Thursday, January 31, 2008
Lab On A Chip Development
University of Alberta researchers in Edmonton, Canada, have developed a portable unit for genetic testing about the size of a shoebox, which has the same capability as a lab full of expensive equipment.
The device - along with other, even smaller units the team is now in the process of developing - paves the way for enormous savings to health-care systems and will improve care for patients. A wide variety of genetic tests that are available but not often used because their cost is prohibitive will become cheap, fast and easily accessible.
Prof. Christopher Backhouse, of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, together with Dr. Linda Pilarski, an oncology professor in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, and their research team, have received international recognition for the device. An article describing their "shoebox-sized" portable unit appears in the Jan. 18, 2008, issue of The Analyst, a scientific journal published by the Royal Society of Chemistry based in the United Kingdom. The article lead author is University of Alberta PhD student Govind V. Kaigala.
A royal society publication (Chemical Science) heralded the device in an online article featuring the advance, and indicated the University of Alberta is winning the global race to use micro and nano-biotechnology in developing diagnostic applications for so-called lab-on-chip technology.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/95618.php
Strategies to determine the biological function of microRNAs
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are regulators of gene expression that control many biological processes in development, differentiation, growth and metabolism. Their expression levels, small size, abundance of repetitive copies in the genome and mode of action pose unique challenges in studies elucidating the function of miRNAs.
New technologies for identification, expression profiling and target gene validation, as well as manipulation of miRNA expression in vivo, will facilitate the study of their contribution to biological processes and disease. Such information will be crucial to exploit the emerging knowledge of miRNAs for the development of new human therapeutic applications.
http://www.nature.com/ng/journal/v38/n6s/abs/ng1799.html
China Hongx 30 mins chart Downtrend Channel Formation
Failing to clear 200 EMA resistance price has fallen into a downtrend channel.
Support zone at 60.5 to 57 cents will be tested soon.
Monitor breakout direction from downtrend channel.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
STX PO testing uptrend support line
Testing in progress at green uptrend support line.
Support failure will result in further price drop to gap support at $2.
Bulls and bears almost matching each other at every level except at the highest and most important level.Big Boys are selling more than buying.
If bear raid continues new support will surely be $2.
Yangzijiang 30 mins chart can critical support hold
Testing $1.25 soon. Support failure at $1.25 will cause price to retest the all time low at $1.16.
SAIGON HI-TECH PARK: HIGH-TECH HEARTLAND
Being one of Vietnam's only two national hi-tech parks and considered one of Ho Chi Minh City's five focal economic projects serving as the driving force for the city's development until 2010, Saigon Hi-Tech Park (SHTP) has received exceptional supports from both the central and local governments, as well as from other relevant state agencies. As a result, the Park has been authorized to offer the highest tax incentives and one-stop investment application service to investors.
At the same time, the Park has a number of advantages, such as close proximity to many educational institutions, airports, and seaports and close connection with local universities, while its dedicated and experienced stall creates an environment conducive to tenants operating successfully. SHIP also offers a "one-stop-shop" application service and highest tax incentives allowed by the law to help investors conduct their businesses.
SHIT' is focusing on calling for investment in four sectors of priority: (1) micro electronics, information technology and telecommunications, (2) precision mechanics and automation. (3) Biotechnology applied in agriculture, pharmaceuticals and the environment, and (4) nanotechnology, and new and advanced materials.Investment in SHTP can be in multiple forms, be it high-tech manufacturing, high-tech services (call centers, data centers, software development), research and development, incubation or training.
Following its inception in late 2002, Saigon Hi-Tech Park has granted investment licenses to 25 projects with total committed capital of $1,366 billion. Key tenants include Intel Corporation (US), Jabil Corporation (US), Nidec Corporation (Japan), Sonion A/S (Denmark) and FPT (Vietnam).
http://www.shtp.hochiminhcity.gov.vn/webshtp/news/content.aspx?cat_id=512
Cloning from chromosomes
Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), also known as "therapeutic cloning", is an intensive area of study for stem cell scientists. It potentially provides a way to make patient-tailored embryonic stem (ES) cell lines to avoid the problem of immune rejection of cells transplanted for therapy
It has long been believed in the cloning field that successful SCNT requires the use of unfertilised eggs. Eggan and colleagues at Harvard University now publish a remarkable technique that proves that unfertilised eggs are not required, at least not in mice1. They show that very early embryos can be used as recipient cytoplasts for nuclear transplantation, allowing the production of cloned animals and somatic cell–derived ES cell lines similar to those needed for patient-tailored ES cell therapies.
The procurement of human oocytes is a thorny issue because of the invasiveness of the procedure to retrieve them from women's ovaries. The authors argue that it will be easier to obtain early human embryos from in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics than unfertilised oocytes, thus overcoming one of the major logistic and ethical hurdles of SCNT. Early embryos are destroyed in the process, but they would be ones donated by couples who had excess embryos following IVF.
http://www.nature.com/stemcells/2007/0706/070607/full/stemcells.2007.30.html
A novel pathway controls stem-cell proliferation independently from differentiation
Proliferation without differentiation
The ability of stem cells to self-renew depends, among other things, on their ability to divide. However, the typical mechanism that controls cellular proliferation — the G1 checkpoint — is associated with differentiation in stem cells. How can stem cells proliferate without losing multipotency? Reporting in Nature, Patrik Ernfors of the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and colleagues show that proliferation is controlled in some stem cells during the DNA synthesis phase, or S phase, rather than during the G1 phase.
The authors initially observed that embryonic stem (ES) cells possess functional -aminobutyric acid A receptors (GABAARs), Treating these cells with the GABAAR-specific agonist muscimol reduced the number of stem cells in culture by causing the accumulation of cells in S phase (and thereby preventing cells from undergoing cell division). While fewer in number, treated cells could differentiate normally.
Further analysis revealed that this GABAAR signalling affects proliferation only if histone H2AX, a component of the S/G2 DNA-damage checkpoint, can be phosphorylated by PIKK kinases. Intriguingly, and unlike other cases that involve this checkpoint, GABAAR-mediated H2AX phosphorylation does not require DNA damage.
The authors also showed that knocking out a crucial GABAAR subunit makes blastocyst-stage mouse embryos develop more rapidly. That is, decreased GABAAR signalling results in faster ES cell proliferation.
These results provide the first mechanism by which stem cells can control proliferation independently from multipotency. The authors not only demonstrate that this mechanism controls division in cultured and mouse blastocyst ES cells, they also show that it functions in neural crest stem cells. Thus, GABAAR signalling may represent a homeostatic control for stem cell numbers, such that fewer stem cells are produced at high levels of signalling. If this is the case, this pathway could be used to regulate the number of stem cells in adult stem cell niches, with potential applications for neurological diseases and cancer. Further work, however, is needed to determine whether this pathway is conserved in other types of stem cells.
http://www.nature.com/stemcells/2008/0801/080124/full/stemcells.2008.28.html
Lian Beng Volume Distribution Chart 30 Jan 2008 1231pm
Big Boys selling.
Retailers more selling than buying.
Trade with care.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Biosensors Hole in the Heart Triple Bypass Surgery
Hammer formation at gap support today has filled up the gap caused by the sudden price upward surge on 26 December 2007. Now another gap created on 22 January 2008 when price dropped from 90 cents needs to be filled.
First Bypass Operation is to clear the 200 EMA resistance line. Upon successful recovery then proceed to Second Bypass Operation to clear resistance at 85 cents. Finally to complete the Triple Bypass Surgery the gap at 90 cents is filled.
Please take note that all surgeries are risky and may not ensure patient survival all the time.
Monitor critical green uptrend support line.
Lian Beng 30 mins chart defending 57 cents support
Broke through uptrend support line.
Testing 57 cents support soon.
If 57 cents defence line fails next support is 54 cents.
Biotechnology in North Carolina
North Carolina is home to a dynamic and growing biotechnology community:
North Carolina ranks third in the nation in number of biotechnology companies for the fourth consecutive year, according to Ernst and Young's 2007 industry survey.
It has earned other national accolades and for its competitive advantages.
More than 446 bioscience companies are headquartered or have operations in North Carolina, employing more than 54,130 people, according to the Biotechnology Center's online companies database.
Industry Support
Since 1984 North Carolina has invested more than $187 million in biotechnology infrastructure through the Biotechnology Center. That investment includes a range of grants and loans for young companies and education training programs.
The North Carolina Community College System provides workforce training in biotechnology through its statewide BioNetwork program and BioWork course. The community colleges, along with the UNC System, the industry trade group NCBIO, the Biotechnology Center, and five biomanufacturing companies, are part of the North Carolina Biomanufacturing and Pharmaceutical Training Consortium.
Blueprint for Biotechnology Development
These activities align with North Carolina's mission to develop biotechnology in all parts of the state. Those priorities constitute a major priority of the state's blueprint for biotechnology development: New Jobs Across North Carolina: A Strategic Plan for Growing the Economy Statewide through Biotechnology.
http://www.ncbiotech.org/biotechnology_in_nc/index.html
FAQ - How to interpret Volume Distribution Charts
Full explanation at
http://www.shareinvestor.com/?action=page&id=feature_charts_voldist
Yangzijiang Volume Distribution Chart 29 Jan 2008 1000AM
Big Boys selling into strength.
Trade with care.
Monday, January 28, 2008
China Hongx 30 mins chart channel support
Price moving within a channel. Breakdown from lower support channel will see price heading towards 65 - 64 cents support level. Monitor 200 EMA and channel support.
Genome stitched together by hand
Scientists have succeeded in stitching together an entire bacterial genome, creating in the lab the full set of instructions needed to make a living thing. The stage is now set for the creation of the first artificial organism — and it could be achieved within the year.
The genome for the pathogenic bacterium Mycoplasma genitalium was made in the laboratory by Hamilton Smith and his colleagues at the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Maryland. The genome has 582,970 of the fundamental building blocks of DNA, called nucleotide bases, making it more than a factor of ten longer than the previous-longest stretch of genetic material created by chemical means.
Now the team at the Venter institute, which includes the institute’s founder, genomics pioneer Craig Venter, will aim to discover whether cells can be ‘booted up’ into action when loaded with this genetic programme. “This is the next step and we are working on it,” says Smith.
Venter and his colleagues have already managed to transplant the DNA from one bacteria into another, making it change species (see Genome transplant makes species switch/news070625-9). These bacteria were closely related to M. genitalium. If the transplant can be repeated with a man-made genome adapted from M. genitalium, the result could qualify as the first artificial life form (see 'What is artificial life?').
http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080124/full/news.2008.522.html
The DNA damage response pathways: at the crossroad of protein modifications
To ensure faithful duplication and inheritance of genetic material, the cell has evolved with the ability to detect and propagate the initial DNA damage signal to elicit cellular responses that include cell cycle arrest, DNA repair, senescence and apoptosis, which collectively have been termed the DNA damage response. Dysregulation of components involved in these processes contributes to genomic instability, which in turn leads to tumorigenesis. This is supported by the fact that clinical mutations in proteins that play a role in the DNA damage response often predispose individuals to cancer development 1. The link between genomic instability and tumorigenesis is perhaps most exemplified by the human genetic disorder ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T). A-T is caused by mutations of the ATM gene, the product of which is intimately involved in the DNA damage signaling network. A-T patients are characterized by neurodegeneration, radiosensitivity, immunodeficiency and cancer predisposition 2, 3. Recent studies indicate that the ATM protein kinase modulates multiple branches of signaling pathways by phosphorylating and regulating its substrates in response to DNA damage, failure of which contributes to genomic instability and tumorigenesis 4. Like ATM, mutations in NBS1 have also been documented to predispose individuals to the genomic instability disorder Nijmegen breakage syndrome (NBS) 5. Patients with hypomorphic mutations in NBS1 manifest microcephaly, immunodeficiency, radiation sensitivity and are prone to carcinogenesis. The close resemblance between NBS and A-T patients suggested a functional relationship between these gene products. Indeed, the MRN complex consisting of Mre11, Rad50 and NBS1 not only has been implicated as one of the initial DNA lesion sensors, but also is believed to be required for efficient ATM activation following DNA damage. As such, the understanding of molecular pathways that function to safeguard the integrity of the genetic material is critical for early detection and offers potential treatments for cancer patients.
http://www.nature.com/cr/journal/v18/n1/full/cr2007109a.html
Biopolis is a purpose-built biomedical research hub
Conceived as the cornerstone of a much broader vision to build up the biomedical sciences industry in Singapore, the Biopolis is a purpose-built biomedical research hub where researchers from the public and private sectors are co-located. Situated in the south-western part of Singapore, the Biopolis is within walking distance of the Buona Vista MRT Station and is near both the National University of Singapore and the National University Hospital.
Phase 1 of Biopolis comprises of a seven-building complex linked by skybridges and offers a built-up area of 185,000 sqm. Two buildings, Chromos and Helios, are dedicated to biomedical players from the private sector. The other five buildings (Centros, Genome, Matrix, Nanos and Proteos) house five of the seven biomedical research institutes under the Agency of Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore's lead agency for scientific research and development under the aegis of the Ministry of Trade and Industry. These five research institutes are the BioInformatics Institute (BII), the Bioprocessing Technology Institute (BTI), the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS), the Institute of Bioengineering & Nanotechnology (IBN) and the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB).
http://www.a-star.edu.sg/astar/biopolis/index.do
Sunday, January 27, 2008
SGX testing 200EMA
Next few days will be interesting with price testing 200 days EMA and the $11 resistance line.Successful breakout above $11 will cause price movement towards the next resistance level at $12. However, should this breakout fail price will probably retrace back to gap support at $9.30.
High-Contrast X-Rays
Dark-field x-ray imaging could make for more-accurate mammograms and better security screens.
Swiss researchers have demonstrated the practicality of a new high-resolution x-ray imaging technique that reveals fine structures that are invisible using conventional techniques. Dark-field x-ray imaging can be used to generate highly detailed images of bones and to distinguish between substances that look identical in conventional x-ray images, such as explosives and cheese. The researchers are now investigating whether their approach might also increase the resolution of medical imaging techniques such as mammograms and computed-tomography (CT) scans.
Franz Pfeiffer, assistant professor of physics at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, in Switzerland, who developed the new technique, compares conventional x-ray images with shadows. Such images rely on information about how much radiation is absorbed as it passes through a sample, such as a patient's limb. But more-complex interactions are happening, says Pfeiffer, and the more information that can be gleaned about these interactions, the better the contrast of the images. Dark-field imaging measures how a sample scatters light.
"These guys are showing that you can do things with x-rays that were only thought practical optically [with visible light]," says Richard Lanza, a senior research scientist at MIT's department of nuclear science and engineering.
Previously, researchers including Pfeiffer had demonstrated dark-field imaging using a large, expensive particle accelerator called a synchrotron as an x-ray source. Synchrotrons provide very bright, finely focused beams of x-rays. Such a powerful source was necessary because the inefficient crystal optics used to focus the x-rays onto the sample could only cope with a narrow spectrum of wavelengths.
To replace the inefficient crystal optics, Pfeiffer developed silicon filters that work with the full spectrum of rays generated by low-power, conventional x-ray tubes. These filters are flat discs of silicon etched with 20-micrometer-long slits, some of which are filled with gold. To generate scattering images, these grates are placed between the x-ray source and the sample, and between the sample and the detector.
"Small structures like micro-cracks show up nicely in these images because they scatter radiation quite a bit," says Pfeiffer. This suggests that the images could be useful for detecting osteoporosis or for finding flaws in mechanical structures such as turbines.
"Edges and boundaries are more clear in the dark-field images," says Elizabeth Brainerd, an evolutionary biologist at Brown University, who uses x-rays to study the biomechanics of bones.
(See "Catching Evolution on the Run.") It can be difficult to distinguish small bones and joints in conventional x-rays. Brainerd agrees that dark-field images could be useful for detecting small fractures and bone spurs in patients, and she's excited about the possibility of extending Pfeiffer's technique to three-dimensional CT scans.
Pfeiffer's approach could be used to improve security systems too. Conventional x-ray imagers like those at airport-security checkpoints can't differentiate between many different kinds of materials--for example, chocolate and cheese appear identical to some explosives. But cheese and explosives scatter x-rays differently, so in Pfeiffer's dark-field images, the differences between the two materials are apparent.
Pfeiffer has already begun making CT scans with conventional x-ray tubes using another contrast-enhancing technique he developed two years ago, called phase contrast. He says that he's currently working to incorporate gratings for dark-field imaging into conventional CT devices. He's also collaborating with researchers at the Center for Biomedical Imaging, an institute run by the University of Lausanne and the University of Geneva, to determine whether dark-field x-ray imaging can be used to tell healthy tissue from cancerous tissue. Cancers don't absorb x-rays very differently than healthy tissue does, so x-ray systems that rely on other properties, such as scattering, might make for better mammograms, for example. Lanza's group at MIT is also working to develop better cancer-detecting CT scanners that use a combination of absorption and refraction for contrast and also rely on nanofabricated gratings. (See "Changing the Physics behind X-Ray Imaging.")
Dark-field imaging has been used for more than 20 years to enhance contrast and resolution in conventional optical microscopes. But applying the contrast-enhancing techniques that work well with visible light to x-rays has taken a long time, says Pfeiffer. Such a system is only now possible thanks to advances in photolithography and many years of basic science research using synchrotrons, he says.
Pfeiffer envisions that future x-ray imaging systems will be like what light microscopes are today: they will incorporate many complementary systems for enhancing contrast--absorption, refraction, scattering--and doctors and researchers will be able to use whichever combination works best for a given sample.
http://www.technologyreview.com/Nanotech/20104/page2/
Thermography
Thermography, thermal imaging, or thermal video, is a type of infrared imaging. Thermographic cameras detect radiation in the infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum (roughly 900–14,000 nanometers or 0.9–14 µm) and produce images of that radiation. Since infrared radiation is emitted by all objects based on their temperatures, according to the black body radiation law, thermography makes it possible to "see" one's environment with or without visible illumination. The amount of radiation emitted by an object increases with temperature, therefore thermography allows one to see variations in temperature (hence the name). When viewed by thermographic camera, warm objects stand out well against cooler backgrounds; humans and other warm-blooded animals become easily visible against the environment, day or night. As a result, thermography's extensive use can historically be ascribed to the military and security services.
Thermal imaging photography finds many other uses. For example, firefighters use it to see through smoke, find persons, and localize the base of a fire. With thermal imaging, power lines maintenance technicians locate overheating joints and parts, a telltale sign of their failure, to eliminate potential hazards. Where thermal insulation becomes faulty, building construction technicians can see heat leaks to improve the efficiencies of cooling or heating air-conditioning. Thermal imaging cameras are also installed in some luxury cars to aid the driver, the first being the 2000 Cadillac DeVille. Some physiological activities, particularly responses, in human beings and other warm-blooded animals can also be monitored with thermographic imaging. [1]
The appearance and operation of a modern thermographic camera is often similar to a camcorder. Enabling the user to see in the infrared spectrum is a function so useful that ability to record their output is often optional. A recording module is therefore not always built-in.
Instead of CCD sensors, most thermal imaging cameras use CMOS Focal Plane Array (FPA). The most common types are InSb, InGaAs, HgCdTe and QWIP FPA. The newest technologies are using low cost and uncooled microbolometers FPA sensors. Their resolution is considerably lower than of optical cameras, mostly 160x120 or 320x240 pixels, up to 640x512 for the most expensive models. Thermographic cameras are much more expensive than their visible-spectrum counterparts, and higher-end models are often export-restricted. Older bolometers or more sensitive models as InSb require cryogenic cooling, usually by a miniature Stirling cycle refrigerator or liquid nitrogen.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_imaging
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Ausgroup retail buyers holding the fort with minimum BB support
Tiny cloned inverted hammer in bullish harami formation. Gap resistance is $1.20. Price supported by 127.2% extended Fibonacci projection at 96 cents. Support zone 96 cents to 80 cents. Monitor resistance and support zones.
Volume distribution chart shows majority of the buyers are retailers. Price will probably stagnant and drop if no further BB buyers support comes in on Monday.
Wilmar Retracement Levels
Price has reached 38.2% Fibonacci retracement level at $4.43 and formed a narrow range spinning top candlestick pattern showing market indecision. The next resistance at $4.68 has 3 confluence signals from 20 day EMA, 50 day EMA and 50% Fibonacci retracement . The resistance zone $4.70 to $4.45 is the stage for a major battle between the bulls and the bears.
Energy companies pour millions into nanotechnology for oil and gas recovery
Could nanotechnology help squeeze more oil and gas out of the ground? That's the hope of a consortium of energy companies that is putting millions of dollars into the development of new micro- and nanosensor technologies.
The seven companies that make up the Advanced Energy Consortium (AEC), which includes Halliburton Energy Services, BP America, and ConocoPhilips, will put up $21 million in total to fund the research. The aim is to develop subsurface sensors that can be used to improve both the discovery and the recovery of hydrocarbons.
"It's been a long time coming," says Wade Adams, director of the Richard E. Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology at Rice University, in Houston, a technical partner to the consortium. "It's the first time the energy companies have got together to fund this kind of research, so it really is a big deal," he says.
Currently, even with the most advanced recovery techniques, only about 40 percent of the oil and gas in reservoirs can be recovered. The hope is that by injecting novel sensors into these reservoirs, it will be possible to more accurately map them in 3-D, increase the amount of fuel extracted, and minimize the environmental impact.
The financial investment--equivalent to $1 million per year from each company for three years--is "a very good sign," says Kris Pister, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of California, Berkeley, who has spent several years developing distributed sensors known as smart dust. It means that the energy companies now understand the potential of small-scale distributed-sensors technologies, he says.
"There is good reason to suspect that this technology could help," says Pister. Distributed wireless sensor technologies are becoming increasingly sophisticated, and now even have their own wireless standard: the highway addressable remote transducer, or HART.
Right now, the only way to find these reservoirs and gauge their precise size and capacity is through seismic means, or by simply drilling down. "But you don't get much information," says Adams. Surface and down-hole seismic techniques have limited resolution, while drilling can only take readings for the two-foot region surrounding the drill bore, he says.
Moreover, oil and gas reservoirs tend not to be formed in huge underground chasms, or wells, as many people think. Instead, the reservoirs are formed in porous rock formations, which act like high-pressure geological sponges, says Scott Tinker, director of the AEC, state geologist of Texas and a professor at the University of Texas, in Austin. "The pores are very small," he says. They can be anywhere from 10 microns to one micron in diameter. Because of their size, once the initial high pressure of the reservoir has been reduced by releasing some of the oil, this porosity can impede the flow of oil or gas through the rock formation. "It can take a lot of work to get the oil out of the rock," says Tinker.
What is needed is a means of mapping the pore structure and the voids between formations, he says, and to do this, researchers need sensors that are smaller than the pores. So the aim is to create micro- or nanosensors that can not only pass through the pores, but also form mesh networks to create detailed, 3-D maps of the structure of rock formations.
Another possibility with smaller-sized pores is to use magnetic nanoparticles to enhance aboveground sensing techniques, says Adams. By pumping the sensors into a rock formation, it could be possible to map the formation by detecting slight changes that the nanoparticles create in the earth's magnetic field.
The researchers believe that, in addition to locating and mapping oil and gas, nanoparticles might also be able to help recover the fuels. "The trouble is that the oil in the pores sticks to the walls," says Adams, even when high-pressure steam is blasted into the rock. The hope is that with the right nanoparticles, the researchers might be able to free the hydrocarbons from the rock.
Despite this potential, the energy industry hasn't shown much interest in nanoparticles until now. It was the high price of oil that caused its change of heart, Adams says. "All the big formations have been tapped, and most fields are in depletion. So cheap and easy oil is getting scarcer," he says.
Pister agrees. "A huge amount of money has been put into traditional extraction techniques," he says. But these have reached their limits in existing reservoirs. "They are about as tapped out as they can get."
However, there are lots of challenges ahead. Little is known about how nanoparticles will flow through porous rock. "And we have not generally designed nanoparticles for use at high temperatures and high pressures, nor for extreme chemical environments," says Adams. If these problems can be overcome, the payoff is likely to be great.
http://www.technologyreview.com/Nanotech/20114/page2/
Friday, January 25, 2008
Yangzijiang 30 mins chart next resistance zone
Next resistance zone $1.50 to $1.55.
Monitor 200 EMA resistance line.
Immediate support $1.41 to $1.39.
Synthesizing a Genome from Scratch
In a technical tour de force, scientists at the J. Craig Venter Institute, in Rockville, MD, have synthesized the genome of the bacterium Mycoplasma genitalium entirely from scratch. The feat is a stepping stone in creating precisely engineered microbial machines capable of generating biofuels and performing other useful functions.
"It really is groundbreaking that you can synthetically build a genome for a bacterium," says Chris Voigt, a synthetic biologist at the University of California, San Francisco, who was not involved in the project. "It's bigger by orders of magnitude than what's been done before."
Biologists creating genetically engineered organisms now routinely order pieces of DNA that are 10,000 to 20,000 base pairs long--big enough to incorporate the genes for a single metabolic pathway. That allows researchers to engineer microbes that can perform specific tasks, but the ability to synthesize entire genomes could grant a whole new level of control over biological design. (See "Tumor-KillingBacteria.")
In the new study, scientists ordered 101 DNA fragments, encompassing the entire Mycoplasma genome, from commercial DNA synthesis companies. These fragments were designed so that each overlapped its neighboring sequence by a small amount; these overlapping stretches stick together, thanks to the chemical properties of DNA. Researchers then bound the fragments piece by piece, eventually generating the full 582,970 base pair Mycoplasma sequence. The findings were published Thursday in the online edition of Science.
http://www.technologyreview.com/Biotech/20112/
Evolution of human genome's 'guardian' gives people unique protections from DNA damage
Human evolution has created enhancements in key genes connected to the p53 regulatory network - the so-called guardian of the genome - by creating additional safeguards in human genes to boost the network's ability to guard against DNA damage that could cause cancer or a variety of genetic diseases, an international team of scientists led by Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center writes in the Jan. 22 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Because genetically engineered mouse models are increasingly powerful tools in understanding the risks and mechanisms of human diseases - and rodents do not have the same evolution-based safeguards in p53 function as humans - the study also underscores the need for additional considerations in the interpretation of research using rodent models.
"Our findings are especially important because rodents are often used as model organisms to investigate the genetic origins of diseases that affect humans, such as cancer investigators evaluating the impact of DNA-damaging agents," said Anil Jegga, DVM, a researcher in the Division of Biomedical Informatics at Cincinnati Children's. "Rodent models remain important to our understanding of disease processes, although our study suggests the need to address experimentally the differences in p53 regulatory pathways between humans and rodent models."
In the study, Jegga and his colleagues used comparative functional genomics to look systematically at small DNA sequences associated with the promoters, or enhancers, of specific genes that carry out orders from p53. These promoter elements act like antennae - responding to activated p53 by boosting target gene expression and function inside a cell's nucleus. By comparing these response elements across nearly 50 different binding sites of genes in the p53 network, and looking specifically at genes that repair DNA damage in 14 species (from zebra fish to humans), researchers were able to reveal critical evolutionary changes in their function. The 14 species represented an estimated 500 million years of evolutionary separation, helping investigators determine how the function of p53 response elements was conserved or changed as different species developed. Dr. Jegga said researchers were surprised to find the acquisition of functional response for certain genes involved in DNA metabolism or repair to be mostly unique in humans. While the functional ability of some genes is shared with chimpanzees and rhesus monkeys, researchers said DNA metabolism and repair function it is not shared at all with rodents.
In humans, when DNA damage is detected, the p53 network seems to have gained additional capabilities that allow it to slow cell growth, initiate repairs or, if needed, apoptotic cell death. Apoptotic, or programmed cell death capability in the p53 network, is thought to be evolutionarily conserved throughout the development of vertebrate species and was probably established after the divergence of vertebrates and non-vertebrates. DNA metabolism and repair capabilities controlled by p53 may have emerged more recently in evolutionary history to create primate-specific response characteristics, the researchers explained.
http://www.brightsurf.com/news/headlines/35373/Evolution_of_human_genomes_guardian_gives_people_unique_protections_from_DNA_damage.html
Pancreatic Stem Cells in Adult Mice Are Similar to Their Embryonic Counterpart
Researchers discovered that adult mice pancreas harbor stem cells with the capacity to generate new insulin-producing beta cells. “One of the most interesting characteristics of these adult progenitor cells is that they are almost indistinguishable from embryonic progenitors,” says Harry Heimberg, M.D., Ph.D., of the JDRF Center at Vrije Universiteit Brussel. “In terms of their structure and gene expression, there are no major differences. They look and behave just like embryonic beta cell progenitors.”
In the new study, Dr. Heimberg’s team tied off a duct that drains digestive enzymes from the pancreas. That injury led to a doubling of beta cells in the pancreas within two weeks. The animals’ pancreases also began producing more insulin, evidence that the new beta cells were fully functional, Dr. Heimberg explains. He suspects the regenerative process is sparked by an inflammatory response in the enzyme-flooded pancreas.
They further found that the production of new beta cells depends on a gene called Neurogenin 3 (Ngn3), which is known to play a role in the pancreas during embryonic development.
http://www.genengnews.com/news/bnitem.aspx?name=29390546
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Yangzijiang 30 mins chart
Attempted to enter major resistance zone in afternoon trading but met with resistance at $1.42.
Price action may be restricted in the $1.42 to $1.55 resistance zone while the bulls and bears fight to gain control over this zone.
Immediate lower support zone is $1.32 to $1.26.
Monitor 200 EMA and resistance and support zones.
Tiny genetic differences have huge consequences
A study led by McGill University researchers has demonstrated that small differences between individuals at the DNA level can lead to dramatic differences in the way genes produce proteins. These, in turn, are responsible for the vast array of differences in physical characteristics between individuals. The study, part of the Genome Regulators in Disease (GRID) Project funded by Genome Canada and Genome Quebec, was led by Dr. Jacek Majewski of McGill University's Department of Human Genetics and the McGill University and Genome Quebec Innovation Centre, and first-authored by his research associate Dr. Tony Kwan. It was published January 13 in the journal Nature Genetics.
The study was originally initiated by Dr. Tom Hudson, former director of the McGill University and Genome Quebec Innovation Centre, and drew upon the data collected by the vast HapMap (Haplotype Map) Project, a global comparative map of the human genome, which Hudson and his colleagues were instrumental in completing.
This study solves in part the mystery of how a relatively small number of differences within DNA protein coding sequences could be responsible for the enormous variety of phenotypic differences between individuals. It had previously been shown that individual differences reside in simple, relatively small variations in the DNA sequence called single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs, often pronounced "snips"), which exist primarily in the "junk code" of the DNA not previously known to have any profound genetic effect.
http://www.brightsurf.com/news/headlines/35427/Tiny_genetic_differences_have_huge_consequences_McGill_researchers.html
Chinese scientists join genome project
Scientists in London, Washington and Shenzhen on Tuesday jointly launched the 1,000 Genomes Project, which will involve sequencing the genomes of at least 1,000 people worldwide to create the most detailed and medically useful picture of human genetic variation yet.
The project's international research consortium includes scientists from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (WTSI) in England, the Beijing Genomics Institute, Shenzhen (BGI Shenzhen) in China, and the National Human Genome Research Institute in the United States and their academic networks.
The work will involving developing a new map of the human genome that will provide a view of biomedically relevant DNA variations at a resolution unmatched by current resources, a news release said.
Data from the project will be made available to the international scientific community through public databases.
The detailed map of human genetic variation will be available to researchers around the world seeking to relate genetic variation to particular diseases.
The research is also said to lay the groundwork for a new era of medicine, where people can routinely have their genomes sequenced to predict individual risks of disease and response to drugs.
"Such a project would have been unthinkable only two years ago," Richard Durbin of the WTSI, who is co-chairing the consortium, said.
"We are moving forward to build a tool that will greatly expand and further accelerate efforts to find more of the genetic factors involved in human health and disease."
In the first phase of the project, which will last about a year, researchers will conduct three trials and the results will be used to decide how to most efficiently and effectively produce a detailed map of human genetic variation.
During its two-year production phase, the project will deliver sequence data at an average rate of about 8.2 billion bases per day, the equivalent of more than two human genomes every 24 hours.
"At 6 trillion DNA bases, the 1,000 Genomes Project will generate more sequence data over its three-year course than has been deposited into public DNA databases over the past 25 years," Gil McVean of Oxford University, one of the co-chairs of the consortium's analysis group, said.
"Once up and running, the project will generate more sequences in two days than what was added to databases all last year," he said.
Among the populations whose DNA will be sequenced in the genomes project are the Yoruba in Ibadan, Nigeria; Japanese in Tokyo; Chinese in Beijing; Utah residents with ancestry from northern and western Europe; Luhya in Webuye, Kenya; Maasai in Kinyawa, Kenya; Toscani in Italy; Gujarati Indians in Houston; Chinese in metropolitan Denver; those of Mexican ancestry in Los Angeles; and those of African ancestry in the southwestern US.
The samples will be sourced from volunteer donors, who will be anonymous and will not have any medical information collected on them, the consortium said.
Wang Jun, deputy director of BGI Shenzhen, which mapped the first East Asian gene, said its participation in the project places China's research on genes and related medical fields among the most advanced in the world.
"It will greatly encourage the research of genomic medicine in China.
"The research results will have significant impact on China's medical development and will definitely nurture the growth of new, related industries," Wang said.
http://news.nabou.com/cgi-bin/newsframe/437892yks4328903Dnabou2BInews421789994asgw3798etys6787/18A8047A97056E4D9B2CDA039BFF5E58backheadline3DHow2Bdo2BI2Bcut2Ba2Boout3Fnews26o3D0/FrameIt.cgi?Url=http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r1268254215
Gene Therapy May Be Future Prescription For Patients
Researchers in the Department of Medicine and Department of Neurosciences at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have discovered that chronic pain can be successfully treated with novel targeted gene therapy. In an effort to find a more effective treatment for chronic pain, researchers at Mount Sinai developed a gene therapy technique that simulates the pain-killing effect of opiate drugs. In the new study "Sensory neuron targeting by self-complementary AAV8 via lumbar puncture for chronic pain" published in the January 22, 2008 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), researchers suggest that gene therapy for pain might in the future become a treatment alternative for patients with severe chronic pain.
"Fifty million Americans suffer from chronic pain. Chronic pain patients often do not experience satisfactory pain relief from available treatments due to poor efficacy or intolerable side effects like extreme sleepiness, mental clouding, and hallucinations," said Dr. Andreas Beutler, MD, principal investigator of the study and Assistant Professor of Medicine/ Hematology And Medical Oncology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
Mount Sinai researchers designed a viral vector to carry the prepro-b-endorphin gene into primary sensory neurons in order to activate opiate receptors selectively, in a rat model. The agents were delivered directly into the spinal fluid of rats via a lumbar puncture, or spinal tap with only one injection. Results showed that the rats remained symptom-free for an extended period of time.
"Our research found that treating chronic pain with Adeno-Associated Virus vector-based gene therapy allows for pain relief for more than three months after a single injection, targeting selectively the pain gate. The technique worked successfully with opioid- and non-opioid therapeutic genes," said Dr. Beutler. "Targeted gene therapy will likely avoid the unwanted side effects associated with opioid painkillers such as morphine. Based on our findings, this targeted gene therapy via lumbar puncture appears to be a promising candidate for bench-to-bedside research that might ultimately be tested in patients with intractable chronic pain, e.g., to help patients suffering from severe pain due to advanced cancer."
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/94869.php
Jiutian 30 mins chart 24 Jan 2008 1036 AM
Trading in the range.
Immediate support 23.5 - 23 cents.
Monitor the support and resistance zones.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
China Hongx Hammer Candlestick with High Volume Confirmation
High volume up bar candlestick confirms hammer candlestick formation in the support zone.
Monitor support zone and 20 EMA potential resistance.
Global project to map DNA of 1,000 people
Any two people may be roughly 99% identical at the genetic level. But the small differences are what tantalize scientists, and now they plan to map the DNA of 1,000 people worldwide to examine human genetic variation.
The goal: To create a catalog of these differences, the most detailed yet, that scientists would mine for variations that help explain why some people get certain illnesses and others don't.
MAPPING HUMAN TRAITS: Details about the 1000 Genomes project
The international project was announced Tuesday. It will be a collaboration of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Britain, the U.S. National Institutes of Health and China's Beijing Genomics Institute Shenzhen.
The Human Genome Project offered the first map of the approximately 25,000 human genes in 2003. It was based on a mix of DNA from different people. Only a handful of individual people's DNA has been mapped since.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-01-22-genomes_N.htm?csp=34
LabCorp(R) Announces the Availability of Affymetrix-Based Whole Genome Microarrays
Laboratory Corporation of America(R) Holdings (LabCorp(R)) (NYSE: LH) is pleased to announce the availability of an ultra high-density microarray, Affymetrix based technology (Whole-Genome Sampling Analysis). The offering continues the numerous recent advances in LabCorp's clinical genetics laboratory diagnostics. In 2005, LabCorp first offered the comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) based microarray diagnostics which focused on mental retardation and developmental delay. This targeted testing underscored the need for higher density whole genome coverage.
The Affymetrix-based technology provides analysis of DNA copy number changes - identifying deletions, gene amplifications and loss of heterozygosity (LOH).
"This new testing will offer unparalleled resolution for the detection of the etiology of mental retardation, developmental delay, autism and other clinically significant changes and underscores LabCorp's commitment to providing physicians and patients the highest quality services to meet their clinical needs," said Myla Lai-Goldman, M.D., Executive Vice President, Chief Scientific Officer and Medical Director of LabCorp.
About LabCorp(R) Laboratory Corporation of America(R) Holdings, a S&P 500 company, is a pioneer in commercializing new diagnostic technologies and the first in its industry to embrace genomic testing. With annual revenues of $3.6 billion in 2006, over 25,000 employees nationwide, and more than 220,000 clients, LabCorp offers clinical assays ranging from routine blood analyses to HIV and genomic testing.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/22779224/
DNA-Based Artificial Nose
Single-stranded DNA can be used to identify explosives and other airborne compounds.
Scientists have found a way to quickly identify which DNA sequences are ideal for detecting a particular odor and turn dried DNA into odor detectors. While many researchers are working on an electronic nose to detect toxins and explosives, this new platform could be used to create a wide array of sensors using existing high-throughput molecular-biology equipment.
"Now what we can do is take a microarray of 20,000 sensors ... and pick out those sensors that best respond to the odors of interest," says lead researcher Joel White of Cogniscent, a company based in North Grafton, MA, that manufactures odor-detection devices.
Compared with man-made sensor technologies developed for vision and hearing, our ability to mimic the chemical senses--smell and taste--is relatively primitive. To detect explosive materials such as TNT, scientists typically design highly specific polymers that fluoresce when they come in contact with their target compounds. But building a more generalized electronic nose platform that could detect a wider range of chemicals hasn't been possible.
Over the past decade, White and neuroscientist John Kauer of Tufts University have been working to improve their patented electronic nose, a handheld device that contains an array of 16 sensor types made of synthetic polymers. These polymers are cross-reactive, so that several sensor types may change shape in response to a single odor--a design analogous to the human nose. The polymers are dyed with a fluorescent marker, and their activation patterns can be monitored via optical electronic sensors and analyzed by an embedded microprocessor. But after 10 years of hard work, the pair had only been able to incorporate about 50 synthetic polymers--far less than the estimated 1,000 sensors in a human nose, which can respond to some 10,000 different odors.
Several years ago, the duo decided to test DNA--a natural polymer that is ubiquitous in the biological laboratories where the scientists spend most of their time. "When we first started talking about it with people, nobody imagined that dye-labeled DNA dried onto a substrate would respond to odors," says White.
The scientists began their experiments haphazardly: by scavenging short pieces of single- and double-stranded DNA from neighboring labs at Tufts and looking at their responses to several standard compounds. Their first experiments with dye-labeled double-stranded DNA gave them a hint that the approach could work, but all the sequences they tried responded to odors in the same way.
Single-stranded DNA, on the other hand, provided repeatable responses to odors, and this response depended on the specific sequence of four amino-acid types that make up the genetic code. With a typical sequence about 20 amino acids long, the team has the potential to create millions of sensor types. In the current issue of PLoS Biology, the researchers describe the response of just 30 sequences, but White says that now they have identified hundreds of useful DNA sequences, including one that responds to the vapor signature of TNT-containing land mines--an unusual finding indicating the versatility of the technique.
Alan Gelperin at Philadelphia's Monell Chemical Senses Center hails the discovery as a major step. "The whole field has been hindered by a lack of diverse sensor technology," he says. "This is the first demonstration that [DNA] could be used in this way." Since first learning of the approach during a conference, Gelperin has collaborated with University of Pennsylvania physicist Charlie Johnson to take the concept one step further by incorporating an electronic readout made with carbon nanotube transistors.
For now, White says that his team has incorporated his DNA sensors alongside the synthetic polymers in targeted projects, including one device for detecting ammonia gas, which would be useful for warning emergency responders at toxic spills or for monitoring pollution from livestock operations. He says that there is even interest among vintners in developing a device that could help sniff out counterfeit wines. "This was news to me," White says, laughing.
http://www.technologyreview.com/Biotech/20095/
JES Hammer Candlestick Pattern
On a Japanese Candlestick chart, the hammer is known as a reversal candlestick. Hammer candlesticks occur when a security moves significantly lower after the open, but rebounds to close well above the intraday low. In a perfect hammer, this tail is twice the length of the body and the candlestick will have no upper shadow or wick. The smaller the body and the longer the tail, the more significant the hammer is as a bullish indicator. Hammers form at trend bottoms.
If this candlestick forms during an advance, it is called a Hanging Man.
Monitor for confirmation candlestick formation
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Yangzijiang 5 mins chart Bottom Searching
Gapped down at opening from $1.31 to $1.25.
Failed to form bottom at $1.17.
Wait for base formation.
Oligo Manufacturing Puts Emphasis on RNA
As more experimental DNA drugs move through the clinic and into large-scale trials, the demand for efficient and cost-effective manufacturing strategies is intensifying. Higher yields, greater purity, and lower production costs are the key drivers of new DNA synthesis technology. Similarly, as both therapeutic and research applications of RNA oligos increase dramatically, competition and price pressure are driving advances in RNA synthesis technology as well.
Although there has "not been a lot of good news in the last 12 months or so from an antisense DNA perspective, there are still plenty of promising second-generation chemistry drugs that are in the clinic and are progressing," says Gaby Silver, marketing manager at Kinovate Life Sciences, a new company solely held by Osaka, Japan-based Nitto Denko.
At the recent "TIDES" meeting, in Boston, Kinovate launched NittoPhase™, a novel solid support for oligo synthesis developed in collaboration with Isis Pharmaceuticals. The product is available in two grades: NittoPhaseTOS for high loading applications and NittoPhaseROS, composed of a bead with a lower loading capacity.
http://www.genengnews.com/oligo/oligo_supp_02.aspx
How Can Someone Patent a Gene?
Crichton and other critics often ask, “How can anyone own my genes?” The answer is that they cannot. What someone can “own” is a DNA sequence that he or she was the first to isolate and that is useful. Similarly, a person who discovers a new function of a known DNA sequence, such as its previously unknown association with particular disease, can patent a method of using the isolated sequence to detect susceptibility to that disease. Isolated DNA sequences do not occur in nature. They are new.
Claiming them as isolated sequences is not “mere word play” as asserted by Congressman Becerra in his remarks. Rather, the language reflects the critical fact that, but for the actions of the inventor, the invention would not exist. The gene for human Factor VIII doesn’t do a hemophiliac any good when it is in somebody else’s genome. It is only useful when someone isolates it and a company spends time and money to bring human Factor VIII to the market. Since isolated DNA sequences do not occur in nature, they are not natural products. By patenting them, the inventor takes nothing from the public.
http://www.genengnews.com/articles/chitem.aspx?aid=2052
Stem Cell Research
Along these same lines, stem cell research will also add to the robust growth of the cell culture market. The growing use and diverse applications of stem cells are having a significant impact on the media market, as companies work to understand how best to optimize and influence their growth. For stem cell applications, serum-free media that lack growth factors, cytokines, or artificial stimulators of proliferation will play an increasingly important role.
The expected growth in the stem cell market provides a tremendous growth opportunity. Kalorama estimates that stem cell research accounted for nearly $1 billion million in expenditures last year, 10% of which was allocated to consumables, and about 5% of the consumable allocation was spent on media and other cell culture supplies. In addition, media and serum used in stem cell research are priced higher than similar, non-stem cell products.
Multiple licensing agreements and acquisitions have been made in the cell culture market by numerous companies in order to secure a foothold in the stem cell supply market .
http://www.genengnews.com/articles/chitem.aspx?aid=2086
Monday, January 21, 2008
China Hongx No Hammer Confirmation
No confirmation candlestick formation for hammer as price continues to move lower to Aug 2007 trough. Monitor price action in new support zone formed by Mar 2007 low and Aug 2007 low.
Biosensor - Heart Attack if gap gets filled
10 days to climb from 90 cents to $1.10 but only takes one day to drop back to 90 cents.
Prepare for heart failure if mid gap support at 80 cents does not hold.
Next support is gap support at 75 - 74 cents.
HIV's Dependence on Human Genes May Be Weakness, Scientists Say
HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, depends on more than 250 human genes to grow, a finding that reveals the lethal virus's weakness and may lead to new ways to attack it, scientists said.
By blocking genes in infected cells, scientists tied the virus's survival to processes of protein transport, entry to the nucleus, and cellular self-destruction, Harvard University scientists said in a study released today by the journal Science.
With just nine genes that make 15 proteins, HIV must assume control of the protein-making machinery of infected cells to reproduce itself. Drugs that stop cells from cooperating with the lethal virus might be valuable alternatives to those that attack the ever-changing virus directly, said David Baltimore, a California Institute of Technology biologist and HIV researcher.
``This provides a very important class of leads for the synthesis of new drugs that can prevent HIV growth,'' said Baltimore, who wasn't involved in the study, in a telephone interview Jan. 9. ``The nice thing is that these cellular targets mutate at a much slower rate than viral targets, so resistance is less likely to arise.''
HIV attaches itself to proteins on the surfaces of immune cells, enters them, and hijacks their protein-making machinery to produce more viruses. In the process, it destroys the body's defenses, leaving patients vulnerable to infections, such a tuberculosis and cancer.
To be successful, it must commandeer the services of a wide variety of cellular genes, said Stephen Elledge, a Harvard Medical School geneticist who helped write the study.
``It's as if a small terrorist group attacks a town with a tank, and then converts the town into a tank factory,'' Elledge said in a telephone interview. ``They would have to take over the existing infrastructure to get these things replicated.''
Gene-Blockers
He and Abraham Brass, another Harvard geneticist, used gene- blocking technology called RNA interference to see which cellular functions are most important in the viral attack. After screening about 21,000 genes this way, the researchers found clues as to how the virus takes over transport within the cell and gains entry to the DNA stronghold in the nucleus.
The virus also requires the services of genes that make a variety of proteins on the cell surface that weren't known to be involved in infection, Elledge said. Genes involved in a cellular self-disposal process, called autophagy, were also used by HIV. Blocking or inhibiting any of these may offer better ways to treat the disease.
While some of these genes and proteins may be too important to cell survival to be blocked or altered, others may be targets for drugs, researchers said.
``It's an open book,'' said Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland, in a telephone interview. ``We need to methodically go down each and every one of them and track down how they're involved.''
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aH66mQtkA1B0
Biotechnology Companies Raise Record Venture Capital in 2007
Venture capitalists pumped a record $9.1 billion into privately held U.S. biotechnology and medical device companies last year, in hopes of making discoveries they can sell to larger drugmakers.
Biotechnology and medical device companies raised 20 percent more cash in the U.S. last year than in 2006, according to a report by accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association. More than 4,000 biotechnology companies manipulate genes and cells to develop drugs for diseases including cancer, and arthritis.
Older drugmakers that have long relied on chemistry to develop products have paid for alliances with biotechnology companies, aiming to develop drugs to replace products with expiring patents. New York-based Pfizer Inc., the world's biggest drugmaker, is bracing to lose $13 billion in annual sales when generic copies of its top-selling cholesterol pill, Lipitor, enter the market as early as 2010.
``A grim prognosis for Big Pharma is actually music to our ears,'' said Sherrill Neff, founding partner of Quaker Bioventures, a Philadelphia-based venture fund with $600 million under management. ``We are in the early stages of a deepening symbiosis between venture-backed biotechnology companies and large pharma.''
Venture capitalists invested a total of $29.4 billion in 3,813 companies across all industries, the most since 2001, according to the report.
About 31 percent of the cash went to biotechnology and medical devices, a record share of venture investment, according to the report. Software investment rose 2.7 percent to $5.3 billion, while Internet companies raised $4.6 billion, a 12 percent increase, according to the report.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aPfPR4XSrg1k
Wilmar 5 mins chart Trading Zone
Monitor 200EMA and support and resistance zones.
Watch for breakout direction.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Yongnam More Hugh Selling
Retailers buying throughout the day from morning to afternoon.
Late afternoon hugh sell down by BB.
Trade with care.
Major Advancement Towards Creating Patient-Specific and Disease-Specific Stem Cells For Therapeutic Use
Stemagen, a privately held embryonic stem cell research company, announced today it has become the first in the world to create, and meticulously document, a cloned human embryo using somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT).
Stemagen CEO Samuel H. Wood, M.D., Ph.D., a co-author of the publication and a donor of the cells from which the embryos were cloned, terms this achievement “a critical milestone in the development of patient-specific embryonic stem cells for human therapeutic use, potentially including developing treatments for Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and other degenerative diseases.” Stemagen’s research is exhaustively detailed in a paper published in today’s issue of the highly regarded peer-reviewed scientific journal Stem Cells.
“This is not merely a technical improvement on previous research in this area,” said Andrew French, Ph.D., lead author on the paper, “Development of Human Cloned Blastocysts Following Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT) with Adult Fibroblasts.”
“No other scientific group has documented the cloning of an adult human cell, much less been able to grow it to the blastocyst stage, the stage at which it is the adult donor cell that is driving embryonic development, the stage that yields the cells (the inner cell mass) from which embryonic stem cell lines are made,” said French, who is Stemagen’s Chief Scientific Officer.
Five blastocysts were developed from 25 donated mature oocytes. Three were confirmed to be clones based on DNA fingerprinting demonstrating the presence of the skin cell donor DNA in the blastocyst, while one was further confirmed to be a clone by an additional mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis which revealed the presence of oocyte donor mtDNA without any oocyte donor nuclear DNA. For technical reasons, the genetic material in the remaining two blastocysts did not amplify to the extent required for analysis, and so while it is likely they were clones, the evidence required to claim that with certainty was not present. Thus, in this study, cloned blastocysts were successfully created from approximately 10% of all mature donated oocytes, an unexpectedly high rate given past research in this field.
The oocytes used in this study were donated, without compensation, by egg donors and intended parents undergoing egg donation cycles for reproductive purposes at the Reproductive Sciences Center in La Jolla, a leading fertility center specializing in egg donation and other advanced assisted reproductive technologies.
“As important as stem cell research is, all of us involved in this study realized that our overriding responsibility was to the intended parents who entrusted us with their dream of having a child,” said Catharine Adams, Ph.D., a co-author on the paper and the laboratory director for Reproductive Sciences Center. “We in the IVF laboratory felt comfortable in this collaboration because we have consistently achieved pregnancy rates of greater than 80% from these types of high quality egg donors. In this study, all the intended parents were successful in achieving a pregnancy.”
Stemagen and the Reproductive Sciences Center worked closely, over an extended period of time, with a leading independent Institutional Review Board (IRB) to develop procedures ensuring that all parties received comprehensive informed consent and that procedures were in place to protect their confidentiality in the process. All research procedures, including the culturing of the skin cells (fibroblasts) were performed under clinical laboratory conditions in close cooperation with the Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) Laboratory of the Reproductive Sciences Center, directed by Catharine Adams, Ph.D. French notes, “An important reason for the success of our SCNT procedures depended on the close coordination between our laboratory personnel and fertility center laboratory staff. Timing is a critical element in maximizing the probability of success in this type of procedure.”
Wood points out that this research was exhaustively scrutinized by some of the world’s most respected scientists and underwent an exceptionally rigorous process of verification, “This achievement was so critical to our field, we felt we should spare no effort in the process of establishing the validity of our work.”
DNA fingerprinting is the scientifically accepted method for determining if an embryo is a true clone. According to French, “All samples were subjected to this type of analysis to determine their true genetic makeup.”
For that, the company turned to Genesis Genetics, a recognized worldwide leader in the field of reproductive embryonic analysis.
Company founder and CEO, Mark Hughes, M.D., Ph.D., said “We were proud to collaborate with Stemagen in this important accomplishment. As the leading provider of genetic diagnosis of human embryos, it was important for an independent company like Genesis Genetics to be involved in the verification of this achievement.
Stemagen, Inc., is dedicated to the production of patient-specific embryonic stem cells for therapeutic use through SCNT and “uniparental” embryonic stem cells technology.
http://www.stemagen.com/17jan08.htm
How Important Is the Latest Cloning Feat?
Scientists at Stemagen, a small biotechnology company in La Jolla, CA, reported yesterday that they have for the first time generated cloned human blastocysts--early-stage embryos--from adult skin cells. This is the first step in generating stem cell lines matched to individuals, which are crucial for creating new cellular models of disease and potentially important for future tissue replacement therapies. (See "Next Steps for Stem Cells" and "The Real Stem Cell Hope".) The new findings also confirm that access to fresh eggs from healthy young donors is a key part of successful cloning. Lack of access to human eggs has been the major barrier in the field. (See "Human Therapeutic Cloning at a Standstill".)
Cloned blastocysts have been generated before, but from embryonic stem cells rather than from adult cells. Scientists theorize that embryonic stem cells are easier to turn into blastocysts because of their earlier developmental stage.
Experts in the field have had a mixed reaction to the new work. "It's a nice achievement, but in my view, they haven't crossed the bar," says Evan Snyder, director of the Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine Program at the Burnham Institute in La Jolla. "The real test will be, can you generate cell lines that are stable and self-renewing and normal?" Others applaud the confirmation of the feasibility of human cloning. "The fact that it can be done is important," says Jeanne Loring, a stem cell scientist at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla. "It wipes away that blot on our scientific integrity," she says, referring to a massive fraud unveiled in 2005 in which South Korean scientist Woo Suk Hwang claimed to have generated stem cell lines from cloned human embryos. (See "Stem Cells Reborn".)
To clone an embryo, a process also called nuclear transfer, scientists first strip an egg of its genetic material. Then they insert DNA from an adult cell, such as a skin cell, into the egg. Through an unknown process, the egg turns back the clock on the adult DNA and begins to develop as a normally fertilized egg would. From the embryo, researchers could theoretically collect a specialized ball of cells that can be coaxed to turn into stem cells. So far, however, no one has successfully performed this feat.
Stemagen, a relatively unknown player in the field, probably owes its success to access to human eggs through a close association with a local fertility clinic. (The company was founded by a fertility specialist at the Reproductive Sciences Center in La Jolla.) "We were able to get access to high-quality oocytes and have them in the incubator within one to two hours," says Andrew French, Stemagen's chief scientific officer.
Egg donors and the intended parents gave eggs in excess of those needed for in vitro fertilization to the Stemagen scientists for research. Regulations in many states prohibit compensation for donated eggs for ethical reasons, a requirement that has slowed other cloning efforts.
Starting with 25 fresh oocytes, French and colleagues generated five blastocysts--five- to six-day-old embryos consisting of 30 to 70 cells. Rather than attempting to generate stem cell lines from the embryos, the researchers sent them to an independent company for genetic confirmation of their results. "They showed we had completely removed the DNA from the egg donor and replaced it with DNA from the skin-cell donor," says French. One blastocyst was confirmed as a clone via two DNA-fingerprinting methods, while genetic analysis of two others indicated the likelihood that they were clones.
The next crucial step will be generating stem cell lines from cloned embryos, which many stem cell scientists speculate will be the most challenging step. "That's likely where Hwang failed," says Synder.
French and colleagues are planning such experiments, with results potentially in the next eight to twelve months. "The quality of our blastocysts improved with each experiment," says French. Based on the success rate of previous attempts to make stem cells from regular embryos, he estimates that Stemagen will be able to generate a stem cell line from between five and ten cloned embryos and report the results in the next year. The company aims to sell or license the lines to pharmaceutical companies and others who would use them to test new drugs or develop new therapies.
While human therapeutic cloning has always been an ethically contentious area of research--partly because it requires the creation and destruction of human embryos--it has recently come under greater fire. After the announcement of new techniques for reprogramming adult cells so that they turn into stem cells without first forming embryos, some opponents called for a halt on embryonic-stem-cell research. (See "Stem Cells without the Embryos".)
However, researchers in the field emphasize the need to pursue all reprogramming techniques. "Even though there are other techniques to reprogram a cell that have gotten a lot of press, we still don't know how those compare with the reprogramming you actually see with nuclear transfer," says Snyder. "My feeling is, if we understand nuclear transfer better, we will be able to do the other kind of reprogramming more efficiently."
http://www.technologyreview.com/Biotech/20088/
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