Two geneticists explain the groundbreaking CRISPR-based therapies approved for sickle-cell disease and β-thalassaemia, and other genetic therapeutics in development, including base-editing and prime-editing.
Our research at Vertex is built upon two strong pillars: biology and therapeutic innovation. We continue to fill our drug discovery toolbox with cutting-edge tools and technologies. One of these tools is CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing. Watch this video to learn about how CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing works and how it can be used in therapeutic development.\
For company updates and to learn more about Vertex Pharmaceuticals, follow us on Twitter (/ vertexpharma, YouTube (/ @vertexpharmaceuticalsglobal) and LinkedIn (/ vertex-pharmaceuticals, or visit our website at www.vrtx.com.
Several women have filed medical malpractice lawsuits against a southern California plastic surgeon well known on Instagram, alleging that they endured botched surgeries, unexpected scarring and serious infections.
As reported by the Los Angeles Times, the series of lawsuits allege that Dr. Arian Mowlavi degraded the women by requiring them to take off all of their clothes during an examination, touching their bodies without consent and attempting to sell them additional procedures like breast augmentations and body sculpting.
Mowlavi, who was based in Laguna Beach, called himself “Dr. Laguna” and a “renowned body sculptor” while charging 10s of thousands for procedures that his patients allege were done sloppily or, in some cases, not by Mowlavi at all.
Almost half the people known to have contracted COVID-19 in Africa are now living with the effects of long COVID, according to a comprehensive review of previous studies and analysis, covering data from a total of 29,213 people.
Officially, long COVID means persisting symptoms three months after infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Worldwide, at least 10 percent of infected people are thought to suffer from the condition, with recently published research indicating higher rates in multiple countries.
Incidence rates in Africa, though, are well above any of these other estimates. Why that is the case is unclear. In low-income countries, estimates of the incidence of long COVID vary greatly, due to hidden infections and the difficulty of accessing tests.
View show notes here: https://bit.ly/3GJjQKz Become a member to receive exclusive content: https://peterattiamd.com/subscribe/ Sign up to receive Peter’s email newsletter: https://peterattiamd.com/newsletter/ Colleen Cutcliffe is an expert in molecular biology and co-founder of Pendulum Therapeutics, a company working to develop treatments for a variety of diseases by targeting the microbiome. In this episode, Colleen delves into the complexity of the microbiome, how it is tested, and how it changes over time. She explores how probiotics, prebiotics, and postbiotics affect the gut and makes a compelling case that well-developed products have the potential not only to enhance gut health but also to positively influence overall metabolic well-being. Colleen emphasizes the significance of a high-fiber diet in sustaining a thriving gut microbiome, shares insights on minimizing microbiome damage during antibiotic use, provides tips for fostering and preserving a healthy gut, and much more. We discuss: 0:00:00 — Intro 0:00:34 — Colleen’s background and current focus 0:03:08 — The basics of the microbiome 0:12:37 — The study of the human microbiome 0:17:42 — Categories of bacteria, and the implications on health of the rapid evolution of bacteria 0:27:51 — Methods for measuring and understanding the microbiome, and key indicators of microbiome health 0:39:52 — The important role of fiber for promoting gut health through the production of butyrate 0:47:21 — The case for manipulating gut bacteria via fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) 0:53:25 — Dynamics of the microbiome: the gut-brain connection and how antibiotics, nutrition, stress, and more impact the microbiome’s diversity and function 0:59:16 — Factors that influence the vaginal microbiom 1:03:46 — The effect of gut microbes on obesity and challenges with fecal transplants in people 1:06:25 — Beneficial strains of gut bacteria and strains commonly found in probiotics 1:16:35 — The difference between a probiotic and prebiotic, and how CFUs are a measure of the “active ingredient” 1:21:47 — Considerations about how probiotic strains are produced, and more on the meaning of CFU 1:31:12 — Mitigating the effect of antibiotics on the microbiome 1:39:58 — What do we know about the effect of artificial sweeteners on the gut microbiome? 1:47:02 — Why Akkermansia is a keystone strain with implications for metabolic health and an individual’s response to dietary interventions 1:58:14 — The essential steps necessary to develop a robust probiotic for optimal health support 2:01:45 — How Akkermansia helps control blood glucose, and potential implications of Akkermansia in weight loss, diabetes management, and more 2:22:46 — Pendulum Therapeutics’ commitment to rigorous product develop 2:29:54 — Details about the probiotic “Glucose Control” and other probiotics developed by Pendulum Therapeutics 2:38:43 — Further studies of Akkermansia that have been proposed or are underway ——– About: The Peter Attia Drive is a deep-dive podcast focusing on maximizing longevity, and all that goes into that from physical to cognitive to emotional health. With over 70 million episodes downloaded, it features topics including exercise, nutritional biochemistry, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, mental health, and much more. Peter Attia is the founder of Early Medical, a medical practice that applies the principles of Medicine 3.0 to patients with the goal of lengthening their lifespan and simultaneously improving their healthspan.
Some researchers argue that looking for structural changes in sugar molecules called glycans could help identify different types of cancer early on.
Companies and countries are in a race to develop quantum computers. The machines could revolutionize problem solving in medicine, physics, chemistry and engineering.
In 2007, Luciano Marraffini struck out on what was then a scientifically lonely path: to understand CRISPR, which had been discovered in bacteria only about a decade before.
Seventeen years later, we all know what CRISPR is: a revolution in medicine. A once-in-a-lifetime scientific breakthrough. The most promising tool for gene therapy ever discovered. But back then, “clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats” were merely curious genetic fragments with no known purpose.
“When I started, there was nothing that indicated that it was going to one day help people to cure genetic diseases,” Marraffini recalls.
A robot that automates a common technique for animal cloning has been used to produce a litter of cloned pigs in China — with a much higher success rate than human scientists.
The challenge: China is both the world’s biggest producer of pork and its largest consumer, so having ideal breeding stock — animals that birthe large litters of quick-growing piglets — is important for the nation’s economy and food security.
However, in 2018 and 2019, an epidemic of deadly African swine fever wiped out almost 50% of China’s pig population. As a result, many farmers have had to import breeding pigs, and China is now eager for its pork industry to become almost entirely self-sufficient.
Experiments verify a theory that explains why paint doesn’t dry any faster on a dry day than on a wet day.
You might think that polymer solutions like paint dry more slowly on a humid day than on a dry day. But researchers have now verified a theory that explains why the evaporation rate of the water or another solvent in a polymer solution can be independent of the ambient humidity [1]. The experiments show that, as predicted, water evaporation drives the polymer molecules toward the surface, where they form a dense layer that hinders evaporation and shields the surface from humidity effects. This phenomenon may affect the rate at which virus-containing respiratory droplets evaporate and thus could help explain the seasonal dependence of viral infections.
Humidity-independent evaporation is an advantage in many situations. For example, to preserve the body’s hydration, human skin maintains a nearly constant evaporation rate thanks to cell membranes whose lipid molecules can be reconfigured to adjust the sweat evaporation rate. This reconfiguration is an example of an active process. In 2017, Jean-Baptiste Salmon, a chemical engineer at the University of Bordeaux in France, proposed that humidity-independent evaporation does not require an active response [2]. Instead, his theory suggested that it occurs whenever the solvent evaporates from a solution of large molecules, a process that was already known to draw those molecules toward the drying interface. He predicted that, after the large molecules form a dense layer, the solvent’s evaporation rate will remain unchanged whether the surroundings are bone dry or at 100% humidity. However, the theory has not been tested with a nonactive polymer solution.
