Birther Madness Infects Connecticut Legislature
January 31, 2011
(ChattahBox Political News)—The blue state of Connecticut is not known for right-wing fringe groups spouting birther conspiracies. But nevertheless, the kooky birthers, who believe that President Obama is an illegal alien have a champion in State Sen. Michael McLachlan (R). The right-wing state lawmaker introduced a birther bill, requiring that presidential and vice presidential candidates must produce an original birth certificate to appear on the state’s ballot. The proposed bill would not accept certified copies of a candidate’s birth certificate. The Republican Party has really gone off the rails, if an offensive birther bill can gain traction in Connecticut. Read more
GOP US Ambassador to China Readying Presidential Bid
January 31, 2011
(ChattahBox Political News)— The prevailing wisdom around Washington, was that Republican Jon Huntsman, the U.S. Ambassador to China would not be a presidential threat to Barack Obama in 2012. Well Huntsman, a wealthy former two-term governor of Utah apparently didn’t read the memo reminding him that it’s not polite for an ambassador to a country vitally important to America’s interests to leave his post to run in the Republican primary, hoping to unseat his boss. And besides which, in this extremist tea party, anti-elite mania taking over the Republican Party, it’s unlikely that the somewhat moderate Huntsman could make it through a primary, but the Politico is reporting today that he is quietly laying the foundation for a presidential run in the spring. Read more
Brain pacemaker could be long-lasting solution against severe depression
January 31, 2011
(ChattahBox Health News) – Nearly ten percent of all cases of depression are so severe that the patients do not respond to any established treatment method. Targeted stimulation of areas in the brain using a type of “brain pacemaker” has recently raised hopes: According to initial studies, half of patients with the most severe depression treated in this manner see a significant improvement in mood. Physicians from the University of Bonn, together with colleagues from the US, have suggested a new target structure for deep brain stimulation (as it is technically called). They hope to achieve an even better success rate with fewer side effects. The work has been published in the renowned Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews (doi: 10.1016/j.neurobiorev.2010.12.009). Read more
Scientists convert skin cells to beating heart cells
January 31, 2011
(ChattahBox Science News) – Scripps Research Institute scientists have converted adult skin cells directly into beating heart cells efficiently without having to first go through the laborious process of generating embryonic-like stem cells. The powerful general technology platform could lead to new treatments for a range of diseases and injuries involving cell loss or damage, such as heart disease, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s disease.
The work was published January 30, 2011, in an advance, online issue of Nature Cell Biology.
“This work represents a new paradigm in stem cell reprogramming,” said Scripps Research Associate Professor Sheng Ding, Ph.D., who led the study. “We hope it helps overcome major safety and other technical hurdles currently associated with some types of stem cell therapies.”
Making Stem Cells
As the human body develops, embryonic-like stem cells multiply and transform themselves into more mature cell types through a process known as differentiation, producing all of the body’s different cell types and tissues. Past the embryonic stage, however, the human body has limited capacity to generate new cells to replace ones that have been lost or damaged.
Thus, scientists have been trying to develop ways to “reprogram” adult human cells back to a more embryonic-like, or pluripotent, state, from which they are able to divide and then change into any of the body’s cell types. Using these techniques, scientists aim to someday be able to take a patient’s own cells, say skin cells, change them into heart or brain cells, and then insert them back into the patient to fix damaged tissues. In 2006, Japanese scientists reported that they could reprogram mouse skin cells to become pluripotent simply by inserting a set of four genes into the cells.
Although the technology to generate these cells, dubbed induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, represents a major advance, there are some hurdles to overcome before it can be adapted to therapies.
“It takes a long time to generate iPS cells and then differentiate them into tissue-specific functional cell types,” said Ding, “and it’s a tedious process. Also, what you generate is not ideal.”
Specifically, it takes some two to four weeks for scientists to create iPS cells from skin cells and the process is far from efficient, with only one cell out of thousands making the complete transformation. Furthermore, once scientists obtain iPS cells, they then have to go through the tricky procedure of inducing the iPS cells to differentiate into desired types of cells, which takes an additional two to four weeks.
In addition, the process of generating mature cells from iPS cells is not foolproof. When, for example, scientists induce iPS cells to become heart cells, the resulting cells are a mix of heart cells and some lingering iPS cells. Scientists are concerned that giving these new heart cells (along with the remaining pluripotent cells) to patients might be dangerous. When pluripotent cells are injected in mice, they cause cancer-like growths.
Because of these concerns, Ding and colleagues decided to try to tweak the process by completely bypassing the iPS stage and going directly from one type of mature cell (a skin cell) to another (a heart cell).
Bypassing the Stem Cell Stage
The team introduced the same four genes initially used to make iPS cells into adult skin fibroblast cells, but instead of letting the genes be continuously active in cells for several weeks, they switched off their activities just after a few days, long before the cells had turned into iPS cells. Once the four genes were switched off, the scientists gave a signal to the cells to make them turn into heart cells.
“In 11 days, we went from skin cells to beating heart cells in a dish,” said Ding. “It was phenomenal to see.”
Ding points out the protocol is fundamentally different from what has been done by other scientists in the past and notes that giving the cells a different kind of signal could turn them into brain cells or pancreatic cells.
“It is like launching a rocket,” he said. “Until now, people thought you needed to first land the rocket on the moon and then from there you could go to other planets. But here we show that just after the launch you can redirect the rocket to another planet without having to first go to the moon. This is a totally new paradigm.”
In addition to better understanding the basic biology of stem cells, the next step will be to modify this technique further to remove the need for inserting the four genes, which have been linked to the development of cancer. As a result, many scientists, including Ding, have been working on new techniques to develop iPS cells without use of these genes. That has proven difficult. But with the new protocol, which bypasses the iPS cell stage, the genes are needed for a much shorter time.
“Action for such a short period of time is a lot easier to replace,” Ding noted.
In addition to Ding, authors of the paper, “Conversion of mouse fibroblasts into cardiomyocytes using a direct reprogramming strategy,” are Jem A. Efe, Simon Hilcove, Janghwan Kim, and Hongyan Zhou of Scripps Research, and Kunfu Ouyang, Gang Wang, and Ju Chen of the University of California, San Diego.
The research was funded by The Scripps Research Institute, California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Fate Therapeutics, and the Esther B. O’Keeffe Foundation.
About The Scripps Research Institute
The Scripps Research Institute is one of the world’s largest independent, non-profit biomedical research organizations, at the forefront of basic biomedical science that seeks to comprehend the most fundamental processes of life. Scripps Research is internationally recognized for its discoveries in immunology, molecular and cellular biology, chemistry, neurosciences, autoimmune, cardiovascular, and infectious diseases, and synthetic vaccine development. An institution that evolved from the Scripps Metabolic Clinic founded by philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps in 1924, Scripps Research currently employs approximately 3,000 scientists, postdoctoral fellows, scientific and other technicians, doctoral degree graduate students, and administrative and technical support personnel. Headquartered in La Jolla, California, the institute also includes Scripps Florida, whose researchers focus on basic biomedical science, drug discovery, and technology development. Scripps Florida is located in Jupiter, Florida. For more information, see www.scripps.edu .
American Man Arrested in Plot to Destroy Detroit Mosque
January 31, 2011
(ChattahBox U.S. News)—A 63-year-old Vietnam veteran was arrested last week after allegedly parking a car filled with explosives outside of the Islamic Center of America, a Metro Detroit mosque. Roger Stockham, the suspect in the case, had previously been in legal trouble after threatening to kill President George W. Bush and planning to bomb a Vermont veterans’ clinic, the Detroit News reports.
Police received a tip about the plot and arrested Stockham outside of the mosque, where 500 mourners were attending a funeral. Stockham was accused of driving his car from his home in Imperial Beach, CA, to Detroit as part of his plan to damage the mosque, the Detroit News notes.
In the past, Stockham used the alias “Hem Ahadin” to claim he was a Muslim terrorist and make threats against President Bush for things Bush had said about Iraq. Stockham pleaded insanity in his earlier case and was found to suffer from bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and personality disorder with anti-social features. He was released from federal lockup in Sept. 2005 after doctors determined he had recovered from his mental disease, the Detroit News notes.
Afghan Bank’s Losses Could Put Afghanistan Into Financial Frenzy
January 31, 2011
(ChattahBox World News)—Kabul Bank, the largest bank in Afghanistan, faces up to $900 million in losses after being mired by fraud and mismanagement, the New York Times reports. Analysts fear the bank could collapse, which may prompt financial panic in a country already struggling financially.
Afghan investigators suspect that a large part of the $900 million was siphoned into the pockets of specific privileged Afghans, which has made a full analysis of the bank’s wrongdoing difficult, the Times notes. Afghan officials, however, counter that much of the money was invested in a real estate market that ended up crashing, and that additional funds were invested in projects that didn’t pan out or were donated to politicians.
Afghanistan’s money problems are so serious that the IMF has not yet renewed its assistance program to the country, which expired last September, the Times reports. Other, “donor” countries, which might typically help Afghanistan, are restricted from giving money to countries that are not in good standing with the IMF.
Chemical Dispersants Remain Months After Oil Spill
January 28, 2011
(ChattahBox Science News)—Remember the thousands of gallons of chemical dispersants dumped into the Gulf of Mexico to help break up the oil gushing from BP’s blown out Macondo wellhead? At the time, the chemical’s long-term effects on the environment and human health was unknown, and still is. But a new study found that three months after the BP Gulf oil disaster, the chemical has not broken down and still lingers deep underwater, raising new fears about its toxicity to sensitive marine ecosystems and our food supply. Read more
Fourth Quarter GDP Growth Climbs to 3.2 Percent
January 28, 2011
(ChattahBox Business News)–Our economy continues to move forward, although not quite fast enough as yet, to make a significant dent in the high unemployment rate. The U.S. Commerce Department released its Gross Domestic Product report for the fourth quarter, and it’s good news. The GDP rose to 3.2 percent, from just 2.6 percent in the third quarter. Today’s report marks the sixth straight quarter of growth for real GDP. And the final robust sales numbers are particularly encouraging, with an increase of 7.1 percent. Read more
UK Scientists rolling out $1.40-per-gallon ‘Green’ Gasoiine
January 28, 2011
[ChattahBox News] – The cost of gasoline is a worry for many motorists, but a new fuel invented by researchers in England that costs just $1.40 a gallon and can run the car in your driveway with no alterations could be on sale at gas stations in less than five years.
Created by Cella Energy at Rutherford Appleton Laboratories in Oxford the new fuel is entirely synthetic and hydrogen-based, so it requires no imports, no offshore drilling, and produces no greenhouse gases or pollutants at all. And those in charge of the project are confident it will run most existing cars with no issues. Read more
Republican Abortion Bill: Real Rape Needs Force
January 28, 2011
(ChattahBox Political News)–When is a rape a “real” rape, according to House Republicans? Answer: only when physical force is used. What about statutory rape, date rape or rapes involving the drugging of a victim, or other instances when a woman is incapacitated and unable to give consent? Those rapes are apparently not “rapey” enough to warrant an abortion using federal funds when a victim becomes pregnant against her will. This odious redefining of rape is found in H.R.3 – No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, the House GOP’s new abortion law that seeks to make permanent, the longstanding Hyde Amendment that restricts abortions using federal funds, except in cases of rape, incest and endangerment to the life and health of the mother. But the bill goes way beyond Hyde, and if ever enacted, insurance coverage, both private and public, of legal abortion procedures would be eliminated, forcing women to pay for the legal procedure out of pocket. And more disturbingly, the monstrous redefinition of rape could have far-reaching consequences affecting how victims of rape are treated in society and our criminal justice system. Read more