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Almirall: Eight out of Ten Patients Maintained Skin Clearance at One Year in Lebrikizumab Atopic Dermatitis Monotherapy Trials – PR Newswire UK

Posted: June 7, 2022 at 1:49 am

BARCELONA, Spain, June 7, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Almirall S.A. (BME: ALM) today announced topline results from one-year analyses of the efficacy and safety of lebrikizumab, an investigational IL-13 inhibitor for the treatment of patients with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis (AD). The new findings from the Phase 3 clinical trials (ADvocate 1 and 2) showed eight out of ten patients who achieved clinical response (EASI-75*) with lebrikizumab monotherapy at 16 weeks maintained skin clearance at one year of treatment with the once every two weeks or four weeks regimen. Additionally, patients treated with lebrikizumab maintained itch relief across the two trials over the one-year period. These results build upon positive datafrom the 16-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled part of the ADvocate program.

"We are pleased to witness how lebrikizumab has proven over a year its potential to be a leading option for the treatment of atopic dermatitis. ADvocate 1 and 2 results add to the exciting, growing body of evidence from our Phase 3 clinical trial program and demonstrate that this medicine may provide much-needed relief for those seeking new treatment options. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with Lilly and advancing in our clinical program, aiming to obtain approval in the European Union," stated Karl Ziegelbauer, Ph.D., Almirall's Chief Scientific Officer.

AD, or atopic eczema, is a chronic, relapsing, heterogenous skin disease characterized by intense itching, dry skin and inflammation that can be present on any part of the body.1-2 Lebrikizumab is a novel, monoclonal antibody (mAb) that binds to the interleukin-13 (IL-13) protein with high affinity to specifically prevent the formation of IL-13R1/IL-4R(Type 2 receptor) which blocks downstream signaling through the IL-13 pathway.3-7 IL-13 plays the central role in AD, promoting Type 2 inflammation that drives skin barrier dysfunction, itch, skin thickening and infection.8-10

In ADvocate 1, 79% of patients who received lebrikizumab every four weeks and 79% of patients who received lebrikizumab every two weeks maintained 75% or greater skin improvement (EASI-75) at one year of treatment. Additionally, 85% of patients who received lebrikizumab every four weeks and 77% of patients who received lebrikizumab every two weeks maintained EASI-75 response in ADvocate 2 at one year of treatment.

The frequency of adverse events and the overall safety profile among these patients treated with lebrikizumab were consistent with the induction phase of the trials as well as previous lebrikizumab studies in AD. No new safety signals were observed in this patient population.

"In these studies, patients treated with lebrikizumab maintained skin clearance and lasting relief from intense itch at one year. We look forward to providing an important new medicine and helping patients find the relief they so desperately seek from the varied and debilitating symptoms of this disease, contingent upon FDA approval," said Lotus Mallbris, M.D., Ph.D., vice president of global immunology development and medical affairs at Eli Lilly and Company.

With these data, Almirall plans to submit a Marketing Authorization Application (MAA) to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for lebrikizumab in AD in the second half of 2022. Lilly also plans to submit an application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this year, followed by submissions to other regulatory agencies around the world.

These studies are part of the comprehensive clinical development program for lebrikizumab in AD evaluating more than 2,000 patients. Full one-year results from the Phase 3 monotherapy studies will be disclosed at upcoming congresses and in publications in 2022. Additional Phase 3 clinical trials are enrolling for lebrikizumab in AD.

Almirall has licensed the rights to develop and commercialize lebrikizumab for the treatment of dermatology indications, including AD, in Europe. Lilly has exclusive rights for development and commercialization of lebrikizumab in the United States and the rest of the world outside Europe.

*EASI=Eczema Area and Severity Index, EASI-75=75 percent reduction in EASI from baseline to Week 16

About ADvocate 1 and ADvocate 2 and the Phase 3 Program

ADvocate 1andADvocate 2are 52-week randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, global, Phase 3 studies designed to evaluate lebrikizumab as monotherapy in adult and adolescent patients (aged 12 to less than 18 years of age and weighing at least 40 kg) with moderate-to-severe AD.During the 16-week treatment period, patients received lebrikizumab 500-mg initially and at two weeks, followed by lebrikizumab 250-mg or placebo every two weeks. In the maintenance period, patients with moderate-to-severe AD who achieved a clinical response after 16 weeks of lebrikizumab treatment were re-randomized to receive lebrikizumab every two weeks or every four weeks or placebo for an additional 36 weeks.Patients who required rescue treatment during the induction period or who did not achieve clinical response (lebrikizumab non-responders) at 16 weeks received lebrikizumab every two weeks for an additional 36 weeks.The primary endpoints were measured by an Investigator Global Assessment (IGA) score of clear (0) or almost clear (1) skin with a reduction of at least two points from baseline and at least 75 percent change in baseline in the Eczema Area and Severity Index (EASI-75) score at 16 weeks. EASI measures extent and severity of the disease. Key secondary endpoints were measured by IGA, EASI, the Pruritus Numeric Rating Scale, Sleep-Loss due to Pruritus and the Dermatology Life Quality Index.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted lebrikizumab Fast Track designation in AD in December 2019. The lebrikizumab Phase 3 program consists of five key global studies including two monotherapy studies, a combination study (ADhere), as well as long-term extension (ADjoin) and adolescent open label (ADore) studies.

About Lebrikizumab

Lebrikizumab is a novel, investigational, monoclonal antibody designed to bind IL-13 with high affinity to specifically prevent the formation of the IL-13R1/IL-4R heterodimer complex and subsequent signaling, thereby inhibiting the biological effects of IL-13 in a targeted and efficient fashion. IL-13 is the central pathogenic mediator of AD, promoting Type 2 inflammation that drives skin barrier dysfunction, itch, skin thickening and infection.6-8

About Almirall

Almirall is a global biopharmaceutical company focused on skin health. We collaborate with scientists and healthcare professionals to address patient's needs through science to improve their lives. Our Noble Purpose is at the core of our work: "Transform the patients' world by helping them realize their hopes and dreams for a healthy life". We invest in differentiated and ground-breaking medical dermatology products to bring our innovative solutions to patients in need.

The company, founded in 1943 and headquartered in Barcelona, is publicly traded on the Spanish Stock Exchange and is a member of the IBEX35 (ticker: ALM). Throughout its 79-year history, Almirall has retained a strong focus on the needs of patients. Currently, Almirall has a direct presence in 21 countries and strategic agreements in over 70, with about 1,800 employees. Total revenues in 2021 were 836.5 million euros.

For more information, please visit almirall.com

Legal warning

This document includes only summary information and is not intended to be exhaustive. The facts, figures and opinions contained in this document, in addition to the historical ones, are "forward-looking statements". These statements are based on the information currently available and the best estimates and assumptions that the Company considers reasonable. These statements involve risks and uncertainties beyond the control of the Company. Therefore, actual results may differ materially from those declared by such forward-looking statements. The Company expressly waives any obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements, goals or estimates contained in this document to reflect any changes in the assumptions, events or circumstances on which such forward-looking statements are based, unless required by the applicable law.

1Weidinger S, Novak N. Lancet. 2016;387:1109-1122.2Langan SM, et al. Arch Dermatol. 2008;142:1109.3Moyle M, et al. Exp Dermatol. 2019;28(7):756-768.4 Ultsch M, et al. J Mol Biol. 2013;425(8):1330-1339.5Zhu R, et al. Pulm Pharmacol Ther. 2017;46:88-98.6Simpson EL, et al. J Am Acad Dermatol. 2018;78(5):863-871.e11.7Okragly A, et al. Comparison of the Affinity and in vitro Activity of Lebrikizumab, Tralokinumab, and Cendakimab. Presented at the Inflammatory Skin Disease Summit, New York, November 3-6, 2021.8Tsoi L, et al. Journal of Investigative Dermatology. 2019;139(7):1480-1489.9Ratnarajah K, et al. Journal of Cutaneous Medicine and Surgery. 2021;25(3):315-328.10Bieber T. Allergy. 2020;75(1):54-62.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1217694/Almirall_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Almirall, S.A.

Originally posted here:
Almirall: Eight out of Ten Patients Maintained Skin Clearance at One Year in Lebrikizumab Atopic Dermatitis Monotherapy Trials - PR Newswire UK

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Woman left balding and bedbound by chronic eczema clears the condition with a 9 face cream – The Independent

Posted: at 1:49 am

A call centre operator plagued by such virulent eczema she was left balding, bedbound and slept in a balaclava to stop her oozing face from sticking to the pillow says a life-changing 9 cream cleared her skin overnight.

While Kimberley Reardon, 30, suffered with mild baby eczema until she was three-years-old, it did not flare-up again until her teens and it was only in her 20s that her catastrophic problems began and she was covered from head-to-toe in red raw patches of the dry, flaking skin condition.

For the next decade, her eczema frequently developed into painful, weeping sores and saw Kimberley trying numerous steroid creams.

However, the treatements would work only briefly, before the angry conditionreturned with such vigour she would be unable to move without her skin weeping or peeling.

After several hospitalisations, infections and periods of being bedbound, by March 2022 Kimberley, who lives with her boyfriend of 12 years, healthcare assistant, Scott Hannah, 31, had lost hope only for her mum to stumble upon 8.99 Balmonds Skin Salvation cream that practically cleared her skin overnight.

Kimberley, of Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Scotland, said: I was exhausted and hopeless. It felt like it was never ending.

I had spent nearly 10 years in chronic pain and itwas an achievement for me to just get myself washed and dressed in the morning.

I have tried so many creams that dont work, so when my mum suggested I tried this one, I was very sceptical about it working.

But, when I woke up the next day, my face was almost clear it was unbelievable.

Kimberley Reardon, 30, in May 2018, before her skin spiraled out of control (Collect/PA Real Life)

Despite suffering with mild baby eczema, her skin complaints only really started in her teens.

She said: My parents would usually use a cream on me as a baby which would work, but then the eczema appeared again when I was going through exams at 15.

It started on my back and spread to the creases in my elbows, with patches of redness.

It bothered me, but it hadnt spread to my face at that point, so I could just hide it.

Kimberleys eczema covering her face and neck in March 2020 (Collect/PA Real Life)

To ease the eczema, Kimberley was prescribed a steroid cream which was steadily increased in dosage to match her increasing flare ups. But hitting 20, the steroid creams seemed to stop working and during the next three years her condition intensified and spread to her face.

Kimberley Reardon, 30, and Scott Hannah, 31, have been together for 12 years (Collect/PA Real Life)

She said: I was studying for my social sciences degree at university, working part-time in a call centre and caring for my grandad because he was poorly and he had pneumonia.

Stress was definitely a trigger for my eczema, which went from some scaly patches to covering my whole body in red, inflamed dry skin that was just falling off my face.

Kimberleys arm was red raw in December 2020 (Collect/PA Real Life)

She added: My arms looked like red sleeves, while my legs were also covered and my neck was incredibly sore.

It was unmanageable. I was trying to use creams, emollients and moisturisers and wrapping myself in bandages, to try and help them to be absorbed into my skin.

Diagnosed with severe and widespread erythema at 23 a rash caused by injured or inflamed blood capillaries, usually in response to a drug, disease or infection Kimberleys skin became worse and worse.

Kimberley Reardon, 30, with makeup on for the first time in years (Collect/PA Real Life)

I wasnt functioning at all, I was exhausted, she said.

I felt ruined, like my body was fighting against me constantly.

It felt like I had severe sunburn over my whole body as if it was burning me from the inside out.

Kimberleys hand raw and peeling earlier this year, in April 2022 (Collect/PA Real Life)

After years fighting the eczema without success, Kimberley felt depressed, although she still tried to go out and have a normal life.

She said: I remember putting foundation on the top of my hands to try and cover the red patches,

One time a woman saw my hand when I pushed the lift button at work and she said, Oh! Have you been burnt? I felt so embarrassed.

I started wearing foundation to try and cover the patches, as well as long sleeves and big jumpers, even in the summer to try and hide my skin.

Kimberleys skin flaking and peeling in September 2020 (Collect/PA Real Life)

I felt so out of control of my skin that I started to micromanage everything else that I could to compensate.

Even though it hurt to move, I was hoovering six times a day to clear my skin up.

I was in so much pain, but I became obsessive about things.

I couldnt leave dishes out and I became totally over the top with cleaning and constantly checking my money, even though I knew I could pay my bills.

Kimberley Reardon, 30, with her boyfriend, Scott Hannah, 31(Collect/PA Real Life)

In 2018, Kimberleys skin condition became so bad she was hospitalised.

She said: My mum took one look at me and was horrified.

Ninety five per cent of my body was covered in red, swollen and burning skin.

I was losing too much fluid through my skin, where I was oozing out.

Kimberley Reardon on March 13, 2022 (Collect/PA Real Life)

She added: And the doctors said I was critically ill. My skin was so weak and I wasnt able to regulate my temperature.

After two weeks on an IV drip in hospital, Kimberley was placed on immunosuppressants and five months of oral steroids, to try and tame her excruciating eczema.

And when 2020 hit, she found herself completely bedbound.

Kimberley Reardon, 30, in March 2018, covering her red hands in foundation (Collect/PA Real Life)

She said: From January to March, my skin was the worst it had even been.

Doctors doubled my doses of immunosuppressants but nothing worked.

I had to have spare sheets to change and lie on every few hours. I was ruining the bed sheets where my skin was so flaky and oozy.

I was spending hours lying in really hot baths, because they seemed to be the only thing that relieved my skin, although it would be worse when I got out.

Kimberley said it was a blessing working from home in lockdown because of the pain and fear of judgement (Collect/PA Real Life)

She added: I was crying constantly and I didnt look like me at all.

I would think, Am I ever going to get better, is this it?'

When the March 2020 lockdown came in, it was a saving grace for Kimberley, as she was able to better manage her pain while she was working from home.

Prescribed new immunosuppressants, her skin briefly cleared but even then, she was plagued with a litany of other side effects.

Kimberley Reardon, 30, struggled immensely with her skin in 2020 (Collect/PA Real Life)

My skin was amazing but I was having other problems, she said.I was vomiting all the time, sleeping all the time and I couldnt keep food down.

Then, in July 2020, her skin flared up again so severely that she was hospitalised once more and signed off work for five months.

She said: I was bitten by an insect, which caused an abscess and cellulitis, a bacterial skin infection, because I had no immunity.

Kimberley trying to get through the pain in August 2020(Collect/PA Real Life)

Kimberley added: I was in hospital for two weeks on a drip again and antibiotics, followed by another three weeks of antibiotics at home.

I was bedbound, I barely got up and my poor boyfriend was carrying me to the toilet and running the bath for me.

I barely got changed, as it would take me hours to get dressed.

I lost my hair from the stress on my head, eyebrows and even my eyelashes.

And I didnt sleep for months because of the pain.

I was bedbound, I barely got up and my poor boyfriend was carrying me to the toilet and running the bath for me

Kimberley tried to go cold turkey without any medication to see if her body could heal itself, but nothing seemed to improve.

My face was covered, my body was covered, she said.

My boyfriend had to care for me, I couldnt do anything.

I spent my days in pain, just watching TV, or I sat in the bath for hours for some relief.

The worst thing for me was feeling like such a burden.

Kimberley Reardon, 30, with her clear skin in May 2022 (Collect/PA Real Life)

In a bid to help moisturising remedies to be absorbed and to stop her skin from weeping on everything, Kimberley would wrap herself up like a parcel.

She said: I was living in my eczema jammies, with long sleeves and long legs.

I would use bandages for my neck and my mum even got me a balaclava to sleep in at night, to stop my face sticking onto my pillows where it wept so much.

Kimberley felt very grateful for the support from her boyfriend, family and friends, but still felt mortified by her situation.

I was so embarrassed, I was completely mortified to be seen, she said.

If I went for a walk, I would just stare at the ground and never look anyone in the eye.

My boyfriend would always be so lovely. Whenever I started to feel bad, he would always bring me straight back up again.

In another attempt to clear her skin, in December 2020 Kimberley was prescribed a biologic an injection which targets the gene that causes inflammation which for three months cleared her skin.

Kimberley Reardon, 30, in September 2020 compared to now, with clear skin (Collect/PA Real Life)

I felt amazing, she said.

I was fatigued and achy from the side effects, but I felt so happy that something was working.

I had my first date night since 2019 at Frankie and Bennys with my boyfriend.

But, just as things were looking up, she developed a fungal infection across her arms and chest in February 2021.

It was so itchy. I was scratching so much I was ripping my skin off

She said: It was so itchy. I was scratching so much I was ripping my skin off.

So desperate to find something that worked, Kimberley even tried cryotherapy the use of extreme cold to freeze abnormal tissue for six weeks in July 2021.

She said: Once a week, I would stand in this freezing chamber, with temperatures at minus 110 to reduce inflammation.

It didnt work, it made me go purple, but I tried it as I was so desperate to do something and so scared of being bedbound again.

Just when she believed there was nothing else left to try, Kimberleys mum, Janey Reardon, 56, a retired receptionist, discovered the 9 cream in March this year.

Picking up a 30ml bottle for 8.99, she handed it to her daughter who cautiously applied some to a small patch on her finger.

She said: There had been no reaction in an hour, so I thought hopefully it would be okay.

I slathered it on and overnight and when I got up, my face was almost clear.

I couldnt believe it.

Using the cream every day, within one week, Kimberley was astounded to see that her skin was still miraculously clear.

And for the first time since 2019, she felt confident enough about her appearance to go to a coffee shop alone.

She said: I had a green tea in the coffee shop and for the first time in as long as I could remember, I wasnt worrying about people looking at my face.I had three date nights that week, one at the cinema and two foodie dates.

Even just going for a walk again was amazing.

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Woman left balding and bedbound by chronic eczema clears the condition with a 9 face cream - The Independent

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Poll: Six in 10 people would eat food that has fallen on the floor – Coventry Live

Posted: at 1:49 am

Tile Warehouse has surveyed the UK public to determine who abides by the five-second rule, and how its perceived differently across the country. This so-called rule says food is OK to eat if you pick it up in five seconds or less.

Results have revealed that the threat of contamination isnt stopping Brits from eating fallen food, with almost six in 10 (59%) agreeing that they would still eat food that had touched the floor. Of those who agreed, one in six (16%) preferred to only leave food for four to five seconds, following the favoured rule's steps.

Just over 1% claimed that they would eat food left on the floor for up to one minute. Even more shockingly, one in 20 people (5%) claimed that they would eat the food no matter how long it had been left on the floor.

The study found that women (56%) were less likely to eat food off the floor than men (61%). It seems that generational divides also extend to the five-second rule, with millennials (aged 24-42) the most likely to leave food on the floor the longest.

Members of this generation gave seven seconds as the average amount of time they would comfortably leave food on the floor before eating it. A closer look at the regions found that those in Scotland were likely to leave food on the floor for the longest amount of time with an average of 10 seconds.

In second place was Greater London, with residents admitting they would leave their food on the floor for a maximum of six seconds at a time. The research was conducted by Censuswide among 2,000 general consumers aged 18 and over in May 2022.

For more stories from where you live, visit InYourArea.

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Tom Antkow: The only thing to fear | Opinion | thedailytimes.com – Maryville Daily Times

Posted: at 1:27 am

Country

United States of AmericaUS Virgin IslandsUnited States Minor Outlying IslandsCanadaMexico, United Mexican StatesBahamas, Commonwealth of theCuba, Republic ofDominican RepublicHaiti, Republic ofJamaicaAfghanistanAlbania, People's Socialist Republic ofAlgeria, People's Democratic Republic ofAmerican SamoaAndorra, Principality ofAngola, Republic ofAnguillaAntarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S)Antigua and BarbudaArgentina, Argentine RepublicArmeniaArubaAustralia, Commonwealth ofAustria, Republic ofAzerbaijan, Republic ofBahrain, Kingdom ofBangladesh, People's Republic ofBarbadosBelarusBelgium, Kingdom ofBelizeBenin, People's Republic ofBermudaBhutan, Kingdom ofBolivia, Republic ofBosnia and HerzegovinaBotswana, Republic ofBouvet Island (Bouvetoya)Brazil, Federative Republic ofBritish Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago)British Virgin IslandsBrunei DarussalamBulgaria, People's Republic ofBurkina FasoBurundi, Republic ofCambodia, Kingdom ofCameroon, United Republic ofCape Verde, Republic ofCayman IslandsCentral African RepublicChad, Republic ofChile, Republic ofChina, People's Republic ofChristmas IslandCocos (Keeling) IslandsColombia, Republic ofComoros, Union of theCongo, Democratic Republic ofCongo, People's Republic ofCook IslandsCosta Rica, Republic ofCote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of theCyprus, Republic ofCzech RepublicDenmark, Kingdom ofDjibouti, Republic ofDominica, Commonwealth ofEcuador, Republic ofEgypt, Arab Republic ofEl Salvador, Republic ofEquatorial Guinea, Republic ofEritreaEstoniaEthiopiaFaeroe IslandsFalkland Islands (Malvinas)Fiji, Republic of the Fiji IslandsFinland, Republic ofFrance, French RepublicFrench GuianaFrench PolynesiaFrench Southern TerritoriesGabon, Gabonese RepublicGambia, Republic of theGeorgiaGermanyGhana, Republic ofGibraltarGreece, Hellenic RepublicGreenlandGrenadaGuadaloupeGuamGuatemala, Republic ofGuinea, RevolutionaryPeople's Rep'c ofGuinea-Bissau, Republic ofGuyana, Republic ofHeard and McDonald IslandsHoly See (Vatican City State)Honduras, Republic ofHong Kong, Special Administrative Region of ChinaHrvatska (Croatia)Hungary, Hungarian People's RepublicIceland, Republic ofIndia, Republic ofIndonesia, Republic ofIran, Islamic Republic ofIraq, Republic ofIrelandIsrael, State ofItaly, Italian RepublicJapanJordan, Hashemite Kingdom ofKazakhstan, Republic ofKenya, Republic ofKiribati, Republic ofKorea, Democratic People's Republic ofKorea, Republic ofKuwait, State ofKyrgyz RepublicLao People's Democratic RepublicLatviaLebanon, Lebanese RepublicLesotho, Kingdom ofLiberia, Republic ofLibyan Arab JamahiriyaLiechtenstein, Principality ofLithuaniaLuxembourg, Grand Duchy ofMacao, Special Administrative Region of ChinaMacedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic ofMadagascar, Republic ofMalawi, Republic ofMalaysiaMaldives, Republic ofMali, Republic ofMalta, Republic ofMarshall IslandsMartiniqueMauritania, Islamic Republic ofMauritiusMayotteMicronesia, Federated States ofMoldova, Republic ofMonaco, Principality ofMongolia, Mongolian People's RepublicMontserratMorocco, Kingdom ofMozambique, People's Republic ofMyanmarNamibiaNauru, Republic ofNepal, Kingdom ofNetherlands AntillesNetherlands, Kingdom of theNew CaledoniaNew ZealandNicaragua, Republic ofNiger, Republic of theNigeria, Federal Republic ofNiue, Republic ofNorfolk IslandNorthern Mariana IslandsNorway, Kingdom ofOman, Sultanate ofPakistan, Islamic Republic ofPalauPalestinian Territory, OccupiedPanama, Republic ofPapua New GuineaParaguay, Republic ofPeru, Republic ofPhilippines, Republic of thePitcairn IslandPoland, Polish People's RepublicPortugal, Portuguese RepublicPuerto RicoQatar, State ofReunionRomania, Socialist Republic ofRussian FederationRwanda, Rwandese RepublicSamoa, Independent State ofSan Marino, Republic ofSao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic ofSaudi Arabia, Kingdom ofSenegal, Republic ofSerbia and MontenegroSeychelles, Republic ofSierra Leone, Republic ofSingapore, Republic ofSlovakia (Slovak Republic)SloveniaSolomon IslandsSomalia, Somali RepublicSouth Africa, Republic ofSouth Georgia and the South Sandwich IslandsSpain, Spanish StateSri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic ofSt. HelenaSt. Kitts and NevisSt. LuciaSt. Pierre and MiquelonSt. Vincent and the GrenadinesSudan, Democratic Republic of theSuriname, Republic ofSvalbard & Jan Mayen IslandsSwaziland, Kingdom ofSweden, Kingdom ofSwitzerland, Swiss ConfederationSyrian Arab RepublicTaiwan, Province of ChinaTajikistanTanzania, United Republic ofThailand, Kingdom ofTimor-Leste, Democratic Republic ofTogo, Togolese RepublicTokelau (Tokelau Islands)Tonga, Kingdom ofTrinidad and Tobago, Republic ofTunisia, Republic ofTurkey, Republic ofTurkmenistanTurks and Caicos IslandsTuvaluUganda, Republic ofUkraineUnited Arab EmiratesUnited Kingdom of Great Britain & N. IrelandUruguay, Eastern Republic ofUzbekistanVanuatuVenezuela, Bolivarian Republic ofViet Nam, Socialist Republic ofWallis and Futuna IslandsWestern SaharaYemenZambia, Republic ofZimbabwe

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Tom Antkow: The only thing to fear | Opinion | thedailytimes.com - Maryville Daily Times

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Nerds have longevity and the numbers to prove it – The Dallas Morning News

Posted: at 1:27 am

So far, this has been a really good century for nerds, with lots of jobs, higher pay and an abundance of promotions. Then theres the admiration we get, however reluctant it may seem, in almost every TV show and a multitude of movies. With the exception of medieval dramas, theres a resident nerd in every show.

The last century was pretty good, too.

Clearly, the Age of Nerds has arrived.

This was evident at a recent gathering at my alma mater, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Gray, if not white, hair prevails for the class of 1962. Our 60th reunion was part of Technology Day at the end of May.

I wasnt there with my classmates. I was in Annapolis awaiting a new suit of sails for my boat. But I had already obtained the newest data. It tells me that this truly is the Age of Nerds. Better still, the reward is way better than mere money. Or ephemeral prestige.

Its longevity! The blessing of a longer life.

Just as an earlier measure showed that my classmates were failing to die as rapidly as their age cohorts were back in 2016, the current measure continues the trend. While a typical member of the class of 1962 is about 82 years old, the survivorship of our class more closely resembles a group of men who are about 72.

Here are the basics. According to Institute figures, of 840 graduates in the class of 62, 234 have died. An additional 18 are missing. But if we take the most basic figure, the 234 who have died of 840 graduates, we learned that an amazing 72% of those 22-year-olds have survived. Adding the missing, who might be assumed dead, doesnt change the percentage greatly.

In comparison, the most recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention life tables inform us that of every 100,000 non-Hispanic white males born, 98,765 could be expected to survive to age 22 but only 45,723 could expect to live to 82. Thats only 46%.

If youre wondering why I used the life table for non-Hispanic white males, rather than a table for all males or a joint male and female table, the reason is simple. In 1962, women were a trace element at MIT. And almost all the men were white.

Please note that living longer should not be confused with immortality. Vast wealth and philanthropic contributions to medical research notwithstanding, my classmate David Koch, the co-owner of Koch Industries, was one of the 234 who didnt make it. The distinction for the MIT class of 1962 is that we are departing more slowly than most humans.

Fortunately, you dont have to go to MIT to enjoy this blessing. If you persevere and get a good education and earn a higher-than-average income, youre likely to live a longer life. I believe it will work nicely for our grandchildren who have, or will, graduate from Texas A&M and UT.

Why am I so confident?

Simple. Every bit of research since the original Whitehall studies on longevity indicates that people with college degrees and high incomes are likely to live a longer and healthier life than those with less education and less income.

That reality turns into really good news when you compare the class of 1962 with current and coming graduating classes at MIT (and elsewhere). Sixty years ago, very few women went to MIT.

The Institute (or the Gray Pile on the Charles, as some called it) was all yang and no yin.

Our version of Facebook was a copy of the coveted annual printed directory, with pictures, of the new women at Radcliffe, then the college for women at Harvard, several miles away.

Today, nearly half of all MIT undergraduates are women. And women now account for more than 50% of undergraduates at all colleges. So the past 60 years have seen a seismic shift. At last, the full pool of human talent is being developed.

Its not just white guys anymore. Its both sexes, some non-binaries and significant percentages of Asian, Hispanic, Black and mixed-race students.

In a news year thats desperately short on hope, I just love this. Its good will toward all.

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Nerds have longevity and the numbers to prove it - The Dallas Morning News

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The ‘Benjamin Button’ Effect Might Soon Be A Real Thing. Scientists Can Now Reverse The Aging Process In Mice. – Totally The Bomb

Posted: at 1:27 am

Youve seen the movie or at leard youve heard of The Curious Case ofBenjamin Buttons, right?

In this movie (loosely based on a short story), Benjamin Button is born old. He literally looks like a little old man.

He then begins to age in reverse. As he gets older, he appears younger.

Its a pretty awesome situation, but as you can probably guess, there are consequences to aging in reverse.

But, thats a story for another time.

Today we are here to talk about mice. Yes, those furry little rodents that scare the beetlejuice out of you when they appear in your house.

Researchers have stumbled upon a way to reverse the aging process in mice.

Excuse me? What kind of sorcery is this?

There is no magic involved unless you consider science to be magic.

In molecular biologist David Sinclairslabat Harvard Medical School, old mice are growing young again.

The process is complicated, but here is the gist of the situation.

Researchers use some special protein that can turn the cell of an adult into a stem cell.

So, what exactly is a stem cell, you ask?

Youve heard the term before, but maybe youre stumped as to what a stem cell actually is.

According to the Mayo Clinic, stem cells are cells from which all other cells with specialized functions are generated.

Huh?

They are basically the cells in their raw form.

Under the right conditions in the body or a laboratory, stem cells divide to form more cells called daughter cells.

So, Sinclair in all his scientific wisdom and his team have altered aging cells in mice.

These new cells have turned the mice into earlier versions of themselves.

Im sorry. This sounds like we are in Fantasyland, AMIRITE?

Sinclairs team made the first stem cell breakthrough in late 2020 when they published Reprogramming to recover youthful epigenetic information and restore vision.

Thats a confusing, scientific way to say that they basically defied the laws of nature, and made the mice appear young again.

Old mice with poor eyesight and damaged retinas could suddenly see again, with vision that at times rivaled their offsprings.

I mean, can I have some of these stem cells put into my eyes?!?

While modern medicine addresses sickness, it doesnt address the underlying cause, which for most diseases, is aging itself. We know that when we reverse the age of an organ like the brain in a mouse, the diseases of aging then go away. Memory comes back; there is no more dementia.

So, the results of the study in mice have lasted for months.

If it works on mice, theres no reason it shouldnt work on humans.

(Im not sure I want to be the guinea pig who tries it out)

BUT, these stem cells dont turn into younger versions, and then stay that way forever.

Like, you cant turn into an immortal vampire or anything no matter how bad you want to.

Its as permanent as aging is. Its a reset, and then we see the mice age out again, so then we just repeat the process.

We believe we have found the master control switch, a way to rewind the clock. The body will then wake up, remember how to behave, remember how to regenerate and will be young again, even if youre already old and have an illness.

We do know that eventually the cells age again, and the mice go back to being elderly rodents.

But, for a brief moment in time, they appear and act younger.

Studies on whether the genetic intervention that revitalized mice will do the same for people are in early stages. It will be years before human trials are finished, analyzed and, if safe and successful, scaled to the mass needed for a federal stamp of approval.

Lets get this testing done and complete. Once we know its safe for humans and FDA approved I will be first in line to get my stem cells!!

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Q&A: The Revolution On What Made Prince A Live Legend And That Seminal Purple Rain Syracuse Show – Forbes

Posted: at 1:27 am

INGLEWOOD - FEBRUARY 19: Prince performs live at the Fabulous Forum on February 19, 1985 in ... [+] Inglewood, California. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

This year's Super Bowl halftime show, featuring Dr. Dre, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Mary J. Blige, Snoop Dogg and 50 Cent, was phenomenal, one of the best of all time.

If, however, it wasn't the best halftime show it is because of one that can't be topped Prince's legendary performance in the rain in Miami, February 4, 2007. In every list of the greatest shows that is rightfully ranked first.

Prince was a live legend, arguably the greatest performer of his generation. That magic is captured on a new release, Prince & The Revolution: Live, recorded at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, March 30 1985 on the Purple Rain tour. The show is being released on CD, vinyl and Blu-Ray tomorrow (June 3) after previously only being available on DVD.

The Syracuse concert was one of the seminal concerts in cementing the Prince legend. What is remarkable is it came just four years after Prince was famously booed off the stage at the Los Angeles Coliseum while opening for the Rolling Stones.

According to Revolution drummer Bobby Z., that debacle was actually an important stepping stone on the way to Prince becoming such an iconic performer. I spoke with Z, as well as Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman about the new recording of the Syracuse show, the Purple Rain tour and why Prince was so unique live "James Brown on steroids," Z says.

Steve Baltin: Can you look back on it now and figure out what it was about that night in Syracuse that was so special that night?

Bobby Z: You see things on the schedule, Purple Rain was a work in progress because it kept building and building and building, and the fight was of course, to continue on, that's what this Syracuse show was about. So most shows you look at the itinerary and Lorde's totally right, you don't know. What was the old expression. "If it's Tuesday, it must be Belgium." [And] it definitely has a disoriented feeling with Prince, a super disoriented feeling because you're just captivated in his world in a way when you're rehearsing, you're on the road with him. And so it creates this environment. But Syracuse became compromise as they added it because of the size of the building and the ability to do this satellite hookup. So they've talked about it for weeks leading up to it. "We're not gonna tour Europe, we're gonna do this satellite thing." And that added a little pressure, but when we went to Syracuse, at first I thought "What's in Syracuse?" But once we did a sound check, I realized that the venue was one of a perfect medium size, the 20 to 30,000, as opposed to the super, almost 80,000, which was really daunting. But with Prince you're making history and he was fired up, this is what we're doing. And it definitely took extra pressure on a show that was already tremendous pressure. It was doing the Olympic routine, trying to get a ten, trying to be perfect.

Wendy Melvoin: We had been on the road for a while by that time, and so we were pretty well-rehearsed and at this point we were like a well-oiled machine, I like to say. And this night was gonna be different because of it being broadcast all over the place, it was one of the first pay-per-view shows. So there was excitement on that level, so that added to what we had already known in our performance was good. It made it just better with the excitement level we had. Plus there was a little bit more pressure, obviously, 'cause we didn't wanna make any mistakes. We couldn't go back and redo a take. So it was just like anything, live TV, make it the best you can. And Wasn't it Prince who said to us, "Go out there and play like it was your last time?"

Lisa Coleman: Yeah, he often said that. [laughter] But definitely that night he was super focused. And it was really special because that was it, we were gonna stop touring with Purple Rain and go on to the next thing. So this was a chance to really solidify what we had been doing. And he just wanted to be perfect, and then of course, so did we, to please ourselves and to please him and really make something that could make history. It was always about, "Let's go out there and make history," and we would say that, but we didn't really know that that would end up happening. [chuckle]

Baltin: How far into the tour was that show?

Z: It was close to the very end. The Orange Bowl of Miami was in April. So, this was March 30th. Look, when we started the Purple Rain tour around the world, that day was already in the can mixed, mastered, ready to go. He was bored halfway through because of the confinements of the tour, at that show, as you could tell, runs like a play, it's a serious play. And let's pause here and give credit to Roy Bennett, the lighting and stage designer that came with us from Dirty Mind on, and designed this massive structure with elevators and tunnels and incredible lighting. Roy we considered to be the seventh member of the band, he was just really captivating Princes' vision for all this. It definitely had a feeling of creativity, but at the same time for him, it became confining. And so he wanted to move on and could have definitely gone on to done Europe and Japan, but then we wouldn't have this beautiful product we're talking about now, which is this immortal concert that we're all very proud of.

Baltin: When was the last time that you went back and watched this show?

Z: There was a night when Warner Brothers in the last couple years after he passed, gave us some beautiful plaques for Purple Rain. And then they had a screening of this and for all of us it's a little mesmerizing because first of all, you're so young. Second of all, it's the amount of work and time that put into that night after night leading up to it is daunting. It's like watching a highlight, the ball is caught, the touchdowns are made, so it's pleasant, but it's still the excruciating of the minute by minute of the game. If you know what I mean.

Melvoin: It's funny you should say that 'cause I was just talking to Lisa when we first saw it after many, many years, which wasn't too long ago. I think the first thing that the two of us said to each other was, "Wow, we were really good."

Coleman: Yeah, and we played everything so fast, we were excited, [laughter].

Baltin: Are you typically comfortable looking back?

Z: I like looking back so you can capture the nuances and bring those into the present. 'Cause there was so much each bar, each measure with Prince had so much music in it. There was so much space between one and four for Prince. The one end three that so much happened on the three for Prince, which is a weird count. So you get these little pieces of information and you, "Oh yeah that" and you don't want to bring that forward because it's all so important. I look at it, Mozart wrote these notes and he had a band I'm sure when he died, some kind of orchestra. And after Mozart died, people say, "Please play the maestro's arrangements." And so you're trying to be as authentic as you can to go back and do what Prince and The Revolution did on March 30th, 1985, as much as you can to bring that self-satisfaction of hitting that. Oh yeah, I got that, we did that. And of course modernizing stuff, but it's fun to grab the parchment if you will.

Baltin: I've become friendly with Brandi Carlile. And we were talking about her doing Joni Mitchell, Blue, all the way through. And she said the impetus for her was for people who want to hear these songs live. So I imagine it's been a lot of fun to see people who love these songs getting to see them live for the first time.

Z: And especially because in the '80s Prince and everything was done as secret and the mysteriousness of it all was part of his aura. So now you've got social media and meet and greets. And these people, we saved lives with this music and it's really incredible to see the reaction. "Purple Rain" has become, as Prince called it, medicine. He knew the power of that song, that it somehow brought everyone together. It brings people that are into polka and metal [chuckle] and river dance. Anybody that likes any music at all. "Purple Rain" seems to get them in the heart. And that's a beautiful thing. And you don't realize that in 1985, but now it's so important to people to hear, "Let's Go Crazy," done in an authentic way, and to hear "Computer Blue," "The Beautiful Ones," and "I Would Die 4 U," "Baby, I'm A Star," "Purple Rain." These songs are etched in the society. I say that the term "party like it's... " is just taken for granted now. But it's iconic, almost part of our dictionary. It's almost part of our culture. And it just seems incredible to me that this kid I knew that we grew up with that the dreams were sitting in just a car dreaming and now all of a sudden "party like it's... " is his statement here to stay. That'll be forever.

Baltin: At what point did you start to understand who Prince was becoming in the context of the music world?

Z: I started '76, I was in the original band and helped him as personnel changes, which are difficult. People don't realize you get the benefit of time. Now you look back at all, he became a star, but Purple Rain was the sixth album of a sixth album deal. And it was a long period of time and he's pushed and pulled against the major label system, we know that in the beginning as well as he did in the end, but I think it was on 1999 I just had a sense where he was understanding it. The Rolling Stones tour was a debacle of course everyone knows that. You never prepare yourself as a musician for violence, you see it, that's the old boot off the stage, get the hook, throw the tomatoes, it was all on TV or movies, you just never imagined but when it really happens. No matter what he did or what he was wearing or what he was singing, you just never imagine people to kind of turn violent and turn this into some kind of like a Romans thumbs down kind of thing. But, Lisa's comment was he had to win over the people that just did that. In order to achieve what Purple Rain ultimately did, he had to win over the hardcore rock audience, the pop audience, all these straight AOR album, rock audiences, all of this stuff had to come along and he, with his precision songwriting was able to go after this, in "1999," he would say, "Okay, I get it. Well, here's 'Little Red Corvette' for the rockers." And he has a tongue and cheek comment in '1999' where he says, "Party, that's right," and he's taking, what's ever left of disco. And then live it just turns into something else altogether. So he strategically was able to write his way out of trouble many times. And that was the magic that I think I just realized, "Wow, these songs are not stopping." And on the contrary, they're just flowing and for a while there, he just could do no wrong. So things were changed you got Brown Mark, this fresh face kid who's one of the greatest bass players of all time. The guy is just a monster and then Wendy comes in another fresh face kid, hungry and unbelievably talented guitar player. She was so creative and that gave us the unit that we are still today there's just something about when people are committed, things change. And Prince now had this band that was committed and we were gonna do it with him and we were gonna go to the top and we were gonna do whatever it took night after night after night. And that's what he needed and it's not that easy to get, but that's what he got and I'm really proud that I helped him do it.

Melvoin: We had an idea. The audiences were maniacal, they were crazy. So we knew it was more than just your regular rock concert. We knew that it was above and beyond most shows that were touring at the time. But then again, we're talking about big '80s shows as well. So there was a lot of competition on the road at the time. There was a lot of big '80s stuff going on. But there was somehow something different about bringing that movie to life on stage, without the dialogue, of course, but bringing that movie to life by the performances was really something, was probably the goal. And that night, I know that Prince was really, really aware of wanting to bring that movie to life with that show for people around the world.

Baltin: Do you look back on that Coliseum show as a sort of turning point where the band realized the things that had to change from getting booed off the stage to owning the Carrier Dome and becoming a live legend?

Z: Yeah, the guy's a figure skater up there. There's just nobody that was as fluid and is in command of the band like Prince, it's James Brown on steroids. We're playing rehearsed material, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours of rehearsal, and then there's a layer of spontaneity that he adds with hand signals, audibles, physical cues, audible cues, it's the NFL. The guy had stuff going on that was unseen. He would do the stop on the one things off to the right where you couldn't see them, Mark would have to relay to me the stops, there was relays it was just crazy. The guy's shows were what I like to call on a high-wire with no net. This guy was up there between the sky scrapers and he's dancing on the wire and you could tell, and that's why people talk about it to this day because he pushed this band to the edge every single night. And I'm glad Syracuse is pretty flawless. It's pretty flawless, and it's captured and it's really fun. I must say that I have revisited this version with some of the remixes and stuff, it's great to hear a different perspective, hear different sounds, the way it separated, isolated, mixed in a 22 fashion Bernie Grumman mastering, it really is great for the fans to get this restored video and audio.

Baltin: You had Purple Rain, Born in the USA, Thriller, and at that point that was really kind of everything else. I know that Springsteen and Prince had a great mutual respect. In fact, Bruce covered "Purple Rain" right after he died. Were there other musicians that you really looked to that kind of inspired you on a nightly basis?

Melvoin: The only person that comes to mind would be Joni Mitchell. She was the one that was the biggest supporter of what Prince was doing in a world that wasn't in Prince's world, and someone that he loved so much. She was our everything. We were true disciples of hers at the time. So to have her support during those momentous concerts was really inspiring for us, to have people like that love what we were doing. As far as other musicians were concerned, there was just a mutual love fest with everybody, but we were isolated. We were on a really intense schedule and it was about being the best and leaving everybody else in the dust, that was kind of what the goal was, and I don't mean to sound that way. That sounded a little bit pompous but there was a bit of competition.

Coleman: I think we were a bit pompous, but we were very isolated because of the schedule, I think. That really lent itself to just living in your own world. And this Purple Rain, especially, it was a project that even from its inception, just seemed to always surprise us of how it was developing even from the inception of this song being three simple chords and turning into this beautiful piece. And then the film, we expected at first it'll be like a cult film, it'll be an alternative to mainstream and then it turned into a hit film, and then it was released and had a big release. And then the tour got bigger and bigger [laughter], Yeah, so it was this, slow crescendo the whole time. And so we were just involved in that. And I don't think we looked anywhere but to Prince for most of that encouragement, really. But he was so motivated.

Baltin: During Purple Rain you're dealing with a scrutiny and an attention that you've never experienced before, and that very few people can understand, but Joni Mitchell was one of those people who could.

Coleman: Yeah, absolutely. She had purists all around her and wagging their fingers at her and shaking their heads and we kind of went through the same thing, being are we Black, are we White, are we funk, are we rock, are we whatever, and we liked all of it.

Baltin: So was there particular advice that she gave you guys that you recall or was it more of just a vibe on how to deal with all of that?

Melvoin: It was just a vibe. Her comfort level was permission for us to be comfortable with ourselves as well. She was very comfortable with us and that was validating. If someone's uncomfortable around you, you know they don't wanna be there. They don't really get what you're doing. [chuckle]

Baltin: When you go back and hear that Syracuse show now are there particular moments that really stand out to you?

Melvoin: No. What struck me listening to it was this is like chapters in a book. You can't just take it from the middle. You gotta take it from the first chapter to the last chapter and it's a great book. That's what was so great about that show. So I loved every part of it. If I was to think of something right now, I loved how he sang "The Beautiful Ones" every night, I thought that was stunning. And having to recreate "Darling Nikki" every night, that takes a lot out of a person, and he was amazing. He never, ever, ever did less than 100 person ever. It was incredible.

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‘Aspen Space Station’ to land in Ashcroft – The Aspen Times

Posted: June 5, 2022 at 3:01 am

Artist Ajax Axes Aspen Space Station installation, which last summer took over a swath of Aspen Mountains backside with a group of artists, is returning for summer 2022 and landing in the more accessible Ashcroft ghost town site in July.

It is due to run July 17 through Aug. 15.

The inaugural Station in August 2021 filled a 30-acre property on the remote backside of Aspen Mountain with work by Axe and local artists including Chris Erickson, Wally Graham and Lara Whitley. The works playfully critiqued the billionaire class for spending resources on space rather than on saving Earth from climate change. Visitors could sign a pledge to 1. Stay on Earth. 2. Enjoy it. 3. Stop thinking I can torch this planet and then escape to another one.

While blue-chip multinational pop-up galleries proliferated in Aspen last summer, the Aspen Space Station improbably became one of the most talked-about art experiences of the season and a destination for creative and sustainability-minded events that included performances, hikes, salon-like discussions, knife-throwing and painting.

The 2022 Station at the top of the Castle Creek Valley will host six workshops and parties during its four-week run along with a fundraising dinner titled The Wild Future Feast on July 23.

This years Aspen Space Station initiative will be The Wild Future Outpost during which we will envision a mostly pleasurable coming millennia where we pull our sh-t together as a species, decide not to let Earth burn and learn to live in harmony with our ecology, Axe said in an announcement, utilizing technology where its needed and refraining from consuming every last resource on the planet until our progeny starve to death.

Early this year, Axe teamed with a group of Kenyan artists and nonprofits to open the Lamu Space Station in an abandoned stone house on the island of Lamu about 60 miles south of the Somali border. Run by their self-proclaimed Earth Force Climate Command, the African station was built around the same principles as the Aspen original, calling for the billionaire class to invest in saving natural resources on Earth instead of going space. It also focused on the most prominent local issue of ocean pollution.

Axe is working toward expanding the space station with installations in Nairobi, Athens and Namibia in coming years.

More info at thefutureisonearth.org.

Read more from the original source:
'Aspen Space Station' to land in Ashcroft - The Aspen Times

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Lord Howe Stick Insects: Wrongly Deemed Extinct; With Genome 25% Larger Than a Human’s – PRESSENZA International News Agency

Posted: at 2:58 am

ENDANGERED SPECIES ESSAY

Im still here. Dont let me go. ~Robert Krulwich

Once deemed extinct in Lord Howe Island (LHI), where they are endemic, today only 35 Lord Howe Island Stick insects (Dryococelus australis), are alive in the wild, but not in LHI.

The Lord Howe Island Stick Insect is also called the tree lobster, the name well use in this article. The tree lobster has a massive genome, larger than a human genome by 25%. And yet, this stick insect will only stretch six inches long large enough to fit on an adult humans palm. Its perhaps both the largest stick insect and the rarest invertebrate in the world.

The tree lobster thrived and is endemic to Lord Howe Island. In 1916 Australian Entomologist Arthur Lea counted 68 of them in the hollow of a single tree on the island. But by the 1920s, all tree lobsters disappeared, and by the 1960s they were declared extinct.

The black rats

Their disappearance was blamed on black rats (Rattus rattus) that swam from the British ship, SS Makambo, to LHI when it ran aground in 1918. The rats ate the tree lobsters like candy.

They also decimated five bird species and 12 other invertebrate species. Island inhabitants saw the rats running up and down tree trunks. They spoiled human food and compromised human hygiene.

LHI has some 350 permanent residents. The rodent population in 1918 rose to 300,000 rats and mice. The ratio was roughly 1,000 rodents per human.

This is a story just as much about the decimation of an entire rat population on an island, as it is about the extinction and rediscovery of the tree lobster.

Tree lobster rediscovered elsewhere

In 1964, a group of climbers navigated Balls Pyramid, a steep, rocky outcrop situated 27.2 km from Lord Howe Island. They found a few stick insect corpses that seemed to be recently dead. They took pictures but left the Pyramid before nightfall.

Balls pyramid is very different from Lord Howes Island. Its a steep and tall promontory that juts out vertically from the Tasman sea. Its hard to climb not just because of its straight-up form, but also because its inhabited by barnacles, poisonous centipedes, spiny sea urchins, and other tiny, local wildlife.

Scientists decided in 2001 to find the tree lobsters. Two of them were Australian scientists, David Priddel and Nicholas Carlile. Two others were their assistants. All four rode a boat through shark-infested waters. Upon landing, they climbed 500 feet up.

But all they found were crickets. Upon heading back down, they saw a melaleuca bush peeping out of a crack. Underneath it was fresh poop from evidently large insects.

Priddle and Carlile returned to the site after nightfall, armed with flashlights and cameras. They found 24 tree lobsters beneath the melaleuca bush, dining on tea. Aside from that, very little is known about tree lobsters in the wild.

However, they took two pairs of insects, both male, and female, to breed them in captivity. The goal was to establish an alternate population if those on Balls Pyramid went extinct.

As of now, only 35 adult Lobster Stick Insects live in the wild on Balls Pyramid. Because they only feed on tea, theyre endangered by the possible eradication of their food source by the invasive Morning Glory creeper, Ipomoea cairica. To thwart this, in 2003, the Morning Glory vine was partially removed from Balls Pyramid. A small portion was kept because it helps stabilize the soil of outcrops from steeper slopes.

Another threat is the possible poaching of the tree lobster and its eggs by private collectors, which is why access is restricted on the pyramid. Doing so also protects the habitat.

A third threat is natural disturbances like drought, storms, and landslides that could eradicate the entire tree lobster population in the wild, rendering them extinct within seconds.

These are the reasons why the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) rates the tree lobster as Critically Endangered.

By 2017, 35 individuals were seen on Balls Pyramid. Surveys are infrequent because of the abovementioned vulnerabilities of the tree lobster.

Adam and Eve

The tree lobsters were brought to Zoos Victoria for captive breeding with the aim to eventually rewild them. One pair didnt survive, so the remaining pair were named Adam and Eve by Zoos Victoria. Initially, Eve became critically ill, but the zoo staff successfully enabled her recovery, and she laid 248 eggs. The tree lobsters were fed Moreton Bay figs and alfalfa. The juveniles were given blackberries.

The entire captive population that descended from Adam and Eve numbers more than 14,000 in captivity, in Melbourne Zoo alone. Others are being bred in Bristol Zoo, San Diego Zoo in California, and other zoos and museums around the world.

Today thousands of Lobster Stick Insects exist in zoos and museums around the world. They hope to eventually recolonize Lord Howe Island, the land thats their natural home.

Genome and differences measured

There are morphological differences between the Lord Howe Stick Insect before its extinction, and the same insect in Balls Pyramid today. These differences raised questions about whether the two were of the same species.

To settle the issue, Alexander S. Mikheyev et. al. assembled a complete mitochondrial genome from a tree lobster in Balls Pyramid and compared it to a mitochondrial genome from a stick insect museum specimen that lived on Lord Howes Island before their extinction.

Results showed less than 1% difference between both genomes, falling within range to be considered the same species. It was safe to say that the tree lobster was no longer extinct.

As for their physical differences, scientists mused it could be due to genetics or the environment. By raising them in captivity, they could observe this insect regularly, and they noticed that it evolved frequently. They believe it was for morphological convergence, meaning, each tree lobster would morph and still remain similar to one another. The morphing of insects is usually an adaptation to a shared environment.

Another possibility is that tree lobsters from Balls Pyramid and those from Lord Howe Island both had a shared origin, but the tree lobsters at Balls Pyramid were perhaps isolated for a very long time.

How they got to Balls Pyramid

Another question was how they reached the Pyramid. It is the remains of a former, far larger volcano. Now its a steep, vertical, rocky cliff that rises 560 meters above sea level.

True, the Pyramid is less than 30 km away from LHI, but this insect can neither fly nor swim, and no land bridge connects them. Scientists theorized that birds may have mistaken them for twigs, and flew them to Balls Pyramid where they built their nests.

Theres a precedent to this theory. Scientists in Japan studying another stick insect species noted that even if birds eat stick insects, the insects eggs can pass through the birds digestive tracts and hatch. Extrapolating from this, it may be that unborn offspring was airlifted to Balls Pyramid, and repopulated there.

Rat story

Theres the hope of rewilding the tree lobster on Lord Howe Island where they truly belong. In fact, the Lord Howe Island Board decided in 2019 to undertake the biggest Rodent Eradication Program (REP) in the world. Strategies included:

Eliminating mice and rats simultaneously, to derive the best long-term results from REP.

Distribution of rat baits by hand, and setting up bait stations in residential areas.

Setting up over 23,000 rat baits inside all buildings, and throughout the island.

Dropping 42 tons of poisoned cereal from helicopters on areas highly populated by rats.

Dropping by helicopter 22,000 lockable traps that held rat poison over uninhabited, hard-to-reach mountains and forests.

Arming worker teams with GPS trackers to log rat movements on their mobile phones.

Enlisting the expertise of dozens of scientists.

The task wasnt easy. There were some 200,000 rats on the island, running up tree trunks, destroying gardens, and disturbing the natural environment. In the end, they killed 300,000 rodents.

Paradise found

The REP was highly successful, and currently, the task is to make sure that there are absolutely no rats left on Lord Howe Island and to ensure that the rodents dont make a comeback.

In April 2021 an island resident reported that she saw two adult rats on a road. After they were hunted and killed, they discovered that one rodent was male, and the other one was a pregnant female.

Every few months, rat detection dogs inspect the island. The most recently seen rat was caught by a detection dog in August 2021. The goal now is to make sure the rats are gone for good and to ensure that they dont make a comeback via boats and other means to reach the island.

With the eradication of the rats, new fruit that has never before been seen by residents now grows, and people have photographed hundreds of unfamiliar insects and sent their photos to the Australian Museum. Also, four snail species previously presumed to be extinct have resurfaced.

Hank Bower, World Heritage manager of the Lorde Howe Island Board Environment, has lived on the island for 15 years. He told the Sydney Morning Herald, Everything is blooming, all the plants are flowering and we are seeing a carpet of seedlings.

Ecological importance

In general, stick insects are like gardeners. By feeding on leaves, they prune shrubs, in this way allowing new plants to grow. Their defecation builds up soil nutrients that will enrich succeeding new plants. This activity permits forest recycling.

They also play a vital role as the prey of certain meat-eating amphibians, birds, some mammals, and several reptiles. The latter, by only eating meat, are deprived of necessary nutrients from the sun that plants generate through photosynthesis.

By feeding on plant-eating insects like the tree lobster, these animals are able to absorb the valuable nutrients of the son through this and other insects.

When meat-eaters prey on the tree lobster, they absorb valuable energy and nutrition that is generated by the plants that these insects eat.

In sum, the tree lobster is equally valuable in its diet, and as prey. In the latter case, it links sun-generated energy derived from plants and transposes it to the animals that eat it. In this way, the tree lobster passes the suns energy up through the food chain.

It may sound heartless, but according to entomologist Matan Shelomi, insects have no pain receptors, so they cant feel pain, but irritation. If damaged, they have no emotions, implying that they cant suffer. So dying isnt torturous, for them, its inconvenient.

We hope Shelomi is right, but there are conflicting beliefs on this. Some studies show that insects have a wider range of emotions than we realize. Its also suggested that they can feel delight, depression, fear, and respond to pain.

The bottom line is that everybody dies, and in death, a role is played in the well-being of an ecosystem. And in this sense, tree lobsters are no different from all the rest of us.

See more here:
Lord Howe Stick Insects: Wrongly Deemed Extinct; With Genome 25% Larger Than a Human's - PRESSENZA International News Agency

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Detection of recombinant breakpoint in the genome of human enterovirus E11 strain associated with a fatal nosocomial outbreak – Virology Journal -…

Posted: at 2:58 am

Enterovirus isolation

Three isolates were obtained from the clinical samples of the patients involved in the small outbreak. One was obtained from the hepatic biopsy of patient 1, here referred to as Iso_pt1_L, while the others were obtained from the serums of patient 2 and patient 3, named Iso_pt2_S and Iso_pt3_S respectively (see Table 3).

The Enterovirus strains involved in this small outbreak were typed, basing on VP1 partial sequences and all resulted belonging to E-11. Moreover, the phylogenetic analysis performed comparing the VP1 sequences with a set of E-11 strains retrieved from GenBank shows that our strains strictly correlated and segregated in a unique and well separated clade which belongs to the D5 genotype of E-11 according to Li et al. [31], thus confirming the epidemiological link between the Enterovirus infections described here. (Additional file 3).

To further characterize the RNA genome, the EVs isolated in cell culture (Iso_pt1_L, Iso_pt2_S and Iso_pt3_S) and the virus from the liver biopsy of patient 1 (Pt1_L) were entirely sequenced. All nucleotide sequences were then aligned using Clustal W and the amino acid sequences of the polyproteins were compared. As expected, all viral strains revealed a high identity at nucleotide level (median=99.87%, ranging from 99.83 to 100%); two schematic tables of the nucleotides and amino acid differences respectively found, are provided in Additional file 4. Moreover, comparing the Liver Enterovirus strain (Pt1_L) with the corresponding Liver isolate (Iso_pt1_L), no amino acid differences were observed, while the sequence of Iso_pt2_S compared to Enterovirus strains of pt1, shows one amino acid substitution, C1677 L, located in the P3 region of the polyprotein. Specifically, it maps in the region encoding for the protein complex of 3BCD that is the precursor of the non-structural proteins 3B (Vpg primers for RNA transcription), 3C (protease) and 3D (viral polymerase). Similarly, we compared the amino acid sequence of Iso_pt3_S with those of pt1 (Iso_pt1_L and pt1_L) and we found the following four substitutions: D478G localized in the P1 portion of the polyprotein encoding for capsid proteins; T1898A, G2100V and E2101T, located in the portion encoding for the viral RNA polymerase 3D. Furthermore, comparing the amino acid sequence of the virus described here with 35 polyprotein sequences of other E-11 strains downloaded from Genbank, we found 25 amino acid substitutions (V101I, E115D, I310V, V572A, T651V, E895D, Q1031H, C1033S, L1938F, I1084V, T1122A, Q1185H, S1213E, S1365N, T1418S, S1429N, N1536S, P1539L, A1533S, V1558I, L1298I, T1868N, I2135V and D2140N). To date, no biological significance associated with any of these substitutions have been described.

Despite the typing of the VP1 gene assigned our virus to an E-11, the phylogenetic analysis of the full-genome sequence of ECHO11_INMI against a set of 123 sequences retrieved from the Picornavirus homepage, showed an unexpected pattern: ECHO11_INMI strain did not segregate with E-11 serotypes, but with a CV-B1 (Acc N: MG845887) (Fig.2). This finding led us to hypothesize that ECHO11_INMI could be a chimeric strain, maybe originating from a recombination event between an E-11 (Acc N: AY167103) and CV-B1 (Acc N: MG845887).

Unfortunately, we were not able to sequence the entire genome of the virus infecting Pt 0 (index case) due to the low quantity of virus in residual material, as the liver bioptic sample (Pt0_L) was fixed in paraffin which badly conserved the nucleic acid. However, we were able to obtain two amplicons of the sequence by RT-PCR that localized upstream and downstream from the recombination breakpoint respectively. Both amplicons were sequenced and show a high identity (median value=99.78% and 98.17% of upstream and downstream fragment, respectively) both with the sequences of the three isolates and the virus detected in the liver of patient 1 (Pt1_L), therefore suggesting that the recombination had already occurred in the virus infecting the source (Pt0).

The phylogenetic tree of the full genome sequences (data not shown) shows that ECHO11_INMI, segregates with the CV-B1 (MG845887.1). To better define the phylogenetic relationships, we analyzed separately the P1, containing the VP1 gene, and the P3 region as it locates close to 3 end of the genome and far from P1 (Fig.1). The phylogenetic tree of the P1 region (Fig.2) shows that our ECHO11_INMI sequence clusters together with all E-11 types while CV-B1 (MG845887.1) segregates with CV-B1 type in a separate clade. The P1 region contains the sequence coding for the capsid proteins, VP4, VP2, VP3 and VP1. In particular, it is well known that VP1 is the most antigenic protein and its sequence is used for the typing of Enterovirus genus as it has been shown to correlate very well with the classical serotype [32]. Indeed, phylogenetic studies on VP1 sequences of the genus have clearly shown that strains of the same serotype always cluster together [33].

Phylogenetic trees. Phylogenetic trees constructed on the basis of P1 region [nucleotide positions from 726 to 3253 referring to Human echovirus 11 prototype strain Kust/86 (Accession N GenBank: AY167105.1)] and of the P3 region [nucleotide positions from 6956 to 7256 referring to Human echovirus 11 prototype strain Kust/86 (Accession N GenBank: AY167105.1)]. The nodes defining the clade including ECHO11_INMI strain are indicated with a black dot (Bootstrap value in a, b, and c tree are: 99, 100 and 94 respectively). ECHO11_INMI strain are reported in red, Echo 11 types are reported in blu and CVB1 types are reported in green

Therefore, this result confirms that our sequence belongs to the E-11 type. The last tree (Fig.2), constructed on the basis of the P3 region of the genome, shows that the ECHO11_INMI segregates close to the CV-B1 (MG845887.1). This result is consistent with the hypothesis that recombination occurred in the P2 region of the genome, between P1 and P3.

To confirm the presence of a recombination breakpoint in our strains, we performed a recombination detection analysis, using RDP4 software (Fig.3). Specifically, the analysis recognized that ECHO11_INMI was a chimeric strain of E-11 (AY167103) and CV-B1 (MG845887); it also identified the breakpoint of recombination between nucleotide 4083 and 4201 of ECHO11_INMI sequence without gap, with 99% certainty (p values 5.259*1024, as reported by RDP4).

Recombination analysis results using RDP4. The plot shows the pairwise identity between ECHO11_INMI (accession no: KX527626) and the Human E-11 strain Hun/90 (accession no: AY167103.1) or CV-B1 (accession n. MG845887), represented in green and purple line respectively. While the yellow line shows the pairwise identity between E-11 strain Hun/90 and CV-B1. Each polymorphic site detected in the sequence dataset analyzed, was marked with a black bar. Then, the long black lines above the plot equivalent to the high number of nucleotide variation among sequences; the white spaces identify regions where the polymorphism are absent

The recombination site is located in the region encoding for P2 of the polyprotein that is the precursor of three non-structural proteins involved in the replication process: 2Apro, 2B and 2C.

To confirm that the virus in our samples is a new variant originating from a recombination event between an E-11 and a CV-B1, and to exclude the hypothesis of a co-infection with both viruses, we designed four sets of primers. Two of them were specific for E-11 serotype, targeting respectively the region upstream and downstream of the breakpoint (E11 2F-E11 2R, E11 3F-E11 3R); in the same way we designed two sets of primers specific for CV-B serotypes, targeting respectively the region upstream and downstream from the recombination site (CVB 2F-CVB 2R, CVB 3F-CVB 3R). Figure1 shows a schematic representation of the EVs genome and details of experimental design for RT-PCR amplification of both E-11 and a CV-B1.

Pt1_S and all isolates were tested with all sets of primers described and we obtained similar results(Additional File 5). The amplification resulted positive with the set E112F-E112R, that targets the region upstream of the recombination breakpoint, and with the set CVB 3F-CVB 3R, that targets the region downstream of the breakpoint, instead the other sets of primers, CVB 2F-CVB 2R and E11 3F-E11 3R, that map at 5 and 3 of the genome, respectively, gave negative results (Fig.4).

RT-PCR performed with specific sets of primers for E-11 and CV-B on Pt1_S and Iso_PT1_S

These findings are consistent with the recombination hypothesis and confirm the presence of only the recombinant variant in the examined samples; in addition the presence of the same pattern of amplification obtained by the analysis of the virus in serum sample and the one isolated from cell culture, revealed that the recombination was not generated by the isolation procedure.

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