Human Behavior

Solvang speaks up: Letters to the editor for the week of Jan. 24, 2020 – Santa Ynez Valley News

Bruce Porter for supervisor

I am enthusiastically endorsing Bruce Porter for 3rd District Supervisor.

Bruce has a wealth of important experience from his years as colonel in the Army Corps of Engineers. This includes road construction, bridge building, water conservation, oil spill clean-up (think Kuwaiti oil disaster) and all aspects of practical infrastructure that is so important to the future of our county.

His after Army years of active community service, particularly on the Santa Ynez High School board and other community volunteer work has demonstrated his desire to serve and enhanced his experience for supervisor. His present career as a financial investment manager further prepared him to deal with county financial issues.

In these days of partisan bickering and political ambition, it is refreshing to have a candidate such as Bruce who is a registered Independent, not interested in partisan politics. He is free from the symbolic issues that have infected our modern governments. He has no interest in future elective office or counterproductive political ambitions. Bruce is very much in tune with the environmental and social traditions of Santa Barbara County.

My four years as county supervisor gave me the experience to understand how important a competent, multi-dimensional, and experienced person is to address the issues of our County, now and for the future. Additionally, the freedom from interest groups and posturing ideology is critical to independent and sound decisions that our county desperately needs.

For all the above reasons I heartily recommend Bruce Porter to be our next 3rd District Supervisor. And I invite everyone to join me in supporting his campaign.

Please be sure to vote on March 3!

Former 3rd District Supervisor

'Slick marketing'

Bruce Porters reference to farm-to-table petroleum made me laugh. Unfortunately, Porter is deadly serious.

As a candidate for Board of Supervisors in 2016 a position he lost to current Supervisor Joan Hartmann - he received more than $60,000 from a Political Action Committee backed by oil and gas industries. This year, 70% of the funding he has received comes from two well-known pro-oil contributors.

Porter states county rules and regulations make it almost impossible to implement alternative energy solutions. In fact, Santa Barbara County has taken great strides away from our dependence on fossil fuels.

We recently joined the Monterey Bay Community Choice energy program, which gives us more control over energy sources and includes renewables, while working with existing providers such as PG&E and Southern California Edison.

The county approved the Strauss Wind Energy project, which will double renewable energy production and provide for the electricity needs of 30 percent of the countys households.

Porter states that drilling will lower our greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), but he is flat out wrong. Just one of three drilling projects up for review in our county will result in GHGs of 760 thousand metric tons of CO2, according to the companys own environmental impact review.

Its not rules and regulations that are blocking progress to a just and effective energy transition. Its moneyed special interests who think they can buy our votes. Use your vote on March 3 to tell them otherwise: Vote for Supervisor Hartmann, and against Bruce Porter.

Backing Bruce Porter in 3rd District

I would like to bring attention to the upcoming election and to the candidacy of Bruce Porter.

As we approach the unusually early March 3 primary election, I want to express my support for Bruce Porter in his bid to become the next county supervisor for the 3rd District.

Ive known Bruce for several years through his involvement in a number of local non-profit organizations. In that time, Ive come to know him as a straight-shooting, thoughtful leader with the ability to find common ground among groups with different viewpoints.

We need more of that in our county politics: someone with an open mind who will listen to the other side and reach a decision based on common sense, not political allegiances.

Im confident Bruce has the knowledge, tact, and skills needed to serve both the North County and the South Coast on the Board of Supervisors. His voice is one we desperately need in county government.

SYVAOR President 2020, Rotary Club of Buellton President 2019-2020

Porter places others before self

I support Bruce Porter for Santa Barbara County supervisor.

Ive known Bruce for a number of years. He has an amazing passion for our community and its citizens, and has dedicated countless hours in volunteer time to work hard for the benefit of others.

As chairman of the Santa Barbara County Chapter of the American Red Cross, Bruce demonstrated qualities of leadership and common sense that we also need to have on our county Board of Supervisors. He showed compassion for victims, charity for those in need, strength of character in times of adversity, and asked tough questions at budget time.

Additionally, I deeply respect Bruce for his integrity and leadership in so many other positions, such as the school board, Rotary, Boy Scouts and Youth Coalition. Ive also had the pleasure to attend a local veteran organization with Bruce and see his desire to support local veterans in the community first hand.

Bruce truly places others before himself, and has gained tremendous respect and trust from the community. I have no doubt that Mr. Porter will make an outstanding county supervisor.

Please join me in voting on March 3 for Bruce Porter for county supervisor.

Where is Mr. Porter?

During Bruce Porters previous attempt to become a supervisor, I attended some of his public events. They were tightly controlled appearances where his credentials were recited but he took few questions. His campaign office does not return phone calls. And just last week, Porter was the only candidate who chose not even to appear at a lively forum for voters. Is that a sign of respect and commitment?

In contrast, since being elected as supervisor, Joan Hartmann has been eminently approachable on any matter that concerned me or my neighbors. She has held countless townhall-like gatherings throughout the 3rd District, making herself available to listen and respond to all questions.

The job of county supervisor is an important one. Further, the District 3 Supervisor has often cast the tie-breaking vote on matters that affect the quality of our lives and the balancing of our budget. Joan Hartmann has proven that she takes the role seriously and devotes her time, energy and considerable experience to it. She has a proven record of leadership in advancing public health, the safety of our roads and neighborhoods, disaster response and water-wise policies.

Total compensation for the position is over $100,000 a year. Isnt this enough to ensure that a supervisor is financially able to give full time and attention to it?

Still, after four years, Porter will not pledge to leave his private job as financial advisor to the wealthy to give more than part-time to the tax payers of the county he would have pay his salary.

Focus on the basic source of violence

Thanks for the invitation to share my thoughts in the excellent OUR VIEW Shooting Blanks at Violence editorial published Jan. 3.

I agree wholeheartedly that something must be done. Emotional uproar focuses on the tools, most often firearms, as being the cause. Guns, knives, SUVs, and other inanimate objects do not exhibit the pervasive hostility, rage, anger exhibited during these killings. The core of the problem must be attributed to human behavior of the perpetrators. Investigating the why of the who is a cultural and psychological dilemma.

Drawing from my 75 years of observations, I sense a cultural trend to dehumanize the value of life, to shy away from civility, and a failure to accept personal responsibility for bad actions and decisions. Violence and gore dramatizations in the media, entertainment industry and games constantly are more graphic, and in my opinion are desensitizing individuals. Soldiers exposed to the horrors of battle develop PTSD. Yet the entertainment industry fails to accept any responsibility for potential long-term damage to developing minds and personalities.

I see a cultural trend that fails to address, even ignores, the basic concept of good versus evil. Hollywood personalities have an increasing influence on our value of life. The AR-15 is demonized for its role in taking human lives. Yet actors applauded Michelle Williams during the Golden Globe Awards for bragging how her real-life decision to murder her fetus led to her selection for Best Performance by an Actress. I challenge the editors to provide an OUR VIEW opinion comparing death statistics due to mass killings with firearms versus voluntary abortions for personal convenience. When do children earn their rights to life, freedom and pursuit of happiness?

How do we as a civilized nation solve this crisis of violence? In my humble opinion we start by going back to a simpler time when childrens heroes were police officers and soldiers, Hopalong Cassidy and Gene Autry, and teachers who encouraged recitation of the pledge of allegiance to our flag and a prayer before the start of the school day. Focus on the basic source of violence bad people.

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Solvang speaks up: Letters to the editor for the week of Jan. 24, 2020 - Santa Ynez Valley News

Human Behavior

Banks have returned to the pre-2008 world of automatic credit-limit increases for credit cards used by already indebted people – Boing Boing

"Proactive credit line increases" (PCLIs) are when your credit card company increases your credit limit without your asking for it; it was very common prior to the 2008 crisis, but the post-crisis rules largely put a stop to it. Now, banks have figured out regulatory loopholes that allow them to throw PCLIs at their most vulnerable customers, leading to record-high national levels of credit-card debt of $880b as of last September, higher than the pre-crisis high.

Credit cards are the most profitable loans that the finance industry originates, and 2019 was the best-ever year for the banks' profits from credit cards, with interest rates soaring to a 20-year peak. The US banks made $179b in credit card fees and interest in 2019, and 2020 is projected to be even better. Credit-card debt is the fastest-growing form of debt in the USA.

Much of this PCLI activity is subprime -- extending credit to people who are already overburdened by debt and who will likely miss payments, leading to high penalties, which are extremely profitable for banks.

The number of people aged 19-29 in the USA who are more than 90 days late on their card payments just reached a ten-year high.

But after the stock slipped in 2017, [Capital One] executives came under pressure to show they could meet growth targets. They eventually tweaked their models to offer increases to more customers, betting on a quirk in human behavior, according to the person with knowledge of the decision, who asked not to be named discussing the talks. The firmsanalyses showed people tended to keep their card utilization steady, even after line increases. In other words, someone who used 80% of their credit line before the boost, would typically use the same percentage afterward, generating more revenue.

Other researchers had come to similar conclusions. For consumers who carry balances on their cards, nearly 100% of an increase in credit limits eventually becomes an increase in debts, according to a working paper by Scott Fulford and Scott Schuh for the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. About half of U.S. credit card accounts carry a balance each month, the CFPB said.

Banks Are Handing Out Beefed-Up Credit Lines No One Asked For [Michelle Davis/Bloomberg]

(via Naked Capitalism)

Bernie Sanders commissioned the Government Accountability Office to study the consequences of the high degree of indebtedness borne by Millennials; the GAO's report concludes that Millennials dreams are being "crushed" by debts -- primarily student loans -- which have limited their abilities to seek good employment, good housing, and to save for retirement.

Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) (previously) is an alternative to neoclassical economics that holds that sovereign states that issue their own currency can't default on debts denominated in that currency (if you are the sole source of Canadian dollars and all your debts are in Canadian dollars, you can always pay those debts), and that deficit []

Robert Skidelsky is an eccentric British economist: trained at Oxford, author of a definitive three-volume biography of Keynes, a Lord who sat with the Tories as their economics critic during the Blair regime, who now sits as an independent who is aligned with Labour's left wing. Back in September, Yale University Press published Skidelsky's latest []

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Banks have returned to the pre-2008 world of automatic credit-limit increases for credit cards used by already indebted people - Boing Boing

Human Behavior

BoJack Horseman ready for the next Season?or is the show called off? Check here to know more – Union Journalism

Netflix banger Bojack Horseman has a piece of bad news and good news for their fans. The good news is that they will release the second part of the sixth season soon. The second half of the season, consisting of eight episodes, will be premiered on January 31, 2019.

BoJack Horseman is an American animated Comedy series that streams exclusively on Netflix. It is an adult comedy show which stars a humanoid horse lost in its booze. The creator of the show is Raphael Bob- Waksberg The show was first aired in August 2014. Since then, the show gained extreme popularity and attention as the audience found the presentation relatable. The show depicts issues that the adult these days are dealing with regularly. It showcases problems such as racism, depression, anxiety, trauma, mental health problem, which is a catchy subject to talk about when it comes to human behavior. The show projects Surreal Humour, which engages more audience to watch the show.

From 2014 to present, they did very well to keep its audience binding to the show and attract for of them. The show. According to Raphael Bob- Waksberg, the creator of the show,Will Arnet, the voice behind the character BoJack Horseman, Arnet himself sometimes creates punches and lines for the character on the show. According to Raphael,Arnet is a great dramatic actor and knows very well how to play in-between emotions. Without Arnet, the success of the would-be less as to what it is now. Said in an interview.

Five seasons of the show are out already, and the sixth season is in progress. The first half has been, but the second half is yet to come. Sixty-Nine in total episodes has been out already. After a hectic day, the audience finds it very relieving to watch. The show has also proved to be a stress buster for most fans.

According to the team, the sixth season was the final season for the show, and there will be no further seasons. Netflix decided to put the show to an end. Hence respecting the decision, the show has come to an end.

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BoJack Horseman ready for the next Season?or is the show called off? Check here to know more - Union Journalism

Human Behavior

How Uber and other digital platforms could trick us using behavioral science unless we act fast – MENAFN.COM

(MENAFN - The Conversation) Uber' buine model i incredibly imple: It' a platform that facilitate exchange between people. And Uber' been incredibly ucceful at it, almot eliminating the tranaction cot of doing buine in everything from huttling people around town to delivering food.

Thi i one of the reaon Uber i now among the mot valuable companie in the world after it hare began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on May 10.

Yet it US$82.4 billion market capitalization may pale in comparion to the wealth of uer data it' accumulating . If you ue Uber or perhap even if you don't it know a treaure trove of data about you, including your location, gender, pending hitory, contact, phone battery level and even whether you're on the way home from a one-night tand . It may oon know whether you're drunk or not.

While that' cary enough, combine all that data with Uber' expertie at analyzing it through the len of behavioral cience and you have a dangerou potential to exploit uer for profit.

Uber' hardly alone. Our reearch how the bigget digital platform Airbnb, Facebook, eBay and other are collecting o much data on how we live, that they already have the capability to manipulate their uer on a grand cale. They can predict behavior and influence our deciion on where to click, hare and pend.

While mot platform aren't uing all thee capabilitie yet, manipulation through behavioral pychology technique can occur quietly and leave little trace. If we don't etablih rule of the road now, it'll be much harder to detect and top later.

A platform can be any pace that facilitate tranaction between buyer and eller. Traditional example include flea market and trading floor.

A digital platform erve the ame purpoe but give the owner the ability to 'mediate' it uer while they're uing it and often when they're not. By that we mean it can oberve and learn an incredible amount of information about uer behavior in order to perfect what behavioral cientit call ' choice architecture ,' inconpicuou deign element intended to influence human behavior through how deciion are preented.

For example, Uber ha experimented with it driver to determine the mot effective trategie for keeping them on the road a long a poible. Thee trategie include playing into cognitive biae uch a lo averion and overetimating low probability event, even if a driver i barely earning enough money to make it worth her while. Driver end up like gambler at a caino, urged to play jut a little longer depite the odd.

Uber didn't immediately repond to a requet for comment.

Airbnb alo experiment with it uer. It ha ued behavioral cience to get hot to lower their rate and accept booking without creening guet which create real rik for hot, particularly when they are haring their own apartment.

While thee example eem relatively benign, they demontrate how digital platform are able to quietly deign ytem to direct uer' action in potentially manipulative way.

And a platform grow, they only become better choice architect. With it IPO' huge influx of invetor money to fund more data and behavioral cience , Uber could move into dangerouly unethical territory eay to imagine given it pat practice .

For example, if the app recognize that you are drunk or in a neighborhood you rarely travel to and one that it data how i high in crime it could charge you a higher rate, knowing you're unlikely to refue.

And it' not all peculation.

In an effort to deceive law enforcement trying to invetigate the company, Uber actually found a way to identify government regulator trying to ue it app and then prevented them from getting ride.

That' one reaon lawmaker and regulator have been dicuing the difficult, interrelated role of behavioral cience and tech for year . And ome companie, Uber in particular, have been invetigated for a hot of bad buine practice, from dicrimination to miuing uer data .

But mot of the manipulation we've identified and worry about i not exprely illegal. And becaue regulator are often unable to keep pace with the ever-evolving ue of technology and choice architecture, that' likely to remain o.

Given the abence of well-defined and enforceable legal guardrail, platform companie' propenity to exploit behavioral cience at uer' expene will remain largely unchecked.

One olution, in our view, i etablihing an ethical code for platform companie to follow. And if they don't adopt it willingly, invetor, employee and uer could demand it.

Since the mid-20th century, written code of ethical conduct have been a taple of U.S. companie. The legal and medical profeion have relied on them for millennia . And reearch ugget they are effective at encouraging ethical behavior at companie.

We reviewed hundred of ethical code, including one targeted at tech and computing companie. Baed on our reearch, we urge digital platform to adopt five ethical guideline:

All choice architecture employed on a platform hould be fully tranparent. Platform hould dicloe when they are uing the tool of behavioral cience to influence uer behavior

Uer hould be able to make choice on the platform freely and eaily, and choice architect hould limit behavioral intervention to reminder or prompt that are the leat harmful to uer autonomy

Platform hould avoid 'nudging' uer in way that exploit unconciou and irrational deciion making baed on impule and emotion. New reearch how that tranparent choice architecture can work jut a well

Platform hould recognize the power they poe and take care not to exploit the market they've created, including by abuing information aymmetrie between themelve and uer or oppoing reaonable regulation

Platform hould avoid uing choice architecture that dicourage uer from acting in their own bet interet. A Nobel Prize-winning behavioral economit Richard Thaler put it , we hould only 'nudge for good.'

Big tech and behavioral cience are now integrated in way that are making companie wildly ucceful, from buzzing toothbruhe that make cleaning your teeth eem rewarding to uing text to nudge poorer mother to ue health care .

While the reult can ignificantly enhance our live, it alo make it eaier than ever for companie to manipulate uer to enhance their bottom line.

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How Uber and other digital platforms could trick us using behavioral science unless we act fast - MENAFN.COM

Cell Biology

Tiny organs grown from snake glands produce real venom – Science Magazine

Researchers grew tiny venom glands from nine different snake species, including the cape coral cobra.

By Erin MalsburyJan. 23, 2020 , 11:00 AM

Venomous snakes kill or permanently injure more than a half-million people every year. Yet researchers still know surprisingly little about the biology behind venom, complicating efforts to develop treatments. A new advance could help: Researchers have successfully grown miniature organs from snake stem cells in the lab that function just like snake venom glands; they even produce real venom.

Its a breakthrough, says Jos Mara Gutirrez, a snake venom toxicologist at the University of Costa Rica, San Jos, who was not involved in the study. This work opens the possibilities for studying the cellular biology of venom-secreting cells at a very fine level, which has not been possible in the past. The advance could also help researchers study the venom of rare snakes that are difficult to keep in captivity, he says, paving the way for new treatments for a variety of venoms.

Researchers have been creating miniorgansor organoidsfrom adult human and mouse stem cells for years. These so-called pluripotent cells are able to divide and grow into new types of tissues throughout the body; scientists have coaxed them into tiny livers, guts, and even rudimentary brains. But scientists hadnt tried the technique with reptile cells before.

Nobody knew anything about stem cells in snakes, says Hans Clevers, a molecular biologist at the Hubrecht Institute and one of the worlds leading organoid scientists. We didnt know if it was possible at all. To find out, Clevers and colleagues removed stem cells from the venom glands of nine snake speciesincluding the cape coral cobra and the western diamondback rattlesnakeand placed them in a cocktail of hormones and proteins called growth factors.

To the teams surprise, the snake stem cells responded to the same growth factors that work on human and mouse cells. This suggests certain aspects of these stem cells originated hundreds of millions of years ago in a shared ancestor of mammals and reptiles.

Miniature, lab-grown snakevenom glands

By the end of 1 week submerged in the cocktail, the snake cells had grown into little clumps of tissue, a half-millimeter across and visible to the human eye. When the scientists removed the growth factors, the cells began to morph into the epithelial cells that produce venom in the glands of snakes.The miniorgans expressed similar genes as those in real venom glands, the team reports today inCell.

The snake organoids even produced venom; a chemical and genetic analysis of the secretions revealed that they match the venom made by the real snakes. The labmade venom is dangerous as well: It disrupted the function of mouse muscle cells and rat neurons in a similar way to real venom.

Scientists didnt know whether the many toxins found in snake venom are made by one general type of cell or specialized, toxin-specific cells. By sequencing RNA in individual cells and examining gene expression, Cleverss team determined that both real venom glands and organoids contain different cell types that specialize in producing certain toxins. Organoids grown using stem cells from separate regions of the venom gland also produce toxins in different proportions, indicating that location within the organ matters.

The proportions and types of toxins in venom differ amongand even withinspecies. That can be problematic for antivenom production, says study author Yorick Post, a molecular biologist at the Hubrecht Institute. Most antivenoms are developed using one type of venom, so they only work against one type of snakebite.

Now that Clevers and his colleagues created a way to study the complexity of venom and venom glands without handling live, dangerous snakes, they plan to compile a biobank of frozen organoids from venomous reptiles around the world that could help researchers find broader treatments. This would make it much easier to create antibodies, Clevers says. The biobank could also be a rich resource for identifying new drugs, he adds. (Scientists think snake venom may hold the keyfor treatments against pain, high blood pressure, and cancer, for instance.)

Another new study, published earlier this month inNature, could also help. Researchers have assembled anear-complete genome for the Indian cobrathat could aid drug development. The organoids created by Cleverss team will provide an unprecedented and incredibly important new avenue to complement genomic information for venomous snakes, says the senior author of the cobra study, molecular biologist Somasekar Seshagiri of the SciGenom Research Foundation. Theyve done an amazing job making this work.

*Correction, 23 January, 1:35 p.m.: An earlier version of this story misspelledSomasekar Seshagiri's name.

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Tiny organs grown from snake glands produce real venom - Science Magazine

Cell Biology

Ervaxx and Cardiff University Enter Collaboration to Develop Novel T-cell and T-cell Receptor-based Immunotherapeutics Targeting Dark Antigens | DNA…

DetailsCategory: DNA RNA and CellsPublished on Saturday, 25 January 2020 09:59Hits: 391

Collaboration also focuses on exciting research published earlier this week in Nature Immunology identifying MR1 as a target for novel anti-cancer immunotherapies

LONDON, UK I January 24, 2020 I Ervaxx, a biotechnology company pioneering the use of Dark Antigens to developT-cell receptor (TCR)-based immunotherapies and off-the-shelf cancer vaccines, has entered a licensing and research collaboration with a leading T-cell immunology group at Cardiff University (Cardiff, UK).

The new collaboration will support a multi-year research program with Prof. Andrew Sewell's T-cell modulation group at Cardiff University focusing on the discovery and characterization of T-cells and TCRs reactive to cancer-specific antigens and ligands, including Ervaxx' proprietary Dark Antigens. Ervaxx will fund the program.

The collaboration will also advance exciting new research published earlier this week by the Cardiff University team in Nature Immunology1, where they identified a T cell clone that recognized and killed multiple different types of human cancer, while remaining inert to non-cancerous cells. The T cell clone targets MR1, an MHC class 1-related protein, via an unidentified cancer-specific ligand. These exciting findings, validated in a preclinical model, open the prospect of immunotherapies with broad utility across patients with diverse cancers. This approach into previously unexplored cell surface epitopes complements and extends Ervaxx's exploration of novel cancer-specific antigens.

Under the agreement, Ervaxx gains an exclusive license to relevant Cardiff University patents claiming T cells and TCRs reactive to cancer-specific antigens. The Company has the right to advance resulting candidate T-cell/TCR-based immunotherapeutics and cancer vaccines through development and commercialization. Cardiff University is eligible to receive milestone payments on any candidates that advance from the discovery collaboration into clinical development and royalty payments on sales of any products that reach the market.

Prof. Andrew Sewell, Head of the T-cell modulation group, Cardiff University, commented:

"Ervaxx's Dark Antigens, which are derived from the 98% of the genome that does not encode known proteins, constitute a promising and yet untapped source of targets for immunotherapies. This collaboration will use our world-class expertise in T-cell biology to identify T cells and TCRs reactive to those targets and pave the way for a new wave of treatments in cancer, and potentially other areas. This includes our most recent discovery, published in Nature Immunology, of a T-cell clone that targets MR1 to recognize and kill cancer cells, irrespective of cancer or human leukocyte antigen (HLA) type, offering opportunities for pan-cancer, pan-population cancer immunotherapies."

Kevin Pojasek, CEO of Ervaxx, said:

"We are excited to announce this collaboration with Prof. Sewell's world-class research group. We have great hope that through the combination of this expertise with our Dark Antigens and application of our EDAPT platform, we will be able to identify further targets to expand our portfolio of TCR-based therapies and cancer vaccines. We are also thrilled to contribute to the development of the group's exciting new MR1 research, which shows early but enormous potential for the treatment of cancers. This partnership, which follows those with the University of Oxford, University of Cambridge and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, reinforces our ambition to collaborate with leading academic institutions and be at the cutting edge of the T-cell immunology field to drive the development of novel off-the-shelf cancer therapies."

Prof. Andrew Sewell is a member of Ervaxx' Scientific Advisory Board.

About Ervaxx

Ervaxx is pioneering the use of Dark Antigens to deliver targeted immunotherapies for treating and preventing cancer. Ervaxx Dark Antigens derive from vast untapped expanses of genetic 'dark matter' beyond the normal coding regions of the genome, which are generally silenced in normal tissue but can become selectively activated in cancer.

Ervaxx' powerful, proprietary EDAPT platform has been developed to discover and validate Dark Antigens providing an in-depth assessment of candidate antigens on primary tumor cells along with their immunogenic potential. The EDAPT platform has identified proprietary antigens that map to multiple solid tumor types and generate robust, antigen-specific T-cell responses. Ervaxx is advancing a pipeline of T cell receptor (TCR)-based therapies, off-the-shelf cancer vaccines and other immunotherapies leveraging these insights into the role of Dark Antigens in cancer.

Ervaxx was co-founded by SV Health Investors and is based on pioneering research at the Francis Crick Institute (London, UK). The company has offices in London, UK and a laboratory in the Bioescalator Building at Oxford University, UK. Ervaxx also has a strategic partnership with a global pharmaceutical company.

For more information visit: http://www.ervaxx.com

Ervaxx, Dark Antigen and EDAPT are trademarks of Ervaxx Limited

About the T-cell Modulation Group, Cardiff University

Cardiff University T-cell modulation group, within the Division of Infection and Immunity, consists of 16 researchers with a diverse skill and knowledge base that covers all areas of T-cell biology including T-cell genetics, molecular biology, protein chemistry, crystallography, and cell biology. The overall goal of the T-cell modulation group is to understand the genetic, biochemical and cellular mechanisms that govern T-cell responses to human disease. Our research outputs are extremely wide ranging and include basic studies which are aimed at understanding how the T-cell immune response is regulated, through to translational studies which are aimed at developing tools, diagnostics and treatments for human diseases such as cancer, HIV, EBV, tuberculosis and many more.

1Crowther, M.D., Dolton, G., Legut, M. et al. Genome-wide CRISPRCas9 screening reveals ubiquitous T cell cancer targeting via the monomorphic MHC class I-related protein MR1. Nat Immunol (2020) doi:10.1038/s41590-019-0578-8

SOURCE: Ervaxx

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Ervaxx and Cardiff University Enter Collaboration to Develop Novel T-cell and T-cell Receptor-based Immunotherapeutics Targeting Dark Antigens | DNA...

Cell Biology

The biology of coffee, one of the world’s most popular drinks – Salon

You're reading this with a cup of coffee in your hand, aren't you? Coffee is the most popular drink in many parts of the world. Americans drink more coffee than soda, juice and tea combined.

How popular is coffee? When news first broke that Prince Harry and Meghan were considering Canada as their new home, Canadian coffee giant Tim Hortons offered free coffee for life as an extra enticement.

Given coffee's popularity, it's surprising how much confusion surrounds how this hot, dark, nectar of the gods affects our biology.

Coffee's ingredients

The main biologically active ingredients in coffee are caffeine (a stimulant) and a suite of antioxidants. What do we know about how caffeine and antioxidants affect our bodies? The fundamentals are pretty simple, but the devil is in the details and the speculation around how coffee could either help or harm us runs a bit wild.

The stimulant properties of caffeine mean that you can count on a cup of coffee to wake you up. In fact, coffee, or at least the caffeine it contains, is the most commonly used psychoactive drug in the world. It seems to work as a stimulant, at least in part, by blocking adenosine, which promotes sleep, from binding to its receptor.

Caffeine and adenosine have similar ring structures. Caffeine acts as a molecular mimic, filling and blocking the adenosine receptor, preventing the body's natural ability to be able a rest when it's tired.

This blocking is also the reason why too much coffee can leave you feeling jittery or sleepless. You can only postpone fatigue for so long before the body's regulatory systems begin to fail, leading to simple things like the jitters, but also more serious effects like anxiety or insomnia. Complications may be common; a possible link between coffee drinking and insomnia was identified more than 100 years ago.

Unique responses

Different people respond to caffeine differently. At least some of this variation is from having different forms of that adenosine receptor, the molecule that caffeine binds to and blocks. There are likely other sites of genetic variation as well.

There are individuals who don't process caffeine and to whom drinks like coffee could pose medical danger. Even away from those extremes, however, there is variation in how we respond to that cup of coffee. And, like much of biology, that variation is a function of environment, our past coffee consumption, genetics and, honestly, just random chance.

We may be interested in coffee because of the oh-so-joyous caffeine buzz, but that doesn't mean that caffeine is the most biologically interesting aspect of a good cup of coffee.

In one study using rats, caffeine triggered smooth muscle contraction, so it is possible that caffeine directly promotes bowel activity. Other studies, though, have shown that decaffeinated coffee can have as strong an effect on bowel activity as regular coffee, suggesting a more complex mechanism involving some of the other molecules in coffee.

Antioxidant benefits

What about the antioxidants in coffee and the buzz that surrounds them? Things actually start out pretty straightforward. Metabolic processes produce the energy necessary for life, but they also create waste, often in the form of oxidized molecules that can be harmful in themselves or in damaging other molecules.

Antioxidants are a broad group of molecules that can scrub up dangerous waste; all organisms produce antioxidants as part of their metabolic balance. It is unclear if supplementing our diet with additional antioxidants can augment these natural defences, but that hasn't stopped speculation.

Antioxidants have been linked to almost everything, including premature ejaculation.

Are any of the claims of positive effects substantiated? Surprisingly, the answer is again a resounding maybe.

Coffee and cancer

Coffee won't cure cancer, but it may help to prevent it and possibly other diseases as well. Part of answering the question of coffee's connection to cancer lies in asking another: what is cancer? At its simplest, cancer is uncontrolled cell growth, which is fundamentally about regulating when genes are, or are not, actively expressed.

My research group studies gene regulation and I can tell you that even a good cup of coffee, or boost of caffeine, won't cause genes that are turned off or on at the wrong time to suddenly start playing by the rules.

The antioxidants in coffee may actually have a cancer-fighting effect. Remember that antioxidants fight cellular damage. One type of damage that they may help reduce is mutations to DNA, and cancer is caused by mutations that lead to the misregulation of genes.

Studies have shown that consuming coffee fights cancer in rats. Other studies in humans have shown that coffee consumption is associated with lower rates of some cancers.

Interestingly, coffee consumption has also been linked to reduced rates of other diseases as well. Higher coffee consumption is linked to lower rates of Parkinson's disease and some other forms of dementia. Strikingly, at least one experimental study in mice and cell culture shows that protection is a function of a combination of caffeine and antioxidants in coffee.

Higher coffee consumption has also been linked to lower rates of Type 2 diabetes. Complexity, combined effects and variation between individuals seems to be the theme across all the diseases.

At the end of the day, where does all this leave us on the biology of coffee? Well, as I tell my students, it's complicated. But as most reading this already know, coffee will definitely wake you up in the morning.

Thomas Merritt, Professor and Canada Research Chair, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Laurentian University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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The biology of coffee, one of the world's most popular drinks - Salon

Cell Biology

Meet the Culprits of Cell Culture Contamination – Technology Networks

The air is warm and humid, there is an abundance of food, and your friends come and go with their shiny toys. What sounds like a dreamy summer holiday is also the reality of in vitro cell culture experiments, and a golden opportunity for contaminants to intrude. Every person, reagent, and piece of equipment in the laboratory is a potential vehicle for invasive microbes, unwelcome cells and chemical impurities, which can create costly issues in both bench research and manufacturing. Cell culture contamination is a problem on many levels, creating immediate implications for experiments and wider issues for the scientific community.Consequences of cell culture contaminationContaminants can affect all cell characteristics (e.g. growth, metabolism, and morphology) and contribute to unreliable or erroneous experimental results. Cell culture contamination will likely create a need for experiments to be repeated, resulting in frustrating time delays and costly reagent wastage. Data derived from undetected contaminated cultures can end up published in scientific journals, allowing others to build hypotheses from dubious results. The pervasiveness of cross-contaminated and misidentified cell lines is a decades-long issue; in 1967, cell lines thought to be derived from various tissues were shown to be HeLa cells, a human cervical adenocarcinoma cell line.1 However, studies involving these misidentified cell lines continued to feature in hundreds of citations during the early 2000s.2This pattern is a well-acknowledged problem and threatens to undermine scientific integrity. The first published retraction in Nature Methods was due to cell line contamination3, and one conservative estimate of contaminated literature in 2017 found 32,755 articles reporting on research with misidentified cells.4 While many scientists may have been blissfully ignorant in the past, awareness of misidentified cell lines is growing.Deciding how best to deal with this knowledge is not straightforward and has been discussed extensively.4 In the interest of preventing further data contamination, a certificate of authentication of the origin and identity of human cells is now required by the International Journal of Cancer, and encouraged by funding agencies. Others have questioned whether mandatory testing really is the best way forward.3But what should be done about existing contaminated literature? Mass retraction of affected articles may disproportionately punish the careers of a few scientists, and could be a waste of resources containing potentially valuable data. One recently proposed system of self-retraction recommends replacing blame with praise in order to encourage self-correction.5 Post hoc labeling of published articles in the form of an expression of concern allows existing findings to remain accessible, while giving readers a chance to form their own judgement.

Lastly, pathogens carried by cells (either intentionally or accidentally) or in components of the culture medium are potential health hazards, and laboratory-acquired viral infections have been reported.6-8 Indeed, the stakes are higher when cells are to be introduced into patients, highlighting the critical importance of quality control in cell therapies.

While pipetting is a key part of everyday laboratory work, it is also one of the stages most prone to contamination. As sample contamination can affect the reliability of results, it is important to know how it can be avoided, saving both time and money. Download this poster for ten tips to avoiding contamination in pipetting.

Avoid leaving your cultures out of the incubator for extended periods

Label all cultures clearly and unambiguously

Disinfect work surfaces before and after use

Check disinfectants are effective and appropriate choices for the job

Work with only one cell culture at a time

Use separate media and reagents for each individual cell line

Quarantine new cell lines until tested negative for mycoplasma

Avoid overusing and relying on antibiotics

Record how long a cell line has been kept in cultureThe design of the laboratory can also play a role; cabinets should be placed away from through-traffic, doors and air-conditioning inlets.6 Restricting area access to allow only essential laboratory personnel to enter reduces disturbances of airflow around the microbiological safety cabinet.

Water baths, CO2 incubators, shelves and water pans are common culprits and should be cleaned or autoclaved regularly, using a chemical disinfectant where appropriate. Other routes of infection include accidental spillages, contact with non-sterile surfaces, splash-back from pipetting or pouring, microscopic aerosol, and infestation by vertebrates, dust and mites.Research groups isolating stem cells use unique cell properties to filter out undesired cells, explains Dr Mei-Ju Hsu, postdoctoral researcher in stem cell therapy at Leipzig University. Dr Hsu notes that: one of the most important features of mesenchymal stem cells is the attachment and growth on the plastic surfaces without prior coating. This step serves as a good way to eliminate the non-adherent cells (e.g. blood cells) by the removal of supernatants.

Organoid researcher Hans Clevers, from the Hubrecht Institute for Developmental Biology and Stem Cell Research at Utrecht University, assesses genetic diversity in cells through the use of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping. The Clevers laboratory recently branched out from their work with mammalian cells to produce snake venom gland organoids. Dr Clevers notes that: We have come to realize that contamination of organoid cultures is a serious problem. We have observed that organoid cultures that are commonly used and are fast growers contaminate slower growing organoid cultures. Typical fast growers are the original mouse mini-guts that have popped up in various human organoid cultures in the lab. We SNP-type all human samples when they come in, which allows us to follow purity of human organoid cultures over time. Cheap, fast and crucial to avoid big mistakes.

Mycoplasma is one of the most common cell culture contaminants, with six species of mycoplasma accounting for 95% of all contamination. Therefore, it is important to improve our understanding of where mycoplasma contamination can stem from and how best to prevent it. Download this infographic to discover more about mycoplasma contamination in cell culture labs.

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Meet the Culprits of Cell Culture Contamination - Technology Networks

Cell Biology

Snake Venom Gland Organoids Produce Functional Toxins – The Scientist

Aminiaturized version of the snake venom gland that secretes functionally active toxins can be grown from stem cells, researchers describe January 23 in Cell.

Scientists have previously cultured these simplified tissues, called organoids, from mouse and human stem cells, including minibrains that model neuronal networks, but this study is the first to show that the same techniques work with snake tissue.

Hans Clevers, a principal investigator at the Hubrecht Institute for Developmental Biology and Stem Cell Research, and his team used human growth factors to culture the snake venom organoids, reports STAT, but there was one critical difference from mammalian organoids: temperature. The snake organoids needed to be kept a few degrees colder than cultures from mice and humans, Clevers tells STAT, because reptiles are cold-blooded.

The experiment started with three of Cleverss grad students who wondered whether they could grow organoids from other species, reports The Atlantic. They received the egg of a Cape coral cobra (Aspidelaps lubricus) from a breeder and used the labs protocols on mammalian organoids to generate miniature venom glands, which produced the same toxins as that of real snakes. The lab went on to grow organoids from eight other species.

Its a breakthrough, says snake venom toxicologist Jos Mara Gutirrez of the University of Costa Rica in San Jos who was not involved in the study, in remarks to Science. This work opens the possibilities for studying the cellular biology of venom-secreting cells at a very fine level, which has not been possible in the past.

Expanding scientists knowledge of snake venom has important implications for human health. According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 5.4 million people are bitten by snakes every year. Somewhere between 81,000 and 138,000 of those victims die as a result. This neglected public health issue is especially prevalent in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

The current method of producing antivenom involves injecting a horse with snake venom and collecting the resulting antibodies, a centuries-old technique that requires milking a live snake. Venom gland organoids may be a safer and more economical alternative, reports The Atlantic.

The biotechnology they are describing is a potentially wonderful addition to the toolbox of toxins research generally, writes Leslie Boyer of the University of Arizonas VIPER Institute in an email to STAT. What will future studies reveal about the interaction of components of complex venoms? Can a practical harvest of toxins be generated for cost-effective use in future applications? How do cells full of deadly toxins avoid suicide?

Amy Schleunes is an intern atThe Scientist. Email her ataschleunes@the-scientist.com.

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Snake Venom Gland Organoids Produce Functional Toxins - The Scientist

Cell Biology

America’s most widely consumed cooking oil causes genetic changes in the brain – University of California

New UC Riverside research shows soybean oil not only leads to obesity and diabetes, but could also affect neurological conditions like autism, Alzheimers disease, anxiety, and depression.

Used for fast food frying, added to packaged foods, and fed to livestock, soybean oil is by far the most widely produced and consumed edible oil in the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In all likelihood, it is not healthy for humans.

It certainly is not good for mice. The new study, published this month in the journal Endocrinology, compared mice fed three different diets high in fat: soybean oil, soybean oil modified to be low in linoleic acid, and coconut oil.

The same UC Riverside research team found in 2015 that soybean oil induces obesity, diabetes, insulin resistance, and fatty liver in mice. Then in a 2017 study, the same group learned that if soybean oil is engineered to be low in linoleic acid, it induces less obesity and insulin resistance.

However, in the study released this month, researchers did not find any difference between the modified and unmodified soybean oils effects on the brain. Specifically, the scientists found pronounced effects of the oil on the hypothalamus, where a number of critical processes take place.

The hypothalamus regulates body weight via your metabolism, maintains body temperature, is critical for reproduction and physical growth as well as your response to stress, said Margarita Curras-Collazo, a UC Riversideassociate professor of neuroscience and lead author on the study.

The team determined a number of genes in mice fed soybean oil were not functioning correctly. One such gene produces the love hormone, oxytocin. In soybean oil-fed mice, levels of oxytocin in the hypothalamus went down.

The research team discovered roughly 100 other genes also affected by the soybean oil diet. They believe this discovery could have ramifications not just for energy metabolism, but also for proper brain function and diseases such as autism or Parkinsons disease. However, it is important to note there is no proof the oil causes these diseases.

Additionally, the team notes the findings only apply to soybean oil not to other soy products or to other vegetable oils.

Do not throw out your tofu, soymilk, edamame, or soy sauce, said Frances Sladek, a UC Riverside toxicologist and professor of cell biology. Many soy products only contain small amounts of the oil, and large amounts of healthful compounds such as essential fatty acids and proteins.

A caveat for readers concerned about their most recent meal is that this study was conducted on mice, and mouse studies do not always translate to the same results in humans.

Also, this study utilized male mice. Because oxytocin is so important for maternal health and promotes mother-child bonding, similar studies need to be performed using female mice.

One additional note on this study the research team has not yet isolated which chemicals in the oil are responsible for the changes they found in the hypothalamus. But they have ruled out two candidates. It is not linoleic acid, since the modified oil also produced genetic disruptions; nor is it stigmasterol, a cholesterol-like chemical found naturally in soybean oil.

Identifying the compounds responsible for the negative effects is an important area for the teams future research.

This could help design healthier dietary oils in the future, said Poonamjot Deol, an assistant project scientist in Sladeks laboratory and first author on the study.

The dogma is that saturated fat is bad and unsaturated fat is good. Soybean oil is a polyunsaturated fat, but the idea that its good for you is just not proven, Sladek said.

Indeed, coconut oil, which contains saturated fats, produced very few changes in the hypothalamic genes.

If theres one message I want people to take away, its this: reduce consumption of soybean oil, Deol said about the most recent study.

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America's most widely consumed cooking oil causes genetic changes in the brain - University of California