Category Archives: Genetic Engineering

5:10 How To Survive Armageddon, Peter Kling 20Feb2014
If you #39;re reading this at http://www.guerillamedia.co.nz click "Original Article" on the bottom right for the video. PLEASE SUBSCRIBE AND GIVE A THUMBS UP Wa...

By: Vincent Eastwood

Read more:
5:10 How To Survive Armageddon, Peter Kling 20Feb2014 - Video

9:10 How To Survive Armageddon, Peter Kling 20Feb2014
If you #39;re reading this at http://www.guerillamedia.co.nz click "Original Article" on the bottom right for the video. PLEASE SUBSCRIBE AND GIVE A THUMBS UP Wa...

By: Vincent Eastwood

Follow this link:
9:10 How To Survive Armageddon, Peter Kling 20Feb2014 - Video

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

21-Feb-2014

Contact: Sophie Mohin smohin@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 x2254 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

New Rochelle, NY, February 20, 2014A new era of manufacturing is upon us. Recent developments in 3D printing and additive manufacturing technologies are set to usher in the next generation of industrial competitiveness. To address the rapid advances and potential of this groundbreaking new technology, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers has released an exclusive preview issue of our new peer-reviewed journal 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing (3DP).

Editor-in-Chief Dr. Hod Lipson, Director of Cornell University's Creative Machines Lab at the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and his expert Editorial Board invite you to view this exclusive preview issue. The Journal will explore emerging challenges and opportunities in additive manufacturing, ranging from new developments of processes and materials, to novel applications in new areas, such as health, medicine, and bio-printing.

To maximize the global impact of this important forum, the articles will be translated into Mandarin Chinese and appear alongside the English version.

"This powerful new journal provides a much-needed multidisciplinary forum on the rapidly evolving technologies of 3D printing engineering and additive manufacturing on a global scale," says Dr. Lipson. "3DP provides a much-needed professional forum for professionals interested in 3D printing across diverse fields, to work towards establishing the next industrial revolution. This journal provides biologists, engineers, materials specialists, and computer scientists a common meeting place."

3DP also addresses the important questions surrounding this powerful and growing field, including issues in policy and law, intellectual property, data standards, safety and liability, environmental impact, social, economic, and humanitarian implications, and emerging business models at the industrial and consumer scales.

###

Contact: Sophie Mohin, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., (914) 740-2100, smohin@liebertpub.com

See the original post:
3-D Printing and Additive Manufacturing: Preview issue of groundbreaking peer-reviewed journal now available

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

21-Feb-2014

Contact: Vicki Cohn vcohn@liebertpub.com 914-740-2156 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

New Rochelle, NY, February 21, 2014Even small increases in blood sugar caused by a diet high in carbohydrates can be detrimental to brain health. Recent reports in medical literature link carbohydrate calorie-rich diets to a greater risk for brain shrinkage, dementia and Alzheimer's disease, impaired cognition, and other disorders. David Perlmutter, MD, best-selling author of Grain Brain, explores this important topic in a provocative interview in Alternative and Complementary Therapies from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Alternative and Complementary Therapies website.

Dr. Perlmutter, a board-certified neurologist and fellow of the American College of Nutrition, has just been appointed Editor-in-Chief of a new peer-reviewed journal, Brain and Gut, that will debut in summer 2014. The journal will publish leading-edge research dedicated to exploring a whole systems approach to health and disease from the intimate relationship between the brain and the digestive systems.

In the interview "Rethinking Dietary Approaches for Brain Health," Dr. Perlmutter says, "We live with this notion that a calorie is a calorie, but at least in terms of brain health, and I believe for the rest of the body as well, there are very big differences between our sources of calories in terms of the impact on our health. Carbohydrate calories, which elevate blood glucose, are dramatically more detrimental to human physiology, and specifically to human health, than are calories derived from healthful sources of fat."

Dr. Perlmutter will explore how brain health and cognitive function are linked to nutrition in his presentation, "The Care and Feeding of Your Brain," to be delivered at the 2014 Integrative Healthcare Symposium taking place now in New York City.

###

About the Journal

Alternative and Complementary Therapies is a bimonthly journal that publishes original articles, reviews, and commentaries evaluating alternative therapies and how they can be integrated into clinical practice. Topics include botanical medicine, vitamins and supplements, nutrition and diet, mind-body medicine, acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine, Ayurveda, indigenous medicine systems, homeopathy, naturopathy, yoga and meditation, manual therapies, energy medicine, and spirituality and health. Tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Alternative and Complementary Therapies website.

See the rest here:
Does a diet high in carbohydrates increase your risk of dementia?

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

19-Feb-2014

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

New Rochelle, NY, February 19, 2014Joseph C. Glorioso, III, PhD (University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, PA) devoted much of his research career to developing herpes viruses as efficient vectors for delivering therapeutic genes into cells. In recognition of his leadership and accomplishments, he has received a Pioneer Award from Human Gene Therapy, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. Human Gene Therapy is commemorating its 25th anniversary by bestowing this honor on the leading 12 Pioneers in the field of cell and gene therapy selected by a blue ribbon panel* and publishing a Pioneer Perspective by each of the award recipients. The Perspective by Dr. Glorioso is available on the Human Gene Therapy website.

As he recounts in his essay "Herpes Simplex Viral Vectors: Late Bloomers with Big Potential," it took 30 years to create broadly applicable HSV vector designs and a useful gene delivery platform. Since herpes simplex virus has a natural affinity for the nervous system, Dr. Glorioso believes that "gene delivery to the brain represents the most important frontier for HSV-mediated gene therapy and provides a unique opportunity to study complex processes such as learning and memory and to treat complex genetic and acquired diseases, including brain degeneration, epilepsy, and cancer."

In addition, says Dr. Glorioso, some herpes viral delivery systems are proving useful for gene transfer in the emerging field of cellular reprogramming to produce stem cells for tissue regeneration.

"Joe began his work in gene therapy early in the development of the field focusing on the very challenging objective of targeting the central nervous system. His work with HSV vectors represents an incredibly elegant blending of basic virology and translational science," says James M. Wilson, MD, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of Human Gene Therapy, and Director of the Gene Therapy Program, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia.

###

*The blue ribbon panel of leaders in cell and gene therapy, led by Chair Mary Collins, PhD, MRC Centre for Medical Molecular Virology, University College London selected the Pioneer Award recipients. The Award Selection Committee selected scientists that had devoted much of their careers to cell and gene therapy research and had made a seminal contribution to the field--defined as a basic science or clinical advance that greatly influenced progress in translational research.

About the Journal

More here:
Joseph Glorioso, Ph.D., receives Pioneer Award

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

18-Feb-2014

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

New Rochelle, NY, February 18, 2014New evidence that chronic intake of THC, the primary psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, can protect critical immune tissue in the gut from the damaging effects of HIV infection is reported in AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses website at http://www.liebertpub.com/aid.

Patricia Molina and coauthors from Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, report that chronic THC administration was associated with greater survival of T cell populations and reduced overall cell death in the gut in monkeys, which is known to be a key target for simian immunodeficiency virus (HIV) replication and infection-related inflammation. The researchers present their findings in the article "Modulation of Gut-Specific Mechanisms by Chronic 9-Tetrahydrocannabinol Administration in Male Rhesus Macaques Infected with Simian Immunodeficiency Virus: A Systems Biology Analysis." This report provides mechanistic insights into their previous observation that THC administration attenuates disease progression in SIV infected macaques (AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses 2011; 27: 585-592)

"To better treat HIV infection, we need a better understanding of how it causes the disease we call AIDS. We also need alternative approaches to treatment," says Thomas Hope, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses and Professor of Cell and Molecular Biology at the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL. "This study is important because it begins to explain how THC can influence disease progression in SIV-infected macaques. It also reveals a new way to slow disease progression."

###

For immediate release

Contact: Vicki Cohn, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc, (914) 740-2100, ext. 2156, vcohn@liebertpub.com

About the Journal

Continued here:
Can marijuana protect the immune system against HIV and slow disease progression?

See Inside

A foreign fungus nearly wiped out North America's once vast chestnut forests. Genetic engineering can revive them

In 1876 Samuel B. Parsons received a shipment of chestnut seeds from Japan and decided to grow and sell the trees to orchards. Unbeknownst to him, his shipment likely harbored a stowaway that caused one of the greatest ecological disasters ever to befall eastern North America. The trees probably concealed spores of a pathogenic fungus, Cryphonectria parasitica, to which Asian chestnut treesbut not their American cousinshad evolved resistance. C. parasitica effectively strangles a susceptible tree to death by forming cankerssunken areas of dead plant tissuein its bark that encircle the trunk and cut off the flow of water and nutrients between the roots and leaves. Within 50 years this one fungus killed more than three billion American chestnut trees.

Before the early 1900s the American chestnut constituted about 25 percent of hardwood trees within its range in the eastern deciduous forests of the U.S. and a sliver of Canadadeciduous forests being those composed mostly of trees that shed their leaves in the autumn. Today only a handful of fully grown chestnuts remain, along with millions of root stumps. Now and then these living stumps manage to send up a few nubile shoots that may survive for 10 years or longer. But the trees rarely live long enough to produce seeds because the fungus almost always beats them back down again.

2014 Scientific American, a Division of Nature America, Inc.

View Mobile Site All Rights Reserved.

Give a 1 year subscription as low as $14.99

Subscribe Now >>

View original post here:
The American Chestnut's Genetic Rebirth

WSU staff scientist Barri Herman, who oversees the field trials, holds a tray of genetically engineered poplar cuttings, Jan. 13, 2014. (Greg Gilbert/Seattle Times/MCT)

Under USDA regulations, every genetically engineered tree is tagged and its GPS coordinates noted, as seen, Jan. 13, 2014, in Washington State. (Greg Gilbert/Seattle Times/MCT)

SEATTLE _ Sniff the air around Norman Lewis' experimental poplars, and you won't pick up the scent of roses.

But inside the saplings' leaves and stems, cells are hard at work producing the chemical called 2-phenylethanol _ which by any other name would smell as sweet.

Sweeter still is the fact that perfume and cosmetics companies will pay as much as $30 an ounce for the compound that gives roses their characteristic aroma. Because what Lewis and his colleagues at Washington State University are really chasing is the smell of money.

Born out of the frustrating quest to wring biofuels from woody plants, the WSU project takes a different tack. Instead of grinding up trees to produce commercial quantities of so-called cellulosic ethanol, their goal is to turn poplars into living factories that churn out modest levels of chemicals with premium price tags.

The potential market for specialty chemicals _ many of which are now synthesized from petroleum _ is big, said Lewis, director of WSU's Institute of Biological Chemistry. He's already patented some of the technology, which relies on genetic engineering, and created a spinoff company called Elasid.

In the longer term, the profits from high-end products could boost the struggling biofuel industry by helping companies survive what's called the "valley of death" _ the point where firms need to scale up production, but money is hard to come by.

The ideal operation would combine the two product lines, extracting valuable chemicals and using the waste for biofuel. But that's a long way off, Lewis said.

"Biofuels don't provide a compelling economic case at this point in time," he said. "We've been trying for many decades to understand how plants make these special chemicals that can be used in flavorings, fuels and medicinals, and that seemed like the obvious first place to target."

Follow this link:
Rose scent in poplar trees? University turns to genetic engineering

Feature Article of Monday, 17 February 2014

Columnist: Agorsor, Yafetto, Otwe, Galyuon

Israel D. K. Agorsor, Levi Yafetto, Emmanuel P. Otwe and Isaac K. A. Galyuon This is the concluding part of the articles Ghanas GMO debates: beyond the sticking points (1) & (2)

6. Interfering in Nature As we indicated in the first part of this article, one of the moral arguments against GMOs is that the processes leading to them, that is, genetic engineering techniques, amount to gross interference in nature and the natural order. Here, we present scientific arguments that say that this may not be restricted to GMOs alone, as humankind has always interfered in nature, at times in ways unimaginable, all in an effort to make life better.

You may be surprised to hear that many of the food crops we eat today are not their original selves. They are products of years of conscious and systematic manipulation of nature, if you will call it that, representing a marked departure from what they were in the beginning of time. Humankind has always attempted to improve natural resources to meet the demands of a growing population in a changing climate. That is to say that conventional breeding itself relies on the transfer of genes, albeit via crosses. from one crop species to a related species in order to be able to develop new varieties.

Conventional plant breeding has its own problems. Unlike genetic engineering, conventional breeding in transferring a gene which conditions a specific trait also transfers a number of other genes on the same chromosome along with it. This means that the conventional breeder very often is not only transferring a specific trait to his elite cultivated variety (cultivar), but also other traits that may be undesirable. For example, two varieties of conventionally-bred potatoes, Lenape and Magnum Bonum, and conventionally-bred celery developed to be pest-resistant had to be withdrawn from the market after it was realized that the conventional breeding processes accidentally led to increased levels of naturally occurring toxins in them.

The foregoing explains why some scientists argue that the assumption that conventionally-bred crops are necessarily safer than GM crops is overly simplistic, especially when conventionally-bred crops are not subjected to the kind of pre-marketing safety analysis done for GM crops.

Then, we present another interference in nature: mutation breeding. Mutation breeding is a crop breeding technique where breeders subject seeds to doses of radiation and gene-altering chemicals in order to produce novel plant varieties. This technique has been in use since the dawn of the nuclear age in the 1950s, and has seen an escalated use in the last few years. The Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture programme of the United Nations reportedly received about 40 requests for radiation services from a number of countries across the world in 2013. Many of the multinational seed companies chided for promoting GMOs, like BASF and Monsanto, have all reportedly used this technique in developing new crop varieties, all without regulation.

In Ghana, the Biotechnology and Nuclear Agriculture Research Institute (BNARI) of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission, and research programmes in some of the nations universities, the University of Cape Coast for example, have been experimenting mutation breeding techniques for some time now.

In a 2004 report, the US National Academy of Sciences remarked that placing GM crops under tight regulations, while approving products of mutation breeding without any regulation, cannot be justified by science. Mutagenesis, the technique underpinning mutation breeding, has the capacity to rearrange or delete hundreds of genes randomly. It makes use of tools such as gamma radiation, which give rise to mutations (i.e., changes in an organisms genetic make-up) that sometimes are beneficial or hazardous to the organism. If you have ever had an X-ray image of any part of your body taken, then you have been exposed to radiation. And it is precisely because of the possibility of this process introducing mutations into your genetic make-up you are advised against taking X-ray images very frequently.

The rest is here:
Ghanas GMO debates: beyond the sticking points (3)

Genetic Engineering and Glowing Kitties ofDOOM!

By: Myles Power (mirror)

Follow this link:
Genetic Engineering and Glowing Kitties ofDOOM! - Video