Category Archives: Molecular Medicine

I remember the feelings of newness, possibility, and responsibility as I sat with classmates in Harvard's Tosteson Medical Education Center in 2012, each of us staring at a blank sheet of paper.

As one of our first medical school assignments, we were tasked with writing a letter to ourselves that we would open four, five, or in my case, nine years later right before graduation.

What could I tell an older, more experienced, and more knowledgeable version of myself, who would have the titles of Doctor of Medicine (MD) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)?

I mustered up some thoughts, jotted them down, placed and sealed the letter in an envelope, and handed it in. After about a week, I forgot all about my letter.

This past March, all graduating medical students received emails telling us we would each receive our letters just in time for Match Day the day when medical students around the country find out where they have been placed for residency training.

Now, as I sit prepared to open this written time capsule, I think about the journey that has brought me to this point. Since writing that letter, I've become even more aware of the privileges that I have received and the responsibility that I am tasked with. People trust me with their lives, and I see many at their most vulnerable. I've worked to build skills at the intersection of research, policy, and medicine because I want to treat illnesses while fostering community health and highlighting current systems that leave certain groups to shoulder the burden of environmental exposures and other ills.

Throughout my training, I've worked to keep hold of what first inspired my journey and continues to guide and inspire my work people.

Author Jamaji Nwanaji-Enwerem on Match Day.

Match Day and the residency application process was demanding. I found myself in an ongoing state of personal reflection.

I reflected on my own immigration story, moving from Nigeria to North Carolina with my parents as an infant. My parents immigrated to the U.S. in the hopes of obtaining an education to better their family, their community, and the world. From an early age, I too adopted the principle of "higher education for community service."

Observing ill family, community members, and friends in Nigeria and the U.S. gave me an early appreciation of global health disparities and inspired my pursuit of medicine. I entered Morehouse College, the nation's only historically Black men's liberal arts college, intending to pursue medicine. However, through the Hopps Scholars Program and other initiatives, I fell in love with scientific research. I came to appreciate that by informing and advancing public health practices and clinical care, research has a boundless ability to help people. Upon graduation, I enrolled at Harvard to become a physician scientist.

Each of my patients in medical school served as a "professor of life" leaving me with unforgettable lessons about how their health status was often entwined with social factors, including the environments in which they lived. It is difficult to manage a young girl's asthma or a young man's depression if you don't consider the air quality in her neighborhood or the safety of his home. I learned to see people, not just their disease.

In my PhD research I studied the relationships of human health with outdoor air pollution. I emphasized working on biomarkers, molecular indicators that can help us better detect harmful environmental exposures. The sooner we can detect harms, the sooner we can intervene. Potentially before individuals become ill.

In my postdoctoral work at UC Berkeley, I added approaches to my study designs to better appreciate the social systems embedded in environmental exposures. Whether we are discussing metal in water or air pollution, these exposures don't simply appear and meet people in isolation. They meet people in the places they live, eat, play, and work. For instance, when someone is exposed to harmful lead levels, it's likely from the water they drink, old paint, or contaminated soil. Thus, studying the harmful effects of lead in these people is incomplete if their water sources, homes, and neighborhoods are also not considered. Understanding this interconnectedness is particularly important when trying to prevent additional harms. Similar to caring for patients beyond their disease, through my science, I work to see the people and communities, not just the data.

I also added a Master's degree in public policy to develop skills in areas like negotiation, stakeholder analysis, and implementation. As the COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us, science does not operate in a silo. Scientific discoveries, including those in public health, need the attention and buy-in of those working in areas like business and government to fully benefit the public.

This may seem like a lot of schooling, but each step focused on being an effective changemaker in the real world. These investments were made with the hope that when faced with real challenges, practice will have made me better even if not perfect and I can confidently answer any call to serve.

Credit: Joel Muniz/Unsplash

Just as the residency interview process was wrapping up, I received invitations to give research talks. I centered one talk on the idea of "being in support with communities."

I called on listeners to think about a time when they were supported by a community. I also called on listeners to think about a time when they were supporting a community. Then, I called on the listeners to hold both of these ideas at oncethis is what is meant by being in support with communities.

My entire personal and professional journey has been about being in support with communities. Relatives, community members, instructors, patients, and so many others sacrificed to make my journey possible. They continue to support me. For instance, if not for the exposure to research, graduate school tours, and other experiences that I received as a Hopps Scholar at Morehouse College, I may not have pursued PhD training. If not for the health disparities I observed in communities in North Carolina and Southeast Nigeria, I may not have pursued medical training. If not for the gaps in the health systems and lack of diversity and inclusivity in research that I have become aware of through my MD/PhD training, I may not have pursued policy training.

This particular presentation also provided me with a real-time opportunity to be supportive of my community. Toward the end of the presentation, I received a question from a Black student that reminded me of the importance of representation in the environmental health space.

Student: "I know for a lot of us who are looking to go into academic careers, sometimes it's hard finding institutions and spaces who are willing to hear our stories and sometimes you can get caught up doing research that maybe you're not necessarily interested in or maybe you're not personally affected by. But you seem to do a really good job of relating your experience to your research. Can you talk a little bit about how you do that?"

In response I said, "When you go back and reflect on things it's like 'oh this fits here and here,' but as you're walking through those steps it's not that straightforward ... I would say, don't get frustrated on the front end. The learning of basic research skills and building up your own acumen helps regardless. Once you build yourself up, there is room for you to pivot and directly pursue things that fit your story or your experiences."

After years of training, and reflection on how I can use it to best serve people most in need, I'm headed to the emergency room.

When most people think about emergency medicine, they think about ambulances, sirens, and gory trauma. However, the emergency room also serves as a safety net for many vulnerable populations (individuals without primary care providers, the uninsured, patients lost to follow-up). Although it is not ideal for an emergency room to serve this purpose, these patients still show up and need help.

Many of these same individuals experience the brunt of health system failures and health disparities worldwide. They bear a disproportionate burden of toxic exposures and other environmental injustices. They are disenfranchised by racism and other forms of systemic oppression in our society. Again, these people exist beyond their diseases and to be truly effective, their "treatments" must be holistic potentially requiring medicine, research, and policy solutions.

For this reason, emergency departments are an ideal place to continue learning, advocating, and serving for someone with my skill set.

On March 19, 2021, I was thrilled and grateful to learn I'd be a resident physician in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Emory.

I also opened my letter from nine years prior. I wondered if I would even recognize myself in it. I did.

"Dear Dr. Jamaji,

Sounds weird huh? No worries, you know what it took for you to get here. First, good job and hopefully too much hasn't changed. The purpose of this letter is to see if you've maintained the same humanity/compassion that you entered HMS with ... it's not all about you and I want to make sure that you never forget that ... by starting your life as a doctor, you have a duty to help everyone. Maintain your strong relationship with God as he has made everything possible. Also, never stop mentoring. Always remember the importance of fostering the future ... Very few make it and are given the opportunities that you have so NEVER FORGET ...

Live, Love, Laugh,

Jamaji August 30, 2012 1:27 PM TMEC Amphitheater"

As I transition to my new role, I take these words, my experiences, and all that I have learned with me.

There is so much work to be done to make the world more equitable. I remain energized and committed to doing my part and working with communities to help actualize this healthier and more equitable future.

Jamaji Nwanaji-Enwerem is an Emergency Medicine Resident Physician at Emory University School of Medicine and an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Environmental Health at Emory Rollins School of Public Health. You can contact him on twitter @JNwanajiEnwerem

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Putting people at the center of medicine, research, and policy - Environmental Health News

The cooperation will be based on the anti-COVID-19 drug R&D project by Westlake Pharma, which aims to develop broad-spectrum small molecule inhibitor drugs for key enzymes of coronavirus and has achieved positive results in the preliminary stage. According to the agreement, the two parties will combine the advantages of Insilico Medicine's AI-powered platforms for drug R&D, and further utilize interdisciplinary molecular design methods such as artificial intelligence, computer simulation and pharmacodynamic to design, synthesize and optimize novel selective small molecule inhibitors to accelerate the advancement of pre-clinical and clinical research on the anti-COVID-19 project.

The epidemic caused by the Novel Coronavirus is still ongoing, which has had a significant impact on human health and economic development and has brought severe challenges to global public health security. The close collaboration between Insilico Medicine and Westlake Pharma aims to strengthen multi-party communication and jointly achieve a scientific and technological breakthrough to bring efficient solutions to the R&D of innovative therapies for the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and other coronaviruses.

"AI technology can greatly shorten the duration for new drug R&D. Insilico Medicine has an efficient AI-powered platform for drug R&D, and Westlake Pharma is committed to focusing on major human diseases and developing First-in-Class drugs with independent intellectual property rights. We believe that the cooperation between us will be a strong combination of "AI + drug R&D", which will achieve the goal of "1 + 1 > 2", said Prof. Yu Hongtao, the founder of Westlake Pharma.

"Most of the original innovations in biomedicine came from scientific research institutions. Based on a Westlake University, jointly founded by Prof. Yu Hongtao (Dean of the School of Life Science, Westlake University), Prof. Hu Qi and Prof. Huang Jing, the Westlake Pharma is a biomedical enterprise focusing on original innovations. Insilico Medicine is honored to cooperate with Westlake Pharma. We would like to combine our unique AI platform with Westlake Pharma's characteristic technical methods in cell biology, structural biology and medicinal chemistry to jointly accelerate the development of innovative therapies, and provide solutions for unmet clinical needs, such as Novel coronavirus pneumonia", said Dr. Ren Feng, Chief Scientist Officer and Director of Drug R&D of Insilico Medicine.

About Insilico MedicineInsilico Medicine, an end-to-end artificial intelligence-driven drug discovery companydeveloping artificial intelligence platforms (www.insilico.com/platform/)that utilize deep generative models, reinforcement learning, transformer, and other modern machine learning techniques for novel target discovery and generation of novel molecular structures with desired properties. It is developing breakthrough solutions for the discovery and development of innovative drugs for cancer, fibrosis, infectious diseases, autoimmune diseases, and aging-related diseases. Since 2014, Insilico Medicine established strategic collaborations with over 30 pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and academic research groups in the United States, Europe, China, Japan and other countries and regions, and launched multiple internal R&D pipelines for novel, difficult and previously undruggable targets. It also established a collaboration with Syngenta to develop and apply AI to sustainable agriculture. Since its inception, the company raised over $300 million from the reputable financial, biotechnology, and information technology investors.

About Westlake PharmaRelying on Westlake University, established in September 2020, and headquartered in Yunqi Town (Xihu District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang), the Westlake Pharma, Inc. (Hangzhou) is a talent-led, technology-driven, and innovative-model biomedical enterprise. The founding team was led by Prof. Yu Hongtao, a world-renowned cell biologist and the Dean of the School of Life Sciences of Westlake University, and Prof. Hu Qi and Prof. Huang Jing of the School of Life Sciences of West Lake University. Based on the in-depth understanding of life sciences, combined with the application of interdisciplinary technical methods such as cell biology, structural biology, medicinal chemistry, artificial intelligence, etc., Westlake Pharma exerts strong scientific and technological innovation capabilities, deepens research and development on selected product pipelines, and maintains a leading position in the sub-divisions. With strong support from international CRO/CDMO companies, DEL to PROTAC technology platforms as well as AI data platforms, the enterprise is committed to developing First-in-Class original new drugs with independent intellectual property rights for major human diseases.

Contact: [emailprotected]

SOURCE Insilico Medicine

insilicomedicine.com

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Insilico Medicine and Westlake Pharma Announce Cooperation Relationship on Accelerating the Innovative Drugs R&D for Novel Coronavirus - PRNewswire

Thats welcome news to public health experts. Several argued that Pfizers two-shot messenger RNA vaccine could have received final approval as early as May before the highly contagious Delta variant became the dominant strain in the United States removing a potential barrier for Americans who say they are wary about receiving a vaccine that has only received emergency use clearance.

I cant believe its taken this long, said Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious diseases doctor at the University of California, San Francisco.

Pfizer was the first drug company to receive an emergency use authorization for a coronavirus vaccine from the FDA, on Dec. 11. The New York pharmaceutical giant then filed an application for full approval on May 7.

Two other drug makers, Cambridge-based Moderna and New Brunswick, N.J.-based Johnson & Johnson, followed Pfizer in receiving emergency use authorizations. Moderna filed for final approval of its vaccine on June 1 but is still submitting data. Johnson & Johnson has not yet applied.

Until the COVID-19 pandemic, the FDA had never cleared a new vaccine for emergency use.

Before granting full approval, however, the FDA will have to review much more clinical trial data than the agency did for emergency authorization. Regulators are also expected to consider real-world data on the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine, and will likely conduct inspections of manufacturing plants to ensure stringent quality controls are in place.

Dr. Walter A. Orenstein, a professor of medicine at Emory University and associate director of the Emory Vaccine Center, said approval of COVID-19 vaccines wont sway people who believe in conspiracy theories and dont trust the government, but it will persuade a significant number of hesitant Americans to get vaccinated.

Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, was more skeptical. Hotez has worked on vaccines for neglected tropical diseases afflicting the worlds poorest people and spent years debunking false claims, including that vaccines cause autism. (He wrote a 2018 book called Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachels Autism: My Journey as a Vaccine Scientist, Pediatrician, and Autism Dad.)

Although he welcomes full approval of COVID-19 vaccines, he said a right-wing disinformation empire will roll out a dozen outlandish theories for why people shouldnt get vaccinated, including unfounded allegations that the substances contains microchips, modify a persons DNA, and are instruments of government control.

Its like playing a game of whack-a-mole, Hotez said. Approving the vaccines is the right thing to do, but as an approach to increasing vaccination rates, I dont see it as a game changer.

More than 165 million Americans have been fully vaccinated with one of the three vaccines granted emergency use authorization, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But those authorizations are conditional and were given as part of an accelerated and streamlined approval process in a public health emergency. Thats become a talking point for many vaccine opponents who argue that the shots are experimental and potentially unsafe.

A recent poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation, which has been tracking public sentiment during the pandemic, found that three of every 10 unvaccinated people said that they would be more likely to get a shot with a fully approved vaccine. Importantly, of the subset of unvaccinated who described themselves as in wait and see mode, 49 percent told Kaiser that full FDA approval would make it more likely they would finally get an inoculation.

Gandhi, of UCSF, said that although some Americans mistakenly believe the vaccines already have FDA approval, others are aware that they have only been cleared for emergency use. They know that they have to sign a consent form to get a shot, which, she said, would not be the case once the vaccines are fully approved.

That can be a deterrent, she said. Psychologically, it makes it feel like its experimental.

Full approval would do more than remove that impediment, she added. It would give governments and businesses greater legal authority to insist that people be vaccinated if they want to return to work in person or participate in other activities, including eating in restaurants or visiting health clubs.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Tuesday that his city will become the first in the country to require proof of at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine for a variety of activities, to put pressure on people to get vaccinated.

Dr. Eric Topol, a professor of molecular medicine at the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, expects to see more mandates across the country, especially after drug regulators give vaccines full approval.

Topol, who has served on multiple FDA advisory committees, found it unfathomable how slowly the agency has moved on licensing vaccines compared with the FDAs approval in June of Biogens drug for Alzheimers, a contrast he explored in a recent essay published in The Times.

The FDA, he noted, approved the Cambridge biotechs Alzheimers medication, Aduhelm, through an accelerated process despite limited evidence that it worked in two late-stage trials that enrolled about 3,200 volunteers. In contrast, more than 347 million doses of the three coronavirus vaccines have been administered in the United States, and they have proven overwhelmingly safe and effective. Yet the FDA has yet to act on Pfizers filing for approval.

Theres no bigger health crisis in America than this, obviously, he said. Meanwhile, [regulators] are futzing around with the Alzheimers drug.

Jonathan Saltzman can be reached at jonathan.saltzman@globe.com.

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Health experts welcome full approval of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in coming weeks - The Boston Globe

Newswise BOSTON Linked to serious health problems including cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease, obesity affects more than a third of adults in the United States. Presently, there are few safe and effective nonsurgical therapeutic interventions available to patients with obesity.

Now, a multi-disciplinary team of researchers has demonstrated that a metabolic regulatory molecule called Them1 prevents fat burning in cells by blocking access to their fuel source. Led by microscopy experts at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and metabolism experts at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian, the study may contribute to the development of a new type of obesity treatment. The teams findings were published June 9 in Nature Communications.

To help explain how the protein Them1 turns off heat production, BIDMCs cell biology and microscopy expert, Susan Hagen, PhD, associate vice-chair for research in the Department of Surgery at BIDMC, and Yue Li, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher in her laboratory, used light and electron microscopy to observe Them1 in action in mouse brown fat cells grown in the laboratory.

Them1 is an interesting molecule, said Hagen. If you inhibit or block its expression, metabolism increases and that reduces body weight.

The experiments showed that when the cells are stimulated to burn fat, a chemical modification causes Them1 molecules to spread out, or diffuse, throughout the cell. This frees the cellular powerhouses called mitochondria to efficiently turn the cells fat stores into energy. But when the stimulation stops, Them1 molecules quickly reorganize into a structure called a biomolecular condensate. Situated between the mitochondria and the fats they use as fuel, the condensed Them1 molecules limit energy production.

It turned out to be so incredibly interesting, said Hagen, who is also director of Microscopy and Histology Core Facilities at BIDMC and associate professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School. We asked other microscopy experts whether they had ever seen anything like the unusual images we found in resting cells. Using very sophisticated electron microscopy techniques, we were able to show for the first time, as far as we know what the bimolecular condensate looks like in electron microscopy.

The study explains a new mechanism that regulates metabolism, said David Cohen, chief of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center and the Vincent Astor Distinguished Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine. Them1 hacks the energy pipeline and cuts off the fuel supply to the energy-burning mitochondria. Humans also have brown fat and produce more Them1 in cold conditions, so the findings may have exciting implications for the treatment of obesity.

Cohen and Hagen, both members of the Harvard Digestive Diseases Center, have been collaborators since 1983. The current study supported in part by a five-year, multi-PI grant from the National Institutes of Health also included collaborators with expertise in structural biology from Emory University.

This was the most fun I have ever had in science in my life, Hagen added. Including multiple primary investigators with different expertise gives you the power of doing things that you could never do on your own.

Co-authors included Yue Li, Samaksh Goyal, Lay-Hong Ang, and Mahnoor Baqai of BIDMC; Norihiro Imai, Hayley T. Nichols, Tibor I. Krisko of Weill Cornell; Blaine R. Roberts, Matthew C. Tillman, Anne M. Roberts, and Eric A. Ortlund of Emory University.

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (R01 DK 103046, R01 DK0488730 and NIHT32DK007533), the Harvard Digestive Disease Center (P30 DK034854) and the National Institutes of Health shared-instrumentation grant program for the High Pressure Freezer (S10 OD019988-01), the Pinnacle Research Award from the AAASLD Foundation, Weill Cornell Department of Medicine Pre-Career Award, and an American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellowship, and a Research Science Institute/Center for Excellence in Education Summer Research Fellowship.

The authors declare no competing interests.

About Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is a patient care, teaching, and research affiliate of Harvard Medical School and consistently ranks as a national leader among independent hospitals in National Institutes of Health funding. BIDMC is the official hospital of the Boston Red Sox. For more information, visitwww.bidmc.org.

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is a part of Beth Israel Lahey Health, a health care system that brings together academic medical centers and teaching hospitals, community and specialty hospitals, more than 4,000 physicians and 35,000 employees in a shared mission to expand access to great care and advance the science and practice of medicine through groundbreaking research and education.

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Researchers Find Molecular Switch That Regulates Fat Burning in Mice - Newswise

ROCKVILLE, Md., Aug. 04, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- OpGen, Inc. (Nasdaq: OPGN, OpGen or the Company), a precision medicine company harnessing the power of molecular diagnostics and informatics to help combat infectious disease, today announced that it has determined to withdraw from stockholder consideration Proposal 2 set forth in its Definitive Proxy Statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 26, 2021, relating to an increase in the number of shares of capital stock authorized for issuance under the Companys Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation. In light of the withdrawal of such proposal, the Company has determined to cancel the reconvening of the adjourned portion of its Annual Meeting of Stockholders for the consideration of Proposal 2, which was previously adjourned solely with respect to Proposal 2 to 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time on August 5, 2021. All other proposals in the Companys Definitive Proxy Statement were previously submitted to a vote of stockholders at the Annual Meeting on June 9, 2021, at which all such proposals were approved. The Company plans to continue evaluating alternatives for financing the future development and growth of the Company.

About OpGen, Inc.

OpGen, Inc. (Rockville, MD, USA) is a precision medicine company harnessing the power of molecular diagnostics and bioinformatics to help combat infectious disease. Along with subsidiaries, Curetis GmbH and Ares Genetics GmbH, we are developing and commercializing molecular microbiology solutions helping to guide clinicians with more rapid and actionable information about life threatening infections to improve patient outcomes, and decrease the spread of infections caused by multidrug-resistant microorganisms, or MDROs. OpGens product portfolio includes Unyvero, Acuitas AMR Gene Panel and Acuitas Lighthouse, and the ARES Technology Platform including ARESdb, using NGS technology and AI-powered bioinformatics solutions for antibiotic response prediction.

For more information, please visit http://www.opgen.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release includes statements regarding OpGens Annual Meeting. These statements and other statements regarding OpGens Unyvero products, their commercialization and launch, future plans and goals constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and are intended to qualify for the safe harbor from liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that are often difficult to predict, are beyond our control, and which may cause results to differ materially from expectations. Factors that could cause our results to differ materially from those described include, but are not limited to, our ability to successfully, timely and cost-effectively develop, seek and obtain regulatory clearance for and commercialize our product and services offerings, the rate of adoption of our products and services by hospitals and other healthcare providers, the fact that we may not effectively use proceeds from recent financings, the realization of expected benefits of our business combination transaction with Curetis GmbH, the success of our commercialization efforts, the impact of COVID-19 on the Companys operations, financial results, and commercialization efforts as well as on capital markets and general economic conditions, the effect on our business of existing and new regulatory requirements, and other economic and competitive factors. For a discussion of the most significant risks and uncertainties associated with OpGen's business, please review our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which are based on our expectations as of the date of this press release and speak only as of the date of this press release. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

OpGen:Oliver SchachtPresident and CEOInvestorRelations@opgen.com

OpGen Press Contact:Matthew BretziusFischTank Marketing and PR matt@fischtankpr.com

OpGen Investor Contact:Max ColbertEdison Groupmcolbert@edisongroup.com

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OpGen Announces the Cancellation of Adjourned Portion of Annual Meeting - GlobeNewswire

August 3, 2021

Amsterdam, the Netherlands Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA), a global leader in health technology, today announced that New York Langone Healths Department of Pathology will leverage Philips Genomics Workspace (formerly part of IntelliSpace Precision Medicine Platform) to integrate into their EMR (electronic medical record) environment. This will enable the largest cancer sequencing test in the industry, helping to guide more confident treatment decisions and care pathways for patients who have received a cancer diagnosis.

Genetic test for all cancers designed by NYU Langones molecular pathologistsCleared by the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) earlier this month under its 510(k) designation for clinical lab use, the NYU Langone Genome PACT (Profiling of Actionable Cancer Targets) test detects changes in the DNA code of 607 genes linked by past studies to the development of multiple types of cancer. The number of genes cancer types assayed is the largest among academic genomic sequencing tests of its kind.

PACT uses next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology, which can read the sequence of the molecular letters making up DNA code within hundreds of genes simultaneously, and covers the most genes of any FDA-cleared NGS test to-date. The technology matches the genetics of each patients tumor cells with a growing number of approved therapies targeted to address specific sets of cancer-causing DNA changes.

The work currently underway at NYU Langone is ground-breaking in the area of genomic sequencing and we are honored to be teaming on the development efforts, including building an interface between the new test and NYU Langone Healths electronic medical records system, said Louis Culot, General Manager of Oncology Informatics at Philips. Philips Genomics Workspace, hosted on cloud-based Philips HealthSuite, will help facilitate the integration into the EMR so tests can be seamlessly ordered, reviewed, and shared by a patients care team.

PACT reaffirms the goal behind its design, which was to provide our patients with the best understanding of the genetic changes driving their cancers, said PACT designer Matija Snuderl, MD, director of Molecular Pathology and Diagnostics in the Department of Pathology at NYU Langone Health. Knowing the genetics of their tumor can help to determine which therapies will work for a given patient and their eligibility for specific clinical trials. Beyond the genetic changes that are important to the field now, we also wanted PACT to detect the changes anticipated to be important in diagnosis and treatment of cancer over the next five to ten years.

Philips end-to-end oncology solutions driving a clear path to precision cancer careAccording to the National Cancer Institute, patients today usually receive the same treatment as others who have same type and stage of cancer, despite growing evidence that they may respond differently [1]. Philips approach to precision medicine is to arm care teams with expert clinical guidance and a holistic view of the patients genotypic (the set of genes in the DNA) and phenotypic (observable characteristics influenced by environmental and lifestyle factors) information in order to make decisions efficiently, collaboratively and accurately. Recognizing the growing need for technological advancement in oncology care from early detection to diagnosis to treatment to survivorship Philips connects areas such as pathology, genomics, molecular/multi-disciplinary tumor boards, therapy decision making, molecular and imaging phenotyping, so clinicians can have easy access to the insights they need to provide high-quality personalized care.

With Philips Genomics Workspace, oncologists can map a patients uniquecharacteristics to a therapy that is best suited for them and provide evidence on why that therapy is preferable. Philips genomics solution combines individual institution genomic knowledge bases and general industry knowledge bases, to help molecular pathologists interpret genomic data and to provide clinicians with ways to enable improved patient care. Visit Philips Precision Medicine to learn more.

[1] https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/types/biomarker-testing-cancer-treatment.

For further information, please contact:

Kathy OReillyPhilips Global Press OfficeTel.: + 1 978-221-8919E-mail: kathy.oreilly@philips.comTwitter: @kathyoreilly

Greg WilliamsResearch Communications DirectorNYU Grossman School of MedicineTel: +1 212-404-3500E-mail: Gregory.williams@nyulangone.org

About Royal Philips

Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) is a leading health technology company focused on improving people's health and well-being, and enabling better outcomes across the health continuum from healthy living and prevention, to diagnosis, treatment and home care. Philips leverages advanced technology and deep clinical and consumer insights to deliver integrated solutions. Headquartered in the Netherlands, the company is a leader in diagnostic imaging, image-guided therapy, patient monitoring and health informatics, as well as in consumer health and home care. Philips generated 2020 sales of EUR 17.3 billion and employs approximately 77,000 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries. News about Philips can be found at http://www.philips.com/newscenter.

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Philips Genomics Workspace enables integration of the largest-scale FDA-cleared cancer genetic test at NYU - GlobeNewswire

The finest Fluoroscopy & C Arms Marketreport gives better ideas and solutions in terms of product trends, marketing strategy, future products, new geographical markets, future events, sales strategies, customer actions or behaviors. With the precise and high-tech information about industry, businesses can know about the types of consumers, consumers demands and preferences, their perspectives about the product, their buying intentions, their response to particular product, and their varying tastes about the specific product already existing in the market through an influential Fluoroscopy & C Arms Marketreport. Here, market overview is given in terms of drivers, restraints, opportunities and challenges where each of this parameter is studied scrupulously.

The world class Fluoroscopy & C Arms Market report is generated by performing high level market research analysis of key marketplace segments to identify opportunities, challenges, drivers, and market structures for clients. This market survey report brings into focus plentiful of factors such as the general market conditions, trends, inclinations, key players, opportunities, and geographical analysis which all aids to take the business towards the growth and success. In this report, several aspects about the market research and analysis for the industry have been underlined. Fluoroscopy & C Arms Market report has been designed by keeping in mind the customer requirements which assist them in increasing their return on investment (ROI).

Global fluoroscopy and C Arms marketis expected to reach at a CAGR of 4.3% in the forecast period of 2018 to 2025.

This report finally explains in deep the terminologies like the market definition, classifications, applications, and market trends.

The digital fluoroscopy or radiographic imaging systems are used for imaging and produce visible electronic images of patients for treatment.

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Major Players:Global Fluoroscopy & C Arms Market

Some of the prominent participants operating in this market are GE Healthcare, Koninklijke Philips N.V., Siemens AG, Canon Medical Systems Corporation, Shimadzu Corporation, Carestream Health, EcoRay, Eurocolumbus s.r.l., GEMSS Co., Ltd., Hitachi, Ltd., Hologic Inc., INTERMEDICAL S.r.l., ITALYRAY, PAUSCH Medical GmbH, Varex Imaging Corporation, Whale Imaging, and Ziehm Imaging GmbH among others.

Study Highlights

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Segmentation:

By Fluoroscopy Type (Conventional Fluoroscopy Systems, Remote-Controlled Fluoroscopy Systems), C Arm Type (Fixed C-Arms, Mobile C-Arms), C Arm Technology (Flat Panel, Image Intensifiers), Application (Diagnostic Applications, Surgical Application, Discography), End User (Hospitals, Diagnostic Centers, Specialty Clinics), Geography (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa) Industry Trends and Forecast to 2026

GE Healthcare:

GE Healthcare founded in 1918, headquarters in New York, U.S., and focuses towards the manufacturing and developer of medical imaging, digital solutions, patient monitoring and diagnostics, drug discovery, biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies and performance improvement solutions.

The company has its presence in U.S, Europe, Asia, Americas, Middle East and Africa.

Koninklijke Philips N.V.:

Koninklijke Philips N.V., founded in 1891 and based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The company focuses on improving peoples health and enabling better outcomes across the health continuum from healthy living and prevention to diagnosis, treatment and home care.

The company has its presence in Netherland, United states, China, Germany, Japan, France, India and Others.

Siemens AG:

Siemens AG, founded in 1896 and based in Munich, Germany. The company provides manufacturing, distributing and services of medical devices and pharma Services. Company is engaged in providing precision medicines, transforming care delivery, innovative technology in area of diagnostics, molecular medicine and many others. The company has its presence in Europe, C.I.S., Africa, Middle East, Americas , Asia, Australia.

Market Developments:

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Fluoroscopy & C Arms Market Expected to Rise at A High CAGR, Driving Robust Sales and Revenue till 2026 The Manomet Current - The Manomet Current

Summary

When hungry worms encounter bad-tasting chemicals, they stop eating and spit. To make this switch possible, a muscle in their mouths does two different things simultaneously, splitting up its activity in a way that scientists have never seen before.

Muscle cells can multitask.

In tiny, transparent worms, one type of muscle cell can partition itself so that two areas act independently, a new study reveals. One cell region contracts while a second region undergoes rhythmic contractions and relaxations.

Scientists have generally thought that each muscle cell contractsin a uniformmotion. The collective action of constellations of muscle cells then produces the movements a creature needs to flee a predator, consume a meal, or type an email.

But Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator H. Robert Horvitz and colleagues discovered a division of labor within one type of worm muscle cell that allows the animal to protect itself from potentially dangerous chemicals. This multitasking cell lets the worms quickly spit out food they have swallowed, study coauthor Steven Sando, Horvitz, and their colleagues report in the journal eLife on July 2, 2021; the full version of their paper was published on August 3.

This is the first study to show that two compartments within a muscle cell can contract independently, seemingly oblivious to each other, says Horvitz, a molecular geneticist and neurobiologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Steves discovery changes the way we think about the control of behavior, because it suggests that individual muscle cells can be partitioned into smaller functional units, adds Horvitz, who shared the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for identifying genes that control organ development and programmed cell death.

The roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans gobbles up microbes floating in the water using its tube-like mouth. Muscle cells contract to open a valve at the front of the mouth and to generate suction that pulls in water and microbes. The worms are like little vacuum cleaners for bacteria, Sando says. When the muscle cells relax, the valve closes, causing food to remain trapped in the worms mouth.

Previously, researchers in the lab had observed that when a worm senses noxious chemicals, it stops eating and spits out bubbles and food. Watching through a microscope as these worms spit, Sando noticed that they were holding the front part of their mouths, where the valve is located, open.

Using a laser, he disabled muscle cells lining the mouth and concluded that a single type of cell, called pm3, was responsible for letting the worms spit. By examining the molecular signaling within pm3, Sando showed that the front part of the cell activated independently from the rest.

Sandos results revealed that when a worm spits, the pm3 muscles perform two actions at once. At the front of pm3, a small region contracts to hold the valve open, and it stays contracted while the remaining 90 percent of the cell contracts and relaxes rhythmically to suck in water and then eject it until the worm has cleansed its palate.

In other experiments, Sando traced the key control of this activity to a single neuron. Based on information it receives from taste-sensing cells, this neuron controls whether the worm eats, spits, or performs some variation on these behaviors.

While no one has seen this type of muscle cell multitasking before, scientists already knew of a similar strategy that takes place in the worms gut, and in ours. As part of digestion, wave-like contractions ripple through cells to push food forward. What Sandos team saw was different, however: During spitting, one specific region of pm3 underwent sustained contraction, which didnt propagate to adjacent regions of pm3.

This division of labor may be a strategy that allows the worms to do more with the relatively few cells they possess, says Aravithan Samuel, a biophysicist at Harvard University who was not involved in the study. Like a human, C. elegans is a multicellular organism; however, its body is much simpler, possessing only 959 cells. Even with these limited components, the worm is capable of complex behaviors. Small creatures can do amazing things, he says.

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Citation

Steven R. Sando et al., An hourglass circuit motif transforms a motor program via subcellularly localized muscle calcium signaling and contraction. eLife. Published online July 2, 2021. doi: 10.7554/eLife.59341

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Worm Spitting Powered by Muscle Cells That Perform Two Actions at Once - Howard Hughes Medical Institute

SAN FRANCISCO and BERLIN, Aug. 02, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- T-knife Therapeutics, Inc., a next-generation T-cell receptor company developing a pipeline of innovative therapeutics for solid tumor patients, today announced the successful completion of a $110 million Series B financing. The financing was led by Fidelity Management & Research Company, LLC., with participation from other new investors including, LSP, Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), Casdin Capital, Sixty Degree Capital, and CaaS Capital, along with existing investors RA Capital Management, Versant Ventures and founding investor Andera Partners. The company plans to use proceeds from the financing to expand its scientific team, increase manufacturing capacity and advance its pipeline of T-cell receptor (TCR) engineered T cell therapies (TCR-T).

Over the past year we have made substantial progress toward our goal of building a leading TCR-T company focused on delivering clinically meaningful benefits for patients with solid tumors, stated Thomas M. Soloway, Chief Executive Officer of T-knife. We are excited to have the support of this group of dedicated life sciences investors to help us fulfill our mission, and we welcome Dr. Karin Kleinhans of LSP to our board of directors.

T-knife has an elegant and differentiated approach to identifying potent, cancer-specific TCRs with naturally optimized affinity and specificity profiles, creating a next-generation platform for this promising therapeutic field, said Alex Mayweg, Chairman of T-knife and Managing Director at Versant Ventures. We are pleased to be progressing TK-8001 toward the clinic and to advance our broader portfolio of product candidates.

T-knife is leveraging its proprietary HuTCR transgenic mouse platform to discover and develop a portfolio of TCR-T programs to treat patients with solid tumors. T-knifes lead program, TK-8001, is a novel TCR-T product candidate targeting MAGE-A1 positive cancers. T-knife plans to begin enrolling patients in the TK-8001 IMAG1NE Phase 1/2 clinical study in the fourth quarter of 2021 and is planning to submit INDs/CTAs for additional product candidates in 2022.

"The field of TCR-T holds significant promise to change the treatment paradigm for many cancer patients, said Karin Kleinhans, PhD, Partner at LSP who joined T-Knifes board in connection with the Series B financing. We are highly encouraged by the progress being made at T-knife to advance its important next-generation therapies.

Olivier Litzka, Partner at Andera Partners, commented, As a founding investor, it is gratifying to witness the continued success at T-knife. The completion of the Series B financing is an important milestone that will enable us to execute on our vision of building a leading transatlantic immuno-oncology company.

About the HuTCR platformT cells play a key role in the immune response by directly recognizing and eliminating infected, foreign or altered cells, such as cancer cells. To do this, they use their T-cell receptors (TCRs) to scan the surface of other cells for foreign antigens presented on Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) complexes. Cancer cells can be recognized by mutated or viral antigens expressed only in the tumor, or self-antigens normally expressed during embryonic development and in non-somatic adult tissues. Genetic engineering of T cells with TCRs recognizing antigens aberrantly or over-expressed in cancers can redirect these T cells to the tumor, potentially offering curative responses to cancer patients.

The ability to identify potent cancer-specific TCRs has been limiting for the field of TCR-T. In the case of self-antigens, T cells bearing those TCRs are eliminated during T cell development to avoid recognition and attack of healthy tissues. For non-self tumor antigens, such as those derived from viral sequences or mutations, the very low T cell frequency in the blood has limited TCR discovery efforts.

To overcome these challenges, T-knife has developed transgenic mice (HuTCR mice) carrying the human TCR gene loci and expressing multiple human HLAs. Immunizing HuTCR mice with human tumor antigens, for which mice are not tolerant, allows for the identification of both CD4+ and CD8+ T cells with TCRs that have optimized affinity / specificity profiles capable of mediating significant anti-tumor activity. The TCRs from HuTCR mice are of higher affinity for tumor self-antigens than TCRs isolated from human donors and are naturally optimized to maintain a high specificity profile, making HuTCR mice a powerful high-throughput platform for rapidly generating TCRs with best-in-class potential.

About T-knife TherapeuticsT-knife is a next-generation T-cell receptor (TCR) company developing a pipeline of therapeutics for solid tumor patients. The company leverages its proprietary humanized T-cell receptor (HuTCR) mouse platform to produce fully human TCRs, naturally selected in vivo for optimal affinity and specificity.

T-knife is developing a pipeline of potential first/best-in-class TCR therapeutics against targets with high unmet medical need, including cancer testis antigens, viral antigens and commonly shared neoantigens. T-knife was founded by leading T-cell and immunology experts using technology developed at the Max Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine together with Charit University Hospital in Berlin. For additional information, please visit the companys website at http://www.t-knife.com.

Contact T-knife Therapeutics, Inc.Camille Landis Chief Business Officer / Chief Financial Officerinfo@t-knife.com

Sylvia WheelerWheelhouse Communicationsswheeler@wheelhouselsa.com

Dr. Ludger Wess / Ines-Regina Buthakampioninfo@akampion.com

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T-knife Therapeutics Announces $110 Million Series B Financing to Advance Pipeline of T-cell Receptor - GlobeNewswire

Some sections of our DNA are genes, which are instructions for building proteins, while other sections called enhancers regulate which genes are switched on or off, when, and in which tissue. New research from the University of Copenhagen and the Karolinska Institutet provides evidence of a functional link between epigenetic rewiring of enhancers to control their activity after exercise training and the modulation of disease risk in humans.

Exercise training rewires the enhancers in regions of our DNA that are known to be associated with the risk to develop disease. Image credit: Sasin Tipchai.

Regular physical activity decreases the risk of multiple common disorders such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, and neurological conditions, along with the overall risk of mortality, said Professor Romain Barrs from the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research at the University of Copenhagen and colleagues.

The beneficial effects of exercise training on human health are partially driven by adaptations of the skeletal muscle tissue.

Exercise-induced adaptations include coordinated changes in the expression of genes controlling substrate usage and metabolic efficiency in skeletal muscle.

In addition to the adaptations that occur within skeletal muscle cells, exercise exerts systemic effects on whole-body homeostasis by triggering the release of soluble factors from the muscle that signal to distal tissues, such as brain, liver, and adipose tissue.

The mechanisms by which training-induced adaptations of skeletal muscle orchestrate positive effects at the whole-body level are poorly understood.

We hypothesized that endurance exercise training remodels the activity of gene enhancers in skeletal muscle and that this remodeling contributes to the beneficial effects of exercise on human health.

For the study, the researchers recruited eight healthy Caucasian men (mean age 23 years) and put them through a six-week endurance exercise program.

They collected a biopsy of their thigh muscle before and after the exercise intervention and examined if changes in the epigenetic signature of their DNA occurred after training.

They discovered that after completing the endurance training program, the structure of many enhancers in the skeletal muscle of the young men had been altered.

By connecting the enhancers to genetic databases, the scientists found that many of the regulated enhancers have already been identified as hotspots of genetic variation between individuals.

Our findings provide a mechanism for the known beneficial effects of exercise, Professor Barrs said.

By connecting each enhancer with a gene, we further provide a list of direct targets that could mediate this effect.

The authors speculate that the beneficial effects of exercise on organs distant from muscle, like the brain, may largely be mediated by regulating the secretion of muscle factors.

In particular, they found that exercise remodels enhancer activity in skeletal muscle that are linked to cognitive abilities, which opens for the identification of exercise training-induced secreted muscle factors targeting the brain.

Our data provides evidence of a functional link between epigenetic rewiring of enhancers to control their activity after exercise training and the modulation of disease risk in humans, said Dr. Kristine Williams, also from the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research at the University of Copenhagen.

The findings are published in the journal Molecular Metabolism.

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Kristine Williams et al. Epigenetic rewiring of skeletal muscle enhancers after exercise training supports a role in the whole-body function and human health. Molecular Metabolism, published online July 10, 2021; doi: 10.1016/j.molmet.2021.101290

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Study: Physical Exercise Improves Health of Brain and Other Organs through Epigenetic Changes | Medicine, Physiology - Sci-News.com