Edward O. Wilson, known as E.O. Wilson, who died last month at the age of 92, was a major figure in the field of evolutionary biology. He made significant contributions to the study of animal behavior, biodiversity, and environmental conservation. However, he is perhaps best known for the controversies stemming from his attempt to found a field of study he called sociobiology, which places great emphasis on the genetic determination of animal and human behavior.

During his career, Wilson wrote, cowrote, or edited over 30 books. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize twiceonce for On Human Nature (1979) and, as coauthor, for The Ants (1991).

Born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1929, Wilson earned bachelors and masters degrees at the University of Alabama. He went on to receive his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1950, and joined the faculty there in 1956, where he remained for a remarkable 46 years.

His early research was focused on insects, ants in particularhow they communicated chemically using pheromones and how they diversified and spread geographically. Through studying the distribution of ant species across islands, he developed mathematical models to predict their spread and differentiationechoing and expanding on Darwins study of species diversity in the Galapagos Islands. He has been dubbed by some, Darwins natural heir.

Wilson tested his model in the Florida Keys by eradicating all insects from small, uninhabited islands and then documenting how immigrants re-established themselves and achieved stable ecosystems. He also conducted extensive field research in the Caribbean and South Pacific during the 1940s and 1950s. During his career, he is credited with having identified and described over 450 species of ants.

Based on this research, Wilson, in collaboration with biologist Robert MacArthur, wrote The Theory of Island Biogeography in 1967, which became a seminal work in the field of ecology. In turn, this approach has been applied to the understanding of biodiversity and the interactions between species, enabling predictions regarding how many species a variety of environments could hold, the impact of habitat destruction on species extinctions and the stability of ecosystems.

Wilsons attention then turned to the study of how natural selection molded animal social behavior, including that of humans. He found that classical evolutionary theory had difficulty explaining the behavior of social animals such as ants. Instead, he drew on the work of William Hamilton, who had proposed the concept of inclusive fitness.

According to classical evolutionary theory, reproductive success, the passing on of ones genes to offspring, defines the concept of fitness of an individual in its environment. The more offspring an individual produces who themselves survive to reproduce, the more that individuals genes increase in its species gene pool (the individual is more fit), compared to other individuals who are less successful in a given environment. This was the standard understanding of natural selection.

In effect, organisms are merely mechanisms for the reproduction of genes (i.e., DNA). Genes that promote the survival of those individuals which bear them tend to be perpetuated themselves and increase in frequency within a population or species. Those genes that are less successful in promoting the survival and reproduction of their bearers in a given environment diminish and eventually disappear. Thus, evolution occurs. Under this model, the effective entity subject to natural selection is the individual organism, which is either successful or not in passing on its genetic material.

Hamilton proposed that among social animals, genes may perpetuate themselves and spread by promoting individual behaviors that benefit not only the individual, but the group to which they belong. In this model, genes that promote the survival and reproductive success of close relatives, or the group as a whole, can spread if an individual with those genes promotes the reproduction (fitness) of others who carry the same genes. Thus, among relatives, an individuals fitness may be inclusive: it may refer not only to their own reproductive success, but to the success of others.

In a 1963 paper, Hamilton described his conception as inclusive fitness, under which the unit of natural selection is the gene, not the individual. According to this model, if an individuals actions, even to the point of that individuals own demise, and consequent failure to reproduce, promote the propagation of the groups genetic information (e.g., altruistic behavior, such as giving an alarm call that alerts other members of the group to the presence of a predator), that fulfills the evolutionary imperative of reproductive success of that set of genes, even if that particular individual does not reproduce.

Wilson sought to interpret the behavior of ants as gene bearers for such a group, and not merely as autonomous, individually reproducing individuals.

Most ants live in highly structured colonies, with a well-defined division of labor. Each colony is composed of a queen, whose primary function is reproduction. The female offspring, the workers, are normally sterile, performing all the tasks necessary for maintenance of the colony, including the collective raising of offspring. Males have only one function, fertilizing future queens. Species in which members of a group have genetically and/or developmentally determined differential reproductive capacities and other highly defined tasks are termed eusocial. This is mostly seen in ants, bees, wasps, termites, and a very limited number of mammals (naked mole-rats). From a reproductive perspective, colonies of ants and other eusocial animals may be viewed as the equivalent of a single, multi-cellular organism, rather than a collection of autonomously reproducing individuals.

It should be noted that, in the overwhelming majority of cases, any single gene is not expressed individually but in combination with many other genes to produce the whole organism, greatly reducing the exposure of single genes to direct selective pressure.

Nevertheless, Wilson sought to apply a gene-centric model, which gained acceptance among biologists in the context of a burgeoning genetic revolution, to understand the behaviors of all animals. Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, published in 1975, presented Wilsons view that The organism is only DNAs way of making more DNA. Based on this understanding, he argued that social behavior, including that of humans, could be explained as a product of natural selection differentially acting on the variety of genetic material in a species.

The publication of Sociobiology initiated a great deal of controversy. So much so that its review in the New York Times was placed on the papers front page. While its proposals regarding social behavior in animals have had an impact on subsequent research, those regarding that of humans have also drawn criticism. Many viewed Wilsons arguments as a form of biological determinism, or reductionism: the attitude that simple processes may explain complex phenomena that in fact require more sophisticated explanation.

Wilson proposed that humans have a weak form of eusociality, such that the behavior of individuals and their roles in the social group is partly controlled by genetics. Some critics, including his Harvard colleagues, Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Lewontin, accused Wilson of biological determinism, Social Darwinism, and even alleged that his ideas logically supported eugenics and genocide.

In his preface to the 2000 edition of Sociobiology, Wilson pushes back against critics who accuse him of reductionism. Specifically referring to Gould and Lewontin, whom he describes as the last of the Marxist intellectuals, Wilson characterizes these critics as advocating a tabula rasa view of human behaviorthat there is no genetic influence at all, which he says suits their aim for socialism to be fitted to the human mind, apparently implying indoctrination.

He goes on to reject the position of other critics, associated with the New Left, who opposed sociobiology on the grounds that it could lead to the conclusion that behaviors such as racism, sexism, class oppression, colonialism, andperhaps worst of allcapitalism! could be genetically based. In one notorious incident, a protester doused Wilson with water, yelling Wilson, you are all wet!

A review of Wilsons discussion of human behavior in Sociobiology reveals that while he seems to take a more nuanced view than some critics suggest, fundamentally, despite protestations to the contrary, he fails to appreciate the qualitative difference between human behavior, based on abstract, symbolic thought, and a huge store of culture, and that of other animals.

He states, Human societies have effloresced to levels of extreme complexity because their members have the intelligence and flexibility to play roles of virtually any degree of specification, and to switch them as the occasion demands. And, furthermore, Roles in human societies are fundamentally different from the castes of social insects.

In his preface to the second edition of Sociobiology (2000), Wilson states, in the creation of human nature, genetic evolution and cultural evolution have together produced a closely interwoven product. And as well: The exact process of gene-culture coevolution is the central problem of the social sciences and much of the humanities, and it is one of the great remaining problems of the natural sciences.

Some of his discussion involves behaviors that are so basic as to be likely to have a substantial genetic component. For example, he proposes that there are epigenetic rules (i.e., in which non-genetic factors, such as environment or learned behavior, modify genetic expression) which provide general frameworks for such things as classification of color, aesthetic evaluation of shapes, acquisition of fears and phobias, communication via facial expression and body language, and so on across a wide spread of categories in behavior and thought. Most of these rules are evidently very ancient, dating back millions of years in mammalian ancestry. Others, like the ontogenetic steps of linguistic development in children, are uniquely human and probably only hundreds of thousands of years old.

However, Wilsons discussion of more complex aspects of human behavior fails to make clear the overwhelming predominance of culture over biology.

An important topic raised by Wilson is that of social class in human societies. A key question of human biology is whether there exists a genetic predisposition to enter certain classes and to play certain roles.

At first, he states, A strong initial bias toward such stratification is created when one human population conquers and subjugates another, a common enough event in human history. Genetic differences in mental traits, however slight, tend to be preserved by the raising of class barriers, racial and cultural discrimination, and physical ghettos.

But then, Yet despite the plausibility of the general argument, there is little evidence of any hereditary solidification of status. And further, Powerful forces can be identified that work against the genetic fixation of caste differences. First, cultural evolution is too fluid.

Scientific research has demonstrated time and time again that there is absolutely no basis for the proposition that there are any differences in intelligence or any other significant behavioral characteristic within or between various modern human populations. Nevertheless, Wilson, leaves the door open to the possibility that such differences may exist. Is this merely a prudent scientists caution or does it betray underlying reservations?

With regard to cultural evolution, again Wilson provides contradictory statements. Ethnographic detail [i.e., different cultures] is genetically underprescribed [i.e., has relatively weak genetic influence], resulting in great amounts of diversity among societies. Underprescription does not mean that culture has been freed from the genes. What has evolved is the capacity for culture, indeed the overwhelming tendency to develop one culture or another.

Few would dispute the first part of this last sentence. However, does this latter statement mean that the humans are somehow genetically driven to cultural diversity? How could that genetic influence be expressed? Again, Wilson is attempting to suggest some degree of genetic influence without providing any evidence to support his contention.

In an even more puzzling statement, Wilson is of the opinion that Human beings are absurdly easy to indoctrinatethey seek it. If we assume for argument that indoctrinability evolves, at what level does natural selection take place? One extreme possibility is that the group is the unit of selection. This suggests that he believes humans capacity for independent thought is somehow genetically limited and that some populations may be more susceptible to indoctrination than others.

There are numerous other examples of Wilsons attempt to have it both ways. One of the more troubling is his contention that warfare promoted a number of what he feels are important human traits: including team play, altruism, patriotism, bravery on the field of battle, and so forth, as the genetic product of warfare. He goes on to suggest that groups with genes for aggressiveness would conquer and replace those that did not, thus creating a positive feedback loop for the spread of aggressive genetics.

But warfare is a recent development in human evolution, a product of class society. To imply that it is somehow a key influencer of human genetics has no scientific basis. Elsewhere, he rejects the contentions of such popular authors as Konrad Lorenz ( On Aggression ) and Robert Ardrey ( African Genesis ) who claim that aggressive behavior was key to early human evolution.

Wilson rejected accusations that he was promoting a right-wing agenda, labeling them as academic vigilantism and criticized Gould and Lewontin in particular for what he labels as their Marxism, which he employs as a derogatory epithet without specific content.

There is no indication that he personally held reactionary views. It appears rather that he was led astray by an excessively mechanical view of human development, and as has happened all too frequently, tried to apply the laws of motion of one sphere of the natural world to another and more complicated sphere. Thus, in Sociobiology, he argued that ethics should be taken out of the hands of philosophers and, instead, biologicized. And, in his later work, On Human Nature (1978), he proposed that in the future, with a much deeper understanding of genetics, a democratically contrived eugenics could be implemented, indicating, at best, a political naivete with regard to its implications within class society. This clearly goes beyond medical interventions for physical ailments, implying behavioral modification through genetic manipulation.

In a more recent work, The Social Conquest of Earth (2012), Wilson appears to step back from rigid determinism. He characterizes humans as the first truly free species, and one which can, based on simple decency combined with the unrelenting application of reason, turn the earth into a permanent paradise. This, apparently, is to be accomplished by somehow freeing humans from the otherwise imperious domination of genetics. However, at the same time, he continued to contend that free will is an illusion.

Wilsons conception of human social organization is a gross oversimplification, betraying a lack of knowledge of anthropology and sociology. Firstly, all members of a human social group can, at least potentially, reproduce (barring illness, etc.), contrary to the condition in eusocial species. There are certainly constraints on reproductive success in class-based societies. However, these are the product of social factors, not on any inherent genetically controlled differentiation. The same is true of all productive tasks, which are based on learned behavior.

Fundamentally, Wilson was unable to bridge the contradiction between a genetically constructed brain that evolved under natural selection and its unique capacity for abstract, symbolic thought, whose content is not genetically programmed. In fact, humans have long since evolved beyond behavior that is primarily controlled by their DNA. The problems facing humanity are social and political, not biological.

In retirement, Wilson devoted his energy to environmental conservation, producing many publications on the subject, including his 1992 book, The Diversity of Life, which became a best seller. He was an advocate of Half Earth which proposed that half of the earths surface, both land and water, be devoted to species conservation.

In sum, E.O. Wilson made historic contributions in the fields of ecology, biodiversity, animal behavior, and evolutionary biology. However, his attempt to explain at least a portion of human behavior as significantly controlled by genetics demonstrates a failure to understand that the development of culture as humanitys primary mode of adaptation has created a qualitatively new level of organization. Just as biology cannot be explained simply by physics and chemistry, human behavior cannot be reduced to biology.

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E.O. Wilson, groundbreaking figure in evolutionary biology, dead at 92 - WSWS

Marcela Howell and Marsha Jones| Austin American-Statesman

Texas abortion clinics can sue over the state's controversial ban

The Supreme Court ruled that clinics challenging a Texas abortion ban can continue to fight in lower federal courts, but permitted the law to remain.

Associated Press, USA TODAY

As we approach the 49thanniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case legalizing abortion, Black women in Texas are not celebrating this constitutional right but fighting to keep it. Texans seeking abortion care have to drive 14 times farther than they did previously, according to an analysis of the states new abortion ban by the reproductive health research group the Guttmacher Institute. For 70 percent of the Texans seeking care, Louisiana is the closest state to obtain a legal abortion. Twenty-three percent have to travel to Oklahoma, the analysis found which, like Louisiana, has multiple abortion restrictions of its own.

And thats the case for people fortunate enough to have the money, transportation, time off from work, childcare and other resources needed to make the journey. Forcing people to go out of state is just one way that this extreme abortion ban threatens the health and rights of Texans who need timely care.

It will come as news to no one that being Black in Texas has long been fraught with disadvantages and discrimination. For Black women and pregnant people who give birth, our bodies and families continue to face unjust surveillance. New mothers who are Black are more likely to be subject to drug screenings, frequently without our knowledge or consent. Black parents are more likely to be reported to or investigated by Child Protective Services, compared to white families.

Black women are disparately likely to experience sexual violence and abuse, making the Texas bans lack of exceptions for rape or incest particularly callous and cruel for Black women. Forced births are particularly deadly for Black pregnant people in a country where Black women are three times more likely than white women to die from complications related to childbirth. Its even more perilous in Texas, which leads the country in postpartum deaths.

In a new tack, the Texas law is written so no government office or official is responsible for enforcing it, instead the law offers a bounty on people who perform or aid and abet access to abortion. Last month, a state district court judge agreed with critics of the vigilante measure. Judge David Peeples ruled the enforcement by private individuals unconstitutional.

Nonetheless, the far-reaching law banning access to abortion care after six weeks gestation, was allowed to stand by the U.S. Supreme Court. American College of Obstetrician and Gynecologists Lead for Equity Transformation Dr. Jennifer Villavicencio spoke about this restriction in The New York Times.

Forcing [people] to find out about a pregnancy and make a decision about how to manage it in a short period of time is antithetical to ethical care, said Dr. Villavicencio.

The bottom line is that abortion bans do not stop abortions; they just make abortion less safe and this is especially true for Black women. A study that looked at potential outcomes of a nationwide abortion ban found it would lead to a 21 percent increase in the number of pregnancy-related deaths overall and a 33 percent increase among Black women.

With their bright smiles reflecting the blithe confidence that comes with knowing the new law will not affect their privileged existence, on Sept. 1, 2021 conservative members of the Texas legislature and Governor Greg Abbott who cant or chooses not to understand basic human reproduction signed into law a targeted attack on the health, rights and lives of Black people. The abortion ban is a call to action and we will not stand idly by.

Howell is founder, CEO and president of In Our Own Voice: National Black Women's Reproductive Justice Agenda.

Jones is co-founder and executive director of The Afiya Center, areproductive justice organization in North Texas founded and directed by Black women.

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Commentary: Abortion ban is an attack on the lives of Black people - Austin American-Statesman

When humanity contemplates sending assets to other planets, what should be our goal? There are two fundamental choices:

1) Use artificial intelligence (AI) astronauts to plant seeds of scientific innovation in other locations, so that intelligence is duplicated and not at risk of extinction.

2)Make numerous copies of what nature already produced on Earth.

The choice is between taking pride in what nature manufactured over 4.5 billion years on Earth through unsupervised evolution and natural selection, or aspiring to a more intelligent form of supervised evolution elsewhere.

The first choice AI is apt to an industrial duplication line, for which the proof of concept for the assembly line was already demonstrated on Earth and we can duplicate it in an Earth-like environment. We are emotionally attracted to the second choice, because we are attached to ourselves and our natural path for maintaining the longevity of our genetic-making through biological reproduction.

Prioritizing the natural processes of the second choice is misguided for two reasons. First, we tend to think we are special and so reproducing more of us is appealing. Second, we forget the extensively long series of trial and error that ended up in our naturally selected species. The second choice reflects a unique selection bias, namely we like who we are and imagine that if we duplicate natural selection in an Earth-like environment somewhere else something as special as us will result. Of course, natural selection holds no such guarantee. This underscores the appeal of the first choice of AI, which promotes new systems that are more advanced and adaptable to very different environments. If evolution is supervised by AI systems with 3D printers, it could be more efficient at identifying optimal solutions to new challenges that were never encountered before.

The second approach was the sort adopted by barbarian cultures throughout human history. Its brute-force simplicity in making copies of existing systems could lead to dominance by numbers, but its main weakness is that it is vulnerable to new circumstances that previous systems cannot survive. For example, the dinosaurs were not smart enough to use telescopes capable of alerting them to the dangers of giant space rocks. Also, the ideas offered by Ancient Greek philosophy survived longer than the Roman Empire despite the latters military might in conquering new territories.

AI scientists could use machine learning to navigate through virgin territories and adapt more effectively to their challenging terrain than terrestrial life forms. In this vein, AI systems could be viewed as our technological kids and a phase in our own Darwinian evolution, as they represent a form of adaption to new worlds beyond Earth. There is no reason for us to be attached to primitive representations of life on Earth, just as there is no reason to resurrect the dinosaurs.

Periods of snowball Earth removed some forms of life from our terrestrial habitat, but the physical challenges on other planets could be so extreme that envisioning terrestrial life there is a non-starter. Adopting survival tactics by AI systems in these alien environments might be essential for tailoring sustainable torches that carry our flame of consciousness there.

Is there a smarter kid on our cosmic block who already figured out the best strategy? If so, it would be interesting to find out whether the first choice or the second are more popular among extraterrestrial civilizations.

The first choice has a higher likelihood of survival in the face of natural disasters, such as loss of planetary atmospheres, climate change, meteorite impacts, evolution of the host star, nearby supernova explosions or flares from supermassive black holes. However, the second choice natures choice could be sufficiently infectious, like the omicron variant of COVID-19, so as to seed many locations at once and compensate for its reduced impact.

By studying other planets for signs of life we could identify which choice is most favorable and even might learn what was most popular by civilizations elsewhere. Based on human history, we might find evidence for a lot of barbarian cultures that had perished and a much smaller population of intelligent cultures that maintained longevity. Although more difficult to find, those precious needles in the haystack that survived over billions of years, could teach us an important lesson about the favorable path. To put my cards on the table even before we find them: I am all in favor of option A for AI than B for barbarian.

Avi Loebis head of HarvardsGalileo Project,a systematic scientific search for evidence of extraterrestrial technological artifacts. Loeb is the founding director of Harvard'sBlack Hole Initiative, the director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at the Harvard-SmithsonianCenter for Astrophysics, and he chairs the advisory board for the Breakthrough Starshot project.He is the author ofExtraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth.

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Two choices in space exploration | TheHill - The Hill

Human-induced trait change has been observed in animals on every continent other than Antarctica.

Today, worker bees in industrial beehives transported from farm to farm across the United States in convoys of trucks are one-third larger than their wild cousins, and more docile. In the past 100 years, North American songbirds have modified the shape of their wings to cope with habitats fragmented by deforestation. Under pressure from poaching, Zambian elephants are born without tusks. Since the introduction of cane toads to Australia in 1935, originally to deal with beetle infestations in sugar plantations, the mouths of black snakes have shrunk as succeeding generations learned to avoid toad-sized prey, while the toads themselves have become cannibals, victims of their own success as predators.

Sea-snakes in Papua New Guinea have developed darker bodies and shed their skins more often in response to toxins in the zinc-polluted waters they inhabit. One species of mosquito has evolved to live only in the tunnels of the London Underground, and lost the capacity to breed with its surface-dwelling cousins. Similar declines in genetic diversity have been observed in mosquitoes in the New York and Chicago subway systems. Blackcaps have shifted their migration routes from the Iberian Peninsula to the UK as climate change extends their range.

"There has never been another species that has so quickly changed the course of evolution," says Sarah Otto, an evolutionary biologist at the University of British Columbia. "Darwin would be shocked!"

We can't always know what causes a particular change, says Otto, whether it's plasticity in action or the beginning of cladogenesis, where distinct sub-populations form. But there are enough examples where genetic change is involved to know that something deeper is going on.

"Swans that avoid cities have a genetic difference from the ones that are human-tolerant," she says. And she points to the difference between UK-migrating blackcaps and birds that still migrate to Iberia as being "very clearly genetic". "The young carry this difference," she says. Changes like this are the first steps to the emergence of a new species. "The London Underground mosquitoes are an example where we might be forming a new niche and creating new opportunities for speciation," Otto adds.

I asked her if we are narrowing the opportunities for species to evolve by interacting with their environments 36% of the planet's land surface is given over to agriculture, while urban environments around the world increasingly resemble one another. One study found that the mass of plastic is now greater than all living biomass. Biodiversity is haemorrhaging due to human activity, according to many analyses. "We are homogenising the planet in some ways," she agrees. "On the other hand, we're making these really extreme environmental shifts. Urban environments are entirely different from our agricultural environments."

Originally posted here:
Why we are living in an era of unnatural selection - BBC News

The robot named STAR for autonomous smart tissue robot, Designed by a team of researchers from Johns Hopkins University in the United States. At the moment, the ratings are very optimistic. STAR performed the procedure in four animals and achieved significantly better results than humans who had the same procedure. Axel Krieger, co-lead author of the study published in the journal robotics scienceAnd He is a professor at the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering.

BY H. SAEIDI JD OPFERMANN ET AL. Science Robotics, 2022

Laparoscopic Enhanced Soft Tissue Surgery. (a) Components of the STAR system, including medical robotic arms, operating surgical instruments, 2-channel light endoscopic imaging system and 3D NIR. (b) The control architecture of the improved STAR autonomy strategy.

>>> To read also: Video: Here are the first humanoid robots that can fly

One of the main challenges of creating a STAR robot was making it as autonomous and accurate as possible. What makes STAR special is that it is the first automated system to plan, adapt and execute a surgical plan in soft tissue, with minimal human intervention. Hamid Saeedi, co-lead author of the study and a visiting scholar in mechanical engineering at the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering in communication.

From a model built in 2016, researchers have created a new version of the robot by equipping it with the latest technology in surgery. With a guiding system, advanced suture tools, and the latest technology in surgical imaging, STAR has gained ultra-resolution vision for repairing and suturing pig intestines.

>>> To read also: Robots: The Surgeons of Tomorrow?

consequences ? The robot has excelled in performing an intestinal anastomosis, one of the most complex procedures in gastrointestinal surgery. In fact, connecting both ends of the intestine requires extreme precision! The slightest mistake can lead to leakage and therefore very serious consequences for the patient.

The best medical equipment is not enough to ensure the smooth running of this surgery. Robotic programming also had to innovate to manage another challenge: unpredictability. This factor obliges surgeons, and thus the STAR robot, to adapt to any unexpected event. Thus, the researchers equipped the STAR with a control system that allows it to adapt in real time to any obstacle.

>>> Read also: Here are the first robots capable of self-reproduction

The STAR-guided system consists of a 3D endoscope based on structural light and type algorithm machine learning Researchers believe that all these innovations will make robots smarter, but above all safer.

The study authors believe that roboticizing surgical procedures could lead to the democratization of patient care. Surgeons skills vary, and the expectations and outcomes of surgeries vary between each patient. Therefore, the robotic anastomosis A way to ensure that surgical tasks that require high precision and reproducibility can be performed with greater precision and accuracy in every patient, regardless of the skill of the surgeon According to researcher Axel Krieger. And you, would you be ready for surgery by a robot?

>>> Read also: Artificial intelligence, the technology of the future for cancer treatment

Source: DOI: 10.1126 / scirobotics.abj2908

Originally Posted on 01/27/2022

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The robot performs the first laparoscopic surgery without human assistance - Vaughan Today

If you want to show that any chemical is dangerous, here's a three-step process that will consistently yield the desired result:

I searched for the weed killer glyphosate and reproductive health in preparation for this article. Within seconds, I had 59 peer-reviewed papers at my fingertips that I could have used to argue that glyphosate is a reproductive toxicant. If you see an activist group tout some study as clear evidence that a chemical is harmful, they've almost certainly followed this process.

The anti-biotech group GM Watch, for instance, claimed recently that glyphosate damages blood-testis barrier and causes poor quality sperm, based on this just-published paper (referred to as "Liu et al." below). The researchers fed rats chow containing glyphosate at doses that correspond to levels the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) deems safe for humans, yet some of the animals experienced a decrease in sperm qualitysuggesting that chronic glyphosate exposure induces reproductive toxicity. You can see why GM Watch was interested in the paper:

"The high dose tested, 50 [milligrams per kilogram of body weight per day] is relevant to regulation of glyphosate because it is only 1/20th of the no-observed adverse effect level (NOAEL) of the 1000 mg/kg bw/d Based on this finding, the obvious conclusion is (though the researchers do not state as much) that the EPAs ADI [acceptable daily intake] is incorrect it should be lowered."

Here's the problem: regulatory agencies usually don't draw conclusions based on a single studyand a deeply flawed one at that, as we'll see below. They look at all the available data, then make a determination about the risk a chemical poses to human health. When we look beyond this one paper, we can see why the EPA set the existing limits for glyphosate exposure.

Stuffing animals with weed killer

Sometimes I feel bad for lab animals. That's because scientists stuff them full of chemicals to see what happens, in an effort to determine if they pose a risk to humans. Experiments of this sort have been done many times over the years with glyphosate and two results show up repeatedly:

Glyphosate was not a reproductive toxicant in the majority of rodent multigenerational reproductive studies up to the highest doses tested with HED [human equivalent] doses greater than 170 times higher than the short- term RfD and more than 800 times higher than the subchronic RfD. One multigenerational reproductive study reported decreased spermatid counts and delayed male puberty at an HED dose about 750 times higher than the subchronic RfD, but effects were not replicated in other studies

[A]nother study found increased testes weights but no effects on sperm motility, sperm counts, or estrous cycles at comparable doses. Increased testes and ovary weights were reported in a chronic mouse study at HEDs over 6,000 times higher than the chronic RfD [my emphases]

What about the new study?

The fact that GM Watch wants to elevate a single study over this massive body of peer-reviewed evidence, as well as the conclusions of 16 regulatory and scientific agencies, should set off alarm bells in your head. But what can we say about the new study itself? A lot. Here are just two critical issues with Liu et al. First, the authors claimed that An accumulating body of evidence suggests that glyphosate is an endocrine disruptor. [1] This is false, and we can see why by looking at a 2020 review the authors themselves cited. Here's that paper's conclusion:

"Based on an analysis of the comprehensive toxicology database for glyphosate and the literature, this review has concluded that glyphosate does not have endocrine-disrupting properties through estrogen, androgen, thyroid and steroidogenic modes of action." [my emphasis]

In other words, glyphosate does not interact with the pathways necessary to damage the endocrine system. The EPA also reached this conclusion after reviewing all the available data in 2015. What does this mean for the study GM Watch is so excited about? Glyphosate doesn't bind the estrogen receptor, indicating that the initial step in the paper's model that leads to an adverse effect is flawed, Bayer environmental toxicologist Steven Levine, lead author of the 2020 review, told ACSH by email.

Second, the researchers tried to show that glyphosate-induced oxidative stress led to decreased sperm quality, but they made a serious mistake along the way. Measuring an increase in reactive oxygen with the kit they used is not a reliable indicator of oxidative stress, Levine added. The US National Toxicology Program agrees. Using multiple reliable assays to measure oxidative stress, the NTP has shown that glyphosate does not induce oxidative stress in human cell lines.

Humans aren't lab rats

Replicating the results of animal models and cell-culture studies is important, but the results of human epidemiological research are no help to GM Watch either. For example, biomonitoring studies of farmers (who have the highest glyphosate exposure of any of us) indicate that the weed killer doesn't cause reproductive damage. According to a 2012 review:

"These data demonstrated extremely low human exposures as a result of normal [pesticide] application practices. Furthermore, the estimated exposure concentrations in humans are >500-fold less than the oral reference dose for glyphosate of 2 mg/kg/d[ay] set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In conclusion, the available literature shows no solid evidence linking glyphosate exposure to adverse developmental or reproductive effects at environmentally realistic exposure concentrations."

If farmers are exposed to glyphosate in quantities far below the EPA reference dose, what are the chances trace amounts of the weed killer in your food will damage your reproductive system? Slim to none is my guess. But you don't have to believe me. Let's return to the EU's Assessment Group on Glyphosate (AGG). They reached the same conclusion:

" On basis of the available information the AGG does not consider the criteria for classification with respect to reproductive toxicity ... to be fulfilled. The AGG proposes that classification of glyphosate as toxic for reproduction is not justified."

I'm not implying that you should believe someone just because they have advanced degrees, or that challenges to scientific consensus are always wrong. People with lots of letters after their names are often mistakeneven if many of them agree. But that doesn't negate the simple fact that we have to account for all the evidence we have before drawing conclusions. Bloggers at GM Watch still haven't grasped this important point. Fortunately, we don't have to make the same mistake.

[1] My colleague Dr. Josh Bloom adds that "'endocrine disruptor' is a catch-all phrase used by anti-chemical types to scare everyone."

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How to 'Prove' a Chemical is Dangerous: The Glyphosate Case Study - American Council on Science and Health

Women have very little idea of how much men hate them, wrote Germaine Greer in The Female Eunuch (1970). Last week, a tall, moustachiod 25-year-old serial shagger in New York City became Exhibit A for this claim and also for mens defence against it.

West Elm Caleb reportedly slept with a lot of women via dating apps, and wasnt very honest with any of them about what he was doing. Then some of his dates compared notes via TikTok and the result caused so much arguing it was even reported in India.

Why all the noise about some two-bit Lothario in a city a long way away? Well, in one sense, this is as old as humans: the ongoing resonance of mythic figures such as Helen of Troy show weve been quarrelling about men, women and sex for a very long time.

But the contours of the argument are also uniquely modern. It concerns a dream of hedonistic freedom that blossomed in the mid-20th century, and that Greer herself helped to articulate. And it also captures the way that dream has soured in the hyper-mediated 21st-century world.

In The Female Eunuch, Greer argued that men have, since time immemorial, stuffed women into a domestic role, in which were treated variously as drudge and sexual object. In Greers inimitably pithy terms: a receptacle into which he has emptied his sperm, a kind of human spittoon.

In turn, she thought, women have internalised a stunted image of our own desires. While our bodies are different, supposedly immutable differences in our inner lives are really imposed by stereotype. And this stereotype serves to castrate women, replacing a fully engaged and emancipated female energy with a weak and artificial femininity.

Greer argued that women should abandon this self-imposed prison. Instead, we should pursue revolution meaning the freedom to be a person, with the dignity, integrity, nobility, passion, pride that constitute personhood.

Five decades later, how is Greers vision working out? Well, the Anglosphere rejection of suburban domesticity and motherhood is now advanced. The average age of marriage has been rising steadily since the Seventies, while the total number of marriages has declined steadily. Over the same period, birth rates in the US and UK have fallen steadily and are currently at their lowest ever level.

Childbearing was never intended by biology as a compensation for neglecting all other forms of fulfilment and achievement, Greer argued. And now that women have more choices, claims feminist Jill Filipovic, were voting with our feet (or, perhaps, wombs).

So Greers vision of swapping compulsory domesticity for greater female choice, self-realisation and empowerment has been realised, at least for some. But how far did she really swim against the tide in setting this out?

When The Female Eunuch rocketed Greer to international fame, the Anglosphere had already seen a decade of counterculture, centred on the rejection of tradition and the pursuit of freedom and desire. And one crucial text for this was Jack Kerouacs On The Road (1957) a book that, like The Female Eunuch, celebrated the freewheeling pursuit of passion over the humdrum everyday.

The central character, Dean Moriarty, is a drifter, a slacker and a hedonist. He floats from place to place, leaving a trail of unpaid debts, disappointed friends, damaged cars and chaos in his wake. Hes also a prolific and faithless shagger, taking up with (and sometimes impregnating) lover after lover before abandoning them in one case with a newborn baby.

In Kerouacs telling, Moriarty is depicted both as a walking disaster zone but also an ecstatic, spiritual figure. Far from being abusive, his womanising seems animated by an intense desire to drink deeply from the cup of life, love and desire:

He darted the car and looked in every direction for girls. Look at her! [] And dig her! yelled Dean, pointing at another woman. Oh, I love, love, love women! I think women are wonderful! I love women!

Kerouac celebrated Moriartys unthinking and often-callous spontaneity as a kind of saintliness. Greers innovation was to lay claim, on womens behalf, to a countercultural movement whose main characters had hitherto been mostly male.

For her vision of revolution also involved women becoming more Dean Moriarty-like. Women, she claimed, are not by nature monogamous. Rather, we should be deliberately promiscuous, reject domesticity as an attitude of impotence and hatred masquerading as tranquillity and love and (again, frequently, like Dean Moriarty) run away.

But footloose emancipation on the Greer and Kerouac model has not been cost-free. Greer the libertarian argued that what gets called rape is mostly just bad sex, and shouldnt be severely punished. But the angry and aggrieved women of the #MeToo era seem far from her breezy confidence that bad sex should simply be shrugged off, especially where it feels coercive.

And were witnessing a steady re-evaluation of past attitudes to sexual liberation, too.It turned out, in practice, that no sooner was sex liberated from reproduction than it was re-ordered to commerce in enterprises such as thePlayboypornographic empire.Despite Greers disapproval of this development,Playboy was for decades a byword for egalitarian, libertine (and commercialised) sexual empowerment. Nowa recent documentary has compiled allegations of abuse and even bestiality, by dozens of the Playmates Hugh Hefner brought to live in his mansion. It turns out that the brave new world of free agency and personal responsibility can mesh uncomfortably with real-world imbalances, whether of power, money or beauty.

Meanwhile, the female sexual emancipation Greer pursued has delivered a bonanza for every live-in-the-moment modern-day Dean Moriarty with the looks to enjoy it. In the world of online dating, sex is even more abundant than it was for Dean Moriarty: one twentysomething friend tells me that photogenic male friends find female attention so abundant that some are quite sick of the attention.

But not everyone lucks out: among those neither married or possessing the charms to game online dating, sexual access may be difficult to come by. And among these involuntarily celibate or incel men, this uneven erotic liberation has spurred a boiling rage, much of which is directed against women. Over on the other side, too, its the other teams fault: every woman exploited in a #MeToo situation, or running afoul of some other sexual asymmetry, points the finger at patriarchy (ie men) for her distress.

But the common factor in both cases is a culture in hock to the libertarianism of Kerouac and Greer. For while this worldview was lionised as freedom, in practice what it delivered was a kind of marketisation of the heart, that imagines we can love according to principles of rational choice and utility maximisation. Rooted in mid-century liberation, this paradigm powers much of the hostility between the sexes today.

When a man claims that we shouldnt empathise with Hefners Bunnies as they were adult women who should have known what they were getting into, thats not misogyny. Its just what it looks like when you apply the market logic of freedom and personal responsibility to sex.

The same market logic suffuses the manosphere fixation on sexual market value and concludes that West Elm Caleb did nothing wrong. For in market terms, were all independent, rational adults; why shouldnt a man treat women as human spittoons, should they make themselves available in this capacity?

On the other side of the ledger, we find the same mindsetin the women who share first date evaluation spreadsheets with their friends; in the supposedly feminist claim that sex work is work; or in the bleak assertion that all men cheat, so you might as well hold out for a rich cheater. Or the claim that mens loneliness is mens fault, for male loneliness is caused only by a surplus of high value women and a surplus of low value men.

Instead of questioning sexual market liberalism, all were offered to make sense of this mess is a schizophrenic feminism wholly in thrall to the same fixation on autonomy but only for women. This worldview celebrates Greer-esque radical autonomy and sexual permissiveness, while dismissing observable normative differences between the sexes as stereotypes and blaming any negative side-effects of this approach on patriarchal revanchism.

Beneath this officially sanctioned surface, meanwhile, lurks an increasingly embittered male resentment, that reacts with gleeful schadenfreude whenever a woman acknowledges that there can be tradeoffs between female empowerment and motherhood.

Yet neither side is willing to see the field of courtship as anything more than a low-trust, radically individualist, structurally impermanent market a grim perspective both reinforced and accelerated by the dating apps that now dominate courtship. And under that cloud of suspicion and impermanence, its easy to see how the prospect of an 18-year commitment to a dependent child (and hopefully also to his or her other parent) might well seem wildly implausible, or just unattainable.

Where autonomy conquers solidarity, children are psychologically (and, increasingly, literally) inconceivable. But its precisely when we get to children that the persistent asymmetry between the sexes becomes most difficult to deny, as poignantly illustrated by the lives of both Greer and Kerouac themselves.

Kerouac is an object-lesson in the wider shock-waves caused when men refuse to move on from sexual hedonism. He married three times, and only grudgingly paid child support for Jan, the daughter he fathered in his eight-month marriage to Joan Haverty after a paternity test. He met his daughter only twice; her life was marked by poverty, trauma, sexual abuse, drug-taking and finally death at 44. Greer, meanwhile, never had children. Her biographer recounts how she struggled and failed to do so, before eventually taking solace in her animals.

Team Kerouac and Team Greer are both really the same camp, then. But depending on your sex, the costs of liberation are inescapably different and if we just point fingers at the other sides selfishness, we miss the deeper truth that beneath the pervasive tone of cynicism are real humans of both sexes. And no matter how loudly disappointment curdles to bitterness, nearly all in truth still long for intimacy, companionship and (in most cases) kids.

Such a craving for solidarity is now nigh-on impossible to square with contemporary norms or social infrastructure. Hard as it may be to admit, this is not the exclusive fault of one sex or the other. And yet compassion for the opposite sexs predicament is ever more difficult to muster.

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The cost of sexual liberation - UnHerd

To quantify the SR1.5 and AR6 statements quoted above, human-induced global temperature change over a multi-decade time-interval t, relative to the level of human-induced warming at the beginning of that interval (e.g. the present day or pre-industrial), can be decomposed using the framework articulated above as follows:

$${Delta} T = kappa _Eoverline {E_C} {Delta} t + kappa _Fleft( {{Delta} F_N + rho overline {F_N} {Delta} t} right),$$

(1)

where (overline {E_C}) and (overline {F_N}) are globally aggregated average CO2 emission-rates and non-CO2 radiative forcing, respectively (so (overline {E_C} {Delta} t) is cumulative CO2 emissions), and FN is the change in decadal-average non-CO2 forcing, all evaluated over that interval (the geophysical Zero Emissions Commitment is expected to be relatively small over a multi-decade time-interval23, but this may not be the case on longer timescales). The coefficients E (the TCRE) and F (the TCRF, or fast component of the climate response to any forcing change, denoted c1 in ref. 12, or sum of fast components24: see supplementary material), are both scenario-independent in the absence of strongly non-linear carbon cycle feedbacks or climate response. The only scenario-dependent coefficient is , the fractional Rate of Adjustment to Constant Forcing (RACF), or the relatively small fractional rate at which forcing needs to decline to maintain stable temperatures. It depends on how fast and how recently FN has increased (this term represents the delayed adjustment to past forcing increases, so is larger for more recent and rapid increases). If FN varies only on multi-decadal timescales, =c2/(Fs2), where c2 is the slow (multi-century) component of the climate sensitivity, and s2 the deep ocean thermal adjustment timescale. For representative12 coefficient values, 0.3% per year, making this third term usually small.

Aggregate CO2-e100 emissions cannot be used to calculate FN if these comprise a mixture of LLCFs and SLCFs. Aggregate CO2-e100 emissions of LLCFs, EL, can, however, be combined unambiguously and have the same impact on global temperature on decade to century timescales as the corresponding quantity of CO2. Likewise, aggregate CO2-e100 emissions of SLCFs, ES, multiplied by the AGWP100 of CO2, A100, give SLCF radiative forcing, FS (A100 normally includes a first-order estimate of the impact of carbon cycle feedbacks25 so, for consistency, this should also be included in the GWP100 values used to compute ES).

For emissions reported as CO2-e100 the above expression can therefore be re-written (now grouping all LLCFs with CO2):

$${Delta} T = kappa _Eoverline {E_L} {Delta} t + kappa _Fleft( {{Delta} F_S + rho overline {F_S} {Delta} t} right),$$

(2)

or equivalently, using FS=A100ES on multi-decadal timescales,

$${Delta} T = kappa _Eoverline {E_L} {Delta} t + kappa _FA_{100}left( {{Delta} E_S + rho overline {E_S} {Delta} t} right).$$

(3)

Hence T can be estimated directly using well-known (albeit uncertain) climate system properties if, and only if, total CO2-e100 emissions of long-lived climate forcers, EL, are specified in emission targets together with total CO2-e100 emissions, EL+ES; or, equivalently, EL and ES are specified separately. T cannot be calculated from the sum of EL+ES alone.

This is illustrated by Fig. 1, which shows the impact of LLCF and SLCF emissions, expressed as CO2-e100, on global temperature change over a multi-decade period, relative to the level of warming at the beginning of that period, calculated with a simple climate model12. Stylised cases of constant (darker shades) and step-change (+10%, lighter shades, and 50%, dotted lines) emissions are shown in panels a and c. Warming due to LLCF emissions (the term (kappa _Eoverline {E_L} {Delta} t) in Eq. (3)) increases linearly with cumulative emissions in all three cases (panel b). Warming due to an ongoing constant emission of an SLCF that started decades before the beginning of this period (the (kappa _FA_{100}rho overline {E_S} {Delta} t) term) also increases linearly (panel d, darker blue) but at a slower rate per tCO2-e100 emitted (by a factor of about 4, because E4FA100): global temperatures have already partially equilibrated with this constant emission (by how much depends on how long ago these SLCF emissions began, which is why is the only scenario-dependent coefficient in these expressions). Finally, warming due to an increase in SLCF emissions (the FA100ES term, panel d, lighter blue) is 45 times greater than would be expected from the same increase in tCO2-e100 emissions of an LLCF (panel b, lighter red) over the 20 years following the increase (FA1004.5E20 years). Hence the AR6 statement expressing methane emissions as CO2 equivalent emissions using GWP100 overstates the effect of constant methane emissions on global surface temperature by a factor of 34 while understating the effect of any new methane emission source by a factor of 45 over the 20 years following the introduction of the new source26 applies to the impact of global emissions of any SLCF. Any decrease in SLCF emissions also has a much greater impact on temperatures over a multi-decade period per tCO2-e100 avoided than a corresponding decrease in LLCF emissions (red and blue dotted lines) (Fig. 1).

Darker bands in panels a and c show, respectively, constant LLCF and SLCF emissions of 1 tCO2-e100 per year starting some decades before the interval shown. Pale bands show a 10% increase one-quarter of the way through the interval shown, while dotted lines show a 50% decrease. Resulting temperature changes relative to the start of this interval shown in panels b and d, calculated using a simple climate model: vertical axes in b and d are scaled identically to illustrate smaller rate of warming due to constant SLCF emissions and much larger warming impact of any change in SLCF emissions relative to the warming due to identical CO2-e100 LLCF emissions. Vertical arrows in the right show predicted contributions to T from the individual terms in Eq. (3): three arrows in panel b show cumulative LLCF emissions over this interval multiplied by the TCRE for the three scenarios shown; the lower and upper arrows in panel d show, respectively, the predicted warming due to ongoing constant SLCF emissions and additional warming due to the 10% increase. The figure illustrates that Eq. (3) allows reliable, if approximate, prediction of multi-decade warming T if, and only if, LLCF and SLCF emissions are specified separately.

Temperature changes in the figure are calculated using a particular model, LLCF, SLCF and scenario. The figure would, however, appear similar if another model, combination of gases or scenario of prior emissions were used, provided emissions do not change rapidly immediately before the beginning or end of the period shown, because the relationship between emissions and warming expressed in Eq. (3) is generic. Individual terms in Eq. (3), assuming constant coefficients, are shown by the arrows on the right of panels b and d. These match the warming calculated by the explicit simple climate model within modelling uncertainties. The figure shows temperature change relative to the start of the period rather than absolute warming because the latter is not determined by Eq. (3) but depends on the prior LLCF and SLCF emissions history (the specific scenario used to generate this figure is shown in full in the Supplementary Information).

Temperature change T over a multi-decade period depends, to first order, only on cumulative emissions of LLCFs (overline {E_L} {Delta} t), cumulative emissions of SLCFs (overline {E_S} {Delta} t), and net change in total SLCF emission rates ES, over that period alone. As the SR1.5 and AR6 emphasised, future warming depends on future emissions. Making use of this information, however, requires both EL and ES to be specified: only specifying the sum EL+ES introduces an ambiguity in temperature outcome.

Separate specification also facilitates assessing the implications of different metrics. For example, aggregate CO2-equivalent emissions using the 20-year Global Warming Potential (GWP20) can be approximated by EL+3ES if both EL and ES are reported as CO2-e100, with a slightly higher multiplicative factor (up to 4) if ES is dominated by forcers with lifetimes of order one year (Table 8.A.1 of ref. 12 shows that GWP20 values are similar to GWP100 values for LLCFs and 3 or 4 times GWP100 values for gases with lifetimes of order a decade or a year, respectively). Finally, we re-emphasise that these expressions capture our physical understanding of how global emissions of LLCFs and SLCFs collectively determine global temperature change, and illustrate the utility of separate specification of EL and ES. How this understanding is used to inform the assessment of the adequacy of individual emission targets depends on other considerations listed above and cannot be argued from a physical science perspective alone. There will be several other advantages to the additional communication such as being able to estimate air quality co-benefits of mitigation.

Continued here:
Indicate separate contributions of long-lived and short-lived greenhouse gases in emission targets | npj Climate and Atmospheric Science - Nature.com

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SAINT-PREX, Switzerland Forensic analysis of stone age human fertility to better understand why modern-day sperm counts are falling, and a project to support safe birth in rural Ethiopia by providing trained midwives and solar power kits, are among 17 winners of a new Ferring Pharmaceuticals grant programme unveiled today.

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The wide-ranging programme is designed to tackle inequalities and disparities in reproductive medicine and maternal health, reinforcing Ferrings ambitious #ProjectFamily Commitment , which supports everyones right to build families of every shape and size.

Through collaboration with people across the globe, Ferring has outlined how it will develop programs, services, and treatments to address unmet needs in reproductive medicine and maternal health. Millions of people around the world are unable to access the care, treatment and support they need to build a family, and so, the grants aim to support projects that focus on delivering better outcomes and solutions at every stage of the reproductive journey, from conception to birth.

At Ferring, we believe in everyones right to a family. That is why we are determined to play our part in collaborating to tackle some of the unique challenges faced by people across the globe when building families, said Per Falk, President of Ferring Pharmaceuticals. The projects funded by the grant programme aim to address some of the greatest global gender, health and racial inequalities in reproductive medicine and we look forward to realising positive outcomes of these projects.

Todays announcement totals funding of nearly 2.9 million to support 17 projects in nine countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Uganda, the United Kingdom and the United States. It includes the 12 inaugural winners of the Racial Equality Grants in Reproductive Medicine and Maternal Health, a dedicated research programme to deepen understanding and drive solutions to tackle racial disparities in reproductive medicine and maternal health. The programme comprehensively addresses the scope of this issue by funding innovative research proposals in epidemiology as well as basic, clinical, translational, and social sciences.

The programme builds on the success of # ProjectFamily: Safe Birth initiative, a decade-long public-private partnership, which earlier this year introduced a heat-stable formulation to prevent excessive bleeding after childbirth, known as postpartum haemorrhage (PPH). By seeking to prevent PPH, Ferring will support efforts to protect the lives of 20 million women and their families by 2030.

How the grants programme aligns to the Ferring #ProjectFamily Commitment:

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#1 Learning from patients to improve their treatment and care

Key fact: Cancer treatments can reduce the chances of having a family, so fertility preservation interventions need to happen before treatment starts. 1 Decisions regarding the potential risk to fertility therefore need to be made with extreme time pressure when the person is also dealing with the new cancer diagnosis. A recent UK survey highlighted problems in accessing fertility preservation for young cancer patients. 2

Research grant: University of Edinburgh Development Trust and University Court of the University of Edinburgh and its research project, Supporting Fertility Preservation Treatment Decision-Making. This project will develop fertility preservation patient decision making aids to support cancer patients across Europe. This study will build on an existing web-based decision aid created by the research team and will create new tailored resources for different patient groups in a range of languages.

#2 Collaborating to reduce maternal and infant mortality

Key fact: In rural Ethiopia, unreliable or non-existent power supplies mean that women delivering at night may give birth in the dark, preventing midwives being able to detect or manage complications. Training midwives and providing safer birthing conditions by supplying light and reliable power is critical to addressing this.

Support grant: Ferring is supporting GreenLamp, an organisation dedicated to improving conditions for mothers and babies in rural Ethiopia and its Ethiopian Maternal Health Community Programme through a 5-year holistic model, which will lead to high impact and sustainable improvements in a region of rural Ethiopia with extreme unmet needs.

Key fact: Every year, 70,000 women die from PPH, 3 with the majority of deaths occurring in low- and lower-middle income countries. 4 The majority of PPH deaths could be avoided through preventative approaches, however, this is not always the reality for those living in humanitarian crisis settings, for example conflict regions, natural disasters and public health emergencies.

Research grant: The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is collaborating with Ferring Pharmaceuticals to contribute to the body of evidence regarding the safe introduction of additional resources such as heat-stable carbetocin for the prevention of PPH in low resource humanitarian contexts such as Uganda and South Sudan. Through this, both organisations aim to contribute to providing access to safe birth in the most vulnerable settings.

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#3 Closing gender and racial inequality gaps in reproductive medicine and maternal health

Key fact: Around the world, including in high income countries, black women and women of colour are more likely to die from complications during pregnancy and childbirth than white women. Startling racial disparities also exist in fertility treatment. Studies in the US suggest that black women may be twice as likely as white women to have fertility problems but are far less likely to seek or receive treatment that could help them to build their families. 5 Furthermore, in the UK, minority ethnic groups undergoing fertility treatment are less likely to have a baby, with black couples having the lowest chance of successful treatment. 6

Research grant: The Ferring Innovation Grants Programme for Racial Equality in Reproductive Medicine and Maternal Health, a dedicated research programme to deepen understanding and, ultimately, drive solutions to tackle racial disparities in reproductive medicine and maternal health, including maternal mortality, in-vitro fertilisation (IVF), pregnancy and postpartum outcomes.

#4 Working together to win hearts and minds

Key fact: The fertility rate the average number of children a woman gives birth to is falling. If the number falls below approximately 2.1, then the size of the population starts to decrease. In 1950, women were having an average of 4.7 children in their lifetime. Research showed the global fertility rate nearly halved to 2.4 in 2017 and projections indicate it will fall below 1.7 by 2100. 7 In line with this, the number of babies born globally as a result of IVF increased from under one million in 2007, to over two million in 2012. 8

Research grant: International Federation of Fertility Societies (IFFS) and its research project, Global decreasing fecundity trends: Society changes and implications, fertility awareness and access to infertility care.

Research grant: Globe institute at the University of Copenhagen and Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet research project, Understanding the reproduction paradigm of humankind in the Anthropocene (Ancient Reproduction) which aims to map the evolutionary history of reproductive dysfunction by evaluating changes in environmental pollution and associated biological responses over time.

ENDS

About the Ferring Innovation Grants Programme for Racial Equality in Reproductive Medicine and Maternal Health The Ferring Innovation Grants Programme for Racial Equality in Reproductive Medicine and Maternal Health (RMMH) aims to fund projects to deepen understanding and, ultimately, drive solutions to tackle racial disparities in RMMH, including maternal mortality, in-vitro fertilisation (IVF), pregnancy and postpartum outcomes.

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The Ferring Innovation Grants Programme for Racial Equality in RMMH provides research grants of up to 20,000 and aims to fund multidisciplinary research projects across four main areas: basic and translational; clinical; epidemiology and prevention; and social science research. The winners for 2021 included Monash University (Australia), Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (Brazil), McMaster University (Canada), University of Copenhagen (Denmark), Boston IVF Fertility Clinic (USA), Boston University (USA), Foundation for Research and Education Excellence (USA), Johns Hopkins University (USA), Rejuvenating Fertility Center (USA) and Yale School of Medicine (USA).

About Ferring Pharmaceuticals Ferring Pharmaceuticals is a research-driven, speciality biopharmaceutical group committed to helping people around the world build families and live better lives. Headquartered in Saint-Prex, Switzerland, Ferring is a leader in reproductive medicine and maternal health, and in specialty areas within gastroenterology and urology. Ferring has been developing treatments for mothers and babies for over 50 years and has a portfolio covering treatments from conception to birth. Founded in 1950, privately-owned Ferring now employs approximately 6,000 people worldwide, has its own operating subsidiaries in more than 50 countries and markets its products in 110 countries.

Learn more at http://www.ferring.com , or connect with us on Twitter , Facebook , Instagram , LinkedIn and YouTube .

# # #

1 Anderson RA, et al. The impact of cancer on subsequent chance of pregnancy: a population-based analysis. Hum Reprod 2018;33: 1281-1290. 2 Newton HL, Picton HM, Friend AJ, et al. Inconsistencies in fertility preservation for young people with cancer in the UK Archives of Disease in Childhood Published Online First: 20 September 2021. doi:10.1136/archdischild-2021-321873 3 World Health Organization. Priority diseases and reasons for inclusion. Postpartum haemorrhage. Available at: https://www.who.int/medicines/areas/priority_medicines/Ch6_16PPH.pdf Last accessed January 2022. 4 Say L, et al. Global causes of maternal death: a WHO systematic analysis. The Lancet Global Health. 2014; 2 (6):e323-33. Available at: https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/langlo/PIIS2214-109X(14)70227-X.pdf Last accessed January 2022. 5 STAT. For black women, the isolation of infertility is compounded by barriers to treatment Available at: https://www.statnews.com/2020/10/14/for-black-women-isolation-of-infertility-compounded-by-barriers-to-treatment/ Last accessed January 2022. 6 Human Fertilisation & Embryology Authority (HFEA). UK ethnicity statistics for IVF and DI fertility treatment. Available at: https://www.hfea.gov.uk/about-us/publications/research-and-data/ethnic-diversity-in-fertility-treatment-2018/ Last accessed January 2022. 7 BBC News. Fertility rate: Jaw-dropping global crash in children being born Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-53409521 Last accessed January 2022. 8 American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM). The number of babies born globally after treatment with the assisted reproductive technologies (ART). Available at: https://www.fertstert.org/article/S0015-0282(13)02586-7/fulltext#relatedArticles Last accessed January 2022.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220126005619/en/

Contacts

Danielle Forrester Associate Director, 90TEN +44 75 9120 0047 (mobile) ferring@90ten.co.uk

Bhavin Vaid Head of Corporate Communications +41 79 191 0632 (mobile) bhavin.vaid@ferring.com

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Original post:
Gender, health and racial inequalities to be tackled in flagship Ferring grant programme - Financial Post

MaxHggblom Distinguished Professor and ChairDepartment of Biochemistry and MicrobiologySchool of Environmental and Biological SciencesRutgers-New BrunswickHonored for distinguished contributions to understanding both the fundamental and application components of microbialbiotransformationsof pollutants, especially chlorinated aromaticcompoundsand metalloids.

MaxHggblomis a renowned research scientist and educator with a large body of microbial ecology and environmental biotechnology research that has expanded our understanding of how the biodegradation of environmental pollutants, such as dioxins and PCBs,impact our planet.

His research interests revolve around thebioexploration, cultivation and characterization of novel microbes.His research on bacteria has provided a foundation for applications that address the pollution problems facing impacted industrialized and urbanized environments.

Hggblomslab is also actively studying microorganisms that degrade pharmaceutical and personal care products in aquatic environments.

Over the past decadesthediverse chemicalsin pharmaceutical and personal care productshave emerged as a major group of environmental contaminants in numerous watersheds around the world; therefore, it is important to understand how microbes can degrade them.There is much to explore and learn,Hggblomadded.

Hggblomswork also touches climate change, particularly the roles and responses of microbes in rapidly changing environments, such as the Arctic.In his lab at Rutgers, students have the unique opportunity to exploreareas of research such asthe biodegradation and detoxification of anthropogenic pollutant chemicals, including certainpesticides;respiration of rare metalloids; or life in the frozen tundra soils.

For several years,my lab has worked on studying the microbial ecology of Arctic tundra soils to understand how the changing conditions impact microbial activity and turnover of soil organic matter, and consequently enhanced greenhouse gas flux,Hggblomsaid. This is an important area of research as the threat of microbial contribution to positive feedback of greenhouse gas flux is substantial.

His lab recently received funding from the National Science Foundation to studyhowdiverse microbial communitiesare established insoils.Hggblomwill work with an international research team of scientists from the U.S., China, South Africa and Finland to study soils from the three differentregionsacross Arctic, Tibetan Plateau and Antarctic habitats to expand our understanding of how soil ecosystems respond in critical polar regions.

Emily EversonLayden

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Twelve Rutgers Professors Named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science - Rutgers Today

While new medications are available to treat COVID-19, they can be hard to come by and most definitely aren't for everyone.

They also need to be taken early in the disease to be most effective; oral antivirals must be started within five days of symptoms, while IV medications, which are even more scarce, can be taken within the first 10 days.

There are four currently approved therapeutics for those in the early days of COVID-19 who aren't hospitalized or requiring oxygen because of COVID-19, but are at high risk for severe COVID-19.

They are the oral antivirals Paxlovid and molnupiravir, the monoclonal antibody treatment sotrovimab, and the IV antiviral remdesivir.

The state of Georgia is distributing Paxlovid and molnupiravir through certain pharmacies. In Coweta, the only location is Walgreens at 3116 Highway 34 East.

Paxlovid, which is considered the first choice for those who are eligible, is much more scarce than molnupiravir.

Both medications received emergency use authorization from the FDA in late December, and production has not yet ramped up to reach the demand.

Paxlovid was found to be dramatically more effective in clinical trials than molnupiravir, though it is contraindicated in patients with severe liver or kidney disease and carries several drug interaction precautions. Clinical trials found it to reduce the risk of COVID-19 hospitalization or death by 89 percent, according to Pfizer. Patients may be able to discontinue some of their other medications while taking Paxlovid to avoid the interactions, in consultation with their physician.

Molnupiravir was found to be 30 percent effective and, under its EUA, should only be used if a patient is unable to obtain Paxlovid, sotrovimab or remdesivir.

On Friday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services COVID-19 Locater showed 11 courses of Paxlovid available at the local Walgreens, out of an initial allotment of 180. There were 374 courses of molnupiravir out of an initial allotment of 700.

As of Friday, there were only 56,604 courses of Paxlovid available in the entire country, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services COVID-19 Locator. That's out of a total allotment of 194,700. Molnupiravir is much more abundant, with 361,035 courses out of a total of 660,280.

Monoclonal antibodies extremely scarce

Sotrovimab, the only monoclonal antibody treatment shown to be effective against the Omicron variant, doesn't appear to be available locally, but is offered at some Wellstar Health System locations.

The HHS shows that Georgia received 1,296 courses of Sotrovimab this week and 1,548 courses last week.

The monoclonal antibodies that were used frequently to treat the Delta variant, including REGEN-COV, are not effective against the currently circulating Omicron variant, and are no longer available.

There is also a monoclonal antibody product that is used for those who are severely immunocompromised to help keep them from getting COVID-19 in the first place. Evusheld is for "pre-exposure prophylaxis for those who either cannot receive a COVID-19 vaccine or who have a moderate to severe immune condition that may prevent them from mounting an adequate immune response to COVID-19 vaccination. It is only for patients who have not had a recent exposure to someone with COVID-19.

According to the HHS locator, Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Newnan received 24 courses of Evusheld in late December and lists no courses available. Some hospitals in the Atlanta-area also received Evusheld. While most no longer have it, some locations do have it available.

Antivirals not for everyone

When it comes to the oral antivirals, women and men of childbearing age must be careful if taking molnupiravir. It is not recommended for use in pregnancy and those taking it should use a reliable form of birth control while taking it and for four days afterward, according to the emergency use authorization. However, pregnant women at high risk "may reasonably choose molnupiravir therapy after being fully informed of the risks," particularly if they are more than 10 week pregnant, according to the National Institutes of Health. Men who are sexually active with women of child bearing age are asked to use a reliable form of birth control while taking it and for three months afterward.

While Paxlovid was approved unanimously by an FDA advisory panel, molnupiravir was approved by a vote of 13-10.

The two medications have different mechanisms of action. Molnupiravir stops the virus by introducing mutations as it tries to reproduce, shutting down reproduction. Paxlovid is a main protease inhibitor, which prevents the virus from making the proteins it needs to grow.

Some researchers have expressed concerns molnupiravir mechanism of action could lead to the rise of new COVID-19 variants, according to the journal Nature.

This could become an issue if someone doesn't take the full five day course and doesn't completely clear the virus, Sankar Swaminathan, the division chief for infectious diseases at the University of Utah Health in Salt Lake City and a member of the FDA advisory panel, told Nature. Swaminathan voted against the EUA for molnupiravir.

Nicholas Kartsonis, the senior vice-president of clinical research at Merck, said that no remaining virus was detected in the trial participants after the full five day course, according to Nature; however, the medication was not tested in immunocompromised people, who may have trouble clearing the virus.

The FDA is requiring Merck to establish a process to monitor for the emergency of variants.

There are also concerns that the drug could cause mutations in DNA, but animal studies indicated that the risk is low, according to Nature. However, that risk is the reason for the pregnancy and birth control recommendations, and why the medication is not approved for those under 18.

Other than that, there are no contraindications such as those with Paxlovid, and no drug interactions.

My symptoms all faded away

Molnupiravir worked dramatically well for Cowetan Kim Kramer, who tested positive for COVID-19 on Jan. 3.

Kramer, 62, has heart failure, which puts her at high risk for severe COVID-19. When she woke up feeling bad after her husband had contracted COVID-19, she took an at-home test and it was strongly positive.

Because of the heart failure, she knew she needed to let her doctor, Erika Martinez-Uribe, know, even on a Sunday. Though Kramer is vaccinated, her condition puts her at high risk.

Kramer had heard about the antivirals being approved, and her doctor asked if she would be willing to try molnupiravir.

"I said yes, because I completely trust Dr. Martinez," Kramer said. Her husband was able to pick the medication up the next day at Walgreens, even though she usually gets her medications elsewhere.

She took the first dose that night, and the second dose the next morning. By that afternoon, "I started to feel much better," Kramer said. By that night, my symptoms all faded away, and I didn't have any more symptoms ever again."

Her symptoms hadn't been severe, but she and her doctor wanted to make sure they didn't get that way.

"I didn't want to end up in the hospital," Kramer said. Heart failure can really exacerbate COVID-19 symptoms, she said. "It makes it so much worse."

Martinez-Uribe happened to be on call that Sunday, instead of one of her colleges. She had heard about the antivirals being approved and knew that they had to be given as soon as possible. But finding them was going to be the issue. There was less information about finding the medications than there is now.

"I was trying to figure out how to get this medicine. I had to research this on my own," she said. She had heard someone say they heard Walgreens had it. "It was like a rumor," she said.

She called and the pharmacist said they had some molnupiravir, but no Paxlovid. Martinez-Uribe did some research on the medication and then called in the prescription.

She said she has prescribed the antivirals for a handful of patients, all around the same time, and most have done very well with it, though one was still feeling bad after taking it but the patient recovered without incident.

She's had a lot more patients ask for it.

Martinez-Uribe said she had one patient who was in their mid 30s, vaccinated, with no underlying conditions.

She had to tell the patient she was sorry, but that they didn't qualify for the medication. She continues to encourage people to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

She said some of her colleagues, who have a lot of older patients with chronic medical conditions, have been prescribing it a lot.

"I have to take each case by case," Martinez-Uribe said. "These medicines, at this moment, are not for everyone." Instead, they are only for people with conditions that could cause them to have severe cases of COVID-19. "That is how we need to be using them," she said at least while they are so scarce. With more data and greater supply, maybe well expand to be able to provide it for our regular patients, she said. Right now were trying to focus on the high risk.

To see availability of Paxlovid and molnupiravir, visit https://covid-19-therapeutics-locator-dhhs.hub.arcgis.com/ .

Continued here:
COVID antivirals effective - if you can get them - Newnan Times-Herald

This is a transcript of The Conversation Weekly podcast episde: Chinas plans for Xinjiang, and what it means for the regions persecuted Uyghurs, published on January 27, 2022.

NOTE: Transcripts may contain errors. Please check the corresponding audio before quoting in print.

Dan Merino: Hello, and welcome to The Conversation Weekly.

Gemma Ware: This week, three experts explain Chinas long-term vision for Xinjiang, and what it means for the regions persecuted Uyghurs.

David Tobin: The underlying problem is the notion that Uyghurs were barbarians and became human by becoming Chinese in 1949.

Anna Hayes: Xi Jinpings bigger goal here is the China dream.

Dan: And, what toxic heavy metals are lingering in houses around the world? We talk to a researcher who gets dust from thousands of vacuum cleaners mailed to them and tests that dust for safety.

Cynthia Isley: Theyre present in higher concentrations in homes than we would find outdoors.

Gemma: Im Gemma Ware in London.

Dan: And Im Dan Merino in San Francisco. Youre listening to The Conversation Weekly: the world explained by experts.

Gemma: Whats the latest communication that youve had with somebody inside Xinjiang, and what did they say?

Darren Byler: Well, its difficult to access Uyghur folks directly because of the surveillance system. So much of the information I get comes through Uyghurs who are contacting their family members in the region and them telling them about whats happened to their families, whats happened.

Gemma: This is Darren Byler. Hes an anthropologist who researches northwest China, and hes based at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia in Canada.

Darren: Also conversations that I have with Han people, which are not Uyghurs, but have much more freedom to speak openly with people abroad. And so, you know, Ive talked to people who have been there in the last few months and have talked about how some of the most violent and, sort of, stressful aspects of the system have begun to dissipate or have been pushed to the side in some ways. That theres less people that are being detained at the moment than there were just like a year or two ago. Some of the older folks, you know, people that were in ill health have been returned to their neighbourhoods and are kind of on watch lists and are being monitored. But still theres widespread family separation, hundreds of thousands of people are still missing. And so the situation continues even as it is sort of normalised in some ways.

Gemma: What different methods are the Chinese government using to persecute Uyghurs?

Darren: Well, I think we could probably put them in a few different categories. Theres targeting of people in terms of political framing of Uyghurs as potentially terrorists. Theyre controlling people using biometrics; their faces, their fingerprints. Theres ways that theyre tracking peoples reproduction. Theyre also using technological systems to go through peoples digital history and track them over time. And then of course, theyre using forms of cultural control, stopping people from producing Uyghur knowledge, from using Uyghur language. Theyre criminalising immense aspects of what it means to be Uyghur itself.

Read more: I researched Uighur society in China for 8 years and watched how technology opened new opportunities then became a trap

Newsclip: The Biden administration will not send any diplomatic or official representation to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics given the PRCs ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang.

Dan: In December, the United States announced a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics, due to begin on February 4.

Gemma: The UK, Australia, and Canada soon followed suit.

Dan: The boycotts are limited. Diplomats from those countries will not attend the winter games, but the athletes will still compete.

Gemma: Also in December, the Uyghur Tribunal an independent, unofficial tribunal based in London found China guilty of crimes against humanity and genocide against the Uyghurs.

Newsclip: Hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs have been detained by PRC authorities without any or any remotely sufficient reason.

Dan: All the while, China has continued to deny allegations of genocide and human rights abuses in Xinjiang, rejecting these claims as absurd.

Newsclip: China has slammed a United Nations declaration that accuses Beijing of human rights abuses.

Gemma: Ive been talking to three experts whove carried out research in Xinjiang, to understand whats happening to Uyghurs and the other Muslim minorities who live there.

Its hard to get the full picture of how many people have been taken into camps in Xinjiang. Estimates range from one to two million. I asked Darren Byler what figure he thinks is the most accurate.

Darren: What I see in the internal police documents is that, you know, something between 10% to 20% of the people adult Muslim population have been taken. So, the numbers you just cited are within that range.

Gemma: What is life like in these camps from the information that youve been able to gain from your research?

Darren: What typically happens in the camps is people are put into these cells that are locked. Theyre basically a medium security prison cell, which has bunk beds and have ten to 30 people within them. During the day theyre often asked to sit on plastic stools for many hours at a time and watch TV shows on this flat-screen TV thats up on the wall, which are, you know, Chinese language instruction, and how to sing patriotic songs.

Theyre being watched through a camera system at all times, the lights are not turned off. Theres just so much control, a lot of it automated through the surveillance system. You know, theyll receive a command through a speaker system if they get up from the stools or if they cover their face while theyre sleeping. So its really using this kind of cutting-edge smart technology to control bodily movement throughout every aspect of their day, and I think that more than anything really wears people down.

And then of course, they also see the guards beating people as they escort people throughout the camp.

Gemma: China calls these re-education camps, and thereve been variously termed internment camps, concentration camps. Is there any sense of what do you need to do in order to leave?

Darrem: The state refers to them as closed, concentrated education and training centres. The way you progress out of the camps is you need to pass language exams, you need to pass ideology exams. Theres a point system that they use at times, which has to do with good conduct. But many former detainees told me that it was actually really arbitrary, in terms of how you got out. Mostly it had to do with a factory needing workers that was being built nearby, and so, you know, once the factory was ready, then they would transfer people out. So it really seemed to have more of an economic logic, and the workers being able bodied, as to whether people were transferred.

Gemma: And its mainly men in these camps?

Darren: I would say about two thirds of the people that are detained or are men, and most are between the ages of 15 and 55, but there are women that are held as well. Theres a disproportionate number of people that were transferred from the camps to factories that were women. Many of the people that were sent to prison were men.

Gemma: And what do we know about whether people have died in the camps?

Darren: We dont have systematic data in terms of how many people have died. Many of the people I interviewed who were in the camps as detainees talked about seeing people that appear to be on the brink of death in their cells being taken away, some witnessed suicides. It seems like most of the deaths had to do with neglect, with being in ill health, with lack of hygiene and lack of healthcare in in the camps. And then you know, when COVID hit, we were concerned that that could spread and become systematic throughout the camps as well. It doesnt appear that that happened.

Gemma: You said youve been told by Uyghurs that fewer people are being taken into the camps. So whats happening now?

Darren: Well, what weve seen is that a number of camps have simply been turned into formal detention centres. So kanshousuo in Chinese, which is really the term that in the United States they would use for jails. And so its part of the formal incarceration system and, you know, in the Chinese case, most people that are held there are held as theyre awaiting trial. So a number of camps have just simply become these pre-trial centres. Other camps have been closed, abandoned. But in still other cases, theyve actually been turned into factories themselves. And so it does appear as though the state was maybe acting more reactively to international pressure and wanting to close them more quickly than they were at least intending at the outset. It isnt clear what the future holds, but you know, it seems as though factories and prisons are mostly the direction theyre headed in.

Gemma: And from the conversations youve had with former detainees whove come out, did they absorb what they were being told? Do they feel that they learned anything?

Darren: I asked that question to a whole bunch of them as part of my interview to sort of chart that, and most said that they didnt learn anything when it came to Chinese language or even ideology, really. I mean, they learned enough to pass some exams. They memorised some characters, many of them said that theyd memorised 33 or 40 different songs. But in terms of, like, Chinese language fluency, and even understanding of Chinese law, that wasnt really clear to them.

Really, what they learned was how to be submissive, how to understand their place as sort of really a criminal class. The guards would call them animals, so they understood that they were be being treated as subhuman and that they should sort of recognise themselves as that. So theres, you know, a lot of shame, a lot of trauma that they carry with them.

People would tell me that the worst thing they felt was when they came out of the camp, having to denounce their past behaviour and other people that they knew in front of their community, and then being treated as an outcast. Once youre transferred out, then you have to do the work that youre assigned to do. Youre still being watched really closely. You cant ask about the pay that you are, or arent, given.

Gemma: So weve talked about what lifes been like in the camps. Whats life like outside the camps?

Darren: So for people that werent detained, many of them had family members or people in their community who were detained. And so the status coercion was placed across the entire population of Muslim people, meaning that they could at any time be determined to be untrustworthy and taken to the camp.

The lines in terms of who is trustworthy or not are very porous and arbitrary, really depends on which official youre talking to, which device is scanning your phone, and so that meant that everyone was terrified really by that threat. And the surveillance system really worked to exacerbate and amplify that terror and that part is ongoing. Theres checkpoints at jurisdictional boundaries where people have their face scanned and match the image on their ID. They often have their phone scanned at the same spot. If youre on a watch list because you have a family member in the camp, you have people coming into your home to visit you and inspect your home, looking through your things to make sure you dont have any religious materials. Theyre testing you, you know, making you drink alcohol to prove that youre not a pious Muslim. Theyre asking your children to report things that youre doing as a parent. Its so invasive. Its in all aspects of life. People talked about that system as one that was suffocating. That they felt like even though they werent in the camp, they were still within a sort of open air prison.

Gemma: What do your interviewees tell you about their thoughts about the future and how they see it for themselves in Xinjiang?

Darren: So, you know, I think people now feel as though if they havent been sent to the camp or imprisoned taken yet that theyre probably fine. I think thats becoming something of a widespread feeling. This is based on interviews Ive done with people whove travelled to the region recently.

But at the same time, they know that anyone can still be taken. It just doesnt feel quite as imminent of a threat. So I guess in the short term, theres been a little bit of a relaxation. I think the deeper trauma of family separation, of forced birth control you know, ranging from sterilisation to other forms of long term birth control that continues as well. The surveillance system is still there. You know, theres a lot of anxious people still.

The children, I think, are the ones that we should be most concerned with because theyre being raised in this residential boarding school system, really separated from their parents and from the culture that they came from. Its really producing a lost generation of Uyghurs who will be dealing with the fallout of whats happened to them for the rest of their lives.

So thats the future, its quite bleak I would say. Theyre alive and, you know, it seems like the threat of mass death is now less imminent than it mightve been in the past. That was a lot of concern that we had when the camps were first built is that people could simply be killed. Now, it seems like the state is sort of taking a more middle position, is being a little less aggressive when it comes to crimes against humanity.

Gemma: Why would China want to erase Uyghur culture, language, and future generations? To understand that, we need to understand the history of the region Uyghurs call home, and the way its been viewed by the rest of China.

David Tobin: The underlying problem in how Xinjiang is is governed in China is the notion that Uyghurs were barbarians and became human by becoming Chinese in 1949.

Gemma: This is David Tobin, a lecturer in East Asian studies at the University of Sheffield in the UK.

David: My research focuses on identity and security in global politics, with the focus on Han-Uyghur relations in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

Gemma: Now, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region is what this region is called today. But it hasnt always been called that, and its not always even been a part of China. So, give us a brief history of this place.

David: A brief crash course in Xinjiang history would start with the name East Turkestan. This tends to be the name that Uyghurs use. Turkestan just means land of the Turks. Turk includes, Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, so theres a multi-ethnic component to it. So the term today is usually seen as a loose geographical meaning, meaning that its just part of central Asia in the east, that borders China. The region is not seen as culturally Chinese. Uyghurs speak a Turkic language, a different language family from Mandarin, and generally practice Islam.

It was never seen as part of the Chinese nation. It was a colony. It wasnt called Xinjiang until 1884. The region was actually unified by the Manchu. Historically the region wasnt usually ruled by one ruler, there were different kingdoms. So it became to be seen as Xinjiang rather than these different states.

So this gave us a new language to Uyghur nationalists, who then by the 30s and 40s established independent East Turkestan republics based on their identity as Turkic speakers, as practitioners of Islam. The region is really ruled by custom until 1949, so local leaders were largely kept in place. But this obviously changed with China starting to see itself as a nation state, not just a nation or a civilisation, but saying the borders of China should reflect our national identity.

So, in 1949, when the Peoples Liberation Army arrive in Urumchi, this is called a peaceful liberation. Its a bit of a paradox. In the Chinese narrative its always been part of China, yet we have to keep liberating the region because in practice, it wasnt seen as part of the Chinese nation by Chinese people or by Uyghurs.

Gemma: In 1949, when the region became officially part of the Peoples Republic of China, what was its ethnic and religious makeup at that point?

David: In 1949, the population of Xinjiang was approximately 5% Han. And now today the population is around 50% Han, though official statistics do vary. So the transformation since 1949 has been dramatic, particularly when we think about language. In 1949 and in rural Xinjiang, Uyghur language is the lingua franca. Its intelligible with Kazakh and Kyrgyz. And at that stage in 1949, Han Chinese people would have had to learn to speak some Uyghur to be able to communicate with people. This is obviously now not the case.

Gemma: Did anything change in the way Uyghurs were viewed by the Chinese state when The Chinese Communist Party and Mao Zedong came to power in 1949?

David: Uyghurs were traditionally called barbarians by the Chinese state. In imperial history of China, you had the centre of civilisation in Beijing or where the capital was and as you get further from the centre, the peoples become more barbaric, less cooked and more raw as the terminology says.

But when Mao Zedong comes to power, hes saying China shouldnt be chauvinist. China shouldnt be ethno-nationalist. It must be multi-cultural, it must find a new way to include minorities. So he said we shouldnt call them barbarians, we shouldnt use the animal characters that were used in their names when they are given names, they are humans.

When the CCP Chinese communist party came to power, they described almost all social issues in the region in terms of what they call an ethnic problem, the minzu wenti. And they thought the way to solve that ethnic problem, ie, how to fit different ethnic groups into Chinas empire, was to classify the groups. So that was called the Ethnic Classification Project, where groups were identified using things like lineage and language records, people were asked which group do you belong to?. And this was in the framework that economic inequality is the root behind ethnic conflict.

So the idea was that developing the region would enable the region to not just economically catch up, but they would become Chinese. So, this shows how their regional policy did have an ethnocentric streak. There was a notion of modernisation thats very similar to colonial motions of modernisation, that essentially cultures develop along a straight line. Deng Xiaoping even said the Han have a special responsibility to modernise Uyghurs.

Gemma: Whats happened between then and now in terms some of the big moments that have defined the way China and the centre have viewed Xinjiang?

David: The big events in sort of the the last 20, 30 years, of course, outbreaks of violence in 2008 before the Beijing Olympics, and the violence in Urumchi in 2009, between Han and Uyghurs.

What was different about them was its people-on-people violence, it wasnt just institutions being attacked. So it was taken as a symbol of deteriorating ethnic relations, and it sparked debates amongst Chinese scholars of how to resolve the ethnic problem in a new era. This was largely a debate between the old school saying focus on economic development, and a new school saying we need rapid assimilation, we need to remove minority languages from education system, and we need to derecognise minorities. Xi Jinpings policy, the language of smelting into rongzhu, that you should have no special rights for minorities, has been celebrated by those scholars as resolving Chinas contradictions. So this is a new direction in policy, but it is based on the underlying idea that Uyghur ethnicity is a security problem that needs to be dealt with.

Gemma: There was violence in 2008 and 2009, and that was followed by more attacks in 2013 and 2014 in Beijing and Kunming which were blamed on Uyghur separatists. How much of what the Chinese state has done in Xinjiang since then is a continuation of that longer history of discrimination and persecution against Uyghurs?

David: This is the real underlying problem, that Uyhgurs are not really seen as human, and then when they start to be seen as human its only because they have to be integrated into China. Its worth noting it didnt have to happen this way. We could have had different turns of events, different leaders with some different ideas.

But when there is a narrative that a people are a security problem, its very difficult to turn that around on the ground when a people know they are targeted as a security problem. And once you have that narrative in official circles, how else can you talk about Uyghurs and Xinjiang without referring to Uyghurs as a security problem?

Gemma: You have spent a lot of time in the region and youve spoken to a lot of Uyghur people as part of your research. When you were there back a decade ago or so, were people using the word genocide at that point or is it only in more recent years that the diaspora that youve talked to have used it? How did they perceive Chinas view of them as, as you say, as barbarians, as terrorist threats and more generally the policies that are happening to wards them in Xinjiang?

David: In Xinjiang, people used assimilation as a norm to explain Chinese policy. It was not necessarily an issue, whether this was genocide, ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity, its not an international law debate; its just speaking from the heart. So one Uyghur I interviewed in 2011, I asked what he means by assimilation do you mean total assimilation , or do you mean something more subtle? And he says, no, I do mean assimilation. So I ask him would you would tell us what the word is in Chinese tonghua to mean the same. Yep. Hes meaning assimilation. So it is largely a form of genocide in the language being used, and in Uyghur you could even say it as hanzu-leesheesh: to be made Han. So there was no claim that Uyghurs were going to be massacred. But the project of China being in Xinjiang is interpreted as an assimilation project and it is seen as colonialism.

Gemma: Its not just the Uyghurs who see whats going on in Xinjiang as a form of colonialism. In his 2020 book, The War on the Uyghurs, the American anthropologist Sean Roberts argued that the Chinese states actions in the region are a clear example of settler colonialism.

Anna Hayes: Settler colonialism in the form that we saw centuries ago, whereby states would colonise territories and they would overwhelm the indigenous population of that entity so that they could transform that territory into what they wanted it to be.

Gemma: This is Anna Hayes. Shes a senior lecturer at James Cook University in Australia and a fellow of the East Asian Security Centre. I called her up to talk about the economic strategy behind what China is doing in Xinjiang.

Anna: When you think of settler colonialism, you think of places like Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United States, and the very devastating impact that that had on indigenous populations in those places. And that has an economic driver in it. And thats certainly something that I think were seeing in Xinjiang and when it comes to the economic strategy, how thats playing out is through the belt and road initiative.

Gemma: Broadly, what is Chinas belt and road initiative?

Anna: Its an attempt to connect China to regions and markets far outside of the Chinese mainland, to put in trading routes and economic corridors that will link China through to the Middle East, Central Asia, to Europe. It also has maritime dimensions that sees China hoping to link down into places further field like the South Pacific.

Gemma: Tell us where Xinjiang fits into that plan and why its therefore so important?

Anna: So, for Xinjiang, it sits right in a strategic and pivotal location for the belt and road initiative. It is the gateway to the Middle East, its the gateway to Central Asia, it is also the gateway to Europe.

Gemma: And thats because its literally the most western province, in the top corner of China if youre looking at a map.

Anna: Thats right. And its massive. And it shares a land border with many different states. So it is a massive territory, it takes up almost the entire western part. So within China, theres a real hope that Xinjiang will be massively transformed, itll be a hub of manufacturing, a hub of natural resource extraction I mean, it already is however, that will be expanded.

And cities in Xinjiang, like Kashgar, which is located in southern Xinjiang, and its long been the heart of the Uyghur homeland. Its a beautiful, or was a beautiful, example of traditional Islamic architecture in Central Asia. But since really the late 2000s, the Chinese government in their attempts to develop Kashgar first, and now more radically to completely develop and transform Kashgar into just any other Chinese city. The old city of Kashgar has been smashed down and theres a desire to rapidly increase the population of Kashgar as part of this belt and road push, and to have it as a central gravity of economic focus in the belt and road initiative. And theyve identified nine bases that they want to have Kashgar centred around.

They include textile industry, the large scale metallurgical industrial base, a petrochemical base. They want it as a processing base for agricultural and sideline products, they also want to have export commodity processing and manufacturing base for the neighbouring countries. They also see it as playing a role in Halal food production and supply base for Muslim countries, as well as a buildings materials based for neighbouring countries. A trade logistics base, helping them get that China-Pakistan economic corridor really humming. And they also see it as being an international tourist destination because those little elements of old Kashgar that still remain, theyre wanting to make that a big tourism pull to the region.

Gemma: So all those different elements, is that happening yet or is that still the project in the future?

Anna: Thats still the project in some respects for the future. Other parts of it is already happening. In just the last couple of years, Kashgars population has already grown from 500,000 to 711,000. Theres the plan for it to have a population of over one million.

Gemma: Are these Uyghurs that have been brought from other parts of Xinjiang or are they people from outside the region whove been brought in?

Anna: Theyre a mixture of both. And I think what weve already seen too in Kashgar is that a number of factories that have been identified, they do have dormitories attached to them. Weve seen that with other factories around Xinjiang, that co-location of dormitories to provide the labour to the factories.

Gemma: Where do the Uyghurs fit into this economic strategy for Xinjiang?

Anna: I mean, its difficult to say, because you know, when you think about the connections that the Chinese government is wanting to pursue with economic and business arrangements with the Middle East, the Uyghurs were the ideal trading partners. And for many years prior, they had been. Until Xinjiang was really cut off to other parts of the world by the Chinese government, much of Uyhgur business and trade was with neighbouring states. So, they could have played really quite an instrumental role in connecting China to these other locations. But that is not the way that the government has proceeded.

Instead, I think what they are see is that the Uyghurs will make up the grunt labour force within this economic plan. And this is the other thing with the settler colonial society is that thats typically how indigenous populations are used. Theyre there to do the menial, you know, dirty jobs, alongside increasing numbers of Han Chinese who are migrating to the region because they too are a labour pool that is being used in the belt and road initiative within Xinjiang.

Gemma: Where does this fit into president Xi Jinpings wider project for China, which I know youve written a research paper on recently?

Anna: I guess Xi Jinpings bigger goal here is what he has called the China dream. Its a dream that many leaders have long held, and its really the dream of China returning to a position of great power status, potentially superpower status in the contemporary age. Thats why Xi Jinping talks about it being a great rejuvenation of China and the Chinese nation. And by the Chinese nation, hes meaning the Chinese people and theres racial connotations within there as well.

The belt and road initiative kind of falls underneath that, and Ive called it in my paper interwoven destinies. Its the blueprint for achieving the China dream. So, its the economic strategy that Xi Jinping believes can get China back into that really strong economic position globally.

Gemma: So if you see that the China dream is this bigger top level strategy, the belt and road initiative is a fundamental part of that. And then within the belt and road initiative, whats going on in Xinjiang is a core element. It puts Xinjiang really kind of as a crucial crux point of that China dream.

Anna: Absolutely. And this is one of the critical things about it all; is that for the belt and road initiative to work, Xinjiang has to work. And so thats why weve seen really intensive focus, and repression, and crack down, and the forced labour, the mass detention of one to two million Uyghurs, because Xi Jinping has to make Xinjiang work.

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China's plan for Xinjiang, plus what's lurking in your household dust? The Conversation Weekly podcast transcript - The Conversation UK

The Cabinet is to propose terms of reference for a Special Joint Oireachtas Committee to report with recommendations on international surrogacy.

It will be given four months to complete its work.

The committee will be provided with an issues paper drafted by officials in the Departments of Justice, Health and Children, in consultation with relevant ministers and their officials, to assist the committee in its deliberations.

The recommendations of the committee will then be considered by the Minister for Health as the Assisted Human Reproduction Bill progresses through the legislative process.

It is expected that any necessary legislative provisions which arise out of the committee's examination will be inserted into the Assisted Human Reproduction Bill at committee stage.

The Department of Justice says the Government has committed to dealing with international surrogacy.

It notes that while the Department of Health has responsibility for the forthcoming Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Bill, issues which arise from international surrogacy, including commercial surrogacy in other jurisdictions, "raise important questions in respect of rights and ethics, and concern areas of law that intersect across the remits of several government departments".

The statement adds that there has been "substantial work and engagement on this issue" since the formation of the Government between Ministers Helen McEntee, Hildegarde Naughton, Stephen Donnelly and Roderic OGorman and the Attorney General and their respective officials.

The memorandum is expected to be brought to Cabinet in the coming weeks.

It will propose how to consider the issues relating to international surrogacy and how to subsequently introduce legislative change.

The joint memo will be brought to Government by the Ministers for Justice, Health and Children.

Meanwhile, surrogacy advocates have described as "bonkers" that surrogacy legislation has not been put in place in Ireland as they join families protesting at Leinster House to highlight their frustration at the slow pace of progress.

A spokesperson for Irish Families Through Surrogacy said they are concerned that a new draft bill on assisted human reproduction will exclude international surrogacy and leave families and children without any legal protection.

Speaking on RT's Today with Claire Byrne, Cathy Wheatley said: "We want our children to be afforded the same provisions as every child in Ireland and have a legal relationship with both parents."

She added that "there are ways forward ... time has moved on, England legislated in 1985 for surrogacy and it is bonkers that in 2021 we have no legislation".

Ms Wheatley said that they want guarantees that international surrogacy will be included in the bill.

"All we are asking for is to create an ethical framework so that everyone is protected," she said.

Ms Wheatley said the first commission on surrogacy was introduced in 2000 and the issue has been "kicked down the road" since then, with ten committees looking at the issue.

She said that the families "know the Government will do the right thing", but that plans to set up another committee will not be enough.

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Families protest over slow pace of surrogacy laws - RTE.ie

There were 113 cases of Covid-19 in the community today, down from yesterdays record high of 206 - New Zealands highest number since the pandemic began. Video / NZ Herald

ANALYSIS:

Now that American kids aged 5 to 11 are eligible for Covid-19 vaccination and the number of fully vaccinated people in the US is rising, many people may be wondering what the endgame is for Covid-19.

Early on in the pandemic, it wasn't unreasonable to expect that SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes Covid-19) might just go away, since historically some pandemic viruses have simply disappeared.

For instance, SARS-CoV, the coronavirus responsible for the first SARS pandemic in 2003, spread to 29 countries and regions, infecting more than 8000 people from November 2002 to July 2003. But thanks to quick and effective public health interventions, SARS-CoV hasn't been observed in humans in almost 20 years and is now considered extinct.

On the other hand, pandemic viruses may also gradually settle into a relatively stable rate of occurrence, maintaining a constant pool of infected hosts capable of spreading the virus to others. These viruses are said to be "endemic".

Examples of endemic viruses in the United States include those that cause the common cold and the seasonal flu that appear year after year. Much like these, the virus that causes Covid-19 likely won't die out, and most experts now expect it to become endemic.

We are a team of virologists and immunologists from the University of Colorado Boulder studying animal viruses that infect humans. An essential focus of our research is to identify and describe the key adaptations that animal viruses require to persist in the human population.

So why did the first SARS virus from 2003 (SARS-CoV) go extinct while this one (SARS-CoV-2) may become endemic?

The ultimate fate of a virus depends on how well it maintains its transmission. Generally speaking, viruses that are highly contagious, meaning that they spread really well from one person to the next, may never die out on their own because they are so good at finding new people to infect.

When a virus first enters a population with no immunity, its contagiousness is defined by scientists using a simple mathematical term, called R0. This is also referred to as the reproduction number. The reproduction number of a virus represents how many people, on average, are infected by each infected person.

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For example, the first SARS-CoV had an R0 of about 2, meaning that each infected person passes the virus to two people on average. For the Delta variant strain of SARS-CoV-2, the R0 is between 6 and 7.

The goal for public health authorities is to slow the rate by which viruses spread. Universal masking, social distancing, contact tracing and quarantines are all effective tools to reduce the spread of respiratory viruses. Since SARS-CoV was poorly transmissible, it just took a little bit of public health intervention to drive the virus to extinction. Given the highly transmissible nature of the Delta variant, the challenge for eliminating the virus will be much greater, meaning that the virus is more likely to become endemic.

It's clear that SARS-CoV-2 is very successful at finding new people to infect, and that people can get infected after vaccination. For these reasons, the transmission of this virus is not expected to end. It's important that we consider why SARS-CoV-2 moves so easily from one person to the next, and how human behaviour plays into that virus transmission.

SARS-CoV-2 is a respiratory virus that is spread through the air and is efficiently transmitted when people congregate. Critical public health interventions, like mask use and social distancing, have been key in slowing the spread of disease. However, any lapse in these public health measures can have dire consequences.

For instance, a 2020 motorcycle rally brought together nearly 500,000 people in Sturgis, South Dakota, during the early phases of the pandemic. Most of the attendees were unmasked and not practicing social distancing. That event was directly responsible for an increase in Covid-19 cases in the state of South Dakota and nationwide. This shows how easily the virus can spread when people let their guard down.

The virus that causes Covid-19 is often associated with superspreading events, in which many people are infected all at once, typically by a single infected individual.

In fact, our own work has shown that just 2 per cent of the people infected with Covid-19 carry 90 per cent of the virus that is circulating in a community. These important "supercarriers" have a disproportionately large impact on infecting others, and if they aren't tracked down before they spread the virus to the next person, they will continue to sustain the epidemic. We currently don't have a nationwide screening programme in the US geared toward identifying these individuals.

Finally, asymptomatically infected people account for roughly half of all infections of Covid-19. This, when coupled with a broad range of time in which people can be infectious two days before and 10 days after symptoms appear affords many opportunities for virus transmission, since people who don't know they are sick generally take few measures to isolate from others.

The contagious nature of SARS-CoV-2 and our highly interconnected society constitute a perfect storm that will likely contribute to sustained virus spread.

Given the considerations discussed above and what we know about Covid-19 so far, many scientists believe that the virus that causes Covid-19 will likely settle into endemic patterns of transmission. But our inability to eradicate the virus does not mean that all hope is lost.

Our post-pandemic future will heavily depend on how the virus evolves over the coming years. SARS-CoV-2 is a completely new human virus that is still adapting to its new host. Over time, we may see the virus become less pathogenic, similar to the four coronaviruses that cause the common cold, which represent little more than a seasonal nuisance.

Global vaccination programmes will have the greatest impact on curbing new cases of the disease. However, the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine campaign so far has touched only a small percentage of people on the planet. In addition, breakthrough infections in vaccinated people still occur because no vaccine is 100 per cent effective. This means that booster shots will likely be needed to maximise vaccine-induced protection against infection.

With global virus surveillance and the speed at which safe and effective vaccines have been developed, we are well poised to tackle the ever-evolving target that is SARS-CoV-2. Influenza is endemic and evolves quickly, but seasonal vaccination enables life to go on as normal. We can expect the same for SARS-CoV-2 eventually.

Four seasonal coronaviruses circulate in humans endemically already. They tend to recur annually, usually during the winter months, and affect children more than adults. The virus that causes Covid-19 has not yet settled down into these predictable patterns and instead is flaring up unpredictably around the globe in ways that are sometimes difficult to predict.

Once rates of SARS-CoV-2 stabilise, we can call it endemic. But this transition may look different based on where you are in the world. For instance, countries with high vaccine coverage and plentiful boosters may soon settle into predictable spikes of Covid-19 during the winter months when the environmental conditions are more favorable to virus transmission. In contrast, unpredictable epidemics may persist in regions with lower vaccination rates.

Sara Sawyer is a professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology at the University of Colorado Boulder; Arturo Barbachano-Guerrero is a postdoctoral researcher in virology at the University of Colorado Boulder; Cody Warren is a postdoctoral fellow in virology and immunology at the University of Colorado Boulder.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Covid 19 Delta outbreak: Is Covid here to stay? Biologists explain what it means for a virus to become endemic - New Zealand Herald

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The pathology, phylogeny, and epidemiology of Echinococcus ortleppi (G5 genotype): a new case report of echinococcosis in China - Infectious Diseases...

At the Stevens Institute of Technology in the United States, a team of researchers is currently working on the development of a bioprinting method based on microfluidics. This microfluidic bioprinting is a technique that manipulates fluids with characteristics in the micrometer range. The interesting part of it is that this project would give researchers the ability to work on a much smaller scale than ever possible before, even allowing for the creation of any type of human tissue. Researchers could reproduce the biological characteristics of human body cells very precisely thus advancing, for example, organ transplants.

Led by Professor Robert Chang, the team has developed a computational model to accelerate microfluidic bioprinting and enable organ development. According to the Division of Transplantation (DoT) of the Health Resources and Services Administration at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, there are currently 105,940 people on the national transplant waiting list. The lack of available organs for transplants is fatal for people across the country, and this issue could possibly be solved thank to 3D printing. As you probably know, bioprinting is able to reproduce customized cellular structures to facilitate the creation, for example, of skin or even organs. Though we are still far from obtaining a 3D printed heart or a fully functional kidney, as this latest advancement has clearly shown, progress is real.

Microfluidics is a science that manipulates fluids with characteristics in the micrometer range

The research conducted by the research of this American team could tip the balance. That is especially because it is based on microfluidics. Other 3D bioprinters on the market are mainly based on extrusion, which are extruding inks layer by layer with a thickness of about 200 microns. However, thanks to microfluidic bioprinting, it would be possible to go down to only a few tens of microns and in that way have a scale much closer to that of the cell itself. Robert Chang explains: Creating new organs to order and saving lives without the need for a human donor will be an immense benefit to healthcare. However, reaching that goal is tricky because printing organs using bio-inks hydrogels laden with cultured cells requires a degree of fine control over the geometry and size of printed microfibers that current 3D printers simply cant achieve.

By getting as close as possible to the scale of human cells, the team would be able to reproduce more detailed biological characteristics of each one. The team has developed a computer model of a microfluidic print head, to control parameters such as flow speed and fluid dynamics. This model allows it to modify the geometries and material properties of the bioprinted structure. Above all, it offers the possibility of mixing several bio-inks, and therefore several types of cells, to design more complex organs.

Current 3D bioprinters are mainly based on an extrusion process (photo credits: Dpartement06-Xavier Giraud)

So far, the researchers say they have printed bladders using 3D printed scaffolds. But by combining multiple bio-inks, they hope to go much further. Robert Chang concludes, Being able to operate at this scale, while precisely mixing bio-inks, makes it possible for us to reproduce any tissue type. This technology is still so new that we dont know precisely what it will enable. But we know it will open the door to creating new structures and important new types of biology.

While waiting for further developments, you can visit the Stevens Institute website HERE. What do you think of this microfluidic bioprinting method? Let us know in a comment below or on ourLinkedin,Facebook,andTwitterpages! Dont forget to sign up for our free weeklyNewsletter here, the latest 3D printing news straight to your inbox! You can also find all our videos on ourYouTubechannel.

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Microfluidic 3D Bioprinting Allows a Better Reproduction of Cell Structures - 3Dnatives

The day before he was euthanized by veterinarians in March of 2018, Sudan collapsed in the dirt at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya, where he had lived since 2009. He was worn out and in pain.

At age 45, Sudan was the final progenitor of the earths most endangered animal species: the northern white rhinoceros. As the last male northern white in the world, he was both a global icon for conservation and a two-and-a-half-ton targetbecause the horn of even the most precious rhino is not safe from poachers. He lived out his final years under 24/7 armed protection at the conservancy, along with two of his female relatives.

Half a world away, Barbara Durrant felt it. She had never met Sudan, but she knew Nola. Most people in San Diego knew Nola, though not the way Durrant did. Nola was a northern white rhinoceros, one of only four that remained by the middle of the last decade, along with Sudan and his kin. She lived at the Nikita Kahn Rhino Rescue Center, located at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, about 30 miles north of the city, and not far from where Durrant reports to work every day at the zoos Wildlife Biodiversity Bank.

Nola had also been euthanized, after age and infection caught up with her, in 2015. She was 41.

She was just the most amazing animal, says Durrant, recalling Nolas wide mouth, her skin the color of clay stone, and her distinctive horn, which curved toward the ground. Its not only losing that animal that you know personally and you love; its another step in losing the whole species.

Damon Casarez

Durrant is director of reproductive sciences at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance and one of a handful of scientists around the world who are trying to save the northern white rhino. In Europe, another group, under the direction of wildlife researcher Thomas Hildebrandt, is also working on the problem. And while their scientific approaches may be slightly divergent, the scientists end goal is the same: to rescue the northern white rhino before the bell of extinction rings.

Hildebrandt is the project head for BioRescue, an international consortium of scientists and conservationists. His group is harvesting eggs from female rhinos in Kenya; eventually the team hopes to create embryos using the frozen sperm of long-deceased northern white rhino males.

Meanwhile, Durrants team in San Diego is undertaking an ambitious bioengineering challenge. Inside the Wildlife Biodiversity Bank is the Frozen Zoo, a cryopreserve where 10,000 still-living skin cells from 1,100 different animal species are stored in tanks of liquid nitrogen at extremely low temperatures. Among them are 12 cell lines taken from 12 different northern white rhinos, dating back to 1979.

The Frozen Zoo is a cryopreserve where 10,000 still-living skin cells from 1,100 different animal species are stored in tanks of liquid nitrogen.

As recently as two decades ago, the next step amounted to the stuff of science fiction: taking those skin cells, reprogramming them into sperm and egg, combining them in a test tube, and then implanting that embryo into a surrogate host. Recreating a whole new northern white rhino. And then another, and another, and then, once nature took its course, dozens more. Breathing life back into that which is dead. De-extinction, in other words, the purposeful resurrection of animals that have died off. Animals like Sudan.

People are seeing a species go extinct right before their eyes, says Durrant. Can we really even make a dent? The answer is, well, we have to. We have to do this.

Astronomical costs and enormous risks stand in the way. An investment of at least $20 million is required to realize the ultimate goal of reconstituting a population of wild northern white rhinoceroses. Retrieving oocytes (eggs) is a delicate endeavor, because if scientists puncture blood vessels near the uterus, the animal will bleed to death. And preserving a species through bioengineering is a fraught, messy process, one that calls into question the sophistication of current reproduction techniques and the merits of meddling with nature.

If the project succeeds, it would be a scientific breakthrough like no other. What was once outside the realm of possibility is almost within our grasp. At some point in the not-too-distant future, a rhinoceros calfa cultivated northern whitemay very well take its first steps.

Ann and Steve Toon / Alamy Stock Photo

Of the worlds five rhino species, the northern whiteone of two subspecies of white rhinosdrew the short straw. Northern whites once roamed East and Central Africa, enjoying an herbivorous lifestyle with few natural predators. Humans prized them for their horns, which can grow over four feet. In Europe circa 1900, rhino horn was fashioned into ornamental accoutrements, like walking sticks and pistol grips. It remains a common ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine, which prescribes powdered rhino horn mixed with boiling water as a cure for fever, gout, and rheumatism.

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Poaching and war rapidly thinned their numbers, from the thousands to the hundreds to the tens. Nola arrived in San Diego in 1989; by the end of that decade, fewer than 40 northern whites remained in the northeast corner of what is today the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The last northern white was spotted in the wild in 2006. By then, the only survivors were those that had been relocated to zoos in the 1970s. They included Sudan, his daughter, Najin, her daughter, Fatu, and another bull, Suni, who were all taken to Kenyas Ol Pejeta Conservancy in 2009. They were the eligible breeders, yet no calves were born. Suni died four years before Sudan.

Four became three, then three became two, and now only Najin and Fatu remain. They are old and getting older, and even if they could mate, veterinarians have determined that neither is capable of carrying a pregnancy to term. Its a foregone conclusion then, yes? The line of northern white rhinos dies with Najin and Fatu.

TONY KARUMBAGetty Images

Sometimes we feel kind of helpless, says Durrant. Were battling such a huge wave of extinction.

Southern white rhinos, on the other hand, largely escaped their cousins misfortune. There were fewer than 100 remaining in the late 1800s, but a tenacious conservation effort followed and continues today. More than 20,000 of these rhinos currently roam the earth, mostly in South Africa. The San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance has six females, which will play a crucial role in its effort to produce a pure northern white rhino. Summarizing the idea is easy enough: An embryo made of northern white sperm and egg is implanted into a surrogatea female southern white rhino. Sixteen months later, a northern white calf is born.

I can say pretty clearly that this would be the first time a robot has ever been used in animals like this.

Durrant and her colleagues have already cleared several hurdles in the past five years. Using ultrasound technology, the team deciphered the inner workings of the rhinos reproductive system. Mapping the cervix was a key first step. A rhino cervix is a tight, convoluted maze of rings, a foot of anatomy thats fairly common to the two subspecies. Navigating it can be tricky. To practice, the zoo artificially inseminated two southern white females in 2018 using preserved southern white male sperm. Two healthy calves, Edward and Future, were born in 2019.

Damon Casarez

When female rhinos are ovulating, circulating estrogen helps relax the rings of the cervical tissue. For that reason, Durrant and her team were able to inseminate the zoos rhinos by hand. The future embryo transfer, however, will be much tougher. Once the team has produced a viable pure northern white rhino embryo, they will stimulate ovulation in one of the southern white rhinos residing at the Safari Park. Then theyll have to wait another 10 days to let the embryo mature in vitro before implantation. But the surrogates estrogen levels will have decreased by then, causing her cervix to tighten once more. Navigating it by hand will be impossible, because the risk of severely damaging cervical tissue is too great. Instead, Durrant and her team are currently collaborating with roboticists at the University of California San Diego to develop a workaround.

I can say pretty clearly that this would be the first time a robot has ever really been used in animals in any kind of major computation effort like this, says Michael Yip, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at UCSD and director of the Advanced Robotics and Controls Laboratory.

Courtesy UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering

Yips lab is outfitting a noodlelike catheter with miniaturized robotic controls. Imagine a tiny metal cylinder, thinner than the circumference of a headphone jack and sheathed in a flexible filament. A camera on one end will give zoo workers a view of where theyre going, while a PlayStation-like controller will bend the catheter with sub-millimeter precisionenough to ensure that they can navigate the rings without scraping tissue or puncturing blood vessels.

Well do very little, if any, tissue damage, but well be able to get through that tightened-down cervix, Durrant says.

In March 2020, Durrant completed the zoos first oocyte pickups. Because the scientists had already done the ultrasound mapping, they had a clear idea of where the ovaries and follicles were located.

Eggs were collected from each of their six southern white females using a four-foot-long double-lumen (two channeled) needle, which is capable of flushing out the follicles and sucking out the oocytes. They collected a total of 22; in the lab, each oocyte was fertilized with a single sperm. In the end, while half of the fertilized oocytes matured, none developed into blastocysts, the final stage of embryo growth. But the effort allowed the researchers to start piecing together some novel rhino science: What nutrients do rhino embryos need, in vitro, to mature?

This was a critical juncture in the teams de-extinction work, as valuable practice for the fertilization procedure to come. You dont transfer an embryo on the initial try. Fail to navigate the cervical maze, and you might damage tissue, imperiling the pregnancy. Fail to mature a reprogrammed egg into a blastocyst, and theres no embryo to even transfer. Everything Durrants team has done with southern whites is a dress rehearsal for the premiere event, when it finally comes time to make a southern white female the surrogate mother of the main character: a northern white rhino embryo.

Damon Casarez

Damon Casarez

The task of generating the sperm and egg falls to the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliances Marisa Korody, a conservation geneticist who is trying to create stem cells from the functionally extinct northern white rhinos. She starts with cryopreserved fibroblasts, cells that compose the connective structural tissue of all animals. The Frozen Zoo has fibroblasts generated from skin samples of 12 different northern whiteseight of which are unrelatedthat contain enough genetic diversity to save the species. These fibroblasts are then reprogrammed into induced pluripotent stem cellsthat is, cells that can turn into any cell type in the body. By directing these stem cells to specific developmental paths, the researchers can generate primordial germ cells, precursors to what eventually become sperm and eggs.

This is as far as the science goesat least for now, and at least with rhinos. Korody is optimistic shes managed to generate the germ cells. Generating northern white rhino sperm and northern white rhino egg, though, is a long-term process, one that involves figuring out the hormones and growth signals needed to get the germ cells to differentiate further.

Maybe in 10 years or so, well be close, she says.

Damon Casarez

Its a different strategy from the one Thomas Hildebrandt and BioRescue are focused on right now. While the team in San Diego is trying to generate northern white rhino embryos from cells, BioRescue is attempting to fertilize eggs collected from Fatu and Najin with cryopreserved northern white rhino sperm.

We can use this approach to transfer the embryos into a southern white rhino surrogate, and then let the calf grow up with Najin and Fatu, says Hildebrandt, who also leads the department of reproduction management at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Germany.

In 2019, Hildebrandts team accomplished a scientific first: It transferred a rhino embryo fertilized in vitro into the uterus of a female rhino. In this case, it was a southern white. As of July 2021, BioRescue has completed seven southern white rhino embryo transfers.

In the next few years, Hildebrandt says, BioRescue will be ready to transfer a northern white rhino embryo into a surrogate southern white female.

In the 55-million-year evolutionary history of the rhino, 10 years is nothing but a heartbeat. In the here and now, however, a decade is enough time to exacerbate an annihilation crisis thats already underway.

In 2019, a landmark report from the United Nations revealed that a million animal and plant species are careening toward extinction. A subsequent report issued by the World Wildlife Fund in 2020 indicated that wildlife populations have declined by two-thirds in the past half century due to human activities; deforestation, insecticides, and poaching are all complicit. Various species we hardly think of but are nonetheless important for humans and ecosystems to thrive are in the crosshairs.

If we can think of this as a leaky bucket right now, the bucket is pouring out water and more and more species are falling out, says Tierra Curry, a senior scientist with the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity, based in Arizona. Trying to put a couple more species back in the bucket isnt going to fix the problem.

Criticism of de-extinction efforts often begins with something like Currys premise. Her preference would be to fight like hell for everything still alive. After all, the natural world is at the brink, but animals arent the problem.

Instead, the ultimate problem is uniquely and definitely humans, says Ross MacPhee, a curator in the mammalogy department of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Theres no way to guarantee that a population of northern white rhinos wouldnt need around-the-clock protection the way Najin and Fatu do today. Southern white rhinos, despite their resurgence, are already considered a species on the way to endangered, as lust for rhino horn continues unabated. Some horns fetch a purse of $300,000. How much might a rare northern white rhino horn go for?

While the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance hopes to generate a self-sustaining population of northern white rhinos back in part of their native range, Durrant says that would only happen if its safe to put the animals there. But not making the effort isnt an option, she says.

Everything is connected, says Durrant. When you take any species, plant or animal, out of an ecosystem, it starts to unravel.

As it stands now, most of the African species of rhinosthe southern white and black rhinosare concentrated mainly in southern Africa. Very few black rhinos are roaming around central Africa where northern white rhinos once predominated: The pointed mouth of the black rhino is good for eating branches and leaves, while the wide mouth of the white rhino is better adapted for grazing on grass.

Scientists keenly interested in saving the northern white rhino often cite the good that such a keystone species provides. A megafauna creature like the white rhino directly and indirectly affects the well-being of dozens of other creatures. By eating long grass, they help keep vegetation at a reasonable level so predators can see their prey. Their feet carve avenues in the grass so prey can escape. Their droppings fertilize the grass and provide nutrients for insects. Its a tiny biosphere where nonhuman life thrives. Upset the balance, and that life has to migrate elsewhere. Maybe to urban ecosystems. Maybe carrying disease.

Damon Casarez

Under any other circumstances, a group of people kneeling around Fatu inside the Ol Pejeta Conservancy would be a cause for concern. But on this Sunday in December 2020, the scientists and veterinarians in attendance were monitoring Fatu as she lay under general anesthesia. Near her backside was Hildebrandt. He was collecting eggs.

Over the past two years, with the permission of the Kenyan government, Hildebrandt and BioRescue have performed six separate egg pickups on Najin and Fatu. The latest one, in December 2020, yielded 14 oocytes from Fatu. Collection is done by anesthetizing the rhino and then inserting an ultrasound wand into the rectum. The wand is there only to provide a picture, a way to guide the needle that flushes out the rhinos follicles and grabs the eggs. Both times the eggs were rapidly transported to Avantea, an advanced biotechnology lab in Italy. There they were fertilized with frozen semen that had been extracted from Suni before he died. To date, BioRescue has cryopreserved nine embryos that combine northern white sperm and northern white egg.

The rhino hasnt failed in evolution. Its at the brink of extinction because humans have poached it and killed it.

Its a monumental step, one that represents the closest any group of scientists has come to bringing a northern white rhino calf into the world. Hildebrandt doesnt just consider it fascinating science; he likens it to a moral imperative. Picking and choosing which animals to de-extinct is easy when nature hasnt selected against them.

The rhino hasnt failed in evolution. Its at the brink of extinction because humans have poached it and killed it, he says. So it is actually our human responsibility to fix this problem, because we have caused it.

Courtesy Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research

While BioRescues current endeavor is separate from the work being conducted by Durrant, Korody, and others at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, the two groups are working toward common goals. Hildebrandt and his counterparts in San Diego held the first international conference on rescuing the northern white rhino in 2015 in Vienna. He says the work being conducted on pluripotent stem cells in San Diego is an important component of the overall effort. BioRescue has created embryos made with eggs from Najin and Fatu and sperm from Suni; the embryos the San Diego team hopes to create will come from multiple other northern white rhinos, which will increase the genetic diversity of a future population. In turn, that should help improve the animals overall health by serving as a safeguard against disease.

Yet Hildebrandt wants to bring a baby northern white rhino into the world as quickly as possible. While the two subspecies are related, northern white rhinos are wider, with straighter backs, flatter skulls, and a different neck structure. The differences are stark enough that a baby northern white rhino might not learn how to graze properly if it comes up in a herd of its southern white cousins. Hildebrandt wants the animal to socialize with Najin and Fatu before they, too, die. Sudans granddaughter is only in her early 20s and still playful. Najin, on the other hand, is in her early 30s, and lives with a large tumor on her abdomen.

Theres a lot of things morphologically which are links to behaviors, says Hildebrandt. The social knowledge, how to behave as a northern white rhino, is something we can preserve. But there is no way to do that unless we produce a calf very soon.

Still, a de-extinction project inevitably requires two finite resources: time and money. Hildebrandt thinks it will take about 20 years to reintroduce a healthy population of the animals back to Africa, at a cost of approximately $1 million per calf. But how much is one northern white rhino worth to the world?

Damon Casarez

Damon Casarez

Depending on BioRescues progress this year, there might be a baby northern white rhino walking with Najin and Fatu within two years. The bioengineering tools required to accomplish the incredibleresurrecting a herd of 6,000-pound animalsare here, in the hands of Durrant, Korody, Hildebrandt, and their respective teams of researchers.

We have the technology. We can rebuild them. Now comes the hardest question of all: Should we?

Its perhaps too soon to tell if a new birth in a species that is on the brink of extinction would be heralded as a success. After all, humans nearly killed off every northern white rhino in existence. Whats to say that people wont poach the animals for their horns, and do it flippantly, openly, even expectantly? You created a bunch of northern white rhinos before, we may cry out. Just do it again. This, we might incorrectly believe, is the promise of something like the Frozen Zoo. We preserve natural history, only to reanimate it according to our whims.

Yes, science can save species. But dont rely on science to save species, says Durrant. We cant do this for every species. We dont want to do this for every species. We want species to be preserved in their native habitats before they go extinct.

Cryopreservation and embryo transfers arent blueprints for managing the planet. But they might preserve a legacy that the death of Sudan left behind. If were paying attention, maybe one new rhino will wake us up.

See more here:
The Bioengineering Gambit to Save the Northern White Rhino - Popular Mechanics

Lidl Ireland has become the latest large employer to offer paid fertility leave to its staff.*

All employees who are undergoing IVF fertility treatments are being offered two days at full pay per cycle, regardless of length of service. There is no limit to the number of cycles for which employees can avail of the policy.

Although IVF is available only privately in Ireland, employers such as Vodafone and Pinterest have introduced fertility leave for staff in moves to a more family-friendly workplace. Some employers have also introduced extended leave for pregnancy loss and surrogacy.

The Government has plans to fund the provision of IVF for parents experiencing fertility problems but this is unlikely to happen until next year, as legislation regulating fertility clinics and domestic surrogacy must first pass through the Oireachtas.

Lisa Bohan, a sales operations manager with Lidl in the northwest, welcomed her employers new policy, even though it has come too late for her to avail of it.

Ms Bohan and her wife Catherine have a three-year-old son, Luca, and are expecting a girl in September. Both children were conceived using IVF.

It has been a long journey for us, emotionally and financially. IVF can be stressful, and some of this stress can be work-related, she said. When an employer is willing to accommodate your appointments and provide leave, that helps take away the stress and any associated stigma.

Ms Bohan says she tried to timetable fertility appointments early in the morning, before her working day, but this wasnt easy as she had to travel to Dublin for them.

Despite the lack of regulation, an estimated 10,000 IVF cycles and other advanced assisted human reproduction treatments are undertaken in Ireland every year. Many other women travel abroad for fertility treatment.

Each IVF cycle costed 7,000-8,500, when add-ons that can improve the success rate are included, Ms Bohan pointed out.

The experience of IVF can be distressing, both emotionally and physically, and is not a topic commonly discussed. I was fortunate to have a very supportive line manager and I am grateful that my openness has helped shape this policy for colleagues who may be undergoing this process in the future.

*This article was amended on April 25th, 2022

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Lidl Ireland to offer paid fertility leave to its staff - The Irish Times

A special joint Oireachtas committee will be established to consider and make recommendations on assisted human reproduction and international surrogacy under government plans.

Pressed on the issue in the Dil yesterday, Tnaiste Leo Varadkar said he acknowledged that legislation on the matter is long overdue.

Fianna Fil TD Jennifer Murnan OConnor asked him to address reports the government will delay the Assisted Human Reproduction Bill because of technical legal issues.

Mr Varadkar said: It is complex. There are complex legal and ethical questions that arise in respect of for-profit surrogacy services, children being moved from other countries to this country and the right to know who ones biological parents are.

There are many very complicated ethical issues that have to be resolved, particularly in the context of our difficult history in respect of adoption and women giving up their children and so on.

He continued: We must get this right. There has been substantial work done and engagement on this issue since the formation of the government, involving the minister for justice, Deputy McEntee, the minister of state, Deputy Naughton, the minister for health, the minister for children, equality, disability, integration and youth and the Attorney General.

In the coming weeks a memorandum will be brought to Cabinet proposing how to consider the issues relating to international surrogacy and how subsequently to introduce any legislative change.

It will be a joint memorandum from the Departments of Justice; Health; and Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. It will propose the establishment of a time-limited special joint Oireachtas committee to consider the issue, including the issues arising from commercial international surrogacy, and to report with recommendations.

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Special committee to make recommendations on assisted human reproduction and international surrogacy - Irish Legal News

So Whats Wrong with Whole Genome Sequencing?

Whole genome sequencing is the process of determining the entirety, or nearly the entirety, of theDNAsequence of an organism'sgenome. It has been offered to determine an individuals risk of future disease based on a subjects DNA mismatch from normal. However, other than relatively rare monogenic diseases (caused by one gene), most illnesses and traits result from multiple gene interactions coupled with environmental and lifestyle.

Accuracy or Tea Leaf Reading?

Whole genome sequencing might prove useful to someone already sick to concoct an individualized precision-medicine cocktail. But for predicting future disease, based on the available data we now have, its validity is akin to reading tea leaves.

Even if the interplay of environmental, lifestyleand multiple genetic variables could be addressed, all this data can do is project a population -- not individual -- risk of disease. Thats the first problem with extrapolating the new knowledge, its not precise. But there is more.

The extent of ethnic influences on genetic expression is not yet known. Whole genome sequencing data has focused on white Europeans, constraining extrapolation to other ethnicities. Recently, 100,000 whole genome sequences, half from African-Americans, Hispanic, or Asian, have been sequenced, supposedly making the database more relevant to the non-white population. But much of the data is only available to researchers associated with certain American universities. Exactly how much of the 50% of the data collected belongs to which of the subgroups is not readily known, rendering reliance by non-whites risky.

The Death of Privacy

Some enthusiasts ignore the accuracy concerns and call for the creation of a national DNA database where we would assemble the whole genome package of all our citizens. the next step in Pandoras progress. The British have been planning (plotting?) this since 2013. This whole genome sequence data supposedly would be anonymized (but the anonymization would be reversible and simple to untangle). Its use is proposed to be available to private companies, including Google, without peoples knowledge and consent. Suffice it to say, the abuses, including privacy violations, are rather horrific to contemplate.

Genomed at Birth

Compiling whole-scale genomic information for a willing and consenting adult might fall under the realm of autonomy, although the cost for such testing would create its own disparities and social justice concerns. Engaging in the same practice for newborns, as proposed by the British Newborn Genomes Programing project, poses its own problems. While the information could disclose risks of hundreds of conditions, some are without cure or preventive measures. That knowledge might well be considered a burden not a blessing.

In the US, some 29 diseases are routinely screened for at birth. But these are diseases where early diagnosis and treatment are available, increasing the chances of healthy development and reducing death. Many such screens are mandatory, although some opt-outs do exist.

Using whole genome sequencing to achieve this end would disclose diseases, both with treatment or preventatives and those without. Of what use would the latter of knowledge be?

Consider the discussion of Huntingtons Chorea by my colleague, Dr. Dinerstein, disclosing that most adults wouldnt even avail themselves of knowing they would have a disease without cure or treatment or preventive measures even if it were available.

Can We Handle the Knowledge?

Another objection is, do we have the person-power to address findings that might be treatable? At recent conferences discussing the issue, objections were voiced by the healthcare industry, which anticipates an overflow of conditions without sufficient personnel to treat them, along with questions regarding the training of healthcare workers [and genetic counselors].

And What About the Rights of the Child?

Amongst issues that were not raised were the rights of the child. It is one thing to identify childhood diseases that a parent might be able to prevent. But the Whole Genome Project doesnt limit itself to illness by age knowledge of the panoply of diseases for which a baby is at risk in their future life would be available to the parent and, by extension, the siblings. Perhaps a child, on reaching adulthood, wouldnt want their parent to know they are at risk of depression, Alzheimers, or diabetes? Should that knowledge be made available?

Pre-Implantation Genetic Testing

Pre-implantation Genetic Testing (PGT) is now used to identify monogenetic diseases in newborns testing to determine illness caused by a single gene. It determines which embryos are suitable for implantation. In the UK, its use limited - legal to prevent serious illness.

Genomic Prediction is the creator of LifeView, an advanced genetic testing platform for embryos for IVF. We help couples have the healthiest child possible, protecting your baby from genetic risks that run in your family."

Recently, companies have expanded single-gene tests to encompass a broader range of genes - to assess not just a specific disease but the likelihood of a particular trait. Companies like Genomic Prediction advertise polygenic embryo screening, or PGT-P, to assess genetic data involving multiple genes (although not the whole genome) to predict the healthiest baby. [2] These PGT-P tests evaluate a series of genes arguably related to healthful traits but could be gerry-rigged to select for intelligence, aesthetics, or athleticism in the future.

Genomic Prediction and its competitors use algorithms in their analysis, relying in some cases on adult populations that may not even be relevant. Even if a PGT-P trait was relatively accurate in assessing relative (population) risk of disease, the value in predicting absolute risk (actual risk in individual) is very small. A 50% increased population risk translates into an absolute risk of that trait in an individual of 0.5% - a hundred-fold reduction.

At present there is no evidence that PGT-P can reliably predict the relative risk of an embryo developing a certain trait of disease.

Dr. Francesca Forzano, Consultant in clinical genetics Guy's & St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, London

The best the tests can currently do is approximate which embryo is the hardiest and has the least risk forfuture biologic disease at the time of selection. The effects of environmental stressors, including pregnancy, arent included in the analysis giving the would-be parents a false sense of security.

It's not surprising that the European Society of Human Genetics, the European Society of Human and Reproduction Embryology, and the American College of Medical Genetics have released statements advising against using polygenic risk scores for embryo selection. In the UK, its use is illegal.

Solomons Choice

Some bioethicists, like Hank Greeley, oppose the technique, leaving open the possibility of its future use, should they prove more accurate, claiming well-informed parents should be able to make their own decisions.

But the process also determines which embryos are rejected. Even if the testing proves more accurate, its use might be a societal tragedy. Selecting the ostensibly healthiest embryos means the less healthy ones are rejected. Superficially, this might seem beneficial, individually as well as societally. But this process also selects against geniuses such as Stephen Hawking, who suffered AMLS, or schizophrenic Nobel Prize winner John Nash.

Determining the healthiest or best baby to be born might evidence hubris rather than wisdom on the part of he or she doing the selecting.

Future Risk

The problems raised by PGT-P, which confines itself to groups of genes, are magnified by attempts to perform whole-genome sequencing at the embryo stage. These additional tests promise to identify the entire genomic structure of the would-be child before it is even born. Now, instead of selecting the healthiest baby, parents might specify one that is also beautiful and brawny weighting whichever traits they deem most important to them.

Relevant molecular and statistical techniques published last month in Nature Medicine touted a high degree of validity for this technique in predicting genetic risks for adult-onset diseases, including diabetes and breast cancer, when used in an embryo.

Ethical questions that should have been addressed regarding using whole-genome sequencing first in adults and then babies, now raise themselves for embryos.

This applies to privacy rights belonging to the embryo once it is born. Even assuming predictions can be accurately made, fore-knowledge of diseases that may surface in adulthood, like atrial fibrillation, cancer, or dementia, is not something an individual might want their parents, employers, or colleagues to know. And once the knowledge-genie is out of the bottle, its impossible to stuff it back in.

So, we keep trucking along with the technology before fully considering the ethical implications that would be unleashed. And initial thoughts may well change. [3]

Present Risk Ignored: And Virtues of the Old-Fashioned Way

The excitement of the new always seems to eclipse the banalities of the old. Certainly, infertile parents may require IVF, but as the hype around PGT-P increases, fertile would-be parents might be tempted to avail themselves of IVF to enable themselves of the service. That would be unwise.

IVF is associated with

IVF, then, should not be the first choice for conception.

Instead of searching for more knowledge, perhaps we should concentrate on safely using the knowledge we have.

[1] Genesis chapter 2

[2] at least four companies are advertising the service.

[3 Even bioethicist Julian Savelescu, who, as recently as June 2021, advocated a parental obligation of procreative beneficence, requiring selecting the child with the chance of the best life using PRS, changed his tune by October.

Visit link:
The Curse of Knowledge and Whole Genome Sequencing - American Council on Science and Health