Monthly Archives: July 2021

Anatomy

When Is Greys Anatomy Season 18 Coming Back? And More ImportantlyIs It the Final Season? – Cosmopolitan

Its been only a few months since the season 17 finale of Greys Anatomy aired, and I feel like I cant be the only one still processing what happened. I mean, Meredith is now running the residency program at Grey Sloan, and she may be in a RELATIONSHIP with Dr. McIrish. Teddy and Owen are all bood up for the moment, and Maggie and Winston are married! Honestly, its the perfect ending to a v chaotic seasonand Im kinda ready for more.

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If youre like me, theres one major question on your mind: When is Grey's Anatomy season 18 coming to our screens and giving us the perfect Thursday-night watch party? We know the show just got renewed, but COME ONwe need to get Meredith back on TV soon!

Well, lucky for you, there are some answers to this very important question.

Luckily for us, the series will be back soon. ABC announced that Greys Anatomy season 18 will premiere on September 30. Itll also stick to its Thursday at 9 p.m. ET time slot, so make sure to mark your calendars accordingly or you might get hit with spoilers when you open Twitter as it airs.

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That is up to Shondaland to determine for us. We do know this: Most of the cast members have renewed their contracts through a possible season 19 (thank god), so there will likely be lots of familiar faces. As for new people, Meredith is now running the residency program, so we can probably expect a newly minted doc or two. TBD!

Again, youd need to speak to Shondaland! Deadline did make it extremely clear that Ellen Pompeo signed just a one-year extension contract, and TBH, she cant do this show forever. Coupled with the exits of some big names on season 18 like Jesse Williams, Ellen might just hang up her latex gloves and call it a day.

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That said: Nothing is what it seems in the world of television. After all, we all thought season 17 would be the last time wed see the staff of Grey Sloan. And look what happened there! So really, theres no telling with this show. And with its extremely dedicated fan base? Um, yeah, theres definitely more to this.

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When Is Greys Anatomy Season 18 Coming Back? And More ImportantlyIs It the Final Season? - Cosmopolitan

Anatomy

Anatomy into the battle of supporting or opposing reopening amid the COVID-19 pandemic on Twitter: A temporal and spatial analysis – DocWire News

This article was originally published here

PLoS One. 2021 Jul 13;16(7):e0254359. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0254359. eCollection 2021.

ABSTRACT

Reopening amid the COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a battle on social media. The supporters perceived that the lockdown policy could damage the economy and exacerbate social inequality. By contrast, the opponents believed it was necessary to contain the spread and ensure a safe environment for recovery. Anatomy into the battle is of importance to address public concerns, beliefs, and values, thereby enabling policymakers to determine the appropriate solutions to implement reopening policy. To this end, we investigated over 1.5 million related Twitter postings from April 17 to May 30, 2020. With the aid of natural language processing (NLP) techniques and machine learning classifiers, we classified each tweet into either a supporting or opposing class and then investigated the public perception from temporal and spatial perspectives. From the temporal dimension, we found that both political and scientific news that were extensively discussed on Twitter led to the perception of opposing reopening. Further, being the first mover with full reopen adversely affected the public reaction to reopening policy, while being the follower or late mover resulted in positive responses. From the spatial dimension, the correlation and regression analyses suggest that the state-level perception was very likely to be associated with political affiliation and health value.

PMID:34255783 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0254359

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Anatomy into the battle of supporting or opposing reopening amid the COVID-19 pandemic on Twitter: A temporal and spatial analysis - DocWire News

Anatomy

Anatomy of an insurrection: How military veterans and other rioters carried out the Jan. 6 assault on democracy – Raw Story

More than six months after the storming of the US Capitol, more than 550 people have been arrested, with an estimated 800 people surging into the building during the hours-long assault. Members of the Oath Keepers, a loosely organized right-wing paramilitary, and Proud Boys street fighters galvanized by then-President Trump's call to "stand back and stand by" have been indicted on conspiracy to disrupt Congress, which delayed the certification of Joe Biden as president by almost six hours.

"Every single person charged, at the very least, contributed to the inability of Congress to carry out the certification of our presidential election," prosecutors wrote in memorandum filed with the court on Tuesday.

The slow-moving tedium of prosecutorial legal machinery and the GOP campaign to deflect responsibility can make it easy to lose sight of the big picture of what transpired on Jan. 6. But based on an aggregate review of individuals cases, along with other sources, a Raw Story analysis of the critical events in the Jan. 6 siege reveals a striking degree of coordination, sustained and intentional violence, planning and preparation, and determined effort to disable the United States' critical governance apparatus by participants, including many with recent military experience. Many of the rioters who played critical roles in breaching the Capitol came away from the experience vowing to wage war against the United States. Few among those who are being prosecuted have expressed any remorse for their actions.

Amid the hundreds of prosecutions of Trump supporters motivated by the big lie, the GOP has punished lawmakers who fail to bear allegiance to the former president and run afoul of the party line that the election was stolen, while thwarting the House investigation into the events of Jan. 6. GOP intransigence makes it likely that the Democratic-led investigation will become reduced to another partisan snipe-fest, undermining its potential to hold people accountable and prevent future attempts to overturn democracy.

A handful of defendants, including Oath Keepers members, have pleaded guilty, as fresh arrests fatten the docket weekly. Those recently charged are not minor players: In addition to people who trashed media equipment and assaulted reporters, they include the first boogaloo-identified rioter, with hints that there are more to come, and a man who organized a resistance cell under the cover of a Bible study. Critically, the FBI has yet to make an arrest for bombs that were planted outside the Democratic and Republican headquarters on the eve of the insurrection. Even under the most optimistic scenario, the prosecutions are likely to drag on for years: Among the few cases set for trial, white nationalist Christian Secor isn't scheduled to begin deliberations until January 2022.

Beyond the chaotic events that took place when hundreds of Trump supporters unleashed mayhem on the Capitol, it remains unknown to what degree, if any, the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers coordinated their actions. And beyond Trump's feverish promotion of the Jan. 6 "Save America" rally and instruction to his followers to "walk down to the Capitol," it also remains to be seen whether the siege may have been directed by the president or his surrogates through intermediaries such as Trump confidant Roger Stone or "Stop the Steal" organizer Ali Alexander.

Notably, the mob began its advance on the Capitol well before Trump had finished speaking at the Ellipse, suggesting that key players had decided in advance to disrupt the certification of the electoral vote, while Trump's exhortations mobilized thousands more to reinforce the riot that was already unfolding at the seat of American government.

'Back the yellow'

On Jan. 5 at 8:28 p.m., some 60 Proud Boys on an encrypted channel named "Boots on the Ground" received instructions from an as-yet-unnamed individual, according to government court documents. "Everyone needs to meet at the Washington Monument at 10 a.m. tomorrow morning!" the message read. "Do not be late! Do not wear colors! Details will be laid out at the pre-meeting. Come out as a patriot!"

Marching towards the Capitol on the morning of Jan. 6, Proud Boys an anti-democratic group that cloaks its white supremacy under a soft cover of "Western chauvinism" chanted, "Where's antifa?" Many carried Baofeng walkie-talkies and wore earpieces. The Proud Boys had previously clashed with antifascists adversaries in the streets of Washington DC during pro-Trump rallies on Nov. 14 and Dec. 12, but on Jan. 6 they didn't find any leftists to fight.

Proud Boys' de-facto leader on Jan 6 is raising money 'to make ends meet': reportEthan Nordean

"Back the yellow," Proud Boys leader Ethan Nordean aka Rufio said through a megaphone. Then referring to the arrest of Proud Boys Chairman Enrique Tarrio two days earlier and the stabbing of four members on Dec. 12, Nordean seemed to address the police: "You took our boy in, and you let the stabber go. You guys got to prove your shit to us now. We'll do your goddamn job for ya."

Video livestreamed by California Proud Boy Eddie Block shows that the group had made it to the west side of the Capitol by around 11:20 a.m. Trump had tweeted the day before that he would be speaking at the Ellipse at 11 a.m. Had he started on time, the Proud Boys would have been in place in front of the Capitol while he was speaking. But Trump did not start speaking until noon, leaving the Proud Boys time to kill.

Proud Boy Dan 'Milkshake' Scott arrested after assaulting police at Capitol Dan Scott followed by Wall Street Journal during Jan. 6 attack (Photo: Screen capture)

At around 11:47 a.m., the Proud Boys stopped on the east side of the Capitol and milled around. While lining up for a group photo, Proud Boy Dan Scott aka Milkshake yelled, "Let's take the f***ing Capitol." An unidentified individual admonished him: "Let's not f***ing yell that, all right?"

About five minutes after the photo op, Block's livestream shows that the group started moving north towards Constitution Avenue. The Proud Boys took a break next to a row of food trucks outside of the Department of Labor for roughly 35 minutes.

While the Proud Boys were eating and resting, Trump was addressing his supporters a mile and a half away at the Ellipse.

"We're going to walk down to the Capitol, and we're going to cheer on our brave senators, and congressmen and women," he said. "We're probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them because you'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong."

Christopher Quaglin, an unemployed electrician from New Jersey, livestreamed himself walking towards the Capitol.

"Trump is speaking and everyone is walking there," Quaglin said. "And I am walking there." He turned his camera to show the Capitol.

"And I am ready," Quaglin said, holding up a gas mask for viewers to see. "We will see how it goes. Proud of your boy."

At about 12:43 p.m., Ethan Nordean announced to the Proud Boys gathered beside the food trucks that they would be heading to the "roundabout," likely referring to Peace Circle, which aligns with the northwest approach to the Capitol.

Proud Boys leader Charles Donohoe (right) carried a riot shield that fellow Proud Boy Dominic Pezzola (left) stole from police and later used to shatter a Capitol window, allowing rioters to stream inside.(YouTube screengrabs courtesy US government)

Charles Donohoe, later described by a magistrate judge as a "trusted senior lieutenant" who was responsible for ensuring the group's secure communications," walked some distance ahead. A Marine Corps veteran, Donohoe served as president of the North Carolina Piedmont chapter of the Proud Boys. Nordean led the march, along with Joe Biggs, an Army veteran described by his lawyer in a legal filing as "a mainstay Proud Boy planner and organizer since 2018," and Zach Rehl, president of the Philadelphia chapter. The group paused for a moment on First Street, and Billy Chrestman, from the Kansas City chapter, conferred briefly with Nordean.

Proud Boy pal brags about role in Capitol attack - Raw Story ... (DOJ footage)

Around 12:45 p.m., as Trump was still speaking, the Proud Boys converged with a large crowd at Peace Circle, according to court documents. Along with Nordean, Biggs, Donohoe, Rehl, Block and Chrestman, the group included Proud Boys Dominic Pezzola, Matthew Greene and William Pepe. Pezzola, a Marine Corps veteran from Rochester, and Greene, an Army National Guard veteran with combat experience in Afghanistan, had traveled to DC together from Syracuse. Pepe, who was employed by the New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority, had worked until midnight on Jan. 5, and spontaneously decided to drive through the night, according to a filing by his lawyer. Pepe had met Pezzola for the first time at a protest on Dec. 5, according to a filing on Pepe's behalf.

'Extensive history of violent and assaultive behavior'

While the Proud Boys and other Trump supporters massed at Peace Circle, Ryan Samsel of Bucks County, Pa. walked over to chat with Biggs, video from a recent New York Times visual investigation shows. It's not clear what they discussed. Federal investigators would later discover what government lawyers describe as "an extensive history of violent and assaultive behavior and of intimidation of witnesses" on Samsel's part. In opposing pre-trial release for Samsel, a government lawyer would write that Samsel's history showed a pattern of "choking and beating women to the point of loss of consciousness, of many hospital visits for many victims, of chipped and missing teeth, and of Samsel even breaking into a victim's home multiple times to assault her."

Pennsylvania Capitol rioter who attacked cop has a history of violence against women accusations: report Ryan Samsel (Photos: DOJ Indictment documents)

Biggs' lawyer, J. Daniel Hull, told Raw Story his client didn't know Samsel. "Joe doesn't know him," he said. "Never heard that name."

About a minute after speaking with Biggs, Samsel walked toward the barricades. As the first person to confront US Capitol police officers blocking the path, Samsel was in effect the spearpoint of the initial attack on the Capitol. According to a statement of facts supporting Samsel's charges, he and others pushed and pulled on the barricades, a series of metal bike racks reinforced with plastic mesh netting. In the process of throwing the barricades to the ground, they reportedly knocked over a police officer, causing her to hit her head on the stairs behind her, causing her to lose consciousness.

"We don't have to hurt you, why are you standing in our way?" Samsel reportedly said, while picking her up off the ground. The officer, referenced in court documents as "O-1," was directed to go back to the West Terrace at the Capitol to regroup. Hours later, according to the government, she would black out and collapse while arresting another rioter and had to be transported to a local hospital, where she was diagnosed with a concussion.

After Samsel dismantled the first set of barriers, Proud Boys and other rioters streamed down the walkway. At the second set of barriers, Pepe and another rioter grabbed one of the bike racks and dragged it aside to allow the crowd to advance to a police line guarding the plaza on the west side of the Capitol, according to a government filing. (In a legal filing on Pepe's behalf, his lawyer described the scene differently: "People ahead of him threw barricades in his direction forcing him to push them out of the way to avoid being hit by them.")

Pezzola was one the first to reach the next police line, which was quickly overwhelmed by the crowd, according to the government. As rioters were pouring onto the plaza on the western side of the Capitol, Congress began the tally of electoral votes and Vice President Mike Pence released a letter declaring he did not have unilateral authority to overturn the results. Trump concluded his speech at the Ellipse at 1:11 p.m., reinforcing his call to action.

"So, we're going to, we're going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue," Trump said. "We're going to give our Republicans, the weak ones, because the strong ones don't need any of our help, we're going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country."

As scuffles broke at the Lower West Terrace in front of the Capitol, Pezzola wrested a riot shield away from a US Capitol police officer. During the melee, the government alleges that Donohoe helped Pezzola carry the shield, and that Donohoe reported in a group message to fellow Proud Boys on Telegram: "Got a riot shield."

'Lords of war'

By the time of the Capitol insurrection, Pezzola had become a celebrated figure in the Proud Boys, earning the praise of Chairman Enrique Tarrio for a news photo that showed him striking a menacing pose at the front of a line of Proud Boys in DC on Dec. 12. Tarrio shared the photo on Parler on Dec. 31, writing, "Lords of War. #J6 #J12."

Christopher Worrell (right).Screengrab via FBI complaint.

Other Proud Boys were also in the thick of the action. Billy Chrestman can be seen in video published by the New York Times rallying the mob with his back to the police line, shouting, "Whose House is it?... Do you want your House back?... Take it!" Around the same time, the government alleges that Christopher Worrell, a Proud Boy from Naples, Fla., sprayed pepper gel at police. The New York Times footage also shows rioters throwing bike racks.

Around 1:35 p.m., some in the crowd turned their focus from the plaza to a set of steps encased by scaffolding that had been set up for the inauguration. Worrell and Dan Scott aka Milkshake were positioned in the front line of that fight with officers at the lightly guarded entrance to the staircase. Footage shows the heavyset Scott heave his body against the police line and then briefly fall back, and others take advantage of an officer lunging at Scott to break through the line. The decision to take the staircase is described by the Times as a "pivotal move," noting that it provided "direct access to an upper level and dozens of doors and windows."

Among the first to ascend the stairs were Pezzola and Greene, the Proud Boys from central New York, along with Robert Gieswein, a Colorado Three Percenter dressed in full tactical gear and carrying a baseball bat who had marched with the Proud Boys.

While one group moved up the staircase, more rioters poured onto the Lower West Terrace. Less than 10 minutes after the staircase entrance was overrun, Jonathan Pollock, Olivia Pollock, Joseph Hutchinson, Joshua Doolin and Michael Perkins all from Florida moved into the plaza. Jonathan Pollock and an unknown person charged the police line with flagpoles, according to the government. Hutchison and another person grabbed a fence and pulled it away, allowing rioters to surge into the police line. Pollock reportedly jumped over other rioters to attack the police, grabbing an officer and pulling them down a short set of steps. After going down in a pile, Pollock is accused of punching two police officers and choking a third.

One rioter accused of sustained and continuous assaults on police is Christopher Quaglin, who reportedly accosted Metropolitan police officers on the Lower West Terrace at 1:36 p.m., yelling, "You don't want this fight. You do not want this f***ing fight. You are on the wrong side. You're going to bring a f***ing pistol, I'm going to bring f***ing cannon."

More than 30 minutes later, still battling police on the Lower West Terrace Plaza, Quaglin is accused of shoving an officer. A government motion in Quaglin's case indicates that Quaglin was seen interacting with Proud Boys leader Ethan Nordean, and prosecutors also say Nordean grabbed Quaglin by the shoulder to stop him after he pushed the officer.

In a motion filed on behalf of Nordean, his lawyer wrote, "Nordean notes that he does not know or have any relationship with Quaglin."

Quaglin at one time claimed to be a member of the Proud Boys, according to evidence presented by the government. In a Nov. 3 social media post, Quaglin reportedly posted a photo of the Proud Boys, writing, "Proud to be one." But in social media chats from Nov. 6 that were retrieved by investigators, Quaglin indicated he was organizing a group of his own. "I have been beginning a group for 2 years," he wrote. "Proud boys don't even know about it."

Court documents also indicate Quaglin told an acquaintance that he was considering joining the Proud Boys and had met with members of the organization in New York.

Regardless of whether he was a member of the Proud Boys or not, he was familiar enough with the group to post on social media on Dec. 26 about his plans for Jan. 6: "Bigger the group the better. And we aren't repping any proud boy colors Fyi. Keeping it as invisible as we can."

Enrique Tarrio Enrique Tarrio (CNN screensho)

That was three days before Chairman Enrique Tarrio posted on Parler: "The Proud Boys will turn out in record numbers on Jan 6th but this time with a twist." He continued: "We will not be wearing our traditional Black and Yellow. We will be incognito and we will spread across downtown DC in smaller teams."

'Patriots storming the Capitol building'

Dominic Pezzola.Photo from DOJ memorandum in support of pretrial detention.

At 2:13 p.m., while members of the House and Senate deliberated in their respective chambers over an objection filed by Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), Proud Boy Dominic Pezzola used the stolen riot shield to smash out a window accessed from the West Terrace.

Kevin Seefried. Kevin Seefriend (DOJ complaint screengrab)

Michael Sparks of Kentucky was the first rioter to enter the Capitol through breached window, according to the Times investigation. The first group through window included Pezzola; Robert Gieswein, the Three Percenter wielding a baseball bat; QAnon follower Doug Jensen; Kevin Seefried, carrying a Confederate flag; and his son, Hunter Seefried.

FBI flooded with over 230,000 tips as they hunt hundreds more ...www.rawstory.com

Almost immediately, an unidentified man wearing a helmet kicked open the adjacent doors, allowing more rioters to enter the Capitol. Joe Biggs, the Proud Boys planner and organizer, walked through the doors about two minutes later. In the first five minutes, Zachary Alam, a laid-off hotel concierge from Washington DC, also entered the building through the compromised doors.

The Oath Keepers, a competing far-right group, mobilized slowly, relative to the Proud Boys.

Around the same time that Pezzola breached the Capitol on the west side, the Oath Keepers' designated "ground leader" for Jan. 6 a man known as "Whip" wrote in the group's Leadership Signal chat: "The [sic] have taken ground at the capital[.] We need to regoup any members who are not on mission."

Roughly 20 minutes later, according to the government, Oath Keepers Roberto Minuta, Joshua James and Jonathan Walden would race towards the Capitol in golf carts, swerving around police vehicles, after Minuta and James provided a personal security detail to Trump confidant Roger Stone.

"Patriots are storming the Capitol building; there's violence against patriots by the DC police, so we're en route in a grand theft auto golf cart to the Capitol building right now," Minuta reportedly yelled. "It's going down, guys; it's literally going down right now. Patriots storming the Capitol building. F***ing war in the streets right now. Word is they got in the building. Let's go."

'Mind-blowing' range of charges coming for hundreds in Capitol coup including 'sedition and conspiracy' A pro-Trump mob enters the U.S. Capitol Building on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington, D.C.. - Win McNamee/AFP North America/TNS

There is some evidence of communication between the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys related to Jan. 6. Kelly Meggs, who would be named Florida "state lead" for the Oath Keepers, mentioned an alliance to an acquaintance in a Dec. 19 Facebook message sent the day after the second pro-Trump rally in DC.

"Well, we are ready for the rioters," Meggs wrote. "This week I organized an alliance between Oath Keepers, Florida 3%ers and Proud Boys. We have decided to work together to shut this shit down."

Beyond his reference to "rioters," the timing of Meggs' statement one day after right-wing Trump supporters clashed with leftist adversaries strongly suggests that the target of Meggs' proposed alliance was antifascist counter-protesters, not the US government or law enforcement.

"Plus, we have made contact with PB and they always have a big group," Meggs wrote in a Facebook message a couple days later. "Force multiplier."

Then, he added: "I figure we could splinter off the main group of PB and come up behind them. F***ing crush them for good."

Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and Proud Boys Chairman Enrique Tarrio met briefly in a DC hotel parking garage on the eve of the Capitol insurrection, but there's no evidence they discussed plans for the events of the following day. Footage from a Channel 4 documentary shows the two men introducing themselves to one another. "I don't consider him an enemy; I didn't consider him an enemy before we just had our differences," Tarrio later told the interviewer. "We don't normally work with other groups. That's just not."

Sen. Mitt Romney and Officer Eugene Goodman. (Screengrab from surveillance video)

While the Oath Keepers were scrambling to get in place on the east side of the Capitol, rioters were streaming into the building from the west side thanks to the entry breached by Pezzola. According to the New York Times, it took only two minutes for rioters to make it from the breach to the Senate doors. As the Times investigation details, Officer Eugene Goodman rushed downstairs as the Senate was being evacuated and intercepted the rioters.

"Where are they counting the votes?" a rioter can be heard shouting at Goodman. The Times footage shows lawmakers fleeing behind the rioters, with only one officer standing guard.

The link between Trumpland, QAnon, evangelical culture and child-sex predators Jacob Chansley, the so-called "QAnon Shaman. Win McNamee, AFP

Goodman ran up the stairs, pursued by QAnon follower Doug Jensen, luring them into a hallway where backup officers were waiting. In addition to Jensen, the mob at that point included Robert Gieswein; Kevin Siefried; brothers Jerod and Joshua Hughes from Montana; and Jacob Chansley, the so-called "QAnon Shaman."

"He believed he was preventing the certification of President Biden," Judge Timothy J. Kelly said during Jensen's detention hearing on Tuesday. "He thought he was taking part in actions that would result in arrest of members of Congress and Vice President Pence."

Before ordering Jensen's release, Kelly observed that Jensen "recognizes he bought into a pack of lies." While noting that Jensen's expressions of remorse might have an element of convenience considering that he's facing serious criminal charges, Kelly said "they do distinguish Mr. Jensen from many other defendants."

A Marine leads the charge through the Columbus Doors

About 10 minutes after Proud Boy Dominic Pezzola breached the Capitol from the West Terrace, a mob was massed outside the Columbus Doors, which provide access to the Rotunda from the east side. Three rioters who had entered the Capitol from elsewhere were trying to push the doors open while US Capitol Police officers battled the mob outside, according to a government filing.

Christopher Warnagiris, an active-duty Marine Corps officer stationed at Quantico, was the first to push through the Columbus Doors, according to prosecutors, at 2:25 p.m. At that moment, Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes summoned his members to the southeast side of the Capitol.

Only a minute earlier, Trump had sent a tweet condemning Vice President Mike Pence, whom his supporters now regarded as a traitor.

Warnagiris entering Columbus Doors, surveillance footage

Once inside the Capitol building, Warnagiris positioned his body near the entrance to keep the door open and reached for other rioters to pull them inside. Charging documents also indicate that Warnagiris struggled with an officer attempting to regain control of the entrance.

As the trickle through the Columbus Doors became a raging stream of euphoric rioters, about 10 Oath Keepers dressed in tactical gear snaked up the outside steps in the "stack" formation with hands on each other's shoulders. Kenneth Harrelson and Jason Dolan, two military veterans from Florida, were already at the top of the steps by then. At about 2:39 p.m., according to the government, the Oath Keepers entered the Capitol building.

Alleged Oath Keepers storming the U.S. Capitol during insurrection.( Department of Justice screengrab)

Once in the Rotunda, Oath Keepers Jessica Watkins, Donovan Crowl, Sandra Parker, Graydon Young, Laura Steele and William Isaacs headed down a hallway towards the Senate, as rioters chanted "F*** McConnell," but police pushed them back into the Rotunda by deploying chemical irritant, according to the government. With the access to the Senate blocked, Oath Keepers Kelly Meggs, Connie Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson, Jason Dolan and Joseph Hackett started walking southbound towards the House of Representatives.

"He apparently was searching for at least one member of Congress in particular House Speaker Nancy Pelosi," Judge Amit Mehta reflected in an order to keep Kelly Meggs in pre-trial detention. Mehta cited an exchange on Signal in which an unidentified acquaintance told Meggs on the evening of Jan. 6 that he "was hoping to see Nancy's head rolling down the front steps."

"We looked forward her," Meggs reportedly responded. (Mehta surmised that "forward" was likely a typo and that Meggs actually intended to say, "We looked for her.")

'Break it down!'

Zachary Alam (courtesey DOJ filing)

Zachary Alam, who had entered the Capitol through the window breached by Proud Boy Dominic Pezzola roamed the building for roughly 40 minutes, eventually joining a mob that formed outside the doors to the Speaker's Lobby, adjacent to the House chamber. Thomas Baranyi of New Jersey, Phillip Bromley of Alabama, and Ashli Babbitt, an Air Force veteran and QAnon supporter from San Diego, Calif. also joined the mob. The scene was captured by John Sullivan, a veteran of the previous summer's police accountability protests with a dubious reputation among Black Lives Matter activists. In addition to documenting the events, Sullivan repeatedly encouraged and celebrated the mayhem, and can be heard in his video addressing one of the officers guarding the doors to the Speaker's Lobby by saying, "We want you to go home. I'm recording and there's so many people and they're going to push their way up here. Bro, I've seen people out there get hurt. I don't want to see you get hurt."

As described in an affidavit supporting charges, Alam repeatedly punched the glass panels of the doors, causing the glass to shatter, and then pushed his body against Capitol police officers guarding the door. The Capitol police officers moved aside, as officers in riot gear appeared behind the crowd of rioters. The changeover resulted in a critical gap that allowed Alam and the other rioters to escalate. After the first set of officers withdrew, according to the government, Alam took a helmet from another rioter and struck the middle panel, further shattering it, as others chanted, "Break it down!" and "Let's f***ing go." Babbitt hoisted her body through one of the windows broken out by Alam, and with a single discharge a Capitol police officer on the other side fatally shot her in her front left shoulder. Babbitt fell backwards, instantly becoming a martyr to MAGA loyalists, Proud Boys and an even more extreme faction of white nationalists who advocate for racial separation.

Only three minutes before Babbitt's shooting at 3 p.m., the Washington Post has reported, lawmakers, including Rep. James McGovern (D-Mass.) were being evacuated through the Speaker's Lobby.

The government has singled out Alam among the rioters surrounding Babbitt for his "unhinged, violent actions at the front of that volatile mob."

Battle of the Lower West Terrace tunnel

While rioters poured into the Capitol building from both ends, others continued to engage US Capitol police, Metropolitan police and other agencies in a furious battle on the Lower West Terrace, tying up law enforcement resources and resulting in countless injuries. Officers fought to hold their position and deny entry through the prominent entrance leading into the Capitol through a short tunnel and series of glass doorways.

Photosretrieved from Thomas Webster's phone, via DOJ

Among those who joined the battle was Thomas Webster, a retired New York City police officer who had previously worked the security detail for City Hall and Gracie Mansion. Webster is accused of choking a police officer, causing him to lose consciousness and to not be able to breathe for 10 minutes.

Thomas Webster, unsourced photo published by DOJ

By 2:40 p.m., according to a government filing in the prosecution of Pennsylvania resident Robert Morss, rioters had "engulfed" the west side of the Capitol and were "climbing on the scaffolding in front of the build as well as various features of the building."

Robert Morss, Battle of the Tunnel, screen from unsourced YouTube videos via DOJ

See the rest here:
Anatomy of an insurrection: How military veterans and other rioters carried out the Jan. 6 assault on democracy - Raw Story

Anatomy

Dublin Greys Anatomy actor admits he nearly quit acting before landing huge Hollywood role – Dublin Live

A Greys Anatomy actor who hails from Dublin admitted to nearly quitting acting before landing a huge Hollywood role.

Richard Flood is an Irish actor best known for the character Tommy McConnel in Crossing Lines; James McKay in Red Rock and Ford in Shameless.

But recently, the Dubliner has made it over in the States as he is currently a main character on a hit ABC show.

Flood is working alongside the top talent in America as he plays McWidow, AKA Dr. Cormac Hayes on Grey's Anatomy.

Speaking to The Sunday Independent about his new life in Los Angeles, the actor said: Its great but its a different world. Ive always found it quite tough.

If youre working, people love you and if youre not, they dont care.

There are so many homeless people now and theres a juxtaposition of people who have massive wealth, and then people who cant treat their mental health issues and live in extreme poverty.

The 38-year-old opened up about the difficult times in his career, he said: It got so bad I was thinking of packing it in.

I was thinking, Enough is enough.

There are big egos in this business. I find the biggest egos are the actors who are nearly famous or a little bit famous.

The top guys are more secure.

Recalling the moment he landed the role, Richard said: I flew out and landed on the Friday and I had an email from my agent saying Will you meet the Greys Anatomy people on Tuesday?

He met with showrunner Krista Vernoff and actress Ellen Pompeo, who plays Dr Meredith Grey in the show, the Irish actor was offered the part.

Richard travelled back to his wife Gabriella before starting his new acting job.

He said: I was just feeling such relief on that journey. Ive had to take that flight when things havent worked out so I was just really grateful that this time they had.

Greys Anatomy airs on RTE 2 every Tuesday at 9.40pm.

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Dublin Greys Anatomy actor admits he nearly quit acting before landing huge Hollywood role - Dublin Live

Cell Biology

Synthetic Biology Could Be the Next Big Thing. Here Are 3 Stocks. – Barron’s

Synthetic biology is in its infancy, but its drawing comparisons to the internet of a generation ago. Bill Gates, Cathie Wood, and venture capitalist John Doerr are among those who are investing in synthetic biology companies.

What excites investors is the promise of programming the DNA of microorganisms like yeast as if they were computers and getting them to produce products more cheaply and with a lower carbon footprint than traditional manufacturing.

Synthetic biology could reduce the need for petroleum-based chemicals as well as for plant- and animal-based products, benefiting the environment. Proponents say that the total addressable market is over $1 trillion.

This is what it might have been like 25 years ago if some guy had walked up to you and said the internet was going to be an amazing investment and you had no idea what he was talking about, says Rick Schottenfeld, the general partner of the Schottenfeld Opportunities fund, an investor in Amyris. This is where we are with synthetic biology.

Yet for all the bold claims and hopes for an industry once known as industrial biotech, revenue overall currently totals less than $1 billion. And no one is making a profit.

Synthetic biology has so far produced mostly niche products like squalane, a moisturizer formerly sourced from shark liver; vitamin E; a sugar substitute; and vanillin. Amyris, which makes an estimated 70% of the worlds squalane using engineered yeast cells and sugar cane, says its efforts have saved as many as three million sharks a year.

The small scale of the industry at present hasnt dimmed investor interest in the three main plays on synthetic biology: Amyris (ticker: AMRS), Zymergen (ZY), and Ginkgo Bioworks. Ginkgo is due to go public in the current quarter through a merger with Soaring Eagle Acquisition (SRNG), a special-purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. It will be renamed Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings.

Investors may want to take a basket approach to the stocks. The combined market value of the three is $25 billion.

Synthetic biology, which blends biotechnology and industrial chemistry, isnt an easy concept to grasp. The magic of biology, Ginkgo CEO Jason Kelly has noted, is that cells run on something akin to a computers digital code. Instead of zeros and ones, the four DNA base pairs adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine guide cells.

Think of synthetic biology as hijacking the natural biology of the cell and reprogramming it to produce something of interest, says Doug Schenkel, a Cowen analyst who has Outperform ratings on Amyris and Zymergen. Rather than have yeast make beer, you hijack it to make the scent of a flower.

Programming DNA, of course, is harder than programming computers, but progress is coming quickly.

With impressive DNA coding capabilities, Ginkgo views itself as the industrys Amazon Web Services, working with companies in consumer, pharmaceutical, and agricultural areas to design microorganisms and cells from mammals to make desired products or drugs. It provided help to Moderna (MRNA) in its development of the Covid-19 vaccine.

Ginkgo is looking to build a platform to make biology and cells as easy to program as computers, says Kirsty Gibson, a portfolio manager at Baillie Gifford, which is buying stock in Ginkgo as part of the SPAC deal. Whats really exciting is that its not limited by industry verticalsagricultural, flavor and fragrances, pharmaceuticals, food.

Amyris controlling shareholder is one of the countrys most successful venture capitalists, John Doerr, who was an early investor in Alphabet (GOOGL) and Amazon.com (AMZN).

I believe synthetic biology will continue to be a big part of making our planet healthier and our future more sustainable, Doerr tells Barrons. Amyris is delivering on the promise of synthetic biology. Doerr is chairman of Kleiner Perkins, the Silicon Valley venture-capital firm.

Synthetic-biology manufacturing often involves large fermentation tanks filled with genetically re-engineered microorganisms like yeast that are filtered out of the finished product. This manufacturing technique uses little energy, but is unproven on a major scale.

Amyris is the furthest along, based on revenue and products. It projects $400 million in 2021 sales and break-even results based on earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, or Ebitda. Amyris, whose shares trade around $13.50, is valued at $4 billion and looks like the best bet. Its CEO, John Melo, sees a potential $2 billion in sales and $600 million of Ebitda in 2025.

With an all-star investor lineup including Gates Cascade Investment, Ginkgo has generated the most buzz. Based on the SPAC transaction, it has the highest market value of the threeabout $18 billion. Its projected 2021 revenue, however, is very modest, about $100 million.

Perhaps reflecting its lofty valuation, Soaring Eagle Acquisition shares havent budged since the May SPAC deal. The result is that investors can buy the stock for $9.95, a slight discount to the price of $10 at which several prominent investment firms including Cathie Woods Ark Investment Management and Baillie Gifford, an early backer of Tesla (TSLA), agreed to invest $775 million as part of the SPAC merger with Ginkgo.

Ginkgo calls its microorganism design fees foundry revenues. It has royalty deals or equity stakes in 54 partners, and is working with Bayer (BAYRY), Roche Holding (RHHBY), Sumitomo Chemical (4005.Japan), and Robertet (RBT.France), a maker of flavors and fragrances.

Zymergen, which went public in April at $31, is focused on consumer electronics. It has developed a durable optical film called Hyaline, which can be used on foldable cellphones and tablets. Now trading around $35, Zymergen is valued at $3.5 billion. SoftBank Goups (SFTBY) venture fund and Baillie Gifford are investors.

E=estimate. *SRNG is in the process of merging with Ginkgo Bioworks, with the result of Ginkgo becoming a publicly-traded company. **Since IPO earlier this year. Note: Ginkgo sales are foundry only; SRNG market value is post Ginkgo merger.

Sources: Bloomberg; company reports; HSBC

Amyris shares have doubled this year as the company has delivered strong revenue growth.

Amyris takes sugar, selling for under 50 cents per kilogram (22 cents a pound), and converts it into skin creams and other direct consumer-care products that retail for over $50 for a 50 milliliter bottle (1.7 ounces), wrote HSBC analyst Sriharsha Pappu in initiating coverage of Amyris with a Buy rating and $20 price target.

The company uses bioengineered yeast to produce an array of products from sugar cane, including vitamin E, squalane, vanillin (the flavoring for vanilla), and a sugar substitute using a compound called Reb M that is normally found in the stevia plant.

The vanillin, CEO Melo says, is equivalent in quality to Madagascar vanillin and is sustainably produced from sugar cane. We dont have to worry about water or land use or child labor. Madagascar is the worlds top producer of vanillin.

Cosmetics are a major focus. Amyris launched the Biossance line of products in 2017, selling directly to consumers and through retailers like Sephora. A major ingredient in many Biossance products is squalane, a version of squalene, a naturally occurring moisturizer in the skin.

Melo sees the companys consumer branded business, including Biossance and Purecane, a sugar substitute, as the key growth drivers. Up next is an acne product. Amyris is also an ingredient supplier. Melo sees branded products generating $150 million of sales this year, up from about $50 million in 2020, and topping $300 million in 2022.

Amyris has introduced its own brands and built its own factories, in contrast with Ginkgo, which pursues an asset-light strategy of developing microorganisms and letting partners do the manufacturing and marketing.

Our focus and what makes us successful is that weve figured out which products to go into first to drive real revenue and a business rather than being a science experiment, says Melo, who isnt fond of the Ginkgo approach, saying that it has yielded little in the way of recurring revenue so far. Having your own factory is critical. It [manufacturing] is the bottleneck today for unleashing the power of synthetic biology.

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It also matters for profits. When we sell a kilo of squalane directly to the consumer, we get $2,500 per kilo, Melo says. When I sell it to another beauty company, I am getting about $30 per kilo. $30 versus $2,500think about that math.

Randy Baron, a portfolio manager at Pinnacle Associates, believes that there is huge potential in Amyris. It could generate 35% top-line growth for the next decade-plus, he says. Trading at a big discount to Ginkgo, Amyris could hit $30 by the end of this year and $75 by the end of 2022, he says.

Zymergens goal is to develop bioengineered products in half the time and at a tenth the cost of conventional manufacturing. None of its products are on the market yetits Hyaline film is now being evaluated by partners. Zymergen is also developing an insect repellent free of DEET, a chemical that makes many consumers uneasy.

Zymergen has a large addressable market, and it can work with different host microbes, says Cowen analyst Schenkel, referring to yeast, bacteria, and fungi. He has an Outperform rating on the stock. If it can succeed with Hyaline, there will be greater confidence that it can succeed with some of the 10 other disclosed products in development.

Ginkgo generates revenue from allowing companies to use its cell-programming infrastructure. In a presentation, Ginkgo projected that cell programming, or foundry revenue, would rise to $1.1 billion in 2025 from $100 million this year.

CEO Kelly says this revenue understates the value creation because of the royalties or the equity stakes in its customers, which the company put at roughly $500 million. Ginkgo projected that it could have over 500 partner programs by 2025, up almost tenfold from now. Kelly says it will take time for royalties to materialize, but the rising value of the stakes is an indication of value creation.

We are effectively an app store or ecosystem for folks to write cell programs and bring them to market, he says. We improve with scale. The more programs we develop, the better it gets. Its a network effect.

The CEO plays down the manufacturing issue, noting that it isnt a problem in drug development, where the company has a focus. Amyris business is bringing products to market; Ginkgo is the app store, he says.

Its too early to say whether synthetic biology will live up to the hype, but these three stocks looked poised to manufacture gains for investors.

If a small percentage of programs that Ginkgo and Zymergen are working on become real, says Cowens Schenkel, the revenue numbers could get really big. The question is when does that happen and how much credit do you give them now.

Write to Andrew Bary at andrew.bary@barrons.com

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Synthetic Biology Could Be the Next Big Thing. Here Are 3 Stocks. - Barron's

Cell Biology

Autophagy disruption may be at the root of early cognitive changes in Huntingtons disease – News-Medical.Net

Huntington's Disease (HD) is a progressive neurodegenerative condition characterized by motor, cognitive, and psychiatric symptoms, and motor symptoms are often preceded by cognitive changes. Recent evidence indicates that autophagy plays a central role in synaptic maintenance, and the disruption in autophagy may be at the root of these early cognitive changes. Understanding this mechanism better may help researchers develop treatments for patients with HD early in their disease progression, report scientists in a review article published in the Journal of Huntington's Disease.

In this review, experts describe how autophagy, the cellular process responsible for clearing old or damaged parts of the cell, plays a critical role supporting synaptic maintenance in the healthy brain, and how autophagy dysfunction in HD may thereby lead to impaired synaptic maintenance and thus early manifestations of disease. The line of research discussed in this review represents a previously unexplored avenue for identifying potential disease-modifying therapies for HD.

Like many neurodegenerative conditions affecting primarily cognition, such as Alzheimer's disease, preclinical and clinical data indicate that synapses, the part of brain cells responsible for communication between cells, are affected early in HD. We have long thought that autophagy played a role in the pathophysiology of HD, but what this role is has been unclear until recently. Recent evidence indicates that autophagy may be important in maintaining the synapse. This line of research has the potential to lead to identification of a drug target to treat HD early in the disease process."

Hilary Grosso Jasutkar, MD, PhD, Department of Neurology, Columbia University, and Ai Yamamoto, PhD, Departments of Neurology and Pathology and Cell Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

The authors first explore how cognitive dysfunction is an early manifestation of HD, and that similarly to other neurodegenerative diseases that primarily affect cognition, such as Alzheimer's disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, and frontotemporal dementia, early deficits in synaptic function may underlie these cognitive symptoms. Next, they review the growing evidence that the lysosome-mediated degradation pathway autophagy plays a central role in synaptic maintenance, and how the disruption in autophagy may contribute to early cognitive changes in HD.

The authors conclude that there are pathologic and imaging data in individuals with mutations in the Huntingtin protein (mHtt), as well as evidence from animal models with HD, that suggest that synapse dysfunction may occur early in HD, prior to cell death.

"Autophagy plays a specialized role in the maintenance and function of the synapse, and mHtt may disrupt this function, leading to the early synaptic changes seen in HD patients and model systems," explained Dr. Grosso Jasutkar. "These synaptic changes may then manifest as impairments in synaptic plasticity and thus cognitive changes early in the disease course. Given that neurons rely on synaptic input and feedback for cell health, it is possible that this disruption in synaptic signaling in and of itself contributes to cell death in HD."

"There is much work yet to be done in this field," added Dr. Yamamoto. "Although various groups have demonstrated individual components of this pathway, a direct causal relationship of mutant Htt leading to synaptic dysfunction and, in turn, cognitive impairments, has yet to be demonstrated."

"If the model described here is borne out, therapeutics aimed at enhancing the efficiency of synaptic autophagy early in the course of HD could be protective against early cognitive changes and potentially degeneration itself," concluded the authors.

HD is a fatal genetic neurodegenerative disease that causes the progressive breakdown of nerve cells in the brain. An estimated 250,000 people in the United States are either diagnosed with, or at risk for, the disease. Symptoms include personality changes, mood swings and depression, forgetfulness and impaired judgment, unsteady gait, and involuntary movements (chorea). Every child of an HD parent has a 50% chance of inheriting the gene. Patients typically survive 10-20 years after diagnosis.

Source:

Journal reference:

Grosso Jasutkar, H & Yamamoto, A., (2021) Do Changes in Synaptic Autophagy Underlie the Cognitive Impairments in Huntingtons Disease?. Journal of Huntington's Disease. doi.org/10.3233/JHD-200466.

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Cell Biology

Professor’s Drive to Help the Community Gets Underway for 13th Year | Newsroom – UC Merced University News

Merced is a community with a lot of poverty, made worse with the Great Recession in 2009 and the COVID-19 pandemic. To help people in need, Professor Patti LiWang has been leading a diaper and toilet paper drive for the past 12 years.

When we moved here, the recession hit. It was hard for us, a two-income family, so I understood it must be much harder for one- and low-income families, she said. Then I read an interview with a social worker who said she had seen people re-using diapers and taking napkins from fast-food restaurants for toilet paper. I thought we had to do something.

She arranged to put a donation box in the Science and Engineering 1 Building, where her department, Molecular and Cell Biology, is housed and told everyone she knew about the drive. People began donating, sometimes boxes of diapers, sometimes money. Over the years, a few others put donation boxes in their buildings and helped gather more goods.

LiWang takes the donations to the Merced County Food Bank, which distributes them either directly or through many local food pantries.

Last year, during the pandemic lockdown, LiWang took more monetary donations and gathered some boxes of diapers and packages of toilet paper from peoples front porches and doorsteps contact-free and managed to donate more than 6,000 diapers.

We need all size diapers, all size packages, she said. I usually buy the Target brand because the name-brands are more expensive, but we accept any kind.

The drive has begun for this year. Theres a donation box in S&E1 near the vending machines and one at the Downtown Campus Center near the Public Relations Department on the first floor.

If you would like to host a box in your building and can serve as the point person to let LiWang know when donations are ready for pickup, or if you would like to donate money (cash or checks), email LiWang. She also has a Venmo account, @Patricia-LiWang, to accept donations.

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Professor's Drive to Help the Community Gets Underway for 13th Year | Newsroom - UC Merced University News

Cell Biology

Unlocking the role of biological clock molecules in cancer cells – Research Matters

An artistic representation of the L-I-C network in cancer cells depicted in the Indian art form, Yakshagana and Somana Kunitha style (Credit Kirti Lathoria)

Our body functions tune to the circadian rhythm the 24- hour day-night cycle. A biological clock comprising special cell components and genes keep track of time and operate synchronously in a complex molecular mechanism. The timekeeping molecules control several crucial physiological processes like metabolism, cell division and proliferation, immune response, and gene expression (decoding genetic information to produce proteins) to maintain the delicate balance of the rhythm. However, science has shown that when the circadian rhythm is severely hampered, some cells break away from the clock control and turn cancerous.

Existing literature shows that cancer cells have an erratic circadian rhythm and abnormal metabolism. Besides, they sustain the onslaught of cytokines from the immune system. However, how exactly these processes promote cancer cell growth has remained elusive.

A team of researchers from the National Brain Research Centre, Manesar, has decoded the interplay between cancer cell metabolism, pro-inflammatory cytokines (inflammation-causing immune molecules), and the biological clock molecules. Their study shows that the cancer cells chemically rewire the production of an inflammation-inducing mediatorIL-1 and lactate - a by-product of cancer cell metabolism. Furthermore, these two components chemically manipulate the clock machinery to trigger further production of lactate and IL-1. Thus the three components work in tandem to promote a vicious loop of tumour growth. The team has published their results in the journal Molecular and Cellular Biology.

The results of this research will provide a framework for cancer chronotherapy a novel treatment method by which anticancer drugs are administered at optimal timings to enhance their chemotherapeutic potential.

The team conducted laboratory experiments on cultured brain cancer cells by employing several molecular testing methods to observe the function of the cell processes.

Cancer cells hoodwink the circadian checkpoints and alter their metabolism to feed the rapidly growing cells. The common feature of cancer cell metabolic reprogramming is glucose addiction a heightened glucose uptake as compared to a normal cell, says Dr Ellora Sen, Principal Investigator of the study. Unlike healthy cells, cancer cells metabolise glucose even in the presence of oxygen. This aerobic glycolysis produces large amounts of lactate, resulting in a highly acidic environment around the tumour a hallmark feature of cancer. Also, the high acidic environment triggers some genes which help tumour growth.

When there is a disease or injury, the immune system dispatches pro-inflammatory cytokines to induce a mild inflammation at the injury site. The inflammation destroys the diseased cells and facilitates healing. IL-1 is once such cytokine released in response to cancerous growths. Our findings indicate that high lactate levels trigger expression of IL-1, says Dr Sen.

The rapidly multiplying cancer cells activate the immune system to send a surge of IL-1 cytokines. In our earlier study, we found that the cancer cells use IL-1 to enhance the expression of another protein called Hexokinase (HK2), which increases the glucose uptake, adds Pruthvi Gowda, first author of the study. With HK2 promoting glucose intake, the cancer cells get more fuel to multiply.

The team then found that high lactate and IL-1 also increased two crucial circadian molecules, Clock and Bmal1. Bmal1 regulates cell division and is bound to the Clock molecule in what is chemically called a transcriptional dimer. In healthy cells, Clock and Bmal1 work in a complementary manner to control cell growth. However, the researchers noticed that both lactate and IL-1 chemically modify Bmal1 to increase the Clock -Bmal1 binding stability.

Further molecular experiments revealed that Clock/Bmal1 activated a Lactate producing enzyme called LDH-A and IL-1, suggesting the presence of a feed-forward network, says Dr Sen. The researchers thus posit that the three components work in a mutually supportive loop that facilitates the rapid growth of the tumour cells.

To establish their results, the team knocked down Clock-Bmal1 molecules in cancer cells. They noticed that downregulating the clock proteins resulted in lower lactate and IL-1 levels. The team further correlated their results for stomach and cervical cancer cell lines and conducted computer simulations on clinical samples data. They observed that patients who had lower Clock, Bmal1, LDHA and IL-1 levels in their samples survived longer.

The team now looks forward to developing a mathematical model for Lactate- IL-1- Clock (LIC) feed-forward regulatory structure in collaboration with IIT Mumbai. When fitted to the patient molecular profile of LIC components, the model could provide valuable inputs for cancer chronotherapy.

This article has been run past the researchers, whose work is covered, to ensure accuracy.

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Cell Biology

Fate Therapeutics to Host Virtual Event Highlighting Interim Phase 1 Clinical Data from its Off-the-Shelf, iPSC-derived NK Cell Franchise for B-cell…

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SAN DIEGO, July 16, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Fate Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: FATE), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of programmed cellular immunotherapies for cancer, today announced that management will host a virtual event to highlight interim Phase 1 clinical data from its FT596 and FT516 programs for the treatment of relapsed / refractory B-cell lymphomas on August 19, 2021 at 4:30 p.m. ET.

The live webcast of the presentation can be accessed under "Events & Presentations" in the Investors section of the Company's website at http://www.fatetherapeutics.com. The archived webcast will be available on the Company's website beginning approximately two hours after the event.

About Fate Therapeutics iPSC Product PlatformThe Companys proprietary induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) product platform enables mass production of off-the-shelf, engineered, homogeneous cell products that can be administered with multiple doses to deliver more effective pharmacologic activity, including in combination with other cancer treatments. Human iPSCs possess the unique dual properties of unlimited self-renewal and differentiation potential into all cell types of the body. The Companys first-of-kind approach involves engineering human iPSCs in a one-time genetic modification event and selecting a single engineered iPSC for maintenance as a clonal master iPSC line. Analogous to master cell lines used to manufacture biopharmaceutical drug products such as monoclonal antibodies, clonal master iPSC lines are a renewable source for manufacturing cell therapy products which are well-defined and uniform in composition, can be mass produced at significant scale in a cost-effective manner, and can be delivered off-the-shelf for patient treatment. As a result, the Companys platform is uniquely capable of overcoming numerous limitations associated with the production of cell therapies using patient- or donor-sourced cells, which is logistically complex and expensive and is subject to batch-to-batch and cell-to-cell variability that can affect clinical safety and efficacy. Fate Therapeutics iPSC product platform is supported by an intellectual property portfolio of over 350 issued patents and 150 pending patent applications.

About FT516FT516 is an investigational, universal, off-the-shelf natural killer (NK) cell cancer immunotherapy derived from a clonal master induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) line engineered to express a novel high-affinity 158V, non-cleavable CD16 (hnCD16) Fc receptor, which has been modified to prevent its down-regulation and to enhance its binding to tumor-targeting antibodies. CD16 mediates antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC), a potent anti-tumor mechanism by which NK cells recognize, bind and kill antibody-coated cancer cells. ADCC is dependent on NK cells maintaining stable and effective expression of CD16, which has been shown to undergo considerable down-regulation in cancer patients. In addition, CD16 occurs in two variants, 158V or 158F, that elicit high or low binding affinity, respectively, to the Fc domain of IgG1 antibodies. Numerous clinical studies with FDA-approved tumor-targeting antibodies, including rituximab, trastuzumab and cetuximab, have demonstrated that patients homozygous for the 158V variant, which is present in only about 15% of patients, have improved clinical outcomes. FT516 is being investigated in a multi-dose Phase 1 clinical trial as a monotherapy for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia and in combination with CD20-targeted monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of advanced B-cell lymphoma (NCT04023071). Additionally, FT516 is being investigated in a multi-dose Phase 1 clinical trial in combination with avelumab for the treatment of advanced solid tumor resistant to anti-PDL1 checkpoint inhibitor therapy (NCT04551885).

About FT596FT596 is an investigational, universal, off-the-shelf natural killer (NK) cell cancer immunotherapy derived from a clonal master induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) line engineered with three anti-tumor functional modalities: a proprietary chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) optimized for NK cell biology that targets B-cell antigen CD19; a novel high-affinity 158V, non-cleavable CD16 (hnCD16) Fc receptor, which has been modified to prevent its down-regulation and to enhance its binding to tumor-targeting antibodies; and an IL-15 receptor fusion (IL-15RF) that augments NK cell activity. In preclinical studies of FT596, the Company has demonstrated that dual activation of the CAR19 and hnCD16 targeting receptors enhances cytotoxic activity, indicating that multi-antigen engagement may elicit a deeper and more durable response. Additionally, in a humanized mouse model of lymphoma, FT596 in combination with the anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody rituximab showed enhanced killing of tumor cells in vivo as compared to rituximab alone. FT596 is being investigated in a multi-center Phase 1 clinical trial for the treatment of relapsed / refractory B-cell lymphoma as a monotherapy and in combination with rituximab, and for the treatment of relapsed / refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) as a monotherapy and in combination with obinutuzumab (NCT04245722).

About Fate Therapeutics, Inc.Fate Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of first-in-class cellular immunotherapies for patients with cancer. The Company has established a leadership position in the clinical development and manufacture of universal, off-the-shelf cell products using its proprietary induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) product platform. The Companys immuno-oncology pipeline includes off-the-shelf, iPSC-derived natural killer (NK) cell and T-cell product candidates, which are designed to synergize with well-established cancer therapies, including immune checkpoint inhibitors and monoclonal antibodies, and to target tumor-associated antigens using chimeric antigen receptors (CARs). Fate Therapeutics is headquartered in San Diego, CA. For more information, please visit http://www.fatetherapeutics.com.

Contact:Christina TartagliaStern Investor Relations, Inc.212.362.1200christina@sternir.com

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Cell Biology

New algorithm can be a more effective way to analyze models of biological systems – News-Medical.Net

From biochemical reactions that produce cancers, to the latest memes virally spreading across social media, simple actions can generate complex behaviors. For researchers trying to understand these emergent behaviors, however, the complexity can tax current computational methods.

Now, a team of researchers has developed a new algorithm that can serve as a more effective way to analyze models of biological systems, which in turn allows a new path to understanding the decision-making circuits that make up these systems. The researchers add that the algorithm will help scientists study how relatively simple actions lead to complex behaviors, such as cancer growth and voting patterns.

The modeling framework used consists of Boolean networks, which are a collection of nodes that are either on or off, said Jordan Rozum, doctoral candidate in physics at Penn State. For example, a Boolean network could be a network of interacting genes that are either turned on -- expressed -- or off in a cell.

Boolean networks are a good way to capture the essence of a system. It's interesting that these very rich behaviors can emerge out of just coupling little on and off switches together -- one switch is toggled and then it toggles another switch and that can lead to a big cascade of effects that then feeds back into the original switch. And we can get really interesting complex behaviors out of just the simple couplings."

Jordan Rozum, doctoral candidate in physics at Penn State

"Boolean models describe how information propagates through the network," said Rka Albert, distinguished professor of physics and biology in the Penn State Eberly College of Science and an affiliate of the Institute for Computational and Data Sciences. Eventually, the on/off states of the nodes fall into repeating patterns, called attractors, which correspond to the stable long-term behaviors of the system, according to the researchers, who report their findings in the current issue of Science Advances.

Even though these systems are based on simple actions, the complexity can scale up dramatically as nodes are added to the system, especially in the case when events in the system are not synchronous. A typical Boolean network model of a biological process with a few dozen nodes, for example, has tens of billions of states, according to the researchers. In the case of a genome, these models can have thousands of nodes, resulting in more states than there are atoms in the observable universe.

The researchers use two transformations -- parity and time reversal -- to make the analysis of Boolean networks more efficient. The parity transformation offers a mirror image of the network, switching nodes that are on to off and vice versa, which helps identify which subnetworks have combinations of on and off values that can sustain themselves over time. Time reversal runs the dynamics of the network backward, probing which states can precede an initial input state.

The team tested their methods on a collection of synthetic Boolean networks called random Boolean networks, which have been used for than 50 years as a way to model how gene regulation determines the fate of a cell. The technique allowed the team to find the number of attractors in these networks for more than 16,000 genes, which, according to the researchers, are sizes larger than ever before analyzed in such detail.

According to the team, the technique could help medical researchers.

"For example, you might want a cancer cell to undergo apoptosis (programmed cell death), and so you want to be able to make the system pick the decisions that lead towards that desired outcome," said Rozum. "So, by studying where in the network these decisions are made, you can figure out what you need to do to make the system choose those options."

Other possibilities exist for using the methods to study issues in the social sciences and information technology.

"The propagation of information would also make an interesting application," said Albert. "For example, there are models that describe a society in which people have binary opinions on a matter. In the model people interact with each other, forming a local consensus. Our methods could be used to map the repertoire of consensus groups that are possible, including a global consensus."

She added that uses could extend to any area where researchers are trying to find ways to eliminate pathological behaviors, or drive the system into more normal behaviors.

"To do this, the theory existed, methodologies existed, but the computational expense was a limiting factor," said Albert. "With this algorithm, that has to a large part been eliminated."

The researchers have developed a publicly available software library and the algorithms have already been used in studies carried out by her group, according to Albert.

Computations for the study were performed using Penn State's Roar supercomputer.

Albert and Rozum worked with Jorge Gmez Tejeda Zaudo, postdoctoral associate at Broad Institute and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Xiao Gan, postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Complex Network Research; and Dvid Deritei, graduate research fellow at Semmelweis University.

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