Category Archives: Transhuman News

What Are The Advantages Of Genetic Engineering?

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IMAGE:Tissue Engineering is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published monthly online and in print in three parts: Part A, the flagship journal published 24 times per year; Part B: Reviews, published... view more

Credit: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers

New Rochelle, NY, February 17, 2015--In creating engineered tissues intended to repair or regenerate damaged or diseased human tissues, the goal is to build three-dimensional tissue constructs densely packed with living cells. The Bio-P3, an innovative instrument able to pick up, transport, and assemble multi-cellular microtissues to form larger tissue constructs is described in an article in Tissue Engineering, Part C: Methods, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Tissue Engineering website until March 20th, 2015.

Andrew Blakely, MD, Kali Manning, Anubhav Tripathi, PhD, and Jeffrey Morgan, PhD, Rhode Island Hospital and Brown University, Providence, RI, developed the manual Bio-P3 device, and in the article "Bio-Pick, Place, and Perfuse: A New Instrument for 3D Tissue Engineering," they explain how the device is able to grip, transport, and release multi-cellular microtissues grown in the laboratory, with minimal effects on the viability of the cells or the structure of the microtissue construct. The authors describe the design of the device's gripper and build heads and the peristaltic pump-driven fluid dynamics used to create and maintain contact between the device heads and the microtissues. They discuss applications of the device, the potential for automation, challenges, and future directions.

"This device can be the long-expected breakthrough in the field of regenerative medicine and hopefully allow the fabrication of large 3D organs and tissues," says John A. Jansen, DDS, PhD, Co-Editor-in-Chief Tissue Engineering, Part C: Methods and Professor and Head of Dentistry, Radboud University Medical Center, The Netherlands.

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About the Journal

Tissue Engineering is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published monthly online and in print in three parts: Part A, the flagship journal published 24 times per year; Part B: Reviews, published bimonthly, and Part C: Methods, published 12 times per year. Led by Co-Editors-In-Chief Antonios Mikos, PhD, Louis Calder Professor at Rice University, Houston, TX, and Peter C. Johnson, MD, Vice President, Research and Development and Medical Affairs, Vancive Medical Technologies, an Avery Dennison business, and President and CEO, Scintellix, LLC, Raleigh, NC, the Journal brings together scientific and medical experts in the fields of biomedical engineering, material science, molecular and cellular biology, and genetic engineering. Tissue Engineering is the official journal of the Tissue Engineering & Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS). Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed online at the Tissue Engineering 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 Stem Cells and Development, Human Gene Therapy, and Advances in Wound Care. 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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New device enables 3-D tissue engineering with multicellular building blocks

IMAGE:Journal of Women's Health, published monthly, is a core multidisciplinary journal dedicated to the diseases and conditions that hold greater risk for, or are more prevalent among women,... view more

Credit: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers

New Rochelle, NY, February 23, 2015--Even as more women are pursuing careers in academic medicine, and now comprise 20% of full-time faculty in medical schools, they are not rising to senior leadership positions in similar numbers as men. The National Faculty Study evaluated the gender climate in academic medicine and identified several factors related to the current work environment that are contributing to this disparity, and these are described in an article in Journal of Women's Health, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Journal of Women's Health website until March 23, 2015.

Coauthors Phyllis Carr, MD, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School (Boston, MA), Christine Gunn and Samantha Kaplan, MD, Boston University School of Medicine, Anita Raj, PhD, University of California, San Diego, and Karen Freund, MD, Tufts University School of Medicine (Boston, MA), found a lack of gender equality in the following areas: fewer women achieving leadership positions, disparities in salary, more women leaving academic medicine, and a disproportionate burden of family responsibilities and of balancing work and home life on women's career advancement. Better methods to track the careers of women and greater institutional oversight of the gender climate are needed, conclude the authors of the article "Inadequate Progress for Women in Academic Medicine: Findings from the National Faculty Study."

"Despite some progress in improving the climate for women in academic medicine, inequities persist that must be addressed," says Susan G. Kornstein, MD, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Women's Health, Executive Director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Institute for Women's Health, Richmond, VA, and President of the Academy of Women's Health.

"The powerful effect of innate bias has been documented. Its effect in the academic medicine sphere needs to be considered," says Rita R. Colwell, PhD, President of the Rosalind Franklin Society and Distinguished University Professor, University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.

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About the Journal

Journal of Women's Health, published monthly, is a core multidisciplinary journal dedicated to the diseases and conditions that hold greater risk for, or are more prevalent among women, as well as diseases that present differently in women. The Journal covers the latest advances and clinical applications of new diagnostic procedures and therapeutic protocols for the prevention and management of women's healthcare issues. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Journal of Women's Health website. Journal of Women's Health is the official journal of the Academy of Women's Health and the Society for Women's Health Research.

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Why don't more women rise to leadership positions in academic medicine?

IMAGE:Light-activated genetic manipulation is demonstrated by shining light through a stencil to turn on fluorescent genes in cells. view more

Credit: Charles Gersbach, Duke University

DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University researchers have devised a method to activate genes in any specific location or pattern in a lab dish with the flip of a light switch by crossing a bacterium's viral defense system with a flower's response to sunlight.

With the ability to use light to activate genes in specific locations, researchers can better study genes' functions, create complex systems for growing tissue, and perhaps eventually realize science-fiction-like healing technologies.

The study was led by Charles Gersbach, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Duke University, and published on February 9 in Nature Chemical Biology.

"This technology should allow a scientist to pick any gene on any chromosome and turn it on or off with light, which has the potential to transform what can be done with genetic engineering" said Lauren Polstein, a Duke PhD student and lead author on the work. "The advantage of doing this with light is we can quickly and easily control when the gene gets turned on or off and the level to which it is activated by varying the light's intensity. We can also target where the gene gets turned on by shining the light in specific patterns, for example by passing the light through a stencil."

The new technique targets specific genes using an emerging genetic engineering system called CRISPR/Cas9. Discovered as the system bacteria use to identify viral invaders and slice up their DNA, the system was co-opted by researchers to precisely target specific genetic sequences.

The Duke scientists then turned to another branch of the evolutionary tree to make the system light-activated.

In many plants, two proteins lock together in the presence of light, allowing plants to sense the length of day which determines biological functions like flowering. By attaching the CRISPR/Cas9 system to one of these proteins and gene-activating proteins to the other, the team was able to turn several different genes on or off just by shining blue light on the cells.

"The light-sensitive interacting proteins exist independently in plants," explained Gersbach. "What we've done is attached the CRISPR and the activator to each of them. This builds on similar systems developed by us and others, but because we're now using CRISPR to target particular genes, it's easier, faster and cheaper than other technologies."

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Controlling genes with light

An effective vaccine for HIV has eluded researchers for several decades, due to the pathogen's infamous shape-shifting abilities.

Even though researchers have identified certain broadly neutralizing antibodies that can conquer multiple strains of the human immunodeficiency virus, many strains of rapidly mutating HIV remain resistant to the these super antibodies.

In recent years however,researches have proposed a new method of battling the virus that involves gene therapy.

Instead of using a vaccine to stimulate the body's own immune system, so that it produces HIV antibodies, scientists are bypassing the immune system entirely.

In experiments involving rats and monkeys, the researchers have used non-life-threatening viruses to alter the animals' genome so that its cells produce designer molecules capable of neutralizing HIV.

In a paper published Wednesday in the journal Nature, a team of researchers said they had used the technique to protect rhesus macaques from repeated intravenous injections of a SHIV, a combination of simian immunodeficiency virus and humanimmunodeficiency virus.

The technique, researchers said, "can function like an effective HIV-1 vaccine." (HIV-1 is the main family of the virus, and accounts for most infections worldwide.)

When HIV enters the body, it attacks specific immune cells. As the virus copies itself over and over, and kills more and more host cells, the immune system grows progressively weaker. If left untreated, this progressive weakening will give rise to AIDS.

In most cases, the HIV virus begins its attack by latching onto two separate protein structures on the surface of its target white blood cells. One of these structures is called CD4, and the other is called CCR5.

In the Nature study, researchers set out to engineer an antibody-like molecule that would mimic both of these proteins, so that it would act as decoy of sorts for the virus. Instead of latching onto a host cell, HIV would latch onto a specially enhanced protein molecule, or eCD4-Ig, that was released by the cell.

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With genetic engineering, scientists use decoy molecule to trick HIV

IMAGE:Industrial Biotechnology, led by Co-Editors-in-Chief Larry Walker, PhD, Biological and Environmental Engineering Department, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, and Glenn Nedwin, PhD, MoT, CEO and President, Taxon Biosciences, Tiburon, CA, is... view more

Credit: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers

New Rochelle, NY, February 19, 2015--Novel nanomaterials derived from cellulose have many promising industrial applications, are biobased and biodegradable, and can be produced at relatively low cost. Their potential toxicity--whether ingested, inhaled, on contact with the skin, or on exposure to cells within the body--is a topic of intense discussion, and the latest evidence and insights on cellulose nanocrystal toxicity are presented in a Review article in Industrial Biotechnology, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available on the Industrial Biotechnology website.

Maren Roman, PhD, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, describes the preparation of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) and highlights the key factors that are an essential part of studies to assess the potential adverse health effects of CNCs by various types of exposure. In the article "Toxicity of Cellulose Nanocrystals: A Review" , Dr. Roman discusses the current literature on the pulmonary, oral, dermal, and cytotoxicity of CNCs, provides an in-depth view on their effects on human health, and suggests areas for future research.

The article is part of an IB IN DEPTH special research section entitled "Cellulose Nanotechnology: Fundamentals and Applications," led by Guest Editors Jose Moran-Mirabal, PhD and Emily Cranston, PhD, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada. In addition to the Review article by Dr. Roman, the issue includes Reviews by M. Rose, M. Babi, and J. Moran-Mirabal ("The Study of Cellulose Structure and Depolymerization Through Single-Molecule Methods") and by X.F. Zhao and W.T. Winter ("Cellulose/cellulose-based nanospheres: Perspectives and prospective"); Original Research articles by A. Rivkin, T. Abitbol, Y. Nevo, et al. ("Bionanocomposite films from resilin-CBD bound to cellulose nanocrystals), and P. Criado, C. Fraschini, S. Salmieri, et al. ("Evaluation of antioxidant cellulose nanocrystals and applications in gellan gum films"); and the Overview article "Cellulose Nanotechnology on the Rise," by Drs. Moran-Mirabal and Cranston.

"A comprehensive and objective assessment of the environmental toxicity of cellulose nanocrystals is important for deployment of these crystals for a number of exciting industrial biotechnology applications," says Co-Editor-in-Chief Larry Walker, PhD, Biological and Environmental Engineering Department, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.

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About the Journal

Industrial Biotechnology , led by Co-Editors-in-Chief Larry Walker, PhD, Biological and Environmental Engineering Department, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, and Glenn Nedwin, PhD, MoT, CEO and President, Taxon Biosciences, Tiburon, CA, is an authoritative journal focused on biobased industrial and environmental products and processes, published bimonthly in print and online. The Journal reports on the science, technology, business, and policy developments of the emerging global bioeconomy, including biobased production of energy and fuels, chemicals, materials, and consumer goods. The articles published include critically reviewed original research in all related sciences (biology, biochemistry, chemical and process engineering, agriculture), in addition to expert commentary on current policy, funding, markets, business, legal issues, and science trends. Industrial Biotechnology offers the premier forum bridging basic research and R&D with later-stage commercialization for sustainable biobased industrial and environmental applications.

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Potential toxicity of cellulose nanocrystals examined in Industrial Biotechnology journal

IMAGE:Soft Robotics, a peer-reviewed journal published quarterly online with Open Access options and in print, combines advances in biomedical engineering, biomechanics, mathematical modeling, biopolymer chemistry, computer science, and tissue engineering... view more

Credit: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers

New Rochelle, NY, March 9, 2015-- A novel, fully untethered soft robot capable of repeated jumping is able to cover half a meter in a single hop-and-roll motion. The innovative design of this combustion-powered robot, based on a roly-poly toy, and how it returns to an upright position after each jump are described in a fascinating study published in Soft Robotics, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available on the Soft Robotics website.

In the article "An Untethered, Jumping Roly-Poly Soft Robot Driven by Combustion", Michael Loepfe, Christoph Schumacher, Urs Lustenberger, and Wendelin Stark, Institute for Chemical and Bioengineering (Zurich, Switzerland), describe a soft robot powered by a mixture of nitrous oxide/propane/butane gas that can function even over rough terrain. The authors provide a detailed description of the activity of the robot and suggest future advances that could improve the jumping ability and performance of the robot.

"Although this robot is a hybrid of soft and hard components, I think it demonstrates how incorporating new materials can open up all sorts of robot capabilities," says Editor-in-Chief Barry A. Trimmer, PhD, who directs the Neuromechanics and Biomimetic Devices Laboratory at Tufts University (Medford, MA).

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About the Journal

Soft Robotics, a peer-reviewed journal published quarterly online with Open Access options and in print, combines advances in biomedical engineering, biomechanics, mathematical modeling, biopolymer chemistry, computer science, and tissue engineering to present new approaches to the creation of robotic technology and devices that can undergo dramatic changes in shape and size in order to adapt to various environments. Led by Editor-in-Chief Barry A. Trimmer, PhD, and a distinguished team of Associate Editors, the Journal provides the latest research and developments on topics such as soft material creation, characterization, and modeling; flexible and degradable electronics; soft actuators and sensors; control and simulation of highly deformable structures; biomechanics and control of soft animals and tissues; biohybrid devices and living machines; and design and fabrication of conformable machines. Tables of content and a sample issue can be viewed on the Soft Robotics 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, and biomedical research, including 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing and Tissue Engineering. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering 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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Jumping, roly-poly, untethered robot described in Soft Robotics journal