Category Archives: Genetic Engineering

IMAGE:BioResearch Open Access is a bimonthly peer-reviewed open access journal led by Editor-in-Chief Robert Lanza, MD, Chief Scientific Officer, Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. and Editor Jane Taylor, PhD. The Journal... view more

Credit: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers

New Rochelle, NY, January 12, 2014--A promising new therapeutic approach to treat a variety of diseases involves taking a patient's own cells, turning them into stem cells, and then deriving targeted cell types such as muscle or nerve cells to return to the patient to repair damaged tissues and organs. But the clinical effectiveness of these stem cells has only been modest, which may be due to the advanced age of the patients or the effects of chronic diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease, according to a probing Review article published in BioResearch Open Access, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers . The article is available on the BioResearch Open Access website.

Anastasia Yu. Efimenko, TN Kochegura, ZA Akopyan, and YV Parfyonova, Moscow State University (Russia), analyze how aging and chronic diseases might affect the regenerative potential of autologous stem cells and explain the differences between the promising results reported in preclinical studies using stem cells derived from healthy young donors and the more modest success of clinical studies in aged patients. The authors propose strategies to test for and enhance to regenerative properties and therapeutic potential of stem cells in the article "Autologous Stem Cell Therapy: How Aging and Chronic Diseases Affect Stem and Progenitor Cells".

"This review discusses a very important issue in regenerative medicine, how aging and chronic pathologies such as cardiovascular diseases and metabolic disorders affect adult stem/progenitor cells," says BioResearch Open Access Editor Jane Taylor, PhD, MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine, University of Edinburgh, Scotland. "Future therapies are discussed by the authors in terms of overcoming or correcting the limitations of these cells in order to enhance their therapeutic potential."

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About the Journal

BioResearch Open Access is a bimonthly peer-reviewed open access journal led by Editor-in-Chief Robert Lanza, MD, Chief Scientific Officer, Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. and Editor Jane Taylor, PhD. The Journal provides a new rapid-publication forum for a broad range of scientific topics including molecular and cellular biology, tissue engineering and biomaterials, bioengineering, regenerative medicine, stem cells, gene therapy, systems biology, genetics, biochemistry, virology, microbiology, and neuroscience. All articles are published within 4 weeks of acceptance and are fully open access and posted on PubMed Central. All journal content is available on the BioResearch Open Access website.

About the Publisher

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many areas of science and biomedical research, including DNA and Cell Biology, Tissue Engineering, Stem Cells and Development, Human Gene Therapy, HGT Methods, and HGT Clinical Development, and AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 80 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.

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Is stem cell therapy less effective in older patients with chronic diseases?

IMAGE:AIDS Patient Care and STDs is the leading journal for clinicians, enabling them to keep pace with the latest developments in this evolving field. Published monthly online with... view more

Credit: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers

New Rochelle, NY, January 12, 2015--African Americans currently account for nearly half of all new HIV diagnoses, and among females, 64% of new HIV diagnoses affect Black/African American women. A series of articles reporting results from the Women of Color HIV Initiative, including topics such as linkage and barriers to care, treatment adherence, viral suppression, substance abuse, and violence, are published in a special issue of AIDS Patient Care and STDs, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The issue is available free on the AIDS Patient Care and STDs website.

The Women of Color HIV Initiative is a prospective study of more than 920 women who were enrolled in HIV care at one of nine sites (six urban and three rural) across the United States between 2010 and 2013. The Initiative was a Special Projects of National Significance funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration.

Arthur E. Blank, PhD, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, served as a Guest Editor of this special issue and as a contributing author. In the article "Health Status of HIV-Infected Women Entering Care: Baseline Medical Findings from the Women of Color Initiative," E. Byrd Quinlivan, MD and coauthors, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, New York University, City University of New York, and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, report the activity limitations and health conditions affecting the study participants on entering HIV care. The women had more physical and mental health concerns than the general female population in the U.S. and, in particular, cardiovascular disease and diabetes were associated with activity limitation.

Elizabeth A. Eastwood, MD and colleagues, City University of New York, New York University College of Nursing, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, SUNY Downstate Medical Center, and SUNY School of Public Health, Brooklyn, NY, compare the sociodemographic features of the women who enrolled in HIV medical care. Urban women tended to report more barriers to care, substance abuse, and sexual risk behaviors. Women treated at urban sites were also, for example, more likely to be Hispanic, unemployed, and less educated, as described in the article "Baseline Social Characteristics and Barriers to Care from a Special Project of National Significance Women of Color with HIV Study: A Comparison of Urban and Rural Women and Barriers to HIV Care."

"Across the United States, Black/African American and Latina women are disproportionately affected by HIV, and many face daily struggles to engage in and remain in HIV primary care," says special issue Guest Editor Arthur E. Blank, PhD. "The articles in this issue use a variety of traditional and novel research approaches to document the barriers women of color face, and the factors that contribute to engaging and retaining them in care."

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About the Journal

AIDS Patient Care and STDs is the leading journal for clinicians, enabling them to keep pace with the latest developments in this evolving field. Published monthly online with Open Access options and in print, the Journal spans the full spectrum of adult and pediatric HIV disease, diagnosis, treatment, prevention, and education. Tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the AIDS Patient Care and STDs website.

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Findings from the Women of Color HIV Initiative published in AIDS Patient Care and STDs journal

Bioethics Project - Should we perform prenatal genetic engineering in humans?
By Samantha, Eliesse and Nicole.

By: Samantha Hill

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Bioethics Project - Should we perform prenatal genetic engineering in humans? - Video

Genetic engineering benefits
Farmers see the benefit of genetic engineering because it #39;s made their work safer, said Don Lee, genetics professor at University of Nebraska, when he spoke to Managing Editor Susan Winsor....

By: CornSoybeanDigest

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Genetic engineering benefits - Video

4.4 Genetic Engineering

By: Juliana Agostino

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4.4 Genetic Engineering - Video

S033RS03 Science Topics Genetics and Genetic Engineering
Science Topics Genetics and Genetic Engineering #39;Science Topics #39; BBC schools programme. Series originally broadcast on BBC2 1983 - 1985. Repeated until 1992.

By: Lammas Science

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S033RS03 Science Topics Genetics and Genetic Engineering - Video

IMAGE:Soft Robotics, a peer-reviewed journal published quarterly online with Open Access options and in print, combines advances in biomedical engineering, biomechanics, mathematical modeling, biopolymer chemistry, computer science, and tissue engineering... view more

Credit: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers

New Rochelle, NY, January 8, 2015-- By defining a set of key metrics to evaluate the fuel systems available to drive autonomous and wearable soft robots, a team of engineers and chemists are able to compare the advantages and limitations of current technology options. They assess various types of pneumatic energy sources and their benefits for specific applications in an article published in Soft Robotics, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available on the Soft Robotics website.

Michael Wehner and coauthors from Harvard University (Cambridge and Boston, MA), Oregon State University (Corvallis, OR), Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA), Robot G and I Research (Bedford, MA), Worcester Polytechnic Institute (Worcester, MA), and Cornell University (Ithaca, NY), characterize the most advanced pneumatic energy systems designed to power untethered and wearable soft robots based on their energy density and flow capacity, as well as noise, toxic byproducts, application-specific requirements, and the time and additional parts needed for development. The goal of the study, entitled "Pneumatic Energy Sources for Autonomous and Wearable Soft Robotics," is to provide a framework for configuring fuel systems in soft robotics.

"As soft pneumatic systems start to gain acceptance in robotic applications, it is vital that the advantages and limitations of different energy systems are fully explored. This paper provides comparisons and analysis that will useful for anyone designing such systems," says Editor-in-Chief Barry A. Trimmer, PhD, who directs the Neuromechanics and Biomimetic Devices Laboratory at Tufts University (Medford, MA).

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About the Journal

Soft Robotics, a peer-reviewed journal published quarterly online with Open Access options and in print, combines advances in biomedical engineering, biomechanics, mathematical modeling, biopolymer chemistry, computer science, and tissue engineering to present new approaches to the creation of robotic technology and devices that can undergo dramatic changes in shape and size in order to adapt to various environments. Led by Editor-in-Chief Barry A. Trimmer, PhD, and a distinguished team of Associate Editors, the Journal provides the latest research and developments on topics such as soft material creation, characterization, and modeling; flexible and degradable electronics; soft actuators and sensors; control and simulation of highly deformable structures; biomechanics and control of soft animals and tissues; biohybrid devices and living machines; and design and fabrication of conformable machines. Tables of content and a sample issue can be viewed on the Soft Robotics website.

About the Publisher

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing and Tissue Engineering. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 80 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.

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New study from Harvard compares design of fuel systems for soft robots

GMO is an abbreviation for a genetically modified organism whose genome has been altered by the techniques of genetic engineering so that its DNA contains one or more genes not normally found there.

Eighty per cent of our food contains some sort of GMO that you buy at the grocery store, and proponents of the technology point out theres not one incidence of human health issue. The USDA, the FDA, the CDC, and the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization have all concluded that the technology is safe, and agricultural producers maintain that this technology is an absolutely necessary tool for them to be able to feed a growing world population. Travis Miller is the Interim Associate Director for State Operations for the Texas A&M Agrilife Extension Service.

Id encourage people, I like to do a garden myself, and Id encourage people to grow a garden but you cant feed the 300 million people in the United States all with back yard gardens, plus the 50% or more of our crop that we send overseas to feed other people. And GMOs have provided the technology that has reduced the pesticide use, has reduced the insect damage to our crops, has improved the quality of our crops, so that we do have the, its one of the many technologies that were now using to get the kind of yields we have to have to continue to feed the world.

Genetically Modified Organism technology is invaluable to plant breeders. If you look at what crops used to look like when we first started cultivating crops, the dont even resemble what we have today. And that was through traditional breeding technology, pollen from one source and pollen from another source. Problems that have plagued agriculture for decades are being addressed.

Now GMO is another important tool that a plant breeder can put in his tool box and say, oh, well what about this plant disease that we have, well heres a gene that I can take from a spinach plant and put in in a grapefruit and solve a disease thats going to take the citrus industry out.

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From the Ground Up - GMOs Necessary To Feed The World

Organic agriculture is the most expensive, expansive hoax perpetrated on consumers during the past half-century. An affront to the environment because its low yields arewasteful of water and farmland, organic agricultureconfers no advantages except for the feel-good factor for true believers. It only survives because of massive government subsidies and promotion, and black marketing that dishonestly disparages the competition .

My exposs of the many shortcomings and waning credibility of the organic agriculture industry have received a prodigious amountof attention. A 2012 Forbes column got more than a quarter million views. My most recent one on this subject, last month, attracted not only tens of thousands of readers but also a complaint from Jessica Shade, who bills herself as Director of Science Programs at The Organic Center. Thats something of an oxymoron, inasmuch as science holds little sway atthe advocacy organization she works for.

Shades preamble establishes her lack of credibility: U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) organic standards are based around the principles of sustainability and health. In addition, organic farming has many environmental advantages when compared to conventional farming.

None of that is true. Let me be clear about one thing, Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman said when organic certification was being considered, the organic label is a marketing tool. It is not a statement about food safety. Nor is organic a value judgment about nutrition or quality.

Organic standards are wholly arbitrary, and in any case, as a recent report in the Wall Street Journal described, they are not being enforced very effectively: An investigation by the newspaper of USDA inspection records since 2005 found that 38 of the 81 certifying agentsentities accredited by USDA to inspect and certify organic farms and suppliersfailed on at least one occasion to uphold basic Agriculture Department standards. More specifically, 40% of these 81 certifiers have been flagged by the USDA for conducting incomplete inspections; 16% of certifiers failed to cite organic farms potential use of banned pesticides and antibiotics; and 5% failed to prevent potential commingling of organic and nonorganic products.

In December 1997, when USDA tried to set standards for organic agricultural production, the original version was rejected by the organic enthusiasts, largely because itwould have permitted the use of organisms modified with modern genetic engineering techniquesquite sensibly, in the view of the scientific community. In the end, modern genetic engineering, which employs highly precise and predictable techniques, was prohibited, while genetic modification with older, far less precise, less predictable and less effective techniques got waved through.

The resulting standards, which are based on a sentimental back-to-Nature, technological progress is evil ethic, arbitrarily define which pesticides are acceptable, but allow deviations if based on need. Synthetic chemical pesticides are generally prohibitedalthough there is a lengthylist of exceptions listed in the Organic Foods Production Actwhile most natural ones are permitted. The application as fertilizer of pathogen-laden animal excreta to the foods we eat is not only allowed, but in organic dogma, virtually sacred.

Dont let anyone confuse you: Organic pesticides can be toxic.As evolutionary biologist Christie Wilcoxexplainedin a 2012Scientific Americanarticle (Are lower pesticide residues a good reason to buy organic?Probably not.): Organic pesticides pose the same health risks as non-organic ones.

The designation organic is itself asyntheticconstruct of activists and bureaucrats that makes little sense.Moreover, organic standards are based on sets of principles and techniques which have nothing to do with the ultimate quality or composition of the final products. For example, if prohibited chemical pesticides or pollen fromforbidden genetically engineered plants wafts onto and contaminates an organic field, guess what? The farmer gets a mulligan: He does not lose his organic certification.

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Claims For Organic Agriculture Need More Sunlight, Less Shade

IMAGE:AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, published monthly in print and online, presents papers, reviews, and case studies documenting the latest developments and research advances in the molecular biology of HIV... view more

Credit: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers

New Rochelle, NY, January 6, 2015--Timothy Ray Brown, long known only as the "Berlin Patient" had HIV for 12 years before he became the first person in the world to be cured of the infection following a stem cell transplant in 2007. He recalls his many years of illness, a series of difficult decisions, and his long road to recovery in the first-person account, "I Am the Berlin Patient: A Personal Reflection," published in AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is part of a special issue on HIV Cure Research and is available free on the AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses website.

Brown's Commentary describes the bold experiment of using a stem cell donor who was naturally resistant to HIV infection to treat the acute myeloid leukemia (AML) diagnosed 10 years after he became HIV-positive. The stem cell donor had a specific genetic mutation called CCR5 Delta 32 that can protect a person against HIV infection. The virus is not able to enter its target, the CD4 cells. After the stem cell transplant, Brown was able to stop all antiretroviral treatment and the HIV has not returned.

"This is the first time that we get to read this important story written by the man who lived it," says Thomas Hope, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses and Professor of Cell and Molecular Biology at Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL. "It is a unique opportunity to share in the human side of this transformative experience."

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About the Journal

AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, published monthly in print and online, presents papers, reviews, and case studies documenting the latest developments and research advances in the molecular biology of HIV and SIV and innovative approaches to HIV vaccine and therapeutic drug research, including the development of antiretroviral agents and immune-restorative therapies. The content also explores the molecular and cellular basis of HIV pathogenesis and HIV/HTLV epidemiology. The Journal features rapid publication of emerging sequence information and reports on clinical trials of emerging HIV therapies. Tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses website.

About the Publisher

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers/ is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including AIDS Patient Care and STDs, Viral Immunology, and Journal of Interferon & Cytokine Research. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 80 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.

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The 'Berlin patient,' first and only person cured of HIV, speaks out