Daily Archives: February 18, 2024

Image by Meiji University / Hiroshi Nagashima

Japanese startup PorMedTec says it's have cloned three piglets with the express purpose of having their organs be viable for transplantation to humans, without being rejected by the immune system.

The company imported gene-edited cells from a US biotech startup called eGenesis and used them to create genetically modified embryos, the Japan Times reports, which were then implanted into the uterus of a pig.

"The realization of xenotransplantation has been long awaited in Japan for several years, but it remained in the basic research stage because pigs that could withstand clinical application were still under development," the company said in a statement.

The idea of solving a global organ shortage by creating donor animals has been around for years. Japan, much like the US, is suffering from a major organ shortage. According to the Japan Organ Transplant Network, there are 16,000 people on the waiting list, but only 400 people receive them every year.

Despite certain advances, however, scientists are still struggling to get the human body to accept organs from nonhuman animal sources, especially long term.

Last month, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania hooked a genetically modified pig liver also courtesy of eGenesis to a brain-dead patient. The liver successfully filtered the man's blood for 72 hours.

Last year, a Maryland man who was suffering from terminal heart disease received the world's second genetically-modified pig heart transplant. He lived for nearly six weeks following the surgery.

Now, PorMedTec is clearly looking to push those frontiers again.

"Production of our first donors outside the United States is a critical milestone for eGenesis," eGenesis CEO Mike Curtis said in the statement. "This demonstrates the potential of broadening our reach and the promise of our platform to additional geographies and patient populations in need."

A different team led by researchers at the Jikei University School of Medicine is hoping to apply for approval of a clinical study involving the transplantation of a pig's kidney into a human fetus with kidney disease.

PorMedTec recently published a preclinical study in the journal Nature, outlining their efforts to knock out kidney genes involved in the pathways that influence the ways the human body rejects nonhuman tissues.

"The successful cloning in Japan of a genetically engineered pig with such a track record will help accelerate efforts to realize clinical applications in the nation," the company said in its statement.

More on xenotransplantation: Gene-Hacked Pig Liver Successfully Filters Blood of Human Patient

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Startup Clones Three Piglets Gene-Hacked to Have Organs Transplanted Into Humans - Futurism

Take a bunch of celebrity chefs; add biometric technology, bad intentions, a handful of bank accounts, a tablespoon of misspellings and a healthy sprinkling of lax verification safeguards. This is apparently the recipe for an identity cloning scam that has hit high profile chefs in the UK, which the BBC says has enabled fraudsters to siphon money from fake loans and other sources.

Celebrated gourmets Heston Blumenthal and Yotam Ottolenghi are among those who had identities stolen or cloned for malicious purposes.

Over the last six weeks, more than 750 fake firms have registered with Companies House, the UK governments central business registry. Registration and a small fee allow users to set up clone restaurants, withdraw overdraft money from accounts and place orders that will go unpaid. Verification measures only require the name of one director.

Employees have been registered without their knowing, leading to baffling calls from scammers. In some cases, the names of targeted restaurants were misspelled in their clone registrations; both Mr. Blumenthal and Mr. Ottloenghi got extra letters at the end of their surnames.

Alexis Gauthier, a Michelin-starred chef at Gauthier Soho in London, says he was most surprised that fraudsters were able to create a fake company with the same address as his real restaurant. Others are less surprised and accuse Companies House of doing far too little in the matter of identity verification.

UK law not allowing Companies House to verify ID of company directors has been bonkers for many years, says a LinkedIn post Robin Tombs, CEO of Yoti. He echoes sentiments that fraud expert Graham Barrow expressed to the BBC, calling Companies House not fit for purpose.

In response to the criminal activity, Companies House is setting up new authorities to address the issue of fraudulent identities, and says via a spokesperson that in the longer term we will be requiring company directors and people who file information to verify their identity to ensure they are who they say they are. But the timeline could run to eighteen months, according to Barrow an aeon in the evolution of the synthetic and AI-driven identity threats that have exploded around the world in half that time.

This is not the first time Companies House has leveraged digital identity. In 2022, it set up the Register of Overseas Entities (ROE), requiring companies to disclose their registrable beneficial owners or managing officers, to try and curb the use of shell companies for economic fraud. Its pledge to incorporate improved intelligence, data science and enforcement methods led to the September 2022 announcement that it was launching a digital identity verification system for those looking to register and operate a business in the UK.

For his part, Robin Tombs is optimistic that biometrics and digital identity providers such as Yoti can play a key role in mitigating new threats. As more ID fraud is committed against innocent individuals and businesses, it becomes inevitable that individuals will create and use super secure reusable digital IDs like the free Yoti app, he writes. More businesses will accept reusable digital ID providing more utility for more individuals to get their reusable digital ID.

The odds may seem stacked against innocent victims today but over the next few years the odds swing strongly against most fraudsters.

Companies House | digital identity | fraud prevention | identity verification | KYB | KYC | Yoti

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UK business registry says yes, chef to hundreds of cloned IDs and restaurants - Biometric Update

Summary

One of the stars of Star Wars: The Bad Batch season 3 has explained why the stakes are so much higher in the shows third and final season and Palpatine has a big role to play. The Bad Batch has, throughout its tenure, been instrumental in connecting the events of the Star Wars prequel era with the events of the Star Wars sequel trilogy. Above all, it has proven that Palpatines cloning plans were set into motion long before the Rebellion began to take shape. Clone Force 99 has, unfortunately, been forced to get involved.

Speaking exclusively to Screen Rant, Dee Bradley Baker, who voices the majority of the Bad Batch clones, explained that the stakes were much higher this time, implying that Palpatines interest in the cloning program is a driving force behind the seasons narrative:

But then you lose [Omega], and then you lose Crosshair, and so again there's this vacuum that's pulling everyone apart, and the forces are then to get everything back together again. So they've gotta go back in, they've gotta get her and hopefully Crosshair, we'll see how that plays out - as we also learn that this is also very important, it has the interest of the Emperor, and that doesn't look good.

At the end of The Bad Batch season 2, Omega was captured by Dr. Hemlock, the leading scientist in the Empires Advanced Science Division. He, much like Palpatine, has an unsettling interest in cloning, and Omega is now caught in the middle of their horrific experiments.

Thankfully, the season 2 finale of The Bad Batch showed audiences that Omega wasnt in any immediate danger. Instead of being a test subject for Palpatines Force-sensitive clones like Grogu was Omega is instead being used as leverage. Dr. Hemlock needs the help of chief Kaminoan scientist Nala Se to fulfill Palpatines wishes; she was part of the project that created Clone Force 99 and a chief scientific adviser on Kaminos overall cloning program. Hemlock needed Nala Se to co-operate, and so had to find something, or someone, to coerce her into helping with his research.

In her own strange way, Nala Se cares for Omega. Whether that is because she truly cares about Omega as a person or because of Omegas unique status amongst the clones is still unclear. Either way, Hemlock discovered that he could persuade Nala Se to join his research efforts by threatening Omegas life. Omega may not be facing an immediate threat (The Bad Batch season 3 trailer implies that shes been waiting to be rescued for a long time), but Palpatine is not a benevolent man. As long as hes calling the shots, anything can happen in Star Wars: The Bad Batch season 3.

Star Wars: The Bad Batch is an action-adventure animated series set after the events of The Clone Wars, following Clone Force 99 (a.k.a. the Bad Batch.) Finding themselves immune to the brainwashing effects of Order 66, the Bad Batch become mercenaries for hire while outrunning the empire, now seeing them as fugitives of the law.

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"It Has The Interest Of The Emperor": Bad Batch Star Hints At How High The Stakes Are In Season 3 - Screen Rant

Always enable the caller ID feature on your smartphone.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)-generated voice cloning has been on the rise and cyber criminals across India have been using it to extort money. Delhi, the national capital, alone registered 685 cybercrime cases in 2022 as against 345 in 2021 and 166 in 2020, as per the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

Just last year in December, a senior citizen, Lakshmi Chand Chawla from Delhi's Yamuna Vihar, was tricked into sending Rs 50,000 to the scammers. He received a ransom demand via WhatsApp, which included a child's voice cloned using AI.

The police revealed that Mr Chawla received a WhatsApp message from an unknown number claiming that they had kidnapped his cousin's son. To convince the victim, the criminals played a voice recording of the child, pleading for help.

Panicked and misled by the realistic voice, Mr Chawl readily complied with the scammers' demands and transferred 50,000 via Paytm.

What is Voice Cloning?

With just three or four seconds of audio input, the voice cloning technology can recreate anyone's voice. Surprisingly, only a basic level of experience and expertise is required to produce a clone with an 85 per cent voice match to the original, as per the assessment of security software company McAfee.

The assessment report added that further efforts could increase the accuracy even more in future. Training the data models, McAfee researchers achieved a 95 per cent voice match based on just a small number of audio files.

Now, fraudsters use this voice cloning technology to deceive victims. They create a family emergency scam and convince them with replicas of family members in distress. Just as we saw in Mr Chawla's case.

How can we avoid being scammed by AI voice cloning?

Always enable the caller ID feature on your smartphone. The caller ID feature will alert you of who is calling and their location. In addition, it even indicates if the call was from a telemarketer or a scam.

Avoid sharing sensitive information, including your phone number and email ID.

Implement call blocking. You must take advantage of the call-blocking feature on your smartphones.

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AI Voice Cloning: What It Is And How To Avoid Getting Scammed By It - NDTV

The Big Picture

If there is one thing you need to know about They Cloned Tyrone, it is that John Boyega is just so good as an actor and a certain other science fiction franchise didnt take full advantage of this. It is thus refreshing that he has thrived in other films of late and this latest is no exception. Even as it is a little shaky at times, just seeing him in action will never get old. However, there is still the matter of the films ending itself and what it reveals about everything that preceded it. Thats right, in case it wasnt already clear, this piece is going to spoil everything in the film from beginning to end. In the event that you havent seen it, best bookmark this page and come back when you have. Beyond that, lets get started.

As some background, the film follows a trio of characters who discover that there is a vast conspiracy governing their lives. There is the lonesome hustler Fontaine (Boyega), the snarky pimp Slick Charles (Jamie Foxx), and the street-smart sex worker Yo-Yo (Teyonah Parris) who all begin with their own beef with each other before realizing they have bigger fish to fry. Specifically, as the title tells you, they are actually merely one version of themselves as there are actually countless clones that have been made as part of an experiment being overseen by Kiefer Sutherland's Nixon that targets the Black community. From the food they consume to the hair products they use, they are being pumped full of a substance that will make them more agreeable AKA docile. This is all being done from an underground facility with cameras surveilling every corner of the world above. Fontaine doesnt even have a real family, as his entire life was just a fabrication. Soon, he and the rest of the community come together to launch a rebellion that will blow up the conspiracy as well as bring one additional revelation.

A series of eerie events thrusts an unlikely trio onto the trail of a nefarious government conspiracy in this pulpy mystery caper.

In order to pull this off, the trio come up with a plan that involves Fontaine getting shot in the shoulder. As happened earlier in the film, he will then be brought underground for him to be swapped out for a new clone. However, this time, hell wake up and begin making his way through the facility from the inside. All of this goes according to plan, but then Fontaine discovers that he is not alone down here. No, it isnt the clones that they go about freeing. Rather, it is the original version of Fontaine who we discover actually was the one who set this all in motion as the lead geneticist who entered into a deal with the Devil. The memory all the clones had of their brother dying was based on reality, and he convinced himself that these experiments, however inhumane, would prevent future deaths like this in the future. Specifically, he wants to eliminate any differences by making everyone the same. It is a nightmarish idea of a literal melting pot that the original Fontaine wants to slowly implement over generations. As he says, assimilation is better than annihilation in a grim proclamation that makes all the humorous gags from prior into something more horrifying.

As clone Fontaine processes this information, which is spelled out in a rather extended exposition scene that grinds everything to a halt, we can see the wheels turning as he hatches a new plan on the fly. Not buying into the justification that his original self provided, he turns the tables on him. He does so by commanding the other clone to shoot the original via a code he had heard used earlier. The moment, while not as effective as it could have been had it been more flushed out, is built around Fontaine rejecting the false choice provided to him and embracing the community that had his back. The film could be more than a bit silly, but the sentiment behind this ending remains grounded in a skepticism of the premise of the bargain the older Fontaine made.

Where that version was willing to sacrifice many others for a safety that may not even come, the uprising showed that a collective coming together is what is really the key. Community looking out for each other rather than throwing each other under the bus is what holds the greatest chance to push away the evil forces of the world. As Fontaine reconnects with Slick and Yo-Yo, they discuss continuing putting this into practice by traveling around to take down similar sinister forces throughout the country. This culminates in one fitting final punchline of a scene where we see another such corner of the world.

True to what we learned from the original Fontaine, the cloning had indeed rolled out across the country, and we see another, Tyrone himself, living in Los Angeles. He goes about his day just like his other counterparts, checking in on his mother in her room even as she isnt actually there, before ending up at a friends house where he is smoking and watching the news. That's when he sees the clone version of himself which all his friends immediately clock as being him.

It's constructed as a joke, eliciting one more closing chuckle to send us into the credits, with the humor coming from meeting the titular character in the final minutes of the film. More than that, it provides one more glimpse at the broader world, serving as a reminder of how there is so much out there that is similar to our day-to-day existence and still much to be done to come together to make them better. Just as was the case with Fontaine and his friends, there is hope for the young Tyrone in the surrounding community.

They Cloned Tyrone is streaming on Netflix in the U.S.

Stream on Netflix

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'They Cloned Tyrone' Ending Explained: Are Two John Boyegas Better Than One? - Collider

A multinational research team has developed a method for efficient genetic cloning of trees, Tel Aviv University (TAU) said in a statement on Sunday.

The new method, detailed in an eight-year study that was published in Nature Biotechnology, uses a material developed by a team led by TAU and the Volcani Institute in central Israel.

The research focused on the common stem cuttings technique, with tree branches cut, exposed to conditions promoting root growth, and then planted as new independent plants.

This asexual reproduction method with no seeds allows for multiplying desired tree properties like fruit taste and resistance to dryness and disease.

Despite its benefits, this technique is economically impractical for many plants, with rooting often not reaching 50 percent, even with the widespread use of the plant hormone auxin.

Eucalyptus grandis is commonly known as the flooded gum or rose gum. /CFP

Eucalyptus grandis is commonly known as the flooded gum or rose gum. /CFP

To find a better alternative to auxin, the researchers created a "library" of molecules, attaching synthetic auxin to various chemical groups.

After experimenting on the Eucalyptus grandis tree, the team identified a substance that improved rooting efficiency, allowing the active component to stay in the plant for one and a half weeks, compared to the standard two days.

This enhanced treatment raised the rooting rate to 60 percent, six times higher than the standard method.

The researchers said the new method could reduce costs for farmers and consumers, improve crop yields and contribute to environmental sustainability by developing plants resistant to climate change.

(Cover image via CFP)

Source(s): Xinhua News Agency

The rest is here:

Researchers develop method to boost tree genetic cloning - CGTN