Page 312«..1020..311312313314..320330..»

Molecular Diagnostics Developer INEX Innovate Announces Funding for New Research with The Chinese University of Hong Kong – PR Newswire APAC – PR…

Posted: July 27, 2022 at 2:57 am

Singapore-based diagnostics developer INEX Innovate brings The Chinese University of Hong Kong together to further research work on LEXI, INEX's fetal cell based non-invasive pre-natal diagnostics technology.

SINGAPORE, July 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Singapore-based diagnostics developer and medical laboratory operator, INEX Innovate has contributed an undisclosed sum to leading Hong Kong university The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), to collaborate and further research in the field of maternal fetal medicine.

INEX's Dr. Chia-Pin Chang with Prof. Richard Choy of The Chinese University of Hong Kong

The CUHK Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology (O&G) is world-renowned for its many prominent contributions and high-impact publications in the scientific community, attributed to its pursuit towards advancing the frontiers of knowledge in O&G through clinical, scientific and translational research. This initiative will tap on the research expertise of CUHK to further advance LEXI, a novel fetal cell isolation technology developed by INEX Innovate.

LEXI is a Non Invasive Prenatal Diagnostic (NIPD) technology that isolates fetal cells from the unborn baby, contained in the pregnant mother's blood for the definitive analysis of in excess of 7000 potential rare fetal genetic conditions.

Currently, expectant mothers whose prenatal screening results show signs of fetal anomaly are often recommended to undergo prenatal diagnostic tests for a definitive diagnosis of fetal genetic abnormalities, as this allows for early medical treatment of these conditions. However, prevailing diagnostic procedures such as amniocentesis are invasive and carry a risk of pregnancy loss of up to approximately 5 per cent[1].

Developed by INEX's Chief Technology Officer, Dr. Chia-Pin Chang, The LEXI cell isolation and enrichment is a process that isolates, identifies, and extracts target cells such as fetal cells from blood samples. The LEXI microfluidic chip enables its microfabricated filter to successfully deplete most of non-target cells in a blood sample and effectively capture fetal cells. Clinicians will need to draw one tube of blood from an expectant mother to generate results of the health condition of the fetus.

Chief Executive of INEX Innovate, Kane Black remarked, "We're thrilled to support and further the research of LEXI withProfessor Richard Choy and his team at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), the pioneer centre of scientific excellence that focus on translating research advances into clinical impact both locally and internationally.

Mr. Black further commented fetalcellsinmaternalbloodrepresentthe Holy Grail of prenatal diagnosis. The major challenge has been isolation of these cell from maternal blood owing to their rarity, we look forward to working on this potentially cutting edge medical breakthrough with CUHK."

"We are looking forward to developing a potentially important breakthrough technology in the field of maternal fetal medicine," said Prof. Choy, Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology at The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

[1] Cynthia L. Anderson, MD, and Charles E. L. Brown, MD, MBA, "Fetal Chromosomal Abnormalities: Antenatal Screening and Diagnosis, American Family Physician, 2009 Jan 15;79(2):117-123.

About INEX Innovate:

INEX Innovate is one of Asia's fastest growing molecular diagnostics developers and medical laboratory operators.

Founded by veteran maternalfoetalmedicine specialists, INEX is uniquely positioned to identify and address clinically unmet needs within the fetal health and women'soncology landscape, with a broad commercial portfolio of validated tests and 48 key patents.

Through our wholly owned subsidiary iGene Laboratory Pte Ltd, INEX operates a state of the art Next Generation Sequencing Laboratory that provides diagnostic testing, clinical research (CRO) and COVID-19 testing services.

The company has been recognised globally with a number of accolades and awards including from Frost & Sullivan, the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), The Straits Times Singapore's Fastest Growing Companies and the Financial Times ranking of 500 of Asia Pacific's Fastest Growing Companies.

For more information please visit: http://www.inex.sg

About The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK):

Founded in 1963, CUHK is a leading comprehensive research university with a global reputation. Located in the heart of Asia, CUHK has a vision and a mission to combine tradition with modernity, and to bring together China and the West. Under the University's unique collegiate system, the programmes and activities offered by its nine colleges complement the formal curricula by delivering whole-person education and pastoral care. The University has eight faculties: Arts, Business Administration, Education, Engineering, Law, Medicine, Science, and Social Science. Together with the Graduate School, the University offers over 300 undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. All faculties are actively engaged in research in a wide range of disciplines, with an array of research institutes and research centres specialising in interdisciplinary research of the highest quality.

The University currently has more than 1,400 granted patents in different jurisdictions worldwide. Some of these patents have been licensed to relevant industries that help bring these innovations to the market to benefit society. In academic year 2020-21, CUHK has received 226 granted patents and filed 386 patent applications for inventions developed in the areas of medical technology, biotechnology, information technology, telecommunications, and materials science.

See more here:
Molecular Diagnostics Developer INEX Innovate Announces Funding for New Research with The Chinese University of Hong Kong - PR Newswire APAC - PR...

Posted in Molecular Medicine | Comments Off on Molecular Diagnostics Developer INEX Innovate Announces Funding for New Research with The Chinese University of Hong Kong – PR Newswire APAC – PR…

Biologists train AI to generate medicines and vaccines – UW Medicine Newsroom

Posted: July 27, 2022 at 2:57 am

Scientists have developed artificial intelligence software that can create proteins that may be useful as vaccines, cancer treatments, or even tools for pulling carbon pollution out of the air.

This research, reported today in the journal Science, was led by the University of Washington School of Medicine and Harvard University. The article is titled"Scaffolding protein functional sites using deep learning."

The proteins we find in nature are amazing molecules, but designed proteins can do so much more, said senior author David Baker, an HHMI Investigator and professor of biochemistry at UW Medicine. In this work, we show that machine learning can be used to design proteins with a wide variety of functions.

For decades, scientists have used computers to try to engineer proteins. Some proteins, such as antibodies and synthetic binding proteins, have been adapted into medicines to combat COVID-19. Others, such as enzymes, aid in industrial manufacturing. But a single protein molecule often contains thousands of bonded atoms; even with specialized scientific software, they are difficult to study and engineer.

Inspired by how machine learning algorithms can generate stories or even images from prompts, the team set out to build similar software for designing new proteins. The idea is the same: neural networks can be trained to see patterns in data. Once trained, you can give it a prompt and see if it can generate an elegant solution. Often the results are compelling or even beautiful, said lead author Joseph Watson, a postdoctoral scholar at UW Medicine.

The team trained multiple neural networks using information from the Protein Data Bank, which is a public repository of hundreds of thousands of protein structures from across all kingdoms of life. The neural networks that resulted have surprised even the scientists who created them.

The team developed two approaches for designing proteins with new functions. The first, dubbed hallucination is akin to DALL-E or other generative A.I. tools that produce new output based on simple prompts. The second, dubbed inpainting, is analogous to the autocomplete feature found in modern search bars and email clients.

Most people can come up with new images of cats or write a paragraph from a prompt if asked, but with protein design, the human brain cannot do what computers now can, said lead author Jue Wang, a postdoctoral scholar at UW Medicine. Humans just cannot imagine what the solution might look like, but we have set up machines that do.

To explain how the neural networks hallucinate a new protein, the team compares it to how it might write a book: You start with a random assortment of words total gibberish. Then you impose a requirement such as that in the opening paragraph, it needs to be a dark and stormy night. Then the computer will change the words one at a time and ask itself Does this make my story make more sense? If it does, it keeps the changes until a complete story is written, explains Wang.

Both books and proteins can be understood as long sequences of letters. In the case of proteins, each letter corresponds to a chemical building block called an amino acid. Beginning with a random chain of amino acids, the software mutates the sequence over and over until a final sequence that encodes the desired function is generated. These final amino acid sequences encode proteins that can then be manufactured and studied in the laboratory.

The team also showed that neural networks can fill in missing pieces of a protein structure in only a few seconds. Such software could aid in the development of new medicines.

With autocomplete, or Protein Inpainting, we start with the key features we want to see in a new protein, then let the software come up with the rest. Those features can be known binding motifs or even enzyme active sites, explains Watson.

Laboratory testing revealed that many proteins generated through hallucination and inpainting functioned as intended. This included novel proteins that can bind metals as well as those that bind the anti-cancer receptor PD-1.

The new neural networks can generate several different kinds of proteins in as little as one second. Some include potential vaccines for the deadly respiratory syncytial virus,orRSV.

All vaccines work by presenting a piece of a pathogen to the immune system. Scientists often know which piece would work best, but creating a vaccine that achieves a desired molecular shape can be challenging. Using the new neural networks, the team prompted a computer to create new proteins that included the necessary pathogen fragment as part of their final structure. The software was free to create any supporting structures around the key fragment, yielding several potential vaccines with diverse molecular shapes.

When tested in the lab, the team found that known antibodies against RSV stuck to three of their hallucinated proteins. This confirms that the new proteins adopted their intended shapes and suggests they may be viable vaccine candidates that could prompt the body to generate its own highly specific antibodies. Additional testing, including in animals, is still needed.

I started working on the vaccine stuff just as a way to test our new methods, but in the middle of working on the project, my two-year-old son got infected by RSV and spent an evening in the ER to have his lungs cleared. It made me realize that even the test problems we were working on were actually quite meaningful, said Wang.

These are very powerful new approaches, but there is still much room for improvement, said Baker, who was a recipient of the 2021 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences. Designing high activity enzymes, for example, is still very challenging. But every month our methods just keep getting better! Deep learning transformed protein structure prediction in the past two years, we are now in the midst of a similar transformation of protein design.

This project was led by Jue Wang, Doug Tischer, and Joseph L. Watson, who are postdoctoral scholars at UW Medicine, as well as Sidney Lisanza and David Juergens, who are graduate students at UW Medicine. Senior authors include Sergey Ovchinnikov, a John Harvard Distinguished Science Fellow at Harvard University, and David Baker, professor of biochemistry at UW Medicine.

Compute resources for this work were donated by Microsoft and Amazon Web Services.

Funding was provided by the Audacious Project at the Institute for Protein Design; Microsoft; Eric and Wendy Schmidt by recommendation of the Schmidt Futures; the DARPA Synergistic Discovery and Design project (HR001117S0003 contract FA8750-17-C-0219); the DARPA Harnessing Enzymatic Activity for Lifesaving Remedies project (HR001120S0052 contract HR0011-21-2-0012); the Washington Research Foundation; the Open Philanthropy Project Improving Protein Design Fund; Amgen; the Human Frontier Science Program Cross Disciplinary Fellowship (LT000395/2020-C) and EMBO Non-Stipendiary Fellowship (ALTF 1047-2019); the EMBO Fellowship (ALTF 191-2021); the European Molecular Biology Organization (ALTF 139-2018); the la Caixa Foundation; the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (HHSN272201700059C), the National Institutes ofHealth (DP5OD026389); the National Science Foundation (MCB 2032259); the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the National Institute on Aging (5U19AG065156); the National Cancer Institute (R01CA240339); the Swiss National Science Foundation; the Swiss National Center of Competence for Molecular Systems Engineering; the Swiss National Center of Competence in Chemical Biology; and the European Research Council(716058).

Written by Ian Haydon, UW Medicine Institute for Protein Design

Read the rest here:
Biologists train AI to generate medicines and vaccines - UW Medicine Newsroom

Posted in Molecular Medicine | Comments Off on Biologists train AI to generate medicines and vaccines – UW Medicine Newsroom

UCSD Post-COVID Lung Disease Study May Unlock Path to Therapies – Times of San Diego

Posted: July 27, 2022 at 2:57 am

Colorized scanning electron micrograph of a cell (pink) infected with a variant strain of SARS-CoV-2 virus particles (UK B.1.1.7; gold), isolated from a patient sample. Courtesy NIAID

UC San Diego researchers have found that a post-COVID lung disease shares origins with other scarring lung diseases, which may offer a path to effective therapies, according to a study released Wednesday.

Although most people recover relatively quickly from COVID-19, around one-third of survivors experience symptoms weeks and months after the initial infection. However, in the study published in Wednesdays online issue of eBioMedicine, UCSD scientists studied interstitial lung disease, a form of long COVID that consists of a group of chronic pulmonary disorders characterized by inflammation and scarring of the lung.

The researchers said little is currently known about ILD which can be fatal without a lung transplant in its most severe form. But they found insights into the causes and paths the disease may take.

Using an artificial intelligence approach, we found that lung fibrosis caused by COVID-19 resembles idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, the most common and the deadliest form of ILD, said co-senior study author Dr. Pradipta Ghosh, professor in the departments of Medicine and Cellular and Molecular Medicine at UCSD School of Medicine. At a fundamental level, both conditions display similar gene expression patterns in the lungs and blood, and dysfunctional processes within alveolar type II cells.

Those AT2 cells play several roles in pulmonary function, including the production of lung surfactant that keeps lung cells from collapsing after exhalation and regeneration of lung cells after injury.

The findings are insightful because AT2 cells are known to contain an elegant quality control network that responds to stress, internal or external, Ghosh said. Failure of quality control leads to broader organ dysfunction and, in this case, fibrotic remodeling of the lung.

To conduct the study, Ghosh collaborated with co-author Debashis Sahoo, associate professor in the departments of Computer Science, Engineering and Pediatrics at UCSD for the AI assisted analysis among other aspects.

Ghosh and Sahoo said the approach would help them stay unbiased in navigating the unknowns of an emerging, post-pandemic disease. They analyzed more than 1,000 human lung datasets associated with various lung conditions, specifically looking for gene expression patterns, inflammation signaling and cellular changes. The disease with the closest match: IPF.

IPF affects around 100,000 people in the United States, with 30,000 to 40,000 new cases annually. The condition has a poor prognosis, with an estimated mean survival of 2 to 5 years from time of diagnosis.

City News Service contributed to this article.

Continued here:
UCSD Post-COVID Lung Disease Study May Unlock Path to Therapies - Times of San Diego

Posted in Molecular Medicine | Comments Off on UCSD Post-COVID Lung Disease Study May Unlock Path to Therapies – Times of San Diego

Here’s What We Know About COVID Vaccine Plans for the Fall – CNET

Posted: July 27, 2022 at 2:57 am

As the latest COVID-19 vaccine, Novavax, jumps the final regulatory hurdle onto the US market, the US Food and Drug Administration has its eyes set on the COVID-19 vaccine plan for this fall and winter, when we're likely to see another wave of cases.

The FDA last month made arecommendationthat vaccine manufacturers should make a booster dose of COVID-19 vaccine that targets the omicron variant -- specifically, theBA.4 and BA.5 subvariants. BA.5, the most contagious version of the virus to date, now makes upthe majorityof COVID-19 cases in the US and seemslikely to leadto another summer surge of COVID-19 cases ahead of the anticipated fall or winter booster rollout.

The current advice for this summer is the same: Get the booster shots you're eligible for. (For everyone 50 and older, that means two boosters.) But the question at hand for health regulators was whether vaccine-makers should continue to use their original primary vaccine formulas (which will probably stay the same for the time being) for boosters, or if they should create a vaccine that targets omicron, which has been dominant worldwide for months and keeps mutating into more-contagious versions of itself.

Now playing: Watch this: Monkeypox Explained: What You Need to Know

6:44

While there's still the chance we could be dealing with a whole new variant come fall or winter (you can never underestimate COVID-19), the FDA decided boosters targeting BA.5 should be the way forward.

The US government is expected to roll out vaccine boosters based on need: People most at risk will be eligible for a new booster first. And the vaccines based on earlier strains of the virus that causes COVID-19 (also called "ancestral" strains) are still protective against severe disease and death from omicron -- the most important function of vaccination in general.

While the details are being tested and ironed out, here's what we know about the fall COVID-19 vaccine strategy.

Both BA.4 and BA.5 are considered part of the "original" omicron variant (BA.1) family. They're newer versions of the virus that causes COVID-19. BA.5 quickly overtook the conversation on BA.4/BA.5 because of its extreme contagiousness, and it's now the dominant variant in the US. In a late June post, Dr. Eric Topol, professor of molecular medicine, called BA.5 "the worst version of the virus that we've seen."

While more time and research is needed to see what effect they have in the US (which has already experienced a high number of cases this late spring and summer), BA.5 is thought to whittle away much of the infection protection people got prior sickness, even with other omicron variants.

Omicron caused such a huge number of cases last winter because it was the most contagious variant to date, evading some infection protection from prior illness and effectiveness of the vaccines. The fact that newer versions of omicron are proving to be even more contagious isn't a big surprise, as this is the path COVID-19 has taken over the last two and half years.

Read more abouteverything we know about BA.5.

Specifically, the FDA is asking for abivalent(two-component) vaccine booster, which will include the BA.4/BA.5 spike protein in addition to an older strain. The FDA doesn't make vaccines, so the agency will likely authorize individual vaccine types as companies create and test them, as it did for the original COVID-19 vaccines and booster doses.

The vaccines currently authorized or approved only use older or "ancestral" strains of the virus. These vaccines still provide good protection against severe disease and death, but the effectiveness against infection is becoming more limited as the virus keeps mutating.

At a White House COVID-19 Response Teambriefing Tuesday, Dr. Ashish Jha said that if the timeline goes accordingly, he expects the first people to be eligible will start getting vaccinated in October, with other people becoming eligible in November or December.

But there is no authorized booster yet, so an exact timeline isn't available right now.

Moderna and Pfizer had both been working on boosters that target the general omicron variant. With the FDA's request to target omicron's newest strains, they will need to switch lanes to meet their target, hopefully in time for fall.

Novavax which justreceived CDC recommendationfor its primary two-dose vaccine also said it'sspeeding up workon a formula specifically targeting the new versions of omicron.

Pfizer announced last month that it struck a deal with the US government to provide more doses including ones that are adapted for omicron, pending FDA authorization.

The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.

Read the original post:
Here's What We Know About COVID Vaccine Plans for the Fall - CNET

Posted in Molecular Medicine | Comments Off on Here’s What We Know About COVID Vaccine Plans for the Fall – CNET

Smoking, vaping linked to higher risk of severe COVID-19 complications, including death – American Heart Association

Posted: July 27, 2022 at 2:57 am

Researchers used data from the American Heart Associations COVID-19 CVD Registry to determine the impact of smoking or vaping among people hospitalized with COVID-19

DALLAS, July 26, 2022 People who reported smoking or vaping prior to their hospitalization for COVID-19 were more likely than their counterparts who did not smoke or vape to experience severe complications, including death, from the SARS-CoV-2 infection. The findings are from a new study based on data from the American Heart Associations COVID-19 CVD Registry and published in PLOS ONE, a peer-reviewed, open access scientific journal published by the Public Library of Science.

Researchers examined data on people over 18 years of age who were hospitalized with COVID-19 in 107 registry-participating hospitals across the nation between January 2020 to March 2021. Smoking status was self-reported and people were classified as smoking if they reported currently using either traditional, combustible cigarettes or e-cigarette products, with no distinction between the two and no information on duration of smoking or former smoking status. For the final analysis, records were selected for 4,086 people with a 1:2 ratio of people who smoked (1,362) to people who did not smoke (2,724), with the two groups matched for no statistically significant difference in age, sex, race, medical history or medication.

The study findings indicate smoking or vaping are associated with more severe COVID-19 independent of age, sex, race or medical history:

In general, people who smoke or vape tend to have a higher prevalence of other health conditions and risk factors that could play a role in how they are impacted by COVID-19. However, the robust and significant increase in the risk of severe COVID-19 seen in our study, independent of medical history and medication use and particularly among young individuals, underscores the urgent need for extensive public health interventions such as anti-smoking campaigns and increased access to cessation therapy, especially in the age of COVID, said the studys senior author, Aruni Bhatnagar, Ph.D., FAHA, a professor of medicine, biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky. These findings provide the clearest evidence to date that people who smoke or vape have a higher risk of developing severe COVID-19 and dying as a result of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Bhatnagar is co-director of the American Heart Associations Tobacco Center for Regulatory Science which supported the study in part with funding from the U. S. National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration research grants.

We established the COVID-19 CVD Registry early on in the pandemic to better understand the link between COVID-19 and cardiovascular disease, specifically, to identify increased risk to help inform the diagnosis and care of people who are at highest risk for complications, said Sandeep R. Das, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A., FAHA, co-chair of the steering committee for the American Heart Association COVID-19 CVD Registry Powered by Get With The Guidelines and director for Quality and Value in the Cardiology Division at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. The findings of this study deliver on that goal and provide invaluable information individuals and their health care teams.

The American Heart Association launched the registry in 2020 to gather data specific to all patients hospitalized with COVID-19 as part of the Get With The Guidelines quality improvement program. Registry participation was offered at no cost to all U.S. hospitals caring for adults with active COVID-19 and with the infrastructure to support accurate data collection. More than 160 hospitals provided data on more than 79,000 patient records between 2020 and June 2022.

The American Heart Association receives funding primarily from individuals; foundations and corporations (including pharmaceutical, device manufacturers and other companies) also make donations and fund specific Association programs and events. The Association has strict policies to prevent these relationships from influencing the science content. Revenues from pharmaceutical and biotech companies, device manufacturers and health insurance providers and the Associations overall financial information are available here.

Additional Resources:

About the American Heart Association

The American Heart Association is a relentless force for a world of longer, healthier lives.We are dedicated to ensuring equitable health in all communities.Through collaboration with numerous organizations, and powered by millions of volunteers, we fund innovative research, advocate for the public's health and share lifesaving resources.The Dallas-based organization has been a leading source of health information for nearly a century.Connect with us onheart.org,Facebook,Twitteror by calling 1-800-AHA-USA1.

###

For Media Inquiries: 214-706-1173

Cathy Lewis: cathy.lewis@heart.org; 214-706-1324

Michelle Rosenfeld: michelle.rosenfeld@heart.org; 214-706-1099

For Public Inquiries: 1-800-AHA-USA1 (242-8721)

heart.org and stroke.org

Read more:
Smoking, vaping linked to higher risk of severe COVID-19 complications, including death - American Heart Association

Posted in Molecular Medicine | Comments Off on Smoking, vaping linked to higher risk of severe COVID-19 complications, including death – American Heart Association

Experts still torn on whether you should swab your throat when taking COVID tests – Salon

Posted: July 27, 2022 at 2:57 am

In January 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cautioned the public against a peculiar method for testing oneself COVID-19 tests.

"FACT: When it comes to at-home rapid antigen #COVID19 tests, those swabs are for your nose and not your throat," the agency said Friday.

The anti-throat-swabbing warning came amid the first omicron surge in the United States. The reason? Anecdotal reports surfaced about people who were testing positive for COVID-19 only after they swabbed their throats. (A typical COVID-19 at-home test involves swabbing one's nose exclusively.)

Nearly seven months later, as the country faces yet another surge due to omicron subvariant BA.5, the FDA warning has yet to put an end to this off-label collection method. Anecdotal reports continue to surface on social media regarding symptomatic people who received negative results on an at-home test with nasal swabs, followed by a positive test only after they poked the back of their throat with the long swab instead.

Other countries' health agencies do call for testing one's throat for viral residue. Canadian provinces, including Ontario and Nova Scotia, have updated their recommendations for at-home testing to include swabs of both throat and nose.

"To collect a sample for a rapid antigen test (RATs), users should follow the instructions described in the kit insert," Ontario Health, a government health agency, advises in an information sheet updated in February 2022. "In addition to the collection method option approved by Health Canada (as described in the kit insert), users may choose to perform combined oral and nasal sampling as it may increase test sensitivity." The health agency proceeds to instruct people how to properly collect a sample from one's throat.

The collection method of throat swabbing remains a divisive issue among experts in infectious disease.

Despite the FDA's warning, many Americans are apt to wonder who to believe. Is this a collection method that does indeed "increase test sensitivity," as Ontario Health claims?

The answer depends on who's asked as the collection method of throat swabbing remains a divisive issue among experts in infectious disease.

Nathaniel Hafer, an assistant professor in molecular medicine at University of Massachusetts' Chan Medical School who has researched both at-home antigen tests and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, told Salon he believes it is best for people to follow the instructions of their specific test. In other words, if the test calls for throat swabbing, do it; if not, avoid it.

"I come down on the side that people should really do what's indicated in the test kit itself, which for all kits that are authorized in the U.S., the collection should be from the nose only," Hafer. "I think people should be following the instructions in the kits."

Yet Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center, disagreed. He told Salon via email he's been "recommending this for months" as in, swabbing one's throat when using an at-home tests "especially when sore throat is a prominent symptom."

As for lab-based PCR tests, Dr. Adalja said he doesn't recommend that physicians swab throats unless the instructions call for that method, which some do. For example, the Rheonix COVID-19 test does involve throat swabs. In other parts of the world, it is more common for PCR tests to be performed using throat swabs.

Going off-instructions could lead to some weird gray areas that raise new questions. For instance, say an individual swabs one's throat when doing an at-home test that doesn't call for throat swabbing and then tests positive. Does that imply the result would be inaccurate?

Hafer said there is some "anecdotal evidence" that the location of the tropisms of SARS-CoV-2 have changed over time with different variants.

"People are speculating that there's just more virus in the throat. I mean, that might be true, but the kits have not been tested for that kind of collection method, and so people might be getting actually true results," Hafer said. "But when people don't use the kids according to the instructions, they're opening the door to not get accurate results and that's both in the positive direction and the negative direction."

Want more health and science stories in your inbox? Subscribe toSalon's weekly newsletter The Vulgar Scientist.

William Schaffner, a professor of infectious diseases at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, told Salon he believes when a person swabs their throat with an at-home antigen test and they're positive, that means definitively that they are indeed positive no question.

"They've been infected with the virus," Schaffner said. He noted that he thinks people should be following the test's instructions, but he's not surprised that people are swabbing their throats and getting positive test results.

"If you swab the throat, which is way in the back and you can consider that the back of the nose also, we call that the nasopharynx, way back there in the throat this is a virus that does cause sore throats, and indeed it gets down into your chest."

Indeed, as Schaffner pointed out, if the virus is lingering in the cavity where the nose and throat meet that is likely why positive results are appearing after throat swabs.

Notably, most of this adviceis based anecdotal reports. There have not been any scientific papers with peer-reviewed evidence that confirm or deny the efficacy of throat swabbing with at-home tests that don't call for it. One study,published on medRxiv by researchers in Cape Town, South Africa, concluded that saliva swabs were the preferred sample-collection method for detecting omicron infections.

In the meantime, everyday people may take it upon themselves to swab their throats when self-testing. If that yields a positive result, it's time to contact a doctor and isolate from people.

In that scenario, "they should obviously contact their healthcare provider, particularly if they're in a high risk group," Schaffner said.

Here is the original post:
Experts still torn on whether you should swab your throat when taking COVID tests - Salon

Posted in Molecular Medicine | Comments Off on Experts still torn on whether you should swab your throat when taking COVID tests – Salon

The Elite Coup to Kill or Enslave Us: Why Can’t Governments, Legal Actions and Protests Stop Them? – PRESSENZA International News Agency

Posted: July 27, 2022 at 2:56 am

In 2020, under cover of the virus/vaccine narrative, the Global Elite launched its long-planned coup to capture total control of the human population.

Building on a history that dawned with human civilization some 5,000 years ago, and at least 50 years in the final planning, progressive efforts by elites in local, national and now the global context to kill off undesired populations and enslave those left alive are now culminating. See The Final Battle for Humanity: It is Now or Never in the Long War Against Homo Sapiens.

Unfortunately, however, awareness of what is really happening remains extraordinarily low, even among those who are resisting the ongoing destruction of our rights and freedom as well as the rapidly-mounting vaccine death toll. See Terrified of Freedom: Why Most Human Beings Are Embracing the Global Elites Technotyranny.

So let me briefly explain, again, exactly what is happening and why the most popular responses lobbying governments, contesting elections or forming new political parties, legal challenges and protests (in one form or another) by those concerned cannot succeed. And what we must do, if we wish to defeat this coup.

What is Happening?

If one reads the website of the World Economic Forum as well as primary documents produced by that organization, and listens to the organizations key spokespeople, such as Klaus Schwab see Now is the time for a great reset and Yuval Noah Harari see Read Yuval Hararis blistering warning to Davos in full the elite agenda is quite clear.

Under the overall title of the Great Reset, the World Economic Forum has launched a series of deeply interrelated agendas which will impose substantial changes on 200 areas of human life for those left alive.

These interrelated agendas include implementation of the elites eugenics program see The Global Elites Kill and Control Agenda: Destroying Our Food Security along with various programs in relation to the fourth industrial revolution and transhumanism that will deliver them total control of the remaining transhuman population in a world run by technocrats. See Killing Off Humanity: How the Global Elite is using Eugenics and Transhumanism to Shape Our Future.

These programs include efforts to develop and deploy relevant technologies including those in relation to 5G (and, soon enough, 6G), military weapons, artificial intelligence [AI], digital identity, big data, nanotechnology and biotechnology, robotics, the Internet of Things [IoT], the Internet of Bodies [IoB], the Internet of Senses [IoS], quantum computing, surveillance and the metaverse that will subvert human identity, human freedom, human dignity, human volition and/or human privacy. Among other adverse outcomes, these technologies will deprive us of control over our own banking and finances. See Taking Control by Destroying Cash: Beware Cyber Polygon as Part of the Elite Coup.

To reiterate: The net outcome of these programs will be a substantial human depopulation of Earth and the transhuman enslavement and imprisonment of those left alive, primarily in their smart cities.

As Mark Steele concluded in his extensive expert report on 5G Directed Energy Radiation Emissions, The prima facie evidence of this globalist depopulation agenda is unequivocal This is the greatest crime ever to be perpetrated on mankind and all of Gods creation. See Expert Report: Fifth Generation (5G) Directed Energy Radiation Emissions in the context of Nanometal-contaminated Vaccines that include Covid-19 with Graphite Ferrous Oxide Antennas.

Obviously, this is being done without any consultation with those of us who would identify as ordinary people.

Who is Orchestrating This?

The coup has been planned by the Global Elite and its primary agents. It is being implemented through elite control of key international organizations (such as the World Health Organization and United Nations), relevant corporations (including those in the technology, pharmaceutical and media industries) and national governments.

The first point to note is simply this: The Global Elite is too wealthy and powerful to bother participating personally in well-known fora such as the World Economic Forum or even those that are less well-known such as the Council for Inclusive Capitalism. The people who front organizations of this nature are elite agents. Wealthy and powerful, at one level, and happy to be publicly identified, but not the masters shaping our destinies, even if they work out many of the details. For one discussion of this, see What Is The Council For Inclusive Capitalism? Its The New World Order.

But because this Global Elite is both insane and criminal, its members have no concept of what it means to experience ordinary human life, with its daily struggles and occasional triumphs, its routine fears and simple joys. See The Global Elite is Insane Revisited. There is more information in Why Violence? and Fearless Psychology and Fearful Psychology: Principles and Practice.

So let me briefly explain, yet again, why governments, legal challenges and protests in their various guises cannot save us from what is happening, although the elite is delighted to have us waste our energy on such efforts, as they intend.

Constitutions, Governments and the Delusion of Democracy

While so-called democratic processes have long been a sham, even the sham elements of democracies the constitutional separation of powers (the division of the legislative, executive and judicial functions of government supposedly to limit the possibility of arbitrary excesses by government), respect for human rights (including freedom of speech, assembly and movement), obedience of laws and adherence to legal process have been ignored by virtually all governments (national, provincial and local) around the world as measures decided by the elite and promulgated through its international organizations such as the World Economic Forum and the World Health Organization have simply been implemented by governments despite violating constitutional provisions in various ways and without so much as a public (or, in many cases, even a parliamentary) debate.

To reiterate this point more bluntly: given the eminent roles being played by elite organizations such as the World Economic Forum and the World Health Organization in the past two-and-a-half years, do you have much sense that governments are adhering to national constitutions and making independent decisions? Or are they just following orders?

And despite supposedly having the right to freedom of speech, even dissenting politicians attempting to present an alternative view in any mainstream forum, and plenty of progressive ones besides, leads to one of a range of outcomes such as, at their most benign, censorship with corporate and major social media leading the way or howls of accusation such as conspiracy theorist and anti-vaxxer to discredit the dissenting voice.

This has happened, of course, because politicians are not beholden to voters, which is why lobbying politicians is a waste of time, unless the issue is of little significance geopolitically, militarily, economically and environmentally. As implied above, the elite controls the political fate of politicians, most of whom are well aware that their political survival has nothing to do with pleasing ordinary voters. Politicians are beholden to the elite that manipulates levers of power such as the corporate media and education systems, employs an army of lobbyists to ensure that elite preference is clearly understood (while using bribes where necessary), and has ready access to removal options such as, at its most basic, withdrawal of preselection endorsement.

Of course, the ultimate sanction, paid by five national presidents so far in this current context, is assassination. See Five Presidents Who Opposed Covid Vaccines Have Conveniently Died, Been Replaced by Pro-Vaxxers.

And Emanuel Pastreich makes a compelling argument that Shinzo Abe, the powerful immediate-past Prime Minister of Japan, suffered the same fate because of his ongoing resistance to fundamental elements of the Elite agenda. Moreover, there are other key political figures who are probably in this category, not to mention those sidelined rather than assassinated.

Abe was the highest ranking victim so far of the hidden cancer eating away at governance in nation states around the world, an institutional sickness that moves decision making away from national governments to a network of privately-held supercomputer banks, private equity groups, for-hire intelligence firms in Tel Aviv, London and Reston, and the strategic thinkers employed by the billionaires at the World Economic Forum, NATO, the World Bank and other such awesome institutions.

In parallel with the removal or sidelining of non-compliant leaders, elite wealth has long been deployed to create invisible networks for secret global governance, best represented by the World Economic Forums Young Global Leaders program and the Schwarzman Scholars program. These rising figures in policy infiltrate the governments, the industries, and research institutions of nations to make sure that the globalist agenda goes forth unimpeded. See The Assassination of Archduke Shinzo Abe: When the Globalists Crossed the Rubicon.

As a result of formal political submission to the elite agenda, supposedly basic human rights such as freedom of speech, assembly and movement have been eviscerated under the various lockdown, curfew and martial law measures with many people attempting to exercise these rights quickly discovering that they no longer exist except, perhaps, in the very narrowest of circles or in particular contexts.

But perhaps constitutional lawyer John W. Whitehead, in collaboration with Nisha Whitehead, captures the true depth of what has transpired in these two paragraphs about the United States but equally applicable to other countries:

Not only have the federal and state governments unraveled the constitutional fabric of the nation with lockdown mandates that sent the economy into a tailspin and wrought havoc with our liberties, but they have almost persuaded the citizenry to depend on the government for financial handouts, medical intervention, protection and sustenance.

This past year under lockdown was a lesson in many things, but most of all, it was a lesson in how to indoctrinate a populace to love and obey Big Brother. See After a Year Under Lockdown, Will Our Freedoms Survive the Tyranny of COVID-19?

But Big Brother isnt the government. It is those elite figures who are largely, or completely, hidden from public view and about whom you hear nothing of substance, if you hear anything at all.

Still, this doesnt stop their agents, such as those in the Council for Inclusive Capitalism, from telling you what they are doing. Its just that not many people are paying attention.

As noted by Brandon Smith: Members of the CIC, including the head of Bank of America, openly suggest that they dont actually need governments to cooperate in order to meet their goals. They say corporations can implement most social engineering without political aid. In other words, it is the very definition of shadow government A massive corporate cabal that works in tandem to implement social changes without any oversight. See What Is The Council For Inclusive Capitalism? Its The New World Order.

If you still believe that we can get out of this mess by lobbying governments or electing a different political party into government, you can read more on how the world really works in Killing Democracy Once and for All: The Global Elites Coup dtat That Is Destroying Life as We Know It.

Legal Challenges

While the law and legal processes are shrouded in a delusion suggesting that they play a role in making societies just, in fact, it has long been known that elite control of governments ensures that laws are written to consolidate predatory corporate control and that elite control over legal systems ensures that they function to maintain elite power, corporate profit and the personal privilege of that tiny minority that benefits enormously from the global system of violence, exploitation and destruction.

In 1748, Baron de Montesquieu penned The Spirit of Laws in which he noted There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of the law and in the name of justice. Since that time, a notable and diverse series of authors starting well over 100 years ago, including Karl Marx, Leo Tolstoy and Mohandas K. Gandhi, have all written critiques exposing the injustice and violence of legal systems. Despite this, the delusion that the law is a neutral agency that delivers justice still widely prevails.

As a result, enormous time, energy and resources are wasted by fine, well-intentioned people who fail to make the distinction between what they have been led to believe and the truth: The legal system is designed to deliver an occasional win for justice in some relatively minor context in order to maintain the widespread popular delusion that justice prevails while functioning to maintain elite social control over the population, oppress exploited constituencies and those who resist, and conceal and defend the vast network of elite and corporate criminality that pervades every facet of planetary life. This delusion is reinforced by films and television programs based on legal settings which often feature the little person winning.

And this is why you have never heard the rallying cry Fight for Justice: Abolish Legal Systems.

If you think the law is really concerned with justice, then ask yourself why poverty and homelessness are not made illegal and those who suffer poverty and homelessness immediately provided with social housing and an adequate income. Of course, this would be easy if military budgets for killing were eliminated (and international conflicts were addressed meaningfully) or the estimated $US32 trillion of illegal wealth hidden in offshore tax havens was made available for the benefit of humanity. See Elite Banking at Your Expense: How Secretive Tax Havens are Used to Steal Your Money.

The bottom line is simple: The Global Elite operates beyond the rule of law. It will not be contained or held to account, in any way, by legal systems. Ever heard of a Rothschild, a Warburg, a Rockefeller or even a Windsor in court? Or organizations like the World Economic Forum and the United Nations?

And while any investigation will quickly reveal that attempts are sometimes made to hold to account a corporation for some illegal activity in a national context, the record also shows that the predominant outcomes in court cases against corporations are protracted legal battles seeking ways out of, or long delays in, being held accountable, fines that are easily written off as a cost of doing business see Pfizers History of Fraud, Corruption, and Using Nigerian Children as Human Guinea Pigs as well as refusal to pay fines and/or retribution against complainants and/or their agents. See How the Environmental Lawyer Who Won a Massive Judgment Against Chevron Lost Everything.

Of course, there is no international legal infrastructure that can hold corporations or international organizations accountable in any meaningful way either.

If you want to read more about this subject, see The Rule of Law: Unjust and Violent.

Demonstrations, Blockades, Convoys and other Mass Mobilizations

If we do not thoroughly analyze a conflict, it is impossible to develop a sound strategy, which includes identifying the appropriate strategic foci for action, and then planning tactics that address each focus. This inevitably means that we are essentially guessing what to do, not knowing in advance, as we should, the nature of the strategic impact the action will have.

Moreover, guessing what action to take, usually on the basis of what is familiar or what feels good perhaps because we get out with a bunch of good people virtually inevitably leads to poor choices like organizing a mass mobilization, in one form or another (whether with people, trucks, tractors), focused on governments. And elite agents love ignoring these, as the long record demonstrates!

As former US Secretary of State Alexander Haig once noted about a massive anti-war demonstration: Let them march all they want, as long as they continue to pay their taxes. See Alexander Haig. As a four-star general, Haig, not regarded as the most intelligent Secretary of State in US history, certainly understood the importance of tactical choice. Most activists have no idea.

Which illustrates why demonstrations are notoriously ineffective, as world historys largest demonstration on 15 February 2003 involving demonstrations in more than 600 cities around the world, involving up to 30,000,000 people, against the imminent US-led war on Iraq see The World Says No to War: Demonstrations against the War on Iraq illustrated yet again.

The point is simple: Single actions and numbers are not determinative; strategy is determinative. Obviously, large gatherings, in whatever form they take, could be effective, if they were strategically focused never on governments though. See Why Activists Fail.

In essence, if any gathering is to have any strategic value whatsoever, it must be used to raise awareness of strategic means of resistance.

So if we want to take action that will be strategically effective, we must identity an appropriate strategic goal for the context and then plan an action that will achieve that goal. Anything else is guesswork. See Nonviolent Action: Why and How it Works.

Resisting the Elite Agenda Effectively

If you have the thoughtful courage to strategically resist the Great Reset and its related agendas, you are welcome to participate in the We Are Human, We Are Free campaign which identifies a list of 30 strategic goals for doing so.

In addition and more simply, you can download a one-page flyer that identifies a short series of crucial nonviolent actions that anyone can take. This flyer, now available in 17 languages (Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Spanish & Slovak) with several more languages in the pipeline, can be downloaded from here: The 7 Days Campaign to Resist the Great Reset.

If strategically resisting the Great Reset (and related agendas) appeals to you, consider joining the We Are Human, We Are Free Telegram group (with a link accessible from the website).

And if you want to organize a mass mobilization in some form, at least make sure that one or more of any team of organizers and/or speakers is responsible for inviting people to participate in this campaign and that some people at the event are designated to hand out the one-page flyer about the campaign.

If you like, you can also watch, share and/or organize to show, a short video about the campaign here: We Are Human, We Are Free video.

Finally, while the timeframe for this to make any difference is now in doubt, if you want to raise children who are powerfully able to investigate, analyze and act, you are welcome to make My Promise to Children.

Conclusion

As the elite is well aware, critiques of what it is doing and advice regarding effective strategy to defeat it are not sought by those who arent interested in analysis, understanding and strategic impact. And this information is easily suppressed so that few of those who might be interested ever hear of it.

Hence, a primary challenge is getting relevant information to those keen to resist in ways that make a difference.

At the moment, virtually all effort being spent by those opposed to the various mandates and restrictions on our freedom and other rights is, strategically-speaking, wasted.

And the time to resist effectively is running out fast.

So I gently encourage all of you resisting to spend some time evaluating what you are doing and consider participating in the alternative offered just above.

If human beings are to have a future worth living, we must take on the Global Elite directly and undermine their power to impose their agenda upon us. No one else can save us.

Read more here:
The Elite Coup to Kill or Enslave Us: Why Can't Governments, Legal Actions and Protests Stop Them? - PRESSENZA International News Agency

Posted in Transhumanism | Comments Off on The Elite Coup to Kill or Enslave Us: Why Can’t Governments, Legal Actions and Protests Stop Them? – PRESSENZA International News Agency

Transhumanism to humankind’s rescue? A new book claims we face a ‘make or break’ century, so let the technological remake begin – Genetic Literacy…

Posted: July 27, 2022 at 2:56 am

Ageing cured. Death conquered. Work ended. The human brain reverse-engineered by AI. Babies born outside of the womb. Virtual children, non-human partners. The future of humanity could be virtually unrecognisable by the end of the 21st century, according to Elise Bohan and thats if we get the transition right. If we get it wrong, well.

The future is wildly scary, says the young philosopher-macrohistorian-futurist with a smile. I cant lie to you about that. In ten years time its all going to look pretty different, and in another ten years thats a total event horizon for me I think its eminently plausible at that point that the game has changed in some very fundamental way, whether for good or bad.

Bohan, 31, is speaking from a sunny Mosman apartment, where she is house-sitting and looking after the plants. Its a distance away from the Hawkesbury river on the outskirts of Sydney where she grew up; a place with pretty spots but where it was tough to be a smart kid. And it is a half world away from Oxford University where she forms part of the Future of Humanity Institute.

Shes in Sydney seeing family and promoting her new book Future Superhuman: Our Transhuman Lives in a Make-or-Break Century. The subtitle isnt a gambit. I believe that, she says. We are in the century that defines the future of humanity like no other.

Transhumanism is a movement that aims to address or end what Bohan calls the tragedies of reality: ageing, sickness and involuntary death. It is, she writes, a philosophy and a project that aims to make us more than human.

Whether we recognise or understand it, that project has already begun, she says, and it will transform our world and minds and bodies within our lifetimes. Not only is it happening, she says, but this transition is necessary if humanity is to survive in perpetuity.

For Bohan,it is no great to leap to imagine that a baby born in 2030 may have its entire genome mapped at birth, that data uploaded to a central health record and cross-referenced at any medical appointment throughout its life. It is no great stretch to think that AI will become the most powerful intellectual force of the century. That human consciousness might be transferred from our meat sacks (bodies) into a technological sphere. That the rise of AI and automation might render great swathes of human labour redundant, and that maybe if we get it right that could leave more time for leisure, big thinking, meditation, connection.

Experiments are already underway in the realm of artificial wombs, and Bohan is sure when viable women will be clamouring to be freed from the shackles of pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding.

The book, she writes, is a love letter to humanity, but hers is a tough love. A love which sees a future for humanity, but not necessarily for human beings as we know it.

When Bohan first encountered transhumanism, at around the age of 21, her first reaction was, Its crazy. Its science fiction. Its so far out. How weird, she says. But also how interesting.

Her brother had bounded down the stairs and insisted they watch the documentary Transcendent Man, about godfather of transhumanismRay Kurzweil. He thought theyd find it hilarious which we did but it introduced Bohan to the idea of rapid acceleration of growth in computer technology, technological singularity (the theoretical point at which the force of technological change becomes out of human control and can shape human civilisation), and the idea that there was a future for humanity beyond what she calls our ape-brained meat sacks.

At the time she was an English literature undergrad, obsessed with poetry and the written word.

It was a point of sadness for me as a young person, recognising that there were so many wonderful things that had already been written forgetting all the things that would be written in the future that I would never live long enough to encounter, to explore, and to put all these things together, she says.

Fiction began to bore her as her interest in transhumanism increased. If fiction was all about exploring the human experience, it became evident that there was a tragic repetition. We work, we learn, we love, we lose, we die, she writes. Transhumanism offered something better.

By the age of 28, she had written the worlds first book-length history of transhumanism for her PhD. Its ironic, she says, to have cleaved to this shes always had an aversion to isms. They have a ring of cult-like fascination to them.

Transhumanism is perhaps best known for preoccupation with achieving human immortality.A deathless life, however, is a confronting concept. As scarcity determines value, does not the fact that our time on earth is finite give that time its value? What exactly is tragic about death?

For me, it is the loss of everything that matters. Its a loss of all things of value, she says.

On the contrary, she says, if humans could go on in a state of robust health, could keep learning, youd have this cumulative effect where our experiences and knowledge would accumulate much faster. The things that our species could do with that! The mysteries of the universe that we could unlock. The problems we could solve. And the depths of each others souls that we could explore.

Souls, she admits, is a loaded word. But without an alternative vocabulary for what makes consciousness, she is not averse to using spiritual language.

Is transhumanism encroaching on domains that religion has traditionally held? I think yes.

When Bohan was a PhD student, she gave her first big paper at a conference. Afterwards, a biologist came up to her and congratulated her on her work.

Then he looked me in the eye and whispered to me: Were building God, you know, she chuckles. I looked back at him and I said: Yeah, I know.

They knew they didnt mean it as religion, she says. But a lot of what has been talked about in religion omniscience, omnipotence, hopefully omni-benevolence we are at least getting closer to that all seeing, all knowing, all exploring [force].

Who controls that force or those forces is, of course, a critical question. The early 21st centurys rapid growth in technology has seen power and wealth accumulate and concentrate among a small number of predominantly white men. A criticism levelled at transhumanists is that they never quite stopped clinging to the sci-fi that fascinated them as young boys.

There is a degree to which many of them probably still are little boy fantasists, says Bohan. But they happen to be very, very clever little boy fantasists who also have engineering degrees and are very capable at building reusable rockets and what have you. I dont think we can dismiss the real tangible, species-advancing projects theyre actually at the helm of.

Regulating technology during this transhuman transition, argues Bohan, is not a good idea.

All things being equal, would I rather a politician or cluster politicians ruling the nuclear powers of the nation states, or would I rather someone with a PhD from MIT whos really really smart and understands the technological systems as best as a human being can? she asks. Id rather it be the tech geek.

But that said, Id rather it not be a human at all. A technological solution to regulation would free decision-making from human biases, short-termism and tribalism if done right, she says. It might not go like that.

The worst case scenario she imagines sounds drawn from the pages of science fiction dystopias. A future where ruling AI does not share the values of human beings, nor value human beings at all.

The best case scenario for the end of the century? Bohan fully expects to still be alive (shed be 110). My honest answer is that I think the best case scenario is that by the end of the century humans are done. But humanity is not done, right? So intelligence goes on, she says.

There is a utopianism associated with that ideal of just being incredibly intelligent, being able to see farther than any intelligent human being has ever seen, to know more, to experience more, to feel more, to discover more.

But this imagining, she has come to believe, is beyond the capacity of most mortals. For them, there are the Cliffs Notes.

I think the comfortable version is: we have really good health care and everyones rich. And theres lots of equality, she laughs.

But, 2100 I dont think thats where were going to be. I think were going to be much farther ahead in the game.

Celina Ribeiro is Guardian Australias assistant editor for features, culture and lifestyle. Find Celina on Twitter @Celina_Ribeiro_

A version of this article was published at the Guardian and is reposted with permission. Find the Guardian on Twitter @Guardian

Read more:
Transhumanism to humankind's rescue? A new book claims we face a 'make or break' century, so let the technological remake begin - Genetic Literacy...

Posted in Transhumanism | Comments Off on Transhumanism to humankind’s rescue? A new book claims we face a ‘make or break’ century, so let the technological remake begin – Genetic Literacy…

Mutants are Coming to the MCU, But Where Does Krakoa Fit In? – Gizmodo

Posted: July 27, 2022 at 2:56 am

Image: Mark Brooks/Marvel Comics

The X-Men and the rest of mutantkind coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been heavily discussed ever since the ink dried on the Disney/Fox buyout back in 2019. During Comic-Con of that same year, Kevin Feige declared that yes, they and the Fantastic Four would be brought into the fold with Spider-Man, the Avengers and the Inhumans various TV characters.

And now that San Diego Comic-Con is this weekendand Marvel Studios is attending for the first time in three yearseveryones got mutants on the brain.

Ask anyone with a passing interest for the X-Men or MCU, and theyve likely got a list of three or more theories for how the mutants will show up. Were they snapped into existence via Thanos or Bruce Banner? Are they being ported over from the multiverse or in a pocket dimension? Will we just start in 2024 with Charles Xavier making an attempt to gather mutants and start from there? These are just some of the more common theories floating around. Theres so many X-Men, and even more mutants generally that in theory, any possibility for how they get introduced is valid. We already know that some will get brought in via other movies or TV shows rather than a proper X-Men film, but the larger mutant race presents a much bigger hurdle than a handful of individuals.

Image: Pepe Larraz/Marvel Comics

Complicating matters further is the state of mutants outside of the films. While the upcoming X-Men 97 series serves as a nice hit of nostalgia, the mutants of the comics are going full steam ahead towards the future. In 2019, Marvel launched House of X, a miniseries by Jonathan Hickman, RB Silva, Pepe Larraz, and Marte Garcia that upended the mutant mythos. The sentient island of Krakoa has become home to nearly all the mutants, While still hated and feared by the larger Marvel universe, mutants are now taking matters into their own hands, and even taking the time to celebrate their greatness. Over the last three years, various comics have delved into mutantkinds unique experiences with magic, transhumanism, religion, and ascension to cosmic prominence.

Mutants living on their own island and just not caring about the outside world is an interesting concept, one with the potential for exciting stories isolated from the various plates spinning during Phase Four. But whats made the mutants taking their destiny (of X) into their own hands so satisfying is that it was the kind of soft reboot the characters needed. Recall that prior to this, Marvel was basically treating the mutants like redheaded stepchildren due to not owning the rights to those characters, leading to the creative decision to underpromote the X-books and gradually kill the species off by way of a war with the Inhumans. And even what that war eventually ran its course, the mutants still had to get beaten down a little bit more before they were allowed to have a utopia and repopulate their people.

Hated and feared is the theme of Marvels mutants, which neither Foxs films nor Marvels comics in the early to mid 2010s knew entirely what to do with. In the comics, this was especially egregious, since superpowered people save the world with a reliable regularity that mutant discrimination feels even sillier. Mutant as metaphor already began to grow tiresome long before 2019, and will feel even more in poor taste now as Marvel tries to make bigger, often uneven grasps at social commentary in their films and TV series. An evolution is required, but to adapt House and do it justice wouldadmittedly require a decent runup so as to feel appropriately triumphant when Krakoa is revealed in its seemingly idyllic splendor.

To us, our X-Men of 2022!Image: Russell Dautermann/Marvel Comics

At Marvel, movies and comics influence each other an equal amount, and the MCU has shown a desire to get considerably stranger now more than it did a decade ago. An island of superpowered people sounds like the right way for these mutants to feel distinct from Foxs batch and avoid just retreading the same ground. Whether Marvel Studios is willing to give that a shot and let the mutants be as weird as theyre purported to be in universe remains to be seen, either this weekend, or at D23 in September.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel and Star Wars releases, whats next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about House of the Dragon and Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

See more here:
Mutants are Coming to the MCU, But Where Does Krakoa Fit In? - Gizmodo

Posted in Transhumanism | Comments Off on Mutants are Coming to the MCU, But Where Does Krakoa Fit In? – Gizmodo

Epigenetics Market is Predicted to Hit $6460.5 Million Value by 2030, says P&S Intelligence – PR Newswire UK

Posted: July 27, 2022 at 2:55 am

NEW YORK, July 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the market research report published by P&S Intelligence, the epigenetics market was worth around $1,563.8 million in 2021, which is predicted to touch $6,460.5 million value by 2030, advancing at a 17.1% CAGR between 2021 and 2030. The field of epigenetics involves research on how the environment and behavior affect gene function. It is expected that increasing the usage of epigenetics in non-oncology applications would present a lucrative potential for market expansion.

Moreover, it has long been assumed that epimutations, which are epigenetic changes brought on by epigenetic silencing and hypermethylation, play a role in the development of cancer. Numerous R&D efforts are focusing on epimutations, particularly those related to the activation of oncogenes and the deactivation of tumor suppressor genes.

Get the sample pages of this report at: https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/epigenetics-market/report-sample

Key Points of Epigenetics Market Report

Browse detailed report on Epigenetics Market Size, Share, and Demand Forecast Report 2030

For pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, players in the field of epigenetics have been continually developing a wide range of products. These key players are PerkinElmer Inc., F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., New England Biolabs Inc., QIAGEN N.V., Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc., Active Motif Inc., Abcam plc, Pacific Biosciences of California Inc., Illumina Inc., Merck KGaA, and Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.

Epigenetics Market Report Coverage

By Product

By Method

By Technology

By Application

By End User

Browse More Reports Published by P&S

Generic Drugs Market Analysis and Demand Forecast to 2030

Gene Therapy Market Size & Share Analysis 2030

Particle Therapy Market Share and Growth Analysis 2030

Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography Market Outlook Report 2030

AboutP&S Intelligence

P&S Intelligence provides market research and consulting services to a vast array of industries across the world. As an enterprising research and consulting company, P&S believes in providing thorough insights on the ever-changing market scenario, to empower companies to make informed decisions and base their business strategies with astuteness. P&S keeps the interest of its clients at heart, which is why the insights we provide are both honest and accurate. Our long list of satisfied clients includes entry-level firms as well as multi-million-dollar businesses and government agencies.

Contact:Prajneesh KumarP&S IntelligencePhone: +1-347-960-6455Email:enquiry@psmarketresearch.comWeb:https://www.psmarketresearch.comFollow Us:LinkedInTwitter

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1224988/P_and_S_Intelligence_Logo.jpg

SOURCE P&S Intelligence

Original post:
Epigenetics Market is Predicted to Hit $6460.5 Million Value by 2030, says P&S Intelligence - PR Newswire UK

Posted in Epigenetics | Comments Off on Epigenetics Market is Predicted to Hit $6460.5 Million Value by 2030, says P&S Intelligence – PR Newswire UK

Page 312«..1020..311312313314..320330..»