RWJBarnabas Health facilities recognized with Get With The Guidelines awards for treatment of stroke and heart failure patients – centraljersey.com

RWJBarnabas Health announced several of its facilities have been recognized by The American Heart Association (AHA)/American Stroke Association for cardiac and stroke care earning a spot on the 2020 Get With The Guidelines awards list in the stroke, heart failure and resuscitation categories.

The awards recognize each hospitals commitment to ensuring stroke and heart failure patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence.

Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Somerset in Somerville, Jersey City Medical Center in Jersey City and Robert Wood JohnsonUniversity Hospital in New Brunswick were honored with the Stroke Gold Plus award with Honor Roll mention.

Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch was recognized with the Heart Failure Gold Plus award and Newark Beth Israel Medical Center in Newark was recognized with the Resuscitation Gold Audit award.

The RWJBarnabas Health facilities earned the Get with The Guidelines awards by meeting specific quality achievement measures for the diagnosis and treatment of heart failure and stroke patients at a set level for a designated period. These measures include evaluation of the proper use of medications and other stroke and heart treatments aligned with the most up-to-date, evidence-based guidelines with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability for patients. As part of the criteria, before discharge, patients were required to receive education on managing their overall health, get a follow-up visit scheduled, as well as other care transition interventions.

The recognition from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association is a testament and dedication to the interdisciplinary teamwork throughout RWJBarnabas Health, said James Andrews, MHL, senior vice president, Cardiac and Neurological Services, RWJBarnabas Health. The framework developed to achieve these awards allow us to track and measure quality, exceed evidenced-based clinical guidelines, and provide superior patient outcomes. Receiving this recognition reflects positively on the clinicians and staff that made it happen as well as the overall mission of RWJBarnabas Health to deliver quality and compassionate care for each patient we serve. The teams in Somerset, Jersey City, New Brunswick, Monmouth, Newark and across our medical group allow the health system as a whole to truly stand behind that mission.

According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, stroke is the No. 5 cause of death, a leading cause of adult disability in the United States andmore than 6.5 million adults in the United States are living with heart failure. On average, someone in the U.S. suffers a stroke every 40 seconds and nearly 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year.However, both heart failure patients and stroke patients can lead a full, enjoyable life when their conditions are managed with proper medications or devices and with healthy lifestyle changes.

For more information or to make an appointment with one of New Jerseys top cardiac specialists, visit rwjbh.org/heart.

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RWJBarnabas Health facilities recognized with Get With The Guidelines awards for treatment of stroke and heart failure patients - centraljersey.com

I Have a Chronic Illness. Here’s Why I Hate New Year’s Resolutions – Healthline

We need to stop starting every new year by setting these unreachable standards for ourselves.

Each year, my social media feeds are filled with New Years resolutions. People promise themselves that theyre going to lose weight or hit the gym every day.

They say theyre going to work super hard to get a promotion, or that theyre finally going to stop drinking or smoking.

The thing is, New Years resolutions can actually be pretty detrimental to our mental well-being especially for the chronic illness community.

While some may succeed, of course, these vows are just not feasible for others.

When we set such huge goals, thinking it assures ourselves of change, we can wind up feeling no motivation to continue the moment we have any kind of slip-up.

The result can be not accomplishing what you set out to do, and feeling bad about yourself as a result.

As a chronically ill person living with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), this feeling is familiar to me. I often promise myself I will accomplish something, only to have the unpredictability of my illness derail my plans.

For that reason, theres absolutely no way I will be making any resolutions this year. Not even small ones.

Its been nearly 6 years since my initial diagnosis of ulcerative colitis, and Im still trying to come to terms with the effects its had on me.

Even on my good days, living with a chronic illness can take a toll on my self-esteem.

I wish I could go to the gym and live a super healthy lifestyle, but in reality, Im often stuck on the toilet in a flare, living on stodgy, beige foods to avoid even more suffering.

I wish I could enjoy a night out dancing like other women my age, but instead, Im often tossing and turning, getting up every hour to use the toilet.

Living with a chronic illness is hard enough, and often makes me compare my life to others.

There can be so much pressure on chronically ill people already, not just from society, but sometimes even from our closest friends and family.

Were told to stop being lazy or dramatic, or that were making up how were feeling. Were told that other people have it worse and that we just need to get on with it.

Im not making any resolutions because I dont want to put additional, undue pressure on myself.

It might be new year, new me for some, but when you have a chronic illness, making changes is hard because life continues to be as unpredictable as ever.

The sad truth is that unless my chronic illness magically vanishes (hint: it wont), its never going to be a time for a new me.

I can come to terms with my illness, which I have tried my best to do, but Im never going to have that before and after that resolutions promise. Im forever going to be in limbo, and Im learning that maybe thats OK.

By not setting any resolutions as the new year approaches, I can avoid the mental distress of not being able to do the thing I promised myself I would.

We need to stop starting every new year by setting these unreachable standards for ourselves. We need to just get through life the best we can, to find the joys where we can, and focus on doing what we can, when we can, without making a huge deal about it.

Im not saying anyone who makes a New Years resolution cant stick to it. But if youre living with a chronic illness like I am, you may struggle with the pressure you place on yourself.

Why increase that pressure when you can make a resolution to simply take each day as it comes, to do the best you can, no matter the outcome?

I know that in the new year I will have good days, bad days and terrible days. Thats just what living with a long-term illness is like. Its unpredictable, and the bad days can hit anytime.

But knowing that there will be bad days doesnt mean its going to be a bad year. It just means that itll continue to be my normal, which is just doing the best I can. Maybe thats OK maybe thats more than OK. Maybe thats enough.

Hattie Gladwell is a mental health journalist, author, and advocate. She writes about mental illness in hopes of diminishing the stigma and to encourage others to speak out.

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I Have a Chronic Illness. Here's Why I Hate New Year's Resolutions - Healthline

Two-Thirds of Millennials Give Holiday Meals Plant-Based Makeover – The Beet

Millennials, also known as the avocado toast generation, are more likely to embrace plant-based foods than Baby Boomers, according to a newpoll from Eat Just. The survey asked 1,000 millennials and 1,000 boomers whether they would be likely to embrace new ways of making traditional holiday foods and found that while boomers are more likely stuck in their ways, 81 percent of millennials are open to change, including making over their traditional foods with plant-based ingredients.

The poll found that 68 percent of baby boomers say they prefer to follow traditions and 39 percent like to stick closely to traditions when it comes to the holiday. Meanwhile, millennialssaid they are more likely to remake these traditions in a healthier way. Millennials are looking to incorporate plant-based dishesinto their holiday meals,the survey found,and are eager to bring their interest in healthier dishes totheir holiday tables.

The survey, conducted by Eat JUST, Inc. found that two-thirds of Millennials said they would be making their family traditions over as plant-based this year. Eat JUST, makers of JUST Eggs has upended the plant-based alternative egg market with a product that mimics eggs so perfectly when cooking omelets, scrambled eggs, French Toast, quiche that it offers a realistic healthier substitute for eggs laid by hens.

JUST Eggs offer an alternative that is healthier for humans and better for the planet.The egg substitute is made from mung beans and offers the same amount of protein as a real egg but without the cholesterol, animal fat, and antibiotics of eggs. The mung bean product also requiresless land, water, and carbon emissions to make than conventional eggs. It is one of the most sustainable protein sources on the planet.

The survey was designed to compare the willingness of different generations to break fromtheir usual traditions and redefine holiday meals on their own terms. The survey found that while boomers are less likely to want to eat healthy during the holidays (only 1 in 10 intends to try) Millennials are far more interested in making healthier optionsover the holidays. "One in five babyboomers says they have absolutely zero plans to eat healthilycompared to 74% of millennials who plan on choosing healthy holiday dishes," the survey found.

Another study,of the even younger consumers from Generation Z in the UK, found that the youth across the pond demonstrates a similar willingness to break from the standard meat and potato diet their parents followed. More than one-third, or 35 percent, of Gen-Zers, say they'll be eating fully plant-based by next year.

It goes without saying that this has undoubtedly been an untraditional yearand that one of the upshots from the global pandemic has beenthe importance of keeping ourselves and our families healthy. The surveys findings reflect this new awareness of the importance of a healthy diet in face of COVID-19 and entering the unusual holiday season more consumers are looking for new ways to stay healthy.

Finding a common ground between Millennials and baby boomers can be a challenge," said an Eat JUST statement. "This holiday season, despite the reluctance for parents to adopt healthier lifestyles, Millennials will be serving up healthier versions of traditional holiday dishes in the hopes of bringing everyone together, even if it is virtually.

Leading a healthy lifestyle at home can bedifficultright now, yet another survey found, particularly around the holidays, but luckily, incorporating plant-based options into your holiday dinner, no matter how youre celebrating this year, is a great way to begin living a healthier lifestyle. Thankfully, there are many delicious, plant-based variations of holiday classics for you to cook up so that you can have a plant-based celebration that still honors tradition and tastes good enough to convert the most resistant boomer.

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Two-Thirds of Millennials Give Holiday Meals Plant-Based Makeover - The Beet

To Your Health (Charles Romans): By the numbers – The Independent

There are no more accurate representations than numbers. Numbers as raw data qualify how many of any certain thing exists, and when combined with other things they give us an accurate total of all of the group of things as a whole. This is basic and as accurate as is possible; 1 pound, for instance, is still 1 pound whether calculating feathers or bowling balls. Combine the previous example and the result, the sum, will always be 2 pounds.

In most situations, however, the question quickly becomes two pounds of what? From a health perspective, most use the number revealed by the scale as a measurement of health. If the scale reveals a number larger than what we are told to expect, then our health is considered to be poor; the opposite is true as well, because if the scale reveals a number closer to or below that expectation then we assume that out health has improved. This type of measurement is only accurate in generalities, however, because it is not individualized enough to be a true and universally accurate measurement.

And that type of calculation does not take into consideration (especially from a human perspective) that weight is different from volume. One pound of fat and 1 pound of muscle are still 1 pound each.

The difference, however, is that 1 pound of fat takes up much more space than 1 pound of muscle. So simply looking at numbers on a scale fails to give us more than a reference. And when this is combined with a poor understanding of what is in our food, we might eat normally and still gain weight. This is also compounded when we apply the measurement dynamic to calories, but 1,200 calories of predominantly fat content does not have the same value as 1,200 more-balanced calories.

Being overweight is a condition that many Americans share in todays world. Being overweight, or obese, leads to certain other often preventable health issues as well, such as Type 2 Diabetes and high cholesterol. Losing weight through a healthy lifestyle including diet and exercise can often mitigate these conditions or remove them entirely. Far too often, however, people rely upon medicines to treat these and other conditions rather than taking a proactive approach to their health. The difficulty, of course, is that there is a learning curve when determining what is and what is not healthy that most find difficult to overcome.

We are making critical coverage of the coronavirus available for free. Please consider subscribing so we can continue to bring you the latest news and information on this developing story.

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To Your Health (Charles Romans): By the numbers - The Independent

WellRight Partners with Marquee Health to Remove Barriers to Mental Health Support – Business Wire

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Starting today, WellRight clients can take advantage of two exciting new digital mental health solutions, thanks to a partnership with Chicago-based health and wellness company, Marquee Health. The two products, Animo and TextCoach, provide comprehensive, real-world, and accessible mental health support to wellness program members on a highly-secure, as-needed basis.

Two of the biggest barriers to mental health care are stigma and access to resources, says Tad Mitchell, president and CEO of WellRight. By offering digital pathways to care, employees and members can bypass those obstacles and receive support immediately, privately, and when they need it.

Animo is a computerized cognitive behavioral therapy (cCBT) app that measures emotional fitness, offering dynamic training modules to help employees manage problems like anxiety, depression, and stress in a results-oriented manner. Specific benefits include:

TextCoach is a convenient and stigma-free messaging platform that connects employees with a licensed mental health professional to address stress, anxiety, grief, depression, isolation, or relationship issuesor to proactively work on mindfulness, coping skills, or resiliency. Specific benefits include:

When you combine the isolation and stress that todays employee deals with on a daily basis, the need for easily accessible mental health support is more critical than ever, says Jonathon Short, president of Marquee Health. These products make it easier and more convenient for them to access care.

To learn more about these exciting new WellRight solutions and how they improve employee wellness, visit WellRight Mental Health Support.

About WellRight: WellRight delivers complete wellness programs, addressing key dimensions of holistic health. Every aspect of the program has been designed to make well-being a lasting habit and includes variety and flexibility of customizable group and personal wellness challenges, a comprehensive Health Assessment, free coaching, clear progress bars to track results, and fun and customizable reward structures to build and maintain motivation and engagement. Learn more at https://www.wellright.com.

About Marquee Health: Marquee Health provides clients with an outcomes-driven suite of health and wellness services that support the empowerment, improvement and maintenance of a healthy lifestyle for each member and a proactive cost-containment solution for each client and employer. Learn more at https://www.marqueehealth.com.

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WellRight Partners with Marquee Health to Remove Barriers to Mental Health Support - Business Wire

Deaths for the week of Dec. 13-19, 2020 – The Jewish News of Northern California

Obituaries are supported by a generous grant fromSinai Memorial Chapel. This page will be updated throughout the week. Submit an obituaryhere.Shalom BlajNov. 11, 1927Dec. 10, 2020

Shalom Blaj, beloved husband, father, grandfather, uncle, and friend, died December 10, 2020. His life and career spanned five continents. Born in Poland in 1927, raised in Israel, educated and eventually home-based in the U.S., he lived life fully and actively, engaged wherever he was. Shalom and Marilyn, wife of 67 years plus two days, took full advantage of theater, concerts, opera, and art wherever they lived and traveled. Son and daughter, Ron and Tami, were the fortunate recipients of a culturally diverse upbringing around the world.

Not just a patron of the arts, Shula and his three siblings sang together lustily. The trio of brothers performed on face cheeks, mouth air and, Shaloms specialty, cork (for decades wowing audiences with the William Tell Overture). In Israel, the four young couples spent boisterous Friday nights together and the annual Blaj seder had neighbors begging for inclusion. In his more mature years, Shalom led countless seders with family, friends, and residents and staff at their senior residence. Shaloms professional retirement allowed him the opportunity to express himself through delightful paintings in oil and watercolor.

A civil engineer, specializing in hydroelectric projects, Shalom was involved in the design and construction of several dams in Brazil, China, Colombia, India and numerous African countries. His knowledge and professionalism honed at Kaiser Engineers led to a prodigious consulting practice. Marilyn, Shaloms adored and beautiful wife, was his globe-trotting partner, literally and figuratively. With friends they made Great Decisions and enjoyed multi-course sumptuous meals with the Gourmet Club. They found Shakespeare in Stratford-upon-Avon and Ashland, Oregon.

An imposing figure, adults and children could be simultaneously intimidated by and drawn to him. Shalom was certain of his (and your) opinions! However, his integrity, sense of fairness and generosity shone through. Above all, he will be remembered as a righteous man.

In addition to Marilyn, Ron and Tami, grieving his absence in their lives are daughter-in-law Susana, grandsons Santi and Len, nieces and nephews, and innumerable friends.

If you choose, rather than flowers, please honor his memory with a donation to either the New Israel Fund or American Society for Yad Vashem

Sinai-Lafayette

Shirley passed away peacefully on December 7 after a short illness. She was born in Oakland, the only child of Benjamin and Gertrude Hertzberg, on October 5, 1928, and spent her entire life in the Bay Area. She was a graduate of Oakland High School and University of California Berkeley with a major in Speech. She taught fourth grade before retiring to raise her children.

Shirley met and fell in love with Paul Kadden, also a Cal graduate; the two were married for 67 years. She was a caring mother to Bruce (Barbara zl), Mark (Michelle Lalouche) and Lori (Mark) Epstein. She was an active volunteer, serving as President of Redwood Heights Elementary School PTA, Temple Sinai Sisterhood and Temple Emanu-El Sisterhood. She was also a docent at the Temple Emanu-El Museum, the Judah Magnes Museum and enjoyed giving presentations about their exhibits. She also served as regional president of ORT. After raising her children, she did substitute teaching and vision testing for the San Francisco School District.

Shirley and Paul enjoyed playing bridge for many years with couples from Temple Sinai and with other friends they made along the way. They also enjoyed theater, opera, and traveling, attending the annual gathering of the Council of American Jewish Museums, as well as Europe and Israel. They always tried to visit ORT schools in the places they traveled, make new friends, and bring home a few pieces of art.

Shirley and Paul led a healthy lifestyle before it was popular, often walking around Lake Merritt on Sunday mornings with family. They were also devoted Cal football fans, attending most home games for many years; Shirley enjoyed reminding family members that Cal went to the Rose Bowl three times when she was in school.

Shirley and Paul were longtime members of Temple Sinai in Oakland where Shirley was confirmed. They were active members of Temple Emanu-El after moving to San Francisco and more recently Congregation Bnai Tikvah in Walnut Creek, but were often members of more than one congregation. After moving to Rossmoor, they became involved with the many activities there and made many new friends.

In addition to her husband and children, Shirley is survived by her grandchildren Alana (Jacob) Ballon, Micah Kadden, Daniel Kadden, and Sara, Julia and Hannah Epstein, and great-grandchildren Matan and Liav Ballon.

Donations can be made to ORT or your favorite charity.

Dr. Saul Wassermans soul peacefully left this world on Friday, December 11. Born and raised in New York, Saul graduated from Bronx High School of Science and attended Cornell University, where he met his wife, Judith. They married in 1963, and he attended the University of Chicago Medical School. In 1968, they moved to Palo Alto, where he completed his residency in Psychiatry at Stanford University. Their daughter, Rachel, was born in 1970.

Saul worked as a beloved and respected child psychiatrist for decades, and co-founded and directed the Child/Adolescent Psychiatric Inpatient Unit at San Jose Hospital. He served on the Stanford Medical School clinical faculty and held various positions in the Regional Organization of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. In addition to his private practice, Saul was the consulting child psychiatrist for the foster care team of Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County, and for many local schools. He also served on the Santa Clara County Child Death Review, working to reduce infant and child mortality.

Congregation Beth Am was Sauls spiritual community. He was involved in the lay minyan, the Jewish book group, weekly Torah study, and he taught classes. Torah study especially was a vibrant source of spiritual and intellectual challenge.

A man of insatiable curiosity and sharp, wide-ranging intellect, Saul was also an accomplished gardener and tropical fish enthusiast. He and Judith shared a passion for experiencing new cultures, and they traveled to over 40 countries. All who knew him admired his patience, wisdom, and kind heart.

Saul was a loving companion to his wife, Judith, for over 50 years. He also adored his children, Rachel & Yehoshua Hershberg; and his grandchildren, Adina & Aviad Torati, Yosef Hershberg, Atara Hershberg, and Sara Hershberg, and visited them often in Israel.

The family requests that those who want to make charitable contributions in Sauls honor, give to the childrens charity of their choice.

Sinai-Redwood City

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Deaths for the week of Dec. 13-19, 2020 - The Jewish News of Northern California

Turning the tide: Slovenia’s success story of fighting cervical cancer – WHO/Europe

Slovenia has come a long way to become one of the most successful countries in the WHO European Region in the fight against cervical cancer. From having had one of the worst statistics in Europe on cervical cancer incidence, Slovenia has managed to turn the tide thanks to political will, cooperation and a robust screening programme.

Slovenia established its national cancer registry in the 1960s, which enabled Slovenian health authorities to track cancer incidence. A notable increase in cervical cancer rates in the 1990s sounded the alarm among experts, and led to the establishment of ZORA, Slovenias national cervical cancer screening programme.

We used to have statistics among the worst of Europe our cervical cancer incidence was really high, explains Dr Urska Ivanu, Head of ZORA. With ZORA, managed by the Institute of Oncology Ljubljana, we built a population-based, centralized and comprehensive programme which soon delivered very concrete, tangible results: cervical cancer incidence has almost halved since we established ZORA.

Dr Ivanu describes one of the keys to such a remarkable accomplishment: One of the important factors for success is a shared vision of the stakeholders, which should be led by the example of the core team. Believing in evidence, believing in the cause, working hard and with enthusiasm, listening and understanding all the stakeholders, monitoring and adjusting all of this is crucial for the successful implementation of change.

Through ZORA, the practice of opportunistic screening offering ad hoc screening tests to women visiting health centres for other reasons was abandoned. Opportunistic screening has proven to have very limited impact on cervical cancer incidence. Instead, ZORA started screening women once every 3 years.

There were some concerns we might miss out on cancers, but it turned out to be quite the contrary, explains Dr Ivanu. As the changes to the screening frequency were implemented, the rate of women with positive results requiring a call-back dropped from 15% to 5%.

In short: we managed to screen more women, monitor results more efficiently, report back better to screening providers and also back to women themselves, and achieve better overall results, says Dr Ivanu. Our ZORA team had a dream. Now that dream is a concrete plan: a plan to eliminate cervical cancer!

The ZORA programme has been well accepted among Slovenian women, and more than 70% now attend screenings regularly.

Women should think about screenings as part of a healthy lifestyle. Just as they do their daily exercise or try to eat healthy, they should make sure they are screened regularly. This is an important message we should convey to all women. Dont wait for the first signs, as they will come late, stresses Dr Ivanu.

Cervical cancer is one of the rare cancers where we can actually detect what is called pre-cancer. It can be a very small change in the cervix, limited to the surface, and if we catch it and treat it, we can prevent cancer from developing, says Dr Ivanu. Cervical cancer is also the only cancer where we have 2 important, safe and effective public health interventions available: screening and vaccination.

We can see global momentum, and we have the necessary tools for success. But to eliminate cervical cancer, we must achieve 3 crucial targets, explains WHO Representative in Slovenia Dr Aiga Rurane:

For maximum impact, these 907090 targets must be implemented simultaneously, adds Dr Rurane.

With remarkable results for 2 of the targets 70% of women screened and 90% of women identified with cervical cancer treated Slovenia could very well become one of the first European countries to reach all 3 targets.

We have not yet reached the benchmark of vaccinating 90% of girls. Slovenia has been vaccinating girls in the 6th grade of primary school against HPV free of charge since 2009. But the routine vaccination programme is attended by 60% of these girls, which is not enough to achieve the desired population-wide effects of the vaccination, explains Dr Ivanu.

We need to increase coverage, implement primary HPV screening with more accurate tests that enable longer screening intervals, and strengthen the monitoring system, she adds.

Our success so far has been possible thanks to the continued efforts and dedicated work for many years of many health professionals in Slovenia, multiple partnerships, and the continued commitment of the Government, says Dr Rurane. Slovenia can be proud of what has been achieved, and it sets an example for countries across the Region and globally.

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Turning the tide: Slovenia's success story of fighting cervical cancer - WHO/Europe

The next generation of gene therapy for rare diseases forges ahead as developers weather hurdles – FierceBiotech

When gene therapy developer Generation Bio raised $110 million in venture funding in January and then followed up six months later with a $230 million initial public offering, it was as sure asign as any that investors are stoked about the next generation of gene therapies to treat rare diseases.

Their enthusiasm hasnt waned during the year, either, despite challenges ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic delaying clinical trials to regulators pushing back some development timelines so they can gather more data on emerging gene therapies.

And as two FDA-approved gene therapies for rare diseases gain ground in the marketSpark Therapeuticss Luxturna for RPE65 mutation-associated retinal dystrophy and Novartis Zolgensma for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA)the biopharma industry is hard at work on novel approaches to correcting rare disorders caused by errant genes. The advances range from new gene-insertion methods to innovations that allow the therapies to penetrate hard-to-reach tissues in the body.

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Some, like Generation, are directly addressing one big concern that has plagued the first generation of gene therapies: Just how durable are they? Its a question BioMarin faced in August when the FDA declined to approve its hemophilia A gene therapy valoctocogene roxaparvovec after data from a trial showed that levels of factor VIII fell 12 to 18 months after patients received the gene therapy, which is designed to restore the critical blood-clotting protein.

Generations lead gene therapy candidates are designed to treat rare blood disorders hemophilia A and phenylketonuria (PKU), and theyre still in preclinical development. Whats new about the company's approachis the delivery system: Rather than using a virus to insert a gene correction, Generation Biouses an alternative technology that avoids touching off an immune responsea buildup of antibodies to the virus that would normally prevent a second round of treatment.

Generations core technology, called non-viral closed-ended DNA (ceDNA), is carried into the body by a lipid nanoparticle. The potential for the technology to sidestep the immune response thats typical with virus-based gene therapies could be important in diseases like PKU, where the gene correction needs to reach liver cells, or hepatocytes.

The newborn liver divides incredibly quickly, and as it grows, the dose of gene therapy goes down, said Geoff McDonough, M.D., CEO of Generation Bio, in an interview. We dont view that as an existential problem. Well just re-dose.

BioMarin, meanwhile, is working with the FDA to address its request for more data on valoctocogene roxaparvovec, which is an adeno-associated virus (AAV)-based gene therapybut its also looking ahead to innovations that could improve future iterations of the technology. For one thing, it'sinvestigating different capsids that that may reduce the immune response to the first dose, thus allowing re-dosing later.

But that may be only a small part of addressing a decline in response to gene therapy. We also have to understand cellular determinants of expression, because maybe re-dosing isnt actually the answer after all, said Hank Fuchs, M.D., president of research and development at BioMarin, in an interview. To that end, BioMarin is studying liver biopsy tissueto try to understand how individual characteristics may affect the fate of the transgene.

And BioMarin is working with Swiss startup Dinaqor to develop gene therapies to treat heart diseases such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. To accomplish that, the companies are making capsids that travel not to the liverthe destination of many gene therapiesbut to the heart. If they succeed, it could be a significant platform play for us, Fuchs said. The morbidity for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is terrible and 60% of cases are genetic. If we can do cardiac delivery, there are other genetic diseases that could be treated with gene therapy.

In 2019, a group of executives who had pioneered SMA gene therapy Zolgensma launched Taysha Gene Therapies with an ambitious goal: They wanted to correct genetic nervous system disorders by delivering gene therapies directly to the spinal fluid. Now, backed by $125 million in private funding and a $157 million IPO, Taysha is in preclinical testing withthree gene therapies for neurodegenerative diseases.

Tayshas gene therapy for GM2 gangliosidosis, a disease that progressively destroys nerve cells, is distinctive for more than its intrathecal delivery, said CEO RA Session II in an interview.

The therapy uses a single viral vector to deliver not one, but two genes at the heart of the disorderHEXA and HEXB. Theyre linked by a self-cleaving peptide and a promoter, which allows the two genes to be expressed at a one-to-one ratio, mimicking the endogenous system of a healthy cell, Session explained in an interview.

Other gene therapy developers are targeting specific cells in the body with new technology. Encoded Therapeutics, for example, is developing a gene therapy to treat the seizure disorder Dravet syndrome. But rather than replacing the mutated SCN1A gene that causes the disorder, Encoded incorporates pieces of DNA into an AAV vector with the goal of dialing up production of the SCN1A protein thats needed to correct the disorder.

RELATED: Encoded Therapeutics bags $135M to push 'precision gene therapy' into the clinic

Passage Bio is addressing GM1 gangliosidosis using a next-generation viral vector called AAVhu68, which in preclinical trials increased the expression of a needed protein not only in targeted cells, but also in the cerebral spinal fluid. The protein is then taken up by neighboring cells, creating an effect of cross correction that the companys scientists hope will improve developmental milestones and survival in the children who have the disease, said CEO Bruce Goldsmith, Ph.D., in an interview.

In August, Passage Bios planned phase 1/2 trial was placed on a clinical hold by the FDA, which cited concerns about the delivery device planned for the trial. The company is conducting risk assessments and testing the device so it can address the agencys questions, and Goldsmith expects to maintain a close dialogue with the FDA going forward.

Infantile GM1 can occur quite early, so we want to make sure the FDA is a collaborator on defining what developmental scales will be appropriate for measuring outcomes. That means not only primary outcomes but also durabilitywhat theyre looking for in terms of meaningful outcomes, he said. U.K. regulators gave their go-ahead for a clinical trial of the therapy in December.

Improving cross-correction in gene therapy is also a priority for Avrobio, which is developing gene therapies for several rare diseases, including Hunter syndrome and Fabry disease. Its technology platform, called plato, consists of a lentiviral vector and tags that help the therapeutic proteins reach the target cells lysosomesthe organelles inside of cells that orchestrate vital processes in the body.

In diseases like Fabry, all thats needed is cross-correction, where the enzyme in circulation is taken up by the cells and creates a profound effect, correcting a deficiency that causes organ damage, said CEO Geoff MacKay in an interview.The tags aid the uptake of a therapeutic protein. Its like a first-class ticket to the target tissues, like muscles and the central nervous system."

In November, Avrobio announced that in phase 1 and 2 trials of its Fabry genetherapy, the response lasted up to 3.5 years.

RELATED: Avrobio tracks improvements in first patient treated with Gaucher gene therapy

LogicBio Therapeutics approach to moving gene therapy into the future is to harness the power of genome editing.

The companys technology, GeneRide, uses strands of DNA to deliver a functioning copy of a faulty gene into cells nuclei, prompting natural DNA repair mechanisms to insert the good gene exactly where it belongs in the chromosome. The therapeutic gene becomes part of that celland of its daughter cells when it dividespotentially preventing a dilution of effect over time that can occur with other gene therapies.

LogicBios lead program, LB-001 to treat the liver disorder methylmalonic acidemia in children age 3 and older, was hit with a delay in February, when the FDA put a hold on the planned clinical trial so the company could address safety-monitoring concerns.

So LogicBio built in a protocol for caregivers to monitor post-treatment safety at home, and it added survival as a secondary endpoint, said LogicBios chief operating officer Kyle Chiang, Ph.D., in an interview. The company hopes to dose the first patient in the trial in early 2021.

BioMarins Fuchs predicts that each new development in gene therapy will raise more questions for the FDAbut that the delays wont prevent the advances from benefiting patients.

As regulators, its not in their DNA to take risks, Fuchs said. But the quest for gene therapy approvals, he added, will continue to go well, as regulators get more familiar with the technology and developers generate more and more data.

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The next generation of gene therapy for rare diseases forges ahead as developers weather hurdles - FierceBiotech

The Small Dong In Cyberpunk Is Way Too Big | TheGamer – TheGamer

Is it just me, or is the small package in Cyberpunk 2077 way too big?

Is it just me, oris the small penisin Cyberpunk 2077way too big?

That was a rhetorical question - of courseit's too big. That's is why everyone's talking about it. If you fancy a V with a massive hammer, you're in luck but if you were planning on rolling a V with a tiny bird, you're probably going to be disappointed.

RELATED:Digital Goodies, In-Game Rewards, And The Best Place To Buy Cyberpunk 2077 (Sponsored)

Cyberpunk wiener customization is limited to two styles cut or uncut and three sizes. The size options are small, default, and large, but I think they'd be better labelled as "decent hog," "nice package," and "magnum dong." The problem with these sizes, astutely noted by the r/smalldickproblems subreddit, is that even "small" is over five inches long.

Yes, the Cyberpunk penis options are making people very self-conscious about their willies. It seems like the small one should really be the default. According to Healthline (and conventional wisdom), the average penis size is 5.16 inches. So why does Cyberpunk 2077 call a five-inch dick small?

Cyberpunk is not a game that concerns itself with realism. Bodymodification is core to the transhumanism philosophy and to the themes and gameplay of Cyberpunk itself. An argument can be made that all of these dangles come pre-enhanced. After all, if you can replace your hands with gorillafists, it's probably not much of a stretch to imagine that everyoneeventually makes a stop to the Ripperdoc just to add a little more girth to their git. The problem with this theory is that it assumes everyone would want a bigger unit, and that just doesn't ring true.

RELATED:Naked T-Posing While Driving Is The New Best Bug In Cyberpunk 2077

If you ask me, the small option should be a certified micro-penis - maybe even bordering on inverted. Small members-onlycommunities liker/smalldickproblems make it pretty clear that a lot of people with modest pee-pees walks around with a huge chip on their shoulder. That kind of perpetual angstis prime real estate for strong RP. It wouldn't necessarily be a shameful thing though. I imagine there are probably folks with tiny d's that wear it proudly la Short Kings. The point is a small hammercould be an important part of your V's identity, but unfortunately the only size choices we have are big, bigger, and biggest.

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The Small Dong In Cyberpunk Is Way Too Big | TheGamer - TheGamer

New Alternatives: A Refreshing Approach to Medicine – The SandPaper

LAID BACK: Family nurse practitioner Ellyn Hill provides patients with an hour-long consultation at her New Alternatives office in Little Egg Harbor. (Photo by Monique M. Demopoulos)

Whether its locals struggling with addiction and looking for a recovery program or those simply wanting to bolster their health and wellness with preventative health care, New Alternatives, LLC, offers an integrated traditional and alternative medicine practice.

New Alternatives has taken up residence in what was formerly the Urgent Care office of Little Egg Harbor (1395 Route 539). Family nurse practitioner Ellyn Hill explained she and her partner, John Kulin, a doctor of osteopathic medicine, sold their Urgent Care practice to CityMD, which has offices in Manahawkin, Tuckerton and Lanoka Harbor.

We knew wed have this space, and we spent a year coming up with ideas to build off of what we do and what were already passionate about, explained Hill, who has practiced for over 21 years. The medical professionals wanted to cultivate a space to provide thorough, personalized patient care with a practice that intends to supplement, but not replace, traditional medicine.

Due to COVID-19, New Alternatives was not able to celebrate its opening with a public event, but the office is open and welcoming patients, with no referrals required. For the time being, only one patient is seen in the office at a time. Moreover, Kulin and Hill do their own registration and vitals, to limit the number of people in the building.

New Alternatives offers a wide range of services, such as Suboxone treatment for those recovering from substance abuse disorders. We see a lot of people in Urgent Care or the E.R. who need recovery, Hill said. Many of those patients, she added, are or have been in some type of recovery program. For those who are not in a recovery program, Ocean Mental Health has amazing resources for people with substance abuse disorders, she said. In conjunction with the patients primary care doctor and recovery program, Hill provides medication assisted treatment for opioid use.

Other treatments include complementary therapies, bio-identical hormone therapy, anti-aging medicine, medical marijuana prescribing, weight loss treatment and smoking cessation treatment.

Essentially, New Alternatives is a complement to the primary care doctor for people who want to maximize (their) health and well-being. That being said, anyone suffering from an acute, episodic illness is encouraged to consult their primary care physician. Preventative care as healthy lifestyle management is where Hills work at New Alternatives comes into play. So, while Hill wont treat a cold or virus, but shell help prevent it in the first place. In the interest of promoting wellness, she explained, I might suggest immune boosters, herbs and supplements such as elderberry, echinacea, zinc

New Alternatives is partnered with Emerson Ecologics, a carrier of a broad selection of high quality supplements. Also, Hill will refer her patients to good, reliable people to get information from, such as Pangaea Naturals or a local pharmacy. It is our goal, whenever possible, to source organic and sustainable (products).

New Alternatives is a fee-for-service facility, which allows for more personalized patient care. An initial visit is $200 for an hour consultation visit in a bright, organic-looking room. Most follow-up visits cost $100 for 30-minute appointments. Lab work and medications are separate, but rather than the standard physicians visit, patients of New Alternatives receive an elaborate panel that their physician will discuss with them in detail.

According to Hill, when working with insurance agencies, physicians are required to see anywhere between six and 10 patients per hour. You dont have an hour, she lamented. When you have a patient who needs an hour, you spend the rest of the day racing. Furthermore, in a traditional practice, your thyroid tests can be technically normal, but it wont be addressed, even if its on the lower end, Hill explained. In a preventative care practice, Hill added, lower levels are more likely to be addressed and treated, if necessary.

Our goal is not to have a one size fits all, but were also not a fast food service, Hill said, explaining they will not carelessly fulfill patient requests for therapy or medicine unless, through detailed assessment, it is found necessary. The ultimate objective is for patients to achieve wellness without the aid of medication. Id love to help people work towards not needing medicine. She emphasized, The goal is to really see what the individual problem is and give personalized care. But I still want you to see your primary care doctor.

For more information, or to schedule a consultation, visit newaltmednj.com.

Monique M. Demopoulos

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New Alternatives: A Refreshing Approach to Medicine - The SandPaper

Consistent research and dedication have set Derek apart in a unique way in the health, nutrition and self-improvement industry. – LA Progressive

Making a name for yourself in the self-improvement industry requires extensive knowledge, hard work, and incredible passion.

There is always another run of the mill influencer around the corner posting about the same boring content that has been beaten to death by the top dogs on YouTube.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish yourself from the pack with the overwhelming saturation of content in the self-improvement space.

Hustling your way through the industry and standing out as what many would consider an expert not only requires unique knowledge, but a unique presentation format.

One example of a unique creator in the space that checks off the boxes is Derek.

One example of a unique creator in the space that checks off the boxes is Derek.

Derek has stated that in his later teen years he became fascinated with optimization, not only in a sports performance context, but also in health, longevity, and even social interactions.

His channel is basically like a turnkey guide to mens self-improvement, but it has a very unique twist in that it digs into endocrinology, pharmacology, and other cutting-edge areas of mens self-help that are often overlooked entirely.

Dereks content published via his brand More Plates More Dates is essentially centered around optimizing as many areas of your life as possible.

Some of the main topics discussed include lifestyle, supplementation, nutrition, hair loss prevention, bodybuilding, hormone optimization and longevity.

He currently owns and operates Gorilla Mind, a prominent supplement company with a quickly expanding product catalog.

He also branched out into the healthcare space in 2020 with his company Marek Health.

Dereks passion for endocrinology, biology, and product development have intertwined in a unique way that helps him bring many of his ideas to fruition as an entrepreneur.

Dereks clientele is mostly comprised of bodybuilders, athletes, entrepreneurs and actors.

Unbeknownst to Derek, we found out he actually has a couple billionaire entrepreneurs who follow his content closely and defer to his recommendations on genetic analysis as well.

His expertise has helped get many men on the right track in their lives, and his information on certain topics many self-improvement gurus wont touch certainly rounds out his content and makes his platform one of the more unique ones in the industry.

Continued here:
Consistent research and dedication have set Derek apart in a unique way in the health, nutrition and self-improvement industry. - LA Progressive

Throughout the past few years Derek has created a unique position for himself in the area of men’s health and self-improvement – California Herald

His passion for fitness and a healthy lifestyle was the catalyst that led to More Plates More Dates.

Derek and his website are essentially an encyclopedia of knowledge with information related to self-improvement.

A healthy lifestyle is paramount to longevity.

Lifestyle, nutrition, biohacking and sports performance are just some of the topics youll find on More Plates More Dates.

Derek is clearly passionate about everything he talks about, and that shows in his content that is presented in an engaging and entertaining manner.

Today Derekhas become a great resource for men for his consistent deep-dives into various self-improvement related topics.

Despite there being thousands of gurus in the self-help space, Derek still manages to be distinctive from others as he intertwines his passion for biology and pharmacology into his content and presents scientific data that is backed by clinical literature.

In 2016 after several years of self-improvement and building a knowledge base, Derek launched his brand via the platformMore Plates More Dates.

He has mentioned several times that it is more or less a broad-spectrum self-improvement platform for men.

Derek expanded to other social media platforms which grew his following, brand and he soon realized the need and want for information in the form of videos.

By late-2019 he has committed to posting regularly and YouTube.

While a lot of his videos revolve around bodybuilding and hormones, he also has some incredible insight on diet, health, hair loss prevention, dating, lifestyle and supplementation.

Dereks journey started off with self-experimentation, thousands of hours of research, and writing for other companies while he built his own brand up.

A couple years after his first post, Derek launched the supplement company Gorilla Mind.

The brand is expanding its catalog quickly, and it is most well-known for its Nootropic and pre-workout formulations.

His passion for endocrinology and hormone optimization also brought him into the healthcare space in 2020.

Derek currently has over 250,000 subscribers onYouTube and is worth checking out if you have any interest in hormone optimization or health.

https://www.instagram.com/moreplates_moredates/

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Throughout the past few years Derek has created a unique position for himself in the area of men's health and self-improvement - California Herald

Behind the screens of AlphaFold | Opinion – Chemistry World

Not so long ago, a list of holy grails of chemistry like that recently compiled by Chemistry World might very probably have included solving the protein folding problem. It was widely believed that the ability to predict the structure of a protein from just its amino-acid sequence would be of immense value to the life sciences.

At the start of December, many media headlines announced what appeared to be the realisation of that goal. The artificial-intelligence company DeepMind has shown that their AlphaFold deep-learning algorithm can predict many protein structures from their sequence with an atomic-scale precision often comparable to that obtained from the best crystallographic analyses. It has been hailed as a major breakthrough. It will change everything, evolutionary biologist Andrei Lupas told Nature, while structural biologist Janet Thornton said the advance will really help us to understand how human beings operate and function. Some reports would have us believe cures for diseases such as Alzheimers (which stems from protein misfolding) are now just around the corner.

But such assertions have been contested. Some biochemists pointed out that the accuracy of prediction was not always so impressive and is in general unlikely to be accepted without experimental corroboration from, say, crystallography, NMR studies or cryo-electron microscopy. While the majority of predicted structures were within experimental resolution, one cant tell a priori which are and which arent so you need experiments to check. Also, its still not yet clear that the accuracy meets whats needed for, say, finding drug candidates that might bind to the proteins active site to block its function.

Others take issue with the notion that the method solves the protein folding problem at all. Since the pioneering work of Christian Anfinsen in the 1950s, it has been known that unravelled (denatured) protein molecules may regain their native conformation spontaneously, implying that the peptide sequence alone encodes the rules for correct folding. The challenge was to find those rules and predict the folding path.

AlphaFold has not done this. It says nothing about the mechanism of folding, but just predicts the structure using standard machine learning. It finds correlations between sequence and structure by being trained on the 170,000 or so known structures in the Protein Data Base: the algorithm doesnt so much solve the protein-folding problem as evade it. How it reasons from sequence to structure remains a black box.

If some see this as cheating, that doesnt much matter for practical purposes. It will surely be valuable to deduce even a good guess at the structure from just the sequence. From that we can often make inferences about the proteins function and the chemical mechanism of its mode of action. And good enough predictions can be a useful starting point for refinement with crystallographic data.

But the idea that the protein-folding problem holds the key to understanding how gene sequences dictate cell function looks less compelling than it did a few decades ago. We know the real picture is much more complicated, for many reasons.

Theres more to enzyme action than correct folding. Many proteins are chemically modified after being translated on the ribosome: parts of the peptide chain may be crosslinked, and non-amino-acid groups such as porphyrins or metal ions are incorporated. Besides, knowing the structure doesnt by itself tell you the function. Sometimes this can be deduced by analogy, or rather, homology: proteins with similar folds may have similar functions. But thats not invariably true: proteins with very similar structures can behave in chemically very different ways, while very different folds can achieve similar transformations. There is no unique structure-function relationship.

Whats more, designing a ligand for a protein can be challenging even if you know its structure very accurately, partly because we dont know all the rules of recognition some depend, for example, on fine details of solvation at the active site. And for drug discovery the biggest hurdles are typically upstream from the identification of a potential molecular target not least because it often proves to be the wrong target.

In any case, the picture in which protein function is determined by a unique and static crystal structure is known now to be far too simplistic. The dynamics might be crucial. Ligand binding typically involves some flexibility and adaptation at the active site but more generally, the emerging view of protein function invokes the ensemble of conformations accessible to it: the statistical populations and occupancy times of the different dynamic states it can reach. Whats more, many proteins dont have well-defined folded conformations at all, but contain intrinsically disordered, floppy parts of the peptide chain. Thats not nature being sloppy: the disorder and resulting flexibility seems to be functional. AI approaches may well identify which sequences are likely to be disordered, but that alone wont help to understand their behaviour.

Finally, any deep-learning system is only competent within the bounds of its training set. We dont know the size of the human proteome, but some estimates say that only around 5% of all human proteins have been crystallised and their structure determined. So the training data are likely to be biased towards the structures that are relatively easy to solve. Some researchers think there could be a systematic repertoire of protein structures that we just dont know about.

None of this is to diminish the achievement of AlphaFold and indeed we can anticipate that AI approaches might help tackle some of these caveats too. The real point is that we have long ago had to abandon the simple notion that the cells secrets are digitally encoded in any molecular sequence.

Not so long ago, a list of holy grails of chemistry like that recently compiled by Chemistry World might have included solving the protein folding problem. It was widely believed that the ability to predict the structure of a protein from just its amino-acid sequence would be of immense value to the life sciences.

At the start of December, many media headlines announced what appeared to be the realisation of that goal. The artificial-intelligence company DeepMind has shown that their AlphaFold deep-learning algorithm can predict many protein structures from their sequence with an atomic-scale precision often comparable to that obtained from the best crystallographic analyses. It will change everything, evolutionary biologist Andrei Lupas told Nature, while structural biologist Janet Thornton said the advance will really help us to understand how human beings operate and function. Some reports would have us believe cures for diseases such as Alzheimers (which stems from protein misfolding) are now just around the corner.

But such assertions have been contested. Some biochemists pointed out that the accuracy of prediction was not always so impressive and is in general unlikely to be accepted without experimental corroboration from, say, crystallography, NMR studies or cryo-electron microscopy. Also, its still not yet clear that the accuracy meets whats needed for, say, finding drug candidates that might bind to the proteins active site to block its function.

Others take issue with the notion that the method solves the protein folding problem at all. Since the pioneering work of Christian Anfinsen in the 1950s, it has been known that unravelled (denatured) protein molecules may regain their native conformation spontaneously, implying that the peptide sequence alone encodes the rules for correct folding. The challenge was to find those rules and predict the folding path.

AlphaFold has not done this. It says nothing about the mechanism of folding; how it reasons from sequence to structure remains a black box.

If some see this as cheating, that doesnt much matter for practical purposes. It will surely be valuable to deduce even a good guess at the structure from just the sequence. From that we can often make inferences about the proteins function and the chemical mechanism of its mode of action. And good enough predictions can be a useful starting point for refinement with crystallographic data.

But theres more to enzyme action than correct folding. Many proteins are chemically modified after being translated on the ribosome: parts of the peptide chain may be crosslinked, and non-amino-acid groups such as porphyrins or metal ions are incorporated. Besides, knowing the structure doesnt by itself tell you the function: proteins with very similar structures can behave in chemically very different ways, while very different folds can achieve similar transformations. There is no unique structure-function relationship.

Whats more, designing a ligand for a protein can be challenging even if you know its structure very accurately, partly because we dont know all the rules of recognition some depend, for example, on fine details of solvation at the active site. And for drug discovery the biggest hurdles are typically upstream from the identification of a potential molecular target not least because it often proves to be the wrong target.

In any case, the picture in which protein function is determined by a unique and static crystal structure is far too simplistic. The dynamics might be crucial. Ligand binding typically involves some flexibility and adaptation at the active site but more generally, the emerging view of protein function invokes the ensemble of conformations accessible to it: the statistical populations and occupancy times of the different dynamic states it can reach. Whats more, many proteins dont have well-defined folded conformations at all, but contain intrinsically disordered, floppy parts of the peptide chain. Thats not nature being sloppy: the disorder and resulting flexibility seems to be functional. AI approaches may well identify which sequences are likely to be disordered, but that alone wont help to understand their behaviour.

Finally, any deep-learning system is only competent within the bounds of its training set. Some estimates say that only around 5% of all human proteins have been crystallised and their structure determined. So the training data are likely to be biased towards the structures that are relatively easy to solve. Some researchers think there could be a systematic repertoire of protein structures that we just dont know about.

None of this is to diminish the achievement of AlphaFold and indeed we can anticipate that AI approaches might help tackle some of these caveats too. The real point is that we have long ago had to abandon the simple notion that the cells secrets are digitally encoded in any molecular sequence.

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Behind the screens of AlphaFold | Opinion - Chemistry World

Elizabeth Komives: Why scientists are calling a recent breakthrough on protein structures a ‘game-changer’ – The San Diego Union-Tribune

Every other year, scientists hold a contest to see whose computer program can best predict a proteins three-dimensional structure just by looking at the sequence of its amino acid building blocks. This years contest was won by AlphaFold, an artificial intelligence network developed by the Google offshoot DeepMind. Its predictions came so close to the actual protein structures that many scientists have declared AlphaFold a game-changer, going so far as to say the protein folding problem is now solved.

So why is knowing the 3D shape of a protein so important? Every function in our bodies from digestion to growth is carried out by proteins. We need to know how those proteins are shaped so we can better understand how they work normally, as well as what goes wrong with them in various diseases. If we can see a proteins structure, that can also help us know how best to manipulate it with therapeutic drugs.

That brings us to the protein folding problem: Its very difficult to predict a proteins shape just by looking at its sequence of amino acids.

In 2001, the human genome the entire sequence of our DNA was published. This was a great advance because it gave us the blueprint of what we are made of. However, interpreting that blueprint into all the functions that go on in our bodies is not a solved problem at all. Our cells first translate that DNA blueprint into 20 different amino acids, then link them together into proteins.

Finally, proteins usually need to fold up into unique structures before they can carry out their specific functions.

Predicting protein structure is a challenge in part because any random string of amino acids likely will not fold into a unique shape. As an amino acid string collapses on itself, the side chains of those 20 different amino acids interact in ways that may be favorable or unfavorable. There may be many different favorable ways to fold and the protein becomes frustrated it cant figure out which way is best. Natural proteins have evolved their unique shapes because as they collapse, theres really only one favorable way to go. Even knowing this, its still difficult to predict, just from the sequence, which amino acids will make the most favorable interactions.

Lots of work by hundreds of scientists contributed to AlphaFolds success. A key insight was made in the 1980s by researchers who realized that favorable interactions help proteins avoid frustration as they fold. Then, to train artificial intelligence systems like AlphaFolds, we had to know all the possible amino acid interactions that can be made, and to do that it was necessary to solve a lot of protein structures experimentally. Scientists including many at UC San Diego do that in a laborious process that involves crystallizing the proteins and capturing their native structures by X-ray. Working backward, they can then see what interactions the amino acids are making.

After the human genome was solved, the National Institutes of Health, knowing that the DNA sequence didnt really give us answers about all the functions in our bodies, funded the Structural Genomics Initiative. The goal was to increase the numbers of known protein structures in a central reference database, the Protein Data Bank, which is headquartered at UC San Diego and Rutgers University. Since 2000, many more protein structures have been solved experimentally, giving scientists the data they so badly needed for their predictions and giving AlphaFold the missing pieces of data it needed to optimize its algorithm and improve upon past attempts to win the contest.

As is often the case in science, AlphaFold stands on the shoulders of hundreds of scientists who have experimentally determined protein structures and who have worked out the theoretical understanding of how to extract and balance the physical, geometrical and fragment information from known folded structures.

Komives, Ph.D., is a distinguished professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UC San Diego. She lives in Clairemont.

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Elizabeth Komives: Why scientists are calling a recent breakthrough on protein structures a 'game-changer' - The San Diego Union-Tribune

Predictions: The AI Challenges of 2021 – Marketscreener.com

The overall theme of Splunk's four-part 2021 Predictions report is the rapid acceleration of digital transformation, driven by the specific event of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the momentum of data technologies that have brought us into a true Data Age. Nowhere is that acceleration going to be more transformative than around the application of artificial intelligence and machine learning.

AI/ML was a hot topic before 2020 disrupted everything, and over the course of the pandemic, adoption has increased. We've seen it particularly in terms of security use cases, but security is far from the only arena. Already, it seems like artificial intelligence is everywhere. John Sabino, our chief customer officer, notes in the report that every software vendor is claiming AI/ML as a secret sauce in its solutions, and there's a danger of fatigue as AI/ML becomes something everyone talks about, but no one ever quite sees.

Despite that, meaningful applications of machine learning in particular are already common. We see machine learning having an impact in everything from how recruiters parse stacks of resumes to how businesses analyze subtle trends in customer behavior; from improving user experience with everything from how web pages are served and products are recommended to intelligent chat features. And developments go far beyond business. Deep learning techniques produced a recent breakthrough in protein folding, which has applications in developing effective medical treatments, using enzymes to break down industrial waste, and more. It represents a considerable advance in AI development.

As we see machine learning adopted by more organizations, for more purposes, there are three innovations that I am keeping an eye out for in the near future:

The Emerging Technology Predictions report goes deeper into these topics, and other AI/ML predictions, including a stellar use case in medical research. It also covers 5G, AR/VR, blockchain and more. These are technologies that are going to reshape our world, and it's fascinating to look ahead even as the future is unfolding.

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Predictions: The AI Challenges of 2021 - Marketscreener.com

A|I: The AI Times Sounding the alarm – BetaKit

The AI Times is a weekly newsletter covering the biggest AI, machine learning, big data, and automation news from around the globe. If you want to read A|I before anyone else, make sure to subscribe using the form at the bottom of this page.

Kevin Magee (Microsoft), Christopher Salvatore (Cybersecure Catalyst), and Tahseen Shabab (Penfield) explore how Canada can build a cybersecurity ecosystem.

At Hustle Fund, were convinced that Canada is positioned well to produce some of the largest, category-defining companies on the planet. Were eager to fund these companies, and excited to partner with Hockeystick to identify these opportunities! Eric Bahn (General Partner)

Since launch, Hockeystick has made over 6000 funder recommendations to Canadian startups. Learn how startups are using technology to meet funders around the world.

DeepMind said that its system, called AlphaFold, had solved what is known as the protein folding problem.

Gebru is known for coauthoring a groundbreaking paper that showed facial recognition to be less accurate at identifying women and people of color, which means its use can end up discriminating against them.

The merger with Star Peak will give Stem an estimated $608 million in gross proceeds to invest in its burgeoning smart grid technology which helps support green forms of energy.

Scale, which charges based on the amount of data it processes for customers, has seen major growth by working with DoorDash.

Startups raised a total of $349.5 million in Q3 2020, a 135 percent increase for the Waterloo Region.

If signed into law, Massachusetts would become the first state to fully ban the technology, following bans barring the use of facial recognition in police body cameras and other, more limited city-specific bans on the tech.

A growing group of lawyers are uncovering, navigating, and fighting the automated systems that deny the poor housing, jobs, and basic services.

A 12,000-person survey found that workers around the globe are looking to AI-powered digital assistants and chatbots to cope with mental health during the pandemic.

In one Southern California city, flying drones with artificial intelligence are aiding investigations while presenting new civil rights questions.

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A|I: The AI Times Sounding the alarm - BetaKit

Recently on the Kottke Ride Home Podcast – kottke.org

The Kottke Ride Home podcast has been humming away since August and host Jackson Bird has been sharing some great stuff lately. From todays show comes this New York magazine piece by David Wallace-Wells about the stunning speed with which the Covid-19 vaccine was developed:

You may be surprised to learn that of the trio of long-awaited coronavirus vaccines, the most promising, Modernas mRNA-1273, which reported a 94.5 percent efficacy rate on November 16, had been designed by January 13. This was just two days after the genetic sequence had been made public in an act of scientific and humanitarian generosity that resulted in Chinas Yong-Zhen Zhangs being temporarily forced out of his lab. In Massachusetts, the Moderna vaccine design took all of one weekend. It was completed before China had even acknowledged that the disease could be transmitted from human to human, more than a week before the first confirmed coronavirus case in the United States. By the time the first American death was announced a month later, the vaccine had already been manufactured and shipped to the National Institutes of Health for the beginning of its Phase I clinical trial.

Mondays show featured the intrigue behind the discovery of a real life treasure:

And if you look back to last week, Jackson clued us in to Radiooooo (The Musical Time Machine), Tetris championships, Chinas Change 5 mission to the Moon, and DeepMinds AI breakthrough in protein folding.

If any or all of that sounds interesting to you, you can subscribe to Kottke Ride Home right here or in your favorite podcast app.

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Recently on the Kottke Ride Home Podcast - kottke.org

Deep medicine: Artificial intelligence is changing the face of healthcare, daily – Yiba

Professor Tshilidzi Marwala is the Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Johannesburg. He recently penned an opinion article that first appeared in theDaily Maverickon 07 December 2020.

This year has been a great definer. As we waged a battle against an unknown entity, proponents of artificial intelligence (AI) were swift to act. Just last week, DeepMind announced that it has cracked what is referred to as a 50-year-old scientific riddle. It has solved the protein-folding problem. In other words, it can determine a proteins 3D shape from its amino-acid sequence, making it easier to develop treatments for a range of diseases from cancer to the coronavirus.

To do this, researchers trained the DeepMind algorithm on a public database, which contained about 170,000 protein sequences and their shapes over a few weeks, running the equivalent of 100 to 200 graphics processing units. In recent years, DeepMind has been most recognised for its ability to beat human beings in games such as Go or Atari Classics. These were, in a sense, testing grounds for ultimately solving real-world problems.

As DeepMinds founder Demis Hassabis said at the announcement last week: It marks an exciting moment for the field. These algorithms are now becoming mature enough and powerful enough to be applicable to really challenging scientific problems. In fact, many had expected this kind of advancement in AI only in a few decades from now.

This indicates the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) the era we find ourselves in, where intelligent technologies permeate all aspects of our lives. AI, which is the most significant technology of the 4IR, is already changing how we live, work and communicate by reshaping government, education, healthcare and commerce. In his bookDeep Medicine,Eric Topol distinguishes between shallow and deep medicine. Shallow medicine is a healthcare system based on observations of community groups (for example, people of African descent have a higher risk of prostate cancer than other community groups), whereas deep medicine is based on individualised medicine that is enabled by AI.

Not only do we have more access to information than ever before, but we also see a confluence of cyber, physical and biological technologies that no longer exist in labs, but impact on us every day. Proponents have long argued that the 4IR could be the key to finding solutions to some of our most deep-seated problems. The unprecedented responses to the coronavirus pandemic have been an exemplification of this.

For instance, AI has made the detection of the coronavirus easier. Alibabas research institute, Damo Academy, has developed an AI algorithm that can detect the coronavirus in just under 20 seconds with 96% accuracy. The AI was trained using 5,000 samples from confirmed cases and can detect the virus from chest CT scans, differentiating between infected patients and general viral pneumonia cases.

South Korea was swift to act following the outbreak in China, anticipating a spread into its borders. The government organised the private sector to develop testing kits for the virus. Molecular biotech company Seegene in South Korea used AI to accelerate these kits development. This facilitated the submission of its solution to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) only three weeks after scientists began working on this solution. Under normal situations, this process would have taken two to three months with an approval process of about 18 months.

It is not just pockets of AI that have cropped up in these regions. The opportunity for AI to speed up the implementation of vaccines, drugs and diagnostics is gaining traction elsewhere. Projects such as the Covid-19 Open Research Dataset provide free access to the texts of almost 25,000 research papers, while the Covid-net open access neural network is working on systems similar to those deployed by the Damo Academy.

Companies such as BenevolentAI, based in the United Kingdom, are using AI and the available data to scour through existing drugs that could be used to treat coronavirus patients until a vaccine becomes available.

Vir Biotechnology and Atomwise, start-ups in the United States, are using algorithms to identify a molecule that could facilitate treatment. Now, as various vaccines are in the final testing stages, algorithms are being used to sift through data on potential adverse reactions. Companies such as Genpact UK have signed contracts with the UK government to ensure that nothing is missed as preparations begin for mass vaccinations in the coming year. This is significant given the rapid timeline in which many of these vaccines have been developed and the various unknowns that remain.

AI solutions once thought of as futuristic and unrealistic are now commonplace. We see far more advances than we had expected at this stage, perhaps indicating the urgency that the pandemic has presented.

Similarly, there has been a shift to find AI solutions in Africa. Data science competition platform Zindi which is based in South Africa and Ghana has initiated a competition sponsored by the Artificial Intelligence for Development-Africa Network (AI4D-Africa), which requires data scientists to create an epidemiological model that forecasts the spread of Covid-19 throughout the globe. This is critical for both policy makers and health workers to make informed decisions and take action.

In Kenya, start-up Afya Rekod deploys AI and Blockchain to establish a health-data platform that lets users store their health records, access health information and connect to health service providers.

Of course, it is not only in the context of the coronavirus pandemic that there have been AI advances. There have been great strides in bridging some of the inequalities that exist in the healthcare system. In Rwanda, for instance, the government has collaborated with US start-up Zipline to deliver blood supplies by drones to remote areas. Where a journey would have taken three hours by car, a drone can complete the trip within six minutes. This addresses emergency medical supply requirements in rural areas.

Just last month, to improve access and quality of services to rural communities in South Africa, the Department of Health in Limpopo installed CT-Scans and Picture Archiving Communication System (PACS) in the province. The availability of this equipment at regional hospitals now improves the speed of diagnosis and management of the associated conditions and indicates an embracing of the 4IR.

This is vital because according to the General Household Survey conducted by Statistics SA, only 17% of South Africans have medical insurance, the critical key for private healthcare. About 82% of South Africans fall outside the medical-aid net, and, as a result, are largely dependent on public healthcare. According to Statistics South Africa, in 2017, 81% of households that used public healthcare services were satisfied or very satisfied with public facilities services.

AI also addresses concerns of a shortage of doctors, particularly in the public sector. For example, the increased speed and accuracy of cancer diagnostics through analytics which can characterise tumours and predict therapies has not replaced doctors, but quickened their efforts and given them the space to attend to more patients. Technologies such as AI will decrease the cost of health care globally.

Almost two-thirds of healthcare costs are from non-communicable diseases such as cancer, strokes, heart failure and kidney failure that can be treated more effectively and at less cost if diagnosed early.

For example, in China, a company called Infervision developed AI algorithms that efficiently and accurately read medical images to augment radiologists in diagnosing cancer.

As Dhruv Khullar, a physician at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, said, most fundamentally, it means recognising that humans, not machines, are still responsible for caring for patients. It is our duty to ensure that we are using AI as another tool at our disposal not the other way around.

AI solutions once thought of as futuristic and unrealistic are now commonplace. We see far more advances than we had expected at this stage, perhaps indicating the urgency that the pandemic has presented.

What is clear is that, like many other sectors, health care will be transformed by AI and we need to ready ourselves for these shifts. As Enrico Coiera aptly put it inThe Lancetin 2018, what is the fate of medicine in the time of AI? Our fate is to change.

*The views expressed in the article is that of the author/s and does not necessarily reflect that of the University of Johannesburg.

Source: UJ

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Deep medicine: Artificial intelligence is changing the face of healthcare, daily - Yiba

Can Osteoporosis Be Reversed? Medications and Lifestyle Changes – Healthline

Osteoporosis is a chronic condition caused by the loss of bone density. You can reverse the loss of bone density with medical therapies that may slow, maintain, or even increase your bone density.

Your doctor may recommend taking certain medications to prevent or treat bone loss, and some may even help you rebuild bone density.

You can also help prevent fractures and other symptoms of osteoporosis with:

A serious complication of osteoporosis is breaking a bone, which can lead to:

Its important to avoid falls as much as possible.

Your doctor diagnoses osteoporosis based on bone density loss. You can have different degrees of the condition, and catching it early can help you prevent the condition from worsening.

You cannot reverse bone loss on your own. But there are a lot of ways you can stop further bone loss.

If you are diagnosed with osteoporosis or at a greater risk for developing it, your doctor may recommend certain medications to take. Your risk for the condition may increase due to:

Treatment with medication aims to prevent the condition from getting worse and reduce your risk for fracturing bones.

Two types of medications can help treat osteoporosis.

You cannot reverse bone loss on your own without medications, but there are many lifestyle modifications you can make to stop more bone loss from occurring.

Eating a diet that is nutrient-rich and diverse is important to keep your bones strong. Consuming these foods can give your bones a boost:

Here are some of the vitamins and minerals you want to incorporate into your diet for bone health.

There are also drinks and ingredients you should avoid or reduce consumption of to help your bone health.

Engaging in regular exercise can help your bones stay strong in adulthood. There are additional benefits to exercise like strengthening your muscles to help you stay coordinated and balanced.

These benefits can also help you prevent falls or bumps into objects that might lead to broken bones with osteoporosis.

You should engage in several types of exercise regularly to help your bones:

Talk with your doctor about appropriate exercise routines. You should avoid high impact exercises and may need to modify certain activities to avoid injury.

Unhealthy habits like these can worsen osteoporosis:

To maximize your nutrition and maintain a healthy weight, you can try to:

Your diet alone may not be enough to maintain an adequate level of bone-healthy vitamins and minerals.

Your doctor may recommend taking a multivitamin or a supplement of specific vitamins or minerals to meet your daily requirements. It is important to take the recommended amount.

Keep in mind that the Food and Drug Administration does not approve or control supplements, so check in with your doctor before you start using them and purchase them from a reputable manufacturer.

Osteopenia indicates low bone mass. This is a condition that could lead to osteoporosis, but it doesnt necessarily mean that its a foregone conclusion. You may be able to rely on lifestyle modifications to stop bone loss, like:

Your doctor may also recommend taking medications to prevent osteoporosis from developing.

A diagnosis of osteoporosis comes when your bone mass is low. You may find out you have osteoporosis from a bone scan or after you experience a broken bone.

Osteoporosis is often a condition associated with aging, and women can be especially vulnerable to it.

You should always follow the health treatment plan recommended for osteoporosis. It might be easy to ignore the condition because symptoms are not obvious.

But delaying or neglecting treatment for osteoporosis can lead to bone breaks and other symptoms like:

There are a variety of medications to treat osteoporosis, so you and your doctor can determine the best option for you. For example, some medications you may need to take daily.

Others may require administration at a doctors office a few times a month or once a year.

Your treatment plan is considered successful if you stop bone density from decreasing and do not experience bone fractures or breaks. Some treatments will also help you rebuild bone density.

Your doctor may recommend a change in treatment if you experience worsening symptoms or if your medication is only helpful for a certain period of time.

There may be instances where you take a break from medication. You may need to take medication again at some point. Your doctor will monitor your condition to determine what type of treatment you need.

Talk with your doctor about concerns regarding your treatment plan. You can discuss ways to make sure you follow instructions for any prescribed medications.

Your doctor may even suggest a different type of treatment if your current plan does not adhere to your lifestyle.

Discuss ways to incorporate healthy lifestyle habits to stop bone density loss and prevent the condition from getting worse.

Originally posted here:
Can Osteoporosis Be Reversed? Medications and Lifestyle Changes - Healthline

Online Health Promotion Program Shown to Significantly Improve the Physical and Mental Health of Canadians During the Pandemic – Canada NewsWire

Over 75% of participants completed the 10-week program. Each week where they were trained to adopt a new healthy lifestyle habit, track their progress, and receive regular feedback and health coaching from volunteer medical students studying at McGill University. The following results were observed:

Dr Steven Grover, a Professor of Medicine at McGill University, and one of the co-leaders of this program noted: "The high completion rate is extraordinary and probably reflects the substantial impact of the excellent health coaching provided weekly by the medical students. Not only did this help to keep participants engaged but it undoubtedly played an essential role in some of the more challenging lifestyle changes such as losing excess body weight. Feedback from the students was also very positive as they learned first-hand about the challenges of motivating their future patients to adopt healthy habits".

The next Drop 5 Mission will start January 11, 2021 and will again run for 10 weeks (funded by Veterans Affairs Canada). It is fun and free, not only for Canadian Veterans and their families, but also for other Canadian's who are trying to maintain or improve their health during the pandemic.

http://www.missionvav.com

SOURCE McGill Comprehensive Health Improvement Program (CHIP)

For further information: Dr Steven Grover, [emailprotected], 514-791-5688

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Online Health Promotion Program Shown to Significantly Improve the Physical and Mental Health of Canadians During the Pandemic - Canada NewsWire