Category Archives: Epigenetics

CALGARY, Alberta, May 10, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Zenith Epigenetics Ltd. (Zenith or the Company) announced today the initiation of a Phase 2b Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) clinical trial combining ZEN-3694 + Pfizer Inc.s Talzenna (talazoparib). The trial will continue to evaluate the efficacy and safety of this combination in patients with locally advanced or metastatic germline wild type BRCA1/2 TNBC. This Phase 2b trial is an extension of the recently completed Phase 1b/2 trial which met its primary efficacy endpoint of clinical benefit rate comprised of objective responses plus stable disease and which showed that the combination regimen was well tolerated. The Phase 2b extension will enroll patients who have previously been treated with a TROP2 antibody drug conjugate for locally advanced or metastatic disease.

The data from the Phase 1b/2 trial has shown that the ZEN-3694 plus talazoparib combination regimen induced durable responses in tumors of TNBC patients which do not harbor mutations in BRCA1/2," said Dr. Mark Robson, a principal investigator and medical oncologist at The Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. These clinical results confirm the rationale and data from pre-clinical experiments which have shown that BET inhibition can sensitize wild type BRCA1/2 TNBC tumors to PARP inhibition. This interesting data warrants the continued clinical evaluation of this combination.

In the United States, talazoparib is currently approved under the brand name TALZENNA, which is a poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor indicated for the treatment of adult patients with deleterious or suspected deleterious germline BRCA-mutated (gBRCAm) HER2-negative locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer.

Single agent PARPi are approved for gBRCAm HER2-negative locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer, as both PARP inhibition and non-functioning DNA repair proteins BRCA1/2 are required to block DNA repair and kill tumor cells (synthetic lethality). Preclinical and clinical data has shown that BET inhibition may reduce the levels of DNA repair proteins such as BRCA1/2 and RAD51 and thus create synthetic lethality in wildtype BRCA1/2 TNBC tumors when combined with PARP inhibition.

We are very pleased to advance our TNBC program to Phase 2b and closer to possible registration, said Donald J. McCaffery, President and CEO of Zenith. There is a significant unmet need in this aggressive cancer with few non cytotoxic therapy options available for the patient.

The data from the completed Phase 1b/2 part of the clinical trial will be presented in an oral poster discussion section at the annual ASCO conference in Chicago, Illinois on Monday, June 6, 2022. The abstract for this presentation will be released by ASCO on May 26, 2022, at 5:00 PM EDT on ASCO.org/Abstracts.

Abstract Number:1023

Abstract Title:A phase 1b/2 study of the BET inhibitor ZEN-3694 in combination with talazoparib for treatment of patients with TNBC without gBRCA1/2 mutations.

Session Type/Title:Poster Discussion Session/Breast CancerMetastatic

Session Date and Time:Monday, June 6, 2022, 11:30 AM-1:00 PM; 8:00 AM-11:00 AM CDT

About Zenith and ZEN-3694

Zenith Epigenetics Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Zenith Capital Corp., is a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of novel therapeutics for the treatment of cancer and other disorders with significant unmet medical need. Zenith Epigenetics is developing various novel combinations of BET inhibitors with other targeted agents. The lead compound, ZEN-3694, is in clinical development for various oncologic indications, specifically:

About Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC)

TNBC is an aggressive form of breast cancer with low survival rates. TNBC accounts for about 10-15%of all breast cancers and it differs from other types of invasive breast cancer in that it tends to grow and spread faster, has fewer treatment options, and tends to have a worse prognosis. The termtriple-negative breast cancerrefers to the fact that the cancer cells have only low or no amount of the receptors ER, PR, and HER2. Approximately 75,000 women in the US, Japan and the major EU countries are diagnosed with TNBC each year.

For further information, please contact:

Investor Relations & Communications

Zenith EpigeneticsPhone: 587-390-7865Email: info@zenithepigenetics.comWebsite:www.zenithepigenetics.com

This news release may contain certain forward-looking information as defined under applicable Canadian securities legislation, that are not based on historical fact, including without limitation statements containing the words "believes", "anticipates", "plans", "intends", "will", "should", "expects", "continue", "estimate", "forecasts" and other similar expressions. In particular, this news release includes forward looking information relating to the Companys development activities involving ZEN-3694 in combination with Pfizers PARP inhibitor Talzenna, and other targeted agents used in precision oncology, as well as other planned PARPi based combination therapy clinical trials in other tumor types. Our actual results, events or developments could be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. We can give no assurance that any of the events or expectations will occur or be realized. By their nature, forward-looking statements are subject to numerous assumptions and risk factors including those discussed in our most recent MD&A which are incorporated herein by reference and are available through SEDAR at http://www.sedar.com. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement and are made as of the date hereof. Zenith disclaims any intention and has no obligation or responsibility, except as required by law, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise

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Zenith Epigenetics Announces Initiation of a Phase 2b Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) Clinical Trial - BioSpace

Watching Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas(now streaming on Peacock) with its frenetic pace, bizarre performances, and twisted cinematography is a visual experience akin to falling into a drug binge, and thats by design. The movie is constructed to give the feeling of living inside the minds of its two protagonists as they consume every illicit substance known to humanity, while supposedly on a work trip in Las Vegas. The result is an anxiety-laden two hours capturing a glimpse inside the mind of author Hunter S. Thompson.

While the movie has a certain amount of humor at the expense of its characters, driven mostly by the bombastic performances of Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro, real-world substance dependence offers little to laugh about.

Long-term exposure to substances like alcohol, especially during adolescence not to mention the hard stuff found in the fictional Thompsons drug stash causes epigenetic changes to a persons brain chemistry which leads to dependence and anxiety disorders. According to a new study, gene editing by way of a modified version of CRISPR Cas9, might be able to reverse those changes in the brain.

Subhas Pandey from the Center for Alcohol Research in Epigenetics at the University of Illinois was the senior author of the study, now published in the journal Science Advances, which sought to reverse the negative effects of alcohol dependence in the brains of rats and, hopefully someday, in humans.

Adolescent binge drinking is a major public health concern, and it produces long lasting impacts on brain chemistry. So, its really important to catch the disease early and cure it before someone predisposes to substance abuse disorder, anxiety, and depression, Pandey told SYFY WIRE.

The research targeted the enhancer region of the activity-regulated cytoskeleton-associated protein, ARC for short, which is suppressed when individuals are exposed to chronic alcohol use in adolescence. According to Pandey, ARC is important for making connections between neurons so they can communicate with one another, and plays an important role in synaptic plasticity, learning, and memory. When its suppressed, alcohol consumption and anxiety behaviors increase.

Researchers used a modified version of CRISPER Cas9, known as dCAS9, which causes a functional change in a target gene without clipping it out. In this case, that meant researchers were able to increase ARC expression to undo the epigenetic damage caused by alcohol exposure.

In tests, rats were given alcohol between the 27th and 41st days of life, the equivalent of ages 10 to 18 in humans, which led to anxiety and increased alcohol consumption when the rats grew to adulthood. Then, they injected dCas9 into the amygdala to increase ARC expression. The process takes two weeks to go into full effect, but the results were impressive. Symptoms of anxiety as well as alcohol consumption decreased. The evidence suggests the relationship between gene expression and alcoholism or anxiety also holds for adults without early exposure to alcohol.

In a previous study, we found that chronic alcohol exposure in adulthood also leads to a reduction in the expression of this gene and causes anxiety-like behavior. In adult control animals, who are normal, if we do gene editing to suppress the expression of the ARC gene, they become anxious and start drinking more. So, it looks like this phenomenon is also important in adults, Pandey said.

Understanding the genetic and epigenetic drivers of anxiety and alcohol disorders, as well as gene editing strategies to address them, could lead researchers to novel therapies.

There are drugs which can manipulate this gene, but they may also affect several places in the brain, so we might get side effects because other genes are affected. Targeted manipulation of the gene, I personally feel, is the future of the medicine, Pandey said.

Hunter S. Thompson somehow straddled the line between brilliance and complete collapse, at least for a while. He was one of a kind, its unlikely there will ever be another like him. Especially now that gene editing can flip the off switch on our inner demons.

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Gene edited rats cured of anxiety and alcoholism | SYFY WIRE - Syfy

NEW YORK, NY Set before the 2016 presidential elections,Dreams on Fire, a groundbreaking play by Professor Jan Balakian and directed by Nora Armani, explores college students, mental health and the transmission of trauma in history across generations via the Armenian Genocide.

The play traces back the causes of Aram Sarkissians anxiety and mental health issues to intergenerational trauma through epigenetics. While the subject is dark, the characters are full of life and humor. The story takes place in Fort Lee, NJ and in retrospect prophetically refers to the four years of disastrous leadership that await the US. Arams grandmother Hripsime recounts the experiences of her own mother, surviving the Genocide as a young woman, and how she ends up in the US.

The riveting tale links the past to the present and explains mental health today as it is traced back to past trauma, even if such trauma has not touched the victim directly. Never before has there been a play that explores college students, mental health and the Armenian Genocide within the context of the 2016 election.

The cast of the Zoom reading includes Constance Cooper,Sam Arthur,Emma Giorgio andDalita Getzoyan. Donna Heffernan is assistant director. The reading, which is open to the public, will take place onWednesday, April 27, at 5:00 PM EDT presented as part of the Kean University Research Day activities. A Q&A session with Balakian, faculty members and attendees will follow the reading. FREE and open to the public.

The Armenian Genocide perpetrated by Ottoman Turkey on the Armenians is a fact widely substantiated by historians, archivists and eyewitnesses whose accounts have been recorded and preserved. And yet, the countries who have officially recognized it are few, mainly to appease Turkey.

US presidents, under pressure from Turkey, have played word gymnastics calling the events by several different names, shying away from its correct name of Genocide. President Joe Biden acknowledged the Armenian Genocide in 2021, and this year, on the 107th anniversary of the commemoration, confirmed that the events that started on April 24, 1915 and lasted until 1923, were in fact Genocide, causing the death of over 1.5 million Armenians and wiping out an entire population from its ancestral lands.

Guest contributions to the Armenian Weekly are informative articles or press releases written and submitted by members of the community.

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Dreams on Fire sheds light on epigenetics, collective trauma of genocide traveling through generations - Armenian Weekly

NEW ULM May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and this year the need for mental health education and services has never been higher.

Mental Health Month started in 1949 to increase awareness of the importance of mental health and wellness in Americans lives and to celebrate recovery from mental illness.

After more than two years of societal disruption from the COVID-19 pandemic, this year several Brown County organizations are working to promote the month.

Mental Health Awareness month is represented by a green ribbon. Throughout the month green ribbons will be displayed at the Community Service Building, 1117 Center St. and Brown County drop-in Center, 1113 Center St.

From 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 3, The Heart of New Ulm Brown County Mental Health and Wellbeing Action Team, in collaboration with the Families First Collaborative of Brown County, will be offering a presentation called Understanding NEAR Science: Building Self-Healing Communities.

The presentation covers the basics of NEAR science which stands for neurobiology, epigenetics, Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) and resilience a study of the relationship between health risks and behaviors to exposure to adverse childhood experiences. People who experienced abuse, neglect or household dysfunction as a child were more likely to have increased risks of chronic health conditions and death, as well as increased participation in risky behaviors.

Additional research has shown experiences like racism, neighborhood safety, community violence, bullying, and living in foster care can increase the likelihood of increased health risks.

Over the last few decades, research has expanded on what can be done to prevent adverse childhood experiences and how people can move past their experiences to live healthy and safe lives.

The building self-healing communities presentation is intended to start an ongoing communitywide conversation between professionals, law enforcement, parents, faith leaders, educators and neighbors about how to change the narrative of the future of communities.

The Understanding NEAR Science: Building Self-Healing Communities presentation is free and open to the public; however, space is limited, and registration is required. For information and to register, visit https://tinyurl.com/NEARscience.

Similar presentation have been held in Brown County before, but due to the COVID pandemic few public health presentation were possible. The pandemic also created a need for greater need for mental health services as many were impacted by the health crisis.

The Brown County Local Advisory Committee will be hosting a Mental Health Walk Tuesday, May 17, Harman Park in New Ulm. The walk is open to everyone wishing to show support for mental health in the community. Registration for the walk is at 12:30 p.m. at Harman Park. There will be two routes to accommodate differing physical capabilities. The walk will be followed by professional speakers sharing their knowledge and experience regarding mental health recovery.

The local advisory committee is made of members of the public, professionals and providers with an interest in mental health and support in the county. The goal of the committee is to have a conversation about mental health, advocacy, combatting stigma and creating a supportive community for those struggling with their mental health.

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NEAR science: good for what ails stressed communities - NUjournal

SIRIUS MANAGEMENT CONSULTING

The global biomarkers market was valued at $45 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach $86 billion by 2027.

Chicago, April 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to the latest research report by Arizton, the biomarkers market will grow at a CAGR of over 11% during 2022-2027. Digital biomarkers have become an exciting new tool for advancing precision medicine and supporting clinical trials. They are collected using digital devices that are portable, wearable, implantable, or digestible. Digital biomarkers can be objective, quantifiable, physiological, and behavioral measures. Digital biomarkers have majorly impacted the neurology field. In neurology, several digital biomarkers are being tested for feasibility and reliability in Parkinsons and Alzheimer's disease and clinical outcome assessments.

With the emergence of innovative technologies, the identification and validation of a biomarker are becoming key elements of personalized medicine. For example, in cancer, personalized medicine uses specific biomarker information that has been measured from a persons tumor to help plan treatment regimes, monitor a treatments response, or aid in determining a prognosis.

BIOMARKERS MARKET REPORT SCOPE

REPORT ATTRIBUTE

DETAILS

MARKET SIZE (2027)

$86 Billion

CAGR (2022-2027)

Over 11%

BASE YEAR

2021

FORECAST YEAR

2022-2027

LARGEST MARKET

North America

FASTEST MARKET

Europe

MARKET SEGMENTATION

Indication, Application, Type, and Geography

REGION

North America, Europe, APAC, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa

COUNTRIES COVERED

US, Canada, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Spain, Japan, China, India, South Korea, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Turkey, South Africa, and Saudi Arabia

KEY VENDORS

Abbott, bioMrieux, Biohit Oyj, Centogene, Creative Diagnostics, F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Fujirebio, GE Healthcare, TAmiRNA

Click Here to Download the Free Sample Report

The biomarker approach in developing personalized medicine helps in clinical decisions, personalized therapies, and improved research and development (R&D) models. Developing and providing access to novel personalized medicine products and services are only part of what is needed to achieve better human health by tailoring treatment based on the presence or absence of specific biomarkers.

Story continues

Increased Discovery of Epigenetic Biomarkers in Oncology

Epigenetics, genomic, and epigenomic technologies have opened new and promising landscapes for healthcare professionals, enabling them to diagnose and monitor diseases more precisely, effectively, and rapidly. It is obvious that epigenetics is revolutionizing the potential of biomedicine and clinical diagnostics, therefore, contributing to the future development of precision medicine.

Key Offerings:

Market Size & Forecast by Volume | 20212028

Market Dynamics Leading trends, growth drivers, restraints, and investment opportunities

Market Segmentation A detailed analysis by indication, application, type, and geography

Competitive Landscape 9 key vendors and 22 other vendors

To know more! https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/biomarkers-market

Key Insights

Biomarkers in the field of oncology have revolutionized diagnostics and treatment pathways. Oncology indications constitute of largest share because biomarkers are being largely used for cancer research and diagnostics due to their high prevalence worldwide.

Diagnostics dominated the application segment. However, the application of biomarkers in drug discovery & development is expected to grow significantly during the forecast period because biomarkers studies are expected to become an integral part of the drug development process with the aim of developing more effective drugs at a lower cost

North America is the largest market for biomarkers. The increase in R&D expenditures and funding for biomarker-driven drug discovery & development and precision medicine is one of the major driving factors.

APAC is anticipated to exhibit the highest CAGR of 13.96% during the forecast period. Increasing developments and incorporation of advanced technologies to enhance biomarker-based testing and increasing demand for biomarkers in drug development is driving the demand in APAC.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on the market. Several biomarkers research activities got postponed as most of the research activities were focused on COVID-19 indications.

Market Segmentation

Indication

Oncology

Cardiology

Neurology

Immunology

Others

Application

Type

Diagnostic Biomarker

Monitoring Biomarker

Prognostic Biomarker

Predictive Biomarker

Susceptibility Biomarker

Other Biomarker

Region

North America

Europe

Germany

France

UK

Italy

Spain

APAC

Japan

China

India

South Korea

Australia

Latin America

Middle East & Africa

Turkey

South Africa

Saudi Arabia

Competition Overview

The biomarkers market is highly dynamic, with the presence of several global, regional, and local players engaged in biomarkers discovery and development in collaboration with several research organizations. The growth of the biomarkers market majorly depends on advancements in technology and investments in R&D to discover and develop more biomarkers. Global players are focusing on developing more biomarkers and expanding their product portfolio to remain competitive in the market. The key players are also engaged in strategic acquisitions as part of their inorganic growth strategy to remain competitive and grow in the market. Through mergers & acquisitions, major players continue to expand their market shares. Furthermore, they are also growing through partnerships and collaborations with several research organizations to develop biomarkers for new testing strategies.

Explore our healthcare lifesciences profile to know more about the industry.

Click Here to Download the Free Sample Report

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About Arizton:

Arizton Advisory and Intelligence is an innovation and quality-driven firm, which offers cutting-edge research solutions to clients across the world. We excel in providing comprehensive market intelligence reports and advisory and consulting services.We offer comprehensive market research reports on industries such as consumer goods & retail technology, automotive and mobility, smart tech, healthcare, and life sciences, industrial machinery, chemicals, and materials, IT and media, logistics and packaging. These reports contain detailed industry analysis, market size, share, growth drivers, and trend forecasts.Arizton comprises a team of exuberant and well-experienced analysts who have mastered in generating incisive reports. Our specialist analysts possess exemplary skills in market research. We train our team in advanced research practices, techniques, and ethics to outperform in fabricating impregnable research reports.

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Digital biomarkers - An Emerging tool in precision Medicines. The Biomarkers Market to Reach $86 Billion by 2027 - Arizton - Yahoo Finance

Sprint Bioscience today announces that the NIMA program is focused on developing a precision medicine treatment that targets the protein Nicotinamide N-methyl transferase (NNMT). The program will be launched in connection with Sprint Bioscience participating in the pharmaceutical industry's largest annual partnering meeting, BIO International Convention, in San Diego, June 13-16, 2022.

The NNMT gene is overexpressed in multiple cancers and high levels of NNMT is linked to poor prognosis in several tumor types, including gastric cancer, ovarian cancer and glioblastoma. Glioblastoma, which is one of the most aggressive cancers, accounts for about 35 percent of all brain tumors and is thus one of the main challenges in today's cancer care. The median survival for patients with glioblastoma is approximately 1214 months. Gastric cancer is the fifth most common cancer globally and the median survival for metastatic gastric cancer is only 15-17 weeks. Consequently, there is a large remaining unmet medical need for improved treatment alternatives for these indications.We are very pleased with the progress of the NIMA program, which entails atruly promising opportunity to develop a novel cancer treatment alternative. Our fragment-based drug development platform has enabled us once more to rapidly develop highly potent inhibitors of a novel target. We are very much looking forward to introducing the NIMA program to potential partners", said Martin Andersson, Chief Scientific Officer at Sprint Bioscience.About the NNMT protein and cancerThe NNMT protein is upregulated in several cancers and is involved in various important processes in the survival of cancer cells at the interface between epigenetics, tumor metabolism and immunosuppression.

Upregulation of NNMT has been shown to promote tumor growth through epigenetic reprogramming of both cancer cells and stromal cell types in the tumor. Elevated NNMT have also been shown to affect cell metabolism, such as levels of S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) and biosynthesis of NADH. The product produced by NNMT, 1-methylnicotinamide (1MNA), is excreted by tumor cells and inactivates the function of immune cells in the tumor.

Studies have also shown that the ability of CAR-T cells to eliminate tumor cells is affected by 1MNA, which opens up for treatments where NNMT inhibitors can be used in combination with various types of immunotherapies, including cell therapies such as CAR-T.

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Sprint Bioscience's NIMA program is focused on the target protein NNMT and will be launched at the BIO International convention - Marketscreener.com

Description

The Center for Genomics and Systems Biology (CGSB) at New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) invites applications from individuals to be appointed as a Postdoctoral Associate. The position will be based at NYU Abu Dhabi and supervised by Dr. Kirsten Sadler Edepli.

The Postdoctoral Associate will use bioinformatics tools applied to genomics datasets and experimental approaches to study regeneration, development, or other biological processes. Projects in the Edepli lab integrate datasets from model organisms (mice and zebrafish) to understand how altering the epigenetic landscape promotes or restricts liver regeneration in mice.

Applicants must have a PhD in biological sciences, genetics, genomics, cell biology, physiology, or related fields. Applicants who have sold expertise in epigenetics, epigenomics, and multi-omics and who seek to join a dynamic and creative team of scientists focused on the epigenetic mechanisms regulating regeneration across diverse species will be considered.

The terms of employment include highly competitive salary, housing allowance, and other benefits. Applications are accepted immediately and candidates will be considered until the position is filled. To be considered, all applicants must submit a cover letter, curriculum vitae, transcript of degree, a one-page summary of research accomplishments and interests, and at least 2 letters of recommendation, all in PDF format. If you have any questions, please email:nyuad.cgsb@nyu.edu

About NYUAD:

NYU Abu Dhabi is a degree-granting research university with a fully integrated liberal arts and science undergraduate program in the Arts, Sciences, Social Sciences, Humanities, and Engineering. NYU Abu Dhabi, NYU New York, and NYU Shanghai, form the backbone of NYUs global network university, an interconnected network of portal campuses and academic centers across six continents that enable seamless international mobility of students and faculty in their pursuit of academic and scholarly activity. This global university represents a transformative shift in higher education, one in which the intellectual and creative endeavors of academia are shaped and examined through an international and multicultural perspective. As a major intellectual hub at the crossroads of the Arab world, NYUAD serves as a center for scholarly thought, advanced research, knowledge creation, and sharing, through its academic, research, and creative activities.

EOE/AA/Minorities/Females/Vet/Disabled/Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity Employer

UAE Nationals are encouraged to apply.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

For people in the EU, click here for information on your privacy rights under GDPR:www.nyu.edu/it/gdpr

NYU is an equal opportunity employer committed to equity, diversity, and social inclusion.

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Post-Doctoral Associate in the Center for Genomics and Systems Biology job with NEW YORK UNIVERSITY ABU DHABI | 291713 - Times Higher Education

IN AN ARTICLE entitled How to Have the Best Pregnancy Ever, published in 2013 on the feminist news site Jezebel, Tracie Egan Morrissey offers advice to her readers. Doctors say that a glass of wine a day will not harm your unborn baby, or its IQ, she writes, referring to a study in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gyncology. That being said, Morrissey continues, citing an article in PLOS ONE, even one glass of wine in your entire pregnancy could lower your babys IQ. What follows is a gleeful onslaught of contradictory and sometimes absurd guidance, much of it supported by peer-reviewed research. Dont eat fatty foods! Dont sleep on your back! Rub almond oil all over your taint! The drumbeat of directives and prohibitions will be familiar to any reader who has ever been pregnant. So might the ability of that drumbeat to keep the pregnant person on high alert. In 2022, it goes almost without saying that injunctions and warnings of this kind take aim at one party: the womb-bearing parent.

In a world where the CDC recommends that all women of childbearing age take birth control or abstain from drinking on the off chance that they might become pregnant, it may be difficult to imagine that the gestating parent wasnt always on the hook for the quality of the baby. To the contrary: Fathers, genetic chance, and the child-rearing environment each took a star turn. As historian and philosopher of science Sarah S. Richardson writes in The Maternal Imprint: The Contested Science of Maternal-Fetal Effects, the very idea that the parent contributing the egg plays an equal role in heredity to the parent contributing the sperm was radical, constituting something of a revolution on the scientific front and in ideas about gender. In the 1880s, German biologist August Weismann demonstrated that eggs and sperm contain equal quantities of hereditary material. He also showed that this material doesnt change as a result of its carriers life experiences. Before then, however, educated thinkers of all stripes believed that egg-bearers and sperm-bearers brought qualitatively and quantitatively different elements to shaping offspring. They also thought that what happened to prospective parents in the course of their lives could affect the hereditary material they passed to their offspring. According to Descartes, for example, mothers had nothing to do with a fetuss internal organs. Rather, they telegraphed through the umbilical cord what its body ought to look like. And either parent leading a dissipated life would, in the view of some 19th- and early 20th-century physicians, impart deficits to an embryo at conception. Physician and eugenicist Frederick Walker Mott railed especially at the race poisons, alcohol and syphilis, which could make sperm degenerate.

These ideas werent merely the result of technical constraints on what scientists could see and describe. Researchers enlisted evidence at the cellular level to support the story of separate reproductive roles for males and females. Biologists who observed sperm under a microscope concluded that the heroic, wriggling gametes rejuvenated eggs, infusing the lineage with vim and vigor. Even granting that eggs and sperm contributed the same amount of hereditary material, some researchers, like American zoologist William Keith Brooks, maintained that the egg carried instructions for a general species type what makes a fetus recognizable as, say, a human while the sperm contained the blueprint for a unique individual. Scottish biologists Patrick Geddes and J. Arthur Thomson took the division of labor further: ova were responsible for passive maintenance, they insisted, while sperm built and synthesized. Eggs, in effect, furnished raw material, while sperm served as both the architectural visionaries and the contractors realizing the vision. In all these accounts, whatever genius a child might possess is clearly derived from the male parent.

This is not to say that mothers were ever in the clear, particularly with respect to damaging a fetus. Even when Weismanns theory of sex equality in heredity was ascendant, many respected researchers, clinicians, and members of the public continued to understand the bodies of pregnant women as dangerously porous. Against this backdrop, the idea that women could influence their developing fetuses for good that the behaviors and attitudes of gestating parents could make children healthy, pious, and intelligent was hailed by some as progressive. Eugenic thinkers of a feminist bent and their followers seized on this possibility as creating an arena where women had agency. They used claims that women could gestate an improved race to argue that women should have the freedoms and resources to realize that potential.

If youre detecting a war of the sexes coursing through debates about how heredity works, youre not wrong. Gender politics, Richardson makes clear, at once spring from and are embedded in European and American theories of heredity. Late 19th- and early 20th-century thinkers wrote frankly about the premise that, on the cellular stage, the relationship between eggs and sperm played out the balance of power between the sexes. On the side of Weismann and the androgynous germ plasm, philosophical thinkers like Simone de Beauvoir cited equality in gametes as proof that the sexes themselves had to be equal in some fundamental way. Disciples of complementarity theories of egg and sperm, meanwhile, saw reflected under their microscopes the self-evident truth that males were active and original, igniting creation and driving innovation, while females were passive and inertial, warehousing nourishment and conserving traits through time.

Like other scientific theories, ideas about how parents influence their unborn children did not and do not emerge out of social vacuums. Richardson is the latest in a series of thinkers, including anthropologist Emily Martin, to identify how theories of heredity locate intuitions about causality in authoritative knowledge, however it might be defined in a particular time and place. That is to say, if an account feels true if so-called common sense suggests that it is true then it can be difficult for empirical evidence to dislodge the master narrative it is enlisted to support, whether with regard to the formation of a blastocyst or the readout from a PCR. The scientific and medical workers in Maternal Imprint were steeped in such master narratives. They appealed to and drew from the microscope and from the observations and lived experiences of everyday people. And their spheres of influence extended beyond the learned community and into Chautauqua tents, popular pamphlets, and amphitheaters, sometimes creating echo chambers in which popular belief and quantitative data reinforced one another.

Its well and good to call out logical fallacies and wishful interpretations of data in disciplines that have long since lost scientific legitimacy phrenology and eugenics, for instance. But the stakes are much higher when critics of science identify suspect master narratives at work in fields that are cutting-edge today. At the heart of Richardsons book is just such a critique of the burgeoning world of epigenetics. Epigenetics, the field of biology concerned with how DNA is expressed or silenced, has been welcomed as emancipating us from the tyranny of genetics our fate is no longer carved in stone in our genes and as a call to personal responsibility. As the CDC website on epigenetics puts it, Since your environment and behaviors, such as diet and exercise, can result in epigenetic changes, it is easy to see the connection between your genes and your behaviors and environment. Statements like these make the relationship between environment, behavior, and epigenetic change sound straightforward. Richardson takes on three prominent case studies in epigenetics to demonstrate that it is anything but.

Each case takes as its departure point a stressor a stimulus with the potential to knock a body out of biological equilibrium experienced by women of childbearing age. In two scenarios, the Dutch famine winter of 19441945 and the 1998 ice storm in the Montrgie region of Quebec, researchers focus on pregnancies that took place during or shortly after an acute challenge. They believe that gestating parents bodily experiences, like hunger and cold, and their psychological experiences, like anger and fear, leave epigenetic traces on the genomes of their children. The third case study, led by neurogeneticist Rachel Yehuda, seeks to explain through epigenetics how high cortisol levels in Holocaust survivors correlate with relatively low cortisol levels in their children. All three studies claim to have discovered an effect of the stressor on gene expression patterns in offspring. They also assert that these epigenetic changes cause deficits, including higher body mass indices among children gestated during the Dutch famine and the Quebecois ice storm and attenuated stress responses among the children of Holocaust survivors.

How big are these changes, and how worried should prospective parents be? (It would seem that our pregnant Jezebel readers now have epigenetics to add to the list of threats!)

Richardson points to major grounds for caution when interpreting the results of epigenetic studies. The first red flag is that the effects identified are subclinical, meaning that they wouldnt register at a doctors visit where a care provider is looking for signs that somethings wrong. Richardson refers to such effects as cryptic. By contrast, she notes, Previous eras of research [] focused on severe, gross prenatal deprivations causing visible, macroscopic outcomes. While research in the past was concerned with issues like folate deficiency causing spina bifida or thalidomide getting in the way of fetal limb formation, the biological traces of epigenetic difference arent at all obvious.

Setting aside health effects, the epigenetic changes measured in humans often fall well below the threshold of what scientists consider worth talking about in animal research. Studies of epigenetic changes in rats and mice show methylation levels, a metric of epigenetic change, between 20 and 100 percent at the locus of interest. Significant epigenetic changes like these do result in readily detectable changes in offspring bodies and behavior, whether it is in fur color or response to novel environments. Human studies, on the other hand, often report methylation differences under 10 percent.

The concerns pile on. Most researchers dont look at the entire epigenome, instead zeroing in on portions contained in pre-designed and commercially available chips, so the range of changes that might turn up in a study is limited from the outset. Epigenetic changes are measured in tissue, and it happens to matter what tissue you choose for measurement, since methylation patterns differ across the blood, skin, and internal organs within each person. Even a single tissue, like blood, contains many types of cells carrying information from all over the body. Their epigenetic signals might be responding to circumstances far removed from, say, a trauma experienced in utero. In fact, methylation patterns at some sites change on time scales ranging from hours to years. Not only is the tissue itself important, but it matters when in the life course you collect it if you dont get a sample at birth, its possible that the changes you observe took place at a later time and werent caused by experiences during gestation.

Then there are all the possible explanations for epigenetic differences that studies dont consider. Genes and epigenetics arent unrelated; your genes have a lot to say about your methylation patterns, so it may be that your biological family has more impact on your epigenetic profile than your lived experience. This is particularly noteworthy because studies focus almost exclusively on gestating parents, meaning that genetic, epigenetic, behavioral, and psychological data from the sperm-contributing parent are missing. And, as in all studies of variation, sample size matters. The smaller the data set, the more influence any single data point has on the story you tell.

People are invested in epigenetic narratives, just as they were invested in the self-evident truths of phrenology and the aspirational rallying cries of eugenics. And for good reason. Biological evidence, carrying with it deep forms of authority, confers legitimacy on experience: if its in the genes, it really happened. Recently, I described Richardsons doubts about the epigenetics of Holocaust survival to a colleague. He had heard Yehuda speak some years prior. His mother-in-law, he explained, was a Holocaust survivor, and the description Yehuda offered of the psychology of survivors mapped perfectly onto his own familys lived experience. The framework Yehuda proposed to explain the transmission of trauma across generations offered him and his wife a profound sense of relief; the anxiety his wife carried, and the anxiety they observed in their children, now felt inevitable and thus worthy of forgiveness. It had released them from the story that their suffering resulted from bad parenting. No thoughtful or rigorous critique, he told me, with a mix of gentle humor and deep seriousness, would persuade his family to relinquish the explanatory lifeline Yehuda had thrown to them.

In this anecdote, we find the crux of the issue: stories about heredity are maps of responsibility. They can function therapeutically or punitively, attributing problems to supposedly immutable sources like biology or to theoretically flexible causes like behavior. (Neither explanation, of course, is inherently progressive just ask LGBTQ-plus rights activists about the possibilities and perils of born this way.) What they often also do, as Richardson illustrates, is stick the gestating parent with the proverbial bill. No matter that the circumstances under investigation were out of pregnant peoples control: no gestating parent could be blamed for a famine in the middle of a war, an ice storm, or attempted genocide. The pathway of action for these catastrophes, according to scientists, is the maternal body. The gestating parent, therefore, becomes the locus of surveillance and intervention, the site of infinite possibility and infinite frustration in the quest for some elusively optimal way to be.

As an anthropologist who studies reproduction, I run in circles, biological and political, with colleagues about the role of the mother in reproductive outcomes. Entire professional organizations, including the International Society for the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease, convene on the premise that the gestating body or indeed, the potentially gestating body is the place to intercede to promote the birth of healthy children who grow into productive members of society. Here, I think we could benefit from turning back to the writer of the Jezebel article, Tracie Egan Morrissey, who has wisdom to offer on the question of how much any individual can steer reproductive destiny. Dont have asthma or allergies, she writes. Dont live near pollution. [] Dont be poor.

What would it mean for theories of heredity if we were to turn away from the individual as the site of intervention and focus instead on addressing human needs to eat, have safe shelter, and be free from persecution? What if we were to create a world in which gestating did not entail a nine-month passage through an environmental minefield? Then we might put what Richardson describes as the long reach of the womb in perspective and allow the womb-equipped among us a centuries-overdue sigh of relief.

Meredith Reiches is an associate professor of Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.

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Womb with a View: On the Science of Maternal Effects - lareviewofbooks

Technological Advancements Leading to Enhanced Efficiency & Greater Precision of Molecular Biology Enzymes, Kits & Reagents

Many technological advancements are been made by the molecular biology enzymes, kits & reagents manufacturers, who dedicate their focus toward developing advanced products in a bid to enhance their product portfolio. The advanced products facilitate the research processes with offerings such as enhanced efficiency and greater precision. One of the greatest examples of this is SMART Digest Kit developed by Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., designed particularly for the biopharmaceutical & proteomic applications. This kit enables the generation of data of high quality, meanwhile curtailing time needed for preparation of samples. Adoption of molecular biology enzymes, kits & reagents will further be propelled by huge investments made in the research & development by pharmaceutical & biotechnology industries coupled with the provision of several reimbursements for molecular diagnostics.

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A significant increase in the genetic disorders prevalence has been witnessed since the recent past, thereby driving adoption of molecular diagnostics. The processes of molecular diagnostics including epigenetics and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) require molecular biology enzymes, kits & reagents as, which form an integral part of these processes. Mounting cases of genetic disorders in light of growing geriatric population will significantly fuel demand for molecular biology enzymes, kits & reagents in the near future. Genetic data of individuals is considered highly confidential, and sharing this data is strictly prohibited. Genome sequencing aids identifying & treating a wide variety of diseases. However, there is lack of tools that are effective for securing the genetic information of individuals, and the information ends up being stored in cloud databases, which further poses threats regarding data thefts. The absence of effective technology to store genetic information is anticipated to negatively influence demand for molecular biology enzymes, kits & reagents.

Key Research Findings from the Report

Prominent companies in the global molecular biology enzymes, kits & reagents market are implementing strategies including manufacturing capacity & geographic expansion. Manufacturers are also concentrating on new product launches for enhancing their shares in this increasingly competitive market. The report has listed key players supporting the market growth, which include Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., Illumina, Inc., Roche Holdings, Inc., Takara Bio Inc., Jena Bioscience GmbH, Merck & Co Company, Qiagen N.V., Agilent Technologies, Inc., KRISHGEN BioSystems, and Promega Corporation.

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Market Taxonomy

A segmentation analysis offered in the report propounds forecasts on global molecular biology enzymes, kits & reagents market. Categorizing the market in terms of application, end-user, product type, and region. Analysis on Y-o-Y growth comparison, the market share comparison, and the revenue comparison coupled with relevant market numbers is offered in this chapter. Global market for molecular biology enzymes, kits & reagents has been regionally divided into Japan, Middle East & Africa, Europe, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan, North America, and Latin America.

Region

Product Type

End User

Application

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Molecular Biology Enzymes, Kits & Reagents Market likely to bring in approximately US$ 22000 Million revenues by 2026-end Political Beef -...

MADISON, Wis. (AP) New data shows a sharp increase in Type 2 diabetes among children in Wisconsin and doctors think COVID-19 could be a factor.

Figures from UW Health Kids shows a nearly 200% increase in the number of cases over the last several years.

Dr. Elizabeth Mann is a pediatric endocrinologist and director of the Type 2 Diabetes Program at UW Health Kids. Mann says its a trend medical experts have noticed for years, but its taken a worrisome turn recently.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, weve just seen a sharp increase beyond what we had expected, Mann said.

In 2018, 5.8% percent of pediatric patients with new onset diabetes at Madisons American Family Childrens Hospital had Type 2, a disease that primarily affects adults. In 2021, that number grew to 16.4%. And so far in 2022, 1 in 6 pediatric patients at the childrens hospital with new onset diabetes has Type 2, Wisconsin Public Radio reported.

In kids, this Type 2 diabetes just acts a little bit more aggressively, Mann said. So its not only that were seeing Type 2 diabetes at younger ages, but it also seems to be a more severe form where kids are needing more medications and have more significant complications from it.

In Type 2 diabetes, the most prevalent form overall, the pancreas produces insulin but the body has developed a resistance to it.

Mann said there is a common misconception that Type 2 diabetes is purely a result of diet and activity levels. She said genetics and epigenetics play a big role in making people more susceptible to the disease.

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Type 2 diabetes on the rise among Wisconsin children - Iron Mountain Daily News