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Win an Image Renewal Ritual Collection worth 140 from Allure - image.ie

Skin Stem Cells Comments Off on Win an Image Renewal Ritual Collection worth 140 from Allure – image.ie | January 30th, 2020

The 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak has sparked a speedy response, with scientists, physicians, and front-line healthcare professionals analyzing data in real-time in order to share findings and call out misinformation. Today, The Lancet published two new peer-reviewed studies: one which found that the new coronavirus is genetically distinct from human SARS and MERS, related viruses which caused their own outbreaks, and a second which reports clinical observations of 99 individuals with 2019-nCoV.

The first cases of the coronavirus outbreak were reported in late December 2019. In this new study, Nanshan Chen and colleagues analyzed available clinical, demographic, and laboratory data for 99 confirmed coronavirus cases at the Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital between Jan 1 to Jan 20, 2020, with clinical outcomes followed until 25th January.

Chen and colleagues reported that the average age of the 99 individuals with 2019-nCoV is around 55.5 years, where 51 have additional chronic conditions, including cardiovascular and cerebrovascular (blood flow to the brain) diseases. Clinical features of the 2019-nCoV include a fever, cough, shortness of breath, headaches, and a sore throat. 17 individuals went on to develop acute respiratory distress syndrome, resulting in death by multiple organ failure in 11 individuals. However, it is important to note here that most of the 2019-nCoV cases were treated with antivirals (75 individuals), antibiotics (70) and oxygen therapy (75), with promising prognoses, where 31 individuals were discharged as of 25th January.

Based on this sample, the study suggests that the 2019 coronavirus is more likely to affect older men already living with chronic conditions but as this study only includes 99 individuals with confirmed cases, it may not present a complete picture of the outbreak. As of right now, there are over 6,000 confirmed coronavirus cases reported, where a total of 126 individuals have recovered, and 133 have died.

In a second Lancet study, Roujian Lu and their fellow colleagues carried out DNA sequencing on samples, obtained from either a throat swab or bronchoalveolar lavage fluids, from eight individuals who had visited the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan, China, and one individual who stayed in a hotel near the market. Upon sequencing the coronaviruss genome, the researchers carried out phylogenetic analysis to narrow down the viruss likely evolutionary origin, and homology modelling to explore the virus receptor-binding properties.

Lu and their fellow colleagues found that the 2019-nCoV genome sequences obtained from the nine patients were very similar (>99.98% similarity). Upon comparing the genome to other coronaviruses (like SARS), the researchers found that the 2019-nCoV is more closely related (~87% similarity) to two bat-derived SARS-like coronaviruses, but does not have as high genetic similarity to known human-infecting coronaviruses, including the SARS-CoV (~79%) orMiddle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) CoV (~50%).

The study also found that the 2019-nCoV has a similar receptor-binding structure like that of SARS-CoV, though there are small differences in certain areas. This suggests that like the SARS-CoV, the 2019-nCoV may use the same receptor (called ACE2) to enter cells, though confirmation is still needed.

Finally, phylogenetic analysis found that the 2019-nCoV belongs to the Betacoronavirus family the same category that bat-derived coronaviruses fall into suggesting that bats may indeed be the 2019-nCoV reservoir. However, the researchers note that most bat species are hibernating in late December, and that no bats were being sold at the Huanan seafood market, suggesting that while bats may be the initial host, there may have been a secondary animal species which transmitted the 2019-nCoV between bats and humans.

Its clear that we can expect new findings from the research community in the coming days as scientists attempt to narrow down the source of the 2019-nCoV.

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You can add almost anything to improve graphene's function, even bird poop - Massive Science

Skin Stem Cells Comments Off on You can add almost anything to improve graphene’s function, even bird poop – Massive Science | January 30th, 2020

The 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak has sparked a speedy response, with scientists, physicians, and front-line healthcare professionals analyzing data in real-time in order to share findings and call out misinformation. Today, The Lancet published two new peer-reviewed studies: one which found that the new coronavirus is genetically distinct from human SARS and MERS, related viruses which caused their own outbreaks, and a second which reports clinical observations of 99 individuals with 2019-nCoV.

The first cases of the coronavirus outbreak were reported in late December 2019. In this new study, Nanshan Chen and colleagues analyzed available clinical, demographic, and laboratory data for 99 confirmed coronavirus cases at the Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital between Jan 1 to Jan 20, 2020, with clinical outcomes followed until 25th January.

Chen and colleagues reported that the average age of the 99 individuals with 2019-nCoV is around 55.5 years, where 51 have additional chronic conditions, including cardiovascular and cerebrovascular (blood flow to the brain) diseases. Clinical features of the 2019-nCoV include a fever, cough, shortness of breath, headaches, and a sore throat. 17 individuals went on to develop acute respiratory distress syndrome, resulting in death by multiple organ failure in 11 individuals. However, it is important to note here that most of the 2019-nCoV cases were treated with antivirals (75 individuals), antibiotics (70) and oxygen therapy (75), with promising prognoses, where 31 individuals were discharged as of 25th January.

Based on this sample, the study suggests that the 2019 coronavirus is more likely to affect older men already living with chronic conditions but as this study only includes 99 individuals with confirmed cases, it may not present a complete picture of the outbreak. As of right now, there are over 6,000 confirmed coronavirus cases reported, where a total of 126 individuals have recovered, and 133 have died.

In a second Lancet study, Roujian Lu and their fellow colleagues carried out DNA sequencing on samples, obtained from either a throat swab or bronchoalveolar lavage fluids, from eight individuals who had visited the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan, China, and one individual who stayed in a hotel near the market. Upon sequencing the coronaviruss genome, the researchers carried out phylogenetic analysis to narrow down the viruss likely evolutionary origin, and homology modelling to explore the virus receptor-binding properties.

Lu and their fellow colleagues found that the 2019-nCoV genome sequences obtained from the nine patients were very similar (>99.98% similarity). Upon comparing the genome to other coronaviruses (like SARS), the researchers found that the 2019-nCoV is more closely related (~87% similarity) to two bat-derived SARS-like coronaviruses, but does not have as high genetic similarity to known human-infecting coronaviruses, including the SARS-CoV (~79%) orMiddle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) CoV (~50%).

The study also found that the 2019-nCoV has a similar receptor-binding structure like that of SARS-CoV, though there are small differences in certain areas. This suggests that like the SARS-CoV, the 2019-nCoV may use the same receptor (called ACE2) to enter cells, though confirmation is still needed.

Finally, phylogenetic analysis found that the 2019-nCoV belongs to the Betacoronavirus family the same category that bat-derived coronaviruses fall into suggesting that bats may indeed be the 2019-nCoV reservoir. However, the researchers note that most bat species are hibernating in late December, and that no bats were being sold at the Huanan seafood market, suggesting that while bats may be the initial host, there may have been a secondary animal species which transmitted the 2019-nCoV between bats and humans.

Its clear that we can expect new findings from the research community in the coming days as scientists attempt to narrow down the source of the 2019-nCoV.

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My cat's coat is mostly white with dark tabby patches. What's going on? - Massive Science

Skin Stem Cells Comments Off on My cat’s coat is mostly white with dark tabby patches. What’s going on? – Massive Science | January 30th, 2020

An international research team, led by physician-scientists at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, describe a new method for delivering neural precursor cells (NSCs) to spinal cord injuries in rats, reducing the risk of further injury and boosting the propagation of potentially reparative cells.NSCs hold great potential for treating a variety of neurodegenerative diseases and injuries to the spinal cord. The stem cells possess the ability to differentiate into multiple types of neural cell, depending upon their environment. As a result, there is great interest and much effort to use these cells to repair spinal cord injuries and effectively restore related functions.

But current spinal cell delivery techniques, said Martin Marsala, MD, professor in the Department of Anesthesiology at UC San Diego School of Medicine, involve direct needle injection into the spinal parenchyma the primary cord of nerve fibers running through the vertebral column. "As such, there is an inherent risk of (further) spinal tissue injury or intraparechymal bleeding," said Marsala.

The new technique is less invasive, depositing injected cells into the spinal subpial space a space between the pial membrane and the superficial layers of the spinal cord.

"This injection technique allows the delivery of high cell numbers from a single injection," said Marsala. "Cells with proliferative properties, such as glial progenitors, then migrate into the spinal parenchyma and populate over time in multiple spinal segments as well as the brain stem. Injected cells acquire the functional properties consistent with surrounding host cells."

Marsala, senior author Joseph Ciacci, MD, a neurosurgeon at UC San Diego Health, and colleagues suggest that subpially-injected cells are likely to accelerate and improve treatment potency in cell-replacement therapies for several spinal neurodegenerative disorders in which a broad repopulation by glial cells, such as oligodendrocytes or astrocytes, is desired.

"This may include spinal traumatic injury, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and multiple sclerosis," said Ciacci.

The researchers plan to test the cell delivery system in larger preclinical animal models of spinal traumatic injury that more closely mimic human anatomy and size. "The goal is to define the optimal cell dosing and timing of cell delivery after spinal injury, which is associated with the best treatment effect," said Marsala.ReferenceMarsala et al. (2019) Spinal parenchymal occupation by neural stem cells after subpial delivery in adult immunodeficient rats. Stem Cells Translational Medicine. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/sctm.19-0156

This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.

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Injection Innovation May Improve Spinal Cord Repair Research - Technology Networks

Spinal Cord Stem Cells Comments Off on Injection Innovation May Improve Spinal Cord Repair Research – Technology Networks | January 30th, 2020

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a common disease with high incidence, disability rate and treatment cost. microRNA (miR)-200a is reported to inhibit Keap1 to activate Nrf2 signaling. This study aimed to explore the effects of lentivirus-mediated miR-200a gene-modified bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) transplantation on the repair of SCI in a rat model. BMSCs were isolated from the bone marrow of Sprague-Dawley rats. miR-200a targeting to Keap1 was identified by luciferase-reporter gene assay. The expressions of Keap1, Nrf2, NQO-1, HO-1 and GCLC were detected by Western blotting in SCI rats. The locomotor capacity of the rats was evaluated using the Basso, Beattie and Bresnahan scale. The levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) and activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) were measured. miR-200a inhibited Keap-1 3 UTR activity in BMSCs. Transplantation of BMSCs with overexpression of miR-200a or si-Keap1increased locomotor function recovery of rats after SCI, while decreased MDA level, increased SOD, CAT activities and Nrf2 expression together with its downstream HO-1, NQO1, GCLC protein expressions in SCI rat. These results indicated that overexpressed miR-200a in BMSCs promoted SCI repair, which may be through regulating anti-oxidative signaling pathway. 2020 International Center for Artificial Organs and Transplantation and Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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Upregulation of microRNA-200a in bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells enhances the repair of spinal cord injury in rats by reducing oxidative stress and...

Spinal Cord Stem Cells Comments Off on Upregulation of microRNA-200a in bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells enhances the repair of spinal cord injury in rats by reducing oxidative stress and… | January 30th, 2020

In the 1986 horror classic The Fly, a scientist played by Jeff Goldblum manages, quite unintentionally, to mix his biology with that of a housefly with gruesome results.

But the real-world mutant fruit flies that scientists used to understand body patterning are almost as bizarre: Flies with legs on their brows instead of antennae. Flies with extra chest sections, complete with duplicate wings. Flies missing big chunks of their heads.

These freaky flies have something in common: Theyre mixing up their head-to-tail body plans. And they earned three scientists the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1995.

Two of the scientists, Eric Wieschaus and Christiane Nsslein-Volhard, conducted a now-famous genetic screen of fruit fly embryos in 1979 and 1980 while working at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany. By feeding parent flies a powerful mutagen, they created a horde of larvae with genetic mistakes, including ones that affected how the fly embryo arranges bits of tissue, from head to tail, in sections a process called segmentation. (The pair tell the tale of this landmark experiment in the 2016 Annual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology.)

The other Nobel laureate, Edward Lewis of Caltech, discovered key players, later named Hox genes, that tell these fruit fly segments and other body parts what tissues and structures they should become.

Fruit flies, it turns out, have their own segmentation path, different from ours: They make a big chunk of tissue and then slice it up, like one would a loaf of bread. In contrast, vertebrates (including humans) churn out segments one by one, like a string of sausages, as they build the tissue. But many of the genes involved Hox and others found later are the same.

A landmark genetics screen by two scientists unearthed mutants with segmentation defects in the fruit fly Drosophila. On the left is the outer layer, or cuticle, of a normal early larva. To the right are ones of various mutants, with clear abnormalities.

CREDIT: E. WIESCHAUS & C. NSSLEIN-VOLHARD / AR CELL AND DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY 2016

These commonalities extend to the need for a sort of ruler that guides segmentation and Hox actions by helping cells identify their position in the body. That ruler takes the form of a two-way gradient. Cells closest to the head end make lots of a chemical called retinoic acid, and those at the tail end make two other compounds, called FGF and Wnt. These diffuse along the body, such that different spots contain different amounts of the chemicals. So, for example, a cell thats closer to the head than the tail will know its position because its bathed in plenty of retinoic acid, but not so much Wnt or FGF.

Vertebrate segments arise from tissue called the mesoderm. Sandwiched between the cells that will make skin and those that will make most internal organs, the mesoderm will yield tissues such as bone and muscle.

As the embryo grows, part of the mesoderm tissue near the head begins to make its segments in the form of beads of tissue called somites, one on each side of the future spinal cord. They are squeezed out of that mesoderm like toothpaste from a tube, says Robb Krumlauf, a developmental biologist at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City, Missouri. These will turn into vertebrae and skeletal muscles. (Other body parts will develop from cells outside of the segments.)

If the segmentation process goes wrong, vertebrae can take the wrong shape: half-vertebrae, fused vertebrae or wedge-shaped ones, for example. In people, this causes a type of scoliosis, and also may affect the kidneys, heart and other body parts.

How does the embryo make just the right number of segments, all the right size? In the 1970s, English researchers came up with a model they called clock and wavefront. The embryos clock would tick to indicate each time a segment should be produced. The wavefront would consist of a maturation process traveling from head to tail, and cells at the crest of that maturation wave would be ready to segment. Whenever the clock ticked, they would spit out a new segment.

The developing mammalian embryo produces two somites, one each side of the future spinal canal, every time an internal clock ticks. The process is guided by a protein called FGF that is made by the tail end of the embryo and diffuses along its length, forming a gradient. Somite production occurs at a spot (the wave front) where the concentration of FGF is at just the right level when the clock makes a tick. The process repeats itself over and over, gradually building up segments, from which vertebrae and skeletal muscle are made. Two other molecules, Wnt and retinoic acid, also form gradients, and with FGF these are key to telling tissues where they are along an embryos length.

At that time, scientists had no idea what molecules would control either clock or wavefront, or if the theory was even correct. The first hard evidence for a clock came from experiments with chicken eggs, published in 1997.

Developmental biologist Olivier Pourqui, now at Harvard Medical School, was studying the chick version of a gene called hairy that is involved in segmentation in fruit flies. He and his colleagues saw the hairy gene turn on in a cyclical manner: starting out at the tail, and then closer to the head, every 90 minutes. And every 90 minutes, the embryo made a new segment.

That study confirmed that a ticking clock did underlie segmentation, says Michalis Averof, a comparative developmental biologist at CNRS in Lyon, France. In 2012, he reported a similar oscillator in beetles.

Scientists still dont know what sets that clocks pace, but they now know that a variety of other proteins, including two of those ruler proteins, Wnt and FGF (and another called Notch), turn on genes like hairy. The other part of the system the wavefront of maturation is characterized by concentrations of FGF. Since FGF is made at the tail end, levels of the protein will be highest there and lowest at the head. Cells that have a low enough level of FGF when the clock ticks will form a segment.

Changing the speed of the clock can have profound effects on the body plan, as Pourqui found in a 2008 study on snakes. Snakes have hundreds of vertebrae, compared to the few dozen in other vertebrates like chickens, mice and humans. How did this come to be? Compared with that of a mouse, their clock is accelerated, Pourqui found. The faster it ticks, the more segments get made, creating the snakes long spine. He doesnt yet know why the snake clock ticks faster, though.

The bone-and-muscle segments, and the rest of the embryos developing tissues, need instructions so that the ones near the front make shoulders and arms, the ones at the back end make hips and legs, and so on. This process, too, depends on the ruler laid down by retinoic acid, Wnt and FGF. The position of cells with respect to the ruler tells them which Hox genes to activate. The Hox genes then turn on other genes, to make the right size and shape of vertebrae, or a tail, arm, liver, etc.

Its complicated: Mammals have 39 different Hox genes, activated in different combinations along the body and with different parts to play. For example, mice usually grow a defined series of vertebrae, including 13 thoracic segments with ribs and six lumbar segments without. But when scientists bred mice to lack the Hox10 gene, the creatures grew little ribs on the lumbar segments. In rare cases in people, mutations in Hox genes cause diverse effects such as club foot, hair loss and extra fingers and toes.

Lewis, who worked with Hox mutant flies in the 1970s, also discovered a remarkable pattern to the Hox genes. In DNA, they are lined up in the same order in which they are produced, from head to tail, in the embryo. Genes at one end of the line spring into action in response to retinoic acid, with that signal emanating from the head; the other end responds to Wnt and FGF, signals from the rear.

A collection of genes called HOX are activated in different parts of an animals body plan, telling cells and tissues what to become. In the DNA, the genes line up in the same order as they are used in a developing embryo. There are remarkable similarities between the HOX genes of disparate creatures, such as fruit flies, mice and humans. In mammals, the HOX genes diversified so that there are four sets (HOX A, B, C and D) to the flys single set. Duplications also led to an expanded number of HOX genes in each set.

Much remains unknown about how bodies are arranged how the same set of Hox genes creates such different body plans in different animals, for example, and how the pace of the segmentation clock sets just right to make a spine to fit a snake or a mouse or a person. Studying such things in people, of course, is difficult. So Pourqui and colleagues recently turned to human stem cells in a dish.

Using genetic trickery, they engineered the cells to flash yellow every time a certain clock gene turned on. Watching for the yellow glow, the researchers detected a clock that had five hours between each tick. Pourqui now aims to figure out just what controls that five-hour timing.

Its astounding, Krumlauf says, how similar the parts of the body-plan system are across such a wide variety of organisms. Each animal uses many of the same genetic tools, in different ways, to create its own unique shape.

In that respect, then, its not so surprising that Jeff Goldblums character melded so completely with a fly. Wnt, FGF, Hox genes its how we apply them that makes us the creatures we are.

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How do bodies position arms, legs, wings and organs? - Knowable Magazine

Spinal Cord Stem Cells Comments Off on How do bodies position arms, legs, wings and organs? – Knowable Magazine | January 30th, 2020

A team of researchers at Osaka University in Japan successfully transplanted cardiac muscle cells created from iPS into a patient, who is now recovering in the general ward of the hospital.

The team, led by Yoshiki Sawa, a professor in the university's cardiovascular surgery unit, created the cardiac muscle cells from iPS cells in a clinical trial to verify the safety and efficacy of this type of procedure. The researches want to transplant heart muscle cells into ten patients who have serious heart malfunctions because of ischemic cardiomyopathy over a three year period.

RELATED: RESEARCHERS ORGANIZE STEM CELLS BASED ON A COMPUTATIONAL MODEL

Instead of replacing the heart of patients, the researchers developed degradable sheets of heart muscle cells that were placed on the damaged areas of the heart.

To grow the heart muscle cells in the lab, the researchers turned to induced pluripotent stem cells otherwise known as iPS. Researchers are able to take those iPS cells and make them into any cell they want. In this case, it was heart muscle cells.If the clinical trials prove successful it could remove someday the need for heart transplants.

I hope that (the transplant) will become a medical technology that will save as many people as possible, as Ive seen many lives that I couldnt save, Sawa was quoted at a news conference reported the Japan Times.

As for the patient, the team plans to monitor him during the next year to ascertain how the heart muscle cells perform. According to the Japan Times, the researchers opted to conduct a clinical trial instead of a clinical study because they want approval from Japan's health ministry for clinical application as soon as possible.

The report noted that during the trial the researchers will look at risks, probabilities of cancer and the efficacy of transplanting 100 million cells for each patient that could include tumor cells.

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Heart Muscle Cells Made in the Lab Successfully Transplanted into Patient - Interesting Engineering

Cardiac Stem Cells Comments Off on Heart Muscle Cells Made in the Lab Successfully Transplanted into Patient – Interesting Engineering | January 30th, 2020

Biomedical researchers from Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso and the University of Texas at El Paso are working on a joint project to send miniature 3D bioprinted hearts to space. The research project, which has received backing from the National Science Foundation (NSF), seeks to understand how a microgravity environment affects the function of the human heart.

Bioprinting in space is a growing venture. The microgravity environment found aboard the International Space Station (ISS) provides a unique setting for bioprinted tissues and cellular structures to culture and grow. Bioprinting specialists like CELLINK and 3D Bioprinting Solutions are showcasing the potential of bioprinting in space, both for the advancement of bioprinting technologies and to understand the impact of zero-gravity on the human body.

The three-year research project conducted by the Texas-based research team falls into the latter category. The team, led by Munmun Chattopadhyay, Ph.D., TTUHSC El Paso faculty scientist, and Binata Joddar, Ph.D., UTEP biomedical engineer, wants to understand how the human heart is impacted by microgravity by testing bioprinted cardiac organoids aboard the ISS.

The cardiac organoids consist of heart-tissue structures measuring less than 1 mm in thickness which are bioprinted using human stem cells. The organoids will be sent to the ISS, where they will exposed to microgravity environments. This will provide vital insights into a condition commonly experienced by astronauts.

The condition in question is cardiac atrophy and it is caused by a weakening of heart tissue. The condition can lead to other problems, like fainting, irregular heartbeats and even heart failure. Because astronauts often suffer from cardiac atrophy after spending long stints in space, the researchers want to better understand the link.

Cardiac atrophy and a related condition, cardiac fibrosis, is a very big problem in our community, said Dr. Chattopadhyay. People suffering from diseases such as diabetes, muscular dystrophy and cancer, and conditions such as sepsis and congestive heart failure, often experience cardiac dysfunction and tissue damage.

The project, which officially started in September, is currently focused on research design. In this stage of the research, the team is developing bioprinted cardiac organoids and exploring different material compositions using cardiac cells to create heart-like tissue. The second stage of the research will be focused on preparing to launch to organoid to space. The final stage will consist of analyzing data collected during the organoids time in space, once they have returned to Earth.

Dr. Chattopadhyay expressed excitement about the ongoing research project, saying: Knowledge gathered from this study could be used to develop technologies and therapeutic strategies to better combat tissue atrophy experienced by astronauts, as well as open the doorforimproved treatmentsforpeople who suffer from serious heart issues due to illness.

The researchers also hope to engage the community with their research by offering a workshop for K-12 students about their experiments aboard the ISS. The team will also host a seminar for medical students, interns and residents about conducting research in space and on Earth.

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El Paso researchers sending bioprinted mini hearts to ISS - 3DPMN

Cardiac Stem Cells Comments Off on El Paso researchers sending bioprinted mini hearts to ISS – 3DPMN | January 30th, 2020

Two high-tech companies have teamed up to take 3D printing in space to the next level. A new 3D printer, sent to the space station on a SpaceX cargo resupply mission last July, is now officially open for business. Its goal: to print human tissue in space.

Formally known as the 3D BioFabrication Facility (or BFF), the printer will use adult human cells (like stem cells) as its feedstock. The BFF is just the first step to a much larger goal of printing human organs such as hearts or lungs in space.

The initial phase for BFF, which could last about two years, will involve creating test prints of cardiac-like tissue of increasing thickness, Techshot representatives said in a statement. (Techshot is collaborating on the project with nScrypt, a 3D bioprinter and electronic printer manufacturer.)

If all goes according to plan, the company would then graduate to printing heart patches in space. Once printed, they would be shipped back to Earth and tested in small animals (such as rats) to see how they do. The next step after that could be entire organs.

Ultimately, long-term success of BFF could lead to reducing the current shortage of donor organs and eliminate the requirement that someone must first die in order for another person to receive a new heart, other organ or tissue, Techshot said.

Imagine needing a organ and instead of having to wait on the transplant list for an one that could never come, using a bit of your own DNA, a new organ could be printed for you in space.

Researchers on Earth have celebrated some success with the 3D printing of bones and cartilage, but when it comes to soft tissues, they havent had the same luck.

Tissues collapse under their own weight due to gravity. This results in not much more than a puddle of biomaterial. But when these sames components are used in space, they retain their shape.

However, without additional conditioning, once these new tissues return to Earth, theyd collapse just like there terrestrial counterparts. Heres where BFF comes in.

In addition to launching a bioprinter, Techshot has also developed a means of curing the newly printed tissues. This way they will remain solid even after returning to Earth. The company says that the actual printing process will take less than a day, the strengthening process will take an estimated 12-45 days. It all depends on the tissue.

This could lead to less people dying as they wait on transplant lists, and it could also mean less dependency on anti-rejection medications. Assembling a whole human organ (such as a heart or lung) was once strictly science fiction. While its still a few years away, it is now a possibility.

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3D printed organs are coming to an International Space Station near you - Teslarati

Cardiac Stem Cells Comments Off on 3D printed organs are coming to an International Space Station near you – Teslarati | January 30th, 2020

A dad who saved the life of a cancer patient 6,600 miles away was flown around the world on a trip of a lifetime by his grateful recipient - who tracked him down.

Milton Becker, 69, was close to death and in desperate need of a bone marrow donor when a two-and-a-half year global search linked him with an anonymous Welsh man.

Emyr Williams, 54, was a near-perfect match, and his bone marrow was flown to Canada and given to Milton, who was declared cancer free.

The pair were linked up by the donation database and grew close via phone calls and Facebook messages.

And last year he invited retired carpenter Emyr to Canada for a two week body">

A dad who saved the life of a cancer patient 6,600 miles away was flown around the world on a trip of a lifetime by his grateful recipient - who tracked him down.

Milton Becker, 69, was close to death and in desperate need of a bone marrow donor when a two-and-a-half year global search linked him with an anonymous Welsh man.

Emyr Williams, 54, was a near-perfect match, and his bone marrow was flown to Canada and given to Milton, who was declared cancer free.

The pair were linked up by the donation database and grew close via phone calls and Facebook messages.

And last year he invited retired carpenter Emyr to Canada for a two week $15,000 (8,835) trip around Alberta and the Rocky Mountains.

Meeting him for the first time at the airport, wearing a Welsh dragon T-shirt and a Wales flag, they formed an instant bond.

Milton said he's "indebted" to his hero - and is planning a UK trip.

Dad-of-three Emyr, from Lampeter, Wales, said: "It was surreal to be out there.

"There's this bond between us like no other.

"It was only when we went out there that we really understood how close to death Milton was.

"One of his friends said he had been finalising plans to be at his funeral.

"He was literally on death's door.

"For something that required no real effort at all saved that great man's life.

"And to have the pleasure of meeting him in the flesh and to be introduced to his family was just an honour."

Granddad-of-two Milton, from Alberta, Canada, added: "We got on so well and I just thought I've got to thank this guy.

"I didn't want him to spend a penny. It was my treat.

"It's not about the money. What he did was priceless.

"I'm forever indebted to the guy."

Milton was diagnosed with stage 4 leukaemia in 2010 but after unsuccessful chemotherapy he was told a bone marrow transplant was the only means of survival.

Doctors searched across Canada but were unsuccessful and begun their two-and-a-half year worldwide search for a donor.

In early 2013, Emyr - who had been registered on the blood transfusion register for several years - was found to be a near-perfect match.

Emyr said: "A lady called me one day to say 'would you be interested in donating your stem cells?

"She went on to say there was a guy in Canada with leukaemia and that I was a 99.9999 per cent match with him.

"I just thought why not.

"It doesn't cost me anything and it can really change somebody's life."

The bone marrow was flown from Wales - with Milton receiving his long-awaited transfusion on his 63rd birthday, on 1st February 2013.

Former oil company lorry driver Milton said: "What he did was completely priceless.

"There's no better gift than the gift of life.

"And to get that on my birthday, well, it was a great feeling!"

A year after the transfusion Milton was told he was on the road to recovery but was kept in remission and monitored by doctors for the next two years.

In 2016, three years after the blood transfusion, Milton was deemed cancer-free.

It led nurses to ask Milton if he would like to know who his donor was - which he accepted straight away.

They got in touch with Emyr - who'd been given bi-annual anonymous updates - who agreed his details could be passed on.

Emyr said: "A few days later I had this call from an international number.

"I remember it as clear as day.

"He phoned me up and said; 'Emyr, my name is Milton and I just want to say how thankful I am'.

"From then on we just hit it off.

"What makes me laugh is he always forgets his Facebook password so he's a complete technophobe.

"We speak through his children on Facebook.

"We mostly speak about our family."

Milton said: "I couldn't turn up the chance to thank the guy who gave me life!

"I started off by thanking him and we had a great chat.

"I told him I would be forever grateful and wanted to keep in touch."

The two then added each other on Facebook and soon became good friends with weekly messages and monthly phone calls.

Then two years later Milton phoned Emyr to ask if he and his family would be interested in flying out to Canada for a two-week holiday.

Emyr said: "He asked me during one of our phone calls.

"I had never been to Canada and thought it would just be great to meet each other face-to-face."

Emyr flew out with his wife and teenage daughter last September 2019 to start the two-week itinerary around Alberta and the Rocky Mountains.

Emyr said: "He was there at the airport with a Welsh dragon on his T-shirt and a Welsh flag.

"You couldn't miss them.

"We have beautiful mountains here in Wales but Canada was just something else.

"It was an absolutely incredible trip.

"He paid for it all.

"We stayed in cabins, had a party with his extended family, we drank, sat by the open fire, and toasted marshmallows."

Milton added: "One Sunday I took him to my church.

"People knew he was coming and the service and to my surprise Emyr got up and told the church about the successful operation.

"There were tears but it was just beautiful."

Now seven years on from the transfusion, the pair say they are thankful to have one another in each other's lives.

The pair still keep regular contact with one another, with Facebook messages, fortnightly phone calls and even FaceTimed each other on Christmas Day.

Emyr said: "They're planning on coming to Wales next year in June or July.

"We'll definitely go back out there again in a few years.

"Even though we're thousands of miles away, we're such great friends."

Milton said: "We still have our chit-chats and I'd love to go over to the UK.

5,000 (8,835) trip around Alberta and the Rocky Mountains.

Meeting him for the first time at the airport, wearing a Welsh dragon T-shirt and a Wales flag, they formed an instant bond.

Milton said he's "indebted" to his hero - and is planning a UK trip.

Dad-of-three Emyr, from Lampeter, Wales, said: "It was surreal to be out there.

"There's this bond between us like no other.

"It was only when we went out there that we really understood how close to death Milton was.

"One of his friends said he had been finalising plans to be at his funeral.

"He was literally on death's door.

"For something that required no real effort at all saved that great man's life.

"And to have the pleasure of meeting him in the flesh and to be introduced to his family was just an honour."

Granddad-of-two Milton, from Alberta, Canada, added: "We got on so well and I just thought I've got to thank this guy.

"I didn't want him to spend a penny. It was my treat.

"It's not about the money. What he did was priceless.

"I'm forever indebted to the guy."

Milton was diagnosed with stage 4 leukaemia in 2010 but after unsuccessful chemotherapy he was told a bone marrow transplant was the only means of survival.

Doctors searched across Canada but were unsuccessful and begun their two-and-a-half year worldwide search for a donor.

In early 2013, Emyr - who had been registered on the blood transfusion register for several years - was found to be a near-perfect match.

Emyr said: "A lady called me one day to say 'would you be interested in donating your stem cells?

"She went on to say there was a guy in Canada with leukaemia and that I was a 99.9999 per cent match with him.

"I just thought why not.

"It doesn't cost me anything and it can really change somebody's life."

The bone marrow was flown from Wales - with Milton receiving his long-awaited transfusion on his 63rd birthday, on 1st February 2013.

Former oil company lorry driver Milton said: "What he did was completely priceless.

"There's no better gift than the gift of life.

"And to get that on my birthday, well, it was a great feeling!"

A year after the transfusion Milton was told he was on the road to recovery but was kept in remission and monitored by doctors for the next two years.

In 2016, three years after the blood transfusion, Milton was deemed cancer-free.

It led nurses to ask Milton if he would like to know who his donor was - which he accepted straight away.

They got in touch with Emyr - who'd been given bi-annual anonymous updates - who agreed his details could be passed on.

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Cancer patient flies dad who saved his life 6600 miles away around the world - Birmingham Live

Bone Marrow Stem Cells Comments Off on Cancer patient flies dad who saved his life 6600 miles away around the world – Birmingham Live | January 30th, 2020

ANN ARBORConventional thinking is that bone regeneration is left to a small number of mighty cells called skeletal stem cells, which reside within larger groups of bone marrow stromal cells.

But new findings from the University of Michigan recasts that thinking.

In a recent study, Noriaki Ono, assistant professor at the U-M School of Dentistry, and colleagues report that mature bone marrow stromal cells metamorphosed to perform in ways similar to their bone-healing stem cell cousinsbut only after an injury.

Bone fracture is an emergency for humans and all vertebrates, so the sooner cells start the business of healing damaged boneand the more cells there are to do itthe better.

Our study shows that other cells besides skeletal stem cells can do this job as well, Ono said.

In the mouse study, inert Cxcl12 cells in bone marrow responded to post-injury cellular cues by converting into regenerative cells, much like skeletal stem cells. Normally, the main job of these Cxcl12-expressing cells, widely known as CAR cells, is to secrete cytokines, which help regulate neighboring blood cells. They were recruited for healing only after an injury.

The surprise in our study is that these cells essentially did nothing in terms of making bones, when bones grow longer, Ono said. Its only when bones are injured that these cells start rushing to repair the defect.

This is important because the remarkable regenerative potential of bones is generally attributed to rare skeletal stem cells, Ono says. These new findings raise the possibility that these mighty skeletal stem cells could be generated through the transformation of the more available mature stromal cells.

These mature stromal cells are malleable and readily available throughout life, and could potentially provide an excellent cellular source for bone and tissue regeneration, Ono says.

The study appears in the journal Nature Communications.

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After a bone injury, shape-shifting cells rush to the rescue - University of Michigan News

Bone Marrow Stem Cells Comments Off on After a bone injury, shape-shifting cells rush to the rescue – University of Michigan News | January 30th, 2020

A team based at Osaka University stated how it had succeeded in carrying out the first transplant of cardiac muscle cells, around the globe, developed from iPS cells in a clinical trial which as physician-initiated.

A professor in Osaka Universitys cardiovascular surgery unit, Yoshiki Sawa, along with his colleagues at the university, intend to transplant heart muscle cell sheets into 10 individuals experiencing severe heart malfunction as a result of ischemic cardiomyopathy, in a clinical trial, to validate the safety and the effectiveness of the therapy with the use of induced pluripotent stem cells.

On the surface of the hearts of the partaking individuals, the cells on the degradable sheets are attached. It is predicted that these cells will develop to release a protein that can allow for the regeneration of blood vessels as well as the improvement of the cardiac function.

Already, the iPS cells have been taken, and then stored, from the blood cells donated by healthy individuals

On Monday, the researchers stated how they chose to carry out a clinical trial in a clinical researchs stead as they had hoped to attain, as early as possible, authorization from the health ministry for clinical applications.

There are severe evaluating risks involved in the clinical trial. These may include the possibility of cancer as well as the efficacy of transplanting many million cells per patient, which may consist of tumor cells.

In Japan, this will be marked as the second clinical trial based on iPS. The first clinical trial of such kind was carried out on patients suffering from eye-linked ailments. This was done so by the Riken research institute.

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Osaka University-based team successfully conducts first transplantation of cardiac muscle cells around the globe - Medical Herald

IPS Cell Therapy Comments Off on Osaka University-based team successfully conducts first transplantation of cardiac muscle cells around the globe – Medical Herald | January 30th, 2020

GIOSTAR/HEAMGEN has developed and secured patented technology to manufacture lifesaving mature red blood cells from stem cells. The red blood cells are made utilizing a bioreactor that permits the production of mature red blood cells, under strictly controlled conditions, for transfusion therapy and replaces the need for a human blood donor. GIOSTAR/HEAMGEN mature red blood cells are safe and not compromised by inadequate pathogen detection and inactivation of diseases such as hepatitis C, HIV, hepatitis B and syphilis. The red blood cells are O-Negative (Universal Donor) to eliminate incompatibility and allosensitization reactions.

ATLANTA (PRWEB) January 29, 2020

GIOSTAR/HEAMGEN has developed and secured patented technology to manufacture lifesaving mature red blood cells from stem cells. The red blood cells are made utilizing a bioreactor that permits the production of mature red blood cells, under strictly controlled conditions, for transfusion therapy and replaces the need for a human blood donor. GIOSTAR/HEAMGEN mature red blood cells are safe and not compromised by inadequate pathogen detection and inactivation of diseases such as hepatitis C, HIV, hepatitis B and syphilis. The red blood cells are O-Negative (Universal Donor) to eliminate incompatibility and allosensitization reactions. Trauma situations often do not allow for adequate blood typing due to time restrictions, so the GIOSTAR/HEAMGEN red blood cells address that need effectively.

"There are three main problems for blood transfusions," stated Dr. Anand Srivastava, Founder and Chairman of GIOSTAR. "First we have to match the blood type. Second, there's not enough blood available every single time. And third, when we transfer blood from one person to another person, there is always a chance of the transfer of disease."

Watch a feature interview with Dr. Anand Srivastava on The DM Zone with host Dianemarie Collins.

The World Health Organization (WHO) published the first detailed analysis on the global supply and demand for blood in October 2019 and found that 119 out of 195 countries do NOT have enough blood in their blood banks to meet hospital needs. In those nations, which include every country in central, eastern, and western sub-Saharan Africa, Oceania (not including Australasia), and south Asia are missing roughly 102,359,632 units of blood, according to World Health Organization (WHO) goals. While total blood supply around the world was estimated to be around 272 million units, in 2017, demand reached 303 million units. That means the world was lacking 30 million units of blood, and in the 119 countries with insufficient supply, that shortfall reached 100 million units.

The global market opportunity for GIOSTAR/HEAMGEN technology presents not only a profitable and scalable business opportunity but also a significant social and environmental impact. The global market is estimated to be at least $ 85 Billion/year.

GIOSTAR/HEAMGEN has identified early entry global markets to include Military, Trauma, Asia (replace Hepatitis C contaminated blood products), Africa (AIDS contaminated blood), Newborns, Thalassemia patients, Allosensitized sickle cell disease patients. South Sudan was found to have the lowest supply of blood, at 46 units per 100,000 people. In fact, the country's need for blood was deemed 75 times greater than its supply. In India, which had the largest absolute shortage, there was a shortfall of nearly 41 million units, with demand outstripping supply by over 400 percent. Strategic investments are needed in many low-income and middle-income countries to expand national transfusion services and blood management systems. Oncology is a major user of blood transfusion but if countries don't have the capacity to manage the bulk of oncology, it will limit complex surgery options.

GIOSTAR/HEAMGEN has acquired the exclusive license to the patent for the technique for stem cell proliferation from University of California San Diego (UCSD). The founding team of GIOSTAR/HEAMGEN is comprised of the scientists and clinicians who were involved in creating the Intellectual Property at UCSD and has already achieved PROOF OF CONCEPT - the optimized lab scale proliferation of mature red blood cells - at UCSD as part of their research.

GIOSTAR/HEAMGEN is currently looking for strategic partnerships (Contact Doug@DMProductionsLLC.com) to accelerate the development of donor-independent red blood cells manufacturing capabilities and advance the proof of concept work already done (patented) around the manufacture of safe, universal donor, human red blood cells. GIOSTAR/HEAMGEN will also develop a full automated proprietary bioreactor using robotic technology to produce abundant quantities of red blood cells with a goal for cost-effective commercialization of fresh, human, universal donor Red Blood Cells (RBCs).

ABOUT GIOSTAR

Dr. Anand Srivastava is a Chairman and Cofounder of California based Global Institute of Stem Cell Therapy and Research (GIOSTAR) headquartered in San Diego, California, (U.S.A.). The company was formed with the vision to provide stem cell based therapy to aid those suffering from degenerative or genetic diseases around the world such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, Autism, Diabetes, Heart Disease, Stroke, Spinal Cord Injuries, Paralysis, Blood Related Diseases, Cancer and Burns. GIOSTAR is a leader in developing most advance stem cell based technology, supported by leading scientists with the pioneering publications in the area of stem cell biology. Company's primary focus is to discover and develop a cure for human diseases with the state of the art unique stem cell based therapies and products. The Regenerative Medicine provides promise for treatments of diseases previously regarded as incurable.

GIOSTAR is world's leading Stem cell research company involved with stem cell research work for over a decade. It is headed by Dr Anand Srivastava, who is a pioneer and a world-renowned authority in the field of Stem Cell Biology, Cancer and Gene therapy. Several governments and organizations including USA, India, China, Turkey, Kuwait, Thailand, Philippines, Bahamas, Saudi Arabia and many others seek his advice and guidance on drafting their strategic and national policy formulations and program directions in the area of stem cell research, development and its regulations. Under his creative leadership, a group of esteemed scientists and clinicians have developed and established Stem Cell Therapy for various types of autoimmune diseases and blood disorders, which are being offered to patients in USA and soon it will be offered on a regular clinical basis to the people around the globe.

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GIOSTAR Announces Medical Breakthrough in Biotechnology and Lifesciences To Manufacture Abundant, Safe Red Blood Cells From Stem Cells - Benzinga

Spinal Cord Stem Cells Comments Off on GIOSTAR Announces Medical Breakthrough in Biotechnology and Lifesciences To Manufacture Abundant, Safe Red Blood Cells From Stem Cells – Benzinga | January 30th, 2020

As amphibians go, axolotls are pretty cute. These salamanders sport a Mona Lisa half-smile and red, frilly gills that make them look dressed up for a party. You might not want them at your soiree, though: Theyre also cannibals. While rare now in the wild, axolotls used to hatch en masse, and it was a salamander-eat-salamander world. In such a harsh nursery, they evolved or maybe kept the ability to regrow severed limbs.

Their regenerative powers are just incredible, says Joshua Currie, a biologist at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute in Toronto whos been studying salamander regeneration since 2011. If an axolotl loses a limb, the appendage will grow back, at just the right size and orientation. Within weeks, the seam between old and new disappears completely.

And its not just legs: Axolotls can regenerate ovary and lung tissue, even parts of the brain and spinal cord.

Unlike many amphibians, axolotls do not undergo metamorphosis. They stay in their aquatic, larval form (complete with frilly gills) even as they become sexually mature. They can regrow lost limbs, again and again, making them appealing to scientists who want to understand regeneration.

CREDIT: MARK LEAVER, PHD

The salamanders exceptional comeback from injury has been known for more than a century, and scientists have unraveled some of its secrets. It seals the amputation site with a special type of skin called wound epithelium, then builds a bit of tissue called the blastema, from which sprouts the new body part. But until recently, the fine details of the cells and molecules needed to create a leg from scratch have remained elusive.

With the recent sequencing and assembly of the axolotls giant genome, though, and the development of techniques to modify the creatures genes in the lab, regeneration researchers are now poised to discover those details. In so doing, theyll likely identify salamander tricks that could be useful in human medicine.

Already, studies are illuminating the cells involved, and defining the chemical ingredients needed. Perhaps, several decades from now, people, too, might regrow organs or limbs. In the nearer future, the findings suggest possible treatments for ways to promote wound-healing and treat blindness.

The idea of human regeneration has evolved from an if to a when in recent decades, says David Gardiner, a developmental biologist at the University of California, Irvine. Everybody now is assuming that its just a matter of time, he says. But, of course, theres still much to do.

In a working limb, cells and tissues are like the instruments in an orchestra: Each contributes actions, like musical notes, to create a symphony. Amputation results in cacophony, but salamanders can rap the conductors baton and reset the remaining tissue back to order and all the way back to the symphonys first movement, when they first grew a limb in the embryo.

The basic steps are known: When a limb is removed, be it by hungry sibling or curious experimenter, within minutes the axolotls blood will clot. Within hours, skin cells divide and crawl to cover the wound with a wound epidermis.

Next, cells from nearby tissues migrate to the amputation site, forming a blob of living matter. This blob, the blastema, is where all the magic happens, said Jessica Whited, a regenerative biologist at Harvard University, in a presentation in California last year. It forms a structure much like the developing embryos limb bud, from which limbs grow.

This movie shows immune cells, labeled to glow green, moving within a regenerating axolotl fingertip. Scientists know that immune cells such as macrophages are essential for regeneration: When they are removed, the process is blocked.

CREDIT: JOSH CURRIE

Finally, cells in the blastema turn into all the tissues needed for the new limb and settle down in the right pattern, forming a tiny but perfect limb. This limb then grows to full size. When all is done, you cant even tell where the amputation occurred in the first place, Whited tells Knowable Magazine.

Scientists know many of the molecular instruments, and some of the notes, involved in this regeneration symphony. But its taken a great deal of work.

As Currie started as a new postdoc with Elly Tanaka, a developmental biologist at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna, he recalls wondering, Where do the cells for regeneration come from? Consider cartilage. Does it arise from the same cells as it does in the developing embryo, called chondrocytes, that are left over in the limb stump? Or does it come from some other source?

To learn more, Currie figured out a way to watch individual cells under the microscope right as regeneration took place. First, he used a genetic trick to randomly tag the cells he was studying in a salamander with a rainbow of colors. Then, to keep things simple, he sliced off just a fingertip from his subjects. Next, he searched for cells that stuck out say, an orange cell that ended up surrounded by a sea of other cells colored green, yellow and so on. He tracked those standout cells, along with their color-matched descendants, over the weeks of limb regeneration. His observations, reported in the journal Developmental Cell in 2016, illuminated several secrets to the regeneration process.

Regenerative biologist Joshua Currie labeled the cells in axolotls with a rainbow of colors, so that he could follow their migration after he amputated the tip of the salamanders fingertips. In this image, three days after amputation, the skin (uncolored) has already covered the wound.

CREDIT: JOSH CURRIE

For one thing, cell travel is key. Cells are really extricating themselves from where they are and crawling to the amputation plane to form this blastema, Currie says. The distance cells will journey depends on the size of the injury. To make a new fingertip, the salamanders drew on cells within about 0.2 millimeters of the injury. But in other experiments where the salamanders had to replace a wrist and hand, cells came from as far as half a millimeter away.

More strikingly, Currie discovered that contributions to the blastema were not what hed initially expected, and varied from tissue to tissue. There were a lot of surprises, he says.

Chondrocytes, so important for making cartilage in embryos, didnt migrate to the blastema (earlier in 2016, Gardiner and colleagues reported similar findings). And certain cells entering the blastema pericytes, cells that encircle blood vessels were able to make more of themselves, but nothing else.

The real virtuosos in regeneration were cells in skin called fibroblasts and periskeletal cells, which normally surround bone. They seemed to rewind their development so they could form all kinds of tissues in the new fingertip, morphing into new chondrocytes and other cell types, too.

To Curries surprise, these source cells didnt arrive all at once. Those first on the scene became chondrocytes. Latecomers turned into the soft connective tissues that surround the skeleton.

How do the cells do it? Currie, Tanaka and collaborators looked at connective tissues further, examining the genes turned on and off by individual cells in a regenerating limb. In a 2018 Science paper, the team reported that cells reorganized their gene activation profile to one almost identical, Tanaka says, to those in the limb bud of a developing embryo.

Muscle, meanwhile, has its own variation on the regeneration theme. Mature muscle, in both salamanders and people, contains stem cells called satellite cells. These create new cells as muscles grow or require repair. In a 2017 study in PNAS, Tanaka and colleagues showed (by tracking satellite cells that were made to glow red) that most, if not all, of muscle in new limbs comes from satellite cells.

If Currie and Tanaka are investigating the instruments of the regeneration symphony, Catherine McCusker is decoding the melody they play, in the form of chemicals that push the process along. A regenerative biologist at the University of Massachusetts Boston, she recently published a recipe of sorts for creating an axolotl limb from a wound site. By replacing two of three key requirements with a chemical cocktail, McCusker and her colleagues could force salamanders to grow a new arm from a small wound on the side of a limb, giving them an extra arm.

Using what they know about regeneration, researchers at the University of Massachusetts tricked upper-arm tissue into growing an extra arm (green) atop the natural one (red).

CREDIT: KAYLEE WELLS / MCCUSKER LAB

The first requirement for limb regeneration is the presence of a wound, and formation of wound epithelium. But a second, scientists knew, was a nerve that can grow into the injured area. Either the nerve itself, or cells that it talks to, manufacture chemicals needed to make connective tissue become immature again and form a blastema. In their 2019 study in Developmental Biology, McCusker and colleagues guided by earlier work by a Japanese team used two growth factors, called BMP and FGF, to fulfill that step in salamanders lacking a nerve in the right place.

The third requirement was for fibroblasts from opposite sides of a wound to find and touch each other. In a hand amputation, for example, cells from the left and right sides of the wrist might meet to correctly pattern and orient the new hand. McCusckers chemical replacement for this requirement was retinoic acid, which the body makes from vitamin A. The chemical plays a role in setting up patterning in embryos and has long been known to pattern tissues during regeneration.

In their experiment, McCuskers team removed a small square of skin from the upper arm of 38 salamanders. Two days later, once the skin had healed over, the researchers made a tiny slit in the skin and slipped in a gelatin bead soaked in FGF and BMP. Thanks to that cocktail, in 25 animals the tissue created a blastema no nerve necessary.

About a week later, the group injected the animals with retinoic acid. In concert with other signals coming from the surrounding tissue, it acted as a pattern generator, and seven of the axolotls sprouted new arms out of the wound site.

The recipe is far from perfected: Some salamanders grew one new arm, some grew two, and some grew three, all out of the same wound spot. McCusker suspects that the gelatin bead got in the way of cells that control the limbs pattern. The key actions produced by the initial injury and wound epithelium also remain mysterious.

Its interesting that you can overcome some of these blocks with relatively few growth factors, comments Randal Voss, a biologist at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. We still dont completely know what happens in the very first moments.

If we did know those early steps, humans might be able to create the regeneration symphony. People already possess many of the cellular instruments, capable of playing the notes. We use essentially the same genes, in different ways, says Ken Poss, a regeneration biologist at the Duke University Medical Center in Durham who described new advances in regeneration, thanks to genetic tools, in the 2017 Annual Review of Genetics.

Regeneration may have been an ability we lost, rather than something salamanders gained. Way back in our evolutionary past, the common ancestors of people and salamanders could have been regenerators, since at least one distant relative of modern-day salamanders could do it. Paleontologists have discovered fossils of 300-million-year-old amphibians with limb deformities typically created by imperfect regeneration. Other members of the animal kingdom, such as certain worms, fish and starfish, can also regenerate but its not clear if they use the same symphony score, Whited says.

These fossils suggest that amphibians called Micromelerpeton were regenerating limbs 300 million years ago. Thats because the fossils show deformities, such as fused bones, that usually occur when regrowth doesnt work quite right.

CREDIT: NADIA B. FRBISCHET AL / PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B 2014

Somewhere in their genomes, all animals have the ability, says James Monaghan, a regeneration biologist at Northeastern University in Boston. After all, he points out, all animals grow body parts as embryos. And in fact, people arent entirely inept at regeneration. We can regrow fingertips, muscle, liver tissue and, to a certain extent, skin.

But for larger structures like limbs, our regeneration music falls apart. Human bodies take days to form skin over an injury, and without the crucial wound epithelium, our hopes for regeneration are dashed before it even starts. Instead, we scab and scar.

Its pretty far off in the future that we would be able to grow an entire limb, says McCusker. I hope Im wrong, but thats my feeling.

She thinks that other medical applications could come much sooner, though such as ways to help burn victims. When surgeons perform skin grafts, they frequently transfer the top layers of skin, or use lab-grown skin tissue. But its often an imperfect replacement for what was lost.

Thats because skin varies across the body; just compare the skin on your palm to that on your calf or armpit. The tissues that help skin to match its body position, giving it features like sweat glands and hair as appropriate, lie deeper than many grafts. The replacement skin, then, might not be just like the old skin. But if scientists could create skin with better positional information, they could make the transferred skin a better fit for its new location.

Monaghan, for his part, is thinking about regenerating retinas for people who have macular degeneration or eye trauma. Axolotls can regrow their retinas (though, surprisingly, their ability to regenerate the lens is limited to hatchlings). He is working with Northeastern University chemical engineer Rebecca Carrier, whos been developing materials for use in transplantations. Her collaborators are testing transplants in pigs and people, but find most of the transplanted cells are dying. Perhaps some additional material could create a pro-regeneration environment, and perhaps axolotls could suggest some ingredients.

Carrier and Monaghan experimented with the transplanted pig cells in lab dishes, and found they were more likely to survive and develop into retinal cells if grown together with axolotl retinas. The special ingredient seems to be a distinct set of chemicals that exist on axolotl, but not pig, retinas. Carrier hopes to use this information to create a chemical cocktail to help transplants succeed. Even partially restoring vision would be beneficial, Monaghan notes.

Thanks to genetic sequencing and modern molecular biology, researchers can continue to unlock the many remaining mysteries of regeneration: How does the wound epithelium create a regeneration-promoting environment? What determines which cells migrate into a blastema, and which stay put? How does the salamander manage to grow a new limb of exactly the right size, no larger, no smaller? These secrets and more remain hidden behind that Mona Lisa smile at least for now.

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Regeneration: The amphibian's opus - Knowable Magazine

Skin Stem Cells Comments Off on Regeneration: The amphibian’s opus – Knowable Magazine | January 30th, 2020

(MENAFN - GetNews) Primary Cells Market: Information by Source (Hematopoietic Cells, Skin Cells, Gastrointestinal Cells, Liver Cells, Lung Cells, and Skeletal and Muscle Cells) Type (Human Primary Cells and Animal Primary Cells), End User (Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Companies and Research Institutes) and Region - Forecast till 2025

Market Highlights

Primary Cells Market is expected to register a CAGR of8.13% during the forecast period, with a market value of USD 1,233.67 Million till 2025. Primary human cells are isolated directly from normal human tissue or blood cells via the enzymatic or mechanical method. Primary cells retain their fundamental cellular functions. Hence, their use in cell-based research programs is increasing significantly.

Numerous factors such as rapid growth in the biotechnology and biopharmaceutical industries, growing cancer research, rising adoption of primary cells over cell lines, increasing demand for monoclonal antibodies, and rising healthcare expenditure are anticipated to drive the growth of the market during the forecast period. Additionally, the growing research on personalized therapies and stem cells is likely to contribute to market growth. However, the high cost of advanced primary cells and risk of contamination may hamper the growth of the market. The increasing preference of primary cells in research and development to develop new drug acts as opportunities for the growth of the primary cells market.

Request Free Sample Copy at: https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/6296

Segment Analysis

The Global Primary Cells Market is segmented into Source, Type, and End User. By source, the market has been segmented into hematopoietic cells, skin cells, gastrointestinal cells, liver cells, lung cells, and skeletal and muscle cells.

Based on type, the market has been segmented into human primary cells and animal primary cells. Based on end user, the market has been segmented into pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and research institutes.

Regional Analysis

The Global Primary Cells Market, based on region, has been divided into the Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East & Africa.

The Americas is expected to hold the largest share of the global primary cells market. This is owing to the increasing prevalence of cancer and growing government funding in research. Also, the key players in the market are engaged in new launches and strategic collaborations to hold their market position. For instance, in January 2017, STEMCELL Technologies Inc. entered into a license agreement with Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, to commercialize the center's technology for producing gastrointestinal organoids from pluripotent stem cells (PSCs). Thus, all these factors are driving the primary cells market.

The European market holds the second-largest position in the global primary cells market. Factors attributing to the growth of the market include the rising prevalence of lifestyle-associated conditions, and the presence of developed economies such as Germany, the UK, and France boosts the market growth.

Asia-Pacific is estimated to be the fastest-growing region owing to the rising prevalence of chronic and acute diseases such as HIV, cancer, and diabetes, and the development of new infrastructure to support the healthcare industry are expected to drive the market growth.

The primary cells market in the Middle East & Africa is expected to grow at a significant rate owing to the implementation of a new business strategy such as a growing distribution channel, product launch in the untapped market by the healthcare companies increases the market growth in this region.

Key Players

MRFR recognizes the following companies as theKey Players in the Global Primary Cells Market Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (US), AllCells (US), American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) (Virginia), Axol Bioscience Ltd (UK), Cell Biologics, Inc. (Chicago), Lonza Group, AG (Switzerland), Merck KGaA (Germany), PromoCell (UK), STEMCELL Technologies Inc. (Canada), ZenBio, Inc. (Research Triangle Park, NC), and among others.

Key Findings of the Study

The Global Primary Cells Market was valued at USD 722.61 Million in 2018, is estimated to grow at USD 1,233.67 Million by 2025 at a CAGR of 8.13% during the assessment period

Asia-Pacific accounted for the largest share of the global market due to the increasing per capita health spending, growing geriatric population base, and developing countries enhance the market growth

Based on source, the hematopoietic cells segment accounted for the largest market share in 2018

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Primary Cells Market Is Expected to Reach Register USD 1233.67 Million at a CAGR of 8.13% By 2025 - MENAFN.COM

Skin Stem Cells Comments Off on Primary Cells Market Is Expected to Reach Register USD 1233.67 Million at a CAGR of 8.13% By 2025 – MENAFN.COM | January 30th, 2020

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 29, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The story of Alzheimer's disease is familiar and heartbreaking. As neurons degenerate and die, patients slowly lose their memories, their thinking skills, and ultimately, their ability to perform basicday-to-day tasks.

For years, clinical trials investigating potential treatments for Alzheimer's disease have come up short. That's why researchers at Gladstone Institutes are delving deeper into the question of what drives this complex disease.

Now, a team led by Senior Investigator and President EmeritusRobert Mahley, MD, PhD, has received $4.8 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study a promising culprit: apoE4, a protein associated with increased risk of Alzheimer's disease.

ApoE4 is one of the forms of apolipoprotein E, a protein that aids repair processes in neurons injured by aging, stroke, or other causes. The most common form is called apoE3, but apoE4 is not rare: it is found in one-quarter of the human population and in about two-thirds of all Alzheimer's patients, which makes it the most important genetic risk factor for the disorder.

"ApoE4 dramatically rewires cellular pathways in neurons and impairs their function," Mahley said. "Our goal is to understand how this rewiring occurs and identify potential new treatment strategies to negate the detrimental effects."

ApoE3 and apoE4 differ at only a single point in the sequence of their amino acid building blocks. But that single change gives apoE4 a very different shape from apoE3, making it more susceptible to being broken down into smaller fragments within a neuron.

"Our work suggests that these apoE4 fragments are toxic to neurons and cause sweeping changes to the collection of proteins expressed within a neuron," Mahley said. "We suspect that their toxicity may underlie much of the neurodegeneration seen in Alzheimer's disease."

A Powerful Partnership

With the new NIH funding, Mahley hopes to illuminate the specifics of apoE4's toxicity in unprecedented molecular detail. Key to this work is his new partnership with Senior InvestigatorNevan Krogan, PhD, and Gladstone Mass Spectrometry Facility Director Danielle Swaney, PhD, who together have extensive expertise in studying how proteins interact with each other.

To get to the bottom of apoE4's impact, they will use a technique called affinity purification mass spectrometry (AP-MS)to first determine which proteins, out of the thousands found in a single cell, interact directly with apoE4 fragments.

"AP-MS is an important first step because it will allow us to define physical interactions between proteins that may underlie the functional deficits observed in neurons that express apoE4," Swaney said. The AP-MS work will be performed in mouse-derived neuronal cells that are similar to human neurons.

In addition to AP-MS, the collaborators will use other advanced protein analysis techniques perfected in Krogan's lab to better understand the cellular processes that are dysregulated in apoE4-expressing neurons. This additional protein work will be performed in neurons derived from human induced pluripotent stem (hiPS) cells. These stem cells are produced from human skin cells, using the procedure developed byShinya Yamanaka, MD, PhD, a Gladstone senior investigator and 2012 Nobel prize winner.

"We are quite excited to be involved in this project," Krogan said. "My lab has successfully applied AP-MS and other cutting-edge proteomic and genetic techniques to many different diseases, and we now hope to enable a much deeper understanding of apoE4."

When combined, results from the APMS work and the additional protein analyses will reveal a list of key proteins involved in processes that are specifically altered in apoE4 neurons compared to apoE3 neurons.

From that list, Mahley and Swaney will select top candidates for further investigation in neurons grown from hiPS cells. Senior InvestigatorYadong Huang, MD, PhD, who has also studied apoE4 extensively, will provide guidance on the use of the hiPS cells.

Using a gene-editing tool called CRISPR, the researchers will see if they can reverse the detrimental effects of apoE4 by activating or inhibiting genes that control their top candidate proteins in the hiPS cell-derived neurons. Finally, they will validate the findings in mice.

"By the end of the project, we hope to narrow down our list to just a few target genes or proteins that protect or restore neuronal health when we activate or inhibit them in live mice with the apoE4 gene," Swaney said. "They could then be explored as potential targets for Alzheimer's treatment in humans."

New Hope for Alzheimer's Disease

Mahley and Swaney already have some ideas about where this work may lead. Earlier this year,they publishedevidence that apoE4 broadly impacts the mitochondriaorganelles that produce the energy that powers a celland perturbs normal energy production.

"Anything could be a target at this point, but I'm particularly interested in the possibility of small-molecule drugs that could protect mitochondria from toxic apoE4 fragments," Mahley said.

Still, mitochondria are just one aspect of the bigger picture. Mahley suspects that what we call "Alzheimer's disease" is actually a collection of related conditions with different underlying causes for different patients.

"Ultimately, I think the treatment of Alzheimer's disease will be similar to the treatment of high blood pressure, in that two, three, sometimes four drugs are needed to control the disorder," he said. "So, we may need a mitochondrial protector, we may need a drug that will correctapoE4's shapeso that it is more like apoE3, and more."

Understanding the complex effects of apoE4as well as the other Alzheimer's disease-associated factorsbeing explored at Gladstonecould one day enable just such a comprehensive approach.

Media Contact:Megan McDevittmegan.mcdevitt@gladstone.ucsf.edu415.734.2019

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team-of-researchers-who-received.jpg Team of Researchers who Received the Grant Gladstone Senior Investigator and President Emeritus Bob Mahley (center) will collaborate with the director of the Gladstone Mass Spectrometry Facility, Danielle Swaney (left), and Senior Investigator Nevan Krogan (right) to uncover the mechanisms of apoE4 toxicity in Alzheimer's disease.

Related Links

Gladstone Release

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Gladstone Scientists Funded by NIH to Dive Deep Into ApoE4's Role in Alzheimer's Disease - P&T Community

Skin Stem Cells Comments Off on Gladstone Scientists Funded by NIH to Dive Deep Into ApoE4’s Role in Alzheimer’s Disease – P&T Community | January 30th, 2020

Early Clinical Data Support ex vivo Hematopoietic Stem Cell Gene Therapy as a Potentially Promising Treatment Option for X-CGD

BOSTON and LONDON, Jan. 29, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Orchard Therapeutics (ORTX), a global gene therapy leader, today announced that it has received orphan drug designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for OTL-102, the companys ex vivo autologous hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) gene therapy being investigated for the treatment of X-linked chronic granulomatous disease (X-CGD). The FDA may grant orphan designation to drugs and biologics intended to treat a rare disease or condition affecting fewer than 200,000 persons in the U.S.

We are pleased to have received this orphan drug designation from the FDA, which recognizes the potential of OTL-102 to address a rare population of patients with X-CGD, a life-threatening disease with a critical unmet need, said Anne Dupraz-Poiseau, Ph.D., chief regulatory officer at Orchard. We are encouraged by the clinical data published to date and are eager to advance OTL-102 development as quickly as possible for patients with X-CGD.

Orphan designation qualifies a company for certain benefits, including financial incentives to support clinical development and the potential for seven years of market exclusivity in the U.S. upon regulatory approval.

Early academic clinical trial data for OTL-102 that was recently published in Nature Medicine demonstrates that ex vivo autologous HSC gene therapy may be a promising approach for the treatment of X-CGD. The letter, which wasled by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)including Donald B. Kohn, M.D., one of the study's lead investigators and professor of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics at UCLA and Great Ormond Street Hospital (UK), provides an analysis of safety and efficacy outcomes in nine severely affected patients with X-CGD. At 12 months post-treatment, six of seven surviving patients, all of whom were adults or late adolescents, exceeded the minimum threshold hypothesized in published literature to demonstrate potential clinical benefit, defined as 10% functioning, oxidase-positive neutrophils in circulation and have discontinued preventive antibiotics.1

As previously reported, two pediatric patients died within three months of treatment from complications deemed by the investigators and independent data and safety monitoring board to be related to pre-existing comorbidities due to advanced disease progression and unrelated to OTL-102. Investigators are planning to enroll additional pediatric patients in 2020 to assess outcomes in this patient population. In addition, there is work underway to improve the efficiency of the drug product manufacturing process prior to initiating a registrational study.

Patients with X-CGD experience significantly reduced quality and length of life, and currently must take daily medications that do not eliminate the risk of fatal infections, said Adrian Thrasher, Ph.D., M.D., one of the studys lead investigators and professor of pediatric immunology and Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow at UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health in London. These data demonstrate that OTL-102 has the potential to become a transformative new treatment option for patients with X-CGD with the evaluation of longer follow up and more patients.

About X-CGDX-linked chronic granulomatous disease (X-CGD) is a rare, life-threatening, inherited disease of the immune system caused by mutations in the cytochrome B-245 beta chain (CYBB) gene encoding the gp91phox subunit of phagocytic NADPH oxidase. Because of this genetic defect, phagocytes, or white blood cells, of X-CGD patients are unable to kill bacteria and fungi, leading to chronic, severe infections. The main clinical manifestations of X-CGD are pyoderma, a type of skin infection; pneumonia; colitis; lymphadenitis, an infection of the lymph nodes; brain, lung and liver abscesses; and osteomyelitis, an infection of the bone. Patients with X-CGD typically start to develop infections in the first decade of life, and an estimated 40 percent of patients die by the age of 35.2 The incidence of X-CGD is currently estimated at between 1 in 100,000 and 1 in 400,000 male births.

Story continues

About OTL-102OTL-102 is an ex vivo autologous hematopoietic stem cell gene therapy being studied for the treatment of X-CGD. The studies are supported by multiple institutions including the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine, the Gene Therapy Resource Program from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Intramural Program, the Wellcome Trust and the National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centres at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust, University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and University College London. Preclinical and clinical development of OTL-102 had originally been initiated by Genethon (Evry, France) and funded by an EU framework 7 funded consortium, NET4CGD, before being licensed to Orchard.

About OrchardOrchard Therapeutics is a global gene therapy leader dedicated to transforming the lives of people affected by rare diseases through the development of innovative, potentially curative gene therapies. Our ex vivo autologous gene therapy approach harnesses the power of genetically-modified blood stem cells and seeks to correct the underlying cause of disease in a single administration. The company has one of the deepest gene therapy product candidate pipelines in the industry and is advancing seven clinical-stage programs across multiple therapeutic areas, including inherited neurometabolic disorders, primary immune deficiencies and blood disorders, where the disease burden on children, families and caregivers is immense and current treatment options are limited or do not exist.

Orchard has its global headquarters in London and U.S. headquarters in Boston. For more information, please visit http://www.orchard-tx.com, and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release contains certain forward-looking statements about Orchards strategy, future plans and prospects, which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements may be identified by words such as anticipates, believes, expects, plans, intends, projects, and future or similar expressions that are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include express or implied statements relating to, among other things, the therapeutic potential of Orchards product candidates, including the product candidate or candidates referred to in this release, Orchards expectations regarding the timing of regulatory submissions for approval of its product candidates, including the product candidate or candidates referred to in this release, the timing of interactions with regulators and regulatory submissions related to ongoing and new clinical trials for its product candidates, the timing of announcement of clinical data for its product candidates and the likelihood that such data will be positive and support further clinical development and regulatory approval of these product candidates, and the likelihood of approval of such product candidates by the applicable regulatory authorities. These statements are neither promises nor guarantees and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond Orchards control, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in these forward-looking statements. In particular, the risks and uncertainties include, without limitation: the risk that any one or more of Orchards product candidates, including the product candidate or candidates referred to in this release, will not be successfully developed or commercialized, the risk of cessation or delay of any of Orchards ongoing or planned clinical trials, the risk that prior results, such as signals of safety, activity or durability of effect, observed from preclinical studies or clinical trials will not be replicated or will not continue in ongoing or future studies or trials involving Orchards product candidates,the delay of any of Orchards regulatory submissions, the failure to obtain marketing approval from the applicable regulatory authorities for any of Orchards product candidates, the receipt of restricted marketing approvals, and the risk of delays in Orchards ability to commercialize its product candidates, if approved. Given these uncertainties, the reader is advised not to place any undue reliance on such forward-looking statements.

Other risks and uncertainties faced by Orchard include those identified under the heading "Risk Factors" in Orchards annual report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2018, as filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on March 22, 2019, as well as subsequent filings and reports filed with the SEC. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release reflect Orchards views as of the date hereof, and Orchard does not assume and specifically disclaims any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by law.

References1Kang et al. Blood. 2010;115(4):783-912van den Berget al. PLoS One. 2009;4(4):e5234

Contacts

InvestorsRenee LeckDirector, Investor Relations+1 862-242-0764Renee.Leck@orchard-tx.com

MediaMolly CameronManager, Corporate Communications+1 978-339-3378media@orchard-tx.com

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Orchard Therapeutics Announces FDA Granted Orphan Drug Designation for OTL-102 for the Treatment of X-linked Chronic Granulomatous Disease (X-CGD) -...

Skin Stem Cells Comments Off on Orchard Therapeutics Announces FDA Granted Orphan Drug Designation for OTL-102 for the Treatment of X-linked Chronic Granulomatous Disease (X-CGD) -… | January 30th, 2020

The 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak has sparked a speedy response, with scientists, physicians, and front-line healthcare professionals analyzing data in real-time in order to share findings and call out misinformation. Today, The Lancet published two new peer-reviewed studies: one which found that the new coronavirus is genetically distinct from human SARS and MERS, related viruses which caused their own outbreaks, and a second which reports clinical observations of 99 individuals with 2019-nCoV.

The first cases of the coronavirus outbreak were reported in late December 2019. In this new study, Nanshan Chen and colleagues analyzed available clinical, demographic, and laboratory data for 99 confirmed coronavirus cases at the Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital between Jan 1 to Jan 20, 2020, with clinical outcomes followed until 25th January.

Chen and colleagues reported that the average age of the 99 individuals with 2019-nCoV is around 55.5 years, where 51 have additional chronic conditions, including cardiovascular and cerebrovascular (blood flow to the brain) diseases. Clinical features of the 2019-nCoV include a fever, cough, shortness of breath, headaches, and a sore throat. 17 individuals went on to develop acute respiratory distress syndrome, resulting in death by multiple organ failure in 11 individuals. However, it is important to note here that most of the 2019-nCoV cases were treated with antivirals (75 individuals), antibiotics (70) and oxygen therapy (75), with promising prognoses, where 31 individuals being discharged as of 25th January.

Based on this sample, the study suggests that the 2019 coronavirus is more likely to affect older men already living with chronic conditions but as this study only includes 99 individuals with confirmed cases, it may not present a complete picture of the outbreak. As of right now, there are over 6,000 confirmed coronavirus cases reported, where a total of 126 individuals have recovered, and 133 have died.

In a second Lancet study, Roujian Lu and their fellow colleagues carried out DNA sequencing on samples, obtained from either a throat swab or bronchoalveolar lavage fluids, from eight individuals who had visited the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan, China, and one individual who stayed in a hotel near the market. Upon sequencing the coronaviruss genome, the researchers carried out phylogenetic analysis to narrow down the viruss likely evolutionary origin, and homology modelling to explore the virus receptor-binding properties.

Lu and their fellow colleagues found that the 2019-nCoV genome sequences obtained from the nine patients were very similar (>99.98% similarity). Upon comparing the genome to other coronaviruses (like SARS), the researchers found that the 2019-nCoV is more closely related (~87% similarity) to two bat-derived SARS-like coronaviruses, but does not have as high genetic similarity to known human-infecting coronaviruses, including the SARS-CoV (~79%) orMiddle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) CoV (~50%).

The study also found that the 2019-nCoV has a similar receptor-binding structure like that of SARS-CoV, though there are small differences in certain areas. This suggests that like the SARS-CoV, the 2019-nCoV may use the same receptor (called ACE2) to enter cells, though confirmation is still needed.

Finally, phylogenetic analysis found that the 2019-nCoV belongs to the Betacoronavirus family the same category that bat-derived coronaviruses fall into suggesting that bats may indeed be the 2019-nCoV reservoir. However, the researchers note that most bat species are hibernating in late December, and that no bats were being sold at the Huanan seafood market, suggesting that while bats may be the initial host, there may have been a secondary animal species which transmitted the 2019-nCoV between bats and humans.

Its clear that we can expect new findings from the research community in the coming days as scientists attempt to narrow down the source of the 2019-nCoV.

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Rapid analysis shows that the 2019-nCoV coronavirus resembles viruses from bats - Massive Science

Skin Stem Cells Comments Off on Rapid analysis shows that the 2019-nCoV coronavirus resembles viruses from bats – Massive Science | January 30th, 2020

Now lets look at how the professionals do it.

Here are those same four strategies, as used in first paragraphs by various science journalists who write for The Timess Trilobites column, Science News and Science News for Students.

Via Trilobites:

From Swimming With the Mysterious Sardine Disco Balls of the Philippines:

Thousands to millions of sardines emerge from a coral wall in cobalt waters just a few yards from the shores of Cebu Island in the Philippines. They move in a single undulating cloud of silver that twists, turns, shrinks, expands and wraps itself around any object that gets in its way. At times, it becomes a thundercloud, blocking out the sun or clapping violently as it suddenly flips its formation to evade a predator.

From Your Phone Carries Chemical Clues About You, but There Are Limits to Using Them:

Your phone is pretty much a high-tech bucket of germs. Thousands of microscopic bugs crawl around on its surface. Remnants of dirty, old skin cells smudge its cover. Tiny hairs stick inside its buttons. And your hands have smeared hundreds of chemicals across its surface. The foundation on your face, the antidepressants you take, the shampoo in your shower and even the hard-core mosquito repellent you applied down in Panama four months ago: All of these things leave traces on your hands and phone. Thats why scientists say they can use your phone to learn a lot about your lifestyle.

From The Mucus-Shooting Worm-Snail That Turned Up in the Florida Keys:

Its bright orange and yellow and about as long as your finger. It lives underwater in a limestone tube with an opening at the tip about as wide as a pencil eraser. It glues its home to hard surfaces and stays for the rest of its life. Its a species of worm-snail that may never have been seen before, and somehow it turned up in an artificial reef in the Florida Keys.

From Eight Crossings and 192 Atoms Long: the Tightest Knot Ever Tied:

British scientists have tied the tightest knot ever tied and, as unlikely as it may seem, this is important.

From A Dolphins Recipe for Octopus:

Try having no arms and eating a live octopus thats crawling around on your head with its tentacles. Failure could mean its your last supper. But a population of bottlenose dolphins off the coast of Australia has found a way to do it.

From Searching for a Rectangular Sun Above the Arctic Circle:

Low on the horizon, the sun casts an eerie light on the icy sea. For several hours, the glow transforms the colorless terrain into shades of pink as the sun does not rise or set, but edges to the side traveling in a semicircle before slowly sinking one last time.

I am far north in the Arctic Ocean, and polar winter has just begun.

Via Science News for Students:

From NASAs Parker probe spots rogue waves and magnetic islands on the sun:

Rogue waves. Floating magnetic islands. Charged particle showers. These are just some of the things NASAs Parker Solar Probe witnessed during its first two close encounters with the sun.

From Science is helping kids become math masters:

Math is one four-letter word that leaves many teens anxious and sweaty. The idea of an impending math test might send shivers down their spines. Some kids avoid their homework or at least delay starting it because they find math so daunting. Their minds might even go blank at the sight of test questions, no matter how well they have studied. If this is you, theres some comfort knowing that youre not alone.

From Viewing virtual reality of icy landscapes may relieve pain:

Wearing a headset to play a virtual-reality game is fun. As you move your head around, you can see the scene from different angles. Youre immersed in a fake environment that seems so real. But the power of VR may go well beyond entertainment. It just might help people who suffer from long bouts of pain, a new study finds.

Via Trilobites:

From Watch Bees Surf to Safety on Waves They Create:

If their honey-making and pollination prowess werent enough, theres a new reason to appreciate honeybees: Theyre world-class surfers.

Beyond pollinating flowers, worker bees which are all females are given the job of searching for water to cool their hives. But if they fall into ponds, their wings get wet and cant be used to fly. A team of researchers at the California Institute of Technology found that when bees drop into bodies of water, they can use their wings to generate ripples and glide toward land like surfers who create and then ride their own waves.

Gnarly, right?

From Its a Dirty Job, but Someone Has to Do It and Not Get Eaten:

If you want to run a successful business, its important to provide a valuable service, advertise it well and do your best to get out what you put in. You should also try to make sure your customers dont eat you.

This is especially true if youre a cleaner shrimp. These industrious crustaceans set up cleaning stations grooves in rocks in which they can retreat in tropical coral reefs, where they pick parasites and dead skin off the fish, eels and turtles that seek them out for this purpose.

From Trilobite Fossils Show Conga Line Frozen for 480 Million Years:

You probably dont think twice when you queue up at the grocery store or join a conga line at a wedding. But this type of single-file organization is a sophisticated form of collective social behavior. And as suggested by the childrens song The Ants Go Marching One-By-One, humans are not the only animals that appreciate the value of orderly lines.

But how far back in the history of living things on Earth does this behavior go?

From How to Talk to Fireflies:

As Earth rotates in the summer, fireflies whisper sweet nothings to each other in the most beautiful language never heard. For millions of years the insects have called to one another secretly, using flashes of light like a romantic morse code. With some rather simple technology a light and a battery scientists have been decoding their love notes for years. But recently I learned that you dont have to be an entomologist to try to talk to fireflies.

From This Is What It Looks Like When an Asteroid Gets Destroyed:

The asteroid belt, hanging out between Mars and Jupiter, is not like the cluttered debris field in The Empire Strikes Back. It may contain millions of rocky and metal objects, but the distances separating them are vast, and collisions are rare.

From In the Race to Live on Land, Lichens Didnt Beat Plants:

A lichen is what happens when a fungus hugs an algae and doesnt let go. Its a sweet arrangement: The fungus offers shelter, and algae feed the fungus. Theyre still separate species, but tear them apart and the fungi typically cant survive. So theyve long been studied as a single organism.

Via Science News:

From A tiny switch could redirect light between computer chips in mere nanoseconds:

Microscopic switches that route light signals between computer chips like tiny traffic conductors could help make faster, more efficient electronics.

From Piranhas and their plant-eating relatives, pacus, replace rows of teeth all at once:

When it comes to scary teeth, piranhas bite is among the most fearsome. Their razor-sharp teeth strip preys flesh with the ease of a butchers knife.

From How tardigrades protect their DNA to defy death:

Tardigrades may partly owe their ability to survive outer space to having the molecular equivalent of cotton candy.

Via Trilobites:

From When Water Balloons Hit a Bed of Nails and Dont Pop:

Is it possible to bounce a water balloon off a bed of nails? Surprisingly, yes.

From Watch a Flower That Seems to Remember When Pollinators Will Come Calling:

Can you remember what you did yesterday? If not, you might want to take a lesson from Nasa poissoniana, a star-shaped flowering plant from the Peruvian Andes with an unusual skill set.

From Millions of Ibises Were Mummified. But Where Did Ancient Egypt Get Them?:

The ancient Egyptians left us with plenty of head scratching. How did they actually build the pyramids? Where is Queen Nefertiti buried? Whats inside that mysterious void in the Great Pyramid of Giza?

From How Making Chocolate Is Like Mixing Concrete:

What do chocolate and concrete have in common?

Via Science News:

From Vampire bat friendships endure from captivity to the wild:

Are friendships formed with those we truly like? Or do we settle for whoever happens to be around?

Via Trilobites:

From Fish Depression Is Not a Joke:

Can a fish be depressed? This question has been floating around my head ever since I spent a night in a hotel across from an excruciatingly sad-looking Siamese fighting fish. His name was Bruce Lee, according to a sign beneath his little bowl.

There we were trying to enjoy a complimentary bloody mary on the last day of our honeymoon and there was Bruce Lee, totally still, his lower fin grazing the clear faux rocks on the bottom of his home. When he did finally move, just slightly, I got the sense that he would prefer to be dead.

From My Dinosaurs Jet Lag Helps Explain Why a Time Change Is Hard:

Good morning. Or confusing morning, really. Come Daylight Saving Time each year, people often complain about how thrown off they feel by the shift of an hour.

I thought they were just whiny. That is, until my dinosaur got jet lag and refused to glow.

Since thats not an everyday occurrence, let me explain the dinosaur first, and then Ill get to how my dinosaurs problems may be connected to your own struggles to function over the next few days. (Hint: Its not only the loss of sleep that causes problems.)

From First the Worm Gets in the Bugs Head. Then the Bug Drowns Itself.:

A few years back, Ryan Herbison, then a graduate student in parasitology at the University of Otago, painstakingly collected about 1,300 earwigs and more than 2,500 sandhoppers from gardens and a beach in New Zealand.

Then, he dissected and examined the insides of their heads.

From Taking the Pulse of a Sandstone Tower in Utah:

In 2013, a mutual friend brought Kat Vollinger and Nathan Richman together as rock climbing partners. Within a few years, they were married, and their shared love of climbing led them on adventures around the world. Thats how, in March 2018, they found themselves scaling Castleton Tower, a nearly 400-foot sandstone spire near Moab, Utah, with a seismometer in tow.

Via Science News for Students:

From Dont toss that vape:

Kristen Lewis is the assistant principal at Boulder High School in Colorado. A large cardboard box sits in her office. Its where she tosses the spoils of her ongoing battle with the newest student addiction: vaping. This is what I call the Box of Death, she explains. Inside it is everything that weve confiscated.

From A first: Kids advise hospital researchers on their medical studies:

Paul Croarkin paces in a conference room as he presents a slideshow. It showcases his latest research on depression.

A psychiatrist, he works at the Mayo Clinic, a hospital in Rochester, Minn. And hes excited. Its the first time hes described his research to the hospitals newest advisory board. He really wants the boards opinions and feedback so that he can improve his study.

The board members pay close attention and offer great ideas. After all, thats their job. But they look a little different from most hospital board members. All are children and teens. They make up the only medical pediatric advisory board in the United States.

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Hooking the Reader Right From the Start: The Times Trilobites Column - The New York Times

Skin Stem Cells Comments Off on Hooking the Reader Right From the Start: The Times Trilobites Column – The New York Times | January 30th, 2020

In what is a world-first and potentially the dawn of a new medical technology to treat damaged hearts, scientists in Japan have succeeded in transplanting lab-grown heart cells into a human patient for the first time ever. The procedure is part of a cutting-edge clinical trial hoped to open up new avenues in regenerative medicine, with the treatment to be given to a further nine patients over the coming years.

The clinical trial harnesses the incredible potential of induced pluripotent stem cells (IPSCs), a Nobel Prize-winning technology developed at Kyoto University in 2006. These are created by first harvesting cells from donor tissues and returning them to their immature state by exposing them to a virus. From there, they can develop into essentially any cell type in the body.

Professor Yoshiki Sawa is a cardiac surgeon at Osaka University in Japan, who has been developing a technique to turn IPSCs into sheets of 100 million heart muscle cells, which can be grafted onto the heart to promote regeneration of damaged muscles. This was first tested on pigs and was shown to improve organ function, which led Japans health ministry to conditionally approve a research plan involving human subjects.

The first transplantation of these cells is a huge milestone for the researchers, with the operation taking place earlier this month and the patient now recovering in the general ward of the hospital. The sheets are biodegradable, and once implanted on the surface of the heart are designed to release growth factors that encourage new formation of healthy vessels and boost cardiac function.

The team will continue to monitor the first patient over the coming year, and over the next three years aims to carry out the procedure on a total of 10 patients suffering from ischemic cardiomyopathy, a condition caused by a heart attack or coronary disease that has left the muscles severely weakened.

I hope that [the transplant] will become a medical technology that will save as many people as possible, as Ive seen many lives that I couldnt save, Sawa said at a news conference on Tuesday, according to The Japan Times.

Source: The Japan Times

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Lab-grown heart cells implanted into human patient for the first time - New Atlas

Cardiac Stem Cells Comments Off on Lab-grown heart cells implanted into human patient for the first time – New Atlas | January 30th, 2020