Biochemistry

Kentwood teenager beats his cancer in every sense of the word – WZZM13.com

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich Since May 2019, Henry Dai has been in the fight of his life. It started with a bad cold and grew into the realization that he had lymphoma.

"It's a very challenging tumor because it can develop very, very quickly," said Dr. James Fahner. "It can threaten the function and structure of nearby organs and it comes on so dramatically and so suddenly that sometimes the kids are very critically ill at their initial diagnosis."

The East Kentwood High School student fought hard against cancer and recently beat it. On Friday, Jan. 24, Dai got to stick it to cancer in a big way.

Two 3D printed models were made of the tumor that once was an unwelcome guest in his chest. Dai smashed one of them with a sledge hammer while members of the media and leaders from Spectrum Health looked on. Dai's doctors signed the second model, which he'll take with him as a reminder of his victory.

Dr. James Fahner signs a 3D printed model of Henry Dai's tumor as Dai looks on.

Chris Clark/Spectrum Health Beat

"I think it's just great that I just get this experience. It's like a feeling that I really beat cancer, but literally as well," Dai said.

When Dai graduates he hopes to go to either the University of Michigan or an Ivy League school to study either biochemistry or cellular biology. With the knowledge he picks up, he hopes to help other cancer patients down the road.

"To see Henry be able to come full circle and really take control of his health and his life in this way was really gratifying," Fahner said.

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Kentwood teenager beats his cancer in every sense of the word - WZZM13.com

Biochemistry

Dispatches from Uganda: The Unknown Becomes Known – University of San Diego Website

Editor's Note: A water quality research project in Uganda has the full attention of an interdisciplinary group including USD faculty members, students, President James T. Harris and his wife, Mary all of whom are excited to show what it means to make a difference in the world. Ryan T. Blystone, editor of the USD News Center, is in Uganda to document the trip.

Three weeks ago, much was unknown. Back then, some carried doubt and the few who had a good sense of what lay ahead still needed to adjust accordingly. The trio who specifically knew their role heading in understood that it would test them professionally and produce a well of emotions, all while providing the best care possible.

Eight women between the ages of 21-29 four undergraduate students, three doctoral nurse practitioners and one 2019 behavioral neuroscience alumna arrived in Uganda to ring in 2020 with varied visions of what this trip would ask of them and how they would respond.

"I talked to Molly (Klein), my lab partner, and (Chemistry Professor) James Bolender a lot before coming on the trip. They prepped me about what I was going to see, how people would act, how we'd stand out," said Kendyl Maher, a junior biochemistry major. "What I wasn't prepared for was that there are actual cities where we're visiting. Whenever you see Africa on the news about anything going on, it's only about poverty and how the people need help. I expected to see poverty everywhere, but there are cities, there's an economy and there's so much culture here. Where we've been staying, Montfort House, is so beautiful, with all the flowers and plants."

Maher, mechanical engineering student Christina Kozlovsky, and nurse practitioners Allison Bryden, Shaylyn White and Cara Fratianni were all newcomers to Uganda. Molly Klein, Marci Strong and Natalie North-Cole were on their second trip, having been in Uganda in January 2019 for Chemistry Professor Jim Bolender's water purification techniques in the developing world Intersession class.

"Last year I didn't really know what to expect," said Klein, a junior biochemistry major and standout cross-country and track athlete. "It was all new. The purpose was to just soak it all in, experience the culture and learn how to perform the chemical tests on the water. This time it felt a little more like I knew what I was doing, but I'm still a student. Every time I come here it's a learning experience."

The 2020 trip which was again led by Bolender, though not an official USD class was a research/business trip. There was the task of gathering and studying water samples for research purposes; Kozlovsky was looking into research for her senior engineering design project; faculty members and President James T. Harris met with local officials to strengthen connections; nursing students gained exposure to providing health care in a different country by way of day shifts at nearby Holy Innocents Children's Hospital in Mbarara, giving educational presentations to nursing staff and aiding the hospital with two pop-up medical clinics that served nearly 500 children in rural areas.

Each of these moments brought out something profound in each ofthe students.

On Instagram, Fratianni visually expressed her thoughts and feelings for everything she was able to do on this trip. Just prior to joining the group in Uganda to work in the hospital, she had taken on the challenge of climbing the famed Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Combining both experiences in Africa, she credited the continent for "showing me my inner strength and power as a woman."

But moments like those were only part of it. There were the times spent gathered for three meals a day, long rides on a school bus, van or a jeep-like vehicle on the rugged roads, playing volleyball at Montfort House, dancing, singing Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" or playing Uno. Put all those moments together, mix in the hospitality and friendliness of Ugandan people and you have a recipe for a successful and memorable international experience.

"When I found out I was going to be coming to Uganda, I was very excited but also extremely nervous," Kozlovsky said. "I'd never traveled to a country in Africa before. All of the travel I've done out of the country, if not with my family, had been with a class. A research trip with people coming from all different majors was different. I didn't know anyone else but my faculty advisor, (Mechanical Engineering Professor and Chair) Dr. (Frank) Jacobitz. I was nervous to see how the interactions would go. But once I got here, the people were so welcoming. I've really held onto that; everywhere you go, you're most welcome. I feel as though I found a home here."

Three weeks later, closing in on 11 p.m. in the Entebbe, Uganda airport's Crest Cafe, goodbye hugs were exchanged. A few watery eyes were noticeable among the USD students and staff. Theyd become fast friends and experienced something together that will always bond them. Despite varying flight paths home, the chemistry that brought them together will remain on a What's App group chat, as a hashtag #uganda and via countless photos and videos.

These lasting memories are something special, which will forever be well known.

Ryan T. Blystone

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Biochemistry

Innovative CBD system balancing with Dr Meletis – Chiropractic Economics

All cannabidiol (CBD) is not created equal in clinical practice in terms of implementation. The most frustrating thing for clinicians and also for patients is when an intended protocol doesnt work. As I discuss later under the With treatment, start low section of this article, there are ways to use CBD most effectively.

You probably werent taught this in medical school, but CBD works on the endocannabinoid system (ECS). The ECS contains CB1 and CB2 receptors, in addition to other receptors that are activated by the naturally occurring endocannabinoids made in our bodies, called anandamide and 2-AG. We all have CB1 or CB2 receptors within our body if you have a cat or dog, they have these receptors too. All mammals do. How could it be that we did not even know of the predominance of the ECS until 1992?

Patients coming in worn out can be a sign of endocannabinoid deficiency and the inability to support their pathways optimally, much like adrenal fatigue. Phytocannabinoids like CBD obtained from hemp products can act on the same receptors as endocannabinoids made in the body. CBD receptors, much like opioid receptors, control pain, but via a different mechanism.

Patients arrive at our clinical practices fatigued, anxious, in pain, inflamed, and lots reach a point of adrenal burnout, adrenal fatigue. Indeed, that is often the case because they are suffering from an endocannabinoid deficiency. We see people who have low adrenal function at noon, and in the evening, they are tired, dragging, eat lunch, get a little spike, and then they start free falling again. Theyre flat-lining. How is it that we wake up each morning anticipating with trepidation and run with go, go, go pace and finish the day glad to have survived another day? Life is meant for more than that; it is time to shift our goals from merely surviving to thriving mode!

Researchers observed approximately six years ago that people were more anxious and depressed in the middle of the summer than ever before, a new phenomenon. This goes against what we previously believed, that depression spiked mostly in the holiday season and Thanksgiving and after the winter solstice. But now were seeing people are worn out even in summer. Indeed, the endocannabinoid system plays a role here.

Anandamide is one of our endocannabinoids. When it becomes lower, patients are more anxious. There is less healing of the brain, less neurogenesis, and the hypothalamic-pituitary axis is triggered, causing a whole cascade of events to occur. What we now know is that the endocannabinoid system naturally, or with the use of CBD, alters our microbiome in our gut, beneficially affecting the gut-brain axis. The GI tract is the site of many receptors. We make about 70% of our serotonin, the happy-brain chemical, in the GI tract. About 70-80% of our immune system is in our GI tract, so is it any surprise that we have CB1, CB2 regulatory pathways in our GI tract that work via the endocannabinoid system to control inflammation? These same pathways can be regulated using an innovative CBD strategy.

With endocannabinoid deficiency symptoms patients can get migraines. We thought migraines were just triggered by tyramine-rich foods, such as cheese, fermented foods, and salami and other such foods; along with other triggers as well.

However, the endocannabinoid pathway is designed to control pain and inflammation and also regulate the immune system to a large degree. I have found in my clinical practice that innovative CBD strategies can be useful in supporting the health of migraine sufferers.

The body is designed with innate intelligence to sustain optimal performance. People ask, Well, how is CBD metabolized? Its primarily metabolized through the liver, and as a result, it goes through the cytochrome 450 and other pathways.Wellness is ultimately about homeostasis. We all know the term entropy, the tendency for the universe to move toward chaos. But our body exerts a phenomenal amount of energy to maintain order and wellness. However, if the endocannabinoid system becomes deficient, this will adversely affect wellness. This endocannabinoid deficiency, in turn, affects the microbiome, contributing to a less healthy endocannabinoidome.

CBD can conserve anandamide that is made by the body, and CBD can support anandamide conservation in an attempt to bring the body back into homeostasis. The endocannabinoid system supports brain health. By treating the brain, it addresses the pain, because if we didnt have a brain, we wouldnt feel the pain from a perception perspective.

Anxiety also is a biochemical process. Its real. A lot of people say, Its all in my head. No, stress is real because its a physiological effect. There is biochemistry involved in anxiety. We want to use innovative CBD strategies to support calming pathways and bring peace and harmony into the brain.

If a patient has brain inflammation, neuroplasticity is not going to be as healthy or robust. And the fact is, on a typical day, we lose about 86,400 brain cells. CBD is an anti-inflammatory application. And from a neuropathic perspective, activation of cannabinoid receptors is essential. Ive looked at research involving the endocannabinoid system relative to cancer medications and so forth. Not being an oncologist, I am not suggesting this is a treatment for cancer, but there are pain, stress and immune challenges that often need to be associated with this disease state, so visiting with ones provider in this arena is vital.

We can start manifesting symptoms of migraines, fatigue, irritable bowel, whatever it might be, as a result of being subpar, insufficient or deficient of endocannabinoids. An endocannabinoid deficiency manifests itself as simply that the body has gotten worn down, much like low adrenal function, often called adrenal fatigue. So we need to support that pathway to bring it back on track like we would any other functional biochemistry, which our body is designed to do. And since were designed to make endocannabinoids, we need to bring those levels back up to par.

The goal is to start low and go slow, as a little bit can go a long way for many patients. More is not always better, as each person responds differently based on genetics, biochemistry and individual need.

Just like if youre performing an adjustment, a little bit of a movement might get the job done. Work with gentle modulation of the endocannabinoid system. Youre working within the innate ability of the body.

Fifteen to 25 milligrams per day is what I start my patients on. In a week or two, if I need to move them up to 25 mg two to three times a day, I will. Once again, if a little bit gets the job done, why more? It is of paramount importance to respect the innate delicate balance physiology of the body. Some patients will need much higher doses because of their endocannabinoid insufficiency or potential genetic polymorphisms. Youre going to encounter genetic polymorphisms, or what I termed mutations of the CBD receptors and the CBD pathway.

I never go to high-milligram doses, especially on patients taking pharmaceutical drugs, without working with their pharmacists, because CBD can affect similar liver detoxification, as well as other biochemical pathways of how drugs are metabolized, much like grapefruit juice, can impact many of the same medications. We want to also support those drug-metabolizing pathways with diet and lifestyle.

CBD, when dosed properly, can positively supplement a health-promoting diet and lifestyle. Its not a substitute for these things. So, we want to ensure were taking steps to support the body at a foundational level. Additionally, we always want to ensure the THC levels in the CBD you are using are less than 0.3%, or that the CBD contains no THC, when targeting hemp-derived CBD.

Endocannabinoid deficiency is associated with low cortisol, stress and adrenal fatigue. Were all getting older. Our mitochondria are wearing down. Our nitric oxide levels arent as robust as they used to be, and we need support at a fundamental level. In regards to the 65 potential molecular targets that are currently known for CBD, there is a lot of untapped potential here relative to stress and aging. Innovative CBD use is a new area; it can be a scary area, but remember, our bodies have been producing endocannabinoids for millennia. All were doing is supporting a natural pathway.

CHRIS D. MELETIS, ND, is an educator, international author and lecturer. His mission is Changing Worlds Health, One Person at a Time. He believes that when people become educated about their bodies is the moment positive change begins. He is widely recognized as a world-renowned expert on the science of CBD and has authored 16 books and over 200 national scientific articles in such journals and magazines as Natural Health, Alternative and Complementary Therapies, Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, Life Extension and The Journal of Restorative Medicine. He served as dean of naturopathic medicine and chief medical officer for seven years at NUNM, the oldest naturopathic medical school in North America. He has received numerous awards, including the prestigious Physician of the Year Award by the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians; Excellence Award for his work in treating and advocating for the medically underserved; and most recently, the NUNM Hall of Fame Award. He represents TruGen3 and can be contacted at DrMeletis.com.

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Innovative CBD system balancing with Dr Meletis - Chiropractic Economics

Biochemistry

Forbes 30 Under 30 Recognizes Alumni for Innovations in Healthcare – Cornell University The Cornell Daily Sun

A Cornell education combined with an entrepreneurial passion for science helped a pair of alumni land a spot on Forbes 30 Under 30 List. Lauded for their early achievements in medicine and artificial intelligence, Erica Barnell 13 and Sharon Li Ph.D. 17 were named last month to the magazines annual list, which recognizes the work of individuals who have made innovations to their field at a young age.

Barnell, who is currently enrolled in the Medical Scientist Training Program at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, was recognized for her biotechnology startup, Geneoscopy a firm that has developed a more convenient and accessible method of detecting gastrointestinal diseases by using stool samples.

According to Barnell, her interest in genetics first began on campus, where an appreciation for lab work and biochemistry courses pushed her to pursue a career in the field. This interest, in turn, led her to a summer internship at Washington University, where she went on to conduct work that would eventually develop into the groundwork of her company.

I started developing this technology to isolate human cells from stool samples, that was our approach to diagnosing these children. After we were incredibly successful at this diagnostic development, I recognized it was a platform technology, Barnell said.

It was at this point that Barnell teamed up with her fellow Cornell graduate, and older brother Andrew Barnell 11 to found Geneoscopy.

I loved that process of thinking about technology that silos into academic institutions and creating something for patients, Barnell said. Ive hoped and dreamed that I would be able to apply my academic education to something in business and something in medicine, and Geneoscopy was the first step in that direction.

The company went on to develop a three stage process to screen for gastrointestinal diseases, such as colorectal cancer. First, patients receive a collection kit in the mail, in which they deposit a stool sample and send it back to the company. The company then extracts the bodys cells from this sample and removes RNA, which is then analyzed for certain biomarkers.

To date, the startup has raised $8 million dollars to fund clinical trials, and has conducted two rounds of clinical trials involving 275 and 1,200 patients, respectively. Going forward, Barnell hopes to use this funding to market its detection product to gastroenterologists, obstetricians and gynecologists.

While receiving the news that she had been named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list was surreal and gave Geneoscopy exposure, according to Barnell, it doesnt change what were doing, I still wipe the floors in the lab, I still do inventory, theres nothing special, its just surreal I am among some incredible people.

Like Barnell, Li, who studied electrical and computer engineering at Cornell, found her way to the list as a result of the work that began with her time in Ithaca. Inspired by her courses, Li first became interested in studying deep neural networks, an artificial system that takes inputs and processes them through several layers to create an output.

I got really excited not only about the possibility of building this intelligent machine that could learn from this massive data, but more importantly answer questions such as understanding how they work, Li said on her time spent at Cornell.

After graduating, Li worked at several technology companies, including Google and Facebook, where she worked on algorithms that analyzed visuals on websites in order to better categorize and sort this data.

My time in industry has shaped my view on research. Being in industry means I had access to people exploring academic research questions as well as actually driving real world impact, Li said. This is super useful to help mey think and formulate research questions that are going to be useful and benefit a wider range of people.

Currently, Li is working with machine learning in order to aid in decision making in the healthcare industry. Having a physician look over medical test results and images can be time consuming and costly, which means any advancement we make will result in improved and more cost effective healthcare, Li said.

As the first person in her family to earn a Ph.D., Li was honored to be named to Forbes 30 Under 30 list, having never expected to achieve such success.

Looking back, when I came to this country six years ago, I never thought I would make it this far so this honor means that all of my hard work has been recognized and valued, Li said. I see this as a reward and recognition to a heart full of dreams.

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Forbes 30 Under 30 Recognizes Alumni for Innovations in Healthcare - Cornell University The Cornell Daily Sun

Biochemistry

Global Warming Potentially Impacts Processes Responsible for Biodiversity – AZoCleantech

Written by AZoCleantechJan 24 2020

Considering the present situation of climate change, an international research team has performed a new study that highlights the adverse, potential impact of global warming on processes responsible for biodiversity.

This was one of the conclusions of the international study, led by scientists from the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) and Pablo de Olavide University (UPO).

The study explores the mechanisms that contribute to the evolutionary success of Carexone of the three largest genera of flowering plants in the world. The outcomes indicate that this evolutionary success is associated with the planets comparatively cold climate during the last 10 million years. This climatic condition favored the colonization of novel ecosystems and territories.

Carex is a class of herbs that belong to the sedge family (Cyperaceae), a family that also features popular species like tiger nut or papyrus. So far, over 2000 Carex species have been found throughout the world, inhabiting an extensive range of ecosystems. These species can be found from the coasts to the highest mountains and to the poles of the tropics, even though they are invariably connected to regions with cold and temperate climatic conditions.

In a majority of the areas, particularly in the northern hemisphere, the Carex species belong to a part of specific types of dominant vegetation and play an important ecological role in habitats as diverse as peat bogs, wetlands, grasslands, tundra, forest understories, or lake and river borders. These plants are also a vital source of food for various herbivorous mammals and waterfowl, and a few of them have nutritional or medicinal properties that are leveraged by human beings.

The research looked at the analysis of the causes that contributed to the huge diversity of the Carex species and eventually concluded that climate cooling was the major factor behind their speciation.

The study is the first to deal with global distribution patterns and diversification of a megadiverse genus of plants and suggests that not only is climate warming causing the extinction of species, but also could negatively affect the processes that generate them.

Santiago Martn-Bravo, Study Main Co-Author and Researcher, Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Engineering, Universidad Pablo De Olavide

In this research, a combination of fossil and genetic data was used to expose the causes of the global diversification of Carex species. The study demonstrated that this kind of genus evolved in Asia, from where it was able to colonize areas worldwide and also different ecological niches, which is indeed remarkable. While this process was ongoing, Carex species have been evidently favored by the cold global climate that persisted for the last 10 million years.

This can be seen by the harmony of regional cooling events like Pleistocene glaciations or the freezing of Antarctica, and the large emergence of Carex species in areas impacted by these climatic changes, for example, New Zealand or North America.

The studys conclusions offer a wide general interest to figure out when, why, and how species were produced. Such conclusions can also help in understanding the causes of the non-uniform distribution of species, and particularly the role played by the global climate as a driver of the genesis of biodiversity.

These questions are particularly significant in the current context of climate crisis and mass extinction of species, which emphasizes the need to know and understand how nature responds to the climate if we are to preserve and manage it in a sustainable way.

Pedro Jimnez-Mejas, Study Main Co-Author and Researcher, Department of Biology, University of Madrid

The research appeared on the cover of the November issue of the Journal of Systematics and Evolution, an international scientific journal.

The study indicates the culmination of over 10 years of work that started with the postdoctoral project of Jimnez-Meja. Developed in the United States, this project has allowed international association between a group of evolutionary botanists and biologists from institutions located in 10 countries, among which the United States and Spain (with scientists from the Royal Botanic Gardens in Madrid, Autonomous of Madrid and Seville, and Pablo de Olavide universities) stand out.

Source: https://www.upo.es/portal/impe/web/portada?lang=en

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Global Warming Potentially Impacts Processes Responsible for Biodiversity - AZoCleantech

Biochemistry

Aliens could be living with us, says an astrobiologist – MENAFN.COM

(MENAFN - NewsBytes) A few weeks back, Helen Sharman, the first British astronaut, made the bold claim that aliens exist and could be living among us - completely undetected.

The remark drew widespread attention (given that it is ALIENS we are talking about), leading many to wonder how species from other worlds could survive without getting noticed.

Now, an astrobiologist has explained how that could be possible!

In an interview with The Observer, Sharman had said that "Aliens exist" and "there's no two ways about it."

She justified the assertion by saying, "There are so many billions of stars...that there must be all sorts of different forms of life . Will they be like you and me? Maybe not. It's possible they are here right now and we simply can't see them."

Following Sharman's remarks, Samantha Rolfe, from UK's Bayfordbury Observatory, published an editorial in The Conversation explaining how invisible alien life can actually exist on Earth.

Basically, the astrobiologist claimed that there is no fixed/complete definition of life (apart from what we see on Earth), which practically opens the possible form of an alien creature to thousands of interpretations, including the invisible one.

Most of the movies depicting aliens show them as humanoids or human-like creatures, which is enough in itself to explain that humans mostly limit alien life forms "to geocentric, possibly even anthropocentric, ideas of what life looks like," Rolfe added.

Rolfe added that if aliens are here on Earth, like Sharman said, they could be living in a microscopic "shadow biosphere" - which Earthlings can not see.

"By that, I don't mean a ghost realm, but undiscovered creatures probably with a different biochemistry," Rolfe wrote, adding that "we can't study or even notice them because they are outside of our comprehension."

In the same op-ed, Rolfe also suggested that microscopic alien life with silicon-based biochemistry, which is different from our carbon-and-nitrogen-based one, could have landed on Earth via a meteorite.

"[W]e do have evidence for life-forming, carbon-based molecules having arrived on Earth on meteorites," she wrote while implying that this could have also happened for "more unfamiliar life forms."

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Embryology

Madgdalena Abakanowicz: The godmother of installation art – Christie’s

Magdalena Abakanowicz (1930-2017) was born into a landed family of rich, Polish gentry. The familys fortunes were transformed by the Second World War, with the Abakanowiczes forced to flee their country estate once Communist rule was imposed on Poland by the Soviet Union. They took with them only the coins they could sew into their clothing.

The family settled in a tiny apartment in Warsaw, the city where Magdalena would enrol in the Academy of Fine Arts aged 20. Discouraged by her professors from pursuing painting, she turned to weaving instead then deemed a more appropriate practice for women.

In later life, Abakanowicz reflected that this had actually been a positive thing. The state-approved painting style, Socialist Realism, would have been limiting for her artistically, demanding as it did scenes glorifying Communist life. Works in fabric, by contrast, came under little scrutiny, meaning she had considerable creative freedom.

In the 1960s, the artist found success with a radical set of tapestries that were unlike anything previously seen. Known as Abakans, these tapestries were not flat, genteel offerings intended to tell a story or decorate a wall, but roughly-woven, abstract tangles of sisal fibre, imposingly hung from the ceiling. They won her the Grand Prize at 1965s So Paulo Biennial.

Abakanowiczs fame soon spread far beyond Poland, and she began to move away from weaving her own structures, using burlap instead, which she gnarled and stretched. From the mid-1970s, her work also became characterised by groups of intriguing, frequently unsettling, humanoid figures known as Alterations. The series culminated in the landmark sequence Embryology, shown in the Polish Pavilion at the 1980 Venice Biennale.

When examining man, I am in fact examining myself, she said. My forms are the skins I strip off myself one by one, marking the milestones along my road.

Over time, her figures would proliferate in bronze, stone, wood and clay, while invitations came to exhibit in museums and public spaces worldwide, including Edinburgh Cathedral; the roof garden of the Metropolitan Museum; and Grant Park in Chicago (where her piece, Agora, is permanently installed).

This summer, a major Abakanowicz retrospective opens at Londons Tate Modern. Its curator, Ann Coxon, agreed to give us a sneak preview.

Why is Magdalena Abakanowicz such an important artist?

Ann Coxon: She was a pioneer of what we now call installation art. There wasnt a name for it back in Abakanowiczs heyday, for the simple reason that it was something very new at the time.

You can call her works tapestries, but what she was creating, above all, were experiential environments. Weve become used to installation today [through works by everyone from Yayoi Kusama to Olafur Eliasson], but it once was an extraordinary development. And Abakanowicz was a godmother of that. Her pieces create a reaction not just because of what they are, but because of where they are.

So you prefer not to focus on the part she played in the so-called Fibre art movement of the 1960s and 1970s?

AC: Thats certainly the way that many, over the years, have seen her [alongside Sheila Hicks and Claire Zeisler] as one of a group of female artists who created textile works in connection to gender politics. Abakanowicz wasnt a feminist, though, or she wouldnt have identified as one. She didnt want her art to be defined solely in terms of female practice. Her concerns were richer and broader than that.

Given her privileged background, did she have many run-ins with the Soviet Bloc authorities?

AC: She actually seems to have been well-supported by the state. They granted her a decent-sized studio in Warsaw, for example, as well as a visa to travel, neither of which were easily come by. I think it helped that she played down her well-to-do background. At art school, she chose to assume the fake identity of a clerks daughter.

What can visitors expect from the Tate exhibition?

AC: Our show-stoppers will be the Abakans. Well have somewhere between 15 and 20 displayed together in one gallery, which should be quite something, given that just 30 exist.

Politics are bound up in her work, but Abakanowicz was never overtly political, either as a person or an artist curator Ann Coxon

Its often said that the Abakans are named as such because thats a contracted version of Abakanowicz. But the point is that there really were no words around at the time to describe these stunning, hanging structures [which the artist hand-wove and hand-dyed, and are an average of 15 feet tall and five feet wide]. Abakans seemed as good a name as any. Theyre big, spectacle-hungry things that usually were exhibited in sets [rather than individually, so as to create a sense of both monumentality and penetrability, as visitors walk under and around them].

After the Abakans, Abakanowicz moved onto series in which she surveyed the human body: such as Heads (1973-75), Seated Figures (1976) and Backs (1976-82), which consisted of a group of anonymous figures, arranged in geometric order and depending on the series distinguished by being headless, limbless, sexless or expressionless. Might we interpret these figures politically as victims of totalitarian oppression and the death of individuality under Communism?

AC: I think politics are certainly bound up in her work, but Abakanowicz was never overtly political, either as a person or an artist. She couldnt afford to be initially; but even after the fall of Communism in the early 1990s she refused to attach explicit, political meaning to her art. Just as she refused to attach explicit, autobiographical meaning either.

By autobiographical, are you referring to incidents like that during the Second World War when a drunk German soldier burst into the family home and shot Magdalenas mothers arm off?

AC: Yes, or the fact that she never had children, which some critics have used as the prism through which to view her Embryology series. The installations in Embryology feature multiple, rounded forms of different sizes: forms that, to those critics eyes, look like cocoons or embryos or kinds of new-born creatures. Even though, to other eyes, they look more like potatoes!

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Magdalenas works are ambiguous and highly evocative and all the more powerful for not being literal depictions of actual people or things. They evoke humankind in general, humankind in its entirety.

Magdalena Abakanowicz at Tate Modern, London, runs from 17 June to 13 September

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Madgdalena Abakanowicz: The godmother of installation art - Christie's

Immunology

PharmaForce International: New Product Launches and Additional Indication Approvals Lead to an Increase in Immunology Personnel – BioSpace

READING, Pa., Jan. 23, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- PharmaForce International (PFI) recently completed a study that benchmarks the leading Immunology sales and marketing organizations in the United States. The report focuses on key companies with products competing across the Dermatology, Rheumatology, and Gastroenterology markets throughout 2019. Since the previous Immunology report published by PFI in 2018, the profiled companies have experienced a 25 percent increase in the total number of commercial operations personnel that are dedicated to Immunology. This includes various roles such as sales, marketing, field medical, market access, field reimbursement, and upper-level management.

Additional profiled company trends since the 2018 report include:

Joyce Wedemeyer, Director of Marketing and Sales at PharmaForce International, says that this increase in personnel is due to new product launches and additional indication approvals for existing products.

"The majority of these profiled companies have expanded their dedicated Immunology personnel in the anticipation of launching new products into the market or having additional indications approved. These expansions are strategic approaches to ensure better positioning versus the competitive products," says Wedemeyer.

PFI plans to further the focus on Immunology benchmarking in 2020. The United States Immunology report will be updated again, as well as a report on the five major EU countries. Both studies are expected to be completed and available to clients by December.

For more information on the reports mentioned above, please contact Joyce Wedemeyer at Joyce.Wedemeyer@strategicreports.comor by phone at 610-370-2906.

PharmaForce International (PFI) is a competitive intelligence firm with over two decades of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. PFI has become the market leader in commercial operations benchmarking and competitive intelligence.

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SOURCE PharmaForce International

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PharmaForce International: New Product Launches and Additional Indication Approvals Lead to an Increase in Immunology Personnel - BioSpace

Immunology

Key trends that will shaped the immunology market in the last decade, according to GlobalData – PharmiWeb.com

From an increase in sales of interleukin inhibitors to the prevalence of biosimilars, this decade has been an eventful one in the immunology industry.

Patrick Aiyes, Senior Immunology Analyst at leading data and analytics company GlobalData, observes the key trends that has shaped the immunology market in the last decade:

Key immunology drugs

The immunology market has seen a continuous increase in the sales of interleukin inhibitors and a decrease in the sales of TNF inhibitors - primarily because of the entry of biosimilars into the market and the increased safety profile associated with interleukin inhibitors. Abbvies Humira will end the decade as the highest grossing drug of 2019, generating sales of approximately $19bn globally, while Janssens Stelara will be the highest-grossing interleukin inhibitor in the market.

JAK inhibitors have also been a very popular drug in the immunology space. After the approval of Pfizers Xeljanz in RA in 2012, Eli Lillys Olumiant and Abbvies Rinvoq have followed suit. Although this class of drugs boasts a great efficacy profile and a fast onset of action, there has been controversy surrounding its safety and this has been a key topic in the latter years of the decade. Long-term studies are needed to see if this class of drugs will be useful in the next ten years.

Improvement in research

In the last decade, there has been a breakthrough in research surrounding diseases that have not had therapies approved. For example, in atopic dermatitis (AD) Sanofis Dupixient was approved in 2017, while Benlysta was approved for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in 2011.

There have been many breakthrough and fast-track designations assigned by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to promising drugs in diseases where there is a lack of safe and efficacious agents. Over the last ten years, graft versus host disease (GvHD) saw as many as nine drugs assigned breakthrough or fast-track designations, while AD saw six drugs, and SLE saw five. This is primarily because therapies with specific targets are now being introduced to help patients treatments.

Biosimilar disruption

The increasing prevalence of biosimilars has noticeably had a negative impact on mainstay biologics, including Janssens Remicade and Abbvies cash cow, Humira, which faced the introduction of biosimilars in Europe in 2018. In 2019, biosimilars will generate sales of over $3.4bn, with Pfizers Inflectra generating a whopping $671m.

On the disruption caused by biosimilars, big pharma is most at-risk from the arrival of biosimilar competition. However, many have invested in their own biosimilar pipelines to offset risk, typically through partnerships. Biosimilars were mainly brought in to help reduce the cost of very expensive drugs, while this strategy is working in Europe, there is still more to be done in order to keep healthcare costs low in the US.

About GlobalData

4,000 of the worlds largest companies, including over 70% of FTSE 100 and 60% of Fortune 100 companies, make more timely and better business decisions thanks to GlobalDatas unique data, expert analysis and innovative solutions, all in one platform. GlobalDatas mission is to help our clients decode the future to be more successful and innovative across a range of industries, including the healthcare, consumer, retail, financial, technology and professional services sectors.

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Key trends that will shaped the immunology market in the last decade, according to GlobalData - PharmiWeb.com

Immunology

L2P Research (Former AJES Life Sciences, LLC) and Transcell Oncologics, LLC Announce Partnership to Provide High Quality Hu-CB-CD34 and Hu-PBMC to…

ANNVILLE, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--L2P Research, LLC and Transcell Oncologics, LLC have entered into a partnership with the purpose of marketing and the distribution of Transcell Oncologics, LLC Trans HSC (CD34+), Trans-HSC (PBMC) product line and L2P Researchs humanized mouse models.

L2P Research, LLC is a Pennsylvania based Research organization founded with a vision to provide integrated R&D support in all the key areas of Pharmaceutical development. L2P provides a complete array of research services as required for Investigational New Drug Applications (IND). Transcell Oncologicss Transtoxbio portfolio (www.transtoxbio.com) is all about human sourced primary progenitor cell based predictive platforms that work for exploratory drug and cosmetics research meant for clinics.

The agreed terms of this partnership highlight the product line dealing with CD34+ cells and Humanized mouse models, the scope of joint business development utilizes both companys capabilities jointly to address demand, quality, fit with preclinical research grade stem cells ( For Academia, Pharma, Contract Research Organizations) in the USA.

CAT# TRANS-HSC-CBM; CAT#TRANS-HSC-CBCD34; CAT#TRANS-HSC-PBCD34Represent the CD34+ cells available lots.

CAT#TRANS-HSC-HMRepresent the humanized mouse models available to the user.

CD34+ cells and the cell based humanized animal models market is projected to reach $ 200 M by 2022 with their applications shown in Oncology, Immunology, Infectious Diseases, Neuroscience, Toxicology, and Hematopoiesis by the user.

This specific partnership between Transcell Oncologics and L2P Research is confident to address the existing gap seen between the demand and the quality of supply owing to respective groups advantageous positions and credibility dealing with right kind of cells and the animal models.

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L2P Research (Former AJES Life Sciences, LLC) and Transcell Oncologics, LLC Announce Partnership to Provide High Quality Hu-CB-CD34 and Hu-PBMC to...