Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

While some types of perfectionists are hardest on themselves, others tend to be antisocial and narcissistic in nature, expecting other people to be flawless and being highly critical of those who are not, a researcher from the UK’s University of Kent claims in a new study.

Writing in the Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, Kent psychology professor Joachim Stoeber explained that there are three categories of perfectionists: the self-oriented perfectionists (SOP), who have high personal standards; the socially prescribed perfectionists ones (SPP) who feel that being perfect is important to others; and the other-oriented perfectionists (OOP).

This third category, Stoeber reported in prior research, possesses what is called the “Dark Triad” of personality characteristics (narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy) as well as issues with intimacy, nurturing, and social development. He analyzed the differences between the three types of perfectionist further in his latest paper, according to a statement.

Perfectionists differ when it comes to humor, empathy

In their new study, Stoeber looked at differences in the social behavior in the three types of perfectionists, including their humor styles. He interviewed 229 university students, and found that only self-orientated perfectionists had a pro-social element, meaning those individuals were interested in others and cared about social norms.

Although they did tend to focus on themselves, these perfectionists were shown to have an interest in other people, preferring humor that enhanced relationships and avoiding aggressive forms of humor. Socially prescribed perfectionists, on the other hand, tended to crack jokes that were self-deprecating, had low self-esteem, and often said they felt inferior to others.

The third group, the other-oriented perfectionists, tended to have an aggressive sense of humor, making jokes at the expense of others. The author said that this is just one of many traits they possess that can be categorized as uncaring, and that they show no regard for the feelings of others or for social norms. They also tend to have a sense of superiority and are quite antisocial.

While his previous work demonstrated that other-oriented perfectionists had “unique positive relationships with the Dark Triad personality traits” and “unique negative relationships with nurturance, intimacy, and social development goals,” Stoeber wrote that the findings of the new study “provide further evidence that OOP is a ‘dark’ form of perfectionism positively associated with narcissistic, antisocial, and uncaring personality characteristics.”

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Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
It turns out that “little blue pill” can do so much more than increase blood flow to a certain part of the male anatomy.
According to a new study published in the journal PLOS Pathogens, Viagra helps the spleen filter out the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum by giving red blood cells “a stiffy”. (We couldn’t help ourselves.)
The study investigation, conducted by a team of European researchers, focused on the life cycles of the malaria parasite, which involves the asexual form infecting red blood cells to develop into male and female gametocytes. The presence of gametocytes in red blood cells deforms them into crescent shapes that slip past the spleen’s threat detection systems.
In the study, the scientists sought out a way to modify the shape of the gametocyte-infected blood cells so they could be harnessed in the spleen. They learned that by using Viagra they were able to affect a molecular signal that stiffened infected blood cells, causing them to be detected and trapped by the spleen.
“We know from previous work in my lab that inhibiting malaria phosphodiesterase enzymes, or deleting the genes that encode them, can disrupt malaria parasite growth. In this new study we show that Viagra, a drug shown to be safe in humans, can make the sexual forms of the malaria parasite stiff,” said study author David Baker, professor of malaria parasite biology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. “This causes them to be inactivated in the spleen and so prevents transmission of the sexual malaria parasites to mosquitoes. This is an interesting proof of concept which gives us hope that new drugs could be developed that specifically target the malaria parasite phosphodiesterase enzymes and block malaria transmission.”
Other uses for the magical blue pill
More than just punch line for late-night comedians or journalists hard-up for a double entendre, Viagra has shown promise for treating a number of serious and life-threatening conditions.
In October, European researchers found that the drug could actually have a protective effect on the heart if taken regularly. Researchers in that study focused on the active ingredient in Viagra called PDE5i.
“We found that PDE5is are among the very few drugs that are able to improve diastolic relaxation, thus helping the correct refilling of the ventricle after each contraction, a nearly unique feature in drugs used in cardiology, and with incredible potential for future development in the prevention of heart failure,” said study author Dr. Andrea Isidori, an endocrinologist from Sapienza University.
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Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck
In a potential breakthrough in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have determined the molecular structure of one of the proteins found in the fibers of brain plaques linked to this and other neurodegenerative conditions.
Yoshitaka Ishii, a professor of chemistry at the university and principal investigator of the study, and his colleagues found that amyloid beta-42, a molecule that is toxic to nerve cells, forms three flat structures known as beta sheets that layer over one another in an S-like pattern.
Furthermore, as they report in the journal Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, there is an amino acid on the protein that forms a bond between positive and negative-charged parts of a molecule known as a salt bridge. This structure is significantly different from amyloid beta-40, a chemically similar and more abundant protein that has also been linked to Alzheimer’s.
The salt bridge stabilizes the structure, and learning about the physical structure of the 42 amino acid-long form of amyloid beta (which experts believe may provoke the disease) could help understand how it improperly folds and aggregates into toxic plaques, Ishii said.
New insights into Alzheimer’s, other neurodegenerative diseases
Unlike amyloid beta-42, amyloid beta-40 lacks the amino acid that carries the negative charge needed to form the salt bridge. Ishii added that this explains why the two proteins do not interact with one another, and that the findings provide new insight into amyloid propagation in Alzheimer’s, and possibly other neurodegenerative conditions as well.
“Increasing evidence has suggested that formation and propagation of misfolded aggregates of 42-residue human amyloid β (Aβ(1–42), rather than of the more abundant Aβ(1–40), provokes the Alzheimer’s disease cascade,” the authors explained in their paper. “However, structural details of misfolded Aβ(1–42) have remained elusive. Here we present the atomic model of an Aβ(1–42) amyloid fibril, from solid-state NMR (ssNMR) data.”
That atomic model “displays triple parallel-β-sheet segments that differ from reported structures of Aβ(1–40) fibrils” and is “incompatible with the triple-β-motif, because seeding with Aβ(1–42) fibrils does not promote conversion of monomeric Aβ(1–40) into fibrils via cross-replication,” they added. Their findings “provide insight into the Aβ(1–42)-selective self-replicating amyloid-propagation machinery in early-stage Alzheimer’s disease.”
As Ishii said in a statement, drugs designed to act against amyloid beta-40 “may not work well against the more toxic amyloid beta-42.”
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Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

In what is being hailed as a potential breakthrough in the treatment of male infertility, a team of researchers from a private French research center has grown human sperm cells in a laboratory for the first time ever.

While the findings have yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal, scientists at the Kallistem laboratory in Lyon have allegedly turned spermatogonia into mature sperm in a test tube – doing something that researchers have been trying to do for 15 years, according to Discovery News.

Kallistem plans to conduct pre-clinical trials next year. If those trials are successful, they will be able to take an immature spermatogonia sample from a man, change that genetic material into mature sperm, then either use it for IVF or freeze it for later use.

Don’t get your hopes up quite yet

While the facility believed that the process could be used to treat up to 50,000 patients annually, earning them more than $2.5 billion in profits, the fact that their claims have not yet been either peer reviewed or independently verified has led to some skepticism, the Daily Mail said.

Kallistem CEO Isabelle Cuoc told the UK publication that the company “is addressing a major issue whose impacts are felt worldwide: the treatment of male infertility. Our team is the first in the world to have developed the technology required to obtain fully formed spermatozoa [sperm] in vitro with sufficient yield for IVF.”

She went on to call their discovery “a major scientific outcome that enhances both our credibility and our development potential.” However, University of Sheffield professor and male fertility expert Allan Pacey told the Daily Mail that childless couples looking to find a way to have a baby of their own should not get too excited over the firm’s claims just yet.

“Until I see a peer-reviewed scientific publication showing unequivocally that this has been done, I have to remain skeptical,” he told the newspaper. “Claims like this can often cause heartache for infertile couples who see them as hope only to have their hopes dashed later when it doesn’t translate into an available procedure.”

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Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – @ParkstBrett

A new study published in the journal Nature Genetics has found that mothers without symptoms of autism may pass on genetic risk factors for the developmental condition to their sons.

The study included genetic information from nearly 2,400 children with autism and by examining families with one child with autism and one or more children devoid of the condition, the scientists gathered new data on how various kinds of mutations impact autism risk.

The researchers said their genetic information was acquired from exome sequencing, which looks at just the protein-coding parts of the genome.

“The ability to examine these two types of genetic variation in exome sequencing data is the first step toward obtaining a more complete genetic picture at an individual level in the context of autism,” noted the study team, from the University of Washington and Baylor College of Medicine, in a statement.

Focusing on other mutations

Past research has focused on de novo mutations, or mutations that show up in the child but not in either parent. Some cases of autism can be linked to these mutations, but not all.

Instead of focusing on de novo mutations, the study team focused on other kinds of mutations, including those inherited from the mother or father. In particular, they quantified the autism risk of passed down gene mutations that cut off the formation of proteins. They were especially interested in those proteins that are generally unscathed in the volunteers unaffected by autism.

The scientists learned that the effect was most powerful when they detected mutations transmitted from mothers to sons. This observation suggests a female may harbor such mutations without establishing autism, but when the mutations are passed along to her male offspring, the boys are at risk of developing the condition.

The study also supplied one of the most vibrant genetic pictures of autism to date. The scientists were able to compare both small mutations of single base-pairs in DNA and larger deletions and duplications of the genome.

“These findings are a major advance in understanding the genes that play a role in autism,” said study author Raphael Bernier, associate professor of psychology and behavioral sciences at the University of Washington. “Knowing more about these genes will set the stage for personalized medicine by allowing for targeted treatments specific to an individual. This gives parents more insight and information about their child’s condition.”

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Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

A clone of the bacteria that causes typhoid fever is currently sweeping across Asia and Africa. This could very well lead to an epidemic of a drug-resistant form of the disease, according to a new study published online Monday in the journal Nature Genetics.

According to Science, the largest study ever of the Salmonella enterica Typhi genome was conducted, and researchers found that the multidrug-resistant form H58 is becoming widespread. This could lead to more complications and increase the cost of treating typhoid fever.

Gordon Dougan, a geneticist at the UK’s Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and study author, told the website that there is “a sense of urgency” about the spread of H58. He also said that this microbe might have mutated to better survive in the tissue of carriers, but that while there are some genetic changes to support that theory, at this point it remains “speculation.”

Tracking the rise of the drug-resistant H58 lineage

In their study, Dougan and his colleagues call the emergence of multidrug-resistant typhoid “a major global health threat affecting many countries where the disease is endemic.” According to Science, the disease affects up to 30 million people per year and is believed to be responsible for 200,000 deaths annually as it is spread through contaminated food and water.

The disease can cause symptoms such as headache and fever, and can lead to complications like gastrointestinal perforation if not treated, the publication added. Antibiotic-resistant forms of the S. enterica Typhi bacteria first emerged in the 1970s, but experts are most concerned about H58, as this clone of the disease-causing pathogen has started appearing in more countries.

Dougan and his fellow researchers conducted whole-genome sequence analysis of 1,832 samples of the bacteria from 21 different countries and identified the single, dominant H58 lineage that they believe has emerged and spread throughout Asia and Africa over the last three decades. The clone likely surfaced in South Asia in 1985 and became more resistant in the years following, the study authors explained to Science.

Mark Achtman, a microbiologist at the University of Warwick, told Science that the new study is one of the largest bacterial genome samples published to date. He added that while scientists had already known a lot about how H58 spreads, that this paper marked “the first time that we’ve had such an exhaustive overview of Salmonella typhi and the H58 group within typhi.”

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Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

According to CNET and BBC News reports, Dr. Philip Zimbardo, a professor who served as president of the American Psychological Association, said that overexposure to online games and pornographic material is causing the brains of young boys to become “digitally rewired”.

Dr. Zimbardo, who is also the author of the book Man (Dis)Connected: How Technology Has Sabotaged What it Means to be Male, and What Can be Done, explained that when young males spend more than five hours per day online, their mental activity changes in such a way that they think about playing games while in class, or viewing porn while spending time with a girl.

Porn-Induced Erectile Dysfunction (PIED)

The latter, he said, is linked to a fear of rejection in real-life relationships. Dr. Zimbardo also said that those who are most at risk are those who play excessive amounts of video games or watch an overabundance of porn while in social isolation. He claims that the addiction and mental rewiring is the result not just of the time spent in the activities, but in a change of mindset.

For some growing boys, he explained, the psychological excitement provided by the Internet is all they have. Drug use is down, they are drinking less alcohol, and they are less aggressive and violent than in the past, the professor said. Instead of alcohol, these kids are drinking soft drinks and are becoming overweight, obese, and susceptible to diabetes.

In turn, this phenomenon results in decreased libido, and while these youngsters may be getting excited psychologically by online porn, they are not being aroused physiologically – a condition that Dr. Zimbardo refers to as Porn-Induced Erectile Dysfunction (PIED).

PIED is very much a real phenomenon, Dr. Elizabeth Waterman, a psychologist at Morningside Recovery Center in California, told Men’s Journal. It is the result of “a huge flood of dopamine in the brain” that takes place when a man begins watching pornography, which causes receptors in the brain to become less sensitive over time. She added that, over time, this prevents actual physical intimacy from producing enough dopamine to stimulate those receptors.

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John Hopton for redOrbit.com – @Johnfinitum

There will be a ring, vows, and bridesmaids and her father will give her away. The only thing missing from Sophie Tanner’s wedding in Brighton, UK, this month will be a significant other. She has decided to marry herself.

Although it will no doubt be a fun day, self-marriage is not frivolous. The few people around the world who choose to marry themselves take it seriously, and Sophie wants the authorities and the world to give it more recognition. She talked to redOrbit ahead of the wedding, and we started by asking how the idea came about.

“I first started thinking about the concept of self-marriage a few years ago, when I was recovering from a particularly bad break up as well as a bout of swine flu!” Tanner explained.

“I was lying in bed, admiring the sun streaking through the window of my attic bedroom and just feeling so damn grateful that both swines had left no lasting damage.”

She was trying to write a novel at the time on a challengingly dark subject, but then: “I reflected on how much I loved my life – my friends, my job… then it came to me – why not write about a happy, positive subject; why not write about a girl who marries herself?”

“By the time I’d finished the book, I was so taken with the notion of self-marriage and all it represents that I decided to go ahead and marry myself.”

A resounding “no”

So what happened when things got real? Brighton is one of the most liberal parts of the UK, but she found that the liberalism did not extend to local authorities when it came to self-marriage.

“I wrote to (Brighton) Registry Office about the possibility and was told: ‘the answer is a resounding “no”. Marriage is the union of one man and one woman to the exclusion of everyone else; we cannot help you any further.’”

Fortunately, those close to her were more understanding. “I have been blown away by the support actually,” said Tanner. “I have had messages from friends I haven’t spoken to for ages, from across the world, saying how inspired they are – couples, married friends, friends with kids, divorced friends, single friends, gay friends – it’s very encouraging. I have also had really touching messages from strangers, saying they feel isolated and desperate and want so much to feel valuable and have a stronger sense of self-worth.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, there have been skeptics, too. “There are those who think the concept is ridiculous and laughable,” Tanner said. “What mainly puzzles me is when people have reacted in anger; there have been a few critics who seem to be incensed by the idea, calling me a narcissist and attention seeker… In contrast, the whole point of self-marriage is the idea that if you love and care for yourself first, you are in a much better position to be open and sensitive to other people.”

Ultimately, the adventure is not about marrying yourself, but loving yourself. “As yet, self-marriage is not legally recognized, I would love to see it more widely accepted, so that society recognizes single status as a viable lifestyle option,” Tanner explained, adding that: “My motivation is to empower people to accept and celebrate themselves – to feel complete and to live life in the present.”

The self-marriage honeymoon

There will be a honeymoon, and that too will be an example of how she hopes self-marriage can be a way to interact better with the world, rather than rejecting it.

“I will be going to visit my friend’s Big Beyond projects in Uganda and Ethiopia; she is working with marginalized African tribes that have suffered massive social and cultural changes,” Tanner said. “Traditionally honeymoons are taken by newlyweds to celebrate their marriage in intimacy and seclusion but I’d rather take the opportunity to explore how other people live.”

Celebrating and loving ourselves seemingly has many advantages, but does that mean romantic interaction with others is gone for good?

“No way will I be celibate, I haven’t signed up to be a nun!” Tanner explained. “Nuns must remain single and celibate, with no dependents, because they aren’t allowed other relationships to distract them from God’s calling. I, personally, am always open and willing to have meaningful relationships in my life; other people inspire me and fill me with joy.”

She added that: “Because self-marriage is a new concept, I think people can take it too literally: ‘you’re marrying yourself so you if you get with someone else you’ll be cheating on yourself.’ The fact is, if you commit to respect yourself and take responsibility for yourself then you will never betray yourself. Self-marriage is not prescriptive; it simply highlights the fact that you don’t necessarily need some significant other to live happily ever after.”

“Let’s just say, I promise to cherish myself for as long as I shall live,” she concluded, “and anyone else who does the same will be most welcome.”

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Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

Bacteria use microscopic compartments to separate out the various functions necessary to sustain life and researchers are currently looking for way to leverage these minuscule pockets in a range of uses, such as to deliver therapeutic drugs.

In a study set to be published the Journal of Bacteriology, researchers found that rendering these micro-compartments ineffective in salmonella led to the release of toxic metabolites that significantly damaged the bacterium.

“Microcompartments are found in hundreds of species of bacteria, in varying numbers,” said study author Thomas Bobik, a professor of molecular biology at Iowa State University, Ames. “They prevent different biochemical reactions from interfering with one-another, accelerate reactions, and sequester toxic metabolic intermediates.”

“Understanding the principles by which they function might allow us to engineer them for the production of renewable chemicals, or as containers to improve drug delivery, or perhaps identify novel target sites for antimicrobials,” Bobik added.

Salmonella can contain two different types of micro-compartments, with one type of compartment producing 1,2-propanediol and the other kind generating ethanolamine. The expression of both is prevented by genetic regulation.

However, in the new study, researchers overrode that regulation and the development of both kinds of compartments led to the toxic compounds circulating within the engineered bacteria.

“Nonfunctional micro-compartments were formed, and toxic metabolic intermediates, normally sequestered by the micro-compartment were released into the cell cytoplasm, causing cellular damage,” Bobik said.

Our cells contain storage organelle called vacuoles that are encased in a fatty lipid membrane and a protein shell. However, in salmonella, the propanediol-producing micro-compartment represses the ethanolamine-producing micro-compartment to prevent intermixing of the shell proteins of the two micro-compartments.

A happy accident

The study team said their findings indicate numerous organisms, which generate more than one type of micro-compartment, probably use an unknown mechanism to prevent negative shell protein interactions.

Bobik noted that the entire impetus of the groundbreaking discovery was an accident.

“We noticed that the inducer of the 1,2-propanediol micro-compartment repressed the ethanolamine microcompartment, when we were trying to develop a biosensor to measure vitamin B12 levels in vivo,” he said.

Almost one-fifth of bacterial genomes generate micro-compartments, and nearly 40 percent of those contain genes for multiple micro-compartments.

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Eric Hopton for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

According to the largest ever international study on homophobia in sport, “Out on the Fields,” homophobia is still widespread in UK sport and around the world. The report led to calls for zero tolerance of discrimination and for better training for coaches, teachers, and officials.

The main findings:

• • More than half of gay men (60 percent) and lesbians (54 percent) and 24 percent of heterosexual men said they have personally been targeted with homophobia.
• • 30 percent of UK gay youth and 27 percent of lesbian youth said they were out of the closet to their entire team (under 22).
• • 85 percent of UK participants (including those describing themselves as heterosexual) believe an openly gay, lesbian, or bisexual person would not be very safe as a spectator at a sporting event.
• • Nearly half (48 percent) of gay men who didn’t play team sports were discouraged by homophobic experiences in school PE class.
• • Gay and lesbian youth in the UK are much more likely to report being personally targeted than previous generations.
• • Of those who had personally experienced homophobia: 81 percent of gay men and 80 percent of lesbians have received verbal slurs such as “faggot” or “dyke.”
• • Violence was also common, with 21 percent of gay men and 14 percent of lesbians reporting physical assaults, and 26 percent of gay men and 18 percent of lesbians reporting threats of harm.

Homophobia in sport was, in many ways, even worse in the USA.

Global sports market research firm Repucom conducted the research on behalf of the Bingham Cup (the world cup of gay rugby) and affiliated sports groups and was overseen by a panel of seven academics from six universities, including Brunel University London.

Participants were from the United Kingdom, Ireland, North America, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia.

More than ever, despite homophobia

The results showed that, in spite of the prevalence of homophobia, more young gay and lesbian athletes are coming “out of the closet” than ever before. Thirty percent of UK gay men under 22 were out of the closet to their entire team. That’s nearly twice the percentage in most other English speaking countries.

But, in the UK, the main areas of concern were homophobia in spectator stands with reports of homophobic violence.

Retired Welsh rugby player, Gareth Thomas, who came out in 2009 said, “I’m very encouraged to see that more gays and lesbians are finding the courage to come out of the closet, certainly much younger than I did while playing sport.”

“It’s even more impressive that they are choosing to be open about their sexuality despite the widespread homophobia that continues to be reported around sporting fields, especially among fans.”

Robbie Rogers, who came out after leaving Leeds United soccer team, became the first openly gay male professional athlete to join any of the five major American sports leagues when he signed with the LA Galaxy soccer team.

“This is not acceptable. Everyone should be able to enjoy sports. It’s time that all sports enforce a zero tolerance of hateful language on and off the fields.”

Rogers and others called for immediate venue bans for anyone using homophobic, racist, or any other form of discriminatory language. He also called for penalties to be given to players using this language.

Review panel member Professor Ian Rivers from Brunel University London, said, “I strongly hope that sport governing bodies, organizers of major sporting events, coaches, referees, and even athletes take this report away and consider what we each can do to ensure lesbian, gay, and bisexual people feel safe and welcome.”

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Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

Women who have earned at least a master’s degree are less likely to forgo having a family than they were in the past, and are choosing to have more kids than their mothers and grandmothers, according to a new study from the Pew Research Center.

In their analysis of newly released US Census Bureau data, Pew found that 60 percent of women who have earned at least a master’s degree had two or more children (an increase of nine percent since 1994), while only 22 percent of highly-educated females had no children (down about eight percent over the past 11 years, according to the researchers behind the report).

Women with advanced degrees who had two children increased four percent, they added, while those with three or more had increased by six percentage points. Pew noted that the trend seems to coincide with women’s growing presence in managerial and leadership positions, and that this phenomenon is influencing the issue of work-family balance.

Childlessness down in US, but education gap remains

According to the research group, previous studies have found that with each child a woman has, she devotes fewer hours to paid employment. The average, childless working-age female spends 27 hours per week on-the-job, they said, while a woman with three or more children spends only 18 hours at work. They are also three-times more likely as working fathers to state that being a working parent has made it more difficult to advance in their career field.

While the data clearly shows that highly-educated women are less likely to be childless and more likely to have larger families, the findings are not as clear when looking at less-educated females, Pew said. Women who did not graduate from high school and those who have bachelor’s degrees are less likely to be childless than in 1994, but otherwise the data remains largely unchanged.

Among high school graduates, the share of women 40 to 44 years of age with one child is on the rise, but there has been no change in the share with bigger families. Overall, childlessness among all US women between these ages is at its lowest point in a decade, according to Pew.

“The educational ‘gaps’ in childlessness and in family size have narrowed in the past two decades, but they do persist,” the group added. “The more education a woman has, up to a bachelor’s degree, the less likely she is to become a mother. And among mothers, those with more education have fewer children than those with less education.”

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Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

In what is being hailed as a step forward in the search for personalized cancer treatments, genetics experts from the UK’s Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and an international team of colleagues have reportedly grown miniature organs out of living cancer tissue.

The researchers, who published their findings Thursday in the journal Cell, took colon cancer cells from people afflicted with the disease and used them to grow organoids – smaller, simpler versions of actual working organs. This made it possible to design tailor-made therapies.

As Gizmodo explained, the researchers grew miniature tumors similar to the original tumors. With these they were able to determine which drugs would be most effective at fighting cancer in each individual. Like each person, each tumor as a unique genome, the website explained, and the genetics of the cancer determines how it reacts to different medications.

“Tumor organoids are amenable to high-throughput drug screens allowing detection of gene-drug associations,” the authors wrote. They added that organoid technology could potentially “fill the gap between cancer genetics and patient trials, complement cell-line and xenograft-based drug studies, and allow personalized therapy design.”

Organoids more effective than growing cell cultures

While researchers have narrowed down which genetic mutations lead to cancers of the intestinal lining, it’s a long list and they need to find a way to narrow it down. The organoids serve as a superior model for testing drugs than widely used methods relying upon the growing of tumor cell cultures in a Petri dish.

Those cell cultures, the website explained, lack the same diverse mix of cell types found in actual tumor cells. While doctors can sequence the genomes of cells in a Petri dish, they find it difficult to use those cultures to predict how a specific patient’s tumor will react to a particular drug.

To address the issue, Sanger Institute geneticist Mathew Garnett and his colleagues created 22 cancer organoids based on cultures obtained from 20 patients, and found that the DNA of those miniature organs were a close match to biopsies taken from the original tumors. They tested 83 different cancer drugs on the tumors and recorded the cancer’s response to each.

As it turned out, each tumor was sensitive to different drugs than the others, which prompted the authors to conclude that these organoids could prove to be a reliable way to develop personalized treatment plans for each individual patient’s tumor. Furthermore, they could also be an effective, platform for drug testing that bridges the gap between genetic studies and patient trials.

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