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Tag: Biology
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Elephant in the dining room: Startup makes mammoth meatball
AMSTERDAM (AP) — Throw another mammoth on the barbie?
An Australian company on Tuesday lifted the glass cloche on a meatball made of lab-grown cultured meat using the genetic sequence from the long-extinct pachyderm, saying it was meant to fire up public debate about the hi-tech treat.
The launch in an Amsterdam science museum came just days before April 1 so there was an elephant in the room: Is this for real?
“This is not an April Fools joke,” said Tim Noakesmith, founder of Australian startup Vow. “This is a real innovation.”
Cultivated meat — also called cultured or cell-based meat — is made from animal cells. Livestock doesn’t need to be killed to produce it, which advocates say is better not just for the animals but also for the environment.
Vow used publicly available genetic information from the mammoth, filled missing parts with genetic data from its closest living relative, the African elephant, and inserted it into a sheep cell, Noakesmith said. Given the right conditions in a lab, the cells multiplied until there were enough to roll up into the meatball.
More than 100 companies around the world are working on cultivated meat products, many of them startups like Vow.
Experts say that if the technology is widely adopted, it could vastly reduce the environmental impact of global meat production in the future. Currently, billions of acres of land are used for agriculture worldwide.
But don’t expect this to land on plates around the world any time soon. So far, tiny Singapore is the only country to have approved cell-based meat for consumption. Vow is hoping to sell its first product there — a cultivated Japanese quail meat — later this year.
The mammoth meatball is a one-off and has not been tasted, even by its creators, nor is it planned to be put into commercial production. Instead, it was presented as a source of protein that would get people talking about the future of meat.
“We wanted to get people excited about the future of food being different to potentially what we had before. That there are things that are unique and better than the meats that we’re necessarily eating now, and we thought the mammoth would be a conversation starter and get people excited about this new future,” Noakesmith told The Associated Press.
“But also the woolly mammoth has been traditionally a symbol of loss. We know now that it died from climate change. And so what we wanted to do was see if we could create something that was a symbol of a more exciting future that’s not only better for us, but also better for the planet,” he added.
Seren Kell, science and technology manager at Good Food Institute, a nonprofit that promotes plant- and cell-based alternatives to animal products, said he hopes the project “will open up new conversations about cultivated meat’s extraordinary potential to produce more sustainable foods, reduce the climate impact of our existing food system and free up land for less intensive farming practices.”
He said the mammoth project with its unconventional gene source was an outlier in the new meat cultivation sector, which commonly focuses on traditional livestock — cattle, pigs and poultry.
“By cultivating beef, pork, chicken, and seafood, we can have the most impact in terms of reducing emissions from conventional animal agriculture and satisfying growing global demand for meat while meeting our climate targets,” he said.
The jumbo meatball on show in Amsterdam — sized somewhere between a softball and a volleyball — was for show only and had been glazed to ensure it didn’t get damaged on its journey from Sydney.
But when it was being prepared — first slow baked and then finished off on the outside with a blow torch — it smelled good.
“The folks who were there, they said the aroma was something similar to another prototype that we produced before, which was crocodile,” Noakesmith said. “So, super fascinating to think that adding the protein from an animal that went extinct 4,000 years ago gave it a totally unique and new aroma, something we haven’t smelled as a population for a very long time.”
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Associated Press reporter Laura Ungar contributed from Louisville, Kentucky.
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Elephant in the dining room: Startup makes mammoth meatball
AMSTERDAM — Throw another mammoth on the barbie?
An Australian company on Tuesday lifted the glass cloche on a meatball made of lab-grown cultured meat using the genetic sequence from the long-extinct pachyderm, saying it was meant to fire up public debate about the hi-tech treat.
The launch in an Amsterdam science museum came just days before April 1 so there was an elephant in the room: Is this for real?
“This is not an April Fools joke,” said Tim Noakesmith, founder of Australian startup Vow. “This is a real innovation.”
Cultivated meat — also called cultured or cell-based meat — is made from animal cells. Livestock doesn’t need to be killed to produce it, which advocates say is better not just for the animals but also for the environment.
Vow used publicly available genetic information from the mammoth, filled missing parts with genetic data from its closest living relative, the African elephant, and inserted it into a sheep cell, Noakesmith said. Given the right conditions in a lab, the cells multiplied until there were enough to roll up into the meatball.
More than 100 companies around the world are working on cultivated meat products, many of them startups like Vow.
Experts say that if the technology is widely adopted, it could vastly reduce the environmental impact of global meat production in the future. Currently, billions of acres of land are used for agriculture worldwide.
But don’t expect this to land on plates around the world any time soon. So far, tiny Singapore is the only country to have approved cell-based meat for consumption. Vow is hoping to sell its first product there — a cultivated Japanese quail meat — later this year.
The mammoth meatball is a one-off and has not been tasted, even by its creators, nor is it planned to be put into commercial production. Instead, it was presented as a source of protein that would get people talking about the future of meat.
“We wanted to get people excited about the future of food being different to potentially what we had before. That there are things that are unique and better than the meats that we’re necessarily eating now, and we thought the mammoth would be a conversation starter and get people excited about this new future,” Noakesmith told The Associated Press.
“But also the woolly mammoth has been traditionally a symbol of loss. We know now that it died from climate change. And so what we wanted to do was see if we could create something that was a symbol of a more exciting future that’s not only better for us, but also better for the planet,” he added.
Seren Kell, science and technology manager at Good Food Institute, a nonprofit that promotes plant- and cell-based alternatives to animal products, said he hopes the project “will open up new conversations about cultivated meat’s extraordinary potential to produce more sustainable foods, reduce the climate impact of our existing food system and free up land for less intensive farming practices.”
He said the mammoth project with its unconventional gene source was an outlier in the new meat cultivation sector, which commonly focuses on traditional livestock — cattle, pigs and poultry.
“By cultivating beef, pork, chicken, and seafood, we can have the most impact in terms of reducing emissions from conventional animal agriculture and satisfying growing global demand for meat while meeting our climate targets,” he said.
The jumbo meatball on show in Amsterdam — sized somewhere between a softball and a volleyball — was for show only and had been glazed to ensure it didn’t get damaged on its journey from Sydney.
But when it was being prepared — first slow baked and then finished off on the outside with a blow torch — it smelled good.
“The folks who were there, they said the aroma was something similar to another prototype that we produced before, which was crocodile,” Noakesmith said. “So, super fascinating to think that adding the protein from an animal that went extinct 4,000 years ago gave it a totally unique and new aroma, something we haven’t smelled as a population for a very long time.”
___
Associated Press reporter Laura Ungar contributed from Louisville, Kentucky.
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China approves its first mRNA Covid-19 vaccine | CNN Business
Hong Kong
CNN
—
China has approved its first Covid-19 vaccine based on mRNA technology, months after the country lifted strict pandemic measures.
The vaccine was developed by CSPC Pharmaceutical Group, a homegrown firm based in the northern Chinese city of Shijiazhuang, it said in a Wednesday statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange. The vaccine targets the Omicron variant and was tested in China with over 5,500 people, it added.
The approval comes just weeks after China declared a “major and decisive victory” in its handling of the coronavirus outbreak that swept the country in recent months following an abrupt relaxation of its “zero-Covid” policy late last year.
“This is a positive step because there is strong scientific evidence that mRNA vaccines do much better than non-MRA vaccines,” Jin Dong-yan, a professor in molecular virology at the University of Hong Kong, told CNN.
“Whether this product … is as good as other products on market is still to be determined.”
CSPC said in the statement the results had demonstrated the vaccine’s “safety, immunogenicity and efficacy,” but it didn’t offer additional details.
Until now, China has approved only inactivated vaccines made by Sinovac Biotech and Sinopharm Group, two Beijing-based drugmakers.
The inactivated vaccines have been found to elicit lower levels of antibody response compared to ones using the newer messenger RNA technology. Biotech firms Pfizer
(PFE) and Moderna
(MRNA) make rRNA vaccines. -
Snap! Venus fly trap fans ask South Carolina to honor plant
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Conservationists are pushing for the Venus fly trap to be South Carolina’s official carnivorous plant, joining other official items such as the state bird (Carolina Wren), state opera (Porgy and Bess) and the state snack (boiled peanuts).
In all, South Carolina has about five dozen official state things. There are already five different plants including yellow jasmine, which is the official flower, to the official fruit — the peach — to Indian Grass, which is, unsurprisingly, South Carolina’s official grass.
But supporters said honoring the Venus fly trap isn’t about one extra thing students see on an elementary school worksheet.
Instead, it’s about protecting and increasing awareness of an interesting species found only in this spot on the globe: the upper part of the South Carolina coast and a small sliver of southeast North Carolina.
“In a state as small as ours that is growing every day, we have to protect the things that belong here,” said South Carolina Sen. Thomas McElveen, who lead a subcommittee Tuesday that voted to advance a bill to elevate the status of the carnivorous plant.
The Democrat knows all about the allure of the plant with leaves that can trap insects to get a source of nutrition in the nutrient-poor soil where it grows.
McElveen said his mom bought him one when he was a kid from the market. He named it “Audrey II” after the ravenous and cruel human-eating Venus fly trap in Little Shop of Horrors.
In the wild, Venus fly traps are the size of a lima bean and mean no harm to anything other than spiders and flies. They have special hairs that when brushed — twice in succession to reduce the amount of false alarms by dust or rain — snap the leaves shut around the insect.
If the prey continues to wiggle and is too big to escape from between the hairs, the plant releases acid that dissolves and digests the insect and provides nutrients.
“This is a plant for South Carolina to be proud of. It is globally rare,” Coastal Conservation League biologist Trapper Fowler told senators.
Venus fly traps face two big enemies — poachers and development. Poaching is illegal and the best groups of plants have been in heritage areas where they can grow away from thieves and avoid people in South Carolina’s fastest growing region. They’re also a fragile plant that needs fire more than water — the blazes clear out faster, denser overgrowth that can choke the smaller fly traps.
The bill still has to get through the full Senate Family and Veterans Affairs Committee and then approval on the Senate floor before heading to the House.
But there’s enough time this year for the Venus fly trap to join other official South Carolina things like the official spider (Carolina Wolf Spider), picnic cuisine (barbecue), dance (the Shag) and stone (blue granite).
“You’re not just naming this plant and putting it in the back of our legislative manual,” McElveen said. “You may be doing something to raise awareness and conservation.”
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New COVID origins data point to raccoon dogs in China market
BEIJING — Genetic material collected at a Chinese market near where the first human cases of COVID-19 were identified show raccoon dog DNA comingled with the virus, adding evidence to the theory that the virus originated from animals, not from a lab, international experts say.
“These data do not provide a definitive answer to how the pandemic began, but every piece of data is important to moving us closer to that answer,” World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Friday.
How the coronavirus emerged remains unclear. Many scientists believe it most likely jumped from animals to people, as many other viruses have in the past, at a wildlife market in Wuhan, China. But Wuhan is home to several labs involved in collecting and studying coronaviruses, fueling theories scientists say are plausible that the virus may have leaked from one.
The new findings do not settle the question, and they have not been formally reviewed by other experts or published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Tedros criticized China for not sharing the genetic information earlier, telling a press briefing that “this data could have and should have been shared three years ago.”
The samples were collected from surfaces at the Huanan seafood market in early 2020 in Wuhan, where the first human cases of COVID-19 were found in late 2019.
Tedros said the genetic sequences were recently uploaded to the world’s biggest public virus database by scientists at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
They were then removed, but not before a French biologist spotted the information by chance and shared it with a group of scientists based outside China that’s looking into the origins of the coronavirus.
The data show that some of the COVID-positive samples collected from a stall known to be involved in the wildlife trade also contained raccoon dog genes, indicating the animals may have been infected by the virus, according to the scientists. Their analysis was first reported in The Atlantic.
“There’s a good chance that the animals that deposited that DNA also deposited the virus,” said Stephen Goldstein, a virologist at the University of Utah who was involved in analyzing the data. “If you were to go and do environmental sampling in the aftermath of a zoonotic spillover event … this is basically exactly what you would expect to find.”
The canines, named for their raccoon-like faces, are often bred for their fur and sold for meat in animal markets across China.
Ray Yip, an epidemiologist and founding member of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control office in China, said the findings are significant, even though they aren’t definitive.
“The market environmental sampling data published by China CDC is by far the strongest evidence to support animal origins,” Yip told the AP in an email. He was not connected to the new analysis.
WHO’s COVID-19 technical lead, Maria Van Kerkhove, cautioned that the analysis did not find the virus within any animal, nor did it find any hard evidence that any animals infected humans.
“What this does provide is clues to help us understand what may have happened,” she said. The international group also told WHO they found DNA from other animals as well as raccoon dogs in the samples from the seafood market, she added.
The coronavirus’ genetic code is strikingly similar to that of bat coronaviruses, and many scientists suspect COVID-19 jumped into humans either directly from a bat or via an intermediary animal like pangolins, ferrets or racoon dogs.
Efforts to determine the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic have been complicated by factors including the massive surge of human infections in the pandemic’s first two years and an increasingly bitter political dispute.
It took virus experts more than a dozen years to pinpoint the animal origin of SARS, a related virus.
Goldstein and his colleagues say their analysis is the first solid indication that there may have been wildlife infected with the coronavirus at the market. But it is also possible that humans brought the virus to the market and infected the raccoon dogs, or that infected humans simply happened to leave traces of the virus near the animals.
After scientists in the group contacted the China CDC, they say, the sequences were removed from the global virus database. Researchers are puzzled as to why data on the samples collected over three years ago wasn’t made public sooner. Tedros has pleaded with China to share more of its COVID-19 research data.
Gao Fu, the former head of the Chinese CDC and lead author of the Chinese paper, didn’t immediately respond to an Associated Press email requesting comment. But he told Science magazine the sequences are “nothing new. It had been known there was illegal animal dealing and this is why the market was immediately shut down.”
Goldstein said his group presented its findings this week to a WHO advisory panel investigating COVID-19’s origins.
Michael Imperiale of the University of Michigan, a microbiology and immunology expert who was not involved in the data analysis, said finding a sample with sequences from the virus and a raccoon dog “places the virus and the dog in very close proximity. But it doesn’t necessarily say that the dog was infected with the virus; it just says that they were in the same very small area.”
He said the bulk of the scientific evidence at this point supports a natural exposure at the market, and pointed to research published last summer showing the market was likely the early epicenter of the scourge and concluding that the virus spilled from animals into people two separate times. “What’s the chance that there were two different lab leaks?” he asked.
Mark Woolhouse, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Edinburgh, said it will be crucial to see how the raccoon dogs’ genetic sequences match up to what’s known about the historic evolution of the COVID-19 virus. If the dogs are shown to have COVID and those viruses prove to have earlier origins than the ones that infected people, “that’s probably as good evidence as we can expect to get that this was a spillover event in the market.”
After a weeks-long visit to China to study the pandemic’s origins, WHO released a report in 2021 concluding that COVID-19 most probably jumped into humans from animals, dismissing the possibility of a lab origin as “extremely unlikely.”
But the U.N. health agency backtracked the following year, saying “key pieces of data” were still missing. And Tedros has said all hypotheses remain on the table.
The China CDC scientists who previously analyzed the Huanan market samples published a paper as a preprint in February suggesting that humans brought the virus to the market, not animals, implying that the virus originated elsewhere. Their paper didn’t mention that animal genes were found in the samples that tested positive.
In February, the Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. Department of Energy had assessed “with low confidence” that the virus had leaked from a lab. But others in the U.S. intelligence community disagree, believing it more likely it first came from animals.
Experts say the true origin of the pandemic may not be known for many years — if ever.
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Cheng reported from London. AP Science Writer Laura Ungar contributed to this story from Louisville.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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Scientists parse another clue to possible origins of Covid-19 as WHO says all possibilities ‘remain on the table’ | CNN
CNN
—
There’s a tantalizing new clue in the hunt for the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic.
A new analysis of genetic material collected from January to March 2020 at the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, China, has uncovered animal DNA in samples already known to be positive for SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes Covid-19. A significant amount of that DNA appears to belong to animals known as raccoon dogs, which were known to be traded at the market, according to officials with the World Health Organization, who addressed the new evidence in a news briefing on Friday.
The connection to raccoon dogs came to light after Chinese researchers shared raw genetic sequences taken from swabbed specimens collected at the market early in the pandemic. The sequences were uploaded in late January 2023, to the data sharing site GISAID, but have recently been removed.
An international team of researchers noticed them and downloaded them for further study, the WHO officials said Friday.
The new findings – which have not yet been publicly posted – do not settle the question of how the pandemic started. They do not prove that raccoon dogs were infected with SARS-CoV-2, nor do they prove that raccoon dogs were the animals that first infected people.
But because viruses don’t survive in the environment outside of their hosts for long, finding so much of the genetic material from the virus intermingled with genetic material from raccoon dogs is highly suggestive that they could have been carriers, according to scientists who worked on the analysis. The analysis was led by Kristian Andersen, an immunologist and microbiologist at Scripps Research; Edward Holmes, a virologist at the University of Sydney; Michael Worobey, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona. These three scientists, who have been digging into the origins of the pandemic, were interviewed by reporters for The Atlantic magazine. CNN has reached out to Andersen, Holmes and Worobey for comment.
The details of the international analysis were first reported Thursday by The Atlantic.
The new data is emerging as Republicans in Congress have opened investigations into the pandemic’s origin. Previous studies provided evidence that the virus likely emerged naturally in market, but could not point to a specific origin. Some US agencies, including a recent US Department of Energy assessment, say the pandemic likely resulted from a lab leak in Wuhan.
In the news briefing on Friday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the organization was first made aware of the sequences on Sunday.
“As soon as we became aware of this data, we contacted the Chinese CDC and urged them to share it with WHO and the international scientific community so it can be analyzed,” Tedros said.
WHO also convened its Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of the Novel Pathogens, known as SAGO, which has been investigating the roots of the pandemic, to discuss the data on Tuesday. The group heard from Chinese scientists who had originally studied the sequences, as well as the group of international scientists taking a fresh look at them.
WHO experts said in the Friday briefing that the data are not conclusive. They still can’t say whether the virus leaked from a lab, or if it spilled over naturally from animals to humans.
“These data do not provide a definitive answer to the question of how the pandemic began, but every piece of data is important in moving us closer to that answer,” Tedros said.
What the sequences do prove, WHO officials said, is that China has more data that might relate to the origins of the pandemic that it has not yet shared with the rest of the world.
“This data could have, and should have, been shared three years ago,” Tedros said. “We continue to call on China to be transparent in sharing data and to conduct the necessary investigations and share results.
“Understanding how the pandemic began remains a moral and scientific imperative.”
CNN has reached out to the Chinese scientists who first analyzed and shared the data, but has not received a reply.
The Chinese researchers, who are affiliated with that country’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, had shared their own analysis of the samples in 2022. In that preprint study posted last year, they concluded that “no animal host of SARS-CoV2 can be deduced.”
The research looked at 923 environmental samples taken from within the seafood market and 457 samples taken from animals, and found 63 environmental samples that were positive for the virus that causes Covid-19. Most were taken from the western end of the market. None of the animal samples, which were taken from refrigerated and frozen products for sale, and from live, stray animals roaming the market, were positive, the Chinese authors wrote in 2022.
When they looked at the different species of DNA represented in the environmental samples, the Chinese authors only saw a link to humans, but not other animals.
When an international team of researchers recently took at fresh look at the genetic material in the samples – which were swabbed in and around the stalls of the market – using an advanced genetic technique called metagenomics, scientists said they were surprised to find a significant amount of DNA belonging to raccoon dogs, a small animal related to foxes. Raccoon dogs can be infected with the virus that causes Covid-19 and have been high on the list of suspected animal hosts for the virus.
“What they found is molecular evidence that animals were sold at that market. That was suspected, but they found molecular evidence of that. And also that some of the animals that were there were susceptible to SARS-CoV2 infection, and some of those animals include raccoon dogs,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s technical lead for Covid-19, in Friday’s briefing.
“This doesn’t change our approach to studying the origins of Covid-19. It just tells us that more data exists, and that data needs to be shared in full,” she said.
Van Kerkhove said that until the international scientific community is able to review more evidence, “all hypotheses remain on the table.”
Some experts found the new evidence persuasive, if not completely convincing, of an origin in the market.
“The data does point even further to a market origin,” Andersen, the Scripps Research evolutionary biologist who attended the WHO meeting and is one of the scientists analyzing the new data, told the magazine Science.
The assertions made over the new data quickly sparked debate in the scientific community.
Francois Balloux, director of the Genetics Institute at University College London, said the fact that the new analysis had not yet been publicly posted for scientists to scrutinize, but had come to light in news reports, warranted caution.
“Such articles really don’t help as they only polarise the debate further,” Balloux posted in a thread on Twitter. “Those convinced by a zoonotic origin will read it as final proof for their conviction, and those convinced it was a lab leak will interpret the weakness of the evidence as attempts of a cover-up.”
Other experts, who were not involved in the analysis, said the data could be key to showing the virus had a natural origin.
Felicia Goodrum is an immunobiologist at the University of Arizona, who recently published a review of all available data for the various theories behind the pandemic’s origin.
Goodrum says the strongest proof for a natural spillover would be to isolate the virus that causes Covid-19 from an animal that was present in the market in 2019.
“Clearly, that is impossible, as we cannot go back in time any more than we have through sequencing, and no animals were present at the time sequences could be collected. To me, this is the next best thing,” Goodrum said in an email to CNN.
In the WHO briefing, Van Kerkhove said that the Chinese CDC researchers had uploaded the sequences to GISAID as they were updating their original research. She said their first paper is in the process of being updated and resubmitted for publication.
“We have been told by GISAID that the data from China’s CDC is being updated and expanded,” she said.
Van Kerkhove said on Friday that what WHO would like to be able to do is to find the source of where the animals came from. Were they wild? Were they farmed?
She said in the course of its investigation into the pandemic’s origins, WHO had repeatedly asked China for studies to trace the animals back to their source farms. She said WHO had also asked for blood tests on people who worked in the market, as well as tests on animals that may have come from the farms.
“Share the data,” Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO’s health emergencies program, said Friday, addressing scientists around the world who might have relevant information. “Let science do the work, and we will get the answers.”
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Chinese companies and founders rush to calm investors after SVB collapse | CNN Business
Hong Kong
CNN
—
The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), which courted Chinese start-ups, has caused widespread concern in China, where a string of founders and companies rushed to appease investors by saying their exposure was insignificant or nonexistent.
SVB, which worked with nearly half of all venture-backed tech and healthcare companies in the United States before it was taken over by the government, has a Chinese joint venture, which was set up in 2012 and targeted the country’s tech elite.
The SPD Silicon Valley Bank, which was owned 50-50 owned by SVB and local partner Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, said Saturday that its operations were “sound.”
“The bank has a standardized corporate governance structure and an independent balance sheet,” it said in a statement. “As China’s first technology bank, SPD Silicon Valley Bank is committed to serving Chinese science and technology companies, and has always had sound operations in accordance with Chinese laws and regulations.”
It’s unclear what will happen to SVB’s ownership of the joint venture.
SVB Financial Group, the parent company of SVB, also has two business consulting firms and one financial services firm in mainland China, according to corporate database Tianyancha.
Concerns about the failure of SVB have spread around the world, as investors fretted about the broader risks to the global banking sector and any potential spillover effect.
In an extraordinary move to restore confidence in America’s banking system, the Biden administration on Sunday guaranteed that customers of SVB and Signature Bank, which was closed by regulators, will have access to all their money.
That action appears to have appeased global markets, with US futures rallying in response and some Asian markets paring earlier losses.
In China, at least a dozen firms have issued statements since SVB collapsed trying to pacify investors or clients, saying that their exposure to the lender was limited. Most were biotech companies.
BeiGene, one of China’s largest cancer-focused drug companies, said Monday it had more than $175 million uninsured cash deposits at SVB, which represents approximately 3.9% of its cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments.
“The company does not expect the recent developments with SVB to significantly impact its operations,” it said.
Zai Lab, a pharmaceutical firm, announced that its cash deposits at SVB were “immaterial” at about $23 million.
The closure of SVB “will not have an impact” on the company’s ability to meet its operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements, including payroll, it said.
Other companies that publicly assured investors included Andon Health, Sirnaomics, Everest Medicines, Broncus Medical, Jacobio Pharmaceuticals, Brii Biosciences, CStone Pharmaceuticals, Genor Biopharma and CANbridge Pharmaceuticals.
Mobile ad tech firm Mobvista and wealth management firm Noah Holdings said their cash holdings at SVB were “minimal” or “immaterial.”
Popular selfie app Meitu said it hadn’t held any bank accounts at SVB since 2020. It issued a statement “to avoid any potential public misunderstanding.”
Ascletis Pharma, MicroPort NeuroTech, Antengene Corp, and Suzhou Basecare Medical Corporation also denied they had any deposits or business dealings with SVB.
Pan Shiyi, co-founder and former chairman of Soho China, a major Beijing-based property developer, denied he had any money at SVB after reports went viral on social media that he had lost billions of yuan.
“We never opened an account with Silicon Valley Bank, nor placed a deposit,” he said late Sunday on his Weibo account.
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Elite athletes with genetic heart disease can safely return to play with diagnosis and treatment, early study suggests | CNN
CNN
—
In a new study, most elite athletes with a diagnosed genetic heart disease did not experience serious or fatal symptoms of their condition, such as sudden cardiac death. The research suggests it can be “feasible” and “safe” for athletes to continue to participate in their sport.
Among a sample of 76 elite athletes with a genetic heart disease who had competed or are still competing in either Division I university or professional sports, 73 out of the 76 did not experience a cardiac event triggered by their disease during the study period, according to researchers behind a late-breaking clinical trial presented Monday at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session Together With the World Congress of Cardiology.
Among those elite athletes with a genetic heart disease, 40 of them – 52% – were asymptomatic, the study abstract finds.
Over the years, researchers have become more aware of alarming reports about elite athletes experiencing heart problems, or even suddenly collapsing during games.
“For athletes with genetic heart conditions, and I would add non-athletes, the tragedies occur when we don’t know of their condition,” said Dr. Michael Ackerman, a genetic cardiologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, who was a senior author of the new research. “When we know of their condition, and we assess the risk carefully and we treat it well, these athletes and non-athletes, they can expect to live and thrive despite their condition.”
The new research has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, but the findings suggest that many athletes with a genetic heart disease can decide with their health care professionals on whether to continue competing in their sport and how to do so safely, instead of being automatically disqualified due to their health conditions.
“In sports, historically, we’ve been paternalistic and de-emphasize patient preference and risk tolerance, but we know that athletes come from all walks of life. They are intelligent and when there’s scientific uncertainty, their values should be incorporated in medical decision-making,” Dr. J. Sawalla Guseh, cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, who was not involved in the new study, said during Monday’s scientific session.
“Shared decision-making when done well can have very favorable outcomes,” he said.
Elite basketball, hockey, soccer and football players, were among the 76 athletes included in the new study, conducted by researchers at Mayo Clinic and other institutions in the United States. They wrote in their study abstract that this is the first study to their knowledge describing the experience of athletes competing at the NCAA Division I level or in professional sports with a known genetic heart disease that puts them at risk of sudden cardiac death.
The athletes in the study were cleared for return-to-play at either a NCAA Division I school or at the professional level. They were studied over an average of seven years, and all had been diagnosed with a genetic heart disease in the past 20 years, being treated at either Mayo Clinic, Morristown Medical Center, Massachusetts General Hospital or Atrium Health Sports Cardiology Center.
“Only three of them had a breakthrough cardiac event, which means after they were diagnosed and treated, they were still having an event,” said Katherine Martinez, an undergraduate student at Loyola University in Baltimore, who helped conduct the research as an intern in the Mayo Clinic’s Windland Smith Rice Sudden Death Genomics Laboratory.
Fainting was the most common event, and one athlete received a shock with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator, or ICD. None of the athletes died.
“The majority of these athletes went on to continue their career with no events at all,” Martinez said. But most of the athletes in the study – 55 of them, or 72% – were initially disqualified from competing by their primary provider or institution after their diagnosis. Most ultimately opted to return to play with no restrictions after undergoing comprehensive clinical evaluations and talking with their doctors.
While each sports league has its own set of rules, historically, some people diagnosed with a genetic heart disease that puts them at an increased risk for sudden cardiac death have been restricted from competitive sports, the researchers wrote in their study abstract.
“Just because you were given this diagnosis, doesn’t mean that your life, your career, the future that you see for yourself is over, but taking a second opinion from an expert who knows what they’re doing and is comfortable with shared decision-making is the next step,” said Martinez, who worked on the new research alongside her father, Dr. Matthew Martinez, director of Atlantic Health System Sports Cardiology at Morristown Medical Center and an author of the new research.
Regarding the new study, “the take-home message is, if you have one of these findings, seek out an expert who’s going to help you identify a safe exercise plan for you and determine what level you can continue to safely participate in,” he said. “This is the next best step – the next evolution – of how we manage athletes with genetic heart disease.”
Leaving their sport due to a genetic heart disease can be “very destructive” for athletes who have devoted their lives to excelling in competitions, said Dr. Lior Jankelson, director of the Inherited Arrhythmia Program at NYU Langone Heart in New York, who was not involved in the new research.
Yet he added that these athletes still need to consult with their doctors and be watched closely because some genetic diseases could be more likely to cause a serious cardiac event than others.
The new study highlights that “the majority of athletes with genetic heart disease could probably – after careful, meticulous expert risk-stratification and care strategy – participate in sports,” Jankelson said. “But at the same time, this is exactly the reason why these patients should be cared only in high-expertise genetic cardiology clinics, because there are other conditions that are genetic, that could respond very adversely to sports, and have a much higher risk profile of developing an arrhythmia during intense activity.”
Separately, the NCAA Sports Science Institute notes on its website, “Though many student-athletes with heart conditions can live active lives and not experience health-related problems, sudden fatality from a heart condition remains the leading medical cause of death in college athletes.”
For athletes with a genetic heart disease, their symptoms and their family history of cardiac events should be considered when determining their risks, said Dr. Jayne Morgan, a cardiologist with Piedmont Healthcare in Atlanta, who was not involved in the new research.
“Certainly, there is concern with elite athletes competing and whether or not they are being screened appropriately,” Morgan said. But she added that the new research offers “some understanding” to the mental health implications for athletes with a genetic heart disease who may be required to step away from a competitive sport that they love.
“This study, I think, begins to go a long way in identifying that we may not need to pull the trigger so quickly and have athletes step away from something that they love,” Morgan said.
The new study is “timely” given the recent national attention on athletes and their risk of sudden cardiac death, Dr. Deepak Bhatt, director of Mount Sinai Heart in New York City, who was not involved in the research, said in an email.
“These are some of the best data showing that the risk of return to play may not be as high as we fear,” Bhatt said about the new research.
“Some caveats include that the majority of these athletes were not symptomatic and about a third had an implantable defibrillator,” he added. “Any decision to return to the athletic field should be made after a careful discussion of the potential risks, including ones that are hard to quantify. Input from experts in genetic cardiology and sports cardiology can be very helpful in these cases.”
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Did dioxins spread after the Ohio train derailment?
After a catastrophic 38-train car derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, some officials are raising concerns about a type of toxic substance that tends to stay in the environment.
Sherrod Brown and J.D. Vance, the U.S. senators from Ohio, sent a letter to the state’s environmental protection agency expressing concern that dioxins may have been released when some of the chemicals in the damaged railcars were deliberately burned for safety reasons. They joined residents of the small Midwestern town and environmentalists from around the U.S. calling for state and federal environmental agencies to test the soil near where the tanker cars tipped over.
On Thursday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ordered rail operator Norfolk Southern to begin testing for dioxins. Testing so far by the EPA for “indicator chemicals” has suggested there’s a low chance that dioxins were released from the derailment, the agency said.
A look at dioxins, their potential harms and whether they may have been created by burning the vinyl chloride that was on the Norfolk Southern train:
HIGHLY TOXIC, PERSISENT COMPOUNDS
Dioxins refer to a group of toxic chemical compounds that can persist in the environment for long periods, according to the World Health Organization.
They are created through combustion and attach to dust particles, which is how they begin to circulate through an ecosystem.
Residents near the burn could have been exposed to dioxins in the air that landed on their skin or were breathed into their lungs, said Frederick Guengerich, a toxicologist at Vanderbilt University.
Skin exposure to high concentrations can cause what’s known as chloracne — an intense skin inflammation, Guengerich said.
But the main pathway that dioxin gets into human bodies is not directly through something burning. It’s through consumption of meat, dairy, fish and shellfish that have become contaminated. That contamination takes time.
“That’s why it’s important for the authorities to investigate this site now,” said Ted Schettler, a physician with a public health degree who directs the Science and Environmental Health Network, a coalition of environmental organizations. “Because it’s important to determine the extent to which dioxins are present in the soil and the surrounding area.”
DOES BURNING VINYL CHLORIDE CREATE DIOXINS?
Linda Birnbaum, a leading dioxins researcher, toxicologist and former director of the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences, said that burning vinyl chloride does create dioxins. Other experts agreed the accident could have created them.
The “tremendous black plume” seen at East Palestine suggests the combustion process left lots of complex carbon compounds behind, said Murray McBride, a Cornell University soil and crop scientist.
McBride said it will be hard to say for sure whether these compounds were released until testing is done where the train cars derailed.
Which is likely why residents, politicians, environmentalists and public health professionals are all calling for state and federal environmental agencies to conduct testing at the derailment site.
ROUTES TO THE ENVIRONMENT
Some level of dioxins are already in the environment — they can be created by certain industrial processes, or even by people burning trash in their backyards, McBride said.
Once released, dioxins can stick around in soil for decades. They can contaminate plants, including crops. They accumulate up the food chain in oils and other fats.
In East Palestine, it’s possible that soot particles from the plume carried dioxins onto nearby farms, where they could stick to the soil, McBride said.
“If you have grazing animals out there in the field, they will pick up some of the dioxins from soil particles,” he said. “And so some of that gets into their bodies, and then that accumulates in fat tissue.”
Eventually, those dioxins could make their way up the food chain to human consumers. Bioaccumulation means that more dioxin can get into humans than what’s found in the environment after the crash.
Animals “don’t metabolize and get rid of dioxins like we do other chemicals,” Schettler said, and dioxin is stored in the fat of animals that humans eat, like fish, and builds up over time, making the health effects worse.
SHOULD EAST PALESTINE RESIDENTS BE CONCERNED?
Birnbaum and Schettler agreed that residents have reason for concern about dioxins from this derailment.
Even though they are present in small amounts from other sources, the large amount of vinyl chloride burned off from the train cars could create more than usual, McBride said.
“That’s my concern, that there could be an unusual concentration,” he said. “But again, I’m waiting to see if these soils are analyzed.”
It takes between seven and 11 years for dioxins to start to break down in the body of a person or animal. And dioxins have been linked with cancer, developmental problems in children and reproductive issues and infertility in adults, according to the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences.
Still, Guengerich thought that other potential health risks from the derailment — such as concerns that exposure to the vinyl chloride itself could cause cancer — may be more pressing than the possible dioxins: “I wouldn’t put it at the highest level on my list,” he said.
Dr. Maureen Lichtveld, dean of the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, agreed that vinyl chloride should be of more concern than dioxins for the public and said that even the mental health of a community rocked by the catastrophic derailment should be a higher public health priority than dioxin exposure.
As with many environmental exposures, it would be hard to prove any dioxin present came from the derailment. “I think that it would be virtually impossible …. to attribute any presence of dioxin to this particular burn,” she said.
But most experts thought it was important to test the soils for dioxins — even though that process can be difficult and costly.
“The conditions are absolutely right for dioxins to have been formed,” Schettler said. “It’s going to be terribly important to determine that from a public health perspective, and to reassure the community.”
___
Associated Press reporter John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.
___
Follow Maddie Burakoff and Drew Costley on Twitter: @maddieburakoff and @drewcostley.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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Did dioxins spread after the Ohio train derailment?
After a catastrophic 38-train car derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, some officials are raising concerns about a type of toxic substance that tends to stay in the environment.
Last week, Sherrod Brown and J.D. Vance, the U.S. senators from Ohio, sent a letter to the state’s environmental protection agency expressing concern that dioxins may have been released when some of the chemicals in the damaged railcars were deliberately burned for safety reasons. They joined residents of the small Midwestern town and environmentalists from around the U.S. calling for state and federal environmental agencies to test the soil around the site where the tanker cars tipped over.
A look at dioxins, their potential harms and whether they may have been created by burning the vinyl chloride that was on the Norfolk Southern train:
HIGHLY TOXIC, PERSISENT COMPOUNDS
Dioxins refer to a group of toxic chemical compounds that can persist in the environment for long periods of time, according to the World Health Organization.
They are created through combustion and attach to dust particles, which is how they begin to circulate through an ecosystem.
Residents near the burn could have been exposed to dioxins in the air that landed on their skin or were breathed into their lungs, said Frederick Guengerich, a toxicologist at Vanderbilt University.
Skin exposure to high concentrations can cause what’s known as chloracne — an intense skin inflammation, Guengerich said.
But the main pathway that dioxin gets into human bodies is not directly through something burning like the contents of the East Palestine tanker cars. It’s through consumption of meat, dairy, fish and shellfish that have become contaminated. That contamination takes time.
“That’s why it’s important for the authorities to investigate this site now,” said Ted Schettler, a physician with a public health degree who directs the Science and Environmental Health Network, a coalition of environmental organizations. “Because it’s important to determine the extent to which dioxins are present in the soil and the surrounding area.”
DOES BURNING VINYL CHLORIDE CREATE DIOXINS?
Linda Birnbaum, a leading dioxins researcher, toxicologist and former director of the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences, said that burning vinyl chloride does create dioxins. Other experts agreed the accident could have created them.
The “tremendous black plume” seen at East Palestine suggests the combustion process left lots of complex carbon compounds behind, said Murray McBride, a Cornell University soil and crop scientist.
McBride said it will be hard to say for sure whether these compounds were released until testing is done where the train cars derailed.
Which is likely why residents, politicians, environmentalists and public health professionals are all calling for state and federal environmental agencies to conduct testing at the derailment site.
ROUTES TO THE ENVIRONMENT
There is already some level of dioxins in the environment — they can be created by certain industrial processes, or even by people burning trash in their backyards, McBride said.
Once they are released, dioxins can stick around in soil for decades. They can contaminate plants including crops. They accumulate up the food chain in oils and other fats.
In East Palestine, it’s possible that soot particles from the plume carried dioxins onto nearby farms, where they could stick to the soil, McBride said.
“If you have grazing animals out there in the field, they will pick up some of the dioxins from soil particles,” he said. “And so some of that gets into their bodies, and then that accumulates in fat tissue.”
Eventually, those dioxins could make their way up the food chain to human consumers. Bioaccumulation means that more dioxin can get into humans than what’s found in the environment after the crash.
“(Animals) don’t metabolize and get rid of dioxins like we do other chemicals,” Schettler said, and it’s stored in the fat of animals that humans eat, like fish, and builds up over time, making the health effects worse.
SHOULD RESIDENTS BE CONCERNED?
Birnbaum and Schettler agreed that residents have reason for concern about dioxins from this accident.
Even though they are present in small amounts from other sources, the large amount of vinyl chloride burned off from the train cars could create more than usual, McBride said.
“That’s my concern, that there could be an unusual concentration,” he said. “But again, I’m waiting to see if these soils are analyzed.”
It takes between 7 and 11 years for the chemical to start to break down in the body of a person or animal. And dioxins have been linked with cancer, developmental problems in children and reproductive issues and infertility in adults, according to the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences.
Still, Guengerich thought that other potential health risks from the derailment — like the concern that exposure to the vinyl chloride itself could cause cancer — may be more pressing than the possible dioxins: “I wouldn’t put it at the highest level on my list,” he said.
Dr. Maureen Lichtveld, dean of the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, agreed that vinyl chloride should be of more concern than dioxins for the public and said that even the mental health of a community rocked by the catastrophic derailment should be a higher public health priority than dioxin exposure.
As with many environmental exposures, it would be hard to prove any dioxin present came from the derailment. “I think that it would be virtually impossible …. to attribute any presence of dioxin to this particular burn,” she said.
But most experts thought it was important to test the soils for dioxins — even though that process can be difficult and costly.
“The conditions are absolutely right for dioxins to have been formed,” Schettler said. “It’s going to be terribly important to determine that from a public health perspective, and to reassure the community.”
___
Follow Maddie Burakoff and Drew Costley on Twitter: @maddieburakoff and @drewcostley.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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Murder of Vermont woman solved after more than 50 years using DNA found on a cigarette and the victim’s clothing | CNN
CNN
—
More than 50 years after Rita Curran’s roommate found her strangled to death in her room, police in Vermont say they have identified the killer using DNA found on a cigarette butt and Curran’s clothing.
Investigators identified William DeRoos, a man who lived in Curran’s Burlington apartment building, as the person responsible with the help of advances in DNA technology and genetic genealogy, police in Vermont’s most populous city announced Tuesday.
DeRoos died of a drug overdose in San Francisco in 1986, police said. The case is now closed.
On the night of the July 1971 killing, DeRoos, who lived with his wife two floors above Curran, had a fight with his spouse and left their apartment to “cool down,” according to a Burlington police investigation report.
Curran, 24, was later found dead, severely beaten after apparently having put up a “vicious struggle,” a detective wrote at the time. Investigators are now “unanimously certain” DeRoos was responsible, the report released Tuesday says.
But when investigators questioned DeRoos and his wife the next morning, the couple said they had been together all night and didn’t hear or see anything. After police left, DeRoos told his wife if they were questioned again, she should not admit that he had left the apartment “or they would go after him” because he had a criminal history, police said during a news conference Tuesday.
A break in the case finally came in 2014 when a DNA profile was extracted from a cigarette butt that had been found next to Curran’s body, Detective Lt. James Trieb said at the news conference. Though the profile was submitted to a national criminal database for DNA, he said, no matches were made. That meant the person with that DNA likely never had genetic material entered into the database, possibly because the person didn’t have a felony conviction.
In 2019, Trieb reopened the case and decided to take a new approach.
Instead of having a single detective work the cold case alone – the department’s usual strategy – he treated the crime as if it had just been committed, bringing in a team of detectives and expert technicians to review and discuss it, his investigation report says.
The team began retesting evidence, Trieb said, and decided to analyze the cigarette DNA using genetic genealogy – a process that uses DNA databases for genealogy research to identify possible family members of the person whose DNA is unmatched.
An outside genetic genealogy expert then concluded that the cigarette DNA had strong connections to relatives of DeRoos, both on the paternal and maternal sides.
“She was certain that it was William DeRoos” who put his DNA on the cigarette, the police report says.
Why your DNA may be solving cold cases
Investigators then found a living half-brother of DeRoos who was willing to provide a DNA sample, and that sample bolstered the conclusion that the cigarette DNA belonged to DeRoos, the report says.
Finally, investigators found that DNA left on Curran’s ripped house coat also matched the DNA on the cigarette butt, the report reads. Investigators re-interviewed his then-wife, who admitted that she had lied about DeRoos’ alibi.
At the news conference, acting Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad said the day was “filled with mixed emotions.”
“Ultimately, those emotions are ones of relief, of pride for me (and) for this department, but mostly of gratitude to a family that has been through an incredible ordeal for more than half a century,” he said.
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Famed LA mountain lion’s death shines light on tribal talks
LOS ANGELES — The life of Los Angeles’ most famous mountain lion followed a path known only to the biggest of Hollywood stars: Discovered on-camera in 2012, the cougar adopted a stage name and enjoyed a decade of celebrity status before his tragic death late last year.
The popular puma gained fame as P-22 and cast a spotlight on the troubled population of California’s endangered mountain lions and their decreasing genetic diversity. Now, with his remains stored in a freezer at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, wildlife officials and representatives from the region’s tribal communities are debating his next act.
Biologists and conservationists want to retain samples of P-22’s tissue, fur and whiskers for scientific testing to aid in future wildlife research. But some representatives of the Chumash, Tataviam and Gabrielino (Tongva) peoples say his body should be returned, untouched, to the ancestral lands where he spent his life so he can be honored with a traditional burial.
In tribal communities here, mountain lions are regarded as relatives and considered teachers. P-22 is seen as an extraordinary animal, according to Alan Salazar, a tribal member of the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians and a descendent of the Chumash tribe who said his death should be honored appropriately.
“We want to bury him like he’s a ‘wot,’ like a ‘tomier,’ ” Salazar said, “which are two of the words for chief or leader” in the Chumash and Tataviam languages, respectively. “Because that’s what he was.”
Likely born about 12 years ago in the western Santa Monica Mountains, wildlife officials believe the aggression of P-22’s father and his own struggle to find a mate amid a dwindling population drove the cougar to cross two heavily traveled freeways and migrate east.
He made his debut in 2012, captured on a trail camera by biologist Miguel Ordeñana in Griffith Park, home of the Hollywood sign and part of ancestral Gabrielino (Tongva) land.
Promptly tagged and christened P-22 — as the 22nd puma in a National Park Service study — he spawned a decade of devotion among Californians, who saw themselves mirrored in his bachelor status, his harrowing journey to the heart of Los Angeles and his prime real estate in Griffith Park amid the city’s urban sprawl. Los Angeles and Mumbai are the world’s only major cities where large cats live — mountain lions in one, leopards in the other.
Angelenos will celebrate his life on Saturday at the Greek Theater in Griffith Park in a memorial put on by the “Save LA Cougars.” P-22 inspired the group to campaign for a wildlife crossing over a Los Angeles-area freeway that will allow big cats and other animals safe passage between the mountains and wildlands to the north. The bridge broke ground in April.
P-22′s star dimmed last November, when he killed a Chihuahua on a dogwalker’s leash in the Hollywood Hills and likely attacked another weeks later. Wildlife officials said the puma seemed to be “exhibiting signs of distress,” in part due to aging.
They captured P-22 on Dec. 12 in a residential backyard in the trendy Los Feliz neighborhood. Examinations revealed a skull fracture — the result of being hit by a car — and chronic illnesses including a skin infection and diseases of the kidneys and liver.
The city’s cherished big cat was euthanized five days later.
Los Angeles mourned P-22 as one of its own, with songs, stories and murals crying “long live the king.” Post-It notes of remembrance blanketed an exhibit wall at the Natural History Museum and children’s paw print messages covered a tableau outside the LA Zoo.
While fame is fleeting for most celebrities, P-22’s legacy lives on — though in what form is now up for debate.
The Natural History Museum took possession of the animal’s remains, prompting swift condemnation by tribal leaders who feared P-22′s body could be taxidermized and put on display. Samples taken during the animal’s necropsy also are causing concerns among the tribal communities about burying the cougar intact.
“In order to continue on your journey into the afterlife, you have to be whole,” said Desireé Martinez, an archaeologist and member of the Gabrielino (Tongva) community.
A year before P-22’s death, Ordeñana — the wildlife biologist whose camera first spotted the cougar and is now a senior manager of community science at the Natural History Museum — had applied for a permit from the state for the museum to receive the mountain lion’s remains when he died. Typically an animal carcass would be discarded.
Ordeñana and the state Department of Fish and Wildlife have apologized, saying they should have spoken with the tribes from the start.
Museum, state and other officials began talks with the tribes Monday in the hopes of reaching a compromise. Ordeñana and other scientists are advocating to retain at least some of P-22’s tissue samples to preserve future research opportunities for the endangered animals as new technologies and techniques arise.
“We’re trying to see what can we do differently — regarding outreach, regarding our process — that is feasible for us as an institution,” Ordeñana said, “but respectful of both the scientific and the cultural-historic legacy of these animals.”
Salazar and Martinez, however, do not believe samples should be taken from the animal’s remains and held by the museum in perpetuity.
“We’ve been studied like the mountain lion has been studied,” Salazar said. “Those bones of my tribal ancestors are in boxes so they can be studied by future generations. We’re not a science project.”
Beth Pratt, California executive director for the National Wildlife Federation and a key player in developing the wildlife crossing, said it’s important to balance the different arguments to ensure the diminishing LA cougar population has a future.
“We do need data from these animals, even P-22, for science,” said Pratt, who calls him “the Brad Pitt” of pumas.
Chuck Bonham, director of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, said the P-22 discussions have forced his agency and others to reckon with their outreach to California’s tribes.
“I think he’ll live forever in this way,” Bonham said.
Martinez, of the Gabrielino (Tongva) community, said the beloved mountain lion’s death also symbolizes how humans must take responsibility for respecting animals’ lives.
“We are wildlife. We are creatures of nature, just as all the animals and plants are,” Martinez said. “What can we do to make sure that the creatures that we are sharing this nature with have the ability to survive and live on — just like us?”
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Tanking Biotech Stocks Will Mean a Big Year for Deals. Who Could Benefit.
Nearly two years after biotechnology stocks began to tumble, executives at small and midsize companies in the space are finally accepting that share prices aren’t bouncing back anytime soon.
With reality setting in, it’s a buyer’s market for companies looking for acquisitions and partnerships, according to many of the pharmaceutical and medical technology executives who gathered at this year’s
J.P. Morgan
healthcare investor conference, which wrapped up in San Francisco on Thursday. -
Arrest of Idaho students murder suspect brings ‘a great sense of relief’ to university campus before a return to classes this week, provost says | CNN
CNN
—
Following the stabbing deaths of four students in November, the tight-knit University of Idaho community was shaken for weeks, but the recent arrest of a suspect may allow the campus to regain a sense of security as students return to classes this week.
“I think I speak for many in our community that there’s a great sense of relief, but it’s bittersweet because this is still a horrible tragedy,” the university’s provost and executive vice president Torrey Lawrence told CNN Friday.
Bryan Kohberger, 28, is charged with the murders of students Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20, who were found brutally stabbed to death in an off-campus home in Moscow, Idaho, on November 13.
The gruesome killings rattled the campus community and city of Moscow, which had not seen a murder since 2015. Anxieties only worsened as weeks passed without a named suspect, leading some students to leave campus and complete the semester remotely.
Classes resume on Wednesday following the winter break, and though students who are still uncomfortable being on campus have the option to attend remotely, most students are planning to return, Lawrence said.
“The timing of this for our students was probably good,” the provost said, adding, “Hopefully we can really just be focused on classes starting and on that student experience that we provide.”
Security will remain heightened on campus, he said, though some measures such as a state patrol presence are no longer in place.
Still, the “very peaceful, safe community” students enjoyed before the killings has experienced a “loss of innocence,” he said.
Kohberger, who is the sole suspect, was pursuing a PhD in criminal justice at nearby Washington State University at the time of the killings and lived just minutes from the scene of the killings, according to authorities.
Investigators say phone records indicate Kohberger was near the victims’ home at least 12 times between June 2022 and the present day, according to an affidavit detailing the evidence against him. The records also show the suspect was near the residence on the morning of the killings, court documents say.
DNA recovered from the the Kohberger family’s trash was linked to DNA found on a tan leather knife sheath found on the bed of one of the victims, according to the affidavit. The DNA in the trash is believed to belong to the biological father of the person whose DNA was found on the sheath, the document says.
The suspect’s white Hyundai Elantra was also seen close the victims’ home around the time of the killings, according to investigators. Kohberger received a new license plate for the car five days after the killings, Washington state licensing records and court documents reveal.
Kohberger had his initial court appearance in Idaho on Thursday and did not enter a plea at the hearing.
Before Kohberger’s arrest, authorities noted that the suspect thoroughly cleaned his vehicle and was seen wearing surgical gloves repeatedly outside his family’s Pennsylvania home, a law enforcement source tells CNN.
The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, was briefed on observations made by investigators during four days of surveillance leading up to Kohberger’s arrest at his family home.
Kohberger “cleaned his car, inside and outside, not missing an inch,” according to the law enforcement source.
A surveillance team assigned to Kohberger was tasked with two missions, according to multiple law enforcement sources: keep eyes on Kohberger so they could arrest him as soon as a warrant was issued, and try to obtain an object that would yield a DNA sample from Kohberger, which could then be compared to DNA evidence found at the crime scene.
Kohberger was seen multiple times outside the Pennsylvania home wearing surgical gloves, according to the law enforcement source.
In one instance prior to Kohberger’s arrest, authorities observed him leaving his family home around 4 a.m. and putting trash bags in the neighbors’ garbage bins, according to the source. At that point, agents recovered garbage from the Kohberger family’s trash bins and what was observed being placed into the neighbors’ bins, the source said.
The recovered items were sent to the Idaho State Lab, per the source.
Last Friday, a Pennsylvania State Police SWAT team then moved in on the Kohberger family home, breaking down the door and windows in what is known as a “dynamic entry” – a tactic used in rare cases to arrest “high risk” suspects, the source added.
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Idaho suspect in student murders thoroughly cleaned vehicle, also seen wearing surgical gloves multiple times outside family home, source says | CNN
CNN
—
The man accused of murdering four University of Idaho students in November had thoroughly cleaned the interior and exterior of his car and was also seen wearing surgical gloves multiple times before being apprehended, a law enforcement source tells CNN.
Bryan Kohberger, 28, is currently the sole suspect in the gruesome stabbings of students Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20, who were found dead inside their off-campus house in Moscow, Idaho, on November 13.
Kohberger, who was pursuing a PhD in criminal justice at Washington State University at the time of the killings, “cleaned his car, inside and outside, not missing an inch,” according to the law enforcement source.
The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, was briefed on observations made by investigators during four days of surveillance leading up to Kohberger’s arrest at his family’s Pennsylvania home on December 30.
As Kohberger now remains behind bars in Idaho awaiting his January 12 status hearing, new details have emerged elucidating some of the suspect’s movements in the days leading up to his arrest.
A surveillance team assigned to Kohberger was tasked with two missions, according to multiple law enforcement sources: keep eyes on Kohberger so they could arrest him as soon as a warrant was issued, and try to obtain an object that would yield a DNA sample from Kohberger, which could then be compared to DNA evidence found at the crime scene.
Kohberger was seen multiple times outside the Pennsylvania home wearing surgical gloves, according to the law enforcement source.
In one instance prior to Kohberger’s arrest, authorities observed him leaving his family home around 4 a.m. and putting trash bags in the neighbors’ garbage bins, according to the source. At that point, agents recovered garbage from the Kohberger family’s trash bins and what was observed being placed into the neighbors’ bins, the source said.
The recovered items were sent to the Idaho State Lab, per the source.
Last Friday, a Pennsylvania State Police SWAT team then moved in on the Kohberger family home, breaking down the door and windows in what is known as a “dynamic entry” – a tactic used in rare cases to arrest “high risk” suspects, the source added.
On Thursday, Kohberger had his initial court appearance in Idaho after he was booked into the Latah County jail Wednesday night following his extradition from Pennsylvania.
Kohberger is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary. He did not enter a plea at the hearing.
Steve Goncalves, whose daughter Kaylee was among those killed, he told CNN’s JIm Sciutto in an interview that aired Friday morning.
“Nobody understands exactly why but he was stalking them, he was hunting them,” Goncalves said. “He was a person looking for an opportunity and it just happened to be in that house. And that’s hard to take.
“She had her phone right next to her and she couldn’t call 911. So these were just girls that went to sleep that night and a coward, you know, a hunter that went out and he picked his little opponent that was girls, that’s probably why the house was targeted.”
Goncalves was in the courtroom for Kohberger’s appearance.
“He knows I want him to look me in the eye. So he didn’t. He didn’t give me that opportunity,” Goncalves said. “He’s scared to look at me in the eyes and start to understand what’s about to happen to him. You know, he picked the wrong family.”
Authorities spent nearly two months investigating before they were able to name publicly a suspect, a task that grabbed national attention and rattled the victims’ loved ones as well as the community – which had not recorded a murder in years.
Still, the public’s view of the case remains mired with questions. As of late Thursday, it remains unclear what motivated the killings. It’s also unclear how the suspect entered the house after authorities said there was no sign of forced entry or why two roommates who were inside the residence at the time of the killings survived the attacks.
Here’s how investigators narrowed the search to Kohberger:
- DNA: Trash recovered from Kohberger’s family home revealed that the “DNA profile obtained from the trash” matched a tan leather knife sheath found “laying on the bed” of one of the victims, according to a probable cause affidavit released Thursday. The DNA recovered from the trash “identified a male as not being excluded as the biological father” of the suspect whose DNA was found on the sheath. “At least 99.9998% of the male population would be expected to be excluded from the possibility of being the suspect’s biological father,” the affidavit said.
- Phone records: Authorities found the suspect’s phone was near the victims’ Moscow, Idaho, home at least a dozen times between June 2022 to the present day, according to the affidavit. The records also reveal Kohberger’s phone was near the crime scene hours after the murders that morning between 9:12 a.m. and 9:21 a.m, the document says. The killings were not reported to authorities until just before noon.
- A white sedan: A Hyundai Elantra was seen near the victims’ home around the time of their killings. Officers at Washington State University identified a white Elantra and later learned it was registered to Kohberger. The same car was also found at the suspect’s Pennsylvania family home when he was arrested last Friday. The suspect’s university is about a 10-minute drive from the Idaho crime scene.
One of two roommates who were not harmed in the attacks said she saw a masked man dressed in black inside the house on the morning of the killings, according to the probable cause affidavit.
Identified as D.M. in the court document, the roommate said she “heard crying” in the house that morning and also heard a man’s voice say, ‘It’s OK, I’m going to help you.’” D.M. said she then saw a “figure clad in black clothing and a mask that covered the person’s mouth and nose walking towards her,” the affidavit continued.
“D.M. described the figure as 5’ 10” or taller, male, not very muscular, but athletically built with bushy eyebrows,” the affidavit says. “The male walked past D.M. as she stood in a ‘frozen shock phase.’
“The male walked towards the back sliding glass door. D.M. locked herself in her room after seeing the male,” the document says, adding the roommate did not recognize the male.
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Key takeaways from court documents in case against Bryan Kohberger and some questions that remain | CNN
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DNA allegedly found on a knife sheath recovered at the murder scene.
A roommate described a masked figure with “bushy eyebrows.”
Phone records showed the suspect was near the victims’ residence numerous times in the months before the killings.
Nearly two months after the killings of four University of Idaho students captivated the country and sowed fear in the small community of Moscow, Idaho, an affidavit released Thursday offered a look at the investigative work that went into identifying Bryan Kohberger as the suspect.
The 28-year-old PhD student in criminal justice was extradited to Idaho Wednesday from his home state of Pennsylvania. Facing four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary, Kohberger did not enter a plea during his initial court appearance Thursday.
The suspect was arrested in Pennsylvania December 30, nearly seven weeks after Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20, were found fatally stabbed in an off-campus home.
Here are key takeaways from the court documents – which include the probable cause affidavit used to support Kohberger’s arrest and obtain a warrant – and some questions that remain.
Trash recovered from the Pennsylvania home of Kohberger’s family late last month and sent to the Idaho State Lab for DNA testing revealed that the “DNA profile obtained from the trash” matched a tan leather knife sheath found “laying on the bed” of one of the victims, according to the probable cause affidavit.
The DNA in the trash “identified a male as not being excluded as the biological father” of the suspect whose DNA was found on the sheath.
“At least 99.9998% of the male population would be expected to be excluded from the possibility of being the suspect’s biological father,” the affidavit said.
One of two roommates who were not harmed told investigators she saw a masked man dressed in black in the house the morning of the attack, according to the probable cause affidavit.
Identified in the document as D.M., the roommate said she “heard crying” in the house that morning and a male voice saying, ‘It’s OK, I’m going to help you.’”
D.M. told investigators she saw a “figure clad in black clothing and a mask that covered the person’s mouth and nose walking towards her,” according to the affidavit.
“D.M. described the figure as 5’ 10” or taller, male, not very muscular, but athletically built with bushy eyebrows,” the affidavit said. “The male walked past D.M. as she stood in ‘frozen shock.’”
“The male walked towards the back sliding glass door. D.M. locked herself in her room after seeing the male,” according to the document, which said the roommate did not recognize the male.
Authorities reviewed local surveillance footage and were drawn to a white sedan, later identified as a Hyundai Elantra, according to the affidavit.
The vehicle was seen in the area around the home where the killings took place.
By November 25, local law enforcement had been notified to be on the lookout for the vehicle, the affidavit said.
Days later, officers at nearby Washington State University, where the suspect was a PhD student in criminal justice, identified a white Elantra and found it was registered to Kohberger.
Kohberger’s driver’s license information was consistent with the description the unharmed roommate gave investigators, according to the affidavit.
The document specifically noted Kohberger’s height and weight – 6 feet and 185 pounds – and that he has bushy eyebrows.
Kohberger received a new license plate for his Elantra five days after the killings, the affidavit said, citing records from the Washington State Department of Licensing.
At the time of Kohberger’s arrest last week, a white Elantra was found at his parents’ house in Pennsylvania, according to Monroe County Chief Public Defender Jason LaBar, who said Kohberger had gone home for the holidays.
Phone records show Kohberger’s phone was near the victims’ residence at least 12 times since June, according to the court documents.
“All of these occasions, except for one, occurred in the late evening and early morning hours of their respective days.”
Additionally, records show Kohberger’s phone was near the murder scene – 1122 King Road – between 9:12 a.m. and 9:21 a.m. – hours after the killings, according to the court documents.
A review of phone records showed Kohberger’s phone left his home at approximately 9 a.m. and traveled to Moscow, the affidavit said, and that the same phone traveled “back to the area of the Kohberger Residence … arriving to the area at approximately 9:32 a.m.”
Kohberger applied for an internship with the Pullman Police Department in Washington in the fall of 2022, court documents show.
“Pursuant to records provided by a member of the interview panel for Pullman Police Department, we learned that Kohberger’s past education included undergraduate degrees in psychology and cloud-based forensics,” according to an affidavit.
“These records also showed Kohberger wrote an essay when he applied for an internship with the Pullman Police Department in the fall of 2022. Kohberger wrote in his essay he had interest in assisting rural law enforcement agencies with how to better collect and analyze technological data in public safety operations.”
Nearly two months after the killings, however, a number of questions remain.
It’s not clear why the unharmed roommate did not immediately call 911, or why the roommates were spared.
The motive for the crime also remains a mystery, and police have said they are still looking for the murder weapon.
The documents released Thursday shed no light on whether Kohberger had any other reason to be in the area at the time of the killings.
Why wasn’t Kohberger arrested until more than six weeks after the victims were found dead?
And authorities have not said publicly whether Kohberger knew any of the victims.
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BEST OF 2022: Supermom In Training: Why you NEED to talk to your kids about sex
Want to know why you need to talk to your kids about sex?!
Just Google “what is sex?”. If you don’t tell them what sex is, this is what they will think it is.
Scary, no?
About a year ago, I had the full “sex talk” with my 8-year-old. He’s always been a pretty mature kid so I knew he was ready to hear it. Now, in third grade, he and his friends are doing a lot of joking around that centres around sexuality. The difference is, I know my son understands these jokes… but I also know the kids who are throwing around these terms and sound effects, and they most definitely don’t know or understand the depth of what they are saying.
Yes, sound effects. Moaning, to be precise.
There are lots of jokes about penises. Doodles of dinkies. Mentions of “humping” and more. So much more.
Perhaps it’s better that your kids hear about sex and sexuality not from their friends, who are tossing around words without really knowing what they’re talking about. Sure, it might seem uncomfortable to say certain things about sex to your kids. After all, they’re so innocent, right?
Trust me: Coming from a mom whose son trusts her enough to divulge all the on-goings of 8-, 9-, and 10-year-old kids, you want to help them out on this one. Because if you don’t fill in the blanks, Google or Siri or the kid in the schoolyard will.
A full-time work-from-home mom, Jennifer Cox (our “Supermom in Training”) loves dabbling in healthy cooking, craft projects, family outings, and more, sharing with readers everything she knows about being an (almost) superhero mommy.
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Making pig livers humanlike in quest to ease organ shortage
EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. — The ghostly form floating in a large jar had been the robust reddish-brown of a healthy organ just hours before. Now it’s semi-translucent, white tubes like branches on a tree showing through.
This is a pig liver that’s gradually being transformed to look and act like a human one, part of scientists’ long quest to ease the nation’s transplant shortage by bioengineering replacement organs.
The first step for workers in this suburban Minneapolis lab is to shampoo away the pig cells that made the organ do its work, its color gradually fading as the cells dissolve and are flushed out. What’s left is a rubbery scaffolding, a honeycomb structure of the liver, its blood vessels now empty.
Next human liver cells — taken from donated organs unable to be transplanted — will be oozed back inside that shell. Those living cells move into the scaffolding’s nooks and crannies to restart the organ’s functions.
“We essentially regrow the organ,” said Jeff Ross, CEO of Miromatrix. “Our bodies won’t see it as a pig organ anymore.”
That’s a bold claim. Sometime in 2023, Miromatrix plans first-of-its-kind human testing of a bioengineered organ to start trying to prove it.
If the Food and Drug Administration agrees, the initial experiment will be outside a patient’s body. Researchers would place a pig-turned-humanlike liver next to a hospital bed to temporarily filter the blood of someone whose own liver suddenly failed. And if that novel “liver assist” works, it would be a critical step toward eventually attempting a bioengineered organ transplant — probably a kidney.
“It all sounds science fiction-ey but it’s got to start somewhere,” said Dr. Sander Florman, a transplant chief at New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital, one of several hospitals already planning to participate in the liver-assist study. “This is probably more of the near future than xenotransplantation,” or directly implanting animal organs into people.
More than 105,000 people are on the U.S. waiting list for an organ transplant. Thousands will die before it’s their turn. Thousands more never even get put on the list, considered too much of a long shot.
“The number of organs we have available are never going to be able to meet the demand,” said Dr. Amit Tevar, a transplant surgeon at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. “This is our frustration.”
That’s why scientists are looking to animals as another source of organs. A Maryland man lived two months after receiving the world’s first heart transplant from a pig last January — an animal genetically modified so its organs didn’t trigger an immediate attack from the human immune system. The FDA is considering whether to allow additional xenotransplantation experiments using kidneys or hearts from gene-edited pigs.
Bioengineering organs is markedly different — no special pigs required, just leftover organs from slaughterhouses.
“That is something that in the long term may very likely contribute to the development of organs we can use in humans,” said Pittsburgh’s Tevar. He’s not involved with Miromatrix — and cautioned that the planned outside-the-body testing would be only an early first step.
The Miromatrix approach stems from research in the early 2000s, when regenerative medicine specialist Doris Taylor and Dr. Harald Ott, then at the University of Minnesota, pioneered a way to completely decellularize the heart of a dead rat. The team seeded the resulting scaffolding with immature heart cells from baby rats that eventually made the little organ beat, garnering international headlines.
Fast forward, and now at university spinoff Miromatrix sit rows of large jugs pumping fluids and nutrients into livers and kidneys in various stages of their metamorphosis.
Stripping away the pig cells removes some of the risks of xenotransplantation, such as lurking animal viruses or hyper-rejection, Ross said. The FDA already considers the decellularized pig tissue safe for another purpose, using it to make a type of surgical mesh.
More complex is getting human cells to take over.
“We can’t take billions of cells and push them into the organ at once,” Ross said. When slowly infused, “the cells crawl around and when they see the right environment, they stick.”
The source of those human cells: donated livers and kidneys that won’t be transplanted. Nearly a quarter of kidneys donated in the U.S. last year were discarded because hospitals often refuse to transplant less than perfect organs, or because it took too long to find a matching recipient.
As long as enough cells still are functioning when donation groups offer up an organ, Miromatrix biologists isolate usable cells and multiply them in lab dishes. From one rescued human organ the company says it can grow enough cells to repopulate several pig liver or kidney scaffolds, cells responsible for different jobs — the kind that line blood vessels or filter waste, for example.
In 2021, researchers with Miromatrix and the Mayo Clinic reported successfully transplanting a version of bioengineered livers into pigs.
That set the stage for testing a “liver-assist” treatment similar to dialysis, using bioengineered livers to filter the blood of people in acute liver failure, a life-threatening emergency. Doctors now have little to offer except supportive care unless the person is lucky enough to get a rapid transplant.
“If you can just get over the hump, then you might actually recover” — because the liver is the only organ that can repair itself and regrow, said Mount Sinai’s Florman. “I’ll be excited when they get their first patient enrolled and I hope that it’s with us.”
It’s not clear how soon that testing can begin. The FDA recently told Miromatrix it has some questions about the study application.
If the outside-the-body liver experiment works, what’s next? Still more research aimed at one day attempting to transplant a bioengineered organ — likely a kidney, because a patient could survive with dialysis if the operation failed.
While regrowing kidneys isn’t as far along, “I was completely stunned” at the progress so far, said Dr. Ron Shapiro, a kidney transplant expert at Mount Sinai.
He treats many older patients on dialysis who “will wait for years and years to get a kidney and likely die waiting on the list who would be perfect” for such experiments — if they come in time.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
