Category Archives: Genetic medicine

December 12, 2019 -Payers are using coordinated care and precision medicine to make diagnoses more quickly and ensure a strong treatment plan for severe and chronic disease management.

Early detection of chronic and severe diseases can mean the difference between life and death. It can also mean the difference between affordable therapies and crippling medical bills.

A March 2018 study found that early cancer diagnosis could result in significant cost savings nationally. Researchers looked at 17 types of cancer and estimated that early detection could save, conservatively, $26 billion nationally.

Recognizing what is at stake, payers take different approaches to catching severe or chronic illnesses in their formative stages.

Coordinated care is a simple, well-tested method for both chronic disease prevention and chronic disease management.

READ MORE: Chronic Disease Coordinated Care May Not Impact Pediatric Spending

Humana recently announced that it would pursue a traditional approach to ensure that patients in danger of chronic kidney and end of life renal disease find out early and get the support they need.

Humana will task skilled provider teams with catching these diseases earlier and implementing personalized treatments.

This coordinated care strategy builds a team of nephrologists, nurses, dietitians, and social workers from one of Humanas two partnerseither Monogram Health or Somatus, depending on geographic location.

The providers will work with the patients primary care physician to determine the best treatments and provide home healthcare options, patient education, and mental healthcare support through counseling.

This multidisciplinary approach will focus on detecting kidney disease earlier, slowing disease progression, and utilizing therapies that enable members to receive care in the convenience of their own home, said William Shrank, MD, MPHS, Humanas chief medical and corporate affairs officer.

READ MORE: Cigna and MSK Start Value-Based, Coordinated Cancer Care Program

Through this collaboration, we will strengthen care coordination for Humana members with kidney disease. Our partnerships will offer customized care options, and will empower patients with education and engagement tools to better manage their condition.

In February, Humana took a similar approach with its oncology program, enhancing its coordinated care strategy and using analytics to ensure quality care.

With new advancements every day in genetic therapies, precision medicine is another method payers use to ensure that patients receive a quick diagnosis and the best treatment plan.

CVS Health launched an oncology care program called Transform Oncology Care, which uses precision medicine to identify and treat cancer patients. The program is rolling out to Aetna members in 12 states but is also available for use by other payers.

Due to CVS Healths geographic and data footprint, it can assess the likelihood that a patient will get cancer. With that information, the patients provider can intervene early on to pursue preventive care, screenings, or therapies.

READ MORE: Precision Medicine Challenges Persist, Aetna Leads Response

When it comes to identifying the appropriate therapies, the program allows providers to use genetics to identify the best course of treatment for a patient recently diagnosed with cancer.

Timing in cancer care is everything and when a patient does not get started on the right treatment it can result in progression and higher costs, said Alan Lotvin, MD, executive vice president and chief transformation officer at CVS Health.

We are the first company working to make the latest in precision medicine accessible to more patients and further empower informed treatment decision-making based on a patient's genetic profile to give them the best chance for successful treatment and improved quality-of-life.

Working in coordination with its third-party vendor, Tempus, CVS Healths new program will enable patients to undergo a broad-panel gene sequencing test once diagnosed to determine the best treatment. This is ideal not only for patients in early stages of cancer, but especially for patients in more advanced stages who need to start treatment as soon as possible.

Because genomic sequencing has certain eligibility requirements, providers are not always aware that gene sequencing is an option open to their patient.

In order to ensure that oncologists prescribe gene sequencing to eligible patients, CVS Health introduced a web-based provider portal into its e-prescribing software which allows oncologists to see the patients eligibility for the broad-panel gene sequencing tests among other functions.

For those who qualify, the program identifies the best treatment options based on genetic makeup. It also alerts providers to potential clinical trials that patients can enroll in and makes the enrollment process easier and faster.

The program integrates National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines which are constantly updated for the most recent suggested prescribing and treatment options.

Critically, this service can be employed at the point of detection, so treatments can be identified immediately, and a therapeutic strategy quickly determined.

CVS Health combines this digital solution with a nurse-led coordinated care team to continue quality of care after the diagnosis.

This service is available for only fully insured commercial members.

Among its other chronic disease management developments, earlier this year, CVS Health used preventive care to improve diabetes treatment.

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Care Coordination and Precision Medicine Improve Early Diagnoses - HealthPayerIntelligence.com

ByGreg Rienzi

STOCKHOLMDuring his distinguished career, Gregg Semenza has given hundreds of lectures. In fact, for general scientific audiences, the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine professor often gives a longer version of the very talk he presented on Sundaydetailing his discovery of the HIF-1 protein's role in human cell oxygen level regulationduring his Nobel Prize lecture at the Karolinska Institutet's Aula Medica auditorium.

But he's never presented to such a large crowd, let alone for such a crowning career achievement.

At the end of his Nobel Prize lecture, where in 30 minutes he effortlessly synthesized three decades of research on how the human body adapts to changes in oxygen availability, Semenza took ample time to thank the many people responsible for bringing him to this moment.

He dedicated his lecture to his high school biology teacher, Rose Nelson, pictured prominently in a slide of the many scientists whom he learned from.

Video credit: Len Turner and Dave Schmelick

"Dr. Nelson was my inspiration in science. I'm here because of her," Semenza told the crowd. He also thanked his early mentors at Johns Hopkins, chiefly professors of genetic medicine Haig Kazazian and Stylianos Antonarakis, both in the audience, and the late Victor McKusick, hailed as the "father of medical genetics." Indeed, the list of acknowledgments was long and detailed, naming nearly 150 faculty colleagues as well as students and postdocs who have collaborated with him over the years.

But before he was done, Semenza flashed a slide of his familyof him with his wife and three childrentaken on the beach during a vacation to Maine this past summer. "And last but not least, I'd like to thank " he began before pausing, tears welling in his eyes, voice cracking. He bowed his head briefly. In an instant, the emotion of the moment overtook him. Sensing the heartfelt struggle, the packed house of more than 800 attendees came to his aid with a roar of applause.

"Thank you," Semenza said, before pausing to take in a deep breath. "OK. I've got it together. I'd like to thank my wife, Laura; my sons, Evan and Gabe; my daughter, Allie, for always being there for me. Giving me unconditional love and support."

The moment was out of character for the usually reserved physician-scientist, but it gave a hint of the many emotions bubbling just beneath the surface during perhaps the most momentous week of his life.

"At that moment, I was feeling the power of my feelings for those people, particularly for my family, and it just became really kind of overwhelming," Semenza said the next morning. "That's never happened to me before. ... It caught me by surprise."

Video credit: Nobel Prize

On many occasions, Semenza has said sharing this Nobel Prize experience with family and friends is the pinnacle of the trip. A group of 30 family members and close friends have traveled to Stockholm to celebrate the week with him, including his four siblings, his mother, and her twin sister.

Beth Murphy, Semenza's sister, said it was both touching and surprising to see her older brother break down on stage, if only for a moment.

"It's not like him, for him to tear up like that," she said. "But obviously he went someplace deep inside of him."

She added that it's already been an emotional few days for their family as they share this unique experience with him, touring Stockholm and taking part in Nobel Week activities.

"I really, really love seeing how happy Gregg is," she said. "This is his life's work. To see him smiling from ear to ear the whole time is just fabulous."

Image credit: Will Kirk / Johns Hopkins University

Semenza's siblings have said the fame and attention of receiving science's highest honor have certainly not gotten to their brother, who has been celebrated at nearly every turn since he received news of the award in early October.

"He's the same humble, hardworking, and quiet guy he's always been," said brother Matt Semenza. "For us, it's been very exciting. I got to see him win the Gairdner Award [for Biomedical Research] in Toronto and the 2016 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award in New York. So this is like the apogee of the award road trip we've been on with him."

Laurene Graig, Semenza's sister, added that while the emotional moment on stage might have been out of character, her brother's unselfishness and humility are not.

"I really appreciate that [Gregg] has recognized all the people who have helped and supported him along the way," she said. "I think it takes a certain amount of grace to do that. I'm very proud of him. We all are. There's been a lot of 'we' when he talks, not 'I' or "my.'"

Image caption: Semenza (center) with his family

Image credit: Will Kirk / Johns Hopkins University

When asked about his accomplishments and research, Semenza frequently credits others, and considers himself fortunate to happen upon the discoveries that brought him to this point. He traces it all back to his days growing up in New York.

Born in New York City in 1956, Semenza spent his formative years in Tarrytown, New York, a village located in Westchester County along the Hudson River. Semenza called it a "great place to grow up," a small-town atmosphere only a few train stops away from New York City where he would often go on the weekends to tour museums. His mother, Kathryn, taught at an elementary school, so learning and education were always priorities for the young Semenza.

At Sleepy Hollow High School, he learned to love science from Nelson, who during his junior year alerted him to an opportunity to take part in a National Science Foundation summer program at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research, an independent research institute then located in Yonkers, New York, and now located on the campus of Cornell University in Ithaca.

There he would do simple experiments like exposing plants to viruses and detailing the signs of infection.

"I was all thumbs back then because this was the first time I'd done it," Semenza said. "But I still enjoyed it. And this experience was really important for me because it showed me this was something I'd like to do for a career. It was just one more link in the chain of events that led me on the path that ended up here."

This exposure to science at such a young age, and the mentoring he received from Nelson, is largely why Semenza now champions STEM education and the teaching profession. That was what compelled him to not only dedicate his Nobel Prize lecture to Nelson, he said, but also to share the long list of undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdocs who have worked with him over the past three decades at Johns Hopkins.

"I stopped doing experiments in my lab back in 1996," he said. "Since then, all the data has been generated by students and trainees. I can have all the greatest ideas in the world, but science is about generating data. If I didn't have all these people doing that, all these ideas wouldn't matter. We're not philosophers. We're scientists. If we have an idea, if we have a hypothesis, we have to prove it."

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As Johns Hopkins physician-scientist Gregg Semenza travels to Stockholm to accept his Nobel Prize, the Hub takes readers along for the journey, from his arrival in Sweden to his Nobel lecture to the grand Nobel Award ceremony and banquet

Mentoring students, he says, has been vitally important to him, as he feels the need to repay the debt of what his mentors did for him and pay it forward to the next generation.

That next generation was notably present at his Nobel Prize lecture, a celebration of science that many consider the most exciting part of the week as people get to hear directly from the Nobel laureates about their significant contributions to their fields. A long line of mostly students and young researchers snaked around the Aula Medica building that day, down steps and around the block, students such as Stephanie Chanda, a first-year biomedicine master's student at the Karolinska Institutet who had been in line with friends for hours to ensure she got in and got a good seat. "Of course, we are very interested in the Nobel lecture because we want to be researchers ourselves one day," Chanda said.

Also in the crowd were Semenza's family and friends and colleagues, including several of those he thanked in his talk.

"Having family and friends here is really the most important part of this experience, sharing this with them," Semenza said. "It's been great to have [my mom] here. Nobody has been more excited than she has. She's become something of a local celebrity back in Tarrytown, appearing in all the media, newspaper and television. ... She's very into it. And she deserves the attention.

"It's been an exciting week," he added, "from the time we stepped out of the car at the Grand Hotel to the throng of autograph seekers standing out in the cold waiting for us to come, to the thrill of giving the Nobel lecture yesterday. And having so many friends and family here to enjoy it with. That's really what has made it most special for me."

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A Nobel journey a lifetime in the making - The Hub at Johns Hopkins

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Here are five things you ought to understand about science, according to professor of genetic medicine Gregg Semenza.

This week, Semenzaalong with William Kaelin Jr. and Peter Ratcliffewill accept the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in Stockholm, Sweden, for discovering the gene that controls how cells respond to low oxygen levels.

In the two months since the award was announced, Semenza, director of the vascular program at the Institute for Cell Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, has spoken with audiences around the world about the implications of this work in understanding and eventually treating blood disorders, blinding eye diseases, cancer, diabetes, and other conditions. But hes also spoken about the value of basic science.

Here are five things Semenza says he wishes more people knew about science:

The Nobel Prizes usually go to older scientists for discoveries they made when younger, and because of this, Semenza says people may think that good science is solely the domain of older people.

We often make these findings early in our careers, but it is only much later that the significance of those discoveries becomes apparent, he says.

A lot of science is about taking small steps forward. Big leaps are often the result of collaboration, Semenza says.

For example, when he and his lab identified the HIF-1 gene, which controls cells under low oxygen conditions, they initially ran into problems trying to clone the genes DNApart of the process of learning more about a genes function and other characteristics. He got help from fellow Johns Hopkins scientist Thomas Kelly, who had expertise in a workaround approach: purifying the protein made by HIF-1, which is another way to learn more about the gene and its function in the cell.

There are places with very smart people, and there are places where everybody is friendly, Semenza says. But there are few places with smart people who are almost always willing to help you.

When we wrote the manuscript reporting the discovery of HIF-1, we submitted it to top-tier journals, and they did not find it to be of sufficient interest to warrant publication.

But that didnt stop him: Semenza got help from scientist Victor McKusick, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published the paper. It has been cited in more than 6,000 scientific publications.

In high school, I had a biology teacher who inspired me and others to pursue careers in scientific research by teaching us about the scientists and the scientific process that led to discoveries, Semenza says.

She would often preface her description of a scientific discovery by saying, When you win your Nobel Prize, I dont want you to forget that you learned that here. We need to give more emphasis to teachers and reward them for the work that they do, which makes such a difference in the lives of so many.

The inventions and discoveries that come out of basic research are critical for the economy, public health, and treating disease earlier, Semenza says.

It is better, both for patients and for the economy, to treat diseases early rather than later, and we need more research to learn how to more effectively treat many cancers.

Source: Johns Hopkins University

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5 things a Nobel Prize winner wants you to know about science - Futurity: Research News

ByGreg Rienzi

STOCKHOLMA small group of men clutching notebooks and folders gathered Thursday afternoon outside Stockholm's Grand Hotel, a 145-year-old luxe waterfront accommodation in the historic city's Old Town. They were autograph hunters, and many had been there for hours in the December cold waiting for the signatures of the hotel's guests of honor. Since 1901, the Grand Hotel has hosted Nobel laureates and their families, and Thursday was arrival day in Sweden's capital for most of this year's 14 award winners.

As the skies darkened and the biting Baltic Sea winds whipped across the Vartan Strait, the crowd of autograph hounds only grew. One such gentleman, a 70-year-old freelance photographer named Hans, has stood outside the hotel on arrival day every year since 1976, when he collected the signature of Saul Bellow, that year's winner of the Nobel Prize for literature. In a well-worn red notebook, he held signatures of dozensperhaps hundredsof laureates including author Alice Munro and British biochemist Gregory Winter. The next one he sought would go on a photo he kept in a folder. "I hope he will sign," Hans said, pointing to the name he'd written in black marker, Gregg L. Semenza.

Minutes later, the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine professor and winner of the 2019 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine gladly obliged, signing a dozen autographs or more just moments after he was whisked out of a Volvo XC40 SUV, the official car of Nobel Week, and onto the red carpet accompanied by his wife, Laura Margaret Kasch-Semenza. Other bystanders whipped out their phones and cameras to capture the moment. Semenza had been in Stockholm less than an hour, and he was already getting the rock star treatment.

Video credit: Len Turner and Dave Schmelick

In this city, the home and birthplace of the Nobel Prize, laureates are treated as celebrities, and the associated ceremonies are as much a part of popular culture in Sweden as the Academy Awards are in the U.S. After laureates arrive in Stockholm, they face a gauntlet of a schedule that includes press conferences, champagne receptions, lectures, a concert, school visits, and a trip to the Swedish Riksdag (parliament), all leading up to the grand white-tie affair award ceremony held on Dec. 10 at the Stockholm Concert Hall. Laureates will also participate in Nobel Minds, a roundtable TV discussion that is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year.

Annika Pontikis, director of communications for the Nobel Foundation, said the week is a whirlwind for each award recipient, most of whom are certainly not used to this level of attention and pageantry.

"There is a lot of expectation in the air when they arrive in Stockholm," Pontikis said. "We do our best to prepare them before and after they arrive for what is about to happen. The people of Sweden have been looking forward to this."

Image credit: Will Kirk / Johns Hopkins University

To keep them on schedule and handle all the small details, each laureate is assigned a personal attach, a young diplomat from the Swedish foreign ministry who meets them the moment they step off the plane and stays with them for the entirety of their stay.

So began the Nobel Week journey for Semenza, 63, who earned the prize for the groundbreaking discovery of the gene that controls how cells respond to low oxygen levels. Semenza shares the award, and the $913,000 cash prize, with William G. Kaelin Jr. and Sir Peter J. Ratcliffe.

Considered among the most prestigious awards in the world, Nobel Prizes have been awarded for achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace since 1901 by the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm. A total of 916 individuals and 24 organizations have received the prize named in memory of Sweden's own Alfred Nobel, a businessman, chemist, engineer, and inventor known for the discovery of dynamite.

The week officially kicked off Thursday with a morning press event held at the Nobel Prize Museum in the Old Town. On hand were representatives of the Nobel Foundation and some of the week's key participants, including Sebastian Gibrand, chef for the Nobel Banquet who won the silver medal earlier this year at the Bocuse d'Or, the world's most prestigious international culinary competition. For this year's banquet menu, Gibrand and a team of 40 chefs will focus on locally sourced ingredients from Swedish producers to feed the 1,300-plus guests, including the Swedish Royal Family.

"We will use everything from root to top, and nose to tail, to make sure we use all of the product and nothing goes to waste," said Gibrand, adding what a great honor it was to be hosting the prestigious dinner he views as a symbol of peace.

On Friday morning, the Nobel laureates visited the Nobel Prize Museum, where they each autographed a chair in the museum's restaurant and donated a specially selected artifact to the museum's collection. Semenza donated a 27-year-old autoradiogram, an image on an X-ray film produced by the pattern of decay emissions from a distribution of radioactive phosphorus. This particular image, he said, was a critical step in the discovery of hypoxia-inducible factor 1, or HIF-1, which has far-reaching implications in understanding the impact of decreased oxygen levels in blood disorders, cancer, diabetes, coronary artery disease, and other conditions.

Complete coverage

As Johns Hopkins physician-scientist Gregg Semenza travels to Stockholm to accept his Nobel Prize, the Hub takes readers along for the journey, from his arrival in Sweden to his Nobel lecture to the grand Nobel Award ceremony and banquet

Erika Lanner, CEO and director of the Nobel Prize Museum, said the artifacts give the museum's visitors an opportunity to learn more about the discoveries and works that the laureates are rewarded for.

"We are mainly a museum of stories and ideas," Lanner said. "These objects that we humbly ask the Nobel laureates to donate to us bring life, meaning, and body to these stories, which we hope will serve as inspiration for a young audience. They also help us understand and get closer to the person, which is important in itself."

The Nobel Prize is so unique and special, Lanner said, because it underscores the impact one individual can have.

"The Nobel Prize is about the possibilities for ideas to change the world," she said.

Image caption: A crowd gathers outside the Nobel Museum to catch a glimpse of the laureates as they attend a private welcoming ceremony Friday

Image credit: Will Kirk / Johns Hopkins University

Weeks before he left for Stockholm, Semenza said that he was looking forward to the gamut of events leading up to the award celebration. In many ways, life had already changed for the modest researcher, who has gotten used to posing for pictures and selfies everywhere he goes.

"In a way, it will be more hectic than it's already been for me, but I feel we've had so much preparation for that week and a half. It will be good just to be on autopilot and have an attach to tell me what to do every step of the way. And I'm very good at taking orders," Semenza said with a laugh.

He said he was most excited about taking in the once-in-a-lifetime experience with family, friends, and mentors who helped make his discovery possible, and who he hoped would enjoy the memorable experience as much as he would. Johns Hopkins will be well represented among Semenza's guests in Stockholm, who include JHU President Ronald J. Daniels; Paul B. Rothman, dean of the medical faculty and CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine; Charles Wiener, professor of medicine and president of Johns Hopkins Medicine International; Haig Kazazian, professor of genetic medicine; Landon King, professor of medicine and executive vice dean for the School of Medicine; Ted Dawson, professor of neurology and director of the Institute for Cell Engineering; and David Valle, professor of genetic medicine and director of the Institute of Genetic Medicine.

Image caption: The Nobel Prize award ceremony is a highly formal affair. Semenza is fitted for a white tie tuxedo with tails.

Image credit: Will Kirk / Johns Hopkins University

Shortly after his Thursday arrival, Semenza was driven to Hans Allde tailor shop in the city's business district to be fitted for the tuxedo that he will wear on the day of the award ceremony and banquet. He was fitted personally by owner Lars Allde, the son of the store's founder, who has worked with the majority of Nobel laureates since 1982.

Semenza looked relaxed and beaming as he entered the store, greeted as a VIP and introduced to the official photographer of 2019 Nobel Prize winners, who told him: "Get used to me. I will be with you every step of the way."

The visit was a brief onehis only big decision was what type of bow tie he would wear. Semenza left the store eager to return to his hotel, get some sleep, and prepare for what lies ahead.

"Tomorrow we get going for sure," he said. "I'm really looking forward to it."

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For Nobel laureates, a whirlwind welcome - The Hub at Johns Hopkins

Drexel researchers have developed an algorithm toolkit that can identify communities of microbes in the human body and determine how they are functioning by finding patterns their genetic code.

An algorithm akin to the annoyingly helpful one that attempts to auto-complete text messages and emails is now being harnessed for a better cause. A group of Drexel University researchers are using its pattern-recognition ability to identify microbial communities in the body by sifting through volumes of genetic code. Their method could speed the development of medical treatments for microbiota-linked ailments like Crohns disease.

In the last decade, scientists have made tremendous progress in understanding that groups of bacteria and viruses that naturally coexist throughout the human body play an important role in some vital functions like digestion, metabolism and even fighting off diseases. But understanding just how they do it remains a question.

Researchers from Drexel are hoping to help answer that question through a clever combination of high-throughput genetic sequencing and natural language processing computer algorithms. Their research, which was recently published in the journal PLOS ONE, reports a new method of analyzing the codes found in RNA that can delineate human microbial communities and reveal how they operate.

Much of the research on the human microbial environment or microbiome has focused on identifying all of the different microbe species. And the nascent development of treatments for microbiota-linked maladies operates under the idea that imbalances or deviations in the microbiome are the source of health problems, such as indigestion or Crohns disease.

But to properly correct these imbalances its important for scientists to have a broader understanding of microbial communities as they exist both in the afflicted areas and throughout the entire body.

We are really just beginning to scrape the surface of understanding the health effects of microbiota, said Gail Rosen, PhD, an associate professor in Drexels College of Engineering, who was an author of the paper. In many ways scientists have jumped into this work without having a full picture of what these microbial communities look like, how prevalent they are and how their internal configuration affects their immediate environment within the human body.

Rosen heads Drexels Center for Biological Discovery from Big Data, a group of researchers that has been applying algorithms and machine learning to help decipher massive amounts of genetic sequencing information that has become available in the last handful of years. Their work and similar efforts around the world have moved microbiology and genetics research from the wet lab to the data center creating a computational approach to studying organism interactions and evolution, called metagenomics.

In this type of research, a scan of a genetic material sample DNA or RNA can be interpreted to reveal the organisms that are likely present. The method presented by Rosens group takes that one step farther by analyzing the genetic code to spot recurring patterns, an indication that certain groups of organisms microbes in this case are found together so frequently that its not a coincidence.

We call this method themetagenomics, because we are looking for recurring themes in microbiomes that are indicators of co-occurring groups of microbes, Rosen said. There are thousands of species of microbes living in the body, so if you think about all the permutations of groupings that could exist you can imagine what a daunting task it is to determine which of them are living in community with each other. Our method puts a pattern-spotting algorithm to work on the task, which saves a tremendous amount of time and eliminates some guesswork.

Current methods for studying microbiota, gut bacteria for example, take a sample from an area of the body and then look at the genetic material thats present. This process inherently lacks important context, according to the authors.

Its impossible to really understand what microbe communities are doing if we dont first understand the extent of the community and how frequently and where else they might be occurring in the body, said Steve Woloszynek, PhD, and MD trainee in Drexels College of Medicine and co-author of the paper. In other words, its hard to develop treatments to promote natural microbial coexistence if their natural state is not yet known.

Obtaining a full map of microbial communities, using themetagenomics, allows researchers to observe how they change over time both in healthy people and those suffering from diseases. And observing the difference between the two provides clues to the function of the community, as well as illuminating the configuration of microbe species that enables it.

Most metagenomics methods just tell you which microbes are abundant therefore likely important but they dont really tell you much about how each species is supporting other community members, Rosen said. With our method you get a picture of the configuration of the community for example, it may have E. coli and B. fragilis as the most abundant microbes and in pretty equal numbers which may indicate that theyre cross-feeding. Another community may have B. fragilis as the most abundant microbe, with many other microbes in equal, but lower, numbers which could indicate that they are feeding off whatever B. fragilis is making, without any cooperation.

One of the ultimate goals of analyzing human microbiota is to use the presence of certain microbe communities as indicators to identify diseases like Crohns or even specific types of cancer. To test their new method, the Drexel researchers put it up against similar topic modeling procedures that diagnose Crohns and mouth cancer by measuring the relative abundance of certain genetic sequences.

The themetagenomics method proved to be just as accurate predicting the diseases, but it does it much faster than the other topic modeling methods minutes versus days and it also teases out how each microbe species in the indicator community may contribute to the severity of the disease. With this level of granularity, researchers will be able to home in on particular genetic groupings when developing targeted treatments.

The group has made its themetagenomics analysis tools publicly available in hopes of speeding progress toward cures and treatments for these maladies.

It's very early right now, but the more that we understand about how the microbiome functions even just knowing that groups may be acting together then we can look into the metabolic pathways of these groups and intervene or control them, thus paving the way for drug development and therapy research, Rosen said.

This research was supported by the National Science Foundation.

In addition to Rosen and Woloszynek, and Zhengqiao Zhao, PhD, from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Joshua Mell, MD, from Drexels College of Medicine; and Gideon Simpson, PhD, and Michael OConnor, PhD, from Drexels College of Arts & Sciences, participated in the research.

Read the full paper here:http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0219235

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Teams of Microbes Are at Work in Our Bodies. Drexel Researchers Have Figured Out What They're up to. - DrexelNow - Drexel Now

University of Aberdeen researchers hope their study will help help unlock the potential of medicinal cannabis by avoiding side-effectsMike Blake/Reuters

Scientists have identified genetic information that explains why some cannabis smokers suffer depression and psychosis while others experience no negative side-effects.

Researchers from the University of Aberdeen used revolutionary DNA sequencing to study the genes that make cannabis receptors in the brain. These receptors were said to hold the key to understanding why people respond differently to some drugs and could help tailor medical treatments to an individual.

Potential cannabinoid treatments to combat disease, addiction and obesity have been hindered due to the unpredictability of side-effects, which can include depression and psychosis.

Dr Alasdair MacKenzie and Dr Elizabeth Hay, from the school of medicine, medical sciences and nutrition at the university, who led the study, said they hope their discovery will help unlock the potential

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Genetic switch could be key to psychosis in cannabis smokers - The Times

Professor Sir John Bell, Regius Professor of Medicine at the University of Oxford, delivered a speech at the MHRAs 14th Annual Lecture in London, outlining his vision for the UK life sciences industry. Here, Nikki Withers summarises the key take-home messages from the talk, including how UK researchers and investors should grab the bull by the horns and adopt a less risk-averse approach to research ideas, particularly in the genomics arena.

FROM THE discovery of antibiotics to the 100,000 Genomes Project, the UK has for many years played a leading role in health innovation and medical science. However, to ensure the country continues to be a key R&D player, focus needs to shift towards the next generation of therapeutics.

Looking forward, Professor Bell predicts that scientific research will focus on viral vectors and nucleic acid-based therapies over the coming years. Addressing an audience of about 200 healthcare leaders from the Life Sciences community, he stressed how important it was for the UK to jump on these opportunities. Despite being discovered in Cambridge, the UK was slow to exploit antibody technology to scale, he explained. It is crucially important we dont miss the next platform.

Appointed UK Life Sciences Champion by the Prime Minister in 2011 and author of the Life Sciences Industrial Strategy, Professor Bell has been at the forefront of the life sciences sector for many years. His vision is for the UK to focus on three key areas: genomics, digital health and early diagnosis.

The UK has a long history of genetics research, arguably originating from Darwin and his theory of evolution, according to Professor Bell. We are, without a shadow of a doubt, the leading country in the world in the genomic domain. He highlights two major projects: UK Biobank and Genomics Englands 100,000 Genomes Project, both of which push the UK up the ranks as leaders in genomics research.

UK Biobank is a global health resource that provides health information of 500,000 participants to researchers. Genotyping has been undertaken on all participants, providing a wealth of genomics information. Likewise, the ground-breaking 100,000 Genomes Project, launched by then-Prime Minister David Cameron in 2012 and led by Genomics England, is another example of a UK genetics programme that delivers large-scale data and is accessible for research scientists around the world.

The UK has a spectacular science base. Weve got three of the top 20 medical research programmes and two of the top universities in the world.

However, Professor Bell pointed out that the main challenge associated with this fast-moving research area relates to regulations. Gene editing, nucleic acid-based therapies, these are going to be the next big thing, he said. In genomics we need to regulate an expanding set of genetic tests where the indications and tools change daily, so the big question is how to get them regulated.

His suggestion was for regulators to concentrate on areas where innovation is at the cutting edge. They need to concentrate on speed and efficiency. The industry is frustrated by the lack of pace, particularly by European regulators.

Professor Bell also stressed his desire for researchers and investors to support high-risk science. Generally, investors dont want to invest and there is the dampening effect of peer review. The really interesting and high-risk stuff tends to get killed, he professed.

Concluding the talk, Professor Bell said: The UK has a spectacular science base. Weve got three of the top 20 medical research programmes and two of the top universities in the world. Weve got the largest biotech cluster outside of the US and the largest and most innovative drug regulator in Europe. For a pretty dinky island in the North Sea, were doing pretty well.

We need to get academia, the NHS and industry pharma, biotech, diagnostics and digital aligned to think hard about what the future of the UK might be and to identify the next opportunities to grow our research and economic base in the life sciences.

The future of Life Sciences: Keeping the UK at the forefront of medical and scientific excellence, was hosted by the MHRA on 9 October 2019 at The Kings Fund in London.

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Championing genomics in the UK: the next generation - Drug Target Review

SAN DIEGO, Dec. 12, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Aspen Neuroscience, Inc. today announced its launch following a $6.5 million seed round led by Domain Associates and Axon Ventures and including Alexandria Venture Investments,Arch Venture Partners,OrbiMedand Section 32 to develop the first autologous cell therapies for Parkinson's disease. Aspen's proprietary approach was developed by the company's co-founders, Jeanne F. Loring, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus and founding director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine at The Scripps Research Institute, and Andres Bratt-Leal, Ph.D., a former post-doctoral researcher in Dr. Loring's lab. The company was initially supported by Summit for Stem Cell, a founding partner and non-profit organization which provides a variety of services for people with Parkinson's disease. Aspen is led by industry veteran Howard J. Federoff, M.D., Ph.D., as Chief Executive Officer.

Parkinson's disease is characterized by the loss of specific brain cells that make the chemical dopamine. Without dopamine, nerve cells cannot communicate with muscles and people are left with debilitating motor problems. Aspen is focusing on human pluripotent stem cells, cultured cells that can become any cell type in the human body. The company's research is specific to induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which it develops by taking a skin biopsy from a person with Parkinson's disease and turning the tissue into pluripotent stem cells using genetic engineering. Aspen then differentiates the pluripotent stem cells into dopamine-releasing neurons that can be transplanted into that same person (autologous), thereby restoring the types of neurons lost in Parkinson's disease.

As an autologous cell therapy for Parkinson's disease, Aspen's treatment would eliminate the need for immunosuppression because the neurons are transplanted back into the same patient from which they were generated. The use of immunosuppression is necessary with currently available cell therapies for Parkinson's disease and when transplanting cells from one patient to another (allogeneic) to prevent rejection but can pre-dispose the patient to life-threatening complications including infection and add cost to the patient and health system. Aspen is the only company in the world offering an autologous neuron replacement therapy for Parkinson's disease.

Aspen encompasses a powerful executive leadership team including Dr. Federoff who, in addition to his leadership roles at the UC Irvine Health System, was the Executive Vice President for Health Sciences and the Executive Dean of Medicine at Georgetown University. Dr. Federoff also has significant biotech industry experience including co-founding MedGenesis Therapeutix and Brain Neurotherapy Bio, as well as leading the U.S. Parkinson's Disease Gene Therapy Study Group. The company is also proud to announce the addition of several experienced and well-known members to its leadership team including Edward Wirth, M.D., Ph.D., as Chief Medical Officer.

Dr. Wirth currently serves as the Chief Medical Ofcer for Lineage Cell Therapeutics where he oversees clinical development of its two therapeutic programs for spinal cord injuries and lung cancer. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Florida in 1994 and remained to conduct postdoctoral research including leading the University of Florida team that performed the rst human embryonic spinal cord transplant in the U.S. Dr. Wirth went on to serve as the Medical Director for Regenerative Medicine at Geron Corporation where the world's rst clinical trial of human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-derived product occurred which demonstrated initial clinical safety.

Drs. Federoff and Wirth are joined by Dr. Loring, as Chief Scientific Officer; Jay Sial, as Chief Financial Officer; Andres Bratt-Leal, Ph.D., as Vice President of Research and Development; Thorsten Gorba, Ph.D., as Senior Director of Manufacturing and Naveen M. Krishnan, M.D., M.Phil., as Senior Director of Corporate Development.

"Aspen is developing a restorative, disease modifying autologous neuron therapy for people suffering from Parkinson's disease," said Dr. Federoff. "We are fortunate to have such a high-caliber scientific and medical leadership team to make our treatments a reality. Our cell replacement therapy, which originated in the laboratory of Dr. Jeanne Loring and was later supported by Summit for Stem Cell and its President, Ms. Jenifer Raub, has the potential to release dopamine and reconstruct neural networks where no disease-modifying therapies exist."

Aspen's lead product (ANPD001) is currently undergoing investigational new drug (IND)-enabling studies for the treatment of sporadic Parkinson's disease. Aspen is also developing a gene-edited autologous neuron therapy (ANPD002) that is in the research stage and targeted toward familial forms of Parkinson's disease beginning with the most common genetic variant in the gene encoding glucocerebrosidase (GBA). Aspen leverages proprietary machine-learning tools and artificial intelligence to ensure quality control during manufacturing and to deliver a safe and reproducible product for each cell line.

"Aspen's financial backing, combined with its experienced and proven leadership team, positions it well for future success," said Kim P. Kamdar, Ph.D., Partner at Domain Associates, one of Aspen's seed investors. "Domain prides itself on investing in companies that can translate scientific research into innovative medicines and therapies that make a difference in people's lives. We clearly see Aspen as fitting into that category, as it is the only company using a patient's own cells for replacement therapy in Parkinson's disease."

About Aspen Neuroscience

Aspen Neuroscience Inc. is a development stage, private biotechnology company that uses innovative genomic approaches combined with stem cell biology to deliver patient-specific, restorative cell therapies that modify the course of Parkinson's disease. Aspen's therapies are based upon the scientific work of world-renowned stem cell scientist, Dr. Jeanne Loring, who has developed a novel method for autologous neuron replacement. For more information and important updates, please visithttp://www.aspenneuroscience.com.

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Every minute of every day our bodies are bombarded with millions of different molecules that we breathe, eat and touch including bacteria, viruses, chemicals and seemingly harmless compounds like food and pollen.

For every one of these encounters, our immune system has to decide if the substance is a threat or not, if it is foreign or self and how the body should respond to stay healthy. To do this, we rely on two immune systems working in tandem.

Scientists have discovered a new human autoinflammatory disease that results from a mutation in an important gene in one of these systems.

The syndrome, now known as CRIA (cleavage-resistant RIPK1-induced autoinflammatory) syndrome causes recurring episodes of debilitating and distressing fever and inflammation.

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Our bodys first line of defence is the innate immune system that is effectively a hard wired and fast response, explains Dr Najoua Lalaoui from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI) and the Department of Medical Biology at the University of Melbourne.

This system works in the skin and mucous membranes like the mouth, making sure that any invaders like bacteria are detected and destroyed quickly, she says.

If pathogens do enter the body, the innate immune cells move to the site of infection and physically devour invaders and activate chemical messengers to alert the body.

This can lead to an inflammatory reaction where blood circulation is increased, the affected area becomes swollen and hot, and the person may experience fever. When these chemical messengers are over-active it can result in conditions like colitis, arthritis and psoriasis.

Supporting this system is the adaptive immunity system that involves antibodies that recognise and then train the body to respond to threats. This is our memory immunity and the basis of how vaccinations work.

Scientists from the WEHI, with colleagues at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States, have been working to understand why patients from three families suffered from a history of painful swollen lymph nodes, fever and inflammation.

The families had a range of other inflammatory symptoms which began in childhood and continued into their adult years.

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This type of repeated fever often indicates an issue with the innate immune system and the same disease in an extended family can indicate genetic changes that are passed from parents to their children, explains Dr Lalaoui.

Previous tests didnt identify any known cause.

But by sequencing the patients genomes, the NIH team identified a mutation in DNA that codes for a molecule known as RIPK that they suspected might cause the disease.

RIPK is a critical regulator of inflammation and the cell death pathway responsible for cleaning up damaged cells or those infected by pathogens.

Professor John Silke from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute and his team have been studying RIPK1 for more than 10 years. His team had previously shown that damaging the RIPK1 gene could lead to uncontrolled inflammation and cell death.

RIPK1 is a potent controller of cell death, which means cells have had to develop many ways of regulating its activity, Professor Silke says.

In this paper, we showed that one way that the cell regulates its activity is by cleaving RIPK1 into two pieces to disarm the molecule and halt its role in driving inflammation.

In this condition (CRIA), the mutations are preventing the molecule from being cleaved into two pieces, resulting in autoinflammatory disease. This helped confirm that the mutations identified by the NIH researchers were indeed causing the disease, he says.

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He explains that mutations in RIPK1 can drive both too much inflammation as in autoinflammatory and autoimmune diseases and too little inflammation, resulting in immunodeficiency.

There is still a lot to learn about the varied roles of RIPK1 in cell death, and how we can effectively target RIPK1 to treat disease.

In CRIA syndrome, the mutation in RIPK1 overcomes all of the normal checks and balances that exist, resulting in uncontrolled cell death and inflammation, says Dr Steven Boyden from the National Human Genome Research Institute at the NIH.

Dr Boyden says the first clue that the disease was linked to cell death was when they delved into the patients exomes the part of the genome that encodes all of the proteins in the body.

The team sequenced the entire exome of each patient and discovered unique mutations in the exact same amino acid of RIPK1 in each of the three families.

It is remarkable, like lightning striking three times in the same place. Each of the three mutations has the same result it blocks cleavage of RIPK1 which shows how important RIPK1 cleavage is in maintaining the normal function of the cell, says Dr Boyden.

Dr Lalaoui said the WEHI researchers then confirmed the link between the RIPK1 mutations and CRIA syndrome in laboratory models.

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We showed that mice with mutations in the same location in RIPK1 as in the CRIA syndrome patients, had a similar exacerbation of inflammation, she says.

Dr Dan Kastner from NIH widely regarded as the father of autoinflammatory disease says colleagues had treated CRIA syndrome patients with a number of anti-inflammatory medications, including high doses of corticosteroids and biologics, compounds that block specific parts of the immune system.

And although some of the patients markedly improved, others responded less well or had significant side effects.

Understanding the molecular mechanism by which CRIA syndrome causes inflammation provides an opportunity to get right to the root of the problem, Dr Kastner says.

Dr Kastner noted that RIPK1 inhibitors, which are already available on a research basis, may provide a focused, precision medicine approach to treating patients.

RIPK1 inhibitors may be just what the doctor ordered for these patients. The discovery of CRIA syndrome also suggests a possible role for RIPK1 in a broad spectrum of human illnesses, such as colitis, arthritis and psoriasis.

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The genetic mutation behind a new autoinflammatory disease - Pursuit

Cannadabis Medical INC they intend to create a healthier and more consciously aware environment for the cannabis industry, and its participants, to thrive in.

Did you know that Cannadabis are Partners with us? Discover their featured Partner Page about a healthier, environmentally conscious cannabis industry.

The company is a family run company that was founded in Humboldt, Saskatchewan.

Founders, Alexander Calkins, BSc and Markus Li, P.Chem, MBA, are personally and emotionally invested in the science of cannabis. They each have family members that are dealing with incurable ailments, complications of which can often become fatal.

In the search for natural products that will improve the quality and longevity of life, the founders began working with cannabis. While there is no likelihood of a cure, the symptom management has been very positive for their family members. After witnessing the improvements, Cannadabis founders Calkins and Li, have dedicated themselves to furthering the medical cannabis movement.

Calkins and Li both have backgrounds in technical science and business. They are experienced cultivators and have a strong understanding of energy systems (practically essential for a power-hungry industry), process automation, and large-scale development.

Their familiarity with multi-industry supply chains has leveraged them into a cannabis development that is simultaneously high-tech, old school, and simple.

Through observation of established global industries, Cannadabis is building a multi-faceted business model based on sustainable practices, a strong genetics portfolio, disruptive technologies, hyper-specialisation, and holistic production.

Driven by a passion to help others in need, Calkins and Li took it upon themselves to bring their methods and expertise to the cannabis world. They recognise and praise the patient independence that medical cannabis can provide.

While they champion the practice of homegrown medicine, they have obligated themselves to providing the safest and highest quality medical products to those who are unable to grow for themselves.

Once Cannadabis has perfected its organic growing system, they will build and operate all future cultivation sites according to (EU) GMP and ISO:9001 2015 standards. By adopting these standards, Cannadabis will have the ability to share their cultivated passion with the world.

To meet the sanitary requirements of GMP and processing limitations of an organic certification, Cannadabis will be using a combination of reactive oxygen, electrolysed water, and radio frequency pasteurisation technologies.

Being a medically focused company, Cannadabis recognises that medical consumers have turned to cannabis because they are looking for natural remedies and are becoming increasingly weary of synthetic medicines.

For Cannadabis, producing medical cannabis using anything other than organic methods would transgress the fundamental sentiment that drives the global, medical movement. That is why Cannadabis is committed to attaining internationally recognised organic certifications on expanded production.

The companys flagship facility is intended to be an R&D focused proving ground for state-of-the-art organic cultivation methods. Cannadabis currently uses an inhouse blended soil, made only with organic ingredients. Their living soil has the benefit of creating terpene dense medicine, reducing cost, and simplifying processes.

With all the nutrients available in the soil, the plants require only water from transplant to harvest. Additionally, the growing medium and all organic waste can be recycled through vermicomposting, further reducing long term costs and needless waste.

Cannadabis will adopt various technologies to reduce energy demand and environmental impact. In addition to using LEDs and solar panels, Cannadabis will use combined heat and power (CHP) (or cooling combined heat power (CCHP)) at their cultivation facilities. CHP units burn natural gas to generate power and the waste heat is used to heat water and the workspace. CHPs are quickly becoming popular for reducing carbon emissions. In certain applications, CHPs reduce carbon emissions by 30-40%, compared to when power is taken from the grid.

Cannadabis will also divert the combustion CO2 into the growing space. CO2 supplementing supercharges growth naturally, increasing yield by 30-60%, and further reducing the carbon emissions from power generation. In the future, expanded cultivations may integrate pyrolysis of waste biomass, which will supply power and nutrient dense biochar to the living soil.

Cannadabis is aspiring to build a unique indoor growing system that uses a combination of solar power, water recycling, CHP (CCHP), pyrolysis, CO2 supplementation and vermicompost to create a no waste, carbon neutral, minimal input, self-regenerating nutrient, off grid, medical grade, organic, indoor cultivation.

Calkins and Li hope to validate the system and then apply the techniques to food cultivation; this type of system could revolutionise the food production in remote locations, like the northern territories, Alaska and would deliver food supply independence to small communities or reservations. Where biomass is abundant, this system would produce all year, requires only labour as inputs, self-generate power off-grid, and would also be carbon negative over extended time frames.

On their path to improving growing efficiency, Cannadabis has developed proprietary tissue culture methods specifically for cannabis. These methods are based upon the decades old horticultural practice that has been essential for the sterile propagation of ornamental and food cultivars; non seed propagation.

Developing an inhouse tissue culture system has the following benefits:1

Tissue culture revitalises cultivars and produces more vigorous plants Regeneration from meristem rids systemic disease; Propagation is significantly more efficient; Starting with 100 traditional cuttings; able to produce 70,000 annual clones; Start with 200 tissue culture vials; produce 2 million annual clones; Uses 1/10 the space of traditional cloning; Per square foot, tissue culturing is >100x more efficient; and Two million annual clones could be produced in less than 3000 square feet.

1000 mother cultivars could be stored inside a refrigerator with no care or maintenance for months, sometimes over a year; and Pest invasion would not affect mother cultures (many cultivators without tissue culture have lost their entire genetic inventory to viruses and fungi).

Cannadabis will be sharing its tissue culture methods with industry members who want to stay one step ahead of pests and systemic disease. Following more development, they will also be making their organic formulations available.

Having collected and grown a large variety of cultivars, both through seed and clone, the Cannadabis founders have noticed a distinct lack of quality in the genetics market. Over time, most of the popular cultivars of the world have been slowly degraded by deleterious breeding practices like selfing (feminising), backcrossing, and poor mother plant maintenance which promotes genetic drift.

The current genetics market is rife with breeders that take prized clones and spray them with colloidal silver to produce feminised seed, or they are crossed onto their own cultivars and backcrossed until stable seed is produced.

While these name sake creations may capture some of the qualities of the original strain, like trichome density or terpene profile, the progeny will lack the genetic diversity needed to produce healthy plants. Often, these weakened strains have reduced yield, potency, and pest resistance. In response to this, Cannadabis has focused on breeding their own high yield, high potency, flavour dense strains for commercial production.

The Cannadabis team is eager to unveil their propriety strains to the domestic and international medical markets. Over the past few years, the founders have started breeding their own cultivars. Currently, the team has focused on a selection of stabilised true breeds (landrace or F5+) for creating original F1 breeds.

Where the F1 generation is created by breeding male and female plants that are distinctly unique from each other; traditional F1s are created by crossing landrace indicas with landrace sativas.

These crosses need to be done with highly stable and uniquely different parents to produce a true F1 progeny that has abundant hybrid vigour. A plant with true hybrid vigour will typically have higher potency, increased pest resistance, and a higher yield than both parent plants; on average yield can be as high as 20% more than either parent.

Due to the nature of the F1 progeny, very few breeders release true F1 seeds. If highly stable progenitors are not used, the seedstock will be incredibly variable, which is unfavourable for consumers, who typically want consistency in their seed. However, as commercial cultivators, Cannadabis believes that F1 hybrids are essential for producing at large scale. The breeding and phenotyping can be a long and arduous process, the fruits of labour are not without commercial benefit.

Building upon the tissue culture and breeding practices, Cannadabis is quickly developing polyploidisation methods for creating ultra-premium cultivars. Polyploidisation is another common horticultural practice that Cannadabis expects to apply to their cannabis breeding projects.

Polyploidisation is a naturally occurring mechanism where the chromosomes of the plant cells become doubled within the same nucleus. This mechanism has played a significant role in speciation of crops, occurring frequently in nature, usually due to stress response.

In the 100 years since scientists discovered polyploidy, there has been rapid development of polyploid breeds. It is estimated that up to 80% of all flowering plants have polyploid varieties.2 Common polyploid cultivars includes wheat, coffee, banana, strawberry, potato, etc.

Polyploidy has been researched since the early 1900s. Scientists first used heat and electrical stress to induce those mechanisms. Today polyploidy is more commonly, and consistently, induced with radiation and stressing chemicals. Interestingly, induced polyploidy is explicitly exempt by most organic certification bodies. These types of breeds typically do not fall under genetically modified until foreign, non-similar species, DNA is introduced to the plant cell.

These polyploids are called autopolyploid (same species), and plants made with dissimilar species are called allopolyploids. Cannadabis will also be exploring organic permitted cell fusion; this would allow breeding with two male plants, or two female plants.

In the past, the following horticulture benefits have been derived from polyploidy and cell fusion, which Cannadabis hopes to similarly apply to the cannabis plant:3

The same can apply to cannabis. Strains can be developed that would never seed regardless of direct pollination; massive utility available to outdoor or indoor cultivators with seeding problems.

Cannadabis hopes to release their first polyploid strains in late 2020.

Cannadabis has begun manufacturing premade tissue culture mediums and are currently distributing them to Western Canadian horticulture stores and Amazon Marketplace; the mediums are a standard blend that works on 95%+ of the founders cultivars. The founders tissue culture experience is being provided to the public in both consumer and commercial grade products.

The introductory products show unfamiliar users how to do tissue culture at home, using proven methods that do not require expensive laboratory equipment. Besides what comes in the starter kit, the everyday home grower will usually have all the remaining materials at home. Commercial format mediums are intended for growers that want the best value and space savings.

Cultivators of any background can find information or help on tissue culture through the Cannadabis homepage. They are posting helpful videos and literature on cannabis tissue culture and hope to share the benefits with every grower. All horticulturalists, cannabis or not, can benefit from having their cloning area be 100x more efficient, through stackable containers. Furthermore, their mother plants can easily be maintained with minimal care. 100-1000 mother cultures can be stored within a refrigerator for 4-8 months, no adding nutrient or water. For larger cultivators, Cannadabis provides PGR matrices to more easily troubleshoot difficult cultivars. They also will custom blend and sterilise mediums to customer preference.

Cannadabis has begun developing an automated cell culture process for mass propagation of cultivars. The economies of scale of which are expected to change the supply chain of the entire cannabis industry. Automated cell culturing will provide starting materials to the industry at a fraction of the cost of inhouse cloning. Clones produced through cell culturing will also have the benefit of being totally sterile and free from disease.

Cannadabis has been offered an NRC-IRAP grant for initial developments of the process and are in early negotiations with a Canadian cannabis company to commercialise. The founders are expecting to file patents, mid 2020, and begin construction of a commercial scale process by mid-2021. Cannadabis anticipates that a 5000 sq ft facility will produce 5+ million clones annually, with minimal labour.

The project is looking to possibly incorporate the production of artificial seeds, which would simplify transportation and ease of storage for cultivators. They will also be developing cryogenic preservation methods. Cultivators around the world are encouraged to reach out to Cannadabis if they are looking to simplify their process, access cell culture benefits, and maximise growing space.

Working with Cannadabis cultured clones will be the most affordable, safe, and efficient way of acquiring starting material. Their services would include meristem culturing to remove systemic disease, and long-term storage of genetic inventory. Partners who end up with a pest could rest easy knowing their mother cultures will be perfectly preserved in tissue culture, and fifty thousand clones for the next crop are still on the way.

Cannadabis Medical and Delta 9 Cannabis have teamed up to provide an affordable, turnkey, tissue culture laboratory, complete with operating procedures, equipment, and cannabis medium recipes.

The two companies have co developed this system for their own commercial use and have recently made the system available for other cultivators. Both companies have recognised that the cannabis industry is still reliant on black market methods of propagation, and as a result, there have been countless incidents of crop and genetic loss in the legal industry; many of the stories circulating are understandably refuted by the companies experiencing such loss.

Rather than ignore the inevitable pest problems, the two companies are going toe to toe with mother nature, developing half century old technology and making it specifically for cannabis. Hopefully delivering the same modicum of control to the rest of the industry; cultivators slow to develop tissue culture science may soon find their genetics and crop totally destroyed by a single, often microscopic pest. On a commercial scale, these pests become essentially impossible to remove without the use of tissue culture.

With feet rooted in genuine care, Cannadabis and Delta 9 are prepared and excited to deliver a tissue culturing system to the global cannabis industry. They recognise the value and utility available to growers, and they also recognise that learning tissue culturing can feel out of reach for cultivators with no prior knowledge, or excess funding to hire an inhouse specialist.

Instead of missing out or paying specialists, cultivators can rely on Cannadabis and Delta 9 to deliver a ready to use laboratory, the development of which was based on maximising value for the growers.

The laboratory comes with only bare essentials and extensive, yet simple, operating procedures. Training materials will detail cannabis specific mediums, sanitation protocols, along with troubleshooting methods for finicky cultivars; an inexperienced grower will be comfortably blending and using mediums on the same day of commissioning. The whole system, equipment and all, will be much more affordable than hiring a tissue culture specialist.

Over the next three years, Cannadabis will be working to establish an expanded cultivation with the hope of supplying medical, organic, indoor grown cannabis to domestic and international markets.

They will also pioneer an original cell culture process that expects to be the most affordable source for starting materials in the world; Cannadabis is especially excited to deliver their polyploid cultivars as starting materials to industry members.

Cannadabis would like to offer an open invitation to all scientists, entrepreneurs, and industry professionals for collaboration. We are actively seeking partners who share a similar vision for the cannabis industry. Any professionals who are driven by a sense of genuine care and have a passion for cannabis medicine are encouraged to reach out.

References

1 hempindustrydaily.com/hemp-cultivators-tissue-culture-increase-propagation-preserve-genetics/2 Meyers, L. A., and Levin, D. A. (2006). On the abundance of polyploids in flowering plants. Evolution 60, 11981206. doi: 10.1111/j.0014 3820.2006.tb01198.x3 http://www.slideshare.net/ranganihennayaka/plant-polyploids4 http://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2019.00476/full5 plantbreeding.coe.uga.edu/index.php?title=5._Polyploidy

Alexander CalkinsCEOCANNADABIS Medical INC+1 306 552 4242alexander@cannadabismedical.caTweet @cannadabiscannadabismedical.ca

This article will appear in the first issue ofMedical Cannabis Networkwhich will be out in January.Clickhereto subscribe.

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Cannadabis: tissue culture and the future of cannabis cultivation - Health Europa