Select Page ::

NASA fact-checks Anonymous on alien-life claims – CNET

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Danzig

A video claiming it had the scoop on forthcoming NASA news about alien life went viral. NASA quickly debunked that claim.

For a while online this week, the word was that hacker collective Anonymous may have uncovered an imminent announcement from NASA about the discovery of alien life in the universe. The whole thing was a massive YouTube and tabloid click-bait fail that went so viral it forced NASA's head of science to set the record straight.

"Contrary to some reports, there's no pending announcement from NASA regarding extraterrestrial life," Robert Zurbuchen, NASA associate administrator for science, wrote Monday.

Over the weekend I saw a link to a shoddy video on Anonymous Global's YouTube channel beginning to circulate online. I gave it a watch but didn't give any thought to writing about it because it was a pretty clear play for views, like so many other spammy videos about alien conspiracies and countless fake (or at least poorly researched and reported) news stories we've seen.

The video, which features a voice-over along with some images of old UFO footage and a person in a Guy Fawkes mask that has come to symbolize Anonymous, doesn't even present any real evidence of a new alien conspiracy.

Instead, it takes quotes from Zurbuchen's public testimony to a congressional committee earlier this year completely out of context and insinuates that NASA has the goods on alien life and will soon rock our world with the announcement.

"We are on the verge of making one of the most profound, unprecedented discoveries in history," the video quotes Zurbuchen.

Zurbuchen was speaking about the long term, as in the next several years or few decades, but that's not the sense you get from the video.

Despite all this, which is very easy to sort out by spending a few minutes watching the testimony online, or any of Zurbuchen's public statements over the past several months, a number of media outlets ran with headlines suggesting Anonymous may have uncovered NASA's big alien secret and the whole thing went viral. So much so, that Zurbuchen himself made the rare move of debunking it on Twitter.

It's true NASA talks about the potential for alien life in the universe quite frequently. Most of the astronomers and scientists I've spoken with about it at the space agency and elsewhere believe we'll find solid evidence of life beyond Earth in the next decade or two or three.

In fact, it seems like every other month NASA or some other group of astronomers is holding another press conference about the latest discovery involving an exoplanet that could be habitable, or the building blocks of life floating around in the outer system and even promising finds next door on Mars.

NASA and others usually take a moment during these occasions (or when summoned to testify before Congress) to say something about how we're inching ever closer to the inevitable day when an announcement will be made about the possible discovery of an actual alien life-form.

Scientists are rightfully excited about this and feel it could come relatively soon because a number of pieces of next-generation hardware like the James Webb Space Telescope will come online over the next couple of years. They'll provide powerful new tools to finally, hopefully, spot signs of an actual E.T., even if it's just some kind of alien microbes.

Best places in space to search for alien life

But it hasn't happened yet. No reputable astronomer or scientist has claimed to have discovered alien life. When NASA and others indicate that we're getting closer, it's because we certainly are. And yes, it's also in the best interest of Zurbuchen and his colleagues around the world to increase public interest and excitement about finding alien life to help ensure continued funding for the projects that could make it a reality, like the James Webb Space Telescope.

As for Anonymous, keep in mind it's not really a centralized organization and pretty much anyone can choose to affiliate with the brand, which is what the YouTuber who posted the video seems to have done. The channel description even emphasizes that "technically everyone and anyone is Anonymous."

Then again, if that's true, it means the aliens are Anonymous too, right? So maybe whoever created the video really did have some out-of-this-world sourcing. For now, I'm still taking NASA at its word.

Technically Literate:Original works of short fiction with unique perspectives on tech, exclusively on CNET.

Crowd Control:A crowdsourced science fiction novel written by CNET readers.

Follow this link:

NASA fact-checks Anonymous on alien-life claims - CNET

Deer Park 14s fall hard to NASA-Orange in Directors title game – Chron.com

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Danzig

By Robert Avery, ravery@hcnonline.com

Deer Park's 14-year-old All-Stars and NASA-Orange hold their post-game meeting, following the 12-2 Directors Tournament championship game setback by Deer Park.

Deer Park 14s fall hard to NASA-Orange in Directors title game

CLEAR LAKE - Just when it looked like Deer Park baseball teams could little wrong in the month of June, winning a Class 6A state title and all, an all-star team from the NASA Pony program, reminded us that there's plenty of sharks still in the water.

The NASA-Orange Pony 14-year-old All-Stars delivered a strong message Tuesday night, essentially saying they're the best around this summer as they downed the Deer Park All-Stars 12-2 in the Directors Tournament championship game at Mark Ulmer Field in Bay Area Park.

One night after scoring 16 runs against the League City All-Stars to clinch their spot in the title game, two NASA-Orange pitchers stifled Deer Park's attack on two hits. Jacob Martinez and Henry Hill combined for the two-hitter, singles by Jayden Miller and Tanner Phillips.

NASA-Orange roughed up three Deer Park hurlers for nine hits and runs in every inning of the shortened contest that was stopped in the fifth by the mercy rule. They delivered the knockout punch with a five-run fourth.

Leading the way offensively was Christian Whitehead, who had a perfect night at the plate, going 4-fof-4 and Logan Moore, who crushed a two-run homer in the third frame to stake his teammates to a 5-0 lead.

"Pitching and defense. Hands down, I think we've got more depth than most of the other teams. We've got probably three (pitchers) that hit in the mid-80s, so it makes it a little harder for the other teams to catch up to," said NASA-Orange manager Scooter Moore.

Hill, in his final two innings of work, only allowed one ball to leave the infield and that was caught by the center fielder. Otherwise, he struck out three and hit a batter.

As for the home run, Moore isn't a big fan of the long ball, even if it comes from your own son.

"The thing about home runs, and that's why we had a couple of strikeouts tonight, is they all want to hit home runs. A home run is an accident. It's a mistake. Hitting the ball with power is his job. The home run was a mistake. I'm proud of him for that, I just wish they'd all get in the rhythm of basehits. They score runs. Pop-ups are outs. Too many get underneath the ball, trying for the home run," Moore said.

Supersonic Passenger Jet Travel Closer to Reality With NASA Milestone – Aviation Today

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Danzig

Illustration of NASAs planned Low Boom Flight Demonstration aircraft as outlined during the projects preliminary design review.Photo courtesy of NASA / Lockheed Martin

NASA has achieved a significant milestone in its effort to make supersonic passenger jet travel over land a real possibility by completing the preliminary design review of its Quiet Supersonic Transport, or QueSST, aircraft design. QueSST is the initial design stage of NASAs planned Low Boom Flight Demonstration experimental airplane, otherwise known as an X-plane.

Senior experts and engineers from across the agency and lead contractor Lockheed Martin concluded Friday that the QueSST design is capable of fulfilling the piloted, single-engineaircraft'smission objectives, which are to fly at supersonic speeds, but create a soft thump instead of the disruptive sonic boom associated with supersonic flight today. The X-plane will be flown over communities to collect data necessary for regulators to enable supersonic flight over land in the U.S.and elsewhere in the world.

NASA partnered with Lockheed Martin in February 2016 for the preliminary design. Last month, a scale model of the design completed testing in the 8-foot-by 6-foot supersonic wind tunnel at NASAs Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio.

"Managing a project like this is all about moving from one milestone to the next, said David Richwine, manager for the preliminary design effort under NASAs Commercial Supersonic Technology Project. Our strong partnership with Lockheed Martin helped get us to this point. Were now one step closer to building an actual X-plane.

After the success of completing the design review, NASAs project team can start the process of soliciting proposals later this year and of awarding a contract early next year to build the X-plane. The acquisition for the contract will be fully open and competitive, with the QueSST preliminary design data being made available to qualified bidders. Flight testing could begin as early as 2021.

Over the next few months, NASA will work with Lockheed on finalizing the preliminary design effort. This includes a static inlet performance test and a low-speed wind tunnel test at NASAs Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.

See the original post here:

Supersonic Passenger Jet Travel Closer to Reality With NASA Milestone - Aviation Today

These NASA Images Show Siberia Burning Up – Climate Central

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Danzig

Siberian wildfire season is off and running with multiple blazes searing the boreal forest and tundra. Its the latest example of the vast shifts happening to the forests that cover Siberia and the rest of the northern tier of the world as climate change alters the landscape.

Those forests are burning at a rate unheard of in at least 10,000 years due largely to rising temperatures. They contain vast reserves of carbon stored in trees and soil and when they burn, they send that carbon into the atmosphere. That creates a dangerous cycle of more severe wildfires and ever rising temperatures.

A satellite image captured on June 23, 2017 shows the extent of wildfires burning across Siberia. Credit: NASA Earth Observatory

The current constellation of conflagrations had burned through roughly 133,000 acres to the west of Lake Baikal in southern Siberia as of last week. Strong winds have sent smoke spiraling hundreds of miles northeast, impacting air quality across the region.

NASAs satellites captured the scene on Friday from a few different vantage points. The Aqua satellite captured the extent of the thick plumes of smoke and fires dotting the region while the Suomi NPP satellite was able to analyze the air quality. Both show the stunning breadth of impacts wildfires can have. The Suomi NPP measurements in particular show that the aerosol index a measure of air quality hit 19, a mark that denotes very dense smoke.

According to NASA Earth Observatory, scientists are also investigating signs that the fires were burning so intensely, they altered the local weather. Theres evidence pyrocumulus clouds formed, a phenomenon that occurs when wildfires burn so hot that they cause localized convection that eventually forms clouds.

The region where fires are burning has been a hot spot on the global temperature map. Since November, temperatures have been up to 7F above average with some months far exceeding that mark. Climate change has been driving up temperatures around the world, but the northern tier of the planet has seen temperatures rise twice as fast.

Temperatures in Siberia were up 7.2F above normal from November 2016-April 2017. Credit:NASA

The extra heat has caused a string of severe wildfire seasons not just in Siberia, but in other stretches of the boreal forest that also covers Canada and Alaska. Last year, a massive blaze overran Fort McMurray, Alberta and became the costliest natural disaster in Canadian history. The year prior, Alaska had an explosive early start to its wildfire season. This is the third year in a row massive fires have lit up Siberia.

These individual events are part of a new reality that the boreal forest is burning at a rate unprecedented in modern history. Large fires in Alaska are twice as common as they were 75 years ago, according to Climate Centrals own research. That same report found that Alaskan wildfire season is 40 percent longer as well. Similar changes have been observed in Canada as well.

Climate change is expected to continue driving conditions that make destructive fires more common in boreal forests. That will reshape some of the most unique ecosystems on earth and the climate system itself. Boreal forests store about 30 percent of the worlds carbon. When they burn, they put that carbon in the atmosphere, increasing the impacts of climate change and creating a vicious cycle that will likely lead to more fires.

You May Also Like: States Betting on Giant Batteries to Cut Carbon We Couldnt Monitor Larsen C Without These Satellites Climate Change Altering Droughts, Impacts Across U.S. Atlantic Oil Surveys Could Kill Food Used By Fisheries

Go here to see the original:

These NASA Images Show Siberia Burning Up - Climate Central

FG urged to adopt Nanotechnology in science, technology development – The Nation Newspaper

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Danzig

Hajiya Fatima Madugu, the Niger Commissioner for Education, Science, and Technology on Monday urged the Federal Government to adopt Nanotechnology in the development of science and technology sector.

Madugu, who made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Minna, noted that Nanotechnology if adopted, would impact positively on industries and all spheres of the society.

She said that Nanotechnology was the application of extremely small things that could be applied across all fields of sciences such as chemistry, biology, physics, material science and engineering.

The technology will offer better built, long lasting, cleaner, safer and smarter products for the home, communication, medicine, transport, agriculture industry as well as the power sector.

Imagine a technology that can be used to deploy a medical device that travels through the human body to seek out and destroy small clusters of cancerous cells before they can spread.

This will be wonderful, she said.

According to her, understanding and utilising Nanotechnology will offer not only better products but vastly improved manufacturing process.

Nanotechnology is the next industrial revolution. It may be only a matter of time.

The real meaning of Nanotechnology will be clearly defined by the time building of products becomes cheap as the copying of files in a computer, she said.

Nanotechnology is the use of techniques and tools being developed today to make complete and high-performance products.

Triad manufacturer to become anchor tenant at Gateway University Research Park campus – Triad Business Journal

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Danzig

Triad Business Journal

Triad manufacturer to become anchor tenant at Gateway University Research Park campus
Triad Business Journal
The city of Greensboro has agreed to put up $1.2 million for the project, which will be located on the east side of the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering, he said. Core Technology Molding Corp. of High Point will soon become the anchor ...

Follow this link:

Triad manufacturer to become anchor tenant at Gateway University Research Park campus - Triad Business Journal

9 Things You Didn’t Know About Intel Corporation – Madison.com

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Danzig

Comedian Conan O'Brien once mocked semiconductor giant Intel's (NASDAQ: INTC) cubicle-farm offices for their soulless, gray aesthetic. The company subsequently chose to spruce up its drab digs, but after hearing a story like that, you may not think of Intel as a company whose history is replete with fascinating facts and stories of innovation. However, the chipmaking giant's past, present, and future are far more dynamic and interesting than you might expect.

Here are nine things about Intel that you may not know.

The company's founders at first wanted to name Intel "Moore Noyce," a combination of their last names. However, when colleagues complained that it sounded like "more noise," they switched to the first parts of the words "integrated electronics," and Intel was born.

Intel's chips helped power the first-ever live video from space to Earth in 1995. Astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour streamed a live feed, including photographic images and annotations, to ground control at Houston's Johnson Space Center.

Intel is famous for its five-chimed jingle. Officially known as the "Intel Bong" -- insert joke here -- it was composed by Austrian music producer Walter Werzowa and made its debut in 1994.The iconic jingle was so heavily incorporated into Intel's marketing efforts that it was at one point estimated to have been played somewhere in the world once every five minutes at its peak. It's been played over 1 billion times in total.

Observers of the semiconductor market probably know Moore's Law, which predicts that semiconductors' performance tends to double every two years. However, it's less well known that this foundational concept is named after Intel's co-founder, Gordon Moore,who popularized the idea.

Intel absolutely dominates its two core markets, holding more than a 90% share in the market for PC and server microprocessors. Competitors such asAdvanced Micro Devicestry to catch up but are rarely able to gain any ground because of Intel's massive research and development budget. For its fiscal 2016, Intel spent $12.7 billion on R&D alone, roughly triple AMD's entire 2016 revenue of $4.2 billion.That's a staggering difference in scale.

Even though many consumers would have a hard time distinguishing Intel's chips from others inside today's computers, Intel enjoys worldwide brand recognition. Global brand consultancy Interbrand ranked Intel as having the world's 14thmost valuable brand in 2016, with an estimated brand value of $36.9 billion,situating the company between far more consumer-facing companies Disney (13th) and Facebook(15th).

In addition to building one of tech's most iconic companies, Intel's top executives have left a far broader imprint on tech and business over the years. For example, Intel co-founder Bob Noycementored a young Steve Jobs,who mentioned Noyce by name in his famous Stanford commencement speech.And former Intel CEO Andy Grove, another longtime Jobs mentor,wrote several best-selling books that are today required reading at business schools around the world, including Only the Paranoid Survive and High Output Management.

The company's legion of fans also extends into the scientific community. In 1987, researchers at the CERGA Observatory named an asteroid "Intel 8080" in the chipmaker's honor. The name comes from the company's 8080 chip, which is widely credited with enabling the personal-computing revolution to take off.

Intel and other semiconductor producers like it have maintained Moore's Law by continually shrinking the number of transistors it can fit in its chips. For context, the aforementioned Intel 8080 contained 6,000 transistors, a major breakthrough at the time. Today, PC microprocessors pack in 2.6 billion transistors,a testament to Intel's ability to continually innovate.

10 stocks we like better than Intel

When investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*

David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Intel wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.

*Stock Advisor returns as of June 5, 2017

Andrew Tonner has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Facebook and Walt Disney. The Motley Fool recommends Intel. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

See the rest here:

9 Things You Didn't Know About Intel Corporation - Madison.com

Genetic Testing for the Healthy – Bioscience Technology

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Danzig

Whole genome sequencing involves the analysis of all three billion pairs of letters in an individuals DNA and has been hailed as a technology that will usher in a new era of predicting and preventing disease.

However, the use of genome sequencing in healthy individuals is controversial because no one fully understands how many patients carry variants that put them at risk for rare genetic conditions and how theyand their doctorswill respond to learning about these risks.

In a new paper published June 26 in the Annals of Internal Medicine by investigators at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Womens Hospital, along with collaborators at Baylor College of Medicine, report the results of the four-year, NIH-funded MedSeq Project, the first-ever randomized trial conducted to examine the impact of whole genome sequencing in healthy primary care patients.

In the MedSeq Project, 100 healthy individuals and their primary care physicians were enrolled and randomized so that half of the patients received whole genome sequencing and half did not.

Nearly 5,000 genes associated with rare genetic conditions were expertly analyzed in each sequenced patient, and co-investigators from many different disciplines, including clinical genetics, molecular genetics, primary care, ethicsand law, were involved in analyzing the results.

Researchers found that among the 50 healthy primary care patients who were randomized to receive genome sequencing, 11 (22 percent) carried genetic variants predicted to cause previously undiagnosed rare disease.

Two of these patients were then noted to have signs or symptoms of the underlying conditions, including one patient who had variants causing an eye disease called fundus albipunctatus, which impairs night vision.

This patient knew he had difficulty seeing in low-light conditions but had not considered the possibility that his visual problems had a genetic cause.

Another patient was found to have a genetic variant associated with variegate porphyria, which finally explained the patients and family members mysterious rashes and sun sensitivity.

The other nine participants had no evidence of the genetic diseases for which they were predicted to be at risk. For example, two patients had variants that have been associated with heart rhythm abnormalities, but their cardiology workups were normal. It is possible, but not at all certain, that they could develop heart problems in the future.

Sequencing healthy individuals will inevitably reveal new findings for that individual, only some of which will have actual health implications, said lead author Jason Vassy,an HMS assistant professor of medicine at Brigham and Womens and primary care physician at the VA Boston Healthcare System.

This study provides some reassuring evidence that primary care providers can be trained to manage their patients sequencing results appropriately, and that patients who receive their results are not likely to experience anxiety connected to those results. Continued research on the outcomes of sequencing will be needed before the routine use of genome sequencing in the primary care of generally healthy adults can be medically justified, Vassy said.

Primary care physicians received six hours of training at the beginning of the study regarding how to interpret a specially designed, one-page genome testing report summarizing the laboratory analysis.

Consultation with genetic specialists was available, but not required. Primary care physicians then used their own judgment about what to do with the information, and researchers monitored the interactions for safety and tracked medical, behavioral and economic outcomes.

The researchers noted that they analyzed variants from nearly 5,000 genes associated with rare genetic diseases. These included single genes causing a significantly higher risk for rare disorders than the low-risk variants for common disorders reported by direct-to-consumer genetic testing companies. No prior study has ever examined healthy individuals for pathogenic (high-risk) variants in so many rare disease genes.

We were surprised to see how many ostensibly healthy individuals are carrying a risk variant for a rare genetic disease, said Heidi Rehm, HMS associate professor of pathology at Brigham and Women's anddirector of the Laboratory for Molecular Medicine at Brigham and Women's.

We found that about one-fifth of this sample population carried pathogenic variants, and this suggests that the potential burden of rare disease risk throughout our general population could be far higher than previously suspected,said Rehm, a co-investigator on the study who directed the genome analysis.However, the penetrance, or likelihood that persons carrying one of these variants will eventually develop the disease, is not fully known.

Additionally, investigators compared the two arms of the studyand found that patients who received genome sequencing results did not show higher levels of anxiety. They did, however, undergo a greater number of medical tests and incurred an average of $350 more in health care expenses in the six months following disclosure of their results. The economic differences were not statistically significant with the small sample size in this study.

Because participants in the MedSeq Project were randomized, we could carefully examine levels of anxiety or distress in those who received genetic risk information and compare it to those who did not, said Amy McGuire,director of the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy at Baylor College of Medicine.

While many patients chose not to participate in the study out of concerns about what they might learn, or with fears of future insurance discrimination, those who did participate evinced no increase in distress, even when they learned they were carrying risk variants for untreatable conditions, saidMcGuire, who supervised the ethical and legal components of the MedSeq Project.

There has also been great concern in the medical community about whether primary care physicians can appropriately manage these complicated findings. But when a panel of expert geneticists reviewed how well the primary care physicians managed the patients with possible genetic risk variants, the experts determined that only two of the 11 cases were managed inappropriately and that no harm had come to these patients.

MedSeq Project investigators note that the studys findings should be interpreted with caution because of the small sample size and because the study was conducted at an academic medical center where neither the patients nor the primary care physicians are representative of the general population. They also stressed that carrying a genetic risk marker does not mean that patients have or will definitely get the disease in question. Critical questions remain about whether discovering such risk markers in healthy individuals will actually provide health benefits, or will generate unnecessary testing and subsequent procedures that could do more harm than good.

Integrating genome sequencing and other -omics technologies into the day-to-day practice of medicine is an extraordinarily exciting prospect with the potential to anticipate and prevent diseases throughout an individuals lifetime, said senior author Robert C. Green, HMSprofessor of medicineat Brigham and Womens Hospital,associate member of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MITandleader ofthe MedSeq Project. But we will need additionalrigorously designed and well-controlled outcomes studies like the MedSeq Project with larger sample sizes and with outcomes collected over longer periods of time to demonstrate the full potential of genomic medicine.

The MedSeq Project is one of the sites in the Clinical Sequencing Exploratory Research Consortium and was funded by the National Human Genome Research Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health.

The Genomes2People Research Program at Brigham and Womens Hospital, the Broad Institute and Harvard Medical School conducts empirical research in translational genomics and health outcomes. NIH-funded research within G2P seeks to understand the medical, behavioral and economic impact of using genetic risk information to inform future standards. The REVEAL Study has conducted several randomized clinical trials examining the impact of disclosing genetic risk for a frightening disease. The Impact of Personal Genomics (PGen) Study examined the impact of direct-to-consumer genetic testing on over 1,000 consumers of two different companies. The MedSeq Project has conducted the first randomized clinical trial to measure the impact of whole genome sequencing on the practice of medicine. The BabySeq Project is recruiting families of both healthy and sick newborns into a randomized clinical trial where half will have their babys genome sequenced. Green directs the Program.

See original here:

Genetic Testing for the Healthy - Bioscience Technology

Tiny Tornado Boosts Performance of Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry – Georgia Tech News Center

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Danzig

Georgia Tech News Center

Tiny Tornado Boosts Performance of Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry
Georgia Tech News Center
Among the scientific fields that could benefit from the new technique are proteomics, metabolomics and lipidomics which serve biomedical and health applications ranging from biomarker detection and diagnostics to drug discovery and molecular medicine.

and more »

View original post here:

Tiny Tornado Boosts Performance of Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry - Georgia Tech News Center

Pasadena Bio Collaborative Incubator Announces Board Change – Pasadena Now

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Danzig

Image from PBC Website

Pasadena Bio Collaborative Incubator (PBC), high tech incubator for early stage start-ups and a regional workforce development magnet for scientists seeking wet lab R&D competency, announced the resignation from the Board of Directors of William Opel, MBA and PhD. The resignation is effective as of June 30.

Bill has been a board member since PBC first began operations in 2004 and his many contributions have been a significant factor in our growth, said PBC Chairman and former Pasadena mayor Bill Bogaard. We are truly grateful for his years of dedicated service and his wise counsel to the board and to management.

Dr. Opel was the President and CEO of Huntington Medical Research Institutes (HMRI) for nearly 40 years. He formed HMRI in the early 1980s, combining three research groups affiliated with Huntington Memorial Hospital, a tertiary medical center and teaching hospital. At that time, he launched one of the countrys first clinical magnetic resonance programs, which went on to gain acclaim in imaging applications development and in clinical spectroscopy.

His leadership at HMRI led to many advances in the field of medicine, including neural engineering, brain mapping, molecular medicine and clinical research. He worked with Huntington Hospital to encourage research projects by both medicine and surgery residents, as well as attending staff, and to expand HMRIs joint postdoctoral fellowship programs with Caltech. Dr Opel is active in community organizations and is past president of the PCC Foundation.

Background on PBC:

PBC was established in 2004 by the City of Pasadena, Pasadena City College, and California State University Los Angeles to work collaboratively with Pasadenas higher education institutions, entrepreneurs, investors and other stakeholders to provide high tech workforce development and incubate early stage bioscience start-ups. More information is available at http://pasadenabio.org/

See original here:

Pasadena Bio Collaborative Incubator Announces Board Change - Pasadena Now

Cleveland Clinic research links gut bacteria, heart disease – The-review

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Danzig

Published: June 28, 2017 3:00 AM

Cleveland Clinic researchers have shown, for the first time in humans, that choline is directly linked to increased production of a gut bacteria byproduct that increases the risk of blood-clotting events like heart attack and stroke. However, the research also showed that adding a low dose of aspirin may reduce that risk.

In a small interventional study, the researchers provided oral choline supplements to groups of healthy vegans/vegetarians (eight patients) and omnivores (10 patients). Both groups showed at least a 10-fold increase in plasma levels of trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) a metabolite generated by gut microbes after choline supplementation, as well as an increase in platelet responsiveness, a risk factor for thrombotic events (blood clotting) like heart attack and stroke.

In a separate study, omnivores not taking supplements initially had platelet function tested at baseline, and then after taking a daily regimen of low-dose aspirin for at least a month. They then were followed for another two months while continuing to take aspirin and a daily supplement of choline. The researchers found that while elevated TMAO levels and enhanced susceptibility for platelet activation still occurred, the TMAO levels were attenuated by aspirin. These new findings suggest two things that a low dose of aspirin may partially counter the pro-thrombotic effects of a high TMAO plasma level associated with a Western diet rich in choline, commonly found in egg yolk and meats; and that a high TMAO level can partially overcome the beneficial anti-platelet effects of taking low dose aspirin.

The research team was led by Stanley Hazen, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the Department of Cellular & Molecular Medicine for the Lerner Research Institute and section head of Preventive Cardiology & Rehabilitation in the Miller Family Heart and Vascular Institute at Cleveland Clinic, and Dr Wilson Tang, cardiologist and transplant specialist at the Miller Family Heart and Vascular Institute at Cleveland Clinic. The research will be published April 24 in Circulation, the American Heart Association's journal, with Weifei Zhu, Ph.D., of Dr. Hazen's laboratory as lead author.

"This is the first study in humans to directly demonstrate that dietary choline substantially elevates TMAO production by gut bacteria, impacting platelet function. It provides direct evidence of a mechanistic link between TMAO levels and risk for blood clotting events like heart attack and stroke, the major culprit for the development of cardiovascular events," Dr. Hazen said. "Further research is necessary to confirm these findings, but these studies suggest patients without known cardiovascular disease but with elevated TMAO levels may benefit from aspirin and diet modification in preventing blood clotting, which can lead to heart attack and stroke. They also suggest that a high TMAO level in a patient with known cardiovascular disease should be considered for more aggressive anti-platelet therapy."

Dr. Hazen, who also holds the Jan Bleeksma Chair in Vascular Cell Biology and Atherosclerosis, has previously linked TMAO to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and has shown it can be a powerful tool for predicting future heart attacks, stroke and death in multiple patient populations.

TMAO is a byproduct of bacterial digestion of choline, lecithin and carnitine, nutrients that are especially abundant in animal products such as red meat, processed meats and liver. In 2016, his team discovered in animal models that gut microbes alter platelet function and thrombosis risks, and that microbial transplantation studies could be used to demonstrate the TMAO pathway plays a role in thrombosis potential in a stroke model in mice. Findings from this new study shows that dietary choline in humans raises TMAO levels, which may directly alter platelet function, increasing thrombosis (blood clot) potential. These studies help explain the strong association between plasma TMAO levels and heart attack and stroke risk observed in a study of over 4000 patients.

Continued here:

Cleveland Clinic research links gut bacteria, heart disease - The-review

Formulation and characterization of EGCG for the treatment of superficial bladder cancer. – UroToday

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Danzig

In the United States, the annual incidence of bladder cancer is approximately70,000new cases, with a mortality rate of approximately 15,000/year. The most common subtype(70%) of bladder cancer is superficial, namely hte non-muscle invasive disease form limited to the urothelium. The rate of progression and recurrence is up to40 and70%, respectively. Urothelial cell carcinoma of the bladder is typically treated with transurethral resection. The cancerous cells can float onto the adjacent epithelium, increasing the risk of recurrence. The standard of care is to offer adjuvant intravesical agents to reduce the risk of progression and recurrence. Current intravesical treatments are costly and are associated with special biohazard handling protocols. Patients are treated with intravesical therapy with bacillus CalmetterGuerin(BCG) bacterium, or mitomycinC(MMC) following resection, both of which can cause moderate to severe side-effects which are rarely life-threatening. We previously examined the efficacy of epigallocatechin-3-gallate(EGCG) in comparison with MMC to prevent tumor cell implantation/growth in an animal model of superficial bladder cancer. Experiments revile that EGCG is slightly more effective than MMC at decreasing tumor cell implantation and consequent cancer growth in a bladder. This treatment requires the stringent sterile requirement of EGCG. EGCG can be unstable when sterilized at high temperatures. Thus, we evaluated two low temperature sterilization methods, such as ionizing radiation or the filtration method followed by freeze-drying. Both methods ensure the sterility of the sample; however, infrared and HPLC analysis revealed a slightly better stability of irradiated EGCG over the filtration method. The concentration of stable free radicals following irradiation was low, which are unlikely to exert any damaging effects to EGCG. Therefore, we consider that radiation will be the preferred method of EGCG sterilization, and that this may prove useful for the effective use of EGCG in the treatment of bladder cancer.

International journal of molecular medicine. 2017 Jun 14 [Epub ahead of print]

Katarzyna Dettlaff, Maciej Stawny, Magdalena Ogrodowczyk, Anna Jeliska, Waldemar Bednarski, Dorota Wtrbska-wietlikowska, Rick W Keck, Omar A Khan, Ibrahim H Mostafa, Jerzy Jankun

Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Pozna University of Medical Sciences, 60780 Pozna, Poland., Institute of Molecular Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, 60-179 Pozna, Poland., Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Medical University of Gdask, 80-416 Gdask, Poland., Urology Research Center, Department of Urology, College of Medicine, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH 43614, USA.

PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28627636

Read this article:

Formulation and characterization of EGCG for the treatment of superficial bladder cancer. - UroToday

Bhopal: A pic’s worth a thousand words! But twitteretti don’t think so – Free Press Journal

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Danzig

Bhopal: People generally put their profile pictures on some social networking sites mainly Facebook and Whatsapp just to share their identity, moods and latest pictures of places they have visited. Some of them do this to express their personal and artistic thought and disseminate some latest information among group people. Sometimes they do so just for amusement or may be, keeping themselves updated. Some people said they guessed the mood and personality of the person after watching photographs but couldnt judge them completely. They dont form impressions about other persons on the basis of their profile picture. Free Press spoke to some city people to know how they decided their profile picture on Facebook and Whatsapp. Do they form any impression and judge others on the basis of their profile picture?

Shalini Gupta, theatre artist

Most of my profile pictures on social media are based on psychology. Sometimes it also depends on our moods like happiness and sadness. I also put some unique and best photographs of some places which we have visited. Recently, we visited Malaysia with family and uploaded some of its best photographs on social networking sites. We also use some rare or memorable pictures of my work. Yes, sometimes I do judge up to some extent after watching the profile picture of a person like how his or her thinking and personality is. Mai judge karti nahi hun ho jata hai

Babita Niranjan, dentist

I decide to put a profile picture on the basis of latest photographs or latest check out places or latest party or latest friends wedding photo or some funny photos with friends for expressing several thoughts coming in mind simultaneously. Yes, sometimes it pisses me off when they put profile picture in which I am looking damn bad and they put their best ones.

Shiv Katariya, 28, painter and theatre artist

I often try to express my personal view through profile photos. Sometimes I also upload photographs related to my work and artistic thoughts but I never form impressions about other persons on the basis of their profile photo. Yes, sometimes I guess the mood and personality of the person after watching photographs but didnt judge till now.

Shalini Malviya, 22, media student

I often use my photograph in profile picture to represent my identity. There are many people including those who we dont know but they are connected with us through social networking sites. In such cases, it is essential to highlight our identity. Sometimes I upload some pictures of nature too. We can judge any person or his or her personality up to 23 to 30 per cent after watching profile picture but not completely.

Anita Singh, asst professor at Career College

I upload photographs to disseminate information in group. Suppose, I go to visit some place and then put it as profile picture. Sometimes people come to know about that place through the picture only. Nowadays, not only photos but we can upload videos too and it is good. I dont think we can judge a person merely by his/her profile photo.

Sanjay Madhup, Secretary, Youth Hostel Association of India, Lake City Unit

I use subjective photographs as profile pictures. Generally it is related to my hobbies like trekking, parasailing, cycling, bike riding etc. There are many people including my family and friends who put photos which reflect his or her mood. Sometimes they use some pictures which I dont like but I dont oppose because I think it is his or her choice. I am unable to judge anyones personality seeing profile picture only.

Sonia Soni, homemaker

Definitely, I do. We can judge about the personality of a person seeing their profile picture. I mostly upload those photographs as profile picture which send out some message and reflect our moods and circumstances. We also do this to keep updated.

Read this article:

Bhopal: A pic's worth a thousand words! But twitteretti don't think so - Free Press Journal

Marissa Mayer feared sexism in medicine so she chose tech instead – San Francisco Chronicle

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Danzig

When Marissa Mayer was 18, the Wisconsin teen was sure she was going to be a doctor.

But then the future CEO of Yahoo, soon to enroll at Stanford University, read the stories.

In the early 1990s, Stanford Medical School was struggling to overcome a significant sex scandal. Two women accused cardiologist Mark Perlroth of professional misconduct and sexual harassment. And Frances Conley, professor of neurosurgery, announced her resignation because of what she called pervasive sexism and gender insensitivity at the school.

The scandal had a profound impact on Mayer, who went on to study symbolic systems and computer science instead.

It really colored my view, Mayer recently told the annual Stanford Directors College, a program for corporate directors and senior executives. Youre going to go there for med school? No way. Youre going to go somewhere else where they dont have this problem.

Mayer defended the UBER leader, Travis Kalanack, who resigned amid sexual misconduct allegations at the ride-hailing company.

Mayer defended the UBER leader, Travis Kalanack, who resigned amid...

The irony is that a college-bound teen today would read the headlines and make the opposite decision that she would want to be anywhere but in the world of technology, where men hold the vast majority of engineering jobs and sexism seems pervasive and incurable.

The problem is that Mayers view of Silicon Valley seems frozen in early-90s amber, ignoring everything thats happened since, from Ellen Paos failed lawsuit against prominent venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers to the resignation of Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick as CEO because of a toxic culture he helped create that ignored or tolerated sexual misconduct.

Instead, Mayer defended Kalanick at the conference, calling him an incredible leader. She also suggested that Kalanick could not have been aware of the misconduct because the company was growing too fast.

I dont think he knew, Mayer said.

I know Mayers been busy selling Yahoo to Verizon, a deal that closed this month. But how could she have missed the report of Kalanick sending a memo to Uber employees in 2013 in which he detailed exactly when and how they should have sex with each other at a company party in Miami?

Do not have sex with another employee UNLESS a) you have asked that person for that privilege and they have responded with an emphatic YES! I will have sex with you AND b) the two (or more) of you do not work in the same chain of command. Yes, that means that Travis will be celibate on this trip, he wrote.

Kalanick didnt just know about misconduct at his company. He wrote the playbook for it. Among those reading attentively, it seems, was Ed Baker, a vice president whose misbehavior at the 2013 party was reportedly a factor in his exit.

The way Mayer sees it, the recent barrage of stories about sexism in Silicon Valley is just making things worse; they will deter women from pursuing technology as a career, just as the 90s Stanford scandals convinced her not to study medicine.

I worry about the 18-year-old girl right now whos reading these articles and is thinking: Do I really want a career in tech? Is this what I really want to be a part of? Mayer said.

Its a rather curious argument, not to mention deeply flawed. The way Mayer sees it, if we talk too much about sexism in Silicon Valley, women wont want to join up. So whats the alternative? Bury the issue and let women find out for themselves that tech firms can be hostile to female employees?

Thats a little like saying: Please stop talking about date rape. Otherwise, women might not want to go out. Blaming the victim especially when they are brave enough to speak out is not the solution.

Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle

Former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer speaks with Stanford professor Joseph Grundfest at the Stanford Directors College luncheon.

Former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer speaks at the Stanford Director's College luncheon and keynote on Tuesday.

Marissa Mayer feared sexism in medicine so she chose tech instead

Mayer is a data fiend. She once had designers test 41 shades of blue to determine which one to use. Yet despite the overwhelming evidence the numerical kind that Mayer has long said she prizes decision-making she seems to think that sexism is not that big of a problem in Silicon Valley.

Yet she always has had a complicated relationship with feminism. As a top executive at Google and one of the few women to ever run a major Silicon Valley firm, Mayer, by virtue of her success, serves as a role model for women hoping to break the gender barrier in technology. At the same time, Mayer has said she does not consider herself a feminist, and once described herself as gender oblivious.

She has shown some glimmers of awareness. In 2008, she told KQED that a lot of studies show that if you fall below 20 percent of the workforce being women, things become really imbalanced and unhealthy inside the corporate culture, and that Google, where she then worked, aimed to have women as 25 percent of its technical workforce. Nearly a decade later, women hold 19 percent of Googles technical jobs. Yahoo, which Mayer ran for five years, fares even worse: Only 17 percent of its tech workers are female. As she rose in the ranks, Mayer never hit her 25 percent goal.

We do need to modulate the volume a little bit because there are huge companies that are really good places for women, Mayer said, citing Google and Yahoo, the same companies that have fallen short of her benchmark for healthy working environments. Weve got a couple of small firms that are really dysfunctional. You dont want to color an entire generation.

How can a woman who ran a major technology firm be so limited in her worldview?

As one of the few women engineers and leaders in technology, Mayer has had to endure enormous scrutiny and criticism some of it fair, some of it not especially in the news media.

Mayer said she just learned to tune it out.

I have gotten pretty good at ignoring the press, she said. A colleague once told me: Its really damaging to read press about you and who you work for, because it can change how you think. Youre in the job because of you and your experience.

Your actions are misunderstood, misinterpreted, misfiltered through reporters who dont have all of the information, she continued. If reading articles makes you think: Oh, thats truly a mistake and you back off a good idea too quickly, thats bad. If reading an article that says Wow, that was a genius move, it makes you less likely to abandon something. Thats bad.

In other words, Mayer copes with criticism by ignoring the noise. But that works only so well. By isolating herself from the media, Mayer may block out the criticism. But she also blocks out others lived reality, including the horrible treatment women not named Marissa Mayer have had to endure in Silicon Valley.

Ask yourself this: Would Kalanick have resigned from Uber had it not been for the coverage of former engineer Susan Fowlers blog post detailing how her manager propositioned her for sex on her first day of work?

If Mayer were paying attention, perhaps she wouldnt be so effusive with her praise of Kalanick.

Mayer says she doesnt read the press because it might change how she thinks. Yet thats exactly what she said she did two decades ago as she faced a major life choice.

Something in the data doesnt add up here.

Thomas Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: tlee@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ByTomLee

Visit link:

Marissa Mayer feared sexism in medicine so she chose tech instead - San Francisco Chronicle

Osteopathic Medicine, Born In Missouri, Now Seeks To Fill Rural Health Care Gaps – KCUR

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Danzig

Twenty-four-year-old Kalee Woody says that when she was growing up in Bronaugh, Missouri, she saw the small town slowly fading, as businesses closed, growth stagnated and residents had to drive to other places to see a doctor.

Its a town that, like much of rural Missouri, is recognized by the federal government as having a shortage of healthcare providers.

Now Woody wants to help.

She enrolled in medical school and in July starts classes at the just-opened Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences campus in Joplin, the first new medical school in Missouri in nearly half a century . Woody wants to serve someday in a rural community much like the one she grew up in where, as a doctor, shell also be seen as a community leader.

They have so much contact with different people. They just get to know everyone. Everyone knows them and, by association, they become a leader, Woody says.

Osteopathic medical schools, whose numbers have doubled in the last 10 years, are in the middle of a huge push into smaller communities.

Were going to have an opportunity to teach those students in a rural environment and show them how cool it really is to work there, says Darrin DAgostino, executive dean of the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences.

DAgostino says osteopathic schools take a more holistic approach than M.D. programs, which accounts for the high numbers of doctors of osteopathic medicine, or D.O.s, going into primary care instead of specialties.

These days, the care provided by D.O.s and M.D.s is typically so similar that most patients wouldnt know the difference. But that hasnt always been the case.

At the root of osteopathic medicine is osteopathic manipulative treatment, a hands-on technique that looks like a cross between chiropractic manipulation and massage. Theres evidence this can help treat some kinds of pain.

It sounds New-Age-y, but the idea dates back to the days of the Old West.

In the late 1800s, a former Kansas state legislator and civil war surgeon, Andrew Taylor Still, decided to reconsider basic assumptions about medicine after he watched three of his children die from spinal meningitis.

The therapeutic options were very different than we have available to us right now, and he thought that the available system of medicine simply didnt work, says Joel Howell, an M.D. and professor of the history of medicine at the University of Michigan, who has written about Still and the practice he invented.

Still eventually founded the first osteopathic school in Kirksville, Missouri, in order to teach his kind of medicine, which was based on a very different understanding of the body and human health.

He set out to devise an alternative healing practice based on this notion that manipulation of the spine could improve blood flow and thus improve health by allowing the body to heal itself, Howell says.

Osteopathic manipulation is now just one of the techniques that D.O.s are taught to use along with mainstream treatments.

The burst of new osteopathic medical schools is part of a decades-long effort to move osteopathic physicians into practice throughout the country. Many are in states like Alaska, Mississippi and New Mexico that have very small numbers of working D.O.s.

Howell says these newly minted physicians can probably help out a lot in medically underserved parts of those states, but they may have to do some public relations work first.

I think they should be prepared to explain what being a D.O. means, Howell says.

The bigger challenge may be acceptance from M.D.s. They still dominate medicine, making up the preponderance of doctors, and almost all of the most prestigious medical schools such as Harvard, Stanford and Johns Hopkins churn out M.D.s.

The general reception is that we ignore it, Howell says. We dont know much about it; we dont do it. I think if pushed, most people would figure that for some kinds of illnesses, it doesnt do any harm, and it might well help.

Earlier this month, hundreds of curious Joplin residents turned out for the opening of the new Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences medical school. School and community leaders in this city of 51,000 in the southwestern corner of Missouri are confident that in surrounding rural areas with a shortage of health care providers, patients wont care much about whether someones a D.O. or an M.D. just as long as theyre a doctor.

Alex Smith is a health reporter for KCUR. You can reach him on Twitter @AlexSmithKCUR

Read the original here:

Osteopathic Medicine, Born In Missouri, Now Seeks To Fill Rural Health Care Gaps - KCUR

Medicine: Heroes of global health – Nature.com

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Danzig

Directors: Kief Davidson and Pedro Kos Impact Partners: 2017.

Moupali Dias/Partners in Health

Paul Farmer with a boy in Haiti, where his aid group runs clinics and hospitals.

At this year's Miss USA beauty contest, winner Kra McCullough reignited an old debate. A scientist at the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, McCullough declared that health care ought to be a privilege earned through work, not a right that the rich should not be forced to cover health costs for the poor. This is often a reality globally; as a result, skeleton-thin children die daily of diseases that are simple to fix.

There are many scenes depicting such tragedies in Bending the Arc, a documentary about aid group Partners in Health (PIH), co-founded by physician Paul Farmer. The organization, which is based in Boston, Massachusetts, aims to strengthen health systems in places where there are few or none. The film's name is based on a quote from nineteenth-century social reformer and abolitionist Theodore Parker, who said that society's actions arc towards justice over time.

Bending the Arc's producers include Hollywood heavy-hitters Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, but global-health and policy wonks will be more impressed by the involvement of hotshots such as World Bank president Jim Yong Kim and economist Jeffrey Sachs, to name a few.

With archival footage and photographs, the film follows the organization's development from its founding to today although it bounces around in time slightly, so that projects such as tackling tuberculosis and HIV cluster together. Near the beginning, Kim and Farmer pal around as colleagues at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Farmer enrolled at Harvard Medical School after a trip to Haiti, where he and health campaigner Ophelia Dahl (daughter of writer Roald) worked in a medical centre.

We see the young, idealistic Kim and Farmer expounding on their responsibility as doctors to work towards social justice in post-colonial countries. Kim lays much of the blame for the lack of health-care services in these nations on World Bank austerity measures. Farmer convinces Kim to join him in building a clinic in a rural and under-served region of Haiti. Together with Dahl and others, they found PIH and create a community-based programme to treat tuberculosis. They expand to Peru, where they demonstrate that people with drug-resistant TB can stick to a daily treatment regime for up to two years and be cured as long as doctors provide the costly pills free of charge. But when they present the data, many public-health experts and economists don't believe them. Their scepticism is rooted in the dilemma of donating expensive medicines to those who cannot afford them.

Kim then learns that the drugs are no longer protected by patents. Prices are lowered and policies change. But we don't get the details of this transformation, because the film leaps into its second act: HIV. Our protagonists are once more outraged as they watch people die from AIDS because they cannot afford antiretroviral therapy. Again, high-level experts argue that it can be no other way. The sheer number of racist and condescending statements caught on tape is dizzying.

Suddenly, in 2001, United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan announces the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Two years later, George W. Bush launches the world's largest HIV fund, the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Over the next few years, the number of people receiving antiretroviral therapy doubles.

After this, the film begins to feel like a checklist. One section flicks rapidly through the 1994 Rwandan genocide and an initiative to boost the country's corps of health-care workers. Then there's a bit about cervical-cancer screenings; an Ebola outbreak in Uganda; a Twitter account that connects health workers to the Rwandan Ministry of Health. When I hear a bold statement about how Twitter is helping to transform the nation's health system, I wonder about the film's credibility for a moment the utility of the social platform pales in comparison to a real need for nurses, medicine and infrastructure.

But PIH has undoubtedly been successful by several measures. Rather than operate as an independent unit like so many non-profit organizations, the group integrates its aid with the public-health-care sectors in ten countries. For this, Farmer has become a hero to students of global health. And since 2012, Kim has led the World Bank. His early criticisms of it were, he notes, all down to wanting the institution to change. If you are cynical you will live out your low ambitions, he says. Cultivate pessimism of the intellect but optimism of the will.

In an out-take at the end of Bending the Arc, Farmer is on a plane, looking exhausted but satisfied. In high school I wrote a paper saying why the right to health care is bad, he giggles. What an idiot.

Go here to read the rest:

Medicine: Heroes of global health - Nature.com

Mayo-Connected Regenerative Medicine Startup Inks Downtown Rochester Lease – Twin Cities Business Magazine

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Danzig

A regenerative medicine startup led by a Mayo Clinic cardiologist is setting up shop in a downtown Rochesters Minnesota BioBusiness Center, according to newly filed city documents. The filing indicated Rion LLC, a Minnesota company registered to Dr. Atta Behfar of the Mayo Clinic Center for Regenerative Medicine, has signed a three-year lease for just over 2,000 square feet at the city-owned BioBusiness Center. The lease begins July 1. The nine-story BioBusiness Center opened in downtown Rochester in 2007 as a center for innovation in biotechnology, promoting the linkages between the researchers and practitioners at Mayo Clinic; instructors and students at the University of Minnesota Rochester, and the biotechnology business community. It houses the Mayo Clinic Business Accelerator among other tenants. Behfar is an assistant medical professor and leads a laboratory at Mayo concentrating on applying regenerative medicine the practice of using stem cells to regenerate damaged or missing tissue to prevent and cure chronic heart conditions. Specifically, his group focuses on development and use of both stem cells and protein-based therapies to reverse injury caused by lack of blood flow to the heart. The business direction of Rion, meanwhile, appears to be specifically geared toward a cutting-edge development in the field of regenerative medicine the use of extracellular vesicles (EVs) in speeding and directing the growth of regenerating tissues in the heart and elsewhere in the body. EVs, long brushed off by researchers as mere debris in the bloodstream, are membrane-enclosed spheres that break off from the surfaces of nearly all living cells when disturbed. They transport lipids, proteins and nucleic acids, and have now been found to be important players in cell-to-cell communication, influencing the behavior and even the identity of cells. Their emerging role in regenerative medicine could potentially be huge. For instance, by bioengineering them to transport protein payloads from stem cells, they can be used to signal the bodys own cells to regenerate tissue instead of transplanting the stem cells themselves, thus eliminating the chance of host immune system rejection. A patent application filed last year by Rion, Behfar, Mayo Center for Regenerative Medicine Director Dr. Andre Terzic and two other local inventors is aimed at adapting the healing properties of a specific type of EV into a unique kind of product that could have wide applications. It focuses on EVs derived from blood platelets, which are well known to stop bleeding, promote the growth of new tissues and blood vessels, relieve inflammation and provide a host of other benefits. The patent describes a system of encapsulating platelet EVs derived from human or animal blood into a platelet honey and delivering it to target areas of the body, such as damaged tissues or organs. Its purported effect is to regenerate, repair and restore damaged tissue, with possible uses including treating heart disease; healing damaged bones or joints; wound treatment; and cosmetic skin applications. A brief business description provided by Rion to Rochester city officials stated the company is focused on the delivery of cutting edge regenerative technologies to patients at low cost and in off-the-shelf fashion. Building on initial research at Mayo Clinic, Rion LLC aims to develop and bring to practice products in the space of wound healing, orthopedics and cardiac disease. The statement also added the company is an enthusiastic backer of Rochesters efforts to develop a local biotech business cluster, and is seeking to participate in the realization of the Destination Medical Center initiative.

The rest is here:

Mayo-Connected Regenerative Medicine Startup Inks Downtown Rochester Lease - Twin Cities Business Magazine

Goodbye: Looking back on four years of medical school – Scope (blog)

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Danzig

Somehow, time has passed, and this is my last entry on Stanford Medicine Unplugged.

It feels like just months ago that my classmates and I arrived on campus, only to pack our bags immediately and head off into the woods for our orientation camping trip. I remember seeing a baby bear, followed closely by its mother, and subsequently huddling in my tent with a fellow classmate, too afraid to venture back into the dark.

It feels like just weeks ago that we finished our pre-clerkship exams and hung out in front of the Li Ka Shing Center, enjoying the sunshine and one anothers company. It was soon after that we disappeared into our Step 1 study caves and emerged weeks later paler, thinner, and in some of the boys cases, hairier to start third year or take gap years.

It feels like just days ago that I started my very first clinical rotation and had no idea how to write an admission note or a discharge summary. To this day, I recall the kindness of the three residents who patiently walked me through every step of every day on that rotation, slowly molding my uncertainties into what, if you squinted, almost resembled confidence.

It feels like just this past weekend that I uploaded my personal statement and CV to ERAS, only to read and re-read my application obsessively before finally working up the courage to hit submit. How surreal it feels to be done with interviews, and to have matched.

It feels like just yesterday that I stood proudly beside my family at graduation, thrilled to be able to share this special day with them, to tell my dad that Yes, there truly are no more tuition bills to be paid, and to finally be able to add that MD to the end of my name.

As I think back on the past four years, I want to thank the audience of SM Unplugged for allowing me to share my journey through medical school, from the inaugural entry back in January 2014 to this final entry of mine, three and a half years later. Youve given me the chance to reflect on both the highs and lows of medical school, and youve helped me remember what a privilege it is to be a physician, to see others in what are often the most vulnerable moments of their lives. Thank you so much.

Stanford Medicine Unplugged is a forum for students to chronicle their experiences in medical school. The student-penned entries appear on Scope once a week during the academic year; the entire blog series can be found in the Stanford Medicine Unpluggedcategory.

Hamsika Chandrasekar recently graduated fromStanfords medical school.

Photoscourtesy of Hamsika Chandrasekar

Read this article:

Goodbye: Looking back on four years of medical school - Scope (blog)

Construction underway on Meridian medical school – Meridian Press

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Danzig

The new medical school is taking shape in Meridian.

Construction on the Idaho College of Osteopathic Medicine began in May. A steel frame can be seen from Interstate 84 between the Meridian Road and Eagle Road exits.

The college, which is still in the accreditation process, plans to open in August 2018 for a class of 150 students. It shares a campus with the Idaho State University Meridian Health Science Center, but it is a private, separate entity.

The $34 million facility will have three stories and 94,000 square feet.

While our contractors move steadily outside, we are diligently working inside to ensure we have the right staff in place, the curriculum ready and our classrooms prepared to open our doors next summer, stated Dr. Robert Hasty, ICOM founding dean and chief academic officer.

Meridian-based Engineered Structures Inc. (ESI) is building the facility. ESI has a camera that captures the buildings progress every 10 minutes. Photos can be seen at app.oxblue.com/open/idaho/collegeofosteopathic.

Read the rest here:

Construction underway on Meridian medical school - Meridian Press

How the Supreme Court is restoring religious liberty in America – New York Post

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Danzig

God save the United States and this honorable court. Even with all the cynicism in our politics, that prayer is still the traditional announcement of the opening of a session of the highest court in our land.

And its starting to look like one good deed begets another. The Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Roberts is well on its way to becoming a historic champion of religious freedom.

That is the outlook after justices on Monday blocked Missouri from denying a grant for safe playgrounds to a church school. The subsidy, for paving playgrounds with recycled tires, had nothing to do with religion.

The case wont secure the reputation of the Roberts court in a fell swoop. Not the way, say, Brown v. Board of Education secured the reputation of the court led by Chief Justice Earl Warren.

The long legal battle for religious freedom has been taking place in small-to-medium sized legal skirmishes all over the country. With the Missouri case, the hugeness of the trend is starting to become clear.

The Show Me state, the court ruled, cant discriminate against religious people by denying them the non-religious support everyone else gets. It would violate the free exercise clause of the First Amendment, the court ruled.

It also would have turned Christians and those who choose to go to other religious schools into second-class citizens. So more than playground paving was on the line in Missouri.

The court ruled by a solid majority of seven to two. The only dissenters were Justices Sonia Sotomayor, who seems to grow angry at the idea of unfettered religious practice, and the constitutional crabapple Ruth Bader Ginsburg. (Only a few months ago, Ginsburg joked that were Donald Trump elected president shed quit America for New Zealand. She probably didnt know that the head of state in New Zealand must swear he is a Protestant.)

Trinity Lutheran, in any event, would be a satisfying case in and of itself. But its part of a string of cases in which the Roberts court has vindicated religious Americans often by astonishing majorities.

The trend began to emerge in 2012, when the court blocked federal authorities from trying to apply equal-employment law to the hiring of church ministers. That case, known as Hosanna-Tabor v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, was unanimous.

Several key cases followed. In one, the court ruled that the upstate town of Greece was within its rights to permit volunteer chaplains to open town meetings with a prayer. The New York Times editorial board nearly fainted.

Then came the Hobby Lobby case. Thats where the court exempted the religious owners of a closely held retail chain of craft stores from the contraceptive mandate that was put into effect by the Department of Health and Human Services after ObamaCares passage.

That puzzler divided the court five to four and infuriated the godless left. Thats because it seemed to suggest that a capitalistic corporation could have religious views, as if the family owners didnt matter.

The courts secularist wing buckled, though, before the Little Sisters of the Poor. The doughty nuns who care for the elderly poor finally won their right not to be entangled in the birth-control mandate in a unanimous ruling by the nine.

What was President Barack Obama thinking? Someday historians will try to divine how much the Democrats were damaged at the polls by their wholly gratuitous attempt to bully a charity named Little Sisters of the Poor.

Not that the fight is over. The court flinched last year from hearing the appeal of a Washington-state pharmacist, Greg Stormans, seeking shelter under the First Amendment against the states attempt to force him to sell an abortion drug.

The same day the court ruled for Trinity Lutheran, though, it agreed to hear the case of the wedding-cake baker, Jack Phillips, under fire from the Orwellian Colorado Civil Rights Commission for refusing to bake a cake for a same-sex marriage. Must such a religious person choose between God and Colorado?

Its hard to predict how the court will rule in that case, which will be heard in the fall. Its not hard, though, to forecast that if the justices do rule for the rights of the religious baker, they will extend a remarkable trend.

And answer the prayer to God for the salvation of their honorable court.

Read the original:

How the Supreme Court is restoring religious liberty in America - New York Post

Select Page ::