Embryology

Your Ultimate Guide To Egg Freezing From The Experts – GLAMOUR UK

Whether you want children in the future, are undecided, or want to preserve your options due to medical reasons, the decision to freeze your eggs has become far more accessible over the last decade or so. Numerous fertility clinics have opened up across the globe, not to mention the technological innovation behind fertility treatments, which has served to promote the process further.

However, theres still a lot of confusion as to what it actually entails, and a lot of debate over the success rates. Here, we speak to some of the experts in the field to clear up everything you need to know about freezing your eggs.

There are many reasons why someone might decide to freeze their eggs, and each decision is extremely personal and unique. One of the most common reasons is that a woman isnt ready to have children or hasn't met the right person, but knows she wants children one day. Another common reason is if a woman is scheduled to receive medical treatments that affect fertility like chemotherapy, and freezing eggs helps to preserve the chance of having children down the line. Others may be inclined to freeze their eggs because they havent decided on whether or not they want children, but want to remove any feeling of time pressure from their decision making process.

The egg freezing process is similar to a cycle of IVF, except the fertilisation and embryo transfer happens at a later date explains Dr Ippokratis Sarris, Director at King's Fertility. Initially a course of daily injections (usually 2 different medications, or sometimes 3) are self-administered by the woman. These aim to stimulate the ovaries to produce a number of growing follicles (fluid-filled sacs within which the eggs reside) and also to control the ovulation so that these eggs can be collected.

The daily injections continue for a couple of weeks, known as the stimulation phase. During this phase, ultrasound scans are performed every few days looking at the ovaries in order to monitor the progress of the growing follicles and occasionally a blood test to check hormone levels, says Dr Sarris. Once the follicles have grown sufficiently, and to a size where it is expected that a mature egg will be retrieved, a final maturation injection is given, followed by the egg collecting procedure two days later.

The collection procedure itself is carried out under anaesthetic (usually sedation, but sometimes local or general anaesthetic is used). Using ultrasound guidance, a needle is passed through the vagina wall, then into the ovaries, and into each of the follicles, explains Dr Sarris. The fluid from within the follicles is drawn out and taken to the laboratory. An embryologist will look at this under a microscope in order to retrieve the eggs. The eggs are then checked for maturity and frozen within a few hours after the procedure.

Theyre frozen using fast-freezing process called vitrification, and stored in specialised cryotanks. The tanks are constantly monitored electronically and maintained, and the eggs can remain there for as long as the patient requires them.

According to the experts, the number of eggs collected can vary from woman to woman. On average, around 10 eggs are collected with any treatment cycle, although this very much depends on a woman's age and her egg reserve, says Dr James Nicopoullos, Medical Director at the Lister Fertility Clinic. Some may be able to produce significantly more on an even cycle and unfortunately some less, with the key being the investigations we do prior to this to help us council the patients as to what to expect and whether it is the right thing for them.

The procedure usually lasts 20-30 minutes, and after 1-2 hours of recovery, the woman can go home, says Dr Sarris. There might be a small amount of spotting from the vagina, and occasionally discomfort over the lower abdomen. However, simple pain relief medication (such as paracetamol or ibuprofen) is usually adequate in controlling it. The woman should be able to return to normal activities by the next day, and the period should arrive within the next 2 weeks. After that, the body should be back to normal and all the effects of the hormones should have passed.

Its possible to have the egg fertilised with sperm before freezing, making it a frozen embryo - however, there are many things to think about before doing so. My recommendation to any single woman would always be to freeze eggs initially for fertility preservation, says Dr Nicopoullos. The key with egg freezing is to give women reproductive choices and should she want to have a family with a future partner, having these eggs frozen will allow them to be thawed and fertilised with his sperm. If however she freezes embryos, i.e. fertilises her eggs with donor sperm before freezing, she won't have this option available to her.

Dr Sarris raises another key consideration; The downside is that the embryo legally belongs to two people (whoever provided the egg and sperm gametes), whereas, the egg just belongs to the woman and she can decide how it is used entirely independently.

The current legal time limit that an egg can be frozen for is 10 years unless theres medical reasoning to extend it, for example, if the woman was undergoing cancer treatment at a young age. There are current calls for the government to extend this limit.

According to Dr Sarris, when a patient wants to use their eggs, they effectively need to resume the process of the original cycle of IVF which stopped at the egg collection stage. The egg is thawed and fertilised by the sperm, he says. If the egg is successfully fertilised, it then becomes an embryo which is grown in the lab over the next few days and either be put back into the womans womb or it can be frozen again (this time as an embryo).

In order for a woman to have the embryo transferred into her womb, it has to be done in an embryo transfer cycle. This can be done in two ways, either the clinic will monitor the womans natural cycle and transfer the embryo at an appropriate time after ovulation, or the clinic can recreate a natural cycle by prescribing certain medicines that prepare the lining of the womb for the embryo to implant.

According to Dr Nicopoullos, the implantation process is very quick and no more invasive than a cervical smear test.

Success rates vary dramatically based on multiple factors, including the womans age at the time of egg collection (the younger the eggs, the higher the success rate), and her general health. Success rate of frozen eggs remains under some debate, says Dr Nicopoullos, but theres increasing research suggesting that success rates of using a frozen embryo are as similar to using a fresh embryo.

Dr Sarris explains that if the eggs are frozen at a clinically optimum age then the chances of success will be higher. However, it should be noted that obstetric (pregnancy) complications increase with a womans age. In addition, success is also dependent on how technically proficient the clinic is that freezes and thaws the eggs. Overall, he says the absolute chance of an egg giving a baby can vary from as low as 1% per egg to 5-6% per egg.

Lord Robert Winston, professor of fertility studies at Imperial College London and expert on egg freezing and IVF has publicly warned that success rates can be misleading. Speaking on BBC Radio 4 Todays programme, Lord Winston described the process as a very unsuccessful technology with a success rate of around 1%. However, he later clarified that he was referring to the number of live births, rather than the number of pregnancies. Sometimes, when a clinic gives a success rate, they are actually referring to the number of successful implantations into the womb (and subsequent pregnancies) rather than the live birth rate. The distinction between the two definitions of success can result in vastly different figures.

According to The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, in 2015, 2% of all thawed eggs ended up as pregnancies and 0.7% resulted in live births.

The average cost for one round of treatment is between 3500 to 4500, and there's usually an annual fee for storing the eggs of around 200 to 400 depending on the clinic. If you are receiving medical treatment that affects your fertility, you may be able to get egg freezing on the NHS.

Its up to the woman what happens to her eggs if she no longer wants to continue freezing them. They can either be discarded or donated to medical research.

Link:
Your Ultimate Guide To Egg Freezing From The Experts - GLAMOUR UK

Embryology

The funeral director giving the gift of life – by donating eggs – Nottinghamshire Live

A funeral director has given the gift of life three times - by donating her eggs.

Mum-of-two Leanne Armstrong heard an advert on the radio calling for egg donors in late 2009 as she drove to work and appreciating the importance of life through her dealings with grieving families immediately volunteered.

She had her first treatment six months later and has now donated her eggs on half a dozen occasions in six years.

Leanne, 39, says the children she helped to create can expect a hero's welcome if they ever come to her door.

She said: Id say to them, Yes, come and find me knock on the door.

Im quite curious to know how they look and whether they are well, but Im more intrigued by the recipients. Id love to hear their stories.

Leanne is now classed as too old to donate, as Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) rules limit donors to women aged between 18 and 35 apart from in exceptional circumstance.

Instead, she is waiting in happy anticipation for any of the children produced by her eggs to track her down.

Leanne, whose children, Elise, 16, and Nyle, 11, are from a previous relationship and is now engaged to Dan, 53, says she had no idea egg donation was possible until she heard the radio advert.

For the last two years, she has volunteered as an ambassador, working to raise awareness of the process.

Altrui, part of Apricity, specialises in finding, matching and looking after altruistic egg donors with one-to-one, anonymous donation.

She said: Id never heard of egg donation before listening to the advert, but working in my industry and dealing with death makes you treasure life so much that it really hit home.

I cant imagine wanting to start a family and never being able to.

And now that I cant donate eggs myself anymore, I spend a lot of my time helping other potential donors.

Leanne, of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, continued: Its one thing reading a fact box about egg donation, its another hearing it from people who have first-hand experience of it.

Within three months of putting her name forward, Leanne had a series of blood tests, her egg count was determined and she had several counselling sessions.

Given the green light to proceed in 2010, it was her daughter, Elise, who helped her inject hormonal treatments for 10 days, to stimulate her egg growth, before having them harvested.

Within two weeks, Leanne received a phone call from the clinic, saying her egg had led to a positive pregnancy test for the recipient but that, sadly, later on, they had miscarried.

She said it just made her want to donate again so six months later, she did exactly that.

Donating her eggs four more times over the next five years, she was elated to find out that three of the four attempts resulted in a successful pregnancy and birth.

As it is illegal in the UK for egg donors to receive anything more than expenses which can be up to 750 it is a purely altruistic act.

Leanne said: I got the cost of childcare covered and the train ticket to the clinic.

Its not about financial gain though, its about helping people who are desperate to start a family to achieve their dream.

All Leanne knows about the children she helped make possible, is that two are boys and one is a girl.

All could be revealed one day, as in April 2005, HFEA rules changed, allowing people conceived through egg donation to find out their donors full name, date of birth, and current address when they turn 18.

Leanne said: I always knew they could track me down one day and thats fine.

Of course, Id be interested in seeing who they are and knowing they are well, but mainly, I feel it is a great honour to have been able to help another woman to start a family.

My main goal is to raise as much awareness about egg donation as possible it really is one of the best things Ive ever done.

Original post:
The funeral director giving the gift of life - by donating eggs - Nottinghamshire Live

Neuroscience

The Antibody Revolution in Neuroscience – Technology Networks

From cancer immunotherapy to fighting viruses, the adaptation of the bodys immune system to serve science has been a huge source of innovation across biology.

The use of immune molecules called antibodies in neuroscience research is another example of this revolution in action.

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The Antibody Revolution in Neuroscience - Technology Networks

Neuroscience

The neuroscience of thirst – Tech Explorist

A new study has demonstrated how and which activities outside of the brain contribute to feeling thirsty. The discovery offers a rich neurobiological clarification for a phenomenon that each of us has experienced many times in our lives.

The study identifies previously unknown body-to-brain pathways that work together to govern this fundamental sensation. For this study, Chris Zimmerman (postdoctoral fellow at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute) has received the 2020 Eppendorf & Science Prize for Neurobiology.

The study reveals that signals arise from the mouth and gut, providing predictive information to brain neurons that use these signals to satiate or convey thirst upon eating or drinking.

Zimmerman said,What we have learned about the thirst system should improve our understanding of the brain systems that become dysfunctional in eating disorders, such as obesity and anorexia nervosa, and motivation disorders such as addiction and anhedonia, for example, which could someday lead to new therapies for these diseases.

In the 1950s, Bengt Andersson proposed an answer to the question: where does this sensation come from? He suggested that our brains might contain an osmosensor governs thirst, which consists of a group of cells that sense when dehydrated by directly monitoring the bloods osmolarity.

For the experiments, he systematically infused salt into the brains of goats to locate this osmosensor. He ultimately discovered a small area within the hypothalamus where even minute amounts of salt triggered immediate, voracious drinking. Subsequent studies established that Anderssons osmosensor encompasses the subfornical organ (SFO), a brain region that is distinctively suited to detecting blood osmolarity because it lies outside the blood-brain barrier.

Zimmerman noted a few unresolved gaps in Anderssons study. For one, considering how long it takes for ingested food or water to enter the bloodstream, its a mystery how a gulp of (often cold) water can immediately quench thirst, or how we can crave a drink shortly after a few bites of food. These quick changes in thirst sensations suggest that the sensory cue is regulated on a moment-by-moment basis, operating on a timescale thats quicker than the passage of information through the bloodstream.

Zimmerman said,The traditional model for how these brain structures function, as simple dehydration sensors, was entrenched and written into the textbooks. Demonstrating that thirst neurons also receive predictive sensory information from the rest of the body led us to rewrite these traditional models.

To explore this phenomenon, Zimmerman and his team started by suggesting stimulating and recording calcium movement in mices brains using optical fibers to pinpoint precisely how SFO neurons sense thirst. They affirmed that the thirst neurons could detect a lack of hydration levels by monitoring increases in particle concentration in the blood. In any case, incredibly, the thirst neurons likewise diminished activity when the mouse drank water and increased activity with food intake, suggesting that thirst neurons regulation happened even before chemicals from food and fluids infiltrated the blood.

Zimmerman thus postulated that the second set of signals in addition to input from the bloodstream might feed into the SFO to help the brain dynamically manage a sense of thirst in real-time. Aiming to detect these signals and their origins, he and his team traced the flow of water through the oral and digestive tracts in mice.

They found that as soon as water entered the mouth, the body triggered a near-instantaneous cell signaling pathway that closely tracked the volume of water ingested and inhibited thirst signals from the SFO accordingly.

Zimmerman said,Cold water was particularly effective at inhibiting SFO neurons during this process, which may explain why we find cooler drinks, especially thirst-quenching and pleasurable.

Further mouse experiments where water was directly delivered through an opening on the stomach wall to model the swallowing of fluid revealed a similar body-to-brain signaling pathway in the gut. Once water entered the gut, the body transmitted rapid measurements of real-time particle concentrations in the gut via the brains vagus nerve.

In light of these discoveries and upheld by additional cell imaging examinations, scientists built a potential model for how the body-to-brain signaling pathway coordinates thirst sensation. They suggest that layers of signals emerge from the mouth, gut, and blood and combine in the SFO.

Here, thirst neurons integrate the array of information from various sources to monitor the bodys hydration level, manage the appropriate level of thirst sensation, and provide guidance on whether to continue ingesting water or food. A parallel series of investigations likewise recommended that the body-to-brain regulation of thirst neurons controls downstream signals to change hormone release and emotions.

Zimmerman explained,There may be instances when overwriting the cues related to satisfying thirst is necessary. For one, patients are asked not to consume water before undergoing surgery a common hospital practice. In rare instances, when thirst becomes pathological, patients must overwrite the cue of drinking water to avoid increases in blood pressure and stress in the kidneys. In both cases, doctors prescribe sucking on ice chips and popsicles, or wetting the mouth, triggering the immediate signaling pathway to cope with thirst sensation.

Read more from the original source:
The neuroscience of thirst - Tech Explorist

Neuroscience

Tips to help avoid getting sick as cold and flu season approaches – WTOP

Are you ready for the cold and flu season? Be prepared and make sure you're setting your immune system up for success, a doctor advises.

Are you getting enough vitamin D? It might help keep you from getting sick. Combine the upcoming cold and flu season with the COVID-19 pandemic and its never been more important to have a strong immune system.

Vitamin D is one of the things we really want to make sure we get enough of, especially now, assistant professor of neuroscience Dr. Nicole M. Avena said. Its really one of the critical nutrients that helps to support and boost our immunity.

Avena, who has a doctorate in neuroscience and psychology, teaches at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and is a visiting professor of health psychology at Princeton University.

A lot of people are deficient in vitamin D and dont even realize it, she said.

And in winter months, people get less vitamin D naturally from the sun. Signs of vitamin D deficiency include lethargy feeling tired.

Also, when you have low vitamin D, it puts you at risk for having issues related to calcium absorption, which puts you more at risk for broken bones, or improper healing of fractures, Avena said.

To help ensure youre getting all the vitamins and micronutrientsyou need to stay healthy, Avena recommends eating a wide variety of different fruits, vegetables and proteins.

If were deficient in one or more micronutrients, then our body has to work harder to make up for that deficiency, Avena said. We have a really effective immune system that can work really, really well if our body doesnt have to be devoting its resources to other aspects of our health.

If you cant get the nutrition you need from food alone and your doctor OKs supplements, there are lots of options to swallowing potentially big pills. There are gummies, liquids and sublingual options that dissolve under your tongue.

Your lifestyle also can influence whether your immune system is strong.

Are you getting enough rest? One bad night isnt such a big problem, but Avena said sleep deficits over time can compromise your immune system.

We need to be getting the appropriate amount of sleep every night so our body can be rested and it can recharge, Avena said.

Also, chill out. When we are stressed and anxious, our body has to work harder to produce cortisol to fight these stressors internally and that leaves fewer resources available to support our immune health, she said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, exercise improves sleep and reduces anxiety.

Like WTOP on Facebook and follow @WTOP on Twitter to engage in conversation about this article and others.

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2020 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

Originally posted here:
Tips to help avoid getting sick as cold and flu season approaches - WTOP

Neuroscience

Grant to aid in developing new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease – Lethbridge Herald

By Jensen, Randy on October 1, 2020.

LETHBRIDGE HERALD

The University of Lethbridges Majid Mohajerani and two partners from Laval University are creating new tools for neuroscience research that theyll use to test out a promising drug target for Alzheimers disease. If successful, their research could lead to new treatments to prevent the onset of Alzheimers disease symptoms, delay progression of the disease or even restore normal function after symptoms have appeared.

The research is made possible thanks to a grant of nearly $1 million over three years from the Weston Brain Institute, a non-profit institute of the W. Garfield Weston Foundation that supports world-class neuroscience research to accelerate discovery of treatments for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimers and Parkinsons.

New treatments for these diseases are critically needed, says Mohajerani, a professor of neuroscience at the U of Ls Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience (CCBN), in a news release. Alzheimers disease has an enormous impact on patients, the health-care system and society. This is only anticipated to get worse as the population ages. Current treatments for Alzheimers disease only address some of the symptoms. They do not prevent or alter the course of the disease.

In the project, Mohajerani, along with Laval Universitys Benoit Gosselin and Yves De Koninck, will develop a device that allows for minimally invasive stimulation and recording of brain activity in mice in their home cages. The device includes a wireless transmitter, thus removing the need for the animal to be taken from its home cage and hooked up to wires in the lab. This implant will be combined with an automated monitoring system, currently under development at the CCBN, that records the animals natural behaviour. Together, these devices will allow scientists to measure the brain activity and behaviour of an animal in its home environment over days, weeks or even months.

The technology will enable them to address the idea that abnormal brain activity, characterized by an imbalance between excitatory and inhibitory connections in the brain, underlies the early progression of Alzheimers. De Koninck is a world expert on a certain protein, found on the outer membranes of cells within the nervous system, called potassium chloride co-transporter 2 (KCC2). An increase or decrease in the production of KCC2 affects the balance of inhibitory and excitatory activity in the brain. Pharmaceutical tools that target KCC2 might thus be able to correct the imbalance observed in Alzheimers, as well as other nervous system disorders such as chronic pain.

We are using drugs that modulate the expression of KCC2, says Mohajerani. We will increase and also decrease the production of KCC2 to study both effects. We will explore if activation of KCC2, by boosting neuronal inhibition, can reduce the progression of the disease and if inhibition of KCC2 will increase the progression of the disease.

Using genetically modified mice that model Alzheimers disease pathology and symptoms, the project aims to accelerate the development of therapeutics for Alzheimers by testing how altering KCC2 function affects brain activity and behaviour during disease progression in living animals. If successful, this research would implicate KCC2 as an entirely new drug target for mitigating Alzheimers disease.

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Grant to aid in developing new treatments for Alzheimer's disease - Lethbridge Herald

Neuroscience

Carolina Union event space reservations to be available starting in November – The Daily Tar Heel

Amisha Garikipati, a junior neuroscience major at UNC, is on the executive board of the Carolina Neuroscience Club. Garikipati said the club has faced difficulties in recruiting new members due to the pandemic.

While the club has been meeting virtually instead of at the Student Union, Garikipati said one positive of going online is that it has presented new opportunities for the club and a chance to attract more people through new platforms.

Even though we do have a fewer turnout now, it has presented some opportunities that wouldn't have been possible before," Garikipati said. "We had someone from the neuroscience club in South Carolina reach out to us and see if we could potentially collaborate."

Garikipati said she is not sure if the club would use the event reservation ability for the spring semester. If members thought it was safe and beneficial, she said the club would do it.

"But I guess we would have to see how things are doing at that point in time and reach out to our members and see if they are comfortable with that and if that's something they'd want to do," she said.

Megan Wagner, a sophomore economics and communications major, serves as secretary for the UNC Young Democrats. She said the club has had a significant decrease in new member recruits due to COVID-19.

"It's just a lot harder to work around getting people to come to meetings in general, especially since everything is virtual and classes have been moved back, so the timing of everything is a lot harder," Wagner said.

Prior to the pandemic, Wagner said UNC Young Democrats reserved a room to hold their weekly cabinet meetings and other events which in the past have included hosting Beto ORourke at the Student Union.

We've used it a lot to host voter registration and lit drops," Wagner said. "Its just a place for everyone to meet, get the materials that we need and disperse off to where you need to go."

Wagner said the club is not yet certain whether it will use the Union in the spring semester. But some precautions she would personally like to see are temperature screenings, hand sanitizer stations, masks required and 6 feet of social distancing.

It really depends on so many different things if we're on campus, if COVID is not as rampant as it is currently and we are able to safely have officer meetings, then probably," Wagner said. "But if it's not safe, then well probably just stick to virtual."

university@dailytarheel.com

Continued here:
Carolina Union event space reservations to be available starting in November - The Daily Tar Heel

Neuroscience

The sameness of life in the pandemic could be affecting your neurons – Hindustan Times

Do the days seem without structure, the weeks and months a blur? It could be the effect of the sameness of life in the pandemic, on neurons in the brain.

A paper published in Journal of Neuroscience in September indicates that sameness of stimuli makes certain neurons weary, altering our perception of time.

The paper was co-authored by Masamichi Hayashi at the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology in Suita, Japan, and Richard Ivry at the University of California, Berkeley. Hayashi and Ivry scanned volunteers brains while showing them the same scene a grey spot on a screen 30 times without pause.

After the period of adaptation, participants saw the grey spot again, but for different lengths of time. Then, they estimated how long the object had stayed on screen. Participants could not effectively tell the difference between the durations; at the same time, scans showed decreased activity in a group of brain cells involved in time perception, indicating neuron fatigue, the report states.

Ive always been interested in the neural mechanism of time perception, Hayashi told HT. How is the time experience represented in our brains? Why does time pass so quickly when you are having fun? Why does time slow down when you get into a car accident?

In 2015, Hayashi and Ivry began conducting behavioural experiments to confirm their own earlier brain scan experiment in this area of study. Their volunteers were mainly students aged 18 to 27.

Our experience of time during the pandemic is probably associated with more memory-based recognition of time the perception of time in the passing of days and months which is a different area from the precise focus of our study, Hayashi says. Time estimation in the range of hundreds of milliseconds is important for a variety of daily activities, such as motor control, speech recognition and generation, playing instruments, dancing, etc. We still need to test, but I believe these time-sensitive neurons are involved in these timing-related activities too.

The reports findings may have other real-world applications. Distortions in time perception and timed performances appear in patients with Parkinsons disease, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and autism. We hope that our findings will provide some insight to understand these disorders, Hayashi says.

See more here:
The sameness of life in the pandemic could be affecting your neurons - Hindustan Times

Neuroscience

Cogstate Expands Executive Team with Key Scientific Appointments – GlobeNewswire

Melbourne, Oct. 01, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Neuroscience technology company, Cogstate Ltd (ASX.CGS), announced today the appointment of Chris Edgar, PhD as Chief Science Officer and Prof. Paul Maruff, PhD as Chief Innovation Officer. These appointments represent an expansion of the executive leadership team with strengthened scientific capacity as the company continues to meet the growing demand for transformative innovations in clinical trials and healthcare.

As Chief Science Officer, Dr. Edgar will continue to advise Cogstate customers on clinical endpoint strategy and will set the strategic vision for Cogstates global scientific services. He will lead a team of clinical experts focused on the optimization, execution and analyses of cognitive and behavioral assessments and related data quality assurance solutions for improved signal detection and excellence in trial design and conduct.

Moving into the newly created role of Chief Innovation Officer, Prof. Maruff will lead efforts to continue to refine existing Cogstate technologies as well as identifying and developing novel methods for assessment of cognition and behaviour. He will continue to oversee Cogstate relationships supporting innovation and development with partners from pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and with key industry and academic groups central to the scientific advancements of Cogstate technologies.

Adding scientific strength to the Cogstate leadership team will further position us for this current phase of growth as we continue to see increasing demand for strong, stable delivery supported by rapid, robust innovation, said Brad OConnor, Cogstate CEO. Among the current opportunities for the company are awards in late phase global clinical trial programs, the increased need for remote data collection and smart-phone based assessment, as well as rapidly evolving needs in healthcare for early detection of cognitive impairment. Dr. Edgars experience in pharmaceutical and contract research organizations brings an enormous depth to our drug development expertise and measurement science excellence in clinical trials. With his expertise, Paul can re-double his efforts to bring forward new strategies for measuring disease-related and treatment-related changes in cognition, remaining at the center of innovation at Cogstate.

About Chris Edgar

Dr. Chris Edgar is an experienced leader in cognitive assessment and clinical endpoint strategy who provides expert guidance to Cogstates pharmaceutical customers throughout all stages of trial conduct, from study design and test selection through final analysis. Dr. Edgar is also a key advisor to Cogstates commercial and product teams for the application of new technologies and approaches aligned with industry needs. Prior to joining Cogstate as Senior Vice President, Clinical Science in 2018, Dr. Edgar oversaw clinical endpoint strategy for multiple neuroscience indications in the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research group at Roche. He holds a PhD in psychopharmacology from Northumbria University and has nearly two decades of pharmaceutical industry experience. Dr. Edgar has held other key industry positions including Clinical Scientist at Roche on Schizophrenia and Alzheimers disease drug development programs, Senior Clinical Lead for rater training and data quality at Bracket, and Scientific Director at Cognitive Drug Research Ltd., a computerized cognitive assessment company.

About Paul Maruff

Professor Paul Maruff is one of the founders of Cogstate and served as Chief Science Officer before taking on the role of Chief Innovation Officer. He is a neuropsychologist with expertise in the identification and measurement of subtle behavioral and cognitive dysfunction. Prof. Maruffs research integrates conventional and computerized neuropsychological testing with cognitive neuroscientific methods to guide decision making in drug development and in clinical medicine. He has worked extensively on methods to identify subtle neurocognitive impairmentand to assess the efficacy of pharmacological treatmentin Alzheimers disease, mild cognitive impairment and the HIV dementia complex. He has extended this approach to identify cognitive dysfunction and monitor treatment efficacy in psychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression in adults, attention deficit disorder, developmental dyspraxia and substance abuse in children. Paul remains an active researcher; he is appointed Professor at the Florey Institute for Neuroscience and Mental Health, and he is currently clinical co-chair of the Australian Imaging Biomarkers and Lifestyle (AIBL) study. Paul has published over 450 research articles in international peer-reviewed scientific journals and has co-authored 15 book chapters.

About Cogstate

Cogstate Ltd (ASX:CGS) is a neuroscience technology company optimizing brain health assessments to advance the development of new medicines and to enable earlier clinical insights in healthcare. Cogstate technologies provide rapid, reliable and highly sensitive computerized cognitive tests across a growing list of domains and support electronic clinical outcome assessment (eCOA) solutions to replace costly and error-prone paper assessments with real-time data capture. The companys clinical trials solutions include quality assurance services for study endpoints that combine innovative operational approaches, advanced analytics and scientific consulting. For 20 years, Cogstate has proudly supported the leading-edge research needs of biopharmaceutical companies and academic institutions and the clinical care needs of physicians and patients around the world. In the Healthcare market, in August 2019 Cogstate entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with pharmaceutical company Eisai, under which Eisai will market Cogstate technologies as digital cognitive assessment tools in Japanese markets. The product, branded as NouKNOW, launched in Japan on 31 March 2020 (nouknow.jp). To learn more, visit:http://www.cogstate.com/.

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Cogstate Expands Executive Team with Key Scientific Appointments - GlobeNewswire

Neuroscience

Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University Deploys AMD EPYC Processors with Over 2 Petaflops of Computing Power Dedicated to…

AMD EPYC Processors provide superior cost-performance and high core density

TOKYO, Oct. 01, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) and Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) , announced the deployment of AMD EPYC 7702 processors for use in a new, high performance computing system. The EPYC processor-based supercomputer will deliver the 2.36 petaflops of computing power OIST plans to use for scientific research at the University.

The Scientific Computing & Data Analysis Section (SCDA) of OIST plans to implement the new supercomputer for supporting OIST computationally intensive research ranging from bioinformatics, computational neuroscience, and physics. SCDA adopted AMD EPYC after significant growth, including a 2X increase in users.

2020 is a milestone year for OIST with new research units expanding the number of research areas. This growth is driving a significant increase in our computational needs, said Eddy Taillefer, Ph.D., Section Leader, Scientific Computing & Data Analysis Section. Under the common resource model for which the computing system is shared by all OIST users we needed a significant increase in core-count capacity to both absorb these demands and cope with the significant growth of OIST. The latest AMD EPYC processor was the only technology that could match this core-count need in a cost-performance effective way.

Key factors of OISTs selection of the AMD EPYC processors included superior cost-performance, memory/PCIe bandwidth, and high core counts per server. OIST plans to also consider EPYC processors for other growing computational needs for University researchers in the future.

AMD is proud to be working with leading global institutions to bring scientific research to the forefront through the power of high performance computing technology, said Ram Peddibhotla, corporate vice president, EPYC product management, AMD. With high performance capabilities, ease of management and scalability, 2nd Gen AMD EPYC processors can assist OIST researchers with advancing technological innovations and supporting their research goals in bioinformatics, computational neuroscience, and physics.

AMD EPYC 7702 Processor Specifications

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1 Max boost for AMD EPYC processors is the maximum frequency achievable by any single core on the processor under normal operating conditions for server systems. EPYC-18

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Laura GravesAMD Investor Relations(408) 749-5467laura.graves@amd.com

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Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University Deploys AMD EPYC Processors with Over 2 Petaflops of Computing Power Dedicated to...