Rare disease day is February 29, 2020, where many hospitals in Michigan will expand construction projects for more rare disease research on tiny humans to fraudulently bill Medicaid.
The global networks are vast when it comes to the trafficking of tiny humans industry, but Rare Disease Week only comes once a year.
We are celebrating Rare Disease Week in this month's newsletter!
We are humbled to be able to assist great rare disease organizations like BPAN Warriors and The National Foundation for Ectodermal Dysplasias (NFED), respectively. We have provided Mastermind Genomic LandscapesTM for BPAN and Ectodermal Dysplasias to help Pharma and researchers understand the molecular drivers of the diseases, identify biomarkers for clinical trial target selection, and support CDx regulatory submissions with empirical evidence.
Read about our work for BPAN Warriors in the Journal of Precision Medicine:
We’re pleased to announce the integration of the Mastermind Genomic Search Engine into Alamut Visual™, a gene browser with advanced features from SOPHiA GENETICS. This integration provides intuitive access to comprehensive and updated genomic information for clinicians and researchers. Learn more about this reference software for human variation exploration:
Did You Know?
Mastermind is also found within these solutions:
Last Chance to Join Us for Lunch in San Antonio at ACMG!
Join the Genomenon team next month during ACMG for our first Mastermind User's Group lunch and a highly interactive session all about the Mastermind Genomic Search Engine. Get insight into future plans for Mastermind, hear how users are accelerating their workflows in extraordinary ways with Mastermind, and give us your input in round-table discussions with our executive team, all while enjoying an authentic taco bar in San Antonio’s beautiful Riverwalk.
Mastermind is the most comprehensive source of genomic evidence covering over 7,500,000 articles, with more added daily.
Here are some recent highlights of the great things happening in genomics:
Pinpointing Rare Disease Mutations
This study compares knockout mice viability and phenotyping data from the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium (IMPC) with human cell lines provided by the Broad Institute’s Project Achilles to create categories indicating how crucial a gene is to producing viable life.
“Loss of gene function is often referred to as a binary concept; lethal or viable,” says Violeta Muñoz-Fuentes, Biologist, Mouse Informatics at EMBL-EBI. “In this study we show that gene essentiality is more of a spectrum ranging from cellular lethal, developmental lethal, subviable, viable with a visible phenotype, and viable without a visible phenotype.”
NIH Scientists Identify Atomic Structure of Novel Coronavirus Protein
NIAID scientists working with investigators from the University of Texas at Austin (UT) have identified the atomic structure of an important protein on the surface of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2, formerly called 2019-nCoV). The authors note that the findings will aid in the design of candidate vaccines and the development of treatments for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new virus, which was first identified in China in December 2019.
Unprecedented Study Yields Most Comprehensive Map of Cancer Genomes to Date
The international team ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (known as PCAWG or the Pan-Cancer Project) has completed the most comprehensive study of whole cancer genomes to date in 22 papers, significantly improving our fundamental understanding of cancer and suggesting new directions for its diagnosis and treatment.
Peter the Procurer & His
Tiny Pre-Human Egg Purveyors
In genetics and developmental biology, somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is a laboratory strategy for creating a viable embryo from a body cell and an egg cell. The technique consists of taking an enucleated oocyte (egg cell) and implanting a donor nucleus from a somatic (body) cell. It is used in both therapeutic and reproductive cloning. Dolly the Sheep became famous for being the first successful case of the reproductive cloning of a mammal.[1] In January 2018, a team of scientists in Shanghai announced the successful cloning of two female crab-eating macaques (named Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua) from fetal nuclei.[2] "Therapeutic cloning" refers to the potential use of SCNT in regenerative medicine; this approach has been championed as an answer to the many issues concerning embryonic stem cells (ESC) and the destruction of viable embryos for medical use, though questions remain on how homologous the two cell types truly are.
Peter has lots of young, beautiful women who have eggs.
Peter has lots of money.
There are even egg banks where you can purchase tiny pre-human eggs.
Peter can even fund campaigns to pass laws to grow his own tiny humans so he can use his own stem cells, since he is the progenetor, and all.
I wonder what they do with the tiny humans, after they were pre-tiny humans.
See, before an egg is fertilized with sperm, you must decide with which host you are going with for the gestation.
Will the host be the original parent, a legal term I like to use for the biological mother, carry the tiny human product or will the zygote be warehoused by a corporation in an artificial host?
Upon fetal maturtion, is the extraction of stem cells voluntarily induced and have parental rights been terminated and transferred?
What is the citizenship of the fetus and what do you do with the leftover tiny human parts?
Organ transfers?
Medical school lab rat testing?
Orphan drug testing?
Personal inurement?
I can go on all night long about the trafficking tiny humans industry.
Since, I know nothing, but what I know, I am going to let the FBI finish and take the glory for dismantling this particular trafficking tiny humans operation, for there shall be many, many more.
Spokesperson would not confirm whether search was related to recent sexual assault allegations, lawsuit
The FBI searched the New York headquarters of Peter Nygard's fashion brand but would not say what they were looking for Tuesday.
Peter Nygard will step down from his company and divest his ownership stake, his spokesperson said Tuesday, amid revelations the Canadian fashion mogul is the target of a police investigation in the Bahamas involving allegations of sexual assault.
The announcement in a statement comes just hours after FBI investigators raided Nygard's New York offices earlier in the day. An FBI spokesperson confirmed the search took place but would not provide any further details.
Ten women have filed a civil class-action lawsuit against Nygard, whose fashion company is based in Winnipeg, accusing the clothing manufacturer of raping them at his seaside mansion in the Bahamas and operating what they refer to as a "sex trafficking ring."
Police in the Bahamas are now investigating allegations made by four women who are part of the lawsuit, who told police Nygard sexually assaulted them when they were younger than 16, the age of consent in the Bahamas.
The FBI would not confirm whether Tuesday morning's raid was related to these allegations.
But Nygard's lawyer said he believed the raid was a direct result of the allegations, which he called a "conspiracy" created by Nygard's former neighbour, Louis Bacon, with whom Nygard has been in a legal feud for more than a decade.
"They'll find no evidence of wrongdoing," Jay Prober said.
However, he said he hasn't read the FBI's warrant yet and doesn't know exactly what they were looking for.
Nygard 'will divest his ownership interest'
In a statement Tuesday evening, spokesman Ken Frydman said Nygard would be stepping away from the company that bears his name.
The statement included no admissions of wrongdoing, but instead continued to point a finger at "Louis Bacon and his operatives."
"Recognizing the priority of the welfare of the thousands of Nygard employees, retail partners, loyal customers, vendors, suppliers and business partners, Peter Nygard has made the decision to step down as chairman of the Nygard companies and will divest his ownership interest," the statement reads.
"Peter Nygard has decided that his legal battles with Louis Bacon will no longer be a distraction to the [Nygard] companies."
Lawsuit alleges assault, rape
The lawsuit filed in New York alleges Nygard "recruited, lured and enticed young, impressionable and often impoverished children and women, with cash payments and false promises of lucrative modelling opportunities to assault, rape and sodomize them."
The alleged rapes happened between 2008 and 2015, and three of the women were 14 at the time, the lawsuit says.
No criminal charges have been laid and none of the allegations have been proven in court. A statement of defence has not yet been filed.
Prober has vigorously denied the allegations against his client, saying earlier this month the police investigation "will go nowhere, absolutely nowhere."
"Anybody who makes a complaint like that, whether it's true or not, the police are obligated to investigate it. The investigation will amount to nothing," Prober said.
He said Nygard's lawyers in New York are currently preparing a motion to dismiss the class-action lawsuit.
The Embryo Adoption Public Awareness Campaign was first funded by Congress in fiscal year 2002. The original purpose of the program was to increase public awareness of the existence of a large number of human embryos remaining after in vitro fertilization procedures, some of which might be available for adoption by infertile couples. In fiscal year 2008, Congress expanded the scope of the program to include interventions that provided “medical and administrative services” to individuals and couples in order to facilitate the adoption and donation of embryos for the purpose of family formation. P4
Some non-Federal entities have
expressed concerns that requiring compliance with certain non-statutory requirements of
those paragraphs violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), 42 U.S.C. §
2000bb, et seq., or the U.S. Constitution, exceeds the Department’s statutory authority, or
reduces the effectiveness of programs, for example, by reducing foster care placements in
the Title IV-E program of HHS’s Administration for Children and Families. p5.
In this proposed rule, the American University, Beirut, and the World Health
Organization are exempted specifically from the indirect-cost-rate limitation because they
are eligible for negotiated facilities and administration (F&A) cost reimbursement.
TRASNLATION: FRAUD. CHILDREN'S FAKE ASS FOREIGN CHILD WELFARE NGOs AND THEIR FAKE ASS CHILDREN'S TRUST FUNDS RUNNING CHILD WELFARE PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGNS ALL THE DAMN TIME BECAUSE THE COST REIMBURSEMENT IS THROUGH MEDICAID AND LOTS AND LOTS OF STUPID PREDICTIVE MODELING CRAP RESEARCH GRANTS FOR FOREIGN UNIVERSITIES, SUCH AS LISTED ABOVE, ARE DOING ON TINY HUMANS. SEE SAM BROWNBACK. EMPHASIS ADDED.
This
proposed restriction on indirect costs, as indicated by 45 CFR 75.101, would flow down
to subawards and subrecipients. The Department recognizes that this provision could be
interpreted as having a financial impact on small entities. These limits, however, have
been operational since the publication of the Final Rule, and therefore grantees would not
need to make any changes to their current practice in response to this rulemaking.
Washington D.C., Nov 1, 2019 / 02:00 pm (CNA).- The Trump administration has announced a change to federal rules to preserve federal funding of faith-based adoption agencies, regardless of their views on same-sex marriage.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced Nov. 1 that it would change its enforcement of previous regulations and propose a new rule, allowing faith-based adoption agencies to continue receiving federal funding while not having to match children with same-sex couples against their religious mission.
HHS said it would revise a 2016 rule that conditioned federal funding of child welfare agencies upon their matching children with same-sex couples.
The U.S. bishops’ conference (USCCB) praised the change in a statement released on Friday.
“To restrict faith-based organizations’ work by infringing on religious freedom – as the 2016 rule threatened to do - is unfair and serves no one, especially the children in need of these services,” said a joint statement by Bishop Frank Dewane of Venice, Florida, chair of the USCCB Domestic Justice and Human Development committee, Bishop James Conley of Lincoln, chair of the USCCB Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage, and Bishop Robert McManus of Worcester, Massachusetts, chair of the USCCB Committee for Religious Liberty.
The previous regulation “threatened to shut out faith-based social service providers, namely adoption and foster care agencies that respect a child’s right to a mother and a father,” the bishops said.
The announcement comes in the middle of a “foster care crisis” in which faith-based adoption agencies will play a critical role in placing children with families, religious freedom advocates said.
“It is just as important today to continue fighting so that vulnerable children will have all hands on deck in the midst of a nationwide foster care crisis,” said Lori Windham, senior counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.
“Every child deserves a chance to be raised in a loving home,” said Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Zack Pruitt said, noting that there are more than 400,000 children in the foster care system and 100,000 eligible for adoption. HHS’s action “offers hope for children, more options for birth mothers, support for families, and increased flexibility for states seeking to alleviate real human need,” he said.
However, the administration’s proposed rule “would only fix part of the problem,” Windham tweeted, as faith-based agencies also face hostility from state and local governments and thus “still need help from SCOTUS.”
Becket represents several entities affected by the Obama administration regulation and similar state and local efforts to push child welfare agencies to place children with same-sex couples.
In a press release on Friday morning, HHS said it would stop enforcing certain regulatory provisions for administering grants, due to a problematic interpretation of them by the Obama administration.
The federal agency also issued a proposed rule revising part of a 2016 Obama-era regulation, to better protect faith-based adoption agencies.
The rule, HHS said, would ensure respect for civil rights while protecting religious freedom and “eliminating regulatory burden” on “the free exercise of religion”; it would do so by requiring grant recipients to comply with existing anti-discrimination laws passed and religious freedom laws that have been passed by Congress, while also requiring HHS to comply with relevant Supreme Court decisions.
Faith-based adoption agencies have had to contend with efforts at the federal, state, and local levels that conditioned public funding on the agencies placing children with same-sex couples in violation of their religious mission.
In Michigan, Catholic Charities West Michigan—represented by ADF—brought a federal lawsuit against the state for withholding funding from faith-based adoption agencies over their stances on marriage. A federal court recently blocked the Obama-era regulation from going into effect in a case involving St. Vincent Catholic Charities and a family looking to adopt, represented by Becket.
“Both the federal government and a federal court have now recognized that discrimination against faith-based agencies seeking to serve those most in need should not be tolerated. We hope that state and local governments will follow suit,” Windham said.
There are several federal laws which are relevant to nondiscrimination in the adoption and foster care system.
These include Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which forbids discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in programs of child welfare agencies and state courts. Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 forbids sex discrimination in federally-funded education programs; other laws prohibit discrimination for age and disability.
The Obama administration interpreted existing law to forbid discrimination in the child welfare system not only on basis of sex, but sexual orientation. Thus, it began taking action against adoption agencies that did not place children with same-sex couples, on the grounds that they were discriminating against an individual’s sexual orientation.
Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.) introduced an amendment in a 2018 funding bill to withhold some HHS funding of states that would not allow faith-based organizations to carry out their religious mission in child welfare. The amendment was removed from the legislation before a final House vote.
Adoption agencies have also been facing adverse action from states which have anti-discrimination laws.
In Massachusetts, Catholic Charities of the Boston Archdiocese stopped its adoption services in 2006 after the state legalized same-sex marriage. Catholic Charities in California and Illinois also stopped their adoption services in 2006 and 2011, respectively.
In Illinois, the bishops had said that the state “made it financially impossible for our agencies to continue to provide these services,” after the state legalized same-sex marriage and required adoption agencies to pair children with same-sex couples.
In 2018, the city of Philadelphia stopped placing adoptive children with Catholic Social Services, only days after calling for 300 new families to adopt foster children.
The city faces a lawsuit by several foster mothers for its decision to stop working with Catholic Social Services, and on Nov. 15, the Supreme Court will decide whether or not to grant review in Fulton v. Philadelphia.
Speaking of grant announcements, a funny thing happened while searching for the Federal Registry Announcement for public comments, where I shall, in the Spirit of the Celestial Goddess of the Woodshed, perform the perfection of prayers for the heavens to fall, I found this fun little Faith Based Funding grant of the Office of Population Control for the search of hosts to gestate a corporation's moveable chattel in the form of embryos.
The Embryo Adoption Public Awareness Campaign was first funded by Congress in fiscal year 2002. The original purpose of the program was to increase public awareness of the existence of a large number of human embryos remaining after in vitro fertilization procedures, some of which might be available for adoption by infertile couples. In fiscal year 2008, Congress expanded the scope of the program to include interventions that provided “medical and administrative services” to individuals and couples in order to facilitate the adoption and donation of embryos for the purpose of family formation.
The National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) has collected information over the past several years regarding the behaviors and access to health services of females and males within the United States of America related to family formation and reproductive health. Data from the 2012 NSFG release (which received partial support from the Embryo Adoption Awareness program) suggested that nearly two-thirds of U.S. women of reproductive age knew of embryo adoption/donation as a method of family formation. Preliminary analysis from more recent studies indicate that awareness continues to increase. Building upon the public’s awareness, in 2016, OPA supported a small but in-depth study of obstetrician/gynecologists’ knowledge and practices regarding embryo adoption/donation. Though awareness of embryo adoption/donation was nearly universal among the study participants, none of them had ever offered education and counseling on embryo adoption/donation nor suggested it to a patient.
