Genome Alberta's Official Newsletter

GE3LS Digest - May 5, 2009

INTERNATIONAL

Stem cell breakthrough could help infertile women – April 12, 2009
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/5144823/Stem-cell-breakthrough-could-help-infertile-women.html
Researchers believe that they can produce new eggs in infertile women even if the ovaries are damaged or the woman has passed the usual age of conception. The technique involves transplanting stem cells into the ovaries and could work on the one in 10 women who suffer from infertility as well as those who want children late in life. Until recently it was assumed that a woman was born with a finite lifetime store of around two million egg-producing follicles and no more could be produced. By puberty this number has already fallen to about 400,000, and at the menopause too few eggs remain to permit fertility. But four years ago scientists in the USA showed it was possible to obtain stem cells from the ovaries of adult women that could be grown into mature egg cells.

The Beast Within: Implanting Animal Organs into Humans – April 13, 2009
http://www.good.is/post/the-beast-within-implanting-animal-organs-into-humans/?GT1=48001
Getting an organ these days is no easy task. Currently, there are more than 100,000 people on waiting lists for organ donations in the United States, but fewer than 30,000 transplants were performed in 2008. The Mayo Clinic estimates that in the United States, 17 people die each day while waiting for a suitable organ to come along….It’s quite the conundrum. So what to do? Increasingly, the argument for harvesting organs, tissues, and cells from animals is picking up steam. It sounds like the stuff of sci-fi, but a growing number of scientists are arguing for—and trying to accomplish—just that. The most recent experiment is in New Zealand, where a clinical trial will inject eight diabetic patients with pancreatic cells from pigs. This experiment has pushed the controversial field, known as xenotransplantation, under the public microscope once again.

Germans protest over pig patent – April 16, 2009
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8002503.stm
Pig farmers and green campaigners in southern Germany have urged the withdrawal of a patent for a genetic technique used to breed meatier pigs. The pig breeders fear they might have to pay royalties to a US biotech firm in future if the patent is upheld. They demonstrated outside the European Patent Office (EPO) in Munich on Wednesday, on the eve of a deadline for objections to the patent.

The EPO granted the patent nine months ago, but will now study the objections. The patent application was filed in 2005 by Monsanto, which sold its pig-breeding technology to another US biotech firm, Newsham Genetics, in 2007.

Pioneering medical nanotechnology offers new cancer breakthrough hope – April 17, 2009
http://www.physorg.com/news159191419.html
A multi-disciplinary team of scientists from the University of Leicester could be potentially paving the way for the development of a powerful new strategy for both the early diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer. The research is to use cutting edge nanotechnology to identify a pioneering treatment which could also be applied to other aggressive cancers. The University of Leicester researchers say that microscopic (5-100 nm) magnetic nanoparticles could be applied in the sensitive diagnosis and effective treatment of prostate cancer. This follows breakthrough nanotechnology research at the University.

Ethics inquiry to judge challenges of genetic testing – April 21, 2009
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article6135597.ece
The risks and social challenges posed by genetic tests and other health services sold directly to consumers have prompted Britain’s most influential ethical think-tank to begin an inquiry into personalised medicine. …The inquiry will include a public consultation, which runs from today until July 21. Customers of these services and those who are contemplating using them are asked to share their experiences and views. The inquiry will also examine other aspects of direct-to-consumer healthcare, such as MRI and CT scans that are sometimes promoted as “body MoTs”. Hugh Whittall, director of the Nuffield Council, said: “Services that were once provided only in a particular medical framework are now becoming available on a consumer basis where choice is being stressed. This raises issues of access, equality, and the potential for being misinformed or for misdiagnosing yourself.”

Ethics of direct-to-consumer personalised healthcare – April 21, 2009
http://www.phgfoundation.org/news/4555/
The Nuffield Council on Bioethics, an independent UK body that examines ethical issues arising from advances in biology and medicine, has launched a public consultation examining the ethics of health-related services and technologies that are available direct-to-consumers, as opposed to via primary care practitioners such as GPs. The consultation has a major focus on commercial genetic testing, but also looks at private and online providers of health services and medical profiles, and online pharmaceutical sales; it forms part of a larger study (see previous news).

Fertility doctor on brink of cloning human: report –April 22, 2009
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090422/hl_afp/healthscienceethicsusbritaincyprus_20090422112135;_ylt=AqzkcbkwFaDCwxCKLe9IsZus0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTFka290bmNvBHBvcwMxNTEEc2VjA2FjY29yZGlvbl9oZWFsdGgEc2xrA2ZlcnRpbGl0eWRvYw--
US-based fertility doctor claimed to have cloned 14 human embryos and transferred 11 of them into the wombs of four women in an interview published on Wednesday. Panayiotis Zavos told Britain's Independent newspaper that although none of the women had had a viable pregnancy as a result, the first cloned baby could now be born within a couple of years."There is absolutely no doubt about it... the cloned child is coming. There is absolutely no way that it will not happen," he said, quoted by the paper.

"If we intensify our efforts, we can have a cloned baby within a year or two, but I don't know whether we can intensify our efforts to that extent." Zavos's work is widely condemned by mainstream fertility experts, who question whether the technique, which also raises complex ethical questions, is safe.

Parents 'refused genetic tests' – April 22, 2009
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8012999.stm
Children are being born with severe genetic abnormalities because their parents are being refused funding to screen their embryos, those working in the field have claimed. Fairer provision of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) - in which embryos can be screened for a particular abnormality - could also mean fewer abortions when problems are picked up further down the line, experts from the Assisted Conception Unit at Guy's Hospital say. The new, fully integrated IVF and PGD centre in London opens on Thursday and will serve couples from across the UK who want to ensure their baby does not carry a potentially life-threatening inherited condition - from cystic fibrosis to some forms of early onset cancer. But a "postcode lottery" means many parents who would like to use the service cannot necessarily get their local primary care trust to put up the £7,000 needed for the treatment, according to Alison Lashwood, a consultant nurse in genetics and PGD at Guy's.

GPPC Lands $750K Pew Grant – April 22, 2009
http://www.genomeweb.com/node/915359?emc=el&m=368977&l=5&v=42c8152690
The Genetics and Public Policy Center at Johns Hopkins University has been awarded $750,000 from the Pew Charitable Trust to conduct studies of what, if any, steps should be taken toward creating consumer protections in relation to genetic testing. The main focus areas for the Consumer Genetics Project will include whether or not the Food and Drug Administration should incorporate genetic testing information into drug labeling, a new point program for GPPC. The center also said that it will continue to focus on the truth of claims made by genetic testing companies, and issues surrounding genetic discrimination.

Scientists unravel bovine genome to improve meat and milk, battle cattle ills – April 23, 2009
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/science/090423/g04239A.html
The cow is of the bovine ilk, one end is moo, the other, milk. Now science knows why which is which, they've read the genome, without a hitch. While poet Ogden Nash had cow basics down, it took 300 scientists six years to outline the genetic sequence of "L1 Dominette 01449," a Hereford cow living on a research farm near Miles City, Mont. Researchers led by the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Agriculture report their findings in a herd of 20 papers appearing in Friday's edition of the journal Science and other journals including Genome Biology. The researchers believe the findings will help improve the quality and safety of beef and dairy products and can be used to develop better ways of treating and preventing diseases that affect cattle.

California Outpatient Centers Offering 23andMe Service -- April 27, 2009
http://www.genomeweb.com/node/915633?emc=el&m=372489&l=1&v=5f90f5d9b1
California's Palomar Pomerado Health will offer 23andMe's genome service at its outpatient centers in San Diego, the companies said today. The direct-to-consumer genomics service company said that the agreement with PPH marks the first time that its Personal Genome Service will be available for sale outside of its website. Under the partnership, PPH will offer the service for $399 at two of its retail health centers in Escondido and Rancho Penasquitos, and at the Pomerado Outpatient Pavilion in Poway. Patients at these centers interested in the service will receive a personal session with a PPH nurse practitioner to discuss the PGS service.

Engineered maize's vitamin boost – April 27, 2009
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8020925.stm
A genetically modified (GM) maize fortified with three vitamins has been created by European researchers. The modifications make the growing maize, or corn, produce large amounts of beta carotene and precursors of vitamin C and folic acid. The development marks the first time any plant has been engineered to make more than one vitamin. The creators argue the crop could help improve diets in poorer nations, but anti-GM campaigners are skeptical.

Time for a More Open Approach?: Monetizing University IP May Require More Flexibility – April 28, 2009
http://www.scienceprogress.org/2009/04/university-patents/
The prospect of harnessing the intellectual might of universities to the task of local economic development burns bright around the nation. Valuable new ideas created by government-supported research not only benefit the economy but also can produce financial returns for government—in the form of economic growth. Universities can also benefit from technology licensing revenues or direct equity stakes in promising young start-up companies that in time could be worth many, many times the cost of the original investment.

Scientists claim to have cloned glowing dogs: South Korean researchers have named all four beagles ‘Ruppy’ – April 29, 2009
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30463427/?gt1=43001
South Korean scientists say they have engineered four beagles that glow red using cloning techniques that could help develop cures for human diseases. The four dogs, all named "Ruppy" — a combination of the words "ruby" and "puppy" — look like typical beagles by daylight. But they glow red under ultraviolet light, and the dogs' nails and abdomens, which have thin skins, look red even to the naked eye. Seoul National University professor Lee Byeong-chun, head of the research team, called them the world's first transgenic dogs carrying fluorescent genes, an achievement that goes beyond just the glowing novelty.

More-Precise Genetic Engineering for Plants: New technology makes it possible to alter plant genes precisely and efficiently – April 30, 2009
http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/22562/
Genetically engineering plants is a time-intensive process. Methods currently used to deliver genetic changes are imprecise, so it's often necessary to generate thousands of plants to find one that happens to have the desired alteration. Two papers in this week's Nature detail the use of a genetic technology that allows scientists to target plant genomes more precisely. The method, which has previously been used in animals and in human cells, can be used to introduce a new gene, make small changes in existing genes, or block a gene from being expressed; it also makes it possible to introduce several different genetic changes into the same plant.


Getting personal: The promise of cheap genome sequencing – April 16, 2009
http://www.economist.com/specialreports/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13437974
“Twenty years ago doctors had tight control over all medical information. We want that power to shift to individuals,” says Anne Wojcicki, a co-founder of 23andMe, a Californian genomics firm that counts Google as one of its investors. Her firm takes in saliva samples by mail, analyses a tiny bit of the genetic material they contain and posts information about the provider’s health and ancestry gleaned from them on a secure website. She wants to extend the idea of patient empowerment to the age of genomics (the study of all genes in the genome and the interactions among them). Her customers are already forming online chat groups and blogs to share details of specific genetic mutations and exchange family and genomic histories.

Generation of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Using Recombinant Proteins – April 23, 2009
http://www.cell.com/cell-stem-cell/fulltext/S1934-5909(09)00159-3
Groundbreaking work demonstrated that ectopic expression of four transcription factors, Oct4, Klf4, Sox2, and c-Myc, could reprogram murine somatic cells to induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) (Takahashi and Yamanaka, 2006), and human iPSCs were subsequently generated using similar genetic manipulation (Takahashi et al., 2007,Yu et al., 2007). To address the safety issues arose from harboring integrated exogenous sequences in the target cell genome, a number of modified genetic methods have been developed and produced iPSCs with potentially reduced risks (for discussion, see Yamanaka, 2009, and references therein). However, all of the methods developed to date still involve the use of genetic materials and thus the potential for unexpected genetic modifications by the exogenous sequences in the target cells. Here we report generation of protein-induced pluripotent stem cells (piPSCs) from murine embryonic fibroblasts using recombinant cell-penetrating reprogramming proteins. We demonstrated that such piPSCs can long-term self-renew and are pluripotent in vitro and in vivo.



Personal Genome Project looking for next wave of volunteers – April 26, 2009
http://scienceblogs.com/geneticfuture/2009/04/personal_genome_project_lookin.php
The Personal Genome Project, an initiative founded by George Church that ultimately seeks to sequence the complete genomes of 100,000 people, has called for the next wave of volunteers. The PGP will sequence your genome and give you back the data for the bargain-basement price of zero dollars (not bad compared to the $68,000 that the Knome auction is starting at)…. Thus far 10 brave volunteers (the PGP-10) have agreed to have their genetic and health data splashed onto the web; two of these intrepid souls, Misha Angrist and John Halamka, have blogs that you can follow. The PGP aims to recruit a further 100 volunteers in the next wave, followed by a further 1,000, and so on until the 100,000-recruit target is reached.