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Wreath-laying event will honor veterans buried in Agawam – Reminder Publications

AGAWAM When Michele Urbinatis grandfather, a 20-year Air Force veteran, died several years ago, she began raising money in his honor for Wreaths Across America. It hosts a wreath-laying event every December at the Massachusetts Veterans Cemetery in Agawam as part of National Wreaths Across America Day.

The Robinson Park School preschool teacher started raising money in 2016. Urbinati makes crafts to sell at fairs and farmers markets, gets donations from local businesses, sells 50-50 raffles at Agawam Youth Football games and organizes a district dress-down day for Agawam school staff that this year raised $2,000.

People support me because its such a good cause and because many have family members at the cemetery, she said. They also appreciate that what I raise stays local.

As the spouse of a veteran, Urbinatis grandmother is also interred at the cemetery. Every year at Christmas, her grandfather placed a wreath on his wifes grave. That personal family tradition continues today as part of Wreaths Across America. Urbinati will be among 1,500 people expected at this years wreath-laying on Dec. 17.

Paul Barabani is president of Friends of the Massachusetts Veterans Memorial Cemetery at Agawam and a co-location coordinator for Wreaths Across America. He said efforts by Urbinati and many other wreath sponsors raised enough money for more than 9,000 wreaths which cost $15 each to ensure every Christian headstone will have a wreath.

When this program began at the Agawam cemetery in 2011, we estimate there were only 150 wreaths, he said. That number has increased each year, with full coverage reached in 2017 and every year since.

The purpose of the event is not to decorate the cemetery, he explained, but to remember every veteran at rest at Agawam.

The collective result of individual acts of remembrance creates a memorable visual demonstration of our respect for veterans much like the iconic image of wreaths placed at Arlington National Cemetery, where this tradition started.

What became Wreaths Across America began in 1992 when Morrill Worcester, owner of Worcester Wreath Company in Maine, realized his company had a surplus of wreaths near the end of the holiday season. He arranged for those wreaths to be placed at Arlington National Cemetery, starting what is now an annual tribute to veterans.

This homage to veterans was largely unnoticed until 2005 when a photo of the Arlington headstones adorned with wreaths and covered in snow gained nationwide attention. National and state cemeteries soon began replicating what had been done at Arlington.

Wreaths Across America is important to families of veterans who are buried at the cemetery, said Barabani.

Families with members in the service have an empty seat at the table that is always more impactful during the holiday season, he said. For Gold Star families, that seat will forever be vacant. Other families throughout the region also have loved ones at rest in the cemetery.

Barabani said families come together for this day of remembrance to pay respects to their loved ones service, and take strength in being joined by others from the community.

Its a powerful, emotional, uplifting experience to see such a response while realizing that the same thing is happening at more than 3,400 locations across our nation and overseas, he said.

He said wreath sponsorships at the Agawam cemetery extend beyond the town, with numerous out-of-state sponsors. Some local groups that sponsored wreaths this year include Doering School, Veterans Dragon Boat USA, Massachusetts Combat Wounded Veterans, Southwick Regional School and Friends of the Agawam Veterans Cemetery.

So many volunteers have showed up to lay wreaths that in 2019 organizers had to begin a shuttle service between the cemetery and off-site parking at Six Flags New England.

Event attendance outgrew the cemetery as well as its Main Street entrance, Barabani said. The year before, cars were parked for a mile in either direction from the entrance.

Barabani said Six Flags officials immediately agreed to let the event use their parking lot at 1623 Main St., Agawam, and have been a strong supporter of WAA ever since. Dennis King, an Agawam resident, Coast Guard veteran and owner of King-Gray Coach Lines, provided his companys coach buses.

The parking and shuttle service has contributed to the growth in popularity of our annual event, said Barabani. He added that using buses also allows bus ambassadors to make administrative announcements during the ride to the cemetery so the ceremonys focus is on remembering veterans. Shuttles begin running after the parking lot opens at 8 a.m.

Local television newscaster Dave Madsen will host the opening ceremony, which starts at 10 a.m. Barabani said the ceremony will be a professional and emotional tribute to our nation and those who served to preserve our freedom.

The ceremony will begin with a Vietnam veteran singing the national anthem, followed by placing wreaths in tribute to current members of the six military branches, the nearly 94,000 POW or MIA service members, and Gold Star families.

There will be a rife salute by the cemeterys volunteer firing detail while two Agawam brothers, Gabe and Christian Rua, will sound taps. The ceremony will conclude with three sixth graders from Doering School singing a traditional patriotic song.

Wreaths will be distributed at five locations throughout the cemetery about 1,800 wreaths at each site. Two teams each from Barnes Air National Guard Base and Westover Air Reserve Base, and one team from the Eversource Veterans Association will distribute wreaths to volunteers, who will be asked to place them respectfully at all headstones displaying a Christian symbol.

To provide community input into the event, Barabani works with an advisory board. Members include Mike Brunetti, co-location coordinator; Jennifer Gannett, chief of staff from the mayors office; Kathy Goyette-Jediny, Doering School teacher; Dennis King from King-Gray Coach Lines; Chris Lanski, director of veteran services for the district that includes Agawam; Aldo Mancini, chair of the Agawam Veteran Council; and Les Tingley, Agawams cable access television and media manager.

Barabani said Wreaths Across America is driven by grateful Americans who give freely of their time and resources, sponsor wreaths and gather to express their appreciation for those who preserved freedom.

Motivated by love of family and freedom, the event at the Agawam veterans cemetery is the most meaningful patriotic event in the region, he said.

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Anthonys Coal Fired Pizza & Wings to open 1st co-branded location with BurgerFi – The Business Journals

Anthonys Coal Fired Pizza & Wings to open 1st co-branded location with BurgerFi  The Business Journals

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SCC cell tower passes Webster town board | Top Stories … – The Sylva Herald

A wireless communications tower took three steps last Wednesday, allowing up to three new service providers serving the Webster area.

In a meeting at Southwestern Community College last Wednesday, Webster leaders approved unanimously three motions to allow Vogue Tower Partners, LLC, based out of Chattanooga, Tennessee, to erect a cell tower near a water tank in wooded land on the SCC campus.

The proposed towers address is 336 College Drive, a back road that loops around behind the main campus and comes out on Webster Road beside the National Guard Armory.

The company plans to raise a wireless communication tower 195 feet in total height (190 feet of tower and 5 feet of lightning rod) on a low rise on SCC property.

At a public hearing last Wednesday, Webster leaders invited the public to speak on the proposal and voted unanimously to pass all three motions.

Vogue was asking for three waivers, Webster Mayor Tracy Rodes said in a Monday interview. The first motion waived the special use permit.

If we had opted to go that route it would have been a lengthier proceeding and they would have needed to submit some engineering reports to our board, Rodes said. Nobody really felt like we needed to do that, because (Jackson County Senior Planner) John Jeleniewski is the expert who knew if they met the specifications.

The second motion had to do with height.

The countys height restriction is 180 feet, and they wanted 195 feet, she said. The extra 15 feet allows co-location of multiple providers, and thats the best use of that tower, rather than having to build more towers.

The third waiver had to do with keeping a maintenance log for the road to the tower onsite. The board voted to waive the requirement and Vogue will keep the log digitally, Rodes said.

About 10 members of the public attended the meeting, Rodes said.

We heard nothing negative, she said.

Prior to the meeting, a developer of an adjacent property had contacted county officials about the aesthetics of the tower, but the man had not followed up further and did not attend the meeting, Rodes said.

Letters of support came in from five entities, including the Jackson County Rescue Squad and Sheriffs Office, Western Carolina University and SCC.

Reasons for the tower included safety, education, increased communication, telehealth are things that are important to Webster, Rodes said. Its hard to say I am excited, because I will have a view of that from my home, but it doesnt require lights because it is not 200 feet.

Rodes is willing to trade the view of the tower for improved cell service.

When it rains, the mayor and vice mayor cant even talk on their cell phones without the call dropping three times, she said. We sure hope to increase the signal strength in our town, too. ... just the good outweighs the bad.

Verizon Wireless is listed as the wireless communications provider, with Vogue as the facility owner on the Wireless Communication Facility Application filed with the planning department.

There will be space for three providers, with Verizon the first to place equipment atop the tower.

The tower and supporting facilities will be located on the east side of the property, near an existing Tuckaseigee Water and Sewer Authority tank and contained within a 2,343 square foot secured compound.

The compound will contain the lattice tower, meter rack, provider equipment building, backup generator and equipment shelter areas for future providers.

An 8-foot secured chain-link fence will surround the equipment. Three sides of the parcel, a very irregular pentagon shape, will feature a 5-foot wide landscape buffer to be planted with evergreen trees. The other sides face into the woods and would not be visible from any roadway.

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Section 8’s big, clumsy brother: How the Low Income Housing Tax … – Niskanen Center

Congressional negotiators are racing to the lame duck deadline for a tax-extender package, possibly even this weekend. With topline spending amounts reportedly agreed upon, a variety of progressive priorities, including the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) and the Child Tax Credit, must now duke it out for the available funds.

The Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) was created by the 1986 Tax Reform Act to supplant traditional public housing (Section 9) with privately provided, publicly subsidized rental housing. The LIHTC program offers tax credits to developers to build or renovate rental housing for low-income households. Developers can sell or syndicate credits to investors in the secondary market.

The program has become the largest federally subsidized housing program in the United States. In fact, it now provides more units than traditional Section 9 public housing did at the latters peak in the 1990s. It also recently surpassed the Section 8 voucher program. This is a testament to the success of the program in increasing the availability of income-restricted housing in the country.

At first glance, the LIHTC program looks to many like a supply-side progressive policy of the sort championed by Niskanen and lauded by commentators like Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson. But this is just a linguistic confusion: Providing a subsidy directly to a developer a building supplier doesnt make it a supply-side policy. It is a demand-side subsidy to the tenant in the form of lower rent, just like Section 8, but transmitted through the building owner instead of the tenant. As every economics undergraduate learns, the incidence of a tax or a subsidy who it formally applies to is distinct from the economic incidence of a tax or subsidy: who truly pays or benefits in the long run.[1]

Because they are both demand-side subsidies, LIHTC subsidies and Section 8 subsidies face the same actual supply-side constraints in the building and zoning codes. The zoning barriers that outlaw the construction of a market-rate multifamily building where tenants could use their Section 8 vouchers also ban an otherwise-identical LIHTC building.

There are some downsides to the LIHTC program. One downside is that it is administratively costly, especially when compared to other housing subsidies like Section 8 vouchers. The high overhead cost of LIHTC is a well-known fact among policy wonks. It dates back to at least an April 1992 comparison to Section 8 by the Congressional Budget Office and has been examined in decades of academic research since. Section 8 vouchers only require tenants to complete income test paperwork, whereas the LIHTC program also requires compliance monitoring of building owners. The marketing, sale, and syndication of tax credits in the secondary market add further administrative and transaction costs beyond simply giving money or vouchers directly to low-income people.

One large study of Californias LIHTC credit market found developers obtained just $0.73 per dollar of tax credit sold to secondary investors. Developers used those 73 cents of each subsidy dollar to build homes roughly 20 percent more expensive per square foot than the estimated construction-industry average.[2] By contrast, the incremental administrative costs for Section 8 average 10 percent or less of total Section 8 tenant-based spending.[3]

Another downside of the LIHTC program is its inflexibility. Because the program is address-based, it is not portable. This means that if a familys household size changes, they cannot upsize, downsize, or move without giving up their subsidy. The same immobility means LIHTC can also be a barrier to opportunity for workers who want to take a job in another area.

Despite these downsides, there are also some upsides to the LIHTC program. One potential upside is that it could be used to achieve spatial income mixing. We know from Raj Chettys Moving to Opportunity research that income-mixing matters for life outcomes at the zip code level. We dont yet have precise and granular estimates of the spatial level of income integration that matters for life outcomes whether it matters if incomes mix on a floor or a building versus on a block or zip code. But in theory, the program could be used to experiment with different income mixes.

Unfortunately, LIHTC is not consistently used to facilitate economic integration. The program theoretically allows the co-location of LIHTC and market-rate units in the same building. But the program heavily incentivizes 100 percent low-income buildings in practice. Compliance requirements for mixed buildings are so infamous that New York Citys compliance manual for LIHTC has a chapter heading titled Be Grateful if You Manage a 100% Tax Credit Property.

Though some state housing finance agencies prioritize high-opportunity neighborhoods for LIHTC construction, others tend to allocate credits to concentrated-poverty neighborhoods. On average, LIHTC does not promote neighborhood income inclusion as implemented today.[4] And it bears mention that Chettys landmark income-mixing experiment was achieved through Section 8 vouchers, not through LIHTC. Income-mixing can be a conscious goal of voucher policy, as well.

The primary upside of the LIHTC program is its political strength and durability. Because concentrated, highly motivated constituents in the private and nonprofit sectors beyond the actual tenant get their hands directly on the money, the program is considered an untouchable political dynamo. This makes it less likely that the program will be cut or reduced in the future. LIHTCs inefficiencies give it staying power, for better and for worse. Giving cash directly to families is the surest way to help them, but cutting out the rent-seeking middlemen also means fewer middlemen supporting the policy in Washington.

Overall, the LIHTC program has been successful in creating a durable coalition in favor of distributing rental subsidies to low-income tenants on a scale that recently exceeded Section 8 and LIHTC continues to grow. However, the program also has high inefficiencies, complex rules and regulations, and limitations in its ability to address the affordable housing crisis without supply-side reform to state and local zoning and building codes.

Policymakers in fiscally-constrained negotiations between competing benefit options for low-income families should seek out the most effective and efficient means of ending poverty. This will typically privilege direct cash transfers like the Child Tax Credit, followed by direct in-kind subsidies like Section 8. Complex and indirect options like LIHTC, by contrast, are popular for the wrong reasons and unlikely to provide the most poverty alleviation at the lowest fiscal and social cost.

[1] For example: Everyone recognizes Section 8 as a demand-side subsidy and paying it directly to the supplier in a Section 8 Project-Based Voucher doesnt magically turn it into an actual supply-side policy like upzoning or building code liberalization.

[2] Michael D. Eriksen, The market price of Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, Journal of Urban Economics 66, no. 2 (September 2009): 141-149.

[3] Roughly $2 billion in Section 8 administrative costs on $28 billion in Housing Choice Voucher spending not including Project-Based Voucher spending in a detailed study of administrative fees for fiscal 2014. See Abt Associates and Phineas Consulting, Housing Choice Voucher Program Administrative Fee Study Final Report, U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, August 2015.

[4] Ingrid Ellen et al., Poverty concentration and the Low Income Housing Tax Credit: Effects of siting and tenant composition, Journal of Housing Economics 34C (2016): 49-59.

Photo credit: iStock

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CSRWire – From the Fifth Third 2021 ESG Report: Community … – CSRwire.com

Published 12-15-22

Submitted by Fifth Third Bancorp

The Fifth Third Community Development Co. invests in real estate projects across our footprint to help communities thrive. These investments can include affordable housing, small business spaces or commercial projects.

Without this type of investment, many of these projects would struggle to come to life, said Susan Thomas, the CDCs president. We look for projects that fill a need in the community. What do the people living there need that they dont currently have?

Bringing affordable housing to Cincinnatis Avondale through Empowering Black Futures neighborhood program

The Blair Lofts project is an affordable housing development in Avondale, a neighborhood in Cincinnati. Avondale is one of the neighborhoods selected for our Fifth Third Empowering Black Futures neighborhood investment program. The projects first phase includes the construction of 64 units, consisting of a mix of one-, two- and three- bedroom apartments that will be affordable for families earning between 30%-60% of the areas median income. The location is along a bus line and within walking distance to the University of Cincinnatis innovation corridor, a multimillion-dollar revitalization effort with mixed-use development. As part of our financial commitment to the project, the Fifth Third Community Development Co. provided a $9.4 million equity investment, and Fifth Third provided a $10.5 million construction loan.

Helping up-and-coming minority real estate developers break through financial barriers

In November 2021, the Bank announced it was one of eight banks to invest a total of $85 million in first-round funding for National Equity Funds Emerging Minority Developer Fund. The EMDF was established to help emerging minority-owned developers gain access to low income housing tax credits to create affordable housing. The EMDF does this by providing tax credit equity capital, technical support and tailored project underwriting to help the developers establish a track record of success and improve their financial stability as their business grows.

Neighborhoods need health care, too

When a neighborhood has quality health care facilities, the resulting improved outcomes can help lead to longer, happier lives. Five Rivers Health Centers, a federally qualified health center serving the Dayton, Ohio, community, also received funds from our Community Development Co. The CDC investment will assist the construction of Five Rivers new Edgemont campus, located in the racially and economically diverse neighborhood of West Dayton. The new facility will offer services including internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, dental, hematology and oncology, psychiatry, sports medicine, addiction medicine, general surgery, infectious diseases, gastroenterology, acupuncture and massage therapy in one location. This new facility will serve over 15,000 patients, regardless of their insurance status or ability to pay.

Without the unwavering commitment from Fifth Third to this project, there is no way that Five Rivers Health Centers could have embarked on our first property, said Gina McFarlane-El, chief executive officer.

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Family-owned, Lancaster-based cafe and bakery coming to Lebanon County – ABC27

LEBANON, Pa. (WHTM) A family-owned cafe and bakery named Mill 72 is soon opening a new location in Lebanon County.

Mill 72, established back in 2018, officially opened its first location in Manheim in February 2019, according to co-owner of Mill 72 Brian Miller.

The cafe and bakerys name, Mill 72, is representative of two things, according to its website:

Mill 72 offers many different food and beverage options to its customers offering over 20 different specialty coffee/tea drinks, fresh baked pastries, all-day breakfast and lunch, salads, sandwiches, soups, and more, according to its website.

The cafe and bakery also have two other locations based in Manheim one location offers a full food and beverage menu, whereas the smaller location by the Pleasant View Communities offers just drinks and pastries.

Mill 72s Manheim locations can be found at:

According to Miller, the family decided on their new location in Lebanon County for a multitude of reasons, starting with being closer to one of their daughters who recently moved out to Lebanon. Mill 72 was also in need of more kitchen space due to growing demand for their products, which is why they chose to move into a 5,000-square-foot space.

With the opening of its third location, Mill 72 expects to create 12-15 mainly part-time jobs. According to Miller, the Lebanon Mill 72 has multiple available positions that they are hiring for, such as bakers, line cooks, and baristas.

Mill 72s new location is expected to open in spring 2023, according to Miller. The new Mill 72 will be located on 1784 Quentin Road in Lebanon, right off of Rt. 72 adding to the already increasingly noticeable development in that part of Lebanon. Currently, the family believes the new Mill 72 will share similar hours to their Manheim locations, which are:

One of the things we really want others to know is that this is more than just a business for us, Miller said. This is a place for the community to gather and enjoy.

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‘Newbie’ maker collective adds gifts, plants and untamed flair with … – Startland News

The West Bottoms might be known for its vintage shops, but a just-opened maker collective full of new retail is hoping to add to the neighborhoods narrative.

12th Street Post a mixed-use retail space with about 80 local makers and vendors at 1501 West 12th St. celebrated its grand opening Dec. 2.

12th Street Post

The new project is led by Austin Mosier, who owns West Bottoms Plant Co. and Untamed Supply with his partner Tristan Carlson.

Its just a little something different in the West Bottoms, Mosier said. We do have a small vintage and thrifted area. But its all mostly new products all made by Kansas City (vendors) and then lots of plants, of course. I love all the vintage, but its fun to be a little different. Were the newbie down here.

12th Street Post has something for everyone, said maker Annie Austen whose jewelry and accessories are featured in the shop and the space has the potential to bring a different crowd to the West Bottoms.

Really providing representation to the 70-plus local makers that are represented in here is so important to us, she said, but also just adding a little different flair to that typical West Bottoms fare. I love a vintage find. I love shopping in the West Bottoms and this really just expands upon all the fun things that are happening here already.

After having to move out of their former West Bottoms Plant Co. location at 11th and Mulberry streets, Mosier said they were hoping for room to quickly grow, although the historic post office building has a little more space than they bargained for.

12th Street Post

This was really one of the only spaces available in the West Bottoms, he explained. We kind of wanted to upsize, but we didnt know it was gonna be this big necessarily. Then we just ended up having a group of friends who also were needing spaces. So it kind of happened very naturally. We havent really had to look for people to be artists here.

The retail space in the new building is about three times bigger, according to Mosier, which has allowed them to double the number of local makers that they carry.

Were still kind of growing that, too, he added.

Annie Austen with a customer in the 12th Street Post studio space

On top of the retail space, 12th Street Post will offer studio and working spaces. The resident businesses include Amity & Vine Salon (which offers pay-what-you-can hair cuts and complimentary yoga classes), Annie Austen, MackBecks, Motion House Studio, Untamed Supply, and West Bottom Plant Co.

For Austen whose jewelry and accessories can also be found at Shop Local KC and Bella Patina in the West Bottoms having the studio space is a game changer for the business she started during the pandemic, she said.

Click here to read more about Annie Austen and her business.

We started it in our house and everything kind of took off quicker than what we expected, she continued. When we were sort of manifesting as a dream studio space, we really wanted to be in a collective environment where we werent just isolated in some specific shop. We were going to be in an environment where other people were growing their businesses, as well, and where we could also monetize whatever space we were in. So its perfect for us. We are able to have a booth and events downstairs. We have our studio upstairs for private events or for me to make a mess and work away.

Austin Mosier, 12th Street Post

Mosier is hoping to be able to host pop-ups, charity events and artist fairs in the expanded space, he said. The shop also is planning Third Thursday events, which will allow customers to tip extra in order to gift a shopping or service experience to someone else.

They also would like to eventually add a coffee bar or space with grab-and-go food, Mosier added.

12th Street Post is about celebrating community and the incredible businesses that are excited about collaborating in a unique shared space that supports creating, he explained in a news release. Were so excited to reinvigorate shopping in the West Bottoms in a new way that offers customers the chance to meet the owners behind the business, explore unique pop-ups, and experience a new way to shop and support local.

This story is possible thanks to support from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, a private, nonpartisan foundation that works together with communities in education and entrepreneurship to create uncommon solutions and empower people to shape their futures and be successful.

For more information, visit http://www.kauffman.org and connect at http://www.twitter.com/kauffmanfdnandwww.facebook.com/kauffmanfdn

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Study Shows Value of Routine MRD Analysis Using Foresight’s … – Precision Oncology News

This article has been updated to reflect the correct percentages of DLBCL patients who are cured and who relapse.

NEW ORLEANS An analysis presented at the American Society of Hematology's annual meeting supports the routine analysis of minimal residual disease in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphomas using Foresight Diagnostics' PhasED-Seq circulating tumor DNA test as a surrogate endpoint in future studies.

Mark Roschewski, clinical director of the National Cancer Institute's Lymphoid Malignancies Branch, presented a pooled analysis from five clinical trials and reported that patients' MRD levels during and at the end of therapy as determined by PhasED-Seq were associated with progression-free survival and had high prognostic value compared to conventional response criteria using PET and CT scans. The news comes as Foresight is preparing to launch a lab-developed test based on the PhasED-Seq platform in 2023.

Roschewski's team pooled data generated by PhasED-seq MRD from prospective clinical trials evaluating chemotherapy combined with AstraZeneca's Calquence (acalabrutinib), Bristol Myers Squibb's Revlimid (lenalidomide), Roche's Gazyva (obinutuzumab) and Polivy (polatuzumab), and MorphoSys/Incyte's Monjuvi (tafasitamab). The study also drew on a large repository of tumor tissue collected by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Investigators analyzed tumor or plasma and peripheral blood mononuclear cells before, during, and at the end of therapy.

Median ctDNA levels decreased in both progressors and non-progressors after one cycle of therapy, Roschewski said. "But after two or three cycles, [ctDNA levels] were commonly undetectable in non-progressing patients, but remained detectable in most patients who ultimately progressed," he said. "This pattern continued, but was even more pronounced as 16 of 17 patients that ultimately progressed still had measurable residual disease by PhasED-Seq, while most patients who are currently progression-free had undetectable ctDNA."

The clinical sensitivity of the PhasED-Seq test was 94 percent for detecting future progression events with lead times as long as 30 months. On the other hand, 69 out of 70 patients who were MRD-negative at the end of therapy remained progression-free after a median follow-up of 17 months.

"The prognostic significance of achieving undetectable ctDNA appeared to increase throughout therapy," said Roschewski. "Achieving undetectable ctDNA after any of the first three cycles of therapy was indeed prognostic for predicting progression or death but it was the persistence of detectable DNA at the end of therapy that was the most prognostic and that identified patients with a markedly worse prognosis compared to those without detectable ctDNA."

PhasED-Seq, developed by Stanford University researchers Max Diehn and Ash Alizadeh, harnesses the co-location of two or more mutations in ctDNA to reduce sequencing errors and increase sensitivity of MRD measurements. Foresight has been working to integrate PhasED-Seq MRD testing in DLBCL as part of the standard of care for identifying patients who have not fully responded to therapy.

The data presented at this meeting, the investigators said, demonstrated the analytic sensitivity of PhasED-Seq to detect ctDNA at very low levels. Among patients who experienced eventual disease progression or died, 35 percent had ctDNA at the end of therapy at levels near or below 1 in 10,000 by PhasED-Seq. "These cases at least suggest that assays that are less sensitive would have considered them to be undetectable," said Roschewski.

He concluded that end-of-therapy MRD status measured via PhasED-Seq could enhance current response criteria and holds promise as a surrogate clinical trial endpoint. To that end, he said, "clinical trials for large-cell lymphoma, in my opinion, should prospectively collect plasma at baseline during therapy and at the end of therapy for analysis of MRD."

Roschewski added that because the trials included in the pooled analysis are ongoing, some patients who have not yet progressed may still do so. "We have to follow these patients for a long time to truly call them a non-progressor," he explained. "At least in patients at our institution, we do have serial samples, and one of the plans is to follow them over time and see if you can get some patterns."

"In terms of our commercialization strategy, we've been focused on generating the evidence required to support adoption of this test clinically," said Foresight Cofounder and CEO Jake Chabon. "The data that [Roschewski] showed clearly demonstrated that using a single end-of-therapy time point, a single blood draw following the completion of curative intent chemotherapy in those patients, our test could very robustly identify which patients are cured and which patients will later experience a disease relapse. That's a major unmet clinical need right now."

Chabon noted that while the standard of care for assessing response following therapy in DLBCL is PET and CT imaging, many patients that will later relapse have no disease visible in scans. In contrast, Roschewski presented data at the meeting showing that PhasED-Seq MRD could identify which patients in complete remission according to imaging tests still have disease and which patients are likely cured with a sensitivity above 95 percent.

"That would give patients real peace of mind following the completion of therapy to know there is a 95 percent chance or greater that they are cured," said Chabon. "Whereas right now, in the clinical setting, it's more like a 60 to 70percent chance they're cured and a 30 to 40 percent chance their disease may come back."

Although, in theory, earlier detection could have value for guiding cancer treatment, Alizadeh, who serves as Foresights chief medical adviser, said, "there is no direct evidence to show that treating MRD in the absence of radiographic evidence of disease improves outcomes." That means that patients who test MRD-positive without such radiographic evidence may not receive treatment, but at least their doctors can make a case for them to be closely monitored for signs of recurrence through imaging. "But when patients have bona fide evidence of disease a few months afterwards, instead of neglecting the patients, you've caught a patient at the lowest disease burden," Alizadeh said.

On the industry side, Foresight wants to incorporate its PhasED-Seq platform into drug development. "It could enable faster drug development if this test were to be adopted or accepted by the FDA for use as an early endpoint [in therapy trials]," Chabon said.

Foresight has a number of studies underway, continuing to evaluate PhasED-Seq MRD in DLBCL and also in solid tumors. Meanwhile, it has established a centralized laboratory in Colorado for the PhasED-Seq test. Although initially Foresight will market PhasED-Seq as a lab-developed test, Chabon said that because the platform has the same workflow for every patient, it is amenable to other formats via partnerships with international laboratories or development as a kit.

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Pulau Swimwear opens first brick-and-mortar location at South … – Pacific Business News

Pulau Swimwear opens first brick-and-mortar location at South ...  Pacific Business News

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Cobots, Cybersecurity and Last Mile Logistics at the IOT Solutions World Congress Testbed Area – Coinspeaker

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Cobots, Cybersecurity and Last Mile Logistics at the IOT Solutions World Congress Testbed Area - Coinspeaker

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