believe it is important to make drugs such as Kalydeco and Keytruda available to as many patients as can benefit from them, Woodcock said, adding that the FDA is actively pursuing more advances in targeted therapies.

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FDA Uses Kalydeco and Keytruda as Examples of How It Is Promoting Precision Medicine - Cystic Fibrosis News Today

32 genetic engineering incidents since 2011 revealed in regulator’s … – The Canberra Times

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University of Canberra scientists failed to comply with genetic engineering safety protocols while researching a mosquito-borne virus linked to brain damage.

It is one of dozens of compliance incidents involving genetically modified viruses, bacteria and crops that have occurred across Australia since 2011.

Fairfax Mediacan reveal 32 separate incidents of non-compliance committed by universities, government laboratories and large agricultural companies, including:

The risks associated with all 32 incidents reported have been assessed as "negligible" by the federal Office of the Gene Technology Regulator.

Many were minor incidents caused by administrative oversights.

The incidents have been described in reports published by the regulator as well as documents obtained by Fairfax Media under Freedom of Information laws.

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In 2015 the University of Canberra contravened GMO licence conditions during an experiment with the Murray Valley encephalitis virus, a mosquito-borne virus that can cause brain damage.

Scientists were attempting to create a new vaccine by engineering the virus with two genes from the virus that causes Dengue fever.

"At the time of the inspection the University of Canberra notified inspectors that dealings with GMOs had been undertaken in a facility that had not been authorised by the licence," a government inspection report read.

"The University of Canberra did not obtain signed statements from all persons, prior to their commencing dealings, indicating that they understood and agreed to be bound by licence conditions."

A spokeswoman for the university said the breach had been an "administrative oversight" that had been quickly corrected.

"Due to storage space issues in the licensed lab, some GMO material was stored in another certified lab which was appropriate for the material but not under the licence.

"The GMO material was only stored in this certified lab and no research on it was conducted in that location."

Last year agricultural giant Bayer Crop Science was moving planting equipment from a trial site in country NSW when a small batch of GM cotton seeds were spilled.

A report of the incident showed the seeds could have been spilled over a 29 kilometre patch of road in Moree, including the busy Newell Highway.

The seeds had been modified with genes linked to insect or herbicide resistance, although the regulator concluded it was "unlikely" any plants would have grown.

A spokesman for Bayer said the government had been alerted to the incident straight away and all possible risks had been addressed.

"Bayer worked proactively with the OGTR to ensure the risks, however negligible, were addressed and remedied, including monitoring for any [plants] that might come up subsequently."

The Nuseed agri-tech company was involved in an incident in 2016, in which sheep were mistakenly allowed to graze in a paddock containing GM canola in Colac Otway, Victoria.

"Nuseed self-reported the unintentional grazing of sheep on this site," an inspection report found.

"A small number of sheep were able to access the planting area due to an unplanned drop in water levels in a dam which had previously acted as a natural barrier."

Regulators concluded the incident posed a "negligible" risk to the environment.

Nuseed declined to comment when approached by Fairfax.

In 2016 there was a non-compliance incident at the University of South Australia in which material was taken out of a facility without labelling to indicate it contained GM material.

"Persons conducting dealings with the GMO who are not fully trained in licence conditions are at risk if exposed to the GM organism," a government report concluded.

"There is no evidence, however, to suggest this issue has resulted in any harm to human health and safety at this stage."

Simon Terry is a former investment banker now running New Zealand's Sustainability Council advocacy group.

Mr Terry said the risks of genetically modified material entering the environment were more likely to be economic, rather than linked to health or safety.

"Food markets in wealthier countries are very sensitive to GMO content," he said.

"Markets for premium foods simply reject products that contain any detectable level of GMO contamination and whole countries, such as France, operate this way.

"Food producers are especially at risk from GMO varieties that have not been legally approved in the country the exports are going to.

"It is common for countries to test for GMOs at the border and if a GMO that has not been approved is discovered, the entire shipment is rejected."

Australia is currently undertaking a "technical review" of its federal gene technology regulations, with a view to ensuring they reflect technological and scientific advancements.

A spokeswoman for the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator said none of the 32 incidents of non-compliance reported since 2011 represented a failure of the current regime.

"Australia's regulatory system is considered world leading with a science and risk based approach that is timely and predictable, providing a clear regulatory pathway for the industry to follow," she said.

"The OGTR continues to work closely with our major trading partners to ensure its regulatory practices remain current and relevant and reflects international practice in relation to the regulation of GMOs."

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32 genetic engineering incidents since 2011 revealed in regulator's ... - The Canberra Times

Genetically Modified Rice Stacked With Antioxidants – Asian Scientist Magazine

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AsianScientist (July 17, 2017) - Researchers in China have developed a genetic engineering approach to make purple rice that produces high levels of antioxidants. Their work is published in the journal Molecular Plant.

Rice is a staple food in Asia, making it a good agent for delivering micronutrients that are beneficial to health. However, not all micronutrients are produced in large quantities by rice.

To date, genetic engineering approaches have been used to develop rice enriched in beta-carotene and folate (precursors of vitamins A and B), but not anthocyanins. Anthocyanins are natural antioxidants that have the potential to decrease the risk of certain cancers, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and other chronic disorders.

Although these health-promoting compounds are naturally abundant in some black and red rice varieties, they are absent in polished rice grains because the husk, bran and germ have been removed, leaving only the endospermthe fleshy part at the center of the grain.

In this study, researchers developed a method to deliver many genes at once and used it to make rice endosperm produce high levels of anthocyanins. Previous attempts to engineer anthocyanin production in rice have failed because the underlying biosynthesis pathway is highly complex and it has been difficult to efficiently transfer many genes into plants.

To address this challenge, Professor Liu Yao-Guang and his colleagues at the South China Agricultural University first set out to identify the genes required to engineer anthocyanin production in the rice endosperm. To do so, they analyzed sequences of anthocyanin pathway genes in different rice varieties and pinpointed the defective genes in japonica and indica subspecies that do not produce anthocyanins.

Based on this analysis, they developed a transgene stacking strategy for expressing eight anthocyanin pathway genes specifically in the endosperm of the japonica and indica rice varieties. The resulting purple endosperm rice had high anthocyanin levels and antioxidant activity in the endosperm.

We have developed a highly efficient, easy-to-use transgene stacking system called TransGene Stacking II that enables the assembly of a large number of genes in single vectors for plant transformation, said Liu. This is the first demonstration of engineering such a complex metabolic pathway in plants. We envisage that this vector system will have many potential applications in this era of synthetic biology and metabolic engineering.

In the future, this transgene stacking vector system could be used to develop plant bioreactors for the production of many other important nutrients and medicinal ingredients. The researchers plan to evaluate the safety of purple endosperm rice as biofortified food and they will also try to engineer the biosynthesis of anthocyanins in other crops to produce more purple endosperm cereals such as maize, wheat and barley.

The article can be found at: Zhu et al. (2017) Development of Purple Endosperm Rice by Engineering Anthocyanin Biosynthesis in the Endosperm with a High-Efficiency Transgene Stacking System.

Source: Cell Press; Photo: Zhu Qinlong. Disclaimer: This article does not necessarily reflect the views of AsianScientist or its staff.

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Genetically Modified Rice Stacked With Antioxidants - Asian Scientist Magazine

This Is Why Investors Will Need to Learn a New Acronym: CRISPR – Madison.com

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In this Market Foolery segment, host Chris Hill and Motley Fool Rule Breakers' Aaron Bush talk about where genetic engineering is heading -- which is out of the lab and toward really curing diseases. Yes, it's early days. But the potential for CRISPR could be enormous. But there are some interesting speedbumps involved for biotech investors.

A full transcript follows the video.

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This video was recorded on July 11, 2017.

Chris Hill:Every once in awhile,I like to walk by your desk and ask you, "Whatare you working on right now? What's something that's caught your interest?" And you had brought up this,[laughs] frankly,you brought up a word I had never heard before, and that is CRISPR. I should say, anacronym I'd never seen before. CRISPR stands for --stick with me, folks -- clusteredregularly interspacedshort palindromic repeats. Let's do this again, shall we? CRISPR:clustered regularly interspacedshort palindromicrepeats, which isessentially a very fancy way of referring to biotech engineering.

Theanalogy that our colleague Michael Douglass mentioned to me, and also appearedin the article I read is that,imagine a DNA strand,and you have this microscopic pair of scissors, and it enables you to snip out one little piece of the DNA,and you can do any number of things with that,depending on which DNA we're talking about. Thispotentially has ramifications for food supply, for disease, formedicines, for treatments, all that sort of thing. Tell mewhere this space is right now, andwhat you're watching when it comes to this space. Biotech engineering has been, I would say, maybe not at the forefront of the news,but certainly 15 years ago or so, when we were going to sequence the human genome, whatthat was such a dominant story, I think since then, this is an industry that investors haveat least had on their radarto some degree or another.

Aaron Bush: Right.I think it's still new enough tonot be super relevant for investors. Butevery day or week that passes by, itbecomes slightly morerelevant. I think for the most part, theprogress has been mostly restricted to labs,getting the fundamental technology itself to work,where you can actually change the genes in whatever creature. But,it is starting to move out more into the mainstream,and it's starting to become more relevant andcreating cures for diseases andactually doing things with it. In my opinion, it'skind of like a big idea at this point. There isn't a lot to back it up. But,if you do play it forward, it is one of those really big ideas. It'sprobably on parwith augmented reality, or machine learning, or cryptocurrencies, even, that can just disrupt the way that things are done at a fundamental level. So, I'm excited to see where it runs. But it'sstill definitely the early days.

Hill: And that wasanother thing Michael Douglass mentions. He said, "This is super early stage," and there are pure-playcompanies out there, one of which wassmart enough to get the nameCRISPR Therapeutics(NASDAQ: CRSP), so kudos towhoever nailed that one. But,you were saying before we started taping that there's a move right now to create a patent pool, because you could see where, for some companies,this could become incredibly lucrative. You could also see a situation where --and it sounds like this is maybepart of what is driving the move toward a patent pool --everything could just get tangled up in legal "he-said, she-said, that's my patent" stuff.

Bush: Right. One of the main blockers to the development of CRISPR is an ongoing fight over patent rights.I think we're at thepoint where things are getting slowand getting caught up legally. As you can imagine,there are several universities, labs,biotech companies justclamoring over this, trying to pile onas quickly as possible, because it is going to beone of the next big things. And right now,there are a few exclusive licensesthat are probably too broad in the market, and should probably be re-evaluated so that there aren't specific gatekeepers to the technology. So, yeah, this needs to form a patent pool and simplify thelicensing process, could ease that patent logjam and really helpaccelerate CRISPR's developmentacross everything, across the entire space. So, right now,this is still at the proposal level, andI don't know how quickly that's going to move,because there are a lot of players here. There's still negotiation to be done, but ifthe negotiations go well,I think this could start to become much more relevant for investors sooner. Andsomething with the biotech space in general is, you do need to invest early to get the big results. And if you wait until there's a drug on the market that works, you just missed a several-billion-dollar run-up. So, it isimportant to be watching these early moves. Andseeing how all the different players, theEditas, the CRISPRTherapeutics, and others, howthey're going to shake out in this patent pool issue.

Hill: It sounds like, as investors, we should be rooting for the patent pool to come to fruition, because that's going toaccelerate the process, instead of being --and I'm just pulling these numbers out of thin air -- 10 years away fromtreatments being on the market, we are five to seven years away.

Bush: Yeah.I think it's hard to put specific numbers on it, but yes,that's definitely the idea. It'll allow companies tomore quickly start building their owntechnologies and their own patents on top of a larger pool that's available to everyone.

Hill: To make this both more real and more fun, oneexample that I dug upwhen I was clicking around this morning, anarticle from Scientific American --which is six years old, by the way. I'm angry that no one in my life flagged this article for me. It was basically how researchers took thefluorescent proteins that appear injellyfish genes andinserted them into a common household cat. And so, boom,glow-in-the-dark cat. I mean,who's not excited about that?

Bush: What elsecan you ask for?

Hill: Actually,our man behind the glass, Dan Boyd,when I mentioned that to him, he was like, "No.I have no interest in a glow-in-the-dark cat, they'reenough trouble as they are at nighttime. Add theglow-in-the-dark feature and that'snot sweetening the deal for me." Reallyinteresting stuff. Definitely something to keep an eye on.

Aaron Bush has no position in any stocks mentioned. Chris Hill has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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This Is Why Investors Will Need to Learn a New Acronym: CRISPR - Madison.com

FDA embraces the first US application for a gene therapy, offering an accelerated test case – Endpoints News

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CEO Jeff Marrazzo

Spark Therapeutics $ONCE is getting a short cut at the FDA for its lead gene therapy program, winning a priority review and a January 12, 2018 deadline for what may well become the first gene therapy approved in the US.

Spark is shooting for an FDA OK of Luxturna, better known in the trade as voretigene neparvovec, a gene therapy for RPE65-mediated inherited retinal disease.

If the approval does come through, Spark will be in the lead in establishing a reimbursement model for a gene therapy in a market dominated by multiple payers. UniQure tried and failed in Europe with Glybera and now GSK is following up making slow progress with Strimvelis.

But how will US payers react to a once-and-done therapy that could easily cost 7 figures? Spark CEO Jeff Marrazzo has been thinking on that for several years now, wondering how best to structure payments for a rare disease like this. Developers of all stripes have been offering concessions like money-back guarantees to win over payers for pricey new drugs. But since Gileads debut of its hep C cures, payers have become expert at establishing new rules limiting access.

Thats what Spark wants to avoid.

First, though, Spark has to win the FDAs OK, which will likely come with careful scrutiny of the data as well as the developing science of gene therapies.

FDA acceptance for filing of our BLA for Luxturna is an important development for people living withRPE65-mediated IRD, a significant milestone for the gene therapy field, and a strong testament to the dedication of our collaborators and employees, saidMarrazzo in a statement. As we work closely withFDAin the months ahead, we will remain steadfast in our commitment to bring this important investigational therapy to people living withRPE65-mediated IRD who currently have no pharmacologic treatment options.

Full-text daily reports for those who discover, develop, and market drugs. Join 17,000+ biopharma pros who read Endpoints News by email every day.

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FDA embraces the first US application for a gene therapy, offering an accelerated test case - Endpoints News

First gene therapy on cusp of FDA approval | World | News | Toronto … – Toronto Sun

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Toronto Sun

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First gene therapy on cusp of FDA approval | World | News | Toronto ... - Toronto Sun

Voyager Therapeutics (VYGR) Reports Publication of 2nd … – StreetInsider.com

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Voyager Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: VYGR) today announced the publication in Nature Neuroscience (link to publication) of new preclinical data from ongoing efforts of Dr. Benjamin Deverman, Professor Viviana Gradinaru and the Gradinaru Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) to develop novel adeno-associated viral (AAV) capsids that efficiently cross the blood-brain barrier and widely transduce, or transfer, genes into the central nervous system (CNS) after intravenous administration. From these efforts, a new, second-generation AAV capsid provided up to a 100-fold increase in the transduction of the CNS in an adult preclinical model over the historical standard, AAV9, as compared with the first-generation capsid reported last year1 by the Gradinaru group that provided a more than 40-fold improvement over AAV9.

The ongoing work by Dr. Deverman, Professor Gradinaru and the Gradinaru Laboratory at Caltech continues to generate exciting AAV variant capsids for application to the treatment of CNS diseases, said Dinah Sah, Ph.D., chief scientific officer at Voyager Therapeutics. Key translational studies in non-human primates are underway by Voyager to evaluate these AAV variant capsids that have the potential to transform our ability to deliver gene therapies to the CNS. We are pleased to be partnered with the Gradinaru group at Caltech to further advance this technology.

Voyager obtained a co-exclusive license to the Caltech novel AAV capsids, intellectual property and related technology in September 2016. The license agreement covers all fields of use and includes novel AAV capsids that have demonstrated enhanced crossing of the blood-brain barrier for the potential treatment of CNS diseases following systemic administration of an AAV gene therapy vector.

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Voyager Therapeutics (VYGR) Reports Publication of 2nd ... - StreetInsider.com

Paramount Pictures Just Hired a Futurist in Residence to Guide the Future of Film – Futurism

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In Brief Paramount Pictures pushes movie-making technology forward in the film industry by naming Ted Schilowitz as their 'Futurist in Residence'

Ted Schilowitz, a well-known futurist and innovator, has joined the ranks at Paramount Pictures. Previously, Schilowitz worked as a consulting futurist for 20th Century Fox. He has helped the film industry to progress technologically and has contributed to shaping the vision for the future of film.

About the move to Paramount, Schilowitz said:

From immersive cinema to augmented reality and beyond, Im excited to work with the Paramount and Viacom teams to discover and implement the latest technological advancements and create strategies that will enhance the audiences experiences across Paramounts movie, television, and interactive content.

As movies like Avatar and The Matrix have marked technological advancements in movie-making, it seems like were on the verge of the next tech revolution in film. With continuing AI developments, new, futuristic robotics, and other such progress, movies are bound to change. And without guidance from an expert, major companies like Paramount might not be equipped to make the transition into this film future. As Paramount pointed out in their press release, theirfocus on weaving augmented and virtual reality into their films wouldnt be possible without the guidance of someone like Schilowitz.

No doubt with the support of such experts, movies of the future will be even more technologically savvy and spectacular. While advancements like smell-o-rama and 3D wowed audiences in the past, theres no telling what awe-inspiring entertainment lies ahead for us on the big screen.

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Paramount Pictures Just Hired a Futurist in Residence to Guide the Future of Film - Futurism

Liu Xiaobo: A Voice of Freedom – Cato Institute (blog)

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The death of Liu Xiaobo from liver cancer on July 13, under guard at a hospital in Shenyang, marks the passing of a great defender of freedoma man who was willing to speak truth to power. As the lead signatory to Charter 08, which called for the rule of law and constitutional government, Liu was sentenced to 11 years in prison for inciting the subversion of state power. Before his sentencing in 2009, Liu stood before the court and declared, To block freedom of speech is to trample on human rights, to strangle humanity, and to suppress the truth. With proper treatment and freedom, Liu would have lived on to voice his support for a free society.

While Lius advocacy of limited government, democracy, and a free market for ideas won him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010, Chinas leadership viewed him as a criminal and refused to allow him to travel to Oslo to receive the award. Instead, the prize was placed on an empty chair at the ceremony, a lasting symbol of Lius courage in the face of state suppression. Beijing also prevented liberal Mao Yushi, cofounder of the Unirule Institute, from attending the ceremony to honor Liu.

IdealMentre

The mistreatment of Liu, and other human rights proponents, is a stark reminder that while the Middle Kingdom has made significant progress in liberalizing its economy, it has yet to liberate the minds of the Chinese people or its own political institutions.

The tension between freedom and state power threatens Chinas future. As former premier Wen Jiabao warned in a speech in August 2010, Without the safeguard of political reform, the fruits of economic reform would be lost. Later, in an interview with CNN in October, he held that freedom of speech is indispensable for any country.

Article 33, Section 3, of the PRCs Constitution holds that the State respects and protects human rights. Such language, added by the National Peoples Congress in 2004, encouraged liberals to test the waters, only to find that the reality did not match the rhetoric.

The Chinese Communist Party pays lip service to a free market in ideas, noting: There can never be an end to the need for the emancipation of individual thought (China Daily, November 16, 2013). However, Party doctrine strictly regulates that market. Consequently, under market socialism with Chinese characteristics, there is bound to be an ever-present tension between the individual and the state.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal (September 22, 2015), President Xi argued that freedom is the purpose of order, and order the guarantee of freedom. The real meaning of that statement is that Chinas ruling elite will not tolerate dissent: individuals will be free to communicate ideas, but only those consistent with the states current interpretation of socialist principles.

This socialist vision contrasts sharply with that of market liberalism, which holds that freedom is not the purpose of order; it is the essential means to an emergent or spontaneous order. In the terms of traditional Chinese Taoism, freedom is the source of order. Simply put, voluntary exchange based on the principle of freedom or nonintervention, which Lao Tzu called wu wei, expands the range of choices open to individuals.

Denying Chinas 1.4 billion people a free market in ideas has led to one of the lowest rankings in the World Press Freedom Index, compiled by Reporters without Borders. In the 2016 report, China ranked 176 out of 180 countries, only a few notches above North Koreaand the situation appears to be getting worse. Under President Xi Jinpings consolidation of power in preparation for this years Party Congress, the websites of liberal think tanks, such as the Unirule Institute, have been shut down, and virtual private networks (VPNs) are being closed, preventing internet users from circumventing the Great Firewall.

Lius death is a tragic reminder that China is still an authoritarian regime whose leaders seek to hold onto power at the cost of the lives of those like Liu who seek only peace and harmony through limiting the power of government and safeguarding individual rights.

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Liu Xiaobo: A Voice of Freedom - Cato Institute (blog)

Freedom Caucus won’t support House budget resolution – The Hill

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The conservative House Freedom Caucus is unwilling to vote for the House budget resolution thats scheduled to be considered in committeeon Wednesday, a source told The Hill on Monday.

They dont want to vote for a vehicle to a tax package theyve not seen, the GOP source with knowledge of the conservative blocs thinking said.

Additionally, they have issues with the budget levels and would support something closer in line to the presidents budget, the source added.

The source added that Freedom Caucus has yet to issue a formal position for or against the budget, but notedthatspending and tax reform details are the primary concerns. An official position could be released later in the week.

Those cuts would come primarily from anti-poverty programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families welfare support, in part through introducing more work requirements to qualify for such aid.

The 31-member-strong caucus could sink a budget resolution on the House floor. With 218 votes needed to pass the resolution, the 240-member Republican caucus cannot afford to lose more than 22 votes. No Democrats are expected to vote for the resolution.

The Freedom Caucusis looking for a resolution to move forward, the source said.

Freedom Caucus member Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.), who sits on the Budget Committee, told The Hill he's currently undecided on the GOP budget, predicting the vote will be close.

"In light of the healthcare cluster in the Senate," Brat said, "I need to see our tax plan [without] [the border-adjustment tax] as well as the welfare to work language in the budget instructions before I can vote yes."

Three Freedom Caucusmembers are on the Budget Committee, which would be able to pass the resolution out of committee without their support.

But the centristTuesdayGroup may also oppose the measure when it reaches the floor.

At the end of June, 20TuesdayGroup members signed a letter objecting to using the budget resolution to carry out large mandatory spending cuts, and demanding a bipartisan approach to the budget.

Absent such a bipartisan, bicameral agreement, we are reticent to support any budget resolution on the House floor, the letter said.

If the group were to sway just three more House Republicans to oppose the budget resolution, it could prevent the measure from moving forward.

Budget Committee Chairwoman Diane BlackDiane BlackFreedom Caucus won't support House budget resolution House panel to mark up budget Wednesday after weeks of delay Helping caregivers provide an invaluable service to those in need MORE (R-Tenn.) and House Speaker Paul RyanPaul RyanGOP chairman gets hundreds of thousands of comments on tax reform Freedom Caucus won't support House budget resolution GOP lawmaker: No town halls because of threats against lawmakers MORE (R-Wis.) had been working to ensure that the budget offered in committee would be able to pass on the floor.

If they fail, however, they could still pass a shell budget resolution before striking a spending deal with Democrats that would serve only to pave the way forward for tax reform. The bill would include instructions that would allow tax code changesto pass through reconciliation, a workaround to the Senate filibuster.

Scott Wong contributed to this report

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In Argentina’s religious freedom row, politics makes strange bedfellows – Crux: Covering all things Catholic

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ROME Argentina didnt exist as a nation when Shakespeare inspired the line politics make strange bedfellows, but if the Bard were around today, he might well look to the popes native country for proof, where the once leading conservative rival of the future pontiff and Amnesty International find themselves in an unlikely alliance over a proposed religious freedom law.

In the case of Archbishop Hctor Rubn Aguer of La Plata, seen as the countrys most fiercely traditional prelate on matters such as the legalization of abortion and contraception, he insists the law could threaten the Churchs protected status under the countrys constitution, while Amnesty International fears the law could deprive Argentine youth of their sexual rights.

To put the situation in American terms, its as if the late Jerry Falwell and the ACLU had found themselves on the same side of a church/state debate i.e., a head-scratcher, and one that helps illustrate the often-maddening political complexity out of which Pope Francis emerged.

The bill was presented to the Argentine senate in June, and it reflects a consensus among various religious groups in the country: The local Catholic bishops conference, the two largest Jewish institutions, an Islamic Center, and various federations of Evangelical churches and Orthodox Christians. It has the support of the national government, including President Mauricio Macri.

Among other issues, the proposed bill introduces a right to conscientious objection, both for individuals and institutions. If passed, the measure could be invoked for military deployments, providing medical procedures such as abortion, the right to have a holiday during religious festive days, and the right to rest on the days imposed by each religion.

In addition, registration of religious institutions would no longer be mandatory, although registering would provide benefits, including tax exemptions, to those who do. According to those promoting the bill, its intended to offer a deeper understanding of religious freedom as a human right.

The initiative was put together by the countrys Secretariat of Worship, which convoked different religious denominations to hear opinions. Its original scope was to replace legislation sanctioned by the military government in 1978.

According to the Argentine newspaper La Nacin, Santiago de Estrada, the man who leads the government office, said it was the religious institutions that called for the incorporation of a right to conscientious objection.

Estrada also underlined the harmony among religious denominations that exists in the country, leading to a healthy and fruitful coexistence promoted by Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, once Archbishop of Buenos Aires, today Pope Francis.

Aguer, considered a leading voice among conservatives in Argentina, is a man whos often clashed with Bergoglio, to the point that when Francis was elected to the papacy, according to news reports from the time, Aguer refused to ring the bells of the cathedral of his archdiocese, La Plata.

Aguer and Francis have known each other a long time. The two worked together in the 1980s, when Aguer was rector of San Miguel seminary and the future pope was the provincial superior of the Jesuits in Argentina. In the 1990s, the two were both auxiliary bishops of Buenos Aires.

Their relationship has never been ideal, and they have very different styles: Aguer tends to be confrontational, while Francis usually takes a more pastoral approach. However, Argentine journalist Mariano De Vedia reports that the two exchange hand-written letters often, and quotes fellow Argentine bishops as saying their differences are more about tone than content.

On Saturday, during his weekly TV program, Aguer spoke about the proposed bill, saying that its unnecessary and that it could have a negative effect on the Catholic Church, hence on Argentine society as a whole.

He also lambasted the Permanent Commission of the Argentine bishops, who went through the proposed bill and gave their green-light, or, at least, according to Aguer, their nihil obstat(a Latin phrase meaning, nothing stands in the way.)

Such a law, Aguer said, should have been debated by the conference as a whole during their plenary assembly, arguing that its too important for it not to be the case.

Aguer also warned that the law would allow an uncontrollable number of sects to grow wildly in the country.

According to the archbishop, the law is being considered because of the pressure of a number of pastors [quotation marks in the original] who dont belong to any specific church.

Never one to hold back a thought, Aguer also spoke about the number of baptized Catholics who join evangelical churches in Argentina, saying that he could come up with at least one reason: Evangelicals talk to people about Jesus, about prayer, penitence, eternal life, while were too busy trying to guarantee the temporal well-being of the Argentine society.

On the other hand, what can we do on these issues? How much do policy makers listen to us? It would be necessary, on our part, to do an examination of conscience, and probably, as a conclusion, a mea culpa.

Last but not least, Aguer also said that the proposed bill would be unconstitutional, and this is something he and Amnesty International have in common. However, their reasons are clearly divergent.

For the archbishop, the law contradicts Argentinas Constitution because making all religions equal is at odds with the constitutions second article, which says that the state sustains Roman Catholic apostolic worship.

Sustaining, Aguer added, doesnt mean that the government throws a few bucks to priests, but that it supports, favors and privileges the Catholic Church.

Mariela Belski, executive director of the Argentine branch of Amnesty International also argued that the proposed bill would be unconstitutional, but her argument is that it violates rights [that are] constitutionally protected.

Among them, she said, are the sexual and reproductive rights of young people and adults, since she claims a health-care provider could invoke the law to refuse to hand out contraceptives on religious grounds.

Belski also argued that a teacher could refuse to teach evolutionary theory, and that it leaves hanging on a thread the law of Integral Sexual Education, because any teacher could limit religious education to Christian sexual morality or the morality of any other religion.

Furthermore, Belski wrote, a judge could refuse to celebrate a marriage between people of the same sex on the basis of moral or religious principles, violating peoples right to equality and nondiscrimination.

In 2012, Argentina approved a law on gender identity regarded by observers as one of the most far-reaching in the world. The law states that a person can legally change gender by simply saying so, while most other countries that accept legal gender change have many requirements, ranging from an actual sex change to court orders.

The law had an impact on the educational system, with the government designing booklets teaching students to choose their gender, regardless of their sexual identity. Teachers were asked not to impose stereotypical ideas on children. Sexual education manuals reflecting those values were to be used in every school receiving public funds, including religious ones.

In the end, the manuals werent implemented because the drawings and images depicted were considered too explicit for five-year-olds. Nevertheless, according to the website of Argentinas Education Ministry, the de-naturalization of gender stereotypes began in 2010, when Pope Franciss home country legalized gay marriage, the first nation in Latin America to do so.

Belski argues that the proposed bill would represent a substantive recoil that would allow public employees to fulfill the task for which they were hired.

She also writes that conscience objection on health issues and especially sexual and reproductive health used in an abusive and arbitrary way has constituted an illegitimate barrier to access legal abortion.

To date, theres been no comment from Pope Francis regarding the law, but seeing that hes long advocated both religious pluralism and the right to conscientious objection, its not far-fetched that hed be among the Argentine bishops supporting it.

Theres a persecution of which not much is being said, Francis said last year during one of his daily Masses, cross-dressed as culture, cross-dressed as modernity, cross-dressed as progress.

The pope said this educated persecution occurs not when a person confesses the name of Christ, but for wanting to have and to manifest the values of a Son of God.

We see every day that the powerful countries create laws that force us to go through this path a nation that doesnt follow these modern laws, these cultures, or that at least doesnt want to have them in its laws, is accused, is politely persecuted, Francis said.

Its a persecution that robs man of his freedom, even from conscientious objection! he added.

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In Argentina's religious freedom row, politics makes strange bedfellows - Crux: Covering all things Catholic

Damaged Colorado Freedom Memorial closer to being repaired – FOX31 Denver

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AURORA, Colo. The Colorado Freedom Memorial, which was damaged over the July 4 weekend, is getting closer to being repaired.

A blank glass panel was shattered on the memorial dedicated to Coloradans who have died while defending our freedom.

(Photo: Colorado Freedom Memorial)

Officials with the memorial say their insurance company is completing their review of the claim and will let them known by mid-week how much of the damage is covered.

They say they are also working with the memorial designer Kristoffer Kenton to include names on the new panel that memorial officials discovered since it was first dedicated.

Once the manufacturer gets the order, they expect about the new panel to be ready in about 10 weeks.

Memorial officials are also working with security advisers to design a system that will provided surveillance of the Memorial.

Last weekend, a memorial fundraiser brought in $19,000, and supporters have donated another $11,000 for repairs on the Restore Colorado Freedom Memorial GoFundMe page.

Organizers believe it will cost at least $55,000 to replace the damaged pane.

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Damaged Colorado Freedom Memorial closer to being repaired - FOX31 Denver

Freedom slug way to series win over CornBelters at UC Health Stadium; Godbold leads offensive surge – User-generated content (press release)…

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A 4-for-4 night from Andrew Godbold, which included a towering home run to dead center in the bottom of the eighth inning, lifted the Florence Freedom, presented by Titan Mechanical Solutions, over the Normal CornBelters by a score of 8-7 to take the series Sunday at UC Health Stadium.

The Freedom (34-20) got the scoring started in the bottom of the first when Daniel Fraga reached on an error by Normal (25-29) shortstop Santiago Chirino before stealing second base and advancing to third on a passed ball. Fraga then scored on a broken bat ground out to second by Taylor Oldham.

In the top of the second Normal struck back, registering four consecutive singles to start the frame which included a pair of run scoring one baggers by Hakes and Craig Lepre giving Normal the edge 2-1. Florence would answer in the home half of the second however, as Jordan Brower, Godbold and Garrett Vail strung together three straight singles, with Vails tying the score.

The CornBelters regained the lead in the top of the fifth when Aaron Dudley followed a Chirino single with a line-drive two-run homer to right field, putting Normal in front, 4-2.

But Florence would surge ahead in the home half of the sixth, sending eight men to the plate and scratching across four runs. Jose Brizuela led off with a single before reaching third on a double by Andre Mercurio. Collins Cuthrell followed with a sacrifice fly to score Brizuela before Brower plated Mercurio as the tying run with a RBI-single. Godbolds second double of the night scored Brower to grant Florence a 5-4 lead, and a Vail sacrifice fly plated Godbold after the latter had reached third on a wild pickoff attempt at second base.

The Freedom added a run to their lead with a Mercurio RBI-groundout in the seventh, only to see the lead diminished to one run on a Brian Hakes two-run homer to right field off Matt Kaster in the eighth.

In the bottom half, Godbolds solo home run off reliever Ben McKendall would give Florence a much- needed insurance run, as Nolan Meadows homered off Keivan Berges with two out in the top of the ninth, followed by a Justin Fletcher bloop-double to shallow center field. Berges, however, recovered to induce a game-ending flyout from Diego Cedeno, giving the Freedom the series victory.

Eric Gleese (1-1) earned the win, going six innings and allowing four runs on nine hits before turning the game over to Patrick McGrath, who pitched a flawless seventh. Charlie Gillies (4-5) took the loss, surrendering six runs (four earned) on ten hits over five and two-thirds innings.

The Freedom next travel to Schaumburg, Illinois to open a three-game series Tuesday against the East Division-leading Schaumburg Boomers. Jordan Kraus (7-3) will start for the Freedom, while the Boomers will counter with Lars Liguori (4-2). First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Central Time at Boomers Stadium.

The Florence Freedom are members of the independent Frontier League and play all home games at UC Health Stadium located at 7950 Freedom Way in Florence, KY. The Freedom can be found online at FlorenceFreedom.com, or by phone at 859-594-4487.

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Freedom slug way to series win over CornBelters at UC Health Stadium; Godbold leads offensive surge - User-generated content (press release)...