Monthly Archives: June 2020

5 ways to boost your immune system – The San Diego Union-Tribune

Posted: June 9, 2020 at 3:44 am

When it comes to fighting viruses, everyday precautions such as washing your hands often and avoiding sick people are key. But experts say that boosting your immune system may also give you an edge in staying healthy. Here are five smart steps to add to your to-do list now.

Stay activeWorking out is a powerful way to boost your immune system, says Mark Moyad, M.D., M.P.H., Jenkins/Pokempner director of preventive and alternative medicine at the University of Michigan Medical Center. It causes your bodys antibodies and white blood cells to circulate more rapidly, which means they may be able to detect and zero in on bugs more quickly. Being active this way also lowers stress hormones, which reduces your chances of getting sick, Moyad adds.

Research suggests that exercises effects may be directly relevant to virus fighting, too. According to a recent study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, of 1,002 people surveyed, those who exercised at least five days a week had almost half the risk of coming down with a cold as those who were more sedentary. If they did get one, they reported less severe symptoms. There also may be a protective benefit from the sweat in your sweat session: Research has shown that simply raising your body temperature may help kill germs in their tracks.

The key to exercise, however, is to do it in moderation. Like many other things, theres a sweet spot doing too much can also put so much stress on your body, it depresses your immune system, explains Moyad. He recommends 30 to 60 minutes of exercise (either vigorous or moderate) most days of the week.

For the latest coronavirus news and advice go to AARP.org/coronavirus.

Watch your dietEighty percent of your immune system is in the gut, so when its healthy, we tend to be able to fight off infections faster and better, says Yufang Lin, M.D., of the Center for Integrative Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic. When its not, our immune system is weaker and more susceptible to fighting off infection.

In general, Lin recommends that people focus on a Mediterranean style of eating, which means a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and healthy fats, found in foods such as fatty fish, nuts and olive oil. This eating pattern is high in nutrients such as vitamin C, zinc and other antioxidants shown to help reduce inflammation and fight infection, she explains. Adults between the ages of 65 and 79 who followed a Mediterranean type of diet, along with taking a daily 400 IU vitamin D supplement for a year, showed small increases in disease-fighting cells such as T cells, according to a 2018 study published in the journal Frontiers in Physiology.

Its also important to limit meat, especially processed and fried foods, all of which are more inflammatory, Lin adds. Generally, I recommend a whole food diet, she says. Whats more, its smart to include fermented foods, such as yogurt, sauerkraut, miso and kefir, in your daily diet. These help build up the good bacteria in your gut, which, in turn, supports a healthy gut and immune system, Lin explains

Stay on top of stressTheres a strong link between your immune health and your mental health. When youre under chronic stress or anxiety, your body produces stress hormones that suppress your immune system, Moyad says. Research done at Carnegie Mellon University has found that people who are stressed are more susceptible to developing the common cold.

In one study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 276 healthy adults were exposed to the cold virus, then monitored in quarantine for five days. Those who were stressed were more likely to produce cytokines, molecules that trigger inflammation, and were about twice as likely to get sick. In addition, people who are stressed are less likely to pay attention to other healthy habits, like eating right and getting enough sleep, which can affect immunity, Lin adds.

Although you cant avoid stress in your life, you can adopt strategies to help you manage it better. A 2012 study, published in Annals of Internal Medicine, looked at adults 50 and older and found that those who either did a daily exercise routine or performed mindfulness meditation were less likely to get sick with a respiratory infection than subjects in a control group, and if they did get sick, they missed fewer days of work.

Get enough sleepZs are another natural immune system booster. Your immune system is like your computer it needs moments of rest so it doesnt become overheated, Moyad explains. Sleep reboots the system.

When youre sleep-deprived, he adds, your body churns out stress hormones like cortisol to keep you awake and alert, which can suppress your immune system. People who got a full eight hours of shut-eye had higher levels of T cells than those who slept less, according to a 2019 study. Try to get at least seven hours of slumber a night, as a 2015 study, published in the journal Sleep, found that people who did so were four times less likely to come down with a cold than those who clocked less than six.

Be strategic about supplementsTheres no magic herb or vitamin you can pop to automatically prevent a cold, flu or other virus. But a 2017 review of 25 studies, published in the British Medical Journal, found that a moderate daily dose of vitamin D may offer protection if youre already low in the sunshine vitamin, points out Tod Cooperman, M.D., president and editor in chief of ConsumerLab.com.

The best way to find out if youre lacking in vitamin D is to get your blood levels tested; you should be between 20-39 ng/mL (nanograms per milliliter). If youre within that range, a daily supplement of about 600 to 800 IU is fine. If youre low, talk with your doctor about additional supplementation up to 2,000 IU a day. Cooperman advises taking it with meals that contain fats or oils, to increase absorption.

The Cleveland Clinics Lin also recommends cooking with herbs such as garlic, ginger, rosemary, oregano and turmeric. All have been shown to have anti-inflammatory properties, she explains, and some, like garlic, have even been shown to be protective against colds. When my patients ask me about taking supplements to enhance their immune system, I always go back to food, food, food, she says. Food is medicine.

AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that empowers people to choose how they live as they age.

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5 ways to boost your immune system - The San Diego Union-Tribune

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Who’s to blame? These three scientists are at the heart of the Surgisphere COVID-19 scandal – Science Magazine

Posted: June 9, 2020 at 3:43 am

By Charles PillerJun. 8, 2020 , 7:00 PM

Sciences COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center.

Three unlikely collaborators are at the heart of the fast-moving COVID-19 research scandal, which led to retractions last week by The Lancet and The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), and the withdrawal of an online preprint, after the trove of patient data they all relied on was challenged. The three physician-scientists never were at the same institution nor had they ever before written together, but they are the only authors in common on the disputed papers, and the other co-authors all have ties to at least one of them. Their partnership, which seized a high-impact role during a global public health crisis, has now ended disastrously.

The first author for both retracted papers was cardiac surgeon Mandeep Mehra, an eminent Harvard University professor who works at Brigham and Womens Hospital (BWH) and is known internationally for cardiovascular medicine and heart transplants. He provided the kind of gravitas that can fast-track papers to leading journals. In a statement provided by BWH, Mehra said he had met another of the trio, cardiac surgeon Amit Patel, in academic and medical circles, and that Patel had introduced him to Sapan Desai, a vascular surgeon and founder of Surgisphere, the tiny company that supplied the data. Journal disclosures, however, also indicate Mehra received compensation from Triple-Gene, a gene therapy company Patel co-founded to develop cardiovascular treatments.

Desai publicly aspired to combine big data and artificial intelligence (AI) in ways that he said can replace randomized controlled clinical trials. For a brief moment, it seemed that Surgispheres enticing data set, said to include nearly 100,000 detailed patient records from about 700 hospitals on six continents, would settle questions about the possible benefits of various drugsincluding the controversial antimalarial hydroxychloroquinefor COVID-19 patients.

Patel once apparently headed cardiac surgery at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. A university press release announcing his arrival in 2016 is no longer posted on the university website, however, and the school has not confirmed his job duties there. More recently, he has been a volunteer adjunct professor at the University of Utah. But, as STAT first reported yesterday, Patel tweeted on Friday that he had severed his relationship with the university, which a school spokesperson confirmed. In recent years Patel has developed and commercialized experimental stem cell therapies purported to cure heart problems, reverse aging, or treat sexual dysfunction. He is also part of a network of physicians that just launched a trial to use stem cells from umbilical cord blood to treat COVID-19 patients.

Normally co-authors of high-profile papers share subject area expertise or have clear professional ties, says Jerome Kassirer, chief editor ofNEJMduring the 1990s. He calls the collaboration of the apparently disparate individuals completely bizarre, and a red flag that the studies warranted intensive scrutiny that the journals failed to provide.

None of the three co-authors responded to requests for comment. Patel spoke with aSciencereporter initially but said he wanted to wait for audits of the Surgisphere data to comment, and Desais spokesperson stopped communicating after the retractions. Still, interviews with former colleagues and a long paper trail shed some light on each of them.

Desai had a history of convincing respected researchers of his skill and integrity. One of them, Gilbert Upchurch, department of surgery chair at the University of Florida, wrote last year in a journal commentary that he had never met Desai but had nonetheless mentored him remotely and developed an online friendship with him. Upchurch placed the scientist in a group of amazing and talented young vascular surgeons.

Illinois court records show Desai is facing two medical malpractice lawsuits filed last year. He told The Scientist that he deems any lawsuit naming him to be unfounded.

Desai has a history of big aspirations and entrepreneurial venturessome short-lived. His science-fiction blog, corewardfront.com, was meant to find the most parsimonious route for mankind to establish a meaningful presence in space. In 2009, he wrote that the site would publish fiction grounded in facts and reality, adding, the scientific method must be followed religiously. The blog is no longer published.

As a student, Desai won several small National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants for studies of the vestibular system. He started Surgisphere in 2007, when he was a medical resident at Duke University. Surgispheres initial products were medical guides and textbooks, although Desai has said he was working on big data projects for the company from its birth. In 2010, under the firms auspices, he founded the Journal of Surgical Radiologywhose editors included researchers with well-established publishing records. It folded in January 2013. Articles from the journal were cited only 29 times in its history, according to Scimago, a journal rating service. Yet an undated Surgisphere web page, no longer accessible online, said the online-only publication had 50,000 subscribers and nearly 1 million page views monthlywhich would have placed it in elite company in academic publishing.

Surgisphere appears over time to have shifted its efforts into developing a database of hospital records that could be used for research. When the pandemic erupted, Desai declared that his data set could answer key questions about the efficacy and safety of treatments. Speaking about the finding that hydroxychloroquine increases mortality in COVID-19 patients, the main finding from the now retracted Lancet paper, he told a Turkish TV reporter, with data like this, do we even need a randomized controlled trial? Soon after, the World Health Organization temporarily suspended enrolling patients for its COVID-19 trial of the drug.

Immediately after the Lancet and NEJM studies appeared, however, critics identified anomalies in the data. And they doubted that a tiny firmwith a scant public track record in AI, few employees, and no publicly named scientific boardcould convince hundreds of unidentified hospitals in dozens of nations to share complex, protected, and legally fraught patient data. Ultimately, despite Desai promising repeatedly to allow an independent audit of Surgisphere, the firm refused to release the raw patient data and agreements with hospitals for an audit, so no one could validate the authenticity of its database.

No hospitals have come forward to acknowledge working with Surgisphere. Indeed, NHS Scotland, which is mentioned as a case study on the companys website, says none of its hospitals worked with Surgisphere and that it would ask the firm to remove an image of a Glasgow hospital from its website.

Science contacted several of Desais current or former employees or colleagues. Most would not comment. But Fred Rahimi, an Illinois podiatrist and co-author of a paper with Desai, praises the surgeon as highly capable for salvaging limbs, and easy to work with. Through his publicist, Desai cited Mark Melin, a University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, vascular surgeon, as a supporter. Before the retractions, Melin called Desai a gentleman of the highest integrity who has nothing to cover up.

But one physician-scientist who worked closely with Desai several years ago, says, Just about everyone who knew him would say: I just didnt have a good feeling about him. After theyd been with him, most people dissociated themselves from him, the scientist says, declining to be named to avoid personal and institutional embarrassment.

In the decade since completing his medical residency, Desai moved from job to jobat Duke, the University of Texas, Southern Illinois University, and two private Illinois hospitals, according to his LinkedIn profile. You might say we should have stopped him, which now seems obvious, Desais former colleague says. We should have found a way to get together and say, Whats going on here? rather than allowing him to move from place to place. We should have done better as a medical community. We looked the other way.

Before and after his stint at the University of Miami, which appears to have started in late 2016 or early 2017, Patels academic home was the University of Utah. He started as a full-time faculty member at Utah in 2008 and kept that position until he left for Miami. The website for Foldax, a heart valve company that he serves as medical adviser, describes him as a Tenured Professor of Surgery in the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the University of Utah School of Medicine and Director of Clinical Regenerative Medicine and Tissue Engineering at the University of Utah.

The university confirmed Patel had tenure there, but says the directorship was an unofficial title. And among more than 100 publications listed on his University of Utah profile, nearly two-thirds were actually co-authored by other scientists who share the same surname. The page was removed from the university website after inquiries from Science.

According to the NIH database, Patel has never received funding from the agency. Before the recent COVID-19 papers, one of his most notable publications was a 2016 paper in The Lancet, which reported that extracting stem cells from the bone marrow of a person with end-stage heart failure and then reinjecting them could reduce the number of cardiac events that produced deaths or hospital admissions by 37%. The 126 patient, 31-site, phase II trial was billed in a press release, now not available on the University of Utah website but stored elsewhere, as the largest cell therapy trial for heart failure to date. Despite the apparent positive results, the sponsoring company Vericel no longer is developing stem cells for heart disease and, according to its webpage, is focused on advanced cell therapies for the sports medicine and severe burn care markets.

Patel left Miami under unclear circumstances, but has retained ties with Camillo Ricordi, an influential stem cell researcher at the University of Miami School of Medicine who is also the founder of a nonprofit called the Cure Alliance. The alliance previously focused on testing whether stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood could treat diabetes or Alzheimers, but has now pivoted to fighting COVID-19, according to its website. Ricordi is the principal investigator on a multisite trial to see whether the stem cells can treat lung inflammation in severe COVID-19 patients and Patel is listed in various references to the trial as a key contributor or coprincipal investigator. Ricordi did not reply to requests for comments on his relationship with Patel.

Patel recently tweeted that he is related to Dr. Desai by marriage but called that old news and added, Despite this I still do not have the information of what happened at Surgisphere. In addition to apparently connecting Mehra and Desai, Patel had prior connections with other authors of the NEJM paper and the preprint. David Grainger, co-author of the preprint, is a professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Utah and also works with Foldax. Grainger declined to comment.

Timothy Henry, a cardiovascular clinician and scientist at the Christ Hospital in Cincinnati and a co-author on the NEJM article, has written several scholarly articles with Patel, including the 2016 Lancet paper. Henry, who also declined to comment, advises Patels Triple-Gene, which develops cardiovascular gene therapy treatments. Henry and Patel adviseand Patel is a board member ofCreative Medical Technology Holdings, a Phoenix company that develops and markets stem cell therapies, including treatments purported to reverse aging and cure sexual disfunction.

Creative Medicals CaverStem and FemCelz kits are distributed to physicians who use them to extract stem cells from a patients bone marrow, then inject the cells into the penis or clitoral area to stimulate blood flow, according to a statement filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. (As of the market close Friday, the publicly traded firms shares were valued at one-third of 1 cent.) The CaverStem treatments are advertised by the company as successful in more than 80% of patients, based on a 40-person phase I clinical trial that was not randomized or controlled, and on observations of 100 other patients. Phase I trials typically measure safety, not health benefits of a potential treatment.

Science contacted multiple colleagues or co-authors of Patel. None would comment. Before the retractions, two high-profile researchersDeepak Bhatt, who directs interventional cardiovascular programs at BWH; and Peter Gruber, a pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon at Yale Universityendorsed Patel on his LinkedIn page. Bhatt says he doesnt know Patel and attempted to remove his endorsement after being contacted by Science. Gruber says he overlapped with Patel at the University of Utah about a decade ago, but doesnt know his work in detail.

In contrast, Mehraauthor of more than 200 scholarly articles, editor of The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation, and head of the cardiology division of theUniversity of Maryland before moving to BWH in 2012enjoys considerable support even after the unraveling of the recent studies. Obviously, you dont rise to the position hes risen to without being ambitious, but Ive never had any indication whatsoever that he would do anything unethical, says Keith Aaronson, a cardiologist at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, who collaborated with Mehra on several studies, including a clinical trial of a mechanical pump for heart failure patients.

Mehra, the first author on both retracted papers, was the only one to issue a personal statement of apology, for failing to ensure that the data source was appropriate for this use. BWH and Harvard declined to say whether further investigation of Mehras roles in the papers would occur. (Mehra has written papers recently with another co-author of the Lancet paper, Frank Ruschitzka of University Hospital Zrich.)

I think he just fell into thisperhaps a little navely, says another former collaborator, cardiothoracic surgeon Daniel Goldstein of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Given the amount of data that was in the [Surgisphere] database, its just hard to believe someone would [fabricate] something like this.

Kassirer offers a harsher view: If youre a scientist and youre going to sign on to a project, by God you should know what the data are.

With reporting by Kelly Servick and John Travis.

This story was supported by theScienceFundforInvestigativeReporting.

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Who's to blame? These three scientists are at the heart of the Surgisphere COVID-19 scandal - Science Magazine

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FTC ramps up enforcement with new wave of warning letters – NutraIngredients-usa.com

Posted: June 9, 2020 at 3:43 am

From stem cell treatments to electromagnetic field blocking patches, the FTC sent 35 more warning letters last week, putting the total ofletters at over 160.

In the natural products category, the FTC called foul on the following marketers that sell vitamins, supplements, silver, and Chinese herbal treatments:

The letters state that one or more of the efficacy claims made by the marketers are unsubstantiated because they are not supported by scientific evidence, and therefore violate the FTC Act. Recipients are advised to immediately stop making all claims that their products can treat or cure COVID-19, and to notify the FTC within 48 hours about the specific actions they have taken to address the agencys concerns.

FTC has sent out warning letters to manufacturers that make claims on social media, whether made directly by the company or endorsed by the company through a retweet on Twitter or a like on Facebook.

Because social media posts and claims fall under product labeling, retweets or likes are interpreted as a company endorsement under the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. The Act defines labeling as written, printed or graphic material accompanying a product.

In addition to the list of offenders above, the FTC also sent six other letters to multi-level marketing companies (MLMs) to remove and address unproven health and earnings claims. This is the second batch of warning letters sent to MLMs.

The companies claimed their products could treat or prevent coronavirus and/or made unsubstantiated claims regarding potential earnings that was messaged as a way to to recoup income lost due to the pandemic.

The FTC sent the letters to the companies listed below. The recipients are grouped based on the types of claims made.

Both Health and Earnings Claims:

Isagenix International LLC (Gilbert, Arizona)

The Juice Plus+ Company (Collierville, Tennessee)

Earnings Claims:

Melaleuca, Inc. (Idaho Falls, Idaho)

Health Claims:

Youngevity International, Inc. (Chula Vista, California)

Vivri USA, LLC (Dallas, Texas)

Plexus Worldwide, LLC (Scottsdale, Arizona)

The letters point out specific claims made on social media and videos posted online:

A Spanish-language social media post promoting Vivri USA, LLC that said, Take care of your health, your body, avoid many diseases many viruses, since this virus and many others are here to stay, coronavirus, influenza, flu, we should nourish our cells, our immune systems, reinforce it with the best nutrition system in the world

A social media post that said, #VIRUS_CORONA Worried? Ive been boosting my immune system for several years with high-quality Plexus supplements. You can too! #Plexus provides excellent all-natural supplements that truly work. Be sensible not fearful. Scientifically formulated & doctor-approved! Ask me!

A video promoting The Juice Plus Company that said,There are a lot of people out there who have lost income You may want to build a side income, you know, make $500 a month, $1,000 a month or more. Theres no ceiling on this. Its whatever you want it to be What would you like this do to for you? Maybe it could cover one of your bills, like a car payment. Or enjoy more time and financial freedom. I can tell you those are both possible at the same time because Ive been living that for the past eight years, and its wonderful to be able to offer that to other people.

Recipients are instructed to immediately cease making all unsubstantiated health claims and to notify the FTC within 48 hours about the specific actions they have taken to address the agencys concerns.

The letters also refer the companies to the agencys guidance for MLMs, noting that they are responsible for any claims made by their participants and representatives.

According to the latest consumer complaint data on its website, the FTC reported that so far there have been 64,236 overall complaints, $46.17 million in total fraud loss with $454 being the median fraud loss amount,

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FTC ramps up enforcement with new wave of warning letters - NutraIngredients-usa.com

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UT Student Awarded Prestigious Astronaut Scholarship – UT News | The University of Texas at Austin

Posted: June 9, 2020 at 3:43 am

June 8, 2020

Teddy Hsieh, a rising junior at The University of Texas at Austin pursuing degrees in chemistry and electrical engineering, has been named to the 2020 Astronaut Scholar Class by theAstronaut Scholarship Foundation(ASF).

A national award given to a select group of outstanding undergraduate students studying in the fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM), the Astronaut Scholarship recognizes STEM majors with exemplary academic performance, ingenuity, and a unique aptitude for research.

As an Astronaut Scholar, Teddy will receive:

I am honored and humbled to receive this award, Teddy said. I know this honor could not have been possible without the dedication, guidance, and opportunities provided by UT staff and faculty. The mentorship I received here at UT exceeded all my expectations and empowered me to reach my goals.

Astronaut Scholarships are awarded to students in their junior or senior year of college who intend to pursue research or advance their field upon completion of their final degree.

Specifically, I strive to further the research field of nano-scale semiconductor fabrication with a focus on 3D optoelectronic materials, Teddy said of his future plans. At its essence, the field of nanoelectronics relies on a combination of chemically driven processes and electrical engineering design principles to fabricate materials necessary in high-performance devices, such as semiconductor lasers, solar cells, telecommunication systems, and computer processors.

This year, ASF awarded 56 scholarships to students from 41 universities across the country.

To learn more about the scholarship and how to apply, visit provost.utexas.edu/awards/astronaut.

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UT Student Awarded Prestigious Astronaut Scholarship - UT News | The University of Texas at Austin

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Genetically modified mosquitoes could be released in Florida and Texas beginning this summer silver bullet or jumping the gun? – The Conversation US

Posted: June 8, 2020 at 2:53 am

This summer, for the first time, genetically modified mosquitoes could be released in the U.S.

On May 1, 2020, the company Oxitec received an experimental use permit from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to release millions of GM mosquitoes (labeled by Oxitec as OX5034) every week over the next two years in Florida and Texas. Females of this mosquito species, Aedes aegypti, transmit dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever and Zika viruses. When these lab-bred GM males are released and mate with wild females, their female offspring die. Continual, large-scale releases of these OX5034 GM males should eventually cause the temporary collapse of a wild population.

However, as vector biologists, geneticists, policy experts and bioethicists, we are concerned that current government oversight and scientific evaluation of GM mosquitoes do not ensure their responsible deployment.

Coral reefs that can withstand rising sea temperatures, American chestnut trees that can survive blight and mosquitoes that cant spread disease are examples of how genetic engineering may transform the natural world.

Genetic engineering offers an unprecedented opportunity for humans to reshape the fundamental structure of the biological world. Yet, as new advances in genetic decoding and gene editing emerge with speed and enthusiasm, the ecological systems they could alter remain enormously complex and understudied.

Recently, no group of organisms has received more attention for genetic modification than mosquitoes to yield inviable offspring or make them unsuitable for disease transmission. These strategies hold considerable potential benefits for the hundreds of millions of people impacted by mosquito-borne diseases each year.

Although the EPA approved the permit for Oxitec, state approval is still required. A previously planned release in the Florida Keys of an earlier version of Oxitecs GM mosquito (OX513) was withdrawn in 2018 after a referendum in 2016 indicated significant opposition from local residents. Oxitec has field-trialed their GM mosquitoes in Brazil, the Cayman Islands, Malaysia and Panama.

The public forum on Oxitecs recent permit application garnered 31,174 comments opposing release and 56 in support. The EPA considered these during their review process.

However, it is difficult to assess how EPA regulators weighed and considered public comments and how much of the evidence used in final risk determinations was provided solely by the technology developers.

The closed nature of this risk assessment process is concerning to us.

There is a potential bias and conflict of interest when experimental trials and assessments of ecological risk lack political accountability and are performed by, or in close collaboration with, the technology developers.

This scenario becomes more troubling with a for-profit technology company when cost- and risk-benefit analyses comparing GM mosquitoes to other approaches arent being conducted.

Another concern is that risk assessments tend to focus on only a narrow set of biological parameters such as the potential for the GM mosquito to transmit disease or the potential of the mosquitoes new proteins to trigger an allergic response in people and neglect other important biological, ethical and social considerations.

To address these shortcomings, the Institute for Sustainability, Energy and Environment at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign convened a Critical Conversation on GM mosquitoes. The discussion involved 35 participants from academic, government and nonprofit organizations from around the world with expertise in mosquito biology, community engagement and risk assessment.

A primary takeaway from this conversation was an urgent need to make regulatory procedures more transparent, comprehensive and protected from biases and conflicts of interest. In short, we believe it is time to reassess risk assessment for GM mosquitoes. Here are some of the key elements we recommend.

First, an official, government-funded registry for GM organisms specifically designed to reproduce in the wild and intended for release in the U.S. would make risk assessments more transparent and accountable. Similar to the U.S. database that lists all human clinical trials, this field trial registry would require all technology developers to disclose intentions to release, information on their GM strategy, scale and location of release and intentions for data collection.

This registry could be presented in a way that protects intellectual property rights, just as therapies entering clinical trials are patent-protected in their registry. The GM organism registry would be updated in real time and made fully available to the public.

Second, a broader set of risks needs to be assessed and an evidence base needs to be generated by third-party researchers. Because each GM mosquito is released into a unique environment, risk assessments and experiments prior to and during trial releases should address local effects on the ecosystem and food webs. They should also probe the disease transmission potential of the mosquitos wild counterparts and ecological competitors, examine evolutionary pressures on disease agents in the mosquito community and track the gene flow between GM and wild mosquitoes.

To identify and assess risks, a commitment of funding is necessary. The U.S. EPAs recent announcement that it would improve general risk assessment analysis for biotechnology products is a good start. But regulatory and funding support for an external advisory committee to review assessments for GM organisms released in the wild is also needed; diverse expertise and local community representation would secure a more fair and comprehensive assessment.

Furthermore, independent researchers and advisers could help guide what data are collected during trials to reduce uncertainty and inform future large-scale releases and risk assessments.

The objective to reduce or even eliminate mosquito-borne disease is laudable. GM mosquitoes could prove to be an important tool in alleviating global health burdens. However, to ensure their success, we believe that regulatory frameworks for open, comprehensive and participatory decision-making are urgently needed.

This article was updated to correct the date that Oxitec withdrew its OX513 trial application to 2018.

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Genetically modified mosquitoes could be released in Florida and Texas beginning this summer silver bullet or jumping the gun? - The Conversation US

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From the Archives (June 8, 1970): When man plays god – The Hindu

Posted: June 8, 2020 at 2:53 am

From Mendel who a century ago formulated his famous laws of heredity to Khorana who has just succeeded in producing a synthetic gene, the biochemical unit of inheritance, is a long and exciting story. But the first, major breakthrough was achieved only in the past decade with the discovery and isolation of the mysterious D.N.A. (deoxiribonucleic acid) and R.N.A. (ribonucleic acid), the basic substances in the living cell, respectively carrying the predestined pattern of life (or the genetic code) and the means of its communication to final expression. The remarkable achievement of the team of scientists of the Wisconsin University, headed by Dr. H. G. Khorana, takes these probes into the very nature of life a big step forward. Whether it will also bring within man's grasp, in the foreseeable future, the means of tinkering with the genetic code to alter his very being to desired ends is too soon to say. And yet such possibilities of genetic engineering, thrown open by the virtuoso Khorana performance, can be both exciting and frightening.

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From the Archives (June 8, 1970): When man plays god - The Hindu

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Genetically Modified Mosquitoes Could be Released in Florida and Texas This Summer – The Daily Beast

Posted: June 8, 2020 at 2:53 am

This article originally appeared on The Conversation.

This summer, for the first time, genetically modified mosquitoes could be released in the U.S.

Recently, no group of organisms has received more attention for genetic modification than mosquitoesto yield inviable offspring or make them unsuitable for disease transmission. These strategies hold considerable potential benefits for the hundreds of millions of people impacted by mosquito-borne diseases each year.

Although the EPA approved the permit for Oxitec, state approval is still required. A previously planned release in the Florida Keys of an earlier version of Oxitecs GM mosquito (OX513) was withdrawn in 2016 after a referendum indicated significant opposition from local residents. Oxitec has field-trialed their GM mosquitoes in Brazil, the Cayman Islands, Malaysia and Panama.

The public forum on Oxitecs recent permit application garnered 31,174 comments opposing release and 56 in support. The EPA considered these during their review process.

The closed nature of this risk assessment process is concerning to us.

This scenario becomes more troubling with a for-profit technology company when cost- and risk-benefit analyses comparing GM mosquitoes to other approaches arent being conducted.

Another concern is that risk assessments tend to focus on only a narrow set of biological parameterssuch as the potential for the GM mosquito to transmit disease or the potential of the mosquitoes new proteins to trigger an allergic response in peopleand neglect other important biological, ethical and social considerations.

Furthermore, independent researchers and advisers could help guide what data are collected during trials to reduce uncertainty and inform future large-scale releases and risk assessments.

Written by Brian Allan, Associate Professor of Entomology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Chris Stone, Medical Entomologist, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Holly Tuten, Vector Ecologist, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Jennifer Kuzma, Goodnight-NCGSK Distinguished Professor, North Carolina State University; Natalie Kofler, Levenick Resident Scholar in Sustainability, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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Genetically Modified Mosquitoes Could be Released in Florida and Texas This Summer - The Daily Beast

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Scientists have created a new method of treatment of type I diabetes – The Times Hub

Posted: June 8, 2020 at 2:53 am

Scientists Childrens research center of Seattle has created a new method of treatment of type I diabetes. They used certain types of immune cells that trigger insulin production.

Researchers have proposed a technology that provides the organism with the necessary amount of the named substance. Type one diabetes is a disease in which effector T cells mistakenly attack the immune cell structures in the pancreas that produce insulin. The new method relates to genetic engineering and provides for the use of this mechanism. The function of immune cells is to capture the excess level of glucose in the blood, after that they produce insulin. The destruction of the latter they are not able to isolate this hormone, later in the blood glucose levels. Experts have edited the genes to home in on the genetic structure of FOXP3 in T-cells.

Scientists have created a special manual for these items as they play a crucial in the activation of cells of the pancreas, contributing to the production of the required insulin. In further studies, the experts will prepare a platform for clinical trials of a new method of treatment of diabetes of the first type.

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Scientists have created a new method of treatment of type I diabetes - The Times Hub

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Global CRISPR-Based Therapeutics Market 2020 Industry Analysis by Manufacturers, Type, Application, End-User and Forecast 2025 – Jewish Life News

Posted: June 8, 2020 at 2:53 am

The market research on Global CRISPR-Based Therapeutics Market 2020 by Company, Regions, Type and Application, Forecast to 2025 presents an in-depth analysis of market statistics in terms of revenues, segment-wise data, region-wise data, and country-wise data. The report aims to identify the dynamics of the global CRISPR-Based Therapeutics market and provide recent updates and insights that affect various segments of the global market. The market report sorts the market dependent on the manufacturer, region, type, and application. The report estimates and validates the market size of the global CRISPR-Based Therapeutics market. The report also delivers a forecast, which focuses on the market opportunities for the next five years (2020-2025) for each region. The scope of the study segments the global market by product type, application, end-use, and the region is explained. This research report is expected to enable clients to assess strategies deployed by market leaders.

NOTE: Our analysts monitoring the situation across the globe explains that the market will generate remunerative prospects for producers post COVID-19 crisis. The report aims to provide an additional illustration of the latest scenario, economic slowdown, and COVID-19 impact on the overall industry.

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The report provides immense detailing on each and every company. It incorporates their headquarter location, company overview, recent developments, and company strategies. Market share analysis as per different companies, market forecast, demand, price analysis, size, and share as per regional boundaries has been presented in the report. The report gives a study on global CRISPR-Based Therapeutics industry-top players depending on their company profile, product portfolio, ability, cost, and revenue.

Key market players: Caribou Biosciences , Thermo Fisher Scientific , Merck KGaA , Addgene , Takara Bio USA , CRISPR THERAPEUTICS , Intellia Therapeutics , Editas Medicine , Mirus Bio LLC , Horizon Discovery Group , GE Healthcare Dharmacon

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Global CRISPR-Based Therapeutics Market 2020 Industry Analysis by Manufacturers, Type, Application, End-User and Forecast 2025 - Jewish Life News

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The pandemic, the environment and Cuba – OnCubaNews

Posted: June 8, 2020 at 2:53 am

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Perhaps it is difficult to find a moment in the history of humanity in which, in such a short time, such an enormous volume of information (and disinformation) has been generated about a problem that affects the entire human species, as what has happened with the COVID-19 pandemic. Nor has humanity faced such an uncertain near future.

In addition to the global health emergency, which has caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and more than 2 million infected people worldwide, this pandemic has put on the political table the unsustainability of the capitalist system worldwide, the paradigm of unlimited growth and the culture of growing consumer.

On Earth Day Coronavirus, a pollution hiccup?

Suddenly, the reality that we live on a limited planet, with increasingly scarce resources, and that in the biosphere all existence is interconnected, has unquestionably emerged. The zoonotic nature of the COVID-19 itself tells us of the direct transmission of the virus to humans, most likely due to the contact or consumption of wild species and even due to the natural boundaries being displaced and the loss of biodiversity. The fact that it expands globally also alerts us to the profound environmental changes caused by human action and its techno-industrial culture developed on the basis of fossil energy. We have to think about what can happen when, as a result of climate change, the thaws continue and the paleo viruses frozen thousands of years ago are released, in a period too fast for existing species, and especially humans, to adapt to that change. If we add to the above the unsustainability of production systems and value chains (think of stabled livestock, large extensions of monocultures, the application to these systems of agrochemicals, hormones, antivirals and genetic manipulation), we will have an approximate picture of the world that will emerge after the pandemic

This will be a challenge not only for science, which will have to rethink a series of paradigms, but also for world politics that has taken too long to have global agreements to slow down or minimize these processes; hence, one of the elements that should emerge from this experience at the global level is a more direct relationship between science and political decision-making at the country level.

After this pandemic, there will be no new normal, another world will have to be built and that construction will be carried out by all, with greater solidarity and conscious citizen participation, or it will be exercised through increasingly more authoritarian mechanisms of power; we can already see these trends in some governments.

The world as we have known it was structured from obtaining cheap fossil energy, which allowed a techno-industrial culture to develop in the last 200 years that led to the emergence of large human concentrations in megacities. The United Nations has predicted that the urban population will increase to 6.7 billion; that is, 68% of humanity by 2050. In that decade, if the current rhythm continues, there will be 43 megacities with more than 10 million inhabitants each, really something unsustainable for the planet. Current and future generations will be forced to rethink their lifestyles or be willing to live in a dystopian world of isolation, in which relationships must be mediated by technology.

The advances in technoscience in the last 20 years already present us with a new ethics, in which each human being is aware of their limits of all kinds.

Genetic engineering, with all its potential, implies the application of the precautionary principle for the introduction of each technological advance. We are still unaware of the many effects of new technologies on our health and the global environment, yet we continue to use them too frequently.

Over the past few months we have often seen on social media claims about the short-term recovery of natural spaces and wildlife activity in urban areas, dolphins swimming placidly in Venices canals, goats visiting Scottish historical sites, wild boars rummaging through the garbage in Paris and Barcelona. We have been glad that our brothers of other species recover their ancestral spaces even when it was our presence that expelled them; but this is all a fallacy. The processes of environmental deterioration at the planetary level continue, and their resilience, if they can start being reversed, will take years, but we have to start. Just think about these figures: in 2018, the burning of fossil fuels pumped 37.1 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. If we add to this the net carbon emissions caused by soil oxidation and the most vigorous forest fires, we can see why atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide reached an all-time high of 415 parts per million in early 2019.

Cubas challenges

Cuba has a different but contradictory panorama. A poor country, blocked for 60 years by the worlds greatest power and with a frankly deteriorating open economy (it is estimated that its GDP will decrease between 4 and 7% in 2020), with a large debt, without external financing, with a high rate of illiquidity, with a country risk like never before, perhaps it is the deepest point of the systemic crisis of its economy. This really places it in a very critical situation, above all due to the enormous supply crisis that threatens to become a food crisis as acute as that of the early 1990s. From the economic point of view, the only alternative is unblocking the mechanisms and to rapidly start applying the agreements contained in the Guidelines discussed massively 10 years ago and which inexplicably have not been applied.

I think that all Cubans could agree on the urgency of doing away with obstacles to agricultural production, the inefficiency of this sector and the dreadful methods of administration and management, which contrast with the statistics that show that most of the national food production is generated by small producers, then the assessment still has blank questions. Advancing towards an agriculture with low energy inputs, sustainable management of the soil and crops, rational use of water, that is, organic agriculture will benefit everyone, there are examples and very successful at that.

Cuba has potentialities that must be taken into account from an environmental point of view and that have been gradually implemented. Its energy dependence constitutes an Achilles heel for its economy and attempts are being made, with a very successful intensive policy, to decrease it with an accelerated increase in clean energy; the Cuban aquifer stock is limited, but the country has a very intelligent and well-structured water policy.

The development of the Cuban health policy with the pandemic has been successful so far and there is no indication that wont continue like this; the Cuban experience in the detection and control of epidemics has made it possible to establish mechanisms of local control and primary care that other countries have not been able to implement, just remember that Cuban doctors have participated in the control and treatment of epidemics such as Ebola in Africa and cholera in Haiti, in addition to the epidemics that for decades have been introduced in Cuba by foreign aggressions (swine fever, dengue, etc.). It is possible to think, unlike other countries, that the island will emerge from the pandemic in a relatively short period of time and with minimal impact on its population. For this reason, the greatest complexity will not be precisely the epidemic, but rather the food supply, and in this direction all the nations efforts must be applied; I say the nation, and not only the state. For its part, the government must open the floodgates to diverse productive forces, the effort is everyones.

On June 2, in commemoration of World Environment Day, the director general of the Environment Agency of the Cuban Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment (CITMA) expressed in a television appearance in Holgun a principle that will have to be present in the next designs of Cuban domestic policies, the interconnection of the natural world with society, or what is the same as the eco-social relationship of all the elements that make up and determine our environment. The relationship of science and politics must recognize that the Cuban territory is limited and all relationship we establish on it has a finite character and has a load capacity that cannot be exceeded. The celebration of June 5 this year is curious, because as always, it is a date in which the environmental work carried out for twelve months by each province and municipality is recognized, but now, in 2020 it will have to be done almost virtually due to the epidemic.

Thinking of Pinar del Ro, a province that this year was the best in its environmental work (the parameters established for the evaluation cover all the activities in the province of the different sectors that tend towards environmental sustainability), brings to mind the need to transfer the financing dedicated to the expansion of tourism to the reactivation and development of agriculture. Tourism is recognized in the world as the smokeless industry, but it is still an industry, it requires the import of all kinds of inputs, as well as being an eminently extractive activity. Today Cuba has a capacity per rooms that is far from the market demand for the island, the existing statistics do not exceed more than 30% of linear occupancy in the various destinations of the archipelago. If we add to this the globalized nature of tourism (it arises precisely with the development of capitalism in its last phase) and the physical interconnections that are established with visitors, even immunologically, we approach a portrait of an activity that is very profitable but that creates links of dependency on a specific and very fragile world market.

According to the activitys development plans in the near future, if the developmentalist vision continues to be applied in the tourism sector, Pinar del Ro will have a huge megaproject called Punta Colorada, which will cost billions of dollars and will have an impact, undoubtedly, on the marine-coastal ecosystems of the northwest of the province and in the Guanahacabibes and Viales biosphere reserves.

The COVID-19 epidemic in the world has put the neoliberal capitalist system in check. It will remain to be seen if it is able to resist this onslaught.

For Cuba it means the need and the urgency to consolidate what exists and works well and transform the inefficient, because for Cuba once again the possibility of creating an eco-socialist alternative with citizen participation is opening.

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The pandemic, the environment and Cuba - OnCubaNews

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Monthly Archives: June 2020

5 ways to boost your immune system – The San Diego Union-Tribune

Who’s to blame? These three scientists are at the heart of the Surgisphere COVID-19 scandal – Science Magazine

FTC ramps up enforcement with new wave of warning letters – NutraIngredients-usa.com

UT Student Awarded Prestigious Astronaut Scholarship – UT News | The University of Texas at Austin

Genetically modified mosquitoes could be released in Florida and Texas beginning this summer silver bullet or jumping the gun? – The Conversation US

From the Archives (June 8, 1970): When man plays god – The Hindu

Genetically Modified Mosquitoes Could be Released in Florida and Texas This Summer – The Daily Beast

Scientists have created a new method of treatment of type I diabetes – The Times Hub

Global CRISPR-Based Therapeutics Market 2020 Industry Analysis by Manufacturers, Type, Application, End-User and Forecast 2025 – Jewish Life News

The pandemic, the environment and Cuba – OnCubaNews

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