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Category: genetics

The biotech battle between China and the US has begun as we predicated when we announced the first CRISPR deployment in humans last month. The US has upped the ante and is taking a step further in the race for the biotech crown. All great news for us as the more competition the faster progress will move so let’s hope there is a fierce battle for biotech coming.

In 2015, a little girl called Layla was treated with gene-edited immune cells that eliminated all signs of the leukemia that was killing her. Layla’s treatment was a one-off, but by the end of 2017, the technique could have saved dozens of lives.

It took many years to develop the gene-editing tool that saved Layla, but thanks to a revolutionary method known as CRISPR, this can now be done in just weeks.

In fact, CRISPR works so well that the first human trial involving the method has already begun. In China, it is being used to disable a gene called PD-1 in immune cells taken from individuals with cancer. The edited cells are then injected back into each person’s body.

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(FoxNews.com) — Food producer Del Monte has received approval from the Food and Drug Administration to start selling a genetically engineered pineapple with pink flesh.

The new species Ananas comosus has been given the more consumer-friendly name of the “Rosé” and, according to The Packer, Del Monte has quietly been working on the fruit’s development since 2005.

So what makes the usually golden-colored fruit pink? The patened pineapple DNA is injected with a healthy dose of lycopene, the bright red pigment found in tomatoes and watermelons.

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Further progress with cancer this time using genome sequencing.

In their search for new ways to treat cancer, many scientists are using a high-tech process called genome sequencing to hunt for genetic mutations that encourage tumor cells to thrive. To aid in this search, some researchers have developed new bioinformatics methods that each claim to help pinpoint the cancer-friendly mutants.

But a stubborn question remains: Among the numerous new tactics that aim to spotlight the so-called cancer driver genes, which produce the most accurate results?

To help solve this puzzle, a team of Johns Hopkins computational scientists and cancer experts have devised their own bioinformatics software to evaluate how well the current strategies identify cancer-promoting mutations and distinguish them from benign mutations in cancer cells.

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Hype aside demonstration that epigentic reprogramming can reverse some of the aging process is an important step forward for progress. We can expect to see this moving to human trials in the next decade or so making the future an exciting possibility.

Science is increasingly coming to the conclussion that aging is amenable to intervention and that it is a plastic process that we can manipulate. More research in this week shows that aging is indeed elastic and is not a one way process at all. The sooner society accepts what the data from the labs is showing the sooner we can cure age-related diseases for healthier longer lives!

“We did not correct the mutation that causes premature aging in these mice,” lead researcher Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte said in a recent statement. “We altered aging by changing the epigenome, suggesting that aging is a plastic process.”

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Progress with treating osteoporosis.

A team of scientists at the Children’s Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern (CRI) discovered a new bone-forming growth factor, Osteolectin (Clec11a), which reverses osteoporosis in mice and has implications for regenerative medicine.

Although Osteolectin is known to be made by certain marrow and , CRI researchers are the first to show Osteolectin promotes the formation of new bone from skeletal stem cells in the bone marrow. The study, published in eLife, also found that deletion of Osteolectin in mice causes accelerated bone loss during adulthood and symptoms of , such as reduced bone strength and delayed fracture healing.

“These results demonstrate the important role Osteolectin plays in new bone formation and maintaining adult bone mass. This study opens up the possibility of using this growth factor to treat diseases like osteoporosis,” said Dr. Sean Morrison, who led the team that made the discovery. Dr. Morrison, CRI Director, holds the Mary McDermott Cook Chair in Pediatric Genetics at UT Southwestern Medical Center, and the Kathryne and Gene Bishop Distinguished Chair in Pediatric Research at Children’s Research Institute at UT Southwestern.

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https://youtube.com/watch?v=JA8PRMacArU

We already know that excessive amounts of stress long term can cause certain individuals with certain predisposition cancer genetic mutations can cause cancer such as breast cancer. So, not surprise to see this.

In some situations, people who got hurt, replay the disturbing moment in their heads for many times and for many days. Every repetition you make usually causes more intense feelings making the situation worse.

Thanks to modern medicine, there is now proof that keeping these emotions inside you can have negative effects on your overall health. That’s why we would like to discuss forgiveness.

When it comes to clinical view, forgiveness is a process where a person gives up from the feeling of bitterness and thoughts associated with retribution.

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What combinations of mutations help cancer cells survive? Which cells in the brain are involved in the onset of Alzheimer’s? How do immune cells conduct their convoluted decision-making processes? Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science have now combined two powerful research tools — CRISPR gene editing and single cell genomic profiling — in a method that may finally help us get answers to these questions and many more.

The new technology enables researchers to manipulate gene functions within single cells, and understand the results of each change in extremely high resolution. A single experiment with this method, say the scientists, may be equal to thousands of experiments conducted using previous approaches, and it may advance the field of genetic engineering for medical applications.

The gene-editing technique CRISPR is already transforming biology research around the world, and its clinical use in humans is just around the corner. CRISPR was first discovered in bacteria as a primitive acquired immune system, which cuts and pastes viral DNA into their own genomes to fight viruses. In recent years, this bacterial system has been adopted by researchers to snip out or insert nearly any gene in any organism or cell, quickly and efficiently. “But CRISPR, on its own, is a blunt research tool, since we often have trouble observing or understanding the outcome of this genomic editing,” says Prof. Ido Amit of the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Immunology Department, who led the study. “Most studies so far have looked for black-or-white types of effects,” adds Dr. Diego Jaitin, of Amit’s lab group, “but the majority of processes in the body are complex and even chaotic.”

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The team showed that a new form of gene therapy produced a remarkable rejuvenating effect in mice. After six weeks of treatment, the animals looked younger, had straighter spines and better cardiovascular health, healed quicker when injured, and lived 30% longer.

Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, who led the work at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, said: “Our study shows that ageing may not have to proceed in one single direction. With careful modulation, ageing might be reversed.”

The genetic techniques used do not lend themselves to immediate use in humans, and the team predict that clinical applications are a decade away. However, the discovery raises the prospect of a new approach to healthcare in which ageing itself is treated, rather than the various diseases associated with it.

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Excellent article by Nick Gillespie, Editor-in Chief of Reason. Genetic editing is so far the 21st Century’s most important science—and it’s already being challenged by many as too radical: http://reason.com/blog/2016/12/15/will-gene-editing-technologies-spark-the #transhumanism #CRISPR #Future

The folks behind CRISPR gene editing were runners-up for Time’s Person of the Year. Their creation may win the future for secular China.

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