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Category Archives: Transhuman News

Scientist Spot Star That’s Been Stretched Out and Wrapped Around a Black Hole – Futurism

Posted: May 11, 2021 at 11:30 pm

The process is known as "spaghettification."Spaghettified

For the first time ever, astronomers have spotted evidence of a distant star that has wrapped itself around a supermassive black hole, Space.com reports a grim process known as spaghettification.

For a while now, astronomers have seen bursts of electromagnetic radiation emanating from black holes. Their theory: those bursts are from stars being torn apart.

But until now, they havent been able to directly observe the shape of these leftover bits of stars.

In a new paper published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, an international team of scientists say they were able to observe evidence of the actual strands of a spaghettified star.

As stars enter their final stages of life, they tend to either cool down or explode in a supernova, obliterating everything around them. Stars closer to the centers of their galaxy face a different danger, though: they are under the threat of being torn into long strips.

Thats thanks to the galaxys central black hole astronomers have long observed massive black holes at the centers of most galaxies tugging at one side of the star far more than on the other, a process known as spaghettification or as a tidal disruption event.

These spaghetti-like strands of former star-stuff then eventually get slurped up by the black hole, causing epic bursts of radiation.

While we have seen evidence of these bursts, astronomers were only now able to see the outlines of the actual strands themselves while looking at one of the poles of a black hole.

Their observations suggest that long strands of star remains wrapped themselves around the black hole several times like a spaghetti coiled around a fork.

READ MORE: Spaghettified star wrapped around a black hole spotted for the first time[Space.com]

More on black holes: Scientists Just Released the First-Ever Image of a Black Hole

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Worlds Biggest Jeweler Will Only Sell Lab-Grown Diamonds – Futurism

Posted: at 11:30 pm

"It's the right thing to do."Going Lab Grown

This week, the worlds biggest jeweler Pandora announced it will cease to sell all mined diamonds, and switch exclusively to selling lab-made diamonds, as the BBC reports.

Mining diamonds is an incredibly environmentally taxing practice that also has a track record of greatly contributing to war and human rights abuses across the African continent.

Pandora CEO Alexander Lacik told the BBC that ditching mined diamonds is the right thing to do.

Its also conveniently far more economical. We can essentially create the same outcome as nature has created, but at a very, very different price, he added, pointing out costs are only about a third compared to mined diamonds.

The production of mined diamonds fell last year after peaking in 2017. According to the BBC, the pandemic had catastrophic effects on the diamond market, causing production to fall some 18 percent.

Pandoras lab diamonds start at $350 and are being produced in the UK. The company is hoping to expand its market beyond engagements and weddings thanks to the lowered price.

Were trying to open up this playing field and say, you know, with the type of value equation that we offer, you can use this everyday if you want, Lacik told the BBC.

Reducing the burden mining diamonds has had on humanity and our environment, it only makes sense for companies to move away from the practice. The lower costs are just the cherry on top.

READ MORE: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever [BBC]

More on diamonds: More on Scientists Create Diamonds at Room Temperature

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Street Art in the Age of Basquiat: Rammellzee is Not a Name, But an Equation – ARTnews

Posted: at 11:30 pm

The following is part four of a series of interviews with key figures inJean-Michel Basquiats downtown New York circle in the 1980s. The interviews were conducted in February by Museum of Fine Arts Boston curator Liz Munsell and writer and musicianGreg Tate, who together curated the exhibition Writing the Future: Basquiat and the Hip-Hop Generation, on view at the MFA through July 25.ARTnews has published all four interviews from the series this week.

In 1985 I was working as editor/creative director on a magazine project called B.Culture for Linda Bryants Just Above Midtown (JAM) Gallery. By that time Rammellzee and I had become well-acquainted after I wrote the Village Voice review of Beat Bop, his now legendary 1983 rap music collaboration with Jean-Michel Basquiat, K-Rob and Al Diaz. Having just a few years earlier read the epic transcription writer Edit DeAk did with Ramm for Artforum, I knew his monologues about graf as interdimensional warfare were an apex of modern performance art and Black esthetic theory.

When told I was going to interview Ramm, my good friend, Warrington Hudlin, filmmaker-producer (House Party) and director of the Black Filmmakers Foundation, asked to accompany me. Our encounter with Ramm took place in his loft studio/shrine, known as The Battle Station on Laight Street in Tribeca. I cant recall if either of us posed an actual question to Ramm, but without much prompting he gave us a whirlwind two hour exegetic tour of his minds (and mouths) capacity to conjure complex theorems that blurred the lines between subway art, race and culture wars, diseased language, the illuminated calligraphy of 14th-century monks, and sculptural high-tech sonic weaponry.

Ramm changed the terms of engagement with respect to the conversation about graf or subway art by dismissing those terms and saying what we were looking at on the trains was symbolic warfare and in his forecasting art historical language was Ikonoklast Panzerism and Gothic Futurism. Ikonoklast means symbol destroyer and Panzer derived from the tanks the Nazis invented, which were crucial to their success in invading Poland and France.

Gothic Futurism also provocatively harkened back to the Futurists of early 20th-century modernity, an art movement identified with fascistic and militaristic inclinations. As Ramms thinking makes clear, he viewedsubway art and hiphop as a total movement representing a multidisciplinary and racialized and working-classmilitary campaign against capitalism, Western Civ 101, and white supremacy.

Ramm saw wildstyle train writing as reclaiming, through extreme abstraction, the integrity of the alphabetmathematical symbols related to architecture and not literary toolsfrom the biologically diseased culture and language manipulation of Western civilization. Gothic Futurism connected the work done by b-boys and b-girls in the darkness of the train yards to the calligraphy of the 14th-century monks who wrote illuminated manuscripts for the Catholic Churchcalligraphy that distorted the alphabet to the point of indecipherability.

Ramm believed the monks knowledge had been fast forwarded through space-time to his generation of Gothic Futurists who weaponized the trains by grafting their paintings onto them. Later, once his years on the trains were done, Ramm continued the war of hiphop generated symbol versus Western language symbol though performance in his technologically enhanced battle suits. Greg Tate

RAMMELLZEE, as told to Gregory Tate and Warrington Hudlin:

I started doing trains when I was nine years old. I was part of United Graffiti Artists, along with everybody else. I was known as Stimulation Assassination: Tagmaster Killer. I owned the entire 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 lines. The letters, music notes and weather notes that were done down there reached a point where you didnt need to kill a person. The piece became a weapon, the letter itself. So fame was the most interesting to take out. How do you know George Washington? You know him through a name. You shoot the letter on the train at the other letter and it takes out that name. So, therefore, homeboy has no identity. Why should I kill him? Let him live: Hell just be dead anyway, because nobody will know who he is. Hell just be a walking zombie. Dont let him be dead. Thats the only way to do it. Because thats what they want to do to you.

They sell your art, they sell your music and exploit it, and then all you have left is exploitation. So why dont you at least have your own name? Give that to them and what do you have after that?

Im still at war. Im still busting them out. Ive still got my originals. What they have is called a Recision Hyper. I cut open a statement of graffiti, put in my word Ikonoklast Panzerism and sew it right back up. Ive still got my art.

Ive got nine different markets for Ikonoklast Panzerism: The Music Note, the Atomic Note, Weather Notes, Sign Overtures, Beat Boys, Badge of Steel, mathematics and the knowledge of the square ratio envelopes with pictures of what I look like onstage and what we do on the trains. Nine different markets and they cant touch em. I overstructured them.

Jean-Michel is the one they told, you must draw it this way and call it black-man folk art, when it was really white-man folk art he was doing. Thats what he draws . . . white-man folk art. He does not draw black-man folk art, because they told him what to draw. He may sell enough to live well until he dies, but what they did was label him off as a product and now hes their product. So hes being prostituted constantly. And now they dont like his work anymore because its folk art and folk art is dead. They are going back to the tradition of oil painting. They are finished with the Picasso extensions which is what Jean-Michels work is.

They called us graffiti but they wouldnt call him graffiti. And he gets as close to it as the word means-scribble-scrabble. Unreadable. Crosses out words, doesnt spell them right, doesnt even write the damn thing right. He doesnt even paint well. And to paint inaccurately is scribble scrabble. You dont draw a building so that it will fall down, and thats what he draws, broken-down imagery.

If it wasnt for structure youd fall apart. Things are falling apart now. Thats why the Gothic era has returned itself. We have jumped back three years as a culture now. The music just went back three years, the painting just went back three years. If you want to do that, why not go back 300 years and youll find peoples entire outlook is 300 years old. Were advanced in terms of science and technology but the attitude of the population and the control of the population is still Gothic. We still do not know what were doing. We still do not know how to leave this planet the right way. Well bring religion out in space and itll be stopped. Because in the 1400s the word religion was restriction on a legion.

Gothic is the architecture of the letter that was lost back in the 14th century. Supersonic jets were supposed to be made back in the 14th century. But we wanted to be human and base everything on human nature so we designed from the bird, when we could have designed off the triangle. With quantum physics you can use the triangle to get into the bird. They just dropped the nose down on the jet. Instead of doing that they could have had Delta wings, which is what they had 2000 years ago Delta fighters. But nobody believes that anymore, do they?

You can have four alternatives to human naturegenocide, plain old socialism like bees and ants have, love and dictatorship which is what we have now, or you can have a lot of high-powered, mega-structured knowledge where everything becomes not a socialistic bee-type state but a militant state with megastructures. Like what theyre doing to the World Trade Center now. In about 10 or 15 years it can be expanded to extend all the way uptown. Thats what it should bemass thinking, mass brain power as one unit.

Beat Boys is extremely like an opera. It can only be collaborative if you do it as a war affair. The music behind Beat Boys is extremely violent. I have a drawing of a robot launching two turntables. When you hear the sound go vamp, thats the laser disc shooting out. It becomes sunfire.

The dancing is dodging of missiles or rockets or anything like that. If you do it right, it becomes a dance. We didnt bring it as far as a martial art because we were fighting as a style, and not as an embellishment of personality. We could have brought it to a martial art but they brought us up out of the subways and said dont make it so violent please. So, they stopped it, backed it up, sent it back to being a love thing again. A thing which it never should have been. Word. B-Boy culture says the rough music starts first and then you go into love. No, its the other way around. We leave the girls and then we go and fight just like in any regular army.

Since I was five years old I have been doing works of war. And when you do works of war you have to know about textile science. Thats because its chemical warfare which is the last war youll see before they have Sound Wars.

Ultrasonic sound wars is what theyre going to have very soon. Ill probably be the first one to do it.

Theres a tank I just finished building in Italy that shoots ultrasonic sound. And this joint is $400,000 worth of weaponry. Its called a Weather Note. Its a Metropostasizer. It controls the atmosphere. It also acts like a sundial, points out the cloud projections, then shoots the cloud. Disintegration of clouds comes from radioactivity. Microwave that shit and it puts out a sound burst thats too thick for the atmosphere. Depending on whether or not its an iodine cloud, you just reverse the polarity of that shit. Ultrasonics, instead of going at a high frequency, goes at a high hum. And it gets trapped by heat and auto emissions. Its similar to making a tornado. The faster you get and the more the ratio level goes up and everything starts gathering, the more you get a cloud that makes a sound. Not the wind being pushed around it, but the wind being pushed from within makes its own sound. Like the opposite is the eye of the hurricane. It makes no sound and everything around it does. Its a clear day in that eye but hell all around.

People say Im drawing sexual images as missiles. I say please. I can build this thing. If Im shooting scum I want you to understand itll blow your house down. Thats a powerful type dick.

All my art and all my teachings are about Gothic Futurism, and the knowledge of how a letter aerodynamically changes into a tank. I tell people phonetic value does not apply to any letters structure because the sound is made by the bone structure of the human species which has nothing to do with the integer structure quality, nothing at all. The letter is an integer.

Chinese letters are carbonetic; but ours are siliconic. Arabic symbols are disease cultural chemical symbols. They cannot be armored. They cannot be Ikonoklast. They cannot be made into a vehicle in motion. I am the person who builds the weapons inside the war. Futura 2000 is a mapper further out in space looking down upon the war, writing the history as a map. Phase Two has the Carbon side of the war. I have the Silicon, and Futura is above magnifying that.

Silicon-based symbols can be moved forward and have no phonetic value. What theyre saying in Arabic equals the structure of the symbol. What were saying does not equal structure but the difference in values between silicon and carbon. The letter appeared from the first dimension. We didnt put it in the first dimension. The first dimension has total power over everything because it is total electromagnetic energy. That is an integer by itself. No one controls the alpha-beta. If you drop the a it becomes alphabet. Thats what they did but is that total control or is that foolish control? Bigotry and the rest of that bullshit?

Theres a point where people will steal the idea of the ratio envelope, the number and the letter, and combine it together and say, since we own this, we own you. Numbers were stolen from India, brought up to the Arabic countries and they sabotaged it then. Zero was stolen from the Mayan Indians. We have this government that doesnt want you to remember alpha-beta. They want you to remember alphabet.

Were not going to speak their bullshit anymore. We want our own sound for the letter now. We want you to take the letter, put it in the computer, and find out the sound that emanates from that integer which is called the aura of the letter. Do that and you get ultrasonics. Then you wont have no alpha-beta to speak. Then you have to find a letter that makes you work for it instead of the letter working for us because thats tricknowledgy. The phonetic value is tricknowledgy because how you write double U over here and write two Vs as an integer, while in Europe you write two Us and youre writing double V? Thats total tricknowledgy. And its just because of segregation. They want to keep people in their place.

Society took us all out of the subways and told us to do canvases their phonetic value, their tradition. After doing all of that work in the subways for eight or nine years you really dont want to work for these people so they can just have everything and say we got it all so goodbye. Whatre you gonna do, think youre an artist? Then they want you to go back to school so you can learn how to paint the same old goddamn way? Go back to school? I am a school. I aint going back to that shit. No bet. Im not going to go through their definition of pain and painting.

I got excluded from the Area club because they got the juice and they dont need us anymore. They did it in the music just like in the art. So, what happens now is suffering and Gothic. Not knowing whats going on and walking through the bushes.

I continue to call myself a Gothic Futurist. Gothic is the primitive architecture and futurism means mechanism. At least thats what I read when I did read. Because I was always known for saying things before I read them and I cried later because I saw them. At a very young age I pulled words out that made me cry. Words that I thought I made up and then saw in a book. You are not supposed to come into an English class at an early age and the teacher sits you down and says you so bad, you teach. And you teach. Ive given many a lecture that way. Rocked the entire English dictionary.

I said the letter Sigma would change after being bombarded by the aerodynamic structures of 10,000 of us in the subways over a ten-year period. That letter changed into tank because we bombarded it with a certain amount of aerodynamic knowledge in the dark. It changed into a Sigma where before it was an E. In the dark that letter moved aerodynamically and turned into a Greek letter again. Where did E go? It went into S except now thats Summation Operator. Now summate the operation of convenience. Thats economics. Word. You listen to that and you think about it. Might make sense, might be total bullshit. Youll find out, wont you? But if its working out, dont tell me. Might hurt my feelings. Might mean something to too many people and they might want to beat the shit out of me. They fucked Einsteins ass up when they made that bomb. You cant help it if science is that good and the damn fools want to make a weapon out of it.

Einstein played the Wizards Game of Fool. Its called Planet Collision. Extreme cosmic clash. His dice was math. He liked to roll numbers. He said you can do anything you want with the word around the letter. I said, very good sir, I didIkonoklast Panzerism. I made something you cant speak anymore because it didnt have a phonetic value in the first place. And you, Einstein, should have remembered that.

You know Japanese robots unfold and become trucks? Well, this was done on the trains. We know the Japanese got this from themselves, but we did it in the subways in the dark so Id consider us to be more original than them.

I may be curating the outside of a museum wall in Tokyo. Itll be two towers of Panzerism with lasers that shoot and go completely around this five-block building. Ill have two or three tanks floating like a mobile about 20 feet of the wall. I asked for about a $15,000 budget. They were turning down people who were asking for millions. Compared to that, Im cheap and Ill probably do better work anyway. Because I know what theyd do. Put some sticks or some other bullshit up, charge $1,500 just for materials. Then say they want a million dollars. I say, you want to go for that when you could have this and have a good time. Because Id stand up there, boy, dressed in one of the crazy-ass costumes and do one of the def-est muh-fuckin Gregorian chant. China-Japanese down. I call it insect music because they call me an insect. When Im onstage they say I look like a hornet, because I have two doo-rags, swords and Im very exo-skeletal looking. It sounds like the beating of wings.

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Twenty years covering people, politics, and protests – rabble.ca

Posted: at 11:02 pm

On April 18, rabble turned 20. To celebrate, we took a look back through our archives. Over the last 20 days, we shared one story for every year of rabble.ca on our Twitter and Facebook pages.

It's a history tour-- not just the history of rabble.ca, but a history of progressive politics, the labour movement, and grassroots organizing. It's also ahistory of media itself, in which our team has played no small part.

We also invited some of our founders and earliest contributors to look back on the history of rabble.ca and the Canadian history that unfolded in our (virtual) pages. Some of these articles are sprinkled throughout this listfor context.

On April 20 and 21, 2001, 34 heads of state from North and South America gathered in Quebec City for the third Summit of the Americas. The summitwas a round of negotiations toward a proposed new continental trade agreement, the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), modelled after the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

At least 20,000 civil society activists, trade unionists and environmentalists from throughout the Americas descended on Quebec City to protestboth the Free Trade Area of the Americas with its corporate backers, and the massive security measures put in place to keep the demonstratorsaway from officials (including a three-metre-high concrete and wire barricade).

rabble.ca had just been launched, and was on the front lines of the clashes in the streets of Quebec, telling the story of the dangers of these free trade deals and of the growing protests to confront them. Activist and author Maude Barlow looks back.

2001:Also shortly after rabble's launch in 2001, we saw history taking place in real time when the Twin Towers fell on September 11 and shortly after, then-president George Bush declared a "war on terror." There were vocal opponents to the war, of course, including Canadian sociologistSunera Thobani. As Lynn Coady wrote here, the Canadian media was not so keen on hearing it, instead amplifying those who would accuse anti-war rhetoric of being pro-terrorism.

2002: In September 2002, David Bernans wrote about the aftermath of a protest at Concordia University that forced the cancellation of Benjamin Netanyahu's planned speech on campus.

2003: Angela Bischoffrecounts how she was left "emotionally exhausted" after hearing about the horrors imposed upon poor communities in the name of globalization and western-imposed "development" at the Asian Social Forum in Hyderabad.

2004:Stephen Harper was the newly minted leader of the Conservative Party of Canada. Duncan Cameron offered his take on the impending negative attack ad campaigns from both sides of the aisle.

2005:In 2005, rabble made media history when it launched its very own podcast network -- years before Apple. Listen to an early interview with the one and only Stephen Lewis, hosted by podcasters Meagan Perry and Wayne MacPhail.

2006:All the way back in 2006, now-MPP Catherine Fife was writing about the need for a national child-care plan. Yes, that's 15 years ago. In 2021, a national child-care plan finally made its debut in the federal budget. Will there be follow through? Time will tell.

2007:In 2007, Tricia Hylton wrote about how the shooting death of 14-year-old Jordan Manners caused her fears for her own Black son to boil up. Fourteen years later, what has changed?

2008:Paul Tulloch asked, "If the auto sector is allowed to die in Canada, the question is: what industry can replace the wealth-generating capacity of the auto sector?" He concludedthere wasn't one. Perhaps that is still true, but with more current and former autoplants transitioning to electric battery production, the industry has certainly evolved -- but not beyond recognition.

2009:In 2009, Roz Allen was writing about net neutrality: "We still have the power to make sure that when it comes to free speech on the Canadian Interweb, the artists and producers -- in short order, we, the people -- win out."

2010:Eleven years ago, Corvin Russell wondered if Canada was capable of sharing the land with First Nations, or whether the colonial state could only offer resilient Aboriginal cultures a menu of assimilation, dependency, and cultural death.

Also in 2010, rabble welcomed Humberto DaSilva to its roster with a vlog, aptly titled "Not Rex," as in... "Not Rex Murphy," the National Post's right-leaning columnist known for his wordiness and his ability to be evermore out-of-touch. For rabble's 20th birthday, Not Rex returned with a birthday wish for the site he called home for so many years.

"When I was 20 I didn't know shit, but a lot of what I know at 60 about citizen journalism, activism, and the expression of creative political rage,rabble.cataught me from when it was barely 10," he writes. Without rabble, DaSilva wrote, he wouldn't have been able to survive the Stephen Harper era.

2011:On April 18, 2011, rabble celebrated its 10th anniversary. Former intern Noreen Mae Ritsema reflected on rabble's involvement in anti-Iraq war protests over the years.

2012:In 2012, supporters turned up at Dufferin Grove Park in Toronto armed with pots and pans to express their solidarity with former Quebec student leader Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois after he was found guilty of contempt of court. John Bonnar covered the moment.

2013: "We are all woefully ill-equipped to deal with the multiple crises that are bearing down on us...Our collective institutions are at their weakest points just as we need to them to be at their most imaginative," Murray Dobbin presciently wrote at the end of2013.

In the spring of 2020, Sophia Reuss and Christina Turner sat down with three activists working towards system change in these realms: rabble co-founder Judy Rebick, NDP member of Parliament Leah Gazan, and executive director of Indigenous Climate Action Eriel Tchekwie Deranger. They met over video conference to reflect on the future of movement organizing and the power of independent media.

For rabble's 20th birthday, we publishedan excerptfrom that interview, in which Rebick describes the political climate rabble emerged from and the challenges it faced along the way.

"rabble started at the height of the anti-globalization movement. That movement -- against corporate globalization -- was strong and growing. There was nowhere that meetings with world political leaders and financiers -- the G8, the World Trade Organization -- could happen where there weren't huge protests. But six months after rabble was founded came the September 11 terrorist attacks. And September 11 shifted everything," she said.

There was a decline in social movement organizing after that, Rebick noted. But what was happening was the internet was growing. And soon, it became the tool it is today, having been the medium through which movements like #metoo, #IdleNoMore, and #LandBack were born.

2014:In 2014, in the wake of allegations of sexual assault against Jian Ghomeshi, #BeenRapedNeverReported took off on social media, one of many such hashtags that would eventually lead to the#metoomovement.Antonia Zerbisiassharedwhat it was that pushed her to tweet three deeply personal memories that shehad never shared with anyone, let alone the millions on social media.

2015:Mercedes Allen wrote about how bathroom-related fear-mongering had been the cause of several petitions and campaigns to kill trans human rights legislation in North America, including in the Canadian Senate.

2016:This was a momentous year for many reasons. It was the year of Trump, of Brexit, of the Paris climate agreement. In Canada, it was also the year that the Jian Ghomeshi verdict delivered a blow to the feminist movement. Not all was lost, as Christina Turner recounted.

2017:Desmond Cole left the Toronto Star when his editors told him his activism was interfering with his journalism. As the landscape of Canadian media continues to evolve, John Miller's story on the matter is worth revisiting.

2018:Halfway through the Trump presidency, Monia Mazigh reported ona 47 per cent increasein hate crimes in Canada in 2017. Both Quebec Premier Franois Legault and Ontario Premier Doug Ford remained silent about the disturbing surge in numbers.

2019:rabble covered what was at stake in the 2019 federal election that resulted in a Liberal minority. That year, the Liberal party all but dropped its commitment to its "most important relationship" as Pam Palmater explained. Will there ever be a return to reconciliation and sunny ways?

2020: The collective trauma, grief, and hardship of 2020 is fresh in our memory, but we must not allow the lessons to fade away. One major pitfall in Canada's health-care system that still requires urgent attention? Long-term care. Karl Nerenberg writes about what's needed to fix the system that broke down hard, causing untold preventable deaths of our elders.

That brings us to 2021. We hope the story of the year will be about record-setting vaccinations, people hugging their friends again, and taking the lessons of this pandemic and building forward -- towards a better, more inclusive future. In the meantime, rabble will be here, publishing incisive analysis of the news of the day and scathing critiques of the ineptitude of many of our governments. Stay tuned!

Interested in reading more like this? Check out our brand new book, Everything on (the) Line, published by Between the Lines.

Editors S. Reuss and Christina Turner guide readers deftly through rabbles deep and storied archives, combining critical analysis with new essays from celebrated activists and writers such as Russell Diabo, Nora Loreto, Phillip Dwight Morgan, and Monia Mazigh. Each vital selection marks a flashpoint in Canadian politics -- and an opportunity to reflect on the social movements that have challenged capitalism, racism, settler colonialism, and patriarchy over the past two decades.

Chelsea Nash is rabble's digital engagement editor and labour beat reporter.

Image credit: Department of Defense/pingnews.com/Flickr

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Twin Cities playwright and critic William Randall Beard dies at 64 – Minneapolis Star Tribune

Posted: at 10:57 pm

A passionate voice in Twin Cities performing arts has been silenced by the coronavirus pandemic.

William Randall Beard, a playwright and freelance critic who wrote about classical music, theater and opera for the Star Tribune, Pioneer Press and Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, among others, died April 17 at HCMC. He was 64.

A librarian and devout Lutheran, Beard had a battery of longstanding health issues, including lupus and congestive heart failure.

Just over a decade ago, "he had a terrible fall at Orchestra Hall literally down several flights of stairs and tore tons of ligaments and required 19 leg operations," said playwright Daniel Pinkerton, Beard's 40-year friend and onetime roommate. "He could never quite walk right again. So he couldn't get the kind of exercise he needed."

After contracting COVID-19 the first week of April, he was taken to the hospital where he suffered a rapid decline, Pinkerton said.

Beard is best known for "Beyond the Rainbow: Garland at Carnegie Hall," his bio play-with-music that orbits Judy Garland's 1961 comeback. History Theatre artistic director Ron Peluso commissioned it in 2003 and it premiered in 2005.

"Rainbow" has had over a dozen professional productions across the country and has been revived several times at the History Theatre with Jody Briskey playing the title role.

"Randy's concept of Judy performing her Carnegie Hall concert while weaving memories of her life in and around the songs was an exhilaratingly exhausting roller coaster ride," said Briskey, who played Garland in 13 productions from 2005 to 2019. "He had my character hit the stage at the top of the show and never leave until the end, singing the songs Judy loved to perform while reliving moments from her life."

Beard once told Briskey that he didn't know all that much about Garland when he started but "as he learned more he grew to admire her ability to overcome the many hurdles life threw at her."

The show remained a work-in-progress.

"Last year we tore it apart and expanded it, adding new songs and replacing old ones," Peluso said. "It was mostly just the two of us. I would go over to Randy's house and he would say, 'Sit down, Ron,' and I said, 'Where?' There's stuff all over the place papers, books, records. But he was a delight, a sweet man with a big heart and laugh who was always fun to work with."

An only child, Beard was born Oct. 9, 1956, in Hackensack, N.J., to Hope Margaret Waine Beard and William Dods Beard, whose Army career included working in supply lines in Europe. Beard spent part of his childhood in Germany before his father was transferred to the Midwest to run the ROTC program at the University of Minnesota.

That assignment coincided with the Vietnam War when "people were throwing rocks through the living room window," Pinkerton said.

After graduating from Bloomington Kennedy High School in 1974, Beard attended Gustavus Adolphus College, where he studied with noted theater professor Robert Gardner.

Post college, he found work at the Hennepin County Library while continuing to work in performing arts. From 2000-2003, he served as literary manager for Park Square Theatre where, in 2011, artistic director Richard Cook directed his adaptation of "The Odyssey."

Peluso said that Beard was a good listener who appreciated the collaborative nature of theater.

"He was open to ideas from anybody, whether a cast member, a lighting designer or me," Peluso said.

Their last big rewrite was around a song that Beard had included in "Rainbow."

"'Swanee River' always brought the house down," Peluso said.

Beard married computer consultant Bruce Lively in 2011, a year before same-sex marriage was legalized in Minnesota. Lively died of a heart attack in January 2012 at 47. Beard's parents also preceded him in death.

He is survived by five cousins, according to Pinkerton.

Beard was active in the St. Paul Reformation Lutheran Church, which is planning a memorial eucharist after COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.

Correction: Previous versions of this story misidentified the high school Beard attended.

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Twin Cities playwright and critic William Randall Beard dies at 64 - Minneapolis Star Tribune

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Joy calls Tucker Carlson and Ron Johnson are the absolute worst for spreading COVID disinformation – Yahoo News

Posted: at 10:57 pm

The Daily Beast

Danish Siddiqui via ReutersIn a macabre twist to a situation that is already too dire to comprehend, authorities in the Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have had to call in excavators to dig a mass grave after nearly 100 bloated and decomposing bodies were found floating in the Ganges River. Scammers Sell Fire Extinguishers as Oxygen Cylinders to Dying COVID Patients in IndiaAround 40 bodies were found in one riverbank area, and groups of 10 or more were found downstream near cremation ghats that had run out of firewood. Some were partially burned, an official told local media. We retrieved 71 bodies, Buxar Superintendent of Police Neeraj Kumar Singh told The Hindu. Some of them have been disposed of while the process for others are underway. Samples of some bodies too have been preserved for further tests.It is not yet known if those found floating in the river were victims of COVID-19nor is it known exactly who they were. None had identification on them, and given the extreme situation that has taxed all public offices across the country, it does not seem likely anyone will be able to identify them with certainty any time soon. If they were dumped from cremation platforms, authorities suggest families may assume they had been properly cremated. Videos of the floating bodies have gone viral across the country, with many blaming Prime Minister Narendra Modis apparent negligence for his handling of the pandemic. Over the weekend, the prestigious medical journal Lancet published a scathing editorial placing the blame squarely on his shoulders, saying the deadly mayhem could have been prevented. Meanwhile, the Times of India has reported that funeral homes are profiteering by selling expensive funerals and cremations to desperate family members who want their loved ones properly laid to rest. With firewood shortages, many families have had to opt for burials, which are now being sold in some states for up to three times the normal price. India has logged more than 22.6 million coronavirus cases and 246,116 COVID-related deaths since the start of the pandemic, most in the last month.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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Poseida Therapeutics Presents Encouraging Preclinical Data Across its CAR-T and Gene Therapy Programs at the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy…

Posted: at 10:55 pm

SAN DIEGO, May 11, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Poseida Therapeutics, Inc.(Nasdaq: PSTX), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company utilizing proprietary genetic engineering platform technologies to create cell and gene therapeutics with the capacity to cure, today will give multiple oral and poster presentations at the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy 2021 Virtual Annual Meetingbeing held May 11-14, 2021.

The Company's oral presentation will highlight new data demonstrating the potential of its proprietary piggyBac DNA Delivery System for the treatment of genetic liver disorders in children and infants. Two additional presentations will highlight preclinical data supporting Poseida's first allogeneic CAR-T product candidate, P-BCMA-ALLO1 for R/R multiple myeloma, as well as preclinical data supporting the Company's anti-c-kit CAR-T program as a potentially safer preconditioning regimen for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in patients with AML.

"At Poseida, we are applying our proprietary technology platforms to develop the next wave of cell and gene therapies to not only treat severe cancers but to also unlock the potential of single treatment cures," said Eric Ostertag, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer. "The preclinical data being presented today further validate our CAR-T approach in multiple myeloma and in preconditioning for patients with AML, as well as demonstrate the exciting potential of our liver directed gene therapies, particularly in juvenile patients."

Presentation Highlights:

Oral Presentation: "Preclinical Evaluation of Combined Adeno-Associated Virus and Nanoparticle Delivery of piggyBac Transposon System for Durable Transgene Expression in the Growing Neonatal Murine Liver" Session Date/Time: Tuesday, May 11, 2021, 5:45pm - 6:00pm ETAbstract Number: 30

In a preclinical study, Poseida evaluated concomitant delivery of recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) vectors and novel nanoparticle (NP) vectors using its piggyBac and "Super" piggyBac (SPB) technologies in order to deliver transposon and transposase in a growing neonatal mouse model. Data demonstrated that the piggyBac DNA Delivery System was effective in using both rAAV and NP vectors to introduce edited genes into targeted hepatocyte genomes. Poseida also found that SPB, a hyperactive form of the transposase, produced stable vector integration into the hepatocyte genome for more than three months, compared to transpose alone. Similarly, delivery of a novel NP formulation using SPB produced efficient delivery of mRNA to the liver hepatocytes, with similarly high levels of durability in the transgene expression. Taken together, these preclinical findings suggest the potential of piggyBac and SPB technology for gene therapies that treat congenital liver disease in infants and young children.

Poster Presentation: "P-BCMA-ALL01: A Fully Allogeneic Stem Cell Memory T Cell (TSCM) CAR-T Therapy Targeting BCMA for the Treatment of Multiple Myeloma Shows Potent Anti-Tumor Activity"Session Date/Time: Tuesday, May 11, 2021, 8:00am 10:00am ETAbstract Number: 789

P-BCMA-ALLO1 is Poseida's first fully allogenic product candidate targeting B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) for the treatment of relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma. In in vitro and in vivo preclinicalstudies, P-BCMA-ALL01 showed effective, targeted cancer cell killing and cytokine secretion, with similar or superior performance in anti-tumor efficacy compared to an autologous CAR-T therapy. Inclusion of a proprietary "booster molecule" in the allogeneic manufacturing process further improved expansion of gene-edited cells and enabled production of hundreds of patient doses from a single manufacturing run, thereby reducing the manufacturing cost per dose into the same range as that of a monoclonal antibody.

Poster Presentation: "Anti-c-kit CAR-T Cells Afford Effective Eradication of Human AML and Normal Hematopoietic Cells in a Preclinical Model of Safer Non-Genotoxic Stem Cell Transplant Conditioning"Session Date/Time:Tuesday, May 11, 2021, 8:00am 10:00am ETAbstract Number:715

Poseida is investigating its anti-c-kit CAR-T program, which leverages its proprietary piggyBac DNA Delivery System in preclinical studies as a potentially safer precursor conditioning therapy to the transplantation of hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) for patients suffering from AML. The piggyBac delivery vectors under investigation include a transposon that generates pure CAR+ product as well as a safety switch that allows rapid clearance of the reactive CAR-T cells prior to donor transplant of hematopoietic stem cells. Preclinical data to be presented in the poster showed that the lead CAR-T cells that express the anti-c-kit binder (CAR 1) deplete up to 92% of human CD34+ stem and progenitor cells in bone marrow within 48 hours. Additionally, an enhanced anti-c-kit CAR-T product, CAR 2, killed an estimated >99% of leukemia cells, exceeding the killing ability of a single dose of 30 mg/kg dose of busulfan. These encouraging data suggest that stem cell-directed CAR-T cells may be a safer preconditioning regimen compared to the current standard of care and may expand access to treatment for acute myeloid leukemia patients needing HSC transplant.

AboutPoseida Therapeutics, Inc.Poseida Therapeuticsis a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to utilizing our proprietary geneticengineering platform technologies to create next generation cell and gene therapeutics with the capacity to cure. We have discovered and are developing a broad portfolio of product candidates in a variety of indications based on our core proprietary platforms, including our non-viral piggyBacDNA DeliverySystem, Cas-CLOVER Site-specific Gene Editing System and nanoparticle- and AAV-based gene delivery technologies. Our core platform technologies have utility, either alone or in combination, across many cell and gene therapeutic modalities and enable us to engineer our wholly-owned portfolio of product candidates that are designed to overcome the primary limitations of current generation cell and gene therapeutics.To learn more, visitwww.poseida.comand connect with us onTwitterandLinkedIn.

Forward-Looking StatementsStatements contained in this press release regarding matters that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements include statements regardingthe clinical data presented, the potential benefits ofPoseida'stechnology platforms and product candidatesandPoseida'splans and strategy with respect to developing its technologies and product candidates. Because such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based uponPoseida'scurrent expectations and involve assumptions that may never materialize or may prove to be incorrect. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements as a result of various risks and uncertainties, which include, without limitation, risks and uncertainties associated with development and regulatory approval of novel product candidates in the biopharmaceutical industry, the fact that future clinical results could be inconsistent with results observed to dateand the other risks described inPoseida'sfilings with theSecurities and Exchange Commission. All forward-looking statementscontained in this press release speak only as of the date on which they were made.Poseidaundertakes no obligation to update such statements to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after the date on which they were made, except as required by law.

SOURCE Poseida Therapeutics, Inc.

http://www.poseida.com

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Avectas announces publication in leading cell therapy journal Cytotherapy of ‘A novel non-viral delivery method that enables efficient engineering of…

Posted: at 10:55 pm

DUBLIN, May 10, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Irish based cell engineering company, Avectas today announces the publication of 'A novel non-viral delivery method that enables efficient engineering of primary human T cells forex vivocell therapy applications' in leading international cell and gene therapy publication, Cytotherapy.1

Cytotherapy is the official journal of the International Cell & Gene Therapy Society (ISCT).

Dr Shirley O'Dea et al. examined the suitability of Avectas' SOLUPORE non-viral delivery system for engineering primary human T cells for cell therapy applications.This publication describes how the next generation of immune cell therapy products will require complex modifications using engineering technologies that can maintain high levels of cell functionality and how non-viral engineering methods such as SOLUPORE have the potential to address limitations associated with viral vectors.

Data demonstrates efficient transfection of human primary T Cells with mRNA and CRISPR CAS9 RNP cargos while consistently maintaining high levels of cell viability. Gene expression profiling revealed minimal up or down regulation of genes, demonstrating the low level of perturbation experienced by the cells during this transfection process in contrast to electroporation which resulted in substantial changes in immune gene expression. CAR T cells engineered using the SOLUPOREsystem exhibited high cytotoxicity against target cancer cellsin vitro and in vivo.

Avectas has previously published on the SOLUPORE Technology in PLOS ONE2 with citations in both Nature Biomedical Engineering3 and Chemical Reviews4.

Commenting on the publication, Dr Michael Maguire, CEO of Avectas, said: "It is impressive to see further published evidence showing the advantages of the SOLUPOREplatform in preserving cellular functionality essential for cell therapies. Congratulations to Avectas CSO, Dr Shirley O'Dea and the Avectas R&D team on this additional publication of important work to support the efficacy and potential ofSOLUPORE technology to the cell and gene therapy industry."

Using its patented SOLUPORE technology, Avectas partners with leading cell and gene therapy companies and research institutions to enable the next-generation of gene-modified cell therapies.

1. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1465324921001845

2. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/authors?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0174779

3. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41551-018-0246-6

4. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.chemrev.7b00678

About Avectas

Avectas is a cell engineering company that has pioneered - SOLUPORE- a proprietary, simple, highly effective automated non-viral cell engineering system to enable efficient and safe genetic modification, accelerating the manufacture of cells for the next generation of immuno-oncology therapies.

The company is partnering its cGMP aligned SOLUPOREclinical-grade system with cell therapy companies to address emerging cell delivery challenges associated with multiple cell modifications and engineering of limited or fragile cells. Additionally, it will provide regulatory support to partners. Avectas is a private, international company with research facilities inDublin, IrelandandToronto, Canada, and an office inCambridge, MA, USA. It has over 30 employees and is led by a team of highly experienced pharmaceutical executives supported by a world-class Scientific Advisory Board of cancer cell therapy experts.

For further information, seewww.avectas.com.Follow us onLinkedInandTwitter.

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Want GMOs, Gene Editing and Access to New Science? Communication is Key – Seed World

Posted: at 10:55 pm

Climate change, growing populations and less arable land means advanced farming practices are more important than ever before.

While many in agriculture showed collective outrage over the so-called Impossible Burger, science supporters missed a critical benefit hiding in the controversy. The Impossible Burger is one of the few consumer-facing companies that proudly boasts GMO ingredients and customers still flock to it.

The team at Impossible Burger showcases the climate-saving benefits biotechnology can provide by showcasing the value of soy leghemoglobin the key protein element that gives the Impossible Burger its flavor and texture is a genetically engineer protein. Soy leghemoglobin is made by splicing soybean DNA into yeast, which is then produced in large-scale fermentation.

Seeing this market success, why arent GMOs widely accepted?

Frankly, because agriculturalists from the farm gate, to the lab, to the desks of CEOs have done a bad job telling the story.

I think its everybodys responsibility who is involved in agriculture to be involved in communicating, says Robb Fraley, who commercialized the first genetically modified soybean and now acts as a communicator for the industry. When I was growing up on a small farm in Illinois, more than half of the people who lived in the state were involved in agriculture. Today its less than 1%.

Its the responsibility of everyone involved in food and agriculture to reach out to the other 99% regarding the importance of new scientific advances to increase food production and improve the sustainability of farming, he continues.

The Challenge

Think back to the early 1990s when the FLAVR SAVR tomato was commercialized albeit short lived. It carried promise to reduce waste and improve flavor, a promise that never came to fruition.

When the first GMO product, the FLAVR SAVR tomato, came out people had no idea what GMO even meant, says Kurtis Baute, climate change activist who produces frequent videos promoting science. It was something that really came out of the dark for them, and it was surprising and scary for many. Because of that, we ended up shelving the idea.

The long and short of it, if you need a reminder, is public backlash led to pulling FLAVR SAVR tomatoes from the shelf despite the scientific reality there was no risk in consuming them. People didnt know what they were, and ignorance bred fear, which manifested itself into nixing the product.

Fear lives on. Activist groups around the world are still fighting against GMOs, despite what has now been more than 20 years of research indicating no adverse human or environmental effects.

And the stakes are high. GMO products could be the key to reducing the impact of climate change and tackling hunger and food insecurity around the world. If science isnt trusted, GMOs and other modern practices are at risk.

Start the Conversation

For many scientists and experts in their fields, its easy to overload people with facts. But the fact is, most people who dont have scientific backgrounds dont care about the nitty-gritty details of scientific testing as an expert would. It takes a different approach.

Anytime you are promoting scientific ideas, youre going to have people who are not excited about them, says Kevin Folta, professor at the University of Florida. It applies to all science, whether youre talking about genetic engineering or climate change.

Before starting the conversation, think about how to be a better communicator. It starts by figuring out what neighbors, friends, relatives and, really, anyone cares about. Here are a few tips to get the conversation started the right way:

Its tough to convert someone to 100% stand behind science, but its possible to sway them on several aspects. Understand their backgrounds and why they think the way they do. Employing these three tactics helps get the conversation off on the right foot.

Where to Reach People

The world of communications has changed dramatically since the early 90s when the first GMOs were commercialized. This presents immense opportunity to reach a wide array of people, but that opportunity is not without challenge.

When I first joined Monsanto, you published papers, did newsprint and that kind of thing, Fraley says. Today most of the information people get is on social media its digital. If youre not on social media, basically, your voice doesnt count.

Social media takes the audience from one or two people, to potentially millions. However, its not just any post that will capture the attention of the masses communication looks different online.

Ive basically made a career by building over-the-top projects, explains Baute. For example, I set up 13,799 dominoes so I could show a timeline of the history of the universe. It was a spectacle that engaged people in personal storytelling so I could talk about real science.

There are amazing stories to be told we shouldnt miss that opportunity, he continues. For example, if theres a new product engage people in personal storytelling about how these products came to be. For some technology, it could be 100 years in the making.

Not everyone will want to set up nearly 14,000 dominos or live in a bubble like Baute did to talk about climate change, but theres opportunities to find a fun way to talk about science all the same. Perhaps it makes more sense to tell someone about a personal connection to agriculture and science. Find the story and tell it.

I once baked a cake in 418 steps to explain genetics, Baute says. Sometimes it helps to have a little fun when explaining complex topics.

Protect Science for Tomorrow

Its never been more critical than today to advocate for science literacy. While social media, television and other platforms represent opportunity to talk about science, it also dispels a tremendous amount of misinformation.

We need to be champions and advocates across the biological, the digital and the agronomic space to amplify the accurate messages, Fraley says. Because its just 1% of the population in agriculture reaching out to the 99%.

Europes Science Desert

Scientists looking for new opportunities to apply the latest and greatest technologies in agriculture: steer clear of the European Union. Policies in the region are virtually devoid of scientific reason and instead are political decisions based on pressure from activist groups, along with misunderstanding and emotions.

For example, the 27-member countries are facing a new proposal called the Farm to Fork Strategy that threatens producer access to technologies and could force them to abandon common farming techniques.

Im not sure there was much science involved [in creating the Farm to Fork Strategy], says David Zaruk, EU risk and science communications specialist. The proposed strategy, in a nutshell, would reduce pesticide use by 50%, fertilizers by 20% and convert 25% of all agricultural land to organic production under the assumption these moves would reduce the impact of climate change.

This isnt the first-time agricultural practices have come under fire in the EU either. The countries previously passed regulations that require all products made with gene editing technology to be labeled as GMO regardless of whether or not new genes were introduced in the process.

Researchers in the EU who oppose such rules are between a rock and a hard place, Zaruk explains. Many scientists who support GMOs, gene editing, pesticide use and other common agricultural technologies find themselves without jobs or under attack personally from activist groups.

Most of the scientist that do speak out are retired, he continues. Regardless of the risk, Zaruk still speaks out about the benefits of changing policies to enable farmers to use the latest agricultural technologies available and encourages other scientists to do the same.

The EU can, and should, serve as a warning to other countries about what happens when science is ignored in the policy arena and what happens when agriculturalists arent consulted when planning policy.

Canadas Gene Editing Conundrum

The clock is ticking in Canada. At the end of May, the comment period regarding Canadas Novel Food Regulations will be over and a decision that could make or break the future of plant breeding will be rendered.

This decision will directly impact how gene editing, through technologies such as CRISPR/Cas9, is used and identified to consumers. The question? Should there be additional regulations for crops created by gene editing like the regulations applied to GMO crops?

Cas9 [based gene editing] is a great example of something thats happened naturally for billions of years and now were applying a process to our benefit, says Kurtis Baute, a Canadian native who advocates for science literacy and improving the climate on various channels. Its important to communicate the benefit. This technique will be more precise, and well know exactly what were breeding for, compared to older breeding techniques.

CRISPR/Cas9 and other gene editing technologies could revolutionize the breeding industry if given the latitude to be used. The precision associated with the technique results in better products, faster production and the ability to cater breeding to the needs of todays farmer and consumer.

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Biogen and Capsigen Announce Collaboration to Discover and Develop Novel AAV Capsids for Targeted CNS and Neuromuscular Disorders – BioSpace

Posted: at 10:55 pm

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. and VANCOUVER, Wash., May 10, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Biogen Inc.(Nasdaq: BIIB) and Capsigen Inc. announced today that they have entered into a strategic research collaboration to engineer novel adeno-associated virus (AAV) capsids that have the potential to deliver transformative gene therapies that address the underlying genetic causes of various CNS and neuromuscular disorders.

As a part of the collaboration, Capsigens proprietary TRADE platform and associated technologies will be utilized with the aim to create and identify novel AAV capsids tailored to meet disease-specific transduction profiles. Capsids are the protein coat that protects and facilitates delivery of the virus genetic payload into host cells. The collaboration will leverage Capsigens capsid engineering expertise and Biogens discovery, development, manufacturing and commercialization capabilities with the goal to accelerate delivery of gene therapies to patients in need.

Through this collaboration, we aim to solve key technological challenges in the delivery of gene therapies to target tissues. One of our priorities for technology innovation is the discovery of AAV capsids with improved delivery profiles, said Alfred Sandrock, Jr., M.D., Ph.D., Head of Research and Development at Biogen. We are investing for the long-term by building platform capabilities and advanced manufacturing technologies with the goal of accelerating our efforts in gene therapy.

At Capsigen, we believe the next revolution in gene therapy will be driven by engineered AAV capsids designed to meet disease-specific transduction profiles, said John Bial, Chief Executive Officer. Biogen is a leader in neuroscience, and we are excited for the opportunity to work with them to potentially bring new treatments to patients. This collaboration is consistent with our strategy to work with world-class companies to develop the next generation of gene therapies.

Under the terms of the agreement, Capsigen will apply its vector engineering approaches to develop novel capsids designed to meet highly customized, disease-specific transduction profiles. Biogen will receive an exclusive license under Capsigens proprietary technology for an undisclosed number of CNS and neuromuscular disease targets. Capsigen will receive a $15 million upfront payment and is eligible to receive up to $42 million in potential research milestones and up to an additional $1.25 billion in potential development and commercial payments should the collaboration programs achieve certain developmental milestones and sales thresholds. Capsigen is also eligible to receive royalties on future net sales of products that incorporate capsids resulting from the collaboration.

About Biogen At Biogen, our mission is clear: we are pioneers in neuroscience. Biogen discovers, develops and delivers worldwide innovative therapies for people living with serious neurological and neurodegenerative diseases as well as related therapeutic adjacencies. One of the worlds first global biotechnology companies, Biogen was founded in 1978 by Charles Weissmann, Heinz Schaller, Kenneth Murray and Nobel Prize winners Walter Gilbert and Phillip Sharp. Today Biogen has the leading portfolio of medicines to treat multiple sclerosis, has introduced the first approved treatment for spinal muscular atrophy, commercializes biosimilars of advanced biologics and is focused on advancing research programs in multiple sclerosis and neuroimmunology, Alzheimers disease and dementia, neuromuscular disorders, movement disorders, ophthalmology, neuropsychiatry, immunology, acute neurology and neuropathic pain.

We routinely post information that may be important to investors on our website at http://www.biogen.com. Follow us on social media Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube.

About CapsigenAt Capsigen, were developing the next generation of AAV vectors to fuel the gene therapy needs of the future. Our end-to-end platform employs customized, highly diverse libraries using the most clinically relevant models and routes of administration. Our proprietary TRADE technology eliminates background and employs novel selection strategies to identify only those vectors which are fully functional and meet the disease-specific transduction criteria of interest. The final results are fit-for-purpose vectors designed to deliver the highest level of clinical utility in a rapid and high-throughput manner.

Biogen Safe HarborThis news release contains forward-looking statements, including statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, relating to the potential benefits and results that may be achieved through Biogens collaboration with Capsigen; the potential benefits of Capsigens TRADE platform; the potential of Biogens commercial business and pipeline programs; Biogens strategy and plans; the potential treatment of neurological and neurodegenerative diseases; and risks and uncertainties associated with drug development and commercialization. These forward-looking statements may be accompanied by words such as aim, anticipate, believe, could, estimate, expect, forecast, intend, may, plan, potential, possible, will, would and other words and terms of similar meaning. Drug development and commercialization involve a high degree of risk, and only a small number of research and development programs result in commercialization of a product. Results in early-stage clinical trials may not be indicative of full results or results from later stage or larger scale clinical trials and do not ensure regulatory approval. You should not place undue reliance on these statements or the scientific data presented.

These statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected in such statements, including without limitation, uncertainty as to whether the anticipated benefits of the collaboration can be achieved; risks of unexpected costs or delays or other unexpected hurdles; uncertainty of success in the development of potential gene therapies, which may be impacted by, among other things, unexpected concerns that may arise from additional data or analysis, the occurrence of adverse safety events, failure to obtain regulatory approvals in certain jurisdictions, failure to protect and enforce data, intellectual property and other proprietary rights and uncertainties relating to intellectual property claims and challenges; the direct and indirect impacts of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on Biogens business, results of operations and financial condition; product liability claims; and third party collaboration risks. The foregoing sets forth many, but not all, of the factors that could cause actual results to differ from Biogens expectations in any forward-looking statement. Investors should consider this cautionary statement as well as the risk factors identified in Biogens most recent annual or quarterly report and in other reports Biogen has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. These statements are based on Biogens current beliefs and expectations and speak only as of the date of this news release. Biogen does not undertake any obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.

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