71 National Day Flag Raising
Chinese-led team makes breakthrough in animal-to-human transplant research
An international team led by Chinese researchers has used gene-editing technology to produce “Pig 3.0” prototypes, a leap forward for life-saving organ transplants from animals to humans.
In a recent paper published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, researchers from China and the United States reported the successful production of pigs whose organs are more compatible with the human immune system and are free of active porcine endogenous retrovirus (PERV).
Globally, there is a huge gap between the number of people who need organ transplants and the number of organs available, said Yang Luhan, a corresponding author of the research as well as co-founder and chief executive officer of Qihan Biotech.
It has long been hoped that the challenge could be alleviated through animal organ transplants — a concept known as xenotransplantation.
The Pig 3.0 immunological and blood-coagulation compatibility with the human immune system was enhanced and PERV was eradicated. Engineered pigs also exhibit normal physiology and fertility.
In 2017, Yang and her team produced the first batch of live pigs free of PERV, setting the stage for xenotransplantation. In 2018, Pig 2.0 was born, addressing concerns about pig-to-human immunocompatibility.
Pigs have been especially promising candidates due to their similar size and physiology to humans. But one of the biggest safety concerns has been the fact that most mammals, including pigs, contain repetitive, latent retrovirus fragments in their genomes — present in all their living cells — that are harmless to their native hosts but can lead to disease in other species.
Yang said they are now testing organ function and safety in primate preclinical studies.
James F. Markmann, chief of the Division of Transplant Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital and a co-author of the study, said that Pig 3.0 demonstrates critical progress toward what could be a truly transformational option for millions of patients.
The paper was also authored by researchers from Harvard University, China’s Zhejiang University, Yunnan Agricultural University, Massachusetts General Hospital in the United States, and Massachusetts-based biotechnology company eGenesis.
Yang told Xinhua that the transplant gap, cancer and COVID-19 are global issues. She noted that her team hopes to maintain close contact with outstanding scientists, doctors and regulatory agencies around the world, so as to create globally recognized products.
Yang said the study is only the first step toward xenotransplantation. The functional compatibility of organs between species remains a challenge for researchers. Whether transplanted porcine organs can function as fully as original human organs in maintaining hormone secretion and metabolic balance remains to be seen.
The researchers are currently testing if the primates that have undergone pig kidney transplants are able to maintain their bodies’ hydro-salinity balances.
Xenotransplantation also faces challenges in ethics and supervision, Yang noted. “How can we balance animal ethics with organ supply? How can we supervise and guide research institutes in the development of related technologies in an active and responsible way? There are questions that need to be answered.”
She noted that regulations, ethics guidelines and public awareness usually come after technology has advanced. Researchers should think about these questions and share their logic, to truly promote the technology so that it can change society.
Greeks protest against Pompeo’s visit: ‘Go Home’
The year I left Hong Kong and Monkok
1969年中秋節熱鬧巿面 ，剛美國登月成功，酒樓月餅畫已美國登月和嫦娥作為題材。
旺角彌敦道酒樓張燈結綵，登陸月球月餅畫 彌敦道山東街〔龍鳯大茶樓〕，〔瓊華酒樓〕內月餅門市部，已消逝時光……
God-fearing Trump
Drone war is the future
- From Strato Energetics: The Stinger is our first mass-produced mini-weapon. It’s fully autonomous with wide-field cameras, tactical sensors, facial recognition, processors that can react 100 times faster than a human, and its stochastic motion is an anti-sniper feature. Inside it are three grams of shaped explosives that offer just enough power to penetrate the skull and kill the target with surgical precision.
- In 8-18, two drones loaded with C4 explosives swept past a parade of soldiers to launch an attack on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
- 9-14-19 Drone attacks claimed by Yemen’s Houthi rebels struck two key oil installations inside Saudi Arabia on Saturday, damaging facilities that process the vast majority of the country’s crude output and raising the risk of a disruption in world oil supplies.
- 1-2-20 Iran’s top security and intelligence commander Qassim Suleimani was killed early Friday in a drone strike at Baghdad International Airport that was authorized by President Trump, American officials said.
- 9-28-20 A major conflict has erupted between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the long-disputed mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh region, with casualties being reported on both sides after just two days of fighting. The Azerbaijani military says that its expanding drone fleet, which may now include Turkey’s increasingly popular Bayraktar TB2, has been particularly active already, destroying multiple Armenian mobile air defense systems, tanks, and other vehicles.
- 9-29-20 China’s first independently developed unmanned helicopter that will focus on plateau operation successfully completed its maiden flight in a plateau region, a milestone that demonstrates the capability of this agile drone. The AR-500C prototype completed its first plateau flight at the Daocheng Yading Airport, which is the world’s highest civilian airport with an elevation of 4,411 meters, the state-owned Aviation Industry Corp of China (AVIC), the aircraft’s developer, said in a statement on Monday. This flight broke the record for the elevation at which a domestically built unmanned helicopter took off and landed.
Unlike fixed-wing drones, a helicopter drone is more flexible since it does not require long runways.
China’s people smuggling laws
《中华人民共和国刑法》第三百一十八条组织他人偷越国（边）境罪
组织他人偷越国（边）境的，处二年以上七年以下有期徒刑，并处罚金；有下列情形之一的，处七年以上有期徒刑或者无期徒刑，并处罚金或者没收财产：（一）组织他人偷越国（边）境集团的首要分子；（二）多次组织他人偷越国（边）境或者组织他人偷越国（边）境人数众多的；（三）造成被组织人重伤、死亡的；（四）剥夺或者限制被组织人人身自由的；（五）以暴力、威胁方法抗拒检查的；（六）违法所得数额巨大的；（七）有其他特别严重情节的。犯前款罪，对被组织人有杀害、伤害、强奸、拐卖等犯罪行为，或者对检查人员有杀害、伤害等犯罪行为的，依照数罪并罚的规定处罚。
《中华人民共和国刑法》第三百二十一条运送他人偷越国（边）境罪
运送他人偷越国（边）境的，处五年以下有期徒刑、拘役或者管制，并处罚金；有下列情形之一的，处五年以上十年以下有期徒刑，并处罚金：（一）多次实施运送行为或者运送人数众多的；（二）所使用的船只、车辆等交通工具不具备必要的安全条件，足以造成严重后果的；（三）违法所得数额巨大的；（四）有其他特别严重情节的。在运送他人偷越国（边）境中造成被运送人重伤、死亡，或者以暴力、威胁方法抗拒检查的，处七年以上有期徒刑，并处罚金。犯前两款罪，对被运送人有杀害、伤害、强奸、拐卖等犯罪行为，或者对检查人员有杀害、伤害等犯罪行为的，依照数罪并罚的规定处罚。
據《星島日報》獲悉，負責開船的是鄧棨然，他本身在港也被控串謀意圖縱火。
China holds military drills in four seas amid tensions with Taiwan and U.S.
China has simultaneously been holding military drills in the South and East China seas as well as the Yellow Sea and the Bohai Sea, naval authorities said Monday, amid escalating tensions with Taiwan and the United States.
The authorities have prohibited ships from navigating in the waters where the exercises have been held. The exercises, being conducted by a command based in Fujian Province facing Taiwan, are apparently aimed at landing on the island.
- US military’s frequent close-up air recons on China’s coastal area
- US spy planes fly into China airspace during drills for 2nd day in a row 8-26-20
- China’s military test-fired two missiles into the South China Sea, including a “carrier killer” military analysts suggest might have been developed to attack U.S. forces, a newspaper reported Thursday. 8-27-20
- “Deterring the Dragon, Returning U.S. Forces to Taiwan” The Army University dilusion. The PLA would take resolute military action and realize reunification by force
- US EP-3E and P-8A enter china 50 natical miles zone 9-26-20??
- 9-27-20 The PLA has reportedly sent at least ten Y-8 anti-submarine aircraft to the southwest of Taiwan and a Y-9 reconnaissance aircraft to the east of Taiwan over the past week. These intel-gathering ops are preparing for possible real combat.
The message is clear, unification by force is near.
Gong Shou Dao
Portugal Rejects U.S. Meddling in its Relations With China
The head of the Portuguese diplomacy rejected U.S. meddling in his country´s relations with China, after the american ambassador to Lisbon warned that partnering with Chinese tech company Huawei on 5G could have “consequences” for Portugal´s Defense policy.
U.S. diplomat George Glass said in his interview that Portugal must choose between the “ally” United States and the “trading partner” China and stressed there may be security and defense consequences for the European country if it chooses to work with Beijing. Glass says the US preferred that Portugal did not have any Huawei 5G equipment, underlining that if the that happens, the relationship in Defense between Portugal and the United States will change. The American Ambassador says that the consequences of Portugal choosing to work with China will not be political, at least not immediately, but may have to do with NATO’s activity or the exchange of classified information. George Glass also threatens to end the distribution of natural gas through the port of Sines, if the construction of the new terminal is given to China.
A response from the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Augusto Santos Silva, on the same day. “The Portuguese Government makes note of the statements […]. But the fundamental point is this: in Portugal, the decision-makers are the Portuguese authorities, who make the decisions that benefit Portugal, within the framework of the Constitution and Portuguese law and the powers that the law gives (…) relevant authorities”, Santos Silva said, quoted by Lusa news agency.
