Horizon Nj Health Nj Family Care – Get Your Quote & Save

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Horizon Nj Health Nj Family Care - Get Your Quote & Save

Health Care: A Strong Run, but Some Stocks Still Look Undervalued

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Overthe past few yearsthe valuationofthehealth-care sector has risen toslightly exceedour fair value estimates in aggregate. However, we still seeseveral stocks that offer attractive valuations across the different industries.In the table below, we highlight a few of our top picks. However,we believe the current environment for health care lends itself to a stock-pickers' market rather than a focus on industries.

In the pharmaceutical and device industries, companies are acquiring and merging to create scale and focus in key strategic areas, in addition to deploying their previously trapped overseas cash, asis the case with the pending acquisition of Covidien by Medtronic . This deal also showcase the desire to reduce the tax rate of the acquiring firms. However, recent changes in U.S. tax policy will likely slow the torrid pace of M&A seen over the past two years, as the new policy will limit the benefits of reducing the tax rate for U.S. firms merging with an international company. The updated policy likely was the main driver of the collapsed merger between AbbVie and Shire PLC . Further, the new environment makes it much less likely that Pfizer will return to bid for AstraZeneca following the failed attempt earlier in the year. However, the white knight acquisition of Allergan by Actavis to fend off Valeant looks likely to complete and showcases the importance of scale and cost-cuttingbetween two major health-care companies.

Turning toinnovation in health care, the focus ofdrug companies is shifting toward specialty-care areas, whichshould increase drug-development productivity. The pipelines of the major biotech and pharmaceutical companies are focused on smaller patient populations in areas such as immunology, virology, and oncology. We believe these areas offer unmet medical need, which should lead to better approval odds and stronger pricing power. Further, despite treating smaller patient populations, these indications can turn into major blockbusters. Merck's recent approval of Keytruda in melanoma is a good example of a small patient population, but an annualprice of about $150,000 should turn the drug into a major commercial success.

Although the economic downturn passed several years ago, health-care utilization remains tepid, but recent signs are pointing to a pickup of the market. Historically, a lag of a couple of years tends to follow a recession before health-care spending returns. However, the magnitude of the recession and increasing cost-sharing with patients has delayed a sharp rebound in health-care use. The increase in U.S. hospital admissions starting in the second quarter suggests a turning point in health-care usage; U.S. health-care reform is likely driving part of the uptick. With the mandated health-care insurance and expanded government insurance in the U.S., more people are seeking out treatment. We expect a continual, gradual increase in demand for health care, but probably not a return to 2007 levels anytime soon.

Baxter Although competition is increasingfor Advate, Baxter's highly profitable hemophilia A product, we think this diversified firm's competitive advantages remain strong and the stock looks undervalued. We think this diversified health-care firm has earned a wide economic moat, stemming from economies of scale in plasma processing, injectable therapies, and dialysis products. Intangible assets--like Baxter's strong brands, patent protection, and pipeline productivity--also allow the firm to remain remarkably profitable in tough industries. More than 70% of Baxter's sales come from products with market-leading positions, and the safety and quality of its biologic therapies allow it to charge a price premium over competitors.

Elekta (EKTA) (Sweden) We believe Elekta is well-positioned in the radiotherapy market, which has tremendous growth potential as improvements in technology, increasing awareness of the clinical benefits, and a favorable cost/benefit proposition should dramatically increase global adoption over the next decade. Further, we feel that Elekta carries a wide moat based on a solid position in a market that is characterized by high barriers to entry, high switching costs, and strong intellectual property. This field has evolved into a duopoly over the past decade with virtually no new entrants, and the main two players (Elekta and Varian ) have built durable franchises and are well-positioned for growth.

Sanofi Despite some weakness in pricing for insulin drugs, we expect Sanofi's key narrow- and wide-moat divisions (emerging markets, diabetes, vaccines, consumer products, rare-disease drugs, and animal health treatments) to continue to post steady gains. Further, based on our view that the investment community underappreciates Sanofi's strong competitive advantages and improving growth profile, we believeSanofitrades significantly below our fair value estimate. The companys strengths in patents, but also from branding, cost advantages, and efficient scale areas give it a wide moat that is supported by the majority of Morningstar's moat sources.

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Health Care: A Strong Run, but Some Stocks Still Look Undervalued

Health Care SPDR Consolidating Gains as J&J, Merck Show Negative Trends

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NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLV) consists of 54 companies including four components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. This exchange-traded fund has a year-to-date gain of 25% despite peaking with an all-time intraday high at $71.42 on Dec.8. The health care sector has thus outperformed the Dow 30 and S&P 500 and their gains of 8.9% and 13%, respectively.

The Dow 30 and S&P 500 set all-time intraday highs on Friday at 18103 and 2092.7, respectively. Before showing the daily and weekly charts for the health care ETF here's a brief look at four Dow components in this exchange-traded fund.

Must Read: Jim Cramers 4 Best Stock Picks for the Health Care Sector

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) ($105.33) set its all-time intraday high at $109.49 on Nov. 13, then held its 200-day simple moving average at $102.90 on Dec. 16. The stock has a year-to-date gain of 15% so it still outperformed both the Dow 30 and S&P 500. J&J had a strong momentum run-up of 15% from a low of $95.10 on Oct. 15 to the all-time high set on Nov. 13. The weekly chart is negative with its key weekly moving average at $105.97.

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Health Care SPDR Consolidating Gains as J&J, Merck Show Negative Trends

B.C. health-care workers returning from West Africa monitored for Ebola

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A patient who tested negative for the Ebola virus this week in Kelowna is only one of more than a dozen B.C. health-care workers who have been or currently are in West Africa to fight a deadly outbreak of the disease, provincial health officials say.

And the monitoring and testing regime for that patient is likely to be used more widely in weeks and months to come as more health-care workers return from regions where the virus has killed thousands of people since an outbreak began earlier this year.

I think it is important to note that there are a number of health-care workers who have returned from working with Ebola treatment centres in West Africa, and they have been monitored safely in the community, and there are a number of them being monitored at this time, deputy provincial health officer Bonnie Henry said on Tuesday in a conference call.

So it is likely we may have something like this arise again, with another health-care worker, but at this point, we are confident this person is being managed safely and carefully.

Seven B.C. health-care workers including the one in hospital in Kelowna are being monitored after returning from West Africa, while another nine have completed the monitoring period and been cleared, Dr. Henry said.

The health-care worker who was tested this week had been at an Ebola care centre in Sierra Leone and was being monitored according to provincial protocols, which require a 21-day self-monitoring period and remaining within two hours of a hospital equipped for Ebola testing.

The worker, who returned to Canada on Christmas Day, felt mild flu-like symptoms on Sunday evening and reported to Kelowna General Hospital on Monday, where tests were conducted and the patient is in isolation. Preliminary results have been negative for Ebola, and additional tests are expected to confirm those results.

Provincial health officials, citing privacy regulations, would not give details about the workers identity.

But the Canadian Red Cross, saying it had the patients consent, identified her as Patrice Gordon, one of 24 Canadian aid workers who travelled with the Red Cross to Ebola-affected countries.

Mike Ertel, chief of staff at Kelowna General Hospital, read a statement from Ms. Gordon on the conference call, although he did not identify her at that time.

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B.C. health-care workers returning from West Africa monitored for Ebola

Report Prompts Mixed View of Health Care Sign-Ups

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The first 50-state report on the latest sign-up season under President Barack Obama's health care law shows that more than 4 million people selected plans for the first time or re-enrolled.

The administration called it "an encouraging start."

More than 3.4 million people enrolled using HealthCare.gov as of Dec. 15, and more than 600,000 people selected plans in the state-run marketplaces, according to a Health and Human Services Department report released Tuesday. The figures are generally up to date through Dec. 13.

About half of those enrolling are first-timers and half are returning customers, suggesting there are about 2 million Americans new to the program.

The figures look good for the administration meeting its goal of 9.1 million customers signed up and paying premiums in 2015, independent experts said. But they predicted the program won't meet another target: the 13 million enrollments in 2015 forecast by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

"It would take a massive surge in enrollment over the next six weeks" to reach 13 million, said Larry Levitt of the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.

Other experts believe that for the program to be sustainable it would have to exceed the goal set by the administration.

"I really think they need to get to 13 million this year to have a sustainable program, not this low-ball estimate that nobody takes seriously," said Washington-based health care consultant Robert Laszewski. "We don't know how many of these people are going to pay. And we don't know how many of the existing people are going to re-enroll."

Young adults still aren't flocking to the program, which could increase costs down the road. About 24 percent of the enrollees are 18 to 34 years old, an age group needed to offset the costs of older, sicker enrollees and keep premiums from rising. That's about the same proportion of young people signing up in the first three months of last enrollment season. Laszewski and other independent experts say that should be closer to 40 percent to help keep premiums down.

The report includes figures for 14 state marketplaces including Washington, D.C., and the 37 states using HealthCare.gov. It doesn't include people who are being automatically re-enrolled in health plans because that re-enrollment process happened on the federal marketplace Dec. 16-18.

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Report Prompts Mixed View of Health Care Sign-Ups

Health care enrollment for 2015 plans tops 7 million

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WASHINGTON At least 7.1 million people so far have enrolled in 2015 health plans through the Affordable Care Act insurance marketplaces, according to a pair of federal reports issued Tuesday.

As of Dec. 26, 6.5 million people signed up for coverage in federally run exchanges that includes new enrollments, people actively re-enrolling and existing customers who allowed their coverage to automatically renew, according to the Department of Health and Human Services' weekly enrollment update.

A second HHS report, which provides the most comprehensive look at the new enrollment period, found that 633,000 people selected coverage in the 14 states running their own health insurance marketplaces as of Dec. 15. That's in addition to those who signed up through the federal exchanges, for a total of roughly 7.1 million.

However, HHS said most states haven't reported complete information about the number of re-enrollments, meaning the actual enrollment count is likely higher.

About 3.4 million people had actively selected an exchange plan in the 37 states relying on the HealthCare.gov enrollment platform as of Dec. 15, the federal deadline to sign up for coverage starting Jan. 1. About 87 percent of those people qualified for premium subsidies, and about 52 percent were purchasing coverage through the federal-run marketplaces for the first time this year. The remaining 48 percent were returning customers who either selected a new plan or actively re-enrolled in existing coverage.

Just 106,000 people had selected exchange health plans in the first month of enrollment last year, when severe technology flaws threatened the launch of the law's coverage expansion. This current enrollment period has run much more smoothly, though some customers are experiencing problems on a smaller scale.

Of the 3.4 million people selecting health plans through the federal enrollment website, 24 percent were between 18 and 34 years old, while 30 percent were between 55 and 64 years old. The young adult enrollment rate was up just slightly from 23 percent compared to the first three months of last year's enrollment season, the HHS said.

Of the 37 states using the HealthCare.gov enrollment platform, Mississippi had the highest percentage of new customers (58 percent) choosing 2015 health plans, while Alaska, Maine and North Dakota shared the lowest (39 percent). About 673,000 people have already signed up for 2015 coverage in Florida, the most of any state.

The administration seems likely to hit its own goal of enrolling 9.1 million people in 2015. That's significantly lower than the 13 million originally projected by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

The enrollment period is scheduled to end Feb. 15, just a few weeks before the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on a lawsuit challenging the legality of subsidies provided through the federal-run exchanges. If the Supreme Court accepts ACA opponents' argument that the law only authorizes subsidies in states that set up their own exchanges, that would invalidate financial assistance to millions of enrollees in states relying on HealthCare.gov.

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Health care enrollment for 2015 plans tops 7 million

Photos: Documenting the Horrific Battle Against Ebola

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A health care worker from the Bong County Ebola Treatment Unit places a suspected Ebola patient inside a makeshift ambulance in village in Bong County, Liberia. The process is slow and tedious because the ambulance can only hold one patient at a time and has to travel hours to the nearest Ebola treatment unit.

Adam Desiderio/ABC News

An ambulance team from the Bong County Ebola Treatment Unit removes personal protective gear after transporting suspected Ebola patients from their village into the ambulance. The protective equipment is stored in trash bags and burned.

Adam Desiderio/ABC News

Cephus, 18, sits and waits for an ambulance team to take him to the Bong County Ebola Treatment Unit. He has already walked for two hours and it will be another four before he reaches the unit.

Adam Desiderio/ABC News

Cephus, 18, inside a makeshift ambulance en route to the Bong County Ebola Treatment Unit. The four-hour drive through rocky terrain is the closest treatment unit in the area.

Adam Desiderio/ABC News

The gated entrance to the Bong County Ebola Treatment Unit, the only one of its kind within a four-hour radius. It sits at the top of a hill above an old leper colony and is run by the International Medical Corps with the help of USAID.

Adam Desiderio/ABC News

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Photos: Documenting the Horrific Battle Against Ebola

Health Care Sector Update for 12/31/2014: RDHL, SCMP, MYL

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Top Health-care stocks:

JNJ: -0.02%

PFE: flat

ABT: flat

MRK: flat

AMGN: flat

Health-care shares were generally unchanged in pre-market trading Wednesday.

Redhill Biopharma's ( RDHL ) American depositary shares rose in Wednesday's pre-market session after the Israeli biopharmaceutical company said the UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency has validated its marketing-authorization application for Bekinda, an extended-release, once-daily oral pill formulation of the antiemetic drug ondansetron to prevent chemotherapy and radiotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting. Shares were up 17% at $12.55 recently in the pre-market session Over the past 52 weeks, the stock has traded between $6.89 and $21.

Sucampo Pharmaceuticals ( SCMP ) said Health Canada has accepted the company's New Drug Submission for AMITIZA 24 mcg capsules for the treatment of chronic idiopathic constipation in adults and opioid induced constipation in adults with chronic non-cancer pain. Shares were up 2.4% at $14.22 during Wednesday's pre-market trading session. Over the past 52 weeks, the stock has traded between $5.80 and $14.38.

Meanwhile Mylan ( MYL ), a pharmaceutical company, said its subsidiary in India has been selected by the South African National Department of Health as one of the suppliers of antiretroviral medications used to treat HIV/AIDS. The company was selected for a tender period beginning April 1, 2015 and lasting through March 31, 2018. Shares were unchanged during Wednesday's pre-market trading session. Over the past 52 weeks, the stock has traded between $41.97 and $59.60.

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Health Care Sector Update for 12/31/2014: RDHL, SCMP, MYL

Study narrows down genetic suspects in autism

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Researchers have narrowed down the list of genes implicated in autism spectrum disorder, and they appear to point toward a part of the brain that has largely been overlooked.

Most research into the genetic roots of autism, a highly heritable disorder that affects about 1 in 68 children, starts with a kind of inventory of genes. Then, it narrows down this genome-wide survey to prime suspects that appear to be different among those with one or several of the symptoms of autism.

That gene-by-gene approach, however, has unearthed too many suspects, each with somewhat vague relationships to a small sliver of the autism spectrum. That situation has sparked some to abandon the gene-by-gene approach in favor of environmental factors that may alter gene behavior.

Whats special about autism is that it doesnt seem like its a one-gene thing, said Stanford UniversitySchool of Medicinegeneticist Michael Snyder, lead investigator of the study published online Tuesday in the journal Molecular Systems Biology.

Maybe this is a tough way to look at it, Snyder said of the gene-by-gene approach. Maybe a better way to look at it is to see what the normal biological landscape looks like, and see how people who are mutated for autism map onto that.

What followed was a complex computational task that corralled proteins into scores of modules tightly bound by their inter-related functions. Then Snyders team overlaid the map of gene variants implicated in autism.

At first glance, proteins encoded by these 383 suspect genes were scattered among many of these functional modules. But a few of the modules screamed out with autism connections, both from existing data and a genome screening the researchers conducted, Snyder said.

One module involved molecular activity that goes on all over the brain, particularly involving synapses, the tiny spaces where electrochemical signals cross for one neuron to another. This helps explain why so much autism research points toward problems with synapses.

But there was another module just as rich in autism implications, and this one implicated the corpus callosum. That thick band of fibers connects the brains two hemispheres, and its generally smaller among those with autism a disease marked by many anomalies in connectivity.

The corpus callosum is chock full of a different kind of brain cell, oligodendrocytes, which provide a sheath of insulation around the transmission lines of neurons, known as their axons. That greatly aids the propagation of electrochemical signals along the neuron. Defects in this myelin sheathing have been associated with developmentaldisorders.

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Study narrows down genetic suspects in autism

What Rare Disorder Is Hiding in Your DNA?

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As comprehensive genetic tests become more widespread, patients and experts mull how to deal with unexpected findings

Skip Sterling

Last spring Laura Murphy, then 28 years old, went to a doctor to find out if a harmless flap of skin she had always had on the back of her neck was caused by a genetic mutation. Once upon a time, maybe five years ago, physicians would have focused on just that one question. But today doctors tend to run tests that pick up mutations underlying a range of hereditary conditions. Murphy learned not only that a genetic defect was indeed responsible for the flap but also that she had another inherited genetic mutation.

This one predisposed her to long QT syndrome, a condition that dramatically increases the risk of sudden cardiac death. In people with the syndrome, anything that startles themsay, a scary movie or an alarm clock waking them from a deep slumbermight kill by causing the heart to beat completely erratically.

Doctors call this second, unexpected result an incidental finding because it emerged during a test primarily meant to look for something else. The finding was not accidental, because the laboratory was scouring certain genes for abnormalities, but it was unexpected.

Murphy, whose name was changed for this story, will most likely have plenty of company very soon. The growing use of comprehensive genetic tests in clinics and hospitals practically guarantees an increasing number of incidental discoveries in coming years. Meanwhile the technical ability to find these mutations has rapidly outpaced scientists understanding of how doctors and patients should respond to the surprise results.

Unknown Unknowns Incidental findings from various medical tests have long bedeviled physicians and their patients. They appear in about a third of all CT scans, for example. A scan of the heart might reveal odd shadows in nearby lung tissue. Further investigation of the unexpected resultseither through exploratory surgery or yet more testscarries its own risks, not to mention triggering intense anxiety in the patient. Follow-up exams many times reveal that the shadow reflects nothing at alljust normal variation with no health consequences.

What makes incidental findings from genetic tests different, however, is their even greater level of uncertainty. Geneticists still do not know enough about how most mutations in the human genome affect the body to reliably recommend any treatments or other actions based simply on their existence. Furthermore, even if the potential effects are known, the mutation may require some input from the environment before it will cause its bad effects. Thus, the presence of the gene does not necessarily mean that it will do damage. Genetics is not destiny. In Murphy's case, her mutation means that she has a roughly 50 to 80 percent chance of developing long QT syndrome, and the presence of the mutation alone is not a sure indicator she will be afflicted, says her physician, Jim Evans, a genetics and medicine professor at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. To be safe, he has advised her to meet with a cardiac specialist to talk about next steps, including possibly starting beta-blocker drugs to regularize her heart rate.

The incidence of hard-to-interpret results is expected to rise because the cost of surveying large swaths of the genome has dropped so lowto around $1,000. It is typically less expensive to get preselected information about the 20,000 or so genes that make up a person's exomethe section of the genome that provides instructions for making proteinsthan to perform a more precision-oriented test that targets a single gene. As a consequence, scientists and policy makers are now scrambling to set up guidelines for how much information from such testing to share with patients and for how best to help them deal with the inevitable incidental findings.

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What Rare Disorder Is Hiding in Your DNA?

Cancer treatment potential discovered in gene repair mechanism

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Protein UbcH7 regulates action of 53BP1 gene repair route where cancer cells are met with fatal inhospitality

Case Western Reserve researchers have identified a two-pronged therapeutic approach that shows great potential for weakening and then defeating cancer cells. The team's complex mix of genetic and biochemical experiments unearthed a way to increase the presence of a tumor-suppressing protein which, in turn, gives it the strength to direct cancer cells toward a path that leads to their destruction.

If the laboratory findings are supported by tests in animal models, the breakthrough could hold the promise of increasing the effectiveness of radiation and chemotherapy in shrinking or even eliminating tumors. The key is to build up a "good" protein - p53-binding protein 1 (53BP1) -- so that it weakens the cancer cells, leaving them more susceptible to existing cancer-fighting measures.

The breakthrough detailed appeared in the Nov. 24 online edition of the journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences).

"Our discovery one day could lead to a gene therapy where extra amounts of 53BP1 will be generated to make cancer cells more vulnerable to cancer treatment," said senior author Youwei Zhang, PhD, assistant professor of pharmacology, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, and member of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center. "Alternatively, we could design molecules to increase levels of 53BP1 in cancers with the same cancer-killing end result."

The cornerstone of the research involves DNA repair - more specifically, double-stand DNA repair. DNA damage is the consequence of an irregular change in the chemical structure of DNA, which in turn damages and even kills cells. The most lethal irregularity to DNA is the DNA double-strand break in the chromosome. DNA double-strand breaks are caused by everything from reactive oxygen components occurring with everyday bodily metabolism to more damaging assaults such as radiation or chemical agents.

The body operates two repair shops, or pathways, to fix these double strand breaks. One provides rapid, but incomplete repair - namely, gluing the DNA strand ends back together. The problem with the glue method is that it leaves the DNA strands unable to transmit enough information for the cell to function properly - leading to a high cell fatality rate.

The second shop, or pathway, uses information from intact, undamaged DNA to instruct damaged cells on how to mend broken double strands. During his study, Zhang and fellow investigators discovered a previously unidentified function of a known gene, UbcH7, in regulating DNA double-strand break repair. Specifically, they found that depleting UbcH7 led to a dramatic increase in the level of the 53BP1 protein.

"What we propose is increasing the level of 53BP1 to force cancer cells into the error-prone pathway where they will die," Zhang said. "The idea is to suppress deliberately the second accurate repair pathway where cancer cells would prefer to go. It is a strategy that would lead to enhanced effectiveness of cancer therapy drugs."

The next research step for Zhang and his team will be to test their theory in animal models with cancer. Investigators would study the effects of introducing the protein 53BP1 in lab mice with cancer and then applying chemotherapy and radiotherapy as treatment.

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Cancer treatment potential discovered in gene repair mechanism

Preliminary Results from Gene Therapy in Patients with Beta Thalassemia – Video

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Preliminary Results from Gene Therapy in Patients with Beta Thalassemia
At the American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting, preliminary data using bluebird bio #39;s gene therapy to treat beta thalassemia and sickle cell anemia was...

By: Rare Disease Report

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Preliminary Results from Gene Therapy in Patients with Beta Thalassemia - Video

Why 2014 has been a breakthrough year for gene therapy

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Rhys Evans life could have been very different.

He could have been a bubble boy, forced to walk around in a protective see-through plastic canopy. You see, he was born with an immune system that barely worked. The slightest infection could have proved fatal. But Rhys is now 14years old and doing fine.

So how did Rhys avoid living in a bubble?

The simple answer is that Rhys got lucky his condition was diagnosed when he was a baby. Even more fortunately, doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital were able to do something about it. They understood that Rhyss condition was caused by a genetic flaw and they thought that if they could correct this flaw then they could restore his immune system. That is exactly what happened, and why Rhys is now no different to any other young teenager.

Rhyss treatment is an example of gene therapy, which was the subject of a fascinating lecture that I attended last month. Leonard Seymour, professor of gene therapies in the Department of Oncology at Oxford University, gave four reasons why 2014 has been a breakthrough year for this revolutionary, but controversial, approach.

Let me begin by describing these successful trials.

Rhys Evans is not the only boy (it does not affect girls) to have received gene therapy for this syndrome 20 were given it at about the same time as Rhys. But he was lucky. In the trial, one in four ended up with leukaemia.

This year has seen the results of a new trial. In this, nine boys were treated and eight have been reported as still alive, 16 to 43 months after treatment. The ninth died from an infection already present when he began the gene therapy. Overall, the outcome is hugely promising and suggests that gene therapy could provide a permanent cure for patients who would otherwise receive a bone marrow transplant from a donor, with all the consequent risks of rejection.

HIV is a virus that weakens the immune system by destroying the white blood cells that fight disease and infection. In order to destroy the cells it has to enter them, and it does this via a protein called CCR5, found on the cell surface. Researchers have noticed that about 1% of patients contract HIV and yet come to no harm. The reason is that their cells have a rare genetic mutation which prevents them from displaying the CCR5 protein on their surface.

Now researchers have managed to engineer white blood cells so that they have this same rare mutation. They have injected billions of these genetically modified cells into 12 trial patients, and there is evidence that this procedure is safe and could suppress the virus.

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Why 2014 has been a breakthrough year for gene therapy

2014 in Biomedicine: Rewriting DNA, Decoding the Brain, and a GMO Paradox

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The year in biotechnology began with a landmark event. A decade after the first human genome was decoded at a cost of about $3 billion, the sequencing-machine company Illumina, of San Diego, introduced a new model, the Hyseq X-10, that can do it for around $1,000 per genome.

The system, which costs $10 million and can decode 20,000 genomes a year, was snapped up by large research labs, startup firms like J. Craig Venters Human Longevity (which plans to sequence 40,000 people a year), and even by the British government (the U.K. is the first country with a national genome sequencing project).

Francis de Souza, Illuminas president, predicted that within two years the genomes of about 1.6 million people will have been sequenced.

Cheap sequencing means a deluge of information and a new role for technology designed to handle and exploit big data. The search giant Google was the tech company most attuned to the trend, launching a scientific project to collect biological data about healthy humans, and offering to store any genome on its servers for $25 per year. A coalition of genetics researchers backed by Google tried to introduce technical standards, like those that govern the Web, as a way of organizing an Internet of DNA over which researchers might share data.

Easy access to DNA information led to debates over how much consumers should know. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has said direct-to-consumer genetic health tests arent yet ready to be marketed. But consumers found ways to get the data anyway. Thousands of people headed to unregulated corners of the Internet to learn about their genes, and one father even managed to sequence the DNA of his own unborn son, claiming a controversial first.

Easily the hottest technology of the year was a new gene-engineering method called CRISPR, a powerful new editing system for DNA. Chinese scientists used it to produce genetically altered monkeys in January, and other scientists are now expected to create monkeys that model human psychiatric diseases. One measure of the technologys importance is that scientists are now fighting over who really invented it firstand who should own the patent on it.

During the year, bioengineers advanced on all fronts using other technologies. We saw novel kinds of cell therapy used to treat degenerative eye diseases, positive results from a study of gene therapy that could cure HIV, and the resurgence of a form of gene therapy called RNA interference. The development of replacement organs took steps forward, too, including new research showing how to add blood vessels to lab-made tissue using a 3-D printer.

This year, 10 of 35 new drugs approved by the FDA were biological molecules, like antibodies or protein injections. That was a record. And the FDA says the list of new drugs entering testing for the first time is dominated by biological treatments.

Those biotech drugs include the most important medical breakthroughs of the year, a new class of cancer drugs called immunotherapies. The drug company Merck has been testing an antibody that helps the immune system recognize melanoma cancer cellswith near miraculous results for some patients. The other approach to immune therapy involves rengineering a persons white blood cellsto recognize and kill certain kinds of leukemia tumors.

Bioengineering doesnt stop at DNA. The U.S. BRAIN Initiative, President Obamas signature science project, has the aim of developing emerging neurotechnologies for measuring the brain and eventually figuring out the neural code. The broad approach of the U.S. project contrasts with that taken in Europe, where funding has been directed toward one mega-project to create computer simulations of the brain, something that drew sharp fire from dissenting neuroscientists.

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2014 in Biomedicine: Rewriting DNA, Decoding the Brain, and a GMO Paradox

The Interview: When it Comes to Hot Business Trends Old Fashioned Humility & Beauty Win

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Minneapolis, MN (PRWEB) December 31, 2014

No one can predict the future; but Jack Uldrich helps organizations all over the world prepare for it. As a leading futurist, author, and speaker who helps organizations gain the critical foresight they need to create a successful future, Jack Uldrich's work is based on the transformational principles of unlearning or freeing one's self from obsolete knowledge and assumptions as a strategy to survive and thrive in an era of unparalleled change. The following are excerpts from an interview with Jack highlighting 2014 in hindsight and sharing his foresight on 2015.

Q: In one word--describe the biggest insight of 2014. A: Humility.

Q: Will you expound on that? The world is changing very quickly and 'experts' in particular must be humble to what they dont know. To be clear: it doesn't mean thinking less of yourself, it means thinking of yourself less frequently. Once one steps away from what they know into what they dont know, unexpected insights are able to crop up.

Q: What were the highlights from your 2014 speaking engagements? A: The twelve talks with Verizon Wireless Connected Technology Tour, where I specifically addressed The Internet of Things, was an in depth exploration of just one very important tech trend. Quite a bit of that information is now incorporated into almost every presentation I give. The ABB 5 city tour was fascinating too, because ABB (& Verizon) are actively creating the future with their technical advancement. They are also actively listening to consumers and inviting them to help shape the future. And the CAS presentation (Deja Vu/Vuja De) was an in depth use of history to illuminate the future for CASs centennial celebration which was a great way tie hindsight and foresight together.

Q: Did you personally do any unlearning in 2014? A: Yes, two things come to mind immediately. First there was the unlearning of the limited nature of economics. Economists are knowledgeable but they dont know what they dont know; their knowledge has a finite value. People want definitive answers but as those answers are often wrong, they will accept a fallacy. The bottom line is people need to get comfortable with unpredictability.

Second, while the end view of technology is a net plus situation, it is now beginning to eat away at the edges of what it means to be human. As technology moves forward the question needs to be asked, 'What makes us human?' In the future more and more people will define themselves by what tech trends they say 'no' to. Society is on the verge of splitting into two different tracks--those who choose technology and those who dont. I consider the second group of people to be 'The New Amish' which are people who knowingly say 'no' to technology because they dont like what technology is doing to our society. Thats a rational choice and people will have to accept other people choosing other ways.

Q: The dichotomy of delving into technology as salvation is a curious question. It creates a lot of ambiguity. A: If by technology you mean putting people out of jobs, then I am against it. If by tech you mean creating a new heart, I am for it.

Q: Is there any unlearning that you have applied to your daily life? A: As a father, unlearning the habit of asking, 'What did you learn at school today?' and replacing it with, 'What questions did you ask today?' was one of my unlearning tasks in 2014. And as a speaker, learning about the power of the pause and unlearning how to fill the pause has been valuable. In other words, limiting responses or answers while others are talking, letting go of excessive thoughts and reactions and striving to really hear what the person is saying became more important.

Q: What trends will have the greatest effect on the average American? A: Genomics, the sharing economy, and peer to peer lending as average people learn how to decrease consumption and help each other out. When it comes to collaborative consumption, Airbnb and Uber will probably have the most impact.

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How Shostakovichs The Bolt changed ballet history

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Vividly energetic designs influenced by constructivism costume/design workshop for The Bolt, 1931.

. Photograph: Grad and St Petersburg State Museum of Theatre and Music

In Soviet Russia in 1930, the cultural energies of the revolution the jazz, the constructivist art, the Meyerhold experiments in theatre were still alive and bubbling. But Stalin was already turning revolution into a brutal state orthodoxy. With the launch of his 1928 five-year plan, and its attendant political persecutions, artists found themselves in serious danger if they were considered to have fallen foul of the official cultural line.

One early victim of these hardening times was The Bolt, a 1931 ballet with designs by Tatiana Bruni, music by Dmitri Shostakovich and choreography by Fedor Lopukhov. Its currently the subject of an exhibition at Londons Gallery of Russian Art and Design, which showcases a fabulously intact collection of Brunis costume designs and even a few of the actual costumes.

The designs have a vivid energy. Theres the clear influence of constructivism and Soviet poster art in their bright blocks of colour, their vibrant patterns and geometric lines, but also a dash of futurism and even a possible reference to Parade (the 1917 cubist ballet designed by Picasso) in the comically stereotyping costumes worn by dancers representing the American and Japanese navies.

That mix, however, was already too avant-garde for a state rapidly embracing the ersatz traditionalism of socialist realism, and the ballet as a whole was too playful. Despite its seemingly impeccable narrative of industrial espionage being routed by heroic factory workers, its creators were too tempted to have fun with their cast of baddies (the Lazy Idler, the Petty Bourgeois Woman, and the decadent, western types satirised by the local amateur theatre troupe). They were too obviously bored by the decent workers, the earnest members of the local Komsomol group the young communist league.

The Bolt was judged to have shown a dangerous levity in the handling of serious issues; Shostakovichs flippant score veered too close to western dance music, and the innovative wit of Lopukhovs choreography was condemned as grotesque. One critic complained about the dancification of industrial processes, while the chorus of Red Army cavalry, sitting astride a line of chairs, was considered an outrageous mockery.

The ballet was banned after just one performance, and Lopukhov was sacked from his position as artistic director of the Mariinsky or the Leningrad State Academic Ballet as it was then called. Yet, as precarious as this ballet had proved, in 1935 Lopukhov and Shostakovich attempted one more collaboration a comedy set on a collective farm. The Bright Stream was acclaimed at its early performances at the Maly theatre in Leningrad, but when it transferred to Moscow it came under the close scrutiny of Stalins cultural police. After Pravda denounced the work as ballet falsehood, the librettist Adrian Piotrovsky was sent to the gulag, and a fearful Shostakovich cancelled the premiere of his newly composed Symphony No 4.

Lopukhov, whod been in line for directorship of the Bolshoi, had to remove himself fast, and spent the next eight years as an itinerant ballet master, travelling as far away as Tashkent. Even though he was briefly back in charge of the Mariinsky (by now the Kirov Ballet) during the war years, and was kept on in the company as a teacher, his choreographic career was essentially over.

One of the great questioning talents of the Soviet ballet was thus more or less relegated to a footnote in history, and much of his choreography was lost including these two offending ballets, although theyve been recently and very successfully re-created by Alexei Ratmansky for the Bolshoi ballet.

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How Shostakovichs The Bolt changed ballet history