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Anatomy

Heres Why Sandra Oh Doesnt Regret Leaving Greys Anatomy – TheThings

Sandra Oh won her first Golden Globe in her role as Dr. Cristina Yang onGrey's Anatomy. Although she enjoyed her time on the series, Oh always knew that she was more than a co-star. Nonetheless, the actress had to pay her dues in supporting roles for thirty years before landing the lead on the BBCdramaKilling Eve. Now that she is finally center stage,Sandra Ohis making TV history.

Sandra Oh was actually an accomplished actress in Canada before she got her big break in the States. She revealed to E Newsthat she was the black sheep of her traditional Korean family. Hersiblings were overachievers; her sister Gracebecame a lawyer, and her brother Rayearned a PhD in medical genetics. Even though she is oriented towards the arts, Oh certainlybuilta resume that could easily inspire sibling rivalry.

Related:18 Surprising Facts About Grey's Anatomy Star, Sandra Oh

Sandra Oh began acting as a teenager in the suburbs of Ottawa. She landed her first TV gig in Canada in 1989, and by 1994 she had wonthe Genie (Canada's highestfilm award) forDouble Happiness in which she played the lead. The following year she won a Gemini (Canada's highest television award) for the TV movieThe Diary of Evelyn Lau. And four years later in 1999, she won her second Genie forLast Night.After she rose to the top of the entertainment industry in Canada,Sandra Oh decided to take on Hollywood.

Related:10 Grey's Anatomy Characters Who Should've Left Years Ago

Although Sandra Oh's success in Canada came quickly, she had many prejudices to overcome in America. Oh was told by a Hollywood agent that she wasn't star material, and that she should consider plastic surgery. Sandra Oh was hurt by the discriminatory comments, but she knew her talent was real. She reflected, "I had already done all I could do to get to that A level, which is star in theater, TV, film, and somehow, that wasn't enough for someone to say, 'I believe I can get you an audition.' " Sandra Oh paid her dues in Canada, so she wasn't about to let a pessimistic American agent get in her way.

A year after her arrival in L.A., Sandra Oh finally landed a role on HBO. But it still wasn't until 2005 that Oh began playing Dr. Cristina Yang on Grey's Anatomy. Even though her ascent toprime-time television was painstakingly slow, it only took one season for the Oh to win the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. This win was also historic. According to Vox, it had been 39 years since an Asian actress took home an award in that category. Thus, ten years after her negative encounter in Hollywood, Sandra Oh finally received recognition for her hard work.

Related:10 Most Replaceable Grey's Anatomy Characters (5 We'd Get Rid Of In A Heartbeat)

Eversince her adolescence in Canada, Oh knew shepossessed the talent toplay a leading role. Sandra Oh loved her time on Grey's, and it was difficult to say goodbye.But after ten seasons in a supporting role, she was determined to fulfill her potential. The actress had a very specific goal:"I only want to play roles that are central to the story." So once again, Oh had to wait. This time it was for four years.

WhenSandra Oh sat down to read for Killing Eve in 2018, she did not even ask about the title role, she assumed she was reading for a supporting character. Her agent had to whisper to her that she was reading for the lead. When she reflected onthe process Its like, Oh, its so easy! They just called you!...In a way, yes, thats true. But in another way, it took 30 years to get this call.Like many minorities in America, Sandra Oh worked twice as hard, and received half the recognition. When her moment finally came, she could hardly believe it.

Sandra Oh recently posted a photo on Instragram of her parents proudly posing in front of aKilling Eve billboard. Her caption reads, "Proud #immigrantparents Just took me 30 yrs." It may have taken 30 years for the world to recognize her talent, but the truth is that Sandra Oh deserved recognition a long time ago. When shesecured a second Golden Globefor her performance inKilling Eve,Sandra Oh became the first Asian actress to winmore than one Golden Globe Award. And last year Sandra Oh made Golden Globe history for the third time, becoming the first Asian person to host the award show.

Now that she is finally starring as a title character, Sandra Oh haszero regrets about ending herten-yearcareer onGrey's Anatomy.The actressknew she would have been stuck in a supporting role if she was not willing to take a leap of faith. Now Sandra Oh has both recognition, and a unique place in television history.

Next:Here's How Phoebe Waller-Bridge Impacted The Popularity Of 'Killing Eve'

911 Call Released In The Ongoing Heard-Depp Drama

An educator and writer from Nashville, TN, Courtney writes about all things music, movies and TV. However she doesn't shy away from the heavy topics either, she has published articles on feminism and philosophy.

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Heres Why Sandra Oh Doesnt Regret Leaving Greys Anatomy - TheThings

Cell Biology

Exosomes: Definition, Function and Use in Therapy – Technology Networks

What are exosomes?

Exosomes are a class of cell-derived extracellular vesicles of endosomal origin, and are typically 30-150 nm in diameter the smallest type of extracellular vesicle.1 Enveloped by a lipid bilayer, exosomes are released into the extracellular environment containing a complex cargo of contents derived from the original cell, including proteins, lipids, mRNA, miRNA and DNA.2 Exosomes are defined by how they are formed through the fusion and exocytosis of multivesicular bodies into the extracellular space.

Multivesicular bodies* are unique organelles in the endocytic pathway that function as intermediates between early and late endosomes.3 The main function of multivesicular bodies is to separate components that will be recycled elsewhere from those that will be degraded by lysosomes.4 The vesicles that accumulate within multivesicular bodies are categorized as intraluminal vesicles while inside the cytoplasm and exosomes when released from the cell.

*Confusingly, there is inconsistency in the literature; while some sources differentiate multivesicular bodies from late endosomes, others use the two interchangeably.

Exosomes are of general interest for their role in cell biology, and for their potential therapeutic and diagnostic applications. It was originally thought that exosomes were simply cellular waste products, however their function is now known to extend beyond waste removal. Exosomes represent a novel mode of cell communication and contribute to a spectrum of biological processes in health and disease.2One of the main mechanisms by which exosomes are thought to exert their effects is via the transfer of exosome-associated RNA to recipient cells, where they influence protein machinery. There is growing evidence to support this, such as the identification of intact and functional exosomal RNA in recipient cells and certain RNA-binding proteins have been identified as likely players in the transfer of RNA to target cells.5,6 MicroRNAs and long noncoding RNAs are shuttled by exosomes and alter gene expression while proteins (e.g. heat shock proteins, cytoskeletal proteins, adhesion molecules, membrane transporter and fusion proteins) can directly affect target cells.7,8Exosomes have been described as messengers of both health and disease. While they are essential for normal physiological conditions, they also act to potentiate cellular stress and damage under disease states.2

Multivesicular bodies are a specialized subset of endosomes that contain membrane-bound intraluminal vesicles. Intraluminal vesicles are essentially the precursors of exosomes, and form by budding into the lumen of the multivesicular body. Most intraluminal vesicles fuse with lysosomes for subsequent degradation, while others are released into the extracellular space.9,10 The intraluminal vesicles that are secreted into the extracellular space become exosomes. This release occurs when the multivesicular body fuses with the plasma membrane.

The formation and degradation of exosomes.

This is an active area of research and it is not yet known how exosome release is regulated. However, recent advances in imaging protocols may allow exosome release events to be visualized at high spatiotemporal resolution.11

Exosomes have been implicated in a diverse range of conditions including neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, liver disease and heart failure. Like other microvesicles, the function of exosomes likely depends on the cargo they carry, which is dependent on the cell type in which they were produced.12 Researchers have studied exosomes in disease through a range of approaches, including:

In cancer, exosomes have multiple roles in metastatic spread, drug resistance and angiogenesis. Specifically, exosomes can alter the extracellular matrix to create space for migrating tumor cells.13,14 Several studies also indicate that exosomes can increase the migration, invasion and secretion of cancer cells by influencing genes involved with tumor suppression and extracellular matrix degradation.15,16Through general cell crosstalk, exosomal miRNA and lncRNA affect the progression of lung diseases including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, tuberculosis and interstitial lung diseases. Stressors such as oxidant exposure can influence the secretion and cargo of exosomes, which in turn affect inflammatory reactions.17 Altered exosomal profiles in diseased states also imply a role for exosomes in many other conditions such as in neurodegenerative diseases and mental disorders.18,19Cells exposed to bacteria release exosomes which act like decoys to toxins, suggesting a protective effect during infection.20 In neuronal circuit development, and in many other systems, exosomal signaling is likely to be a sum of overlapping and sometimes opposing signaling networks.21

Exosomes can function as potential biomarkers, as their contents are molecular signatures of their originating cells. Due to the lipid bilayer, exosomal contents are relatively stable and protected against external proteases and other enzymes, making them attractive diagnostic tools. There are increasing reports that profiles of exosomal miRNA and lncRNA differ in patients with certain pathologies, compared with those of healthy people.17 Consequently, exosome-based diagnostic tests are being pursued for the early detection of cancer, diabetes and other diseases.22,23Many exosomal proteins, nucleic acids and lipids are being explored as potential clinically relevant biomarkers.24 Phosphorylation proteins are promising biomarkers that can be separated from exosomal samples even after five years in the freezer25, while exosomal microRNA also appears to be highly stable.26 Exosomes are also highly accessible as they are present in a wide array of biofluids (including blood, urine, saliva, tears, ascites, semen, colostrum, breast milk, amniotic fluid and cerebrospinal fluid), creating many opportunities for liquid biopsies.

Exosomes are being pursued for use in an array of potential therapeutic applications. While externally modified vesicles suffer from toxicity and rapid clearance, membranes of naturally occurring vesicles are better tolerated, offering low immunogenicity and a high resilience in extracellular fluid.27 These naturally-equipped nanovesicles could be therapeutically targeted or engineered as drug delivery systems.

Exosomes bear surface molecules that allow them to be targeted to recipient cells, where they deliver their payload. This could be used to target them to diseased tissues or organs.27 Exosomes may cross the blood-brain barrier, at least under certain conditions28 and could be used to deliver an array of therapies including small molecules, RNA therapies, proteins, viral gene therapy and CRISPR gene-editing.

Different approaches to creating drug-loaded exosomes include27:

Exosomes hold huge potential as a way to complement chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cells in attacking cancer cells. CAR exosomes, which are released from CAR-T cells, carry CAR on their surface and express a high level of cytotoxic molecules and inhibit tumor growth.29 Cancer cell-derived exosomes carrying associated antigens have also been shown to recruit an antitumor immune response.30

The purification of exosomes is a key challenge in the development of translational tools. Exosomes must be differentiated from other distinct populations of extracellular vesicles, such as microvesicles (which shed from the plasma membrane, also referred to as ectosomes or shedding vesicles) and apoptotic bodies.31 Although ultracentrifugation is regarded as the gold standard for exosome isolation, it has many disadvantages and alternative methods for exosome isolation are currently being sought. Exosome isolation is an active area of research (see Table 1) and many research groups are seeking ways to overcome the disadvantages listed below, while navigating the relevant regulatory hurdles along the way.

Produces a low yield and low purity of the isolated exosomes as other types of extracellular vesicles have similar sedimentation properties.

Low efficiency as it is labor-intensive, time-consuming and requires a large amount of sample. specialized equipment. High centrifugal force can damage exosome integrity

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Exosomes: Definition, Function and Use in Therapy - Technology Networks

Cell Biology

A day in the COVID-19 life of a working mom and USC biology lab manager – USC News

Morning dawns on Gorjana Bezmalinovic with a nuzzle and smooch from Rey, her German shepherd. Since mid-March, life for USCs lab manager of undergraduate biology classes has been a case study in extreme multitasking. Since she began working at home, shes had to help homeschool her two children, support her husband during hard times and shift all 800 of her students to online learning.

Bezmalinovics daughter, Lara, shows off the molted lobster exoskeleton she found while exploring. (Photo/Courtesy of Gorjana Bezmalinovic)

I had peace and quiet when I was at work, but I dont now, Bezmalinovic said. Working at home means working more than ever.

Out of bed and into the kitchen, she makes coffee and scans emails because students love to send emails in the middle of the night. Her daughter Lara, 8, gets up first, followed by her son, Niko, 15. Then its time to make breakfast. Next, the 47-year-old mom helps Lara get started on her homework before returning to her USC responsibilities.

On a good day, its not easy managing two introductory biology classes, one honors class, 20 teaching assistants, seven professors and 800 students. But life for Bezmalinovic, who coordinates the needs of this sprawling enterprise, changed dramatically when classes moved online last month.

Many of the students are pre-med, pre-veterinary or pre-dental. They study evolution, ecology, cell biology and physiology. The courses are not easy-peasy. Kids who come from small towns are shocked at the size of the classes, she said.

Her biggest challenge was figuring out how to teach dissection online. Students were disappointed that they might miss disassembling a frog or lamb heart or testing blood types rites of passage in undergraduate biology. Bezmalinovic scrambled for solutions.

Working with her assistants, she cobbled together online instructional videos that helped students complete the exercises from the lab manual, YouTube dissection videos and an online blood transfusion video game. Her lab instructors recorded their Zoom lectures, and voil, she had a virtual lab.

Lunchtime at home means preparing a meal for the kids, then sending them outside to walk the dog so I gain 30 minutes of peace and quiet, she said. The rest of the afternoon, she works with her teaching assistants. The living room is her office. Her family uses the other rooms for school and business.

Bezmalinovic came to USC in 2006 as a lecturer after completing her graduate degree at California State University, Long Beach. Prior, she lived in Croatia and attended college there. She loved science and jumped at the opportunity to manage USCs biology courses.

Most of all, she enjoys working with the students. She remembers their names; they call her Mrs. B. Shes their advisor, lecturer, administrator and counselor, available at all times of the day.

Then comes dinner time and Mrs. B is mom again, feeding a hungry family. She helps her kids with their studies then spends time with her husband.

The family dog, Rey, accompanies Bezmalinovic during a break from work. (Photo/Courtesy of Gorjana Bezmalinovic)

He says, I thought now that youre working from home wed have more time, but its crazier than usual. He wants to talk at 8 or 9 p.m., but I cant because theres always something to do. If I leave a task for tomorrow, Ill have much more to do the next day, Bezmalinovic said.

At the end of the semester, shes working on a lab exam and student presentations. Then come the final exams and grading, followed by planning for online summer classes. In a normal year, her family would vacation with relatives in Croatia, but COVID-19 wiped out that summer trip.

If theres consolation, its the fact she doesnt have to commute to work or worry about picking up her daughter from school.

Im more relieved that I dont have to be stuck in traffic, but theres too little time in the day to do everything, she said. But you know, I love helping the students. They like me, and Im always in a good mood with them. I love my job. I wouldnt have it any other way.

At days end, she walks Rey around the neighborhood, unplugged with no phone. Its 40 minutes of quiet comfort with the dog that will be there in the morning to get her started all over again.

Karla Reid contributed to this story.

More stories about: Biology, COVID-19, Staff

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A day in the COVID-19 life of a working mom and USC biology lab manager - USC News

Cell Biology

Organoids: Exploring Liver Cancer Initiation and the Possibilities of Personalized Glioblastoma Treatment – Technology Networks

In the search for improved and high-throughput in vitro models, organoids have emerged as a promising 3D cell culture technology.1 Defined as a three-dimensional multicellular in vitro tissue construct, organoids are derived from cells that spontaneously self-organize into properly differentiated functional cell types to mimic at least some function of an organ.2 Organoid formation is driven by signaling cues in the extracellular matrix and medium, and is influenced by the particular cell types that are present.2 Compared with two-dimensional cultures, organoids incorporate more physiologically relevant cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions, and are a better reflection of the complex network found in vivo.With significant opportunities for studies of human-specific disease mechanisms, personalized medicine, drug discovery, pharmacokinetic profiling and regenerative medicine, organoids are being pursued across a range of disciplines. Many anticipate that these cell culture models will result in more efficient translation of research into clinical success. In this article, we explore the various types of organoids under development and shine a spotlight on some of the different approaches to organoids in cancer research.

Organoids can be derived from pluripotent stem cells (including embryonic stem cells or induced pluripotent stem cells) or neonatal or adult stem cells from healthy or diseased tissue.1,2 Cancer organoids have been generated from a range of human cancer tissues and cell lines including colon, pancreas, prostate, liver, breast, bladder and lung.6-12 This year, a research group led by Hongjun Song, Professor of Neuroscience at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, published a report in Cell detailing methods for the rapid generation of patient-derived glioblastoma organoids.13Fresh tumor specimens were removed from 53 patient cases to produce microdissected tumor pieces that could survive, develop a spherical morphology and continuously grow in culture for at least two weeks (Figure 1). The production of glioblastoma organoids was achieved while maintaining a high level of similarity between the organoids and their parental tumors, with the expression levels of specific markers showing stability over long-term culture (48 weeks). Importantly, native cell-cell interactions were preserved by avoiding mechanical and enzymatic single-cell dissociation of the resected tumor. As Song explains, this was achieved on a clinically relevant timescale: Normally, the treatment for glioblastoma patients starts one month after surgery. The idea is that glioblastoma organoids can be generated within two weeks and subjected to testing of different treatment strategies to come up with the best option for a personalized treatment strategy.

Figure 1: Glioblastoma organoid generation, from fresh tumor pieces to frozen spherical organoids. Image used with permission from Jacob et al. 2020.One concern with organoid formation and expansion is the potential variability of the serum or Matrigel that can exist across batches and sources, creating variable exogenous factors that could cause the organoid to divert. This ultimately compromises reproducibility, a major bottleneck of current organoid systems.2,13 To avoid this source of error, Songs group used an optimized and defined medium devoid of variable factors that could contribute to the clonal selection of specific cell populations in culture.Glioblastoma is the most prevalent primary malignant brain tumor in adults,14 and having glioblastoma organoids available for research would present significant opportunities, explains Song: They can be used to test different drugs based on mutation profiles and to investigate mechanisms underlying tumor progression, drug sensitivity and resistance. While the accuracy of these predictions would need to be verified, researchers hope that patient-derived organoids will be used to help inform oncologists, accelerate drug discovery, and lead to better clinical trial design.Live-Cell Monitoring: Optimizing Workflows for Advanced Cell Models

As cell-based assays become technically more complex, the need to holistically capture dynamic and sometimes subtle cellular events becomes ever more important. By providing real-time imaging data of cellular events without disturbing the sample during the cell culture workflow, live-cell monitoring can support the optimization of these advanced models. Download this whitepaper to discover how live-cell monitoring can support such optimization, with a breadth of applications.

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For this to be achieved, techniques for the culture and genetic manipulation of primary human hepatocytes need to be refined. This has mostly been pursued through the culture of liver progenitors or fetal hepatocytes, which facilitate studies of liver cancers related to stem cells.16-18 To address the need for organoids derived from functional hepatocytes, researchers across 14 universities, research institutes and hospitals in China and Japan collaborated to genetically engineer reprogrammed human hepatocytes.18 The study, published in Nature Cell Biology, details the successful generation of organoids that represented two major types of liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma: HCC and intra-hepatic cholangiocarcinoma: ICC), derived from directly reprogrammed human hepatocytes (hiHeps).Lead author Lulu Sun, of the Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, provides an overview of how the liver cancer organoids were developed: Genomic aberrations begin to occur during cancer initiation, and the normal cells gradually became malignant. We modeled this process by introducing HCC/ICC-related oncogenes into the organoids with a lentivirus. Oncogenes were selected based on their mutation frequency and previous results in animals. Sun notes that gradual changes in cell and organoid morphology were observed in vitro, along with changes in the expression of HCC-related markers, before the organoids were transplanted to inspect their malignancy in vivo: We cultured these organoids in vitro for about two weeks and transplanted them into the liver lobule of immunodeficient mice. Six to eight weeks later, they formed features identical to HCCs.Even though numerous oncogenes have been identified through whole genome sequencing, it has been difficult to determine whether they can drive the initiation of human liver cancers. Ultrastructural analyses revealed that c-Myc, a well-known oncogene, induced HCC-initiation and a unique cellular phenotype in the hiHep organoids. In these cells, mitochondria were in unusually close contact with endoplasmic reticulum membranes. This excessive coupling between mitochondria and the endoplasmic reticulum (referred to as a MAM phenotype) was shown to facilitate HCC-initiation and when blocked, prevented the progression towards HCC, says Sun: Not only were the expression levels of HCC-related genes in organoids reduced, but significantly reduced cancers were formed in mice.Resolving these alterations in mitochondrial organization represents a new potential approach to liver cancer therapies, and possibly others, Sun explains: Restoration of a proper MAM interface may be a useful approach in preventing c-MYC-initiated HCCs. In addition, recently, an increasing number of works captured ultrastructural alterations, including MAMs, in the course of diseases including Alzheimer's disease and fatty liver diseases. Our results showed that the alterations between communications of organelles may also contribute to the cancer initiation process.All About Organoids

Organoids are 3D cell clusters with the structural and functional features of an organ, and can be generated from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) or adult stem cells acquired from a specific patient. Consequently, organoids make it possible to study the impact of a drug on a specific disease, even a persons own disease they are changing the face of research and medicine as we know it. Download this eBook to discover more about organoids including their analysis and how they are effecting personalized medicine.

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2. Huch, M., Knoblich, J. A., Lutolf, M. P, et al. (2017). The hope and the hype of organoid research. Development, 144(6), 938941. https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.150201

3. Hutchinson, L., & Kirk, R. (2011). High drug attrition ratesWhere are we going wrong? Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology, 8(4), 189190. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2011.34

4. Fan, H., Demirci, U., Chen, P. (2019). Emerging organoid models: Leaping forward in cancer research. Journal of Hematology & Oncology, 12(142). https://jhoonline.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13045-019-0832-4

5. Drost, J., Clevers, H. (2018). Organoids in cancer research. Nature Reviews Cancer, 18(7), 407418. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41568-018-0007-6

6. van de Wetering, M., Francies, H. E., Francis, J. M., et al. (2015). Prospective Derivation of a Living Organoid Biobank of Colorectal Cancer Patients. Cell, 161(4), 933945. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2015.03.053

7. Boj, S. F., Hwang, C.-I., Baker, L. A., et al. (2015). Organoid Models of Human and Mouse Ductal Pancreatic Cancer. Cell, 160(12), 324338. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2014.12.021

8. Puca, L., Bareja, R., Prandi, D., et al. (2018). Patient derived organoids to model rare prostate cancer phenotypes. Nature Communications, 9(1), 2404. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-04495-z

9. Broutier, L., Mastrogiovanni, G., Verstegen, M. M., et al. (2017). Human primary liver cancerderived organoid cultures for disease modeling and drug screening. Nature Medicine, 23(12), 14241435. https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.4438

10. Sachs, N., de Ligt, J., Kopper, O., et al. (2018). A Living Biobank of Breast Cancer Organoids Captures Disease Heterogeneity. Cell, 172(12), 373-386.e10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2017.11.010

11. Lee, S. H., Hu, W., Matulay, J. T., et al. (2018). Tumor Evolution and Drug Response in Patient-Derived Organoid Models of Bladder Cancer. Cell, 173(2), 515-528.e17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2018.03.017

12. Kim, M., Mun, H., Sung, C. O., et al. (2019). Patient-derived lung cancer organoids as in vitro cancer models for therapeutic screening. Nature Communications, 10(1), 3991. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-11867-6

13. Jacob, F., Salinas, R. D., Zhang, D. Y., et al. (2020). A Patient-Derived Glioblastoma Organoid Model and Biobank Recapitulates Inter- and Intra-tumoral Heterogeneity. Cell, 180(1), 188-204.e22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.11.03

14. Ostrom, Q. T., Gittleman, H., Truitt, G., et al. (2018). CBTRUS Statistical Report: Primary Brain and Other Central Nervous System Tumors Diagnosed in the United States in 20112015. Neuro-Oncology, 20(suppl_4), iv1iv86. https://doi.org/10.1093/neuonc/noy131

15. Bruix, J., Han, K.-H., Gores, G., et al. (2015). Liver cancer: Approaching a personalized care. Journal of Hepatology, 62(1), S144S156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhep.2015.02.007

16. Hu, H., Gehart, H., Artegiani, B., et al. (2018). Long-Term Expansion of Functional Mouse and Human Hepatocytes as 3D Organoids. Cell, 175(6), 1591-1606.e19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2018.11.013

17. Zhang, K., Zhang, L., Liu, W., et al. (2018). In Vitro Expansion of Primary Human Hepatocytes with Efficient Liver Repopulation Capacity. Cell Stem Cell, 23(6), 806-819.e4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stem.2018.10.018

18. Sun, L., Wang, Y., Cen, J., et al, (2019). Modelling liver cancer initiation with organoids derived from directly reprogrammed human hepatocytes. Nature Cell Biology, 21(8), 10151026. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41556-019-0359-5

19. Madhavan, M., Nevin, Z. S., Shick, H. E., et al. (2018). Induction of myelinating oligodendrocytes in human cortical spheroids. Nature Methods, 15(9), 700706. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41592-018-0081-4

20. Post, Y., Puschhof, J., Beumer, J., et al. (2020). Snake Venom Gland Organoids. Cell, 180(2), 233-247.e21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.11.038

21. Calandrini, C., Schutgens, F., Oka, R., et al. (2020). An organoid biobank for childhood kidney cancers that captures disease and tissue heterogeneity. Nature Communications, 11(1), 1310. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-15155-6

22. Subramanian, A., Sidhom, E.-H., Emani, M., et al. (2019). Single cell census of human kidney organoids shows reproducibility and diminished off-target cells after transplantation. Nature Communications, 10(1), 5462. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13382-0

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Organoids: Exploring Liver Cancer Initiation and the Possibilities of Personalized Glioblastoma Treatment - Technology Networks

Cell Biology

Ludwig Oxford Director Xin Lu Elected to the Royal Society – Newswise

Newswise APRIL 29, 2020, New YorkLudwig Cancer Research extends its congratulations to Xin Lu, director of the Oxford Branch of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, on her election to the Fellowship of the Royal Society.

Lu is recognized by the Royal Society for her significant contributions to the cell biology of cancer, particularly her work on the regulation of p53, a tumor suppressor protein whose inactivation or mutation contributes to the progression of a wide variety of tumor types. Early in her career, Lu explored how p53 induces cell suicide, or apoptosis, in response to the expression of cancer-driving genes and events such as DNA damage. That work led to the discovery by Lus group of the ASPP family of proteins, which control p53 activity and thus play a critical role in cancer biology. Aside from opening new approaches to the treatment of cancer, Lus continuing exploration of those proteins has exposed their role in other disorders, including sudden cardiac death and brain abnormalities.

Founded in 1660, the Royal Society is a fellowship of eminent scientists, engineers and technologists in the UK and the Commonwealth whose mission is to recognize, promote, and support excellence in science and to encourage the development and use of science for the benefit of humanity. It counts among its Fellows and Foreign Members some 80 Nobel Laureates, including Ludwig Oxfords Sir Peter Ratcliffe, a co-recipient of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

I am very honored to be named a Fellow of this historic Society, said Lu. I am grateful to Ludwig for its unwavering support for my research, and to the many mentors and collaborators who have helped me so much over the course of my career. Most important of all, my deep gratitude goes to the fantastic scientists in my laboratory, and colleagues Ive had the privilege to work with throughout my career to date, without whom this recognition would not have been possible.

Lu has directed Ludwigs Oxford Branch since it was established in 2007. In addition to her Ludwig post, she is a Professor in the Nuffield Department of Medicine at the University of Oxford. Lu is also a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and the Royal Society of Biology, a Fellow by election of the Royal College of Pathologists and a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization.

About Ludwig Cancer Research

Ludwig Cancer Research is an international collaborative network of acclaimed scientists that has pioneered cancer research and landmark discovery for nearly 50 years. Ludwig combines basic science with the ability to translate its discoveries and conduct clinical trials to accelerate the development of new cancer diagnostics and therapies. Since 1971, Ludwig has invested $2.7 billion in life-changing science through the not-for-profit Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and the six U.S.-based Ludwig Centers. To learn more, visit http://www.ludwigcancerresearch.org.

For further information please contact Rachel Reinhardt, rreinhardt@lcr.org or +1-212-450-1582.

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Ludwig Oxford Director Xin Lu Elected to the Royal Society - Newswise

Cell Biology

One in Three Study Subjects Test Positive for COVID-19 Antibodies in MA – The Great Courses Daily News

By Jonny Lupsha, News Writer

According to The Boston Globe, the new data about coronavirus exposure comes from a blood test led by Massachusetts General Hospital. Nearly one-third of 200 Chelsea residents who gave a drop of blood to researchers on the street this week tested positive for antibodies linked to COVID-19, the article said. Of the 200 random participants, 64 tested positive for the antibodies that are generated to fight the disease.

Antibodies are produced by our bodies immune systems as part of the bodys natural defense mechanism. They are often involved in cancer therapies.

Antibodies help fight off foreign agents that enter our bodies. In order to do this, the body needs to identify the enemy. According to Dr. David Sadava, Adjunct Professor of Cancer Cell Biology at the City of Hope Medical Center, any foreign agent that antibodies attack is called an antigen, in which anti stands for antibody and gen stands for generate. Theyre called antigens specifically because they generate antibodies.

Antigens are not necessarily a large substance, but its a group of atoms linked together in a specific way, Dr. Sadava said. The atoms on, for example, a toxin from a bacterium, like the botulinum toxin, have a unique shape. Some of those are atoms that we dont have in our bodiesonly the bacterium has itso the immune system will recognize that.

How are they recognized? Dr. Sadava said that a type of helper cell in your body called a T-cell recognizes the antigen as being a foreign agent. Essentially, the T-cell is always on the lookout for natural and foreign elements in the body. When it flags an antigen, it sets off a specific two-step response to it that includes both itself and antibodies.

In the first step of the immune response, when the body has been notified of an antigen, cells in the blood serum itself make antibodies against that antigen, if its in the blood. The antibodies mobilize in order to find and bind to the antigen specifically.

Dr. Sadava said this binding is like a lock and key. Antibodies have specific three-dimensional structures, and they will bind to any of the antigen thats in the blood system.

Antibodies can basically escort the antigen out of the body and stop it from causing any trouble along the way. If youre thinking of a bouncer in a nightclub, youre not far off.

The second step of the immune response happens on the cellular level. T-cells can kill some antigens. Dr. Sadava used a surprising example to illustrate how this overall process works.

You have antibodies made in small amounts, and T-cells made in small amounts, that recognize HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, he said. You have a small number of those soldiers that are constantly being made in small numbers. And if you are infected with HIV, all of a sudden, that army gets expandedit gets expanded when this recognition event happens, and all of a sudden those cells will be mobilized.

Once mobilized, the recognizing cells send signals to their siblings to divide and clone themselves to reject or kill cells that contain the antigen.

The residents of Chelsea tested positive for certain antibodies that their bodies made specifically to fight the coronavirus. This means that if they didnt have the coronavirus at the time of the test, they had already encountered it at some point in the past. If they hadnt, those specific antibodies wouldnt be in their blood.

Dr. David Sadava contributed to this article. Dr. Sadava is Adjunct Professor of Cancer Cell Biology at the City of Hope Medical Center. He earned a B.S. with first-class honors in biology and chemistry from Carleton University and a Ph.D. in biology from the University of California, San Diego.

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One in Three Study Subjects Test Positive for COVID-19 Antibodies in MA - The Great Courses Daily News

Cell Biology

What do soap bubbles and butterflies have in common? – Jill Lopez

Edith Smith bred a bluer and shinier Common Buckeye at her butterfly farm in Florida, but it took University of California, Berkeley, graduate student Rachel Thayer to explain the physical and genetic changes underlying the butterfly's newly acquired iridescence.

In the process, Thayer discovered how relatively easy it is for butterflies to change their wing colors over just a few generations and found the first gene proven to influence the so-called "structural color" that underlies the iridescent purple, blue, green and golden hues of many butterflies.

Her findings are a starting point for new genetic approaches to investigate how butterflies produce intricate nanostructures with optical properties, which ultimately could help engineers develop new ways to produce photonic nanostructures for solar panels or iridescent colors for paints, clothing and cosmetics.

Structural color is different from pigment color, like that in your skin or on a canvas, which absorbs or reflects different colors of light. Instead, it comes from light's interaction with a solid material in the same way that a transparent bubble develops a colorful sheen. The light penetrates it and bounces back out, interfering with light reflected from the surface in a way that cancels out all but one color.

At the Shady Oak Butterfly Farm in Brooker, Florida, Smith's breeding experiments with the Common Buckeye (Junonia coenia) -- a mostly brown butterfly with showy, colorful spots, found throughout the United States and often raised by butterfly farmers for butterfly gardens or wedding ceremonies -- were ideal for Thayer's study of structural color.

"Edith noticed that sometimes these butterflies have just a few blue scales on the very front part of the forewing and started breeding the blue animals together," said Thayer, who is in UC Berkeley's Department of Integrative Biology. "So, effectively, she was doing an artificial selection experiment, guided by her own curiosity and intuition about what would be interesting."

In a paper appearing online today in the journaleLife, Thayer and Nipam Patel, a UC Berkeley professor of molecular and cell biology who is on leave as director of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, describe the physical changes in wing scales associated with Smith's experiment on the Common Buckeye, and report one genetic regulator of blue iridescence.

"I especially loved the clear evolutionary context: being able to directly compare the 'before' and 'after' and piece together the whole story," Thayer said. "We know that blueness in J. coenia is a recent change, we know explicitly what the force of selection was, we know the time frame of the change. That doesn't happen every day for evolutionary biologists."

Structural color produces showy butterflies

According to Thayer, hundreds of butterflies have been studied because of the showy structural color in their wing scales. The showiest is the blue morpho, with 5-inch wings of iridescent blue edged with black. Her study, however, focused on a less showy genus,Junonia, and found that iridescent color is common throughout the 10 species, even the drab ones. One unremarkable light gray butterfly, the pansyJ. atlites, proved under a microscope to have iridescent rainbow-colored scales whose colors blend together into gray when viewed with the naked eye.

One major lesson from the study, she said, is that "most butterfly patterns probably have a mix of pigment color and structural color, and which one has the strongest impact on wing color depends on how much pigment is there."

Thayer raised both the wild, brownish Common Buckeye and the cross-bred, bluer variety obtained from Smith. Using a state-of-the-art helium ion microscope, she imaged scales from the wings to see which scale structures are responsible for the color and to determine whether the color change was due to a change in structural color, or just a loss of brown pigment that allowed the blue color to stand out.

She found no difference in the amount of brown pigment on the scales, but a significant difference in the thickness of chitin, the strong polymer from which the scale is built and that also generates the structural color. In the wild buckeye, the thickness of the chitin layer was about 100 nanometers, yielding a golden hue that blended with the brown pigment. The bluer buckeye had chitin about 190 nanometers thick -- about the thickness of a soap bubble -- that produced a blue iridescence that outshined the brown pigment.

"They are actually creating the color the same way a soap bubble iridescence works; it's the same phenomenon physically," Thayer said.

She also found that, though the scales from theJunoniabutterflies have an elaborate microscopic structure, structural color comes from the bottom, or base, of the scale.

"That is not intuitive, because the top part of the scale has all of these curves and grooves and details that really catch your eye, and the most famous structural colors are elaborate structures, often in the top part of the scale," she said. "But the simple, flat layer at the bottom of the scale controls structural coloration in each species we checked."

"The color comes down to a relatively simple change in the scale: the thickness of the lamina," said Patel. "We believe that this will be a genetically tractable system that can allow us to identify the genes and developmental mechanisms that can control structural coloration."

Thayer also investigated the scales of mutant buckeyes created by Cornell University researchers that lacked a key gene, called optix, that controls color. The micrograph images demonstrated that lack of the gene also increased the thickness of the thin film of chitin in the scales, creating a blue color. Optix is a regulatory gene that controls many other butterfly genes, which Thayer will be looking at next.

"One thing that I thought was cool about our findings was seeing that the same mechanism that has recurred over millions of years of butterfly evolution could be reproduced really rapidly in (Smith's) artificial section experiment," she said. "That says that color evolving by changes in lamina thickness is a repeatable, important phenomenon."

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What do soap bubbles and butterflies have in common? - Jill Lopez

Cell Biology

From Nebraska’s Fields To The Ocean’s Floor: The Long Road Of Evolutionary Biologist Elma Gonzlez – Women You Should Know

There is a theory that curiosity originates in leisure, that only after one has taken care of the big important things like food and shelter can one spare the mental room for questions like what a sixth dimensional sphere looks like or how lemurs got that way. Successful scientists, so the story goes, need space in their youth, long parent-subsidized hours to grapple with thorny mathematical and chemical topics so that their minds are primed for thinking on the highest level when a university education is tossed gently in their outstretched arms. If we are to spend money on science education, so the theory canters to its conclusion, we must spend it on developing programs for the respectable and dependable offspring of the middle class, whose lives and minds stand ready to make use of it.

At this point, counterexamples are doubtlessly flying to your fingertips for enumeration a list of What Abouts from the scientific pantheon featuring figures who worked their way up from nothing to achieve something of lasting value for humanity, but as for me Ive only ever needed one Elma Gonzlez. She came from the center of a grinding maw of economic, racial, gender, and social disadvantages, and not only survived their concentrated effects throughout her theoretically most formative intellectual years, but rose on the strength of her own determination and innate skill to shine a light on global-scale chemical processes that will shape our collective future.

Born in Mexico in 1942 to migrant workers, Gonzlez came to the United States at the age of six, did not attend school until the age of nine, and was at thirteen initiated into the life of the migrant farmer. That year, her father accepted the offer of a Mr. Manuel Flores to join his regular summer route through the Midwest, offering their services to an array of farmers along the way. It was back-throttling work, using a variety of wicked tools (including the dreaded, and now banned, cortito), while crouching in a variety of unregulated pesticides, paid by the acre rather than by the hour, and thus done at a pace that made no accommodation for a childs strength or stamina. Living conditions varied from farm to farm if the workers were lucky, they were put up in an old unused lodging on the property, if not they might find themselves crammed together in the loft of the pig sty, or huddled together with dozens of other migrant workers in hot temporary shelters with paper-thin walls.

Elma Gonzlez rose on the strength of her own determination and innate skill to shine a light on global-scale chemical processes that will shape our collective future.

As bad as the experience on the farms was, however, it was the trek from farm to farm, and the long return trip to Texas, that perhaps took the greatest toll. Traveling in the back of a truck for hours at a time with no bathroom breaks under a tarp that trapped heat in the sun and let in water in the rain, sleeping on thin bed rolls and under thinner mattresses by the side of the road, young Gonzlez was regularly exposed to the elements as well as the prejudices of local police who wanted nothing more than to see their caravan pack up and continue moving down the road, into the next county.

For years, this was her life, kneeling in fields and shuddering under a roadside blanket during the summer before returning to Texas, often weeks into the new school year, to catch up as best she could in her studies. If one good thing came of the hardships of her early life, it was the determination that she would, somehow by the force of her mind, find a way out of the migrant labor system. In 1961, her family stopped making the annual northern migrant labor loop to concentrate on Texas cotton harvesting work, and with all members of the family relatively grown and making money, Gonzlezs family could afford to accede to her earnest request to be allowed to go to college.

Gonzlez attended Texas Womans University as a double biology and chemistry major and even had the opportunity to intern one summer at the Baylor University College of Medicine. To make money straight out of college in order to help support the rest of her family, she took for three years a position as a research technician at the Southwestern Medical School of the University of Texas. While the position taught her some important fundamentals of laboratory technique, it was not advancing her real knowledge base in a way that would allow her to ever be anything but a technician.

She decided to apply to graduate schools in 1967 and was eventually accepted by Rutgers University, where she was pushed to excel by the tough-but-fair cellular biologist Charlotte Avers, the author of a standard text on molecular cell biology (called, in the true spirit of science, Molecular Cell Biology) and another on basic cell biology (called, yes, Basic Cell Biology). Here, Gonzlez began vectoring herself towards the study of cellular chemical processes that would define her career, and after post-doc work at UC Santa Cruz in 1972, she was offered an assistant professorship at UCLA in 1974.

Though she remained at UCLA for decades doing her foundational studies of algae calcification, her start there was a rocky one. She was hired primarily to fulfill a minority quota, and on arrival nobody knew precisely what to do with her, or where to put her. She didnt have an office or equipment, and ended up having to scrounge a free space among the mouse cages of the universitys vivarium in between rounds of trying to cut deals on discounted demonstration models of lab equipment so she could begin her research. After that rough start, her situation improved considerably when rubisco researcher Sam Wildman heard of her predicament and offered to share his lab space with her.

She had a place to work, and by 1993 was confirmed as a full professor on the strength of her ongoing work with coccolithophorid algae. These are major players in the global carbon cycle, and one of the great questions is how our rapidly changing climate will affect them and, in turn, their ability to scrub carbon dioxide from our atmosphere. Her work centered around the mechanisms that allow different strains of this algae to obtain carbon from water and lock it into calcium carbonate deposits which settle harmlessly to the bottom of the ocean.

Non-organic carbon in seawater, it turns out, is found more in dissolved HCO3 than carbon dioxide. The algae that Gonzlez studied take that HCO3 and combine it with calcium to make calcium carbonate, which traps one carbon, and carbon dioxide, which the algae uses for photoshynthesis. This process, however, also produces protons which need to be pumped out of the cell to avoid reaching toxic levels. If, however, seawater becomes too acidic, it will interfere with the ability of these algae to get rid of their steadily accumulating protons, which will in turn affect their ability to sink atmospheric carbon to the oceans floor.

Gonzlez theorized that the acidification of the oceans will have an impact on the evolutionary advantage that calcifying algae receive from their ability to use the relatively more abundant levels of oceanic HCO3 to feed their photosynthesis, and as a result might remove one of the global carbon cycles most steadfast components. Its a wonderful example of how something as simple as a chemical reaction can, when understood in its various biological guises, become a key clue in grasping the large-scale forces that govern our tenuous grasp upon existence on this planet, and it was gifted to us by a person whose value was, for a long lean decade, measured primarily in the amount of manual labor that could be wrung from her while still a child.

Perhaps there is something to be learned in that.

FURTHER READING:Gonzlez was a co-founder of the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics & Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) in 1973 and is the first person featured in the 2008 Paths to Discovery: Autobiographies from Chicanas with Careers in Science, Mathematics and Engineering published by the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Press. SACNAS also has a small memoir that she wrote on her life which you can find here.

Lead image credit: Dr. Elma Gonzlez; By SACNAS Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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From Nebraska's Fields To The Ocean's Floor: The Long Road Of Evolutionary Biologist Elma Gonzlez - Women You Should Know

Cell Biology

A Q&A With Josh Wolfe of Lux Capital – Morning Brew

Lux Capital has backed many of the familiar startup faces in Emerging Tech Brew. Today, the VC firm is launching a new season of Futura, its web series exploring the operations of portfolio companies. Futura S2 includes startups like Anduril, Cala Health, and Saildrone.

Emerging Tech Brew recently caught up with Lux cofounder Josh Wolfe to discuss these investments and more. Note: This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Thinking about the new season of Futura, why is storytelling an effective way to highlight the projects your portfolio companies are working on?

I think you know this from what you do on a daily basis, but we are storytelling creatures and social primates. Futura tells the stories of the individuals, mavericks, and scientists we like to celebrate and invest in, who believe something that everyone else doesnt believe. Or the guy or girl with a chip on their shoulder and something to prove.

In general, having trusted insider access to people who are quite literally inventing the future is special. Being able to asymmetrically bring that to the masses is the motive for why we do it.

Whats it like researching, investing, and doing diligence in companies that, as you say are, inventing the future?

On the one hand, Im always quite envious of people who have those early revenue metrics and can say heres where well be in a quarter or year later. Oftentimes when we're investing, we like to say that we believe before others might understand, so that has us investing in the cutting-edge.

Were constantly assessing the people first and foremost. Are they for real or full of shit? Thats the number one thing we have to assess early on. Its really hard to know at the moment of inception whether someone is delusional or visionary, if theyre a huckster or someone thats going to go change the world.

Take the person coming out of their garage saying they have some new flux capacitor. Were going to treat that very skeptically, versus a PhD whos highly esteemed by their peers, has lots of polished academic research, and a commercial instinct. Thats way more credible.

How about evaluating or validating the technology itself?

The Lux team is very diverse and very technical, with backgrounds in neuroscience, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, stem cell biology, and material science. But every technology reveals our own ignorance, so then the most important question is: Does it work?

Its amazing how many investors will invest in something and then become pot-committed. Its the worst kind of psychological biascommitment bias. We ask: How much money accomplishes what, in what period of time, and who will care? Theres usually an Oh wow, holy shit moment where we get very excited to double down. Thats when we go from putting millions of dollars to tens of millions of dollars or more into a company.

When you have that feeling that invokes the Arthur C. Clarke quote [Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic], thats the greatest risk-reducer of all.

What else is a key differentiator for Lux?

One part humility, one part paranoia. Theres a phenomenon I call 100-0-100. Its a cute way of saying with 100% certainty well be investing in the most cutting-edge stuff people can imagine over the next two years. Zero certainty what those things will actually be. Thats the intellectual honesty. The last 100% is the confidence of where we will find the next investments, which is at the edge of our already cutting-edge companies. One leads to the next one, which leads to the next one.

I hadn't really thought about the tech crossover between startups working on very different problems.

When we invest in one company, it can lead to knowledge that lets us find others. A priori, you never know what the second or third company will be. But just by having a sufficient amount of paranoia and curiositythe confidence of staying at the cutting-edge on this treadmill thats always picking up a bit fasterthat can lead you to the next company.

VC is the only asset class where you can get legal inside information about whats happening. You start to see white space and whos entering it.

Take Cala from Season 2. In CTRL-labs case from Season 1, youre reading from the brain using pretty sophisticated software, sensors, and machine learning. Youre reading what the brain intends to do; its more about intention capture. Cala is the opposite. How do we take the same wrist worn device and instead of reading from the brain write to the brain? How do we take people with essential tremors and through a device give them the stability of motions we all take for granted? Theyre helping restore dignity to someone that suffers, through technology.

Lets unpack a term you use frequentlydirectional arrows of progress. Can you explain that a bit?

Technologies are directionally predictable. The hardest thing to predict is the social piece of a technology. Its not what happens when one person has a phone, its when everyone does. Right now, you can see that with e-commerce, videoconferencing, and online learning.

As for technological arrows of progress, Im a big student of history. I like looking at how technology evolves. There's a directional arrow of progress that reduces entropy. Theres more information content in the next device. Theres less waste. It tends to be more efficient, a higher density per unit of raw material.

Transportation is an example. We went from horses to horse drawn carriages to cars to electric cars to an autonomous car. Were not going back to horses.

Now lets pivot to our current situation. How exposed are your portfolio companies to the coronavirus?

Ill start with the macro and then give you a post-pandemic prescription. Macro, everybody is suffering in some way. Its more than an economic or medical crisis; its a human crisis.

On a more technical and practical matter, weve always been more on the bearish side of things. Its this weird dichotomy where were ebullient optimists about the future but were generally very skeptical about human nature and markets, which are a collective of human nature. Were always admonishing our companies with this line: Failure comes from a failure of imagination.

So theyve been admonished to have rainy day money, expect the worst, and plan for bad scenarios. Now, we never prophesied a pandemic [editors note: us as well], but Ive been amazed at how quickly and swiftly theyve acted. Of the 130 companies we have, Ive seen five where they had financing that was going to close, or was at risk of closing, where the business wasnt going that well. They were likely to succumb.

Weve also seen some companies that have dropped everything to help. Shapeways has been shipping over 10,000 PPE to 10 different NYC hospitals. Desktop Metal is helping produce swabs for testing. It showed in a crisis how you can go from centralized manufacturing to distributed and do it in a very agile fashion.

I know you started as an expert in nanotech. What should our younger readers (potential future entrepreneurs and investors) be focused on? Should students or early-stage career folks focus on going really, really deep on something technical or scientific theyre passionate about?

I think the best thing that can serve you is science and technology. Id read everything Kevin Kelly ever wrote. A good understanding of human nature and psychology also helps. When our companies do or dont succeed, its because of the people. Its never because the technology didnt work.

Anywhere there are structural barriers and therefore competitive advantage is really important to identify. Id emphasize understanding the great competitors and clever things they did to make it harder to compete with them. Some of the greatest entrepreneurs have always been very thoughtful about that. And you yourself have to have a competitive advantage.

Any area we go into, its good to become obsessive. That way, when youre talking to someone with a PhD whos super technical, theyll take you seriously. I knew nothing about brain machine interfaces or nuclear but then became obsessed.

What science fiction are you currently obsessed with?

Currently, I think Chinese science fiction is sweeping and sophisticated. Its rooted in physics, computer science, and astronomy. Its not fantasy. Also the new William Gibson book, Agency. That was outstanding because its a real near-term prognostication of how technology is likely to evolve. A version of Black Mirror.

The gap between sci-fi and when it becomes real is just getting shorter and shorter.

Originally posted here:
A Q&A With Josh Wolfe of Lux Capital - Morning Brew

Cell Biology

Silver Bullet Water Treatment’s Taylor Robinson Appointed to Two Influential Cannabis Industry Advisory Committees – Yahoo Finance

GOLDEN, Colo., April 29, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Silver Bullet Water Treatment, LLC today proudly announced that the Company's Manager of R&D and Analytical Services, Taylor Robinson, has recently been appointed to an advisor role on two influential cannabis industry standards committees.

Taylor will serve with distinction on the Cannabis Certification Council's (CCC) "Organically Grown Cannabis" Technical Advisory Council and ASTM International's Cannabis Best Management Standards Committee. Both committee appointments for Taylor will give Silver Bullet Water Treatment a significant voice in crafting the Best Management Practice standards for the burgeoning cannabis industry.

"Silver Bullet Water Treatment wishes to express the Company's sincere gratitude to CCC and ASTM for taking leadership on these important cannabis industry matters," said Silver Bullet Water Treatment CEO Brad Walsh. "Silver Bullet Water Treatment and these two organizations are committed to building strategic partnerships and promoting cooperation to provide the best guidance for a healthy future for the cannabis industry."

The CCC is a nonprofit standard holding body focused on providing consumer and industry education, transparency and choice in the cannabis industry. CCC is a leading advocate for clean, ethical and sustainable business practices in the cannabis industry. As a CCC Organically Grown Cannabis Technical Advisory Committee member, Taylor will advise the CCC on the development of production standards to define and certify cannabis as "CCC Organically Grown Cannabis." Primary goals of the CCC Committee include drafting core standards to grow organic cannabis, labelling requirements, testing procedures and compliance processes.

ASTM International is an international standards organization that develops and publishes voluntary consensus technical standards for a wide range of materials, products, systems, and services. As a member of ASTM's Cannabis Best Management Standards Committee, Taylor's activities will help the organization address quality and safety for the cannabis industry through the development of voluntary consensus standards. Subcommittees on which he may serve focus on the development of test methods, cultivation, quality assurance, laboratory considerations, packaging and security.

Taylor, who is the Research & Development Manager and Chief Chemist for Silver Bullet Water Treatment with expertise in molecular and cell biology, general water chemistry and microbiology, looks forward to his new advisory roles on behalf of the cannabis industry. "Taking a leading role with these advisory committees to pioneer the establishment of cannabis industry standards will be a challenge I and Silver Bullet Water Treatment look forward to meeting."

CEO Brad Walsh believes Silver Bullet Water Treatment's role as an industry advisor is only beginning. "Providing consultation, education and industry leadership on best management practices for cannabis cultivation and water use has been a driving force behind Silver Bullet Water Treatment's outsized impact on the cannabis industry. Taylor and Silver Bullet Water Treatment look forward to helping these excellent organizations create effective cannabis industry standards that will be relied on by cultivators/operators, the supply chain, governments, and utilities long into the future," said Walsh. "The addition of Taylor's expertise to the CCC and ASTM committees confirms Silver Bullet Water Treatment's increasingly influential voice in the cannabis, controlled environment agriculture and horticulture sectors."

About Silver Bullet Water Treatment

Established in 2011, Silver Bullet Water Treatment, LLC TREATS WATER BETTER through our commitment to solve our customers water quality challenges through the engineering and installation of comprehensive water treatment solutions and services. Silver Bullet Water Treatment is inspired to develop and introduce innovative, progressive solutions and be recognized as a go-to knowledge resource for the industries we serve.

Media Contact:Jeremy Scherr303-500-1618238950@email4pr.com

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Silver Bullet Water Treatment's Taylor Robinson Appointed to Two Influential Cannabis Industry Advisory Committees - Yahoo Finance