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Category Archives: Genetic Engineering

Can virtual reality therapy help alleviate chronic pain?

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

5-Jun-2014

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

New Rochelle, NY, June 5, 2014Chronic pain due to disease or injury is common, and even prescription pain medications cannot provide acceptable pain relief for many individuals. Virtual reality as a means of distraction, inducing positive emotions, or creating the perception of "swapping" a limb or bodily area affected by chronic pain in a virtual environment can be a powerful therapeutic tool, as described in several articles in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The articles are available free on the Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking website.

Editor-in-Chief Brenda K. Wiederhold, PhD, MBA, BCB, BCN and coauthors Kenneth Gao, Camelia Sulea, MD, and Mark Wiederhold, MD, PhD, FACP from the Virtual Reality Medical Institute, Brussels, Belgium and Virtual Reality Medical Center, San Diego, CA, created pleasant virtual experiences that patients could navigate through in simulated worlds to distract them from pain. They report both the patients' subjective ratings of relief and how those compared to physiological measurements to assess pain responses in the article "Virtual Reality as a Distraction Technique in Chronic Pain Patients."

In "Application of Virtual Body Swapping to Patients with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome: A Pilot Study," Bomyi Jeon and coauthors from Korea evaluated the effectiveness of virtual body swapping therapy in improving pain intensity and "body perception disturbance" in patients with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, a chronic progressive disease characterized by severe pain and disturbed body perception.

Rocio Herrero, PhD and a team of researchers from Spain report significant improvement in multiple factors affecting quality of life for patients with fibromyalgia syndrome, a chronic musculoskeletal pain condition. They describe their therapeutic approach in the article "Virtual Reality for the Induction of Positive Emotions in the Treatment of Fibromyalgia: A Pilot Study over Acceptability, Satisfaction, and the Effect of Virtual Reality on Mood."

"Studies have shown that VR can be an effective adjunct for both chronic and acute pain conditions," says Dr. Wiederhold. "Future possibilities for VR's use in pain conditions may include such diverse groups as military personnel, space exploration teams, and our ever increasing elderly population."

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Can virtual reality therapy help alleviate chronic pain?

California GMO Labeling Bill Fails; Means Win for Consumers

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Patrick McGreevy of The Los Angeles Times reported on SB 1381, the California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act. This bill would establish a requirement for companies to disclose if foods sold in California are genetically engineered (for raw commodities) to produced with genetic engineering or partially produced with genetic engineering (for processed foods).

McGreevy reaffirmed that the California GMO labeling bill failed in the Senate, 19-16, just two votes short of the majority needed for passage, after some Democrats joined Republicans in opposing the measure.

In November 2012, a more complex, yet similar labeling initiative, Proposition 37, was rejected by California voters. Its troubling to see that a similar bill resurfaced especially when economic analysis behind Californias Proposition 37 estimated annual food costs for an average-income family would increase by approximately $400.

State Senator Noreen Evans (D-Santa Rosa) sponsored SB 1381, stating that its about consumer choice and information.If the product contains GMOs, label it. We shouldnt be hiding ingredients.

However, her right to know argument is weak. Consumer choice already exists in the market place. They can choose organic or Non-GMO.

Additionally, GMOs are safe for consumption. Scientific authorities such as the National Academies of Science, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Health Organization, the American Medical Association and the American Association for the Advancement of science have looked at HUNDREDS of scientific studies and have concluded that foods with biotech-derived ingredients do not pose any more risk to people than any other foods.

Lastly, genetic modification isnt an ingredient, its a (farming) technology just as organic is a (farming) technology, both regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA has also held that there is no significant difference between foods produced using bio-engineering, as a class, and their conventional counterparts.

It is important to the look at the bigger picture which The Los Angeles Times caught as it quoted Sen. Jim Nielsen (R-Gerber) who notably said that the bill is overkill, and would undermine worldwide efforts to develop crops and other food to prevent starvation in developing countries.

Closing his piece, McGreevy reported how Senate action was welcomed by Cynthia Cory, director of environmental affairs for the California Farm Bureau Federation, who greatly amplified the true messaging strategy behind anti-GMO activism, Were pleased the Senate did not fall for the proponents scare tactics and that they rejected this unnecessary, misleading and costly bill that would increase food costs for consumers.

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California GMO Labeling Bill Fails; Means Win for Consumers

11-Million-Year-Old Weird Worm Lizard Discovered

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They look like snakes, but don't be fooled: Legless, slithering amphisbaenians are more closely related to lizards than to boa constrictors.

Now, the first complete skull of the ancestor of today's bizarre "worm lizards" reveals that these strange reptiles have been largely unchanged for at least 11 million years. The fossil skull, discovered in Spain, is only 0.44 inches (11.2 millimeters long), but represents a new species, Blanus mendezi.

This family, known as blanids, includes the only worm lizards found on land in Europe, said study researcher Arnau Bolet, a doctoral student at the Institut Catal de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont in Barcelona.

"Their fossil record was until now limited to isolated and usually fragmented bones," Bolet told Live Science in an email. "Thus, the study of a complete fossil skull more than 11 million years old was an unprecedented opportunity." [The 12 Weirdest Animal Discoveries]

Lizards without legs

Worm lizards are found around the world today, though most of the 180 or so extant species live in the Arabian Peninsula, Africa and South America. Some have rudimentary legs, but most have no limbs at all, and resemble large earthworms.

Today, there are three groups of worm lizards in the Mediterranean region: one group is eastern, one is Iberian and one is northwest African. The Iberian and northwest African groups probably arose from one western Mediterranean group that only later subdivided, Bolet and his colleagues explain today (June 4) in the journal PLOS ONE.

The new skull was found in sediments excavated in 2011 in the Valls-Peneds Basin in Spain's Catalonia region. Manel Mndez, a technician at the Institut Catal de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, was sifting through the dirt for fossils using a screen when he found a lumpy, pinkish rock that he knew was something more.

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11-Million-Year-Old Weird Worm Lizard Discovered

Early Dogs Helped Humans Hunt Mammoths

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Early dogs may have helped human hunters track and kill mammoths in Ice Age Europe and Asia. The fierce dogs may have then guarded the meat from their wolf relatives.

Penn State archeologist Pat Shipman recently calculated that the age ranges of mammoths found in these ancient boneyards suggest that the animals were hunted, not just scavenged after a catastrophe killed an entire herd.Shipman suggested that the domestication of wolves, along with improvements in projectile weapons, may have allowed people to successfully hunt large numbers of mammoths. The journal Quaternary International published her results.

From approximately 40,000 to 15,000 years ago, human campsites from Siberia to central Europe contained tremendous numbers of mammoth bones, sometimes from more than 100 individual pachyderms. In many cases, humans constructed buildings using the mammothbones, tusks and hides.

Shipman noted that high numbers of wild wolf and Arctic fox bones appear along with the mammoth bones. Dogs may have helped guard the mammoth meat by alerting people when other carnivores came sniffing around. The wolves and foxes were then killed and skinned for their pelts and meat.

Earlier archeological discoveries, published in the Journal of Archeological Sciences, described a breed of dog, or semi-domesticated wolf, from approximately 32,000 years ago in what is now Belgium, the Ukraine and Russia. Genetic and skeletal evidence show that the dog-like creature was different from known wolves, yet its genetic signature didnt survive in modern dog populations. This could mean the mammoth-hunting dogs either died out, or interbred with other dogs and wolves until they became indistinguishable.

Relatives of modern humans, including Neanderthals, likely hunted mammoths too. Chemical signatures in their bones suggest Neanderthals ate the extinct creatures. However, no known Neanderthal campsites contain the remains of hundreds of mammoth bones.

Photo: Wikipedia Commons

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Early Dogs Helped Humans Hunt Mammoths

GMO ban, research at odds?

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Hawaii County set itself apart from much of the rest of the state in December by effectively banning the large biotech seed companies that have become a major, though controversial, part of Hawaii agriculture.

But with a ban also on the outdoor testing of transgenic crops, can the Big Island, home to genetically modified papaya, still be a place for genetic research?

Six months later, the answer might be clearly no for some researchers while a bit hazy for others.

Because of the law, Russell Nagata, Hawaii County administrator for the University of Hawaiis College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, said his staff will not pursue genetic engineering.

It will prevent us from using biotech as a solution to agricultural issues, he said following a panel discussion on genetic modification Thursday evening.

It forces us to look at it in a different manner. It may be slow, it may not be as effective.

Scientists interviewed say growing modified crops, that are still under development, in open fields is necessary to test their effectiveness.

While they say they take steps to prevent the spread of genes, including the removal of plants before flowering, critics of genetic modification believe outdoor testing presents too much risk. They also question the approval process.

We are looking at the precautionary principle, said Kohala Councilwoman Margaret Wille during the panel discussion sponsored by the Hilo chapter of the American Association of University Women. Wille introduced the bill restricting the use of transgenic crops.

Under the countys law, testing can occur but it must be done indoors.

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GMO ban, research at odds?

Engineered Food

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Humans have been manipulating crop genetics for thousands of years, crossing and selecting plants that exhibit desirable traits. In the last century, breeders exposed crops to radiation and chemicals that induced random mutations. These and other lab methods gave fruits and vegetables new colors, made crops disease resistant and made grains easier to harvest. Most wheat, rice and barley are descendants of mutant varieties, as are many vegetables and fruits. Hello, Star Ruby grapefruit! In the early 1980s, scientists discovered how to insert genes from other species into plants. The process led to the 1994 commercialization of the first GMO, the Flavr Savr tomato. It was tasteless and was pulled from the market. No GMO meat is currently for sale, though not for lack of trying. AquaBounty Technologies has been trying for 19 years to win approval for salmon engineered to grow twice as fast as conventional salmon, with less feed. The 1995 application remains pending before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which has determined the fish is safe to consume. Advocates want it labeled.

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Engineered Food

DNA-binding fluorescent dyes detect real-time cell toxicity during drug screening

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

30-May-2014

Contact: Vicki Cohn vcohn@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 x2156 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

New Rochelle, NY, May 30, 2014High throughput screening of compounds in live cells is a powerful approach for discovering new drugs, but the potential for cell toxicity must be considered. A novel technique that uses DNA-binding fluorescent dyes to evaluate the cytotoxicity of an experimental compound in real-time during screening, saving time and resources, is described in ASSAY and Drug Development Technologies, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available on the ASSAY and Drug Development Technologies website.

Lucius Chiaraviglio and James Kirby, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, evaluated 19 fluorescent DNA-binding dyes and identified four dyes that were not harmful to cells and could not cross the cell membrane if a cell was viable. The authors demonstrated the ability to use these dyes to detect cell death during drug screening in the article "Evaluation of Impermeant, DNA-Binding Dye Fluorescence as a Real-Time Readout of Eukaryotic Cell Toxicity in a High Throughput Screening Format."

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About the Journal

Assay and Drug Development Technologies is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published 10 times a year in print and online. It provides early-stage screening techniques and tools that enable identification and optimization of novel targets and lead compounds for new drug development. Complete tables of content and a complementary sample issue may be viewed on the ASSAY and Drug Development Technologies website.

About the Publisher

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers, is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many areas of science and biomedical research, including OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology and Genetic Testing and Molecular Biomarkers. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 80 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.

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DNA-binding fluorescent dyes detect real-time cell toxicity during drug screening

Virus that helped eradicate smallpox takes on cancer in startups dual-mechanism immunotherapy

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With a little genetic engineering, the vaccine that was key in helping eradicate smallpox more than 30 years ago could also be key in curing cancer, if a young Cleveland biotech has anything to say about it.

Western Oncolytics is developing a dual-mechanism therapy that combines oncolytic virus and gene therapy technologies with the hope of wiping out the ability of cancer cells to survive in the body.

CEO Kurt Rote is a first-time entrepreneur, but you wouldnt know it from talking to him. After getting a biomedical engineering degree from Duke and moving to Switzerland to get an MBA, he worked for a short time at a small biotech firm before deciding to risk everything to realize a personal dream of curing cancer.

In pursuit of bleeding-edge technology, he started making calls to university researchers.I went down a list of NIH grants and talked to as many of them as possible, he said. I wanted to go where the science led me.

Where it led him was to the office of Stephen H. Thorne at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Center, who had been studying oncolytic viruses for years.

Oncolytic viruses are genetically modified to infect and kill cancer cells while simultaneously triggering an anti-tumor immune response. Their promise lies in being able to treat cancers with side effects that parallel those of a flu shot, rather than those from chemotherapy.

Although theyve been studied for decades, theyre just now advancing to the point where theyre being tested in large-scale human trials. Amgen recently completed a Phase 3 study in melanoma patients of an oncolytic virus it bought from Biovex in a 2011 deal worth up to $1 billion. The results of the trial were mixed, potentially limiting the commercial viability of the drug, but the trial serves as an important milestone for the field.

The therapy developed in Thornes lab employs similar concepts but is based on more advanced technology and has shown better tumor shrinkage and remission in animal testing, Rote said.

A number of different elements work together in the vaccine. It contains the vaccinia virus (used in the smallpox vaccine) with three gene modifications: the addition of two that signal T-cells to come to the tumor and reduce the number of immune suppressor cells in the tumor, respectively, and the deletion of a viral gene which leads to infected cells sending more signals to the immune system.

And, to avoid the immune system from being triggered immediately, before the virus reaches the tumor, scientists have modified its surface to delay the immune response.

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Virus that helped eradicate smallpox takes on cancer in startups dual-mechanism immunotherapy

Gender stereotypes keep women in the out-group

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

29-May-2014

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

New Rochelle, NY, May 29, 2014Women have accounted for half the students in U.S. medical schools for nearly two decades, but as professors, deans, and department chairs in medical schools their numbers still lag far behind those of men. Why long-held gender stereotypes are keeping women from achieving career advancement in academic medicine and what can be done to change the institutional culture are explored in an article in Journal of Women's Health, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Journal of Women's Health website.

In "Stuck in the Out-Group: Jennifer Can't Grow Up, Jane's Invisible, and Janet's Over the Hill," Anna Kaatz, PhD, MPH and Molly Carnes, MD, MS, University of Wisconsin-Madison, present examples of three women at different stages of their careers to illustrate the ways in which gender stereotypes can influence people's judgment and negatively affect women in social interactions, causing them to be in the out-group and lose out on opportunities for professional advancement.

"Challenging cultural stereotypes about women and men is a critical step toward achieving gender equity in academic medicine," says Susan G. Kornstein, MD, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Women's Health, Executive Director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Institute for Women's Health, Richmond, VA, and President of the Academy of Women's Health.

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About the Journal

Journal of Women's Health, published monthly, is a core multidisciplinary journal dedicated to the diseases and conditions that hold greater risk for or are more prevalent among women, as well as diseases that present differently in women. The Journal covers the latest advances and clinical applications of new diagnostic procedures and therapeutic protocols for the prevention and management of women's healthcare issues. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Journal of Women's Health website. Journal of Women's Health is the official journal of the Academy of Women's Health and the Society for Women's Health Research.

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GMOs: Dont be confused

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Genetically modified organisms (also called GE for genetic engineering), are plants or animals created through the gene splicing techniques of biotechnology. They take fish genes (DNA), for example, and inject them into the tomatos DNA.

Most modified foods have been grown to resist chemicals, pests or disease. Thats all fine in theory, but a growing body of evidence connects GMOs with health problems, environmental damage, and more.

Of course Monsanto and other biotech companies say GE foods are safe to eat. Promises of increased yields, drought tolerance, enhanced nutrition, or any other consumer benefit have all proved false since they started doing this in the 1990s.

Most developed nations do not consider GMOs to be safe. In more than 50 countries around the world, including Australia, Japan, China, India and all of the European Union countries, there are significant restrictions or outright bans on the production and sale of GMOs. But here in the U.S., our government has approved GMOs based on studies conducted by the same corporations that created them and profit from their sale!

If theres no risk in eating products that contain GMOs then there should be no problem labeling them.

By supporting labeling, companies would say, Theres no risk, we have nothing to hide, says David Ropeik, creator and director of Improving Media Coverage of Risk.

We have the right to know how our food is grown. More people are realizing that the food they eat directly affects their health.

Vote YES for labeling of GMOs! Go to http://www.nongmoproject.org for more info.

TANYA OSTERSON

Coeur dAlene

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GMOs: Dont be confused


  1. Genetic Engineering