Category Archives: Tennessee Stem Cells

Depending on whats being carried and how much they can pay, the patient or patients involved will choose either a hand-carry service, a commercial carrier such as DHL or FedEx, or something in between, such as the combination of commercial flights and local couriers that Loewen relied on during the pandemic. The cost of transporting my eggs with FlyVet Europa was 1,300 euros, or about $1,400 at the time. That includes the price of two one-way tickets for Paolo and the egg suitcase, and a few incidental expenses. (When I told Monaco how many eggs were traveling, he quipped, Uno squadro di calcio!a soccer team.)

CryoStork, the division of Cryoport devoted to the fertility sector, offers all three tiers of servicecommercial carriers for something that can be easily replaced (sperm, in other words), a middle-tier service using local couriers and air freight, and a door-to-door hand-carry servicefor prices ranging from a few hundred dollars to as much as $7,000 or $8,000 for an international hand-carry trip.

Ultimately, the pandemic boosted business for Loewen. Today, he and a team of eight colleagues, half employees and half working on a per-shipment basis, handle around 30 to 40 IVF-related shipments each month. Similarly, when the war in Ukraine began, Loewen and other colleagues received frantic requests from clients desperate to move their biomaterials out of the capital, Kiev, where most of the countrys IVF clinics and surrogacy agencies are based, and business shifted to nearby Georgia. But by September, Loewen was planning to once again deliver biomaterials to Ukraine. People want to have babiesconflict or not, he says.

What does it take to be a tissue courier, and how does one get into the field? Everyone I spoke to said that to succeed, you must love traveling, have a calm personality (in case, as happened to Loewen, youre ever surrounded by a knot of armed Belarusian soldiers at the airport and accused of trafficking human organs), and be adept at problem-solving.

Loewen looks for people with experience in the travel sector, who can navigate new cities and wont be rattled by a flight cancellation or a grumpy customs official. Mark Sawicki of Cryoport has several former pilots now working as couriers; their security clearances enable them to move through airports more easily than civilians.

Nicole Dorman, 43, has always loved children; she jokes that her current job as a courier is babysitting. She has three kids, aged 14 to 22, and has been a teachers aide and a school crossing guard, following four years in the US Army. When shes home for a week or two at a time with her kids in between gigs, she also makes deliveries for DoorDash in Clarksville, Tennessee.

WENN RIGHTS LTD / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

Dorman had begun by transporting stem cells for a Frankfurt-based courier service. When she was looking for work in November of 2020, she emailed a half-dozen IVF courier companies and heard back from Loewen within 15 minutes. She has been working for him ever since, and also does US shipments for the Ukrainian company ARK Cryo, as well as EmbryoPort, a UK-based firm.

Dorman is on the road roughly 70% of each month; when we spoke in mid-May, she was preparing for a weeklong trip beginning with a pickup in Indianapolis, a drop-off in Bratislava, a train ride from there to Prague for another pickup, and then a flight to Greece. Like all couriers whove been working for any length of time, she has frequent flier status. In the 18 months since she started, she has transported more than 90 shipments. Now I can pretty much do it in my sleep, she says.

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I took an international trip with my frozen eggs to learn about the fertility industry - MIT Technology Review

GM has officially begun Ultium EV battery production in the US as part of its $2.3 billion joint venture with LG Energy Solution. The JVs 2.8-million square foot facility in Ohio is now assembling battery packs for the GMC Hummer EV, but remains hush on what other EVs in the GM family will receive them. Meanwhile, the American automaker continues to work through disputes as its battery factory employees look to unionize.

GM announced news of its own battery manufacturing facility in the US alongside LG, all the way back in late 2019, beginning in Ohio near its former facility it sold to Lordstown Motors. Lordstown subsequently sold the plant to Foxconn, but thats a whole other story.

The Ohio battery plant joined Tennessee as one of two planned US facilities, until this past January when GM announced a third plant coming to Lansing, Michigan as part of a $2.6 billion joint venture with LG Energy Solution.

Together with LG, GM launched Ultium Cells, LLC, which recently received a conditional loan of $2.5 billion from the US Department of Energy to help manufacture batteries for the 1 million EVs GM intends to produce by 2025.

With a long-term supply of lithium lined up, GM and LG are poised to bring some serious EV battery production to US soil, which could prove fruitful to consumers buying GM EVs that qualify for federal tax credits under revised terms in the recently signed Inflation Reduction Act.

The GM vehicle that will receive the first Ultium batteries from the recently opened Ohio plant is the GMC Hummer EV, which definitely does not qualify for federal tax credits. However, there are plenty of upcoming EVs from GM brands that could benefit, we just need the automaker to confirm what vehicles will receive the batteries.

According the Detroit Free Press, the Ultium Cell LLC plant in Warren, Ohio is up and running, currently employing 800 individuals. The joint venture says it intends to employ 1,300 people by next year when Ultium battery production reaches full capacity.

A spokesperson for Ultium would not reveal when the Ohio facility began operations, citing such information remains competitive in nature, nor would they divulge which GM EVs will be receiving Ultium battery packs beyond the Hummer EV.

The electric Hummer and new Cadillac Lyriq are the only two Ultium EVs currently in production, but will soon be joined by plenty more, including all-electric version of Chevy Silverado, Blazer, and Equinox.

The Free Press also points out that discussions between GM/Ultium and the United Auto Workers (UAW) continue, as the latter works to organize a portion of the workforce in Ohio to unionize a right the American automaker says it supports.

The UAW has shared a slightly different sentiment while the dispute appears to stem from the unions preference to use a card check process to organize. This is usually a much quicker process than ballot elections, since a majority number of Ultium employees in a bargaining unit can sign authorization cards stating they wish to be represented by the union and are automatically repped.

According to a memo from June, Ultium has rejected UAWs request for the card check process. This week, UAW President Ray Curry shared the latest:

We have been in ongoing conversations with General Motors and Ultium, as we are with other employers building products in the sectors that we represent. The UAW believes that employers should respect the majority will of workers and that is why we demand card check and neutrality in organizing campaigns.

When Ultium was asked for the latest update, a spokesperson for joint venture said it respects employees rights determine their representation status.

Looking ahead, GMs $2.3 billion plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee is expected to be completed by the end of 2023, followed by the Lansing, Michigan facility by late 2024. GM and LG have already shared considerations for a fourth US battery facility in New Carlisle, Indiana, estimated to cost another $2.4 billion.

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GM begins US Ultium battery production for Hummer EV in Ohio amidst union pushback - Electrek.co

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (Sept. 1, 2022) The smell of rain or the scent of a fresh pie baking are luxuries that not all people are able to experience.

The loss of the sense of smell has drawn attention in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, this problem can occur as a result of injury, certain disorders or aging, affecting the quality of life for millions of people.

A pair of researchers at East Tennessee State Universitys Quillen College of Medicine have received a grant totaling more than $1.8 million over the next five years to study how the sense of smell is maintained and how it is repaired after injury.

Dr. Cuihong Jia and Dr. Diego Javier Rodriguez-Gil were awarded the R01 grant from the National Institute of Deafness and Communication Disorders, part of the National Institutes of Health. Their goal is to develop new treatment drugs that can help individuals regain their sense of smell.

Olfactory deficits often do not recover in a substantial number of patients after several disorders, including chronic sinus inflammation, head trauma and viral infection of the nose, including SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19, said Jia, assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences. Unfortunately, no treatment is available. Further, the sense of smell declines in 50-75% of people age 65 to 80.

The researchers hope their research will provide some relief to patients who experience a decline or lost sense of smell.

Loss of the sense of smell compromises human health and life quality and is a major safety issue, such as detecting gas leaking and spoiled food, said Rodriguez-Gil, associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences. The restoration of smell function following injury or in the elderly is a major challenge that is inadequately addressed.

Jia and Rodriguez-Gils research will explore how the regenerative capacity of the olfactory stem cells, tissue that lines the nasal cavity, can be improved by regulating cell adhesion and trophic factor signaling to reconstitute the olfactory system and regain smell function following acute or chronic inflammation.

The funded research is not associated with a clinical trial.

To find out more about the research taking place in ETSUs Department of Biomedical Sciences.

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On the scent: ETSU researchers exploring treatments for loss of smell - East Tennessee State University

Accusations of doctored images and manipulated Alzheimer's disease research may tarnish the University of Minnesota, but a bigger question looms amid the race for a cure.

What of the landmark U Alzheimer's discoveries remains valid?

Researchers questioning whether images in U studies were doctored said they could undermine a key discovery in 2006: a protein, called abeta star 56, that independently caused memory loss in rats and looked like the long-awaited smoking gun behind Alzheimer's. The leader of the U research, Dr. Karen Ashe, countered that a colleague, Sylvain Lesn, was wrong to alter images, but she defended the discovery.

"While the editing of select images should not have occurred, the adjustments are non-material, inconsequential and have no bearing on the research findings," she said.

Investigations by the U and National Institutes of Health which funded much of the research will assess wrongdoing by Lesn or other authors, while scientific journals determine whether the studies with suspect images require corrections or retractions.

Behind the controversy is a vexing neurological disease that afflicts 6 million Americans and is expected to grow with an aging population. The condition inhibits thinking cells, neurons, from performing cognitive or memory functions, or from conveying signals that tell muscles and organs what to do.

While multiple papers are in question, the 2006 study in the journal Nature is gaining the most attention because it discovered abeta star 56, or A*56. Some researchers were dismissive because of struggles to replicate the findings, but there is little question of the study's impact. The paper has been cited thousands of times by scientists who have used it as a foundation for follow-up Alzheimer's research.

"We wouldn't be where we actually are today in terms of understanding," without this study and related research, said Maria Carrillo, chief science officer for the Alzheimer's Association. However, as the organization readied its convention in San Diego next week, she said the scheduled presentations were proof that research has moved beyond this discovery.

Rooting out academic improprieties remains important, though, she said. "We are self-policing. If we can't count on that, then everything unravels."

The U paper built on the theory that the disease was linked to amyloids, proteins that can abnormally build up as plaques and perhaps obstruct neurons. The researchers targeted soluble forms, rather than hardened plaques, that could accumulate for years in advance of the dementia symptoms that come with age.

U researchers found a correlation between A*56 and cognitive problems in middle-aged mice genetically bred to produce amyloid plaques. They then purified the protein and injected it in young rats, which consequently showed memory problems based on their inability to navigate a water maze.

At the time, the discovery that "A*56 impairs memory independently of plaques or neuronal loss" was hailed by Nature as a "star suspect" in the search for Alzheimer's treatments. Today, the paper is tagged with a warning to treat its results with caution until the review of disputed images is complete.

Much scrutiny is of Western blots, which use electrical charges to separate proteins and a chemical process to create visual representations of them. The size and thickness of the chemical bands produced on film correspond to the amount of protein and, by extension, whether it is implicated in a disease.

A blow-up of one blot in the Nature paper showed bands proving the presence of A*56 in rats exhibiting memory loss. However, Dr. Matthew Schrag, an Alzheimer's researcher in Tennessee, found linear discolorations around the bands suggesting they may have been cut and pasted. Some bands also appeared duplicated. Another blot showed clusters of identical peripheral dots around the bands that suggested photo editing.

Schrag, conducting the review outside his work at Vanderbilt University, published his concerns on the PubPeer academic website and contributed to a Science magazine investigation of Lesn in July . Expert reviewers corroborated the concerns.

"This is a very sad example of human fragility and malfeasance," said Dr. Dennis Selkoe, a neuroscientist at Harvard Medical School. The proponent of the amyloid link to Alzheimer's agreed that some U images appeared manipulated.

The Science article suggested that Lesn had manipulated images before he joined Ashe's team as a research assistant in 2002 and was promoted as a U assistant professor with his own lab in 2009. A supervisor of Lesn's doctoral education at the University of Caen Normandy in France told the magazine he withdrew a paper before publication because he questioned images Lesn produced.

Lesn did not reply to requests to comment for this story.

The U has confronted this problem before, ordering a recall in 2008 of a landmark paper about adult stem cells after finding it contained manipulated images.

Schrag said he found no studies with manipulated images in which Ashe was an author without Lesn, but that the concerns extend beyond their 16-year-old paper. He found signs of manipulated images in a 2013 study in the journal Brain in which the U researchers affirmed their findings in human tissue about A*56 as a precursor for Alzheimer's. Images issued this year as a correction look so different that Schrag wonders if they came from the same experiment.

Blots mean little to the untrained eye, but they are the essence of research, said Elisabeth Bik, a San Diego microbiologist turned forensic image consultant. She agreed some images in Lesn's papers appear manipulated.

"A science paper is not like a children's book, where the images are just there to enlighten the whole story," she said. "It's different. The images, in my opinion, are the data."

The now-disputed Nature paper influenced years of research. Federal funding increased for Alzheimer's in general, but particularly for studies targeting amyloids.

The research was necessary because amyloids are part of the Alzheimer's puzzle, but the heightened focus slowed studies of other key pieces, said Dr. Ronald Petersen, director of the Mayo Clinic Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. Immune reactions and cardiovascular disease also influence Alzheimer's along with tau, a protein that can build up abnormally inside neurons.

The disparity shows in drug development. Aduhelm received federal clearance last year as an Alzheimer's treatment that breaks down amyloid plaques, though some doctors dispute whether it also slows cognitive decline. Three monoclonal antibody infusions are midway through clinical trials; all target amyloids.

Trials of other compounds targeting amyloids have failed. Ashe said it is unfair to tag the disputed U papers for such failures because they involved classes of amyloid protein that were different and easier to replicate than A*56.

Ashe said she expressed doubts that drugs targeting those proteins would work and that she isn't wedded to amyloids as the primary cause of Alzheimer's. Her research has explored tau and other potential causes.

Carrillo of the Alzheimer's Association said limited funding years ago forced conservative judgments to support research in areas such as amyloids where there was early evidence. Increases have promoted bolder exploration, and she expects Alzheimer's treatments targeting tau and inflammation to emerge right behind the current wave targeting amyloids.

A*56 has been "fairly irrelevant" to current drug studies, she said, so the idea that the U controversy could undercut ongoing discoveries is "overdone and overstated."

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University of Minnesota researcher seeks to sustain Alzheimer's findings amid image scandal - Star Tribune

As he was approaching 25 about a decade ago, David DiMuzio looked in the mirror and generally liked what he saw. But then there was his hairline: thinning and creeping backward, it looked like it belonged to a completely different guy one that was at least a few decades older than DiMuzio.

My hair felt like it was the only thing in my life that was working against me, said DiMuzio, a 36-year-old singer songwriter. Id look in the mirror and my hairline didnt feel like it should be my hairline. This should be the hairline of a guy whos like 60 years old.

DiMuzio was hitting his stride as a musician in the Philippines; his songs often ranked high on MTV music video countdowns in the country. Still, looking in the mirror, he couldnt shake the feeling that his hairline was holding him back professionally and personally.

With some research and consultations, DiMuzio found out he was a Norwood 5 on the Hamilton-Norwood scale, a classification system that uses a 1 to 7 scale to gauge hair loss.

A Norwood 5, he learned, is considered an advanced stage of baldness in men.

Demoralized by that number, he sought out a hair transplant. In search of more fullness, he decided to get another transplant, this time with a different surgeon. (Its not uncommon for hair transplant patients to undergo multiple surgeries.)

The second was problematic. The surgeon lost his license in Tennessee not long after performing DiMuzios surgery, and he went overboard with the musicians hairline.

He went well outside what is considered the safe zone in taking tissue from the back of my head and transplanting it to the front, DiMuzio told HuffPost. Because of that, I have a larger scar than I should, and it was not as successful of surgery as it should have been.

Since then, DiMuzio has gone on to correct the shoddy work. A few weeks ago, he had his fifth transplant. He also takes Finasteride (the generic name for Propecia) and minoxidil (the generic name for Rogaine) and uses an iRestore laser cap for hair growth. Hes happy with this hair today.

Even the scar is covered up by hair, and the hair looks great now, he said.

Of course, it came at a steep cost. The singer has spent $35,000 of his own money; two of his five surgeries were offered to him free by doctors hoping to make an appearance on his popular YouTube channel Hair Loss Hope, where he doles out advice to the young and follicly challenged.

There are more young guys concerned with their hairline than youd expect. Like many other procedures including nose jobs and Brazilian butt lifts, there was an uptick in patients requesting hair transplants during COVID. The lockdown meant you didnt have to worry about a coworker or friend seeing your bandaged-up head.

Dr. Marc Dauer, a hair restoration surgeon who practices in Los Angeles and New York City, told the New York Times that at the peak of the pandemic, his offices saw a 30% surge in hair transplant procedures and a 50% increase in transplant consultations.

But even before the pandemic, the demand for hair transplants was high. The hair restoration industry is projected to reach over $12 billion in 2026. The increase in stress-induced hair loss that came with the pandemic will probably only add to those numbers.

The patients coming in are getting younger and younger, too. These are guys concerned about looking Instagram perfect and not wanting to have to hatfish on Bumble or Tinder. (A clever play on catfishing, a guy who hatfishes looks great on screen, but strangely, hes wearing a hat in all of his photos.)

A bald person will listen to anyone who gives tips about hair growth.

- Amir ur Rehman, a 29-year-old engineer from Dubai who has had three hair transplants

On Facebook groups about hair loss and Reddit forums like r/tressless, young people commiserate over premature hair loss (aka the Norwood Reaper) and relay their experiences with different hair-restoration clinics around the world. (When it comes to hair tourism, Turkey is a hot spot.) They debate what procedures they suspect celebrities like Matthew McConaughey, LeBron James and Chris Evans have undergone through the years and analyze each others post-op pictures.

These robust online conversations have led people as young as 17 into plastic surgeon Monica Kieus office, looking for a consultation. Its worth noting here: Male pattern baldness can start showing as early as your late teens, but typically, hair specialists dont recommend a hair transplant for people under the age of 25 since your hairline likely hasnt settled yet and you dont quite know what youre working with.

As many aesthetic procedures are becoming more common and accepted, I have noticed younger patients seeking out hair restoration therapy, Kieu, whose office is in Newport Beach, California, told HuffPost. Although women are also seeking out hair transplants, the majority of my patients are still men between the ages of 20-60.

Jan Oliva, a 22-year-old from Southwest Florida, got his hair transplant under the cover of lockdown last year. Oliva went to the Dominican Republic another hair transplant hotspot for his work.

I first started noticing my receding hairline when I was around 16 and ever since then it was definitely a factor that affected my self esteem, he told HuffPost. It wasnt until last year that I decided to do some research on hair loss treatments.

Oliva had FUE follicular unit extraction. Its a procedure where the hair follicles are transplanted from the back of your head to your hairline without leaving any noticeable scarring. Over the years, FUE has become more popular than the follicular unit transplantation (FUT) the older procedure where the surgeon and technicians take a strip of skin from the back or the side of the scalp and then extract the hair follicles.

In the U.S., the FUE hair transplant could run you anywhere from $4,000 and $15,000 per session. Oliva said his surgery in the Dominican Republic came out to $2,800.

He found out about the surgeon on TikTok, another place where young men and some women regale others with their experiences with hair transplants, replete with images of the slightly unnerving looking immediate aftermath. (Almost every patient deals with some facial swelling and swelling of the scalp after a hair transplant.)

Now he makes hair restoration TikToks himself.

Im very happy with the results, he said. I might actually have to do it again because I only did my hairline.

Amir ur Rehman, a 29-year-old engineer from Dubai, also got his hair transplant when he was on the younger side.

At 23 years old, he felt way too young to be bald and he was sick of his phone resurfacing photos of him on this day in 2013 when he still had a healthy, enviable crop of hair.

His wife was fine with him balding in his early 20s, but it didnt sit right with him. Some people suggested I should wear a wig, but youll never get satisfaction wearing a wig, he said.

He tried shampoo after shampoo and took advice from anyone whod offer some, but nothing seemed to work.

I got scammed in Dubai by some random guy who offered me some herbal medicine the hair scam is very famous in Dubai, he said. A bald person will listen to anyone who gives tips about hair growth.

Eventually, fearing the dreaded comb-over, he caved and got his first hair transplant in 2019 in Pakistan, where you can get the procedure for a fraction of what it costs in the West.

The results werent great, though, and the engineer ended up pursuing two more surgeries.

Now, no one would suspect he was an almost-balding guy once. Hes happy with his hair but wants people considering hair transplants to temper their expectations. Transplanted hair look will never be the same as your natural hair, he said, no matter where you do the transplant and how many you do.

With a hair transplant, you will think about the back side the donor area and the empty spaces there, he said. If you cut too much, it will be visible. You have to adopt a hairstyle that caters to where the density looks good.

Courtesy of Amir ur Rehman

Hair transplants arent the only option to explore

For most young men, the first action they take is typically topical treatments like minoxidil (Rogaine) and oral medications like finasteride (Propecia), which you take once a day.

These therapies can be effective in preserving hair and preventing further loss, but the only treatment to actually regrow hair where it is already balding is a hair transplant, Kieu said, pointing out to some new advancements in hair transplantation technology, like robotic hair restoration, where surgeons use AI to assist in the procedure.

This increases our efficiency while also minimizing scarring that we see in older techniques, she said.

For non-surgical hair restoration, Kieu said exosomes hair therapy has been an exciting newer development.

Exosomes are derived from stem cells, and they help with cell-to-cell signaling, which has powerful effects on cell function, she said. They contain growth factors, which stimulate your hair follicles to grow. Its a relatively quick procedure that we can do in-office in about 30 minutes with minimal downtime.

Hair restoration and preservation is definitely an investment in time and money. This is not the time to bargain shop.

- Monica Kieu, a plastic surgeon and hair restoration specialist in Newport Beach, California

Those procedures didnt exist when Spencer Stevenson, 47, got his first hair transplant about 20 years ago.

At the time, there was a dearth of information about hair transplants on the web. In fact, he found out about the clinic he ended up going to through a Super Bowl ad.

Before that, I looked in the Yellow Pages. I tried every single treatment that was available powders, paints, pills, lotions, all sorts of stuff which none of them worked, sadly, the Brit told HuffPost.

That led me to get an unfavorable hair transplant in the U.S., he said. I flew over from the U.K. to the U.S. and that resulted in really, really poor unnatural work.

Stevenson who goes by Spex Hair online and is something of a hair loss godfather, with quotes on BBC News, The Guardian and a radio advice show was left with scarring and dull hair on the top of his head.

After that first surgery, Stevenson had a few more unsuccessful surgeries. He lived under his hat; when hed take it off, his friends would make jabs about how the formerly follicularly blessed Stevenson was now prematurely balding.

Badgering is bad enough, but what makes it worse is that men are considered vain if they pursue cosmetic surgeries. People assume hair loss is just something you have to accept as part of the aging process. But as countless men and women on online forums like r/tressless will assure you, its not easy to watch globs of your hair collect in your shower drain when youre only 25.

The loss of my hair had a profound effect on me, on my self-esteem, Stevenson said. Hair loss is a cancer of the spirit, it traumatizes individuals and it really is a hidden epidemic.

Courtesy of Spencer Stevenson

Today, Stevenson has spent in the region of 40,000 pounds, which is close to 60,000 U.S. dollars, to try and restore and maintain his hair.

I would do it all over again. Its completely transformed my life now, he said. My motivation was purely to try and live a normal life and not an isolated one. I was consumed by my hair. It was the first thing I thought of when I woke up and the last thing I thought of when I went to bed.

Stevenson was so mentally scarred by his earlier work, he now co-hosts a radio show, The Bald Truth, to help people know what to look for in a hair specialist.

Im an advocate in this space because I want to protect consumers from making the same mistakes I made at first, he said. This industry is a ruthless space governed by money and taking advantage of the hapless hair loss sufferer.

Courtesy of Spencer Stevenson

How to do your research and avoid a long, drawn-out loss journey

So how do you have as seamless of a hair transplant surgery as possible?

When researching a hair transplant clinic, Kieu advises to look long and hard at before-and-after photos, and always check online reviews.

A board-certified physician should always be performing the procedure, and if possible, go to the clinic in-person for your consultation, so you can feel out the vibe, she said.

Turkey is probably the most common location outside the U.S. where patients go to have their hair transplants, but Kieu would caution people that prior research is important if they are going out of the country for a procedure.

I have heard of many horror stories of botched jobs, with no ability for any follow-up or recourse since the clinics are so far away and difficult to contact, she said, noting that as a specialist in hair restoration, about 20% of her practice is covering up scars from previous hair transplants or making obvious transplants look more natural.

Stevenson recommended looking for a reputable surgeon by looking through the International Alliance of Hair Restoration Surgeons.

Doctors on there have been screened, have been monitored and have an ethical moral duty to make sure people get the right work for them or even turn people away if not an eligible candidate, he said.

There are far more options in the hair restoration world than there were 20 years ago, when Stevenson was at his most desperate. Dont jump at the first option or try to financially cut corners with your head of hair.

As Kieu said and what all these guys stories attest to hair restoration and preservation is definitely an investment in time and money. This is not the time to bargain shop.

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Men Share The Costly Lengths They've Taken To Prevent Balding - HuffPost

The end of Roe v. Wade will not only jeopardize access to abortion in many states, it could have wide-ranging and unpredictable consequences for medical care, including fertility treatment, contraception, and cancer care.

This post-Roe world will be, in many ways, a new era for medical care in the United States, one that could transform medical services for conditions that range far beyond pregnancy, either by making them illegal or by putting their legality in question.

The consequences are unpredictable. Michelle Banker, director of reproductive rights and health litigation at the National Womens Law Center, told me in an interview before Fridays decision that the effect on other types of health care will depend upon the answers to open and untested questions in US courts. Some of it will rest on how judges will interpret new state abortion bans. States could also be emboldened by the Supreme Courts ruling to pass new legislation that restricts other medical services.

History would suggest places that outlaw abortion tend to have less access to other reproductive care as well. In Ireland, which only recently legalized abortion, there is still less access to in vitro fertilization and certain contraceptives than in the rest of Europe, even after abortion became legal. In the US, a health system that is already fractured will become even more so, limiting access to medical care particularly for marginalized patients. Whether you can get certain health care services may be predicated on where you live (or whether you can afford to travel).

The breadth of the potential health care consequences is so broad, Banker said. The first place to start is this is going to result in the death of pregnant people.

The United States has the highest maternal mortality rates among wealthy nations; Black Americans have a significantly higher mortality rate than anywhere else in the developed world. The risk of death from carrying a pregnancy to term is much higher than the risk of death from undergoing an abortion. One estimate puts the number of forced birth in the first year after Roe is overturned at 75,000; the maternal mortality rate in the US is about 1 in 10,000.

The impact the end of Roe could have on pregnancy care could reach much further. As the Atlantics Sarah Zhang wrote, pregnant women undergo genetic and other tests throughout their pregnancy, meant to assess the health of the fetus and identify any anomalies that could be fatal or life-altering. In some cases, parents who learn about these anomalies choose abortion. But that may no longer be so simple if abortion is now outlawed or severely limited. Decisions about whether to get genetic testing and when could be affected.

By the same token, most abortion bans would carve out exceptions if the health of the mother were in jeopardy. But whether a complication represents a life-threatening risk to the mothers health is in part a judgment call on the part of her doctor and the possibility of legal consequences could make the cost of mistakes much higher.

At the very least, there may well be a chilling effect due to providers and patients uncertainty as to whether treatment could expose them to civil or criminal liability, Banker said.

Fetal personhood laws that convey constitutional protections to unborn fetuses would further limit a pregnant persons choices in medical care. Several states have attempted to pass such a law, but they have thus far been held up by the courts. This new post-Roe jurisprudence could embolden those states and others to put such measures into place. Law enforcement or private citizens, depending on the state law, could bring complaints. The recently signed Texas law, for example, deputizes private citizens by creating a financial incentive for them to take civil action against people who seek or provide abortions.

Or, in a less extreme example, what happens if a pregnant person is also receiving cancer treatment or taking mental health medication that could affect the health of their fetus? If they stop receiving that medical care, their health could be in danger. But if they continue to receive it, the fetus could be affected. What are they and their doctor supposed to do?

The laws that criminalize abortion are going to impact medical decision-making, and thats terrifying, Banker said.

Supporters of abortion rights fear that, unchained by the Supreme Court, states could push deeper and deeper into the lives of pregnant women and the decisions they make about how to conduct themselves.

People have been arrested for substance use during pregnancy, based on reasoning that they are harming the growth of the pregnancy. Tennessee passed the first law permitting the prosecution of pregnant women who use drugs. That alone is objectionable to people who oppose a criminalized approach to substance use. But they also worry that such laws are just the tip of the iceberg in a post-Roe reality. Could a pregnant woman be charged with a crime if she drinks a glass of wine? Or if she goes on a hiking trip that a complainant thinks would imperil the health of her fetus?

These questions will be answered by the specifics of state laws and the discretion of prosecutors in different places. But they are questions that were unfathomable just a few months ago.

How far down this path could states go? said Elizabeth Nash, who tracks state policy at the Guttmacher Institute, in an interview before Fridays Supreme Court ruling. That might sound a bit far-fetched to people but we have seen states take drastic actions in relation for some pregnant people.

Beyond medical care during pregnancy, the end of Roe could usher in a wave of new restrictions on access to contraception and fertility treatment.

The right to contraception is currently upheld by two previous Supreme Court decisions: Griswold v. Connecticut enshrined the right for married people and Eisenstadt v. Baird did the same for unmarried people.

But the current Court is clearly not bound by those precedents if they are willing to overturn Roe v. Wade. And some prominent Republicans, such as Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), have referred to those prior court decisions as constitutionally unsound in the days since the Alito draft leaked.

That puts case law in jeopardy because it relies on this idea that rights not specifically named in the Constitution are only entitled to special protection if they are deeply rooted in the nations traditions, Banker said.

Other experts I spoke to agreed. The stage is very much set for state legislators to ban contraception if they want to, Sean Tipton, who works on policy issues at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, told me before the Supreme Court ruled.

Would state legislators want to ban condoms or even birth control pills? Maybe not. But new laws or even state abortion bans could target other kinds of birth control.

Many of these states want to define the beginning of life as early as possible in the biological process. Oklahoma, for one, passed a law that recognized an unborn childs life as beginning at fertilization. Other states describe the moment of conception. But, as Tipton pointed out, the early stages of pregnancy are, medically speaking, a process. There is not a single moment of conception.

But if states define life in such a way, then contraceptives that could prevent a fertilized egg from becoming implanted could be under threat.

IUDs and the morning-after pill would be threatened under such a legal regime. In the vast majority of cases, IUDs work by preventing fertilization: the sperm and the egg never meet in the first place. But they also might prevent implantation under certain circumstances. There is also some controversy about whether Plan B, the morning-after pill, prevents fertilization in the first place or whether it blocks the implantation of a fertilized egg. The latter could arguably be illegal in states that recognize life at fertilization. Lawmakers in Idaho, for example, announced hearings on whether to ban emergency contraceptives and possibly IUDs before the Supreme Court had even issued its final ruling.

Then there are fertility treatments particularly in vitro fertilization that depend on fostering a larger number of eggs but typically only use a small number of them. If an embryo is conferred the same rights as a toddler, are those procedures suddenly illegal?

As Tipton put it to me, what if a doctor puts 199 embryos in a freezer for IVF treatment, and 198 of them come out of the freezer okay? Does that mean a homicide has been committed? he said.

Experts imagine other possible restrictions on procedures like IVF, particularly in states that define life as beginning at conception or fertilization. That alone could put IVF in legal jeopardy. States could also institute new restrictions on those procedures, now that the right to privacy has been redefined. Maybe the number of embryos could be limited. Maybe state legislators restrict which people are allowed to avail themselves of those services to only straight married couples, for example.

And while there is a tension between ostensibly pro-life politicians restricting access to fertility care, there is an expectation that anti-abortion advocates would be willing to let these medical services be collateral damage in order to achieve the goal of outlawing abortion.

Most right-to-life proponents are not interested in doing anything to hurt fertility patients, Tipton said. But theyre very willing to throw those patients under the bus to end abortion.

The new jurisprudence could also affect access to health care that has nothing to do with pregnancy or reproduction, experts say.

Medical care for people undergoing a gender transition would be one possible casualty. The decision in particular puts gender-affirming care in its crosshairs, Banker said.

In the opinion, Alito cited a 1974 decision, Geduldig v. Aiello, that takes what Banker calls a very narrow and cramped view of what constitutes sex discrimination. For Alitos purposes, that narrow view of sex discrimination supports the argument that banning abortion would not constitute discrimination against pregnant people on the basis of sex.

But Banker says the same logic could be applied to gender-affirming health care such as surgery or hormonal treatments. If the Supreme Courts definition of sex discrimination is now much narrower than it used to be, then opponents of those services could argue that denying a person gender-affirming medical care is not actually discriminatory.

Those arguments are easily refuted under modern precedent, Banker told me. But the drafts language and citation to Geduldig raises concerns that we may see those arguments gain more traction.

Old battles over medical research or treatment could also resurface, Tipton said. Modern science has developed treatments for spinal cord injuries, myelofibrosis, and even certain cancers by relying on stem cells. More treatments are in clinical trials right now. But their prospects could be compromised if access to those materials is limited. Some stem cells are collected from adult body tissue, but others come from embryos.

Much of this will depend on how aggressive anti-abortion advocates decide to be, and on the success of abortion rights advocates in mounting a political and legal response to a ruling overturning Roe.

But it will undoubtedly be a new era for health care in the United States, with potentially devastating consequences for patients with a wide array of medical needs.

Continue reading here:
The end of Roe v. Wade affects more than just abortion - Vox.com

Scientists from Tennessee recently said a drug they have been developing could treat radiation sickness, and they are working to raise the money to fulfill the last stage of requirements from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Currently, there is no drug available to treat gastrointestinal radiation sickness, but a team of University of Tennessee researchers led by cell biologist and cancer researcher Dr. Gabor Tigyi and Professor Leonard Johnson said they are working on a drug that shows potential.

People develop radiation sickness after receiving a large dose of radiation over a short period of time, with the amount of radiation absorbed by the body determining the degree of illness, according to the Mayo Clinic. The disease is also known as Acute Radiation Syndrome (ARS) or radiation poisoning and can cause diarrhea, nausea and fatigue, with high levels of radiation fallout leading to death, often within a couple of weeks.

Since the first atomic bombings at the end of World War II, radiation sickness has largely been linked to accidents at nuclear power plants, such as the 1986 fire and explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine.

With the war in Ukraine escalating, a number of news outlets have reported that European and U.S. consumers were panic buying iodine and potassium iodide tablets in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin's threats to use nuclear weapons as his war with Ukraine extended into its second month.

Potassium iodide is absorbed by the thyroid gland. The right dose can saturate the thyroid gland, helping to block the radioactive iodine that is released by radiation fallout. However, according to the American Council on Science and Health, the compound is only effective at blocking one radiation-related illnessthyroid cancer. By contrast, until recently there have been no effective treatments for parts of the body, including the gastrointestinal tract, which are especially vulnerable to radiation exposure.

The team led by Tigyi and Johnson has focused their work on the gastrointestinal tract and on the body's mechanism for repairing the damage caused by high-energy radiation.

Radiation exposure affects the human body's main molecules, DNA, proteins, lipids and sugars, but the body has a highly efficient DNA damage repair mechanism, which is capable of protecting against changes in our DNA, Tigyi told Newsweek. His team has spent two decades investigating lysophosphatidic acid (LPA), which acts as a natural protective molecule in cells. The researchers discovered that LPA has the ability to boost DNA damage repair and cell regeneration pathways after exposure to radiation.

Yet when the LPA system is hijacked in aggressive tumor stem-like cells, this mechanism can also help cancer cells resist radiation-therapy induced cell death.

The drug that the team has developed, RX-100, aims to use both the beneficial and destructive tendencies of LPA, Tigyi says.

"The drug discovery efforts we have been undertaking are targeting at both sides," he added. "To exploit LPA-based drugs that humans can benefit from and other drugs to hit the cancer stem-cells on the head and prevent them from being able to use LPA for generating resistance, invasion, and evasion of tumor immunity."

The target of RX-100 is intestinal stem cells, which regenerate the intestinal lining, but can be hard to replace because of their location at the bottom of the gut. However, the drug candidates they have developed, when administered via a single jab, can reach these intestinal stem cells, protect them and promote the regeneration of the gut.

In addition to treating ARS, the drug has the potential to be used to combat other illnesses, Tigyi said, including blocking the toxin-inducing process responsible for the development of diarrhea in cholera. It also has the potential to fight clostridium difficile, a severe bacterial infection, by strengthening the gut barrier function.

RxBio Inc., the company that Tigyi founded, has already tested the drug's efficacy in rodents, but must show that it is safe and effective in an additional animal species, as trials using radiation can not include human beings. For this stage, the company is looking to raise around $170 million of additional funding.

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What Is Radiation Sickness and Are There Drugs to Treat It? - Newsweek

BRENTWOOD, Tenn, March 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- IMAC Holdings, Inc.(Nasdaq:IMAC) (IMAC or the Company), today announces it has initiated the third and final cohort of its Phase 1 clinical trial for its investigational compound utilizing umbilical cord-derived allogenic mesenchymal stem cells for the treatment of bradykinesia due to Parkinsons disease.

About IMACs Phase 1 Clinical Trial

The Phase 1 clinical trial, consisting of a 15-patient dose escalation safety and tolerability study, is being conducted at IMAC Regeneration Centers inChesterfield, Missouri,Paducah, Kentucky, andBrentwood, Tennessee. The trial is divided into three groups: 1) five patients with bradykinesia due to Parkinsons disease received a low dose, intravenous infusion of stem cells which was completed February 26, 2021, 2) five patients received a medium dose intravenous infusion which was completed February 16, 2022, 3) and five patients will receive a high concentration dose intravenous infusion. IMACs medical doctors and physical therapists at the clinical sites have been trained to administer the treatment and manage the therapy.Ricardo Knight, M.D., M.B.A., who is medical director of the Mike Ditka IMAC Regeneration Center, is the trials principal investigator.

About Bradykinesia Due to Parkinsons Disease

In addition to unusually slow movements and reflexes, bradykinesia may lead to limited ability to lift arms and legs, reduced facial expressions, rigid muscle tone, a shuffling walk, and difficulty with repetitive motion tasks, self-care, and daily activities. Parkinsons disease is the typical culprit of bradykinesia, and as it progresses through its stages, a persons ability to move and respond declines.

According toZion Market Research, the global Parkinsons disease therapeutics market was$2.61 billionin 2018 and is expected to grow to$5.28 billionby 2025. The ParkinsonsDisease Foundationestimates that nearly 10 million people are suffering from Parkinsons disease, and almost 60,000 new cases are reported annually in theU.S.

AboutIMAC Holdings, Inc.

IMACwas created inMarch 2015to expand on the footprint of the original IMAC Regeneration Center, which opened inKentuckyinAugust 2000. IMAC Regeneration Centers combine life science advancements with traditional medical care for movement restricting diseases and conditions.IMACowns or manages over 15 outpatient medical clinics that provide regenerative, orthopedic and minimally invasive procedures and therapies. It has partnered with several active and former professional athletes including Ozzie Smith, David Price, Mike Ditka and Tony Delk to emphasize its focus treating sports and orthopedic injuries and movement-restricting diseases without surgery or opioids. IMAC also operates the BackSpace retail spine health and wellness treatment centers. More information aboutIMAC Holdings, Inc.is available atwww.imacholdings.com.

# # #

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements, and terms such as anticipate, expect, believe, may, will, should or other comparable terms, are based largely onIMAC'sexpectations and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyondIMAC'scontrol. Actual results could differ materially from these forward-looking statements as a result of, among other factors, risks and uncertainties associated with its ability to retain personnel who possess the skills and experience necessary to meet trial requirements and its ability to protect its intellectual property.IMACencourages you to review other factors that may affect its future results in its registration statement and in its other filings with theSecurities and Exchange Commission. In light of these risks and uncertainties, there can be no assurance that the forward-looking information contained in this press release will in fact occur.

IMAC Press Contact:

Laura Fristoe

lfristoe@imacrc.com

Continued here:
IMAC Holdings, Inc. Announces Initiation of Third and Final Cohort of its Phase 1 Clinical Study of Umbilical Cord-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells for...

Roslin Technologies, which is advancing research to build better sustainability into the global food chain, is gearing up for a multi-million-pound fundraising following the June appointment of new chief executive Ernst van Orsouw.

The Series A investment round is due to launch in late September or early October, and follows an initial 10 million cash injection in 2017. The business was founded in that year as a joint venture between investment manager Milltrust International, JB Equity and the University of Edinburgh, all of whom are current shareholders.

The money will fuel the firms transition from research to commercialisation of its leading technology in the field of cultivated meat genuine animal flesh that is produced in a laboratory, eliminating the need to raise and slaughter animals. Roslin Techs role in this is to provide the iPS cells (induced pluripotent animal stem cells) that can replicate forever into any type of tissue desired.

Our cells are market-ready," Mr van Orsouw said. We have developed them to a stage where cultivated meat producers can put them into their processes.

A tri-lingual speaker, Mr van Orsouw earned a degree in electrical engineering from Delft University before joining the Royal Netherlands Navy working as a technical coordinator in shipbuilding. After a year he joined Shell as a petrophysicist, where he worked on the exploration and production of oil and gas reserves in the North Sea.

READ MORE:New chief for 'jewel in the crown' of AgTech

However, he soon realised that he was not suited to the industry, which did not align with his sustainable values. He also wanted to pursue work where his efforts would come to quicker fruition.

In the oil industry in general, you work to very long timelines, he said. I personally had a desire to make more of an impact earlier on.

In 2005 he joined the Amsterdam office of the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), the US management consulting firm that is the worlds second-largest in terms of revenue. There he focused on the agribusiness sector, a job which took him to both New York and San Francisco.

During his time at BCG he worked with UK-headquartered Genus, whose genetic products are used by cattle and pig farmers to reduce disease and boost production. In 2015 he joined the Pig Improvement Company (PIC), Genus porcine subsidiary, as director of strategy and marketing based in Tennessee.

During his time at PIC, Mr van Orsouw led a series of initiatives and acquisitions across the animal breeding and genetics sectors. When approached about the possibility of taking over at Roslin Tech which has preferential access to intellectual property from the Roslin Institute, the home of Dolly the Sheep the lure of working alongside such an esteemed group was too powerful to resist.

READ MORE:Roslin Technologies make breakthroughs in cellular technologies

It [the Roslin Institute] is probably the most famous biotech institute in the world, so clearly that interested me, he said. Roslin Technologies is unique. We have a small team of about 20 incredibly gifted people, and through that private relationship with the Roslin Institute, we are backed up by hundreds of some of the best people in the world in this field.

Mr van Orsouw took over at Roslin Tech from executive director and founder Glen Illing, who also has links to JB Equity. His predecessor, whom Mr van Orsouw describes as an incredible visionary, continues with Roslin Tech as the point man on potential acquisitions and is also in charge of its Insect Nucleus Facility near its headquarter in Midlothian.

Roslin Tech announced last year that it would build the 500,000 facility following its investment in Protenga, a Singapore firm that farms black soldier flies. Dubbed the superstars of sustainability, the larvae of these insects are edible and rich in nutrients.

Used for animal feed and fertiliser, insect protein competes in this market with cheaper but less reliable supplies of fish meal. Mr van Orsouw said Roslin Tech expects to get its first breeding lines out into the market next year.

What is most exciting about what we do is that we have these two main areas, and both are incredibly novel, he said. The positive impact they can have is incredible.

READ MORE:Roslin Technologies invests in superstar insects of sustainable food

While insect protein currently runs at two to three times the cost of fish meal, Mr van Orsouw said cultivated meat costs anything between 50 and 2,000 times its traditional counterpart to produce. The challenge for Roslin Tech is to optimise its iPS cells to bring down the expense.

It is therefore a nascent segment in the $1 trillion (727 billion) global livestock market, but is attracting increasing interest after Singapore in 2020 became the first country to approve East Justs flagship cultured chicken nuggets for sale nationwide. Roslin Tech has also made its own chicken nuggets in the lab, but these are not for commercial distribution.

Mr van Orsouw said the fresh funding will help Roslin Tech further develop both the cultivated meat and insect protein sectors faster than would otherwise be the case: We have incredibly ambitious plans for growth. Scotland will always be our headquarters but we want to open international bases as well. Technical acquisitions could be a part of that.

What countries have you most enjoyed travelling to, for business or leisure, and why?

Mozambique (leisure) and China (business & leisure). Both countries have tremendous natural beauty, great cultures, and incredible people but lack availability of affordable, sustainably produced proteins. It is a privilege to work on solutions that can help increase the local availability of affordable, nutritious and responsibly produced animal proteins.

When you were a child, what was your ideal job? Why did it appeal?

I had always wanted to do something with physics or biology. As a child I was curious to understand how nature works. Now I enjoy the challenge of how to turn the understanding of natures building blocks into a meaningful contribution to society.

What was your biggest break in business?

During my time in the United States, I was one of the initiators of the Coalition for Responsible Use of Gene editing in Agriculture, a food system-wide group that included a wide variety of players aiming to build consumer trust and confidence in gene editing techniques. It was incredibly rewarding to work with such a diverse group to identify ways to introduce new technologies that align with the values of consumers.

What was your worst moment in business?

During my work in the livestock industry, I have encountered several situations where we had to manage devastating disease outbreaks. It is very tough to experience the impact that these diseases have on the animals, the farmers and their families.

Who do you most admire and why?

I seek to work with people that are intrinsically curious, have a passion, that have the patience to pursue that passion, and can motivate others. I have been lucky enough to have had colleagues and supervisors, both current and past, that fit that description and that I have learned from.

What book are you reading and what music are you listening to?

I am reading The Wizard and the Prophet, Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrows World by Charles Mann, a brilliant book that helps understand the motivations behind people in industrial agriculture as well as the environmental movement. On the bus to work I often listen to Congolese Soukous.

Read the original:
Roslin Tech in multi-million bid to fund sustainable food - HeraldScotland

Christopher Duntsch, the man who has come to be known as Dr. Death, and the subject of a new series streaming now on Peacock,always had big dreams. When the college football scholarship he hoped for didn't work out, Duntsch made a surprise pivot: He decided to become a doctor instead of a professional athlete.

Duntsch earned his MD-PhD from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. where he also completedhis neurosurgery residency. In the first stages of his six-year residency he focused on research. As D Magazine reported in 2016, the department chairman, Dr. Jon Robertson "appointed [Duntsch]program director of the schools tissue bank, where hed supply samples to scientists and oversee two labs." As the program director, Duntsch wrote grants and secured funding for his research projects.

In 2006, his research led him to the work of two Russian stem cell scientists, Valery Kukekov and Tatyana Ignatova. They had created a method for culturing the stem cells ofintervertebral discs outside of the body. Working Kukekov and Ignatova, Duntsch filed a patent for the technologyand went to work raising money for a company he called DiscGenics.

Duntsch had filed the patent listing himself, alongwith the Russian scientists, as the inventors of the Discgenics technology. But Kukekov told D Magazine that,It wasnt his invention. It was the invention of me and my wife [Ignatova), because we made all primary experiments. We discovered it.

Duntsch, who had been listed as thefounder, president & chief science officer at DiscGenics, Inc. was sued by the former chief operating officer in 2011 and removed from that role as well as his seat on the board.

While Duntsch eventually set upon his ill-fated career as a neurosurgeon, one that would end with him serving a life sentence in prison for one count of injury to an elderly person, DiscGenics moved on largely unscathed. Today, the Salt Lake City-based company has successfully completed several rounds of funding, and, according to arecent press release are conducting trials of their stem cell technology on people in Japan and have plans to conduct testing on patients in the U.S. as well.

DiscGenics current funding amount is $68 million.

"Dr. Death" is available to stream on Peacock now.

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What Is DiscGenics, The Company Christopher Duntsch Helped Found, And Where Is It Today? - Oxygen