Category Archives: Transhuman News

Researchers are interested in genetically modifying trees for a variety of applications, from biofuels to paper production. They also want to steer clear of modifications with unintended consequences. These consequences can arise when intended modifications to one gene results in unexpected changes to other genes. A new model aims to predict these changes, helping to avoid unintended consequences, and hopefully paving the way for more efficient research in the fields of genetic modification and forestry.

The research at issue focuses on lignin, a complex material found in trees that helps to give trees their structure. It is, in effect, what makes wood feel like wood.

Whether you want to use wood as a biofuel source or to create pulp and paper products, there is a desire to modify the chemical structure of lignin by manipulating lignin-specific genes, resulting in lignin that is easier to break down, says Cranos Williams, corresponding author of a paper on the work and an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at NCState. However, you dont want to make changes to a trees genome that compromise its ability to grow or thrive.

The researchers focused on a tree called Populus trichocarpa, which is a widely used model organism meaning that scientists who study genetics and tree biology spend a lot of time studying P. trichocarpa.

Previous research generated models that predict how independent changes to the expression of lignin genes impacted lignin characteristics, says Megan Matthews, first author of the paper, a former Ph.D. student at NCState and a current postdoc at the University of Illinois. These models, however, do not account for cross-regulatory influences between the genes. So, when we modify a targeted gene, the existing models do not accurately predict the changes we see in how non-targeted genes are being expressed. Not capturing these changes in expression of non-targeted genes hinders our ability to develop accurate gene-modification strategies, increasing the possibility of unintended outcomes in lignin and wood traits.

To address this challenge, we developed a model that was able to predict the direct and indirect changes across all of the lignin genes, capturing the effects of multiple types of regulation. This allows us to predict how the expression of the non-targeted genes is impacted, as well as the expression of the targeted genes, Matthews says.

Another of the key merits of this work, versus other models of gene regulation, is that previous models only looked at how the RNA is impacted when genes are modified, Matthews says. Those models assume the proteins will be impacted in the same way, but thats not always the case. Our model is able to capture some of the changes to proteins that arent seen in the RNA, or vice versa.

This model could be incorporated into larger, multi-scale models, providing a computational tool for exploring new approaches to genetically modifying tree species to improve lignin traits for use in a variety of industry sectors.

In other words, by changing one gene, researchers can accidentally mess things up with other genes, creating trees that arent what they want. The new model can help researchers figure out how to avoid that.

The paper, Modeling cross-regulatory influences on monolignol transcripts and proteins under single and combinatorial gene knockdowns in Populus trichocarpa, is published in the journal PLOS Computational Biology. The paper was co-authored by Ronald Sederoff, a professor emeritus of forestry and environmental resources at NCState; Jack Wang, an assistant professor of forestry and environmental resources at NCState; and Vincent Chiang, a Jordan Family Distinguished Professor Emeritus and Alumni Outstanding Research Professor with the Forest Biotechnology Group at NCState.

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation Grant DBI-0922391 to Chiang and by a National Physical Science Consortium Graduate Fellowship to Matthews.

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Note to Editors: The study abstract follows.

Modeling cross-regulatory influences on monolignol transcripts and proteins under single and combinatorial gene knockdowns in Populus trichocarpa

Authors: Megan L. Matthews, Ronald Sederoff and Cranos M. Williams, North Carolina State University; Jack P. Wang and Vincent L. Chiang, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, China, and North Carolina State University

Published: April 10, PLOS Computational Biology

Abstract: Accurate manipulation of metabolites in monolignol biosynthesis is a key step for controlling lignin content, structure, and other wood properties important to the bioenergy and biomaterial industries. A crucial component of this strategy is predicting how single and combinatorial knockdowns of monolignol specific gene transcripts influence the abundance of monolignol proteins, which are the driving mechanisms of monolignol biosynthesis. Computational models have been developed to estimate protein abundances from transcript perturbations of monolignol specific genes. The accuracy of these models, however, is hindered by their inability to capture indirect regulatory influences on other pathway genes. Here, we examine the manifestation of these indirect influences on transgenic transcript and protein abundances, identifying putative indirect regulatory influences that occur when one or more specific monolignol pathway genes are perturbed. We created a computational model using sparse maximum likelihood to estimate the resulting monolignol transcript and protein abundances in transgenicPopulus trichocarpabased on targeted knockdowns of specific monolignol genes. Using in-silicosimulations of this model and root mean square error, we showed that our model more accurately estimated transcript and protein abundances, in comparison to previous models, when individual and families of monolignol genes were perturbed. We leveraged insight from the inferred network structure obtained from our model to identify potential genes, including PtrHCT, PtrCAD, and Ptr4CL, involved in post-transcriptional and/or post-translational regulation. Our model provides a useful computational tool for exploring the cascaded impact of single and combinatorial modifications of monolignol specific genes on lignin and other wood properties.

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Better Predicting the Unpredictable Byproducts of Genetic Modification - NC State News

Sales of fiction about epidemics have increased considerably in recent months, suggesting that readers are leaning to themes of the moment. The list below offers you a look at a few books prominent for their theme of a pandemic:

Blindness by Jos Saramago

Blindness tells the story of an epidemic that spreads in a European city where the inhabitants start losing their sight. Like any mysterious contagious outbreak, this plague sets off panic, chaos and confusion, and violence. Government quarantines the early-infected people in an abandoned mental asylum and the army guarding it shoots anyone trying to escape. The quarantine camp soon becomes a living hell. The meager supply of food and civil amenities with no one to guide the inmates through their dark world reduce them to bare animals. But the real hell breaks loose when there is a fire in the asylum and the inmates burst forth.

The Painted Veil by Somerset Maugham

This novel is set in the rural China, the heart of a cholera epidemic in the 1920s. Unfaithful Kitty Fane, betrayed by her lover is compelled to go to China with her forgiving husband Walter Fane, who is a bacteriologist and physician. Walter dedicates himself to the service of the cholera affected people risking his life. He falls ill while experimenting on himself to find a cure for cholera and eventually sacrifices his life.

The Painted Veil explores human beings capacity to love, forgive, sacrifice and transform.

The Plague by Albert Camus

Set in the plague-infested French-Algerian city of Oran in the 1940s, The Plague keeps faith in humanity and reaffirms that there is more to admire than to despise in humans. When two doctors approach the town authorities to warn that the town may be in the brink of an epidemic, the authorities fail to understand the gravity of the situation and take it as a false alarm. Eventually, situation worsens and the plague-decimated city is sealed off and the inhabitants are quarantined. Many people come forward to combat the plague, though their motivations differ. While some join the voluntary service being driven by religious principles, the others are motivated by code of morals. The main character of this novel, Dr Bernard Rieux does not serve the victims out of any altruistic or religious obligation. He relieves peoples suffering simply because thats what his job is.

The Stand by Stephen King

Its a post-apocalyptic 1978 novel that narrates the story of a pandemic that wipes out most of the human race. It shows that a computer error in a defense department laboratory leads to the spread of a deadly super-flu. A patient escapes from a biological testing facility, unknowingly carrying an extremely contagious and lethal biological weapon that causes death of 99 percent of the world population. The rest are left to struggle to cope with this new world.

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwoods Oryx and Crake is a 2003 post-apocalyptic dystopian fiction, the first volume of her MaddAdam trilogy. It tells the story of a world ravaged by genetic engineering. BlyssPluss, a wonder drug promising health and happiness, causes a pandemic that wipes out the human race. Snowman, presumably, the last surviving human being on earth, lives near a group of bioengineered primitive human like creatures called Crakers, named after their creator, Crake.

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Plagues are like imponderable dangers that surprise people,, the author of Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, told the New York Times in a 1988 interview.Set in the backdrop of cholera outbreak in Cartagena, this novel parallels between the symptoms of love and cholera. Dr Juvenal Urbino, one of the three major characters of this triangular love story, is committed to the eradication of cholera from the town. But there is another type of cholera that no medicine can cure. His wife Fermina Dazas lover Floretino Ariza suffers from the sickness of unrequited love for 50 long years. Here, lovesickness has been compared to an illness, as debilitating and deadly as cholera.

The Eyes of Darkness by Dean Koontz

Published in 1981, The New York Times Best Seller author Dean Koontz thriller novel The Eyes of Darkness tells the story of a mother grieving her sons death. When she finds a strange message claiming that her son is alive, she sets off on a terrifying journey to find the truth. This novel mentions a biological weapon called Wuhan-400 created in China aimed to wipe out an entire city or a country. This virus has a mortality rate of 100% and kills the affected in less than 24 hours.

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Fiction about pandemics and dystopian future - Dhaka Tribune

David Lynch has been the name on everybodys lips of late. The Twin Peaks director has been under the spotlight for his damn fine creation, as it enjoyed its the 30th birthday this week.

It has seen the auteur be interview by Vice in relation to the big day but also to get his feelings and thoughts on the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The response was one of hope that following the lifting of lockdown restrictions, when we can all share our time with one another again that the world will be a more spiritual, much kinder place to be.

Lynch has been, like many of us, holed up in his Los Angeles home over the past few weeks. While some have struggled to adjust, for Lynch, it has been very similar to his normal day. My routine is pretty much the same now as it was before, Lynch said. I get up, and I get a coffee. After that, I meditate and then I go to work.

All those getting excited about a new film or television project will probably be disappointed. The director has instead been working on two wall sconcestwo little lamps. It involves lightbulbs, electricity, polyester resin plastic, and those kinds of things.

In the current climate, working with electricity and the connection it can bring to those more lonely than others, has been an awakening for Lynch. For some reason, we were going down the wrong path and Mother Nature just said, Enough already, weve got to stop everything, reflected Lynch about the ongoing pandemic.

This is going to last long enough to lead to some kind of new way of thinking.

Lynch believes that the world will emerge from quarantine as more spiritual and much kinder humans. He continued, Its going to be a different world on the other side and its going to be a much more intelligent world. Solutions to these problems are going to come and lifes going to be very good. The movies will come back. Everything will spring back and in a much better way probably.

We can all hope.

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David Lynch believes the world will be a more spiritual, much kinder place after lockdown ends - Far Out Magazine

MIAMI, Florida With coronavirus (COVID-19) cases increasingdramatically in the United Statessome 435,000 cases as of Thursdaythe nation now has the most cases globally and is desperate for a drug to effectively treat the virus.

Unlike other forms of coronavirus, like the common cold and influenza, there is yet no proven medication to treat COVID-19. The possibility of a vaccine to treat the virus is at least a year away, according to most scientists best estimates.

In recent weeks, there have been claims, including from President Donald Trump and members of his administration, that a drug, hydroxychloroquine, normally used to treat malaria and lupus, is effective in treating COVID-19.

Two weeks ago, Trump at one of his coronavirus task-force press conferences, optimistically said the drug has potential as a drug to treat COVID-19. However, at the same press conference the top U.S. infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, while agreeing that the drug could have a positive effect with COVID-19 patients, cautioned that it needed to be tested before it can be generally prescribed for coronavirus.

Last Sunday at another coronavirus task-force press conference, President Trump again touted the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 although testing of the drug hasnt been completed.

What do I know, Im not a doctor, Trump said Sunday. But I have common sense. In promoting the use of the drug, the president has often stated, What have you got to lose?

One of the Trump administrations strongest backersof the drug is Trade Adviser Peter Navarro, who according to reports that surfaced after Sundays press conference, clashed with Dr. Fauci over the use of the drug. Dr. Fauci continuesto be concerned about recommending the drug based only on unscientific, or as he puts it anecdotalevidence.

Navarro, on the other hand, despite not having formal medical training, claimed in a CNN interview on Monday that reports of studies on the drugs use, which he had collected, were enough to recommend the drug widely.

The American Medical Associations president, Dr. Patrice Harris, also said she wouldnt prescribe the drug for coronavirus patients, because the risks of severe side effects were great and too significant to downplay without large studies showing the drug is safe and effective for such use.

Nonetheless, some doctors are actually prescribing Hydroxychloroquine to patients with COVID-19. Research studies are now beginning to test if the drugs truly help COVID-19 patients, and the Food and Drug Administration has allowed the medication as an option for doctors to consider for patients who cannot get into one of these studies.

Dr. Harris and other doctors claim the drug has serious side effects, especially affecting the heart rhythm, and still want more testing conducted before its clear that the drug works against the virus and where the side effects are concerned.

Cubas Interferon Alpha 2B

Meanwhile, a drug developed in Cuba has been proving to have positive results in treating COVID-19 patients. The drug, Interferon Alpha 2B, is among 22 drugs developed in Cuba since 1986 by its Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB) and used as a treatment for HIV-AIDS, hepatitis B and C, herpes zoster or shingles, dengue and different types of cancers.

It is also highly recommended by medical specialists for its ability to fight the COVID-19 virus. During the onset of the virus in Wuhan province, the Chinese authorities found it exceptional in destroying the virus from thousands of its citizens who contracted the disease at the earliest stages.

Since the success of this antiviral drug has become public knowledge, Cuba has been flooded with requests from across the globe, including, Africa, Europe, Latin, and South America and Caribbean nations.

Evidence tuberculosis vaccine BCG prevents COVID-19 infection

Recently reports surfaced that the BCG vaccine given to counter tuberculosis (TB) may provide protection against COVID-19 and significantly reduce death rates in countries, including most Caribbean countries,with high levels of this vaccination.

A study of 178 countries conducted by an Irish medical consultant in conjunction with epidemiologists at the University of Texas indicated countries with BCG vaccination programs have far fewer coronavirus cases by a factor 10, compared to countries without such programs.

The BCG vaccine is still widely used in developing countries, where scientists have found, along with preventing TB, it alsoprevents infant deaths from a variety of causes, and sharply reduces the incidence of respiratory infections like the coronavirus.

Most Caribbean-Americans residing in South Florida bearthe scars of the BCG vaccine on their upper arms, as the vaccine was and still is mandatory for attending public schools in the Caribbean.

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Tension Builds Over Drug To Treat COVID-19 - caribbeannationalweekly.com