Category Archives: Genetic Engineering

The fossil of an extinct marine predator that lay entombed in an ancient seafloor for 520 million years reveals the creature had a sophisticated heart and blood-vessel system similar to those of its distant modern relatives, arthropods such as lobsters and ants, researchers report today (April 7).

The cardiovascular system was discovered in the 3-inch-long (8 centimeters) fossilized marine animal species called Fuxianhuia protensa, which is an arthropod from the Chengjiang fossil site in China's Yunnan province. It is the oldest example of an arthropod heart and blood vessel system ever found.

"It's really quite extraordinary," said study co-author Nicholas Strausfeld, a neuroscientist at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

The cardiovascular network is the latest evidence that arthropods had developed a complex organ system 520 million years ago, in the Cambrian Period, the researchers said. Arthropodscome in a wide range of shapes and sizes today, but the animals have kept some aspects of their basic body plan since the Cambrian. For instance, the brain in living crustaceans is very similar to that of F. protensa, which is a distant relative but not a direct ancestor of modern species, Strausfeld said. "The brain has not changed much over 520 million years," he said.

In contrast, blood vessel networks have become both simpler and more complex in the ensuing millennia, in response to changing bodies. The modern relatives of F. protensa are arthropods with mandible jaws, and include everything from insects such as beetles and flies to crustaceans such as shrimp and crabs.

"What we're seeing in the arterial system is the ground pattern, the basic body pattern from which all these modern variations could have arisen," Strausfeld told Live Science.

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520-Million-Year-Old Fossils Had Heart and Brain

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

8-Apr-2014

Contact: Vicki Cohn vcohn@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

New Rochelle, NY, April 8, 2014Use of social media such as Facebook can influence attitudes and behaviors among people of all countries and cultures. Among women in Iran, the duration and amount of daily Facebook activity is associated with their desire to wear a traditional head-covering and their willingness to display pictures of themselves without a veil, according to an article in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking website.

In "The Influence of Social Networking Technologies on Female Religious Veil-Wearing Behavior in Iran," Sean Young, PhD, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Abbas Shakiba, University of Shahid Chamran (Ahvaz, Iran), Justin Kwok, UCLA, and Mohammad Sadegh Montazeri, University of Semnan, Iran, report the results of a survey of Iranian women. They found significant relationships between several factors and how likely the Iranian women surveyed were to cover themselves with a veil and whether they would post unveiled photos on Facebook.

"This study is an important foray into the impact technology and social media is having on cultural and religious norms," says Brenda K. Wiederhold, PhD, MBA, BCB,BCN, Editor-in-Chief of Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, from the Interactive Media Institute, San Diego, CA.

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About the Journal

Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking is a peer-reviewed journal published monthly online with Open Access options and in print that explores the psychological and social issues surrounding the Internet and interactive technologies, plus cybertherapy and rehabilitation. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking website.

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Are women in Iran who use Facebook less likely to wear a veil?

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

7-Apr-2014

Contact: Vicki Cohn vcohn@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

New Rochelle, NY, April 7, 2014Elevated pressure in the eye is the most common risk factor for glaucoma, an optic neuropathy that can cause blindness and affects more than 67 million people worldwide. Elevated eye pressure in glaucoma develops due to abnormal functioning of the trabecular meshwork (TM) causing intraocular fluid to back up. Next-generation glaucoma drugs will target the finely tuned mechanisms of the TM that maintain normal intraocular pressure, as described in an article in Journal of Ocular Pharmacology and Therapeutics, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article, one of 25 articles in a special double issue of the Journal, is available free on the Journal of Ocular Pharmacology and Therapeutics website.

The article "Intraocular Pressure Homeostasis: Maintaining Balance in a High-Pressure Environment," by Ted Acott and coauthors, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR, describes the efficient mechanisms at work in the eye to keep intraocular pressure within an acceptable range for 92-98% of the population. Understanding these mechanisms will enable the development of drug interventions to treat the unfortunate 2-8% of people that are at risk of developing elevated eye pressure and glaucoma.

"The TM, a unique multilayered tissue that controls intraocular pressure, and its surrounding structures represent viable targets for the development of novel glaucoma therapies," write Editor-in-Chief W. Daniel Stamer, PhD, Duke University (Durham, NC) and Guest Editor John R. Samples, MD, Professor, Rocky Vista University and Director, Western Glaucoma Foundation, Portland, OR, in the Editorial "The Trabecular Meshwork Special Issue, Inspired by the TM Study Club."

The special double issue provides a comprehensive look at the TM and next-generation glaucoma therapies in development through a collection of editorials, original research articles, and reviews. Included is the review article "The Role of TGF-2 and Bone Morphogenetic Proteins in the Trabecular Meshwork and Glaucoma," in which Robert Wordinger, Tasneem Sharma, and Abbot Clark, University of North Texas Health Science Center, Fort Worth, describe the TGF- superfamily of growth factors and their role in primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG), the second leading cause of blindness worldwide.

Also of note, Nelson Winkler, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, and Michael Fautsch, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, explore the current understanding of how prostaglandin analogues, first-line treatments for glaucoma, work to reduce elevated intraocular pressure, in the review article "Effects of Prostaglandin Analogues on Aqueous Humor Outflow Pathways."

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Next-generation glaucoma therapeutics hold considerable promise

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

7-Apr-2014

Contact: Vicki Cohn vcohn@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

New Rochelle, NY, April 7, 2014Antipsychotic medications are often used for unlabeled indications, such as treatment of children and adolescents with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The results of a study of "atypical antipsychotic" drug use among youths with ADHD, comparing age groups, Medicaid eligibility, and presence in foster care are presented in Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology website.

Mehmet Burcu and Julie Zito, University of Maryland, Aloysius Ibe, Morgan State University, and Daniel Safer, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, MD, report that nearly one-third of the ADHD-diagnosed foster care youth ages 2-17 years of age included in the assessment received atypical antipsychotics during the study period. The most common medications given were risperidone, aripiprazole, and quetiapine, according to the article "Atypical Antipsychotic Use Among Medicaid-Insured Children and Adolescents: Duration, Safety, and Monitoring."

"This study adds critical hard data to our understanding of a persistent and unacceptable trend in pediatric psychiatry," says Harold S. Koplewicz, MD, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology, and President, Child Mind Institute, New York, NY. "Our poorest, most vulnerable children, lacking access to evidence-based care, are receiving potentially harmful treatment with little oversight. The highlight of Burcu et al.'s paper for any reader should be the simple but necessary recommendations for antipsychotic prescribing and monitoring in these populations."

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About the Journal

Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published 10 times a year in online with Open Access options and in print. The Journal is dedicated to child and adolescent psychiatry and behavioral pediatrics, covering clinical and biological aspects of child and adolescent psychopharmacology and developmental neurobiology. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed online on the Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology website.

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Antipsychotic drug use among ADHD-diagnosed foster care youth is increasing

The Genetic Engineering Of The Annunaki Gods - Chris Hardy
Cognitive and systems scientist, Chris Hardy joins Dr. Rita Louise on Just Energy Radio where she discusses the history of the Anunnaki on the Earth and their role in the genetic manipulation...

By: Just Energy Radio

Originally posted here:
The Genetic Engineering Of The Annunaki Gods - Chris Hardy - Video

A long-standing challenge in synthetic biology has been to create gene circuits that behave in predictable and robust ways. Mathematical modeling experts from the University of Houston (UH) collaborated with experimental biologists at Rice University to create a synthetic genetic clock that keeps accurate time across a range of temperatures. The findings were published in a recent issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"Synthetic gene circuits are often fragile, and environmental changes frequently alter their behavior," said Kreimir Josi, professor of mathematics in UH's College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. "Our work focused on engineering a gene circuit not affected by temperature change."

Synthetic biology is a field in which naturally occurring biological systems are redesigned for various purposes, such as producing biofuel. The UH and Rice research targeted the bacterium E. coli.

"In E. coli and other bacteria, if you increase the temperature by about 10 degrees the rate of biochemical reactions will double -- and therefore genetic clocks will speed up," Josi said. "We wanted to create a synthetic gene clock that compensates for this increase in tempo and keeps accurate time, regardless of temperature."

The UH team, led by Josi and William Ott, an assistant professor of mathematics, collaborated with the lab of Matthew Bennett, assistant professor of biochemistry and cell biology at Rice. Josi, Bennett and Ott have been working together on various research projects for three years. The team also included UH postdoctoral fellow Chinmaya Gupta.

According to Bennett, the ability to keep cellular reactions accurately timed, regardless of temperature, may be valuable to synthetic biologists who wish to reprogram cellular regulatory mechanisms for biotechnology.

The work involved engineering a gene within the clock onto a plasmid, a little piece of DNA that is inserted into E. coli. A mutation in the gene had the effect of slowing down the clock as temperature increased.

UH researchers created a mathematical model to assess the various design features that would be needed in the plasmid to counteract temperature change. Gupta showed that the model captured the mechanisms essential to compensate for the temperature-dependent changes in reaction rates.

The computational modeling confirmed that a single mutation could result in a genetic clock with a stable period across a large range of temperatures -- an observation confirmed by experiments in the Bennett lab. Josi's team then confirmed the predictions of the models using real data.

"Having a mechanistic model that allows you to determine which features are important and which can be ignored for a genetic circuit to behave in a particular way allows you to more efficiently create circuits with desired properties," Gupta said. "It allows you to concentrate on the most important factors necessary in the design."

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Synthetic genetic clock keeps accurate time across a range of temperatures

Genetic Engineering Biology Project
I am a cute little girl in jeans.

By: Scott Diliberto

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Genetic Engineering Biology Project - Video

April 5, 2014

April Flowers for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

Endometriosis is a chronic inflammatory disease that affects more than 176 million women and girls worldwide, according to the Endometriosis Foundation of America. Despite being one of the most common gynecological disorders, there is no definitive consensus on the cause of endometriosis. To add insult to injury, some women who have endometriosis are also predisposed to ovarian cancer.

A new study from the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) and Magee-Womens Research Institute (MWRI) reveals that genetic screening could someday help clinicians to know which women are most at risk.

The research team will present their results on the first comprehensive immune gene profile exploring endometriosis and cancer on Monday at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2014.

A small subset of women with endometriosis go on to develop ovarian cancer, but doctors have no clinical way to predict which women, said Anda Vlad, MD, PhD, assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at MWRI. If further studies show that the genetic pathway we uncovered is indicative of future cancer development, then doctors will know to more closely monitor certain women and perhaps take active preventative measures, such as immune therapy.

Endometriosis is a painful condition that is often misdiagnosed for years before some form of correct treatment is attempted. As redOrbit reported in February, it is called a disease of theories, because so little is known about how it works, or who it will strike.

We know there is a genetic component, we know there is an environmental component, and we know there is an inflammatory component. But its very difficult to say for individual patients what particular sequence of events led to particular symptoms, Michael Beste, a postdoc in MITs Department of Biological Engineering, said.

It is the genetic component, and its association to cancer, that Vlad and her team are focused on finding.

Vlad and her team screened tissue samples from women with benign endometriosis, women with precancerous lesions and women with endometriosis-associated ovarian cancer. This allowed the researchers to identify the complement pathway, which refers to a series of protein interactions that trigger an amplified immune response, as the most prominent immune pathway that is activated in both endometriosis and endometriosis-associated ovarian cancer.

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Genetic Screening For Endometriosis-Associated Ovarian Cancer

Tomato tomato genetic engineering rap
via YouTube Capture.

By: molly kramer

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Tomato tomato genetic engineering rap - Video

Seeds: A play for thinking audiences
Actor Eric Peterson speaks about being drawn to the strength and determination of Percy Schmeiser. Having grown up in Saskatchewan Peterson has had a lot of ...

By: National Arts Centre Centre national des Arts

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Seeds: A play for thinking audiences - Video