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SALT LAKE CITY, Nov. 01, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Myriad Genetics, Inc., (NASDAQ: MYGN), a leader in molecular diagnostics and precision medicine, today announced that three studies on Vectra will be featured at the 2019 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Annual Meeting being held Nov. 8-13, 2019 in Atlanta, GA.

"We are excited to share important new data that demonstrates how precision medicine can advance care for people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA)," said Elena Hitraya, M.D., Ph.D., rheumatologist and chief medical officer at Myriad Autoimmune. "Our studies show that Vectra, an objective measure of RA inflammation, helps identify people with RA that are at risk of joint damage and cardiovascular risk.

A list of presentations at 2019 ACR is below. Please visit Myriad Autoimmune at booth #1419 to learn more about Vectra. Follow Myriad on Twitter via @myriadgenetics and follow meeting news by using the hashtag #ACR19.

Abstract

Author

Poster Details

Vectra

Predicting Risk of Radiographic Progression for Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

Jeffrey Curtis

Joshua Baker

Jeffrey Curtis

About VectraVectra is a multi-biomarker molecular blood test that provides an objective and personalized measure of inflammatory disease activity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Vectra provides unsurpassed ability to predict radiographic progression and can help guide medical management decisions with the goal of improving patient outcomes. Vectra testing is performed at a state-of-the-art CLIA (Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments) facility. Test results are reported to the physician five to seven days from shipping of the specimen. Physicians can receive test results by fax or the private web portal, VectraView. For more information on Vectra, please visit: http://www.vectrascore.com.

About Myriad GeneticsMyriad Genetics Inc. is a leading precision medicine company dedicated to being a trusted advisor transforming patient lives worldwide with pioneering molecular diagnostics. Myriad discovers and commercializes molecular diagnostic tests that: determine the risk of developing disease, accurately diagnose disease, assess the risk of disease progression, and guide treatment decisions across six major medical specialties where molecular diagnostics can significantly improve patient care and lower healthcare costs. Myriad is focused on five critical success factors: building upon a solid hereditary cancer foundation, growing new product volume, expanding reimbursement coverage for new products, increasing RNA kit revenue internationally and improving profitability with Elevate 2020. For more information on how Myriad is making a difference, please visit the Company's website: http://www.myriad.com.

Myriad, the Myriad logo, BART, BRACAnalysis, Colaris, Colaris AP, myPath, myRisk, Myriad myRisk, myRisk Hereditary Cancer, myChoice, myPlan, BRACAnalysis CDx, Tumor BRACAnalysis CDx, myChoice HRD, EndoPredict, Vectra, GeneSight, riskScore, Prolaris, Foresight and Prequel are trademarks or registered trademarks of Myriad Genetics, Inc. or its wholly owned subsidiaries in the United States and foreign countries. MYGN-F, MYGN-G.

Safe Harbor StatementThis press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements relating to data being presented for its genetic tests at the American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting being held Nov. 8-13, 2019 in Atlanta, GA; and the Company's strategic directives under the caption "About Myriad Genetics." These "forward-looking statements" are based on management's current expectations of future events and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially and adversely from those set forth in or implied by forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: the risk that sales and profit margins of our molecular diagnostic tests and pharmaceutical and clinical services may decline; risks related to our ability to transition from our existing product portfolio to our new tests, including unexpected costs and delays; risks related to decisions or changes in governmental or private insurers reimbursement levels for our tests or our ability to obtain reimbursement for our new tests at comparable levels to our existing tests; risks related to increased competition and the development of new competing tests and services; the risk that we may be unable to develop or achieve commercial success for additional molecular diagnostic tests and pharmaceutical and clinical services in a timely manner, or at all; the risk that we may not successfully develop new markets for our molecular diagnostic tests and pharmaceutical and clinical services, including our ability to successfully generate revenue outside the United States; the risk that licenses to the technology underlying our molecular diagnostic tests and pharmaceutical and clinical services and any future tests and services are terminated or cannot be maintained on satisfactory terms; risks related to delays or other problems with operating our laboratory testing facilities and our healthcare clinic; risks related to public concern over genetic testing in general or our tests in particular; risks related to regulatory requirements or enforcement in the United States and foreign countries and changes in the structure of the healthcare system or healthcare payment systems; risks related to our ability to obtain new corporate collaborations or licenses and acquire new technologies or businesses on satisfactory terms, if at all; risks related to our ability to successfully integrate and derive benefits from any technologies or businesses that we license or acquire; risks related to our projections about our business, results of operations and financial condition; risks related to the potential market opportunity for our products and services; the risk that we or our licensors may be unable to protect or that third parties will infringe the proprietary technologies underlying our tests; the risk of patent-infringement claims or challenges to the validity of our patents or other intellectual property; risks related to changes in intellectual property laws covering our molecular diagnostic tests and pharmaceutical and clinical services and patents or enforcement in the United States and foreign countries, such as the Supreme Court decision in the lawsuit brought against us by the Association for Molecular Pathology et al; risks of new, changing and competitive technologies and regulations in the United States and internationally; the risk that we may be unable to comply with financial operating covenants under our credit or lending agreements; the risk that we will be unable to pay, when due, amounts due under our credit or lending agreements; and other factors discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" contained in Item 1A of our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2019, which has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as any updates to those risk factors filed from time to time in our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q or Current Reports on Form 8-K. All information in this press release is as of the date of the release, and Myriad undertakes no duty to update this information unless required by law.

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Myriad Genetics Announces Multiple Presentations at the 2019 American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting - BioSpace

When the UK Life Sciences Champion Sir John Bell recently highlighted the need to create new industries within life sciences, Carina Healy immediately saw the potential for Scotland.

When the UK Life Sciences Champion Sir John Bell recently highlighted the need to create new industries within life sciences, Carina Healy immediately saw the potential for Scotland.

Sir John, speaking at the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, identified genomics, digital health and early diagnosis as three areas where the UK could develop new industries and remain a world leader in life sciences.

Healy, a partner and life sciences specialist with international legal firm CMS, says: These areas play into what we do well in Scotland and present very big opportunities. Healy goes on to explain these new industries and the potential they hold for Scotland.

Genomics using genotyping to inform how patients are treated is closely linked to precision or stratified medicine, where Scotland is already excelling.

Precision medicine allows doctors to tailor treatments to each patients specific needs, which can save lives, avoid unpleasant side-effects caused by unsuitable treatments and save the NHS money.

Scotland has great expertise in this area, with world-class academic research and cutting-edge companies developing new treatments to benefit the NHS. This is backed by innovative initiatives such as the Stratified Medicine Scotland Innovation Centre based at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) in Glasgow, which brings together specialists from across academia, industry and the NHS.

One challenge facing this new industry is how to use the wealth of genetic data now available to inform medical treatment. Although genetic testing is getting increasingly more affordable, further research is needed to link that genetic data to specific diseases and treatment options.

As Healy explains: The technology is there, but it doesnt tell you much yet. However, in areas like breast cancer, the use of the BRCA and HER-2 biomarkers is well-established and gives a clear indication of whether a certain class of patient is at risk or will respond to a specific drug like Herceptin.

Healy says that, in the hospital of the future, an individuals genetic profile is likely to be available in the same way as access to, for example, an individuals blood type. She says: Were still quite far away, but weve decoded the genome and can do it cost-effectively. With further research we will be able to know how to make best use of this data to deliver more effective health care for individual patients.

A UK government science and innovation audit of precision medicine in Scotland this year, led by the University of Glasgow, highlighted the significant assets Scotland has in this field and their potential. It suggested the effective use of electronic health records could drive collaboration and help turn academic research and innovation into better clinical practice.

Healy says the universitys bid for a Strength in Places grant to create a Living Laboratory for precision medicine at QEUH is an excellent example of how Scotland can bridge the gap between genomics research and patient benefit.

Digital health, which uses software, mobile apps and digital technology for health purposes, is an area where Healy thinks Scotland has work to do but has all the key skills in place to make real progress.

We have real strength in informatics, data science and AI in our academic research institutions, she says. Although we need to integrate those sectors better with life sciences and healthcare. The potential is there to build real capacity and deliver tangible patient benefits.

In terms of digital health, this means making healthcare more efficient through use of digital technology, and improving the patient-facing offering.

Scotland has great assets in the IT sector generally, from Silicon Glen to the burgeoning technology scene in Edinburgh. The capital is set to receive further investment in technology infrastructure as part of the 1.3 billion Edinburgh City Region Deal, which will focus on data-driven innovation and help boost Scotlands existing capabilities.

The key to realising Scotlands potential in the new digital health industry will be in linking the countrys digital expertise with its life sciences expertise to create new solutions. Work to link Scotlands technology and life sciences industries has already begun. Exscientia, a company founded in Dundee, has been at the forefront of using digital technology to improve the drug discovery process, resulting in several collaborations this year with big-name drugs companies.

Further collaboration between the two industries will be supported by Glasgows Industrial Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research in Digital Diagnostics iCAIRD which involves 15 partners from across academia, industry and the NHS.

Healy stresses that although collaboration between private companies and the NHS has huge potential benefits, these collaborations must be structured correctly. It is especially important to address ethical and legal issues in accessing and managing patients data.

The collaboration between Googles DeepMind and Londons Royal Free Hospital, which involved the transfer of personal data of 1.6 million patients, was an example of a collaboration that was not structured correctly and was found to be in breach of data protection laws. Healy says: This erodes public trust in these types of initiatives, despite the very obvious benefits in healthcare treatment that can be generated.

Despite this setback, DeepMinds Streams app is now in use at the Royal Free Hospital and has been shown to enable consultants to treat acute kidney injury faster, potentially saving the NHS on average 2,000 per patient and saving consultants up to two hours per day.

The great advantage for Scotland is that we have one NHS. We can access data sources more easily and we can pool it more effectively, says Healy. However, practices can vary across different hospitals and trusts, and clear central guidance would be helpful to ensure data is used both ethically and effectively.

There are also issues around data quality as it is, of course, collected for clinical purposes, not for research or for training artificial intelligence systems.

The ultimate goal is to pool data for patient benefit, and to structure collaborations between private companies and the NHS carefully so personal data is managed appropriately.

There are also potential societal and political issues around ensuring all patients can benefit from digital health initiatives, for example in areas like GP surgery triage. Systems such as Babylon and DrDoctor allow patients remote access to GP services, but often benefit specific groups rather than the whole population.

Younger, more IT-literate patients who have a specific issue but are generally healthier tend to use systems like this, while older, less IT-savvy patients with chronic conditions still go to GP surgeries, says Healy. So GP surgeries are left with patients who need more care and time, but the funding per patient is the same. The digital health gap between different generations will close over time, but it is still quite wide now.

Overall, Healy notes, the message is that digital health offers huge opportunities in Scotland:

We need to encourage more health tech businesses to work with the NHS in Scotland and get more entrepreneurs looking at this area. There are big opportunities for new entrants.

In the third new life sciences industry, early diagnostics, Healy also sees a huge area of unmet need and opportunity in Scotland. She cites image recognition AI, where, for example, training an artificial intelligence system using large numbers of CT scans can mean tumours are spotted more quickly and accurately than using a surgeons eye, leading to earlier diagnosis, which in turn means more successful treatment for patients and potential savings for the NHS.

Scottish-based companies, including Canon Medical Research Europe, are exploring how technology such as AI can help with early diagnosis. Canons research, supported by the Scottish Funding Council, is looking for innovative ways to diagnose and measure mesothelioma tumours, which are particularly difficult to measure and treat.

Collaborations between Scottish companies and the NHS which capitalise on the organisations pool of health data will be a big boost to research and development of early diagnostics, particularly with the help of AI.

Although Healy recognises the challenges in collaborating on such projects, she is positive about the future: It can still be hard to break down NHS silos and work through its contracting processes. However, Scotlands strength is underpinned by excellent collaboration between the NHS, academia and industry. You can see it working in projects like iCAIRD and the QEUHs Clinical Innovation Zone.

Healy sees this as a good reason for Scotland to be positive about its life sciences industry and its opportunity to make the most of Sir Johns three new industries genomics, digital health and early diagnostics. It all comes back to that strong, deep collaboration. We need to build on that and keep selling Scotlands strengths to a wider global marketplace.

Our academic base is really strong, we have one NHS with very good electronic health records and the ability of industry to collaborate across different academic and NHS bodies to deliver positive patient outcomes.

Find out more at CMS.

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CMS on how life sciences advancements are improving patient care - The Scotsman

A blood test that measures the amount of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) in the bloodstreamcalled a liquid biopsycorrelates with how patients will progress after they are diagnosed with glioblastoma (GBM), the deadliest and most common primary brain tumor in adults

In a new study, researchers from theAbramson Cancer Center are the first to show that patients with a higher concentration of cfDNAcirculating DNA that cancer and other cells shed into the bloodhave a shorter progression-free survival than patients with less cfDNA, and that cfDNA spikes in patients either at the time of or just before their disease progresses. The team also compared genetic sequencing of solid tissue biopsies in GBM side-by-side with the liquid biopsies and found that while both biopsies detected genetic mutations in more than half of patients, none of those mutations overlapped, meaning liquid biopsy may provide complementary information about the molecular or genetic makeup of each tumor.Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research,published the findings.

Doctors have begun using liquid biopsies more frequently to monitor certain cancersparticularly lung cancerin recent years as research has shown their effectiveness in other disease sites. But until now, there has been little focus on the clinical utility of liquid biopsy in brain tumors, said the studys senior authorErica L. Carpenter, director of the Liquid Biopsy Laboratory and a research assistant professor of medicine.

The findings may eventually prove impactful for GBM patients. The disease is particularly aggressive, and while most estimates show there are around 11,000 new cases each year, the five-year survival rate is between 5and 10 percent.

Read more at Penn Medicine News.

Excerpt from:
Blood test can predict prognosis in deadly brain cancer - Penn: Office of University Communications

Nathaly Sweeney, a neonatologist at Rady Children's Hospital-San Diego and researcher with Rady Children's Institute for Genomic Medicine, attends to a young patient in the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit. Jenny Siegwart/Rady Children's Institute for Genomic Medicine hide caption

Nathaly Sweeney, a neonatologist at Rady Children's Hospital-San Diego and researcher with Rady Children's Institute for Genomic Medicine, attends to a young patient in the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit.

When Nathaly Sweeney launched her career as a pediatric heart specialist a few years ago, she says, it was a struggle to anticipate which babies would need emergency surgery or when.

"We just didn't know whose heart was going to fail first," she says. "There was no rhyme or reason who was coming to the intensive care unit over and over again, versus the ones that were doing well."

Now, just a few years later, Sweeney has at her fingertips the results of the complete genome sequence of her sickest patients in a couple of days.

That's because of remarkable strides in the speed at which genomes can be sequenced and analyzed. Doctors who treat newborns in the intensive care unit are turning to this technology to help them diagnose their difficult cases.

Sweeney sees her tiny patients in the neonatal intensive care unit of Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego. Doctors there can figure out what's wrong with about two-thirds of these newborns without a pricey DNA test. The rest have been medical mysteries.

"We had patients that were lying here in the hospital for six or seven months, not doing very well," she says. "The physicians would refer them for rapid genome sequencing and would diagnose them with something we didn't even think of!"

Rady's Institute for Genomic Medicine, which has been pioneering this technology, has now sequenced the genomes of more than 1,000 newborns.

In a building across the street from the hospital, three $1 million sequencing machines form the core of the operation. Technicians tending to the NovaSeq 6000s can put DNA from babies (and often their parents) into the machine in the late afternoon and have a complete genome sequence back by 11 a.m. or noon the next day, says clinical lab scientist Luca Van der Kraan.

That fact is worth repeating: An entire genome is decoded in about 16 hours.

Kasia Ellsworth is one of the experts waiting in a nearby office to analyze the information. That task has shrunk from months to typically just four hours, thanks to increasingly sophisticated software.

Ellsworth inputs the baby's symptoms into the software, which then spits out a long list of genetic variants that might be related to the illness. She scrolls down the screen.

"I'm looking through a list of those variants and then basically deciding whether something may be truly contributing to the disease or not," she says.

About 40% of the time, a gene stands out, giving doctors a tentative diagnosis. Follow-up tests are often requested, and those can take several days. But in the meantime, doctors can sometimes act on the information they have in hand.

When she or a colleague makes a diagnosis, "You always feel very relieved, very happy and excited," she says. "But at the same time you kind of need to put it in perspective. What does it mean for the family, for the patient, for the clinician as well?"

Often it's a sense of relief. And for a minority of cases, it can affect the baby's treatment.

"We now are at the point where I think the evidence is overwhelming that a rapid genome sequence can save a child's life," says Dr. Stephen Kingsmore, the institute's director and the driving force behind this revolution.

By his reckoning, the results change the way doctors manage these cases about 40% of the time.

Treatments are available for only a small share of these rare diseases. In other cases, the information can help parents and doctors understand what's wrong with their baby even if there is no treatment or learn whether death is inevitable. "And there it's a very different conversation," Kingsmore says. "We help guide parents through picking an appropriate point at which to say enough is enough" and to end futile treatments.

Of course, Kingsmore highlights the happier outcomes. One example is a bouncy girl named Sebastiana, now approaching her third birthday.

As a newborn, Sebastiana Manuel was diagnosed with a rare disease after rapid genome sequencing. She is seen here at 11 months of age. Jenny Siegwart/Rady Children's Institute for Genomic Medicine hide caption

As a newborn, Sebastiana Manuel was diagnosed with a rare disease after rapid genome sequencing. She is seen here at 11 months of age.

He showed off her case recently in front of the Global Genes conference, a meeting of families with rare genetic conditions.

"She was critically ill in our intensive care unit," he tells the audience, "and in a couple of days we gave the doctors the answer. It's Ohtahara syndrome. It comes with this specific therapy. And she hasn't had a seizure in 2 1/2 years. She doesn't take any medication."

The audience applauds enthusiastically at an outcome that sounds miraculous. But when you meet Sebastiana and her mother, Dolores Sebastian, a more complicated story emerges.

Ohtahara syndrome isn't actually what made Sebastiana ill it's a term doctors use to describe newborn seizures. Those are actually a symptom of deeper brain issues. That was apparent the day she was born.

"She was acting weird and screaming and crying and turning purple and we weren't sure why," her mother says.

The hospital where Sebastiana was born rushed her to the neonatal intensive care unit, across town at Rady. She was having frequent seizures. The following days were a nightmare for Sebastian and her husband.

"I can't even describe it," she says. "I always keep on saying that at that moment I was kind of like dead, but I was walking."

The hospital ran a battery of tests to look for severe brain damage. They couldn't get to the bottom of it.

"They came in and offered us the genomic testing," Sebastian said. "They never told us how quick it would be."

She was surprised when the results were back in four days. The doctor told her they had identified a gene variant that can trigger seizures as well as do other harm to the brain.

"He said this is how we're going to go ahead and change her medications now and treat her," she says. And that made a "huge difference, [an] amazing difference."

Sebastiana was already on a medication that was helping control her seizures, but they sedated her to the extent that she needed a feeding tube. On the new medication, carbamazepine, she was alert and able to eat, and her seizures were still under control. Sebastian says her daughter is still taking that drug.

Controlling her seizures isn't a cure. Children who have this genetic variant, in a gene called KCNQ2, can have a range of symptoms from benign to debilitating. Sebastiana falls somewhere in between. For example, she has only a few words in her vocabulary as she approaches the age of 3.

"She took her first steps when she was 2 years old, so she's delayed in some things," Sebastian says, "but she's catching up very quickly. She has [physical therapy]; she's going to start speech therapy. She gets a lot of help but everything's working."

Sebastiana Manuel (second from left) with members of her family: Domingo Manuel Jr. (from left), Dolores Sebastian and Tony Manuel. Jenny Siegwart/Rady Children's Institute for Genomic Medicine hide caption

Sebastiana Manuel (second from left) with members of her family: Domingo Manuel Jr. (from left), Dolores Sebastian and Tony Manuel.

KCNQ2 variants are the most common genetic factor in epilepsy, causing about a third of all gene-linked cases and about 5% of all epilepsies. Sebastiana's case could have been diagnosed with a less expensive test. For example, Invitae geneticist Dr. Ed Esplin says his company offers a genetic screen for epilepsy that has a $1,500 list price and a two-week turnaround.

Rady's whole-genome test costs $10,000, Kingsmore says. But it casts a wider net, so it might provide useful information if a baby's seizures are caused by something other than epilepsy.

And Kingsmore says his test costs about as much as a single day in the NICU. "In some babies we avoid them being in the intensive care unit literally for months," he says.

Kingsmore and colleagues have published some evidence that their approach is cost-effective, based on an analysis of 42 cases.

Even so, most insurance companies and state Medicaid programs are still balking at the cost. Kingsmore says private donors are helping support this effort at Rady, which sequences about 10% of the babies in the NICU, and at more than a dozen others scattered from Honolulu to Miami. They send their samples to Rady for analysis.

Kingsmore is pushing to expand his network in the next few years, to reach 10,000 babies at several hundred children's hospitals.

Other providers are also starting to offer whole-genome sequencing. But Dr. Isaac Kohane, chair of the department of biomedical informatics at Harvard Medical School, worries that the technology is too unreliable.

Knowledge of genes and disease is evolving rapidly, so these analyses run the risk of either missing a diagnosis or making a mistaken one. Kohane says there's still a lot of dubious information there a typical person has 10 to 40 gene variants that the textbooks incorrectly identify as causing disease.

Kohane is part of a medical network that helps diagnose people with baffling diseases. A study from 2018 found "a third of the patients who actually come to us already had full genome sequences and interpretations," Kohane says. "They were just not correct."

Even so, Kohane sees this use in the NICU as a relatively fruitful use of gene sequencing. "This is one of the few areas where I think the Human Genome Project is really beginning to pay off in health care," he says, "but buyer beware, it's not something ready to be practiced in every hospital." (He supports the work at Rady in fact, he is a science adviser.)

Kingsmore is already looking ahead. "We want to solve the next bottleneck, which is, 'I don't have a great treatment for this baby,' " he says. That's a far greater challenge, and it's especially difficult for a mutation that has altered a baby's development in the womb. Those problems may often not be reversible.

Kingsmore is undeterred. "It's going to be an incredibly exciting time in pediatrics," he says.

You can contact NPR science correspondent Richard Harris at rharris@npr.org.

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Genome Sequencing In NICU Can Speed Diagnosis Of Rare Inherited Diseases : Shots - Health News - NPR

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Veracyte, Inc. (Nasdaq: VCYT) today announced new data that advance understanding of the frequency, positive predictive value and co-occurrence of genomic alterations that are targeted by newly available and investigational precision medicine therapies for thyroid cancer. The findings were enabled by Afirma Xpression Atlas analyses, which uses RNA sequencing, of Veracytes extensive biorepository of thyroid nodule fine needle aspiration (FNA) samples from patients undergoing evaluation for thyroid cancer. The data were presented this week during the 89th Annual Meeting of the American Thyroid Association (ATA).

In one study, researchers assessed the frequency of ALK, BRAF, NTRK and RET fusions in nearly 48,000 consecutive patients whose thyroid nodule FNA samples were deemed indeterminate, suspicious for malignancy or malignant (Bethesda III/IV, V and VI categories, respectively) by cytopathology. The researchers found that 425 (0.89 percent) of the FNA samples harbored one of the alterations, with NTRK fusions the most common at 0.38 percent, followed by RET (0.32 percent), BRAF (0.13 percent) and ALK (0.06 percent). Additionally, RNA whole transcriptome sequencing demonstrated differences in the prevalence of these four fusions across Bethesda categories, with Bethesda V being the highest.

NTRK fusion inhibitors have received pan-cancer FDA approval and clinical trials have included selective inhibitors of ALK, BRAF, NTRK and RET, which makes their detection in patients with thyroid cancer of interest to physicians, said Mimi I. Hu, M.D., professor at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, who presented the findings in a poster. As our understanding of the role of genomics in thyroid cancer advances, this information offers the potential to optimize initial treatment, predict response to treatment and prioritize selective targeted therapy should systemic treatment be needed.

In another study, researchers evaluated the positive predictive value of the NTRK, RET, BRAF and ALK fusions in 58 patients with indeterminate thyroid nodules (Bethesda III/IV categories) from Veracytes biorepository for whom surgical pathology diagnoses were available. They found that NTRK and RET fusions were associated with malignancy in 28 of 30 nodules, while risk of malignancy was lower among nodules with ALK (67 percent) or BRAF (75 percent). In a third study, researchers found that when using RNA sequencing data on a large sample of nearly 48,000 thyroid nodule FNA samples (Bethesda categories III-VI), they identified 263 co-occurrences of gene fusions and variants that were previously considered mutually exclusive.

The findings from these three studies underscore the power of our extensive biorepository of thyroid nodule FNA samples and our optimized RNA sequencing platform to advance understanding of the genomic underpinnings of thyroid cancer and to better capture the biology of thyroid lesions, said Richard T. Kloos, M.D., senior medical director, endocrinology, at Veracyte. As precision medicine therapies that target specific gene alterations emerge, understanding individual patients genomic profiles becomes increasingly important to physicians. Our Afirma Xpression Atlas provides this information at the same time as initial diagnosis with the Afirma Genomic Sequencing Classifier, or GSC, to help inform treatment decisions.

Also during the ATA meeting, Veracyte unveiled its new Afirma patient report, which in addition to identifying patients with benign or suspicious-for-cancer nodules among those deemed indeterminate by cytopathology, based on Afirma GSC results, now provides individualized and actionable variant and fusion information on each patient. This information includes: risk of malignancy, associated neoplasm type, relative risk of lymph node metastasis and extrathyroidal extension; availability of FDA-approved therapy; and genetic counseling and germline testing considerations. This information is also provided for patients with cytopathology results that are suspicious for malignancy or malignant (Bethesda V and VI).

About Afirma

The Afirma Genomic Sequencing Classifier (GSC) and Xpression Atlas provide physicians with a comprehensive solution for a complex landscape in thyroid nodule diagnosis. The Afirma GSC was developed with RNA whole-transcriptome sequencing and machine learning and helps identify patients with benign thyroid nodules among those with indeterminate cytopathology results in order to help patients avoid unnecessary diagnostic thyroid surgery. The Afirma Xpression Atlas provides physicians with genomic alteration content from the same fine needle aspiration samples that are used in Afirma GSC testing and may help physicians decide with greater confidence on the surgical or therapeutic pathway for their patients. The Afirma Xpression Atlas includes 761 DNA variants and 130 RNA fusion partners in over 500 genes that are associated with thyroid cancer.

About Veracyte

Veracyte (Nasdaq: VCYT) is a leading genomic diagnostics company that improves patient care by providing answers to clinical questions that inform diagnosis and treatment decisions without the need for costly, risky surgeries that are often unnecessary. The company's products uniquely combine RNA whole-transcriptome sequencing and machine learning to deliver results that give patients and physicians a clear path forward. Since its founding in 2008, Veracyte has commercialized seven genomic tests and is transforming the diagnosis of thyroid cancer, lung cancer and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Veracyte is based in South San Francisco, California. For more information, please visit http://www.veracyte.com and follow the company on Twitter (@veracyte).

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as: "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "expect," "believe," "should," "may," "will" and similar references to future periods. Examples of forward-looking statements include, among others, the ability of Veracytes Afirma Xpression Atlas to analyze FNA samples to help diagnose thyroid cancer, the expected impacts of Veracytes collaboration with Johnson & Johnson in developing interventions for lung cancer, on Veracytes financial and operating results, on the timing of the commercialization of the Percepta classifier, and on the size of Veracytes addressable market. Forward-looking statements are neither historical facts nor assurances of future performance, but are based only on our current beliefs, expectations and assumptions. These statements involve risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from our predictions, and include, but are not limited to: our ability to achieve milestones under the collaboration agreement with Johnson & Johnson; our ability to achieve and maintain Medicare coverage for our tests; the benefits of our tests and the applicability of clinical results to actual outcomes; the laws and regulations applicable to our business, including potential regulation by the Food and Drug Administration or other regulatory bodies; our ability to successfully achieve and maintain adoption of and reimbursement for our products; the amount by which use of our products are able to reduce invasive procedures and misdiagnosis, and reduce healthcare costs; the occurrence and outcomes of clinical studies; and other risks set forth in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the risks set forth in our quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2019. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof and Veracyte specifically disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements or reasons why actual results might differ, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

Veracyte, Afirma, Percepta, Envisia and the Veracyte logo are trademarks of Veracyte, Inc.

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Veracyte Announces New Data That Advance Understanding of Genomic Alterations Targeted by Precision Medicine Therapies for Thyroid Cancer - Business...

Understand biology and engineer biology. These are the goals of synthetic biology in brief. Due to the developments in sequencing and DNA synthesis, scientists can construct genetic constructs and edit genomes. These tools answer basic research questions and provide biological applications. But synthetic biology can never reach its full potential until artificial genome writing becomes commonplace.

Chromosomes are the hard drives of cells. They contain most of the cells DNA and genes. Bacteria and archaea typically have a single circular chromosome, while eukaryotes contain several linear ones. Besides genetic information, a chromosome contains structural elements. Centromers (that participate in mitosis), telomers (that have a role in maintaining linear chromosome integrity), and origins of replication (that are where DNA replication starts in circular DNA pieces) are some well-known examples.

Artificial chromosomes are chromosomes that have been fully constructed in the lab and assembled within a cell. An important note: artificial chromosomes do not mean artificial life. They function normally within cells and the DNA used is the same as the one found in nature. What is different is their origin they dont come from a DNA template duplication and the genetic information they carry.

The advantages of building a chromosome align with both goals of synthetic biology. The role of many DNA elements is unknown. By recombining, adding, or deleting DNA sequences, we can understand if a genetic part is essential and what does it do. By rewriting a genome from scratch, we can obtain a cell with specific properties and only them! Such cells are invaluable tools for applied and fundamental research.

Current DNA technology makes the construction of short DNA pieces easy and available to most research labs, but the same cannot be said for chromosome assembly. And this is not surprising: a plasmid with a few genes contains a few thousand base pairs; a chromosome several million or billion! As a result, there are very few reported artificial chromosomes reported. The emblematic Yeast 2.0 consortium reported the construction and assembly of six of the yeasts chromosomes. A research group from Switzerland designed and assembled a full bacterial chromosome with its genome minimized to the essential components; so far, they havent managed to insert the chromosome to the organism. A minimal bacterial cell with a synthetic genome was nevertheless announced in 2016 by J. Craig Venter Institute scientists. And recently the molecular biology workhorse, the bacterium E. coli, got its genome replaced by a synthetic variant.

All these works required a huge amount of resources and faced tremendous challenges. And despite the successes, we are a long way from mastering the craft of genome writing. In a recent article, Nili Ostrov and her collaborators in the field of synthetic genomics outline the technological advances needed to reach this goal. They list the following areas of focus: genome design, DNA synthesis, genome editing, and chromosome assembly.

Designing the synthetic chromosome is the first step of a construction workflow. And this step is probably the most critical, as an error there will condemn the whole effort into failure. The information hidden into a genome is too vast to be handled manually. This requires computer aided design tools, which are currently under development. These tools should also predict the effect of alterations in the sequence. Ideally, design software should model how a cell will behave when the synthetic genome replaces its native one.

Chemical DNA synthesis can provide DNA oligos a few hundred base pairs long. This is simply not good enough for chromosome synthesis. DNA synthesis will need to reach the scale of several thousand base pairs, decrease its error rate. And the assembly workflows should minimize the need of iterative cloning steps.

Genome editing is the key to generate many synthetic genome variants. Constructing a chromosome de novo will always be laborious. Genome editing will reduce the need of reconstructing from scratch when we need to insert a few (say, a few thousand) mutations to mimic a certain phenotype. Multiplex genome editing already exists. But instead of 20-50 edits, the techniques should allow for many thousand.

The last step of chromosome writing is the assembly of the final construct. Throwing the smaller DNA parts inside a bakers yeast cell and use its DNA repair system to stitch them up is how its currently done, and it works well. However, the yeast has limitations on what kind of DNA sequences it can work with. For a bigger variety of constructs, we will need more hosts and transformation methods.

Genome writing will accelerate the synthetic biology and genetic engineering applications. In medicine, engineered cells could become accurate disease models, increasing therapeutic efficiency and reducing the need for animal testing. In agriculture, plant cells with engineered genome or plastome can guide breeding and editing efforts to increase productivity and crop robustness. In metabolic engineering, cells will produce compounds optimally. And if we want to adapt organisms for life beyond earths boundaries, chromosome editing will let us test radical redesigns and insert novel properties.

Ostrov and collaborators write that many of the technological breakthroughs can be achieved within the next years. It sounds a bit optimistic, but lets hope we will be pleasantly surprised. Chromosome engineering has the potential to benefit all humankind, but we should be careful to not overhype the potential and promise things we cant deliver. And as the authors say and I couldnt agree more we have to be transparent, ethical, and share the advances globally.

Kostas Vavitsas, PhD, is a Senior Research Associate at the University of Athens, Greece. He is also community editor for PLOS Synbio and steering committee member of EUSynBioS. Follow him on Twitter @konvavitsas

Read the original post:
For synthetic biology to reach its potential, building new chromosomes from scratch must become commonplaceand we may be getting close - Genetic...

If you cannot say yes, then you should keep your mouth shut and thank God every day that you never had to make such a truly hard decision.

Deborah KratterHalf Moon Bay, Calif.

To the Editor:

Im a young, female pro-life activist. Ive donated to pro-life organizations. Spread pro-life information to others. Marched in the streets. Abortion is a massive injustice that violates the right to life.

Ms. Werking-Yip, you admitted that having an abortion meant killing your daughter. Picture someone murdering a 5-year-old girl because they believed she was too sick, too disabled, too abnormal. Society would be horrified. Strangely, its different for a child in a womb.

Every child deserves a chance to live life as much as possible, to stay strong against suffering, to hope for cures to rare disorders, to spend time with loved ones, to be themselves, to be human. Your daughter would have been a gift for this world, an inspiration to others, unique, beautiful. Dont diminish this precious creation of God by arguing that she doesnt deserve to be here.

Jasmine ClarkRaleigh, N.C.

To the Editor:

Having just finished reading Lyndsay Werking-Yips heart-wrenching column, I must say how much I admire the strength she and her husband showed not just in terminating their pregnancy but also in writing openly about their decision.

I have two daughters who are both in week 21 of their first pregnancies. If either of them is faced with a diagnosis as devastating as Ms. Werking-Yips, I hope to God they will make the decision she did with her husband to save a child from a lifetime of suffering. To me that is the definition of parental love.

Carrie C. MahinRadford, Va.

To the Editor:

Six weeks after our daughter was born in 1981, we received the diagnosis following a routine CT scan of her brain. She had suffered a massive stroke to the left temporal lobe, most likely in utero. We were told there were a range of possible outcomes in terms of her development and degree of physical and cognitive impairment.

Go here to see the original:
Abort to Save a Child From a Life of Suffering? - The New York Times

The story so far: The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) recently announced the conclusion of a six-month exercise (from April 2019) of conducting a whole-genome sequence of a 1,008 Indians. The project is part of a programme called IndiGen and is also seen as a precursor to a much larger exercise involving other government departments to map a larger swathe of the population in the country. Project proponents say this will widen public understanding in India about genomes and the information that genes hide about ones susceptibility to disease.

A genome is the DNA, or sequence of genes, in a cell. Most of the DNA is in the nucleus and intricately coiled into a structure called the chromosome. The rest is in the mitochondria, the cells powerhouse. Every human cell contains a pair of chromosomes, each of which has three billion base pairs or one of four molecules that pair in precise ways. The order of base pairs and varying lengths of these sequences constitute the genes, which are responsible for making amino acids, proteins and, thereby, everything that is necessary for the body to function. It is when these genes are altered or mutated that proteins sometimes do not function as intended, leading to disease.

Sequencing a genome means deciphering the exact order of base pairs in an individual. This deciphering or reading of the genome is what sequencing is all about. Costs of sequencing differ based on the methods employed to do the reading or the accuracy stressed upon in decoding the genome. Since an initial rough draft of the human genome was made available in 2000, the cost of generating a fairly accurate draft of any individual genome has fallen to a tenth, or to a ball park figure of around $1,000 (70,000 approximately). It has been known that the portion of the genes responsible for making proteins called the exome occupies about 1% of the actual gene. Rather than sequence the whole gene, many geneticists rely on exome maps (that is the order of exomes necessary to make proteins). However, it has been established that the non-exome portions also affect the functioning of the genes and that, ideally, to know which genes of a persons DNA are mutated the genome has to be mapped in its entirety. While India, led by the CSIR, first sequenced an Indian genome in 2009, it is only now that the organisations laboratories have been able to scale up whole-genome sequencing and offer them to the public.

Under IndiGen, the CSIR drafted about 1,000 youth from across India by organising camps in several colleges and educating attendees on genomics and the role of genes in disease. Some students and participants donated blood samples from where their DNA sequences were collected.

Globally, many countries have undertaken genome sequencing of a sample of their citizens to determine unique genetic traits, susceptibility (and resilience) to disease. This is the first time that such a large sample of Indians will be recruited for a detailed study. The project ties in with a much larger programme funded by the Department of Biotechnology to sequence at least 10,000 Indian genomes. The CSIRs IndiGen project, as it is called, selected the 1,000-odd from a pool of about 5,000 and sought to include representatives from every State and diverse ethnicities. Every person whose genomes are sequenced would be given a report. The participants would be informed if they carry gene variants that make them less responsive to certain classes of medicines. For instance, having a certain gene makes some people less responsive to clopidogrel, a key drug that prevents strokes and heart attack. The project involved the Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), the CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), and cost 18 crore.

Anyone looking for a free mapping of their entire genome can sign up for IndiGen. Those who get their genes mapped will get a card and access to an app which will allow them and doctors to access information on whether they harbour gene variants that are reliably known to correlate with genomes with diseases. However, there is no guarantee of a slot, as the scientists involved in the exercise say there is already a backlog. The project is free in so far as the CSIR scientists have a certain amount of money at their disposal. The driving motive of the project is to understand the extent of genetic variation in Indians, and learn why some genes linked to certain diseases based on publications in international literature do not always translate into disease. Once such knowledge is established, the CSIR expects to tie up with several pathology laboratories who can offer commercial gene testing services.

Original post:
What is 'IndiGen' project that is sequencing Indian genes? - The Hindu

SINGAPORE - The Rare Disease Fund (RDF) now covers Singaporeans with Pompe disease - a rare inherited neuromuscular disorder where patients can incur medical expenses in excess of $500,000 each year.

The committee overseeing the fund announced on Sunday (Nov 3) that citizens can now apply for financial aid to help with their medical expenses for the disease which affects about one in every 40,000 live births.

With the addition, the fund now covers four conditions including primary bile acid synthesis disorder; Gaucher disease; and hyperphenylalaninaemia due to tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4) deficiency.

The fund has approved two applications for financial support so far. One of the beneficiaries is Mr Geoffrey Toi, a public servant whose three-year-old son Christopher suffers from primary bile acid synthesis disorder.

The condition interferes with the production of bile acids and if untreated, can lead to liver failure.

The fund covers a larger portion of Christopher's medication costs, which is currently about $6,250 a month, as compared to Medifund Junior, which had previously subsidised part of his medical fees.

"It was a blessing when this fund was announced, because it specifically covered his condition. Every bit of help matters," said Mr Toi, 35.

The fund was launched by the Ministry of Health (MOH) and SingHealth Fund in July this year. It combines community donations and Government-matched contributions to provide aid for Singapore citizens with specific rare diseases.

Senior Minister of State for Health and Law Edwin Tong said on Sunday that the fund recently received significant support from Temasek and the Tsao Family Fund.

"The listing of Pompe is possible because we have so many generous benefactors who have stepped forward selflessly, with a lot of compassion, to donate to the RDF," he added.

The fund has grown from $70 million last July to about $90 million, with the government matching community donations by three to one.

In addition, the Government is funding all operational expenses involved in managing the fund, ensuring that all donations received will be used solely for supporting patients.

"We hope that philanthropists, companies, community groups and individuals will continue to come forward as a society, as a community to help support patients with rare diseases... As more funds are raised, the Rare Disease Fund can be expanded further to cover even more types of treatments and more patients in future," said Mr Tong, who was attending a community carnival organised by Mount Alvernia Hospital in support of the RDF.

The carnival in Punggol raised more than $200,000 for beneficiaries of the fund. The sum includes three-to-one government matching.

Rare diseases are defined by MOH as conditions that affect fewer than one in 2,000 people, and mostly are genetic and often surface during childhood. There are no official numbers on how many people in Singapore have such rare diseases.

In some cases, effective treatments are available and the medicines can substantially increase patients' life expectancies and improve quality of life.

However, MOH noted that these medicines can be very costly, going up to hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, and patients will often need to take them for the rest of their lives.

Pompe disease is caused by a defective gene that results in a deficiency of an enzyme.

It results in the excessive build-up of a substance called glycogen, a form of sugar that is stored in a specialised compartment of muscle cells throughout the body.

Symptoms of the disease include extreme muscle weakness and breathing difficulties. The progressive nature of the disease means that it worsens over time, with the speed of progression varying from patient to patient.

Mr Kenneth Mah, whose 10-year-old daughter Chloe has Pompe disease, cheered the move to cover the disease under the RDF.

While insurance covers much of her treatment cost now - which is in excess of $40,000 a month - it may not be enough in future as she gets older and needs more of medicine.

"It gives us a greater peace of mind," said Mr Mah, 49, who ended his mobile phone business to become the main caregiver for Chloe.

Mr Mah is also the co-founder of the Rare Disorders Society Singapore.

"We hope that the fund will be able to cover all rare disorders in the future, as it gets more support from society."

More information on the RDF is available at http://www.kkh.com.sg/rarediseasefund

Visit link:
Rare Disease Fund now covers Pompe disease, a rare inherited neuromuscular disorder - The Straits Times

This effervescent centenarian still likes her bubbles.

Dorothy Flowers, who turned 108 on Oct. 22, credits her century-plus longevity to tippling Champagne, according to her caretaker.

Its the only thing we ever see her finish a glass of, Helene Ballinger, resident manager of Southlands Care Home in Harrogate, England, tells SWNS. Needless to say, weve been toasting her birthday.

Flowers can no longer speak, but that doesnt keep her from hanging out with the nursing home staff every day something that also surely boosts her morale.

Dorothy loves company, so shell sit with us at the reception desk each day, adds Ballinger. Shes such a regular that shes got her own drawer, which we keep full of chocolate buttons.

Another secret to living nearly 11 decades? Following horse races.

In the early 1940s, Flowers, an accountant, married another accountant named Leonard. Together, they worked for Britains Racehorse Betting Control Board, also known as the Tote. During World War II, horse racing was one of the few sports that wasnt suspended, and the couple moved to London to follow the events.

After the war ended, they moved to New Malden, a suburb of London, then to the resort town of Torbay on Englands southern coast.

They had no children but enjoyed nearly 40 married years together until Leonard died in 1981.

More than 650 cards came in from around the world for Flowers birthday last month from America, to Thailand and Australia. Beyond the letters, some sent gin, and not surprisingly, multiple bottles of Champagne.

For Flowers niece, Judith Barrett, the cards were a pleasant surprise.

While shes very independent, shes always been happiest when surrounded by others, and the cards have made her feel very loved, she said.

While shes not able to speak any more, the smile on her face said it all.

More:
This 108-year-olds secret to a long life is popping bubbly - New York Post

108 Year Old UK Woman Says Champagne is the Secret for Longevity - Thrillist

While you're off chugging green juice and pounding kale chips like they'rerealchips, I'll be over here drinking champagne. Because according to Dorothy Flowers, a lively and thriving 108-year-old, bubbly is the key to a long life.

Flowers, who resides at the Bupa Southlands nursing home in northern England, celebrated the big 1-0-8 with a bottle of Mot, aka her go-to, on October 22. "Dorothy loves company, so she'll sit with us at the reception desk each day," Resident Experience Manager Helene Ballinger toldMetro."Her real secret for longevity though has to be champagne. It's the only thing we ever see her finish a glass of. Needless to say, we've been toasting her birthday."

Recommended Video

Although she now struggles to speak, that hasn't kept her from charming everyone -- even fans across the world.

"While she's very independent, she's always been happiest when surrounded by others," her niece, Judith Barrett added. The outlet reports that Flowers received a flood of cards (nearly 700!) and plenty of goodies like gin, flowers, chocolates, and naturally, champagne.

"I'm lucky to have made many happy memories during my life and -- even at 108 -- I'm still making more," Flowers reportedly said with assistance from her caretaker.

She's also not the first person to have such a...creativetheory for her longevity. In 2017, a 109-year-old namedRuth Benjamin swore up and down that bacon was, in fact, the answer. So I guess I'll just incorporate both into my diet?

h/t Food & Wine

Sign up here for our daily Thrillist email and subscribe here for our YouTube channel to get your fix of the best in food/drink/fun.

Megan Schaltegger is a staff writer at Thrillist. Follow her @MegSchaltegger.

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Read the original post:
108-Year-Old Woman Says Champagne Is the Key to Long Life - Thrillist

R&B Minister V. Prashanth Reddy said that the State government will extend its cooperation in setting up a new Project Management Cell which should ensure that the structures that are planned for 100 years will last longer.

He was speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the workshop on Health Assessment of Bridges and Structures organised jointly by the Institute of Engineers (India) Telangana State Centre and Construction Industry Development Council, New Delhi and Telangana government at the Institute of Engineers here on Saturday.

Appreciating the R&B department and CIDC for organising the workshop with the objective of checking the health of bridges, he said after the formation of Telangana in 2014, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao allocated 12,000 crore for the development of road connectivity network. District connectivity and widening of single road into double roads, construction of bridges were taken up and the role of the R&B engineers in developing road network in the State was laudable, he said. But due to flooding of roads by overflowing causeways during rains, unless a high-level bridge was constructed, the roads would not be of use.

When the issue was taken to the notice of Chief Minister, he sanctioned 2,495 crore for construction of 511 bridges recognising the fact that there were more level causeways in Telangana. So far 400 bridges were completed at a cost of 1,700 crore and the remaining bridges were in progress. Latest technology was being used for the construction of bridges. In Hyderabad, Karimnagar cable stair bridge technology was being used. Along with bridges, check dams were also being constructed in the State. Check dams would be constructed in 184 locations and it would not only help in road connectivity but also save in conservation of rain water and improve water table.

The Minister felicitated several engineers on the occasion. President of Institute of Engineers Rameswara Rao and R&B Engineers in Chief Ravinder Rao and Ganapathi Reddy participated.

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Project management cell to assess health of bridges, ensure longevity - The Hindu

Page 1 of 2

Investing for retirement requires investors to apply a consistent investment process, just like sticking to a diet and certain processes, said Fidelity International's Luc Froehlich.

A person looking to improve his fitness level would need to go on a diet, balance exercise, and nutrition, as well as use new forms of technology. Likewise, a person looking to build a healthy retirement portfolio would need to follow similar principles, said Luc Froehlich, global head of Investment Directing (Fixed Income) at Fidelity International,who was speaking at the firm's investment conference: How to capitalize on the Longevity Economy.

I tried low carb diet, paleo, keto...but my weight kept moving swinging up and down. (Finally), instead of going cold turkey on certain foods, I took small steps, in a consistent way, he said, proudly announcing that his newfound weight is now more stable.

Sticking to the Diet

In a similar manner, a healthy retirement portfolio should not experience too much volatility, as it serves an important role in funding the bulk of one's living expenses when he or she is no longer actively working, said Roehlich. Hence, the portfolio has to balance income generation with stability.

The second key success factor is sticking to the diet staying in the market. For decades now, it's beenproven that humans tend to be overconfident. We think we can do more than what we actually can. It is the same in investing. And one of the aspects in showing overconfidence is in investors thinking they can stomach more volatility than they actually can.

Throwing Up When Markets Turn

Due to this overconfidence, investors tend to build a portfolio with lots of equity, and they buy even more equities when their prices go up.

And then what happens?Market correction and risk assets are off. What do investors do? They are (now) more confident they cannot actually stomach this volatility and they sell at the worst time in the market.

How to Stay in the Market?

To help investors stay longer in the market,Froehlich advocates more allocation to fixed income assets. Although the use of fixed income to diversify one's investment portfolio is more widely understood, not many investors in Asia use the instrument for that purpose, he said.

In the past few years, fixed income has had equity-like returns. In Asia, a lot of investors are only using fixed income in the leverage business. So I think a lot of investors have forgotten the role of fixed income, which is simply to diversify a portfolio, he added.

Extending Portfolio Longevity

Whether one is taking a career break, or retiring, fixed income can be used to increase portfolio longevity, in line with a longer lifespan.When one has reached retirement years and sees no income, one needs the portfolio to provide income generation and total return.

Excerpt from:
Fidelity: Fixed Income Exciting In The Longevity Economy - finews.asia

Photo: Getty Images

As we age, it sometimes feels like it's just a process of giving up fun stuff: Eating bad food, dialing back certain types of activity due to aches and pains, cutting down on or giving up drinking. Does it have to be? At least one senior citizen in the U.K. would likely say no.

In a HuffPost UK report on Dorothy Flowers, who turned 108 on October 22, her caretakers revealed she is a stalwart fan of champagne and chocolate and still just living as well as she is able.

More from HuffPost:

And, as for her secret to living well past 100? Dorothy believes its all about the chocolate and champagne.

Discussing the latter, the care homes Helene Ballinger said: "Its the only thing we ever see her finish a glass of. Needless to say, weve been toasting her birthday no one said life in a care home had to be boring."

Dorothy Flowers joins something of a chorus of elderswho are unapologetic consumers of what some would call vices.

Then again, there have been legit studies that say alcohol, coffee, and being overweight (at least a little) could aid longevity.

So skip that trip to the gym and grab a beer. Seems like you don't always need to live in self-denial to have a long, happy life.

See the original post:
108-Year-Old Claims Champagne Is the Secret to a Long, Happy Life - Maxim

Saanich success as an age-friendly city was highlighted at an international healthy-aging conference in Japan in October.

Coun. Judy Brownoff was invited to give the keynote speech at the ninth annual World Health Capital Conference in Matsumoto, Japan. The conference took place on Oct. 16 and 17 and focused on the theme of Food and Exercises: Healthy Connections with Everyone.

READ ALSO: Saanich improves recreational opportunities for older adults

The conference touched on health and longevity views from around the world and Brownoff was asked to share the work that Saanich has been doing to engage aging residents and help them lead healthy lives.

In her presentation, Brownoff explained that in 2006, Saanich joined the World Health Organizations Age-Friendly Communities initiative and has since been working to implement services that will help older residents enjoy healthy, active lives.

Akira Sugenoya, the mayor of Matsumoto, said there were a lot of good ideas to take away from Brownoffs presentation as his city encourages residents to take an active role in their own longevity.

The conference featured panels and discussions on various topics from health promotion in Russia to a physiotherapy device designed for folks with arthritic in their hands.

Events such as these help cities around the world share ideas about healthy longevity and learn from one another, said Hiroyuki Kobayashi, director of health industry in Matsumoto.

READ ALSO: NEAT program aims to socialize isolated seniors

Brownoff agreed and noted that sharing ideas in this way helps to plan for aging populations to continue to live engaged, active lives.

Many cities in the world are experiencing longevity in older adults and there are many opportunities for active and creative aging, said Brownoff.

Brownoff has a background in age-friendly communities as she serves as co-chair of the Public Health Agency of Canada of the Pan Canadian Age-Friendly Communities Reference Group a group with representatives across Canada that meet once a month to discuss the problems facing older adults.

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Saanich councillor gives keynote address at healthy aging conference in Japan - Victoria News

I carry a total of 23 tickers in my personal investment portfolio. The two largest holdings in it are streaming video giant Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) and e-commerce veteran Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) Both of these stocks have treated me very well over the years, and they happen to be great buys in today's market as well. These tickers will probably stay with me until I stop investing or the mullet becomes fashionable again, whichever comes first. (Hint: Trendy mullets are more likely than for me to hang up my Wall Street spurs.)

But if I had to liquidate it all and select just one stock for the long haul, I would actually go in a different direction. The only stock I would trust to meet all my investment needs forever is actually Google and Android parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL).

Alphabet is my idea of a centennial investment.

I mean, bothGeneral Electric (NYSE:GE) and IBM (NYSE:IBM) have stuck around for a hundred years by constantly adapting to ever-changing market conditions. They survived technological revolutions, world wars, and lots of pitch-black recessions by ending business operations that no longer worked and replacing them with ideas better suited to the next challenge.

The keyword here is flexibility. GE and IBM have always had it in spades. Alphabet is no different.

Image source: Getty Images.

The company we now know as Alphabet used to be a one-trick pony. Sure, Google's online search and advertising empire is a pretty great trick, but the time will come when those operations just won't keep the lights on anymore.

Never afraid to tackle new business ideas -- big bets with uncertain outcomes such as the YouTube short-form video platform and the Android mobile phone system spring to mind -- the company rebranded itself as a collection of very diverse operations. It's true that Google-branded businesses accounted for 99.6% of Alphabet's total sales in the third quarter and all of the operating profits, but you have to start somewhere.

Alphabet is alpha-betting on a wide variety of mostly offline operations, from self-driving cars and medical research to drone-based delivery services and energy storage based on large tanks of molten salt. None of them are pulling their weight from a financial point of view, but some analysts expect the Waymo self-driving car service to become a $100 billion business in its own right, roughly a decade from now.

Most of Alphabet's non-Google stuff will probably fail to make a difference in the long run, but it is important that the company is exploring a plethora of new ideas at all times. One or two game-changing wins per decade should be plenty to keep Alphabet relevant, competitive, and profitable, effectively forever from the vantage point of one middle-aged human.

There you have it. If I had to pick a single stock to power my portfolio all by itself for years and decades to come, Alphabet would be it. It's already a very large business but I'm convinced that we ain't seen nothin' yet.

I almost feel like I'm cheating a little because this single stock works as a play on lots and lots of different business ideas -- many of which we haven't even imagined yet. Alphabet's best days lie ahead, and we might even forget all about the ancient Google roots when all is said and done.

And that would be fine by me.

More here:
If I Could Buy Only 1 Stock, This Would Be It - Motley Fool

Doctors from the hospital that treated a patient who died after a fecal microbiota transplant published a case study on Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine that offers more details on the case as well as another case in which a patient became severely ill from the procedure.

How to eradicate antibiotic overuse

FDA announced in June that it had become aware that patients who undergo FMT can experience severe or life-threatening bacterial infections caused by drug-resistant bacteria. FDA said two patients with weakened immune systems who received FMT developed infections stemming from extended-spectrum-beta-lactamase (ESBL) producing E. coli, which is resistant to antibiotics. FDA reported that one of those patients had died.

FDA said both FMTs involved stool from the same donor. The donor's stool had not been tested for ESBL-producing gram-negative organisms before the providers conducted the transplants, according to FDA.

FDA said the donor's stool underwent lab tests after the two patients experienced adverse reactions, and the tests confirmed the stored stool contained ESBL-producingE. coliidentical to the bacteria found in stool used in the two transplants.

As a result of the developments, FDA issued new safety guidelines for FMTs, saying it would now require FMTs to involve:

FDA did not provide many details on the two cases, which led doctors from Massachusetts General Hospital, where the patients were treated, to issue a report detailing the cases. Elizabeth Hohmann, co-author of the report and associate professor of medicine and infectious diseases at Mass General and Harvard Medical School, said, "We wanted to set the record straight."

According to the report, both patients were involved in clinical trials to see if FMTs could be used as a potential therapy for their conditions. One patient was in a trial to learn whether FMTs could help improve brain function in patients with severe liver disease. The other was participating in a trial to see if FMTs could be used to help immune function in leukemia patients who had undergone chemotherapy and stem cell transplants.

Two and a half weeks after doctors administered the final FMT dose to the liver disease patient, a form of E. coli was found in the patient's bloodstream, the report said. The patient recovered after intravenous antibiotics killed the bacteria.

The leukemia patient also developed the same form of drug-resistant E. coli. However, the patient had taken drugs to suppress his immune system as part of a bone marrow transplant and began to decline faster, the report said. Eight days after his last FMT dose, the patient was placed on a ventilator, and two days later the patient died from a severe bloodstream infection, according to the report.

Upon investigation of the liver patient's infection, doctors discovered that the stool sample used for the FMT contained the drug-resistant organism.

According to Hohmann, the stool donor was "what I call a 'screamingly healthy person.' Only about one in 40 people who think they might be healthy enough to [donate stool] actually turn out to meet all of our criteria. [The donor] had none of the 'risk factors' for carrying these organisms. They could not recall the last time they received antibiotics, had zero medical history, no international travel. Plus, they completed all of the other screening tests."

The doctors had been following FDA protocol testing stool donations for infectious bugs, but were not instructed by FDA to test or destroy older stool samples kept in storage, Hohmann said. The stool sample that sickened the two patients in the report had been stored in a freezer for several months.

"It wasn't obvious to a lot of smart people here," Hohmann said. "We didn't think to go back in time."

Hohmann said the report should serve as "a cautionary and sad tale. It points out some of the important medical issues about immune-compromised [patients] and maybe that changing the microbiome is not always a good idea."

Alexander Khoruts, a professor of medicine and medical director of the Microbiota Therapeutics Program at the University of Minnesota who was not involved in the report, said the report should "set off alarm bells for those who thought that [FMTs were] risk free." He added that Mass General "did the right thing" by sharing details and that he hopes the report will lead doctors to be more cautious.

Stuart Johnson, an associate professor of medicine at Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine, who specializes in the bacterial gut infection Clostridium difficile, said he thinks the report "points out that we don't know everything that's in someone's feces, and I think widespread adoption of this practice is problematic" (Carroll, NBC News, 10/30; Jacobs, New York Times, 10/30; Smith, Medium, 10/30).

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In June, FDA announced a patient died from a fecal transplant. Now the doctors are speaking out. - The Daily Briefing

KENILWORTH, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Merck (NYSE: MRK), known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, today announced financial results for the third quarter of 2019.

We achieved another quarter of strong revenue and earnings growth as we continue to realize the benefits of our sustained investment in research and development and our focus on commercial execution, said Kenneth C. Frazier, chairman and chief executive officer, Merck. We are confident that the investments we are making now will allow us to convert cutting-edge science into medicines and vaccines of great benefit to patients and value to shareholders.

Financial Summary

$ in millions, except EPS amounts

Third Quarter

2019

2018

Change

ChangeEx-Exchange

Sales

$12,397

$10,794

15%

16%

GAAP net income1

1,901

1,950

-3%

-3%

Non-GAAP net income that excludes certain items1,2*

3,873

3,178

22%

22%

GAAP EPS

0.74

0.73

1%

1%

Non-GAAP EPS that excludes certain items2*

1.51

1.19

27%

27%

*Refer to table on page 9

GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) earnings per share assuming dilution (EPS) were $0.74 for the third quarter of 2019. Non-GAAP EPS of $1.51 for the third quarter of 2019 excludes a $982 million charge for the acquisition of Peloton Therapeutics, Inc. (Peloton), a $612 million pretax intangible asset impairment charge, other acquisition- and divestiture-related costs, restructuring costs and certain other items. Year-to-date results can be found in the attached tables.

Pipeline Highlights

Oncology

Merck continued to advance the development programs for KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab), the companys anti-PD-1 therapy; Lynparza (olaparib), a PARP inhibitor being co-developed and co-commercialized with AstraZeneca; and Lenvima (lenvatinib mesylate), an orally available tyrosine kinase inhibitor being co-developed and co-commercialized with Eisai Co., Ltd. (Eisai).

KEYTRUDA

Lynparza

Lenvima

Other Pipeline Highlights

Third-Quarter Revenue Performance

The following table reflects sales of the companys top pharmaceutical products, as well as sales of animal health products.

Third Quarter

2019

2018

Change

Change Ex-Exchange

Total Sales

$12,397

$10,794

15%

16%

Pharmaceutical

11,095

9,658

15%

16%

KEYTRUDA

3,070

1,889

62%

64%

GARDASIL / GARDASIL 9

1,320

1,048

26%

27%

JANUVIA / JANUMET

1,311

1,490

-12%

-11%

PROQUAD, M-M-R II and

VARIVAX

623

525

19%

19%

BRIDION

284

217

31%

32%

ISENTRESS / ISENTRESS HD

250

See more here:
Merck Announces Third-Quarter 2019 Financial Results - Business Wire

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MEMS for Therapeutic Market Size, Share Analysis by Services, Technique, Design and Application Forecast by 2023 - Health News Office

Zacks Investment Research cut shares of Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report report published on Friday morning, Zacks.com reports.

According to Zacks, Merus B.V. is a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company developing bispecific antibody therapeutics, referred to as Biclonics. The companys bispecific antibody candidate, MCLA-128, is being evaluated in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial as a potential treatment for HER2-expressing solid tumors; MCLA-117, is being developed as a potential treatment for acute myeloid leukemia and MCLA-158, which is designed to bind to cancer stem cells and is being developed as a potential treatment for colorectal cancer and other solid tumors. Merus B.V. is headquartered in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

MRUS has been the subject of a number of other reports. ValuEngine upgraded Merus from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note on Thursday. BidaskClub upgraded Merus from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the companys stock. The company presently has an average rating of Buy and an average price target of $23.43.

Shares of MRUS traded up $0.33 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $15.99. The stock had a trading volume of 102,700 shares, compared to its average volume of 91,051. The companys fifty day simple moving average is $17.16 and its 200 day simple moving average is $15.58. The firm has a market cap of $335.80 million, a P/E ratio of -8.69 and a beta of 0.24. Merus has a 12-month low of $11.00 and a 12-month high of $20.95.

Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 19th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.57) EPS for the quarter, missing the Zacks consensus estimate of ($0.54) by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $6.27 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.62 million. Merus had a negative return on equity of 41.68% and a negative net margin of 104.10%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Merus will post -1.74 EPS for the current year.

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Artal Group S.A. grew its stake in Merus by 16.7% in the second quarter. Artal Group S.A. now owns 350,000 shares of the biotechnology companys stock worth $5,128,000 after purchasing an additional 50,000 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in Merus by 3.1% in the second quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 92,776 shares of the biotechnology companys stock worth $1,359,000 after acquiring an additional 2,788 shares during the last quarter. Athanor Capital LP bought a new position in Merus in the second quarter worth about $334,000. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in Merus by 63.5% in the second quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 8,722 shares of the biotechnology companys stock worth $123,000 after acquiring an additional 3,389 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 52.00% of the companys stock.

Merus Company Profile

Merus N.V., a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company, engages in developing bispecific antibody therapeutics. Its bispecific antibody candidate pipeline includes MCLA-128, which is in a Phase II clinical trial for the treatment of patients with metastatic breast cancer; and Phase I/II study for treating gastric, ovarian, endometrial, and non-small cell lung cancers.

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Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS) Stock Rating Lowered by Zacks Investment Research - Polson News