CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
Vietnam property developer faces trial over $12.5 bn bond fraud

Hanoi (AFP) – The chairwoman of major property developer Van Thinh Phat will go on trial in Vietnam, accused with accomplices of embezzling $12.5 billion from a bank "for personal purposes", the official government website said.


Issued on: 18/12/2023 -

Truong My Lan will be tried at the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court, accused with dozens of accomplices of embezzling $125 billion from a bank 

© HOANG DINH NAM / AFP/File

Truong My Lan will be tried at the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court, the website reported Sunday, without specifying when the trial would start.

She will be prosecuted for embezzlement, bribery, and violating banking regulations.

Lan is accused of setting up fake loan applications to withdraw money from Saigon Commercial Bank, where she held more than 90 percent of the bank's shares, according to the government website.

"From February 9, 2018 to October 7, 2022, Truong My Lan gave orders to set up 916 fake loan applications, appropriating more than 304 trillion dong ($12.5 billion) from SCB," it said.

Eighty-five others, including a former official at the State Bank of Vietnam who is accused of accepting $5.2 million in bribes, will also face trial at the court in Ho Chi Minh City.

Founded in 1992, Van Thinh Phat owns high-end hotels, restaurants and luxury apartments, and has also invested in financial services.

The value of Lan's alleged asset appropriation is equivalent to around three percent of Vietnam's total GDP for 2022.

Vietnam has seen a sweeping government crackdown on corrupt officials and members of the country's business elite in recent years.

The sweep has been driven by powerful Communist Party Secretary General Nguyen Phu Trong, who last month demanded the purge press ahead "faster and in a more efficient manner".

More than 3,500 people have been indicted across more than 1,300 graft cases since 2021.

In November, prosecutors announced charges against Truong Quy Thanh, the head of Tan Hiep Phat Group -- which makes some of the country's most popular soft drinks -- for appropriating $31.5 million along with his two daughters.

Do Anh Dung, chairman of property developer Tan Hoang Minh Group, is to be prosecuted for illegally acquiring $355 million in a bond sale to more than 6,500 investors.

© 2023 AFP

 RUSSIA
Navalny 'disappearance' alarms UN expert

Geneva (AFP) – A United Nations rights expert said Monday that the "enforced disappearance" of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was alarming, demanding that Moscow immediately release him.


Issued on: 18/12/2023 - 

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny appears by video link from his prison in a Moscow court last year 

© Alexander NEMENOV / AFP


The Kremlin critic's lawyers have been prevented from meeting him since December 6, and he did not appear for a scheduled court hearing last Friday.

"I am greatly concerned that the Russian authorities will not disclose Mr. Navalny's whereabouts and well-being for such a prolonged period of time which amounts to enforced disappearance," said Mariana Katzarova, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Russia.

Navalny, 47 -- who has been a thorn in the side of Russian leader Vladimir Putin -- was jailed for 19 years on extremism charges in 2021 after surviving a poisoning assassination attempt.

Katzarova said she had raised her concerns with the Russian authorities after Navalny's team were told on Friday that he had been removed from the Vladimir region near Moscow on December 11 and taken to an undisclosed location.

Navalny's family and lawyers had sent letters to all penal colonies trying to identify his whereabouts, she said.

"They have received initial information that he might be at an Omsk penal colony, but that information was later rejected," Katzarova said in a statement.

A court earlier this year ruled that Navalny be moved to a harsher prison.

Katzarova said the extremism charges he was convicted of were "baseless" and warned that detainees face high risks of serious rights violations during transportation.

The independent expert, who was appointed by the UN Human Rights Council but who does not speak on behalf of the UN, insisted that "the term 'extremism' has no basis in international law".

"When it triggers criminal liability it constitutes a violation of human rights."

Her statement slammed "the unrelenting criminal persecution of Mr. Navalny", which had been "widely condemned internationally, indicating blatant abuse of the court system for political purposes."

She said three of Navalny's lawyers were arrested in October, also on extremism charges, and now risked lengthy imprisonment themselves.

"I call on Russian authorities to abide by their international human rights obligations," Katzarova said.

"Mr. Navalny and all those arbitrarily detained should be released immediately and provided remedies and reparations for all the harm suffered."

© 2023 AFP

Iranian Nobel laureate to face new trial: family

Paris (AFP) – Jailed Iranian Nobel Peace laureate Narges Mohammadi this week faces a new trial and risks being transferred out of Tehran to a new prison to serve an eventual sentence, her family said on Monday.


Issued on: 18/12/2023

Mohammadi has spent much of the last two decades in and out of jail

 © Javad Parsa / NTB/AFP

The trial, which gets underway on Tuesday at a Tehran revolutionary court, is the first against Mohammadi since her family accepted the 2023 prize on her behalf in Oslo on December 10.

The charges were not immediately clear but are believed to be related to her activities behind bars in Tehran's Evin prison where she has defiantly campaigned against Iran's Islamic authorities and the mandatory hijab for women.

"The first trial of Narges Mohammadi after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize will be held at 10:00 am (0630 GMT) on December 19 in Branch 26 of the revolutionary court," the family said in a statement.

It added that if convicted in this particular case, she risked being told to serve her sentence in a prison outside the Iranian capital.

"It was announced that, due to political and security issues, the execution of the sentence would take place outside Tehran," the family said, adding that the request for this had come from the intelligence ministry.

Mohammadi, 51, has spent much of the past two decades in and out of jail. She began serving her most recent sentence in November 2021.

The family said this will be the third trial Mohammadi has faced related to her activities in prison.

In the two previous cases, she was sentenced to 27 months in prison and four months of street sweeping and social work.

During the past two decades, Mohammadi has been arrested 13 times, and sentenced five times to a total of 31 years in prison and 154 lashes.

Mohammadi's twins picked up the prize on her behalf

 © Fredrik Varfjell / NTB/AFP

The family confirmed that Mohammadi -- who has not seen her Paris-based husband and children for several years -- remains deprived of the right to make phone calls.

She has not spoken to her twin 17-year-old children -- who accepted the Nobel prize on her behalf -- for almost two years.

But until now she had been able to speak to certain family members inside Iran, ensuring her messages could rapidly reach the outside world via her social media accounts.

"Since November 29, prison authorities have also informed her of the termination of telephone calls and visits," the family said.

In her Nobel acceptance speech read by her children, Mohammadi denounced a "tyrannical and anti-women religious" government in Iran, predicting that Iranians would "dismantle obstruction and despotism through their persistence".

© 2023 AFP

 

Time to move on from ‘doctor knows best’, say experts, as study finds clinicians rank patient views as least important in diagnosis

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

Experts today call for more value to be given to patients’ ‘lived experiences’ as a study of over 1,000 patients and clinicians found multiple examples of patient reports being under-valued.

The research, led by a team at the University of Cambridge and Kings’ College London, found that clinicians ranked patient self-assessments as least important in diagnostic decisions, and said that patients both over- and under-played their symptoms more often than patients reported doing so.

One patient shared the common feeling of being disbelieved as “degrading and dehumanising” and added: “If I had continued to have regard for clinicians’ expertise over mine, I would be dead… When I enter a medical appointment and my body is being treated as if I don’t have any authority over it and what I’m feeling isn’t valid then that is a very unsafe environment… I’ll tell them my symptoms and they’ll tell me that symptom is wrong, or I can’t feel pain there, or in that way.”

In a study published today in Rheumatology, researchers used the example of neuropsychiatric lupus, an incurable autoimmune disease that is particularly challenging to diagnose, to examine the different value given by clinicians to 13 different types of evidence used in diagnoses. This included evidence such as brain scans, patient views, and the observations of family and friends.

Fewer than 4% of clinicians ranked patient’s self-assessments in the top three types of evidence. Clinicians ranked their own assessments highest, despite acknowledging that they often were not confident in diagnoses involving often invisible symptoms, such as headache, hallucinations, and depression. Such ‘neuropsychiatric’ symptoms can lead to low quality of life and earlier death and were reported to be more often misdiagnosed – and therefore not correctly treated – than visible ones such as rashes.

Sue Farrington, Co-Chair of the Rare Autoimmune Rheumatic Disease Alliance, said: “It’s time to move on from the paternalistic, and often dangerous, ‘doctor knows best’ to a more equal relationship where the patients with lived experiences and the doctors with learnt experiences work more collaboratively.” 

Almost half (46%) of the 676 patients reported never or rarely having been asked for their self-assessments of their disease, although others discussed very positive experiences. Some clinicians, particularly psychiatrists and nurses, valued patient opinions highly, as a psychiatrist from Wales explained: “Patients often arrive in clinic having had multiple assessments, having researched their own condition to a very high level and having worked hard to understand what is going on with their own body… they are often expert diagnosticians in their own right.”

Lead author, Dr Melanie Sloan from the Department of Public Health and Primary Care at the University of Cambridge, said: “It’s incredibly important that we listen to and value patients’ insights and their own interpretations of their symptoms, particularly those with long-standing diseases – after all, they are the people that know what it is like to live with their condition. But we also need to make sure that clinicians have the time to fully explore each patient’s symptoms, something that is challenging within the constraints of current health systems.”  

Patients’ and clinicians’ personal characteristics such as ethnicity and gender were felt to sometimes influence diagnosis, particularly a perception that females are more likely to be told their symptoms are psychosomatic. The data showed that male clinicians were statistically more likely to state that patients over-played symptoms. Patients were more likely than clinicians to say that symptoms were directly caused by the disease.

The study authors acknowledged that patient reasoning will be inaccurate at times, but concluded that there were likely to be many potential benefits (including diagnostic accuracy, fewer misdiagnoses, and greater patient satisfaction) to including patients’ “attributional insights” and experiences into decisions about diagnosis. This is particularly important when diagnostic tests in neuropsychiatric lupus are widely known to be “unenlightening”, according to one neurologist, in common with many other autoimmune diseases and long Covid.

Dr Tom Pollak, senior study author from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, said: “No human being is always going to be able to accurately pinpoint the cause of symptoms, and patients and clinicians can both get this wrong. But combining and valuing both views, especially when the diagnostic tests aren’t advanced enough to always detect these diseases, may reduce misdiagnoses and improve clinician and patient relationships, which in turn leads to more trust and more openness in symptom reporting.” 

The research was funded by The Lupus Trust and LUPUS UK.

Reference

Sloan, M et al. Attribution of neuropsychiatric symptoms and prioritisation of evidence in the diagnosis of neuropsychiatric lupus: mixed methods analysis of patient and clinician perspectives from the international INSPIRE study. Rheumatology; 18 Dec 2023; DOI: 10.1093/rheumatology/kead685

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JOURNAL

Rheumatology

DOI

10.1093/rheumatology/kead685 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Attribution of neuropsychiatric symptoms and prioritisation of evidence in the diagnosis of neuropsychiatric lupus: mixed methods analysis of patient and clinician perspectives from the international INSPIRE study

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

18-Dec-2023

 

Skinny white affluent girl’ myth is a harmful barrier for other genders and races with eating disorders, health experts warn

Eating disorders affect everyone regardless of race, gender or age, says eating disorder experts

Book Announcement

TAYLOR & FRANCIS GROUP

The myth that “only skinny white affluent girls develop eating disorders” is to blame for other sufferers not getting diagnosed or treated, according to health experts.

Psychiatrist Janet Treasure, and GP Dr Elizabeth McNaught, and therapist Jess Griffiths – who have both survived eating disorders – say this stereotype means that others including black women and men struggle to get help.

They are urging clinicians to regard all eating disorders as serious even if those that do not involve weight loss such as purging.

Professor Treasure, from Kings College London, Dr McNaught and Jess also highlight the importance of early intervention in saving lives and the important role of fathers in helping girls recover.

Their book Eating Disorders: The Basics – endorsed by TV presenter and Strictly winner Stacey Dooley – is aimed at schools, healthcare professionals and families.

The guide details common risk factors, different types of eating disorders, the latest treatments, and offers advice to families on how to support loved ones to recovery.

“Eating disorders are often thought to affect skinny, white, affluent girls. However, they lack any true discrimination in who they affect,” say the authors.

“Other groups such as men, racial minorities, transgender individuals, and those from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds can remain in our communities struggling with their eating disorder, left untreated for years.

“It’s also essential that we recognize that all eating disorders are serious, and all eating disorders deserve treatment and support.

“They do not have to be lifelong or fatal illnesses, but often can be due to a lack of provision and poor recognition of symptoms in people who are not underweight.”

Disturbed behaviors around eating food are common worldwide. They can occur at any stage in life and affect everyone regardless of race, gender, or age.

Eating Disorders is based on the latest evidence on anorexia, bulimia, binge eating and other conditions.

The guide also features real-life accounts from individuals who have developed eating disorders and their letters of hope to support others still struggling.

Among these stories are those from patients who have been told they were not unwell enough to receive help.

Cara Lisette says her purging disorder has only ever been taken seriously when it has met the criteria for anorexia, despite the danger and distress associated with her condition.

She adds: “Most people with purging disorder will not become underweight, but that doesn’t mean they are at a healthy weight for their body, and it doesn’t mean they aren’t causing harm to themselves. Purging can be fatal.”

Christina Taylor was told in a letter that she wasn’t worth helping because she was ‘too healthy’ despite drinking to excess and making herself sick up to ten times a day.

“This (receiving the letter) was one of the most invalidating experiences of my entire life. I genuinely felt there was no point going on.”

Professor Treasure and her co-authors say that other challenges persist around eating disorders including:

• Food poverty, ultra-processed foods, and a reduction in shared, home-produced meals. These are among environmental factors behind eating disorders.
• Men can face societal pressures to ‘man up’. This can lead to more secrecy about their disorder and create a barrier to seeking treatment.
• Body Mass Index (BMI) can be unhelpful in a range of situations. The authors say the risk of being physically unwell is related to the degree of weight loss rather than absolute weight. Someone may be at risk of significant physical harm while being at a ‘normal’ BMI.
• Fathers and partners can feel excluded as if an eating disorder is “women’s business” and siblings may be deemed too young to be involved. Yet the authors say they have a key role in supporting loved ones to recover.

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DOI

10.4324/9781003342762 

 

Few patients receive opioid agonist therapy after opioid overdose, despite benefits

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CANADIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION JOURNAL

In the week following any hospital visit for an overdose, only 1 in 18 people with opioid use disorder begin a treatment known to be highly effective in reducing illness and deaths, according to new research in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.231014.

“These results highlight critical missed opportunities to prevent future mortality and morbidity related to opioid use, despite connection to health care for many patients in the days after a toxicity event,” writes Dr. Tara Gomes, a researcher at ICES and St. Michael’s Hospital, part of Unity Health Toronto, with coauthors.

Opioid use disorder (OUD) is a major public health issue, with an almost threefold increase in opioid-related emergency department visits between 2016 and 2021 in Ontario and a 32% increase in related hospitalizations in Canada.

Opioid agonist therapy (OAT) is highly effective at reducing illness and deaths in patients with OUD.

Using data from ICES, researchers looked at trends in OAT initiation rates for 20 702 emergency department visits and inpatient hospital admissions for opioid toxicity between January 2013 and March 2020. The median age of patients was 35 years, 65% were male and 90% lived in urban areas. Of the total visits, 29% were from patients who had previously visited hospital for opioid overdoses, and 24% had been dispensed OAT in the last year.

Only 4.1% of hospital encounters for opioid overdoses led to OAT initiation within a week of discharge from hospital. Despite increased advocacy and publication of a 2018 national guideline recommending buprenorphine–naloxone as the preferred first-line treatment for OUD, there was no significant increase in OAT initiation rates. Studies show that risk of death is highest in the days following an overdose, and that patients are more likely to continue OAT if it is started in the emergency department, underlining the need for prompt initiation of treatment.

“Our research shows that there were substantial disparities in OAT initiation rates, with potential barriers to prescribing for older patients, those with mental health diagnoses, and those in the lowest neighbourhood income quintile. Although OAT initiation rates have gradually increased since 2016, the release of the national OUD management guideline in 2018 was not independently associated with changes in this trajectory,” write the authors.

To increase treatment initiation rates, they suggest institutional OAT training, creating OAT initiation protocols, promoting awareness of referral resources with outpatient addictions programs, and more.

A practice article illustrates the challenges of treating patients with multiple substance use disorders in hospitals, who often are experiencing undertreated withdrawal and pain.

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JOURNAL

Canadian Medical Association Journal

DOI

10.1503/cmaj.231014 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Initiation of opioid agonist therapy after hospital visits for opioid poisonings in Ontario

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

18-Dec-2023

 

Researchers invent "methane cleaner": Could become a permanent fixture in cattle and pig barns

In a spectacular new study, researchers from the University of Copenhagen have used UV light and chlorine to eradicate low-concentration methane from air. The result gets us closer to being able to remove greenhouse gases from livestock housing

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN - FACULTY OF SCIENCE

 

IMAGE: 

A LOOK INSIDE THE MEPS REACTOR (METHANE ERADICATION PHOTOCHEMICAL SYSTEM), WHERE CHLORINE ATOMS ARE FORMED BY UV LIGHT AND REACT WITH METHANE GAS. PHOTO: MORTEN KROGSBØLL.

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CREDIT: PHOTO: MORTEN KROGSBØLL.

In a spectacular new study, researchers from the University of Copenhagen have used light and chlorine to eradicate low-concentration methane from air. The result gets us closer to being able to remove greenhouse gases from livestock housing, biogas production plants and wastewater treatment plants to benefit the climate. The research has just been published in the journal Environmental Research Letters. 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has determined that reducing methane gas emissions will immediately reduce the rise in global temperatures. The gas is up to 85 times more potent of a greenhouse gas than CO2, and more than half of it is emitted by human sources, with cattle and fossil fuel production accounting for the largest share.

A unique new method developed by a research team at the University of Copenhagen’s Department of Chemistry and spin-out company Ambient Carbon has succeeded in removing methane from air.

"A large part of our methane emissions comes from millions of low-concentration point sources like cattle and pig barns. In practice, methane from these sources has been impossible to concentrate into higher levels or remove. But our new result proves that it is possible using the reaction chamber that we’ve have built," says Matthew Stanley Johnson, the UCPH atmospheric chemistry professor who led the study.

Earlier, Johnson presented the research results at COP 28 in Dubai via an online connection and in Washington D.C. at the National Academy of Sciences, which advises the US government on science and technology.

Reactor cleans methane from air

Methane can be burnt off from air if its concentration exceeds 4 percent. But most human-caused emissions are below 0.1 percent and therefore unable to be burned.

To remove methane from air, the researchers built a reaction chamber that, to the uninitiated, looks like an elongated metal box with heaps of hoses and measuring instruments. Inside the box, a chain reaction of chemical compounds takes place, which ends up breaking down the methane and removing a large portion of the gas from air.

"In the scientific study, we’ve proven that our reaction chamber can eliminate 58 percent of methane from air. And, since submitting the study, we have improved our results in the laboratory so that the reaction chamber is now at 88 percent," says Matthew Stanley Johnson.

Chlorine is key to the discovery. Using chlorine and the energy from light, researchers can remove methane from air much more efficiently than the way it happens in the atmosphere, where the process typically takes 10-12 years.

"Methane decomposes at a snail's pace because the gas isn’t especially happy about reacting with other things in the atmosphere. However, we’ve discovered that, with the help of light and chlorine, we can trigger a reaction and break down the methane roughly 100 million times faster than in nature," explains Johnson.

Up next: livestock stalls, wastewater treatment plants and biogas plants

A 40ft shipping container will soon arrive at the Department of Chemistry. When it does, it will become a larger prototype of the reaction chamber that the researchers built in the laboratory. It will be a "methane cleaner" which, in principle, will be able to be connected to the ventilation system in a livestock barn.

"Today’s livestock farms are high-tech facilities where ammonia is already removed from air. As such, removing methane through existing air purification systems is an obvious solution," explains Professor Johnson.

The same applies to biogas and wastewater treatment plants, which are some of the largest human-made sources of methane emissions in Denmark after cattle production.

As a preliminary investigation for this study, the researchers traveled around the country measuring how much methane leaks from cattle stalls, wastewater treatment plants and biogas plants. In several places, the researchers were able to document that a large amount of methane leaks into the atmosphere from these plants. 

"For example, Denmark is a pioneer when it comes to producing biogas. But if just a few percent of the methane from this process escapes, it counteracts any climate gains," concludes Johnson.

The research is funded by a grant from Innovation Fund Denmark for the PERMA project, a part of AgriFoodTure. The research was conducted in collaboration between the University of Copenhagen, Aarhus University, Arla, Skov and the UCPH spin-out company Ambient Carbon, started and now headed by Professor Matthew Stanley Johnson. The company was started to develop MEPS (Methane Eradication Photochemical System) technology and make it available to society. 

The research has just been published in the journal Environmental Research Letters. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ad0e33

 

ABOUT THE METHOD

The researchers built a reaction chmaber and devised a method that simulates and greatly accelerates methane's natural degradation process.

They dubbed the method the Methane Eradication Photochemical System (MEPS) and it degrades methane 100 million times faster than in nature.

The method works by introducing chlorine molecules into a reaction chamber with methane gas. The researchers then shine UV light onto the chlorine molecules. The light’s energy causes the molecules to split and form two chlorine atoms.

The chlorine atoms then steal a hydrogen atom from the methane, which then falls apart and decomposes. The chlorine product (hydrochloric acid) is captured and subsequently recycled in the chamber.

The methane turns into carbon dioxide (CO2) and carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen (H2) in the same way as the natural process does in the atmosphere.

 

More about methane (CH4):

Methane can be burned off to remove it from air, but its concentration must be over 4%, 40,000 parts per million (ppm) to be flammable. As most human-caused emissions are below 0.1 percent, they cannot be burned.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has determined that reducing methane gas emissions will immediately reduce the rise in global temperatures.

Methane is a greenhouse gas that is emitted naturally from, among other things, wetlands and from man-made sources such as food production, natural gas and sewage treatment plants.

Today, methane gas is responsible for a third of the greenhouse gases that affect the climate and cause global warming.

It takes methane 10-12 years to decompose naturally in the atmosphere, where it is converted into carbon dioxide.

Over a 25-year period, methane is 85 times worse for the climate than CO2. Over a 100-year period, methane is 30 times worse for the climate than CO2.   

The concentration of methane in the atmosphere has increased by 150% since the mid-1700s.

Methane alone has increased anthropogenic radiation exposure by 1.19 W/m^2, which is responsible for a 0.6 ◦C increase in global average surface air temperature, according to the IPCC.

MEPS reactor 

Inside the MEPS reactor

CREDIT

Matthew Stanley Johnson, Department of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen.

The researchers built a reaction chamber and devised a method that simulates and greatly accelerates methane's natural degradation process.

They dubbed the method the Methane Eradication Photochemical System (MEPS) and it degrades methane 100 million times faster than in nature.

CREDIT

Michael Skov Jensen, SCIENCE/KU

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JOURNAL

Environmental Research Letters

DOI

10.1088/1748-9326/ad0e33 

ARTICLE TITLE

A high efficiency gas phase photoreactor for eradication of methane from low-concentration sources

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

18-Dec-2023

 

Algae as a surprising meat alternative and source of environmentally friendly protein

With more of us looking for alternatives to eating animals, new research has found a surprising environmentally friendly source of protein – algae

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF EXETER

The University of Exeter study has been published in The Journal of Nutrition and is the first of its kind to demonstrate that the ingestion of two of the most commercially available algal species are rich in protein which supports muscle remodeling in young healthy adults. Their findings suggest that algae may be an interesting and sustainable alternative to animal-derived protein with respect to maintaining and building muscle.

Researcher Ino Van Der Heijden from the University of Exeter said: “Our work has shown algae could become part of a secure and sustainable food future. With more and more people trying to eat less meat because of ethical and environmental reasons, there is growing interest in nonanimal-derived and sustainably produced protein. We believe it’s important and necessary to start looking into these alternatives and we’ve identified algae as a promising novel protein source.”

Foods rich in protein and essential amino acids have the capacity to stimulate muscle protein synthesis, which can be measured in the laboratory by determining the incorporation of labelled amino acids into muscle tissue proteins and translated to a rate over time. Animal-derived protein sources robustly stimulate resting and post-exercise muscle protein synthesis.

However, because animal-based protein production is associated with increasing ethical and environmental concerns, it’s now been discovered that an intriguing environmentally friendly alternative to animal-derived protein is algae. Cultivated under controlled conditions, spirulina and chlorella are the two most commercially available algae that contain high doses of micronutrients and are rich in protein. However, the capacity of spirulina and chlorella to stimulate myofibrillar protein synthesis in humans remains unknown.

To bridge the knowledge gap, University of Exeter researchers assessed the impact of ingesting spirulina and chlorella, compared with an established high-quality nonanimal-derived dietary protein source (fungal-derived mycoprotein) on blood amino acid concentrations, as well as resting and post-exercise myofibrillar protein synthesis rates. Thirty-six healthy young adults participated in a randomized, double-blind trial. Following a bout of one-legged resistance leg exercise, participants ingested a drink containing 25 grams of protein from fungal-derived mycoprotein, spirulina or chlorella. Blood and skeletal muscle samples were collected at baseline and during a four-hour post-feeding and post-exercise period. Blood amino acid concentrations and myofibrillar protein synthesis rates in rested and exercised tissue were assessed. 

Protein ingestion increased blood amino acid concentrations, but most rapidly and with higher peak responses following consumption of spirulina compared with mycoprotein and chlorella. Protein ingestion increased myofibrillar protein synthesis rates in both rested and exercised tissue, with no differences between groups, but with higher rates in exercised compared with rested muscle.

This study is the first of its kind to demonstrate that ingestion of spirulina or chlorella robustly stimulates myofibrillar protein synthesis in resting and exercised muscle tissue, and to an equivalent extent as a high-quality nonanimal derived counterpart (mycoprotein).

In a companion commentary, Lucy Rogers and Professor Leigh Breen from the University of Birmingham highlight the strengths and utility of these novel findings, while identifying paths forward for future research that focuses on diverse populations such as older adults.

The paper is entitled Algae Ingestion Increases Resting and Exercised Myofibrillar Protein Synthesis Rates to a Similar Extent as Mycoprotein in Young Adults and is published in The Journal of Nutrition.

ENDS

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JOURNAL

Journal of Nutrition

DOI

10.1016/j.tjnut.2023.08.035. 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Randomized controlled/clinical trial

ARTICLE TITLE

Algae Ingestion Increases Resting and Exercised Myofibrillar Protein Synthesis Rates to a Similar Extent as Mycoprotein in Young Adults.

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

14-Dec-2023

 DOD HAS THE BIGGEST BUDGET IN THE U$A

Unconventional cancer research consortium created with $3.2M grant from US Department of Defense 

Researchers from disparate disciplines located at USC, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and Stanford University gather to find solutions to cancer through the newly formed Convergent Science Cancer Consortium.

Grant and Award Announcement

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

 

IMAGE: 

PHOTO OF THE MICHAEL USC MICHAEL CENTER CONVERGENT SCIENCE INSTITUTE IN CANCER

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CREDIT: CHRIS SHINN

Funding an unconventional approach to fighting cancer that emphasizes the integration of diverse scientific disciplines, the U.S. Department of Defense has awarded $3.2 million to establish the Convergent Science Cancer Consortium (CSCC), led by Dean’s Professor of Biological Sciences Peter Kuhn at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. 

The consortium, which includes Stanford University, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles as inaugural members, unites experts from fields such as biology, engineering, mathematics and computer science, to discover more effective treatment strategies through a more holistic understanding of cancer, particularly for hard-to-treat forms such as bladder cancer, sarcomas and metastatic cancers.

A global asset in finding cancer solutions

A leading cause of death worldwide, cancer presents complex challenges that often exceed the scope of traditional research methods. By fostering collaboration across various scientific domains, the CSCC intends to overcome these limitations. And because it will include scientists from across disciplines and institutions, their proposed solutions are likely to be more versatile and applicable to a diverse range of populations and health care systems. 

“The CSCC is a paradigm shift in cancer research,” said Peter Kuhn, Dean’s Professor of Biological Sciences at USC Dornsife and director of the CSCC. A trained physicist and director of the Convergent Science Institute in Cancer at the USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience, Kuhn brings a unique perspective and broader vision to cancer research. 

“By integrating diverse scientific insights, we can develop more effective, tailored treatments for patients, especially those fighting intractable forms of cancer,” he said.

The CSCC places a special emphasis on understanding and addressing cancer in military personnel, a group often exposed to unique environmental risks such as asbestos in conflict zones. 

This focus, relatively rare in cancer research, offers significant benefits not only to military personnel but also to civilians exposed to similar hazards. The insights gained could lead to better prevention and treatment strategies for cancers caused by specific environmental factors.

More personal, more effective cancer treatment

The consortium’s approach aims to advance personalized cancer treatments that consider individual patient profiles. This could result in more effective treatments with reduced side effects. They will also study technologies for real-time monitoring, such as wearable devices, that hold promise for early detection and intervention, potentially improving patient survival rates.

Co-principal investigator Dan Theodorescu is the director of Cedars-Sinai Cancer Center and a renowned physician scientist and cancer expert. Theodorescu combines molecular and cell biology with computational methods in his research. He and Kuhn have long held a belief that convergent science holds exceptional power to find cancer solutions.

Co-principal investigator Christina Curtis of Stanford University brings extensive biomedical data science expertise. Using the latest computational methods, she’ll lead efforts to parse the copious and varied information the consortium researchers will produce.

Co-investigator  Fariba Navid of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles has expertise in pediatric bone and soft tissue sarcomas. She will continue an ongoing collaboration with Kuhn to assess circulating tumor cells in these cancers. 

The establishment of the Convergent Science Cancer Consortium, much of which is modeled on the recently established Convergent Science Virtual Cancer Center led by Theodorescu as director and Kuhn as deputy director, marks a pivotal moment in cancer research, according to the researchers — one that “means new avenues of hope for patients and their families,” said Kuhn. 

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