Category Archives: Genetics

Company Spotlight: Signal Genetics – RTT News

Shares of molecular genetics diagnostic company Signal Genetics Inc. (SGNL) have gained more than 60% in the last five trading days.

To find biotech stocks with more profit potential, please visit RTTNews' Emerging Biostocks page.

Last October, Signal Genetics and privately-held Miragen Therapeutics Inc. agreed to merge to create a clinical-stage, NASDAQ-listed, Biopharmaceutical Company developing proprietary micro RNA-targeted therapeutics.

As part of the agreement, stockholders of Miragen will become holders of approximately 96% of Signal's outstanding common stock on a fully-diluted basis.

The combined company will be named Miragen Therapeutics Inc., and will trade on the NASDAQ Capital Market under ticker symbol "MGEN." The proposed merger is expected to close in the first quarter of 2017.

Miragen has two product candidates in phase I testing - MRG-106 for patients suffering from cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) of the mycosis fungoides (MF) sub-type, and MRG-201, an anti-fibrosis product candidate that is being tested in healthy volunteers.

On November 29, 2016, Signal agreed to sell all of its intellectual property assets relating to MyPRS test to Quest Diagnostics Investments LLC for $825,000, plus an additional $100,000 if Quest exercised the option to require Signal to operate Signal's lab beyond December 31, 2016 (but not later than January 14, 2017).

Myeloma Prognostic Risk Signature, or MyPRS, test analyses the activity of genes to predict whether an individual is at high risk or low risk for early relapse. Knowing the risk of relapse helps to predict patient outcome.

A special meeting of Signal Genetics' stockholders to vote on matters related to the proposed merger with Miragen Therapeutics Inc. and the sale of Signal's MyPRS intellectual property assets is to be held at 9:00 a.m., local time, on February 10, 2017.

In order to regain compliance with the minimum bid price requirement of the NASDAQ Capital Market, a 1-for-15 reverse stock split of common stock was implemented by Signal Genetics on November 7, 2016.

SGNL has traded in a range of $0.12 to $17.74 over the last 52 weeks. The stock closed Thursday's trading at $14.50, up 7.65%. In after-hours, the stock gained another 3.38% to $14.99.

by RTT Staff Writer

For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com

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Company Spotlight: Signal Genetics - RTT News

Genetics of both virus and patient work together to influence the … – Medical Xpress

February 9, 2017 HIV, the AIDS virus (yellow), are infecting a human cell. Credit: ZEISS Microscopy / Flickr

Viral and human genetics together account for about one third of the differences in disease progression rates seen among people infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), according to new research published in PLOS Computational Biology. The findings suggest that patient genetics influences disease progression by triggering mutations in the HIV viral genome.

People with HIV experience different rates of disease progression. HIV progresses faster in people with a higher viral loadthe amount of genetic material from the HIV virus found in an infected person's blood.

Previous research has shown that an infected person's genetics and the genetics of their particular HIV strain both influence viral load. Istvn Bartha of cole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne, Switzerland, and colleagues are now the first scientists to investigate the relative impacts of human and viral genetics on viral load within the same group of patients.

The researchers collected patient and viral genetic data from 541 people with HIV. They used a computational modeling method known as linear mixed modeling to determine how human and viral genetics might explain differences in viral load between the patients.

They found that genetic differences between HIV strains explain 29 percent of differences in viral load between patients, while human genetic variation explains 8.4 percent. Together, they explain just 30 percent of viral load variation, indicating that patient genetics exert most of its influence by inducing genetic mutations in the HIV virus as it multiplies inside the patient.

"Our paper demonstrates that the genetic make-up of both the patient and the infecting virus contribute to the clinical course of HIV infection," says study director Jacques Fellay.

Further research with a larger group of patients is needed to confirm and refine the findings. Nonetheless, "combining host and pathogen data gave us new insight into the genetic determinants of HIV control," Fellay says. "A similar strategy could be used to better understand other chronic infectious diseases."

Explore further: New antiretroviral drugs decrease chances of HIV sexual transmission

More information: Bartha I, McLaren PJ, Brumme C, Harrigan R, Telenti A, Fellay J (2017) Estimating the Respective Contributions of Human and Viral Genetic Variation to HIV Control. PLoS Comput Biol 13(2): e1005339. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005339

More than 2 million people were infected by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in 2015 via sexual transmission. Researchers from the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), led by Dr. Daniel Podzamczer, have evaluated ...

Scientists have found potential evidence of Ebola virus replication in the lungs of a person recovering from infection, according to new research published in PLOS Pathogens. The findings could aid research into new treatment ...

(Medical Xpress)A large international team of researchers has conducted a study that has shed some light on the role genetic variation plays on HIV viral load levels in patients infected with the virus. In their paper ...

Individuals infected with HIV exhibit both severe immune deficiency and aberrant inflammation, resulting in susceptibility to secondary infection as the disease progresses. HIV-associated deficiencies in adaptive immune responses ...

Scientists have identified a 'molecular barcode' in the blood of patients with Ebola virus disease that can predict whether they are likely to survive or die from the viral infection.

(HealthDay)In patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV)-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), low HCV viral load predicts better long-term surgical outcomes, regardless of the serologic eradication of HCV, according to research ...

Viral and human genetics together account for about one third of the differences in disease progression rates seen among people infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), according to new research published in ...

A new biologic agentthe most potent of its kind so faris showing early promise as part of a potential new strategy for treating HIV. The drug, known as 10-1074, may also offer a new way to prevent viral infection in ...

A Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine researcher has received a $2.5 million grant from Gilead Sciences, a California-based biopharmaceutical company, to see if two so-far separately-used AIDS treatments are ...

When someone is HIV-positive and takes antiretroviral drugs, the virus persists in a reservoir of infected cells. Those cells hide out in germinal centers, specialized areas of lymph nodes, which most "killer" antiviral T ...

(Medical Xpress)A large international team of researchers has created what they are describing as the most powerful HIV-attacking antibody ever made. In their paper published in the journal Science Immunology, the team ...

A drug developed at the University of Rochester Medical Center extends the effectiveness of multiple HIV therapies by unleashing a cell's own protective machinery on the virus. The finding, published today in the Journal ...

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The tragic story of Soviet genetics shows the folly of political meddling in science – Cosmos

A few years ago, one of us (Ian) was lucky enough to be invited to visit the N.I. Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry in St Petersburg, Russia. Every plant breeder or geneticist knows of Nikolai Vavilov and his ceaseless energy in collecting important food crop varieties from all over the globe, and his application of genetics to plant improvement.

Vavilov championed the idea that there were Centres of Origin (or Diversity) for all plant species, and that the greatest variation was to be found in the place where the species evolved: wheat from the Middle East; coffee from Ethiopia; maize from Central America, and so on.

Hence the Centres of Origin (commonly known as the Vavilov Centres) are where you should start looking to find genotypes the set of genes responsible for a particular trait with disease resistance, stress tolerance or any other trait you are looking for. This notion applies to any species, which is why you can find more human genetic variation in some African countries than in the rest of the world combined.

By the late 1920s, as director of the Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Vavilov soon amassed the largest seed collection on the planet. He worked hard, he enjoyed himself, and drove other eager young scientists to work just as hard to make more food for the people of the Soviet Union.

However, things did not go well for Vavilov politically. How did this visionary geneticist, who aimed to find the means for food security, end up starving to death in a Soviet gulag in 1943?

Enter the villain, Trofim Lysenko, ironically a protg of Vavilovs. The notorious Vavilov-Lysenko antagonism became one of the saddest textbook examples of a futile effort to resolve scientific debate using a political approach.

Lysenkos name leapt from the pages of history and into the news when Australias Chief Scientist, Alan Finkel, mentioned him during a speech at a meeting of chief scientists in Canberra this week.

Finkel was harking back to Lysenko in response to news that US President Donald Trump had acted in January to censor scientific data regarding climate change from the Environmental Protection Agency. Lysenkos story reminds us of the dangers of political interference in science, said Finkel:

Lysenko believed that successive generations of crops could be improved by exposing them to the right environment, and so too could successive generations of Soviet citizens be improved by exposing them to the right ideology.

So while Western scientists embraced evolution and genetics, Russian scientists who thought the same were sent to the gulag. Western crops flourished. Russian crops failed.

The emerging ideology of Lysenkoism was effectively a jumble of pseudoscience, based predominantly on his rejection of Mendelian genetics and everything else that underpinned Vavilovs science. He was a product of his time and political situation in the young USSR.

In reality, Lysenko was what we might today call a crackpot. Among other things, he denied the existence of DNA and genes, he claimed that plants selected their mates, and argued that they could acquire characteristics during their lifetime and pass them on. He also espoused the theory that some plants choose to sacrifice themselves for the good of the remaining plants another notion that runs against the grain of evolutionary understanding.

Pravda formerly the official newspaper of the Soviet Communist Party celebrated him for finding a way to fertilise crops without applying anything to the field.

None of this could be backed up by solid evidence. His experiments were not repeatable, nor could his theories claim overwhelming consensus among other scientists. But Lysenko had the ear of the one man who counted most in the USSR: Joseph Stalin.

The Lysenko vs Vavilov/Mendel/Darwin argument came to a head in 1936 at the Conference of the Lenin Academy when Lysenko presented his -ism.

In the face of scientific opinion, and the overwhelming majority of his peers, Pravda declared Lysenko the winner of the argument. By 1939, after quite a few scientists had been imprisoned, shot or disappeared, including the director of the Lenin Institute, there was a vacancy to be filled. And the most powerful man in the country filled it with Trofim Lysenko. Lysenko was now Vavilovs boss.

Within a year, Vavilov was captured on one of his collection missions and interrogated for 11 months. He was accused of being a spy, having travelled to England and the United States, and been a regular correspondent with many geneticists outside the Soviet Union.

It did not help his cause that he came from a family of business people, whereas Lysenko was of peasant stock and a Soviet ideologue. Vavilov was sent to a gulag where, tragically, he died in 1943.

Meanwhile, his collection in Leningrad was in the middle of a 900-day siege. It only survived thanks to the sacrifice of his team who formed a militia to prevent the starving population (and rats) from eating the collection of more than 250,000 types of seeds, fruits and roots even growing the potatoes in their stock near the front to ensure the tubers did not die before losing their viability.

In 1948, the Lenin Academy announced that Lysenkoism should be taught as the only correct theory, and that continued until the mid-1960s.

Thankfully, in the post-Stalin era, Lysenko was slowly sidelined along with his theory. Today it is Vavilov who is considered a Soviet hero.

In 1958, the Academy of Science began awarding a medal in his honour. The leading Russian plant science institute is named in his honour, as is the Saratov State Vavilov Agrarian University. In addition, an asteroid, a crater on the Moon and two glaciers bear his name.

Since 1993, Bioversity International has awarded Vavilov Frankel (after Australian scientist Otto Frankel) fellowships to young scientists from developing countries to perform innovative research on plant genetic resources.

Meanwhile, research here in Australia, led by ARC Discovery Early Career Fellow Lee Hickey, we are continuing to find new genetic diversity for disease resistance in the Vavilov wheat collection.

In the post-Soviet era, students of genetics and agriculture in Russia are taught of the terrible outcomes of the applications of Lysenkoism to Soviet life and agricultural productivity.

Lysenkoism is a sad and terrible footnote in agricultural research, more important as a sadly misused -ism in the hands of powerful people who opt for ideology over fact. Its also a timely reminder of the dangers of political meddling in science.

Ian Godwin, Professor in Plant Molecular Genetics, The University of Queensland and Yuri Trusov, Plant molecular biologist, The University of Queensland

This article was originally published on The Conversation and republished here with permission. Read the original article.

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The tragic story of Soviet genetics shows the folly of political meddling in science - Cosmos

American College of Medical Genetics And Genomics on gene editing: How cautious can we afford to be? – Genetic Literacy Project

There are a lot of voices getting into the mix of thedebate on human genome editing, taking on the unenviable task of playing God. One of these voices is the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics(ACMG.)

The first point that [the ACMG] raise is that the limitations of genome editing technologies will need to be overcome before there is clinical applicationThe second point is thatthe process used to correct a gene mustfix the original genetic mutation so that it no longercausesdisease[and] not causeany other genetic changes.

[T]hese are great places to start the conversation, but, it may simply not be possible to cross all of these Ts and dot all of these Is before therapies becomeuseful.

But, thedebate cannot occur too far into the future as this technology is progressing faster than we are responding to it. The ACMGstatethat genome editing in the human embryo is premature which implies that we are not ready for it to happen. However, gene editing technology is available now. Therefore, the conversations need to be happening now.

[The study can be found here.]

The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post:The American College Of Medical Genetics And Genomics Weighs In On Gene Editing

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American College of Medical Genetics And Genomics on gene editing: How cautious can we afford to be? - Genetic Literacy Project

Immunomedics in $2 bln licensing deal with Seattle Genetics – Reuters

Drug developer Immunomedics Inc said on Friday it entered into a development and licensing deal worth up to $2 billion for its experimental cancer drug with Seattle Genetics Inc.

Immunomedics' shares rose as much as 33 percent to a more than 3-year high of $5.72 in early morning trading.

Shares of Seattle Genetics, which forecast full-year revenue below estimates on Thursday, were down 4.2 percent at $60.17.

Immunomedics, which in October engaged Greenhill & Co to assist in licensing out the drug, IMMU-132, will receive $250 million in upfront cash payment.

The drug is currently in an early stage study in advanced breast cancer patients whose disease has progressed despite multiple therapies, and has won the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's "breakthrough status," granting it an expedited path toward approval.

The results of the trial are expected to serve as the basis for a marketing application under the FDA's accelerated approval regulations, Seattle Genetics said.

Seattle Genetics, which already has an approved cancer drug Adcetris, will take charge of the IMMU-132 application and the confirmatory late-stage trial, assuming the drug wins approval.

Seattle Genetics Chief Executive Clay Siegall on a call with analysts declined to provide a timeline for the drug's approval path, but said he would be able to disclose such detail in the "not so distant future", if and when the deal closes.

For Seattle Genetics, the deal comes more than a month after the FDA imposed a clinical hold on several early-stage studies testing the company's experimental cancer drug following the deaths of four people in the trials.

IMMU-132 is also being evaluated for a wide range of solid tumor cancers, including those of the lung and pancreas, and the deal allows for the development of the drug in these indications as well.

Even if the deal is not closed, Seattle will retain a 2.8 percent stake in Immunomedics it is buying as part of the agreement, with an option to raise it.

Seattle Genetics and Immunomedics focus on antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), which are designed to harness the targeting ability of monoclonal antibodies and reduce the toxic impact of traditional chemotherapy.

Immunomedics will retain the right to co-promote the drug in the United States and is eligible to receive double-digit tiered royalties on global net sales.

The company can solicit rival offers through Feb. 19, as part of the deal.

(Reporting by Divya Grover in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)

LA PAZ Bolivia's government on Friday said a Danish tourist had tested positive for yellow fever, its first case in a decade, after he visited a jungle area in the far west of the landlocked Andean country.

ZURICH A European Medicines Agency drug safety panel recommended on Friday that Actelion's Uptravi drug may continue to be used in line with current prescription information amid a probe into five deaths in France among those using the pulmonary arterial hypertension medicine.

(Reuters Health) Kids who dont smoke but are around adults who use electronic cigarettes may start to think regular smoking is okay, a recent study suggests.

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Immunomedics in $2 bln licensing deal with Seattle Genetics - Reuters

CEVEC Licenses Cell Lines to NewLink Genetics – Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (blog)

CEVEC Pharmaceuticals said today it has granted rights to its CAP GT and CAP Go cell lines to NewLink Genetics for the development and commercialization of vaccines against Zika virus infections.

The value of the licensing agreement was not disclosed. Under the deal, CEVEC is giving NewLink and its affiliates the rights to research, develop, manufacture, and commercialize CAP GT- and/or CAP Go-derived Zika vaccine candidates.

CAP GT is a cell-expression system designed as a novel platform for scalable production of viral vectors for gene therapy. Growing in serum-free suspension culture at high densities, CAP GT cells are intended to propagate a broad spectrum of viral species supporting lentiviral, adenoviral, and adeno-associated viral (AAV) vectors.

According to CEVEC, CAP GT suspension cell-derived viral packaging and producer cell lines are intended to enable better scaleup and competitive production costs compared to adherent cell culture systems.

CAP Go cell lines are used in the recombinant production of complexly glycosylated molecules, such ascoagulation factors and other plasma proteins. In addition to plasma proteins, examples of products made using CAP Go include cytokines, ion channels, virus envelope proteins, high-molecular-mass multimer proteins, and antibodies.

According to CEVEC, CAP Go enables the production of proteins previously out of reach, representing a significant proportion of the human proteome, and proteins difficult to express in conventional cell lines such as Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. The CAP Go expression platform consists of a portfolio of glyco-optimized human suspension cell lines designed for highly efficient production of a broad range of difficult-to-express recombinant proteins with authentic human post-translational modifications or on-demand tailor-made glycosylation patterns.

The joint agreement is a strong endorsement of our CAP system and represents another important step toward establishing CEVEC's technologies as the new global industry standard for viral vector and vaccine development, CEVEC CEO Frank Ubags said in a statement.

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CEVEC Licenses Cell Lines to NewLink Genetics - Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (blog)

Animal genetics co-op LIC reports a 21 per cent profit lift in half year result – Stuff.co.nz

RURAL REPORTERS

Last updated17:43, February 9 2017

ANDY JACKSON

LIC has lifted profits in its half year result.

Tough cost-cutting has helpedLivestock Improvement Corporation boostitsprofit after tax by 21 per cent in the latest half year result.

The rise to $19.3 million reflectedthe Hamilton-based animal genetics company's solid performance in artificial breeding and herd testing, chairman Murray King said.

LIC's total revenue for the six months endingNovember 30, 2016was $131m, 9.6 per cent down on the $145m achieved during the same period in 2015.

King said it reflected tough but necessary cost reduction measures within the business. It had been a tough environment on farms for the past couple of years and LIC had weathered the storm and was in good shape to face the challenges ahead.

READ MORE: *LIC general manager NZ Markets resigns for personal reasons *Capital restructuring on the cards for LIC *Taranaki farmers remain unhappy with new LIC structure

While the downturn had reduced the national dairy herd the genetics LIC selected and supplied to farmers were responsible for breeding more than three-quarters of all cows, with sales similar to those achieved last year, resulting in an increased market share.

Demand for LIC's herd testing services had rebounded, with sales up on the same time last year. LIC had continued its transformation programme to protect and grow the co-operative, he said.

"We've scrutinised every part of the business to actively manage and minimise our operating costs, and look for better ways of doing business, with minimal impact to farmers or where possible improving it. This focus will continue through the rest of the year and beyond."

LIC's business, particularly for artificial breeding washighly seasonal. Itshalf year results provide most of artificial breedingrevenues but not a similar proportion of total costs, and are therefore not indicative of the second half, nor the full year, result. No dividend is therefore declared at half year.

The business wasforecasting a return to a modest level of profitability for the full year.

-Stuff

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Animal genetics co-op LIC reports a 21 per cent profit lift in half year result - Stuff.co.nz

The Tragic Story Of Soviet Genetics Shows The Folly Of Political Meddling In Science – IFLScience (blog)

A few years ago, one of us (Ian) was lucky enough to be invited to visit the N.I. Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry in St Petersburg, Russia. Every plant breeder or geneticist knows of Nikolai Vavilov and his ceaseless energy in collecting important food crop varieties from all over the globe, and his application of genetics to plant improvement.

Nikolai Vavilov was pilloried because he wasnt a political favourite in Soviet Russia. Library of Congress. New York World-Telegram & Sun Collection

Vavilov championed the idea that there were Centres of Origin (or Diversity) for all plant species, and that the greatest variation was to be found in the place where the species evolved: wheat from the Middle East; coffee from Ethiopia; maize from Central America, and so on.

Hence the Centres of Origin (commonly known as the Vavilov Centres) are where you should start looking to find genotypes the set of genes responsible for a particular trait with disease resistance, stress tolerance or any other trait you are looking for. This notion applies to any species, which is why you can find more human genetic variation in some African countries than in the rest of the world combined.

By the late 1920s, as director of the Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Vavilov soon amassed the largest seed collection on the planet. He worked hard, he enjoyed himself, and drove other eager young scientists to work just as hard to make more food for the people of the Soviet Union.

However, things did not go well for Vavilov politically. How did this visionary geneticist, who aimed to find the means for food security, end up starving to death in a Soviet gulag in 1943?

Heroic science?

Enter the villain, Trofim Lysenko, ironically a protg of Vavilovs. The notorious Vavilov-Lysenko antagonism became one of the saddest textbook examples of a futile effort to resolve scientific debate using a political approach.

Lysenkos theories went against the latest science, but prevailed due to politics. Wikimedia

Lysenkos name leapt from the pages of history and into the news when Australias Chief Scientist, Alan Finkel, mentioned him during a speech at a meeting of chief scientists in Canberra this week.

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The Tragic Story Of Soviet Genetics Shows The Folly Of Political Meddling In Science - IFLScience (blog)

Myriad Genetics: Fairly Valued? – Barron’s (blog)

By Ben Levisohn

When a stock has been beaten up as badly as Myriad Genetics (MYGN) hasits dropped 57% during the past 12 monthsit doesnt take much to move it higher. So it shouldnt come as too much of a surprise that shares of Myriad are soaring today after the genetic testing company beat earnings forecasts and offered upbeat guidance.

Myriad reported a profit of 26 cents a share, topping forecasts for 24 cents, on revenue of $196.5 million, beating the Street consensus for $190.1 million. Myriad also said it expects to earn between $1 and $1.05 in 2017, ahead of analyst forecasts of 98 cents.

So is the worst over? Maybe, but Cowens Doug Schenkel and team argue that Myriads shares are fairly valued. They explain why:

Myriad remains in a transformation phase and visibility on the revenue growth outlook continues to be limited. For example, there are several key decisions in the next 3 months that could affect Myriads outlook, including: (1) a CMS Editorial review board to review CPT coding for hereditary cancer panels (Feb. 10-11; link); (2) a final Vectra DA CMS reimbursement decision (LCD comment period ends March 23); (3) a final Prolaris LCD intermediate risk decision (comment period ends March 23); and (4) a UHC contract decision for hereditary cancer testing (current contract ends in May).

Although the share price continues to decline, we still believe shares are about fairly valued considering the number of uncertainties across business segments. Relative to peers Myriad still trades at a slight P/E premium, but at a ~30% EBITDA discount.

Shares of Myriad Genetics have jumped 10% to $16.99 at 10:38 a.m. today.

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Myriad Genetics: Fairly Valued? - Barron's (blog)

Biotechnology xpert Jamie Metzl addresses realities of genetics revolution, Feb. 9 – Vail Daily News

Progressing at breakneck speed, genetic engineering has seen significant advancements since the first time Jamie Metzl addressed the topic at the Vail Symposium in 2015 to a sold-out audience. Metzl will return today, offering the latest update on the science and implications of this world-changing technology.

Metzl, an annual speaker at the Symposium, is a senior fellow of the Atlantic Council and an expert on Asian affairs and biotechnology policy. He previously served as executive vice president of the Asia Society, deputy staff director of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, senior coordinator for International Public Information at the U.S. State Department, director for multilateral affairs on the National Security Council and as a human-rights officer for the United Nations in Cambodia.

Also a novelist, Metzl explores the challenging issues raised by new technologies and revolutionary science in his science fiction writing. His latest novel, Eternal Sonata, imagines a future global struggle to control the science of extreme human life extension. This world, according to Metzl, is not far off.

Jamie Metzl is a brilliant thinker and eloquent speaker who will be discussing a captivating subject based very much in reality, said Kris Sabel, Vail Symposium executive director. His background in biotechnology allows him to understand this complex science, his experience with international affairs lets him place science in a geopolitical context and his dynamic and creative mind can break it all down into digestible information for everyone

Here, Metzl elaborates on the progress of the genetics revolution, his new book, how this unique science fits into the landscape of technological breakthroughs and how the new administration may impact scientific progress.

VAIL SYMPOSIUM: What sort of progress has the genetics revolution made since you first addressed the issue in front of the Vail Symposium audience two years ago?

METZL: The genetics revolution is charging forward at a blistering, exponentially accelerating pace. Virtually every day, major progress is being made deciphering the genome; describing gene-editing tools to alter the genetic makeup of plants, animals or even humans; and outlining how gene drives can be used to push genetic changes across populations. Even if this rate of change slows, then its absolutely clear to me that these new technologies will transform health care in the short to medium term and alter our evolution as a species in the medium to long term.

VS: Despite your scholarly background on the topic, youve again chosen to use science fiction writing as a way to encompass real issues surrounding the progress in genetics science. How does your new book, Eternal Sonata, based in 2025, two years after the setting of your first genetics thriller, Genesis Code, reflect the true pace, opportunities and consequences of genetic science?

METZL: The genetic revolution is too important to be left only or even primarily to the experts. I write nonfiction articles and spend a lot of time with expert groups, but the general public must be an equal stakeholder in the dialogue about our genetic future. I aspire for my novels to be fun and exciting, but also to help people who might be a little afraid of science find a more accessible on-ramp to thinking about the many complex, challenging human issues associated with technological innovation.

I fully believe well be seeing significant growth in human health and lifespans throughout the coming decades, but this progress will also raise some thorny questions well need to address. Like Genesis Code, its based on real science and tries to explore what it will mean on a human level when new technologies begin to transform our understanding of our own mortality.

VS: How much weight should society put on concerns and opportunities of genetics science, or actually making conscious alterations to humans as a species?

METZL: Advances in genetic technologies will help us live longer, healthier, more robust lives, and we should all be very, very excited about that. Like all technologies, however, there will also be new opportunities for abuse. Thats why we need to have the broadest, most inclusive global dialogue possible to help us develop new norms and standards that can guide our actions going forward. The technologies are new, but the best values we will need to deploy to use them wisely are old.

VS: Has there, then, been any progress in policy to regulate genetics science or legal framework created to limit the radical changes this could have on society?

METZL: There is a real mismatch between the rapid pace of scientific advancement and the glacial pace of regulation. On the one hand, we dont want over-regulation killing this very promising field in its relative infancy. On the other, it is clear that all aspects of altering the human genome must be regulated. This challenge is all the greater because different countries have different belief systems and ethical traditions, so there is a deep need for a global norm-creation and then regulatory harmonization process.

VS: Do you have any insight on how changes in the administration will affect progress in this field of science?

METZL: Many people are worried about how the new administration will deal with these very complex scientific issues. Viewing genetic technologies in the context of the abortion debate would be a significant blow to this work in the United States. But the science is global, and even if the U.S. shuts down all of its labs for ideological or other reasons, then the science will advance elsewhere. Well lose our lead building the future as we wait forever for the coal mining and low-end manufacturing jobs to come back.

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Biotechnology xpert Jamie Metzl addresses realities of genetics revolution, Feb. 9 - Vail Daily News