John Means

Jan 22, 2025 | nature.com | John Means |Anabel L. Martinez-Bengochea |Daniel Louiselle |John Perry |Emily G Farrow |Tomi Pastinen | +2 more

Personalized antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) have achieved positive results in the treatment of rare genetic disease1. As clinical sequencing technologies continue to advance, the ability to identify patients with rare disease harbouring pathogenic genetic variants amenable to this therapeutic strategy will probably improve. Here we describe a scalable platform for generating patient-derived cellular models and demonstrate that these personalized models can be used for preclinical evaluation of patient-specific ASOs. We describe protocols for delivery of ASOs to patient-derived organoid models and confirm reversal of disease-associated phenotypes in cardiac organoids derived from a patient with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) with a structural deletion in the gene encoding dystrophin (DMD) that is amenable to treatment with existing ASO therapeutics. Furthermore, we designed novel patient-specific ASOs for two additional patients with DMD (siblings) with a deep intronic variant in the DMD gene that gives rise to a novel splice acceptor site, incorporation of a cryptic exon and premature transcript termination. We showed that treatment of patient-derived cardiac organoids with patient-specific ASOs results in restoration of DMD expression and reversal of disease-associated phenotypes. The approach outlined here provides the foundation for an expedited path towards the design and preclinical evaluation of personalized ASO therapeutics for a broad range of rare diseases. A scalable platform for generating patient-specific organoids for testing personalized oligonucleotide therapeutics is described.

Nov 8, 2024 | knowledgeleader.com | John Means

A Closer Look at Boardroom Diversity Corporate boardrooms have been expanding in recent years. In 2023 alone, there were 779 director appointments citing the reason for engagement as enlargement of the board, which translated to approximately 23% of total director engagements that disclosed a reason for appointment. While boardrooms have been expanding, the representation of women directors on corporate boards has also been increasing.

Jun 10, 2024 | knowledgeleader.com | John Means

Current Initial Public Offering Trends In the first quarter of 2024, 46 new initial public offerings (IPOs) raised a combined total of $8.9 billion. The new year saw a slight increase in total IPOs from Q4 2023, and the proceeds raised more than doubled. Compared to the first quarter of 2023, the total number of IPOs decreased by only one, while IPO proceeds increased by 183%.

May 31, 2024 | worldbaseball.com | John Means |Kyle Bradish |Tyler Wells

About 1 minute reading time. BALTIMORE (AP) — John Means and Tyler Wells will miss the rest of the season because of elbow problems that require surgery, a blow to Baltimore’s pitching depth as the Orioles try to defend their AL East title. General manager Mike Elias announced the status of Means and Wells before Friday night’s game against Tampa Bay. Means returned late last season from Tommy John surgery but has made only eight starts since then.

May 1, 2024 | worldbaseball.com | Grayson Rodriguez |John Means |Kyle Bradish

About 1 minute reading time. BALTIMORE (AP) — The Baltimore Orioles put right-hander Grayson Rodriguez on the 15-day injured list Wednesday because of shoulder inflammation, and they activated lefty John Means. Means has not pitched yet for the Orioles this season because of a forearm strain. Rodriguez’s move is retroactive to Tuesday. He threw 5 2/3 scoreless innings Monday night in a win over the New York Yankees. Rodriguez, now in his second big league season, is 4-1 with a 3.71 ERA.