Monthly Archives: March 2022

Who Is DJ Susan? Meet the Exuberant DJ Who Captured the Hearts of Miami Music Week 2022 – EDM.com

Posted: March 31, 2022 at 2:35 am

With great mustache comes great powerand DJ Susan has it in droves.

Based in San Diego, Susan made a cross-country flight last week to immerse himself in the hedonism of Miami Music Week, a pilgrimage he takes annually. And he made his presence felt.

But that wasnt by design, as if he concocted some kind of masterplan to kick up dust in the name of fame like a hellbent TikToker. Its just in his nature.

In many ways, the gregarious Susan was emblematic of the triumphant ethos of the return of dance music in Miami after a brutal pandemic. If his unbridled personality didnt pull you in like a magnet to a fridge, it was his giant bear-hugs.

While hundreds of thousands of people flock to Miami for the weeks pice de rsistance, Ultra Music Festival, the citys various hotels and clubs moonlight as breeding grounds for the next era of electronic music. It's at those venues where Susan operated and pollinated, replanting the seeds of dance music culture that had eroded during the pandemic.

"It was incredible. The community was strong and everyone was out in full force,"DJ Susan told EDM.com."It was a place for artists and fans alike to connect without any borders and create a beautiful space for all of us to thrive together through our art and passion for music. After being away for so long, it really made it special to be able to physically be with these fans, fellow artists and industry players that we have only connected with online in real life. Not to mention, this was unmistakably the year of house music, so it felt really positive to be in the right place at the right time with too many legends to count."

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But it wasnt just the infectious antics of the "Tech House Tony Robbins" that made him the sweetheart of Miami Music Week 2022. It was also the music from his flagship record label, Hood Politics Records, a tastemaker known for its gritty hip-house style. And in a city that has long championed house musicperhaps now more so than everthe imprints signature sound could be heard far and wide.

Hood Politics is also beloved for its dedication to spotlighting young, genuine music producers who do it for the love of the communitynot the pursuit of streaming notoriety. It's this tenet by which the labeland its love-drunk founderare shaping the future of the underground.

"Hood Poli is a big family. Everyone we've connected with through the label has been nothing but genuine and supportive of each other,"said Rich DietZ, a fast-rising DJ duo who have released music on Hood Politics Records."It has to stem from the guy up top, DJ Susan. He's just out here spreading the love and reminding us all why we got into this scene."

Now back home in San Diego, Susan is decompressing what was a tornado of a week in Magic City. All it took was one look at his Instagram Stories, which functioned like a Dominique Wilkins-esque highlight reel of sun-kissed DJ sets and hysterical interactions with his fellow artists.

"To say it was historic would be an understatement," he reflects. "The love and energy was palpable and everyone was really focused on spreading that love throughout. This was the year."

Facebook:facebook.com/djsusan1Twitter: twitter.com/djsusanmusicInstagram: instagram.com/susieshouseSpotify: spoti.fi/36Aqsgc

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Who Is DJ Susan? Meet the Exuberant DJ Who Captured the Hearts of Miami Music Week 2022 - EDM.com

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How to Love: Matthew Strohl and Rax King on Bad Movies – lareviewofbooks

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IN HER BITING manifesto Trash, Art, and the Movies, patron saint of modern film criticism Pauline Kael argues that bad movies are essential to cinema because movies are mostly garbage. As she explains: [I]ts preposterously egocentric to call anything we enjoy art as if we could not be entertained by it if it were not. Movies entertain us, tapping pleasure buttons with uncanny precision, and if that is all they have to offer us, why cant that be enough? (Her examples include Wild in the Streets or The Thomas Crown Affair; 2001: A Space Odyssey, on the other hand, is neither art nor entertainment, by her lights.)

This ethos has only spread in recent years. Tommy Wiseau has become, bizarrely, a household name. It is cool to like bad movies these days, usually with an air of mocking irony or guilty pleasure, sometimes with sheer unabashed earnestness. Philosopher and bad movie lover Matthew Strohls Why Its OK to Love Bad Movies (Routledge, 2021), part of Routledges Why Its OK series, is the manifesto, and corrective, this movement needs. It challenges, as much as it defends, those of us who claim to love Nicolas Cage and The Room and Troll 2 and Twilight. Strohl doesnt just want us to like these movies, but to care about them as well.

For Kael, bad movie love is a blessed, unabashedly crass form of hedonism, and Strohl is a hedonist, too; he loves bad movies because they bring him joy. The six chapters of Why Its OK to Love Bad Movies, rich with close film analysis and abnormally accessible philosophical argumentation, convincingly argue that these movies are wonderful. Indeed, the book is almost unbearable to read, as any writing on film worth its salt ought to be. All one wants to do, at virtually every page, is put it down and watch Batman & Robin.

But Strohls love is compelling and infectious precisely because its not just concerned with pleasure. Rather, it is built, like all real love ought to be, on an ethics of kindness. Strohl happily admits that bad movies are bad. The last thing he wants to do is pretend, as he puts it, that Citizen Kane and Plan 9 from Outer Space are the same kind of movie. Indeed, to do so would be to work against, rather than for, bad movie love. Strohl loves Citizen Kane because it is good, and he loves Plan 9 because it is bad.

Here lies the books major philosophical intervention. When Strohl calls Plan 9 bad, he is not making a judgment call about its value, about whether it is worth watching, even about whether it offers us pleasure. Like Kael, he sees artistic goodness as distinct from the question of ultimate worth; wonderful movies dont have to be good art. Rather, Strohl suggests that, when the critical establishment (and even a discerning viewer) deems a movie good, or praises it as cinematic art, what this really means is that the work satisfies cinematic convention: it looks, sounds, moves, and feels the way a movie is supposed to, according to established norms of filmmaking and taste. Conventions are not intrinsically bad; the convention that an actor uses an accurate accent often results in a more compelling performance. But conventions can limit. Those critics who populate the aggregate sites and assemble the Oscar short-lists too often insist that the only way for a movie to be pleasurable is for it to satisfy these norms.

Bad movies ignore the scriptures of Rotten Tomatoes. They break conventions, rather than playing by their rules. Strohls critical eye is sharp as well as generous, attentive to the myriad of real aesthetic riches bad movies offer. Bad movies break rules to find out what exciting, interesting kinds of beauty exist outside of the bounds of convention. They dare to imagine what aesthetic pleasures a bad accent might result in. Strohl argues that there is rarely any real difference between the bad movie and the avant-garde masterpiece. Both push past accepted norms to reveal new possibilities of human expression and appreciation.

But a crucial component of Strohls argument is that even the most affectionate ridicule the mode of appreciation epitomized by Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Nicolas Cage memes papers over this radical strain of aesthetic anarchism. Strohl devotes an entire chapter to Cage himself, not just defending the Wicker Man star from his haters, but from those who mock him and call it love. We lose something when we reduce Cage to moments of thrilling grotesquery, particularly when they are taken out of context. We lose something when, in Strohls words, we substitute ridicule for love. For 40 pages, Strohl offers one of the most careful career retrospectives Cage has ever received (joining the recent cluster of generous work on Cage). What seems when reduced to YouTube reels of Best Cage Freakouts like badness is the work of a bravely experimental performer. Cages ambitions are not simply to scream really loud, but, rather, to translate the sonic dissonance of avant-garde composer Karlheinz Stockhausen into human speech (in the crazy Cage mainstay Rage) or collage and recontextualize archaic Expressionist performance stylings into the 80s rom-com form (in, believe it or not, Moonstruck). Cage uses movies as a laboratory for human expression to poke at, think through, and reimagine the ways in which the body moves, the voice sounds, the eyes dart. If this is wrong, who wants to be right?

It isnt just that Cage is good at what hes trying to do, but that hes trying to do something at all, that yes, it sounds trite, but most things that matter do he has goals, desires, reasons for doing what he does. Strohl never lectures on this point; his ethics are never stodgy, being largely implicit. But it is there, steeping the entire book in a deep sense of care.

Throughout the book, Strohl almost obsessively draws attention to the human beings behind bad movies. He gives special place to their own words, their life histories, and their dreams. In doing so, Strohl seeks to uncover new genuinely aesthetic features that become more pressing when we acknowledge the fact that these movies do not emerge from the ether, but from the hearts and hands of people. The Cage exploration illustrates this particularly well, though his generosity extends to the people who worked on Plan 9, Troll 2, and Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning. What results is not a simplistic ethics, but a rich aesthetic, one that sees being human and being glorious as entangled. Human beings, in all our rapacious strivings and failings, cant be summed up by social conventions. Were bigger than them; shouldnt our movies be?

Strohl asks: What if we saw the earnest care and passion that fuels the engines of so many bad films as an opportunity for love? It is no wonder that he cites Kael, and her own defense of trash, repeatedly. Kael, more than most, built her film criticism on a wry, unromantic humanism. Her disinterest in films as art was equaled by her interest in films as human (and thus sad, odd, and sometimes glorious) flashes of brief significance buoyed by a crooked smile, a cracked croon, a single instant of familiar absurdity. Strohl sees trash as rich with such flashes. His analytical precision, zealous passion, and overwhelming generosity make Why Its OK To Love Bad Movies genuinely indispensable.

Rax King, too, is obsessed with bad movies. And not just movies: her recent book, Tacky: Love Letters to the Worst Culture We Have to Offer, is headily indiscriminate in its adoration for the titular object: Josie and the Pussycats jostles against Americas Next Top Model and the Cheesecake Factory.

Unlike Why Its OK To Love Bad Movies, Kings book is memoir peppered with theory; Strohls work, by contrast, is theory peppered with memoir. Each of her 14 essays is, on its face, about a particular tacky cultural item. (King prefers tacky to trashy.) But those artifacts spend most of the time as scenery. They form the backdrop of Kings life, emerging into the spotlight only in precisely selected moments. What ultimately matters, for King, is not (just) the garbage itself, but the person who loves them. As such, no single movie or musician, or shitty perfume, is taken in isolation; rather, King carefully, lovingly articulates what they mean to her, the particular place they hold in her life. The essay on Jersey Shore is an essay about Kings late father, written with an ache thats hard to shake off; her discussion of Sex and the City slides back and forth between her relationship with a dear friend. She pairs Sims with her abusive ex-husband. Sometimes, the whiplash is jarring, frequently almost surreal. Yet, it is never forced; the juxtapositions make perfect sense.

That is, after all, what King is after: to connect, as does Strohl, the tacky and the human. Strohls focus is one half of the equation, Kings the other. Strohl reminds us that bad movies themselves and the human beings who create them should be treated with care; King reminds us that we, the human beings whose lives are formed by and around tacky objects, deserve care, too.

Take the first essay (a highlight of the book), which details Kings lifelong love affair with the critically reviled pop-rock band Creed. The essay seems, from a distance, to join Strohl in his quest: to defend downtrodden art on the basis of its humanity. King argues that Creeds music may not be artistically good, but that it is human, and that sometimes being human is better than being good. Scott Stapp, the bands frontman and cultural punching bag, made music to express pain and sees no reason to erect space between that pain and its artistic expression. He simply emoted with an ugly and crass grandeur. Fine, King argues, call it bad. But that badness becomes an excuse to ignore the emotional reality of Stapps life, and the way his music poor as it may be grapples with that pain. To respond with flat dismissal and contempt, then, is little short of cruel.

But ultimately, it is not Creed, Jersey Shore, or Guy Fieri on trial here: it is the author herself. Kings autobiographical tangents sketch a deeply familiar, and deeply sad, narrative of a child slowly learning that the world quickly turns its mocking fury from bad artists to their vulnerable fans. The first thing King ever hears called tacky is not a thing at all, but a person: her grandmother. Its not just bad movies and TV and pathetic 2000s boy-rock that needs a champion, but also the people who love them.

By offering herself up as a kind of case study, aimed at the project of humanizing tacky people, King humanizes us all, because who among us has successfully resisted the siren song of trash? What King reveals is that our failure to resist reveals the loveliness of our flawed, feeble, and sometimes glorious humanness. We do not consume art as algorithms, but as humans, as tangled knots of often contradictory, rarely neat, needs and desires, as too big, too unwieldy sums of histories and impulses and relationships that stretch infinitely forward and infinitely back. Why pretend otherwise? Why pretend that its not the case that Sex and the City first appealed to teenage King because it sounded like a porn title, and because she wanted to impress her friend and crush, and because it went on to play a central role in their relationship, and in Kings relationship with sex? Why not admit that Hot Topic arrived in Kings life exactly when she needed it, ostracized at school and in desperate need of a new set of values to reorient her sense of self-worth? King finds that pretension self-abnegating, and she sharply makes the case that you should too.

Crucially, King (like Kael) is not a romantic; or, when she is, she treats it as a kind of tackiness. For her, tackiness is synonymous with emotional overload. As such, it may be compelling, thrilling, and necessary, but it is rarely pretty, often messy. Tackiness frequently leads King to behaviors or feelings she (often retrospectively) knows to be misguided, such as when she develops a sense of snobbish superiority toward normies and posers upon discovering Hot Topic as a kid. These moments of overload, of messy, not-quite-right emotions, often frustrated me, which perhaps is Kings point.

In those moments of frustration, what I wanted, as I suspect many readers will, was to see King transform tackiness into something decidedly untacky: something sophisticated, ethically justified, admirable something right. Only then would it and King, and myself deserve kindness. But that would miss the point. Tackiness deserves kindness precisely because it is always unsophisticated, usually ugly, and frequently wrong (according to conventions of human behavior and expression). The work is not to lionize us in our tackiness but to humanize us, to run to, rather than away from, emotional overload. That excess of love (in all its fucked-up forms) is a necessary consequence of living. Tacky falls flat when read as a full-throated defense of tackiness as an objective, and objectively good, feature of art. Thats not how King wants it to be read. Read it, instead, as a love letter to tacky people, exactly as they (we) are.

Together, Strohl and King imagine a new future for transgressive cinematic tastes, one that might be called a revival of humanism. They seek to build in Strohls words better practices of engagement with trash, better ways of relating to and doing things with them, formed on foundations of care, of generosity and kindness directed at the profoundly human heart of trash. If were to love bad movies, rather than mock them and call it love, those foundations are essential.

But theres a way to do care wrong, and King sometimes makes this misstep. While discussing the gleefully tacky 2001 film Josie and the Pussycats, she turns to Susan Sontags seminal essay Against Interpretation. The essay ends with Sontags calling card: In place of a hermeneutics we need an erotics of art. Hermeneutics, King argues, referring to the act of interpretation, means dissect[ing] art so that no piece of art need remain a mystery to its viewer. Erotics, on the other hand, is that pre-reflective impulse of sheer magnetism, the pleasure button. Sontags declaration is interpreted as an unequivocal abandonment of interpretation, in favor of pure feeling, and this contrast juxtaposition becomes Kings rallying cry for tackiness. Tacky things are perfect, a precise term by which King refers to the resistance to interpretation. A good pop song, a good chicken tender, Josie and the Pussycats all these are perfect, for King, because they speak wholly for themselves, as themselves. To analyze these objects would be an attempt to pin down the right way to experience the perfect thing and the right way to respond to it, according to conventions of taste. Tackiness cant survive interpretation, and it shouldnt have to.

This conclusion is worrisome, not least because it would entail the death of politics. King, for example, treats Americas Next Top Model as a tacky work that she deeply loves. Does this mean it is perfect? And does this mean that it escapes politics, politics only recognizable when we interpret? What am I to do with the extended history of antiblackness, transphobia, classism, and good old-fashioned misogyny wrapped through ANTMs DNA? What am I to do with the fact of Tyra Bankss quite obvious abuse? What am I to do with the tunnels of body dysphoria, self-loathing, and gender panic ANTM has sent me down as Ive grown up with it?

What am I to do with the fact that I love it, too?

Therein lies not only the rub, but the solution. Because what King is missing here isnt a concern with politics, but the willingness to imagine an interpretation that is erotic, that is steeped in love. It is possible to imagine a genuinely erotic hermeneutics, because Sontag herself does. In the same essay, she makes a crucial clarification:

Thus, interpretation is not (as most people assume) an absolute value, a gesture of mind situated in some timeless realm of capabilities. Interpretation must itself be evaluated, within a historical view of human consciousness. In some cultural contexts, interpretation is a liberating act. [] In other cultural contexts, it is reactionary, impertinent, cowardly, stifling.

Against Interpretation is the eulogy for a particular kind of interpretation. But in the humanist future Strohl and King imagine, would interpretation be reactionary, impertinent, cowardly, stifling? Are we not free to develop new forms of interpretation, in service of and birthed by new ways of relating to art?

Kings resistance to this imagination betrays, rather than protects, the deep humanism at the heart of her and Strohls theories of bad taste. Strohl demonstrates the beauty of erotic interpretation by investigating these films, revealing things about them, seeking to understand them not on the terms of conventions, but on their own. He imagines bad movie love with the metaphor of conversation. For him, loving bad movies is not a demand to silence, but a chance to say more, and say it with feeling; to think and wonder and appreciate, all loudly and with great excitement. Rather than an ethics and aesthetic that mandates or lectures, one that talks to or for, Strohl imagines a way to love best described as talking with. What if interpretation was not a mandate but an invitation? What if my challenge to ANTM was an act of love, by which I mean it was not a command but an inquiry, one that participates in the practice of loving ANTM rather than seeking to disrupt it?

After all, love is not silent, not Strohls and not Kings. Perhaps the deepest betrayal she performs here is that of her own resistance to interpretation, a betrayal played out over 14 essays filled with loving, intricate, and erotic interpretation. The greatest flaw of Tacky lies in its self-diagnosis. It is a testament, like Why Its OK To Love Bad Movies, not to the death of criticism but the birth of a new kind of hermeneutics. What trash deserves is not our silence or our scorn but a cacophony of love: ribald, unhinged, earnest. The pursuit of understanding, indistinguishable from a celebration, overwhelmed by feeling these are the sounds of being human.

Nicholas Whittaker is a doctoral candidate in philosophy at the City University of New York, Graduate Center. Their writings on art, love, and blackness can be found in The Point, The Drift, Holo Magazine, Aesthetics for Birds, and elsewhere. They are located in Queens, New York.

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Research Brief: Clock gene mutation found to contribute to the development of autism – EurekAlert

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Published in Molecular Psychiatry, a team of scientists from the University of Minnesota Medical School, University of Texas Health San Antonio, and the Biomedical Research Institute (BRI) of the Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas (FORTH) in Greece found that the disruption of a circadian clock gene may be involved in the development of autism spectrum disorder.

Autism spectrum disorder, or ASD, refers to a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by a wide range of behavioral conditions including challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech and nonverbal communication. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ASD affects one in 44 children in the U.S.

About 50-80% of children with ASD have sleep problems, compared to less than 30% in the general population. The causes of sleep problems in ASD are not entirely clear, but a malfunctioning body clock could be the culprit.

It has long been recognized that the function of the body clock is frequently disrupted in autism patients and these patients often exhibit various sleep problems, said Ruifeng Cao, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of neuroscience at the U of M Medical School, Duluth Campus and co-author of the study. But, it is not known whether clock gene disruption can directly cause autism.

The study found that the disruption of an essential clock gene in preclinical models can lead to autistic-like phenotypes. Specifically, the global or cerebellar deletion of the Bmal1 gene can cause severe impairments in sociability, social communication and excessive repetitive behaviors.

The models also illustrated damages to their cerebellum or cerebellar ataxia. The research team further studied the pathological changes in the cerebellum and found a number of cellular and molecular changes that indicate neurodevelopmental deficits.

Clock gene disruption could be a mechanism underlying several forms of autism and potentially other neurodevelopmental conditions, and this finding paves the way for further exciting research, said Christos Gkogkas, PhD, a lab principal investigator in neurobiology at BRI of FORTH.

The research team plans to continue to study other clock genes that are found mutated in ASD. More importantly, they recommend development of novel therapeutic strategies based on their findings.

The study is supported by grants from the National Institute of Health and the Winston and Maxine Wallin Neuroscience Discovery Fund.

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The research team consists of Drs. Harry Orr, Alfonso Araque, Paulo Kofuji, and Jonathan Gewirtz (now at Arizona State University) from the U of M Medical School; Dr. Victor Jin from UT Health San Antonio; and Dr. Christos Gkogkas from BRI-FORTH in Greece.

About the University of Minnesota Medical SchoolThe University of Minnesota Medical School is at the forefront of learning and discovery, transforming medical care and educating the next generation of physicians. Our graduates and faculty produce high-impact biomedical research and advance the practice of medicine. We acknowledge that the U of M Medical School, both the Twin Cities campus and Duluth campus, is located on traditional, ancestral and contemporary lands of the Dakota and the Ojibwe, and scores of other Indigenous people, and we affirm our commitment to tribal communities and their sovereignty as we seek to improve and strengthen our relations with tribal nations. For more information about the U of M Medical School, please visit med.umn.edu.

The Biomedical Research Institute of FORTHThe Biomedical Research Institute (BRI) of FORTH at Ioannina consists of 18 research teams that comprise 140 members. The groups of BRI work in basic molecular and cellular biology areas of biomedical research with high interest in public health and biomedicine, such as vascular biology, stem cell biology and regenerative medicine, cancer biology, neurobiology, and biomedical technology.

The Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas (FORTH) is one of the largest research centers in Greece, comprising nine Research Institutes. FORTH conducts specialized scientific research in strategic high-added value sectors, focusing on interdisciplinary research and development (R&D) activities in areas of major scientific, societal and economic interest.

Molecular Psychiatry

Observational study

Animals

Autistic-like behavior and cerebellar dysfunction in Bmal1 mutant mice ameliorated by mTORC1 inhibition

17-Mar-2022

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

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Dance to the Bone review intoxicating songs and invigorating moves – The Guardian

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In the week that saw the lifting of almost all pandemic restrictions in Wales, its a playfully bold proposition to stage a show about the emancipatory and healing possibilities of a plague. In Dance to the Bone by Eleanor Yates and Oliver Hoare, the plague is a dancing one. A mass hysteria that seemingly compelled hundreds of citizens of Strasbourg in 1518 to dance is suddenly resurgent in contemporary South Wales.

Joanna Bevan (Yasemin zdemir) works at the Insurance4U call centre where she is failing to reach her customer conversion targets. She is grieving the recent death of her grandmother still present on a voicemail greeting which is causing further familial tensions. The offer of transfiguration and reconciliation comes in the form of the mephistophelian St Vitus (Hoare), the patron saint of dancers.

Co-directed by Joe Murphy and Matthew Holmquist, this is sleekly produced and staged gig theatre, performed by a small cast of onstage actor musicians. The ensemble work is lovely, and witnessing the dexterity of actors who can also play instruments (and sing and dance) is always a particular theatrical thrill. The songs possess an intoxicating and assured swagger, and the dancing choreographed by Krystal S Lowe possesses an undercurrent of horror despite expressive lyricism. On Simin Mas set, lit by Andy Pike, it feels like were in a sacred space: stained glass windows on one side, and God as a DJ on the other.

But the beats of the drama are not as spirited as the music, nor as invigorating as the dance. It aims for the transcendental, hinting at the fleshy hedonism of an illicit rave and of healing through transformation, but is slightly mired by a narrative that is more mundane and less persuasive. This isnt helped by the fact that much of the dramatic tension pivots on the use of the hackneyed trope where the Welsh language is rendered exotic, meaningful only as an incantation of strange earthy mysticism rather than a language in which people live their lives.

But even if I was not quite swept off my feet, there is still much here to tempt the soul.

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Success treating night blindness in dogs could lead to human gene therapy – University of California

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Scientists have successfully restored dim-light vision to dogs with an inherited disorder that causes night blindness, a major step toward using the same gene therapy to help people with similar vision problems.

In 2015, researchers from the University of Pennsylvanias School of Veterinary Medicine learned that dogs could develop a form of inherited night blindness with strong similarities to a condition in people called congenital stationary night blindness (CSNB). People with CSNB are unable to distinguish objects in dim-light conditions, which presents challenges when artificial lighting is unavailable or when driving at night.

The term stationary refers to the fact that this very impaired vision in dim light occurs at birth and doesnt get better or worse with time, which makes it quite debilitating for patients, said neuroscientistJohn Flannery, UC Berkeley professor of molecular and cell biology. There is currently no treatment for these people.

In 2019, when the Penn Vet team identified the defective gene responsible for CSNB in dogs, the researchers reached out to Flannery to find a way to deliver a replacement gene a normal copy of the defective gene into dogs retinas.

Flannery and former postdoctoral fellow Leah Byrne, now an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh, designed and made a viral vector that could target the defective cells and deliver the gene. When injected into the retina, the virus an attenuated adeno-associated virus (AAV) would carry the replacement gene and a cell-specific promoter into ON-bipolar cells in the retina, which receive visual input exclusively from rods, which are the cells sensitive to dim light and the site of the mutated gene in these dogs.

This week, the journalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciencespublishedthe teams paperreporting its successful restoration of night vision to dogs born with CSNB.

In videos of the dogs after the treatment, the restoration of vision in low lighting is quite impressive and easy to appreciate in the canine behavior, said Flannery, a member of Berkeleys Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute and a faculty member in the Herbert Wertheim School of Optometry and Vision Science. The defect is in the synapse between the rod photoreceptor and the rod-specific bipolar, and this has only been attempted before in mice.

A single injection of gene therapy containing a normal version of the LRIT3 gene resulted in lasting restoration of night vision in dogs affected by a form of congenital stationary night blindness similar to one affecting humans. This image shows a cross-section of the retina and the ON-bipolar cells (red) targeted by the gene therapy. (Image credit: Keiko Miyadera, Penn Vet)

Dogs with CSNB that received a single injection of the gene therapy began to express the healthy gene in their retinas and could ably navigate a maze in dim light. The treatment also appears lasting, with a sustained therapeutic effect lasting a year or longer.

The results of this pilot study are very promising, said Keiko Miyadera, lead author of the study and an assistant professor at Penn Vet. In people and dogs with congenital stationary night blindness, the severity of disease is consistent and unchanged throughout their lives. And we were able to treat these dogs as adults, between 1 and 3 years of age. That makes these findings promising and relevant to the human patient population, as we could theoretically intervene, even in adulthood, and see an improvement in night vision.

The gene that the Penn Vet team corrected to fix the dogs night vision impairment has also been implicated in certain cases of human CSNB, which opens the door to treating people with a similar gene therapy.

While the therapy enabled functional recovery in the animals the dogs were able to navigate a maze when their treated eye was uncovered, but not when it was covered the healthy copy of the gene was expressed in only 30% or fewer of ON bipolar cells. In follow-up work, the researchers hope to augment this uptake for future dog and human trials.

Weve stepped into the no mans land of the retina with this gene therapy, said William A. Beltran, a co-author and professor at Penn Vet. This opens the door to treating other diseases that impact the ON bipolar cells.

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Style News: The Emily In Paris Dress in S’pore, new home-grown beauty brand Aspurely – The Straits Times

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Magali Pascal lands in Singapore

Attention, fans of Emily In Paris: Magali Pascal, the Paris-born and Bali-based fashion couturier who conjured Emily Cooper's flirty asymmetrical frock in the second season of the series is now in Singapore.

Pascal and her eponymous label will be joining a line-up of other indie designers, including Indonesia's Peggy Hartanto and South Korea's Minjukim, who will present their Spring/Summer 2022 collections at multi-label boutique SocietyA.

The collection consists of 10 pieces that embody the hedonism of Bianca Jagger, a former model and Mick Jagger's ex-wife, and her heady disco days in the 1970s.

Another new designer to look out for at SocietyA is London-based designer Rejina Pyo, who perfectly captures the vibrancy of the season with her latest collection.

The Spring/Summer 2022 collections are available at Society-A.com and its flagship boutique at Ngee Ann City.

As a teen, Ms Coreena Ong experienced severe acne outbreaks and started experimenting with herbs and plants to treat her condition. Now 47, she has turned her passion for do-it-yourself skincare into a business with her beauty brand, Aspurely.

She spent years visiting herb farms and also worked with scientists and laboratories all over the world to build products that are said to be "pure, holistic yet high performance".

The result? Aspurely's clean skincare range, including its top products Anti-Aging Revival Serum ($149), Anti-Aging Sculpting Night Cream ($159) and Face Lifting Scalp Treatment ($169).

These three have extracts from the resurrection plant, a native of Rhodopes Mountain in Bulgaria and Greece, so named because it is the only plant known to have survived the last Ice Age due to its extreme resilience.

Ms Ong has also eliminated nasties such as colourants, sulphates and parabens from her products, choosing instead to use all-natural preservatives made from eco-certified botanicals.

Available at Aspurely's website.

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Style News: The Emily In Paris Dress in S'pore, new home-grown beauty brand Aspurely - The Straits Times

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Health Canada Grants Marketing Authorization for KALYDECO (ivacaftor) for Patients With Cystic Fibrosis Between the Ages of 4 Months and 18 Years With…

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TORONTO, March 25, 2022 /CNW/ - Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Canada) Incorporated (NASDAQ: VRTX) today announced that Health Canada has granted Marketing Authorization for the expanded use of PrKALYDECO (ivacaftor) in patients from 4 months to 18 years of age and weighing at least 5 kg with the R117H mutation in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Canada) Inc. Logo (CNW Group/Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Canada) Inc.)

"KALYDECO was first approved in Canada in 2012 as the first medicine to treat the underlying cause of cystic fibrosis in patients with specific mutations," said Michael Siauw, General Manager, Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Canada). "Since then, it's been our goal to ensure that as many people with CF as possible are eligible for our treatments, and today's announcement means that approximately 25 young people with CF in Canada are now newly eligible for KALYDECO."

Vertex will work closely with all provinces, territories and private payers to secure access for eligible patients as swiftly as possible.

In Canada, PrKALYDECO is already approved for the treatment of people with CF ages 18 and older with the R117H mutation, and in people with CF ages 4 months and older weighing at least 5 kg who have one of the following mutations in the CFTR gene: G551D, G1244E, G1349D, G178R, G551S, S1251N, S1255P, S549N or S549R.

About Cystic Fibrosis

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a rare, life-shortening genetic disease affecting more than 83,000 people globally. CF is a progressive, multi-organ disease that affects the lungs, liver, pancreas, GI tract, sinuses, sweat glands and reproductive tract. CF is caused by a defective and/or missing CFTR protein resulting from certain mutations in the CFTR gene. Children must inherit two defective CFTR genes one from each parent to have CF, and these mutations can be identified by a genetic test. While there are many different types of CFTR mutations that can cause the disease, the vast majority of people with CF have at least one F508del mutation. CFTR mutations lead to CF by causing CFTR protein to be defective or by leading to a shortage or absence of CFTR protein at the cell surface. The defective function and/or absence of CFTR protein results in poor flow of salt and water into and out of the cells in a number of organs. In the lungs, this leads to the buildup of abnormally thick, sticky mucus, chronic lung infections and progressive lung damage that eventually leads to death for many patients. The median age of death is in the early 30s.

Story continues

About PrKALYDECO (ivacaftor)

In people with certain types of mutations in the CFTR gene, the CFTR protein at the cell surface does not function properly. Known as a CFTR potentiator, ivacaftor is an oral medicine designed to facilitate the ability of CFTR proteins to transport salt and water across the cell membrane, which helps hydrate and clear mucus from the airways. PrKALYDECO (ivacaftor) was the first medicine to treat the underlying cause of CF in people with specific mutations in the CFTR gene.

About Vertex

Vertex is a global biotechnology company that invests in scientific innovation to create transformative medicines for people with serious diseases. The company has multiple approved medicines that treat the underlying cause of cystic fibrosis (CF) a rare, life-threatening genetic disease and has several ongoing clinical and research programs in CF. Beyond CF, Vertex has a robust pipeline of investigational small molecule, cell and genetic therapies in other serious diseases where it has deep insight into causal human biology, including sickle cell disease, beta thalassemia, APOL1-mediated kidney disease, pain, type 1 diabetes, alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency and Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Founded in 1989 in Cambridge, Mass., Vertex's global headquarters is now located in Boston's Innovation District and its international headquarters is in London. Additionally, the company has research and development sites and commercial offices in North America, Europe, Australia and Latin America. Vertex is consistently recognized as one of the industry's top places to work, including 12 consecutive years on Science magazine's Top Employers list and one of the 2021 Seramount (formerly Working Mother Media) 100 Best Companies.

Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, without limitation, statements made by Michael Siauw in this press release, and statements regarding our expectations for the eligible patient population for and access to KALYDECO, and our beliefs regarding the benefits of our medicine. While Vertex believes the forward-looking statements contained in this press release are accurate, these forward-looking statements represent the company's beliefs only as of the date of this press release and there are a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Those risks and uncertainties include, among other things, that data from the company's development programs may not support registration or further development of its compounds due to safety, efficacy or other reasons and other risks listed under the heading "Risk Factors" in Vertex's most recent annual report and subsequent quarterly reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission at http://www.sec.gov and available through the company's website at http://www.vrtx.com. You should not place undue reliance on these statements. Vertex disclaims any obligation to update the information contained in this press release as new information becomes available.

(VRTX-GEN)

SOURCE Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Canada) Inc.

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The Top Concerts In San Diego This Weekend – There San Diego

Posted: at 2:35 am

Concerts March 31st to April 4th

Wednesday, March 30, 20220

Show 5:30PM

Falling on the more melodic side of the post-hardcore world, Floridas Sleeping with Sirens create a whirlwind of emotion with their yearning and aggressive blend of metal and emo influences.

Show 8PM

From their halcyon days as Americas sweethearts to their current status as superstars who pioneered a genre, The Go-Gos preside over an amazing three-decade reign as high pop priestesses.

Doors 8PM, Show 8:30PM

Featuring guttural bass lines and a vivacious swagger, VCTRE hones in on the textures and boisterous musical attitude that has brought him a growing acclaim across the realm of low-end music.

Doors 6PM, Show 7PM

Tristan Prettyman parlayed her smoky alto voice and laid-back surfer-girl-from-San-Diego charm into an eight-year career studded with highlights.

Show 5PM

The American College of Gastroenterology is proud to host this webstream event. ACGs goal is to tap the connection and energy that music creates to shine a light on the importance of colorectal cancer screening and prevention.

Show 8PM

In 2019, ArtPower and Ariel Quartet embarked on a four-year endeavor, performing the complete Beethoven cycle, in honor of the composers 250th birthday in 2020. On April 1, 2022, the quartet will perform its final concert, completing all 16 string quartets.

Show 9:30PM

American DJ Deorro has taken the music world by storm over the last decade and in the spirit of all things EDM and dance.

Show 8:30PM

Canaan Cox is the definition of an entertainer. His music fuses contemporary country with the energy of pop and taste of R&B.

Doors 8PM, Show 9PM

Best known as the guitarist and vocalist for punk revivalists, Rancid, Lars Frederiksen has been a major player in the California punk scene since the 1990s.

Doors 8:30PM, Show 9PM

Hailed as one of the most exciting live acts on the road today, Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers are musical beacons of the Southwest fueled by witty and insightful lyrics, crunching guitar riffs, a dynamic rhythm section, and tequila.

Show 7PM

As a songwriter and collaborator, Charli XCX helped create some of the biggest pop singles of the 2010s, including Icona Pops 2012 smash I Love It and Iggy Azaleas 2014 chart-topping hit Fancy.

Doors 10PM

Fully equipped with a never-ending flow of four-on-the-floor beats, Gettoblaster has created their own sound by taking what theyve been influenced by for years and twisting it with modern day production and pushing the genre of jackin tracks to the future.

Doors 5PM, Show 5:30PM

High Tide Society (formerly AM Gold) is keeping it classy and re-creating all of your 70s and early 80s soft-rock hits from artists like Ambrosia, Bread, America, Steely Dan, Kenny Loggins, Exile, Orleans, Air Supply, Little River Band, Toto, Hall & Oates, Christopher Cross and more.

Doors 8PM

A steadfast and soulful young lady, she lets her heart do the writing and her voice tell the story. Shes country steeped in soul, in the spirit of the female pioneers of those genres.

Show 11AM

The all-day event consists of three concert sessions featuring performances by 15 choral groups and massed choirs.

Show 2PM

Shelton possesses a warm, masculine ease that has given his rowdier numbers a sense of sly humor, but this relaxed touch also made him an effective crooner of ballads, the ace in the hole that helped him cross over from country to the mainstream in the 2010s.

Doors 10PM

Dj Susie is an American social media star who has gained populairty through the eponymous Instagram account.

Doors 8PM, Show 9PM

The bands mission and destiny is simple: to build a mustache army and create a Soft Rock Explosion the likes of which has not been seen since Christopher Cross, Steely Dan, Ace, Kenny Loggins and The Little River Band ruled the airwaves and created AM Gold.

Doors 8PM

Grounded in the strong familial bond she has and the music heritage she was raised on, Payton brings a refreshing voice to her music that is resolute, both on and off stage.

Show 9:30PM

Oliver Heldens tracks produced under his own name tend to be melodic while maintaining a funky edge.

Doors 8PM

Canaans latest single As You Leave was released in January 2022 and received marquee playlisting on Spotify including New Boots, Wild Country, Breakout Country, and Next from Nashville.

Show 9:30PM

Snakehips produce left-field pop and hip-hop songs that feature a wide variety of guest vocalists, generally revolving around themes of hedonism and heartache.

Show 6:30PM

An expansive progressive metalcore band hailing from Orange County, California, Dayseeker make explosive metalcore and post-hardcore with an arena rock flair.

Doors 4PM, Show 5PM

Tumua Tuinei is one of Hawaiis top and hottest comics! Tumua has been doing comedy in the islands for five years. Recently he sold out 29 consecutive shows since December 2020.

Show 7PM

Teddy Swims contains multitudes. Its right there in his name Swims is an acronym for Someone Who Isnt Me Sometimes, and its a kind of shorthand for everything he stands for.

Doors 7PM

Unhappy with the current state of ska music, We Are The Union decided to stick out their own necks and tried to change things for the better in the summer of 2005. Instead of following typical ska punk conventions, WATU takes a harder-nosed approach to the genre.

Doors 7PM, Show 8PM

Watkins Family Hour is a bluegrass musical collaborative led by siblings Sara Watkins and Sean Watkins, who also form two-thirds of the Americana music group Nickel Creek.

Show 7PM

Conceived by Yo-Yo Ma in 1998, the GRAMMY Award-winning Silkroad Ensemble thrills audiences worldwide with a collective of artists representing dozens of nationalities and artistic traditions.

Doors 7PM

A rapper, singer, and musician with an aggressive style and an angry world view, Zero 9:36 rose from a cult figure in the Philadelphia hip-hop community to an alternative artist with a nationwide following by the time he was 22.

See you there, San Diego!

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Microbial Protein Production Services Market Opportunities and Forecasts 2025 – BioSpace

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Albany NY, United States: Protein expression, purification and large scale production is achieved by manipulation in the gene expression process of an organism such that it is able to express large amounts of a recombinant gene. It is not a trivial task and faces a huge competition in the market because of the fragmented scenario over the globe. Fermenters and bioreactors with different expression system capabilities, purity options, quality control and the production timeline differentiate various services available in the market. Various organizations have developed their own in-house methods of production and purification. Bacterial and yeast systems are mostly used in case of microbial protein production process because of simple physiology, short generation times and high yield of product, both having their own advantages and disadvantages. Among bacterial, E. coli has been most widely used for recombinant protein expression and production. Clients can use the service for the manufacture of either the regular proteins whose gene sequence is available in the public domain or can manufacture its customized gene expression

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Producing recombinant proteins is often the limiting and most expensive step in life science research. Expression yield of recombinant proteins vary by orders of magnitudes from protein to protein reflecting the difference in the cost of production process. These services are more preferred due to the increasing customization in the genetic sequences. Microbial protein production services also involves the use of various types of tags for purification purposes such as FLAG-tag, His-tag, Fc-fusion tag, GST-tag, Myc-tag, HA-tag, MBP-tag and others.

Microbial Protein Production Services Market: Drivers & Restraints

Increase in the number of applications of microbial proteins such as the increasing enzymatic applications and their requirement in various industries, increase in the production of bio-pharmaceuticals like monoclonal antibodies, hepatitis B vaccine and HPV vaccine are increasing the need of microbial protein production services to meet the demand. Recent advances in proteomics and rapid growth in protein drug market also constantly increasing the market of pure and active proteins. Increasing number of CROs also fuels the services market. One of the limiting factor for the growth is not possessing the same capability as eukaryotic cells for protein glycosylation and other post-translational modifications and thus limits its applications. Increasing regulatory pressure on CROs, high cost involved, lack of skilled manpopwer, infrastructure and skilled expertise may also restricts the growth.

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Microbial Protein Production Services Market: Segmentation

By Production Type:

By Service Type:

By End User:

By Geography

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Microbial protein production services constitutes of companies and research organizations engaged in protein production and purification services. Bio therapeutic protein and vaccine manufacturers faces various challenges related to time and cost in the drug discovery and development process. The service units take only the protein sequence and adjust the amount and purity required for protein production. These type of services help in saving time and cost to accomplish the research needs. Competitive prices of different products and the quality differentiates the market players. Continuous innovations and improvements in the protein expression systems are the need of the market. Various mergers and partnership deals in this sector also fuels the market such as Ewos recently offered a US $30 million funding package to Calysta which is planning to manufacture novel high quality microbial proteins for the fish feed industry in the UK.

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A geographic condition regarding the Microbial Protein Production Services Market, it has been segmented into five key regions: North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East & Africa. With large number of research organizations and usage in number of applications in various industries, North America depicts an established market for these services. Extensive competition is faced by the European countries because of the excellent number of contract research organizations and established network of universities and research institutions in the region. Asia Pacific is the growing market because of establishment of more biotechnological and pharmaceutical industries and opening of more contract research organizations. Moreover, low cost manufacturing also attracts the market in this region.

Some of the market players in the microbial protein production service market includes Wacker, Chemie AG, Icosagen, Sino Biological, GenScript, LP3 Labs, Lonza, Biomatik, GenWay Biotech, Inc., Olympic Protein Technologies, Amid Biosciences and many others.

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Microbial Identification Market: The stellar pace of developments in the field of microbiology have aided the growth of the global microbial identification market. There have been several developments in the domain of microbial studies, and this has hugely contributed towards developing effective treatment mechanisms within medicine.

Rapid Microbial Detection Systems Market: Increasing efficiency in medical research and development, coupled with the advent of extra safety measures for diagnostic purposes are the two notable features aiding in expansion of the global rapid microbial detection systems market growth. The forecast period for the growth of this market is set between 2020 and 2030 and the market is likely to gain acceleration during the current COVID-19 pandemic.

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Rise in Birth Defects for Babies Whose Fathers Took Common Diabetes Drug – HealthDay News

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TUESDAY, March 29, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Babies born to fathers who were taking the common diabetes drug metformin may have a slightly increased risk of certain birth defects, a large new study suggests.

Among over 1 million babies born in Denmark, just over 3% had a birth defect of some kind. But that rate was roughly 5% among babies whose fathers had used metformin in the three months before they were conceived, the findings showed.

In particular, the medication was tied to a higher risk of genital birth defects, all in baby boys, according to the report published March 28 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Experts stressed that the study does not prove metformin is to blame, and there is no known mechanism to explain the connection. And men should not stop using their medication based on a single study, they added.

"We know metformin works well for controlling diabetes," said senior researcher Dr. Michael Eisenberg, a professor of urology at Stanford University School of Medicine in California.

But the results do bring up a "signal" that should be studied further, Eisenberg said. On a broader level, he added, the study highlights the importance of understanding fathers' influence on birth defect risks.

Metformin is an oral medication widely used for controlling high blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes a common disease that is often related to obesity.

In the United States alone, more than 37 million people have diabetes, most of whom have type 2, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While it is most common in people older than 45, the agency says, type 2 diabetes is increasingly being diagnosed in younger adults and even children and teenagers.

Studies have found that when pregnant women have poorly controlled diabetes, their babies' risk of birth defects rises.

Meanwhile, some research has tied diabetes in men to poorer sperm quality. But it has not been clear whether fathers' diabetes is related to the odds of birth defects in their children.

Even then, Eisenberg said, a key question would be whether it is because of the diabetes or the medications used to treat it?

For the new study, the researchers turned to Denmark's national birth registry, analyzing data on over 1 million babies born between 1997 and 2016.

The investigators found that when fathers had used metformin within the three months before conception, their babies' risk of birth defects was about 40% higher, on average, versus the study group as a whole.

There was a particular link to genital birth defects, all among boys: Of all babies whose fathers used metformin in the three months before conception, 0.9% had a genital birth defect, versus just over 0.2% of the overall group.

That three-month window is critical, Eisenberg said, because sperm take roughly that long to develop.

The researchers dug into other factors that might explain the link, including parents' age, education level and smoking habits. But fathers' metformin use remained tied to birth defect risk.

That still left the question of whether it was the medication, or the diabetes.

There were some strikes against that notion, Eisenberg said. For one, there was no clear link between birth defects and fathers' metformin use in the year before or after the three-month window before conception.

The researchers also looked at two other types of diabetes medication used by fathers in the study: insulin and drugs called sulfonylureas. Insulin use was not tied to birth defects.

On the other hand, there was an elevated rate of birth defects when fathers used sulfonylureas. But the finding was not "statistically significant" once the researchers weighed other factors meaning it could have been due to chance.

However, an expert not involved in the study said the metformin finding could also easily be due to chance, or "confounding" due to other factors.

Dr. Anthony Scialli is a member of the Organization of Teratology Information Specialists. The group runs MotherToBaby, a free service that provides research-based information on the effects of medications during pregnancy.

Scialli explained that the study made many different comparisons, which increases the odds of chance findings. Beyond that, he said, genetic factors could be at play.

Scialli noted that the genital birth defects in boys would mostly be hypospadias, where the opening of the urethra is on the underside of the penis rather than the tip. And hypospadias, he said, often runs in families.

The researchers did do a comparison to try to account for genetics: They found that babies "exposed" to fathers' metformin use had a higher rate of birth defects than their siblings who were not exposed.

But, Scialli pointed out, that difference was not statistically significant once the researchers adjusted for other variables.

"So both chance and confounding could explain these results," Scialli said. "Causation seems unlikely given the lack of a plausible mechanism."

Eisenberg agreed that the mechanism is unknown, and more research is needed. He also said the findings need to be replicated in other countries, including ones more diverse than the relatively homogenous Denmark.

The bigger point is that fathers' health and exposures, and their potential impact on their children, should not be ignored, Eisenberg said.

"The health of fathers matters, too," he said.

More information

MotherToBaby has more on fathers' exposures and pregnancy.

SOURCES: Michael Eisenberg, MD, professor, urology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, Calif.; Anthony Scialli, MD, reproductive and developmental toxicology specialist, member, Organization of Teratology Information Specialists, Brentwood, Tenn.; Annals of Internal Medicine, March 28, 2022, online

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