Canadian researchers have developed a new treatment for mobility-impaired Parkinson’s disease patients – and the results are “beyond their wildest dreams.”
Scientists from Western University in Ontario recently published the results of a pilot study in which they used spinal implants to improve motor function in several patients with advanced Parkinson’s.
Prior to the study, the patients were barely able to stand on their own without falling over or they were forced to depend entirely on wheelchairs for mobility.
After getting the spinal implant, however, the patients are now capable of walking unassisted for the first time in years.
The implant works by using electrical stimulation to reconnect the brain’s motor signals with the spinal cord. Researchers managed to reforge these neural pathways by keeping the implants activated for 1 to 4 months. Even after the implants were turned off, patients continued to experience improved motor function.
Professor Mandar Jog of Western University says that witnessing the success of the procedure has been awe-inspiring.
“Most of our patients have had the disease for 15 years and have not walked with any confidence for several years,” Jog told BBC in the interview below.
“For them to go from being home-bound, with the risk of falling, to being able to go on trips to the mall and have vacations is remarkable for me to see.”
The researchers are now recruiting 25 more patients to participate in a larger clinical study on the implant’s success. The trial is expected to conclude by April 2020.
(WATCH the video below)
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I am hanging out with this awesome kid at @URMed_GCH. Cole is 18 and moving to the adult hospital. He asked for pizza by painting his room window. He got ALOT of pizza! 2 sheets last night. 3 sheets this morning. 10 larges since I have been here. 5 more sheets coming @SPECNewsROCpic.twitter.com/8fzGUWzf5w
The nurses and staffers at this children’s hospital were thrilled to receive a surprise pizza party thanks to a message that was written on one of their windows.
The message was courtesy of 18-year-old Cole Favro. The young man has been going to Golisano Children’s Hospital for his cystic fibrosis since he was a child – so when the day finally came for him to be transferred to an adult hospital, he wanted to do something special for his beloved caretakers.
“The hospital is awful and not fun to be in, but they make it great. They’re so amazing and [they’re like] family,” Favro told Spectrum News.
On the night before his last day at Golisano, he painted a message on the window of his hospital room reading: “SEND PIZZA. 8 SOUTH RM14.”
Despite being located on one of the upper floors of the building, the people of Rochester, New York read his message loud and clear. Within 24 hours of writing the message on his window, 18 different pizzas were delivered to his room.
Needless to say, the hospital staffers were in awe of their patient’s sweet gesture.
Favro says that he has also been heartened by the strangers who facilitated the spontaneous pizza party. “It feels really nice that there’s a community around, looking out for everybody and helping people in the hospital like me,” he told Spectrum.
Favro has since replaced his painted plea for pizza with a new message that simply says: “Thank You!”
Pie It Forward By Sharing The Sweet Story With Your Friends On Social Media – Feature photo by Golisano Children’s Hospital
These two Scottish entrepreneurs are being hailed for developing a new process that could spell the end for unsustainable palm oil.
Scott Kennedy and Fergus Moore are honing a chemical technique that extracts oils from used coffee grounds.
The young men first got the idea to use coffee waste oil when they were working in cafés during their time in college.
According to the duo, the bulk of café waste is made up of used coffee grounds. In the UK alone, used coffee grounds collectively add up to about half a million tons of landfill waste every year.
So rather than letting all of those grounds go to waste, they developed a method of using the coffee ground oil as a substitute for palm oil.
“There are oils in coffee with a wide range of uses in different industries – cosmetics pharmaceuticals, food and drink, household products – you name it, there’s probably a use there,” Moore told BBC. “The most exciting part for us is that they have all the same components as palm.”
Since palm oil has been linked to deforestation, the prosecution of native people, dangerous sources of greenhouse gas emissions, and the destruction of wildlife habitats, food and cosmetic have been coming under increasing pressure to ditch palm oil from their ingredients lists.
Moore and Kennedy started the Revive Eco startup company to begin implementing their procedure in Scotland, and they already have plans to start expanding into additional European cities.
Not only that, the company has been selected to represent Scotland and Ireland in the 2019 Chivas Venture competition.
Revive Eco is just as one of 20 global initiatives competing for the $1 million prize money. Readers have until April 30th to vote for Revive Eco as the winner.
Pass On The Positivity By Sharing The Good News To Social Media – Photos by Revive Eco
Emerson the puppy was only 6 weeks old when he was dumped at an animal shelter and left to fight for his life against a host of health issues.
Staffers at the NFR Maine animal shelter in North Monmouth, Maine say that in addition to being deaf, the puppy suffered from seizures and canine parvovirus, a highly contagious viral illness.
Despite his struggles, Emerson underwent treatment for the disease and pulled through.
The shelter made a Facebook post about the black Labrador mix in hopes of finding him the perfect home. Several people contacted the shelter to express their interest in adopting Emerson, but when they were eventually contacted by Nick Abbott, staffers knew it was a match made in heaven.
31-year-old Abbott says that he was particularly moved by Emerson’s story on social media because he too is deaf.
“Nick said he was interested in meeting Emerson because they would understand each other, being that they both share the same hearing difficulties,” the shelter wrote on Facebook. “When Nick and his mom walked into the house to meet Emerson, Emerson made a direct line for Nick and sat at his feet.
“That’s all it took. I was sold that this was fate, and these two belonged to each other.”
Abbott and Emerson have now been living with each other for three months, and their relationship is melting hearts across social media. Abbott says that he has been teaching sign language to his canine companion so they can communicate with each other. Just one week after Emerson moved into his new home, Abbott said he already knew the sign for “sit”.
“Emerson learned sign language very quickly and it did not take long for him to understand. Good training is the key to a good dog,” Abbott told Pretty52. “So far Emerson knows how to sit, lay down, stay, come and we are currently working on shake.”
Needless to say, the shelter has been delighted by the duo’s success.
“This boy deserved nothing short of a fairy tale ending and that is EXACTLY what he got!!” wrote the shelter. “This will go down in history as one of my all time favorite adoptions stories.”
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Quote of the Day: “The soul is placed in the body like a rough diamond, and must be polished, or the luster of it will never appear.” – Daniel Defoe
Photo: by Alice Popkorn, CC license via Flickr
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This group of amateur metal detectives has been accustomed to digging up shotgun shells and thimbles – so imagine their surprise when they realized that they had stumbled upon a literal treasure chest of gold and silver coins.
The four men, some of whom have only been doing the hobby for less than a year, were initially delighted to find 12 ornately decorated silver coins as they were using their detectors to scan a field in Buckinghamshire, England.
As they continued to unearth coin after coin, they were shocked to find that they belonged to a hidden 14th century treasure hoard.
Over the following four days, they excavated 557 coins – including 12 ultra-rare full gold nobles from the time of the Black Death.
The hoard is now being kept safe in a museum and will be independently evaluated before being sold, with the value split between the treasure hunters and the landowner in Hambleden, Buckinghamshire.
Experts estimate that the treasure – nicknamed the Hambleden Hoard – could be worth £150,000 ($193,000). It is suspected the hoard was stashed there for safekeeping by a wealthy person more than 600 years ago.
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The find is believed to be the biggest gold hoard found in Britain in nearly a decade, and the largest silver coin collection found in one place for 12 years.
One of the men, 33-year-old Mateusz Nowak, says that compared to his job as a hospital cleaner in Newcastle, the discovery “felt unreal.”
“After finding the hoard, and then clearing the area, we had to extend the search twice more because we were finding so much,” says Now. “It was a miracle moment after moment for everyone.”
Nowak’s brother 30-year-old Tobiasz, who works as a baker, said: “I can’t even imagine how we got so lucky. It was the best weekend of my life. I’ll remember it my whole life.”
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The brothers had spent an hour scanning the field alongside their friend Andrew Winter without finding anything. They were then on their way to another location when one of their detectors signaled that they had struck gold.
Winter said his machine was emitting a code which suggested they had detected a hammered silver coin – so he started digging.
“I swung around my machine and all the silver coins were coming in at number 16 on the screen. This indicates a hammered silver coin,” said Winter, who works as a forklift driver. “The other signal I got was a 21. It went ting, ting, ting and sounds completely different to anything else. I shouted ‘gold, gold gold!’”
The trio then turned over a clod of earth which contained two coins – and they could see more in the hole.
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It happened around at the same time as then-stranger Dariusz Fijalkowski found two silver coins.
Under the rules of detecting and treasure finding, anything over three coins is considered a “hoard,” meaning it has to be declared to organizers so the area can be cleared.
The hoard was claimed jointly by the foursome, who were then left to work alone.
“The lads just looked at me and I knew then we had something special. We knew there and then this was going to be one of the ones you never, ever forget. And to do it with my two best friends was really special.
“We just kept finding, finding, finding and digging and digging and digging. My machine was like a hoover.”
They said they had to fight off competition and admit it got “absolutely hectic” when news of the find got round the festival. The men even had to sleep in a tent to ensure that no thieves would try to steal their treasure.
Detectorists from all over the world who were at the festival came to take a look as the four dug out coin after coin.
Fijalkowski, a dad-of-three and machine operator from Bristol, came across the hoard after he had been “delighted” with a thimble he’d found.
He then found two silver coins before teaming up with the other men and added: “Special for me was two silver coins. Before that – apart from the thimble – it had been shotgun shells.
“When I found the coins I was shouting so much because I was so excited. Maybe I should have stayed quiet, but I was so happy. For me, those coins alone were special. They are small pieces of silver and also a piece of history.
“But to see what we found in the end. I still can’t believe it,” he added. “I came away to the rally for a rest because I have three young children. It’s safe to say it was not rest. I can still feel the pressure now. It’s incredible.”
Andrew said the find was “very, very rare” and added: “The coins look like they’ve come straight off the shelf.
“They look brand spanking new. Some of the silver ones are really rare and have things on them – like little birds or churches – I have never seen before.”
He said the the 545 silver coins are still being analyzed but most are likely to be worth between £20 and £50 each – with the rarer ones worth around £500 ($646) each.
But the full gold nobles are worth around £10,000 ($13,000) each.
“It feels unreal. I can’t believe it. It couldn’t have happened to three more common guys you know,” says Winter.
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LEGO is now piloting a new project that will use the bumps on their iconic bricks to help teach the Braille alphabet to blind and visually impaired children.
LEGO “Braille Bricks” will be moulded with the same number of studs used for individual letters and numbers in the Braille alphabet, while remaining fully compatible with the LEGO System in Play.
To ensure the tool is inclusive allowing sighted teachers, students and family members to interact on equal terms, each brick will also feature a printed letter or character.
This ingenious combination brings a whole new approach to getting blind and visually impaired children interested in learning Braille, enabling them to develop a breadth of skills needed to thrive and succeed.
“With thousands of audiobooks and computer programs now available, fewer kids are learning to read Braille,” said Philippe Chazal, Treasurer of the European Blind Union. “This is particularly critical when we know that Braille users often are more independent, have a higher level of education and better employment opportunities.
“We strongly believe LEGO Braille Bricks can help boost the level of interest in learning Braille, so we’re thrilled that the LEGO Foundation is making it possible to further this concept and bring it to children around the world,” added Chazal.
Photo by LEGO
The LEGO Foundation and LEGO Group unveiled the pioneering project today at the Sustainable Brands Conference in Paris, France.
The concept behind LEGO Braille Bricks was first proposed to the LEGO Foundation in 2011 by the Danish Association of the Blind and again in 2017 by the Brazilian-based Dorina Nowill Foundation for the Blind.
It has since been further shaped in close collaboration among blind associations from Denmark, Brazil, UK, and Norway – and the first prototypes are now in those same countries for concept testing.
LEGO Group Senior Art Director, Morten Bonde, who suffers from a genetic eye disorder that is gradually turning him blind, worked as an internal consultant on the project. Morten currently has 4-degree sight left but is determined not to let his loss of sight limit him.
“Experiencing reactions from both students and teachers to LEGO Braille Bricks has been hugely inspirational and reminded me that the only limitations I will meet in life are those I create in my mind,” says Morten. “The children’s level of engagement and their interest in being independent and included on equal terms in society is so evident. I am moved to see the impact this product has on developing blind and visually impaired children’s academic confidence and curiosity already in its infant days.”
The product is currently being tested in Danish, Norwegian, English and Portuguese, while German, Spanish and French will be tested later this year. The final LEGO Braille Bricks kit is expected to launch in 2020 and will be distributed free of charge to select institutions through participating partner networks in the markets where testing is being carried out with partners. It will contain approximately 250 LEGO Braille Bricks covering the full alphabet, numbers 0 to 9, select math symbols, and inspiration for teaching and interactive games.
“Blind and visually impaired children have dreams and aspirations for their future just as sighted children” said John Goodwin, CEO of the LEGO Foundation. “They have the same desire and need to explore the world and socialize through play, but often face involuntary isolation as a consequence of exclusion from activities. In the LEGO Foundation, we believe children learn best through play and in turn develop the breadth of skills, such as creativity, collaboration and communication, that they need in the post 4th Industrial Revolution.
“With this project, we are bringing a playful and inclusive approach to learning Braille to children. I hope children, parents, caregivers, teachers and practitioners worldwide will be as excited as we are, and we can’t wait to see the positive impact.”
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Over two tons of trash have been removed from Mount Everest thanks to the efforts of the Nepal Army.
The soldiers worked with government and non-government organizations over the course of 5 days to collect all of the rubbish and debris left behind by climbers.
The crew flew in over 2.5 tons of tools and resources to facilitate the cleanup. All of the biodegradable debris that was collected from the mountain – which amounted to roughly one ton of refuse – is being transported to Kathmandu for disposal by the Blue Waste to Value group. The other ton of non-biodegradable trash is now being disinfected for treatment.
The initiative was part of the 24th annual Wildlife Week, which is organized by the regional Sagarmatha National Park Office.
The cleanup will continue throughout the Himalayan mountain range until May 19th, according to a Nepali Army press release.
“We take pride in Mount Everest but we are often accused of not being able to clean it… We have now come together to clean the mountain,” said Dandu Raj Ghimire, chief of Nepal’s tourism department, according to CTV News.
Clean Up Negativity By Sharing The Good News With Your Friends On Social Media – Photo by Nepal Army
In a major medical breakthrough, Tel Aviv University researchers “printed” the world’s first 3D vascularized engineered heart using a patient’s own cells and biological materials.
Until now, scientists in regenerative medicine — a field positioned at the crossroads of biology and technology — have been successful in printing only simple tissues without blood vessels.
“This is the first time anyone anywhere has successfully engineered and printed an entire heart replete with cells, blood vessels, ventricles and chambers,” says Professor Tal Dvir of TAU’s School of Molecular Cell Biology and Biotechnology, who led the research for the study.
Their findings were published earlier this month in a study in Advanced Science.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death among both men and women in the United States. Heart transplantation is currently the only treatment available to patients with end-stage heart failure. Given the dire shortage of heart donors, the need to develop new approaches to regenerate the diseased heart is urgent.
“This heart is made from human cells and patient-specific biological materials. In our process these materials serve as the bioinks, substances made of sugars and proteins that can be used for 3D printing of complex tissue models,” Dvir says. “People have managed to 3D-print the structure of a heart in the past, but not with cells or with blood vessels. Our results demonstrate the potential of our approach for engineering personalized tissue and organ replacement in the future.”
“At this stage, our 3D heart is small, the size of a rabbit’s heart,” explains Dvir. “But larger human hearts require the same technology.”
For the research, a biopsy of fatty tissue was taken from patients. The cellular and a-cellular materials of the tissue were then separated. While the cells were reprogrammed to become pluripotent stem cells, the extracellular matrix (ECM), a three-dimensional network of extracellular macromolecules such as collagen and glycoproteins, were processed into a personalized hydrogel that served as the printing “ink.”
After being mixed with the hydrogel, the cells were efficiently differentiated to cardiac or endothelial cells to create patient-specific, immune-compatible cardiac patches with blood vessels and, subsequently, an entire heart.
According to Dvir, the use of “native” patient-specific materials is crucial to successfully engineering tissues and organs.
“The biocompatibility of engineered materials is crucial to eliminating the risk of implant rejection, which jeopardizes the success of such treatments,” Dvir says. “Ideally, the biomaterial should possess the same biochemical, mechanical and topographical properties of the patient’s own tissues. Here, we can report a simple approach to 3D-printed thick, vascularized and perfusable cardiac tissues that completely match the immunological, cellular, biochemical and anatomical properties of the patient.”
The researchers are now planning on culturing the printed hearts in the lab and “teaching them to behave” like hearts, Dvir says. They then plan to transplant the 3D-printed heart in animal models.
“We need to develop the printed heart further,” he concludes. “The cells need to form a pumping ability; they can currently contract, but we need them to work together. Our hope is that we will succeed and prove our method’s efficacy and usefulness.
“Maybe, in ten years, there will be organ printers in the finest hospitals around the world, and these procedures will be conducted routinely.”
Some people might say that dogs are man’s best friend, but this jersey cow might be the exception.
Australian dairy farmer Phillip Hughes has developed a surprisingly strong bond with a doting heifer named Vera in his herd.
Hughes, who lives on a farm in Edith Creek, North West Tasmania, says that he can always recognize her because she is constantly running in the opposite direction of the herd so she can stay by his side during his rounds.
Every morning when she trots up to Hughes, he says “Allo, Vera” – and she has answered to the nickname ever since.
“Some lady said [Vera] loves me, and I said no, I think she thinks I’m her calf,” chuckled Hughes in the ABC News interview. “And the way she talks is just like a cow with her own calf. I can’t understand cow language, but it’s the noises she makes, you know?”
(WATCH the video below) – Photo by ABC Northern Tasmania
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Quote of the Day: “I think of life itself now as a wonderful play that I’ve written for myself, and so my purpose is to have the utmost fun playing my part.” – Shirley MacLaine (85-years-old today)
Photo: by ZZ Bottom, CC license via Flickr
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As fate would have it, Isbell had been Leonard’s high school biology teacher. She admitted to the Indianapolis Star that she had been harsh on Leonard’s back in the day – but regardless of his antics as the class clown, she has always been fond of her former student.
“I was glad to see him because I knew I was safe with him there,” Isbell told The Star. “He knew it was me. If I had been a complete stranger, he still would have done it anyway. He cares enough to help anyone.”
Despite the “pitiful” state of her car jack, Isbell says that Leonard was quick to change the tire and careful to make sure that the tool had done its job.
The high school teacher says she is particularly grateful for Leonard’s actions because she has been taking care of her father, who is currently battle stage 4 cancer, according to WXIN.
If the compassionate linebacker had not shown up when he did, her father may have been forced to make his way to Isbell’s car.
So not only did Leonard save Isbell’s father the trip, he also made sure that she was in time for Easter mass.
(WATCH the video footage below)
@Colts Darius Leonard continues to be an outstanding player on and off the field. So thankful to God that he stopped and helped me. Much love! pic.twitter.com/EKdmpCdYbH
One of Ireland’s most famous brewing companies is joining the fight against ocean pollution by swapping out their plastic packaging in favor of biodegradable materials.
Diageo, which is the parent company of Guinness beer and Smithwick’s and Harp, announced last week that they would be investing £16 million ($21 million) in ditching their plastic multi-pack rings and shrink wrap packaging.
Instead, the company plans on using 100% recyclable and biodegradable cardboard.
The cardboard packaging is set to appear on Irish store shelves starting in August. The initiative will then be launched in Britain and other world markets in the summer of 2020.
Diageo says that their shift towards sustainable materials will collectively result in about 529 tons of plastic waste being diverted from landfills. As of right now, less than 5% of the company’s packaging used around the world is plastic.
The initiative means that Guinness will now be joining the likes of Corona and Carlsberg as some of the first major beer brands to ditch plastic packaging.
“For 260 years Guinness has played a vital role in the communities around us. We already have one of the most sustainable breweries in the world at St. James’s Gate and we are now leading the way in sustainable packaging,” said Global Head of Beer Mark Sandys in a statement. “This is good news for the brand, for our wider beer portfolio and for the environment.”
Toast The Good News With Your Friends By Sharing It To Social Media – Photo by Diageo
So rather than allow the woman to continue dining by herself, he crossed over to her table and asked if he could sit with her for a while
Howard and the woman, who was later identified as Eleanor, began chatting and swapping life stories – and as they continued to chat, she mentioned that her husband had recently passed away and it would have been their 60th wedding anniversary the following day.
“I instantly gave my condolences and asked her to come eat with us, which she was excited to do,” writes Howard.
Eleanor and the three young men shared the rest of their meal together, laughing and chatting all the while, and Howard says that it taught him a valuable lesson about humanity.
“The point in this is always be kind and be nice to people,” writes Howard. “You never know what they are going through. This woman changed my outlook on life and how O look at other people. Everyone has a story, so do not judge!”
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Artificial intelligence has just surpassed yet another impressive milestone by inventing a new team sport – and it’s apparently pretty fun.
The new game, which is being called Speedgate, is being hailed as the first sport ever designed by artificial intelligence.
It was developed as a side project by Portland-based innovation agency AKQA. The designers started their labor of love by feeding hundreds of various sports-related rules and phrases into an AI program. Then, they uploaded the rules of 400 different world sports into the program for analysis.
Upon asking the AI to interpret the data, it regurgitated more than a few interesting concepts.
The AKQA designers interpreted 1,000 different ideas and outlines that were drawn out by the program – and while many of them were amusing to imagine, the team says that they wanted the AI to help develop a game that was not only fun and easy to understand, but also active and accessible.
The team eventually narrowed it down to ten possible sports ideas before field-testing three of them – and Speedgate was the winner.
AKQA says that the AI-developed game combines elements of croquet, rugby, and soccer. Though the designers had to fill in some of the gaps in the program’s language, the AI is responsible for most of Speedgate’s rulebook.
“Using AI as a member of a creative team takes us to a new place that we never could have gotten to without it,” says Whitney Jenkins, creative director of AKQA.
For starters, the game is played with two teams of six players. The objective of the game is for the teams to try and score points by getting the ball through their own goal posts on the playing field; however, a team can only score if they are first able to get the ball through the posts in the center of the field. Players in possession of the ball are not allowed to move, but they are able to pass the ball to other players so long as the ball is passed from below the waist.
The sport has since been recognized by the Oregon Sports Authority, and AKQA says that leagues are already being formed around the world, from Malta to Mozambique.
If you want to get a gang of friends together to start playing in your own backyard, you can check out the full rulebook on the Speedgate website.
(WATCH Speedgate in action below) – Photos by AKQA
Despite being forced to wear a stoma bag for her Crohn’s disease, this 41-year-old woman is training to be a top MMA fighter.
Kharina Kharran first became fascinated with martial arts after she was introduced to Bruce Lee’s movies at 9 years old. Unfortunately, she was later diagnosed with Crohn’s disease as a teenager.
The condition caused holes to form in her bowel and rectum, and she was left needing dozens of operations. One of Kharran’s operations was so serious, it resulted in her inability to sit down for more than a year.
“For a year and a half, I just had to stand up while I was working. I could not sit down,” says Kharran.
Regardless, she started training at 16 years old – and even though she has undergone 38 bowel surgeries over the years, she has picked up a variety of martial arts.
She says she is now an expert in kung fu, Brazilian Jujitsu, Muay Thai, Jeet Kune Do and boxing – and she has trained for all of them while wearing her colostomy bag.
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The bag has forced Kharran to adapt her technique and constantly assess whether her health is at risk. The pouch is positioned on the right side of her body, 2 centimeters across and 1 centimeter down from her belly button, which she tucks into her belt during bouts.
“If I draw attention to it, there may be people out there who want to be aggressive so I choose not to,” says Kharran.
“I position myself so that my weakness isn’t obvious and it takes a lot of practice. If I am on the floor in the ab crunch position, it’s a dangerous and vulnerable position for my tummy so I always move and re-position myself.
“When you are fighting, it’s your tummy and your head that are the easiest targets so it is a matter of re-positioning myself and trying to strengthen my other moves because I cannot do the crunches.
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“For example, when I do anything standing up, I make sure I am in their face as quickly as possible so they are not on the attack first,” she added. “My elbows drop over my stoma so I am quite lucky that I am protected by them – I don’t have to drop my arms down because they naturally cover the bag. Then if I move my arm down to my thighs, I can protect my whole side.”
Kharran now trains at a martial arts gym six times per week. Since she became strong enough to step into the ring three years ago, the woman from Brighton, England has faced three opponents – and she was delighted to emerge victorious from her third fight earlier this month after she successfully choked out her opponent.
“My biggest achievement was stepping into the cage. I was 100 percent vulnerable,” says Kharran. “I was training six days per week but five days before the event, I couldn’t train because I was unwell.
“I needed to make sure I had done everything I could – and just stepping into the cage, I felt I was a winner already. It felt pretty phenomenal.
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“It was just this overwhelming achievement and it made all the suffering I went through worthwhile.”
Kharran says that she also competes in charity events, but she prefers not to disclose her illness to her opponents.
So far, she has taken part in more than 30 full-contact bouts during training and thousands of hours in the cage – but she says she has never been hit in her stoma bag during a match.
“I have never had it hit in a fight but I was hit at the side of the stoma before during a practice and it really really hurt,” recalls the fighter. “For me, safety comes first and I had to stop and recover – but me and my coach worked on strategy after that and it has never happened again since.”
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Quote of the Day: “Opportunity often comes disguised in the form of misfortune, or temporary defeat.” – Napoleon Hill
Photo: by EL Gringo, CC license via Flickr
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Here’s a fun origin story about the all-night party that preceded the first modern bungee jump using a device invented by Oxford students… Hearour Good News Guru tell the fun story on the radio in Los Angeles—during the April 19, 2019 Ellen K. Morning Show on KOST-103.5.
Thousands of people have come together in order to support a 20-year-old woman who has been supporting her five younger siblings since their parents died.
Sam Rodriguez is the oldest of her brothers and sisters, ranging in age from 5 to 17. Since both of their parents died from cancer within the last five years, she has taken charge of their family.
Last week, the siblings made national headlines after their local police department published a video of themselves presenting Sam with a new car. The kids’ story was shared thousands of times – and it has resulted in thousands of readers donating to a GoFundMe campaign for the family.
In just a week, the page has raised over $29,000 and counting.
“I’m at a loss for words, but the kids and I will be forever grateful to all of you,” says Sam. “This help has changed my life and took so much off my plate.”
“It amazes me to see how much people have came together to help me and my family and to see how many good-hearted people are out there!” she added.
(WATCH the officers surprise Sam with her new car in the video below)
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For the first time ever, scientists have used gene therapy to cure several young patients of “bubble boy” disease, a rare genetic defect that leaves children with an ineffective or nonexistent immune system.
The “bubble boy” name is a reference to how the patients, who usually die early in life if left untreated, are often forced to live in sterile environments.
Now, however, gene therapy developed at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital has cured 10 infants born with X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID-X1), the most common type of the rare, life-threatening genetic condition.
The children are currently producing functional immune cells, including T cells, B cells and natural killer (NK) cells, for the first time.
“This is a first for patients with SCID-X1,” said first and corresponding author Ewelina Mamcarz of the St. Jude Department of Bone Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy.
“These patients are toddlers now, who are responding to vaccinations and have immune systems to make all immune cells they need for protection from infections as they explore the world and live normal lives.”
Ten infants have received the experimental therapy. It was developed in research led by the late Brian Sorrentino of the St. Jude Department of Hematology. He is the senior author and died after the manuscript was submitted for publication.
The patients, who were treated at St. Jude and UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital San Francisco, were enrolled in an ongoing clinical trial of infants newly diagnosed with SCID-X1.
UCSF played an instrumental role in the St. Jude protocol by including targeted dosing of busulfan, a chemotherapy agent commonly used in bone marrow transplantation to make space in the marrow for donor stem cells to grow.
“We found that the addition of very low doses of busulfan based on a model developed at UCSF increased engraftment of gene-corrected stem cells in the bone marrow without causing the side effects associated with standard doses,” said co-author Mort Cowan, a UCSF professor of pediatrics and principal investigator of the trial at UCSF, where four of the infants were treated.
SCID is caused by a mutation in the interleukin-2 receptor subunit gamma (IL2RG) gene that produces a protein essential for normal immune function.
Currently, the best treatment for SCID-X1 is bone marrow transplantation with a tissue-matched sibling donor. But more than 80% of SCID-X1 patients lack such donors. They must rely on blood stem cells from other donors. This process is less likely to cure the SCID-X1 and more likely to lead to serious treatment-related side effects.
The gene therapy involved collecting patients’ bone marrow, then using a virus as a vector to insert a correct copy of the IL2RG gene into the genome (DNA) of patients’ blood stem cells. The cells were then frozen and underwent quality testing. Prior to the gene-corrected blood stem cells being infused back into patients, the infants received two days of low-dose busulfan with the doses individually determined based on each patient’s specific ability to process the drug.
Most patients were discharged from the hospital within one month.
Within three months of treatment, gene-corrected immune cells were present in the blood of all but one patient, who required a second dose of gene therapy. The immune cells included T cells and NK cells, which help to fight infections. Antibody-producing B cells were also present, a first for SCID-X1 infants treated with gene therapy.
Patients with infections prior to gene therapy have recovered. All are developing and growing normally. None have developed a life-threatening infection since receiving gene therapy, an indication of treatment effectiveness. No patients have developed leukemia, a side effect of previous gene therapy for SCID-X1.
“While longer follow-up is needed to assess any late effects of treatment, these results suggest most patients treated with this gene therapy will develop a complete durable immune response without side effects,” Cowan said.
St. Jude gene therapy is modeled on the human immunodeficiency virus, a lentivirus that can infect cells that are not dividing. Researchers have re-engineered the lentivirus to ferry a normal copy of IL2RG into patients’ blood stem cells and to be self-inactivating.
In addition to targeted dosing of busulfan, St. Jude gene therapy differs from those earlier gene replacement efforts in several key ways. The vector includes insulators to block activation of genes adjacent to where IL2RG is inserted into patients’ DNA. The goal is to prevent gene therapy from inadvertently causing leukemia by switching on an oncogene in the patient’s blood stem cells.
Vector production and gene therapy treatment were streamlined using a stable producer cell line and cryopreservation. Both are important steps for expanding access to treatment and commercializing production.
“This study marks the first time a lentivirus vector and targeted low-dose busulfan have been used as a primary treatment for newly-diagnosed infants with SCID-X1,” Mamcarz said.
“We hope this therapy, which includes several novel features, will serve as a template for developing gene therapy to treat other devastating blood disorders,” said co-author Stephen Gottschalk, chair of the St. Jude Department of Bone Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy.
