ST. LOUIS, Oct. 3, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Sigma-Aldrich Corporation (SIAL) announced today that Sigma Life Science, its innovative biological products and services research business, has launched Stemline Pluripotent Culture Medium, a novel human pluripotent stem cell culture medium that provides a consistent environment for the long-term maintenance and growth of healthy pluripotent stem cells. The new medium performs equivalently to the industry's leading medium and provides academic and pharmaceutical stem cell research labs with a substantially lower cost alternative to higher priced media. Additional information and sample requests of the Stemline Pluripotent Culture Medium are available at http://www.sigma.com/stemlinepsc.

"The exorbitant cost of media for pluripotent stem cells is a universal complaint from the stem cell research community. Our Stemline Pluripotent Culture Medium performs equivalently to the leading medium for maintaining pluripotency and optimal growth rates, and is produced more efficiently than traditional media, resulting in lower costs. For example, a typical academic lab that consumes three 500 mL bottles of media per week could save at least $12,000 annually using our new Stemline medium. A high-throughput pharmaceutical development team that consumes 20 liters of media weekly could save more than $160,000 annually," said John Listello, Market Segment Manager for Regenerative Medicine at Sigma Life Science.

Culturing pluripotent stem cells can be challenging as many media's undefined, heterogenous mixtures can cause inconsistent growth rates and undesired spontaneous differentiation. The Stemline Pluripotent Stem Cell Culture Medium is serum-free, composed of fully-defined components and has 80% less basic fibroblast growth factor than the leading pluripotent stem cell culture medium. This provides a consistent environment for long-term maintenance of optimal growth rates, viability and pluripotency. Rigorous characterization of the Stemline Pluripotent Stem Cell Culture Medium has demonstrated that cultured pluripotent stem cells display all established pluripotency markers and maintain proper karyotype and the ability to differentiate into each of the three germ layers. The feeder-independent medium also enables culturing with synthetic matricies, thereby eliminating a source of variability that would prohibit later clinical applications.

"Academic and pharmaceutical groups performing toxicology screens, disease-specific stem cell research or studies of the basic mechanisms behind pluripotency and differentiation depend upon a steady supply of consistent, high-performance cell culture medium. This novel Stemline medium extends Sigma's existing position as one of the largest global providers of cell culture media," said Listello.

Existing Stemline stem cell culture media include specialized formulations for expansion of six human adult stem cell and progenitor cell types: hematopoietic, neural, dendritic, mesenchymal, T-cells, and keratinocytes. These six Stemline media are produced under good manufacturing practices (GMP) and have Device Master File certificates from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Sigma Life Science's comprehensive stem cell product portfolio includes custom iPS cell CompoZr ZFN-mediated genetic engineering, Stemgent Reprogramming Lentiviruses, the MISSION shRNA Library with the latest content release from The RNAi Consortium, 3D matrices, growth factors, small molecules, other cell culture media and the industry's most validated antibodies. Sigma Life Science acquired a worldwide license to Kyoto University's iPS cell patent portfolio in February, 2012.

For more information and to request pricing, visit http://www.sigma.com/stemlinepsc.

Cautionary Statement: The foregoing release contains forward-looking statements that can be identified by terminology such as "could," "could expect," "can be," "predictive" or similar expressions, or by expressed or implied discussions regarding potential future revenues from products derived there from. You should not place undue reliance on these statements. Such forward-looking statements reflect the current views of management regarding future events, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. There can be no guarantee that pluripotent stem cells, pluripotent stem cell media, or related custom services will assist the Company to achieve any particular levels of revenue in the future. In particular, management's expectations regarding products associated with pluripotent stem cells, pluripotent stem cell media, or related custom services could be affected by, among other things, unexpected regulatory actions or delays or government regulation generally; the Company's ability to obtain or maintain patent or other proprietary intellectual property protection; competition in general; government, industry and general public pricing pressures; the impact that the foregoing factors could have on the values attributed to the Company's assets and liabilities as recorded in its consolidated balance sheet, and other risks and factors referred to in Sigma-Aldrich's current Form 10-K on file with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Sigma-Aldrich is providing the information in this press release as of this date and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

About Sigma Life Science: Sigma Life Science is a Sigma-Aldrich business that represents the Company's leadership in innovative biological products and services for the global life science market and offers an array of biologically-rich products and reagents that researchers use in scientific investigation. Product areas include biomolecules, genomics and functional genomics, cells and cell-based assays, transgenics, protein assays, stem cell research, epigenetics and custom services/oligonucleotides. Sigma Life Science also provides an extensive range critical bioessentials like biochemicals, antibiotics, buffers, carbohydrates, enzymes, forensic tools, hematology and histology, nucleotides, amino acids and their derivatives, and cell culture media.

About Sigma-Aldrich: Sigma-Aldrich is a leading Life Science and High Technology company whose biochemical, organic chemical products, kits and services are used in scientific research, including genomic and proteomic research, biotechnology, pharmaceutical development, the diagnosis of disease and as key components in pharmaceutical, diagnostics and high technology manufacturing. Sigma-Aldrich customers include more than 1.3 million scientists and technologists in life science companies, university and government institutions, hospitals and industry. The Company operates in 38 countries and has nearly 9,100 employees whose objective is to provide excellent service worldwide. Sigma-Aldrich is committed to accelerating customer success through innovation and leadership in Life Science and High Technology. For more information about Sigma-Aldrich, please visit its website at http://www.sigma-aldrich.com.

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Sigma® Life Science Launches Novel, Affordable Pluripotent Stem Cell Culture Medium

A cow in New Zealand has been genetically modified to produce hypoallergenic milk.

AgResearch

Two genetically engineered farm animals reported today illustrate how far from Frankensteins stitched-together monster animal biotechnology has come. One of those animals, a cow, secretes milk that lacks an allergy-inducing protein because researchers accurately blocked its production using the technique of RNA interference1. And in pigs, scientists have used an enzyme called a TALEN2 to scramble a gene that would normally help remove cholesterol.

RNA interference (RNAi) and TALENs are more accurate at targeting the gene in question than are earlier genetic engineering techniques. For years, researchers tried to remove the allergy-inducing milk protein beta-lactoglobulin from cow's milk, which can cause diarrhea and vomiting in some toddlers. They tried replacing the gene encoding beta-lactoglobulin with a defective form, but this proved nearly impossible because the techniques available to introduce foreign genes into animal genomes were not precise, and misplaced genes failed to express themselves correctly.

In 2006, scientists at AgResearch in Hamilton, New Zealand began to experiment with molecules that interfere with the messenger RNA go-between that enables translation of a gene into protein. In mice, they discovered a short chunk of RNA, called a microRNA, that targeted beta-lactoglobulin messenger RNA directly to prevent its translation. They inserted DNA encoding a version of this microRNA into the genome to create genetically modified cow embryos that they hoped would grow into cows without the allergen in their milk. Out of 100 embryos, one calf yielded beta-globulin-free milk. This isnt a quick process, says Stefan Wagner, a molecular biologist at AgResearch. That's why it has taken so long to succeed in making an allergen-free cow, he says.

Wagner says that TALENs, which were not readily available when he began his research, might speed up the process, and that the team plans to use them to eliminate beta-lactoglobulin. RNAi cannot eliminate the protein completely because some messenger RNA slips past the blockade, but each TALEN targets a specific DNA sequence in the genome and cuts it. As the body repairs the break, mutations are often introduced that render the targeted gene non-functional. The TALEN technology is staggeringly easy, quick, and leaves no mark in the genome, says Bruce Whitelaw, a molecular biologist at the Roslin Institute near Edinburgh in the United Kingdom, who contributed to the work in pigs. In essence, we are just mimicking an evolutionary process with precise, man-made editors.

His team used TALENs to disrupt genes encoding low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptors. Without these receptor proteins to remove cholesterol-containing LDLs from the blood, LDLs build-up and lead to atherosclerosis. Pigs with this condition may be reliable models of human atheroscelerosis in biomedical research.

The TALEN-modified pig is not the first model of human heart disease (see Model pigs face a messy path), but the technique makes genetic engineering less costly and more efficient. Id be exaggerating if I said that pigs and cows can now be thought of as big mice, but we are moving in that direction, says Heiner Niemann, a bioengineer at the Institute of Farm Animal Genetics in Neustadt, Germany.

The excitement surrounding these technological advances is bittersweet, however. Originally, engineered animals were produced with the aim of making food safer, healthier and more abundant. Yet despite years of investment, almost no animal has been approved by regulatory agencies around the world. Wagner says he has not tasted the milk from his special cow because hes not permitted to under New Zealand law. We must restrict our research to scientific analysis, he says. The current climate for animal biotech is not very good, and therefore, we are nowhere near getting this to the consumer."

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Animals engineered with pinpoint accuracy

Allergen-free cows milk and pigs with hardened arteries illustrate how the accuracy of genetic engineering has improved.

Two unsuspecting farm animals have helped to demonstrate the increasing accuracy of genetic engineering techniques. The first is a cow that produced hypoallergenic milk after researchers used RNA interference to block the production of an allergy-inducing protein, as reported this week (October 2) in PNAS. The second, reported in another paper in the same issue, is a pig that could be a model for atherosclerosis after researchers used an enzyme called a TALEN to silence a gene that helps to remove cholesterol.

Researchers have long struggled to remove cow milks allergy-inducing protein, beta-lactoglobulin, which can cause diarrhoea and vomiting in children. They were previously unable to introduce foreign genes precisely enough, however, so they could never quite successfully replace the gene that codes for beta-lactoglobulin with a defective form.

But scientists at AgResearch in Hamilton, New Zealand, worked with molecules that interfere with messenger RNA (mRNA), which helps translate genes into proteins. They found microRNA (miRNA) in mice that targeted beta-lactoglobulin mRNA, so they inserted DNA encoding a version of this miRNA into the genomes of cow embryos. Out of 100 embryos, one calf produced beta-globulin-free milk. This isnt a quick process, Stefan Wagner, a molecular biologist at AgResearch, told Nature. One problem is that RNA interference cant eliminate the protein completely because some mRNA slips through.

Another technique could speed up the process. TALENs are enzymes that target and cut out a specific DNA sequence from the genome. As the break is repaired, mutations are introduced that scramble the targeted gene, leaving it unable to function.

The TALEN technology is staggeringly easy, quick, and leaves no mark in the genome, researcher Bruce Whitelaw, told Nature. Whitelaw, a molecular biologist at the Roslin Institute near Edinburgh, UK, used TALENs to disrupt genes encoding low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptors in pigs. Without those receptors, which remove LDL from the blood, Whitelaws pigs develop atherosclerotic arteries. Such pigs could be reliable models for biomedical researchers studying human atherosclerosis.

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The GM Barnyard

PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Regulatory News:

Cellectis (ALCLS.PA), the French genome engineering specialist, announces in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, one of the most respected scientific journals in the world, the publication of a new approach regarding the targeted modification of DNA2. The manuscript unmasks novel perspectives and broadens the scope of TALENsTM technology to new therapeutic approaches to fight against cancer and genetic diseases. Until now, TALENsTM, the molecular scissors created by Cellectis Group, were only able to target certain parts of the genome. A team of the Groups researchers, led by Julien Valton and Philippe Duchateau, was able to overcome this constraint, opening the way to a wider range of applications, especially in the therapeutic field.

This study, the first to be published on TALENsTM, was awarded by the selection committee of the JBC as Paper of the Week.

Since their identification in 2009, TALEs have quickly emerged as the new generation of DNA-binding domain with programmable specificity and have been successfully used to generate the molecular scissors known as TALENsTM. However, their sensitivity to methylation, a ubiquitous modification of DNA, represents a major bottleneck for their widespread utilization in the genome engineering and therapeutic fields. Using a combination of biochemical, structural and cellular approaches, the R&D department of Cellectis was able to identify the basis of such sensitivity and more importantly, to propose an efficient and universal method to overcome it.

These results are proof of the scientific creativity and quality of our research teams, as well as the power of our genome engineering tools. This new publication strengthens the relevance of our investment in TALEstechnology, and confirms our strategy within the therapeutic field, declared Andr Choulika, Chief Executive Officer of Cellectis Group.

2) Overcoming TALE DNA Binding Domain Sensitivity to Cytosine Methylation Julien Valton, Aurelie Dupuy, Fayza Daboussi, Severine Thomas, Alan Marechal, Rachel Macmaster, Kevin Melliand, Alexandre Juillerat and Philippe Duchateau J. Biol. Chem. jbc.C112.408864. First Published on September 26, 2012, doi:10.1074/jbc.C112.408864

About Cellectis

Founded in France in 1999, the Cellectis Group is based on a highly specific DNA engineering technology. Its application sectors are human health, agriculture and bio-energies. Co-created by Andr Choulika, its Chief Executive Officer, Cellectis is today one of the world leading companies in the field of genome engineering. The Group has a workforce of 230 employees working on 5 sites worldwide: Paris & Evry in France, Gothenburg in Sweden, St Paul (Minnesota) & Cambridge (Massachusetts) in the United States. Cellectis achieved in 2011 16M revenues and has signed more than 80 industrial agreements with pharmaceutical laboratories, agrochemical and biotechnology companies since its inception. AFM, Dupont, BASF, Bayer, Total, Limagrain, Novo Nordisk are some of the Groups clients and partners.

Since 2007, Cellectis has been listed on NYSE-Euronext Alternext market (ALCLS.PA) in Paris.

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Cellectis Publishes Results Paving the Way for New Therapeutic Approaches against Cancer and Genetic Diseases

NEW YORK, July 3, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Reportlinker.com announces that a new market research report is available in its catalogue:

Global DNA Probes-Based Diagnostics Industry

http://www.reportlinker.com/p098404/Global-DNA-Probes-Based-Diagnostics-Industry.html#utm_source=prnewswire&utm_medium=pr&utm_campaign=Diagnosti

This report analyzes the worldwide markets for DNA Probes-based Diagnostics in US$ Million by the following Application Areas: Infectious Diseases, Cancer Testing, Genetic Predisposition, Identity/Forensics, Molecular HLA (Human Leukocyte Antigen) Typing, and Others. The report provides separate comprehensive analytics for the US, Canada, Japan, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America. Annual estimates and forecasts are provided for the period 2009 through 2017. Also, a six-year historic analysis is provided for these markets. The report profiles 63 companies including many key and niche players such as Abbott Laboratories, Affymetrix, Inc., Becton, Dickinson & Company, Beckman Coulter, Inc., bioMerieux, Celera Group, Gen-Probe Incorporated, Genzyme Corporation, Luminex Molecular Diagnostics, QIAGEN, Roche Diagnostics, and Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics, Inc. Market data and analytics are derived from primary and secondary research. Company profiles are primarily based upon search engine sources in the public domain.

I. INTRODUCTION, METHODOLOGY & PRODUCT DEFINITIONSStudy Reliability and Reporting Limitations I-1Disclaimers I-2Data Interpretation & Reporting Level I-3Quantitative Techniques & Analytics I-3Product Definitions and Scope of Study I-3Infectious Diseases I-4Cancer I-4Genetic Predisposition I-4Identity/Forensics I-4Molecular HLA Testing I-4Other Diagnostic Applications I-4II. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1. MARKET DYNAMICS II-1

Industry Overview II-1

DNA Probes: Robust Growth Ahead II-1

Decoding the Genetic Puzzle II-1

Advantages of DNA-Probe Tests II-2

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Global DNA Probes-Based Diagnostics Industry

Building earth-friendly people ... altering humans may be a safer option than trying to alter the planet.

Human-induced climate change is one of the biggest problems that we face today. Millions could suffer hunger, water shortages, diseases and coastal flooding because of climate change. The latest science suggests that we may be near or even beyond the point of no return.

Some scientists and policy makers are therefore proposing that we take seriously the idea of geoengineering - that is, large-scale manipulations of the earth, such as spraying sulfate aerosols into the stratosphere to alter the reflectivity of the planet or fertilising the ocean with iron to spur blooms of carbon-sucking plankton. However, geoengineering seems too risky. Many of the technologies involved have never been employed on such a large scale, which means that we could be endangering ourselves or future generations. Indeed, spraying sulfate aerosols could destroy the ozone layer and iron fertilisation could promote toxic planktons and destroy all forms of marine life.

One might be able to use preimplantation genetic diagnosis to select shorter children.

I propose that we consider another solution to the problem of climate change that has not been considered before and that is potentially less risky than geoengineering. Elsewhere my colleagues and I have called this solution ''human engineering''. It involves the biomedical modification of humans to make us better at mitigating, and adapting to the effects of, climate change.

Illustration: iStock

Before I explain the proposal, let me make clear that human engineering is intended to be a voluntary activity - possibly supported by incentives such as tax breaks or sponsored healthcare - rather than a coerced, mandatory activity. My colleagues and I are positively against any form of coercion of the sort that the Nazis perpetrated in the past (segregation, sterilisation and genocide).

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Also, this proposal is intended for those who believe that climate change is a real problem, and who, as a result, are willing to take seriously geoengineering. Someone who doesn't believe that climate change is a real problem is likely to think that encouraging people to recycle more is an overreaction to climate change.

Finally, the main claim here is a modest one, namely, human engineering should be considered alongside other solutions such as geoengineering. The claim is not that human engineering ought to be adopted as a matter of public policy. This is an attempt to encourage ''outside the box'' thinking vis-a-vis a seemingly intractable problem.

The rest is here:
Hand-made humans may hold the key to saving the world

ScienceDaily (Sep. 23, 2012) Mayo Clinic researchers and an international team of scientists have developed a highly-efficient means of editing zebrafish genomes for research purposes, eliminating a bottleneck that has stymied biomedical scientists from using the fish as a model for human disease.

The details appear online today in the journal Nature.

For many researchers, zebrafish are becoming the model of choice for genetic studies. However, the inability to efficiently target genetic modifications has delayed their use by some. The Mayo team used an improved variant of artificial transcription activator-like effector nucleases, or TALENs, to provide a new approach.

"By using genetic engineering tools called TALENs and synthetic DNA to make defined changes in the genomes of our fish, we are able to make small changes (just a few nucleotides) as well as add a specific sequence for biological gene switch applications," says Stephen Ekker, Ph.D., senior author and head of Mayo's zebrafish core facility. "This is the first time we've been able to make custom changes to the zebrafish genome."

Dr. Ekker says this toolkit opens the door to a range of new experiments in zebrafish, including modeling of human disease by introducing small point mutations, designing regulated gene alleles, and developing classical structure/function experiments using an animal model system.

This new approach has implications for other model systems, including mice, rats, flies and worms, and possible applications in stem cell research.

"To our knowledge, this TALEN toolkit also is the most active described to date," says Dr. Ekker. "This has important implications for the growing TALEN field, whether used in fish or any other cells. We used this higher activity for genome editing applications. We also used it to conduct a series of somatic gene function assessments, opening the door to an array of non-germline experiments in zebrafish."

Other authors include Victoria Bedell, Jarryd Campbell, Tanya Poshusta, Randall Krug, Sumedha Penheiter, Ph.D., Alvin Ma, Ph.D., and Karl Clark, Ph.D., all of Mayo Clinic; Ying Wang, Ph.D., and Jeffrey Essner, Ph.D., of Iowa State University; Colby Starker, Ph.D., Wenfang Tan, Ph.D., Scott Fahrenkrug, Ph.D., Daniel Carlson, Ph.D., and Daniel Voytas, Ph.D., all of the University of Minnesota; and Anskar Y. H. Leung, M.D., Ph.D., of Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong.

Support for the research came from the State of Minnesota, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Research Grant Council of the University of Hong Kong and the Tang King Yin Research Fund.

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Researchers develop editing toolkit for customizing zebrafish genomes

Food security and sustainable agriculture was one of the most important topics at the recent Rio+20 Summit, for the simple reason that all of us have to eat to survive, and agriculture has to be ecologically sustainable for production to continue into the future.

While the negotiators were busily hammering out a quite satisfactory text on this topic in a small room, a more interesting discussion was taking place on Food and Nutrition Security in the huge plenary hall sitting 2,000 people.

I was one of the 10 panellists in this debate, part of the seven Sustainable Development Dialogues that were organised by the Brazilian government as part of the official summit programme.

Other topics in the dialogue series included the global financial crisis, unemployment, energy, oceans, cities, forests and, production and consumption patterns.

In the food dialogue, the panellists included former prime minister of Mozambique Luisa Dias Diogo, former UN Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson, Indian ecologist Vandana Shiva, Slow Food Movement founder Carlo Petrini, World Economic Forum vice-president Josette Sheeran, Brazilian academic Renato Maluf and several representatives of farmers organisations.

Before the dialogue, there was a months-long Internet-based interactive discussion open to all, and the thousands that took part proposed solutions to the food problem.

The panel was to discuss which proposals were most important, and forward them to the heads of states meeting a few days later.

There was significant agreement among the panellists that small farmers in developing countries, and especially women, were the key to both the present and the future of agriculture.

Empowering small farmers through access to land, credit, subsidies, storage facilities and transport were thus essential.

The expansion of national budgets and aid allocation to small-scale agriculture is thus a priority, as is the strengthening of farmers organisations that can fight for their interests.

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Food issues in the spotlight

Photographs by Mark Ostow

George Church is an imposing figureover six feet tall, with a large, rectangular face bordered by a brown and silver nest of beard and topped by a thick mop of hair. Since the mid-1980s Church has played a pioneering role in the development of DNA sequencing, helpingamong his other achievementsto organize the Human Genome Project. To reach his office at Harvard Medical School, one enters a laboratory humming with many of the more than 50 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows over whom Church rules as director of the school's Center for Computational Genetics. Passing through an anteroom of assistants, I find Church at his desk, his back to me, hunched over a notebook computer that makes him look even larger than he is.

Church looms especially large these days because of his role as one of the most influential figures in synthetic biology, an ambitious and radical approach to genetic engineering that attempts to create novel biological entitieseverything from enzymes to cells and microbesby combining the expertise of biology and engineering. He and his lab are credited with many of the advances in harnessing and synthesizing DNA that now help other researchers modify microrganisms to create new fuels and medical treatments. When I ask Church to describe what tangible impact synthetic biology will have on everyday life, he leans back in his chair, clasps his hands behind his head, and says, "It will change everything. People are going to live healthier a lot longer because of synthetic biology. You can count on it."

Such grandiosity is not uncommon among the practitioners of synthetic biology. Ever since Church and a few other researchers began to combine biology and engineering a dozen years ago, they have promised it would "change everything." And no wonder. The very idea of synthetic biology is to purposefully engineer the DNA of living things so that they can accomplish tasks they don't carry out in nature. Although genetic engineering has been going on since the 1970s, a rapid drop in the cost of decoding and synthesizing DNA, combined with a vast increase in computer power and an influx into biology labs of engineers and computer scientists, has led to a fundamental change in how thoroughly and swiftly an organism's genetics can be modified. Church says the technology will eventually lead to all manner of breakthroughs: we will be able to replace diseased tissues and organs by reprogramming cells to make new ones, create novel microbes that efficiently secrete fuels and other chemicals, and fashion DNA switches that turn on the right genes inside a patient's cells to prevent arteries from getting clogged.

Even though some of these applications are years from reality, Church has a way of tossing off such predictions matter-of-factly. And it's easy to see why he's optimistic. The cost of both decoding DNA and synthesizing new DNA strands, he has calculated, is falling about five times as fast as computing power is increasing under Moore's Law, which has accurately predicted that chip performance will double roughly every two years. Those involved in synthetic biology, who often favor computer analogies, might say it's becoming exponentially easier to read from, and write into, the source code of life. These underlying technology trends, says Church, are leading to an explosion in experimentation of a sort that would have been inconceivable only a few years ago.

Up to now, it's proved stubbornly difficult to turn synthetic biology into a practical technology that can create products like cheap biofuels. Scientists have found that the "code of life" is far more complex and difficult to crack than anyone might have imagined a decade ago. What's more, while rewriting the code is easier than ever, getting it right isn't. Researchers and entrepreneurs have found ways to coax bacteria or yeast to make many useful compounds, but it has been difficult to optimize such processes so that the microbes produce significant quantities efficiently enough to compete with existing commercial products.

Church is characteristically undeterred. At 57, he has survived cancer and a heart attack, and he suffers from both dyslexia and narcolepsy; before I visited him, one of his colleagues warned that I shouldn't be surprised if he fell asleep on me. But he has founded or taken an advisory role in more than 50 startup companiesand he stayed awake throughout our time together, apparently excited to describe how his lab has found ways to take advantage of ultrafast sequencing and other tools to greatly speed up synthetic biology. Among its many projects, Church's lab has invented a technique for rapidly synthesizing multiple novel strings of DNA and introducing them simultaneously into a bacterial genome. In one experiment, researchers created four billion variants of E. coli in a single day. After three days, they found variants of the bacteria in which production of a desired chemical was increased fivefold.

The idea, Church explains, is to sort through the variations to find "an occasional hopeful monster, just as evolution has done for millions of years." By mimicking in lab experiments what takes eons in nature, he says, he is radically improving the odds of finding ways to make microbes not just do new things but do them efficiently.

A DNA Turn-On

In some ways, the difficulties researchers have faced making new, more useful life forms shouldn't come as a surprise. Indeed, a lesson of genome research over the last few decades is that no matter how elegantly compact the DNA code is, the biology it gives rise to is consistently more complex than anyone anticipated. When I began reporting the early days of gene discovery 30 years ago, biologists, as they often do, thought reductively. When they found a gene involved in disease, the discovery made headlines. Scientists said they believed that potent new medicines could soon deactivate malfunctioning versions of genes, or that gene therapy could be used to replace them with healthy versions in the body.

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Biology's Master Programmers

Public release date: 24-Jun-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Terry Devitt trdevitt@wisc.edu 608-262-8282 University of Wisconsin-Madison

MADISON -- The blood-brain barrier -- the filter that governs what can and cannot come into contact with the mammalian brain -- is a marvel of nature. It effectively separates circulating blood from the fluid that bathes the brain, and it keeps out bacteria, viruses and other agents that could damage it.

But the barrier can be disrupted by disease, stroke and multiple sclerosis, for example, and also is a big challenge for medicine, as it can be difficult or impossible to get therapeutic molecules through the barrier to treat neurological disorders.

Now, however, the blood-brain barrier may be poised to give up some of its secrets as researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have created in the laboratory dish the cells that make up the brain's protective barrier. Writing in the June 24, 2012 edition of the journal Nature Biotechnology, the Wisconsin researchers describe transforming stem cells into endothelial cells with blood-brain barrier qualities.

Access to the specialized cells "has the potential to streamline drug discovery for neurological disease," says Eric Shusta, a UW-Madison professor of chemical and biological engineering and one of the senior authors of the new study. "You can look at tens of thousands of drug candidates and just ask the question if they have a chance to get into the brain. There is broad interest from the pharmaceutical industry."

The blood-brain barrier depends on the unique qualities of endothelial cells, the cells that make up the lining of blood vessels. In many parts of the body, the endothelial cells that line capillaries are spaced so that substances can pass through. But in the capillaries that lead to the brain, the endothelial cells nestle in tight formation, creating a semi-permeable barrier that allows some substances -- essential nutrients and metabolites -- access to the brain while keeping others -- pathogens and harmful chemicals -- locked out.

The cells described in the new Wisconsin study, which was led by Ethan S. Lippmann, now a postdoctoral fellow at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, and Samira M. Azarin, now a postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern University, exhibit both the active and passive regulatory qualities of those cells that make up the capillaries of the intact brain.

The research team coaxed both embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells to form the endothelial cells of the blood-brain barrier. The use of induced cells, which can come from patients with specific neurological conditions, may be especially important for modeling disorders that compromise the blood-brain barrier. What's more, because the cells can be mass produced, they could be used to devise high-throughput screens for molecules that may have therapeutic value for neurological conditions or to identify existing drugs that may have neurotoxic qualities.

"The nice thing about deriving endothelial cells from induced pluripotent stem cells is that you can make disease-specific models of brain tissue that incorporate the blood-brain barrier," explains Sean Palecek, a UW-Madison professor of chemical and biological engineering and a senior author of the new report. "The cells you create will carry the genetic information of the condition you want to study."

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Blood-brain barrier building blocks forged from human stem cells

About one thousand dolphins and five thousand pelicans have been found dead lately. The wetlands are disappearing. Deforestation is on the rise to produce food and shelter. The fish stock that feeds a billion mouths is decreasing. What is the cause of this change? Overpopulation? Human activity and human greed: 20% of the world population living in Europe, Japan and North America consume 80% of the worlds resources. The havoc will soon spread to the most pristine and uninhabited region of the Arctic where Oil companies will start drilling. How can we save the world - our world? The first pledge should be that the Earth has rights as the slaves had rights, animals have rights, women have rights, children have rights, the autrement capables have rights. We should focus on a green economy. We are part of the Eco-system just as are the atmosphere, the bio-sphere, the lithosphere and the hydrosphere and we are interdependent. We cannot command nature to work for us unless we obey her, thought Francis Bacon. We should stop regarding nature as a source of our resources. And we should stop being selective in dealing with crimes: why should we qualify individuals as criminals if they take human lives and not those who eradicate whole species of plant or animal lives or contaminate lakes, rivers and the oceans? By trading CO2, we are cheating nature. We are playing God by genetic engineering. Powerful voices backed by celebrities, scientists, explorers, business leaders and environmentalists are saying to world leaders at their Rio Jamboree that enough is enough. We have been continuously conned and 20 years after the first Rio gathering, we should stop generating more rendez-vous but part this time with the hope that reason will light the path of the world. Let not this get-together produce resolutions which resemble blank cheques on accounts with insufficient funds. Let us keep in mind that conferences fail for similar reasons that banks have failed in the recent past. Let us rein in the greed of the capitalists. Let the Heads of states present in Rio represent the people and not the billionaires that have supported their election campaigns. Or Rio will be a billionaires feast.

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OVER AND ABOVE RIO+20: How can we save the world ?

The H5N1 bird flu virus could change into a form able to spread rapidly between humans, scientists have warned.

Researchers have identified five genetic changes that could allow the virus to start a deadly pandemic.

Writing in the journal Science, they say it would be theoretically possible for these changes to occur in nature.

A US agency has tried unsuccessfully to ban publication of parts of the research fearing it could be used by terrorists to create a bioweapon.

According to Prof Ron Fouchier from the Erasmus Medical Centre in the Netherlands, who led the research, publication of the work in full will give the wider scientific community the best possible chance to combat future flu pandemics.

"We hope to learn which viruses can cause pandemics and by knowing that we might be able to prevent them by enforcing strict eradication programmes," he told BBC News.

He added that his work might also speed the development of vaccines and anti-viral drugs against a lethal form of bird flu that could spread rapidly among people.

The H5N1 virus has been responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of birds and has led to hundreds of millions more being slaughtered to stop its spread.

The virus is also deadly to humans but can only be transmitted by close contact with infected birds.

Coughs and sneezes

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The H5N1 bird flu virus could change into a form able to spread rapidly between humans, scientists have warned.

21 June 2012 Last updated at 14:00 ET By Pallab Ghosh Science correspondent, BBC News

The H5N1 bird flu virus could change into a form able to spread rapidly between humans, scientists have warned.

Researchers have identified five genetic changes that could allow the virus to start a deadly pandemic.

Writing in the journal Science, they say it would be theoretically possible for these changes to occur in nature.

A US agency has tried unsuccessfully to ban publication of parts of the research fearing it could be used by terrorists to create a bioweapon.

According to Prof Ron Fouchier from the Erasmus Medical Centre in the Netherlands, who led the research, publication of the work in full will give the wider scientific community the best possible chance to combat future flu pandemics.

"We hope to learn which viruses can cause pandemics and by knowing that we might be able to prevent them by enforcing strict eradication programmes," he told BBC News.

He added that his work might also speed the development of vaccines and anti-viral drugs against a lethal form of bird flu that could spread rapidly among people.

The H5N1 virus has been responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of birds and has led to hundreds of millions more being slaughtered to stop its spread.

We hope to learn which viruses can cause pandemics and by knowing that we might be able to prevent them

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H5N1 human pandemic 'possible'

There's an interesting exchange on genetic engineering at the Food Politics blog, http://tinyurl.com/, featuring a review by industry critic Marion Nestle of an anti-GE paper, GMO Myths and Truths. I've skimmed the paper, which you can find at http://tinyurl.com/, and I confess to lacking the expertise to evaluate the claims. It would take more time than I have at the moment to dig into the claims, although I hope to do so in the future.

Nestle says the authors of the paper, who find nothing to like in genetic engineering, "have put a great deal of time and effort into reviewing the evidence for the claims. This is the best-researched and most comprehensive review I've seen of the criticisms of GM foods." She asks whether the pro camp can "produce something equally well researched, comprehensive, and compelling?" and concludes, "I doubt it but I'd like to see them try." She says there's enough evidence in the paper to justify labeling, at the very least.

It is, of course, the position you'd expect her to take, and several of the comments following her post challenge both her and the paper. One claims there are indeed well-researched, comprehensive and compelling pro papers. Others say the paper she cites cherry-picks evidence and relies on papers that have been debunked. An example cited in one of these critical comments asserts that it relies on a study of Bt found in human blood that used a test that couldn't detect blood at the levels the study's authors said they found.

My suspicion is most won't read these papers and will continue to think what they already think about the issue. An even worse fear is that reading the papers on both sides wouldn't convert anyone on either side. Still, I may give it a try at some point.

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Copyright 2012 DTN/The Progressive Farmer, A Telvent Brand. All rights reserved.

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Paper, Blog Heats Up GE Discussion

This article is part of our Innovation in America series, in which Foolish writers highlight examples of innovation going on today and what they see coming in the future.

Author's note: This is a fictional story exploring how several major technological trends shape one man's life 10 years from now. It is the final part of a three-part series that examines the possible progress of technology over the coming decade.

Family ties Johnny is now 33 years old and has become a senior roboticist at Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) X. He and his wife are trying to conceive their first child. They want their offspring to have the best possible opportunities available in a rapidly changing world. Today, Johnny and his wife are going to visit the Silicon Valley Genomic Institute for a full genomic analysis. The institute is not known only for its analytical capabilities. It has evolved from that original focus to become one of the most advanced human genetic engineering facilities in the United States.

Automated world Johnny and his wife travel to the institute in an autonomously driven car controlled by Google technology. It's been more than a decade since Google first developed successful self-driving cars, but legislation and costs posed major obstacles to widespread consumer adoption until the start of the 2020s. Now, thanks to automation, a great deal of Northern California's transportation infrastructure has been taken over by automation.

The roads would seem eerily sparse to a driver in 2012. Most knowledge workers now find telecommuting more rewarding and efficient than going to an office, and cost-conscious corporations encourage the behavior shift. Many travel-dependent jobs have either moved online or have been superseded by autonomous vehicles and unmanned aerial transports, which number in the tens of thousands over American skies.

Most vehicles Johnny's car passes on the way to the institute are automated transport vehicles delivering packages for FedEx, with a few others bearing families to vacation spots or medical appointments. They communicate with each other using a connected vehicle web, each vehicle transmitting vital information to nearby vehicles and to central communication servers installed in the spaces formerly occupied by traffic control devices.

Did you know? California, Hawaii, Arizona, and Oklahoma have all crafted legislation for regulating autonomous cars on public roads, and Nevada already allows it.

The institute is a gleaming monument to medical science, towering four stories over a quiet tree-lined neighborhood. It's one of the few locations in the area with significant traffic. As Johnny and his wife leave their car, an unmanned Boeing (NYSE: BA) transport helicopter whirs into view, descending to the institute's roof to deliver sensitive supplies. Cameras in the entry alcove scan the pair's eyes as they approach, granting access to the institute.

Did you know? The Federal Aviation Administration will develop regulations to allow unmanned commercial aircraft over American airspace by 2015.

A sparse reception area greets Johnny and his wife just beyond the doors. There is no one waiting to greet them, but the word "information" is printed on the far wall above a semicircular desk, on which sits a luminescent cube. Johnny waves his arm over it. Sensors in his wristband computer communicate with the cube, seamlessly transferring more specific appointment information to the wristband while also uploading Johnny's encrypted personal details to the institute's record servers.

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Innovation in America: A Tale of the Decade to Come

The science of genetics has changed the idea of early detection of a disease

Pictures by Syamsi Suhaimi

IMAGINE being able to do genetic sequencing at 25 years old and knowing upfront that you have gene mutation which could develop into breast cancer and then, at 36, you notice a tiny lump and have it removed. It does not take you by surprise. You know it is coming.

The science of genetics has changed the idea of early detection. You can now know if you are susceptible to certain diseases and you can catch cancer, for example, even before it reaches stage one.

Medical geneticist Professor Dr Zilfalil Alwi from Universiti Sains Malaysia Kubang Kerian in Kelantan is one of only nine clinical genetic specialists in the country. He is passionate about the rapid development in genomics that will change the way we look at, well, everything.

Health and diseases are just two aspects of the vast opportunities that the study of genome can offer mankind,

There are mainly two types of genetic disease, he says. Some are caused by one gene, some by multiple genes.

Diseases like diabetes, hypertension and heart disease are caused by multiple genes and we dont yet know how many genes are involved.Maybe 20, 100 or 1,000. The more genes cause a certain disease, the more difficult it is to detect it early, he says, adding that research is on-going to detect genes associated with them.

The list for complex diseases is not completed yet, he says.

Excerpt from:
It’s in the genes

There may be an unexpected solution for the challenge of shrinking transistor sizes.

Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara, say they have succeeded in growing new mineral architectures by "directing the evolution" silicateins, which are the proteins responsible for the formation of silicon skeletons in marine sponges. For the first time, it was shown that it is possible to develop the enzymatic synthesis of a semiconductor using genetic engineering and molecular evolution. The implication? Companies may be able to use DNA information to develop their own "specialized" materials.

The key to the research was the use of silicateins, which are genetically encoded and are used as a blueprint for the creation of silica skeletons. According to the UCSB researchers, the process is very similar to the way animal and human bones are formed. In their study, polystyrene microbeads coated with specific silicateins were "put through a mineralization reaction by incubating the beads in a water-in-oil emulsion that contained chemical precursors for mineralization." As the silicateins reacted with the dissolved metals, "they precipitated them, integrating the metals into the resulting structure and forming nanoparticles of silicon dioxide or titanium dioxide." The result was the creation of a silicatein gene pool that enabled the researchers to pick silicateins with the specific properties they were looking for.

"This genetic population was exposed to two environmental pressures that shaped the selected minerals: The silicateins needed to make materials directly on the surface of the beads, and then the mineral structures needed to be amenable to physical disruption to expose the encoding genes," said Lukmaan Bawazer, the author a corresponding paper that is published in the current issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"The beads that exhibited mineralization were sorted from the ones that didn't, and then fractured to release the genetic information they contained, which could either be studied, or evolved further."

Bawazer said that he is now trying to evolve to evolve the research result into a functional device.

View post:
Scientists Create First Genetically Evolved Chip Material

Why Genetically Engineered Food Is Dangerous

New report by genetic engineers Press release for immediate release Earth Open Source 17 June 2012

LONDON, UK - Aren't critics of genetically engineered food anti-science? Isn't the debate over GMOs (genetically modified organisms) a spat between emotional but ignorant activists on one hand and rational GM-supporting scientists on the other?

A new report released today, "GMO Myths and Truths",[1] challenges these claims. The report presents a large body of peer-reviewed scientific and other authoritative evidence of the hazards to health and the environment posed by genetically engineered crops and organisms (GMOs).

Unusually, the initiative for the report came not from campaigners but from two genetic engineers who believe there are good scientific reasons to be wary of GM foods and crops.

One of the report's authors, Dr Michael Antoniou of King's College London School of Medicine in the UK, uses genetic engineering for medical applications but warns against its use in developing crops for human food and animal feed.

Dr Antoniou said: "GM crops are promoted on the basis of ambitious claims - that they are safe to eat, environmentally beneficial, increase yields, reduce reliance on pesticides, and can help solve world hunger.

"I felt what was needed was a collation of the evidence that addresses the technology from a scientific point of view.

"Research studies show that genetically modified crops have harmful effects on laboratory animals in feeding trials and on the environment during cultivation. They have increased the use of pesticides and have failed to increase yields. Our report concludes that there are safer and more effective alternatives to meeting the world's food needs."

Another author of the report, Dr John Fagan, is a former genetic engineer who in 1994 returned to the National Institutes of Health $614,000 in grant money owing to concerns about the safety and ethics of the technology. He subsequently founded a GMO testing company.

See the article here:
Why Genetically Engineered Food Is Dangerous

ScienceDaily (June 14, 2012) Six new human embryonic stem cell lines derived at the University of Michigan have just been placed on the U.S. National Institutes of Health's registry, making the cells available for federally-funded research.

U-M now has a total of eight cell lines on the registry, including five that carry genetic mutations for serious diseases such as the severe bleeding disorder hemophilia B, the fatal brain disorder Huntington's disease and the heart condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which causes sudden death in athletes and others.

Researchers at U-M and around the country can now begin using the stem cell lines to study the origins of these diseases and potential treatments. Two of the cell lines are believed to be the first in the world bearing that particular disease gene.

The three U-M stem cell lines now in the registry that do not carry disease genes are also useful for general studies and as comparisons for stem cells with disease genes. In all, there are 163 stem cell lines in the federal registry, most of them without major disease genes.

Each of the lines was derived from a cluster of about 30 cells removed from a donated five-day-old embryo roughly the size of the period at the end of this sentence. The embryos carrying disease genes were created for reproductive purposes, tested and found to be affected with a genetic disorder, deemed not suitable for implantation and would have otherwise been discarded if not donated by the couples who donated them.

Some came from couples having fertility treatment at U-M's Center for Reproductive Medicine, others from as far away as Portland, OR. Some were never frozen, which may mean that the stem cells will have unique characteristics and utilities.

The full list of U-M-derived stem cell lines accepted to the NIH registry includes:

"Our last three years of work have really begun to pay off, paving the way for scientists worldwide to make novel discoveries that will benefit human health in the near future," says Gary Smith, Ph.D., who derived the lines and also is co-director of the U-M Consortium for Stem Cell Therapies, part of the A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research Institute.

"Each cell line accepted to the registry demonstrates our attention to details of proper oversight, consenting, and following of NIH guidelines," says Sue O'Shea, Ph.D., professor of Cell and Developmental Biology at the U-M Medical School, and co-director of the Consortium for Stem Cell Therapies.

U-M is one of only three academic institutions to have disease-specific stem cell lines listed in the national registry, says Smith, who is a professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Michigan Medical School. The first line, a genetically normal one, was accepted to the registry in February.

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Six new stem cell lines now publicly available

ANN ARBOR Six new human embryonic stem cell lines derived at the University of Michigan have just been placed on the National Institutes of Healths registry, making the cells available for federally funded research.

UM now has a total of eight cell lines on the registry, including five that carry genetic mutations for serious diseases such as the severe bleeding disorder hemophilia B, the fatal brain disorder Huntingtons disease and the heart condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which causes sudden death in athletes and others.

Researchers at UM and around the country can now begin using the stem cell lines to study the origins of these diseases and potential treatments. Two of the cell lines are believed to be the first in the world bearing that particular disease gene.

The three UM stem cell lines now in the registry that do not carry disease genes are also useful for general studies and as comparisons for stem cells with disease genes. In all, there are 163 stem cell lines in the federal registry, most of them without major disease genes.

Each of the lines was derived from a cluster of about 30 cells removed from a donated five-day-old embryo roughly the size of the period at the end of this sentence. The embryos carrying disease genes were created for reproductive purposes, tested and found to be affected with a genetic disorder, deemed not suitable for implantation and would have otherwise been discarded if not donated by the couples who donated them.

Some came from couples having fertility treatment at UMs Center for Reproductive Medicine, others from as far away as Portland, Ore. Some were never frozen, which may mean that the stem cells will have unique characteristics and utilities.

The full list of UM-derived stem cell lines accepted to the NIH registry includes:

UM9-1PGD Hemophilia B

UM17-1PGD Huntingtons disease

UM38-2PGD- HypertrophicCardiomyopathy (MYBPC3)

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Six New UM Stem Cell Lines Now Publicly Available