StemCell Therapy

In April 2018, California authorities revealed that theyd used a novel investigative technique to arrest a man they called the Golden State Killer, a serial murderer whod escaped capture for decades.

For the first time, police had submitted DNA from a crime scene into a consumer DNA database, where information about distant relatives helped them identify a suspect.

The announcement kindled a revolution in forensics that has since helped solve more than 50 rapes and homicides in 29 states.

But earlier this year, that online database changed its privacy policy to restrict law enforcement searches, and since then, these cold cases have become much harder to crack. The change is allowing some criminals who could be identified and caught to remain undetected and unpunished, authorities say.

There are cases that wont get solved or will take longer to solve, Lori Napolitano, the chief of forensic services at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, said.

The switch was imposed by GEDmatch, a free website where people share their DNA profiles in hopes of finding relatives. The company had faced criticism for allowing police to search profiles without users permission, and decided that it would rather make sure members understood explicitly how investigators were using the site. So, it altered its terms of service to automatically exclude all members from law enforcement searches and left it to them to opt in.

Overnight, the number of profiles available to law enforcement dropped from more than 1 million to zero. While the pool has grown slowly since then, as more people click a police-shield icon on GEDmatch allowing authorities to see their profile, cases remain more difficult to solve, investigators say.

CeCe Moore, a leading specialist in using DNA evidence and family trees to identify criminal suspects a method known as investigative genetic genealogy depends on GEDmatch for her work. After entering a suspects DNA profile into the site, she reviews the results and assesses the likelihood of law enforcement being able to determine the suspects identity. She then scores each case from 1 to 5, 1 being a sure thing and 5 a long shot.

Im giving a lot more fives than I used to, said Moore, who helped solve several cases using GEDmatch before the site changed its terms of service, including the 1987 killing of a young Canadian couple, the 1988 murder of an 8-year-old Indiana girl and the 1992 rape and strangulation of a Pennsylvania schoolteacher.

This sharp drop in the usefulness of a promising technology has sparked an effort by law enforcement authorities and researchers like Moore to convince the public to take action. These groups hope to persuade more Americans to obtain their DNA profiles from direct-to-consumer genetic testing companies most of which have large databases but dont allow law enforcement searches and share them publicly, including with law enforcement, on databases like GEDmatch. One direct-to-consumer company, FamilyTreeDNA, allows law enforcement to search its database, but charges for it and limits results.

Some people are reluctant, worried that their DNA profiles will be hacked or used against their wishes, whether in the pursuit of a criminal or in the sale of data to health care companies. There are also concerns that DNA sharing will lead to the end of anonymity.

But law enforcement authorities and genetic sleuths who work with them argue that there is greater public good in helping to keep killers and rapists off the streets.

In the interest of public safety, dont you want to make it easy for people to be caught? said Colleen Fitzpatrick, a genetic genealogist who co-founded the DNA Doe Project, which identifies unknown bodies, and runs IdentiFinders, which helps find suspects in old crimes. Police really want to do their job. Theyre not after you. They just want to make you safe.

To illustrate those points, investigators tell the story of Angie Dodge.

Dodge, 18, was raped and murdered in 1996 in her Idaho Falls, Idaho, apartment. A year later, a man confessed to the crime, and although he later recanted and his DNA didnt match that of semen left on Dodges body, he was convicted of participating in the killing and sentenced to life in prison.

Dodges mother grew convinced that the prisoner, Christopher Tapp, was not her daughters killer. She pressed authorities to reopen the case. In 2017, Tapp was freed in a deal with prosecutors in which his conviction of aiding and abetting the murder remained.

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So did the question of who left their DNA at the crime scene.

Almost a year later, California authorities said theyd used genetic genealogy to catch the Golden State Killer.

The announcement generated a surge of interest in the technique, as genetic genealogists teamed up with private companies to sell their services to law enforcement. (Public crime labs are not equipped to do the kind of DNA analysis required, and police generally arent fluent in methods used to build family trees.) Parabon NanoLabs was the first, hiring Moore to run its genetic genealogy services. Idaho Falls police asked the company to try it.

Parabon submitted the Dodge suspects DNA profile into GEDmatch in May 2018, but the DNA was so degraded that, even with more than 1 million profiles to compare against, the connections were sparse. Moore decided that genetic genealogy wouldnt work and declined to take up the case.

But Dodges mother, Carol, begged Moore to keep trying. Moore relented and examined the connections more closely. With help from her team of genetic genealogists, she explored a series of leads that didnt pan out. They kept at it for months, eventually discovering a new branch of the suspects family tree and a potential suspect.

Police followed that man, collecting a cigarette butt he discarded and using it to obtain his DNA. It matched the crime scene profile, and in May 2019 Brian Leigh Dripps confessed, police said. A few weeks later, Tapp was exonerated. Dripps is awaiting trial.

Moore chronicled that search at a recent gathering of genetic researchers, investigators, prosecutors and lab technicians in Palm Springs, California. If she had been working on the Dodge case after GEDmatch limited access to its database, she told attendees of the International Symposium on Human Identification, this case would not have been able to be solved by genetic genealogy.

She said she understood why GEDmatchs owners made the decision, but the result was allowing some violent criminals to remain free for longer than they would have been with the full power of genetic genealogy. She pleaded with her audience to take DNA tests and upload their profiles into GEDmatch.

We dont want this very valuable tool to slip out of our hands, Moore said.

Curtis Rogers didnt ask for this.

Rogers, 81, works in Florida as a court-appointed guardian for the elderly. He founded GEDmatch as a free public service in 2010 after being inspired by his own experience connecting with people who shared his last name. He partnered with a computer programmer who wrote software that made it easy for people to find relatives through certain shared pieces of genetic material. The site became popular among professional and amateur genealogists, and as direct-to-consumer genetic testing services grew, GEDmatch enabled people to compare their DNA profiles in a single place.

Rogers knew little of law enforcements interest in his website until the Golden State Killer announcement. The news upset Rogers and some members. But he eventually accepted the sites role in solving violent crimes where other forensic techniques including searches for matches in criminal DNA databases had failed.

I am not totally comfortable with GEDmatch being used to catch violent criminals but I doubt it would be possible to prevent it, Rogers told NBC News last year. I feel it is important to make sure all our users are educated to the possible uses of GEDmatch so they can make up their own minds.

As law enforcement searches of his site surged, Rogers imposed a few restrictions. He allowed investigators to pursue leads on homicides and rapes, but not less serious crimes like assaults.

Then, late last year, police in Utah asked Rogers to use the site to investigate an attack on an elderly church organist, who was seriously hurt but survived. Rogers agreed, and police used GEDmatch to identify a 17-year-old suspect, who was arrested in April.

But that bending of Rogers own rules on how police could use GEDmatch triggered a backlash that led him to change the sites terms of service. On May 18, all GEDmatch members were removed from law enforcement searches and offered a chance to opt in if they wanted to be included.

Ethicists said the decision ensured that users would be properly informed about how their profiles would be used.

People using genetic genealogy databases for their own purposes never anticipated this kind of access to their genetic information or that information being used to identify people theyre related to, said Amy McGuire, director of the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the Baylor College of Medicine.

There is a genuine tension between wanting to protect consumers and be respectful of their wishes and recognizing that working with law enforcement provides a social benefit, she said.

A Baylor College of Medicine survey last year found 91 percent of respondents favored law enforcement using consumer DNA databases to solve violent crimes, and 46 percent for nonviolent crimes.

But with fewer links from GEDmatch to examine, investigators now have to spend more time seeking connections that could lead them to a killer. That means chasing down more leads, or asking innocent distant relatives to submit their DNA for genetic testing in hopes that their profile will help fill out the family tree. That kind of target testing raises its own set of privacy concerns.

You only need to look at the pace of press releases since the time of the Golden State Killer and see that there was virtually one every week, if not more, and the pace of those cases being solved has reduced itself, said Anne Marie Schubert, the district attorney in Sacramento County, California, where she oversaw the Golden State Killer investigation.

The limited GEDmatch access ultimately means higher costs for law enforcement who turn for help to Parabon, which dominates the private market for such work, or FamilyTreeDNA, one of the earliest direct-to-consumer genetic testing companies.

It also means that more cases might remain unsolved.

If I had a larger team, we would certainly try more cases, Moore said. But because agencies are paying Parabon, we dont want them to waste valuable resources or give false hopes.

Rogers says he has done the right thing for his members, and for the field he loves.

We are here for genealogists, not for law enforcement, he said. On the other hand, law enforcement is here to stay. I feel a big obligation to make sure its used properly. I dont want some half-cocked law enforcement person to do something that creates a story and ruins everything for everyone.

Rogers has sent emails to members urging them to allow law enforcement to search their profiles, linking to a video message from a relative of one of the Golden State Killers victims.

Many of these families have suffered for decades. They need your support, he wrote in an email to members. We hope you will encourage others who have been genealogically DNA tested to also add their information. We believe it is the caring thing to do.

So far, Rogers said, 181,000 members have opted in. Thats far from the critical mass of 1 million that some researchers say is needed to solve cold cases with regularity. It could be many months, and perhaps years, before GEDmatchs law enforcement-accessible database reaches that size.

Im sorry we had to do this. However, I feel very strongly that when we bit the bullet and did what we did, we set the whole future on a much stronger base, Rogers said of genealogy. Two or three years from now, this whole thing will be forgotten.

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Police were cracking cold cases with a DNA website. Then the fine print changed. - NBC News

Qi Gong,1,* Liping Ye,2,* Huiwen Gui,1 Jing Liu,1 Huanyin Li,1 Qian Sun1

1Department of Neurology, Minhang Branch, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 201199, Peoples Republic of China; 2Nursing Department, Minhang Branch, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 201199, Peoples Republic of China

*These authors contributed equally to this work

Correspondence: Huanyin LiDepartment of Neurology, Minhang Branch, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, 170 Shenlong Road, Minhang District, Shanghai 201199, Peoples Republic of ChinaTel/Fax +86 216 492 3400Email li_huanyin@sina.com

Background: Stroke ranks as the third-leading cause of years of life lost worldwide. ANGPTL3 plays important roles in lipid metabolism, atherosclerosis, and occurrence of stroke. The purpose of this study was to evaluate associations of genetic variants in the ANGPTL3 gene with ischemic stroke (IS) risk.Methods: A casecontrol study was conducted to evaluate the associations of tag single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the ANGPTL3 gene and risk of IS, as well as serum lipid levels. Dual-luciferase reporter assays in the HEK293T cell line was conducted to evaluate the promoter activity of ANGPTL3 rs6690733.Results: We found rs6690733 (C vs A: OR 1.34, 95% CI 1.131.59; P=0.001) and rs12563308 (C vs T: OR 0.77, 95% CI 0.640.93, P=0.007) were significantly associated with susceptibility to IS. Even corrected for Bonferroni adjustment, the two variants were still significant (0.0074=0.028). Carriers of the minor allele of SNP rs6690733 had significantly higher levels of TC and LDL-C, while carriers of the minor allele of SNP rs12563308 had significantly lower levels of TC and LDL-C (all P<0.05). For rs6690733, the luciferase assay showed that promoter activity was significantly increased by 67% of plasmids containing the minor C allele compared with the major A allele in HEK293 cells.Conclusion: Our study revealed genetic variants of the ANGPTL3 gene could contribute to susceptibility to IS through participating in the regulation of lipid metabolism.

Keywords: ischemic stroke, ANGPTL3, genetic, atherosclerosis

This work is published and licensed by Dove Medical Press Limited. The full terms of this license are available at https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php and incorporate the Creative Commons Attribution - Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License.By accessing the work you hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. For permission for commercial use of this work, please see paragraphs 4.2 and 5 of our Terms.

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Association study of genetic variants of the ANGPTL3 gene and suscepti | NDT - Dove Medical Press

DALLAS How far would you go to save your child from a rare genetic disease with no known cure and no real option for treatment?

I have three kids and Id go to the end of the earth for them, said Stephen Grey, associate professor of pediatrics at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

Our tour of Grey's lab was the first, and likely only, time outsiders will ever be given access.

Nobody will be allowed in here without being qualified or gowned up appropriately, he explained. Its a sealed HEPA filter facility.

Inside the facility on the UT Southwestern campus, Grey will manufacture a virus that will be injected into children.

Stephen Grey's lab is on the campus of UT Southwestern Medical Center.

Teresa Woodard

The virus doesnt replicate or spread or cause any sort of infection.

It has one specific purpose: to deliver missing DNA, in the hopes of treating rare diseases caused by DNAs absence.

Grey calls it a molecular mail truck.

The simplest way I can explain what we do is children are born, they have a defect where theyre missing a gene, and we put it back, he explained.

Literally hundreds of trillions of virus particles carry the DNA and will go across a nervous system to bring the DNA into the cells where its missing and then it permanently fixes things, he said. Then, its really treating the disease at the root of everything thats wrong.

One disease Grey will tackle in his lab is often described as ALS, or Lou Gehrig's Disease, in children.

Theyre going to lose control of their legs, lose control of arms, and basically move to being essentially in a quadriplegic state, Grey described. Its ultimately fatal by the second or third decade of life.

Its called CMT4J and Talia Duff, 13, of Boston, is currently battlingthe disease.

She learned to walk and dance as a little girl. She was growing and gaining independence, but that progression stopped a few years ago.

Instead of gaining strength with age, Talia started to lose it. She is now in a wheelchair.

Kinley Kitchens, 14, lives in North Texas.

Her CMT4J is not as far along as Talia's, but each day is a battle.

You have very bad balance and a lack of coordination, she said, "so I fall a lot.

Her family worries about the future.

The progression is just the unknown, said Kinleys mother, Sabrina. You just dont know when its going to progress.

Only 30 kids in the world have CMT4J.

Recently, on the campus of UT Southwestern, two of them - Talia and Kinley and their families, came face to face for the first time.

It just makes you feel not so alone, said Jocelyn Duff, Talias mother, And I think its pretty special for both Talia and Kinley for that same reason.

Our researchers are often asked why we should care about a disease thats so rare, Jocelyn said.

Its really those rare diseases that are the guinea pigs for more common diseases. So these clinical trials are critically important for teasing apart what gene therapies might work for what diseases.

Because theyve been given such a grim prognosis and because no treatment currently exists these parents are willing to take great risks that could return remarkable results.

If we can do this for these rare diseases, then we can move on and expand the treatment to things like Alzheimers, autism, schizophrenia, epilepsy things that are very common, Grey said.

Grey doesn't aim to cure diseases, he said. His goal is to stop a disease's progression.

Cure is a four-letter word for me because it sets some expectations, but I think were looking at a comprehensive treatment for some really devastating diseases, he said.

Sure, the science is cool. Im a scientist. I love the curiosity and the problem solving but seeing what the families go through theyll never quit and they feel like my kids.

Grey hopes to begin clinical trials on about eight different rare diseases in early 2020. He hopes to have about a half dozen kids in each trial.

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Only 30 children have been diagnosed with this rare genetic disease. Why are they coming to Dallas? - WFAA.com

The 1KP initiative, a collaborative effort of nearly 200 scientists, spans green algae to land plants, providing a framework for examining 1 billion years of plant evolution. Credit: Eric Zamora/Florida Museum

Plants are evolutionary champions, dominating Earths ecosystems for more than a billion years and making the planet habitable for countless other life forms, including us. Now, scientists have completed a nine-year genetic quest to shine a light on the long, complex history of land plants and green algae, revealing the plot twists and furious pace of the rise of this super group of organisms.

The project, known as the One Thousand Plant Transcriptomes Initiative (1KP), brought together nearly 200 plant biologists to sequence and analyze genes from more than 1,100 plant species spanning the green tree of life. A summary of the teams findings published on October 23, 2019, in Nature.

In the tree of life, everything is interrelated, said Gane Ka-Shu Wong, lead investigator of 1KP and professor in the University of Albertas department of biological sciences. And if we want to understand how the tree of life works, we need to examine the relationships between species. Thats where genetic sequencing comes in.

Much of plant research has focused on crops and a few model species, obscuring the evolutionary backstory of a clade that is nearly half a million species strong.

To get a birds-eye view of plant evolution, the 1KP team sequenced transcriptomes the set of genes that is actively expressed to illuminate the genetic underpinnings of green algae, mosses, ferns, conifers, flowering plants and all other lineages of green plants.

One hallmark of plant evolution is the frequency of genome duplication. Flowering plants are renowned for making multiple copies of their genome, which may contribute to the evolution of new gene functions. The 1KP project uncovered previously unknown duplication events in this group. Credit: Kristen Grace/Florida Museum

This gives a much broader perspective than what you could get by just looking at crops, which are all concentrated in one little part of the evolutionary tree, said study co-author Pamela Soltis, University of Florida distinguished professor and Florida Museum of Natural History curator. By having this bigger picture, you can understand how changes occurred in the genome, which then allows you to investigate changes in physical characteristics, chemistry or any other feature youre interested in.

One challenge was the projects sheer size, said study co-author Douglas Soltis, UF distinguished professor, and Florida Museum curator.

To look at that many genomes is unparalleled, he said. Its not a jump in technology as much as a jump in scale.

Sequencing transcriptomes requires freshly collected tissues, which is how Soltis found himself trekking through Gainesvilles greenery with containers of liquid nitrogen. Back at the laboratory, a team extracted genetic material from the frozen plant clippings and shipped the extractions to China for sequencing. All over the world, their colleagues followed suit.

Analyzing the sequences also required a reworking of existing software, which wasnt designed to handle such an unprecedented volume of genetic data, and without funding for the analysis, the researchers chipped away at the data as they had spare time.

But the labor was worth it, Pamela Soltis said.

The plant community got more than 1,000 sets of sequences, said Soltis, who also directs the UF Biodiversity Institute. Who could argue with that? All these branches of the plant tree of life have been filled in.

One hallmark of plant evolution and a feature rarely seen in animals is the frequency of genome duplication. Over and over again, lineages doubled, tripled or even quadrupled their entire set of genes, resulting in massive genome sizes. While the purpose of whole genome duplication is still unclear, scientists suspect that it may drive evolutionary innovation: If you have two copies of genes, one copy can gradually evolve a new function.

Addressing the frequency of whole genome duplication in plants was one of 1KPs goals, Douglas Soltis said. While flowering plants and ferns were already famous for genome duplication, Soltis said 1KP uncovered a number of previously unknown duplication events in these groups, as well as in the gymnosperms, the group of plants that includes conifers.

Other plant lineages took a different route, expanding certain gene families rather than copying their entire genome. This, too, is thought to provide new avenues for evolutionary development, and not surprisingly, the research team uncovered a major expansion of genes just before the appearance of vascular plants, land plants with xylem and phloem special cells for transporting water and nutrients.

But Douglas Soltis said gene expansions did not always correspond to major plant evolutionary milestones.

Theres not much of an expansion before seed plants appear or for flowering plants, he said. In fact, flowering plants actually shrank certain gene families, which may be a sign that they just co-opted existing genes for new functions.

Another surprise finding was that mosses, liverworts and hornworts form a single related group, confirming a centuries-old hypothesis that had been reversed in recent decades.

Wed done a partial analysis in 2014 that suggested these plants were close relatives, but a lot of people didnt believe it. These results underscore those findings, Pamela Soltis said. Its going to rock the moss world.

While the project refines our understanding of plant evolution and relationships between lineages, these data are also invaluable tools for advancing crop science, medicine, and other fields, the researchers said.

Identifying genes that have been duplicated in flowering plants could help scientists better understand their function, which could lead to crop improvements, Pamela Soltis said.

And because many plants have medicinal benefits, the genetic data offered by the 1KP project could lead to new discoveries that improve human health.

We focused on getting a lot of wild samples collected from plant lineages known to have important chemistry in hopes that people could mine this material for new compounds, Douglas Soltis said.

The sequences generated by the 1KP team are publicly accessible through the CyVerse Data Commons.

Probably hundreds of papers have used the data in ways we dont even know about, Pamela Soltis said. That is a super cool aspect of this study.

But the 1KP team has little time to celebrate its achievement. The next goal? Sequencing 10,000 genomes.

###

Reference: One thousand plant transcriptomes and the phylogenomics of green plants by One Thousand Plant Transcriptomes Initiative, 23 October 2019, Nature.DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1693-2

Matthew Gitzendanner, Evgeny Mavrodiev and Grant Godden of the Florida Museum and Emily Sessa of UFs department of biologyalso co-authored the study. James Leebens-Mack of the University of Georgia is a co-corresponding author.

The 1KP initiative was funded by the Alberta Ministry of Advanced Education and Alberta Innovates, Musea Ventures, the National Key Research and Development Program of China, the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Peoples Republic of China, the State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Genomics and the Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory. Sequencing activities at BGI were also supported by the Shenzhen Municipal Government of China. Computational support was provided by the China National GeneBank, the Texas Advanced Computing Center, WestGrid and Compute Canada. Additional support was provided by the National Science Foundation, the NSF-funded iPlant Collaborative, the National Institutes of Health, German Research Foundation and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

The quote above from Gane Ka-Shu Wong first appeared in a joint press release published by the University of Georgia and the University of Alberta.

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1 Billion Years of Evolution Illuminated by Genetic Sequencing of 1,100 Plants - SciTechDaily

In early 2018, investigators in California uploaded DNA from one of the Golden State Killer crime scenes to GEDmatch, an open data personal genomics database and genealogy website. They found a mutual descendant of the suspects great-great-great grandparents, and enlisted genetic genealogists to construct a family tree.

This eventually led authorities to Joseph James DeAngelo, a 72-year-old former police officer. DeAngelo was arrested that April and charged with 13 counts of murder, including one committed during burglary and rape, and 13 counts of kidnapping for robbery, according to CNN. He is currently awaiting trial.

Since DeAngelos arrest, law enforcement has investigated numerous cold cases using genealogical DNA databases, whether from open-use platforms like GEDmatch or commercial websites like FamilyTreeDNA. While an impressive number of cases have been solved, finding usable matches that lead to an arrest is labor intensive and often difficult.

Its a steep learning curve, CeCe Moore, head of genetic genealogy at Parabon NanoLabs, told Oxygen.com. Its been two years since genetic genealogists have started to be used. There are some law enforcement officials who are getting good at it. We just need more people that really put the time in to do it because there are a limited number of us out there that can work these cases skillfully.

To help law enforcement identify unknown suspect or victim DNA from a crime scene, genealogists upload the DNA sample to a database like GEDmatch. Then, they reverse-engineer the family tree of the unidentified person by comparing it to the family trees of people with whom they share DNA.

Youre hoping your top match is going to be at least a third cousin, and you can go back to a second great-grandparent. I use a lot of supporting matches as well, said Moore, who has worked on more than 200 cases. If youve got a lot of really close genetic matches, its obviously going to be a lot easier.

While genetic genealogists have proved critical in helping investigations, arrests and convictions are ultimately the result of police work.

It sometimes can only narrow it down so far, and then you turn it over to the investigators, Moore said. Were really just a lead generator. Were trying to get tips, and then investigators have to determine whether thats a viable tip or not.

The key to more successful identifications is access to DNA databanks, according to Moore. As more people upload their genetic information, there will be more profiles to compare them to.

The techniques are already very powerful, and the science is very powerful. We just need more DNA to compare it to, Moore told Oxygen.com. Thats what it relies on. We need more data and more people who are willing to contribute their DNA profiles to the effort.

As forensic genealogy has grown in usage, however, many genealogical websites have wrestled with the privacy concerns of their users. Increasingly, websites only allow access to users who have manually opted-in to share their profiles with law enforcement, thus limiting the data pool.

While Moore is hopeful that more cold cases will be solved in the coming years thanks to breakthroughs in DNA technology, she is realistic about the challenges ahead.

It takes a lot of skill unless you get very, very lucky, she said. Theres been some cases over the last year or so that law enforcement agencies have been able to figure it who it is themselves without a genetic genealogist because it was such a close match, but the vast majority of the cases 99 percent of them are going to need someone who is experienced and skilled, or they're just going to be wasting their time spinning their wheels. Its not that it will lead them in the wrong direction, it just wont lead them anywhere.

For more cold case investigations, follow Paul Holes as he explores the physical and emotional "DNA" of crime scenes in "The DNA of Murder with Paul Holes," premiering Saturdaysat 7/6c on Oxygen.

Crime Time is your destination for true crime stories from around the world, breaking crime news, and information about Oxygen's original true crime shows and documentaries. Sign up for our Crime Time Newsletter and subscribe to our true crime podcast Martinis & Murder for all the best true crime content.

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How Is Genetic Genealogy Shaping The Way Cold Cases Are Solved? - Oxygen

There's no doubt that money can be made by owning shares of unprofitable businesses. For example, biotech and mining exploration companies often lose money for years before finding success with a new treatment or mineral discovery. But while the successes are well known, investors should not ignore the very many unprofitable companies that simply burn through all their cash and collapse.

Given this risk, we thought we'd take a look at whether Seattle Genetics (NASDAQ:SGEN) shareholders should be worried about its cash burn. For the purposes of this article, cash burn is the annual rate at which an unprofitable company spends cash to fund its growth; its negative free cash flow. First, we'll determine its cash runway by comparing its cash burn with its cash reserves.

View our latest analysis for Seattle Genetics

A cash runway is defined as the length of time it would take a company to run out of money if it kept spending at its current rate of cash burn. When Seattle Genetics last reported its balance sheet in June 2019, it had zero debt and cash worth US$376m. Looking at the last year, the company burnt through US$172m. That means it had a cash runway of about 2.2 years as of June 2019. Importantly, though, analysts think that Seattle Genetics will reach cashflow breakeven before then. If that happens, then the length of its cash runway, today, would become a moot point. Depicted below, you can see how its cash holdings have changed over time.

NasdaqGS:SGEN Historical Debt, October 21st 2019

On balance, we think it's mildly positive that Seattle Genetics trimmed its cash burn by 4.3% over the last twelve months. On top of that, operating revenue was up 32%, making for a heartening combination Considering the factors above, the company doesnt fare badly when it comes to assessing how it is changing over time. While the past is always worth studying, it is the future that matters most of all. For that reason, it makes a lot of sense to take a look at our analyst forecasts for the company.

Seattle Genetics seems to be in a fairly good position, in terms of cash burn, but we still think it's worthwhile considering how easily it could raise more money if it wanted to. Generally speaking, a listed business can raise new cash through issuing shares or taking on debt. Commonly, a business will sell new shares in itself to raise cash to drive growth. By comparing a company's annual cash burn to its total market capitalisation, we can estimate roughly how many shares it would have to issue in order to run the company for another year (at the same burn rate).

Seattle Genetics has a market capitalisation of US$15b and burnt through US$172m last year, which is 1.2% of the company's market value. So it could almost certainly just borrow a little to fund another year's growth, or else easily raise the cash by issuing a few shares.

It may already be apparent to you that we're relatively comfortable with the way Seattle Genetics is burning through its cash. In particular, we think its cash burn relative to its market cap stands out as evidence that the company is well on top of its spending. Its weak point is its cash burn reduction, but even that wasn't too bad! It's clearly very positive to see that analysts are forecasting the company will break even fairly soon Taking all the factors in this report into account, we're not at all worried about its cash burn, as the business appears well capitalized to spend as needs be. Notably, our data indicates that Seattle Genetics insiders have been trading the shares. You can discover if they are buyers or sellers by clicking on this link.

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Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies, and this list of stocks growth stocks (according to analyst forecasts)

We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.

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Here's Why We're Not At All Concerned With Seattle Genetics's (NASDAQ:SGEN) Cash Burn Situation - Yahoo Finance

Our understanding of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), until now, is that it is a mental health disorder that occurs as a consequence of exposure to extreme, life-threatening stress, and/or serious injury. This exposure, by definition, is requisite for the development of PTSD, but not all those who face trauma necessarily develop it the individual susceptibility to PTSD varies widely. Since the turn of the century, scientists have been trying to find evidence for genetic influence on PTSD risk, with the last decade witnessing concerted efforts to identify specific DNA variants that can influence ones genetic susceptibility to develop PTSD.

New research, findings of which were published in Nature Communications, has, for the first time, identified a clear biological pathway for the mental health disorder, despite a section of science still viewing it as an entirely social construction. In the largest and most diverse genetic study of PTSD to date, scientists from the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine and more than 130 additional institutions have concluded that genetics do, in fact, play a role in determining whether or not a person will develop PTSD, similar to the biological pathways of depression and other forms of mental illness.

Our long-term goal is to develop tools that might help clinicians predict who is at greatest risk for PTSD and personalize their treatment approaches. We cant always protect people from trauma. But we can treat them in the best ways possible, at the best time, Dr. Caroline Nievergelt, the studys first author, associate professor of psychiatry at UC San Diego School of Medicine and associate director of neuroscience in the Center of Excellence for Stress and Mental Health at the Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, said in a press release.

In collaboration with the Psychiatric Genomics Consortiums PTSD working group and Cohen Veterans Bioscience, a non-profit organization dedicated to accelerating PTSD and traumatic brain injury research, the studys authors built a 12-country network of more than 200 researchers, assembling data and DNA samples from more than 20,000 people with PTSD and 170,000 control subjects (those who did not develop PTSD following trauma).

At more than 200,000 people, the latest studys sample size is 10 times larger than the firstPsychiatric Genomics Consortium PTSD study, published in 2017, and includes both civilians and members of the military. The release notes the cohort is also the most ancestrally diverse for any psychiatric genetics study to date, with more than 23,000 people with PTSD of European ancestry and more than 4,000 of African ancestry.

Related on The Swaddle:

Researchers Find Genetic Hotspot Behind Autism

Putting this large database through statistical analyses, the studys authors measured the effect of gene variants at millions of different points on chromosomes across the human genomes on someones chances of developing PTSD.

According to the findings, PTSDs heritability the level of influence genetics has on the variability of PTSD risk among people is between 5% and 20%. Scientists found that, like other psychiatric disorders and several human traits, the risk of developing PTSD following trauma is a highly polygenic trait. This means there exist thousands of genes at different loci on different chromosomes that make tiny contributions to the disorder and when expressed together, add up to the heritable trait. Scientists have found gene variants at six loci that were strongly associated with PTSD risk.

Three of the six loci were specific to certain ancestral backgrounds two European and one African and three were only detected in men. The six loci hint that inflammatory and immune mechanisms may be involved in the disorder, which is consistent with findings from previous studies, the release summarises.

Further exploring the relatively nascent belief in science that many psychiatric disorders and behavioral traits have important molecular similarities at DNA-level, the study also analyzed genetic correlations between PTSD and 235 other disorders behaviors and physical traits. They found a significant overlap with 21, including depression, schizophrenia, insomnia, asthma, and coronary artery disease. Additionally, a Parkinsons disease gene involved in dopamine regulation was also found to be associated with PTSD. Similar to other mental disorders, the genetic contribution to PTSD correlates with that for many other traits. Further research is needed to determine what this means whether some of the same genes that influence risk for PTSD also influence risk for other diseases like, for example, depression, Karestan Koenen, a senior author of the study and associate member of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at MIT and Harvard University, and a professor of psychiatric epidemiology in the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said in the release.

Koenen adds: Based on these findings, we can say with certainty that there is just as much of a genetic component to PTSD risk as major depression and other mental illnesses. Our limited ability to study the living human brain and uncover the biological roots of PTSD has contributed to the lack of treatments and the stigma around this debilitating condition. Genetics helps us make new discoveries, find opportunities for new therapies, and counter that stigma.

Read more:
Study: The Likelihood of Developing PTSD Following Trauma Is Party Determined by Genetics - The Swaddle

What Anne Wojcicki, co-founder and CEO of 23andMe, would like you to consider is this: Once upon a time, people were kinda freaked out by the idea of typing their credit card info into a website. Now this is done basically all the time. Your phone is a digital wallet; your web browsers will memorize your card numbers for you. Might your bank information get cribbed or hacked? Has it already been? Yeah, probably so, but this is How We Live Now. Its weird to think it was ever not normal.

This little historic tale is how Wojcicki addresses the current hesitance a majority of people feel to submitting their genetic material to a database by spitting into a tube and mailing that tube off to a companys lab. In a brief discussion at the TIME 100 Health Summit in New York City on Thursday, Wojcicki explained that shes actually grateful for the 2030 percent of the population thats down to spit (according to a Twitter poll TIME ran ahead of Wojcickis talk). At-home DNA kits like 23andMe are still a relatively new technology. People simply need to grow accustomed to the ideas of genetic testing and sharing genomic data with public databases, so that researchers can observe patterns across the population, and ultimately make people healthier, she said.

Its essentially an argument for sharing DNA data as good for public health, like a new-age equivalent of getting vaccinated. To drive the point home further, Eric Lander, a geneticist and director of the Broad Institute of MIT (and someone who once sat around a table with Jeffrey Epstein), mentioned a potential breakthrough in treating angiosarcoma, a rare, highly fatal cancer by using using DNAthat, Lander argued, may never have happened if it werent for peoples willingness to fork over health and genetic information.

Its hard to find a sensible, non-demonic argument against something that could lead to expedited breakthroughs in cancer treatment. But what has to be kept in mind is that 23andMe is a private company. These anecdotesvirtuous as they may soundare marketing techniques. Wojcicki rightfully believes that no singular institution will be able to harvest the amount of DNA that her company has. According to 23andMes About page, more than 10 million people have spit into its tubes and thereby handed their genetic information over. Of those 10 million, 80 percent have opted in to participate in research, via that spit data. For context: The National Institute of Health is currently in the midst of enrolling its largest DNA-related study to date (All Of Us), which will reach full enrollment at one million participants. About a year into their recruiting efforts, theyre about a quarter of the way there, according to what NIH Director Francis Collins said in a separate panel at Thursdays TIME 100 Health Summit.

Wojcicki emphasized that only those who opt in for ancestry information have their data entered into public databases, which are subject to subpoena (the likes of which helped identify the Golden State Killer). She further emphasized that, because DNA is highly similar among family members, submitting your spit implicates your relatives genetic information. (23andMe consents around this.) Thats a hell of a lot of data thats sitting around for seemingly forever, and since 23andMe is, once again, a private company, theres no telling what happens to this info if/when the company goes under, or if they decide to change their policies.

What 23andMe is sitting on now is perhaps the most valuable pool of genetic data in the world. Earlier this year, the company partnered with TrialSpark, an NYC-based research company, in order to use its large database of data to fit its opted-in consumers to studies. Mind you, Wojcicki used to work on Wall Street. She is, at her core, a businessperson. Charging customers to have their data, and then partnering with another company with an interest in that data, sounds lucrative as fuck; a hell of a business deal.

Wojcicki and Lander concluded their talk on Thursday with a heartwarming sentiment: The virtue of something like 23andMe is that consumers (or participants, however youd prefer to look at it) have access to their genetic data, rather than submitting it to a study and never getting feedback. Wojcicki refers to this as empowering; its empowering to know whats going on in the little strands that make you the person you are. It also sounds very empowering, monetarily speaking, for those in the game, marketing spit kits and trading (totally consented for!!) genetic data.

Go here to see the original:
23andMe Wants Everyone to Get Used to Sharing Their Genetic Data - Motherboard

Type 2 diabetes is a condition in which the body cant control the amount of glucose (sugar) in the blood, causing levels to become too high, and left untreated, serious complications such as kidney failure, nerve damage, heart disease and stroke can occur. High blood sugar levels can be prevented or managed with lifestyle changes such as regular exercise, but while the NHS recommends 30 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise five days a week, a recent report by the World Health organisation estimates a third of UK adults arent active enough. Now, new research by experts in New Zealand says consuming a specific type of blackcurrant could help sedentary adults walk for longer without getting tired. The effects took hold just an hour after taking the blackcurrant supplement.

Meanwhile the superfood also resulted in a dramatic 90 percent reduction in the build of enzymes linked to the onset of dementia and depression.

The studys lead author Dr Suzanne Hurst said: "Identifying foods or dietary supplements that specifically support the desire to exercise daily will enable an individual to adhere to an exercise programme and maintain and active and healthy lifestyle."

And she found that drinking blackcurrant juice one hour before exercise supports positive affective responses during a low impact walking exercise in healthy sedentary adults.

The blackcurrants themselves were grown in New Zealand - and because of the Southern Hemispheres intense UV light, this produces unusually high levels of protective and health-giving nutrients compared with berries grown elsewhere.

The key ingredients are anthocyanins, pigments in the fruit's skin responsible for their dark purple colouring, which belong to a group of flavonoids called polyphenols and possess high levels of antioxidants.

The participants - a group of male and female adults aged between 20 and 59 - were given either blackcurrant juice or a placebo an hour before they were asked to walk on a treadmill.

The average time walked by those whod taken blackcurrants was 11 minutes longer than those who hadnt.

While only 10 percent of those whod had the placebo walked a distance greater than 10km - compared with 30 percent of participants in the blackcurrant group.

The treadmill walkers whod had blackcurrants also reported lower exertion scores - and higher overall mood scores - than those whod had the placebo. Test subjects also underwent a blood test both before and after the experiment.

And its here they noted a huge decrease in something called monoamine oxidase-B, or MAO-B, activity - something they believe could help fight neurological diseases like dementia.

Dr Hurst, of the New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research, says: "We found that plasma collected 1 hour after blackcurrant consumption showed a dramatic acute decline - 90 percent - in platelet MAO-B activity, which was still detectable in participants plasma once they had stopped exercise.

"The pharmacological inhibition of brain MAO-B activity has been used to treat those diagnosed with neurological diseases and depression, potentially through their neuroprotective properties in reducing the metabolism of monoamines."

The findings were reported in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition and they have been welcomed by Nicki Bundock, of Surrey-based firm CurraNZ, the UKs leading supplier of New Zealand blackcurrants supplements.

Nicki explained: "Regular exercise is one of the best ways to reduce your chances of health problems like heart disease or type 2 diabetes. But if youre not an active person, starting an exercise plan and actually sticking with it can be incredibly difficult.

Studies have shown more than half of us drop out of exercise plans after just six months, reverting to inactive lifestyles. And its therefore vital we find ways to make exercise more tolerable and enjoyable.

This study suggests blackcurrant supplements can boost time spent exercising while also making it feel easier and more pleasurable. And the less stressful exercise is, the more likely it is to become a habit.

"The fact the study also suggested benefits to neurological health make it even more welcome."

Previous studies have also demonstrated the positive effect of blackcurrants on blood sugar.

A clinical trial carried out at the University of Aberdeen showed the fruit could affect how the body breaks down carbohydrates and sugars, reducing the amount of sugar that ends up in the bloodstream after a person eats a meal.

Another fruit found to have a positive impact on blood sugar is guava.

Read the rest here:
Type 2 diabetes: Eating this superfood could help fight the condition - Express

Type 2 diabetes causes a persons body to lose control of the amount of blood sugar (glucose) in the blood. The body doesnt respond to insulin properly, and may not produce enough, causing blood sugar levels to become too high. If the condition is left untreated, complications which may occur include kidney failure, nerve damage, heart disease and stroke. So what can you do to lower blood sugar levels or keep them under control?

Eating a healthy diet is one way to manage blood sugar levels.

Theres nothing you cannot eat if you have type 2 diabetes, but certain foods should be limited.

The NHS advises: Eat a wide range of foods - including fruit vegetables and some starchy foods like pasta, keep sugar, fat and salt to a minimum, and eat breakfast, lunch and dinner every day - do not skip meals.

When it comes to the first meal of the day, breakfast, one food you may want to consider eating is guava.

Some evidence suggests the tropical fruit can improve blood sugar control.

A number of test-tube and animal studies have shown guava lead extract to improve blood sugar levels, long-term blood sugar control and insulin resistance.

A few studies involving humans have also demonstrated impressive results.

One study involving 19 people showed drinking guava lead tea lowered blood sugar levels after a meal. The effects lasted up to two hours.

Another study in 20 people with type 2 diabetes found drinking guava leaf tea reduced blood sugar levels after a meal by more than 10 per cent.

Losing weight, if youre overweight, also makes it easier for the body to lower blood sugar levels.

Guavas have also been shown to help in this sense.

One fruit contains around 37 calories and is a good source of fibre, making it a filling, low-calorie food.

Alongside eating a healthy diet and losing weight, its also important a person is active.

The NHS says: Physical exercise helps lower your blood sugar level. You should aim for 2.5 hours of activity a week.

You can be active anywhere as long as what youre going gets you out of breath.

This could be fast walking, climbing stairs, and doing more strenuous housework or gardening.

Adding a certain superfood to your diet could also help lower blood sugar.

Read the original:
Type 2 diabetes: Best fruit to include in your breakfast to lower blood sugar - Express

Tawyna said it herself you never know when youre going to need a jacket in Kansas. So why not grab one of these amazing Nordic Beach Jackets. The cozy soft jacket features a hood and pockets and a great sleeve that can be rolled up or worn down. The jackets come in many colors, olive, camel, burgundy, navy blue and more. The style is so versatile you are able to dress it up with jewelry and heels or dress it down with a flannel jeans and flats. Another really cool part to this amazing fall steal is the carrying bag. Every jacket comes in its own bag and not only does the bag have a handle for your shoulder, it is lightweight and keeps your jacket fresh. You can throw your jacket in the bag and fluff it to make sure it's looking its best whenever youre ready to wear it! Stop in and try on one of these cozy jackets, I promise you wont regret it! Checkout all the fun behind the scenes happenings at K lanes on their social media pages!

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Fit And Well: Live Well With Diabetes Event - KSN-TV

Type 2 diabetes means a persons pancreas cannot produce enough insulin to regulate blood sugar levels.Over time, unchecked blood sugar levels pose serious health risks, such as heart disease. Fortunately, certain dietary decisions can help to control blood sugar levels. Evidence singles out a particular fruit and its health benefits for type 2 diabetics.

Adding avocado to your breakfast could help stabilise blood sugar levels throughout the day.

Avocados have grown in popularity over the years as they are packed with vitamins, nutrients, and heart-healthy fats. While they are high in fat, its the good kind of fat that benefits people with type 2 diabetes.

For those suffering with the condition, adding an avocado to their diet may help them to lose weight, lower cholesterol and increase insulin sensitivity.

In a study published in the Nutrition Journal, it was shown that avocados are beneficial for type 2 diabetics as they are low in carbohydrates, which means they will not affect blood sugar levels.

In the study it was noted that avocados do not significantly impact blood sugar levels.

The healthy fats found in avocados helps a person feel fuller for longer which aids in weight loss and helps with type 2 diabetes.

In a study with the US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, diet plans were analysed.

The researchers found that a weight loss diet high in monounsaturated fats improves insulin sensitive in a way not seen in a comparable high-carb diet.

A healthy diet is critical for type 2 diabetics and, in general, following a diet plan of foods that help control blood sugar levels is crucial.

Avocados help control the blood sugar levels throughout the day and lowers blood pressure and cholesterol.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, one cup of avocado cubes weighing 150 grams contains 12.79g of carbohydrates, less than 1g of sugar, 10.1g of fibre, 22g of fat and only 240 calories.

With so few carbohydrates, a high fibre content and healthy fat, those with type 2 diabetes can enjoy an avocados in moderation without the stress and worry of raising their blood sugar levels.

Pairing an avocado with other foods may help rescue blood sugar spikes, too.

The fat and fibre content takes longer to digest and slows the absorption of other carbohydrates at the same time.

Avocados can be added to scrambled eggs, on toast or whipped up as a delicious guacamole.

The rest is here:
Type 2 diabetes: Best food item to add to your breakfast to lower blood sugar - Express

Type 2 diabetes is a condition that means the body cant produce enough insulin to regulate blood sugar levels. Overtime, unchecked blood sugar levels could hike a persons risk of developing life-threatening complications such as heart diseases. The blood sugar levels constantly change throughout the day and in the evening. In fact, night time is when the blood sugar levels could spike to dangerous levels overnight. This is why the food one eats before going to bed is crucial.

When a person sleeps at night the amount of glucose used is equivalent to the amount of glucose being released by the liver, so the blood sugar levels should theoretically be at the same level.

However there are two processes that occur during the evening that alter these levels and could potentially cause major problems for those with type 2 diabetes.

The Mayo Clinic explained: The dawn phenomenon, also called the dawn effect, is the term used to describe an abnormal early-morning increase in blood sugar - usually between 2 am and 8 am, in people with diabetes.

"Some researchers believe that the natural overnight release of the so-called counter-regulatory hormones - including growth hormone, cortisol, glycogen and epinephrine - increases insulin resistance, causing blood sugar to rise.

"High morning blood sugar may also be caused by insufficient insulin the night before, insufficient anti-diabetic medication dosages or carbohydrate snack consumption at bedtime.

When it comes to snacking at night, avoiding carb heavy foods is imperative.

These include bread, starchy vegetables, pasta, chips or crackers.

Doctor Michael Mosley said: If you eat lots of carbohydrates and sugars, particularly the sort without fibre that get quickly absorbed, they will rapidly push up your blood glucose levels.

"If the glucose is not burned through some activity, the pancreas responds by releasing insulin into the bloodstream to bring the levels down again, storing the excess sugar as fat.

"Too much stored fat, particularly visceral fat can lead to serious health problems.

For late night snacking, foods with a high-fibre, low-fat content are recommended to help keep blood sugar levels stable.

These include snacks such as nuts, certain fruits, vegetables or legumes.

A 2003 study looked at the impact of bedtime snack composition on prevention of nocturnal hypolgycemia in adults with diabetes.

The objective was to determine the impact of four bedtime snack compositions on nocturnal glycemic control.

The result was that the need for snacks at night is beneficial in reducing the incidence of nocturnal hypoglycaemia.

Go here to see the original:
Type 2 diabetes: Best snacks to eat at night and what to avoid - Express

Type 2 diabetes occurs when a persons pancreas cannot produce or doesnt produce enough insulin to control blood sugar levels. Consistently high blood sugar levels is a precursor to deadly complications such heart disease or stroke. As a result, people with type 2 diabetes must turn to their diet to regulate blood sugar levels. Increasing evidence suggests chickpeas may help.

Chickpeas are a culinary ingredient long used in Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and Indian cookery. The legume has been been touted for its myriad health benefits, which include lowering blood sugar levels.

One of the primary benefits of eating chickpeas is that they have a relatively low glycemic index (GI). As Diabetes UK explained: Different carbohydrates are digested and absorbed at different rates, and GI is a ranking of how quickly each carbohydrate-based food and drink makes blood glucose levels rise after eating them.

Research has shown that choosing foods with a low GI index, such as chickpeas, can particularly help manage long-term blood sugar levels in people with Type 2 diabetes.

Second, chickpeas are a good source of fibre and protein, which are both known for their role in blood sugar regulation.

As Mayo Clinic explains, fibre can slow the absorption of sugar and help improve blood sugar levels. Equally, protein is broken down into glucose less efficiently than carbohydrate, which slows down the rise in blood sugar levels.

In one study, 19 people who ate a meal that contained 200 grams of chickpeas had a 21 percent reduction in blood sugar levels, compared to when they ate a meal that contained whole-grain cereal or white bread.

Furthermore, a 12-week study found that 45 individuals who ate 728 grams of chickpeas per week had a notable reduction in their fasting insulin levels, which is an important factor in blood sugar control.

Key dietary tips

A person should not focus solely on the GI of foods, however.

As the health body explains, this could make a persons diet unbalanced; high in fat and calories, which could lead to weight gain. This makes managing blood sugar levels harder and hikes the risk of heart disease.

Its important to think about the balance of your meals, which should be low in saturated fat, salt and sugar and contain more fruit and vegetables, wholegrains, pulses, nuts and oily fish, it advised.

According to Diabetes UK, people should include the following blood-sugar friendly options in their everyday meals:

What are the symptoms of type 2 diabetes?

According to the NHS, symptoms of type 2 diabetes include:

A plant extract has also been shown to lower blood sugar.

Go here to see the original:
Type 2 diabetes: Add this ingredient to your meals to lower blood sugar - Express

During Monday night's 'Lightning Round' segment of Jiim Cramer's Mad Money program, one caller asked about Tandem Diabetes Care (TNDM) : "I like Tandem. I like the stock,"said Cramer. Let's spend a few minutes with the charts to see if we like Tandem, too.

In this daily bar chart of TNDM, below, we can see that prices have been stuck in an eight month sideways consolidationpattern. Prices are currently above the declining 50-day moving average line and above the rising 200-day moving average line. TNDM spent the first half of the month below the 200-day line but it did not start a serious decline. Prices are now back of this longer-term indicator.

The daily On-Balance-Volume (OBV) line has been in a slow rise from early July telling us that buyers of TNDM have been more aggressive and buying shares even when prices declined.

The daily Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) oscillator just moved above the zero line for an outright go long signal.

In this weekly bar chart of TNDM, below, we can see that prices have had a big rally in the past two years. Prices are back above the rising 40-week moving average line.

The weekly OBV line has been pretty steady the past 12 months and it will probably not take too much of a rally to turn the OBV to the upside and a new high.

The MACD oscillator is nearly down to the zero line but renewed price strength should avert a sell signal.

In this Point and Figure chart of TNDM, below, we can see that an upside price target of $80 is being projected.

Bottom line strategy: Selling did not increase when TNDM broke below the rising 200-day moving average line, telling us that longs stayed with their positions and that they were morefocused on the bullish fundamentals. Traders and investors can approach TNDM from the long side.

Get an email alert each time I write an article for Real Money. Click the "+Follow" next to my byline to this article.

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Tandem Diabetes Care Could Eventually Break Out on the Upside - TheStreet.com

(Reuters Health) - Women who breastfeed may be less likely to develop diabetes and high blood pressure, a research review suggests.

Investigators examined data from four previous studies looking at the connection between lactation and diabetes in a total of about 206,000 women. They also analyzed data from five previous studies on the link between lactation and high blood pressure in a total of about 255,000 women.

Overall, mothers who breastfed for more than 12 months were 30% less likely to develop diabetes and 13% less likely to develop high blood pressure than women who didnt nurse babies that long.

This may be because breastfeeding burns a lot of calories and helps reverse metabolic problems that can develop during pregnancy like higher cholesterol, more fats circulating in the blood, and a diminished ability to process sugars, said Dr. Haitham Ahmed, senior author of the study and chair of cardiology at AdvantageCare Physicians in Brooklyn, New York.

In many ways it can be a reset to the adverse metabolic profile in pregnancy, Ahmed said by email. Many women are not able to breastfeed, but for those who are, that may be an excellent way to improve long term cardiovascular and metabolic health of new mothers.

Pediatricians recommend that mothers exclusively breastfeed infants until theyre at least six months old and continue to nurse for at least one year as they introduce some foods because it can reduce babies risk of ear and respiratory infections, sudden infant death syndrome, allergies, obesity and diabetes. For mothers, breastfeeding for at least one year has been linked to a lower risk of depression, obesity, and certain cancers.

In the current study, breastfeeding appeared to have a protective affect against high blood pressure and diabetes even after researchers accounted for other factors that can impact the risk of developing these conditions like obesity, smoking, and family medical history.

One drawback of the analysis is that none of the smaller studies were gold-standard controlled trials, so they couldnt prove that breastfeeding protects against diabetes or high blood pressure.

Researchers also didnt look at other factors that may impact womens health after pregnancy including the total number of births they have, race, age, or pregnancy complications, said Erica Gunderson, a researcher in cardiovascular and metabolic conditions at Kaiser Permanente Northern California. The study focused primarily on older women in populations with high levels of breastfeeding, and results might be different for other populations, Gunderson, who wasnt involved in the study, said by email.

Even so, the results should give women one more reason to breastfeed as long as possible, said Jennifer Yourkavitch of the Center for Womens Health and Wellness at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

It takes energy to make milk lactation burns calories, Yourkavitch, who wasnt involved in the study, said by email. And that could spur post-pregnancy weight loss and prevent excessive weight gain, which is a risk factor for cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.

Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death in women, researchers note in JAMA Network Open.

While the study suggests breastfeeding might help protect against this fate, its not the only defense women have, said Yukiko Washio, a researcher at RTI International who wasnt involved in the study.

Mothers who cant breastfeed or choose not to breastfeed can still work on preventing diabetes and hypertension by abstinence from tobacco use and harmful drinking, as well as proper physical activity and nutrition, Washio said by email.

SOURCE: bit.ly/2qA6xZr JAMA Network Open, online October 16, 2019.

Link:
Breastfeeding tied to lower risk of diabetes, high blood pressure - Reuters

Individuals with type 2 diabetes who maintain weight loss after an intensive lifestyle intervention have sustained improvements in cardiometabolic risk factors, and those who regain weight not only miss out on the benefits but may have a worsening of their metabolic profile, say US researchers.

In a new analysis of data from the Look AHEAD (Action for Health in Diabetes) trial, Samantha E. Berger, PhD, of Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts, and colleagues studied almost 1600 individuals who followed an intensive lifestyle intervention.

Particularly among participants who initially lost at least 10% of their body weight, maintaining the weight loss over 4 years led to significant improvements in cholesterol levels, blood glucose, and blood pressure, among other parameters, compared with those who regained weight.

The research, published October 9 in the Journal of the American Heart Association, also suggests that people who regain weight could still experience cardiometabolic benefits, as long as they regain no more than 25% of the original weight loss.

Hence, "maintaining 75% of weight loss was generally beneficial," the researchers conclude.

"These findings emphasize the dual importance of not only achieving a heathy body weight but maintaining a healthy body weight," said senior author Alice H. Lichtenstein, DSc, director of the Cardiovascular Nutrition Laboratory at the Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, in a press release by the AHA.

And although she acknowledged that keeping off the pounds can be "challenging," she cautioned: "If you lose weight and don't maintain it, the benefits are diminished or disappear."

Lichtenstein told Medscape Medical News that, in general, "People understand that they need to lose weight."

However, they "frequently go on extreme diets and are successful in losing the weight, but we don't seem to be putting as much emphasis on how crucial it is to keep the weight off," she asserted.

"It may feel terrific" when people lose weight quickly, but "you don't get the metabolic benefits unless you make sustainable changes to daily food intake or the way you moderate your energy intake."

This means maintaining lifestyle changes "essentially over a lifetime" for individuals to be able to "get back in balance."

Weight loss programs, Lichtenstein added, will therefore "have to put a lot more emphasis on what happens after someone successfully loses weight and not just celebrate that point."

In the new article, researchers say few studies have directly compared individuals with successful weight loss maintenance (maintainers) and individuals who regained weight (regainers).

In addition, the impact of weight regain after weight loss on cardiometabolic risk factors "is not well established."

In part of the Look AHEAD randomized controlled trial, individuals diagnosed with type 2 diabetes who had a body mass index (BMI) of over 25 kg/m2, or 27 kg/m2 if taking insulin, were assigned to an intensive weight loss lifestyle intervention or standard care.

The intervention lasted for 1 year and involved group support sessions, calorie and fat gram restrictions, and meal replacement and physical activity recommendations, with the aim of losing approximately 7% of body weight.

The participants, who were recruited from 16 sites across the United States, then entered a 3-year maintenance phase.

For the current analysis, researchers focused on 1561 individuals from the trial who were assigned to the intervention group, had initially lost at least 3% of body weight, and had follow-up data to the end of year four.

Within these groups, participants were classified based on how much weight they regained after the initial weight loss.

Those who gained none (0%) were termed "maintainers" and the rest were termed "regainers." The degree of weight regained was divided into four increments: 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% of percentage weight-loss regained (weight change from years 1 to 4 as a percentage of the first year of weight loss).

Change in cardiometabolic risk factors after initial weight loss was compared in maintainers and regainers, after controlling for demographics, medications, and baseline and year 1 change in BMI.

The effect was also assessed separately in participants with < 10% weight loss and 10% initial weight loss.

As expected, individuals who lost more weight initially were significantly more likely to have improvements in cardiometabolic risk factors at year one than other participants. And those who initially lost more weight were significantly less likely to have started on diabetes and antihypertensive medications, and were significantly more likely to have stopped them during follow-up.

Among those who lost 10% initial weight, the results across most risk factors indicated maximal risk factor reduction among maintainers who successfully maintained 100% of the lost weight.

Successfully maintaining most ( 75%) of the weight loss (25% regain cut-point) was also associated with significant maintenance of improved risk factors.

In contrast, regainers showed significant deterioration in some cardiometabolic risk factors from years one to four.

Meanwhile, "For those who lost < 10% initial weight, keeping it off is better than regaining, but it appears the degree of maintaining the weight loss has little impact on cardiometabolic risk factors," the researchers say.

Overall, the findings emphasize the importance of intervention programs focusing not only on weight loss but weight loss maintenance, "given the adverse consequences of the latter," the authors reiterate.

"The important thing is, once you successfully lose weight, to really put a lot of emphasis on keeping it off," Lichtenstein told Medscape Medical News.

Finally, the researchers also say more work in this area is sorely needed.

"The findings from this study emphasize the need to further investigate long-term impact of partial weight regain after a weight loss intervention given the challenge of keeping off all of weight lost," they write.

The Look AHEAD trial was conducted by the Look AHEAD Research Group and supported by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases; National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; National Institute of Nursing Research; National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities; Office of Research on Women's Health; and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The authors have reported no relevant financial relationships.

J Am Heart Assoc. 2019;8: e010951. Full text

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Maintaining Weight Loss in Diabetes Is Key to Keeping Benefits - Medscape

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. and TAIPEI, Taiwan, Oct. 21, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TLC (Nasdaq: TLC, TWO: 4152), a clinical-stage specialty pharmaceutical company developing novel nanomedicines to target areas of unmet medical need in pain management, ophthalmology and oncology, recently presented data at the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) ANESTHESIOLOGY annual meeting from a Phase I/II clinical trial which showed TLC590 to yield more immediate and long-lasting pain reduction than ropivacaine. In addition, in vivo findings in which TLC590 showed no dose-related toxicity and other preclinical data were recently published in the International Journal of Nanomedicine. TLC590 is a non-opioid, BioSeizer formulation of ropivacaine with the aim to manage postsurgical pain for four to seven days with a single dose, potentially deterring the use of opioids following surgery.

At ANESTHESIOLOGY 2019, which took place October 19-23 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, FL, principal investigator Todd Bertoch, MD, Chief Medical Officer at JBR Clinical Research, a CenExel Clinical Research Center of Excellence, presented findings from a Phase I/II, randomized, double-blind, comparator-controlled, dose-escalation study of TLC590 following inguinal hernia repair.

Highlights from the e-poster presentation are as follows:

I am delighted to have had the opportunity to present these fantastic results, said Dr. Todd Bertoch. As a clinical researcher specializing in pain, it is so rewarding to be able to share findings that provide hope for a real, substantive weapon in the war against opioids. Clinicians have been waiting patiently for safe, easily administered, very long acting local anesthetics with a rapid onset. These data suggest that we may have found one.

Results of studies evaluating the release profile of TLC590 in vitro and its pharmacokinetics and anesthetic effect in vivo were recently published in the International Journal of Nanomedicine.

Highlights from the publication article are as follows:

The poster presentation and full text article can be accessed under Publications in the Pressroom section of TLCs website at http://www.tlcbio.com.

About TLC590

TLC590 is a non-opioid, BioSeizer sustained release formulation of ropivacaine designed to prolong the retention time of ropivacaine around the injection site as a drug depot, simultaneously extending its therapeutic period and reducing unwanted systemic exposure. A Phase II, randomized, double-blind, comparator- and placebo-controlled clinical trial to evaluate the safety, pharmacokinetics and efficacy of TLC590 following bunionectomy is ongoing.

About TLC

TLC (NASDAQ: TLC, TWO: 4152) is a clinical-stage specialty pharmaceutical company dedicated to the research and development of novel nanomedicines that maximize the potential of its proprietary lipid-assembled drug delivery platform (LipAD). TLC believes that its deep experience with liposome science allows a combination of onset speed and benefit duration, improving active drug concentrations while decreasing unwanted systemic exposures. TLCs BioSeizer technology is designed to enable local sustained release of therapeutic agents at the site of disease or injury; its NanoX active drug loading technology is designed to alter the systemic exposure of a drug, potentially reducing dosing frequency and enhancing distribution of liposome-encapsulated active agents to the desired site. These technologies are versatile in the choice of active pharmaceutical ingredients, and scalable with respect to manufacturing. TLC has a diverse, wholly owned portfolio of therapeutics that target areas of unmet medical need in pain management, ophthalmology, and oncology.

Cautionary Note on 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 contained in this press release include, without limitation, statements regarding TLCs expectations regarding the clinical development of TLC590, the clinical benefits of TLC590 for postsurgical pain management, the timing, scope, progress and outcome of the clinical trials, and the anticipated timelines for the release of clinical data. Words such as may, believe, will, expect, plan, anticipate, estimate, intend and similar expressions (as well as other words or expressions referencing future events, conditions or circumstances) are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve a number of risks, assumptions, uncertainties and factors, including risks that the outcome of any clinical trial is inherently uncertain and TLC590 or any of our other product candidates may prove to be unsafe or ineffective, or may not achieve commercial approval. Other risks are described in the Risk Factors section of TLCs annual report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2018 filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. All forward-looking statements are based on TLCs expectations and assumptions as of the date of this press release. Actual results may differ materially from these forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, TLC expressly disclaims any responsibility to update any forward-looking statement contained herein, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Read more:
TLC Presents Clinical and Preclinical Data of TLC590 at ANESTHESIOLOGY Annual Meeting and in International Journal of Nanomedicine TLC590 showed...

Rizia Bardhan

With a research specialty in nanomedicine and nanophotonics and designing materials that fight diseases using image-guided techniques Rizia Bardhan will join the faculty of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering in January, 2020.

Bardhan, who has been hired as a tenured associate professor, comes to Iowa State from Vanderbilt University, where she has been an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering since 2012.

Her research focuses on designing nanomaterials that can be activated by external stimuli and then utilize them for biomedical imaging, and image-guided drug delivery and immunotherapies across many disease models, including cancer, neurodegenerative disease and infection. She also develops point of care diagnostics that she is currently applying for early detection of preterm birth in pregnant women. Click here for more on her current research.

Prior to joining the faculty of Vanderbilt University she was a postdoctoral fellow at The Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA.

She received a B.A. in mathematics and chemistry at Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri, in 2005 and a Ph.D. in chemistry at Rice University in 2010 under the guidance of Prof. Naomi Halas, a pioneer in nanophotonics and plasmonics.

In the 2020 spring semester at Iowa State she will teach ChE 381, chemical engineering thermodynamics.

Outside of research and teaching, Bardhan enjoys spending time outdoors with her two sons Elan (3) and Jonah (5), and husband Cary Pint, who is also a new Iowa State University faculty member, joining the Department of Mechanical Engineering in January.

Read more here:
New CBE professor Bardhan to bring image-guided techniques to fight against disease College of Engineering News Iowa State University - Iowa State...

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Nanobots Market Size Trends, Revenue, Regional Segmented Analysis and Outlook 2025 - Update in Seconds