Latest news with #Minerva
Barnama
7 days ago
- Health
- Barnama
Minerva Biotechnologies Unveils Breakthrough To Enhance Stem Cell Treatments
KUALA LUMPUR, June 26 (Bernama) -- Minerva Biotechnologies has published a study in the journal PLOS ONE detailing findings that could resolve long-standing debates in the scientific community regarding the role of the Wnt/β-catenin pathway in human stem cell differentiation and pluripotency. The study, titled 'The Wnt pathway induces a naïve-like subpopulation in primed stem cells, while NME7AB leads to a homogeneous naïve-like population', offers new insights into how stem cell states can be more effectively manipulated for therapeutic applications. 'These data represent a major breakthrough for the large-scale, GMP-compliant manufacture of patient-derived MSCs for therapeutic uses. 'This approach will replace the current practice of sourcing MSCs from bone marrow donors, whose profiles are often unknown or unverified,' said its Chief Executive Officer, Dr Cynthia Bamdad in a statement. Minerva researchers found that activation of the Wnt/β-catenin pathway, in the absence of other growth factors, created two distinct cell populations—naïve OCT4+ XaXa cells surrounded by differentiating OCT4- XaXi cells. While activation of the β-catenin pathway prior to or during differentiation enhanced outcomes for primed stem cells, it did not affect NME7AB-induced naïve state stem cells. The study also found that homogeneous populations of naïve stem cells induced by recombinant NME7AB demonstrated superior differentiation potential compared to their primed counterparts. Notably, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) generated and expanded in Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP)-compliant minimal media using NME7AB as the sole growth factor differentiated efficiently into mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). Minerva's resulting MSCs resisted senescence and showed the ability to differentiate into highly pure populations of chondrocytes, osteoblasts and adipocytes—cell types crucial for the repair or regeneration of cartilage, bone and fat tissues.
Saudi Gazette
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Saudi Gazette
Sholay: Bollywood epic roars back to big screen after 50 years with new ending
DELHI — Fifty years after it first exploded on Indian screens, Sholay (Embers) — arguably the most iconic Hindi film ever made — is making a spectacular return. In a landmark event for film lovers, the fully restored, uncut version of Ramesh Sippy's 1975 magnum opus will have its world premiere at Il Cinema Ritrovato Festival in Bologna, Italy, on Friday. This version includes the film's original ending — changed due to objection from the censors — and deleted scenes. The screening will take place on the festival's legendary open-air screen in Piazza Maggiore — one of the largest in Europe — offering a majestic setting for this long-awaited cinematic resurrection. Crafted by writer duo Salim-Javed and featuring an all-star cast led by Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Jaya Bhaduri, Sanjeev Kumar and the unforgettable Amjad Khan as Gabbar Singh, Sholay draws cinematic inspiration from Western and samurai classics. Yet, it remains uniquely Indian. The 204-minute film is a classic good-versus-evil tale set in the fictional village of Ramgarh, where two petty criminals, Jai and Veeru (Bachchan and Dharmendra), are hired by a former jailer, Thakur Baldev Singh, to take down the ruthless bandit Gabbar Singh — one of Indian cinema's most iconic villains. When it first released, Sholay ran for five uninterrupted years at Mumbai's 1,500-seater Minerva theatre. It was later voted "Film of the Millennium" in a BBC India online poll and named the greatest Indian film in a British Film Institute poll. Half a million records and cassettes of RD Burman's score and the film's instantly recognisable dialogues were sold. The film is also a cultural phenomenon: dialogues are quoted at weddings, referenced in political speeches and spoofed in adverts. "Sholay is the eighth wonder of the world," Dharmendra, who plays a small-town crook and is paired up with Bachchan in the film, said in a recent statement. Shooting the film was an "unforgettable experience," Bachchan said, "though I had no idea at the time that it would become a watershed moment in Indian cinema." This new restoration is the most faithful version of Sholay, complete with the original ending and never-before-seen deleted scenes, according to Shivendra Singh Dungarpur of the Film Heritage Foundation. In the original version, Gabbar Singh dies — killed by Thakur, who crushes him with spiked shoes. But the censors objected. They balked at the idea of a former police officer taking the law into his own hands. They also found the film's stylised violence too excessive. The film faced unusually tough censors because it hit the theatres during the Emergency, when the ruling Congress government suspended civil liberties. After failed attempts to reason with them, Sippy was forced to reshoot the ending. The cast and crew were rushed back to the rugged hills of Ramanagaram in southern India — transformed into the fictional village of Ramgarh. With the new, softened finale — where Gabbar Singh is captured, not killed — in place, the film finally cleared the censors. The road to the three-year-long restoration of the epic was far from easy. The original 70mm prints had not survived, and the camera negatives were in a severely deteriorated condition. But in 2022, Shehzad Sippy, son of Ramesh Sippy, approached the Mumbai-based Film Heritage Foundation with a proposal to restore the film. He revealed that several film elements were being stored in a warehouse in Mumbai. What seemed like a gamble turned out to be a miracle: inside the unlabelled cans were the original 35mm camera and sound negatives. The excitement didn't end there. Sippy Films also informed the Foundation about additional reels stored in the UK. With the support of the British Film Institute, the team gained access to archival materials. These were carefully shipped to L'Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna, one of the world's premier film restoration facilities. Despite the loss of the original 70mm prints and severely damaged negatives, archivists sourced elements from Mumbai and the UK, collaborating with the British Film Institute and Italy's L'Immagine Ritrovata to painstakingly piece the film back together. The effort even uncovered the original camera used for shooting the film. Interestingly, Sholay had a rocky start when it first hit the screens. Early reviews were harsh, the box office was shaky, and the 70mm print was delayed at customs. India Today magazine called the film a "dead ember". Filmfare's Bikram Singh wrote that the major problem with the film was the "unsuccessful transplantation it attempts, grafting a western on the Indian milieu". "The film remains imitation western — neither here nor there". In initial screenings, audiences sat in silence — no laughter, no tears, no applause. "Just silence," writes film writer Anupama Chopra in her book, Sholay: The Making of a Classic. By the weekend, theatres were full but the response remained uncertain — and panic had set in. Over the next few weeks, audiences warmed up to the film, and word of mouth spread: "The visuals were epic, and the sound was a the third week, the audience was repeating dialogues. It meant that at least some were coming in to see the film for the second time," writes Chopra. A month after Sholay hit screens, Polydor released a 48-minute dialogue record — and the tide had turned. The film's characters became iconic, and Gabbar Singh — the "genuinely frightening, but widely popular" villain — emerged as a cultural phenomenon. Foreign critics called it India's first "curry western". Sholay ran for over five years — three in regular shows and two as matinees at Mumbai's Minerva. Even in its 240th week, shows were full. Sholay hit Pakistani screens on April 2015, and despite being 40 years old, it outperformed most Indian films over a decade old — including the 2002 hit Devdas starring Shah Rukh Khan. As film distributor Shyam Shroff told Chopra: "As they used to say about the British Empire, the sun never sets on Sholay." Why does Sholay still resonate with audiences, half a century later? Amitabh Bachchan offers a simple yet profound answer: "The victory of good over evil and... most importantly, poetic justice in three hours! You and I shall not get it in a lifetime," he told an interviewer. — BBC
The Guardian
23-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Poem of the week: The Song of Arachnid by Gillian Allnutt
The Song of Arachnid Webs are small and spacious as simplicity, See-through as a summer's day, old-fashioned as A slip of butter-muslin, girlhood's own, or A cotton hanky. We are poor predators, love to catch the light As it falls from the air, invaluable as What is not yet born, an acrobatic dot And carry one. It's Our Arachnid, ancestor, mother of all Of us, mother of gorm and of gormlessness Among women. Humble herself in origin, Hard she works through us. Nothing can cut the umbilical cord that Calls us back to her, her bellyful of thread Paid out and yet perpetual, her silken Sac where we began. She is alone, outwith the worn orb web of The world. She's woven into the wherewithal Of her own imagination, her mantle Of maternity. She is alone and she is loved among, as No-one else in all her anonymity. One foot on the mountain, one foot on the web's Her way, as she says. The legend of the weaving contest between the goddess Minerva (Pallas Athene) and the humbly born Arachne, is told by Ovid in Metamorphoses. The goddess is infuriated by Arachne's ingratitude for her talent, and horrified by the scenes of un-godly behaviour her magnificent weaving depicts. After Minerva has ripped up Arachne's work and beaten her with her shuttle, Arachne slips a noose around her neck. Minerva spares her life, but Arachne doesn't avoid punishment: 'Her whole body became tiny. Her slender fingers stuck to her sides as legs, the rest is belly, from which she still spins a thread, and, as a spider, still spins her ancient web.' In this week's poem, from Gillian Allnutt's new collection, Lode, Arachne becomes Arachnid, mother-spider and deified leader of her tribe. The ode that crowns Arachnid's annual festival offers the tribe's gratitude 'to her and to their own being in her', Allnutt's endnote tells us. Ovid's Arachne was rude and scornful about old age when Minerva appeared to her disguised as a grey-haired woman with a stick. Allnutt's poem doesn't only transform Arachne; it hands power to the singer-speaker, an elder of the tribe. Celebrating Arachnid's power, she affirms her own. Allnutt, who describes herself as a cultural Christian rather than a Christian poet, brings traces of Christian theology into her feminist and matriarchal narrative. Arachne's redemption is through humility, signalled in a delicately homely first stanza: 'Webs are small and spacious as simplicity / See-through as a summer's day, old-fashioned as / A slip of butter-muslin, girlhood's own.' 'Webs' (importantly plural) represent simplicity, openness, respect for tradition. Once defiant in the self-assertion of young genius, Arachne/Arachnid is restored by her spider-smallness to her true imaginative resources. Imperfection is admitted. Spiders are 'poor predators [who] love to catch the light / As it falls from the air': like all life-forms, they're devourers. Perhaps they're especially like artists and writers in seeing their prey not as meat but as moving light. The winged creatures such arachnids trap become their means of self-creation, the wonders of addition: 'What is not yet born, an acrobatic dot / And carry one.' Arachnid is always reborn, always mother. Her celebrant utters a gasp of thrilled discovery in the enjambment of verses two and three: 'It's // Our Arachnid.' Certain phrases in verse three evoke the rhythmic murmur of the prayer, Hail, Mary. But Allnutt's goddess is wonderfully, humorously, earthed. She's no 'Mother of God'. As 'ancestor, mother of all / Of us' Arachnid is also 'mother of gorm and gormlessness / Among women.' 'Gorm' may be a northern dialect word for 'understanding'. Understanding, of a deep, grainy, common-sense kind, is what registers in the poem. Its opposite, the more familiar 'gormlessness', is the less ideal aspect of 'simplicity'. Its use echoes the poem's refusal of unthinking praise – the kind of praise Minerva expected from Arachne. The children of the spider-goddess are imperfect, too. But they are still the offspring of a divine mother, the 'worn orb web' of earth, yet 'woven into the wherewithal / Of her own imagination, her mantle / Of maternity.' Allnutt refreshes her diction with inventive interweavings: little grammatical 'reversals' such as 'Hard she works through us' and words with an antique patina: 'silken', 'mantle', 'outwith', 'wherewithal'. Her alliterative music is a mnemonic web that reminds us that the tribal song lives by its orality. There are often whispers of end-rhyme. The tiny versatile spider of the word 'as' recurs in verses one, two and six, signalling resemblance, duration and motion – the thread that is 'paid out and yet perpetual'. In the last stanza, antithesis arrives at a more intriguing synthesis. The spider-goddess is 'alone and [she is ] loved among, as / No-one else in all her anonymity.' The quality of being 'among' others and 'anonymous' – but unique – becomes a specific tribute in the line, 'One foot on the mountain, one foot on the web's / Her way'. The reference is to Lilian Mohin's 1979 anthology of British feminist poetry, One Foot on the Mountain. A poetry anthology is an apt symbol of collectivism and individuality. And this particular anthology importantly 'mothered' the art and politics of its female contributors. Lilian Mohin is remembered here by Cherry Potts, who in turn went on to found the Arachne Press. Celebrating these poetic Mothers and their work, The Song of Arachnid presents the ecology of a feminised, maternally attentive cosmos in which weaving and mountaineering can both be 'her way' and its generous, ecofeminist vision is enhanced by the celebration of real-life poetic mothers. The Song of Arachnid was written for the Hardwick Park Festival of Minerva.
Reuters
13-06-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Minerva to sell Uruguayan plant for $48 million to ease antitrust worries in broad deal
SAO PAULO, June 13 (Reuters) - Brazilian meatpacker Minerva ( opens new tab said on Friday it signed a contract to sell the Colonia plant in Uruguay to Allana for $48 million, as part of its efforts to get antitrust approval for the purchase of other two plants in the country. Minerva has proposed to Uruguay's watchdog Coprodec to sell one of the three plants it wishes to buy from Marfrig ( opens new tab - the Colonia unit - immediately following the deal, after the regulator blocked Minerva's acquisition of the three assets last year.
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Minerva to sell Uruguayan plant for $48 million to ease antitrust worries in broad deal
SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Brazilian meatpacker Minerva said on Friday it signed a contract to sell the Colonia plant in Uruguay to Allana for $48 million, as part of its efforts to get antitrust approval for the purchase of other two plants in the country. Minerva has proposed to Uruguay's watchdog Coprodec to sell one of the three plants it wishes to buy from Marfrig - the Colonia unit - immediately following the deal, after the regulator blocked Minerva's acquisition of the three assets last year. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
