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.
ROME – In the latest fallout from a burgeoning financial scandal involving a controversial $220 million land deal in London, the Vatican announced Tuesday that internal investigators have seized documents and computers from the office and residence of the former head of a powerful department responsible for investments.
“This morning, in the context of a search ordered by the Promoter of Justice, Gian Piero Milano, and his Adjunct Alessandro Diddi, a seizure was executed of documents and computer equipment in the office and residence of Monsignor Alberto Perlasca, ex-administrative office head in the First Section of the Secretariat of State,” Tuesday’s communique said.
The Secretariat of State is the Vatican’s central coordinating department, and the first section oversees routine ecclesiastical governance. Perlasca, 60, had been the head of an office within the first section responsible for managing Vatican investments until July 26, when Pope Francis named him to a position with the Apostolic Signatura, the Vatican’s supreme court.
In the Secretariat of State, Perlasca had been involved on multiple fronts with respect to Vatican finances, including being part of the administrative council for the Vatican pension fund and its health care plan, as well as sitting on the board of the Vatican-sponsored pediatric hospital Bambino Gesù.
The Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital was born in 1869 as the first children's hospital in Italy, thanks to an initiative of the Dukes Salviati, on the model of the Hôpital des Enfants Malades in Paris. In 1924, the Hospital was donated to the Holy See, and became the Hospital of the Pope. In 1985, it was certified by the Italian Ministry of Health as an "Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico IRCCS" (Research Hospital) and its clinical and healthcare activity started going side by side with an intense research activity. In 2006, the Hospital has been accredited for the first time by Joint Commission International (JCI), a recognized leader in international healthcare accreditation. In 2014, the Hospital's new research laboratories have been inaugurated. The new laboratories represent a remarkable technological and infrastructural investment: they cover an area of 500 square meters and are equipped with the most modern instrumentation for cellular and genetic investigations, also including a cell factory entirely dedicated to the large-scale manufacturing of advanced therapies.
The Bambino Gesù Hospital has now become a reference center for the health of children and adolescents from Italy and abroad and is today the largest sub-specialty children's hospital and research center in Europe. It has now over 3,500 employees, and collaborates with the main international organizations in the pediatric field. It is the Italian reference center of Orphanet, the largest database of rare diseases in the world, with 39 participating states.
The Hospital carries out its healthcare activity in 4 premises: the historical headquarters on the Gianicolo hill, the new premises in Saint Paul outside the Walls, in Rome, and the peripheral premises along the Lazio coast, in Palidoro and Santa Marinella. Overall, it has 607 beds of which 52 are in ICU (intensive care unit) and 15 in neonatal semi-intensive care.
Every year, the Hospital counts almost 29,000 inpatient admissions, 30,000 surgical and interventional procedures, 41,000 Day Hospital days, 85,000 emergency admissions, almost 2,000,000 outpatient services: one of the most significant number of pediatric cases in Europe. About 29% of inpatients come from other Italian regions than Lazio, and 15% of inpatients are foreign-born.
The Hospital covers all pediatric sub-specialties. Transplantation, genetic and metabolic diseases, cardiology and cardiac surgery, neuroscience and rehabilitation are among its fields of excellence in research and care. The Bambino Gesù Hospital is the only children's hospital in Europe performing all organ and tissue transplantations: heart, bone marrow, cornea, kidney and liver, these last two also from living donors (324 transplantations only in 2018, of which 8 implants of artificial hearts).
The Hospital clinical activity is accompanied and integrated with an intense activity of reception and assistance to the patients' families, in particular those coming from other regions. Thanks to the help of a network of associations, foundations, and hotels, the Hospital manages to offer free accommodation to approximately 4,500 families, for a total of almost 100,000 nights per year.
Furthermore, the Bambino Gesù Hospital has promoted a number of interventions of international cooperation in the field of healthcare. It currently has ongoing direct care and educational projects in 12 countries: Central African Republic, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Syria, Jordan, Cambodia, India, China, Russia, Haiti, Ecuador and South Korea.
Thanks to the support of the Bambino Gesu Foundation (Onlus), every year dozens of patients are admitted to the Hospital pro bono, children from abroad with severe diseases or war wounds, who would not have the possibility to be properly treated in their home countries.
In its commitment for the "suburbs" of the world, the Hospital does not neglect the city of Rome, with its "mobile care unit", reaching the poorer neighborhoods and parishes.
The Vatican statement said that despite a presumption of innocence, the raid on Perlasca resulted from “initial interrogations of employees under investigation who’ve been suspended from service.”
The reference was to five Vatican officials suspended in October amid an internal review of a deal made by the Secretariat of State to purchase a 183,000-square-foot property in the London neighborhood of Chelsea, consisting of a former warehouse belonging to the Harrod’s department store slated for conversion into luxury apartments. Funds for that initial purchase were drawn from the collections for “Peter’s Pence,” an annual appeal to Catholics worldwide to support the activities of the pope.
In his former position, Perlasca was also responsible for overseeing the administration of the Peter’s Pence fund.
The investigation was triggered after the Secretariat of State requested a loan from the Vatican bank to buy the property outright, reportedly without following reporting requirements under new financial transparency laws decreed by Francis.
As part of that initial inquest, Vatican police seized documents from the Financial Information Authority (AIF), an anti-money laundering watchdog group established under Pope Benedict XVI, which led to the Vatican being temporarily suspended from the world’s main international anti-money laundering federation over security concerns.
The Egmont Group readmitted the Vatican in late January, despite the fact that in the meantime the head of AIF, Swiss lawyer Rene Brülhart and a former vice-chair of the Egmont Group, was forced out of his Vatican position.
In a recent speech to Vatican judges marking the opening of their judicial year, Francis made an indirect reference to the London scandal.
Such irregularities, he said, “beyond their possible criminality, are hard to reconcile with the nature and purpose of the Church, and they’ve created confusion and worry within the community of the faithful.”
Tuesday’s Vatican statement said the investigation will continue.
“The Office of the Promoter of Justice and the Gendarmes are continuing with investigations of administrative-accounting nature, and in their cooperation with external investigative authorities,” it said.
Then, this happened... I wonder if they took her to The Baby Jesus Hospital.
Miriam Wuolou, a 34-year-old of Eritrean origin, was seven-months pregnant when her body was discovered
The Pope's pregnant receptionist has been found dead in her apartment on the outskirts of the city.
Miriam Wuolou, a 34-year-old of Eritrean origin, was seven-months pregnant when her body was discovered.
She had worked at Pope Francis' home and a priests' guesthouse called Santa Marta for years.
The Italian press reports she worked as a kind of gatekeeper for the Pontiff, as well as for the bishops and cardinals who stay there.
The Pope opted to live at the Santa Marta guesthouse after his appointment in 2013, rejecting the grand papal apartments because he found them too sumptuous and he feared isolation.
Pope Francis says contraception is 'lesser of two evils' in the battle against Zika virus
Ms Wuolou had a serious kind of diabetes which had led doctors to warn her pregnancy was at risk.
Police are investigating a case of neglect and have interviewed family members, her ex-husband from whom she was separated, and most recent boyfriend, thought to be a policeman in the Vatican, according to Rome-based newspaper il Messaggero.
The first external examination of the corpse showed no signs of violence.
Her brother found the body on Friday after he had not heard from her for several days. The autopsy has been carried out, and DNA tests are to be carried out on the foetus.
Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said. "Pope Francis had been informed of the death. We are all pained by this news."
Miriam Wuolou, a 34-year-old of Eritrean origin, was seven-months pregnant when her body was discovered
