Monthly Archives: May 2017

Bitcoin’s appeal is at an all-time high | New York Post – New York Post

Posted: May 7, 2017 at 11:29 pm

Global stock indexes are not the only asset class making new highs on a daily basis. Cryptocurrencies specifically bitcoin are soaring to fresh levels as well.

Despite two major setbacks for bitcoin in 2017, it has soared nearly 55 percent from its year-to-date lows as Asian investors flock to the new-age currency.

Bitcoin prices are now trading at previously uncharted levels as the value of the cryptocurrency reached a high of $1,588 on CoinDesk on Friday morning.

In January the Peoples Bank of China, the countrys central bank, launched a crackdown on bitcoin, believing that citizens were using it to move wealth out of the country. Prices fell as low as $750 on Jan. 12 before recovering.

In March the cryptocurrency had a run-up on anticipation that the Securites and Exchange Commission would decide in favor of a bitcoin exchange-traded fund driven by the Winklevoss brothers. Bitcoin prices reached a high of $1,350 before the feds nixed the proposal, sending prices to a low of $891 soon afterward.

Prices began to recover as Japan officially acknowledged the use of cryptocurrencies and passed legislation allowing retailers to accept payment in digital form.

Russia and India have also loosened restrictions on cryptocurrencies, leading to wider acceptance within their borders as both countries India especially struggle with their own internal currency crises.

The SEC announced in April that it would take a second look at a bitcoin ETF by reviewing its ruling in the Winklevoss brothers application. No timetable has been released on when that may happen.

Bitcoins market cap is now north of $23 billion, which is chump change for any asset class. But with more acceptance and wider appeal, the digital currency can be divided into smaller units such as decibits, millibits and centibits to make smaller transactions possible.

Ethereum, which is the second-most prominent cryptocurrency after Bitcoin, struck a new all-time high Tuesday as well, trading at $85.

It now has a market cap of $7 billion on the strength of its acceptance in gaming circles in Asian countries.

Go here to read the rest:
Bitcoin's appeal is at an all-time high | New York Post - New York Post

Posted in Bitcoin | Comments Off on Bitcoin’s appeal is at an all-time high | New York Post – New York Post

‘E-gold’ bitcoin shines past $1500 – Times of India

Posted: at 11:29 pm

CHENNAI: Bitcoin surged into an all-time high territory last week as investors bet the digital currency will gain greater acceptance globally as an investment vehicle. The cryptocurrency crossed the $1,500 mark on Thursday and, besides a slip to $1,491 on Friday , it has remained above this mark till Sunday. To give context, gold price as on Sunday was about $1,230 per ounce (around $39 per gram).The price of the yellow metal has not touched the $1,500 range in the last four years. Since 2013, when gold was in the $1,500-1,600 range, its price has been hovering around $1,200. The crypto currency , on the other hand, has been growing ever since it crossed the $1,000 mark in January this year. "Today , one bitcoin is worth almost Rs 1 lakh. Last month, we saw some stagna tion, which is the result of demand and supply pull. There is some amount of speculation involved as well," said Benson Samuel, CTO and co-founder, Coinsecure, a bitcoin exchange in India. The virtual currency exchange has over 1,50,000 users who trade on average 200 bitcoins daily . In the last month alone, they have seen 100 new users sign up. The demonetisation drive by the government saw a lot of users looking at alternate modes of investment, with bitcoins being sought after. "Two years ago, I had to explain what a bitcoin is. Now, there is more adoption as a commodity," said Sathvik Vishwanath, co-founder, Unocoin, backed by the likes of Blume Ventures, Boost VC and other international investors. The acceptance of the cryptocurrency's legality by the Chinese and Japanese governments has come as a big boost.

Read the original here:
'E-gold' bitcoin shines past $1500 - Times of India

Posted in Bitcoin | Comments Off on ‘E-gold’ bitcoin shines past $1500 – Times of India

How Ripple is Targeting an Entirely Different Market to Bitcoin – CryptoCoinsNews

Posted: at 11:29 pm

Bitcoin was introduced in 2009 as an alternative network to the global financial system monopolized by centralized institutions and strictly regulated financial service providers. By providing a peer to peer protocol wherein users can send and receive transactions with the absence of intermediaries, Bitcoin essentially became the first decentralized financial platform.

Replicating or being inspired by Bitcoins structure, alternative cryptocurrencies or altcoins emerged. One of the most successful cryptocurrencies that has maintained its market cap and client base over a relatively long period of time is Ripple. It consistently has ranked in the top three altcoin, falling behind Bitcoin and Ethereum. Ripples vision was to provide a more efficient infrastructure for the centralized institutions and the conventional finance industry.

Ripple is significantly different to Bitcoin philosophically and structurally. If bitcoin is described as a decentralized peer to peer network developed to operate as an alternative financial network to that of the existing global financial system, Ripple can be explained as a protocol structured to serve and enhance the existing global financial system. It has partnered with leading banks and major financial institutions to settle cross-border and cross-bank transactions transparently, with strong security measures in real time.

The current global financial system operates on top of an outdated and inefficient IT infrastructure and system. For a transaction to become fully verified and settled, it could take days to weeks with a substantial fee, usually in the range of $30 to $50 per transaction. Often times, transactions initiated by banks through an international financial network such as SWIFT get lost within the system, requiring manual confirmation and a period of weeks for the transaction to be recovered and settled.

Essentially, Ripple utilizes blockchain technology and the concept of digital tokens to simplify global banking. Major banks and financial institutions are in agreement with Ripples vision and strategy and have adopted Ripples system. Most recently, CryptoCoinsNews reported that Spanish banking giant BBVA began to utilize Ripple blockchain for Spain-Mexico money transfers.

This pioneer initiative is a clear demonstration of how payment processes can be vastly improved through the implementation of emerging technologies. These improvements will benefit our clients transnationality, head of digital transformation in investment banking at BBVA stated.

However, an ambiguous component of Ripples services is the necessity of intermediaries. In an email, Ripple representative told CryptoCoinsNews that Ripple executives believe banks arent going away and that bitcoin is getting it wrong. Yet, by growth, bitcoin has evidently appealed to a wider range of users, businesses and investors as it is valued at $23.7 billion at the time of reporting. Ripples market cap is below 10 percent of bitcoins.

`An intermediary such as BBVA utilizing the Ripple network for a customer can be understood as an intermediary using another intermediary to process transactions. Thus, in the long run, one of the two intermediaries could be rendered ineffective. Either users will solely rely on the Ripple network and utilize XRP to make transactions with each other or banks will develop their own blockchain network similar to SWIFT and simply discard its partnership with Ripple.

The issue with banks developing their independent blockchain networks is the necessity of cooperation and collaboration. Hence, by relying on an existing blockchain network structured to serve financial institutions, banks can cut development costs.

Three advantages Ripple offers to its banks is speed, certainty and cost. By utilizing a decentralized blockchain in Ripple, banks can potentially see a reduction of billions of dollars in operating costs. Whether banks will remain with Ripple and work on the development of a cross-bank network or form their own blockchain network like JP Morgan is still difficult to speculate.

Featured image from Shutterstock.

Advertisement:

Visit link:
How Ripple is Targeting an Entirely Different Market to Bitcoin - CryptoCoinsNews

Posted in Bitcoin | Comments Off on How Ripple is Targeting an Entirely Different Market to Bitcoin – CryptoCoinsNews

Vinny Lingham: The Curse Of ‘Satoshi’s Choice’ – A Bitcoin Community Mired In insult And Emotion – CryptoCoinsNews

Posted: at 11:29 pm

Vinny Lingham

The bitcoin scaling debate has driven many people in the bitcoin community to assume a cult-like viewpoint, an observation Vinny Lingham makes with despair. In a blog titled, Satoshis Choice, Lingham observed that the bitcoin community has failed to maintain a level attitude aimed at achieving the greater good for the community. Hence, he doesnt see a resolution to the current impasse on bitcoin scaling in the short term.

Without a reasonable resolution to the current impasse, it will be difficult to avoid exogenous pricing pressure or another external catalyst for change.

Lingham noted that the replies to his tweets have been emotive and insulting. When emotions get the upper hand and people cant communicate with decorum, they suffer from impaired judgment.

Most bitcoiners care about bitcoins price, he noted. Emotionally, they are invested in bitcoin as a digital currency and a store of value.

Lingham once believed a bitcoin price under $875 would push parties to reach an agreement. He did not expect the price to stay above $1,000 for an extended period since the incentive to go beyond this did not exist. But he was wrong about this, and market forces are affecting the price, which he believes is not necessarily a negative development in the near term.

While he believes there are pros and cons to all sides of the scaling debate, one path that Lingham says should be avoided at all costs is a contentious hard fork resulting in a minority chain.

Bitcoin is still viewed by the public at large as a negative entity, thanks to Silk Road and other misadventures. One indication is the current set of issues dealing with getting fiat in and out of bitcoin exchanges.

Satoshi made a choice, Lingham noted, to leave the bitcoin community to its own devices. He did this to give the community a gift, but one that came with a curse. The more the community loves bitcoin, the more greed emerged within the community and outside of it.

Linghams question now is: why does the community need a leader if bitcoin is a decentralized, peer-to-peer currency? The answer is that bitcoin is not yet a decentralized, peer-to-peer currency.

For bitcoin to be immune tomanipulation, it must be decentralized at every layer. The bitcoin community, however, has focused on the price, scaling and other issues to the degree that bitcoin is the most secure but least innovative cryptocurrency.

Lingham would agree that immutability gives bitcoin its strength if the immutability was by distributed choice, not by default since decisions are centralized.

But instead of decentralized mining and decentralized exchanges with hefty volumes, the community has a few exchanges at the mercy of the banking system, as well as large mining pools controlled by a few operators, manufacturing controlled by two firms, and development that is run by one group of individuals.

Where capital formation has become decentralized, bitcoin is not making progress in removing monopolies.

Also read: Vinny Lingham says bitcoin hard fork should be avoided, Buterin argues

Diversification is what leads to positive outcomes, Lingham claims.

He wants a world with multiple chip manufacturing and mining hardware providers competing for business from thousands of miners if not millions distributed worldwide. He wants to have a choice of dozens of mining pools with different bitcoin philosophies focused on the greater good butacting on their own accord.

He wants to see the market choose the best clients and BIPs, where dissenting voices find groups to join and not feel ostracized.

He wants to see each layer of decentralization working to make it more accessible to others as opposed to trying to fork bitcoin contentiously.

In the short term, people could start being more respectful of each other.

Featured image from Shutterstock.

Advertisement:

Read the original post:
Vinny Lingham: The Curse Of 'Satoshi's Choice' - A Bitcoin Community Mired In insult And Emotion - CryptoCoinsNews

Posted in Bitcoin | Comments Off on Vinny Lingham: The Curse Of ‘Satoshi’s Choice’ – A Bitcoin Community Mired In insult And Emotion – CryptoCoinsNews

Tim Peake could be last scientist to leave the International Space Station before it crashes into Pacific in ‘huge … – The Sun

Posted: at 11:28 pm

Bosses at NASA and the ESA are drawing up plans on how to dispose of the floating research centre when its funding runs out in 2024 with the money used in an attempt to reach Mars

SCIENTISTS are planning to send the International Space Station off in a blaze of glory when they demolish it at some point in the next 10 years.

Funding for the floating research centre runs out in 2024 and NASA are hoping to dismantle it by sending it hurtling towards the Pacific Ocean in what should prove to be a spectacular fireworks display.

Alamy

The space centre is made up of massive sections for researchers to work and live in as well as fuel tanks and other components that should generate a massive series of fireballs when they re-enter the Earths atmosphere.

The denser air on Earth will cause huge friction with the objects which should burn up spectacularly as they are sent hurtling towards the sea.

Tim Peake, the British astronaut, could be among the space team that prepares the ISS for its fiery death as he is due to return to the station between 2021 and 2024, reported The Sunday Times.

The plans were revealed by Dr Ellen Stofan, NASAs chief scientist, who helped draw up the idea before leaving the agency in December last year.

She said: The future of the ISS is a big issue for NASA. The funding is there till 2024 but then it must start moving money to human Mars missions.

If we keep it fully funded after 2024 it will compromise the Mars budget and by 2028 it will start failing. It is huge, the size of an [American] football pitch, so the overall plan is to drop it into the Pacific.

Alamy

The 56-year-old will be describing the plans in more detail when she speaks at the Cheltenham science festival in Gloucestershire next month.

Another idea for the ISS is to dismantle some elements of it and bring them back to Earth while leaving the rest in space but this depends on what the Russian government thinks as they own several sections of it.

Alternatively, commercial flights could use the station from 2020 with Richard Branson and Elon Musk among the entrepreneurs trying to make space tourism a reality.

Additionally, Boeing is developing a next generation capsulecalled a Starliner which would be able to take people into low orbit space, including the ISS, from 2020.

Getty Images

The building of the ISS began in 1998 when the first modules were launched into space and has been valuable in helping scientists understand more about surviving the health hazards of living in space which can include brain swelling, eye damage and skin problems.

One of the contributors to the ISS is the European Space Agency who pays approximately 300m a year into the project.

David Parker, director of human spaceflight and robotic exploration at the ESA, said: Our plan is to free up this money from the mid-2020s to explore beyond low earth orbit . . . that will eventually mean de-orbiting the ISS.

The south Pacific is the target and it will be a huge fireworks display.

To date 227 astronauts have lived on board the ISS and it weighs around 412 tons the largest-ever space structure.

We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368.

Go here to see the original:
Tim Peake could be last scientist to leave the International Space Station before it crashes into Pacific in 'huge ... - The Sun

Posted in Space Station | Comments Off on Tim Peake could be last scientist to leave the International Space Station before it crashes into Pacific in ‘huge … – The Sun

Astronaut does something amazing on the International Space Station – Morning Ticker

Posted: at 11:28 pm

A French astronaut many miles above the surface of the Earth did something that pretty much none of us will ever do.

French astronaut Thomas Pesquet pulled off quite the feat aboard the International Space Station recently. Even though hes currently orbiting the Earth 249 miles from the surface, and his home country of France, he was able to cast his vote in the countrys contentious election.

Pesquet had to handle more than a few obstacles in order to vote. For one thing, he had to have a colleague act as power of attorney to cast a vote on his behalf, and secondly he had to deal with the problem that when not on the ISS, he resides in journey. Nevertheless, you wouldnt expect an astronaut like Pesquet to be bothered by hurdles like that, and he dutifully performed his civic duty as a French citizen while looking down on the country from high above.

Pesquet is the European Space Agencys youngest astronaut, and he described himself in interviews as passionately interested in politics. He once remarked in an interview with Franceinfo that people should open up and understand that the world is done with others, not against others, that we need more bridges than walls. That suggests he is unlikely to be voting for far-right anti-immigration candidate Marine Le Pen, who is expected to fall to moderate candidate Emmanuel Macron in Sundays election.

Pesquet first arrived at the ISS back in November, and he will spend six months there with astronauts Oleg Novitsky and NASAs Peggy Whitson.

Here is NASAs biography of Pesquet as posted on their website.

Born in Rouen, France, on 27 February 1978, Thomas Pesquet is a black belt in judo and enjoys basketball, jogging, swimming, squash and outdoor sports such as mountain biking, kite surfing, sailing, skiing and mountaineering. He also has extensive experience in scuba diving and skydiving. His other interests include travelling, playing the saxophone and reading.

Education

Thomas graduated from the competitive French classes prparatoires aux grandes coles at the Lyce Pierre Corneille in Rouen, France, in 1998.

In 2001, he received a masters degree from the cole Nationale Suprieure de lAronautique et de lEspace in Toulouse, France, majoring in spacecraft design and control. He spent his final year before graduation at the cole Polytechnique de Montral, Canada, as an exchange student on the Aeronautics and Space Master course.

Thomas graduated from the Air France flight school in 2006. This led to an Air Transport Pilot License-Instrument Rating (ATPL-IR).

Organisations

Thomas is a member of the French Aeronautics and Astronautics Association (3AF) and of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).

Experience

From April to September 2001, Thomas was a trainee engineer with Thales Alenia Space in Cannes, France, where he developed a satellite system design tool using concurrent engineering techniques.

From October 2001, he worked as a spacecraft dynamics engineer on remote sensing missions for GMV S.A. in Madrid, Spain.

Between 2002 and 2004, Thomas worked at the French space agency, CNES, as a research engineer on space mission autonomy. He also carried out studies on future European ground segment design and European space technology harmonisation. From late 2002, he was a CNES representative at the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems, working on cross-support between international space agencies.

An avid private pilot in his spare time, Thomas was selected in 2004 for Air Frances flight training programme. He went on to become a commercial pilot for the airline, where he started flying the Airbus A320 in 2006. Having logged more than 2300 flight hours on commercial airliners, he became a type rating instructor on the A320 and a Crew Resource Management instructor.

Thomas was selected as an ESA astronaut in May 2009. He joined ESA in September 2009 and completed basic training in November 2010. After graduation, he worked as a Eurocom, communicating with astronauts during spaceflights from the mission control centre. He was also in charge of future projects at the European Astronaut Centre, including initiating cooperation with new partners such as China.

To be ready for a space mission, he received further technical and operational training in Europe, Russia and the USA: on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, on the US and Russian spacesuits, and on Space Station systems. He took part in exploration training courses: living and working underground on ESAs CAVES training course in 2011, and underwater on NASAs Seatest-2 mission.

On 17 March 2014, Thomas was assigned to a long-duration mission on the International Space Station.

Spaceflight experience

Thomas was launched to the International Space Station on 17 November 2016 for his six-month Proxima mission as a flight engineer for Expeditions 50 and 51. His is scheduled to return to Earth in May 2017.

Go here to see the original:
Astronaut does something amazing on the International Space Station - Morning Ticker

Posted in Space Station | Comments Off on Astronaut does something amazing on the International Space Station – Morning Ticker

China to begin construction of manned space station in 2019 – Geo News, Pakistan

Posted: at 11:28 pm

China will begin construction of a permanent manned space station in 2019 after carrying out a successful in-orbit refuelling from its Tianzhou-1 cargo spacecraft, officials leading the project said on Friday.

The Tianzhou-1, China's first cargo spacecraft, launched on April 20 and completed the first of three planned docking attempts with the orbiting Tiangong-2 spacelab two days later, state media reported.

The successful five-day refuelling, directed from technicians on Earth and completed on Thursday, is a key milestone towards China's plans to begin sending crews to a permanent space station by 2022.

"This again announces the ambition and aspiration of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese people, and our resolute confidence in becoming a major space power," the space station project's supervisor Wang Zhaoyao told a news briefing in Beijing.

"After completing experimental stage spaceflight missions, we will enter the development and construction phase. According to our plans we will carry out the assembly and construction of China's manned space station between 2019 and 2022."

President Xi Jinping has prioritised advancing China's space programme to strengthen national security. The Central Military Commission, chaired by Xi, sent a letter congratulating staff of the Tianzhou-1 mission for "realising our unremitting space dream", according to the official Xinhua news agency.

The US Defense Department has highlighted China's increasing space capabilities, saying it was pursuing activities aimed at preventing other nations from using space-based assets in a crisis.

China insists it has only peaceful ambitions in space, but has tested anti-satellite missiles.

Continue reading here:
China to begin construction of manned space station in 2019 - Geo News, Pakistan

Posted in Space Station | Comments Off on China to begin construction of manned space station in 2019 – Geo News, Pakistan

International Space Station to go down in a blaze of glory – The Times (subscription)

Posted: at 11:28 pm

Plans are being drawn up to scrap the vessel and send it hurtling into the ocean in a spectacular firework display

Jonathan Leake, ScienceEditor

Nasa scientists are drawing up plans to dismantle the International Space Station and send it hurtling into the Pacific in the worlds most spectacular demolition job.

Tim Peake, the British astronaut, could be among the team that prepares the ISS for its fiery demise he is due to return to the station between 2021 and 2024 when its funding runs out.

The massive modules, fuel tanks and other components would generate a series of fireballs as they burn up in the atmosphere.

The plans were revealed by Ellen Stofan, Nasas chief scientist, who helped set them in motion before recently leaving the agency.

The future of the ISS is a big issue for Nasa. The funding is there till 2024 but then it

See more here:
International Space Station to go down in a blaze of glory - The Times (subscription)

Posted in Space Station | Comments Off on International Space Station to go down in a blaze of glory – The Times (subscription)

Radiation-Resistant Mutants at Chernobyl Pave the Way for Life on Mars – Motherboard

Posted: at 11:27 pm

This is a series around POWER, a Motherboard 360/VR documentary about nuclear energy. Follow along here.

Comic book logic dictates that a high dose of radiation will turn you in the Hulk, Godzilla, Radioactive Man, or any number of other radiation-induced superbeings. In real life, it's more likely to be a cause of deleterious mutations than a shortcut to enhanced abilities, as shown by major ecological damage in nuclear meltdown fallout zones, like Chernobyl and Fukushima.

These contaminated regions have become a popular destination for scientists interested in the immediate and long-term impact of radiation on wildlife, which has led to the formation of intriguing niche disciplines, like radioecology and radiobiology.

Watch more on Motherboard in 360/VR: Nuclear From Above

Understanding how living organisms adapt to radiation doses has a range of applications, from medicine to conservation, but one of the most overlooked is preparation for long-duration human space missions and interplanetary colonization, both of which involve sustained exposure to higher radiation doses than what we experience on Earth's surface.

An experiment conducted on the International Space Station (ISS) last year examined this idea with the help of eight fungi species sourced from the Chernobyl exclusion zone. These strains sprung up in the wake of the 1986 meltdown, and two of them Cladosporium mouldsseem to prefer radioactive surfaces. The fungal samples were curated by a team led by Kasthuri Venkateswaran, a senior research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who goes by Venkat for short.

Read More: Chernobyl Microbes Are Heading to the International Space Station

"The radiation seen at Chernobyl is high, but this black fungi popped up first [after the meltdown] compared even to the bacteria," Venkat told me over the phone. "That is how we selected those fungi, from such a radiation-rich environment. These fungi persisted due to some sort of protein-coding and biomolecule information that protect against the radiation level."

Would ingesting such a hardy mould give one radioactive superpowers? Not quiteor more accurately, not yet. The eventual goal of Venkat's research is to develop a fungi-based "sunblock" for outer space radiation that could be used to protect humans from the harmful effects of long-term exposure. The fungi was returned to Earth just a few months ago, so the results are preliminary, but Venkat and his colleagues are eager to pursue the research further.

"We have to take all the precautions before building a human habitation on Mars and beyond," he told me.

Watch Motherboard's six-part POWER series in 360/VR here.

In addition to helping humans become more radiation-resistant, studying the wildlife in fallout regions can also yield insight into engineering crops that can survive the radiation environment beyond Earthespecially highly irradiated worlds like those in the Jupiter system.

Cladosporium mould. Image: Medmyco

The Chernobyl exclusion zone is significantly more radioactive than the interior of proposed long-duration spacecraft, which makes it a bad direct analogy to outer space. But the ways in which crops develop tolerance to contaminated environments is rich with clues about surviving sustained doses of cosmic radiation.

"Radiation-resistant genes can be incorporated into yeast cells that produce beer so that humans are willing to go to spacethey will have a better beer to drink," Venkat said, as one example.

Fallout zones are also useful testbeds for studying astrobiological questions about the search for aliens on other worlds, and the origins of life on our own planet. Flax crops grown at Chernobyl in the decades since the meltdown have demonstrated increasing resistance to contamination, for instance, leading some researchers to wonder if their genes are a kind of vestigial time capsule to the dawn of life on Earth.

"My favorite speculation is that when life on Earth was evolving, radioactivity was much more present on Earth's surface than is today," Martin Hajduch, a senior scientist at the Slovak Academy of Sciences' Institute of Plant Genetics and Biotechnology, said of his research into Chernobyl flax. "And so the plants are somehow 'remembering' it, [which is] what helped them to adapt in Chernobyl's radioactive area."

In this way, the world's worst nuclear disasters, which have threatened the health of our planet, may now help us understand our origins on Earth, and learn to survive the harsh conditions beyond it.

Subscribe to Science Solved It, Motherboard's new show about the greatest mysteries that were solved by science.

Here is the original post:
Radiation-Resistant Mutants at Chernobyl Pave the Way for Life on Mars - Motherboard

Posted in Mars Colonization | Comments Off on Radiation-Resistant Mutants at Chernobyl Pave the Way for Life on Mars – Motherboard

Clemson World Magazine | Clemson Center for Human Genetics … – Clemson World magazine

Posted: at 11:25 pm

Self Regional Hall, a new 17,000-square-foot, state-of-the art facility that will house the Clemson University Center for Human Genetics, has opened on the campus of the Greenwood Genetic Center.

The facility will enable Clemsons growing genetics program to collaborate closely with the long tradition of clinical and research excellence at theGreenwood Genetic Center, combining basic science and clinical care. The center will initially focus on discovering and developing early diagnostic tools and therapies for autism, cognitive developmental disorders, oncology and lysosomal disorders. The building will house eight laboratories and several classrooms, conference rooms and offices for graduate students and faculty.

According to theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention, one in six children between the ages of 3 and 17, roughly 15 percent, suffers from some type of developmental disorder.

Opening Self Regional Hall means that we will be able to do even more to help children with genetic disorders, and their families, and to educate graduate students who will go out into the world and make their own impact, said President James P. Clements.

As the parent of a child with special needs, the kind of research that you are doing here is especially meaningful and important to me and my family, Clements said during the event. As you all know, an early diagnosis can make a huge difference for a child and their family because the earlier you can figure out what a child needs, the earlier you can intervene and begin treatment.

Self Regional Hall is a state-of-the-art facility that provides the resources our scientists need to understand the genetic underpinnings of disorders, said Mark Leising, interim dean of theCollege of Scienceat Clemson. This facility, and its proximity to the Greenwood Genetic Center, elevates our ability to attract the brightest scientific talent to South Carolina and enhances our efforts to tackle genetic disorders.

The facilitys name recognizes the ongoing support fromSelf Regional Healthcare, a health care system in Upstate South Carolina that has grown from the philanthropy of the late James P. Self, a textile magnate who founded Self Memorial Hospital in 1951.

Self Regional Healthcares vision is to provide superior care, experience and value. This vision includes affording our patients with access to cutting-edge technology and the latest in health care innovation and genomic medicine, without a doubt, is the future of health care, said Jim Pfeiffer, president and CEO of Self Regional Healthcare. The research and discoveries that will originate from this center will provide new options for those individuals facing intellectual and developmental disabilities, and will provide our organization with innovative capabilities and treatment options for our patients.

We are pleased to welcome Clemson University to Greenwood as the first academic partner on our Partnership Campus, added Dr. Steve Skinner, director of the Greenwood Genetic Center. This is the next great step in a collaboration that has been developing over the past 20-plus years. We look forward to our joint efforts with both Clemson and Self Regional Healthcare to advance the research and discoveries that will increase our understanding and treatment of human genetic disorders.

Here is the original post:
Clemson World Magazine | Clemson Center for Human Genetics ... - Clemson World magazine

Posted in Human Genetics | Comments Off on Clemson World Magazine | Clemson Center for Human Genetics … – Clemson World magazine