Category Archives: Genetic Engineering

IMAGE:Violence and Gender is the only peer-reviewed journal focusing on the understanding, prediction, and prevention of acts of violence. Through research papers, roundtable discussions, case studies, and other... view more

Credit: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers

New Rochelle, NY, January 15, 2015-Zehaf-Bibeau, the Islamist convert who recently killed a Canadian military reservist on duty in Ottawa, Canada, represents a type of attacker rarely discussed--a person so obsessed with an overvalued idea that it defines their identity and leads them to commit violence without regard for the consequences. Although it appears that the assailants in Paris had more ties with terrorist organizations, the individuals still fit the description of people acting on overvalued ideas. This emerging, and likely growing phenomenon is explored in the article, published in the Perspectives section of the journal, "Lone Wolf Killers: A Perspective on Overvalued Ideas," published in the peer-reviewed journal Violence and Gender, from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers.

The article is available free on the Violence and Gender website.

Author Matthew H. Logan, PhD, a 28-year veteran officer with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), as well as an RCMP Criminal Investigative Psychologist (ret.), Ontario, Canada, explains that these killers do not always work alone, stating that "in the future I believe we will see more 'packs' of these wolves as they unite on common beliefs and themes."

"The violence we witnessed in Paris just days ago shook the world," says Violence and Gender Editor-in-Chief Mary Ellen O'Toole, PhD, Forensic Behavioral Consultant and Senior FBI Profiler/Criminal Investigative Analyst (ret.). "It was coldblooded, purposeful, and seemingly without remorse, driven by a unique self-righteous ideation of the killers. Dr. Matt Logan explains the 'motivating mindset' of young male offenders, sometimes loners and sometimes part of a group, whose 'overvalued ideas' combined with their own psychopathology is what motivates them to engage in this type of terror. 'Overvalued ideas do not constitute mental illness,' according to Dr. Logan, which makes this senseless, savage violence seem even more chilling and despicable."

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About the Journal

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

About the Publisher

Continued here:
What drives killers like the Ottawa or Paris attackers?

Scientists have gained new insight into fragile X syndrome -- the most common cause of inherited intellectual disability -- by studying the case of a person without the disorder, but with two of its classic symptoms.

In patients with fragile X, a key gene is completely disabled, eliminating a protein that regulates electrical signals in the brain and causing a host of behavioral, neurological and physical symptoms. This patient, in contrast, had only a single error in this gene and exhibited only two classic traits of fragile X -- intellectual disability and seizures -- allowing the researchers to parse out a previously unknown role for the gene.

"This individual case has allowed us to separate two independent functions of the fragile X protein in the brain," said co-senior author Vitaly A. Klyachko, PhD, associate professor of cell biology and physiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. "By finding the mutation, even in just one patient, and linking it to a partial set of traits, we have identified a distinct function that this gene is responsible for and that is likely impaired in all people with fragile X."

The research, appearing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) Online Early Edition in December and in the print issue Jan. 5, is by investigators at Washington University and Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta.

In studying fragile X, researchers' focus long has been on the problems that occur when brain cells receive signals. Like radio transmitters and receivers, brain cells send and receive transmissions in fine tuned ways that separate the signals from the noise. Until recently, most fragile X research has focused on problems with overly sensitive receivers, those that allow in too much information. The new study suggests that fragile X likely also causes overactive transmitters that send out too much information.

"The mechanisms that researchers have long thought were the entirety of the problem with fragile X are obviously still very much in play," Klyachko said. "But this unique case has allowed us to see that something else is going on."

The finding also raises the possibility that drugs recently tested as treatments for fragile X may be ineffective, at least in part, because they only dialed down the brain's receivers, presumably leaving transmitters on overdrive.

Fragile X syndrome results from an inherited genetic error in a gene called FMR1. The error prevents the manufacture of a protein called FMRP. Loss of FMRP is known to affect how cells in the brain receive signals, dialing up the amount of information allowed in. The gene is on the X chromosome, so the syndrome affects males more often and more severely than females, who may be able to compensate for the genetic error if their second copy of FMR1 is normal.

Patients with fragile X have a range of symptoms. One of the mysteries of the syndrome is how loss of a single gene can lead to such a variety of effects in different patients. Some patients are profoundly intellectually disabled, unable to talk or communicate. Others are only mildly affected. Patients often experience seizures, anxiety and impulsive behavior. Typical physical symptoms include enlarged heads, flat feet and distinctive facial features. Almost one-third of patients with fragile X also show symptoms of autism spectrum disorders.

To gain insight into what else FMRP might do, the researchers plumbed genetic sequencing data from more than 900 males with intellectual disabilities but without classic fragile X syndrome. They looked for mutations in the FMR1 gene that might impair the protein but not eliminate it entirely. Even in this relatively large sample size, they only found one patient with abnormal FMRP, resulting from a change in a single letter of the gene's DNA code.

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New genetic clues found in fragile X syndrome

IMAGE:New Space facilitates and supports the efforts of researchers, engineers, analysts, investors, business leaders, and policymakers to capitalize on the opportunities of commercial space ventures. Spanning a broad array of... view more

Credit: Mary Ann Liebert Inc., publishers

New Rochelle, NY, January 14, 2015--The commercial aviation industry has medical care standards, as does NASA for traditional space missions, and the emerging commercial space transportation industry will need to define medical care practices as well. The unique risks posed by commercial spaceflight warrant the establishment of Medical Levels of Care to account for the different phases of suborbital and orbital missions, as described in an article published in New Space, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the New Space website until February 14, 2015.

In the article "Considerations toward Defining Medical 'Levels of Care' for Commercial Spaceflight" ," Stefan Neis and David Klaus, University of Colorado, Boulder, review current medical care practices in the civilian aviation industry and traditional space exploration sector and offer suggestions for defining appropriate onboard levels of medical care for the commercial space transportation industry, related to different types and phases of flight. Suborbital tourist flights, for example, might require motion sickness and pain medications, oxygen masks, and possibly pressure suits onboard; whereas longer-term orbital flights would necessitate a higher level of care, including emergency medical equipment and training and perhaps spacesuits.

"Medical constraints are the most important discriminators in determining who in the general population can be a spaceflight participant. This original article adds critical new knowledge to an emerging discipline," says Editor-in-Chief of New Space Prof. Scott Hubbard, Stanford University.

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About the Journal

New Space facilitates and supports the efforts of researchers, engineers, analysts, investors, business leaders, and policymakers to capitalize on the opportunities of commercial space ventures. Spanning a broad array of topics including technological advancements, global policies, and innovative applications, the journal brings the new space community together to address the challenges and discover new breakthroughs and trends in this epoch of private and public/private space discovery. The Journal is published quarterly online with Open Access options and in print. Complete tables of content are available on the New Space website.

About the Publisher

Mary Ann Liebert Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science, technology, engineering, medical, and biomedical research, including Big Data, Soft Robotics, 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing, and Astrobiology. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's more than 80 journals, newsmagazines, and books is available on the Mary Ann Liebert Inc., publishers website.

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Experts explore the medical safety needs of civilian space travel

Germanys Environment Ministry is hoping for a complete ban on green genetic engineering,but a Green party assessment warns that upcoming free trade agreements like TTIP and CETA could still bring genetically modified plants to the European market. EurActiv Germany reports.

After the European Parliament on Tuesday (13 January passed a new Directive on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) in Europe, the German Environment Ministry is insisting on a complete ban on green genetic engineering in Germany.

It is very important that a political agreement be reached to generally apply the exclusion clause to Germany, emphasised State Secretary on Environment Jochen Flasbarth on Tuesday (13 January) in Berlin.

Under the new directive, EU member states will now be able to choose to opt-out, restricting or completely banning GMO cultivation within their borders. One of the leading proponents of such a legal ban in Germany is its Ministry of Agriculture, which is led by the Bavarian conservative Christian Social Union (CSU). The Ministry also supports a national ban on cultivation.

In a position paper from the Federal Ministry of the Environment, Minister Barbara Hendricks outlines that she does not want to leave any backdoors open for genetic engineering. The GMO law must be changed, so that controversial green genetic engineering cannot be used under any pretextin Germany, she states in the document, according to a report in the Sddeutsche newspaper.

Green genetic engineering has turned out to be the wrong track, Hendricks said. It is risky for nature and the environment and is not desired by consumers. For this reason I would like us to use the EU rules in the future, that can guarantee freedom from genetic engineering in Germany, she explained.

Meanwhile, an assessment from the Bundestags Green Party faction sees the GMO ban as being threatened by free trade agreements the EU is planning with Canada (CETA) and the United States (TTIP).

Titled Free trade - gateway for agricultural genetic engineering, the study is an analysis, conducted by Christoph Then, of the possible consequences of TTIP based on the CETA text. Then concludes that with TTIP, EU standards for the protection of GMO-free agriculture, such as measures against contamination and maintaining clean seed, will be lowered in the medium-term. The author also predicts changes in the approval procedure.

The studys main conclusions are:

State Secretary Flachsbarth decidedly dismissed concerns over consumer protection. No lowering of standards, such as a softening of GMO regulation, will be accepted through TTIP.

Originally posted here:
German Environment Ministry seeks unconditional GMO ban

Designer Baby
Designer Baby. . . . .Children to Order: The Ethics of #39;Designer Babies #39; http://www.livescience.com/44087-designer-babies-ethics.html Mar 13, 2014 - Creating designer babies who are free from disease...

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Designer Baby - Video

IMAGE:The Journal of Interferon & Cytokine Research (JICR), led by Co-Editors-in-Chief Ganes C. Sen, PhD, Chairman, Department of Molecular Genetics, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, and Thomas A. Hamilton, PhD, Chairman, Department... view more

Credit: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers

New Rochelle, NY, January 13, 2015--Emerging data on the role of inflammation and the immune system in the development, growth, and spread of breast tumors have focused increased attention on the role cytokines such as interleukin and transforming growth factor- play in breast cancer initiation, protection, and metastasis. A comprehensive overview of this new knowledge and its potential to lead to novel therapeutic approaches is presented in a Review article in Journal of Interferon & Cytokine Research (JICR) from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers . The article is available free on the JICR website until February 13, 2015.

"The Role of Cytokines in Breast Cancer Development and Progression", coauthored by Marcella Esquivel-Velzquez and colleagues from Universidad Nacional Autnoma de Mxico (Mxico City) and Instituto Nacional de Salud Pblica (Morelos, Mexico), reviews the latest evidence to support a regulatory role for cytokines (proteins that mediate communication between cells of the immune system) in breast cancer and other cancer-related disorders. The article explores the link between cytokines, inflammation, and obesity, which is a significant risk factor for breast cancer. Other topics include the association between cytokines and blood vessel formation, breast cancer metastasis, immunosuppression and the ability of breast cancer cells to evade the immune system, and the potential role of cytokines as prognostic factors.

"This article provides a thorough discussion of the impact of inflammation and cytokine biology on many aspects of breast cancer and can serve as a helpful resource to find specific details regarding mechanisms and therapeutic potential," says Journal of Interferon & Cytokine Research Co-Editor-in-Chief Thomas A. Hamilton, PhD, Chairman, Department of Immunology, Cleveland Clinic Foundation.

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About the Journal

Journal of Interferon & Cytokine Research (JICR) , led by Co-Editors-in-Chief Ganes C. Sen, PhD, Chairman, Department of Molecular Genetics, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, and Thomas A. Hamilton, PhD, Chairman, Department of Immunology, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published monthly online with Open Access options and in print that covers all aspects of interferons and cytokines from basic science to clinical applications. Journal of Interferon & Cytokine Research is an official journal of the International Cytokine & Interferon Society. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the JICR website.

About the Publisher

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

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Do cytokines have a role in the initiation and progression of breast cancer?

IMAGE:AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, published monthly in print and online, presents papers, reviews, and case studies documenting the latest developments and research advances in the molecular biology of HIV... view more

Credit: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers

New Rochelle, NY, January 13, 2014--A cure for HIV/AIDS is the ultimate goal of rapidly advancing research involving diverse and innovative approaches. A comprehensive collection of articles describing the broad scope and current status of this global effort is published in a special issue of AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers . The Special Issue on HIV Cure Research is available free on the AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses website.

In the Commentary "How to Cure AIDS: Feeling the Elephant", Guest Editor David Margolis, MD, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, states, "The breadth and diversity of reports found in the issue reflect the many domains of investigation that must be brought to bear to solve challenges of persistent HIV infection, and provide one of the critical missing tools needed to end the worldwide AIDS pandemic."

HIV latency, in which reservoirs of virus persist despite effective antiretroviral therapy and are able to hide from existing anti-HIV drugs and the body's immune defenses, is one of the greatest remaining challenges to achieving a cure. Guochun Jiang and Satya Dandekar, University of California, Davis, discuss the potential of one emerging "shock-and-kill" strategy to eradicate latent viral reservoirs in the Review article "Targeting NF-B Signaling with Protein Kinase C Agonists As an Emerging Strategy for Combating HIV Latency".

Zelda Euler and Galit Alter, Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, MIT, and Harvard University (Cambridge, MA), present another latency reversal approach that uses "killer" monoclonal antibody-based drugs that can seek out and eliminate replication-competent HIV in combination with agents able to flush the virus out of its hiding places. The authors describe this novel strategy in the Review article "Exploring the Potential of Monoclonal Antibody Therapeutics for HIV-1 Eradication".

"The HIV research community is turning its attention to a goal that seemed unimaginable not so long ago, the development of a cure for HIV/AIDS," says Thomas Hope, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses and Professor of Cell and Molecular Biology at Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL. "To support that effort, we are focusing the first issue of 2015 on HIV cure related research and making the work available free to researchers and the public alike."

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About the Journal

AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses , published monthly in print and online, presents papers, reviews, and case studies documenting the latest developments and research advances in the molecular biology of HIV and SIV and innovative approaches to HIV vaccine and therapeutic drug research, including the development of antiretroviral agents and immune-restorative therapies. The content also explores the molecular and cellular basis of HIV pathogenesis and HIV/HTLV epidemiology. The Journal features rapid publication of emerging sequence information and reports on clinical trials of emerging HIV therapies. Tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses website.

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Progress toward an HIV cure highlighted in special issue of AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses

The Specimen-Teaser
Official Teaser trailer for The Specimen. Current planned platforms: Wii U eShop PC (steam) -Hyper Galaxy Studios Abducted from your home planet by a highly intelligent race obsessed with...

By: Hyper Galaxy Studios

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The Specimen-Teaser - Video

IMAGE:BioResearch Open Access is a bimonthly peer-reviewed open access journal led by Editor-in-Chief Robert Lanza, MD, Chief Scientific Officer, Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. and Editor Jane Taylor, PhD. The Journal... view more

Credit: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers

New Rochelle, NY, January 12, 2014--A promising new therapeutic approach to treat a variety of diseases involves taking a patient's own cells, turning them into stem cells, and then deriving targeted cell types such as muscle or nerve cells to return to the patient to repair damaged tissues and organs. But the clinical effectiveness of these stem cells has only been modest, which may be due to the advanced age of the patients or the effects of chronic diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease, according to a probing Review article published in BioResearch Open Access, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers . The article is available on the BioResearch Open Access website.

Anastasia Yu. Efimenko, TN Kochegura, ZA Akopyan, and YV Parfyonova, Moscow State University (Russia), analyze how aging and chronic diseases might affect the regenerative potential of autologous stem cells and explain the differences between the promising results reported in preclinical studies using stem cells derived from healthy young donors and the more modest success of clinical studies in aged patients. The authors propose strategies to test for and enhance to regenerative properties and therapeutic potential of stem cells in the article "Autologous Stem Cell Therapy: How Aging and Chronic Diseases Affect Stem and Progenitor Cells".

"This review discusses a very important issue in regenerative medicine, how aging and chronic pathologies such as cardiovascular diseases and metabolic disorders affect adult stem/progenitor cells," says BioResearch Open Access Editor Jane Taylor, PhD, MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine, University of Edinburgh, Scotland. "Future therapies are discussed by the authors in terms of overcoming or correcting the limitations of these cells in order to enhance their therapeutic potential."

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About the Journal

BioResearch Open Access is a bimonthly peer-reviewed open access journal led by Editor-in-Chief Robert Lanza, MD, Chief Scientific Officer, Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. and Editor Jane Taylor, PhD. The Journal provides a new rapid-publication forum for a broad range of scientific topics including molecular and cellular biology, tissue engineering and biomaterials, bioengineering, regenerative medicine, stem cells, gene therapy, systems biology, genetics, biochemistry, virology, microbiology, and neuroscience. All articles are published within 4 weeks of acceptance and are fully open access and posted on PubMed Central. All journal content is available on the BioResearch Open Access website.

About the Publisher

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many areas of science and biomedical research, including DNA and Cell Biology, Tissue Engineering, Stem Cells and Development, Human Gene Therapy, HGT Methods, and HGT Clinical Development, and AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 80 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.

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Is stem cell therapy less effective in older patients with chronic diseases?

IMAGE:AIDS Patient Care and STDs is the leading journal for clinicians, enabling them to keep pace with the latest developments in this evolving field. Published monthly online with... view more

Credit: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers

New Rochelle, NY, January 12, 2015--African Americans currently account for nearly half of all new HIV diagnoses, and among females, 64% of new HIV diagnoses affect Black/African American women. A series of articles reporting results from the Women of Color HIV Initiative, including topics such as linkage and barriers to care, treatment adherence, viral suppression, substance abuse, and violence, are published in a special issue of AIDS Patient Care and STDs, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The issue is available free on the AIDS Patient Care and STDs website.

The Women of Color HIV Initiative is a prospective study of more than 920 women who were enrolled in HIV care at one of nine sites (six urban and three rural) across the United States between 2010 and 2013. The Initiative was a Special Projects of National Significance funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration.

Arthur E. Blank, PhD, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, served as a Guest Editor of this special issue and as a contributing author. In the article "Health Status of HIV-Infected Women Entering Care: Baseline Medical Findings from the Women of Color Initiative," E. Byrd Quinlivan, MD and coauthors, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, New York University, City University of New York, and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, report the activity limitations and health conditions affecting the study participants on entering HIV care. The women had more physical and mental health concerns than the general female population in the U.S. and, in particular, cardiovascular disease and diabetes were associated with activity limitation.

Elizabeth A. Eastwood, MD and colleagues, City University of New York, New York University College of Nursing, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, SUNY Downstate Medical Center, and SUNY School of Public Health, Brooklyn, NY, compare the sociodemographic features of the women who enrolled in HIV medical care. Urban women tended to report more barriers to care, substance abuse, and sexual risk behaviors. Women treated at urban sites were also, for example, more likely to be Hispanic, unemployed, and less educated, as described in the article "Baseline Social Characteristics and Barriers to Care from a Special Project of National Significance Women of Color with HIV Study: A Comparison of Urban and Rural Women and Barriers to HIV Care."

"Across the United States, Black/African American and Latina women are disproportionately affected by HIV, and many face daily struggles to engage in and remain in HIV primary care," says special issue Guest Editor Arthur E. Blank, PhD. "The articles in this issue use a variety of traditional and novel research approaches to document the barriers women of color face, and the factors that contribute to engaging and retaining them in care."

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About the Journal

AIDS Patient Care and STDs is the leading journal for clinicians, enabling them to keep pace with the latest developments in this evolving field. Published monthly online with Open Access options and in print, the Journal spans the full spectrum of adult and pediatric HIV disease, diagnosis, treatment, prevention, and education. Tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the AIDS Patient Care and STDs website.

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Findings from the Women of Color HIV Initiative published in AIDS Patient Care and STDs journal