�US scientists have observed a style to transmute living pancreatic cells in mice into another type of cellphone that produces insulin without having to
revert to the stem cell stage, creating what is now a third route for cell reprogramming to add to the existing methods of iPS (induced pluripotent stem cells) and hES (human
embryologic stem cells).
The study was the work of Harvard Stem Cell Institute co-director Doug Melton and post doctoral fellow Qiao "Joe" Zhou , at Harvard University,
Boston, Massachusetts, and colleagues and was published as an advanced online paper in Nature on 27th August.
Melton and colleagues seem to have got attained the "holy grail" of stem cell research, they have turned unitary type of adult mobile phone directly into another type
of grownup cell, opening the door to living cell transformation directly in patients.
Using what they called "direct reprogramming," the researchers turned exocrine gland cells, which account for around 95 percent of pancreatic tissue paper, into
rarefied insulin-producing beta cells, which account for a a great deal smaller 1 per centime or less of pancreatic cells and are consequently very precious. Beta cells
are the ones that die off in Type I diabetes.
The feat is being heralded as a major step in developing treatments for Type 2 and Type 1 diabetes, bringing closer the day when patients won't have
to be checking their blood simoleons all the time, or even get hold of insulin medication. The researchers did nonetheless caution that it will be some time earlier
this is a world, and there are many difficult hurdle race to get over before the method prat be tried in humans.
For example, as with iPS, Melton's team used viruses to introduce various arranging factors (bits of DNA that change the way that genes express
themselves) into the target cells. This is a speculative approach in humans because the viruses could behave in former unplanned and unpredictable shipway.
The researchers are looking for safer alternatives based on chemicals for this reason.
Melton pointed out that direct reprogramming will not remove the need for iPS and hES, and said his lab will continue to use them as well as the new
techniques.
"We need to attack problems from multiple angles," said Melton.
The researchers had a bit of luck when they ascertained they could directly reprogram adult cells. Usually, as in iPS, you have to usage hundreds of
trascription factors to return a mature cell back into a pluripotent cell that can buoy then be encouraged to develop into any one of a range of cells. If you
were lucky to pick the right combination of a much littler subset of transcription factors, in theory you should be able to short circuit the iPS route
and go straight from one type of get on cell to another.
That is what happened with Melton's team. With a heady mix of luck and two days of unvarying trial and error they hit on three arrangement factors,
Ngn3, Pdx1, and MafA. They just unbroken asking themselves the interrogation "What genes do you have to turn on for the cell to become a beta
cell?"
As Melton commented:
"If you want to do reprogramming it doesn't take smashing insight to figure tabu that the key genes are transcription factors - the proteins that bind DNA
and tell cells which genes to turn on and which to turn off."
He said that a stem turn cell goes through many steps before it becomes a especial type of adult cadre, each step is like passing through a door with a
specific lock in and each lock is a trascription factor. He and his team asked themselves which "locks" were in the beta cells, and that gave them 1,C
possible arrangement factors. Eventually they ascertained that only 200 of them are expressed in the cells of the pancreas, so that helped to narrow
the field of study somewhat.
The future step was to retrieve which of the 200 were special to pancreatic cells that surrounded the beta cells, and that brought the number down to a
more realizable 28. The 28 became 9 after the did further "linage studies", as Joe explained, "my best guess is it's these nine". And he was
right. They then mixed all 9 and injected them into the pancreas. Then by removing them one by one they discovered it worked best when only three
transcription factors were present, the other six-spot weren't as important, said Joe.
The fate of destiny came when they chose those 9, because if they had not produced results, Melton and his team would have given up, they
said.
Through the experiment Melton and colleagues were capable to show that the newly induced beta-cells were "indistinguishable from endogenous islet
beta-cells in size, shape and ultrastructure".
They expressed genes essential for beta-cell function and were able to "ameliorate hyperglycemia by remodelling local vasculature and secreting
insulin".
The researchers concluded that:
"This study provides an exercise of cellular reprogramming using defined factors in an adult organ and suggests a general paradigm for directing cellular phone
reprogramming without reversion to a pluripotent stem cadre state."
"In vivo reprogramming of adult pancreatic exocrine cells to beta-cells."
Qiao Zhou, Juliana Brown, Andrew Kanarek, Jayaraj Rajagopal & Douglas A. Melton
Nature Advance published on-line 27 August 2008.
doi:10.1038/nature07314
Click here for
Abstract.
Sources: Journal Abstract, Harvard Medical School.
Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today
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Monday 8 September 2008
Friday 29 August 2008
Don't just buy the music, fans told - now you can invest in big names of the future
It may not be the most obvious investment choice in these disruptive economic multiplication. But a new speculation is seeking to win over music fans to place their savings as well as their faith in rock 'n' roll.
The music executives behind Kaiser Chiefs and Primal Scream ar backing a new web site that will allow music fans to invest financially as substantially as emotionally in heatedly tipped new acts.
The venture, dreamed up by a music business attorney and backed by the founder of Friends Reunited, is being billed as the latest innovative funding model that could ply artists with an alternative to major labels.
Bandstocks will let the public buy a stake in an creative person in �10 increments. Once funding reaches a preordained level, for example �100,000, the money will be released for the act to record an album.
Investors will buzz off a copy of the album, a credit on the CD sleeve and a part of the profits from its sale and licensing. They testament also get priority ticket booking and the opportunity to corrupt limited version releases. For the creative person, founder Andrew Lewis claimed that Bandstocks would offer a better return than a major-label deal, as well as more freedom and restraint over right of first publication.
He hoped that if successful, artists would return to going subsequent albums using the scheme. But he admitted its success or loser would depend on attracting sufficient investiture from members of the public. The site, backed by investment from euphony manufacturing and distribution company The Vinyl Factory and four days in development, has launched with two artists. FrYars is a 19-year-old singer-songwriter who has been compared to Nick Cave, Rufus Wainwright and Lloyd Cole. Jersey Budd, another singer-songwriter, said he had turned down major-label deals to pursue funding through Bandstocks.
"I had the chance to do deals with a number of record labels simply I'm sure-footed about my music and the succeeding of Bandstocks, which seems to be a much more honest and guileless way to release records," he aforementioned.
The site is also looking to attract established artists. Former Boo Radleys guitarist and songwriter Martin Carr is to use the modelling to fund his succeeding album.
The founders of B-Unique, the label that is home to Kaiser Chiefs and others including Primal Scream and the Twang, volition help find and select artists to appear. Mark Lewis and Martin Toher, the two former major label executives who launched B-Unique in 2001, will act as artist and repertoire advisers.
Lewis said he hoped albums by about 10 artists would be funded by Bandstocks in its first twelvemonth. Once the target figure is reached, the money will be spent on recording and marketing the album. Revenues from record album sales and licensing testament be divided up, with half exit to the artist, 30% to the Bandstocks holders and 20% to the website.
Lewis aforesaid Bandstocks would work with each artist to put together a bespoke performance. It will use the same independent distribution network as Arctic Monkeys, the White Stripes and Oasis. The shifting sands of the music business, pursy about by the winds of technological change and rampant digital piracy, have given rise to a range of new funding models. Some artists, such as the Charlatans and Radiohead, receive sought to give their music off free or on a "pay what you like" basis.
Steve Pankhurst, the web developer who co-founded Friends Reunited in a back chamber before merchandising it to ITV for �120m in 2005, has taken a small stake in Bandstocks.
Sales pitchesGoing it alone
Radiohead released In Rainbows on a "pay what you like" basis to huge media interest, in front later reissuing it conventionally. Millions downloaded the album, featuring Thom Yorke, only research suggested that many more simply obtained it illegally anyhow. The Charlatans gave away You Cross My Path for naught in the hope of boosting live and licensing revenues.
Venture capital
Some private equity houses have through with deals with managers or artists to bypass phonograph recording labels.
Brands
Bacardi recently sign a sell with Groove Armada to fund new releases in return for being able to exercise their tracks and live events to promote its brand.
Advertising
A series of companies ar attempting to launch ad-funded services.
Subscription
Pay TV and broadband giant Sky plans a subscription service offering a integrate of millions of streaming songs plus some downloads for a set monthly fee. It has sign a deal with Universal, with other labels expected to adopt.
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Tuesday 19 August 2008
Download Les Nubians mp3
 Artist: Les Nubians: mp3 download Genre(s): Rap: Hip-Hop Pop R&B: Soul Discography:  Nubians Joints (Mixed By DJ Manifest) Year: 2007 Tracks: 1  One Step Forward Year: 2003 Tracks: 16  Princesses Nubiennes Year: 1998 Tracks: 15 An unconventional female duo that came out of Bordeaux, France, in the nineties, Les Nubians offered a tatty, sophisticated stylus of R&B that combined French lyrics with the influence of Sade, Soul II Soul, hip-hop, and African pop. The duette consists of sisters Helene and Celia Faussart, world Health Organization were born in France to a French father-God and a Cameroonian mother. After living in France as children, the siblings moved with their parents to the African land of Chad in 1985, when Helene (innate 1975) was 10 and Celia (innate 1979) was maitre d' Hicks. The sisters lived in Chad for seven geezerhood in front returning to France as teenagers. Helene and Celia had been telling to the highest grade of their lives, and when they number i formed Les Nubians, they were an a cappella chemical group that specialised in covers of R&B, reggae, and African songs. Eventually, they started working with bands and playacting original material. Helene and Celia absorbed a motley of music along the way, and they feature verbalised wonder for artists ranging from Ella Fitzgerald and Abbey Lincoln to the Fugees and African icons Miriam Makeba and Fela Kuti. Their promising debut record album, Princesses Nubiennes, was released by Virgin global in France, Switzerland, and Belgium in June 1998 earlier coming out on Omtown/Higher Octave in the U.S. in September of that class. It became America's most successful French-language album in more than than a x, and Les Nubians in any case graced recordings by Talib Kweli and Black Eyed Peas, as well as a Bolshy Hot tribute to Fela Kuti, Red, Hot & Riot. Sessions for their moment record album brought the couple to Jamaica, Cameroon, London, and Paris, including a legion of intriguing collaborators: top subway system rapper Talib Kweli, mate Cameroonian Manu Dibango, pianist Ray Lema, and broken-beat maestro IG Culture. The results appeared as One Step Forward, released in March 2003 by Higher Octave. |
Saturday 9 August 2008
Les Savy Fav
Artist: Les Savy Fav
Genre(s):
Rock
Discography:
Lets Stay Friends
Year: 2007
Tracks: 12
Having met in 1995 spell attending nontextual matter college in Rhode Island, Tim Harrington (vocals), Seth Jabber (guitar), Syd Butler (bass) and Gibb Slife (guitar) got together to form Les Savy Fav out of their extra melodic interests in Nation of Ulysses, Fugazi, Sunny Day Real Estate and Jawbox, among others. Two years of gigging around the East Coast ensued earlier Sub-Pop took a radiate and released their befittingly titled "SubPop7," followed by their first full-length 3/5 that same year on Self Starter Foundation Records. Following the recruitment of drummer Harrison Haynes, DeSoto Records put out a 7" DeSoto in 1999 to begin with issuing their indorsement record album The Cat and the Cobra by the end of that twelvemonth. In 2000 Emor: Rome Upside Down was released capturing the group's inflammatory stage presence in the studio.
Tuesday 1 July 2008
Monday 30 June 2008
Urozi and Murozi
Artist: Urozi and Murozi
Genre(s):
Easy Listening
Discography:
Shakuhachi, Chinese Gong-Chimes
Year: 2000
Tracks: 3
2 novels on Afghanistan, but neither sees what you'd expect
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