Looking for a Breakthrough for Your Physical and Financial Health

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Looking for a Breakthrough for Your Physical and Financial Health

Posted On : Feb-22-2010 | seen (255) times | Article Word Count : 2054 |

Companies based in emerging technologies — assuming their technologies provide some kind of revolutionary breakthrough — could reap a lot of money for investors savvy to get in before the stock becomes a household name.

At Penny Sleuth, we look at small-cap stocks representing all kinds of companies. Among these stocks are companies doing research in emerging technologies…the kinds of technologies that could have a very profound and far-reaching impact on our way of life years down the road. Companies based in emerging technologies — assuming their technologies provide some kind of revolutionary breakthrough — could reap a lot of money for investors savvy to get in before the stock becomes a household name.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, there has been much talk in the media and the scientific community about stem-cell research and other kinds of medical technologies. While some of these technologies and medicines are available for public consumption, a lot of them are still in development. And as investors, that tells us the best is yet to come.

The reason for such enthusiasm is because there are companies working to develop remedies for various health concerns. And once these remedies are tested and deemed safe for sale to the public, the stock in said companies will rise dramatically. An example of this type of technology — and the company linked to it — is linked to obesity…
The Fat Burning Technology That Could Make You Rich
What if a single drug could cure obesity? According to some research I’ve been following, we’re not far off from that reality. There’s no question that whoever controls the market for such a groundbreaking obesity drug holds the keys to mind-blowing wealth. Here’s everything you need to know for a shot at the ground floor…
During the last several decades, there has been a dramatic increase in obesity in the developed world. With the rise in body mass indexes are negative effects on metabolism, including cholesterol, blood pressure and insulin resistance.
A recent CDC study estimates that more than $147 billion per year of health care expenses are attributable to obesity. The Department of Health and Human Services believes that obesity may account for 300,000 deaths a year in America. A plethora of pills, potions, creams and lotions of dubious effectiveness are peddled in order to satisfy this growing need to reduce body fat.
Usually, we treat weight loss as an act of willpower and discipline. There are, however, clear biological signaling pathways that influence appetite, metabolism and body weight beyond our direct conscious control.
For instance, in 2007, researchers demonstrated that when a population of mice was fed a high-fat diet, some grew obese, while others did not. Fatty tissue produces a hormone called leptin.
Leptin sends a signal to the brain that makes it control appetite and metabolism. The researchers thought that increasing leptin levels in the obese mice would cause weight loss. It didn’t. They discovered that while both obese and normal mice had leptin circulating in their bloodstreams, the mice that gained weight had a deficiency in leptin receptors in the hypothalamus region of the brain. These mice did not respond to increased body fat in the same way as the others did.
More recently, Harvard Medical School collected blood samples from newborns and measured them for the leptin hormone. They discovered that the more leptin the babies were born with, the lower their body mass index was at the age of 3.
But that’s not all. There may also be a viral vector that leads to an increased risk of obesity.
Closely related to the common cold, human adenovirus 36 (AD-36) was first identified in humans in 1978. More recently, this virus has been shown to be associated with obesity. For example, in 1988, a viral epidemic had swept through poultry flocks, killing thousands. Oddly enough, however, the dead poultry had a larger amount of body fat than healthy birds.
This got Dr. Nikhil Dhurandhar of Louisiana State University researching a possible connection. He showed that AD-36, when injected into chickens, caused a large increase in body fat. This effect has also been demonstrated in nonhuman primates.
Further investigation revealed that stem cells infected with a gene from AD-36, called E4 ORF-1, were much more likely to differentiate into fat cells than cells that did not express the gene. This, by the way, makes obesity a prime candidate for the anti-viral technologies of November 2009’s Breakthrough Technology Alert pick. These therapies also have the potential to turn off the fat switch.
Dr. Dhurandhar has coined a neologism for this kind of obesity, “infectobesity.” According to him, seven viruses have to date been reported to cause obesity in animals. The possibility that the origin for much obesity is viral has enormous health and investment implications.
If this new theory of obesity seems unlikely to you, remember the resistance to the discovery that H. pylori bacterium caused stomach ulcers. The medical establishment ridiculed such an unconventional explanation for a condition widely attributed to the anxiety produced by modern living. Ultimately, however, these researchers who identified the bacterial cause were proven right and received the Nobel Prize for their efforts.
To quote Baruch Spinoza: “Be not astonished at new ideas; for it is well-known to you that a thing does not therefore cease to be true because it is not accepted by many.”
In the meantime, privately held Cambridge, Mass.-based Zafgen is designing a nanotechnology-enabled drug that directly homes in on human fat tissue. Most experimental drugs for obesity work by helping the brain improve its ability to interpret biological signals to regulate appetite and metabolism. Zafgen takes an entirely novel and revolutionary approach, based in part on research by MD Anderson Cancer Center researchers Wadih Arap, Renata Pasqualini and Mikhail Kolonin. Essentially, they treat adipose tissue similarly to tumors.
Understand that all cells have expiration dates. When the signal comes to die, they should do so. But in some cells, mutations arise that cause them to ignore these signals. So they continue to divide uncontrollably and cancers develop. These researchers had been developing technology to cure cancerous tumors by destroying their blood supplies, literally starving these cells to death.
That’s when they had the game-changing idea. The same technologies could be applied to obesity.
Zafgen is testing new drugs that shrink fat tissue by attacking its blood supply and inducing apoptosis — cell death. In animal studies, subjects lost 25% of their body weight in weeks. The method not only removed external body fat, which makes up beer guts and love handles, but it also removed the dangerous fat that envelopes organs. Moreover, the drug took out only the “bad” white fat, leaving beneficial brown fat untouched. Obese mice used for the early tests remained healthy. They also ate less. Once their weight leveled off, they started to eat more food without putting on weight.
No one is really sure why this happens, but it is possible that fat tissue creates its own positive feedback loop to encourage more fat tissue to form. Possibly, it creates a source of stem cells that differentiate into new fat cells and grow into more fat tissue.
Zafgen plans on putting its new pharmaceutical into clinical trials soon. If successful, it will have developed a “magic bullet” cure for obesity. We are watching this space carefully and will keep you up-to-date. This could come to market before almost anyone expects.
Healing for the Body, Soul and Portfolio
Of course, cures and treatments for obesity is only one example of how far technology and medicine have come…and how far they could possibly go. And savvy investors are wise enough to get in on these developments now before everyone else does. But obesity is not the only health concern where there’s plenty of potentially profitable research happening…
One area where investors could see big profits in the coming years is an arena that’s already seen much controversy in the recent past: Stem cells. No matter what one’s stance is on using them, no doubt there’s much potential in studying them. At this point, who knows what medicinal treatments doctors could use to help their patients? And as long as people and the media are talking about stem cell technologies, scientists are going to keep researching them…and companies are going to compete to try and be the first one to discover the revolutionary breakthrough in medicine. These companies’ potential investors would be wise to learn as much as much about said technologies as they can, because any breakthrough could happen very quickly.
An Update on Stem Cell Stocks
I continue to get questions about stem cell companies. This pleases me because it indicates that you, my readers, really do understand how important regenerative medicine is. I feared I was spending too much time on the subject, but will update you today on the latest.
Two weeks ago, I told my Breakthrough Technology Alert readers that there were reports that our SC companies were under “short attack.” As you know, a short attack involves the coordinated selling of large blocks of stock. This creates a huge, rapid downward price plunge, intended to panic investors into selling. The point of a short attack is that the attackers get to buy back their own stock, and more, at artificially deflated prices.
They do so, of course, because they expect the stocks to return to or surpass their previous prices.
Stem cell companies are a logical target for such a strategy: The sector remains relatively small compared with other medical industries, and they are known for volatility. A really well strategized short attack would even include some sort of insider information that would send the company or sector careening back up quickly so the attackers could take a huge quick profit.
So it didn’t surprise me that on Dec. 2, the day after I warned readers about the short attack rumors, SC stocks shot up again. The National Institutes of Health approved 13 more embryonic stem cell lines for use by organizations that accept federal research funds and announced many more lines would be approved soon. As usual, such an announcement had a widespread and completely illogical impact on SC company prices.
Even companies working on adult SC therapies rode the news up. StemCells Inc. (NASDAQ: STEM) increased by more that 30%. This, obviously, makes no sense, because STEM works only with adult stem cells and sells nothing in the market of NIH-funded researchers. (At least several of my BTA holdings are in the business of selling SC research products.)
I can’t know for sure, incidentally, if there was any real connection between the huge dip in prices before the NIH announcement that drove them back up. I probably never will. The take-home lesson, however, is to look at the science, instead of market fluctuations. If the science is valid and the demand for the product is legitimate, you should buy transformational stocks and forget about them. These stocks, by definition, yield such extraordinary gains that you can afford to sit on them for years before they pay off.
So let’s review the market potential and the science of regenerative medicine once again. The market potential is, in my opinion, unmatched. Regenerative medicine is completely unlike even other transformational medical technologies for one simple reason. Most medical technologies cure or treat the causes of premature death. Regenerative medicine, however, is unique in that it can actually turn the clock back, extending maximum healthy life spans.
So how are they doing? I am completely enthused by the progress that the stocks I’ve already endorsed are making. One company continues to solve the riddle of how stem cells develop into their many end forms. Another’s breakthrough, which allows it to use unfertilizable eggs to create its bank of cell types immune-matched to 95% of the population, is an incredible advance. Few understand these points now, but word will get out.
Speaking of which, I’ve learned from sources that National Geographic is working on a documentary about the “immortalizing enzyme,” telomerase. This is good news not only for the stocks that control telomerase IP. It’s good for the entire regenerative medicine industry. Word is that the producer working on the show is smart enough to understand the science involved.
Here’s hoping…not just for a breakthrough in regenerative medicine, but also obesity and various other ails (and a chance for both your physical and financial states of health to improve).
For transformational profits,
Patrick Cox

Re-Publish this Article

<h1>Looking for a Breakthrough for Your Physical and Financial Health</h1> Author: <a href='http://www.articleseen.com/profile_Stock12.aspx'>Stock12</a> At Penny Sleuth, we look at small-cap stocks representing all kinds of companies. Among these stocks are companies doing research in emerging technologies…the kinds of technologies that could have a very profound and far-reaching impact on our way of life years down the road. Companies based in emerging technologies — assuming their technologies provide some kind of revolutionary breakthrough — could reap a lot of money for investors savvy to get in before the stock becomes a household name.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, there has been much talk in the media and the scientific community about stem-cell research and other kinds of medical technologies. While some of these technologies and medicines are available for public consumption, a lot of them are still in development. And as investors, that tells us the best is yet to come.

The reason for such enthusiasm is because there are companies working to develop remedies for various health concerns. And once these remedies are tested and deemed safe for sale to the public, the stock in said companies will rise dramatically. An example of this type of technology — and the company linked to it — is linked to obesity…
The Fat Burning Technology That Could Make You Rich
What if a single drug could cure obesity? According to some research I’ve been following, we’re not far off from that reality. There’s no question that whoever controls the market for such a groundbreaking obesity drug holds the keys to mind-blowing wealth. Here’s everything you need to know for a shot at the ground floor…
During the last several decades, there has been a dramatic increase in obesity in the developed world. With the rise in body mass indexes are negative effects on metabolism, including cholesterol, blood pressure and insulin resistance.
A recent CDC study estimates that more than $147 billion per year of health care expenses are attributable to obesity. The Department of Health and Human Services believes that obesity may account for 300,000 deaths a year in America. A plethora of pills, potions, creams and lotions of dubious effectiveness are peddled in order to satisfy this growing need to reduce body fat.
Usually, we treat weight loss as an act of willpower and discipline. There are, however, clear biological signaling pathways that influence appetite, metabolism and body weight beyond our direct conscious control.
For instance, in 2007, researchers demonstrated that when a population of mice was fed a high-fat diet, some grew obese, while others did not. Fatty tissue produces a hormone called leptin.
Leptin sends a signal to the brain that makes it control appetite and metabolism. The researchers thought that increasing leptin levels in the obese mice would cause weight loss. It didn’t. They discovered that while both obese and normal mice had leptin circulating in their bloodstreams, the mice that gained weight had a deficiency in leptin receptors in the hypothalamus region of the brain. These mice did not respond to increased body fat in the same way as the others did.
More recently, Harvard Medical School collected blood samples from newborns and measured them for the leptin hormone. They discovered that the more leptin the babies were born with, the lower their body mass index was at the age of 3.
But that’s not all. There may also be a viral vector that leads to an increased risk of obesity.
Closely related to the common cold, human adenovirus 36 (AD-36) was first identified in humans in 1978. More recently, this virus has been shown to be associated with obesity. For example, in 1988, a viral epidemic had swept through poultry flocks, killing thousands. Oddly enough, however, the dead poultry had a larger amount of body fat than healthy birds.
This got Dr. Nikhil Dhurandhar of Louisiana State University researching a possible connection. He showed that AD-36, when injected into chickens, caused a large increase in body fat. This effect has also been demonstrated in nonhuman primates.
Further investigation revealed that stem cells infected with a gene from AD-36, called E4 ORF-1, were much more likely to differentiate into fat cells than cells that did not express the gene. This, by the way, makes obesity a prime candidate for the anti-viral technologies of November 2009’s Breakthrough Technology Alert pick. These therapies also have the potential to turn off the fat switch.
Dr. Dhurandhar has coined a neologism for this kind of obesity, “infectobesity.” According to him, seven viruses have to date been reported to cause obesity in animals. The possibility that the origin for much obesity is viral has enormous health and investment implications.
If this new theory of obesity seems unlikely to you, remember the resistance to the discovery that H. pylori bacterium caused stomach ulcers. The medical establishment ridiculed such an unconventional explanation for a condition widely attributed to the anxiety produced by modern living. Ultimately, however, these researchers who identified the bacterial cause were proven right and received the Nobel Prize for their efforts.
To quote Baruch Spinoza: “Be not astonished at new ideas; for it is well-known to you that a thing does not therefore cease to be true because it is not accepted by many.”
In the meantime, privately held Cambridge, Mass.-based Zafgen is designing a nanotechnology-enabled drug that directly homes in on human fat tissue. Most experimental drugs for obesity work by helping the brain improve its ability to interpret biological signals to regulate appetite and metabolism. Zafgen takes an entirely novel and revolutionary approach, based in part on research by MD Anderson Cancer Center researchers Wadih Arap, Renata Pasqualini and Mikhail Kolonin. Essentially, they treat adipose tissue similarly to tumors.
Understand that all cells have expiration dates. When the signal comes to die, they should do so. But in some cells, mutations arise that cause them to ignore these signals. So they continue to divide uncontrollably and cancers develop. These researchers had been developing technology to cure cancerous tumors by destroying their blood supplies, literally starving these cells to death.
That’s when they had the game-changing idea. The same technologies could be applied to obesity.
Zafgen is testing new drugs that shrink fat tissue by attacking its blood supply and inducing apoptosis — cell death. In animal studies, subjects lost 25% of their body weight in weeks. The method not only removed external body fat, which makes up beer guts and love handles, but it also removed the dangerous fat that envelopes organs. Moreover, the drug took out only the “bad” white fat, leaving beneficial brown fat untouched. Obese mice used for the early tests remained healthy. They also ate less. Once their weight leveled off, they started to eat more food without putting on weight.
No one is really sure why this happens, but it is possible that fat tissue creates its own positive feedback loop to encourage more fat tissue to form. Possibly, it creates a source of stem cells that differentiate into new fat cells and grow into more fat tissue.
Zafgen plans on putting its new pharmaceutical into clinical trials soon. If successful, it will have developed a “magic bullet” cure for obesity. We are watching this space carefully and will keep you up-to-date. This could come to market before almost anyone expects.
Healing for the Body, Soul and Portfolio
Of course, cures and treatments for obesity is only one example of how far technology and medicine have come…and how far they could possibly go. And savvy investors are wise enough to get in on these developments now before everyone else does. But obesity is not the only health concern where there’s plenty of potentially profitable research happening…
One area where investors could see big profits in the coming years is an arena that’s already seen much controversy in the recent past: Stem cells. No matter what one’s stance is on using them, no doubt there’s much potential in studying them. At this point, who knows what medicinal treatments doctors could use to help their patients? And as long as people and the media are talking about stem cell technologies, scientists are going to keep researching them…and companies are going to compete to try and be the first one to discover the revolutionary breakthrough in medicine. These companies’ potential investors would be wise to learn as much as much about said technologies as they can, because any breakthrough could happen very quickly. 
An Update on Stem Cell Stocks
I continue to get questions about stem cell companies. This pleases me because it indicates that you, my readers, really do understand how important regenerative medicine is. I feared I was spending too much time on the subject, but will update you today on the latest.
Two weeks ago, I told my Breakthrough Technology Alert readers that there were reports that our SC companies were under “short attack.” As you know, a short attack involves the coordinated selling of large blocks of stock. This creates a huge, rapid downward price plunge, intended to panic investors into selling. The point of a short attack is that the attackers get to buy back their own stock, and more, at artificially deflated prices.
They do so, of course, because they expect the stocks to return to or surpass their previous prices.
Stem cell companies are a logical target for such a strategy: The sector remains relatively small compared with other medical industries, and they are known for volatility. A really well strategized short attack would even include some sort of insider information that would send the company or sector careening back up quickly so the attackers could take a huge quick profit.
So it didn’t surprise me that on Dec. 2, the day after I warned readers about the short attack rumors, SC stocks shot up again. The National Institutes of Health approved 13 more embryonic stem cell lines for use by organizations that accept federal research funds and announced many more lines would be approved soon. As usual, such an announcement had a widespread and completely illogical impact on SC company prices.
Even companies working on adult SC therapies rode the news up. StemCells Inc. (NASDAQ: STEM) increased by more that 30%. This, obviously, makes no sense, because STEM works only with adult stem cells and sells nothing in the market of NIH-funded researchers. (At least several of my BTA holdings are in the business of selling SC research products.)
I can’t know for sure, incidentally, if there was any real connection between the huge dip in prices before the NIH announcement that drove them back up. I probably never will. The take-home lesson, however, is to look at the science, instead of market fluctuations. If the science is valid and the demand for the product is legitimate, you should buy transformational stocks and forget about them. These stocks, by definition, yield such extraordinary gains that you can afford to sit on them for years before they pay off.
So let’s review the market potential and the science of regenerative medicine once again. The market potential is, in my opinion, unmatched. Regenerative medicine is completely unlike even other transformational medical technologies for one simple reason. Most medical technologies cure or treat the causes of premature death. Regenerative medicine, however, is unique in that it can actually turn the clock back, extending maximum healthy life spans.
So how are they doing? I am completely enthused by the progress that the stocks I’ve already endorsed are making. One company continues to solve the riddle of how stem cells develop into their many end forms. Another’s breakthrough, which allows it to use unfertilizable eggs to create its bank of cell types immune-matched to 95% of the population, is an incredible advance. Few understand these points now, but word will get out.
Speaking of which, I’ve learned from sources that National Geographic is working on a documentary about the “immortalizing enzyme,” telomerase. This is good news not only for the stocks that control telomerase IP. It’s good for the entire regenerative medicine industry. Word is that the producer working on the show is smart enough to understand the science involved. 
Here’s hoping…not just for a breakthrough in regenerative medicine, but also obesity and various other ails (and a chance for both your physical and financial states of health to improve).
For transformational profits,
Patrick CoxAbout the Author: Patrick Cox is a contributor to The Penny Sleuth, which offers unbiased commentary from expert analysts and authors about<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.taylorgifts.com"> penny stocks</a> Article Source: <a href='http://www.articleseen.com/Article_Looking-for-a-Breakthrough-for-Your-Physical-and-Financial-Health_11543.aspx'> http://www.articleseen.com/Article_Looking for a Breakthrough for Your Physical and Financial Health_11543.aspx</a>

Article Source : http://www.articleseen.com/Article_Looking for a Breakthrough for Your Physical and Financial Health_11543.aspx

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Patrick Cox is a contributor to The Penny Sleuth, which offers unbiased commentary from expert analysts and authors about penny stocks

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