Page 1,565«..10 20..1,5641,5651,566 1,567..1,570 1,580..»

Category Archives: Transhuman News

The Greeks really do have near-mythical origins, ancient DNA reveals – Science Magazine

Posted: August 3, 2017 at 11:48 pm

A Mycenaean woman depicted on a fresco at Mycenae on mainland Greece.

Yann Forget/Wikimedia Commons

By Ann GibbonsAug. 2, 2017 , 1:00 PM

Ever since the days of Homer, Greeks have long idealized their Mycenaean ancestors in epic poems and classic tragedies that glorify the exploits of Odysseus, King Agamemnon, and other heroes who went in and out of favor with the Greek gods. Although these Mycenaeans were fictitious, scholars have debated whether todays Greeks descend from the actual Mycenaeans, who created a famous civilization that dominated mainland Greece and the Aegean Sea from about 1600 B.C.E. to 1200 B.C.E., or whether the ancient Mycenaeans simply vanished from the region.

Now, ancient DNA suggests that living Greeks are indeed the descendants of Mycenaeans, with only a small proportion of DNA from later migrations to Greece. And the Mycenaeans themselves were closely related to the earlier Minoans, the study reveals, another great civilization that flourished on the island of Crete from 2600 B.C.E. to 1400 B.C.E. (named for the mythical King Minos).

The Lion Gate was the main entrance to the Bronze Age citadel of Mycenae, the center of the Mycenaean civilization.

RnDmS/iStockphoto

The ancient DNA comes from the teeth of 19 people, including 10 Minoans from Crete dating to 2900 B.C.E. to 1700 BCE, four Mycenaeans from the archaeological site at Mycenae and other cemeteries on the Greek mainland dating from 1700 B.C.E. to 1200 B.C.E., and five people from other early farming or Bronze Age (5400 B.C.E. to 1340 B.C.E.) cultures in Greece and Turkey. By comparing 1.2 million letters of genetic code across these genomes to those of 334 other ancient people from around the world and 30 modern Greeks, the researchers were able to plot how the individuals were related to each other.

The ancient Mycenaeans and Minoans were most closely related to each other, and they both got three-quarters of their DNA from early farmers who lived in Greece and southwestern Anatolia, which is now part of Turkey, the team reports today in Nature. Both cultures additionally inherited DNA from people from the eastern Caucasus, near modern-day Iran, suggesting an early migration of people from the east after the early farmers settled there but before Mycenaeans split from Minoans.

The Mycenaeans did have an important difference: They had some DNA4% to 16%from northern ancestors who came from Eastern Europe or Siberia. This suggests that a second wave of people from the Eurasian steppe came to mainland Greece by way of Eastern Europe or Armenia, but didnt reach Crete, says Iosif Lazaridis, a population geneticist at Harvard University who co-led the study.

This dancing Minoan woman from a fresco at Knossos, Crete (16001450 B.C.E.), resembles the Mycenaean women (above).

Wolfgang Sauber/Wikimedia Commons

Not surprisingly, the Minoans and Mycenaeans looked alike, both carrying genes for brown hair and brown eyes. Artists in both cultures painted dark-haired, dark-eyed people on frescoes and pottery who resemble each other, although the two cultures spoke and wrote different languages. The Mycenaeans were more militaristic, with art replete with spears and images of war, whereas Minoan art showed few signs of warfare, Lazaridis says. Because the Minoans script used hieroglyphics, some archaeologists thought they were partly Egyptian, which turns out to be false.

The continuity between the Mycenaeans and living people is particularly striking given that the Aegean has been a crossroads of civilizations for thousands of years, says co-author George Stamatoyannopoulos of the University of Washington in Seattle. This suggests that the major components of the Greeks ancestry were already in place in the Bronze Age, after the migration of the earliest farmers from Anatolia set the template for the genetic makeup of Greeks and, in fact, most Europeans. The spread of farming populations was the decisive moment when the major elements of the Greek population were already provided, says archaeologist Colin Renfrew of the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, who was not involved in the work.

The results also show it is possible to get ancient DNA from the hot, dry landscape of the eastern Mediterranean, Renfrew says. He and others now have hope for getting DNA from groups such as the mysterious Hittites who came to ancient Anatolia sometime before 2000 B.C.E. and who may have been the source of Caucasian ancestry in Mycenaeans and early Indo-European languages in the region. Archaeologist Kristian Kristiansen of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, who was not involved in the work, agrees. The results have now opened up the next chapter in the genetic history of western Eurasiathat of the Bronze Age Mediterranean.

Posted in DNA | Comments Off

For the first time, researchers have mapped the complete genome of … – Phys.Org

Posted: at 11:48 pm

August 3, 2017 Helicoverpa armigera. Credit: CSIRO

For the first time, researchers from Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) have mapped the complete genome of two closely related megapests potentially saving the international agricultural community billions of dollars a year.

Led by CSIRO, in collaboration with a team of renowned experts, the researchers identified more than 17,000 protein coding genes in the genomes of the Helicoverpa armigera and Helicoverpa zea (commonly known as the Cotton Bollworm and Corn Earworm, respectively).

They also documented how these genetics have changed overtime.

This level of detail makes it easier for scientists to predict both the caterpillars' weak spots, how they will mutate and even breed plants they will not want to eat.

The bollworm and earworm are the world's greatest caterpillar pests of broad-acre crops, causing in excess of US $5 billion in control costs and damage each year across Asia, Europe, Africa, America and Australia.

The bollworm, which is dominant in Australia, attacks more crops and develops much more resistance to pesticides than its earworm counterpart.

"It is the single most important pest of agriculture in the world, making it humanity's greatest competitor for food and fibre," CSIRO Scientist Dr John Oakeshott said.

"Its genomic arsenal has allowed it to outgun all our known insecticides through the development of resistance, reflecting its name - armigera which means armed and warlike."

In Brazil the bollworm has been spreading rapidly and there have been cases of of it hybridising with the earworm, posing a real threat that the new and improved "superbug" could spread into the United States.

In the mid-90s CSIRO assisted Australian cotton breeders to incorporate Bt insect resistance genes in their varieties to try and tackle the bollworm.

"Bt cotton" plants dispatch an insecticide from a bacteria - Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) - that is toxic to the caterpillar.

In the following 10 years, there was an 80 per cent reduction in the use of chemical pesticides previously required to control bollworms.

However the bollworm soon fought back with a small percentage of them building resistance to BT cotton and scientists introducing further strains of insecticides to manage the problem.

CSIRO Health and Biosecurity Honorary Fellow Dr Karl Gordon said while a combination of BT and some insecticides was working well in Australia, it can be costly and it was important to comprehensive studying the pest themselves to manage the problem world-wide.

"We need the full range of agricultural science," Dr Gordon said.

"Our recent analyses of the complete genome, its adaptations and spread over the years are a huge step forward in combating these megapests."

Identifying pest origins will enable resistance profiling that reflects countries of origin to be included when developing a resistance management strategy, while identifying incursion pathways will improve biosecurity protocols and risk analysis at biosecurity hotspots including national ports.

As part of the research, CSIRO and the team updated a previously developed potential distribution model to highlight the global invasion threat, with emphasis on the risks to the United States.

The findings further provide the first solid foundation for comparative evolutionary and functional genomic studies on related and other lepidopteran pests, many of considerable impact and scientific interest.

Explore further: Old World bollworm could pose serious threat to more than cotton and corn

Texas A&M AgriLife entomologists are advising producers about the possible arrival of a potential major new pest of field crops and vegetables in the U.S. if its ominous track-record in other countries is any indication.

A UMD-led study provides new evidence of a decline in the effectiveness of genetically engineered traits widely used to protect corn crops from insects. This loss of effectiveness could damage U.S. corn production and spur ...

A pest insect known as bollworm is the first to evolve resistance in the field to plants modified to produce an insecticide called Bt, according to a new research report. Bt-resistant populations of bollworm, Helicoverpa ...

Chemical pesticides have been used for many years to control insect populations and remain the most important method of managing diseases carried by pests, including mosquitoes. However, insects have fought back by evolving ...

Larvae of the cotton bollworm (Helicoverpa armigera) are dreaded pests all over the world. They have a very wide host range: About 200 different plant species are known as potential food for the voracious insect. The herbivore ...

Insect pests that are rapidly adapting to genetically engineered crops threaten agriculture worldwide. A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals the success of a surprising strategy ...

In the last 20 years, the field of animal coloration research has experienced explosive growth thanks to numerous technological advances, and it now stands on the threshold of a new era.

An unusually cold winter in the U.S. in 2014 took a toll on the green anole lizard, a tree-dwelling creature common to the southeastern United States. A new study offers a rare view of natural selection in this species, showing ...

Continuously throughout our lives, our cells are expressing genes. It's the first step in making proteins, the stuff of all the structures in the body and molecular players in the countless dramas unfolding every second as ...

(Phys.org)A combined team of researchers from the U.S. and China has figured out why scorpion stings are so painful. In their paper published on the open access site Science Advances, the team explains how scorpion venom ...

Artificial light disrupts nocturnal pollination and leads to a reduced number of fruits produced by the plant. This loss of night time pollination cannot be compensated by diurnal pollinators. The negative impact of artificial ...

Monarch butterfly populations have taken a nosedive over the last 20 years, according to researchers who monitor the number of butterflies that spend the winter in Mexico every year. But organizations of citizen scientists ...

Please sign in to add a comment. Registration is free, and takes less than a minute. Read more

See the original post here:
For the first time, researchers have mapped the complete genome of ... - Phys.Org

Posted in Genome | Comments Off

American Scientists Successfully Edited Faulty Genes In Human Embryos. Is That Ethical? – Fortune

Posted: at 11:47 pm

A dish with human embryos.Photograph by Sandy Huffaker Getty Images

As far as groundbreaking developments go, there are few technologies that have captured the life science world's imagination like CRISPR, the gene-editing tool that holds promise in everything from treating sickle cell disease to sussing out appropriate gene targets in the fight against HIV. Now, U.S. scientists have reached a revolutionary new milestone in CRISPR-Cas9 development, successfully modifying embryos to cut out defective genetic code that would have caused an inherited disease.

A study published in the journal Nature on Wednesday outlines the process used by researchers from the Oregon Health & Science University, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California, and Korea's Institute for Basic Science.The faulty genetic code that would have caused hypertrophic cardiomyopathy was successfully repaired using CRISPR during the in vitro fertilization process. It wasn't a flawless successthe rate of fixed embryos moved from the naturally expected 50% to 74%. And, to be clear, this isn't the first time that CRISPR has been tested in a non-animal settinglast year, Chinese scientists launched the first known trials in humans .

But the new embryo experiments were striking for both their efficacy and a lack of adverse events like mutations in other parts of the embryos' genomes. "We have demonstrated the possibility to correct mutations in a human embryo in a safe way and with a certain degree of efficiency," said the Salk Institute's Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, who co-authored the Nature study.

The achievement is already drawing some controversy. Bioethicists have previously questioned whether or not modifying embryoseven for the purposes of preventing a disease's spreadcould foster a slippery slope. Editing human embryos with CRISPR should be a long way off, as J. Craig Venter, co-founder of Human Longevity, Inc and a genome expert, put it during Fortune 's second annual Brainstorm Health conference in May. Not something we do next week.

But these embryos weren't actually allowed to develop beyond a few days. And groups like the American Society of Human Genetics mostly center their opposition on modifying embryos for implantation into a human. As for the possibility of "designer babies," CRISPR technology isn't nearly advanced enough to make anything approaching that feasible, as Belmonte explains.

That's part of the reason why the U.S. researchers took up the recommendations of an ethics committee which concluded that "with significant oversight and continued dialogue, the use of gene correction technologies in human embryos for the purpose of answering basic science questions needed to evaluate germline gene correction prior to the use in human models" was acceptable.

This essay appears in today's edition of the Fortune Brainstorm Health Daily. Get it delivered straight to your inbox.

Excerpt from:
American Scientists Successfully Edited Faulty Genes In Human Embryos. Is That Ethical? - Fortune

Posted in Human Longevity | Comments Off

Khosla Ventures leads the charge for Naveen Jain’s Viome wellness … – GeekWire

Posted: at 11:47 pm

Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures, discusses successes and failures during a Stanford University business forum in 2015. (Stanford Business Photo / Stacy H. Geiken)

Khosla Ventures, the prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firm whose interests range from biofuels to spaceflight, was revealed today as the lead investor in Viome, the wellness monitoring startup co-founded by Seattle-area entrepreneur Naveen Jain.

Khoslas role was among the additional details that Viome provided today as it formally announced its $15 million Series A funding round. The investment firstcame to light last week in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, but Khoslas role wasnt previously disclosed.

Bold Capital Partners, the venture fund associated with Singularity University as well as tech entrepreneur and XPRIZE founder Peter Diamandis, is also among Viomes backers.

The Series A round brings Viomes total funding to $21 million, the company said.

Viome said one seat on its board would go to Khosla Ventures founder, managing partner Vinod Khosla. The 62-year-old, Indian-born billionaire is a legend in Silicon Valleys entrepreneurial and philanthropic circles.

Viome is a transformational healthcare company with a team that comprises decades of experience across AI, health and science, and a singular mission of keeping people healthy, Khosla said in a news release. By investing in Viome, were investing in a future where preventable illnesses are a thing of the past.

That sentiment echoes Jains view: With Viome, were allowing people to reclaim control of their health so that chronic illness can become a choice rather than just a matter of bad luck, Jain, the companys CEO, said in the release.

The key to Viomes monitoring service is a series of diagnostic tests that analyze subscribers blood, urine, saliva and stool samples to assess their metabolism as well as the genetic makeup of the microbial communities inside their guts.

Researchers are finding increasing evidence that the balance of a persons gut microbes, known collectively as the microbiome, is linked a wide range of health factors. Viomes AI-based platform, developed in partnership with Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, analyzes the data from the diagnostic tests and offers personalized recommendations on diet and lifestyle.

The monitoring service doesnt yet offer medical advice, however. For that, Viome would have to get the go-ahead from the federal Food and Drug Administration.

Current price for the service is $59 a month, or $599 a year, which covers two rounds of testing in the course of a year.

Several thousand customers are using the service under the terms of Viomes early beta program, the company said, and additional customers in the U.S., United Kingdom, Canada, India and the Middle East can sign up to join the program when availability is widened next month.

Viome said it has 45 employees in Los Alamos, New York and Cupertino, Calif.

Like Khosla, Jain has been involved in a wide variety of startups, including BlueDot,Moon Express,InfoSpace,InteliusandTalentWise.The $6 million in initial funding for Viome came from BlueDot, which Jain co-founded as an innovation factory to jump-start technological moonshots.

Jains career has not been without controversy: Infospace was hit hard when the dot-com bubble burst in the early 2000s, leading to a years-long flurry of lawsuits that entangled Jain, other executives and shareholders. Millions of dollars changed hands in a series of legal settlements to resolve the disputes.

Khoslas newly reported involvement should raise Viomes profile in whats becoming a crowded field of ventures that monitor the microbiome and personal wellness. Potential rivals include Seattle-based Arivaleas well as uBiome,HabitandDayTwo.

Jains fellow founder at BlueDot, Deepak Savadatti, serves as Viomes president. The companys other executives include chief science officer Momo Vuyisich, a veteran researcher from Los Alamos; chief medical officer Helen Messier, who previously worked at Human Longevity Inc.; and chief technology officer Guruduth Banavar, who helped create Watson AI technologies at IBM.

See original here:
Khosla Ventures leads the charge for Naveen Jain's Viome wellness ... - GeekWire

Posted in Human Longevity | Comments Off

Sulzberger lecturer provides in-depth look at psoriasis comorbidities – ModernMedicine

Posted: at 11:47 pm

At AAD 2017, Joel M. Gelfand, MD, MSCE, was honored as the recipient of the Marion B. Sulzberger, MD, Memorial Award and Lectureship. In his talk titled Getting to the heart (and other comorbidities) of psoriasis, Dr. Gelfand discussed the findings from research investigating associations between psoriasis and comorbidities and their relevance for providing comprehensive medical care for patients with psoriasis.

Concluding his talk, Dr. Gelfand expanded on a quote from Dr. Francis Peabodys essay, The Care of the Patient, written 90 years ago.

Dr. Peabody stated, the secret of the care of the patient is in caring for the patient. For the patient with psoriasis, that means we need to look beyond the skin, said Dr. Gelfand, Professor of Dermatology and Epidemiology, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA.

Establishing evidential support

Focusing primarily on associations between psoriasis and cardiovascular disease, Dr. Gelfand highlighted results from population-based epidemiological studies, including those from his own clinical research laboratory analyzing data in a prospectively maintained medical record database in the United Kingdom.

Our studies showed an independent, dose-response relationship between psoriasis severity and risks of major adverse cardiovascular events, ie., myocardial infarction, stroke, and cardiovascular disease-related mortality. Subsequently, numerous papers have been published investigating the association between psoriasis and cardiovascular risk, and results from nine meta-analyses covering more than 500,000 patients with psoriasis and more than 29 million controls largely confirm our initial findings, he said.

Findings from laboratory investigations provide insights into the potential biological mechanisms underlying the association between psoriasis and cardiovascular disease and provide proof of principle that inflammation restricted to the skin can lead to systemic vascular complications, Dr. Gelfand said.

In addition, clinical studies using [18F]-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography imaging show that as psoriasis severity increases so does aortic and subcutaneous fat inflammation.

A finding that subcutaneous fat under psoriatic plaques expresses miRNAs that modulate lipid metabolism suggests there is communication between the skin and the fat and that it plays a role in mediating some of the connections we are seeing between psoriasis and cardiometabolic disease, Dr. Gelfand said.

Posted in Psoriasis | Comments Off

How psoriasis arises – ModernMedicine

Posted: at 11:47 pm

Dr. KruegerDermatologists' appreciation of the central role that the interleukin (IL)-23/Th17 pathway plays in psoriasis has developed gradually, through research and serendipity, according to James Krueger, M.D., Ph.D., who spoke on the topic at the MauiDerm 2017 meeting.

"When I started researching psoriasis in the early 1990s, there was considerable debate about pathogenesis. But the dominant hypothesis was that keratinocytes were growing autonomously by overproduction of growth factors (transforming growth factor alpha) that would interact with overactive EGF receptors, producing a proliferative reaction." In this hypothesis, "A few immune cells came along for the ride," Dr. Krueger explained. He is D. Martin Carter Professor in Clinical Investigation at Rockefeller University.

Based on biopsies, "It's clear that psoriasis represents a big change in biology from background skin. There's a tremendous epidermal thickening reaction, on a bed of mononuclear inflammatory cells in the infiltrate." Immunohistochemical (Ki67) staining of hyperkeratotic skin invariably shows that virtually every basal cell is in cycle, versus very few basal cells in background skin. This growth activation is also associated with incomplete differentiation this is a wound-healing program called regenerative maturation."

The second invariable feature in psoriasis is a large infiltrate of T cells mostly CD4+ in the dermis, and CD8+ in the epidermis, Dr. Krueger says. Consistent overexpression of T cells led immunologists to theorize that psoriasis must involve an inductive reaction provoked by T cells with abundant high-affinity IL-2 receptors, he says.

See the rest here:
How psoriasis arises - ModernMedicine

Posted in Psoriasis | Comments Off

10 Best Weed Strains For Psoriasis – Green Rush Daily

Posted: at 11:47 pm

What are the best weed strains for psoriasis? Recent studies suggest that cannabis can be effective in treating various skin disorders such as eczema and psoriasis. This is partially due to the anti-inflammatory nature of marijuana. Another study shows that cannabis is an effective treatment because the cannabinoids interact with the endocannabinoid system in a way that regulates the immune system. This helps prevent flare-ups.

Now that this information is available, we have to ask: how can we use cannabis to treat psoriasis?

Psoriasis is an autoimmune disorder that is characterized by a high cell turnover rate, which leads to a build-up of dry, flaky, and scaly skin. The dry skin is usually in patches along the persons body, and are often itchy and painful. About thirty percent of people with psoriasis also develop psoriatic arthritis, which is characterized by the painful swelling and stiffening of joints.

Due to the highly visible nature of the disease, psoriasis causesanxiety and depression in the people who suffer from it.

Psoriasis is incurable. However, it is treatable. Usually, doctors recommend managing mild to moderate psoriasis with topical treatments, like prescription corticosteroids and vitamin D analogs. For more severe cases, topical treatments are combined with light therapy and/or medication.

When it comes to treating psoriasis with cannabis, topical treatment is quite effective. CBD topicals, such as salves or creams, can directly and gently target the affected areas without irritating the skin further.

While ingesting cannabis to treat psoriasis, its critical to remember one thing: do not smoke it. While cannabis smoke isnt nearly as harmful as other kinds of smoke, like cigarettes, it can still be detrimental when treating psoriasis. So, when considering the following strains, make sure to use a vaporizer or cook some edibles.

This is an indica-dominant strain with a fruity and floral scent. While its not the best for treating inflammation it is a great stress reliever. It can also be effective at easing depression and physical pain.

See the rest here:
10 Best Weed Strains For Psoriasis - Green Rush Daily

Posted in Psoriasis | Comments Off

Psoriasis Action Month — Set Goals, Take Control – Markets Insider

Posted: at 11:47 pm

PORTLAND, Ore., Aug. 1, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --The National Psoriasis Foundation (NPF) is transforming August from Psoriasis Awareness Month to Psoriasis Action Month.

Twenty years ago, NPF hosted the first Psoriasis Awareness Month to educate the public about a disease that was often misunderstood and stigmatized. Since then, NPF has made great strides in increasing awareness about psoriatic disease. With tremendous advancements in the number of treatment options available today for people living with psoriasis, now more than ever, it's easier to treat psoriasis and the results can be life-changing.

NPF wants people with psoriasis to take an active role in treating their disease. With the theme of "Set Goals, Take Control," Psoriasis Action Month focuses on empowering people with psoriasis to take control of their disease. NPF is providing information and tools to set achievable treatment goals, track symptoms and help patients talk with their health care providers about treating psoriasis.

NPF has launched http://www.psoriasis.org/psoriasis-action-month, a website to educate patients, caregivers and health care professionals about the resources available to treat psoriatic disease. Throughout August, people impacted by psoriasis can participate in interactive quizzes that will help them better understand and manage their disease. Quiz topics will range from how to set goals and treat psoriasis to achieve skin clearance, understanding your personal communication style, and testing your knowledge of psoriasis treatment options. Participants can opt in to receive an NPF journaling kit to help track symptoms and receive resources to guide conversations with their health care providers. All quiz participants have the option to have a NPF Patient Navigator contact them directly to discuss finding a specialist in their area and getting started on treatment.

NPF will host two Facebook Live interviews. The first, which will be held on Thursday August 10, will be a discussion between NPF Vice President of Research Programs, Michael Siegel, and April Armstrong M.D., NPF medical board member and associate dean of Clinical Research at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. They will discuss setting achievable treatment goals using a specific treatment strategy spearheaded by the NPF Medical Board. The second Facebook Live interview, which will be held on Thursday, August 24, will be a discussion between Siegel, NPF volunteer Howard Chang, and his doctor, Emanuel Maverakis, M.D., associate professor at the University of California, Davis. The discussion will focus on how Chang and Maverakis have implemented and are tracking Chang's psoriasis after utilizing the effective treatment strategy discussed with Dr. Armstrong on August 10. Follow NPF on Facebook or go to http://www.psoriasis.org/psoriasis-action-month for the exact time of each interview.

Ways to Participate in Psoriasis Action Month

Go to http://www.psoriasis.org/psoriasis-action-month to access information, tools and to participate in interactive quizzes on treating psoriasis.

Follow the National Psoriasis Foundation on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to find information, memes and other resources to treat and manage psoriasis. Show support by sharing NPF social posts and updates with friends; use the hashtag #PsoriasisActionMonth

Donate to NPF to help support advancements in psoriatic disease research and NPF programs and services.

Check out TeamNPF to find a Walk, Run or Cycle event in your area. Not into sports? Host a DIY event and turn your hobby or passion into a fund raising and awareness event for psoriatic disease.

If you believe you may have psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis, consult a dermatologist for a formal diagnosis and get started on a treatment plan. To answer questions, or for help in finding a dermatologist in your area, contact the National Psoriasis Foundation Patient Navigation Center at: http://www.psoriasis.org/navigationcenter

Psoriasis is a chronic, immune mediated disease that most often appears on the skin as painful, raised, red, itchy patches. Men and women develop psoriasis at equal rates, and the disease occurs in all racial groups, however at varying rates. Psoriasis is not contagious. It is not something one can "catch" from another person as psoriasis lesions are not infectious.

Living with psoriasis can be an everyday battlefrom aches and pains, exhaustion, risk of comorbid conditions, such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes, to dealing with the stigma associated with such a visual disease. The best way for patients to fight psoriasis is to work with a health care professional to fully understand the physical and emotional impact of the disease and the various treatment options available for managing the disease.

Over the last 50 years, the National Psoriasis Foundation (NPF) has become the world's leading nonprofit patient advocacy organization fighting for individuals with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. NPF leads this fight by driving efforts for a cure and improving the lives of the more than 8 million Americans affected by this chronic disease. To date, NPF has funded more than $15 million in research grants and fellowships, and to commemorate 50 years, NPF plans to raise an additional $2 million for early scientific career research programs in 2017 alone. Each year, NPF strives to support, educate and advocate on behalf of more individuals living with or caring for someone with the disease than ever before. As part of that effort, NPF established the Patient Navigation Center to offer personalized assistance to everyone with psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis. Join our community today and help drive discovery and create community for all living with psoriatic disease.

View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/psoriasis-action-month----set-goals-take-control-300498049.html

SOURCE National Psoriasis Foundation

Continue reading here:
Psoriasis Action Month -- Set Goals, Take Control - Markets Insider

Posted in Psoriasis | Comments Off

Researchers reprogram immune cells to treat psoriasis and more – SlashGear

Posted: at 11:47 pm

A new study details the successful reprogramming of certain immune cells that could lead to treatments for autoimmune diseases like psoriasis. The work was performed by researchers with the Gladstone Institutes, and it is made possible by a small-molecule drug that essentially converts immune cells from the type that attack the body to the type that keep things in check. It could also prove effect for treating cancers.

Immune cells are known as T cells, and they come in two varieties: regulatory, which keeps the immune system from running rogue and attacking a healthy body, and effector, which trigger the immune system into action. Autoimmune disorders are the result of a dysfunction with these cells, often resulting in the body attacking some healthy part of itself, such as causing inflamed, scaly skin in the case of psoriasis.

Immune system dysfunction can go the other way, as well, resulting from a suppression of it that causes different sorts of diseases or cancers. Because these T cells are so greatly involved in the function of the immune system and its balance, it makes sense that tweaking the presence of these cells in the body could address diseases, and thats exactly what researchers have done for the first time ever.

Using the aforementioned drug, the potentially damaging effector cells can be reprogrammed into regulatory T cells, which would then bring the immune system under control and stop it from attacking a healthy body. It is thought that producing more regulatory T cells in the body could also keep the immune system from rejecting transplanted cells in the case of stem cell therapies.

As far as cancer is concerned, the drug could also be used to boost regulatory T cells so that the immune system can better find and attack cancer cells, the aim being to treat or prevent cancers. Future plans for this research werent stated, however, it is a milestone discovery that could lead to treatments for many diseases.

SOURCE: Nature, EurekAlert

Excerpt from:
Researchers reprogram immune cells to treat psoriasis and more - SlashGear

Posted in Psoriasis | Comments Off

Embryonic Gene Editing Could Wipe Out Several Conditions, Researchers Say – CBS New York

Posted: at 11:46 pm

August 3, 2017 6:22 PM

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) A major scientific breakthrough was announced this week, and it could wipe out certain diseases.

As CBS2s Dr. Max Gomez reported, researchers for the first time have fixed a faulty gene in a human embryo. The genetic engineering procedure could be revolutionary, but people are afraid of how it might be used.

Genetic engineering has been around for some years, but using it actually to repair DNA mutations that cause disease is very hard to do.

But now, in a landmark study, researchers from the U.S., China, and Korea have fixed a faulty gene that causes a lethal heart condition.

Medical science has known for many years that certain serious diseases are caused by genetic mutations that are passed along from generation to generation. Researchers have long dreamed of repairing those errors in DNA.

The goal of preventing and permanently eliminating terrible genetic diseases were talking here cystic fibrosis, Tay-Sachs disease, sickle cell, hemophilia thats been a long-sought goal of medicine, said Dr. Arthur Caplan of NYU Langone Medical Center.

The goal just took a big step toward reality with a study in the journal Nature. It involved using a sperm cell from a male with a mutation known to cause a lethal heart muscle condition, which was used to fertilize an egg without the mutation.

The key was using a new gene-editing technique called Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats or CRISPR that found and removed the defective gene.

The unexpected result was that the fertilized egg used the copy of the normal gene from the mothe to repair and replace the edited gene.

And it worked in most of the embryos tested, according to Eric Schadt, dean for precision medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital.

The efficiency of the overall procedure was much higher than earlier, Schadt said. Over 70 percent of the embryos that were targeted were corrected, so it just brought it much closer to prime time and being able to think about its use in clinical applications.

But like most powerful technologies, the potential for good comes with the possibility for abuse.

You dont just fix diseases. You wind up trying to improve or enhance our offspring. You try to make super babies, Caplan said. Whos going to guarantee access? Whos going to try and guarantee reasonable pricing. Theres a lot of money to be made out here.

Another caution that both Caplan and Schadt pointed out is that while the embryos looked normal, they were only allowed to develop for a few days in a petri dish.

That is a long way from knowing that an engineered embryo would yield a normal baby. Information about safety is not known.

Read the original:
Embryonic Gene Editing Could Wipe Out Several Conditions, Researchers Say - CBS New York

Posted in Gene Medicine | Comments Off

Page 1,565«..10 20..1,5641,5651,566 1,567..1,570 1,580..»

Category Archives: Transhuman News

The Greeks really do have near-mythical origins, ancient DNA reveals – Science Magazine

For the first time, researchers have mapped the complete genome of … – Phys.Org

American Scientists Successfully Edited Faulty Genes In Human Embryos. Is That Ethical? – Fortune

Khosla Ventures leads the charge for Naveen Jain’s Viome wellness … – GeekWire

Sulzberger lecturer provides in-depth look at psoriasis comorbidities – ModernMedicine

How psoriasis arises – ModernMedicine

10 Best Weed Strains For Psoriasis – Green Rush Daily

Psoriasis Action Month — Set Goals, Take Control – Markets Insider

Researchers reprogram immune cells to treat psoriasis and more – SlashGear

Embryonic Gene Editing Could Wipe Out Several Conditions, Researchers Say – CBS New York

The Prometheus League

Breaking News and Updates

Prometheism

Forbidden Fruit

The Evolutionary Perspective

Transtopia Menu

Library Updates

Library Books

Future Euvolution

Lucid Dreams from Childhood

Genetic Revolution

Speciation + Self-Directed Evolution