Category Archives: Transhuman News

Released: 30-Sep-2014 9:00 AM EDT Embargo expired: 1-Oct-2014 6:30 AM EDT Source Newsroom: Duke Medicine Contact Information

Available for logged-in reporters only

Newswise DURHAM, N.C. A new genetic finding from Duke Medicine suggests that some people who are prone to hostility, anxiety and depression might also be hard-wired to gain weight when exposed to chronic stress, leading to diabetes and heart disease.

An estimated 13 percent of people, all of whom are Caucasian, might carry the genetic susceptibility, and knowing this could help them reduce heart disease with simple interventions such as a healthy diet, exercise and stress management.

Genetic susceptibility, psychosocial stress and metabolic factors act in combination to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, said Elizabeth Hauser, Ph.D. director of Computational Biology at the Duke Molecular Physiology Institute. Hauser is senior author of a study detailing the findings in the Oct. 1, 2014, online issue of the European Journal of Human Genetics.

Hauser and colleagues analyzed genome-wide association data from nearly 6,000 people enrolled in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). The MESA study began in 2000 to better understand how heart disease starts, compiling the participants genetic makeup as well as physical traits such as hip circumference, body mass index, cholesterol readings, glucose levels, blood pressure and other measures.

In the Duke analysis, the researchers first pinpointed a strong correlation between participants who reported high levels of chronic life stress factors and increased central obesity, as measured by hip circumference.

They then tested genetic variations across the genome to see which ones, in combination with stress, seemed to have the biggest influence on hip circumference. It turns out that variations called single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the EBF1 gene showed a strong relationship with hip circumference, depending on levels of chronic psychosocial stress. Whats more, among those with this particular genotype, hips grew wider as stress levels increased.

With further analysis, we found a significant pathway from high chronic life stress to wide hip circumference, to high blood glucose and diabetes, to increased cardiovascular disease, notably atherosclerosis, said Abanish Singh, Ph.D., a researcher in computational biology at Duke and the studys lead author. But we found this only in people who were carriers of the EBF1 single-nucleotide polymorphism, and this was limited to participants who were white.

The researchers reproduced their findings using data from another study, the Framingham Offspring Cohort.

View post:
Gene Interacts with Stress and Leads to Heart Disease in Some People

Having trouble getting pregnant -- even with IVF? Here's some hope: A new research report published in October 2014 issue of The FASEB Journal, explains how scientists developed a synthetic version of a sperm-originated protein known as PAWP, which induced embryo development in human and mouse eggs similar to the natural triggering of embryo development by the sperm cell during fertilization.

"We believe that the results of this study represent a major paradigm shift in our understanding of human fertilization by providing a precise answer to a fundamental unresolved scientific question in developmental biology," said Mahmoud Aarabi, M.D., Ph.D., a researcher involved in the work from the Department of Human Genetics at Montreal Children's Hospital Research Institute in Montreal, Canada. "Based on our findings, we envision that physicians will be able to improve their diagnosis and treatment of infertility, a problem that affects 10-15 percent of couples worldwide, and scientists will be able to finally resolve the signalling pathway leading to initiation of embryonic development in mammals."

To make their advance, Aarabi and colleagues injected transcripts coding for PAWP protein into human eggs, and the immediate fertilization events, including release of calcium inside the eggs, were investigated carefully. (The human eggs used in this study were donated by infertile women and consisted of immature eggs that were further matured in the laboratory and thus were not suitable for IVF.) The injected eggs were fixed before cell division. A similar protocol was used in mice where the PAWP protein was injected into the eggs. The scientists found that when PAWP inhibitors were injected with the sperm cell into the eggs, a procedure known as ICSI in human infertility therapy, they blocked the sperm-induced fertilization. This is the first time that any sperm protein is shown to be susceptible to such an important inhibition effect.

"Reducing the number of IVF cycles for couple would save them money and disappointment," said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal. "Equally important, this research helps us better understand the events that occur when an egg is first fertilized as well as what we can do to influence those events."

Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Read the original post:
Synthetic sperm protein raises the chance for successful in vitro fertilization

Santa Rosa, California (PRWEB) October 01, 2014

ATIV Software today released the ASHG 2014 mobile event app, built on the dynamic EventPilot platform, for leading scientists and members of the American Society of Human Genetics around the world. The EventPilot conference app, specialized in large scientific and medical meetings, allows attendees to view thousands of abstracts as well as share insights and opinions with peers. Learn more at http://ativsoftware.com.

EventPilot makes navigating our complex scientific program easy - you can even perform Boolean search through all of our abstracts offline, said Yimang Chen, Director of IT at the American Society of Human Genetics. The specialized features in EventPilot greatly enhance the attendee experience and bring value to scientific meetings like ours.

EventPilot scientific conference apps support large and complex programs while allowing users to seamlessly navigate content through clean design and intuitive UI. Robust search capabilities let users pinpoint sessions and research abstracts in seconds while multi-select filters help locate key information quickly and easily. Meeting planners can increase attendee engagement where users share insights and exchange opinions in context of the session. Attendee-to-attendee messaging provides a safe venue for direct interaction without releasing personal contact details, and allows for discussion to continue well after the event concludes. Credit flagging, schedule reminders, and animated maps help attendees stay organized throughout the meeting.

About EventPilot

The EventPilot mobile conference app features include:

Thousands of Abstracts and Posters Designed for scientific and medical events, EventPilot conference apps natively contain all conference proceedings.

Rich Experience and Paperless Events EventPilot supports paperless events by integrating PDFs, handouts, scientific abstracts, note taking, and more to create a valuable reference app that is used by attendees long after the event.

Networking Attendees can increase in-app dialogue through intuitive session commenting and messaging capabilities to achieve a more topic-based approach to conversations. Social media integration helps attendees to easily share breakthrough research topics.

Availability The free iPhone and iPad conference app is available now in the App Store. The free Android event app is available in the Android market. A web version for BlackBerry and other web- enabled devices is available at http://ativ.me/5ez.

Excerpt from:
ASHG Launches Scientific EventPilot Meeting App with 3,500 Offline Abstracts for the Largest Human Genetics Meeting ...