Interested in stem cell developments.
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It takes a worried man to sing a worried song,
It takes a worried man tossing a worried song,
I'm worried now but I won't be worried long!
Re: ".. in quite a few of those batting practices I saw players hit 6 ot 7 consecutive or maybe even more home runs some of the titantic variety only to see the same player go 0-4 or 0-5, and strike out three times and/or hit into double plays once the REAL game started. .."
Interesting, elysse. I have done the same thing and sometimes seen those same batters then hit 2-3 home runs.
Re: "Phase one good time to accumulate at low prices IMO."
Good point, art.
OT: CHINESE STEM CELL BREAKTHROUGH A BOON FOR REGROWING DAMAGED MUSCLES
By Jayalakshmi K / June 13, 2015 / STEMCELLS
The key to growing a healthy population of stem cells in the lab was in finding the proteins that best stimulate growth in lab from a list of 10,000 possible candidate proteins. The team narrowed the list down to four proteins.REUTERS
Muscle stem cells grown in large numbers in lab by Chinese researchers could help athletes and those with muscle-related injuries grow new muscles.
Muscles do not heal easily on their own and if a patient loses more than 20% of a muscle tissue in any area, the damage is permanent with no cure available till now.
The stem cell breakthrough could help in such situations as also ALS patients and those who have undergone cancer surgery, said Hu Ping, cell biologist at the Shanghai Institute for Biological Science at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
"It can generate enough stem cells to heal permanent wounds, especially those caused externally," she told the South China Morning Post.
The findings are published in the latest issue of the journal Cell Research.
Research across the world has been trying to grow sufficient numbers of stem cells but faces problems in coaxing the cells to divide under lab conditions.
The growth factors to simulate growth have been difficult to pin down.
In many instances, the cells lost their viability after transplantation.
Hu's team managed to harvest 10 trillion muscle stem cells from a pool of just 10,000 original stem cells taken from the host. The new versions were almost as effective as the originals in terms of regenerating muscle.
The key was in finding the proteins that best stimulate growth in lab from a list of 10,000 possible candidate proteins, Hu said.
The team narrowed down the list to four proteins.
Although the tests on mice showed that the test tube-generated cells were almost identical to the natural cells, extensive clinical trials will be needed to check for side-effects before use in humans.
Stem cells have been seen to undergo mutations that could lead to tumours.
Even though the cells can be extracted from healthy muscles fairly easily, big wounds require large numbers to be removed from healthy parts of the patient's body, posing a risk. Instead, stem cells grown in lab could be a safer bet.
Lack of volunteers
The team has contacted hospitals in China about conducting human trials but has struggled to find volunteers, partly due to financing and partly because the Chinese are less interested in sport than people in Western countries, Hu said.
Stem cells are the body's growth and maintenance units that are able to differentiate indefinitely into specialised cell types, first in the growing embryo into various organ cell types, and later form the body's repair mechanism by producing cells when the tissue they reside in is damaged.
These stem cells are found in most tissue types as well as in the embryo. The most useful stem cells are those derived from embryos known as "pluripotent" stem cells as they can differentiate into any cell type in the body.
Adult stem cells are known as multipotent stem cells but they are not as flexible as embryonic stem cells do, though they can be coaxed to differentiate into lots of useful cell types.
Yes, Briefing.com has it:
GERON LIFTING AFTER JNJ'S JANSSEN WAS GRANTED FDA ORPHAN DESIGNATION FOR ITS IMETELSTAT FOR THE TREATMENT OF MYELOFIBROSIS --
GERN is parterned with Janssen for the drug
From 10-q: "In the event that Janssen elects to continue to maintain its license rights and advance the development of imetelstat in any indication within the applicable timeframe set forth in the Collaboration Agreement (such election, the Continuation Election), we then would have an option, or the U.S. Opt-In Rights, to share further U.S. development and promotion costs in exchange for higher tiered royalty rates and higher future development and regulatory milestone payments if imetelstat is successfully developed and approved. If we exercise the U.S. Opt-In Rights, then we and Janssen would share U.S. development and promotion costs on a 20/80 basis (Geron 20%, Janssen 80%), we would receive a $65,000,000 milestone payment, or the Continuation Fee, at the time of the Continuation Election, and would be eligible to receive additional potential payments of up to $470,000,000 in development and regulatory milestones, up to $350,000,000 in sales milestones, and tiered royalties ranging from a mid-teens up to low twenties percentage rate on worldwide net sales of imetelstat in any countries where regulatory exclusivity exists or there are valid claims under the patent rights exclusively licensed to Janssen."
Speaking of powerful corporations I am sure that one problematic issue for Ocata in negotiations with such is assuring that Lanza and his team will continue to have total control over their research endeavors including how and where to move ahead with with respect to their ongoing discoveries. Some of the powerful corporations who have taken an interest in Ocata may be demanding too much of a role in such decisions.
Right you are, Captain Kirk, it is purely a case of an MA Senator posing at an event with someone from a potentially up and coming MA company. No more and no less than that.
Good point, lasers, and with respect to this issue the following point has been made in the past:
“.. Lanza also clearly stated, "ANY treatment" and then the word "MIGHT not be ready" - very carefully phrased IMO. So 2020 isn't even a sure thing- which of course makes common sense. ..”
I did point out to those who made such observations that “MIGHT not be ready” includes, in addition to the possibility of being later than 2020, the possibility of actually being ready before 2020.
Wotton’s presentation at the Jefferies Conference made clear that Ocata is planning on and is confident about having a commercial launch for a Stargardt’s Macular Degeneration treatment in 2019. I now wonder what the reaction is to that statement on the part of those who made observations like the one above?
Well said, manfromjax.
OT: SEX HORMONES MAINTAIN STEM CELLS, MAY EXPLAIN WHY 95% OF SUPERCENTENARIANS ARE WOMEN
Jun 6, 2015 / One World / Stephanie Castillo
Centenarians say positivity is the key to longevity (one woman said it’s Dr. Pepper) — but new research suggests a long life comes down to an individual’s sex hormones, especially for supercentenarians. Of the 53 living supercentenarians, or men and women who’ve lived past their 110th birthday, 51 are female.
As you know, estrogen is the female sex hormone and testosterone is the male sex hormone. Stanford University researchers cited prior studies have shown a strong link between these sex hormones and stem cell maintenance. In animal studies, estrogen directly effected stem cell population in female mice, enhancing the regenerative capacity of brain stem cells. And in male mice, estrogen supplements have been shown to increase lifespan.
Similarly, human studies have shown eunuchs, or men who have been castrated, live an estimated 14 years longer than non-eunuchs. BBC reported castration prevents most of testosterone from being produced, possibly “protecting the body from any damaging effect and prolonging lifespan.” This is in line with the studies that concluded testosterone weakens the immune system, as well as increase risk for coronary heart disease.
Since the “functional decline of stem cells” is a hallmark sign of aging, researchers analyzed emerging stem cell research to try and answer if “the aging of stem cells differs between males and females and whether this has consequences for disease and lifespan.”
While researchers did find “sex-associated differences in stem cell aging may be associated with sexual dimorphism in lifespan,” with dimorphism referring to the physical difference between men and women, their questions remains unanswered; the work devoted to this relationship is limited and elusive. This, however, isn’t to say the data on the effects of estrogen on stem cells doesn’t offer any current value.
“At the very least,” researchers wrote, “it should emphasize the importance of controlling for sex in studies in which age is a variable, as most recent work in the field has done.”
Researchers believe it’s likely “sex plays a role in defining both lifespan and health span, and the effects of sex may not be identical for these two variables.” But until more elaborate reserach is done, the search for a definitive answer continues.
BigWorm, OCAT is continuing to develop applications beyond the eye. Once they establish dominance over the eye and are bringing in a good amount of money it will be very easy for them to branch out at that point.
Yes, chuckanut, what you imply is correct; things can happen very quickly.
OCATA THERAPEUTICS RECEIVES IMPORTANT NEW U.S. PATENT FOR ITS RPE THERAPY FOR MACULAR DEGENERATIVE DISEASES
Fortified Patent Portfolio Covers RPE Products from All Pluripotent Stem Cell Sources
Business Wire Ocata Therapeutics, Inc.
6/2/2015
MARLBOROUGH, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Ocata Therapeutics, Inc. (“Ocata” or “the Company”; NASDAQ: OCAT), a leader in the field of Regenerative Ophthalmology™, today announced that it continues to fortify the scope of protection covering its retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) transplant technology with the issuance by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) of U.S. Patent No 9,045,732. This new patent further strengthens the Company’s comprehensive suite of intellectual property which the Company believes to be an important component of its sustainable competitive advantage in Regenerative Ophthalmology. Ocata recently announced the issuance of three new patents and the Company believes it now has protection for the manufacture of all RPE cell products from pluripotent stem cell sources, including the manufacturing of all formulations, (e.g. suspensions and sheets of cells), for use as therapeutic agents, as well as the use of these formulations for treating ophthalmic diseases, such as dry age related macular degeneration (“dry AMD”) and Stargardt’s macular degeneration (“SMD”).
"We continue to expand and strengthen our patent estate as we increase our worldwide leadership position in RPE products derived from any pluripotent cell source," said Paul K. Wotton, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ocata Therapeutics. “Our emphasis and ongoing investment in a comprehensive patent strategy has Ocata well positioned to initiate the next phase of our clinical development program; phase 2 trials for dry AMD and a pivotal trial for SMD. The development and commercialization of our breakthrough, fully differentiated cell therapies remains our key objective and we are committed to bringing these novel therapies to patients in need.”
This issued patent strengthens Ocata’s broad intellectual property portfolio of more than 60 granted patents and approximately 200 patent applications globally. The current intellectual property estate, which incorporates additional filings around the core RPE cell therapy discovery and improvements the Company has made, may provide additional coverage for the Company’s pharmaceutical preparations of RPE cells, methods of use, manufacturing processes, and products for the next 20 years or longer.
Re: “The MYTH and conjecture is that because OCAT Mgt is attending a very common, very typical "conference" that supposedly this means a bunch of "stuff" is supposedly happening (as in predicting the future), including some "big funding" or a secondary offering again or whatever?”
Captain Kirk, I think you do have to also admit that you, yourself, don’t really know what kind of discussions are occurring behind the scenes at these conferences and what potential agreements and deals might be in development and might come to fruition in the future.
Neural Stem Cells decrease Aging and Brain Injury
31.05.2015 | pravda.ru
Neural Stem Cells decrease Aging and Brain Injury, concludes a study published in "Science"
A researcher at the University of Coimbra (UC), Joana Barbosa, found that neural stem cells (NSC) are converted directly into neurons, depleting the number of available cells in aging and the brain damage. The study was published in the prestigious journal "Science".
The search results' show that neural stem cells do not continuously generate neurons over time, as assumed, but only a limited number. The neural stem cells population is gradually consumed because the cells are directly converted into neurons without any division. This finding contradicts the current view that the neural stem cells generate new neurons while keeping their own population," explains Joana Barbosa the recently graduated PhD from the Doctoral Programme in Experimental Biology and Biomedicine of Neuroscience and Cell Biology Center (CNC) and student at the School of Medicine.
Over five years, the researcher developed an in vivo imaging technique to study individual NSC in the adult zebrafish brain, first applied in an adult vertebrate organism.
It was observed that "the intact brain zebrafish neural stem cells rarely divide, and when they do, the division takes place asymmetrically, resulting in a cell that produces neurons (called neural progenitor) and a neural stem cell. However, after a brain injury, the progenitors migrate to the damaged site and neural stem cells alter the division mode being divided symmetrically, giving rise to two parents, thereby producing neurons".
"The production of neurons after injury results in a decrease of neural stem cells, and the maintenance of these cells may be the key to a neuronal regeneration in the long term," concludes the researcher at University of Coimbra, in central Portugal.
The technology developed in the study, during the stay of the researcher at the German research center Helmholtz Zentrum München (HMGU), may assist the improvement efforts of neuronal regeneration in humans.
"ZERO connection to this legislation IMO, none."
I would say you are right, Captain Kirk.
GROWING EYES FROM STEM CELLS
Posted: May 29, 2015
(Nanowerk News) A RIKEN team has succeeded in developing a culture method that allows human embryonic stem cells to be efficiently and spontaneously grown into the many cell types found in the human retina ("Generation of a ciliary margin-like stem cell niche from self-organizing human retinal tissue"). The achievement brings scientists a step closer to growing the most complex component of the eye—the eye’s neural tissue—and could enable doctors to repair damaged eyes with lab-grown retinal tissue.
Fluorescence microscopy image showing the self-organization of discrete populations of different eye cells formed from embryonic stem cells to construct part of the neural retina. (Image: Adapted by permission from Macmillan Publishers Ltd: Nature Communications (Ref. 1), copyright (2015))
Yoshiki Sasai, Mototsugu Eiraku and their colleagues from the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology had previously shown that they could coax human and mouse embryonic stem cells to form retinal progenitors. After a few weeks in culture, these cells would spontaneously self-assemble into three-dimensional retinal tissue. Yet although the structure contained multiple layers of neural retinal cells, including both rod and cone photoreceptors, the long-term organization of these cells was not entirely clear.
The RIKEN team, collaborating with Sumitomo Chemical Company, refined and improved this culture technique through precisely timed treatment with a regulatory protein called BMP4. This improved method transforms human embryonic stem cells into retinal progenitors without the addition of extracellular matrix products required previously to promote retinal differentiation. This allows for a more controlled process that could be suitable for future clinical applications.
The researchers also developed a method to create the ciliary margin, which resides at the boundary between the neural retina and the retinal pigment epithelium. Their step-wise ‘induction-reversal’ culture method induces the formation of boundary tissue, which then self-organizes into ciliary margin tissue. Retinal stem cells residing in the ciliary margin generate new retinal tissue and help contribute to retinal tissue growth in the culture dish. This degree of cellular organization (see figure above) is the closest scientists have yet come to building self-growing retinal tissue from stem cells.
“Our results are consistent with the current view that the retinal pigment epithelium and neural retina are capable of ‘fate transition’, says Eiraku. “By examining retinal formation in culture, we hope to reveal the mechanisms involved in human retinal development.”
The methods developed by Eiraku and his colleagues could one day be used to culture tissue that can be transplanted into a human retina damaged by conditions such as macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa, which lead to blindness. “The protocol developed here allows us to generate retinal tissue that closely resembles the biological retina with high efficiency and stability,” notes lead author Atsushi Kuwahara. “It is a step closer to realizing regenerative medicine for retinal disorders.”
fairview, I do think my response to your post embodied a fairly objective sense of steps you must have been taking in recent months. If not, apprise us of my error.
Good to hear your apparent intent to cut down on your OCAT investment, fairview.
Tonight's big fight, Romney vs. Holyfield is for CharityVison which battles blindness and says:
"For over 39 million people on earth, blindness is a reality. Over 90% of these people live in developing countries. Sadly, every minute a child goes blind. What’s truly amazing is that 80% of all blindness can be cured."
CharityVision is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization with a focus on empowering local physicians in the developing world and creating sustainable solutions to the worldwide blindness epidemic.
OT: HYDROGELS HELP STEM CELLS REVERSE BLINDNESS, HEAL BRAINS
The eyes and brains of mice began to function properly after being injected with a gel containing stem cells, showing promise for other stem cell therapies.
By Stephen Feller | May 14, 2015 |
TORONTO, May 14 (UPI) -- Scientists have successfully implanted organs grown from stem cells, however direct injection of stem cells for treatment has mostly failed because the cells often die after being introduced into the body.
Stem cells injected into mice using a hydrogel survived introduction into the rodents' bodies, restoring eyesight and repairing brain injuries after stroke, showing promise that high hopes for stem cell therapy have not been misplaced, a new study found.
The hydrogel, invented at the University of Toronto by professor Molly Shoichet, is made up of hyaluronan, which keeps stem cells alive, and methylcellulose, a chemical compound that forms a solution which holds the stem cells together.
Originally, the substance was used to hold stem cells together when being injected into a transplant site to help healing and acceptance new organs by the body.
"This study goes one step further, showing that the hydrogels do more than just hold stem cells together; they directly promote stem cell survival and integration," Shoichet said in a press release. "This brings stem-cell based therapy closer to reality."
Photoreceptors, grown from stem cells, were injected into the eyes of blind mice using the hydrogel. These cells, what eyes use to detect light, began to restore about 15 percent function to the pupils. Researchers also saw mice that had recently suffered strokes start to regain motor function after stem cells were injected into their brains.
Since the cell injections were successful in two different parts of the nervous system, researchers think the hydrogel would be effective in other parts of the body as well.
The study was published in the journal Stem Cell Reports.
I liked it as well, tsop.
Re: "This "meeting" and "talk" is nothing but a pure socialite event IMO. A travel junket and a wine n dine. ..."
Great point, Captain Kirk. In other words it is sort of like the golf junkets which 500 Fortune Company CEOs love to recall as they regale folks with some of the great deals they made while stuck in a sand trap or while trying to find a ball lost in the woods.
Re: "I'm in or out based on my trust of management and science."
guy3, this opinion is in danger of being disqualified for being overly reasonable.
especially note:
THE FORUM WILL BRING TOGETHER A CRITICAL MIX OF THOUGHT LEADER’S AND GAME-CHANGERS “WHO ARE REDEFINING OUR WORLD,” INCLUDING MORT ZUCKERMAN, PUBLISHER OF U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT AND DAILY NEWS, CHRIS HUGHES, CO-FOUNDER OF FACEBOOK AND OWNER OF THE NEW REPUBLIC, JACK BOGLE, FOUNDER OF THE VANGUARD GROUP, MICHAEL CHERTOFF, FORMER SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY, AND PETER PETERSON, FORMER SECRETARY OF COMMERCE.
Uh-oh, trade at 5:22 just knocked down to b/a of 5.87/5.89
I'm seeing b/a at 6.06/6.20
art, I did not mean to imply that you have been someone wanting Lanza to do everything at OCAT. I don't recall you doing that but many others here have at times seemed to think he should and could do everything. I used your post as a springboard to comment on that.
On the other had, I doubt Lanza showed Rabin the door. Lanza has in fact said that he was very grateful that Rabin was there, when Caldwell suddenly died, to almost seamlessly step in and keep the then ACTC moving ahead. Lanza had also been very close to Caldwell. Both Rabin and Caldwell, we can be sure, saw an opportunity to make a lot of money. Caldwell may have been manipulative early on but there is certainly ample evidence that both Caldwell and Rabin were won over by Lanza's incredible scientific efforts and became true believers in what was being achieved and in its potential to not only make money but were also genuinely excited about its potential to improve the quality of life for many suffering people.
Perhaps the worst criticism we can make of Lanza is that, by his own admission, he has little interest or patience with the management side. Maybe it would have helped if he had taken an interest or cultivated someone who could have kept him abreast of possible problems but, in any case, he has done what he is supposed to do brilliantly.
I do believe his main concern has been that he and his team be in total control of their research endeavors and where and how they move ahead with their breakthroughs. That is one reason he wants partnerships and not a buyout. A buyout could result in interference with their control by executives who, for various irrelevant reasons, have other priorities or who don't really know what they are doing.
Again, Lanza and his team have done absolutely brilliant work. I can deal with his focusing on that. Seriously, some people here want him to not only continue to oversea the incredible research but also give every speech and presentation and run every Conference Call and Webcast and now to totally take over the management side as well. He can't possibly do all of that and maintain the level of the brilliant research too. Give the guy a break.
Re: "So we will finaly see a JV in the Platelet-Area for sure!"
Possibly, but they do have a competitor listed in the article so it isn't a done deal yet.
Re: "3 long red candles should be followed by a green and the market could decide it made a mistake if the buying picks up."
Which comes first, the market decides and then the buying picks up or the buying picks up and then the market decides?
Good find, Gastro.
Once again you are absolutely right, Captain Kirk. Thanks for your continuing energetic and accurate observations here as I continue to load up on OCAT shares.
OT: CHINESE SCIENTISTS GENETICALLY MODIFY HUMAN EMBRYOS
Rumours of germline modification prove true — and look set to reignite an ethical debate.
David Cyranoski& Sara Reardon / Nature / 22 April 2015
Human embryos are at the centre of a debate over the ethics of gene editing.
In a world first, Chinese scientists have reported editing the genomes of human embryos. The results are published1 in the online journal Protein & Cell and confirm widespread rumours that such experiments had been conducted — rumours that sparked a high-profile debate last month2, 3 about the ethical implications of such work.
In the paper, researchers led by Junjiu Huang, a gene-function researcher at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, tried to head off such concerns by using 'non-viable' embryos, which cannot result in a live birth, that were obtained from local fertility clinics. The team attempted to modify the gene responsible for ß-thalassaemia, a potentially fatal blood disorder, using a gene-editing technique known as CRISPR/Cas9. The researchers say that their results reveal serious obstacles to using the method in medical applications.
"I believe this is the first report of CRISPR/Cas9 applied to human pre-implantation embryos and as such the study is a landmark, as well as a cautionary tale," says George Daley, a stem-cell biologist at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. "Their study should be a stern warning to any practitioner who thinks the technology is ready for testing to eradicate disease genes."
Some say that gene editing in embryos could have a bright future because it could eradicate devastating genetic diseases before a baby is born. Others say that such work crosses an ethical line: researchers warned in Nature2 in March that because the genetic changes to embryos, known as germline modification, are heritable, they could have an unpredictable effect on future generations. Researchers have also expressed concerns that any gene-editing research on human embryos could be a slippery slope towards unsafe or unethical uses of the technique.
The paper by Huang's team looks set to reignite the debate on human-embryo editing — and there are reports that other groups in China are also experimenting on human embryos.
PROBLEMATIC GENE
The technique used by Huang’s team involves injecting embryos with the enzyme complex CRISPR/Cas9, which binds and splices DNA at specific locations. The complex can be programmed to target a problematic gene, which is then replaced or repaired by another molecule introduced at the same time. The system is well studied in human adult cells and in animal embryos. But there had been no published reports of its use in human embryos.
Huang and his colleagues set out to see if the procedure could replace a gene in a single-cell fertilized human embryo; in principle, all cells produced as the embryo developed would then have the repaired gene. The embryos they obtained from the fertility clinics had been created for use in in vitro fertilization but had an extra set of chromosomes, following fertilization by two sperm. This prevents the embryos from resulting in a live birth, though they do undergo the first stages of development.
Huang’s group studied the ability of the CRISPR/Cas9 system to edit the gene called HBB, which encodes the human ß-globin protein. Mutations in the gene are responsible for ß-thalassaemia.
SERIOUS OBSTACLES
The team injected 86 embryos and then waited 48 hours, enough time for the CRISPR/Cas9 system and the molecules that replace the missing DNA to act — and for the embryos to grow to about eight cells each. Of the 71 embryos that survived, 54 were genetically tested. This revealed that just 28 were successfully spliced, and that only a fraction of those contained the replacement genetic material. “If you want to do it in normal embryos, you need to be close to 100%,” Huang says. “That’s why we stopped. We still think it’s too immature.”
His team also found a surprising number of ‘off-target’ mutations assumed to be introduced by the CRISPR/Cas9 complex acting on other parts of the genome. This effect is one of the main safety concerns surrounding germline gene editing because these unintended mutations could be harmful. The rates of such mutations were much higher than those observed in gene-editing studies of mouse embryos or human adult cells. And Huang notes that his team likely only detected a subset of the unintended mutations because their study looked only at a portion of the genome, known as the exome. “If we did the whole genome sequence, we would get many more,” he says.
ETHICAL QUESTIONS
Huang says that the paper was rejected by Nature and Science, in part because of ethical objections; both journals declined to comment on the claim. (Nature’s news team is editorially independent of its research editorial team.)
He adds that critics of the paper have noted that the low efficiencies and high number of off-target mutations could be specific to the abnormal embryos used in the study. Huang acknowledges the critique, but because there are no examples of gene editing in normal embryos he says that there is no way to know if the technique operates differently in them.
Still, he maintains that the embryos allow for a more meaningful model — and one closer to a normal human embryo — than an animal model or one using adult human cells. “We wanted to show our data to the world so people know what really happened with this model, rather than just talking about what would happen without data,” he says.
But Edward Lanphier, one of the scientists who sounded the warning in Nature last month, says: "It underlines what we said before: we need to pause this research and make sure we have a broad based discussion about which direction we’re going here." Lanphier is president of Sangamo BioSciences in Richmond, California, which applies gene-editing techniques to adult human cells.
Huang now plans to work out how to decrease the number of off-target mutations using adult human cells or animal models. He is considering different strategies — tweaking the enzymes to guide them more precisely to the desired spot, introducing the enzymes in a different format that could help to regulate their lifespans and thus allow them to be shut down before mutations accumulate, or varying the concentrations of the introduced enzymes and repair molecules. He says that using other gene-editing techniques might also help. CRISPR/Cas9 is relatively efficient and easy to use, but another system called TALEN is known to cause fewer unintended mutations.
The debate over human embryo editing is sure to continue for some time, however. CRISPR/Cas9 is known for its ease of use and Lanphier fears that more scientists will now start to work towards improving on Huang's paper. “The ubiquitous access to and simplicity of creating CRISPRs," he says, "creates opportunities for scientists in any part of the world to do any kind of experiments they want.”
A Chinese source familiar with developments in the field said that at least four groups in China are pursuing gene editing in human embryos.
Nature doi:10.1038/nature.2015.17378
elysse, it clearly was one of mine!
Thank you, Jbuzz.
Thanks Gastro. I used the font size control and now have 20-1 vision.