Social disruption

US talks sanctions against Uganda after a harsh anti-gay law – but criminalizing same-sex activities has become a political tactic globally

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, June 22, 2023

The Biden administration has called for immediate repeal – and threatened to cut aid and investment to Uganda.

Key Points: 
  • The Biden administration has called for immediate repeal – and threatened to cut aid and investment to Uganda.
  • As a scholar of politics and religion in the region, I have been working with Ugandan community activists and NGO leaders since 2017.
  • I argue that it is an example of what sociologists call a moral panic, and part of a worrying global trend.

Globalizing anti-LGBTQ+ politics

    • In Russia in 2022, Vladimir Putin ratified a law against LGBTQ+ propaganda, using language that is strikingly like Uganda’s new bill.
    • In 2014, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan likewise signed a law against the public display and promotion of same-sex relationships.
    • In each case these leaders stoked anxieties about LGBTQ+ groups and then took forceful action against the perceived moral danger.

Moral panic as distraction tactic

    • In sociology a moral panic is described as a surge in social anxieties about certain deviant groups.
    • Moral panics start as social norms that are inflamed into something larger: a sense of diffuse and imminent threat from categories of people like delinquents, foreigners or minority groups, seen as agents of broader moral decay.
    • There is a difference between cultural norms against divergent forms of sexuality and gender expression, and a moral panic over LGBTQ+ groups.

History in Africa

    • Sexuality in Africa is a complex terrain and ripe for the eruption of moral panics.
    • In the colonial period, European powers often interpreted examples of same-sex relations in Africa as evidence of those cultures’ so-called primitivism.
    • Colonial laws enforced the heterosexual, monogamous and conjugal family model by criminalizing homosexuality and other common practices like polygamy.

The Uganda case

    • President Museveni has led Uganda for nearly 40 years, and many citizens are frustrated at his tightfisted hold on power.
    • Community activists and NGO leaders, LGBTQ+ and otherwise, are directly in the line of fire.
    • They spread the idea that LGBTQ+ groups are trying to force the vulnerable into homosexual relationships, stoking protective anxieties among parents.

Gran Tierra Energy Inc. Provides Operational and Financial Update

Retrieved on: 
Monday, January 9, 2023

Fourth Quarter 2022 Total Company Average Production of Approximately 32,600 BOPD, an Increase of 10% from Fourth Quarter 2021

Key Points: 
  • Fourth Quarter 2022 Total Company Average Production of Approximately 32,600 BOPD, an Increase of 10% from Fourth Quarter 2021
    CALGARY, Alberta, Jan. 09, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Gran Tierra Energy Inc. (“Gran Tierra” or the “Company”) (NYSE American:GTE)(TSX:GTE)(LSE:GTE) today announced an operational and financial update.
  • Our Moqueta development campaign is well underway with two of the five planned wells having been spud thus far.
  • Gran Tierra’s total average production for the full year 2022 was approximately 30,800 BOPD which is within the Company’s prescribed guidance.
  • Share Buybacks: Pursuant to Gran Tierra’s current normal course issuer bid, Gran Tierra purchased approximately 23 million shares during 2022, representing about 6.2% of shares outstanding as of June 30, 2022.

Umoja Biopharma Appoints Dieter Weinand as the Chair of its Board of Directors

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, December 14, 2022

“We are extremely pleased to have Dieter join Umoja as the Chair of our Board of Directors.

Key Points: 
  • “We are extremely pleased to have Dieter join Umoja as the Chair of our Board of Directors.
  • Dieter Weinand added, “With the ENLIGHTen clinical trial underway and Umoja positioned to advance its platforms through multiple collaborations in 2022, this is an exciting time to be joining the Company.
  • He is currently Chairman of the Board of Replimune (REPL), Member of the Board of Directors of Reunion Neuroscience (REUN), Chairman of the Board of Directors of ForeBio, Chairman of the Board of Mnemo, and Executive Chairman of the Board of ZielBioPharma.
  • This press release contains forward-looking statements about Umoja Biopharma, Inc. (the “Company,” “we,” “us,” or “our”).

Sana Biotechnology Highlights Hypoimmune Allogeneic CAR T Cell Programs and in vivo Technology Platform with Six Presentations at 2022 ASH Annual Meeting

Retrieved on: 
Sunday, December 11, 2022

SEATTLE, Dec. 11, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sana Biotechnology, Inc. (NASDAQ: SANA), a company focused on creating and delivering engineered cells as medicines, shared data in six presentations at the 64th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition, taking place from Saturday, December 10 to Tuesday, December 13, 2022 in New Orleans, LA, which highlighted further progress with key technologies supporting Sana’s ex vivo allogeneic CAR T cell programs and in vivo platform.

Key Points: 
  • The challenge for the field to date in generating immune cloaked cells has been turning off both the adaptive and innate immune system concurrently.
  • The company has presented data across multiple preclinical models highlighting the potential of this platform to cloak cells from immune recognition.
  • These data indicate that this scaled manufacturing process can produce fully engineered HIP-modified CD19-targeted allogeneic CAR T cells with high editing efficiency and specificity.
  • The company expects to study SG295, an in vivo CAR T with CD8-targeted fusosome delivery of a CD19-targeted CAR, in patients with B cell malignancies.

Sana Biotechnology Confirms Key Program Timelines and Announces Portfolio Prioritization

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, November 29, 2022

SEATTLE, Nov. 29, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sana Biotechnology, Inc. (NASDAQ: SANA), a company focused on creating and delivering engineered cells as medicines, today announced a portfolio prioritization designed to optimize the development of programs at or nearing clinical development, continue investments in our core research platforms and innovation, and maintain a strong balance sheet with an expected cash runway into 2025. The resulting changes include focusing its second HIP-modified allogeneic CAR T program on targeting CD22 for CD19 CAR T failures, halting further internal investment in its SC187 program (cardiomyocytes for heart failure), and stage-gating certain platform investments based upon clinical progress in humans. The prioritization and restructuring reduced the company’s headcount by approximately 15%, which gives the company the expected runway to invest in its key clinical programs over the next several years. Timelines for the company’s lead programs, including time to IND and clinical data, are not expected to be impacted.

Key Points: 
  • The prioritization and restructuring reduced the companys headcount by approximately 15%, which gives the company the expected runway to invest in its key clinical programs over the next several years.
  • Timelines for the companys lead programs, including time to IND and clinical data, are not expected to be impacted.
  • SC291 (HIP-modified, CD19-targeted allogeneic CAR T) Sana remains on track to file an IND this year with initial clinical data expected in 2023.
  • Sana Biotechnology, Inc. is focused on creating and delivering engineered cells as medicines for patients.

Umoja Biopharma and IASO Biotherapeutics Announce Research Collaboration to Bring Off-the-Shelf Therapies to Patients with Hematological Malignancies

Retrieved on: 
Monday, November 21, 2022

Collaborations like this between Umoja and IASO seek to push the next phase of cancer treatment forward.

Key Points: 
  • Collaborations like this between Umoja and IASO seek to push the next phase of cancer treatment forward.
  • We are very pleased to enter a collaboration with Umoja, said Wen (Maxwell) Wang, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of IASO Bio.
  • The benefit of our fully-human CAR constructs to treat patients with hematologic malignancies have been validated in clinical trials of our broad set of targets and indications.
  • Umoja Biopharma, Inc. is a transformative multi-platform immuno-oncology company founded with the goal of creating curative treatments for solid and hematological malignancies.

Sana Biotechnology Announces Several Preclinical Data Presentations at the 64th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, November 3, 2022

In addition, abstracts will be published online in the November supplemental issue of Blood, the journal of the American Society of Hematology.

Key Points: 
  • In addition, abstracts will be published online in the November supplemental issue of Blood, the journal of the American Society of Hematology.
  • Sana Biotechnology, Inc. is focused on creating and delivering engineered cells as medicines for patients.
  • We share a vision of repairing and controlling genes, replacing missing or damaged cells, and making our therapies broadly available to patients.
  • Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason.

Sana Biotechnology Reports Third Quarter 2022 Financial Results and Business Updates

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, November 2, 2022

SEATTLE, Nov. 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sana Biotechnology, Inc. (NASDAQ: SANA), a company focused on creating and delivering engineered cells as medicines, today reported financial results and business highlights for the third quarter 2022.

Key Points: 
  • SEATTLE, Nov. 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sana Biotechnology, Inc. (NASDAQ: SANA), a company focused on creating and delivering engineered cells as medicines, today reported financial results and business highlights for the third quarter 2022.
  • We intend to study this therapy in a range of B cell malignancies and report data beginning next year.
  • Sana Biotechnology, Inc. is focused on creating and delivering engineered cells as medicines for patients.
  • The Company has based these forward-looking statements largely on its current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections about future events and financial trends that it believes may affect its financial condition, results of operations, business strategy and financial needs.

Meta-Gallup Report Finds Majorities of People Across Seven Countries Feel Emotionally Connected to One Another

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, October 25, 2022

WASHINGTON, Oct. 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A new Gallup report, released in collaboration with Meta, finds that in the wake of social disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most people across the countries studied said they felt connected to others. When asked about feelings of connectedness, majorities said they felt "very" or "fairly" connected to others. In the United States, 75% of people felt very or fairly connected, and just 7% said they did not feel connected to others at all. Egypt (87%) and France (82%) were the countries where the most people said they felt very or fairly connected to others.

Key Points: 
  • When asked about feelings of connectedness, majorities said they felt "very" or "fairly" connected to others.
  • In the United States, 75% of people felt very or fairly connected, and just 7% said they did not feel connected to others at all.
  • Egypt (87%) and France (82%) were the countries where the most people said they felt very or fairly connected to others.
  • The State of Social Connections report is based on an in-depth, Meta-commissioned survey of people's social connections in seven countries: Brazil, Egypt, France, India, Indonesia, Mexico and the United States.

IDC FutureScape Sees as-a-Service Products and Processes and Tech-by-Wire as Two of the Most Important Technology Industry Developments of the Next 2-3 Years

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, October 18, 2022

The predictions were published in a new IDC FutureScape report and presented at a live event hosted by IDC's Rick Villars and Philip Carter .

Key Points: 
  • The predictions were published in a new IDC FutureScape report and presented at a live event hosted by IDC's Rick Villars and Philip Carter .
  • A closer look at IDC's top ten worldwide IT industry predictions reveals the following:
    1.
  • IDC believes that the number of tech-centric organizations in the G500 will double in the next five years.
  • IDC's worldwide IT industry predictions are presented in full detail in the report, IDC FutureScape: Worldwide IT Industry 2023 Predictions (IDC #US49563122).