Candy company, scientists team up to save chocolate from extinction by 2050

Candy company Mars and scientists from the University of California are working on a technology that will ensure cacao plants can grow amid climate change.

According to a 2014 research from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, if “business as usual” continues, countries that produce cacao will increase in temperature by 2.1°C.

The world’s leading producers are Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Indonesia. The African countries count for over half of chocolate production globally.

The higher temperatures in West Africa would mean a lack of rainfall, which will cause cacao plants to die.

A solution would be to plant on higher ground. However, as in the case of Ghana, agricultural land is limited because forests are being preserved as natural habitats.

According to Business Insider, UC Berkeley geneticist Jennifer Doudna is leading the partnership with Mars to save chocolate with a genome editing technology called CRISPR/Cas9. Doudna herself has contributed research on it.

Mars, known for M&Ms, Snickers and 3 Musketeers, pledged $1 billion to reduce its carbon footprint by over 60 percent by 2050.

Part of this funding goes to UC Berkeley’s biosciences building where cacao seedlings are stored in refrigerated greenhouses.

Under the supervision of Myeong-Je Cho, the director of plant genomics, the plants’ DNA will be transformed to survive in a dryer climate.

The CRISPR/Cas9, a tool which finds a target DNA, binds an enzyme called Cas9 to the DNA and cuts it.

Projects in Doudna’s research lab aim to help farmers in the developing world. For instance, cassava DNA is being modified so that the crop doesn’t produce as much of a harmful toxin when it is in hotter temperatures.

Other potential uses are editing human genes—possibly producing controversial “designer babies”—and eliminating human diseases.  Niña V. Guno /ra

source: technology.inquirer.net

Stool test spots most colon cancers —US study

NEW YORK - An at-home test that reacts to blood in a person's stool can identify most colon cancers, according to a fresh look at some previous studies.

Researchers found the fecal immunochemical test (FIT) is able to detect 79 percent of colorectal cancers without making people change their diets or stop taking their medications, as some other screening tests require.

"It's more user friendly for the patient," Dr. Jeffrey Lee told Reuters Health.

Lee, from the University of California, San Francisco and Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research, led the analysis.

Colon cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). About 132,000 people were diagnosed with the disease in 2010 and about 52,000 died from it.

The government-backed US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends people between ages 50 and 75 get screened by colonoscopy every 10 years.

During a colonoscopy, a doctor uses a long flexible tube equipped with a tiny video camera to see the interior of the colon.

Alternatively, the USPSTF says people in that age group can have a high-sensitivity fecal occult blood test every year, or a sigmoidoscopy—which is similar to a colonoscopy—every five years in addition to fecal occult blood testing every three years.

Fecal occult blood testing (FOBT) is more cumbersome than FIT, Lee said. It requires more samples and more pre-test changes to a person's diet and medication schedule.

According to the USPSTF's website, the panel is currently planning to analyze the effectiveness of FIT.

For the new study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the researchers searched databases of medical research for studies from 1996 through 2013 that looked at the effectiveness of FIT.

They included 19 studies in their final analysis. The studies each included between about 100 and 28,000 people with no symptoms of colon cancer.

In most cases, the participants used FIT and then were screened with a colonoscopy soon afterward.

The researchers found FIT detected 79 percent of colon cancers after one test. Among people who didn't have colon cancer, 94 percent tested negative.

For comparison, FOBT has a reported accuracy between 13 and 50 percent, according to the researchers.

While FOBT costs about $5 per test, the average cost of FIT is about $22, according to the patient advocacy organization Colon Cancer Alliance, Inc.

"Our study kind of confirms that FIT is an accurate test, but ultimately my take-home message is that there are so many options for screening," Lee said.

Janet Byron, a spokesperson for the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research, told Reuters Health in an email that Kaiser Permanente Northern California implemented systemwide FIT testing for adults between 50 and 75 years old. The kits are distributed by mail, at doctors' offices and in labs.

The healthcare system has a cancer screening rate of about 80 percent. That compares to the approximately 70 percent of people in that age range who are screened nationally, according to the CDC.

Assuming people use it, FIT could lead to a greater reduction in colon cancer deaths above what FOBT has already done, according to Lee.

"I just recommend that for the general population to get screened," he said. "The best test is the one that actually gets done." —Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com