In what is being called a major step forward in genetic engineering, scientists have built a customized copy of an entire yeast chromosome. Experts say it may lead to a better understanding of how the thousands of genes contained in these packages of genetic material work together in everything from yeast to humans. And it may make it easier to make designer yeast, creating living factories that churn out everything from antibiotics to biofuels.

GeneticistJef Boeke says it started with a coffee shop conversation with a colleague.

I mentioned casually to him that, of course we could make the yeast chromosome if we wanted to, but why on Earth would we want to do that? And he practically literally started jumping up and down with excitement when I told him that, he said.

So Boeke, the colleague, Srinivasan Chandrasegaran and a third partner, Joel Bader, spent the next year discussing how they could engineer the chromosome to make it worth the enormous investment of time and money it would take.

Working at Johns Hopkins University, they decided to create an artificial version of chromosome III, one of the smallest of yeasts 16 chromosomes. It carries about 100 genes. Boeke says scientists have studied it for years, adding It is the sentimental favorite of yeast geneticists.

Block by block

Boeke and his colleagues recreated their favorite chromosome, gene by gene, with synthetic chemical building blocks. They included molecular seams, so they could cut the chromosome apart, take some genes out, add others, rearrange them and stitch it back together in ways that would help them understand how different combinations of genes work together.

Since yeast genes are a lot like ours, Boeke says the research could lead to a better understanding of human genetics.

And perhaps most interesting of all, we think it will be useful for actually improving the strain under certain conditions of growth or production of some useful product, he said.

Different strains of yeast are already used to produce antibiotics, antimalarial drugs, vaccines, biofuels and much more. The ability to custom-tailor chromosomes could give the biotech industry a boost.

See the original post here:
Scientists Build Artificial Chromosome

Genetically modified crops are often viewed with suspicion by the people, and hence there is a greater responsibility on the companies developing these transgenic crops to follow the laid down protocols in letter and spirit, former co-chairman of Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC), Arjula R. Reddy, said.

To ensure the safety of the transgenic crops and compliance of guidelines by companies there is an urgent requirement to appoint independent, fulltime regulators in the bodies like GEAC, he said.

Each crop has a potential to yield more than what it produces in a farm, and to feed the burgeoning population it is necessary to reduce the gap between potential yield and the farm yield. Genetic modification plays a crucial part in this process of increasing the yield, he explained.

Prof. Reddy was delivering the keynote lecture at an awareness workshop on Biosafety procedures for recombinants and genetically modified crops held here on Wednesday.

Rice crops yield just 25 percent of their potential and wheat varieties produce just 18 percent of their potential. When compared to these, the latest maize varieties have a yield of about 75 percent of their potential. This indicates that farm output can be increased to a great extent, he said.

If transgenic crops are dangerous for human consumption, the American population would have been affected by now as that country has been consuming high yielding transgenic varieties for many years, he pointed out.

Terming the questions being posed by few people on the safety of genetically modified crop varieties as mainly philosophic, Prof. Reddy said that the scientists should instead ensure that the newly developed molecule is what it is supposed to be.

It is imperative for us to develop safe, but high yielding, genetically modified crop varieties. To ensure this we need a robust Biosafety testing setup and stringent regulatory framework, Prof Reddy added. To ensure that a better regulatory setup is created, academics should start training some of their students in regulatory procedures, he suggested.

Here is the original post:

Develop safe, but high yielding GM crops

Why genetic engineering in medicine is good

By: Anthony Herrera

See the original post here:
Why genetic engineering in medicine is good - Video

The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) has approved field trials for 11 crop varieties but that clears only the first hurdle in the way of genetically-modified crops. Another major hitch could come from state governments, most of which do not seem to be in a mood to give their go-ahead anytime soon.

A survey conducted by Business Standard reveals that a majority of the countrys states are still firmly against the move, while a few are open to considering only conditionally. Some others are either neutral or might take a decision after the Lok Sabha elections.

According to GEAC officials, maize, mustard and rice are among the crops that have got approval for trials, but the states that are major producers of these crops remain opposed.

A piece of good news, though, has come from Maharashtra and Punjab, two of the largest agricultural states, which have favoured field trials for GM crops.

Officials say the use of high-yield GM crops could prove beneficial, given the growing demand for food grains, vegetables and oil seeds. But apprehensions of health hazard on the use of such seeds for consumable agricultural commodities seem to be playing a spoilsport. India had suspended field trials of these crops a few years ago but the GEAC approval last week for 11 varieties brought the issue back in the limelight.

The environment & forests ministry had in July 2011 made it mandatory for companies, institutes and research bodies to get no-objection certificates from states concerned before conducting trials. Also, GEAC analyses the sites for these trials on several parameters, including whether these are located too close to sanctuaries or water bodies.

Andhra Pradesh is home to several seed companies and BT Cotton was first introduced there. However, the state remains undecided on allowing field trials for GM crops. A decision on this will have to wait for the impending division of the state and formation of new governments. A technical committee is studying the issue.

Gujarat and Karnataka have not opposed the trials yet. The two are said to take a call only after the Lok Sabha elections. Major southern states like Tamil Nadu and Kerala, on the other hand, are against GM crops and unwilling to permit field trials. While Madhya Pradesh opposes field trials as a policy, Chhattisgarh might support if the Centre takes it on board. Punjab is open to field trials for maize, while Haryana is undecided.

The Maharashtra government has issued no-objection certificates to 28 applications for GM crop trials to seven private companies and the Nagpur-based Central Institute of Cotton Research.

Most of the 28 strains cleared for trials are of wheat, rice, maize and cotton. It will be Haryanas Bayer Bio Science for rice, Dow Agro Sciences, Pioneer Overseas Corporation and Syngenta Bio Sciences for maize, and Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds for wheat.

Read this article:
GM field trials: Regulator proposes but most states decline

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

25-Mar-2014

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

New Rochelle, NY, March 24, 2014The curative and therapeutic potential of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) offers much promise, as these multipotent cells are currently being tested in more than 300 clinical trials in a range of diseases. A new, easier, and more reliable way to make large quantities of highly potent MSCs could accelerate progress toward their use in regenerative medicine, as described in an article in Stem Cells and Development, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available on the Stem Cells and Development website.

Robert Lanza, MD and colleagues from Advanced Cell Technology (Marlborough, MA) and the David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA (Los Angeles, CA), developed an innovative method for deriving MSCs from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) through the use of a developmental precursor called the hemangioblast. They describe the technique and evidence of therapeutic efficacy using the hESC-MSCs to treat mouse models of lupus erythematosus and uveitis in the article "Mesenchymal Stem Cell Population Derived from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells Displays Potent Immunomodulatory and Therapeutic Properties."

"This new population of hESC-derived MSCs has a 30,000-fold greater proliferative capacity than bone marrow-derived MSCs," says Dr. Lanza, Chief Scientific Officer, Advanced Cell Technology. "In addition to being easy to derive in very large numbers, they are more youthful and live much longer." Dr. Lanza is Editor-in-Chief of BioResearch Open Access, a peer-reviewed open access journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers that provides a rapid-publication forum for a broad range of scientific topics.

###

About the Journal

Stem Cells and Development is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published 24 times per year online with Open Access options and in print. Led by Editor-in-Chief Graham C. Parker, PhD, the Journal is dedicated to communication and objective analysis of developments in the biology, characteristics, and therapeutic utility of stem cells, especially those of the hematopoietic system. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Stem Cells and Development website.

About the Publisher

Read the rest here:
New method yields potent, renewable human stem cells with promising therapeutic properties

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

25-Mar-2014

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

New Rochelle, NY, March 25, 2014Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is common among military veterans and together with the often-related anxiety, depression, and psychological and emotional impairment can dramatically affect quality of life. A type of virtual reality (VR) treatment called Graded Exposure Therapy (GET) can improve PTSD symptoms and may also have a positive impact on these associated disorders, as described in an article in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking website.

VR-GET helps sufferers of PTSD face their trauma-related fears rather than avoid them by exposing them to simulated stress-inducing events in a controlled, virtual reality environment, monitoring their physiologic responses, and providing training to develop coping skills.

The article "Effect of Virtual Reality PTSD Treatment on Mood and Neurocognitive Outcomes" is coauthored by a team of specialists led by Robert McLay, Naval Medical Center, San Diego, CA, including Editor-in-Chief of Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking Brenda K. Wiederhold, PhD, MBA, BCB, BCN and colleagues from the Interactive Media Institute, Naval Center for Combat & Operational Stress Control, and Virtual Reality Medical Center, San Diego, and the U.S. Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery National Centers for PTSD, Honolulu, HI.

"Our results indicate improvement of PTSD with VR-GET based on three different measures: neuropsychological, self-report, and clinician-administered scales," says Dr. Wiederhold.

###

About the Journal

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

See the article here:

Can virtual reality-based therapy help veterans overcome posttraumatic stress disorder?

Genetic Engineering Infomercial
Bio Project 3rd Term AY 2013-2014 Sofia Suarez and Julia Saulog 8F -- Animation by Sofia (on Wideo.com) Voiceover and Final Editing by Julia -- ~more info~ M...

By: Julia Nicole

Go here to read the rest:
Genetic Engineering Infomercial - Video

GCSE Biology - Genetic Engineering Insulin
A quick tutorial, showing how we use restriction enzymes to cut out a desired gene from one organism, and insert it into the plasmid of a bacterium. This all...

By: James Pollock

Continued here:
GCSE Biology - Genetic Engineering Insulin - Video

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

24-Mar-2014

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

New Rochelle, NY, March 24, 2014Marina Cavazzana, MD, PhD, Paris Descartes University, France and Adrian J. Thrasher, MD, PhD, University College London Institute of Child Health, UK, have been honored with the Pioneer Award for basic and clinical gene therapy for immunodeficiency disorders. Human Gene Therapy, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers, is commemorating its 25th anniversary by bestowing this honor on the leading 12 Pioneers in the field of cell and gene therapy selected by a blue ribbon panel* and publishing a Pioneer Perspective by the award recipients

Dr. Cavazzana has been at the forefront of advances in treating life-threatening inherited diseases of the immune system with gene therapy, using a patient's own modified stem cells. She describes the translation of this work to the clinic and its ongoing advances and novel applications in the article "Hematopoetic Stem Cell Gene Therapy: Progress on the Clinical Front." The article by Dr. Cavazzana is available free on the Human Gene Therapy website at http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/hum.2014.2504.

A pioneer of gene therapy in the UK, Dr. Thrasher has been at the leading edge of basic science research on the function of therapeutic genes for inherited disorders and the development of viral vectors to deliver them to affected patients. He has collaborated on gene therapy clinical trials targeting immunodeficiency disorders with groups in Europe and the USA.

"Cell therapy and gene therapy are advancing together to improve patient care," says Dr. Cavazzana. "We can expect to be able to rebuild a new immune system not only in primary immunodeficiencies but also in severe acquired clinical conditions (such as those in HIV-1-infected patients)."

"I've seen some very exciting times in the field, from the first evidence that biochemical defects can be corrected in vitro, to some remarkable clinical successes in patients with devastating diseases. I look forward with huge enthusiasm to the exciting developments on the horizon, which are likely to impact on more patients with an even wider range of disorders," says Dr. Thrasher.

"These pioneers contributed to the first real clinical successes of gene therapy through their work in inherited immune deficiency disorders," says James M. Wilson, MD, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of Human Gene Therapy, and Director of the Gene Therapy Program, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia.

###

Read this article:
Pioneer Award recipients Marina Cavazzana and Adrian Thrasher recognized for advancing gene therapy to the clinic for ...

Genetic Engineering - The Interview

By: TavongaNyokaSchool

Visit link:

Genetic Engineering - The Interview - Video

A farmers' body affiliated to the CPI(M) on Saturday criticised the decision of the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) to revalidate the field trials for 10 varieties of Genetically Modified (GM) food crops and sought the Election Commission's intervention to "stall the undemocratic move."

"This decision is a bonanza given on the eve of the elections to the Indian and MNC agri businesses and reeks of corrupt intentions. It is undemocratic and violation of Election Commission guidelines," the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) said. It said the decision was taken in a "hasty manner" despite serious concerns expressed by wide sections.

"AIKS requests the Election Commission to intervene to stall this undemocratic move bypassing Parliament and aimed at aiding profiteering by big agri businesses," it said. "The hasty and non-transparent decision of the environment ministry on the eve of announcement of Lok Sabha elections to allow field trials despite the absence of a stringent mechanism to ensure bio-safety as well as a strong regulatory body opened the floodgates for field trials and set in motion these fast-paced developments," it said.

The GEAC, a statutory body for approving GM crops, had yesterday decided to revalidated proposals for wider field trials for 10 GM crops including wheat and rice. Over 70 new proposals including of many food crops will also be examined by GEAC in April.

AIKS said the applications for revalidation were made by companies whose permits had lapsed as they were opposed by states.

The decision will allow Mahyco, BASF India and Monsanto India to go ahead with wider or phase-II field trials for these genetically modified crops.

Read more:
Govt nod for GM crop field trials violates EC guidelines, says farmers' body

NEW DELHI: Almost a year after holding its last meeting, the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) - government regulatory body on genetically modified organisms - will meet on Friday to take a call on "confined field trials" for 53 transgenic varieties of GM crops.

The move is a step forward after the environment ministry's recent decision to give its go ahead to field trials of over 200 varieties of genetically modified crops which had got the GEAC's nod in its last meeting in March, 2013.

Though the GEAC has circulated agenda of the Friday meeting among its members, it preferred not to bring it in public domain - contrary to the ministry's earlier stand to do such clearance exercise in transparent manner.

Besides considering applications for "confined field trials" of different transgenic varieties of GM crops, the meeting is also scheduled to take a follow up action on the decision taken in its March, 2013. Field trial is an important step to know the bio-safety details of a particular variety.

Among the applications which are to be considered by the GEAC in its Friday meeting include transgenic varieties of maize, sorghum, rice, wheat, cotton and groundnut.

Besides private seed companies, government research institutions and Universities are also among the applicants which have applied for "confined field trials" of their respective transgenic varieties of GM crops. Applications relating to pharmaceuticals will also be considered by the appraisal committee.

The move and the manner in which the GEAC has called the meeting are, however, strongly resisted by anti-GM activists who felt that any decision to allow field trials would not only go against the spirit of the ministry's earlier stand (under the former environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan) but also violate the 'model code of conduct' which has been in force in the country ahead of general elections.

The Coalition of GM Free India - an umbrella organization of all anti-GM activists - on Thursday even wrote the Central Election Commission, requesting it to stop the permissions for field trial of GM crops by GEAC as it violates the model code of conduct.

In a letter to chief election commissioner V S Sampath, the Coalition's convenor Rajesh Krishnan said, "We strongly believe that this is being done at the instruction of the current government and there is quid pro quo benefits that the ruling party and the minister in charge (M Veerappa Moily) might accrue during the election period. Needless to say, this will have an impact on the purity of the election process".

The Coalition urged the CEC to direct GEAC and the ministry of environment and forest "to withhold permissions for those field trials that have been granted and also to stop granting of permissions for any field trials in the upcoming meeting (on Friday) until the election process are over and results declared".

Read more from the original source:

Crucial meeting to take call on 53 varieties of GM crops tomorrow

Nine species of giant, flightless birds, known as moas, suddenly went extinct within two centuries of humans first arrival to New Zealand. Coincidence? No, a team of geneticists, biologists and archeologists recently wrote. The scientists found evidence that moas thrived before Polynesians colonized the islands in the 13th century.

The scientists analyzed genetic remains from 281 individual birds from four species of moa. The researchers looked for signs of dwindling moa populations in the 4,000 years before humans arrived. When animal populations shrink dramatically, their genetic diversity also decreases. Instead, the moa had a healthy variety of DNA, which suggested strong populations.

CSI Fossils: Ancient Killers Caught in the Act

For example, the 3.6 meter (12 ft.) tall South Island giant moa (Dinornis robustus) had an estimated population of 9,200 individuals that may have been growing. Although another species, the 1.5 to 1.8 meter (4.95.9 ft.) tall eastern moa (Euryapteryx crassus), showed signs of a major historical die-off, that reduction in numbers likely occurred more than 17,900 years ago, thousands of years before humans arrived. Euryapteryx crassus had recovered and seemed to be thriving in the eastern lowland forests of New Zealand by the time humans arrived.

BLOG: Humans Acquitted of Mammoth Murder

These findings point strongly toward human contact as the only factor responsible for the extinction, wrote the scientists in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Elsewhere the situation may be more complex, but in the case of New Zealand the evidence provided by ancient DNA is now clear: The megafaunal extinctions were the result of human factors, said lead author Mike Bunce of Curtin University in Australia in a press release. We need to be more aware of the impacts we are having on the environment today and what we, as a species, are responsible for in the past.

Illustration: Polynesians Hunting Giant Moa, by Heinrich Harder. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Read the original:
Humans Wiped Out Giant New Zealand Bird

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

19-Mar-2014

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

New Rochelle, NY, March 19, 2014The number of menopausal women is projected to reach 50 million by 2020. With changing views on appropriate therapies to control symptoms and new treatments available and on the horizon, most internists lack the core competencies and experience to meet the needs of women entering menopause, according to a provocative Commentary published 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 at http://www.liebertpub.com/jwh.

The article "Competency in Menopause Management: Whither Goest the Internist?" by Richard Santen, MD, University of Virginia Health Sciences System (Charlottesville), Cynthia Stuenkel, MD, University of California at San Diego, Henry Burger, MD, Monash University (Melbourne, Australia), and JoAnn Manson, MD, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School (Boston, MA), describes the changing landscape of menopausal symptom management, with renewed use of hormone therapy among recently menopausal women at low risk of breast cancer and heart disease. The emergence of new non-hormonal treatments and other approaches may be unfamiliar to internists who are often ill-prepared to manage symptoms in women who have completed their reproductive years and are approaching or beginning menopause.

"It is essential that new curricula be developed to train internists in the core competencies needed to manage menopausal symptoms," 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.

###

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 at http://www.liebertpub.com/jwh. Journal of Women's Health is the official journal of the Academy of Women's Health and the Society for Women's Health Research.

About the Academy

Visit link:

Internists must play a larger role in managing menopausal symptoms

11 hours ago by Robert Sanders Human cardiac myocytes (muscle cells) stained green for proteins encoded by edited genes using the new CRISPR/Cas9 technology.

The University of California, Berkeley, and UC San Francisco are launching the Innovative Genomics Initiative (IGI) to lead a revolution in genetic engineering based on a new technology already generating novel strategies for gene therapy and the genetic study of disease.

The Li Ka Shing Foundation has provided a $10 million gift to support the initiative, establishing the Li Ka Shing Center for Genomic Engineering and an affiliated faculty chair at UC Berkeley. The two universities also will provide $2 million in start-up funds.

At the core of the initiative is a revolutionary technology discovered two years ago at UC Berkeley by Jennifer A. Doudna, executive director of the initiative and the new faculty chair. The technology, precision "DNA scissors" referred to as CRISPR/Cas9, has exploded in popularity since it was first published in June 2012 and is at the heart of at least three start-ups and several heavily-attended international meetings. Scientists have referred to it as the "holy grail" of genetic engineering and a "jaw-dropping" breakthrough in the fight against genetic disease. In honor of her discovery and earlier work on RNA, Doudna received last month the Lurie Prize of the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health.

"Professor Doudna's breakthrough discovery in genomic editing is leading us into a new era of possibilities that we could have never before imagined," said Li Ka-shing, chairman of the Li Ka Shing Foundation. "It is a great privilege for my foundation to engage with two world-class public institutions to launch the Innovative Genomics Initiative in this quest for the holy grail to fight genetic diseases."

In the 18 months since the discovery of this technology was announced, more than 125 papers have been published based on the technique. Worldwide, researchers are using Cas9 to investigate the genetic roots of problems as diverse as sickle cell anemia, diabetes, cystic fibrosis, AIDS and depression in hopes of finding new drug targets. Others are adapting the technology to reengineer yeast to produce biofuels and wheat to resist pests and drought.

"We now have a very easy, very fast and very efficient technique for rewriting the genome, which allows us to do experiments that have been impossible before," said Doudna, a professor of molecular and cell biology in the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) and an investigator in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at UC Berkeley. "We are grateful to Mr. Li Ka-shing for his support of our initiative, which will propel ground-breaking advances in genomic engineering."

Transforming genetic research

The new genomic engineering technology significantly cuts down the time it takes researchers to test new therapies. CRISPR/Cas 9 allows the creation in weeks rather than years of animal strains that mimic a human disease, allowing researchers to test new therapies. The technique also makes it quick and easy to knock out genes in human cells or in animals to determine their function, which will speed the identification of new drug targets for diseases.

"The CRISPR/Cas9 technology is a complete game changer," said Jonathan Weissman, codirector of the initiative and professor of cellular and molecular pharmacology in the UCSF School of Medicine. "With CRISPR, we can now turn genes off or on at will. I am particularly interested in using CRISPR to understand the normal functions of genes as well as how disease-causing mutations alter these functions."

Visit link:

New DNA-editing technology spawns novel strategies for gene therapy

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

17-Mar-2014

Contact: Kathryn Ruehle kruehle@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

New Rochelle, NY, March 17, 2014In response to the 2010 Affordable Care Act, employers may no long offer traditional employee health care benefits as they protect themselves from rising health care costs and seek to minimize their risk. How the shifting landscape of health care coverage will impact population health management providers, employers, and employees is the focus of a commentary in Population Health Management, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Population Health Management website at http://www.liebertpub.com/pop.

Bruce Sherman, MD, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine (Cleveland, OH), and Chris Behling, AXA (New York, NY), explore many potential scenarios and conclude that employees and their families may be most impacted by these changes. In the article "Beyond Incentives: The Impact of Health Care Reform on Employer Population Health Management Strategies", they propose the need for new models of population health management services delivery.

"Sherman and Behling have done a great job outlining the challenges faced by every employer in our nation under health reform," says Editor-in-Chief David B. Nash, MD, MBA, Dean and Dr. Raymond C. and Doris N. Grandon Professor, Jefferson School of Population Health, Philadelphia, PA. "The success of Obamacare rests, in no small part, on following their advice!"

###

About the Journal

Population Health Management is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published bimonthly in print and online that reflects the expanding scope of health care management and quality. The Journal delivers a comprehensive, integrated approach to the field of population health and provides information designed to improve the systems and policies that affect health care quality, access, and outcomes. Comprised of peer-reviewed original research papers, clinical research, and case studies, the content encompasses a broad range of chronic diseases (such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic pain, diabetes, depression, and obesity) in addition to focusing on various aspects of prevention and wellness. Tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Population Health Management website at http://www.liebertpub.com/pop. Population Health Management is the official journal of the Population Health Alliance.

About the Publisher

See original here:
Will health care reform require new population health management strategies?

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

18-Mar-2014

Contact: Kathryn Ruehle kruehle@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

New Rochelle, NY, March 18, 2014Recent high-profile cases have drawn attention to the problem of sexual assault in the U.S. military, the effects on survivors, and the actions and response of military leadership. Issues such as why there is more sexual assault in the military than in the general population, why it is under-reported, and what preventive approaches should the military adopt are explored in a provocative Roundtable Discussion published in the preview issue of Violence and Gender, a new peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Violence and Gender website at http://www.liebertpub.com/vio.

Roundtable participants Mary Ellen O'Toole, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of Violence and Gender and Senior FBI Profiler/Criminal Investigator Analyst (ret.), Christopher Kilmartin, United States Air Force Academy (Colorado Springs), and Colonel Jeffery Peterson, Center for Naval Analyses (Alexandria, VA), discuss specific factors that likely contribute to the sexual assault problem, including the acceptance of bullying in American culture, and an overall greater risk for sexual assault among people who join the military due to more previous experience with sexual assault than the general population, both as offenders and as survivors.

"From the battlefield to Congress, sexual assault in the military is viewed as one of the most concerning criminal problems we face today," says Dr. O'Toole. "Sexual offenders in the military wear the same uniform but victimize innocent men and women who work alongside them to serve their country. As a society we should be outraged at this behavior and want answers. I think we give you some of those answers in this Roundtable Discussion."

###

About the Journal

Violence and Gender is the only peer-reviewed journal focusing on the understanding, prediction, and prevention of acts of violence. Through research papers, roundtable discussions, case studies, and other original content, the Journal critically examines biological, genetic, behavioral, psychological, racial, ethnic, and cultural factors as they relate to the gender of perpetrators of violence. Led by Editor-in-Chief Mary Ellen O'Toole, PhD, Forensic Behavioral Consultant and Senior FBI Profiler/Criminal Investigative Analyst (ret.), Violence and Gender explores the difficult issues that are vital to threat assessment and prevention of the epidemic of violence. Violence and Gender is published quarterly online with Open Access options and in print, and is the official journal of The Avielle Foundation.

About the Publisher

See original here:
What factors contribute to sexual assault in the military and what can be done to prevent it?

A gene-by-gene examination of cells from one of the deadliest forms of brain cancer may have uncovered a new treatment option.

Neurosurgeon Clark Chen and his colleagues at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine decided to use a form of genetic engineering in which individuals genes in a cell are, in effect, turned off to see what impact this has on the cell.

In this case, Chen and his teams were applying this gene-silencing technique on cells from glioblastoma, one of the most aggressive and hard-to-treat malignant brain tumors. They were trying to find which genes played a key role in helping the cancerous brain cells grow and survive.

After compiling their list of genetic suspects, the U.C. San Diego researchers made an interesting discovery: Many of the genes involved in glioblastoma growth help regulate the effect of the neurochemical dopamine, they reported recently online in the journal Oncotarget.

Chen and his team made their discovery by using shRNA in a molecular engineering technique known as RNA interference. Called short-hairpin RNA by some and small-hairpin RNA by others, shRNA can keep a gene from turning the genetic blueprint encoded in its DNA into a specific protein molecule. Scientists use viruses to insert the shRNA into a target gene and block its role in the production of the protein.

ShRNAs are invaluable tools in the study of what genes do. They function like molecular erasers, said Chen, the vice chairman of the division of neurosurgery at the U.C. San Diego School of Medicine. We can design these erasers against every gene in the human genome.

Because of the similarities in the lists of genes involved in glioblastoma growth and dopamine regulation, the researchers decided to see what effect dopamine antagonist drugs would have on the brain cancer cells. They discovered these drugs have significant anti-tumor effects on glioblastoma cells grown in laboratory dishes and in lab mice.

The anti-glioblastoma effects of these drugs are completely unexpected and were only uncovered because we carried out an unbiased genetic screen, said Chen.

In addition to psychosis, dopamine antagonists are used to treat other disorders, including anxiety-panic and Parkinsons disease and to control nausea and vomiting and already have a stamp of approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

First, these drugs are already FDA-cleared for human use in the treatment of other diseases, so it is possible these drugs may be re-purposed for glioblastoma treatment, thereby bypassing years of pre-clinical testing, said Bob Carter, chairman of the U.C. San Diego School of Medicine division of neurosurgery.

Continue reading here:

Anti-psychotic drug could help treat brain cancer

BERKELEY

The University of California, Berkeley, and UC San Francisco are launching the Innovative Genomics Initiative (IGI) to lead a revolution in genetic engineering based on a new technology already generating novel strategies for gene therapy and the genetic study of disease.

The Li Ka Shing Foundation has provided a $10 million gift to support the initiative, establishing the Li Ka Shing Center for Genomic Engineering and an affiliated faculty chair at UC Berkeley. The two universities also will provide $2 million in start-up funds.

Jennifer Doudna, executive director of the new Innovative Genomics Initiative and the new Li Ka Shing Chancellors Chair in Biomedical and Health Sciences.

At the core of the initiative is a revolutionary technology discovered two years ago at UC Berkeley by Jennifer A. Doudna, executive director of the initiative and the new faculty chair. The technology, precision DNA scissors referred to as CRISPR/Cas9, has exploded in popularity since it was first published in June 2012 and is at the heart of at least three start-ups and several heavily-attended international meetings. Scientists have referred to it as the holy grail of genetic engineering and a jaw-dropping breakthrough in the fight against genetic disease. In honor of her discovery and earlier work on RNA, Doudna received last month the Lurie Prize of the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health.

Professor Doudnas breakthrough discovery in genomic editing is leading us into a new era of possibilities that we could have never before imagined, said Li Ka-shing, chairman of the Li Ka Shing Foundation. It is a great privilege for my foundation to engage with two world-class public institutions to launch the Innovative Genomics Initiative in this quest for the holy grail to fight genetic diseases.

In the 18 months since the discovery of this technology was announced, more than 125 papers have been published based on the technique. Worldwide, researchers are using Cas9 to investigate the genetic roots of problems as diverse as sickle cell anemia, diabetes, cystic fibrosis, AIDS and depression in hopes of finding new drug targets. Others are adapting the technology to reengineer yeast to produce biofuels and wheat to resist pests and drought.

We now have a very easy, very fast and very efficient technique for rewriting the genome, which allows us to do experiments that have been impossible before, said Doudna, a professor of molecular and cell biology in the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) and an investigator in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at UC Berkeley. We are grateful to Mr. Li Ka-shing for his support of our initiative, which will propel ground-breaking advances in genomic engineering.

Transforming genetic research The new genomic engineering technology significantly cuts down the time it takes researchers to test new therapies. CRISPR/Cas 9 allows the creation in weeks rather than years of animal strains that mimic a human disease, allowing researchers to test new therapies. The technique also makes it quick and easy to knock out genes in human cells or in animals to determine their function, which will speed the identification of new drug targets for diseases.

The CRISPR/Cas9 technology is a complete game changer, said Jonathan Weissman, codirector of the initiative and professor of cellular and molecular pharmacology in the UCSF School of Medicine. With CRISPR, we can now turn genes off or on at will. I am particularly interested in using CRISPR to understand the normal functions of genes as well as how disease-causing mutations alter these functions.

See the original post here:
New DNA-editing technology spawns bold UC initiative

Researchers at Virginia Tech and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have used a computer-aided design tool to create genetic languages to guide the design of biological systems.

Known as GenoCAD, the open-source software was developed by researchers at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech to help synthetic biologists capture biological rules to engineer organisms that produce useful products or health-care solutions from inexpensive, renewable materials.

GenoCAD helps researchers in the design of protein expression vectors, artificial gene networks, and other genetic constructs, essentially combining engineering approaches with biology.

Synthetic biologists have an increasingly large library of naturally derived and synthetic parts at their disposal to design and build living systems. These parts are the words of a DNA language and the "grammar" a set of design rules governing the language.

It has to be expressive enough to allow scientists to generate a broad range of constructs, but it has to be focused enough to limit the possibilities of designing faulty constructs.

MIT's Oliver Purcell, a postdoctoral associate, and Timothy Lu, an associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, have developed a language detailed in ACS Synthetic Biology describing how to design a broad range of synthetic transcription factors for animals, plants, and other organisms with cells that contain a nucleus.

Meanwhile, Sakiko Okumoto, an assistant professor of plant pathology, physiology, and weed science at the Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and Amanda Wilson, a software engineer with the Synthetic Biology Group at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, developed a language describing design rules for expressing genes in the chloroplast of microalgae Their work was published in the Jan. 15 issue of Bioinformatics.

"Just like software engineers need different languages like HTML, SQL, or Java to develop different kinds of software applications, synthetic biologists need languages for different biological applications," said Jean Peccoud, an associate professor at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, and principal investigator of the GenoCAD project.

"From its inception, we envisioned GenoCAD as a framework allowing users to capture their expertise of a particular domain in languages that they could use themselves or share with others."

The researchers said encapsulating current knowledge by defining standards will become increasingly important as the number and complexity of components engineered by synthetic biologists increases.

See the rest here:
Researchers write languages to design synthetic living systems