Category Archives: Nebraska Stem Cells

What are the possible stem cell therapy side effects of going to an unproven clinic? This is a common question I get asked. Most often it is asked by patients who reach out.

Check out the YouTube video below on our stem cell channel. If you like such videos please subscribe to our channel.

Many clinics have said over the years to potential customers that the worst that can happen is that the stem cells wont work.

We know this isnt true and its irresponsible.

Anything that has the potential to help a medical condition also poses some risks of harm. For this reason, its important to discuss potential stem cell therapy side effects. In this case I am focusing on the risks primarily associated with unproven stem cell clinics. Not for established methods like bone marrow transplantation.

Recent publications in journals including one by my colleague Gerhard Bauer and a special report by The Pew Charitable Trust have helped clarify risks. Gerhards paper presents the types of side effects that appear more common after people go to stem cell clinics. After closely following this area for a decade I was familiar with many of the examples of problems. However, some were new to me.

One of the highest profiles examples of bad outcomes was the case where three people lost their vision due to stem cells injected by a clinic.See image below of one set of damaged eyes. More on that case at the end of the post.

Why do stem cells pose risks?

Stem cells are uniquely powerful cells.

By definition they can both make more of themselves and turn into at least one other kind of specialized cells. This latter process is called differentiation. That former ability to make more of themselves is called self-renewal.

The most powerful stem cells are totipotent stem cells that can literally make any kind of differentiated cell. The fertilized human egg is the best example of a cell having totipotency. Next in the power line are pluripotent stem cells including embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Adult stem cells are multipotent. The best type of stem cell depends on the condition that is trying to be treated. The best type may not be the most powerful.

In any case, the power of stem cells is a main reason they also pose risks. These cells are not always easy to control and misdirected power can do harm.

Let me explain and start with the side effect that seems scariest to most.

If someone injects a patient with stem cells, its possible that the self-renewal power of stem cells just wont get shut off. In that scenario the stem cells could drive formation of a tumor or even cancer. Note that tumors are not always malignant whereas cancer is always malignant.

Why wouldnt a transplanted stem cell always eventually hit the brakes on self-renewal? It could be that the stem cell has one or more mutations. For any stem cells grown in a lab, within the population of millions of cells in a dish, there are going to be at least a few with mutations that crop up. Thats just the way it goes with growing cells in a lab.

Even stem cells not grown in the lab have the same spectrum of mutations as the person they were isolated from. It may seem weird to think about, but we all have some mutations.

When someone like a clinic person tells us that theres a risk to you thats a one in a million chance it doesnt sound that bad. However, with cells being injected into a person in theory all it takes is one cell out of a million cells in a syringe with a couple really bad mutations to potentially cause disaster. Research suggests it takes more than one cell with cancer-causing potential to make a tumor in experiments in the lab, but in actual people we just dont know. Many cancers may arise from one stem cell gone awry. If a clinic injects 50 or 100 million cells, a one-in-a-million rate of dangerous cells means that 50-100 such cells end up in the patient.

The odds are far lower for cells never grown in a lab to cause a tumor, but its still possible. Oddly, its possible that receiving someone elses stem cells (we call this allogeneic) might pose a lower cancer risk because your immune system is going to see those cells as foreign from the start.

But some stem cells, especially those with mutations, might be able to somewhat fly under the radar of the immune system to some extent even if they are from another person. This could allow them to grow into a tumor. The Pew report does a nice job of summarizing risks and there are several reports of tumors.

The possibility of infections after stem cell injections is another risk that is often discussed. Infections from injections of stem cells or other materials like PRP are probably the most common type of side effect. Bacteria can either sometimes already be in the product that is injected or can be introduced by poor injection or preparation methods by the one doing the procedure.

The distributor Liveyon had a product contaminated with bacteria that sickened at least a dozen people who were hospitalized. Some of them ended up in the ICU. A few may even have permanent issues.

Clinics using excellent procedures and products should have a low risk of infection more similar to getting any kind of invasive procedure even unrelated to stem cells.

Many preparations of stem cells sold at stem cell clinics these days are made from fat tissue or birth-related materials. I put stem cells in quotes because most fat and birth-related preparations only contain a small population of true stem cells.

In the case of adipose biologics, they mostly consist of a mixture of a dozen or so other kinds of cells found in fat.

The injections of fat cells are most often made IV right into the bloodstream. Fat cells just live in fat so they arent supposed to be floating around in your blood. As a result, after IV injection, many fat cells are thought to get killed right away.

Others end up landing in the lungs, where many are also probably meeting their doom. However, during this process of wiping out the fat cells it is possible that clots can start forming. Maybe the fat cells form small clots in the blood before they even get into the lungs. Either way, if the clots grow and are big enough, patients can get pulmonary emboli.

The same kind of risk may apply to IV injections or nebulizer inhalations of other kinds of stem cells.

There are other possible risks to stem cell injections too.

I wrote a post about possible graft versus host disease in stem cell recipients. This would only happen in people receiving someone elses stem cells. Its not clear if GvHD is something that happens to patients after going to clinics.

Beyond outright tumor formation it is also possible that stem cells will turn into an undesired or even dangerous tissue type. The example that comes to mind is the practice mentioned earlier of some clinics injecting fat cells into peoples eyeballs. What seems to have happened in some cases is that the mesenchymal cells (MSCs) that were injected turned into scar tissue, which caused retinal detachment. Unfortunately, what are called MSCs by some clinics can mostly consist of close relatives of fibroblasts or in some cases may even largely consist of fibroblasts. Fibroblasts are good at making scar tissue under some circumstances and that can create pull on surrounding tissues including the retina if inside the body.

Specific kinds of stem cells or routes of administration may pose unique risks as well. For instance, intranasal administration of stem cells is getting popular with unproven clinics and could lead to stem cells ending up in the brain.

Other products in the regenerative sphere that are not stem cells may be risky as well for various reasons. For instance, an exosome product harmed quite a few people in Nebraska.Some problems may relate to product contamination.

There have also been cases of unusual immune reactions to stem cell injections.

Finally, stem cells also pose unknown risks because of their power. We just dont have long-term follow up data to have a clear sense of risks.

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Stem cell therapy side effects & risks: infections, tumors & more

By Mylika Scatliffe, AFRO Womens Health Writer

NKiia Stallworth, 42 of Providence, R.I. needs a match. Her multiple myeloma is not an incurable disease. In fact, you could be the solution she needs.

Stallworth and others like her can be cured by a blood stem cell transplant.

Multiple myeloma is a cancer of the plasma cells. As defined by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), plasma cells are white blood cells that make antibodies that protect us from infection. In myeloma the cells grow too much, crowding out normal cells in the bone marrow that make red blood cells, platelets, and other white blood cells. Multiple myeloma is the most common type of plasma cell tumor. It develops in the bone marrow and can spread throughout the body.

The challenge for Stallworth is that Black patients have a 29 percent chance of finding a donor match, compared with a 79 percent chance for White patients. White and Black patients searching for a donor have drastically different experiences due to the fact that there simply are not enough registered Black donors.

Be The Match is an organization that facilitates blood stem cell transplants in efforts to replace a patients malformed blood cells with healthy ones. A majority of the time, donations are collected through a non-surgical procedure. Blood is collected from one of the donors arms, the needed cells are extracted and the blood is returned to the body. The process is similar to donating plasma.

Stallworth was diagnosed with multiple myeloma roughly 14 months ago. She admittedly went through a lot of emotions upon initially receiving her diagnosis and didnt even really want to talk about it. Then she found out she needed a blood stem cell transplant.

I didnt even know this was a thing until I was diagnosed. We as minorities really need to give blood in order for us to have a chance at this life-saving cure, and so no one has to wait for a year or even longer, hoping to get a match, said Stallworth.

A patients chance of having a matched available donor on the registry ranges from 29 percent to 79 percent, depending on the patients ethnic background. Because the genetic markers used in matching are inherited, donors are most likely to find a match with someone of the same ethnic background. More than 75 different diseases including leukemia and lymphoma, aplastic anemia, multiple myeloma, sickle cell disease, and immune -deficiency disorders can be cured or treated with a blood stem cell transplant.

Only 8 percent of Be The Match registrants identify as Black or African American.

Erica Jensen, vice president of marketing and a member of the engagement, enrollment, and experience team at Be The Match, said one of her main responsibilities is to increase the diversity of the registry.

Historically marketing was mostly in White communities and there was not enough emphasis, relationships, and programs to connect with more diverse communities. We are committed to changing that, said Jensen. Among other things, weve hired more diverse staff, and created an HBCU intern program which is being expanded to include 30 HBCUs.

Jensen further explained encountering barriers because of medical mistrust because of the way Black bodies have been treated and the history of predatory practices against Black people.

We are very careful and transparent in answering peoples questions. No, we will not share your DNA with police databases or governmental agencies. Yes, the doctors will hold your safety in as high regard as the recipient patient as the donor patient. No, your stem cells will not be taken to only help White and/or rich people, said Jensen.

Be The Match makes sure to take care of any needs for a donor. When a match is found everything is made convenient for the donor including choosing a collection center close to the donor. However, if travel and accommodations are needed for the donor, it is covered at no cost to the donor, including a travel companion for the donor if needed.

More likely than not a donor will just go to a collection center near them. But, for example, if youre in Nebraska you may need to go to a collection center in Seattle or somewhere in Texas, we will book and cover your accommodations. If you need to take an Uber across town to the appointment, its taken care of. If you need to pay a babysitter or dogwalker so you can donate, its at no cost to you.

As noted above, the collection process is simple. Ahead of the collection, the donor receives daily injections for five days to stimulate the bodys stem cells. A donor can go to a center to have the injections completed or be provided a kit to do the injections at home.

About 85 percent of the time donations are achieved through non-surgical means. The remaining 15 percent of the time bone marrow is collected through a surgical outpatient procedure that takes place at a hospital under general or regional anesthesia.

Individuals between the ages of 18 and 40 who meet the health eligibility criteria can join the Be The Match registry by visiting BeTheMatch.org, completing a health history form, and swabbing cheek cells with a home kit sent to the home of the registrant.

They also sponsor in-person swabbing events to encourage people to register as donors, and where potential registrants can be educated about the process.

More young people of diverse racial and ethnic heritage are needed to register to help patients in search of a match. People between the ages of 18 and 35 are most requested by transplant doctors, because this age group is shown to have the most potential for successful transplantation.

More importantly, anyone thinking of registering for Be The Match should seriously think about their commitment to the process before registering. There is no legal obligation for a registrant to participate but a last-minute decision not to donate could be life-threatening for a patient.

Less than 50 percent of registrants are able or willing to donate when asked.

There are two struggles with having enough Black donors: actually getting enough to register, and then when theyve been matched to a patient, having them follow through with the donation process, said Jensen. Well contact someone and say theyre a match for a patient in need and they will either ghost us or refuse to follow saying they dont have time, or dont like needles.

Donors should be willing to donate to anyone when asked because donations to specific patients are not allowed. All searches of the registry are anonymous, and donor and recipient patients may consent to exchange information one to two years after donation.

Stallworth has pounded the pavement getting people in her area to sponsor swabbing events.

Ive placed fliers all over, even on dumpsters to get people to sign up and to get businesses to sponsor swabbing events or allow them to take place on their premises, said Stallworth. Even if no match is made for me, I dont want anyone to have to wait like Im waiting.

Anyone ages 18-40 years old can sign up to join the registry by texting SaveKiia to 61474 (not case sensitive) or by visiting https://my.bethematch.org/SaveKiia.

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Black donors: we want you to 'be the match' - Afro American

The International Space Station is getting a new surgery assistant, and it is not another astronaut to join its future missions, but a surgery robot named "MIRA" that will fly to it in 2024. The new surgery robot will assist in future operations, and it is something that the ISS will test while orbiting the planet, focusing on a future use for space and health technology.

Surgery robots are massive on the planet now, and there are significant ventures to focus on for the world to experience and expand on in health technology. The International Space Station will soon receive a robot assistant to help in surgeries called "MIRA," and it stands for "miniaturized in-vivo robotic assistant."

The robot was developed by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and medical technology company, Virtual Incision.

According toVirtual Incision's press release, the robot assistant aims to help in surgeries that the team of astronauts would test out while in space.

And while there are no significant surgeries that researchers scheduled for the astronauts, they will look into the capabilities of the robot to assist in space ventures.

Read Also: Scientists are Growing Stem Cells in Space as Part of Experiment for Treatment of Diseases

Gizmodo'sreportsays that it may be a preparation by NASA to use for long-term flights or journeys that would need more than a team of astronauts to deal with medical concerns in the future. MIRA is preparing for its arrival at the ISS by 2024 to test out its capabilities and look into operations that would help astronauts in their needs.

It will provide more than a helping hand for their needs.

There are many ventures that researchers and scientists bring to the International Space Station to test, and it aims to test its capabilities in different setups, including that of space operations. One of the ventures available there is theuse of microgravity to understand cancer tumorsand aging skin cells which would only be achievable there.

Different tests in the ISS focus on understanding what space does to human anatomy and the body, especially those flying to orbit.

Of course, the main test subjects and points of reference for the research sent to the ISS are its astronauts, cosmonauts, and other dwellers in the orbiting space laboratory. The researchers aboard it now focus on monitoring each other's health,looking into spinal scans and heart rate, among the few things they check on on a routine basis.

Now, a new robot assistant is coming to the ISS, and it specializes in surgeries and operations to help researchers know more about the conditions there and supposedly help in different ventures done in space. It may bring data and information back to the planet once it's collected, but its main goal is to test its capabilities in a different environment from the planet.

Related Article: Spectrolab Continues Innovation in Space with Advanced Solar Cell Technology

This article is owned by TechTimes

Written by Isaiah Richard

2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.

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International Space Station's MIRA: Surgery Robot to Fly in 2024 to Assist on Operations - Tech Times

In October 2021, a number of social media users started spreading the claim that Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine contained aborted fetal cells.

There are no aborted fetal cells in Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine.

This claim spawns from a video that was released by Project Veritas, a conservative activist group that has previously been found to use deceptive practices and misleading edits in their videos, on October 6, 2021, that supposedly showed leaked emails from Pfizer employees about how they wanted to downplay the role fetal cells played in the development of the vaccine. One of the most popular screenshots reportedly showed an email in which Pfizer employees said that they tried really hard not to share information about fetal cells being used during the testing of the COVID-19 vaccine:

This email does not say that aborted fetal cells are in the vaccine. It says that a fetal cell line, which is basically a line of cloned cell copies, was used during testing.

While Pfizer may have not wanted to advertise this information, this also wasnt much of a secret. The fact that fetal cell lines were being used to test COVID-19 vaccines has been public since at least July 2020, months before these vaccines were first administered. We wrote about a similar rumor regarding the COVID-19 vaccine from Johnson & Johnson in March 2021.

The Pfizer vaccine does not contain aborted fetal cells, but a fetal cell line was used during testing. So what exactly does this mean? How close is the link from vaccine to abortion? In this case, about 50 years.

The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine used the HEK293T cell line during the testing phrase. This cell line ( a cell line is basically a series of cloned cell copies from original cell) can be traced back to 1973, about 48-years ago, when a kidney cell was isolated from a terminated fetus (its unclear if this was from an abortion or a miscarriage).

James Lawler, the Associate Professor of the Department of Internal Medicine at the Nebraska Medical Center, said:

The COVID-19 vaccines do not contain any aborted fetal cells. However, fetal cell lines cells grown in a laboratory based on aborted fetal cells collected generations ago were used in testing during research and development of the mRNA vaccines, and during production of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine

Fetal cell lines are cells that grow in a laboratory. They descend from cells taken from abortions in the 1970s and 1980s.

Those individual cells from the 1970s and 1980s have since multiplied into many new cells over the past four or five decades, creating the fetal cell lines I mentioned above. Current fetal cell lines are thousands of generations removed from the original fetal tissue. They do not contain any tissue from a fetus

When it comes to the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, fetal cell line HEK 293 was used during the research and development phase. All HEK 293 cells are descended from tissue taken from a 1973 abortion that took place in the Netherlands. Using fetal cell lines to test the effectiveness and safety of medications is common practice, because they provide a consistent and well-documented standard.

While many people have objected to taking a vaccine that wastested with fetal cell lines, saying that it is against their religion, the Vatican put out a statement in December 2020 saying that it was morally acceptable for people to take the COVID-19 vaccine.

The Vatican clarified that while they were not endorsing the use of fetal cell lines, they believed that it was morally acceptable to receive COVID-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses in their research and production process when alternatives were not available.

When ethically irreproachable COVID-19 vaccines are not available e.g. in countries where vaccines without ethical problems are not made available to physicians and patients or where their distribution is more difficult due to special storage and transport conditions or when various types of vaccines are distributed in the same country but health authorities do not allow citizens to choose the vaccine with which to be inoculated it is morally acceptable to receive COVID-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses in their research and production process.

The COVID-19 vaccines were hardly the first drug to be tested on fetal cell lines. In fact, most modern medicine has some connection to fetal cell lines.

Lawler said: The bottom line is almost all the medical products we use have in some way been touched by research thats been done on fetal cell lines.

Its also worth noting that the same fetal cell line (HEK293) that was used to test Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine was also used to test Regenerons monoclonal antibody treatment, REGEN-COV, the drug that former United States President Donald Trump took after contracting COVID-19.

A spokesperson for Regeneron told Newsweek:

HEK293T is a 40+ year old immortalized cell line that was originally derived from embryonic kidney cells in the 1970s.

Its commercially available and very commonly used by research labs and have been involved in the development of important vaccines and therapeutics for conditions such as hemophilias A/B & Type 2 diabetes.

Sources:

Astor, Maggie. Project Veritas Video Was a Coordinated Disinformation Campaign, Researchers Say. The New York Times, 29 Sept. 2020. NYTimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/29/us/politics/project-veritas-ilhan-omar.html.

Cell Lines an Overview | ScienceDirect Topics. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/cell-lines#:~:text=Cell%20lines%20are%20cultures%20of,experiments%20within%20a%20few%20days. Accessed 8 Oct. 2021.

How Making a COVID-19 Vaccine Confronts Thorny Ethical Issues. Science News, 7 July 2020, https://www.sciencenews.org/article/coronavirus-covid19-vaccine-ethical-issues.

Jarvis, Jacob. Fact Check: Was Regenerons COVID-19 Treatment Tested on Cells Derived from Fetal Tissue? Newsweek, 3 Sept. 2021, https://www.newsweek.com/fact-check-regeneron-derived-fetal-tissue-1625354.

Project Veritas: How Fake News Prize Went to Rightwing Group Beloved by Trump. The Guardian, 29 Nov. 2017, http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/nov/29/project-veritas-how-fake-news-prize-went-to-rightwing-group-beloved-by-trump.

Service, Catholic News. Vatican: Without Alternatives, Current COVID-19 Vaccines Are Morally Acceptable. Catholic News Service, 21 Dec. 2020, https://www.catholicnews.com/vatican-without-alternatives-current-covid-19-vaccines-are-morally-acceptable/.

The COVID Vaccine Is Not the Only Modern Medicine to Be Made with Fetal Stem Cell Research. KUSA.Com, 7 Sept. 2021, https://www.9news.com/article/news/local/next/covid-vaccine-not-only-modern-medicine-fetal-stem-cell-research/73-e7a3f75e-ca71-4b13-bef2-4f9d3a98fa84.

Vogel, Annette B., et al. A Prefusion SARS-CoV-2 Spike RNA Vaccine Is Highly Immunogenic and Prevents Lung Infection in Non-Human Primates. 8 Sept. 2020, p. 2020.09.08.280818. bioRxiv, https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.08.280818v1.

You Asked, We Answered: Do the COVID-19 Vaccines Contain Aborted Fetal Cells? https://www.nebraskamed.com/COVID/you-asked-we-answered-do-the-covid-19-vaccines-contain-aborted-fetal-cells. Accessed 8 Oct. 2021.

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Does Pfizers COVID-19 Vaccine Contain Aborted Fetal Cells?

Jobs in agriculture dont just take place on the farm.

Across the Midwest, plant science and ag companies are looking for scientists and others in STEM to fill positions in labs, or in front of computers, that may not fit the traditional image of agriculture.

When people meet folks that work in the ag industry, they're often shocked about what they actually do for a living, said Kim Kidwell, the associate chancellor of Strategic Partnerships and Initiatives at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and a former dean of the School of Agriculture. There's a lot of engineering, there's a lot of business, there's a lot of computer science.

Across the industry, theres a growing need for scientists at every level as agriculture becomes more high-tech, and employers are increasingly looking for people who dont have a traditional ag background for different positions.

Corteva Agriscience is a global company that produces agriculture products like seeds and chemicals. The company has about 500 open jobs right now, from scientists to data engineers. About 200 of those dont require a four-year degree. Many of the openings are in Nebraska, Indiana, Michigan and Iowa.

People think of Corteva obviously as an ag company and they think that they have to have an agriculture degree, an agronomy degree or an ag business degree to come work for us, and that's far from the truth, said Angela Latcham, who leads Cortevas North America seed production and supply chain teams. We're looking for people with nontraditional backgrounds.

Corteva has open positions all over the country and the world. Some are in rural areas, close to the fields where they grow their crops, but thats not the case for most jobs in agriculture.

Agricultural economists at Purdue University have been analyzing online job openings and have found about two-thirds are in metropolitan areas.

Most of the jobs are actually not on the farm, said Brady Brewer, an associate professor of agricultural economics at Purdue.

The need for workers with non-traditional backgrounds also extends to education. Kidwell, of the University of Illinois, said theres an incredible demand for scientists at every level, including for positions that dont require a four-year degree.

If we don't get more people into the pipe, what's coming out of the pipeline will be grossly inadequate to support the advancement of food and ag in the way that it has the potential to expand, she said.

Brian Munoz

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St. Louis Public Radio

Growing the ag workforce

In St. Louis, one community college program is trying to help fill the worker gap by training students to work in labs. St. Louis Community Colleges Center for Plant and Life Sciences is a hands-on program. In fact, many of the classes take place at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, where scientists study plants and find ways to apply their knowledge to agriculture.

The centers director, Elizabeth Boedeker, was leading a lab exercise with her students on a recent afternoon where they were working with cells.

There is a huge workforce demand right now, Boedeker said. These two-year students that are doing their internships, about a third of the time those students get offered full time or permanent part time employment with those internship sponsors.

The types of positions Boedeker is training students for, like agriculture and food science technician roles, are still a much smaller group compared to farm workers, but according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, those science jobs are projected to grow much faster in the coming years than traditional farm worker jobs.

Boedekers students complete internships as part of their coursework, often with some of the many plant science startups and big companies that operate in the area.

NewLeaf Symbiotics is one company that regularly hires the interns through the community college program. The biotechnology startup is conveniently located in the same building where classes take place.

The company makes what Natalie Breakfield, vice president for research and discovery, describes as basically a probiotic for a plant.

Brian Munoz

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St. Louis Public Radio

Breakfield has a Ph.D., but she said many positions at the company can be filled by someone who has gone through an associates or technical training program, like the one through St. Louis Community College. These research assistants do hands-on lab work, collecting data and running experiments, while being supervised by another scientist.

I know when I need an employee, I can call up [Boedeker] and ask her, who does she have available right now that's looking for a job, and she can send me a few resumes right away, Breakfield said.

As St. Louis works to become a hub for ag biotech companies, Breakfield said theyre going to need more and more people in jobs like these. But one barrier to expansion is that people might not know these careers exist.

Even Breakfield said she didnt know much about the plant science field before her first job as a lab technician.

That was my first real introduction into working with plants and then I actually just fell in love with it, she said. I think if you like science, this is a good place to start and you can always go on further if you decide you want to further your education.

Follow Kate on Twitter: @KGrumke

This story was produced in partnership with Harvest Public Media, a collaboration of public media newsrooms in the Midwest. It reports on food systems, agriculture and rural issues. Follow Harvest on Twitter: @harvestpm

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Agriculture companies have lots of job openings in STEM fields, far from the farm - KCUR

NCER Notes:

Is it ethical to use aborted fetal tissue in research? The practice of using aborted fetal tissue has been in the news lately with the trial of journalist David Daleiden, who filmed Planned Parenthood abortionists admitting they change their procedures in order to sell the freshest aborted fetal tissue to researchers. This kind of research has been ongoing for decades in a shroud of secrecy within a medical community that has become unfazed by the ethical issues involved. Aborted fetal tissue has been used to create everything from vaccines to potential cures for diseases, and is firmly entrenched in research protocol, even when other ethical options are available. Planned Parenthood has become the fetal tissue dealer to both government and private medical research, and as such, reaps financial benefits. Abortion is the flagrant taking of a human life, and the use of aborted tissue, even in pursuit of a cure, completely nullifies the bioethical principles of 1) informed consent, 2) benefit must outweigh the risk and 3) justice toward the most vulnerable. The following article exposes the shockingly common uses of aborted fetal tissue.

ByAndrea Byrnes|April 23rd, 2019

Do some products contain fetal parts? The short gruesome answer: Yes.

Todays consumer products are not the soap and lampshades of recycled Nazi concentration camp victims. The new utilitarian use of people is a sophisticated enterprise, not visible to the human eye.

Perhaps you are a diligent supporter and promoter of pro-life legislation, only vote for pro-life candidates, avoid entertainment from musicians and actors who openly support Planned Parenthood. Regardless, you may unwittingly be cooperating in aborted fetal cell research by purchasing products that use aborted fetuses, either in the product itself or in its development.

One might take Enbrel (Amgen) to relieve Rheumatoid Arthritis. Your husband was given Zoastavax (Merck), a Shingles vaccine, at his annual physical. Your mother with diabetes and renal failure is prescribed Arensep (Amgen). Your grandfather is given the blood product Repro (Eli Lilly) during an angioplasty. The local school district requires that your grandchildren receive the MMRII (the Merck Measles-Mumps-Rubella vaccine). Your daughter and son use coffee creamers and eat soup with artificial flavor enhancers (Senomyx/Firmenich) tested on artificial taste buds engineered from aborted fetal cells.

Because of the vagary of FDA labeling, unless you are proficient at reading patents and pharmaceutical inserts you wouldnt know aborted fetal parts were there without someone to tell you

Luckily, that someone is the watchdog group Children of God for Life (COG), a pro-life public citizen group which tracks the use of aborted fetal parts. Under the leadership of Executive Director Debi Vinnedge, COG publishes adownloadable listof products that use aborted fetuses currently available in the U.S.

Products related to fetal material can be broken down into roughly 3 categories: artificial flavors, cosmetics, and medicines/vaccines.

To be clear, food and beveragesdo notcontain any aborted fetal material; however, they may be tastier because of it. How is that?

The American biotech company Senomyx has developed chemical additives that can enhance flavor and smell. To do this, they had to produce an army of never-tiring taste testersthat is, flavor receptors engineered fromhuman embryonic kidney cells(HEK 293, fetal cell line popular in pharmaceutical research).These artificial taste buds can tell product developers which products the public will crave. The goal is to do a taste bud sleight of hand, creating low-sugar and low-sodium products that taste sweet or salty while actually using less sugar or sodium in the product.

Does your Nestle Coffee-mate Pumpkin Spice refrigerated creamer taste more like autumn? Does your Maggi bouillon taste just like chicken? Thank Senomyx.

The laboratory-created artificial enhancers do not have to be tested at length by the FDA because the Senomyx chemical flavor compounds are used in proportions less than one part per million and can be classified as artificial flavors.

In 2005, Senomyx had contracts to develop products for Kraft Foods, Nestle, Campbell Soup and Coca-Cola.However, when it was discovered in 2011 that PepsiCo was using Senomyx to develop a reduced sugar beverage, a boycott ensued that caused Kraft-Cadbury Adams LLC and Campbell Soup cancelled their contracts with Senomyx. In a 2012 letter to Children of God for Life, PepsiCo stated, Senomyx does not use HEK cells or any other tissues or cell lines derived from human embryos or fetuses for research performed on behalf of PepsiCo.To that effect, PepsiCo is working with Senomyx on two products developed with Sweetmyx 617, a new Senomyx sweet taste modifier.

In November 2018, the Swiss company Firmenich acquired Senomyx, Inc. Firmenich describes itself as a global leader in taste innovation and expert in sweet, cooling and bitter solutions.

The fountain of youthis babies.

Commercially, its known as Processed Skin Proteins (PSP), developed at the University of Lausanne to heal burns and wounds by regenerating traumatized skin. The fetal skin cell line was taken from an electively aborted baby whose body was donated to the University.

Neocutis, a San Francisco-based firm, uses PSP in some of their anti-aging skin products. Their website claims the trademarked PSP harnesses the power of Human Growth Factors, Interleukins and other Cytokines, to help deliver state-of-the-art skin revitalization.

TheVaccine Cardat the Sound Choice Pharmaceutical Institute (SCPI) website lists over 21 vaccines and medical products that contain aborted fetal cell lines. The Card is updated yearly, and also lists ethical vaccine alternatives when there are any.

SCPI is a biomedical research organization headed by Theresa Deisher, who has a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Physiology from Stanford and 23 patents in the field to her name. Dr. Deisher, the first person to identify and patent stem cells from the adult heart, has an insiders understanding of genetic engineering having worked in the industry leaders such as Amgen, Genetech, and Repligen.

Among other things SCPI promotes awareness about the widespread use of fetal human material in drug discovery, development and commercialization.

No vaccine product is completely pure: You will find contaminating DNA and cellular debris from the production cell in your final product. When we switch from using animal cells to using human cells we now have human DNA in our vaccines and our drugs.

The problem is three-fold. Aborted fetal parts are used for experiments, aborted fetal cell lines are used, and fetal cellular DNA debris are in vaccines and medicines.

But it is not just human DNA that is left over, so are some of the chemical stabilizers that keep the product from degrading, as well as, stimulants to rev up the immune system.

Vaccines are a virus that have been put into a vial, in a liquid, which is the buffer, which we call excipients, and companies have put in stabilizers so that the virus wont degrade and other things that kind of rev up your immune system so that they can use lower amounts of the virus and have a greater profit margin. And immune stimulants are things like aluminum andthimerosal, they arestabilizers but they rev up the immunes system, so all of these things are in the final product, including contaminates from the cell lines that are used to manufacture the vaccines.

Why arent the contaminates removed? Because nobody wants a pediatric vaccine that costs a few thousand dollars.

In finance, the yield is inversely related to the price. In chemistry, the yield is inversely related to purity. The price of inexpensive mass-produced vaccines is that the medical establishment accepts that the vaccines contain a high amount of fetal contaminates.

[I]f they have purified out the containments from the cell lines, the yield would be so low that they wouldnt make any money, or no one would pay a thousand dollars or ten thousand dollars for a vaccine. And so because of that case remnants from the cell lines, in that case, fetal cell lines are in the final product. And they are at actually very high levels. And in the chicken pox, the fetal DNAcontaminates are present at twice the levels of the active ingredient which isVaricella DNA.

Much research is currently being done with fetal cells.

We know this because, for one, theres a market for fetal parts. In aseries of undercover videos, David Daleiden ofThe Center for Medical Progressexposed Planned Parenthood abortion clinics selling fetal parts to investigators posing as and medical researchers. And for his efforts his office was raided in 2016 by then California Attorney General Kamala Harris, now a Senator and 2020 Presidential Candidate Harris.Daleiden is currently being pursued in court by current California Attorney General, and former Democrat California Congressman, Xavier Becerra.

We already knew this was happening from the testimony of scientists themselves. On January 11, 2018, professor emeritus Dr. Stanley Plotkin, the lead developer of the Rubella vaccine for the Wistar Institute (Philadelphia) in the 1960s, was deposed as an expert witness on Vaccinology in a Michigan child custody case.Dr. Plotkin was asked how many aborted fetuses he has used in his experiments:

QUESTION: So in your, in all of your work related to vaccines throughout your whole career, youve only ever worked with two fetuses?

PLOTKIN: In terms of making vaccines, yes.

But after being presented with Exhibit 41 (Proceedings of the Society of Experimental Biology and Medicine), the two fetuses involved in his experiment grows exponentially to 76 aborted fetuses.

QUESTION: So this study involved 74 fetuses, correct?

PLOTKIN: Seventy-six.

QUESTION: And these fetuses were all three months or older when aborted, correct? PLOTKIN: Yes.

A true enough response. Fetal cells, for that matter all normal cells, have a finite capacity to replicate following the principle of cellular aging. The vaccine trail needed many cell lines in order to achieve its end.

An interesting aside: during questioning Dr. Plotkin answered affirmatively that some of his subjects for experimental vaccine trials had been children of mothers in prison, the mentally ill, and individuals under colonial rule [Belgian Congo].

Dr. Theresa Deisher first became aware of the introduction of fresh aborted fetal material in drug discovery in 1996.Fresh fetal parts are a time-saver compared to the days spent washing and prepping animal tissue, like monkey hearts, for laboratory experiments. While it is not legal to sell aborted fetal tissue, it is still available in catalogues and comes with high prices for shipping and handling.

According to Dr. David A. Prentice Vice, President of the Charlotte Lozier Institute and Adjunct Professor of Molecular Genetics at the John Paul II Institute,adult stem cellsare the benchmark for research that has led to actual cures for patients.

The superiority of adult stem cells in the clinic and the mounting evidence supporting their effectiveness in regeneration and repair make adult stem cells the gold standard of stem cells for patients.

Then why are we still using embryonic cell lines when adult stem cells have become the Gold Standard? There seems to be little excuse for products that use aborted fetuses.

embryonic stem cells

On the 20th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade in 1993, President Clinton signed five abortion-related memorandums which included the reversal of the George H. W. Bush era moratorium on creating new fetal tissue for research, claiming at the time, This moratorium has significantly hampered the development of possible treatments for individuals afflicted with serious diseases and disorders, such as Parkinsons disease, Alzheimers disease, diabetes and leukemia.

While a bio-ethics debate transfixed the country in 2006 as to whether the United States would allow the use of new aborted fetal stem cells in research, [see White HouseFact Sheet on Stem Cell Research Policy], the medical research community had already decided that the future lay with human-animal hybrids and new aborted fetal cell lines. According to a statement submitted to the Presidents Bioethics Council:

Aborted human DNA in our vaccines is not the end, it is only the beginning, as the creation of human-animal hybrids demonstrates. A new aborted fetal cell line has been developed, called PerC6, and licenses have been taken by over 50 partners, including the NIH and the Walter Reed Army Institute, to use this cell line for new vaccine and biologics production. The goal of the company that created the PerC6 is to become the production cell line for ALL vaccines, therapeutics antibodies, biologic drugs and gene therapy.

And this has largely come to pass.

In 2019, the Department of Health and Human Services granted a second 90-day extension to a contract it has with the University of California at San Francisco that requires UCSF to make humanized mice for on-going AIDS research. The human fetal tissue comes from late-term abortions.

CNSNews reported that according to an estimate it haspublished on its website, the National Institutes of Health (which is a division of HHS) will spend $95 million this fiscal year alone on research thatlike UCSFs humanized mouse contractuses human fetal tissue.

Seeherefor news on how the Trump administration limited the sale of fetal parts.

Stop Ebola? Prevent Zika Virus? Cure AIDS? Look for more, not fewer, aborted fetal products in the future.

Full Article with links and footnotes here

Writer Andrea Byrnes was the first producer of U.S. March for Life coverage at EWTN Global Catholic Network, which she continued to supervise for seven years. She attended her first HLI conference in 1989, where she first met Servant of God Dr. Jerome Lejeune. She and her husband would later pray for Lejeunes intercession for her sons health difficulties discovered before birth, and thanks be to God, he is thriving.

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Products That Use Aborted Fetuses Nebraska Coalition for ...

Dr Hernando Lopez-Bertoni is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology, Division of Neuro-Oncology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Dr Lopez-Bertoni completed his PhD training at University of Nebraska medical Center in Omaha, NE in 2012 under the mentorship of Dr Xu Luo. His PhD work built upon his interest in cell death mechanisms as he studied how Bcl-2 family proteins regulate cell death in response to different chemotherapeutic agents.

These were one of the first studies to show that simultaneously targeting more than one anti-apoptotic protein is required to efficiently kill tumour cells and helped solidify the concept of combinatorial pro-apoptotic therapeutics.

Dr Lopez-Bertoni moved to Baltimore, MD in May 2012 to pursue a post-doctoral fellowship in neuro-oncology under the mentorship of Dr John Laterra at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. His work as a fellow focused on studying the molecular mechanisms involved in establishing and promoting brain tumour formation and understanding the contribution of stem-like cells to this process with the goal of using this knowledge to develop new approaches that will ultimately impact the diagnosis and treatment of brain cancer.

Dr Lopez-Bertoni has established himself as an exceptional researcher and educator. He published extensively on DNA methylation, miRNAs, the GBM cancer stem cell phenotype. He also worked on the DNA damage response in glial cells and participated in research looking at how the tumour microenvironment and receptor-tyrosine kinase inhibition affect the GBM tumour phenotype.

His work on in vivo miRNA delivery is serving as the foundation for sophisticated, mechanism-based, rational approaches to designing molecular therapeutics for GBM. Dr Lopez-Bertoni was at the forefront of identifying a role for the Yamanka factors in controlling the tumour-propagating phenotype of GBM stem-like cells.

In novel and original studies, he uncovered a molecular circuit by which Oct4/Sox2 drives GSC cellular transitions and tumour propagation, in part, by repressing miRNAs that regulate two distinct epigenetic mechanisms: (1) changes in chromatin architecture through the action of HMGA1, and (2) DNMT-dependent DNA methylation events.

Despite major advances in our understanding of cancer at the molecular level, mechanism-based treatment modalities remain limited. Dr Lopez-Bertonis work is at the forefront of tackling this important challenge. He has active collaborations exploring ways to translate the concept of miRNA network normalization in vivo. His efforts already identified a promising nanocarrier that allows for facile delivery of multiple miRNA types to GBM cells.

Using a technique that closely resembles clinically translatable convection-enhanced delivery (CED) Dr Lopez-Bertoni showed, for the first time, miRNA-loaded nanoparticles penetrate an established brain tumour in vivo, inhibiting the growth of established GBM xenografts, and prolong survival with an apparent 60% cure rate in mouse models.

His work highlights how novel developments in mechanisms of cell fate regulation can combine with nanomedicine to provide new avenues to develop innovative pre-clinical molecular therapeutics for GBM.

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miRNA-based therapeutics to treat Glioblastoma at Johns Hopkins Medical Institute in Baltimore - Open Access Government

Students from the University of Nebraska at Omaha have once again sent experiments to near-space through two high-altitude balloon launches this time in support of a unique opportunity to launch a small satellite into orbit.

UNOs TED/STEM 8860 Invention & Innovation in Engineering Education class joined with the University of Nebraska-Lincolns (UNL) Nebraska Big Red Satellite team and the UNL Aerospace eXperimental Payload (AXP) team to launch high-altitude balloons in the final weeks of the Spring 2021 semester.

The launches were conducted as a precursor to the NASA CubeSat Launch Initiative which will launch and place a small student-created satellite into earths orbit a first for the state of Nebraska. The Big Red Satellite team is comprised of UNL undergraduate engineering students who also mentor Nebraska middle and high school students in near-space STEM experiments.

Ensuring successful launches now and in the future meant drawing on the experience and expertise of Derrick Nero, Ed.D., assistant professor of teacher education at UNO. Nero supported AXP and the Big Red Satellite Team through technical and logistical advisement including staging and balloon fill procedures, design considerations, and meeting FAA requirements for unmanned free balloons.

Design considerations were a particular challenge as breezy weather made launches difficult. The teams prepared for a dual balloon launch from the Strategic Air and Space Museum near Ashland, Nebraska on April 24, 2021. Congressman Don Bacon was on hand to deliver remarks, congratulate them on their selection for the NASA CubeSat program, and wish all teams the best of luck.

Mother Nature did her best to keep the balloons on the ground. The UNO team successfully launched one balloon complete with test payloads to track the balloons position and record data. However, the wind proved to be too much for the second balloon. The teams were forced to give the second balloon another try on a later date when weather conditions were more ideal.

While a minor setback, Nero believes that these less-than-optimal weather conditions provided students with an extra chance to apply what they were learning. Challenges such as less ideal weather conditions and payload or equipment issues provide great learning opportunities for students in preparation: Creating alternate plans, performing real-time troubleshooting and decision-making, and critically reviewing for procedures optimization, Nero said.

And troubleshoot they did. The second balloon was launched successfully from UNOs campus the following week despite another windy spring Nebraska day. Between the two launches, both balloons rose to the upper levels of the Earths atmosphere or approximately 70,000 feet. Altogether, six payloads made the journey to near-space: Three of the payloads were projects of the Big Red Satellite team of middle- and high-school students while an additional three payloads were projects of the UNL Aerospace eXperimental Payloads (AXP) team.

The lessons learned in these launches will prove valuable as the Big Red Satellite Team gears up for successful NASA CubeSat Launch in the years to come. The payloads enabled students to study various effects of radiation on food, solar cells, and testing hardware in preparation for the CubeSat project.

NASAs CubeSat Launch Initiative selects small satellite payloads built by universities, high schools and non-profit organizations to fly on upcoming launches. Through innovative technology partnerships, NASA provides CubeSat developers a low-cost pathway to conduct scientific investigations and technology demonstrations in space, thus enabling students, teachers and faculty to obtain hands-on flight hardware development experience.

UNO is excited to assist the Big Red Satellite Team as they continue to design, test, and improve its platform, payloads, and practices to successfully deploy a nanosatellite in support of NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative, Nero said.

Continued here:
High Altitude Balloons Return to Near-Space from UNO - University of Nebraska Omaha

When eaten as part of a healthy diet, oranges can benefit your skin, heart and digestive health. The refreshing citrus fruit is famously known for its high levels of vitamin C, an antioxidant that may help shorten the duration of colds and is linked to a lower risk of cancer.

Oranges supply more than 100 percent of your Daily Value of vitamin C, which can help shorten colds.

Image Credit: LIVESTRONG.com Creative

Delicious eaten raw, slightly frozen or blended into a smoothie, this fruit is an easy way to make your diet more nutritious. If you love to grill or roast meat, a squeeze of orange can also double as a healthy tenderizer.

Oranges have the added benefit of being convenient to toss in a lunch bag for a quick snack or part of a meal.

Orange Nutrition Facts

One large orange is equal to a single serving. One large orange contains:

Orange Macros

Vitamins, Minerals and Other Micronutrients

Health Benefits of Oranges

Oranges can improve the health of your skin, heart and digestive system. Their high levels of vitamin C may contribute to healthy collagen levels, shorter colds and lower risk of cancer.

1. They're Linked to Improved Skin Health

The vitamin C in oranges plays a number of protective roles in the body, including keeping your skin healthy and youthful. One large orange provides more than your entire DV of this nutrient.

Vitamin C plays a key role in the production of collagen, which is the structural protein that gives skin elasticity. The vitamin C content in your skin and your body's production of collagen naturally decline as you age, according to Oregon State University.

This decrease in collagen contributes to wrinkles. It may also cause health issues like weakening muscles, joint pain, osteoarthritis or even gastrointestinal problems due to the thinning of your digestive tract lining, per the Cleveland Clinic. After aging, a poor diet is the most common cause of low collagen levels in the body.

Although you may think of skin health as largely involving topical treatments, dietary intake of healthy nutrients is generally linked to improved appearance of the skin. Nutrient supplementation improved both the perception of skin health and actual skin health including appearance, roughness, wrinkling and elasticity in a March 2015 review in the journal Nutrition Research.

More research is needed to determine the effect of nutrient-rich foods and vitamin C on skin appearance. However, antioxidant-rich foods like oranges generally seem to have a protective effect, per the Mayo Clinic.

Vitamin C also helps to repair wounds and even affects your oral health. In fact, vitamin C may contribute to a lower risk of periodontal (gum) disease and can improve gingival bleeding in gingivitis, according to a July 2019 review in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

"Vitamin C benefits your gum health because its antioxidant properties help to renew, rebuild and constantly keep tissue healthy," says Natalie Allen, RD, clinical assistant professor of biomedical sciences at Missouri State University.

A large orange contains 4.4 grams of fiber, which is 18 percent of the DV. Fiber is an essential part of a healthy diet, according to the Mayo Clinic. A high-fiber diet:

Oranges are filled with soluble fiber, which is also found in apples, oats, peas, beans and carrots. "The soluble fiber in oranges is very helpful in lowering cholesterol and keeping your gastrointestinal tract healthy, and also slows down the digestion of food," Allen says.

While too many starchy foods can lead to constipation (and too much sugar or processed food can lead to diarrhea), fiber keeps your digestive system running smoothly. Soluble fiber can reduce gas and bloating, and changes into a gel-like substance during digestion, which makes stool softer and bulkier for easier excretion, per Harvard Medical School.

Oranges are one type of food certified as heart-healthy by the American Heart Association. Certified foods must be a good source (provide at least 10 percent DV per serving) of one more of these six nutrients: vitamin A, vitamin C, iron, calcium, protein and dietary fiber. Oranges qualify due to their fiber and vitamin C content.

Are You Getting Enough Fiber?

Track your macros by logging your meals on the MyPlate app. Download now to fine-tune your diet today!

Americans generally don't get enough fiber: While the recommended total dietary intake of fiber is 25 to 30 grams per day, adults average about 15 grams per day, per UCSF Health, so eating oranges can help fill that gap.

3. Oranges Are Tied to a Healthy Immune System

Perhaps most famously associated with vitamin C, oranges can help keep your immune system functioning at its best.

That said, vitamin C is not a cure-all or sure bet for preventing the common cold (or other illnesses). Only extremely active people like marathon runners and skiers who took at least 200 milligrams of vitamin C daily (about the amount in two oranges) appeared to cut their chances of getting a common cold in half in a January 2013 review published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.

The same effect wasn't seen for the general population. However, taking at least 200 milligrams daily vitamin C did appear to shorten the duration of cold symptoms by an average of 8 percent in adults and 14 percent in children which equates to about one day less of sickness according to Harvard Medical School.

When possible, it's best to get nutrients like vitamin C from food rather than supplements. People with high intakes of vitamin C from fruits and vegetables might have a lower risk of getting several types of cancer, including lung, colon and breast cancer, per the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Vitamin C supplements don't appear to have the same protective effect.

People who eat many fruits and vegetables also appear to have a lower risk of heart disease, which may be due to antioxidants that stave off oxidative damage, a major cause of heart disease. More research is needed to determine if vitamin C plays a role in this protective effect and if it can slow down the progression of heart disease and those who already have it.

Fruits, like oranges, and vegetables are the best sources of vitamin C. Although most people in the U.S. get enough vitamin C from foods and beverages, people who smoke or are exposed to secondhand smoke may not, per the NIH. Smokers need 35 milligrams more vitamin C daily than nonsmokers, partly because smoke increases how much vitamin C your body needs to repair free radical damage.

Orange juice is not necessarily unhealthy in moderation, but whole fruit has far more health benefits. I always recommend the whole fruit over juice, because youll get more fiber than you would in the juice, Allen says.

Half a cup of juice is a serving, which isnt very much. You might end up drinking two to three servings of juice, which is a lot more calories and sugar than you would get from an orange.

While eating whole fruits was associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes, a greater intake of fruit juice was associated with a higher risk in an August 2013 _BMJ _study. If you like orange juice, opt for a calcium-fortified variety and dilute it with seltzer water.

Orange Health Risks

Although rare, citrus allergy has been reported with oranges, mandarins and grapefruits, per the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI).

Many people with fruit allergy are sensitized to pollen and may react to a number of other fruits, according to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Food Allergy and Resource Program. About 39 percent of children and young adults with hay fever also had a sensitivity to citrus fruits in a small January 2013 study of 72 participants published in the journal PLOS One.

Citric acid, a chemical naturally found in citrus fruits but also used as an additive in foods, does not provoke an immune response including in people with citrus allergy, according to the AAAAI.

It's important to speak to an allergist if you suspect you have a food allergy, which can cause symptoms such as vomiting, hives, shortness of breath or even life-threatening anaphylaxis. If you have a food allergy, you may need to carry epinephrine with you at all times in case of a severe reaction.

Oranges have potassium, which helps send electrical signals to heart-muscle cells and other cells. Avoid consuming them with ACE inhibitors such as:

These medications are used to lower blood pressure or treat heart failure and could increase levels of potassium in your body when combined with oranges (which contain potassium), per Consumer Reports. This may lead to heart palpitations or irregular heartbeat, which can be fatal.

For the same reason, you should avoid mixing oranges with some diuretics like triamterene (Dyrenium), used to lower fluid retention and treat high blood pressure.

Seville oranges (bitter oranges), which are often used in orange marmalade, can affect the same enzyme as grapefruit juice so it's best to avoid them if your medication reacts with grapefruit juice, per the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA).

Depending on the active ingredient, grapefruit can lower the effectiveness of a drug or cause dangerous drug levels in the body by interfering with transporters in the intestine. Ask your doctor if you can have fresh grapefruit juice while on your medication (and if not, avoid Seville oranges).

Currently there are more than 50 prescription and over-the-counter drugs known to have negative interactions with grapefruit.

Orange Preparation and Helpful Tips

In the U.S., most oranges are grown in California, Florida and Texas, and can be found in supermarkets year-round. Follow these tips to incorporate oranges into your diet.

Check oranges before buying. You should be able to squeeze a fresh orange slightly, and its orange hue should predominate over green, according to the USDA.

Oranges vary in characteristics by type. For instance, navel oranges are easy to peel and don't have seeds. Valencia oranges do have seeds and are more difficult to peel, but are generally less expensive than navel oranges.

Wash oranges before using them. The USDA recommends washing oranges under cold, running water before peeling them. If you're using the skin for zest, scrub the orange peel with a vegetable brush.

Slice easily and store properly. Place the orange on its side, with the stem ends between your hands, then carefully cut into wedges. This makes it easy to remove the wedges from the skin, per the USDA.

Florida and Texas oranges are best stored at 32 to 34 degrees Fahrenheit, while California oranges are ideally stored at 38 to 48 degrees Fahrenheit. Refrigerated oranges have a shelf life of about 10 days. For a refreshing treat, freeze orange wedges for up to one hour.

Alternatives to Oranges

Oranges provide a range of healthy nutrients that can benefit your skin, digestive health and immune system. They're packed with vitamin C, and provide 18 percent of the daily value of fiber. As such, they're considered a heart-healthy addition to your diet.

Citrus fruits are similar in nutritional value. You can replace oranges for other fruits such as grapefruit and tangerines for similar health benefits.

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Orange Nutrition: Benefits, Calories, Warnings and Recipes - LIVESTRONG.COM

Members of the medical team from Beijing's China-Japan Friendship Hospital visit a novel coronavirus pneumonia patient in an ICU ward at Tongji Hospital in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei province, on March 25, 2020. [Photo by Zhu Xingxin/chinadaily.com.cn]

Experts exploring new, innovative approaches to tackle novel coronavirus

Science and technology have played, and will continue to play, a decisive role in mitigating the pandemic, whether it is by discovering new features about the novel coronavirus, looking for new treatment or vaccines or offering expertise in psychological services, experts said.

But science does not always proceed in an unambiguous straight line toward progress. These undertakings, especially those involve pushing boundaries deeper into the unknown, are time-consuming, complicated and unpredictable. So it is important for the public to understand the scientific process to fully respect and appreciate these efforts, they said.

As President Xi Jinping has said, the COVID-19 epidemic is the "fastest spreading, most infectious and most challenging public health emergency since the birth of New China". He has also stressed that epidemic control efforts require the support of science and technology and urged scientists who are working on treatment and a vaccine to accelerate their research while upholding rigorous scientific practices and ensuring their products are safe.

With the leadership of Xi and joint efforts by the whole of society, the epidemic is now under control in China, said Huai Jinpeng, executive vice-president of the China Association for Science and Technology.

"But the disease is still spreading across the globe, and there is a strong downward pressure for the world economy and a noticeable spike in instability and uncertainty," he said at a meeting with the nation's science officials on April 30.

During this critical juncture, Chinese scientists need to be even more hardworking and pragmatic, and make a greater contribution to the nation's post-epidemic socioeconomic recovery with science and innovation, Huai said.

At the same time, they also need to expand their network of cooperation at home and abroad. Science officials and workers should maintain high ethical and professional standards, and be a role model for society, he added.

Wan Gang, president of the China Association for Science and Technology, said the nation's science workers were immediately mobilized to tackle the epidemic when the outbreak began, and have provided crucial scientific support in controlling the disease and assisting the socioeconomic recovery.

Communication is also a key aspect of the overall disease prevention and control effort, he said, adding that the various COVID-19 related information platforms under the association have attracted over 7 billion views in the past few months.

When Chinese microbiologist Wang Jun volunteered to go to Wuhan, Hubei province, to help the city's hospitals research the novel coronavirus, he said he felt like he was heading into a "battlefield".

The motive behind his action was simple. "Our institute (the Institute of Microbiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences) has been researching the virus since the outbreak began," Wang said on April 20.

"With Wuhan being the first place to have reported the disease, I had a gut feeling that there must have been many questions that our front-line medical staff didn't even know existed, so we had to go to the battlefront to learn about the situation and their needs," he said.

Since the outbreak began, the academy has sent dozens of researchers to Wuhan. Their work has played a major role in the overall epidemic control effort. Their five main objectives were viral research, creating new diagnostic tools, testing clinical treatments, health evaluation for recovered patients and psychological counseling.

Wang said his team had discovered that children, who were believed to be less susceptible to COVID-19, could still spread the disease even when their symptoms were mild, making them potential asymptomatic carriers that might float under the diagnostic radar.

The virus also has some very intricate immunological effects that would make case tracing via antibody tests more difficult, so "more research is definitely needed", he added.

Jin Qi, director of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences' Institute of Pathogen Biology, said that scientists' understanding of the novel coronavirus remains limited and is constantly expanding, and with new information unearthed, new questions would emerge.

For example, most researchers agreed that a 14-day quarantine is generally sufficient for a patient to show symptoms, but there are now rare cases in which patients experience the onset of symptoms well after the two-week period, Jin said.

Drugs and vaccines

Wang Guiqiang, head of Peking University First Hospital's department of infectious diseases, said at a seminar in late April that drugs and vaccines are crucial for stopping the pandemic for good, but this will require time and effort by scientists around the globe.

China has three vaccines, one vectorwhich uses just a gene from the coronavirusand two inactivated, currently in Phase II clinical trials. The vector vaccine is spearheaded by Chen Wei, a senior preventive medical expert, and the results for the Phase II trial are set to be published in May, according to official sources.

The two inactivated vaccines were developed respectively by the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products Co Ltd and Sinovac Research & Development Co Ltd.

Zhong Nanshan, a renowned respiratory expert, told People's Daily last month that although there has not been a wonder cure found for COVID-19, some drugs have proved to be effective to some extent.

"We're testing a variety of drugs, such as chloroquine, and experiment results have shown the drug is definitely effective," he said, adding that scientists are analyzing the data and would publish their findings soon.

Some traditional Chinese medicines, including Lianhua Qingwen Capsules, are also being studied. For the capsule, Zhong said although its anti-viral effect against COVID-19 isn't that pronounced, it does have a "remarkable anti-inflammatory effect" that can help patients recover quicker.

A major component of all scientific work is about testing available knowledge and methods, but not all tests can return positive results. Discovering what works, and, sometimes more importantly, what doesn't work and why, is crucial in expanding humanity's knowledge of the disease.

Cao Bin, vice-president of China-Japan Friendship Hospital, said at a seminar last month that they had found Lopinavir/Ritonavir, a combination of anti-HIV drugs that showed potential in treating COVID-19 in the early days of the outbreak, did not produce desirable results.

In late April, the Lancet medical journal published a study by Cao on his clinical trials on remdesivir in China. The study said the experimental drug from the United States did not significantly speed up the recovery of critically ill patients compared with the control group.

The authors warn that interpretation of their study is limited because it only recruited 237 adults, rather than the target of 453 patients, due to the rapid decline of COVID-19 cases in China. They concluded that more research is needed.

Pushing boundaries

Through strong government support and hard work, Chinese scientists are also exploring new and innovative ways to tackle the novel coronavirus.

Zhang Linqi, a professor at Tsinghua University School of Medicine in Beijing, said his team has been using antibodies to "drive a wedge" between the virus' spike proteinits "key" for entering cellsand the receptor that it binds to.

That would effectively block the virus from entry. It has been very effective in animal tests, and may serve to inspire new vaccine candidates, he said at an online seminar in late April.

Scientists have discovered that there is a small but potent section of the spike protein that does most of the work called the receptor-binding domain, or RBD.

Knowing that, Zhang's team, along with scientists from Shenzhen Third People's Hospital, found two antibodies that, together, can insert themselves at the junction of the RBD and the cell's receptor, blocking the virus from latching onto the cell.

Zhang said they are testing the blocking effect in possible vaccines, and early results are "really encouraging". But research is still in its early stages and more rigorous studies and tests are needed, he added.

Hu Baoyang, executive president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, said since arriving in Wuhan on March 1, his team had been busy testing stem cell therapy to calm the overreacting immune system and repair the lung tissue of severe and critically ill patients.

In the 46 days that followed, Hu and his team traveled to 13 hospitals and screened over 650 candidate patients for this innovative treatment. At a news briefing on April 16, Sun Yanrong, deputy director of the China National Center for Biotechnology Development, said over 200 patients in Wuhan had received stem cell therapy, and current results show the treatment can improve the recovery rate of severely ill patients and is generally safe.

However, stem cell therapy is far from perfect. Stem cells can differentiate into various types of cells, and some might turn cancerous, according to the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Some stem cells are also difficult to isolate and cultivate in large quantities, so more research and testing are also needed.

"Labs are our bastions, and our scientific research is the weapon against the epidemic," Hu said.

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Role of science highlighted in pandemic fight - Chinadaily.com.cn -