NCTimes.com Blogs

Monday
ESCONDIDO: San Diego North EDC 10th anniversary holiday luncheon
11:30 a.m.  to 2 p.m. The San Diego North EDC marks its 10th anniversary at this holiday luncheon. Held at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido. Cost $45 for members, and $60 for non-members.

Tuesday
CARMEL VALLEY: Connect FrameWorks — Breakaway Innovation
8 a.m. to 11 a.m., at the offices of Mintz Levin. Pre-registration cost is $45, at the door $55 per person.

Wednesday
VISTA: Holiday Sundowner for Vista Chamber of Commerce
The annual Holiday cheer event is scheduled from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Vista Entertainment Center, Vista Village off Highway 78 at 435 West Vista Way. Cost is $5 for members and $10 for non-members. Bring in cans of soup as part of a food drive to benefit Angel’s Depot. Receive a raffle ticket for each can you bring! No RSVP is needed.

Thursday
MURRIETA: After-Hours Mixer for Murrieta Chamber of Commerce
5 to 7 p.m. at Rancho Springs Medical Center – Administrative Support Bldg. 25500 Medical Center Dr. Free for Chamber Members  $10 non-members. Bring business cards and be ready to network! Promote your business and bring in a raffle donation.

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Genetically engineered foods have been controversial for years due to their real or imagined potential for harm. But the empty bellies of millions of people have renewed interest in biotech crops. The Associated Press story below describes how this came to be.

It’s a good story, except for its inclusion of the musings of a random uninformed “person on the street.”  Such inserts tell the reader nothing. This paint-by-numbers approach to journalism is rightfully mocked in The Onion.

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Food crunch opens doors to bioengineered crops

By ELAINE KURTENBACH
Associated Press Writer

KUNMING, China — Zeng Yawen’s outdoor laboratory in the terraced hills of southern China is a trove of genetic potential — rice that thrives in unusually cool temperatures, high altitudes or in dry soil; rice rich in calcium, vitamins or iron.
“See these plants? They can tolerate the cold,” Zeng says as he walks through a checkerboard of test fields sown with different rice varieties on the outskirts of Kunming, capital of southwestern China’s Yunnan province.
“We can extract the cold-tolerant gene from this plant and use it in a genetically manipulated variety to improve its cold tolerance,” Zeng says.
In a mountainous place like Yunnan, and in many other parts of the developing world, such advantages can tip the balance between hunger and a decent living. And China is now ready to tip that scale in favor of genetically modified crops.
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The “central dogma” of DNA makes RNA makes proteins has been revised so much since Francis Crick described it that a better term might be “central tendency.” Now scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory,  Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University have found another qualifier — inheritance by a class of small RNA molecules that affects the action of DNA in egg cells.

This epigenetic mode of inheritance was found in fruit fly embryos.  Small RNA molecules from the mother switch off DNA sequences that cause sterility. These are called Piwi-interacting RNAs, or  piRNAs.  They were earlier found to suppress the action of transposons, or “jumping genes,” which can mess up development by interfering with other genes.

The scientific paper documenting the findings appeared in the Nov. 28 online issue of Science.

Since fruit fly genetics bears striking resemblances to human genetics, the discovery has obvious implications for human health. One of the researchers was quoted in the press release as saying these small RNAs are probably deposited in the egg cells of all animals.

Zevalin, a radioimmunotherapy for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma that has languished for years despite being proven safe and effective, finally has a home.

Spectrum Pharmaceuticals and Cell Therapeutics have agreed to jointly market Zevalin. The companies will form a limited liability company to commercialize Zevalin in the United States.

Cell Therapeutics had acquired Zevalin some time ago from Biogen Idec, which developed it as the next step forward for non-Hodgkin’s treatment after its blockbuster Rituxan.

However, Zevalin sales never took off, in part because its treatment protocol is cumbersome, requiring the use of nuclear medicine facilities and specialists. Also, industry observers have said oncologists have a financial disincentive to prescribe it, because they have to share the revenue from treatment with radiation oncologists.

Cell Therapeutics has worked since acquiring Zevalin to expand its uses and reduce the hurdles to its being prescribed. The new partnership will help with that process.

Zevalin can now be marketed for use in relapsed or refractory, low-grade or follicular B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, including patients who have Rituxan-refractory follicular NHL. In September, Cell Therapeutics submitted an application to expand use to include first-line therapy in untreated patients with follicular NHL.

San Diego-based Ceregene Inc. said this morning that its Phase II trial of its gene therapy drug CERE-120 failed to show the drug did better than a control group. The study took place in 58 patients with advanced Parkinson’s disease.

The failure is not only a setback for Parkinson’s patients, but for the struggling field of gene therapy, which has had a few successes but also notable failures that called its safety and efficacy into question.

“(W)e are stunned by the results of this trial,” said Raymond T. Bartus, Ph.D., Ceregene’s executive vice president and chief scientific officer, in the Ceregene press release.

Both those treated with the drug and the control group had “a substantial number of patients who demonstrated a meaningful clinical improvement from baseline,” the press release stated.

The drug consists of an adeno-associated virus  carrying the gene for neurturin, a protein found to repair damaged dopanine-secreting neurons. Dopamine deficiency is associated with Parkinson’s disease.