Monthly Archives: July 2022

SalioGen Therapeutics Strengthens its Leadership Team to Advance its Gene Coding Platform – BioSpace

Posted: July 27, 2022 at 3:07 am

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., July 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SalioGen Therapeutics, a privately held biotechnology company developing Gene CodingTM, a new category of genetic medicine, today announced the expansion of its leadership team with the addition of five highly accomplished scientists, physicians and biotech industry leaders. The companys new appointments include:

As we continue to build on our foundational scientific discoveries and propel our research and development activities toward the clinic, we welcome Cathryn, Pat, Joe, Feng and Oleg to help drive our progress. The additions of these esteemed experts, each distinguished in their respective specialties, will serve to accelerate our growth by supporting core R&D activities, clinical preparations, and quality and operational needs, said Ray Tabibiazar, M.D., chief executive officer and chairman of SalioGen. We look forward to benefitting from their leadership as they help to maximize the potential impact of Gene Coding not only on the genetic medicines industry, but on patients around the world.

Cathryn Clary, M.D., MBA previously served as Senior Vice President of Medical at SSI Strategy, a medical consulting firm. She also served as the acting Chief Medical Officer at clinical-stage gene therapy company Solid Biosciences. Dr. Clary served as both Global Head of Policy and Patient Affairs in the Chief Medical & Patient Safety Office, as well as Chief Scientific Officer and Head of U.S. Medical Affairs and Clinical Development in the General Medicines Division at Novartis. Prior to her experience at Novartis, she served in several executive roles at Pfizer, whereshe was responsible for the medical aspects of Zoloft worldwide, and ultimately became the SVP of US Medical Affairs for the entire Pfizer portfolio across multiple therapeutic areas.

Pat Sacco is highly experienced as a biotechnology and life sciences executive in technical and general operations. Most recently, as an independent consultant, he has worked with a number of advanced therapy medicinal product (ATMP) biotech companies, CDMOs, and specialized program management clients. Previously, he was the Senior Vice President of Technical Operations at both Translate Bio and Shire (now Takeda), and prior to that held roles of increasing responsibility at Wyeth Biopharma (formerly Genetics Institute) and Genzyme. He has contributed to the development, manufacturing, and commercialization of the enzyme replacement therapies REPLAGAL, ELAPRASE, and VPRIV.

Joe Senn, Ph.D. has experience with nearly all therapeutic modalities, including small molecules, biologics, antisense, gene editing and mRNA therapeutics. He most recently served as the Vice President of Nonclinical Development at Moderna Therapeutics for eight years, where he and his team were responsible for progressing over 40 candidates into the clinic. Prior to Moderna, Dr. Senn served as Site Head for Drug Safety at Takeda Pharmaceuticals, where he oversaw development of all immunology products across the portfolio.

Feng Yao, Ph.D. is the inventor of Invitrogen/Thermo Fisher Scientifics T-Rex tetracycline gene switch, a powerful and specific mammalian transcription gene switch. Using this technology, Dr. Yao has established several unique approaches for the genetic engineering of novel recombinant viruses for use in clinical applications across infectious diseases, cancers and neural regeneration. His T-REx technology is widely used and referenced in publications and patent applications, including productions of several FDA approved antibody therapeutics and novel COVID-19 viral vector-based vaccine candidates developed by AstraZeneca and Johnson and Johnson. Before joining SalioGen Therapeutics, Dr. Yao was an Associate Professor of Surgery at the Brigham and Womens Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

Oleg Iartchouk, Ph.D. has built and led multiple genomics technologyteams that werepart ofstartup and large global pharmaceutical and biotechnologycompanies.Prior to joining SalioGen, Dr. Iartchouk served as the Global Head of the global Genomics Platform Group at the Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research, which established genomics applications several fields to advance Novartiss cell and gene therapy portfolioincluding CAR-T cell(Kymriah) and gene (Zolgensma) therapies.Dr. Iartchouk also built the Biomarkers Discovery group at the clinical diagnostics company Natera and the Applied Genomics team at Sanofi Oncology.

About SalioGen TherapeuticsSalioGen Therapeutics has launched Gene CodingTM, a genetic medicine platform, to develop durable, broadly applicable genetic medicines, using its Exact DNA Integration TechnologyTM (EDITTM) platform. EDIT is based on the novel mammal-derived genomic engineering tool, for use in potentially curative genetic medicines. SalioGen is focused on developing therapies for more patients with inherited diseases that are beyond what is addressable with current technologies, initially focusing on inherited macular disorders and inherited lipid disorders.

For more information, please visit http://www.saliogen.com, or follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release contains forward-looking statements. Words such as may, believe, will, expect, plan, anticipate, estimate, intend and similar expressions (as well as other words or expressions referencing future events, conditions or circumstances) are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based upon current estimates and assumptions and include statements regarding the additions of the esteemed experts serving to accelerate SalioGens growth by supporting core research & development activities, clinical preparations, and quality and operational needs, benefitting from their leadership as they help to maximize the potential impact of Gene Coding not only on the genetic medicines industry, but on patients around the world, and the potential of SalioGens Gene Coding approach, including its use in potentially curative genetic medicines. While SalioGen believes these forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on any such forward-looking statements, which are based on information available to us on the date of this release. These forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict, that could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations and assumptions from those set forth or implied by any forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations include, among others, the ability of SalioGen to position multiple therapeutic programs for clinical development, the ability of SalioGen to continue building out its Gene Coding platform, expand the companys team, establish manufacturing and automation capabilities critical for Gene Coding and accelerate the advancement of SalioGens preclinical programs as planned, the ability of SalioGen to use its Gene Coding platform and Exact DNA Integration Technology in potentially curative genetic medicines. All forward-looking statements are based on SalioGens expectations and assumptions as of the date of this press release. Actual results may differ materially from these forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, SalioGen expressly disclaims any responsibility to update any forward-looking statement contained herein, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Corporate Contact:Sung You, M.S., MBASalioGen Therapeuticsinvestors@saliogen.com

Media Contact:Amy Jobe, Ph.D.LifeSci Communications315-879-8192ajobe@lifescicomms.com

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Orivet Partners with Sitruna to Expand Ecommerce Footprint in Europe – PR Web

Posted: July 27, 2022 at 3:07 am

Were thankful to be able to partner with Sitruna to bring accurate genetic pet testing to more pet owners in Europe, said Noam Pik, CEO of Orivet

LAKE WORTH, Fla. (PRWEB) July 26, 2022

Orivet, a pioneer in international genetic pet testing and personalized medicine announced its recent partnership with Sitruna, an Amazon logistics and marketing specialist company that specializes in leveraging its experience and industry knowledge to help create and meet demand on Amazon.

This new partnership will center around the growing demand for Orivets pet and breeder products on Amazon in Europe. As specialists in listing and logistics, Sitruna will help Orivet connect with pet owners, breeders, and veterinarians who are looking for evidence-backed and comprehensive methods to discover a pets genetic makeup, possible hereditary diseases, and health requirements.

With diseases such as obesity and other inherited variants becoming more scrutinized by pet owners in Europe, the demand for accurate hereditary genetic testing has skyrocketed in recent years with an expectation for the global market to reach $28.5 billion by 2026 a substantial increase from the $990 million valuation in 2020.

Were thankful to be able to partner with Sitruna to bring accurate genetic pet testing to more pet owners in Europe, said Noam Pik, CEO of Orivet.More people than ever are conscious of their pets long-term journey and want whats best for them, and we want to help these owners better map out a healthier life for their best friend.

About Orivet Genetic Pet CareOrivet Genetic Pet Care is a leading personalized-medicine organization offering innovative health care solutions for breeders, veterinarians, and pet owners. The organization was founded in 2010, on the premise that each pet is unique, with its own set of specific traits, behaviors, genetic health needs, and inherent risks. Orivet works with veterinarians, pet owners, and responsible pet breeders to provide practical, evidence-based platforms focused on identifying risk and improving clinical outcomes.For more information please visit https://www.orivet.com

About Sitruna Sitruna is an innovative IT services company that leverages its knowledge of listing optimization, PPC, photography, and logistics to help businesses gain market share, stay ahead of their competition, and maximize ROI on Amazon. Backed by decades of experience in eCommerce and numerous Amazons Choice badges, Sitruna backs up its five-star reviews with five-star results.For more information please visit https://www.sitruna.com

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Spanish scientists combine genetic and imaging data to improve the treatment of dilated cardiomyopathy – EurekAlert

Posted: July 27, 2022 at 3:07 am

image:Study codirectors Dr. Pablo Garca-Pava and Dr. Jess Gonzalez Mirelis. view more

Credit: CNIC

Combining a persons genetic profile with imaging data obtained by cardiac magnetic resonance accurately predicts the prognosis of patients with dilated cardiomyopathy, the most frequent cause of heart failure.

This is the finding of a Spanish study published in the European Journal of Heart Failure and coordinated by Dr. Pablo Garca-Pava, investigator at the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC), a cardiologist at Hospital Puerta de Hierro Majadahonda in Madrid, and a member of the Spanish research network on cardiovascular disease (CIBERCV). The study is the largest in the world to correlate the genetic profiles of dilated cardiomyopathy patients with cardiac magnetic resonance data collected over a long follow-up period.

Dilated cardiomyopathy is the most frequent cause of heart disease in young people and the leading cause of heart transplantation in the world. The disease affects 1 person in every 250 of the general population and is characterized by an enlargement of the heart accompanied by a decline in its capacity to pump blood.

Patients with this condition are at high risk of arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death.

The study examined genetic data collected from 600 patients in 20 Spanish hospitals between 2015 and 2020. The investigators demonstrated that a combination of specific genetic traits with the presence of fibrosis detected by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging accurately identifies those patients who will develop malignant arrhythmias or severe complications of heart failure.

Dr. Jess Gonzalez Mirelis, a cardiologist at Hospital Puerta de Hierro and codirector of the study, explained that there is currently a lack of good prognostic markers for patients with dilated cardiomyopathy. As a result, to prevent sudden death, patients are routinely selected for more aggressive interventions, such as the placement of a defibrillator device, based on the degree of weakening of the hearts pumping action.

The new study shows that classifying patients according to their genetic profile and the presence of fibrosis detected by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging gives a much more accurate indication of patient risk than the extent of weakening of cardiac pumping capacity, the method used until now; the problem with the current method is that some patients with low-grade cardiac weakening develop complications, whereas others with extensive weakening are stable and dont develop problems over the long term, said Dr. Garca Pava.

The researchers found that patients lacking genetic alterations and showing no sign of fibrosis had a very good prognosis, with little risk of sudden death irrespective of the weakening of cardiac pumping capacity.

According to the authors, the study opens the way to a more personalized approach to dilated cardiomyopathy, with each patient receiving the most appropriate treatment based on a precise cardiological assessment.

The findings of this study allow dilated cardiomyopathy patients to be treated according to their specific characteristics and open the way to the application of personalized medicine in this area of cardiology, concluded Dr. Garca-Pava.

The following centers participated in the study: Hospital Universitario Puerta de Hierro, IDIPHISA; CIBER Cardiovascular; Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Maran; Instituto de Investigacin Biomdica de Salamanca (IBSAL)- Complejo Asistencial Universitario de Salamanca; Universidad de Salamanca; Hospital Universitario Virgen de la Arrixaca de Murcia; Hospital Universitari Vall d'Hebron, Vall d'Hebron Instituto de Recerca (VHIR), Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona; Complejo Hospitalario de Navarra; Instituto de Investigacin Biomdica de A Corua (INIBIC), Complexo Hospitalario Universitario de A Corua; Universidad de A Corua; Complejo Hospitalario Universitario de Cceres; Hospital Universitario Virgen de la Victoria IBIMA, Mlaga; Instituto de Ciencias del Corazn (ICICOR); Hospital Clnico Universitario Valladolid; Hospital General Universitario de Alicante, Instituto de Salud e Investigacin Biomdica; Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre, Instituto de Investigacin i+12; Hospital Clnico, IDIBAPS, Universitat de Barcelona; Instituto de investigacin Sanitaria de Santiago; Complexo Hospitalario Universitario de Santiago; Hospital Universitario Virgen de las Nieves; Hospital Universitario Son Llatzer & IdISBa; Hospital Universitario Virgen del Roco; Hospital Univesitari Dr. Josep Trueta; Instituto del Corazn & Hospital Universitario Germans Trias, and Universidad Francisco de Vitoria (UFV).

The study was funded by grants from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III with cofunding from the European Regional Development Fund (A way to build Europe) and the European Social Fund (Investing in Your Future).

About the CNIC

The Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC), directed by Dr. Valentn Fuster, is dedicated to cardiovascular research and the translation of knowledge gained into real benefits for patients. The CNIC, recognized by the Spanish government as a Severo Ochoa center of excellence, is financed through a pioneering public-private partnership between the government (through the Carlos III Institute of Health) and the Pro-CNIC Foundation, which brings together 12 of the most important Spanish private companies.

European Journal of Heart Failure

Randomized controlled/clinical trial

People

Combination of late gadolinium enhancement and genotype improves prediction of prognosis in non-ischaemic dilated cardiomyopathy

22-Jul-2022

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BU researcher receives $3.9M NIH grant to examine the impact of racism on brain aging, cardiovascular disease risk among older black adults -…

Posted: July 27, 2022 at 3:07 am

(Boston)Black Americans are twice as likely as white Americans to have Alzheimers disease (AD) independent of genetic risk. Since perceived racism contributes to racial health disparities in cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors, which also are risk factors for AD,it also has a significant impact on the racialhealth disparity in AD. Despite this knowledge, little is known about whether and how chronic experiences of racism contribute to poor brain health.

Karin Schon, PhD, assistant professor of anatomy & neurobiology at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), aims to address this pressing issue. She has been awarded a five-year, $3.9 million R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health. Her objective is to investigate the impact of racism burden on brain health in themedial temporal hippocampal (MTH) memory and prefrontal-executive systems in older Black adults and to examine potentially underlying biological mechanisms. The MTH and prefrontal systems are brainsystems that show profound neurodegeneration in AD.

We hypothesize that cognitively healthy Black seniors with higher racism burden will show greater CVD risk and poorer MTH and prefrontal system integrity than those who have lower lifetime racism burden, explained Schon who also is a faculty affiliate at the BU Center for Anti-Racist Research.

Schon believes that CVD risk and mental health may explain the relationship between racism burden and neurocognitive integrity, suggesting poor cardiovascular/cerebrovascular healthas a mechanism underlying the relationship between racism burden and poor brain health in the MTH and prefrontal brain systems in Black seniors.

Her investigative team is not only diverse in expertise, but also racially and ethnically. Collaborators on this project include BUs Yvette Cozier, DSc; Robert Stern, PhD; Emelia Benjamin, MD and Yorghos Tripodis, PhD. BU alumna Uraina Clark, PhD from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai along with Angie Sanchez, MD and Jonathan Jackson, PhD from Massachusetts General Hospital.

Schon, received a joint BA/MA degree in psychology from the University of Hamburg in Germany in 1998 and her PhD from the department of psychology at Boston University in 2005. Her dissertation focused on functional neuroimaging studies of working memory and long-term (episodic) memory formation. In 2010, she received a Pathway to Independence Career Development award from the National Institute on Aging to investigate the effects or cardio-respiratory fitness and exercise on the function and structure of the medial temporal hippocampal memory system. In 2013, she joined BUSMs department of anatomy & neurobiology where she is the Director of the Brain Plasticity and Neuroimaging Laboratory.

Her brain plasticity research focuses on modulators of the MTH system across the lifespan. Currently, she is investigating the role of aerobic exercise, aging and chronic psychosocial stress, as modulators of cognitive function and brain health in aging and AD. With her cognitive neuroscience research on chronic psychosocial stress she aims to take an anti-racist perspective by focusing on the impact of interpersonal and institutional racism on brain health in Black adults. The long-term goal of this research to contribute to health policy change from a cognitive neuroscience perspective with the goal to eliminate brain health inequities.

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

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Red Biotechnology Market Size, Scope, Growth Opportunities, Trends by Manufacturers And Forecast to 2029 This Is Ardee – This Is Ardee

Posted: July 27, 2022 at 3:06 am

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Part 1: Carey Gillam Reporter turned organic propagandist who twists science in her campaign to discredit biotechnology and conventional agriculture…

Posted: July 27, 2022 at 3:06 am

With links to the Church of Scientology, anti-vaccine glyphosate litigator Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Organic Consumers Association, US Right to Know, and Environmental Working Group, this former Reuters reporter has spearheaded the effort by organic promoters to discredit GMOs, glyphosate, and other agri-technological tools positioned to feed a growing global population and address climate change. Heres her story and why she does it.

Corey Booker has a new-found campaign: Capitalizing on public concerns about the weedkiller glyphosate (also sold under a now-expired patent by Monsanto as Roundup), claimed by its critics to cause cancer. Last Tuesday (June 19), the New Jersey Senator, head of the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, participated in a webinar highlighting its alleged dangers.

The event was organized by a group called Farmers Footprint, which promotes regenerative and organic agriculture. If you believe the host, this panel was crafted to put dialogue over consensus and allow for the nuance and present all the different perspectives on how glyphosate affects planetary health.

That would have been a constructive conversation to have. Thats the opposite of what happened. To say that the webcast was rigged would be an understatement. No farmers, soil expert or independent regulators were invited. No epidemiologists or toxicologists. Just activists, including someone who goes under the name Glyphosate Girl. And, of course, Booker. And in case you werent sure about where the host stood on the glyphosate controversy, if you scrolled down on the event page at the hosts site, there was this:

The glyphosate attack seminar traces to an article by Carey Gillam in the UK The Guardian earlier in July. The piece reported on the routine release of years-old Centers for Disease Control data, which Gillam claimed (although the figure is not cited in the CDC release) found that 80% of Americans had traces of glyphosate in their urine.

Gillams piece was quickly disseminated by the usual leftwing channels but also became a favorite of the far right, from the Gospel News Networkto The Epoch Times, which makes the case that the government is untrustworthy. Shes beloved by activists, particularly those reflexively critical of Big Agriculture and advocates of organic farming. She was drafted by Farmers Footprint to moderate and guide the webinar.

The event went as would be expected. Glyphosate is a hidden killer. The agricultural industry conspires to hide the facts. The US EPA and other global agencies that have determined the herbicides is safe as used are part of a global conspiracy.

Booker bit. Three days later, he released a statement co-signed by eight Democratic senators, urging the US Fish and Wildlife Service to sharply restrict the use of glyphosate and other long-approved pesticides on National Wildlife Refuges without even suggesting what safer alternatives could be substituted. (There arent any.)

The original report and the seminar were panned by independent scientists. Why? Isnt the presence of a weedkiller in the human body something to be concerned about?

On the surface yes, but the article doesnt really address that threat, which turns out to be minimal to non-existent. Scientists were particularly critical by such exaggerations as disturbing and tied to cancer claims that most independent scientists would reject as hyperbolic or outright incorrect.

As independent scientists Geoffrey Kabat and Kevin Folta wrote in separate articles on the GLP, the numbers as reported by the CDC underscore the relative safety of glyphosate not its possible harmfulness. Micro-traces at infinitesimally small levels in the parts per billion (equivalentto 1 drop of impurity in 500 barrels of water or 1 cent out of $10 million) are no cause for concern. The human body always has potentially harmful substances but at levels too low to be actually harmful. For example, human tissues and blood normally contain small amounts of various radioactive isotopes, which are harmless at the levels at which they occur. Any lab could identify thousands of purportedly toxic chemicals

Specifically, our kidneys are designed to eliminate potential toxins. The presence of micro-traces of any of thousands of toxins in our urine, including glyphosate, is a reassuring sign that our body is functioning properly. The level of glyphosate found in this study is detectablebut negligible and harmless, as regulatory agencies worldwide have determined.

While science was not on the agenda, the article and panel did provide a star turn for Gillam. In her current position, she partners with the Environmental Working Group, an organic-industry funded activist and litigation-focused organization in producing a blog called The New Lede. She refers to herself on her LinkdedIn page as a modern-day Rachel Carson for her groundbreaking work in exposing decades of corporate secrets and deceptive tactics by powerful pesticide companies, including the global giant Monsanto.

In fact, Gillam has had a rocky professional history. Scientists call her a one-woman science wrecking ball who misunderstands chemical risk and systematically exaggerates the dangers of a weedkiller that the global regulatory community has unanimously determined is safe as used, both to human health and the environment. Well have more on glyphosate, the article, Gillams history, and The New Lede as we go along.

If you are not familiar with the global conversation surrounding glyphosate, it has become a touchstone in the debate over the future of farming. The weedkillers proponentsupwards of 98% of the worlds farmers and every major independent regulatory or oversight agency in the world, (19 of them), subscribe to the science that the weedkiller is safeboth in the environment and as it shows up in micro-traces in food.

One UN sub-agency, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), singularly strayed from the consensus and issued a hazard analysis, which does not evaluate real-life exposure [all 19 of the other agencies did a risk analysis, which evaluates the actual likelihood of getting cancer under real-life conditions; for an explanation, read this]. It concluded that the weedkiller poses a theoretical hazard to everyday applicators who apply it over many years or decades but drew no conclusion as to its trace risks in food.

[View hyperlinked GLP infographic to review the findings by the global agencies].

Nineteen of the 20 independent agencies reviewed IARCs hazard data in 23 studies and found its findings incomplete and its research methods shoddy or inadequate. As Health Canada recently noted (2019) after reviewing claims that glyphosate causes health problems:

No pesticide regulatory authority in the world currently considers glyphosate to be a cancer risk to humans at the levels at which humans are currently exposed.

That hasnt stopped the debate over the weedkiller from percolating in the media and in legislative halls, pitting the global regulatory and science community against activist groups who target synthetic agricultural chemicals (many of which are safer with less consequences to the environment, flora and fauna then organic alternatives). Risk in chemicals is challenging for most people to assess, which is why extremist activists like EWG and Gillam view targeting pesticides as the public-relations Achilles heel of mainstream agriculture as they seek to promote organic and regenerative farming.

Contradicting what the discussion on Gillams webcast suggested, exposure to glyphosate traces in our urine is not unusual almost any common toxic chemical shows up in parts per billion. As the chart below illustrates, Vitamin D is potentially hundreds of times more threatening. Glyphosate is less toxic than table salt. The caffeine in your morning cup of Joe is 22 times more toxic than the weedkillerbut like glyphosate, toxic caffeine is excreted from our bodies, harmlessly. Thank you, kidneys!

Since ancient times, it has been known that the dose makes the poison. Chemical risk comes down to how much we are exposed to and how long. And as Dr. Kabat reported in his article, the state-of-the art National Cancer Institutes Agricultural Health Study, which tracked farm workers exposed to glyphosate over decades, showed no association of glyphosate with any of more than twenty types of cancer.

So, despite the noise created by Gillam and activist groups, no reputable oversight or assessment agency in the worldnot oneconsiders trace levels of glyphosate as noted in our urine at the levels cited by the CDC as potentially harmful.

A recent similar urine analysis report, drawing on the same CDC database, on another herbicide conducted by a group called the Heartland Study was exposed in this article by Cornell microbiologist Dr. Kathleen Hefferon. It had similar methodological flaws and serious academic ethical breaches. The analysis was led by glyphosate litigation consultant Charles Benbrook [Read GLP profile of Benbrook]. Benbrook, an economist with no formal background in toxicology, is known in legal circles as an anti-chemical consultant for hire when organic clients want removed from the market).

The CDC report would have been a footnote in a mountain of mostly useless data until it was weaponized by Carey Gillam.Besides her skewed analysis that ran in The Guardian, she placed it at her partner organizations accompanied: on EWGs site (which exaggerated the data, claiming CDC found 87%); and on vaccine denier Robert F. Kennedys Childrens Health Defense e-mag, The Defender, for which Gillam writes regularly and has a dedicated column page. (The Defender is committed to defending children from getting life-saving routine vaccines, including COVID vaccines.)

Carey Gillam has been the most visible and relentless critic of agricultural chemicals for a decade. What is her background? What follows is a more accurate primer on her background.[Read GLP backgrounder of one of Gillams books here]

Gillam has a history as a longtime Monsanto antagonist and critic of conventional agriculture. She was affiliated with Reuters for 17 years, much of it covering food and farming in the Midwest. According to Freedom of Information documents, she left under a cloud after being confronted by her editor in 2015, after years of complaints from independent scientists about her lack of editorial balance and her embrace of anti-GMO conspiracy propaganda. Her anti-GMO activist friends were well aware that editors at Reuters had challenged her for apparently compromising journalistic standards and ethics.

When contacted by the GLP, Gillam denied being forced out under pressure from Reuters management, claiming she has paperwork to support her claim, but she refused to share it.Shortly after leaving Reuters, Gillam was named research director at US Right to Know, where the constraints of objective journalism that she reportedly challenged were no longer in place.

Tomorrow, we will examine Carey Gillams work as a frontperson for the anti-GMO industry and the web of pro-organic corporations and activist groups that profit from her advocacy.

Jon Entineis the foundingexecutivedirectorof theGenetic Literacy Project, and winner of 19 major journalism awards. He has written extensively in the popular and academic press on media ethics, corporate social responsibility, sustainability, and agricultural and population genetics. You can follow him on Twitter@JonEntine.The GLP discloses all major contributors and conflicts of interest, and outlines its donor policy on itstransparency page.

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Part 1: Carey Gillam Reporter turned organic propagandist who twists science in her campaign to discredit biotechnology and conventional agriculture...

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Blue Biotechnology Market Outlook by Industry Revenue, Regions and Top Key Players 2022-2030 This Is Ardee – This Is Ardee

Posted: July 27, 2022 at 3:06 am

Key CompaniesCovered in theBlue Biotechnology MarketResearch areAker Biomarine, Cellgen Biologicals Pvt Ltd., Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, Geomarine Biotechnologies, Glycomar, Marinova, Nurture Aqua Technology Pvt., New England Biolabs, Pices, Pml Application Ltd., Sea Run Holdings, Inc., Shell Marine Products, Sanosil Biotech, and Samudra Biopharma Private Limited.and other key market players.

The report covers the analysis and forecast of the blue biotechnology market on global as well as regional level. The study provides historic data of 2016 along with the forecast for the period between 2017 and 2025 based on revenue (US$ Mn).

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The study provides a detailed view of the blue biotechnology market, by segmenting it based on by product type, by application, by end- user and regional demand. Robust growth of drug discovery in the past several years propels the growth for the blue biotechnologys market. Growing usage of algae along with other bacteria for producing a new drug is another prime factor driving the market demand. Additionally, extensive use of blue biotechnologys in end-user industries such as pharmaceutical, research organization, healthcare, and others boosts the demand of this market.

Regional segmentation includes the current and forecast demand for North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa and Latin America. The segmentation also includes by product type, by application and end- user in all regions. These include different business strategies adopted by the leading players and their recent developments.

A comprehensive analysis of the market dynamics that is inclusive of market drivers, restraints, and opportunities is part of the report. Additionally, the report includes potential opportunities in the blue biotechnology market at the global and regional levels. Market dynamics are the factors which impact the market growth, so their analysis helps understand the ongoing trends of the global market. Therefore, the report provides the forecast of the global market for the period from 2017 to 2025, along with offering an inclusive study of the blue biotechnology market.

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The report provides the size of the blue biotechnology market in 2017 and the forecast for the next eight years up to 2025. The size of the global blue biotechnology market is provided in terms of revenue. Market revenue is defined in US$ Mn. The market dynamics prevalent in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa and Latin America has been taken into account in estimating the growth of the global market.

Market estimates for this study have been based on revenue being derived through regional pricing trends. The blue biotechnology market has been analyzed based on expected demand. Bottom-up approach is done to estimate the global revenue of the blue biotechnology market, split into regions. Based on product type, application, and end- user, the individual revenues from all the regions is summed up to achieve the global revenue for blue biotechnology. Companies were considered for the market share analysis, based on their innovation, end- user and revenue generation. In the absence of specific data related to the sales of blue biotechnology several privately held companies, calculated assumptions have been made in view of the companys penetration and regional presence.

The global blue biotechnology market has been segmented into:

Global Blue Biotechnology Market: By Product Type Pharma Biofuels Food Enzymes Biopolymers Others

Global Blue Biotechnology Market: By Application Vaccine development Drug finding Genomics Others

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Global Blue Biotechnology Market: By End- User Pharmaceutical companies Biotechnology companies Research organization Healthcare centre Others

Global Blue Biotechnology Market: By Geography North Americao U.S.o Canadao Mexico Europeo U.K.o Franceo Germanyo Italyo Rest of Europe Asia Pacifico Indiao Chinao Japano Rest of Asia Pacific Middle East and Africao South Africao Rest of Middle East and Africa Latin Americao Brazilo Rest of Latin America

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Blue Biotechnology Market Outlook by Industry Revenue, Regions and Top Key Players 2022-2030 This Is Ardee - This Is Ardee

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STRM.BIO Receives $2.1 Million SBIR Grant to Advance Extracellular Vesicle Technology for Non-Viral, In Vivo Delivery of Gene Therapies – PR Newswire

Posted: July 27, 2022 at 3:06 am

BOSTON, July 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --STRM.BIO, a pre-clinical, VC-backed biotechnology company that is leveraging extracellular vesicles (EVs) to deliver gene therapies and developing new therapeutics for rare blood diseases, announced today it has been awarded a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant for approximately $2,100,000 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The award will allow the company to further advance its proprietary EV technology for use as a novel non-viral gene therapy delivery platform.

The specific objective of this NIH funding opportunity is to support the development and evaluation of innovative approaches to deliver genome editing machinery into somatic cells, with the goal of enabling the use of genome editing therapeutics to treat human disease. STRM.BIO has developed a proprietary, large capacity EV-based system for in vivo nucleic acid and protein delivery that specifically targets hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) in bone marrow, is amenable to large scale commercial manufacture, and presents with low immunogenicity which confers unique potential for repeat dosing.

"It is critical to the future of the field that the next generation of gene therapies be delivered as simple injections in standard clinical settings," said Jonathan Thon, CEO and Founder of STRM.BIO. "Current ex vivo approaches, in which a patient's cells are edited in culture and then transplanted, are not a sustainable model. Patients undergo harsh conditioning before receiving an ex vivo gene therapy treatment, which often has severe side effects and can be fatal. These treatments also require specialized facilities and training and are too expensive to be supported by payers as a routine option. Our EV-based delivery system has the potential to efficiently deliver gene editors safely to the bone marrow following intravenous injectionspecifically the long-term HSCs in the bone marrow we all strive to target for durable gene correction. This is big. This precision targeting creates promising new options to treat rare blood diseases and represents a paradigm shift over HSC transplant."

This SBIR award will enable the company to optimize procedures for loading their proprietary EVs with cargo, further characterize the biodistribution and delivery pattern of cargo-loaded EVs, and verify feasibility of STRM.BIO EVs for in vivo cargo delivery in a pre-clinical model of human genetic hematologic disease. With this grant, the company aims to expand pre-clinical proof-of-concept support for the use of this novel system as a non-viral, in vivo genome editor delivery system for the treatment of inherited hematologic diseases.

About STRM.BIO

Based in Boston, MA, STRM.BIO is a pre-clinical, VC-backed biotechnology company that is leveraging extracellular vesicles (EVs) to deliver gene therapy in a better way: simpler, safer, practical. Our work will open the door to the future of medicine for patients living with rare diseases worldwide. STRM.BIO is committed to bringing gene therapy to life. Please visit strm.bioand follow us on Twitter @STRMbio and on LinkedInto meet our growing team of partners and collaborators and stay up to date on our progress.

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What Kathleen Stock gets wrong about the Tories, trans and feminism – CapX

Posted: July 27, 2022 at 3:05 am

Earlier this week the philosopher Kathleen Stock waded into the national press to talk about Tories and our troubled relationship with transgender issues, using Penny Mordaunts tilt for the top job as commentary fuel.

For Stock, the Tories flapping around on gender issues demonstrates a special kind of indifference to half the population, which she ascribes to a hidden ideological commitment to individualism. She also suggests that the many Tory MPs who do oppose self-ID are motivated by opportunism and cultural warmongering, rather than concern about women.

As with everything Stock writes, the article is good, and I urge you to read it, as I urged people to read her book Material Girls when I reviewed it. However, in crucial respects, Stock doesnt understand her opponents. Thats not a knock on her. Id probably make a terrible mess of writing about Labours internal workings. After all, Im a member of the Tory Party.

The most important thing to remember is that the Conservative Party is (famously) a broad church. Whether were broader than Labours similarly broad church, I do not know.

In any case, it is unquestionably true there has long been a spergy transhumanist element in big-C conservatism. People who are keen on open borders, eating bugs, free trade, GMOs, nuclear power, lab-grown meat, pro-fertiliser, effective altruism and so on. Call it the Tom Harwood faction of Toryism, if you like.

Im old enough to remember when The Economist used to run articles calling for the legalisation of drugs in sport. The Adam Smith Institute (ASI) is full of this sort of thing.

Not everything these people say is nonsense. If it were, I would not have consented to one of my novels being launched at the ASI. Theyre often acute on economic matters, sounding early alarms on how quantitative easing would eventually lead to runaway inflation, for example. Theyre also almost certainly right about addressing climate change by dint of nuclear energy, while their pro-fertiliser criticisms of organic agriculture have been emphatically vindicated by recent events in Sri Lanka.

Some of Penny Mordaunts views are of a piece with this tradition. She also shows how one can combine elements of it including things considered woke with patriotism. (Mordaunts patriotism is genuine, by the way. Its not possible to feign that sort of thing and sign up for the Navy reserves.)

My problem with Mordaunts candidacy was her reverse-ferreting on gender issues (which Stock documents superbly), coupled with wider support for pseudoscience: shes a fan of homeopathy on the NHS, for instance. Had she come out and admitted shed changed her views, Id have been much more sympathetic. After all, in 2012, I wrote the following (for my then professional association, the Law Society of Scotland) on aspects of transgenderism. Note: I dont expect an apology from Mordaunt, just as I dont apologise for present Helen disagreeing with past Helen.

When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, Sir?

The broader issue is why most of the parliamentary party, the membership, and rusted on Tory voters are opposed to self-ID while simultaneously disclaiming feminism.

In part, its because the ASI types are a minority of both MPs and the membership, and close to non-existent among ordinary voters. Genuine wokies in the electorate will almost always opt for Labour: why go for Woke Lite when you can have the real thing?

Contrary to Stocks argument, it is emphatically not because Tories are indifferent to women or planned to use trans as an issue with which we can wedge Labour (although well take the latter as a present). It is because most Tories think both gender self-identification and feminism are nonsense.

Whod be a feminist?

This isnt just a Tory preoccupation. When the Fawcett Society got a famously honest and scrupulous polling outfit (Survation) to make inquiries of a decent and representative sample, only 7% of Britons self-identified as feminist. Huge, thumping majorities believed in male and female equality, of course, which is often taken to be the definition of feminism. Clearly, however, the public does not see it that way. Perhaps significantly, of those people who called themselves feminist, 68% were more likely to think gender can be a range of identities.

Survation did not disaggregate based on political affiliation, which in itself is revealing. If even 7% of Tories self-identify as feminist, I will eat my Akubra.

One of the great ironies of our time is that feminism has adopted the Victorian Cult of Womanhood: men are uncivilised brutes who women must morally tame. It is an unspoken assumption that the movement of women into, well, everything, is an unalloyed good.

Women are female homo sapiens. The notion that women have no statistically significant, systemic character flaws is nonsense.

Two of the biggest problems when it comes to forming decent, functional, social orders are male violence and male sexual incontinence. The victims, and even more the perpetrators of violence, are overwhelmingly male. A Swedish study found that 1% of adults generated 63% of all violent offences. But that 1% was itself almost 90% male. Males also overwhelmingly dominate sexual offenders, with a similar skewed pattern. Violent crime is a sex-based power-law on steroids.

Thanks to the movement of women into the professions, into creation of culture (women have always been important in its transmission), into management, politics, and media, we are now confronted with a new problem for sustaining functional social orders. Female emotional incontinence, what one old Tory friend calls the blubbering woman problem.

Women are systematically more hostile to freedom of speech than are men. As institutions, including universities, have become more feminised, they have become more hostile to freedom of expression and thought.

Many older Tory men are also angry that they were forced to give up male-only venues historically (they dont use the word spaces) to admit women, and think feminists are hypocrites on this point. Some of these men are not simple-minded golf club bores, either. They see trans as an opportunity to break feminism into what they consider richly deserved pieces.

One reason gender-critical feminists have struggled to win what should be an easy argument is because they havent been able to mount a freedom of association case. And the reason they havent been able to mount a freedom of association claim (which would resonate with older Tories) is because feminism did more to wreck freedom of association in Britain than any other ideology.

Homo sapiens are much more cognitively dimorphic than many people realise. 70% of men have a pattern of personality traits that no woman has; 70% of women have a pattern of personality traits that no man has.

For obvious evolutionary reasons (the elevated risks of pregnancy and childcare and the need to invest in emotionally intense relationships to sustain child-rearing) women are systematically more neurotic, more agreeable and more concerned with propriety (moralised status) than men are. Women are inclined to form cliques (emotionally-intense connections), to engage in relational aggression (attack reputations), and to hide from themselves and others that they are engaging in aggression by claiming it is moral concern.

No, this is not as serious or nasty as sexual assault or violent assault more widely. That reality is something men must simply own. It is why the male prison estate is nine times the size of the female prison estate.

That clear difference in personality traits is also why sex non-conforming behaviour in children is so easy to spot. My father knew I was homosexual when I was five, long before I knew. I never played with the dolls mum and dad bought for me (I have never seen such indifference) and constantly nicked my brothers toys. By the time teenager me was building a scale model of the Colosseum with Meccano, the jury was well and truly in.

Of course, these days, a kid like me would be at risk of transing the gay away.

Feminism has spent decades pretending men and women are interchangeable widgets, and that evolution only had an influence on human development from the neck down. When it has veered away from this claim, its indulged in biological essentialism (viz, women are always kinder) almost as pseudoscientific as Mordaunts apparent enthusiasm for homeopathy. Weirdly, this essentialism doesnt draw on actual evidence of sex-based cognitive dimorphism. Then there are homosexuals. There may not be many of us, but on this sort of thing, we stand out like sore thumbs.

This not individualism or the search for a wedge issue is why the Tory Partys relationship with both trans and feminism is like a Facebook status: its complicated.

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Helen Dale read Law at Oxford and won the Miles Franklin Award for her first novel, 'The Hand that Signed the Paper'. Her latest novel is 'Kingdom of the Wicked'; it was shortlisted for the Prometheus Prize for science fiction.

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What Kathleen Stock gets wrong about the Tories, trans and feminism - CapX

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Tyranny by Numbers | John Waters – First Things

Posted: July 27, 2022 at 3:05 am

The Psychology of Totalitarianismby mattias desmettranslated into english by els vanbrabantchelsea green publishing, 256 pages, $53.25

In 2018, a Polish academic study calledTotalitarianism in the Postmodern Age anticipated a shift in attitudes toward freedom among young Europeans. The research canvassed young people from seven E.U. countries: Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia. Almost half of those surveyed did not preclude the right of governments to suspend key democratic political freedoms, while one-third were sanguine about governments engaging in political manipulation, or even lying. A similar proportion could identify values for which they would readily forgo both freedom and democracy. Slightly more than half indicated their support for democracy, while one-third said they had no clearly formulated views. Just half of those surveyed indicated that they might resist incursions upon their freedom, while one in five appeared to regard freedom as inessential.

Two years later, Mattias Desmet, a professor of clinical psychology at Ghent University in Belgium, began to ponder developments in a similar light as he observed the COVID lockdowns rolling out all across the world. His reading of the writings of Gustave Le Bon on the psychology of crowds, and those of Hannah Arendt on twentieth-century totalitarianism, as well as his expertise in statistics, led him to take a deeper interest in what was emerging, and rapidly he came to the conclusion that the overwhelming majority of the world had fallen under a kind of spell.In late 2019, visited by some premonition of impending menace, he went to his bank and paid back his mortgagebecause he felt that society was moving towards a tipping point.

In his new book,The Psychology of Totalitarianism, he elaborates on these instincts in light of what he witnessed during COVID, including the strange phenomenon of peoples apparent indifference to their own deprivations, hurts, and incurred damage from the lockdowns: loss of freedoms, work, income, education, human contact, leisure,etc. The discourse surrounding the coronavirus crisis shows characteristics that are typical of the type of discourse that led to the emergence of the totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century, he writes. The excessive use of numbers and statistics that show a radical contempt for the facts, the blurring of the line between fact and fiction, and a fanatical ideological belief that justifies deception and manipulation and ultimately transgresses all ethical boundaries.

His book offers a description of modern society in the drifts of a mechanistic culture. Totalitarianism is the ineluctable destination. Gummed up in a congealing ideology, man is reduced to a biological organism and subjected to the positivist logic whereby every aspect of thought must be eminently demonstrable. The human person becomes an atomized subject whose entire existence is as though reduced to elementary particles that interact according to the laws of mechanics. This provides the building block of the modern totalitarian statea world, as Osip Mandelstam once observed, rendered fromman, notfor.

In such a culture, the goal is for society to be led by expert technocrats who make decisions based on objective, numerical data. With the coronavirus crisis, Desmet write, this utopian goal seemed very close at hand. For this reason, the coronavirus crisis is a case study par excellence in subjecting the trust in measurements and numbers to critical analysis. Before, societies were governed on the basis of stories; now, we have tyranny by numbers.

He cites Hannah Arendts assertion that totalitarianism is ultimately the belief in an artificially created paradise: Science [has become] an idol that will magically cure the evils of existence and transform the nature of man. The destination of this process is transhumanist manthe merging of the human being with the machine, and the supplanting of the human soul with micro-chips in which all communication will be positivistically constructed.

The key instrument in the creation of a totalitarian state is mass formationin effect, mass hypnosisimposed by propaganda and intimidation. On the one hand, the population is systematically exposed to the relentless voice of the totalitarian leaders; on the other, every alternative voice is systematically eliminated. Fear is the grease of this process. When fearful, the population wants a more controlled society.

The essence of mass formation involves proposing a tangible basis for otherwise unexplainablefree-floatinganxieties, frustrations, and aggression.The appropriate conditions, he says, existed in Western societies long before the COVID crisis.There was an epidemic of burnoutsomething between 40 and 70 percent of people in modern societies experience their jobs as senseless. He points also to the escalating use of psycho-pharmaceutical medicines to treat anxiety and depression.By offering a strategy to deal with the specific anxieties imposed by the coronavirus crisis, the would-be controllers were able to create a bogus solidarity in a society that has destroyed true solidarity. Under these conditions A society saturated with individualism and rationalism suddenly tilts towards the radically opposite condition, towards radically irrational collectivism.

When, writes Desmet, a suggestive story is spread through the mass media that indicates an object of anxietyfor example, the aristocracy under Stalinism, the Jews under Nazism, the virus, and, later the anti-vaxxers, during the coronavirus crisisand at the same time offers a strategy to deal with that object of anxiety, there is a real chance that all the free-flowing anxiety will attach itself to that object and there will be broad social support for the implementation of the strategy to control that object of anxiety.

The hypnotized members of a mass formation close out everything but that which the hypnotist tells them is important. They become not just indifferent to the losses of others, but insensitive to losses of their ownwilling, in fact, to sacrifice everything.

Desmet is at pains to underline that, in a mass formation, the leaders and the led operate in symbiotic manner:The process is as much a pandering to the mob as a manipulation of it, and the hypnotist/leader can himself fall under the spell of his own trance.

In situations of mass formation, saysDesmet, three distinct groups manifest themselves. Only 30 percent, he says, are hypnotized beyond reach. Another 40 percent will from the outset go along with that 30 percent of total believers. Another cohort of about 30 percent, who are not hypnotized, will try to speak out and resist. This group, he says, is extremely heterogeneous and disunited. If they could unite, he says, they could bring the whole thing quickly to an end, but this seldom proves possible.

The slightly better news is that mass formation totalitarianism inevitably self-destructs in time, though by then the cost may be enormous. This is because the leaders need continuously to invent new sources of anxiety and introduce new measures to attack these. At the moment of total control, the leaders mania enters its most fanatical stage, pursuing enemies perceived and imaginedas with Stalins purges of the 1930s. This can only lead to absolute destruction, and yet in the short run is essential to the maintenance of the fear that sustains the mass formation.

Professor Desmet writes that a mass formation can only be combatted by an insistence by those who are immune to it upon telling the truth at all costs. The continued presence of alternative voices serves to curb the viciousness of the rulers and constrains the mob in its excesses. In spite of the growing menace of the times, we have to continue to share rational counter-arguments, in the hope of breaking the link of free-floating anxiety.

He stresses also the importance of the maintenance of ethical principles as an antidote to totalitarianism. The books proffered solution is preventative as opposed to curative. Desmet pursues a fascinating refection on a waterwheel designed by MIT professor Willem Malkus in 1972 to illustrate the work of Edward Lorenz, a mathematician and meteorologist and one of the founders of chaos theory.The device consists of a rotating wheel to which small buckets with a bottom hole are attached. At the top, there is a tap releasing water into the top bucket. At a very low influx, the wheel does not move, because the water flows out of the hole in the bottom of the bucket faster than it flows in. At a slightly higher influx, the bucket fills up and the wheel starts to move, sometimes in one direction, sometimes the other. Once the wheel has chosen a certain direction, its behavior becomes regular and predictable: The greater the influx, the faster it turns.

We cannot predict the specific behaviors of the waterwheel (at least not in its chaotic phase), Desmet outlines, but we can learn the principles by which it behaves. . . . Hence, there is no rational predictability, but there is a certain degree of intuitive predictability. Therefore, Desmet writes, the antidote to totalitarianism lies in an attitude to life that is not blinded by a rational understanding of superficial manifestations of life and that seeks to be connected with the principles and figures that are hidden beneath those manifestations.

And as Desmet rightly points out, this also applies at the societal level: A society primarily has to stay connected with a number of principles and fundamental rights, such as the right to freedom of speech, the right to self-determination, and the right to freedom of religion or belief. These quantities are not expendable adornments, nor cosseting luxuries, nor optional extras. If it loses its intuition of the absolute necessity for these principled fundamentals, a society will lose the sense and memory of how its own equilibrium has been arrived at, and thereafter descend into chaos.

John Watersis an Irish writer and commentator, the author of ten books, and a playwright.

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Tyranny by Numbers | John Waters - First Things

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