StemCell Therapy

Researchers at the University of New Hampshire have reported the first structural model for a key enzyme, and its activating protein, that can play a role in some genetically inherited eye diseases like retinitis pigmentosa and night blindness.

There has been substantial research on the biochemical pathway involving this enzyme, known as PDE6, but defining atomic-level models is important for locating PDE6 mutations in order to understand why they cause disease and how we can develop new therapeutic interventions to manage retinal diseases, said Rick Cote, director of Center of Integrated Biomedical and Bioengineering Research and principal investigator on the study.

Vision starts in the photoreceptor cells of the retina which contains rods, responsible for low light vision, and cones, which are active in brighter light and capable of color vision. When light is absorbed by the rods and cones, it triggers a pathway which activates the enzyme phosphodiesterase 6, or PDE6. This generates a nerve impulse to the brain that ultimately results in visual perception. Some genetically inherited eye diseases are caused by mutations to PDE6, or its activating protein, transducin, that can lead to disruptions of normal vision or even total blindness.

In the study, researchers reported how they were able to use chemical cross-linking combined with mass spectrometric analysis to resolve the structure of PDE6 in its nonactivated and transducin-activated states. This approach permitted visualization of flexible regions of individual PDE6 catalytic and inhibitory subunits that were poorly resolved in previous work as well as the overall molecular architecture of the activated protein complex.

Determining the structure of these visual signaling proteins has always been a challenge because of their complexity, said Michael Irwin, doctoral student in biochemistry and lead author. Having detailed structural information about how PDE6 is activated by transducin will help us understand the molecular causes of visual disorders and blinding diseases resulting from mutations in these proteins.

Current medical treatment for such genetically inherited retinal diseases may include gene therapy or drugs meant to inhibit the disease process. However, they are not always successful in restoring the balance of PDE6 and preventing blindness. Scientists believe that knowing the molecular structures of these visual signaling proteins and how they interact with each other can offer clues for the development of new drugs to both restore vision and prevent blindness.

Reference

Irwin et al. (2019) The molecular architecture of photoreceptor phosphodiesterase 6 (PDE6) with activated G protein elucidates the mechanism of visual excitation. Journal of Biological Chemistry. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.RA119.011002

This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.

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Protein Structure Associated with Inherited Retinal Diseases is Solved - Technology Networks

TheJedi are a groupof legendary beings that can the Force. They can move things with their minds, they use laser beam swords, and theyre not supposed to give in to many strong emotions. Theyre put on this pedestal because theyre on the Light Side, but theyoftenhad their faults. While theStar Warsmovies dont show a lot of the bad side of the Jedi,The Clone Warscertainly did. And one of the most prominent displays of wrongdoing on the Jedis part was the falseaccusations against Ahsoka Tano.

Ahsoka, Anakin Skywalkers Padawan, was helping with the investigation into a bombing at the Jedi temple. She and Anakin had a lead and arrested a woman connected to the bomb. However, when Ahsoka went to visit her, to see if shed talk, an unseen Force-user strangled the woman. This was a way to frame Ahsoka since it looked like she Force-strangled her on video.

Afterward, the Republic militaryandthe Jedi didnt take Ahsokas word of innocence, even with a lack of evidence. All they had was that video, and Ahsoka did have an alibi for the actual bombing. And digging would have proven that she didnt know the woman beforehand. But thats the thing. The Jedi were wildly blind to the actual evils of the Republic and just handed Ahsoka over to the military for a trial. A trial that would have killed the Padawan if they found her guilty. No one on the Council outwardly stood up for her or the fact that they should have been able to sense whether she was lying. Not to mention the fact that Ahsoka showed no other signs of treason against the Jedi before. This blindness is partly why Palpatine was able to destroy them.

In Ahsokas first trial with the Jedi, Anakin yells, Youve already made your decision This meeting is just a formality! when Yoda is about to read their verdict. And its true. Before they even heard her speak, they had decided to ban her from the Order. This allowed the Republic to take over the trial, with Ahsoka now a non-Jedi, which Adjutant General Tarkin suggested.

The publics opinion on the Jedi was already changing, and then the bombing happened. They wanted a quick and lowkey investigation, so the public wasnt upset even more. Instead of standing by Ahsoka, they handed her over to a public trial that was out to kill her in order to relinquish the Jedi name from the bombing.

The bombing negatively swayed the publics opinion, but it also comes to light how much they disapprove of their involvement in the war. The Jedi were supposed to be peacekeepers, but instead, they aligned themselves to one sideandfought in the war. Its made clear in Season 3, Episode 10 Heroes on Both Sides, that the war has good people in the Republic and the Separatists. The Jedis involvement just made it seem like the Republic was the way to go.

When Anakin figures out Barriss Offee is the one that set up the bombing and framed Ahsoka, she makes some bold statements. Her remarks leave a sour note because they have some truth to them. She says that the Jedi were the ones responsible for this war and that theyve lost [their] way so much that theyre the villains. My attack on the temple was an attack onwhat the Jedi have become: an army fighting for the Dark Side.

Thats not the most diplomatic way to make a point. However, it hones in on what the publics feeling and mirrorssimilar disillusionment Anakinhas with the Order at this point and later down the line. Its also whyAhsoka leaves the Order. She says its because she cant trust them or herself, but the trial also showed how much the Jedi had fallen.

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Ahsoka's Choice To Leave The Jedi Exposed What Was Wrong With The Order - Showbiz Cheat Sheet

Catherine Payvandi, Community Music Published 2:23 p.m. CT Jan. 8, 2020

Josh Reynolds (Prince Yamadori), A. Scott Parry (Stage Director), Yulia Lysenko (Cio-Cio San), practice for CROpera's production of "Madama Butterfly"(Photo: Contributed photo)

There is little doubt that Giacomo Puccinis operas are among the worlds most loved. As the leading Italian opera composer of his generation, four of his twelve operas laBoheme, Tosca, Turnadot and Madama Butterfly are the most performed operas worldwide.

Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre will perform Puccinis Madama Butterfly January 17 at 7:30 pm and again January 19 at 2:30 pm. Free pre-opera talks will begin one hour before performance in the Encore Lounge of the Paramount Theatre, 123 3rd Ave. SE in Cedar Rapids. The opera is sung in Italian with English supertitles.

Part of Puccini's genius derives from his remarkable ability to depict the inner lives and feelings of his tragic heroines Mimi, Tosca, Turandot and Cio Cio San all are unforgettable heroines whose music accesses the soul and whose stories break your heart. But in Madama Butterfly, the intensity of storytelling, the gorgeous lyricism of the music, and sharpness of character are especially brought to life as we witness the incredible transformation of Puccinis Cio Cio San from an innocent young geisha into a towering image of strength.

The arc of her character development informs dramatic action her transformation from a young innocent to a bold and courageous woman who achieves mythic relevance is set forth against a backdrop of darkness and orchestral beauty. While the core of the opera is about conflict conflict between cultures, between idealism and reality the dramatic center of the opera has a universal message that speaks to evena modern audience.

Yulia Lysenko (Cio-Cio San) and Jeremy Brauner (Pinkerton), rehearse for CROpera's production of "Madama Butterfly."(Photo: Contributed photo)

Cio Cio San is a 15-year-old girl who falls in love with a man who promises her the world but who inevitably betrays her. The process of the opera is the unfolding of her character. She is a nave young geisha, who struggles to sustain her dream of happiness, but her innocence and willful blindness to the truth prevent her from achieving lasting joy. However, it is that blindness that prompts her to heroic action and which leads her to courageously choose death rather than accept a future tainted with dishonor.

While traditional opera commentary tends to focus on the operas historical context, and the clash between East and West the Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre production embraces more universal applications as it illuminates how idealism is crushed by what it most aspires to and demonstrates through dramatic counterpoint how irresponsible decisions have tragic consequences.

The opera is not just a story about the past or an exotic period piece. Instead, what emerges is the unfolding of a pattern of exploitation and selfdeception that renders universal relevance. And as such, that theme speaks to each of us in our own world.

The story of Cio Cio San, Pucinnis imaginary geisha, engenders an empathetic impulse we all feel. The beauty of Pucinnis dramatic hand is that while entering into the perspective of Cio Cio San, we recognize the doomed outcome shadowing her romantic hopes. She is like a butterfly beautiful and fragile with her dream of love but one who is ultimately pierced to the heart by betrayal.

Catherine Payvandi is a member of the Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre board of directors and is also an active community volunteer at Orchestra Iowa.She received her doctorate in English literature form the University of Iowa and has held faculty positions at Mt. Mercy University and Cornell College teaching writing and literature.

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Madama Butterfly offers up universal themes and tragedy - Iowa City Press-Citizen

Nothing in life is stable or secure. One ventures out into the dark to watch the meteors rain across an evening sky. They streak in a most unpredictable fashion, mercurial, disappearing and re-emerging. They slide past the planetary axis. Their illuminations are intimate. There is a realization that the past can never rescue the present.

Watching the intermittent threads of light, one may be abjured to a frail existence. These falling stars in their mysterious showering, solicit the muses or catalyze dreams. We may not attribute our fates to these countless, heavenly fires, but in time, we will surely return to the minute dust from which we came.

What separates man from his fellow creatures is his intellect, his ability to think logically. It is the precise reason why we establish laws of order. Life exists as the product of endless failures and countless mutating engagements under the brow of the sun. Microscopic enablers created the universe of being and made the rhythm of existence complete, yet the lesser beings found themselves at the mercy of progress shifting pollutants. No Eden can exist as a utopia. All that is living is molded by the timeless rhythm of a cellular cosmos. It is the corruptive nature of the ego that has ravaged the garden within. It is the small life that instructs and is ultimately shunned as the planet warms.

One can come to an emotional crossroad when the light of intellect is diminished by ambiguous emotional stirrings of the heart. It may just be that the unexpected, brief illuminations from the heavens frame ones faith and enable one to feel the miraculous and unexpected creative energy of unknowing. The sparks of the synapses flicker through the universe of the soul like falling stars. Love is spawned in the horizon of light. Benevolence is un-prophesiable, yet always valid. Light falls out of the darkness where no law or political advantage can alter its journey.

Blindness often falls upon those that believe they see the world most clearly. Mankind is easily seduced and enslaved by the concept of authority. Millions adhere to dogma and fantical religiosities, rejecting the subtlety of the sublime. In a sense, humanity has forgotten its humaneness. Natural laws in the end usurp authority. It was written in the skies long ago, before men. I stand with my faith as the meteor rain moves through the shrouds of darkness. The spectacle lessens, and I hold my head in my hands pained by the fortissimo off these bewilderments.

I stand up and slowly walk back to the house, open the door and turn away, leaving the lost signatures to the immense night.

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End of the Line: The stars of wonder - Durango Telegraph

Tips to help achieve a healthier you in 2020

By Sandra Crews, Health Strategist, UnitedHealthcare of Colorado

Now is the time of year when we typically take inventory of our lives and set new goals. Relationships, finances, careers and health are all important aspects that impact our overall wellbeing. For this New Year, consider making your health a top priority.

According to the recentAmericas Health Rankings Annual Report, the nations obesity rate continues to rise, with one in three adults now experiencing obesity. Colorado has the lowest obesity rate in the nation at 22.9%. The alarming national statistic may have serious health consequences such as diabetes which now impacts approximately 30 million adults and is the No. 1 cause of kidney failure, lower-limb amputations, and adult blindness, according to theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention.

There are many factors that play a role in your health, but one that you can control is making a commitment to start living a healthier lifestyle. Sure, there will be some bumps during your wellbeing journey, but your goal can be achievable and you deserve to reap the benefits.

Consider some helpful tips for achieving a healthier you in 2020.

Stay active

Regular exercise may help you live longer and may reduce your risks for a host of diseases. Try to aim for at least 2.5 hours of moderate aerobic activity a week, but if thats too challenging then start off with 15 minutes here and 15 minutes there. Every little bit counts. To be successful, your fitness program should become a part of your daily life.

Also, check with your health plan and employer to see if they offer wellness incentives. For example, UnitedHealthcaresGym Check-Inprogram enables participating employers to provide employees and their spouses the opportunity to each earn hundreds of dollars a year for visiting a fitness facility 12 days or more per month.

Eat healthier

Sure, its easier said than done, but good nutrition is a vital part of a healthier lifestyle. Experts say the healthiest diets are rich in fruits and vegetables, because these foods are full of healthful nutrients and fiber. Here are three simple tips to eating healthier: Go for more fruits and veggies; choose less meat and fat; and keep an eye on the size of your food portions. Just saying no, to the buffet can do wonders.

Reduce your stress

If youre feeling stressed, its important to unwind and relax by doing something you enjoy. Maybe its watching a movie, reading a book, or volunteering to give you time to recharge. Also, make time to connect with others. Maybe thats friends, family, a faith group or a hobby club. Its important that you dont isolate yourself after a stressful event. Remember, if you cannot get a handle on your stress, talk to your doctor. She or he may recommend a counselor who could help you find other ways to help reduce or manage the unhealthy stress in your life.

Team up with your doctor

Take time today to make an appointment with your doctor for your annual wellness visit and be sure to ask about preventive services such as health screenings and vaccines. Check with your health plan as many preventive services have no additional cost, as long they are delivered by care providers in your plans network. Your doctor will help you create a treatment plan to help manage any chronic conditions, such as asthma, diabetes and high blood pressure.

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Prioritize your health in the New Year - North Forty News

Published 12:20pm EST, Thursday, January 9, 2020

When Jared Kushner said, anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism, he was completely accurate.

Anyone who read President Trumps executive order knows it clearly states that it does not diminish or infringe upon the rights protected under any other provision of law, that is, the right to free speech. It does, however, provide a means to address anti-Semitism disguised as anti-Zionism that is destroying free speech on college campuses, where Jewish students and other supporters of Israel have been shouted down, defamed, vilified and physically menaced.

Zionism is the Jewish national movement of self-determination in the land of Israel, where Jews have lived for millennia, even while under occupation by Romans, Muslim Arabs and later Turks. Love of Zion, the biblical term for both the land of Israel and Jerusalem, is embedded in Jewish prayer, ritual, literature and culture.

A Human Rights Watch report found a systematic practice by both the Palestinian Authority and Hamas of arbitrary arrest and torture, and there have been no serious efforts to hold wrongdoers to account or any apparent change in policy or practice of Palestinians against their own people who dare to dissent.

Albert Einstein was a Zionist. Another Nobel laureate in physics, Steven Weinberg, has twice refused an invitation from a UK university because of boycotts against Israel. According to professor Weinberg, ... given the history of the attacks on Israel and the oppressiveness and aggressiveness of other countries in the Middle East and elsewhere, boycotting Israel indicated a moral blindness for which it is hard to find any explanation other than anti-Semitism.

Anti-Zionism is the camouflage worn by 21st century anti-Semitism.

Julia Lutch

Davis, Calif.

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Letter: Anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism - New Haven Register

Like many Americans, I was shocked that our president ran what amounts to a transnational mafia in bed with Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs who benefit from Russian President Vladimir Putins war for totalitarian control of Ukraine against a free people who have struggled and suffered so much for their freedom.

We might be even more shocked if we had the transcript of Trumps call with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, president of Turkey and friend of Putin, which led to our betrayal of the Kurdish allies who did most of the hard ground fighting against ISIS for us. The ethnic cleansing of Kurds out of northern Syria is a crime against humanity and should have been included in the articles of impeachment.

But while we are focused on the vileness of Rudolph Guiliani and other mobsters, experts and pundits discussing these events completely ignore the massive, glaring questions of how to prevent such things from happening again. Even impeachment and conviction in the Senate, which will never happen, would not solve problems far bigger than Donald Trumps serious abuses of powers.

We need amendments to protect the professional civil service (especially in law enforcement and foreign affairs), to counter corruption in the federal government (e.g. by requiring tax-return disclosure), to clarify grounds for impeachment, and to limit pardon powers. It is staggering that even these problems so directly linked with current controversies never come up in mainstream coverage.

And this is only the beginning: We all really need to stop focusing solely on this impeachment, despite the cowardly way many Republicans are trying to defend Trump with conspiracy-spins drawn directly from Russian propaganda.

To solve the roots of this polarization that is making too many Americans on the political extremes prefer ideology to reality, we need constitutional change to end the dominance of two major parties with automatic runoffs, to rotate primaries between all states so Iowa and New Hampshire no longer go first every time, to prevent gerrymandering and dark money in our elections, to establish uniform national voting and count procedures, set Supreme Court terms and ban the filibuster in Congress. It is colossal collective folly that we focus only on the symptoms while ignoring the root problems that prevent fair elections and perpetuate endless gridlock in D.C.

Even before the Ukraine news broke, we were largely ignoring many other urgent issues that will have much profounder effects on our children and grandchildren. Climate change gets deserved attention, but there are several other dangers that, taken together, could harm human prospects even more than climate change, although they get virtually no attention in this country.

The regime in China, which now holds more than a million of its people in concentration camps in a genocidal effort to erase an entire minority culture, is creating a nightmare of totalitarian control a hundred times worse than anything Orwell ever imagined. At home, its facial-recognition cameras are everywhere and all its people will be increasingly monitored via data collection.

China also is pressuring many other countries in Asia and Africa to obey its commands, and the strong-arm tactics we have seen used against the NBA and Asian journalists are only the tip of the iceberg. It will not help our grandchildren much to be saved from climate change only to live as slaves under a global tyranny run from Beijing and Moscow.

Yet, almost no Americans understand that we are going to wake up in a couple years to discover that China has invaded Taiwan and that NATO will not do anything to stop it because we want the money from trade.

Similarly, because of the gridlock in D.C. caused by constitutional flaws, you may wake up one day a decade from now to discover that the American government is defaulting on a federal debt that maybe exceeds $50 trillion ($50,000 billion) in 15 years or less, sending the world into a new Great Depression which finally cements Chinas dominance in the aftermath.

That is, if loose nukes getting to terrorists or pandemic diseases originating in the worlds poorest nations or cybercrime viruses running rampant do not take us into economic armageddon first. Remember this as Democrats and Republicans promote the new brand of moronic isolationism rather than seeking new arrangements to share essential tasks effectively among our allies.

This staggering collective blindness is a result of the deepest flaw of all in our social system: In the 20th century, as television and radio appeared, we were content to allow mass media to be delivered on a for-profit basis. For a long time, editors and producers felt responsible to cover stories that people needed to hear because of their objective importance, whether they grabbed high ratings or not.

Today, that ethic is so completely gone that CNN, which I have watched since it was founded, covers almost no global news at all. In fact, for more than four years, it has covered almost nothing but American federal politics.

Fox also has focused almost solely on American federal politics, with a few other cherry-picked stories to appeal to its base like an occasional immigrant committing some crime or some stupid campus activists trying to no-platform a right-wing speaker. Their international coverage is limited to things that might seem to boost Trump, such as a happy Turkish general proclaiming the safe zone in northern Syria that is, a zone made safe from Kurds in the same way that the Trail of Tears made eastern states safe from the Cherokee. This propaganda machine heavily influences the nation now.

More broadly, internet medias focus entirely and solely on what is trending or popular with its group of viewers, which will include few events beyond our shores. Most Americans never see a major newspaper with fact-checked journalism; they finish high school without learning about current world affairs or even the basics of American civics, such as key numbers for parts of the federal budget or the history of main tax rates, the federal deficit, projections for Medicare, etc. let alone elementary critical thinking that would enable them to distinguish reliable sources from total crap.

Combined, these problems mean the death of democracy through completely manipulable voters. Both could be fixed by fairly simple constitutional reforms to improve our mass medias and education requirements.

The stupidity resulting from only-trendy media is so colossal today that even domestic issues that are massively in our face everywhere get only the most superficial analysis. Federal anti-monopoly laws have not been seriously updated in almost 100 years, and yet we wonder how Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Facebook can own more and more parts of supply chains, buy up all competitors and abuse power in service of profit.

When a small handful of corporations own most of the systems on which our lives totally depend, sell all our private information to insurance companies and marketers, and crush any dissenting opinion with their ability to manipulate what people view, it will be much harder to unwind this plutocracy. Yet it never even occurs to us to discuss the smallest countermeasures, like EU-style laws protecting data privacy.

Of course, this will not matter much if Google has unleashed a smart Artificial Intelligence system that does more damage than climate change. Or if genetic engineering to enhance human capacities has become so common among the richest 5 percent across the world that they have become a new species poised to control the rest more decisively than was possible in the past.

Our chance to control these threats with smart laws and global partnerships will be distant memories by then. But you did not know about this danger because not enough celebrities have tweeted about it!

We all need to refocus on the fundamental structural flaws that are disabling our political system from making effective laws and preventing too many Americans from learning the most basic things they need to be responsible citizens. We cannot fix the substantive problems without working political tools, and our tools are so broken that we neither diagnose most of the problems nor fix them.

What would we think of a mechanic who is so outraged by an expensive broken car headlight that he does not notice that the steering column is broken and that the tools he is taking to the headlight are rusted through? First things first: fix the political system and fix the education of citizens by fixing the Constitution.

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COMMENTARY: Obsessed with Trump, our blindness to urgent issues grows - New Jersey Hills

Law360 (January 2, 2020, 6:03 PM EST) -- Two New Jersey-based doctors accused of causing a New Yorkers blindness with a botched procedure have escaped the suit after an Empire State appeals court ruled Thursday that the patient failed to prove the doctors principal business operations were in New York.

A four-judge Appellate Division panel for the First Department unanimously reversed a trial judges ruling that Drs. Henry K. Tsai and Brian H. Chon must face a suit accusing the physicians and others of providing negligent proton radiation therapy to Barbara Robins, which caused her to go blind in both eyes. Robins was undergoing treatment for a noncancerous brain...

In the legal profession, information is the key to success. You have to know whats happening with clients, competitors, practice areas, and industries. Law360 provides the intelligence you need to remain an expert and beat the competition.

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NJ Docs Beat Suit Over NY Patients Blindness - Law360

By ANGELA OKETCHMore by this Author

Ladies, when you walk into that cosmetic store, do you request a new brush to test the make-up, or a new spreader for your lipstick or do you use what has already been used?

And do you share the same brush for your make-up or the same lipstick or lip gloss with your friends? How often do you clean the brushes you use? Do you check your product expiry date?

According to researchers, sharing of the products, not cleaning and using expired products, is dangerous and can cause either herpes or blindness.

According to findings published in the Journal of Applied Microbiology, the vast majority of in-use make-up products such as mascara, lip gloss, lipsticks and sponges are contaminated with potentially life-threatening superbugs because most of them are not cleaned and are used far beyond their expiry dates.

The new research, led by Dr Amreen Bashir and Prof Peter Lambert of Aston Universitys School of Life and Health Sciences, has shown that nine out of 10 in-use beauty products contain superbugs including E.coli and Staphylococci.

European Union guidance holds make-up brands to strict hygiene standards and states that E.coli, in particular, should not be found in any concentration in new cosmetic products. However, there is currently limited consumer protection around the risks of contaminating products while in use.

The study tested 467 make-up products, donated by people in the UK, for bacterial and fungal contamination and found that 90 per cent contained potentially deadly germs.

The make-up products examined (lipstick, lip gloss, eye liners, mascaras and beauty blenders) had between 100 and 1,000 individual bacteria, except for beauty blenders, which had an average of a million bacteria. As few as 100 cells of some bacteria can cause infection.

The products, when shared, could pose a significant health threat if used by a non-infected person.

According to Prof Lambert, both E.coli and Staphylococci were found in used eye-liner and mascara.

These bacteria can cause irritation and conjunctivitis (pink eye). Although the symptoms of conjunctivitis tend to be mildly itchy, watery eyes in extreme cases can lead to sight loss, he says.

And the germs causing conjunctivitis can spread to other parts of the body, which can trigger a more serious secondary infection.

The sponges used to apply skin foundation products were found to have the highest levels of potentially harmful bacteria, with the vast majority (93 per cent) not having ever been cleaned, despite more than two-thirds (64 per cent) being dropped on the floor at some point during use.

The researchers found these products (sponges) are particularly susceptible to contamination as they are often left damp after use, which creates an ideal breeding ground for harmful bacteria.

When the Sunday Nation sought the views of Kenyan women with regard to sharing, applying products in cosmetic stores and cleaning the sponges after use, most of them admitted that they always share and that some of the products take years before they are washed.

Could this be the reason I am struggling with acne that never goes away. I have never washed my sponge since I bought it last year.

I have been sharing make-up with my sister using the same sponge and lipsticks too. Both of us now have acne, says Tabitha Mulama.

For one Sylvia Atieno, whenever she wants to go out on a date and she is in town, she goes to any cosmetic shop for a makeover.

Unfortunately, they use brushes and lipsticks that they use on all customers. I have never thought that this could have an impact. From today I know, I better use my own products, she told the Sunday Nation team.

In a survey of cosmetic shops in the central business district, the Sunday Nation team noticed testers of lipsticks, powders, however, when one has to test the products they either buy their sponges to apply the powder or use what is provided, which has already been used by others.

There is no new spreader for the lipsticks. One uses an opened one without minding who might have used it before you.

The lipsticks and lip gloss in the sample study contained Staphylococci and various bacteria associated with faecal matter.

The bacteria could cause redness, swelling and inflammation of the lips, which can be treated with antibiotics or antibacterial creams.

If the germs spread to the blood or deeper tissues of the body, the infection can become life-threatening, he says.

Make-up brushes also have the potential to act as suitable homes for bacteria.

Often the brushes are dampened to help the application of eye shadows or foundation.

However, this environment has the potential to promote rapid bacterial growth.

The study revealed most beauty products come with preservatives to stop bacteria from growing, but they have a finite shelf life.

All cosmetics have expiry dates, which are calculated based on the length of time the preservatives in the product are able to control contamination.

However, the study shows people are using products beyond the expiry dates and allowing microbes to build up.

To avoid contamination, make sure you discard make-up that has passed the expiry period, dont apply make-up if you have an infection or broken skin, never share cosmetics with friends, and definitely avoid using make-up samples in stores, says Dr Bashir.

Recently, a Californian woman sued Sephora, a cosmetics company, claiming she contracted herpes from using one of the cosmetic stores lipstick samples.

Dr Bashir advised that to avoid germs from cosmetics, the sponges should be cleaned often with warm soapy water.

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Experts warn sharing of makeup products can lead to blindness - Daily Nation

Soldier Steve Baskis was driving an armored vehicle in Baghdad in 2008 when he was gravely injured.

Shrapnel from an explosion cut through his optic nerves, blinding him. But since the accident, Baskis, now of Montrose, has climbed some of the world's tallest mountains, kayaked the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, skydived and more.

"I was interested in becoming a special operation soldier. An unconventional soldier," he said. "And I think that's driven some of the things that I've pursued as a blind individual."

This month, Baskis plans to climb the tallest mountain in the Southern Hemisphere, Aconcagua in the Argentine Andes. It will be the 25th mountain he's climbed since losing his sight. He also runs a non-profit called Blind Endeavors to help other injured veterans stay active.

"I think you can reestablish, maybe, a new normal by exploring what's possible with the body that you have," he said.

Baskis talked to Colorado Matters about his athleticism, his foundation and other challenges veterans with disabilities face and learn from.

On mountain and rock climbing while blind:

"Usually I have a primary guy that leads in front of me. They could be just making noise with their footsteps, tapping things with trekking poles. I am hiking with trekking poles and feeling out the trail as I move, and they're telescopic. I'll ditch them if it gets real steep and scramble on my hands and knees.

Climbing is very tactile, and then occasionally I have a guide or someone behind me that'll just say, 'Steve, stay right. Hold that form.' Because he or she can see from behind."

On how traumatic events and disabilities can challenge people:

"When people go through a traumatic change, you then test yourself in different environments. It gives the person the ability to forge strength, mental fortitude strength, physical strength, resilience, courage, determination. And that all plays a huge role in your daily life, whether you're doing extreme things or mundane things.

I still am (paralyzed by fear) at times. It's interesting, staring into a dark world that's very still, stagnant. I think a lot of people that are blind don't move enough. And it might be because of blindness, it might be because of a lot of reasons, but I definitely have tried to rebel and fight against that feeling of being afraid to step out."

On how being blind and a veteran have taught him resilience:

"I think blindness has taught me that, to be okay with failure, or whatever people interpret as quitting, failure, or frustrations. There's a lot of failures in my life. I talk a lot about the positive. Everybody hears the positive, but absolutely, there's been struggles. I think the thing to remember is I look past that and I find a way to drive forward. And soldiers are taught that or experience that."

On the concept of "inspiration porn":

"That's an interesting term. There's so many phrases nowadays. If you're struggling in a place, and somehow you latch onto this idea of inspiration or motivation, it can be so beneficial for you. We're so influenced by the good and the bad in the world, and I'm still thinking about it to this day. How do people interpret and feel those things? And it's just dynamic, I think. It's a moment thing for everybody.

I try to lead by example, and I've never really tried to be inspiring. I've always wanted to live life and do great things, but I don't look at myself that way. A lot of these things are very challenging, and there are many struggles within climbing a mountain blind, or kayaking. A lot of bad days, a lot of negative feelings.

I think people focus on interesting things, like the feat, a physical feat, but it is important to remember that I am very proud of internal things that have allowed me to cope with the issue of being blind. And so, inspiration is something that is interpreted or felt by others, and I have no control over that."

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This Blind Veteran Not Only Climbs Mountains And Skydives, But Helps Other Injured Vets Accomplish Their Own Athletic Feats - Colorado Public Radio

Few people think much about web accessibility. Even fewer people understand it, and without understanding there wont be empathy or change. However, a string of high-profile class action lawsuits in 2019, like the one against Beyonces management company, brought the issue to light and I expect well see a lot more companies prioritizing web accessibility in 2020.

At the same time, the US and many European countries are more rigorously enforcing their by-laws applying to free content accessibility. Companies will no longer be able to afford to ignore this issue.

Its no surprise that visually impaired people are demanding better access. Populated with Instagram stories and online stores that display 360-degree, high-definition product images and video, the web has become a visual public space. That puts many people at an unnecessary disadvantage.

Its not only lawsuits driving demand for greater visual access, but the growing problem of poor vision. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around 1.3 billion people have some visual impairment, such as low vision, color blindness, and (partial)blindness. Thats nearly 20 percent of the global population including your website visitors who struggle with accessibility.

Ill be the first to accept that the US is more lawsuit-happy than most. Maybe you live in another country, with a different legal culture and dont think you need to worry about accessibility. Thats the wrong mindset.

As a frontend developer, I do care about web accessibility; its my responsibility. I dont want visitors just to have access. I want them to have the best possible experience. Lets take a closer look now at some of the different types of visual impairments people have and how to address them on a site.

Light sensitivity is a very common issue, especially for people who sit in front of computer screens all day. Light-sensitive people can find it hard, painful, or even impossible to read and concentrate under bright lights, on bright screens, or on web pages where bright colors are combined.

This is why most developers like me switch to dark themes in their dev tools, IDE, or their OS (if it has one). Its also why popular apps like Twitter, Google, Facebook Messenger, and recently iOS, provide Dark Mode.

One difficulty is that theres no one standard for light sensitivity. It varies by person and setting, so its impossible to devise one configuration set that works for all light-sensitive people.

Offer Dark Mode or a Light Theme for your users and allow them to set the brightness, essentially letting them decide for themselves.

There are several approaches to achieve this, depending on your technology stack and browser support. A straightforward way is to combine a CSS variable and the CSS invert method: filter: invert().

By defining invert(1), the browser inverts all colors available in your apps to the exact opposite matching colors.

This filter effect also applies to all images within the app. You might want to add some code to make sure colors are reserved even in inverted mode (dark or light).

Warning: filter is still not supported in IE. If IE support is critical for your app, consider using other approach such as CSS-in-JS (styled components for Vue or for React).

Contrast sensitivity occurs where people struggle to read text that is placed over images and videos. This happens when white text is placed on a light background, black text is placed on a dark background, or text is placed on a visually busy background.

Unlike light sensitivity, contrast sensitivity issues are easy to identify. Popular browsers including Chrome and Firefox now include a contrast score check in their dev tools, which flag any page sections that arent visible enough. You shouldnt rely solely on these tools, however, because the automatic scores are not always 100 percent accurate.

To address contrast sensitivity fully, refer to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). It states that text, or images of text, must have a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1. Exceptions are large text (where its 3:1), invisible, and decorative text and logotypes, where the text is part of a brand name.

To summarize some of the main points:

To ensure your website passes the contrast test, check out this free Contrast Checker tool by WebAIM.

Color blindness (or color vision deficiency) makes it difficult (or impossible) for affected people to identify or distinguish between specific colors.

Imagine a colorblind person visits an online store to buy a red t-shirt and sees only green ones. How would this visitor know which ones to buy?

In some cases it will be impossible to adapt an image to appear correctly for someone with color vision deficiency. For these, the options are to either provide chat/live support or text prompts (or, ideally, both).

To provide text prompts, we add the name of the color as text to images using the alt attribute. So instead of saying that an image is a t-shirt, we would explicitly state that it is a red t-shirt. The more specific, the better. Yellow is somewhat helpful, but mustard yellow is much more descriptive.

This will involve some light coding, or you can use one of the image management tools on the market that help automate this process.

Another option is to provide a unique pattern to represent each different color on your webpage. The standard approaches are not straightforward either designers need to manually code something or use image editing software like Photoshop or Gimp to create an extra resource for each colorblind case.

The free version of my companys own software includes a transformation e_assist_colorblind effect to make this process easier. For example, you can add stripes to highlight the difference between hot (red) and cold (green) colors.

Hopefully this has given you some ideas for how to address the most common issues around visual accessibility. By focusing on this important issue, youll not just avoid litigation, but youll attract more site visitors, raise engagement, and potentially boost revenue as well.

Published January 3, 2020 08:00 UTC

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Visual accessibility will be a priority in 2020 heres how to adapt your site - The Next Web

(Photo : cdn.britannica.com)Improving the way to accessing technology is important for PWD and non-PWDS too. Creating interfaces that are customizable and adaptive for any kind of use will be a shock as to how well it adapts.

Everyone is surrounded by technology andaccessing technologyis important just like breathing. The speed of how much it developed is blinding, with several options for how to access it. This translates to convenience and assistive technology, enables those with disabilities still need help to use the internet.So, making access possible through more assistive technology should be done. If only to encourage more use, whether able or disabled.

In response to the needed of those, with a limitation for ready access to technology like the visual, hearing, and physical incapacity too. This list of adaptive access has made the internet more accessible than ever. There is one gap to breached, which is different cognitive functions that should be developed later on. In 2020, hopes are high to bridge this gap sooner than expected.

Blindness is not a hindrance for access if the interface is based onsound access that the blind personcan hear. It is a difference for those who do not have hearing, which makes it hard to translate sound instead. These problems of deafness and blindness should be studied and improve information access for these people.

It should not be neglected that even normal people are subject to having a hard time, interacting with interfaces for real too. Things were simple before just a dial or a button, that is it. Now complex digital is the in thing, some are plainly just as disabled from this. Not all are tech-savvy, and the majority would simply go for less complex. Technology is good, but if it alienates the users, there is something wrong.

Solving this conundrum can be done in two ways, and one is coming soon with another in development. Some technologies will benefit PWDS but are good only because the PWD needs the tech. But, anyone who can access the tech fine will find it hard to use it. It is a give and go for tech customized for PWDS and non-PWDS.

One of these assistive techs isMorphicthat is an OS extension that customizes a computer, to the specs of the unique user. For example, it fixes the appearance of the desktop to help the PWD or non-PWD navigate the screen. This is very convenient for everyone and makes thing automatic for the user too. Everything is so intuitive that it even falls back to the default on its own. Technology like this is very easy to use and simplifies access without complex actions,

For the long-term improvement for internet access, that would mean aa lot of innovation from tech companies producing smart devices. Instead of making their own versions (tech companies), it is better to have standard interface for normal users. Then, third parties will build the application from ground up to let PWDS use computers too.

One example of these user-adaptive apps that can be made to create customized interfaces for both. This is shocking to everyone as computers have the benefit of easier use. Not all tech producers will give away their tech so freely, which is another problem. So, this is a problem that needs solutions to make it feasible.

Getting the simplest way toaccessing technologyis a must, and expanding access will make great strides for any use. Nothing ever stays the same and more ways to access a computer, should be shocking for everyone concerned.

Related Article: The next decade will reshape how we think of technology accessibility

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Accessing Technology Is About to Change and It Will Be Shocking for Everyone - Science Times

Our politics, and the news cycle, dwell too much on crises and criticism.

Lets use New Years Eve as a moment to balance that, as we reflect on some good things that happened in 2019.

The largest hydroelectric project in the entire continent of Africa, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, will continue to completion.

In November, the U.S. invited representatives of Ethiopia and the two downstream users of water from the Blue Nile, Sudan and Egypt, to Washington, to reach an agreement on how quickly the reservoir behind the dam would be filled and how the electricity produced by the dam would be shared.

A deadline for an agreement was set for Jan. 15, with arbitration agreed to for any remaining differences. Diplomatic tensions had undermined progress since 2011, with some Egyptian politicians even threatening to bomb the dam during construction.

The resolution of this dispute will allow for the electrification of huge parts of Ethiopia, Sudan and even Egypt, that lagged behind the economic development of the rest of the region. This progress was made possible by U.S. diplomatic pressure on Egypt and new leadership in both Ethiopia and Sudan.

Life expectancy in the world continues to improve, adding another three months in 2019. This small, if steady progress, continues an astounding record of improvement since 1950, when average world life expectancy was 45 years. Today, it is 73 years.

The percentage of children surviving past their first year improved during 2019, exceeding 97%, worldwide, for the first time in human history.

The Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota announced that Type 3 polio was eradicated from the world in October 2019. Type 2 was eradicated in 2015. Only one type of wild polio virus still remains in the world, in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Along with the U.S. and other donor nations, researchers, and dedicated public health workers of many countries, the long-standing generosity and energetic devotion of Rotary International should be recognized in this tremendous achievement.

Another service organization, the Lions, deserve thanks for their persistence in the fight against blindness around the world. An international pharmaceutical company, Merck & Co., donates the medicine to treat river-blindness, an affliction that is one of the two largest causes of preventable loss of sight.

The Carter Center, founded by former President Jimmy Carter, has coordinated the delivery of these medications throughout Latin America and Africa. River-blindness is now effectively gone from Latin America. In August, world health authorities predicted Uganda would be free of this scourge imminently.

The magazine Business Insider recently reported on major achievements in space exploration during 2019.

Among the most remarkable this year are the first photograph of a black hole, the launching of a commercial spaceship to carry human passengers (SpaceX), the discovery of seismic activity on Mars, the departure of Voyager 2 from our solar system bound for inter-stellar space with much more sophisticated equipment than its predecessor Voyager 1 and the first landing on the far side of the moon. The latter event was achieved by China.

Focusing on the U.S., Americans returned to the workforce in a flood not observed since June 2013. Labor force participation is a key indicator of both future economic growth and of optimism about that growth.

As more Americans believe job opportunities will be permanent, they have started looking for jobs again, and, in great measure, finding them.

Real average earnings grew throughout 2019 in the U.S. economy. On both an hourly and a weekly basis, wages outpaced the cost of living, resulting in a growth in workers take-home pay every month this year. (That had not happened since 2016.)

The value of output per American worker rose in every quarter of last year, continuing an unbroken trend of growth since the third quarter of 2016.

It has been a wonderful year!

Tom Campbell teaches economics, law and political science at Chapman University. He is the interim chairman of a new political party, the Common Sense Party, which he is helping to form in California.

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Celebrating the good things that happened in 2019: Tom Campbell - The Whittier Daily News

Ice blocks, bound by rope and hanging from wooden beams, drip into ceramic bowls. With underwater microphones placed in the bowls, the trickling sound of the water dripping is amplified. It is a musicality of drops that you hear as you walk into the dimly lit, cool space at Sharjah Art Foundations Bait Obaid Al Shamsi. The notes resonate, full and expansive, in the restored creekside Emirati house complex; so much so that most of those who attended the opening of the second Sharjapan exhibition, Inter-Resonance: Inter-Organics Japanese Performance and Sound Art, last month, closed their eyes to be fully enveloped by the watery timbre.

The installation, In Curved Water, is one part of the show, organised by Sharjah Art Foundation, which runs until Saturday, February 15.

The exhibition focuses on bringing traditional Japanese practices and technology to the emirate. The water bowls installation is one of many in the historic Bait Al Shamsi venue, which also includes automated xylophones, magnet-driven bells, musical compasses and floor-strewn lightbulbs. Stand at the centre of the exhibition and youll hear the faint chimes, droplets and sizzles at random from each direction. Japanese artist Tomoko Sauvage spent 10 years developing her electro-aquatic instrument. Porcelain bowls, water drops, bubbles and hydrophonic feedback are its main components. Sauvage decided to develop the water bowls after attending an Anayampatti Ganesan concert in 2006. The musical virtuoso plays the Jalatharangam, the traditional Carnatic instrument made up of water-filled porcelain bowls.

Ive been experimenting with musical sounds since for ever, Sauvage, who has been based in France for the past 16 years, tells The National. I started working on the water bowls after seeing Ganesan perform. I went home and started hitting china bowls with chopsticks in my kitchen. The water bowls started taking form after I had the idea of using hydrophones.

Sauvages In Curved Water is a direct statement on the environment. The ice blocks are meant to allude to the glaciers melting as a result of climate change. Sauvage says that most people employ an out-of-sight, out-of-mind stance when it comes to environmental issues.

My musical experimentation is grounded in live-performance-based practices that investigate the improvisation and interaction with the environment, she says, adding that she hopes the installation will bridge the distance between the melting glaciers and the listener, making them feel as if they are bearing witness, in real time, to climate change. In this context, the meditative watery music becomes heavy with an ominously pressing message.

Though the water drops in Sauvages installation are randomly timed, the artist uses the electro-aquatic instrument in deliberately arranged live performances. Her 2007 album Musique Hydromantique exclusively features the instrument, and though it is comprised of only three tracks, it runs for more than 40 minutes.

Sharjapan is part of a four-year agreement between the Sharjah Art Foundation and curator Yuko Hasegawa. Last years exhibition, The Poetics of Space, focused on Japanese book design from the early 20th century to present day. This year, the focus is on performance art, sound-based installations and new technologies and traditional Japanese practices that explore the interactions between nature, technology and human life.

The exhibition comprises installations at Bait Obaid Al Shamsi and five performances that take place in venues across Sharjah. These feature a variety of art forms, including dance, music and literature. In addition to Sauvage, the participating artists are Eitetsu Hayashi, Yuko Mohri, Mirai Moriyama, Keiichiro Shibuya and Min Tanaka.

We wanted to bring a varied set of Japanese performances to this years exhibition, not just the well-known Kabuki theatre, says Hasegawa, who is also artistic director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo. There are Sauvages water bowls, which allow people to visualise the looming threat of climate change; Eitetsu Hayashi, who will perform traditional Japanese taiko drumming in his pioneering style; and Min Tanaka, who will present an improvised dance piece that challenges the conventions of modern dance and questions the role of dance in contemporary society.

The dance pieces are inspired by the Japanese art of Butoh. Established after the Second World War, Butoh rebels directly against western styles of dance, with most of the moves carried out on the ground. It has an aggressive style to it, says Hasegawa. The movements are slow and unlike the western techniques of dance. The avant-garde dance aims to rebel against western influence.

The opening performance at this years Sharjapan was a movement piece by Moriyama. The Japanese actor, who began his dance training at five years old, brought a theatrical reading of Jose Saramagos Blindness to the Sharjah Institute of Theatrical Arts. The performance was called Consideration of the Invisible / Visible.

Directed to wear an earphone in one ear, members of the audience were seated on the stage, some two metres from Moriyama. The actor began his performance centre stage, reading the opening passage of the Nobel prize-winner Saramagos novel from an iPad. The story revolves around an unexplained mass epidemic of blindness afflicting nearly everyone in an unnamed city, and the chaos that follows.

With flickering lights, fragmented texts and movements, Moriyama invited audiences to take part in the plot. The performance seems to allude to modern social issues such as depression and loneliness. Uncomfortable at times and serene at others, Moriyamas performance was deeply contemplative. Though this performance has now elapsed, the schedule of events promises to be equally as exciting.

Sharjapan: Inter-Resonance: Inter-Organics Japanese Performance and Sound Art runs until Saturday, February 15. Shows take place in various locations across Sharjah

Updated: January 4, 2020 05:16 PM

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Sharjapan: bringing new technologies and Japanese practices to the Sharjah art scene - The National

JOCELYN MURPHY

jmurphy@nwadg.com

It was a big year for Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. For a museum thats only 8 years old, every year might conceivably be a big year. But in spite of its youth, the Bentonville museum has already established itself as a trailblazer and continues to achieve impressive new heights with each passing trip around the sun.

In 2019, Northwest Arkansas behemoth arts presenter organized, mounted and traveled a momentous exhibition (Men of Steel, Women of Wonder); activated outdoor spaces in new ways with an internally curated sculpture exhibition and an innovative light and sound installation; explored its namesake in a first-of-its-kind exhibition (Crystals in Art: Ancient to Today); acquired dynamic new works; and is on track to have a record-breaking attendance year.

Its a lot happening, Executive Director & Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer Rod Bigelow says with a chuckle and a touch of astonishment.

When we landed on the scene, we were labeled a disrupter, he goes on, noting the label was bestowed with both positive and negative implications. I think thats part of our DNA and our culture is that we want to continue to disrupt these discussions and have a bit of a different perspective in the field.

Early on in our life, there was a lot of criticism about who would come to see art in Arkansas, and a lot of discrediting the quality of the experience or where it was. Its good to look back on that now, he muses.

Access

This year, Crystal Bridges honed in on two points of its mission: welcoming all, and presenting a more inclusive narrative of the American experience.

Bilingual presentations in exhibitions were expanded and will continue to increase moving forward. More multi-sensory experiences for visitors with blindness or low vision were widened through a touchable art program. A new cart guide program offers guests a more hands-on way to interact with the work than the traditional walk-through museum experience. And this summer, during the museums outdoor sculpture exhibition focusing on color, Crystal Bridges was gifted 60 pairs of special color-enhancing glasses that were made available for checkout to guests who are colorblind.

The museums commitment to meeting visitors where theyre at so that everyone can experience the art in their own way has translated to almost 5 million visitors since its opening. Before the holidays, Crystal Bridges had already seen an estimated 662,000 visitors this year, surpassing the previous annual attendance record by nearly 30,000.

Outdoors

Outside the museums walls, the grounds at Crystal Bridges were host to myriad experiences the museum had never engaged in before.

We did some creative things this year, including the first campout in the forest, which was fun and exciting, especially for people who dont ever camp, Bigelow shares. And then we did a big Chalk Festival where we had 23 artists come and create a multi-day experience in our parking garage. If you havent seen chalk art being created moment-by-moment, its a fascinating experience. And although it was hot, it was terrific.

The North Forest was also host to two other exciting moments for Crystal Bridges. This summers Color Field was the museums first internally curated outdoor sculpture exhibition and was displayed in conversation with the temporary exhibition at the time, Natures Nation.

In the fall, Crystal Bridges new partnership with Montreal-based multimedia and entertainment studio Moment Factory resulted in the immersive, experiential installation North Forest Lights.

That is a very different kind of experience for us, and that was our intention, Bigelow says of the group of five artistic light and sound installations that are open at night through Feb. 16. What I love about being out in the forest is that every experience is different. And I think thats a poignant impact that weve created in that space and that will continue.

Acquisitions

One of the things that was really important for us this year was our continued growth in our collection, and acquiring objects that are more representative of America, reflects Bigelow.

In focusing on creating a more inclusive view of the American experience, Bigelow reveals curators were very intentional about acquiring works by women artists and artists of color. Two of the new works that have incited significant enthusiasm from viewers are Yayoi Kusamas Infinity Mirrored Room and Kehinde Wileys Portrait of Florentine Nobleman, both on display in the Contemporary Art Gallery.

These and other acquisitions for the Contemporary Gallery instigated the opportunity to re-imagine a portion of the space. Prior to the redesign, the gallerys flow was more chronological. Now, the experience in the immersive Infinity Room abstraction, repetition informs what guests will see in the rest of the gallery space. The section following Kusamas piece is full of newly acquired works by artists concentrating on figuration influenced by abstraction, assistant curator Alejo Benedetti revealed to Whats Up! earlier this year.

Among these contemporary artists of color and female artists pushing boundaries of representation are:

Jordan Casteel, Ourlando; Loie Hollowell, Mothers Milk (featured in 2018 exhibition The Beyond: Georgia OKeeffe and Contemporary Art); Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Dave Forsythe; Emma Amos, The Reader (featured in 2018s Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power).

Crystal Bridges also acquired 23 works by Los Angeles-based collector Gordon Bailey this year.

Added to the Early American Art Gallery, pioneering African American artist Henry Ossawa Tanners The Good Shepherd is another important 2019 addition.

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Crystal Bridges ups the wow factor in 2019 - The Free Weekly

CARLSBAD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Lineage Cell Therapeutics, Inc. (NYSE American and TASE: LCTX), a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing novel cellular therapies for unmet medical needs, today announced additional patient data from its ongoing Phase I/IIa clinical study of OpRegen, the Companys retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) transplant therapy, for the treatment of dry age-related macular degeneration (dry AMD), a leading cause of adult blindness in the developed world with no FDA-approved treatment options.

The first Cohort 4 patient treated using both a new subretinal delivery system and the Companys new thaw-and-inject (TAI) formulation of OpRegen has continued to demonstrate notable improvements in vision, having gained 25 readable letters (or 5 lines) 6 months following administration of OpRegen RPE cells, as assessed by the Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Scale (ETDRS). This represents an improvement in visual acuity from a baseline of 20/250 to 20/100 in the treated eye. A second Cohort 4 patient has been similarly dosed, and though early, the patient has shown a small improvement in visual acuity in the treated eye at just 14 days following treatment. To date, improvements have become most evident approximately three to six months after treatment. Both patients had rapid healing at the surgical site with no unexpected complications or any serious adverse events.

We are increasingly optimistic about the data we are collecting in dry AMD, stated Brian M. Culley, CEO of Lineage. We have treated five patients in Cohort 4, those with less advanced disease, which more closely match our intended patient population. At the longest-available assessment point for each patient, all five have shown an increase in the number of letters they can read on an ETDRS eye chart. Importantly, these gains have been maintained for as long as 15 months, which is the longest time point for which we have collected data in the better vision cohort. Notably, the first two patients dosed with the new sub-retinal delivery system by Gyroscope Therapeutics and our innovative TAI formulation of OpRegen had no unexpected complications, so we intend to request the removal of the enrollment treatment stagger from the protocol, which should permit us to significantly accelerate our rate of enrollment. Our objective is to combine the best cells, the best production process and the best delivery system, which we believe will position us as the front-runner in the race to address the unmet opportunity in the potential billion-dollar dry AMD market.

We expect 2020 will be a year of major milestones for Lineage. Based on our existing cash and the current value of our marketable securities, we believe we will be able to achieve these milestones under our reduced 2020 spending plan, continued Mr. Culley.

Having dosed a patient with the combination of Gyroscopes recently 510(k)-cleared Orbit Subretinal Delivery System alongside Lineages new thaw-and-inject formulation of OpRegen RPE cells, I found the procedure to be relatively straightforward, leading to the successful delivery of RPE cells to the subretinal space, stated Judy Ju-Yi Chen, M.D., a retinal surgeon at West Coast Retina, San Francisco, CA. I am hopeful that additional procedures will show that this combination provides superior dose control, safety, and efficacy compared to conventional procedures.

The ETDRS eye chart consists of a set of letters of diminishing size on each line. The more letters a patient can read, the better their vision. The Company also is collecting data on rate of geographic atrophy (GA) growth, best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), low-light visual acuity, reading speed, quality of life questionnaires, microperimetry, and assessing structural changes using optical coherence tomography (OCT), fundus autofluorescence (FAF), and color fundus photography.

About the Phase I/IIa Clinical Study

This is a Phase I/IIa open-label, dose escalation safety and efficacy study of a single injection of human retinal pigment epithelium cells derived from an established pluripotent cell line and transplanted subretinally in patients with advanced dry AMD with geographic atrophy. The study will enroll approximately 24 patients, divided into 4 cohorts. The first 3 cohorts consisted solely of legally blind patients, with best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) of 20/200 or worse. The fourth cohort will include approximately 12 patients with vision ranging from 20/250 to as high as 20/64. Cohort 4 also includes patients treated with one of two formulations of OpRegen; the first 3 patients were treated with a formulation which required plating and preparation of cells one day prior to use. The remaining patients on Cohort 4 will be treated with an off-the-shelf or thaw-and-inject formulation of OpRegen which can be shipped directly to sites and used immediately upon thawing, which removes the complications and logistics of having to use a dose preparation facility. Staggered intervals within and between cohorts are applied to ensure patient safety and welfare. The primary objective of the Phase I/IIa study is to evaluate the safety and tolerability of OpRegen as assessed by the incidence and frequency of treatment emergent adverse events. Secondary objectives are to evaluate the preliminary efficacy of OpRegen treatment by assessing the changes in ophthalmological parameters measured by various methods of primary clinical relevance. Additionally, for the patients in Cohort 4 that receive subretinal delivery of OpRegen utilizing Gyroscope Therapeutics Orbit Subretinal Delivery System (Orbit SDS), objectives will include the evaluation of the safety of delivery of OpRegen using the Orbit SDS.

About OpRegen

OpRegen is a retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) transplant therapy in Phase I/IIa development for the treatment of dry AMD, a leading cause of adult blindness in the developed world. OpRegen consists of a suspension of RPE cells delivered subretinally as an intraocular injection. RPE cells are essential components of the back lining of the retina and function to help nourish the retina including photoreceptors. OpRegen has been granted Fast Track designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. OpRegen is a registered trademark of Cell Cure Neurosciences Ltd., a majority-owned subsidiary of Lineage Cell Therapeutics, Inc.

About Lineage Cell Therapeutics, Inc.

Lineage Cell Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing novel cell therapies for unmet medical needs. Lineages programs are based on its proprietary cell-based therapy platform and associated development and manufacturing capabilities. With this platform Lineage develops and manufactures specialized, terminally-differentiated human cells from its pluripotent and progenitor cell starting materials. These differentiated cells are developed either to replace or support cells that are dysfunctional or absent due to degenerative disease or traumatic injury or administered as a means of helping the body mount an effective immune response to cancer. Lineages clinical assets include (i) OpRegen, a retinal pigment epithelium transplant therapy in Phase I/IIa development for the treatment of dry age-related macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness in the developed world; (ii) OPC1, an oligodendrocyte progenitor cell therapy in Phase I/IIa development for the treatment of acute spinal cord injuries; and (iii) VAC2, an allogeneic cancer immunotherapy of antigen-presenting dendritic cells currently in Phase I development for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer. Lineage is also evaluating potential partnership opportunities for Renevia, a facial aesthetics product that was recently granted a Conformit Europenne (CE) Mark. For more information, please visit http://www.lineagecell.com or follow the Company on Twitter @LineageCell.

Forward-Looking Statements

Lineage cautions you that all statements, other than statements of historical facts, contained in this press release, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements, in some cases, can be identified by terms such as believe, may, will, estimate, continue, anticipate, design, intend, expect, could, plan, potential, predict, seek, should, would, contemplate, project, target, tend to, or the negative version of these words and similar expressions. Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements relating to the development of Lineages OpRegen program, as well as Lineages spending plans. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause Lineages actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements in this press release, including risks and uncertainties inherent in Lineages business and other risks in Lineages filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC). Lineages forward-looking statements are based upon its current expectations and involve assumptions that may never materialize or may prove to be incorrect. All forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements. Further information regarding these and other risks is included under the heading Risk Factors in Lineages periodic reports with the SEC, including Lineages Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on March 14, 2019 and its other reports, which are available from the SECs website. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date on which they were made. Lineage undertakes no obligation to update such statements to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after the date on which they were made, except as required by law.

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Lineage Provides Update on Patient Enrollment in Phase I/IIa Clinical Study of OpRegen for the Treatment of Dry Age-Related Macular Degeneration -...

IS the Christian faith like the criminal law? Does it compel us to do this or that or face dire consequences? Is it about heavenly rewards for being good and rotten punishments for sin? There is no health in us SPARE Thou those who confess their faults Did Jesus come as another criminal law giver? Or did he come to remove the scales from our eyes to liberate our true nature in the context of one law natural to us, the law of Love? You cant buy that, love, off a shelf. You cant love under orders. No, but we can let it flower within us by giving expression to the governings of our hearts in compassion, in loving kindness. If we and the world suffer, is it really sinfulness for which we call for mercy dont hit us or is it blindness for which we call for liberation, release, from the selves which are not ourselves?

With that in mind, let all our New Years hopes become our dawn. Yes, lets trumpet in a Galilean morn. Its my dawn, and yours. Its a morn which proclaims what Jesus is in our lives, the law of love in action, the love which comes from within us, from the heart where the Kingdom stands, the heart of Jesus within us. He has no need to come again. He never left us.

It was to insinuate all this that last week I wrote of a Eucharist of the imagination, a Mass with no altar, no chalice, paten, host nor wine. Perhaps it sounded very odd. But think about it. Is it really more difficult to turn air into flesh as wine into blood, or water into wine? Theyre all mysteries, arent they? (Is a mystery in this sense a polite word for magic?) We know, well we say and believe, that in the Mass we experience Jesus real presence. Thats a mystery too. We call it a sacrament, an outward and visible sign of an interior, spiritual grace. And when we suppose that thats the product of working with visible, tangible, things, its all very comforting. But do we really have to work with tangible things as the sine qua non for spiritual grace, to experience the real presence?

Remember, Jesus presence is a multiple presence. Hes present, we say, in his Word when the Gospel is read. We say that he presides at the Eucharist in and through his priest. Hes present in the Eucharistic community, those of one body with him. We say we dwell in him and he in us. Hes present whenever two or three are gathered together. In none of these are we talking about a physical presence in a particular place or object. Were talking about a spiritual and personal presence experienced in our hearts and minds, not our stomachs. Its a presence unique to each of us Jesus knows us by our names yet common to all. The bread and wine at the Eucharist give us the focus for that presence, like two shafts of light in a dark room. But theyre not the presence itself.

What does that presence actually mean? It means we acknowledge the divine source of grace within us, Jesus himself. We just know hes there. Its like being in the presence of friends when we read their letters, or by remembering them as when we touch something theyve given us. Its like ever feeling that those weve loved, now dead, are with us, that theyve returned to us as the dead do in time. As with Jesus at the synagogue at Nazareth reading from Isaiah, his presence is as real as if wed said: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Its Jesus spirit which rests upon and within us. And what that means is that we too are spiritually anointed, commissioned, to preach the Gospel of Love; and that, love, really doesnt depend on the presence of physical things to give it life. Its as if we have seen with our eyes and touched with our hands the bread of life. And it translates into the Eucharistic prayer: Unite us in Christ and give us your peace that we may do your work and be his body in the world. Yes, we too have been commissioned to do his work, to become his hands, to become the presence of his love. We dont have to manufacture it. Its there within us. Our job is to understand that and live it, and so heal the broken-hearted, preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised (Luke 4:18). And this, the presence of Jesus within us to awaken us, the real us, to complete the work he has given us to do, is the most wonderful gift of heaven. The Eucharist, the visible sign of hidden grace, helps us understand that. Tangible things prove nothing. Maybe imagination is even more powerful. So yes, in this New Years dawn what finer commitment to the Jesus within, our hands as his can there possibly be?

Go safely, then until the next time.

New Years resolution, from the boundary: Im not going to die because I failed as someone else. Id rather just succeed at being me (Margaret Cho).

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FROM THE BOUNDARY: New year, new dawn Part two - Barbados Advocate

By Science News StaffJan. 2, 2020 , 10:50 AM

Incessant political turmoil in the United Kingdom, United States, and other nations will likely last well into the new year, complicating many researchers work. The U.K. election last month made the countrys departure from the European Union a near-certainty, and its scientists now face losing EU science grants and scientific collaborators. In the United States, a presidential election in November will determine the role of scientists in future policy deliberations; many experts on climate change and other environmental issues assert that the Trump administration has ignored scientific evidence. In this section,Sciences news staff forecasts other areas of policy and research likely to make news this year amid the chaos, from dark matter detectors to new efforts to rein in loss of species.

This year will see an attempt to revitalize the ambitious Aichi Biodiversity Targets, named for the city in Japan where they were negotiated. Since they were approved 10 years ago, there has been little to no progress in meeting most of those 20 goals, such as preventing the decline of endangered species. That alarming situation was highlighted last year in a major scientific assessment by another organization, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. But in October, nations will have a chance to try to set a more effective course when they meet in Kunming, China, to review and revise the Convention on Biological Diversity, the world's flagship conservation pact.

The politics of climate change faces crucial moments this year. The Trump administration's opposition to regulations reducing fossil fuel emissions has emerged as a primary talking point for the president's Democratic challengers. One day after the U.S. presidential election on 3 November, the country, the second largest emitter of greenhouse gases, is set to leave the Paris climate accord, although a Democratic president could quickly rejoin after taking office in 2021. Less than 1 week later, the United Nations will convene in Glasgow, U.K., for its most important climate summit since 2015, where nations are expected to increase their pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissionseven though they are behind on meeting existing ones. Without stepped-up efforts, there is little hope the world can keep future warming below 2C, the level scientists forecast will produce catastrophic damage to human communities and ecosystems.

The U.S. government has conducted a decennial census since 1790. But the 2020 census that kicks off on 1 April faces unprecedented political challenges. Although civil rights groups won a fight to block a question about citizenship that the Trump administration wanted to add, it has ordered the Census Bureau to generate the equivalent data using existing government records so that states can use the information when they redraw boundaries for federal and state elections. Researchers fear that assignment may not be doable, and that the political debate has further alienated those already hardest to count. Demographers also worry that the census' use of a new way to protect respondents' privacy could distort analyses of demographic trends. At stake are not only how more than $1.5 trillion in federal funds are distributed each year, but also the integrity of the nation's largest statistical agency.

The CRISPR gene-editing tool faces key tests this year of its promise to treat cancer and genetic diseases. A small U.S. clinical trial is using CRISPR to disable three genes in T cells that are then returned to a cancer patient's body, an approach that could help these immune system soldiers stop malignant cells from growing and extend patients' lives. More results may also come from separate CRISPR cancer trials in China. Other researchers are working to treat people with sickle cell disorder and thalassemia by using the DNA editor to turn on the gene for a fetal version of hemoglobin to compensate for a defective adult form of the oxygen-carrying protein; last fall, scientists reported success in two patients and in 2020 will present longer-term results for a larger group. Another clinical trial in the United States could show whether CRISPR improves vision in people with an inherited disorder that causes progressive blindness.

Ancient proteins will shed new light this year on the identity and behavior of humans and other animals that lived more than 1 million years ago. Proteins are more stable than DNA, and as analytical methods improve, researchers can apply them to understand more about older fossils lacking DNA, including the sex and age of remains of enigmatic ancient hominins. Most hominins are known by bones and teeth alone, and proteins could provide a new tool for sorting them in family trees and to identify fragments too small to classify. Although tooth enamel offers the best source of ancient proteins, researchers are also extracting them from bones and hair. In addition, proteins can reveal new information about artifacts made of plant and animal materials, and researchers hope this year to analyze parchment manuscripts and the beeswax once used to seal documents. Scientists are also analyzing residues on pots for more clues to whether early pastoralists in the steppelands of Mongolia, for example, drank camel or goat milk firstand what people living on the edge of the Roman Empire in England ate.

Proteins in these 400-year-old bone fragments, found in Iroquois settlements in Canada, revealed whether they were animal or human.

The political debate over how to respond to China's emergence as a scientific superpower is likely to intensify this year. In the United States, some federal agencies have banned their employees from participating in foreign talent recruitment programsan approach that China has used to connect with thousands of scientiststo prevent disclosure of information that could damage national security and U.S. economic competitiveness. Two new bodies created by Congress will work to harmonize practices across federal agencies and chew over how best to balance openness and security. U.S. academic leaders are hoping to convince policymakers not to fence off certain types of research, which they say would throttle U.S. innovation. A new report to the National Science Foundation says teaching students and faculty members about acceptable and unacceptable behavior is a better approach.

Japan is expanding neutrino research to better understand properties of the phantom particles and the cosmic processes that produce them. This spring, scientists will increase the sensitivity of the 22-year-old Super-Kamiokande neutrino observatory by doping water in its observation chamber with the rare-earth metal gadolinium. The detector will then watch for signals generated when neutrinos from supernovae hit the water, providing clues about the dynamics within those exploding stars. Japan's legislature is expected to fund an even bigger step: construction of the 72 billion Japanese yen ($660 million) Hyper-Kamiokande. Ten times larger than its predecessor, it will capture that much more data about neutrinos emanating from the Sun, distant stars, and supernovae.

The race to detect hypothetical particles of dark matterthe invisible stuff that binds together the galaxies with its gravityenters a new phase this year with the startup of two powerful new underground detectors. Since the 1980s, physicists have used ever bigger and more sensitive ones to search for so-called weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), theorized to weigh 100 times as much as protons and to interact with other matter only through the feeble weak nuclear force. This year, the XENON-NT detector, which contains 8 tons of frigid liquid xenon, will turn on in the subterranean Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy. At the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota, the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) detector, which contains 10 tons of liquid xenon, will also power up. If XENON-NT and the LZ see nothing in the next few years, dark matter hunters could push for bigger WIMP detectors or set their sights on other hypothesized forms of dark matter. The Italian lab's future also remains uncertain, as former lab officials face prosecution for allegedly allowing contamination of local drinking water.

The LUX-ZEPLIN dark matter detector is readied to record data at an underground lab in South Dakota.

The genome editor CRISPR is reinvigorating the beleaguered field of xenotransplantation, which aims to surgically replace human organs or tissues with ones harvested from animals such as pigs. Novel clinical trials of the strategy could launch this year. Xenotransplantation has long promised to alleviate a chronic shortage of human livers, hearts, and other organs. It could also provide corneas to cure blindness and insulin-producing islet cells to replace those destroyed by diabetes. But time and time again in earlier tests, human immune systems have quickly destroyed the foreign transplants. Recent CRISPR experiments have modified genes in pigs to prevent or dampen human immune responses to their tissue and have removed DNA from the porcine genome that could spawn potentially dangerous viruses in a person. Transplants from these edited pigs to monkeys, a key test of safety and efficacy before human trials, have demonstrated long-term viability in their new hosts.

This year, China is expected to win the race to build the world's first exascale computer, capable of carrying out 1 billion billion (1018) calculations per second, also known as an exaflop. Just which supercomputer will be the first remains uncertain, as China has set up a competition between three institutions: the National Supercomputing Center of Tianjin, the National Supercomputing Center in Jinan, and Dawning Information Industry Co., a manufacturer also known as Sugon. The new Chinese supercomputers, and others to follow in the European Union, Japan, and the United States, will be used to analyze vast data sets from astronomical and genetic surveys, and will support the continued rise of artificial intelligence. Some computer scientists expected the exascale milestone to have come sooner; delays resulted in part from the need to develop energy efficient computer chips.

Alzheimers drug The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will decide whether to approve aducanumab, an antibody drug designed to bust the brain-clogging amyloid plaques of Alzheimer's disease. The experimental treatment has shown mixed success in clinical trials.

Ocean conservation The United Nations intends to finish plans for a Decade of Ocean Science to begin in 2021. The goal is to coordinate work by scientists around the world to help improve ocean health. One expected emphasis is mapping more of the world's vulnerable marine ecosystems and biodiversity hot spots and more of the ocean's bottom, only about 4% of which has been charted in high resolution.

Stem cell funding California voters will decide in November whether to allocate $5.5 billion from bond sales to keep alive the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. The funding agency was created through a $3 billion ballot initiative in 2004 to translate stem cell research into new therapies.

Curated and edited by Jeffrey Brainard.

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The science stories likely to make headlines in 2020 - Science Magazine

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a sight-threatening complication of diabetes and the main cause of blindness in the United States among working adults. Initially, DR progresses as a non-proliferative DR (NPDR) which leads to blinding proliferative DR (PDR). Nearly all people with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) undergo gradual vision loss over a 20-year period of diabetes, and about 2030% of them progress to the advanced blinding stage of the disease, PDR.

Tight glycaemic management lowers the risk of complications, yet, many diabetic patients develop DR, despite having good glycaemic control. Furthermore, there is no cure or a preventive measure to block PDR. Only recently, over the past decade, with the advent of medicines that block the actions of the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), has considerable progress been made in therapeutic options for PDR.

Nevertheless, not all patients achieve a satisfactory response and many of responders experience frequent invasive intravitreal injections and off-target effects, including increased risk of neuronal toxicity and geographic atrophy. While additional molecular targets, including the plasma kallikrein pathway, lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2) and Tie-2, have been identified, with some being clinically evaluated, a critical gap still remains ineffective treatments.

Evidence suggests that targeting DR in the earlier stages, such as mild to moderate NPDR, before permanent damage occurs, would provide long-term benefit. In recent years, our research has focused on the molecular mechanisms of early DR including retinal oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, mitophagy, inflammation, and premature cell death in diabetes using both in vitro retinal cell cultures and in vivo diabetic rodent models.

Intriguingly, we have discovered a protein called thioredoxin-interacting protein (TXNIP) is strongly induced by diabetes in early DR where it is responsible for mediating cellular oxidative stress, mitophagy, inflammation and premature cell death. Knockdown of TXNIP by intravitreal injection of TXNIP shRNA prevents early molecular defects seen in DR. TXNIP binds to and inhibits the anti-oxidant and thiol-reducing capacity of thioredoxins (Trx) causing cellular redox imbalance and oxidative stress. Trx1 is present in the cytosol and nucleus while Trx2 is located in the mitochondrion. TXNIP is observed in all cellular compartments. Therefore, targeting TXNIP itself or downstream pathways could prevent or slow down the progression of early DR (NPDR) and hence PDR.

Currently, no clinically used, professional TXNIP inhibitors exist; however, several FDA-approved medicines have been reported to interfere with TXNIP pathway, but none of them has been used to treat DR. These drugs include amlexanox, tranilast, and romidepsin and they have been extensively studied for their efficacy, toxicity and safety. This consequently leads to saving time and money and may accelerate their entry to experimental clinical trials centred on targeting an over-activated TXNIP system to arrest DR away from their initial use.

Amlexanox is an inhibitor of TANK-Binding Kinase 1 (TBK1), which phosphorylates mitophagy adaptor optineurin and regulates mitophagic flux to lysosomes. In addition, TBK1 also phosphorylates interferon responsive factor 3 (IRF3) and mediates Type 1 interferon expression and inflammation. Tranilast has been shown to inhibit TXNIP and Nod-like NLRP3 inflammasome; therefore, it may help in preventing cellular oxidative stress and innate immune responses.

Therefore, a combination therapy using amlexanox and tranilast may prove to be effective in preventing or slowing down the progression of DR. Recently, we also demonstrated that a combination therapy of SS-31 (a mitochondria-targeted anti-oxidant), amlexanox and tranilast prevents auranofin-induced redox stress, mitochondrial-lysosomal axis dysregulation and proinflammatory pyroptotic cell death in retinal pigment epithelial cells, suggesting that combination therapies may be more effective than a single drug therapy.

In addition to drug treatment, gene therapy using a TXNIP promoter linked with a neuroprotective factor or an anti-oxidant gene may also be a potential approach for DR treatment. This is because the TXNIP promoter is strongly induced by hyperglycaemia in retinal cells in culture and in diabetic rodent retinas, but not under physiological glucose levels. In addition, the TXNIP promoter is also activated significantly by histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi), including suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA) or romidepsin.

Therefore, HDACi and TXNIP-promoter gene therapy may also be incorporated in DR therapy for retinal neuroprotective gene expression, which could include pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF), glia-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), thioredoxin encoded Rod-Derived Cone Viability Factor (RdCVF) and others. These factors are known to be downregulated in DR.

It is currently accepted that neurodegeneration (particularly photoreceptor dysfunction) occurs early in DR before microvascular pathology develops. Therefore, early neuroprotective efforts may constitute a meaningful therapeutical approach to prevent or slow down the progression of late microvascular complications and PDR. Diabetes is a chronic and complex metabolic disease in which PDR develops only after prolonged hyperglycaemic exposure.

Therefore, a window of diabetic duration may exist early to prevent retinal neurovascular dysfunction and progression of PDR; within this time frame, we may devise preventive interventions activating endogenous genes or factors with neuroprotective drugs (preferably orally active drugs) and gene therapy including those mentioned above.

Such a hypothesis is supported by a recent observation, which showed that the expression of retinol binding protein 3 (RBP3), a protein secreted by photoreceptors in the retina, may play a protective role against PDR. RBP3 interacts with glucose transporter Glut1 and reduces excess cellular glucose uptake under hyperglycaemia in diabetics, thus, preventing glucotoxicity in retinal cells including Muller glia and capillary endothelial cells. Those individuals expressing RBP3 do not develop PDR although they have had 50 years of T1D.

In conclusion, new preventive therapies for PDR may be successfully developed by activating endogenous cellular survival mechanisms using drug and gene therapies once a clinical sign of NPDR is observed but before PDR. Such treatments may prevent blindness in diabetic patients.

References

1 Perrone L, Devi TS, Hosoya KI, Terasaki T, Singh LP. Inhibition of TXNIP expression in vivo blocks early pathologies of diabetic retinopathy. Cell Death Dis. 2010 Aug 19;1:e65. PMID: 21364670.

2 Devi TS, Somayajulu M, Kowluru RA, Singh LP. TXNIP regulates mitophagy in retinal Mller cells under high-glucose conditions: implications for diabetic retinopathy. Cell Death Dis. 2017 May 11;8(5):e2777. PMID: 28492550.

3 Lalit PS, Thangal Y, Fayi Y, Takhellambam SD. Potentials of Gene Therapy for Diabetic Retinopathy: The Use of Nucleic Acid Constructs Containing a TXNIP Promoter. Open Access J Ophthalmol. 2018;3(2). PMID: 31106306.

4 Devi TS, Yumnamcha T, Yao F, Somayajulu M, Kowluru RA, Singh LP. TXNIP mediates high glucose-induced mitophagic flux and lysosome enlargement in human retinal pigment epithelial cells. Biol Open. 2019 Apr 25;8(4). PMID: 31023645.

5 Yumnamcha T, Devi TS, Singh LP. Auranofin Mediates Mitochondrial Dysregulation and Inflammatory Cell Death in Human Retinal Pigment Epithelial Cells: Implications of Retinal Neurodegenerative Diseases. Front Neurosci. 2019 Oct 10;13:1065. PMID: 31649499.

6 Yokomizo H, Maeda Y, Park K, Clermont AC, Hernandez SL, et. al., Retinol binding protein 3 is increased in the retina of patients with diabetes resistant to diabetic retinopathy. Sci Transl Med. 2019 Jul 3;11(499). PMID: 31270273.

7 Ibrahim AS, Saleh H, El-Shafey M, Hussein KA, et. al., Targeting of 12/15-Lipoxygenase in retinal endothelial cells, but not in monocytes/macrophages, attenuates high glucose-induced retinal leukostasis. BBA: Mol Cell Biol Lipids. 2017 Jun;1862(6):636-645. PMID: 28351645.

8 Ibrahim AS, Elshafey S, Sellak H, Hussein KA, El-Sherbiny M, et. al., A lipidomic screen of hyperglycemia-treated HRECs links 12/15-Lipoxygenase to microvascular dysfunction during diabetic retinopathy via NADPH oxidase. J Lipid Res. 2015 Mar;56(3):599-611. PMID: 25598081.

Funding

NIH/NEI R01 EY023992 (LSP, OVAS).

NIH/NEI core grant P30EY004068 (LDH, OVAS).

Research to Prevent Blindness (MSJ, OVAS).

American Heart Association Grant 18CDA34080403 to ASI.

Please note: This is a commercial profile

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Repurposing FDA-approved medicines and gene therapy to combat diabetic retinopathy - Open Access Government

TORONTO Marcus Smart had a simple word to express how things have been as hes dealt with a serious eye infection the last few weeks:

Hell.

The Celtic guard missed his seventh straight game Christmas Day, but hes appreciative that he wont be losing the gift of eyesight. That frightening possibility existed for a time during this process, and Smart and his doctors are still being cautious.

Just really, really painful and really not knowing, Smart said of his condition during these recent weeks. I thought I was going to go blind for a while. The doctors said it was the worst case of viral conjunctivitis that theyve seen, so basically I was a guinea pig to see how to handle this if it ever happens again with anybody else.

But it was the worst pain that Ive been through in a very long time, and I dont wish it on anybody. But Im here. The eyes feel better. Im still trying to adjust to some lights, light sensitivity. But everything, the contagious part is gone. They cleared me. They said from here on everything should be OK. I still have to see them kind of on a daily basis. They say its so my cornea doesnt get white spotted behind it and mess up my eyesight. So its definitely a process. Its an annoying process, but Im just blessed to be able to come back and get through this.

Smart went through a workout here and was set to go through another session when the Celtics get back to Boston later in the day. He is hoping to play in Saturdays game at the Garden against these same Raptors, but nothing can be certain.

Especially considering the scare that he might suffer some form of blindness.

The way it was going, they were so worried about it affecting my cornea and my vision, so it was a little scary, Smart said before the holiday game. At first we thought it was an allergic reaction, because I broke out in hives like the day before my eyes started having allergic reaction. But we caught it so early that the same symptoms came off, and then about three days later it transferred from my left eye to my right eye, and thats when we ruled out that an allergic reaction was the cause. They said it was a virus called the (adenovirus), and it was caused by having a cold already and being sick, so it makes sense because right before that, those two days after the Denver game, Dec. 6th, the 7th and 8th, I came down with an allergic reaction and a really bad cold.

The Celtics actually sent me home, because I was feeling really bad, and it just kind of broke my immune system down and opened it up for everything else. Everything else in my body went haywire. It was just some unfortunate events that happened, but on the good side, I got to rest and heal up the injuries that I had and just let my body do what it does.

But, Smart noted, it was difficult going through these last weeks.

It was painful, it was burning, it was really hard. I couldnt see, he said. I had outdoor sunglasses everywhere I went. Even in the darkI was wearing sunglasses. It was that bad. Just every morning I would wake up (and) just having this sticky discharge coming out of my eyes that was sealing my eyes shut. It was really just gross. It got so bad that my eyes, my eye lids started forming these mucus membranes, and they literally had to go in and pry the mucus membranes out. I actually have a picture that I showed the guys. It was prettygross. I was bleeding tears every time they did it for like a day. They did that for about four days straight.

The first day was probably the worst, just because it built up so much that it started to scab under my eyelids, and they had to open the scab and then pull it out. It felt like they were putting needles in my eyes. They were using the tweezers and vice grips to hold my eyes and actually get into my eyelids, both the bottom and top. So it was definitely some pain, and I never want to go through it again and, like I said, I never want anybody else to go through it.

Smart remains under care to prevent further issues or any type of relapse.

Every day they were checking my corneas, theyre checking my eyesight and just making sure that my corneas werent being affected by it, he said. I have to go back pretty much every day for a while now just to monitor it. Because they say that even though Im healthy and everything is cleared up, my corneas could still be affected and get like white spots behind it and really affect my vision, so theyre trying to make sure that doesnt happen. Theyve got me on these special eye drops that I have to take four times a day. Im on two different sets of eye drops. I was on three, so thats I guess progress. But definitely yes, its scary, and Im glad that it hasnt (come back), and I hope it doesnt.

As for his readiness to play, Smart put himself at about 80%. I was able to get the last two days, workouts in and just was really getting my body back to playing shape and adjust and making sure Ive got my strength back and my conditioning and wind back. If it was up to me, obviously I would try to play (Wednesday). But just with everything happening, being more cautious than ever, and just giving myself and my body extra time to recuperate and get back into shape.

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Marcus Smart had to deal with a blindness scare from eye infection - Boston Herald