Category Archives: Transhuman News

Public release date: 3-Oct-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Vicki Cohn vcohn@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

New Rochelle, NY, October 3, 2012Making moral judgments is increasingly a central element of the plots of popular video games. Do players of online video games perceive the content and characters as real and thus make moral judgments to avoid feeling guilty? Or does immoral behavior such as violence and theft make the game any more or less enjoyable? The article "Mirrored Morality: An Exploration of Moral Choice in Video Games" published in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers examines these types of questions. The article is available free online on the Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking website.

Andrew Weaver and Nicky Lewis, Indiana University, Bloomington, studied how players make moral choices in video games and what effects those choices have on their emotional responses to the games. In general, players tended to make "moral" decisions and to treat game characters as though they were actual people. Although behaving in antisocial ways was associated with greater guilt, it did not affect player enjoyment.

"Although preliminary, these results point to the utility of games as teaching and educational tools, as well as important tools for the assessment of behavior," says Brenda K. Wiederhold, PhD, MBA, BCIA, Editor-in-Chief of Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, from the Interactive Media Institute, San Diego, CA. "These findings indicate how real the virtual world can become when one suspends disbelief and immerses oneself in the scenario."

###

About the Journal

Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published monthly in print and online that explores the psychological and social issues surrounding the Internet and interactive technologies. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed online on the Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking website.

About the Publisher

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Games for Health Journal, Telemedicine and e-Health, and Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 70 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.

Read more from the original source:
Does moral decision-making in video games mirror the real world?

A cow in New Zealand has been genetically modified to produce hypoallergenic milk.

AgResearch

Two genetically engineered farm animals reported today illustrate how far from Frankensteins stitched-together monster animal biotechnology has come. One of those animals, a cow, secretes milk that lacks an allergy-inducing protein because researchers accurately blocked its production using the technique of RNA interference1. And in pigs, scientists have used an enzyme called a TALEN2 to scramble a gene that would normally help remove cholesterol.

RNA interference (RNAi) and TALENs are more accurate at targeting the gene in question than are earlier genetic engineering techniques. For years, researchers tried to remove the allergy-inducing milk protein beta-lactoglobulin from cow's milk, which can cause diarrhea and vomiting in some toddlers. They tried replacing the gene encoding beta-lactoglobulin with a defective form, but this proved nearly impossible because the techniques available to introduce foreign genes into animal genomes were not precise, and misplaced genes failed to express themselves correctly.

In 2006, scientists at AgResearch in Hamilton, New Zealand began to experiment with molecules that interfere with the messenger RNA go-between that enables translation of a gene into protein. In mice, they discovered a short chunk of RNA, called a microRNA, that targeted beta-lactoglobulin messenger RNA directly to prevent its translation. They inserted DNA encoding a version of this microRNA into the genome to create genetically modified cow embryos that they hoped would grow into cows without the allergen in their milk. Out of 100 embryos, one calf yielded beta-globulin-free milk. This isnt a quick process, says Stefan Wagner, a molecular biologist at AgResearch. That's why it has taken so long to succeed in making an allergen-free cow, he says.

Wagner says that TALENs, which were not readily available when he began his research, might speed up the process, and that the team plans to use them to eliminate beta-lactoglobulin. RNAi cannot eliminate the protein completely because some messenger RNA slips past the blockade, but each TALEN targets a specific DNA sequence in the genome and cuts it. As the body repairs the break, mutations are often introduced that render the targeted gene non-functional. The TALEN technology is staggeringly easy, quick, and leaves no mark in the genome, says Bruce Whitelaw, a molecular biologist at the Roslin Institute near Edinburgh in the United Kingdom, who contributed to the work in pigs. In essence, we are just mimicking an evolutionary process with precise, man-made editors.

His team used TALENs to disrupt genes encoding low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptors. Without these receptor proteins to remove cholesterol-containing LDLs from the blood, LDLs build-up and lead to atherosclerosis. Pigs with this condition may be reliable models of human atheroscelerosis in biomedical research.

The TALEN-modified pig is not the first model of human heart disease (see Model pigs face a messy path), but the technique makes genetic engineering less costly and more efficient. Id be exaggerating if I said that pigs and cows can now be thought of as big mice, but we are moving in that direction, says Heiner Niemann, a bioengineer at the Institute of Farm Animal Genetics in Neustadt, Germany.

The excitement surrounding these technological advances is bittersweet, however. Originally, engineered animals were produced with the aim of making food safer, healthier and more abundant. Yet despite years of investment, almost no animal has been approved by regulatory agencies around the world. Wagner says he has not tasted the milk from his special cow because hes not permitted to under New Zealand law. We must restrict our research to scientific analysis, he says. The current climate for animal biotech is not very good, and therefore, we are nowhere near getting this to the consumer."

Originally posted here:
Animals engineered with pinpoint accuracy

PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Regulatory News:

Cellectis (ALCLS.PA), the French genome engineering specialist, announces in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, one of the most respected scientific journals in the world, the publication of a new approach regarding the targeted modification of DNA2. The manuscript unmasks novel perspectives and broadens the scope of TALENsTM technology to new therapeutic approaches to fight against cancer and genetic diseases. Until now, TALENsTM, the molecular scissors created by Cellectis Group, were only able to target certain parts of the genome. A team of the Groups researchers, led by Julien Valton and Philippe Duchateau, was able to overcome this constraint, opening the way to a wider range of applications, especially in the therapeutic field.

This study, the first to be published on TALENsTM, was awarded by the selection committee of the JBC as Paper of the Week.

Since their identification in 2009, TALEs have quickly emerged as the new generation of DNA-binding domain with programmable specificity and have been successfully used to generate the molecular scissors known as TALENsTM. However, their sensitivity to methylation, a ubiquitous modification of DNA, represents a major bottleneck for their widespread utilization in the genome engineering and therapeutic fields. Using a combination of biochemical, structural and cellular approaches, the R&D department of Cellectis was able to identify the basis of such sensitivity and more importantly, to propose an efficient and universal method to overcome it.

These results are proof of the scientific creativity and quality of our research teams, as well as the power of our genome engineering tools. This new publication strengthens the relevance of our investment in TALEstechnology, and confirms our strategy within the therapeutic field, declared Andr Choulika, Chief Executive Officer of Cellectis Group.

2) Overcoming TALE DNA Binding Domain Sensitivity to Cytosine Methylation Julien Valton, Aurelie Dupuy, Fayza Daboussi, Severine Thomas, Alan Marechal, Rachel Macmaster, Kevin Melliand, Alexandre Juillerat and Philippe Duchateau J. Biol. Chem. jbc.C112.408864. First Published on September 26, 2012, doi:10.1074/jbc.C112.408864

About Cellectis

Founded in France in 1999, the Cellectis Group is based on a highly specific DNA engineering technology. Its application sectors are human health, agriculture and bio-energies. Co-created by Andr Choulika, its Chief Executive Officer, Cellectis is today one of the world leading companies in the field of genome engineering. The Group has a workforce of 230 employees working on 5 sites worldwide: Paris & Evry in France, Gothenburg in Sweden, St Paul (Minnesota) & Cambridge (Massachusetts) in the United States. Cellectis achieved in 2011 16M revenues and has signed more than 80 industrial agreements with pharmaceutical laboratories, agrochemical and biotechnology companies since its inception. AFM, Dupont, BASF, Bayer, Total, Limagrain, Novo Nordisk are some of the Groups clients and partners.

Since 2007, Cellectis has been listed on NYSE-Euronext Alternext market (ALCLS.PA) in Paris.

See the original post:
Cellectis Publishes Results Paving the Way for New Therapeutic Approaches against Cancer and Genetic Diseases

According to UC Berkeley professor Ignacio Chapela, the passage of Proposition 37 will not only restore the right to choose what foods we put in our bodies, but it may restore scientific process to its rightful placesomething the bioengineering industry, with full assistance from the White House, removed.

"The promises made by genetic engineering have not been fulfilled," explains Chapela, a microbial biologist who was first to exposed the fact that genetically engineered corn was contaminating ancient strains of Mexican maize via cross-pollinating. "Genetic engineering has proven to be wishful thinking, a dream that has failed."

Chapela considers himself fortunate to be able to speak out freely about GMO failings, since so many other scientists have been attacked or threatened or have lost employment for approaching genetic engineering with a critical eye. "I would like to speak for those scientists," says Chapela, "because they cannot." When the first Bush administration instructed federal regulatory bodies to step aside and give the GE industry free reign, Chapela explains, there was no scientific scrutiny allowed.

"It has been very hard to survive as a scientist who is a critical thinker now," Chapela says. "The central dogma embedded in K-12 science textbooks indoctrinates young people to accept that genetic engineering is an inevitable part of life. It says all living things are driven by genes encoded in DNA, and that by manipulating that DNA we can create life, and mix, match and alter it the way we want it." But this isn't the way it actually plays out, says Chapela. "The reality is that genetic engineering is not working, any way you look at it."

What Proposition 37 offers consumers is the promise that all GMO foods will be labeled in California. What it offers scientists is a chance to scrutinize an industry that has intimidated themsometimes to the point of ruining their careersfor questioning the validity of genetic engineering. "The Bush administration decided in the 1980s that genetic engineering was the next wave of economic development for the U.S. and for the world," says Chapela. "We were instructed to look the other way."

Labeling GE foods may help science, which at present cannot investigate whether GE food consumption is related to rises in disease. "We have been sitting here in the dark, forbidden from looking," says Chapela, who believes a GMO-labeling law will give us "the simple capacity to know and to do the science for the first time. I think we deserve it."

More here:
Free Engine

Allergen-free cows milk and pigs with hardened arteries illustrate how the accuracy of genetic engineering has improved.

Two unsuspecting farm animals have helped to demonstrate the increasing accuracy of genetic engineering techniques. The first is a cow that produced hypoallergenic milk after researchers used RNA interference to block the production of an allergy-inducing protein, as reported this week (October 2) in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The second, reported in another paper in the same issue, is a pig that could be a model for atherosclerosis after researchers used an enzyme called a TALEN to silence a gene that helps to remove cholesterol.

Researchers have long struggled to remove cow milks allergy-inducing protein, beta-lactoglobulin, which can cause diarrhea and vomiting in children. They were previously unable to introduce foreign genes precisely enough, however, so they could never quite successfully replace the gene that codes for beta-lactoglobulin with a defective form.

But scientists at AgResearch in Hamilton, New Zealand, worked with molecules that interfere with messenger RNA (mRNA), which helps translate genes into proteins. They found microRNA (miRNA) in mice that targeted beta-lactoglobulin mRNA, so they inserted DNA encoding a version of this miRNA into the genomes of cow embryos. Out of 100 embryos, one calf produced beta-globulin-free milk. This isnt a quick process, Stefan Wagner, a molecular biologist at AgResearch, told Nature. One problem is that RNA interference cant eliminate the protein completely because some mRNA slips through.

Another technique could speed up the process. TALENs are enzymes that target and cut out a specific DNA sequence from the genome. As the break is repaired, mutations are introduced that scramble the targeted gene, leaving it unable to function.

The TALEN technology is staggeringly easy, quick, and leaves no mark in the genome, researcher Bruce Whitelaw, told Nature. Whitelaw, a molecular biologist at the Roslin Institute near Edinburgh, United Kingdom, used TALENs to disrupt genes encoding low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptors in pigs. Without those receptors, which remove LDL from the blood, Whitelaws pigs develop atherosclerotic arteries. Such pigs could be reliable models for biomedical researchers studying human atherosclerosis.

Go here to read the rest:
The GM Barnyard