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Neuroscience

International virtual technology in neuroscience conference to be held in Saudi Arabia – Arab News

JEDDAH: Saudi health chiefs on Monday warned members of the public to prepare for an increase in the number of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in the Kingdom.With infection rates on the rise throughout the world, changing weather conditions, and people dropping their guard over safety precautions, Ministry of Health officials predicted an upsurge in cases was inevitable.Dr. Hani Joukhadar, the ministrys undersecretary for public health, said: Cases began to increase in most countries around the world, reaching unprecedented numbers in the US, England, France, Italy, and Spain.After numbers in these countries reached a stable status during the virus first wave, numbers in other countries began to increase, and this is expected to happen again.He added that a second wave of COVID-19 in many countries had come about following an easing of restrictions and people failing to adhere to precautionary measures.In Saudi Arabia, we expect an increase in cases as the weather is changing and more people are encouraged to go out and gather in homes. We also notice that people are less committed to wearing masks in public places, Joukhadar said.He hoped that awareness among Saudis and expats would help prevent a major second wave in the Kingdom but warned that the number of cases was still expected to increase.Saudi Arabia announced 381 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, meaning that 348,037 people in the country had so far contracted the disease. There were 7,928 active cases receiving medical care, of which 755 patients were in serious or critical condition.

FASTFACTS

Saudi Arabia announced 381 new COVID-19 cases on Monday.

436 more patients have recovered, raising the total number of recoveries in the Kingdom to 334,672.

In addition, 436 patients have recovered, raising the total number of recoveries in the Kingdom to 334,672. The death toll now stands at 5,437 after 17 more people were reported to have died.Saudi Arabia has so far conducted 8,151,353 polymerase chain reaction tests since the outbreak of COVID-19 in the country, and 53,819 were carried out in the last 24 hours.Meanwhile, the Saudi Red Crescent Authority organized 216 ambulance volunteer teams, consisting of 1,744 helpers, to work at the Prophets Mosque in Madinah to tackle medical cases in the past two weeks.Around 257 reports were initiated in the Prophets Mosque and its squares, 243 cases were handled, and 86 cases were transferred to the emergency teams stationed in the Prophets Mosque or nearby health centers.

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International virtual technology in neuroscience conference to be held in Saudi Arabia - Arab News

Neuroscience

Hyperloop Health – Dominion Post – The Dominion Post

WVU researchers making sure future hyperloop travel is safe for its riders

WVU Today

Before the first Virgin Hyperloop ride takes off, the brains behind pioneering neuroscience research at West Virginia University will help ensure the health and well-being of its passengers and operators.

After all, theyll be traveling in pods through a vacuum tube at speeds breaking 600 mph.

It sounds like science fiction. But it will be a reality grounded in science, as engineers develop and tweak the mover system that will disrupt modern transportation as we know it.

Tried-and-tested science wont end there. Virgin Hyperloop plans to collaborate with the Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute at WVU to study how traveling at excessive speeds may impact the brain and body.

The RNI, led by Dr. Ali Rezai, has heralded numerous breakthroughs in recent years, ranging from first-of-its-kind procedures treating Alzheimers disease patients with focused ultrasound and those recovering from substance abuse through deep brain stimulation to predicting viral infections symptoms such as those associated with COVID-19 three days in advance through the use of wearable technology, a mobile app and artificial intelligence.

RNI researchers have already established the framework and tools that Virgin Hyperloop can apply at its certification center, which will span nearly 800 acres in Tucker and Grant counties.

Construction of the Hyperloop Certification Center will begin in 2021 with a planned Welcome Center, Certification Track and Operations Center, Pod Final Assembly Facility, Production Development Test Center and Operations, Maintenance and Safety Training Center.

Thats where the tinkering until perfection takes place before the system goes prime time. The plan is for Hyperloop to connect cities such as Pittsburgh and Chicago in 41 minutes, or New York City to Washington, D.C. in just 30 minutes.

Imagine zooming along at those 600 mph speeds in a tube with no windows. Or, better yet, operating the system itself.

These are super-high fast trains, said Rezai, executive chair, vice president of neuroscience and associate dean of RNI. Fundamentally, the RNI can collaborate with Virgin Hyperloop with a focus on safety, functionality and performance, for example, the neuroscience of workload, stress, cognitive ability and all other functions that can be quantified and measured, with respect to system users like passengers and operators.

Human functions may be impacted by high speed and the perception of knowing how fast you are moving. Without windows and a frame of reference, a persons balance, sensor, motor and other nervous systems function may be impacted as well. Well be looking at all of these factors in an integrated framework that measures physiological function and performance of the team and system operators and the passenger.

When the NBA restarted its 2019-20 season at Walt Disney World Resort over the summer, players had the option to wear a wedding band-like smart ring that could detect early COVID-19 symptoms. Months earlier, at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, the RNI teamed up with the ring maker, Oura Health, to develop a digital health platform to predict viral illness symptoms such as with COVID-19.

More than 600 healthcare professionals and first responders participated in the first phase of the RNI study. The rings worked. They monitored physiological data including temperature, breathing and heart patterns, and when coupled with the RNI mobile app and its Digital Health platform, effectively predicted viral illness symptoms such as those associated with coronavirus for up to three days before appearing, with over 80 percent accuracy.

The RNI has all kinds of wearable gadgets, from wristwatches to even clothing, that constantly monitor a persons vitals and collect health data. By applying artificial intelligence and machine-learning to the data collected, the RNI team has predicted health outcomes and behaviors, such as cravings of patients recovering from substance abuse. In fact, before the COVID-19 pandemic, a large chunk of wearable technologies deployed by the RNI were geared toward patients overcoming opioid addiction and chronic pain.

Now the RNI may help to test these smart technologies for the Virgin Hyperloop project.

We are going to use wearable technologies to quantify the physiology of humans, Rezai said. From eye trackers to body sensors to electrocardiograms and electroencephalograms, we can measure, quantify and make sense of whats happening to the human body at 600 mph.

We will apply technologies that we have validated as state-of-the-art to measure physiological, cognitive, social, subjective and performance indicators, said Dr. Scott Galster, director of applied research at RNI.

Galster came to WVU in 2017 to head up human performance research at RNI after an extensive background with the Air Force Research Laboratory and working with NCAA and professional sports teams. He is the mind behind the muscle.

At the RNI, he and his team have continued work with military personnel and athletes, including WVU sports teams, to study fatigue, resilience and recovery.

Similarly, Virgin Hyperloop operators are like athletes and soldiers. Theyll have a specific quest and must train to be fit, mentally and physically, to achieve that target.

We want to optimize operator performance by creating competency-based training systems, applying our knowledge of interactions with complex automated systems examining factors such as decision-making, mental models and trust, Galster said.

RNI will also apply neuroergonomics the study of the human brain in relation to behavioral performance in natural environments and settings and cognitive engineering in the design and flow for the control center, Galster continued.

We have, either internally or through our existing collaborator network, the ability to offer assistance in all aspects of the operational space for this exciting project, he said.

Galster, too, emphasized that Virgin Hyperloop will provide two unique experiences one for the passenger and one for the operator.

For passengers, the RNI can examine and offer recommendations on the point-to-point experience that Virgin Hyperloop will offer, he said. Examples include digital infrastructures to help from purchasing to arriving at your destination, environmental factors such as vibration, lighting, ergonomics, motion sickness, and the use of advanced recovery modalities during ride times.

The ultimate goal, Galster said, is to make the entire system operate safely and securely with maximum efficiency and enjoyment now and in the future.

The ecosystem weve established at West Virginia University Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute is already impacting individuals across different walks of life in improving not only their health and wellness, but job performance, recovery and readiness, Rezai said. At the Hyperloop Certification Center, we will be providing a scientific leadership role and guidance in characterizing and optimizing human safety and function related to this innovative hyperloop technology.

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Hyperloop Health - Dominion Post - The Dominion Post

Neuroscience

Why our obsession with happy endings can lead to bad decisions – The Conversation UK

Alls well that ends well, wrote William Shakespeare over 400 years ago. The words may still seem to ring true today, but turns out they dont. We have just busted the old myth in a recent brain imaging experiment, published in the Journal of Neuroscience.

Experiences that end well are not necessarily good overall and experiences that end less well are not necessarily all that bad. For example, if you play five rounds of poker you get more overall enjoyment from winning twice in the middle than once at the end but we dont always realise this. In fact, one of the numerous foibles that prompt us to make poor decisions is an unwarranted preference for happy endings.

A happy ending means things got better as the experience unfolded. However focusing on happy endings can make us neglect what happened along the way. A happy ending may be brief and come after a long period of mediocrity.

Most of us enjoy it when our pleasant experiences are as long as possible, but at the same time we want things to end well. When Dumbledore died at the end of the Harry Potter film, some people might have felt that their whole experience was ruined. But enjoyment that has already been had should not be discounted because of a disappointing end. A long holiday with brilliant weather except for the last day is not worse overall than a much shorter holiday with good weather throughout.

However, this is exactly how some people feel about past experiences. And this obsession with things getting better and better all the time is a Bankers Fallacy focusing on short-term growth at the expense of long-term outcome. The core of the problem is a difference between what we enjoy while it lasts and what we want again after the final impression. Fixating on the happy end only maximises our final impression, not our overall enjoyment.

To examine this phenomenon, we invited 27 volunteers to take part in a virtual gambling experiment. The participants watched pots of money on a computer screen as gold coins of different sizes dropped into the pots one by one. A happy ending would be one where larger gold coins dropped at the end of the sequence.

The experiment took place in an MRI scanner, which allowed us to monitor the brains activity as the participants examined pairs of sequences of gold coins. After each pair they got to decide which pot they preferred.

It turned out that there is a good reason why people are attracted to happy endings. Computational analyses of the brain recordings showed that we register the value of an experience in two distinct brain regions. The overall value is encoded in a brain region called the amygdala, which has a mixed reputation. It has been argued that amygdala activation mediates emotional responses that can lead to irrational behaviour, but it has also been shown that it can rationally encode the outcome of economic saving strategies.

But the amygdalas influence on decision making is marked down by disincentive activity in a region called the anterior insula if a previous experience doesnt end well. The anterior insula is sometimes associated with processing negative experiences, such as disgust suggesting that some people are actively repulsed by the unhappy end.

In the gambling experiment, good decision makers picked the pots with the most money in total, regardless of whether they got larger gold coins at the end. They showed a strong representation of the overall value in the amygdala, whereas suboptimal decision makers had stronger activity in the anterior insula. In other words, good decision makers need to be able to overrule a displeasing impression of an experience, such as an unhappy end.

Lets say you are going out for dinner and you chose between a Greek and an Italian restaurant where youve been before essentially asking your brain to compute which meal was best last time. If all the dishes in the Greek restaurant were quite good then clearly the whole dinner was quite good. But if the Italian starter was so so, the main dish was only alright but the tiramisu at the end was amazing, then you might have formed an overly positive impression of that Italian restaurant because the meal had a happy ending.

Since these brain mechanisms operate whether we want it or not, they may be reinforced by human culture with its interest in manipulating our perceptions through advertising, propaganda, fake news and so forth exploiting our susceptibility to narrative and storytelling. No one is immune to advertising. The more institutions manipulate our thinking, the more our capacity to make good decisions is threatened.

Our intuitive brain really needs intervention from our more deliberate thinking processes to help us resist fake news and other manipulation. Most of us already know how to do this for example by writing a list of pros and cons to support ourselves into wiser decisions, rather than relying on our gut feeling.

So its not only Shakespeare who was wrong. If our daily behaviour becomes too narrowly focused on the immediate past, were missing out. We need to stop and think about what we are doing using our prefrontal cortex and overrule these impulses and focus on the most relevant aspect of the decision.

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Why our obsession with happy endings can lead to bad decisions - The Conversation UK

Neuroscience

Neuroscience Market Summary, Trends, Sizing Analysis and Forecast To 2025 – Express Journal

The latest Neuroscience market report covers all important aspects like growth driving factors, opportunities, and challenges that will govern the industry dynamics in the upcoming years. Besides, it offers an in-depth analysis of various industry segmentations to deliver a clear picture of the top revenue prospects in this business sphere.

According to seasoned experts, the market is expected to witness modest gains while registering a CAGR of XX% over the analysis period 2020-2025.

Speaking of the major developments in recent times, the global health crisis of Covid-19 has turned out to be a terrifying experience for most businesses except for healthcare industries. Although some have effectively modified their strategies or revisited the mission of the entire company to ensure success, others continue to face an influx of difficulties. Our meticulous research on this industry vertical aims to answer all your queries regarding the evolving environment and help you excel in the coming years.

Request Sample Copy of this Report @ https://www.express-journal.com/request-sample/235869

Key points from the Neuroscience market report:

Neuroscience market segmentation:

Regional bifurcation: North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East & Africa, South East Asia

Product types: Whole Brain Imaging, Neuro-Microscopy, Electrophysiology Technologies, Neuro-Cellular Manipulation, Stereotaxic Surgeries, Animal Behavior and Other

Applications spectrum: Hospitals, Diagnostic Laboratories, Research Institutes and Other

Competitive outlook: GE Healthcare, Plexon, Mightex Bioscience, Siemens Healthineers, Tucker-Davis Technologies, Noldus Information Technology, NeuroNexus, Blackrock Microsystems, Thomas RECORDING GmbH, Phoenix Technology Group and Alpha Omega

Market segmentation

The Neuroscience market is split by Type and by Application. For the period 2021-2026, the growth among segments provides accurate calculations and forecasts for sales by Type and by Application in terms of volume and value. This analysis can help you expand your business by targeting qualified niche markets.

Research Objective:

Why to Select This Report:

Key questions answered in the report:

Request Customization on This Report @ https://www.express-journal.com/request-for-customization/235869

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Neuroscience Market Summary, Trends, Sizing Analysis and Forecast To 2025 - Express Journal

Neuroscience

Cerevel Therapeutics Announces First Patients Dosed in all Phase 3 Trials of Tavapadon for the Treatment of Parkinson’s Disease – GlobeNewswire

BOSTON, Oct. 30, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cerevel Therapeutics(NASDAQ:CERE), a company dedicated to unraveling the mysteries of the brain totreatneurosciencediseases, today announced that the first participants have been dosed in all three of the clinical trials in their Phase 3 program evaluating tavapadon in patients with Parkinsons disease. The company is tackling neuroscience diseases with a differentiated approach that combines expertise in neurocircuitry with a focus on receptor selectivity. Tavapadon is an orally-bioavailable, once-daily partial agonist that selectively targets dopamine D1/D5 receptor subtypes. It has been rationally designed with the goal of balancing meaningful motor control activity while minimizing the side effects typical of drugs that non-selectively stimulate dopamine.

We are encouraged by the benefit-risk profile of tavapadon based on the efficacy results observed in Phase 2 trials, as well as the tolerability profile we have seen in our clinical program to date, said Raymond Sanchez, M.D., chief medical officer of Cerevel Therapeutics. We look forward to advancing the development of tavapadon and potentially bringing a differentiated, cornerstone therapy to Parkinsons patients at all stages of the disease as supported by a robust Phase 3 program.

The Phase 3 program includes three 27-week, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, parallel-group trials designed to evaluate the efficacy, safety and tolerability of fixed doses (TEMPO-1) and flexible doses (TEMPO-2) of tavapadon as a monotherapy in patients with early-stage Parkinsons disease or as an adjunctive therapy to levodopa in patients with late-stage Parkinsons disease who are experiencing motor fluctuations (TEMPO-3).

Approximately 1,200 patients ages 40 to 80 years will be enrolled across all three trials. The primary endpoint of the TEMPO-1 and TEMPO-2 trials is the change from baseline in the Movement Disorder Society-Unified Parkinsons Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS) Part II and Part III combined score. The primary endpoint of the TEMPO-3 trial is the change from baseline in total daily on time without troublesome dyskinesia. A fourth 58-week, open-label, safety extension trial will also be conducted as part of the program.

As the companys most advanced therapeutic program, tavapadon has been evaluated in 272 subjects in Phase 1 and Phase 2 trials, including in both early- and late-stage Parkinsons patient populations, which is required for a broad indication in Parkinsons disease. Across Phase 1b and Phase 2 trials conducted to date, tavapadon has demonstrated motor control benefit with the potential for an improved tolerability profile relative to D2/D3-preferring agonists.

Initiation of the registration-directed Phase 3 program for tavapadon began in January 2020. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Cerevel Therapeutics paused screening and enrollment in all trials in March 2020 and has remained vigilant about participant safety and data integrity. Now that the program is resuming, the company expects preliminary data readouts in the first half of 2023.

About TavapadonTavapadon is a potent, orally-bioavailable, selective partial agonist of the dopamine D1 and D5 receptors. This investigational therapeutic is being evaluated for the once-daily symptomatic treatment of Parkinsons disease.

About Parkinsons DiseaseApproximately 10 million people worldwide are living with Parkinsons disease, according to the Parkinsons Foundation. The disease is characterized by a progressive degeneration of dopaminergic neurons (the main source of dopamine) leading to a loss of critical motor and non-motor functions. Symptom severity and disease progression differ between individuals but typically include slowness of movement (bradykinesia), trembling in the extremities (tremors), stiffness (rigidity), cognitive or behavioral abnormalities, sleep disturbances and sensory dysfunction.1 There is no laboratory or blood test for Parkinsons disease, so a diagnosis is made based on clinical observation,2 which may contribute to an underestimation of the incidence of the disease.

About Cerevel TherapeuticsCerevel Therapeutics is dedicated to unraveling the mysteries of the brain to treat neuroscience diseases. The company is tackling neuroscience diseases with a differentiated approach that combines expertise in neurocircuitry with a focus on receptor selectivity. Cerevel Therapeutics has a diversified pipeline comprising five clinical-stage investigational therapies and several preclinical compounds with the potential to treat a range of neuroscience diseases, including schizophrenia, epilepsy, Parkinsons disease and substance use disorder. Headquartered in Boston, Cerevel Therapeutics is advancing its current research and development programs while exploring new modalities through internal research efforts, external collaborations or potential acquisitions. For more information, visit http://www.cerevel.com.

Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release contains forward-looking statements that are based on managements beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to management. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the following words: may, will, could, would, should, expect, intend, plan, anticipate, believe, estimate, predict, project, potential, continue, ongoing or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words. These statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from the information expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Although we believe that we have a reasonable basis for each forward-looking statement contained in this press release, we caution you that these statements are based on a combination of facts and factors currently known by us and our projections of the future, about which we cannot be certain. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements about the potential attributes and benefits of our product candidates and the format and timing of our product development activities and clinical trials. We cannot assure you that the forward-looking statements in this press release will prove to be accurate. Furthermore, if the forward-looking statements prove to be inaccurate, the inaccuracy may be material. In light of the significant uncertainties in these forward-looking statements, you should not regard these statements as a representation or warranty by us or any other person that we will achieve our objectives and plans in any specified time frame, or at all. The forward-looking statements in this press release represent our views as of the date of this press release. We anticipate that subsequent events and developments will cause our views to change. However, while we may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we have no current intention of doing so except to the extent required by applicable law. You should, therefore, not rely on these forward-looking statements as representing our views as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release.

Media Contact:Rachel EidesW2O purereides@purecommunications.com

Investor Contact:Matthew CalistriCerevel Therapeuticsmatthew.calistri@cerevel.com

___________________

1 J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2008;79:368-376. doi:10.1136/jnnp.2007.131045.2 Cold Spring Harb Perspect Med. 2012;2:a008870.

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Cerevel Therapeutics Announces First Patients Dosed in all Phase 3 Trials of Tavapadon for the Treatment of Parkinson's Disease - GlobeNewswire

Cell Biology

In-country genetic changes of coronavirus mapped by scientists – University World News

GHANA

In an email exchange with Quashie to explain a collaborative research project on COVID-19, he said they were also able to identify groups of individuals with the same virus in order to identify which types of the virus are circulating in a country because the various types have differing levels of transmissibility and pathogenicity.

The research was conducted at the West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens and the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) of the University of Ghana.

Quashie, who had earlier presented the findings of the study during a webinar, said because of the quality of their work, they were able to actually track and link the different samples to each other and see which samples likely had similar ancestry.

We were able to identify unique substitutions or genetic changes, which were identified in Ghana and have either not been identified elsewhere or are known stochastic [stochastic refers to a pattern that may be analysed statistically, but may not be predicted precisely] mutations that occur in-country, Quashie said.

Transmission pathway followed

The study also showed about 20% of people living in Accra and in Kasoa, totalling about 2 million, may have been exposed to COVID-19. The study was conducted in public places including municipal markets and lorry stations in Accra and Kasoa, shopping malls in Accra, and COVID-19 testing centres and other research institutions or health centres in Accra.

The researchers used a pre-validated antibody rapid diagnostic test (RDT), and were able to determine exposure to SARS-CoV-2, by detecting COVID-19 antibodies in blood samples taken from 1,305 participants. They said these tests were only able to detect exposure to the virus with about 70% accuracy because antibodies wane after some time and might be hard to detect in some individuals.

Dr Yaw Bediako, a research fellow at WACCBIP, said these were somewhat cautionary results, adding that, we know these things can switch in an instant. So we have to be vigilant and we have to be aware that COVID-19 is, indeed, circulating freely in our country and [that] our current testing protocols, which are focused on symptomatic people, will only capture a very small fraction.

Analysing the genetic structure of various strains of the virus, the scientists also found evidence of transmission from the Greater Accra Region, through the Central Region, to the Western Region. The most transmissible variants, according to the data, were found in Ayawaso, a suburb of Accra, which was a hotbed for the disease when it first broke out in the country.

People in lower economic brackets worse off

They said the findings suggested that people in lower economic brackets are more exposed and have higher levels of previous SARS-CoV-2. Results of the extent of antibody presence in the community sampled in the study showed that the exposure rate was higher among people tested at the markets and lorry stations (about 27%) than those at the malls (around 9%). The study also showed that differences in socioeconomic status could determine risk of exposure to the virus.

Having a higher level of education and a high level of income also significantly reduce your risk of being exposed compared to those who have lower levels of education and those who earn low incomes. We also found that individuals working in the informal sector are at a two-fold increased risk of being exposed, said Quashie.

Kofi Bonney, a senior research fellow at NMIMR, said these results were to be expected, adding that, I even expected that a higher percentage would have been recorded, especially from the markets. We saw how they were loosely keeping to the protocols that we're supposed to be adhering to. People are now thinking that we are out of the woods, but we are not there yet. The virus is still circulating, and we need to be wary of that and adhere to the protocols strictly. Otherwise, what is happening in the Western world may surface here as well.

WACCBIP is one of the World Bank's African Centres of Excellence (ACE) and was established in 2014. The centre has a mandate to conduct applied research into biology and pathogenesis of tropical diseases, and increase research output and innovation by enhancing collaboration among biomedical scientists and industry or private sector leaders in the sub-region.

The NMIMR works with the faculty from the department of biochemistry, cell and molecular biology of the University of Ghana with the mandate to provide masters and PhD training, as well as targeted short courses in cell and molecular biology.

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In-country genetic changes of coronavirus mapped by scientists - University World News

Cell Biology

Study Identifies Pitfall for Correcting Mutations in Human Embryos with CRISPR – Columbia University Irving Medical Center

In a paper published today in the journal Cell, scientists describe unexpected, undesirable outcomes after editing genes in human embryos with CRISPR, a genomic editing system.

The study, the most detailed analysis to date of CRISPR in human embryos, shows that applying gene editing technologyto repair a blindness-causing gene early in the development of a human embryo often eliminates an entire chromosome or a large section of it.

"Our study shows that CRISPR/Cas9 is not yet ready for clinical use to correct mutations at this stage of human development, says the studys senior author Dieter Egli, assistant professor of developmental cell biology in the Department of Pediatrics at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.

The genome editing system called CRISPR/Cas9 has revolutionized molecular biology in recent years, and its discoverers were honored with this year's Nobel Prize in chemistry. The system allows scientists to make precise changes in the genomes of cultured cells, living tissues, and animal embryos.

The first use of CRISPR in human embryos was reported in 2015. Then in 2018, He Jiankui claimed to have performed the procedure in a pair of twin embryos, eliciting a firestorm of condemnation from scientists and government officials worldwide.

In the new paper, Egli and his colleagues tested CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing's effects on early-stage human embryos carrying a mutation in a gene called EYS (eyes shut homolog), which causes hereditary blindness.

We know from previous studies in differentiated human cells and in mice that a break in the DNA results in mostly two outcomes: precise repair or small local changes. At the EYS gene, these changes can yield a functional gene, though it is not a perfect repair, says Michael Zuccaro, a research scientist at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and co-lead author of the paper.

When Zuccaro, Egli, and their colleagues looked at the entire genomes of the modified embryos in this study, they identified another outcome. We learned that in human embryonic cells, a single break in the DNA can result in a third outcomethe loss of an entire chromosome or sometimes a large segment of that chromosome, and this loss of the chromosome is very frequent, says Zuccaro.

In 2017, a study reported the successful correction of a heart disease-causing mutation in normal human embryos using CRISPR. Comprehensive data from the new study offer a different interpretation of these results: Instead of being corrected, the chromosome carrying the mutation may have been lost altogether.

"If our results had been known two years ago, I doubt that anyone would have gone ahead with an attempt to use CRISPR to edit a gene in a human embryo in the clinic," Egli says.Our hope is that these cautionary findings should discourage premature clinical application of this important technologybut can also guide responsible research to achieve its ultimate safe and effective use.

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Study Identifies Pitfall for Correcting Mutations in Human Embryos with CRISPR - Columbia University Irving Medical Center

Cell Biology

Singapore scientists discover a new immune pathway resulting in immunodeficiency – BSA bureau

The novel pathway can be a target for liver disease and cancer drugs that failed trials due to inflammatory side effects

Scientists from Singapores A*STARs Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB), in collaboration with doctors from KK Womens and Childrens Hospital (KKH), have discovered a new immune pathway based on an investigation of severe immunodeficiency caused by a novel mutation in the NFKBIA gene. The findings were published inThe Journal of Clinical Investigation.

A recent investigation with a rare primary immunodeficiency disease involving a two-week old infant with recurrent infections alongside lung, skin and liver damage instigated the discovery. Scientists at A*STAR identified a new genetic variant in NFKBIA that changed the levels of soluble proteins called cytokines, produced by white blood cells to drive inflammation. Abnormally high production of one cytokine, IL-1, was identified as the key derangement. Crucially, the clinical team was able suppress the patients disease by rational administration of the IL-1-blocking drug, Anakinra, based on these scientific results.

The research team, along with Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN) discovered a previously unknown pathway, which controls IL-1 production. By replicating the mutation in pre-clinical and cellular models, experimental results conclusively showed that the patients genetic variant was the cause of IL-1 hyper-production, and hence the disease. These findings have implications for the development of treatments against liver disease and cancer that target this novel pathway.

While other mutations in NFKBIA have been reported before to cause disease, this mutation has never before been identified. It is the only mutation in which hyper-production of IL-1, severe liver cholestasis and systemic inflammation were documented. The research team believes the mutation limits immune responses via the suppression of many pro-inflammatory cytokines. Yet at the same time, it causes over-production of IL-1, leading to liver damage and inflammation. Using this bedside-to-bench approach of identifying the underlying genetic causes of immunodeficiency diseases, previously unknown pathways which control immune responses can be revealed. These then serve as targets for personalised treatment strategies," said Dr John Connolly, a Research Director at IMCB and co-corresponding author of the study.

The research team will further examine which new mediators are responsible for controlling IL-1 production by this genetic variant, given that this regulatory association between the protein encoded in NFKBIA and IL-1 was not observed previously. As this novel pathway has also been a popular target for cancer drugs that failed trials due to inflammatory side effects, the team will investigate whether these new mediators are responsible for the failure of these drugs, and determine if the side effects can be circumvented.

Image Caption:Staining for the signalling protein NFB (green) in skin cells from a healthy individual (left) and the patient (right) after immune stimulation. The patients novel NFKBIA variant impairs entry of NFB into nucleus (blue). This defect led to changes in cytokine production, resulting in both immunodeficiency and multi-organ damage.

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Singapore scientists discover a new immune pathway resulting in immunodeficiency - BSA bureau

Cell Biology

UNM recognized in U.S. News & World Report’s 2021 Best Global Universities rankings – UNM Newsroom

The University of New Mexico was ranked No. 256 in the recently released U.S. News & World Reports 2021 Best Global Universitiesrankings. The rankings, now in its seventh year, evaluate nearly 1,500 research universities across 86 countries on academic research and reputation.

This year's edition includes schools from 86 countries, up from 81 last year. The U.S. has the most universities in the overall ranking with 255, followed by China (176), United Kingdom (87), France (70) and Germany (68).

The Best Global Universities methodology places significant emphasis on academic research," said Robert Morse, chief data strategist at U.S. News. "With rankings by subject, region and country, students and their families can easily learn more about schools based on their specific needs and interests."

UNM is the highest ranked institution in the state and also fares well in the west region overall. The University of Colorado-Boulder (No. 59), University of Arizona (No. 97), University of Utah (No. 142) and Arizona State (No. 146) are a few of the notable institutions ahead of UNM. A few other institutions of interest include Colorado State (No. 280), Texas Tech (No. 435) San Diego State (No. 614), Utah State (No. 706), Wyoming (No. 726), and BYU (No. 748). Other state institutions include New Mexico State (No. 750). While New Mexico Tech was unranked.

In addition to the overall rankings, the new edition includes country, regional and subject-specific rankings, such as engineering, economics and business, and computer science.Ten new subject rankings were added this year, for a total of 38. The new subjects are biotechnology and applied microbiology; cell biology; chemical engineering; endocrinology and metabolism; energy and fuels; gastroenterology and hepatology; infectious diseases; nanoscience and nanotechnology; public, environmental and occupational health; and radiology, nuclear medicine and medical imaging.

UNM was highly-recognized in the following subject rankings:

Based onWeb of Sciencedata andInCitesmetrics provided by Clarivate, a global leader in providing trusted information and insights to accelerate the pace of innovation, the Best Global Universitiesmethodologyweighs factors that measure a university's global and regional research reputation and academic research performance. For the overall rankings, this includes bibliometric indicators such as publications, citations and international collaboration. Each subject ranking has its own methodology based on academic research performance in that specific area.

"The coronavirus pandemic has introduced additional factors to consider when pursuing higher education, especially if you're looking to earn a degree abroad," said Anita Narayan, managing editor of Education at U.S. News. "For prospective students, the Best Global Universities rankings provide a solid place to begin your search, create an initial list of schools and compare overall academic quality.

The Best Global Universities rankings serve the broader U.S. News mission of providing trusted information and rankings such asBest Colleges,Best Graduate SchoolsandBest Online Programs to help students navigate their higher education options.

For a full list of the global and subject rankings, visit 2021 Best Global Rankings.

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UNM recognized in U.S. News & World Report's 2021 Best Global Universities rankings - UNM Newsroom

Cell Biology

Priming the immune system to attack cancer | Penn Today – Penn Today

Immunotherapies, such as checkpoint inhibitor drugs, have made worlds of difference for the treatment of cancer. Most clinicians and scientists understand these drugs to act on whats known as the adaptive immune system, the T cells and B cells that respond to specific threats to the body.

New research from an international team co-led by George Hajishengallis of the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine suggests that the innate immune system, which responds more generally to bodily invaders, may be an important yet overlooked component of immunotherapys success.

Their work, published in the journal Cell, found that training the innate immune system with -glucan, a compound derived from fungus, inspired the production of innate immune cells, specifically neutrophils, that were primed to prevent or attack tumors in an animal model.

The focus in immunotherapy is placed on adaptive immunity, like checkpoint inhibitors inhibit the interaction between cancer cells and T cells, says Hajishengallis, a co-senior author on the work. The innate immune cells, or myeloid cells, have not been considered so important. Yet our work suggests the myeloid cells can play a critical role in regulating tumor behavior.

The current study builds on earlier work published in Cell by Hajishengallis and a multi-institutional team of collaborators, which showed that trained immunity, elicited through exposure to exposure to the fungus-derived compound -glucan, could improve immune recovery after chemotherapy in a mouse model.

In that previous study, the researchers also showed that the memory of the innate immune system was held within the bone marrow, in hematopoetic stem cells that serve as precursors of myeloid cells, such as neutrophils, monocytes, and macrophages.

The team next wanted to get at the details of the mechanism by which this memory was encoded. The fact that -glucan helps you fight tumors doesnt necessarily mean it was through trained immunity, says Hajishengallis.

To confirm that link, the researchers isolated neutrophils from mice that had received the innate immune training via exposure to -glucan and transferred them, along with cells that grow into melanoma tumors, to mice that had not received -glucan. Tumor growth was significantly dampened in animals that received cells from mice that had been trained.

To further support this link between myeloid precurors and the protective quality of trained immunity, the scientists performed bone marrow transplants, transferring bone marrow cells from trained mice to untrained mice that had been irradiated, effectively eliminating their own bone marrow.

When challenged later, the mice that were recipients of bone marrow from trained mice fought tumors much better than those that received bone marrow from untrained mice.

This is innate immune memory at work, said Technical University Dresdens Triantafyllos Chavakis, a long-term collaborator of Hajishengallis and co-senior author of the study.

The experiment relied on the memory of bone marrow precursors of neutrophils of the trained donor mice, which were transferred by transplantation to the recipient mice and gave rise to neutrophils with tumor-killing ability.

The researchers found that the antitumor activity likely resulted from trained neutrophils producing higher levels of reactive oxygen species, or ROS, than did untrained neutrophils. ROS can cause harm in certain contexts but in cancer can be beneficial, as it acts to kill tumor cells.

Looking closely at the myeloid precursors in the bone marrow of trained animals, the team found significant changes in gene expression that biased the cells toward making neutrophils, specifically a type associated with anti-tumor activity, a classification known as tumor-associated neutrophils type I (TAN1).

Further investigation revealed that these changes elicited by innate immune training cause an epigenetic rewiring of bone marrow precursor cells, changes that acted to make certain genes more accessible to being transcribed and also pointed to the Type I interferon signaling pathway as a likely regulator of innate immune training. Indeed, mice lacking a receptor for Type I interferon couldnt generate trained neutrophils.

-glucan is already in clinical trials for cancer immunotherapy, but the researchers say this finding suggests a novel mechanism of action with new treatment approaches.

This is a breakthrough concept that can be therapeutically exploited for cancer immunotherapy in humans, Hajishengallis says, specifically by transferring neutrophils from -glucan-trained donors to cancer patients who would be recipients.

Hajishengalliss coauthors on the study were Penn Dental Medicines Xiaofei Li; Technical University Dresdens Lydia Kalafati, Ioannis Kourtzelis, Tatyana Grinenko, Eman Haga, Anupam Sinha, Canan Has, Marina Nati, Sundary Sormendi, Ales Neuwirth, Antonios Chatzigeorgiou, Athanasios Ziogas, Pallavi Subramanian, Ben Wielockx, Peter Mirtschink, Kyoung-Jin Chung, Mathias Lesche, Andreas Dahl, Panayotis Verginis, Ioannis Mitroulis, and Triantafllos Chavakis; University of Bonns Jonas Schulte-Schrepping, Joachim L. Schultze, and Mihai G. Netea; Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens Aikaterini Hatzioannou; DFG-Center for Regenerative Therapies Dresdens Sevina Dietz; Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics Antonio Miguel de Jess Domingues and Ian Henry; and Max Planck Institute of Biochemistrys Peter Murray.

Kalafati and Kourtzelis were co-first authors and Hajishengallis, Verginis, Mitroulis, and Chavakis were co-senior authors.

George Hajishengallis is the Thomas W. Evans Centennial Professor in the Department of Basic and Translational Sciences in the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine.

The study was funded by the European Research Council and the National Institutes of Health (grants DE024716, DE026152, and DE28561).

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Priming the immune system to attack cancer | Penn Today - Penn Today