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Human Behavior

What Thucydides Teaches Us About War, Politics, and the Human Condition – War on the Rocks

Thucydides is on a roll these days.

The ancient Greek historian of the Peloponnesian War, who lived almost 2,500 years ago, makes the title of Graham Allisons prominent new volume, Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydidess Trap?

The great historian merits this because his analysis of the causes of the ancient war between the Athenians and the Spartans provides the essential dilemma of Allisons book: Can states avoid catastrophic war when a rising power begins to challenge a dominant states control? Thucydides pessimistic answer seems to be No: War was inevitable, we are told, when emergent power Athens contested Spartas supremacy 2,500 years ago. Allison offers only a slightly more optimistic take (War is more likely than not) in analyzing Chinas growing challenge to Americas dominating position globally.

The Trump White House is reportedly obsessed with Thucydides, thanks in good measure to Allison. But senior administration officials like National Security Advisor H. R. McMaster have long taken seriously the ideas of the ancient writer, even if some think he misunderstands what Thucydides is really saying.

And now even Wonder Woman has Thucydides name on her lips: In the recent blockbuster superhero movie, the title character and a villain refer to the historian in a dramatic scene (incorrectly, as it turns out, since a quotation is erroneously attributed to him.)

All this attention, both serious and silly, raises the question: What can we truly learn from Thucydides, a writer who lived over two millennia ago, about power relations today? Quite a bit, in my view, but not necessarily in the way people like to.

This moment is not, of course, the first time modern policy experts have turned to Thucydides for his insights. The cognoscenti have long known of the utility of his history. To take a prominent example, during the Cold War much used to be made of the bipolar world of Thucydides. America was often cast in the role of Athens because both were democracies, while militarized, oligarchic Sparta was played by the Soviet Union. But this analogizing got things backwards in strategic terms: Sparta (much like the United States) led an alliance of relatively free, vulnerable allied states who looked to it for protection against a repressive imperial power. Meanwhile, Athens (much like the Soviet Union) controlled its allies by force or intimidation, causing a great deal of anxiety in the opposing coalition.

But regardless, this attractive bipolar comparison stoked fears that the unavoidable war Thucydides described in his time would mean World War III for all of us.

Happily, it didnt turn out that way.

This brings me to my first point about appropriately using Thucydides history: Be careful about the analogies you see. Thucydides compelling vision of the Peloponnesian War, with its meticulously delineated causes, combatants, and alliances, make it easy to find parallels later in history, right up to the present day. Thucydides clarity about power relations and human behavior in times of conflict gives his readers all the tools they need to see larger patterns at work that they may identify with events in their own times. Thucydides himself foresaw the utility of his work. He says that he wrote it not to entertain for the moment but to be of lasting value, because people could use it to clearly understand past events and also understand future events given that, people being people, similar sorts of things will happen again.

But as we have seen, one can get the analogies wrong. That similar sorts of things may come up again in human affairs (as Thucydides put it) does not mean that everything turns out the same in the end. Thus, the dangerous, decades-long American-Soviet standoff did not result in catastrophic war the way the Athens-Sparta confrontation did. Such a failed analogy doesnt mean Thucydides was wrong, only those who tried to prognosticate based on his text. Thus, we ought not be too eager to seize upon another comparable strategic situation modern Chinas challenge to the United States (equivalent to Athens challenge to Sparta?) and try to use Thucydides to predict the outcome.

Now, to be fair to Allison, Destined for War does not go quite this far. He is more cautious. For one thing, like a good political scientist, he expands his dataset beyond Thucydides to include 16 other, supposedly comparable, cases of rising versus established powers from various periods in history. In 12 of these, he says, war resulted and in four it did not. Moreover, his goal is not really to make a prediction. Rather, he wants to use what he identifies as the Thucydides trap the tendency for wars to break out in circumstances like Chinas growing challenge to U.S. dominance to put Americans on guard to the danger and encourage policymakers to take appropriate action, including embarking on a long-term strategic reassessment.

And yet the risk of misunderstanding Thucydides remains when he is used this way, however carefully. First, we should understand that Thucydides himself never talks of a trap. Thats a modern construal, not just by Allison but by Arlene Saxonhouse, when she asserts that, reading Thucydides history, we see a Power Trap described, whereby states like Athens become trapped by their unending pursuit of power. But Thucydides never describes the complex strategic history of his time as any kind of paradigm or trap. He never warns that this set of circumstances may occur again and that we all must be on guard for it in the future. To use his history as if he did risks turning it into a kind of parlor game of potentially predictive analogies. I see 19th century England in ancient Athens! No, Athens is 21st century America! No, Sparta is! We better watch out look what happened in the Peloponnesian War!

So how should we use Thucydides, then? Does his history have anything valuable to offer modern thinkers or policymakers? It certainly does, and this brings me to my second point. Years of working with Thucydides in the classroom and as a scholar tell me that what his book teaches most of all is what we might call historical mindfulness. By this I mean a generalized understanding about the workings of history: what kinds of forces tend to inspire people, drive politics, create crises and bring (or prevent) resolution, with what consequences for human communities? Thucydides was not a prophet nor a political scientist, but a keen observer and explicator of the human condition in collective conflict. And we can gain much wisdom by studying his work with this in mind.

For example, when we read Thucydides account of the devastating civil war in Corcyra, with his astute observations of the way political struggles of this kind twist ambitions and norms and the very meaning of words, there is much to learn. The horror and tragedy of the events in Corcyra friends become enemies, kin kill kin, a once-prosperous polity virtually self-destructs make his account riveting and give weight to his thoughts on how such things can come about. Several of his observations stand out: that the existence of a larger war (between Athens and Sparta) paved the way for Corcyra and, later, other polarized cities to fall into internal violence; that political behavior previously honored as prudent and honest becomes, in these circumstances, scorned as disloyal or cowardly; that atrocity led to counter-atrocity, while mutual distrust made de-escalation almost impossible. Seeing the truth in Thucydides observations about events in Corcyra (which, in general ways, recall incidents from other civil wars in other times and places) can teach us a great deal about civil strife and of politics gone wrong. It helps make us historically mindful.

This manner of reading Thucydides offers, I would assert, a deeper wisdom than analogy-hunting. (The Corcyrean oligarchs are like the hardliners in Iran! No, they are the loyalists in Syria! And the Corcyrean populists must be the Syrian Kurds! Now we can predict what will happen!)

Consider another example. One of the most renowned parts of his history is the Melian dialogue, where Thucydides reports on a conversation that took place between envoys from an invading Athenian force and officials from the small island city-state of Melos, which the Athenians were about to assault. In the dialogue, Thucydides presents his readers with a stark view of the Athenian imperial mindset of the time, while also putting us in the shoes of a vulnerable community that found itself in the path of a much more powerful one bent on swallowing it. The Melians ask the envoys to be left alone, appealing to reason and justice. They claim a desire to remain neutral in the Spartan-Athenian struggle, contend that the Athenians would outrage gods and men if they attacked them, and warn that the Spartans would intervene on the Melians behalf. The Athenians, in contrast, argue from a basis of naked power: We will forego fancy words of self-justification and simply tell you that we are strong, you are weak, and you can only save yourself by surrendering your freedom to us or we will crush you. Our empire was built by taking what we can and thats how we will maintain it. Oh, and the gods seem to like us just fine. (And dont delude yourselves about Sparta coming to help you; it is obvious that they wont.)

The contrast between the harsh words of the Athenians and the alternately brave, hopeful, and desperate arguments of the Melians makes this exchange one of the most memorable in Thucydides history. The fact that the Melians, who refused to surrender and resisted the Athenian siege for as long as they could, suffered obliteration in the end at the hands of the Athenians (all surviving men were executed, all the women and children were sold into slavery) adds to the drama and message of the episode. Thucydides follows his Melian account with a lengthy description of Athens grand Sicilian expedition. This was another arrogant attempt at imperial expansion, but one that instead ended in disaster for Athens.

Scholars have argued about how exactly we should interpret the Melian dialogue, but two conclusions seem fairly clear. First and foremost, Thucydides wants us to see the brutal thinking and overbearing pride of the Athenians in the way they conceived of and sought to expand their empire. Fair-seeming words used on other occasions to justify ethically their imperial expansion are stripped away, revealing the cold calculus beneath. Thucydides moralizing purpose shines through, both in the painfully unjust treatment of the honorable Melians and in the comeuppance that he shows the overconfident Athenians suffering in the immediately following narrative of the catastrophic Sicilian expedition. Naked, cruel aggression can rebound against its practitioners.

But there is more to it than this. Thucydides is also teaching us about realistic expectations in dangerous times. The Melians, for all the justice of their cause, made a terrible error in deciding to resist the Athenians. The Spartans did not lift a finger to help them, much as the Athenians predicted. The Melian forces were completely outmatched, much as the Athenians said they would be. And the Melians paid for their delusions with their very existence.

I could produce many more fertile episodes for examination from Thucydides ample history. There is, for example, his famous multifaceted treatment of the short- and long-term causes of the Spartan-Athenian war (on which see S. N. Jaffes recent and wise commentary in War on the Rocks.) But the expositions I have provided, brief as they are, show, I hope, how contemplating Thucydides rich text can yield many insights about fundamental matters of politics, war, and the human condition. We can see in Thucydides work (and, of course, in written accounts of other times and places, if not always as incisively) the dynamics of history at work. Understanding the predicament of the Melians, or the civic self-immolation of the Corcyreans, or the corrosive imperial ideology of the Athenians, together with the long-term causes and consequences of their conflicts, helps one to perceive, at a general level, how human communities can prosper or falter or fail. Guided by Thucydides, we see dynamics at work that can facilitate the analysis of strategic confrontations in any era.

Fostering such historical mindfulness does not, unfortunately, grant one the straightforward ability to predict the course of future events. Neither does Thucydides history itself. He did not write an oracular text. Trying to peg the Chinese or Americans as latter-day Athenians, or distilling Thucydides work into axioms of history (when x power challenges y, z will result) while, admittedly, intellectually stimulating misses a more profound education available in his text, an education that can provide students of public affairs with a nuanced, historically grounded grasp of how the world works.

Eric W. Robinson is Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of History at Indiana University. His most recent book is Democracy Beyond Athens: Popular Government in the Greek Classical Age (Cambridge, 2011). He has written about Thucydides and causes of the Peloponnesian War in The Oxford Handbook of Thucydides (Oxford, 2017).

Image: Jastrow, CC

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What Thucydides Teaches Us About War, Politics, and the Human Condition - War on the Rocks

Human Behavior

Engraved prehistoric human bones show ritualistic cannibalism – Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) - Engravings on a human bone from a prehistoric archaeological site in a cave in southern England shows that human cannibals ate their prey and then performed ritualistic burials with the remains, scientists said on Wednesday.

The forearm bone appears to have been disarticulated, filleted, chewed, and then engraved with a zig-zag design before being broken to extract bone marrow, said scientists from Britain's Natural History Museum who conducted the analysis.

The finding, published in the journal PLOS ONE, adds to previous studies of bones from the site, called Gough's Cave, thought to be from Britain's Palaeolithic period - the early Stone Age.

Those studies confirmed human cannibalistic behavior and showed some remains had been kept and modified, making human skulls into bowls, or "skull cups".

The zig-zag cuts are undoubtedly engraving marks, the scientists said, and had no utilitarian purpose but were purely artistic or symbolic.

Silvia Bello, a Natural History Museum who worked on the study with colleagues from University College London, said the engraved motif was similar to engravings found in other European archaeological sites.

"However, what is exceptional in this case is the choice of raw material - human bone - and the cannibalistic context in which it was produced," she said.

"The engraving was a purposeful component of the cannibalistic practice, rich in symbolic connotations."

Discovered in the 1880's, Gough's Cave in Somerset, southern England, was excavated over several decades ending in 1992.

Archaeological investigations there revealed intensively processed human bones intermingled with butchered remains of large mammals and a range of flint, bone, antler and ivory artefacts.

Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky

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Engraved prehistoric human bones show ritualistic cannibalism - Reuters

Embryology

In Breakthrough, Scientists Edit a Dangerous Mutation From Genes in Human Embryos – New York Times

Weve always said in the past gene editing shouldnt be done, mostly because it couldnt be done safely, said Richard Hynes, a cancer researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who co-led the committee. Thats still true, but now it looks like its going to be done safely soon, he said, adding that the research is a big breakthrough.

What our report said was, once the technical hurdles are cleared, then there will be societal issues that have to be considered and discussions that are going to have to happen. Nows the time.

Scientists at Oregon Health and Science University, with colleagues in California, China and South Korea, reported that they repaired dozens of embryos, fixing a mutation that causes a common heart condition that can lead to sudden death later in life.

Scientists tried two techniques to remove a dangerous mutation. In the first, genetic scissors were inserted into fertilized eggs. The mutation was repaired in some of the resulting embryos but not always in every cell. The second method worked better: By injecting the scissors along with the sperm into the egg, more embryos emerged with repaired genes in every cell.

When gene-editing components were introduced into a fertilized egg, some embryos contained a patchwork of repaired and unrepaired cells.

Gene-editing

components inserted

after fertilization

Cell with

unrepaired

gene

Mosaicism in

later-stage embryo

When gene-editing components were introduced with sperm to the egg before fertilization, more embryos had repaired mutations in every cell.

Gene-editing components

inserted together with sperm,

before fertilization

In 42 of 58

embryos

tested, all

cells were

repaired

Uniform

later-stage embryo

When gene-editing components were introduced into a fertilized egg, some embryos contained a patchwork of repaired and unrepaired cells.

Gene-editing

components inserted

after fertilization

Cell with

unrepaired

gene

Mosaicism in

later-stage embryo

When gene-editing components were introduced with sperm to the egg before fertilization, more embryos had repaired mutations in every cell.

Gene-editing

components inserted

together with sperm,

before fertilization

In 42 of 58

embryos

tested, all

cells were

repaired

Uniform

later-stage embryo

If embryos with the repaired mutation were allowed to develop into babies, they would not only be disease-free but also would not transmit the disease to descendants.

The researchers averted two important safety problems: They produced embryos in which all cells not just some were mutation-free, and they avoided creating unwanted extra mutations.

It feels a bit like a one small step for (hu)mans, one giant leap for (hu)mankind moment, Jennifer Doudna, a biochemist who helped discover the gene-editing method used, called CRISPR-Cas9, said in an email.

I expect these results will be encouraging to those who hope to use human embryo editing for either research or eventual clinical purposes, said Dr. Doudna, who was not involved in the study.

Much more research is needed before the method could be tested in clinical trials, currently impermissible under federal law. But if the technique is found to work safely with this and other mutations, it might help some couples who could not otherwise have healthy children.

Potentially, it could apply to any of more than 10,000 conditions caused by specific inherited mutations. Researchers and experts said those might include breast and ovarian cancer linked to BRCA mutations, as well as diseases like Huntingtons, Tay-Sachs, beta thalassemia, and even sickle cell anemia, cystic fibrosis or some cases of early-onset Alzheimers.

You could certainly help families who have been blighted by a horrible genetic disease, said Robin Lovell-Badge, a professor of genetics and embryology at the Francis Crick Institute in London, who was not involved in the study.

You could quite imagine that in the future the demand would increase. Maybe it will still be small, but for those individuals it will be very important.

The researchers also discovered something unexpected: a previously unknown way that embryos repair themselves.

In other cells in the body, the editing process is carried out by genes that copy a DNA template introduced by scientists. In these embryos, the sperm cells mutant gene ignored that template and instead copied the healthy DNA sequence from the egg cell.

We were so surprised that we just couldnt get this template that we made to be used, said Shoukhrat Mitalipov, director of the Center for Embryonic Cell and Gene Therapy at Oregon Health and Science University and senior author of the study. It was very new and unusual.

The research significantly improves upon previous efforts. In three sets of experiments in China since 2015, researchers seldom managed to get the intended change into embryonic genes.

And some embryos had cells that did not get repaired a phenomenon called mosaicism that could result in the mutation being passed on as well as unplanned mutations that could cause other health problems.

In February, a National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine committee endorsed modifying embryos, but only to correct mutations that cause a serious disease or condition and when no reasonable alternatives exist.

Sheldon Krimsky, a bioethicist at Tufts University, said the main uncertainty about the new technique was whether reasonable alternatives to gene editing already exist.

As the authors themselves noted, many couples use pre-implantation genetic diagnosis to screen embryos at fertility clinics, allowing only healthy ones to be implanted. For these parents, gene editing could help by repairing mutant embryos so that more disease-free embryos would be available for implantation.

Hank Greely, director of the Center for Law and the Biosciences at Stanford, said creating fewer defective embryos also would reduce the number discarded by fertility clinics, which some people oppose.

The larger issue is so-called germline engineering, which refers to changes made to embryo that are inheritable.

A new technique known as Crispr has revolutionized humans ability to edit DNA. See if you can identify whether a given development has already happened, could eventually happen or is pure fiction.

If youre in one camp, its a horror to be avoided, and if youre in the other camp, its desirable, Dr. Greely said. Thats going to continue to be the fight, whether its a feature or a bug.

For now, the fight is theoretical. Congress has barred the Food and Drug Administration from considering clinical trials involving germline engineering. And the National Institutes of Health is prohibited from funding gene-editing research in human embryos. (The new study was funded by Oregon Health and Science University, the Institute for Basic Science in South Korea, and several foundations.)

The authors say they hope that once the method is optimized and studied with other mutations, officials in the United States or another country will allow regulated clinical trials.

I think it could be widely used, if its proven safe, said Dr. Paula Amato, a co-author of the study and reproductive endocrinologist at O.H.S.U. Besides creating more healthy embryos for in vitro fertilization, she said, it could be used when screening embryos is not an option or to reduce arduous IVF cycles for women.

Dr. Mitalipov has pushed the scientific envelope before, generating ethical controversy with a so-called three-parent baby procedure that would place the nucleus of the egg of a woman with defective cellular mitochondria into the egg from a healthy woman. The F.D.A. has not approved trials of the method, but Britain may begin one soon.

The new study involves hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a disease affecting about one in 500 people, which can cause sudden heart failure, often in young athletes.

It is caused by a mutation in a gene called MYBPC3. If one parent has a mutated copy, there is a 50 percent chance of passing the disease to children.

Using sperm from a man with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and eggs from 12 healthy women, the researchers created fertilized eggs. Injecting CRISPR-Cas9, which works as a genetic scissors, they snipped out the mutated DNA sequence on the male MYBPC3 gene.

They injected a synthetic healthy DNA sequence into the fertilized egg, expecting that the male genome would copy that sequence into the cut portion. That is how this gene-editing process works in other cells in the body, and in mouse embryos, Dr. Mitalipov said.

Instead, the male gene copied the healthy sequence from the female gene. The authors dont know why it happened.

Maybe human sex cells or gametes evolved to repair themselves because they are the only cells that transmit genes to offspring and need special protection, said Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, a co-author and geneticist at the Salk Institute.

Out of 54 embryos, 36 emerged mutation-free, a significant improvement over natural circumstances in which about half would not have the mutation. Another 13 embryos also emerged without the mutation, but not in every cell.

The researchers tried to eliminate the problem by acting at an earlier stage, injecting the egg with the sperm and CRISPR-Cas9 simultaneously, instead of waiting to inject CRISPR-Cas9 into the already fertilized egg.

That resulted in 42 of 58 embryos, 72 percent, with two mutation-free copies of the gene in every cell. They also found no unwanted mutations in the embryos, which were destroyed after about three days.

The method was not perfect. The remaining 16 embryos had unwanted additions or deletions of DNA. Dr. Mitalipov said he believed fine-tuning the process would make at least 90 percent of embryos mutation-free.

And for disease-causing mutations on maternal genes, the same process should occur, with the fathers healthy genetic sequence being copied, he said.

But the technique will not work if both parents have two defective copies. Then, scientists would have to determine how to coax one gene to copy a synthetic DNA sequence, Dr. Mitalipov said.

Otherwise, he said, it should work with many diseases, a variety of different heritable mutations.

R. Alta Charo, a bioethicist at University of Wisconsin at Madison, who led the committee with Dr. Hynes, said the new discovery could also yield more information about causes of infertility and miscarriages.

She doubts a flood of couples will have edited children.

Nobodys going to do this for trivial reasons, Dr. Charo said. Sex is cheaper and its more fun than IVF, so unless youve got a real need, youre not going to use it.

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In Breakthrough, Scientists Edit a Dangerous Mutation From Genes in Human Embryos - New York Times

Cell Biology

Gene Involved in Natural Variation in Heart Regeneration Identified – Technology Networks

Some people are better than others at recovering from a wounded heart, according to a new USC Stem Cell study published in Nature Genetics.

In the study, first author Michaela Patterson, a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Henry Sucov, and her colleagues focused on a regenerative type of heart muscle cell called a mononuclear diploid cardiomyocyte (MNDCM). Zebrafish and newborn mammals, including mice and humans, have large numbers of MNDCMs and a relatively robust ability to regenerate heart muscle. However, adult mammals have few MNDCMs and a correspondingly limited capacity for regeneration after an injury such as a heart attack.

Even so, the situation for adult mammals is not uniformly dire: Patterson and her co-authors observed a surprising amount variation in the number of MNDCMs among different strains of adult mice. In some strains, MNDCMs accounted for only 1.9 percent of heart muscle cells. In others, a full 10 percent were MNDCMs. As expected, the higher the percentage of MNDCMs, the better the mice fared in regenerating their heart muscle after injury.

This was an exciting finding, said Patterson. It suggests that not all individuals are destined to permanent heart muscle loss after a heart attack, but rather some can naturally recover both heart muscle mass and function. If we can identify the genes that make some individuals better at it than others, then perhaps we can stimulate regeneration across the board.

Using an approach called a genome-wide association study, the researchers indeed identified one of the key genes underlying this variation: Tnni3k. By blocking this gene in mice, the researchers produced higher percentages of MNDCMs and enhanced heart regeneration. In contrast, activating this gene in zebrafish decreased MNDCMs and impaired heart regeneration.

Sucovsenior author and professor of stem cell biology and regenerative medicine, integrative anatomical sciences, and biochemistry and molecular biologydescribed how this early discovery could be a first step towards a preventive strategy to mitigate heart disease, the leading cause of death in the Western world.

The activity of this gene, Tnni3k, can be modulated by small molecules, which could be developed into prescription drugs in the future, he said. These small molecules could change the composition of the heart over time to contain more of these regenerative cells. This could improve the potential for regeneration in adult hearts, as a preventative strategy for those who may be at risk for heart failure.

This article has been republished frommaterialsprovided by the University of Southern California. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.

Reference:

Patterson, M., Barske, L., Handel, B. V., Rau, C. D., Gan, P., Sharma, A., . . . Sucov, H. M. (2017). Frequency of mononuclear diploid cardiomyocytes underlies natural variation in heart regeneration. Nature Genetics. doi:10.1038/ng.3929

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Gene Involved in Natural Variation in Heart Regeneration Identified - Technology Networks

Biochemistry

Dr. Jerome Adams confirmed as surgeon general – CNN

"To be confirmed as the 20th US Surgeon General is truly an indescribable honor," Adams tweeted Thursday.Adams is an anesthesiologist who previously served as the Indiana state health commissioner -- "in essence the Surgeon General for Indiana," he said in a statement to the Senate committee. Prior to that, he served as a staff anesthesiologist and assistant professor of anesthesia at the Indiana University School of Medicine, where he completed his medical degree. He earned undergraduate degrees in biochemistry and biopsychology and a master's degree in public health."The addictive properties of prescription opioids is a scourge in America and it must be stopped," wrote Adams in his nomination committee statement. He added that he shared US Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price's top priorities, including "the opioid epidemic, and untreated mental illness, which lie at the root of much of the current situation." "I bring to this discussion a unique perspective, and a proven track record of bringing together various groups to address the problem," Adams wrote in his statement. In May 2015, he revealed that his brother is an addict during testimony at a House Energy and Commerce Committee.

That same year, Adams dealt with the lasting effects of drug use as health commissioner. Two-hundred nineteen people were infected with HIV in Southeast Indiana as a result of injecting the prescription opioid Opana. A needle exchange program was put into place to slow the outbreak.

Adams also vowed to make "wellness and community and employer engagement a centerpiece of my agenda." He said the opioid epidemic, obesity, healthcare access and cost will not be successfully tackled if the nation continues to focus on handling these problems only "after they've taken hold."

"Many people call the US Surgeon General the nation's 'Top Doctor,' " Adams wrote in his statement. He said the moniker doesn't do justice to the many professions within the Health Corps, including nurses, pharmacists, therapists and scientists, and insinuates that one person can be "all things to health" -- but doesn't give "proper consideration to the vital role partnerships play."Adams tweeted: "The wonderful people of Indiana trusted and supported me, and ultimately this appointment is about what we've all accomplished together."

Adams noted at his hearing that he is a father to three children, ages 7, 11 and 13 years old.

"When making decisions, I literally have no choice but to think about both the immediate impact on our nation's children -- my own children included -- and the world I am leaving for future generations," he said at that time.

"I hope to make America healthier," wrote Adams in his statement. "Healthy people and communities are more productive, and profitable, and in turn attract more jobs and prosperity."

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Dr. Jerome Adams confirmed as surgeon general - CNN

Biochemistry

New genes discovered regulating brain metastases in lung cancer – Medical Xpress

Mohini Singh is a PhD candidate in biochemistry at the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University Credit: McMaster University

Research from McMaster University has identified new regulators of brain metastases in patients with lung cancer.

These regulators are the genes called SPOCK1 and TWIST2.

The discovery was made by researchers at the Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute at McMaster University and was recently published online in the journalActa Neuropathologica.

"Brain metastases are a secondary brain tumour, which means they are caused by cancer cells that escape from primary tumours like lung, breast or melanoma, and travel to the brain," said Mohini Singh, the study's primary author and a PhD candidate in biochemistry at the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster.

"We set out to find which genes can regulate the cells that initiate brain metastases, which we've termed brain metastasis initiating cells or BMICs. In other words, what are the genes that are sending the signal to these lung BMICs to leave the lung tumour, go into the blood stream, invade the blood-brain barrier and form a tumour in the brain."

The study used samples from lung cancer patients with brain metastases. The samples were incubated to enrich for BMICs, then injected into the lungs, hearts and brains of mice. The subsequent development of brain metastases was studied by researchers.

"If you look at a set of lung cancer patients, like we did in the paper, who develop brain metastases, they all have those two genes in their primary lung cancer," said Sheila Singh, the study's supervisor, associate professor at the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, scientist with the Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute at McMaster University and neurosurgeon at McMaster Children's Hospital.

"Patients who don't get brain metastases don't have these genes in their primary lung cancer."

Brain metastases are the most common brain tumour in adults and are a leading cause of death in cancer patients.

"If you can identify the genes that cause metastases, then you can determine a predictive model and you can work towards blocking those genes with possible treatments," said Mohini Singh.

Explore further: Preventing the development of brain tumours

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New genes discovered regulating brain metastases in lung cancer - Medical Xpress

Biochemistry

Study of Vitamin D Receptor Gene Polymorphism (FokI, TaqI and ApaI) Among Prostate Cancer Patients in North India. – UroToday

Incidence of prostate cancer is rising worldwide. Multiple factors have been suggested for the aetiology of prostate cancer including ethnic, genetic and diet. Vitamin D (calcitriol) has been shown to have role in cell growth and differentiation and its deficiency is implicated as one of the aetiological factors in prostate cancer. Prostatic epithelial cells express Vitamin D Receptor (VDR) as well as 1- hydroxylase enzyme that are required for the synthesis of calcitriol and its action. Polymorphism in VDR gene has been associated with prostate cancer in some epidemiological studies; but, there is paucity of information in the Indian context.

The present study was aimed to explore the association of VDR gene polymorphism with the development of prostate cancer.

Three Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNP) sites viz., FokI, TaqI and ApaI were analysed in 120 cases of prostate cancer which were compared with their 120 healthy first degree relatives and 120 non-related controls in the Department of Biochemistry in collaboration with the Department of Urology.

Analysis showed significantly decreased incidence of Tt and Aa genotype in prostate cancer patients as compared to healthy non-relative controls (p=0.016 and 0.043 respectively). As compared to first degree relatives, incidence of Tt genotype is significantly lower in cases (p=0.005). No significant association was found with FokI polymorphism.

This study suggests the protective role of heterozygous genotypes of TaqI and ApaI polymorphism against the development of prostate cancer.

Journal of clinical and diagnostic research : JCDR. 2017 Jun 01 [Epub]

Pankaj Ramrao Kambale, Deepa Haldar, B C Kabi, Kalpana Pankaj Kambale

Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry, S.M.B.T. Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Nashik, Maharashtra, India., Senior Resident, Department of Biochemistry, Vardhman Mahavir Medical College and Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi, India., Professor Director, Department of Biochemistry, Vardhman Mahavir Medical College and Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi, India., Senior Lecturer, Department of Periodontology, S.M.B.T. Institute of Dental Sciences and Research, Nasik, Maharashtra, India.

PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28764147

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Study of Vitamin D Receptor Gene Polymorphism (FokI, TaqI and ApaI) Among Prostate Cancer Patients in North India. - UroToday

Genetics

Genetic counseling field to rapidly expand – CNBC

As a college student at the University of Mount Union in Alliance, Ohio, Megan McMinn studied biology, hoping to one day become a physician's assistant.

But a desire to interact even more with patients led her down a different path in genetic counseling.

"What genetic counseling gave me was a good split between patient care and the hard science research end of things," McMinn said.

At Geisinger Health System in Danville, Pa., McMinn sees about six patients a day, working in oncology. Soon, she'll move onto a cardiology clinic, helping to identify genetic risks for individuals and potentially their families. The system currently has 25 genetic counselors on staff, but anticipates needing hundreds more as genetic testing becomes cheaper and more accessible.

The trend extends far beyond Geisinger, as the field has grown dramatically in the past decade, touching all aspects of health-care as medicine becomes more personalized.

"Genetics permeates everythingthere won't be enough genetic counselors to see every patient who gets genetic information," said Mary Freivogel, president of the National Society of Genetic Counselors (NSGC).

As a result, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects the occupation will grow by 29 percent through 2024, faster than the average for all occupations

"I think [a genetic counselor] will become a key member of the team, discussing with patients and families what to do next, how to figure out how the genome is going to interact with your lifestyle and make decisions about what you want to do medically," said Dr. David Feinberg, president and CEO of Geisinger Health System.

Genetic counselors typically receive a bachelor's degree in biology, social science or a related field, and then go on to receive specialized training. Master's degrees in genetic counseling are offered by programs accredited by the Accreditation Council for Genetic Counseling, offered at some 30 schools in the U.S. and Canada, according to the NSGC.

Those who want to be certified as genetic counselors must obtain a master's degree from an accredited program, but do not need to be doctors.

The NSGC is also working to recruit new talent by doing outreach in middle and high schools to let younger students know the field is an option in the future. Pay is competitive as wellon average, counselors make around $80,000 a year, but that can increase up to $250,000 annually depending on specialty, location and expertise, Freivogel said.

Health insurance often pays for genetic counseling, and for genetic testing when recommended by a counselor or doctor. However, it's important to check with insurers before scheduling any tests as coverage levels vary. Cost also varies greatly, for example, as multi-gene cancer panels can range from $300 to $4,000 depending on the type of test, the lab used and whether the patient goes through his or her insurance or pays out of pocket.

And while at-home tests like 23andMe are typically less expensive, those taking them still need to see a genetic counselor to explain their results.

Part of the reason more counselors will be needed in the future at Geisinger is because the health system is home to the MyCode Community Health Initiative, one of the largest biobanks of human DNA samples of its kind, according to Amy Sturm, director of Cardiovascular Genomic Counseling at Geisinger. The project has consent from more than 150,000 patients to participate in having their entire DNA code sequenced and synced with their electronic medical records, to look for new causes of disease and different ways to treat conditions.

"We are figuring out and researching the best way to deliver this information back to our patients and also back to families with the ultimate goal of preventing disease and improving the healthcare system," Sturm said.

Keeping up with the latest in genomics, where new developments happen almost daily, can be a challenge. Yet counselors like McMinn say the ability to impact more than just the patient by studying the genome makes the job well worth it.

"We are able to bring to the forefront the fact that we're not just taking care of the patient, but we're taking care of the entire family," McMinn said.

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Genetic counseling field to rapidly expand - CNBC

Genetics

Veritas Genetics acquires Curoverse to enable AI push … – MobiHealthNews

Veritas Genetics,a leader in whole-genome sequencing, has acquired computing and bio-informatics firm Curoverse for an undisclosed amount. Curoverse provides infrastructure for life sciences companies to manage large datasets, including an open source platform called Arvados.

The acquisition isn't totally unexpected, since the two companies have a strong existing relationship. Not only were both companies cofounded by Harvard professor Dr. George Church, but Veritas and Curoverse have worked together on Harvard's Personal Genome Project.

"There are very few companies in the world that have the expertise and experience of more than a decade in aggregating genomic data and enabling machine learning," Church said in a statement. "I am pleased to see these two teams work even closer together. They not only share a common technological goal but also a commitment to making this invaluable information actionable and accessible."

Veritas offers whole genome sequencing for $999 and delivers results to customers' smartphones. The goal of the acquisition is to use Curoverse's big data expertise to enable Veritas to more easily use artificial intelligence and machine learning to extract insight from that genomic data.

"At Veritas, we are building a platform to sequence, and more importantly, interpret hundreds of thousands, and eventually millions, of human genomes per year," Veritas CEO Mirza Cifric said in a statement."This will only be possible by deploying AI and machine learning at scale, which requires data that is produced, stored and managed in a standardized way. Curoverse excels at this capability. Working closely together will not only benefit Veritas, but the industry as a whole."

Through initiatives like Arvados and the Common Workflow Language project, Curoverse has been involved in efforts to standardize the way genomic data is produced and aggregated. Veritas intends to continue supporting the goal of open standards for genomic data.

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Veritas Genetics acquires Curoverse to enable AI push ... - MobiHealthNews

Genetics

Fulgent Genetics Posts 17 Percent Increase in Q2 Revenues … – GenomeWeb

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) Fulgent Genetics reported on Monday that its second quarter revenues rose 17 percent as it integrated its newly reorganized sales force.

For the three months ended June 30, Fulgent's revenues climbed to $4.6 million from $4.0 million the year before.

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Fulgent Genetics Posts 17 Percent Increase in Q2 Revenues ... - GenomeWeb