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Cell Biology

On the Road to 3-D Printed Organs – The Scientist

For years, scientists have predicted that 3-D printingwhich has been used it to make toys, homes, scientific tools and even a plastic bunny that contained a DNA code for its own replicationcould one day be harnessed to print live, human body parts to mitigate a shortage of donor organs. So far, researchers also used 3-D printing in medicine and dentistry to create dental implants, prosthetics, and models for surgeons to practice on before they make cuts on a patient. But many researchers have moved beyond printing with plastics and metalsprinting with cells that then form living human tissues.

No one has printed fully functional, transplantable human organs just yet, but scientists are getting closer, making pieces of tissue that can be used to test drugs and designing methods to overcome the challenges of recreating the bodys complex biology.

A confocal microscopy image showing 3-Dprinted stem cells differentiating into bone cells

The first 3-D printer was developed in the late 1980s. It could print small objects designed using computer-aided design (CAD) software. A design would be virtually sliced into layers only three-thousandths of a millimeter thick. Then, the printer would piece that design into the complete product.

There were two main strategies a printer might use to lay down the pattern: it could extrude a paste through a very fine tip, printing the design starting with the bottom layer and working upward with each layer being supported by the previous layers. Alternatively, it could start with a container filled with resin and use a pointed laser to solidify portions of that resin to create a solid object from the top down, which would be lifted and removed from the surrounding resin.

When it comes to printing cells and biomaterials to make replicas of body parts and organs, these same two strategies apply, but the ability to work with biological materials in this way has required input from cell biologists, engineers, developmental biologists, materials scientists, and others.

So far, scientists have printed mini organoids and microfluidics models of tissues, also known as organs on chips. Both have yielded practical and theoretical insights into the function of the human body. Some of these models are used by pharmaceutical companies to test drugs before moving on to animal studies and eventually clinical trials. One group, for example, printed cardiac cells on a chip and connected it to a bioreactor before using it to test the cardiac toxicity of a well-known cancer drug, doxorubicin. The team showed that the cells beating rate decreased dramatically after exposure to the drug.

However, scientists have yet to construct organs that truly replicate the myriad structural characteristics and functions of human tissues. There are a number of companies who are attempting to do things like 3-D print ears, and researchers have already reported transplanting 3-D printed ears onto children who had birth defects that left their ears underdeveloped, notes Robby Bowles, a bioengineer at the University of Utah. The ear transplants are, he says, kind of the first proof of concept of 3-D printing for medicine.

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Bowles adds that researchers are still a ways away from printing more-complex tissues and organs that can be transplanted into living organisms. But, for many scientists, thats precisely the goal. As of February 2020, more than 112,000 people in the US are waiting for an organ transplant, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. About 20 of them die each day.

For many years, biological engineers have tried to build 3-D scaffolds that they could seed with stem cells that would eventually differentiate and grow into the shapes of organs, but to a large extent those techniques dont allow you to introduce kind of the organization of gradients and the patterning that is in the tissue, says Bowles. There is no control over where the cells go in that tissue. By contrast, 3-D printing enables researchers with to very precisely direct the placement of cellsa feat that could lead to better control over organ development.

Ideally, 3-D printed organs would be built from cells that a patients immune system could recognize as its own, to avoid immune rejection and the need for patients to take immunosuppressive drugs. Such organs could potentially be built from patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells, but one challenge is getting the cells to differentiate into the subtype of mature cell thats needed to build a particular organ. The difficulty is kind of coming together and producing complex patternings of cells and biomaterials together to produce different functions of the different tissues and organs, says Bowles.

To imitate the patterns seen in vivo, scientists print cells into hydrogels or other environments with molecular signals and gradients designed to coax the cells into organizing themselves into lifelike organs. Scientists can use 3-D printing to build these hydrogels as well. With other techniques, the patterns achieved have typically been two-dimensional, Eben Alsberg, a bioengineer at the University of Illinois, tells The Scientist in an email. Three-dimensional bioprinting permits much more control over signal presentation in 3D.

So far, researchers have created patches of tissue that mimic portions of certain organs but havent managed to replicate the complexity or cell density of a full organ. But its possible that in some patients, even a patch would be an effective treatment. At the end of 2016, a company called Organovo announced the start of a program to develop 3-D printed liver tissue for human transplants after a study showed that transplanted patches of 3-D printed liver cells successfully engrafted in a mouse model of a genetic liver disease and boosted several biomarkers that suggested an improvement in liver function.

Only in the past few years have researchers started to make headway with one of the biggest challenges in printing 3-D organs: creating vasculature. After the patches were engrafted into the mouses liver in the Organovo study, blood was delivered to it by the surrounding liver tissue, but an entire organ would need to come prepared for blood flow.

For any cells to stay alive, [the organ] needs that blood supply, so it cant just be this huge chunk of tissue, says Courtney Gegg, a senior director of tissue engineering at Prellis Biologics, which makes and sells scaffolds to support 3-D printed tissue. Thats been recognized as one of the key issues.

Mark Skylar-Scott, a bioengineer at the Wyss Institute, says that the problem has held back tissue engineering for decades. But in 2018, Sbastian Uzel, Skylar-Scott, and a team at the Wyss Institute managed to 3-D print a tiny, beating heart ventricle complete with blood vessels. A few days after printing the tissue, Uzel says he came into the lab to find a piece of twitching tissue, which was both very terrifying and exciting.

For any cells to stay alive, [the organ] needs that blood supply, so it cant just be this huge chunk of tissue.

Courtney Gegg, Prellis Biologics

Instead of printing the veins in layers, the team used embedded printinga technique in which, instead of building from the bottom of a slide upwards, material is extruded directly into a bath, or matrix. This strategy, which allows the researchers to print free form in 3-D, says Skylar-Scott, rather having to print each layer one on top of the other to support the structure, is a more efficient way to print a vascular tree. The matrix in this case was the cellular material that made up the heart ventricle. A gelatin-like ink pushed these cells gently out of the way to create a network of channels. Once printing was finished, the combination was warmed up. This heat caused the cellular matrix to solidify, but the gelatin to liquify so it could then be rinsed out, leaving space for blood to flow through.

But that doesnt mean the problem is completely solved. The Wyss Institute teams ventricle had blood vessels, but not nearly as many as a full-sized heart. Gegg points out that to truly imitate human biology, an individual cell will have to be within 200 microns of your nearest blood supply. . . . Everything has to be very, very close. Thats far more intricate than what researchers have printed so far.

Due to hurdles with adding vasculature and many other challenges that still face 3-Dprinted tissues, laboratory-built organs wont be available for transplant anytime soon. In the meantime, 3-D printing portions of tissue is helping accelerate both basic and clinical research about the human body.

Emma Yasinski is a Florida-based freelance reporter. Follow her on Twitter@EmmaYas24.

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On the Road to 3-D Printed Organs - The Scientist

Cell Biology

Bit Bio Secures Distribution Agreement with Abcam to Democratize Access to Human Cells for Global Life Science Research – BioSpace

CAMBRIDGE, England, Feb. 25, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --Bit Bio announces agreement with Abcam, a global innovator in life science reagents and tools, to make Bit Bio's iPSC derived functional human cells widely available to the global life science community. Over the course of the next two years this new partnership will provide an increasing range of highly defined, scalable and consistent human cells for research and high-throughput screening applications. The first product available are brain cells (ioNEURONS/glutTM, glutamatergic neurons) serving the neuroscience community.

Access to human cells is a significant bottleneck in the field of medical research and drug development. Human cells differ from animal models, and therefore research using animal models often does not translate into clinical applications.

Bit Bio is commercializing opti-oxTM, a precise reprogramming proprietary technology platform that enables uniquely efficient and consistent production of human cells for use in research, drug discovery, and cell therapy.

"Bit Bio's goal is to develop a scalable technology platform capable of producing consistent batches of every human cell type," said Bit Bio CEO Mark Kotter, a neurosurgeon at Cambridge University, and stem cell biologist. "This agreement will accelerate our mission of putting highly defined human cells in the hands of the researchers who need them to pursue their life-saving work."

"Supporting enhanced access to complementary technologies that have the potential to improve and accelerate research is part of our growth strategy," said John Baker, Senior Vice President Product Portfolio and Innovation at Abcam. "Our industry expertise, and co-location in major biotechnology hubs throughout the world, enables our partners to rapidly put their innovations into the hands of the global research community, helping advance the understanding of biology and cause of disease to enable new treatments and improved health outcomes."

Bit Bio's breakthrough technology has been successfully employed to reprogram stem cells into functional neurons on a scalable and consistent basis. The proprietary approach ensures batch to batch reproducibility and unprecedented purity compared to current technologies and yields fully differentiated neurons within days. The protocol is also universally applicable, from small-scale laboratory research projects to high throughput screens in pharmaceutical R&D laboratories.

Bit Bio's human-induced glutamatergic neurons are a highly defined and consistent human model for the study of neurological physiology and disease, including neurodegeneration, and are available from the Abcam website.

"At Bit Bio we believe that world-wide access to our iPSC derived cells will drive human translational experiments and ultimately help to fuel the next generation of medicine," said Bit Bio Chief Business Officer Paul Morrill. "Abcam's reputation as a disruptive innovator in the field of biological reagents and dedicated global commercialization infrastructure make them the ideal partner. In line with our core value of democratizing access to human cells for research and drug development, our ioNEURONS/glut are offered at a highly competitive price point."

About Bit Bio

Bit Bio, the cell coding company, is based in Cambridge, UK. Bit Bio's team includes world leaders in stem cell biology, cellular reprogramming and cell therapy who are harnessing the power of synthetic biology to tackle the problem of inconsistency in the production of human cells. Bit Bio is developing opti-oxTM, a proprietary technology platform capable of producing any human cell for research, drug discovery and cell therapy.

We areintroducing ioNEURONS/glutTM,human-induced glutamatergic neuronscells, providing a high-quality human model for research, drug development and high-throughput screening.ioNEURONS/glut cells have been reprogrammed from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) using a precise reprogramming technology.

To find out more, please visit http://www.bit.bio

Bit Bio press contact:Dr Farah Patell-Socha, press@bit.bio

About AbcamAs a global life sciences company, Abcam identifies, develops, and distributes high-quality biological reagents and tools that are crucial to research, drug discovery and diagnostics. Working across the industry, the Company supports life scientists to achieve their mission, faster. Abcam partners with life science organisations to co-create novel binders for use in drug discovery,in vitrodiagnostics and therapeutics, driven by the Company's proprietary discovery platforms and world-leading, antibody expertise.

By constantly innovating its binders and assays, Abcam is helping advance the global understanding of biology and causes of disease, which enables new treatments and improved health. The Company's pioneering data-sharing approach gives scientists increased confidence in their results by providing validation, user comments and peer-reviewed citations for its 110,000 products. With eleven sites globally, many of Abcam's 1,100 strong team are located in the world's leading life science research hubs, complementing a global network of services and support.

To find out more, please visitwww.abcam.comandwww.abcamplc.com.

Abcam press contact:Dr Lynne Trowbridge, lynne.trowbridge@abcam.com

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Bit Bio Secures Distribution Agreement with Abcam to Democratize Access to Human Cells for Global Life Science Research - BioSpace

Cell Biology

Breast cancer cells hibernate in the lung before forming secondary tumors – News-Medical.net

Feb 24 2020

Healthy lung cells support the survival of breast cancer cells, allowing them to hibernate in the lung before forming secondary tumors, according to new research from the Crick. The findings could help the development of new treatments that interfere with this behavior, reducing the number of secondary cancers.

Image showing mouse breast cancer cells (orange) within lung tissue (light pink), connected with protein fibres (purple).

The study, published in Nature Cell Biology, used a mouse model to show that, after cancer cells from a breast tumor arrive in the lungs, a signal sent out from the lung cells causes cancer cells to change shape and grow protrusions that latch onto the lung tissue. The lung cells then protect them within the lung tissue.

By using a treatment that interferes with the growth of these protrusions on the breast cancer cells, the researchers found that mice who received the treatment grew fewer secondary tumors than the control mice.

The researchers then analyzed the genes that are turned on in the hibernating cells. This enabled them to find a key gene, sFRP2, that regulates the formation of cell protrusions and the survival of breast cancer cells in the lung.

Cancer can survive, hibernating in different parts of the body, for many years. By showing how the microenvironment around the cancer cell can support its survival, in our case how the lung cells help the breast cancer cells, opens the door to potential new treatments which target this relationship.

Erik Sahai, co-lead author and group leader of the Cricks Tumour Cell Biology Laboratory

The cancer cells were tested over the course of up to four weeks, during which they remained inactive. In comparison, other cell types continued to remain active, showing that the hibernation of these cells is due to a special relationship they have with the lung environment around them.

The mechanism behind how cancer cells survive in tissues they have traveled to is not yet well understood. But with many cancers spreading around the body and consequently many patients suffering from relapses, a deeper understanding of the process is vital and something well continue to explore, says Marco Montagner, co-lead author and former postdoc in the Cricks Tumour Cell Biology Laboratory, who is now based at the University of Padua.

Around 55,000 people in the UK are diagnosed with breast cancer each year. This cancer can spread through the blood or lymphatic system to another part of the body, commonly the lungs, liver, brain or bones. Where breast cancer spreads to the lungs, there can be a long time between the cells arriving in the lungs and the formation of a secondary tumor. This gap is one factor that explains why people may relapse a long time after the initial disease.

The researchers are continuing to explore the relationship between cancer and non-cancerous cells in a secondary location in the body. At the Crick, researchers are now studying what happens when cells from colorectal cancer and melanomas form secondary tumors in the liver. While at the University of Padua, studies are ongoing into the genes which are over-expressed in hibernating breast cancer cells.

Source:

Journal reference:

Montagner, M., et al. (2020) Crosstalk with lung epithelial cells regulates Sfrp2-mediated latency in breast cancer dissemination. Nature Cell Biology. doi.org/10.1038/s41556-020-0474-3.

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Breast cancer cells hibernate in the lung before forming secondary tumors - News-Medical.net

Cell Biology

Cellular metabolism plays key role in dictating the fate decision between pathogenic and regulatory T cells – The Medical News

Patients with autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease and rheumatoid arthritis have an imbalance between two types of immune system T cells. Destructive Th17 cells that mediate chronic inflammation are elevated, and regulatory T cells, or Treg cells, which suppress inflammatory responses and play a protective role in autoimmune disorders, are diminished.

Both cells differentiate from the same precursors -- nave CD4 T cells -- and the beginning of their change to either Th17 or Treg cells starts with the same signal. Subsequently, a fate decision occurs, like a fork in the road, steering the changing CD4 cells to become either inflammatory T cells or regulatory T cells.

New, preclinical research, led by Laurie Harrington, Ph.D., associate professor in the UAB Department of Cell, Developmental and Integrative Biology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, shows a pivotal role for cellular metabolism to regulate that fate decision, a decision that occurs very early in the activation of CD4 T cells. This opens a possibility that manipulating the cellular metabolism of T cells may provide a new, promising therapeutic intervention to modulate the balance between pathogenic Th17 and Treg cells in chronic autoimmune disorders. The research is published in the journal Cell Reports.

Upon activation, T cells were known to rapidly increase metabolism, including glycolysis and mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation, or OXPHOS, to meet the energetic demands of differentiation. But the precise contribution of OXPHOS to that Th17 differentiation was not defined.

The UAB researchers, and one colleague at New York University, found that ATP-linked mitochondrial respiration during Th17 differentiation was essential to upregulate glycolysis and the TCA cycle metabolism. Strikingly, it also was essential to promote inflammation of the central nervous system by Th17, as shown in a mouse model for multiple sclerosis.

In the mouse model, experimental autoimmune encephalitis, Th17 cells cause the disease progression. For the experiment, harvested CD4 T cells were differentiated using a combination of Th17-polarizing cytokines. One group was the polarized control, and one group was polarized in the presence of oligomycin, an inhibitor of mitochondrial OXPHOS. Then the T cells were transferred into experimental mice. Mice receiving the T cells treated with oligomycin during polarizing conditions showed a significantly delayed onset of disease and reduced disease severity. Both groups of T cells proliferated robustly after transfer.

In mechanistic experiments, the researchers detailed the early molecular events that differ between cells polarized in the presence or absence of oligomycin. These included gene sets that are upregulated or downregulated, presence or absence of Th17 or Treg cell markers, expression of signature transcription factors needed for Th17 differentiation, and expression of gene products that play a role in T cell receptor signaling.

A surprise was found in the timing of the fate decision. In an experiment, CD4 T cells were exposed to Th17-polarizing conditions with oligomycin present only during the first 24 hours. They were then washed and allowed to continue differentiation in the polarizing conditions. The effects of this brief exposure to oligomycin were T cells that lacked Th17 markers and instead showed hallmarks of Treg cells, including expression of Foxp3. Thus, the brief early exposure to oligomycin imprinted the Foxp3 fate decision.

Overall, Harrington said:

Inhibition of mitochondrial OXPHOS ablates Th17 pathogenicity in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis and results in generation of functionally suppressive Treg cells under Th17 conditions."

Source:

Journal reference:

Shin, B., et al. (2020) Mitochondrial Oxidative Phosphorylation Regulates the Fate Decision between Pathogenic Th17 and Regulatory T Cells. Cell Reports. doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2020.01.022.

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Cellular metabolism plays key role in dictating the fate decision between pathogenic and regulatory T cells - The Medical News

Cell Biology

Nanosize Device ‘Uncloaks’ Cancer Cells in Mice And Reveals Them to The Immune System – Newswise

Newswise Scientists at Johns Hopkins report they have designed and successfully tested an experimental, super small package able to deliver molecular signals that tag implanted human cancer cells in mice and make them visible for destruction by the animals immune systems. The new method was developed, say the researchers, to deliver an immune system uncloaking device directly to cancer cells.

Conventional immune therapies generally focus on manipulating patients immune system cells to boost their cancer-killing properties or injecting drugs that do the same but often have toxic side effects.

Results of the proof-of-concept experiments were published online Feb. 7 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A hallmark of cancer biology is a tumor cells ability to essentially hide from the immune system cells whose job is to identify and destroy cancer cells. Current cellular immunotherapies, notably CAR-T, require scientists to chemically alter and enhance a patients own harvested immune system T-cells an expensive and time-consuming process, say the researchers. Other weapons in the arsenal of immunotherapies are drugs, including so-called checkpoint inhibitors, which have broad effects and often lead to unwanted immune-system-associated side effects, including damage to normal tissue.

By contrast, the Johns Hopkins team sought an immune system therapy that can work like a drug but that also individually engineers a tumor and its surrounding environment to draw the immune system cells to it, says Jordan Green, Ph.D.

Green is the director of the biomaterials and drug delivery laboratory and a professor of biomedical engineering at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. And our process happens entirely within the body, Green says, requiring no external manipulation of a patients cells.

To develop the new system, Green and his team, including Stephany Tzeng, Ph.D., a research associate in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins, took advantage of a cancer cells tendency to internalize molecules from its surroundings. Cancer cells may be easier to directly genetically manipulate because their DNA has gone haywire, they divide rapidly, and they dont have the typical checks and balances of normal cells, says Green.

The team created a polymer-based nanoparticle a tiny case that slips inside cells. They guided the nanoparticles to cancer cells by injecting them directly into the animals tumors.

The nanoparticle method we developed is widely applicable to many solid tumors despite their variability on an individual and tumor type level, says Green, also a member of the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center.

Once inside the cell, the water-soluble nanoparticle slowly degrades over a day. It contains a ring of DNA, called a plasmid, that does not integrate into the genome and is eventually degraded as the cancer cell divides, but it stays active long enough to alter protein production in the cell.

The additional genomic material from the plasmid makes the tumor cells produce surface proteins called 4-1BBL, which work like red flags to say, Im a cancer cell, activate defenses. The plasmid also forces the cancer cells to secrete chemicals called interleukins into the space around the cells. The 4-1BBL tags and interleukins are like magnets to immune system cells, and they seek to kill the foreign-looking cancer cells.

Essentially, were forcing the tumor to open itself up and instruct immune cells to kill it, says Tzeng.

In their animal experiments, Tzeng and the Johns Hopkins team injected the loaded nanoparticles into tumors created by implanting mice with either human melanoma or colon cancer cells.

A control group of mice implanted with melanoma cells received systemically an immunotherapy drug known as anti-PD-1 antibody. All of those mice died quickly, within 2.5 to three weeks, due to tumor growth.

Then, the research team injected other groups of mice, which were also injected with the cancer cells, with nanoparticles containing only one or both of the uncloaking signals the genetically encoded 4-1BBL tags and interleukins. In mice with implanted melanomas, the nanoparticles that combined the two signals had a stronger effect than either signal alone. The median, or midpoint, survival of the mice with the combo signal package was 40 days, and about 20% of them lived through the end of the 60-day study period.

The researchers also saw that some of the mice in the treated melanoma group developed vitiligo, a condition in which skin cells lose their pigment. It occurs in humans too, including in people undergoing immunotherapy for melanoma. Its generally thought that vitiligo in melanoma patients is a sign that the immunotherapy treatment is working, and the immunotherapy is spreading to other parts of the body where other melanocytes reside, says Tzeng.

The tumor shrank away in all of the mice with implanted colon tumors that received the nanoparticles with both signals, and they survived through the entire 60-day study period. When the researchers reinjected human colon cancer cells into the sides of mice opposite the original tumors, unlike with age-matched controls, the newly implanted cancer cells failed to form a tumor, suggesting a lasting effect of the boosted immune system.

The hope is that, eventually, we could develop nanoparticles that hold instructions for a variety of immune-related signals, says Green, who cautioned that use of the nanoparticle system will remain experimental for years to come. We are developing this system as an off-the-shelf therapy that can induce a personalized systemic anti-tumor response without needing to know the specific genetic makeup of the tumor beforehand.

Funding for the research was provided by the National Institutes of Health National Cancer Institute (R01CA228133) and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (P41EB028239).

Other scientists who contributed to the research include Kisha Patel, David Wilson, Randall Meyer and Kelly Rhodes of Johns Hopkins.

The researchers have filed for patents related to this work.

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1916039117

Link:
Nanosize Device 'Uncloaks' Cancer Cells in Mice And Reveals Them to The Immune System - Newswise

Cell Biology

Stan Harrison, Georgia Bio’s Biotech Teacher of the Year – Morgan County Citizen

By Tia Lynn Ivey

managing editor

Stan Harrison, a biotech teacher at Morgan County High School, is preaching the good news of science to his students and fellow teachers across the state.

I am evangelizing, said Harrison, who sees a scientific revolution on the horizon that will change the landscape of Americas economy and medical industry. It will be as significant as the industrial revolution was, and its coming fast. My goal is to get my students equipped with the skillset and training to take advantage of the new jobs that are coming, that will be higher paying jobs.

Harrisons passion for science is precisely what won him Georgia Bios Biotech Teacher of the Year award. The organization announced Harrison as this years recipient earlier this week. He will be presented with the award at the March 13 Golden Helix Awards & Annual Gala at Factory Atlanta in Chamblee. Harrison is honored to be chosen for this award.

I was overwhelmed and very surprised, said Harrison, who has been teaching at Morgan County High School since 2006. I wasnt expecting it at all. There are so many great teachers out there, I didnt expect to win this.

I am very proud of Mr. Harrison, said Dr. James Woodard, superintendent of Morgan County Schools. He began the program in 2014 to respond to the needs of Baxter (Shire) now Takeda. The program is preparing students for an awesome career in the biosciences.

According to Georgia Bio, The Golden Helix Awards celebrate the contributions and achievements of Georgia legislative, academic, corporate and other organizational leaders working to advance the growth of the life sciences industry and foster strategic partnerships that can create a healthier world. The event is expected to draw 300 of the states life sciences industry leaders.

Im honored to be recognized as the Teacher of the Year by Georgia Bio at the 2020 Golden Helix Award Dinner in March, honoring achievement and excellence in the Georgia life sciences industries, said Harrison. Im grateful, but a bit nervous to be recognized in front of nearly 300 of the states life sciences industry leaders. This is a big tip-of-the-hat to Morgan s biotech program and the academic and community supporting it!

Harrison was selected as this years Biotech Teacher of the Year because he is a biotechnology high school teacher who exhibits excellence in STEM teaching and support for the biotechnology pathway.

The award aims to honor a teacher who fits the following criteria. Experienced Biotechnology Teacher skilled in Program Development, Training, Project Management, and Professional Writing (Reports, Grants & Presentations). Strong research professional with a M.Ed. focused in biotech from The University of Georgia with ongoing RET Fellowships at Georgia Institute of Technology and the Regenerative Bioscience Center at U.G.A. Lead Instructor team at GaBioEd Institute and contributing member of Cell Manufacturing Technologies consortium.

In 2003, Harrison began teaching, after spending a couple decades as a businessman, consultant and software developer. But he wanted to pursue a career in biology and teach it others.

Biology has always been my first love, said Harrison. With teaching, I really believe you have to have a calling. And I did. I wanted to teach what I love.

Harrison earned his Masters Degree from the University of Georgia and conducts research on stem cells and cancer for University of Georgia.

With the encouragement of Superintendent Dr. James Woodard and MCHS Principal Dr. Miki Edwards. Harrison set out to create one of the best biotech high school programs in the state.

We wanted to build the finest biotech program in the state. If we havent done that, were pretty darn close, said Harrison. But we came from humble beginnings.

Harrison remembers the days when the program held labs in a leaky storage room in the basement of the old high school.

We called it the dungeon, laughed Harrison.

Now, the the new high school boasts of three state-of-the-art labs, stocked full of the finest equipment to conduct a wide variety of scientific endeavors.

The Biotech program encompasses a lot of thingsits engineering with the biological sciences. Its agricultural, forensic, genetic, and medical, explained Harrison. We are doing things that will blow your mind.

Under Harrisons supervision, students in the College and Career Academy program are raising adult stem cells, examining forensic evidence, splicing genes, and even raising tilapia. The program partners with both the University of Georgia and Georgia Tech. Students pick a long-term research topic and present their findings at one of the colleges.

Harrison believes students in this rigorous program will be uniquely equipped to obtain well-paying jobs in the emerging biotech field.

This is an opportunity, said Harrison. And I want our kids to be a part of it. I saw this coming a mile away. Georgia right now is number one in country for biotechnology.

When students graduate from this program, they not only earn college credit, but come out as certified beginning level biotechnicians.

Its incredible the kind of opportunities this line of work will open up for our kids. I believe in it and thats what Im preaching.

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Stan Harrison, Georgia Bio's Biotech Teacher of the Year - Morgan County Citizen

Embryology

Legal Action Concerning Storage Of Dead Persons Gametes – Today’s Wills & Probate

A highly unusual claim is current being heard over the access to a fertility clinics private records concerning the storage of a dead persons sperm and/or embryos.

Lawyers have applied to court representing the estate of a dead individual, whos gender cannot be revealed, for permission to see the records held by a UK fertility clinic, under the Access to Health Records Acts 1990 (AHRA).

The AHRA was established for individuals to access and inspect their own health records. In some cases, representatives are given permission to also inspect the records. However, access to the records can be withheld if it would be likely to cause serious harm to the physical or mental health of anyone or identify anyone other than the patient.

As the lawyers are acting for a deceased person in the application, this is entering into relatively new legal territory.

The case is being heard by Sir Andrew McFarlane, president of the family division of the High Court.

In a statement, the court stated:

The president of the family division has heard today in private an application concerning an application under the Access to Health Records Act 1990 to a fertility clinic by a personal representative of a deceaseds estate for access to health records regarding the posthumous storage and use of sperm and/or embryos.

The president made a reporting restrictions order and no further details, including the names of parties and individuals involved, can be reported at present. Judgment has been reserved.

As well as the reporting restriction, additional statutory restrictions apply regarding the disclosure of fertility treatment information. These restrictions stem from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Acts 1990 and 2008, whereby the information regarding fertility treatment cannot be included in a patients general medical records unless specifically consented by the patient.

There has been some debate regarding what happens to frozen gametes after death, which was described by the Guardian as a balance between the rights of the deceased and the rights of those who are not yet born.

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Legal Action Concerning Storage Of Dead Persons Gametes - Today's Wills & Probate

Genetics

HudsonAlpha pumping energy into genetics and genomics education – whnt.com

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Middle school teachers from across North Alabama are getting a hands-on experience to help their students understand who they are.

The HudsonAlpha Middle School GPS Workshop is focused on giving educators new ways to teach genetics and genomics inside their classrooms.

"We work with our friends at AMSTI, the Alabama State Department of Education," said HudsonAlpha Educator Learning Specialist Jennifer Hutchison. "They have specialists throughout the state and they help us identify where there might be needs for classroom resources that can help teachers to hit that content."

So the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology designed a new set of educational tools that will explain those concepts.

"We have identified some areas in the 7th-grade course of study where there are needs for hands-on resources for our teachers to be able to teach students," said Hutchison. "As a result of that, we actually developed two brand new kits that we are going to train the teachers on."

The kits are pet-themed storylines.

The first kit is called "Gaudy Goldfish." The other is called "Cat Conundrum." The students will use these kits to learn about artificial selection and gene therapy.

Students will use this kit to learn about artificial selection with fish. Researchers, or students, can use artificial selection to develop desirable traits in plants and animals.

Hutchison said students will pair two goldfish together to produce the most appealing offspring traits. Think of it as natural selection - except this involves human interference.

"There's a colony of cats at Auburn University that have been studied for quite a long time," said Hutchison. "They call them shaky cats because they have symptomology in which they have issues with their gait and the way that they move."

Symptomology is the study of the symptoms of diseases.

"As a result of the knowledge of those cats they have developed a gene therapy that allows them to insert a functioning gene into the cats so they produce an appropriate amount of enzymes that will break down the substrates that build up and causes the symptomology," said Hutchison.

The cats walked better when they received that therapy. When the 7th-graders open up Kit #2, they'll use locks and keys to understand the workings of gene therapy.

"Locks and keys are frequently used to model enzyme substrates. The keys are modeling the enzymes and the locks are modeling the substrates," said Hutchison. "We actually map out a nerve cell on the floor and we actually have substrates moving into the cell and going to an enzyme."

Hutchison said the students would be forming an enzyme-substrate complex to see if the key (the enzyme) is going to unlock the lock (the substrate.) If the key unlocks the lock - the lock moves out of the "cell" so it's not "building-up." In short - this is what you call gene therapy.

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HudsonAlpha pumping energy into genetics and genomics education - whnt.com

Genetics

New Ken Burns doc on genetics explores ethical implications of new treatments, history of human genome – scenester.tv

THE GENE: AN INTIMATE HISTORY

EXECUTIVE PRODUCED BY

KEN BURNS AND DR. SIDDHARTHA MUKHERJEE,

TO PREMIERE ON PBS APRIL 7 & 14, 2020

WASHINGTON, D.C. February 19, 2020 WETA Washington, D.C., the flagship public broadcasting station in the nations capital, announced today thatKEN BURNS PRESENTS THE GENE: AN INTIMATE HISTORY, a two-part, four-hour documentary based on Pulitzer Prize-winning author Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjees book of the same name, will premiere on Tuesdays, April 7 and 14, 2020 from 8-10 pm ET on PBS stations nationwide. The film airs at a critical moment for the scientific community, as geneticists around the world wrestle with the ethical implications of new technologies that offer both promise and peril.THE GENEweaves together science, history and personal stories for a historical biography of the human genome, while also exploring breakthroughs for diagnosis and treatment of genetic diseases and the complex ethical questions they raise.

Groundbreaking treatments will improve the lives of millions of peoplepotentially treating diseases like sickle cellbut there are worries that scientists will take gene-editing technology too far, using it to modify germline DNA in order to enhance certain traits deemed preferable. AsTHE GENEdemonstrates, those fears have already been realized: in November 2018, Chinese researcher He Jiankui stunned and horrified the scientific community with an announcement: he had created the first genetically edited babies, twin girls born in Chinaa medically unnecessary procedure accomplished well before scientists had fully considered the consequences of altering the human genome.

These revolutionary discoveries highlight the awesome responsibility we have to make wise decisions, not just for people alive today, but for generations to come, said Dr. Mukherjee, assistant professor of medicine at the Department of Medicine (Oncology), Columbia University and staff cancer physician at Columbia University Medical Center.At this pivotal moment when scientists find themselves in a new era in which theyre able to control and change the human genome,THE GENEoffers a nuanced understanding of how we arrived at this point and how genetics will continue to influence our fates.

The documentary includes interviews with pioneers in the field including doctors Paul Berg, Francis Collins, Jennifer Doudna, Shirley Tilghman, James Watson, Nancy Wexler and Mukherjee himself. As with Burnss other projects,THE GENEuses a remarkable trove of historical footage, including Rosalind Franklins Photograph 51 from 1952, to track the journey of human genetics. Beginning with the remarkable achievements of the earliest gene hunters and their attempts to understand the nature of heredity, the film traces the history of genetics from Gregor Mendels pea plant studies in the 19thCentury and Watsons and Cricks discovery in 1953 of the structure of DNA to the efforts by Sydney Brenner and Marshall Nirenberg, among others, to understand how the genetic code is translated in human cells. We also witness the massive technological transformation from the 1970s through the 2000s from the sequencing of individual genes by Fred Sanger to the sequencing of the whole human genome. AsTHE GENEintroduces us to the scientists solving these great mysteries, the film also examines the insidious rise of eugenics, which bore horrific results in the United States, Europe and, in particular, in Nazi Germany.

THE GENEjuxtaposes this dynamic history with compelling, emotional stories of contemporary patients and their families who find themselves in a desperate race against time to find cures for their genetic diseases. The film follows the inspiring, heart-wrenching journeys of people such as Audrey Winkelsas, a young scientist born with Spinal Muscular Atrophy researching a treatment for her own condition, and Luke Rosen and Sally Jackson, parents on a tireless quest to raise awareness for their daughters rare degenerative disease. Hopes rise and fall with new discoveries and setbacks, revealing how intimate and profoundly personal this science can be for families affected by genetic diseases.

As it traces groundbreaking developments in genetics that promise to revolutionize life for millions of people,THE GENEalso documents the thorny ethical questions some of these new treatments raise. Today, geneticists find themselves on the brink of curing diseases long thought fatal but given the harrowing history of eugenics, both the scientific community and the public are forced to grapple with the ethical implications of these new technologies. Are there unintended consequences to changing human genomes? Could changes accidentally unleash cancer or some novel new genetic disease? From the prospect of genetic therapies to CRISPR, the film explores the complex web of moral, ethical and scientific questions facing this generation.

The series is directed by Chris Durrance and Jack Youngelson, with award-winning filmmaker Barak Goodman serving as senior producer and Ken Burns as executive producing alongside Dr. Mukherjee.THE GENEhas largely the same production team as CANCER: THE EMPEROR OF ALL MALADIES, which premiered on PBS in 2015 and was the Emmy Award-nominated adaptation of Mukherjees 2010 book,The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer.

THE GENEexplores the ultimate mystery story it unpacks the once-impenetrable science of what makes us who we are, said senior producer Barak Goodman.This is a moment for the general public and the scientific community to engage in a national conversation about the thrilling future of genetics and the ethical challenges posed by new science.

We want people to leave our film feeling both hopeful about these stunning developments and sensitive to the ethical questions facing the field, said directors Chris Durrance and Jack Youngelson.

I was thrilled to reunite with Sid and Barak on this project, said Ken Burns.For me, science, like history, is the exploration of what has come before and the promise of the future.THE GENEuntangles the code of life itself.

THE GENErepresents a groundbreaking opportunity to broaden public understanding of this important subject, and Sid, Ken and Barak are the ideal team to bring the fascinating book to film, noted Sharon Percy Rockefeller, president and CEO of WETA, the producing public media station forTHE GENE.

Integral to the project is an extensive engagement program created by WETA in collaboration with an array of partners, in particular the National Institute of Healths National Human Genome Research Institute, the projects primary Outreach and Education Partner. The project will enable the film to reach an even larger audience, engaging researchers, physicians and patients in the national conversation about the history of genetics and the state of the field today. Partners and funders will host screenings and discussions in cities across the country, working with local public media stations and a wide range of educational, medical and scientific organizations.

In conjunction with the broadcast, WETA is developing an expansive interactive website and social and digital media components, including a multi-media educational initiative designed to engage teachers and students through multiple platforms.including a six-part animated series, that delves into the complexities of genetics. Using mixed illustration styles, each episode will focus on a particular approach to genetics, including How Things Work, When DNA Goes Sideways, The Future of DNA, and more. WETA has also developed a companion teaching guide. The series will be distributed through various digital platforms by the National Institutes of Healths National Human Genome Research Institute, PBS, and member stations.

For more information about KEN BURNS PRESENTS THE GENE: AN INTIMATE HISTORY, visit pbs.org/thegene.

#TheGenePBS

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New Ken Burns doc on genetics explores ethical implications of new treatments, history of human genome - scenester.tv