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The Illiberal Upstarts Trying to Reinvent Conservatism – The New Republic
Posted: December 10, 2021 at 7:17 pm
Laura: Thats so interesting, because I think those examples really help when youre trying to imagine what that would be like. And the answer is Orbns Hungary.
Sam: Theyre very explicit about that. The whole Christian democrat tradition in Europe is something that they approve of.
Alex: So the sort of politicians and leaders that these people look up to basically gives away what they are after. Theyre looking for illiberal authoritarianism.
Laura: But is anyone listening to them? After a short break, well be back to talk about how much influence this group has. How worried should we be?
Alex: Now that weve established what sort of regimes they admire, I feel like we should ask, Why should we care about these guys? Your subjects are a couple of young people working at a magazine, right? Whats the case for caring about their wacky beliefs?
Sam: Its a good question. The place that I came down is that were familiar with this argument about the left: that people who graduate from elite universities have pretty extreme left-wing views compared to the median Democrat, and certainly compared to the median voter. The same thing is true of these negatively polarized right-wing, highly educated elites. Theyre far to the right of the median Republican, but all the signals point to: We cant discount it just because its a sort of a phenomenon amongst these very strange elite intellectuals, because very strange elite intellectualsand very young, strange elite intellectualshave been in charge of the conservative movement forever. Its just that the character of that movement is changing, because their character is changing.
Laura: You talk about the sense of isolation this group of guys has. Can you explain how that forms in college?
Sam: I would say that for a certain kind of white man who came up in an elite university in the past 10 years, but maybe even more so in the past five, six, seven, there was a sense of a suffocating liberal orthodoxy on their campus. If they have some other kind of ideological inputs pushing them in the direction of misogyny, or nasty racial ideas, or just a contrarian instinct, they may find themselves in a position where they go: All of the people who are the authority around me on this campus are telling me to believe this set of often superficial but nonetheless progressive things. Im going to look for the people who are saying the bad thing, the thing youre not supposed to say. And then they find each other.
Laura: Some of them are so young, like Nate Hochman. Hes only 23, just out of college. Do they maintain a sense of isolation after college? Because when you look around, elite Conservative Catholics are pretty well represented. Look at the Supreme Court, because on the Supreme Court, for a religious minority to be so well representedthis is not the mainstream version of Christianity in the U.S. They actually have a huge amount of power.
Sam: Ill say two things. One is that from their perspective, the only place in American life where conservatives have any power is basically the courts and, every once in a while, the federal government. They are very fixated on the fact that progressives and leftists control all the cultural hegemony. Thats precisely why they think its so important that when they periodically get power in the form of a Trump, and when they have a supermajority on the court, that they absolutely need to use it to enforce in the private sphere their ideal morals. Otherwise, in every input into American private morality, the morality that reigns regardless of what the government does, liberals and progressives have control. So thats their perspective. Its also especially because they live in D.C. and New York and California, where they actually are surrounded by liberals. These people arent living in small communities that are conservative, where they could. But theyre intellectual elites who want to work in the power centers. So, their perspective on what America is is totally skewed by the fact that they spend all their time on Twitter.
Alex: Its mediated, and its, like, vibes-based.
Sam: Completely vibes-based.
Alex: And you will never feel like you will win if you have won everything and then see that people still dont think the right way. That seems like a flaw in their ideology.
Sam: Well, its a flaw, but its a dangerous and symptomatic flaw that makes them attracted to authoritarianism because thats how they imagine youre able to change the way people think.
Laura: The argument that Hollywood is overwhelmingly liberal, and that the people who are conservative are bombarded with liberal propaganda and that they have liberal values rammed down their throats, is one you hear all the time. But the right has its own very robust and incredibly well-funded media infrastructure. You dont hear of small right-wing magazines collapsing because theres no money with anything like the same frequency you hear about liberal magazines going under. Going back to what you said about people being radicalized and pushed to the right in college, when they graduate from college, there are jobs for these people. There are so many think tanks you can go and work for if youre a young conservative, so many magazines where you can get associate editor jobs that dont exist in the liberal media. What do you make of that, and of that right-wing ecosystem?
Sam: One of the things that Nate said to me in the piece is that he acknowledges that there is this conservative welfare state for unsophisticated but right-wing people who graduate from college and want to write takes, and so he has encountered people who are not particularly smart in that world. But the thing is that there are also a certain number of people like him who are really interested in ideas and are pretty good writers, and do like to think hard about intellectual topics. For those people, its an embarrassment of riches. Part of whats so attractive about it is that you not only get a job, but you get let into this rarefied world thats both really luxurious and also rebellious. For intellectual conservatives, that is just an intoxicating stew that keeps young people engaged in conservative bullshit for a long time.
Alex: I find it interesting that if youre a young left-winger on campus, there is no network that will invite you to retreats to drink scotch with rich people, rich leftists. Even if youre a normal progressive, your entry into this world might be working for the worlds worst boss at a nonprofit, or being abused in a campaignthe lowest rung of the campaignor freelance writing for no money. I wonder if the right has this way of identifying their future talent, grooming it, and even sort of spoiling it in that way. Why do they do it so differently?
Sam: Well, to take on the left side of it, I think one of the things is that the power centers of the Democratic Party are controlled by mainstream liberals. Theyre not scouring the campuses for, like, really sparked Marxists to give internships to, and to be a mainstream liberal, it has much less of this kind of rebellious quality. Its just kind of like being invited into the power elite in a sort of uncomplicated way. Whereas right-wingers, even though we may think of this as delusional, they still think of themselves as a rebellious, insurgent troupe of outsiders with dangerous ideas, and therefore they feel that they need to teach their new, up-and-coming talent a sort of countertradition of American history and of political philosophy. On the left, there is no comparable thing. Id like it, as a left-winger who likes reading books, to get paid to live in Pomona for a week and read Karl Polanyi. That sounds good.
Alex: I would love a fellowship. I would love for someone just to give me a fellowship of some kind.
Laura: Its easier to offer someone the feeling of entering this glamorous elite if your whole thing is hierarchy. The right has this built-in advantage: This is what we believe, and were going to pull you up into it to be one of the important people. And the whole thing on the left is like, No, we want equality! We want everyone to be treated the same and to have the same opportunities.
Alex: I want everyone to get fellowships! Everyone, every working American, deserves a fellowship. I believe this very strongly.
Sam: Thats a really good point, Laura. We have incompatible goals. We dont want to create an elite elect who understand the true nature of society and then can direct it from on high.
Laura: I think its the same with the funding, too, for these magazines, for these think tanks. Its completely consistent with a right-wing view of the world that you are going to make lots of money and then dump it into an organization so that you can control what people think. Thats not really what left-wing donors are trained to do.
Sam: I think that you can have this experience as a liberalmaybe not as a revolutionary leftist.
Laura: You can have this experience if youre a liberal who is like, Im going to come up with some health care plans that will minimize the amount of coverage we offer to people with stage-four cancer.
Sam: Exactly.
Laura: Speaking of this whole ecosystem, Claremont is something that comes up in the piece. Can you explain for the uninitiated what that is?
Sam: The Claremont Institute is a right-wing, socially conservative think tank in California. Claremont was one of the first places that came out and said, Lets go for Trump. Because of its populism, its nationalism, its way more aggressively patriotic. Claremont has been punching way above its historic weight in the Trump era, and since Trump, playing a role in trying to justify his coupin effect, playing a role in bringing more illiberal and scary strains into acceptable conservative discourse. A lot of the people who are these young New Right figures move through its very robust programming and fellowships for young conservatives.
Laura: Going back to the coup thingyou mentioned that John Eastman, who wrote the memo on how Trump could try to stay in office despite losing the election, is associated with Claremont.
Sam: Yeah. Hes a legal scholar, a constitutional scholar, associated with them. He wrote the memo for the vice president telling him how he could constitutionally make it so that Trump would stay in power, basically.
Alex: Some of the people youve talked to, I think, are actually surprisingly realistic about the unlikelihood of their vision of society happening democratically. But my question is: Are they going to install a Catholic theocracy, though? Like, regardless, are they going to do that?
Sam: I dont know. I actually dont know if I have a great answer to this question. Internal to conservative debates and even internal to people who are sympathetic to New Right goals, theres an acknowledgment that the public is really not with themthe conservative public, even. Trumpism doesnt represent some victory for hard-core conservatives, like Catholic hierarchical authoritarians. Its more like a victory for Jacksonian libertarian impulses. Tanner Greer, this right-wing blogger who is quite smart, wrote this blog post about this discrepancy between the means of the New Right and their ends. His line is, Pity the Whig who wishes to lead the Jacksonian masses!that in effect, they are inheritors of some sort of patrician, pietistic, Northeastern puritanical tradition, which wants to impose all these orthodoxieswhich is not really what Trumpism represents. That said, if these people are serious about trying to impose this moral orthodoxy on America, then thats why they become more sympathetic to things like John Eastman telling Trump, You can keep power, no matter what, or people like Adrian Vermeule, whos a Harvard integralist who believes that you should use the administrative statewhich used to be the thing that the conservatives hated more than anythingyou should use the levers of power and the administrative state to nudge the moral orthodoxy of America toward Catholic theology, that you should use the unaccountable powers of the state, nondemocratic powers, to achieve their ends. And so the reason that theres this sympathy, I think, for countermajoritarianism, for anti-democratic measures, for state power through the bureaucracy as opposed to through the legislature, is that they know that their ideas are really not a majoritarian proposition.
Alex: Well, Im alarmed now. Sam, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us today.
Sam: As you can see, I could talk about this forever.
Laura: I feel like we very rarely end on a note of being alarmed.
Alex: Not usually, yeah.
Laura: Well be like, Oh, this thing we were talking about didnt actually exist.
Alex: Its fine!
Sam: Wait, so we dont have to be worried about the rats? Was that the takeaway?
Alex: No more worried than usual was our conclusion.
Sam: Were more concerned about Catholic theocracy than rats.
Alex: Than rats, Havana syndrome
Laura: Or cops dying from seeing fentanyl without touching it or taking it.
Alex: It was really nice talking to you, Sam.
Sam: You too.
Laura: Before we end the show, I have a correction. On our recent episode about rats, I said that 311 doesnt have a rat response squad. A listener from D.C. wrote in to say thats actually wrong: Many cities have a whole process for responding to rat complaints. So we looked into this, and the New York City Health Department says that after you call 311, Your complaint will be routed to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The health department will inspect the property within two weeks of receiving the complaint, unless the property was recently inspected. My apologies for getting that wrong. If you want to know more about the state of rats in New York, I can highly recommend checking out the rat information portal at nyc.gov/rats.
Alex: Im sorry, I cant hear the phrase the state of rats in New York without my mind immediately going to Albany.
Laura: Well, do you have a URL recommendation?
Alex: I dont knowwould there be a landing page for Cuomos book?
Follow this link:
The Illiberal Upstarts Trying to Reinvent Conservatism - The New Republic
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SPLC report examines use of Bitcoin and Monero by right wing extremists – FXStreet
Posted: at 7:17 pm
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has released a report examining the extensive ties between the far-right and Bitcoin, many of whom built fortunes in the cryptocurrency.
In a Dec. 9 Hatewatch report, the SPLC shared its findings on how right-wing extremists and white supremacists, discuss and use cryptocurrencies claiming that many have amassed tens of millions of dollars from crypto donations.
The report How Cryptocurrency Revolutionized the White Supremacist Movement identified and compiled over 600 cryptocurrency addresses associated with white supremacists and other prominent far-right extremists to reach its conclusions.
One of the main claims it makes is that although less than one-quarter of Americans own cryptocurrency:
"Hatewatch struggled to find any prominent player in the global far right who hasnt yet embraced cryptocurrency to at least some degree."
The most common reasons these individuals used cryptocurrency was because they were debanked or because they want to hide the their transactions.
Stefan Molyneaux, who is described by Wikipedia as a far-right white nationalist and white supremacist has been accepting donations in Bitcoin for eight years. The SPLC noted that the first Bitcoin wallet that has been linked to Molyneaux dates back to Jan. 25, 2013, and that his followers have donated a total of 1250 Bitcoin since 2013.
Molyneaux has realized an estimated $3.28 million from $1.28 million in crypto donations. This is more than any other extremist studied for the SPLC report.
Greg Johnson, who goes by the pseudonym Karl Thorburn, has gained over $800,000 from crypto. Johnson is the founder of the controversial website CounterCurrents.
The site requests donations from his followers to be paid in 12 different cryptocurrencies and is currently trying to raise $200,000 goal to further its political ambitions.
Crypto critic and author David Gerard told the SPLC in an email that although at first glance the amount of money these extremists are making from crypto is alarming, it is not a reason to associate all cryptocurrency with their actions. He claimed:
Bitcoin started in right-wing libertarianism This is not at all the same as being a neo-Nazi subculture. That said, theres a greater proportion of Nazis there than youd expect just by chance, and the Bitcoin subculture really doesnt bother kicking its Nazis out.
While extensive, the SPLC report relies heavily on historical events and incidents that have been reported previously, such as extremist publication Daily Stormer citing in 2017 a Bitcoiner TV host's views on the use of the cryptocurrency as a way to liberate its readers from what it sees as Jewish control of centralized banks.
It tied extremist Andrew Weev Auernheimer to the privacy coin Monero, which facilitates private, untraceable transactions better than Bitcoin, with a 2017 podcast when he said: I hold a lot of Monero though. Thats my big thing now. Im way into Monero. I hold a significant amount.
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SPLC report examines use of Bitcoin and Monero by right wing extremists - FXStreet
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Global CRISPR Technology Market Research Report 2021: Focus on Design Tools, Plasmid and Vector, Cas9 and G-RNA, & Delivery System Products -…
Posted: at 6:57 pm
DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The "CRISPR Technology Global Market Report 2021: COVID-19 Growth and Change to 2030" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.
The global CRISPR technology market is expected to grow from $0.8 billion in 2020 to $0.95 billion in 2021 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.8%. The market is expected to reach $2.22 billion in 2025 at a CAGR of 24%.
The CRISPR technology market consists of sales of CRISPR technology products and services which is a gene-editing technology that allows researchers to alter DNA sequences and modify gene function. The revenue generated by the market includes the sales of products such as design tools, plasmid & vector, Cas9 & gRNA, libraries & delivery system products and services that include design & vector construction, screening and cell line engineering.
These products and services are used in genome editing/genetic engineering, genetically modifying organisms, agricultural biotechnology and others which include gRNA database/gene library, CRISPR plasmid, human stem cell & cell line engineering by end-users. The end-users include pharmaceutical & biopharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, academic & research institutes and contract research organizations.
The CRISPR technology market covered in this report is segmented by product type into design tools, plasmid and vector, CAS9 and G-RNA, delivery system products. It is also segmented by application into genome editing/ genetic engineering, genetically modified organisms, agricultural biotechnology, others and by end-user into industrial biotech, biological research, agricultural research, therapeutics and drug discovery.
Stringent government regulations are expected to retard the growth of the CRISPR technology market during the period. There is no existence of internationally agreed regulatory framework for gene editing products and countries are in the process of evaluating whether and to what extent current regulations are adequate for research conducted with gene editing and applications and products related to gene editing.
The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that it would treat gene-edited crops as genetically modified organisms, subject to stringent regulation. In April 2019, the Australian government stated that the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR) will regulate only the gene-editing technologies that use a template, or that insert other genetic material into the cell.
According to an article of 2020, in India, as per the National Guidelines for Stem Cell Research, genome modification including gene-editing by CRISPR-Cas9 technology of stem cells, germ-line stem cells or gamete and human embryos is restricted only to in-vitro studies. Thus, strict regulations by the government present a threat to the growth of the market.
The application of CRISPR technology as a diagnostic tool is expected to boost the market during the period. The Sherlock CRISPR SARS-CoV-2 kit is the first diagnostic kit based on CRISPR technology for infectious diseases caused due to COVID-19.
In May 2020, FDA announced the emergency use authorization to the Sherlock BioSciences Inc's Sherlock CRISPR SARS-CoV-2 kit which is a CRISPR-based SHERLOCK (Specific High-sensitivity Enzymatic Reporter unLOCKing) diagnostic test. This test helps in specifically targeting RNA or DNA sequences of the SARS-CoV-2 virus from specimens or samples such as nasal swabs from the upper respiratory tract and fluid in the lungs from bronchoalveolar lavage specimens.
This diagnostic kit has high specificity and sensitivity and does not provide false negative or positive results. Widening the application of CRISPR technology for the diagnosis of infectious diseases will increase the demand for CRISPR technology products and services.
Several advancements in CRISPR technology are trending in the market during the period. Advancements in technology will help in reducing errors, limiting unintended effects, improving the accuracy of the tool, widening its applications, developing gene therapies and more.
In 2019, a study published in Springer Nature stated the development of an advanced super-precise new CRISPR tool that allows researchers more control over DNA changes. This tool seems to have the capability of providing a wider variety of gene edits which might potentially open up conditions that have challenged gene-editors.
Also, in 2020, another study in Springer Nature stated that researchers have used enzyme engineering to boost the accuracy of the technique of error-prone CRISPR-Cas9 system to precisely target DNA without introducing as many unwanted mutations. The advancements in CRISPR technology will result in better tools that are capable of providing better outcomes.
Major players in the CRISPR technology market are
Key Topics Covered:
1. Executive Summary
2. CRISPR Technology Market Characteristics
3. CRISPR Technology Market Trends and Strategies
4. Impact Of COVID-19 On CRISPR Technology
5. CRISPR Technology Market Size and Growth
5.1. Global CRISPR Technology Historic Market, 2015-2020, $ Billion
5.1.1. Drivers Of the Market
5.1.2. Restraints On the Market
5.2. Global CRISPR Technology Forecast Market, 2020-2025F, 2030F, $ Billion
5.2.1. Drivers Of the Market
5.2.2. Restraints On the Market
6. CRISPR Technology Market Segmentation
6.1. Global CRISPR Technology Market, Segmentation by Product Type, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2020, 2020-2025F, 2030F, $ Billion
6.2. Global CRISPR Technology Market, Segmentation by Application, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2020, 2020-2025F, 2030F, $ Billion
6.3. Global CRISPR Technology Market, Segmentation by End-User, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2020, 2020-2025F, 2030F, $ Billion
7. CRISPR Technology Market Regional and Country Analysis
7.1. Global CRISPR Technology Market, Split by Region, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2020, 2020-2025F, 2030F, $ Billion
7.2. Global CRISPR Technology Market, Split by Country, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2020, 2020-2025F, 2030F, $ Billion
For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/gvqw3u
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One Step Closer to Targeted Gene Therapy – Technology Networks
Posted: at 6:56 pm
Gene therapy is a powerful developing technology that has the potential to address myriad diseases. For example, Huntington's disease, a neurodegenerative disorder, is caused by a mutation in a single gene, and if researchers could go into specific cells and correct that defect, theoretically those cells could regain normal function.
A major challenge, however, has been creating the right "delivery vehicles" that can carry genes and molecules into the cells that need treatment, while avoiding the cells that do not.
Now, a team led by Caltech researchers has developed a gene-delivery system that can specifically target brain cells while avoiding the liver. This is important because a gene therapy intended to treat a disorder in the brain, for example, could also have the side effect of creating a toxic immune response in the liver, hence the desire to find delivery vehicles that only go to their intended target. The findings were shown in both mouse and marmoset models, an important step towards translating the technology into humans.
A paper describing the new findings appears in the journalNature Neuroscience. The research was led byViviana Gradinaru(BS '05), professor of neuroscience and biological engineering, and director of theCenter for Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience.
The key to this technology is the use of adeno-associated viruses, or AAVs, which have long been considered promising candidates for use as delivery vehicles. Over millions of years of evolution, viruses have evolved efficient ways to gain access into human cells, and for decades researchers have been developing methods to harness viruses' Trojan-Horse-like abilities for human benefit.
AAVs are made up of two major components: an outer shell, called a capsid, that is built from proteins; and the genetic material encased inside the capsid. To use recombinant AAVs for gene therapy, researchers remove the virus's genetic material from the capsid and replace it with the desired cargo, such as a particular gene or coding information for small therapeutic molecules.
"Recombinant AAVs are stripped of the ability to replicate, which leaves a powerful tool that is biologically designed to gain entrance into cells," says graduate student David Goertsen, a co-first author on the paper. "We can harness that natural biology to derive specialized tools for neuroscience research and gene therapy."
The shape and composition of the capsid is a critical part of how the AAV enters into a cell. Researchers in the Gradinaru lab have been working for almost a decade onengineering AAV capsids that cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB)and todevelop methods to select for and against certain traits, resulting in viral vectors more specific to certain cell types within the brain.
In the new study, the team developed BBB-crossing capsids, with one in particular AAV.CAP-B10that is efficient at getting into brain cells, specifically neurons, while avoiding many systemic targets, including liver cells. Importantly, both neuronal specificity and decreased liver targeting was shown to occur not just in mice, a common research animal, but also in laboratory marmosets.
"With these new capsids, the research community can now test multiple gene therapy strategies in rodents and marmosets and build up evidence necessary to take such strategies to the clinic," says Gradinaru. "The neuronal tropism and decreased liver targeting we were able to engineer AAV capsids for are important features that could lead to safer and more effective treatment options for brain disorders."
The development of an AAV capsid variant that works well in non-human primates is a major step towards the translation of the technology for use in humans, as previous variants of AAV capsids have been unsuccessful in non-human primates. The Gradinaru lab's systematicin vivoapproach, which uses a process called directed evolution to modify AAV capsids at multiple sites has been successful in producing variants that can cross the BBBs of different strains of mice and, as shown in this study, in marmosets.
"Results from this research show that introducing diversity at multiple locations on the AAV capsid surface can increase transgene expression efficiency and neuronal specificity," says Gradinaru. "The power of AAV engineering to confer novel tropisms and tissue specificity, as we show for the brain versus the liver, has broadened potential research and pre-clinical applications that could enable new therapeutic approaches for diseases of the brain."
Reference: Goertsen D, Flytzanis NC, Goeden N, et al. AAV capsid variants with brain-wide transgene expression and decreased liver targeting after intravenous delivery in mouse and marmoset. Nat Neuro. 2021. doi: 10.1038/s41593-021-00969-4
This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.
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One Step Closer to Targeted Gene Therapy - Technology Networks
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In 2022, Molecular Farming Startups Will Move Toward Commercialization of Animal-Free Proteins – The Spoon
Posted: at 6:56 pm
Like many of the technologies that are driving innovation in the alternative protein space, plant molecular farming has traditionally been used in the pharmaceutical industry. The practice which involves genetically editing a crop so that its cells produce a desired protein is being discussed as a way to rapidly produce proteins for COVID-19 vaccines.
In the food industry, molecular farming is one route to producing the animal proteins that give egg, dairy, and meat products their visual, taste, and functional properties. Molecular farming allows you to use the exact same protein that would normally be produced by a chicken or cow, without the need for any actual animals.
Moolec Science, a spinoff of Argentina-based agtech company Bioceres Crop Solutions, is probably the most prominent name in molecular farming for the food industry. Moolec already sells chymosin, a cheesemaking enzyme, which the company grows in safflower plants. Theyve also successfully grown meat proteins in soybean and pea plants.
The Moolec team believes that molecular farming can help to bring down the end costs of alternative meat products. (Theres nothing better than low-tech farming to produce at an enhanced scale and low cost, company CEO and co-founder Gastn Paladini told The Spoon back in October.) And they may be right.
Molecular farming can help producers to avoid some of the costly and tricky problems of growing proteins in traditional bioreactors. When you use a plant as your bioreactor, as food scientist and thought leader Tony Hunter pointed out in an article this year, you dont need to worry about maintaining sterile conditions: Plants have built-in immune systems.
Moolec plans to launch its first animal-free meat protein in late 2022 or early 2023. The company is currently working toward regulatory approval for its products and its progress will be an interesting test of regulatory tolerance of Moolecs brand of genetic engineering.
One potential concern for regulators as they scrutinize molecular farming processes will be the possibility of gene flow from modified crops to related plants. Tiamat Sciences, a Belgium-based molecular farming startup, is limiting that possibility by growing its crops in a contained vertical farming system.
Tiamat has plans to expand alongside the cell-based meat industry. By targeting nascent markets on the verge of scale-up, weve already demonstrated significant traction for our solutions and an early revenue potential that is outstanding for a biotech startup, said Tiamats founder and CEO France-Emmanuelle Adil in a recent press release. The company currently produces GRAS-certified, animal-free growth factors for cultivated meat, and also manufactures proteins for the pharmaceutical industry.
Last month, Tiamat announced that it had raised a $3 million seed funding round led by Silicon Valley venture capital firm True Ventures. The company is using those funds to construct a pilot facility in Durham, N.C. so we may see them boost their capacity in the year to come.
Molecular farming startups still have some issues to work out. As Tony Hunter noted in his piece on molecular farming, plant tissue has larger and fewer protein-producing cells compared to the same volume of mammal tissue, making plants less productive as protein factories. And there are costs associated with extracting protein molecules from plants at the cellular level.
Still, the same upsides of molecular farming that make it attractive to the pharmaceutical industry will likely continue to spark interest from alternative protein producers especially as those producers seek ways to bring down the retail prices of their products.
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In 2022, Molecular Farming Startups Will Move Toward Commercialization of Animal-Free Proteins - The Spoon
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Worldwide Rat and Mouse Model Industry to 2028 – Utility of Rat/Mouse Models to Examine the Pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 Presents Opportunities – Yahoo…
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Dublin, Dec. 06, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Rat And Mouse Model Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Type (Knockout, Knock-in), By Technology, By Service (Breeding, Rederivation), By Application (COVID-19, CVS), By End-use, And Segment Forecasts, 2021 - 2028" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.
The global rat and mouse model market size is anticipated to reach USD 2.9 billion by 2028, according to a new report by the publisher. The market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 5.5% from 2021 to 2028.
Recent advancements in the field of genetic engineering including piggyBac technologies, Cas-CLOVER, and CRISPR/Cas9 facilitate researchers to develop immunodeficient rat models which can be used for human cell/tissue regeneration and transplants.
Key companies have leveraged advanced technologies such as machine learning, big data analytics, genome engineering tools, and next-generation sequencing technology to develop mouse and rat models with more human-like microbiomes, immune systems, and genetic backgrounds. For instance, models from the Jackson Laboratory reflect the genetic diversity showcased by the human population.
Market participants are focused to develop novel methods to certify that in vivo and in vitro testing complement each other. In this regard, an increase in the adoption rate of organoid systems has been observed. These systems guide engineering as well as enhance the use and selection of animal models. Moreover, the rise in utilization of mouse model in the analysis of SARS-CoV-2 infection in upper and lower respiratory tract infections drives the global market.
Rat And Mouse Model Market Report Highlights
The outbred model system generated the largest revenue amongst model type as outbred strains are genetically diverse and feature well-characterized, stable genetic variation which accurately reflects the genetic structure of human populations
Therefore, outbred strains such as the Diversity Outbred (DO) mice are used to analyze the genetic complexity behind cancer, autoimmune disorders, addiction, obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and Alzheimer's disease
The CRISPR/Cas9 segment is anticipated to witness the fastest CAGR from 2021 to 2028 as CRISPR/Cas9 can target any definite exons for exclusion or inclusion within an mRNA
Additionally, the use of the CRISPR/Cas9 system to generate the knockout mouse models simplifies the whole process and reduces the timeframe from 1-2 years to 6 months
The cryopreservation segment is expected to gain significant traction during the forecast period
The technique provides a fast and reliable procedure for archiving sperm and embryos of valuable mice strains
Cancer is the largest revenue-generating application segment as the mouse and human genomes are homologous. Thus, it provides a good tool for cancer research as well as for drug discovery
Pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies dominated the end-use segment in terms of revenue share in 2020. Rat and mice models are some of the most used animal models in drug discovery
Techniques such as CRISPR/Cas9, homologous recombination, and random transgenesis help the biotech and pharma companies to analyze hypotheses or to generate rat models for human diseases
Genetically engineered models play a vital role to assess and characterize target identification, disease pathology, and in vivo assessment of new molecular entities
Profitable opportunities offered by the developing nations and have attracted investments from global companies in the Asia Pacific region
For instance, in July 2021, ERS Genomics Limited signed a non-exclusive license agreement with Japan SLC. This provided the latter access to CRISPR/Cas9 patent portfolio offered by ERS Genomics
As Japan SLC offers transgenic, hybrid, congenic, immunodeficient, inbred, and outbred animal models to research organizations; an addition of CRISPR/Cas9 technology will enhance its portfolio for rat and mouse models in Japan
Key Topics Covered:
Chapter 1 Methodology and Scope
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Chapter 2 Executive Summary
Chapter 3 Market Variables, Trends & Scope3.1 Market Segmentation3.2 Rat & Mouse Model Market Lineage Outlook3.2.1 Parent Market Outlook3.3 Penetration and Growth Prospect Mapping
Chapter 4 Industry Outlook4.1 Market Variable Analysis4.1.1 Rise in adoption of personalized medicine and subsequent demand of rat & mouse models for precision medicine approaches4.1.2 Application of genome editing tools for generation of rodent models4.1.3 Increase in the number of research activities involving the use of rat and mouse models4.1.4 Grants & investments4.2 Market Restraint Analysis4.2.1 Ethical issues pertaining to the use of animals for research4.2.2 Rise in adoption of Zebrafish models for biomedical research4.3 Market Opportunity Analysis4.3.1 Rise in demand for humanized rat & mouse models4.3.2 Utility of rat/mouse models to examine the pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-24.4 Market Challenge Analysis4.4.1 Alternatives to Animal Testing4.4.1.1 In Vitro Testing4.4.1.2 Computer (in Silico) Modeling4.4.2 Speculations regarding ban on animal testing
Chapter 5 Business Environment Analysis5.1 SWOT Analysis; By factor (Political & Legal, Economic and Technological)5.2 Porter's Five Forces Analysis
Chapter 6 Competitive Analysis6.1 Recent Developments & Impact Analysis, by Key Market Participants6.1.1 Strategy Framework6.1.2 Market Participant Categorization6.1.3 Major Deals & Strategic Alliances Analysis6.2 Mergers and acquisitions6.3 Partnerships6.4 Agreements6.5 Synergies, Collaborations, and other initiatives6.5.1 Market Entry Strategies
Chapter 7 Type Business Analysis7.1 Rat & Mouse Model Market: Type Movement Analysis7.2 Knockout7.2.1 Global Rat and mouse model Market for Knockout estimates And Forecast, 2018 - 2028 (USD Million)7.3 Knock-in7.3.1 Global Rat and mouse model Market for Knock-in estimates And Forecast, 2018 - 2028 (USD Million)7.4 Outbred7.4.1 Global Rat and mouse model Market for Outbred estimates And Forecast, 2018 - 2028 (USD Million)7.5 Inbred7.5.1 Global Rat and mouse model Market for Inbred estimates And Forecast, 2018 - 2028 (USD Million)7.6 Others7.6.1 Global Rat and mouse model Market for Others estimates And Forecast, 2018 - 2028 (USD Million)
Chapter 8 Technology Business Analysis8.1 Rat & Mouse Model Market: Technology Movement Analysis8.2 Nuclear transferase8.2.1 Global Rat & Mouse Model Market FOR Nuclear transferase estimates And Forecast, 2018 - 2028 (USD Million)8.3 Microinjection8.3.1 Global Rat & Mouse Model Market FOR Microinjection estimates And Forecast, 2018 - 2028 (USD Million)8.4 Embryonic stem cell8.4.1 Global Rat & Mouse Model Market FOR Embryonic stem cell estimates And Forecast,2018 - 2028 (USD Million)8.5 CRISPR/Cas98.5.1 Global Rat & Mouse Model Market FOR CRISPR/Cas9 estimates And Forecast, 2018 - 2028 (USD Million)8.6 Other Technologies8.6.1 Global Rat & Mouse Model Market FOR Others estimates And Forecast, 2018 - 2028 (USD Million)
Chapter 9 Service Business Analysis9.1 Rat & Mouse Model Market: Service Movement Analysis9.2 Cryopreservation9.2.1 Global Rat & Mouse Model Market FOR Cryopreservation estimates And Forecast, 2018 - 20289.3 Breeding9.3.1 Global Rat & Mouse Model Market for Breeding estimates And Forecast, 2018 - 20289.4 Rederivation9.4.1 Global Rat & Mouse Model Market for Rederivation estimates And Forecast, 2018 - 20289.5 Genetic testing9.5.1 Global Rat & Mouse Model Market for Genetic testing estimates And Forecast, 2018 - 20289.6 Quarantine depending9.6.1 Global Rat & Mouse Model Market for Quarantine depending estimates And Forecast, 2018 - 20289.7 Others9.7.1 Global Rat & Mouse Model Market for Others estimates And Forecast, 2018 - 2028
Chapter 10 Application Business Analysis10.1 Rat & Mouse Model Market: Application Movement Analysis10.2 Cardiovascular diseases10.2.1 Global Rat & Mouse Model Market FOR Cardiovascular diseases Market estimates And Forecast, 2018 - 202810.3 Genetic diseases10.3.1 Global Rat & Mouse Model Market FOR Genetic diseases Market estimates And Forecast, 2018 - 202810.4 Cancer10.4.1 Global Rat & Mouse Model Market FOR Cancer estimates And Forecast, 2018 - 2028 (USD Million)10.5 Infectious diseases10.5.1 Global Rat & Mouse Model Market FOR Infectious diseases estimates And Forecast, 2018 - 2028 (USD Million)10.5.2 COVID-1910.5.2.1 Global Rat & Mouse Model Market FOR COVID-19 estimates And Forecast, 2018 - 2028 (USD Million)10.5.3 Others10.5.3.1 Global Rat & Mouse Model Market FOR Others estimates And Forecast, 2018 - 2028 (USD Million)10.6 Transplantation10.6.1 Global Rat & Mouse Model Market FOR Transplantation estimates And Forecast, 2018 - 2028 (USD Million)10.7 Toxicology studies10.7.1 Global Rat & Mouse Model Market FOR Toxicology studies estimates And Forecast, 2018 - 2028 (USD Million)10.8 Others10.8.1 Global Rat & Mouse Model Market FOR Others estimates And Forecast, 2018 - 2028 (USD Million)
Chapter 11 End-use Business Analysis11.1 Rat & Mouse Model Market: End Use Movement Analysis11.2 Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology Companies11.2.1 Global Rat & Mouse Model Market for Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology companies estimates And Forecast, 2018 - 2028 (USD Million)11.3 Academic and research facilities11.3.1 Global Rat & Mouse Model Market for Academic and research facilities estimates And Forecast, 2018 - 2028 (USD Million)11.4 Contract Research & Manufacturing Organizations11.4.1 Global Rat & Mouse Model Market for Contract research & manufacturing organizations estimates And Forecast, 2018 - 2028 (USD Million)
Chapter 12 Regional Business Analysis
Chapter 13 Company Profile13.1 Charles River Laboratories, Inc.13.1.1 Company overview13.1.2 Financial Performance13.1.3 Product benchmarking13.1.4 Strategic initiatives13.2 The Jackson Laboratory.13.2.1 Company overview13.2.2 Financial Performance13.2.3 Product benchmarking13.2.4 Strategic initiatives13.3 Laboratory Corporation of America13.3.1 Company overview13.3.2 Financial Performance13.3.3 Product benchmarking13.3.4 Strategic initiatives13.4 Perkin Elmer (Horizon Discovery Group plc)13.4.1 Company overview13.4.2 Financial Performance13.4.3 Product benchmarking13.4.4 Strategic initiatives13.5 genOway13.5.1 Company overview13.5.2 Financial Performance13.5.3 Product benchmarking13.5.4 Strategic initiatives13.6 Envigo13.6.1 Company overview13.6.2 Financial Performance13.6.3 Product benchmarking13.6.4 Strategic initiatives13.7 Janvier Labs13.7.1 Company overview13.7.2 Financial Performance13.7.3 Product benchmarking13.7.4 Strategic initiatives13.8 Taconic Biosciences, Inc.13.8.1 Company overview13.8.2 Financial Performance13.8.3 Product benchmarking13.8.4 Strategic initiatives13.9 Biomere (Biomedical Research Models, Inc.)13.9.1 Company overview13.9.2 Financial Performance13.9.3 Product benchmarking13.9.4 Strategic initiatives13.10 Transposagen Biopharmaceuticals, Inc.13.10.1 Company overview13.10.2 Financial Performance13.10.3 Product benchmarking13.10.4 Strategic initiatives
For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/720b37
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Genome Editing Market to hit US$ 10691.0 Million, Globally, by 2025 at 17.0% CAGR: The Insight Partners – Digital Journal
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The global genome editing market is expected to reach US$ 10,691.0 million by 2025 from US$ 3,210.1 million in 2017; it is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 17.0% from 2018 to 2027.
According The Insight Partners study on Genome Editing Market Forecast to 2027 COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis by Technology, Application, End User, The report highlights trends existing in the market, and drivers and hindrances pertaining to the market growth. Factors such as Increase in funding for the genome editing, rising prevalence of the genetic disorders, rise in the advancements for genome editing technology and rise in the production of genetically modified crops are the driving factors for the growth of the market.
Genome editing is a technique that is utilized for the changes that are to be done in the DNA of a cell or an organism. The technique involves cutting DNA sequences for the addition or removing the DNA in the genome. The changes in the genome are done for the required characteristics of the cell. Genome editing is done for the research purpose, the treatment of the diseases, and the biotechnological purpose.
Get Sample PDF Copy of Genome Editing Market at: https://www.theinsightpartners.com/sample/TIPHE100000853/
Market Insights
Increase in Funding for the Genome Editing
The market for genome editing is expected to grow in the coming near future due to the growth factor that is driving the market is the increase in the funding. The different government in the different regions are increasing their funds and grants to develop genome editing research. Owing to genome editings advantages, the various government is supporting their public and private research and academic institutes for increasing the research activities for the genome editing and genetic engineering.
Across the world, funding is being provided by every nation. However, the more funds, for instance, in January 2018 US government announced donating US$ 190 million for research for the next six years. Also, the government is hoping to develop therapies to treat cancer and other diseases using gene editing. In addition, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has kept approximately US$ 45.5 million aside for the next four fiscal years for the Somatic Cell Genome Editing program. Moreover, in the Asia Pacific region, the countries are also investing more in the development of genome editing technology for two-three years back. For instance, in April 2016, Japan invested approximately US$76million for the five years for the creation of Japanese owned genome editing technologies.
Furthermore, the investments are made for private companies operating for genome editing. For instance, in August 2015, Editas Medicine is a company at the forefront of developing the gene-editing technology CRISPR has received US$ 120 million to create a new treatment for the conditions which include cancer, retinal diseases, and sickle cell anemia. Therefore, the rise in the funding for genome editing is likely to drive the market for genome editing in the forecast period. The rise in the funding will enhance the research and development of the gene-editing technologies and products for the researchers for efficient and effective genome editing. The funding will also enable the biopharmaceutical and pharmaceutical companies to develop technologies for the therapies using gene editing to treat and diagnose chronic diseases.
It also includes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the market across all the regions. The Genome Editing Market , by region, is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA), and South and Central America (SAM).
COVID-19 first began in Wuhan (China) during December 2019 and since then it has spread at a fast pace across the globe. The US, India, Brazil, Russia, France, the UK, Turkey, Italy, and Spain are some of the worst affected countries in terms confirmed cases and reported deaths. The COVID-19 has been affecting economies and industries in various countries due to lockdowns, travel bans, and business shutdowns.
Download the Latest COVID-19 Analysis on Genome Editing Market Growth Research Report at: https://www.theinsightpartners.com/covid-analysis-sample/TIPHE100000853
Based on technology, the genome editing market is segmented into transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENS), clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR), zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs), antisense RNA and others. In 2017, the CRISPR segment held the largest share of the market, by technology owing to the applications and its benefits offered. The TALENs segment is expected to grow at the fastest rate during the coming years.
Based on application, the genome editing market is segmented into genetic engineering, cell line engineering and others. In 2017, cell line segment held the largest share of the market, by application. Moreover, the genetic engineering segment is expected to grow at the fastest rate during the coming years owing to its sub segments such as animal genetic engineering and plant genetic engineering that are being carried out extensively.
Based on end user, the genome editing market is segmented into biotechnology & pharmaceutical companies, contract research organizations, academic & government research organization and other end users. The market is dominated by the biotechnology & pharmaceutical companies and is expected to surge significantly during the forecast period from 2017 to 2025. The biotechnology & pharmaceutical companies segment is expected gain its market share during the forecast period. Also, biotech & pharmaceutical companies is expected to show a prime CAGR owing to the increasing government funding and partnerships between the various organizations in all the regions.
Genome Editing Market : Competitive Landscape and Key Developments
Transposagen Biopharmaceuticals, Inc.,Integrated DNA Technologies, Inc.,Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.,GenScript,Lonza,Horizon Discovery Group plc,Sangamo Therapeutics, Inc.,New England Biolabs,Editas Medicine,Merck KGaA.
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What were the final steps? – newagebd.net
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Epicentre
IT HAS now been nearly two years since the human species was presented with the conundrum of the origins of a pandemic disease that eventually came to kill more than five million people worldwide, with the numbers growing every day. There are always controversies about epidemics, but unlike with AIDS in its early days, few have claimed that a virus was not the precipitating cause of Covid-19 although there were many like former US president Donald Trump and his followers who downplayed its seriousness.
Instead, the main controversy has been how the pandemic virus originated. While this debate has been exceptionally rancorous, what is not generally recognised is how much agreement there is among the adversaries. Nearly everyone agrees that the virus, SARS-CoV2, is derived from a type of coronavirus that is endemic to, and tolerated by, bats, and that it emerged after a few genetic changes in the city of Wuhan, in the Huwei province of China.
Those changes made the virus particularly well suited to attaching to human cells that line the respiratory tract and blood vessels, and particularly pathogenic in some vulnerable subpopulations the old, the obese, and the diabetic. It is also unpredictably fatal in some individuals with no obvious predispositions. But these random strikes are rare, leaving ample opportunity for people to live in fear, or alternatively, to disdain those who do, depending on temperamental proclivities that under the current situation inevitably align with political allegiance.
So where and how did the last few steps occur that turned a virus which was innocuous in animals to one that is devastating in humans? Infectious diseases have frequently emerged from spillovers from wild or domesticated animals that have come into contact with humans in unnatural settings like farms and food markets, or degraded habitats. This has been the preferred explanation for emergent diseases by the scientific community, and since there is a food market in Wuhan that sells live animals, including some exotic species, it was readily taken up in an environment predisposed to negativity concerning China. But the Wuhan live food market was not selling bats. Moreover, there are few wild bats in Wuhan, and those harbouring viruses related to SARS-Cov2 live in Chinese caves hundreds of miles from Wuhan or in other regions of Southeast Asia, such as Laos. Further, how the virus evolved to be so well adapted to humans in bats or other intermediate species and wind up at the Wuhan market was a mystery considering that no SARS-Cov2 or related viruses have been detected in any wild animals in or around the market or elsewhere in Wuhan.
There are also several laboratories in Wuhan which work on bat viruses, including SARS-type coronaviruses. One of these is the only bio-safety level 4 lab in China, operating under internationally agreed standards for the most hazardous kinds of microbiological and virus research. Leaks of experimental viruses have often occurred from research labs throughout the world, and a few have caused infectious outbreaks. But the scientific establishment resists lab-leak scenarios since they raise questions about their capacity to conduct their activities safely and threaten to bring scientists under increased scrutiny and to impose additional controls on their work.
Conventional opinion in the United States was happy to go along with the claims of prominent scientists and scientific administrators such as the infectious disease specialist Anthony Fauci and National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins that the allegation of the release of an experimental virus from a Wuhan lab accidental, in all reasonable versions was a conspiracy theory. A Wuhan lab leak, like the Wuhan market origin, would by itself have been compatible with mainstream Sinophobia. But the eagerness of Trump and his cohorts to play the China virus card, along with the recognition that coronavirus research in Wuhan was conducted in close collaboration with the University of North Carolina research group directed by Ralph Baric and the EcoHealth Alliance, a multidisciplinary New York-based organisation headed by Peter Daszac, which would have implicated the US in the laboratory scenario, drove many away from this plausible position. The fact that this work had been conducted with the approval of Fauci and Collins themselves made the mobilisation by these figures of strenuous rejection of the Wuhan lab-leak conjecture, as noted by the journalist Sam Husseini, an actual conspiracy.
The circumstantial case for the human adaptation of SARS-CoV2 during transit in a Wuhan laboratory is made persuasively by two excellent books, The Origin of the Deadliest Pandemic in 100 Years: An Investigation by Elaine Dewar, a Canadian science journalist, and Viral: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19 by Matt Ridley and Alina Chan, respectively a science populariser and a molecular biologist. The two books come to essentially identical conclusions by entirely different methods. Dewar explicitly followed the model of the legendary US political journalist IF Stone, scrutinising the public record, doggedly pursuing inconsistencies, and taking note of abrupt termination of phone conversations. Her book is a saga of the concomitant growth of expertise and rage. Chan began as a trained expert, a genetics researcher at the MIT-affiliated Broad Institute, who put her career on hold to track the SARS-CoV2 origin story as it emerged, often against the desires of Chinese researchers in Wuhan and their US collaborators, in the scientific literature, as well as by the freelance efforts of the Decentralised Radical Autonomous Search Team Investigating COVID-19, or DRASTIC, activist group and the Ithaca, New York-based Bioscience Resource Project.
Similar views on the laboratory origin of SARS-Cov2 have been put forward by others with more questionable intellectual pedigrees. For instance, Ridley, a member of the British House of Lords, is a sceptic on anthropogenic climate change, and the science journalist Nicholas Wade, who wrote a long piece on the subject in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, is an advocate of genetic race science specifics that feature in lazy dismissals of the lab-leak hypothesis in the absence of any evidence at all of natural emergence. Another advocate of the lab-leak scenario, think-tanker Jamie Metzl, has recently written a book advocating human germline genetic engineering. But Dewar and Chan show their work you can virtually watch how their ideas take form and for this reason can serve as honest guides in the face of incomplete, and, perhaps, withheld, evidence.
Since these books have been written, new information has emerged in the form of leaked and FOIA-obtained grant proposals, one funded by the NIH and one turned down by the US military research agency DARPA, that document collaborative work and planned experiments by scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the US EcoHealth Alliance. As described in articles in The Intercept by Sharon Lerner, Maia Hibbett, and Mara Hvistendahl, this work included culturing bat coronaviruses isolated from the wild with human lung cells, and infection with such viruses of humanised mice mice genetically engineered to have human virus-binding receptors to develop variants that were more infectious for humans, the objective presumably being eventual vaccine design. The investigators also proposed inserting a furin cleavage site into some of the bat coronaviruses, an infection-enabling feature of the virus spike protein not found in bat viruses most closely related to SARS-CoV2. It has also come to light that among the bat virus isolates brought to and studied in the Wuhan lab were ones from Laos. The fact that the identified bat virus with the best genetic match to SARS-CoV2 was found at a site 1,000 miles away from Wuhan was previously used to discredit the lab-leak hypothesis.
For those following the score of this danse macabre, this is where we stand right now.
CounterPunch.org, December 8. Stuart A Newman is professor of cell biology and anatomy at New York Medical College and co-author of Biotech Juggernaut: Hope, Hype and Hidden Agendas of Entrepreneurial Bioscience.
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What were the final steps? - newagebd.net
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Capsida Biotherapeutics Announces Publication in Nature Neuroscience From Caltech Demonstrating Robust, Non-invasive IV Gene Delivery Targeted to the…
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THOUSAND OAKS, Calif., Dec. 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Capsida Biotherapeutics, Inc., an industry-leading gene therapy platform company creating a new class of targeted, non-invasive gene therapies for patients with debilitating and life-threatening genetic disorders, today announced research published in Nature Neuroscience that demonstrated the ability to engineer and select novel capsid variants, with improved enrichment in the brain and decreased liver targeting following intravenous (IV) administration in rodents and non-human primates. The research was led by the laboratory of Viviana Gradinaru, Ph.D., Professor of Neuroscience and Biological Engineering, and Director of the Center for Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience at the Chen Institute for Neuroscience at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). The publication, entitled, "AAV capsid variants with brain-wide transgene expression and decreased liver targeting after intravenous delivery in mouse and marmoset," was published online today and can be accessed at https://go.nature.com/31I3osS.
Gene therapy is accelerating as a life-saving and life-improving therapeutic option for disorders affecting the brain. For a genetic intervention to be safe and effective, a gene therapy should express a transgene in the affected brain cells while minimizing off-target expression. Adeno-associated viral vectors (AAVs) are powerful options to deliver genetic payloads, but naturally occurring AAV serotypes have limited and overlapping tropisms which represent a significant hurdle to therapeutic development. The research published in Nature Neuroscience describes how combinatorial AAV engineering of multiple loops was utilized to select capsids with brain-wide gene expression and liver detargeting after IV delivery in mouse and marmoset models. To achieve organ-specific targeting after IV delivery, sequential engineering of multiple surface-exposed loops was performed. The work identifies capsid variants that were enriched in the brain by positive selective pressure and targeted away from the liver by negative selective pressure in Cre-transgenic mice. These findings extended to non-human primates following IV administration, allowing for robust, non-invasive gene delivery to the central nervous system (CNS). Importantly, the capsids identified resulted in distinct transgene expression profiles within the brain, with one exhibiting high specificity to neurons.
"The work described in the Nature Neuroscience paper highlights the groundbreaking research from Caltech that provided a roadmap for Capsida's proprietary, non-invasive, targeted gene therapy platform," said Nick Goeden, Ph.D., Chief Technology Officer at Capsida, study first co-author due to his prior research as a Caltech postdoctoral scholar. "We are pursuing several internal programs utilizing IV delivery in humans and expect to file an IND in the second half of 2022."
"The power of this engineering approach demonstrates the ability to create capsids that can target anatomical regions and cell types, while avoiding off-target involvement. The technology opens up the potential for safer and more effective therapeutic possibilities not achievable with traditional AAV gene therapy," added Nicholas Flytzanis, Ph.D., Chief Science Officer at Capsida, and study first co-author from research performed while a scientific director at Caltech. "Many gene therapy companies use surgical approaches to administer CNS medicines, but our engineered non-invasive approach provides the possibility for a broader, more convenient option to treat genetic diseases."
Capsida, co-founded by Flytzanis, Goeden, and Gradinaru, has exclusive license to this technology, which has been further expanded internally into a robust platform by where large-scale, diverse libraries with more than 60 billion capsid sequences each are engineered and screened into primates and disease-relevant human cell lines. Sequence and structure-based analytics are paired with a fully automated engineering platform to quickly prioritize the capsids with the most promising characteristics. Importantly, Capsida's AAV constructs have been studied in hundreds of non-human primates to improve the predictability of these constructs in human clinical trials. Capsida has established collaborations with industry leaders AbbVie and CRISPR Therapeutics to develop next-generation gene therapies for CNS diseases.
About Capsida Biotherapeutics
Capsida Biotherapeutics Inc. is an industry-leading gene therapy platform company creating a new class of targeted, non-invasive gene therapies for patients with debilitating and life-threatening genetic disorders. Capsida's technology allows for the targeted penetration of cells and organs, while limiting collateral impact on non-targeted cells and organs, especially the liver. This technology allows for the delivery of the gene therapy in a non-invasive way through intravenous administration. Capsida's technology is protected by a growing intellectual property portfolio which includes more than 30 patent applications and one issued U.S. patent 11,149,256. The company is exploring using the technology across a broad range of life-threatening genetic disorders. Its initial pipeline consists of multiple neurologic disease programs. The company has strategic collaborations with AbbVie and CRISPR, which provide independent validation of Capsida's technology and capabilities. Capsida is a multi-functional and fully integrated biotechnology company with proprietary adeno-associated virus (AAV) engineering, multi-modality cargo development and optimization, translational biology, process development and state-of-the-art manufacturing, and broad clinical development experience. Capsida's biologically driven, high-throughput AAV engineering and cargo optimization platform originated from groundbreaking research in the laboratory of Viviana Gradinaru, Ph.D., a neuroscience professor at the California Institute of Technology. Visit us at http://www.capsida.com to learn more.
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The Miracle of Spiderwebs – Discovery Institute
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Photo credit: edbuscher, via Pixabay.
Editors note: The following is an excerpt from the newly released book,Animal Algorithms: Evolution and the Mysterious Origin of Ingenious Instincts, from Discovery Institute Press. Dont miss theupcoming webinar with Eric Cassell and Casey Luskin, Thursday, December 9, from 4 to 5:30 Pacific time.Register here.
Whats miraculous about a spiders web? said Mrs. Arable. I dont see why you say a web is a miracle its just a web.
Ever try to spin one? asked Dr. Dorian.
Spiders are another of natures master engineers. About half of known spider species (order Araneae) construct webs made of silk. Spiders can make different types of silk, depending upon its function. For example, the golden orb-weaver spider has seven kinds of silk glands, with six spinnerets.1Some is used for spinning webs, of course, but other types are used for wrapping prey and encasing eggs. Silk can be stronger than steel of the same thickness, can stretch more than rubber, and is stickier than most tape.2The Goulds describe silk as easily the most remarkable building material on the planet, and it has one source: arthropods.3Despite great effort, humans have yet to produce anything functionally equivalent to silk. Through genetic engineering, attempts have been made to duplicate it without success. The main challenge is replicating the sophisticated and information-rich protein molecules found in the silk produced by spiders and other silk-producing arthropods such as silkworms proteins that are nearly double the size of average human proteins.4Smaller proteins do not have the strength or flexibility of spider silk. Given the advanced genetic and manufacturing technologies available today, it is remarkable that spider silk still cannot be duplicated. This illustrates just how advanced the engineering design of spider silk is.
Orb webs are the most common and familiar types of spiderwebs. A typical garden spiderweb is made of 65 to 195 feet of silk.5The webs consist of sticky catching threads; radial spokes for holding the sticky threads; bridge threads that act as guy-lines for holding the web up; signal threads that inform the spider through vibrations sensed in the legs that prey is in the web; and drag lines for access into the web from her home.6The silks employed in the different uses are each unique, being constructed of different combinations of proteins. The types include slinky for stretchiness, zipper for flexibility, and lego for toughness.7Construction of the web is a purposeful, goal-driven activity. This becomes particularly obvious as one observes the process in videos available on the Internet.8
Various spiderwebs, even among spiders of the same species, are far from identical. The most obvious reason for the differences is that each is tailored to its specific location. As the Goulds explain, Every set of initial anchor points is different; the number of radii is contingent on opportunity; the beginning of the sticky spiral depends on where the longest several radii turn out to be. In short, each web is a custom production.9The Goulds postulate that spiders have a form of mapping ability that enables them to implement general design principles in a wide variety of circumstances. This is demonstrated, for instance, by spiders successfully making repairs to damaged webs.
Another source of difference is function. When we think of spiderwebs, we tend to imagine the kind most commonly encountered the netlike webs spread between trees or attic rafters or walls. But there are various other types, including ones that function as trapdoors into spider burrows, collars that extend out from burrows, and webs that function as tubes on tree bark that can also have hinged doors.10
I mentioned signal threads above. They tell a spider that prey is present on the web, but they convey a lot more than just that. Spiders are able to determine both the angle and distance of the prey from the center of the web. They are able to determine the prey location using the same basic technique we use to determine the location of the source of sound. Humans use the difference in intensity of sound received by our ears to estimate the relative location. Spiders do something similar based on the intensity of vibrations received, in their case sensed through eight legs.11Obviously the algorithm used in processing information from eight sensors is much more complicated than just the two sensors that humans have. And thats only the half of it. Experiments have demonstrated that spiders can store the coordinates for the locations of at least three different prey trapped in the web.12
Providing credible evolutionary explanations for the origin of silk and web design has proven problematic. Several theories have been proposed for the origin of both, but none have been generally accepted.13Biologist and spider specialist William Shear concedes that a functional explanation for the origins of silk and the spinning habit may be impossible to achieve.14One complicating factor is that the webs of some spiders that are more distantly related are nearly identical. Shear writes, It appears probable that several web types are the product of convergent evolution that is, that the same web has evolved in unrelated species that have adapted to similar environmental circumstances.15But as I will argue in Chapter 6, that is an unconvincing explanation for the origin of complex programmed behaviors.
A more fundamental challenge for those seeking to provide a detailed, causally credible explanation for the origin of silk and spiderweb architecture is the number of genes involved in producing silk, and the complex genomes of spiders.16After decades of failed attempts to provide a causally adequate explanation, one can be forgiven for concluding that we have no compelling reason to assume that a step-by-step evolutionary pathway to such an information-rich substrate actually exists. And as we will discuss later, there are now some positive reasons to consider that such information-rich systems have for their source something other than a purely blind material process. Here, suffice it to say that the behaviors and functions associated with both silk and web spinning exhibit many characteristics of human engineering, and engineering of a very high order.
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