This post was updated Nov. 20 at 7:47 p.m.

A University of California professor and co-originator of genome editing technology Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats said researchers plan to expand the technology in order to increase human applications at a campus lecture series Thursday.

Jennifer Doudna, a UC Berkeley biochemistry professor, engaged students and the greater UCLA science community during the quarterly Donald J. Cram Distinguished Lecture series.

The Cram lecture series, a quarterly departmental event, invites prominent academics in the field of chemistry to speak about their research. The series is dedicated to Donald J. Cram, who was a Nobel laureate and a chemistry professor at UCLA for over 50 years.

This fall, the series was hosted by UCLA chemistry professor and Cram Chair Patrick Harran.

Scientists use CRISPR technology, formally known as CRISPR-Cas9, to modify DNA sequences and gene functions. Cas9 is a protein that can act like molecular scissor to cut the strands of DNA.

CRISPR is studied and used by students, scientists and researchers to advance progress in the field of gene editing, in medicine and the life sciences.

The UC holds the largest CRISPR patent portfolio in the nation with 16 total patents, according to a UC Berkeley press release.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office granted the UC, along with the University of Vienna and Emmanuelle Charpentier, the director of the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, its 16th patent in October.

Doudnas involvement in CRISPR technology began around 2005, when a professor at UC Berkeley, Jill Banfield, invited Doudna to help her with research into the mechanism. From there, Doudna teamed up with Charpentier, who was working with a CRISPR system and its associated protein, Cas9, in 2011.

Doudna is one of the creators of the CRISPR utility for the permanent excision of harmful genes. Doudna said that she developed the idea for the CRISPR technology in 2011 in collaboration with Charpentier.

During the lecture, Doudna detailed how scientists regulate CRISPR enzymes to modify DNA.

CRISPR is a portion of the bacterial genomic sequence that acts as an adaptive immune system, Doudna said.

Bacteria encode the CRISPR system through viral infections, which allows its genome to recognize foreign DNA insertions. These DNA sequences incorporate themselves into the bacterial genome at the CRISPR locus, a genetic database of past infections.

Doudna said this locus was of unique interest to her.

Those sequences, called CRISPR, are transcribed in RNA molecules that provide the zip codes for Cas proteins, allowing them to recognize foreign DNA and cut it up, Doudna said.

Doudna and Charpentier, with the assistance of their team, were able to realize that CRISPR RNA is a 20-nucleotide sequence, which interacts with DNA in a complementary fashion.

This complementarity allows the protein to form a double-stranded break in DNA, necessitating a second RNA tracrRNA to form this functional unit, Doudna said.

And it was (biochemist) Martin Jinek in our lab who figured out that you could combine these two RNAs into a single guide RNA, Doudna said.

From this experiment, Jinek found that single guide RNAs were used by Cas9 to excise DNA at specific sites in a plasmid, a circular piece of bacterial DNA. The revelation from this was that, upon excision, DNA would repair itself in animals and plants, Doudna said.

Doudna said at the end of her talk that the system is becoming increasingly important in the field of medicine, and is currently being used at UCLA, by Donald Kohn, a professor of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics.

Were within about five years, maybe less, from being able to make, essentially, any change to any genome in any type of cell, Doudna said.

Doudna stressed that this ability to make changes in the genome comes with bioethical responsibility for genome editing in humans.

Fourth-year biochemistry student Jeremy Shek, who attended the event, said although he had done a project that was an offshoot of CRISPR, he had not heard of the progress Doudna discussed.

It is important to be informed on advancements and progress in the field, he added.

Fourth-year bioengineering student Timothy Yu said he came to the lecture to see Doudna in person and get a more solid grasp on the methodology of CRISPR.

Lexi Omholt, a fourth-year microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics student, said that she came to the talk to understand the basis of CRISPR technology.

Jennifer Doudna was one of the reasons I chose my major, Omholt said. At that time, CRISPR came into popular knowledge, and the knockout tool was just coming into use. I am involved in a cancer lab, the Soragni Lab, that uses CRISPR-Cas9 on a regular basis.

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Co-creator of CRISPR lectures about future applications of genome editing technology - Daily Bruin

Salt Lake City, UT (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -Myriad Genetics, Inc. (NASDAQ: MYGN), a leader in molecular diagnostics and precision medicine, announced that Japans Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) has approved the BRACAnalysisDiagnostic System (i.e., BRACAnalysis) to help physicians determine which women with breast cancer have Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer (HBOC) syndrome and qualify for additional medical management. BRACAnalysis is a genetic test that identifies germline mutations in theBRCA1/2genes.

We are excited that the MHLW has approved the BRACAnalysis Diagnostic System for HBOC risk assessment in patients with breast cancer, said Seigo Nakamura, M.D., Ph.D., Professor and Chairman, Department of Surgery, Division of Breast Surgical Oncology and Director, Breast Center of Showa University Hospital in Tokyo and president of the Japanese Organization of Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer (JOHBOC). Our goal is to use the BRACAnalysis test to identify patients withBRCAmutations and determine who will benefit from more advanced medical care.

Under the MHLW decision, physicians may use BRACAnalysis to test forBRCAmutations in women with breast cancer who meet the genetic testing guidelines defined by JOHBOC. Those patients who test positive for a deleteriousBRCAmutation will be eligible to receive advanced medical management, such as prophylactic surgery or targeted therapies.

Myriads BRACAnalysis test is the gold standard forBRCAtesting. The approval of BRACAnalysis for HBOC risk assessment in Japan is further validation of the quality and utility of our pioneering genetic test, said Gary A. King, executive vice president of International Operations, Myriad Genetics. We look forward to working with our commercial partners in Japan to ensure that BRACAnalysis is available to patients.

Myriad has an exclusive partnership with SRL Inc., a subsidiary of Miraca Group, to commercialize the BRACAnalysis Diagnostic System in Japan.

Todays announcement follows two prior regulatory approvals for the BRACAnalysis Diagnostic System in Japan. In February 2019, BRACAnalysis was approved as a companion diagnostic for Lynparza(olaparib) in women with ovarian cancer, and in March 2018, it was approved as a companion diagnostic for Lynparza in patients with metastatic inoperable or recurrent breast cancer.

About the BRACAnalysisDiagnosticSystemBRACAnalysis is a diagnostic system that classifies a patients clinically significant variants (DNA sequence variations) in the germlineBRCA1andBRCA2genes. Variants are classified into one of the five categories; Deleterious, Suspected Deleterious, Variant of Uncertain Significance, Favor Polymorphism, or Polymorphism. Once the classification is completed, the results are sent to medical personnel in Japan for determining the eligibility of patients for treatment with Lynparza.

About SRLSince the establishment in 1970, SRL, Inc., a member of the Miraca Group, Japan-based leading healthcare group, has been providing comprehensive testing services as the largest commercial clinical laboratory in Japan. SRL carries out nearly 400,000,000 tests per year, covering a wide range of testing services including general/emergency testing, esoteric/research testing, companion diagnostics tests, genomic analysis, and etc. For more information, please visithttps://www.srl-group.co.jp/english/.

About Myriad GeneticsMyriad Genetics Inc., is a leading precision medicine company dedicated to being a trusted advisor transforming patient lives worldwide with pioneering molecular diagnostics. Myriad discovers and commercializes molecular diagnostic tests that: determine the risk of developing disease, accurately diagnose disease, assess the risk of disease progression, and guide treatment decisions across six major medical specialties where molecular diagnostics can significantly improve patient care and lower healthcare costs. Myriad is focused on five critical success factors: building upon a solid hereditary cancer foundation, growing new product volume, expanding reimbursement coverage for new products, increasing RNA kit revenue internationally and improving profitability with Elevate 2020. For more information on how Myriad is making a difference, please visit the Company's website:www.myriad.com.

Myriad, the Myriad logo, BART, BRACAnalysis, Colaris, Colaris AP, myPath, myRisk, Myriad myRisk, myRisk Hereditary Cancer, myChoice, myPlan, BRACAnalysis CDx, Tumor BRACAnalysis CDx, myChoice CDx, EndoPredict, Vectra, GeneSight, riskScore, Prolaris, ForeSight and Prequel are trademarks or registered trademarks of Myriad Genetics, Inc. or its wholly owned subsidiaries in the United States and foreign countries. MYGN-F, MYGN-G.

Lynparza is a registered trademark of AstraZeneca.

Safe Harbor StatementThis press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements relating to Japans Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) marketing approval of the companys BRACAnalysis Diagnostic System to identify patients with breast cancer who would be eligible for additional medical management; the Company working with commercial partners in Japan to ensure that BRACAnalysis is available to patients; and the Company's strategic directives under the caption "About Myriad Genetics." These "forward-looking statements" are based on management's current expectations of future events and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially and adversely from those set forth in or implied by forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: the risk that sales and profit margins of our molecular diagnostic tests and pharmaceutical and clinical services may decline; risks related to our ability to transition from our existing product portfolio to our new tests, including unexpected costs and delays; risks related to decisions or changes in governmental or private insurers reimbursement levels for our tests or our ability to obtain reimbursement for our new tests at comparable levels to our existing tests; risks related to increased competition and the development of new competing tests and services; the risk that we may be unable to develop or achieve commercial success for additional molecular diagnostic tests and pharmaceutical and clinical services in a timely manner, or at all; the risk that we may not successfully develop new markets for our molecular diagnostic tests and pharmaceutical and clinical services, including our ability to successfully generate revenue outside the United States; the risk that licenses to the technology underlying our molecular diagnostic tests and pharmaceutical and clinical services and any future tests and services are terminated or cannot be maintained on satisfactory terms; risks related to delays or other problems with operating our laboratory testing facilities and our healthcare clinic; risks related to public concern over genetic testing in general or our tests in particular; risks related to regulatory requirements or enforcement in the United States and foreign countries and changes in the structure of the healthcare system or healthcare payment systems; risks related to our ability to obtain new corporate collaborations or licenses and acquire new technologies or businesses on satisfactory terms, if at all; risks related to our ability to successfully integrate and derive benefits from any technologies or businesses that we license or acquire; risks related to our projections about our business, results of operations and financial condition; risks related to the potential market opportunity for our products and services; the risk that we or our licensors may be unable to protect or that third parties will infringe the proprietary technologies underlying our tests; the risk of patent-infringement claims or challenges to the validity of our patents or other intellectual property; risks related to changes in intellectual property laws covering our molecular diagnostic tests and pharmaceutical and clinical services and patents or enforcement in the United States and foreign countries, such as the Supreme Court decision in the lawsuit brought against us by the Association for Molecular Pathology et al; risks of new, changing and competitive technologies and regulations in the United States and internationally; the risk that we may be unable to comply with financial operating covenants under our credit or lending agreements; the risk that we will be unable to pay, when due, amounts due under our credit or lending agreements; and other factors discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" contained in Item 1A of our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2019, which has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as any updates to those risk factors filed from time to time in our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q or Current Reports on Form 8-K. All information in this press release is as of the date of the release, and Myriad undertakes no duty to update this information unless required by law.

2019 GlobeNewswire, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

SOURCE: Myriad Genetics, Inc.

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Myriad Genetics Announces Regulatory Approval Of The BRACAnalysis Diagnostic System In Japan For Breast Cancer Patients - Laboratory Network

Designer baby, anyone? A New Jersey startup company, Genomic Prediction, might be able to help you.

Genomic Prediction claims to be able to use DNA testing to predict disease risk in an embryo. The idea is to study hundreds or thousands of small variations in DNA, known as genetic markers, and use sophisticated computer algorithms to correlate these with diseases such as type 1 and type 2 diabetes, breast cancer and intellectual disability.

If the companys recent research is any guide, it may move on to predicting other traits such as height and even educational attainment.

But the connections between genetic variations and differences in real human beings are far from straightforward. And even if we can make these connections, should we?

In my own field, forensic genetics, we have a similar goal: to produce a molecular photofit or DNA mugshot of the perpetrator of a crime, using DNA left at a crime scene. At first, there was great optimism.

Only six genetic markers were required to predict blue or brown eye colour with reasonable accuracy. However, prediction of intermediate eye colours (green, hazel, light brown) was less accurate. Testing for hair colour soon followed (24 markers) and, most recently, skin colour (41 markers).

Eye, hair and skin colour are all largely controlled by a small number of genes related to the pigment melanin. There are two types of melanin, a dark and a light form, and between them they give rise to the spectrum of eye, hair and skin colours.

Read more: World's first genetically modified human embryo raises ethical concerns

High doses of the light pigment are found only in individuals with European ancestry, particularly northern European. Prediction systems have really only been developed and tested rigorously on Europeans and North Americans.

This is the case with many large genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and data sets, including some of those used by Genomic Prediction. Individuals without European ancestry are poorly represented, and the associations between genetic markers and traits dont always replicate in populations that dont have European ancestry.

Since these first few pigmentation prediction systems, progress has been slow in forensic genetics. This is because most traits even ones that are strongly influenced by genetics are very polygenic, which means they are influenced by many different genes.

For example, height and educational attainment are both highly heritable. But they are under the influence of hundreds, if not thousands, of genetic markers, each with a very small effect on the trait.

Further, the marker variants with the largest influence are generally the rarest ones. For example, the variants with the largest influence on height each account for only one or two centimetres and are present in no more than 0.2% of the population. More common variants each account for height differences of mere millimetres or even less.

Polygenic scores add up all the tiny effects of these multiple marker variants to give an overall prediction. But there are several caveats.

First, they dont take account of genetic synergies (epistasis). The effects of two (or more) different markers may not add up in any simple way.

Second, they completely ignore environmental effects: the nurture part of nature versus nurture. For example, although both are highly heritable, height is affected by nutrition, and educational attainment is influenced by educational expectations and parental education. So, really, what is being predicted is the genetic potential for a particular trait.

Assuming Genomic Prediction can predict these potentials accurately, will they all be found in one embryo?

Lets say you want a tall, brown-eyed, high educational achiever with a low risk of breast cancer. The odds of finding all of these potentials in one embryo is very low, like throwing dozens of dice and having them all come up with sixes.

Even if you are lucky with your roll of the genetic dice, are you sure your designer baby will thank you when they grow up? Your idea of the perfect trait might not be theirs. You are, in effect, choosing their DNA without their consent.

Read more: 3-parent IVF could prevent illness in many children (but it's really more like 2.002-parent IVF)

Are you ready to see a prediction of what your baby might look like as an adult, or a photo-board from which to choose your future offspring? Companies are already offering to produce molecular photofits of unknown donors of crime-scene DNA. Its not a giant leap to designer babies.

At US$1,000 per case and an additional US$400 per screened embryo for expanded pre-implantation genomic testing (EPGT is Genomic Predictions flagship product), designer babies will inevitably be more available to wealthier parents. There are valid concerns that this could lead to genetic advantage and disadvantage along socio-economic lines.

Genetic screening is already common practice, especially for chromosomal disorders. Like many others, my own daughter received a nuchal fold thickness assessment as a standard ultrasound screen for Down syndrome.

Screening for genetic risks is just one more step along this continuum. But how many steps should we take? Once we start selecting for desirable characteristics, its easy to see the moral slope becoming very slippery.

Continued here:
An American company will test your embryos for genetic defects. But designer babies aren't here just yet - The Conversation AU

115 more arazi centres to be set up

LAHORE :The Punjab government will set up 115 arazi centres in different districts of the province by the end of the current year to facilitate the general public at their doorstep.

The arazi centres will provide revenue related facilities to the general public in an efficient and transparent manner.

This was stated by Provincial Minister for Revenue Malik Muhammad Anwar while talking to different delegations at his office on Friday.

The minister said that 153 arazi record centres were already providing different facilities to the people in 36 districts of the province.

He said the Board of Revenue was going to procure 20 state-of-the-art mobile vans so that revenue-related facilities could be provided to the people close to their residence.

The BOR has also taken steps to facilitate the rural population and computer technology has been utilised to facilitate the people.

The PTI led government has given special attention to ensuring complete transparency in revenue matters to save public properties from land grabbers, the minister concluded.

Magistrates: A spokesman for the Provincial Industries and Trade Department has the price control magistrates are conducing raids to check the price of essential commodities across the province.

The spokesman stated the price control magistrates conducted raids on 10,350 shops.

As many as 1,952 complaints relating to price-hike were lodged and 189 cases were registered in which 179 persons were arrested and fines amounting to more than Rs3.5 million were also imposed.

PhDs awarded: Punjab University (PU) has awarded PhD degrees to five scholars.

Ambreen Gul, daughter of Mirza Sultan Ahmed, has been awarded PhD in Molecular Biology after approval of her thesis entitled Overexpression of Aspartic Acid in Cotton Against Insects, Ammara Ahad, d/o Abdul Ahad Khan, in Molecular Biology after approval of her thesis entitled Expression of Flavonoid Pigment Related Genes in Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum), Khadija Aaliya, d/o Asif Hussain, Molecular Biology after approval of her thesis entitled Transformation and Expression Studies of Multiple Frost Tolerant Genes in Solanum Tuberosum L, Mehvish Ajaz, d/o Soofi Ajaz Ahmed, in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics after approval of her thesis entitled Azo Dyes Removal by Bacteria Isolated from Industrial Wastewater and Naveed Ahmad Noor, son of Muhammad Nawaz, in the subject of High Energy Physics after approval of his thesis entitled Under Pressure Study of Fundamental Properties of Perovskite Oxides Using Density Functional Theory (DFT).

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115 more arazi centres to be set up - The News International