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Physiology

4 breathing techniques to get you through high-stress moments – Big Think

Emma Seppl, science director at Stanford Center For Compassion And Altruism Research And Education, says American culture values intensity yet undervalues calmness. We never shut off. While intensity has its place, every animal in nature inherently knows the necessity of rest in order to store up energy for when it's actually needed. Americans are careless with our energy reserves, which is why so many of us are chronically tired, overworked, and stressed out.

Seppl knows that breathing changes our state of mind. She recommends a popular yogic breathing technique, nadi shodhana, also known as alternate nostril breathing.

Place the index and middle fingers of your right hand on your forehead. Use your thumb to close your right nostril while inhaling through the left nostril, then close the left nostril with your ring finger and exhale through your right nostril. Repeat this for at least two minutes, then sit quietly for another minute or two, breathing normally.

There are many variations of this technique. My favorite is a four-cycle breath: inhale for a count of four through one nostril, retain your breath for a count of four, exhale for four, hold your breath out for four. If you're new to this breathing technique, retention might initially create more anxiety than it relieves, so try the basic inhale-exhale pattern until you can last for at least five minutes before moving onto breath retentions.

Game designer and author of "Superbetter," Jane McGonigal, recommends the Power Breath: exhale for twice as long as you inhale. She says this will shift your nervous system from sympathetic to a parasympathetic toneyou'll calm down. Simply sit comfortably, close your eyes, and begin by inhaling for a count of four and exhaling for a count of eight.

This is also a popular yoga breathing technique. As with nadi shodhana, it can initially kick up rather than diminish anxiety. If you find long exhales challenging, begin by inhaling and exhaling at an even rate: a count of four in both directions. Then try to slowly increase your exhale to a count of five, six, and so on. Longtime practitioners can inhale for a count of four and exhale for a count of 50. As with any muscle, you can train your breathing. The benefits are immense.

Lolly, a Mind-Body Specialist at the University of Maryland Heart Center, offers what she calls Focus Word Breathing. Traditionally, this is known as Mantra meditation. Choose a word that has meaning to youcalm, grace, easeand repeat it during every inhalation and exhalation. As your mind wanders, the word becomes a sort of flagpole that you've mentally planted to bring you back to this moment.

As a former sufferer of anxiety disorder, I remember how important my thoughts were when having a panic attack. The power of the physiological symptoms increased when I dwelled on negative thoughts. This spiral felt like being sucked into a vortex. By contrast, when I was able to redirect my thinking, the symptoms lessened.

Mantra meditation never completely worked during an attack. By that point, my physiology had been hijacked. But as a regular practice, this breathing technique is powerful. Think of it as training for the big game of life. You teach yourself to focus on beneficial words. Your attention goes where thinking leads you, but you also have control of your thoughts. By integrating a mantra with breathing, you're priming your mind to focus at will.

This exercise is commonly used by yoga instructors to bring their students into Corpse Pose (Savasana). Place your hands over your stomach while lying down and focus your attention there. Take deep, even breaths into your hands. As with the last technique, focus your mind there. Relax the muscles at your extremities: your toes, fingers, and forehead. Allow yourself to melt into the floor.

I love doing this breath while in Viparita Karani, otherwise known as Legs Up the Wall posture. The video above explains how to enter this pose; a blanket or pillow under your lower back makes the posture comfortable. Once there, I practice deep belly breathing. This technique always calms me down. I've recommended it to friends suffering from insomnia; they all responded with positive anecdotal feedback.

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Stay in touch with Derek on Twitter, Facebook and Substack. His next book is "Hero's Dose: The Case For Psychedelics in Ritual and Therapy."

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4 breathing techniques to get you through high-stress moments - Big Think

Cell Biology

Amgen : Cancer Writer and Researcher Siddartha Mukherjee Shares Novel Ideas on Battling the "Emperor" – Marketscreener.com

Siddhartha Mukherjee is best known as the author of The Emperor of All Maladies, a 'biography' of cancer that earned the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction in 2011. But as Amgen staff who attended a recent online lecture hosted by Amgen's Global Research can tell you, Mukherjee's interest in cancer isn't confined to just writing about it. As a scientist, a physician, and an entrepreneur who has founded multiple companies, Mukherjee is advancing a host of out-of-the-box approaches for treating cancer. In many cases, these novel therapeutic ideas are informed by the love of history reflected in his books.

'There is a paper by Stephen Paget from the 1800s that I make all my students read,' said Mukherjee. 'Paget coined the term 'seed and soil,' and he wondered whether obsessing about the seed-in this case the cancer cell-was done at the cost of obsessing about the soil, or the environment in which the cancer cell flourishes and grows. What features of the environment allow certain cancers to grow, and can we change the environment of cancer rather than changing the seed?'

Modern cancer research, with its focus on the genetics of tumors, is very much a seed-centric approach to disease, observed Mukherjee. He likened this focus to the famous New Yorker cartoon, 'The View from Ninth Avenue,' where Manhattan looms large in the foreground and the rest of the world looks like blips on the horizon.

'In the 1990s and 2000s, as we learned more about the cancer genome, the view of cancer biology was like that New Yorker's view,' he said. 'All we could see was the genome, and the things I was interested in-the cell biology, the microenvironment-were blips on the horizon. But cancer is not something that happens in a vacuum. What can we understand about the host?'

Deleting host antigens to make cancer stand out

Mukherjee's seed-and-soil approaches to cancer have yielded several new treatment approaches with intriguing potential. For example, one frustration in cancer drug design is the dearth of biological targets found on cancer cells but largely absent from healthy tissues. Consequently, many agents that are potent tumor killers can't be dosed as aggressively as needed due to side effects.

'Cancer is a perverted version of our normal cells,' he noted. 'So how can we attack cancer when cancer shares so many features of normalcy?' One potential solution is to remove antigens from normal cells-'in other words, change the host to make the cancer stand out. We know from genetics that some antigens are not absolutely required for survival, because there are people who are walking around without them.' Those antigens can now be deleted from normal cells using tools like CRISPR.

In AML (acute myeloid leukemia), all the cancerous cells express an antigen called CD33, but so do normal hematopoietic stem cells that give rise to mature immune cells. Experiments in mice and non-human primates have confirmed that if you delete the gene for CD33 from blood stem cells, these cells will still mature into normal, fully functioning immune cells, which are no longer susceptible to cancer therapies that target CD33.

Mukherjee is the scientific board chair of a new company that is planning to test this treatment paradigm in AML patients. 'These patients would be receiving an allogenic transplant of stem cell anyway,' he observed. 'The idea is to infuse them with CD33-deleted cells and then use a CD33 therapy to kill the cancer cells and spare the normal cells.' Several other nonessential human antigens can also be deleted to further differentiate tumor cells and reduce the risk that these cells can survive through mutations that delete a target antigen.

Asking the cancer itself what drugs would kill it

Mukherjee described several other ideas that are being advanced by biotech companies he helped to launch, including one that borrowed a page from antimicrobial therapy. 'If you get an infection in the hospital, we culture and test the bacteria to figure out what antibiotics they are sensitive to. We're doing the same with cancer by asking, 'What can the cancer tell you about its sensitivities? It sounds like a simple idea but it's quite complex to enact.'

In practice, this approach takes a biopsy from a patient with a hard-to-treat cancer and grows the tumor cell organoids, or mini tissues. The organoids are separated into hundreds of wells on plates, which are used to screen thousands of drugs to find those that are best at killing the patient's cancer. The effectiveness of treatments can vary from one patient to another with the same cancer, and the best drugs may be ones that wouldn't normally be used against that tumor type. Early and encouraging results have been seen in one patient, and a trial is being planned to evaluate this approach in more patients with metastatic disease.

In his Amgen lecture, Mukherjee described two other potential new treatment paradigms-one that treats cancer by altering the patient's immune environment and another that adjusts the metabolism to mitigate against the potential side effects that limit a promising class of cancer drugs.

Mukherjee closed his lecture by saying that he feels personally gratified that all of the ideas he discussed and several others have given rise to new companies and clinical trials. 'I like making medicines. It is one of the most profound and most beautiful things that humans do'.

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Amgen : Cancer Writer and Researcher Siddartha Mukherjee Shares Novel Ideas on Battling the "Emperor" - Marketscreener.com

Cell Biology

Could CRISPR-engineered crops help solve the world’s food crisis? – New Food

Dr Feng Zhang, a pioneer in plant genome editing, is developing CRISPR-modified plants as a potential solution to the challenge of feeding our rapidly growing population. Here, CRISPR technology expert, Mollie Schubert, discusses his work.

CRISPR technology has emerged as a much more efficient, precise, and simple technology for crop engineering

With the United Nations (UN) projecting that the world population will reach 8.5 billion by the year 2030 and 9.7 billion by 2050, an increasingly pressing question is how will we provide enough food for this many people without putting more pressure on our already strained resources and planet? One potential solution being investigated is that of crop plants, which can now be precisely enhanced using advanced technologies like CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) engineering, to be more resilient to pests and climatic stresses, as well produce higher yields.

As early as 2007, Dr Feng Zhang, PhD, an Assistant Professor at the Center for Precision Plant Genomics and Department of Plant and Microbial Biology at the University of Minnesota, was looking into ways of improving genome editing technologies for the genetic engineering of plants. Towards the end of 2009, he co-developed an important genetic engineering technology based on transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALEN), which are enzymes that can be tailored to cut specific sequences of DNA. TALENs greatly improved the efficiency and precision of genetic engineering in plants. Since then, genome editing technologies have evolved rapidly, and CRISPR has emerged as a much more efficient, precise and simple technology to use. Now, Dr Zhang and his team use CRISPR exclusively for their research into improving food crops. He continues to lead projects aimed at not only developing better crops but also at refining CRISPR technologies for application in plants.

The genetic engineering of plant cells has posed some novel challenges compared to working with animal and human cells. For one, the plant genomes tend to contain more adenine (A) and thymine (T) bases than animal or human genomes. This means that Cas9, the CRISPR enzyme first discovered and primarily used in CRISPR experiments, is not able to target large portions of typically AT-rich plant genomes. In addition, plants are routinely grown at lower temperatures than mammalian cells and Cas9 is less active at these lower temperatures. To expand the CRISPR toolkit for scientists such as Dr Zhang, experts have been working to develop and optimize alternative Cas enzymes. Cas12a (formerly known as Cpf1) is one such example.

Cas12a is a CRISPR enzyme that targets AT-rich regions of DNA. However, the original form or wild type version of this enzyme has proven inefficient as its nuclease activity is substantially lower than that of Cas9. To address this characteristic, we created many mutant versions of Cas12a, which were then screened for high-activity variants, using an unbiased bacterial screen. The result was Alt-R A.s. Cas12 Ultra, an enzyme that is as active as Cas9, which is also able to withstand a broad range of temperatures making it ideal for both animal and plant cells.

IDTs Alt-R CRISPR Cas12a (Cpf1) system

Another challenge of plant cell biology for genetic engineering is the presence of the cell wall, a layer of tough cellulose outside of the cell. While it is crucial to protect the cell and provide structural support, the cell wall imposes a barrier to reagents used in genetic engineering, preventing them from entering the cell. One way that Dr Zhang and his team have overcome this is to enzymatically remove the cell wall, leaving the cell surrounded only by its cell membrane. This protoplast cell is thus much more permeable to reagents and as such, more closely resembles a mammalian cell. By working with protoplasts, CRISPR engineering can be performed at much higher throughput, which will be necessary for applications like functional genomic and expedited crop improvement.

A final hurdle in delivering genetic engineering reagents efficiently to precisely target DNA has been overcome through the direct delivery of ribonucleoproteins (RNPs). These greatly simplify genetic engineering and are used by Dr Zhang and his team as a key component of their experiments. Moreover, being commercially available, RNPs provide reliable editing precision and improve the reproducibility of CRISPR experiments. A further advantage of RNPs is that they facilitate genome editing in such a way that results in a transgene-free product. This means that the product will likely not be designated as a genetically modified organism (GMO) by regulatory agencies.

All these advances and refinements are applied by Dr Zhang to the development of new and improved crop plants. He and his team are using CRISPR to engineer crops with important traits, such as greater yield. Crops with higher productivity is the number one goal of plant breeders, as this is and always has been and increasingly will be essential for all crops. Beyond productivity, variants are also being developed with the other desirable traits, such as herbicide tolerance and insect resistance. A growing concern is also being addressed through the development of crops that are better able to cope with climatic stresses, such as variants with drought or flood tolerance.

Despite all the research and development going into the improvement of crop plants, there is yet one other critical consideration. Public acceptance of foods produced using CRISPR-engineered crops is absolutely vital if this avenue of research is to help solve the worlds food crisis. To achieve this, scientists, including Dr Zhang, are going beyond the engineering of traits, such as insect resistance in crops. He is focused on developing crops that are better for human health, for example with soybeans that contain no trans-fat but more healthy fat that is crucial for protecting the heart and brain cells. By putting consumers first and focusing on the development of traits that offer health benefits for consumers, the hope is the threshold for public acceptance will be lower. This will of course need to be coupled by information and education so that consumers are empowered to make informed decisions.

In fact, the first gene-edited food is already on the market. An oil made from soybeans that have been engineered using TALENs to contain no trans fats is being sold to companies in the food service industry. This non-GMO oil has been developed and manufactured by Calyxt, the Minnesota-based company that Dr Zhang co-founded many years ago. Although he has since moved on to pursue research in the public sector, he continues to watch with interest the anticipated launches of Calyxt pipeline products like high-fibre wheat and reduced-browning potatoes. We too look forward to seeing what Dr Zhang and his team will come up with next, both in terms of advancing CRISPR technologies for plant engineering, as well as hardier and more productive food crops that could help feed the world.

About the author

Mollie Schubert is a Staff Scientist in the molecular genetics research group at Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT). Mollie received her masters degree in biochemistry from Iowa State University and has been at IDT since 2013, where she has focused on studying CRISPR gene editing. Specifically, this has included high-throughput screening of CRISPR-Cas9 guides for the development of a site selection tool, optimising the composition and delivery of synthetic RNA reagents complexed to recombinant CRISPR nucleases, and developing methods for efficient gene editing with a focus on improvements to homology directed repair.

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Could CRISPR-engineered crops help solve the world's food crisis? - New Food

Cell Biology

To Understand the Machinery of Life, a UArizona Scientist Breaks it on Purpose – UANews

By Daniel Stolte, University Communications

Today

"I'm fascinated with life, and that's why I want to break it."

This is how Betl Kaar, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona with appointments in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Department of Astronomy and the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, describes her research. What may sound callous is a legitimate scientific approach in astrobiology. Known as ancestral sequencing, the idea is to "resurrect" genetic sequences from the dawn of life, put them to work in the cellular pathways of modern microbes think Jurassic Park but with extinct genes in place of dinosaurs, and study how the organism copes.

In a recent paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Kaar's research team reports an unexpected discovery: Evolution, it seems, is not very good at multitasking.

Kaar uses ancestral sequencing to find out what makes life tick and how organisms are shaped by evolutionary selection pressure. The insights gained may, in turn, offer clues as to what it takes for organic precursor molecules to give rise to life be it on Earth or faraway worlds. In her lab, Kaar specializes in designing molecules that act like tiny invisible wrenches, wreaking havoc with the delicate cellular machinery that allows organisms to eat, move and multiply in short, to live.

Kaar has focused her attention on the translation machinery, a labyrinthine molecular clockwork that translates the information encoded in the bacteria's DNA into proteins. All organisms from microbes to algae to trees to humans possess this piece of machinery in their cells.

"We approximate everything about the past based on what we have today," Kaar said. "All life needs a coding system something that takes information and turns it into molecules that can perform tasks and the translational machinery does just that. It creates life's alphabet. That's why we think of it as a fossil that has remained largely unchanged, at least at its core. If we ever find life elsewhere, you bet that the first thing we'll look at is its information processing systems, and the translational machinery is just that."

So critical is the translational machinery to life on Earth that even over the course of more than 3.5 billion years of evolution, its parts have undergone little substantial change. Scientists have referred to it as "an evolutionary accident frozen in time."

"I guess I tend to mess with things I'm not supposed to," Kaar said. "Locked in time? Let's unlock it. Breaking it would lead the cell to destruction? Let's break it."

The researchers took six different strains of Escherichia coli bacteria and genetically engineered the cells with mutated components of their translational machinery. They targeted the step that feeds the unit with genetic information by swapping the shuttle protein with evolutionary cousins taken from other microbes, including a reconstructed ancestor from about 700 million years ago.

"We get into the heart of the heart of what we think is one of the earliest machineries of life," Kaar said. "We purposely break it a little, and a lot, to see how the cells deal with this problem. In doing this, we think we create an urgent problem for the cell, and it will fix that."

Next, the team mimicked evolution by having the manipulated bacterial strains compete with each other like a microbial version of "The Hunger Games." A thousand generations later, some strains fared better than others, as was expected. But when Kaar's team analyzed exactly how the bacteria responded to perturbations in their translational components, they discovered something unexpected: Initially, natural selection improved the compromised translational machinery, but its focus shifted away to other cellular modules before the machinery's performance was fully restored.

To find out why, Kaar enlisted Sandeep Venkataram, a population genetics expert at the University of California, San Diego.

Venkataram likens the process to a game of whack-a-mole, with each mole representing a cellular module. Whenever a module experiences a mutation, it pops up. The hammer smashing it back down is the action of natural selection. Mutations are randomly spread across all modules, so that all moles pop up randomly.

"We expected that the hammer of natural selection also comes down randomly, but that is not what we found," he said. "Rather, it does not act randomly but has a strong bias, favoring those mutations that provide the largest fitness advantage while it smashes down other less beneficial mutations, even though they also provide a benefit to the organism."

In other words, evolution is not a multitasker when it comes to fixing problems.

"It seems that evolution is myopic," Venkataram said. "It focuses on the most immediate problem, puts a Band-Aid on and then it moves on to the next problem, without thoroughly finishing the problem it was working on before."

"It turns out the cells do fix their problems but not in the way we might fix them," Kaar added. "In a way, it's a bit like organizing a delivery truck as it drives down a bumpy road. You can stack and organize only so many boxes at a time before they inevitably get jumbled around. You never really get the chance to make any large, orderly arrangement."

Why natural selection acts in this way remains to be studied, but what the research showed is that, overall, the process results in what the authors call "evolutionary stalling" while evolution is busy fixing one problem, it does at the expense of all other issues that need fixing. They conclude that at least in rapidly evolving populations, such as bacteria, adaptation in some modules would stall despite the availability of beneficial mutations. This results in a situation in which organisms can never reach a fully optimized state.

"The system has to be capable of being less than optimal so that evolution has something to act on in the face of disturbance in other words, there needs to be room for improvement," Kaar said.

Kaar believes this feature of evolution may be a signature of any self-organizing system, and she suspects that this principle has counterparts at all levels of biological hierarchy, going back to life's beginnings, possibly even to prebiotic times when life had not yet materialized.

With continued funding from the John Templeton Foundation and NASA, the research group is now working on using ancestral sequencing to go back even further in time, Kaar said.

"We want to strip things down even more and create systems that start out as what we would consider pre-life and then transition into what we consider life."

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To Understand the Machinery of Life, a UArizona Scientist Breaks it on Purpose - UANews

Cell Biology

Avobis Bio and Vineti announce strategic collaboration to support new implantable cell therapies addressing debilitating conditions – GlobeNewswire

NEWARK, Del. and SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 11, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, Avobis Bio, LLC (Avobis Bio), a clinical-stage regenerative therapy company specializing in the development of implantable cell therapies, and Vineti, Inc., the leading software platform for personalized therapeutics, announced a new collaboration to advance and scale Avobis Bios innovative cell therapy pipeline.

Avobis Bios first therapeutic involves harvesting and processing a patient's own mesenchymal stem cells for the treatment of perianal fistulas, an often debilitating condition that afflicts patients with Crohn's disease. Personalized therapies require a software system to manage the complex value chain associated with autologous, patient-based therapies and Vineti provides the leading digital software platform to align and efficiently manage this process.

Avobis Bio is working towards a major leap forward in implantable cell therapy for treating debilitating conditions and alleviating patient suffering, said Tiffany Brown, General Manager, Avobis Bio. Our clinical-phase pipeline will advance more quickly with the support of a leading software platform that solves many of the infrastructure challenges facing personalized treatments.

Through this collaboration, Vinetis software platform will help Avobis Bio advance its clinical trial by supporting cell collection scheduling, logistics orchestration, and traceability for each patients individual drug product.

Vinetis Personalized Therapy Management platform (PTM) is the first cloud-based software platform to help safely and efficiently move patient-based personalized therapies through clinical development and into mainstream medicine at scale. The Vineti platform configurable, cloud-based, secure and scalable brings the best of enterprise software to advanced therapies. The Vineti solution automates traceability for personalized therapies, enables sophisticated, efficient treatment scheduling and manufacturing, and helps ensure conformation with regulations and standards.

Vineti is honored to support Avobis Bio in its work to develop a new generation of implantable cell therapies, said Amy DuRoss, CEO and Co-founder, Vineti. Avobis Bio has created a remarkable new approach for patients in true need. We are very excited to help them scale their treatments and reach more patients with few other options.

About Avobis Bio, LLC

Avobis Bio is dedicated to advancing the development of implantable cell therapies to treat debilitating conditions without a cure. The investigational portfolio explores the use of mesenchymal stem cells combined with bioabsorbable scaffolds to enhance the effectiveness of cells in stimulating the body to heal. Avobis Bio was formed as a joint venture between Mayo Clinic and W. L. Gore & Associates to combine capabilities in clinical care, cell biology, materials science and commercialization of medical products. In a tribute to the patients it serves and the power of their own mesenchymal stem cells, Avobis Bio draws its name from the Latin a vobis, meaning from you or by you.

About Vineti, Inc.

Vineti is the first commercial, configurable cloud-based platform to expand patient access to life-saving cell and gene therapies. Vineti was co-founded by GE and the Mayo Clinic to solve the key challenges that patients, medical providers, biopharmaceutical companies and regulators face in the delivery and commercialization of individualized therapies. Now a fully independent company, Vineti offers a digital Personalized Therapy Management (PTM) platform of record to integrate logistics, manufacturing and clinical data for personalized therapies. The Vineti platform supports the full continuum of patient-specific therapies, including cancer vaccines and autologous and allogeneic therapies. The company is expanding rapidly, and the Vineti platform will be in use in hundreds of leading medical centers worldwide in 2019, on behalf of multiple biopharmaceutical partners. In 2019, the World Economic Forum selected Vineti as a global Technology Pioneer.

Media Contacts

VinetiStacy Henrypress@vineti.com

Avobis Bio, LLCPaul Fischerinformation@avobisbio.com

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Avobis Bio and Vineti announce strategic collaboration to support new implantable cell therapies addressing debilitating conditions - GlobeNewswire

Cell Biology

Opportunities in the Global Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell (iPS Cell) Industry – PRNewswire

DUBLIN, Aug. 11, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell (iPS Cell) Industry Report" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Since the discovery of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) a large and thriving research product market has grown into existence, largely because the cells are non-controversial and can be generated directly from adult cells. It is clear that iPSCs represent a lucrative market segment because methods for commercializing this cell type are expanding every year and clinical studies investigating iPSCs are swelling in number.

Therapeutic applications of iPSCs have surged in recent years. 2013 was a landmark year in Japan because it saw the first cellular therapy involving the transplant of iPSCs into humans initiated at the RIKEN Center in Kobe, Japan. Led by Masayo Takahashi of the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology (CDB), it investigated the safety of iPSC-derived cell sheets in patients with macular degeneration. In another world-first, Cynata Therapeutics received approval in 2016 to launch the world's first formal clinical trial of an allogeneic iPSC-derived cell product (CYP-001) for the treatment of GvHD. Riding the momentum within the CAR-T field, Fate Therapeutics is developing FT819, its off-the-shelf iPSC-derived CAR-T cell product candidate. Numerous physician-led studies using iPSCs are also underway in Japan, a leading country for basic and applied iPSC applications.

iPS Cell Commercialization

Methods of commercializing induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are diverse and continue to expand. iPSC cell applications include, but are not limited to:

Since the discovery of iPSC technology in 2006, significant progress has been made in stem cell biology and regenerative medicine. New pathological mechanisms have been identified and explained, new drugs identified by iPSC screens are in the pipeline, and the first clinical trials employing human iPSC-derived cell types have been initiated. The main objectives of this report are to describe the current status of iPSC research, patents, funding events, industry partnerships, biomedical applications, technologies, and clinical trials for the development of iPSC-based therapeutics.

Key Topics Covered:

1. Report Overview

2. Introduction

3. History of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (IPSCS)

4. Research Publications on IPSCS

5. IPSCS: Patent Landscape

6. Clinical Trials Involving IPSCS

7. Funding for IPSC

8. Generation of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells: An Overview

9. Human IPSC Banking

10. Biomedical Applications of IPSCS

11. Other Novel Applications of IPSCS

12. Deals in the IPSCS Sector

13. Market Overview

14. Company Profiles

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/kpc95y

About ResearchAndMarkets.comResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

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Opportunities in the Global Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell (iPS Cell) Industry - PRNewswire

Cell Biology

REGULUS THERAPEUTICS : MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS 19…

The interim unaudited condensed financial statements and this Management'sDiscussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations shouldbe read in conjunction with the financial statements and notes thereto for theyear ended December 31, 2019 and the related Management's Discussion andAnalysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, both of which arecontained in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31,2019, or Annual Report, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission onMarch 12, 2020. Past operating results are not necessarily indicative of resultsthat may occur in future periods.FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTSThis quarterly report on Form 10-Q contains "forward-looking statements" withinthe meaning of federal securities laws made pursuant to the safe harborprovisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Our actualresults could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-lookingstatements as a result of various factors, including those set forth below underPart II, Item 1A, "Risk Factors" in this quarterly report on Form 10-Q. Exceptas required by law, we assume no obligation to update these forward-lookingstatements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.These statements, which represent our current expectations or beliefs concerningvarious future events, may contain words such as "may," "will," "expect,""anticipate," "intend," "plan," "believe," "estimate" or other words indicatingfuture results, though not all forward-looking statements necessarily containthese identifying words. Such statements may include, but are not limited to,statements concerning the following:the initiation, cost, timing, progress and results of, and our expected abilityto undertake certain activities and accomplish certain goals with respect to ourresearch and development activities, preclinical studies and clinical trials;our ability to obtain and maintain regulatory approval of our productcandidates, and any related restrictions, limitations, and/or warnings in thelabel of an approved product candidate;our ability to obtain funding for our operations;our plans to research, develop and commercialize our product candidates;the potential election of any strategic collaboration partner to pursuedevelopment and commercialization of any programs or product candidates that aresubject to a collaboration with such partner;our ability to attract collaborators with relevant development, regulatory andcommercialization expertise;future activities to be undertaken by our strategic collaboration partners,collaborators and other third parties;our ability to obtain and maintain intellectual property protection for ourproduct candidates;the size and growth potential of the markets for our product candidates, andour ability to serve those markets;our ability to successfully commercialize, and our expectations regardingfuture therapeutic and commercial potential with respect to our productcandidates;the rate and degree of market acceptance of our product candidates;our ability to develop sales and marketing capabilities, whether alone or withpotential future collaborators;regulatory developments in the United States and foreign countries;the performance of our third-party suppliers and manufacturers;the success of competing therapies that are or may become available;the loss of key scientific or management personnel;our ability to successfully secure and deploy capital;our ability to satisfy our debt obligations;the accuracy of our estimates regarding future expenses, future revenues,capital requirements and need for additional financing;the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business; andthe risks and other forward-looking statements described under the caption"Risk Factors" under Part II, Item 1A of this quarterly report on Form 10-Q.In addition, statements that "we believe" and similar statements reflect ourbeliefs and opinions on the relevant subject. These statements are based uponinformation available to us as of the date of this report, and while we believesuch information 20--------------------------------------------------------------------------------forms a reasonable basis for such statements, such information may be limited orincomplete, and our statements should not be read to indicate that we haveconducted an exhaustive inquiry into, or review of, all potentially availablerelevant information. These statements are inherently uncertain and investorsare cautioned not to unduly rely upon these statements.OVERVIEWWe are a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering anddeveloping first-in-class drugs targeting microRNAs to treat diseases withsignificant unmet medical need. We were formed in 2007 when AlnylamPharmaceuticals, Inc. ("Alnylam") and Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ("Ionis")contributed significant intellectual property, know-how and financial and humancapital to pursue the development of drugs targeting microRNAs pursuant to alicense and collaboration agreement. Our most advanced product candidates areRG-012 and RGLS4326. RG-012 is an anti-miR targeting miR-21 for the treatment ofAlport syndrome, a life-threatening kidney disease with no approved therapyavailable. In November 2018, we and Sanofi agreed to transition furtherdevelopment activities of our miR-21 programs, including our RG-012 program. Asa result, Sanofi became responsible for all costs incurred in the development ofRG-012 and any other miR-21 programs. The transition activities were completedin the second quarter of 2019. RGLS4326 is an anti-miR targeting miR-17 for thetreatment of autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease ("ADPKD"). In additionto these clinical programs, we continue to develop a pipeline of preclinicaldrug product candidates.microRNAs are naturally occurring ribonucleic acid ("RNA") molecules that play acritical role in regulating key biological pathways. Scientific research hasshown that an imbalance, or dysregulation, of microRNAs is directly linked tomany diseases. Furthermore, many different infectious pathogens interact andbind to host microRNA to survive. To date, over 500 microRNAs have beenidentified in humans, each of which can bind to multiple messenger RNAs thatcontrol key aspects of cell biology. Since many diseases are multi-factorial,involving multiple targets and pathways, the ability to modulate multiplepathways by targeting a single microRNA provides a new therapeutic approach fortreating complex diseases.RNA plays an essential role in the process used by cells to encode and translategenetic information from deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, to proteins. RNA iscomprised of subunits called nucleotides and is synthesized from a DNA templateby a process known as transcription. Transcription generates different types ofRNA, including messenger RNAs that carry the information for proteins in thesequence of their nucleotides. In contrast, microRNAs are RNAs that do not codefor proteins but rather are responsible for regulating gene expression bymodulating the translation and decay of target messenger RNAs. By interactingwith many messenger RNAs, a single microRNA can regulate the expression ofmultiple genes involved in the normal function of a biological pathway. Manypathogens, including viruses, bacteria and parasites, also use host microRNAs toregulate the cellular environment for survival. In some instances, the hostmicroRNAs are essential for the replication and/or survival of the pathogen. Forexample, miR-122 is a microRNA expressed in human hepatocytes and is a keyfactor for the replication of the hepatitis C virus ("HCV").We believe that microRNA therapeutics have the potential to become a new andmajor class of drugs with broad therapeutic application for the followingreasons:microRNAs play a critical role in regulating biological pathways by controllingthe translation of many target genes;microRNA therapeutics regulate disease pathways which may result in moreeffective treatment of complex multi-factorial diseases;many human pathogens, including viruses, bacteria and parasites, use microRNAs(host and pathogen encoded) to enable their replication and suppression of hostimmune responses; andmicroRNA therapeutics may be synergistic with other therapies because of theirdifferent mechanism of action.We have assembled significant expertise in the microRNA field, includingexpertise in microRNA biology and oligonucleotide chemistry, a broadintellectual property estate, relationships with key opinion leaders and adisciplined drug discovery and development process. We are using our microRNAexpertise to develop chemically modified, single-stranded oligonucleotides thatwe call anti-miRs to modulate microRNAs and address underlying disease. Webelieve microRNAs may play a critical role in complex disease and that targetingthem with anti-miRs may become a source of a new and major class of drugs withbroad therapeutic application, much like small molecules, biologics andmonoclonal antibodies.We believe that microRNA biomarkers may be used to select optimal patientsegments in clinical trials and to monitor disease progression or relapse. Webelieve these microRNA biomarkers can be applied toward drugs that we developand drugs developed by other companies with which we partner or collaborate. 21--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Since our inception through June 30, 2020, we have received $342.5 million fromthe sale of our equity and convertible debt securities, $91.8 million from ourstrategic collaborations, principally from upfront payments, research fundingand preclinical and clinical milestones, and $19.8 million in net proceeds fromour Term Loan. As of June 30, 2020, we had cash and cash equivalents of $23.4million.Development Stage Pipeline

We currently have two programs in clinical development.

Preclinical Pipeline

We currently have multiple programs in various stages of preclinicaldevelopment.

18 $ 6$ 6,796Research and development expenses

The following table shows a summary of our cash flows for the six months endedJune 30, 2020 and 2019 (in thousands):

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Edgar Online, source Glimpses

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REGULUS THERAPEUTICS : MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS 19...

Cell Biology

Doctoral Student/Research Assistant in Mitochondrial Biology and Signalling job with UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI | 218596 – Times Higher Education (THE)

The University of Helsinki as research-oriented university offers a stimulating and international environment. The Faculty of Medicine of the University of Helsinki, together with Helsinki University Central Hospital, The Helsinki Institute of Life Science, and the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland forms the Academic Medical Center Helsinki. This medical campus ranks among the 10 best medical centers at European level and the 50 best centers in the world. More info on the Faculty or Medicine and AMCH can be found here:

https://www.helsinki.fi/en/faculty-of-medicinehttps://www.helsinki.fi/en/meilahti-campus

Faculty of Medicine, Jackson laboratory, invites applications for a position of Doctoral Student / Research Assistant in mitochondrial biology and signalling for a fixed-term

The focus of the lab is to unravel fundamental signalling pathways and mechanisms controlling mitochondrial function. We are particularly interested in how mitochondria adapt signalling to metabolic cues in models of dysfunction including primary mitochondrial patient cell lines, cancer and associated disorders. We aim to exploit this knowledge on basic principles of mitochondrial signalling and subsequent metabolic susceptibilities in cellular models to help devise novel treatments of diseases that stem from misregulated mitochondrial function.

In this role the candidate will have the unique opportunity to drive an exciting project addressing limiting metabolic pathways in models of mitochondrial dysfunction by genome-wide CRISPR screening and mitochondrial structural analysis. The successful candidate will have access to a wide range of methodologies with work consisting in preparation of cell models, construction of libraries, and analysis of metabolic, proteomic and microscopic data at the cellular level.

We are looking for a highly motivated independent researcher with prime analytical skills driven by a passion for science. We expect you to formulate your own hypotheses, propose experimental design to address them, and take advantage of the laboratory and research communitys intellectual and skill resources to advance the knowledge of the field. The appointee is expected to publish in top-level international peer reviewed scientific journals. In addition, she/he is also expected to potentially take part on the other research tasks such as ones related to ongoing studies and preparation of grant applications. The specific responsibilities will vary according to the level of expertise of the candidate.

The ideal candidate has an extensive background in standard molecular cell biological methods, ideally encompassing genetic and microscopic techniques and/or bioinformatics (NGS data). Expertise in biochemistry and molecular biology is a pre-requisite for this position. Additional expertise for research projects involving human subjects, primary cell culture would be highly desirable. The ideal candidate is an adaptable team-player and has excellent communication and organizational skills and a strong command in written and spoken English and should be familiar with the constraints related to translational research.

This position will provide multiple opportunities for collaborations with potential lab visits abroad and cross-disciplinary scientific exchange, where the candidate will receive extensive training in cutting-edge technology. An aptitude to drive and maintain intra and inter team collaborations will be highly appreciated. In return, the candidate is offered access to an extensive variety of methodology and advanced techniques, appropriate supervision and help in career development.

More information about the lab, including the latest research and news, can be found here:http://www.jacksonlab.org

The position is initially limited to 2 years with a possibility of extension starting from September 2020. The contract of employment includes a probationary period of 6 months. Salary will be based on the Universities salary scheme for teaching and research personnel composed of both task specific and personal performance components.

The position will remain open until a suitable candidate will be recruited.

Please submit: CV, list of publications, motivation letter including a description of your research interests, and the names and telephone numbers of at least two referees.

Please submit your application, together with the required attachments, through the University of Helsinki electronic recruitment system by clicking on the Apply for job button. Internal applicants (i.e., current employees of the University of Helsinki) submit their applications through the SAP HR portal.

For further information, please contact Christopher B. Jackson, Ph.D., docent:christopher.jackson@helsinki.fi

Due date

31.08.2020 23:59 EEST

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Doctoral Student/Research Assistant in Mitochondrial Biology and Signalling job with UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI | 218596 - Times Higher Education (THE)

Cell Biology

These Unusual Metallic Blue Fruits Have Incredible Dazzling Color Now Scientists Know How and Why – SciTechDaily

Viburnum tinus owes the dazzling blue colour of its fruit to fat in its cellular structure, the first time this type of colour production has been observed in nature. Credit: Rox Middleton

Researchers have found that a common plant owes the dazzling blue color of its fruit to fat in its cellular structure, the first time this type of color production has been observed in nature.

The plant, Viburnum tinus, is an evergreen shrub widespread across the UK and the rest of Europe, which produces metallic blue fruits that are rich in fat. The combination of bright blue color and high nutritional content make these fruits an irresistible treat for birds, likely increasing the spread of their seeds and contributing to the plants success.

The researchers, led by the University of Cambridge, used electron microscopy to study the structure of these blue fruits. While there are other types of structural color in nature such as in peacock feathers and butterfly wings this is the first time that such a structure has been found to incorporate fats, or lipids. The results are reported in the journal Current Biology.

Viburnum tinus plants can be found in gardens and along the streets all over the UK and throughout much of Europe most of us have seen them, even if we dont realize how unusual the color of the fruits is, said co-first author Rox Middleton, who completed the research as part of her Ph.D. at Cambridges Department of Chemistry.

Closeup of viburnum tinus. Credit: Rox Middleton

Most colors in nature are due to pigments. However, some of the brightest and most colorful materials in nature such as peacock feathers, butterfly wings and opals get their color not from pigments, but from their internal structure alone, a phenomenon known as structural color. Depending on how these structures are arranged and how ordered they are, they can reflect certain colors, creating color by the interaction between light and matter.

I first noticed these bright blue fruits when I was visiting family in Florence, said Dr. Silvia Vignolini from Cambridges Department of Chemistry, who led the research. I thought the color was really interesting, but it was unclear what was causing it.

The metallic sheen of the Viburnum fruits is highly unusual, so we used electron microscopy to study the structure of the cell wall, said co-first author Miranda Sinnott-Armstrong from Yale University. We found a structure unlike anything wed ever seen before: layer after layer of small lipid droplets.

The lipid structures are incorporated into the cell wall of the outer skin, or epicarp, of the fruits. In addition, a layer of dark red anthocyanin pigments lies underneath the complex structure, and any light that is not reflected by the lipid structure is absorbed by the dark red pigment beneath. This prevents any backscattering of light, making the fruits appear even more blue.

Microscopy view of Viburnum tinus. Credit: Rox Middleton

The researchers also used computer simulations to show that this type of structure can produce exactly the type of blue color seen in the fruit of Viburnum. Structural color is common in certain animals, especially birds, beetles, and butterflies, but only a handful of plant species have been found to have structurally colored fruits.

While most fruits have low fat content, some such as avocadoes, coconuts and olives do contain lipids, providing an important, energy-dense food source for animals. This is not a direct benefit to the plant, but it can increase seed dispersal by attracting birds.

The color of the Viburnum tinus fruits may also serve as a signal of its nutritional content: a bird could look at a fruit and know whether it is rich in fat or in carbohydrates based on whether or not it is blue. In other words, the blue color may serve as an honest signal because the lipids produce both the signal (the color) and the reward (the nutrition).

Honest signals are rare in fruits as far as we know, said Sinnott-Armstrong. If the structural color of Viburnum tinus fruits are in fact honest signals, it would be a really neat example where color and nutrition come at least in part from the same source: lipids embedded in the cell wall. Weve never seen anything like that before, and it will be interesting to see whether other structurally colored fruits have similar nanostructures and similar nutritional content.

One potential application for structural color is that it removes the need for unusual or damaging chemical pigments color can instead be formed out of any material. Its exciting to see that principle in action in this case the plant uses a potentially nutritious lipid to make a beautiful blue shimmer. It might inspire engineers to make double-use colors of our own, said Vignolini.

Reference: Viburnum tinus Fruits Use Lipids to Produce Metallic Blue Structural Color by Rox Middleton, Miranda Sinnott-Armstrong, Yu Ogawa, Gianni Jacucci, Edwige Moyroud,Paula J. Rudall, Chrissie Prychid, Maria Conejero, Beverley J. Glover, Michael J. Donoghue and Silvia Vignolini, 6 August 2020, Current Biology.DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.07.005

The research was supported in part by the European Research Council, the EPSRC, the BBSRC and the NSF.

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These Unusual Metallic Blue Fruits Have Incredible Dazzling Color Now Scientists Know How and Why - SciTechDaily

Cell Biology

More than 40-year-old cancer mystery solved: Thanks to epigenetics – News-Medical.Net

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Aug 12 2020

In an article that was just published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) by the group of Dr. Manel Esteller, is solved this mystery by describing that in cancer cells the protein that generates the nucleotide "Y" is epigenetically inactivated, causing small but highly aggressive tumors.

Before the first oncogene mutations were discovered in human cancer in the early 1980s, the 1970s provided the first data suggesting alterations in the genetic material of tumors. In this context, the prestigious magazine "Nature" published in 1975 the existence of a specific alteration in the transformed cell: an RNA responsible for carrying an amino acid to build proteins (transfer RNA) was missing a piece, the enigmatic nucleotide "Y".

After that outstanding observation, the most absolute silence and ignorance has reigned for forty-five years on the causes and consequences of not having that correct base in that RNA.

In an article that was just published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) by the group of Dr. Manel Esteller, Director of the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute, ICREA Research Professor and Professor of Genetics at the University of Barcelona is solved this mystery by describing that in cancer cells the protein that generates the nucleotide "Y" is epigenetically inactivated, causing small but highly aggressive tumors.

Since the original discovery in 1975, there has been much biochemical work to characterize the enzymes involved in the different steps that lead to the desired nucleotide "Y", a hypermodified guanine, but without connecting this characterization with its defect in tumor biology. We have built the bridge between these two worlds by demonstrating that the epigenetic silencing of the TYW2 gene is the cause of the loss of the elusive nucleotide "Y".

Epigenetic blockade TYW2 gene occurs mainly in colon, stomach and uterine cancer. And it has undesirable consequences for healthy cells: the postman (RNA) that sends the signal to produce the bricks of our body (proteins) begins to accumulate errors and the cell takes on a different appearance, far from the normal epithelium, which we call mesenchymal and which it is associated with the appearance of metastasis. In this regard, when we study patients with colon cancer in early stages, the epigenetic defect of TYW2 and the loss of the nucleotide "Y" is associated with those tumors that, although small in size, already lead to less survival of the person. We would like to explore now how to restore the activity of the TYW2 gene and restore the longed-for "Y" piece in cancer in order to close the cycle of this story that began so brilliantly in 1975, at the dawn of modern molecular biology."

Dr. Manel Esteller, Director of the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute, ICREA Research Professor and Professor of Genetics at the University of Barcelona

Source:

Journal reference:

Rossell-Tortella, M., et al. (2020) Epigenetic loss of the transfer RNA-modifying enzyme TYW2 induces ribosome frameshifts in colon cancer. PNAS. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2003358117.

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More than 40-year-old cancer mystery solved: Thanks to epigenetics - News-Medical.Net