StemCell Therapy

Dr Pascoal Carvalho addressed the 21st convention of Indias Catholic nurses in Mumbai. He spoke about the ethical aspects of genetic engineering, citing the doctrine of the Church towards human cloning and stem cells. Respect for human dignity must prevail from conception to natural death.

Mumbai (AsiaNews) Medical innovation, which increasingly uses modern technologies to improve life, should not attempt to artificially replicate creation, said Dr Pascoal Carvalho, a doctor from Mumbai and a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life, speaking at the 21st convention of Catholic nurses (8-10 November).

In his address on 9 November, he referred to therapeutic cloning, stem cells and modified human DNA before an audience of more than 200 Catholic health workers.

"[W]e can rest assured in the wisdom of the Church," he said, because for her, The dignity of a person must be recognized in every human being from conception to natural death.

Some areas of medical research that raise serious moral and ethical questions touch stem cells, embryos and DNA.

In his view, today There is a growing threat of overestimating genetic modification techniques and underestimating the repercussions of cloning and human gene therapy.

On the one hand, we have the positive results of therapeutic cloning aimed at organ and tissues reconstructed in laboratory for transplanting into patients to reduce the risk of rejection; on the other, reproductive cloning, like in the case of Dolly the sheep, seeks to reproduce living beings.

He warns against research that leads to alterations in an organisms DNA, like the famous case of the Chinese scientist who in 2018 said that he had created two twins in the laboratory immune to the HIV virus. This kind of experiment can reduce life expectancy and increase susceptibility to other, and perhaps more common, diseases.

The doctor cites the Dignitas Personae, which defines any attempt at human cloning as unacceptable, because it represents a serious offense to the dignity of the person and fundamental equality between men.

As for therapeutic cloning, To create embryos with the intention of destroying them, even with the intention of helping the sick, is completely incompatible with human dignity, because it makes the existence of a human being at the embryonic stage nothing more than a means to be used and destroyed. It is gravely immoral to sacrifice a human life for therapeutic ends.

Citing the doctrine of the Church, Dr Carvalho stresses the importance of the method with which stem cells are taken. In his view, Methods which do not cause serious harm to the subject from whom the stem cells are taken are to be considered licit.

This is generally the case when tissues are taken from: a) an adult organism; b) the blood of the umbilical cord at the time of birth; c) foetuses who have died of natural causes.

Overall, the doctor believes that modern gene technologies raise new moral questions, whilst attempts to create a new type of human being contains an ideological element in which man tries to take the place of his Creator.

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INDIA Indian doctor: Medical innovation should not try to replace the Creator - AsiaNews

Laura Beil was skeptical when Wondery called her two years ago. The sensationalistic podcast hitmaker behind Dirty John needed a host for its new series about Christopher Duntsch, the infamous Dallas neurosurgeon accused of maiming his patients. Beil, a veteran Dallas Morning News medical reporter, hadn't listened to a true crime podcast in full, let alone reported one. She'd certainly never heard of Wondery. "I said, 'I'm a print journalist,'" she tells ELLE.com. "Why are you calling me?" With some hesitation, she agreed to do it. Today, she's grateful she did.

Since airing last September, Dr. Death has been downloaded more than 50 million times and ordered as a television series. On the heels of its massive success, Wondery greenlit a second Beil-led podcast, Bad Batch, now available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. In the six-part investigative series, she takes listeners through the crazy, complicated world of stem cell medical treatment. Like Dr. Death, there's a narrative arc (corrupt system, suspicious CEO, unsuspecting victims); unlike Dr. Death, she says, it serves a real purpose. "The chances of you coming across a horrible neurosurgeon are pretty slim," she says, "but the chances of you or someone you love wanting to spend a bunch of money on stem cells because you're promised a miracle cure? That's much higher. This has a greater chance of having an impact on listeners."

Bad Batch has already garnered 3 million listeners since it debuted three weeks ago, and is now the fourth most popular show on Apple podcasts, ahead of rival My Favorite Murder.

On the phone, Beil and I discuss her transition to audio from print journalism, the future of true crime content in a frenetic digital age, and her secret sauce to producing a hit podcast.

Apparently a Dirty John listener had emailed Wondery saying, "Hey, have you heard of Christopher Duntsch?" They wanted a journalist who had knowledge of the healthcare system in Dallas, where Duntsch practiced, to look into him, and that's a pretty short list. When they called, I hadn't even heard of Wondery. But I decided to take a chance on it.

Journalism is journalism. There are some things I had to get used to, of course. For example, in print journalism, if you need something else, you can go back and get it from a source. You'll email or you'll text somebody to follow up as you find out you need more details. With audio, you just have one shot. It's a lot harder to go back and reinterview someone. You have to make the one interview really count, and that means asking the same question over and over again in a different way, to get details that draw people out. It's something that I'm still learning how to do, frankly.

The feedback about my voice has been all over the place. I didn't get so much with Dr. Death, but for Bad Batch I am. Listeners will say, "Oh, the narrator's too dramatic." And then someone else will say, "Oh, the narrator's too robotic." It's all conflicting. My favorite bit of feedback was from a listener who said they preferred the host of Dr. Death to Bad Batch.

I don't see true crime being dethroned anytime soon. It will always dominate, because people love it. That said, Bad Batch doesn't necessarily fit in the true crime box. There wasn't really a crime, and nobody died. What you need, just like in a print piece, is a good central narrative to hang your story off. The stem cell story is complicated, because you can't just say it's all a big con job. There's legitimate stem cell research going on. The business is growing so much and most of the information about it is coming from people trying to sell it. There's a lot to explore and explain.

In this business, so much is contracting, like newspapers, so it's nice to see one aspect of journalism that's expanding. To see more demand for audio journalism is heartening. It's reviving a lot of the long-form storytelling that's been cut in other places. Dr. Death had 50 million downloads. The same story was told in print on ProPublica, which is a hugely popular website, and yet the response from our audio was so much greater. A lot of things that we're told people want nowadaysshorter stories that are more clickable and scannablewell, you can't do that with a podcast. I can't explain it, but people can't get enough of podcasts.

I do enjoy doing the audio stuff, but I have to say, in my heart of hearts, I'm still a print writer. If I had to give up one or the other, I'd give up the audio.

[Laughs] With two number one podcasts out in a row, Wondery is like, "Do you have anything else?" After Dr. Death, I had so many emails from people saying, "Here's another horrible doctor to look into." It was depressing. I don't want to do another bad doctor story, I want to do something completely different. I want it to be the right story. It'll be something medical of course.

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'Dr. Death' and 'Bad Batch' Host Laura Beil on the Future of Podcasts - ELLE.com

Heart failure (HF) is the most frequent cardiovascular diagnosis and exacts significant health and financial costs around the globe. It is estimated that at least 26 million people worldwide are living with HF, including nearly 6 million in the United States.1, 2 One in nine U.S. deaths in 2009 included heart failure as a contributing cause and about 50 percent of people in the U.S. with HF die within five years of diagnosis.2 The annual cost of HF-related healthcare services, medication and missed days of work is estimated at $40 billion in the United States and $108 billion globally.3, 4 Quality of life in HF patients is frequently worse than many other chronic diseases and comorbidities are common.5-7 The challenges of HF are expected to grow, as it is estimated that more than 8 million people in the United States alone will have HF by 2030.2 Current therapies improve quality of life in the short-term and have improved long-term survival but a significant number of patients have Class 3 HF despite optimal medical and device therapy. These patients have limited treatment options beyond heart transplant and left ventricular assist devices (LVAD). New therapeutic approaches that address the underlying causes of HF are needed to improve patient outcomes.

Heart failure is a complex disease process and multiple pathways contribute to its development and progression. Myocardial ischemia is frequently an issue in both ischemic and non-ischemic cardiomyopathy as well as HF with preserved and/or reduced ejection fraction. Myocardial ischemia results in insufficient oxygen and nutrients and leads to hypoxia, cardiomyocyte and fibrosis, which all contribute to the progression of heart failure. More effective angiogenesis may prevent this progression. Cell homing also plays a critical role, as injured cardiac tissue secretes factors that lead to the recruitment, proliferation, migration and differentiation of progenitor cells that can help repair tissue damage. Stromal cell-derived factor (SDF)-1 has been shown to play an important role in cardiac repair by mediating cell homing.10 Mitochondrial energy generation is also impaired in HF, leading to decreased contractility and adverse changes to cardiac architecture.11 Scar tissue formed in response to cardiomyocyte injury or death can compromise the hearts mechanical strength or electrical signaling results in myocardial infarction. Inflammatory responses to cardiac tissue damage can promote inappropriate and chronic inflammation and the expression of pro-inflammatory molecules that lead to pathologic changes to cardiac architecture.12, 13

These pathways offer a variety of potential new targets for therapeutic intervention to prevent the development and progression of HF. This opens the door to the development of novel therapies that address the underlying molecular and cellular causes of disease rather than treating HF symptoms alone.

After decades of development, gene-based therapies are now validated therapeutic modalities for the treatment of inherited retinal disorders and cancer and are undergoing clinical evaluation in a variety of inherited, acute and chronic diseases. Nearly two dozen single gene-based therapies for HF have been evaluated in clinical trials.14 Genes evaluated as monogenic gene therapy for HF in clinical trials include vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and fibroblast growth factor type 4 (FGF4) to promote angiogenesis; adenylyl cyclase type 6 (AC6) and sarco/endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase type 2 (SERCA2) to improve cardiac calcium homeostasis, which plays a critical role in the contraction and relaxation of heart muscle; and stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1) to improve cell homing and promote cardiac tissue repair. Late-stage trials of single gene therapies have yielded conflicting results, raising the question as to whether positively impacting a single pathway can be sufficient to overcome detrimental activity of other pathways that contribute to the development and progression of HF. Other potential limitations to HF therapies evaluated in clinical trials to date include the method of delivery, dose and the potency of vectors and gene products.

Given the multiple molecular and cellular pathways active in HF, a multi-gene approach to HF gene therapy may be needed. Simultaneously delivering multiple genes that target diverse HF-related pathways has the potential to improve cardiac biology and function. A triple gene therapy approach (INXN-4001, Triple-Gene LLC, a majority-owned subsidiary of Intrexon Corporation) is currently in clinical development, with each of the genes targeting a specific HF-related pathway. The investigational drug candidate INXN4001 vector expresses: the S100A1 gene product, which regulates calcium-controlled networks and modulates contractility, excitability, maintenance of cellular metabolism and survival; SDF-1a which recruits stem cells, inhibits apoptosis and supports new blood vessel formation; and VEGF-165 which initiates new vessel formation, endothelial cell migration/activation, stem cell recruitment and tissue regeneration. The hypothesis is that the simultaneous delivery of multiple genes in a single vector would more effectively improve multiple aspects of cardiac function compared with single gene therapy. It is delivered by retrograde coronary sinus infusion of a triple effector plasmid designed with a self-cleaving linker to constitutively express human S100A1, SDF-1a and VEGF 165. This route is designed to allow for delivery of a dose to the ventricle which may help achieve improved therapeutic effect.

Several preclinical studies have set the foundation on which to advance a triple gene therapy for HF into the clinic.15-17 Using in vitro studies, transfecting cells derived from patients with dilated cardiomyopathy with a triple gene combination demonstrated improvement in contraction rate and duration, to the levels demonstrated by the control cells and did not result in increased cell death compared to controls.15 Studies in an Adriamycin-induced cardiomyopathy rodent model demonstrated triple gene therapy increased fractional shortening and myocardial wall thickness compared to controls.16 In addition, retrograde coronary sinus infusion of INXN-4001 in a porcine model of ischemic HF resulted in a cardiac-specific biodistribution profile.17

A Phase 1 clinical study has been initiated to evaluate the safety of a single dose of triple gene therapy in stable patients implanted with a LVAD for mechanical support of end-stage HF. An independent Data and Safety Monitoring Board agreed to proceeding to the second cohort following review of the data from the first cohort in the multi-site study.18 The study is ongoing and final results will help to inform our understanding of the potential that multi-gene therapy may play in the treatment of HF.

The recent FDA approvals of gene therapies for an inherited retinal disease and cancer are evidence that gene therapy is a valid therapeutic strategy. Realizing the potential of gene therapy in HF will require appropriately designed clinical trials, but several interesting approaches currently in development may prove to be effective. The results of the initial investigational drug INXN-4001 Phase 1 trial should provide insight into the safety of combining S100A1, SDF-1a and VEGF-165. Evaluation of additional multi-gene combinations will also be important for understanding which targeted pathways yield the greatest effects with respect to relevant clinical endpoints. Continued refinement and optimization of vector design and delivery methods will also be important for advancing further HF gene therapies from bench to bedside.

Continue reading here:
The Heart of the Matter: Leveraging Advances in Cardiac Biology to Innovate Gene-Based Therapies for Heart Failure - Physician's Weekly

Diabetes is a major public health crisis that is approaching epidemic proportions around the globe and growing at an alarming rate. According to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), over 425 million adults are currently living with diabetes. That number is expected to rise to 629 million by 2045.

The disorder, which occurs when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin (the hormone that regulates blood sugar) or when the body cannot use its produced insulin, has become so deadly, that the International Diabetes Federation said it was responsible for four million deaths in 2017 alone. The World Health Organization estimated diabetes to be the seventh leading cause of death globally in 2016.

Over 350 million people are at risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, when the body becomes to resistant to insulin due to lifestyle facts such as excess weight gain, while more than 1.1 million children are living with Type 1 diabetes, the disorder that occurs when the bodys immune system attacks cells of the pancreas that produce insulin, according to the International Diabetes Federation.

World Diabetes Day, marked annually on November 14 to honor the co-discoverer of insulin Canadian Dr. Frederick Banting, born on that day in 1891, aims to raise awareness of the impact of this disease while promoting its management, care, and prevention. For the past two years (including in 2019,) the theme of World Diabetes Day has been The Family and Diabetes promoting the familys role in awareness and education of the disorder.

To mark the day, NoCamels is taking a closer look at Israels role in advancing diabetes research and treatment as well as some of the companies with cutting-edge technology that stand out in the field.

Dr. Irit Yaniv, a general manager at Accelmed Ventures II, a new $100 million venture early-stage health tech fund for medical device and digital health startups and co-founder and chairperson of Type 2 diabetes medical device startup Digma Medical, calls diabetes the most dangerous global epidemic. Israel is no exception, she says, citing half a million people living with the disease in the country.

Additionally, about 300,000 are prediabetic, a condition manifesting as borderline high blood sugar levels and an increased risk to progress to diabetes Type 2 within a few years, she explains.

Dr. Yaniv says life science entrepreneurs address the challenges presented by the epidemic in a number of ways, including creating companies and projects aimed at reducing the risk of developing the diseases, development of novel drug delivery methods for diabetes drugs, and unique medical devices for managing the disorder.

SEE ALSO: 6 Israeli Companies At The Forefront Of Diabetes Care, Prevention, and Treatment

There are a few interesting examples such as oral insulin and nasal insulin delivery systems that were developed in Israel, Yaniv says. A recent success story is Nutrino, [an Israeli] software company for the management of diabetes that was acquired by Medtronic.

Treatment for Type 2 diabetes has been focused on lifestyle changes and pharmacologic solutions. Both have challenges including patient compliance and adverse effects such as weight gain, hypoglycemia, and other reactions, Yaniv says. More than 50 percent of the patients arent able to control the disease, even with combination therapeutics.

The medical device industry has made many efforts in recent years to address this need, Yaniv says, Companies such as GI Dynamics have paved the way for new therapeutic alternatives. Digma Medical has demonstrated initial positive clinical data with its unique duodenal ablation system.

Yaniv founded Digma Medical in 2013 with Ilan Ben Oren. Backed by leading venture capital firms such as Arkin Holdings and Peregrine Ventures, the company is dedicated to the development of its DiaGone device to treat insulin resistance. DiaGone is an endoscopic, disposable device, that uses innovative laser technology to treat the duodenum, a segment of the small intestine, without an implant. The Duodenal Glycemic Control procedure is a one-time 30 minute GI procedure, in which the gastroenterologist uses DiaGone to treat the duodenum for restoring the natural ability of the body to control glucose levels, said to provide long term remission from Type 2 diabetes and other metabolic syndrome-related diseases.

For Rami Epstein, who assumed the role of CEO at stem cell company Kadimastem in May 2019, a need exists to find a better solution for the management of diabetes in order to decrease the morbidity, mortality, and costs linked to it and its medical-related care, he tells NoCamels. This method is more than just controlling insulin levels in the body. It is controlling the dose of insulin administered to the body.

All Type 1 diabetes and 30 percent of Type 2 diabetes patients depend on the daily administration of insulin in order to control their glucose levels in the blood. This is not ideal since patients have to calculate insulin dosages and take into account meal times and portions, physical activity, and other parameters, he explains. Unfortunately, many patients do not manage to stabilize their blood glucose levels properly, thereby risking complications that arise from episodes of hypoglycemia or hyperglycemia,

Through Kadimastems groundbreaking stem-cell therapy technology, developed by the companys chief scientist Professor Michel Revel at the Weizmann Institute of Science and used as the basis for the companys founding in 2009, the Ness Ziona-based firm has developed and manufactured an off-the-shelf cell product for the treatment of insulin-dependent diabetes based on its proprietary tech platform. The tech platform has been used to treat multiple diseases, including ALS, through the expansion and differentiation of Human Embryonic Stem Cells (hESCs) into clinical-grade functional cells.

The product, called IsletRx, is currently in pre-clinical trials. Its goal is to free patients from continuous monitoring of blood sugar levels and repeated insulin injections. The drug contains an endless source of pancreatic functional islet cells, which produce and secrete insulin and glucagon in response to external glucose levels.

Meanwhile, Tel Aviv-based clinical-stage pharmaceutical company Oramed, which is focused on the development of oral drug delivery systems, announced this week that Phase IIb trial evaluating the efficacy and safety of its lead oral insulin candidate, ORMD-0801, has had positive results.

The study was a 90-day, double-blind, randomized, multi-center trial designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of ORMD-0801 as a treatment for patients with type 2 diabetes, Oramed said in a statement. The primary efficacy endpoint was a reduction in Hemoglobin A1c (A1C, also known as HbA1c, is a key clinical measure of blood glucose control) at Week 12, with no weight gain.

Israeli scientists are taking diabetes management solutions one step further and adding machine learning and AI to the mix. DreaMed Diabetes, a medical tech startup founded in 2014 to develop these types of personalized solutions, announced in September that it had received clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as well as a CE Mark for its DreaMed Advisor Pro, an AI-based insulin dosing decision support software. The software is for patients with Type 1 diabetes using insulin pump therapy with continuous glucose sensors and blood glucose meters (BGMs)

The decision-support platform uses proprietary algorithms to process data from a range of connected devices, including insulin pumps and self-management glucometers. The data is then analyzed to provide an optimized insulin dosing treatment plan to maintain a balanced glucose level.

SEE ALSO: Israeli AI Startup Can Predict Which Diabetes Patients Will develop Kidney Disease

This clinical and technological advance leverages the power of artificial intelligence to optimize insulin administration in a streamlined and cost-effective manner, the company said in a statement.

This year I am more optimistic that a change will happen in how we manage diabetes. We see more technology adopted in all markets, more sharing of data between patients providers and industry all for the benefit of offering better care for patients, the companys CEO Eran Atlas tells NoCamels in an email. DreaMed is happy to be part of the leaders in this effort, by offering a unique artificial intelligence technology that can analyze data and recommend in only a few seconds how to optimize the technology. With such technology, the proliferation of expert care can be achieved even in emerging markets.

Another key player operating in artificial intelligence in the diabetes management market is Sweetch. Founded in 2013, Sweetch offers an AI-based platform that aims to identify those at high risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. The company calls itself the first AI-powered therapeutics solution to help people with the disorder and comes with a mobile app and a wireless Bluetooth-connected scale. The early prevention platform announced last year that it will partner with US-based integrated healthcare system WellSpan Health and provide its app to 15,000 employees, including 200 primary care and specialty physicians, as well as advanced practice clinicians in central Pennsylvania and northern Maryland.

In 2016, the startup raised $3.5 million in a Series A round led by equity crowdfunding platform OurCrowd and Philips.

Diabetes can cause circulation problems and related conditions such as peripheral arterial disease (PAD) which occurs when plaque builds up in the arteries and reduces blood flow to the limbs. For some patients, high levels of blood glucose can damage blood vessels and cause plaque build-up affecting healthy blood flow.

The northern Israel-based startupElastiMedhas developed a wearable medical device that doesnt treat diabetes patients directly but can help the patient improve his or her circulation.

It cant treat the disease directly, but it can treat some of its symptoms, says Elastimed CEO and founder Omer Zelka.

Compression socks improve circulation by squeezing the foot and calf muscles, which straightens out the vein walls to a better working state, says Advanced Tissue, the leading wound care supply provider. Compression therapy is particularly beneficial for diabetes patients because they improve circulation in a non-invasive manner, helping to maintain the right amount of pressure in feet and legs.

ElastiMeds sock uses battery-operated technology to activate a smart material that compresses and massage the legs to stimulate circulation. The pulses mimic contractions in the calf muscles that in turn increase blood flow.

The sock provides patients with a comfortable, easy-to-wear, highly effective, and cost-effective treatment option to prevent symptoms such as swelling, blood clots, leg ulcers and reduce athletes recovery time.

ElastiMed is currently finishing an ongoing clinical study to demonstrate the safety and the feasibility of this device and its ability to increase venous blood flow. The study is led by Dr. Vered Shuster Ben-Yosef, R&D Lab Manager of the company and is currently taking place at Hillel Yaffe Medical Center in Hadera. The company currently has a working prototype and aims to get the product on the market in early 2021.

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These Israeli Companies Are Finding Innovative Ways To Improve Diabetes Care, Treatment | Health News - NoCamels - Israeli Innovation News

This is the tear-jerking moment a dad shares a hug with the woman who saved his life.

James O'Donnell, from Burnage, feared the worst after being diagnosed with a blood disorder similar to leukaemia in 2016.

Usual treatments were failing and James was undergoing a blood transfusion every week while battling constant infections, the Liverpool Echo reports.

James was running out of options and despaired at the pain his death could cause his eight-year-old son, Harrison.

But in a stunning stroke of fortune, his saviour was only the other side of the M62 - LiverpoolCouncil admin worker Leah McDougall.

The 29-year-old mum, from Bootle, had taken the time to sign up to the register of potential stem cell donors on her lunch break at a pop-up stall, organised by blood cancer charity DKSM, the previous year.

James, who despite his Manc heritage is an avid Liverpool FC fan, told staff at the charity that he would be up for meeting his donor, who could have been anyone from a number of European countries using the register.

James, along with his wife Andrea and young Harrison, got the chance to meet Leah for the first time at a DKSM charity gala in London on Wednesday last week (November 6).

James, who says he finally feels like himself after a long period of illness, told the ECHO: "I was just getting chest infections and water infections all the time.

"I am quite a healthy person, and I was in good shape and I knew I should not be getting ill all the time."

He said after a few weeks of tests his was invited to take a bone marrow biopsy and was told the devastating news on his 40th birthday.

The disease meant James' bone marrow was not producing enough white blood cells, but doctors told him a treatment called anti-thymocite globulin (ATG) had a "75% chance" of success.

However, when that failed, fear and doubt began to creep in.

He said: "We are always saying I would get through this, we were thinking I would get better. But I started to think it's not happening, it's not going to be for me, this.

"I thought, I have been good in life, I need some luck. We were having a really hard time.

"My son was four or five then, and it was hard for him having a dad going from playing football with him to being in hospital."

Eventually doctors revealed the only option was for James to have a bone marrow transplant.

The O'Donnell's went through further disappointment when tests on his three siblings revealed none were a match, so the waiting game to find a suitable donor began.

But on a March day in 2017, he got a call to say: "We have got a perfect match, a 10 out of 10."

The operation was a success and after four weeks doctors told James the new bone marrow cells were taking effect.

He said: "We were so lucky to find a donor only about 25 miles away. Some people never find one and we had one on our doorstep."

The powerful emotion of meeting Leah last week is summed up by James: "It was the second best moment of my life after my son being born.

"What she has done means that I can see my son growing up and that he has a father."

Leah did not hesitate to agree to help a total stranger when she was asked by DKSM.

Describing the moment she met James and his family, she told the ECHO: "We were both speechless. When I walked on stage we were just hugging each other for ages.

"It is weird, we felt like we had known each other for years, I felt like I had known him my whole life.

"It just takes five minutes out of your time to sign up to the register; that's like going to the kitchen to make a drink.

"You just think about the impact it is going to have on someone, it is saving someone's life. I feel lucky to have been able to give something back."

James says his family and Leah are planning to meet up again, possibly at a Liverpool FC game.

He said: "Without her, I wouldn't have a future."

DKSM has urged anyone aged 17-55, and in general good health, to sign up to the register here.

Dr Manos Niklolousis, Haematologist at University Hospital Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, said:"Blood stem cells can be used to treat a wide range of blood cancers and blood disorders and we urgently need more people to come forward as donors.

"Currently, only 2% of the UK population are registered so matching donors with patients isnt easy within a growing multicultural population.

"Many of those in need are unable to find a sibling match and so rely on the generosity of strangers, and a blood stem cell transplant can be some patients only hope of survival.

"As a doctor who treats people with blood cancer or disorders, it is upsetting to know that some patients could have been saved if only more potential donors were registered and available to donate.

"I look forward to the day when there will be a donor for every patient in need."

Excerpt from:
Heartbreaking moment dad meets the woman who saved his life - he feared his son would grow up without a father - Manchester Evening News

"Blood test for sepsis could save lives of thousands of children," reports the Mail Online.

Researchers in the US have developed a test for 5 proteins, which they say allows them to identify people with sepsis who have a high, medium or low risk of dying from the condition. They hope this will eventually help doctors identify the best treatments for individual patients.

Sepsis, sometimes called blood poisoning, is when the body's immune system over-reacts to an infection, causing inflammation and damage to the body's own tissues and organs. Anyone with an infection can get sepsis, although it is more common in babies and people over 75.

One of the challenges in treating sepsis is that symptoms can develop and worsen extremely quickly. So, a test that can confirm a diagnosis of sepsis before this happens should help reduce the risk of serious complications and, in some cases, deaths.

The test is still experimental. However, early experiments in mice suggest people at a high risk of dying from sepsis might benefit from higher doses of antibiotics than would normally be given.

Sepsis is a medical emergency. Find out more about the symptoms and what to do if you think someone may have sepsis.

The researchers who contributed to the study came from 16 institutions in the US, mainly children's hospitals. The research was led by Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. It was funded by grants from the US National Institutes of Health and Cincinnati Children's Hospital. The study was published in the peer-reviewed journal Science Translational Medicine.

The Mail Online did a good job of reporting a complicated study.

The researchers carried out a series of experiments, testing children with sepsis and then experimenting on mice to explore the results further. This is early-stage experimental research that may one day result in better treatment, but there is much more research to be done.

In earlier experiments, researchers had identified 5 proteins created by the body during sepsis, plus a measure of platelets (components in blood that make clots). They hoped the test, called Persevere II, would work to predict who was at highest risk of dying from sepsis.

They used the test on 461 children admitted to hospitals with sepsis, and divided them into 3 groups high, medium and low risk of death within 28 days. They then looked to see how accurately the test predicted what happened to the children. All children were treated as normal for sepsis in their admitting hospital.

The researchers then developed a mouse equivalent of the test, to see whether it would also predict survival in mice given sepsis in a laboratory experiment. They later investigated whether the higher-risk mice had more inflammation or more bacteria than low-risk mice. In 2 further experiments, they tested whether giving the high-risk mice steroids for inflammation, or higher-dose antibiotics to fight bacteria, changed their chances of survival. They also checked to see whether blocking 1 of the 5 proteins produced by the body and measured in the test affected the outcome.

Finally, researchers checked the results of the children with sepsis. They wanted to see if those classified as high risk by the Persevere II test were more likely to have had bacteria in their blood tests.

The researchers found the Persevere II test worked well to identify the risk level of children with sepsis. Almost all of the patients categorised as low risk survived, while just over half (55%) of those categorised as high risk survived. The test correctly identified as high risk 86% of those who did not survive (86% sensitivity) and correctly identified as low risk 69% of those who survived (69% specificity).

The test also worked well when predicting mice at high and low risk. Further experiments on mice showed high-risk mice had more signs of inflammation in the lungs and throughout the body as well as bigger colonies of bacteria from their infection.

Tests also showed that giving high-risk mice the anti-inflammatory drug dexamethasone or placebo made no difference to their survival, but they were more likely to survive if given high-dose antibiotics.

Mice given a drug to block 1 of the proteins used in the test were more likely to survive for 10 days, but the difference was small enough that the results could have come about by chance.

The researchers found that children who had been identified as high risk by the Persevere II test were more likely to have had bacteria cultured from their blood. While this is not a direct measure of the size of the bacteria colony, larger colony sizes are more likely to be able to be cultured after blood tests.

The researchers said: "On the basis of our findings, we suggest that Persevere II might identify a subgroup of children with septic shock [sepsis] who will benefit most from targeted therapeutic drug monitoring to ensure optimal dosing of antibiotics."

Because little is known about why sepsis happens after some infections, and how exactly it develops, it is hard to develop new treatments. Treatments have stayed the same for many years, and sepsis is a life-threatening condition.

This study is the first for many years to make some progress in our understanding of sepsis. It opens up possibilities for research into potential drugs that could be used in the future. This study also suggests ways in which the Persevere II test could be used to identify people at high risk of life-threatening sepsis, so they can be treated quickly and with the most appropriate dose of antibiotics.

However, this is very early-stage research. Just because a treatment works for mice does not mean it will work for humans. Translating results from a species to another, as the researchers do in this study, does not always work. Higher-dose antibiotics have not been tested for children identified as at high risk of life-threatening sepsis. Higher than usual doses could have damaging effects.

The Persevere II test is still being worked on, so is not yet generally available for doctors to use. In a media interview, a researcher said it is about 2 years away from being made available.

Sepsis can be hard to spot. There are lots of possible symptoms.

Find out more about spotting the signs of sepsis.

Analysis by BazianEdited by NHS Website

See more here:
New blood test could lead to better treatment for sepsis - NHS Website

Stock image.

Miami, FL R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris were hit with a $42.5 million total verdict in a retrial over the 1996 cancer death of a Florida smoker. Gloger v. R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris, 2011-CA-23377.

The award includes $15 million in compensatories awarded Friday, as well as an $11 million punitive award imposed against Philip Morris and $16.5 million in punitives imposed against Reynolds Wednesday for the responsibility jurors found the companies bore for Irene Glogers lung cancer.

Gloger, who had smoked for decades, died at 47, about a year after she quit smoking. Her family contends a tobacco industry-wide conspiracy to hide the dangers of smoking throughout much of the 20th century hooked Gloger to cigarettes and ultimately led to her fatal cancer.

The verdictmore than doubles the $17.5 million jurors awarded in a 2018, CVN-covered trial of the case. That verdict was thrown out in March by Floridas Third District Court of Appeal, which found the trial court had not not properly limited Kenneth Glogers testimony concerning conversations he had with his wifes doctors.

The Gloger case is among thousands that stem from Engle v. Liggett Group Inc., a 1994 Florida state court class-action lawsuit against Philip Morris and other tobacco companies. The state's supreme court ultimately decertified the class, but ruled that so-called Engle progeny cases may be tried individually. Plaintiffs are entitled to the benefit of the jury's findings in the original verdict, including the determination that tobacco companies placed a dangerous, addictive product on the market and conspired to hide the dangers of smoking.

However, in order to be entitled to those findings, plaintiffs must prove the smokers at the heart of their cases suffered from nicotine addiction that caused a smoking-related illness.

The origin of Glogers cancer, as well as what, if any responsibility she bore for her smoking, served as key battle lines in the 12-day trial.

During Fridays closings in the trials first phase, on Engle class membership, King & Spaldings Cory Hohnbaum, representing Reynolds, challenged the claim that Gloger had smoking-related lung cancer, and argued that a mass was never found in Glogers lung. He also contended doctors could not agree on the cell-type of Glogers cancer.

There is confusion, massive confusion among the pathologists about what this was, Hohnbaum said, noting Gloger saw several pathologists during her treatment. You dont need to go talk to multiple pathologists if the pathology is clear. It was never clear.

Arnold & Porters Keri Arnold, representing Philip Morris, added that, regardless of the cancers origin, Gloger knew the dangers of cigarettes, yet chose to continue smoking. Arnold noted that Gloger had been smoking for years by the time she began smoking Philip Morris brand cigarettes. She was an adult, she was married, she had a family, she was a medical professional. She had all the maturity and information she needed to make her own decisions about her own smoking and her own health, Arnold said.

But the Gloger familys attorney, The Ratzan Law Groups Stuart Ratzan, argued Gloger was heavily addicted to cigarettes and unable to stop in time to avoid her cancer. Ratzan walked jurors through Glogers smoking history, which included numerous failed quit attempts. Theres no reason no reason at all for a person to coat their lungs every 30 or 40 minutes, a pack-and-a-half a day for 30 years, if its not for nicotine, Ratzan said. Its the only reason.

And Ratzan argued medical records and pathology reports showed Glogers treating physicians concluded she had lung cancer. He noted one pathology report, on fluid taken from around Glogers lungs, found she had non-small cell carcinoma. It means lung cancer, Ratzan said. And I defy anybody to determine otherwise.

Email Arlin Crisco at acrisco@cvn.com.

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Jury Hands Down $42.5M Total Verdict Against Philip Morris and RJR in Retrial Over Smoker's Cancer Death - CVN News

Wearable, smart technologies are transforming the ability to monitor and improve health, but a decidedly low-tech commodity the humble toilet may have potential to outperform them all.

Thats the conclusion of a team of metabolism scientists at the University of WisconsinMadison and the Morgridge Institute for Research, who are working to put the tremendous range of metabolic health information contained in urine to work for personalized medicine.

Urine contains a virtual liquid history of an individuals nutritional habits, exercise, medication use, sleep patterns and other lifestyle choices. Urine also contains metabolic links to more than 600 human conditions, including some of the major killers such as cancer, diabetes and kidney disease.

The toilet could someday outperform wearable, smart technologies in the ability to monitor and improve health. Photo: Pexels.com

The team has two essential questions. First, can frequent monitoring and testing of urine samples glean useful real-time information about an individuals health? And second, can a technology platform be adapted to toilets that can make the collection process simple, accurate and affordable?

They received some promising answers to the first question in a small pilot study conducted this year, the results of which were published in the Nov. 11 issue of the open access Nature journal npj Digital Medicine. Two research subjects consistently collected all urine samples over a 10-day period and submitted those samples for tests with both gas chromatography and mass spectrometry for a complete readout of their metabolic signatures.

The two subjects also happen to be lead authors on the paper: the Morgridge Institutes Joshua Coon and Ian Miller, data scientist with the Coon research group. Collectively, they provided 110 samples over the 10-day period, and also used wearable technology to track their heart rates, number of daily steps, calorie consumption and sleep patterns.

Joshua Coon believes the smart toilet concept could have major population health implications, possibly providing early warning of viral or bacterial outbreaks.

The results? The samples do indeed contain a remarkable health fingerprint that follows the ebbs and flows of daily life. For example, the subjects kept records of coffee and alcohol consumption, and the biomarkers with a known connection to both of those drinks were abundantly measured. One subject took acetaminophen, which was measured in urine by a spike in ion intensity. They were also able to measure with precision the metabolic outputs from exercise and sleep.

The next step: The research team is designing a smart toilet that will incorporate a portable mass spectrometer that can recognize the individual and process samples across a variety of subjects. They plan to install the toilet in their research building and expand the user group to a dozen or more subjects. Coon says the design is a bit Rube Goldberg-like but functional.

We know in the lab we can make these measurements, says Coon, a UWMadison professor of chemistry and biomolecular chemistry. And were pretty sure we can design a toilet that could sample urine. I think the real challenge is were going to have to invest in the engineering to make this instrument simple enough and cheap enough. Thats where this will either go far or not happen at all.

While the pilot experiment didnt examine health questions, the researchers say many possibilities exist. For example, testing could show how an individual metabolizes certain types of prescription drugs in ways that could be healthy or dangerous. Also, as the population ages and pursues more stay-at-home care, urine tests would indicate whether people are taking their medications properly and if those medications are having their intended effects.

This graphic illustrates how an integrated smart toilet system might work as a real-time method of monitoring health. While the application may be years away, proof of principle is being developed in the lab. Dasom (Somi) Hwang,Joshua Coon Lab

Coon also believes the smart toilet concept could have major population health implications, not unlike the National Institutes of Health All of Us human genome database. If you had tens of thousands of users and you could correlate that data with health and lifestyle, you could then start to have real diagnostic capabilities, he says, adding that it might provide early warning of viral or bacterial outbreaks.

Coon, who runs the National Center for Quantitative Biology of Complex Systems, says the idea of meta-scale urine testing has intrigued him for some time. Josh mentioned this at a group meeting one time and it was met with laughter, Miller recalls. I thought, you know, I kind of like the idea. I already track a lot this stuff in my everyday life.

Adds Coon: So we went out and bought a couple coolers and started collecting.

While the mass spectrometer small molecule analyses are being done on $300,000 machines, Coon says portable mass spectrometer technologies exist at a tenth of that cost. He says that with a market this massive, they could eventually hit a reasonable cost threshold.

Almost every automobile on the road is more complicated than that portable mass spectrometer, he says.

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Can 'smart toilets' be the next health data wellspring? - University of Wisconsin-Madison

CPhI Worldwide has released the fourth part of its 2019 Annual Report. In it experts Peter Soelkner, managing director, Vetter Pharma International; Stuart Needleman, chief commercial officer, Piramal Pharma Solutions; and Adam Bradbury, industry analyst, GlobalData, discuss the future of patient centric CDMOs.In his piece, Bradbury explores how the changing drugs pipeline and increasing diversity of innovators are creating opportunities for the CDMO sector. He asserts that the increase in drug approvals and priority reviews are likely to be beneficial to the CMO industry in the next few years, as manufacturing of these products is often outsourced.In 2018, 34 orphan-designed drug NMEs were approved, the highest between 2009 and 2018; this represented 53% of all NME approvals, said Bradbury. Of these approvals, 65% were outsourced, the strongest outsourcing propensity for orphan NMEs since 2014. Mega cap companies sponsored five Orphan NMEs and only one of these had commercial dose outsourced.Priority review therapies and other accelerated drugs are more likely to be contract manufactured than products that go through standard review. Both small and mid-size cap companies are more likely to outsource their dose manufacturing capabilities and/or expertise. Therefore, small and medium sized pharma companies with priority review therapies represent a likely strong stream of new business for the industry in the near term.According to Bradburys analysis, 23 NMEs were approved with Fast Track status in 2018. This was significantly more than in 2017. Of these products, 70% of them were outsourced, which represents a five-year increase average of 58%. Due to this, the rising number of priority review designations and small cap companies gaining FDA approvals can only be a positive sign for dose CMOs. Similarly, outsourcing percentages for CDMOs of Breakthrough Therapy Designation (BTD) has never been so high. Demand also remains for high potency APIs, of which around 60% are developed for oncology and we continue to see rising demand for CDMOs with containment facilities.In other new implications for the contract services sector, Vetters Peter Soelkner predicts that new drugs will have to be produced using a more patient-centric methodology. Soelkner emphasizes that the use of personalized medicines will mean increasingly individualized dosages and packaging. But he also forewarns that this will necessitate that contract providers and the industry adapt to help reduce the costs per patient.Soelkner says that personalized medicines will require new logistics and manufacturing systems, as each therapy is tailored specifically to an individuals own genetic profile. Looked at more broadly, nearly 40% of the new drug pipeline already involves injectables, and often for smaller patient cohorts. This will continue to present manufacturing challenges, as companies switch from systems designed for larger batches.Such systems will need to allow for the creation of APIs in a small scale and possibly, be directly integrated at the filling site, said Soelkner. However, we believe that for the main disease indications todays existing types of therapies will remain standard procedure. For many diseases individualized personalized medicine is still someway off from becoming clinical routine.Personalized medicine helps avoid unwanted costs for insurance payers, by only prescribing these expensive medications for people who are going to respond to it. But these smaller volume therapies are also simultaneously driving up manufacturing costs per unit for each affected patient. To counter these costs, Soelkner states that increased Digitalization and the use of Artificial Intelligence might help manufacturers and their partners to lower the total cost of production.Digitization and Artificial Intelligence innovations may help manufacturers and their partners enhancing overall productivity and improve cost effectiveness in the future, he said.Stuart Needleman, chief commercial officer, Piramal Pharma Solutions, explores how the patient-centric journey will operate through the pharmaceutical supply chain. He states that there will be a progressive trend across the pharmaceutical industry, with a shift towards lower volume targeted therapies. This has been driven by an increasing amount of research into more complex drugs and compounds.Needleman argues that one approach is to deliver new ways of motivating the workers so that they have a real understanding of the importance of their work and the effect on real world patients.At Piramal Pharma Solutions, Patient Awareness Councils are being introduced across global sites in order to deliver true patient centricity. According to Needleman, These new bodies comprise cross-functional executives and employees, and they act as the patients advocates and ambassadors for patient centricity though development and commercialization. Moving forward in the future, they will have an extremely important role to play in every project, and are tasked with creating, managing and monitoring the best practices for applying patient-centricity to the entire organization.In another emerging patient focused trend on the rise, Needleman also reports that patients are seeking a greater deal of information, calling them the globally informed patient. Consequently, to help improve transparency, we may even see license holders share and celebrate the manufacturing records of CDMO partners.Orhan Caglayan, CPhIs brand directory, added, These results mirror what we are seeing at ICSE the worlds largest contract services exhibition where our exhibitors are reporting robust growth in demand, especially for smaller and medium pharma customers who need specialist partners to help discover, develop and manufacture therapies. It is, of course, also why our event is crucial, as we bring together the contract services community so that attendees can meet multiple potential contract services partners, while also learning about the main trends in the industry. In the next few years, we anticipate extremely good growth for our contract service specialists and we will continue to adapt our content to showcase the newest technologies that help pharma customers advance products more quickly to patients.The complete findings of the CPhI Annual Report are available for free here.

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CDMOs to Benefit From Rising BTDs, Orphan Drugs and Fast Track Status - Contract Pharma

The blood-brain barrier in healthy people is a powerful shield that protects neurons from harmful invaders. But in people with multiple sclerosis (MS), that shield malfunctions, allowing B cells from the immune system to pass into the brain and destroy healthy tissues.

Scientists at the University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre (CRCHUM) have identified a new target that they suggest could be exploited to slow down the flow of B cells into the brains of people with MS. They reported the discovery in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

B cells produce a substance called activated leukocyte cell adhesion molecule (ALCAM) that allows them to migrate into the brain via blood vessels, the researchers found. Blocking ALCAM in mouse models of MS reduced the flow of B cells into the brain and slowed the progression of the disease, they reported.

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RELATED: How new gene discoveries could guide precision medicine in multiple sclerosis

B cells are a major culprit in progressive MS, the most severe form of the disease, and there are drugs on the market designed to deplete them, including Roches Ocrevus. Novartis is in phase 3 trials of Arzerra (ofatumumab), a drug that eliminates B cells by binding to the surface protein CD20. Arzerra is approved to treat chronic lymphocytic leukemia, but Novartis has been gunning for a bigger market opportunity. In September, it released new phase 3 data showing that Arzerra reduced MS relapse rates by more than 50% when compared to Sanofis Aubagio.

Meanwhile, several academic teams are looking to genetics as a path to personalized MS treatment strategies. In October, researchers at Johns Hopkins reported that newly discovered variants in the genes C1, CR1 and C1QA are associated with vision loss in progressive MS. They believe further research into these complement genes could lead to the development of new MS therapies.

Blocking ALCAM could also offer a promising strategy for thwarting B cells in MS, said University of Montreal Professor Alexandre Prat, Ph.D., in a statement. "The molecule ALCAM is expressed at higher levels on the B cells of people with multiple sclerosis, he said. By specifically targeting this molecule, we will now be able to explore other therapeutic avenues for the treatment of this disease."

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Halting the progression of multiple sclerosis by blocking harmful B cells - FierceBiotech

LONDON, Nov. 14, 2019 Lifebit Biotech, a leading innovator in bioinformatics and cognitive software solutions, and Medley Genomics, a company focused on using advanced data analytics to support better diagnosis and treatment of complex diseases, announced today their partnership agreement. The Lifebit-Medley partnership aims at removing the barriers impeding progress in precision medicine where advanced biomedical analysis tools, like HotNet2, must be deployed over distributed and complex data to arrive at breakthrough insights.

Lifebit CEO, Dr Maria Chatzou Dunford, said, We are thrilled to announce our partnership with Medley Genomics, which allows us to bring advanced tools to the biomedical research community, advancing knowledge by powering the investigation of new diagnostic and therapeutic opportunities. Any company or researcher can now discover disease driver genes and novel pathways by utilising the high performance HotNet2 at enterprise scale and over distributed cohorts of patient data without needing to move the data.

Developed by Medley co-founder Dr Ben Raphael, HotNet2 assesses the complex heterogeneous genomic landscape across patient cohorts, including the long tail of disease relevant genes, by building significantly mutated gene subnetworks based on mutational frequencies and known interaction networks. Because HotNet2 comes with many dependencies, installation was complex without Lifebit CloudOS. To increase the power of analysis, experimental setups need to include as many samples as possible. Unless users have endless resources to spend on sequencing and data generation, they would need to combine disconnected data from various public and private sources, presenting a major obstacle to progress.

With Lifebit CloudOS, HotNet2 now runs over distributed data using federated capabilities, providing immediate access to infinite compute resources, said Dr Patrice Milos, Medley Genomics CEO. Increasingly our customers are applying HotNet2 to define subgroups within their patient disease cohorts and to reveal novel biological pathways. Our partnership with Lifebit enables us to reach countless more researchers across our shared communities helping them to simplify their work processes and ultimately bring important discoveries to patients faster.

By deploying HotNet2 with Lifebit CloudOS, analyses are seamlessly executed and distributed data is united through federated analysis data is never transferred and security is assured. This is critical as analyses can run at sample-level within the users cohort or across different patient cohorts, without compromising the data by moving them outside their secure environment. Detailed reports can be generated at scale, including visualizations for each run, and instantly shared for true collaboration across teams. The HotNet2 solution is available to anyone via the Lifebit CloudOS Marketplace.

About Lifebit

Leading life sciences organisations are accelerating their research and discoveries with Lifebit. Lifebit CloudOS is the federated, integrated solution for fully FAIR omics and biomedical analysis, allowing anyone to streamline and scale analyses faster, cheaper, and securely in their own data environments. Lifebit AI-Engine has deep-learned the biology behind drug response and is helping pharmaceutical companies repurpose drugs, validate targets and optimise vaccines by reasoning about omics data like humans would. Headquartered in London, UK, Lifebits ecosystem of employees, partners, and customers spans 15 countries. Visitlifebit.aiLifebit press contact:[emailprotected]

About Medley Genomics

Medley Genomics Inc., based in Providence, Rhode Island, US, provides cutting edge algorithms and software to deliver on the promise of individualization of therapy. The companys approaches provide deep insight into the heterogeneity of disease as well as defining unique disease mechanisms across disease cohorts. Applied first in oncology, these insights are necessary for optimizing targeted and combination therapies, personalized cancer vaccines and immunotherapies to effectively treat the total disease burden and offer hope of lasting cures for patients. Visit Medleygenomics.com Medley press contact:[emailprotected]

Source: Medley Genomics

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Lifebit, Medley Genomics Partner to Deliver Solution Supporting Diagnostic and Therapeutic Discoveries - HPCwire

TOKYO & BASEL, Switzerland & MANNHEIM, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--NEC Corporation (NEC; TOKYO: 6701), a leader in IT and network technologies, and VAXIMM AG, a Swiss/German biotech company focused on developing oral T-cell immunotherapies, today announced that the companies have signed a strategic clinical trial collaboration agreement and an equity investment agreement to develop novel personalized neoantigen cancer vaccines.

Under the terms of the collaboration agreement, which is non-exclusive to both parties, NEC will provide funding for a Phase I clinical trial. NEC and VAXIMM will co-develop personalized cancer vaccines using NECs cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) technology, which is utilized in its Neoantigen Prediction System, and VAXIMMs proprietary T-cell immunotherapy technology. The vaccines are planned to be evaluated in a Phase I clinical trial in various solid tumors. VAXIMM will be responsible for conducting the clinical trial, which is expected to be initiated in 2020.

NEC has the option for development and commercialization rights to the program worldwide, except for China and other Asian territories outside of Japan.

Osamu Fujikawa, Senior Vice President, NEC Corporation, said: Cancer is consistently one of the most serious healthcare challenges, with millions of new cases diagnosed worldwide annually. NECs core technology is well positioned for the development of personalized medicine, and we are strongly committed to delivering effective treatments for cancer patients. We are delighted to be working with VAXIMM in order to develop an optimal immunotherapy for each individual patient.

Heinz Lubenau, PhD, Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder of VAXIMM, said: We are excited to enter this alliance with NEC and to have their strong support of VAXIMM. NECs novel AI technology will enable not only the identification but also the prioritization of neoantigens from each patient, facilitating the optimal potential treatment for each individual. Once the list of neoantigens is available, we will be able to apply our technology to quickly produce a personalized vaccine. Individualized therapy is at the cutting edge of cancer treatment today, and, with this collaboration, we are able to further contribute to this approach.

Notes:

About NECs AI Drug Development BusinessFor more information, please visit https://www.nec.com/en/global/solutions/ai-drug/

About NEC's Neoantigen Prediction SystemNECs neoantigen prediction utilizes its proprietary AI which is combined with NEC OncoImmunity ASs bioinformatics pipelines making it the leading neoantigen prediction system in the field. NEC comprehensively evaluates candidate neoantigens, which allows it to effectively prioritize numerous candidate neoantigens identified in a single patient.

Press release:NEC acquires Norwegian bioinformatics company, OncoImmunity AShttps://www.nec.com/en/press/201907/global_20190729_01.html

About NEC CorporationFor more information, visit NEC at http://www.nec.com.

About VAXIMMFor more information, please see http://www.vaximm.com.

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NEC and VAXIMM Announce Collaboration to Advance Personalized Neoantigen Cancer Vaccines - Business Wire

More powerful than the march of mighty armies is an idea whose time has come

Victor Hugo

The intellectual legacy of Rosamund Snow

Rosamund Snow was a social scientist with type 1 diabetes; she was an academic at the University of Oxford and a Patient Editor for The BMJ. She led the field in questioning conventional approaches to patient and public involvement in research and in mainstreaming a patient-led way of doing research.

Rosamunds PhD was entitled The role of patient expertise inside and outside the health system. She addressed, from the patients perspective and using critical social science methodology, what it was like to attend a diabetes clinic. [1] This work led to a widely-cited academic paper What happens when patients know more than their doctor? which addressed knowledge imbalances between educated patients and non-specialist GPs. [2] She was critical of partnership approaches to research priority-setting, which she viewed as both tokenistic and paternalistic (she claimed that patients had been accused, for example, of proposing the wrong kind of research questions). [3] At The BMJ, she led a radical re-engineering of processes for including the patient voice in the journal. She co-authored (with me) another highly-cited paper addressing the question of whether evidence-based medicine is biased against the patient. [4]

Tragically, Rosamund died on 2nd February 2017. Her parents made a significant financial donation to help create an institute in her memory; this funding is being used to pump-prime the initiative with some doctoral fellowships. The applications are still open until January 2020. [5]

Patient involvement in researcha brief history

There is a well-described mismatch between the research that is done on a particular condition and the research that patients themselves would like to see done. [4,6] Formal research priority-setting partnerships aim to reduce this mismatch by involving patients in the selection of topics for research. [7, 8] The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) has strongly supported patient and public involvement (PPI) in research, produced national benchmarks for PPI,funded INVOLVE (www.invo.org.uk) which promotes patient involvement in all aspects of biomedical research, and written up some exemplar case studies.[9, 10, 11] Co-design and co-delivery of research with patients and communities using partnership models is increasingly popular. [12,13]

While these and similar approacheshave merits, all are designed and run by researchers (with greater or lesser efforts to achieve democratic governance); they are not led by patients. [14] Sarah White distinguishes nominal involvement of patients and the public (undertaken to confer legitimacy on a project), instrumental involvement (to improve its delivery and/or efficiency), representative involvement (to avoid creating dependency) and transformative involvement (to enable citizens to influence their own destiny). [15] Arguably, most of what is called patient involvement in medical research is nominal or instrumental in nature.

Transformative involvement of patients: a question of power

Social scientists have highlighted the persistence of power imbalances when well-meaning clinicians and scientists seek to involve patients in research. [16] In a paper called Beware Zombies and Unicorns, Mary Madden and Ewen Speed cautioned against aligning with an uncritical (instrumental) agenda for PPI and called for models of patient-led research that address fundamental questions about who holds the power and sets the agenda in research. [17] Helga Nowotny, past President of the European Research Council, has highlighted the need to democratise expertise when undertaking science with citizens (everyone is an expertin different aspects of the problem). [18] Such partnerships, run democratically and with careful attention to the processes of governance and power-sharing, would align well with Simon Locks call for a Peoples Research Council. [19]

A different kind of knowledge

Researchers in all fields become patients (and vice versa). Patient-led research may therefore include conventional forms of objective knowledge such as randomised controlled trials or bench science in the researchers own illness. More uniquely, patients bring experiential knowledgethe subjective, lived-body knowledge of what it is like to live with a particular illness or condition.

Experiential knowledge can be systematically explored through phenomenology (the study of what we can discern through our consciousness and senses [20]) and auto-ethnography (the study of ones own experience in an unfamiliar world [21]). Experiential knowledge is complementary to knowledge generated in the laboratory or the clinical trial, potentially producing multiple realities as accounts of the patient experience clash with textbook descriptions of disease or the unsurfaced assumptions of clinicians and researchers. [22]

Another kind of knowledge that is unique to the patient experience (and ripe for research) is the collective knowledge generated by online communities. The growth of the social web has enabled the emergence of large (and increasingly research-aware) communities of individuals with a particular disease. Some of these communities share ideas for research and self-organise to undertake self-experimentation, self-surveillance and even analysis of their own genomic data. [23, 24]

Governing patient-led research: scientific rigour and ethics

If patient groups are to undertake and/or commission research, academic input (to match patients priorities and questions with appropriate theories and methodologies, and to support analysis and writing up) and capacity-building (training patients in research methods and techniques) are surely essential to ensure that patient-led research is scientifically defensible (and hence has credibility with clinicians and policymakers). [25,26]

The question of what counts as scientific rigour may itself be contested if the term is defined narrowly using the traditional scientific criteria of objectivity and distance. Martha Nussbaum, for example, has vigorously challenged the (arguably, flawed and gendered) view of science as necessarily dispassionate, uninvolved and emotionless; she considers emotion to be a dimension of scholarship without which science is impoverished and uncreative. [27]

Patient-led research raises both similar and different ethical challenges to conventional research. A comparison of patient-led research with standard research, for example, revealed six areas that are of potential relevance to ethical oversight: institutionalization, state recognition and support, incentive structures, openness, bottom-up approach, and self-experimentation. [23]

The productive role of conflict

In the best research programmes, the (productive) conflicts generated when patients experiential knowledge meets conventional research paradigms not only informs the wider research agenda, but transforms conventional researchers into more creative scientists who prioritise different questions and study them in imaginative and flexible ways. Vololona Rabeharisoa distinguishes between conventional researchers in the lab and patient groups, which she calls researchers in the wild. [22] Citing her own empirical work on the research interactions in rare diseases, she comments:

We witnessed the trajectory of scientists who had started on the bench as biologists, then, as they exchanged with patient organizations, oriented themselves towards the clinic, and then returned to the bench with new research questions stemming from their observations, enriched by patients observations.

Notwithstanding the potential for such creative conflict, a significant challenge for patient-led research is that it is often (understandably) underpinned by cognitive passionsthat is, deeply-held, emotionally-charged perspectives on a condition. While such passions give energy and focus to a patient-led research agenda, they may mean that patients find it difficult to approach research into their own condition with the equipoise expected in science. However, while one high-profile patient-scientist conflict seemed to generate negative tension (chronic fatigue syndrome [28]); there are many counter-examples of conflicts that were highly productive, including in rare diseases,HIV/AIDS, mental health,and breast cancer. [22,29,30,31]

In short, there are many questionsboth scientific (in the broad sense) and philosophicalthat could be taken forward by an institute for patient-led research.

Whilst substantial additional funds will need to be raised to create a full-blown institute, a preliminary vision for such an institute is set out in Box 1.

Such an institute would:

Trish Greenhalgh is professor of primary care health sciences at the University of Oxford.

Twitter: @trishgreenhalgh

References:

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Trish Greenhalgh: Towards an institute for patient-led research - The BMJ - The BMJ

Which genetic changes predispose to disease? How do characters in a novel relate to each other? Which wine and cheese go well together?

Turns out, theres an app for that and its about to become far more versatile as University of Toronto researchers work to release it to a wider community with the support of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

CalledCytoscape, the software in question is already an essential tool for viewing networks in biology, including gene networks that hold clues about how different genes co-operate to sustain health and how these networks change in disease. But like most research software, its currently a desktop application that has to be installed and updated, and doesnt work on phones or tablets.

Today, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative announced it is providingU of TsGary BaderandHannesRst, both researchers at the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, with US$150,000 each to create a cloud-based Cytoscape and Open MS.Co-founded by Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg and his spouse, Priscilla Chan, the initiative seeks to harness technology to accelerate progress in science.

The future of data analytics should be that it is easier to do, easier to share information and it should be easier for people to collaborate, says Bader, a professor of computational biology who is cross-appointed to the department of molecular genetics in the Faculty of Medicine and the department of computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science, andholds the Ontario Research Chair in Biomarkers of Disease.

Just as web-based cloud computing has transformed how we listen to music and store data, Bader, whose team is developing the web-based Cytoscape Explorer, says that freedom fromhaving to keep track of files and e-mail them back and forth will boost creativity and speed up science.

Because your document lives on the cloud, the latest version is already there, and you can access it anytime, anywhere. It makes it easier to see what everyone else is doing and youre exposed to more ideas that changes the way you do things in a positive way.

Initially designed for genomics researchers, Cytoscape incorporates the basic principles of network theory and can be easily adapted for other applications. Besides biology, it has been used in business, social studies and marketing, as well as mapping how characters in an epic science fiction novel relate to each other.

We are building the foundation for other people to do research,saysHannesRst,an assistant professor of computational biology at the Donnelly Centre(photo by Jovana Drinjakovic)

Bader even adapted the softwareto find optimal wine and cheese combinations for a dinner party.

Research analytics have been slow to move to the cloud because it is difficult to obtain funding purely for software development unless it promises to reveal new insights. Yet cloud analytics are desperately needed to support increasingly collaborative research often involving teams scattered around the world.

We are building the foundation for other people to do research, says Rst, an assistant professor of computational biology who is also cross-appointed to the departments of molecular genetics and computerscience, and whose team is developingOpenMS, a free tool for biomarker analysis.

With more than one million downloads since launching in 2001, Cytoscapes popularity is only likely to grow with the move to the cloud.

We really think that making this available on the web will allow users who never previously discovered the software, and never used it on the desktop, to easily access it, says Bader, who joined the Cytoscape team in the early 2000s and is leading the newly funded project with Dexter Pratt, a software engineer in the group of Trey Ideker, a professor at the University of California, San Diego, and a co-founder of Cytoscape.

If scientists knew what healthy looked like at the molecular level, they might be able to spot disease as it begins to develop and potentially halt it.

Molecular profiling of human tissue blood, for example produces vast amounts of complex data calling for sophisticated analysis tools such as OpenMS, a leading free software for the analysis of data produced by mass spectrometry, which identifies and counts molecules based on their unique mass-to-charge ratio.

Composed of a set of algorithms that can be rearranged into different workflows, Open MS can be tailored to individual user data. Butin its current form, it requires a certain level of coding knowledge, discouraging uptake among users without programming experience.

The cloud version will have no such obstacles.

We want to make OpenMS user-friendly, using a graphic user interface where users can click on buttons to start their analysis instead of typing commands on the command line, says Rst, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Mass Spectrometry-based Personalized Medicine.

Programming-savvy users will be able to inspect and modify the source code to their needs.

To set up OpenMS on the cloud, Rst will take advantage of so-called Docker containers, which are sets of code that enable standardized software packaging so that it runs the same way on any platform.

The software will be hosted on Niagara, a supercomputer cluster at U of T and part of ComputeCanada, the high-performance computing infrastructure established by the federal government.

The overarching goal of Rsts research is to identify early biomarkers of diabetes and cancer.

We want to take peoplesbody fluids and generate a metabolic profile that we can track over time how people change, he says.

His team recently acquired a state-of-the-art mass spectrometry instrument worth $1 million, with support from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and U of Ts Faculty of Medicine. The instrument, referred to among lab members as the space ship for its futuristic look, can detect trace amounts of biomolecules for more accurate profiling.

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With the help of Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, U of T researchers develop data tools to accelerate science - News@UofT

The use of liquid biopsy and ctDNA is a promising tool designed to improve diagnostic, prognostic and predictive values in many types of tumors. We believe that ctDNA could be a powerful tool to help detect disease earlier and provide information and clarity when additional treatment is not needed.

DANBURY, Conn. (PRWEB) November 14, 2019

A promising new non-invasive diagnostic tool designed to detect womens cancers, even at the earliest stages of disease development or their recurrence, is attracting interest and attention.

Researchers at Danbury Hospitals Rudy L. Ruggles Biomedical Research Institute (Ruggles Research Institute), now part of Nuvance Health, and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have shown that an early detection tool for gynecological cancers, developed by the team, may also be used to determine whether chemotherapy and other invasive treatments are required for patients following an initial diagnosis. According to a just published study in the journal Cold Spring Harbor Molecular Case Studies, researchers believe that circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) biomarkers can provide an additional source of information that could help avoid both misdiagnoses and prevent overtreatment.

Ovarian cancer is among the most lethal cancers, with 70 percent of women experiencing a recurrence of the disease within 18 months. This poor outcome often follows a grueling treatment regimen which can include surgeries, multiple rounds of platinum-based chemotherapy, radiation, CT and PET scans, biopsies, blood draws and other tests and treatments that affect patients physical and emotional health, well-being and quality of life.

Often described as a silent killer, the majority of women are diagnosed at the later stages of the disease. Further, diagnosing ovarian cancer presents unique challenges for physicians as symptoms are often non-specific, such as abdominal bloating, indigestion, changes in appetite, and back pain. Researchers from the Ruggles Research Institute and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai believe that liquid biopsy, using personalized ctDNA biomarkers based on an individuals specific tumor genetic signature, would lead to greater diagnostic accuracy.

The case study focused on a patient who initially presented with an unexplained whole-body rash and multiple uninformative dermatologic examinations, biopsies and treatments which eventually led to a diagnosis of ovarian cancer and surgery. Within a day following her debulking surgery, the rash which the patient had endured over a three-month period resolved. The patient received chemotherapy and she was clinically diagnosed as cancer free. Surprisingly and unexpectedly, one year later the rash reappeared, prompting speculation of tumor recurrence and a concern to initiate aggressive secondary treatment. However, the gynecologic oncology research team sought to use cutting-edge molecular techniques to better examine if her cancer had truly recurred. Using genomics-based testing and bio-banked tumor and blood samples which had been stored from the patient throughout the course of her care, researchers developed exquisitely sensitive and patient-specific ctDNA biomarkers which could detect even traces of her cancer if they were present in her bloodstream. Using these markers, they could demonstrate that no traces of cancer were detectable despite the presence of the patients unexplained rash. No additional treatment or chemotherapy would be prescribed. Now, two years after the patients original surgery, and with additional negative ctDNA findings, the patient remains healthy with no evidence of disease recurrence.

According to Dr. John Martignetti, Director of the Laboratory for Translational Research at the Ruggles Biomedical Research Institute and an expert in human genetics and genomic sciences who led the research team, these results from a preliminary single-case study are encouraging.

The use of liquid biopsy and ctDNA is a promising tool designed to improve diagnostic, prognostic and predictive values in many types of tumors, he said, Based on these results, as well as our longitudinal precision medicine study which includes biobanking of tumor and blood samples from our patients, we believe that ctDNA could be a powerful tool for not only helping to detect disease earlier but just as importantly, to provide information and clarity on when additional treatment is not needed.

Catch up on the latest news at Danbury Hospital.

CONTACTAmy ForniManager, Public Relations203-739-7478Amy.Forni@nuvancehealth.org

Andrea RynnDirector, Public & Government Relations203-739-7919Andrea.Rynn@nuvancehealth.org

About John Martignetti, MD, PhDThe Rudy L. Ruggles Biomedical Research Institutes Laboratory for Translational Medicine is headed by Dr. John Martignetti. He has assembled a research group here at the institute and with his clinical and research colleagues here and at the Mount Sinai Health System has established a state-of-the-art precision medicine program linking gynecologic/oncology patient clinical care and genomic information to improve treatment and surveillance.

About the Rudy L. Ruggles Biomedical Research InstituteRudy L. Ruggles Biomedical Research Institute at Western Connecticut Health Network, now part of Nuvance Health, aims at advancing the health of our community by performing innovative translational research with the goal of improving the current standard of patient care. The Rudy L. Ruggles Biomedical Research Institute includes a team of renowned scientists known for their groundbreaking work and expertise in various research disciplines that include Cancer and Lyme disease. The research institute encourages scientific collaboration/partnerships with other research organizations in an effort to pioneer discovery and foster creative thinking. Research institute's leadership and management team are committed to promoting excellence in research by attracting highly qualified researchers, residents and physicians to the institution.

About Nuvance HealthNuvance Health is a family of award-winning nonprofit hospitals and healthcare professionals in the Hudson Valley and western Connecticut. Nuvance Health combines highly skilled physicians, state-of-the-art facilities and technology, and compassionate caregivers dedicated to providing quality care across a variety of clinical areas, including Cardiovascular, Neurosciences, Oncology, Orthopedics, and Primary Care.

Nuvance Health has a network of convenient hospital and outpatient locations Danbury Hospital, New Milford Hospital, Norwalk Hospital and Sharon Hospital in Connecticut, and Northern Dutchess Hospital, Putnam Hospital Center and Vassar Brothers Medical Center in New York plus multiple primary and specialty care physician practice locations, including The Heart Center, a leading provider of cardiology care, and two urgent care offices. Non-acute care is offered through various affiliates, including the Thompson House for rehabilitation and skilled nursing services, and the Home Care organizations. For more information about Nuvance Health, visit our website.

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Danbury Hospital Researchers On Track Developing Tool For More Precise Diagnosis Of Gynecologic Cancers - PR Web

SNOQUALMIE, Wash., Nov. 12, 2019 /PRNewswire/ --The Washington State Veterinary Medical Association (WSVMA) held the Pacific Northwest Veterinary Conference in Tacoma, Wash., Sept. 27 Sept. 29. Veterinarians, veterinary staff, and citizens were honored at WSVMA's award ceremonies on Friday, Sept. 27.

Dr. Christine Wilford, veterinarian at Island Cats Veterinary Hospital in Mercer Island, Wash., received the 2019 Veterinarian of the Year Award. The award is presented in recognition of an outstanding career in veterinary medicine and contributions made to their practice, stakeholders, and other service directly benefiting their community. Dr. Wilford is a consummate, caring, and dedicated professional who created the national model to address the free-roaming cat reproduction and resulting kitten mortality through her founding of the Feral Cat Spay/Neuter Project, based in Lynnwood, Wash. She also served the Western Washington veterinary community through service in the Puget Sound Veterinary Medical Association as president and chair of their long-time, high-quality continuing education program.

Dr. Bryan K. Slinker, interim Provost of Washington State University (WSU) and former Dean of WSU's College of Veterinary Medicine, received the 2019 Distinguished Achievement award. The award was presented to recognize Dr. Slinker's dedication and outstanding contributions to the veterinary profession and Washington veterinarians through multiple accomplishments, including the work of the Paul G. Allen School to eliminate rabies by 2030, growing the College through new departments and capital projects, enhancing training for veterinary students by developing partnerships with humane societies, and establishing a One Health partnership with Univ. of Washington to provide side-by-side healthcare for people with pets who are experiencing homelessness.

The Clinical Simulation Center Team at Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine was awarded the 2019 Faculty Member of the Year Award. The Center is led by Dr. Julie Cary and team members Dr. Robert Keegan and Lethea Russell, LVT. The Clinical Simulation Center includes experiential, simulation training in clinical communication, basic surgical skills, anesthesia and critical care activities, and ultrasound and endoscopy diagnostic skills.

Jess Hanson, licensed veterinary technician at Olympia Veterinary Specialists The Cancer Center, received the 2019 Distinguished Veterinary Staff Award. Mr. Hanson is recognized for his outstanding animal handling skills, exceptional technical skills, compassionate and educational interactions with animal families and staff, and his unparalleled high level of staff leadership.

Veterinarians, technicians and staff from the organization Feral Cats Spay/Neuter Project (FCS/NP), Lynnwood, Wash., were presented the 2019 WSVMA Humane Animal Welfare Award in recognition of their exemplary service to the organization and the community. FCS/NPwas the first free standing clinic that is dedicated to providing free spay/neuter surgery for free-roaming cats in a safe, high quality, humane environment.

Jay Jones, long-tenured professional at Hill's Pet Nutrition in Kent, Wash., received the 2019 Allied Industry Partner Award in recognition of his quiet, yet dedicated and faithful service to Washington veterinarians and their patients.

The WSVMA is a statewide, not-for-profit, professional organization for the benefit of veterinary medicine. The WSVMA has over 1,800 members, representing veterinarians, veterinary students and a broad spectrum of veterinary practice. The Association's mission is to "advance the cause of veterinary medicine to better the lives of those touched by it." Visit the WSVMA Web site, http://www.wsvma.org, to learn more about the association, veterinary medicine, and animal care.

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Washington State's Veterinary Association Announces Annual Award Winners - KHQ Right Now

Since the launch of Disney+ on Tuesday, there have been a lot of questions swirling around the internet about how to use the app, how to get your Verizon free trial, and what the heck MacClunkey means. But so far, I havent seen anyone asking the most pressing question of all: Can I feed my dog spaghetti to recreate the famous spaghetti dinner scene in The Lady and the Tramp?

Dont worry Even though you didnt ask, we here at Decider are ever vigilant, so we called up a vet to get the definitive answer. Karyn Bischoff, 50, is a licensed veterinarian and an associate professor at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, where she is also the diagnostic toxicologist at Cornell Animal Health Diagnostic Center. Basically, that means people from all over the world go to her to figure out if whatever food-substance their pet got into is going to be dangerous for them. The only person who gets weirder questions than me, I think, is probably the parasitologist, said Bischoff.

I was surprised to learn that Bischoff has never before been asked if its safe for pet-owners to feed their dog a candlelit spaghetti-and-meatball dinner, as Academy Award-winning actor F. Murray Abraham did in the 2019 live-action remake of The Lady and the Tramp, which is now streaming on Disney+. Bischoff, who is clearly an excellent vet, generously offered to test some safe spaghetti on her own doggo, a five-year-old black rescue dog named Simon Puppychan. I eagerly accepted the offer and asked Bischoff to snap some pictures to document her findings.

So if you want to know how to safely recreate The Lady and the Tramp spaghetti scene on your own dog, heres the best way to do that, in Bischoffs expert opinion.

In The Lady and the Tramp, the Italian restaurant owner Tony (Abraham) and his waiter (Arturo Castro) bring our fuzzy heroes a heaping plate of the spaghetti special. Bischoff advises pet owners to stick to small portions. I only give him about a half a cup of spaghetti. Hes got a regular diet, I dont want him to get overweight, and hes not used to eating people food, so I dont want him to upset his stomach. So I gave him a puppy-sized portion.

Its impossible to know what exactly is in the sauce of Tonys specialit appears to be standard marinarabut heres where Bischoff warns pet owners to proceed with caution. The biggest concern, Bischoff stressed, is to avoid onions and garlic.

[Onions and garlic] damage blood cells in dogs. Very small amounts are alright there was probably a little bit of garlic in the tomato sauce he got, but not very much so I would stay away from the scampi sauces and pesto sauces. Stick with a tomato-vegetable sauce that doesnt have very much onions or garlicor preferably no onions or garlic in it. The other thing I would avoid would be the hot sauces, the Arrabbiata sauces, and anything too much capsaicin in themred pepper and things like that. Most animals dont like spicy food at all, and too much spicy food in someones whos not used to it can cause inflammation. I just used a little bit of canned marinara. A little bit of parmesan cheese on top is OK.

Of course, Tony decides to go heavy on the meatballs for his furry friends, butBischoff decided to skip the meatballs, and suggests meat be used sparingly. I would use moderation with any kind of meatballs or sausage or anything that might be really fatty because dogs who are on a regular diet of dog food, she said. Theyre not going to be used to the high amount of fat in people food. And be cautious about using meatballs that have a lot of garlic, just like the sauce.

What about the complimentary Italian breadsticks that come with Lady and Tramps meal? Again, be cautious with garlic bread, but just a little bit of breadsticksif its not really greasy or really spicyshouldnt be a problem.

Lady and Tramp dig into their piping hot meal right away, accompanied by an accordion and mandolin serenade. But Biscoff says you should wait to serve your guests at home. Make it cold for them, said Bischoff. They dont need really hot food. I didnt want him to eat spaghetti that was way too hot, so he got to eat his spaghetti after I was done with mine.

Im not pointing fingers at any possibly insane Italian restaurant owners, but that sounds like a much more normal way to feed a dog spaghetti.

The dogs in the new Lady and the Tramp had CGI mouths to help them slurp spaghetti, but Bischoff said thats not biologically accurate. Adult dogs cant suck up noodles the way people do, they have to use other mechanical forces. Simon Puppychan used momentum and gravity: He would grab a noodle in his mouth and then jerk his head back to get the noodle airborne and catch the noodle in his open mouth. He seemed to like the sauce more than the noodles.

Though he didnt fall in love with any lady puppychans, Bischoff said Simon Puppychan thoroughly enjoyed his special meal with no negative side effects. He ate the whole thing, and he was fine this morning. He went up to doggy daycare and was his normal self today. He had no ill-effects from having his little cup of spaghetti last night.

There you have it, folks! Dogs can eat spaghetti, and it is very possible to safely recreate the Lady and the Tramp spaghetti scene, according to a licensed vet and diagnostic toxicologist. Just dont do it all the time, maybe skip the dessert, and definitely skip the wine.

Watch The Lady and the Tramp on Disney+

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Can Dogs Eat Spaghetti Like in 'Lady and the Tramp'? We Asked a Vet - Decider

At CSU, the research will include a multidisciplinary team of at least 20 researchers, students and staff, including Assistant Professors Michael Lyons and Brooke Anderson, Research Scientists Carolina Mehaffy and Andres Obregon Henao, Associate Professor Diane Ordway, and Corey Broeckling, director of the Proteomics and Metabolomics Facility.

Henao-Tamayo, whose TB research has been focused on vaccines, said the project aims to combine expertise from all over the world. It will include experiments to better understand previous research she conducted in collaboration with the late Ian Orme, a CSU University Distinguished Professor, to study environmental mycobacteria, which live in water and soil, and how these organisms may interfere immunologically with the protection that the BCG vaccine provides against TB.

Podell, who earned doctorates in veterinary medicine and pathology from CSU, said the initiative will be perhaps the most comprehensive pathology assessment of vaccine and TB immunity ever done.

Podell and Henao-Tamayo said that the award reflects not only the outstanding reputation of CSUs Mycobacteria Research labs, but also provides a boost of recognition for the program.

Brendan and I were both trained in these labs, and were now leading the charge on this new research, said Henao-Tamayo.

Additional partners include Oxford University; Public Health England; Statistical Center for HIV/AIDS Research and Prevention at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center; Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard; Denver Veterans Affairs Medical Center; National Jewish Health in Denver, and La Jolla Institute for Immunology.

NIAID recently awarded contracts totaling $30 million for the first year to provide up to seven years of support for three Immune Mechanisms of Protection Against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (IMPAc-TB) Centers. The Centers aim to better explain the immune responses required for protection from TB-causing Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Seattle Childrens Hospital will lead research for the other two centers.

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CSU lands $1.2 million in NIH funding to advance work on a new tuberculosis vaccine - Source

If you have newborn puppies either in your home or on the way, you're likely "nesting," getting ready for the tiny, squeaking balls of fur. Where will they sleep? How often will they eat? Will they need blankets? How will you know if they're healthy?

Yes, in an ideal world, spay and neuter programs would be everywhere, but sometimes puppies happen. Maybe you're fostering a pregnant dog or are taking care of orphaned puppies. In any case, the puppies are here, so this is how to care for your newborn canine babies.

Dogs are pregnant for about nine weeks, so that's how long puppies have to develop inside their mothers. When they're born, they still have a lot of work to do. In the sense of development, "a newborn puppy is not unlike a premature child," Dr. Margret Casal, associate professor of medical genetics at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Veterinary Medicine, explains to PetMD.

Puppies are born blind and mostly deaf and without any teeth. But even though they can't see or hear very well, they can make noise. They make mewling, little sounds.

Newborn puppies will open their eyes usually between 10-14 days old. Their eyes are a bluish-gray, hazy color and they can't see very well at first, reports Spruce Pets. A puppy's vision will gradually improve and his eyes will turn their true color between 8-10 weeks of age.

Newborn puppies eat every couple of hours. (Photo: Nooper/Shutterstock)

A mother dog's milk gives puppies everything they need for the first four weeks of their lives. Although newborn puppies can't walk, they scoot around on their bellies and instinctively find their mother's milk.

Puppies usually nurse every couple of hours and sleep the rest of the time. To make sure puppies are getting enough milk, check them every few hours to make sure they are warm and nursing.

If any puppies are crying or seem cold, VCA Hospitals recommends putting them on the mother's back teats because they have the most milk. Also check often to make sure they aren't being pushed away by other puppies.

You also can weigh newborn puppies every few days to make sure they are gaining weight. Use a kitchen scale when they are tiny. It depends on the breed, but most puppies should double their birth weight in the first week, says PetMD. They should gain 10% to 15% of birth weight daily, according to WebMD.

Keep puppies on their stomachs when feeding them from a bottle. (Photo: Olga Mazina/Shutterstock)

If something has happened to the mother, raising orphaned puppies can be very heart-warming, but also difficult to do. The puppies must be fed every couple of hours. If you've never done it before, work with your veterinarian or a rescue group that specializes in puppies for advice.

You'll feed newborn puppies milk replacement formula that is made just for puppies. Prepare the formula as directed on the package and use the guidelines suggesting how much to give the puppy. Generally, it's 1 cc of formula for every ounce of body weight, according to Best Friends Animal Society.

Don't feed cow's milk to puppies. It doesn't have the same nutrients as dog's milk, points out the AKC, and doesn't have enough calories, calcium or phosphorus for growing puppies.

Feed the puppy with a bottle or syringe, slowly offering milk while the puppy is on his stomach. Don't feed him on his back or he could get milk in his lungs. Be careful not to feed him quickly, which could cause choking. Burp the puppy at the end of each feeding by putting him on your shoulder and slowly rubbing his back until he releases air.

For step-by-step tips, visit Best Friends for newborn puppy feeding and care instructions.

Puppies sleep in a pile to keep warm. (Photo: Anna Hoychuk/Shutterstock)

It's very important that the puppies stay in a warm room. If they are with their mother, they will try to stay snuggled up with her and rely on her body heat and each other to stay warm. They can't regulate their own body temperature, so they depend on outside sources for warmth. Have you ever seeing a pile of puppies? They like to snuggle for the warmth and comfort.

When mom leaves to go outside or just get a break, it's important that they have another source for heat. You can either keep the room warm or put a heat lamp over the area where the puppies are being kept.

VCA suggests that the temperature be around 85 to 90 degrees F (29.5 to 32 degrees C) for the first few days. After that, it can be lowered to about 80 F (26.7 C) by the end of the first week or so to about 72 F (22.2 C) by the end of the fourth week.

A mother dog takes care of her puppies' bodily functions. (Photo: WilleeCole Photography/Shutterstock)

Newborn puppies need help to go to the bathroom. Their mother does this by licking them, which stimulates them to urinate and defecate. If the puppies are orphaned, you can help them by dipping a washcloth or cotton ball in warm water, then gently massaging their bottoms after feeding.

It's very important that you do this because puppies can't do this without help until they are about 3 or 4 weeks old.

You no doubt will be wondering when newborn puppies can go outside to the bathroom and play.

Puppies need a lot of upbeat interaction with other dogs especially during the key socialization period when they're between 9 and 14 weeks. But they are also susceptible to illnesses before they are fully vaccinated, which usually isn't until they are around 16 weeks old.

Your vet likely will say it's OK for your puppy to be outdoors in your own yard as long as you haven't had a lot of other dogs around. But you'll want to carry your puppy when going for walks or going in and out of the vet's office until he's had all his shots.

Mary Jo DiLonardo writes about everything from health to parenting and anything that helps explain why her dog does what he does.

How to take care of newborn puppies

Puppies are born blind and mostly deaf, so they rely on you to meet all of their needs. From feeding to warmth, here's how to care for a newborn puppy.

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How to take care of newborn puppies - Mother Nature Network

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Nanoform, a Finnish nanotechnology and drug particle engineering company, has won the prestigious Excellence in Pharma Award for Formulation at the 16th CPhI Pharma Awards which took place in Germany this November.

The prize sees world-renowned innovative companies competing against one another. This year Nanoforms ingenious medicine enabling nanotechnology, in the form of its CESS nanonization technology, won the highly contested award.

Who are Nanoform?

International pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies are well aware of the work that Nanoform dedicates itself to. Nanoform partners with businesses with the aim to boost their molecules formulation performance as well as to reduce clinical attrition. Nanoform is committed to working with international companies to provide them with cutting-edge, innovative solutions for the development and delivery of drugs.

The technology that won it the esteemed prize at the CPhI Pharma Awards was its multi-patented nanonization process which was designed with the capability of substantially improving dissolution rates and bioavailability, having the impact of doubling the number of drug compounds reaching clinical trials. In addition, the innovation has been shown to add value to the drug delivery spaces of pulmonary, transdermal, ocular and blood-brain barrier.

For this innovative new process, Nanoform surpassed the efforts of other respected companies such as Cambrex, Lonza Capsugel, and Glatt Pharmaceutical Services, who had also entered in the same category.

The Innovation

The new CESS, short for Controlled Expansion of Supercritical Solutions, nanonization technology has multiple patents for its unique design. It creates designed-for-purpose, nano-sized active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) particles, using a process that can control the particles shape, increasing uniformity. The system also has the ability to produce nanoparticles as small as 10 nm.

The method works by controlling the solubility of an API in supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) through a bottom-up method of recrystallization. Previous alternatives had been limited, and the CESS system surpasses those due to its utilization of controlled mass transfer, pressure reduction and flow. Another benefit of the system is that it is green, its process is free from using excipients and organic solvents.

Through Nanoforms innovation, novel opportunities are opening up to the field of drug research and development.

The Significance of the CESS System

Nanomaterials have unique properties that differ from their bulk material counterparts. These different properties have made them of special interest to a number of scientific fields, which has boosted exploration into nanoparticles over recent years. It has been found that these unique properties have potential applications in the areas of nanomedicine, therapeutics, medical devices and more. They have been identified as vectors for medical imaging, biological diagnostics and therapeutics.

What has been achieved by Nanoform is that another avenue of potential use has been opened up for nanoparticles. Nanoform has developed a reliable system that allows the benefits of nanoparticles to be harnessed in drug research and development. The unique properties of nanoparticles will be able to be put to use in developing new therapeutic treatments, which could induce a significant shift in the pharmaceutical sector.

It is generally accepted that advancements in the use of nanoparticles in this area would significantly influence the advancement of human therapeutics. Now pharmaceutical companies have access to a system that allows them to tailor-make nanoparticles, the innovation of new therapies that previously would not have been possible could be on the horizon.

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Nanoform Wins Award for Drug Development and Delivery - AZoNano