Monthly Archives: August 2017

Cell Biology

Cellular ‘garbage disposal’ units fingered in Alzheimer’s development – FierceBiotech

Lysosomes play an important role in cells: They break down old material so the body can dispose of it. Now, scientists at Yale University are zeroing in on lysosomes in the brain, and they believe theyve discovered how these garbage disposal units may contribute to the buildup of the amyloid plaques characteristic of Alzheimers disease.

The Yale researchers discovered defects in the process by which lysosomes travel within neurons. And when this transport goes wrong, lysosomes build up in swollen axons that surround amyloid-beta, the protein thats associated with brain plaques. The team published thefindings in The Journal of Cell Biology.

RELATED: Alzheimer's hopes dashed as Lilly gives up on amyloid drug solanezumab

When lysosomes travel from the ends of axons into the center of neuronal cells, they mature and develop the ability to degrade old cell components. But sometimes they get stuck in swollen axons and fail to mature. The Yale scientists werent sure how this defect contributed to the buildup of amyloid plaque, so they designed an experiment in which they interfered with the transport of lysosomes in mouse neurons.

They discovered that when neurons are deprived of a protein called JIP3, they fail to properly transport lysosomes from the axons, according to a statement. Swollen axons also accumulate amyloid precursor protein (APP) and two enzymes that cause APP to generate amyloid-beta: BACE1 and presenilin 2.

When the team removed a copy of the gene that makes JIP3 from mouse models of Alzheimers, the animals produced more amyloid-beta, and they formed larger plaques surrounded by an increased number of swollen axons.

"Collectively, our results indicate that the axonal accumulations of lysosomes at amyloid plaques are not innocent bystanders but rather are important contributors to APP processing and amyloid plaque growth," said co-author Shawn Ferguson of the Yale School of Medicine in the statement.

The so-called amyloid hypothesis in Alzheimers remains controversial. Many neurological researchers believe amyloid plaques are central players in the disease. But efforts to target those plaques with drugs have been disappointing so far. One of the most high-profile anti-amyloid drugs was solanezumab, Eli Lillys experimental Alzheimers drug, whichthe company abandoned in 2016 after years of failed trials.

But researchers are still investigating new ways of preventing amyloid from building up in the brain. In June, for example, a University of Cambridge team described computer-generated antibodies they developed that prevent amyloid-beta from clumping together and forming plaques.

RELATED: Designer antibodies block Alzheimers plaque from forming

The Yale scientists believe that as they learn more about how deficiencies in lysosome transport contribute to amyloid plaques, they may be able to identify strategies for modulating proteins in the brain to repair the process. Their research might also aid efforts underway to examine how genetics and other risk factorsincluding traumatic brain injuriescontribute to Alzheimers.

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Cellular 'garbage disposal' units fingered in Alzheimer's development - FierceBiotech

Biochemistry

Artificial intelligence targets human age-reversal – Digital Journal

The application of artificial intelligence is the research focus of start-up company Insilico Medicine. The medical technology company is developing artificial intelligence algorithms to study the ageing processes. The aim is to find new interventions in aging.InSilico Medicine develops knowledge management system of annotated drugs and small molecules. The company foremost develops drugs for oncology and aging, based on a patient's gene expression data. InSilico Medicine is based in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. Last year the company launched Aging.AI 2.0, which is a blood biochemistry predictor of human age. This built on the success of its Aging.AI 1.0 platform. Version 1.0 succeeded in using just 41 blood biochemistry biomarkers to test thousands of people. Through this type of analysis Insilico Medicine becames the first company to apply deep generative adversarial networks (GANs) to generating anti-cancer new molecules.

Artificial molecules.

Physics.org

Elderly Cubans wait for help at La Milagrosa Grandparent House in Havana

Adalberto Roque, AFP

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Artificial intelligence targets human age-reversal - Digital Journal

Human Behavior

Healing Black People – HuffPost

Due to our earlier ancestors tribal rivalries, slavery, racism, segregation, oppressive issues, and racial profiling, Black people have yet to heal their Black wounds. Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome is something that has impacted the Black race for many years to come. We have yet to heal those color complex wounds, and progress beyond it. Due to the Willie Lynch Syndrome, colorism, ageism, educational status, social economic status has created division within the Black race. With so many nationalities, groups, organizations, and running circles, Black people have learned to stay divided, verses working together in unison, while still respecting one anothers differences.

Due to our Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome, Black people need help to heal their wounds. Understanding the psychology of behavior and embracing the need for therapy could be helpful, except Black people have yet to respect therapy nor psychology. Due to syphilis studies completed on Black people, injustices with the judicial system and Black people being used as guinea pigs by white America, Black people have learned to distrust psychology, believing it's some sort of hocus pocus. Psychology is something Black people also do not trust, due to Pre- conceived notions about the field. Although many people of all races have misconceptions about the field of psychology, many Black people view Psychology as a form of mind manipulation, mind trickery and a way to control or mess with someones head. They also believe it is a White man's science that can only benefit the White race. When many Black people think of psychology, they have visions of Freud, White men, and hypnotherapy. People who misunderstand psychology have little to no understanding that, it is a science which studies human behavior, social influence and animal behavior. Psychology bases its studies on empirical evidence. Psychology is the study of the brain and mind and how earlier experiences, forming core beliefs effect present situations. Psychology is a healing field, designed to treat and diagnose those with psychopathology and or help people with normal stress. There are also different fields in psychology, like, Clinical Psychology; Neuro Psychology; Social Psychology; Forensic Psychology; Human Factors; Applied Behavioral Analysis etc Due to people being experts at being a human and having a great understanding of their self, their friends and family, they believe they have psychology nipped in the bud, without considering the fact of their own biases, transference issues, projections, which cloud their objectivity. These differences are what separates the field of psychology as a scientifically based field, versus normal populations with pre-conceived notions about the field of psychology.

Many people assume the field of psychology can be summed up with two theorists, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. Although both are two important figures in psychology, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung were founding members of psychoanalysis. They did not begin the field of psychology. Many theorists in psychology exist and theorists continue to evolve. Psychology is ubiquitous and it is the study of people. Psychology began the moment humans were created. The moment Lucy, aka The Real Eve was created to be the mother of civilization, psychology begin to unfold then. The field was created to help bring an understanding to human behavior.

Psychology can help heal Black people. Due to many Black people lacking proper communication styles within their family systems, etc those attachment styles carry into their friendships and relationships. Many Black people would rather curse one another out and use defense mechanisms to cover their wounds. The proper psychology has not been learned to communicate pain in a healthy way. The average Black person will go from hurt, to combat in a matter of seconds, without understanding the neurotic vicious cycles which are created when one assumes something of another and projects that expectation, which triggers reactions in others. Black people have learned how to talk to one another harshly and use defense mechanisms to repair broken egos and narcissistic injury. Black people have even learned how to use retorts that appear cool so that humor makes up for hurtful situations (Laughing to keep from crying). The average Black person would rather trade wise cracks with one another, verses using healthy psychology and proper communication to hurt feelings. Respect is a huge thing one demands but never gives. Black people have yet to be apologized to by racist people, society nor the members in their family, significant others and friends that have hurt them. Therefore, they are unapologetic. Lacking empathy is a familiar trait in the Black race, because it is considered weak to show feelings. Anger is accepted but showing emotion is rejected. Whenever Black people show empathy, it must appear cool and be accepted by the race. For example, "RIP to all my n*****" or "Where i come from, it goes from respect, disrespect, total disrespect to eff everybody". Both examples communicate emotional pain, but it is communicated in a "I'm so cool and will not show weakness" kind of way. Many Black people have experienced harsh treatment and compassionless from outsiders, members in their own families, relationships and friendships, therefore, they have not learned to control their impulses nor empathize with those they harm. Hurt people are conditioned to hurt others. Instead of hiding behind narcissism, defense mechanisms, unconscious conflict, mommy and daddy issues and developing unhealthy relationship patterns, learn to embrace psychology healing you from dysfunctional behavior.

Black people are the mother and father of all races and they are strong and resilient, therefore, they have learned how to push forward in life and continue moving and living with hurt. Since slavery Black people have been mistreated and have not learned how to deal with their wounds and unconscious conflict. Transference is a form of earlier childhood experiences being projected onto new objects, for example, people, places and things. A good example is, someone who might be attracted to certain people, rather good or bad because they are familiar spirits, with characteristics of their earlier experiences. Transference shows up in many of the things we choose in life, from friendships, relationships, jobs, places etc. A woman who was abandoned by her mother or father may choose men or women in her life who are emotionally unavailable or unsupportive during the most important moments. A woman who wasn't raised with her father may have unresolved daddy issues, while men who were also not raised with their father have a need to be a woman's daddy, to make up for their loss manhood. The decisions we make are mostly unconscious, so this information may be rejected consciously because the intellectual mind does not understand why they would choose people who remind them of the disappointments of their earlier experiences, but the unconscious mind chooses people and situations to work through the conflict. The Black woman choosing men who will not father her children, consequently playing both the mother and father in her household has been common since the early 70s. The Black man missing from the household has also been common since the early 70s. Although some Black people were raised with both parents, many broken homes in the Black race exists. Due to this family dysfunction, many members within the Black race are choosing the wrong people and making many wrong decisions, because they have not worked through their transference issues. You will find many men who are misogynistic or disrespectful towards women because they have issues with their mother and they never saw a man love their mother properly, therefore, they grow up to be just as unloving and hateful until they become healed. We usually learn from and repeat what we see and experience. According to Melanie Klein, children learn about love from watching their parents. They repeat what they see and do not see in their relationships and friendships.

Psychology can help heal Black wounds. Dr. Joy DeGruy and Dr. Umar Johnson are both Black scholars who discuss the Black condition today.

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Healing Black People - HuffPost

Human Behavior

The stupidest thing you can do with money – The Durango Herald

You may have guessed that Im a bit of a freak when it comes to personal finance. Only a freak would get up at 5:30 a.m. on a Saturday to write about money. Right?

Given that, it shouldnt surprise you that Freakonomics (www.freakonomics.com) is one of my favorite podcasts. Freakonomics explores the hidden side of human behavior and how we make decisions behavioral economics through stories and interviews.

A recent episode, called The Stupidest Thing You Can Do With Money, grabbed my attention.

The show addresses two options for investing:

1. Hire an investment adviser, who studies the financial markets using sophisticated tools and actively manages your money to get you the best return.

2. Do-it-yourself investing passively invest with a set-it-and-forget-it attitude.

Investment advisers give their clients advice about where and how to invest, charging fees either as a percentage of assets under management, typically 1 to 2 percent, or a flat amount. There are about 300,000 investment advisers in the United States. Most of them must beat the market, right? Why else would we keep paying them?

The truth is most people are paying fees to their investment advisers for sub-par returns on their investments. Ninety-five percent of actively managed portfolios cant consistently beat the S&P 500 index after subtracting fees.

An S&P 500 index fund is a low-cost way to own a diversified portfolio. The fund owns stocks in 500 of the largest U.S. companies the S&P 500, which spans many different industries and accounts for about three-fourths of the U.S. stock markets value.

And its not just your investment adviser who cant beat the market. Harvard University has an endowment of $38 billion and access to some of the best and brightest minds and top computer-modeling tools. Yet, the universitys annualized net return on investment for the past 10 years was less than 6 percent. The S&P 500 earned 7.72 percent over the same period.

Welcome to the low-cost, index fund investing DIY revolution. Not only are low-cost mutual funds, such as S&P 500 index funds and total stock market index funds, beating actively managed portfolios, they are doing it at a lower cost.

Jack Bogle, founder of Vanguard and the worlds first index fund, says this about fees: If the market return is 7 percent and the active manager gives you 5 after that 2 percent cost, and the index fund gives you 6.96 after that four basis point cost you dont appreciate it much in a year but over 50 years, believe it or not, a dollar invested at 7 percent grows to around $32 and a dollar invested at 5 percent grows to about $10.

Its time to join the revolution.

Durango resident and personal finance coach Matt Kelly owns Momentum: Personal Finance. http://www.personalfinancecoaching.com.

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The stupidest thing you can do with money - The Durango Herald

Human Behavior

Anti-Atheist Prejudice Is Entrenched Around The Globe, Even Among Atheists – HuffPost

People of all faith leanings, including non-believers,are apparently in general agreement on their shared distrust of atheists.

A new study published Monday in the academic journal Nature Human Behaviourfound that people around the world are more likely to believe that atheists are capable of committing extreme moral violations than people who are religious.

The results show that across the world, religious belief is intuitively viewed as a necessary safeguard against the temptations of grossly immoral conduct, and atheists are broadly perceived as potentially morally depraved and dangerous,wrote a team of international researchers.

In other words, the researchers added,people perceive belief in a god as a sufficient moral buffer to inhibit immoral behavior.

The study surveyed more than 3,000 people in 13 countries, spanning five continents. The researchers included people from both highly secular societies, like China and the Netherlands, and highly religious ones, like the United Arab Emirates and India in the study. Altogether the countries represented populations that were predominantly Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist or secular.

For the study, researchers asked participants to read a description of a fictional man who tortured animals as a child and grew up to become a teacher who murders and mutilates five homeless people. Half of the group were asked about the likelihood the perpetrator was a religious believer, while the other half were asked how likely he was an atheist.

The study found that the participants were about twice as likely to say the killer was probably atheist than to say he was religious. Researchers found these results to be true even in largely secular countries, like Australia, China, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

I suspect that this stems from the prevalence of deeply entrenched pro-religious norms, Will Gervais, a psychology professor at the University of Kentucky in Lexington and one of the co-authors on the study, told AFP. Even in places that are currently quite overtly secular, people still seem to intuitively hold on to the belief that religion is a moral safeguard.

And lest we assumed such attitudes hold only in cases of extreme immorality, such as murder, the researchers conducted several supplementary studies that show the opposite.

In one supplementary study, the researchers tested for lesser moral violations in this case, not paying a dinner bill and participants still associated immorality more with atheists than with believers.

Another supplementary study investigated whether people would more frequently associate certain acts of immoral behavior, such as child molestation, with religious individuals, given recent scandals of that nature regarding Catholic clergy.The researchers found that people intuitively assume that a priest who molests young boys for decades is more likely to be a priest who does not believe in God than a priest who does believe in God, the study stated.

The study echoes the findings of a report by Pew Research Center, published in 2014, which found that majorities in 22 countries say a person must believe in God in order to be moral and have good values.

Though widespread, the belief that religiosity is a necessary component of morality isnt generally supported by science. Studies show that moral qualities like empathy and prosocial behavior may predate the development of religion in human evolution and are representative of biological adaptation.

What sets people of faith apart where morality is concerned, says prominent Humanist and former evangelical Christian Bart Campolo, is a shared language of what goodness means.

Whether or not our supernaturalist brothers and sisters actually love one another, care for those in need, or cultivate genuine gratitude for the privilege of human consciousness, theyve got loads of sacred texts, theological arguments and inspirational music which clearly communicate why and how they mean to do so, Campolo, a secular chaplain at the University of Southern California, told HuffPost.

He added that studies showing the pervasive distrust toward atheists should be a wake-up call for non-believers.

We secularists, who pursue goodness simply because we recognize it as the surest way to flourish, need to get a whole lot better at compellingly articulating our own good news, and maybe even learn to make it sing, he said.

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Anti-Atheist Prejudice Is Entrenched Around The Globe, Even Among Atheists - HuffPost

Human Behavior

Money Problems and Millionaires – Bloomberg

The weekend is here! Pour yourself a mug ofTrader Joe'sOrganic Fair Trade Sumatracoffee, grab a seat by the window waiting for the skies to clear, and get ready for our longer-formweekendreads:

Be sure to check out ourMasters in Businessinterviewthis weekendwithMatt Wallaert, a behavioral scientist and former director at Microsoft Ventures who works at the intersection oftechnology and human behavior.

Want to receive our daily reads in your inbox? Sign uphere!

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

To contact the author of this story: Barry Ritholtz at britholtz3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Brooke Sample at bsample1@bloomberg.net

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Money Problems and Millionaires - Bloomberg

Cell Biology

CLL evolution under the microscope – Medical Xpress

How do initially benign forms of cancer evolve to become aggressive? In a quest to answer this long-standing question, an EU project has studied the growth and clonal evolution of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL)a blood and bone marrow cancer that mostly starts asymptomatic but can become very aggressive over time.

Cancer evolution is a complex process. Whilst we know that tumour growth is enabled by a continuous process of clonal expansion, genetic diversification and clonal selection, there are still many open questions related to this process. Answering them could be the key to preventing tumour progression and relapses.

According to Dr Michaela Gruber, whose research was funded under the CLL_INCLONEL (Identification and functional dissection of key genetic events in early chronic lymphocytic leukaemia) project, CLL is a valuable model for studying this process due to its high prevalence, initially slow progression and easy access to samples.

Dr Gruber studied the clonal dynamics of a cohort of 21 CLL patients, who were recurrently sampled from diagnosis until the time of first treatment. Her objectives were to identify events leading to disease progression using next-generation sequencing of patient samples. She also developed in vitro models to assess the functional impact of these genetic events on B cell biology, studied their impact on CLL and gathered valuable information on the effects of drugs on potential CLL sub-populations.

Dr Gruber agreed to discuss the project's outcomes and how they could one day lead to individualised diagnostic and therapeutic management of CLL.

What kind of knowledge did you aim to gather from this project?

The key aim of this project was to gain a better understanding of the early dynamics of growth and clonal evolution, as cancer progresses from diagnosis to the need for treatment. CLL is a highly informative model system for studying such natural cancer growth patterns: It typically has a relatively indolent beginning, with potentially long timeframes (in the order of years) before treatment becomes necessary.

Why is it so important to better understand clonal evolution? How can it help prevent tumour progression and relapse?

Insights from recent cancer sequencing studies indicate that the occurrence and expansion of cancer-driving mutations follows a specific sequence. Certain mutations generally appear to occur early in the disease and could be cancer-initiating. Other mutations tend to occur late and appear to have variable impact on tumour expansion. Moreover, different cancer sub-types show different patterns of mutations.

Together, these findings indicate that it could be possible to anticipate the specific evolutionary potential (i.e. plasticity) of a patient's cancer, which actually fuels progression, treatment resistance and relapse. Based on such understanding, therapeutic strategies could be shaped directly against this plasticity of cancer. This would be a major milestone towards overcoming current obstacles to cancer cure.

What would you say were the most important findings from the project?

Our data show that key mutations driving the progression of CLL are established very early in the course of the disease, years before symptoms warrant treatment initiation. For the first time, we were also able to quantify the impact of individual sub-clonal driver mutations on in vivo tumour expansion.

Another important discovery is that of clearly distinguishable growth patterns among patients, both globally as well as on a sub-clonal level. Finally, our data indicate that different patients have different potentials for clonal evolution and growth, and that these patterns remain throughout the entire course of the disease up to the event of relapse.

Can you tell us more about the genome editing technologies you employed?

Suitable experimental models are much needed in order to test the functional impact of observations made in CLL sequencing studies. Thus, we employed novel genome editing strategies, initially using TALENs and then switching to the recently emerged and more easily programmable CRISPR/Cas9 technology. Thanks to the latter, we established an array of isogenic B cell lines, which are used to test the molecular impact of mutations on cellular biology andmost importanttreatment response.

What are your plans now that the project is completed?

We have initiated several follow-up projects in Vienna, which aim to integrate an understanding of epigenetic modifications and tumour microenvironments, as well as their role and dynamics in CLL evolution.

What do you hope will be the impact of the project on future diagnostics and treatments?

Our hope is to establish cancer evolution as a predictable process. With sufficient understanding of the forces that drive evolution and selective advantages of sub-clonal mutations, we hope to develop prognostic schemes that anticipate individuals' evolutionary trajectories.

Treatments based on these schemes would directly aim to target the cancer plasticity that underlies progression, treatment resistance or relapse. CLL provides us with a unique opportunity to better understand cancer evolution. The conceptual insights about cancer that can thus be gained from CLL would have a high potential for being translated across other haematologic and solid malignancies.

Explore further: Follicular lymphoma: A tale of two cancers

More information: Project page: cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/186119

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CLL evolution under the microscope - Medical Xpress

Biochemistry

REU Fellows Expand Knowledge Via Summer Research – University of San Diego Website (press release) (blog)

USD junior Daniel Ghebreigziabher discusses his NSF REU summer research project during a poster presentation session on August 10.

The prospect of learning something new each day is true for everybody. For students in college, particularly those whove participated in this summers University of San Diegos Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program via a grant from the National Science Foundation, the knowledge gained has been delivered over 10 weeks, but it can have a lifetime of impact.

The USD grant supported 11 REU Fellows many of whom were new to having a research experience at the college level in collaborative, interdisciplinary research that paired them with USD faculty members in chemistry and biochemistry, physics and biophysics, engineering, environmental and ocean sciences, mathematics and computer science. Each research project, in some way, studies or deepens students knowledge on factors leading to or the impact of climate change through multiple approaches and disciplines.

Research Knowledge on Display

On Thursday afternoon in the Shiley Center for Science and Technology Atrium, this years cohort some currently attending USD, some who are military veteran students, one student from Texas and some whove completed community college and are transferring to UC Riverside, University of California, Berkeley and UC San Diego, respectively, this fall gave poster presentations to visually display and discuss the knowledge theyve gained this summer.

Poster presentations (with USD faculty denoted) were given by Denisa Ivan (Chemistry and Biochemistrys David De Haan); Andrew Boghossian (Physics and Biophysics Ryan McGorty); Daniel Ghebreigziabher (Chemistry and Biochemistrys Joseph Provost); Diana Tamayo (Environmental and Ocean Sciences Nathalie Reyns); Isabel Paredes (Mathematics Jane Friedman); Jayna Lizama (Environmental and Ocean Sciences Drew Talley); Joshua Wilson (Chemistry and Biochemistrys Tim Clark); Luis Garcia and Nathan Kramer (Mechanical Engineerings Daniel Codd); William Bentley (Physics and Biophysics Rae Anderson); and William Sherwin (Chemistry and Biochemistrys Joan Schelinger).

Learning, Growing

While the disciplines covered by the REU were specific, some students participated in research areas that, while not exactly in their regular area of study, did not deter from their desire to learn.

I learned MATLAB and LaTeX and this project allowed me to find other things to learn about, said Paredes, a first-generation student who came into the REU with experience and interest in engineering and chemistry, the latter stemming from her participation in a previous and different REU. At USD, Paredes worked with Friedman, who marveled at her students quick-pick-up of programming and her desire. Friedman said a published paper will emerge from their project regarding improved math modeling of Biomass Allometry using Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). Paredes, a Navy veteran, will be transferring to Berkeley this fall.

Ghebreigziabher, a USD biochemistry major and pre-med student, has been doing research during the academic year. This summers REU program gave him a chance to expand his knowledge working with proteins and with Joe Provost. During the year, Ghebreigziabher works on a DNA-oriented project in USD Biochemistry Assistant Professor Anthony Bells lab.

Theres no amount of work thats too much for me, said Ghebreigziabher. Its all about the tools you can have. This summer has been a chance for me to gain more experience, do more troubleshooting, analyzing the whole picture and to do more critical thinking.

Joshua Wilson, a Navy veteran who is heading into his senior year at USD, worked in the lab of USD alumnus and Chemistry Professor Tim Clark. Wilson was familiar with Clark as the latter serves as his academic advisor and was his organic chemistry class professor. The summer research project, one that examines phosphine directed C-H borylation, was preliminary stage of work that will continue this academic year and could be presented at a conference as well as USDs Creative Collaborations in spring 2018.

Denisa Ivan, who attends St. Edwards College in Austin, Texas, examined the effects of aerosol-phase browning in glyoxal reactions with ammonium salts/chloride. Asking two questions does the reaction between ammonium sulfate/chloride and glyoxal form brown carbon? and does formation of brown carbon favor one reaction over the other? Ivan reached a few conclusions, but the project is a work in progress. For her first foray on a college-level research project Ivan felt it was a great opportunity to look at a problem step by step to reach a solution. I learned to think faster on my feet. I feel a lot better now that I want to pursue this kind of research.

Nathan Kramer, a USD student and Marine Corps veteran, and Luis Garcia, a local community college student who is transferring to UC Berkeley, worked with Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering Mechanical Professor Daniel Codd. The projects goal was to develop a hybrid solar converter featuring transmissive photovoltaics. This project is a response to there being little work being done in the renewable energy sector to find sustainable solutions to industrial process heat applications.

Kramer and Garcia both expressed their appreciation for the resources they had to work with during the summer, the mentorship and guidance provided by Dr. Cod and the experience they gained these past 10 weeks.

Another REU Fellow, Jayna Lizama, is preparing to attend UC Riverside to study environmental studies. She gained firsthand knowledge of marine ecology through research she did as a member of Drew Talleys team. She and others utilized stable isotope analysis to understand the trophic position of Fundulus parvipinnis (California killifish) in San Diegos Mission Bay marsh.

I love learning new things. This project was definitely a good introduction for me going out and working in the field, Lizama said. I feel more confident about doing research and Im very comfortable working together in the lab.

Thats definitely the reward for learning. Every day.

Ryan T. Blystone

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REU Fellows Expand Knowledge Via Summer Research - University of San Diego Website (press release) (blog)

Embryology

New Microscope Technique Reveals Internal Structure of Live Embryos – Futurism

Advancing Science

University of Illinois researchers have developed a way to produce 3-D images of live embryos in cattle that could help determine embryo viability before in vitro fertilization in humans.

Infertility can be devastating for those who want children. Many seek treatment, and the cost of a single IVF cycle can be $20,000, making it desirable to succeed in as few attempts as possible. Advanced knowledge regarding the health ofembryoscould help physicians select those that are most likely to lead to successful pregnancies.

The newmethod, published in the journalNature Communications, brought together electrical and computer engineering professor Gabriel Popescu and animal sciences professor Matthew Wheeler in a collaborative project through the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the U. of I.

Called gradient light interference microscopy, the method solves a challenge that other methods have struggled withimaging thick, multicellular samples.

In many forms of traditional biomedical microscopy, light is shined through very thin slices of tissue to produce an image. Other methods use chemical or physical markers that allow the operator to find the specific object they are looking for within a thicksample, but those markers can be toxic to living tissue, Popescu said.

When looking at thick samples with other methods, your image becomes washed out due to the light bouncing off of all surfaces in the sample, said graduate student Mikhail Kandel, the co-lead author of the study. It is like looking into a cloud.

GLIM can probe deep into thick samples by controlling the path length over which light travels through the specimen. The technique allows the researchers to produce images from multiple depths that are then composited into a single 3-D image.

To demonstrate the new method, Popescus group joined forces with Wheeler and his team to examine cow embryos.

One of the holy grails of embryology is finding a way to determine which embryos are most viable, Wheeler said. Having a noninvasive way to correlate to embryo viability is key; before GLIM, we were taking more of an educated guess.

Those educated guesses are made by examining factors like the color of fluids inside the embryonic cells and the timing of development, among others, but there is no universal marker for determining embryo health, Wheeler said.

This method lets us see the whole picture, like a three-dimensional model of the entire embryo at one time, said Tan Nguyen, the other co-lead author of the study.

Choosing the healthiest embryo is not the end of the story, though. The ultimate test will be to prove that we have picked a healthy embryo and that it has gone on to develop a live calf, said Marcello Rubessa, a postdoctoral researcher and co-author of the study.

Illinois has been performing in vitro studies with cows since the 1950s, Wheeler said. Having the resources made available through Gabriels research and the other resources at Beckman Institute have worked out to be a perfect-storm scenario.

The team hopes to apply GLIM technology to human fertility research and treatment, as well as a range of different types of tissue research. Popescu plans to continue collaborating with other biomedical researchers and already has had success looking at thick samples of brain tissue in marine life for neuroscience studies.

This article was provided by University of Illinois of Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Materials may have been edited for clarity and brevity. And make the name of the source a link back to their website.

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New Microscope Technique Reveals Internal Structure of Live Embryos - Futurism

Embryology

Fertility clinic error caused ‘hurt and distress’ – Marilyn Stowe Blog

The female partner of a woman who gave birth to a child following fertility treatment is entitled a declaration of parenthood, the High Court has ruled.

The couple in question lived together but were not married or in a civil partnership. They underwent fertility treatment at a clinic in Nottingham regulated by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. A child was born to one of the women, referred to in the carefully anonymised judgement as Y. The couple later split up but remained on good terms and her former partner continued to play an active role in the childs life. Both women believed she held the status of parent.

But the biological mothers partner, X, later made the upsetting discovery that due to an administrative error she had not, after all, become the second legal parent of the couples child, C. She therefore applied for a fresh declaration of parentage under sections 43 and 44 of Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008.

In the High Court, Family Division President Sir James Munby noted:

Y was not present [during the High Court hearing] but had sent a handwritten letter to the court dated 18 July 2017 to confirm my support for the applicant, in the hearing to obtain parental status for our [child]. The letter, having explained why she could not be present, went on:

[X] has my full support and backing in this case. I hope in court on Friday this terrible error by [the fertility clinic] is rectified and we can start to move on from all the stress and upset it has caused.

The emotional upheaval caused by the discovery was clear, the President added.

I asked X [during the hearing] if she wanted to speak. She did so from the well of the court I saw no need for her to be sworn. Her words, though brief, were powerful and very moving; for some of the time she was in tears, and I can well understand why.

She had described her own reaction to the discovery in a witness statement:

when I was made aware of the fact that I legally had no rights in respect of [C] due to a significant error by [the clinic] my whole world was turned upside down and this obviously had a significant effect on me and my ability to cope with life generally on a day to day basis.

She added:

A declaration from the court cannot take away the hurt and distress that I have felt from the moment that I found out about this issue until it will have been resolved, it also cannot undo the ongoing effects that this situation has caused

An apology issued by the clinic was insufficient she stressed.

Yes they accept in the statement that they made a mistake but they seem to somewhat try to pass it off as insignificant and non consequential in terms of the effect that this has had on me. I felt sick to my stomach when I read the statement because I felt that they, of all people, would have at least recognised the harm and upset that they would have caused.

Sir James said he was:

quite satisfied that this is no exaggeration on Xs part.

The case as the latest in a series of similar fertility clinic errors to come before the President: he estimated that there had been 37 to date.

Sir James conclusion was brusque:

X is entitled to the declaration she seeks.

Read the ruling here.

Photo byChris Costes via Flickr

Originally posted here:
Fertility clinic error caused 'hurt and distress' - Marilyn Stowe Blog