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A pioneering gene therapy aims to free patients of blood disease. Is a cure at hand?

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:33 GMT

Faith in God called Clint and Alissa Finlayson to adopt two sick girls from an orphanage in China. Faith in medicine called them to Oakland.Born with a deadly blood disease, the Finlayson’s daughters — Ada, 9, and Lily, 12 — are the first patients on the West Coast to receive a new gene therapy offered by UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland.Already, Ada is already feeling better 10 weeks after receiving her stem cell transplant. Lily started treatment last week. Both have 90% chance of a permanent cure.“It’s science, and it’s a miracle,” said their mother Alissa, sitting in the small yard of their guest home in downtown Oakland, far from their small mountain town of Kalispell, Montana.Alissa Finlayson, left, along with her daughters Lily, 12,, Ruby, 10, and Ada, 9, create art with Foil Fun in the patio at Ronald McDonald House create art with Foil Fun in the patio at Ronald McDonald House where Ada and Lily are being monitored after gene therapy for beta thalassemia by UCSF Ben...

Bruins notes: James van Riemsdyk a bargain so far

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:33 GMT

Just what the Bruins could expect from James van Riemsdyk was anyone’s guess.The 34-year-old Van Riemsdyk, a seven-time 20-goal scorer, was coming off an injury-marred season in Philadelphia in which he was held to 12-17-29 totals in 61 games. That, combined with a depressed NHL economy last summer, allowed the B’s to sign him to a low-risk one-year, $1 million contract.So far, it’s looking like quite a bargain. Van Riemsdyk is third on the B’s in scoring with 3-2-5 and is one third of the only line that has become a relative constant in the B’s forward group.Aided by the fast start, the former UNH standout is starting to feel at home in Black and Gold.“My experience so far has been great, the way I’ve been treated by the coaching staff, management and the guys in the room. It’s been a great group. It’s been a lot of fun to be a part of it so far,” said van Riemsdyk after Thursday’s morning skate. “I’m trying to find a way ...

Just seeing a sick person can trigger your immune system, Chapman professor finds

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:33 GMT

You’re in an elevator with someone sneezing and dripping and hacking and coughing. You back into a far corner, horror on your face and revulsion in your gut.That’s normal!As cold, flu and COVID season sets in, we chatted with Chapman University’s Patricia Lopes, an assistant professor of biology, who studies how sick individuals impact those around them. It’s not as clear-cut as it may seem. Turns out that simply observing a sick individual triggers not only that familiar behavioral response — get away! — but a complex biological response as well.“The really interesting aspect is, it also changes your physiology,” she said.Her own experiments and reviews of scientific studies find that, when healthy animals interact with animals showing symptoms of illness, molecular pathways related to immune responses activate. Egg composition changes. And all without those animals actually being sick themselves, as if their bodies are prepping for a fight.Consider one of the experiments that galv...

Proposed homeless shelter near Liberty Station faces pushback

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:33 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- A newly proposed homeless shelter has been identified near San Diego International Airport, known locally as H Barracks. The dilapidated former military barracks was abandoned decades ago and now the city wants to raze the area to create a camping site for as many as 700 homeless people. The area is bordered by Harbor Island and Esplanade Canal just along the Liberty Station community. "When there's women walking their dogs, feeling perfectly safe to get some exercise along the waterway, and then envision what that will look like when you put 700 homeless population right next door. The benches are going to be taken over, there's possibly going to be paraphernalia in the playgrounds. I just think it will completely change the dynamic of this incredible community,” said Jennifer Senn, a resident of Liberty Station. Neighbors in the area are pushing back, creating a petition at Change.org to alter the planned homeless shelter site. So far, the petition has gathered over 2...

Etobicoke residents launch petition over new Bloor Street West bike lanes, cyclists blame drivers

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:33 GMT

Etobicoke residents have launched an online petition calling on the city to re-evaluate the Bloor Street West bike extension and newly installed lanes, but cyclists say they’re not the problem. The Change.org petition was created on Monday, October 23. It lists several issues, including what one man called “potentially inaccurate bike usage data from the High Park counter, noticeable congestion due to lane reductions, decreased business footfall, potential delays for emergency vehicles, and the observed scarcity of cyclists.”“We advocate for a re-evaluation to ensure a harmonious and safe balance between bike lanes and vehicular traffic, emphasizing the need for Bloor Street to retain two lanes of traffic in each direction,” wrote Cody MacRae, the petition’s creator.MacRae adds that Etobicoke residents have “pressing concerns” about the recent bike lanes added to Bloor Street and its community roadways. The petition has received just o...

EXPLAINER: What is Gaza’s Ministry of Health and how does it calculate the war’s death toll?

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:33 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — How many Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the war between Israel and Hamas started?With Israel besieging and bombing territory at a scale never seen before, arriving at a precise answer isn’t easy. Cell service is spotty. Internet and power are out. Airstrikes have pulverized roads and leveled neighborhoods, slowing rescue work.Doctors scribble on notepads in overflowing morgues and hospital halls, struggling to account for bodies trapped under rubble and tossed in hastily dug mass graves. The chaos has added to the likelihood of errors.Yet the Gaza-based Ministry of Health — an agency in the Hamas-controlled government — continues to tally casualty numbers. It released its first detailed report on the casualties Thursday, giving names, ID numbers, ages and gender for Palestinians it says have been killed. The total toll is 7,028 Palestinians, including 2,913 minors, according to the ministry.The ministry is the only official source for Ga...

Funeral today for Montreal man killed by Hamas in attack on Israel

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:33 GMT

MONTREAL — A Montreal man who was killed in Israel during a surprise attack by Hamas earlier this month is being remembered as a hero and a “larger-than-life” personality at a funeral today.A casket draped in the flag of Israel was carried into the packed chapel of a Jewish funeral home in Montreal as the service for Alexandre Look began at 2 p.m.Look’s father, Alain Look, said his son died a hero while protecting others at the onset of Hamas’s attack on Israel on Oct. 7. The 33-year-old was among the hundreds who were killed while attending a musical festival near the border between Israel and Gaza. One of Look’s friends described a man who was exceptionally generous to his friends, family and community.Global Affairs Canada says seven Canadians have died in the current hostilities, while two remain missing.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 26, 2023.The Canadian Press

B.C. man sentenced to 18 months for 2019 overdose death of 14-year-old Carson Crimeni

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:33 GMT

NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C. — A man has been sentenced to 18 months in jail with another 18 months of conditional supervisionafter pleading guilty to manslaughter in the high-profile overdose death of a 14-year-old boy in Metro Vancouver.Justice Kathleen Ker says Carson Crimeni died of acute intoxication from an “exceedingly high” dosage of the drug MDMA sold to him by the man, who cannot be named because he was a youth at the time of the crime on Aug. 7, 2019.Before delivering the sentence in British Columbia Supreme Court, Ker told the gallery that other young people saw Carson in “obvious distress” that day in a park in Langley, B.C.Instead of calling for help, she says they took videos of Carson and shared them on social media, behaviour she likened to a modern-day “Lord of the Flies.”Ker told the court in New Westminster, B.C., that on the day he died, Crimeni had asked a friend to get in touch with the now 21-year-old man in order to buy MDMA.She ...

Miller and Márquez joined by 5 first-time World Series umpires for Fall Classic

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:33 GMT

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Bill Miller and Alfonso Márquez will be joined by five first-time World Series umpires when the Texas Rangers play the Arizona Diamondbacks starting Friday night.Miller and Márquez each will be working his fifth World Series. Miller will be the umpire crew chief and would work the plate for a Game 7.Márquez will be at first base in the opener, joined by D.J. Reyburn behind the plate, David Rackley at second, Brian Knight at third, Vic Carapazza in left field and Miller in right, Major League Baseball said Thursday.Quinn Wolcott will be the reserve umpire for the opener and will call balls and strikes for Game 2. He will be followed behind the plate by Márquez, Rackley, Knight and Carapazza.Wolcott, 37, was the most accurate at balls and strikes this season at 96% among umpires working the plate for more than one game, according to umpscorecards.com. Miller was at 94.1%, Knight 94%, Rackley 93.9%, Carapazza at 93.7% and Márquez and Reyburn at 93.5% each.Miller...

A blast killed 2 people and injured 9 in a Shiite neighborhood in the Afghan capital Kabul

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:12:33 GMT

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An explosion in a mostly Shiite Muslim neighborhood in the Afghan capital Kabul killed two people and injured nine Thursday, a police spokesman said. The cause of the explosion wasn’t immediately known.Video from the scene shows part of a building with its windows blown out, flames billowing inside. Shattered glass and other debris are strewn across the street below.The Dashti Barchi area of Kabul has been targeted in the past by the Islamic State group affiliate in the country, which has carried out major, horrific assaults on schools, hospitals and mosques. The group has also attacked other Shiite areas of Afghanistan in recent years.IS has been waging a campaign of violence that has intensified since the Taliban took power in August 2021.Kabul police chief spokesman Khalid Zadran said the injured were transferred to a nearby hospital and that an investigation team has reached the scene to find out the cause of the blast.Local media outlet Tolo News...