TEC GIANTS

Gene editing technology may improve accuracy of predicting individuals' heart disease risk Scientists may now be able to predict whether carrying a specific genetic variant increases a person's risk for disease using gene editing and stem cell technologies, according to new research in the American Heart Association's journal Circulation. For the first time, the study demonstrates the unique potential of combining stem cell-based disease modeling (Induced pluripotent stem cells) and CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing technology as a personalized risk-assessment platform for determining the disease-causing ability of a yet undescribed genetic variant, known as a "variant of uncertain significance" or VUS. Numerous genetic variations are identified as "related" to a medical condition, but it is uncertain if they actually lead to disease, said study senior author Joseph C. Wu, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute and Simon...

Regis Corporation (NYSE:RGS) appointed Chad Kapadia as Executive Vice President, Chief Technology Officer, and Head of Product Engineering effective June 18. Mr. Sawyer, President and CEO, stated “We have discussed that a key element of our multi-year strategy is to utilize technology to transform our business. Chad has been a leader in deploying disruptive business technologies at consumer-oriented companies, and he is the right executive to drive this initiative forward at Regis. I am confident he will be able to accelerate our use of technology to support our stylists and franchisees and improve our customers’ experience.” Most recently, Mr. Kapadia served as Head of Engineering at Target Corporation's New Ventures and Accelerators. Source: Press Release

Looking for a new smartphone? There are dozens upon dozens of great options on the market today, but finding the best of the best can be a bit difficult. We’ve seen some great launches over the past year and more should be coming soon too, so let’s take a look at the best Android smartphones you can buy as of May 2018. NEW FOR MAY: LG G7 ThinQ After delaying its launch, LG officially unveiled the LG G7 ThinQ recently. While it might not shake up the smartphone industry like some other recent releases, LG has a solid product here that should definitely be on your shortlist if you’re considering a new smartphone. The LG G7 ThinQ, with its long name, packs a pretty run of the mill spec list for a 2018 flagship. Under the hood, you’ve got Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 845 chipset, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage with Android Oreo on board. The phone offers up a glass/metal build, rear-facing fingerprint sensor, IP68 dust/water resistance, as well as a 3,000 mAh battery and both quick...