#Genomics Research Laboratory

[theloverstomb]

‘Fragile Microbiomes’ by bio-artist Anna Dumitriu

1. SYPHILIS DRESS- This dress is embroidered with images of the corkscrew-shaped bacterium which causes the sexually transmitted disease syphilis. These embroideries are impregnated with the sterilised DNA of the Nichols strain of the bacterium - Treponema pallidum subsp. pallidum - which Dumitriu extracted with her collaborators.

2. MICROBE MOUTH- The tooth at the centre of this necklace was grown in the lab using an extremophile bacterium which is part of the species called Serratia (Serratia N14) that can produce hydroxyapatite, the same substance that tooth enamel is made from.

The handmade porcelain teeth that make up this necklace have been coated with glazes derived from various bacterial species that live in our mouths and cause tooth decay and gum disease, including Porphyromonas gingivalis, which can introduce an iron-containing light brown stain to the glaze.

3. TEETH MARKS: THE MOST PROFOUND MYSTERY- In his 1845 essay “On Artificial Teeth”, W.H. Mortimer described false teeth as “the most profound mystery” because they were never discussed. Instead, people would hide the stigma of bad teeth and foul breath using fans.

This altered antique fan is made from animal bone and has been mended with gold wire, both materials historically used to construct false teeth (which would also sometimes incorporate human teeth). The silk of the fan and ribbon has been grown and patterned with two species of oral pathogens: Prevotella intermedia and Porphyromonas gingivalis. These bacteria cause gum disease and bad breath, and the latter has also recently been linked to Alzheimer’s disease.

4. PLAGUE DRESS- This 1665-style 'Plague Dress' is made from raw silk, hand-dyed with walnut husks in reference to the famous herbalist of the era Nicholas Culpeper, who recommended walnuts as a treatment for plague. It has been appliquéd with original 17th-century embroideries, impregnated with the DNA of Yersinia pestis bacteria (plague). The artist extracted this from killed bacteria in the laboratory of the National Collection of Type Cultures at the UK Health Security Agency.

The dress is stuffed and surrounded by lavender, which people carried during the Great Plague of London to cover the stench of infection and to prevent the disease, which was believed to be caused by 'bad air' or 'miasmas'. The silk of the dress references the Silk Road, a key vector for the spread of plague.

5. BACTERIAL BAPTISM- based on a vintage christening gown which has been altered by the artist to tell the story of research into how the microbiomes of babies develop, with a focus on the bacterium Clostridioides difficile, originally discovered by Hall and O’Toole in 1935 and presented in their paper “Intestinal flora in new-born infants”. It was named Bacillus difficilis because it was difficult to grow, and in the 1970s it was recognised as causing conditions from mild antibiotic-associated diarrhoea to life-threatening intestinal inflammation. The embroidery silk is dyed using stains used in the study of the gut microbiome and the gown is decorated with hand-crocheted linen lace grown in lab with (sterilised) C. difficile biofilms. The piece also considers how new-borns become colonised by bacteria during birth in what has been described as ‘bacterial baptism’.

6. ZENEXTON- Around 1570, Swiss physician and alchemist Theophrastus Paracelsus coined the term ‘Zenexton’, meaning an amulet worn around the neck to protect from the plague. Until then, amulets had a more general purpose of warding off (unspecified) disease, rather like the difference today between ‘broad spectrum’ antibiotics and antibiotics informed by genomics approaches which target a specific organism.

Over the next century, several ideas were put forward as to what this amulet might contain: a paste made of powdered toads, sapphires that would turn black when they leeched the pestilence from the body, or menstrual blood. Bizarre improvements were later made: “of course, the toad should be finely powdered”; “the menstrual blood from a virgin”; “collected on a full moon”.

This very modern Zenexton has been 3D printed and offers the wearer something that genuinely protects: the recently developed vaccine against Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes plague.

[reasonsforhope]

"An international research team has found almost a million potential sources of antibiotics in the natural world.

Research published in the journal Cell by a team including Queensland University of Technology (QUT) computational biologist Associate Professor Luis Pedro Coelho has used machine learning to identify 863,498 promising antimicrobial peptides -- small molecules that can kill or inhibit the growth of infectious microbes.

The findings of the study come with a renewed global focus on combatting antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as humanity contends with the growing number of superbugs resistant to current drugs.

"There is an urgent need for new methods for antibiotic discovery," Professor Coelho, a researcher at the QUT Centre for Microbiome Research, said. The centre studies the structure and function of microbial communities from around the globe.

"It is one of the top public health threats, killing 1.27 million people each year." ...

"Using artificial intelligence to understand and harness the power of the global microbiome will hopefully drive innovative research for better public health outcomes," he said.

The team verified the machine predictions by testing 100 laboratory-made peptides against clinically significant pathogens. They found 79 disrupted bacterial membranes and 63 specifically targeted antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli.

"Moreover, some peptides helped to eliminate infections in mice; two in particular reduced bacteria by up to four orders of magnitude," Professor Coelho said.

In a preclinical model, tested on infected mice, treatment with these peptides produced results similar to the effects of polymyxin B -- a commercially available antibiotic which is used to treat meningitis, pneumonia, sepsis and urinary tract infections.

More than 60,000 metagenomes (a collection of genomes within a specific environment), which together contained the genetic makeup of over one million organisms, were analysed to get these results. They came from sources across the globe including marine and soil environments, and human and animal guts.

The resulting AMPSphere -- a comprehensive database comprising these novel peptides -- has been published as a publicly available, open-access resource for new antibiotic discovery.

[Note: !!! Love it. Open access research databases my beloved.]"

-via Science Daily, June 5, 2024

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

Daily fish fact #564

Zebrafish!

They’re one of the most common animals used in laboratories for research! This is due to many reasons, like their fast maturing rate and embryonic development time, their well-known behaviour and development, and their genome that has been fully sequenced!

[preservationofnormalcy]

[I am in a nature preserve in rural Louisiana. A small ranger station-like structure in the middle of the wetlands welcomes me through chain link fences as my driver signals his approach, and as I exit my vehicle, a man steps out of the station.

He is heavy-set, tall, a little overweight but in that working-man sort of way where his strength is evident. He’s wearing a white labcoat over a colorful shirt and jeans, with messy hair and old school mutton chops. I can’t decide if he’s going for a vintage look or just doesn’t want to deal with his facial hair. Huge hands clap together once as I walk up to the building, and he smiles.]

Meghan] Mr McCollough?

Jethro] Please, please ma’am, call me Jethro. Please, come in.

[The first room seems typical of what I would expect a station in the middle of the swamplands to look - a cot, couches, radios and locked long glass-paneled cabinets with guns. A large metal door on one end leads me into the next room, and this one is different. Computers, rows and rows of filing cabinets, and haphazard piles of paperwork on a laboratory benchtop that yield to clean, colored tape-zoned areas holding glassware, boxes of “Vacutainer” tubes, plastic racks. A well-used benchtop centrifuge in the sun-bleached cream and baby blue colors of equipment from the 80s holds tubes of separated liquid – clear on top, a strip of white, and deep red at the bottom. Another metal door on the opposite side leads further into the building. He gestures to a somewhat empty table with a chair on either side.

Jethro’s accent is slight but noticeable, quiet but gregarious. He doesn’t sit yet, but fumbles with a kettle and a hot plate.]

J] Don’t get many visitors out here. Pardon the mess. Tea?

M] Oh. Please, actually.

J] Yes, ma’am. The people above my head tell me you’re here to ask questions.

M] That’s right. I saw the, uh… immunization posters in the Virginia site I toured.

J] Oh, sure. That’s been routine for decades, now. Since they were developed in the 50s. Lots of progress, of course, but always lots to do. Half the issue’s the paperwork, you know. But, uh, yeah.

M] Does everyone get immunized?

J] If I had my way, yes. That’d be the right way to do it. But no, it’s only really required for so-called high risk zones, that’s what they decided.

[He gives me a wry smile over his shoulder.]

J] This here’s a high risk zone, ma’am. But…you won’t be here long enough for it to matter.

M] …here’s hoping. Umm. I had a list of questions.

J] Top of the list is probably “Jesus H, they’re real?”

[He laughs briefly at his own joke.]

M] …my work is more about the efficacy and efficiency of the Office’s divisions, departments, and programs. But yeah, kind of.

[He pours the hot water into two teacups, and hands me one, sitting on the opposite side of the table. His cup looks comically small in his large hands.]

J] Get the feeling you’ll be asking that a lot in the next months.

M] I do too. Let me see… what is the objective of the… Abnormal Virology Department?

J] So our mission statement is about the research, control, and prevention of diseases – viral diseases specifically, but other stuff comes up, but y’know, that’s another story – uh, diseases that fall outside the Office’s definition of “normal,” and our big goals hopefully are curative or preventative treatments for those diseases. It’s a tall order.

M] And… lycanthropy is a virus, like the flu?

J] I mean, as much as any virus is like another. Each one’s unique, even the flu subtypes, but yeah. If I may use some jargon,

[He pauses with a hint of eagerness for affirmation before continuing.]

J] It's a lysogenic virus, so if you get infected, it integrates into the host genome, more like, uh, I guess herpesvirus is one most people would know. Once you get it, you got it for life because it hides in your DNA. Like herpesviruses too, you have lytic phases too, where it becomes active again, it emerges out of the genome based on cues from environmental pressures or host conditions. Like the phase of the moon, you know, which is kind of unique. When it’s not actively causing disease, when it’s just sitting in your genome at these sequence specific integration sites across the chromosomes, it also screws with normal gene regulation. The sites it sits down, you get dysregulation of normal transcription, you start growing more body hair, eyes change color. Where the virus integrates is a little different across host genetic backgrounds, think like ancestries; do you know SNPs?

[He clears his throat.]

Anyway, that lysogenic, passive phase is why we need the boosters, it’s laying low, immune cells don’t see anything to protect against, and it preferentially hides out in memory B cells, some lymphocytes, and that also kind of messes up a normal immune response. Which is why you have the immunoglobulin in the shot too, but that’s getting into the weeds. Because if you don’t have a way for the immune system to stop it quickly when it decides to jump out of the genome again, then, of course, you have the active phase, which… you can guess about that.

M] How successful would you say the treatments are?

J] It’s pretty good, especially given this stuff is almost the same as we were using mid-century. If you have a healthy immune system, if you’re vaccinated at least a few weeks before exposure, so you have your standard immune repertoire ready to go, and then they’re exposed – assuming the inoculum isn’t, you know, that can be pretty high sometimes – then they probably won’t “catch it,” so to speak, it’s neutralized and doesn’t integrate into the genome, so you don’t have a permanent case of it. We can also suppress symptoms with treatments for those with especially bad cases. Treatment’s kinda heavy, with the administration and the side effects; not like you’re just popping a pill under your tongue; but once it’s taken hold, there’s no, uh, no real cure.

[Jethro is quiet for a moment, taking a glance out the window as he drinks.]

J] … listen, ma’am. I’m biased. I got a personal stake in all this. I’m kind of a lab guy, sure, but sometimes I go out there and actually… you know. I’m the boots on the ground here too. And I don’t carry the big guns like the guys in Security do, no, I’m here giving out shots to kids and families. There’s communities in this country, whole towns out in the swamps or up in the hollers that are majority-infected. They live with it, they make do. And they have a chance at that, at life, because of us. Hard to quantify, of course. If you’re looking for hard numbers, I can try and find ‘em–

[He gestures to the filing cabinets.]

J] If you got a week or two.

M] We can… coordinate records later. But we’ve successfully eradicated things like… you know, smallpox. Can we eradicate things like lycanthropy?

[He gives me a strange, wary look and picks up a plastic knife from the table, oddly stirring his drink. I take a sip of mine.]

J] I’d be careful, talking like that. Lotta people don’t just think they’re sick, they- we’re talking about people. People with a condition, sure, but the minute you start talking about eradicating is when we start having camps again.

M] … again?

J] There’s rural areas in this country that the Office hasn’t been in for decades. We aren’t welcome.

M] Can I ask what happened?

[Jethro takes a deep breath.]

J] In ‘55, the United States rolled out its polio vaccine program. Of course, the Office used the infrastructure, hustle and bustle of the whole thing as a cover for our own lycanthropic treatment programs. We, and when I say “we,” I mean the Office in general of course. I wasn’t even a pup then. But a couple Office research groups, the Wagner lab, they’d done deep research into the condition, validated a few hypotheses, and they were ready to pilot the production of a vaccine. They just needed plasma. From infected hosts.

M] … I think I see.

J] Yeah. Yeah, back then infected folks were basically ignored unless they were in legal trouble. Legal personhood hadn't been extended to lycanthropes yet.

M] Legal personhood?

J] Ask Ferd about that when you get back to Virginia. Unfortunately, that plasma was taken from… people who didn’t volunteer. Inmates at first, murderers. But scaling up collection, then it came from people who stole some cows, and then people who were even just accused of things. When the Wagner people showed the shot was actually working, the Office needed a lot more to even think about rolling it out everywhere it was needed, and people weren’t really volunteering, so…

[He sighs.]

J] We shouldn’t have been surprised when a lot of communities then rejected us after that. Word travels fast, and the symbol–

[He taps the OPN crest on his badge.]

J] –became the mark of the Beast. Figuratively. It’s been decades getting to the point where we can help people, and pardon my bragging, ma’am, but it’s people like me who are the reason why we can. Part scientist, part… social worker, I guess.

[The phone rings, and Jethro slides over on his rolling chair to answer it. He seems immediately worried, and after a moment of conversation he hangs up and rubs his face.]

J] Real sorry ma’am, gonna have to cut this short. I know you had a long trip. Maybe I can meet you somewhere that ain’t so out of the way.

M] Oh. That’s okay, Jethro. Um. How’s next Saturday?

[He rolls over to a calendar on the wall. July 2021.]

J] No… no, I’ll be needing a day or two off ‘round then. For the… weather.

M] …I think I see. I’ll call you, we can finish over the phone.

J] Probably for the best, ma’am. If you’ll excuse me, I got an emergency downstate. Small outbreak just confirmed, got some of that social work to do.

M] Should I be worried?

[He grins, throwing his labcoat onto a chair and pulling a dirty jumpsuit out of a pile.]

J] Hell no, ma’am. We’re professionals. Ain’t gonna be any rowdy gators causing any trouble.

M] …gat–

J] I trust you’ll see yourself out, ma’am.

(Buy the poster here!)

[chaosticbraindo]

Kaijune - day 23: Flourish 🌺🫀

Biollante is technically the entire hollow earth the size of the continent itself. This is technically just the core of her.

Chaos Biollante

Nearing the end of humanity’s collapse, all of the world’s leadership put down their differences to form an alignment. Although mankind has been able to buy themselves some time by pitting the kaijus together, the very same kaijus that “protect” them are also extremely dangerous themselves. Therefore, a number of plans and projects to push back the damage of the kaijus were put in motion. Among these projects, one notable course of action is nicknamed project-Biollante.

It is stated that the project, lead by Dr. Genshiro Shiragami, was experimenting with combining Kaiju cells with that of some floral and fauna- with some rumored that it even includes human DNA despite not having any prove. What is certained, however, is that by splicing together various floral genome with the cells within Gojira, these plants can feeds off the constant source of energy emitted and grow non stop. Adding in Mothra’s scale which accelerate growth and it is hoped that these mutated plants would grow fast enough to survive the destruction of the kaijus. With it being effectively a bio-bomb however, the laboratory is moved deep underground to keep Biollante contained in case things went wrong… and sadly went wrong it did.

Through unknown reasons- perhaps coincidental, Baragon burrows down to a zone nearby the underground research station. With a skeleton hot enough to melt stone, its heat caused major damage to the lab and break electrical instruments, causing malfunction and accidentally releasing Biollante out of its containment tank. With this being an unstable prototype, the plant start absorbing heat and grow unhindered- soon taking over the entire station after Baragon left. Although a number of the human researchers evacuated to the surface, the majority of them was left behind when the lab was sealed, leaving them at the mercy of the plant and countless animals subjects that are also freed from containment.

the station was completely sealed off in fear of Biollante devastating humanity’s only safe haven on the surface… until a few decades later when the human within Mothra’s domain was instructed by her to open the vault and venture downward. what they see was unbelievable. Biollante has grown to the size of a continent, its body taking in dirt and convert it to bio-mater underneath the surface and creating an entire hidden world. this world is populated by the man and beast left behind all those years ago and have evolved beyond anyone’s wildest imagination. And luckily, Biollante have seems to reach a size where it stabilized itself, using its body to support this ecosystem and leaving a new world for the surface inhabitants to discover. A world that was commonly called the Hollow Earth.

[mskenway97]

What about TFA waspinator encountering a human scientist(reader) the rest is up to your imagination.(Safe vore please)

Peaceful investigation

Tfa Waspinator x Fem!human!reader

Words : 1,145

Summary: You found yourself on a journey, researching species, but what you didn't know was that this fascination would take you to the most unlikely places.

Warning: g/t content, safe vore, soft vore, protection vore

You had always been fascinated by the evolution of the species, you had studied too much and now that you know that aliens also exist thanks to the Detroit autobots. You wanted to know even more since there were some things that looked like them… But they will also have fauna, their flora. Your research had come to fruition thanks to the collaboration of Prowl in certain parts that he had commented with you about the Dinobots, Optimus told you something about Blackarania but not much because of his past. That made me even more curious. Knowing about it made your curiosity grow more and more that you were attentive to any new discoveries. You had notes, lots of notes… The other researchers were beginning to think you were going crazy. But there was something your notes didn't give you a being to investigate closely. Since Prowl wouldn't let you get close to the Dinobots, no matter how many times you tried. Even sneaking around the ninja bot had always caught you. One day they told you that they had discovered a huge being in the Amazon that resembled the descriptions you had given. They called you to see if you could help in their mystery. You were looking forward to this trip at least, you wouldn't be interrupted in case you could see a new species or at worst if they were messing with you for investigating something like this. The climate of the Amazon was complicated to what you were used to in Detroit, besides the fact that here you could be the prey.

You didn't think much of it since you weren't far away from your escort who was watching. The damage caused to some structures, there were some trees that were broken, others were filled with a viscous substance that you did not recognize. It was purple, unlike any fluid you had ever seen. You told your companions about it but they did not give importance to the discovery you made. You tried to analyze it in the laboratory, the results took some time but the only thing you identified was that it was 30% bee DNA and 70% unknown DNA… Unknown, something already told you that this being that roamed the Amazon was no longer common. You tried to describe the unknown genome with different chemicals but all of them were failing. It's like it was mutated or something. You were even more eager to know what was going on but at the same time in your last visits to the affected area, you felt like you were being watched. Until one day they decided to do an expedition at night, they told you that it was completely safe and there would be no problem. You are not so sure, if the fauna detected an easy prey, no matter how many security measures they put in place, they would get whatever they could. But despite the risk you accepted because maybe you could find your specimen. At night you were in your tent still trying once again to get the unknown DNA data out of the sample you took. You ran over 40 tests but this one seemed to be something…. Then you started to hear a rumbling outside they had attacked the camp you were in, you didn't understand what was going on but they took you to safety as best they could so you ran after them, the grunting noises around you left you with goose bumps, feeling your heart in a fist. The men didn't know what to do so they told you to head for a cave to be safe. You didn't object so you went into that cave trying to find a safe place. Some time passed in which you stayed in the cave just listening to the silence of the night and little else. Then you heard a noise at the back of the cave. Your logical side told you not to approach but your curious side wanted to know who was making the noise. So you decided to see what was going on at the bottom of that place that was getting bigger and bigger until it showed you a grotto, illuminated in blue, you were fascinated by the place until you felt something rise in front of you. You screamed for a moment when you didn't recognize what animal had caught you, wait, was it an animal? You focused your sight better to see not a wild animal but… A giant robot and not just any insect looking bumblebee with purple optics, that was staring at you.

-Not to be a threat to waspinator… What to do here, human?

You are trembling, in the servos of that enormous being…. as I took a closer look at you.

-I recognize… Waspinator to see you near dangerous zone. You go where you shouldn't - said Waspinator while I tried to keep calm. You didn't know exactly what its intentions were but if you made a false move it could be fatal.

-I was investigating… It seems to have led me to you… What exactly are you? What do you transform into? - you asked curiously but quite carefully. it felt you were sniffing me out - Waspinator being from Cybertron… You have no fear… That's weird - said Waspinator as he put you on the ground.

-Oh are you an autobot? Or Decepticon? - you asked a little scared while he denied and watched every move you made.

-I'm neither. Being traitors…

-I understand, I'd like to know more about you but I have to get back to camp… - you said as he picked you up again in his servos. I didn't understand why he did it.

-Not leaving is not safe… I'll get you to safety, inside… - said Waspinator you didn't understand until you were getting close to what seemed to be his mouth, you started to move frantically trying to get as far away as you could from that mouth but it was stronger than you. When you realized you were between the jaws of the huge beast that was massaging you with its tongue and crushing your chest a little on the roof of your mouth making you gasp for a moment before it swallowed you. Waspinator felt a pleasant sensation in his tanks.

Waspinator felt a pleasant sensation in his tanks, feeling that you were safe. It wasn't safe for someone as small as you to be alone in the Amazon and his tanks, his body would protect you from harm. He sensed that you were still moving… so he generated some movement.

-Not to worry… Waspinator will protect you - said Waspinator as he moved away to hide in the middle of the night. Where you wouldn't know for sure when you would see the light again.

[mindblowingscience]

Investigators from the laboratory of Ali Shilatifard, Ph.D., the Robert Francis Furchgott Professor and chair of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, have discovered a new repeat gene cluster sequence that is exclusively expressed in humans and non-human primates. The discovery, detailed in a study published in Science Advances, is a breakthrough for human genome biology and has wide-ranging implications for future research in transcriptional regulation, human evolution, and the study of repetitive DNA sequences, according to the authors. "This is an unbelievable discovery of the first elongation factor that is repeated within the human genome and is very primate-specific," said Shilatifard, who is also director of the Simpson Querrey Institute for Epigenetics and a professor of Pediatrics. Over the last two decades, rapid advancements in genome sequencing technologies have accelerated research exploring the genetic structure of various regions throughout the human genome. Larger regions of the human genome are composed of repetitive DNA sequences, dubbed genetic "dark matter" by experts, which until recently was unidentifiable using traditional short-read DNA sequencing technology.

Continue Reading.

[todaysbug]

February 11th, 2024

The Worm (Caenorhabiditis elegans)

Distribution: Found in temperate regions worldwide.

Habitat: Terrestrial; lives in humid soils with moderate oxygen contents and low-to-medium clay contents.

Diet: Microbivorous; feed on bacteria that lives in soil and on rotting vegetation, but can also feed on various species of yeast.

Description: C. elegans is aptly nicknamed "the worm" because it is a very common laboratory model; in fact, it's used as the model organism for all eukaryotic organisms! These worms are very easy to study due to the transparency of their body, as well as their limited number of cells, having only 131 cells in their entire bodies. They were the first multicellular organisms to have their entire genome sequenced (as they only have 6 chromosomes and approximately 20,000 genes). Common research on these worms include the processes of embryogenesis, development, disease and aging (especially in the form of programmed cell death). By understanding how their genes are involved in the aging process, we can hopefully have a better idea of the processes involved in human aging, too!

Most of these worms are self-fertilizing hermaphrodites, though males are also present (composing only about 1/1000 worms). Though their anatomy is quite simple, they do possess a simple brain and nervous system (one third of their cells are neurons). They're also capable of rudimentary learning, as well as using chemoreceptors to orient themselves, and respond minimally to light (living in dark environments, they don't have much need for good eyesight).

Image by K. Bradnam and gif by Bob Goldstein.

[petervintonjr]

Meet the unsung contributor to revolutionary breakthroughs in treating polio, cancer, HPV, and even COVID-19: Henrietta Lacks. Born in 1920 Roanoke, Virginia, Henrietta's mother Eliza died when she was only four, and she was ultimately raised by her maternal grandfather in Clover, Virginia. Henrietta worked as a tobacco farmer and attended a segregated school until the age of 14, when she gave birth to a son, Lawrence. A daughter, Elsie, was born three years later --to compound the family's difficulties, Elsie had cerebral palsy and epilepsy. Henrietta and her now-husband David Lacks moved to Turner Station (now Dundalk), Maryland where David had landed a job with a nearby steel plant. At the time Turner Station was one of the oldest African-American communities in Baltimore County and there was sufficient community support for the family to buy a house and produce three more children.

In 1951 at the age of 31, Henrietta died at Johns Hopkins Hospital of cervical cancer, mere months after the birth of the family's youngest son. But before her death --and without her or her family's consent-- during a biopsy two tumour cell samples were taken from Henrietta's cervix and sent to Johns Hopkins researchers. Hernietta's cells carried a unique trait: an ability to rapidly multiply, producing a new generation every 24 hours; a breakthrough that no other human cell had achieved. Prior to this discovery, only cells that had been transformed by viruses or genetic mutations carried such a characteristic. With the prospect of now being able to work with what amounted to the first-ever naturally-occurring immortal human cells, researchers created a patent on the HeLa cell line but hid the donor's true identity under a fake name: Helen Lane.

It is no exaggeration to state that in the 70 years since her death, Henrietta's cells have been bought, sold, packaged, and shipped by thousands of laboratories; with her cells being used as a baseline in as many as 74,000 different studies (including some Nobel Prize winners). Her cells have even been sent into space to study the effects of microgravity, and were instrumental in the Human Genome Project. While no actual law (or even a code of ethics) necessarily required doctors to ask permission before taking tissue from a terminal patient, there was a very clear Maryland state law on the books that forbade tissue removal from the dead without permission, throwing the situation into something of a legal grey area. However because Henrietta was poor, minimally educated, and Black, this standard was quietly (and easily) circumvented and she was never recognized for her monumental contributions to science and medicine ...and her family was never compensated. The family remained unaware of Henrietta's contribution until 1975, when the HeLa line's provenance finally became public. Henrietta had been buried in an unmarked grave in the family cemetery in Clover, Virginia but in 2010 a new headstone was donated and dedicated, acknowledging her phenomenal contribution. That same year the John Hopkins Institute for Clinical and Translational Research established a new Henrietta Lacks Memorial lecture series. A statue of Lacks was commissioned in 2022, to be erected in Lacks's birthplace of Roanoke, Virginia --pointedly replacing a previous statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, which had been removed following nationwide protests over the murder of George Floyd.

Dive into The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, originally published in 2011 and subsequently adapted into an HBO movie in 2017, starring Oprah Winfrey as Henrietta's daughter Deborah and Renee Elise Goldberry as Henrietta. (And yes, this book has been challenged and banned in more than one school district.)

[darkmaga-retard]

A new proximal origins scam rears its ugly head

Meryl Nass

Sep 04, 2024

Wednesday, 4 September 2024

NEWS RELEASE  ​​WHO launches global framework for understanding the origins of new or re-emerging pathogens

Early investigations of the first identified cases/ clusters / outbreaks to identify potential sources of exposure, collection of samples at the source, define the characteristics of the novel pathogen involved for establishment of diagnostic assays.

Human studies: to understand the epidemiology including clinical presentation, modes of transmission, pathology and earliest presence in syndromic surveillance samples. 

Human/Animal interface studies to identify potential animal reservoirs, intermediate hosts and reverse zoonoses.

studies to identify insect vectors or other sources of infection as well as earliest presence in the environment.  …

Genomics and Phylogenetics studies to identify precursor strains, genomic characteristics, evolution in intermediate hosts and humans and spatial distribution over time.

Biosafety/Biosecurity studies to determine if a breach in laboratory or research activities may have been associated with the first cases.

[reasonsforhope]

"Similar to the expeditions of a hundred or two hundred years ago, the Tara Pacific expedition lasted over two years. Its goal was to research the conditions for life and survival of corals. The ship crossed the entire Pacific Ocean, assembling the largest genetic inventory conducted in any marine system to date. The team's 70 scientists from eight countries took around 58,000 samples from the hundred coral reefs studied.

The first results of the analysis have now been published in Nature Communications. This largest-ever data set collection on coral reef ecosystems is freely available, and for years to come, will be the basis for elucidating the living conditions for corals and finding a way for them to survive climate change.

Important first results of the expedition show that global microbial biodiversity is much higher than previously thought. The impacts of the environment on evolutionary adaptation are species-specific, and important genes in corals are duplicated.

Global biodiversity ten times higher than assumed

Coral reefs are the most biologically diverse marine ecosystem on Earth. Although they cover only 0.16% of the world's oceans, they are home to about 35% of known marine species. Using a genetic marker-based data set, the researchers found that all of the globally estimated bacterial biodiversity is already contained in the microorganisms of coral reefs.

"We have been completely underestimating the global microbial biodiversity," says Christian Voolstra, professor of genetics of adaptation in aquatic systems at the University of Konstanz and scientific coordinator of the Tara Pacific expedition. He says the current estimate of biodiversity (approximately five million bacteria) is underestimated by about a factor of 10.

Impacts of the environment on evolutionary adaptation are species-specific

The 32 archipelagos studied serve as natural laboratories and provide a wide range of environmental conditions, allowing scientists to disentangle the relationships between environmental and genetic parameters across large spatial scales. This led to another important finding: The effects the environment has on evolutionary adaptation trajectories of corals are species-specific. To determine this, the researchers examined the telomeres, the ends of chromosomes that are the carriers of genetic information, for the first time.

In humans, the length of telomeres decreases during life; that is, with an increasing number of cell divisions, suggesting that biological age is closely linked to the length of telomeres. Researchers on the Tara Pacific expedition have now found that the telomeres in very stress-resistant corals are always the same length. "They apparently have a mechanism to preserve the lengths of their telomeres," Voolstra concludes...

Important genes are duplicated

Research data from the Tara Pacific expedition brought to light that the long life of some coral species may have yet another reason: the duplication of certain genes. Many important genes are present multiple times in the genome. The researchers were able to determine this through sequencing of coral genomes employing a new high-resolution technique.

This technique, called long-read sequencing, makes it possible to not only determine the set of genes present, but also to look at their order in the genome. According to Voolstra, the pervasive presence of gene duplication could be a possible explanation for why corals can live for thousands of years despite being exposed, for instance, to extreme UV radiation in shallow waters.

The entire data collection is freely accessible

All data sets are openly accessible and fully described with accompanying physical and chemical measurements to provide them as a scientific resource to all researchers.

"This is unique," Voolstra says. "It is the largest data set collection on coral reefs ever collected and it is completely open access." The aspiration is that this data collection will serve as a foundation and inventory to guide future study of coral reefs worldwide for many years."

-via Phys.org, June 26, 2023

[thescienceofequus]

Dr. Orlando, who has spent years mapping the domestication history of horses, is an author of the paper, which he hopes will jump-start research on the humble donkey and restore some of its dignity. He and researchers from 37 laboratories around the world analyzed the genomes of 207 modern donkeys, living in 31 countries. They also sequenced DNA from the skeletons of 31 early donkeys, some of which date as far back as 4,500 years.

Scholars had previously identified three potential centers of domestication, in the Near East, northeast Africa (including Egypt) and the Arabian Peninsula. But Dr. Orlando’s team concluded that donkeys — humanity’s first land-based transport — were domesticated only once, around 5,000 B.C., when herders in the Horn of Africa and present-day Kenya began to tame wild asses. That date is about 400 years before the earliest archaeological evidence of tamed donkeys from El Omari, near Cairo, and nearly three millenniums before horses were first harnessed.

[zvaigzdelasas]

Mercury pollution of soil and water is a worldwide threat to public health. This new work suggests Metarhizium could provide an inexpensive and efficient way to protect crops grown in polluted areas and remediate mercury-laden waterways.

The study, which was conducted by UMD professor of entomology Raymond St. Leger and researchers in the laboratory of his former post-doctoral fellow, Weiguo Fang (now at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China),was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) on November 14, 2022.

"This project, led by Dr. Fang, found that Metarhizium stops plants from taking up mercury," said St. Leger. "Despite being planted in polluted soil, the plant grows normally and is edible. What's more, the fungus alone can quickly clear mercury from both fresh and saltwater."

Metarhizium is a nearly ubiquitous fungi, and previous work by the St. Leger laboratory had shown that it colonizes plant roots and protects them from herbivorous insects. Scientists have known that Metarhizium is often one of the only living things found in soils from toxic sites like mercury mines. But no one had previously determined how the fungus survived in mercury polluted soils, or if that had implications for the plants the fungus normally lives with.

St. Leger and other colleagues had previously sequenced the genome of Metarhizium, and Fangnoticed that it contains two genes that are very similar to genes present in a bacterium known to detoxify, or bioremediate, mercury.

For the current study, the researchers ran a variety of laboratory experiments and found that corn infected with Metarhizium grew just as well whether it was planted in clean soil or mercury-laden soil. What's more, no mercury was found in the plant tissues of corn grown in polluted soil.

The researchers then genetically modified the fungi, removing the two genes that were similar to those in mercury remediating bacteria. When they replicated their experiments, modified Metarhizium no longer protected corn plants from mercury-laden soil, and the corn died.

To verify that the genes were providing the detoxifying qualities, the researchers inserted them into another fungus that does not normally protect corn from mercury. The newly modified fungus performed like the Metarhizium, protecting the plants from mercury-laden soil.

Microbiological analyses revealed that the genes in question expressed enzymes that break down highly toxic organic forms of mercury into less toxic, inorganic mercury molecules. Lastly, the researchers genetically engineered Metarhizium to express more of the detoxifying genes and increase its production of the detoxifying enzymes.

In their final experiment, the researchers found they could clear mercury from both fresh and salt water in 48 hours by mixing in Metarhizium.

[didanawisgi]

Master Post: The Yan Papers & Supporting Evidence of an Unrestricted Bioweapon

Yan Reports

Unusual Features of the SARS-CoV-2 Genome Suggesting Sophisticated Laboratory Modification Rather Than Natural Evolution and Delineation of Its Probable Synthetic Route

SARS-CoV-2 Is an Unrestricted Bioweapon: A Truth Revealed through Uncovering a Large-Scale, Organized Scientific Fraud

The Wuhan Laboratory Origin of SARS-CoV-2 and the Validity of the Yan Reports Are Further Proved by the Failure of Two Uninvited "Peer Reviews"

Birger Sørensen, Angus Dalgleish & Andres Susrud

The Evidence which Suggests that This Is No Naturally Evolved Virus: A Reconstructed Historical Aetiology of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike

Steven C. Quay Bayesian Analysis

A Bayesian analysis concludes beyond a reasonable doubt that SARS-CoV-2 is not a natural zoonosis but instead is laboratory derived

Long history of China's CCP and Biowarfare: Analysis from Clare M. Lopez, Director of U.S. Geostrategic Security Issues for the Near East Center for Strategic Engagement (NEC-SE) 

The Role of Biological Warfare in China’s Drive for Global Hegemony (Part 1) & How a CCP Operation Ensnared the US Government (Part 2)

Mixed Messaging from U.S. Government on China’s Biological Weapons Program: The involvement of U.S. government entities with Chinese biological weapons scientists and entities is deeply concerning

“Better Late Than Never?”

China’s Biological Warfare Programme: An Integrative Study with Special Reference to Biological Weapons Capabilities by Dany Shoham

This study attempts to profile China’s biological warfare programme (BWP), with special reference to biological weapons (BW) capabilities that exist in facilities affiliated with the defence establishment and the military. For that purpose, a wide variety of facilities affiliated with the defence establishment and with the military are reviewed and profiled. The outcome of that analysis points at 12 facilities affiliated with the defence establishment, plus 30 facilities affiliated with the PLA, that are involved in research, development, production, testing or storage of BW. This huge alignment might be regarded as superfluous, ostensibly; yet, considering the various factors discussed in the present study, the overall derived picture of the Chinese BW-related alignment is not at all surprising. The chances that an outstanding state like China would ignore new avenues of BW designing and deployment are a priori slim, if any. China, in all likelihood, is and will persist as a paramount BW possessor.

‘Virus warfare’ in China military documents

Chinese military scientists discussed the weaponisation of SARS coronaviruses five years before the COVID-19 pandemic, outlining their ideas in a document that predicted a third world war would be fought with biological weapons.

The Secret Speech of General Chi Haotian

The Secret Speech of General Chi Haotian. In 2005, THE EPOCH TIMES acquired a secret speech given by Defense Minister Chi Haotian to high-level Communist Party Cadres sometime before his retirement in 2003. Details given in Chi’s speech coincide with previously unpublished defector testimony on Sino-Russian military plans.

A SARS-like cluster of circulating bat coronaviruses shows potential for human emergence (2015)

The emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)-CoV underscores the threat of cross-species transmission events leading to outbreaks in humans. Here we examine the disease potential of a SARS-like virus, SHC014- CoV, which is currently circulating in Chinese horseshoe bat populations1. Using the SARS-CoV reverse genetics system2, we generated and characterized a chimeric virus expressing the spike of bat coronavirus SHC014 in a mouse-adapted SARS-CoV backbone. The results indicate that group 2b viruses encoding the SHC014 spike in a wild-type backbone can efficiently use multiple orthologs of the SARS receptor human angiotensin converting enzyme II (ACE2), replicate efficiently in primary human airway cells and achieve in vitro titers equivalent to epidemic strains of SARS-CoV. Additionally, in vivo experiments demonstrate replication of the chimeric virus in mouse lung with notable pathogenesis. Evaluation of available SARS-based immune-therapeutic and prophylactic modalities revealed poor efficacy; both monoclonal antibody and vaccine approaches failed to neutralize and protect from infection with CoVs using the novel spike protein. On the basis of these findings, we synthetically re-derived an infectious full-length SHC014 recombinant virus and demonstrate robust viral replication both in vitro and in vivo. Our work suggests a potential risk of SARS-CoV re-emergence from viruses currently circulating in bat populations.

The China-Led WHO Report on Coronavirus Is Deeply Suspect 

The China-Led WHO Report on Coronavirus Is Deeply Suspect by Lt. Col. (res.) Dr. Dany Shoham: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The WHO’s China-led international investigation into the origins of COVID-19 did not trace either the genomic derivation or the initial contraction of the virus that generated the pandemic. This could be because it did not look for an unnatural scenario or because a natural scenario did not in fact occur. China appears to have essentially dictated the proceedings of the investigation, the findings of which are deeply suspect.

Discovery of a novel merbecovirus DNA clone contaminating agricultural rice sequencing datasets from Wuhan, China

Discovery of a novel merbecovirus DNA clone contaminating agricultural rice sequencing datasets from Wuhan, China

An unreported CoV infectious clone in Wuhan

Csabai et al.

Unique SARS-CoV-2 variant found in public sequence data of Antarctic soil samples collected in 2018-2019

Host genomes for the unique SARS-CoV-2 variant leaked into Antarctic soil metagenomic sequencing data

Project DEFUSE: Defusing the Threat of Bat-borne Coronaviruses 

DEFUSE proposal

Nuclear translocation of spike mRNA and protein is a novel pathogenic feature of SARS-CoV-2

The spike (S) protein appears to be a major pathogenic factor that contributes to the unique pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2. Although the S protein is a surface transmembrane type 1 glycoprotein, it has been predicted to be translocated into the nucleus due to the novel nuclear localization signal (NLS) “PRRARSV”, which is absent from the S protein of other coronaviruses. Indeed, S proteins translocate into the nucleus in SARS-CoV-2-infected cells. To our surprise, S mRNAs also translocate into the nucleus. S mRNA colocalizes with S protein, aiding the nuclear translocation of S mRNA. While nuclear translocation of nucleoprotein (N) has been shown in many coronaviruses, the nuclear translocation of both S mRNA and S protein reveals a novel pathogenic feature of SARS-CoV-2.

SARS–CoV–2 Spike Impairs DNA Damage Repair and Inhibits V(D)J Recombination In Vitro

Intracellular Reverse Transcription of Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine BNT162b2 In Vitro in Human Liver Cell Line

Unnaturalness in the evolution process of the SARS-CoV-2 variants and the possibility of deliberate natural selection

Over the past three years, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has repeatedly experienced pandemics, generating various mutated variants ranging from Alpha to Omicron. In this study, we aimed to clarify the evolutionary processes leading to the formation of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variants, focusing on Omicron variants with many amino acid mutations in the spike protein among SARS-CoV-2 isolates. To determine the order in which the mutations leading to the formation of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variants, we compared the sequences of 129 Omicron BA.1-related isolates, 141 BA.1.1-related isolates, and 122 BA.2-related isolates, and tried to dissolve the evolutionary processes of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variants, including the order of mutations leading to the formation of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variants and the occurrence of homologous recombination. As a result, we concluded that the formations of a part of Omicron isolates BA.1, BA.1.1, and BA.2 were not the products of genome evolution as is commonly observed in nature, such as the accumulation of mutations and homologous recombinations. Furthermore, the study of 35 recombinant isolates of Omicron variants BA.1 and BA.2, confirmed that Omicron variants were already present in 2020. The analysis we have shown here is that the Omicron variants are formed by an entirely new mechanism that cannot be explained by previous biology, and knowing the way how the SARS-CoV-2 variants were formed prompts a reconsideration of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

Further Supporting Evidence

Anomalies in BatCoV/RaTG13 sequencing and provenance

Time Shows That The ‘Paranoid’ People Were Correct About COVID

Molecular Biology Clues Portray SARS-CoV-2 as a Gain-of-Function Laboratory Manipulation of Bat CoV RaTG13

The genetic structure of SARS-CoV-2 does not rule out a laboratory origin: SARS-COV-2 chimeric structure and furin cleavage site might be the result of genetic manipulation

A look at China’s biowarfare ambitions

Mountains of circumstantial evidence point toward early circulation of SARS-CoV-2

Breaking: SARS-CoV-2 Spike found in bacteria samples taken from China, 2019

Unique SARS-CoV-2 genomes found in Antarctic samples raises questions about SARS-CoV-2 origin, lineages

The Galveston National Lab and Wuhan Institute of Virology

US University Concedes It May Have Broken Law in Contract With Wuhan Lab

Judicial Watch: New Documents Reveal COVID-19 Vaccine Studies Used by HHS were Conducted in China

JW v HHS Wuhan August 31 2021 00696

Flavinkins Archives

THE NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH AND ECOHEALTH ALLIANCE DID NOT EFFECTIVELY MONITOR AWARDS AND SUBAWARDS, RESULTING IN MISSED OPPORTUNITIES TO OVERSEE RESEARCH AND OTHER DEFICIENCIES

U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command (USAMRDC) COVID-19 Common Operational Picture

SELLIN: Is China’s Military Making COVID-19 Variants?

Enhancing Protein Expression by Leveraging Codon Optimization

Engineered bat virus stirs debate over risky research

So, COVID-19 is a Bioweapon After All, The Times ExplainsSars-Cov-2 is a result of bioweapons research, and work of Ralph Baric and Peter Daszak

Journalistic Investigations

The origin of COVID: Did people or nature open Pandora’s box at Wuhan?

What really went on inside the Wuhan lab weeks before Covid erupted?New fresh evidence drawn from confidential reports reveals Chinese scientists spliced together deadly pathogens shortly before the pandemic, the Sunday Times Insight team report

New Emails Chronicle Lab-Leak Coverup in Real Time

Francis Collins and Anthony Fauci emailed about whether NIH funded Wuhan lab before secret call

Pentagon gave millions to EcoHealth Alliance for weapons research program

Leaked Chinese document reveals a sinister plan to ‘unleash’ coronaviruses

BREAKING: DOD CONTROLLED COVID ‘VACCINES’ FROM THE START UNDER NATIONAL SECURITY PROGRAM – LIED THE ENTIRE TIME – Were NEVER ‘Safe and Effective’

The role of the US DoD (and their co-investors) in "covid countermeasures" enterprise.

EVOLUTION OF A THEORY: Unredacted NIH Emails Show Efforts to Rule Out Lab Origin of Covid

The U.S. Keeps Offering China Its COVID Vaccines. China Keeps Saying No

Links between the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston and China’s People’s Liberation Army

Broken Bioweapon: Lack of mRNA Integrity in Pfizer Batches: All Regulators Knew This When they "Pretend-Approved" the Shots

Intelligence report warned of coronavirus crisis as early as November: Sources"Analysts concluded it could be a cataclysmic event," a source said

How Did Deborah Birx Get the Job?

Do Governments Track the Injury and Kill Rates from Biowarfare Agents Deployed as mRNA/DNA "Vaccines"?

Lab Leak Most Likely Origin of Covid-19 Pandemic, Energy Department Now Says

FBI Director Says Covid Pandemic Likely Caused by Chinese Lab Leak

Wuhan lab denied BSL4 access for SARS work without clear reasoning

Videos

Proof Government Lab Created COVID, Says Escaped Chinese Virologist Dr. Li-Meng Yan – Ask Dr. Drew

Virologist Dr. Li-Meng Yan Claims Coronavirus Lab 'Cover-Up' Made Her Flee China | Loose Women

The Dr. Jordan B Peterson Podcast, Viral: The Origin of Covid 19 | Matt Ridley | EP 310

Chinese Defector: China’s Weaponization of Covid-19

Was COVID-19 made inside a Chinese lab? | Under Investigation

One Billion COVID Jabs From The CCP? Dr. Naomi Wolf Breaks Down a Disconcerting Timeline

RTE Discussions #16: Examining DoD Involvement in the Pandemic (w/ Sasha Latypova)

Major Evidence China Is Making The Pfizer Vaccine Ingredients!

Naomi Wolf Bombshell: Has China Been Using COVID Vaccines To Decimate Western Democracies?!

LNP/mRNA Is "Natural Born Killer" Says Drug Inventor Dr. Richard Urso w/ Dr Kelly Victory – Ask Dr. Drew

COVID 'Good Material For Non-Traditional Bioweapon' To Ruin Economies: Chinese Virologist

Conversation with Dr. Jane Ruby: We cover the Government-Military-BioPharma Industrial Complex and get into the question Why?

SHOCKING REVELATION - DOCTOR EXPOSES COVID BIOWEAPONS PROGRAM & REVEALS VACCINE WILL KILL MILLIONS

COVID Lab Leak Evidence: Escaped Chinese Virologist Dr. Li-meng Yan & Brian O'Shea

Dr. David Martin: Pandemic Was "Biological Weapon of Genocide" w/ Dr. Kelly Victory – Ask Dr. Drew

Illegal Biolab in CA: Escaped Virologist Warns Of CCP Spy Links w/ Dr. Li-meng Yan – Ask Dr. Drew

Books

What Really Happened In Wuhan: A Virus Like No Other, Countless Infections, Millions of Deaths by Sharri Markson (2022)

Unrestricted Warfare: China's Master Plan to Destroy America by Qiao Liang & Wang Xiangsui (2015)

Podcasts

The Voice of Dr. Yan

Neither Accidental nor Occasional, the History of CCP’s Bioweapon Program Dr. Li-Meng Yan & Clare M. Lopez

No Amnesty Should Be Given Until Investigation of COVID-19 Origin

Pfizer’s Plan of Directed Evolution vs. COVID-19 Predictor in China – Does the Nightmare Become True?

Chinese Spy Balloon is another CCP’s Unrestricted Tactic Against America

CCP promoted novel fabricated data on nature origin of COVID-19

China’s new methodology warfare; Understanding the cognitive war