All posts by medical

Immunology

Shire eyes spin-out of its ADHD drugs arm – Telegraph.co.uk

Shire has kickstarted a strategic review of its ADHD drugs business which could see the FTSE 100 giant broken up into two stock exchange-listed parts, after posting consensus-beating half-year sales and profits growth.

Flemming rnskov, chief executive at Shire, said the groups US-focused neurosciences division set to make up around a fifth of its projected $14.3bn-$14.6bn (10.9bn-11.1bn) sales this year was an incredibly strong business that could stand alone.

The strategic review will complete this year, with the firm saying it could result in neurosciences getting an independent public listing. Mr rnskov declined to say whether London or New York was the more likely candidate.

Given the USs large appetite for ADHD drugs, New York could hold appeal.Julie Simmonds, analyst at Panmure, commented: Its something they could look at, it would make as much sense as it would here.

Any separation would allow Shire to focus on its rare diseases business, which accounts for the bulk of revenues and a wide gamut of treatments across immunology, haematology, internal medicine, eye ailments, oncology and anti-virals.

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Shire eyes spin-out of its ADHD drugs arm - Telegraph.co.uk

Immunology

Arrest warrant issued for Northwestern professor in Near North Side stabbing death – Chicago Tribune

A Northwestern University associate professor and a University of Oxford employee are wanted in connection with the stabbing death of a man in a Near North Side apartment, according to public records. A Cook County judge issued arrest warrants Monday charging Wyndham Lathem, 42, and Andrew Warren, 56, with first-degree murder in the death of 26-year-old Trenton Cornell-Duranleau last week, records show.

An alert broadcast over police radio says the two should be considered armed and dangerous. Late Wednesday afternoon, Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi reported no arrests.

"Our search will only intensify,'' tweeted Guglielmi. "Prof Latham (Lathem) & Mr Warren, do the right thing & turn yourself in to any police dept.''

Lathem is an associate professor at Northwestern's Department of Microbiology-Immunology at the Feinberg School of Medicine. In his LinkedIn profile, Lathem said his research is focused on pathogens and the diseases they cause.

Lathem has been placed on administrative leave and is banned from all Northwestern campuses, according to school spokesman Alan K. Cubbage. He was a faculty researcher at the school's Chicago campus.

The university is cooperating with the police investigation, Cubbage said.

Warren is a senior treasury assistant at Somerville College, part of the Oxford University network, according to a university web page. Chicago police officers responded to a 10th-floor apartment in the 500 block of North State Street about 8:30 p.m. Thursday after a maintenance worker reported getting an anonymous call that a crime was committed there. Officers found Cornell-Duranleau dead on the scene. Lathem lists his home at the same address on State Street, public records show. The building is on the same block as the Grand Avenue Red Line station.Cornell-Duranleau died of multiple sharp force injuries, according to the Cook County medical examiners office. He had lived in the 2200 block of South Wood Street in the Heart of Chicago neighborhood on the Near Southwest Side, the office said.

He grew up in Michigan, according to public records. Cornell-Duranleau earned a state license as a cosmetologist in 2011, according to the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs.

Chicago Police Department

His mother, Mischelle Duranleau, posted a message on Facebook over the weekend asking for prayers "as we navigate this very dark part of our Journey."

According to an obituary posted by the mother, Cornell-Duranleau was born in Lennon, Mich., a small town about 50 miles northeast of Lansing.

"Throughout his life he loved music and animals," the obituary said. "His enthusiasm for life was infectious. Trenton was a caregiver and loved to help others. His youthful free-spirit fueled his love of cars, video games and cartoons."

Northwestern was made aware of the investigation into Cornell-Duranleau's death on Monday afternoon, Cubbage said.

Lathem has been with Northwestern since 2007, according to Cubbage, who said he worked primarily in a research lab. "At some point in the past few years he taught medical students or graduate students, never undergrad, Cubbage said.

Lathem was not currently teaching and was not scheduled to be in a classroom in the fall, Cubbage said.

Oxford University, where the other suspect worked, released a statement Tuesday saying it was "not aware of this case, which is clearly extremely concerning. We will liaise with the relevant investigating authorities and provide any assistance that is required.

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Arrest warrant issued for Northwestern professor in Near North Side stabbing death - Chicago Tribune

Embryology

Is It Art or Is It Science? – Scientific American (blog)

At first, it looks like a painting from the school of abstract expressionism. A red, central column spiked with narrow yellow bands stands brilliantly against a black field. But actually this is a photograph capturing bacteria in communication with one another, releasing signal molecules in a process known as quorum sensing. These bacteria have colonized the inside of a flow cell, a chamber that liquid courses through to simulate environments where bacteria live, such as water pipes or your intestines. Minyoung Kevin Kim, a graduate student, photographed this behavior during his research in the Bassler and Stone labs.

His photo, Bacterial Communication in Complex Geometry and Flow, is just one of sixty new works lining the light-filled hallway of Princeton Universitys Friend Center, an engineering library, as part of the eighth Art of Science exhibition. The exhibition showcases images scientists generate during their usual course of research in fields from embryology to plasma physics. These curated images are not merely scientifically relevant; they were chosen for the aesthetic qualities they also possess.

It is scientific data, but it is also art. The exhibitions strength lies in challenging us to hold in our minds these twoseemingly dissonant ideas simultaneously. As an artist and a fourth year doctoral student in chemistry, I love going to the Art of Science. The exhibition subverts the practice of segregating my two passions into mutually exclusive realms, an all too common division I find limiting.

This years exhibition complicates the usual program. I was excited to find, alongside aesthetically pleasing data, artistic works made in the spirit of scientific inquiry, liberally defined. This includes works of art created using scientific materials or pieces exploring scientific concepts in artistic genres, such as dance.

In one such scientifically-infused creative process, a visual arts major, Louisa Willis, experimented with an overhead projector, growing agar plates of bacteria with the projectors heat and imaging the plates with the projectors light. Willis then digitally colored and layered the resulting photographs. Her final product, Bumper Moons (Experiment 8), is eerily beautiful. Colonized dishes now overlap as transparent circles of aqua and ruby. In my own research, I am a frequent streaker of antibiotic selection plates. But Willis, rather than growing bacteria in the conventional way I do, playfully upended this process. By repurposing her projector as incubator and light box both, she created an elegant piece of art/lab equipment.

By including works inspired by science, not strictly products of formal research, the latest exhibition further blurs the traditional boundaries between science and art. Presented as equals, striking juxtapositions emerge. In one video, a ballerina mimics neurotransmission events in the brain, her sharp gestures recalling the opening and closing of gap junctions linking neurons. Looping on another flatscreen is an animation of a subjects fMRI-measured brain activity as they watched the first episode of BBCs Sherlock. I laughed at the absurdity of watching one of my favorite shows in frantic fast forward, perched in the corner of the screen. Looking just below, tiny dots raced around a slowly revolving brain, marking colorful pathways, thought patterns that could have been mine.

Though the images consistently entice, rather than intimidate, the accompanying captions are more inconsistent. Some captions read like obscure scientific abstracts describing a material or technology generally, rather than focusing on the particular image. The best captions explain the content of the image itself and how the image was created.

For example, in Crystalline Mondrian, triangles in shades of blue-gray fracture the frame, creating intriguing alternations of light and dark. Turning to the caption, I discovered that the triangles compose a thin crystal film of rubrene, an organic semiconductor, where each blue is a distinct crystalline domain. Within each domain, rubrene molecules align with each other, but deviate from the alignment of rubrenes gathered in surrounding domains. I was charmed to behold a concrete manifestation of an invisible phenomena: polarized light interacting constructively or destructively with crystalline domains. As the polarized light aligns with or deviates from the angle of each domain, the light reflected is either brighter or dimmer. A fundamental physics principle comes to life in this photograph.

In each piece, viewers glimpse an experts world. An entire field of research hides in a single image or 30 seconds of video. The limited space of each piece heightened my curiosity about the broad, underlying research more effectively than a longwinded lecture or a laboratory visit ever could. The limitations created a pointed strangeness that made me crave a deeper grasp of each subject.

The Art of Science celebrates the visual outputs common to both disciplines. Art and science share a visual language and rely on creative processes. This can be challenging to recognize. Skeptical viewers might dismiss the beauty on display as unintentional, since it is not the primary objective of research. But to dismiss this beauty as accidental is too easy. Here, beauty is not an artifact, but a feature of compelling data.

The exhibition merges art and science at Princeton Universitys Friend Center until January 2018.

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Is It Art or Is It Science? - Scientific American (blog)

Anatomy

Anatomy of a Goal: Ola Kamara’s Lefty Finish – Massive Report

Welcome to Anatomy of a Goal, where each week we dissect one goal (or near goal) from the previous weeks Columbus Crew SC match.

For match 23 on the 2017 MLS Season, we take a look at Ola Kamaras 15th minute left-footed goal that put Crew SC up 1-0 as part of the 2-2 draw with Real Salt Lake on Saturday.

Heres a look at the finish from the Columbus forward.

After a disappointing, two red-card loss at the Philadelphia Union on Wednesday night, the Black & Gold found themselves clawing to keep pace in a tight Eastern Conference playoff race. Rookie Connor Maloney earned his first start as a professional, slotting in at right wing back.

Crew SCs opening goal begins off of a clearance by Salt Lake midfielder Kyle Beckerman. Beckermans half-touch only clears the ball about 15 yards up the field.

Captain Wil Trapp and Maloney are both in position to win Beckermans weak clearance. Trapp takes possession of the ball as Maloney heads to a wide position on the right flank.

With a defender on his right hip, Trapp drops the ball back to center-back Nicolai Naess.

Getting his first start since the 1-0 win at Minnesota United, Naess finds himself with the ball and acres yards of space and has four options. He can either carry the ball upfield until defensive pressure arrives, play a long pass to winger Justin Meram, who has begun to move toward Naess, slot a difficult pass to Artur or a pass back to Trapp.

As Meram heads toward Naess, the Crew SC center back plays a beautifully weighted ball to the feet of his teammate.

Meram receives the ball and begins his turn, defended by Beckerman. With a ball-hawking midfielder on his hip, Meram has to quickly decide whether to try and beat Beckerman off the dribble or pass to a teammate.

Meram eludes Beckerman and can either try to beat his defender off the dribble, pass to Maloney on the right wing or slide a quick ball to Artur, potentially setting up a give-and-go.

The Columbus winger takes a nifty dribble away from Beckerman and elects to make an excellent pass across the field to Maloney, who, unmarked, has yards of space to work with.

Danilo Acosta immediately heads over to defend Maloney. Seeing a defender arriving, Artur heads toward his teammate to provide a passing option. Maloney holds onto the ball, waiting for both help to arrive and his defender.

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The above video shows the excellent give-and-go that Maloney and Artur execute to get around Acosta and Arturs defender, Sunday Stephen, or Sunny. Maloney plays a short pass to Artur who then plays a ball right between Sunny and Acosta.

Here, Maloney has just made the quick pass. With his defender on his heels, Maloney immediately sets off at a sprint around Acosta. Artur plays the quick pass, setting off a sprint to the ball.

Though Maloney had a bit of a head start, Acosta is able to keep up with the rookie wing back. If Maloney beats Acosta, he will have both Kamara and Ethan Finlay as options for a quick cross.

Maloney JUST beats Acosta to the ball. Meanwhile, Finlay battles for position with Marcelo Silva. Both Silva and Justen Glad are between Finlay and the ball, making it difficult for a pass to reach the Black & Gold winger.

As the ball approaches, Finlay has yet to get into position around Silva. Glad is still in the path of the ball, while Kamara awaits a deflection or rebound.

Glad gets caught on the wrong foot and is unable to get any sort of touch on the cross. Finlay has just gotten a leg in on Silva and attempts a sliding shot on the ball. Kamara is still very open.

Finlays touch on the ball is deflected toward the end line where Maloney is alert and already racing Acosta to the ball. Kamara? Still unmarked.

Maloney gets to the ball, but has to beat Glad if he wants to hit a still wide-open Kamara.

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The above video shows Maloneys confident pass through the legs of Glad. Maloney may have gotten lucky, but that lucky pass will become his first professional assist.

From an extra angle you can see Maloneys angle compared to Kamara. Maloney can see that a pass to his teammate would result in a shot on goal. Kamara is mystifyingly still unmarked.

With the ball through Glads legs and headed toward Kamara, the Crew SC striker has an open shot on goal. As Kamara approaches the ball, he decides where to place his shot and with which foot to hit the ball.

A right-footed shot, his natural foot, would be more powerful, but might not have the correct bend. A left-footed shot would be more difficult, but would place the ball in the face of the goal.

Kamara opts for the higher percentage shot with his weak foot. . .

. . . and smashes the ball into the roof of the net.

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Findings:

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Anatomy of a Goal: Ola Kamara's Lefty Finish - Massive Report

Anatomy

‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Star Stepping Behind The Scenes In Season 14 – People’s Choice

Johnni Macke 1:00 pm on August 1, 2017

(Photo Courtesy: ABC/Ron Tom)

Starting last month, its been all Greys Anatomy, all the time, due to the fact that season 14 is officially underway (not that were complaining!). Now, weve discovered that one of our favorite Greys actors will not only be on screen this season, but also will be stepping behind the camera.

On Monday (July 31), after spending a few days exploring the beauty that Seattle has to offer and throwing the first pitch at a Seattle Mariners game with his fellow co-stars Kevin McKiddturned his focus to his latest Greys role: directing an episode!

Back at it @greysabc #directorprep, McKidd, who plays Dr. Owen Hunt on the ABC drama captioned a fun selfie of himself, his script, and a BIG cup of coffee.

The Scottish actor has been a part of Greys Anatomy since 2008, when he first won over fans as Cristina Yangs love interest, and since then hes become a fan favorite. In addition to filling out the cast which includes Ellen Pompeo, Justin Chambers, Jesse Williams and more McKidd has been contributing to Greys from behind the scenes since 2011.

Beginning in season 7 of the medical drama, McKidd has directed 16 episodes of Greys Anatomy, and now he is ready to bump that number up to 17 with another directing gig come season 14.

We might not know which episode McKidd is directing yet, but based on showrunner Krista Vernoffs tweet last week, its not episode one, since that story is already wrapped and ready to go.

No matter what episode McKidd is working on, he looks serious in this Instagram post, which we think means hes ready to deliver yet another amazing episode. Plus, he even has a pencil out to take notes with, so you know he means business!

Greys Anatomy returns for season 14 with a two-hour premiere on September 28, 2017 at 8 p.m. on ABC.

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'Grey's Anatomy' Star Stepping Behind The Scenes In Season 14 - People's Choice

Physiology

Cycad leaf physiology research needed – Phys.org – Phys.Org

Healthy juvenile plants of the endangered Cycas micronesica thrive in a deep understory habitat where they effectively utilize infrequent sunflecks. Credit: Thomas Marler

The living cycad species are among the world's most threatened plant groups, but are also among the world's least studied plant groups. The need for a greater understanding of basic physiology of cycads has been discussed for decades, yet to date the needed research is lacking.

Recent reports of how gymnosperms are more sluggish than angiosperms in the photosynthetic use of sunflecks in forest understory settings prompted an article from the University of Guam that appears in the current issue of the journal Plant Signaling & Behavior.

"The list of species used to represent gymnosperms in the conclusions on sunfleck use were restricted to conifers," said author Thomas Marler. "But the world's gymnosperms are also represented by three other groups of plants, and these were not included in the database that was used to formulate conclusions."

The Cycadidae, Ginkgoidae, and Gnetidae groups of plants are also gymnosperms, and collectively they contain close to 400 described species. Guiding principles are needed to improve the representation and relevance of these plants in contemporary research agendas.

According to Marler, the addition of more descriptive research targeting cycad species is welcomed regardless of the approach. But the adherence to protocols that ensure species relevance would improve the outcomes. Since forest canopy traits define sunfleck qualities, the experimental protocols for studying sunfleck use by newly studied species should be defined from the natural habitats of each species. Moreover, the behavior of cultivated plants often differs from that of plants in natural settings, and moving from the current level of minimal knowledge to a level of adequate knowledge may be reached most rapidly by studying these plants within their native range rather than in botanic gardens. A phenomenon called context dependency is also pertinent to the needed expansion of cycad research. Do environmental factors such as drought influence how a cycad plant capitalizes on the ephemeral access to sunflecks?

Attempts to link phylogenetic subsets of plants more closely to the broader global research agenda need to be accurate. Adding more physiology research to cycads would greatly improve our understanding of how the world's plants effectively utilize the pulses of sunlight that punctuate the forest sub-canopy.

Explore further: And one root said to the other root, 'Don't I know you from somewhere?'

More information: Thomas E. Marler, Increasing relevance of sunfleck research, Plant Signaling & Behavior (2017). DOI: 10.1080/15592324.2017.1334030

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Cycad leaf physiology research needed - Phys.org - Phys.Org

Biochemistry

IGNOU’s PhD, MPhil admission date extended to Aug 3 – Hindustan Times

New Delhi The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has extended till August 3 the last date of admission for its PhD and MPhil programmes.

IGNOU has invited applications for MPhil in chemistry and geography, PhD in biochemistry, chemistry, French, gender and development studies, geography, geology, journalism and mass communication, fine arts, physics, theatre arts, statistics and womens studies.

IGNOUs research unit director K Barik has said that the last date for PhD and MPhil programmes has been extended till 3 August.

The entrance test for various programmes will be held on August 20 in selected examination centres across the country.

The University, which began academic programmes in 1987, today enrols over three million students in India and other countries through 21 schools of studies and a network of 67 regional centres, around 2,667 learner support centres and 29 overseas partner institutions.

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IGNOU's PhD, MPhil admission date extended to Aug 3 - Hindustan Times

Genetics

Evolutionary biologists identify non-genetic source of species variability – Phys.Org

Pink areas are bone and blue areas are cartilage in this head skeleton of a larval fish. Craig Albertson of UMass Amherst and a colleague report on experiments that looked at how a gaping behavior, a factor in the fish larvae's developmental environment that precedes bone formation, influences later development of cranio-facial bones. Credit: UMass Amherst

An unspoken frustration for evolutionary biologists over the past 100 years, says Craig Albertson at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, is that genetics can only account for a small percentage of variation in the physical traits of organisms. Now he reports experimental results on how another factor, a "bizarre behavior" that is part of early cichlid fish larvae's developmental environment, influences later variation in their craniofacial bones.

Albertson has studied African cichlid fish for 20 years as a model system for exploring how biodiversity originates and is maintained, with a focus on genetic contributions to species differences. In a new series of experiments with former Ph.D. student Yinan Hu, now a postdoctoral fellow at Boston College, they examined a "vigorous gaping" behavior in larval fish that starts immediately after the cartilaginous lower jaw forms and before bone deposition begins. Results appear in the current early online issue of Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

As Albertson explains, "We predicted that the baby fish are exercising their jaw muscles, which should impose forces on the bones they attach to, forces that might stimulate bone formation." Albertson and Hu observed that gaping frequency, which could reach as high as 200 per minute, varied by species "in a way that foreshadows differences in bone deposition around processes critical for the action of jaw opening."

Albertson, an evolutionary geneticist, says, "For over a hundred years, we've been taught that the ability of a system to evolve depends largely on the amount of genetic variation that exists for a trait. What is ignored, or not noted for most traits, is that less than 50 percent of genetic variation can typically be accounted for by genetics." He adds, "Variation in skull shape is highly heritable, so why can we only find genetic variability that accounts for such a small amount of variability in bone development? In my lab we have shifted from elaborating our genetic models to looking more closely at the interaction between genetics and the environment."

How the environment influences development is known as epigenetics in its original and broadest meaning, Albertson points out. Coined in the 1940s to mean anything not encoded in the nucleotide sequence, it has narrowed to refer to how the 3D structure of the DNA molecule is modified, he notes. "That meaning is true, but it isn't the only one. We're returning to the original definition."

In this sense, gaping is part of "a very dynamic developmental environment," Albertson notes. "Bones are not forming in static lumps of tissue. Rather, they are developing as part of, and perhaps in response to, a highly complex and dynamic system." The fact that species differ in gaping rate led the researchers to test the idea that differences in bone development could be accounted for by variation in this behavior. "We performed experiments to see if we could slow the rate in fast-gaping species and speed it up in slow-gaping species, and to see if this behavioral manipulation could influence bone development in predictable ways."

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Not only did these experiments work, but the magnitude of difference in skeletal morphology induced by these simple shifts in behavior was similar to those predicted to be caused by genetic factors. Albertson says, "What I find really exciting is that in 15 years of manipulating the genetics of craniofacial bone development we can account for up to 20 percent of the variability, so it's modest. When we manipulate gaping behavior, we can influence developmental variability by about 15 percent, which is comparable, almost equal to the genetic response."

The geneticist adds, "When I give talks, this is what surprises colleagues the most, that the environmental effect is on par with the genetic effect, and that it is not systemic but highly specific to important bones involved in fish feeding."

Alberston says this behavior makes sense because "Nature is all about efficiency. Fine-tuning an adaptive response to a particular niche increases the chances of survival. Sometimes longer bones are better, and one way to get there is to kick-start the bone developmental program. This gaping behavior precedes bone formation, so it may represent a way to increase efficiency by setting an animal on the trajectory toward an adaptive phenotype earlier."

He adds, "This is just the beginning. Our field has been entrenched in a gene-centered view of evolution for nearly a century. My hope is that this study adds to a growing body of literature that shows there are other important sources of variation. I hope we can expand the paradigm to consider the environmental context where development takes place, because the effects are likely greater and more widespread than we'd predict."

The next step for his lab will be to figure out how environmental stimuli influence development, Albertson explains. "We now need to understand how bone cells sense and respond to their mechanical environment. What are the molecules that enable this mechano-sensing?"

To this end, the researchers demonstrated that mechanical-load-induced shifts in skeletal development are associated with differences in expression of the ptch1 gene, implicated previously in mediating between-species skeletal shap differences. "That the same molecule is involved in mechano-sensing within species and genetic divergence between species is very cool as it's consistent with evolutionary theory," Albertson says.

The idea is that when an animal population is exposed to a new environment, certain molecules will enable them to respond by conforming their bodies to meet new challenges. If the new environment is stable, natural selection should favor genetic mutations in these molecules that fix the original, transient response. This theory establishes a framework for the initial steps in species divergence. "We think that we now have a molecular foothold into this process," Albertson explains. "These are exciting times."

Explore further: A mechanism of how biodiversity arises

More information: Baby fish working out: An epigenetic source of adaptive variation in the cichlid jaw, Proceedings of the Royal Society B, rspb.royalsocietypublishing.or .1098/rspb.2017.1018

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Evolutionary biologists identify non-genetic source of species variability - Phys.Org

Genetics

Myriad Genetics’ Stock Is Starting To Make A Run – Seeking Alpha

Healthcares been in the news a lot lately thanks to the Republicans efforts at healthcare reform. There are several bottoming heathcare and biotech stocks that could benefit from these efforts. One of those companies with potential is Myriad Genetics (MYGN). Myriad creates genetic tests to screen for genetic cancer risk and other diseases. Its currently coming out of a bottom and has the potential to continue moving up if it can capitalize on this growing market.

Myriad manufactures molecular diagnostic tests to screen for genetic dispositions to cancer, autoimmune diseases, and other maladies. The company is probably best known for its BRACAnalysis test. This test determines womens risk for breast cancer by detecting mutations in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes. Genetic mutations greatly increase the risk of developing cancer. So these type of diagnostic tests are growing more and more important for detecting cancer risks early. Advanced diagnostics also allow doctors to tailor their preventative medicine programs to better serve the patients individual needs. In fact, personalized medicine is expected to be the wave of the future. Theres also an increasing need for better diagnostic tools as the population ages. So Myriads products can fill an important niche in a growing market.

Myriads stock was in some trouble until recently. A monthly stock chart shows that MYGN was in a bear market for pretty much all of 2016. It finally started to bottom late in 2016, and completed its bottom in May of 2017. Its currently moving up strongly out of its bottom, but has retraced a bit over the past month. MYGNs all time high is at about $47, so this stock some room to move up.

Figure 1: Monthly chart of MYGN. Chart provided by FreeStockCharts.com.

A weekly chart confirms that MYGN completed its bottom last May. The chart shows very large and strong white candles coming out of the bottom, lacking indecisive wicks and tails. Small black candles form for about a month after each strong move up, likely due to profit taking. The stock is also currently undergoing some profit taking after the last strong move up in June. There have been green volume surges on the moves up, with green volume bars outnumbering the red bars since coming out of the bottom.

Figure 2: Weekly chart of MYGN. Chart provided by FreeStockCharts.com.

We can see the current retracement in more detail in the daily chart. Black candles have been larger and more numerous over the past month. We can see the strength of the green volume in May and June. But volume has been low in July, with red volume becoming more and more dominant. The chart also shows that high frequency traders (HFT) tried to sell down this stock on 7/21, possibly in response to a news release that day. It looks like the HFTs moved in at the start of the day, but failed to move the stock down much.

Figure 3: Daily chart of MYGN. Chart provided by FreeStockCharts.com

The chart indicators also confirm this weakness in the current price action. RSI is moving down steadily to the bottom of the chart. Stochastics has also moved down well into oversold territory. Both indicators look a little overextended but dont show any signs of a reversal quite yet.

Figure 4: Indicator charts for MYGN. Chart provided by FreeStockCharts.com

MYGN really looks a little week right now. There arent enough buyers to stop the slip-slide due to profit taking. The pattern of this stock, however, has been to move up strongly and then slowly slide back for a month. So well see if the stock continues that trend in August.

The charts show that MYGN has recovered nicely in 2017. So lets check the fundamentals and see if they justify the stocks uptrend. Myriads income statement shows that revenues started to turn around in the first quarter of fiscal year 2017. Revenues, however, were flat last quarter. Net income, on the other hand, has been inconsistent. Income has been up and down for the past several quarters. Costs have also continued to rise, but flattened out last quarter.

Figure 5: Income statement for MYGN. Data provided by Google Finance.

Myriad also took on a lot of debt in the second quarter of fiscal year 2017. The company started to pay down that debt last quarter, so at least its controlling its debt load. The current ratio is about 1.6, which is acceptable.

Figure 6: Balance sheet for MYGN. Data provided by Google Finance

Data from Nasdaq.com shows that the institutional holdings are above 100%. This usually means that some convertible bonds were executed, or that there was a direct stock sale to an institution. This should pattern out in the next quarter after Nasdaq.com updates its information. MYGN has 261 holders, so its pretty widely held for a small cap. And more funds started new positions or increased their positions compared to funds that sold out or decreased their holdings.

Figure 7: Institutional Holdings for MYGN. Data provided by Nasdaq.com.

A few giant funds are among the top holders of this stock, including Vanguard and Dimensional Fund Advisors. There are few giant banks in the mix as well, such as Blackrock and State Street. Some large banks have reduced their holdings in this stock though, which is interesting. The buy side institutions are doing the opposite; theyre increasing their positions or holding steady.

Figure 8: Top holders for MYGN. Data provided by Nasdaq.com.

Myriads financial performance improved last year but slowed down last quarter. Can it pick up again? A quick look at the last earnings report can show us what to expect. Myriad expects accelerating growth going forward, per CEO Mark Capone. Capone said, Coupled with meaningful sequential volume growth in all of our major pipeline tests including GeneSight, Vectra DA, Prolaris, and EndoPredict, we believe we are rapidly approaching an important inflection in our business where our new products will drive accelerated revenue growth and profitability.

That sounds promising, but we need more specifics. Luckily, the report also provides guidance for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2017. The company expects revenues of $192-$194 million, which is flat to slightly down compared to last quarter. Earnings per share are expected in the range of $0.11 to $0.13, which is a large improvement over the $0.06 per share reported last quarter. Revenues for the full fiscal year are expected to be $763-$765, up just 1% over 2016. Earnings per share are expected to drop from 2016, down to $0.23-$0.25. This reflects the slowdown in earnings that was observed in the first three quarters of fiscal year 2017. The company needs to show that it can continue to grow revenues and earnings more consistently. Itll be interesting to see what the guidance is for 2018 in the next earnings release. Myriad is expected to report around August 8th.

MYGN has trended up fairly strongly out of its 2016 bottom. Its also in a market with a lot of potential, notwithstanding the healthcare shenanigans going on in Congress right now. The companys financials showed improvement earlier in the year, but have started to lag more recently. It needs to continue to grow revenues and earnings, otherwise the current profit taking could turn into broader selling. The 2016 high of $40 could also challenge the uptrend if the financials dont continue to improve. The stock shows some promise, but theres also some uncertainty about companys performance in the next fiscal year. The fact that large funds are interested in this stock bodes well for it though. And an earnings report that beats expectations could cause the stock to move up strongly again. Investors that are interested this companys technology should wait until the profit taking ends before entering this stock though. The $27 level looks like a good place to enter. For everyone else, its best to wait until the next earnings report to see the companys projections for fiscal year 2018.

Disclosure: I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.

I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

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Myriad Genetics' Stock Is Starting To Make A Run - Seeking Alpha

Genetics

Seattle Genetics, Inc.: Expanded Sales on Their Way (FDA Willing … – Motley Fool

Seattle Genetics (NASDAQ:SGEN) reported second-quarter revenue and earnings numbers, but the conference call focused mostly on potential near-term revenue growth for the biotech's one approved drug, Adcetris, with one expanded indication under review at the FDA and another to be there shortly.

Metric

Q2 2017

Q2 2016

Year-Over-Year Change

Revenue

$108.2 million

$95.4 million

13.4%

Income from operations

($59.4 million)

($33.4 million)

N/A

Earnings per share

($0.39)

($0.23)

N/A

Data source: Seattle Genetics.

Image source: Getty Images.

"Based on our review of pooled, blinded PFS events in the E2 trial, we have observed a lower rate of progression events compared with our projections. We plan to interact with FDA about the potential to unblind the trial prior to reaching the prespecified number of events. Based on the length of patient follow-up, we believe the trial data will be mature in 2018 and continue to expect to report E2 data next year." -- Seattle Genetics CEO and chairman Clay Siegall

There are a lot of terms in that quote, so let's break them down:

Blinded: The company doesn't know which drug the patients in the trial were treated with.

PFS: Progression-free survival, a measure of efficacy based on how long it takes a patient to progress or die -- whichever comes first -- while being treated.

E2: ECHELON-2, a clinical trial testing Adcetris in patients with mature T-cell lymphoma who haven't been previously been treated.

So to translate: Patients aren't progressing or dying as fast as expected, which is good news for patients and hopefully good news for Seattle Genetics if it's the patients being treated with Adcetris who are the ones responding better than expected, but we don't know for sure since the company is blinded. Since the trial is set up to end when a certain number of progression/deaths occur in both treatment arms combined, the trial is taking longer to complete than expected, so management plans to ask the FDA for permission to look at the data earlier.

Management increased 2017 guidance for ADCETRIS sales in the U.S. and Canada to a range of $290million to$310million. Not bad, but far from a blockbuster, which will only come from successful approval based on the ECHELON-1 trial. Investors will get a full look at that data at the American Society of Hematology meeting in December.

Beyond the aforementioned plan to get ECHELON-2 data earlier, Seattle Genetics has other clinical trial data coming. It recently started a phase 3 trial with Bristol-Myers Squibb testing Adcetris plus Bristol's Opdivo in relapsed or refractory Hodgkin lymphoma patients. And enfortumab vedotin, which is partnered with Astellas, will enter a phase 2 trial in metastatic urothelial cancer that management thinks should be enough to gain accelerated approval from the FDA if the trial is successful.

The rest is here:
Seattle Genetics, Inc.: Expanded Sales on Their Way (FDA Willing ... - Motley Fool