Category Archives: Transhuman News

Up today is Fitbiomics, which spun out of Harvard several years ago with a mission to decode and recode human health, starting by mining the microbiomes of elite athletes for novel probiotic candidates.

We caught up with Jonathan Scheiman, PhD, co-founder and CEO, who gave us his thoughts on his path to market, the lessons learned launching a consumer brand during a pandemic, and whats coming next in the Fitbiomics pipeline.

NutraIngredients-USA (NIU): Tell us how you went from the Wyss Institute to being CEO of a probiotics start-up

Jonathan Scheiman (JS): I was incredibly lucky to do a postdoctoral fellowship at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. The mantra there is to translate cutting-edge research into real-world applications that can benefit society in numerous ways, from human to environmental health. The Wyss is focused on bringing innovations out of the lab to serve as a foundation for transformative startups - and that sort of environment greatly fosters entrepreneurship. We spent years developing our microbiome R&D as an academic project, which led to a high-impact publication and IP. But in parallel there was a tremendous amount of market research and business development coaching that enabled us to ascertain how our technology could be commercially viable. Ultimately - FitBiomics licensed IP that was developed at the Wyss which was such a springboard for our company. Also, based on our origins within biotechnology and metagenomics it informed our foundation and viewpoint for who we want to be as a company. I'll just say that FitBiomics is not necessarily a probiotics company. We view ourselves as a next gen human health and performance company, using microbiome Innovations as a force for good to change human health and longevity as we know it

(NIU: To read more about the Fitbiomics origin story, please click HERE)

NIU: How would you say your approach or ethos is treading a path or direction that no other firm company has explored before?

JS: A big differentiation point for FitBiomcis is our guiding principle of decoding and recoding human health. I am a big believer in form fits function and natural selection - finding solutions through evolution. So if we want to develop next-gen probiotics for human health - we believe the best place to search for that is in the biology of the most fit and healthy people in the world. Thus FitBiomics is decoding the gut microbiome of elite phenotypes to identify what is unique or enriched in them, that drives optimal performance, and then translate those findings into next gen nutrition to help every body. There are many forms of elite phenotypes, with many beneficial types of physiology we can decode - from energy metabolism, protein metabolism, neurology, and an immunology perspective. We are focusing to start on elite athletes and looking for microbes enriched in them that help drive endurance, strength, mental toughness, and recovery. Though these attributes clearly extend beyond athletics finding probiotics that support these functions can help everyone int their daily lives.

NIU: You launched Nella during a pandemic how has that experience been and whats the initial feedback been like from the market?

JS: It definitely is an interesting time - for the whole world, which has changed the way we live in many ways. We actually started our first beta test for Nella in March 2020, right before everything shut down in the States. I guess one positive is that people have become more conscientious about their health and what they are putting in their bodies. This is across the board, and includes sustainability interests, but certainly part of this is that probiotics and gut health have become even more mainstream even just the term microbiome.

FitBiomics is always hypothesis and validation driven - so our beta test was with 250 participants, each consuming Nella on a daily basis for 2 weeks and asking for feedback through extensive questionnaires before, during, and after consumption. I remember us thinking that if at least 70% of the participants indicated they liked our product, then we should consider moving forward with commercialization. As it turned out almost 95% of participants responded they had at least one functional benefit from Nella - in only two weeks! These benefits included improved digestion, bowel movements, energy as well as improved quality of sleep. Because Nella consists of athlete derived variants of Lactobacillus species, we somewhat expected the gut health results, but the feed ack on benefits for sleep was very exciting. This propelled us to move forward, and we launched Nella direct-to-consumer a little over a year ago. We have since received tremendous positive feedback and insights from the market. I like to say that we have been field tested as well - with Olympians using Nella in Tokyo to win medals. Additionally, weve had world champions and world record holders use Nella to support their pursuits - so even super performers are benefiting.

We have also partnered with St. Johns University to be the official probiotic of the University, while supporting student-athletes with microbiome innovations and NIL. Which of course was a treat for me because that's where I played basketball in college. Even more exciting - we recently had some really great news coverage in the NY Post and on Good Day New York. The headlines were a little provocative - but ultimately about health, which created a viral demand for Nella - to the point where we recently sold out of stock! So Id say that it's been an incredible journey of translating initial discoveries from Harvard into the real world products that have been validated and generated strong Market interest. But perhaps more importantly Nella is providing strong functional benefits to a wide range of consumers - from everyday health seekers all the way to Olympians

NIU: What else is in the pipeline (that you can tell us about)?

JS: This is such an appreciated question - because there is a lot in the pipeline! FitBiomics first gained attention for our discovery of Veillonella, a lactic acid eating microbe, and subsequent publication in Nature Medicine. We found that Veillonella increases in abundance in the gut of elite athletes after exercise and has the unique ability to convert lactic acid, a by-product of exercise and associated with fatigue, into short-chain fatty acids to promote endurance in preclinical studies. Since that publication Im excited to say we have upscaled Veillonella manufacturing - creating commercially viable prototypes (no small feat for a next-gen anaerobic probiotic) and have passed the necessary safety studies required from a regulatory standpoint. So, we have effectively gone from a lab scale discovery to a real-world product and its awesome to see it come to fruition being close to commercial ready, We have some announcements that well be making shortly so stay tuned! But beyond gut health with Nella and endurance with Veillonella, our Endgame is to scale our microbiome discovery platform isolating 1000s of next-gen probiotics, from a spectrum of elite phenotypes, for numerous functional applications. This includes programs for strength, neurological applications, and more. And of course, there are opportunities for utilizing some of these microbes for applications beyond consumer health. so, it's an exciting time for microbiome discovery and translation

NIU: Access to capital is always an issue for start-ups. Does being in the microbiome space change the conversation with potential investors?

JS: Being an entrepreneur is always an adventure and part of our job is trying to not only see the future but convince others that 1) our venture is a worthwhile endeavor 2) its feasible to accomplish our aspirational goals and then of course 3) that you can create a sustainable business model at the same time! I do think there is an interesting juncture right now between biotechnology, microbiome innovations, and a new wave of food tech. Biotech and the microbiome traditionally have been focused on therapeutics, but I think a lot of folks now see how these areas can be applied to nutritional modalities for health and wellness purposes. So, in addition to treating disease also focusing on prevention - with sort of a food as medicine approach. With FitBiomics, we like to add the exercise as medicine approach as well - keeping people active keeps people healthy. And this created a lot of excitement for investors.

There is also a lot of very real and alarming data out there from the CDC in that 60% of Americans have at least one chronic condition (obesity, diabetes, kidney, cardiovascular, neurological) a lot stemming from poor nutrition and lack of physical activity. So, innovation in consumer health is not just a nice to have its critical I think a lot of people believe in the microbiome and the probiotics industry is strong and continues to grow. With that said, it's very interesting times in the world and I think more people are looking for de-risking early on with ventures. So, it's a combination of storytelling, in which the microbiome helps, but also there is a requisite for innovation, IP, and at the same time validating market demand and business models. FitBiomics, as a lean startup, has been trying to accomplish all of these things in unison since spinning out of Harvard around 4 years ago

NIU: In the probiotic, prebiotic and microbiome space, what would you say is the next research area that the industry needs to keep its eye on?

JS: I think in general it's an exciting time because we're just scratching the surface of a new frontier in human health with biotechnology and multi-omics leading the way. I definitely think the industry needs to focus on diversity, acceleration, and accessibility. When you think about the probiotics industry - its decades-old with only a handful of strains on the market, from a handful of suppliers and manufacturers. Many of these strains were isolated from food, baby poop, animals, or the environment - mostly selected because of their ability to be manufactured at scale. For sure, a Lot of work has gone into developing this industry. But contrast that with the trillions of microbes in our bodies and environment afforded to use from natural diversity and evolution. We need to continue to decode diverse forms of health which could be associated with exercise, aging, resiliency, food tolerance, and efficacy of therapeutic use, to name a few. Learnings from such endeavors and source codes can lead to applications in animal and planetary health as well and the more we learn the more precision based our probiotic modalities will become. And we of course to need to continue the evolve metagenomics, informatics, culturomics, and fermentation pipelines to accelerate discovery and scalability of next-gen (anaerobic) microorganisms.

Perhaps most important we need to educate consumers about the importance of this work, biotechnology, the microbiome, gut health, and probiotics. We also need to translate and optimize our supply chains to make innovations are accessible and affordable to broader populations, so that that that ensuring everyone can benefit from innovations in health. Fitbiomics looks to achieve this by bridging the gap between cutting edge technology and pop culture - creating awareness aroundmicrobiome innovations while making them more relevant and tangible.

NIU: Finally, what is the significance for Fitbiomics of being named one of our 2022 Probiota Pioneers, and how do you think it helps your profile in such an innovative, ever-changing industry?

JS: This is such an honor! It truly is exciting to be a part of this community and recognized as a Probiota Pioneer. It's also in many ways validating. Being an entrepreneur inherently means being avant-garde, thinking differently, and essentially trying to convince people you're not crazy. Were effectively trying to build the future in real time but that can take a long time. I think back to starting our first athlete microbiome study at Harvard in 2015 and here we are 7 years later. Maybe what we were doing was considered niche and/or a crazy concept but perhaps the craziest thing is that a lot of it came to fruition. And I feel like the Probiota community has sort of watched us grow up along the way. So, I think the significance is a way of saying that the journey was/is worth it. It keeps us motivated to explore and innovate and push the boundaries of what we think is possible. This sort of validation, support, and recognition from the industry is something that means the world and inspires us to continue to think differently.

The2022 IPA World Congress + Probiota Americas, June 1-3 in Washington, D.C., will feature world-leading experts to present the latest scientific, technical and market insights, and opens with presentations about the potential impact of probiotics on COVID-19 outcomes. Other key themes include: e-commerce markets across the Americas; Microbiome modulation to improve sleep and manage stress, the Tech Showcase; updates from the regulatory field, tips and tricks on working with influencers to communicate with consumers, insights from leading start-ups, and our Future Focus panel, which asks Where Next for the Industry?

For more information and to register, please clickHERE.

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Probiota Pioneers: Fitbiomics on its product pipeline and the goal to scale its microbiome discovery platform - NutraIngredients-usa.com

Milo Bryant is a performance coach as well as an experienced journalist. Hes also in his 50sand his book Unstoppable After 40 gives you the roadmap to do more than merely remain active as you "mature." Milo trains hard and recovers even better so he can do what he wants, when he wants. Get ready to use his methods to become unstoppable. This isnt your dads middle age.

The following is an excerpt from Unstoppable After 40.

Movement. Matters.

We have to make more time for movement. And specifically, we need to relearn how to move. Movement is more vital to our health and well-being than any other factor besides good nutrition. Not just practicing but perfecting movement puts the life in living.

Does that sound fanatical? Well, call me converted. I am a faithful, devoted follower of what I like to call the First Church of Human Movement. Its Word is sound and powerful. Bending, extending, squatting, twisting, balancingthis, folks, is what will keep us healthy for the next 40 years.

Im what many might stereotype as a functional fitness trainer. What I do, though, is all about performance, no matter the activity. I do whatever it takes to help athletes move and perform better. If that means Olympic lifts, I teach the clean-and-jerk and the snatch and all the exercises that go along with those. If that means sprinting, the athletes will find themselves repeating everything from figure-4 cycles to over-speed hurdle hops.

Folks, Ive done plenty of cave work and participated in more than my share of National Bench and Triceps Days. All of thatthe benching, squats, and deadliftsare great. But theres nothing I do or want to do that requires me to push weight up from my chest (there was actually a two-decade span, from 1999 to 2019, where I didnt bench press) or put ungodly amounts of stress on my back.

Men's Health

Unstoppable After 40 - Men's Health Shop

$24.95

I still deadlift (mostly with a trap bar) because that lift checks a lot of functional boxes. The older Ive gotten, the smarter Ive become about my training. You dont have to prove anything to the youngsters at the gym. You just need to be ready to play.

Im training to kite surf in Tarifa, hike Mount Kilimanjaro, and learn Bachata and Kizomba. After all, why would we train to be in the best possible shape if not to increase the joy in life?

You might think the key to never slowing down is to maintain as much muscle as possible. But that power will fizzle if youre easily injured. Bulletproof your body by focusing on movements in two key categories: mobility and stability.

Your body needs to move every day in order to keep working the right way. But over the course of four-plus decades, youve likely limited your daily movement to just a handful of positions. Ignoring all other potential ways your body can move leaves you susceptible to injury. Thats where mobility exercises come in handy.

Mobility is a joints ability to move freely through its full range of motion without pain. Exercises like the Spiderman Lunge or Superman Hold can help you preserve ease of movement. Theyll lubricate tight hips, relax your back, and stave off neck pains, too. Best of all, they dont take long to do. Want more mobility movements? Check out this 30-day challenge.

Stability is your foundation. Its your ability to remain balanced. We all learned it as a kid, but it requires upkeep as we get older. Research shows that stability training can significantly reduce your risk of injury, plus it makes building strength a lot easier. The less stable you are, the less force youll be able to produce.

Stability moves, like the series of lunges youll learn in Unstoppable After 40, challenge your balance and help you remain anchored as you move through daily life. Work these into your regular routine and youll be unshakeable.

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The 2 Types of Workout Movements Men Over 40 Need for Longevity - Men's Health

"From a historical perspective, we are at an inflection point in biosciences where we can advance people's well-being to unprecedented levels. To achieve such levels, a two pronged approach is crucial," says Baran Dilaver, Co-Founder of Wonderfeel. "The first approach is to leverage recent discoveries to build our physiological health starting at the molecular level, and the second is by enhancing our happiness and mental fitness. Youngr is a breakthrough product addressing that anatomical approach while providing great benefits for brain health and cognition."

Longevity science is an emerging category poised to redefine the future of preventive healthcare. Scientists focused on optimizing healthspan the period of life spent in good health and free from chronic disease have proven that NAD plays a central role. The effects of its decline are recognized as the hallmarks of aging. With the launch of Youngr, Wonderfeel has advanced that science for those who will benefit most adults ages 35+.

Youngr NMN (nicotinamide mononucleotide) capsules deliver novel antioxidants for a multi-targeted approach designed to reduce oxidative stress, help prevent chronic disease, and stave off markers of aging. In addition to 900 mg of NMN, a daily serving delivers:

Andrew Salzman, Harvard MD and Wonderfeel's chief scientist, piloted the core research behind Youngr. A physician, inventor, and biomedical entrepreneur, Salzman has spent decades in drug discovery and development. In addition to 50 patents, Dr. Salzman is credited with a breakthrough discovery in cellular DNA repair, which led to the world's first clinical application for successfully treating breast cancer caused by mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, and is an expert in NAD science and genomic pathways.

"NMN alone is incredibly beneficial. But the ability of NMN and NAD to be effective in the cell is dependent on low oxidative stress," explains Dr. Andrew Salzman. "Oxidant stress is present at all times in our cells, particularly as we grow older. Fortunately, the antioxidants packaged into Youngr can shield our cells from much of that stress, meaning the NMN we're delivering is ultimately more effective."

Wonderfeel partnered with Abinopharm, Inc, to analyze, interpret and release their preliminary findings from the largest double blind study conducted to date on the effects of NMN. According to Dr. Salzman, the results are promising, with men and women aged 40-65 who took various doses of NMN supplement showing significantly improved health scores and biomarkers.

For more information about Youngr and product news, visit: http://www.getwonderfeel.com

About Wonderfeel By combining the wonders of nature and science, Wonderfeel is on a mission to optimize the healthspan of humankind. Founded in Silicon Valley in 2018, Wonderfeel is a team of pioneering doctors, creators, entrepreneurs, and scientists, who set out to accelerate wellness technologies through bioscience. Their products leverage the magic of the body's own regenerative systems, empowering individuals with safe solutions to help them live long, healthy lives.

SOURCE Wonderfeel

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Wonderfeel to Launch Youngr, Targeting the Root Causes of Aging - PR Newswire

Spotted

07:30

by Mary Harrington

In case intergenerational solidarity wasnt bad enough, news arrived this week that scientists have discovered yet more ways to help the elderly by cannibalising the young.

Researchers have discovered that infusing the cerebrospinal fluid of young mice into older mice improved brain function, which according to Dr Tony Wyss-Coray of Stanfords School of Medicine in California, suggests that the ageing process is malleable. Previous research seems to suggest that blood transfusions from the young to the old have a rejuvenating effect, too.

How long until someone tries to apply this to humans? With the youngest boomers approaching 60, theyre now collectively confronting their own mortality. As such, this cohort is the most obvious demographic to drive demand, economically as much as culturally: theyre wealthier than subsequent generations, and also saw the swiftest decline in religious faith.

Boomer ageing, then, is a perfect storm: a taboo-smashing demographic, often lacking the kind of religious framework that would encourage acceptance of mortality and, in aggregate, the money to fight back. Indeed, while theres no evidence hes cannibalising childrens body fluids, ultra-rich boomers such as Jeff Bezos now pour immense resources into seeking the secret of eternal life.

The spinal-fluid and blood-transfusion experiments were conducted with mice, and no one at present is suggesting harvesting body fluids from young humans in order to rejuvenate the elderly. But still, its not such a huge stretch to imagine that at least some of the generation that first embraced the phrase Nothing is true, everything is permitted might ask themselves: why shouldnt I?

A company offering transfusions of teenage blood plasma to wealthy Silicon Valley retirees was shut down in 2019 by the FDA only to start up again a few months later albeit with more evasive marketing materials and health claims. And if someone with a net worth of $182 billion wanted a supply of human infant cerebrospinal fluid, I dare say hed be able to get one.

Lets hope biotech dystopias of this kind remain science fiction. Even so, the scenario underlines an unsettling sense that seemingly abstract and objective scientific research into new biotech skates far too lightly over power asymmetries with potentially ghoulish consequences.

Its quite possible that the vast majority of the baby-boomer generation, and indeed those that come after, would balk at literally cannibalising the young in pursuit of eternal youth. But so far the 21st century is delivering an unsettling combination of widening economic inequality and advances in biotech that leave the door wide open for horrifying new kinds of exploitation: the killing to order of Chinese political prisoners for the organ transplant industry is just one glimmer of where this could go.

Meanwhile, were losing any sense of a shared moral framework that might be able to hold such developments in check. Elon Musk, for one, thinks were all already cyborgs. Those comforting themselves with the thought that we have bioethicists to help us think through the moral consequences of such research, might want to check in with the kind of things bioethicists say. Brace yourselves: biotech is going to deliver the mother of all culture wars.

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Beware millennials, boomers want your blood - The Post - UnHerd

The world is in a space renaissance. Expanding activity beyond the Earths atmosphere from diverse parties is beginning to outpace governance, technological progress is driving down costs, commercial funding is at an all-time high, and more nations and companies are clamouring to be part of it. Space already plays a role in advancing global sustainability and security priorities, but the potential is even greater. Fulfilling it is in the balance, though, and all stakeholders have the capability to contribute to a more successful sector.

Advancements in space technology over the past decade have opened access to more players, unlocked new use cases, and positioned space to help address global priorities. Throughout it all, international and cross-sector collaboration has occurred in several areas despite geopolitical divergence.

The space sector has come a long way and seems poised for massive future growth.

Image: McKinsey & Company

However, the accelerating growth and complex geopolitical dynamics pose a risk to continued international collaboration, the longevity of governance frameworks, and thus industrial progress, in the ecosystem. To fully realize the benefits of space, the international community will likely need to quickly consider how to maintain it as an arena of collaboration.

This report informed by the views of approximately 100 industry leaders describes potential scenarios for the future of space. It identifies five actions that could catalyze effective governance to realize the full societal and economic benefits of the space economy.

Specifically, based on interviews, industry leaders envision four scenarios for the future of space, which vary based upon the degree to which commercial value is generated and the level of collaborative governance instituted in the industry:

Scenarios for the future of space

Image: McKinsey & Company

Opportunity abounds in the most positive scenarios: from tracking of emissions on the ground to driving climate accountability and mitigation; to early detection and prediction of wildfires to enable more time for preparation and evacuation; to the building of commercial space habitats in low Earth orbit (LEO) and on the Moon where people could one day live and work; to robotic satellite servicing to prolong the life of space assets.

To chart a course towards an accessible, self-sustaining space economy, industry leaders suggest five high-priority actions:

1. Create and implement effective space governance a framework that includes participation from different stakeholders. Leaders outlined the following topics that need to be addressed:

a. Maintaining responsible behaviour in space (for example, in relation to space debris).

b. Defining property ownership, access and usage rights (for example, for orbital slots, frequencies, access to Lagrange points and mineral resources).

c. Developing and promulgating common standards, across hardware and software (for example, spacecraft servicing interfaces and protocols for sending and receiving data).

d. Protecting human life, infrastructure and the environment.

2. Invest resources and effort in enabling technologies and capabilities such as advanced propulsion, re-entry capabilities, more cost-effective ways of getting different resources to space, artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotics.

3. Incentivize collaboration across nations, sectors and industries. Space offers a unique, though sometimes complex, way for actors to collaborate. Different avenues should be undertaken to create and drive further collaboration as activity increases. As the commercial space economy grows, space could become an increasingly important domain for companies outside of aerospace and defense. In most scenarios, those companies would then become important collaborators as well.

4. Foster a self-sustaining industrial base through targeted government support for the sector, investing in go-to-market capabilities, fostering dialogue with end-users, and attracting diverse, high-calibre talent. Removing barriers to competition, increasing education on the potential value of space for all, and cultivating a broader ecosystem would all be important for nurturing a healthy industrial base.

5. Leverage the space industry more to advance sustainability and security. The sector can be more helpful in ensuring accountability of actors on Earth, as well as being a part of critical infrastructure for security. Environmental monitoring capabilities of satellites have the potential to contribute more to our efforts to monitor and mitigate climate change.

We invite you to read the report to learn more about what industry leaders think it will take to put each of these actions into practice and why these are keys to unlocking the potential of the space economy.

The World Economic Forum was the first to draw the worlds attention to the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the current period of unprecedented change driven by rapid technological advances. Policies, norms and regulations have not been able to keep up with the pace of innovation, creating a growing need to fill this gap.

The Forum established the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Network in 2017 to ensure that new and emerging technologies will helpnot harmhumanity in the future. Headquartered in San Francisco, the network launched centres in China, India and Japan in 2018 and is rapidly establishing locally-run Affiliate Centres in many countries around the world.

The global network is working closely with partners from government, business, academia and civil society to co-design and pilot agile frameworks for governing new and emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), autonomous vehicles, blockchain, data policy, digital trade, drones, internet of things (IoT), precision medicine and environmental innovations.

Learn more about the groundbreaking work that the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Network is doing to prepare us for the future.

Want to help us shape the Fourth Industrial Revolution? Contact us to find out how you can become a member or partner.

The future of space is in humankind's hands. By taking the right actions today, there may be lasting benefits from a peaceful and vibrant space sector that creates economic value, and also enhances the sustainability, security and accountability of actors on Earth.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

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The space renaissance is here. How can we ensure it gives lift-off to all? - World Economic Forum

BEIJING Most of Shanghai has stopped the spread of the coronavirus in the community and fewer than 1 million people remain under strict lockdown, authorities said Monday, as the city moves toward reopening and economic data showed the gloomy impact of Chinas zero-COVID policy.

Vice Mayor Zong Ming said 15 out of Shanghais 16 districts had eliminated virus transmission among those not already in quarantine.

The epidemic in our city is under effective control. Prevention measures have achieved incremental success, Zong said at a news briefing.

Supermarkets, malls and restaurants were allowed to reopen Monday with limits on the numbers of people and mandated no contact transactions. But restrictions on movement remain in place and the subway train system remains closed for now.

Even as case numbers fall, city and national authorities have sent mixed messages about the state of Shanghais outbreak and when life can return to normal in the city of 25 million, where many residents have been confined to their homes, compounds and neighborhoods for more than 50 days. A prospective date of June 1 has been given for a full re-opening.

Zong said that authorities remain sober about the possibility of the outbreak rebounding, particularly as reports of new infections continue to come in from centralized isolation centers and older, rundown neighborhoods.

Citywide, our prevention efforts are still not firmly enough established and it requires all of our continuing hard work and the cooperation of the broad masses of citizens and friends to restore the normal running of the city in an orderly fashion, Zong said.

Shanghais ruthless and frequently chaotic implementation of virus restrictions has sparked protests over the lack of food, medical care, freedom of movement and already highly limited privacy rights.

Despite that, China has rejected all criticisms zero-COVID, including from the World Health Organization. The ruling Communist Party says it is committed to resolutely fighting any attempts to distort, question or dismiss Chinas anti-COVID policy.

China reported 1,159 cases of infection Monday, the vast majority in Shanghai. Almost all were infections without symptoms.

In Beijing, where a much smaller outbreak has led to mass testing and a lockdown imposed building by building, 54 cases were reported. Authorities have ordered people to work from home, moved schools online and limited restaurants to take-out only in the capital.

Chinas strict lockdowns have played havoc with employment, supply chains and the economy in general, and data released Monday showed factory and consumer activity was even weaker than expected in April.

Retail sales plunged 11.1%, while manufacturing output sank 2.9% after factories closed and those that kept operating with employees living at their workplace were forced to reduce output due to disruption in supplies of components.

About half of the 9,000 biggest industrial enterprises in Shanghai are back at work after controls that shut down most of the city starting in late March eased, said Fu Linghui, director of statistics for the National Bureau of Statistics.

Private sector economists have Chinas economic growth forecasts for this year to as low as 2%, well below the ruling party target of 5.5% and last years 8.1% expansion.

Despite such news, politics continues to drive the ruling partys response to the pandemic. Looking ahead to a key conclave later this year, party leaders said after a May 5 meeting that containing outbreaks would take priority over the economy.

Associated Press writer Joe McDonald contributed to this report.

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Most of Shanghai has ended virus spread, 1M left in lockdown - Verve Times

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Association between health literacy and purpose in life and life satisfaction among health management specialists: a cross-sectional study |...

Resplendent with beady eyes, snapping pincers and shiny bodies, little creatures scurry in neat lines toward a delicious morsel of food. These little creatures, otherwise known as ants (Formicidae), are both wondrous in behavior and considered pests by many.

According to researchers at the Universite Sorbonne Paris Nord, Universite Paris-Saclay, and other French research institutions, these tiny critters can be trained to sniff out the specific odors associated with certain cancers. Published in the journal iScience, scientists found that after training, ants could learn to discriminate between cancerous cell cultures and non-cancerous cell cultures.

For Patrizia dEttorre, Ph.D., a Professor in Ethology and one of the senior authors of the study, ants have long provided a fascinating topic for study. Their societies are very complex and have very amazing strategies of communication, she told BioSpace. In particular, they rely on chemical communication.

According to dEttorre, ants can use pheromones, or secreted/excreted chemicals, to identify each other. Because ants have well-developed olfactory (smelling) systems, they can distinguish specific smells and associate those smells with specific behaviors. Previous work has demonstrated that ant-produced pheromones can act to signal danger or create chemical trails to lead other ants toward food sources.

A Ph.D. student of dEttorres Ph.D. was inspired by the role of chemical signals in ant behavior - and wondered if this signaling could be leveraged to identify specific cancers. Some cancerous cells produce volatile organic compounds (VOCs) through metabolism. VOCs, which can be released into the bloodstream, excreted through bodily fluids or exhaled into the air, represent a cancer fingerprint that can sometimes act as a biomarker for the presence of cancer.

The scientists hypothesized that ants, with their evolutionarily optimized olfactory senses, could potentially be trained to detect these cancer VOCs. After creating a collaboration with a research group that cultured cancer cell lines, the scientists proceeded to train the ants (specifically in their case, F. Fusca) in the art of cancer detection.

Training the ants and quantifying whether or not the training worked was simple to look at. You teach the ant to associate the odor of a [for example] flower, or in this case, a cancer cell, dEttorre explained. You teach the ant to associate this odor with a reward; in our case, a sugar solution.

After positively reinforcing the odor with a reward two or three times, the scientists placed the ants in a test arena - a petri dish containing a cell line associated with the reward and a control cell line not associated with anything.

You test the ant with the odor that she knows, and another odor - something that is totally new, like a different cancer cell medium or another flower, dEttorre said. Then, you just look at what the ant does. And of course, the ant suspects that there is sugar close to the odor that she had learned.

To quantify how well the training worked and if the ants were able to distinguish the cancer cell line from a normal cell line, the scientists recorded their behavior using a video camera and timed how long the ants spent around each cell line.

They first found that the ants could learn to identify odors (VOCs) associated with a cancer cell line, given a sugar solution reward. Over an increased number of trials, the ants spent progressively less time trying to find the reward - indicating that they had learned what the specific cancer odor was and linked that odor to the reward.

After testing ants on discrimination between a breast-cancer-derived epithelium cancer cell line and a healthy breast cell line, the scientists found that the ants spent significantly more time near the cancer cell line (that they had previously been trained to associate with the reward). Additionally, the ants were adept at discriminating between two different cancer cell lines, given that one cancer cell line was associated with the reward and the other was not.

The training method used to guide ants towards associating cancer cell lines with a sugary reward is called classical conditioning - and according to dEttorre, using positive reinforcement in this way was optimal for training them.

Its much nicer to be nice to them, she said with a smile. Aversive conditioning normally takes more time and not all the ants will learn it well. This (classical conditioning) is easy and it works well.

dEttorre noted that the longevity of this training is limited by the need for or presence of a specific resource. She explained that if a certain smell is no longer predictive of the reward, then there would be little point for the creature to continue going towards that smell. Therefore, the optimal path would be training the ants to identify the cancer based on classical conditioning, and then immediately testing them.

We could test them several times, but the point is not to do that, she said. To be reliable, its good to test it like we did, only two or three times.

In the future, dEttorre and the team hopes to train ants to detect organisms with cancer, rather than just cancerous cell lines. The volatile organic compounds that you get [in cell lines] are not as complex as they would be when they are in an organism, she explained. The next step is to test the odor of mice that have a cancer, or not.

Even so, the premise of having ants scurrying toward cancer is intriguing as a clinical strategy for human cancer diagnoses. For dEttorre, the goal would be to use these ants as a tool for early diagnosis - essentially flagging a sample for downstream analysis.

It will be like an alert, she said. The sooner we have the cancer detected, the more likely the person will survive.

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Researchers Prove Potential of Training Ants to Sniff Out Cancer - BioSpace